'Uuid'|'Title'|'Text'|'Site'|'SiteSection'|'Url'|'Timestamp'
'fdfd180724487251a0177b9cd16cc83ad6b5c119'|'Britain''s GVC readies for deals with sale of Turkish operations'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British online gambling company GVC ( GVC.L ) is selling its Turkish operations for up to 150 million euros ($175 million) in a deal that removes a hurdle to a potential takeover of Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) or another rival.FTSE 250-listed GVC said on Thursday that it had agreed to offload its Turkey-facing businesses to Ropso Malta, which provides IT services for the British company’s Turkish operations.GVC’s business in Turkey, a so-called gray market where many types of gambling are banned, were an obstacle to the company agreeing a takeover of Ladbrokes this year.Ladbrokes shares climbed more than 5 percent on Thursday amid speculation that a takeover by GVC is now more likely. GVC shares edged up by 0.5 percent, giving it a market capitalizations of 2.9 billion pounds ($3.84 billion), compared with 2.4 billion pounds for Ladbrokes.“Turkey was an issue that I feel we could have resolved (with Ladbrokes),” GVC Chief Executive Kenny Alexander told Reuters.“If we wanted to participate in consolidation, be it Ladbrokes or anybody else, or be a target ourselves, then this (the Turkey sale) is clearing the path for that.”The disposal comes two days after the British government unveiled proposals to cut the maximum stake allowed on gambling machines in UK betting shops, which could hit profits at companies including Ladbrokes and potentially trigger a wave of sector consolidation as gaming businesses seek to offset the financial impact.Alexander said that GVC is “unlikely” to strike a deal with a competitor until the government has completed its consultation process on betting machine stakes and made a final decision.He added that talks with Ladbrokes had ended after they leaked in August and that the government review had also been an obstacle to a deal.“There are a number of other potential M&A targets that we could look to explore and don’t be surprised if it’s not Ladbrokes,” he said, adding that GVC is not currently in any discussions.A Ladbrokes spokesman declined to comment.As well as paving the way for potential M&A, the disposal makes GVC more attractive to investors who had been deterred by the company’s exposure to Turkey, Alexander said.Regulated and locally taxed markets perceived as less risky will account for about 75 percent of the company’s net gaming revenue after the Turkish disposal, which is expected to complete by the end of December.Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gvc-holdings-divestiture/britains-gvc-readies-for-deals-with-sale-of-turkish-operations-idINKBN1D2195'|'2017-11-02T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'61e8e84df89923ab55c5f57b0512a5cdcd251d9b'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Nov 2 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1000 GMT on Thursday:** CK Asset Holdings Ltd, owned by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, is selling its 73-storey office tower to C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development Asia Property Ltd for HK$40.2 billion ($5.15 billion), the city’s biggest property deal.** Lenovo Group said it had reached an agreement to buy a 51 percent stake in Fujitsu’s personal computer unit for up to $269 million, after earlier posting a lower quarterly profit on continued difficulty in the global PC market.** Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd said it agreed to set up in Thailand a soft drink joint venture with PepsiCo Inc in March, as it looks to expand in the Southeast Asian country.** Online gambling company GVC is gearing up for a wave of potential deals in the British gaming industry by selling its Turkey-related operations to Ropso Malta for up to 150 million euros.** Advertising giant WPP said it was taking legal action against its partner Asatsu-DK Inc, deepening an acrimonious spat over the Japanese firm’s backing for a $1.3 billion buyout offer from Bain Capital.** Botox-maker Allergan Plc said it will begin to sell off its nearly 10 percent stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which has lost 60 percent of its value so far this year.** German healthcare group Fresenius SE said on Thursday that weakness at Akorn, the U.S. maker of liquid generic drugs it has agreed to buy, could continue into next year but the deal was still worth it over the longer term.** Private equity fund Mid Europa Partners said it agreed to buy a controlling stake in Polish juices and frozen food producer Hortex from Argan Capital. (Compiled by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL4N1N83QR'|'2017-11-02T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'08ce5b66be4af530c783ab3edc9ef0b984bbc226'|'Bombardier gets letter of intent for up to 61 CSeries jets'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:23 AM / in 4 hours Bombardier gets new CSeries jet order, but deliveries cut Allison Lampert , Nivedita Bhattacharjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) scaled back CSeries jet deliveries by around a third because of engine delays, but said on Thursday it received its first order for the narrowbodies in 18 months, helping send shares up 4 percent. FILE PHOTO: The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. Picture taken September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Engine delays, which reduced CSeries deliveries from 30 to an expected 20 to 22 this year, are a “short-term issue” that supplier Pratt & Whitney is “actively addressing,” Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare told analysts. Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp ( UTX.N ), said in October it was resolving issues with the geared turbofan (GTF) engines that power the CSeries and Airbus A320neo to make them more durable. Bombardier said the delays would raise its free cash flow usage for 2017 to about $1 billion, at the higher end of its forecast range. Shares were up 4.7 percent in morning trading to C$2.92. The Canadian plane-and-train-maker also said it received a letter of intent from an unnamed European customer for 31 firm CSeries orders. European planemaker Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) recently agreed to take a majority stake in the CSeries program for $1, in a deal expected to improve CSeries sales and reduce costs. Bellemare told analysts the Airbus venture, while boosting “sales momentum” for the CSeries, isn’t directly “linked” to the order which the company was already working on and would be valued at about $2.4 billion based on list prices, with an additional 30 options. Some analysts were anticipating orders because of increased confidence in the CSeries from the Airbus deal, which closes in 2018. A European customer won’t face potential duties stemming from a trade dispute with Boeing Co. ( BA.N ) “We’ll have to see who the new airline is, but it certainly sounds promising, particularly since it isn’t subject to the US duty,” said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia. Bellemare said the company was weighing strategies like forming partnerships to boost volumes of its smaller aerostructures division, which makes components for planes like the CSeries. Bombardier reported third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes and special items (EBIT) that surged 90 percent to $165 million and a loss in line with analysts’ expectations. It expects full-year EBIT of at least $630 million, which is at the high end of its forecast of $580 million to $630 million. Bombardier, which is in the middle of a five-year turnaround plan after facing a cash crunch in 2015, delivered 31 business jets in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 36 in the same period last year. Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Allison Lampert; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bombardier-results/bombardier-gets-letter-of-intent-for-up-to-61-cseries-jets-idUSKBN1D215C'|'2017-11-02T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'74a4d73db946d9af0ba7bae575582fc12df3e0ce'|'Bombardier gets letter of intent for up to 61 CSeries jets'|' 24   Bombardier gets letter of intent for up to 61 CSeries jets   (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) said on Thursday it received a letter of intent from a European customer to buy up to 61 CSeries jets, while reporting a larger loss for the third quarter. FILE PHOTO: The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. Picture taken September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Canadian plane and train maker said the letter of intent includes 31 firm orders and options for another 30 jets. Based on list prices, the firm order would be valued at about $2.4 billion, Bombardier said. That amount would increase to nearly $4.8 billion should the options be exercised. The company did not disclose the customer. European planemaker Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) recently agreed to take a majority stake in the CSeries program for $1, in a deal expected to help the struggling line of planes that have not made a single sale in over a year. For the third quarter, Bombardier posted a net loss of $117 million or 5 cents a share, compared to a loss of $94 million or 4 cents per share in the same quarter last year. Revenue came in at $3.8 billion, slightly up from $3.74 billion last year. Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Allison Lampert; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bombardier-results/bombardier-gets-letter-of-intent-for-up-to-61-cseries-jets-idUKKBN1D215C'|'2017-11-02T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'b20a9cdd6a975785fd638e8a99508d7f37e4fa50'|'Republican tax plan a blow to Democratic states, officials say'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:57 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Republican tax plan a blow to Democratic states, officials say Laila Kearney , Karen Pierog 6 Min Read NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic-leaning states are set to bankroll a big chunk of the tax cuts unveiled in a Republican tax plan on Thursday, as the plan slashes deductions used the most by residents of states that voted against Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The bill, introduced by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means on Thursday, took aim at state and local tax deductions as one part of its plan to pay for reductions in taxes elsewhere. Overall, the plan would reduce federal revenues by roughly $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The bill eliminates the most widely-used deduction - income tax - and caps property tax deductions, the second most-used, at $10,000. State and local deductions are used largely by high-tax states that tend to vote Democratic in presidential elections and local officials say the tax bill appeared to divide its benefits and burdens along partisan lines. “I do think this has been developed in a way that looks at who were the prevailing forces in the presidential election and who were not,” Kevin Sullivan, Connecticut’s Commissioner of Revenue Services, told Reuters. Connecticut is one of several high-tax Democratic states where, local officials say, middle-class households will end up paying more taxes under the Republican plan. Among those potentially hardest-hit are California and New York with state income tax rates of 13.3 percent - the nation’s highest - and 8.82 percent respectively, according to a recent report by the Tax Foundation. That group also includes New Jersey, Minnesota and Oregon - all of which have voted for Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. By contrast, out the seven states that levy no income tax, Trump only lost Washington, while winning Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. “By eliminating or rolling back state and local tax deductibility, Washington is sending a death blow to New York’s middle class families and our economy,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat and one of the most outspoken opponents of the bill, wrote in a letter to Trump this week. “It’s clear this is a hostile political act aimed at the economic heart of New York.” To be sure, some Republican legislators from high-tax states, including Representative Lee Zeldin, of New York, have opposed the bill. The legislation would also end a tax exemption for billions of dollars of so-called private activity bonds issued by state and local governments annually to finance affordable housing, non-profit hospitals and colleges, as well as airports and port facilities - a measure that would affect Democrat and Republican states alike. Conservative groups have defended the tax bill, saying it would simplify the tax code, reduce overall burden on the economy and spread the costs and burdens more fairly. “The principles outlined in this federal tax reform effort will provide pro-growth tax rate reductions, while adding fairness and simplicity to the tax code,” Jonathan Williams, chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative state legislators, said in an email. Nick Samuels, a senior credit officer at Moody’s Investors Service, said the proposed bill would hit primarily high–income and high-tax states like California, New York and New Jersey, making it harder for them to raise revenue from income and property taxes. Officials in the affected states say millions of residents, not just high-earners, would suffer because of lost tax breaks and less funding available for public services. In New Jersey, 1.8 million households deduct a total of $17 billion in state income or sales taxes and 1.6 million households deduct a cumulative $14.9 billion in local property taxes from their federal taxes, according to the nonpartisan think-tank New Jersey Policy Perspective. ”This deal is still terrible for New Jersey’s working families, with big tax breaks that overwhelmingly go to the wealthiest 1 percent, setting up deep cuts to programs and services that we all rely on,” said Jon Whiten, the group’s vice president. Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton warned on Monday that the legislation would eliminate tax deductions totaling over $12.3 billion annually for 900,000 families in his state. The states with the highest property tax collections per capita include New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York, according to the Tax Foundation. For California, the Internal Revenue Service reported that approximately one in three residents took a state or local deduction in 2015, totaling roughly $113 billion, according to H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state’s finance department. “Congress is trying to rush consideration of a tax proposal that will have profound and widespread impacts on California,” Palmer said. National Conference of State Legislatures President and Republican South Dakota state senator Deb Peters in a statement called the legislation “an attack on the sovereignty of states.” Reporting by Laila Kearney and Karen Pierog; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Editing by Daniel Bases and Tomasz Janowski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-states/republican-tax-plan-a-blow-to-democratic-states-officials-say-idINKBN1D31CS'|'2017-11-03T14:52:00.000+02:00'
'2d45c5ec92a695f90c710bf1db6246ad8e01e5bd'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX sees first consecutive decline since Sept'|'* TSX down 36.93 points, or 0.23 percent, to 15,978.06* Seven of the TSX’s 10 main groups are downTORONTO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index pulled away from record highs reached this week, falling for the second day in a row on Friday as bank, industrial and mining stocks helped lead the market’s retreat.The financials group slipped 0.3 percent, with almost all of Canada’s top banks losing modest ground. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd fell 3.0 percent to C$675.59 after third- quarter profit fell short of analysts’ forecasts.Genworth MI Canada Inc’s 4.9 percent rise to C$42.49 after reporting a better-than-expected third-quarter profit offset some of the decline.Industrials fell 0.2 percent, with Canadian National Railway’s 0.7 percent slip to C$102.21 the most influential drag on the index. Canadian Pacific Railway also weighed, falling 0.7 percent to C$222.87.Bombardier Inc climbed 2.7 percent to C$3.03 after several analysts raised their target prices. Shares touched as high as C$3.11, the aircraft maker’s best level since January 2015.At 10:38 a.m. ET (1438 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 36.93 points, or 0.23 percent, to 15,978.06. It was the index’s first consecutive decline since embarking on a rally eight weeks ago in September.Of the index’s 10 main groups, seven lost ground.The materials group, home to precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 1.2 percent. Teck Resources declined 1.9 percent to C$26.37. Western Forest Products Inc slumped 3.0 percent to C$2.61 after reporting a weaker-than-expected third quarter.The energy group climbed 0.6 percent as oil prices held steady near two-year highs with a tighter crude market attracting more buyers.Parkland Fuel Co jumped 5.1 percent to C$26.64 after reporting third-quarter results, while Crew Energy Inc fumbled 3.1 percent to C$4.36, following target price cuts by analysts after the company reported results.On the domestic data front, the Canadian economy added more jobs than expected in October as wages posted their biggest gain in 18 months. But separate trade data for September was much gloomier, showing the trade deficit remaining at C$3.18 billion ($2.50 billion) as imports and exports dropped for a fourth consecutive month.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the TSX by 135 to 106, for a 1.27-to-1 ratio on the downside. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Dan Grebler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-sees-first-consecutive-decline-since-sept-idINL2N1N90ZB'|'2017-11-03T11:57:00.000+02:00'
'c986a6795469acf1f89454e0b4dd7a2e8b6090b1'|'Demand for modem, IoT chips helps Qualcomm top estimates'|'(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc’s ( QCOM.O ) fourth-quarter profit and revenue beat market expectations as strength in its smartphone chips business was complemented by demand for chips used in automobiles and for the Internet of Things (IoT).FILE PHOTO - The Qualcomm logo is seen on one of its buildings in San Diego, California, U.S., November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm, which has been fighting a legal battle on many fronts with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), said revenue from areas other than smartphones was more than $3 billion in its latest fiscal year, up more than 25 percent from last year.Revenue from Qualcomm’s chip unit, which supplies both Android smartphone makers and Apple, rose 13 percent in the latest quarter. Licensing revenue, which includes royalties mostly from Apple, sank 36 percent.Reuters reported earlier this week that Apple would drop the Qualcomm’s chips altogether from its iPhones and iPads from next year, the latest salvo in a longstanding dispute between the two companies.Apple sued Qualcomm in January, accusing it of overcharging for chips and of refusing to pay some $1 billion in promised rebates. Qualcomm also sued some Apple contract manufacturers in April over royalty payments and is trying to ban the sale of iPhones in China.“We really try to compartmentalise our engagement with Apple ... (and) we do have a lot of engagement with the company and we do speak in our engage on a daily basis with them across multiple areas,” Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf told analysts on a conference call.Qualcomm continues to exclude from its forecast revenue related to the sale of Apple products by the iPhone maker’s contract manufacturers as well as the another licensee in dispute.It forecast current-quarter revenue of $5.5 billion to $6.3 billion and adjusted earnings of 88 cents to 95 cents per share.Analysts were expecting revenue of $5.90 billion and a profit of 90 cents per share, per Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.While Qualcomm and Apple would be better off with each other, Qualcomm will do just fine even if that’s not the case, Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead said.Qualcomm also reported better-than expected profit and sales for the fourth quarter, despite earnings tumbling nearly 90 percent due to a $778 million charge related to a fine imposed by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission for anti-trust violations.The company'' adjusted earnings of 92 cents per share beat estimates of 81 cents. Revenue fell 4.5 percent to $5.91 billion, but topped estimates of $5.80 billion. ( bit.ly/2z5MwMB )Its shares were marginally higher in after-hours trading.Reporting by Sonam Rai Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/qualcomm-results/demand-for-modem-iot-chips-helps-qualcomm-top-estimates-idINKBN1D166N'|'2017-11-01T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'd4a1aaad9e10f61ec6286a6d173f18af28005671'|'ING reports third quarter net result of 1.38 billion euros, beating analyst expectations'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:26 AM / in 14 minutes ING reports third quarter net result of 1.38 billion euros, beating analyst expectations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - ING Groep NV( INGA.AS ), the largest Dutch financial services firm, on Thursday reported a better-than-expected net profit for the third quarter of 1.38 billion euros (1.21 billion pounds). FILE PHOTO: The logo of ING bank is pictured at the entrance of the group''s main office in Brussels, Belgium September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Analysts polled for Reuters forecast the net profit at 1.30 billion, down from 1.35 billion in the same period a year ago. ($1 = 0.8582 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ing-groep-results/ing-reports-third-quarter-net-result-of-1-38-billion-euros-beating-analyst-expectations-idUKKBN1D20IL'|'2017-11-02T08:25:00.000+02:00'
'50540541bece602c5f4fcc266551f955587e31cb'|'Goldman''s Blankfein is only major financial firm CEO to join Trump on China trip'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:26 PM / in 3 hours Goldman''s Blankfein is only major financial firm CEO to join Trump on China trip Olivia Oran 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein will visit China as part of a business delegation in November at the same time as U.S. President Donald Trump, a Goldman spokesman confirmed. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Blankfein will be the only executive of a major financial company traveling as part of the trade mission which is being led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, according to a preliminary list. Executives from major industrial companies including General Electric Co ( GE.N ), Honeywell International Inc ( HON.N ) and Boeing Co ( BA.N ) are on the list, as well as a large number of leaders from energy and commodities firms. Blankfein has publicly used Twitter to speak out against Trump. In January, he became the first major Wall Street leader to speak out against Trump’s order to halt arrivals from several Muslim-majority countries. He also criticized the White House’s decision in September to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that protects young, undocumented immigrants from deportation. China is an important region for Goldman, which ranked as the top M&A dealmaker in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan in the first nine months of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data. While Wall Street firms like Goldman have to partner with a Chinese joint venture firm to run their investment banking businesses on the mainland, U.S. banks have for years been trying to operate these businesses on their own. Following a trip to Beijing earlier this year, Blankfein said there was a “a lot of confidence in China” and it was “almost an island of stability.” Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-blankfein/goldmans-blankfein-is-only-major-financial-firm-ceo-to-join-trump-on-china-trip-idUSKBN1D229S'|'2017-11-02T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'86ca9c8be92bfffe9c8324be09dd50bed5e7fa4c'|'U.S. third-quarter productivity fastest in three years'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:38 PM / Updated 4 hours ago U.S. third-quarter productivity fastest in three years Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter, holding down labor costs, but the trend in productivity growth remained moderate. FILE PHOTO -- Construction workers build a single family home in San Diego, California, U.S. on February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The Labor Department said on Thursday that nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 3.0 percent annualized rate. That was the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2014. Growth in second-quarter productivity was unrevised at a 1.5 percent rate. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast productivity rising at a 2.4 percent pace in the July-September quarter. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-productivity/u-s-third-quarter-productivity-fastest-in-three-years-idUSKBN1D21NA'|'2017-11-02T14:38:00.000+02:00'
'f87acf377d55b213d1150eba58b15ac0a31cb8ba'|'Australia''s Fairfax shareholders vote to spin-off property classifieds unit'|'(Reuters) - Australian newspaper publisher Fairfax Media ( FXJ.AX ) said on Thursday its shareholders had agreed to a plan to spin off its real estate classifieds unit, Domain Holdings Australia Ltd, into a standalone listed company.FILE PHOTO: The Fairfax Media headquarters are pictured in Sydney, Australia, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed The resolution “received overwhelming support from shareholders,” the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review newspapers said in a statement.The company added that it expected Domain to start trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Nov. 16.The mandate clears the path for the company to sell its biggest-earning unit and keep a 60 percent stake. Fairfax expects Domain shares will grow as a result of being freed from the turmoil surrounding the broader media sector, and that it will benefit via its equity stake.Fairfax ramped up efforts to break out its Domain business after U.S. private equity firms TPG Capital Management [TPG.UL] and Hellman & Friedman abandoned moves to acquire the company.The publisher has said it would give shareholders one Domain share for every 10 Fairfax shares they own if the separation went ahead.Fairfax said there would be no new capital raised for the Domain separation.The second court hearing for the approval of the resolution was scheduled for Nov. 6.Shares of the company fell as much as 0.9 percent, while the broader market was little changed.Reporting by Christina Martin in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ambar Warrick; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fairfax-media-divestiture/australias-fairfax-shareholders-vote-to-spin-off-property-classifieds-unit-idINKBN1D200P'|'2017-11-01T21:14:00.000+02:00'
'32d10ddfadc97c47eef391b14cc23781c0237198'|'India''s Adani in talks with Chinese engineering firm for Carmichael financing - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:21 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago India''s Adani in talks with Chinese engineering firm for Carmichael financing - sources James Regan , Paulina Duran 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises ( ADEL.NS ) is in talks with China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) ( 1829.HK ) for the financing of a controversial coal mine project in Australia, two sources with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, India April 2, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo Adani is seeking A$2 billion ($1.54 billion) in outside financing for its proposed A$4 billion Carmichael coal mine in the state of Queensland. However, Australian and overseas banks have balked at granting loans for the project which environmentalists oppose because of concerns over the size of the mine and the potential for damage to the Great Barrier Reef. CMEC is an engineering contractor that is majority-owned by Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) China National Machinery Industry Corp Ltd, or Sinomach. CMEC would provide financing through the China Export Import Bank or China Construction Bank, or both, in return for winning the procurement and engineering contracts, for the project, according to a report issued earlier on Thursday by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, (IEEFA) an outspoken opponent of the project, citing unidentified sources. “Chinese SOE backing raises the probability that Adani can secure a financial close for this long delayed project,” the report said. In addition to the A$2 billion in financing, Adani has also applied for A$900 million in Australian government loans to build a railway to ship coal 400 km (250 miles) from the Carmichael site to a port on the Pacific Ocean for export. Carmichael has been delayed by court challenges from environmentalists and indigenous groups concerned about climate change, and the impact on native land and water supply, but those challenges have been rejected. Jeyakumar Janakaraj, chief executive of Adani Australia, told Reuters on Oct. 3, it wants to tie up financing by March 2018 and would look to sell a minority stake in the project to help raise funds. Adani hopes to start shipping coal from Carmichael under the first stage of the project by March 2020. Reporting by James Regan and Paulina Duran; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-adani-edi/indias-adani-in-talks-with-chinese-engineering-firm-for-carmichael-financing-sources-idUKKBN1D2102'|'2017-11-02T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'5dc3ec75ee07a67c72fabcd0a55a49cfcf0753c1'|'Back from the abyss - South Korea''s shipbuilders begin ascent to growth'|'November 2, 2017 / 2:59 AM / in 7 minutes Back from the abyss - South Korea''s shipbuilders begin ascent to growth Henning Gloystein , Jane Chung 5 Min Read BUSAN/SEOUL (Reuters) - Sparks light up the night-shift at giant shipyards on Korea’s southeast coast, as welders and fitters at some of the world’s biggest marine engineers forge next-generation container ships, oil rigs and even ice-breaking tankers in a bid to clamber out of a global industry abyss. Two large container ships and a tanker can be seen under construction in a ship yard close to Busan, South Korea October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein Sunk by drastic cuts in orders from customers hit by the 2008 financial crisis, South Korea’s shipping landscape has been littered with bankruptcies and billion-dollar losses. But some, like Busan’s DSME, are adding innovation to craftsmanship to tap new demand for nimbler ships and offshore energy platforms. The stakes are high for South Korea, jostling with Japan and China to lead an industry revival. Global orders - the trio account for four of every five merchant vessels built - grew nearly two-thirds during the first nine months of the year from a year earlier, according to shipping research firm Clarkson. In September alone, South Korean yards bagged half the business, Clarkson’s data shows. “After years of struggle, we’re finally seeing some growth,” said Adam Kent, director at consultancy Maritime Strategies International (MSI), speaking during the Kormarine industry event in Busan last week. “Earnings for most shipping sectors have improved from their recent historic lows and are expected to gradually improve.” The crisis hit bottom earlier this year with the bankruptcy of Korea’s Hanjin, one of the world’s biggest shipping companies. But DSME - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering ( 042660.KS ) - is now back from the brink of collapse a year ago. This week its shares resumed trading after over a year''s suspension, slumping before stabilising at a level that still gives it a market value of about $1.7 billion.(GRAPHIC: Global market share of shipyards by country (2017) reut.rs/2gWpLUD ) In what’s seen as a lifeline, DSME in September received an $820 million container ship order from Europe, its biggest in two years. “It’s hard to say the shipping market conditions have fully recovered, but the situation is much better than last year,” said Yohan Yoon, deputy general manager at DSME’s communications department. INNOVATE OR DIE Tens of thousands of employees work day and night at South Korea’s big three shipyards - Hyundai Heavy Industries ( 009540.KS ), Samsung Heavy Industries ( 010140.KS ) and DSME - building dozens of mega-tankers, container giants and huge oil and gas production platforms at once. A large crane works on the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Maritime EngineeringÕs (DSME) yard near Geoje, South Korea October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein Based on the southeastern tip of South Korea, at the confluence of the Yellow Sea and waters off the east of the Korean peninsula, the trio has racked up billions of dollars in losses, prompting major restructuring in the face of stiff competition from its Chinese and Japanese rivals. The years of pain have made innovation all the more essential. “We have to become much smarter and more efficient in order to build better ships,” Yoon So Park, chairman of the Korea Maritime Equipment Association, also speaking in Busan. Improving shipping efficiency or even switching to cleaner fuels like liquefied natural gas (LNG) is necessary to comply with regulation coming into effect from 2020 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). “We expect demand for environmentally friendly ships to grow in the future especially after stricter IMO measures,” DSME’s Yoon said. More recent DSME orders include 15 of a new type of ice-breaking tankers, three of which have been undergoing sea trials just outside DSME''s yard at Geoje. The ships, which cost over $300 million each, are understood to be heading soon to Russia to start exporting Arctic Russian LNG from the Yamal peninsula.(GRAPHIC: Crisis in a chart: DSME shares resume after suspension - and crash reut.rs/2gVquW3 ) NEW MARKETS NEEDED Barrie Stevens, senior adviser to the Ocean Economy Programme at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said South Korea remained the leading shipping innovator. “Korea stands out in terms of ship sector patent applications,” said Stevens, in Busan for the Kormarine event. To survive in the long-term, OECD’s Stevens said the industry would need to seek out openings in new sectors, including offshore wind power and acquaculture, or fish and seafood farming. “We are looking at explosive growth in offshore wind. This is a shipping business opportunity,” said Stevens. “Looking further, aquaculture is seeing sharp growth,” he said. “Korea has the world’s highest aquaculture patent growth, with a share of 35 percent of OECD (member country patents), and a global share of 30 percent. Korea is right on the cutting edge here.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein in BUSAN and Jane Chung in SEOUL; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-south-korea-shipping/back-from-the-abyss-south-koreas-shipbuilders-begin-ascent-to-growth-idUKKBN1D207T'|'2017-11-02T04:58:00.000+02:00'
'b8ce229a9c63fc38f4a5f4f2d73ea25be44abf19'|'Alibaba revenue up 61 percent, beats estimates'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:12 AM / in 15 minutes Alibaba delivers ''outstanding quarter'' on e-commerce growth Pei Li 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) hailed an “outstanding quarter” on Thursday as the Chinese firm beat forecasts with a 61 percent revenue rise driven by continuing e-commerce growth. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Alibaba Group is seen on a building under construction, where the company''s Beijing headquarters will be, in Beijing, China, October 15, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The strong beat underlines Alibaba’s dominant role in China’s fast growing e-commerce market, which Goldman Sachs estimates will grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020. The firm controlled by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma is also expanding into markets like entertainment and sports. Alibaba Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said in a filing that a recent push to integrate its traditional online platforms with more offline services and bricks-and-mortar stores, had contributed to the growth. The e-commerce giant reported revenue of 55.12 billion yuan (£6.3 billion) for July-September, above a 52.2 billion yuan forecast from analysts polled by Reuters. Its net income attributable to shareholders more than doubled from a year ago, rising 132 percent to 17.7 billion yuan. Analysts had forecast a roughly 50 percent rise. Alibaba also raised its revenue guidance for the 2018 fiscal year to growth of between 49 percent to 53 percent, from between 45 percent to 49 percent previously, due to the recent consolidation of its logistics network Cainiao. The second quarter can be slower for Alibaba as it prepares for the annual blockbuster Singles’ Day event on Nov. 11, a sales bonanza that shifts more goods than the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales days in the United States combined. Alibaba, whose Tmall and Taobao shopping platforms dominate online retail in China, saw revenues from its core e-commerce business hit 46.46 billion yuan, a 63 percent rise from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue from Alibaba’s fast-growing cloud computing business was 3.0 billion yuan, up 99 percent but slowing from a 130 percent rise a year earlier. Reporting by Pei Li in Beijing and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alibaba-results/alibaba-revenue-up-61-percent-beats-estimates-idUKKBN1D21CC'|'2017-11-02T13:12:00.000+02:00'
'1c76fbb21ce5de30d5f2e9eb4aca32bd3bcc0552'|'U.S. Republican tax bill seeks elimination of some municipal debt'|'CHICAGO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Republican tax bill released on Thursday would put an end to tax-exempt debt issuance by state and local governments for an array of health care, education, and economic development financing, which took municipal market participants by surprise.The proposed elimination of low-cost funding through private activity bonds, which many in the $3.8 trillion U.S. municipal market were not expecting, would raise nearly $39 billion for the federal government over the next nine years, according to a summary of the legislation.“This came as quite a shock,” said Barbara Thompson, executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, noting that there had been assurances from Congress that private activity bond issuance would be retained.Thompson said it would be devastating for the country’s production of affordable housing.“The bill will increase borrowing costs and harm the ability of state and local governments to build and to maintain the infrastructure,” needed for critical health, education, ports, airports, and low-income housing, Sandy MacLennan, president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, said in a statement.Non-profit hospitals, which are major issuers of tax-free bonds to fund capital projects, would also be hit.“For many communities, tax-exempt financing, such as private activity bonds, has been a key to maintaining vital hospital services,” Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, said in a statement.“If hospital access to tax-exempt financing is limited or eliminated, hospitals’ ability to make investments in new technologies and renovations in the future will be challenged.”Also on the chopping block are advance refunding bonds, which issuers in the U.S. municipal bond market use to take advantage of lower interest rates before outstanding bonds can be called.“Current-law advance refunding bonds provide state and local governments with incentives to issue two sets of federally subsidized debt to finance the same activity,” the House bill’s summary stated.Tax-credit bonds, which never really caught on with investors, would be repealed but federal tax credits for existing bonds would remain in place. Bonds issued for professional sports facilities would be subject to federal taxation under the bill.The Alternative Minimum Tax would end under the legislation. That tax is applied to earnings from a small percentage of muni bonds sold by issuers such as airports and housing authorities that have substantial private-activity components in their deals.The proposals are not a sure thing. The bill has a long legislative process ahead with changes expected before it could be voted into law.Bill Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said the likelihood of the final bill including the elimination of private activity bonds was “not high.”“It is hard to get support. There are an enormous number of revenue raisers in here and every one of them is politically going to be hard,” Gale said. (Reporting By Karen Pierog; Editing by Daniel Bases) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-municipals/u-s-republican-tax-bill-seeks-elimination-of-some-municipal-debt-idINL2N1N81NU'|'2017-11-02T20:11:00.000+02:00'
'd43667747ef592dbe0f6774fb797c95a6e5451c0'|'UK services sector grows at fastest rate in six months - IHS Markit/CIPS'|'November 3, 2017 / 9:39 AM / Updated 5 hours ago UK economy peps up, bolstering BoE rate hike call - PMI Andy Bruce , David Milliken 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy appears to be picking up speed, according to a survey on Friday that will reassure the Bank of England a day after it raised interest rates for the first time a decade. Sterling hit a day’s high against the dollar after the IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped to 55.6 in October from 53.6 in September, its biggest one-month rise since August 2016. Despite nervousness among businesses about Brexit, the reading was its highest since April and exceeded all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. The survey of services businesses, which account for around 80 percent of British economic output, follows relatively upbeat PMI readings this week for the smaller manufacturing and construction sectors. Taken together they suggest the economy is growing at a quarterly rate of 0.5 percent, IHS Markit said, picking up from growth of 0.4 percent in the three months to September. Britain’s economy has lagged behind others in Europe and beyond this year as sterling’s plunge following last year’s vote to leave the European Union pushes up inflation and uncertainty over the shape of Brexit causes businesses invest more slowly. “The UK PMI may be starting to show some convergence with its firm global counterpart,” JPMorgan economist Allan Monks said. Growth in the services sector outpaced that in the euro zone, as measured by a flash estimate, for the first time since January, the PMI showed. IHS Markit will publish a final estimate for the euro zone on Monday. “The Bank of England will likely see October’s (PMIs) as supportive to the decision to raise interest rates,” said Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy. Many private economists had warned before Thursday’s decision by the Bank that a rate hike would be premature. “However, serious uncertainties over the outlook evident among services companies fuels suspicion that it is likely to be some considerable time before the Bank of England hikes interest rates again,” Archer said. A general view of the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs The BoE raised rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday and said its next increases would be “very gradual”. Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Friday that the Bank’s signal that it may need to raise interest rates two more times to bring down inflation was not a promise. Businesses are unsure about the outlook, and optimism among services companies remained well below its long-run average, fuelled mainly by uncertainty over Brexit, the PMI data showed. “A deeper dive into the numbers highlights the fragility of the economy,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the PMIs. BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday that the central bank’s next move would be heavily influenced by the progress of talks on Britain’s departure from the EU. Growth could get a boost if a transitional deal gave businesses confidence to invest. But a failure to reach a deal would further weaken the pound and intensify inflation pressure. The services PMI, which covers non-retail businesses, said firms were putting up prices at the fastest rate since April. Costs increased rapidly, though at the slowest rate in just over a year, possibly tallying with the Bank’s view that the inflationary effect of last year’s more than 10 percent fall in the value of the pound is starting to fade. Across the economy as a whole, the PMI showed that job creation was at its weakest since March. “Squeezed margins and concerns about the economic outlook had led to more cautious hiring strategies,” IHS Markit said. The story was refiled to add a dropped word in the first paragraph) Editing by William Schomberg and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pmi/uk-services-sector-grows-at-fastest-rate-in-six-months-ihs-markit-cips-idUKKBN1D30SO'|'2017-11-03T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'd060f22874ae6c7186a2a95810ce19f5799bcfb1'|'Debt-laden Vivarte sells Spanish shoes brand Merkal to OpCapita'|'PARIS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Private-equity backed French clothing retailer Vivarte, which is aiming to restructure some 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of debt, said it had sold Spanish shoes brand Merkal to private investment firm OpCapita.The transaction forms part of Vivarte’s ongoing disposal programme, and follows similar sales earlier this year of its Kookai and Pataugas brands.Vivarte has been owned since 2014 by a group led by investment funds Alcentra, Babson, Oaktree and GLG Partners.Vivarte’s profits and sales have fallen amid competition from larger clothing retail chains such as H&M, Kiabi and Primark, leading to the company’s decision to restructure its business in order to improve its financial fortunes.$1 = 0.8591 euros Reporting by Pascale Denis; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/vivarte-debt/debt-laden-vivarte-sells-spanish-shoes-brand-merkal-to-opcapita-idINL8N1N93OK'|'2017-11-03T08:42:00.000+02:00'
'0feeb6ad79cacea326d21b77d61d00b91300c068'|'Alibaba revenue up 61 percent, beats estimates'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:33 AM / in 4 hours Alibaba sales beat estimates on ''outstanding'' quarter, raises forecast Pei Li , Cate Cadell 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) hailed an “outstanding quarter” on Thursday and raised its outlook for the year after beating forecasts with a 61 percent revenue rise driven by strong growth in online sales. The beat points to the Chinese group’s success as it expands from its core online retail business with investments in supermarkets and stores, amid growing competition in e-commerce. Alibaba’s Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said in a filing that a recent push into offline services and a number of recent bricks-and-mortar deals had helped contribute to its growth. “We had an outstanding quarter,” said Zhang. “We are seeing the early results from our efforts to integrate online and offline with our New Retail strategy.” The firm’s shares - which have more than doubled in value this year - were up 3.1 pct in premarket trading and were set to open at a record high. The e-commerce giant reported revenue of 55.12 billion yuan ($8.34 billion) for July-September, above a 52.2 billion yuan forecast from analysts polled by Reuters. Its net income attributable to shareholders more than doubled from a year ago, rising 132 percent to 17.7 billion yuan. Analysts had forecast a roughly 50 percent rise. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Alibaba Group is seen on a building under construction in Beijing, China, October 15, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo OVERTAKING AMAZON? “There were many bright spots here, including growth in overseas business and cloud computing,” Li Chengdong, a Beijing-based tech analyst, said, while cautioning that the growth had been boosted by heavy spending. Alibaba invested 25.7 billion yuan in the quarter versus 5.7 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. “In the future, Alibaba might take over Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) in market value,” Li said. Alibaba also raised its revenue guidance for the 2018 fiscal year to growth of between 49 percent to 53 percent, from between 45 percent to 49 percent previously, due to the recent consolidation of its logistics network Cainiao. The second quarter can be slower for Alibaba as it prepares for the annual blockbuster Singles’ Day event on Nov. 11, a sales bonanza that shifts more goods than the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales days   combined. Alibaba, whose Tmall and Taobao shopping platforms dominate online retail in China, saw revenues from its core e-commerce business hit 46.46 billion yuan, a 63 percent rise from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue from Alibaba’s fast-growing cloud computing business was 3.0 billion yuan, up 99 percent but slowing from a 130 percent rise a year earlier. ($1 = 6.6100 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Pei Li and Cate Cadell in Beijing and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-results/alibaba-revenue-up-61-percent-beats-estimates-idUSKBN1D21FG'|'2017-11-02T13:38:00.000+02:00'
'c8a9427570e21f0b3777882317299253c15e379a'|'Tesco CEO was kept in dark over accounting issues, court hears'|'November 2, 2017 / 2:37 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Tesco CEO was kept in dark over accounting issues, court hears Reuters Staff 3   Tesco’s ( TSCO.L ) then UK managing director did not alert the British retailer’s chief executive to possible problems with its 2014-15 half year accounts, despite having opportunities to do so, a London court heard on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Tesco Group Chief Executive, Dave Lewis speaks at an analyst presentation in London, Britain, April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay /File Photo Tesco CEO Dave Lewis was giving evidence at the trial of three former senior executives of Britain’s biggest retailer who are accused of fraud and false accounting in 2014. Christopher Bush, 51, who was managing director of Tesco UK, Carl Rogberg, 50, who was UK finance director, and John Scouler, 49, who was UK food commercial director, all deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty. The case centres on Tesco’s Sept. 22, 2014, announcement to the stock exchange that its profit forecast had been overstated by 250 million pounds, mainly due to booking commercial deals with suppliers too early. Lewis replaced Philip Clarke as Tesco CEO on Sept. 1, 2014. He told the court he first became aware of issues with the accounts on Sept. 19 when he was notified by Tesco’s chief legal counsel Adrian Morris. Lewis said he was presented with a paper which the court has heard was commissioned by Amit Soni, a senior accountant at Tesco who is described by the prosecution as a whistleblower in the case, and said he reacted with “surprise and shock”. “The thing that was unique to this paper was the indication that the numbers that had been declared (on Aug. 29) had a potential misstatement within them,” Lewis told the court. FILE PHOTO: Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis leaves after attending the company''s annual general meeting in London, Britain June 26, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo “What was new was the proposition in here that 246 million of income had been included in the first half of the year that on the basis of this paper was deemed to be questionable.” Lewis said that between joining Tesco on Sept. 1 and notification on Sept. 19 he had met Bush on a couple of occasions and there had also been executive committee meetings that Bush had attended, but no issues with the accounts had been raised. “(It was) not until the morning of the 19th that anyone raised (it) with me,” he said. Soni told the court last month that Bush was read out “almost word by word” the paper detailing the hole in the accounts on Sept. 16. Soni said Bush told him the paper would have to be discussed with Lewis. Tesco’s Sept. 22 disclosure saw its shares tumble and plunged the company into the worst crisis in its near 100-year history. Lead prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court last month that all three defendants were well aware that a hole in Tesco’s accounts was “spiralling out of control” in the first half of 2014 but connived to conceal their failure to meet targets. No charges have been brought against Clarke. The trial is expected to last beyond Christmas. Reporting by Michael Holden; Writing by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-tesco-fraud/tesco-ceo-was-kept-in-dark-over-accounting-issues-court-hears-idUKKBN1D21YV'|'2017-11-02T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'2eef410adc5374d28c44ba2a0647d2de8d79b9f9'|'''We have a £450,000 mortgage – but we''re relaxed about the interest rate rise'' - Money'|'The size of mortgage taken out by first-time buyers Kieran Ellis, 32, and Jordan Stefanov, 29, will send shudders through many people. The couple borrowed about £450,000 in June to buy a £490,000 two-bed flat in Crystal Palace, south London – but they are relatively relaxed about the rise in interest rates.A 0.25% rise in rates adds £54 to the monthly payments on a £450,000 loan. But like the majority of young buyers Kieran and Jordan have taken out a fixed-rate mortgage – in their case pegged at just 1.8% for two years – so the rate rise has no immediate impact on their repayments, which come in at a bit below £2,000 a month.“Our monthly mortgage payments are pretty much the same as the rent we were paying for a flat in Kilburn. Interest rates are always a worry, but the reason we bought this place is that it wasn’t too much of a stretch above the rent we were paying anyway,” says Ellis, who works in marketing.What the interest rate rise will mean for you Read moreJordan, a management consultant, adds: “In two years’ time we might see our payments rise, and we’ll have to cut back. But we don’t have any other large commitments, and our objective is to overpay each month and reduce the debt.”The couple also have savings put aside to cover emergencies and potential rising costs.Are they concerned that house prices could fall as rates rise? “We looked at more than 50 properties before settling on this. This is London and, yes, £490,000 sounds like a lot of money but it doesn’t actually get you a lot. And prices in this area of the city are still projected to rise,” says Ellis.He says it is a part of the capital to which many of their friends have moved in recent years, and they are confident that it is a great location to buy.Jordan came to Britain six years ago from Bulgaria and the couple began house-hunting before the Brexit vote. But he says he has secured his status in the UK irrespective of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, so that is not an issue for their longer-term financial plans.Topics Mortgage rates Banks and building societies Mortgages Property Interest rates Housing market news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/02/mortgage-interest-rate-rise'|'2017-11-02T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'2bd55ed0c5ac2e31c363c06fa60fd4b664f793b4'|'TPP talks without U.S. near final stretch ahead of APEC'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:57 AM / in 16 minutes TPP talks without U.S. near final stretch ahead of APEC Reuters Staff 3 Min Read URAYASU, Japan (Reuters) - The 11 remaining nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the United States edged towards sealing a comprehensive free trade pact after New Zealand agreed to amend laws that are not subject to TPP, to enable its ban on foreign home purchases. FILE PHOTO - Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks next to a map showing participating countries in rule-making negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo March 15, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The pact aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across an 11-nation bloc whose trade totalled $356.3 billion (268.78 billion pounds) last year. This week’s compromise saves member nations from having to renegotiate the ambitious trade pact to accommodate the New Zealand government’s demands for firm measures to rein in housing prices. It also brings member countries closer to an important victory in support of free trade to be finalised at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next week in Vietnam’s central city of Danang. “The momentum towards (an agreement) at the meeting in Danang has significantly increased,” said Japan’s chief TPP negotiator, Kazuyoshi Umemoto. Negotiators gathered for three days in Urayasu, east of the Japanese capital, to narrow down which terms of the original 12-nation deal to suspend, so as to salvage the pact at the Vietnam summit. Canada though played down the chances of any kind of formal deal next week, citing the need to ensure the provisions in a new TPP treaty would not cause problems at ongoing talks to update the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement. The NAFTA talks are due to wrap up next March. “We’re moving quite expeditiously but it’s probably going to take a little longer, so as for a signature (next week) - that’s highly optimistic,” said an Ottawa source familiar with the government’s position. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was sworn in last week, has announced plans to ban foreign home purchases that should curb speculation without forcing TPP countries to renegotiate the pact. Japan hopes the deal, which links 11 countries with a combined GDP of $12.4 trillion, can show other nations it is able to champion free trade. It could also help Japan resist U.S. pressure for a two-way trade pact, which is likely to come up when President Donald Trump visits, from Sunday until Tuesday, for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The TPP pact was thrown into doubt when Trump pulled the United States out in January to prioritise protecting jobs. New Zealand and Vietnam subsequently pushed to renegotiate it, but countries have been able to narrow their differences in the final stretch. Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Stanley White in Urayasu and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-tpp-japan/tpp-talks-without-u-s-near-final-stretch-ahead-of-apec-idUKKBN1D14M1'|'2017-11-01T21:37:00.000+02:00'
'd8f6999f36ae1ade1b4a367eef9c57ba5464cb46'|'Russia-China-led group to acquire Eurasia Drilling stake'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) leads a consortium that will acquire a 16.1 percent stake in Russia’s Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC), a Russian fund involved said.RCIF involves the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and China Investment Corporation.The consortium also includes funds from the Middle East whose names have not been disclosed.EDC is Russia’s top oilfield services provider.The acquisition will strengthen China’s foothold in Russia’s energy industry amid a broader political and economical rapprochement between the two neighbors and Moscow’s cooling ties with the West.Russia has become China’s top oil supplier with deliveries in excess of 1.5 million barrels per day while Chinese conglomerate CEFC has bought into top Russian oil producer Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ).U.S. oilfield services company Schlumberger ( SLB.N ) attempted to buy 51 percent of EDC in July, a deal which Russian authorities said posed “big problems” give the current political climate.Schlumberger’s previous 2015 attempt to buy 45.65 percent of EDC for $1.7 billion failed after Russian authorities repeatedly delayed approval.Kirill Dmitriev, head of RDIF, has said Schlumberger’s deal is a separate matter.Reporting by Polina Devitt and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eurasiadrilling-m-a-consortium/russia-china-led-group-to-acquire-eurasia-drilling-stake-idINKBN1D13ZW'|'2017-11-01T05:38:00.000+02:00'
'04193110208c973f8a947e7bf128e9eaa746cf12'|'TABLE- Top 20 vehicles sold in U.S. in October'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - The following are the 20 top-selling vehicles in the U.S. in October as reported by the automakers and ranked by total units Top 20 selling vehicles in the U.S. in October RANK VEHICLE Oct-17 Oct-16 PCT CHNG 1 Ford F-Series P/U 75,974 65,542 +15.9 2 Chevy Silverado-C/K P/U 53,157 49,768 +6.8 3 Ram P/U 44,201 43,891 +0.7 4 Toyota RAV4 34,086 26,429 +29.0 5 Honda Civic 30,319 26,359 +15.0 6 Nissan Rogue 30,286 21,179 +43.0 7 Honda CR-V 27,773 30,306 -8.4 8 Honda Accord 26,740 25,551 +4.7 9 Toyota Camry 26,252 29,562 -11.2 10 Chevrolet Equinox 25,272 19,664 +28.5 11 Toyota Corolla 24,667 29,735 -17.0 12 Ford Escape 23,064 23,505 -1.9 13 GMC Sierra P/U 18,895 15,050 +25.5 14 Nissan Sentra 18,341 14,168 +29.5 15 Nissan Altima 17,863 20,257 -11.8 16 Ford Fusion 17,536 18,686 -6.2 17 Toyota Highlander 17,461 17,668 -1.2 18 Jeep Grand Cherokee 17,215 17,867 -3.6 19 Ford Explorer 16,914 16,106 +5.0 20 Toyota Tacoma 15,804 15,875 -0.4 Top 20 Selling Vehicles in the U.S. Through October RANK VEHICLE YTD 2017 YTD 2016 PCT CHNG 1 Ford F-Series P/U 734,610 661,198 +11.1 2 Chevy Silverado-C/K P/U 471,747 475,324 -0.8 3 Ram P/U 419,102 404,977 +3.5 4 Toyota RAV4 346,316 286,824 +20.7 5 Nissan Rogue 327,213 262,798 +24.5 6 Honda Civic 314,699 310,142 +1.5 7 Toyota Camry 308,759 327,017 -5.6 8 Honda CR-V 308,706 293,799 +5.1 9 Toyota Corolla 289,940 318,739 -9.0 10 Honda Accord 277,542 284,170 -2.3 11 Ford Escape 256,942 258,269 -0.5 12 Chevrolet Equinox 238,007 193,400 +23.1 13 Nissan Altima 217,724 262,578 -17.1 14 Jeep Grand Cherokee 198,460 171,793 793 15 Ford Explorer 191,161 180,019 +6.2 16 Nissan Sentra 184,052 183,644 +0.2 17 Ford Fusion 177,278 229,148 -22.6 18 Toyota Highlander 175,657 144,713 +21.4 19 GMC Sierra P/U 173,371 179,490 -3.4 20 Jeep Wrangler 163,533 163,096 +0.3 (Compiled by Bengaluru Newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/autosalesusa-top20/table-top-20-vehicles-sold-in-u-s-in-october-idINL4N1N75MH'|'2017-11-01T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'84749aac1c7d3461f081810e9e4dae669b9f5e10'|'Greek bank test results still due in May despite EBA delay - source'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:51 AM / in 12 minutes Greek bank test results still due in May despite EBA delay - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s stress test of Greek banks is still expected to be finalised in May, despite a delay in the Europe-wide exercise, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the cityscape of Athens, Greece, October 18, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo The European Banking Authority announced earlier this week that it would only publish stress test results next November, several months later than in previous years, as banks need time to implement new accounting standards, called IFRS 9. But Greece is due to exit its 86 billion euro (£75.7 billion) bailout in August, so an early bank sector health check is needed there to ensure there would be enough time to recapitalise lenders if the exercise uncovered a capital shortfall. Indeed, the ECB, which supervises the biggest banks in the euro zone, has already said it would bring forward the Greek test, partly on the request of the International Monetary Fund. “It is not expected to affect the timeline for the stress test on Greek banks,” a person familiar with the situation told Reuters, referring to the EBA delay. Given the EBA’s delay, the Greek test will be part of a separate exercise and would follow a separate timeline, the source added. Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-greece-banks-ecb/greek-bank-test-results-still-due-in-may-despite-eba-delay-source-idUKKBN1D219V'|'2017-11-02T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'9e7087b80878a5409e0298b8dbd1a26d4f38643a'|'Apple draws options bulls ahead of quarterly results'|'Williamson named Defence Secretary after Fallon resigns in growing harassment scandal Special Report reuters investigates -the body trade Mystery in the woods - a woman’s head was found. Who is she? BoE sees only gentle rises ahead after rate hike Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 3:39 PM / in a few seconds Apple draws options bulls ahead of quarterly results Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ahead of Apple Inc’s quarterly report on Thursday, traders in the options market have taken positions close to the most bullish since late December, options data showed. FILE PHOTO: A man is reflected in a Apple store logo in San Francisco, California, U.S., August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs/File Photo Apple shares, which are up 44 percent this year and on pace for its best year since 2010, hit a record intraday high of $169.94 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 tech sector index is up 35 percent for the year. The stock’s sharp climb has inspired little fear of a reversal and traders in the options market have been busy adding to bullish bets. “The volume is stronger to the upside calls,” said Steve Claussen, vice president of trade strategy at E-Trade Financial in Chicago, referring to recent trading in Apple’s options. Calls convey the right to buy shares at a fixed price in the future and are usually used to bet on shares rising. Put options give the right to sell shares at a certain price in the future and are bought to profit from declining shares. “A lot of people are perhaps setting themselves up owning these upside calls thinking Apple is going to trade $180 or something,” Claussen said. There are about 1.43 Apple call options open for each open put contract, close to the most since late December, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert. Apple’s weekly options contracts imply a 4.5 percent swing in the shares, in either direction, by Friday. That is slightly shy of the 4.6 percent average one-day post-earnings move in the shares over the last eight quarters. The technology sector has surged in recent days as quarterly results from Google-parent Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp, have sent their shares soaring. For each of these companies, the shares outstripped their respective options-implied moves and made for big gains for bullish options bets. “I think a lot of people wish they had played the other stocks on the bullish side,” said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Connecticut. “Why wouldn’t you expect them to do that in Apple.” Some positive reviews of Apple’s eagerly awaited iPhone X may have helped boost investors sentiment ahead of results, Sosnick said. E-Trade’s Claussen, however, noted that some near-term Apple puts were priced relatively higher than calls, suggesting that despite the bulk of trading activity and positioning pointing to bullish expectations, some element of anxiety remains. Apple dipped 0.5 percent to $166.04 on Thursday. Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-results-options/apple-draws-options-bulls-ahead-of-quarterly-results-idUKKBN1D224X'|'2017-11-02T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'e060d913389fc4525fd1ff0375cf49fdb15b1e44'|'Russia''s Otkritie bailout hits home in Ireland'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:06 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Russia''s Otkritie bailout hits home in Ireland John O''Donnell 5 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Russia’s bailed-out bank Otkritie will not repay $500 million (383.17 million pounds) of loans raised in Ireland, potentially making it harder for other Russian private banks to borrow abroad and casting a cloud over Dublin as a “shadow banking” hub. Hairdressers work in a salon above the branch of Russian bank Otkritie in Moscow, Russia August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Otkritie’s refusal to pay sees shockwaves from Russia’s biggest ever bank bailout reach Ireland, which has been used by international firms including Russian banks to raise hundreds of billions of euros in such loans. In a stock-exchange filing on Tuesday, OFCB, a vehicle that had issued $300 million of loan notes and lent the proceeds to Otkritie, said the Russian bank had “terminated” the repayment of the debt and more than $7 million of interest. BKM Finance, another vehicle that borrowed $200 million on behalf of Otkritie, made a similar filing on Oct. 27, saying the bank could not repay the money and interest of $4.7 million. A spokeswoman for Otkritie said it had “grounds to terminate its obligations related to subordinated instruments” and that it had acted in accordance with the law. Russia’s central bank, which orchestrated a multi-billion dollar rescue of Otkritie after a run on the bank, had earlier warned that subordinated debt could be hit. OFCB has issued a further $500 million of subordinated debt, according to Otkritie’s website, although the status of this was not immediately clear. Otkritie’s fall was dramatic for a group that, with support from President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, snapped up rivals and even Lukoil’s diamond business to become Russia’s biggest private bank. “As Russia is gearing to raise more capital through international bonds ... this may well dampen investors’ appetite for Russian assets,” Anastasia Nesvetailova, an expert in financial crises at London’s City University, said. Sergey Dergachev, a bond investor with Germany’s Union Investment, said he feared others could suffer a similar fate. “If global economic conditions worsen, what will happen to Russia and its banks? I think the chances of seeing more subordinated debt out of Russian banks are slim.” REPUTATIONAL RISK? Also potentially at stake is Ireland’s shadow banking system, which has boomed since the financial crisis and given groups such as hedge funds increasing clout in global finance. The International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Board, which monitors the financial system, have highlighted concerns over Ireland’s outsized financial sector. The country is one of the euro zone’s largest centres for financial special purpose vehicles, according to central bank data, many of which are used to borrow by international groups. The sector had total assets such as loans of 345 billion euros ($402 billion) in the middle of this year - bigger than the Irish economy. Russian companies have sponsored 14 percent of those vehicles in Ireland. But fund raising by companies such as Otkritie, poses a potential threat to Ireland’s standing, said James Stewart of Trinity College Dublin who has written a report on the issue. “In terms of Ireland’s reputation, these cases indicate a problem,” said Stewart. “It reveals the absence of regulation and oversight of this important market. They create a systemic risk, if not to Ireland, then internationally.” The Irish Stock Exchange, which listed the debt, declined to comment, while a spokeswoman for Ireland’s central bank said the debt issues were restricted to “qualified investors” and that it had approved the prospectuses. “The veracity of that information is the responsibility of the issuer and its directors,” said a spokeswoman. The Irish law underpinning special purpose vehicles was created by the government in the early 1990s to build an international financial services centre in a then derelict part of Dublin, a central plank to the country’s economy and success. Many vehicles are shell companies set up to borrow and critics, including Stewart, say similar conduits hosted by Ireland helped trigger bank problems in Germany during the financial crisis. However, lobbyists, lawyers and many government officials want to keep the regime to attract business from London after Britain leaves the European Union. Additional reporting by Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-ireland/russias-otkritie-bailout-hits-home-in-ireland-idUKKBN1D22IC'|'2017-11-02T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'5e75c4d5b5bd4770bccfac70641e4918d3c26f1f'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 2'|'Nov 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- President Trump''s bipartisan commission on the opioid crisis made dozens of final recommendations on Wednesday to combat a deadly addiction epidemic, ranging from creating more drug courts to vastly expanding access to medications that treat addiction, including in jails. nyti.ms/2in4BLV- President Trump touched off a sharply partisan debate over some of the most divisive issues in American life on Wednesday as he cited the terrorist attack in New York to advance his agenda on immigration and national security while assailing Democrats for endangering the country. nyti.ms/2inAqEg- Lawmakers released scores of political ads on Wednesday purchased by Russian agents on Facebook and Twitter that showed the extent of the Kremlin''s attempts to polarize the American voting public on issues like race, police abuse and religion. nyti.ms/2inx0Sc- The Securities and Exchange Commission took a first step on Wednesday to head off the recent trend of celebrities endorsing new virtual currencies, warning that they could be breaking laws. nyti.ms/2inniiF (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-2-idINL4N1N8224'|'2017-11-02T01:49:00.000+02:00'
'dee8e204b2c51071d9ab0ac47cf14325815fca93'|'Trump calls for death penalty for Uzbek man charged in NY attack'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:36 AM / in 3 hours Trump says New York truck attack suspect deserves death penalty Gina Cherelus , Barbara Goldberg 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his call that the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people by speeding a rental truck down a New York City bike path should get the death penalty. The suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, told investigators he was inspired by watching Islamic State videos and began planning Tuesday’s attack a year ago, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court against him on Wednesday. Saipov, 29, said “he felt good about what he had done” and asked for permission to display the flag of the militant group Islamic State in his hospital room, the complaint said. Trump had suggested on Wednesday sending Saipov to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, where terrorism suspects apprehended overseas are held, but on Thursday he said doing so would be too complicated. “Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system,” Trump said on Twitter. He added: “There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!” One of the two charges Saipov faces, violence and destruction of motor vehicles causing the deaths of eight people, carries the death penalty if the government chooses to seek it, acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said. Of the hundreds of detainees held at Guantanamo since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, just eight have been convicted in military trials or admitted guilt by plea bargains, according to Human Rights watch. TWEETS AND THE DEATH PENALTY Trump’s tweets calling for the death penalty for Saipov before Saipov even had a chance to enter a plea to the charges he faces could work to the defense’s advantage by giving his lawyers a chance to argue they prejudiced potential jurors. “The defense is sure to raise this as unfair and raising questions about a jury being able to reach an impartial verdict,” said James Acker, a professor at the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York in Albany who specializes in the death penalty. It could be used to make an argument that a judge should not allow the death penalty as a sentencing option, Acker said, adding that “the likelihood of that succeeding is very small.” Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York City truck attack, is seen in this courtroom sketch appearing in Manhattan federal courtroom in a wheelchair in New York, NY, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg Saipov’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked by reporters whether he thought Saipov should be executed if convicted, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he categorically opposes the death penalty. “I‘m not someone who believes in the death penalty in general, I just don‘t,” de Blasio told a news conference near the site of Saipov’s attack. “I believe this is an individual who should rot in prison for the rest of his life.” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving member of a pair of ethnic Chechen brothers who killed three people and injured more than 260 when they bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon in an attack inspired by the al Qaeda militant group, was sentenced to death in 2015. He is the only inmate among the 61 people on federal death row convicted for an act charged as terrorism. Slideshow (8 Images) Senator Lindsay Graham, a Republican, on Thursday repeated his criticism of the Justice Department for charging Saipov in the courts rather than treating him as an enemy combatant. “I‘m dumbfounded as to why the Trump Administration still follows the Obama playbook when it comes to dealing with terror suspects,” Graham said in a statement, which echoed comments he made on Wednesday. Declaring Saipov an enemy combatant would have allowed investigators to interrogate him without having a lawyer present. Saipov did waive his right to remain silent or have an attorney when he agreed to speak to investigators from his bed at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, where he was being treated after being shot by a police officer, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint said he was particularly motivated by a video in which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - the leader of Islamic State - exhorted Muslims in the United States and elsewhere to support the group’s cause. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had located another Uzbek man, Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, 32, wanted for questioning as a person of interest in the attack. U.S. law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, told Reuters that Saipov had been in contact with Kadirov and another person of interest in the investigation. Five Argentine tourists, a Belgian woman, a New Yorker and a New Jersey man were killed in Tuesday’s attack. It was deadliest attack that officials labeled terrorism in New York since 2001, when hijackers crashed two passenger planes into the World Trade Center, killing more than 2,600 people. Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Brendan O''Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Frances Kerry and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-attack/trump-calls-for-death-penalty-for-uzbek-man-charged-in-ny-attack-idUSKBN1D20F2'|'2017-11-02T07:30:00.000+02:00'
'210af1bc311c871576b9369bc79f7e451323bfde'|'UPDATE 3-U.S. House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit'|'(Adds stock prices)By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - House Republicans are proposing to eliminate a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles that could hurt automakers like General Motors Co, Tesla Inc and Nissan Motor Co that are selling larger numbers of vehicles, according to a summary made public on Thursday.Current law allows automakers to use the credit that phases out after an automaker hits 200,000 plug-in vehicles sold. Electric vehicles have expensive batteries that make them pricier than gasoline-powered vehicles.Environmental groups and an auto industry trade group blasted the repeal. GM vowed to fight, saying the credits are “an important customer benefit that can help accelerate the acceptance of electric vehicles.” Tesla and Nissan declined to comment.Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing GM, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG and others, said the change could hurt electric vehicle sales.”The potential elimination of the federal electric vehicle tax credit will impact the choices of prospective buyers and make the electric vehicle mandate in 10 states - about a third of the market - even more difficult to meet,” Bergquist said.“The EV tax credit repeal would cede U.S. leadership in clean vehicles, putting our companies at a competitive disadvantage and threatening jobs while costing drivers more at the pump and increasing pollution,” said Luke Tonachel, director of the National Resources Defense Council’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project.Automakers have invested billions in electric vehicles and announced plans to shift significant production to plug-in models.Inside EVs, a website that tracks vehicle sales, estimates that the credit would fall to $3,750 per vehicle for GM and Tesla in late 2018 and would end completely in 2019.Former President Barack Obama repeatedly proposed hiking the tax credit for electric vehicles to $10,000 and converting it to a point-of-sale rebate. Congress did not approve the measure.GM shares were down nearly 1 percent in late trading, while Tesla was trading down 7 percent after reporting earnings.The House GOP plan also calls for repealing and phasing out other energy tax credits, including production and investment tax credit for solar, geothermal, fuel cell, wind energy and other clean energy projects. It would also phase out the credit for residential energy-efficient projects.Automakers face mandates from California and a dozen other states to produce a rising number of zero-emission vehicles and have said the credits are essential to meeting requirements.GM’s electric Chevrolet Bolt is advertised as starting at around $35,000 but would jump to $42,500 without it. Critics say electric vehicle buyers tend to be wealthier than average Americans and do not need subsidies.Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by David Gregorio and Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-vehicles/update-1-u-s-house-republicans-propose-to-scrap-7500-electric-vehicle-credit-idINL2N1N81A8'|'2017-11-02T13:50:00.000+02:00'
'5de5057ccb138ee880eeb83bd294d4329d3eefe9'|'BoE''s Carney says will reassess outlook when there is Brexit clarity'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:00 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago BoE''s Carney says will reassess outlook when there is Brexit clarity Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will reassess the economic outlook once it has more visibility on the nature, and transition to, the country’s new relationship with the European Union after Brexit, Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, speaks at the Bank of England conference ''Independence 20 Years On'' at the Fishmonger''s Hall in London, Britain September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/Files Carney was speaking after the Bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years, but said it expected only “very gradual” further increases over the next three years. “The impact of Brexit on the forecast will evolve as negotiations progress,” Carney said. “In particular, any resolution of the uncertainty about the nature of, and transition to, the UK’s future relationship with the EU insofar as it affects the behaviour of households, businesses and financial market participants, would prompt a reassessment of the economic outlook.” Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-brexit/boes-carney-says-will-reassess-outlook-when-there-is-brexit-clarity-idINKBN1D21PQ'|'2017-11-02T14:57:00.000+02:00'
'8ab2a78b59e5d33554663c9a59242a80df0caad6'|'Shell cancels plan to close Convent refinery gasoline unit - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:04 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Shell cancels plan to close Convent refinery gasoline unit - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc ( RDSa.L ) has cancelled a plan to permanently close the gasoline-producing unit at its 227,586 barrel-per-day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, oil refinery, two sources familiar with plant operations said on Thursday. Shell has decided to overhaul the 92,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) in 2018, extending its production for four to five years, the sources said. Shell had planned to permanently decommission the FCCU in early 2018 as part of a plan to integrate the Convent plant with the company’s 225,800 bpd refinery in Norco, Louisiana. The plan originated when the two refineries were owned by Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL], which until May 1 was a 50-50 partnership between Shell and Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE]. In the planned split of the partnership, Shell took ownership of the two Louisiana refineries. It was unclear when in 2018 the FCCU will be overhauled, the sources said. Shell has scheduled an overhaul of the unit’s heavy oil hydrocracking unit in the summer of 2018. Plans were laid in as early as 2014 to idle FCCU at the Convent refinery because it was seen as unprofitable compared to the 45,000 bpd heavy-oil hydrocracker, which is called the H-Oil Unit. Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-refinery-operations-shell-convent/shell-cancels-plan-to-close-convent-refinery-gasoline-unit-sources-idUKKBN1D20M3'|'2017-11-02T09:03:00.000+02:00'
'cb27a93ab3fe63aa984cfe6d0cf45456be565b48'|'Sinclair Broadcast Group praises FCC media ownership, TV rule changes'|'November 1, 2017 / 10:19 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Sinclair Broadcast Group praises FCC media ownership, TV rule changes David Shepardson 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sinclair Broadcast Group ( SBGI.O ) on Wednesday praised proposals from the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission that could make it easier to expand its reach and could allow it to eventually make additional investments. The Maryland-based company is seeking approval for its proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co ( TRCO.N ) and hopes to avoid some divestitures to get the deal approved. The deal has been criticized by Democrats and some conservative media outlets. Sinclair, which already owns or operates 192 U.S. television stations, announced plans in May to acquire Tribune’s 42 TV stations in 33 markets as well as cable network WGN America, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households. An advocacy group Free Press, said Sinclair forces its stations to “air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration.” Sinclair in April hired a former Trump campaign adviser, Boris Epshteyn, as a commentator. Last week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the regulator would vote Nov. 16 to eliminate the 42-year-old ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in a major market and making it easier for media companies to buy additional TV stations in the same market, or for local stations to jointly sell advertising time. Sinclair chief executive Christopher Ripley said the proposal is a “landmark development for our industry as a whole, and we applaud the FCC for recognizing the competitive inequities levied upon TV broadcasters for several decades.” Ripley said the FCC rule changes are helpful but the real impact of the rules change may be what transactions it could consider “subsequent to Tribune.” He said the company anticipates the transaction will close in early 2018 after completing regulatory reviews. In April, the FCC reversed a 2016 decision limiting the number of television stations some broadcasters can buy, paving the way for the Sinclair-Tribune tie-up. The FCC also said it will vote in November on whether to allow broadcasters to voluntarily use a new technology to improve picture quality and allow better reception on mobile phones. Sinclair hold patents on the technology. Critics said the FCC has taken a number of steps to boost Sinclair. “It has reached a point where all our media policy decisions seem to be custom built for this one company,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said of the Sinclair deal at a congressional hearing last week. On Wednesday, more than 45 members of Congress asked Ripley to answer questions about the merger. “We need to be sure about what this merger is going to mean for the American people and for local news,” said Representative Tony Cardenas. Separately, Sinclair’s Ripley said the company had been approached by former Fox News host Bill O‘Reilly, who was fired over allegations of sexual harassment, about potentially joining Sinclair “but we do not have any interest in hiring him.” Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-ma/sinclair-broadcast-group-praises-fcc-media-ownership-tv-rule-changes-idINKBN1D1645'|'2017-11-01T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'998c30508ad651fa4c9021861e0bef482877caa5'|'How did this happen? 3 questions for Twitter after it deleted Trump''s account 3,'|'How did this happen? 3 questions for Twitter after it deleted Trump''s account by Charles Riley and Rishi Iyengar @CNNTech November 3, 2017: 5:27 PM ET Twitter: Employee shut down Trump''s account We know this much: A Twitter employee used their final day at the company to delete President Trump''s account. The account, which has more than 41 million followers, was restored after just 11 minutes, and Twitter says it''s conducting an internal review . But the company''s statements have raised more questions than they''ve answered: How did this happen? And could it again? Here are three key questions Twitter ( TWTR , Tech30 ) has yet to answer: How could this happen? The fact that one worker was able to take down the president''s account left people asking whether Twitter has appropriate internal controls. The early consensus seems to be "no." "This is a case of human negligence and lack of process in place," said Subramanian Udaiyappan, a Bangalore-based cybersecurity specialist at Cisco. "Twitter needs to ensure that only the right people have access to such actions and these have to go through process permissions, approvals and logging before any action is taken by an employee." Related: Twitter employee briefly shut down Trump''s account on last day of work People are also puzzled over how Twitter detected the issue so quickly. "Eleven minutes? Does that mean he checks his Twitter account every 60 seconds?!? How did they get it back up so fast and HOW could this happen?" asked a Twitter user named Luke Tucker. Who did it? Twitter didn''t name the staffer who deactivated Trump''s account, but it did describe the person as a "customer support employee." One big question: How many employees at Twitter have the same power? Employees that review accounts for abuse typically have the power to suspend users, according to a former consultant for Twitter who asked not to be identified. The consultant said that many of these employees tend to be relatively junior — a common practice across social media firms. The situation "raises bigger questions on privacy as to what level of information access does a normal Twitter employee get," Udaiyappan said. Has it happened before? High-profile accounts have gone offline before, causing confusion and uproar. Twitter temporarily suspended the account of actress Rose McGowan in October after she tweeted about sexual harassment allegations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The move caused a huge backlash, and Twitter later reversed it. The company said it suspended McGowan''s account because the actress had tweeted a private phone number, a violation of its terms of service. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would later announce new rules over "unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence." Dorsey has had his own problems using Twitter. His account was abruptly suspended last year in what he later described as an "internal mistake." My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017 Trump addressed his account''s suspension in a tweet early Friday. "My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee," he wrote. "I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact." -- Samuel Burke contributed to this report. CNNMoney (London) First published November 3, 2017: 7:08 AM ET '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/03/technology/twitter-president-trump-account-how/index.html'|'2017-11-03T14:08:00.000+02:00'
'c482a82767823bb6cccecfa95aa1d3a47a63c5d7'|'China''s Hexindai says strict credit risk practices to drive growth'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Hexindai Inc ( HX.O ), which debuted on Nasdaq on Friday, said it was betting on stringent credit risk practices to help drive growth, at a time of increased regulatory scrutiny of an opaque online-lending sector at home.The American depositary shares of the company, priced at $10 each in the IPO, rose as much as 70 percent to $17 by 10:55 a.m. ET on their debut.Founded in 2014 by 35 year-old An Xiaobo, Hexindai is among a slew of online finance firms seeking to profit from China’s booming and loosely regulated consumer-lending industry - a market that is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 49 percent to $620 billion by 2020, consultancy Oliver Wyman says.But this unfettered growth of the micro-credit industry, or the so-called “pay-day” loan sector, has spurred concerns that unscrupulous operators may charge millions of borrowers excessive interest rates, increasing default risks.It has also fanned fears of a “Minsky Moment”, or a sudden collapse of asset prices after a long period of growth, sparked by debt or currency pressures.“What we do is very different from pay day loan firms,” Hexindai CFO Johnson Zhang told Reuters. “They are lending to marginalized groups at very high interest rates and making the people unable to escape the growing debt burden.”“We are targeting the emerging middle class - a group of people who have credit cards, stable jobs and stable monthly income, and helping them when they need to spend a large amount for consumption,” the CFO said ahead of the listing.Also, apart from the company’s own risk control measures and assessment of creditworthiness of borrowers, Hexindai relies on Changan Insurance to provide cover to investors on the platform in case of any default - not a very common practice in the online-lending sector - the CFO said.Hexindai has already said it plans to use proceeds from its U.S. IPO, which raised about $50 million, to upgrade its operating structure, including risk control, privacy protection and anti-fraud and billing systems.Hexindai’s IPO comes amid steep falls in the shares of some of its local peers after their U.S. listing reflected concerns around China’s thinly-regulated Internet-enabled finance sector.Qudian Inc ( QD.N ) shares plunged about 30 percent last week, just days after it raised $900 million in the biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese fintech firm. The stock is down 13.4 percent since listing on Oct 18 at the close on Thursday.Hexindai had facilitated 9.7 billion yuan in loans to 56,230 borrowers as of end-June, most of which are mid-sized at 20,000 yuan to 140,000 yuan, with a typical tenor of three years, Zhang said.Brushing aside concerns of default risks, Zhang said: “We don’t lend to people with blank credit history.”Reporting By Shu Zhang and Matthew Miller; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hexindai-listing/chinas-hexindai-says-strict-credit-risk-practices-to-drive-growth-idINKBN1D31P5'|'2017-11-03T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'0bee2f56adebe47569ee9a503870b641ebbf8291'|'CEE MARKETS-Long-term yields fall on less worry over central bank hawks'|'* Government bonds yields fall, curves get flatter * UK, Czech cbanks, Fed seen less hawkish than expected * Crown regains some ground, investors continue to eye CNB * MOL earnings report knocks down Budapest stock index By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Central European government bond yields fell on Friday after the British and Czech central banks signalled a slower-than-expected pace of policy tightening ahead and a centrist was nominated as the next head of the U.S. Federal Reserve. The nomination of Jerome Powell was well-flagged but came as a relief as he supports caution in the Fed''s interest rate hikes. Fast rises in U.S. interest rates and a surge in the dollar would make assets in emerging markets including Central European economies relatively less attractive. A drop in U.S. 10-year Treasuries yields on Thursday improved sentiment across bond markets in the European Union''s eastern wing, one Budapest-based trader said. "An additional factor in the Hungarian market is that the central bank has signalled that it may take further steps to push long-term yields lower," another dealer said. Hungary''s 10-year bonds traded at a yield of 2.4 percent, down 6 basis points from Thursday''s fixing. Poland''s corresponding yield dropped two basis points to 3.4455 percent. The Czech 10-year yield was bid lower by 10 basis points, even though on Thursday the Czech central bank (CNB) raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points for the second time in three months, while the 2-year yield was steady at 0.346 percent. The Czech crown rebounded from an early fall, joining most regional currencies which were firming amid positioning ahead of U.S. jobs data due later on Friday, which can influence expectations about Fed rate hikes. On Thursday the crown fell half a percent against the euro from 4-year highs after the CNB''s meeting. The quarter percentage point rate hike met the expectations of most analysts, but the size of likely future hikes that investors read from the bank''s comments was disappointing. The crown has still firmed by over 5 percent this year, but the bank will need stronger levels to drive back inflation. "With a calming of rate hike speculation we would now expect a decline of recently witnessed appreciation dynamics for the koruna," Raiffeisen analyst Wolfgang Ernst said in a note. The crown traded at 25.68 against the euro at 1015 GMT, firming in tandem with the forint and the leu . The CNB increased its forecasts for the Czech budget surplus for this year, and September figures showed a higher-than-expected surplus. In equities markets, a more than 3 percent fall in MOL shares knocked Budapest''s main index down from Thursday''s record highs, after the oil group reported lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1115 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.680 25.696 +0.06 5.17% 0 5 % Hungary 311.05 311.48 +0.14 -0.72% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2415 4.2365 -0.12% 3.83% Romanian leu 4.5948 4.5990 +0.09 -1.30% % Croatian 7.5280 7.5285 +0.01 0.36% kuna % Serbian 118.62 118.69 +0.06 3.99% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.0 1066.2 -1.14% +14.3 8 0 7% Budapest 39781. 40149. -0.92% +24.3 32 86 0% Warsaw 2501.4 2501.4 +0.02 +28.4 9 0 % 2% Bucharest 7773.2 7776.3 -0.04% +9.71 8 9 % Ljubljana 794.80 793.22 +0.20 +10.7 % 6% Zagreb 1847.1 1865.2 -0.97% -7.40% 8 4 Belgrade 728.42 727.66 +0.10 +1.54 % % Sofia 671.58 670.13 +0.22 +14.5 % 2% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.346 0.008 +110b +1bps ps 5-year 0.726 0.011 +108b +2bps ps 10-year 1.557 -0.101 +119b -9bps ps Poland 2-year 1.635 -0.007 +239b +0bps ps 5-year 2.694 -0.01 +305b +0bps ps 10-year 3.451 -0.023 +309b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.93 1.01 1.17 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.07 0.1 0.13 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.78 1.83 1.92 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-long-term-yields-fall-on-less-worry-over-central-bank-hawks-idINL8N1N92SQ'|'2017-11-03T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'26898e6563004f24a095b6ee220a84bc62d45108'|'Remember corporate Europe? It wants to be noticed again - Schumpeter'|'WHEN Emmanuel Macron first started work as a mergers-and-acquisitions banker at Rothschild in Paris in 2008, technicians of the trade were not impressed. “He did not know what EBITDA was,” sniffed a former colleague, according to the Financial Times (it is a measure of company profits). Yet Mr Macron had ideas and made things happen, and four years later persuaded Nestlé to spend $12bn buying Pfizer’s nutrition business.Now that he is France’s president, Mr Macron is trying to revive the grandest idea of all in European business: creating continental champions capable of taking on American and Chinese firms. It is an ambitious mission that will prove highly frustrating. 8 Mr Macron laid out his vision at the Sorbonne in Paris in September, promising a “re-foundation of Europe”, and that he would bolster its “industrial and monetary power”. The same day Alstom, a French transport firm, agreed to merge with the transport arm of Siemens, a German rival. The combination will have $18bn of sales, placing it second only to CRRC, a Chinese state-run monster that sells locomotives around the world. Joe Kaeser, Siemens’s boss, spoke of putting “the European idea to work” to create a “European champion”.That label sounds corny but it used to make bosses tingle with excitement. A wave of intra-European deals followed the creation of the single market and the euro, accounting for 31% of global M&A activity between 2000 and 2005, according to Dealogic, a data provider. Some were orchestrated by governments—for example, the creation of EADS, a plane manufacturer (now Airbus) in 2000. Others were backed by investors—such as Vodafone’s takeover of Mannesmann in the same year, which created a mobile-phone giant. But the common thread was that having a huge home market would give European firms the kind of economies of scale enjoyed by American companies.Europe’s long crisis, which began when European bond yields spiked in 2010 (and which, hopefully, ended with Mr Macron’s election in May) paralysed this urge to consolidate. Pan-European deals were just 12% of global M&A last year. Worried about the euro’s stability and enticed by faster growth in emerging economies, European companies have invested more elsewhere. Meanwhile, American and Chinese firms have used deals and organic expansion to get even bigger in their domestic markets.It is bad enough that Europe does not have any technology giants on the scale of an Amazon or Alibaba, but these trends mean that even the region’s bog-standard old-economy firms are relatively small. The median listed European company is 78% as big as the median American one (these figures are for the top 500 firms in each geographical area, and use a blend of profits, book value and market value to measure size, using Bloomberg data). If you exclude Switzerland and Britain, which have lots of large companies and which either are not, or soon will not be, in the European Union (EU), the median EU firm is just 48% of the size of the median American one. Chinese firms have almost caught up: the median company there is 94% as big as the median EU firm and within a couple more years will probably be larger.Europe has a long tail of journeymen in some industries, including banking, media, defence and carmaking. For example, Peugeot produces one third of the cars that General Motors does. ProSiebenSat, a German broadcaster, has sales that are less than a tenth of Disney’s. Ericsson is less than half the size of Huawei, a Chinese telecoms-equipment firm. Size is not everything. But a lack of scale, and the costs of operating in lots of midsized countries, may help explain corporate Europe’s weak return on equity, which at 9% lags behind America (13%) and China (10%).With his aim to foster greater scale, Mr Macron should be pushing on an open door. Profits are rising, making managers bolder, and Chinese and American predators are sniffing around, giving a sense of urgency. And over time the EU may try to deepen the single market by harmonising corporate-tax rates and strengthening its banking union. All this will make pan-European deals more likely.Yet there are two stumbling-blocks. First, prickly national sensitivities. The Alstom-Siemens combination will have a German controlling shareholder but its headquarters in France. Fingers crossed that this fudge works. Elsewhere, European unity appears scarce. A proposed $34bn takeover of Abertis, a Spanish company, by Atlantia, an Italian firm, would create the world’s largest toll-road operator. But a blocking counter-bid has been made by ACS, a Spanish firm, with the tacit backing of Spain’s government. Meanwhile, Vincent Bolloré, a billionaire who controls Vivendi, a French media firm, wants to create a continental powerhouse and has tried to make inroads into Italy, buying stakes in Telecom Italia and Mediaset, a media business controlled by Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister. But Mr Bolloré has run into a wall of regulatory and political hostility.Pleasing the people, and shareholders tooThe other stumbling-block is winning over shareholders. Pan-European deals are risky. Of the 100 largest bids, 30 have collapsed, often due to political rows. To justify paying a takeover premium, firms need to cut costs, but this can be hard for political reasons. The union of Finland’s Nokia and France’s Alcatel, two telecoms-equipment firms, backed by Mr Macron when he was finance minister in 2015, has since incurred his wrath by trying to cut jobs in France. Lax antitrust enforcement has let American firms form oligopolies and pass the gains to shareholders, not consumers. But European regulators are, rightly, tougher, so deals that create windfalls for investors are harder to get approved.Mr Macron’s instinct is correct. European firms have lost their seat at the top table of global business. But if the aspiration of creating a new cohort of European corporate champions is desirable in theory, it is daunting in practice. "Making Europe great again"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730884-emmanuel-macron-helping-revive-grandest-idea-european-business-remember-corporate?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'ce3210b8bbfaca262a642f2cdf9fd7bd09513077'|'Malaysia''s Petronas, Aramco to finalize RAPID deal after resolving ''technical issues'': Bernama'|'November 3, 2017 / 8:52 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Malaysia''s Petronas, Aramco to finalize RAPID deal after resolving ''technical issues'': Bernama Reuters Staff 3 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian state energy company Petronas and Aramco are facing “technical issues” in finalizing the Saudi oil major’s $7 billion investment in a refinery project, but the deal will be completed soon, state news agency Bernama reported on Friday. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed The government “is giving room to Petronas and Saudi Aramco to resolve several technical issues related to the investment agreement,” Bernama reported, citing Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a minister in the Malaysian prime minister’s office. Saudi Aramco agreed in February, during Saudi King Salman’s visit to Malaysia, to buy a $7 billion stake in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in the southern state of Johor. “At the moment, there are certain terms that must be fulfilled by both parties and it’s an ongoing process. I expect it won’t be long for (Aramco) to release the funds for the project,” Abdul Rahman said in an interview with Bernama. He said there were “no major problems” and that the investment will be made “soon”. Petronas declined to comment. Aramco was not immediately available for comment. The minister did not say what the “technical issues” were, but recent moves by Petronas and Aramco seem to indicate the project is moving along. Last month, Aramco agreed to take a $900 million stake in petrochemical projects in the RAPID complex, expanding the agreement signed in February. The companies are also jointly seeking to raise $8 billion via a bridge loan for the RAPID project, Project Finance International, owned by Thomson Reuters, reported last week. Petronas had said in February, when it signed the agreement with Aramco, that the deal could take up to a year to close. RAPID is a $27 billion project located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, conduits for Middle East oil and gas bound for China, Japan and South Korea. It will contain a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million metric tonnes a year. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow 6-12 months afterwards. Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-petronas-rapid/malaysias-petronas-aramco-to-finalize-rapid-deal-after-resolving-technical-issues-bernama-idINKBN1D30P4'|'2017-11-03T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'1e769680a95d7af8c7ff36fd14657b78624250a2'|'Etihad to end Dallas-Fort Worth route, blames American Airlines'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Etihad Airways said on Thursday it would stop flying to Dallas-Fort Worth next year after American Airlines’ ( AAL.O ) decided in July to end a codeshare agreement between the two carriers.An Etihad Airways company aircraft takes off at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, France, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen American Airlines has lobbied the U.S. government to investigate allegations of state subsidies at Etihad and other major Gulf carriers. The Gulf airlines deny the allegations.The end of the codeshare agreement would make the route “commercially unsustainable” and left Etihad “with no choice but to suspend flights” from March 25, 2018, Chief Executive Peter Baumgartner said in a statement.“The cancellation of the Dallas route is one of several adjustments that we are making to our U.S. network in 2018 in order to improve system profitability,” he said.Since launching a strategy review last year, Etihad has appointed a new group chief executive who will take over in January, sold a stake in a European carrier, and withdrawn financial support from Alitalia [CAITLA.UL] and Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), which led to both airlines entering administration.Etihad said it had carried more than 235,000 passengers to Dallas-Fort Worth since it started flying to the American Airlines’ hub in 2014.Etihad also operates passenger flights to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-etihad-american-airline-codeshare/etihad-to-end-dallas-fort-worth-route-blames-american-airlines-idUSKBN1D20OR'|'2017-11-02T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'2dea027b2dc1bf34a237e5943904a36a319186e8'|'GSK gets boost for early cancer hopes with breakthrough status'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:29 AM / in 12 minutes GSK gets boost for early cancer hopes with breakthrough status Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK.L ) received a boost for its oncology research on Thursday when an experimental drug for blood cancer received a “breakthrough” designation from U.S. regulators. FILE PHOTO - The GlaxoSmithKline building is pictured in Hounslow, west London June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor The decision by the Food and Drug Administration paves the way for a speedy regulatory review of the BCMA drug for multiple myeloma. It follows similar priority treatment granted by the European Medicines Agency last month. Although GSK sold its marketed cancer drugs to Novartis ( NOVN.S ) in 2015, it continues to invest in early-stage research and has said oncology could become another pillar of its pharmaceuticals business, alongside HIV and respiratory medicine. The actions by the U.S. and European regulators are based on promising Phase I clinical trial results, details of which will be announced on Dec. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology meeting in Atlanta. GSK said it planned a rapid programme of clinical trials with the new drug, both alone and in combination with other therapies. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gsk-cancer/gsk-gets-boost-for-early-cancer-hopes-with-breakthrough-status-idUKKBN1D20UM'|'2017-11-02T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'b7a8d7d68ea055e14d81819f524fe8c30b67c677'|'Fed keeps rates unchanged, remains on road to December rate hike'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:18 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Fed keeps rates unchanged, remains on road to December hike Lindsay Dunsmuir , Howard Schneider 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labour market while playing down the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Investors had all but ruled out a rate hike at the central bank’s policy meeting this week and attention has largely been focused on who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018. President Donald Trump is set to announce his nomination on Thursday afternoon with Fed Governor Jerome Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, seen as having a lock on the job. “The labour market has continued to strengthen and ... economic activity has been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions,” the Fed’s rate-setting committee said in a statement after its unanimous policy decision. In keeping with that encouraging tone, the central bank’s policymakers acknowledged that inflation remained soft but did not downgrade their assessment of pricing expectations. U.S. Treasury yields and short-term interest rate futures were little changed after the release of the statement, while federal fund futures put the odds of a December rate hike at about 98 percent, according to CME Group’s FedWatch program. The U.S. dollar pared gains against a basket of currencies and the S&P 500 index rose slightly. “It confirms a December move,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York. “If we get a confirmation that Trump picks Powell tomorrow, it’s a sign that monetary policy will continue on its current course that we have seen so far this year with gradual normalization.” The Fed has raised rates twice this year and currently forecasts another nudge upwards in its benchmark lending rate from its current target range of 1.00 percent to 1.25 percent by the end of 2017. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo BALANCE SHEET REDUCTION Fed policymakers have been buoyed in recent months by a stronger global and domestic economy and further tightening in the labour market, although they are divided over the causes and duration of the current weakness in inflation. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure sits at 1.3 percent after retreating further from the central bank’s 2 percent target for much of the year. Nevertheless, Yellen and some other key policymakers have said the Fed still expects to continue to gradually raise rates given the strength of the overall economy. In its statement, the central bank reiterated it expects inflation to rise back to its target over the medium term and emphasized that the unemployment rate has declined further. U.S. financial conditions remain loose, strengthening the argument that another rate rise would not slow the current brisk growth. The government reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the third quarter. A decline in hiring in September has largely been dismissed as a blip caused by the temporary displacement of workers due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That jobs report showed wages growing at an improved pace and the unemployment rate falling to more than a 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent. A strong rebound in job gains is anticipated when the Labour Department releases its October non farm payrolls report on Friday. The Fed also said on Wednesday it was proceeding with the reduction of its $4.2 trillion in holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, a process which began in October. New Fed Governor Randal Quarles, Trump’s first appointee to the central bank, voted at this week’s policy meeting. The Republican president could fill at least three more open vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member board in the coming months. The central bank is scheduled to hold its final policy meeting of the year on Dec. 12-13. Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by David Chance and Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed/fed-holds-rates-steady-solid-growth-keeps-december-hike-in-view-idUKKBN1D15KI'|'2017-11-01T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'89dc420a8a1e3fb6a420252b7a1d3bc0ca26dd31'|'Olympics-It''s ready but will they come? South Korea counts down to Winter Games'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:16 AM / in 10 hours Olympics: It''s ready but will they come? South Korea counts down to Winter Games Jane Chung , Hyunjoo Jin 6 Min Read PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) - Workers in the South Korean resort town of Pyeongchang are making final preparations for the Winter Olympics, remaking roads, renovating buildings and preparing menus in English, Chinese and Japanese, a burst of activity that masks a big problem. With less than 100 days before the Games begin, barely a third of the tickets have been sold. “It’s a bummer,” said 55-year-old motel owner Oh Young-whyan, who spent about $360,000 refurbishing his 15-room property close to the Olympics Plaza. Oh, other hotel owners and local authorities say political tensions with North Korea and China have chilled foreign interest in the Games, which open on Feb. 9 just 80 km (50 miles) from the world’s most heavily fortified border. Tourists are reluctant to commit to the event as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump trade insults and threats of mutual destruction after the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September. Ticket sales are weak, with 341,327 sold, or 32 percent of the total on offer, as of Oct. 24 - much weaker than during the run-up to the last winter Games in Sochi, Russia. More than 70 percent of Sochi’s tickets were sold before the opening ceremony. Pyeongchang Organising Committee Secretary General Yeo Hyung-koo says there is still time to catch up. The Olympics torch relay, which began in Korea on Wednesday, will ignite domestic interest, he said. Local business are also putting on a brave face, hoping for a late surge in interest, especially from Chinese tourists after Beijing this week set aside a dispute with Seoul over an anti-missile system. “We still have 100 days so I‘m not that worried,” said Oh, owner of the Daekyanryung-sanbang motel, where Olympics banners were hung inside and out. NO PASSENGERS, EMPTY AIRPORT Nearby, a bus terminal which undertook a $447,000 makeover in preparation for the Olympics was largely empty, with only one Chinese couple and a handful of locals seen waiting for buses. Buses bound for Seoul in the past used to have as many as 38 foreign passengers, half of them Chinese, but nowadays some buses have no passengers, said Kim Moo-gyu, the owner of the terminal. Before this week’s diplomatic breakthrough, Chinese authorities had unofficially imposed a ban on tour groups visiting South Korea since March and stopped charter flights. The number of Chinese visitors, which accounted for nearly half of all foreign tourists into South Korea last year, slumped 61 percent from March to September from the same period last year, official data shows. Yangyang International Airport, the only international airport near Pyengchang, was quiet, with flight routes from Shanghai and seven other Chinese cities all cut since last November. ‘LOTS OF LOSSES’ Min Byong-kwan, the chief executive of Phoenix Hotels & Resorts, is counting on a pick-up. The ski resort spent tens of millions of dollars building six Olympics courses and renovating some 1,000 rooms to accommodate foreign officials during the Olympics. “We are making a lot of investments - and booking a lot of losses - through the Olympics,” Min said. A man looks at the Olympic Rings at the Gyeongpodae beach in Gangneung, South Korea, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji “It is regrettable that the Olympics boom is falling short of our expectations so far.” But he added: “I expect the boom to experience exponential growth for the remaining 100 days.” Pyeongchang, carved out of pine-covered slopes in northeast Gangwon province, is being festooned with banners reading “Passion Connected”, a slogan reflecting the hosts’ aim to dissolve tensions with a show of sporting goodwill. Organizers hope athletes from North Korea, still technically at war with the South, will take part and share the mountain with American and Chinese athletes. The North has yet to confirm if it will send a team. Han Do-sam, who sells seafood at the popular Sokcho fish market, said the improvement in ties between Beijing and Seoul was a good start. “We hope ... it will help more foreign tourists come here when they visit for the Olympics,” Han said. UNLIKELY TO MEET TARGET Slideshow (13 Images) South Korea planned to use the Olympics to introduce foreign tourism to Gangwon province. Provincial authorities set an ambitious goal of attracting 5 million visitors next year, up from an original expectation of around 3 million this year. But Gangwon governor Choi Moon-Soon said he doubted the 2018 target would be met. “So far we have seen declines in visits from China and Japan, which are directly affected by the North’s nuclear issue,” Choi told Reuters. “Southeastern Asian group tourists are showing signs of cancelling trips as well.” Song Sung-sup, director of Goodmorning Travel, which specializes in Chinese tourism, was also glum, despite Tuesday’s surprise detente between South Korea and China. “Unless China lifts a ban on charter flights to any local airport in South Korea, I‘m a bit skeptical whether signs of easing are clear at the moment,” said Song, who saw sales drop by up to 20 percent due to the frozen ties with China. Just two years ago, the outlook looked bright. A Chinese company had committed to build a $431 million luxury resort - China Dream City - an hour’s drive from Pyeongchang. Pitched at Chinese tourists, it was to provide accommodation during the Games. But construction has still not begun. Governor Choi said he was also worried about delays to a $450 million project to build a Legoland in the city of Chuncheon, about 145 km (90 miles) from the Games venue. Legoland operator Merlin Entertainments said last month the resort’s completion date was delayed by three years to 2020 to get final partner funding and “for a lot of Korean twists and turns”, without elaborating. Merlin CEO Nick Varney joked last month it might help ease tensions, and brighten up prospects for the Games, if Legoland were to promise North Korea’s leader an annual pass to the theme park. “Hopefully that will cheer him up a little bit.” Additional reporting by Haejin Choi and Yuna Park in Seoul, Karolos Grohmann, Writing by Mark Bendeich, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-northkorea-missiles/olympics-its-ready-but-will-they-come-south-korea-counts-down-to-winter-games-idUSKBN1D13MT'|'2017-11-01T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'db0a65c1e219a85edac45bddde82e6d665e02adf'|'Westpac agrees on Hastings fund management sale to UK firm'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:35 AM / in 34 minutes Westpac agrees on Hastings fund management sale to UK firm Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Westpac Banking Corp ( WBC.AX ) on Friday said it had agreed to sell its Hastings fund management business to a London-based asset manager, in the latest move by a big Australian bank to offload a capital intensive division. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians walk past a logo of the Westpac Bank Corp on display in a window of a branch located in central Sydney, Australia, July 2, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The terms of the deal with Northill Capital are currently confidential and the deal is subject to regulatory approvals, the bank said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange Hastings currently manages about A$12.6 billion ($9.68 billion) in funds, the company said. The company had also been in talks with property manager Charter Hall Group ( CHC.AX ) regarding the sale of Hastings, but it ceased discussions in August. Australian banks have been vying to sell off their capital intensive assets amid stiffer bank capital rules aimed at protecting the sector from financial shocks. Recently, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd ( ANZ.AX ) said it was selling its pensions and investments business to IOOF Holdings ( IFL.AX ) in a A$975 million deal. Westpac shares were up about 0.8 percent on Friday, against a 0.5 percent rise in the broader market . Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-westpac-m-a-northill-capital/westpac-to-sell-hastings-fund-management-business-to-uk-firm-idUKKBN1D307N'|'2017-11-03T06:35:00.000+02:00'
'cd7abc0b677352b05e8236c97819ee26680af982'|'Leonard Green to acquire UK''s Pure Gym from CCMP: statement'|'LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Leonard Green and Partners is set to acquire a controlling stake in British gym operator Pure Gym from CCMP Capital Advisors, the firms said in a statement on FridayThey did not disclose the agreed price but Sky News earlier reported the business was valued at 600 million pounds ($783.96 million).An initial public offering of the group, which has 950,000 members spread across 189 sites, was abandoned in October 2016.CCMP bought a majority stake in the business in May 2013 and will no longer retain an interest in the business on completion.Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Dasha AfanasievaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pure-gym-sale/leonard-green-to-acquire-uks-pure-gym-from-ccmp-statement-idINKBN1D30YZ'|'2017-11-03T07:37:00.000+02:00'
'74c54d9fa240e8c0e61cac022369aa11c12c1b09'|'Bain says to extend $1.35 billion bid deadline for Japan''s Asatsu-DK'|' 14 PM / in a few seconds Bain says to extend $1.35 billion bid deadline for Japan''s Asatsu-DK Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital plans to extend a deadline for its $1.35 billion bid for Asatsu-DK Inc ( 9747.T ) by around a week to give shareholders more time to review the deal after Asatsu-DK shareholder WPP ( WPP.L ) took legal action, a senior Bain official said on Thursday. WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, said it was taking legal action against its partner Asatsu-DK, deepening an acrimonious spat over the Japanese advertising agency’s backing for the takeover deal. Last month, Asatsu-DK said it had told WPP that it planned to end their two-decade business alliance, and asked WPP to sell its shares to Bain. In response, WPP said on Thursday in an emailed statement that it was seeking arbitration with a Japanese arbitration body and a preliminary injunction with the Tokyo District Court, claiming it is entitled to retain its shareholding in Asatsu-DK. David Gross-Loh, head of Bain’s Asia business, told Reuters it plans to extend the Nov. 15 tender offer deadline to Nov. 21 to comply with local financial regulations, but the fund believes its offer of 3,660 yen per share is full and final. “We are not interested in raising the price,” said Gross-Loh. Japanese financial regulations requires a tender offer deadline to be adjusted when new information that could impact shareholders’ decisions is released, Gross-Loh said. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/bain-says-to-extend-1-35-billion-bid-deadline-for-japans-asatsu-dk-idUKKBN1D21KU'|'2017-11-02T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'9e3b4a416e79135b1c1d8b76e595234164d3324d'|'Chipmaker Broadcom plans unsolicited bid for Qualcomm: source'|'(Reuters) - Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) is planning an unsolicited bid for smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) with an offer possible as soon as this weekend, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.FILE PHOTO: One of many Qualcomm buildings is shown in San Diego, California, U.S. on November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo A tie-up between the two chipmakers would be the latest in the semiconductor industry that has been rapidly consolidating as companies try to capture a big share of the fast-growing market for connected devices and connected cars.Broadcom is speaking to advisers and the offer of about $70 a share would include cash and stock, Bloomberg reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter. bloom.bg/2h8pnlSNo final decisions have been made and there is no guarantee a deal will go ahead.The $70-per-share price values Qualcomm at $103.2 billion. The potential offer is a premium of 27.6 percent to Qualcomm’s Thursday close.“It’s a smart move that would make Broadcom into a tech juggernaut,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives.Qualcomm declined to comment, while Broadcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Broadcom plans to redomicile to the United States from Singapore, President Donald Trump said on Thursday at a White House event where the company’s Chief Executive Hock Tan cited Republican tax efforts. It is currently incorporated in Singapore and co-headquartered there and in San Jose, California.Qualcomm, an early pioneer in mobile phone chips, supplies so-called modem chips to phone makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG that help the phones connect to wireless data networks. Broadcom is also a major supplier to many of the same companies for Wi-Fi chips.Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips are essentially a commodity and priced much lower than the modem chips.The only other major supplier of high-end chips is Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), which supplies about half of the modem chips in Apple’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhones. Purchasing Qualcomm would give Broadcom a much more lucrative line of business in the mobile phone markets.Intel shares were down 2.3 percent at $45.99 in late trading on Friday.Broadcom is looking to complete its $5.5 billion purchase of Brocade Communications Systems Inc ( BRCD.O ) while Qualcomm is in the process of closing its $38 billion deal for NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ). Shares of Qualcomm jumped 13 percent, while Broadcom’s stock climbed nearly 6 percent to $274.43 on Friday afternoon. Shares of NXP fell 3 percent and Brocade was down 1.7 percent.Shares of Broadcom have risen more than 53 percent this year while Qualcomm has fallen 4 percent. The forward price-to-earnings ratio for Braodcom stands at 14.6, slightly above its 13.5 average. Qualcomm’s forward PE of 15.4 is well below its 25.9 average.The report also comes when Qualcomm faces a multi-national legal battle with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) over Qualcomm’s licensing terms to Apple.Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Arun Koyyur and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-explores-deal-to-buy-qualcomm-bloomberg-idINKBN1D324K'|'2017-11-03T14:57:00.000+02:00'
'76bfafd76ca551ab69509f36b1e7c6ea678fd8d7'|'A merger between CVS Health and Aetna could be what the doctor ordered - The right dose?'|'STANLEY and Sidney Goldstein would scarcely recognise their creation. In 1963 the brothers opened a humble storefront in Lowell, Massachusetts, selling health and beauty products. Determined to put customers first, they named their enterprise Consumer Value Stores. Today the Goldsteins’ startup, soon afterwards sold to a bigger firm, is nothing short of a health-care Goliath.Revenues at CVS Health reached $177bn last year, riches which come from 9,700 retail pharmacies and from its operations in mail-order drugs and sales of more expensive speciality medicines. The firm commands nearly a quarter of the American market for prescription drug sales (see chart). It is also the biggest pharmacy-benefit manager (PBM) in America, a type of middleman that negotiates bulk discounts on drugs with large pharmaceutical firms on behalf of employers and insurers.  Yet even that formidable position is not enough. CVS is reported to have made a bid for Aetna, a big American health insurer (both firms have refused to comment publicly). Aetna, which had revenues last year of about $63bn, is in a different business, serving mainly corporate clients by providing health insurance for their employees. The two companies already have a relationship, however, since CVS has a contract to serve as Aetna’s PBM. If consummated, the transaction would be one of the biggest ever in American health care (and a tie-up between the two would doubtless encourage other transactions of a similar nature). That raises two questions. Why would the two be contemplating a deal? And crucially, given the tendency of prior mergers to fatten profit margins rather than lower prices, would such consolidation yield benefits to consumers?Start with the reasons for a deal. Health care is becoming increasingly unaffordable for American consumers. Since 2014, total health-care cost inflation has been 6-7%, owing to growth in the cost of everything from doctors and hospitals to medical devices and drugs. Such large rises cannot continue indefinitely.Drug retailers in particular fear the prospect of Amazon entering their business. The e-commerce titan was recently reported to have sought regulatory approval to distribute pharmaceutical products in a dozen or so states. That news, which broke in October, prompted sharp falls in the shares of several firms in the pharmaceutical supply chain.Selling drugs would be harder for Amazon than out-competing department stores, in part because consumers do not typically pay much of the cost of drugs (insurers do). If it has serious ambitions in health care, it might even be forced to build or buy a PBM. Even so, history suggests that the firm’s relentless focus on consumers and willingness to forgo profits for years make it a huge potential threat to incumbent pharmacies.PBMs, once seen as cash cows, also face an uncertain future. These middlemen took off in the 2000s by promising to cut drug prices through aggregating demand and negotiating discounts with Big Pharma. Pembroke, an industry consultancy, estimates that the total value of drug rebates and discounts soared from $39bn in 2008 to $125bn in 2015. Some PBMs used questionable practices, including secret rebates (in addition to the discounts negotiated upfront on drug prices, that were passed on to PBM customers), which allowed them to pocket much of the savings rather than pass them on to insurers and employers and in turn, to consumers.Anthem, a big health insurer, sued Express Scripts, which it fired as its PBM, for $15bn last year, alleging that the latter firm had withheld savings and overcharged it by huge sums (Express Scripts denies the allegations). In October Anthem unveiled plans to launch its own in-house PBM with help from CVS. UnitedHealth, another giant health insurer, acquired Catamaran, a big PBM, in 2015, and merged it into OptumRx, its in-house PBM.Greater transparency in pricing is coming, argues Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners, an industry consultancy, be that through vertical integration (as in the purported deal between CVS and Aetna) or via the entry of a titan like Amazon. “If opacity is reduced, the PBMs lose market power and profits,” he says.This combination of forces explains why a CVS-Aetna merger might make sense: to make CVS a more formidable competitor against possible new entrants, such as Amazon, into the bit of the business started by the Goldsteins, and to extract efficiencies by cutting out the middlemen in the health-care supply chain. Other such deals are easy to imagine. Analysts reckon that insurance firms including WellCare, Centene and Humana are potential targets for acquisition. As the biggest stand-alone PBM, Express Scripts is thought to be a potential target, too. Anthem, which may lose CVS as a partner if antitrust authorities prise the two firms apart as a condition of approving a CVS-Aetna deal, may soon be shopping for a new PBM.The specific nature of these sorts of tie-up offers some reason to hope that the answer to the second question—whether consolidation will benefit consumers—will turn out to be positive. In the past, firms have typically joined horizontally within a market segment. This has generally led to oligopolies that enjoy fat profits but do little to lower prices and lift quality for patients. Such horizontal mergers have been increasingly frowned upon by regulators in recent years.Up and down, not acrossThe CVS-Aetna deal is an effort at vertical integration, which by removing rent-seeking middlemen can, in theory at least, lead to more choice, better health outcomes and lower prices for consumers. If this seems far-fetched, consider the example of United’s pioneering use of data analytics and artificial intelligence at its in-house PBM. As costs spiral upwards, insurers’ interest in ensuring the good health of consumers deepens. Because United can now analyse both a patient’s medical files and her pharmacy records, it can track how medications are taken and whether or not they work well. A small group of integrated health-care systems in America, such as Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain and the Mayo Clinic, has been shown to have delivered better care and lower costs. By creating a much more integrated firm, the CVS-Aetna deal could do the same. CVS already has more than a thousand MinuteClinics (cheap and cheerful health centres) at its pharmacies offering affordable medical care seven days a week. The combined firm would offer everything from basic health services to diagnostics to drug-infusion centres. It would have a strong incentive to make sure that customers have good access to primary care, including vaccinations, medical information, prescriptions, and follow-ups. “Consumers would save through lower premiums, lower out-of-pocket spending at preferred CVS outlets, or both,” reckons Adam Fein of Pembroke. Moreover, the accumulation of data on what interventions work best in similar patients would speed the personalisation of medicine.In truth, no one knows how a CVS-Aetna deal would affect consumers of health care, as this structure of transaction, at this scale, has not been tried. The concern for patients—and for trustbusters—is what would happen if customers of a combined firm wanted to receive care from other clinics or buy drugs from other pharmacies, perhaps because it was restricting choice or increasing co-payments. The reason for hope is that this vertical deal could become a template for a new sort of health-care firm, which offers a lower-cost ecosystem of quality health care. That could be a boon to consumers; it would have pleased the Goldstein brothers, too.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "The right dose?"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21730906-vertical-integration-could-put-brake-americas-unsustainably-soaring-health-care-costs?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'bbd5d1022dcdce4ff0697940129fde9fd422526b'|'Former GSK boss to lead new UK accelerated drug access scheme'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:04 AM / Updated 20 hours ago Former GSK boss to lead new UK accelerated drug access scheme Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Former GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK.L ) boss Andrew Witty is to lead a new British scheme to accelerate access to ground-breaking medicines for conditions such as cancer, dementia and diabetes from April 2018, the government announced on Friday. FILE PHOTO - Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich The new Accelerated Access Pathway should make some drugs available up to four years faster than at present by reducing the time taken to negotiate financial approvals needed before they can be used by the state-run National Health Service (NHS). Each year a number of drugs will get “breakthrough” status under the scheme, triggering a package of measures that will help companies fast-track clinical development and secure an accelerated pathway through NHS approval processes. In exchange, drugmakers will be expected to deliver “additional value for the taxpayer”, with a new commercial unit being created within NHS England to help negotiate cost-effective deals. Witty will lead the group responsible for deciding which products should be granted breakthrough status, drawing on advice from patients, clinicians and industry. The move is the latest initiative to bolster the life sciences sector in Britain, which has traditionally been a key plank of the economy, helped by the presence of large local groups such as GSK and AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ). Many companies are worried that Brexit could start to undermine Britain’s position as a hub for drug innovation, given the close regulatory and trading links with the European Union. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-pharmaceuticals/former-gsk-boss-to-lead-new-uk-accelerated-drug-access-scheme-idUKKBN1D3004'|'2017-11-03T02:05:00.000+02:00'
'88caf8800de57324d10124d5f9888b7ed6823715'|'Luxury auto brands are scrambling to avoid a Blue U.S. Christmas'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. FILE PHOTO: The Mercedes-Benz logo is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Stuttgart, Germany, February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the last decade, but the trend - which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury segments of the auto market - was particularly pronounced in October. Sales of Daimler AG’s ( DAIGn.DE ) Mercedes-Benz S-Class, long a global benchmark for large, premium sedans, plunged 49 percent in October, and are down 24.8 percent for the year to date. General Motors Co’s ( GM.N ) Cadillac brand said it sold just 779 of its CTS sedans in October. Demand for that car, designed to compete with German luxury sedans, is down nearly 33 percent for the year. Cadillac’s best-selling model this year is the XT5 compact SUV, which has more than doubled sales from a year ago. The shift within the luxury vehicle market away from sedans toward SUVs of all sizes is forcing some of the most prestigious brands to scramble to add SUV models to their lineups or boost SUV production to meet demand. “In the short term, there will be pressure to add (consumer) incentives, cut production or both,” said Cox Automotive analyst Michelle Krebs. “And we just don’t see an end in sight to this trend.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI has been trading at all-time highs [.N], usually a good sign for luxury sedans, but as major automakers reported new U.S. vehicle sales for October on Wednesday, sales for passenger cars continued their slide while luxury SUV and crossover sales rose again. ( tmsnrt.rs/2inGn3Y ) According to Kelley Blue Book data, in 2007 luxury sedans made up 7.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, while luxury SUVs made up 4.2 percent. Through September this year, luxury SUVs made up just over 7 percent of the market, compared with 4.9 percent for luxury sedans. In the short term, luxury brands could use holiday season sales promotions to clear slow-selling sedans off dealer lots, analysts said. Toyota Motor Corp’s ( 7203.T ) Lexus brand said on Wednesday it will launch its “December to Remember” year-end sales promotion for the 18th straight year. HIGH-MARGIN VEHICLES Longer-term, luxury car makers have to restructure their model lineups, which have for decades reflected conventional thinking that the “flagship” of a luxury vehicle brand is a big sedan. Industry executives and analysts said luxury brands will launch more SUVs. BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz are both expanding their U.S. sport utility vehicle plants. Some luxury sedans will disappear from lineups, but not all. Lexus, for instance, is launching a redesigned version of its flagship LS sedan in the United States in 2018, starting at around $75,000. Established luxury car brands must reckon with the impact of Tesla Inc’s ( TSLA.O ) electric vehicles, which have redefined the boundaries for advanced technology. Offering a little more horsepower is not enough to draw in many customers, said Scott Keogh, head of Audi’s U.S. operations. “There really isn’t a new stimulus” for owners of current models to trade in their vehicles, he said. “Audi buyers ... want the latest and greatest,” he said. That is one reason why the brand, owned by Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ), plans to launch an electric sport utility in the United States by 2019. Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, said automakers are keen to encourage eager consumers to buy luxury SUVs and crossovers as those models face less stringent fuel regulations and are far more profitable than sedans. “There’s still a significant portion of the market that wants a car,” Fiorani said, “but I‘m sure there were people who preferred a horse to a car at one point.” Randy Parker, U.S. head of Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s ( 7201.T ) luxury Infiniti brand, said much depends on the U.S. economy and gasoline prices, but luxury brands “with a really robust SUV and crossover portfolio will ... win in the next few years.” As investment dollars shift to SUV models, poor performers among luxury sedans will “fall by the wayside” said Bill Rinna, senior manager for North American forecasts at consultancy LMC Automotive. “Are some of your stalwarts going away?” he said. “I don’t believe so.” Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Joe White and Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-sales-luxury/luxury-auto-brands-are-scrambling-to-avoid-a-blue-u-s-christmas-idUSKBN1D15QD'|'2017-11-01T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'a8bf6eecfe53079be2ba2d66cd3b987912c32634'|'VW explores UK banking licence ahead of Brexit'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:44 PM / Updated 3 hours ago VW explores UK banking licence ahead of Brexit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HAMBURG (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) is exploring applying for a full UK banking licence so that it can continue to offer car loans after Britain leaves the European Union, the German automaker said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The company confirmed comments to the Financial Times by David Maloney, chief executive of its UK financial services arm, that discussions were underway with the Prudential Regulation Authority. These may lead to an application. “It would diversify our funding sources whilst helping to alleviate post-Brexit uncertainty and ensure we continue to provide lending products”, Maloney told the FT. Volkswagen’s loan book in the UK is worth 15 billion pounds, larger than any other carmaker’s in-house financing arm. Prime Minister Theresa May has set a deadline for Britain to leave the European Union by March 2019. With negotiations dragging, concerns are growing of a “hard” Brexit that would leave little time for businesses to adjust. Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Douglas Busvine, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-volkswagen/vw-explores-uk-banking-licence-ahead-of-brexit-idUKKBN1D22KR'|'2017-11-02T21:00:00.000+02:00'
'20f5a793eb0047f7c592b56c9d7035856c2d16cf'|'U.S. jobless claims fall to near 44-1/2-year low'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:37 PM / in 3 hours U.S. third quarter productivity fastest in three years; jobless claims fall Lucia Mutikani 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter but the trend remained moderate, suggesting that a recent acceleration in economic growth was unlikely to be sustained. FILE PHOTO: Workers assemble washing machines at a Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio, U.S. October 3, 2017. Picture taken October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk Other data on Thursday showed the number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell to a near 44-1/2-year low last week, offering further evidence that the labor market was tightening despite hurricane-related disruptions in September. The surge in productivity last quarter held down growth in labor costs, indicating that inflation pressures could stay benign for a while. Still, jobs market strength bolsters the case for the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in December. The U.S. central bank kept rates unchanged on Wednesday. “While the data point to a solid economy, they also reinforce the view that growth is not likely to remain strong for an extended period without improved wage gains,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “Productivity is still growing too slowly.” The Labor Department said nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 3.0 percent annualized rate. That was the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2014 and followed an unrevised 1.5 percent rate in the April-June period. The rise outpaced economists’ expectations for a 2.4 percent pace and was flagged in last week’s third-quarter gross domestic product report, which showed the economy growing at a 3.0 percent rate during that period. Productivity increased at a 1.5 percent rate compared to the third quarter of 2016. Manufacturing productivity fell at a 5.0 percent rate last quarter, the steepest rate of decline since the first quarter of 2009. Overall, worker productivity has increased at an average annual rate of 1.2 percent from 2007 to 2016, below its long-term rate of 2.1 percent from 1947 to 2016. This, together with slowing population growth indicate the economy’s potential growth rate has declined. As such, analysts say the economy could struggle to achieve the 3 percent annual growth, which has been pledged by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration is pushing for big tax cuts and deregulation to achieve this goal. Congressional Republicans on Thursday called for a range of changes to the U.S. tax code, including slashing the corporate tax rate and reducing the number of tax brackets for individuals. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies on the Republican tax reform proposal, while prices for U.S. Treasuries rose. U.S. stocks were little changed. PRODUCTIVITY RISE UNSUSTAINABLE FILE PHOTO: A help wanted sign is posted at a taco stand in Solana Beach, California, U.S., July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Eight years into the recovery, annual GDP growth has not exceeded 3 percent and economists do not expect the acceleration in productivity to be sustained. “Given how long the expansion has lasted, we are not especially hopeful for much firming in productivity during the coming years,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. With productivity rising in the last quarter, unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, increased at only a 0.5 percent pace after rising at a 0.3 percent pace in the April-June quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2016, unit labor costs fell at a 0.1 percent rate, remaining negative for a second straight quarter. The weak growth in unit labor costs came despite hourly compensation rising at a 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter. “This is a silver lining for corporations’ bottom-lines that continue to benefit from contained labor costs despite the tightening in the labor market,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York. In a second report on Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended Oct. 28, the Labor Department said. That was not too far from 223,000, a 44-1/2-year low touched in mid-October. Last week marked the 139th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a more than 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, dropped 7,250 to 232,500 last week. That was the lowest reading since April 1973. The low level claims suggest a surge in job growth in October after nonfarm payrolls dropped by 33,000 jobs in September as Harvey and Irma left some workers temporarily unemployed. According to a Reuters survey of economists, the government’s closely watched employment report due on Friday will probably show that payrolls increased by 310,000 jobs in October. The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell 15,000 to 1.88 million in the week ended Oct. 21, the lowest level since December 1973, underscoring the diminishing jobs market slack. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-unemployment/u-s-jobless-claims-fall-to-near-44-1-2-year-low-idUSKBN1D21N6'|'2017-11-02T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'8e55650d1408dd5fef53f98fba80b7f56b69756c'|'UK car execs tell PM May there is an ''urgent need'' for clarity on Brexit transition'|'November 1, 2017 / 7:06 PM / in 8 minutes UK car executives tell PM May there is an ''urgent need'' for clarity on Brexit transition Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British car executives told British Prime Minister Theresa May at a meeting on Wednesday that there was an “urgent need for clarity” on the proposed transition period after Britain leaves the European Union. FILE PHOTO - A cab driver waving a Union flag smiles at a demonstrator holding a European Union flag outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “The meeting focused on our members’ Brexit priorities - in particular, the urgent need for clarity on the proposed transition agreement as business needs certainty to invest,” trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said in a statement. Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-autos/uk-car-execs-tell-pm-may-there-is-an-urgent-need-for-clarity-on-brexit-transition-idUKKBN1D15OJ'|'2017-11-01T21:06:00.000+02:00'
'336b17790dc6a5009c49fabca939826a71ab56d3'|'Asia shares hit 10-year high on strong economy, oil gains'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets climbed to a fresh high on Wednesday, boosted by solid corporate earnings, while yields on U.S. Treasuries were little changed after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady.The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labour market while downplaying the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.MSCI’s gauge of stock markets held gains in the wake of the announcement, although the index was off a high hit earlier in the session. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed after the announcement.Next up for the central bank is the expected announcement on Thursday for a new Fed chair nominee from U.S. President Donald Trump. Market participants widely expect it to be Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is considered more dovish on interest rates than some other candidates and thus relatively stock-market friendly.“The pending announcement regarding the new chair seems to be overshadowing most everything,” said Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.“The overarching uncertainty around the decision and then potentially the news of the new chairperson, equities are probably kind of hedging their bets, so to speak.”Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy remained on solid footing ahead of Friday’s payrolls report. Although a measure of factory activity lost ground as hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, another report showed private sector hiring surged.Shares of Japanese multinational Sony ( 6758.T ) soared as much as 12.3 percent to a nine-year high after the electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best-ever annual profit. U.S. listed shares of the stock were up 0.7 percent at $43.70.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 52.54 points, or 0.22 percent, to 23,429.78, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 5 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,580.26 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 15.08 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,712.59.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 1/32 in price to yield 2.3721 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Tuesday.After the closing bell in the United States, earnings are expected from Facebook ( FB.O ), which was up 0.87 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. On Thursday, earnings are expected from iPhone maker Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ).Of 326 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 73 percent topped analyst expectations, compared with 72 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data. The earnings growth estimate for the quarter is currently at 7 percent.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.43 percent after touching its highest level since August 2015 and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.32 percent.A rise in oil prices to their highest level since mid-2015 also served to boost energy names. Oil prices retreated, however, after U.S. government data showed that the latest weekly draw in domestic crude stocks was not as big as an industry trade group had reported.U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.22 percent to $54.26 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $60.41, down 0.87 percent on the day.The S&P energy index .SPNY gained 0.9 percent, on track for the best day since late September, while in Europe basic resources stocks .SXPP jumped 2.7 percent.The dollar index .DXY rose 0.26 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.25 percent to $1.1615.Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-shares-extend-gains-on-economic-optimism-oil-firm-idINKBN1D1394'|'2017-11-01T05:07:00.000+02:00'
'c7b602e38fe5ec2e2458c88f2c33f8787f8501da'|'India''s aviation ministry proposes rules for commercial use of drones'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:48 PM / Updated 8 hours ago India''s aviation ministry proposes rules for commercial use of drones Aditi Shah 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s civil aviation ministry on Wednesday proposed a number of regulations for the use of drones in the country as it looks to legalise the use of unmanned aerial systems. An Israeli-made Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flies over Porbandar, during its commissioning into the Indian Navy, January 17, 2011. REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files Used by the military for monitoring and imagery, drones have become popular worldwide in recent years, with people posting breath-taking videos on social media and e-commerce companies looking to use them for deliveries. In India, however, it is illegal for the general public to fly drones without the approval of government authorities, because of concern over the safety of other users of airspace and people on the ground. Users of drones weighing more than two kilograms will need a security clearance, operating permit, unique identification number and a remote pilot licence, according to the draft regulations. Drones have several commercial uses, such as in agriculture and mining, said Jayant Sinha, junior minister for civil aviation, adding that the policies were expected to encourage the drone industry. The ministry has asked for public comments within 30 days, after which the regulations will be finalised. The policy is expected to come out by the end of the year. The use of drones would be banned within a certain distance from airports, the country’s borders and some areas excluded by the home ministry. Violators would be charged under provisions of the Indian penal code, according to the proposed rules. Once the regulations are finalised, e-commerce companies would be allowed to use drones to deliver goods, said civil aviation secretary RN Choubey, adding that the government was working on technologies to curb the use of rogue drones. Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation will oversee the use of drones once the rules are come into effect. Reporting by Aditi Shah in NEW DELHI; Writing by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-drones-regulations/indias-aviation-ministry-proposes-rules-for-commercial-use-of-drones-idINKBN1D14VG'|'2017-11-01T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'dc581f5679538ffcec4e85e678f5ecbcc4e29112'|'U.S. nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2 trillion over next 30 years -CBO'|'  Updated 10 minutes ago U.S. nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2 trillion over next 30 years -CBO Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Oct 31 (Reuters) - Modernizing and maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years will cost more than $1.2 trillion, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The report said current plans for the modernization of the aging planes, ships and missile silos that make up the U.S. nuclear arsenal would cost 50 percent more than if the U.S. only operated and maintained its current equipment in the field. The CBO study reviewed the Obama’s Administration’s plans for modernization of the nuclear arsenal. President Donald Trump in January directed Secretary of Defense James Mattis to conduct his own review the U.S. nuclear forces. The results could be published in the coming months. U.S. House Armed Services Committee member Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington, said of the Obama-era plan: “Congress still doesn’t seem to have any answers as to how we will pay for this effort, or what the trade-offs with other national security efforts will be.” The report said costs would rise from $29 billion in 2017 to $47 billion in 2027, before peaking at around $50 billion a year through the early 2030s. Trump has said he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity. U.S. officials have noted that America’s nuclear modernization is lagging behind Russia’s upgrade of its own nuclear triad. General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress in August he believed Moscow was already two-thirds of the way through its nuclear modernization process. In August, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp separate contracts to continue development work on the replacement of the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system one leg of the nuclear triad. Days later the Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co separate $900 million contracts to continue work on a replacement for the AGM-86B air-launched nuclear cruise missile. That detailed development contract allows the companies to continue work on the long range standoff weapon yet another leg of the triad. (Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, additional reporting by Idrees Ali; editing by Chris Sanders)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-nuclear-arsenal/u-s-nuclear-arsenal-to-cost-1-2-trillion-over-next-30-years-cbo-idUSL2N1N62GR'|'2017-10-31T23:49:00.000+02:00'
'26cdca3d6a0fec9abd71008128a8d053999c18c0'|'Contango Holdings lists in London with plan to buy mining assets'|'November 1, 2017 / 7:09 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Contango Holdings lists in London with plan to buy mining assets Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Contango Holdings Plc lists on London’s junior stock market on Wednesday, after raising a million pounds ($1.32 million) from investors, with a plan to buy resources assets. The company is the seventh new London listing in the sector this year. Although the market has begun to improve following the commodity downturn, it is still more difficult for juniors to attract investment than diversified miners. Brian McMaster, chairman of Contango, said was he would consider any good project in the resource sector, but most likely “some kind of hard rock” as opposed to oil or gas. Exploration budgets dried up after the commodity price crash of 2015-16 forced miners to focus on cutting costs and debt, but analysts say the mood is improving and the lack of exploration will eventually lead to shortages and boost prices. Major miners have been missing or only just hitting output targets, but, unlike the junior exploration project companies with no income, they can benefit from higher profit margins as commodity prices rise. Contango said in a statement that a one million pound start-up investment as part of the listing process has come from the board and other initial subscribers and it will admit a total of 42,949,987 ordinary shares, implying a market capitalisation of 1,225,000 pounds for the company. Trading in Contango is due to begin at 0800 GMT on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). ($1 = 0.7548 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-contangoholdings-ipo/contango-holdings-lists-in-london-with-plan-to-buy-mining-assets-idUKKBN1D13RT'|'2017-11-01T09:08:00.000+02:00'
'577fa1ad7ed77ed183f0769719d497d037b7d17d'|'Mexico broadcaster TV Azteca hires ex-Televisa exec to lead TV unit'|' 10   Mexico broadcaster TV Azteca hires ex-Televisa exec to lead TV unit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MEXICO CITY, Oct 31 (Reuters) - TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest broadcaster, said on Tuesday that it has hired a longtime Televisa executive to lead its unit for television and distribution of content. Alberto Ciurana will be in charge of programming, operations and production for the TV Azteca channels, the company said in a statement. He had previously served as president of programming and content at Univision Networks and was a vice president at Televisa, Mexico’s top broadcaster, for 15 years. Ciurana will report directly to Benjamin Salinas, who is chief executive of Grupo TV Azteca. The Mexico television landscape was jolted last week by the news that Emilio Azcarraga will step down after 20 years as chief executive of Grupo Televisa, staying on as chairman. (Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Sandra Maler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mexico-tvazteca/mexico-broadcaster-tv-azteca-hires-ex-televisa-exec-to-lead-tv-unit-idUSL2N1N62MW'|'2017-11-01T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'1646a9cd6d70ff63fa03aff1db5315aa324a4e5c'|'TPG, China Telecom discuss possible Oi bid with Brazilian official'|'BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Representatives of U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital Management LP and state-owned China Telecom Corp Ltd ( 0728.HK ) met with Brazil’s solicitor general on Monday to discuss a possible takeover of debt-laden telecom provider Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ).The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The parties did not address reporters after the meeting in Brasilia.The two groups have approached Oi about purchasing the company once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, in a process that would involve a capital injection, an executive told Reuters in September.Grace Mendonça, the solicitor-general, is part of a government working group that is trying to assuage differences between shareholders and creditors before a key Nov. 10 meeting in which bondholders will vote on a restructuring plan. The government has billions of dollars tied up in the company through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines.TPG and China Telecom are interested in taking over the company, the sole fixed-line operator in a third of the country’s 5,500 municipalities, via a 10 billion-real capital injection, newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported earlier on Monday.As part of the deal, TPG would be the majority partner and China Telecom would take a minority stake, a source told Reuters.At the meeting, the groups were set to condition their bid on a new telecoms reform going into effect, Folha reported. The regulatory overhaul would make more flexible government requirements for investments by telecoms operators, analysts say.They also required renegotiation of 20 billion reais in outstanding regulatory fines that the company holds.China Telecom is offering to construct fiber optic cable to the homes of clients in more than 2,000 municipalities, the newspaper reported. After that, it said, China Telecom will discuss a potential tie-up with Brazilian competitor TIM Participações SA ( TIMP3.SA ).TPG declined to comment. China Telecom did not respond to a comment request sent outside normal business hours.Mendonça also participated in an afternoon meeting with Nelson Tanure, an influential shareholder in Oi, who has partnered with foreign distressed debt funds to push for a plan that would imply a 73 percent haircut on bondholder debt.[nL2N1N71LS]After the meeting Tanure reaffirmed a previous commitment to support the restructuring plan put forth by the government.A Tanure spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.Reporting by Leonardo Goy, Tatiana Bautzer, and Gram Slattery; Editing by Christian Plumb and Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring-china-telecom/tpg-china-telecom-discuss-possible-oi-bid-with-brazilian-official-idINKBN1D15Y5'|'2017-11-01T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'b51411e640580898f8585e93590bf67db3983d6b'|'Exclusive - Shareholder in Brazil''s Oi leans on distressed debt funds for support'|' 21 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Exclusive - Shareholder in Brazil''s Oi leans on distressed debt funds for support Gram Slattery , Tatiana Bautzer 6 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - An influential shareholder in Brazil’s Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ) is working with U.S. and UK distressed debt hedge funds to maintain his central role at the telecoms provider as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy protection, four sources said. People walk in front of the headquarters of the Brazil''s largest fixed-line telecoms group Oi, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 22, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes The funds, the smallest group of Oi bondholders known as the G6, could help Nelson Tanure, who has a 6.5 percent stake in Oi and significant board clout, fend off rival restructuring plans by the company’s two largest bondholder groups. The G6 includes Solus Alternative Asset Management LP, Attestor Capital LLP, Centerbridge Partners LP, Silver Point Capital LP, and Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP. Tanure’s alliance with distressed debt funds illustrates the tangled ties that have formed in Latin America’s largest-ever bankruptcy, which has seen a procession of hedge and private equity funds dip into the process before withdrawing amid creditor and shareholder infighting. It also shows the lengths to which shareholders such as Tanure - who has criticized opposing creditor groups as vulture funds - are willing to go to strengthen their hand before a Nov. 10 meeting in which creditors will vote on a plan to take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection. As negotiations about Oi’s future intensify ahead of the November meeting that could determine whether it survives as a going concern, a big question is whether the G6 funds will stick by Tanure, the sources said, as two of them have at least temporarily withdrawn support. A spokesman for Tanure, who has invested in distressed companies from the oil to media industries, defended the motivations of the allied funds, and denied any had withdrawn support. “They have very different strategies from vulture funds, who manipulate information, motivated by spurious motivations and are dedicated to ultra short-term gains,” the spokesman said. Solus, Silver Point, and Davidson Kempner, a big player in sovereign and territorial debt disputes in Argentina and Puerto Rico, declined to comment. Attestor and Centerbridge did not respond to requests for comment. Oi, Brazil’s fourth-largest carrier, filed for in-court restructuring 16 months ago, sagging under 65.4 billion reais (£15.1 billion) of debt. At stake is the future of the sole fixed-line telecoms carrier in about one-third of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities. SEPARATE TRACKS Negotiations to bring Oi out of bankruptcy protection have essentially split into three separate tracks, said the sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. The so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders and International Bondholders Committee, which – together with allied creditors – hold about 23 billion reais in debt, have met repeatedly with Oi’s management over the last two weeks. Those bondholders have put forth a proposal that would leave them with 88 percent of Oi’s equity. The government, which is exposed to billions of dollars of Oi debt through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines, has formed a working group of its own to protect its interests. On Monday, Brazil’s solicitor-general is meeting with U.S. private equity fund TPG Capital Management LP and state-owned China Telecom Corp ( 0728.HK ) about a possible bid for Oi after it emerges from bankruptcy protection, local media reported Tanure – who has already formed an alliance with majority shareholder Pharol SGPS ( PHRA.LS ) – is working with the G6, who have only a fraction of the debt held by the main bondholder groups. His proposal would imply a significantly more severe haircut for the bondholders, the sources said. Under the Tenure deal, Oi would need to pay the G6 funds substantial fees up front in return for a commitment from the group to inject capital into the carrier, the sources said. People close to the other bondholder groups say the fees could reach 500 million reais, but people related to the Tanure group say this would only happen if the capital injection took two years to materialise. A short-term fee would be much lower, around 20 million reais, one of the sources said. “This is about ... remunerating for the mobilization of capital, something that’s common in these types of negotiations,” Tanure’s spokesman said. Both bondholder groups will need as much creditor support as possible going into the Nov. 10 meeting in Rio de Janeiro. A plan approved by Oi’s board last month was rejected by creditors for giving too much control to Tanure’s Societe Mondiale FIA, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. G6 support for Tanure’s alternative plan could change this. That’s because provisions in Brazilian bankruptcy law can lower the threshold needed for approval of a restructuring plan in some situations, lawyers involved in the deal say. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceeding could decree a “cram down”, in which disagreeing creditors are forced to accept what a majority agreed to, the lawyers added. Should creditors vote down the restructuring proposal outright, the company could be liquidated. The main bondholders want to avoid that at all costs, the sources said, as they would stand to lose more if the company were liquidated than if they accepted the Tanure-backed terms. Reporting by Gram Slattery and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Christian Plumb and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oi-sa-restructuring/exclusive-shareholder-in-brazils-oi-leans-on-distressed-debt-funds-for-support-idUKKBN1D158V'|'2017-11-01T18:20:00.000+02:00'
'4146fed7ea4a1564ad9420cbb5f962d923b76dbf'|'Georgia-Pacific unit seeks bankruptcy in wake of asbestos cases'|'WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - An affiliate of Georgia-Pacific LLC, which makes Brawny paper towels, has filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid soaring costs of defending against claims its products caused asbestos-related diseases, according to a company statement on Thursday.The affiliate, Bestwall LLC, joins scores of U.S. manufacturers that have filed for bankruptcy due to asbestos litigation, and comes as the U.S. Congress mulls a bill that plaintiffs’ lawyers say would discourage asbestos claims.Georgia-Pacific is unaffected by the filing and Bestwall will continue operating normally, the statement said.Bestwall’s legal costs from asbestos have risen to an average of $160 million a year, up from $6 million a year prior to 2000, according to company filings.Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral once prized for its resistance to heat but its fibers can cause deadly cancers, including mesothelioma, and leads to thousands of U.S. deaths annually, according to government statistics.A bill known as the FACT Act has been introduced in the U.S. House that proponents argue would shed light on possible fraudulent asbestos claims, although critics say it will make it harder for people sickened by asbestos to get compensation.In 1965, Georgia-Pacific acquired a maker of joint compound that contained asbestos. Georgia-Pacific, which is owned by Koch Industries Inc, ceased making the compound with asbestos in 1977.Since then, the company has spent $2.9 billion in legal costs on asbestos cases and is currently defending about 62,000 such cases.According to Bestwall, its products account for a tiny overall percentage of asbestos exposure, but it has been named in up to 80 percent of mesothelioma cases filed each year. Asbestos lawsuits often name multiple manufacturers as defendants.Asbestos litigation has cost more than $50 billion in compensation and legal fees and has forced about 100 U.S. companies into bankruptcy, including chemical company W.R. Grace and building products company Owens Corning Corp.Bankrupt companies and asbestos plaintiffs generally agree to establish and finance a trust for future claims. The company exits bankruptcy shielded from future asbestos lawsuits.However, many trusts are running low on cash and have reduced payouts, and business groups allege that has prompted plaintiffs to focus on suing non-bankrupt companies, even if plaintiffs only had a limited exposure to a company’s product.Allegations of fraudulent asbestos claims were a central part of the bankruptcy of Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC, which filed in 2010 the same court in Charlotte as Bestwall.Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-georgiapacific-asbestos-bankruptcy/georgia-pacific-unit-seeks-bankruptcy-in-wake-of-asbestos-cases-idUSKBN1D21LP'|'2017-11-02T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'b12ff1f36ad82ccd17137bef5ebe3330ecc93a9d'|'Russia''s Rosneft, Iran''s NIOC agree to team up on oil and gas projects worth $30 billion'|' 30 PM / in 15 minutes Russia''s Rosneft, Iran''s NIOC agree to team up on oil and gas projects worth $30 billion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian oil producer Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) and the National Iranian Oil Company have agreed an outline deal to work together on a number of “strategic” projects in Iran together worth up to $30 billion (£22.5 billion), Rosneft’s head Igor Sechin   A worker is seen at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo The potential collaboration with Iran would further strengthen Rosneft’s position in the Middle East, the company having already secured a number of deals in the region, including the acquisition of a majority stake in Iraqi Kurdistan’s main oil pipeline. The recent deals appeared to be part of a strategy by President Vladimir Putin to boost Moscow’s political and economic influence in the region, which was weakened by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The outline agreement on working with Iran was signed during Putin’s visit to the country on Wednesday. Sechin said the preliminary deal paved the way for legally-binding documents to be signed within a year. Output from the joint project is seen plateauing at 55 million tonnes per year (1.1 million barrels per day), he said. “We are talking about several oil and gas fields, which we will develop with our partners,” Sechin told reporters, adding that Rosneft has invited Iran to develop offshore and other projects in Russia. It is not yet clear how the investments will be split between the two companies. Russia and cash-strapped Iran have long been working on oil-for-goods deals worth up to $20 billion. Sechin said the preliminary agreement envisaged some swap deals, as well as oil and oil products deliveries. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-iran-oil/russias-rosneft-irans-nioc-agree-to-team-up-on-oil-and-gas-projects-worth-30-billion-idUKKBN1D14UH'|'2017-11-01T15:29:00.000+02:00'
'927b442692ccdea6be8cc30c138a40ac3ec4a5fa'|'UPDATE 1-Entercom wins U.S. antitrust approval to buy CBS Radio with conditions'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:06 PM / in 23 minutes UPDATE 1-Entercom wins U.S. antitrust approval to buy CBS Radio with conditions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds detail on divestitures, comment from Entercom, background) WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Entercom Communications Corp won U.S. antitrust approval to buy CBS Radio Inc on condition that it sell 13 radio stations in Massachusetts and California, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The deal, which was announced in February, will allow CBS Corp to merge its radio business with Entercom in a deal that the companies said would create the second-largest U.S. radio broadcaster by revenue. To win approval for the deal, the companies agreed to divest five stations in Boston and four each in San Francisco and Sacramento, the department said. Despite the divestitures, Entercom will have more than 200 stations. “The required divestitures will protect competition for local businesses that advertise on radio stations in Boston, San Francisco and Sacramento,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. David Field, president and chief executive of Entercom, said the approval was a “significant milestone.” The proposed transaction must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Susan Thomas and Andrew Hay)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cbs-radio-ma-entercom-comm/update-1-entercom-wins-u-s-antitrust-approval-to-buy-cbs-radio-with-conditions-idUSL2N1N71HZ'|'2017-11-01T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'f5f044ab9ae832f420949962b0bff8e443ae84a9'|'Olympics-It''s ready but will they come? South Korea counts down to Winter Games'|'* 100 day countdown begins for Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics* Only a third of tickets sold so far amid tensions over N.Korea* N.Korea missile threat, diplomatic row with China hurt tourism* Olympics organisers, businesses hope for late surge in interest* For a multimedia package on North Korea, click www.reuters.com/north-korea/By Jane Chung and Hyunjoo JinPYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Workers in the South Korean resort town of Pyeongchang are making final preparations for the Winter Olympics, remaking roads, renovating buildings and preparing menus in English, Chinese and Japanese, a burst of activity that masks a big problem.With less than 100 days before the Games begin, barely a third of the tickets have been sold.“It’s a bummer,” said 55-year-old motel owner Oh Young-whyan, who spent about $360,000 refurbishing his 15-room property close to the Olympics Plaza.Oh, other hotel owners and local authorities say political tensions with North Korea and China have chilled foreign interest in the Games, which open on Feb. 9 just 80 km (50 miles) from the world’s most heavily fortified border.Tourists are reluctant to commit to the event as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump trade insults and threats of mutual destruction after the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September.Ticket sales are weak, with 341,327 sold, or 32 percent of the total on offer, as of Oct. 24 - much weaker than during the run-up to the last winter Games in Sochi, Russia. More than 70 percent of Sochi’s tickets were sold before the opening ceremony.Pyeongchang Organising Committee Secretary General Yeo Hyung-koo says there is still time to catch up. The Olympics torch relay, which began in Korea on Wednesday, will ignite domestic interest, he said.Local business are also putting on a brave face, hoping for a late surge in interest, especially from Chinese tourists after Beijing this week set aside a dispute with Seoul over an anti-missile system.“We still have 100 days so I‘m not that worried,” said Oh, owner of the Daekyanryung-sanbang motel, where Olympics banners were hung inside and out.NO PASSENGERS, EMPTY AIRPORT Nearby, a bus terminal which undertook a $447,000 makeover in preparation for the Olympics was largely empty, with only one Chinese couple and a handful of locals seen waiting for buses.Buses bound for Seoul in the past used to have as many as 38 foreign passengers, half of them Chinese, but nowadays some buses have no passengers, said Kim Moo-gyu, the owner of the terminal.Before this week’s diplomatic breakthrough, Chinese authorities had unofficially imposed a ban on tour groups visiting South Korea since March and stopped charter flights.The number of Chinese visitors, which accounted for nearly half of all foreign tourists into South Korea last year, slumped 61 percent from March to September from the same period last year, official data shows.Yangyang International Airport, the only international airport near Pyengchang, was quiet, with flight routes from Shanghai and seven other Chinese cities all cut since last November.‘LOTS OF LOSSES’Min Byong-kwan, the chief executive of Phoenix Hotels & Resorts, is counting on a pick-up. The ski resort spent tens of millions of dollars building six Olympics courses and renovating some 1,000 rooms to accommodate foreign officials during the Olympics.“We are making a lot of investments - and booking a lot of losses - through the Olympics,” Min said.“It is regrettable that the Olympics boom is falling short of our expectations so far.” But he added: “I expect the boom to experience exponential growth for the remaining 100 days.”Pyeongchang, carved out of pine-covered slopes in northeast Gangwon province, is being festooned with banners reading “Passion Connected”, a slogan reflecting the hosts’ aim to dissolve tensions with a show of sporting goodwill.Organisers hope athletes from North Korea, still technically at war with the South, will take part and share the mountain with American and Chinese athletes. The North has yet to confirm if it will send a team.Han Do-sam, who sells seafood at the popular Sokcho fish market, said the improvement in ties between Beijing and Seoul was a good start.“We hope ... it will help more foreign tourists come here when they visit for the Olympics,” Han said.UNLIKELY TO MEET TARGET South Korea planned to use the Olympics to introduce foreign tourism to Gangwon province. Provincial authorities set an ambitious goal of attracting 5 million visitors next year, up from an original expectation of around 3 million this year.But Gangwon governor Choi Moon-Soon said he doubted the 2018 target would be met.“So far we have seen declines in visits from China and Japan, which are directly affected by the North’s nuclear issue,” Choi told Reuters. “Southeastern Asian group tourists are showing signs of cancelling trips as well.”Song Sung-sup, director of Goodmorning Travel, which specialises in Chinese tourism, was also glum, despite Tuesday’s surprise detente between South Korea and China.“Unless China lifts a ban on charter flights to any local airport in South Korea, I‘m a bit skeptical whether signs of easing are clear at the moment,” said Song, who saw sales drop by up to 20 percent due to the frozen ties with China.Just two years ago, the outlook looked bright.A Chinese company had committed to build a $431 million luxury resort - China Dream City - an hour’s drive from Pyeongchang.Pitched at Chinese tourists, it was to provide accommodation during the Games. But construction has still not begun.Governor Choi said he was also worried about delays to a $450 million project to build a Legoland in the city of Chuncheon, about 145 km (90 miles) from the Games venue.Legoland operator Merlin Entertainments said last month the resort’s completion date was delayed by three years to 2020 to get final partner funding and “for a lot of Korean twists and turns”, without elaborating.Merlin CEO Nick Varney joked last month it might help ease tensions, and brighten up prospects for the Games, if Legoland were to promise North Korea’s leader an annual pass to the theme park.“Hopefully that will cheer him up a little bit.” ($1 = 1,117.2700 won) (Additional reporting by Haejin Choi and Yuna Park in Seoul, Karolos Grohmann, Writing by Mark Bendeich, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-2018-northkorea-missiles/olympics-its-ready-but-will-they-come-south-korea-counts-down-to-winter-games-idUSL2N1N62LA'|'2017-11-01T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'93366b77083443630384fdcc734cdca91f87e8d1'|'Allergan to begin selling its 10 percent stake in Teva'|'November 1, 2017 / 10:53 PM / in 16 minutes Allergan to begin selling its 10 percent stake in Teva Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Botox-maker Allergan Plc ( AGN.N ) on Wednesday said it will begin to sell off its nearly 10 percent stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ), which has lost 60 percent of its value so far this year. FILE PHOTO: A building belonging to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo Allergan sold its generics business to Teva in August 2016 for $33 billion in cash and 100 million shares of the Israeli generic drugmaker, worth around $5.3 billion at the time. Under the terms of the deal, Allergan agreed to hold the shares for at least one year. It has previously written down the value. Teva has struggled and the company’s chief executive stepped down in February after sharp criticism for a string of costly acquisitions and delayed drug launches. Allergan said it plans to sell the shares “in a prudent and orderly manner,” with details disclosed in future regulatory filings. Shares of Teva, which closed up 1.6 percent at $14.02 in regular trading, fell to $13.96 after hours. Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-allergan-teva-pharm-ind/allergan-to-begin-selling-its-10-percent-stake-in-teva-idUKKBN1D165U'|'2017-11-02T00:49:00.000+02:00'
'fdcf9c96f7fbf8848f53800af09a32a92d633232'|'Six years after tremors halted fracking, Britain ready to try again'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:19 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Six years after tremors halted fracking, Britain ready to try again Susanna Twidale 8 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Six years after Britain’s first fracking operation was stymied by earth tremors, its shale gas industry is poised to try again with a technology that could transform the UK gas market and drastically reduce its reliance on imports. Barriers cover the entrance to the proposed Cuadrilla shale gas site near the village of Little Plumpton, northern England, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Files While environmental and community concerns about fracking have not gone away, changes to the energy landscape since 2011 have added even more complexity to the effort to exploit Britain’s shale gas. On the one hand, imports are cheaper, at least for now. Global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices have more than halved from 2014 peaks as new supply from Australia and the United States saturated key Asian markets. At the same time, last year’s vote to leave the European Union has stoked fears about the security of Britain’s energy supplies. Britain’s main gas storage site is also due to close, which means the market may be vulnerable to price shocks over the winter months. “Not a lot of people think about where gas comes from and what happens if (Russian president Vladimir) Putin or others fall out with us,” said Francis Egan, the CEO of shale gas developer Cuadrilla, the first company to attempt fracking in the UK, near Blackpool in the northwest of England. “They only begin to think about that when the prices are going up,” he said. Natural gas is used to heat as much as 80 percent of British homes, which make up 35 percent of demand, closely followed by electricity generation at 33 percent and 17 percent by industry, according to data from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which formulates energy policy. Around 60 percent of that gas is currently imported, up from 40 percent less than 10 years ago. The figure is tipped to reach almost 95 percent by 2040 as known reserves in the North Sea run out. Pipelines with Norway and continental Europe, which can include gas from Russia, supply around 70 percent of imports, with the remainder delivered via LNG tankers, mostly from Qatar. Britain received its first U.S. LNG shipment in July. Weaning Britain off imports is one of the driving forces behind government support for hydraulic fracturing, which involves extracting gas obtained from rocks broken up or fractured at high pressure with water and chemicals. It’s impossible to know exactly how much shale gas might be underground - and more importantly, how much can be extracted - until fracking has started in earnest. The British Geological Survey estimates shale gas resources in northern England alone could contain 1,300 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, 10 percent of which could meet the country’s demand for almost 40 years. The government is not banking on a fracking bonanza, however, partly because there’s no urgency given that global gas prices so low. A BEIS study on gas supplies published in October concluded that Britain would have secure supplies of gas up until 2037 even if no shale reserves can be exploited. WOKEN FROM THEIR BEDS Shortly after fracking started in Blackpool in April 2011, a tremor registering 2.3 on the Richter scale woke residents from their beds in the middle of the night. Their homes shook, and they reported cracks in ceilings and a cracked toilet basin. It was followed by another 1.4 magnitude earthquake a month later. Cuadrilla said the quakes were caused by an unusual combination of geological features at the site, but they led to an 18-month ban on the use of fracking nationwide while further research was carried out. The government has since introduced a traffic-light system which immediately suspends work if any seismic activity of 0.5 or above on the Richter scale is detected, and has increased monitoring standards such as ground water checks. Cuadrilla expects to begin fracking at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire in the north west of Britain at the end of December or early next year. Third Energy, which is 95-percent-owned by Barclays, also said it expects to begin fracking before the end of the year at its Kirby Misperton site in Ryedale, Yorkshire, the north of England, once it gets the government’s sign-off. Exploration companies are anxious to see how the estimates match up to reality. “This will give us a better idea of what can potentially be recovered,” Third Energy CEO Rasik Valand told Reuters in September. Professor John Underhill, chief scientist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said recoverable reserves are likely to be much lower than estimated because the gas may be much harder to get out of the ground than in places like the United States. “The inherent geological complexity of UK geology is a major issue,” he said. ENVIRONMENTAL UNKNOWNS Environmental groups continue to be strongly opposed to fracking, concerned about the potential seismic activity, water contamination and other unknowables. Scotland recently extended a moratorium on the process and it is banned in several European countries. The groups argue that extracting more fossil fuels is incompatible with global targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to help fight climate change. “Fundamentally we are opposed to exploiting new fossil fuel reserves at a time when we are being told around 80 percent of global reserves need to be kept in the ground if global climate goals are to be met,” Guy Shrubsole, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, told Reuters. Britain has a legally binding target to cut its GHG emissions by 2050 to 80 percent below 1990 levels and has, along with 194 other nations, pledged to try to keep global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times as a part of the Paris Agreement. A U.N. report published this week said some 80-90 percent of global coal reserves and 50 percent of gas reserves would need to remain in the ground unused to meet the Paris target. Fracking firms argue that gas is a bridging fuel while renewable energy and battery storage costs come down because it emits half the amount of carbon dioxide as coal when burnt. They say the only way to prove it is safe is to start work. “There is a lot of myth-busting we have to do to really explain to people what we are trying to achieve,” said Stephen Bolwer, CEO of onshore oil and gas firm IGAS, which hopes to develop shale gas wells in the East Midlands. People in the UK communities affected remain worried about the impact on the landscape and on tourism and agriculture. “Ryedale is a beautiful part of the country that attracts many visitors. The idea fracking is in anyway compatible with that is nonsense,” said Leigh Coghill, campaigner with protest group Frack Free Ryedale. There has been a shift in public perceptions since the Brexit vote, however, said Tom Pickering, operation director at INEOS shale, part of the British petrochemicals group INEOS which has committed to spend 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) on British shale projects. “There still remains a very strong, anti-fossil fuel lobby, but Brexit has focused people’s minds on the ideas that if we are really going to stand on our own two feet then we are going to need domestic supplies of gas,” he said. ($1 = 0.8547 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-fracking/six-years-after-tremors-halted-fracking-britain-ready-to-try-again-idINKBN1D20I1'|'2017-11-02T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'789dc20e2cc9691d1758c0f5d66b59e2051cb71b'|'Air France-KLM profit jumps as price trends improve'|'Reuters TV United States  53 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Air France-KLM profit jumps as price trends improve Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA ) said improving price trends helped it report better than expected third quarter profits, joining major European peers in benefiting from strong summer demand. FILE PHOTO: An employee works on an Airbus A380 plane inside the Air France KLM maintenance hangar at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, France, May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo The Franco-Dutch company reported third quarter operating profit up 38.7 percent to 1.022 billion euros ($1.2 billion), against the average analyst expectation of 953 million in a Reuters poll. Unit revenues - a closely watched measure of how much income is generates per unit of capacity - increased 4.1 percent in the quarter and Air France-KLM said it expected an increase in the fourth quarter as well, driven by long-haul bookings. “Unit revenues in October were positive, forward bookings for November and December are ahead of last year,” finance chief Frederic Gagey said. Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) last week said unit revenues rose 4.5 percent in the third quarter, outpacing British Airways-parent IAG ( ICAG.L ), which saw a 2.2 percent rise as it added capacity from Aer Lingus and low cost unit Level to transatlantic routes. Air France-KLM has also been benefiting from a return of U.S. and Asian passengers to Europe this year after attacks deterred travelers last year. The group also said on Friday it would be introducing an 11 euros one-way surcharge on bookings made via third-party GDS systems, such as Amadeus ( AMA.MC ), Travelport ( TVPT.N ) and Sabre ( SABR.O ) from April 1, 2018. It is following the example of Lufthansa and British Airways as airlines use new technology to gain more control over ticket sales. Air France-KLM said it still wanted to cut unit costs by 1-1.5 percent this year, although it now said that target was excluding effects caused by higher load factors and profit sharing. The group’s French brand has lagged rivals on the cost-cutting front, leading to lower profitability. Air France reported a Q3 profit margin of 11 percent, with KLM at 18.5 percent. That compares with an operating profit margin of 18.1 for the Lufthansa brand and 21.5 percent for British Airways. Its Air France business has set up a new lower cost airline Joon, which it hopes will attract a younger generation of customers and make it more competitive against leaner Gulf-based rivals and low cost carriers. Air France-KLM did not give a profit outlook for the year. Analysts forecast on average 1.519 billion euros, which would be a 45 percent jump on last year. Reporting by Cyril Altmeyer and Victoria Bryan;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-france-klm-results/air-france-klm-profit-jumps-as-price-trends-improve-idUKKBN1D30FH'|'2017-11-03T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'37ddc86d90e9b8e9945779d71c3fe767df19771c'|'Starbucks'' Americas cafe sales rises less than expected, shares drop'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:19 PM / in 5 minutes Starbucks sales and profit forecast disappoint, shares drop Lisa Baertlein , Uday Sampath Kumar 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp ( SBUX.O ) cut its profit forecast and posted disappointing quarterly results on Thursday, amid a bitter battle with competitors ranging from boutique coffee seller Intelligentsia to lower-price rivals like McDonald‘s. FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks store is seen inside the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on October 27, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Investors, long used to Starbucks exceeding investor expectations, sent shares down 7.3 percent to $50.85 in after-hours trade. The Seattle-based coffee chain said it now sees long-term earnings per share growth of 12 percent or greater, versus its prior call for growth of 15 percent to 20 percent. Fourth-quarter revenue missed Wall Street’s target after sales at established global cafes gained 2 percent, less than analysts’ average target of 3.2 percent, according to Consensus Metrix. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma battered same-store sales at more than 1,100 U.S. cafes. Sales at mainstay U.S. cafes were down 2 percent for the quarter that ended Oct. 1, excluding the hurricane impacts, they would have been up 3 percent - still just short of analysts’ estimate. Analysts have warned that the Seattle-based company is being “middled” by rising competition on the value and quality fronts and that it must bolster sales of higher-priced specialty drinks and breakfast sandwiches. Chief Executive Kevin Johnson told Reuters in an interview that there was no evidence Starbucks was being hit by competition. “We are not going to be squeezed in the middle,” he said. Johnson noted that U.S. restaurants in general are seeing declining traffic and said that the one area where the company has seen softness is in the afternoons, particularly with regard to sales of its blended beverages such as frappuccinos. Still, U.S. convenience stores and fast-food chains are improving quality and pricing aggressively. McDonald’s Corp ( MCD.N ) recently expanded its McCafe menu with new macchiatos and lattes and is selling small McCafe espresso drinks for $2. Elsewhere, Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc ( DNKN.O ) is offering special deals on breakfast sandwiches in its bid to win breakfast. At the same time, upscale craft coffee rivals like Nestle SA’s ( NESN.S ) Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia are opening more shops. The number of competing coffee shops within one mile of Starbucks shops in several large U.S. markets has increased in recent years, BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Strelzik said in a note before the earnings. Adding to the pressure, Strelzik said, Starbucks continues to build its own U.S. stores at the risk of cannibalizing sales. Johnson, who succeeded Starbucks co-founder Howard Schultz as chief executive in April, is under pressure to continue serving up the kind of growth that Wall Street has come to expect from the world’s biggest coffee chain. In the last 12 months, Starbucks shares are up about 4 percent, while the S&P 500 index is up more 20 percent. Starbucks’ stock has been trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.8, slightly above McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Brands, but well below the 52.74 ratio for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc ( CMG.N ), according to Thomson Reuters data. Total net revenue decreased 0.2 percent to $5.70 billion, compared with analysts’ revenue target of $5.80 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to the company fell to $788.5 million, or 54 cents per share, in the latest quarter, from $801 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, it earned 55 cents per share, in line with Wall Street targets. Starbucks in the third quarter of 2016 changed the basis of its loyalty program to dollars spent from number of orders because customers were buying items individually to get more points. Traffic statistics fell when customers resumed ordering items together. Labor pressure is also heating up. Starbucks has been adding working hours at some U.S. stores to ease backups caused by a flood of mobile orders. Meanwhile, cities and states are boosting the minimum wage and a tightening labor market is forcing some chains to increase pay and benefits to recruit and retain workers. Same-store sales from China were up 8 percent, but the broader China and Asia Pacific region posted a rise of 2 percent, versus expectations of 3.2 percent. Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-starbucks-results/starbucks-americas-cafe-sales-rises-less-than-expected-shares-drop-idUSKBN1D22QZ'|'2017-11-02T22:18:00.000+02:00'
'9bfdecec6a1a92556425f2d8fd3ab7fb7ddfe2a9'|'Audi recalls almost 5,000 A8 models for emissions software updates'|'Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 11:09 AM / a few seconds ago Audi recalls almost 5,000 A8 models for emissions software updates Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) premium carmaker Audi said on Thursday it would recall 4,997 of its A8 model vehicles with V8 diesel engines in Europe to update software after it found they emitted too much nitrogen oxide. FILE PHOTO: The logo of German car manufacturer Audi is seen at a building of a car dealer in Duebendorf, Switzerland November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann It said it had reported the matter to Germany’s motor authority KBA. An Audi spokesman said the KBA was pointing to an illegal manipulation of emissions. Audi is grappling with car recalls, prosecutor investigations and criticism from unions and managers over the diesel emissions scandal and its performance since news of the affair broke in 2015. The group said 3,660 of the affected cars were in Germany and were made between September 2013 and August 2017. It said the software would likely be available in the first quarter of 2018. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Jan Schwartz; Editing by Christoph Steitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-audi/audi-recalls-almost-5000-a8-models-for-emissions-software-updates-idUKKBN1D21B2'|'2017-11-02T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'a06dc616df4415d175875a538b3d0b031e9d1ebe'|'Japan''s Suzuki posts second-quarter profit jump, lifts full-year outlook'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:29 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Suzuki frets about India''s electric shift despite sales boom Maki Shiraki , Naomi Tajitsu 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A sudden move to electric cars in India, which is considering electrifying all vehicles over the next 15 years, could catch Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp out in its largest market. FILE PHOTO: Suzuki Motor''s logo on a wheel of its Wagon R Stingray is pictured at its launch event in Tokyo, Japan, February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo “As the industry shifts towards EVs (electric vehicles), when it comes to India, our volumes are so large that I worry that we could be caught flat-footed if there was a sudden shift towards electrification,” CEO Toshihiro Suzuki said on Thursday. India appears to be focusing on electric vehicles in a shift away from a government policy that incentivises both hybrid and battery-electric cars. Suzuki, which makes the Baleno compact hatchback and the Vitara Brezza compact SUV, dominates the Indian market through its majority stake in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s largest automaker, but neither produces battery-electric cars at the moment. Current sales of electric cars in India remain negligible, mainly due to the high cost of batteries which make the vehicles out of reach for many buyers in a country where cars can cost 250,000 rupees ($3,868). A lack of charging stations is also likely to slow the introduction of EVs. But while strong sales of gasoline-powered vehicles in India drove a record quarterly operating profit at Japan’s No. 4 automaker and prompted a 25 percent upgrade to its full-year profit forecast to 300 billion yen, which would be an all-time high, CEO Suzuki said he was “anxious” about the future. “Our results may be what they are, but they don’t offer me much comfort,” he told reporters at a results briefing. Suzuki earlier this year announced it was in talks with Toyota Motor Corp to trade expertise in parts supplies and R&D as the compact car maker has admitted it has struggled to keep up with rapid developments in non-petrol engines and self-driving cars. A rapid tightening of Indian regulations on petrol vehicles could have a big impact on Suzuki, which generates roughly half of its global sales in the fast-developing country. In the three months to September, sales in India jumped 19.4 percent to 457,000 units. In Japan, sales increased 6.2 percent. For now, booming demand in India would continue to boost Suzuki’s bottom line, and the automaker raised its interim dividend to 30 yen per share, up 8 yen per share from a previous forecast, and said it expected it full-year dividend to increase to 60 yen per share, up 36 percent from last year. Solid sales in Asia also helped Mazda Motor Corp, which raised its full-year vehicle sales forecast for China even as it expects slower sales in the United States, its largest market where it is struggling to sell its sedan models. Japan’s fifth-largest automaker reported a 1.9 percent rise in operating profit to 36.6 billion yen for the second quarter, supported by a weak yen while strong demand in China and at home offsetting sluggishness in the United States. Net profit fell 23.5 percent to 26.7 billion yen during the quarter, due largely to costs associated with a U.S. settlement reached over claims related to Takata Corp air bag recalls. Mazda kept its forecast unchanged for full-year operating profit to rise 19 percent to 150.0 billion yen, but it revised its yen assumption rate to 110 yen to the U.S. dollar, from a previous forecast for 108 yen. ($1 = 113.8900 yen) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/suzuki-results/japans-suzuki-posts-second-quarter-profit-jump-lifts-full-year-outlook-idINKBN1D20IY'|'2017-11-02T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'be69e2c300520ed7646b0b87980afde6f4880d32'|'BoE''s Carney says two more rate increases over next three years are needed'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:20 PM / Updated 3 hours ago BoE''s Carney says two more rate increases over next three years are needed Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Two more 25 basis point increases in interest rates are needed over the next 3 years in order to get inflation down towards the Bank of England’s 2 percent target, BoE governor Mark Carney said on Thursday. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, speaks at the Bank of England conference ''Independence 20 Years On'' at the Fishmonger''s Hall in London, Britain September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/Files “We in fact need those two additional rate increases in order to get that return of inflation to target and in fact if you look closely at the forecast, inflation approaches the target, it doesn’t quite get there, and the economy is likely to be in a position of excess demand,” Carney told a news conference. Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg, writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-forecast/boes-carney-says-two-more-rate-increases-over-next-three-years-are-needed-idINKBN1D21RZ'|'2017-11-02T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'971d41ba9f98040ba58a0ac84f57149defbef093'|'U.S. job growth accelerates, jobless rate falls to 4.1 percent'|' 40 PM / in 6 minutes U.S. job growth accelerates, jobless rate falls to 4.1 percent Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth accelerated in October after hurricane-related disruptions hurt employment in September, but there were signs that labour market momentum was slowing as annual wage gains sharply retreated. Job seekers apply for the 300 available positions at a new Target retail store in San Francisco, California August 9, 2012. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo Nonfarm payrolls increased by 261,000 jobs last month as 106,000 leisure and hospitality workers returned to work, the Labor Department said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. That was the largest gain since July 2016, but was below economists’ expectations for an increase of 310,000 jobs. Data for September was revised to show payrolls rising by 18,000 instead of falling by 33,000 as previously reported. The unemployment rate fell to near a 17-year low of 4.1 percent because people left the labour force. Still, the data probably does little to change expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December. The sharp moderation in job growth in September was blamed on hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which devastated parts of Texas and Florida in late August and early September, leaving workers, mostly in lower-paying industries such as leisure and hospitality, temporarily unemployed. October’s acceleration in employment growth reinforces the Fed’s assessment on Wednesday that “the labour market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions.” The U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and financial markets have almost priced in an increase in borrowing costs in December. The Fed has hiked rates twice this year. But the return of the lower-paying industry workers held down wage growth in October. Average hourly earnings slipped by one cent, leaving them unchanged in percentage terms. That lowered the year-on-year increase to 2.4 percent, which was the smallest annual increase since February 2016. They shot up 0.5 percent in September, lifting the annual increase in that month to 2.9 percent. Economists, however, remain optimistic that wage growth will accelerate with the labour market near full employment. Last month’s one-tenth percentage point drop in the unemployment rate took it to its lowest reading since December 2000. The decline, however, reflected a drop in the labour force. The jobless rate is now below the Fed’s median forecast for 2017. LABOUR MARKET TIGHTENING A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 7.9 percent last month, the lowest level since December 2006, from 8.3 percent in September. For now, tepid wage growth supports views that inflation will continue to undershoot its 2 percent target and could raise concerns about consumer spending, which appears to have been largely supported by savings this year. The economy grew at a 3.0 percent annualised rate in the third quarter. Economic strength has persisted even as President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress have struggled to enact their economic programme. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled a bill that proposed slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, cutting tax rates on individuals and families and ending certain tax breaks. The tax plan has already been met with opposition from small businesses, realtors and homebuilders. October’s employment gains took the average for the past two months to 90,000, below the 162,000 monthly average in the last three months. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The slowdown in the job growth trend largely reflects difficulties by employers finding qualified workers. Private payrolls surged by 219,000 jobs in October after falling by 3,000 in September. Manufacturing employment increased by 24,000 jobs. The retail sector lost 8,300 jobs last month. Construction payrolls gained 11,000 in October, likely boosted by hiring related to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts in the wake of the hurricanes. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-accelerates-jobless-rate-falls-to-4-1-percent-idUKKBN1D31BM'|'2017-11-03T14:39:00.000+02:00'
'e087fdbddde6e81d1d96b56475b85a25b4b465c4'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds AT&T, Renault, Imagination Technologies, Evonik, Novartis)Nov 2 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday:** Banks have lined up around 1.25 billion euros ($1.46 billion) of leveraged loans to back private equity firm CVC Capital Partners’ acquisition of Netherlands-based business services firm TMF Group, banking sources said.** U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital plans to extend a deadline for its $1.35 billion bid for Asatsu-DK Inc by around a week to give shareholders more time to review the deal after Asatsu-DK shareholder WPP took legal action, a senior Bain official said on Thursday.** Advertising giant WPP said it was taking legal action against partner Asatsu-DK Inc, deepening a row over the Japanese firm’s backing for a $1.3 billion buyout offer from Bain Capital.** China’s Shenhua Group has acquired a 75 percent stake in four wind parks developed by Copelouzos, the Greek developer said.** CK Asset Holdings Ltd, controlled by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, is selling its 73-storey office tower to C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development Asia Property Ltd for HK$40.2 billion ($5.2 billion), the world’s biggest ever single property sale.** Lenovo Group has agreed to buy a majority stake in Fujitsu Ltd’s personal computer unit for up to $269 million, in a bid to corner a larger share of a market that is battling weak sales as more people switch to mobile devices.** Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd said it agreed to set up in Thailand a soft drink joint venture with PepsiCo Inc in March, as it looks to expand in the Southeast Asian country.** British online gambling company GVC is selling its Turkish operations for up to 150 million euros in a deal that removes a hurdle to a potential takeover of Ladbrokes Coral or another rival.** Botox-maker Allergan Plc said it will begin to sell off its nearly 10 percent stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which has lost 60 percent of its value so far this year.** German healthcare group Fresenius SE said on Thursday that weakness at Akorn, the U.S. maker of liquid generic drugs it has agreed to buy, could continue into next year but the deal was still worth it over the longer term.** Private equity fund Mid Europa Partners said it agreed to buy a controlling stake in Polish juices and frozen food producer Hortex from Argan Capital.** AT&T Inc and the U.S. Department of Justice are discussing conditions the No. 2 wireless carrier needs to meet in order for its acquisition of Time Warner Inc to win government approval, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.** The French government began the sale of 4.73 percent of carmaker Renault, paring its holding back to the 15 percent that preceded a 2015 power struggle with Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn and removing a residual irritant in their relationship.** Troubled chip designer Imagination Technologies will delist from the London Stock Exchange on Friday after a court approved a 550 million pound ($718 million) takeover by China-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge.** German specialty chemicals maker Evonik is currently not interested in buying Swiss peer Clariant or any of its parts, a person familiar with Evonik said, citing a lack of strategic fit and high prices the assets would command.** Swiss drugmaker Novartis is working with Centerview to review options for its dermatology business, including a possible sale, as it trims non-core assets, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. ($1 = 0.8591 euros) (Compiled by Manas Mishra and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL4N1N85OU'|'2017-11-02T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'db04764a318e8ec19b8e9fd1b5c9720259abc704'|'Insurer Lancashire reports third-quarter loss on natural catastrophe hits'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:31 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Insurer Lancashire reports third-quarter loss on natural catastrophe hits Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Lancashire Holdings Ltd ( LRE.L ) reported a third-quarter pretax loss after what looks set to be the costliest quarter ever for insurers and reinsurers due to natural catastrophes, but said it was seeing some evidence of an increase in insurance pricing. The property and casualty insurer, which writes policies for heavy-duty assets such as oil rigs, ships and aircraft, reported a pretax loss of $136.4 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a pretax profit of $42.9 million a year earlier. [nRSB3278Va] Lancashire recorded a net loss from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and Mexican earthquakes, of $165 million, which it called an “extraordinary level of loss activity.” “After many years of soft pricing conditions we are at last seeing some evidence of an increase in pricing, particularly in catastrophe exposed lines,” Chief Executive Officer Alex Maloney said. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lancashire-results/insurer-lancashire-reports-third-quarter-loss-on-natural-catastrophe-hits-idUKKBN1D20OX'|'2017-11-02T09:31:00.000+02:00'
'be615ac32efe7cc14967372e1a889bf59097c7f0'|'S.Korea may consider filing WTO complaint over U.S. solar tariffs'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:02 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago S.Korea may consider filing WTO complaint over U.S. solar tariffs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - South Korea’s trade ministry said on Thursday it may consider filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) in response to U.S. solar panel import restrictions. The country’s trade ministry said in a statement that it will take all available measures and weigh the possibility of taking the case to the WTO once a detailed report from the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is released on Nov. 13. The move came as the ITC on Tuesday made three different recommendations for restricting solar cell and panel imports including an immediate 35 percent tariff on all imported panels. The United States has been keen to address trade imbalances and protect U.S. manufacturers against cheaper imported goods such as steel and autos, coming into the U.S. market. Last year, South Korean solar power equipment manufacturers including Hanwha Q CELLS Co Ltd exported about $1.3 billion worth of solar cells and modules to the United States, making up 15.6 percent of the U.S. solar market, a trade ministry official said citing ministry data. Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-trade-solar/s-korea-may-consider-filing-wto-complaint-over-u-s-solar-tariffs-idUSL4N1N834Z'|'2017-11-02T11:01:00.000+02:00'
'124daaab4cb077921b6ed4fb6cd53c069c19816f'|'Etihad to end Dallas-Fort Worth route, blames American Airlines'|'DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Etihad Airways said on Thursday it would stop flying to Dallas-Fort Worth next year after American Airlines’ decided in July to end a codeshare agreement between the two carriers.American Airlines has lobbied the U.S. government to investigate allegations of state subsidies at Etihad and other major Gulf carriers. The Gulf airlines deny the allegations.The end of the codeshare agreement would make the route “commercially unsustainable” and left Etihad “with no choice but to suspend flights” from March 25, 2018, Chief Executive Peter Baumgartner said in a statement.“The cancellation of the Dallas route is one of several adjustments that we are making to our U.S. network in 2018 in order to improve system profitability,” he said.Since launching a strategy review last year, Etihad has appointed a new group chief executive who will take over in January, sold a stake in a European carrier, and withdrawn financial support from Alitalia and Air Berlin , which led to both airlines entering administration.Etihad said it had carried more than 235,000 passengers to Dallas-Fort Worth since it started flying to the American Airlines’ hub in 2014.Etihad also operates passenger flights to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/etihad-american-airline-codeshare/etihad-to-end-dallas-fort-worth-route-blames-american-airlines-idINL8N1N81AF'|'2017-11-02T04:09:00.000+02:00'
'4e651264630b52aa1d3d7f69c1be8c5797324755'|'U.S. makes final finding Canada lumber dumped, sets duties'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:49 PM / in 12 minutes U.S. makes final finding Canada lumber dumped, sets duties Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it made a final finding that imports of Canadian softwood lumber are being unfairly subsidized and dumped in the United States, escalating a trade dispute with Canada in the midst of talks to renegotiate NAFTA. The decision imposes anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties affecting about $5.66 billion worth of imports of the key building material. The department said exporters from Canada have sold softwood lumber in the U.S. market at 3.20 percent to 8.89 percent less than fair value, and that Canada is providing unfair subsidies at rates of 3.34 percent to 18.19 percent. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by David Alexander)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-canada-trade-lumber/u-s-makes-final-finding-canada-lumber-dumped-sets-duties-idUSL2N1N815J'|'2017-11-02T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'aa6cb68ce58af69d0aa42784e59ff3851d5b336c'|'The Bank of England''s rate-setters and how they might vote'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:47 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago The Bank of England''s rate-setters and how they might vote William Schomberg 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England’s interest-rate setters are expected to announce on Thursday that they are raising interest rates for the first time in a decade. People walk past the Bank of England in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The BoE surprised markets on Sept. 14 when it said, despite the big uncertainties about Brexit, that most of its policymakers thought a rate hike was likely in the coming months. The signal came even as the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee members voted 7-2 to keep rates at their all-time low of 0.25 percent. That means at least three of its members will have to switch their vote if the BoE is to raise rates on Nov. 2. Investors will be looking for the size of the majority in favour of the expected rate hike as a way to gauge the likelihood of another rate hike at some point in 2018. Following is a brief description of each of the MPC’s members and their latest comments on the outlook for rates. For an interactive version, double-click on tmsnrt.rs/2eSYykb. THE SEVEN WHO VOTED TO KEEP RATE UNCHANGED IN SEPT MARK CARNEY, GOVERNOR - LIKELY TO VOTE FOR A HIKE Since arriving at the BoE more than four years ago, Carney has signalled on previous occasions that a rate hike might be coming, only to be wrong-footed by the economy’s twists and turns. This time, he has sounded more emphatic. Carney was one of the MPC members who in September thought a hike was likely to be needed in the coming months. “Now, we will take that decision based on the data. I guess that possibility has definitely increased,” he said on Sept. 29. “What we have said (is) that if the economy continues on the track that it’s been on - and all indications are that it is - (then) in the relatively near term we can expect that interest rates would increase somewhat.” BEN BROADBENT, DEPUTY GOVERNOR FOR MONETARY POLICY - POSITION UNKNOWN BUT LIKELY TO VOTE FOR A HIKE Carney’s number two for interest rates and other measures to help the economy, Broadbent has not spoken publicly since September’s surprise announcement. But in August he said a hike would not be a big risk. “I think there may be some possibility for interest rates to go up a little bit,” he said “One shouldn’t overdo this. If and when it happens there will be a lot of talk about the first rate rise since ‘x’. But it’s just a rate rise and we got perfectly used to rate rises of this size in the past.” ANDY HALDANE, CHIEF ECONOMIST - LIKELY TO VOTE FOR A HIKE Haldane was long considered one of the strongest supporters of continued record low rates. But he shook up markets in June when he said he was likely to vote for a rate hike in the second half of 2017 and he was among the MPC members who said in September that a rate hike was likely to be needed in the coming months. “Let’s be clear here: for me (a rate hike) would be a good news story. This would be interest rates getting back to normal, even if the new normal is different to the old normal.” he said on Sept. 27. JON CUNLIFFE, DEPUTY GOVERNOR FOR FINANCIAL STABILITY - UNLIKELY TO VOTE FOR A RATE HIKE Cunliffe suggested last month that he was in no hurry to vote for a rate hike. “I am not going to try and anticipate the meeting, but for me the economy has clearly slowed this year,” Cunliffe said in a newspaper interview published on Oct. 23. “Over the forecast period of three years rates will need to rise. The exact timing of when that starts? Well, that for me is a more open question.” DAVE RAMSDEN, DEPUTY GOVERNOR FOR MARKETS AND BANKING - UNLIKELY TO VOTE FOR A RATE HIKE Ramsden, who joined the BoE in September from the British Treasury where he worked as the top economic adviser, surprised investors last month when he distanced himself from the MPC’s majority view that rates probably need to rise soon. “Despite continued robust growth in employment, there is no sign of second-round effects onto wages from higher recent inflation,” he said. Ramsden is no stranger to the MPC debates having attended 92 of its meetings in his previous role at the Treasury. GERTJAN VLIEGHE, EXTERNAL MPC MEMBER - LIKELY TO VOTE FOR A RATE HIKE Vlieghe pushed up the pound by almost as much as the surprise Sept. 14 BoE announcement when, a day later, he suggested that he too was close to voting for a rate hike. Until then, the former hedge fund economist had argued against such a move and was seen as the BoE’s strongest supporter of record-low rates. “If these data trends of reducing slack, rising pay pressure, strengthening household spending and robust global growth continue, the appropriate time for a rise in Bank Rate might be as early as in the coming months,” he said on Sept. 15. SILVANA TENREYRO, EXTERNAL MPC MEMBER - MIGHT VOTE FOR A HIKE Tenreyro is another newcomer to the MPC which she joined in July. She has voted twice to keep rates on hold and she said last month that her support for the MPC’s majority position was “very contingent on the data”. Tenreyro, a professor at the London School of Economics, also said raising rates too soon would be a costly mistake. THE TWO WHO HAVE VOTED FOR A HIKE MICHAEL SAUNDERS, EXTERNAL MPC MEMBER - HAS VOTED FOR A RATE HIKE SINCE JUNE Saunders, a former economist with financial services firm Citi, has been in the minority of MPC members voting for a rate hike since June. “We do not need to be putting the brakes on so much that the economy weakens sharply. But our foot no longer needs to be quite so firmly on the accelerator,” he said on Aug. 31. IAN MCCAFFERTY, EXTERNAL MPC MEMBER - HAS VOTED FOR A RATE HIKE SINCE JUNE McCafferty has called for a rate hike on and off over the past three years and is currently the other MPC member, alongside Saunders, who has voted for a hike to 0.50 percent. “I feel on the balance of monetary policy that there is a need for change. I think this would be justified and would be the prudent thing to do at this stage,” he said on July 4. On Oct. 5 he welcomed the fact that markets were pricing in a November rate rise. Writing by William Schomberg Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-mpc/the-bank-of-englands-rate-setters-and-how-they-might-vote-idUKKBN1D14R3'|'2017-11-01T14:46:00.000+02:00'
'04440033df2517302ae068c5a88cc10b0ff3e145'|'Macau casinos post 22 pct growth in Oct gambling revenue yr/yr'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Gambling revenue in Macau jumped 22 percent in October, beating expectations to hit a three-year high as a national holiday week saw visitors stream into the world’s biggest casino hub and big bets from VIP punters.Casinos are seen in a general view of Macau, China October 8, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Macau, a former Portuguese colony located on China’s southern coast, is the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.Monthly gambling revenue came in at 26.6 billion patacas ($3.3 billion), rising from a year earlier for a 15 consecutive month of gains. That was higher than analysts’ expectations of growth between 13 percent and 18 percent.Visitors from mainland China during the holiday week, which ran from October 1-8, rose 11 percent from a year earlier and casino operators including MGM China and Wynn Macau said hotel rooms had been fully booked.The holiday period was also one day longer than last year.During the third quarter, Macau’s gambling revenues have been bolstered by growth in the high roller VIP segment, with growth in the mass market segment lagging behind.Earnings from Sands and Wynn in the past week have shown strong VIP gains but analysts are cautious about the sustainability of recent strength due to macro-economic factors such as a slowdown in money supply growth and real estate pricing.The VIP segment, made up of punters who typically place around 1 million yuan ($150,936) per bet, is, however, very volatile and casino operators are keen to develop the mass market segment.Sands China and Wynn Macau which have casinos on Macau’s Cotai strip -a stretch of reclaimed land now home to some of the Chinese territory’s most opulent resorts - are outperforming companies like SJM Holdings which doesn’t have a presence on the fast growing strip.SJM, which posted a 16.5 percent fall in third-quarter net profit on Tuesday, is not expected to open its resort on the strip until 2019 due to delays from a typhoon and a recent fire.Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-macau-gambling-revenues/macau-casinos-post-22-percent-growth-in-october-gambling-revenue-year-on-year-idUSKBN1D13KP'|'2017-11-01T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'856b7f927160d6f142b7846b756d6bb027ad605f'|'UPDATE 1-Uzbek immigrant with New Jersey ties at center of New York attack probe'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:46 AM / in 7 minutes UPDATE 1-Uzbek immigrant with New Jersey ties at center of New York attack probe Reuters Staff (Updates with information about Saipov driving for Uber in paragraphs 14-15) By Dan Whitcomb Oct 31 (Reuters) - The man accused of killing eight people by racing a pickup truck down a New York City bike path on Tuesday may have worked as a driver and lived in New Jersey after emigrating from Uzbekistan seven years ago, according to authorities and media reports. Few other details about the 29-year-old suspect have emerged since the Tuesday afternoon vehicle rampage in lower Manhattan, blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the landmark World Trade Center Twin Towers. Police have declined to identify the man but a source familiar with the investigation identified him as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov and said he was not a U.S. citizen. His immigration status was not immediately clear. Saipov was shot by a police officer while attempting to flee minutes after the attack and was whisked away to a local hospital, where he was recovering from an abdominal wound. With authorities saying they believe the attack was a “terrorist event,” the lack of disclosure may reflect the nature of the investigation, which is still in its earliest stage. According to CNN and other media outlets, the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” - Arabic for “God is greatest” - after leaping from his truck, which had crashed into a school bus as he sped away from the carnage. He also left behind a note claiming he carried out the deadly assault in the name of the Islamic State militant group, according to reports that Reuters could not immediately confirm. Federal officials had become aware of Saipov while conducting an unrelated investigation, the New York Times reported, citing three unidentified officials. The Times offered no further details about the nature of the investigation, when it was conducted, or its outcome. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to comment on that report when asked by reporters at a news conference. “It is too early to give you a definitive answer,” he said. “HE LIKED THE U.S.” Saipov, born in February 1988, moved to the United States seven years ago from Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country that was once part of the Soviet Union. He appears to have lived in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey since then. An Uzbek immigrant who met Saipov in Florida several years ago told the Times that Saipov worked as a truck driver there but began driving for Uber when he moved to New Jersey. “He was a very good person when I knew him,” Kobiljon Matkarov told the newspaper. “He liked the U.S. He seemed very lucky and all the time he was happy and talking like everything is O.K. He did not seem like a terrorist, but I did not know him from the inside.” Saipov was an Uber driver after passing the background check, but has since been banned from the Uber app, a spokesperson with the ride-sharing company said. “We are aggressively and quickly reviewing this partner’s history with Uber, and at this time we have not identified any related concerning safety reports,” the company said, adding that it has been in contact with the FBI. The Times, citing sources, reported that Saipov had been living in Paterson, New Jersey, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the scene of the attack. He rented the truck used in the attack from a Home Depot in nearby Passaic, just south of Paterson, it said. Police cordoned off an area of Paterson, a one-time industrial hub known for its large immigrant population, early Wednesday morning. About 25,000 to 30,000 Muslims live in the city, giving it one of the highest concentrations of Muslim people in the New York City area. Saipov has a history of traffic violations, according to media reports and court records. In one incident, he was pulled over in central Pennsylvania for pulling a truck trailer that was longer than permitted by law and “operating unsafe equipment”, as well as driving with the wrong operators license, state judicial records show. Saipov listed both Paterson and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, as his addresses. He paid his fine by mail and did not have to appear in court. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by David DeKok in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Mark Hosenball in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Frank McGurty and Paul Tait and Catherine Evans)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/new-york-shooting-suspect/update-1-uzbek-immigrant-with-new-jersey-ties-at-center-of-new-york-attack-probe-idUSL2N1N708S'|'2017-11-01T10:43:00.000+02:00'
'76d39f699ea8d15fdcbf03741e6f77445fb9c338'|'JGBs lifted by upbeat 10-year sale'|'TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds mostly firmed on Wednesday, bolstered by solid demand at an auction of 10-year JGBs.The benchmark 10-year cash JGB yield edged down half a basis point to 0.060 percent, though the 10-year JGB futures contract inched down 0.02 point at 150.45 in afternoon trade.The Ministry of Finance offered 2.3 trillion yen of 10-year JGBs with a 0.10 percent coupon, and said 80.1558 percent of the bids accepted at the lowest price of 100.37.The sale drew bids of 4.55 times the amount offered, up from the previous sale’s bid-to-cover ratio of 4.08 times.The Bank of Japan said on Tuesday that it will maintain the ranges of Japanese government bonds it intends to buy in November from its October purchase plans.The central bank also kept monetary policy steady as expected and roughly maintained its ambitious price forecasts, pointing to signs of growing strength in the economy.But BOJ board newcomer Goushi Kataoka dissented to the decision to stand pat, and said the BOJ should buy government bonds so 15-year yields “remain at less than 0.2 percent.” Takatoshi Ito, an academic who is a potential candidate to become the next BOJ governor, said on Wednesday that the central bank likely won’t be able to exit its massive stimulus programme while inflation is hovering below 1 percent. (Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-lifted-by-upbeat-10-year-sale-idINL4N1N72C5'|'2017-11-01T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'7c10f7658fcde3664c021c629ce3eea246bac857'|'British stocks hover near record highs in wake of BoE rate hike'|'November 3, 2017 / 10:44 AM / in 4 hours British stocks hit record close in wake of BoE rate hike Danilo Masoni , Helen Reid 4 Min Read MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - British shares hit a record closing high on Friday, supported by a rally in global stocks and the Bank of England’s interest rate hike, which helped British exporters by putting pressure on sterling. The London Stock Exchange building is seen in central London September 24, 2009. REUTERS/Stephen Hird The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 index .FTSE peaked at 7580.95 - 18 points short of June''s all-time intraday record - and ended 0.1 percent higher on the day at a 7,560.35, for a 0.7 percent gain on the week. The mid cap index .FTMC also hit a new all-time high and closed up 0.4 percent on the day. “Globally, stocks are at record highs, so it would be a pretty dire sign if the FTSE was not in on the action when the economy is just about keeping up with peers,” said ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson. “Yesterday’s sharp fall in sterling on the BoE’s dovish hike was the catalyst for fresh gains as, once again, we saw a weaker pound a reason to bid up UK equities,” he added. Sterling came under renewed pressure on Friday but strengthened slightly after data showed that the services sector enjoyed a sharp pick-up in growth last month, although companies were nervous about Brexit. The closely watched survey came a day after the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in a decade - by a quarter of a point - but said it expected only “very gradual” further increases as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. Among big internationally exposed FTSE companies, Diageo ( DGE.L ) was the biggest gainer, up 0.9 percent and close to its all-time high, while Experian ( EXPN.L ) and Compass Group ( CPG.L ) added 1.6 and 0.8 percent respectively. Domestic banks Lloyds ( LLOY.L ) and Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) were under pressure for a second day on the prospect that the UK tightening cycle would be very gentle. The biggest gainer on the FTSE was NMC Health ( NMC.L ), up 4.1 percent, helped by a price target upgrade by Deutsche Bank. IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways, fell 1.8 percent, reversing earlier gains. IAG said it was aiming for annual core earnings around 20 percent higher than previous targets as it stuck to its goals for earnings-per-share growth and margins for the coming years. Among mid-caps, there were stronger price moves. TP ICAP ( TCAPI.L ), the world’s No. 1 interdealer broker, fell 6.4 percent after saying its finance head was leaving and flagging a challenging outlook for the final quarter of 2017. “The shock news (on TP ICAP) is that Andrew Baddeley, CFO, is stepping down from the board with immediate effect. Underlying trading, however, is good,” said Liberum, confirming its ‘buy’ rating. Small-cap miner Lonmin ( LMI.L ) saw a third of its market value wiped off after delaying its annual financial results, saying it could not yet give a specific figure for the impact of an ongoing business review. It had its worst ever day on the stock market, dropping 32.4 percent. Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Helen Reid; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/british-stocks-hover-near-record-highs-in-wake-of-boe-rate-hike-idUKKBN1D30ZL'|'2017-11-03T12:44:00.000+02:00'
'50c2a1c2408acabf2963e17d1e456b396f7268b3'|'Exclusive: McKinsey worked with S.African firm after learning of Gupta links - sources'|'JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Global consultancy McKinsey worked with a firm in South Africa for four months after learning it was controlled by the Gupta brothers, business friends of President Jacob Zuma accused of corruption, four sources familiar with the deal said.FILE PHOTO The logo of consulting firm McKinsey & Company is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Their comments contradict media statements by McKinsey that it ceased work with the firm, local consultancy Trillian, in March 2016 -- after due diligence by external consultants showed the links to the Gupta family, accused by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog of siphoning public funds.McKinsey, which says it never signed a separate contract with Trillian, also ignored warnings by senior staff in South Africa not to partner Trillian in a deal to advise state utility Eskom which is being investigated for fraud, the sources said. The senior staff were troubled by Eskom’s demand that Trillian must be involved in the deal despite having little experience.It then took a year for McKinsey to act on calls for an internal inquiry into the relationship with Trillian, the sources said.Two of McKinsey’s global directors -- Europe-based Pal Erik Sjatil and Africa chief Georges Desvaux -- and South African office head Saf Yeboah-Amankwah told concerned partners the situation was “under control”, three former McKinsey employees said.Six sources with direct knowledge of the matter -- four former McKinsey employees and two current employees -- said there was no investigation until July 2017. McKinsey declined to comment on this allegation.Sjatil and Desvaux were on McKinsey’s Shareholder Council, its highest leadership body.Sjatil, Desvaux and Yeboah-Amankwah declined to comment for this story. Eskom, McKinsey and Trillian have denied wrongdoing.The sources’ disclosures are the first indication that McKinsey’s work with Trillian on the 1.6 billion rand ($113 million) contract to turn around Eskom continued until July of that year -- when Eskom cancelled the deal.Asked about the sources’ comments, McKinsey told Reuters by email on Thursday: “McKinsey never had a supplier development partnership with Trillian. We terminated our discussions in March 2016 and notified the client and Trillian.”HOPES FOR A “SOLUTION”Eskom had told McKinsey it must use Trillian as a partner to secure the “turnaround” contract under a black empowerment programme, but by July it had become clear that McKinsey would not sign a formal contract with it.Four people involved in the contract with Eskom said McKinsey’s work with Trillian continued until then, with one saying “the team hoped a solution could be found right up until Eskom cut ties.”McKinsey and Trillian had wanted to extend their advisory partnership at Eskom for four years in a deal that could earn them $700 million, according to documents setting out the firms’ cooperation plans seen by Reuters.Sources at McKinsey confirmed the documents’ authenticity. Asked about the documents, a McKinsey spokesman did not deny they were genuine.McKinsey said in its email to Reuters that Eskom knew Trillian would not be McKinsey’s partner and added: ”Any questions about why Trillian remained at Eskom (after March 2016) and what they did, should be directed to Eskom.The disclosures are likely to form part of an investigation launched by South Africa’s parliamentary committee on public enterprises into whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to a Gupta-linked company as a way of securing the deal, a source close to the committee said.Trillian was owned at the time by Salim Essa, a business partner of the Guptas and of the president’s son, Duduzane Zuma.McKinsey’s global risk committee, a vetting body, gave the partnership with Trillian initial approval, pending due diligence, but senior managers in Johannesburg did not inform the committee fully about how Trillian hid its ownership and why costs for Eskom were unusually high, three former partners said.In the end, McKinsey launched a full internal investigation into its handling of the partnership with Trillian in July this year, after local media published a letter from a senior McKinsey manager dated Feb. 16, 2016 asking Eskom to pay Trillian as a McKinsey subcontractor.McKinsey said the letter “inaccurately characterised” the relationship with Trillian. The manager has since left the firm.McKinsey said on Oct. 17 the preliminary findings of the inquiry, approved by global head Dominic Barton, found “violations of our professional standards” but did not uncover any corruption.In its email on Thursday, McKinsey did not comment directly on the timing of its internal inquiry, directing Reuters instead to its Oct. 17 statement.($1 = 14.1047 rand)Editing by Timothy Heritage '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mckinsey-safrica/exclusive-mckinsey-worked-with-s-african-firm-after-learning-of-gupta-links-sources-idINKBN1D31RE'|'2017-11-03T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'a270885aefdb2749c5e96841c3260fb396840479'|'Futures jump on strong earnings; Fed takes center stage'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:36 AM / in 9 minutes S&P, Dow higher as oil prices rise; Apple weighs on Nasdaq Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - The S&P and the Dow were higher on Wednesday, as energy stocks gained from a jump in oil prices and strong private jobs data pointed to the strength in the labor market, while Apple’s 1 percent drop limited gains on the Nasdaq. Traders work on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The recent rally on Wall Street has been supported by strong third-quarter results from technology and consumer companies amid concerns over stretched valuations. “Earnings drive the markets, and they continue to be really good,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. Third-quarter earnings have been largely positive, with 73 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported topping profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. That is above the 72 percent profit-beat rate in the past four quarters. On Wednesday, cosmetics maker Estee Lauder ( EL.N ), US Steel ( X.N ) and Garmin ( GRMN.O ) all reported strong results. Estee Lauder rose nearly 10 percent, US Steel 11 percent and Garmin 5.51 percent. Investors are also tracking the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting that concludes later on Wednesday. The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged as speculation swirls on who will be its next leader, but will likely point to a firming economy as it edges closer to a possible rate rise next month. “I don’t believe anybody in the world thinks the Fed is going to do anything with the interest rates now. What they may say about December or next year is what the market is watching for,” said Kinahan. The White House has said President Donald Trump will announce his Fed pick on Thursday. Trump is expected to choose Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is seen as more stock-market friendly, sources have told Reuters. At 10:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 120.91 points, or 0.52 percent, at 23,498.15, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 10.24 points, or 0.40 percent, at 2,585.5 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 8.55 points, or 0.13 percent, at 6,736.22. U.S. private employers hired 235,000 workers in October, the most since March and exceeding a median forecast of 200,000 among economists polled by Reuters, the ADP National Employment Report showed. The focus now shifts to Friday’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report for October. The report will include both public and private-sector employment. Eight of the 11 major S&P indexes were higher, led by gains in the energy .SPNY sector. Oil hit its highest since mid-2015 on data that showed OPEC significantly improved compliance with its pledged supply cuts and Russia is also widely expected to keep to the deal. [O/R] Exxon ( XOM.N ) and Chevron ( CVX.N ) gained 0.50 percent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,767 to 960. On the Nasdaq, 1,421 issues rose and 1,286 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-jump-on-strong-earnings-fed-takes-center-stage-idUSKBN1D14J5'|'2017-11-01T13:35:00.000+02:00'
'67fc8b8bf51812a0fb0d85d190e4e70380f420a5'|'UPDATE 1-Argentine cement maker Loma Negra''s IPO priced at $19/ADS'|'(Updates with company confirmation, adds details)By Nikhil SubbaOct 31 (Reuters) - Loma Negra Cia Industrial Argentina SA, Argentina’s largest cement producer, said on Tuesday its initial public offering was priced at $19 per American Depository share, raising about $954 million.The 50.2 million ADS offering was priced at the top of the proposed range of $15 to $19/ADS, with each ADS representing five common domestic shares.Most of the proceeds will go to Intercement Brasil SA, Brazil’s second-largest cement producer, which owns 99 percent of Loma Negra. The rest will go to the coffers of Loma Negra, the company said in its IPO filing.Loma Negra, founded in 1926, produces and distributes cement, aggregates, concrete and lime to wholesale distributors, concrete producers and industrial customers.The company posted total comprehensive income of 712.92 million Argentine pesos ($40.44 million) for the six months ended June 30, compared with 131.07 million Argentine pesos ($7.43 million) for the same period a year ago.Net revenues came in at 6.67 billion Argentine pesos ($378.33 million) for the same six months, up about 54 percent.The company plans to debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “LOMA” on Wednesday.BofA Merrill Lynch, Bradesco BBI, Citigroup, HSBC, Itau BBA and Morgan Stanley were top underwriters for the deal.$1 = 17.63 Argentine pesos Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/loma-negra-ciasa-ipo-pricing/update-1-argentine-cement-maker-loma-negras-ipo-priced-at-19-ads-idINL2N1N700D'|'2017-10-31T21:47:00.000+02:00'
'a350e5053ff912b42a8445b54eda268cc0227619'|'SoftBank secures $23.3 billion refinancing for Sprint and ARM buys'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 3 hours ago SoftBank secures $23.3 billion refinancing for Sprint and ARM buys Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) said on Thursday it has secured a 2.65 trillion yen ($23.3 billion) senior loan agreement to refinance the acquisition loans for U.S. telco Sprint Corp ( S.N ) and British chip designer ARM. The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo SoftBank said the loan’s maturity is Sept. 30, 2024. ($1 = 113.8400 yen) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-softbank-group-funding/softbank-secures-23-3-billion-refinancing-for-sprint-and-arm-buys-idINKBN1D20VF'|'2017-11-02T05:40:00.000+02:00'
'0daf618307d0d57b54f6be89564d5e8542298531'|'India raises ethanol price by 5 percent to ease pressure on suppliers'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s cabinet approved a 5 percent increase in the price of ethanol to ease pressure on suppliers of the fuel and cut crude imports, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.The price of ethanol was fixed at 40.85 rupees ($0.6327) per liter before tax, and would be applicable for a year starting Dec. 1, the government said.India has been aiming to boost the use of ethanol, a cleaner fuel option as far as carbon emissions are concerned compared with gasoline. The government has made it mandatory to blend 5 percent ethanol in petrol.However, oil companies find it hard to source the sugar byproduct cheaply due to high state duty it attracts because of its use in the heavily taxed liquor industry, hindering its wide acceptance as an automotive fuel.Sugar mills, on the other hand, prefer to sell to higher-paying spirit distilleries, where they get a better and quicker deal.Unlike Brazil, where sugar firms produce ethanol directly from cane juice, Indian millers use molasses, a by-product of sugar-making, to produce the chemical, so a rise in sugar production will also boost ethanol output.Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-india-ethanol/india-raises-ethanol-price-by-5-percent-to-ease-pressure-on-suppliers-idINKBN1D1475'|'2017-11-01T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'f4eccfb0ce0abce8795517142869523570365311'|'British fintech lender Cashplus seeks banking licence'|' 17 AM / in 26 minutes British fintech lender Cashplus seeks banking licence Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Cashplus said on Thursday it will soon apply for a UK banking licence as part of the British “fintech” firm’s plan to step up its challenge to traditional banks. Having a banking licence offers holders advantages including the ability to lend out deposits to businesses, but it also carries the burden of greater regulatory scrutiny. The move will allow Cashplus to convert the 200 million pounds of customers’ funds it holds into bank deposits, its chief executive Richard Wagner told Reuters. “We have a proven track record and six years’ of profitability, and this change will help us provide more services to customers overlooked by traditional banks.” Formerly Advanced Payments Solutions, Cashplus was founded 12 years ago as one of the first rivals to traditional banks to come from the growing “fintech” sector. Newer banks with branches such as Metro Bank ( MTRO.L ) and app-only smartphone rivals like Monzo and Starling Bank, are chasing market share from incumbents like Lloyds ( LLOY.L ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ) by offering slicker digital services. Cashplus is already profitable, mainly because it levies a charge on current accounts rather than providing them for free. Wagner said Cashplus has already been in conversation with Britain’s banking regulators and aims to formally file its licence application in January. The process can then take around a year, he said. Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cashplus-banking/british-fintech-lender-cashplus-seeks-banking-licence-idUKKBN1D21D8'|'2017-11-02T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'5ecfea80193ce52bd82161454826665fc0892a23'|'Luxury cosmetics help sales pick-up at L''Oreal'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:16 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Luxury cosmetics help sales pick-up at L''Oreal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - L‘Oreal ( OREP.PA ), the world’s biggest cosmetics company, on Thursday posted slightly higher-than-expected sales in the third quarter as luxury brands such as Lancome and a surge in demand in China drove growth. The logo of French cosmetics group L''Oreal is seen in front of the Arc de Triomphe during a public event in Paris, France, October 1, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Like-for-like sales, which strip out currency swings and acquisitions or disposals, rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier between July and September - a pick-up from the previous quarter and more than forecast by analysts. Sales in L‘Oreal’s luxury division, which also includes Kiehl’s and Yves Saint Laurent beauty products, rose by 11.2 percent on a comparable basis, after expanding by 8.9 percent three months earlier. Revenue growth in Asia Pacific also accelerated from one quarter to the next, and the company said Chinese demand was particularly strong. “These good performances strengthen our confidence in our ability to once again outperform the cosmetics market in 2017, and to achieve growth in both our sales and profits,” Chairman and Chief Executive Jean-Paul Agon said in a statement. However, in the consumer products unit - which includes Essie nail varnish, Maybelline make-up and Garnier shampoo and is the biggest contributor to revenue - comparable sales were a touch below forecasts. They rose 2.3 percent, a small slowdown from the 2.4 percent pace notched up three months earlier. Agon said the U.S. and French markets were proving tough. Fellow consumer goods firms have reported mixed results, with Unilever ( ULVR.L ), maker of Dove soap, coming below expectations in the third quarter while Beiersdorf ( BEIG.DE ), owner of Nivea body milk, was more upbeat. Cosmetics giant Estee Lauder ( EL.N ), meanwhile, is also riding high on strong Asian and European sales. L‘Oreal’s revenue came in at 6.1 billion euros (5.44 billion pounds) across the group in the three months to end-September, versus the 6.08 billion euros expected in a poll of analysts carried out by Inquiry Financial for Reuters. Reporting by Sarah White and Pascale Denis; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-loreal-results/luxury-cosmetics-help-sales-pick-up-at-loreal-idUKKBN1D22J1'|'2017-11-02T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'841925119e63e927a96506c17b2520b447d7b2b1'|'Audi recalls almost 5,000 A8 models for emissions software updates'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:05 AM / in 2 hours Audi recalls 5,000 diesel cars to fix emissions control software Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Audi is recalling almost 5,000 cars in Europe for a software fix after discovering they emitted too much nitrogen oxide, the polluting gas that parent Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) concealed from U.S. regulators in its devastating 2015 “dieselgate” scandal. FILE PHOTO: The logo of German car manufacturer Audi is seen at a building of a car dealer in Duebendorf, Switzerland November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The luxury carmaker said on Thursday it had reported the matter to Germany’s road transport authority KBA, which was concerned about the possible illegal manipulation of emission levels. The KBA had no immediate comment. Audi said it would update the software of the 4,997 A8 model vehicles with 4.2 litre V8 diesel engines, of which 3,660 are in Germany and were made between September 2013 and August 2017. The software updates will likely be available in the first quarter of 2018 after winter testing. “Among other things, the update should ensure that after cold starts the engine more quickly reaches optimal operating conditions for the exhaust-gas treatment system so that its emissions are improved in real driving conditions,” it said. “During the testing, it will be ensured that the new software has no disadvantages for customers in terms of fuel consumption or performance.” Volkswagen was found in 2015 to have illegally manipulated engine software so that vehicles would meet nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards in laboratory testing but not in real-world conditions, where they could emit up to 40 times the permitted levels. Several Audi models were affected and Audi has been accused in media reports of having devised the so-called defeat devices years earlier but not to have installed them in its vehicles at that time. Audi and Volkswagen have never commented on the matter. Volkswagen’s shares plunged more than 20 percent when the scandal broke. They climbed back to pre-crisis levels for the first time on Thursday. (The story corrects engine size of Audi A8) Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Jan Schwartz; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Christoph Steitz, Greg Mahlich, David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-audi/audi-recalls-almost-5000-a8-models-for-emissions-software-updates-idUSKBN1D21B2'|'2017-11-02T13:05:00.000+02:00'
'a063597024dae23f8f636ef6fb043d6f778b2da4'|'Irish court rejects appeal against 850 million euro Apple data centre'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:02 AM / in a few seconds Irish court rejects appeal against $1 billion Apple data center Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s High Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal against Apple’s plans to build an 850 million euro ($1 billion)data center in Ireland, clearing the way for the project to proceed. FILE PHOTO: The Apple logo is seen on the facade of the new Apple Store in Paris, France, January 5, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo A judge said there were no grounds to appeal after some residents objected on environmental grounds. Apple in February 2015 announced plans to build the data center in a rural location in the west of Ireland to take advantage of rich green energy sources nearby. Reporting By Conor Humphries. Writing by Andrew MacAskil'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ireland/irish-court-rejects-appeal-against-1-billion-apple-data-center-idUKKBN1D14FB'|'2017-11-01T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'0f5449e91c8ca3c3a81d3c4ad8429ac9bc7fb8f2'|'CEE MARKETS-Czech crown leads gains in holiday-thinned CEE trade'|'* Czech PMI at six-year high, boosts assets * CEZ shares hit fresh two-year high * Central bank set to hike interest rates Thursday By Radu-Sorin Marinas BUCHAREST, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The Czech crown led regional gains on Wednesday, boosted by stronger-than-expected manufacturing data depicting continuous economic growth, though trading was light with Polish and Hungarian markets closed for All Saints Day holiday. Czech manufacturing business sentiment jumped to a six-year high in October due to expanding output and new orders, the Markit Purchasing Managers'' Index (PMI) showed. The headline PMI reading rose to 58.5 in October from 56.6 in September, data compiled by IHS Markit showed. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a 57.0 reading. A reading of 50 divides expansion from contraction. By 1010 GMT, the crown had firmed 0.24 percent to 25.5970 versus the euro. The Romanian leu traded virtually unchanged at 4.6030 and the Serbian dinar edged up 0.1 percent. Prague''s stocks rose 0.4 percent on the day, chiefly helped by a 1.3 percent rise in CEZ shares to a fresh two-year high of 489.20 crowns. A Reuters poll showed analysts expect the Czech central bank, which began raising interest rates in August, to lift its 0.25 percent two-week repo rate again on Thursday. "The Czech National Bank (CNB) is highly likely to hike its policy rate by 25 basis points at Thursday''s meeting, following a 20-basis-point hike in August and the removal of the Swiss-type euro/crown floor in April," Anders Svendsen, Nordea chief analyst said in a note. "The CNB almost seems eager to strengthen the CZK, which is already 5 percent stronger against the euro year to date." CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1051 CET CURRENCIES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.5970 25.6575 +0.24% 5.51% Hungary 311.4000 311.4700 +0.02% -0.83% forint Polish zloty 4.2333 4.2403 +0.16% 4.03% Romanian leu 4.6027 4.6020 -0.02% -1.47% Croatian 7.5200 7.5215 +0.02% 0.47% kuna Serbian 119.0400 119.1700 +0.11% 3.62% dinar Note: daily calculated previous close at 1800 change from CET STOCKS Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2017 Prague 1070.05 1065.61 +0.42% +16.1 1% Budapest 39611.64 39881.22 -0.68% +23.7 7% Warsaw 2524.90 2517.03 +0.31% +29.6 2% Bucharest 7847.72 7842.76 +0.06% +10.7 6% Ljubljana 796.92 796.53 +0.05% +11.0 6% Zagreb 1874.49 1881.01 -0.35% -6.03% Belgrade 730.18 730.72 -0.07% +1.79 % Sofia 673.77 671.41 +0.35% +14.8 9% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.402 0.098 +116bp +10bp s s 5-year 0.722 -0.04 +108bp -4bps s 10-year 1.552 -0.043 +119bp -5bps s Poland 2-year #VALUE! 0.001 #VALUE! +1bps 5-year #VALUE! 0.002 #VALUE! +1bps 10-year #VALUE! 0 #VALUE! +0bps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.9 1.08 1.21 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.09 0.11 0.15 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.77 1.84 1.95 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-czech-crown-leads-gains-in-holiday-thinned-cee-trade-idINL8N1N72XF'|'2017-11-01T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'be8efe32eeced689afb1a88710a685b30048d00b'|'Cryptocurrencies'' market cap hits record $200 billion as bitcoin soars'|' 46 PM / in 9 minutes Cryptocurrencies'' market cap hits record $200 billion as bitcoin soars Jemima Kelly 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of over $200 billion on Wednesday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, putting their reported market value at more than that of U.S. banking giant Citigroup ( C.N ). A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic The new record came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of $7,500 BTC=BTSP on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, after a more than tenfold increase in value over the past 12 months. That took its own “market cap” - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation - to a record high of more than $120 billion. The second-biggest cryptocurrency, ether - sometimes known as “Ethereum” after the project behind it - has a market cap of just below $30 billion, with another 1000 or so rival digital currencies making up the rest of the $200 billion. If the cryptocurrency market were a company, its valuation would put it in the top 25 firms on the S&P 500 .SPX stock index. The latest surge in bitcoin was driven by news this week that CME Group ( CME.O ), the world’s largest derivative exchange operator, would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of the year, as well as speculation that Amazon could be set to accept the digital currency. Many are concerned that the market represents a bubble, with the latest warning coming from the head of Credit Suisse on Thursday. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-cryptocurrencies/cryptocurrencies-market-cap-hits-record-200-billion-as-bitcoin-soars-idUKKBN1D31I6'|'2017-11-03T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'3656d49bf75f1fe30cff25d8cf8e3eb9bed3fde3'|'U.S. job growth speeds up, unemployment rate falls; wages flat'|'November 3, 2017 / 4:10 AM / Updated an hour ago U.S. job growth accelerates, jobless rate falls to 4.1 percent Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth accelerated in October after hurricane-related disruptions hurt employment in September, but there were signs that labor market momentum was slowing as annual wage gains sharply retreated. FILE PHOTO: Job seekers listen to a recruiter at the Colorado Hospital Association job fair in Denver, Colorado, U.S. on October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Nonfarm payrolls increased by 261,000 jobs last month as 106,000 leisure and hospitality workers returned to work, the Labor Department said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. That was the largest gain since July 2016, but was below economists’ expectations for an increase of 310,000 jobs. Data for September was revised to show payrolls rising by 18,000 instead of falling by 33,000 as previously reported. The unemployment rate fell to near a 17-year low of 4.1 percent because people left the labor force. Still, the data probably does little to change expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December. The sharp moderation in job growth in September was blamed on hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which devastated parts of Texas and Florida in late August and early September, leaving workers, mostly in lower-paying industries such as leisure and hospitality, temporarily unemployed. October’s acceleration in employment growth reinforces the Fed’s assessment on Wednesday that “the labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions.” The U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and financial markets have almost priced in an increase in borrowing costs in December. The Fed has hiked rates twice this year. But the return of the lower-paying industry workers held down wage growth in October. Average hourly earnings slipped by one cent, leaving them unchanged in percentage terms. That lowered the year-on-year increase to 2.4 percent, which was the smallest annual increase since February 2016. They shot up 0.5 percent in September, lifting the annual increase in that month to 2.9 percent. Economists, however, remain optimistic that wage growth will accelerate with the labor market near full employment. Last month’s one-tenth percentage point drop in the unemployment rate took it to its lowest reading since December 2000. The decline, however, reflected a drop in the labor force. The jobless rate is now below the Fed’s median forecast for 2017. LABOR MARKET TIGHTENING A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 7.9 percent last month, the lowest level since December 2006, from 8.3 percent in September. For now, tepid wage growth supports views that inflation will continue to undershoot its 2 percent target and could raise concerns about consumer spending, which appears to have been largely supported by savings this year. The economy grew at a 3.0 percent annualized rate in the third quarter. Economic strength has persisted even as President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress have struggled to enact their economic program. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled a bill that proposed slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, cutting tax rates on individuals and families and ending certain tax breaks. The tax plan has already been met with opposition from small businesses, realtors and homebuilders. October’s employment gains took the average for the past two months to 90,000, below the 162,000 monthly average in the last three months. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The slowdown in the job growth trend largely reflects difficulties by employers finding qualified workers. Private payrolls surged by 219,000 jobs in October after falling by 3,000 in September. Manufacturing employment increased by 24,000 jobs. The retail sector lost 8,300 jobs last month. Construction payrolls gained 11,000 in October, likely boosted by hiring related to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts in the wake of the hurricanes. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-seen-surging-after-storm-related-disruptions-idUKKBN1D308L'|'2017-11-03T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'18d21532a4ad6c84dbebcce2b20dcadb3d3261ee'|'U.S. lawmakers to introduce bills tightening foreign investment rules'|'November 3, 2017 / 5:31 PM / Updated 43 minutes ago U.S. lawmakers to introduce bills tightening foreign investment rules Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives will introduce bills as soon as Monday that would increase scrutiny of foreign investment in the United States amid growing concern about Chinese deals, according to a source familiar with the legislation. The United States Capitol Dome is seen before dawn in Washington March 22, 2013. REUTERS/Gary Cameron Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Republican leadership who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, will introduce a Senate bill to broaden the government’s power to stop foreign purchases of U.S. firms by strengthening the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is an interagency panel led by the Treasury Department that reviews proposed transactions to review national security concerns. Rep. Robert Pittenger, a North Carolina Republican, will introduce an identical bill in the House of Representatives. At least four Democrats will back the bills, including Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Rep. Denny Heck of Washington and Rep. Dave Loebsack of Iowa, said a source who spoke on background to protect business relationships. “The likelihood of Congress acting on this is pretty significant,” said the source. CFIUS already has a reputation for being tough on high-tech deals involving China in particular, and has blocked transactions that involve sophisticated semiconductors. It has become more conservative since President Donald Trump was inaugurated amid growing political and economic tensions between the United States and China. Since the inauguration, the panel has balked at approving a broader range of deals from China, according to lawyers who specialise in representing proposed transactions to the board. The bills would expand CFIUS’ power to look at smaller investments and joint ventures, according to sources who have read drafts of the bills. There have been calls for “green field” investment to be subject to CFIUS scrutiny, but under the bills CFIUS will only review these to ensure they are not close to sensitive military installations, the first source said. A green field investment is when a parent company starts a new firm overseas from the ground up. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Sanders and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-regulation-m-a/u-s-lawmakers-to-introduce-bills-tightening-foreign-investment-rules-idUKKBN1D3220'|'2017-11-03T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'9b0af0d0e9073a6973157b819bee304d2ff1ef27'|'BMW recalling 1 million vehicles in North America'|'November 3, 2017 / 2:42 PM / Updated 5 hours ago BMW recalling 1 million vehicles in North America David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BMW AG said on Friday it is recalling about 1 million vehicles in North America for two separate issues involving fire risks and said it may expand the recalls to other countries. A BMW logo is seen at a car dealership in Vienna, Austria, May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader One recall covers 670,000 2006-2011 U.S. 3-Series vehicles to address a wiring issue for heating and air conditioning systems that may overheat and could increase the risk of a fire. The second recall covers 740,000 U.S. 2007-2011 vehicles with a valve heater that could rust and lead to a fire in rare cases. The recall includes some 128i vehicles, 3-Series, 5-Series and X3, X5 and Z4 vehicles. BMW spokesman Michael Rebstock said the recalls overlap and cover about 1 million vehicles, nearly all in the United States and about 15,000 in Canada. He said the recalls may be expanded. “We are examining whether it will be necessary in the future to widen this (recall) into other countries,” he said. BMW said both recalls followed recent meetings with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In the heating and air conditioning recall, BMW told NHTSA it first got a report of an incident in 2008 involving heat- related damage to a 2006 3-Series sedan, but did not determine a root cause. The automaker continued to monitor additional field incidents in the following years. In 2011, BMW made a quality improvement to the blower-regulator wiring harness. No injuries were reported between 2007 and 2014, but in 2015, BMW was made aware of three incidents in which there were allegations of injuries. In early September, BMW learned of another incident involving a 2011 BMW 3 Series vehicle. Dealers will replace a wiring harness if necessary and potentially additional parts. In the valve heater issue recall, BMW first received a report in 2009 of an incident in a 2007 X5 involving heat-related damage to the engine compartment, the company told NHTSA. It received other reports and continued to review the issue and inspect returned parts, but had no reports of injuries or crashes related to the issue. Dealers will replace the valve heater. Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Laurence Frost in Paris; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bmw-recall/bmw-recalling-1-million-vehicles-in-north-america-idINKBN1D31MN'|'2017-11-03T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'44ae16b4a05d5bc6d7bb09f3ef5585b414d68201'|'Exclusive - Hong Kong''s SenseTime eyes world''s top AI fundraising with $500 million goal: sources'|' 51 AM / a few seconds ago Exclusive: Hong Kong''s SenseTime eyes world''s top AI fundraising with $500 million goal - sources Julie Zhu , Kane Wu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese private equity backed artificial intelligence (AI) company SenseTime Group plans to raise about $500 million in a new funding round, people familiar with the move said, in what would be the biggest ever such fundraising by an AI startup. Hong Kong-based SenseTime and its rivals are cashing in on heightened investor interest in AI firms that is being stoked by a major push by China into the area. Reuters reported earlier this week that SenseTime and its main backer, Chinese buyout firm CDH Investments, were separately raising a $450 million AI investment fund, amid Beijing’s drive to be a leader in AI, a technology that is increasingly becoming key to various sectors. Once the preserve of researchers, AI has grabbed the attention of businesses from healthcare to financial services looking to use algorithms to comb through large troves of data to recognize patterns and solve problems. The technology is set to spread to driverless cars and service robots in the future. The latest fundraising will value SenseTime at about $2 billion, said the people. Two of them added the funding round has attracted interest from prospective investors including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek [TEM.UL]. Responding to a request for comment, SenseTime said in an email to Reuters that it had “attracted lots of interest” from investors in this financing round without elaborating. Temasek declined to comment. The people declined to be identified as the financing plans were not public. The Hong Kong startup said earlier this week that it had kicked off the Series-C financing round, which is scheduled to close by the end of the year. But it had not given further details on the plan. SenseTime provides technology-based applications including autonomous driving, facial recognition and video analyzing. The three-year-old firm counts China’s Ministry of Public Security and local heavyweights such as China Mobile, HNA Group and Huawei Technologies as its major clients. China in July unveiled a development plan to grow the country’s core AI industries’ value to more than 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) by 2020 and 400 billion yuan by 2025. Underpinned by Beijing’s AI emphasis, SenseTime and rival Megvii, the biggest facial recognition firm in China, have become new darlings of state and private investors. Megvii, more commonly known as Face++, earlier this week raised $460 million in a fresh round of financing, drawing investment from a Chinese state venture fund and Ant Financial. SenseTime itself raised $410 million in July, in a round led by CDH and state-backed fund Sailing Capital that valued it at over $1.5 billion. Last month, SenseTime said it was teaming up with Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a unit of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ), to extend AI technology into a broad range of mobile and internet devices. Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu; Additional reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sensetime-fundraising-exclusive/exclusive-hong-kongs-sensetime-eyes-worlds-top-ai-fundraising-with-500-million-goal-sources-idUKKBN1D3101'|'2017-11-03T12:43:00.000+02:00'
'3c209fc22fb7cecaa3998153e2d7f7f55cd233cd'|'Under pressure Smith & Nephew to focus on efficiency'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:23 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Under pressure Smith & Nephew to focus on efficiency Paul Sandle 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Smith & Nephew ( SN.L ) said no major surgery is required for the artificial knee and hip maker to deliver shareholder value, even as it reported lacklustre sales that increase pressure on the company reportedly being stalked by activist investor Elliott. Two reports last month said that Paul Singer’s U.S. hedge fund had taken a stake in Smith & Nephew, reigniting perennial speculation that it could be acquired by a U.S. rival such as Stryker ( SYK.N ) or be broken up. But Chief Executive Olivier Bohuon, whose plan to retire by the end of 2018 has fuelled the uncertainty, focused on fresh efforts to boost efficiency rather than any big deals. “We are not thinking about asset disposal at this stage at all,” he said after the trading update, adding that the company would concentrate on simplifying manufacturing, warehouse and distribution operations. He remained tight-lipped when asked about Elliott. “We do not comment on rumour or speculation and we don’t comment on the identity of our investors unless required to do so under disclosure rules,” he said. The British company, which also has wound-care and sports medicine units, reported 3 percent revenue growth for the quarter, just shy of market forecasts, and nudged down its full-year guidance for revenue and trading margin growth to the lower end of its 3-4 percent and 20-70 basis point ranges. ‘NOTHING STELLAR’ Berenberg analysts said the numbers were “nothing stellar” and largely in line with fairly low expectations. Further detail on Bohuon’s latest efficiency drive will be provided at the full-year results in February, he said. Shares in the company hit a record high of 14.42 pounds last month and were up 0.8 percent at 13.94 pounds at 1038 GMT on Friday. Berenberg, which has a hold rating on the stock, said the efficiency programme is unlikely to be a game changer. “For the last decade the company has more or less been permanently engaged in such a programme and while we do believe that on each occasion the company achieved its cost-saving goals, margins and profit growth have not lived up to investor expectations,” the broker said. Smith & Nephew made revenue of $1.15 billion (£880 million) in the quarter, up 3 percent, against analyst expectations of about $1.16 billion. Bohuon said market-beating growth from its knee implants and a recovery in emerging markets helped the company to meet the lower end of its growth target in the quarter. Recent hurricanes in the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico had about a $5 million impact, he added. Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-smith-nephew-outlook/smith-nephew-sees-full-year-growth-at-lower-end-of-guidance-idUKKBN1D30I8'|'2017-11-03T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'6ab457fcfb626f977dc559300d1dde73b63eec78'|'Fed set to hold rates steady ahead of Trump''s leadership decision'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:04 AM / in an hour Fed set to hold rates steady ahead of Trump''s leadership decision Lindsay Dunsmuir 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday as speculation swirls on who will be its next leader, but the U.S. central bank will likely point to a firming economy as it edges closer to a possible rate rise next month. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo The Fed has raised rates twice since January and currently forecasts one more hike by the end of the year as part of a tightening cycle that began in late 2015. Investors have all but ruled out a move at the end of this week’s two-day policy meeting. The Fed is due to issue its latest policy statement at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). Markets will look to it for confirmation the central bank is on track for a December rate hike, though attention will quickly turn to who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018. President Donald Trump, who has interviewed Yellen, Fed Governor Jerome Powell and three others for the top Fed job, is likely to announce the nomination on Thursday. Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, is seen as having a lock on the position. [nL2N1N50Y2] “The bottom line is the meeting is probably going to be a somewhat boring event for markets, overshadowed by the expected Fed chair decision,” said Torsten Slok, chief international economist for Deutsche Bank. INFLATION WORRIES Fed policymakers have been buoyed in recent months by a strengthening U.S. economy and further tightening in the labour market, although inflation has continued to remain below the central bank’s 2 percent target. The economy unexpectedly maintained a brisk pace of growth in the third quarter, increasing at a 3.0 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department reported last week. [nL2N1MZ1UL] A decline in hiring in September also has largely been dismissed as a blip caused by the temporary displacement of workers due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That jobs report also showed wages growing at an encouraging pace and the unemployment rate falling to more than a 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent. A strong rebound in job gains is anticipated when the Labor Department releases its October nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. Inflation is the main concern for Fed policymakers who are wondering about the causes and duration of the current weakness. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation sits at 1.3 percent after retreating further from target for much of the year. Nevertheless, Yellen and other key policymakers have said the Fed, which unveiled a plan this year to cut its balance sheet starting in October, still expects to continue to gradually raise rates given the economy’s strength. That is not expected to change on Wednesday. “If we get what we expect to get, which is basically more of the same of what we saw in the September statement,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, “then yes, their gradual policy tightening plan is in place and all signs point to a December hike.” Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed/fed-set-to-hold-rates-steady-ahead-of-trumps-leadership-decision-idUKKBN1D13JV'|'2017-11-01T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'8e726e3faf351a783eb0a35c32139dc14e7e08b3'|'Mild October holds back sales at Next'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 8:49 AM / in an hour Mild October holds back sales at Britain''s Next James Davey 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next ( NXT.L ) on Wednesday reported sales for its latest quarter below some analysts’ expectations and said trading was “extremely volatile”, sending its shares as much as 9 percent lower. Shoppers pass a branch of Next retail in London, Britain, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville The news is the latest sign a faltering economy is hitting consumers and adds to the dilemma for the Bank of England as it weighs up whether to lift interest rates for the first time in ten years on Thursday to curb inflation. Shares in Next had risen by 26 percent in the last three months on hopes the group was starting to turn the corner after a difficult couple of years. But they were down 4.5 percent at 4,702 pence at 0930 GMT, while shares in rivals Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ) and Debenhams ( DEB.L ) were down 3.4 percent and 2.9 percent respectively. Next, which trades from more than 500 stores in the UK and Ireland, 200 stores in 40 countries overseas, and the Directory internet and home shopping business, said sales in August and September were up strongly on last year as cooler temperatures drove demand for autumn/winter ranges. However, sales dipped in October, which was unseasonably mild. “(The) sales performance has remained extremely volatile and is highly dependent on the seasonality of the weather,” it said. Next’s total full-price sales rose 1.3 percent in the 13 weeks to Oct. 29, its fiscal third quarter, below some analysts’ expectations of a rise of over 4 percent but ahead of the second quarter’s 0.7 percent increase. “A particularly weak October means the group enters the all-important Christmas period with less momentum than it would have liked,” said Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst George Salmon. Next Chief Executive Simon Wolfson said the third quarter outcome was, however, in line with management’s expectations. “I can’t take responsibility for the analysts’ number, it’s bang in line with where we expected to be,” he told Reuters. Next is not alone in reporting a tough October. On Tuesday John Lewis [JLP.UL], Britain’s largest department store group, reported a fifth straight fall in weekly sales. Britain’s most successful clothing retailer this century in terms of profits, Next has faltered over the last two years due to a shift in spending away from clothing and into holidays and entertainment that it first identified in 2015. Full-price sales in Next’s stores were down 7.7 percent, but were up 13.2 percent in its Directory business. Next maintained its central profit guidance for the full year - a pretax profit of 717 million pounds ($953 million), down from 790.2 million pounds in 2016-17. It narrowed its guidance for full-price sales, forecasting a range of down 1.75 percent to up 1.25 percent. It had given a range of down 2.0 percent to up 1.5 percent in September. Next said comparative sales numbers with last year were much harder for the fourth quarter than in the third. ($1 = 0.7526 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-next-outlook/britains-next-says-trading-remains-extremely-volatile-idUKKBN1D1414'|'2017-11-01T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'31dc93bdf32864654db51c9881311a7d3f3c661b'|'SoftBank secures $23.3 billion refinancing for Sprint and ARM buys'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) said on Thursday it has secured a 2.65 trillion yen ($23.3 billion) senior loan agreement to refinance the acquisition loans for U.S. telco Sprint Corp ( S.N ) and British chip designer ARM.The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo SoftBank said the loan’s maturity is Sept. 30, 2024.($1 = 113.8400 yen)Reporting by Taiga Uranaka '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-softbank-group-funding/softbank-secures-23-3-billion-refinancing-for-sprint-and-arm-buys-idUSKBN1D20VF'|'2017-11-02T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'19201768f479c02568778d49c1cc83320bd7c4c8'|'AIG''s $836 million reserve boost surprises investors; shares sink'|'(Reuters) - American International Group Inc shares sank 4.5 percent on Friday as investors reacted to a surprise $836 million boost to the insurance giant’s reserves, related to prior-year accident claims.FILE PHOTO: A banner for American International Group Inc (AIG) hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, U.S. on October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo AIG posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as the insurer booked huge catastrophe losses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. The storms coincided with AIG’s review of reserves across various U.S. and European lines, leading to the $836 million charge.The New York-based company is one of the largest U.S. commercial insurers. Hefty losses from claims occurring in prior years have been an ongoing issue for AIG, which boosted reserves by $5.6 billion for similar reasons in February and $3.6 billion in 2015.The development on Thursday caught analysts and investors off guard.“It wasn’t in my earnings estimate that they were going to have that reserve charge,” said Sandler O‘Neill analyst Paul Newsome.Shares were down 4.5 percent at $62 in morning trading.The charge also signals that AIG’s efforts in recent years to improve its underwriting were inadequate because it stems from policies the company wrote in 2016 and 2017, Newsome said.AIG conducts quarterly reviews of reserves for its various lines. The company increased the number of those reviews during the second quarter.“[T]his was our first chance to really view the 2016 accident year where we made many changes to our underwriting processes and tools,” AIG Chief Executive Brian Duperreault said during a call with analysts on Friday.”The 2016 accident year is still very green, but we saw greater-than-expected claim emergence this quarter and decided to be more cautious on the 2016 and 2017 accident years,” Duperreault said.AIG is putting changes into place to reduce the volatility of its performance, which include pursuing double-digit rate increases and bolstering reinsurance, executives told analysts on a call on Friday.The insurer is also establishing specialized units for some businesses that are now spread throughout the company, including Lexington Insurance Company, its specialty lines insurer. The move will improve consistency and results, executives said.Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aig-results/aigs-836-million-reserve-boost-surprises-investors-shares-sink-idINKBN1D31SV'|'2017-11-03T18:17:00.000+02:00'
'f0b8da9d847cd141eb6f6a685584512763cc3d6f'|'AIG''s $836 million reserve boost surprises investors; shares sink'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:29 PM / in 2 hours AIG''s $836 million reserve boost surprises investors; shares sink Suzanne Barlyn 3 Min Read (Reuters) - American International Group Inc ( AIG.N ) shares sank 4.5 percent on Friday as investors reacted to a surprise $836 million boost to the insurance giant’s reserves, related to prior-year accident claims. FILE PHOTO: A banner for American International Group Inc (AIG) hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, U.S. on October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo AIG posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as the insurer booked huge catastrophe losses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. The storms coincided with AIG’s review of reserves across various U.S. and European lines, leading to the $836 million charge. The New York-based company is one of the largest U.S. commercial insurers. Hefty losses from claims occurring in prior years have been an ongoing issue for AIG, which boosted reserves by $5.6 billion for similar reasons in February and $3.6 billion in 2015. The development on Thursday caught analysts and investors off guard. “It wasn’t in my earnings estimate that they were going to have that reserve charge,” said Sandler O‘Neill analyst Paul Newsome. Shares were down 4.5 percent at $62 in morning trading. The charge also signals that AIG’s efforts in recent years to improve its underwriting were inadequate because it stems from policies the company wrote in 2016 and 2017, Newsome said. AIG conducts quarterly reviews of reserves for its various lines. The company increased the number of those reviews during the second quarter. “[T]his was our first chance to really view the 2016 accident year where we made many changes to our underwriting processes and tools,” AIG Chief Executive Brian Duperreault said during a call with analysts on Friday. ”The 2016 accident year is still very green, but we saw greater-than-expected claim emergence this quarter and decided to be more cautious on the 2016 and 2017 accident years,” Duperreault said. AIG is putting changes into place to reduce the volatility of its performance, which include pursuing double-digit rate increases and bolstering reinsurance, executives told analysts on a call on Friday. The insurer is also establishing specialized units for some businesses that are now spread throughout the company, including Lexington Insurance Company, its specialty lines insurer. The move will improve consistency and results, executives said. Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aig-results/aigs-836-million-reserve-boost-surprises-investors-shares-sink-idUSKBN1D31RK'|'2017-11-03T17:27:00.000+02:00'
'fb370e317949073f5958d9526677bde7a97ab21b'|'Japanese cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer - On the other hand'|'THE Japanese make cars that last but replace them relatively quickly. The average car in Japan is three years younger than in America. This combination of durable manufacturing and dutiful consumption of a prized national product works out well for the rest of the world; many countries import older Japanese cars in bulk. Secondhand vehicles fill vast parking lots in Japan’s port cities, awaiting shipment to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.The third-most-popular destination is Myanmar, which imported over 80,000 used Japanese vehicles in the first nine months of this year, according to Japan’s International Auto Trade Association. Drivers believe that Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans can stand up to the country’s pockmarked roads, a faith not yet shown in South Korean and Chinese cars.  There is only one problem, which is that Japan drives on the left, Myanmar on the right. As a consequence, most of Myanmar’s drivers sit on the wrong side of the car, where it is harder to see oncoming traffic. Settle into the passenger seat of a Honda taxi on a narrow rural road and you may be called upon to perform unexpected duties like telling your driver when it is safe to overtake a slow-moving lorry, without hitting a scooter, gaggle of children or bonnet-less jalopy travelling in the other direction.Not everyone executes these responsibilities successfully. Myanmar has the highest rate of deaths per vehicle among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the World Health Organisation. Evidence of accidents litters the roadside outside Yangon: a silver Toyota that has lost everything in front of its windscreen and a red Suzuki hatchback that also now has a hatchfront.Myanmar’s government periodically tightens the import rules to keep older and less safe cars off the country’s roads. In October it said it will allow individuals to import only cars built in 2016 or after. And after this year, it will no longer grant import permits for right-hand-drive cars.The tighter policy may encourage local car assembly. Suzuki will open a new factory for left-hand-drive cars outside Yangon next year, adding to its existing plant in the city’s east. But the change will oblige drivers to buy cars that are either more expensive or less authentically Japanese. The new left-hand-drive Corolla on display in the Toyota “Mingalar” dealership in Yangon, for example, was made in Thailand and is listed at $33,900, over 26 times the country’s national income per person.One other constituency may also come to regret the altered rules. Many poorer residents of Yangon, where motorcycles are banned, ride bicycles or sit in three-wheeled “trishaws”, trundling alongside the kerb. As more of Myanmar’s drivers shift to the left seat, oncoming traffic will be easier to spot; but these kerbside pedal pushers will be more exposed than ever.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "On the other hand"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21730908-government-outlawing-right-hand-drive-cars-japanese-cars-enjoy-afterlife-myanmar?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'99d4b9689aa09bb2d0cb4bf80e75f9458421d9d0'|'Cryptocurrencies'' market cap hits record $200 billion as bitcoin soars'|'November 3, 2017 / 2:22 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Cryptocurrencies'' market cap hits record $200 billion as bitcoin soars Jemima Kelly 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of over $200 billion on Wednesday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, putting their reported market value at more than that of U.S. banking giant Citigroup. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic The new record came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of $7,500 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, after a more than tenfold increase in value over the past 12 months. That took its own “market cap” - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation - to a record high of more than $120 billion. The second-biggest cryptocurrency, ether - sometimes known as “Ethereum” after the project behind it - has a market cap of just below $30 billion, with another 1000 or so rival digital currencies making up the rest of the $200 billion. If the cryptocurrency market were a company, its valuation would put it in the top 25 firms on the S&P 500 stock index. The latest surge in bitcoin was driven by news this week that CME Group, the world’s largest derivative exchange operator, would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of the year, as well as speculation that Amazon could be set to accept the digital currency. Many are concerned that the market represents a bubble, with the latest warning coming from the head of Credit Suisse on Thursday. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-cryptocurrencies/cryptocurrencies-market-cap-hits-record-200-billion-as-bitcoin-soars-idINKBN1D31K4'|'2017-11-03T16:20:00.000+02:00'
'8d685d0b982877a5f9adf815f60382ea6a2defd2'|'European shares edge higher as SocGen weighs on banks after results'|'LONDON (Reuters) - European shares crept higher on Friday, with new records hit in London and Frankfurt, though earnings from French bank Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) and Dutch telecoms group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) weighed on their sectors and limited gains.The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.3 percent, a second week of gains in a row, with Germany''s DAX .GDAXI hitting a new high, up 0.3 percent.Britain''s FTSE 100 .FTSE built on the previous session''s gains following the Bank of England''s first rate hike in more than a decade and also reached a record level, with a 0.1 percent rise.Friday was another busy day of earnings, with the banking sector in focus. Societe Generale fell 4.1 percent after the lender reported third quarter earnings which included a 15 percent slump at its investment banking arm.Weak trading has been an issue across the sector, with peer BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) dropping earlier in the week on the back of a slump in fixed income trading.“These weaker results add pressure on (SocGen) to deliver a substantial revamp at the investor day on 28 November, otherwise it will become a value trap,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note.Spain''s IBEX .IBEX was one of the few bourses in Europe to close in negative territory with a 1 percent decline as Spanish banks suffered heavy losses. Banco Sabadell ( SABE.MC ) and Banco Santander ( SAN.MC ) lost 2.7 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.Telecoms firm Altice was the biggest loser across Europe with a 22.6 percent collapse, as investors fretted about the Amsterdam-based group’s ability to recover market share in France.“Investors are realizing the company is struggling too much in France,” said Javier Borrachero, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux.Shares in Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA ) fell 7.5 percent on concerns about its cost cutting targets.Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) lost 0.2 percent, while IAG ( ICAG.L ) was down 1.5 percent and easyJet ( EZJ.L ) 1.2 percent.Wind turbine maker Vestas Wind ( VWS.CO ) took an 8.8 percent hit and Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ) fell 3.5 percent after the proposed U.S. tax reform bill included cuts to renewable energy tax credits.On the positive side, Norwegian consumer publishing firm Schibsted ( SBSTA.OL ) surged 20.5 percent to the top of the STOXX after its results came in above forecast.France’s Renault ( RENA.PA ) rose 3.9 percent, leading European autos .SXAP, after the French government took down its stake in the carmaker to 15 percent.Tech stocks were also in focus after U.S. giant Apple ( AAPL.O ) reported earnings, boosting shares in suppliers Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) and AMS ( AMS.S ) by 2.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.More than half of MSCI Europe companies have reported third quarter earnings, of which 67 percent have either met or beaten analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.“Those (smaller beats) and the big beats, once you add them all together, makes it actually a fairly good earnings season, hence why markets are where they are,” said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.Reporting by Kit Rees, editing by Danilo Masoni and Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-edge-higher-as-socgen-weighs-on-banks-after-results-idINKBN1D30NY'|'2017-11-03T05:32:00.000+02:00'
'9d5e250485c34be0a09a964206aefd9fe75def9b'|'BRIEF-Jianpu Technology sees U.S. IPO of 22.5 mln an depositary shares priced between $8.50 and $10.50 per ADS'|'Nov 3 (Reuters) -* Jianpu Technology Inc sees U.S. IPO of 22.5 million an depositary shares priced between $8.50 and $10.50 per ADS - SEC filing* Jianpu Technology Inc says it has applied to list the ADS on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “JT”* Jianpu Technology Inc says the offering of 22.5 million ADS represents about 56.3 million class A ordinary shares Source text: ( bit.ly/2hbc2ta ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-jianpu-technology-sees-us-ipo-of-2/brief-jianpu-technology-sees-u-s-ipo-of-22-5-mln-an-depositary-shares-priced-between-8-50-and-10-50-per-ads-idINFWN1N91PF'|'2017-11-03T18:43:00.000+02:00'
'b7d4b10efb269d4e77b9191a68d31e3d55c570f1'|'DoJ considers blocking AT&T deal for Time Warner: WSJ'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:04 PM / in 8 minutes U.S. and AT&T discuss conditions for approval of Time Warner deal David Shepardson 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and the U.S. Department of Justice are discussing conditions the No. 2 wireless carrier needs to meet in order to win government antitrust approval for its acquisition of Time Warner Inc, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The $85.4 billion deal, unveiled in October 2016, is opposed by an array of consumer groups and competitors on the grounds that it would give the wireless company too much power over the media it would carry on its own network. Wall Street largely believes the transaction will go through, but its success is not assured, and the issue has become a political battleground. Donald Trump, who has accused Time Warner’s CNN and other media of being unfair to him, criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and vowed that as president his Justice Department would block it. As president, he has not revisited the subject. Approval of the deal marks an early challenge for Trump’s appointee as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, who was confirmed by Congress in late September. Delrahim said at his confirmation hearing in May that he would not discuss antitrust matters with the White House. Delrahim, perhaps looking to make a mark in his new job, may want to ramp up pressure on AT&T. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that the Justice Department was laying the groundwork for a potential lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal if settlement talks did not work out. on.wsj.com/2gW1l9O. The Journal reported that the outcome could go either way. It did not say what the sticking points were. The Justice Department did not reply to requests for comment. Shares of Time Warner initially plunged after the Journal report, but recovered some losses and closed down 3.7 percent at $94.70. AT&T’s shares closed down 1.1 percent at $33.17. “The market is saying that the deal still most likely gets done,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson. “It’s just not as much of a sure thing as it was yesterday.” ALL POSSIBLE SCENARIOS AT&T has said it expected the deal to close by the end of the year. AT&T executives have repeatedly expressed confidence that it would reach an agreement with the antitrust enforcer. “When the DOJ reviews any transaction, it is common and expected for both sides to prepare for all possible scenarios,” AT&T said in a statement on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo “For over 40 years, vertical mergers like this one have always been approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitors from the market,” AT&T said. “While we won’t comment on our discussions with DOJ, we see no reason in the law or the facts why this transaction should be an exception.” Arguments over the deal have focused on how much power a pay-TV provider should have in steering its customers to cable channels that it also owns. Critics from both parties argue that AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner would give it the clout to steer customers to its own premium content. Time Warner properties include CNN, HBO, the film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. Trump has not repeated his criticism of the deal since becoming president, and he has met with AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson at least twice in 2017. Delrahim underscored in May that he would not be swayed by political considerations. “The independence of the decisions made in prosecuting and reviewing mergers as well as other conduct is a serious one that should be free from any political influence,” he said. “They will be free if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed.” THE OPPOSITION Daphna Ziman, the founder and president of Cinémoi, a female-owned TV network, told Reuters last month she had met with the Justice Department to discuss the merger. She told a U.S. Senate panel that “further consolidation could be catastrophic to diverse, minority and women-owned voices.” The Justice Department has been discussing whether to require conditions that AT&T does not discriminate against channels that compete with Time Warner and unfairly advantage its own channels, time limits on any such conditions and customer data issues, sources told Reuters. Barclays analysts said similar issues were addressed in the Justice Department’s seven-year consent decree allowing Comcast Corp to acquire NBCUniversal in 2011. Companies that produce TV shows have been pushing for a longer consent decree in the AT&T/Time Warner deal, a separate source told Reuters on Thursday. Wall Street played down the news on Thursday as a threat to the deal. ”These headlines may be more about increasing the (Justice) Department’s leverage in negotiating conditions than a serious intent to try and sue to block the deal,” said Jennifer Fritzsche, analyst at Wells Fargo. “This is still a vertical merger and the DOJ would face the same uphill battle in court if it sued to stop it, same hurdles it faced a month or six months ago.” Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York, Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/doj-considers-blocking-att-deal-for-time-warner-wsj-idUSKBN1D221P'|'2017-11-02T17:04:00.000+02:00'
'2f5eba1ba0c68dc9d29034d6fc184d022b77af53'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 1'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Eight people were killed and at least a dozen injured on Tuesday when a truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a lower Manhattan bike path in what officials said was a "cowardly act of terror," the deadliest attack in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. on.wsj.com/2gTjndb- Three U.S. aircraft carriers are scheduled to travel near the Korean Peninsula soon, and the military may decide to keep them in the area for maneuvers that would coincide with President Donald Trump''s coming visit to Asia, U.S. defense officials said. on.wsj.com/2gQNS3f- Rockwell Automation Inc has rejected a takeover bid by Emerson Electric Co worth roughly $27.5 billion, spurning a deal that would have combined two big U.S. makers of machines and software used in manufacturing. on.wsj.com/2gSvuae- Samsung Electronics Co shook up its senior ranks on Tuesday in a move that would replace all of its co-chief executives and strip its board chairman of any executive role for the first time as it looks to address concerns about a leadership vacuum at the top. on.wsj.com/2gTqOkz- Federal trade officials are recommending that the Trump administration impose an import tariff of up to 35 percent on solar panels to protect U.S. solar manufacturers from low-price imports that have undercut the companies'' ability to compete. on.wsj.com/2gS6zDK (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-1-idINL4N1N726W'|'2017-11-01T01:48:00.000+02:00'
'a66d256d344c624ba4ff927fe0916d70488c4511'|'Thailand aims to boost exports; India rates dip on fresh supply'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:20 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Thailand aims to boost exports; India rates dip on fresh supply Koustav Samanta 4 Min Read BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices were relatively stable in Thailand this week as the country aims to attract more foreign buyers to boost exports, while prices in India slipped amid increasing supplies from the new season’s crop. A man works in a rice field in Khon Kaen, Thailand July 12, 2017. REUTERS/Panu Wongcha-um/Files Thailand’s benchmark 5-percent broken rice was quoted at $382-$386 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) Bangkok, which compared with $375-$388 a tonne last week. The country has exported 8.23 million tonnes of rice since January to September this year, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce, who have a target to reach 11 million tonnes in exports by the end of the year. The Ministry of Commerce aims to host an event that would bring more than 200 foreign buyers to negotiate with 100 Thai entrepreneurs. The ministry expects that after the event 586 million baht worth of rice will be ordered immediately and orders worth another 30 billion baht will follow within a year. “I think 8.23 million tonnes is already a success as every year it is around this much,” said a Bangkok-based rice trader. “The ministry is trying to boost exports in the final quarter of the year. However, personally, I don’t think it’s possible.” Meanwhile India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices fell by $2 per tonne to $400-$403 per tonne as supplies from a new season crop were starting to pick up in some spot markets. “We are getting inquiries from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but they are quoting low prices,” said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Bangladesh, which has become a major importer this year after floods hit its crops, has imported more than 1.4 million tonnes of rice in the July-October period, the country’s food ministry data showed. Traders and officials in Bangladesh expect more imports in the coming months as domestic rice prices are still high, which poses a problem for the government. India’s rice exports during April-August rose 7.4 percent from a year earlier, to 5.13 million tonnes, as shipments of non-basmati rice surged. The country mainly exports non-basmati rice to African countries and premier basmati rice to the Middle East. Iran’s state grains buyer GTC has issued an international invitation to tender to buy 30,000 tonnes of rice to be sourced from India for shipment in early 2018, European traders said on Wednesday. In Vietnam drying rice stockpiles kept the price for the benchmark 5-percent broken rice unchanged from last week at as high as $405 per tonne, FOB Saigon, discouraging buyers from clinching new deals. “We couldn’t sell much because our prices are around $20-30 higher than Thailand. Importers came to negotiate with us but in the end no new contracts were made,” a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. Rice traders expected that the market would stay quiet on thin trading until January, despite new supply from the upcoming harvest of autumn-winter crops. A monthly government report last Sunday showed Vietnam would have shipped an estimated 400,000 tonnes of rice in October, down from 516,000 tonnes in September. Reporting by Suphanida Thakral in Bangkok, Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Mi Nguyen in Hanoi and Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/thailand-aims-to-boost-exports-india-rates-dip-on-fresh-supply-idINKBN1D21LF'|'2017-11-02T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'14fc6bce7a01850b6d14f33384f2ea6c7c1e2356'|'RPT-If rates rise, hangover looms for some Britons after 10-year credit binge'|' 02 AM / in 19 minutes RPT-If rates rise, hangover looms for some Britons after 10-year credit binge Reuters Staff (Repeats Wednesday’s story with no changes to text) * Many young UK adults unfamiliar with interest rate hikes * For heavily indebted, even small rise could hurt * Car loans have risen particularly quickly over last decade * Access to credit has got easier, some say too easy By Emma Rumney and Lawrence White LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Millions of Britons are set to experience the first interest rate rise of their adult lives on Thursday, and for some of those who loaded up on cheap credit to pay for cars or cards, that could spell trouble. The Bank of England is widely expected to hike borrowing costs for the first time in a decade, signalling an end to years of low rates that fuelled a rise in ultra-cheap credit and heavy borrowing on loans, cards and, most notably, cars. Regulators have clamped down on many of the riskier lending activities that thrived before 2008, from ‘payday’ loans with annual interest of over 5,000 percent to self-certified mortgages. Others, like motor finance, have risen to take their place. Bankers and economists warn that those most indebted could begin skipping payments on cars and credit cards, puncturing a consumer debt bubble ten years in the making. A 0.25 percent rate hike would lead to a median increase in monthly outgoings of 20 pounds for consumers who have contacted StepChange in the last year, according to calculations by the debt advice charity. That would push the budgets of up to 7,000 of the charity’s clients into the red, meaning they can no longer cover essential living costs. “Our view is that this isn’t mortgage apocalypse, but there’s a narrow group of people whose household finances are on a knife-edge and a rate hike could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” a spokesman for the charity said. CAR MAKERS EXPOSED Consumer credit has grown much faster than household incomes in the last few years, the Bank of England said in June. In September, it hit 204 billion pounds ($269.52 billion), with car finance the fastest expanding area that now accounts for around 30 percent of the total. Last year, 86.4 percent of all new car purchases utilised some form of credit, up from 46 percent in 2006, according to data from the Financing and Leasing Association. Most deals are done not by banks but through car manufacturers’ finance arms, with those from Volkswagen , BMW, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Renault the biggest in the UK by the amounts they are owed by consumers. These have risen from 13.5 billion pounds ($17.81 billion) in 2008 to over 36 billion pounds in 2016 - a 168 percent increase, data from the five firms’ financial statements show. With credit widely available, a small but significant number of borrowers have become overburdened with multiple debts, said Peter Richardson, analyst at Berenberg. Fifteen percent of mortgage loans are worth more than four times the borrower’s income, he said, up from less than five percent in 2005. Most consumer credit is offered on fixed interest rates, so would not be directly impacted by a rate increase. But with around 40 percent of mortgage lending on variable rates - and borrowers more likely to default on other loans than miss payments on their home - even a slight hike could leave the most overstretched people choosing to skip other debt payments. A 0.25 percent interest rate hike would increase the monthly payments on an average floating rate loan of 140,000 pounds by around 15 pounds a month, according to Nationwide. “If you look back at the economics of this ... borrowers with that level of indebtedness become very, very sensitive to shocks, you have much more violent reactions,” Berenberg’s Richardson said. BANKS HAVE GOT STRONGER Cut-throat competition among lenders has driven rates on personal loans down. For example, four lenders - TSB, Zopa, Sainsbury’s Bank and CYBG - offer short term unsecured personal loans of 20,000-25,000 pounds at fixed interest rates of below 3 percent, cheaper than many mortgages. Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Ross McEwan said on Friday growth of 10 percent per year in unsecured credit is unsustainable when wages are growing at just 2 percent. “At some point it needs to slow down.” Bank of England data shows that outstanding lending on credit cards was at an all-time high of 69.4 billion pounds in September and approaching its pre-crisis peak for other credit lines including overdrafts, personal loans and car finance. Outstanding lending on these credit lines hit 134.8 billion pounds in September, compared with 138.2 billion pounds in August 2007. Banks are, however, seen as stronger than when rates last went up in 2007. As part of tougher regulations introduced since 2007, they are now required to hold more capital against their loans. In September, the central bank ordered they increase this by a further 10 billion pounds to protect against potential losses on consumer credit, which it said were being underestimated. Lenders with a particularly high proportion of consumer lending in their overall loan books could still be vulnerable in a downturn, however, ratings agency S&P said in a report last month. It highlighted supermarket-owned lenders Tesco Bank Plc and Sainsbury’s Bank, which both have consumer credit portfolios in excess of 200 percent of their core capital. “Our customer lending is subject to stringent and robust creditworthiness and affordability assessment tests,” a spokesman for Tesco Bank said. “We are a responsible lender with a strong capital base, and a low risk approach to consumer credit,” said a spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s bank. Richardson likened regulatory changes to make banks behave more prudently to street lights on a dark and dangerous road. “We’re now at the bits where the street lights run out.” Reporting By Emma Rumney and Lawrence White; Editing by Mike Collett-White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-finance/rpt-if-rates-rise-hangover-looms-for-some-britons-after-10-year-credit-binge-idUSL8N1N767M'|'2017-11-02T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'd09bad7c560d2a212d8c0ef00e03894ff2312ea7'|'Suntory Beverage, PepsiCo to form Thai soft drinks JV - source'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:33 AM / in 3 hours Suntory Beverage, PepsiCo to form Thai soft drinks JV - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd and PepsiCo Inc plan to set up a soft drink joint venture in Thailand next spring, a person with knowledge of the matter said, declining to be identified because the decision is not yet public. The Nikkei business daily, which reported the deal earlier on Thursday, said the Japanese company would likely invest 30 billion to 40 billion yen ($260 million-$350 million) for a majority stake in the venture. ($1 = 113.9200 yen) (Reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sbf-pepsico-thailand/suntory-beverage-pepsico-to-form-thai-soft-drinks-jv-source-idUST9N1MF027'|'2017-11-02T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'3bbb12def2757c4de07ff4bad5ef6a3dcc11e6dc'|'October was strongest month for euro zone factories in almost 7 years - PMI'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:10 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago October was strongest month for euro zone factories in almost seven years - PMI Jonathan Cable 3 Min Read LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - - Manufacturers in the euro zone had their strongest month since early 2011 in October as factories struggled to meet booming demand despite adding staff at the fastest rate in at least 20 years, a survey showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Workers assemble Volvo cars at the main Volvo automobile manufacturing factory in Gothenburg May 20, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo “Euro zone factories started the fourth quarter with increased vigour, with the sector’s growth spurt showing no sign of abating,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at survey compiler IHS Markit. Economic growth in the currency bloc was a faster-than-expected 0.6 percent last quarter and unemployment has fallen to an almost nine-year low, official data showed this week. IHS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for the bloc rose to 58.5 last month from September’s 58.1. That was below a preliminary estimate of 58.6 but was its highest since February 2011 and the second-highest in over 17 years. An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Monday, dipped to 58.8 from September’s 6-1/2 year high of 59.2 but remained well above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. The flash estimate was 58.7. In a sign November will also be busy, new order growth accelerated at the fastest pace since early 2011 while factories built up backlogs of work at the joint-steepest rate since IHS Markit started monitoring it 15 years ago. To try to meet growing demand, manufacturers took on staff rapidly, with the employment sub-index registering 57.3, up from 56.5 and the highest reading in its 20-year history. “It’s especially encouraging to see employment growing at a survey-record pace as firms seek to boost capacity in response to fuller order books,” Williamson said. “Export order growth remains encouragingly solid, suggesting little impact from the strengthening of the euro this year, and domestic demand continues to improve across the region.” Robust growth alongside increasing price pressures will be welcomed by policymakers at the European Central Bank who last month took a step towards weaning the euro zone off loose money. Editing by Hugh Lawson; jonathan.cable@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 4688; Reuters; Messaging: jonathan.cable.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-pmi/october-was-strongest-month-for-euro-zone-factories-in-almost-7-years-pmi-idUKKBN1D20Y9'|'2017-11-02T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'6cf292aa5a35ffbd8b0562a743fa5fe2cf516f6a'|'Agreement nears in German-Swiss bank secrecy spying case'|' 50 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Agreement nears in German-Swiss bank secrecy spying case Georgina Prodhan 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A court case that has pitted Swiss bank secrecy against German fiscal propriety looked close to being settled on Thursday with a suspended jail sentence and modest fine for a 54-year-old former Swiss policeman and UBS anti-fraud officer. Defendant Swiss man Daniel M., accused of spying on a German tax authority to find out how it obtained details of secret Swiss bank accounts set up by Germans to avoid tax, talks to his lawyer Hannes Linke (L) before the start of his trial on espionage charges, in the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany October 18, 2017. REUTERS Andreas Arnold/Pool The man, named only as Daniel M., has admitted trying to obtain personal contact details of German tax officials on behalf of Swiss intelligence, which wanted to prosecute the officials for obtaining secret bank data. German states including the one in question, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), have over the past years got hold of CDs containing details of bank accounts held secretly in Switzerland by Germans hoping to avoid tax. Swiss authorities say this amounts to the theft of business secrets, while German officials say they are combating illegal tax evasion. Daniel M., whose spying activities lasted from 2011 until 2015, was a “patriot” simply caught between two ideologies, his defence lawyers told the higher regional court in Frankfurt, the city where he was detained in May. “We have to consider how the Swiss authorities view it since we’re dealing with a Swiss citizen - even though we may see it differently,” said defence lawyer Robert Kain. “The theft of data and their sale to a foreign authority is a crime in Switzerland and he was helping to investigate it.” The Swiss Banking Act requires employees of Swiss-regulated banks to keep client information confidential, but a number of staff have leaked account details to foreign authorities in the past decade as Western governments crack down on tax evasion. Whistleblowers and new disclosure standards have proven costly for Swiss banks, which have suffered hundreds of billions of dollars in outflows as a result. Over a third of Swiss private banks have permanently closed. Chief prosecutor Lienhard Weiss declined to relativise Daniel M.’s actions, saying his actions harmed the interests of all of Germany, not just NRW. “This was not a trivial offence,” he told the court. “This goes to the core sovereignty of the German state.” Weiss conceded, however, that Daniel M. had provided useful information and, crucially, that he had not in fact planted a mole in the NRW tax department, as he had been instructed to do. The two sides agreed that the defendant should be sentenced to a suspended jail term of one-and-a-half to two years and pay a fine of 40,000 euros (£35,570) to the German state, as well as legal costs. The agreement will have to be approved and the final sentence decided by the judge next Thursday. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-security-germany/agreement-nears-in-german-swiss-bank-secrecy-spying-case-idUKKBN1D2206'|'2017-11-02T16:49:00.000+02:00'
'3d88552900b0774e249f4fff689456ec66cdf7c4'|'Carmakers plan 400 Europe car charging stations by 2020'|' 30 AM / in 14 minutes Carmakers plan 400 Europe car charging stations by 2020 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A group of mainly German carmakers will open ultra-fast electric vehicle charging stations this year and plans a pan-European network of 400 by 2020, hoping to narrow Tesla’s ( TSLA.O ) lead. News about the initiative, first flagged a year ago, had been long anticipated as governments push for improvements in infrastructure that would encourage drivers to switch to electric cars. IONITY, a joint venture of BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ), Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ), Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) and Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) with its Audi ( NSUG.DE ) and Porsche brands, plans to open 20 stations to the public this year in Germany, Norway and Austria. They will be 120 km (75 miles) apart and run in partnership with Tank & Rast [LINDOTA.UL], Circle K and OMV ( OMVV.VI ). “The first pan-European HPC network plays an essential role in establishing a market for electric vehicles,” IONITY’s CEO Michael Hajesch said on Friday. He added that the fast-charging stations would also offer digital-payment capability. IONITY is still in talks with charging station suppliers and a decision is expected soon, a spokeswoman said, declining to say how much the joint venture would invest. Installing thousands of High-Power Charging (HPC) stations across the globe will require billions of dollars in investment and offer an opportunity to manufacturers. The car consortium’s new fast chargers will cost about 200,000 euros (£178,385) each, sources said previously. Companies ranging from engineering conglomerates such as Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) to small specialists like ChargePoint are all hoping for a slice of the pie. IONITY will expand its network to 100 stations in 2018, each one enabling several drivers of different car brands to charge their vehicles at the same time. Anxiety over whether battery-powered cars have the range to reach their destination is inhibiting some drivers from switching from petrol or diesel models. But with U.S. all-electric challenger Tesla stealing a lead, established brands are teaming up to ensure that electric vehicles (EVs) can get quickly back on the road. Each charging point will have a capacity of 350 kW, and will use an existing European standard, the Combined Charging System, to reduce charging times compared to existing systems. A half-hour charge will give a Tesla driver about 270 km in extra driving range - roughly half the time it would take to get a similar boost at a 50 kW charge point that is now the industry standard. Electric cars and chargers: tmsnrt.rs/2jmqNcC Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Douglas Busvine and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Susan Fenton and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-electricity-autos-charging/carmakers-plan-400-europe-car-charging-stations-by-2020-idUKKBN1D30YE'|'2017-11-03T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'd12849765f4dcc4bca3e8e173b9c83364e81af98'|'Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:44 PM / in 8 minutes Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter Reuters Staff * Airbus offers to drive Franco-German fighter project - exec * French partner Dassault Aviation also covets ‘architect’ role * Airbus urges quick progress as Germany studies U.S. fighters By Tim Hepher PARIS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - With the ink barely dry on a deal between France and Germany to develop a new combat jet, Airbus and Dassault are squaring up for leadership of a project that could reshape Europe’s fragmented fighter industry. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled the plans at a summit in July, burying past defence industry rivalries as part of efforts to tighten co-operation as Britain withdraws from the European Union. The new combat system could involve a mixture of manned and unmanned aircraft and would eventually replace the Rafale and Eurofighter, rival jets that compete fiercely for global sales, as well as the older Panavia Tornado. That sets the tone for co-operation between Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain in the Eurofighter consortium, and Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of France’s Rafale. But there has been little formal discussion yet over the shape of the project, let alone who would take the lead in development, according to industry and defence officials. Airbus, whose mostly Germany-based defence arm makes up about a quarter of its sales, laid claim to the leading role in an op-ed article published on Friday. “On the assumption that the necessary political will is in place, Airbus is offering to drive cooperation with its European partners and to shape this aspect of our common European future,” Dirk Hoke, chief executive of Airbus Defence & Space, wrote in Germany-based defence newsletter Griephan Briefe. He described his company as “the lead...for a project of this nature.” Dassault has itself offered to be the “architect” of the Franco-German project and Chief Executive Eric Trappier told Reuters recently that it would be the natural leader due to its experience in building an all-French fighter plane. Airbus’s call also appeared aimed at speeding up the project as Germany looks to U.S. rivals to meet interim fighter gaps. Germany earlier this year asked Washington for a briefing on the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter as it gears up to replace its current fleet of fighter jets from 2025. It has also asked for data on Boeing’s F/A-18E/F. Hoke said buying American could weaken the European defence industry and make it ever-more reliant on U.S. “black box” technology that is not shared with foreign operators, while injecting uncertainty into Franco-German plans for a new jet. “An interim solution for the replacement of old fleets already appears probable. If important decisions are delayed, a stopgap of this type could take on a dimension that would cast doubt on the economic efficiency of the entire project,” he said. France and Germany said in July they aim to come up with a roadmap by mid-2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of rival warplanes. Dassault Aviation appears to have been caught by surprise by July’s announcement, which cut across its existing partnership with BAE Systems to build a demonstrator for an unmanned combat vehicle, called Future Combat Air System (FCAS). Defence analysts say the French company is in a strong position to be in the driving seat from a technological point of view, having made it plain it regards BAE as its technological peer. But at least for now, such considerations are likely to take a backseat to how the project will be funded amid tight defence budgets, an industry source said. “It is quite normal for industrialists to claim leadership, but it is too early to talk about that,” he added. (Editing by Anna Willard)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/france-germany-defence/airbus-dassault-vie-for-leadership-of-franco-german-fighter-idUSL8N1N8AJ8'|'2017-11-03T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'7ce8f26165a9a23f5ffee028ab526211ead00fda'|'EU regulators suspend Luxottica, Essilor probe, await data'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have suspended an investigation into the $54 billion merger between French glasses group Essilor ( ESSI.PA ) and Italy’s Luxottica ( LUX.MI ) after the companies failed to provide requested data.FILE PHOTO - The Luxottica name is reflected in a pair of sunglasses in this photo illustration taken in Rome February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo The deal has sparked regulatory concerns that it may lead to price rises or mean retailers are forced to buy both lens and eyewear from the merged company.The European Commission, which opened a full-scale investigation into the case on Sept. 26, said it stopped the clock on Oct. 25.“This procedure in merger investigations is activated if the parties fail to provide, in a timely fashion, an important piece of information that the Commission has requested from them,” the EU competition authority said in an email.“Once the missing information is supplied by the parties, the clock is re-started and the deadline for the Commission’s decision is then adjusted accordingly.”Australia’s competition agency cleared the deal last month, saying it did not see any issues. U.S. regulators are also examining the merger.Luxottica’s brands include Ray Ban and Persol, and licensed names such as Chanel and Armani.Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-luxottica-group-m-a-essilor-eu/eu-regulators-suspend-luxottica-essilor-probe-await-data-idUSKBN1D318D'|'2017-11-03T19:03:00.000+02:00'
'5d2c3323c6ccf924780e110ed4af7a91cb6e47e2'|'Lawmaker calls for probe of UK bank''s ties in South African money laundering case'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:19 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Hain calls for probe of UK bank''s ties in South African money laundering case Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - British lawmaker Peter Hain said on Wednesday he has asked finance minister Philip Hammond to refer an unidentified UK bank to regulators for an investigation into possible involvement in alleged money laundering involving South Africa’s Gupta family. FILE PHOTO - Peter Hain arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting at number 10 Downing Street in London June 9, 2009. REUTERS/Stephen Hird Hain hand delivered documents to Hammond on Tuesday that he said showed participation of an unidentified British bank in illegal transfers of funds from South Africa made by the Gupta family over the last few years. The Guptas, a family of Indian-born businessmen in South Africa, are under scrutiny for their close ties to South African President Jacob Zuma and have been accused of unduly influencing the awarding of state tenders. The family has denied any wrongdoing and no charges have been filed. “(I) named the British bank concerned and asked that he (Hammond) again refer these to the Serious Fraud Office, the National Crimes Agency, and the Financial Conduct Authority for investigation”, Hain said in the House of Lords, according to a video on the British parliament’s website. The unidentified bank is HSBC Holdings Plc ( HSBA.L ), the Financial Times reported, citing one person who has seen a letter Hain separately sent to the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). HSBC spokeswoman Gillian James did not have an immediate comment and referred to Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver’s remark on a post-earnings call on Monday. “On the enquiries as a result of Lord Hain’s letter to the chancellor, obviously we are responding to those enquiries that have come in from the FCA and also from South African authorities, and there is nothing more I can really add at this point in time,” Gulliver said. The FCA could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours. This is not the first time Hain, a Labour politician, has asked for a scrutiny of British lenders’ ties with the Guptas. Hain asked the finance ministry in October to look into HSBC and Standard Chartered Plc’s ( STAN.L ) possible ties to the Gupta family and Zuma, and the FCA said it was in contact with those lenders. The politician also wrote to Hammond in September requesting a probe of British banks’ involvement in money-laundering in South Africa. Reporting by Ismail Shakil in bengaluru; additional reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-safrica-politics-britain-banks/lawmaker-calls-for-probe-of-uk-banks-ties-in-south-african-money-laundering-case-idUKKBN1D166J'|'2017-11-02T01:18:00.000+02:00'
'1b74cd6104adf1b93c80965b91c3525aabb56ab7'|'German car sales rise 3.9 percent in October'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:44 AM / in 8 minutes German car sales rise 3.9 percent in October Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Sales of new passenger cars in Germany rose 3.9 percent to 272,855 in October, rebounding after a 3 percent decline in September, Germany’s KBA motor authority said on Thursday. Volkswagen cars are lined up for sale at a car shop in Bad Honnef near Bonn, Germany, November 4, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Germany’s auto industry association VDA last month raised its forecast for 2017 car sales to 3.5 million vehicles, up 4 percent from 2016, helped by automakers’ trade-in incentives for older diesel models. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-vehicleregistrations/german-car-sales-rise-3-9-percent-in-october-idUKKBN1D21GX'|'2017-11-02T13:43:00.000+02:00'
'6e605ff9fcc4cb326bad2097de67396b532ceeb7'|'Interdealer broker TP ICAP points to challenging final quarter outlook'|' 42 AM / in 5 minutes Interdealer broker TP ICAP points to challenging final quarter Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - TP ICAP ( TCAPI.L ), the world’s largest interdealer broker, pointed to challenging outlook for its final quarter of 2017, blaming a lack of market volatility compared with the same period last year. The company, which brings together buyers and sellers in financial, energy and commodities markets, said revenue for the three months to Sept. 30 rose 3 percent year on year to 420 million pounds ($548 million). The final quarter of last year was marked by increased market volatility after unexpected outcomes in global politics, such as Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election and speculation over higher U.S. interest rates. “Looking ahead we expect comparatively subdued market conditions for the fourth quarter of 2017, although we are well-placed to benefit from any interest rate rises in the U.S. and Europe,” said Chief Executive John Phizackerley. The Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday. Global Broking revenue for the third quarter was in line with a year earlier, TP ICAP said, adding that energy and commodities revenue was down 1 percent, with market conditions remaining particularly challenging for its power and commodities businesses. The company also said that finance chief Andrew Baddeley would step down with immediate effect and deputy CFO Robin Stewart would take the role on an interim basis. ($1 = 0.7659 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tp-icap-outlook/interdealer-broker-tp-icap-points-to-challenging-final-quarter-outlook-idUKKBN1D30KC'|'2017-11-03T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'8364e106063334d22cc3214e392d775b6bfacc8a'|'T-Mobile and Sprint work to save merger talks: WSJ'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:42 AM / Updated 2 hours ago T-Mobile and Sprint work to save merger talks: WSJ Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - T-Mobile US ( TMUS.O ) and Sprint ( S.N ) are working to salvage their $74 billion merger and could reach a deal within weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: Smartphones with the logos of T-Mobile and Sprint are seen in this illustration taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Parent companies Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) and SoftBank ( 9984.T ) reached an impasse last week in their talks as SoftBank directors expressed doubts over giving up control of Sprint, sources told Reuters. However, the Wall Street Journal said that T-Mobile US has made a revised offer, which Sprint is considering. Terms of the offer were not disclosed. A Deutsche Telekom representative declined to comment. Under the previous deal structure, Deutsche Telekom would have controlled the new company, which would have merged the third and fourth-biggest U.S. mobile carriers. Deutsche Telekom shares were indicated 0.9 percent higher ahead of the Frankfurt market open, compared with a 0.3 percent expected rise for the German blue-chip DAX .GDAXI index. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan and Tom Sims; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us/t-mobile-and-sprint-work-to-save-merger-talks-wsj-idINKBN1D30JO'|'2017-11-03T04:42:00.000+02:00'
'300abee33c4ee29e262d4ab7fac1acfec86da385'|'Duke Energy profit falls as costs rise'|' 58 AM / in 9 minutes Duke Energy profit falls as costs rise Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 3 (Reuters) - Utility company Duke Energy Corp reported a 19 percent drop in third-quarter profit, hurt by higher expenses. Net income attributable to Duke Energy fell to $954 million, or $1.36 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $1.18 billion, or $1.44 per share, a year earlier. ( bit.ly/2zcdgsK ) Total operating revenue slipped to $6.48 billion from $6.58 billion. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/duke-energy-results/duke-energy-profit-falls-as-costs-rise-idUSL4N1N9394'|'2017-11-03T12:55:00.000+02:00'
'2440609decefefd7b58935bac0010e728c6cd6fd'|'Hundreds queue up in Sydney for Apple iPhone X launch'|'SYDNEY, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people queued up outside Apple Inc’s store in central Sydney early on Friday to be the first in the world to get their hands on the new iPhone X, a turnaround from more lacklustre launches for the past two iterations of the phone.The Sydney store opened its doors shortly after Apple released its fourth quarter results that showed forecast revenue for the holiday shopping-quarter largely above market expectations. Shares in the company rose 3 percent in after-hours to a new all-time high as investor concerns about production delays for the new phone were allayed.Around 400 people lined up outside Apple’s flagship Sydney branch to pay A$1,579 ($1,218) for the 10th-anniversary model, and Chief Executive Tim Cook has billed the glass and stainless steel device “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.”“It’s beautiful bro, what a feeling, I‘m excited,” builder Bishoy Behman, 18, told Reuters after picking up two phones as the first person in the queue.Behman said he camped outside the store for a week and said he plans to sell the phones on for around A$3,000 each.“I‘m here for the profit, of course, it’s business,” he said.Apple opened pre-orders for the iPhone X on Oct. 27 and has said demand has been “off the charts,” although some analysts have been worried about supply chain issues that might prevent the company from making enough phones to satisfy demand.Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters on Thursday the company was “quite happy” with how manufacturing of the iPhone X was progressing, noting that “production is growing every week, and that’s very, very important during a ramp period.”Apple forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $84-87 billion. Analysts on average were expecting $84.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company’s net income rose to $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter from $9.01 billion a year earlier.The iPhone X comes a decade after the original iPhone, the product that powered Apple’s rise to become the world’s biggest technology company with a market capitalization of $862 billion.Apple for years has sought to make the release of its new phones a landmark event. But this year it took the unusual step of a staggered launch, releasing the iPhone 8 - essentially an incremental advance over the iPhone 7 - several weeks earlier than the iPhone X.The most immediately noticeable change to the iPhone X from previous models is the removal of the physical home button and fingerprint sensor that customers use to unlock the device. The phone is instead unlocked with a so-called Face ID system, which uses a depth-sensing camera on the front of the phone to let the user unlock it with his or her face. ($1 = 1.2960 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Will Ziebell; Writing by Jane Wardell; Editing by Hugh Lawson) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/apple-iphone/hundreds-queue-up-in-sydney-for-apple-iphone-x-launch-idINL4N1N72V6'|'2017-11-02T19:01:00.000+02:00'
'7400964ec322b045abf7c3b85131d14e590700b7'|'Centrica buys Belgian power cutting firm REstore'|' 55 AM / in 9 minutes Centrica buys Belgian power cutting firm REstore Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British energy supplier Centrica ( CNA.L ) has bought Belgian demand response aggregator REstore for 70 million euros (62.46 million pounds), it said on Friday. Aggregator firms secure commitments from businesses to reduce power usage. They then sell the power reduction they secure to the network operator. Aggregators pass on the revenue to the businesses, taking a cut. REstore manages 1.7 gigawatts of peak electricity load from industrial and commercial customers across Belgium, Britain, France and Germany. Centrica said the business will form part of its international distributed energy and power unit which provides energy solutions to large energy users. “This acquisition is an important step forward in the delivery of our strategy, expanding on our offer to business customers to help them take control of their energy and gain competitive advantage,” Jorge Pikunic, managing director of Centrica Distributed Energy & Power, said in a statement. Demand-side response is expected to be a significant growth opportunity as electricity markets evolve, Centrica said. The acquisition will also further expand Centrica’s geographic footprint into new European markets, it added. Smaller aggregators have gained traction in the British market after National Grid launched a campaign to raise awareness among businesses about the commercial benefits of demand-side response and reducing energy usage. Big power firms like Centrica were being undercut by these newcomers and losing business in Britain’s 1-billion pound ($1.3 billion) electricity balancing market. ($1 = 0.8582 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-centrica-restore/uks-centrica-buys-belgian-power-cutting-firm-restore-idUKKBN1D30LM'|'2017-11-03T09:55:00.000+02:00'
'832f33812972850683fc4ba96ffde94578a9bc28'|'Leonard Green to acquire UK''s Pure Gym from CCMP: statement'|'LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Leonard Green and Partners is set to acquire a controlling stake in British gym operator Pure Gym from CCMP Capital Advisors, the firms said in a statement on FridayThey did not disclose the agreed price but Sky News earlier reported the business was valued at 600 million pounds ($783.96 million).An initial public offering of the group, which has 950,000 members spread across 189 sites, was abandoned in October 2016.CCMP bought a majority stake in the business in May 2013 and will no longer retain an interest in the business on completion.Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Dasha Afanasieva '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pure-gym-sale/leonard-green-to-acquire-uks-pure-gym-from-ccmp-statement-idUSKBN1D30YZ'|'2017-11-03T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'c0172711778a2486832970283e90ad97aa695879'|'India services activity rises in October on higher demand'|'November 3, 2017 / 5:06 AM / Updated 11 hours ago India services activity rises in October on higher demand Reuters Staff 2 Min Read REUTERS - India’s dominant services industry activity expanded at its fastest pace in four months in October as demand continued to strengthen despite accelerating price pressures, a business survey showed on Friday. An employee sets a table inside a restaurant at the Crown Plaza hotel, run by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), in New Delhi, January 31, 2014. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/Files The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 51.7 last month - its highest since June - from 50.7 in September. In July and August, the index was below the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction. During those months, confusion over product pricing following the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax pushed manufacturing and services sectors into contraction. Aashna Dodhia, an economist at IHS Markit, said recovery from the GST implementation “was sustained in the private sector in October, mainly radiating from service providers as growth in manufacturing was relatively subdued.” A sister survey showed manufacturing activity barely expanded last month. However, services demand has been recovering since September and the latest survey showed the new business sub-index, a proxy for both domestic and foreign demand, rose to 51.5 in October from 51.1 a month before. This helped a composite index that takes into account both manufacturing and services activity rise to a four-month high of 51.3 last month from September’s 51.1. Firms raised prices at a sharper rate to end-consumers than their costs rose, signaling a pickup in inflation over coming months. Retail inflation held steady at an annual pace of 3.28 percent in September, below the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4 percent. Economic growth slowed to 5.7 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, its weakest in three years. The economy is expected to expand 6.7 percent this fiscal year, its weakest pace in four years, a recent Reuters poll showed. Reporting by Indradip Ghosh; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-pmi/india-services-activity-rises-in-october-on-higher-demand-idINKBN1D309U'|'2017-11-03T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'aaeaacc77cb6d851f801fdf3cc3766ecc69e6fdf'|'European shares edge higher as SocGen weighs on banks after results'|'November 3, 2017 / 8:32 AM / in 18 minutes European shares edge higher as SocGen weighs on banks after results Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares crept higher in early deals on Friday as earnings weighed on shares in French bank Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) and Dutch telecoms firms Altice ( ATCA.AS ), though gains for tech stocks and carmakers limited losses. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent, set for its second week of gains in a row, while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E were down 0.1 percent. Britain''s FTSE 100 .FTSE built on the previous session''s gains following the Bank of England''s first rate hike in more than a decade, up 0.3 percent. Friday was another busy day of earnings, with the banking sector in focus. Societe Generale fell 3.8 percent after the French bank reported third quarter earnings which included a 15 percent slump at its investment banking arm. Telecoms firm Altice was another big faller, down 7.9 percent after issuing cautious full-year targets amidst slightly weaker-than-expected third quarter results. On the positive side, Norwegian consumer publishing firm Schibsted ( SBSTA.OL ) surged 18 percent to the top of the STOXX after its results came in above forecast. France’s Renault ( RENA.PA ) rose 3.9 percent, leading European autos .SXAP after the French government began the sale of its 4.73 percent stake in the carmaker. Tech stocks were also in focus after U.S. giant Apple ( AAPL.O ) reported better-than-expected earnings, boosting shares in suppliers Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) 2 percent and AMS ( AMS.S ) 1.6 percent. So far more than half of MSCI Europe companies have reported third quarter earnings, of which 67 percent have either met or beaten analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. Reporting by Kit Rees, editing by Danilo Masoni'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-edge-higher-as-socgen-weighs-on-banks-after-results-idUKKBN1D30O0'|'2017-11-03T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'7db530dddd91df86f8447fd57f724f3af221df6f'|'Major UK lenders keep rates on hold for now despite BoE hike'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:53 PM / in 14 minutes Major UK lenders keep rates on hold for now despite BoE hike Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Major British banks are keeping most of their mortgage and savings rates on hold for now despite the Bank of England (BoE) raising borrowing costs for the first time in more than a decade on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A view of the City of London and Canary Wharf. July 7, 2017. REUTERS/John Sibley/File Photo Britain’s largest mortgage lender Lloyds Banking Group ( LLOY.L ) said it would review rates after the quarter point rise in official borrowing costs but would not immediately change them except on products that explicitly track the BoE base rate. “The Bank of England base rate is only one of the many factors that influence the cost of lending,” it said in a statement. HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ) also said they were reviewing variable savings and mortgage rates, but did not make any instant changes aside from on BoE trackers. For around eight million Britons, Thursday’s rise was the first increase in official borrowing costs they have experienced in their adult lives, having grown up through an era of cheap credit and low savings rates. UK Finance, Britain’s banking lobby, said for the majority of mortgage holders the rate change was unlikely to have a near-term impact given they are on fixed rates. It said that over the last year around two thirds of first time buyers had fixed their rate for up to two years. The Resolution Foundation think tank estimated only around 11 percent of families in Britain currently have a variable rate mortgage - a reflection in part of a fall in home ownership as well as a shift towards fixed rate products. It calculated that the average increase in payments for a family with a mortgage of around 258,000 pounds ($338,000), if the hike is passed on, would be about 30 pounds a month. Some building societies and smaller lenders are making changes to their rates, though. Nationwide, Britain’s second-biggest provider of mortgages, said on Monday it would cut some of its fixed rate mortgages whatever the BoE did, although some of its variable rates will increase. It will pass on the 0.25 percent rise in rates to its savings customers, if they were hit by a similar decrease when the BoE cut rates in June 2016. Yorkshire Building Society said it would pass on the full 0.25 percent increase to all of its variable savings accounts. Many of its mortgage customers on variable or tracker rates would also see their rates go up by 0.25 percent. Reporting by Lawrence White and Emma Rumney; Writing by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-banks/major-uk-lenders-keep-rates-on-hold-for-now-despite-boe-hike-idUKKBN1D21V8'|'2017-11-02T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'811e69c80a2d1c2060c39d578af008055f66bd70'|'Tyremaker Nokian flips focus after riding out Russia''s ruble rout'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:17 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Tyremaker Nokian flips focus after riding out Russia''s ruble rout Jack Stubbs , Gleb Stolyarov , Jussi Rosendahl 7 Min Read VSEVOLOZHSK/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokian Tyres ( NRE1V.HE ), which supported earnings during Russia’s ruble crisis by boosting exports from the country, is flipping strategy as the economy rebounds. FILE PHOTO: Nokian tyres are on display at the "Krepost" Toyota dealership in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia August 8, 2014. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo The Finnish firm, which makes most of its tyres in Russia, is now expanding production there to supply the local market while cutting exports. It also plans to open a factory in the United States which will further reduce the need for Russian supplies to go overseas. The tyremaker’s flexible strategy could offer some guide to other companies and investors operating in Russia’s notoriously volatile and unpredictable market. Yet there are risks ahead. A limited scope to further expand production and rising raw material costs could undermine Nokian’s ability to adapt to economic and industry shifts, while competition is heating up in the premium winter tyres market it specialises in. During Russia’s 2014-16 economic crisis, Nokian hiked exports to account for 70 percent of all tyres its produced in the country, up from about 55 percent before, as manufacturing costs effectively tumbled along with the value of the rouble. Now, though, economic growth and a stronger currency are fuelling a recovery in the Russian auto market, and new car sales are rising in 2017 after four years of decline. Nokian has responded by redirecting export volumes to local customers. It is also spending 55 million euros (£49 million) on upgrades to its Russian factory this year, including a new production line which will lift annual capacity to 17 million tyres by the end of the year. “We assume a sustained growth in the market in Russia in the coming two to three years,” Executive Vice President Andrei Pantioukhov told Reuters. “Judging by this, the share of local sales in our production at this factory will increase.” Nokian - which has two plants, in Russia and Finland - also plans to start U.S. production by 2020 by building a $360 million (£274.6 million) factory in Tennessee. This will free up tyre volumes to remain in Russia, Pantioukhov said in an interview at the company’s Russian factory in Vsevolozhsk near St Petersburg. The scale of the switch was shown in results published on Wednesday. Sales in Russia and the CIS rose 86 percent in the first nine months of 2017 and accounted for 21 percent of group sales, up from 14 percent a year before. The company declined to disclose export volumes, but said they had fallen and now represented 66 percent of Russian production. The tactic is showing early promise; Nokian reported a better-than-expected 21 percent rise in third-quarter profits to 90 million euros, driven by Russia and a stronger rouble, after raising its full-year earnings forecast in August. However, it said it expected total costs for raw materials - natural rubber, synthetic rubber, carbon black and oil - to rise by 20 percent this year. TYRES, TOBACCO, VODKA The Finnish firm, which makes 86 percent of its tyres over the border in Russia to capitalise on lower energy costs, weathered Russia’s economic crisis better than many other foreign companies. Its export drive made it Russia’s largest exporter of consumer goods, in a market traditionally dominated by tobacco and vodka, and delivered healthy profits in the downturn which cemented its position as the country’s top tyre producer. Nokian’s ability to weather the slump better than many in the auto industry was helped by the fact that the bulk of its manufacturing is in Russia, while many other companies like carmakers rely on imported components. An employee works at the Nokian Tyres factory in Vsevolozhsk, near St. Petersburg, Russia September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Gleb Stolyarov General Motors ( GM.N ), for example, wound up production in Russia in 2015 while Renault ( RENA.PA ) slashed the value of its majority stake in top Russian carmaker Avtovaz ( AVAZ.MM ). Nokian’s strategy is not a unique one, however. Some other manufacturers, including steelmakers and certain meat producers, have adopted the same adjustable strategy during and after the downturn, with varying degrees of success. Among tyremakers, Nokian’s German rival Continental ( CONG.DE ) and Italy’s Pirelli ( PIRC.MI ) also used exports from Russia to support earnings during the crisis years. Continental’s 2015 Russian exports accounted for 19 percent of annual production, which it bumped up to 30 percent by 2016. “The emphasis on sales exclusively on the Russian market turned out to be incompatible with changing realities,” a spokeswoman told Reuters. It then cut exports back to the current level of 13 percent as the economy recovered. Slideshow (3 Images) But Nokian was better positioned than its competitors to capitalise on the opportunity thanks to the location of its factory in Vsevolozhsk, which was planned as a hub for both local and foreign sales when it was built in 2005, well ahead of many of its rivals. Continental’s factory in Kaluga and Pirelli’s plants in Kirov and Voronezh are all hundreds of kilometres from the nearest port and were not opened until the early 2010s. “The Nokian factory is very well placed logistically. Near St Petersburg, volumes are very easily redirected as exports through the port,” said VTB analyst Vladimir Bespalov. “If your factories are in the depths of Russia then logistics costs mean there are fewer opportunities for exports.” RISKS ON ROAD AHEAD Nokian faces some potential potholes though. The company has long been at its strongest in Russia and the Nordic nations, but stiffening competition from the likes of South Korea’s Hankook ( 161390.KS ) in studded winter tyres could increasingly pressure Nokian’s position as a technology leader in some of those markets, analysts say. Executive Vice President Pantioukhov declined to give precise production figures but said the Vsevolozhsk factory, which can currently produce up to 15.5 million tyres a year, was “practically running at full capacity”. Nokian CEO Hille Korhonen told investors on Wednesday there would be no space left in the plant to add more capacity after the new production line was completed. She also said the rising raw material costs would lead to a financial hit of about 60 million euros this year. Petri Kajaani, an analyst at Inderes, which rates Nokian shares as “accumulate”, said the company’s capacity restraints could limit its ability to increase sales before the U.S. plant starts ramping up. He said any price hikes on the back of higher material costs could damage the product’s appeal to Russia’s cost-conscious consumers. “Although car sales are rising in Russia, consumers’ purchasing power is still weak,” Kajaani added. “If the upward trend in raw material costs continues, Nokian’s margins will be pressured.” Editing by Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-nokiantyres/tyremaker-nokian-flips-focus-after-riding-out-russias-ruble-rout-idUKKBN1D222Y'|'2017-11-02T17:17:00.000+02:00'
'bd039d7569cfb3512759ab2190b71c5006e15e80'|'Trump expected to name Powell as next Federal Reserve chair on Thursday'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:04 AM / Updated an hour ago Trump expected to name Powell as next Federal Reserve chair on Thursday Jeff Mason , Steve Holland 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is expected on Thursday to nominate Jerome Powell as the next head of the Federal Reserve, putting his own stamp on the leadership of the U.S. central bank while signaling continuity on monetary policy. erome H. Powell, a governor on the board of the Federal Reserve System, prepares to testify to the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/Files Trump’s decision, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, concludes a months-long process in which he considered five finalists, including current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, before settling on Powell, who has served as a Fed governor since 2012. Powell’s name has been circulated as the top contender for over a week. A source with knowledge of the process said no surprises were expected on Thursday, despite Trump’s reputation for weighing decisions up to the last minute and his praise on Wednesday of Yellen, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama. Her term as Fed chair expires in February 2018; she is entitled to remain a Fed board governor until 2024. “I think Janet Yellen is excellent,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with his cabinet after declaring his intention to announce his choice the next day. Asked if she was his pick, Trump said: “I didn’t say that.” He predicted people would be “extremely impressed” with the nominee, who will require Senate confirmation. Trump will announce his choice at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) at the White House, according to his public schedule. Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/Files Powell, 64, has supported Yellen’s general direction in setting monetary policy, and in recent years has shared her concern that low inflation justified continuing with a cautious approach to raising interest rates. Commerzbank economist Bernd Weidensteiner said a Powell pick would mean Trump had chosen the “least controversial” person for the job. “Under his chairmanship, markets would expect business as usual – which they obviously like,” he said. The president has mulled his choices for Fed chair, a decision that is normally cloaked in secrecy, in an unusually public way, asking lawmakers and even a television news anchor to weigh in on whom they would pick. Trump also considered Stanford University economist John Taylor, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. Taylor and Warsh were both viewed as people who might raise interest rates faster than Yellen and Powell. Cohn appeared to fall out of favor after criticizing Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this year. Financial markets look set to greet Powell’s appointment with a shrug. Investors are pricing in an interest rate increase in December and the Fed’s current projections are for three more increases next year. Powell is expected to pursue a policy of cautious deregulation of the financial sector, potentially freeing smaller banks from some of the rules imposed after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Powell, who has been a Federal Reserve board governor since 2012, played a key role in drafting new bank regulations after the crisis and will likely offer more continuity for Wall Street than other candidates, analysts said. Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-fed/trump-expected-to-name-powell-as-next-federal-reserve-chair-on-thursday-idINKBN1D20DM'|'2017-11-02T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'da06691ec7e6f2a08343b16192f2bc08b8260392'|'Canadian Natural Resources posts quarterly profit'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:07 AM / in 6 minutes Canadian Natural Resources posts quarterly profit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 2 (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Canada’s largest independent petroleum producer, on Thursday reported a third-quarter profit, helped by higher production and average realized prices. The Calgary-based company reported a net income of C$684 million, or 56 Canadian cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of C$326 million, or 29 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Oil and natural gas production rose 40.9 percent to 1.04 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the quarter. (Reporting by Akshara P in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canadian-natural-resources-results/canadian-natural-resources-posts-quarterly-profit-idUSL4N1N83J4'|'2017-11-02T11:07:00.000+02:00'
'e1cdead54b735c6f068a2d3f63442497636d860b'|'MOVES-Credit Suisse names Galietto to head U.S. stock trading'|'(Adds details on hirings)By Olivia OranNov 3 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG has hired Paul Galietto as head of Americas equities trading, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, in a move to further boost its stock business.Galietto most recently was the chief of equities Americas at UBS Group AG and before that he worked more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch.A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo.Credit Suisse has made a number of senior hires this year in its stock trading unit under new equities head Mike Stewart. Those hires include Michael Ebert, who joined as global head of equity derivatives from Bank of America Corp; Doug Crofton, who was brought over from Bank of America to run U.S. equities sales and trading, and David Bleustein, who became head of Americas equity research and had worked at UBS.Under Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse has reduced its footprint in some parts of trading, including fixed income, while focusing on ways to boost lending to wealthy clients.Credit Suisse’s equities business in the United States ranked between No. 7 and No. 9 by revenue, according to industry tracker Coalition.The bank said on Thursday that equities revenue had risen 5 percent year over year during the third quarter. (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/credit-suisse-gp-moves/moves-credit-suisse-names-galietto-to-head-u-s-stock-trading-idINL2N1N91HR'|'2017-11-03T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'bc65df3f6cf7257e451b9a654fe728287f4db668'|'Germany''s Continental buys Israeli autos cyber firm Argus'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:08 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Germany''s Continental buys Israeli autos cyber firm Argus Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Continental AG ( CONG.DE ) said on Friday it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars from hacking. The logo of Continental AG, a German automotive manufacturing company specialized in tyres, brakes and car safety products is pictured on a rim at the company''s stand during the Hannover Fair in Hanover, Germany, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Continental paid a three-digit million euro amount, a company spokesman said. Israeli media reported earlier this week that Continental would pay about $400 million (£305.4 million) for the start-up. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Arno Schuetze'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-argus-m-a-continental/germanys-continental-buys-israeli-autos-cyber-firm-argus-idUKKBN1D3191'|'2017-11-03T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'11aa7183b4524b761e5e880c118f25dc3df79cc7'|'Can Carney convince the markets?'|'Currencies Can Carney convince the markets? The first Bank of England rates hike in a decade left forex investors underwhelmed. With the economy sluggish and wage growth limited, John Wraith of UBS tells Roger Blitz why BoE governor Mark Carney is risking a policy mistake Save to myFT The inversion of the gilt yield after the BoE rate rise spell will be a concern for the central bank Thursday, 2 November, 2017 The FT''s markets team on market charts that matter for investors Wednesday, 1 November, 2017 The FT''s Robert Armstrong asks if banks are driving up the wrong street Thursday, 26 October, 2017 Suspect shot and taken into custody Wednesday, 1 November, 2017 Lex on need for challengers to break up oligopolies, lift productivity Tuesday, 24 October, 2017 John Wraith of UBS tells Roger Blitz why BoE governor Mark Carney is risking a policy mistake new Bank of England increases interest rates for first time in a decade Thursday, 2 November, 2017 Organic growth across the advertising sector as a whole has shrunk Thursday, 2 November, 2017 Central bank''s MPC voted 7 to 2 for rate increase Thursday, 2 November, 2017 Will banking remain a lucrative business? Saturday, 7 October, 2017 Rana Foroohar on how low interest rates benefited Wall Street over mainstream America Saturday, 7 October, 2017 Jamil Anderlini asks if the economy is addicted to debt Saturday, 7 October, 2017 Gideon Rachman and Tony Barber discuss events surrounding the Spanish region Wednesday, 4 October, 2017 Floodlights to spotlights - playwright''s time out from ''The Red Lion'' rehearsals Tuesday, 31 October, 2017 Honey & Co’s guide to making falafel fit for an Israeli street stall Friday, 27 October, 2017 A look behind scenes at restoration work in the institute''s archives Friday, 20 October, 2017 The author explains why she’s only wearing Nigerian-made clothes Friday, 20 October, 2017 More from the FT Group Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2017. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice . Close'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/video/39ef6e9d-688b-4a5c-bc20-160151d669ff'|'2017-11-02T20:17:00.000+02:00'
'34292eedef429cffae6988af37ed21f67cab0a78'|'Lenovo buys controlling stake in Fujitsu PC unit; second quarter profit drops'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:49 AM / Updated an hour ago Lenovo buys controlling stake in Fujitsu PC unit; second-quarter profit drops Sijia Jiang 4 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lenovo Group ( 0992.HK ) has agreed to buy a majority stake in Fujitsu Ltd’s ( 6702.T ) personal computer unit for up to $269 million, in a bid to corner a larger share of a market that is battling weak sales as more people switch to mobile devices. A Lenovo logo is seen at the computer in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo Having lost the world’s largest PC maker crown to HP Inc ( HPQ.N ) this year, Lenovo has been looking for ways strengthen its core business. Weakness in this segment contributed to a profit decline over July-September, after pushing it into the red for the first time since 2015 in the previous quarter. “PC is still core of Lenovo. It is still a very decent market ... commercial customers will still use PC,” Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing said. “I think it is worth investing in this area.” Lenovo said it would pay 17.85 billion yen ($156.70 million) in cash, and 2.55 billion-12.75 billion yen based on performance to 2020, for a 51 percent stake Fujitsu Client Computing Ltd. “Lenovo has been trailing HP at the global level by about 1-2 percentage points of share for the past two quarters, so adding Fujitsu to the mix in theory helps close that gap,” said Bryan Ma, analyst at industry consultancy IDC. “Lenovo gets to bolster its position in Japan, where it currently already leads,” he said, adding that in terms of scale, Fujitsu stands to gain more. “Fujitsu is too small on a global level to get (Lenovo) much scale.” Lenovo and Fujitsu had first announced in October 2016 that they were exploring cooperations in their PC business. News of the deal drove up Lenovo shares by as much as 5 percent on Thursday to their highest since August, but lower profits over July-September kept a lid on gains. PC MARKET TROUBLES DENT PROFITS Lenovo posted a profit of $139 million for the second quarter, versus $157 million a year ago. A taxation gain of $118 million helped earnings beat a consensus of $44 million. Its revenue was $11.8 billion, compared with $11.2 billion last year and analysts’ estimate of $11.3 billion. While Lenovo’s global PC unit shipments rebounded 17 percent from the previous quarter, its PC market share over six months dropped 0.2 percentage point to 21 percent, it said, without revealing shipment numbers. PC makers around the world are struggling given changing demand trends, with data from Gartner showing that worldwide shipment of personal computers fell 3.6 percent from a year ago in the quarter ended September, the 12th such decline in a row. Lenovo warned market conditions would remain challenging in the short term, but said component costs would likely stabilize. CEO Yang said it was still Lenovo’s target to turn around its struggling mobile business by the end of the financial year in March. The segment reported a narrower operating loss before taxation of $261 million for the second quarter. Lenovo shares closed up 2.18 percent, versus the broader market .HSI that was down 0.26 percent. ($1 = 113.9100 yen) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lenovo-results/chinas-lenovo-second-quarter-profit-slides-11-percent-year-on-year-but-beats-estimates-idUKKBN1D20CR'|'2017-11-02T12:43:00.000+02:00'
'60c489f0000e3fe25d2ea41b213de57c5a267f0d'|'WPP takes legal action in spat with Asatsu-DK over Bain offer'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:09 AM / Updated 2 hours ago WPP takes legal action in spat with Asatsu-DK over Bain offer Junko Fujita 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - An acrimonious spat between advertising giant WPP and its partner Asatsu-DK Inc over a $1.35 billion offer for the Japanese firm from Bain Capital has deepened, with WPP saying it was taking legal action. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bain Capital is displayed on the screen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Asatsu-DK is backing Bain’s offer, but WPP, its largest shareholder with a stake of about 25 percent, and other shareholders have said the bid significantly undervalues the company. The world’s largest advertising group is seeking arbitration with a Japanese arbitration body and a preliminary injunction with the Tokyo District Court. In both cases it is asking for a declaration that Asatsu-DK’s termination of their business alliance was invalid. It also said it wanted a declaration that Asatsu-DK had no right to request or require WPP to sell its shares in the Japanese firm. Asatsu-DK said last month it wanted to end the alliance and had asked WPP to tender its shares in the company to Bain. The Japanese firm said on Thursday in a statement that WPP had notified it on Wednesday that it was planning to terminate their alliance, accusing Asatsu-DK of breaching their agreement with a hedging contract it had entered into with Morgan Stanley. Asatsu-DK added that it did not believe it had breached their agreement with the hedging contract. WPP and Asatsu-DK formed their alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures, cultivate clients together, and exchanged equity stakes. Asatsu-DK owns 2.43 percent of WPP. A representative for Bain was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/wpp-takes-legal-action-in-spat-with-asatsu-dk-over-bain-offer-idINKBN1D20DX'|'2017-11-02T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'd5ee830d4b60399c1474e3165845a7e5cb49cc0b'|'Audi recalls 5,000 diesel cars to fix emissions control software'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Audi is recalling almost 5,000 cars in Europe for a software fix after discovering they emitted too much nitrogen oxide, the polluting gas that parent Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) concealed from U.S. regulators in its devastating 2015 “dieselgate” scandal.FILE PHOTO: The logo of German car manufacturer Audi is seen at a building of a car dealer in Duebendorf, Switzerland November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The luxury carmaker said on Thursday it had reported the matter to Germany’s road transport authority KBA, which was concerned about the possible illegal manipulation of emission levels.The KBA had no immediate comment.Audi said it would update the software of the 4,997 A8 model vehicles with 2.4 liter V8 diesel engines, of which 3,660 are in Germany and were made between September 2013 and August 2017.The software updates will likely be available in the first quarter of 2018 after winter testing.“Among other things, the update should ensure that after cold starts the engine more quickly reaches optimal operating conditions for the exhaust-gas treatment system so that its emissions are improved in real driving conditions,” it said.“During the testing, it will be ensured that the new software has no disadvantages for customers in terms of fuel consumption or performance.”Volkswagen was found in 2015 to have illegally manipulated engine software so that vehicles would meet nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards in laboratory testing but not in real-world conditions, where they could emit up to 40 times the permitted levels.Several Audi models were affected and Audi has been accused in media reports of having devised the so-called defeat devices years earlier but not to have installed them in its vehicles at that time. Audi and Volkswagen have never commented on the matter.Volkswagen’s shares plunged more than 20 percent when the scandal broke. They climbed back to pre-crisis levels for the first time on Thursday.Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Jan Schwartz; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Christoph Steitz, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-audi/audi-recalls-almost-5000-a8-models-for-emissions-software-updates-idINKBN1D21B2'|'2017-11-02T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'efb69cdf6ef140396d26e5bba1c5d7267d077fb5'|'Tate & Lyle hikes full-year profit guidance'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:16 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Tate & Lyle hikes full-year profit guidance Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British ingredients supplier Tate & Lyle ( TATE.L ) lifted its full-year profit expectations on Thursday, citing a strong first half when growth in its bulk ingredients and speciality food ingredients businesses helped to drive profit higher. Bags of granulated sugar move along the production line at a Tate & Lyle refinery in east London, Britain October 10, 2016. Picture taken October 10, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The company’s sales from continuing operations rose 6 percent to 1.4 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) in the six months to Sept. 30, while adjusted profit at constant currencies was 13 percent higher at 169 million pounds. “Turning to the outlook, we expect underlying adjusted profit before tax in constant currency for the full year to be modestly higher than we anticipated coming into the year driven by the strong first half performance,” CEO Javed Ahmed said. Ahead of the results, analysts had on an average expected full-year adjusted pretax profit of 286 million pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus. Tate reported profit of 271 million pounds for the year ended March 30. ($1 = 0.7530 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tate-lyle-results/tate-lyle-hikes-full-year-profit-guidance-idUKKBN1D20N5'|'2017-11-02T09:16:00.000+02:00'
'7c5239dd34c4958b2d4ecad36745a70327388f55'|'Bitcoin skyrockets above $7,000 for first time ever'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:27 AM / in 4 hours Bitcoin rockets above $7,000 for the first time Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin took another leap higher on Thursday, rocketing above $7,000 for the first time after a more than tenfold increase in its value over the past year. Bitcoins are seen in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Bitcoin has seen eye-watering gains in recent months, having more than doubled in value in the past seven weeks alone. It is on track for a fifth consecutive quarter of increases -- a run not seen since 2012-2013, when it was approaching $100 for the first time. It hit as high as $7,354.10 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Thursday BTC=BTSP , before settling back to $7,030 by 1630 GMT, still up over 4 percent on the day. Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam expressed caution about the booming cryptocurrency, saying the current interest in it could eventually subside. “From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble,” he said on Thursday. The latest rally was driven in large part by news earlier this week that the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator CME Group ( CME.O ) is to launch bitcoin futures. “The move by such a well-known, established exchange throws open the doors for institutions to get into bitcoin,” said analyst Arnaud Masset at Swissquote, a brokerage that offers bitcoin trading to retail clients. “Still, traditional investors will remain cautious and will not rush.” Thursday’s price move took bitcoin’s aggregate value or “market cap” -- its price multiplied by the number of bitcoins released into circulation -- to more than $122 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of more than $194 billion, the website said, more than the market values of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley combined. “This has been another incredibly bullish week for the cryptocurrency, with the visible upside attracting investors from all directions,” said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, a brokerage. “It must be kept in mind that bitcoin’s exponential gains are not only phenomenal, but (also) somewhat frightening.” Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-skyrockets-above-7000-for-first-time-ever-idUSKBN1D217U'|'2017-11-02T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'a9c06e74a58cadbac53211da0be48988921f5baa'|'Global air passenger traffic demand up 5.7 percent in September: IATA'|'November 2, 2017 / 2:38 PM / in 4 hours Middle East carriers see slowest monthly growth since Feb 2009: IATA Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Middle Eastern carriers saw their slowest rate of international growth in September in over eight years, with a temporary ban on electronics and proposed travel restrictions hitting demand, according to an airline industry body on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A hostess stands near logos of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) during an IATA meeting in Cancun, Mexico June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Victor Ruiz Garcia Demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, rose 3.7 percent in September, the slowest rise since February 2009, the International Air Transport Association said in its regular monthly traffic update. Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Etihad have come under pressure from overcapacity, security concerns and a drop in regional business travel. “The Middle East-U.S. market has been hit hard by the now lifted cabin ban on large portable electronic devices, as well as the various proposed travel bans to the U.S.,” IATA said. It said that traffic between the region and the United States had dropped in August, the most recent month for which that data is available. That was the sixth straight month of declines making it the only international market not to have shown year-on-year growth in the first eight months of the year. Overall in September, global demand for air travel rose 5.7 percent, the slowest growth since February as hurricanes in the United States hit travel, IATA said. It said airline capacity rose 5.3 percent and airlines’ load factor, which measures how effectively a carrier fills seats, increased by 0.3 percentage points to 81.6 percent. “Hurricanes Irma and Maria weighed heavily on the results, although growth already had been tapering,” IATA said in a statement. IATA said North American airlines saw demand rise 3 percent in September, and added there was anecdotal evidence to suggest that traffic to the United States was being hampered by additional security measures. Reporting by Stratos Karakasidis and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Susan Fenton and Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airlines-iata-passenger/global-air-passenger-traffic-demand-up-5-7-percent-in-september-iata-idUSKBN1D21YW'|'2017-11-02T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'0fddf70fa2ad029ccd23f1b8655e6f047ac9522c'|'Amazon to end Fresh grocery delivery service in some areas'|'November 3, 2017 / 1:13 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Amazon to end Fresh grocery delivery service in some areas Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is ending its Fresh grocery delivery service for select areas, though it continues to operate in more than a dozen cities from Los Angeles to Tokyo, it said in a statement on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol AmazonFresh deliveries will stop for some people after Nov. 30, according to messages sent to customers in suburban Pennsylvania and New Jersey, seen by Reuters. Some Amazon customers in California, New York and Maryland posted on Twitter that they were losing the service as well. AmazonFresh started more than a decade ago but has yet to make a major dent in the $700 (535.82 pounds) billion U.S. grocery market. Whole Foods Market, which Amazon acquired in August for $13.7 billion, is expected to play a key role in Amazon’s grocery delivery going forward. A company spokeswoman said the AmazonFresh closures were unrelated to the Whole Foods deal. Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-amazon-com-fresh/amazon-to-end-fresh-grocery-delivery-service-in-some-areas-idUKKBN1D302F'|'2017-11-03T04:00:00.000+02:00'
'baa789eae3fe44d54d80c0c32f78a97241c217fd'|'Leonard Green to acquire UK''s Pure Gym from CCMP statement'|' 36 AM / in 15 minutes Leonard Green to acquire UK''s Pure Gym from CCMP: statement Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Leonard Green and Partners is set to acquire a controlling stake in British gym operator Pure Gym from CCMP Capital Advisors, the firms said in a statement on Friday They did not disclose the agreed price but Sky News earlier reported the business was valued at 600 million pounds ($783.96 million). An initial public offering of the group, which has 950,000 members spread across 189 sites, was abandoned in October 2016. CCMP bought a majority stake in the business in May 2013 and will no longer retain an interest in the business on completion. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Dasha Afanasieva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-pure-gym-sale/leonard-green-to-acquire-uks-pure-gym-from-ccmp-statement-idUKKBN1D30YZ'|'2017-11-03T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'bd47dcd2558e42675874823fdc5acbb5040b80a5'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 3'|'Nov 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- The Republican tax proposal has clouded the outlook for electric vehicles in the United States. The congressional plan presented on Thursday, which would abolish a $7,500 federal income-tax credit for electric vehicles, arrives just as automakers are gearing up to expand their lineups. nyti.ms/2gY7rqv- As Apple Inc reported revenue and profit increases that beat Wall Street expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, the company said it was also seeing strong demand for the iPhone X, as well as for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models, which it unveiled in September. nyti.ms/2h04qG0- The Trump administration will promote coal, natural gas and nuclear energy as an answer to climate change at a presentation during a United Nations global warming conference this month, the White House confirmed Thursday. nyti.ms/2gZH2IV- Travel website TripAdvisor Inc has apologized to a Texas woman for repeatedly deleting her review of a Mexican resort that detailed how she had been raped there by a security guard. nyti.ms/2gXVdxU- India''s Paytm unveiled an updated version of its service on Friday that integrates chat features, including photo and video sharing, into its market-leading digital wallet. nyti.ms/2gYsY27 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-3-idINL4N1N91N0'|'2017-11-03T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'9086ecbcca787a048751c903e32555918f5e4e0a'|'Puerto Rico''s PREPA utility creditors say power grid damage is overblown'|'NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Bondholders of Puerto Rico’s bankrupt power utility, PREPA, said on Friday that the damage to the local electric grid by Hurricane Maria is not as bad as the island’s government says, and could be fixed quickly with an outside energy expert in charge.The PREPA bondholders made the argument in a written filing in federal court in San Juan. The utility filed for a form of bankruptcy in June to shed $9 billion of debt, while Puerto Rico’s government filed for bankruptcy in May. It has $72 billion of total debt.The bondholders want to persuade the judge overseeing the island’s bankruptcy to pick an energy industry expert to run PREPA, from a list of names on which creditors may or may not have input.Citing their own assessment of grid damage, led by energy consultant Derek HasBrouck, the bondholders said some 95 percent of transmission assets are fully functional, and observed only “a few broken poles” among 170 distribution substations.Those numbers contrast starkly with the Puerto Rican government’s assessment that 80 percent of the electric grid was destroyed when Maria made landfall on September 20, the most powerful storm to hit Puerto Rico in decades.Maria knocked out power to the entire island, and six weeks later only about 30 percent of electricity has been restored.The PREPA bondholders, who include mutual funds like Oppenheimer and Franklin Advisers, say HasBrouck’s findings prove Governor Ricardo Rossello’s administration has botched the response to Maria and that PREPA needs an outside manager.“It is imperative to retain an experienced, seasoned electric utility executive to run PREPA,” the bondholders said.In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, though, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello dismissed the idea that damage has been overstated.“To be clear and blunt, the devastation was severe,” Rossello said. “There is no way to minimize how significant that devastation was.”‘NOT ZAMOT’Whoever Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy judge appoints to step in at PREPA, the bondholders argued, it should not be Noel Zamot.The retired U.S. Air Force colonel was tapped for the role by a federal board that has a mandate to manage Puerto Rico’s finances. Zamot has worked with the board already on separate issues.His appointment must be confirmed by the judge. But Zamot, the bondholders argued, has no experience running a power utility.Their opposition hints at a broader power struggle over control of Puerto Rico’s financial turnaround between the board and investors bracing for big debt cuts.The squabble marks a return to a focus on Puerto Rico’s debt, after creditors stayed largely quiet for weeks following Maria, which killed at least 50 people on the island.Reporting by Nick Brown; editing by Daniel Bases and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-puertorico-creditors/puerto-ricos-prepa-utility-creditors-say-power-grid-damage-is-overblown-idINL2N1N91LD'|'2017-11-03T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'6a94ee39732c15c1ae147d556ba37496ebd8170e'|'U.S. House panel to disclose some Russian-linked Facebook ads'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:39 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago U.S. House panel to disclose some Russian-linked Facebook ads Reuters Staff 1   The U.S. House Intelligence Committee will disclose on Wednesday a sample of Russian-linked content that ran on social media during the 2016 presidential election, the panel’s top Democrat said. FILE PHOTO: House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacts to Committee Chairman Devin Nunes statements about surveillance of U.S. President Trump and his staff as well as his visit to the White House, as Schiff holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo Representative Adam Schiff said the committee would show a “representative sample” of Russian advertisements and posts during a hearing on Wednesday at which lawyers from Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s Google, were testifying about Russian influence on their networks. Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-house/u-s-house-panel-to-disclose-some-russian-linked-facebook-ads-idUSKBN1D15M2'|'2017-11-01T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'0a93a4b4ac3c4d9cfcc2b61c72ae4537d3c85f51'|'British insurer Legal & General to launch Japan operation - CEO'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:53 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago British insurer Legal & General to launch Japan operation - CEO Carolyn Cohn 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British’s third-largest insurer, Legal & General ( LGEN.L ), is launching an operation in Japan to offer company pension scheme insurance and investment management, Chief Executive Nigel Wilson said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Legal & General insurance company is seen at their office in central London, Britain, March 17, 2008. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico/File Photo The move by L&G comes as European peers such as Allianz ( ALVG.DE ) and Aviva ( AV.L ) have scaled back from other Asian markets such as Taiwan. The $21 billion (16.09 billion pounds) company, which manages 1 trillion pounds in assets in its fund arm, has sold a number of its European businesses in recent years to focus on operations in Britain and increasingly in the United States. Japan has an ageing population which L&G sees as a key driver of growth in its existing markets, as it fuels demand for companies to cut their pension scheme risks. “We’ve just got approval from the Japanese regulator - you’ll see us win business very quickly,” Wilson told Reuters in an interview. “We are evolving. America and Japan, given the size of the markets there, are two great opportunities for us.” The Japanese operation will initially employ around six people and focus on L&G’s investment management and retirement businesses, Wilson added. It would not offer retail pensions, an L&G spokesman said. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) already sells funds to Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese customers but doesn’t have local operations in those countries, Wilson said. DIRECT INVESTMENT LGIM offers liability-driven investment products, matching pension funds’ assets to their liabilities, typically using derivatives. It is also one of Britain’s biggest managers of index-tracking, or passive funds. The insurer, one of the largest investors in the UK stock market, has already invested the bulk of a 15 billion UK direct investment programme focusing on real estate, transport and distribution in cities outside London. Wilson said L&G could up its investment. “We’ve spent about 12 billion so far - we could easily spend another 15.” Wilson said Britain’s vote last year to leave the European Union was having little negative impact on its business, with the subsequent fall in sterling boosting international interest in UK real estate and infrastructure investment. L&G frequently co-invests with overseas pension funds such as Dutch manager PGGM. LGIM plans to transfer staff to Dublin as a result of Brexit but Wilson said the numbers would be small. “We might move four, it might be six, it might be 10, it might be 20, but it’s not that many,” he said. Rising interest rates would also be positive for the insurer, he added. The Bank of England lifted interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday. Higher interest rates typically boost insurers’ investment returns and drive demand for annuities, which pay pensioners a fixed income for life. Legal & General is one of the largest players in UK bulk annuities - taking on the risk of company defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes. It has also carried out similar deals in the United States, Netherlands and Ireland, Wilson said. “We’ve done a few deals, there is more to do.” L&G is also interested in buying books of annuities that are closed to new customers, after acquiring a 3 billion pound UK closed annuity portfolio last year from Dutch insurer Aegon ( AEGN.AS ). Prudential ( PRU.L ) and Standard Life Aberdeen ( SLA.L ) have indicated their closed annuity books may be up for grabs, which could total around 50 billion pounds. There were also other such opportunities, Wilson said. “Prudential’s are not the only back book. There is 140 billion (pounds) of this stuff in the UK.” Additional reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-legal-general-japan/british-insurer-legal-general-to-launch-japan-operation-ceo-idUKKBN1D22PH'|'2017-11-02T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'9ebaf7dbb5b4dd14da359d6909df277e436ae6a7'|'France pares Renault stake back to pre-showdown level'|'PARIS (Reuters) - The French government began the sale of 4.73 percent of carmaker Renault ( RENA.PA ) on Thursday, paring its holding back to the 15 percent that preceded a 2015 power struggle with Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn and removing a residual irritant in their relationship.FILE PHOTO: A Renault logo covered with mud and dust is seen on a car in Paris, France, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo The APE state holdings agency said in a statement that it was placing 14 million Renault shares with investors in an accelerated book-building. Renault itself will take 10 percent of the shares for stock awards to current and former employees.The sale may help smooth long-standing tensions between Ghosn, who also heads alliance partner Nissan ( 7201.T ) as chairman, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s government.Renault’s relations with its largest shareholder deteriorated in April 2015 when Macron, then economy minister, abruptly raised the state’s holding in a shareholder vote to almost 20 percent to secure double voting rights, a move opposed by Ghosn.The share sale will trim the government’s stake to 15.01 percent - fulfilling its promise made in April 2015 that the state’s holding would fall back to its historic level.That promise and expectations of the share sale have weighed on Renault’s stock price, which is up just 2.5 percent this year, underperforming the broader sector’s .SXAP 15.8 percent gain.While drawing a line under the 2015 hostilities, the divestment does little to resolve a sense of strategic stalemate over the future shape of Renault, Nissan and their new alliance partner Mitsubishi ( 7211.T ).Ghosn, who turns 64 shortly before his current Renault CEO contract expires next year, has said the carmakers are ready to forge closer capital ties but are prevented from doing so by the French government.“The day the French state decides to get out, everything is open, and I can tell you it won’t take too much time,” he said in February.Renault’s weak share performance had also, paradoxically, held back the promised sale by a government eager to avoid booking a loss on Macron’s earlier taxpayer-funded interventionism. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire acknowledged recently that the state was struggling to offload the holding.Thursday’s sale appeared likely to achieve breakeven only when dividends are included in the calculation - helping to offset the cost of resale options purchased but left unexercised in 2015, as the power struggle deepened.Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-france-renault/france-pares-renault-stake-back-to-pre-showdown-level-idINKBN1D22MD'|'2017-11-02T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'58f624f2313c4bf1916caa8eb54c1b7151cf2238'|'Russia''s En+ prices IPO at $14 per GDR, valued at $8 billion'|' 20 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Russia''s En+ prices IPO at $14 per GDR, valued at $8 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s En+ Group, which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminium and hydropower businesses, priced its global depositary receipts at $14 in an initial public offering on Friday, at the lower end of its guided range. En+ said its post-money capitalisation amounted to $8 billion and the offering allowed to raise a total of $1.5 billion (1.15 billion pounds). AnAn Group, a partner of China’s CEFC, invested $500 million in the company’s GDRs, EN+ said in a statement. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Maria Kiselyova'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-en-ipo-pricing/russias-en-prices-ipo-at-14-per-gdr-valued-at-8-billion-idUKKBN1D30I2'|'2017-11-03T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'7ce62b3ad7926edf92e5c8d7037054bc437a4c02'|'UPDATE 1-Australia''s Oil Search to buy oil assets in Alaska for $400 mln'|'(Adds funding details, background)Nov 1 (Reuters) - Australian oil and gas explorer Oil Search said on Wednesday it will buy stakes in oil assets in Alaska for $400 million from privately owned U.S. companies Armstrong Energy LLC and GMT Exploration Company LLC.The purchase price for the Alaskan assets translates to $3.1 per barrel, Oil Search said.The deal gives Oil Search stakes of 25.5 percent, 37.5 percent and 37.5 percent in three crude oil fields in the Alaska North Slope, with the option of increasing Oil Search’s stake for an additional $450 million, the company said in a statement.The company, which mainly operates in Papua New Guinea, said it would fund the deal from its existing cash reserves without an impact on its dividend policy.Oil Search said it was in the process of creating a separate U.S.-based entity with U.S. oilfield services giant Halliburton Co and Armstrong Energy to operate the Alaskan assets, which the company will run mid-2018 onward.The company already employs Halliburton’s services at its Papua New Guinean assets.Last month Oil Search reported a jump in third-quarter revenue on strong output from its Papua New Guinean liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, adding that output for the year would be at the top of its guidance range.Oil Search shares were down 1.5 percent in morning trade, while the broader market was up 0.5 percent.Reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-search-deals/update-1-australias-oil-search-to-buy-oil-assets-in-alaska-for-400-mln-idINL4N1N67AH'|'2017-10-31T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'09c80cc9fcecc24cb146c162e9f1c70d540a245b'|'Airbus sales chief says to stay on until successor is found'|'Reuters TV United States November 3, 2017 / 2:06 PM / in 31 minutes Airbus sales chief says to stay on until successor is found Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HAMBURG (Reuters) - Airbus’ ( AIR.PA ) long-serving sales chief John Leahy plans to stay on until a successor is found, with a decision expected within the next week or so, he told Reuters on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy attends the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 21, 2017. Picture taken June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo Reuters reported on Thursday that Airbus has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief and that Leahy’s deputy, Kiran Rao, had confirmed he would not be running for the post. “I will stay until we have a successor on board. I‘m not going to walk out the door after all these years at Airbus,” Leahy said, speaking after Airbus delivered Emirates’ 100th A380 jet. He said he had spoken with Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders on Thursday evening and that Enders was “determined to make a decision within the next week or something”, with one leading internal and one leading external candidate in the race. Leahy was initially preparing to retire in September but said Enders had asked him to stay on until the end of the year, because a lot of things were happening, such as the deal to take a majority stake in the Bombardier ( BBDb.TO ) CSeries program. Leahy added he expected the new manager to be on board by the end of the year, so that he could hand over in January or February. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-sales/airbus-sales-chief-says-to-stay-on-until-successor-is-found-idUKKBN1D31JA'|'2017-11-03T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'f56a93169de3f6e48937f8ba6730e7de4fe7c9c8'|'Bankrate to divest Caring.com for Red Ventures merger -FTC'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:19 PM / in 17 minutes Bankrate to divest Caring.com for Red Ventures merger -FTC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bankrate Inc ( RATE.N ) will divest its Caring.com unit as a condition of its acquisition by Red Ventures LLC for $1.4 billion to avoid harm to competition in the third-party paid senior living facilities referral services, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday. The FTC said in a statement that two of Red Ventures’ largest shareholders jointly own A Place for Mom.com, the largest provider of such services, and Caring.com is the second largest provider. Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Phil Berlowitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankrate-m-a-red-ventures/bankrate-to-divest-caring-com-for-red-ventures-merger-ftc-idUSKBN1D326C'|'2017-11-03T20:17:00.000+02:00'
'58fbac4a6ef842683c57673f41c7db9fefb011df'|'RPT-Russia''s Otkritie bailout hits home in Ireland'|'(Repeats with no changes to text)* Bailed-out Russian bank used Irish funding vehicles* Loans of $500 million terminated* Experts say episode will hurt Russia, IrelandBy John O‘DonnellFRANKFURT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Russia’s bailed-out bank Otkritie will not repay $500 million of loans raised in Ireland, potentially making it harder for other Russian private banks to borrow abroad and casting a cloud over Dublin as a “shadow banking” hub.Otkritie’s refusal to pay sees shockwaves from Russia’s biggest ever bank bailout reach Ireland, which has been used by international firms including Russian banks to raise hundreds of billions of euros in such loans.In a stock-exchange filing on Tuesday, OFCB, a vehicle that had issued $300 million of loan notes and lent the proceeds to Otkritie, said the Russian bank had “terminated” the repayment of the debt and more than $7 million of interest.BKM Finance, another vehicle that borrowed $200 million on behalf of Otkritie, made a similar filing on Oct. 27, saying the bank could not repay the money and interest of $4.7 million.A spokeswoman for Otkritie said it had “grounds to terminate its obligations related to subordinated instruments” and that it had acted in accordance with the law.Russia’s central bank, which orchestrated a multi-billion dollar rescue of Otkritie after a run on the bank, had earlier warned that subordinated debt could be hit.OFCB has issued a further $500 million of subordinated debt, according to Otkritie’s website, although the status of this was not immediately clear.Otkritie’s fall was dramatic for a group that, with support from President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, snapped up rivals and even Lukoil’s diamond business to become Russia’s biggest private bank.“As Russia is gearing to raise more capital through international bonds ... this may well dampen investors’ appetite for Russian assets,” Anastasia Nesvetailova, an expert in financial crises at London’s City University, said.Sergey Dergachev, a bond investor with Germany’s Union Investment, said he feared others could suffer a similar fate.“If global economic conditions worsen, what will happen to Russia and its banks? I think the chances of seeing more subordinated debt out of Russian banks are slim.”REPUTATIONAL RISK? Also potentially at stake is Ireland’s shadow banking system, which has boomed since the financial crisis and given groups such as hedge funds increasing clout in global finance.The International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Board, which monitors the financial system, have highlighted concerns over Ireland’s outsized financial sector.The country is one of the euro zone’s largest centres for financial special purpose vehicles, according to central bank data, many of which are used to borrow by international groups.The sector had total assets such as loans of 345 billion euros ($402 billion) in the middle of this year - bigger than the Irish economy. Russian companies have sponsored 14 percent of those vehicles in Ireland.But fund raising by companies such as Otkritie, poses a potential threat to Ireland’s standing, said James Stewart of Trinity College Dublin who has written a report on the issue.“In terms of Ireland’s reputation, these cases indicate a problem,” said Stewart.“It reveals the absence of regulation and oversight of this important market. They create a systemic risk, if not to Ireland, then internationally.”The Irish Stock Exchange, which listed the debt, declined to comment, while a spokeswoman for Ireland’s central bank said the debt issues were restricted to “qualified investors” and that it had approved the prospectuses.“The veracity of that information is the responsibility of the issuer and its directors,” said a spokeswoman.The Irish law underpinning special purpose vehicles was created by the government in the early 1990s to build an international financial services centre in a then derelict part of Dublin, a central plank to the country’s economy and success.Many vehicles are shell companies set up to borrow and critics, including Stewart, say similar conduits hosted by Ireland helped trigger bank problems in Germany during the financial crisis.However, lobbyists, lawyers and many government officials want to keep the regime to attract business from London after Britain leaves the European Union. ($1 = 0.8579 euros) (Additional reporting by Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-ireland/rpt-russias-otkritie-bailout-hits-home-in-ireland-idINL8N1N919J'|'2017-11-03T04:17:00.000+02:00'
'a8c350629bac3bde371ad8cbf9633cb2445f7561'|'China eyes more U.S. access for its aircraft, parts with new deal'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:07 AM / in 6 minutes China eyes more U.S. access for its aircraft, parts with new deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - China’s aviation safety regulator said on Thursday that a recently signed agreement between the Asian nation and the United States to streamline aircraft certification would boost U.S. market access for Chinese-made planes and aircraft parts. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in an e-mail to Reuters that an agreement it announced last month with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would widen “mutual recognition” of each country’s aviation products. It comes as Chinese planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC) seeks overseas certification for its homebuilt jets, the C919 and ARJ-21, in order to sell more planes abroad. Europe’s aviation safety regulator said in April that it was in the process of certifying the C919. The CAAC said the new agreement replaces a 1995 deal in which China had agreed to accept all U.S. aviation products but the United States had only agreed to accept 23 small Chinese aircraft models and some plane parts. The latest agreement fulfils a commitment both countries made in 2005 and follows several years of talks, according to both regulators. “The newly signed Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness realizes the full reciprocal recognition of aviation products between China and the U.S. The scope of the agreement covers all types of aviation products and is meant to be comprehensive,” it said. The FAA said in a statement last Friday that the agreement, which took effect on Oct. 17, allows “each authority to leverage approvals completed by the other with respect to design, production, and airworthiness”. The CAAC said that the agreement did not mean automatic recognition of each other’s certification procedures, saying that it would depend on the product and that some accreditation reviews were still needed. It added that it actively encouraged and supported Chinese enterprises to apply for FAA accreditation, including COMAC for its C919 and ARJ-21. The narrowbody C919, which will compete with Boeing Co’s 737, is a symbol of China’s efforts to become a key player in the global civil aerospace market. A source close to COMAC called the agreement “a significant step”. COMAC did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and David Shepardson in WASHINGTON; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-us-aviation/china-eyes-more-u-s-access-for-its-aircraft-parts-with-new-deal-idUSL8N1N828N'|'2017-11-02T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'433d610550161e03a6528e62d6693219cbf6e27b'|'Sturgeon sets course for ''modest'' Scottish income tax increase'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:38 PM / in 14 minutes Sturgeon sets course for ''modest'' Scottish income tax increase Elisabeth O''Leary 3 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland has set out options to increase taxes on the richest, paving the way for the first decisive use of new income tax powers the devolved government was granted last year. Scotland''s First Minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) Leader, Nicola Sturgeon, waves after speaking on the final day of the SNP conference in Glasgow, Scotland October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s pro-independence government, under pressure to increase public sector pay and reduce its budget deficit, published a discussion document showing how a tax increase would affect different income bands. In all scenarios, the lowest income tax was untouched or cut and higher bands raised, with at most a 50 percent rate on the top income band. Following a period of negotiation and discussion, a hike in tax would need to be agreed with other parties for a budget to be presented in Edinburgh in December. A “modest” rise in tax for higher incomes while protecting lower earners would help mitigate the damaging impact of reduced public sector spending by the British government in London, Sturgeon argued, just as Britain’s vote to leave the European Union poses a new threat to the economy. “There is no doubt that Brexit coupled with austerity will make the job of properly funding our public services in the years ahead more difficult. And all of this comes at a time when an ageing population ... is placing greater demand on our (public health service) and housing,” Sturgeon told reporters. Scotland, one of the UK’s four nations, is partly financed by the UK government in London and partly by a share of the Scottish tax take. By using tax powers differently from the UK government, Sturgeon hopes to showcase how the Scottish economy can be managed in the case that the country becomes independent - an option that 45 percent of Scots support, according to polls. She is also under pressure to increase public sector pay, and to balance a public deficit which has been at above 7 percent of GDP every year since 2009/10. “I think the time is right to consider modest additional contributions to protecting the things that we hold dear,” she said, such as free medical prescriptions and university tuition. Her opponents argue, however, that she will make Scotland the most taxed region of the UK, something which the Conservative UK minister for Scotland David Mundell described as “absolutely detrimental” . Edinburgh has new tax powers as of 2016 after an agreement to boost the clout of the Scottish parliament following a 2014 referendum in which Scots rejected independence from the UK. Spending per head for Scotland is higher than for the UK - by around 1,400 pounds ($1,835) per person - boosted by more spending on health, education and economic development. On the revenues side, Scotland raises slightly less than the UK per head in tax, by about 300 pounds per person. Editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-scotland-tax/sturgeon-sets-course-for-modest-scottish-income-tax-increase-idUKKBN1D2256'|'2017-11-02T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'50206409d74f28afb47fdeb25b70f6efc518bdbf'|'ECB says not its call to publish content of Draghi''s meetings with financiers'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:41 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago ECB says not its call to publish content of Draghi''s meetings with financiers Francesco Canepa 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Friday it was not up to it to publish the details of meetings President Mario Draghi holds with an exclusive club of financiers and economists, but described them as being in the public interest. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi holds a news conference following the governing council''s interest rate decision at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach At issue is Draghi’s membership of the so-called Group of 30, where policymakers meet bankers, fund managers and academics behind closed doors to discuss economic issues. He sits alongside former and current central bankers, such as Bank of England   and the Bank of Japan’s Haruhiko Kuroda, as well as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman. Responding to a question from the European Union’s ombudsman, or transparency watchdog, the ECB said it was up to the group to decide whether to start publishing the content of its meetings. “For G30 meetings, it is primarily for the G30 to decide on the level of transparency of its discussions,” it said in the response to one of 16 questions. Ombudsman Emily O‘Reilly had asked whether the ECB would “consider proactively informing the public of the content of these meetings, providing agendas and non-confidential summaries” of G30 events. The ombudsman was responding to a complaint by activist group Corporate Europe Observatory, which said in January it was concerned about proximity at the G30 of ECB officials and bankers they are meant to supervise. These include directors from Spain’s Santander ( SAN.MC ), Germany’s Bayerische Landesbank and U.S. giant JPMorgan ( JPM.N ), whose Luxembourg subsidiary is supervised by the ECB. The chairman of UBS ( UBSG.S ), Axel Weber, and the chief executive of Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), Tidjane Thiam - two Swiss banks with several subsidiaries in the euro zone - are also members of the G30. The ECB, which publishes the text of the speeches given by Draghi and other board members at the G30, said such meetings -- which are announced in advance as taking place -- were in the public interest because they helped inform its decisions on monetary policy. “In an environment where proper safeguards are in place and respected, such interactions positively contribute to the ECB’s ability to fulfill its mandate – which, in turn, is in the public interest,” the ECB said. It said the G30 had become more transparent since the complaint, filming and publishing one of its debates and allowing the media to a recent seminar. In its response to O‘Reilly, the ECB also announced plans to hold regular meetings with entrepreneurs outside the financial sector, a concession to critics who say it is too close to the industry it is supposed to oversee. CEO, the activist group, said in a report last month that the vast majority of seats available on the ECB’s advisory groups were taken by financial sector representatives. Draghi has been a member of the G30 since 2006, when he was still the governor of the Bank of Italy. ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio and Sabine Lautenschlaeger, who represents the ECB’s supervisory arm on the board, have also spoken at G30 meetings. ECB senior supervisor Julie Dickson contributed to a G30 paper on banking conduct, albeit only as an external observer. Reporting by Francesco Canepa Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-banks-ethics/ecb-says-not-its-call-to-publish-content-of-draghis-meetings-with-financiers-idUKKBN1D327U'|'2017-11-03T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'8c65613894f92b0aa9e51266aec197ee8b9e91cc'|'Exclusive: McKinsey worked with South African firm after learning of Gupta links - sources'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:31 PM / in 2 hours Exclusive: McKinsey worked with South African firm after learning of Gupta links - sources Joe Brock , Ed Cropley 5 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Global consultancy McKinsey worked with a firm in South Africa for four months after learning it was controlled by the Gupta brothers, business friends of President Jacob Zuma accused of corruption, four sources familiar with the deal said. FILE PHOTO The logo of consulting firm McKinsey & Company is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Their comments contradict media statements by McKinsey that it ceased work with the firm, local consultancy Trillian, in March 2016 -- after due diligence by external consultants showed the links to the Gupta family, accused by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog of siphoning public funds. McKinsey, which says it never signed a separate contract with Trillian, also ignored warnings by senior staff in South Africa not to partner Trillian in a deal to advise state utility Eskom which is being investigated for fraud, the sources said. The senior staff were troubled by Eskom’s demand that Trillian must be involved in the deal despite having little experience. It then took a year for McKinsey to act on calls for an internal inquiry into the relationship with Trillian, the sources said. Two of McKinsey’s global directors -- Europe-based Pal Erik Sjatil and Africa chief Georges Desvaux -- and South African office head Saf Yeboah-Amankwah told concerned partners the situation was “under control”, three former McKinsey employees said. Six sources with direct knowledge of the matter -- four former McKinsey employees and two current employees -- said there was no investigation until July 2017. McKinsey declined to comment on this allegation. Sjatil and Desvaux were on McKinsey’s Shareholder Council, its highest leadership body. Sjatil, Desvaux and Yeboah-Amankwah declined to comment for this story. Eskom, McKinsey and Trillian have denied wrongdoing. The sources’ disclosures are the first indication that McKinsey’s work with Trillian on the 1.6 billion rand (£86 million) contract to turn around Eskom continued until July of that year -- when Eskom canceled the deal. Asked about the sources’ comments, McKinsey told Reuters by email on Thursday: “McKinsey never had a supplier development partnership with Trillian. We terminated our discussions in March 2016 and notified the client and Trillian.” HOPES FOR A “SOLUTION” Eskom had told McKinsey it must use Trillian as a partner to secure the “turnaround” contract under a black empowerment program, but by July it had become clear that McKinsey would not sign a formal contract with it. Four people involved in the contract with Eskom said McKinsey’s work with Trillian continued until then, with one saying “the team hoped a solution could be found right up until Eskom cut ties.” McKinsey and Trillian had wanted to extend their advisory partnership at Eskom for four years in a deal that could earn them $700 million (£535.5 million), according to documents setting out the firms’ cooperation plans seen by Reuters. Sources at McKinsey confirmed the documents’ authenticity. Asked about the documents, a McKinsey spokesman did not deny they were genuine. McKinsey said in its email to Reuters that Eskom knew Trillian would not be McKinsey’s partner and added: ”Any questions about why Trillian remained at Eskom (after March 2016) and what they did, should be directed to Eskom. The disclosures are likely to form part of an investigation launched by South Africa’s parliamentary committee on public enterprises into whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to a Gupta-linked company as a way of securing the deal, a source close to the committee said. Trillian was owned at the time by Salim Essa, a business partner of the Guptas and of the president’s son, Duduzane Zuma. McKinsey’s global risk committee, a vetting body, gave the partnership with Trillian initial approval, pending due diligence, but senior managers in Johannesburg did not inform the committee fully about how Trillian hid its ownership and why costs for Eskom were unusually high, three former partners said. In the end, McKinsey launched a full internal investigation into its handling of the partnership with Trillian in July this year, after local media published a letter from a senior McKinsey manager dated Feb. 16, 2016 asking Eskom to pay Trillian as a McKinsey subcontractor. McKinsey said the letter “inaccurately characterized” the relationship with Trillian. The manager has since left the firm. McKinsey said on Oct. 17 the preliminary findings of the inquiry, approved by global head Dominic Barton, found “violations of our professional standards” but did not uncover any corruption. In its email on Thursday, McKinsey did not comment directly on the timing of its internal inquiry, directing Reuters instead to its Oct. 17 statement. Editing by Timothy Heritage '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mckinsey-safrica-exclusive/exclusive-mckinsey-worked-with-south-african-firm-after-learning-of-gupta-links-sources-idUSKBN1D31S6'|'2017-11-03T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'7fb46dac3a23064ac0e03c4b2df647d611f9fbaf'|'DoJ considers blocking AT&T deal for Time Warner: WSJ'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and the U.S. Department of Justice are discussing conditions the No. 2 wireless carrier needs to meet in order for its acquisition of Time Warner Inc to win government approval, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The $85.4 billion deal, hatched last October, is opposed by some consumer groups and TV companies on the grounds that it would give the wireless company too much power over the media it would carry on its own network.Donald Trump, who has accused media companies like Time Warner’s CNN of being unfair to him, criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and vowed that as president his Justice Department would block it.The proposed deal represents an early challenge for the Justice Department’s new antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, a Trump appointee who was confirmed by Congress in late September. Delrahim said at his confirmation hearing in May that he would decline to discuss antitrust matters with the White House.Delrahim may be looking to ramp up pressure on AT&T. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department was laying the groundwork for a potential lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal if settlement talks did not work out. on.wsj.com/2gW1l9O.The Journal reported that the outcome could go either way. It did not say what were the sticking points in the Justice Department’s talks with the merging companies.The Justice Department did not reply to requests for comment.Shares of Time Warner were down 4.1 percent at $94.33 in afternoon trading, while AT&T&rsquo;s shares were down 1.2 percent at $33.15.ALL POSSIBLE SCENARIOS FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo AT&T has said it expected the deal to close by the end of the year. AT&T executives have repeatedly expressed confidence that it would reach an agreement with the antitrust enforcer.“When the DOJ reviews any transaction, it is common and expected for both sides to prepare for all possible scenarios,” AT&T said in a statement on Thursday.“For over 40 years, vertical mergers like this one have always been approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitors from the market,” AT&T said. “While we won’t comment on our discussions with DOJ, we see no reason in the law or the facts why this transaction should be an exception.”Arguments over the deal have focused on how much power a pay-TV provider should have in steering its customers to cable channels that it also owns. Critics from both parties argue that AT&T&rsquo;s purchase of Time Warner would give it the clout to steer customers to its own premium content.Time Warner properties include CNN, HBO, the film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets.Trump has not repeated his criticism of the deal since becoming president, and he has met with AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson at least twice in 2017.Delrahim underscored in May that he would not be swayed by political considerations.“The independence of the decisions made in prosecuting and reviewing mergers as well as other conduct is a serious one that should be free from any political influence,” he said. “They will be free if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed.”Wall Street played down the news on Thursday as a threat to the deal.”These headlines may be more about increasing the (Justice) Department’s leverage in negotiating conditions than a serious intent to try and sue to block the deal,” said Jennifer Fritzsche, analyst at Wells Fargo. “We would note that nothing about the actual law or precedent for DOJ approving vertical mergers has changed. This is still a vertical merger and the DOJ would face the same uphill battle in court if it sued to stop it, same hurdles it faced a month or six months ago.”Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/doj-considers-blocking-att-deal-for-time-warner-wsj-idINKBN1D221P'|'2017-11-02T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'0153c842549c91b621e13f28110e007b6e7f8ef3'|'U.S. construction spending rises in Sept, but August revised lower'|'November 1, 2017 / 2:05 PM / in 6 hours U.S. construction spending rises in September, but August revised lower Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. construction spending unexpectedly rose in September as a surge in public construction outlays offset the third straight monthly decline in investment in private projects. FILE PHOTO: Single family homes being built by KB Homes are shown under construction in San Diego, California, U.S., April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that construction spending increased 0.3 percent to $1.22 trillion. But August’s construction outlays were revised down to show a 0.1 percent gain instead of the previously reported 0.5 percent rise. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast construction spending unchanged in September. Construction spending increased 2.0 percent on a year-on-year basis. In September, investment on private construction projects fell 0.4 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in August. It was the third straight monthly drop in private construction outlays and reflected a 0.8 percent decline in spending on private nonresidential projects. Spending on nonresidential projects in September was the lowest since April 2016. Spending on nonresidential structures has now declined for four consecutive months. Spending on oil drilling has been slowing in recent months amid moderate gains in oil prices and ample crude supplies. Spending on residential structures was unchanged in September. The data could impact the government’s gross domestic product estimate for the third quarter published last week. The government’s advance estimate put economic growth at a 3.0 percent annualized rate in the July-September quarter, with both residential and nonresident structures subtracting from output. In September, outlays on public construction projects jumped 2.6 percent after rising 0.7 percent in August. Spending on state and local government construction projects climbed 2.5 percent. Federal government construction spending soared 3.4 percent. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-construction/u-s-construction-spending-rises-in-sept-but-august-revised-lower-idUSKBN1D14X9'|'2017-11-01T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'7785fdeea929ca1b10c120080c704c77cd7c0a8f'|'Bombardier CEO says CSeries jet engine delays are ''short-term'''|'November 2, 2017 / 12:30 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Bombardier CEO says CSeries jet engine delays are ''short-term'' Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MONTREAL (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc’s Chief Executive Alain Bellemare told analysts that engine delays that have reduced deliveries of the company’s CSeries jets this year are a “short-term issue” that supplier Pratt & Whitney is “actively addressing.” Alain Bellemare, president and chief executive officer of Bombardier Inc., walks off a C Series plane at Bombardier''s plant in Mirabel, Quebec Canada, October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/Files Bombardier said on Thursday it expects to deliver about 20-22 CSeries narrowbody jets, down from 30, in 2017 following engine delays by supplier Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. Reporting By Allison Lampert; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bombardier-engine/bombardier-ceo-says-cseries-jet-engine-delays-are-short-term-idINKBN1D21MD'|'2017-11-02T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'125d84c1d6d11dc02fee747eea7c03bfcd27cdd5'|'Oil edges up on OPEC-led supply cuts, tighter U.S. market'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:53 AM / in 14 minutes Oil edges up on OPEC-led supply cuts, tighter U.S. market Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Thursday as U.S. crude inventories fell despite a rise in production, while outside the United States an OPEC-led supply cut continued to tighten the market. FILE PHOTO - A oil pump is seen at sunset outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017 . REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Brent futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $60.59 per barrel at 0647 GMT, up 10 cents from their last close. Brent has risen by more than a third since its 2017-lows last June. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $54.32 a barrel, up 2 cents from its last settlement, and some 30 percent above its 2017-low in June. Confidence has been fuelled by an effort this year lead by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to hold back about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil production to tighten markets. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday in Thailand that supply and demand balances continued to tighten and global oil inventories were falling, while compliance with the OPEC-led pact to curb supplies has been “excellent”. Russian oil output edged up to 10.93 million barrels per day (bpd) in October from 10.91 million bpd in September, official data showed on Thursday, but the country remains in compliance with the deal to curb output. Overall, global oil markets have been slightly undersupplied during the past quarters, resulting in fuel inventory drawdowns. The pact to withhold supplies runs to March 2018, but there is growing consensus to extend the deal to cover all of next year. Oil was also supported by falling U.S. commercial crude inventories despite rising output. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 2.4 million barrels in the week to Oct. 27 to 454.9 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday (EIA). C-STK-T-EIA “U.S. crude inventories are back on a downward trend after disruptions from hurricane Harvey caused a small build,” said William O‘Loughlin, analyst at Rivkin Securities. This came despite a 46,000 bpd increase in production to 9.55 million bpd. U.S. crude output is now up over 13 percent since mid-2016. C-OUT-T-EIA Goldman Sachs said in a note that it expects year-on-year U.S. oil production growth of 0.8 million to 0.9 million bpd at year-end 2017. That would put end-of-year output at 9.6-9.7 million bpd, only slightly above current levels. The EIA said that a record 2.1 million bpd of U.S. crude was exported in the latest week. Traders said this was due to WTI’s wide discount to Brent which make exports attractive. CL-LCO1=R Despite the generally bullish sentiment, some analysts warned of too much confidence in higher prices. “The overbought nature of the daily RSI’s (relative strength index).. has made both contracts (Brent and WTI) vulnerable to short-term profit taking on the headline-driven news,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-stable-as-u-s-crude-inventories-fall-despite-rising-production-idUKKBN1D202K'|'2017-11-02T09:10:00.000+02:00'
'834862ace71c173109421fef6038f967085e410d'|'MetLife operating income falls, authorizes $2 billion buyback'|'(Reuters) - MetLife Inc ( MET.N ) reported a 13.8 percent fall in quarterly operating income on Wednesday, hurt by a charge related to the spin off of its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial, and the insurer authorized a $2 billion share buyback plan.A MetLife Inc building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake MetLife said that it intends to divest its remaining Brighthouse Financial Inc ( BHF.O ) common stock through an exchange offer for MetLife common stock during 2018.The quarter included the results of Brighthouse’s final month with MetLife before the spinoff became effective on Aug. 4, following which MetLife ceded the title of the largest U.S. life insurer by assets to Prudential Financial ( PRU.N ).New York-based MetLife booked a third-quarter charge of $1.1 billion related to the Brighthouse spinoff, less than the $1.4 billion it had previously estimated.The third quarter is the first indication of how MetLife may perform without Brighthouse, whose assets include variable annuities, which led to swings in MetLife’s overall performance.“A lot of that volatility went out the door with Brighthouse,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Sean Dargan said before the company released its results.Net operating income, which excludes investment and derivative gains or losses, fell to $1.17 billion, or $1.09 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $1.36 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier. [nBw3r2vF1a]Analysts on an average were expecting a quarterly profit of 90 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.MetLife’s operating costs increased 4.6 percent to $14.99 billion.Variable investment income dropped nearly 20 percent to $236 million due to the sale of a real estate joint venture interest in the prior year period and lower prepayment fee income, the insurer said.(This version of the story corrects previous estimate of Brighthouse spinoff costs to $1.4 billion, not $1 billion; and that $1.1 billion charge is less, not more, than estimated)Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Savio D''SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-metlife-results/metlife-operating-income-falls-authorizes-2-billion-buyback-idINKBN1D15TE'|'2017-11-01T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'88e62e4ab5641b664ae9da12b85f994075889334'|'Credit Suisse third-quarter net income 244 million Sfr; CET1 ratio 13.2 percent'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse’s chief executive underlined his determination to keep the group’s investment bank in the face of a campaign by a hedge fund investor to split up Switzerland’s second-biggest lender.Now more than half way through a major restructuring, CEO Tidjane Thiam hailed third-quarter results on Thursday as evidence Credit Suisse’s “integrated model” of a core wealth management business supported by two investment banking divisions was the right way forward.“We just started the second half and we’re going to play hard until the end of 2018 to achieve our targets,” Thiam, whose three-year plan includes growing wealth management, cutting costs and settling legal cases, told a news conference.After 6.56 billion Swiss francs ($6.56 billion) in losses in 2016 and 2015, Credit Suisse’s chalked up a third consecutive quarter in profit the three months to Sept. 30, a first since Thiam joined the bank in July 2015.“The bank proved... it is on the right track, although the pace of improvement is somewhat slowing down,” said analysts at broker Mirabaud Securities.Third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders was 244 million francs. This lagged a forecast of 264 million francs in a Reuters analyst poll but was ahead of the bank’s own consensus estimate for 184 million francs.The bank kept a cautious outlook for the year ahead due to political and monetary policy uncertainties.Shares were up 4.4 percent at 1215 GMT, well ahead of the European banking sector index.MORE TO DO FILE PHOTO: Switzerland''s national flag flies next to the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at a branch office in Luzern, Switzerland October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Though earnings rose significantly, Credit Suisse still has some way to go to deliver the returns investors expect from a top bank. By comparison, rival UBS last week reported quarterly net profit of 946 million francs.Key to higher earnings will be the bank’s ongoing efforts to wind down its so-called Strategic Resolution Unit, a huge source of losses which is selling out of businesses the bank no longer wants to be in.Swiss hedge fund RBR Capital Advisors went public last month with a campaign to split Credit Suisse into three parts, including spinning off the investment bank, a proposal it claims could double the bank’s value. Thiam said there was nothing new in the fund’s proposals.“All the ideas that are being discussed were discussed and looked at in great detail, even by my predecessor. They are not new,” said Thiam, who still plans to meet RBR chief Rudolf Bohli next week.RBR launched its campaign after spending 100 million francs to buy roughly 0.2 percent of Credit Suisse and has said it wants to increase its investment to 1 billion francs.CAPITAL CUSHION Credit Suisse’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of balance sheet strength that Thiam has sought to improve over the past two years, dipped to 13.2 percent from 13.3 percent in the second quarter.Net new money inflows -- a closely watched indicator of future earnings in asset management -- totalled 10.4 billion francs across its three wealth management businesses, up 8 percent year on year. Assets under management grew 12 percent to a record 751 billion francs.Fixed-income revenue was down 8 percent year on year. U.S rivals on average saw a 22 percent fall in FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) operations in the quarter.($1 = 0.9993 Swiss francs)Writing by John O''Donnell and Joshua Franklin; Editing by David Goodman and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/credit-suisse-gp-results/credit-suisse-third-quarter-net-income-244-million-sfr-cet1-ratio-13-2-percent-idINKBN1D20HX'|'2017-11-02T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'e43bd759cb7b2b390818ab86ee03f270b2a52dbd'|'Study predicts slow, steady rise of electric vehicles to 2030'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:52 PM / in 2 hours Study predicts slow, steady rise of electric vehicles to 2030 Paul Lienert 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Pure electric vehicles will not begin to gain serious traction in most global markets until after 2025 and will likely account for only 14 percent of total global vehicle production by 2030, according to a study released on Thursday by Boston Consulting Group. A charging station for electric vehicles is pictured in Pasadena, California, U.S., August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni - RC118CC90490 By then, the study’s authors said, improved battery technology, lower costs and government mandates will drive greater consumer demand for EVs, which this year will account for less than 1 percent of the nearly 100 million vehicles sold worldwide and only 6 percent by 2025. “Eventually, we’ll reach a point where we don’t need incentives anymore” to boost EV sales, said Xavier Mosquet, BCG senior partner and lead author of the study. By 2030, Mosquet said, EV demand will be driven by market forces, not regulation. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have already proposed eliminating one of the biggest EV incentives, a $7,500 tax credit, which could hurt automakers like General Motors Co, Tesla Inc and Nissan Motor Co that are selling large numbers of those vehicles. [nL2N1N81A8] BCG expects battery costs to fall rapidly after 2020, to as low as $80 per kilowatt-hour by 2025, compared with about $150 today and more than $650 in 2010. Total operating costs also will drop, BCG said, until the cost of owning and operating an electric vehicle over 10 years will fall below that of a comparable combustion-engine vehicles by 2021. In addition, more stringent environmental targets in many countries will push vehicle manufacturers to add some form of electrification, including hybrid electric-gasoline powertrains, to reduce exhaust emissions after 2020. Even as costs drop and more advanced technology is introduced over the next 12 years, BCG said it expects 86 percent of new vehicles to continue using some form of combustion engine by 2030. Mosquet said a gradual shift to ride sharing in big cities and larger metropolitan areas, especially in the United States, will drive demand for EVs, in large part because the shared vehicles will accumulate miles more rapidly and thus narrow the gap in operating costs with combustion-engine vehicles. Likewise, a shift to self-driving vehicles, particularly in ride-sharing fleets, will boost EV demand after 2025. The cost per mile for a battery-powered self-driving vehicle could drop as low as 74 cents by 2030, making such vehicles less expensive than those with combustion engines, BCG said. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-electric-bcg/study-predicts-slow-steady-rise-of-electric-vehicles-to-2030-idUSKBN1D22KQ'|'2017-11-02T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'12f79bb3699e903708f7c1331faa0c6ff195a042'|'ECB''s Nowotny backs turning ESM into IMF-styled rescue fund'|'November 3, 2017 / 2:07 PM / Updated an hour ago ECB''s Nowotny backs turning ESM into IMF-styled rescue fund Marc Jones , Karin Strohecker 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Veteran European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny has backed turning the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) into a IMF-styled lender and for it to take over from the ECB in Greece’s bailout programme. FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny adjusts his glasses during a news conference in Vienna, Austria, March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo “(The) ESM might turn into a ‘European Monetary Fund’, and I think that makes a lot of sense,” Nowotny, one of the longest-serving members of the ECB’s Governing Council, said on Friday. This would show “a rich part of the world is able to solve imbalances by themselves,” while the set-up might also allow the ECB to end its formal role in euro zone bailout, something it has received public criticism for. “We are having a discussion on this,” Nowotny said. “We don’t have specific knowledge of the pension system in Greece... If we have the ESM as a specialised institution and we concentrate all these kind of surveillance tasks in the ESM. I think it will be much better.” Nowotny also said Britain’s decision to leave the European Union meant it would no longer be part of the integration dynamic across the European Union. “You can survive as a single country, but one has to be aware it is costly, and in a multilateral world, to have a standalone strategy is something a small country can do, like Switzerland,” he said, speaking at an event organised by the policy think-tank OMFIF. “But in the case of Switzerland it means a lot of additional measures,” he said, highlighting the way the Swiss National Bank has had to intervene heavily in currency markets on its own. Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Marc Jones, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecb-esm-nowotny/ecbs-nowotny-backs-turning-esm-into-imf-styled-rescue-fund-idINKBN1D31JK'|'2017-11-03T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'6a3c03858357b0dcd67526158e9f85d74f8825bb'|'Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:47 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - With the ink barely dry on a deal between France and Germany to develop a new combat jet, Airbus and Dassault are squaring up for leadership of a project that could reshape Europe’s fragmented fighter industry. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled the plans at a summit in July, burying past defence industry rivalries as part of efforts to tighten co-operation as Britain withdraws from the European Union. The new combat system could involve a mixture of manned and unmanned aircraft and would eventually replace the Rafale and Eurofighter, rival jets that compete fiercely for global sales, as well as the older Panavia Tornado. That sets the tone for co-operation between Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain in the Eurofighter consortium, and Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of France’s Rafale. But there has been little formal discussion yet over the shape of the project, let alone who would take the lead in development, according to industry and defence officials. Airbus, whose mostly Germany-based defence arm makes up about a quarter of its sales, laid claim to the leading role in an op-ed article published on Friday. “On the assumption that the necessary political will is in place, Airbus is offering to drive cooperation with its European partners and to shape this aspect of our common European future,” Dirk Hoke, chief executive of Airbus Defence & Space, wrote in Germany-based defence newsletter Griephan Briefe. He described his company as “the lead...for a project of this nature.” Dassault has itself offered to be the “architect” of the Franco-German project and Chief Executive Eric Trappier told Reuters recently that it would be the natural leader due to its experience in building an all-French fighter plane. A logo of Dassault Aviation is pictured on their booth during the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Airbus’s call also appeared aimed at speeding up the project as Germany looks to U.S. rivals to meet interim fighter gaps. Germany earlier this year asked Washington for a briefing on the Lockheed Martin ( LMT.N ) F-35 fighter as it gears up to replace its current fleet of fighter jets from 2025. It has also asked for data on Boeing’s F/A-18E/F. Hoke said buying American could weaken the European defence industry and make it ever-more reliant on U.S. “black box” technology that is not shared with foreign operators, while injecting uncertainty into Franco-German plans for a new jet. “An interim solution for the replacement of old fleets already appears probable. If important decisions are delayed, a stopgap of this type could take on a dimension that would cast doubt on the economic efficiency of the entire project,” he said. France and Germany said in July they aim to come up with a roadmap by mid-2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of rival warplanes. Dassault Aviation appears to have been caught by surprise by July’s announcement, which cut across its existing partnership with BAE Systems to build a demonstrator for an unmanned combat vehicle, called Future Combat Air System (FCAS). Defence analysts say the French company is in a strong position to be in the driving seat from a technological point of view, having made it plain it regards BAE as its technological peer. But at least for now, such considerations are likely to take a backseat to how the project will be funded amid tight defence budgets, an industry source said. “It is quite normal for industrialists to claim leadership, but it is too early to talk about that,” he added. Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-germany-defence/airbus-dassault-vie-for-leadership-of-franco-german-fighter-idUKKBN1D31TD'|'2017-11-03T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'c9f6c096a2ad84082412651fe61e0824e55909b1'|'Bank of England''s Broadbent - rate signal is no promise'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:59 AM / in 15 minutes Bank of England''s Broadbent - rate signal is no promise Reuters Staff 2 Min   The Bank of England’s signal that it may need to raise interest rates two more times to get inflation back towards the central bank’s target is not a promise, Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Ben Broadbent listens to a question during a Reuters Newsmaker event at Canary Wharf in London, Britain November 18, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo “Given all the other things we assume in our forecasts, many of which will be misses..., we anticipate we will need maybe a couple more rate rises to get inflation back on track while at the same time supporting the economy,” Broadbent told BBC radio. “That is not a promise, and it never could be a promise. And that is not what the governor said yesterday either.” Broadbent was responding to a question about the BoE’s previous attempts to signal the likely path for interest rates which were knocked off course by twists and turns in the economy. The BoE on Thursday raised interest rates for the first time since 2007, before the start of the global financial crisis, but sterling fell sharply as the central bank also said it expected only “very gradual” rate rises ahead. Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Alistair Smout'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-broadbent/bank-of-englands-broadbent-rate-signal-is-no-promise-idUKKBN1D30LW'|'2017-11-03T10:01:00.000+02:00'
'd870899756a5bbb830b2cee786e7db932d2fe6ae'|'Four U.S. states urge regulator to reject Sinclair Tribune deal'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four state attorneys general urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc’s ( SBGI.O ) proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co ( TRCO.N ), marking the latest hurdle for the controversial tie-up.Sinclair, the largest U.S. television broadcast group 92 stations, announced plans in May to acquire Tribune’s 42 TV stations in 33 markets as well as cable network WGN America, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households. The deal has been criticized by Democrats, Dish Network Corp ( DISH.O ) and some conservative media outlets.The attorneys general of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island said in a filing with the FCC made public Friday that the deal “fails to further the public interest by allowing for increased consolidation that will decrease consumer choices and voices in the marketplace.”Sinclair did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in August said the deal ”will advance the public interest by helping to shore up an industry buffeted by well-known economic challenges.“ The merger would allow the company to “invest deeply in the free over-the-air delivery of local news, sports, and entertainment.”Advocacy group Free Press said Sinclair forces its stations to “air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration.” Sinclair in April hired a former Trump campaign adviser, Boris Epshteyn, as a commentator.Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said the regulator would vote to eliminate the ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in a major market and make it easier for media companies to buy additional TV stations in the same market, or for local stations to jointly sell advertising time.FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, has questioned what she said were a string of decisions made by Republicans that benefit Sinclair.The deal must win approval from the Justice Department. The company has said it expects the transaction to close in early 2018 after completing regulatory reviews.In 2004, Congress said no company could own stations reaching more than 39 percent of U.S. households.In April, the FCC reversed a 2016 decision limiting the number of television stations some broadcasters can buy, paving the way for the Sinclair-Tribune tie-up. That allows Sinclair to only partially count some stations toward the cap - a distinction critics say no long has any technological basis.Sinclair would have to divest stations in Seattle, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City as part of the Tribune acquisition under current rules, but hopes FCC rule changes will allow them to avoid such sales.Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-ma/four-u-s-states-urge-regulator-to-reject-sinclair-tribune-deal-idINKBN1D3295'|'2017-11-03T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'c03bfedd76726ad14680fde92856e3039691ff1b'|'Central bankers on the move, but where''s the inflation?'|'November 3, 2017 / 4:07 AM / Updated 15 hours ago Central bankers on the move, but where''s the inflation? Ross Finley 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Now the Bank of England has raised interest rates for the first time in a decade, it is beyond doubt major central banks in industrialized economies are eager to shift away from ultra-easy policy. A man walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville But the fact the decision was so contested both in and outside the BoE perhaps reveals more concern about the lack of inflation pressure than about Britain’s clear difficulty in trying to leave the European Union without a concrete plan. The majority of those who argued against higher rates in Britain started with the fact above-target inflation is a result of sharply higher import prices due to the tumble in the pound since the June 2016 vote to leave the EU. A lack of domestic inflation pressure from higher wage deals remains as plain as ever, as does the ongoing lack of inflationary drift from the global economy, where trade is down from boom years but cheap labor remains plentiful. Among those who carefully follow Britain’s peers in the Group of Seven industrialized economies, notably the United States and those in the euro zone, the lack of inflation is real and striking, corroborated by a recent Reuters poll of over 500 forecasters around the world. News that Jerome Powell will be taking over as Federal Reserve chair from Janet Yellen does nothing to change the fact core inflation on the central bank’s preferred measure has fallen back to 1.3 percent. That is where it was the month before the Fed started raising rates nearly two years ago. The Bank of Canada has delivered two interest rate hikes this year - the July one more of a surprise than the follow-up in September - but growth has since flatlined and there’s no sign of core inflation picking up there either. Led by President Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank has just skillfully engineered a broad acceptance January is the right time to slash its monthly asset purchases by half to 30 billion euros. But core inflation is still going nowhere fast. The ECB even has a “core core” measure it looks at that strips out a litany of pesky components holding inflation down, and even that is not offering much encouragement. Japan, like the euro zone, is experiencing one of its best economic years in the past two decades, drifting up with the rest of the global economy but also showing impressive domestic performance and more reason for hope for the future. But its notable recent improvements in raising wage settlements a bit still does not look like they will bring inflation much higher. The Bank of Japan’s latest meeting had a newcomer arguing for more easing, a crack in the armor that leaves a rather uncomfortable question lingering in the air. If Japan still hasn’t escaped from two lost decades of near-zero pricing power, even after the authorities have thrown the kitchen, bathroom and garage sinks at it, isn’t the logical conclusion that central banks aren’t in control of inflation? That is the challenge the BoE will have in coming months: persuading anyone who will listen that by raising rates a tiny amount from near-zero to just a little above zero it was instrumental in bringing UK inflation under control. It is also worth noting that as central bankers change their tune on inflation from tentative to more emphatic hopes for a revival, some very powerful disinflationary forces in the global economy remain. While labor unions everywhere are pushing for better pay, the most powerful pull for consumers appears to be the search for a good bargain. Amazon, now almost synonymous with “instant” and “cheap” in the eyes of consumers, and a website many routinely check on their mobile phones against consumer prices while in shops for just about any item, is rapidly expanding. Obviously more symbolic at this stage than statistical, its recent acquisition of Whole Foods, a grocery brand more associated with “posh” and “expensive”, should also be a reminder of where the path of least resistance lies. The other clear disinflationary risk, even if price pressure does pick up in the interim, is that on more than a few measures global asset prices look extremely stretched. “Equity investors are trying to have their cake and eat it,” economists at Fathom, an investment consultancy, say in a note. “They are betting, simultaneously, that real rates of interest will never rise materially above zero, while the major economies will continue to enjoy positive, if not stellar real rates of economic growth. They will be proved wrong, in our view.” Reporting by Ross Finley; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/central-bankers-on-the-move-but-wheres-the-inflation-idUSKBN1D308F'|'2017-11-03T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'bdffefc797253980df8d238d526db594049520b3'|'Nestle buys Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee'|' 28 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Nestle buys Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ) announced its second small coffee acquisition in two months on Friday, buying United States-based Chameleon Cold-Brew as it seeks to bolster its world-leading coffee business. FILE PHOTO: The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The maker of Nescafe and Nespresso said Chameleon, based in Austin, Texas, is the No.1 organic cold-brew brand in the United States. In September Nestle announced a deal for Blue Bottle Coffee. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nestle-m-a-coffee/nestle-buys-chameleon-cold-brew-coffee-idUKKBN1D30YA'|'2017-11-03T12:27:00.000+02:00'
'e0b094f1c97d756718e821a62798ff74d5744468'|'Bank of England hike was a ''one and done'', next move not until second quarter 2019 - Reuters poll'|'Reuters TV United States #Central Banks November 3, 2017 / 1:49 PM / in 7 hours Bank of England hike was a ''one and done'', next move not until second quarter 2019 - Reuters poll Jonathan Cable 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England’s first rate rise in over a decade is for now at least a “one and done” move, according to economists in a snap Reuters poll who said the next increase won’t come until after Brexit in March 2019. The Bank of England is seen through the columns of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville On Thursday, the Bank added 25 basis points to borrowing costs, taking them to 0.50 percent, and many economists polled after the announcement have come around to thinking that Thursday’s hike was justified. Unlike other major central banks, the Bank is facing inflation running well above target, due mainly to the fall in sterling after last year’s Brexit vote. But it expects inflation to peak at 3.2 percent in October. The Bank’s target is 2 percent. Policymakers expect only “very gradual” further increases as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. Thursday’s hike will be followed by just two more quarter-point increases over the next three years, according to the assumptions that underpinned the Bank’s latest economic forecasts. BoE Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Friday the Bank’s signal that it may need to raise interest rates two more times is “not a promise”. Economists in the Reuters poll, taken after Thursday’s announcement, took the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee at its word on gradual rate hikes. Their median forecast was for the next 25 basis-point rate increase not to come until the second quarter of 2019 - just after Britain is scheduled to leave the EU. “Now that the MPC has taken the plunge on a rate rise, the question is whether this marks the beginning of a series of increases in borrowing costs, or if the Committee is now minded to stand pat for an extended period of time,” said Martin Beck, lead UK economist at Oxford Economics. “We favour the latter prediction. It’s ‘one and done’ for now.” Markets agreed: sterling GBP= extended its losses on Friday, slipping to a one-month low against the dollar as investors rushed to exit positions. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have also taken a cautious approach as they attempt to wean their economies off massive stimulus programmes. Bank Governor Mark Carney said Brexit talks were likely to be the biggest factor for the next BoE move, either up or down, yet none of the 51 economists polled had a cut in their forecasts and gave only a median 20 percent chance that Thursday’s decision would be reversed. JUSTIFIED In a Reuters poll taken ahead of the announcement, 34 of 48 economists said now was not the time for the central bank to be raising rates. But in a reversal of largely the same sample, 27 of 46 said the Bank’s move was not a mistake, while 19 stuck to their original view. “It was perfectly justified,” said Jacob Nell, chief UK economist at Morgan Stanley. “Growth is running above potential and slack is being eroded, and once they had given that strong guidance in September and data in October came in stronger, it would have been much more of a shock and a surprise if it hadn’t delivered.” Britain’s economy has slowed sharply this year as the jump in inflation has hurt household spending and the uncertainty about Brexit has weighed on investment by businesses. A Reuters poll of economists last month showed that the likelihood of a disorderly Brexit has crept higher, and there was a 30 percent chance Britain would leave the EU without a trade deal when two-year divorce talks end in March 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May faces a political balancing act as she tries to meet EU demands for more concrete pledges on Britain’s divorce bill without triggering a backlash from Brexit campaigners at home, some of whom would prefer that she walked away from the talks. Polling by Mumal Rathore, Khushboo Mittal and Vivek Mishra; Writing by Jonathan Cable; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-boe-rates-poll/bank-of-england-hike-was-a-one-and-done-next-move-not-until-second-quarter-2019-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1D31IC'|'2017-11-03T15:48:00.000+02:00'
'c0ff3020e2dd28f688382a1e3048424a04151a6c'|'Stratex shareholders block Crusader mining deal'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:33 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Stratex shareholders block Crusader mining deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Shareholders of miner Stratex International ( STIL.L ) have blocked a reverse takeover of Australian-listed Crusader Resources ( CAS.AX ) and voted chief executive Marcus Engelbrecht out of office. Engelbrecht had said the acquisition of Crusader Resources and its gold projects in Brazil would be transformative, but he encountered opposition from shareholders who said it did not make sense for the largely Africa-focused company to diversify into Brazil, where Stratex does not have experience. In a statement on Wednesday Stratex said Engelbrecht had left the company with immediate effect and the company would make further announcements in due course. A group of rebel shareholders had led opposition to the board and have also put forward a development plan that would merge Thani Stratex Resources Limited (TSRL), in which Stratex holds a 30 percent stake, with Stratex. David Hall, chief executive of TSRL and a Stratex shareholder with a more than 2 percent stake, was behind the development plan. He said he would be happy to step in as overall CEO if asked and that Wednesday’s vote was “a victory for shareholders”. Until this week the biggest shareholder was South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti ( ANGJ.J ) with 11.49 percent, but Reuters data shows it has sold its stake. Analysts at SP Angel said the development plan appeared to be a better proposition for Stratex shareholders. “It looks a whole lot better than paying a 63 percent premium on Crusader shares and suffering 81 percent dilution for a low-grade gold asset in Brazil and an unproven exploration project in a country where Stratex has had no previous infrastructure,” they said in a note. Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Tanisha Heiberg in Johannesburg; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stratex-crusader/stratex-shareholders-block-crusader-mining-deal-idUKKBN1D15GK'|'2017-11-01T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'8fffaa053167290f63e99b3c71f7e6242bbb080d'|'Sensex hits record high; Bharti Airtel surges'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:38 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Nifty ends at record closing high Reuters Staff 1 Min Read REUTERS - Indian shares ended at record closing highs on Wednesday, powered by gains in financials such as ICICI Bank Ltd and Housing Development Finance Corp, while a rally in broader Asia lifted the sentiment. A NSE (National Stock Exchange) building is seen in Mumbai, India, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo The Sensex rose 1.17 percent to 33,600.27. The Nifty, breaching the 10,400 level for the first time ever, ended 1.02 percent higher at 10,440.50. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-hits-record-high-bharti-airtel-surges-idINKBN1D13PD'|'2017-11-01T03:38:00.000+02:00'
'b8824a5c5c5c9bc33d7a8fb5b4373e5d1e74dc84'|'Apple X factor - China buyers rapt by new iPhone, but will they buy?'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:53 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Apple X factor: China buyers rapt by new iPhone, but will they buy? Adam Jourdan , Cate Cadell 5 Min Read SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Gu Xiaomeng, a 24-year-old primary school teacher in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, says she’s excited about the new iPhone X, set to go on sale on Friday. The challenge for Apple Inc is to persuade her to actually buy one. A attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter “I‘m definitely interested, but don’t currently plan to get one,” said Gu, whose monthly salary of a little over 6,000 yuan ($905.36) is less than the anniversary model’s starting price in China of 8,388 yuan. For Apple, which is looking to rev up sales in China after several quarters of declining revenue there, the test is that Gu is not alone. While interest in the phone is high, that won’t necessarily translate into sales. “Price appears to be a major constraint on iPhone X demand, particularly in China,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a recent report that showed three-quarters of Chinese respondents were excited by the upcoming launch, but only a quarter said they planned to buy one. Investors are keen to gauge Chinese demand for the iPhone X, as it is key to reviving Apple’s fortunes in the world’s biggest smartphone market where it has lost some of its sparkle - and market share - as local phone makers have advanced. The cheaper iPhone 8, which hit the market in September, has faced sluggish sales, but Apple has said that pre-orders for the iPhone X have been “off the charts”. Apple, due to announce quarterly earnings on Thursday, said it had no immediate comment. Chatter online on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo also signaled high levels of interest in the new model, though still generally behind levels around the 2014 launch of the very successful iPhone 6. APPLE “GEEKS” Xiao Ming, 32, who works for a blockchain start-up in Beijing, stayed up half the night when pre-sales of the iPhone X opened last week. He has also bought the iPhone 8. “I always try to be one of the first to buy any new iPhone,” he said, adding he likes the new phone’s augmented reality and facial recognition features. “I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t get one on the first day.” While he plans to buy the new phone, he noted many of his friends were less fussed. “Before, I think a lot of people would try to get it somehow, now it’s mostly the geeks,” he said. “My friends don’t mind so much if they have an iPhone 8 or a 6, for example, because it looks similar and the price (of the iPhone X) makes you feel nervous.” Re-sellers and iPhone accessory makers generally agreed there was a buzz about the iPhone X, Apple’s first phone to have a full-screen display and functions such as facial recognition security. “People are really anticipating this phone because it’s the 10th anniversary version and it has more changes and modifications,” said Gary Yiu, manager of the iGeneration smartphone shop at one Hong Kong mall. Yiu and three other phone re-sellers there said they had seen strong demand for the phone from mainland clients. A merchant at the Huaqiangbei electronics hub in Shenzhen, who was offering an iPhone look-a-like called the “E-Feng X” from 1,599 yuan, said sales volumes were “very good”. Some Chinese re-sellers, however, said they already canceled pre-orders for the iPhone X, concerned there wouldn’t be enough of a supply bottleneck to allow them to charge a steep premium - despite some worries about long waits. “I saw many friends were posting pictures of themselves successfully ordering the iPhone X, so I canceled mine,” said Tony Tong, 29, a product manager at a tech firm in Beijing, who said he had ordered four phones in the hope of re-selling them for a profit. “The environment is bad for scalpers.” Apple will hope payment plans and easy access to online credit in China will convince people to buy. Wang Hao, a 24-year-old engineer in the northeastern port city of Dalian, said he ordered the new phone despite the high price tag. His last phone was an iPhone 6S. “The cost is about a month’s salary for me,” he told Reuters. “But I‘m just used to it now, and there wasn’t really anything to make me choose another brand.” (For graphic on China chatter about iPhone X, click: tmsnrt.rs/2cbIZ5n ) Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI, Pei Li and Cate Cadell in BEIJING, Venus Wu in HONG KONG and SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone-china/apple-x-factor-china-buyers-rapt-by-new-iphone-but-will-they-buy-idUKKBN1D14WB'|'2017-11-01T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'4e7e37cd3648ceb1744a038d32057129dd74ce36'|'Japan''s steelmakers in rare sweet spot, but Kobe Steel may miss out'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:57 AM / in 17 minutes Japan''s steelmakers in rare sweet spot, but Kobe Steel may miss out Yuka Obayashi 6 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s steelmakers are in the midst of the best market conditions in at least three years as steel prices rise with construction in full swing for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and automakers boosting production. FILE PHOTO: Men work at the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo But the country’s third-biggest steelmaker, Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), is likely to be left out as it struggles to cope with one of Japan’s biggest industrial scandals, involving widespread cheating on product specifications. The company says it has lost customers and analysts say more could cancel contracts after a seal of industrial quality was revoked last week. Last week, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp ( 5401.T ) reported an 800 percent increase in net profit in the first half of the 2017/18 financial year. JFE Holdings ( 5411.T ), the country’s second-biggest steel maker, posted net profit in the first half after a net loss in the year-ago period, and it forecast that full-year profit will more than double. Besides the construction for the Olympics and higher demand from auto manufacturers, Japanese steelmakers are also being boosted by a country-wide boom in hotel and shop building. Overseas, a cutback in steel production in China is helping them recover from a period of high inventories and slack profitability. “With large redevelopment projects in central Tokyo, construction materials are in tighter supply,” said Kiyoshi Imamura, managing director at Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co Ltd ( 5423.T ), Japan’s top electric-arc furnace steelmaker. Prices for the company’s main product, H-shaped beams used in construction, rose to 81,000 yen (£534.3) per tonne in October, the highest since 2011, amid a tight domestic market and higher overseas prices. The Japan Iron and Steel Federation has estimated the Olympics-related projects would boost steel demand by 2-3 million tonnes in total. “This is the first time since 2013 to see the steel market being pulled by stronger demand, instead of pushed by higher costs of materials,” said Atsushi Yamaguchi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. “This solid trend will continue through early next year,” he said. “TIDE IN OUR FAVOUR” Backed by healthy demand from manufacturers, the average price of Nippon Steel’s products rose to 83,500 yen per tonne in the April-September half, the highest since the six months through March 2015. “The tide is running in our favour with strong local demand from manufacturers, particularly automakers, and with construction demand getting into full swing,” Toshiharu Sakae, Nippon Steel’s executive vice president, told an earnings news conference on Friday. FILE PHOTO: People walk in front of the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Nippon Steel’s net profit for the April-September period came to 99 billion yen, 9-fold higher than a year earlier. It raised its interim dividend to 30 yen per share, from its earlier prediction of 25 yen, and forecast a 30 percent climb in full-year profit. JFE Holdings executive vice president Shinichi Okada said falling exports from China helped boost steel prices in Southeast Asia, its main export target. “We don’t know how long it will continue, but there are no causes of concern for now,” Okada said. China’s steel output dropped in September from a record high the previous month as mills cut production to fall in line with a government campaign to fight smog. China’s exports of steel products also declined for a 14th consecutive month in September, with January-September exports sliding nearly 30 percent from the same period a year earlier. Kobe Steel also reported a 858 percent increase in net profit for the first six months to nearly 40 billion yen, but pulled its forecast for a first annual profit in three years as it deals with the financial impact of the data cheating. The steelmaker’s admission last month that it had found widespread tampering in product specifications has sent companies in global supply chains scrambling to check whether the safety or performance of their goods has been compromised. Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara said the misconduct would likely reduce Kobe Steel’s second-half recurring profit by 10 billion yen, 70 percent of which will mainly come from the steel business. “We understand our customers are taking a harsh view of the data fabrication,” Umehara said. “An immediate impact may be limited, but we may see more impact as time goes by.” Nippon Steel’s Sakae and JFE’s Okada said they have not received orders from customers of Kobe Steel. Investors are generally upbeat about the steel market. “Business condition for steelmakers looks fairly healthy with falling exports from China and strong capital expenditure worldwide,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. Shares in steelmakers could have attracted more attention if Kobe Steel’s scandal did not happen, he said. “As long as the data cheating stays at the one company, rivals will likely benefit as Kobe Steel customers will likely reduce orders,” he said. Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal-rivals/japans-steelmakers-in-rare-sweet-spot-but-kobe-steel-may-miss-out-idUKKBN1D148R'|'2017-11-01T11:56:00.000+02:00'
'e330955726c7c67c1e60014a48c1f0335bc51140'|'Lockheed F-35 jet-fighter deliveries were halted for 30 days - Pentagon'|'November 1, 2017 / 3:43 PM / in 15 minutes Lockheed F-35 jet-fighter deliveries were halted for 30 days - Pentagon Mike Stone 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon halted shipments of Lockheed Martin Corp’s ( LMT.N ) F-35 fighter jets for 30 days this fall after it discovered corrosion around fasteners and a fix was devised, the Pentagon and Lockheed said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, (rear to front) AF-2, AF-3 and AF-4, flies over Edwards Air Force Base in this December 10, 2011 handout photo provided by Lockheed Martin. Darin Russell/Courtesy of Lockheed Martin/Handout via REUTERS During maintenance, the Air Force detected “corrosion exceeding technical limits” where the carbon fibre exterior panel is fastened to the airframe. A lack of protective coating at the fastening point that would have prevented corrosion was identified as the primary problem, the Pentagon said. The fastener issue on the current F-35 fleet is not affecting flights, nor is it a safety concern, the Pentagon said. Lockheed is investigating the extent of the corrosion issue across the fleet of more than 250 jets deployed to the U.S. military and its allies. Trading volume for Lockheed’s shares spiked after the news and the stock briefly turned negative. They were last up 0.1 percent at $308.43. Production was not stopped and deliveries for the fighter jet have resumed. “While the issue was being evaluated, all F-35 deliveries to our customers were temporarily suspended by the F-35 Joint Program Office from Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 while we determined the corrective action plan,” Lockheed said in a statement. The delivery pause was not expected to derail the Pentagon’s target of accepting 66 jets in 2017. Lockheed, the Maryland-based weapons maker, delivered 46 jets in 2016. The Pentagon said in a statement that although the issue “needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations.” This is the latest of several production issues that have arisen in the 17-year history of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons programme. In 2016, a fix for insulation problems in the fuel tanks and lines of the jets caused a slowdown in deliveries. The F-35 business accounts for about a quarter of Lockheed’s total revenue. During the third quarter, sales at Lockheed’s aeronautics business increased 14 percent to $4.7 billion (£3.5 billion), led by higher sales of the F-35 highlighting the programme’s importance to Lockheed’s profitability. In February, the Pentagon agreed to a deal for the tenth batch of the fighter aircraft and agreed to pay below $95 million per jet for the first time, compared with $102 million in the previous purchase, the lowest price up until that point. Around that time, the Pentagon said the price of a jet could fall 16 percent to around $80 million in future purchases. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lockheed-f35/exclusive-lockheed-f-35-jet-fighter-deliveries-were-halted-for-30-days-sources-idUKKBN1D1565'|'2017-11-01T18:06:00.000+02:00'
'43b8f34341c0568b34b653ec9a0908c342bd4e37'|'More bullion for barrels as oil/gold ratio nears 2017 lows'|' 43 PM / in 19 minutes More bullion for barrels as oil/gold ratio nears 2017 lows Reuters Staff 2   How many barrels of oil does it take to buy one ounce of gold? Answer: fewer than at any time since the beginning of 2017. Oil barrels are pictured at the site of Canadian group Vermilion Energy in Parentis-en-Born, France, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The oil/gold ratio is used by some market watchers as a gauge of investor confidence and even a harbinger of potential financial crises. The lower the ratio, the greater the optimism over the outlook for global growth and the higher the appetite for risk. The ratio has fallen to its lowest level since the first week of this year, at around 20, from a high of 27 in June and down from a record high of 42 in February 2016, when the price of Brent crude was struggling to recover from 13-1/2 year lows. “It’s a non-academic way of saying the market is looking more at risk than at protection,” Ole Hansen, senior manager at Saxo Bank said. The relationship between oil and gold and what they might say about investor sentiment was distorted from late 2014, when a flood of crude supply drove oil prices over the following 18 months to their lowest in well over a decade, even though global demand was robust. Now, as oil supply and demand fall into balance, the more traditional relationship between the two is re-emerging. Gold has risen by 11 percent so far this year to around $1,275 an ounce XAU=, while Brent crude futures have risen by around 9 percent to their highest in over two years above $60 a barrel. Gold is battling the headwind of a near-guaranteed rise in U.S. interest rates, while oil is benefiting from a coordinated cut by the world’s largest exporters, who have stuck to their 10-month old deal to restrict output by 1.8 million barrels per day. [OPEC/O] Now, with the world’s major economies growing at levels not seen in years as the euro zone catches up with United States, and investor confidence running high, the oil/gold ratio could well have room to fall further. Black gold: the ratio of ounces to barrels - reut.rs/2z3WyOs Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-gold/more-bullion-for-barrels-as-oil-gold-ratio-nears-2017-lows-idUKKBN1D14QN'|'2017-11-01T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'6f854462b3cb364516c1ca72f36c4acc69a244f8'|'The Bank of England has made one error; it must not make another'|'The Bank of England has made one error; it must not make another It should keep its options open while the outlook is uncertain, writes Martin Sandbu EU’s choice: French ambition or German bean-counting Thursday, 2 November, 2017 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has hinted that further rate rises may be needed, but that may prove unwise © Bloomberg Play audio for this article Pause This is an experimental feature. Give us your feedback. Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback The Bank of England made a small, but defensible, mistake by raising its interest rate from 0.25 to 0.5 per cent today. It must now avoid compounding the error. The view of the world with which the BoE justifies the first act of monetary tightening in a decade is one that is particularly pessimistic about the supply side of the UK economy , and unusually optimistic about the demand side. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee now thinks the economy can only grow sustainably by 1.5 per cent per year in the long run. That is quite a downgrade, and a measure of how much the central bankers think Brexit will cost over time. At the same time, the MPC seems unworried about the risk that demand may suddenly deteriorate. That is an odd view. Even if productivity is hurt by Brexit, that supply-side hit will take time to actually arrive. Demand, however, is fickle. The surprising demand growth since the referendum, meanwhile, is largely down to surprisingly robust consumption. Since it is fuelled by a decline in an already low savings rate, that source of demand growth is highly vulnerable. The MPC, however, assumes that things will stay on the same track. Meanwhile the government is set on further fiscal consolidation, and there is little sign of strong pick-up in net exports from the fall in sterling. It is a brave call to judge this demand picture as more than the UK economy can bear, let alone one that needs to be curtailed by higher financing costs for borrowers. Remember that despite low unemployment, real wages are falling and there is no sign that workers are bidding them up to make up for the Brexit inflation spike. Admittedly, a quarter-point rise does not on its own take a big bite out of demand. And there was another justification (a poor one, but still) for one rise now: the MPC had gone so far out of its way to signal one was coming that not following true would make markets liable never to trust its guidance again. What matters more is the outlook for further rises. The MPC incorporates market expectations of two more increases in the next few years, and governor Mark Carney hinted that more may be needed. That may prove unwise; and it is even more unwise for the MPC to box itself in once again by giving strong guidance of a tightening cycle. Here is a plausible scenario: the hash the government is making of the Brexit negotiations leads to an “a-ha” moment among businesses and households, which abruptly curtail investment and long-term spending decisions. That would hit demand before it hit supply, and call either a halt to tightening or even a return to more stimulus. In a situation where a sudden shortfall in demand relative to supply is a perfectly conceivable possibility, a central bank should keep its options open rather than guide expectations towards a steady tightening path. The MPC should declare a guidance victory with this rise, and then leave well alone. The right signal to send is that the BoE knows as little as anyone else about where the economy is heading, and as a result its next move is as likely to be down as up. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don''t copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/b3c11e3a-bfbb-11e7-9836-b25f8adaa111'|'2017-11-02T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'2a5d6f287adbd4ee28911437d5a7a1f444260a3a'|'UPDATE 1-Shell profit jumps on strong refining, cash flow slows'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:32 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Shell beats Q3 expectations as profits jumps on refining Reuters Staff * Earnings rise 47 percent to $4.1 bln * Downstream operations drive profit gain * Cash flow excluding working capital at $10 bln (Updates throughout, adds analysts comments) By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps LONDON/AMSTERDAM, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell reported a near 50 percent rise in quarterly profits, driven by strong refining, while solid cash generation underscored the oil and gas company has adapted well to a world of low oil prices. The Anglo-Dutch company sharply boosted its cash generation in recent quarters as the effects of cost cuts and asset sales kicked in following Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden’s preparations for “longer forever” oil prices following the 2014 downturn. “Shell’s three businesses all made resilient contributions to this strong set of results,” van Beurden said in a statement, referring to downstream operations, oil and gas. Shell and most of its rivals are now able to generate profit even if oil prices return to about $50 a barrel and are once again focusing on growing their businesses. Oil prices averaged $52 a barrel in the quarter and are today above $60 a barrel. BP said this week it was able to balance its books so far this year at $49 a barrel. In a sign of a renewed emphasis on growth, last week Shell won half the blocks awarded in Brazil’s deepwater oil auction, where rivals BP and Exxon Mobil Corp also acquired blocks in a historic opening to foreign operators. Shell shares were little changed as of 0920 GMT. HURRICANE IMPACT Shell’s third-quarter earnings rose mostly due to a tripling of profits from the refining segment which benefited from a sharp rise in profit margins in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in late August which knocked out a quarter of the United States’ refining capacity. Shell’s chemicals segment, a key engine for its growth into the next decade, also saw profits rise by 20 percent from a year earlier. “The numbers were strong. The downstream was the key driver again,” said Iain Reid, analyst at Macquarie. Third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders, based on current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding exceptional items, was $4.1 billion,. That compared with $2.8 billion a year earlier and a company-provided analysts’ consensus of $3.62 billion. Oil and gas production in the quarter was up 2 percent at 3.657 million barrels of oil equivalent. Cash flow from operations in the third quarter fell by 33 percent from the previous quarter to $7.58 billion for the first time since the first quarter of 2016. The drop in cashflow was due to increases in value of inventories as oil prices rose from a year ago, Shell said. Excluding the capital build, cashflow was at $10 billion in the quarter, securing Shell’s spending as well as its dividend payments, analysts said. “The company is demonstrating the resiliency of its operating cash flow in a roughly $50 a barrel Brent environment, the dividend is being covered with free cash flow,” said Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel. Shell’s debt ratio versus company capitalisation, known as gearing, slightly rose to 25.4 percent from 25.3 percent the previous quarter. That was still significantly lower than a peak of 29.2 percent reached in the third quarter of 2016 that followed the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group in February. Shell’s debt pile in the third quarter came to $68 billion. Shell has sold or agreed to sell around $25 billion worth of assets to help pay for the BG deal, including large portfolios in the North Sea and Canada. It appears on track to hit its $30 billion target by the end of next year. Reporting by Karolin Schaps and Ron Bousso; Editing by David Goodman and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/shell-results/update-1-shell-profit-jumps-on-strong-refining-cash-flow-slows-idUSL8N1N81KV'|'2017-11-02T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'9dc3b20de75b2e09f41e8bff281fa129fecb62cf'|'U.S. jobless claims near 44-1/2-year low; productivity accelerates'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:37 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago U.S. jobless claims near 44-1/2-year low; productivity accelerates Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to a near 44-1/2-year low last week, supporting expectations of a sharp rebound in job growth in October after employment was depressed by hurricane-related disruptions in September. FILE PHOTO: Job seekers listen to a presentation at the Colorado Hospital Association job fair in Denver, Colorado, U.S., October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Other data on Thursday showed worker productivity increased at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter. A tightening labour market and improving productivity likely strengthen the case for the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in December, despite wage pressures remaining tame. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended Oct. 28, the Labor Department said. That was not too far from 223,000, a 44-1/2-year low touched in mid-October. Economists had forecast claims rising to 235,000 in the latest week. Claims have dropped from an almost three-year high of 298,000 hit at the start of September in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which ravaged parts of Texas and Florida. Harvey and Irma have largely dropped out of the data for the mainland United States. The Labor Department, however, said claims-taking procedures continued to be severely disrupted in the Virgin Islands. The situation in Puerto Rico had improved and backlogs were now being processed, the department said. Irma and hurricane Maria destroyed infrastructure, virtually cutting off communication with the islands. Last week marked the 139th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. The labour market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a more than 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent. The dollar rose slightly against a basket of currencies after the data, while prices for U.S. Treasuries were little changed. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labour market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, dropped 7,250 to 232,500 last week. That was the lowest reading since April 1973. OCTOBER PAYROLLS SURGE EXPECTED The low level claims suggest a surge in job growth in October after nonfarm payrolls dropped by 33,000 jobs in September as Harvey and Irma left some workers temporarily unemployed. According to a Reuters survey of economists, the government’s closely watched employment report due on Friday will probably show that payrolls increased by 310,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate is seen unchanged at 4.2 percent. Diminishing labour market slack was also underscored by shrinking unemployment rolls. The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell 15,000 to 1.88 million in the week ended Oct. 21, the lowest level since December 1973. In a second report on Thursday, the Labor Department said nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 3.0 percent annualised rate. That was the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2014 and followed an unrevised 1.5 percent rate in the April-June period. Economists had forecast productivity rising at a 2.4 percent pace in the July-September quarter. The increase in productivity was flagged in last week’s third-quarter gross domestic product report, which showed the economy growing at a 3.0 percent rate during that period. The trend in productivity, however, remains sluggish. Productivity increased at a 1.5 percent rate compared to the third quarter of 2016. Manufacturing productivity fell at a 5.0 percent rate last quarter, the steepest rate of decline since the first quarter of 2009. Worker productivity has increased at an average annual rate of 1.2 percent from 2007 to 2016, below its long-term rate of 2.1 percent from 1947 to 2016, which together with slowing population growth indicate the economy’s potential growth rate has declined. This suggests the economy could struggle to achieve an annual growth rate of 3 percent, which is being targeted by the Trump administration through a mix of tax cuts and deregulation. With productivity rising in the last quarter, unit labour costs, the price of labour per single unit of output, increased at only a 0.5 percent pace. Unit labour costs rose at a 0.3 percent pace in the second quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2016, unit labour costs fell at a 0.1 percent rate. The weak growth in unit labour costs came despite hourly compensation increasing at a 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter. Hours worked rose at a rate of 0.8 percent in the July-September quarter, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2016, after rising at a 2.4 percent pace in the previous period. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-jobless-claims-near-44-1-2-year-low-productivity-accelerates-idUKKBN1D21U2'|'2017-11-02T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'9cb7234bed828494943fd4870e07a18bd7182ecf'|'Apple''s holiday-quarter sales forecast largely above estimates'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:35 PM / in 8 minutes Apple sees holiday-quarter sales above Wall Street, shares rise Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc forecast revenue for the holiday shopping-quarter largely above market expectations, helping allay investor concerns about production delays and supply constraints for the iPhone X, which it will start shipping on Friday. FILE PHOTO - An Apple''s new iPhone X is seen in this illustration picture, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Illustration Apple opened pre-orders for the iPhone X on Oct. 27 and has said demand has been “off the charts,” although some analysts expressed concern about supply chain issues that might make it hard for Apple to make enough phones to satisfy demand. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters on Thursday the company was “quite happy” with how manufacturing of the iPhone X was progressing, noting that “production is growing every week, and that’s very, very important during a ramp period.” Apple shares rose 3.4 percent in after-hours trading to hit a fresh all-time high. Analysts have been eager to see whether Apple will be able to balance supply and demand for the iPhone X during the crucial holiday quarter, with most saying it will likely take Apple until next year or early spring to do so. “Where the demand curve and supply curve are going to intersect, we do not know. It does not have a predecessor product,” Maestri told Reuters. Apple forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $84 billion (64.35 billion pounds) to $87 billion. Analysts on average were expecting $84.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Apple said it sold 46.7 million iPhones in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, above analysts’ estimates of 46.4 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. The company’s net income rose to $10.71 billion, or $2.07 per share, in the quarter, from $9.01 billion, or $1.67 per share, a year earlier. That beat the average estimate of $1.87 per share. The $28.85 billion revenue from iPhone sales accounted for nearly 55 percent of total revenue, which rose 12.2 percent to $52.58 billion. Analysts on average were expecting total revenue of $50.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Apple also said it returned to revenue growth in China, bringing in $9.8 billion versus $8 billion a year ago. Maestri also told Reuters the company had doubled its revenue in India during the fiscal fourth quarter, though he did not give any details. Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-results/apples-holiday-quarter-sales-forecast-largely-above-estimates-idUKKBN1D22S7'|'2017-11-02T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'3545180b7dba77b518853459e4ce5b1c9ba4b047'|'SNB committed to negative rates despite property boom - Zurbruegg'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:24 PM / in 33 minutes SNB committed to negative rates despite property boom - Zurbruegg John Revill 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank remains committed to low interest rates to combat the strong franc despite their fuelling Switzerland’s runaway real estate market, SNB Vice Chairman Fritz Zurbruegg said. The name of the bank is seen in German, French and Italian language over the entrance of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Zurich, Switzerland August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Macroprudential measures like the counter-cyclical capital buffer, which limits bank lending for home loans, were becoming increasingly important to keep the housing market from overheating, Zurbruegg said on Wednesday. Such measures have “reduced momentum on the credit and real estate markets in the last three years. But it is still too early to give the all clear,” he said in remarks prepared for a conference in Bern. Swiss house prices have risen by more than 50 percent since 2000, partly stimulated by the low interest rates imposed by the SNB to dissuade investors from holding safe-haven francs. The SNB has frozen its reference interest rate at -0.75 percent since January 2015 to reduce appetite for the franc, whose rise has threatened Switzerland’s export-reliant economy. Zurbruegg said the SNB needed to keep interest rates low, despite the risks it presented for financial stability. ”A higher interest rate level domestically would result in further appreciation of the Swiss franc,“ Zurbruegg said. ”This would cause a slowdown of economic growth and put the prices of goods and services under pressure. “The low reference rate maintained by the SNB is therefore necessary from a monetary policy perspective in the context of the low interest rate environment worldwide and the strong Swiss franc.” Still, he noted low interest rates had contributed to a build-up of imbalances in the Swiss real-estate and mortgage market, with growth in borrowing outpacing economic growth. The amount of loans outstanding has mushroomed from 110 percent of Swiss GDP in 2000 to 145 percent last year, making the country’s lenders more vulnerable to a sudden crash in housing prices or interest rate hikes. A sharp interest rate rise to cool the housing market could damage the rest of the Swiss economy, Zurbruegg said. Measures like the counter-cyclical capital buffer - which requires banks to hold 2 percent of their risk-weighted mortgage loans for Swiss residential property in equity, had helped cool the market, he said. Other measures like minimum down payments for buyers and set periods for repayments had also helped, he said. “Macroprudential instruments have become a key instrument in the toolbox of central banks and regulators,” Zurbruegg said. “However it would be presumptuous to assume [they] might be able to curb all risks to financial stability.” Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-snb/snb-committed-to-negative-rates-despite-property-boom-zurbruegg-idUKKBN1D15FI'|'2017-11-01T19:23:00.000+02:00'
'12bc7ff04107f8a352201643bdde27425bf636b9'|'Australia''s Westpac defends heavy bank bill buying in court'|' 38 AM / in 17 minutes Australia''s Westpac defends heavy bank bill buying in court Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s No. 2 lender, Westpac Banking Corp ( WBC.AX ), defended its bank bill trading in court on Wednesday, saying it was crucial to funding the group and managing large amounts of cash it held following the global financial crisis. A man walks past an illuminated logo for Australia''s Westpac Bank in Sydney, Australia, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has argued that communications within the bank and with external traders show Westpac dominated trading of bank bills, debt instruments up to six months maturity, to manipulate a benchmark rate. The regulator has accused Westpac of rigging the Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW), a benchmark in Australia for pricing trillions of dollars worth of assets, to inflate profits from 2010 and 2012. Its rivals National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) ( NAB.AX ) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) ( ANZ.AX ), faced similar charges but agreed to settle soon before court hearings began. Westpac faces 16 counts of unconscionable conduct, fewer than the others. All three banks have denied wrongdoing. ASIC told the court on Tuesday that Westpac accounted for as much as 100 percent of bank bill purchases on certain days when it wanted to influence the setting of the BBSW. It said the rate affected billions of dollars worth of Westpac’s products. Westpac’s lawyer, Matthew Darke, told the court on Wednesday the regulator had misunderstood the reasons why Westpac made certain trades. Of the 12 million communications the group had given ASIC, there weren’t many that supported the regulator’s case, he said. “There were legitimate commercial reasons for Westpac’s trading on each occasion,” Darke said. Westpac increased its holding of liquid assets, including prime bank bills, to A$110 billion ($84 billion) in 2012 from A$20 billion in 2009, to show investors it would be able to fund itself even if overseas markets became distressed, Darke said. He showed a pattern of spikes and troughs in trading, which he said were due to the banks’ traders stepping up buying or selling at times of the month when bank bills were most actively traded in the market. “There was nothing untoward in Westpac buying large volumes of prime bank bills on a given day,” Darke said. Darke said Westpac had strict rules in place prohibiting sharing of information between Westpac’s Group Treasury and its financial markets division, which handled interest rate swaps and currency swaps sensitive to the BBSW. The rate-rigging allegations, which have already drawn lawsuits from U.S. funds, are but one of several scandals engulfing Australia’s highly-concentrated banking sector. The Australian hearing continues.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-banks-court/australias-westpac-defends-heavy-bank-bill-buying-in-court-idUKKBN1D13II'|'2017-11-01T06:38:00.000+02:00'
'062df20755c763fb6a8514b16edf51b863596c3e'|'Just Group reports lower third quarter sales'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:47 AM / in 24 minutes Just Group reports lower third-quarter sales Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British annuity provider Just Group ( JUSTJ.L ) reported a fall in total retirement sales for the third quarter against the same period last year and said it had exceeded its merger driven cost savings target of 45 million pounds ($59 million). The company, which was formed by the merger of Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance in 2016 and specialises in annuities for people with reduced life expectancy, reported total retirement sales of 518 million pounds for the quarter to Sept. 30, from 650 million ponds a year earlier. Bulk annuity sales, which help companies offset the risks of paying their defined benefit pension schemes, fell to 269 million pounds for the same period, from 414 million pounds a year earlier. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, retirement income sales fell to 1.22 billion pounds, missing company supplied consensus estimates by a percent, while bulk annuity sales fell to 564 million pounds, falling 4 percent short of estimates. ($1 = 0.7529 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-just-grp-outlook/just-group-reports-lower-third-quarter-sales-idUKKBN1D141E'|'2017-11-01T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'88e5ea1a8ee79c794f3a0649d300bf63a11701b1'|'MOVES- Public Investment Fund, Deutsche Bank, Brown Shipley'|' 06 PM / in 13 minutes MOVES- Public Investment Fund, Deutsche Bank, Brown Shipley Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 1 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Wednesday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. PUBLIC INVESTMENT FUND Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) banker Alireza Zaimi for a senior role at the fund, a source familiar with the matter said. DEUTSCHE BANK Robert Miller, co-head of the German bank’s US high-yield capital markets, has left, a market source with knowledge of the situation told IFR. BROWN SHIPLEY AND CO LTD The UK-based wealth management firm named Alan Mathewson chief executive, effective April 2018. EQUISTONE PARTNERS EUROPE The investment firm named Sebastien Leusch investment director of its Manchester office. NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK PLC NatWest Markets named Jacob Gilbert vice president of its financial institutions bond syndicate, according to a market source. (Compiled by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-public-investment-fund-deutsche-bank-brown-shipley-idUSL4N1N75AV'|'2017-11-01T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'1a88c065f6ab20a2a9613eb5c2b760f3a27d95f1'|'British Airways owner IAG lifts annual profit outlook for coming years'|'Reuters TV United States  43 AM / in 16 minutes British Airways owner IAG lifts annual profit outlook for coming years Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG said on Friday it was aiming for annual profit around 20 percent higher than previous targets over the next four years, though it maintained targets for earnings-per-share growth. FILE PHOTO: British Airways planes are parked at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London, Britain May 27, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo IAG said that it was targeting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and rent of 6.5 billion euros ($7.57 billion) per year between 2018-2022, compared to a goal of an annual 5.3 billion euros between 2016-2020. IAG said it was still targeting average EPS growth of over 12 percent each year, and its target for an annual operating profit margin between 12-15 percent was also unchanged. Reporting by Alistair Smout, editing by James Davey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-iag-outlook/british-airways-owner-iag-lifts-annual-profit-outlook-for-coming-years-idUKKBN1D30JS'|'2017-11-03T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'490b3b61fb926f2585b11c7c6a9eea5dca17ef51'|'Imperial Brands buys UK vaping company Nerudia'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:48 PM / in an hour Imperial Brands buys UK vaping company Nerudia   LONDON (Reuters) - Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ) is buying UK vaping company Nerudia, as the British tobacco company seeks to expand its portfolio of cigarette alternatives. “Nerudia is a young and dynamic business and we’re delighted to confirm an acquisition which significantly enhances our innovation capabilities in the next generation products sector,” an Imperial spokesman said on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg. Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-imperial-brands-m-a-vaping/imperial-brands-buys-uk-vaping-company-nerudia-idUKKBN1D14R1'|'2017-11-01T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'5631e157f8c9e75930c6fb694254caa619f80845'|'U.S. trade panel recommends varying solar panel import restrictions'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. trade panel recommends varying solar panel import restrictions David Lawder , Diane Bartz 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday made three different recommendations for restricting solar cell and panel imports on Tuesday, giving President Donald Trump a range of choices to address injury to domestic producers. The recommendations range from an immediate 35 percent tariff on all imported panels to a four-year quota system that allows the import of up to 8.9 gigawatts of solar cells and modules in the first year. The president’s ultimate decision could have a major impact on the price of U.S. power generated by the sun. Both supporters and critics of import curbs on solar products were disappointed by the proposals, which were unveiled at a public meeting in Washington. Trade remedies were requested in a petition earlier this year by two small U.S. manufacturers that said they were unable to compete with cheap panels made overseas, mainly in Asia. The companies, Suniva Inc and the U.S. arm of Germany’s SolarWorld AG, said Tuesday’s recommendations did not go far enough to protect domestic producers. “The ITC’s remedy simply will not fix the problem the ITC itself identified,” Suniva said in a statement. The company, which is majority owned by Hong Kong-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy, filed the rare Section 201 petition nine days after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. It had sought a minimum price on panels of 74 cents a watt, nearly double their current cost. One analyst said the stiffest remedy recommended, a 35 percent tariff on solar panels, would add about 10 percent to the cost of a utility-scale project but would have a negligible impact on the price of residential systems because panels themselves make up a small portion of their overall cost. “It’s not nearly the doomsday impact we were potentially expecting,” said Camron Barati, a solar analyst with market research firm IHS Markit Technology. FILE PHOTO: Solar electric panels are shown installed on the roof of the Hanover Olympic building, the first building to offer individual solar-powered net-zero apartments in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo But the top U.S. solar trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement on Tuesday that any tariffs would be “intensely harmful” to the industry. The group has lobbied heavily against import restrictions on the grounds that they would undermine a 70 percent drop in the cost of solar since 2010 that has made the technology competitive with fossil fuels. The ITC will deliver its report to Trump by Nov. 13. He will have broad leeway to come up with his own alternative or do nothing at all. Since only two members agreed on the same restrictions, there was no majority recommendation from the four-member commission. “There is still plenty to be worried about,” said MJ Shiao, who follows the U.S. solar market for GTM Research. Trump has vowed to protect U.S. manufacturers from low-priced imports, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has talked about tariff-rate quotas as a flexible way to protect some industries, allowing imports in as needed, but only up to a certain level before high tariffs kick in. Commissioners David Johanson and Irving Williamson urged the president to impose an immediate 30 percent tariff on completed solar modules, to be lowered in subsequent years, and a tariff-rate quota on solar cells. Imports of cells in excess of one gigawatt would be subject to a 30 percent tariff that would decline after the first year. ITC Chair Rhonda Schmidtlein recommended an immediate 35 percent four-year tariff on imported solar modules, with a four-year tariff rate quota on solar cells. This would impose a 30 percent tariff on imports exceeding 0.5 gigawatts and 10 percent on imports below that level. These tariffs would decline over a four-year period. In the most lenient recommendation, Commissioner Meredith Broadbent said the president should impose a four-year quota system that allows for imports of up to 8.9 gigawatts of solar cells and modules in the first year. Additional reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang and Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trade-solar/u-s-trade-panel-recommends-varying-solar-panel-import-restrictions-idINKBN1D13LX'|'2017-11-01T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'e0417aa2705efdbc26f100aaca5e8305e31e118b'|'LPC: Mizuho eyes US leveraged finance expansion'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:18 PM / in 13 minutes LPC: Mizuho eyes US leveraged finance expansion Kristen Haunss 5 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Mizuho Americas is seeking to expand its leveraged finance footprint in the US, taking advantage of a boom in debt transactions this year. The bank wants to increase the number of borrowers it lends to by 40-50% over the next few years with the goal of leading a transaction from start to finish — advising a client on a purchase and then providing financing for the buyout, according to Simon Walker, head of loan markets and syndicate at Mizuho. “In the US there has been an uptick of loan and debt and the next step is to the number of clients” the bank serves, Walker, who joined in August, said in an interview. Expanding its foothold would offer Mizuho larger fees and the ability to lend to bigger clients, which could bring in additional business as the bank targets growth in multiple areas including investment banking, debt capital markets, high yield syndicate and leveraged loan syndicate, a market that has already set a record for institutional issuance in 2017. But to increase its share, Mizuho will have to contend with the largest players including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as well as other banks that have tried to make a bigger push in leveraged finance the last few years including Jefferies and Nomura. Catering to non-investment grade companies can be more profitable, with fees for arranging leveraged loans jumping 80% in the third quarter from the same period in 2016 to US$3.8bn, according to Freeman Consulting Services, based on Thomson Reuters data. Arranging debt for blue chip borrowers, a more active segment for Mizuho, yielded fees of just US$628m last quarter, Thomson Reuters LPC previously reported. There was US$651.2bn of US leveraged institutional issuance in the first three quarters of 2017, a record, compared to US$563.7bn of investment-grade loans during the same period, according to LPC data Mizuho ranked 10th on the investment-grade league table for the first nine months of 2017 with US$18bn of deals, according to LPC data. Bank of America Merrill Lynch came out on top during that time period with US$128.3bn. Mizuho ranked seventh in 2016. In 2015 the bank purchased a large portion of RBS’ US and Canadian loan portfolio, according to news releases from that time, helping boost its profile in the US. It came in 23rd on the institutional ranking in the first three quarters with US$6.2bn of volume, helping arrange buyout financing for KKR’s purchase of Nature’s Bounty, and Carlyle Group’s and GTCR’s acquisition of Albany Molecular Research. Barclays was first with US$58bn. Mizuho also ranked 23rd last year. LEAD LEFT But Mizuho has not been a so-called lead left lender, the bank that runs the transaction process, on a coveted term loan B, debt which is sold to institutional investors including mutual funds. Mizuho hopes that in six to 12 months it will hold that critical position, said Walker, who joined from UBS where he was global head of investment-grade acquisition financing. He has been meeting with representatives at private equity firms to pitch the bank, highlighting the additional liquidity Mizuho can bring, its balance sheet, and stressing its intention to be a long-term holder that will not immediately sell down its position. “We are willing to take on more risk and have a desire to do more business,” he said. “We have a tremendous balance sheet and we don’t have to sell it down.” When banks arrange a loan they will often try to sell the majority of that debt to investors to lessen the amount of risk they hold. Mizuho will look to do more deals in the technology, media and telecom spaces as well as in the healthcare and energy sectors, the former an arena familiar to Walker who previously served as head of natural resources leveraged and high-yield capital markets at UBS. Lee McKinstrey joined Mizuho as sector head for energy in September. Competition may be one of the biggest challenges Mizuho faces as certain banks have historically been the go-to choice for advising on and leading the financing for merger and acquisition transactions. Some lenders have been successful in building new platforms while others have struggled after an initial push. Mizuho hopes to grow its ranks with additional hires, especially at the junior associate and analyst levels. (Reporting by Kristen Haunss; Editing by Michelle Sierra)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mizuho-levfin/lpc-mizuho-eyes-us-leveraged-finance-expansion-idUSL2N1N71BC'|'2017-11-01T20:17:00.000+02:00'
'968e6105809149ef774b9f055ed631ac8715cf47'|'Unilever to buy tea brand Tazo from Starbucks for $384 million'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:30 PM / in 7 hours Unilever to buy tea brand Tazo from Starbucks for $384 million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) said on Thursday it would buy the speciality tea brand Tazo from Starbucks in a deal valued at $384 million (294.19 million pounds). FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo This acquisition is the latest in a string of deals by the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant to add smaller, healthier brands to expand its portfolio in a fast-growing speciality tea segment. “With its strong appeal to millennials, Tazo is a perfect strategic fit for our U.S. portfolio,” Kees Kruythoff, president, Unilever North America said. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-starbucks-divestiture-unilever-nv/unilever-to-buy-tea-brand-tazo-from-starbucks-for-384-million-idUKKBN1D22ZL'|'2017-11-03T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'2ee386db02061ee1d5560dfeda6e71333ebc5236'|'As the global economy picks up, inflation is oddly quiescent - Gone missing'|'A FEW years ago, the news about the euro-zone economy was uniformly bad to the point of tedium. These days, it is the humdrum diet of benign data that prompts a yawn. Figures this week show that GDP rose by 0.6% in the three months to the end of September (an annualised rate of 2.4%). The European Commission’s economic-sentiment index rose to its highest level in almost 17 years. Yet when the European Central Bank’s governing council gathered on October 26th, it decided to keep interest rates unchanged, at close to zero, and to extend its bond-buying programme (known as quantitative easing, or QE) for a further nine months.The central bank said it would slow down the pace of bond purchases each month, to €30bn ($35bn) from January. But Mario Draghi, the bank’s boss, declined to set an end-date for QE. A hefty dose of easy money will be necessary, he argued, until inflation durably converges on the ECB’s target of just below 2%. It shows few signs of doing so, despite the economy’s strength. Underlying, or core, inflation, which excludes the volatile prices of food and energy, fell from 1.1% to 0.9% in October, according to data published a few days after the ECB meeting. The euro zone’s miseries of 2010-12 were unique. But in its present, happier state of vigorous activity, low inflation and easy monetary policy, it is like many other big economies (see chart).Latest updates Jihadists   an hour   2   3   6 hours ago How astronomers identified the first visitor from another solar system The Economist explains 10 hours ago A lot to like and a lot to dislike in the Republican tax bill Democracy in America 19   After a decade of interest rates at record lows, those central banks that are inclined to tighten policy naturally attract attention. The Bank of England’s monetary-policy committee raised its benchmark interest rate from 0.25% to 0.5% on November 2nd, the first increase since 2007. On the same day, the Czech National Bank raised interest rates for the second time this year. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged this week, having raised them in March and June, but a further increase is expected in December.In Turkey, perhaps the only big economy that is obviously overheating, the central bank—which has been browbeaten by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who believes high interest rates cause inflation—opted on October 26th to keep interest rates on hold. Yet in most biggish economies, underlying inflation is below target (see chart) and monetary policy is being relaxed. Brazil’s central bank cut interest rates on October 25th from 8.25% to 7.5%. Two days later, Russia’s central bank trimmed its main interest rate, to 8.25%. This week the Bank of Japan voted to keep rates unchanged and to continue buying assets at a pace of around ¥80trn ($700bn) a year. These economies are gathering strength. It is a puzzle that, in such circumstances, global inflation is stubbornly low.To figure out why, consider the model that modern central banks use to explain inflation. It has three elements: the price of imports; the public’s expectations; and capacity pressures (or “slack”) in the domestic economy. Start with imported inflation, which is determined by the balance of supply and demand in globally traded goods, such as commodities, as well as shifts in exchange rates. Commodity prices have picked up smartly from their nadir in early 2016. The oil price, which fell below $30 a barrel then, has risen above $60.This has put upward pressure on headline inflation: in the euro zone it is 1.4%, half a percentage point higher than the core rate. Where inflation is noticeably high, it is generally in countries, such as Argentina (where it is 24%) or Egypt (32%), that have withdrawn costly price subsidies and whose currencies have fallen sharply in value, making imported goods dearer. In Britain, rising import prices linked to a weaker pound have added around 0.75 percentage points to inflation, which is 3%.A second influence on inflation is the public’s expectations. Businesses will be more inclined to push up their prices and employees to bid for fatter pay packets if they believe inflation will rise. How these expectations are formed is not well understood. The measures that are available are broadly consistent with the central bank’s inflation target in most rich economies. Japan is something of an outlier. It has struggled to meet its 2% inflation target in large part because firms and employees have become conditioned to expect a lower rate of inflation. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, recently called for companies to raise wages by 3% in next spring’s wage round to kick-start inflation.Leave aside the transient effects of import prices, and inflation becomes a tug-of-war between expectations and a third big influence, the amount of slack in the economy. The unemployment rate, a measure of labour-market slack, is the most-used gauge. As the economy approaches full employment, the scarcity of workers ought to put upward pressure on wages, which companies then pass on in higher prices. On some measures, Japan’s labour market is as tight as it has been since the 1970s. America’s jobless rate, at 4.2%, is the lowest for over 16 years. Inflation has nevertheless been surprisingly weak.In other words, the trade-off between unemployment and inflation, known as the Phillips curve, has become less steep. A paper last year by Olivier Blanchard, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, found that a drop in the unemployment rate in America has less than a third as much power to raise inflation as it did in the mid-1970s.The central banks that see a need for tighter monetary policy are worried about diminishing slack. There are tentative signs of stronger pay pressures in Britain and America, and firm evidence of them in the Czech Republic, where wage growth is above 7%. Even so, with inflation expectations so steady, the flatter Phillips curve suggests that the cost for central banks in higher inflation of delaying interest-rate rises is rather low. The ECB is quite a way from such considerations. The unemployment rate is falling quickly, but remains high, at 8.9%. There is still room for the euro-zone economy to grow quickly without stoking inflation. The dull routine of good news is likely to continue.This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "Gone missing"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21730930-central-banks-are-beginning-raise-interest-rates-anyway-global?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'93c15e31514bd816350e40635ee5765a2463edb7'|'Catalonia unemployment jumps as political crisis drags on'|'November 3, 2017 / 9:44 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Catalonia unemployment jumps as political crisis drags on Paul Day 2 Min Read MADRID (Reuters) - Registered unemployment rose sharply in Catalonia in October, data showed on Friday, with more people signing on as jobless in the region than anywhere else in Spain as companies fled in the midst of the country’s worst political crisis in decades. A man holding a Catalan separatist flag (L) looks at men holding a Spanish flag outside the Generalitat Palace, the Catalan regional government headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Juan Medina Almost 2,000 companies based in Catalonia moved their legal headquarters out of the region in October after an independence vote banned by Madrid that led to the central government sacking regional authorities and taking control. The number of people in Spain registering as jobless rose for the third straight month by 1.67 percent in October from a month earlier, or by 56,844 people, leaving 3.47 million people out of work, data from the Labour Ministry showed. Of that, Catalonia saw unemployment rise by 3.67 percent, or 14,698 people, the largest loss of jobs amongst all the regions and compared to a just 0.08 percent rise in jobless in the region of Madrid. The Bank of Spain warned on Thursday that uncertainty due to the independence drive, if it persists, could lead to slower economic growth and lower job creation in the next few months. October often sees a continuation of rising unemployment after the summer tourist sector lays off temporary workers in hotels and restaurants. Registered jobless rose strongest in the service sector, with a 2.2 percent monthly rise, or by 50,885 people, followed by agriculture, marking the end of summer harvests, up 5.83 percent, or 9,194 people. In Spain, the number of people paying in to the social security system as workers in Spain rose by 94,368 people, to 18.43 million people, the ministry said. In seasonally adjusted terms, Spain’s registered unemployed fell by 23,690 people in October from a month earlier. Spain’s unemployment rate, taken from a wide survey of the workforce a considered a more accurate representation of the country’s unemployed than the monthly figure, fell to its lowest since 2008 in the third quarter at 16.38 percent. Reporting by Paul Day; editing by Ralph Boulton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-economy/catalonia-unemployment-jumps-as-political-crisis-drags-on-idUKKBN1D30TC'|'2017-11-03T11:43:00.000+02:00'
'3549744217a9f2c29c3f723c59c4c032da8c645f'|'U.S. oil rig count falls by most in week since May 2016 -Baker Hughes'|' 10 PM / in an hour U.S. oil rig count falls by most in week since May 2016 -Baker Hughes Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Nov 3 (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies cut eight oil rigs this week, the biggest reduction since May 2016, extending a drilling decline that started over the summer when prices slipped below $50 a barrel. The oil rig count fell to 729 in the week to Nov. 3, the lowest level since May, General Electric Co''s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. RIG-OL-USA-BHI The rig count, an early indicator of future output, is still much higher than a year ago when only 450 rigs were active after energy companies boosted spending plans for 2017 in the second half of last year as crude started recovering from a two-year price crash. The increase in drilling lasted 14 months before stalling in August, September and October after some producers started trimming spending plans when prices turned softer over the summer. U.S. oil production dipped to 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, according to federal energy data released this week. Overall, however, exploration and production (E&P) companies expect to increase the amount of money they plan to spend on U.S. drilling and completions in 2017 by about 53 percent over 2016, according to U.S. financial services firm Cowen & Co. That was up from 50 percent in the firm''s prior capital expenditure tracking report last week. That expected 2017 spending increase followed an estimated 48 percent decline in 2016 and a 34 percent decline in 2015, Cowen said. U.S. crude futures , which reached a high of $55.22 a barrel this week, which put them within a few cents of their highest since July 2015, have averaged almost $50 a barrel so far in 2017, easily topping last year''s $43.47 average. Looking ahead, futures were trading around $55 for the balance of the year and calendar 2018 . Cowen, which has its own U.S. rig count, said it expects a gradual decline in rigs in the fourth quarter of 2017 and in 2018. There were 898 oil and natural gas rigs active on Nov. 3. The average number of rigs in service so far in 2017 was 868. That compares with 509 in 2016 and 978 in 2015. Most rigs produce both oil and gas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Marguerita Choy)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-rigs-baker-hughes/u-s-oil-rig-count-falls-by-most-in-week-since-may-2016-baker-hughes-idUSL2N1N90TV'|'2017-11-03T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'7d54e7fda7205ea7c4af1a415f98b9fb6eaf26c9'|'UPDATE 1-German metals recycling group Befesa IPO priced at 28 euro/share'|'* Offering to raise up to 461 mln euros* Main owner, Triton, selling down stake* Free float will be up to 48.3 percent* Befesa extracts zinc, aluminium from steel scrap (Adds details of offering, context)FRANKFURT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - German metals recycling group Befesa said it priced its initial public offering of shares at 28 euros apiece, the bottom of the offer range, ahead of its market debut on Friday.Befesa is the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Germany this year after online takeaway food delivery group Delivery Hero and ahead of meal kit group HelloFresh, which listed earlier this week.Befesa, which controls almost half of Europe’s steel dust recycling market, said in a statement it would raise up to 461 million euros ($537 million), assuming full take-up of an over-allotment option.The company is offering 14.3 million shares, plus up to 2.1 million more additional shares as part of the overallotment.If that is fully taken up, its market capitalisation would total 954 million euros. Private equity shareholder Triton is selling down its stake. Befesa would have a free float of 48.3 percent if the offering is fully taken up.Befesa collects steel dust from so-called mini-mills that melt scrap to produce new steel.While it gets fees for accepting hazardous waste, it generates up to 90 percent of sales at its steel unit by selling zinc it extracts from the steel dust to companies such as Glencore, Nyrstar or Korea Zinc. It has a similar, but smaller aluminium operation.In the 12 months to the end of June, Befesa posted group adjusted earnings before interest, tax (EBIT) of 133 million euros on sales of 685 million euros.Befesa was listed in Spain from 1998 to 2011. Spain’s Abengoa bought a controlling stake in 2000 and later squeezed out minorities. It sold the company on to Triton in 2013 for 850 million euros in cash, or 1.1 billion euros including debt. ($1 = 0.8578 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Douglas Busvine and David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/befesa-ipo/update-1-german-metals-recycling-group-befesa-ipo-priced-at-28-euro-share-idINL8N1N88AS'|'2017-11-02T15:06:00.000+02:00'
'aca8510a49088027afeb623252a652438d10d5c7'|'Morgan Stanley ordered to pay $350,000 penalty for data reporting flaws'|'Williamson named Defence Secretary after Fallon resigns in growing harassment scandal Special Report reuters investigates -the body trade Mystery in the woods - a woman’s head was found. Who is she? BoE sees only gentle rises ahead after rate hike Reuters TV United States  14 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Morgan Stanley ordered to pay $350,000 penalty for data reporting flaws Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Thursday it had ordered Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to pay a $350,000 penalty for failing to comply with rules that require large traders to include large amounts of futures and options data in reports to the agency. FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of financial firm Morgan Stanley is pictured on the company''s world headquarters in New York, New York January 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo The CFTC said Morgan Stanley omitted the mandatory futures and options data from its reports over a 10-year period from 2007 to 2017. The information, primarily for contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, is used to help the CFTC evaluate potential market risks. Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Walsh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-morgan-stanley-cftc/morgan-stanley-ordered-to-pay-350000-penalty-for-data-reporting-flaws-idUKKBN1D227Z'|'2017-11-02T18:10:00.000+02:00'
'01e5c922901871e445cbdb5cbd8acd30c4cd80ff'|'Bain says to extend $1.35 billion bid deadline for Japan''s Asatsu-DK'|' 04 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Bain says to extend $1.35 billion bid deadline for Japan''s Asatsu-DK Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital plans to extend a deadline for its $1.35 billion (£1.02 billion) bid for Asatsu-DK Inc ( 9747.T ) by around a week to give shareholders more time to review the deal after Asatsu-DK shareholder WPP ( WPP.L ) took legal action, a senior Bain official said on Thursday. WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, said it was taking legal action against its partner Asatsu-DK, deepening an acrimonious spat over the Japanese advertising agency’s backing for the takeover deal. Last month, Asatsu-DK said it had told WPP that it planned to end their two-decade business alliance, and asked WPP to sell its shares to Bain. In response, WPP said on Thursday in an emailed statement that it was seeking arbitration with a Japanese arbitration body and a preliminary injunction with the Tokyo District Court, claiming it is entitled to retain its shareholding in Asatsu-DK. David Gross-Loh, head of Bain’s Asia business, told Reuters it plans to extend the Nov. 15 tender offer deadline to Nov. 21 to comply with local financial regulations, but the fund believes its offer of 3,660 yen per share is full and final. “We are not interested in raising the price,” said Gross-Loh. Japanese financial regulations requires a tender offer deadline to be adjusted when new information that could impact shareholders’ decisions is released, Gross-Loh said. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/bain-says-to-extend-1-35-billion-bid-deadline-for-japans-asatsu-dk-idUKKBN1D21JC'|'2017-11-02T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'f120735fff6b68db35f5ec3e76c611070eddb447'|'Facebook profit soars, no sign of impact from Russia issue'|'(Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia may have used the social network to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections.Facebook logo is seen on a wall at a start-up companies gathering at Paris'' Station F in Paris, France, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer The company’s shares rose about 1 percent to $184.50 in after-hours trading. The shares have gained almost 60 percent this year and hit a record high of $182.90 in regular trading.Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, without mentioning Russia, said in the earnings report that Facebook’s spending on security would affect profitability, but the impact was not evident in its numbers on Wednesday.“Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” Zuckerberg said.Facebook is at the centre of a political storm in the United States for the ways it handles paid political ads and allows the spread of false news stories. U.S. lawmakers have threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in hearings this week.Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling.Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent of which came from mobile ads.Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $9.71 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet.The 49 percent increase in total ad sales in the latest quarter compares with a 47 percent rise in the prior quarter and a 51 percent jump in the first quarter.Facebook has been warning for more than a year about reaching a limit in “ad load”, or the number of ads the company can feature in users’ pages before crowding their News Feed.Advertisers seem unfazed, though, spending heavily as the social network continues to attract users.The nearly 50 percent jump in ad revenue “is phenomenal, especially when for the past few quarters they’ve been trying to bring that expectation way, way down. Yet it keeps going up,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said.Of the Russia scandal enveloping Facebook publicly, Feinseth said: “In the bigger picture, I don’t think it’s a really big factor.”Facebook said about 2.07 billion people were using its service monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier.Analysts on average had expected 2.06 billion monthly active users, according to FactSet.Net income rose to $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, from $2.63 billion, or 90 cents per share.Analysts on an average were expecting the company to earn $1.28, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Total revenue increased 47.3 percent to $10.33 billion beating analysts estimate of $9.84 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Various U.S. investigations into how Russia may have tried to sway American voters in the months before and after last year’s elections are hanging over Facebook and its competitors.There is also proposed U.S. legislation that would extend rules governing political ads on television, radio and satellite to also cover digital advertising.“We expect more scrutiny about Facebook’s ad system ahead,” analyst Debra Aho Williamson of research firm eMarketer said in a note. “We’re also monitoring for any signs that this investigation will have a material impact on ad revenue.”Reporting by David Ingram in Washington and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/facebook-results/facebook-quarterly-profit-rises-on-mobile-ad-growth-idINKBN1D15T0'|'2017-11-01T23:04:00.000+02:00'
'0e516f6e7dda837d2ef383203021204938b12b45'|'Deliveroo riders to seek employment rights at UK tribunal'|'November 1, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Deliveroo riders to seek employment rights at UK tribunal Costas Pitas 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Riders at food courier firm Deliveroo will begin the process of seeking employment rights such as the minimum wage at a tribunal on Thursday, in a further challenge to the flourishing “gig economy.” A deliveroo worker cycles along a pedestrianised road in Liverpool, Britain, October 18, 2017. Picture taken October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble The company’s roughly 15,000 drivers have become a familiar sight in Britain since 2013, tapping into the rapidly growing demand for takeaway food from restaurants. They operate in the gig economy, where many people work for different firms without a fixed contract, and are self-employed, entitling them to only basic rights. The firm says the vast majority of its couriers enjoy flexible working but some unions and MPs have criticised its practices and say riders should be entitled to rights such as holiday entitlement and the minimum wage. Law firm Leigh Day, which is bringing the action, said it had submitted claims on behalf of 45 couriers and that a preliminary hearing will be held at an employment tribunal on Nov. 2, where a timetable for the case will be set. “Our argument is that these riders are controlled, managed and disciplined by Deliveroo and that they clearly do not carry out their own delivery businesses, as Deliveroo argues,” said lawyer Annie Powell. “We are claiming that these riders are employees of Deliveroo and that Deliveroo is acting unlawfully in denying riders these rights.” Deliveroo said most of its riders wanted to remain self-employed and that they earned on average more than the minimum wage. A spokesman said the company was also calling for a change in legislation to provide other entitlements to its couriers. “We want to be able to offer riders greater security such as injury pay and sick pay alongside flexible work, but we are currently constrained by the law,” the spokesman said. “That’s why we have called on the government to update legislation so we can end the trade-off between flexibility and security that currently exists in law.” Leigh Day won a case last year on behalf of two Uber [UBER.UL] drivers entitling them to workers’ rights such as the minimum wage which the Silicon Valley firm has since appealed. Editing by Steve Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-deliveroo/deliveroo-riders-to-seek-employment-rights-at-uk-tribunal-idUKKBN1D150M'|'2017-11-01T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'3fe2b349e53cc659a55169ca22ed77993f0a5713'|'Tesla reports biggest-ever quarterly loss'|' 29 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Tesla reports biggest-ever quarterly loss, Model 3 delays Reuters Staff 2   Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) racked up a $619 million (466.96 million pounds) loss in the third quarter, its biggest-ever, driving its shares sharply lower as the electric-car maker spends to speed up production of its more affordable Model 3 sedan. FILE PHOTO: A Tesla charging station is seen in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. on September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The company, led by Silicon Valley star Elon Musk, also confirmed it had missed its Model 3 production goal for the third quarter, producing only 260 vehicles compared to an earlier estimate of 1,500. Its shares fell 5.4 percent in after hours trading. The company said it had $3.53 billion in cash and cash-equivalents as of Sept. 30, compared to $3.04 billion at the end of the second quarter. Tesla said last month it delivered 26,150 vehicles in the third quarter, a 4.5 percent rise on the same period of 2016, but added that “production bottlenecks” had left the company behind its planned ramp-up for the $35,000 Model 3. On Wednesday it said it now hoped to achieve a production rate of 5,000 per month by the end of the first quarter of next year, pushed back from the end of this year. It said automotive gross margin, which excludes the sale of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) credits, fell to 18.7 percent from 25 percent last year.   margins of 18.4 percent,   Led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, Tesla is struggling to overcome production bottlenecks as it builds the Model 3, seen as key to the company’s long-term profitability. The company said in October it missed its Model 3 production goal for the third quarter, producing only 260 vehicles compared with an earlier target of 1,500, and Musk said last month the car was “deep in production hell”. Tesla posted a net loss of $619.4 million, or $3.70 per share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared to a profit of $21.9 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 30 percent to $2.98 billion. Excluding items, the company lost $2.92 per share. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-results/tesla-reports-biggest-ever-quarterly-loss-idUKKBN1D15UC'|'2017-11-01T22:29:00.000+02:00'
'e5322dc3d108b4bbcb339f2e5b76f02c114e4ca3'|'Thomson Reuters reports higher third-quarter net profit'|'November 1, 2017 / 10:42 AM / in 5 hours Thomson Reuters revenue misses amid uncertainty in Europe Jessica Toonkel 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp ( TRI.N )( TRI.TO ) on Wednesday reported revenue below investor expectations as financial services clients in Europe and Britain held off on signing deals due to regulatory and political uncertainty. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Thomson Reuters is pictured at the entrance of its Paris headquarters, France, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo “We aren’t satisfied with our top-line growth and we are addressing these issues by controlling everything that is within our control,” CEO Jim Smith told analysts on an earnings call. Although earnings-per-share beat estimates in part due to cost controls, the revenue miss pushed shares down 6.5 percent to $43.81 on the New York Stock Exchange; they were at C$56.59 in Toronto. The results highlight the need for Thomson Reuters to find ways to generate revenue outside of managing costs, said Doug Arthur, an analyst at Huber Research Partners. “People understand the company is doing a great job on costs,” Arthur said. “But there has been a lot of anticipation that revenues are going to hit an inflection point, and it’s just not happening.” In its Financial & Risk segment, the company’s biggest, sales outpaced cancellations, a key indicator of future growth. Overall revenue for the unit was up slightly, but was down one percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Specifically, British and European financial services clients are concerned about upcoming EU securities rules, set to take effect in January, as well as Brexit, Smith said. ”The quarter was the tale of two cities, or more like the tale of two continents,“ as the company saw unexpected softness in the UK and Europe and strength in the Americas,” Smith told Reuters. “We heard from the market, that was largely because of upcoming regulatory changes.” Thomson Reuters still expects year-over-year growth in its financial business in 2017 and 2018, but the extent of the improvement will depend on fourth-quarter net sales, executives said on the call. The company sees a stronger pipeline of deals for its Financial & Risk unit, Smith said. The news and information company said full-year profits will be at the high end of its earlier forecast. Third-quarter net earnings rose to $348 million, or 46 cents per share, from $286 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted for special items, earnings were 68 cents per share. Total revenue grew 1 percent excluding currency to $2.79 billion. Sales in its legal business rose 1 percent to $843 million. Analysts on average, were looking for profit of 58 cents per share, and revenue of $2.82 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/. Thomson Reuters, parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP, as well as News Corp’s ( NWSA.O ) Dow Jones unit. Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thomsonreuters-results/thomson-reuters-reports-higher-third-quarter-net-profit-idUSKBN1D14DC'|'2017-11-01T12:44:00.000+02:00'
'4d1ee3ea1ae2ad00721d1bffef7c77ff356f45fa'|'TVS Motor Q2 profit rises 20 percent, meets estimates'|'REUTERS - TVS Motor Company Ltd reported a 20 percent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, matching analysts’ estimates, as it sold about 16 percent more two wheelers than the year-ago quarter.A model sits on a scooter at the TVS Motor company''s pavilion during the Indian Auto Expo in Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi February 6, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at 2.13 billion rupees ($33 million) compared with 1.77 billion rupees last year. bit.ly/2z3hULJAnalysts on average were expecting a profit of 2.13 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.The company’s total two-wheeler sales volume, including exports, rose to 923,000 units from 795,000 vehicles earlier.($1 = 64.5375 rupees)Reporting By Arnab Paul and Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayatri and Biju DwarakanathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tvs-motor-results/tvs-motor-q2-profit-rises-20-percent-meets-estimates-idINKBN1D13VK'|'2017-11-01T09:48:00.000+02:00'
'394099087ebe1efd2117cde722f513a430698239'|'Russia''s Rosneft, Iran''s NIOC eye $30 billion in oil and gas projects'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:58 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Russia''s Rosneft, Iran''s NIOC eye $30 billion in oil and gas projects Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian oil producer Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company have signed a road map on the implementation of “strategic” projects in Iran with total investments worth up to $30 billion, Rosneft head Igor Sechin said on Wednesday. A logo of Russian state oil firm Rosneft is seen at its office in Moscow, October 18, 2012. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo He said the deal paved the way for legally-binding documents to be signed within a year. Output from the joint project is seen plateauing at 55 million tonnes per year (1.1 million barrels per day), he said. It is not yet clear how the investments will be split between the two companies. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jack Stubbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-iran-oil/russias-rosneft-irans-nioc-eye-30-billion-in-oil-and-gas-projects-idINKBN1D14RR'|'2017-11-01T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'19ca8f3d8f3e71da322905567786a6bf5e8d1464'|'Apple X factor: China buyers rapt by new iPhone, but will they buy?'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:53 PM / in 8 hours Apple X factor: China buyers rapt by new iPhone, but will they buy? Adam Jourdan , Cate Cadell 5 Min Read SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Gu Xiaomeng, a 24-year-old primary school teacher in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, says she’s excited about the new iPhone X, set to go on sale on Friday. The challenge for Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) is to persuade her to actually buy one. A attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter “I‘m definitely interested, but don’t currently plan to get one,” said Gu, whose monthly salary of a little over 6,000 yuan ($905.36) is less than the anniversary model’s starting price in China of 8,388 yuan. For Apple, which is looking to rev up sales in China after several quarters of declining revenue there, the test is that Gu is not alone. While interest in the phone is high, that won’t necessarily translate into sales. “Price appears to be a major constraint on iPhone X demand, particularly in China,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a recent report that showed three-quarters of Chinese respondents were excited by the upcoming launch, but only a quarter said they planned to buy one. Investors are keen to gauge Chinese demand for the iPhone X, as it is key to reviving Apple’s fortunes in the world’s biggest smartphone market where it has lost some of its sparkle - and market share - as local phone makers have advanced. The cheaper iPhone 8, which hit the market in September, has faced sluggish sales, but Apple has said that pre-orders for the iPhone X have been “off the charts”. Apple, due to announce quarterly earnings on Thursday, said it had no immediate comment. Chatter online on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo ( WB.O ) also signaled high levels of interest in the new model, though still generally behind levels around the 2014 launch of the very successful iPhone 6. APPLE “GEEKS” Xiao Ming, 32, who works for a blockchain start-up in Beijing, stayed up half the night when pre-sales of the iPhone X opened last week. He has also bought the iPhone 8. “I always try to be one of the first to buy any new iPhone,” he said, adding he likes the new phone’s augmented reality and facial recognition features. “I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t get one on the first day.” While he plans to buy the new phone, he noted many of his friends were less fussed. “Before, I think a lot of people would try to get it somehow, now it’s mostly the geeks,” he said. “My friends don’t mind so much if they have an iPhone 8 or a 6, for example, because it looks similar and the price (of the iPhone X) makes you feel nervous.” Re-sellers and iPhone accessory makers generally agreed there was a buzz about the iPhone X, Apple’s first phone to have a full-screen display and functions such as facial recognition security. “People are really anticipating this phone because it’s the 10th anniversary version and it has more changes and modifications,” said Gary Yiu, manager of the iGeneration smartphone shop at one Hong Kong mall. Yiu and three other phone re-sellers there said they had seen strong demand for the phone from mainland clients. A merchant at the Huaqiangbei electronics hub in Shenzhen, who was offering an iPhone look-a-like called the “E-Feng X” from 1,599 yuan, said sales volumes were “very good”. Some Chinese re-sellers, however, said they already canceled pre-orders for the iPhone X, concerned there wouldn’t be enough of a supply bottleneck to allow them to charge a steep premium - despite some worries about long waits. “I saw many friends were posting pictures of themselves successfully ordering the iPhone X, so I canceled mine,” said Tony Tong, 29, a product manager at a tech firm in Beijing, who said he had ordered four phones in the hope of re-selling them for a profit. “The environment is bad for scalpers.” Apple will hope payment plans and easy access to online credit in China will convince people to buy. Wang Hao, a 24-year-old engineer in the northeastern port city of Dalian, said he ordered the new phone despite the high price tag. His last phone was an iPhone 6S. “The cost is about a month’s salary for me,” he told Reuters. “But I‘m just used to it now, and there wasn’t really anything to make me choose another brand.” (For graphic on China chatter about iPhone X, click: tmsnrt.rs/2cbIZ5n ) Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI, Pei Li and Cate Cadell in BEIJING, Venus Wu in HONG KONG and SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone-china/apple-x-factor-china-buyers-rapt-by-new-iphone-but-will-they-buy-idUSKBN1D14WB'|'2017-11-01T15:53:00.000+02:00'
'3cfa89b3663a0bfb2b431d1b766a50fcaa2ce760'|'UPDATE 1-GM Canada''s October sales rise, Ford slips'|'(Adds Ford Canada sales)Nov 1 (Reuters) - General Motors Co reported on Wednesday a surge in vehicle sales in Canada for October, while rival Ford Motor Co posted a small drop.GM’s vehicle sales rose 26.5 percent, its tenth straight monthly increase, while Ford saw a 2 percent dip.Detroit-based GM sold 26,847 vehicles with Chevrolet leading the way. ( bit.ly/2lDeUAr )Ford delivered 21,081 vehicles in October, largely driven by sales of trucks.GM Canada has sold 199,825 vehicles so far this year, while Ford has sold 267,316 cars and trucks. (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-auto-sales/update-1-gm-canadas-october-sales-rise-ford-slips-idINL4N1N75H7'|'2017-11-01T14:53:00.000+02:00'
'ec14b836ac5c12ba5464377962a21fa72d3cd8df'|'Bank of England staff turnover could be ''a little bit higher'' - deputy governor'|' 26 PM / in 7 minutes Bank of England staff turnover could be ''a little bit higher'' - deputy governor Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Staff turnover at the Bank of England could be slightly higher, and would not benefit from being reduced, Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo “Our turnover rate across the Bank is running at about 7-8 percent. That’s fine. I probably wouldn’t want it to be a lot lower. It could be a little bit higher,” Woods told a parliament committee studying the effect of Brexit on financial regulation. Woods added that his division of the BoE was increasing staff numbers to handle extra regulatory authorisation of foreign banks required by Brexit. “We have got I think about two thirds of the staff that we need. I think we will be okay,” he said. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-boe-staffing/bank-of-england-staff-turnover-could-be-a-little-bit-higher-deputy-governor-idUKKBN1D14P2'|'2017-11-01T14:24:00.000+02:00'
'73650da2731412800fcbbf788a5d26f6891b4669'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 1'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 5 hours ago UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 1 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds company news items, futures) Nov 1 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 18 points higher at 7,511.2 points on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.4 percent ahead of the cash market open. * JUST GROUP: British annuity provider Just Group reported a fall in total retirement sales for the third quarter against the same period last year and said it had exceeded its merger driven cost savings target of 45 million pounds ($59 million). * MORGAN SINDALL: British builder Morgan Sindall raised its 2017 earnings forecast in July and did so again on Wednesday citing better margins in construction and its office installation and refurbishment business. * IAG: Britain''s biggest trade union Unite said on Tuesday British Airways'' cabin crew had voted to accept a pay deal that brings their long-running dispute to an end. * ASTRAZENECA: AstraZeneca has won U.S. approval for a new blood cancer drug several months earlier than expected, boosting its oncology portfolio - and requiring it to pay $1.5 billion to shareholders in the biotech company that first discovered the medicine. * INDIVIOR: Indivior Plc''s experimental drug to treat opioid addiction should be approved, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded on Tuesday. * IMAGINATION TECH: Imagination Technologies shareholders approved a 550 million pound ($730 million) cash takeover by China-backed Canyon Bridge on Tuesday, a day after the buyout firm''s founder was charged by U.S. authorities with insider trading. * Britain''s FTSE sealed its best monthly gains since May on Tuesday as a series of upbeat earning updates including from oil major BP helped it rebound and end October on a high. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-1-idUSL4N1N733G'|'2017-11-01T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'037a649100f016635f1157082ba7f7ff0de93da7'|'New Zealand''s foreign home ownership ban won''t cause price collapse - trade min'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:50 AM / in an hour New Zealand''s foreign home ownership ban won''t cause price collapse - trade min Charlotte Greenfield 3 Min Read WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand’s proposal to ban foreigners from buying existing homes will not cause house prices to collapse, Trade Minister David Parker said on Wednesday, but it has to be fast tracked to beat restrictions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal. The Labour government has said it will get the new crackdown into law in early 2018, in a move that will precede the trade deal and brings it in line with countries such as Australia. The TPP is set to remove New Zealand’s ability to bar overseas investment in its residential property market. Parker told Radio New Zealand in an interview that the ban was unlikely to dent New Zealand’s house prices, which have soared 50 percent in the past decade, though growth has eased off recently. “It’s not going to collapse house prices and it’s true that this was more of a problem two years ago,” Parker said. “If you don’t do it now, you can never do it. Because if TPP is entered into, New Zealand will have lost the policy space to protect the New Zealand housing market for New Zealanders,” he added. The move underscores the stark change under Labour compared with the previous National government which had touted New Zealand’s small economy as open to investment. New Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised that Labour will be a more interventionist government, which she says is necessary to combat growing inequality. There is little reliable data on the proportion of New Zealand homes owned by foreigners. Government figures suggested only around 3 percent of house sales involved non-residents. Labour has criticised those numbers, saying they do not include many categories of ownership, such as through trusts. Real estate industry members echoed Parker’s comments that any dramatic impact from the new rules was unlikely and questioned the need for them. “There is little data or evidence that clearly links the role foreign buyers have in allegedly increasing house prices...so from our perspective, we would just like some clarification on what the ban is trying to achieve,” said Bindi Norwell, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand in an emailed statement. The new residential investment clampdown will bring New Zealand in line with similar hot housing markets around the world, causing home prices in cities such as Vancouver and Sydney to skyrocket. The planned ban would not apply to Australians, given New Zealanders are exempt from home ownership restrictions in neighbouring Australia, where many New Zealanders live. Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-newzealand-politics-housing/new-zealands-foreign-home-ownership-ban-wont-cause-price-collapse-trade-min-idUKKBN1D13IW'|'2017-11-01T06:50:00.000+02:00'
'40e3206c25d0096d5f8b53361a717af461a58a92'|'Sony shares soar to 9-year high after forecast of record profit'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:05 AM / in 15 minutes Sony shares soar to nine-year high after forecast of record profit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Sony Corp ( 6758.T ) soared as much as 11.6 percent to a nine-year high on Wednesday after the Japanese electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best ever annual profit. FILE PHOTO - A reception staff walks under a logo of Sony Corp at its headquarters in Tokyo February 4, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo Sony raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 26 percent to 630 billion yen (4.17 billion pounds), citing strong sales of image sensors as well as high-end television sets, underscoring the success of its restructuring efforts. The Nikkei average .N225 was up 1 percent in morning trade. Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sony-stocks/sony-shares-soar-to-9-year-high-after-forecast-of-record-profit-idUKKBN1D139I'|'2017-11-01T03:04:00.000+02:00'
'b1b12c93287d66239c31d32eedb5746306de619d'|'Canada oil, gas drilling to pick up in 2018: industry body'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas drilling activity will climb 5 percent in 2018 as a gradual uptick in crude prices gives rise to cautious optimism among producers, an industry body forecast on Tuesday.An oil pump jack pumps oil in a field near Calgary, Alberta, July 21, 2014. REUTERS/Todd Korol The Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) expects energy firms to drill 7,900 wells next year, up from 7,550 in 2017. The biggest increase in activity will be in Canada’s main crude oil and gas-producing province of Alberta.Based on PSAC’s forecast, next year will be the busiest for drilling since 2014, when oil prices crashed because of global oversupply.The 2018 estimate is still 30 percent below 2014 well totals, highlighting the slow speed of recovery. U.S. crude prices are hovering just under $55 a barrel CLc1, well below early 2014 prices of above $100.“For 2018, confidence that oil will stay in the low-to-mid $50 range as markets tighten and inventories reduce, along with growing interest in Canada’s vast liquids rich natural gas, should support a 4 to 5 percent increase in activity levels,” PSAC president Mark Salkeld said in a statement.He also called for more export pipelines to ship Canadian oil and gas to market, warning that TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) recent decision to cancel its Energy East project was a blow to investor confidence.Reporting by Nia Williams, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-energy-drilling/canada-oil-gas-drilling-to-pick-up-in-2018-industry-body-idUSKBN1D034N'|'2017-11-01T01:15:00.000+02:00'
'58017da1f4a363cf0988f93c2355aa6d1936e589'|'Rising expenses mar StanChart third quarter profit increase'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 9:09 AM / a few seconds ago Rising expenses mar StanChart third-quarter profit increase Lawrence White 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Higher expenses overshadowed better than expected quarterly profit for Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) on Wednesday, sending shares in the Asia-focused bank more than 5 percent lower. People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The bank’s pretax profit rose 78 percent compared with the third quarter a year ago to $814 million, higher than the $809 million average of analysts’ estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data. The increase was largely because loan impairment charges fell 42 percent year-on-year as the bank avoided heavy losses from private equity and bad loans that hit earnings a year ago. Impairment levels are closely watched by investors in the bank which has had a glut of bad debts in the past few years following over-exuberant lending. The bank’s rising expenses largely came from reinvestment as it tries to boost returns, it said on Wednesday. Investors are hoping StanChart can begin to grow revenues again, after a two-year restructuring program under former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters that has seen him slash more than 15,000 jobs and axe business lines such as Asian equities. Low global interest rates, lost income from axed businesses and rising competition from regional players in its key markets have combined to temper hopes of higher income however. The bank’s core capital ratio, another closely-watched measure of financial strength, fell from 13.8 percent at the end of June to 13.6 percent. StanChart had on Tuesday announced a reshuffle in its senior ranks, as it promoted Ben Hung to be its new global retail banking chief as Karen Fawcett retired. Additional reporting by Emma Rumney, Ben Martin and John Geddie; Editing by Simon Jessop and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-stanchart-results/rising-expenses-mar-stanchart-third-quarter-profit-increase-idUKKBN1D143O'|'2017-11-01T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'f1c8c2833b500d12422154e8974a7f0468789dfc'|'TPG, China Telecom discuss possible Oi bid with Brazilian official -media'|'November 1, 2017 / 2:30 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago TPG, China Telecom discuss possible Oi bid with Brazilian official -media Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Representatives of U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital Management LP and state-owned China Telecom Corp Ltd are meeting with Brazil’s solicitor general on Monday to discuss a possible takeover of debt-laden telecom provider Oi SA, local media reported. The headquarters of the Brazil''s largest fixed-line telecoms group Oi, is pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 22, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes The two groups have approached Oi about purchasing the company once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, in a process that would involve a capital injection, an executive told Reuters in September. Grace Mendonça, the solicitor-general, is part of a government working group that is trying to assuage differences between shareholders and creditors before a key Nov. 10 meeting in which bondholders will vote on a restructuring plan. The government has billions of dollars tied up in the company through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines. TPG and China Telecom are interested in taking over the company, the sole fixed-line operator in a third of the country’s 5,500 municipalities, via a 10 billion-real (£2.3 billion) capital injection, newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported. As part of the deal, TPG would be the majority partner and China Telecom would take a minority stake, a source told Reuters. At the meeting, the groups will condition their bid on a new telecoms reform going into effect, Folha reported. The regulatory overhaul would make more flexible government requirements for investments by telecoms operators, analysts say. They also will require renegotiation of 20 billion reais in outstanding regulatory fines that the company holds. China Telecom will offer to construct fibre optic cable to the homes of clients in more than 2,000 municipalities, the newspaper reported. After that, it said, China Telecom would discuss a potential tie-up with Brazilian competitor TIM Participações SA. TPG did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China Telecom did not immediately respond to a comment request sent outside normal business hours. Mendonça also will participate in an afternoon meeting with Nelson Tanure, an influential shareholder in Oi, who is pushing for a plan that would imply a 73 percent haircut on bondholder debt, newspaper Valor Economico reported. A Tanure spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reporting by Gram Slattery and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Christian Plumb and Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oi-sa-restructuring-china-telecom/tpg-china-telecom-discuss-possible-oi-bid-with-brazilian-official-media-idUKKBN1D14Z9'|'2017-11-01T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'6346e180a14b5b7e17f44f27acc707f5fe9e6cd9'|'Japan''s steelmakers in rare sweet spot, but Kobe Steel may miss out'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:58 AM / in 8 hours Japan''s steelmakers in rare sweet spot, but Kobe Steel may miss out Yuka Obayashi 6 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s steelmakers are in the midst of the best market conditions in at least three years as steel prices rise with construction in full swing for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and automakers boosting production. FILE PHOTO: Men work at the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo But the country’s third-biggest steelmaker, Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), is likely to be left out as it struggles to cope with one of Japan’s biggest industrial scandals, involving widespread cheating on product specifications. The company says it has lost customers and analysts say more could cancel contracts after a seal of industrial quality was revoked last week. Last week, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp ( 5401.T ) reported an 800 percent increase in net profit in the first half of the 2017/18 financial year. JFE Holdings ( 5411.T ), the country’s second-biggest steel maker, posted net profit in the first half after a net loss in the year-ago period, and it forecast that full-year profit will more than double. Besides the construction for the Olympics and higher demand from auto manufacturers, Japanese steelmakers are also being boosted by a country-wide boom in hotel and shop building. Overseas, a cutback in steel production in China is helping them recover from a period of high inventories and slack profitability. “With large redevelopment projects in central Tokyo, construction materials are in tighter supply,” said Kiyoshi Imamura, managing director at Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co Ltd ( 5423.T ), Japan’s top electric-arc furnace steelmaker. Prices for the company’s main product, H-shaped beams used in construction, rose to 81,000 yen ($711) per tonne in October, the highest since 2011, amid a tight domestic market and higher overseas prices. The Japan Iron and Steel Federation has estimated the Olympics-related projects would boost steel demand by 2-3 million tonnes in total. “This is the first time since 2013 to see the steel market being pulled by stronger demand, instead of pushed by higher costs of materials,” said Atsushi Yamaguchi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. “This solid trend will continue through early next year,” he said. “TIDE IN OUR FAVOR” Backed by healthy demand from manufacturers, the average price of Nippon Steel’s products rose to 83,500 yen per tonne in the April-September half, the highest since the six months through March 2015. “The tide is running in our favor with strong local demand from manufacturers, particularly automakers, and with construction demand getting into full swing,” Toshiharu Sakae, Nippon Steel’s executive vice president, told an earnings news conference on Friday. FILE PHOTO: People walk in front of the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Nippon Steel’s net profit for the April-September period came to 99 billion yen, 9-fold higher than a year earlier. It raised its interim dividend to 30 yen per share, from its earlier prediction of 25 yen, and forecast a 30 percent climb in full-year profit. JFE Holdings executive vice president Shinichi Okada said falling exports from China helped boost steel prices in Southeast Asia, its main export target. “We don’t know how long it will continue, but there are no causes of concern for now,” Okada said. China’s steel output dropped in September from a record high the previous month as mills cut production to fall in line with a government campaign to fight smog. China’s exports of steel products also declined for a 14th consecutive month in September, with January-September exports sliding nearly 30 percent from the same period a year earlier. Kobe Steel also reported a 858 percent increase in net profit for the first six months to nearly 40 billion yen, but pulled its forecast for a first annual profit in three years as it deals with the financial impact of the data cheating. The steelmaker’s admission last month that it had found widespread tampering in product specifications has sent companies in global supply chains scrambling to check whether the safety or performance of their goods has been compromised. Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara said the misconduct would likely reduce Kobe Steel’s second-half recurring profit by 10 billion yen, 70 percent of which will mainly come from the steel business. “We understand our customers are taking a harsh view of the data fabrication,” Umehara said. “An immediate impact may be limited, but we may see more impact as time goes by.” Nippon Steel’s Sakae and JFE’s Okada said they have not received orders from customers of Kobe Steel. Investors are generally upbeat about the steel market. “Business condition for steelmakers looks fairly healthy with falling exports from China and strong capital expenditure worldwide,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. Shares in steelmakers could have attracted more attention if Kobe Steel’s scandal did not happen, he said. “As long as the data cheating stays at the one company, rivals will likely benefit as Kobe Steel customers will likely reduce orders,” he said. ($1 = 113.8700 yen) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal-rivals/japans-steelmakers-in-rare-sweet-spot-but-kobe-steel-may-miss-out-idUSKBN1D148P'|'2017-11-01T11:56:00.000+02:00'
'fa18eddb2397c473ce2772a7b0637c100583a847'|'Exclusive - Airbus begins external search for new sales chief - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:22 PM / in 13 minutes Exclusive - Airbus begins external search for new sales chief - sources Tim Hepher 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from soon-to-retire John Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen, said three people familiar with the plans. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy delivers his speech during the annual Airbus Commercial Press Briefing in Blagnac, Southwestern France, January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Leahy’s deputy, Executive Vice-President Kiran Rao, had been identified as Leahy’s successor earlier this year, but his appointment to one of the industry’s most high-profile jobs was never confirmed as Leahy postponed his retirement to end-year. Chief Executive Tom Enders has now decided to look outside the core part of the company in a bid to denote a fresh start, but Rao is not being targeted in the investigation which centres mainly on a defunct headquarters team, the people said. Rao confirmed he would not be in the running for the post. “I can confirm I am no longer pursuing the position of commercial director and intend to concentrate on Airbus product strategy,” Rao told Reuters. An Airbus spokesman said the company does not comment on personnel matters. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The search comes as the Airbus marketing machine is seen as demoralised as a result of UK and French probes, which have also sparked a blanket internal investigation. Enders told a recent sales meeting Leahy would stay till the year-end, but failed to confirm Rao’s appointment, leaving what insiders described as a sense of vacuum amid dwindling sales. Rao, 53, has until recently combined the no. 2 sales role with product development, for which he received a French distinction in July. He has stood in for Leahy since July as the veteran New Yorker prepared to retire, initially in September. The search for a new successor extends outside the core part of Airbus but will include affiliates such as 50-percent owned turboprop maker ATR, where CEO and former Airbus commercial strategy chief Christian Scherer is seen as a leading contender. ATR said Scherer was not available for comment. Several outside candidates are being considered and Airbus could go looking at suppliers, such as the recently overhauled management team at Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ), for candidates. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-sales-exclusive/exclusive-airbus-begins-external-search-for-new-sales-chief-sources-idUKKBN1D229A'|'2017-11-02T20:54:00.000+02:00'
'63b2b68f103a61c1f1c6dd8c316417e892b4ea6f'|'Qualcomm sues Apple for contract breach'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:59 PM / in 8 minutes Qualcomm sues Apple for breach of software licence contract Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) has sued Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), alleging that it violated a software licence contract to benefit rival chipmaker Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) for making broadband modems, the latest salvo in their longstanding dispute. One of many Qualcomm buildings is shown in San Diego, California November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Qualcomm said in a lawsuit filed in California state court in San Diego on Wednesday that Apple used its commercial leverage to demand unprecedented access to the chipmaker’s highly confidential software, including source code. Apple, which could not be reached immediately for comment, started using Intel’s broadband modem chips in the iPhone 7. In its complaint, Qualcomm alleged that Apple was required under its contract to ensure that Apple engineers working with Qualcomm did not communicate details about Qualcomm chips to Apple engineers working on competing chips from Intel. Qualcomm alleged that in July, Apple emailed Qualcomm to request “highly confidential” information about how its chips work on an unnamed wireless carrier’s network. Apple copied an Intel engineer in the email for information, Qualcomm alleged. In another instance, Qualcomm alleged that an Apple engineer working on a competing chip asked an Apple engineer working with Qualcomm to get technical information from Qualcomm. Reuters had reported earlier this week that Apple would drop Qualcomm’s chips altogether from its iPhones and iPads beginning next year. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-lawsuit-qualcomm/qualcomm-sues-apple-for-contract-breach-idUKKBN1D22HR'|'2017-11-02T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'44013d964ca9b46957ef6b2505d898b45d51d8ba'|'Trump expected to name Powell as next Federal Reserve chair on Thursday'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:21 AM / in an hour Trump expected to name Powell as next Federal Reserve chair on Thursday Jeff Mason , Steve Holland 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is expected on Thursday to nominate Jerome Powell as the next head of the Federal Reserve, putting his own stamp on the leadership of the U.S. central bank while signalling continuity on monetary policy. FILE PHOTO: Jerome H. Powell, a governor on the board of the Federal Reserve System, prepares to testify to the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Trump’s decision, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, concludes a months-long process in which he considered five finalists, including current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, before settling on Powell who has served as a Fed governor since 2012. Powell’s name has been circulated as the top contender for over a week. A source with knowledge of the process said no surprises were expected on Thursday, despite Trump’s reputation for weighing decisions up to the last minute and his praise on Wednesday of Yellen, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama. Her term as Fed chair expires in February 2018 though she is entitled to remain a Fed board governor until 2024. “I think Janet Yellen is excellent,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with his cabinet after declaring his intention to announce his choice the next day. Asked if she was his pick, Trump said: “I didn’t say that.” He predicted people would be “extremely impressed” with the nominee, who will require Senate confirmation. Powell, 64, has supported Yellen’s general direction in setting monetary policy, and in recent years has shared her concerns that low inflation justified continuing with a cautious approach to raising interest rates. Commerzbank economist Bernd Weidensteiner said a Powell pick would mean Trump had chosen the “least controversial” person for the job. “Under his chairmanship markets would expect business as usual – which they obviously like,” he said. The president has mulled his choices for Fed chair, a decision that is normally cloaked in secrecy, in an unusually public way, asking lawmakers and even a television news anchor to weigh in on whom they would pick. Trump also considered Stanford University economist John Taylor, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. Taylor and Warsh were both viewed as people who might raise interest rates at a faster pace than Yellen and Powell. Cohn appeared to fall out of favour after criticizing Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this year. Financial markets look set to greet Powell’s appointment with a shrug. Investors are pricing in an interest rate rise in December and the Fed’s current projections are for three more rate rises next year. Powell is expected to pursue a policy of cautious deregulation of the financial sector, potentially freeing smaller banks from some of the rules imposed in the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Powell, who has been a Federal Reserve board governor since 2012, played a key role in drafting new bank regulations after the crisis and will likely offer more continuity for Wall Street than other candidates, analysts said. Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-fed/trump-expected-to-name-powell-as-next-federal-reserve-chair-on-thursday-idUKKBN1D20EO'|'2017-11-02T07:20:00.000+02:00'
'2b30ebf1270f5623ca752ad00b45a167f2a98b79'|'Indivior drug to fight opioid addiction recommended by U.S. panel'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:08 AM / in 11 hours Indivior drug to fight opioid addiction recommended by U.S. panel Toni Clarke , Ben Hirschler 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Indivior’s ( INDV.L ) experimental drug to help fight America’s growing opioid addiction crisis has been recommended for approval by a U.S. advisory panel, boosting its sales prospects as competitors threaten revenues from an older product. U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb attends an interview at Reuters headquarters in New York City, U.S., October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Shares in the London-listed company, which specializes in addiction treatment, were 11 percent higher by 0855 GMT on Wednesday on the overnight news, extending gains this week. The advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 18-1 that Indivior’s injectable drug, known as RBP-6000, could benefit addicts and the lower of two doses studied had an acceptable safety profile. The FDA, which is due to make a decision on the medicine by Nov. 30, typically follows the recommendations of its advisory panels. The endorsement comes less than a week after FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced the agency’s plans to encourage widespread use among opioid addicts of less harmful opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine, the active ingredient in RBP-6000. “I think this is a really promising alternative to what’s out there and will be attractive to a lot of patients,” said Laurel Habel, a panelist and researcher at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. The United States is battling an opioid abuse epidemic that in 2015 killed 33,000 people. President Donald Trump recently declared the problem a national public health emergency. Indivior studied two dosing regimens. In one, 300 milligrams were given once a month for six months. In the other, two doses of 300 milligrams were followed by four doses of 100 milligrams. There was little difference in effectiveness between the two doses and the higher dose caused more side effects. Panelists said they would like to see more data about which patients should be given the higher dose, though some said they would like to have it available despite the lack of data supporting any additional benefit. If approved the product would be the first monthly injectable buprenorphine treatment. Indivior already sells Suboxone Film, a product which combines buprenorphine and nalexone and is placed under the tongue or inside the cheek. Two months ago Indivior shares plunged following a U.S. court ruling that cleared the way for a generic rival to Suboxone Film. Stifel analyst Max Herrmann said RBP-6000 could capture about 30 percent of the broader buprenorphine market and he expects it to generate annual sales of around $700 million by 2021. Jefferies sees potential peak sales of $1.3 billion (977.52 million pounds) by 2025. Lund, Sweden-based Camurus ( CAMX.ST ) and privately held Braeburn Pharmaceuticals are also awaiting the health regulator’s decision on their weekly and monthly injectable buprenorphine drug, CAM2038. Herrmann forecast these once-monthly formulations, RBP-6000 and CAM2038, to garner around 50 percent of the buprenorphine market, just short of the 56 percent Suboxone currently enjoys. Additional reporting by Divya Grover and Justin Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indivior-opioids/indivior-drug-to-fight-opioid-addiction-recommended-by-u-s-panel-idUKKBN1D143Q'|'2017-11-01T11:07:00.000+02:00'
'ebb908986f9e7af8c0b74ef098d0d551991f1ae4'|'Pakistan October inflation eases to 3.80 percent'|'ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s annual inflation rate eased to 3.80 percent in October from 3.86 percent a month earlier, the state Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.A man selling mangoes pushes his wares on a cart at a market in Karachi, Pakistan, June 1, 2015. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/Files On a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate was 0.75 percent in October over the previous month, the bureau said.Food items such as spinach, bananas, cucumbers and garlic were the main reason behind a decrease in prices.Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-inflation/pakistan-october-inflation-eases-to-3-80-percent-idINKBN1D14EP'|'2017-11-01T07:53:00.000+02:00'
'b0ebddcb6df9ca6ed09a91730a2f0774d93ad1ad'|'British builder Morgan Sindall boosts earnings forecast again'|'November 1, 2017 / 7:53 AM / in 8 minutes British builder Morgan Sindall lifts earnings forecast again Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British builder Morgan Sindall ( MGNS.L ) raised its 2017 earnings forecast for the second time in four months on Wednesday, citing better margins in construction and its office installation and refurbishment business. It now expects its average daily net cash position for the year to Dec. 31 to be in excess of 100 million pounds ($133 million), up from its July guidance of not less than 75 million pounds. Morgan Sindall’s upbeat view contrasts with that of sector peers, whose results have been hit over the past twelve months as mounting costs have turned some older contracts unprofitable. Carillion ( CLL.L ), Interserve ( IRV.L ), Mitie ( MTO.L ) and Capita ( CPI.L ) have all issued profit warnings, as a slowdown in new contract awards since Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union has added to the companies’ problems. On Tuesday, Morgan Sindall, which has in recent years been more selective on which contracts it bids for, said it was on track to deliver a full-year performance slightly ahead of its previous expectations. It did not give a figure, but had reported a 2016 pretax profit of 43.9 million pounds. Liberum analysts raised their 2017 pretax profit estimate to 65.5 million pounds from 63.5 million pounds. “While others in the sector have recently frightened and scared investors, this Halloween Morgan Sindall comes knocking with treats rather than tricks,” Jefferies analysts wrote. Morgan Sindall’s shares, which have   value over the past 12 months, were up 3 percent at 1,489 pence at 0827 GMT. ($1 = 0.7524 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-morgan-grp-outlook/british-builder-morgan-sindall-boosts-earnings-forecast-again-idUKKBN1D13VW'|'2017-11-01T09:52:00.000+02:00'
'd478d6dd0ffa4f13b3f09f03edcd8316c3f0d93e'|'British Columbia mega dam behind schedule, over budget -regulator'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:31 PM / in 10 minutes British Columbia mega dam behind schedule, over budget -regulator Reuters Staff 3 Min Read VANCOUVER, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A C$9 billion ($7 billion) hydroelectric dam under construction in British Columbia is over budget and a year behind schedule, the province’s power regulator said on Wednesday but declined to recommend whether the project should go ahead or be scrapped. The Site C dam project will flood more than 5,000 hectares (19 square miles) of land, the equivalent of about 5,000 rugby fields, spurring opposition from local farmers and indigenous groups. The British Columbia Utilities Commission said in a review that the least attractive option was to suspend and restart the Site C project, as that could add billions to the final costs. British Columbia’s former Liberal government approved the project in 2014, saying it would help meet a surge in electricity needs over the next 20 years. It did not ask the regulator for a review. The province’s new NDP government, which ousted the Liberals earlier this year, made a campaign promise to get the regulator’s view. The report said the Liberal government’s assumption of future power needs were optimistic and warned that “combined with a continued glut in North American energy markets, this could make it increasingly difficult to sell Site C surplus energy.” Alternative energy sources such as wind and geothermal could result in lower power costs than Site C, it said. The NDP government is expected to make a final decision on the dam by year-end. Companies from around the world are involved in the construction. Peace River Hydro Partners, jointly owned by Acciona SA and Samsung C&T, was awarded the C$1.75 billion contract for civil works, and is bidding for the generating station and spillway contract. Canada’s Aecon is part of a joint venture also bidding on a generating station and spillway contract. Canada’s Atco was awarded an 8-year, C$470 million contract for worker accommodations, while privately held German company Voith Hydro won the C$470 million contract for turbines and generators. ($1 = 1.2873 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Nicole Mordant and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-britishcolumbia-dam/british-columbia-mega-dam-behind-schedule-over-budget-regulator-idUSL2N1N61NR'|'2017-11-01T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'bed9df4b1bbdae64ca35d54729c9db4c0295a0dc'|'Australia''s Oil Search buys into promising Alaska oil find'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s Oil Search Ltd ( OSH.AX ) has agreed to buy stakes in a huge oil find in Alaska for $400 million, in a surprise push to diversify from its sweet spot of gas in Papua New Guinea.Oil Search will pick up stakes in three oil blocks from privately owned U.S. firms Armstrong Energy and GMT Exploration giving it a roughly 26 percent holding in the Nanushuk play, co-owned by Spain’s Repsol SA ( REP.MC ).The play includes the Horseshoe block, which hit oil in March in what Repsol called the biggest U.S. onshore find in 30 years. It estimated the field could hold 1.2 billion barrels.Oil Search bought in assuming the field holds 500 million barrels, expecting production to begin in 2023, with output to plateau at 80,000 to 120,000 barrels per day.“With the quality of the assets, the fact that they’re tier 1, and the fact that we’ve gone in very conservatively against what Repsol are saying, I think we can demonstrate to the market that this will be a super deal for Oil Search in the medium term,” Oil Search Chief Executive Peter Botten told Reuters.Investors were nervous about the $8 billion company’s move into a region where it has no experience and which is dominated by giants like BP ( BP.L ) and ExxonMobil Corp ( XOM.N ), sending its shares down 3 percent, especially after it gave up on a push into Kurdistan.Other Australian oil and gas producers rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday.“Questions will inevitably be asked about Oil Search’s competitive advantage to play in Alaska until it proves its operational capability there,” said Saul Kavonic, an analyst with energy consultants Wood Mackenzie.RBC analyst Ben Wilson said the move was well-timed near the bottom of the oil price cycle and with some of the appraisal work on the field already done. He said it had “good prospects” as the oil was high-grade.Botten began working on the deal eight months ago when oil prices were about 20 percent lower than now and said Oil Search managed to get the asset despite higher-priced interest from others in nearby fields, whom he declined to name.The owners of the neighboring fields are ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ), ExxonMobil and Italy’s ENI ( ENI.MI ).Oil Search has the option of doubling its stake in the Alaskan assets for a further $450 million. It plans to fund the deal from its cash reserves.Oil Search will work with oilfield services giant Halliburton Co ( HAL.N ) and Armstrong before taking over as operator of the assets in June 2018.Reporting by Sonali Paul and Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oil-search-deals/australias-oil-search-buys-into-promising-alaska-oil-find-idINKBN1D033X'|'2017-11-01T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'bbf92a725101d802d35b08641f6e2623f96f0464'|'Pay dissent jumps at European company AGMs - report'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:47 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Pay dissent jumps at European company AGMs - report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Investors in European companies increased their opposition to excessive executive pay and perks at annual general meetings this year, a report on Thursday showed, with dissent at French companies the most pronounced. People queue for coffee at a plaza in the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth The number of remuneration proposals that prompted opposition from at least 10 percent of voting shareholders rose in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and France, the report by proxy voting consultant Georgeson showed. The biggest increase was in France, where opposition was up 205 percent on 2016, while Britain showed a 28 percent decline. “This demonstrates that executive pay is still firmly on the continental agenda, and French companies in particular must carefully prepare for their next AGMs,” said Cas Sydorowitz, Georgeson’s chief executive of corporate advisory. Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-agms-vote-report/pay-dissent-jumps-at-european-company-agms-report-idUKKBN1D21UP'|'2017-11-02T15:47:00.000+02:00'
'd50aec905c85a392f3e0f6f4e86065c6d8207993'|'Shareholder sues GE after ''unacceptable'' results hurt stock'|'Williamson named Defence Secretary after Fallon resigns in growing harassment scandal Special Report reuters investigates -the body trade Mystery in the woods - a woman’s head was found. Who is she? BoE sees only gentle rises ahead after rate hike Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 4:49 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Shareholder sues GE after ''unacceptable'' results hurt stock Jonathan Stempel 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two weeks after General Electric Co’s ( GE.N ) new chief executive vowed to shed $20 billion of assets, a shareholder has sued the company for failing to divulge its problems sooner and posting quarterly results that were “unacceptable, to say the least.” FILE PHOTO: The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday night in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Jihad Hachem accused GE of securities fraud for concealing how falling demand, excess inventory and higher costs would cause it fall far short of its 2017 profit forecast, and led to an inflated stock price. GE’s market value slid $11 billion in the two trading days after the Boston-based company on Oct. 20 reported a third-quarter profit of 29 cents per share, below the 49 cents expected by analysts, and cut its 2017 profit forecast by one-third. Several analysts shortly thereafter cut their ratings or share price targets for GE. Other defendants include Chief Executive John Flannery, his predecessor Jeffrey Immelt, and former Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bornstein, who left that position this week. “The complaint appears to focus on projections conveyed during earnings calls, which by definition, were forward-looking statements,” GE spokeswoman Jennifer Friedman said in an email. “We intend to vigorously defend against these claims.” Shareholders have long been frustrated by GE, a maker of power plants, jet engines, medical devices and other industrial equipment and a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI . Through Wednesday, GE’s share price had fallen 51 percent in the 16 years since Jack Welch, who oversaw much of its growth, passed the CEO baton to Immelt. Investors who reinvested dividends suffered a roughly 19 percent negative total return. In contrast, the Standard & Poor''s 500 .SPX rose about 133 percent over that time period. Though Immelt had shed some units, Flannery said GE must now focus on its more promising businesses, and hold managers accountable for poor performance. Flannery, a 30-year GE veteran who took over on Aug. 1, has made some early, symbolic cuts, including executive perks and the use of corporate jets. In his complaint, Hachem accused the defendants of having from July 21 to Oct. 20, made materially false and misleading statements about its business in public statements and filings, and knew that doing so would mislead investors. Hachem is represented by the law firms Glancy Prongay & Murray and Kirby McInerney and is seeking unspecified damages. Securities fraud class actions have become more plentiful in federal courts after recent rulings in Delaware state courts dissuaded some plaintiffs from suing there. Cornerstone Research said 226 such class actions were filed from January to June - the most since it began tracking filings in 1996. Most involve smaller declines in market value and less familiar companies than GE. The case is Hachem v General Electric Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-08457. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, additional reporting by Dan Burns, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-lawsuit/shareholder-sues-ge-after-unacceptable-results-hurt-stock-idUKKBN1D22CK'|'2017-11-02T18:45:00.000+02:00'
'3d5f42a94e6709368f8824a578c7ebb92b39716a'|'Facebook profit soars, with no sign of impact from Russia scandal'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:13 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Facebook profit soars, with no sign of impact from Russia scandal David Ingram , Aishwarya Venugopal 6 Min Read (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) faced harsh criticism in Washington on Wednesday over its failure to prevent Russian operatives from using its platform for election meddling, but the earnings report it issued hours later showed just how insulated its business remains from political risk. A 3D-printed Facebook like button is seen in front of the Facebook logo, in this illustration taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The social network said its quarterly profit soared 79 percent and revenues were up nearly 50 percent in the third quarter as marketers poured money into Facebook''s advertising offerings, whose power to target and influence users has actually been showcased by the election scandal. ( tmsnrt.rs/1SKTFU3 ) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg condemned Russia’s attempts to influence last year’s election through Facebook posts and advertisements designed to sow division, and repeated his pledge to ramp up spending to confront the problem. Zuckerberg said that spending would include 10,000 additional people to review content on the network, though based on past practice many of those people will be contractors. The spending would hit profits, Facebook said, with expenses expected to grow by 45 percent to 60 percent next year. “What they did is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it,” Zuckerberg said of the Russians, on a conference call with analysts. The company’s share price, which hit a record $182.90 earlier on Wednesday, initially rose in after-hours trading, but later fell into negative territory on discussion of the higher spending. Shares have gained almost 60 percent this year. “While the investigations into Russian activity on the platform have been getting a lot of attention, they’re not detracting from Facebook’s power as an ad platform,” analyst Debra Aho Williamson of research firm eMarketer said in an interview. The political storm in the United States over how Facebook, Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ) and Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google handle false news stories and political manipulation of their services gathered strength this week as three separate congressional committees held hearings. Zuckerberg did not appear at the hearings. But lawmakers threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, excoriating the company for being slow to act and slow to share what it knew with Congress. The chief executive told analysts that legislation to force disclosure of election ads “would be very good if done well.” In a series of disclosures over two months, Facebook has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling. MOBILE ADS DOMINATE Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent of which came from mobile ads. Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $9.71 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet. Facebook in the third quarter gave advertisers for the first time the ability to run ads in standalone videos, outside the Facebook News Feed, and the company is seeing good early results, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told analysts. “Video is exploding, and mobile video advertising is a big opportunity,” Sandberg said. More than 70 percent of ad breaks up to 15 seconds long were viewed to completion, most with the sound on, she said. Facebook executives, though, declined to give details on the performance so far of Watch, a video tab the company rolled out two months ago. “It’s too early to be talking about any stats there,” Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner said in response to an analyst question. Zuckerberg said Facebook would be spending heavily in making the Watch tab a place where “people want to talk and connect around,” rather than a spot to passively consume programs. The 49 percent increase in total ad sales in the latest quarter compares with a 47 percent rise in the prior quarter and a 51 percent jump in the first quarter. Facebook has been warning for more than a year about reaching a limit in “ad load”, or the number of ads the company can feature in users’ pages before crowding their News Feed. Advertisers seem unfazed, though, spending heavily as the social network continues to attract users. The average price per ad rose 35 percent. The nearly 50 percent jump in ad revenue “is phenomenal, especially when for the past few quarters they’ve been trying to bring that expectation way, way down. Yet it keeps going up,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said. Of the Russia scandal enveloping Facebook publicly, Feinseth said: “In the bigger picture, I don’t think it’s a really big factor.” The company’s performance was strong in comparison with smaller social media firms Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ) and Twitter, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said. “Facebook grew revenues by $3.3 billion year-over-year for the quarter. This is more than Twitter and Snapchat generate combined for the full year,” he said. Facebook said about 2.07 billion people were using its service monthly, up 16 percent from a year earlier. Net income rose to $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, from $2.63 billion, or 90 cents per share. Analysts on an average were expecting the company to earn $1.28, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Total revenue increased 47.3 percent to $10.33 billion beating analysts’ estimate of $9.84 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by David Ingram in Washington and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bill Rigby and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-results/facebook-quarterly-profit-rises-on-mobile-ad-growth-idUKKBN1D15SS'|'2017-11-02T02:05:00.000+02:00'
'6197083e1ac9c32aef3a0c86b42b0123e1bafea9'|'Carlsberg lifts 2017 operating profit guidance despite slip in third-quarter sales'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:39 AM / in 3 minutes Carlsberg lifts 2017 operating profit guidance despite slip in third-quarter sales Reuters Staff 1 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg ( CARLb.CO ) said on Thursday third-quarter sales slipped more than expected, but it lifted its operating profit guidance for 2017. A logo of Carlsberg beer is seen on the entrance of a pub in Brussels, Belgium March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman The company said in a trading update that it expects organic operating profit growth of 7-8 percent in 2017, up from an earlier expectation of “mid-single-digit” percentage growth. Carlsberg’s third-quarter net revenue slipped 1 percent in the quarter from a year earlier to 16.7 billion Danish crowns ($2.62 billion), below the 17.1 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carlsberg-results/carlsberg-lifts-2017-operating-profit-guidance-despite-slip-in-third-quarter-sales-idUKKBN1D20J7'|'2017-11-02T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'02538e1c04f086f3cb74196334ccd745cb66f591'|'Chipmaker Broadcom plans unsolicited bid for Qualcomm - source'|'November 3, 2017 / 5:59 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Chipmaker Broadcom plans blockbuster bid for Qualcomm - sources Liana B. Baker , Greg Roumeliotis 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Communications chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) is planning to unveil a bid for smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) by Monday, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, an attempt to create a roughly $200-billion (153.06 billion pounds) company in what would be the biggest technology acquisition ever. A tie-up would combine two of the largest makers of wireless communications chips for mobile phones and raises the stakes for Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), which has been diversifying into smartphone technology from its stronghold in computers. The value of Broadcom’s bid has not been decided, though an offer in the range of around $70 to $80 per share is being contemplated, one of the sources said. At $70 a share, an offer would value Qualcomm at $103 billion. Qualcomm is not aware of the details of Broadcom’s bid, and it is far from certain whether it will entertain this deal, the sources said. “It’s a smart move that would make Broadcom into a tech juggernaut,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives. Qualcomm declined to comment, while Broadcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bid comes as Broadcom plans to move its headquarters to the United States from Singapore, President Donald Trump said on Thursday at a White House event where Chief Executive Hock Tan cited Republican tax efforts. It is currently incorporated in Singapore and co-headquartered there and in San Jose, California. Broadcom’s acquisition would be the most ambitious move by Tan, who has turned a small, scrappy chipmaker into a $100-billion company with a string of deals, since he took the helm a decade ago. The proposal raises questions about whether Qualcomm will close its pending $38-billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ). NXP is one of the largest makers of chips for vehicles and expanding into self-driving technology. Qualcomm, an early pioneer in mobile phone chips, supplies so-called modem chips to phone makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG that help the phones connect to wireless data networks. Broadcom is also a major supplier to many of the same companies for Wi-Fi chips. FILE PHOTO: Broadcom Limited company logo is pictured on an office building in Rancho Bernardo, California May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips are essentially a commodity and priced much lower than the modem chips. The only other major supplier of high-end chips is Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), which supplies about half of the modem chips in Apple’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhones. Purchasing Qualcomm would give Broadcom a much more lucrative line of business in the mobile phone markets. Intel shares fell 1.6 percent to $46.34. Broadcom is considering a cash and stock offer of about $70 a share, Bloomberg reported earlier. bloom.bg/2h8pnlS Broadcom is looking to complete its $5.5 billion purchase of Brocade Communications Systems Inc ( BRCD.O ) while Qualcomm is in the process of closing its deal for NXP. Shares of Qualcomm jumped 12.7 percent to $61.81, while Broadcom’s stock climbed nearly 6 percent to $273.63 on Friday afternoon. Shares of NXP fell 2 percent and Brocade slipped 2.6 percent. Shares of Broadcom have rallied this year while Qualcomm has fallen, making the target more vulnerable. Qualcomm faces a multinational legal battle with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) over Qualcomm’s licensing terms to Apple. Antitrust officials, who also would have to approve a Broadcom-Qualcomm deal, are still considering Qualcomm’s purchase of NXP. Activist investor Elliott Management Corp has taken a large stake in NXP and has been pushing for Qualcomm to pay a higher price for the company, Reuters has reported. Broadcom and Qualcomm have few areas of overlap and but both make Wi-Fi solutions for wireless routers, Bluetooth drivers and some RF semiconductors, said Rob Lineback, a research analyst at IC Insights. “These companies are leaders in those areas but there are other companies supplying them,” said Lineback, who added that asset sales in those areas, if needed to address antitrust concerns, would not affect the value of the deal. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru, Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Diane Bartz in Washington and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; writing by Anna Driver and Peter Henderson; editing by Arun Koyyur and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-explores-deal-to-buy-qualcomm-bloomberg-idUKKBN1D324M'|'2017-11-03T21:46:00.000+02:00'
'881c7778b4704e348d4ab66f8f672ce1e2a7154a'|'Apple''s iPhone X hits the spot as long queues return from Sydney to Shanghai'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:06 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Long lines for iPhone X help push Apple shares to record high Angela Moon , Eric Auchard 6 Min Read NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shoppers surged into Apple Inc stores across the world on Friday to buy the new iPhone X, signalling stronger demand for the 10th anniversary version of the premium smartphone than the last two iterations. Investors and analysts took the swell of interest, alongside the company’s better-than-expected sales forecast for the upcoming holiday shopping season, as signs that Apple could be the first ever company worth $1 trillion (£764.7 billion). Apple’s shares rose 3 percent on Friday, hitting a record high and giving the world’s most valuable publicly traded company a market capitalisation of almost $890 billion. “I can’t wait to get to my office and plug it in, back it up and play around with it,” said Jordan Shapiro, a 34-year-old recruiter from New Jersey who was one of the first to get into Apple’s flagship store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, at the head of a line that stretched for a block. Jasmine Rivera, a 16-year-old from Las Vegas, said getting one of the new phones was the highlight of her New York trip with her aunt. “I’m so excited and can’t wait to show this to my friends,” she said. “I’m especially excited about the camera quality and facial recognition.” The glass-and-stainless-steel device that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has billed as “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” starts at $999 in the United States. The handset features an edge-to-edge display designed for deeper colour rendition and an innovative camera that uses facial recognition to unlock and operate the phone. Cook appeared on TV greeting the first customers in line at the company’s store in Palo Alto, California, about a half-hour drive from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. In nearby San Francisco, about 250 people lined up outside the Apple store in the Union Square shopping district. “I’m feeling good, but my socks are wet,” said Ross Hendrix, 20, one of the first in line after camping out on the sidewalk despite a light rain on Thursday night. GRAPHIC: Phone comparison - tmsnrt.rs/2f2Gche GLOBAL EXCITEMENT Similar scenes of excitement occurred earlier in the day in Asia and Europe. In Australia, around 400 people queued outside Apple’s main store in central Sydney to pay A$1,579 (£923.6) for the new phone. Just 30 turned up for the September release of the iPhone 8, an incremental update of the iPhone 7. “It’s beautiful bro, what a feeling, I‘m excited,” builder Bishoy Behman, 18, told Reuters after picking up two iPhone X as the first in line. He said he camped outside the store for a week before paying to improve his place in the queue overnight. An Apple sales associate speaks with a customer as she purchases a new iPhone X in New York, U.S., November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson In Apple’s Omotesando store in Tokyo, some 550 people were waiting in a line stretching to around 600 metres. “I‘m going home, and after having a rest, I’d like to have fun (with the phone),” said first-in-line Yamaura, a 21-year-old college student who spent six days in the queue. In Europe, Apple stores in Amsterdam, Berlin and London saw lines of several hundred fans, while smaller, more subdued crowds were observed at stores in Frankfurt and Paris. Arbitrage traders were also in line in an attempt to take advantage of the strong demand. In Hong Kong, some buyers quickly resold iPhone X handsets for a profit, but the resale premium eased as waiting times fell and supply concerns eased. Newly purchased iPhone X were reselling for HK$11,800 (£1,156) soon after sales began, but the price quickly fell to HK$10,300, a trader told Reuters. In mainland China - where Hong Kong traders often sell newly purchased goods - the anniversary model’s starting price is 8,388 yuan (£966.2). Slideshow (23 Images) GRAPHIC: Apple and S&P 500 - tmsnrt.rs/2h4wlrX SUPPLY CLOSER TO DEMAND Analysts had expressed concern that supply issues might stop Apple satisfying early demand. The camera, for instance, has never before been manufactured in the volume Apple demands. But Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters on Thursday that Apple was “quite happy” with how manufacturing of the iPhone X was progressing. “Production is growing every week, and that’s very, very important during a ramp period,” he said. Demand and supply for the iPhone X appear to be coming back into balance, according to Apple’s online store. While last week users trying to order the iPhone X were told they faced waits up to five to six weeks, these delays are now three to four weeks. The rush of interest in the new phone came after Apple issued an upbeat sales forecast for the year-end holiday shopping season on Thursday. Wall Street welcomed that outlook, and five analysts now have stock price targets that would move Apple’s market value past $1 trillion. Friday’s lines signalled the company was “on track for a pretty good replacement cycle” said Edison Investment Research analyst Richard Windsor, but he questioned whether the new model sales will be as large as prior iPhone upgrade cycles. “We do not think that the iPhone X will offer a cycle nearly as big as the iPhone 6 and my concern is that this is what the market is looking for,” said Windsor, who actively tracks all the major players in the global smartphone industry. GRAPHIC: Apple earnings - tmsnrt.rs/1WQvKWe Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney, Pei Li in Beijing, Nadine Schimroszik in Berlin, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Munsif Vengattil in Bangalore, Eric Auchard in Frankfurt, Angela Moon in New York and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Teppei Kasai, Will Ziebell, Carmel Yang and Bobby Yip; Writing by Jane Wardell and Eric Auchard; Editing by Stephen Coates and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-iphone/hundreds-queue-up-in-sydney-for-apple-iphone-x-launch-idUKKBN1D22Y0'|'2017-11-03T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'1b03bc6637c71c4ee5ced10eaa566e7d964b0c67'|'Broadcom explores deal to buy Qualcomm: Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Communications chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) is planning to unveil a bid for smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) by Monday, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, an attempt to create a roughly $200-billion company in what would be the biggest technology acquisition ever.A tie-up would combine two of the largest makers of wireless communications chips for mobile phones and raises the stakes for Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), which has been diversifying into smartphone technology from its stronghold in computers.The value of Broadcom’s bid has not been decided, though an offer in the range of around $70 to $80 per share is being contemplated, one of the sources said. At $70 a share, an offer would value Qualcomm at $103 billion.Qualcomm is not aware of the details of Broadcom’s bid, and it is far from certain whether it will entertain this deal, the sources said.“It’s a smart move that would make Broadcom into a tech juggernaut,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives.Qualcomm declined to comment, while Broadcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The bid comes as Broadcom plans to move its headquarters to the United States from Singapore, President Donald Trump said on Thursday at a White House event where Chief Executive Hock Tan cited Republican tax efforts. It is currently incorporated in Singapore and co-headquartered there and in San Jose, California.Broadcom’s acquisition would be the most ambitious move by Tan, who has turned a small, scrappy chipmaker into a $100-billion company with a string of deals, since he took the helm a decade ago.The proposal raises questions about whether Qualcomm will close its pending $38-billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ). NXP is one of the largest makers of chips for vehicles and expanding into self-driving technology.Qualcomm, an early pioneer in mobile phone chips, supplies so-called modem chips to phone makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG that help the phones connect to wireless data networks. Broadcom is also a major supplier to many of the same companies for Wi-Fi chips.FILE PHOTO: Broadcom Limited company logo is pictured on an office building in Rancho Bernardo, California May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips are essentially a commodity and priced much lower than the modem chips.The only other major supplier of high-end chips is Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), which supplies about half of the modem chips in Apple’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhones. Purchasing Qualcomm would give Broadcom a much more lucrative line of business in the mobile phone markets.Intel shares fell 1.6 percent to $46.34.Broadcom is considering a cash and stock offer of about $70 a share, Bloomberg reported earlier. bloom.bg/2h8pnlSBroadcom is looking to complete its $5.5 billion purchase of Brocade Communications Systems Inc ( BRCD.O ) while Qualcomm is in the process of closing its deal for NXP. Shares of Qualcomm jumped 12.7 percent to $61.81, while Broadcom’s stock climbed nearly 6 percent to $273.63 on Friday afternoon. Shares of NXP fell 2 percent and Brocade slipped 2.6 percent.Shares of Broadcom have rallied this year while Qualcomm has fallen, making the target more vulnerable.Qualcomm faces a multinational legal battle with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) over Qualcomm’s licensing terms to Apple.Antitrust officials, who also would have to approve a Broadcom-Qualcomm deal, are still considering Qualcomm’s purchase of NXP. Activist investor Elliott Management Corp has taken a large stake in NXP and has been pushing for Qualcomm to pay a higher price for the company, Reuters has reported.Broadcom and Qualcomm have few areas of overlap and but both make Wi-Fi solutions for wireless routers, Bluetooth drivers and some RF semiconductors, said Rob Lineback, a research analyst at IC Insights.“These companies are leaders in those areas but there are other companies supplying them,” said Lineback, who added that asset sales in those areas, if needed to address antitrust concerns, would not affect the value of the deal.Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru, Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Diane Bartz in Washington and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; writing by Anna Driver and Peter Henderson; editing by Arun Koyyur and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-explores-deal-to-buy-qualcomm-bloomberg-idINKBN1D327I'|'2017-11-03T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'ce762198fd2d6010f13dec59576f8872453784ce'|'Broadcasting towers group Arqiva postpones planned $2 billion London IPO'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:28 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago London IPO market hit as Arqiva and Bakkavor pull floats Ben Martin 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Broadcasting masts group Arqiva and ready meals supplier Bakkavor abandoned plans to launch two of the biggest floats in London this year on Friday, dealing a blow to Britain’s market for initial public offerings (IPO). The London Stock Exchange is seen attached to the building London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Arqiva, which had tried to sell itself before announcing its listing on Oct. 23, said it had postponed its float from which it had planned to raise about 1.5 billion pounds, blaming “IPO market uncertainty”. The masts business will “revisit” the listing when conditions “improve”, it added. Bakkavor also announced that it was pulling its float despite receiving “sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering”. The supplier of sandwiches and dips to Britain’s largest supermarkets had initially sought a stock market valuation of about 1.5 billion pounds but said it was scrapping the share sale because of the “the current volatility in the IPO market”. It did not say in its statement if it would revive its listing plans if conditions recover. The floats of Arqiva and Bakkavor helped to drive hopes of a resurgence of Britain’s IPO market, that has been muted since the country voted to leave the European Union in June last year. Their failure will raise questions about investor appetite for listings. It comes after business services firm TMF scrapped its London IPO on Oct. 27 in favour of a 1.75 billion-euro (1.56 billion pounds) sale to private equity house CVC Capital Partners. Cabot Credit Management, Britain’s biggest debt collector, is currently in the process of raising about 195 million pounds in fresh capital from a London listing. Russian aluminium and hydropower group En+ Group also priced its global depositary receipts at $14 (10.73 pounds) in an IPO on Friday, at the lower end of its guided range. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-arqiva-ipo/broadcasting-towers-group-arqiva-postpones-planned-2-billion-london-ipo-idUKKBN1D30IW'|'2017-11-03T09:27:00.000+02:00'
'b8df3280d0bd97d5cf6a6bd5f275ad3e259a3a2b'|'Sterling falls to a one-month low on BoE''s cautious forward guidance'|'November 3, 2017 / 9:11 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Sterling falls to a one-month low on BoE''s cautious forward guidance Polina Ivanova 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sterling extended losses on Friday, slipping to a one-month low against the dollar, as the Bank of England’s plans to take a “very gradual” approach to raising interest rates sent investors rushing to exit positions. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The central bank said it expected Thursday’s rate hike, the first in over a decade, would be followed by just two more quarter-point increases over the next three years. That led to the pound’s biggest one-day drop in almost five months. Monthly data on Britain’s dominant services industry, expected at 0930 GMT on Friday, may provide more clues about the health of the economy and the outlook for further hikes. Last month’s services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) produced a better-than-expected result, showing the sector picking up to 53.6 in September, easily above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. But analysts questioned the importance of the upcoming numbers for sterling after the BoE’s announcement. “The signals that we got from the BoE yesterday was that it’s probably a ‘one-and-done’, and I doubt if a single data release can really change that view in the market,” said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. “A lot of speculation has been put to bed by the tone of the BoE yesterday, meaning that even if this is a stronger-than-expected figure, it’s not going to excite the pound that much,” she added. Sterling fell 0.1 percent to $1.3040 GBP=D3 on Friday, its lowest since Oct. 6, extending losses from the previous session when the BoE decision sent the pound plummeting almost 2 U.S. cents in just three minutes. It was trading flat against the euro EURGBP=D3 on Friday, after suffering its worst one-day drop on Thursday against the single currency since a “flash crash” on Oct. 7, 2016, when a sudden plunge briefly shaved a tenth off the pound’s value. Others struck a somewhat more optimistic note. “We are of the view that the details of the (BoE‘s) Inflation Report suggest that the Bank will maintain the stance of a gradual hiking cycle and we would not be surprised if future communication by the BoE strengthens this point,” Barclays analysts wrote in a note to clients. On a trade-weighted basis, sterling =GBP held at a 1 1/2- week low of 77.0. BoE Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Friday that the Bank’s signal that it may need to raise interest rates two more times is “not a promise”, responding to a question about the BoE’s previous attempts to signal the likely path for interest rates, which were knocked off course by twists and turns in the economy. Reporting by Polina Ivanova, editing by Larry King; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-markets/sterling-falls-to-a-one-month-low-on-boes-cautious-forward-guidance-idUKKBN1D30R4'|'2017-11-03T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'ec143646c573c02d4c1089635049d38b95db9112'|'Rising expenses mar StanChart Q3 profit increase'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Higher expenses and flat revenues overshadowed better than expected quarterly profit for Standard Chartered on Wednesday, sending shares in the Asia-focused bank more than 5 percent lower.FILE PHOTO: People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo Pretax profit jumped 78 percent from the third quarter of last year to $814 million, higher than the $809 million average of analysts’ estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data.But the bank’s shares looked set for their biggest single-day fall in three months, with analysts saying the profit increase was driven by a drop in provisions for bad loans rather than growing income significantly, as investors had hoped for.Loan impairment charges fell 42 percent year-on-year as the bank avoided heavy losses from private equity and bad loans that hit earnings a year ago.Impairment levels are closely watched by investors in the bank, which has had a glut of bad debts in the past few years following over-exuberant lending.Rising expenses largely came from reinvestment in the retail banking business and wealth management technology platform as StanChart tries to boost returns, finance director Andy Halford told reporters.“We have accelerated spend on some of the investment projects and that has put slightly more costs earlier into the P&L in the first nine months of the year ... it’s a conscious decision to invest more but at the same time we are taking the underlying costs out of the business,” he said.“We would expect the full-year cost this year, excluding regulatory, to be pretty flat on last year.”Investors are hoping StanChart can begin to grow revenues again, after a two-year restructuring under former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters that has seen him slash more than 15,000 jobs and axe business lines such as Asian equities.Low global interest rates, lost income from axed businesses and rising competition from regional players in its key markets have combined to temper hopes of higher income, however.The bank’s core capital ratio, another closely-watched measure of financial strength, fell from 13.8 percent at the end of June to 13.6 percent, reducing the chance of the bank resuming dividend payments this year.“This is likely to dash any hopes for a capital distribution this year,” Jefferies analyst Joseph Dickerson said.Income in StanChart’s financial markets business fell around 9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to $663 million, a more modest decline than at some U.S. and European rivals.StanChart had on Tuesday announced a reshuffle in its senior ranks, as it promoted Ben Hung to be its new global retail banking chief as Karen Fawcett retired.Additional reporting by Emma Rumney, Ben Martin, and John Geddie; Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/stanchart-results/rising-expenses-mar-stanchart-q3-profit-increase-idINKBN1D143G'|'2017-11-01T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'44927da69b230e97af7904d56c8d27580303ea6a'|'UPDATE 1-Venezuela Amuay refinery tank spills, cleanup started -PDVSA'|'October 31, 2017 / 10:41 PM / a few seconds ago Venezuela Amuay refinery tank spills, cleanup started: PDVSA Marcely Guanipa 2 Min Read MARACAY, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA said on Tuesday that a storage tank at its Amuay refinery had overflown because of heavy rains and that a cleanup had begun to avoid the stain spreading further in the surrounding bay. Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday that a slop tank at Amuay had spilled over, polluting the bay and staining tankers, according to a union leader and two refinery workers. Union leader and government critic Ivan Freites said it was hard to quantify the size of the spill, but that it was significant and could be around 200,000 barrels of products, including gasoline and gasoil. PDVSA attributed the spill to heavy rains and did not provide details on its size. Critics of leftist President Nicolas Maduro’s administration say lack of investments and lax environmental safeguards have led to an increase in polluting oil spills in the oil-rich Maracaibo Lake and along Venezuela’s Caribbean coast. Maduro’s government says a right-wing business elite is out to smear PDVSA and insists the company upholds strict environmental norms. The Paraguana Refining Center, home to the Amuay and Cardon refineries in Venezuela’s northwest, has repeatedly reduced output in recent months, contributing to intermittent fuel shortages in the South American OPEC member. The center is down to operating at about a third of its955,000-barrel-per-day capacity, according to Freites and documents from PDVSA earlier this month. Reporting by Marcely Guanipa; writing by Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Susan Thomas and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil/venezuela-amuay-refinery-tank-spills-cleanup-started-pdvsa-idUSKBN1D032W'|'2017-11-01T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'b0ca347a95707b1497cb459e994cf601c664a383'|'Irish manufacturing growth eases in October - PMI'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:17 AM / in 24 minutes Irish manufacturing growth eases in October - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN, Nov 1 (Reuters) - - Growth in Ireland’s manufacturing sector slowed slightly in October due to weaker new orders, but purchasing managers expressed increased confidence about future output, a survey showed on Wednesday. A man walks past offices in the Irish Financial Services Centre in Dublin, Ireland April 24, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Investec Purchasing Managers’ index slipped to 54.4 in October from 55.4 in September, holding above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction for the 53rd month in a row. Although Ireland is seen as the European Union country most exposed to Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, Dublin has raised its economic growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 due to the muted initial impact of the Brexit vote. New orders slipped to a three-month low but new export orders were at a four-month high in October, with the authors pointing to increased demand from European countries. The forward-looking Future Output subindex increased to an eight-month high of 74.4, with more than 50 percent of respondents predicting a rise in output compared with just 3 percent predicting a contraction. The managers cited improved demand both at home and in export markets for their optimism. ”Given the positive outlook for the Irish and wider global economies, we view this bullishness as well-foundIreland chief economist Philip O‘Sullivan said. Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson; conor.humphries@thomsonreuters.com; +35315001518; Reuters; Messaging: conor.humphries.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-pmi/irish-manufacturing-growth-eases-in-october-pmi-idUKKBN1D13NC'|'2017-11-01T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'f6965ae45dbaf805d7d8b3e94181bdc1ff8cad80'|'Shares in Argentine cement producer Loma Negra debut at $21.65 in New York'|'BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Shares in Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina SA ( LOMA.BA ), Argentina’s largest cement producer, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $21.65, 14 percent above the initial public offering price of $19 per American depositary share (ADS).Loma Negra on Tuesday raised $954 million in a public offering of depositary shares in New York and ordinary shares on Bolsas y Mercados Argentinas (BYMA) at a price of $3.9 per share. Each ADS represents five ordinary shares.“The sale went much better than we were expecting,” Loma Negra Chief Executive Officer Sergio Faifman told Reuters.He said $100 million of the money raised would go toward financing its planned $350 million expansion of the L‘Amali cement plant, which will allow it to increase annual production to 4.9 million tonnes by the beginning of 2020, up from 2.2 million tonnes currently.The company has benefited from the major infrastructure buildup market-friendly President Mauricio Macri has undertaken since taking office in late 2015.Following a recession in 2016, Argentina’s economy has gathered momentum in the second half of this year. The economy grew 4.3 percent in August versus the same period of last year, bringing cumulative growth so far in 2017 to 2.4 percent, while economists expect 3 percent growth in 2018.Faifman said the money raised from the IPO would also go “to strengthen our financial structure to proceed with other investments if Argentina grows even more than we are expecting.”Loma Negra, whose parent company is Intercement Brasil SA, has 18 plants in Argentina. Camargo Correo SA, the industrial group that owns Intercement, purchased Loma Negra in 2005 for $1 billion but has long considered a partial sale as Latin America’s No. 3 economy slowly lures back foreign investment under Macri.It was one of several companies in Argentina and neighboring Brazil expected to go public within the next year as governments have sought to ease regulations and growth has picked up.BofA Merrill Lynch, Bradesco BBI, Citigroup, HSBC, Itau BBA and Morgan Stanley were the top underwriters for the deal.Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-loma-negra-ciasa-ipo/shares-in-argentine-cement-producer-loma-negra-debut-at-21-65-in-new-york-idINKBN1D15NZ'|'2017-11-01T15:59:00.000+02:00'
'd34ce0127b372711254eaeeb91e1a91133dce1c1'|'Lufthansa kicks off Air Berlin approval process with EU'|' 23 PM / in 15 minutes Lufthansa kicks off Air Berlin approval process with EU Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has begun the European approval process for its takeover of large parts of insolvent Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ). FILE PHOTO: A Lufthansa airliner taxis next to an Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo The deal has come under fire from airlines and consumer groups who fear it will give Lufthansa dominance of German domestic routes and in Austria. A spokesman for Lufthansa said on Wednesday it had notified the European Commission, which was not immediately available for comment, and expected a decision to be taken in December. Lufthansa last month said it planned to acquire Air Berlin units Niki and LG Walter, plus additional aircraft in a deal that will grow its fleet by 81 aircraft. The purchase price is 210 million euros (£184 million) but Lufthansa expects to invest around 1.5 billion euros in total, including paying for the planes and other items such as staff training and repainting planes. The group is hoping for a so-called Phase I approval from the European Commission, without an in-depth review, so that the deal can close in January and it can start using the Air Berlin capacity, CEO Carsten Spohr said last week. After notification, the Commission has 25 working days to analyse deals during a Phase I investigation. According to that timetable, that would take it to Dec. 7, although it may be extended by another two weeks to Dec. 21 should Lufthansa provide concessions. Spohr said he expected that, as with Lufthansa’s previous takeovers, it will have to give up take-off and landing slots in order to gain approval for the Air Berlin deal. Britain’s easyJet ( EZJ.L ) is also taking on some Air Berlin operations at Tegel airport. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, Foo Yun Chee and Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-lufthansa/lufthansa-kicks-off-air-berlin-approval-process-with-eu-idUKKBN1D1599'|'2017-11-01T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'52fed5eb1d4a4c8c6631c3facda68157ddf68b88'|'The airline industry’s most outspoken boss goes global - Qatar Airways'|'AIRLINE bosses are often household names due to their attention-seeking behaviour—from the foul-mouthed rants of Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, to the model-flanked antics of Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic. But even in an industry filled with characters, Akbar al-Baker, Qatar Airways’ chief executive, stands out. He is known in the industry for behaving unpredictably at press conferences and for his colourful attacks on rival airlines. The word “crap” often comes up, as a description for new jets from Airbus and Boeing, and also (in a Quote: from July): “there is no need to travel on these crap American carriers” on which “you will be served by grandmothers”.Mr Baker could do with some allies just now. Since June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Qatar, banning its flag carrier’s jets from their skies. That has resulted in the cancellation of over 50 daily flights to these countries, costing the airline a tenth of its business and $500m in profit this year, calculates Diogenis Papiomytis of Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy. 8 A shock on this scale would kill many private-sector airlines. But Qatar Airways has been fully state-owned since 2013. Analysts think its airline operations are loss-making, and that they are cross-subsidised by other parts of the group, including Doha’s airport, hotels and a monopoly on alcohol and duty-free shopping. That suggests the airline’s main function: to put the tiny emirate on the world stage.In 1996 Qatar’s then emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, put Mr Baker in charge to transform Qatar Airways from a startup with a few jets into a global airline. He was previously a civil servant at Qatar’s civil-aviation regulator. Despite a lack of experience, passenger numbers have risen from almost nothing to over 32m in 2016; the carrier has come first in Skytrax’s awards for service quality four times.Rivals retort that its heavy reliance on state support is what makes it special. America’s three biggest carriers claim that Qatar Airways has violated a US-Qatari open-skies treaty by receiving $25.5bn in state subsidies since 2004. Peter Carter, Delta’s chief legal officer, reckons that the airline’s long-term plan is to push rivals out of business and raise fares later on. In June the Qatari carrier said it wanted to buy 10% of shares in American Airlines, but its chief executive, Doug Parker, fought Mr Baker off, fearing that his bid was a ploy to force it to lobby in favour of, rather than against, state-backed Gulf carriers.Nor does the airline have friends at home in the Gulf, where Emirates and Etihad, its biggest regional rivals, may be benefiting from the blockade against Qatar. It is often forgotten, notes Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy, a Geneva-based consultancy, that the Qatari and Emirati airlines “care more about competing with each other than against the Americans”. The damage to Qatar Airways from the blockade is no accident, say former executives from the two Emirati carriers.Surrounded by foes in the Middle East, Mr Baker is obliged to make investments further afield. “It looks like he is plotting Gulf domination through world domination,” says Mr Charlton. Instead of buying airlines outright, to feed traffic into a hub—a strategy that led Etihad to lose billions of dollars when Alitalia and Air Berlin, its two big buys, went bust this summer—Mr Baker plans to build a network of hub airlines across the world. Qatar Airways has built a 20% stake in IAG, a group of airlines that flies 100m passengers a year, and a 10% stake in LATAM, Latin America’s biggest carrier. After being snubbed by American Airlines, in September Mr Baker bought 49% of Meridiana, an Italian carrier.He might seem to lack the diplomatic skills for such dealmaking. Most airline managers, after all, are globe-trotting expats in the mould of Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates. Mr Baker is known for a tough management style at Qatar Airways as well as for abrasive public comments. Yet he is not to be underestimated. In 2013 Qatar Airways become the first and only Gulf carrier to join an international airline alliance, oneworld, which includes BA, American Airlines and LATAM. Executives at some of the other members say that Mr Baker is in fact much easier to deal with than they expected.As a former watchdog, he also knows how to handle aviation regulators. In September he lent aircraft to Britain’s aviation authority to help repatriate thousands of holidaymakers after the collapse of Monarch Airlines, the country’s fifth-biggest carrier, and in October Qatar made a deal with the EU on closer co-operation on regulation and safety. He has also been invited by India’s government to set up an airline with 100 jets. It is no wonder that some analysts compare him to an arcade-game mole: hit him hard in one part of the world, and he soon appears elsewhere. "Plane diplomacy"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730904-qatar-airways-forging-alliances-abroad-circumvent-blockade-home-airline-industrys?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'5d4b15d7c5b9533ec074728793721de9f513a75e'|'Advisory work a bright spot amid European banks'' trading woes'|'November 3, 2017 / 5:17 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Advisory work a bright spot amid European banks'' trading woes Lawrence White 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Fees from advising companies on merger and funding deals proved a relative bright spot in an otherwise dismal third quarter for European investment banks, which like their U.S. rivals saw trading revenues plunge. A general view of the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs UBS ( UBSG.S ) was the biggest winner in advisory and underwriting, posting a 42 percent year-on-year rise in fees, with a strong performance in equity underwriting in particular. Barclays ( BARC.L ) said its banking fees from such advisory work rose 15 percent to 2 billion pounds in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago, against a 14 percent decline in income from the bank’s trading division. “In corporate and investment banking advisory and debt underwriting we are actually doing quite well, we’re 6th in the U.S. and first in the UK, so it’s the markets business we need to put additional focus on,” Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley said on Monday. Credit Suisse saw advisory, underwriting and financing revenues in its Asian business rise 10 percent to 148 million Swiss francs ($148 million), thanks mainly to bond issuance by Asian companies. Banks were helped by a bumper year to date for new equity issuance, with global initial public offerings up 29 percent year-to-date to $143 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. The strong performance by European lenders’ investment bankers contrasted with a tough quarter for their colleagues on the trading floor. Europe’s top investment banks saw revenues from fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading fall even more than their Wall Street rivals in the three months to end-September. FICC revenues fell by more than 30 percent at UBS, Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Barclays and 26 percent at BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), compared with a 22 percent average decline at U.S. rivals according to Thomson Reuters/IFR data. The global slump in FICC revenues came from investors’ reduced appetite to trade compared with 2016, when Britain’s vote   Union and the U.S. election led to market turbulence and therefore to trading opportunities. U.S. banks were also buoyed in the third quarter by a stronger performance in investment banking than in trading, outdoing their European rivals. Investment banking revenues at the five Wall Street banks rose on average 8 percent in the third quarter versus an average 2 percent drop for 8 European banks who have now reported earnings, according to Thomson Reuters/IFR calculations. U.S. lenders occupy the top five spots for advising on global mergers and on global equity deals so far this year, Thomson Reuters data show, with Credit Suisse muscling in at 6th place on the former while UBS occupies the same spot in the latter. The poor overall performance of European investment banks comes at a difficult time for their bosses, with several of them ploughing on with investment into the underperforming businesses amid investor scepticism. Credit Suisse Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam on Thursday underlined his determination to keep the group’s investment bank in the face of a campaign by a hedge fund investor for Switzerland’s second-biggest lender to ditch the unit. The third quarter performance gave some vindication for Thiam as the lender’s FICC revenues fell by only 14 percent, much less than at rivals UBS and Barclays. Some Barclays investors and analysts are also sceptical of Staley’s plans to invest more in the lender’s trading division. “We have made no secret of our aversion to Barclays’ strategy, which in our opinion is reliant on little more than a speculative revenue recovery in the low-return Markets business,” analysts at broker KBW said. Notable in avoiding the trading slump was Asia-focused HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Europe’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, which posted only a 5 percent decline in FICC revenues and saw equities income increase 30 percent on the back of growth in its prime broking business, which serves hedge funds. ($1 = 0.9996 Swiss francs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-investment-banking-europe/advisory-work-a-bright-spot-amid-european-banks-trading-woes-idUKKBN1D3218'|'2017-11-03T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'89348030602d119b74dae25f40d998383f927e31'|'Russia''s En+ prices IPO at $14 per GDR, valued at $8 billion'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s En+ Group, which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum and hydropower businesses, priced its global depositary receipts at $14 in an initial public offering (IPO) on Friday, at the lower end of its guided range.The IPO of En+ in Moscow and London is the first major primary equity raising by a Russian company in Britain since Western sanctions were imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. En+ and Deripaska are not under sanctions.En+ said its post-money market capitalization amounted to $8 billion and the offering would raise a total of $1.5 billion. AnAn Group, a partner of China’s CEFC, invested $500 million in the company’s GDRs, EN+ said in a statement.“En+ Group’s offering is the largest initial public equity offering by a Russian company since 2012 and constitutes one of the largest IPOs on the London Stock Exchange,” En+ chief executive Maxim Sokov said in a statement.The price range was set at between $14 and $17 per GDR.It did not say why the offering was closed at the lower end of the initial guidance.On Friday, En+ reiterated that IPO would allow it to repay a portion the debt. It has said earlier that it would repay the bulk of the debt to the state bank VTB ( VTBR.MM ).En+ owns assets in metals and energy, including a 48 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed aluminum producer Rusal ( 0486.HK ), which is a big consumer of hydroelectricity produced by companies owned by En+.On Friday, En+ said it had signed a non-binding deal with Glencore in which the trading firm would convert an 8.75 percent stake in Rusal to a stake in En+. The deal is due after the IPO, allowing En+ to increase its stake in Rusal to 56.88 percent.En+ did not say who else invested into its IPO. Financial market sources told Reuters on Thursday that Qatar, Russian Direct Investment Fund along with its partners as well as U.S. Capital Group had put bids during the IPO.Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Maria Kiselyova and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-en-ipo-pricing/russias-en-prices-ipo-at-14-per-gdr-valued-at-8-billion-idINKBN1D30N0'|'2017-11-03T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'16d9618541682cf9ffe694989e37cdf8170e8df3'|'Japan Inc gingerly embraces more foreigners - The wa forward'|'MICHAEL WOODFORD, the first non-Japanese president of Olympus, likened the camera-maker’s board members who sacked him in 2011 to “children in a classroom”. Mr Woodford had confronted Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the company’s imperious chairman, over a $1.7bn hole in its finances. Mr Kikukawa responded by orchestrating a show of hands in a boardroom coup that sent the Englishman packing. It all fitted a cliché of Japan’s boardrooms as an all-Japanese, all-male club where wizened bosses ruthlessly enforce wa , or harmony.Gradually, the serenity is being disrupted. Nearly 15% of companies in the Nikkei 225 stock index now have at least one non-Japanese on their boards. That is still less than half the share in Britain’s FTSE 100, but it is up from 12% in 2013 and the trajectory seems set. Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Takeda, its largest pharmaceuticals company (which in 2015 appointed its first foreign chief executive, a Frenchman) announced the appointment of foreign directors this year. Of the ten directors at SoftBank, a telecoms and internet giant, seven are non-Japanese.  When Japanese firms buy Western competitors, they often absorb foreigners into their higher echelons. Suntory, a drinks company, put the British chief executive of Beam, a spirits-maker, onto its board in 2014 when it acquired the American company. SoftBank’s embrace of foreigners reflects a diverse portfolio that includes ARM, a British chipmaker, and Sprint, an American telecoms firm. Greater outside influence over Japanese firms also stems from more overseas investors, who hold about 30% of Japanese shares, up from 23.5% in 2008.But more still needs to be done, and quickly, if large Japanese firms are to maintain global relevance, says George Buckley, an outside director of Hitachi, a conglomerate. Many boards continue to be rubber-stampers, not vigilant overseers of the sort that foreigners expect to sit on, agrees William Saito, a venture capitalist who advises the government. Elderly ex-chairmen and chief executives often wield considerable power even after retirement. (And if corporate giants are excluded, the number of foreigners on boards of listed firms has barely inched up, from 0.6% in 2001 to 0.8% last year.)Livelier boardrooms might help prod Japan’s risk-averse companies to invest more of their ¥214trn ($1.9trn) of cash, and boost the economy. Their foreign operations would also benefit from appointing more non-Japanese as business heads. In the past the easiest way for Japan’s manufacturers to control subsidiaries abroad was to send people they knew. That may not work for services, warns Masahiko Uotani, president of Shiseido, a cosmetics company. “You need people who can really understand local tastes,” he counsels.Unless Japanese business changes its ways, firms risk staying dangerously out of touch, agrees Christina Ahmadjian, a non-executive director at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, another conglomerate. The number of Japanese companies in the Fortune Global 500, a scorecard for big business, has dropped from 149 in 1995 to 51. A bit of disharmony can be productive.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "The wa forward"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21730902-big-firms-are-putting-non-japanese-their-boards-japan-inc-gingerly-embraces-more-foreigners?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'1f3f741ca0a9999068ab1bde6756a8c2d4dab47d'|'Fundsmith launching sustainable equity fund after charity success'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:59 AM / in 17 minutes Fundsmith launching sustainable equity fund after charity success Simon Jessop 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Fundsmith, the asset management company run by British stock-picker Terry Smith, said on Wednesday it was launching a fund to tap growing demand from institutional clients in sustainable investment. Chief Executive of Fundsmith Terry Smith speaks at the Institute of Directors annual convention in London September 18, 2013. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett The fund is the third to be launched since Smith set up the company in 2010, following a 36-year career which included a stint as chief executive of interdealer broker Tullet Prebon. The move into sustainable investing for Fundsmith, which currently manages 13.5 billion pounds, follows growing demand from institutions such as pension schemes and insurance companies to focus on the sustainability of returns. As well as more common exclusions such as pornography and tobacco, the Fundsmith Sustainable Equity Fund (FSEF) will also avoid investing in aerospace, defence, brewers, casinos, gas and electric utilities, metals and mining, oil and gas, it said. While increasing numbers of funds are being launched aiming to pick stocks based on environmental, social and governance-related characteristics, Fundsmith said it will also look at policies and practice on research and development, product innovation, dividend policy and capital investment plans. “We have long felt that many investors who apply the commonly used factors to identify sustainable investments do so at the expense of the long-term economic sustainability of a business,” Smith said. “By marrying important sector exclusions with the proven sustainable investment process of Fundsmith we have shown that we can deliver superior investment performance.” The launch of the fund follows three years in which the company used the same process to run money for British charity Comic Relief, during which it returned an annualised performance 23.9 percent, it said in a statement. The fund will be open to institutional investors with a minimum investment of 5 million pounds ($6.61 million) and carry an annual management fee of 0.9 percent. Smith and partners will invest more than 10 million pounds into the fund, it said. The company launched its flagship Fundsmith Equity Fund in 2010 with 25 million pounds in seed money. It has since grown to total 11.9 billion pounds in assets, much of invested on behalf of retail investors. Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fundsmith-fund/fundsmith-launching-sustainable-equity-fund-after-charity-success-idUKKBN1D148Y'|'2017-11-01T11:58:00.000+02:00'
'084735df242c0e55d3a0918965cca40f3c563dfc'|'UPDATE 1-UK car execs tell prime minister they need clarity on Brexit transition'|'(Adds details, Quote: s,)By Costas PitasLONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - British car executives told British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday that there was an urgent need for clarity on the proposed transition period after Britain leaves the European Union.The automotive industry has been heralded as a manufacturing success story by the government, with production reaching a 17-year high in 2016 and the sector employing over 800,000 people.But the overwhelmingly foreign-owned industry, dominated by Indian’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Japan’s Nissan , is worried Brexit will add tariffs and customs checks to its exports, risking the viability of plants.BMW’s board member for sales Ian Robertson, Aston Martin Chief Financial Officer Mark Wilson, JLR Chief Executive Ralf Speth, McLaren Auomotive Chief Executive Mike Flewitt and Bentley boss Wolfgang Duerheimer were among those invited to meet May at her office on Wednesday.“The meeting focused on our members’ Brexit priorities - in particular, the urgent need for clarity on the proposed transition agreement as business needs certainty to invest,” the trade body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said in a statement.Executives highlighted the importance of frictionless future customs arrangements, the need to maintain a common certification system with the European Union and access to European labour, a source present in the room told Reuters.The source said May and business minister Greg Clark did not offer guarantees but were aware of the issues at hand.“They can’t make commitments because the negotiations aren’t done,” the source said when asked about what May said. “They understood and recognise it.”At least one executive also said they had an upcoming investment decision to make, the source said.A spokesman at May’s office said May and Clark repeated assurances that they would seek the best deal possible for the sector.“The prime minister and the business secretary reiterated the government’s aim for an ambitious economic partnership with the EU, as well as an implementation period that ensures businesses only have to adapt to one set of changes,” he said. (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by David Milliken and Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-autos/update-1-uk-car-execs-tell-prime-minister-they-need-clarity-on-brexit-transition-idINL8N1N76BX'|'2017-11-01T16:19:00.000+02:00'
'53c8818e0c3c6c060565739f91ed2acbfd24e86e'|'Hudson''s Bay says Signa offers to buy German operations'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:13 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Hudson''s Bay says Signa offers to buy German operations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Hudson’s Bay Co ( HBC.TO ) said on Wednesday Austrian property and retail group Signa Holding had made an “incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited offer with no evidence of financing” for its German business, as well as other real estate assets. Earlier, Reuters reported that Signa, which owns German department store chain Karstadt, had submitted a fully-financed 3 billion euro (£2.6 billion) bid to buy HBC’s German department store operation Kaufhof. “Consistent with its fiduciary responsibility, the Board intends to review the offer in due course,” the Canadian company said in a statement, without giving any further details on the offer. Hudson’s Bay shares were halted from trading on Wednesday pending an announcement. They were up 6.8 percent at C$12.04 coming off the trading halt. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hudson-s-bay-kaufhof-signa/hudsons-bay-says-signa-offers-to-buy-german-operations-idUKKBN1D15EG'|'2017-11-01T19:12:00.000+02:00'
'1c42ffed976797e29e63c37c55b12da2a80c0f08'|'Goldman jokes, takes ''bites'' out of pizza to attract borrowers'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:31 AM / in 34 minutes Goldman jokes, takes ''bites'' out of pizza to attract borrowers Olivia Oran 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc hosted an event at a New York comedy club on Wednesday night to create some buzz for its new lending platform by poking fun at hidden fees that have frustrated and outraged consumers. A Goldman Sachs sign is displayed inside the company''s post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Wall Street bank is trying to court Main Street borrowers saddled with credit card debt through its recently launched personal loan platform Marcus, which it says charges borrowers principal and interest, but not fees. The Goldman-sponsored comedy show featured members of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe and menu items like “truffle macaroni & fees,”“steak and gorgonzola fee-zza” and drink specials including “fee’d up gimlet.” The comedians performed a set around personal finance and debt, with one sketch centered on a support group for consumers who had fallen into debt in extreme ways, like buying an $8,000 cat. Another involved a landlord listing absurd fees that a renter owed for an apartment, including one for a closet and yet another for a refrigerator. “A lot of Americans struggle with debt ... people don’t feel comfortable about it, so humor is a way for people to spark a conversation,” said Dustin Cohn, who oversees Marcus’s branding. “We’re trying to help destigmatize debt.” Marcus is one way that Goldman Sachs is trying to reinvent itself after a long period of declining income from bond trading, which was once a big money maker for the firm. But consumer lending is an untested area for Goldman — which has historically catered to large institutions and billionaires — and one that has raised questions from analysts as consumer credit begins to show signs of stress. Marcus offers loans from $3,500 to $30,000 and targets credit card borrowers who can benefit from consolidating debt into a single loan with a lower interest rate. The bank’s marketing strategy seizes on a frustration so common among consumers that several financial reforms imposed after the 2007-2009 financial crisis were focussed on lessening fees and making them more transparent. All of the foods served at its event had small “bites” taken out of them — part of a broader advertising campaign that portrays rival lenders as taking a chunk out of consumers’ pockets. In a related YouTube video, a pizzeria employee takes a bite out of every slice he serves, much to the horror of customers. Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-goldman-sachs-marcus/goldman-jokes-takes-bites-out-of-pizza-to-attract-borrowers-idUKKBN1D20F5'|'2017-11-02T07:31:00.000+02:00'
'87b71631f998b27e8d3976c2f690a60c68f1ef0f'|'Fed holds rates steady; ''solid'' growth keeps December hike in view'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:07 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Fed keeps rates unchanged, remains on road to December rate hike Lindsay Dunsmuir , Howard Schneider 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labor market while playing down the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Investors had all but ruled out a rate hike at the central bank’s policy meeting this week and attention has largely been focused on who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018. President Donald Trump is set to announce his nomination on Thursday afternoon with Fed Governor Jerome Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, seen as having a lock on the job. “The labor market has continued to strengthen and ... economic activity has been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions,” the Fed’s rate-setting committee said in a statement after its unanimous policy decision. In keeping with that encouraging tone, the central bank’s policymakers acknowledged that inflation remained soft but did not downgrade their assessment of pricing expectations. U.S. Treasury yields were largely unchanged after the release of the statement. The U.S. dollar pared gains against a basket of currencies and the S&P 500 index rose slightly. “It confirms a December move,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York. “If we get a confirmation that Trump picks Powell tomorrow, it’s a sign that monetary policy will continue on its current course that we have seen so far this year with gradual normalization.” The Fed has raised rates twice this year and currently forecasts another nudge upwards in its benchmark lending rate from its current target range of 1.00 percent to 1.25 percent by the end of 2017. BALANCE SHEET REDUCTION FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Fed policymakers have been buoyed in recent months by a stronger global and domestic economy and further tightening in the labor market, although they are divided over the causes and duration of the current weakness in inflation. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure sits at 1.3 percent after retreating further from the central bank’s 2 percent target for much of the year. Nevertheless, Yellen and some other key policymakers have said the Fed still expects to continue to gradually raise rates given the strength of the overall economy. In its statement, the central bank reiterated it expects inflation to rise back to its target over the medium term and emphasized that the unemployment rate has declined further. U.S. financial conditions remain loose, strengthening the argument that another rate rise would not slow the current brisk growth. The government reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the third quarter. A decline in hiring in September has largely been dismissed as a blip caused by the temporary displacement of workers due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That jobs report showed wages growing at an improved pace and the unemployment rate falling to more than a 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent. A strong rebound in job gains is anticipated when the Labor Department releases its October nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. The Fed also said on Wednesday it was proceeding with the reduction of its $4.2 trillion in holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, a process which began in October. New Fed Governor Randal Quarles, Trump’s first appointee to the central bank, voted at this week’s policy meeting. The Republican president could fill at least three more open vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member board in the coming months. The central bank is scheduled to hold its final policy meeting of the year on Dec. 12-13. Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by David Chance and Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed/fed-set-to-hold-rates-steady-ahead-of-trumps-leadership-decision-idUKKBN1D13JT'|'2017-11-01T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'1ad75ad2c906fffc3ba9f375fa466ead423c4d38'|'Wal-Mart triples online items, lowers prices as holiday season kicks in'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:07 AM / in a few seconds Wal-Mart triples online items, lowers prices as holiday season kicks in Nandita Bose 2 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is planning to boost sales and fend off rivals this holiday season by doubling down on incentives for shoppers who buy online and those who visit its stores. A general view shows a Wal-Mart store in Monterrey, Mexico, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril The world’s largest retailer said it tripled its online selections for the holiday season to 60 million items, and that it would provide free two-day shipping on more than two million products when the order size exceeds $35. It said it would also offer discounts for online orders picked up at its stores. The company said its stores and website would offer more exclusive products from companies such as appliance maker Cuisinart and audio equipment maker Bose. The plans were announced at a media briefing to outline Wal-Mart’s strategy for the November and December holiday shopping season, an important period for retailers during which they earn an outsized portion of their annual profits and sales. Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart said the retailer would offer “thousands of rollbacks” or reduced prices across products that would include lower prices on 400 toys from brands like Lego and Nerf. “We are buying as much inventory as we think we can handle and sell ... we think we are in a really strong position,” Bratspies said. Bratspies said that for the third consecutive year the retailer would focus more on discounts and offering the lowest prices on items instead of gimmicky product deals, as customers expect more consistent pricing. Wal-Mart will hold more than 20,000 holiday events at its stores where shoppers can test and try top-selling items, chief marketing officer Tony Rogers said, adding that the company was investing heavily in improving the shopping experience at its stores. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/wal-mart-triples-online-items-lowers-prices-as-holiday-season-kicks-in-idUKKBN1D13GX'|'2017-11-01T06:04:00.000+02:00'
'73ca82780a1e1bc5fdff46f5129df61c7abff014'|'Many Japanese-made cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer - On the other hand'|'THE Japanese make cars that last but replace them relatively quickly. The average car in Japan is three years younger than in America. This combination of durable manufacturing and dutiful consumption of a prized national product works out well for the rest of the world; many countries import older Japanese cars in bulk. Secondhand vehicles fill vast parking lots in Japan’s port cities, awaiting shipment to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.The third-most-popular destination is Myanmar, which imported over 80,000 used Japanese vehicles in the first nine months of this year, according to Japan’s International Auto Trade Association. Drivers believe that Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans can stand up to the country’s pockmarked roads, a faith not yet shown in South Korean and Chinese cars. 8 There is only one problem, which is that Japan drives on the left, Myanmar on the right. As a consequence, most of Myanmar’s drivers sit on the wrong side of the car, where it is harder to see oncoming traffic. Settle into the passenger seat of a Honda taxi on a narrow rural road and you may be called upon to perform unexpected duties like telling your driver when it is safe to overtake a slow-moving lorry, without hitting a scooter, gaggle of children or bonnet-less jalopy travelling in the other direction.Not everyone executes these responsibilities successfully. Myanmar has the highest rate of deaths per vehicle among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the World Health Organisation. Evidence of accidents litters the roadside outside Yangon: a silver Toyota that has lost everything in front of its windscreen and a red Suzuki hatchback that also now has a hatchfront.Myanmar’s government periodically tightens the import rules to keep older and less safe cars off the country’s roads. In October it said it will allow individuals to import only cars built in 2016 or after. And after this year, it will no longer grant import permits for right-hand-drive cars.The tighter policy may encourage local car assembly. Suzuki will open a new factory for left-hand-drive cars outside Yangon next year, adding to its existing plant in the city’s east. But the change will oblige drivers to buy cars that are either more expensive or less authentically Japanese. The new left-hand-drive Corolla on display in the Toyota “Mingalar” dealership in Yangon, for example, was made in Thailand and is listed at $33,900, over 26 times the country’s national income per person.One other constituency may also come to regret the altered rules. Many poorer residents of Yangon, where motorcycles are banned, ride bicycles or sit in three-wheeled “trishaws”, trundling alongside the kerb. As more of Myanmar’s drivers shift to the left seat, oncoming traffic will be easier to spot; but these kerbside pedal pushers will be more exposed than ever. "On the other hand"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730908-government-outlawing-right-hand-drive-cars-many-japanese-made-cars-enjoy-afterlife?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'b1570779bc70d202eb7cb2056cf3859497bf557b'|'Emirates aims to place A380 order at Dubai airshow'|' 50 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Emirates aims to place A380 order at Dubai airshow Victoria Bryan 2 Min Read HAMBURG (Reuters) - Emirates [EMIRA.UL] hopes to order more Airbus A380 super jumbos at the Dubai airshow this month, the airline’s chairman said on Friday. Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus (C), Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates'' chairman and CEO (L) and Tim Clark President Emirates Airlines, pose for media during a delivery ceremony of Emirates'' 100th Airbus A380 at the German headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer “I hope we will be able to do it,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said at a ceremony to receive the airline’s 100th A380, saying that negotiating teams were working on it. Emirates is the world’s biggest customer of the A380, having ordered 142 of the planes and Sheikh Ahmed said he wanted to see the plane continuing. Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders said he hoped Airbus would deliver “at least” the remaining 42 to Emirates. Despite sluggish sales calling the future of the A380 into question, Enders said he believed Airbus would be producing the jumbo jets 10 years from now and was working on sales campaigns. “I‘m not sure I will let John Leahy retire without at least one more significant A380 order,” Enders said, in reference to the departing sales chief of Airbus. Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus (R) and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates'' chairman and CEO, address media during a delivery ceremony of Emirates'' 100th Airbus A380 at the German headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer Reuters reported on Thursday that Airbus has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen. Enders dismissed recent reports that the French government wants more political influence over Airbus management. Slideshow (4 Images) “There is nobody who is seriously considering reintroducing government controls in Airbus,” he said. Like rival Etihad, Emirates is currently facing a tough business environment, with overcapacity, an oil-price related drop in business travel and temporary restrictions on travel to the United States. Emirates is working more closely with budget airline flydubai, on matters such as network planning, schedules and frequent flyer programmes. Al-Maktoum said the partnership so far had been excellent, with a good number of passengers moving between the two. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-a380/emirates-aims-to-place-a380-order-at-dubai-airshow-idUKKBN1D310P'|'2017-11-03T12:50:00.000+02:00'
'51ac039ef6f8e771272985216b656c3165b030f0'|'Lenovo to buy Fujitsu PC unit stake for up to $269 million; second-quarter profit drops'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Lenovo to buy Fujitsu PC unit stake for up to $269 million; second-quarter profit drops Sijia Jiang 3   Lenovo Group said it had reached an agreement to buy a 51 percent stake in Fujitsu’s personal computer unit for up to $269 million, after earlier posting a lower quarterly profit on continued difficulty in the global PC market. A Lenovo logo is seen at the computer in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo Shares of the Chinese PC maker rose as much as 5 percent as traders came back after the midday break. Lenovo and Fujitsu had first announced in October 2016 that they were exploring cooperations in their PC business. Lenovo said it would pay for the stake in Fujitsu Client Computing Ltd with 17.85 billion yen (118.00 million pounds) in cash and 2.55 billion-12.75 billion yen based on performance to 2020. Earlier in the day, Lenovo reported a profit of $139 million (104.65 million pounds) for the second quarter ended September, versus $157 million a year ago. A taxation gain of $118 million helped earnings beat an average analysts’ estimate of $44 million. Lenovo’s revenue was $11.8 billion, compared with $11.2 billion last year and a consensus estimate of $11.3 billion. Lenovo’s global PC unit shipments rebounded 17 percent from the previous quarter, though its PC market share in the six months dropped 0.2 percentage point to 21 percent, Lenovo said, without revealing shipment numbers. PC makers around the world are struggling as consumers switch to mobile devices. Data from Gartner shows that worldwide shipment of personal computers fell 3.6 percent from a year ago in the third quarter of 2017, the 12th such decline in a row. Lenovo lost its title as the world’s largest PC maker to HP Inc earlier this year. Lenovo’s struggling mobile business group, which it is looking to turnaround in the second half of this fiscal year, reported a narrower operating loss before taxation of $261 million for the interim period. Loss at its data centre business widened to $214 million. Lenovo warned market conditions would remain challenging in the short term, but said the agreement with Fujitsu would help it enhance its business globally. Lenovo shares were up 2.84 percent at 0550 GMT, outstripping the broader market that was down 0.2 percent. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lenovo-results/lenovo-to-buy-fujitsu-pc-unit-stake-for-up-to-269-million-second-quarter-profit-drops-idUKKBN1D20HT'|'2017-11-02T08:14:00.000+02:00'
'dc893875210ae5b2975936d55568104034e1ba87'|'Shell beats third quarter expectations as profit jumps on refining'|'Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 9:54 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Shell beats third quarter expectations as profit jumps on refining Ron Bousso , Karolin Schaps 4 Min Read LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) reported a near 50 percent rise in quarterly profits, driven by strong refining, while solid cash generation underscored the oil and gas company has adapted well to a world of low oil prices. An electric car charge point is seen at the Holloway Road Shell station where Shell is launching its first fast electric vehicle charging station in London, Britain October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner The Anglo-Dutch company sharply boosted its cash generation in recent quarters as the effects of cost cuts and asset sales kicked in following Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden’s preparations for “longer forever” oil prices following the 2014 downturn. “Shell’s three businesses all made resilient contributions to this strong set of results,” van Beurden said in a statement, referring to downstream operations, oil and gas. Shell and most of its rivals are now able to generate profit even if oil prices return to about $50 (£37.7) a barrel and are once again focusing on growing their businesses. Oil prices averaged $52 a barrel in the quarter and are today above $60 a barrel. BP said this week it was able to balance its books so far this year at $49 a barrel. In a sign of a renewed emphasis on growth, last week Shell won half the blocks awarded in Brazil’s deepwater oil auction, where rivals BP ( BP.L ) and Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) also acquired blocks in a historic opening to foreign operators. Shell shares were little changed as of 0920 GMT. HURRICANE IMPACT Shell’s third-quarter earnings rose mostly due to a tripling of profits from the refining segment which benefited from a sharp rise in profit margins in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in late August which knocked out a quarter of the United States’ refining capacity. Shell’s chemicals segment, a key engine for its growth into the next decade, also saw profits rise by 20 percent from a year earlier. “The numbers were strong. The downstream was the key driver again,” said Iain Reid, analyst at Macquarie. Third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders, based on current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding exceptional items, was $4.1 billion (£3.1 billion). That compared with $2.8 billion a year earlier and a company-provided analysts’ consensus of $3.62 billion. Oil and gas production in the quarter was up 2 percent at 3.657 million barrels of oil equivalent. Cash flow from operations in the third quarter fell by 33 percent from the previous quarter to $7.58 billion for the first time since the first quarter of 2016. The drop in cashflow was due to increases in value of inventories as oil prices rose from a year ago, Shell said. Excluding the capital build, cashflow was at $10 billion in the quarter, securing Shell’s spending as well as its dividend payments, analysts said. “The company is demonstrating the resiliency of its operating cash flow in a roughly $50 a barrel Brent environment, the dividend is being covered with free cash flow,” said Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel. Shell’s debt ratio versus company capitalisation, known as gearing, slightly rose to 25.4 percent from 25.3 percent the previous quarter. That was still significantly lower than a peak of 29.2 percent reached in the third quarter of 2016 that followed the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group in February. Shell’s debt pile in the third quarter came to $68 billion. Shell has sold or agreed to sell around $25 billion worth of assets to help pay for the BG deal, including large portfolios in the North Sea and Canada. It appears on track to hit its $30 billion target by the end of next year. (The story was refiled to fix the headline) Reporting by Karolin Schaps and Ron Bousso; Editing by David Goodman and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-shell-results/shell-beats-third-quarter-expectations-as-profit-jumps-on-refining-idUKKBN1D213W'|'2017-11-02T11:48:00.000+02:00'
'4854fadc647601f30a0c60733be08efa4098f257'|'RPT-Rookies and robots brace for first UK rate rise since 2007'|'(Repeats story first published on Oct. 31 with no changes)* Bank of England expected to raise rates on Nov. 2* Last UK rate rise dates back to July 2007* Computer-driven FX trading has boomedBy Fanny Potkin and Polina IvanovaLONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Financial markets braced this week for what could be the Bank of England’s first rate rise in a decade - a step into the unknown for a generation of young traders who started work after 2007 but also for the state-of-the-art technology they use.After a decade that included a global financial crash, numerous investigations into market collusion and relentless automation, trading floors at banks in London have been transformed in ways not obvious at first glance.The newest kid on the block is not necessarily the rookie trader with a PhD in physics but the latest computer model or algorithm. How these models will perform under the almost novel circumstances of tightening monetary policy is as much a question as how the human neophytes will react.Using past market data, assessments of demand, valuation models and even measures of how upbeat news headlines are, computers crunch the numbers, game the scenarios and buy or sell in the blink of an eye.But shocks such as Brexit have shown that computer-driven trading can end in stampedes, or so-called flash crashes.“You’ve got to weigh up the strength of the traders and the strength of the algorithms that have been developed and whether they can manage this kind of a process when the rate hike does come in,” said Benjamin Quinlan, CEO of financial services strategy consultancy Quinlan & Associates.At Citibank’s expansive trading floor in London, the dealing room doesn’t look much different from a decade ago with traders hunched in front of banks of screens, the odd national flag perched on top, and television screens on mute.But beneath the outward appearance, foreign exchange trading has undergone a seismic shift: more than 90 percent of cash transactions and a growing proportion of derivatives trades in the global $5 trillion a day FX market are done electronically.So-called smart algos, or fully automated algorithmic trading programmes that react to market movements with no human involvement, were virtually non-existent in 2007. Now, almost a third of foreign exchange trades are driven solely by algorithms, according to research firm Aite Group.“Most of these algorithms haven’t really been tested in a rising interest rate scenario so the next few months will be crucial,” said a portfolio manager at a hedge fund in London.To be sure, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first rate rise in a decade in 2015 provided a dry run for this week’s UK decision - but the two economies are in very different positions and the knock-on effects on the wider financial markets of a Bank of England move are hard to predict.ROOKIES AND ROBOTS Much has changed since the Bank of England raised rates by 0.25 percent on July 5, 2007 to 5.75 percent. The first iPhone had yet to reach British shores, the country’s TVs ran on analogue signals and Northern Rock bank was alive and well.Where once lightning decision-making and a calm head in a crisis were at a premium, the bulk of trading today is done by machines and the job of a foreign exchange sales trader is often little more than minding software and fielding client queries.Itay Tuchman, head of global FX trading at Citi and a 20-year market veteran, said while the bank employs roughly the same number of people in currency trading as over the last few years, fewer are dedicated to business over the phone.“We have an extensive electronic trading business, powered by our algorithmic market making platform, which is staffed by many people that have maths and science PhDs from various backgrounds,” said Tuchman, who heads trading for Citi’s global developed and emerging currency businesses.London is the epicentre of those changes with the average daily turnover of foreign exchange trades executed directly over the phone down by a fifth to $566 billion in just three years to 2016, according to the Bank of England.At Dutch bank ING’s London trading room, Obbe Kok, head of UK financial markets, said the floor now has about 165 people but the bank wants to make it 210 by the end of the year - searching mainly for traders attuned to technological innovations and keen on artificial intelligence.The proportion of people employed in trading with degrees in mathematics and statistics has increased by a 58 percent over the last 10 years, Emolument, a salary benchmarking site, said.“What banks have started to do is trade experience for technological skill and with electronic platforms growing, the average age on the floor is a bit younger,” said Adrian Ezra, CEO of financial services recruitment agency Execuzen.TAPER TANTRUM The increasing use of technology means traders can gauge the depth of market liquidity at the click of a button or quickly price an option based on volatility - a major change from a few years ago when they had to scour the market discreetly for fear of disclosing their interest to rivals.Ala‘A Saeed, global head of institutional electronic sales and one of the brains behind Citi’s trading platform FX Velocity, said its electronic programmes process thousands of trades per minute.Most of the currency trading models used by banks incorporate variables such as trading ranges, valuation metrics including trade-weighted indexes and trends in demand based on internal client orders to get a sense of which way markets are moving - and the potential impact of a new trade.Nowadays, the models also incorporate sentiment analysis around news headlines and economic data surprises.These electronic trading platforms also have years of financial data plugged into them with various kinds of scenario analyses, but one thing they have sometimes appeared unprepared for is a sudden change in policy direction.Witness the market mayhem exacerbated by trend-following algorithms when Switzerland’s central bank scrapped its currency peg in 2015, or the taper tantrum in 2013 when the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would stop buying bonds.Or Britain’s vote last year to leave the European Union.Indeed, the biggest risk for financial markets cited by money managers in a Bank of America Merrill Lynch poll in October was a policy misstep from a major central bank.EASY CREDIT, LOW VOLATILITY One concern is that the rise in automation has coincided with a prolonged decline in market volatility as central banks from the United States to Japan have kept interest rates close to zero and spent trillions of dollars dragging long-term borrowing costs lower to try to reboot depressed economies.While central banks have been careful to get their messages across as they end the years of stimulus, there are concerns about whether quantitative trading models can capture all the qualitative policy shifts.For example, a growing number of investors expect the Bank of England to raise its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 percent on Nov. 2, and then leave it at that for the foreseeable future.But futures markets are expecting another rate rise within six to nine months, injecting a new level of risk around interest rate moves and potentially boosting volatility.Neale Jackson, a portfolio manager at 36 South Capital Advisors, a $750 million volatility hedge fund in London, said young traders have never seen an environment other than central banks supporting markets, and that has fueled risk-taking underpinned by the belief that “big brother has got our backs”.“The problem these days is that there’s a whole generation of traders who have never seen interest rates, let alone interest rates hikes,” said Kevin Rodgers, a veteran FX trader and the author of “Why Aren’t They Shouting?”, a book about the computer revolution within financial markets.Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan and Simon Jessop; writing by Saikat Chatterjee; editing by Mike Dolan and David Clarke '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-trading/rpt-rookies-and-robots-brace-for-first-uk-rate-rise-since-2007-idUSL8N1N673A'|'2017-11-01T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'a91ea3fd7103f4a4edc840fbf6975213480c07c5'|'India state-owned refiners export low-sulphur diesel in rare move'|'November 1, 2017 / 7:18 AM / Updated 7 hours ago India state-owned refiners export low-sulphur diesel in rare move Jessica Jaganathan 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India’s state-owned refiners are exporting low-sulphur diesel in a seldom seen flow of products as crude processing capacity returns amid a drop in demand due to a new sales tax and as regional flooding cuts fuel use, industry sources told Reuters. The exports are expected to continue until year-end, likely weighing on low-sulphur cash differentials, the sources said, which have already dropped by half from a post-hurricane spike above $2 on U.S. import demand. While India overall is a net exporter of diesel, shipments are usually done by private refiners such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil, with state-owned refiners not typically exporting the fuel, traders said. Now, however, state refiners have returned units from maintenance and after upgrades to meet stricter sulphur content standards, and their product supply has increased, said Sri Paravaikkarasu, head of East of Suez oil at FGE. The added diesel capacity is hitting as India’s demand growth for the fuel slumps to half what it was in 2016, pulled down in the first quarter by New Delhi’s demonetization policy, according to Joe Willis, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “In addition, heavy floods and a surge in retail diesel prices, following daily price revisions, weighed on 2017 demand,” Willis said. Demand growth has also been hit by a recently implemented goods and services tax that has curbed production and fuel demand, a refining source said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak with media. Heavy floods in parts of India and monsoon rains, which reduce the need to use diesel-powered irrigation pumps, also cut into demand, a second refining source said. That has led to state refiners Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd offering or already selling 260,000 tonnes of low-sulphur diesel for November so far, according to tender documents seen by Reuters. The three state companies also sold 205,000 tonnes of diesel with a sulphur content of 50 parts-per-million (ppm) for October loadings and 65,000 tonnes for September. They were largely absent from the spot market before that and were importers of the fuel earlier this year. As demand slowed and product inventories built up, IOC also sold diesel through a six-month term contract, while BPCL’s majority-owned Numaligarh refinery signed a long-term contract to supply diesel to Bangladesh. India’s refinery expansions are expected to add another 165,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude capacity in the second half of this year, according to Woodmac’s Willis. And while diesel demand growth is expected to drop to 40,000 bpd this year, it is expected to rebound to 60,000 bpd next year, boosted by construction projects that will lift use of the fuel, and support from election campaigning near the end of 2018 for general elections due in 2019, Woodmac’s Willis said. Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI; Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-diesel-exports/india-state-owned-refiners-export-low-sulphur-diesel-in-rare-move-idINKBN1D13SB'|'2017-11-01T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'5437eba1223167e06c20208871cd9a454e159685'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1010 GMT on Wednesday:** The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) leads a consortium that will acquire a 16.1 percent stake in Russia’s Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC), a Russian fund involved said.** Two Chinese healthcare firms are among investors seeking to buy Australia’s I-MED Radiology Network in a deal that could value the X-ray provider at more than A$1 billion ($765 million), people with knowledge of the matter said.** Australia’s Oil Search Ltd has agreed to buy stakes in a huge oil find in Alaska for $400 million, in a surprise push to diversify from its sweet spot of gas in Papua New Guinea. (Compiled by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL4N1N73PM'|'2017-11-01T07:18:00.000+02:00'
'297917bad21db5eb83b5119eebff50a70d89db32'|'European shares hold near two-yr highs before BoE decision'|'LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - European shares hovered near two-year highs on Thursday, with trading muted as investors battened down the hatches ahead of the Bank of England’s policy meeting, though a profit warning from Playtech punctured the calm in early deals.The pan-European STOXX 600 steadied near two-year highs on Thursday, with British, German and French stocks also broadly flat as investors awaited the BOE’s 1200 GMT decision.The bank is widely expected to raise interest rates for the first time since 2007, and a decision to hold rates is likely to prove disruptive, analysts say.The calm was however punctured by gambling technology company Playtech, shares in which plummeted 21 percent after warning on profit due to a slowdown in parts of Asia and problems with a bingo contract.Strong results from oil services firm Tenaris sent the stock up 6 percent and helped Italy’s benchmark outperform peers, up 0.4 percent.With nearly half of European companies having reported for the third quarter, industrial, financial and tech sectors stand out as the best-performing, according to Thomson Reuters data. Overall 66 percent of companies in the MSCI Europe have beat or met earnings expectations, underpinning regional indices’ gains.Results from banks Credit Suisse and ING confirmed the strong performance of the sector which investors have warmed to this year as a play on Europe’s return to growth. Both beat expectations for third-quarter profit.Credit Suisse shares gained 2 percent, helping financials add the most points to the index.Randgold Resources tumbled 6.4 percent after third-quarter results missed forecasts.UK online grocer Ocado also tumbled 3.7 percent. (Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Sujata Rao) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-hold-near-two-yr-highs-before-boe-decision-idINL8N1N81XQ'|'2017-11-02T05:40:00.000+02:00'
'201058acd088eb518d6c6db9c296f244f90b7f0e'|'US STOCKS-Wall Street drifts after tax cut plan unveiled'|'* Tax bill calls for corporate tax cut to 20 pct from 35 pct* Trump expected to announce his Fed chair nominee* Facebook biggest drag on S&P 500, Nasdaq* Tesla slumps after Model 3 delays, biggest-ever qtrly loss* Dow up 0.13 pct, S&P down 0.10 pct, Nasdaq off 0.11 pct (Updates to late afternoon)By Lewis KrauskopfNov 2 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq moved modestly lower on Thursday as shares of Facebook Inc dragged, while the Dow industrials edged higher as investors assessed the long-awaited tax cut plan unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans.The bill called for slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent but also ending certain tax breaks for companies and individuals.While many market watchers have pointed to a corporate tax cut as further fuel for a record-setting run for equities, investors said the bill was just a starting point with significant negotiations likely ahead.“The message from the market is there are still a lot of unknowns out there,” said William Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee. “It’s kind of hard to draw too many conclusions at this point from what exactly the bill will end up being.”The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 29.95 points, or 0.13 percent, to 23,464.96, the S&P 500 lost 2.59 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,576.77 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.23 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,709.30.The U.S. housing sector tumbled amid concerns over the tax plan’s cap on deductions for mortgages.The PHLX Housing index fell 0.9 percent, with Toll Brothers down 5.5 percent and MDC Holdings off 10.1 percent.Shares of home improvement retailers also fell. Lowe’s dropped 3.3 percent and Home Depot fell 1.7 percent, weighing on the Dow.Investors were also awaiting Trump’s official announcement of his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair. Trump is widely expected to nominate Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who has supported current Chair Janet Yellen’s general direction in setting monetary policy.Third-quarter earnings season was also in focus, with investors citing corporate profit growth as supporting the market’s rally in 2017.With more than three-fourths having reported, S&P 500 companies are expected to have increased profits by 7.7 percent in the third quarter, up from an expectation of 5.9 percent growth at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Facebook shares fell 2.1 percent as investors shrugged off strong quarterly results and worried about the social media company’s spending. The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.Tesla Inc shares dropped 7.2 percent after the carmaker pushed back its production target for its Model 3 sedan and reported its biggest quarterly loss ever.Blue Apron shares tumbled 18.8 percent after the meal-kit delivery company reported a bigger quarterly loss than expected.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.18-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.11-to-1 ratio favored advancers. (Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Meredith Mazzilli) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-street-drifts-after-tax-cut-plan-unveiled-idINL2N1N81OJ'|'2017-11-02T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'b929f0d0fedddbd389e35e6f596a0a383d1a9f73'|'Cryptocurrencies'' total value hits record high as bitcoin blasts above $6,500'|'LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of around $184 billion on Wednesday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, making their reported market value worth around the same as that of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley combined.The new peak came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of more than $6,500 . That took its own “market cap” - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation - to a record high just shy of $110 billion.The latest surge in bitcoin - which has seen an eye-watering increase of almost 800 percent in the past 12 months - was driven by news on Tuesday that CME Group, the world’s largest derivative exchange operator, would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of the year.The announcement was seen as a major step in the digital currency’s path toward legitimacy and mainstream financial adoption.The second-most valuable cryptocurrency Ether - sometimes known as “Ethereum”, after the project behind it - was trading slightly down on the day at $302 per coin, having hit a record high of more than $410 in June. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-cryptocurrencies/cryptocurrencies-total-value-hits-record-high-as-bitcoin-blasts-above-6500-idINL8N1N72EO'|'2017-11-01T07:18:00.000+02:00'
'16aa917b36b6a299b59087903834c53838b0e130'|'Reuters Summit: Banks fearing North Korea hacking prepare defences - cyber experts'|'WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Global banks are preparing to defend themselves against North Korea potentially intensifying a years-long hacking spree by seeking to cripple financial networks as Pyongyang weighs the threat of U.S. military action over its nuclear program, cyber security experts said.Crowdstrike Co-founder and CTO Dmitri Alperovitch speaks during the Reuters Media and Technology Summit in New York, June 11, 2012. REUTERS/Keith Bedford North Korean hackers have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from banks during the past three years, including a heist in 2016 at Bangladesh Bank that yielded $81 million, according to Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer at cyber security firm CrowdStrike.Alperovitch told the Reuters Cyber Security Summit on Tuesday that banks were concerned Pyongyang’s hackers may become more destructive by using the same type of “wiper” viruses they deployed across South Korea and at Sony Corp’s ( 6758.T ) Hollywood studio.The North Korean government has repeatedly denied accusations by security researchers and the U.S. government that it has carried out cyber attacks.North Korean hackers could leverage knowledge about financial networks gathered during cyber heists to disrupt bank operations, according to Alperovitch, who said his firm has conducted “war game” exercises for several banks.“The difference between theft and destruction is often a few keystrokes,” Alperovitch said.Security teams at major U.S. banks have shared information on the North Korean cyber threat in recent months, said a second cyber security expert familiar with those talks.“We know they attacked South Korean banks,” said the source, who added that fears have grown that banks in the United States will be targeted next.Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have been building after a series of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea and bellicose verbal exchanges between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.John Carlin, a former U.S. assistant attorney general, told the Reuters summit that other firms, among them defence contractors, retailers and social media companies, were also concerned.“They are thinking ‘Are we going to see an escalation in attacks from North Korea?''” said Carlin, chair of Morrison & Foerster international law firm’s global risk and crisis management team.Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it is unlikely that North Korea would launch destructive attacks on American banks because of concerns about U.S. retaliation.Representatives of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the top U.S. banking regulators, declined to comment. Both have ramped up cyber security oversight in recent years.For other Reuters Cyber Summit news click on www.reuters.com/cyberriskReporting by Jim Finkle in Washington and Alastair Sharp in Toronto; additional reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington; editing by Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cyber-summit-northkorea-banks/reuters-summit-banks-fearing-north-korea-hacking-prepare-defences-cyber-experts-idINKBN1D032Y'|'2017-11-01T00:40:00.000+02:00'
'584cf669ec22fd30192a4746e454784730a557ba'|'Ackman says his firm restructured Herbalife position - CNBC'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:12 PM / in 12 minutes Investor Ackman exits years-long Herbalife short bet to cap losses Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman, who placed a $1 billion (£753.4 million) bet in 2012 that Herbalife Ltd’s ( HLF.N ) stock price would tumble to zero, said on Wednesday his firm has capped losses by closing out its short position in the nutrition and supplements company. William ''Bill'' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Herbalife has been buying back shares and its stock price has soared some 50 percent this year, piling pressure on Ackman’s $10 billion hedge fund as paper losses mounted and the cost to borrow the shares rose. Ackman did not disclose how much his firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, had lost by buying shares to cover its short position. “We covered the shorts and replaced them with outright put positions,” Ackman told Reuters, adding that potential losses on Herbalife will now be capped at 3 percent of the firm’s capital. “We can still lose money but the loss is capped.” Short positions, in which borrowed shares are sold in hopes they can be replaced later at a lower price, have the potential for heavy losses that increase as a stock’s price rises. Put options give the holder the option to sell a stock at a set price. Herbalife’s stock price has rose in part by its decision to buy back a big chunk of its shares, a move many in the market interpreted as trying to pressure Ackman into giving up on his years-long crusade against the company. Herbalife stock dipped 0.1 percent to $72.56 on Wednesday. Pershing Square International, the firm’s hedge fund portfolio, nursed small losses for the year through the middle of October after logging double-digit losses in 2015 and 2016. The fund reported a 1.5 percent loss for the first six months of 2017. Pershing Square said in its interim financial report that Herbalife was the fund’s biggest loser for that period with a 4.3 percent decline. For much of the last five years, since Ackman first unveiled the position in December 2012, Herbalife has been a thorn for Pershing Square as unrealized losses mounted. Ackman has been betting the stock would crumble under regulatory scrutiny for what he has called a pyramid scheme. Herbalife has denied that claim. Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Meredith Mazzilli and Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-herbalife-ackman/ackman-says-his-firm-restructured-herbalife-position-cnbc-idUKKBN1D14T1'|'2017-11-01T15:11:00.000+02:00'
'e8810f1514e99df855066c195b765a7d8fc5de39'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. Treasury plans to announce auction size changes in February'|'(Adds comments on debt ceiling, market reaction)WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday it intends to announce changes in the sizes of debt auctions in February and will hold them steady in the coming months despite plans by the Federal Reserve to gradually wind down its portfolio of public debt.“The magnitude and allocation of increases in auction sizes will depend in part on projections for the fiscal outlook,” Monique Rollins, Treasury’s acting assistant secretary for financial markets, said in a statement.Rollins said Treasury anticipated “gradual adjustments” to its nominal coupon and 2-year floating rate note issues.U.S. Treasury yields declined after the refunding announcement.The Fed announced in September a plan to start reducing the U.S. central bank’s more than $4 billion balance sheet in October, part of a multi-year process to ease a monetary stimulus program aimed at fighting the 2007-2009 recession.That means the Treasury will eventually have to issue more bonds to private investors rather than to the central bank, a process that will put upward pressure on Treasury yields.On Wednesday, the Treasury said it was offering $62 billion in securities to refund approximately $42.7 billion in privately-held maturing Treasury notes.The Treasury also will face pressure to pay the government’s bills if President Donald Trump and Congress allow a limit on federal borrowing to expire on Dec. 8.If Washington fails to renew Treasury’s borrowing authority, the department may only have enough money to pay all the nation’s bills through January, Rollins said, repeating a timeline previously announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.While brushing up against the debt ceiling has become a fixture of U.S. political life in recent years, missing payments could trigger calamity in financial markets and an economic recession.“It is currently too early to provide a more precise forecast” on how long Treasury can pay all the bills without renewed borrowing authority, Rollins said. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Paul Simao) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-debt-refunding/update-1-u-s-treasury-plans-to-announce-auction-size-changes-in-february-idINL2N1N70LU'|'2017-11-01T09:58:00.000+02:00'
'88e93506c65ce93b99ed27f80e22530fcf1e976f'|'Barclays security head Oerting takes leave of absence - sources'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:09 PM / in 15 minutes Barclays security head Oerting takes leave of absence - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Troels Oerting, the head of cyber and information security at Britain’s Barclays Plc, has taken a leave of absence, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - A man rides a bicycle past a Barclays bank in London August 5, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett Oerting, a former Europol cybercrime expert, was not immediately available for comment but one source said his move was not related to an investigation into an attempt by Chief Executive Jes Staley to unmask a whistleblower at Barclays. Oerting, who was appointed as Barclays’ chief security officer and head of information security in January, had been asked by Staley to identify the author of an anonymous letter that made allegations about a senior banker. Staley, who has apologised for his actions, and Barclays are being investigated by UK and U.S. regulators over the affair, which the bank’s board heard about in early 2017. Barclays has reprimanded Staley and said it would cut his bonus over the incident, but it has resisted calls to fire him for what Chairman John McFarlane has called an “honest” mistake. Barclays’ global head of whistleblowing Jonathan Cox left the bank last month after dropping an employment lawsuit over alleged whistleblowing rule breaches. Oerting did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him via LinkedIn. Reporting by Lawrence White and Kirstin Ridley; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-barclays-oerting/barclays-security-head-oerting-takes-leave-of-absence-sources-idUKKBN1D15JM'|'2017-11-01T20:09:00.000+02:00'
'78074c7b40d6d3e86d72e833ad8908e65dbba958'|'MetLife operating income falls, authorises $2 billion buyback'|'(Reuters) - MetLife Inc ( MET.N ) reported a 13.8 percent fall in quarterly operating income on Wednesday, hurt by a charge related to the spin off of its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial, and the insurer authorised a $2 billion share buyback plan.FILE PHOTO: The MetLife building is seen in New York, March 8, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo MetLife said that it intends to divest its remaining Brighthouse Financial Inc ( BHF.O ) common stock through an exchange offer for MetLife common stock during 2018.The quarter included the results of Brighthouse’s final month with MetLife before the spinoff became effective on Aug. 4, following which MetLife ceded the title of the largest U.S. life insurer by assets to Prudential Financial ( PRU.N ).New York-based MetLife booked a third-quarter charge of $1.1 billion related to the Brighthouse spinoff, more than the $1 billion it had previously estimated. [L4N1KP5S4]The third quarter is the first indication of how MetLife may perform without Brighthouse, whose assets include variable annuities, which led to swings in MetLife’s overall performance.“A lot of that volatility went out the door with Brighthouse,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Sean Dargan said before the company released its results.Net operating income, which excludes investment and derivative gains or losses, fell to $1.17 billion, or $1.09 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $1.36 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.Analysts on an average were expecting a quarterly profit of 90 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.MetLife’s operating costs increased 4.6 percent to $14.99 billion.Variable investment income dropped nearly 20 percent to $236 million due to the sale of a real estate joint venture interest in the prior year period and lower prepayment fee income, the insurer said.Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/metlife-results/metlife-operating-income-falls-authorizes-2-billion-buyback-idINKBN1D15UG'|'2017-11-01T17:34:00.000+02:00'
'bff18de385192e9917c1b66bd139d7218b1d845d'|'Hundreds line up in Sydney for Apple iPhone X launch'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:10 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Long lines for iPhone X help push Apple shares to record high Angela Moon , Eric Auchard 6 Min Read NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shoppers surged into Apple Inc stores across the world on Friday to buy the new iPhone X, signaling stronger demand for the 10th anniversary version of the premium smartphone than the last two iterations. Investors and analysts took the swell of interest, alongside the company’s better-than-expected sales forecast for the upcoming holiday shopping season, as signs that Apple could be the first ever company worth $1 trillion. Apple’s shares rose 3 percent on Friday, hitting a record high and giving the world’s most valuable publicly traded company a market capitalization of almost $890 billion. “I can’t wait to get to my office and plug it in, back it up and play around with it,” said Jordan Shapiro, a 34-year-old recruiter from New Jersey who was one of the first to get into Apple’s flagship store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, at the head of a line that stretched for a block. Jasmine Rivera, a 16-year-old from Las Vegas, said getting one of the new phones was the highlight of her New York trip with her aunt. “I’m so excited and can’t wait to show this to my friends,” she said. “I’m especially excited about the camera quality and facial recognition.” The glass-and-stainless-steel device that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has billed as “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” starts at $999 in the United States. The handset features an edge-to-edge display designed for deeper color rendition and an innovative camera that uses facial recognition to unlock and operate the phone. Cook appeared on TV greeting the first customers in line at the company’s store in Palo Alto, California, about a half-hour drive from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. In nearby San Francisco, about 250 people lined up outside the Apple store in the Union Square shopping district. “I’m feeling good, but my socks are wet,” said Ross Hendrix, 20, one of the first in line after camping out on the sidewalk despite a light rain on Thursday night. GLOBAL EXCITEMENT Similar scenes of excitement occurred earlier in the day in Asia and Europe. In Australia, around 400 people queued outside Apple’s main store in central Sydney to pay A$1,579 ($1,218) for the new phone. Just 30 turned up for the September release of the iPhone 8, an incremental update of the iPhone 7. A man pays to buy new iPhone Xs from those who just bought at Apple Stores, on a street in Hong Kong. REUTERS/Bobby Yip “It’s beautiful bro, what a feeling, I‘m excited,” builder Bishoy Behman, 18, told Reuters after picking up two iPhone X as the first in line. He said he camped outside the store for a week before paying to improve his place in the queue overnight. In Apple’s Omotesando store in Tokyo, some 550 people were waiting in a line stretching to around 600 meters. “I‘m going home, and after having a rest, I’d like to have fun (with the phone),” said first-in-line Yamaura, a 21-year-old college student who spent six days in the queue. In Europe, Apple stores in Amsterdam, Berlin and London saw lines of several hundred fans, while smaller, more subdued crowds were observed at stores in Frankfurt and Paris. Arbitrage traders were also in line in an attempt to take advantage of the strong demand. In Hong Kong, some buyers quickly resold iPhone X handsets for a profit, but the resale premium eased as waiting times fell and supply concerns eased. Slideshow (21 Images) Newly purchased iPhone X were reselling for HK$11,800 ($1,512) soon after sales began, but the price quickly fell to HK$10,300, a trader told Reuters. In mainland China - where Hong Kong traders often sell newly purchased goods - the anniversary model’s starting price is 8,388 yuan ($1,267). SUPPLY CLOSER TO DEMAND Analysts had expressed concern that supply issues might stop Apple satisfying early demand. The camera, for instance, has never before been manufactured in the volume Apple demands. But Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters on Thursday that Apple was “quite happy” with how manufacturing of the iPhone X was progressing. “Production is growing every week, and that’s very, very important during a ramp period,” he said. Demand and supply for the iPhone X appear to be coming back into balance, according to Apple’s online store. While last week users trying to order the iPhone X were told they faced waits up to five to six weeks, these delays are now three to four weeks. The rush of interest in the new phone came after Apple issued an upbeat sales forecast for the year-end holiday shopping season on Thursday. Wall Street welcomed that outlook, and five analysts now have stock price targets that would move Apple’s market value past $1 trillion. Friday’s lines signaled the company was “on track for a pretty good replacement cycle” said Edison Investment Research analyst Richard Windsor, but he questioned whether the new model sales will be as large as prior iPhone upgrade cycles. “We do not think that the iPhone X will offer a cycle nearly as big as the iPhone 6 and my concern is that this is what the market is looking for,” said Windsor, who actively tracks all the major players in the global smartphone industry. Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney, Pei Li in Beijing, Nadine Schimroszik in Berlin, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Munsif Vengattil in Bangalore, Eric Auchard in Frankfurt, Angela Moon in New York and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Teppei Kasai, Will Ziebell, Carmel Yang and Bobby Yip; Writing by Jane Wardell and Eric Auchard; Editing by Stephen Coates and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone/hundreds-line-up-in-sydney-for-apple-iphone-x-launch-idUKKBN1D22Y2'|'2017-11-03T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'ea81808a1bbc2f6772ed90d1468daa8d07376bdf'|'Sony shares soar to 9-year high after forecast of record profit'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:07 AM / in an hour Record profit forecast for a resurgent Sony sends shares to nine-year high Thomas Wilson 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Sony Corp soared to a nine-year high on Wednesday after it forecast record earnings that have vindicated its restructuring efforts and raised expectations of sustained momentum in profitability. Sony Corp''s logo is seen at its news conference in Tokyo, Japan November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Under Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, the tech and entertainment giant has streamlined unprofitable electronics businesses and capitalized on the spread of smartphones with its image sensors. Citing robust sales of image sensors as well as high-end TVs, Sony hiked its full-year operating profit outlook to 630 billion yen ($5.5 billion), up 26 percent from an earlier forecast and 7.5 percent higher than an average analyst estimate. “Image sensors will be used in a wide range of areas, and the market is very large,” said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. “Profitability is increasing, and in the mid- to long-term we expect the stock price to reach its 2007 level of 7,190 yen.” Sony’s stock rose as much as 11.6 percent to its highest level since June 2008, becoming the most traded firm by turnover on Tokyo’s main board. In afternoon trade, it was up 9.8 percent at 4,846 yen, giving it a market capitalization of around $54 billion. The new forecast is 20 percent above its current profit record, set two decades ago when strong sales of consumer electronics dovetailed with the popularity of its first PlayStation games console and its “Men in Black” box-office hit. To develop new profit drivers, the firm has also boosted investment in artificial intelligence and is expanding its consumer products portfolio. It unveiled its Xperia Hello! voice-activated communication robot this month and on Wednesday said it was reviving its robotic dog AIBO that went on sale in 1999. It also aims to lead the budding virtual-reality market by drawing on the content portion of its business such as music and film. Combined with resurgent demand for consumer audio products sparked by the rise of streaming services from Spotify to Apple Inc’s Apple Music, the focus on cutting-edge technology augurs well for future profits, said Macquarie analyst Damian Thong. “They should also push into 3D sensors which will be useful for augmented reality and the applications that surround that.” “Great products, plus great brand, delivering great profitability,” he added. “It’s not rocket science perhaps, but for a long time, Sony seemed to have forgotten this magic formula.” Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sony-stocks/sony-shares-soar-to-nine-year-high-after-forecast-of-record-profit-idUKKBN1D139C'|'2017-11-01T04:32:00.000+02:00'
'5aa225768d74e1e822e82310ddffc73c35ccf781'|'OPEC likely to keep oil supply curbs for whole of 2018 - sources'|'  4:58 PM / in 7 minutes OPEC likely to keep oil supply curbs for whole of 2018 - sources Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC is likely to stay the course by keeping its current curb on oil production in place for the whole of 2018 despite potential output disruptions next year, Gulf OPEC sources said. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, have cut overall output by about 1.8 million bpd since January. The pact runs to March 2018, but the producers are considering extending it. OPEC is scheduled to next meet at its headquarters in Vienna on Nov. 30. Venezuela’s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day per month since last year, is on track to fall an additional 240,000 bpd next year as U.S. sanctions and a lack of infrastructure investment hobbles operations. Oil flow from other OPEC members such as Nigeria and Libya continue to see supply disruption. But Saudi Arabia and OPEC are unlikely to raise output elsewhere next year to compensate for this decline as the exporting group wants to remain focused on reducing the level of oil stocks in OECD industrialized countries to their five-year average, one OPEC source familiar with Saudi thinking on its oil policy said. “OPEC is likely to stay the course for the rest of 2018. We want to see commercial stocks going down,” the source said. Another OPEC source said there was a high risk of a supply drop from Venezuela next year but that does not necessarily mean that OPEC will raise output elsewhere to make up for the decline. The first OPEC source said that output from the Latin American OPEC nation could fall in 2018 by 300,000-600,000 bpd, adding that the risk of supply disruptions from other OPEC producers such as Libya and Nigeria also remained high. “The feeling in OPEC is that $60 (a barrel) should be the floor for oil prices next year,” the first source said. The market has been concerned that once the supply cut deal comes to an end producers will increase supplies again, causing prices to fall. But Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih last week raised the prospect of prolonged restraint once the pact ends, as the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined to reduce inventories further through the OPEC-led deal. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman told Reuters last week that the kingdom supports the idea of extending the OPEC-led pact. Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-saudi/opec-likely-to-keep-oil-supply-curbs-for-whole-of-2018-sources-idUKKBN1D15CE'|'2017-11-01T18:57:00.000+02:00'
'0b472484947e79e69aa47b653550347d91fe50a5'|'Stratex shareholders block Crusader mining deal'|'* Stratex says CEO has left with immediate effect* Will make further announcement in due courseLONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Shareholders of miner Stratex International have blocked a reverse takeover of Australian-listed Crusader Resources and voted chief executive Marcus Engelbrecht out of office.Engelbrecht had said the acquisition of Crusader Resources and its gold projects in Brazil would be transformative, but he encountered opposition from shareholders who said it did not make sense for the largely Africa-focused company to diversify into Brazil, where Stratex does not have experience.In a statement on Wednesday Stratex said Engelbrecht had left the company with immediate effect and the company would make further announcements in due course.A group of rebel shareholders had led opposition to the board and have also put forward a development plan that would merge Thani Stratex Resources Limited (TSRL), in which Stratex holds a 30 percent stake, with Stratex.David Hall, chief executive of TSRL and a Stratex shareholder with a more than 2 percent stake, was behind the development plan. He said he would be happy to step in as overall CEO if asked and that Wednesday’s vote was “a victory for shareholders”.Until this week the biggest shareholder was South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti with 11.49 percent, but Reuters data shows it has sold its stake.Analysts at SP Angel said the development plan appeared to be a better proposition for Stratex shareholders.“It looks a whole lot better than paying a 63 percent premium on Crusader shares and suffering 81 percent dilution for a low-grade gold asset in Brazil and an unproven exploration project in a country where Stratex has had no previous infrastructure,” they said in a note. (Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Tanisha Heiberg in Johannesburg; Editing by David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/stratex-crusader/stratex-shareholders-block-crusader-mining-deal-idINL8N1N07WB'|'2017-11-01T14:33:00.000+02:00'
'f6cdfea689c921bf4dbc3fc19233495d449958cc'|'Japan''s retail sales show strength in consumer spending'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:12 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Japan''s retail sales show strength in consumer spending Stanley White 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s retail sales rose in September at the fastest pace in three months as shoppers spent more on clothes and daily goods in a sign that consumer spending remains strong due to a tight labour market. Shoppers line up in front of cashiers at the Don Quijote''s central branch store in Tokyo May 28, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo The 2.2 percent annual increase in retail sales in September was less than the median estimate for a 2.5 percent annual increase and follows a revised 1.8 percent annual increase in August. Strong consumer spending makes it more likely that consumer prices will accelerate in the future, which supports the Bank of Japan’s argument that it can afford to keep its monetary easing unchanged as inflationary pressure gradually builds up. “Consumption in July-September is likely to be a little bit weaker than the previous quarter, but the outlook remains healthy,” said Shuji Tonouchi, senior market economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. “Consumer spending is still in moderate recovery. The labour market will support spending in the future.” Spending on clothes rose 5.0 percent in September from a year ago, the fastest increase in three months, data from the trade ministry showed on Monday. Spending on daily goods like soap and shampoo rose an annual 1.2 percent, versus a 0.4 percent annual decline in the previous month. The BOJ is expected to signal that it will hold off on expanding stimulus for the time being at a policy meeting ending on Tuesday. The policy meeting comes after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s victory in a lower house election, which heightened expectations the BOJ’s ultra-loose policy - a key pillar of his “Abenomics” stimulus policies - will continue. Core consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in September from a year ago, which is distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target, although the central bank argues that consumer prices will eventually pick up because of the tight labour market and wage growth, albeit slow. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-retail/japans-retail-sales-show-strength-in-consumer-spending-idINKBN1D1370'|'2017-11-01T02:12:00.000+02:00'
'e434e389ca8a2b3813f0e54f88cb0a0348e0a6f2'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks start November with record, oil rally continues'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:00 PM / Updated 2 hours ago GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks start November with record, oil rally continues Reuters Staff * Optimism on earnings, global growth boost shares * European stocks at two-year high * Fed meeting, decision on next Fed chief in spotlight * Oil prices hit highest level since mid-2015 (Updates with U.S. market open, changes dateline; previous LONDON) By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - World stock markets scaled to a fresh high on Wednesday, boosted by solid corporate earnings and a climb in energy-related stocks as oil prices hit their highest in more than two years. MSCI’s gauge of stock markets across the globe, fresh on the heels of a record twelfth straight month of gains, advanced ahead of a policy announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged amid speculation over who will be its next leader, but will likely point to a firming economy as it edges closer to a possible rate rise next month. Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy remained on solid footing ahead of Friday’s payrolls report. Although a measure of factory activity lost ground as hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, another report showed private sector hiring surged. “You look around and it causes you to look over your shoulder like why is everything so great,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. “We are still enjoying the sunshine, we may need to put on a little more sunblock - valuations may be a little over our skis.” Shares of Japanese multinational Sony soared as much as 12.3 percent to a nine-year high after the electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best ever annual profit. U.S. listed shares of the stock were up 0.5 percent at $43.65. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46.16 points, or 0.2 percent, to 23,423.4, the S&P 500 gained 4.62 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,579.88 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 6.72 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,720.95. After the closing bell in the U.S., earnings are expected from Facebook, which was up 0.94 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. On Thursday, earnings are expected from iPhone maker Apple Inc. Of 326 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 73 percent topped analyst expectations, compared with 72 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data. The earnings growth estimate for the quarter is currently at 7 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.54 percent after touching its highest level since August 2015 and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.46 percent. A rise in oil prices to their highest level since mid-2015 also served to boost energy names. Crude climbed as data showed OPEC has significantly improved compliance with its pledged supply cuts and Russia is also widely expected to keep to the deal. U.S. crude rose 0.29 percent to $54.54 per barrel and Brent was last at $60.98, up 0.07 percent on the day. The S&P energy index gained 1.2 percent, on track for their best day since late September, while in Europe basic resources stocks jumped 2.9 percent. Wednesday’s rate decision comes just before an expected announcement of the next head of the central bank. The White House has said U.S. President Donald Trump will announce his Fed pick on Thursday. Market participants widely expect it to be Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is considered more dovish on interest rates than some other candidates and thus relatively stock-market friendly. The dollar index rose 0.17 percent, with the euro down 0.14 percent to $1.1628. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 5/32 in price to yield 2.3595 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Tuesday. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-stocks-start-november-with-record-oil-rally-continues-idUSL8N1N753J'|'2017-11-01T17:58:00.000+02:00'
'6684c4af426ee08328f03387840bda5ef9bfde1f'|'Indian petcoke ban to boost coal imports amid already tight market'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:33 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Indian petcoke ban to boost coal imports amid already tight market Sudarshan Varadhan , Henning Gloystein 4 Min Read NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A ban on petroleum coke around New Delhi starting from Wednesday will require the country to raise its imports of coal to replace the fuel, just as Asia is heading into the tightest market conditions for coal in years. A worker watches as a loader unloads coal at a yard on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo India’s annual demand for petroleum coke, an energy intensive fuel that emits harmful sulphur oxides and ample carbon dioxide when burned, has doubled to 27 million tonnes in the past four years. The country imports about 14 million tonnes annually, mainly from the United States. Its use was banned around New Delhi to rein in pollution. The country’s environmentalists are trying to stop imports of petroleum coke, known as petcoke, which emits sulphur oxides that are known to cause lung disease and acid rain. To replace petcoke, industries from dyeing units to brick kilns are switching to imports of coal. The national capital region alone consumes 2.2 million tonnes of petcoke a year. A country-wide import ban would require replacing 14 million tonnes of petcoke a year with 24 million to 31 million tonnes of coal, according to industry calculations, most of which has to be imported. Jamil Rahman, a coal trader in Madhya Pradesh, said he has been getting enquiries about replacing local petcoke with Indonesian thermal coal. Some enquiries were also made about replacing petcoke with high grade, low-sulphur coal from the U.S., traders said. “Moving to coal is inevitable,” said Lalit Goel, the head of a textile industry body around New Delhi. The increased demand for coal to replace petcoke, which will largely have to be met by imports, coincides with increasing coal consumption in India for power generation. India is the world’s second-biggest buyer of foreign coal even though imports have held steady in the last two years because of rising local output. But demand has picked up in 2017 and coal-fired power plants were left with only five days of inventories on average as of Oct. 26, compared with 15 days at the end of 2016. Workers drill at an open cast coal field at Dhanbad district in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand September 18, 2012. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/File Photo “Indian coal imports will gain momentum in Q4 2017, especially for Indonesian coal,” said Rodrigo Echeverri, head of hard commodities research at Noble Group, at an industry event last week. India’s coal imports will top 18 million tonnes in October for the first time since the middle of 2016, according to ship tracking data on Thomson Reuters Eikon. The jump in imports comes just as other major buyers across Asia have also stepped up purchases. A truck is loaded with top soil at the Jharia burning coal field at Dhanbad district in the eastern state of Jharkhand, India, September 17, 2012. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/File Photo Overall Asian coal imports rose above 80 million tonnes in October, after stagnating between 60 million and 70 million tonnes a month for the last two years, the tracking data shows. As a result, traders now expect the first coal supply shortfall in years, and spot Newcastle coal prices at the Australian port of Newcastle have been hovering around $100 per tonne for weeks. That is up from just over $70 in the middle of the year and around $50 in the first half of 2016, before coal markets first started tightening after years of slump. BOON FOR MINERS The tight market is a concern for consumers just as the peak winter demand in the northern hemisphere looms. But the rising demand is a boon for specialist thermal coal suppliers such as Swiss commodity merchant and miner Glencore, Australia’s Whitehaven Coal, and Indonesia’s Adaro Energy, whose stocks have far outperformed those of diversified miners like BHP Billiton or Rio Tinto. Demand is so strong that a traffic jam of dry-bulk carriers has built up off the eastern and southern coasts of Indonesia’s island of Kalimantan, one of the world’s biggest coal mining regions. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows that over 100 ships are currently waiting off the region’s coal ports, either loading or waiting to take on coal. “Indian utilities have been buying a lot of low calorific coal recently, supplied mainly from Indonesia. The ships are now off Kalimantan waiting to load,” said one trader involved in exporting Indonesian coal. Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in NEW DELHI and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-coal/indian-petcoke-ban-to-boost-coal-imports-amid-already-tight-market-idINKBN1D14UM'|'2017-11-01T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'1c007149d795b0b1b9933716d4d5f57a07ac8802'|'Tesla gives wishy-washy outlook for Model 3 production issues'|'Tesla releases Model 3 Tesla''s first mass market car has been beset with manufacturing issues -- and there'' s no end in sight. The electric carmaker issued its latest earnings report Wednesday, and the firm did little to assuage investors'' concerns that Tesla would be able to significantly ramp up Model 3 production in the near future. The company''s stock price sunk more nearly 5% during after-hours trading. "While we continue to make significant progress each week in fixing Model 3 bottlenecks, the nature of manufacturing challenges during a ramp such as this makes it difficult to predict exactly how long it will take for all bottlenecks to be cleared or when new ones will appear," the company said in a letter to investors. Tesla ( TSLA ) was already facing backlash from its shareholders over production of the Model 3, which is the first vehicle that''s priced more for the average consumer at $35,000. At least one lawsuit has been filed by investors. Related: Tesla sued for Model 3 delays Tesla previously said it would make 1,500 Model 3''s during the last quarter, but the firm dramatically undershot that goal. It churned out just 260, Tesla said earlier this month. The company said "a handful" of assembly lines had taken "longer to activate than expected." Based on figures in Tesla''s latest earnings letter, the company isn''t expecting to reach its initial goal of making 5,000 Model 3''s per week until sometime next year. Tesla, which rarely turns a profit, posted a net loss of $619 million for the quarter. Among investor worries: The Wall Street Journal reported on October 6, citing unnamed sources, that "as recently as early September major portions of the Model 3" were being built by hand. At the time, Tesla denied the report. "Every vehicle manufacturing line in the world has both manual and automated processes," said the company''s Tuesday statement. "As we''ve always acknowledged, it will take time to fine-tune the line for higher volumes." Related: Tesla fired union supporters, UAW charges Production issues have been par for the course at Tesla practically since Day 1. Similar problems ramping up production also plagued the company''s first two car models -- the Model S sedan and the Model X SUV. In July, as Tesla delivered the first batch of Model 3''s to employees, Musk admitted the company went through " production hell " to bring all three of its cars to market. With a simpler, streamlined designed, the Model 3 was designed to make the manufacturing process easier. On Wednesday, however, the company admitted that because "the Model 3 production process will be vastly more automated than the production process of Model S, Model X [...] bringing this level of automation online is simply challenging in the early stages of the ramp." Despite the production woes, Tesla has still had a phenomenal year in terms of stock performance. Its shares are up more than 50% so far in 2017. And the company says there''s no signs of demand slowing down. "We received record net orders for Model S and Model Xs" last quarter, Tesla said in its earnings letter, which later added, "Demand for Model 3 is not going to be a constraint for quite a long time." --CNNMoney''s Chris Isidore contributed to this report.   5:09 PM ET'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/01/technology/business/tesla-earnings-model-3-production/index.html'|'2017-11-02T00:24:00.000+02:00'
'0b1c98f9917c7d0bb50051420feb72747d147f2e'|'Asia shares extend gains on economic optimism, oil firm'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Stocks hit high after record run; Fed holds rates steady Chuck Mikolajczak 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets climbed to a fresh high on Wednesday, boosted by solid corporate earnings, while yields on U.S. Treasuries were little changed after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady.   rates   downplaying   MSCI’s gauge of stock markets held gains in the wake of the announcement, although the index was off a high hit earlier in the session.   little changed after the announcement. Next up for the central bank is the expected announcement on Thursday for a new Fed chair nominee from U.S. President Donald Trump. Market participants widely expect it to be Fed   who is considered more dovish on interest rates than some other candidates and thus relatively stock-market friendly. “The pending announcement regarding the new chair seems to be overshadowing most everything,” said Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. “The overarching uncertainty around the decision and then potentially the news of the new chairperson, equities are probably kind of hedging their bets, so to speak.” Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy remained on solid footing ahead of Friday’s payrolls report. Although a measure of factory activity lost ground as hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, another report showed private sector hiring surged. Shares of Japanese multinational Sony soared as much as 12.3 percent to a nine-year high after the electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best-ever annual profit. U.S. listed shares of the stock were up 0.7 percent at $43.70. A trader laughs as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 52.54 points, or 0.22 percent, to 23,429.78, the S&P 500 gained 5 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,580.26 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.08 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,712.59. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 1/32 in price to yield 2.3721 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Tuesday. After the closing bell in the United States, earnings are expected from Facebook, which was up 0.87 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. On Thursday, earnings are expected from iPhone maker Apple Inc. Of 326 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 73 percent topped analyst expectations, compared with 72 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data. The earnings growth estimate for the quarter is currently at 7 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.43 percent after touching its highest level since August 2015 and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.32 percent. A rise in oil prices to their highest level since mid-2015 also served to boost energy names. Oil prices retreated, however, after U.S. government data showed that the latest weekly draw in domestic crude stocks was not as big as an industry trade group had reported. U.S. crude fell 0.22 percent to $54.26 per barrel and Brent was last at $60.41, down 0.87 percent on the day. The S&P energy index gained 0.9 percent, on track for the best day since late September, while in Europe basic resources stocks jumped 2.7 percent. The dollar index rose 0.26 percent, with the euro down 0.25 percent to $1.1615. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-shares-extend-gains-on-economic-optimism-oil-firm-idUKKBN1D1396'|'2017-11-01T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'd52d14470b1959cc01e55847bc60c1d145d07b3b'|'Japan Inc gingerly embraces more foreigners - The wa forward'|'MICHAEL WOODFORD, the first non-Japanese president of Olympus, likened the camera-maker’s board members who sacked him in 2011 to “children in a classroom”. Mr Woodford had confronted Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the company’s imperious chairman, over a $1.7bn hole in its finances. Mr Kikukawa responded by orchestrating a show of hands in a boardroom coup that sent the Englishman packing. It all fitted a cliché of Japan’s boardrooms as an all-Japanese, all-male club where wizened bosses ruthlessly enforce wa , or harmony.Gradually, the serenity is being disrupted. Nearly 15% of companies in the Nikkei 225 stock index now have at least one non-Japanese on their boards. That is still less than half the share in Britain’s FTSE 100, but it is up from 12% in 2013 and the trajectory seems set. Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ, and Takeda, its largest pharmaceuticals company (which in 2015 appointed its first foreign chief executive, a Frenchman) announced the appointment of foreign directors this year. Of the ten directors at SoftBank, a telecoms and internet giant, seven are non-Japanese. 8 When Japanese firms buy Western competitors, they often absorb foreigners into their higher echelons. Suntory, a drinks company, put the British chief executive of Beam, a spirits-maker, onto its board in 2014 when it acquired the American company. SoftBank’s embrace of foreigners reflects a diverse portfolio that includes ARM, a British chipmaker, and Sprint, an American telecoms firm. Greater outside influence over Japanese firms also stems from more overseas investors, who hold about 30% of Japanese shares, up from 23.5% in 2008.But more still needs to be done, and quickly, if large Japanese firms are to maintain global relevance, says George Buckley, an outside director of Hitachi, a conglomerate. Many boards continue to be rubber-stampers, not vigilant overseers of the sort that foreigners expect to sit on, agrees William Saito, a venture capitalist who advises the government. Elderly ex-chairmen and chief executives often wield considerable power even after retirement. (And if corporate giants are excluded, the number of foreigners on boards of listed firms has barely inched up, from 0.6% in 2001 to 0.8% last year.)Livelier boardrooms might help prod Japan’s risk-averse companies to invest more of their ¥214trn ($1.9trn) of cash, and boost the economy. Their foreign operations would also benefit from appointing more non-Japanese as business heads. In the past the easiest way for Japan’s manufacturers to control subsidiaries abroad was to send people they knew. That may not work for services, warns Masahiko Uotani, president of Shiseido, a cosmetics company. “You need people who can really understand local tastes,” he counsels.Unless Japanese business changes its ways, firms risk staying dangerously out of touch, agrees Christina Ahmadjian, a non-executive director at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, another conglomerate. The number of Japanese companies in the Fortune Global 500, a scorecard for big business, has dropped from 149 in 1995 to 51. A bit of disharmony can be productive. "The wa forward"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730902-big-firms-are-putting-non-japanese-their-boards-japan-inc-gingerly-embraces-more-foreigners?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'3e4fe62dd780028bc168bd1bc931530ed758d782'|'SocGen increases provisions for legal disputes'|' 49 AM / in 10 minutes SocGen increases provisions for legal disputes Maya Nikolaeva 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) said on Friday that resolving two out of three key legal disputes with U.S. authorities was a matter of the coming weeks and months, as it tacked on 300 million euros ($350 million) to its litigation reserves. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the logo on the headquarters of French bank Societe Generale at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris, France, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo The French bank is seeking to reassure the market before its medium-term strategy presentation on Nov. 28, as investors fret that pending legal disputes, for which the bank has set aside 2.2 billion euros, could hurt its dividends distribution. SocGen also reported a 15 percent fall in third-quarter net income to 932 million euros, below analysts’ estimates of 1.00 billion euros according to a Reuters poll, as it gave an update on litigation issues related to the Libya Investment Authority (LIA) and the Interbank Offered Rate (IBOR). “Societe Generale is currently in discussions with the U.S. authorities over two litigations, LIA and IBOR, in order to reach an agreement to resolve these matters, and has decided, as a precautionary measure, to increase the provision for disputes,” SocGen said in a statement. SocGen has been in talks with U.S. authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, in connection with investigations regarding submissions to the British Bankers Association for setting certain London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and submissions to the European Banking Federation for setting the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor). It is also awaiting a potential follow-up in the U.S. on the dispute with the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) which was settled at a London court for 1 billion euros in May. In May, SocGen - France’s second-biggest listed bank behind BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) - reached an 11th-hour settlement over LIA allegations that trades were secured as part of a “fraudulent and corrupt scheme” involving the payment of $58.5 million by SocGen to a Panamanian-registered company. But those two disputes may not mark the end of SocGen’s legal woes, with the bank still in talks with U.S. authorities over dollar transfers it made on behalf of entities based in countries subject to economic sanctions. The uncertainty over litigation comes with its profits squeezed by revenue pressure in French retail banking, due to a low interest rate environment and investments in digital technologies this year, as well as a slump in trading. SocGen confirmed its guidance for a 3 to 3.5 percent fall in French retail banking revenue, which has been weighed down by mortgage renegotiations and prepayments. Revenue at its investment banking arm slumped 15 percent, mirroring results at other banks, with BNP Paribas this week also reporting a drop in fixed income trading. “The first signs of a slowdown observed in Q2 intensified, with sluggish trading activity in August and a late rebound at the end of the quarter,” said SocGen. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-socgen-results/socgen-increases-provisions-for-legal-disputes-idUKKBN1D30FD'|'2017-11-03T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'5635012c61dee612545210d06261d3da5ac09166'|'If rates rise, hangover looms for some Britons after 10-year credit binge'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:15 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago If rates rise, hangover looms for some Britons after 10-year credit binge Emma Rumney , Lawrence White 6 Min   Millions of Britons are set to experience the first interest rate rise of their adult lives on Thursday, and for some of those who loaded up on cheap credit to pay for cars or cards, that could spell trouble. FILE PHOTO - A man holds his mobile phone outside the Bank of England in London, Britain, October 17,   McKay The Bank of England is widely expected to hike borrowing costs for the first time in a decade, signalling an end to years of low rates that fuelled a rise in ultra-cheap credit and heavy borrowing on loans, cards and, most notably, cars. Regulators have clamped down on many of the riskier lending activities that thrived before 2008, from ‘payday’ loans with annual interest of over 5,000 percent to self-certified mortgages. Others, like motor finance, have risen to take their place. Bankers and economists warn that those most indebted could begin skipping payments on cars and credit cards, puncturing a consumer debt bubble ten years in the making. A 0.25 percent rate hike would lead to a median increase in monthly outgoings of 20 pounds for consumers who have contacted StepChange in the last year, according to calculations by the debt advice charity. That would push the budgets of up to 7,000 of the charity’s clients into the red, meaning they can no longer cover essential living costs. “Our view is that this isn’t mortgage apocalypse, but there’s a narrow group of people whose household finances are on a knife-edge and a rate hike could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” a spokesman for the charity said. CAR MAKERS EXPOSED Consumer credit has grown much faster than household incomes in the last few years, the Bank of England said in June. In September, it hit 204 billion pounds ($269.52 billion), with car finance the fastest expanding area that now accounts for around 30 percent of the total. Last year, 86.4 percent of all new car purchases utilised some form of credit, up from 46 percent in 2006, according to data from the Financing and Leasing Association. Most deals are done not by banks but through car manufacturers’ finance arms, with those from Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), BMW, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Renault the biggest in the UK by the amounts they are owed by consumers. These have risen from 13.5 billion pounds ($17.81 billion) in 2008 to over 36 billion pounds in 2016 - a 168 percent increase, data from the five firms’ financial statements show. With credit widely available, a small but significant number of borrowers have become overburdened with multiple debts, said Peter Richardson, analyst at Berenberg. Fifteen percent of mortgage loans are worth more than four times the borrower’s income, he said, up from less than five percent in 2005. Most consumer credit is offered on fixed interest rates, so would not be directly impacted by a rate increase. But with around 40 percent of mortgage lending on variable rates - and borrowers more likely to default on other loans than miss payments on their home - even a slight hike could leave the most overstretched people choosing to skip other debt payments. A 0.25 percent interest rate hike would increase the monthly payments on an average floating rate loan of 140,000 pounds by around 15 pounds a month, according to Nationwide. “If you look back at the economics of this ... borrowers with that level of indebtedness become very, very sensitive to shocks, you have much more violent reactions,” Berenberg’s Richardson said. BANKS HAVE GOT STRONGER Cut-throat competition among lenders has driven rates on personal loans down. For example, four lenders - TSB, Zopa, Sainsbury’s Bank and CYBG - offer short term unsecured personal loans of 20,000-25,000 pounds at fixed interest rates of below 3 percent, cheaper than many mortgages. Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Ross McEwan said on Friday growth of 10 percent per year in unsecured credit is unsustainable when wages are growing at just 2 percent. “At some point it needs to slow down.” Bank of England data shows that outstanding lending on credit cards was at an all-time high of 69.4 billion pounds in September and approaching its pre-crisis peak for other credit lines including overdrafts, personal loans and car finance. Outstanding lending on these credit lines hit 134.8 billion pounds in September, compared with 138.2 billion pounds in August 2007. Banks are, however, seen as stronger than when rates last went up in 2007. As part of tougher regulations introduced since 2007, they are now required to hold more capital against their loans. In September, the central bank ordered they increase this by a further 10 billion pounds to protect against potential losses on consumer credit, which it said were being underestimated. Lenders with a particularly high proportion of consumer lending in their overall loan books could still be vulnerable in a downturn, however, ratings agency S&P said in a report last month. It highlighted supermarket-owned lenders Tesco Bank Plc and Sainsbury’s Bank, which both have consumer credit portfolios in excess of 200 percent of their core capital. “Our customer lending is subject to stringent and robust creditworthiness and affordability assessment tests,” a spokesman for Tesco Bank said. “We are a responsible lender with a strong capital base, and a low risk approach to consumer credit,” said a spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s bank. Richardson likened regulatory changes to make banks behave more prudently to street lights on a dark and dangerous road. “We’re now at the bits where the street lights run out.” Reporting By Emma Rumney and Lawrence White; Editing by Mike Collett-White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-finance/if-rates-rise-hangover-looms-for-some-britons-after-10-year-credit-binge-idUKKBN1D15KE'|'2017-11-01T20:14:00.000+02:00'
'99aa6678cbb7eb7e25e90091d9b0af19644a4960'|'China Telecom may spend up to $6 bln to control Brazil''s Oi -source'|'RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - China Telecom Corp may invest up to 20 billion reais($6 billion) to acquire a majority stake in Brazilian carrier Oi SA, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.A potential deal would only happen after the debt-laden company, which filed for Latin America’s largest bankruptcy proceeding 17 months ago, resolves its disputes with creditors, the source added.The person asked for anonymity because is not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly.The future of the company hinges on a creditors assembly on Nov. 10, which will decide on a restructuring plan for 65 billion reais ($20 billion) in debts.Oi did not immediately comment and China Telecom did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.$1 = 3.2985 reais Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Additional reporting by Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/china-telecom-may-spend-up-to-6-bln-to-control-brazils-oi-source-idINL2N1N91GD'|'2017-11-03T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'19e27702225e1b294cfd8673f215249f54a2469c'|'German metals recycler Befesa rises in Frankfurt debut'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Befesa shares rose 3.5 percent by midmorning Friday on the first day of trading of the German metals recylcing group on the Frankfurt stock exchange.Majority-owned by private equity investor Triton, Befesa shares opened at the offer price of 28 euros a share, which had been chosen on Thursday at the low end of 28-38 euro range. (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Tom Sims) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/befesa-ipo/german-metals-recycling-group-befesa-ipo-priced-at-28-euro-share-idINF9N1MO01W'|'2017-11-02T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'e20af629cabd8e97d6c4e33415551683fd097447'|'US STOCKS-S&P flat after tax cut plan; Dow climbs to record'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:26 PM / Updated 6 hours ago US STOCKS-S&P flat after tax cut plan; Dow climbs to record Reuters Staff * Tax bill calls for corporate tax cut to 20 pct from 35 pct * Trump nominates Fed’s Powell to lead U.S. central bank * Facebook declines drag on S&P 500, Nasdaq * Tesla slumps after Model 3 delays, biggest-ever quarterly loss * Dow up 0.35 pct, S&P up 0.02 pct, Nasdaq down 0.02 pct (Updates with close of U.S. market) By Lewis Krauskopf Nov 2 (Reuters) - The Dow industrials climbed to a record high on Thursday while losses in Facebook kept the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq in check as investors assessed the long-awaited tax cut plan unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans. The bill called for slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent but also ending certain tax breaks for companies and individuals. While many market watchers have pointed to a corporate tax cut as further fuel for a record-setting run for equities, investors said the bill was just a starting point with significant negotiations likely ahead. “The message from the market is there are still a lot of unknowns out there,” said William Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee. “It’s kind of hard to draw too many conclusions at this point from what exactly the bill will end up being.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 81.25 points, or 0.35 percent, to 23,516.26, the S&P 500 gained 0.49 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,579.85 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.59 points, or 0.02 percent, to 6,714.94. Gains in shares of industrial stalwarts Boeing and 3M and bank Goldman Sachs helped boost the Dow. The U.S. housing sector tumbled amid concerns over the tax plan’s cap on deductions for mortgages. The PHLX Housing index fell 1.1 percent, with Toll Brothers down 6.1 percent and MDC Holdings off 12.0 percent. Shares of home improvement retailers also fell. Lowe’s dropped 4.1 percent and Home Depot fell 1.6 percent, weighing on the Dow. Trump officially nominated Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell to head the U.S. central bank, a pick that had been widely anticipated. Powell has supported current Chair Janet Yellen’s general direction in setting monetary policy and has been viewed as relatively dovish on interest rates compared to other leading candidates for the post. “I think he was a dovish choice, which probably gave a greater comfort level to investors on Wall Street, although I think his selection had already been baked into the market,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. Third-quarter earnings season was also in focus, with investors citing corporate profit growth as supporting the market’s rally in 2017. With more than three-fourths having reported, S&P 500 companies are expected to have increased profits by 7.7 percent in the third quarter, up from an expectation of 5.9-percent growth at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Facebook shares fell 2.0 percent as investors shrugged off strong quarterly results and worried about the social media company’s spending. The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Tesla Inc shares dropped 6.8 percent after the carmaker pushed back its production target for its Model 3 sedan and reported its biggest quarterly loss ever. Blue Apron shares tumbled 18.6 percent after the meal-kit delivery company reported a bigger quarterly loss than expected. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.29-to-1 ratio favored advancers. About 7.4 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, well above the 6.2 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-sp-flat-after-tax-cut-plan-dow-climbs-to-record-idINL2N1N820H'|'2017-11-02T17:26:00.000+02:00'
'3c2b4d6a3bf2394cc90beaa05d57d981e34b89fa'|'Asatsu-DK says WPP agrees to terminate business alliance'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:04 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago WPP takes legal action in spat with Asatsu-DK over Bain''s $1.3 billion offer Junko Fujita 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP ( WPP.L ) said on Thursday it was taking legal action against its partner Asatsu-DK Inc ( 9747.T ), deepening an acrimonious spat over the Japanese firm’s backing for a $1.3 billion (980.61 million pounds) buyout offer from Bain Capital. WPP, which holds 25 percent of Asatsu-DK, as well as other shareholders have said the bid by the U.S. private equity firm significantly undervalues the company. Last month, Asatsu-DK said it had told WPP that it planned to end their two-decade business alliance and that it had asked WPP to sell its shares to Bain. It argues that according to their contract, if WPP does not sell its shares to Asatsu-DK or a nominated party within a year of Japanese firm’s notification to terminate their alliance, WPP must sell its shares to the general public in the market. In response, the world’s largest advertising agency said on Thursday in an emailed statement that it was seeking arbitration with a Japanese arbitration body and a preliminary injunction with the Tokyo District Court. In both cases, it is asking for a declaration that Asatsu-DK’s planned termination of their business alliance was invalid and that Asatsu-DK had no right to request or require WPP to sell its shares. A representative for Bain said the firm was confident that the contract would stand up in court. Bain has offered 3,660 yen per share in its tender offer, which started Oct.3 and is due to remain open until Nov. 15. It is seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent. Shares in Asatsu-DK, which have traded above that level on hopes that Bain will sweeten its bid, closed down 0.4 percent on Thursday at 3,740 yen. Apart from WPP, London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Company have also said Bain’s offer is too low. Silchester owns 17 percent of Asatsu-DK and Oasis’ holding is less than 5 percent. Asatsu-DK and WPP formed their alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures, cultivate clients together, and exchanged equity stakes, but the Japanese firm says that synergies from the tie-up failed to materialise. ($1 = 113.9100 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/asatsu-dk-says-wpp-agrees-to-terminate-business-alliance-idUKKBN1D203J'|'2017-11-02T03:03:00.000+02:00'
'dab4583f4a23688038f99ec7eb18a72c79a3e71b'|'UK''s Indivior posts profit compared with year-ago loss'|' 24 AM / in 19 minutes UK''s Indivior posts profit compared with year-ago loss Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British drugmaker Indivior ( INDV.L ) posted a quarterly profit compared with a year-ago loss, helped by strength in its U.S. business and lower costs. The maker of drugs that treat opioid addiction posted a net profit of $50 million (£37.8 million), for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $149 million, a year ago. The company said its best-selling drug Suboxone Film’s U.S. marketshare slipped to 58 percent year to date from 61 percent in the same period last year, hurt by competition from generic versions. Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indivior-results/uks-indivior-posts-profit-compared-with-year-ago-loss-idUKKBN1D21E4'|'2017-11-02T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'f2a78baf5859153e8ea0f29788dffbc0bd235a88'|'Howden Joinery''s UK revenue up 8.2 percent'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:47 AM / in 8 minutes Howden Joinery''s UK revenue up 8.2 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British kitchen supplier Howden Joinery ( HWDN.L ) posted an 8.2 percent rise in total UK depots revenue for the 20 weeks to Oct. 28 on Thursday and said it was on track to meet full-year expectations. Britain’s largest manufacturer and supplier of fitted kitchens, appliances and joinery products to small builders said total revenue in the UK in the first 44 weeks of 2017 was up 6.3 percent, and up 4.4 percent on a same depot basis. Howdens UK has opened five new depots since July and is aiming to add around 20 new depots in the UK this year, the company said. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-howden-joinery-outlook/howden-joinerys-uk-revenue-up-8-2-percent-idUKKBN1D20QL'|'2017-11-02T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'0ea5c54cd80036f90241628fa7850c796bf9f254'|'Ralph Lauren''s quarterly revenue slips past estimates'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:22 PM / in an hour Ralph Lauren''s turnaround takes hold as profit, revenue beats Street Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Ralph Lauren Corp’s ( RL.N ) quarterly revenue and profit beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, selling more of its high-end clothes at full price and keeping a lid on costs, sending its shares up more than 5 percent on Thursday. The U.S. flag is reflected over the door at the Ralph Lauren Corp.''s flagship Polo store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, U.S., April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Known for its signature Polo shirts and classic tweed blazers, the company is in the midst of a two-year turnaround plan that seems to be taking hold, as margins and revenue increase across its store-base. “There is finally a faint light at the end of Ralph Lauren’s long tunnel of reinvention,” Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData Retail said. Ralph Lauren’s stock was up 5.4 percent at $94.28. Shares of department store operators and Ralph Lauren customers, Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and Kohl’s ( KSS ) were up nearly 2 percent, while Gap ( GPS.N ) rose up 1.5 percent. Ralph Lauren had been struggling to compete in a brutal retail sector, as fast-fashion apparel brands and a rapid decline in traffic to malls and stores due to the shift to online shopping, knocked established names to the side. The luxury retailer was also hurt by allowing department stores and off-price retailers such as TJX ( TJX.N ) to discount its products heavily. To regain its luxury stature with customers, Ralph Lauren embarked on a two-year cost-cutting plan that included pulling back inventory from department stores and outlets, cutting jobs, and streamlining its management layers to reduce bureaucracy. “In our view, these corrective steps are necessary, even if they do splash the sales line with more red ink,” Saunders said. Adjusted gross margins in the quarter rose 3 percent and revenue per unit sold across its stores climbed 5 percent from last year. Profit before charges beat Wall Street estimates of $1.89 by 10 cents. Sales fell 9 percent to $1.67 billion, hurt in part by its decision to pull back from department stores and factory outlets. But that figure beat analysts’ estimates of $1.65 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company also raised the lower-end of its 2018 operating margin forecast to 9.5 percent to 10.5 percent from its previous expectation of 9 percent to 10.5 percent. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ralph-lauren-results/ralph-laurens-quarterly-revenue-slips-past-estimates-idUSKBN1D21LH'|'2017-11-02T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'008ab1bf17e5db2436f26da1869e7a1e6dae8942'|'Swedish utility Vattenfall gets UK distribution networks licence'|'November 3, 2017 / 9:03   Swedish utility Vattenfall gets UK distribution networks licence Lefteris Karagiannopoulos 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Swedish energy utility Vattenfall [VATN.UL] has won a distribution networks operator licence from Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem and will start operating in the competitive UK market in 2018, Vattenfall said. A Vattenfall cooling plant is seen in Berlin, Germany August 15, 2017. Picture taken August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Vattenfall, one of the biggest wind energy producers in Britain with capacity nearing 1 gigawatt (GW), formed a unit to own and operate the networks to meet the licence requirements. The company would not seek to link up with existing distributors but, like them, it has to be careful with its cost structure in the British market, Annika Viklund, senior vice president of Vattenfall distribution, told Reuters. A potential price cap on the retail energy sector in Britain would challenge energy firms to innovate, Viklund said. “We are not concerned. I think it will sharpen competition,” she added. The British government asked energy market regulator Ofgem this month to come up with a price cap on the retail energy sector that would last until 2020. Having been awarded the licence to operate distribution networks, Vattenfall would now look at increasing its battery storage in Britain, spokesman Jason Ormiston said. “We are currently investigating other opportunities and developing an overall battery storage strategy for the UK,” he said. One potential battery storage investment the firm is considering will be a 10 megawatt (MW) facility at the recently completed Ray wind farm in northern England. Vattenfall is already building a 22 MW storage project at its Pen y Cymoedd onshore wind farm in Wales, which is scheduled to be operational in February 2018. Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-power-vattenfall/swedish-utility-vattenfall-gets-uk-distribution-networks-licence-idUKKBN1D30Q1'|'2017-11-03T11:03:00.000+02:00'
'9f4d2fbb5ea26ea4d1d5948f2eab3ab5c567ae16'|'Exclusive: Karstadt owner Signa makes $3.5 billion bid for Hudson''s Bay''s Kaufhof - sources'|'(Reuters) - Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay Co ( HBC.TO ) said on Wednesday it had received a bid for its German department store chain Kaufhof from Signa Holding, the Austrian property and retail group that owns Karstadt, another German retail chain.The shopping mall "Galeria Kaufhof" in Frankfurt, Germany, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The announcement came after Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday, citing sources, that Signa had made a 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) offer for Kaufhof. Hudson’s Bay did not comment on the bid’s value, and Signa declined to comment.Signa’s offer comes one week after Hudson’s Bay agreed to sell its flagship Lord & Taylor building in New York for $850 million to WeWork Cos.The Reuters sources said that Signa expects Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay, which has been reluctant so far to engage in negotiations to sell Kaufhof, to respond to the offer by the middle of November.Hudson’s Bay called the offer incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited, with no evidence of financing.The sources said that in its offer letter to Hudson’s Bay, Signa stated its bid for Kaufhof would not be contingent on any third-party financing, since it already has 700 million euros in approved financing from European banks, and also has cash available from a 1 billion euro equity raise last month.Signa has also offered to assume all of Kaufhof’s liabilities, including a 1.34 billion euro real estate loan by German bank LBBW, the sources added.Hudson’s Bay said it plans to review the offer in due course. It added that its European business is an important element of the company’s strategy, and that it remains focused on executing its strategy and plans for the upcoming holiday season.At a valuation of 3 billion euros including debt, Signa’s bid values Kaufhof’s real estate at 2.63 billion euros, the sources said.The sources asked not to be identified because details of the offer are confidential.Hudson’s Bay shares ended trading on Wednesday up 9 percent at C$12.29 on the news, giving the company a market capitalization of C$2.1 billion ($1.6 billion).Signa tried to buy Kaufhof in 2015, but Hudson’s Bay outbid it by paying 2.5 billion euros including debt for the German chain and its Belgian subsidiary. Since then, Kaufhof’s finances have deteriorated, to the point where vendors are finding it more difficult to find trade credit insurance to make shipments.Hudson’s Bay financed the acquisition of Kaufhof by using a joint venture that acquired Kaufhof’s real estate and became its landlord. Hudson’s Bay kept a 63 percent stake in the joint venture, and sold the rest to other major investors, including Simon Property Group Inc ( SPG.N ).This financial engineering backfired, as Kaufhof struggled to cope with the higher rents the joint venture imposed, as well as declining foot traffic in stores. Kaufhof is now trying to convince labor unions in Germany to accept steep pay cuts, a tough ask ahead of the holiday shopping season.Hudson’s Bay said last week it would raise C$1.6 billion ($1.24 billion) through divestiture of the Lord & Taylor building, as well as an equity investment in Hudson’s Bay by private equity firm Rhone Capital. Earlier this week, it also said a joint venture between Hudson’s Bay and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust ( REI_u.TO ) was exploring a sale of a store property in Toronto.Selling Kaufhoff would release Hudson’s Bay from its liabilities and provide an infusion of cash into the loss-making company at a time when retailers throughout North America are being squeezed by price competition from e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ).LANDS AND BUILDINGS ADDS TO PRESSURE Hudson’s Bay remains under pressure from activist hedge fund Land and Buildings, which says the company’s vast real estate portfolio would deliver more value to shareholders if it was sold or used for purposes other than retail.“Hudson’s Bay board of directors should, consistent with its fiduciary duties, seriously consider the reported Signa fully financed 3.0 billion euro offer for Hudson’s Bay European business, which is above the Company’s purchase price and stated net asset value,” Lands and Buildings CEO Jonathan Litt said in a statement.Litt also criticized Hudson’s Bay’s deal last week with Rhone Capital, arguing that there was no reason for the company to opt for a dilutive share issuance when there appeared to be superior sources of capital available.Privately held Signa, founded 17 years ago by property developer Rene Benko, now runs more than 125 retail locations in Northern Europe, generating annual revenue of about 3.8 billion euros, according to its website. It owns a big real estate portfolio with a gross asset value of more than 10 billion euros.Signa bought Karstadt from the brink of bankruptcy in 2014 for the nominal consideration of just one euro from its majority owner Nicolas Berggruen, son of an international art dealer.Signa restored Karstadt to profitability: realigning its offerings closer to the tastes of German consumers, cutting costs and making operations more efficient. Karstadt and Kaufhof are now the two largest department store operators in Germany.Last month, Signa said it had completed an equity raise of 1 billion euros, giving it more firepower to pursue acquisitions.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Carl O''Donnell in New York; Additional reporting by Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf; Editing by David Gregorio and Frances Kerry '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hudson-s-bay-kaufhof-signa-exclusive/exclusive-karstadt-owner-signa-makes-3-5-billion-bid-for-hudsons-bays-kaufhof-sources-idINKBN1D14ZJ'|'2017-11-01T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'19c3c664be9f83e3c79368864d5ab24211a8efb2'|'Former U.S. EXIM opponent Garrett vows to keep trade bank ''fully open'''|'November 1, 2017 / 6:26 PM / in 20 minutes Former U.S. EXIM opponent Garrett vows to keep trade bank ''fully open'' David Lawder 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scott Garrett, who sought to shut down the U.S. Export-Import Bank two years ago as a Republican congressman, vowed on Wednesday to run the government trade lender to the full extent of its legal authority if confirmed as its next president. FILE PHOTO: Then Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) questions SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White during a hearing in Washington, U.S., November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo But Garrett refused to tell skeptical senators at his confirmation hearing that his past views about EXIM were wrong and did little to explain his change of heart about the institution. “Rest assured that I am committed to keep the bank fully open and fully operational. Period,” Garrett told the Senate Banking Committee. Garrett’s nomination is widely opposed by U.S. business and manufacturing groups and by many Democratic senators, who say that he cannot be trusted to restore the bank’s full lending and guarantee capabilities that have been hobbled since a 2015 fight in Congress over its reauthorization. “Putting Mr. Garrett in charge of EXIM would be like putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who has staunchly supported the bank. Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group representing 346 aerospace and defense companies, also voiced opposition to Garrett on Wednesday. Garrett’s comments “reinforce our greatest concerns about his fitness to lead the bank,” AIA President David Melcher said in a statement. “We strongly encourage the Senate to reject his nomination.” The AIA is launching an ad campaign showing a Trojan horse with the caption, ‘We’ve seen this strategy before.''” Garrett said he would support the next reauthorization of the bank scheduled for 2019. He also said that part of the reason he wants the job is that he believes in President Donald Trump’s economic agenda to restore the U.S. manufacturing sector, which requires government efforts to level the global playing field for U.S. companies. Garrett was among the leaders of an effort by conservative Republicans in 2015 to kill the bank by denying a renewal of its charter. Accusing the bank of providing unnecessary welfare to big industrial companies such as Boeing and General Electric ( GE.N ), they were successful in halting the bank’s lending operations for five months before supporters forced a renewal vote. But since then, EXIM has been unable to approve loans and loan guarantees exceeding $10 million due to a shortage of board members as some Senate Republicans blocked past nominations. This has effectively shut the trade bank out of financing commercial aircraft, large power turbines and other expensive infrastructure projects readily supported by foreign government export lenders for their own manufacturers. Several Democratic senators unsuccessfully tried to push Garrett to retract his past statements that EXIM “embodies the corruption of the free enterprise system.” But Garrett stuck to his line that he would run EXIM according to the letter and spirit of the law, and implement transparency reforms passed in 2015. Garrett, a fiscal conservative, lost his northern New Jersey congressional seat to a Democrat in the November 2016 elections. With Democrats expected to oppose his nomination, Garrett’s confirmation would fail if more than two Republicans vote against him. Two Republican senators who opposed EXIM’s renewal in 2015, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Shelby of Alabama, voiced support for Garrett’s nomination. But two undecided Republicans on the banking panel, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Tim Scott of South Carolina, questioned Garrett’s newfound commitment to the bank’s mission. The National Association of Manufacturers has been running radio and digital ads in South Carolina urging Scott and fellow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to oppose Garrett. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reiterated its opposition to Garrett’s nomination following Wednesday’s hearing. “The chairman of the board of the Export-Import Bank is simply too powerful a role to be filled by an individual who cannot clearly articulate a deep-seated belief in the spirit of the organization,” the group said in a statement. The hearing also included nominees for five other EXIM positions, including for three board seats and first vice president. Kimberly Reed, a former U.S. Treasury official during the George W. Bush administration who most recently headed a food industry non-profit group, has been nominated to the latter post. Reporting by David Lawder and Alwyn Scott; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eximbank/former-u-s-exim-opponent-garrett-vows-to-keep-trade-bank-fully-open-idUSKBN1D15L2'|'2017-11-01T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'7ce1407b3f67002e92351c4aaeccaf66d71fb421'|'Barclays CEO forced to plan for Brexit without political clarity'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 41 minutes ago Barclays CEO forced to plan for Brexit without political clarity Anjuli Davies 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays is having to put plans in place for dealing with Britain’s divorce from the European Union without clarity on how political negotiations will go, the bank’s Chief Executive Jes Staley said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Chief executive officer of Barclays, Jes Staley, takes part in the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in New York, U.S., February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The British lender said in July that it was talking to Irish regulators about extending its activities in Dublin in preparation for when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Staley said the bank will relicense all of its branches in Europe so they become part of their Irish business but they are having to make these changes without clear direction from London or Brussels on what they need to do. “Like all of us, we are in sway to the desires and wishes of the political bodies and I have no idea how that will go,” Staley said speaking at an event in Westminster, close to the British parliament. “I think there is a clear recognition of the importance of the United Kingdom but the political reality that we all have to deal with, we will make adjustments,” the American added. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein made similar comments about the political uncertainty on Monday, when he said a lot of things were out of the bank’s control when it came to building up its new European headquarters in London. Unless Britain negotiates new trading relations with the EU, banks, insurers and fund managers could be locked out of the bloc’s markets when it leaves. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday that job losses totalling 75,000 in banking and insurance because of Brexit were plausible. London dominates global currency trading and is Europe’s main finance hub. Overall the sector employs more than a million people across Britain. Some firms have started to move staff out of London, while others are waiting until early 2018 to see if Britain and the EU agree transitional arrangements to smooth Brexit. Staley was however optimistic that London would remain at the centre of European capital markets. “The capital markets are in London not because of Barclays, and not because of JPMorgan, not because of Goldman Sachs. They are here because the investors of free capital...are by and large located in New York and London, and we want to be near our investors,” he said. Reporting By Anjuli Davies; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barclays/barclays-ceo-forced-to-plan-for-brexit-without-political-clarity-idUKKBN1D14TZ'|'2017-11-01T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'c60a8319a13735b6dda8cb87e540cc929035c6c6'|'Fed set to hold rates steady ahead of Trump''s leadership decision'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday as speculation swirls on who will be its next leader, but the U.S. central bank will likely point to a firming economy as it edges closer to a possible rate rise next month.FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S. on September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo The Fed has raised rates twice since January and currently forecasts one more hike by the end of the year as part of a tightening cycle that began in late 2015.Investors have all but ruled out a move at the end of this week’s two-day policy meeting. The Fed is due to issue its latest policy statement at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).Markets will look to it for confirmation the central bank is on track for a December rate hike, though attention will quickly turn to who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018.President Donald Trump, who has interviewed Yellen, Fed Governor Jerome Powell and three others for the top Fed job, is likely to announce the nomination on Thursday.Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, is seen as having a lock on the position.“The bottom line is the meeting is probably going to be a somewhat boring event for markets, overshadowed by the expected Fed chair decision,” said Torsten Slok, chief international economist for Deutsche Bank.INFLATION WORRIES Fed policymakers have been buoyed in recent months by a strengthening U.S. economy and further tightening in the labor market, although inflation has continued to remain below the central bank’s 2 percent target.The economy unexpectedly maintained a brisk pace of growth in the third quarter, increasing at a 3.0 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department reported last week.A decline in hiring in September also has largely been dismissed as a blip caused by the temporary displacement of workers due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That jobs report also showed wages growing at an encouraging pace and the unemployment rate falling to more than a 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent.A strong rebound in job gains is anticipated when the Labor Department releases its October nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.Inflation is the main concern for Fed policymakers who are wondering about the causes and duration of the current weakness. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation sits at 1.3 percent after retreating further from target for much of the year.Nevertheless, Yellen and other key policymakers have said the Fed, which unveiled a plan this year to cut its balance sheet starting in October, still expects to continue to gradually raise rates given the economy’s strength. That is not expected to change on Wednesday.“If we get what we expect to get, which is basically more of the same of what we saw in the September statement,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, “then yes, their gradual policy tightening plan is in place and all signs point to a December hike.”Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Paul Simao '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed/fed-set-to-hold-rates-steady-ahead-of-trumps-leadership-decision-idINKBN1D13KB'|'2017-11-01T07:09:00.000+02:00'
'cbd476444889ca717ef8d473953c00d1640f62fb'|'Cryptocurrencies'' total value hits record high as bitcoin blasts above $6,500'|' 27 AM / in 19 minutes Cryptocurrencies'' total value hits record high as bitcoin blasts above $6,500 Jemima Kelly 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of around $184 billion on Wednesday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, making their reported market value worth around the same as that of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley combined. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic The new peak came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of more than $6,500. That took its own “market cap” - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation - to a record high just shy of $110 billion. The latest surge in bitcoin - which has seen an eye-watering increase of almost 800 percent in the past 12 months - was driven by news on Tuesday that CME Group, the world’s largest derivative exchange operator, would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of the year. The announcement was seen as a major step in the digital currency’s path toward legitimacy and mainstream financial adoption. The second-most valuable cryptocurrency Ether - sometimes known as “Ethereum”, after the project behind it - was trading slightly down on the day at $302 per coin, having hit a record high of more than $410 in June. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-cryptocurrencies/cryptocurrencies-total-value-hits-record-high-as-bitcoin-blasts-above-6500-idUKKBN1D14BM'|'2017-11-01T12:20:00.000+02:00'
'b650d248769b89cb4912230d009279d52c153060'|'AstraZeneca asthma drug tralokinumab disappoints again'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:25 AM / in 10 minutes AstraZeneca asthma drug tralokinumab disappoints again Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental biotech drug for severe asthma from AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) has failed in further clinical tests, following an earlier setback in May and disappointing results with a similar drug at Roche ( ROG.S ). The logo of AstraZeneca is seen on a medication package in a pharmacy in London, Britain, April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo AstraZeneca said on Wednesday that tralokinumab’s failure in the latest two Phase III studies was “disappointing”. Investors, however, took the news in their stride and the shares rose 1.3 percent in early trade as the setback was not unexpected and was offset by the good news of early approval for AstraZeneca’s blood cancer drug Calquence. Tralokinumab had been viewed as a risky project after Roche reported disappointing results with its similar medicine lebrikizumab last year. Both drugs block a protein called interleukin-13. AstraZeneca also has another experimental drug for severe asthma called benralizumab that works in a different way and is currently awaiting regulatory approval. It will compete with other recently approved treatments such as GlaxoSmithKline’s ( GSK.L ) Nucala. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-astrazeneca-asthma/astrazeneca-asthma-drug-tralokinumab-disappoints-again-idUKKBN1D13Z2'|'2017-11-01T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'ef6b019d1081bd2c0691f4c61be5667dffbda2ea'|'India raises ethanol price by 5 pct to ease pressure on suppliers'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:33 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago India raises ethanol price by 5 pct to ease pressure on suppliers Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s cabinet approved a 5 percent increase in the price of ethanol to ease pressure on suppliers of the fuel and cut crude imports, the government said in a statement on Wednesday. The price of ethanol was fixed at 40.85 rupees ($0.6327) per litre before tax, and would be applicable for a year starting Dec. 1, the government said. India has been aiming to boost the use of ethanol, a cleaner fuel option as far as carbon emissions are concerned compared with gasoline. The government has made it mandatory to blend 5 percent ethanol in petrol. However, oil companies find it hard to source the sugar byproduct cheaply due to high state duty it attracts because of its use in the heavily taxed liquor industry, hindering its wide acceptance as an automotive fuel. Sugar mills, on the other hand, prefer to sell to higher-paying spirit distilleries, where they get a better and quicker deal. Unlike Brazil, where sugar firms produce ethanol directly from cane juice, Indian millers use molasses, a by-product of sugar-making, to produce the chemical, so a rise in sugar production will also boost ethanol output. ($1 = 64.5650 rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-ethanol/india-raises-ethanol-price-by-5-pct-to-ease-pressure-on-suppliers-idINKBN1D145S'|'2017-11-01T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'8c45bae4f1f029970e200a12d35b159c4cb985ad'|'''Rainy-day'' fund, jobless insurance could buffer future crises - ESM''s Regling'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:31 AM / in 31 minutes ''Rainy-day'' fund, jobless insurance could buffer future crises - ESM''s Regling Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NICOSIA (Reuters) - A “rainy day” fund or short-term lending could be used to counter economic shocks for individual euro zone countries in the future, the head of the bloc’s rescue fund said on Thursday. European Stability Mechanism Managing Director Klaus Regling talk to media after a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus November 1, 2016. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou The euro zone does not require full fiscal union, but there is room for a facility to buffer against asymmetric shocks, European Stability Mechanism (ESM) managing director Klaus Regling said. “It can be set up in the form of a U.S.-style rainy-day fund, or a complementary unemployment insurance. Short-term ESM lending is another option,” Regling told a conference in Nicosia. Such fiscal capacity could be combined with a more transparent system for burden-sharing with private creditors in case of a sovereign debt restructuring, he said. It should be done within a market-based framework, with stricter collective- action clauses in bond documentation. “Automatic maturity extensions are not desirable, because they can have pro-cyclical effects. The ESM could take on the role of organising London Club-type restructurings, in a case where a country’s debt is unsustainable.” Regling said there were proposals to develop a European Monetary Fund, noting that a consensus was growing that the International Monetary Fund would not necessarily contribute to future ESM rescues, as it had in the past. “The ESM could take over some of that role, in conjunction with the Commission,” Regling said. The ESM and its precursor, the European Financial Stability Facility, have helped out five European countries, including Cyprus. The island emerged from a three-year bailout in early 2016. Fiscal performance had been “remarkable”, but attention was still needed to reduce bad loans at Cyprus banks, Regling said. He said Brexit, the election of President Trump in the U.S. had refocused Europeans. “Public support for the euro is at its highest levels since 2004,” Regling said. Reporting By Michele Kambas, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-esm-regling/rainy-day-fund-jobless-insurance-could-buffer-future-crises-esms-regling-idUKKBN1D210Z'|'2017-11-02T11:30:00.000+02:00'
'b6ae1e9c069b6380639d7039afded875c10738a7'|'AIG swings to quarterly loss, adds $836 million to reserves'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:23 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago AIG swings to quarterly loss, adds $836 million to reserves Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - American International Group Inc ( AIG.N ) posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss as the property and casualty insurer booked huge catastrophe losses, and said it set aside $836 million to meet losses related to prior-year accident claims. FILE PHOTO: A banner for American International Group Inc (AIG) hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, U.S. on October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The company’s shares were down 2.3 percent at $63.51 in extended trading on Thursday. Hefty losses that surface from prior-year claims have been an ongoing issue for the New York-based insurer, which is the largest U.S. underwriter of commercial property and casualty policies. In February, the insurer posted a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, largely due to a $5.6 billion reserve charge to cover possible future claims related to long-term risks on U.S. commercial insurance policies it has already written. AIG agreed in January to pay about $10 billion to a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( BRKa.N ) to take on the bulk of the risk associated with those policies. The Berkshire deal followed a $3.6 billion increase to reserves chalked up by AIG in the last quarter of 2015. Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault, widely hailed in the industry as a turnaround expert, took charge of the company in May. He replaced Peter Hancock, who said in February that he would step down after the insurer’s financial performance frustrated shareholders and the insurer’s board of directors. AIG conducts quarterly reviews of reserves for its various lines. In August, AIG Chief Financial Officer Sid Sankaran said the insurer had boosted the number of reviews it conducted during the second quarter, compared to the previous year. The insurer reviewed about $16 billion in total reserves, in challenging areas such as medical malpractice and environmental, Sankaran said at the time. In the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the insurer recorded pre-tax catastrophe losses of $3 billion related to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, in line with previously disclosed estimates. Insurers and reinsurers across United States had issued profit warnings in the wake of the hurricanes that tore into parts of the country, while ravaging several islands in the northern Caribbean. AIG swung to a net loss of $1.74 billion, or $1.91 per share, in the quarter, compared with a profit of $462 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier. Operating loss was $1.22 per share compared with an operating profit of $1.01 per share in the year-ago period. Analysts had expected a loss of 79 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Operating expenses, however, fell 15.3 percent to $2.15 billion, partly cushioning the blow from catastrophe losses. Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aig-results/aig-swings-to-quarterly-loss-adds-836-million-to-reserves-idUSKBN1D22RB'|'2017-11-02T22:21:00.000+02:00'
'a334f70b7b9ca069b79a1ba88d9d117bfd626723'|'Exclusive: Airbus begins external search for new sales chief - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:25 PM / in an hour Exclusive: Beleaguered Airbus looks outside for new sales chief Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from soon-to-retire John Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen, said three people familiar with the plans. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy delivers his speech during the annual Airbus Commercial Press Briefing in Blagnac, Southwestern France, January 11, 2017. Picture taken January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Leahy’s deputy, Executive Vice-President Kiran Rao, had been identified as Leahy’s successor earlier this year, but his appointment to one of the industry’s most visible jobs was never confirmed as Leahy’s retirement slipped towards end-year. Chief Executive Tom Enders has now decided to look outside the core part of the company in a bid to denote a fresh start, but Rao is not being targeted in the compliance investigation which centres mainly on a defunct headquarters team, the people said. Rao confirmed he would not be in the running for the post. “I can confirm I am no longer pursuing the position of commercial director and intend to concentrate on Airbus product strategy,” Rao told Reuters. An Airbus spokesman declined comment on personnel matters. The search comes as the Airbus marketing machine is seen as demoralised as a result of British and French probes, which have also sparked a blanket internal investigation. Enders told a recent sales meeting Leahy would stay till the year-end, but failed to confirm Rao’s appointment, leaving what insiders described as a sense of vacuum amid dwindling sales. Rao, 53, has until recently combined the No. 2 sales role with product development, for which he received a French distinction in July. He has stood in for Leahy since July as the New Yorker prepared to retire, initially in September. The search for a new successor extends outside the core part of Airbus but will include affiliates such as 50-percent owned turboprop maker ATR, where CEO and former Airbus commercial strategy chief Christian Scherer is seen as a leading contender. ATR said Scherer was not available for comment. BROKEN MORALE Several outside candidates are being considered and Airbus could go head-hunting at suppliers, such as the recently overhauled management team at Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ). Planeview Partners founder Henri Courpron has been widely mentioned but the former Airbus executive is said to have no plans to leave his U.S.-based consulting firm after helping negotiate a recent deal for Airbus to buy Bombardier’s troubled CSeries jet programme. Courpron couldn’t be reached for comment. The handover is happening as Enders comes under mounting French pressure over the conduct of a compliance campaign, which widened this week to flawed paperwork in the United States. While German-born Enders has bet his future on overhauling the company, insiders worry the crackdown will stymie risk-taking and swing the pendulum too far towards bureaucracy just as a resurgent Boeing ( BA.N ) is aggressively winning orders. Enders’ own future is increasingly questioned, a source of uncertainty that sources say may put off some contenders. He has called for modernisation and fresh blood, but the change of policy on the key sales post underscores how the company’s ability to set its own direction has come under mounting pressure as investigations ripple through the group. Whoever replaces Leahy will face the job of repairing poor morale and absorbing the CSeries without upsetting demand for bread-and-butter larger jets offered by Airbus and Boeing. But his replacement is unlikely to enjoy the same latitude as Leahy in negotiations or influence over industrial moves. Airbus’s market share against Boeing has fallen to 35 percent so far this year - a gap likely to widen as   visits China with Boeing sales in view - but it aims to bounce back with at least one major deal in coming months. It may announce orders for the struggling A380 at this month’s Dubai Airshow. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-sales/exclusive-airbus-begins-external-search-for-new-sales-chief-sources-idUSKBN1D229C'|'2017-11-02T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'59c6e7197cd2506a15708ecad6bd54ded04bef71'|'U.S. probe into UAW training center funds extends to GM, Ford'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:09 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago U.S. probe into UAW training center funds extends to GM, Ford David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co ( GM.N ) and Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) confirmed Thursday they are cooperating with an expanded Justice Department probe into alleged misspending at United Auto Workers union training centers funded by U.S. automakers. FILE PHOTO: The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. Photo taken October 26. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook The investigation became public in July, when federal prosecutors accused a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ) vice president of making $1.2 million in improper payments to a former union vice president and his wife. Four people have been charged in the Fiat Chrysler probe. The Detroit News reported on Thursday that prosecutors issued subpoenas about training centers financed by GM and Ford and said investigators are looking at charities operated by senior union officials at the companies. “We are cooperating with the inquiry,” Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said. General Motors is conducting an internal investigation into the matter. “We are fully cooperating with the investigation,” GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said. The National Training Center (NTC) is a separate entity from the UAW that receives no union dues, but the alleged abuses “dishonored the union and the values we have upheld for more than 80 years,” the union said in July. Ford added that it is “confident in the UAW-Ford National Programs Center leadership team.” The investigation into union leaders and executives at Fiat Chrysler has resulted in charges against the company’s former vice president of employee relations, Alphons Iacobelli. He was charged with making $1.2 million in improper payments to a former union vice president and his wife. Iacobelli has pleaded not guilty. The government also charged that Jerome Durden, a former Fiat Chrysler official, conspired to divert over $4.5 million in training center funds intended to pay for training for union members. Durden pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to conspiracy and preparing false tax returns and faces up to 37 months in prison under a plea deal. Virdell King, 65, of Detroit, a former UAW official responsible for negotiating the contract between Fiat Chrysler and the union, pleaded guilty in August to violating labor law. The head of the Detroit FBI, David Gelios, has said “years of fraud and corruption within a select group of the FCA and UAW hierarchy continue to be eroded through the diligence and collaboration of law enforcement.” Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne in a statement said the “deplorable” conduct “had nothing whatsoever to do with the collective bargaining process” and the “egregious acts were neither known to nor sanctioned by (Fiat Chrysler).” Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uaw-probe/u-s-probe-into-uaw-training-center-funds-extends-to-gm-ford-idUSKBN1D22UJ'|'2017-11-02T23:07:00.000+02:00'
'9b8a24c3dd1384002386230576adc3db38473186'|'Suntory Beverage, PepsiCo to form Thai soft drinks JV: source'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd ( 2587.T ) said on Thursday it has agreed to set up in Thailand a soft drink joint venture with PepsiCo Inc ( PEP.N ) in March, as it looks to expand in the Southeast Asian country.Bottles of Pepsi are pictured at a grocery store in Pasadena, California, U.S., July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni The Japanese company will buy 51 percent of shares in International Beverage, PepsiCo’s Thai beverage business, for around 33 billion yen ($289.63 million), it said in a statement.The deal will have no effect on Suntory Beverage’s earnings for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, it added.Reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu and Thomas Wilson; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sbf-pepsico-thailand/suntory-beverage-pepsico-to-form-thai-soft-drinks-jv-source-idINKBN1D20FQ'|'2017-11-02T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'b734f14f7cd01477aa15172d598400846564c927'|'UPDATE 1-Australia''s Myer says Q1 sales slide'|'October 31, 2017 / 11:25 PM / in 10 minutes UPDATE 3-Pressure mounts on Australia''s Myer as sales target slashed Reuters Staff * Myer Q1 sales slip 2.8 pct * Cuts three-year sales growth target to 10 pct from 20 pct * Shares hit 5-wk low (Adds quotes from Lew, analyst) By Tom Westbrook SYDNEY, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Australia’s biggest department store chain, Myer Holdings Ltd, cut its growth targets on Wednesday as it battles intensifying competition and a rebellion from its biggest shareholder, sending its share price sharply lower. Once a dominant force in retailing, Myer’s business model has buckled under pressure from new foreign rivals at a time of lacklustre consumer spending and flat wage growth, sparking market speculation it could be ripe for a takeover. The company on Wednesday again blamed “challenging retail conditions” and competition for the drop in sales, and halved its three-year target for growth in sales per square metre to 10 percent. Total sales for the 13 weeks to Oct. 28 fell 2.8 percent to A$699 million ($535.1 million), it said. On a comparable store basis, sales fell 2.1 percent. “I only see weeds, no green shoots,” major shareholder Solomon Lew said in a statement as the company’s stock dropped as much as 5.2 percent in its biggest intraday fall in more than three months. Myer shares had jumped on takeover speculation when Lew, a fashion-industry veteran with a track record of corporate raiding, first purchased his 10.8 percent stake in March. Lew holds the stake via Myer rival and supplier Premier Investments Ltd, which he chairs. Now the stock is trading close to an all-time low as the company struggles with competition from new bricks-and-mortar “fast fashion” retailers such as H & M Hennes & Mauritz , as well as online rivals like Amazon.com which has flagged an Australian expansion. The weak first-quarter sales figures heap pressure on the board to make good on a turnaround strategy dubbed “New Myer”, involving closing stories and ramping up online sales. Online sales leapt 68 percent, but with overall sales to what the company calls “omni-channel customers” only A$48.4 million for the quarter, it remains only a small fraction of the retailer’s revenue. “The strategy has to be to regain the trust of buyers and it seems that Myer isn’t really going to realise that ... it’s not getting the rise in volumes you’d expect from cutting price,” said Ric Spooner, Chief Market Strategist at brokerage CMC Markets. Lew says he has no “current” takeover plans but has pressed the company for board seats, demands Myer has rejected. Myer hit back at Lew in a letter to shareholders this week, saying it would be “enormously damaging” to allow a competitor to have seats on the board. $1 = 1.3063 Australian dollars Additional reporting by Christina Martin in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/myer-results/update-1-australias-myer-says-q1-sales-slide-idUSL4N1N6749'|'2017-11-01T01:21:00.000+02:00'
'd6a480cceaadec1f8b559ee50f6dc282a03def7e'|'Record profit forecast for a resurgent Sony sends shares to nine-year high'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Sony Corp soared to a nine-year high on Wednesday after it forecast record earnings that have vindicated its restructuring efforts and raised expectations of sustained momentum in profitability.Sony Corp''s logo is seen at its news conference in Tokyo, Japan November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files Under Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, the tech and entertainment giant has streamlined unprofitable electronics businesses and capitalised on the spread of smartphones with its image sensors.Citing robust sales of image sensors as well as high-end TVs, Sony hiked its full-year operating profit outlook to 630 billion yen ($5.5 billion), up 26 percent from an earlier forecast and 7.5 percent higher than an average analyst estimate.“Image sensors will be used in a wide range of areas, and the market is very large,” said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc.“Profitability is increasing, and in the mid- to long-term we expect the stock price to reach its 2007 level of 7,190 yen.”Sony’s stock rose as much as 11.6 percent to its highest level since June 2008, becoming the most traded firm by turnover on Tokyo’s main board. In afternoon trade, it was up 9.8 percent at 4,846 yen, giving it a market capitalisation of around $54 billion.The new forecast is 20 percent above its current profit record, set two decades ago when strong sales of consumer electronics dovetailed with the popularity of its first PlayStation games console and its “Men in Black” box-office hit.To develop new profit drivers, the firm has also boosted investment in artificial intelligence and is expanding its consumer products portfolio.It unveiled its Xperia Hello! voice-activated communication robot this month and on Wednesday said it was reviving its robotic dog AIBO that went on sale in 1999. It also aims to lead the budding virtual-reality market by drawing on the content portion of its business such as music and film.Combined with resurgent demand for consumer audio products sparked by the rise of streaming services from Spotify to Apple Inc’s Apple Music, the focus on cutting-edge technology augurs well for future profits, said Macquarie analyst Damian Thong.“They should also push into 3D sensors which will be useful for augmented reality and the applications that surround that.”“Great products, plus great brand, delivering great profitability,” he added. “It’s not rocket science perhaps, but for a long time, Sony seemed to have forgotten this magic formula.”($1 = 113.8400 yen)Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sony-stocks/record-profit-forecast-for-a-resurgent-sony-sends-shares-to-nine-year-high-idINKBN1D13J4'|'2017-11-01T06:48:00.000+02:00'
'3fb373b868f10394ff77f15f03ba595457cac85e'|'UPDATE 1-Germany''s HelloFresh prices IPO at 10.25 euros per share, centre of range'|'* Expects to earn 318 mln euros from IPO* Stock due to start trading on Thursday (Adds CEO comment, detail and background)BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Loss-making German meal-kit-delivery group HelloFresh on Wednesday priced its initial public offering (IPO) at 10.25 euros ($11.91) per share, the centre of an indicative price range of 9 to 11.50 euros.The group said it would earn about 318 million euros from the IPO if the greenshoe option, allowing the sale of more shares than originally planned, was fully exercised. It said it would use the proceeds to fund further growth.HelloFresh is selling 31 million new shares including an overallotment option, implying a valuation of the company of about 1.7 billion euros.The company decided to go ahead with its renewed listing despite a 50 percent decline in shares in U.S. rival Blue Apron since the group’s June IPO.Two years ago, HelloFresh cancelled a planned IPO after investors rejected a higher valuation.Its stock is due to start trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday.HelloFresh’s largest market is the United States, where it is spending heavily on discounts and advertising to compete with rivals like Blue Apron and Plated.The group is majority-owned by German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet, which listed in 2014 with a pledge to be a launch pad for floating start-ups. Volatile markets meant it had to wait until this year for its first success, with takeaway firm Delivery Hero.HelloFresh, which delivers meal ingredients and recipes in 10 countries, aims to break even on an operating level, or adjusted EBITDA, within the next 15 months.Its net loss stood at 56.7 million euros in the first half of 2017 on revenues of 435 million euros. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hellofresh-ipo/update-1-germanys-hellofresh-prices-ipo-at-10-25-euros-per-share-centre-of-range-idINL8N1N76D5'|'2017-11-01T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'2fcdd0963eecdb0972adf2965a3825902d13e08d'|'UK factories report stronger activity in October - IHS Markit'|'November 1, 2017 / 9:34 AM / in 2 hours UK factories report stronger activity in October - IHS Markit David Milliken 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British manufacturers reported robust growth last month and rising inflation pressure, an industry survey showed, adding to the chances that the Bank of England will raise interest rates on Thursday for the first time in a decade. A worker manages machinery on the production line of Pladis'' McVities biscuit factory in London Britain, September 19, 2017. Picture taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls. The HIS Markit/CIPS manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 56.3 in October from an upwardly revised 56.0 in September. That exceeded its long-run average and bucked economists’ forecasts in a Reuters poll for a slight decline. “UK manufacturing made an impressive start to the final quarter of 2017 as increased inflows of new work encouraged firms to ramp up production once again,” said Rob Dobson, a senior economist at HIS Markit, which compiled the data. “The domestic market remained strong, whereas new export orders increased at a slightly slower pace, the latter showing signs of being hit by the recent strengthening of sterling,” he said. The pound gained further after Wednesday’s data, climbing to a four-and-a-half month high against the euro and its highest in two weeks against the U.S. dollar. Sterling is still down more than 10 percent from its level before Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, but Barclays banker Mike Rigby said his clients would be wary of further gains after Thursday’s BoE decision. “Although demand from both home and overseas markets remains robust, manufacturers will have half an eye on what the Monetary Policy Committee decides to do tomorrow,” he said. British manufacturers enjoyed their strongest growth this year in the three months to the end of September, data showed last week, and Dobson said the sector appeared to be continuing to expand at a quarterly rate of around 1 percent. The economy overall saw only lacklustre growth in the third quarter, expanding by 0.4 percent for its weakest year-on-year growth in four years. Nonetheless, most economists polled by Reuters expect the Bank to raise rates for the first time in a decade on Thursday, increasing the Bank Rate to 0.5 percent from a record-low 0.25 percent. Central bankers are likely to be concerned by signs of growing inflation pressure in the PMI survey. Manufacturers reported that raw-material costs were rising by the most since March, and in turn they were increasing the prices they charged customers at the fastest rate since April. Headline consumer price inflation reached a five-year high of 3.0 percent in September, and the cost of raw materials rose 8.4 percent on the year, according to official data. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an academic research body, said weaker productivity meant Thursday was likely to mark the start of a series of rate rises from the Bank, peaking at 2 percent in 2021. The Bank has previously said that any rate rises would be limited and gradual, and most economists polled by Reuters doubt rates will increase at all next year. Editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pmi/uk-factories-report-stronger-activity-in-october-ihs-markit-idUKKBN1D1468'|'2017-11-01T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'e1e10f8d2faa24ddd6206f48832e029f39454e39'|'Barclays security head Oerting takes leave of absence -sources'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:13 PM / in 31 minutes Barclays security head Oerting takes leave of absence: sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Troels Oerting, the head of cyber and information security at Britain’s Barclays Plc, has taken a leave of absence, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Oerting, a former Europol cybercrime expert, was not immediately available for comment but one source said his move was not related to an investigation into an attempt by Chief Executive Jes Staley to unmask a whistleblower at Barclays. Oerting, who was appointed as Barclays’ chief security officer and head of information security in January, had been asked by Staley to identify the author of an anonymous letter that made allegations about a senior banker. Staley, who has apologized for his actions, and Barclays are being investigated by UK and U.S. regulators over the affair, which the bank’s board heard about in early 2017. Barclays has reprimanded Staley and said it would cut his bonus over the incident, but it has resisted calls to fire him for what Chairman John McFarlane has called an “honest” mistake. Barclays’ global head of whistleblowing Jonathan Cox left the bank last month after dropping an employment lawsuit over alleged whistleblowing rule breaches. Oerting did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him via LinkedIn. Reporting by Lawrence White and Kirstin Ridley; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-barclays-oerting/barclays-security-head-oerting-takes-leave-of-absence-sources-idUSKBN1D15JQ'|'2017-11-01T20:06:00.000+02:00'
'ca46dd329ff7ee169cd08981b6c661a48a991c90'|'Israel''s Viola Ventures raises 5th fund for tech investment'|'TEL AVIV, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Israeli venture capital firm Viola Ventures said on Wednesday it has raised a new fund with commitments of over $170 million towards a target of $200 million.This brings the fund’s assets under management to over $1 billion dedicated to early stage investments.This is the fifth fund raised by Viola Ventures and includes returning investors as well as new ones from the United States, Asia, Europe and Israel. Japanese venture capital firm Mitsubishi UFJ Capital joined the fund as an investor.Viola Ventures, formerly Carmel Ventures, is an independent fund focused on early stage tech investments and is part of the Viola investment group with $2.8 billion in assets under management. (Reporting by Tova Cohen)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/israel-tech-viola/israels-viola-ventures-raises-5th-fund-for-tech-investment-idINL8N1N724N'|'2017-11-01T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'baa8898285e90857373a92a19bb6d41fc9542cf8'|'Bunge considers IPO for Brazilian sugar business: CEO'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bunge Ltd ( BG.N ) may be able to get the best value for its Brazilian sugar milling business by launching an initial public offering of the unit, Chief Executive Soren Schroder said on Wednesday, four years after he began exploring a sale.Schroder is weighing an IPO as a global oversupply of crops has hammered profits in the core grain trading and processing units of Bunge and its chief rivals, forcing rounds of cost-cutting that look to spill into 2018.“It appears to be a way in which we can best get a fair value for the assets,” Schroder said about an IPO of the sugar business, speaking in an interview after the company posted lower year-on-year profits for the third quarter in a row.Bunge is in the process of financially separating its sugar and bioenergy businesses, which report results together, to show the company is still working to reduce its exposure to sugar operations, Schroder said. In 2013, the company began exploring a sale of its loss-making mills, which are now turning a profit.Improvements in Brazil’s equity market could help pave the way for a public offering of the sugar business.“The Brazilian market feels like it is getting ready to take on that kind of an IPO,” Schroder said.Earnings in the sugar and bioenergy unit dropped 77 percent from a year ago to $8 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and Bunge lowered its guidance for the segment’s earnings for the year.Reporting by Tom Polansek and Karl Plume, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bunge-results-sugar-ipo/bunge-considers-ipo-for-brazilian-sugar-business-ceo-idINKBN1D1574'|'2017-11-01T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'780e86458a855d67afbd11cc2fcbc1a2b78f66d3'|'Facebook profit trounces estimates as ad sales rises'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:12 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Facebook profit soars, no sign of impact from Russia issue David Ingram , Aishwarya Venugopal 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia may have used the social network to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections. FILE PHOTO: The Facebook application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo The company’s shares rose about 1 percent to $184.50 (139.18 pounds) in after-hours trading. The shares have gained almost 60 percent this year and hit a record high of $182.90 in regular trading. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, without mentioning Russia, said in the earnings report that Facebook’s spending on security would affect profitability, but the impact was not evident in its numbers on Wednesday. “Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” Zuckerberg said. Facebook is at the center of a political storm in the United States for the ways it handles paid political ads and allows the spread of false news stories. U.S. lawmakers have threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in hearings this week. Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling. Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent of which came from mobile ads. Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $9.71 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet. The 49 percent increase in total ad sales in the latest quarter compares with a 47 percent rise in the prior quarter and a 51 percent jump in the first quarter. Facebook has been warning for more than a year about reaching a limit in “ad load”, or the number of ads the company can feature in users’ pages before crowding their News Feed. Advertisers seem unfazed, though, spending heavily as the social network continues to attract users. The nearly 50 percent jump in ad revenue “is phenomenal, especially when for the past few quarters they’ve been trying to bring that expectation way, way down. Yet it keeps going up,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said. Of the Russia scandal enveloping Facebook publicly, Feinseth said: “In the bigger picture, I don’t think it’s a really big factor.” Facebook said about 2.07 billion people were using its service monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected 2.06 billion monthly active users, according to FactSet. Net income rose to $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, from $2.63 billion, or 90 cents per share. Analysts on an average were expecting the company to earn $1.28, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Total revenue increased 47.3 percent to $10.33 billion beating analysts estimate of $9.84 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Various U.S. investigations into how Russia may have tried to sway American voters in the months before and after last year’s elections are hanging over Facebook and its competitors. There is also proposed U.S. legislation that would extend rules governing political ads on television, radio and satellite to also cover digital advertising. “We expect more scrutiny about Facebook’s ad system ahead,” analyst Debra Aho Williamson of research firm eMarketer said in a note. “We’re also monitoring for any signs that this investigation will have a material impact on ad revenue.” Reporting by David Ingram in Washington and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-facebook-results/facebook-quarterly-profit-rises-on-mobile-ad-growth-idUKKBN1D15SR'|'2017-11-01T22:24:00.000+02:00'
'ce9347a43a96af21a10edf029066e09ada2417b7'|'TPG, China Telecom discuss possible Oi bid with Brazilian official -media'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Representatives of U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital Management LP and state-owned China Telecom Corp Ltd are meeting with Brazil’s solicitor general on Monday to discuss a possible takeover of debt-laden telecom provider Oi SA, local media reported.The two groups have approached Oi about purchasing the company once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, in a process that would involve a capital injection, an executive told Reuters in September.Grace Mendonça, the solicitor-general, is part of a government working group that is trying to assuage differences between shareholders and creditors before a key Nov. 10 meeting in which bondholders will vote on a restructuring plan. The government has billions of dollars tied up in the company through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines.TPG and China Telecom are interested in taking over the company, the sole fixed-line operator in a third of the country’s 5,500 municipalities, via a 10 billion-real capital injection, newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported.As part of the deal, TPG would be the majority partner and China Telecom would take a minority stake, a source told Reuters.At the meeting, the groups will condition their bid on a new telecoms reform going into effect, Folha reported. The regulatory overhaul would make more flexible government requirements for investments by telecoms operators, analysts say.They also will require renegotiation of 20 billion reais in outstanding regulatory fines that the company holds.China Telecom will offer to construct fiber optic cable to the homes of clients in more than 2,000 municipalities, the newspaper reported. After that, it said, China Telecom would discuss a potential tie-up with Brazilian competitor TIM Participações SA.TPG did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China Telecom did not immediately respond to a comment request sent outside normal business hours.Mendonça also will participate in an afternoon meeting with Nelson Tanure, an influential shareholder in Oi, who is pushing for a plan that would imply a 73 percent haircut on bondholder debt, newspaper Valor Economico reported.A Tanure spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Christian Plumb and Bill Trott) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring-china-telecom/tpg-china-telecom-discuss-possible-oi-bid-with-brazilian-official-media-idINL2N1N70SF'|'2017-11-01T11:23:00.000+02:00'
'61b72ba8082c56b71c8b845123d8063266408a89'|'Short-seller Muddy Waters seeks user data from Google'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:03 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Short-seller Muddy Waters seeks user data from Google Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Muddy Waters, the company run by prominent short-seller Carson Block, on Wednesday asked a court to force Google to help it identify people who allegedly used false identities and pretenses to obtain information about its confidential research and Block’s whereabouts. FILE PHOTO: Carson Block of Muddy Waters Capital LLC., speaks at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S. May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo A petition for disclosure was filed against Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. Google and Block did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-muddywaters/short-seller-muddy-waters-seeks-user-data-from-google-idUKKBN1D157L'|'2017-11-01T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'4581127b6b51ea0b97b505ef41d4826a47e83901'|'UPDATE 1-Eight dead, 100 injured in blast at Indian coal-fired plant'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:51 PM / in 15 minutes UPDATE 2-Indian power plant blast kills 16, up to 100 injured Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details) NEW DELHI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - An explosion at an Indian coal-fired power plant on Wednesday has killed sixteen people and injured up to 100 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. About 80 people have been taken to the hospital of plant operator NTPC Ltd, while around 10 with serious injuries have been sent to other facilities, NTPC said in a statement. “About 16 people are dead, and 90-100 people have been injured because of the blast,” Arvind Kumar, Uttar Pradesh’s top bureaucrat handling law and order, told Reuters. There was a “sudden abnormal sound” at Unit 6 of the NTPC plant in the town of Unchahar and flue gases and steam escaped during the incident, NTPC said. The 1,550 megawatt (MW) plant supplies electricity to nine states including Uttar Pradesh, according to the company’s website. Three units with a combined capacity of 630 MW are continuing to generate electricity, while the 500 MW unit that was hit by the explosion has been shut down. Other units are either under scheduled maintenance or are not operating currently due to lack of demand, NTPC said. (Reporting by by Sudarshan Varadhan; Additional reporting by Rupam Jain; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-ntpc-blast/update-1-eight-dead-100-injured-in-blast-at-indian-coal-fired-plant-idUSL4N1N74ON'|'2017-11-01T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'd49f9e960a4960864257aaffdb8791a68c21e21f'|'Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Nov 1'|'ZURICH, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks on Wednesday.NOVARTIS ROCHE The Swiss drugmaker has expressed concern at plans by doctors in the north of England to defy official guidance by using a cancer medicine made by Roche as a cheap eye drug.ROCHE Britain’s healthcare cost-effectiveness agency NICE, which decides if medicines should be used on the state health service, has decided Roche’s immunotherapy drug Tecentriq is worth using to treat certain patients with bladder cancer.COMPANY STATEMENTS * Sika Holding said it bought Butterfield Color in the United States, which had sales of about 20 million Swiss francs in 2016.* Allreal Holding said it will acquire four commercial properties from Generali Switzerland, a unit of Generali* Dufry said it signed an extension to its concession contract to operate three stores at Malta International Airport, increasing its commercial space by more than 20 percent.* Vetropack said Boris Sluka will become head of operations in the Czech and Slovak Republics starting in January, while Johann Eggerth will lead operations in Switzerland and Austria from March 1.* Cosmo Pharmaceuticals said it believes it has a good basis for appeal after a U.S. District Court ruled a non-the ANDA product from Teva’s Actavis does not infringe on the generic version of the medication Uceris. Cosmo said separately that its partner Dr. Falk Pharma has filed for marketing authorization of Rifafalk 200 mg in Germany.* Hochdorf said it is buying fruit refiner Zifru in Germany as well as the Snapz brand.ECONOMY Manufacturing PMI at 0830 GMT (Reporting by Zurich newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/markets-swiss-stocks/swiss-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-1-idUSL8N1N676H'|'2017-11-01T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'38ae46bce4e1c4289dbfc97247292b7aa772d5a9'|'U.S. Treasury says auction size changes likely announced in February'|'WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday it plans to announce changes in the sizes of debt auctions in February and will hold them steady in the coming months despite plans by the Federal Reserve to gradually wind down its portfolio of public debt.“The magnitude and allocation of increases in auction sizes will depend in part on projections for the fiscal outlook,” Monique Rollins, Treasury’s acting assistant secretary for financial markets, said in a statement.Rollins said the Treasury anticipated “gradual adjustments” to its nominal coupon and 2-year floating rate note issues. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Paul Simao) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-debt-refunding/u-s-treasury-says-auction-size-changes-likely-announced-in-february-idINL2N1N624Q'|'2017-11-01T09:33:00.000+02:00'
'841485165f93935d33da388243a720f2e4225fb0'|'Japanese stocks, long shunned, attract billions of foreign dollars'|'November 1, 2017 / 7:04 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Japanese stocks, long shunned, attract billions of foreign dollars Trevor Hunnicutt , Hideyuki Sano 6 Min Read NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is shaking off currency gains that typically punish its stocks, enticing foreign investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) and BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ), which are pumping billions of dollars into the country’s equities. A man is reflected in an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The Nikkei index .N225 rose to its highest levels since 1996 despite the yen''s near-3 percent gain, returning 17 percent this year, or 20 percent in U.S. dollar terms, including dividends. Typically, a stronger yen hurts stocks in the export powerhouse. Foreign investors, who largely shunned Japanese stocks on doubts rising corporate earnings would be sustained, bought 4.4 trillion yen ($39 billion) of Japanese stocks and futures during the past six weeks, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Foreign investors sold 2.4 trillion yen ($21 billion) from mid-July to early September at the height of fears over a confrontation with North Korea. Yet the market still looks attractive to foreign investors as strong domestic demand has helped drive Japanese gross domestic product to an annualised 2.5 percent in the second quarter, its sixth straight quarter of expansion. “It’s probably the cheapest developed market out there - maybe the only cheap developed market out there,” said Russ Koesterich, a manager of the $39 billion BlackRock Global Allocation Fund ( MALOX.O ), which raised its Japanese stock exposure in recent months. At the end of September, Global Allocation held 8.6 percent of its assets in Japanese equities, up from 7.8 percent the month prior, according to disclosures on the fund’s website. The ratio of stock prices to earnings expected over the next 12 months is 18.6 in the United States, compared to 15.4 in Japan, Thomson Reuters data shows. There are good reasons for the discount, including stubbornly low inflation, a heavy debt load and an aging population, said Koesterich. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) aggressively tried to jumpstart its economy over the last several years, buying domestic stock exchange-traded funds (ETF) at a pace of 6 trillion yen ($53 billion) per year. On Tuesday BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda signalled the chance of slowing ETF buying before embarking on a full-fledged withdrawal of stimulus. The market is dodging that risk for now. This year Japanese stocks have become statistically less likely to sell off when the yen rises, but they still gain when the yen weakens, according to an analysis by brokerage firm Macro Risk Advisors LLC. “Exports are becoming less influenced by the yen,” said Hiroshi Watanabe, economist at Sony Financial Holdings Inc ( 8729.T ). “At the moment, there is a strong demand for digital products and many Japanese products are competitive in quality and performance rather than in price.” Japan’s exports rose at the fastest pace in nearly four years in August. The pace decelerated in September, though economists regard the slowdown as temporary. Meanwhile, Japan’s retail sales rose in September at the fastest pace in three months. David Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc’s ( GS.TO ) chief economist, said in a note that “a 25-year secular downtrend has recently been broken” in Japan. He argued the disconnect between stocks and the yen is confirmation that the market is trading on corporate fundamentals rather than currency speculation, with a fall in unemployment and rising domestic demand aiding small-cap companies. However, corporate governance remains a concern to some investors following major scandals. Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, earlier this month said data on the quality of some of its products was fabricated. Katie Koch, Global Head of Client Portfolio Management and Business Strategy at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said the Japanese economy nonetheless may be developing competitive advantages and that corporate reforms on issues like executive compensation are becoming more widespread. The fund manager’s Japan-focused holdings include Nidec Corp ( 6594.T ), which has gained 55 percent this year, and Pola Orbis Holdings Inc ( 4927.T ), up 52 percent. Nidec makes small motors that power electric vehicles, a growing market, while Pola Orbis’ cosmetics draw consumers from China’s expanding middle class. Automation is attracting other investors into Japanese markets. Two U.S.-listed robotics ETFs - Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF ( BOTZ.O ) and ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF ( ROBO.O ) - are heavily invested in Japanese stocks, such as Fanuc Corp ( 6954.T ). That manufacturer helps factories automate production and is up more than 38 percent this year, while the two robotics ETFs have pulled in $2.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters’ Lipper research unit. Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-stocks-japan-usa-analysis/japanese-stocks-long-shunned-attract-billions-of-foreign-dollars-idINKBN1D15O5'|'2017-11-01T21:01:00.000+02:00'
'f68a741d7a9652a0fc349013d49eb8e203eecf1b'|'Exclusive - China''s CEFC plans its own bank, as Rosneft stake bulks up trade'|'November 1, 2017 / 10:02 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Exclusive: China''s CEFC plans its own bank, as Rosneft stake bulks up trade Chen Aizhu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - CEFC China Energy, a privately-owned conglomerate which is buying a stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft, plans to launch its own bank early next year in a latest step to build financial muscle along with its oil and gas assets, two company executives said. FILE PHOTO: A CEFC logo is seen at CEFC China Energy''s Shanghai headquarter in Shanghai, China September 12, 2016. REUTERS/ Aizhu Chen/File Photo But the Shanghai-based company’s rapid ascent has prompted some international bankers and traders to warn about its lack of transparency, and dealings with sanctioned Russian firms. A CEFC-controled bank is expected to win Chinese regulatory approval early next year, with a registered capital of 5 billion yuan ($755 million), the executives said, making CEFC one of the few energy companies anywhere to run a private commercial bank. State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) [CNPET.UL] controls Bank of Kunlun, which conducts businesses including oil transactions with Iran. The executives declined to be named due to company policy. A spokesperson for CEFC said he couldn’t immediately comment. CEFC’s plan comes just weeks after the company agreed to buy a stake of just over 14 percent in Rosneft, the world’s largest listed oil company, catapulting the little-known Chinese trader into a global energy firm. Having a bank will give CEFC greater financial clout to trade when it’s handling almost 1 million barrels per day of Russian oil, and the ability to finance physical deals for Chinese customers, including independent refiners, the executives said. “The energy business involves a huge amount of financing, and our customers are scattered,” said one of the executives involved in the plan. “We believe that only by enhancing our financial services could we make our energy business more competitive.” FILE PHOTO: A CEFC logo is seen at CEFC China Energy''s Shanghai headquarter in Shanghai, China September 14, 2016. Picture taken September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Aizhu Chen/File Photo The executive said the Shanghai municipal government approached CEFC and proposed the plan, adding the company will hold a majority stake in the new bank. He did not name any other potential investors. Banking sources cautioned that CEFC’s planned investment in Rosneft, which is sanctioned by the United States, and a lack of transparency in the group’s shareholding structure may make western banks cautious about being a counterparty with the planned bank due to compliance reasons. Some leading western banks have been reluctant to work with CEFC, citing its inability to meet their internal due diligence requirements, or “know-your-customer” checks, people familiar with the matter have said. EXPANSION The proposed bank would be part of CEFC’s expanding financial portfolio - it already owns a stake in provincial government-backed Bank of Hainan, and runs a chain of financial services including in asset management, securities broking and factoring financing. CEFC is finalizing its acquisition of a 50 percent stake in J&T Finance Group, which has banks operating in the Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia. The European Central Bank cleared that deal in September - nearly two years after it was first announced. Another acquisition - of a 20 percent stake in U.S. brokerage Cowen Group Inc - has been delayed due to scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which analyses proposed deals to ensure they don’t harm national security. The Cowen deal was due to close in the third quarter, but the approval process was extended last month. China has approved 17 privately-run banks since a pilot program in 2014 to boost private sector investment in a state-dominated sector. Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Additional reporting by Kane Wu and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Josephine Mason and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-cefc-bank-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-cefc-plans-its-own-bank-as-rosneft-stake-bulks-up-trade-idUKKBN1D1493'|'2017-11-01T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'ebe6a4df595b0d923beab1213681d138184cef00'|'Shell opens its third largest lubricants plant in Singapore'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:02 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Shell opens its third largest lubricants plant in Singapore Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell opened its third largest lubricants plant globally in western Singapore on Wednesday to serve as a production hub to meet demand within Asia, the company said on Wednesday. A logo of Shell is pictured at a gas station in the western Canakkale province, Turkey April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/Files The integrated lubricants and grease production facility in Tuas is able to produce up to 430 million litres or about 390 kilotonnes of lubricants and greases annually, which is enough to change the engine oil of over 12,000 cars, every hour and every day, the company said. “(The plant) serves as a strategic production hub and will be the centrepiece of our lubricants supply chain network to reliably supply our ... lubricants to millions of customers in the region,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell Global Commercial’s executive vice president. Asia makes up over 40 percent of the world’s lubricants demand, he added. The facility will also strengthen the company’s marine lubricant business presence here in Singapore, the world’s second busiest port, he said. The plant will ship to more than 40 countries, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region, Shell said. Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/shell-singapore/shell-opens-its-third-largest-lubricants-plant-in-singapore-idINKBN1D13GP'|'2017-11-01T05:59:00.000+02:00'
'4ef06edb9bbd8f3c3ec81386a58c78ef64bc2381'|'Morning News Call - India, November 1'|'November 1, 2017 / 3:26 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Morning News Call - India, November 1 Reuters Staff 8 Min Read To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek, Maruti Suzuki India Executive Advisor M.M. Singh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh at CII’s Invest North event in Mumbai. 10:00 am: Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at Assocham’s “A Global Way To Manage Working Capital” event in New Delhi. 10:00 am: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, J.K Paper Vice Chairman and MD Harsh Pati Singhania and other paper manufacturing industry officials at Paperex 2017 in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Trade Joint Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey at FICCI’s ‘E-commerce, Digital Infrastructure, Trade Rules and WTO’ event in New Delhi. 11:30 am: Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Junior Food Processing Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti to address media ahead of World Food India 2017, in New Delhi. 02:30 pm: TVS Motors post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 04:30 pm: Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar at 65th Foundation Day of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation in New Delhi. 04:30 pm: Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha to brief media on the proposed Civil Aviation Requirements regarding Unmanned Aircraft System, in New Delhi. 05:00 pm: Godrej Consumer Products post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:00 pm: JSW Energy post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:00 pm: Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:30 pm: Tech Mahindra post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:30 pm: Shriram Transport Finance post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. GMF: LIVECHAT - FX FOCUS Independent economist Clifford Bennett will discuss the outlook of major currency pairs amid the Federal Reserve chairman race, Turnbull government''s loss of majority, and the rise of Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, at 09:00 am IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • India jumps to 100th spot on World Bank''s Ease of Doing Business list India jumped into 100th place on the World Bank''s ranking of countries by Ease of Doing Business for the first time in its report for 2018, up about 30 places, driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors. • Bharti Airtel gets approach for controlling stake in mobile tower arm Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday it had been approached by global investors interested in a controlling stake in its mobile masts unit Bharti Infratel. • IndiGo says profit helped by Pratt, Airbus payouts InterGlobe Aviation, the owner of India''s biggest airline IndiGo, reported a rise in quarterly profit, helped by compensation received from Pratt & Whitney and Airbus on aircraft groundings and delivery delays. • Tata Steel elevates Narendran as global CEO & MD India''s Tata Steel has promoted T.V. Narendran as chief executive officer and managing director globally, the company said on Tuesday. • IDBI Bank betting on bad loan recovery, asset sales for turnaround India''s state-run IDBI Bank is betting on slowing the pace of additional bad loans, improving operating profit and selling non-core assets to help turn around its fortunes after reporting its fourth-straight quarterly loss on Tuesday. • State Bank of India cuts lending rates, first time in 10 months State Bank of India, the country''s top lender by assets, will cut marginal cost-based lending rates (MCLR) across maturities by 5 basis points, in what will be its first lending rate cut in 10 months. • Dr. Reddy''s Q2 profit beats estimates, shares rise Dr. Reddy''s Laboratories posted a better-than-expected second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, helped by higher revenue from its European business, driving shares of the drugmaker up to a one-month high. • JSW Steel second quarter profit up 27 percent Indian steel producer JSW Steel reported a 27 percent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by higher steel sales. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Eight dead in suspected terrorist truck attack on Manhattan bike path A man driving a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path alongside the Hudson River in New York City on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring about a dozen others in what authorities said was an act of terrorism. • U.S. pursues direct diplomacy with North Korea despite Trump rejection The United States is quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump''s public assertion that such talks are a waste of time. • Sony shares soar to 9-year high after forecast of record profit Shares in Sony soared to a nine-year high after it forecast record earnings, underscoring the success of its restructuring efforts and raising expectations of sustained momentum in profitability. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,416.50, trading up 0.37 percent from its previous close. Indian government bonds are likely to trade steady ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision due later today. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 may trade in a 6.84 percent-6.89 percent band. The Indian rupee will likely be little changed against the dollar in early trade, as investors await the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy later today. Possibility of Republican lawmakers introducing a bill on tax cuts, the U.S. Treasury Department’s refunding announcement and an imminent selection of the Fed’s head also kept investors on the edge. GLOBAL MARKETS • A jump in shares of consumer companies Mondelez and Kellogg after their quarterly reports on Tuesday, along with further gains for tech stocks, helped Wall Street end October on a positive note. • Asian shares hit a 10-year high on the back of solid economic growth globally, while oil prices extended a bull run on hopes that major oil producers will maintain their output cuts. • The dollar edged higher, as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve''s two-day policy meeting later in the session for clues about future tightening. • U.S. Treasury debt prices were steady on Tuesday as investors awaited a heavy calendar of events that market participants expected could prompt volatile prices moves for the rest of the week. • Brent crude oil prices were near two-year highs as OPEC has significantly improved compliance with its pledged supply cuts and Russia is also seen keeping to the deal. • Gold edged lower as the dollar firmed with investors awaiting hints on a U.S rate hike following the Federal Reserve''s two-day policy meeting. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.72/64.75 October 31 -$82.2 mln $247.72 mln 10-yr bond yield 6.99 pct Month-to-date $304.2 mln $2.66 bln Year-to-date $5.66 bln $25.95 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.7400 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Nayyar Rasheed in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-1-idUSL4N1N71NK'|'2017-11-01T05:23:00.000+02:00'
'7cedaade12d0a418ee9796868df6eb8e2277a47d'|'Bunge again cuts earnings outlook amid grains glut'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural giant Bunge Ltd ( BG.N ) on Wednesday forecast lower full-year earnings in its core agribusiness unit after posting a third-quarter profit that fell 28 percent on flat revenue.The company said, however, that trading and processing next year would benefit from cost cutting and strengthening demand for oilseeds, a key driver of revenue. A global crops oversupply has hammered profits for grain trading and processing.“The third quarter was better than the second and the fourth quarter will be better than the third,” Chief Executive Soren Schroder said in an interview.“We are seeing crush margins come off the bottom and we have all of next year’s South American harvest commercialization of crops ahead of us,” he said.Bunge shares climbed about 2 percent on Wednesday as quarterly results exceeded lowered Wall Street expectations and its 2018 outlook was more favorable than that of rival Archer Daniels Midland Co ( ADM.N ). The company also said it is considering an initial public offering of its Brazilian sugar business.“After ADM results yesterday, the market was surprised that Bunge didn’t report quite as abysmal a result as ADM,” said Seth Goldstein, analyst with Morningstar.ADM said quarterly earnings fell 44 percent from a year earlier on charges and did not see conditions improving next year.Major grain companies are trying to diversify through acquisitions into higher-margin businesses, such as food ingredients, but results have been slow to offset the continued challenges to their trading businesses from the supply glut.Quarterly operating profit for Bunge’s agribusiness unit, its largest, rose about 2.5 percent from a year earlier on gains in South America.Bunge forecast 2017 agribusiness earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $425 million to $500 million. That is half its February outlook for the business, which trades, stores and processes crops.Schroder declined to comment on any discussions with commodities trader Glencore Plc ( GLEN.L ), which approached Bunge with a takeover offer in May.Bunge’s net income available to shareholders fell to $84 million, or 59 cents per share, in the quarter from $116 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier.Excluding items, it earned 75 cents per share, aboveanalysts’ estimate of 73 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net sales were flat at $11.42 billion.Additional reporting by Akshara P in Bengaluru and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bunge-results/bunge-again-cuts-earnings-outlook-amid-grains-glut-idINKBN1D14B9'|'2017-11-01T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'a22b0ddd64d8d30470c10115ba6a6fb1dbe9f18d'|'U.S. factory activity index eases off 13-1/2-year high'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A measure of U.S. factory activity retreated from a 13-1/2-year high in October as the boost from hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, but continued to point to strengthening manufacturing conditions.FILE PHOTO: A production line employee works at the AMES Companies shovel manufacturing factory in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S. on June 29, 2017. Picture taken on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Tim Aeppel/File Photo Other data on Wednesday showed a surge in private sector hiring, indicating that job growth rebounded last month after being depressed in September as hurricanes Harvey and Irma left some workers temporarily unemployed.Manufacturing and labor strength likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to increase interest rates in December. The U.S. central bank is not expected to raise rates when policymakers conclude a two-day meeting later on Wednesday.The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity slipped to a reading of 58.7 last month from 60.8 in September, which was the highest since May 2004. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates growth in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy.September’s jump in the index was driven by supply chain disruptions, especially in the chemical products sector. The supply bottlenecks, which also pushed up prices of raw materials, resulted in a longer delivery times.Longer suppliers’ delivery times are normally associated with increased activity, which is a positive contribution to the ISM index. The ISM’s supplier deliveries sub-index fell to 61.4 last month after soaring to 64.4 in September.The survey’s prices paid sub-index dropped to 68.5 after racing to 71.5 in September, which was the highest reading since May 2011. The production sub-index slipped 1.2 points to a reading of 61.0 in October and a gauge of new orders fell to 63.4. A measure of factory employment dipped to 59.8 from 60.3 in September, which was the highest level since 2011.Manufacturing is being supported by a strengthening global economy and weakening U.S. dollar.PRIVATE PAYROLLS SURGE Separately, the ADP National Employment Report showed private employers hired 235,000 workers last month, the most in seven months, after increasing payrolls by 110,000 jobs in September.The ADP report, which is jointly produced with Moody’s Analytics, is not a good predictor of the private payrolls component of the employment report. It, however, supported expectations of a sharp rebound in employment last month after nonfarm payrolls declined by 33,000 jobs in September.Prices for U.S. government bonds were trading higher and the dollar rose against a basket of currencies.A third report from the Commerce Department showed construction spending increased 0.3 percent to $1.22 trillion as a surge in public construction outlays offset the third straight monthly decline in investment in private projects.But August’s construction outlays were revised down to show a 0.1 percent gain instead of the previously reported 0.5 percent rise. Construction spending increased 2.0 percent on a year-on-year basis.In September, investment on private construction projects fell 0.4 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in August. It was the third straight monthly drop in private construction outlays and reflected a 0.8 percent decline in spending on private nonresidential projects. Spending on nonresidential projects in September was the lowest since April 2016.Spending on nonresidential structures has now declined for four consecutive months. Spending on oil drilling has been slowing in recent months amid moderate gains in oil prices and ample crude supplies. Spending on residential structures was unchanged in September.The data could impact the government’s gross domestic product estimate for the third quarter published last week. The government’s advance estimate put economic growth at a 3.0 percent annualized rate in the July-September quarter, with both residential and nonresidential structures subtracting from output.In September, outlays on public construction projects jumped 2.6 percent after rising 0.7 percent in August. Spending on state and local government construction projects climbed 2.5 percent. Federal government construction spending soared 3.4 percent.Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-factory-activity-index-eases-off-13-1-2-year-high-idINKBN1D151N'|'2017-11-01T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'4099fb5c4505e21b0b0a45696e47578d1310189a'|'Bankers lobby ECB against stricter rules on government debt'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:10 PM / in 11 minutes Bankers lobby ECB against stricter rules on government debt Francesco Canepa 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Some of the world’s largest banks are lobbying the European Central Bank against rules forcing them to set aside capital against their holdings of government bonds, documents published by the ECB showed on Thursday. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The measure is one of the tools discussed by global and European regulators to break a ‘doom loop’ between banks and governments, which exacerbated the 2010-11 euro zone crisis. But it could result in billions of euros in additional capital for euro zone banks, which own nearly 2 trillion euros (£1.77 trillion) worth of debt issued by governments in the bloc. Bankers taking part in the ECB’s latest bond market contact group on Oct. 10 warned about the risks of introducing such “risk weights” too fast or setting them too high, according to accounts of the meeting published on the ECB’s website. “Any transition to non-zero risk weights on sovereign debt has to be very smooth and gradual in order to prevent a sell-off of sovereign bonds and increased volatility,” Kevin Gaynor of Japanese bank Nomura ( 9716.T ) said in his presentation to the group. The ECB, which holds these regular meetings to gain feedback and insight from market participants, was criticised last month by an activist group for being too close to the financial sector. In addition to being the euro zone’s top banking supervisor, the ECB is part of the Basel committee of global regulators drafting rules aimed at fortifying the world’s banking system following the financial crisis. It also advises the European Parliament on financial matters, including the upcoming review of the Capital requirements regulation and directive (CRR/CRD IV). “Some members noted that the treatment of sovereign debt in the upcoming review of the CRD IV/CRR could be a source of concern,” the accounts of the meeting showed. “If risk weights for banks were set too high on sovereign debt, this could inhibit the primary dealer model...and lead to increases in bond yields, at least during a transition period.” The meeting was attended by representatives of BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) and Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ), as well as other large banks and insurers. It was chaired by the head of the ECB’s market operations and attended by officials from the central banks of Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-regulations/bankers-lobby-ecb-against-stricter-rules-on-government-debt-idUKKBN1D21RP'|'2017-11-02T15:09:00.000+02:00'
'99e984d30cd7f22f69f85df0aeb585083f815622'|'Nutella-maker Ferrero seeks to crack Turkish grip on hazelnuts'|'November 2, 2017 / 6:47 PM / in 24 minutes Nutella-maker Ferrero seeks to crack Turkish grip on hazelnuts Rod Nickel 5 Min Read WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Chocolate makers’ dependence on hazelnuts from a single major producer, Turkey, has sent Italy’s Ferrero SpA searching for new suppliers to satisfy consumer cravings, from eastern Canada to Chile and Australia. The farmer recruitment efforts of Ferrero, one of the world’s biggest hazelnut buyers for its Nutella spread, may loosen Turkey’s grip on the $2.8 billion industry, which is prone to volatile prices and tight supplies. Turkey, at odds with the United States over a failed coup last year, produces 70 percent of the world’s hazelnuts, leaving buyers such as Ferrero, Kraft Heinz Co, Mondelez International Inc, and Nestle SA vulnerable. Last month, Ottawa contributed nearly C$500,000 to a project testing tree varieties in the province of Ontario. Ferrero is helping fund the project and hopes to see farmers plant 25,000 acres of hazelnut trees by 2027, from about 400 currently. An Ontario farmer can earn 10 times more per acre from hazelnuts than corn, according to one estimate. Expansion efforts are also underway in Serbia, Chile, Australia, South Africa and the U.S. state of New Jersey, said Barb Yates, an agronomist with Ferrero in Canada. “Everyone is looking for new places to plant hazelnuts,” said Jaime Armengolli, owner of Chilean grower and processor Agricola La Campana. “Yields are good. Costs are low. Growers are very optimistic.” Chile’s shelled hazelnut exports topped 6,500 tonnes in 2016, nearly five times the previous year’s exports, according to government statistics. Frost in 2014 damaged Turkey’s crop and spiked prices, alarming buyers who use hazelnuts in chocolates, pralines and liqueur. Then this spring, the state-run Turkish Grain Board (TMO) bought large volumes to prop up sagging prices. “(Ferrero) realized having all their eggs in one basket was a danger,” said Adam Johnston, who trades hazelnuts at Scotland-based Freeworld Trading. Ferrero’s strategy is not driven by short-term events, and the company expects Turkey to remain a major producer, said Ferrero spokeswoman Francesca Fulcheri. But the global expansion has cast a chill over the Turkish industry, where farms are small, use costly manual labor and produce relatively small yields. “Turkey’s hazelnut sector is already threatened and will deteriorate unless we are able to increase efficiency and decrease the cost,” said Kadir Durak, a board member at Turkish processor Durak Hazelnuts. PROFIT POTENTIAL Hazelnut kernel prices can swing as much as 10 percent per week, and currently sell for about $5,600 per tonne, down from more than $17,000 in 2015, according to Freeworld. An Ontario farmer can net C$2,000 per acre growing hazelnuts, said Adam Dale, professor emeritus at University of Guelph. Corn by comparison might net about C$210 per acre, not including land costs, according to industry and government data. That profit potential and the assurance of selling to Ferrero’s local plant will attract Ontario farmers, said Linda Grimo, who helps manage a tree nursery in the province. “Farmers are hesitant by nature. I think it’s taken awhile for people to recognize (Ferrero‘s) level of commitment.” New hazelnut growers must wait for any windfall, however. Costs of starting an orchard may take a decade to recover, Dale said. With up to 270 trees planted per acre, Ferrero’s Ontario target would require some 6.8 million trees, he added. In Australia, Agri Australis Pty Ltd, a Ferrero subsidiary, has planted 900,000 hazelnut trees in southwest New South Wales since 2014, a spokesman said. Ferrero is also active helping growers through research and development and with practical growing issues, said Trevor Ranford, spokesman for Hazelnut Growers of Australia. Commodity trader Olam International Ltd depends heavily on Turkey but started buying hazelnuts in nearby Georgia last year too, because “diversification is crucial,” said Brijesh Krishnaswamy, Olam’s senior vice president of edible nuts. Oregon growers produce hazelnuts mostly for the in-shell market, including China, but work by Ferrero agronomists has led to more plantings for the confectionery market, said Larry George, co-owner of two processors, George Packing Company and Northwest Hazelnut Company. “In the future we will sell huge volumes to them,” he said. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul, Will Ziebell in Sydney and Dave Sherwood in Santiago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/agriculture-hazelnuts-ferrero/nutella-maker-ferrero-seeks-to-crack-turkish-grip-on-hazelnuts-idUSL2N1MZ1DQ'|'2017-11-02T20:45:00.000+02:00'
'0b3e029940fe0dd08d36278612014234adbff75b'|'Crisis-hit Provident Financial appoints first chief risk officer - source'|'November 1, 2017 / 1:06 PM / in 4 minutes Crisis-hit Provident Financial appoints first chief risk officer - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Crisis-hit British subprime lender Provident Financial ( PFG.L ) has appointed former Northern Rock executive, Rick Hunkin, as its chief risk officer, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Provident has run into trouble after trying to reorganise its door-to-door lending business by ending its model of using self-employed agents as debt collectors and replacing them with directly employed staff. The company, which gives loans to people who do not meet the lending criteria of mainstream banks, has been unable to recruit 2,500 employees to replace its 5,000 agents, leading to uncollected debt, a sales slump and the departure of its chief executive. Hunkin has been chief risk officer at Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) Williams & Glyn unit since August 2014 and held the same position at Northern Rock between 2008 and 2011, according to his LinkedIn page. Hunkin states on his LinkedIn page that he will be Provident’s interim group chief risk officer effective Nov. 6. The appointment was first reported by Sky News. bit.ly/2zonCbM Provident declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-provident-fin-chief-risk-officer/crisis-hit-provident-financial-appoints-first-chief-risk-officer-source-idUKKBN1D14SO'|'2017-11-01T15:05:00.000+02:00'
'e8283ef799da362c22bcb1adea0764f767042802'|'OPEC likely to keep oil supply curbs for whole of 2018: sources'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:58 PM / in 3 hours OPEC likely to keep oil supply curbs for whole of 2018: sources Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC is likely to stay the course by keeping its current curb on oil production in place for the whole of 2018 despite potential output disruptions next year, Gulf OPEC sources said. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, have cut overall output by about 1.8 million bpd since January. The pact runs to March 2018, but the producers are considering extending it. OPEC is scheduled to next meet at its headquarters in Vienna on Nov. 30. Venezuela’s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day per month since last year, is on track to fall an additional 240,000 bpd next year as U.S. sanctions and a lack of infrastructure investment hobbles operations. Oil flow from other OPEC members such as Nigeria and Libya continue to see supply disruption. But Saudi Arabia and OPEC are unlikely to raise output elsewhere next year to compensate for this decline as the exporting group wants to remain focused on reducing the level of oil stocks in OECD industrialized countries to their five-year average, one OPEC source familiar with Saudi thinking on its oil policy said. “OPEC is likely to stay the course for the rest of 2018. We want to see commercial stocks going down,” the source said. Another OPEC source said there was a high risk of a supply drop from Venezuela next year but that does not necessarily mean that OPEC will raise output elsewhere to make up for the decline. The first OPEC source said that output from the Latin American OPEC nation could fall in 2018 by 300,000-600,000 bpd, adding that the risk of supply disruptions from other OPEC producers such as Libya and Nigeria also remained high. “The feeling in OPEC is that $60 (a barrel) should be the floor for oil prices next year,” the first source said. The market has been concerned that once the supply cut deal comes to an end producers will increase supplies again, causing prices to fall. But Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih last week raised the prospect of prolonged restraint once the pact ends, as the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined to reduce inventories further through the OPEC-led deal. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman told Reuters last week that the kingdom supports the idea of extending the OPEC-led pact. Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-saudi/opec-likely-to-keep-oil-supply-curbs-for-whole-of-2018-sources-idUSKBN1D15CE'|'2017-11-01T18:58:00.000+02:00'
'b31bdaf026373bed6253e930ea911a32e9671c6c'|'Tencent unit raises $1.1 billion after pricing Hong Kong IPO at top end: IFR'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Literature, China’s No.1 online publisher, and some of its existing shareholders are set to raise a combined HK$8.33 billion ($1.1 billion), after pricing its Hong Kong public offering at top of the indicative range, the IFR reported.A company logo of China Literature is displayed during a news conference on its IPO in Hong Kong, China October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The Chinese publishing and e-book company, majority owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd, priced its IPO at the top end of the HK$48–HK$55 indicative range, the Thomson Reuters publication reported on Wednesday, citing people close to the deal.Tencent owns a 62 percent stake in China Literature, while private equity firm Carlyle Group LP holds 12.2 percent and Trustbridge Partners, a PE firm founded by Shujun Li, the former CFO of Shanda Interactive, holds 6 percent.China Literature is expected to make its market debut on Nov. 8, the IFR reported.Reuters reported last week 151.37 million shares were being offered in the IPO and the new shares will be equivalent to 16.7 percent of China Literature’s enlarged share capital with its market value expected to be up to $6.4 billion.China Literature has a business akin to Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle Store, operating a platform with 9.6 million literary works from 6.4 million authors.Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley were hired as sponsors for the IPO, with China International Capital Corp Ltd (CICC) and JPMorgan also working as joint global coordinators.Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-literature-ipo/tencent-unit-raises-1-1-billion-after-pricing-hong-kong-ipo-at-top-end-ifr-idINKBN1D13D4'|'2017-10-31T23:38:00.000+02:00'
'367ab349d4b105fe93799a9857532f37bda63dcd'|'Brazil''s CSN tries to refinance debt, waits to sell assets'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional ( CSNA3.SA ) will wait for better prices to sell assets as the company tries to stretch out debt maturities with banks and bets on the country’s economic recovery to improve results, its chief executive officer told analysts on Tuesday.CSN, as the company is known, has a current debt level equivalent to 5 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a common gauge of operational profit known as EBITDA, and has to pay 5.6 billion reais ($1.7 billion) in debt next year and 7.3 billion reais in 2019.Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Steinbruch said he’s “confident” that two of the company’s largest lenders will agree by next month to extend CSN’s debt maturities. Steinbruch declined to say which are the banks, but said the company has been discussing a debt refinancing with the lenders for nine months.Steinbruch also said he intends to start talks with the company’s bondholders in the first half of 2018, but declined to elaborate. CSN previously extended debt maturities with state-owned banks in 2016.To reach its target of reducing its debt to 3.5 times EBITDA by the end of next year, CSN would have to sell assets. “We had many concrete proposals for many assets, but we think we should wait for the right moment to sell”, Steinbruch said.CSN’s CEO, which is also a major shareholder, said the steelmaker expects to grow its EBITDA this year by 25 percent, to 5 billion reais.CSN common shares fell 1.4 percent to 8.43 reais on Tuesday, extending this year’s losses to 22 percent.The steelmaker is raising capital expenses to increase iron ore and steel production. The company will spend 370 million reais to raise production in its Casa de Pedra iron ore mine and 205 million reais to expand steel production capacity by 15 percent.Brazil’s federal police said on Friday it is investigating allegations that Steinbruch paid bribes to former finance minister Antonio Palocci, as part of Brazil’s widest corruption probe, known as Car Wash.In the conference, CSN executives denied any wrongdoing and said the steelmaker has not made any provisions related to the corruption probe.Contacted by Reuters, Palocci’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.($1 = 3.2731 Brazilian reais)Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-siderurgica-naci-earnings/brazils-csn-tries-to-refinance-debt-waits-to-sell-assets-idINKBN1D02Z0'|'2017-10-31T18:32:00.000+02:00'
'd78a55b0035ac91f605eb676bc6ca4cb00c1cb6e'|'Exclusive - Lockheed F-35 jet-fighter deliveries were halted for 30 days: sources'|'  3:43 PM / in 6 minutes Lockheed F-35 deliveries were halted for 30 days: Pentagon Mike Stone 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon halted shipments of Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jets for 30 days this fall after it discovered corrosion around fasteners and a fix was devised, the Pentagon and Lockheed said on Wednesday. F-35 fighters over Edwards Air Force Base in a file photo. Darin Russell/Courtesy Lockheed Martin/via REUTERS During routine maintenance at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, the Air Force detected “corrosion exceeding technical limits” where the carbon fiber exterior panel is fastened to the aluminum airframe. A lack of protective coating at the fastening point that would have prevented corrosion was identified as the primary problem, the Pentagon said. The fastener issue on the current F-35 fleet is not affecting flights, nor is it a safety concern, the Pentagon said. Lockheed is investigating the extent of the corrosion issue across the fleet of more than 250 jets deployed to the U.S. military and its allies. Trading volume for Lockheed’s shares spiked after the news and the stock briefly turned negative. They were last up 0.1 percent at $308.43. Production was not stopped and deliveries for the fighter jet have resumed. “While the issue was being evaluated, all F-35 deliveries to our customers were temporarily suspended by the F-35 Joint Program Office from Sept. 21 - Oct. 20 while we determined the corrective action plan,” Lockheed said in a statement. The delivery pause was not expected to derail the Pentagon’s target of accepting 66 jets in 2017. Lockheed, the Maryland-based weapons maker, delivered 46 jets in 2016. The Pentagon said in a statement that although the issue “needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations.” Lockheed said work instructions for crews building F-35 jets would be reviewed to address the issue. The corrosion was found on an F-35A, the most common model of the jet. This is the latest of several production issues that have arisen in the 17-year history of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program. In 2016, a fix for insulation problems in the fuel tanks and lines of the jets caused a slowdown in deliveries. The F-35 business accounts for about a quarter of Lockheed’s total revenue. During the third quarter, sales at Lockheed’s aeronautics business increased 14 percent to $4.7 billion, led by higher sales of the F-35 highlighting the program’s importance to Lockheed’s profitability. In February, the Pentagon agreed to a deal for the tenth batch of the fighter aircraft and agreed to pay below $95 million per jet for the first time, compared with $102 million in the previous purchase, the lowest price up until that point. Around that time, the Pentagon said the price of a jet could fall 16 percent to around $80 million in future purchases. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-f35-exclusive/exclusive-lockheed-f-35-jet-fighter-deliveries-were-halted-for-30-days-sources-idUKKBN1D155W'|'2017-11-01T17:43:00.000+02:00'
'40f5064f5135f77581fa60741c6a81aef6053488'|'Novartis to buy French cancer specialist AAA for $3.9 billion'|' 12 AM / in 29 minutes Novartis to buy French cancer specialist AAA for $3.9 billion John Miller 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis ( NOVN.S ) has agreed to buy French-based Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) ( AAAP.O ) for $3.9 billion (2.99 billion pounds), giving it a platform in radiopharmaceuticals and access to a new therapy for the kind of cancer that killed Steve Jobs. Swiss drugmaker Novartis'' logo is seen at the company''s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The deal further strengthens the Swiss drugmaker’s oncology business, already boosted by the 2015 acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline’s ( GSK.L ) marketed cancer drugs and August’s approval of a ground-breaking gene-modifying leukaemia treatment. The cash offer of $41 per ordinary share and $82 per American depositary share represents a 47 percent premium to AAA’s price before media reports on Sept. 27 that Novartis was interested, the two companies said on Monday. The ADS, which closed on Friday at $72.91 and were priced at only $16 when they listed two years ago, traded at $80 in U.S. premarket dealings. The transaction, which Novartis is to finance using debt, will reap AAA founder and 11 percent owner Stefano Buono more than $420 million. The move fits with Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez’s strategy of pursuing bolt-on deals worth up to around $5 billion rather than seeking out larger targets. With AAA, Novartis gets technology that deploys trace amounts of radioactive compounds to not only create images of organs and lesions to diagnose diseases but which can also be used to fight cancer. AAA’s flagship product, Lutathera, won European Union backing in late September against rare gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, the likes of which killed Jobs, Apple’s founder, in 2011. “Novartis has a strong legacy in the development and commercialisation of medicines for neuroendocrine tumours,” said Bruno Strigini, head of Novartis Oncology. “With Lutathera we can build on this legacy.” PEAK SALES Lutathera, which has also been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, harnesses a molecule not only to diagnose cancer but also to deliver treatment by hitting tumours with high-energy electrons. In trials, it demonstrated a 79 percent risk reduction versus Novartis’s $1.6 billion-per-year drug Sandostatin against neuroendocrine tumours. Now, Novartis will likely replace patent-expired Sandostatin with its new drug, said Baader Helvea analyst Bruno Bulic. “We see the more sophisticated technology to Lutathera commanding a premium price to Sandostatin and estimate peak sales potential at $2 billion,” Bulic wrote in a research note. Analysts from Vontobel said the $3.9 billion price “appears expensive” given AAA -- spun off from Europe’s physics research centre CERN 15 years ago and listed on Nasdaq -- had sales of just $78 million in the first half of 2017. Novartis shares were little changed at 1115 GMT. AAA founder Buono said the deal with the world’s biggest maker of prescription drugs would not only support Lutathera’s launch but also accelerate development of its other therapies. The Italian-born former CERN physicist steadily took on investors and built up manufacturing capacity while making small acquisitions. AAA went public in a 2015 IPO. Its other biggest shareholders are Fidelity with 9.1 percent and HBM Healthcare Investments ( HBMN.S ) run by former Roche ( ROG.S ) finance chief Henri B. Meier. PJT Partners served as financial adviser and Shearman & Sterling as legal adviser for Novartis. Jefferies LLC was financial adviser to AAA, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP serving as legal counsel. Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London; Editing by Michael Shields and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-novartis-advanced-accelerator/novartis-to-buy-french-cancer-specialist-aaa-for-3-9-billion-idUKKBN1D30HM'|'2017-11-03T09:11:00.000+02:00'
'd801f68efc4940bcacce177adfb97a9a1d2a7322'|'Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter'|'November 3, 2017 / 4:19 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Airbus, Dassault vie for leadership of Franco-German fighter Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - With the ink barely dry on a deal between France and Germany to develop a new combat jet, Airbus and Dassault are squaring up for leadership of a project that could reshape Europe’s fragmented fighter industry. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled the plans at a summit in July, burying past defense industry rivalries as part of efforts to tighten co-operation as Britain withdraws from the European Union. The new combat system could involve a mixture of manned and unmanned aircraft and would eventually replace the Rafale and Eurofighter, rival jets that compete fiercely for global sales, as well as the older Panavia Tornado. That sets the tone for co-operation between Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain in the Eurofighter consortium, and Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of France’s Rafale. But there has been little formal discussion yet over the shape of the project, let alone who would take the lead in development, according to industry and defense officials. Airbus, whose mostly Germany-based defense arm makes up about a quarter of its sales, laid claim to the leading role in an op-ed article published on Friday. “On the assumption that the necessary political will is in place, Airbus is offering to drive cooperation with its European partners and to shape this aspect of our common European future,” Dirk Hoke, chief executive of Airbus Defense & Space, wrote in Germany-based defense newsletter Griephan Briefe. He described his company as “the lead...for a project of this nature.” Dassault has itself offered to be the “architect” of the Franco-German project and Chief Executive Eric Trappier told Reuters recently that it would be the natural leader due to its experience in building an all-French fighter plane.[nL5N1KH7O7] FILE PHOTO - The logo of French airplanes maker Dassault Aviation is seen on the Dassault Aviation factory in Merignac near Bordeaux, southwestern France, January 10, 2014. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Airbus’s call also appeared aimed at speeding up the project as Germany looks to U.S. rivals to meet interim fighter gaps. Germany earlier this year asked Washington for a briefing on the Lockheed Martin ( LMT.N ) F-35 fighter as it gears up to replace its current fleet of fighter jets from 2025. [nL1N1K206B] It has also asked for data on Boeing’s F/A-18E/F. Hoke said buying American could weaken the European defense industry and make it ever-more reliant on U.S. “black box” technology that is not shared with foreign operators, while injecting uncertainty into Franco-German plans for a new jet. “An interim solution for the replacement of old fleets already appears probable. If important decisions are delayed, a stopgap of this type could take on a dimension that would cast doubt on the economic efficiency of the entire project,” he said. France and Germany said in July they aim to come up with a roadmap by mid-2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of rival warplanes. Dassault Aviation appears to have been caught by surprise by July’s announcement, which cut across its existing partnership with BAE Systems to build a demonstrator for an unmanned combat vehicle, called Future Combat Air System (FCAS). Defense analysts say the French company is in a strong position to be in the driving seat from a technological point of view, having made it plain it regards BAE as its technological peer. But at least for now, such considerations are likely to take a backseat to how the project will be funded amid tight defense budgets, an industry source said. “It is quite normal for industrialists to claim leadership, but it is too early to talk about that,” he added. Editing by Anna Willard '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-defence/airbus-dassault-vie-for-leadership-of-franco-german-fighter-idUSKBN1D31W0'|'2017-11-03T18:18:00.000+02:00'
'a06287f7f617e6b22b94fd0f1af31074bbae18f4'|'Ford to invest $211 million in South Africa to boost output'|' 36 PM / a few seconds ago Ford to invest $211 million in South Africa to boost output Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - American car-maker Ford said it would invest 3 billion rand ($211 million) in its South African assembly plant to meet rising domestic and international demand for its Ford Ranger pickup truck, the company said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: An airplane flies above a Ford logo in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo “This significant investment reaffirms Ford’s ongoing commitment to South Africa as a local manufacturer, exporter and key employer in the automotive sector,” Ockert Berry, vice president operations for Ford Middle East and Africa said in a statement. Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by James Macharia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-ford-motor/ford-to-invest-211-million-in-south-africa-to-boost-output-idUSKBN1D31M1'|'2017-11-03T16:26:00.000+02:00'
'5e45b6a4f30cedbd45f5c73c88eccf313d2a09e0'|'Many Japanese-made cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer - On the other hand'|'THE Japanese make cars that last but replace them relatively quickly. The average car in Japan is three years younger than in America. This combination of durable manufacturing and dutiful consumption of a prized national product works out well for the rest of the world; many countries import older Japanese cars in bulk. Secondhand vehicles fill vast parking lots in Japan’s port cities, awaiting shipment to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.The third-most-popular destination is Myanmar, which imported over 80,000 used Japanese vehicles in the first nine months of this year, according to Japan’s International Auto Trade Association. Drivers believe that Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans can stand up to the country’s pockmarked roads, a faith not yet shown in South Korean and Chinese cars. 7 minutes ago A grilling on Capitol Hill Democracy in America 9 26 See all updates There is only one problem, which is that Japan drives on the left, Myanmar on the right. As a consequence, most of Myanmar’s drivers sit on the wrong side of the car, where it is harder to see oncoming traffic. Settle into the passenger seat of a Honda taxi on a narrow rural road and you may be called upon to perform unexpected duties like telling your driver when it is safe to overtake a slow-moving lorry, without hitting a scooter, gaggle of children or bonnet-less jalopy travelling in the other direction.Not everyone executes these responsibilities successfully. Myanmar has the highest rate of deaths per vehicle among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the World Health Organisation. Evidence of accidents litters the roadside outside Yangon: a silver Toyota that has lost everything in front of its windscreen and a red Suzuki hatchback that also now has a hatchfront.Myanmar’s government periodically tightens the import rules to keep older and less safe cars off the country’s roads. In October it said it will allow individuals to import only cars built in 2016 or after. And after this year, it will no longer grant import permits for right-hand-drive cars.The tighter policy may encourage local car assembly. Suzuki will open a new factory for left-hand-drive cars outside Yangon next year, adding to its existing plant in the city’s east. But the change will oblige drivers to buy cars that are either more expensive or less authentically Japanese. The new left-hand-drive Corolla on display in the Toyota “Mingalar” dealership in Yangon, for example, was made in Thailand and is listed at $33,900, over 26 times the country’s national income per person.One other constituency may also come to regret the altered rules. Many poorer residents of Yangon, where motorcycles are banned, ride bicycles or sit in three-wheeled “trishaws”, trundling alongside the kerb. As more of Myanmar’s drivers shift to the left seat, oncoming traffic will be easier to spot; but these kerbside pedal pushers will be more exposed than ever.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "On the other hand"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730908-government-outlawing-right-hand-drive-cars-many-japanese-made-cars-enjoy-afterlife?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'0bfde589ff6b852b250293a4f27cb86abc13e785'|'Smoking rooms are disappearing from hotels - Stubbed out'|'TO THE list of endangered travel facilities—which includes pay phones, communal aeroplane screens and concierges —there is one more to add: smoking rooms. Even a few years ago, guests were routinely asked whether they would prefer a smoking room or not. But today fewer hotels are offering smoking rooms and those that do have a vanishingly small supply.According to the latest report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a trade group, the share of hotel rooms that are non-smoking has steadily risen from 74% to 97% over the last decade. And the proportion of hotels that only offer non-smoking rooms has jumped from 38% in 2008 to 85% last year. 14 minutes ago A grilling on Capitol Hill Democracy in America 17 33 See all updates For a business traveller with a tobacco habit, then, there are few options. Those seeking a dash of glamour will struggle, as 97% of luxury hotels do not have smoking rooms. Only among budget-hotel category—the lowest price segment of five listed in the survey—do the majority of establishments have any smoking rooms on offer. Small hotels are more likely to have smoking rooms than larger ones. And older hotels are a slightly better bet than new ones.Non-smokers may want to avoid these cheaper, older haunts. Even if they land a non-smoking room in a hotel with smoking options, they are still subject to second-hand smoke. A study in 2013 found that the levels of tobacco air pollutants in non-smoking rooms were five times as high as in non-smoking hotels. And levels of surface pollution, such as cigarette ash, were 25 times higher.Smokers can, of course, stay in non-smoking rooms and use a variety of strategies to get their fix. The most obvious of which is to brave the elements for a puff outside. But many opt for more devious approaches. Internet forums are full of advice for people who want to smoke in non-smoking rooms (and dodge the often-hefty fines for the hotel to decontaminate the room). The least obnoxious of these is to upgrade to a room with a balcony. More egregious options include smoking out the window, exhaling into the bathroom vents, turning on a hot shower so that the steam can absorb the smell and putting a wet towel under the door.But travellers who indulge in tobacco should recognise the way that the winds are blowing. In America, none of the hotels owned by Marriott International allow smoking, nor do Wyndham Hotel Group’s lifestyle and full-service brands. Two new Hilton brands, Canopy and Tru, will not allow smoking in any of their hotels in the world. Outside of America, there are usually more smoking options, although Europe is also increasingly going smoke-free. Smokers who do not want to mess around with wet towels and steam baths, should prepare for a future in which having a cigarette in a hotel room is no longer an option.Next A black-rights group warns would-be passengers about American Airlines'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/stubbed-out?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-02T23:52:00.000+02:00'
'ea2ac99bae86f96b8a08927cee991d02b0ba827a'|'UPDATE 1-City of Ottawa prices Canada''s first municipal green bond -term sheet'|'(Adds portfolio manager Quote: s and details on green bond market)By Fergal SmithTORONTO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The City of Ottawa priced its first green bond offering, raising C$102 million ($79.6 million) of a 3.25 percent bond that matures in November 2047, a term sheet seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.The deal, which is the first municipal sale in Canada of the climate friendly debt, was priced at a spread of 97 basis points over the Government of Canada benchmark, the terms showed.“It’s a good name, good credit. Liquidity will be potentially an issue because of the (small) size and the curve,” said Hosen Marjaee, senior managing director, Canadian fixed income at Manulife Asset Management.A long bond in Canada’s green bond market is unusual. Most of the deals have been of a 10-year maturity or less.The City of Ottawa did not have an immediate comment on the green bond issue.The proceeds of the deal will be used to finance light rail transit capital work that meets the requirements of the city’s Green Bond Framework, the terms said.Issuance of these types of bonds has been common in the U.S. municipal bond market. While the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec have been issuers of green bonds, private sector companies and the Canada’s federal government have been slow to tap the market.If the federal government releases guidelines for the use of proceeds of green bonds, that could spur private-sector interest in these bonds, market participants say. The market could also thrive if the federal government were to meet a campaign pledge to turn to this type of financing.In August, Export Development Canada priced its first green bond issue in Canadian Dollars, raising C$500 million. ($1 = 1.2809 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-bonds-green/update-1-city-of-ottawa-prices-canadas-first-municipal-green-bond-term-sheet-idINL2N1N81IT'|'2017-11-02T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'c4ecb3fcbcad6bb71d7bde6e635a0770ec6135dd'|'UK''s NIESR expects BoE rates to peak at two percent in 2021'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:27 AM / Updated 8 hours ago UK''s NIESR expects BoE rates to peak at two percent in 2021 David Milliken 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research said it expects the Bank of England to start a sustained rate-tightening cycle on Thursday, which will lead to interest rates peaking at 2 percent in 2021. A man speaks on his mobile phone outside the Bank of England in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay NIESR’s forecast is more hawkish than almost all the economists polled by Reuters last week, and comes a day before economists expect the BoE to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade. Three months ago, NIESR brought forward its expectation for a first BoE rate rise to February 2018, at a time when most economists still expected the BoE to wait until 2019 before beginning to raise rates. In September the BoE surprised markets by saying most of its policymakers expected to back a rate rise “over the coming months”. BoE Governor Mark Carney said this largely reflected a weaker outlook for productivity - which has stagnated in Britain since the financial crisis and reduced the rate at which Britain’s economy can grow without creating excessive inflation. Markets now see an almost 90 percent chance that the BoE will raise rates to 0.5 percent from 0.25 percent on Thursday. However, most economists polled by Reuters do not see enough in the way of inflation pressures to justify raising rates now, and think a mix of muted price pressures and Brexit uncertainty make a further rate rise unlikely in 2018. NIESR, however, on Wednesday said a weaker outlook for productivity meant the BoE needed to raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points roughly every six months to keep inflation in check. “Now that we have lowered our productivity growth forecast, we have also raised the interest rate (path). There is a risk of overheating,” NIESR economist Amit Kara said. NIESR forecasts that consumer price inflation, which hit a five-year high of 3.0 percent in September, will peak at 3.2 percent before the end of the year. But unlike the United States and the euro zone, Britain’s economy has underperformed over the past 12 months, with the weakest year-on-year growth in four years at 1.5 percent. NIESR expects growth in 2017 as a whole to be 1.6 percent, picking up marginally to 1.7 percent in 2018 and 2019 and overall a shade weaker than it expected three months ago. But it now expects productivity to grow by just 1 percent a year over the next five years. Higher rates are needed even if wage growth does not improve from its current rate of 2 percent, half its average before the 2008-09 recession, Kara said. However, this outlook for growth and interest rates assumed Britain’s departure from the European Union would not lead to major economic disruption, he added. Editing by Andy Bruce '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy-niesr/uks-niesr-expects-boe-rates-to-peak-at-two-percent-in-2021-idINKBN1D137Q'|'2017-10-31T21:27:00.000+02:00'
'071916ad7a26de0f48052eb09798d82379bdc391'|'Disabled Indians use apps, chat groups to find love, navigate life'|'MUMBAI, Nov 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Disabled Indians are finding love and tips for everyday life on mobile apps and chat groups, as technology helps level the field for a community that is often stigmatised and ignored.A mobile matchmaking app for the disabled has facilitated at least half a dozen marriages since its launch, while a WhatsApp message group for women with prosthetic legs helps them navigate everyday challenges, be it relationships or shoes.“At least two thirds of disabled people are single - and not from choice,” said Kalyani Khona, 24, founder of matchmaking app Inclov, short for ‘inclusive love’.“Dating and matchmaking sites are not really inclusive, and there is such a stigma around disabled people that they are resigned to being alone,” she said.India is home to nearly 27 million disabled people.They are largely an invisible minority, with a lack of access to public transport and to spaces such as restaurants and movie theatres.Women are particularly at a disadvantage, often considered a burden by their families because they cannot marry easily.Inclov, developed with money raised from crowdfunding, has about 19,000 registered users in India; men make up 80 percent.“We are aware that not everyone with a disability has access to a smartphone,” Khona told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.“Access for women is particularly limited, and they are also more inhibited,” she said.About 15 women, all with prosthetic legs, get together on a private shared space on WhatsApp to share their common experiences - talking pregnancy, menstruation, and also what footwear is practical, but also cute.Set up by three women who shared the same prosthetist in Mumbai, the women are all in their 20s and 30s; most are single.It is not a support group, said Antara Telang, who lost a leg when a branch fell on her during monsoon rains.“All of us in the chat group know the challenges that women with leg amputations face, and we support each other through everything,” said Telang, 25.“It’s not just about our disabilities; it’s about interacting with people who understand what you’re going through. Posting on Reddit doesn’t provide the same kind of support that five people saying ‘OMG yes, me too!’ does.” (Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-women-tech/disabled-indians-use-apps-chat-groups-to-find-love-navigate-life-idINL8N1N20BF'|'2017-11-03T04:02:00.000+02:00'
'66d7ce59e9a451b88c208832087f61c9a398255d'|'LPC: More competitive US oil and gas lending drives down pricing'|'NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A renewed willingness to lend to US oil and gas companies, as oil prices stabilize well above lows, is driving down pricing for borrowers after two straight years of steep increases.The volume of credit lines provided to exploration and production companies, using their oil and gas reserves as collateral, so far this year has already topped full-year 2016, although it is a shadow of the 2014-2015 tallies reached before oil and gas prices tanked, according to Thomson Reuters LPC.While some banks have left the industry, those remaining are chasing relatively low lending volumes, leading to pricing competition on the smaller pool of loans.Loan pricing over Libor has dropped persistently since peaking in this year’s first quarter.After increasing for two straight years, spreads on these so-called reserve-based loans now average 194bp to 294bp over Libor, LPC data show. That’s well below recent highs of 270bp-370bp reached in the first quarter of this year, and nearer to the 180bp-280bp range in full-year 2015.“There’s more capital coming back to the market,” said one industry source. “For some of these banks, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of Oklahoma and Texas Capital, oil and gas lending was one of the pillars of their business and they’re getting back to it.”Texas Capital declined to comment. Bank of Oklahoma was not immediately available for comment.Wells Fargo declined to comment. The bank’s third quarter earnings report showed a modest 1% growth in oil and gas loans outstanding versus the prior quarter, to US$102m.“This industry has been very resilient through the cycle and we remained committed to our clients throughout, providing them with unwavering support to help them succeed,” said Mike Lister, head of JP Morgan’s Corporate Client Banking Energy group. “There is more bank capital available today for oil & gas companies.”Lending to the upstream sector has reached US$35bn so far this year, surpassing the US$29bn lent in all of last year, LPC data show. However, this volume is starkly lower than the US$112bn in 2014 and US$61bn in 2015.The upturn this year reflects the stabilization of oil prices at improved levels, and a shake-out of weaker credits after the plunge in oil and gas prices spurred a wave of bankruptcies in the sector.Oil prices earlier on Wednesday reached their highest levels since mid-2015, Reuters reported, as global supplies pushed markets higher. US West Texas Intermediate crude settled at US$54.30 per barrel.“Lessons learned from the 2015 and 2016 bankruptcies are that, although relative position of the debt instrument on the balance sheet matters, extremely low firm-wide recoveries can produce abnormal losses for even the most secured creditors, such as reserve-based loan holders, despite their substantial debt cushions,” Moody’s Investors Service wrote in a September report.The subsequent energy price upturn and stability has led to better recovery rates since the second half of last year, the rating agency said. (Reporting by Lynn Adler; Editing By Leela Parker Deo and Jon Methven) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oilgas-lending/lpc-more-competitive-us-oil-and-gas-lending-drives-down-pricing-idINL2N1N720O'|'2017-11-01T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'2a64bf139b7fce5ee48f0001fa899f223918d4e8'|'Eventual end of ECB''s bond buys a ''minor issue'' - Hansson'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:24 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Eventual end of ECB''s bond buys a ''minor issue'' - Hansson Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TALLINN (Reuters) - The eventual end of the European Central Bank’s bond purchase scheme is “a minor issue” since an oversized balance sheet and a commitment to keep interest rates low provides the bulk of accommodation, ECB policymaker Ardo Hansson said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Estonian bank governor Ardo Hansson listens during a news conference following the Governing Council meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo “How we move in the future ... to zero, is actually a very minor issue in the context where the stock of accumulated purchases is already in the trillions of euros,” Hansson told Reuters. “So the question about 10 billion euros (£8.7 billion) there or the precise phasing, I think is not really a material issue.” Hansson added that bond purchases from the private sector will remain substantial next year even when government bond buys are cut, so the share of covered and corporate bond buys could even grow as a portion of all asset purchases. “I don’t think anyone is talking about ramping up (private sector buys), so it is just maintaining the significant purchases and therefore the share of the private sector element can grow,” Hansson said on the sidelines of a news conference. Reporting by David Mardiste; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-hansson/eventual-end-of-ecbs-bond-buys-a-minor-issue-hansson-idUKKBN1D14I3'|'2017-11-01T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'7f97d70d8163b55d7058010842f563ac200c9732'|'Thomson Reuters reports higher third-quarter net profit'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 10:42 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Thomson Reuters profit tops estimates, revenue misses Jessica Toonkel 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp ( TRI.N ) ( TRI.TO ) on Wednesday reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit even as revenue slightly missed estimates, and the news and information company said full-year profits will be at the high end of its earlier forecast. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Thomson Reuters is pictured at the entrance of its Paris headquarters, France, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Third-quarter net earnings rose to $348 million or 46 cents per share, from $286 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted for special items, earnings were 68 cents per share. Total revenue grew 1 percent excluding currency to $2.79 billion. Analysts on average, were looking for profit of 58 cents per share, and revenue of $2.82 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/. In its Financial & Risk segment, which provides news and analytics to financial services companies, sales outpaced cancellations, a key indicator of future growth. Overall revenue for the unit was up slightly. Thomson Reuters, parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP, as well as News Corp’s ( NWSA.O ) Dow Jones unit. While Thomson Reuters has continued to grow in the low single digits, some investors question if the company needs to do more to grow revenue. “The company continues to see positive progress in its turnaround efforts, improving momentum in revenues and the attention to cost is driving impressive margin performance,” said Peter Appert, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. “The question is what levers can the company pull to move the needle on revenue growth in a more meaningful way.” Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-thomsonreuters-results/thomson-reuters-reports-higher-third-quarter-net-profit-idUKKBN1D14DC'|'2017-11-01T12:40:00.000+02:00'
'fed00c3cb3bccfc3e2664303e1915c1cd640ab95'|'Aso praises BOJ''s Kuroda, raises expectations of reappointment as governor'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso hailed on Thursday the achievements of Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, raising expectations that the central bank chief will be reappointed when his five-year term ends in April.FILE PHOTO: Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services of Japan, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Kuroda embarked on an unprecedented burst of monetary stimulus since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe handpicked him a few months after he swept to power in December 2012, pledging to pull Japan out of nearly two decades of stagnation and deflation.Since then the yen has weakened as a result of monetary easing, helping boost exports and employment, Aso said.Aso echoed the view Abe who said on Wednesday that he had full confidence in Kuroda’s ability as central bank governor.The comments by both Aso and the premier backed market expectations that Kuroda is likely to be reappointed even though the premier said that nothing has been decided.Aso also made no mention of who should succeed Kuroda.Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “He has overhauled the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy and eased policy, as a result the yen has fallen from around 80 yen to some 113 yen, which has improved export conditions for Japanese firms,” Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting when asked about Kuroda.That has helped companies earn record profits and improve employment and household income conditions, he said.“Coordination between fiscal and monetary policies has worked well.”Abe also instructed Aso to put a decisive end to deflation, revive the economy and tackle fiscal consolidation, the finance minister said, after the premier was re-elected on Wednesday following his ruling bloc’s election win last month.Kuroda’s reappointment would mean his signature stimulus programme will stay for the time being even as U.S. and European central banks head towards normalising unconventional monetary policy.The world’s third-largest economy is gradually recovering but prices are lagging behind, hovering far below the 2 percent inflation goal.The central bank left monetary policy steady on Tuesday while a board newcomer called for clearer commitment to ramp up stimulus if necessary, potentially complicating future efforts by the BOJ to dial back its massive monetary stimulus.Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Richard Borsuk & Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-aso/aso-praises-bojs-kuroda-raises-expectations-of-reappointment-as-governor-idINKBN1D20U2'|'2017-11-02T10:22:00.000+02:00'
'83d049ce4d94278bc5f9105c8633c36dfd06e731'|'Enbridge profit misses Street on lower natural gas volumes'|'Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 11:33 AM / in 3 hours Enbridge profit misses Street on lower natural gas volumes Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Canada’s Enbridge Inc ( ENB.TO ) ( ENB.N ) on Thursday posted a quarterly profit that was short of analysts’ estimates, hurt by a decrease in natural gas pipeline volumes, offsetting gains from the assets it gained in the Spectra Energy deal. Natural gas pipeline volumes averaged 1.53 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) in Canada, down 1 percent, and it moved 1.64 mmcf/d in the United States, down 2.4 percent, Enbridge said. The company bought Houston-based Spectra last September in an all-stock deal valued at about $28 billion, creating North America’s largest energy infrastructure company. The pipeline operator also said it is waiting for approval from Minnesota for its Line 3 replacement project, which will double capacity on the line to 760,000 barrels per day (bpd). Calgary-based Enbridge’s liquids pipeline business, its biggest, earned C$976 million, on an adjusted basis, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from C$941 million a year earlier. The company moved 2.5 million bpd of crude oil on its mainline system across Canada and the United States during the quarter, up 6 percent year over year. Earnings attributable to shareholders was C$765 million ($595.38 million), or C$0.47 per share, compared with a loss of C$103 million, or C$0.11 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted to remove items, Enbridge earned C$0.39 per share, missing consensus by 4 Canadian cents as per Thomson Reuters data. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Bernard Orr'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enbridge-inc-results/enbridge-posts-profit-on-spectra-deal-idUSKBN1D21F6'|'2017-11-02T18:33:00.000+02:00'
'f066cf12a225d4900a55c807dc987f2267f13b0a'|'Global regulators stretch timeline for insurance capital rule'|'Williamson named Defence Secretary after Fallon resigns in growing harassment scandal Special Report reuters investigates -the body trade Mystery in the woods - a woman’s head was found. Who is she? BoE sees only gentle rises ahead after rate hike Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 4:00 PM / in a few seconds Global regulators stretch timeline for insurance capital rule Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators have given themselves more time to bridge transatlantic differences that have delayed the world’s first capital rule for insurers, raising a cheer in the sector. The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) said its members have agreed in Kuala Lumpur on a “unified path to convergence” to further the “ultimate goal” of a single International Capital Standard (ICS). The aim is to make it easier for investors to compare insurers from different countries by shedding light on their inner workings. In a compromise seen as helping to keep Europe and the United States on board, the IAIS said there will be a two-phased introduction after the revised version of the draft standard comes out in late 2019. A five-year monitoring phase will followed by an implementation phase. The Swiss-based body released the first version of the ICS in July this year for field testing, and the second version is expected to include changes. The IAIS also speaks of third “ultimate goal” stage, without elaborating further. The ICS won’t be binding on international insurers like Prudential ( PRU.L ), Generali ( GASI.MI ), Allianz ( ALVG.DE ) and AIG ( AIG.N ) during the monitoring phase. The IAIS said it was responding to stakeholder calls for greater clarity on what happens after 2019. “We have reflected the priorities of our members and made significant progress towards our ultimate goal,” IAIS executive committee chair Victoria Saporta said in a statement. The monitoring period will result in a “more appropriate and workable approach”, said Hugh Savill, director of regulation at the Association of British Insurers. Reuters reported in September that the ICS was bogged down over which method to use for calculating capital requirements, with insurers hoping for some breakthrough at an IAIS meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week. The first version of the ICS includes several methods for calculating capital to reflect the U.S. and European Union systems. In the meantime, the United States has begun work on a new capital rule of its own. The IAIS will collect data to assess by the end of the monitoring period if the new U.S. rule comes up with the same capital “outcome” as the second version of the ICS, applying “national discretions” if need be to smooth out differences. If similar, the U.S. rule could then be used as an alternative to the ICS. Ted Nickel, Insurance Commissioner for the U.S. state of Wisconsin, said Thursday’s announcement from the IAIS was achieved through a “lot of give and take” and he looked forward to be part of the important work ahead. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-insurance-regulators/global-regulators-stretch-timeline-for-insurance-capital-rule-idUKKBN1D2270'|'2017-11-02T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'76b6d973885a63e100a454320f8234a702dc54ea'|'Bayer, Novartis clash with UK doctors over use of cheap eye drug'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:06 AM / in 17 hours Bayer, Novartis clash with UK doctors over use of cheap eye drug Ben Hirschler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bayer is weighing legal action and Novartis has expressed concern at plans by doctors in the north of England to defy official guidance by using a cancer medicine as a cheap eye drug. FILE PHOTO: Members of the supervisory board of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG are silhouetted against the company''s logo at the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Doctors from 12 clinical commissioning groups (CCG) plan to make Roche’s cancer therapy Avastin the preferred option for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), even though it is not licensed for this use. AMD, which occurs when the macula is unable to function properly, is a common cause of sight loss. David Hambleton, head of the South Tyneside CCG, said the policy of using Avastin rather than Bayer’s Eylea or Novartis’s Lucentis could save the regional National Health Service (NHS) 13.5 million pounds ($18 million) a year. “Clinical safety and effectiveness are paramount but, as the legal guardians of finite NHS resources, we commissioners also have a duty to act efficiently, effectively, and economically,” he wrote in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday. “This is one choice that is morally, ethically palatable.” FILE PHOTO: Swiss drugmaker Novartis'' logo is seen at the company''s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Across England, savings from using Avastin could total more than 500 million pounds, the journal reported. The new policy from the North East and North Cumbria CCG Forum means doctors will tell patients that Avastin is the preferred choice, although they are still free to choose Eylea or Lucentis if they want. However, doctors prescribing Avastin for AMD will be using the medicine “off label”, which goes against guidance from the General Medical Council that a licensed product should be used when available. While Avastin works in a similar way to Eylea and Lucentis, for a fraction of the price, Bayer and Novartis said it had not undergone the same rigorous regulatory scrutiny for use in AMD as their products. “Bayer feels it has to act to challenge the decision taken by these CCGs. Bayer is currently considering its position including the possibility of legal proceedings,” the German company said in an emailed statement. Novartis said the move was “not in line with the current UK and EU legal and regulatory framework”. The issue of whether Avastin should be used as a cheap alternative in AMD has long been controversial in Europe. In 2014 in Italy, Roche and Novartis were accused of collusion in trying to impose the use of Lucentis in AMD - a charge the two companies denied. Reporting by Ben Hirschler, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-bayer-britain/bayer-novartis-clash-with-uk-doctors-over-use-of-cheap-eye-drug-idUKKBN1D136C'|'2017-11-01T02:15:00.000+02:00'
'0783e6d3bef35d151ee8cbb2c99e11529cd638f1'|'France''s Total opens Washington office as Iran risks loom'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Total ( TOTF.PA ) has opened an office in Washington in a bid to strengthen relations with the U.S. administration as the French oil and gas company prepares to invest billions in Iran.FILE PHOTO: Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne speaks during the launching of Total Spring in Paris, France, October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne confirmed Total opened a government relations office, telling Reuters “we should have done a long time ago.”In July, Total became the first Western energy firm to sign a deal with Iran since the easing of international sanctions in 2015, agreeing to develop Phase 11 of the South Pars offshore gas field with a total investment of $5 billion.But the future of the project was thrown into doubt after President Donald Trump last month refused to certify Iran was complying with an international deal over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, leaving Congress to decide by mid-December whether to reimpose those U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted.For now, Total was continuing plans to develop the first phase of South Pars, estimated to cost $1 billion, issuing tenders for services, Pouyanne told an event at Chatham House in London on Thursday.Total would comply with any sanctions preventing it from operating in Iran, Pouyanne said, adding that Tehran “know that if we can not go ahead it is because of a decision by the U.S.”Total’s Washington office, staffed by five people, would help coordinate relations with the U.S. Treasury and State Department to make sure the French firm remains in compliance with any changes to U.S. sanctions, a Total source said.Total is also keen to raise its profile in Washington as a major investor in the U.S. energy industry. The company employs 6,000 people in the United States with operations in oil and gas production and refining.Earlier this year, Total announced a $1.7 billion investment to expand its petrochemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas.The new office would help mitigate legal risks Total faces in the United States, Pouyanne said.Pouyanne said Total faces fines of $5 million to $6 million per year over small violations of regulations of its operations in the Port Arthur plants.“The legal risk in the U.S. exists really ... We always under estimate the level of fines we have to pay,” he said.Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-total-usa/frances-total-opens-washington-office-as-iran-risks-loom-idINKBN1D31H2'|'2017-11-03T10:37:00.000+02:00'
'a8f5c0ce2c3c7951002917c7bbf89f2a5d982231'|'EURO DEBT SUPPLY-Austria, Germany, Ireland sell bonds next week'|'LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Austria, Germany and Ireland are the euro zone countries scheduled to sell government debt in the coming week, while analysts say a debt sale by Portugal is also a possibility.* Austria will issue 1.15 billion euros in bonds by reopening 2027 and 2022 issues in an auction on Tuesday.* Also on Tuesday, Germany sells 500 million euros of inflation-linked bonds maturing in 2030.* Germany, the region’s benchmark bond issuer, returns on Wednesday with a 3 billion euro sale of five-year bonds.* Ireland is scheduled to hold a bond sale on Thursday, details of which are expected to be released on Monday.* Analysts say Portugal could also come to the market with a sale of five and 10-year bonds.Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by John Geddie '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds-outlook/euro-debt-supply-austria-germany-ireland-sell-bonds-next-week-idINL8N1N92Z3'|'2017-11-03T07:57:00.000+02:00'
'ad445eb8071bbb4fc3690526b265d9305af9c8b5'|'CVS, Aetna aim to finalize deal as early as December: sources'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) and health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) are working toward finalizing merger terms and announcing a deal for more than $70 billion as early as December, according to people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: The CVS logo is seen at one of their stores in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide.The companies have agreed that CVS will split its consideration for the deal between cash and CVS stock, a deal structure that would minimize tax liabilities for Aetna shareholders, the sources said.A deal will probably value Aetna at significantly more than $200 per share, the sources said, adding that the companies will agree to an exact price closer to signing the deal in December.The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Aetna declined to comment, while CVS did not respond to a request for comment.Aetna shares have risen more than 7 percent since the Wall Street Journal reported last week that CVS and Aetna were in merger talks.Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs.Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) such as CVS negotiate drug benefits for health insurance plans and employers, and have in recent years taken an increasingly aggressive stance in price negotiations with drugmakers.They often extract discounts and after-market rebates from drugmakers in exchange for including their medicines in PBM formularies with low co-payments.A tie-up with Aetna could give CVS more leverage in its price negotiations with drug makers.The deal would follow years of major changes to the U.S. health insurance industry under former President Barack Obama, whose 2010 Affordable Care Act created new ground rules for how insurers operate and expanded insurance to 20 million more Americans.Republican President Donald Trump has promised to turn back many of the Affordable Care Act’s facets, but Congress has not been able to agree on a repeal or a replacement. The lack of progress, along with Trump’s executive order to bring down healthcare costs, has created uncertainty for insurers as they head into 2018.Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-aetna-aim-to-finalize-deal-as-early-as-december-sources-idINKBN1D32A6'|'2017-11-03T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'ac29049de5f18767f4aa54e48fcc72e3ca260edf'|'Sensex, Nifty edge higher; Airtel jumps'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:06 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Indian shares rise to record closing highs; Sensex posts 5th weekly gain Reuters Staff 1 Min Read REUTERS - Indian shares rose to record closing highs on Friday, with the benchmark BSE index posting its fifth consecutive weekly gain, as lenders and blue chips extended recent gains on hopes about an improving economy and better corporate earnings. Brokers trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai May 13, 2014. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui /Files The Sensex closed up 0.33 percent at 33,685.56, posting a 1.6 percent weekly gain. The Nifty ended 0.28 percent higher at 10,452.50, rising 1.3 percent for the week to mark its fourth weekly gain in five. Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-nifty-edge-higher-airtel-jumps-idINKBN1D30CB'|'2017-11-03T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'29f8a75286be18814b396d22d7bff310abd7e52f'|'IKEA undertakes some home improvements - Frictionless furnishing'|'ON A Sunday afternoon, just beyond London’s M25 ring road, shoppers participate in the ritual that is a trip to IKEA. Fuelled by a lunch of Swedish meatballs, they negotiate their way around the 400,000-square-foot maze of a store, past children playing hide and seek and couples arguing over the merits of a PAX over a HEMNES wardrobe. Hours later, they emerge, wearily pushing trolleys loaded with flat-pack furniture and far more tea lights than they had intended to buy. The joy of assembly still awaits them.This experience has changed remarkably little since the late 1950s, when IKEA, which is still privately owned, set up its first store in southern Sweden and found that people would travel long distances for low-cost, self-assembled goods. IKEA has become the world’s largest seller of furniture, with over 400 shops around the world and €38bn ($42bn) of revenue. 8 But now it is acknowledging that customers might want to shop in new ways. In what Torbjörn Lööf, chief executive of Inter IKEA, which owns the brand, has described as its biggest change in interacting with customers since the IKEA concept was founded, it has said it will experiment with selling furniture on third-party online platforms (it already sells items on its own site). It is not yet known whether it will sell on Amazon or China’s Alibaba, the biggest names in e-commerce.The firm also recognises that DIY labour does not always make people fonder of their purchases. In September IKEA Group, which runs most of the retail outlets, announced its acquisition of TaskRabbit, an app that, among other things, connects handymen to customers with odd jobs to be done. Taken together with other changes introduced in recent years—such as a handful of click-and-collect sites in some city centres, home delivery and a new augmented-reality app for smartphones to help customers visualise furniture in their homes—it is clear that the company is keen to create alternatives to its vast suburban outlets.Such steps seem overdue. According to a survey of 29 countries by PwC, a consulting firm, around 30% of respondents would rather buy furniture on the internet than in shops. Although footfall at individual IKEA stores has been falling since 2015, the number of visits to the group’s website has increased by over a fifth (see chart). Yet in 2016 online sales accounted for only 4% of the firm’s total revenue. IKEA has doubtless noticed that an American competitor, Ashley Furniture, successfully sells its goods on Amazon, and that Alibaba, too, carries several ranges of furniture.The new strategy carries the usual risks faced by firms going online. Customers are not shifting entirely to e-commerce, notes Marc-André Kamel of Bain & Company, a consulting firm, but wish to mix and match channels. Mr Lööf therefore has little choice but to offer customers both physical and digital options, which could raise costs. IKEA is still planning bricks-and-mortar expansion both in established markets, such as Britain, and in new ones, such as India next year and South America and South-East Asia in the future.Its plan to experiment with using big third-party online sellers such as Amazon is surprising, says Mr Kamel, because it would need to cede some control over its branding. Being on Amazon or Alibaba would also invite direct comparison with other furniture manufacturers on price and quality. The Swedish giant is betting that it can win new customers online who would never trek to its superstores. But if it simply substitutes offline demand for online sales it could lose out, because it would have to hand over a big chunk of its profit margin to third parties (at least there is plenty to go round; IKEA Group’s gross profit margin averaged 40% between 2012 and 2016).Another risk comes from the demands of a new type of customer. IKEA is used to people who are willing to spend time on assembly in return for low prices, but will now try to appeal to online buyers who demand cheap, quick delivery. Keeping them happy will be hard. Online reviews of IKEA’s new-style click-and-collect store in London complain of long lead times and slow service. Constructing a sturdy new sales model, rather like a flat-pack cupboard, could turn out to be trickier than IKEA claims. "Frictionless furnishing"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730910-furniture-giant-belatedly-deepening-its-presence-e-commerce-ikea-undertakes-some-home?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'f72755e9a7ed686abcc000703c530eb654a2b1d5'|'PRESS DIGEST- Wall Street Journal - Nov 3'|'Nov 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Two U.S. B-1B bombers flew near North Korea on Thursday, alongside Japanese and South Korean jet fighters, provoking anger from Pyongyang ahead of President Donald Trump''s closely watched trip to Asia. on.wsj.com/2gZ02qP- The Justice Department is laying the groundwork for a potential lawsuit challenging AT&T Inc''s planned acquisition of Time Warner Inc if the government and companies can''t agree on a settlement, according to people familiar with the matter. on.wsj.com/2ipyGuh- T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp are working to salvage their potential blockbuster merger, people familiar with the matter said, days after Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son appeared to call off the talks. on.wsj.com/2gZNq2Q- General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co have been contacted as part of a Justice Department probe into job-training programs set up jointly with the industry''s biggest autoworker union, the companies said Thursday. on.wsj.com/2gZF1MRCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-3-idINL4N1N91ML'|'2017-11-03T01:36:00.000+02:00'
'368e51db47f64c69d1beee60425c11af9498fec3'|'T-Mobile and Sprint work to save merger talks: WSJ'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - T-Mobile US ( TMUS.O ) and Sprint ( S.N ) are working to salvage their $74 billion merger and could reach a deal within weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: Smartphones with the logos of T-Mobile and Sprint are seen in this illustration taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Parent companies Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) and SoftBank ( 9984.T ) reached an impasse last week in their talks as SoftBank directors expressed doubts over giving up control of Sprint, sources told Reuters.However, the Wall Street Journal said that T-Mobile US has made a revised offer, which Sprint is considering. Terms of the offer were not disclosed.A Deutsche Telekom representative declined to comment.Under the previous deal structure, Deutsche Telekom would have controlled the new company, which would have merged the third and fourth-biggest U.S. mobile carriers.Deutsche Telekom shares were indicated 0.9 percent higher ahead of the Frankfurt market open, compared with a 0.3 percent expected rise for the German blue-chip DAX .GDAXI index.Reporting by Georgina Prodhan and Tom Sims; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us/t-mobile-and-sprint-work-to-save-merger-talks-wsj-idUSKBN1D30JO'|'2017-11-03T09:39:00.000+02:00'
'9e3e8b29ff50eb4098f87d2465aaabf44593e449'|'Playtech says year performance to miss market forecasts'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:58 AM / Updated an hour ago Playtech says year performance to miss market forecasts Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Gambling technology company Playtech ( PTEC.L ) warned on annual profit on Thursday saying it will be around 5 percent below the bottom end of market expectations due to a slowdown in parts of Asia and problems with a bingo contract. The British company, which provides software for sports betting and online casino and poker games, said that the Sun Bingo contract remains challenging due to factors including the re-launch of the new Sun Bingo site. In Asia, the company said it was not expecting any significant improvement in 2017 after trading was hurt by a recent slowdown in certain parts of Asia. [nRSB3626Va] Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-playtch-outlook/playtech-says-year-performance-to-miss-market-forecasts-idUKKBN1D20RV'|'2017-11-02T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'69c98bd32b9bb75b3c1e3bc6c86806622ecabe08'|'UPDATE 1-Norwegian police drop case against ex-Vimpelcom chief'|'(Adds Lunder, lawyer Quote: s, PIX in slug)By Joachim DagenborgOSLO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Norwegian police have ended a corruption investigation into the former chief executive of Vimpelcom, the company now known as Veon, saying on Wednesday he was no longer a suspect.Jo Lunder, who has maintained he was innocent, was briefly held by police in 2015 as part of a probe into Vimpelcom’s business in Uzbekistan and had since been under investigation.Following his arrest, Lunder resigned from his position as chief executive of the Fredriksen Group, a company controlling billionaire investor John Fredriksen’s holdings in shipping, oil services, fish farming and other business.“The case has been dropped,” the police said in a statement.Lunder said he felt broken by the investigation.“It feels empty ... I spent 30 years building myself up and now it’s all burned to the ground,” he told a news conference.“If, however unlikely, a new position as CEO were to come along, I think I’d most likely turn it down,” he added.Lunder now plans to sue the police for damages, his lawyer said.“I don’t know of anyone investigated by the financial crimes unit who suffered an economic loss of the size Lunder has. We haven’t even begun thinking of how big it is, but it’s extremely extensive,” Cato Schioetz said of the pending lawsuit.Vimpelcom admitted in February 2016 to having paid more than $114 million in bribes to a high-ranking Uzbekistan official, and agreed to pay $795 million in penalties to resolve related U.S. and Dutch probes. (Writing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Gwladys Fouche/Mark Potter/Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/veon-ceo-corruption/update-1-norwegian-police-drop-case-against-ex-vimpelcom-chief-idINL8N1N71PV'|'2017-11-01T05:58:00.000+02:00'
'8c9e184ec902a1173064a7dbda7c791518118705'|'Bitcoin blasts to new all-time high of $6,450'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:42 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Bitcoin blasts to new all-time high of $6,450 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin climbed to a new all-time high of $6,450 on Wednesday, boosted by bets the cryptocurrency could enter the financial mainstream after the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator said on Tuesday it would launch bitcoin futures. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic CME Group Inc ( CME.O ) said it would provide a regulated trading venue for the cryptocurrency market and would launch the new derivatives in the fourth quarter of 2017. Bitcoin has had a bumper year with a more than sixfold increase in price, and has more than doubled in price since mid-September alone. It was up 0.3 percent on Wednesday on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP . Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-blasts-to-new-all-time-high-of-6450-idUKKBN1D140H'|'2017-11-01T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'1c06fe9c5f401cee693a56e8e172547746da8d59'|'U.S. factory activity index eases off 13-1/2-year high'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 2:53 PM / in a few seconds U.S. factory activity index eases off 13-1/2-year high Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A measure of U.S. factory activity retreated from a 13-1/2-year high in October as the boost from hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, but continued to point to strengthening manufacturing conditions. FILE PHOTO: A production line employee works at the AMES Companies shovel manufacturing factory in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S. on June 29, 2017. Picture taken on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Tim Aeppel/File Photo Other data on Wednesday showed a surge in private sector hiring, indicating that job growth rebounded last month after being depressed in September as hurricanes Harvey and Irma left some workers temporarily unemployed. Manufacturing and labor strength likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to increase interest rates in December. The U.S. central bank is not expected to raise rates when policymakers conclude a two-day meeting later on Wednesday. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity slipped to a reading of 58.7 last month from 60.8 in September, which was the highest since May 2004. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates growth in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. September’s jump in the index was driven by supply chain disruptions, especially in the chemical products sector. The supply bottlenecks, which also pushed up prices of raw materials, resulted in a longer delivery times. Longer suppliers’ delivery times are normally associated with increased activity, which is a positive contribution to the ISM index. The ISM’s supplier deliveries sub-index fell to 61.4 last month after soaring to 64.4 in September. The survey’s prices paid sub-index dropped to 68.5 after racing to 71.5 in September, which was the highest reading since May 2011. The production sub-index slipped 1.2 points to a reading of 61.0 in October and a gauge of new orders fell to 63.4. A measure of factory employment dipped to 59.8 from 60.3 in September, which was the highest level since 2011. Manufacturing is being supported by a strengthening global economy and weakening U.S. dollar. PRIVATE PAYROLLS SURGE Separately, the ADP National Employment Report showed private employers hired 235,000 workers last month, the most in seven months, after increasing payrolls by 110,000 jobs in September. The ADP report, which is jointly produced with Moody’s Analytics, is not a good predictor of the private payrolls component of the employment report. It, however, supported expectations of a sharp rebound in employment last month after nonfarm payrolls declined by 33,000 jobs in September. Prices for U.S. government bonds were trading higher and the dollar rose against a basket of currencies. A third report from the Commerce Department showed construction spending increased 0.3 percent to $1.22 trillion as a surge in public construction outlays offset the third straight monthly decline in investment in private projects. But August’s construction outlays were revised down to show a 0.1 percent gain instead of the previously reported 0.5 percent rise. Construction spending increased 2.0 percent on a year-on-year basis. In September, investment on private construction projects fell 0.4 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in August. It was the third straight monthly drop in private construction outlays and reflected a 0.8 percent decline in spending on private nonresidential projects. Spending on nonresidential projects in September was the lowest since April 2016. Spending on nonresidential structures has now declined for four consecutive months. Spending on oil drilling has been slowing in recent months amid moderate gains in oil prices and ample crude supplies. Spending on residential structures was unchanged in September. The data could impact the government’s gross domestic product estimate for the third quarter published last week. The government’s advance estimate put economic growth at a 3.0 percent annualized rate in the July-September quarter, with both residential and nonresidential structures subtracting from output. In September, outlays on public construction projects jumped 2.6 percent after rising 0.7 percent in August. Spending on state and local government construction projects climbed 2.5 percent. Federal government construction spending soared 3.4 percent. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-factory-activity-index-eases-off-13-1-2-year-high-idUKKBN1D151N'|'2017-11-01T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'fcbd5a6adda8fdd8db95ca545d75b7fe50f44b77'|'Siemens Gamesa needs more wind in its sails as Vestas stretches U.S. lead'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:44 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Siemens Gamesa needs more wind in its sails as Vestas stretches U.S. lead Christoph Steitz , Jose Elías Rodríguez 6 Min Read FRANKFURT/MADRID (Reuters) - Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ) has fallen behind biggest rival Vestas ( VWS.CO ) in the race for orders in the United States, hurt by a perceived lack of technology investment and a less centralized supply chain in the world’s second-biggest wind turbine market. FILE PHOTO: A model of a wind turbine with the Siemens Gamesa logo is displayed outside the annual general shareholders meeting in Zamudio, Spain, June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent West /File Photo The U.S. battleground is among the biggest for western turbine manufacturers, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasting the addition of 6 gigawatts (GW) of capacity this year and a further 8 GW in 2018. But things have not gone well for Siemens Gamesa since the merger that brought together Siemens’ ( SIEGn.DE ) wind power division with rival Gamesa this year, even though it has described the United States as critical to its success. The merger was aimed at giving the combined entity an edge in an increasingly competitive global market amid sector consolidation that saw Germany’s Nordex ( NDXG.DE ) buy the turbine unit of Spain’s Acciona ( ANA.MC ) and General Electric ( GE.N ) take over France’s Alstom. “Siemens Gamesa has struggled to bring an attractive turbine to North America,” said one senior industry adviser who declined to be named to protect business relations. There is a view that the company has not done enough to improve its geared turbines, the adviser added. Siemens has mainly sold gearbox-based turbines in the United States, where they are the preferred model, but its market share has dwindled in recent years while that of Vestas has increased steadily. TURBINE SWITCH? Complementing its portfolio and recouping lost market share in the United States were among the main drivers of the tie-up with Gamesa, which has a broader offering of gearbox-based turbines and is expected to fare better locally. Siemens Gamesa will present its new strategy in February and sources close to the group said chances are that the joint venture may use more of Gamesa’s turbines in the United States in future. “After the merger the combined company has greater scale in the U.S., which will enable us to increase the wind turbine models and the volumes produced in the country,” Siemens Gamesa said in an e-mailed statement. Improvement is badly needed after the group announced the closure of its blade production operation in Canada, job cuts at its nacelle manufacturing plant in Kansas and writedowns on the U.S. business that caused a profit warning and management reshuffle. Siemens Gamesa did end a losing streak this week when it reported U.S. orders for 784 megawatts (MW) of capacity. It has also won an upgrade contract it says is worth 190 MW. FILE PHOTO: A model of a wind turbine with the Siemens Gamesa logo is displayed outside the annual general shareholders meeting in Zamudio, Spain, June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent West /File Photo But that is still less than half of what has been taken in by Vestas. The Danish company’s order book is brimming with 2,086 MW in announced U.S. deals, close to a third of its total orders globally. Fresh data from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) also shows that Vestas is much more successful than Siemens Gamesa in striking deals for projects. The association’s latest quarterly market report said Vestas has taken 47 percent of the U.S. wind projects under construction or in advanced development that have announced a supplier. Siemens Gamesa’s share stood at 8 percent, or 1,258 MW, at the end of the third quarter. ‘PEDESTRIAN’ OUTLOOK “The need to catch up will keep a lid on stock momentum for at least another couple of quarters,” Barclays analysts said, forecasting a “pedestrian” outlook for 2018, which they expect to be issued along with fourth-quarter results on Nov. 6. Barclays expects next year’s sales to be down by more than a fifth from its forecast for 2017 numbers. The analysts are forecasting sales of 8.48 billion euros ($9.88 billion) in 2018, well below the 10.14 billion Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimate. In the medium term, the merger is expected to help Siemens Gamesa to gain a stronger foothold in the United States and recover some of this year’s 30 percent lost market value -- a far cry from the 25 percent gain for shares in Vestas. Regardless of the actual products, Siemens Gamesa must also find a way to compete with the centralized supply chain that Vestas has built in the United States. Vestas operates four factories making towers, blades and nacelles in the state of Colorado, located in the middle of the windy central plains corridor of the United States, which analysts say is a big advantage. “We think the key is localizing the product,” said Chris Brown, president of Vestas’s sales and service division in the United States and Canada. Siemens Gamesa also has a strong presence in the region, with blade and nacelle production in Iowa and Kansas, though it does not identify the local providers from which it sources its towers. In the past it has bought towers from Broadwind Energy ( BWEN.O ), which has production sites in Wisconsin and Texas. “In a cut-throat competitive turbine pricing environment, the additional costs of transport can win or lose contracts,” said Jesse Broehl, senior analyst at Navigant Research. ($1 = 0.8584 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-gamesa-r-vestas-wind-usa/siemens-gamesa-needs-more-wind-in-its-sails-as-vestas-stretches-u-s-lead-idUSKBN1D15AS'|'2017-11-01T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'd86f18dbdec645e1272596f4c24fc05dd2894fa1'|'China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint'|' 19 AM / in 7 minutes China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint Marius Zaharia 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Growth in China’s manufacturing output slowed in October, threatening to chill activity across Asia, as tough steps to reduce air pollution forced factories to reduce production and a crackdown on financial risk-taking weighed on smaller firms. FILE PHOTO: A boy works at a aluminum utensils factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo While business surveys on Wednesday suggested Asia’s export-driven expansion still has legs, the readings are starting to reflect signs of fatigue after an impressive sprint so far this year, suggesting regional economic growth has peaked. Still, barring any unexpected shocks, most analysts polled by Reuters expect the global economy will remain on a roll for one more year, even if China sees a gradual loss of momentum. In the West, similar preliminary surveys last week looked solid enough not to derail plans by Federal Reserve to gradually reduce its balance sheet and by the European Central Bank to slow bond buying. The Bank of England may raise interest rates for the first time since 2007 on Thursday despite the Brexit shock. Taken together, the recent data points to global economic growth of around 3.5 percent this year, analysts at Capital Economics said, adding the world economy should be able to sustain that rate in 2018. In China, a private survey showed manufacturing output rising at the weakest pace in four months in October and companies continued to shed staff despite a slight pick-up in domestic and export orders. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) was unchanged from September’s reading of 51.0, and in line with forecasts. But production growth slowed markedly, nearing the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction. Similar PMI surveys in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and India also suggested growth was starting to fade, while activity in Malaysia contracted. “We expect (China‘s) growth momentum to weaken in the coming months as the drags from slower credit growth, reduced fiscal support post-Party Congress and the environmental crackdown all intensify,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics. The Caixin China report followed a similar official survey on Tuesday which pointed to an unexpected cooldown in the manufacturing sector in the face of a weakening property market and a crackdown on smog, which is forcing some steel mills and factories in the northeast to curtail or halt production. China’s economy has surprised with growth of nearly 7 percent this year, driven by a renaissance in its “smokestack” industries, such as steel. It is now almost sure to surpass the official target of around 6.5 percent. But property and construction activity, two key growth drivers, are feeling the weight of government measures to cool the heat in the housing market. Higher borrowing costs are also hurting some firms as regulators clamp down on riskier forms of lending. Officials speaking at a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress last month emphasised a shift in focus to high-quality rather than high-speed growth and alluded to further efforts to contain excessive risk-taking in the financial system, sending 10-year Chinese government bond yields to their highest in three years. “The Caixin PMI reflects companies that are smaller in scale and they are at the centre of the deleveraging reform,” said Iris Pang, Greater China economist at ING. “I don’t think this is a one-off.” SUPER TECH Strong global demand for electronics has fuelled solid economic and corporate profit growth this year in Asia’s tech-oriented exporters: South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan reported its fastest quarterly growth in 2-1/2 years on Tuesday as it benefits from growth in more advanced technologies and the rollout of new smartphone models such as Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhones and other tech gadgets. Taiwan’s October PMI came in at 53.6, easing from September but still the highest reading in Asia. Soaring memory chip sales helped South Korea’s exports record a 12th consecutive month of growth in October, though the pace cooled from September, data   “Towards the end of the year ... the super-tech cycle is likely to slow,” said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis. She believes that the recent tech recovery has been cyclical, not structural, and that 2017 growth rates have been flattered to some extent by comparisons with a relatively soft performance last year. “We do not expect trade to recover to its pre-crisis levels. You have a deceleration of trade liberalisation and of the expansion of the supply chains and the change in structure of the Chinese economy.” Asian financial markets showed little reaction to the PMIs, as investors focussed on the progress of a U.S. tax-cut plan being developed by President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans and Trump’s imminent announcement of the next head of the Federal Reserve, which could shape the growth and policy outlooks for the global economy for years to come. The Fed, which ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, has raised rates twice this year and is expected to do so again in December, with data on Tuesday showing consumer confidence at a 17-year high reinforcing that view. Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy/chinas-war-on-smog-risk-taking-edge-off-asias-growth-sprint-idUKKBN1D13NL'|'2017-11-01T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'eac01d2ecef2d2a14fd8fc9fa50f524c1496fe0c'|'BOJ can''t exit stimulus when inflation below 1 pct - BOJ Gov candidate Ito'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan likely won’t be able to exit its massive stimulus programme while inflation is hovering below 1 percent, Takatoshi Ito, an academic who is a potential candidate to become the next BOJ governor, said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: A Japanese flag flutters atop the Bank of Japan building under construction in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo “What’s important is for inflation to accelerate, which would give (the BOJ) quite some flexibility in guiding monetary policy,” Ito, a Columbia University professor, told a seminar in Tokyo.The BOJ has already laid the groundwork for normalising monetary policy by revamping its policy framework last September and gradually slowing its bond purchases, though raising its yield targets would be some time away, he said.“While inflation is hovering below 1 percent, it would be hard for the BOJ to exit (from ultra-loose monetary policy),” said Ito, who is considered a candidate to succeed BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda when his five-year term ends in April next year.Reporting by Leika Kihara and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Minami Funakoshi '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj/boj-cant-exit-stimulus-when-inflation-below-1-pct-boj-gov-candidate-ito-idINKBN1D13LF'|'2017-11-01T07:47:00.000+02:00'
'fa2328b584fba496705363f7fef78673488073ab'|'Ackman exits years-long Herbalife short bet, turns to options'|'(Reuters) - William Ackman said on Wednesday he has bought options to sell shares of Herbalife Ltd ( HLF.N ) as a new way to bet against the nutritional supplement company he has described as a pyramid scheme.William ''Bill'' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/files The activist investor took a $1 billion bet in 2012 that Herbalife’s shares would fall by selling loaned shares which he hoped to buy back cheaper at a later date.Herbalife’s shares have instead risen since then, partly due to the company aggressively buying back its own stock. On Wednesday Ackman said that the short stock position has been closed. Usually closing out a short position when a stock price has climbed signals that an investor has taken a loss.The move to options caps potential losses he might incur in the future.“We converted the short stock position and replaced it with outright put positions,” Ackman told Reuters.Ackman is sticking with his negative view on the company but seeking to limit the potential losses for his fund’s investors if he had held onto the short stock position.Ackman said that potential losses on Herbalife will now be limited to 3 percent of the firm’s capital. “We can still lose money but the loss is capped,” he said.For years, Ackman has said that the company would eventually crumble under regulatory scrutiny for operating what he has called a pyramid scheme, a claim Herbalife denies.Herbalife’s stock price has soared some 50 percent this year and the company has been buying back shares, piling pressure on Ackman’s $10 billion hedge fund as the cost to borrow the shares rose.Short positions, in which borrowed shares are sold in hopes they can be replaced later at a lower price, have the potential for heavy losses that increase as a stock’s price rises. Put options give the holder the option to sell a stock at a set price.Analysts called it a savvy move and a more aggressive bet against Herbalife’s future by limiting losses for his fund and opening the potential for larger returns.Herbalife’s stock price has risen in part by its decision to buy back a big chunk of its shares, a move many in the market interpreted as Herbalife trying to pressure Ackman into giving up on his years-long crusade against the company.Herbalife stock dipped 1.7 percent to $71.37 on Wednesday.Pershing Square International, the firm’s hedge fund portfolio, nursed small losses for the year through the middle of October after logging double-digit losses in 2015 and 2016.The fund reported a 1.5 percent loss for the first six months of 2017. Pershing Square said in its interim financial report that Herbalife was the fund’s biggest loser for that period with a 4.3 percent decline.For much of the last five years, since Ackman first unveiled the position in December 2012, Herbalife has been a thorn for Pershing Square as unrealized losses mounted.While Herbalife has played a major role in Ackman’s portfolio in recent years, Ackman quickly turned back to Automatic Data Processing Inc ( ADP.O ) where he is campaigning for three board seats. He hosted another webinar on ADP on Wednesday, aiming to underscore his claim that the company is inefficient.Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Meredith Mazzilli and Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/herbalife-ackman/ackman-exits-years-long-herbalife-short-bet-turns-to-options-idINKBN1D159G'|'2017-11-01T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'29bc341eab3b3ab2a56ea11954d96296ffb6de15'|'U.S., AT&T discussing conditions for Time Warner deal - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:04 PM / in 2 minutes U.S., AT&T discussing conditions for Time Warner deal: sources David Shepardson 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and the U.S. Department of Justice are discussing potential conditions as part of winning government approval of the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc, according to sources familiar with the situation. FILE PHOTO: The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido “Vertical mergers like this one are routinely approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market, said an AT&T spokesman. ”While we won’t comment on our discussions with DOJ, we can say that this transaction should be no exception.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that the Justice Department was considering suing to block the deal and the two sides were not close to an agreement. on.wsj.com/2gW1l9O Shares of Time Warner were down 4 percent at $94.45, while AT&T’s shares were slightly lower. AT&T has previously said the deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Reporting by David Shepardson, Jessica Toonkel and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/doj-considers-blocking-att-deal-for-time-warner-wsj-idUKKBN1D221P'|'2017-11-02T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'eb8fc19ecee53da4ce144760c0eecac3c2167120'|'Goldman jokes, takes "bites" out of pizza to attract borrowers'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc hosted an event at a New York comedy club on Wednesday night to create some buzz for its new lending platform by poking fun at hidden fees that have frustrated and outraged consumers.A Goldman Sachs sign is displayed inside the company''s post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Wall Street bank is trying to court Main Street borrowers saddled with credit card debt through its recently launched personal loan platform Marcus, which it says charges borrowers principal and interest, but not fees.The Goldman-sponsored comedy show featured members of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe and menu items like “truffle macaroni & fees,” “steak and gorgonzola fee-zza” and drink specials including “fee’d up gimlet.”The comedians performed a set around personal finance and debt, with one sketch centered on a support group for consumers who had fallen into debt in extreme ways, like buying an $8,000 cat. Another involved a landlord listing absurd fees that a renter owed for an apartment, including one for a closet and yet another for a refrigerator.“A lot of Americans struggle with debt ... people don’t feel comfortable about it, so humor is a way for people to spark a conversation,” said Dustin Cohn, who oversees Marcus’s branding. “We’re trying to help destigmatize debt.”Marcus is one way that Goldman Sachs is trying to reinvent itself after a long period of declining income from bond trading, which was once a big money maker for the firm.But consumer lending is an untested area for Goldman — which has historically catered to large institutions and billionaires — and one that has raised questions from analysts as consumer credit begins to show signs of stress.Marcus offers loans from $3,500 to $30,000 and targets credit card borrowers who can benefit from consolidating debt into a single loan with a lower interest rate. The bank’s marketing strategy seizes on a frustration so common among consumers that several financial reforms imposed after the 2007-2009 financial crisis were focused on lessening fees and making them more transparent.All of the foods served at its event had small “bites” taken out of them — part of a broader advertising campaign that portrays rival lenders as taking a chunk out of consumers’ pockets. In a related YouTube video, a pizzeria employee takes a bite out of every slice he serves, much to the horror of customers.Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-marcus/goldman-jokes-takes-bites-out-of-pizza-to-attract-borrowers-idUSKBN1D20EF'|'2017-11-02T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'3a5151e958ef51fc1c83f65fdd3b5144b52175cc'|'Hong Kong''s CK Asset to sell office tower for record $5.15 billion'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:57 AM / in 26 minutes Hong Kong''s CK Asset to sell office tower for record $5.15 billion Reuters Staff 2   Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd ( 1113.HK ) is selling out of a central business district office tower for HK$40.2 billion (3.88 billion pounds), marking Hong Kong’s biggest real estate deal. CK Asset, formerly Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd, said on Wednesday it would sell its 75 percent interest in the 73-storey office tower, The Center, to C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development Asia Property Limited. Chinese firms have been aggressively expanding in Hong Kong property, one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, buying 29 percent of land sold in 2015 and 2016. Several such buyers had expressed a strong interest in acquiring the CK Asset office tower, although Postal Savings Bank Of China Co Ltd ( 1658.HK ) made clear a year ago that it did not plan to buy the property. CK Asset said in a filing that it expects to record a gain of about HK$14.5 billion from the sale, with the proceeds to be used for general working capital purposes. Shares in the company controlled by the Hong Kong businessman have risen more than 36 percent this year, outpacing a 30 percent gain in the broader market .HSI . The deal follow Mainland developer LVGEM (China) Real Estate Investment Co Ltd ( 0095.HK ) saying in mid-October that it would buy an office tower from Wharf (Holdings) Ltd ( 0004.HK ) for HK$9 billion to strengthen its presence in Hong Kong property. Reporting by Donny Kwok and Twinnie Siu; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ck-asset-disposal-office/hong-kongs-ck-asset-to-sell-office-tower-for-record-5-15-billion-idUKKBN1D20GP'|'2017-11-02T07:57:00.000+02:00'
'11a77691d5ebc6d505f49c16a26f5f62b2167209'|'Exclusive - McKinsey worked with South African firm after learning of Gupta links: sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 3, 2017 / 3:31 PM / a few seconds ago Exclusive: McKinsey worked with South African firm after learning of Gupta links - sources Joe Brock , Ed Cropley 5 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Global consultancy McKinsey worked with a firm in South Africa for four months after learning it was controlled by the Gupta brothers, business friends of President Jacob Zuma accused of corruption, four sources familiar with the deal said. FILE PHOTO The logo of consulting firm McKinsey & Company is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Their comments contradict media statements by McKinsey that it ceased work with the firm, local consultancy Trillian, in March 2016 -- after due diligence by external consultants showed the links to the Gupta family, accused by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog of siphoning public funds. McKinsey, which says it never signed a separate contract with Trillian, also ignored warnings by senior staff in South Africa not to partner Trillian in a deal to advise state utility Eskom which is being investigated for fraud, the sources said. The senior staff were troubled by Eskom’s demand that Trillian must be involved in the deal despite having little experience. It then took a year for McKinsey to act on calls for an internal inquiry into the relationship with Trillian, the sources said. Two of McKinsey’s global directors -- Europe-based Pal Erik Sjatil and Africa chief Georges Desvaux -- and South African office head Saf Yeboah-Amankwah told concerned partners the situation was “under control”, three former McKinsey employees said. Six sources with direct knowledge of the matter -- four former McKinsey employees and two current employees -- said there was no investigation until July 2017. McKinsey declined to comment on this allegation. Sjatil and Desvaux were on McKinsey’s Shareholder Council, its highest leadership body. Sjatil, Desvaux and Yeboah-Amankwah declined to comment for this story. Eskom, McKinsey and Trillian have denied wrongdoing. The sources’ disclosures are the first indication that McKinsey’s work with Trillian on the 1.6 billion rand (£86 million) contract to turn around Eskom continued until July of that year -- when Eskom canceled the deal. Asked about the sources’ comments, McKinsey told Reuters by email on Thursday: “McKinsey never had a supplier development partnership with Trillian. We terminated our discussions in March 2016 and notified the client and Trillian.” HOPES FOR A “SOLUTION” Eskom had told McKinsey it must use Trillian as a partner to secure the “turnaround” contract under a black empowerment program, but by July it had become clear that McKinsey would not sign a formal contract with it. Four people involved in the contract with Eskom said McKinsey’s work with Trillian continued until then, with one saying “the team hoped a solution could be found right up until Eskom cut ties.” McKinsey and Trillian had wanted to extend their advisory partnership at Eskom for four years in a deal that could earn them $700 million (£535.5 million), according to documents setting out the firms’ cooperation plans seen by Reuters. Sources at McKinsey confirmed the documents’ authenticity. Asked about the documents, a McKinsey spokesman did not deny they were genuine. McKinsey said in its email to Reuters that Eskom knew Trillian would not be McKinsey’s partner and added: ”Any questions about why Trillian remained at Eskom (after March 2016) and what they did, should be directed to Eskom. The disclosures are likely to form part of an investigation launched by South Africa’s parliamentary committee on public enterprises into whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to a Gupta-linked company as a way of securing the deal, a source close to the committee said. Trillian was owned at the time by Salim Essa, a business partner of the Guptas and of the president’s son, Duduzane Zuma. McKinsey’s global risk committee, a vetting body, gave the partnership with Trillian initial approval, pending due diligence, but senior managers in Johannesburg did not inform the committee fully about how Trillian hid its ownership and why costs for Eskom were unusually high, three former partners said. In the end, McKinsey launched a full internal investigation into its handling of the partnership with Trillian in July this year, after local media published a letter from a senior McKinsey manager dated Feb. 16, 2016 asking Eskom to pay Trillian as a McKinsey subcontractor. McKinsey said the letter “inaccurately characterized” the relationship with Trillian. The manager has since left the firm. McKinsey said on Oct. 17 the preliminary findings of the inquiry, approved by global head Dominic Barton, found “violations of our professional standards” but did not uncover any corruption. In its email on Thursday, McKinsey did not comment directly on the timing of its internal inquiry, directing Reuters instead to its Oct. 17 statement. Editing by Timothy Heritage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mckinsey-safrica-exclusive/exclusive-mckinsey-worked-with-south-african-firm-after-learning-of-gupta-links-sources-idUKKBN1D31S6'|'2017-11-03T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'652b34223554300b77fb13e5e28a41d4741aff2f'|'UK city Brighton renews Uber''s licence for six months'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:58 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Brighton renews Uber licence for six months as it monitors London dispute Costas Pitas 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Brighton has renewed Uber’s licence to operate in the southern English city for six months while the local authority follows the outcome of London’s move to strip the taxi app of its licence. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows a London taxi passing as the Uber app logo is displayed on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph in central London, Britain September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo “The decision on the length of the extension was taken to allow the council to monitor the outcome of the Transport for London Uber decision, and consider whether any of the information arising from the case had direct implications,” Brighton and Hove council said in a statement on Thursday. London’s transport regulator shocked Uber in September by deeming it unfit to run a taxi service and refusing to renew its licence, citing the firm’s approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers. Uber’s 40,000 drivers in the British capital can continue to take rides there until an appeals process is exhausted, which could take months or years. Uber only has around 40 drivers in the Brighton area out of a total of around 50,000 in Britain. The council said it would use the next few months to negotiate with Uber on a number of proposed conditions for operating in the city. “While there was no evidence to suggest that public safety had been compromised, there are a number of concerns, and Uber are working with the council to address these and reassure residents and visitors about their safety,” it said. Uber, valued at around $70 billion (£53.3 billion) with backers including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, has said it wants to make things right in London and welcomed Brighton’s decision on Thursday. “More choice and competition is good for consumers as it raises service levels across the board. Uber has been embraced in Brighton with around 10,000 riders using the app in the city every week,” said the firm’s UK Head of Cities Fred Jones. Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain-brighton/uk-city-brighton-renews-ubers-licence-for-six-months-idUKKBN1D21Q5'|'2017-11-02T14:57:00.000+02:00'
'5c3c08c8edcd45a7a5fc1a4d2cfcc3f943ce74bf'|'UPDATE 1-Suntory Beverage, PepsiCo to form Thai soft drinks JV'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:51 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Suntory Beverage, PepsiCo to form Thai soft drinks JV Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd ( 2587.T ) said on Thursday it has agreed to set up in Thailand a soft drink joint venture with PepsiCo Inc ( PEP.N ) in March, as it looks to expand in the Southeast Asian country. Bottles of Pepsi are pictured at a grocery store in Pasadena, California, U.S., July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni The Japanese company will buy 51 percent of shares in International Beverage, PepsiCo’s Thai beverage business, for around 33 billion yen ($289.63 million), it said in a statement. The deal will have no effect on Suntory Beverage’s earnings for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, it added. Reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu and Thomas Wilson; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sbf-pepsico-thailand/suntory-beverage-pepsico-to-form-thai-soft-drinks-jv-source-idUSKBN1D20FQ'|'2017-11-02T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'67eb9cea80516c6e07ef8231811183551c08336a'|'Britain''s GVC readies for deals with sale of Turkish operations'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:44 AM / in a few seconds Britain''s GVC readies for deals with sale of Turkish operations Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British online gambling company GVC ( GVC.L ) is selling its Turkish operations for up to 150 million euros ($175 million) in a deal that removes a hurdle to a potential takeover of Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) or another rival. FTSE 250-listed GVC said on Thursday that it had agreed to offload its Turkey-facing businesses to Ropso Malta, which provides IT services for the British company’s Turkish operations. GVC’s business in Turkey, a so-called gray market where many types of gambling are banned, were an obstacle to the company agreeing a takeover of Ladbrokes this year. Ladbrokes shares climbed more than   amid speculation that a takeover by GVC is now more likely. GVC shares edged up by 0.5 percent, giving it a market capitalizations of 2.9 billion pounds ($3.84 billion), compared with 2.4 billion pounds for Ladbrokes. “Turkey was an issue that I feel we could have resolved (with Ladbrokes),” GVC Chief Executive Kenny Alexander told Reuters. “If we wanted to participate in consolidation, be it Ladbrokes or anybody else, or be a target ourselves, then this (the Turkey sale) is clearing the path for that.” The disposal comes two days after the British government unveiled proposals to cut the maximum stake allowed on gambling machines in UK betting shops, which could hit profits at companies including Ladbrokes and potentially trigger a wave of sector consolidation as gaming businesses seek to offset the financial impact. Alexander said that GVC is “unlikely” to strike a deal with a competitor until the government has completed its consultation process on betting machine stakes and made a final decision. He added that talks with Ladbrokes had ended after they leaked in August and that the government review had also been an obstacle to a deal. “There are a number of other potential M&A targets that we could look to explore and don’t be surprised if it’s not Ladbrokes,”   GVC is not currently in any discussions. A Ladbrokes spokesman declined to comment. As well as paving the way for potential M&A, the disposal makes GVC more attractive to investors who had been deterred by the company’s exposure to Turkey, Alexander said. Regulated and locally taxed markets perceived as less risky will account for about 75 percent of the company’s net gaming revenue after the Turkish disposal, which is expected to complete by the end of December. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gvc-holdings-divestiture/britains-gvc-readies-for-deals-with-sale-of-turkish-operations-idUKKBN1D2195'|'2017-11-02T12:39:00.000+02:00'
'09d0de3962c36a031a1cb2f1d46cbc2bd14d2fc3'|'Investors stay bullish on Asia FX; won gets boost on GDP data, offshore demand: Reuters poll'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:00 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Investors stay bullish on Asia FX; won gets boost on GDP data, offshore demand: Reuters poll Sandhya Sampath 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Investors remained long on most Asian currencies with bets on the Korean won turning bullish for the first time since late August, a Reuters poll showed, as the dollar struggled over speculation the new Federal Reserve chair could take a less hawkish monetary policy approach than other contenders. FILE PHOTO: Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen on a counter of a branch of a commercial bank in Beijing, China, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The poll was conducted between Tuesday and Wednesday, ahead of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting, where it kept interest rates unchanged. The dollar was set for a weekly loss as reports of the U.S. President Donald Trump choosing candidate Jerome Powell as the next head of the Fed weighed on the greenback. Trump had also considered Stanford University economist John Taylor, who was viewed as being more hawkish than Powell. Investors were estimated to have increased bullish bets on the Thai baht and the Chinese yuan, according to a poll of 10 analysts, traders and fund managers. Traders turned positive on the Korean won, with long positions at their highest since July, cheered by data showing Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew at its fastest pace in seven years last quarter and with October inflation close to Bank of Korea’s (BOK) 2 percent target. “With GDP growth returning to potential and inflation converging with the BOK’s 2 percent target, monetary policy appears overly accommodative compared to the current economic conditions”, DBS Group Research said in a note. South Korea’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in over six years at its Nov. 30 meeting, months earlier than previously anticipated. Sentiment around the won also got a boost from foreign demand, with appetite for local shares from offshore investors in October hitting its highest level since March. Another supportive factor was improving ties between South Korea and China, as they agreed to move beyond a year-long stand-off over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea - a dispute that has hurt South Korean businesses. In other currencies, long positions on the Thai baht increased to their highest level since early September, as the finance ministry’s higher growth forecast for this year and upgrade on the estimate for export gains supported risk sentiment among investors. The baht has appreciated more than 8 percent against the dollar this year and is one of the biggest gainers among Asian currencies. Bullish bets on the Chinese yuan saw a four-fold rise from two weeks ago as companies continued to sell the greenback on growing expectations of the appointment of Powell as the next Fed chair. Meanwhile, the bearish sentiment towards the Philippine peso jumped to its highest since Nov. 2016. The currency tumbled to an 11-year low last week and has been the worst performer in Asia this year. Traders turned short on the Indonesian rupiah for the first time since Dec. 2016, as sentiment took a hit after the annual inflation rate in October fell to its lowest level since January. With inflation slowing for the fourth straight month, investors see room for further rate cuts by the central bank. The Asian currency positioning poll is focused on what analysts and fund managers believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: the Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht. The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long U.S. dollars. The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs). DDMM CNY KRW SGD IDR TWD INR MYR PHP THB 2/11 -0.27 -0.7 -0.06 0.2 -0.1 -0.5 -0.42 1.18 -0.75 19/10 -0.06 0.14 -0.11 -0.35 -0.17 -0.55 -0.5 0.88 -0.58 5/10 -0.13 0.8 0.11 -0.03 0 0.3 -0.27 0.86 -0.34 21/9 -0.5 0.21 -0.39 -0.63 -0.28 -0.41 -0.46 0.71 -0.99 7/9 -1.32 0.13 -0.58 -0.46 -0.46 -0.73 -0.35 0.83 -0.99 24/8 -1.1 -0.19 -0.47 -0.52 -0.35 -0.99 -0.17 0.97 -1.01 10/8 -1.14 -0.6 -0.74 -0.64 -0.33 -1.34 -0.37 0.55 -1.16 27/7 -0.79 -0.88 -0.73 -0.5 -0.18 -1 -0.36 0.83 -1.13 13/7 -0.4 -0.07 -0.2 -0.27 0.05 -0.64 -0.34 0.76 -0.44 29/6 -0.34 -0.5 -0.45 -0.64 -0.37 -0.8 -0.2 0.53 -0.88 Reporting by Sandhya Sampath in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ambar Warrick and Shashwat Pradhan; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-forex-emerging/investors-stay-bullish-on-asia-fx-won-gets-boost-on-gdp-data-offshore-demand-reuters-poll-idINKBN1D20XA'|'2017-11-02T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'd3d1eb4b35e35eda5bfcf90745874914beb7c711'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf sluggish, blue chips lift Egypt'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:32 PM / in 18 minutes MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf sluggish, blue chips lift Egypt Reuters Staff * Dubai’s Emaar Development sets price range for IPO * Some investors had been looking for higher valuation * Shuaa Capital leaps before quarterly earnings * Saudi’s Dar Al Arkan plunges after three-week uptrend * Egypt’s Talaat Mostafa surges on earnings By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Gulf markets remained sluggish on Thursday despite activity in Dubai’s Emaar Properties after its local property development arm set an indicative price range for its initial public offering (IPO) while a couple of blue chips boosted Egypt. Emaar Development set a range of 5.7 dirhams to 6.9 dirhams per share, valuing the company at between 22.8 billion and 27.6 billion dirhams ($6.21 billion-$7.52 billion). Proceeds from the IPO, and possibly other funds, are expected to be paid to Emaar Properties shareholders as a special dividend by the end of January. Fund managers and analysts said the price range appeared reasonable given Dubai’s muted real estate market, but the dividend may have disappointed some investors who had been expecting a premium of 10-20 percent. The Dubai stock index fell 0.3 percent as Emaar Properties traded higher for much of the day but dipped into negative territory by the close. Dubai’s most active stock, Shuaa Capital, jumped 7.4 percent in its heaviest trade since July. Some traders cited speculative buying before the announcement of third-quarter earnings early next week. Saudi Arabia’s index edged up 0.1 percent as real estate company Dar Al Arkan, the most active stock, sank 9.9 percent. It had risen by 33 percent since early October. Saudi Company for Hardware gained 3.1 percent after posting an 8 percent rise in quarterly profit on sales up 13 percent. But petrochemical producer Chemanol dropped 3.2 percent after it reported a third-quarter net loss of 9.9 million riyals ($2.7 million). Al Ahlia Cooperative Insurance sank 3.5 percent despite swinging to a quarterly profit as gross written premiums grew by 23 percent. Qatar’s index edged down 0.3 percent in very thin trade as eight of the 10 most active stocks fell and only one rose. That solitary gainer was property company Ezdan Holding, , adding 1.6 percent. In Egypt, the index advanced by 0.3 percent, supported by Global Telecom and real estate developer Talaat Mostafa, up 4.6 percent and 3.3 percent respectively. Talaat had reported a 72 percent leap in nine-month consolidated net profit. HIGHLIGHTS * The index edged up 0.1 percent to 6,957 points. DUBAI * The index fell by 0.3 percent to 3,622 points. ABU DHABI * The index dropped 0.5 percent to 4,465 points. QATAR * The index slipped by 0.3 percent to 8,146 points. EGYPT * The index was up 0.3 percent at 14,325 points. KUWAIT * The index rose 0.3 percent to 6,548 points. BAHRAIN * The index gained 0.3 percent to 1,283 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-gulf-sluggish-blue-chips-lift-egypt-idUSL8N1N82PG'|'2017-11-02T15:29:00.000+02:00'
'1f1907b8986b303ccfbed03f7b32f0a1bf67288b'|'Germany expects Air Berlin rescue loan to be repaid in full'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Germany expects Air Berlin rescue loan to be repaid in full Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German government has said it still expects the 150 million-euro ($175 million) loan granted to Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) to be repaid in full, after a court opened formal insolvency proceedings against the carrier on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Flight AB6210, the last by insolvent carrier Air Berlin, arrives at the Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke The loan granted in August had kept Air Berlin planes in the air while administrators held talks with prospective buyers of the airline’s assets. “The loan of 150 million euros will be repaid from the proceeds of asset sales,” a spokeswoman for the economy ministry said on Thursday. Air Berlin ran into trouble after a rapid expansion of the business left it saddled with debts while increased competition from low-cost carriers meant it struggled to make a profit in recent years. The airline carried out its final flight on Friday. Following the formal opening of the insolvency proceedings on Wednesday, Air Berlin quoted its administrator as saying its assets were not expected to be sufficient to satisfy the “existing priority claims” beyond the costs for the insolvency proceedings. But a person familiar with the matter said the government loan was secured against the expected proceeds from the asset sales, meaning it would be repaid first. Deals with Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) and easyJet ( EZJ.L ) to buy parts of the business, which are subject to European Union approval, are expected to bring in up to 250 million euros. “Even in the worst-case scenario, there should be no less than 150 million,” the person said. Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Gernot Heller; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa/germany-expects-air-berlin-rescue-loan-to-be-repaid-in-full-idUKKBN1D21TO'|'2017-11-02T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'820a25863cccb5234dea029eeca44aa867807db9'|'Malaysia''s Petronas, Aramco to finalise RAPID deal after resolving ''technical issues'' - Bernama'|'November 3, 2017 / 8:51 AM / in 5 minutes Malaysia''s Petronas, Aramco to finalize RAPID deal after resolving ''technical issues'': Bernama Reuters Staff 3 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian state energy company Petronas and Aramco are facing “technical issues” in finalizing the Saudi oil major’s $7 billion investment in a refinery project, but the deal will be completed soon, state news agency Bernama reported on Friday. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed The government “is giving room to Petronas and Saudi Aramco to resolve several technical issues related to the investment agreement,” Bernama reported, citing Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a minister in the Malaysian prime minister’s office. Saudi Aramco agreed in February, during Saudi King Salman’s visit to Malaysia, to buy a $7 billion stake in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in the southern state of Johor. “At the moment, there are certain terms that must be fulfilled by both parties and it’s an ongoing process. I expect it won’t be long for (Aramco) to release the funds for the project,” Abdul Rahman said in an interview with Bernama. He said there were “no major problems” and that the investment will be made “soon”. Petronas declined to comment. Aramco was not immediately available for comment. The minister did not say what the “technical issues” were, but recent moves by Petronas and Aramco seem to indicate the project is moving along. Last month, Aramco agreed to take a $900 million stake in petrochemical projects in the RAPID complex, expanding the agreement signed in February. The companies are also jointly seeking to raise $8 billion via a bridge loan for the RAPID project, Project Finance International, owned by Thomson Reuters, reported last week. Petronas had said in February, when it signed the agreement with Aramco, that the deal could take up to a year to close. RAPID is a $27 billion project located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, conduits for Middle East oil and gas bound for China, Japan and South Korea. It will contain a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million metric tonnes a year. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow 6-12 months afterwards. Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-petronas-rapid/malaysias-petronas-aramco-to-finalize-rapid-deal-after-resolving-technical-issues-bernama-idUKKBN1D30P4'|'2017-11-03T10:50:00.000+02:00'
'b50f29c77412c720a583fe640b7b26a08e47b553'|'Toyota''s October China vehicle sales up 13.5 percent'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp’s sales in China grew 13.5 percent in October from a year earlier to about 112,700 vehicles, following a 14.1 percent increase in September, the company said on Friday.A visitor walking past cars is reflected on a Toyota car at the company''s showroom in Tokyo October 18, 2012. REUTERS/Toru Hanai /Files Japan’s biggest automaker by volume said its sales in the first 10 months of the year totaled 1.07 million vehicles, an 8.5 percent increase from the same period a year ago.Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-autos-toyota/toyotas-october-china-vehicle-sales-up-13-5-percent-idINKBN1D30CL'|'2017-11-03T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'3a1fff35dc84db45bec54af3867e39f445a0a5d8'|'Deutsche Bank looking for another large office in Frankfurt ahead of Brexit - Source'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:23 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Deutsche Bank looking for another large office in Frankfurt ahead of Brexit - Source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) is scouting around for another large property in Frankfurt that could house hundreds of employees as it prepares for Britain’s departure from the European Union, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The Deutsche Bank app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The bank has its landmark twin-tower headquarters in the city, Germany’s financial services capital, but also operates several smaller locations around town. The additional large space being sought now would allow the bank to consolidate some of its secondary locations in Frankfurt, improving efficiency, the person said. The new large space would also help house an expected increase in local headcount as the bank moves some operations from London as a result of Britain’s divorce from the European Union, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans are still preliminary. Deutsche Bank’s search is yet another sign that Frankfurt’s office property market is heating up. Property firms in Frankfurt have seen an increase of more than 20 percent in office space rentals over the past year as the uncertainty over Brexit prompts banks to look at moving to Germany’s financial capital, the city’s chief promoter said. Deutsche Bank has not yet said how many jobs it expects to shift from London although one official earlier this year said up to 4,000 jobs could move. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by John O''Donnell, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-frankfurt/deutsche-bank-looking-for-another-large-office-in-frankfurt-ahead-of-brexit-source-idUKKBN1D15KY'|'2017-11-01T20:21:00.000+02:00'
'a881fcee7378a2f4174eb18343501e953fb86935'|'Video tech firm Kaltura prepping for U.S. IPO: report'|'November 1, 2017 / 11:23 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Video tech firm Kaltura prepping for U.S. IPO: report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli video technology firm Kaltura is preparing for a U.S. initial public offering in the second or third quarter of 2018 and is in discussions with various underwriters, the Calcalist newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Kaltura, based in New York with its research and development in Israel, was not immediately available to comment. Last year Kaltura, whose technology is used in cloud TV, online video, over the top and other video platforms, raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) in pre-IPO funding. Other investors include India’s Nexus Partners, Intel Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. Its customers include Warner Brothers, HBO and Siemens. Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Tova Cohen '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-israel-tech-kaltura-ipo/video-tech-firm-kaltura-prepping-for-u-s-ipo-report-idINKBN1D14HN'|'2017-11-01T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'b00e6e82118f48cbce5b15e41bf3dd2d4839b411'|'Aug 2018 key for any or if further Greek debt relief needed - ESM chief'|'November 2, 2017 / 2:34 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago August 2018 key for any or if further Greek debt relief needed - ESM chief Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s official lenders will be able to determine if Greece needs further debt relief only in the summer of next year, the head of Europe’s rescue fund (ESM) said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A man looks down as a Greek national flag flutters atop one of the bastions of the 17th century fortress of Palamidi under an overcast sky at the southern port city of Nafplio, Greece, February 19. 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo Klaus Regling said that Greece does not have “a debt overhang for the next few years”. Asked whether it needs further debt restructuring and on what terms, he said euro zone finance ministers took a very clear view of that last year and concluded that “at the moment there is no problem.” “We will look at it at the end of the (bailout) programme, at the end of August or just before August 2018, based on the debt sustainability analysis at the time,” Regling told Reuters. “If there is a need to do more and if Greece continues with reforms, we, the Eurogroup, are prepared to think about that.” Reporting by Michele Kambas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-regling/aug-2018-key-for-any-or-if-further-greek-debt-relief-needed-esm-chief-idUKKBN1D21YK'|'2017-11-02T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'a4f6f69de9af344330951e1213c13a2d0e8bae13'|'MOVES-Wells Fargo names Mary Katherine DuBos head of debt capital markets'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:52 PM / in 6 minutes CORRECTED-MOVES-Wells Fargo names Mary Katherine DuBose head of debt capital markets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Corrects spelling of last name to DuBose in headline and text) Nov 2 (Reuters) - The investment banking and capital markets business of Wells Fargo & Co said it has appointed Mary Katherine DuBose as head of debt capital markets, effective immediately. DuBose, who has more than 20 years of investment banking experience, will be based in Charlotte and will report to Walter Dolhare and Rob Engel, co-heads of Wells Fargo Securities. DuBose, most recently was co-head of Asset-Backed Finance & Securitization, which is a part of Wells Fargo Securities and Commercial Capital. (Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri; Editing by Bernard Orr)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/wells-fargo-moves-mary-katherine-dubos/moves-wells-fargo-names-mary-katherine-dubos-head-of-debt-capital-markets-idUSL4N1N85FH'|'2017-11-02T22:52:00.000+02:00'
'14cb9d59511cea80ed35ea87fd2d66571876e0ff'|'BRIEF-Collectors Universe reports Q1 earnings per share of $0.41 from continuing operations'|' 27 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago BRIEF-Collectors Universe reports Q1 earnings per share of $0.41 from continuing operations Reuters Staff Nov 2 (Reuters) - Collectors Universe Inc: * Collectors Universe reports record revenues for Q1, 2018 * Q1 earnings per share $0.41 from continuing operations * Q1 revenue rose 25 percent to $19.8 million  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-collectors-universe-reports-q1-ear/brief-collectors-universe-reports-q1-earnings-per-share-of-0-41-from-continuing-operations-idUSASB0BQZS'|'2017-11-02T23:25:00.000+02:00'
'5b18aa45bb5f5137e110be1d61132e2c888d3b55'|'Oil stable as U.S. crude inventories fall despite rising production'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Thursday, steadying near two-year highs as the outlook remained upbeat as OPEC-led supply cuts have tightened the market and drained inventories.An oil refinery of Essar Oil is pictured in Vadinar, Gujarat, October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Brent crude LCOc1 settled up 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $60.62 per barrel. The benchmark hit $61.70 on Wednesday, its highest intraday level since July 2015. The contract is up by more than a third from its 2017-lows in June.U.S. crude CLc1 ended 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, higher at $54.54, almost 30 percent above its 2017-lows in June.Confidence has been fuelled by an effort this year lead by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to hold back about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil production to tighten markets.Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said supply and demand balances were tightening and oil inventories falling, while compliance with the OPEC-led pact to curb supplies had been “excellent”.“Compliance as a whole for OPEC [ended] up being rather strong,” said Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank. “Now that we’ve flipped the calendar to November we have the OPEC meeting at the end of the month. There’s expectation that there will be positive comments about extending the cuts past March.”The pact to withhold supplies runs to March 2018, but there is growing consensus to extend the deal to cover all of next year.Iraq’s oil minister said that OPEC’s second-largest producer supports keeping curbs on global oil supply to bolster prices, adding $60 per barrel would be an acceptable target price for his country.The energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producers, were expected to travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Thursday night, two sources told Reuters. Both said the ministers were expected to give a briefing.Oil was also supported by falling U.S. commercial crude inventories despite rising output.U.S. crude oil inventories fell 2.4 million barrels last week despite a 46,000 bpd increase in production to 9.55 million bpd.Goldman Sachs said it expected year-on-year U.S. oil production growth of 0.8 million to 0.9 million bpd at year-end 2017. That would put end-2017 output at 9.6-9.7 million bpd, close to its highest for at least three decades.Traders said this was due to U.S. crude trading at a wide discount to Brent, making exports attractive. CL-LCO1=RU.S. independent oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources said it expected to export 2.3 million barrels of oil in the fourth quarter.Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London, Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Jason Neely and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-stable-as-u-s-crude-inventories-fall-despite-rising-production-idINKBN1D203G'|'2017-11-02T03:03:00.000+02:00'
'3a749915dfc5dd253d98f14e23088a320cbe1052'|'Japan''s ANA says plane returned to Guangzhou airport after reporting problem'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:57 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Japan''s ANA says plane returned to Guangzhou airport after reporting problem Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A Boeing 767-300 jetliner operated by ANA Holdings, Japan’s biggest carrier, returned to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in southern China on Thursday after the aircraft reported a problem, the airline said. The aircraft, which was on route to Tokyo, landed in Guangzhou and ANA is still gathering information on the incident, a spokesman for the company said. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Himani Sarkar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ana-boeing-china/japans-ana-says-plane-returned-to-guangzhou-airport-after-reporting-problem-idUSL4N1N83E6'|'2017-11-02T10:53:00.000+02:00'
'85ab6a81938f7668580b5fd8ac8f0919c30588bf'|'Activist TCI calls on LSE chairman to step down, says Rolet being forced out'|'November 3, 2017 / 8:59 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Activist TCI calls on LSE chairman to step down, says Rolet being forced out Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - UK activist investor TCI Fund Management has called on London Stock Exchange Group’s ( LSE.L ) Chairman Donald Brydon to step down, saying that Chief Executive Xavier Rolet was being forced out of the company. FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The fund, which owns more than 5 percent of the exchange, said in a letter reviewed by Reuters that it wanted Rolet’s contract to be extended to 2021 and asked the company to suspend the search for a new CEO immediately. LSE announced last month that Rolet would be stepping down as its chief executive by the end of 2018. TCI said it had met with Brydon and a senior independent director earlier this week and did not get a satisfactory answer for Rolet’s departure. The fund called on Brydon to step down and start a search for a new chairman. The fund also added that it would call for a Extraordinary General Meeting if Rolet was not retained as CEO. LSE was not immediately available for comment, while TCI did not give any additional comment. Reporting by Maiya Keidan in London and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-ceo/activist-tci-calls-on-lse-chairman-to-step-down-says-rolet-being-forced-out-idUKKBN1D32GG'|'2017-11-03T22:59:00.000+02:00'
'91dddf77f1f801b9044be30b184f2719e48e1e9f'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'November 3, 2017 / 5:24 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Reuters Staff 7 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson 1/TRUMP ON TOUR U.S. President Donald Trump embarks on his first trip to Asia in the coming week, stopping in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Security concerns in the Korean peninsula and the South China Sea will grab a lot of attention, but investors will also look at trade talks, with Trump particularly keen to address his country’s vast trade deficit with China that Beijing calls unintentional, but which he calls “horrible”. There is also the first deluge of data since last month’s People’s Party Congress in China. Import and loan growth figures will be particularly closely watched. A weakening of the former would point to domestic demand finally flagging, while an acceleration of loan growth would show borrowers are finding ways around tighter new lending rules. Exclusive: Energy, not tech or finance, in CEO line-up for Trump''s China visit 2/BALLISTIC BITCOIN Investors’ appetite for bitcoin appears to have no bounds. The digital currency climbed above $7,000 on Thursday for the first time ever, after an astronomical increase of more than 900 percent over the past 12 months. News that the world’s biggest derivatives exchange operator, CME Group, was set to launch bitcoin futures was seen as a significant step in bitcoin’s road to mainstream adoption, driving the latest surge in price. But with high-profile investors such as Warren Buffett and the head of Credit Suisse saying in recent days that the bitcoin market represents a bubble, could that be set to burst in spectacular fashion? What is to stop a rival cryptocurrency - of which there is a potentially unlimited quantity - from becoming investors’ digital currency of choice? With bitcoin now worth more than $120 billion, more than Citi or Goldman Sachs, the consequences of a sudden crash could be severe. CME to launch bitcoin futures in push for currency''s wide adoption 3/ NEED A JOLT? The Nov. 7 release of the September Job Opening and Labor Turnover (JOLT) survey USJOLT=ECI will show whether demand for labour has held up or is in need of an - ahem - jolt. At the moment, the ratio of job openings versus quit jobs is close to 2 to 1, hovering in a range close to the all-time peak of 2.12 hit in July 2015. It all comes following strong recent U.S GDP data and after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives released plans on Thursday for a tax overhaul they believe will help lift the economy. 4/ITALIAN BANKS JOB Italy’s biggest banks, including UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ), Intesa ( ISP.MI ) and Banco BPM ( BAMI.MI ), report their latest earnings and they could make encouraging reading following the euro zone-wide pick-up in growth and a strong rally in Italian debt over the last month. It certainly seems a long time since last year’s bail out of problem child Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ). It is now back in the market, and the main Italian banks are comfortably outperforming their euro zone peers in share performance .SX7E in 2017, so the results round should be telling. Monte dei Paschi welcomed back by market but below rescue price 5/ VENEZUELA RESTRUCTURING After what feels like years of speculation, OPEC member Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro wants to restructure the ailing country’s foreign debt. Maduro has invited Venezuelan bondholders to a Nov. 13 meeting in Caracas to discuss the matter, although getting clearance from the compliance department could be interesting for the bankers involved. Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who is on a U.S. blacklist for alleged drug trafficking, said the country remained committed to paying all its debt but wanted to reformulate terms with creditors, which is likely to mean some lively bouts of price discovery.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1D321Q'|'2017-11-03T19:23:00.000+02:00'
'0a90a0472b8bf577ceff1b9e1660f677fc58b71d'|'UPDATE 1-Amazon to end Fresh grocery delivery service in some areas'|'(Adds Amazon comment, location detail, background)Nov 2 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is ending its Fresh grocery delivery service for select areas, though it continues to operate in more than a dozen cities from Los Angeles to Tokyo, it said in a statement on Thursday.AmazonFresh deliveries will stop for some people after Nov. 30, according to messages sent to customers in suburban Pennsylvania and New Jersey, seen by Reuters. Some Amazon customers in California, New York and Maryland posted on Twitter that they were losing the service as well.AmazonFresh started more than a decade ago but has yet to make a major dent in the $700 billion U.S. grocery market. Whole Foods Market, which Amazon acquired in August for $13.7 billion, is expected to play a key role in Amazon’s grocery delivery going forward.A company spokeswoman said the AmazonFresh closures were unrelated to the Whole Foods deal. (Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/amazoncom-fresh/update-1-amazon-to-end-fresh-grocery-delivery-service-in-some-areas-idINL2N1N9033'|'2017-11-02T22:46:00.000+02:00'
'29cfaf70531a37443732fb1614a85946013b5c7e'|'Risky tumble dryers putting profit before people - Letters - Money'|'How can it be the case that “An estimated 1m ‘faulty’ tumble dryers at risk of bursting into flames are still in UK homes” ( Report , 1 November)? Two years ago, in November 2015, Whirlpool finally admitted that there were some 3.8m potentially faulty tumble dryers across the UK – prone to catching fire. Their response? Something along the lines of “we’ll get round to repair at some point, and in the meantime don’t use them unattended”. Whirlpool did not issue a product recall, nor did regulators require them to do so.When, in August 2016, a fire caused the evacuation of a Shepherd’s Bush tower block, Whirlpool stuck by this advice – and it was only six months later that customers were told not to use the dryers and unplug them. Even in the light of a much more recent and much more tragic fire in a West London high rise – at Grenfell Tower – triggered, it is believed, by a Whirlpool fridge freezer – no tumble dryer recall has been issued, nor have customers with a dryer they dare not plug in been recompensed. In the immediate aftermath of Grenfell, “regulation” and “enforcement” to protect public safety very quickly came back in vogue, mouthed positively rather than spat out in disgust by politicians. How quickly that has changed, as tongues are bitten to preserve corporate profit.Steve Tombs Professor of criminology, Open University • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters Topics Consumer affairs Firefighters Grenfell Tower fire letters'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/03/risky-tumble-dryers-putting-profit-before-people'|'2017-11-04T01:51:00.000+02:00'
'7e643be1074fd492c8305f3f7f269782eaf35918'|'After Shell deal, North Sea producer Chrysaor to begin drilling in early 2018'|'November 1, 2017 / 3:44 PM / in 12 minutes North Sea firm Chrysaor to begin oil drilling in 2018 after Shell purchase Ron Bousso 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - North Sea producer Chrysaor plans to begin drilling for oil and gas in early 2018 after completing a $3 billion (£2.2 billion) acquisition from Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), Chrysaor Chairman Linda Cook said on Wednesday. Chrysaor became the largest independent oil and gas producer in the Britain’s North Sea following the deal, as new private equity-backed firms gradually take over from long-standing producers in the ageing offshore basin. Backed by Harbour Energy, an investment vehicle of EIG Global Energy Partners, Chrysaor has already turned its sights to new acquisition in the UK North Sea and beyond, Cook told Reuters in an interview. “We’re already looking at further acquisitions we can make in the North Sea to broaden and deepen the assets that we have acquired ... We are eager to broaden our geographic scope in Chrysaor to include Norway and Denmark,” she said. New acquisitions would include operated assets with large reserves, said Cook, who is the chief executive of Harbour Energy and a former senior Shell executive. Chrysaor will be able to fund many acquisitions through internal cash generation from existing production and Harbour would be able to offer further backing, she said. Chrysaor, led by Chief Executive Phil Kirk, would also consider an initial public offering but not in the next 12 months, she added. “If we are able to meet our growth aspirations and shape our portfolio in a way that will be interesting then I think absolutely we could have a very viable IPO candidate,” she said. Chrysaor aimed to expand production in future to 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) from the current 120,000 boed through acquisitions and developing existing assets, said Cook, without giving a precise date for reaching that target. Chrysaor, like other new entrants such as Siccar Point and Neptune, says it can extract better value from assets in the North Sea than larger firms such as Shell, BP ( BP.L ) and OMV ( OMVV.VI ) through a leaner management structure and smaller work force. The North Sea, one of the world’s oldest offshore basins that started production in the 1960, remained attractive despite dwindling reserves due to an abundance of infrastructure and services, alongside favourable fiscal terms offered by the British government, Cook said. Chrysaor now holds stakes in 10 fields and blocks, including the BP-operated Schiehallion field west of the Shetland islands that started production in May and will produce up to 130,000 barrels per day of oil. Chrysaor is also the operator of the smaller Armada, Lomond and Everest hubs. Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Susan Fenton and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northsea-chrysaor/after-shell-deal-north-sea-producer-chrysaor-to-begin-drilling-in-early-2018-idUKKBN1D156E'|'2017-11-01T17:44:00.000+02:00'
'c8914ad939340eee814867ed4c27ae76247622a0'|'Asia shares extend gains on economic optimism, oil firm'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:59 AM / in 15 minutes Stocks hit high after record run; Fed holds rates steady Chuck Mikolajczak 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets climbed to a fresh high on Wednesday, boosted by solid corporate earnings, while yields on U.S. Treasuries were little changed after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labor market while downplaying the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December. MSCI’s gauge of stock markets held gains in the wake of the announcement, although the index was off a high hit earlier in the session. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed after the announcement. Next up for the central bank is the expected announcement on Thursday for a new Fed chair nominee from U.S. President Donald Trump. Market participants widely expect it to be Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is considered more dovish on interest rates than some other candidates and thus relatively stock-market friendly. “The pending announcement regarding the new chair seems to be overshadowing most everything,” said Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. “The overarching uncertainty around the decision and then potentially the news of the new chairperson, equities are probably kind of hedging their bets, so to speak.” Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy remained on solid footing ahead of Friday’s payrolls report. Although a measure of factory activity lost ground as hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, another report showed private sector hiring surged. Shares of Japanese multinational Sony ( 6758.T ) soared as much as 12.3 percent to a nine-year high after the electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best-ever annual profit. U.S. listed shares of the stock were up 0.7 percent at $43.70. Trader Greg Rowe reacts after the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 52.54 points, or 0.22 percent, to 23,429.78, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 5 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,580.26 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 15.08 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,712.59. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 1/32 in price to yield 2.3721 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Tuesday. After the closing bell in the United States, earnings are expected from Facebook ( FB.O ), which was up 0.87 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. On Thursday, earnings are expected from iPhone maker Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ). Of 326 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 73 percent topped analyst expectations, compared with 72 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data. The earnings growth estimate for the quarter is currently at 7 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.43 percent after touching its highest level since August 2015 and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.32 percent. A rise in oil prices to their highest level since mid-2015 also served to boost energy names. Oil prices retreated, however, after U.S. government data showed that the latest weekly draw in domestic crude stocks was not as big as an industry trade group had reported. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.22 percent to $54.26 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $60.41, down 0.87 percent on the day. The S&P energy index .SPNY gained 0.9 percent, on track for the best day since late September, while in Europe basic resources stocks .SXPP jumped 2.7 percent. The dollar index .DXY rose 0.26 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.25 percent to $1.1615. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-extend-gains-on-economic-optimism-oil-firm-idUSKBN1D1392'|'2017-11-01T03:00:00.000+02:00'
'e32e90e0de04e81fad4424da3b40f0b0b1e57b67'|'Rise of the machines must be monitored, say global finance regulators'|'November 1, 2017 / 3:08 PM / in 16 minutes Rise of the machines must be monitored, say global finance regulators Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Replacing bank and insurance workers with machines risks creating a dependency on outside technology companies beyond the reach of regulators, the global Financial Stability Board (FSB) said on Wednesday. The FSB, which coordinates financial regulation across the Group of 20 Economies (G20), said in its first report on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that the risks they pose need monitoring. AI and machine learning refer to technology that is replacing traditional methods to assess the creditworthiness of customers, to crunch data, price insurance contracts and spot profitable trades across markets. There are no international regulatory standards for AI and machine learning, but the FSB left open whether new rules are needed. Data on rapidly growing usage of AI is largely unavailable, leaving regulators unsure about the impact of potentially new and unexpected links between markets and banks, the report said. AI could, for example, lead to “non-sustainable” increases in credit by automating credit scoring. While AI shows substantial promise if risks are properly managed, it could create too much dependency among banks and insurers on the few specialist businesses that provide AI technology. Expected rapid growth in AI also raises the prospect of outside technology players expanding their influence over the finance sector. “This could in turn lead to the emergence of new systemically important players that could fall outside the regulatory perimeter,” the FSB said. If a major AI provider went bust, it could lead to operational disruptions at a large number of financial firms at the same time, especially if used in “mission critical” applications, the report said. Regulators could also find it difficult to identify who has made key financial decisions that go wrong. “If AI and machine learning-based decisions cause losses to financial intermediaries across the financial system, there may be a lack of clarity around responsibility,” the report said. REVOLUTION The pace of technological advance will also make it harder to fashion durable rules for AI activity that some academics expect to revolutionize the financial sector. The report said that RegTech investment, or use of machines to comply with a welter of new regulations introduced to tackle money laundering and make banks safer, could reach $6.45 billion by 2020. Consultancy Accenture said in May that three quarters of bankers surveyed believed that AI will become the primary way banks interact with customers within the next three years. European insurers invested $400 million in “InsurTech” or real-time technology to help to reduce payouts. Nordea, the Nordic region’s biggest bank, said last month that automation would help it to shed at least 4,000 staff. It has already introduced an AI chatbox to answer common customer questions. Dutch bank ING wants to increase the number of traders using AI. Fund managers are also using outside specialists to obtain machine-learning tools that sift through news and research for insight into market trends. So-called “quant” funds use AI to manage $1 trillion in assets. Though that is only a fraction of the $40 trillion in mutual funds globally, the FSB said industry estimates suggest that could grow rapidly. The regulators themselves are also using AI to make it easier to detect fraud and money laundering, while central banks expect to use AI for real-time predictions using big data to help to determine monetary policy, the report said. The FSB acknowledged that AI is helping the financial sector to cut costs, improve profitability and widen choice for customers, but added that it also raises concerns over privacy of data used in AI applications. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-regulation-banks-artificialintelligen/rise-of-the-machines-must-be-monitored-say-global-finance-regulators-idUKKBN1D1534'|'2017-11-01T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'5e2cc2db56425f2e67df8a23cc2c12b2b9a6d5ef'|'Getting a startup off the ground? Learn how to think like an investor - Guardian Small Business Network - The Guardian'|'I played with the idea for my tech business for a long time before a friend of mine actually pushed me one day, over a long lunch, to make it happen. He had worked in Silicon Valley and suggested hiring a chief technology officer and going in to see some venture capitalists. If only it were that easy.At this point I didn’t have a clue what a venture capitalist (VC) would be looking for, or how you talk to one. I’d done business in San Francisco and knew a few people there, so I took my friend’s advice, and managed to get meetings at some big-name investors. I walked into a major VC firm’s offices with just 15 minutes to pitch my business. I had arrived at this point feeling pretty optimistic, but quickly realised that this was a totally different world. Despite my best efforts and obvious enthusiasm for my business idea, they didn’t call me back.Getting funding takes a lot of hard work, research, countless presentations and some good storytellingGetting a startup off the ground is one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried to do. At a Guardian Business Made Simple event in Bristol last month , I spoke about the challenges that business founders face to create a successful company and gave my view on how to overcome them.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tim Fendley, speaking at the recent Guardian Business Made Simple event, supported by Vodafone, in Bristol. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the GuardianWhen you’re a startup and you haven’t got market proof (who has at that stage?), all an investor is really backing is you, your team and your idea. You might be able to show all the passion in the world for your idea, but to convince an investor you’ve got to learn a completely new language. You need to be able to understand and communicate in their language and talk about where you fit in the market, how you’re going to monetise, and most importantly how you’re going to scale, or manage your business’s growth when additional pressures are put on it.We didn’t get any investment for a full two years after that first VC meeting in San Francisco. The experience taught me that you can have the best idea, but if you can’t present it in the right way it’s unlikely to cut through. Getting funding takes a lot of hard work, research, countless presentations and some good storytelling.You also need a degree of luck. In fact, I’d say creating a business that takes off is about two-thirds luck; the challenge lies in finding a way to keep going long enough to get your fair share. Timing helps too, so that you get in front of an investor who is looking for your risk profile (which means the amount of risk involved in backing you), is ready to hear about your idea, or has been pondering making a move into your sector. It all sounds so easy now.You’ve got to know what other competitors are doing. Even if you have a unique idea, someone somewhere probably has something similar. At my company, we started by telling people the world needs an online mapping platform – ignoring the famous one they already knew about – but that didn’t get us very far. Now we explain how we have a very different type of platform. Different and, in our view, better.Arguably, I’d say the important thing to do is to put the right team together. You may have an amazing product in the works, but it’s going to be people who get it to fruition – get a good mix of employees and find a way of making different skills work together. Remember the adage “hire people smarter than you”. Aim to recruit staff who are so good they scare you – those are the ones you want in your team.Tim Fendley is the founder and CEO of Living MapTopics Business to business Business Made Simple Small business Entrepreneurs blogposts '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2017/nov/01/getting-a-startup-off-the-ground-learn-how-to-think-like-an-investor'|'2017-11-01T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'afb46fdbaf322bb3117cd2a5adce9a0d99755684'|'Facebook sales offset spending concerns: analysts'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:20 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Spending plans trigger Facebook stock retreat Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) shares slid on Thursday, as investors shrugged off strong quarterly results and worried about the cost of the company’s decision to spend more on preventing misuse of the world’s biggest social media network. FILE PHOTO: Facebook logo is seen at a start-up companies gathering at Paris'' Station F in Paris, France on January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo Shares of the company were down as much as 2.6 percent at $177.82 in morning trading on Thursday, making it the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The stock is up more than 50 percent this year and it hit a record high in regular trading on Wednesday, tempting investors who have profited from its run higher to cash in their gains. “Results were good for Facebook, but the forward spending is a concern,” Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh said. The social media giant reported a 79 percent surge in quarterly profit on Wednesday and revenues were up nearly 50 percent, showing just how insulated Facebook’s business remains from the political criticism of the company which has dominated recent months. At least 13 brokerages raised their price target on shares in the world’s largest social network following Wednesday’s quarterly results, with RBC Capital Markets making the most bullish move and raising its target by $35 to $230. The median price target was $208. “Yes, we take foreign meddling in U.S. elections very seriously. Call it what it is – political warfare. And countering will – and should – raise the cost of doing business for FB,” RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney said. “But that business is inherently extremely impressive.” Facebook has faced criticism in Washington over its failure to prevent Russian operatives from using it for election meddling and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he would increase spending on security and double the 10,000 staff who review content on the network in response. The company said the spending would hit profits, with expenses overall expected to grow by between 45 and 60 percent next year. Of the four high-performing technology stocks beloved of investors this year, Facebook is a close second behind Netflix in performance, reflecting growing confidence in its model and power with advertisers. The company continues to increase its more than 2 billion regular user base. Its two messaging services, Messenger and WhatsApp, have more than 1 billion users each and the average price per ad rose 35 percent in the third quarter, Wednesday’s results showed. Barclays analyst Ross Sandler said the company “should have plenty of runway for years to come – and remains a core holding for any internet investor.” Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-research/facebook-sales-offset-spending-concerns-analysts-idINKBN1D21LD'|'2017-11-02T14:13:00.000+02:00'
'70b07e9c671abb8adce2d4fadc213a0c96055838'|'World food prices fall 1.3 percent in October - FAO'|' 14   World food prices fall 1.3 percent in October: FAO   ROME (Reuters) - World food prices fell slightly in October from the previous month, as valuations dropped for all food commodities apart from cereals, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A vendor reaches out for vegetables at her shop in a market in Beijing, February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee Prices remain 2.5 percent higher than they were last October but are now 27 percent below the record high hit in February 2011. Agricultural commodities have emerged from a highly volatile period and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said it expects them to remain stable over the next decade. The FAO index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 176.4 points in October, down 1.3 percent from September. Dairy prices were the biggest faller among the commodities measured in October, falling 4.2 percent as importers held back on purchases while awaiting new supplies while prices for skim milk powder were pushed down by low demand and ample stocks. Cereals markets are likely to be balanced in 2017-18, the FAO said, forecasting that global production would surpass last year’s record harvest by a small margin, reaching 2.613 billion tonnes. Total production of coarse grains is forecast to reach a record high, thanks to increases in South America and Southern Africa, and global rice output is set to be broadly stable. Wheat production, however, is due to decline by 1 percent from last year to 752.8 million tonnes, mainly because of a smaller harvest in the United States and an expected decline in Australia’s crop, the FAO said. Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-food/world-food-prices-fall-1-3-percent-in-october-fao-idUKKBN1D2165'|'2017-11-02T12:09:00.000+02:00'
'3a0f9511849c5c22a2ea5cfd7753ef9055758a12'|'Pizza Hut same-restaurant sales help Yum Brands beat estimates'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:38 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Yum profit buoyed by strength at KFC, shares jump Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc ( YUM.N ) beat Wall Street’s third-quarter profit target as KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurant sales topped expectations, sending shares up nearly 8 percent to a record high on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The sign at a Pizza Hut location, which is owned by Yum Brands Inc, is pictured ahead of their company results in Pasadena, California U.S., July 11, 2016. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Strong results at KFC, Yum’s biggest revenue and profit contributor, drove most of the profit upside with robust emerging market sales. Shares in Yum, which spun off its massive China business a year ago, were up 6.5 percent at $79.14 at midday. Net income from continuing operations nearly doubled to $418 million, or $1.18 per share, helped by the better-than-expected restaurant sales, cost controls and a lower effective tax rate. [Bw7SF25Qa] FILE PHOTO: A Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) bucket of mixed fried and grilled chicken is seen in this picture illustration taken April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Excluding items, the company earned 68 cents per share, topping analysts’ average estimate by a penny, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Yum’s global sales at established restaurants rose 3 percent for the quarter, beating the 1.7 percent gain expected by analysts polled by Consensus Metrix. KFC reported 4 percent overall sales growth for restaurants open at least one year. Emerging markets rose 5 percent, while the United Sates was up 1 percent. Yum’s U.S.-dominated Taco Bell reported 3 percent same-store sales growth amid intense competition from other restaurants, food retailers and newer rivals such as meal-kit sellers. Pizza Hut reported a 1 percent gain in global sales at established restaurants. Strength overseas offset flat results in the United States, where promotions and other efforts appear to be helping it make progress against Domino’s Pizza Inc ( DPZ.N ) and other pizza chains. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr and Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yum-brands-results/pizza-hut-same-restaurant-sales-help-yum-brands-beat-estimates-idUSKBN1D21FW'|'2017-11-02T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'd4dbb017c34f40eddf4d67010f69aa638b70745f'|'Venezuela''s PDVSA $1.2 biliion debt payment to test Socialist Party'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Venezuela''s PDVSA $1.2 biliion debt payment to test Socialist Party Brian Ellsworth 4 Min Read CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA faces a $1.2 billion bond payment on Thursday that will test the ruling Socialist Party’s resolve to pay its foreign debt despite a crippling economic crisis that has spurred widespread food shortages and malnutrition among children. The corporate logo of the state oil company PDVSA is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares/Files Markets remained optimistic that President Nicolas Maduro’s government will make the payment, though investors expect delays. PDVSA last week struggled for days to deliver funds for a separate bond payment amid confusion over which banks were charged with transferring the money. However, most economists say a default is increasingly likely in the medium term as Venezuela’s collapsing socialist economic model has left the once-prosperous population destitute and led to deterioration of the OPEC nation’s vital oil industry. Maduro insists his government will pay all its debts but says it is a victim of an “economic war” led by opposition adversaries and fueled by U.S. sanctions that block Venezuela from refinancing its debt. PDVSA’s 2017N bond has rallied in recent weeks on market optimism that it will be paid down, driven by the completion, albeit delayed, of an $842 million principal payment on PDVSA’s 2020 bond. PDVSA bonds were down slightly in early trading on Thursday, while Venezuelan bonds were mixed, according to Thomson Reuters data. After Thursday’s payment, Venezuela has no foreign bond maturities until the second half of 2018. But in a sign of its financial desperation, Venezuela and PDVSA have been skipping interest payments since the start of October, racking up close to $750 million in pending coupons by repeatedly invoking 30-day grace periods. Even if it scrapes together the funds to pay those down, it faces at least another $800 million in interest payments in November and December. The country is struggling with shortages of basic products such as food and medicine, in part because hard currency for imports is being diverted toward Wall Street investors. INVESTOR PROFIT, CHILD MALNUTRITION Child malnutrition has reached the scale of a humanitarian crisis in four Venezuelan states, according to a May 2017 report by Caritas Internationalis, a Rome-based nongovernmental organization with links to the Catholic Church. Government officials say the report is exaggerated for political reasons. But the situation is a stark contrast to the oil boom years of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who spent generously on social welfare programs while borrowing profusely to keep spending at full tilt. Venezuela’s debt is the highest yielding of emerging market bonds measured by JPMorgan’s EMBI Global Diversified Index, paying investors an average of 31 percentage points more than comparable U.S. Treasury notes. That is nearly double the spread on bonds issued by Mozambique, which is already in default, and more than six times the spread on bonds from war-torn Ukraine. Economists say Venezuela needs to lift currency controls, roll back nationalizations and halt the unchecked expansion of the money supply. Maduro’s government over the years has floated numerous proposals to create a free foreign exchange market but repeatedly backed down. Short-term solutions to the debt burden have been limited by sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, including blocking refinancing operations by prohibiting banks from buying new Venezuelan debt. The sanctions are also likely to severely complicate efforts to restructure debt in the event of a default, as a number of top-ranking Socialist Party officials have been barred from conducting business with U.S. citizens. Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-bonds/venezuelas-pdvsa-1-2-biliion-debt-payment-to-test-socialist-party-idINKBN1D21TW'|'2017-11-02T10:45:00.000+02:00'
'ada531a250df78ee41891900bf0b03c57aa08633'|'National Australia Bank to slash headcount as profit breaks record'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:04 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago National Australia Bank to slash headcount as profit breaks record Jonathan Barrett , Paulina Duran 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - National Australia Bank (NAB) flagged thousands of job cuts as it posted a record annual cash profit of A$6.64 billion ($5.1 billion) on Thursday, underpinned by surging home loan volumes and higher business lending margins. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the National Australia Bank is displayed outside their headquarters building in central Sydney, Australia August 4, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The 2.5 percent rise in profit comes amid a broader sector push to improve margins, cut costs and hoard cash as Australian banks react to regulator-imposed changes to lift capital requirements. Australia’s largest business lender said it expected to cut about 6,000 staff over the next three years as it automates its business, while creating 2,000 new positions over the same period. A net loss of 4000 jobs represents about 12 percent of its current workforce. It flagged restructuring charges of A$500 million to A$800 million in the first half of fiscal 2018, and a spike in expenses of between 5 percent and 8 percent over the year. UBS described the result as “solid” while noting that the restructure costs were higher than expected and would weigh on market sentiment. NAB shares were down 3 percent in early trading on Thursday in a flat market. The bank released an upbeat outlook, underpinned by an anticipated upswing in business investment and government infrastructure spending. “Some slowing in the housing cycle and a moderation in housing credit is expected, but downside is likely to be limited by strong population growth and low unemployment,” NAB said. While net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, fell 3 basis points from last year, it was 6 basis points higher in the second half of the 2017 results, as the lender benefited from a repricing of its mortgage book. Interest rate levels have become a hot-button political and customer issue in Australia this year, with the corporate regulator pledging to investigate whether banks are using a push to curb a potential housing bubble as an excuse to profiteer through unnecessary mortgage rate rises. In May, Canberra said it would charge a 6 basis-point levy on the mortgage books of the country’s major lenders to raise government revenue and help smaller lenders compete. “The banks are getting a bit of a regulatory dividend,” Atlas Funds Management Chief Investment Officer Hugh Dive told Reuters, referring to the levy. “So this sort of bank levy that pounded the stocks when it was announced, it’s recovered and then some.” NAB is the second major Australian retail bank to report full-year results in the past week, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group booking an 18 percent jump in annual cash profit on lower bad debts and cost cuts. NAB declared a final dividend of A$0.99 per share, the same as last year. The bank said its statutory net profit rose to A$5.29 billion from A$352 million from the previous year when it took a one-off charge related to the sale of its British business. ($1 = 1.3033 Australian dollars) Reporting by Paulina Duran and Jonathan Barrett in SYDNEY. Additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nab-results/national-australia-bank-to-slash-headcount-as-profit-breaks-record-idINKBN1D20DO'|'2017-11-02T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'fb78c4d30c4d628ccb648e27165207a71ee4a856'|'Trump nominates Jerome Powell to head U.S. Federal Reserve'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:11 PM / in 15 minutes Trump nominates Jerome Powell to head U.S. Federal Reserve Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday tapped Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell to become head of the U.S. central bank, promoting a soft-spoken centrist to replace Janet Yellen when her term expires in February. U.S. President Donald Trump announces Jerome Powell as his nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Powell, a Fed governor since 2012, emerged as Trump’s choice from a slate of possible nominees that included Yellen as well as others who would have represented a sharp change in monetary policy. Reporting by Jeff Mason and Howard Schneider; Editing by David Chance'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-fed-chair/trump-nominates-jerome-powell-to-head-u-s-federal-reserve-idUKKBN1D22MX'|'2017-11-02T21:15:00.000+02:00'
'73681ae178e46b1e44b746571ace37c5aab696ef'|'Tesco chief executive tells fraud trial of his ''shock'' over £250m hole in profits - Business - The Guardian'|'The Tesco chief executive has told a court of his “surprise” and “shock” after being handed a whistleblower’s report that identified a £250m hole in the supermarket giant’s profits.The case at Southwark crown court relates to an alleged hole in Tesco’s accounts revealed in September 2014 when the company told the stock market it had overestimated profits by about £250m.Dave Lewis was pulled out of a meeting on 19 September 2014 and asked to go straight to the office of Adrian Morris, Tesco’s top lawyer, where he was handed the so-called “legacy paper” which had been prepared by Amit Soni, an employee in Tesco’s finance department, and another member of his team.“I read it quickly and then very carefully a second time,” said Lewis of the secret report. “I had never experienced anything like this before and having read the paper I felt it had to be taken very seriously.”Carl Rogberg, the former finance director of Tesco UK, John Scouler, the former commercial director for food, and Christopher Bush, the former managing director of Tesco UK, have all been charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting. The three deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty.Last month Soni told the court that in 2014 Tesco staff were under pressure to hit “insurmountable” financial targets. The accountant had become increasingly concerned about the use of a process called “pull forward” – in which income from suppliers that should have been recognised in future years was recorded early to help the company hit targets. Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC asked Lewis what his immediate reaction had been to the report, to which he replied: “One of surprise and one of shock really.” “What was new was the proposition here that £246m of income had been included in the first half of the year that on that basis of this paper was deemed to be questionable,” he continued. “You don’t need to be a lawyer or an accountant to know that the accusation in here of not recognising income and costs in the right period is a significant problem.” The prosecution has described the report reaching Lewis as being “like a hand grenade had been thrown into the company” and he described the frenetic weekend of activity that followed which included two board meetings on the Sunday. Lewis said he called Sir Richard Broadbent immediately and that the company’s then chairman agreed to fly home from his holiday in Italy. The company also called in a team of forensic accountants and lawyers to scrutinise its books so as to assess the report’s veracity.On the Monday the company told the stock exchange of the hole in its profits – a revelation that would wipe more than £2bn off the company’s value in a single day and plunge the company into the worst crisis in its near 100-year history. The trial continues.Topics Tesco news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/tesco/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/02/tesco-chief-executive-dave-lewis-fraud-trial-shock-250m-hole-in-profits'|'2017-11-03T02:11:00.000+02:00'
'a4cea392d035fc7a243d12c909c4e6d366e9ad50'|'Inflation will struggle to hit ECB''s target, Nowotny says'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:36 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago ECB''s Nowotny eyes September for more clear-cut ''tapering'' of stimulus Marc Jones , Karin Strohecker 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Central Bank could start a more defined ‘tapering’ of its stimulus programme next September, one of its policymakers said on Friday, even though it was likely to struggle meeting its inflation target for years. FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny adjusts his glasses during a news conference in Vienna, Austria, March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo The ECB announced last week that from January it would reduce its bond-buying programme to 30 billion euros (£26.6 billion) a month from its current 60 billion euros. However, inflation in the euro zone remains stubbornly below the central bank’s target of just under 2 percent, which is the main reason it has been cautious about reducing the two-year-old stimulus programme. “This goal of 2 percent or 1.9 is something that will not be easily reached in the years to come,” said Ewald Nowotny, a long-serving member of the ECB’s Governing Council. Speaking at an event organised by the policy think tank OMFIF, Nowotny added that unemployment levels were “still very high” despite recent declines. The ECB argues that its plans to reduce the pace of its bond buying is not a U.S. Fed-style “tapering” -- something that rattled global markets when it was floated in 2013 -- as the euro zone’s is still an “open-ended” arrangement. That could change though if the economy continues to improve. It is set to grow at its fastest rate since 2011 this year. “If things go well as we think in the economy, there are good reasons then (from next September) to start to taper,” he said. He would also like the bank to give itself more leeway with its inflation target, though he stressed it was unlikely to happen at the current time. Sweden’s central bank is currently discussing given itself a band 1 percent plus or minus its headline 2 percent target. “This is a moving target so I think economically it makes much more sense,” Nowotny later told Reuters. “But from the view of the ECB they see this as too dangerous to enter such a discussion so they are fiercely against it.” Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Marc Jones, editing by Larry King/William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-inflation-nowotny/inflation-will-struggle-to-hit-target-in-coming-years-ecbs-nowotny-idUKKBN1D3156'|'2017-11-03T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'380f0abc6b904343702d47ef38be5d51122beace'|'Congo state miner failed to log $740 million in revenues, report says'|'* Gecamines copper output has plunged since 1980s* Carter Center calls Gecamines “financial black box”* Company chairman declined commentBy Aaron RossABIDJAN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company failed to internally register $740 million in income between 2011-2014, much of which is now untraceable, the Carter Center said in a report on Friday.The amount makes up two-thirds of the $1.1 billion that the copper producer was entitled to collect from international mining partners during that period and there is no evidence how half of it was spent, the U.S.-based democracy watchdog said.Albert Yuma, the chairman of Gecamines’ board, declined to comment on the report’s accusations. Valery Mukasa, chief of staff to Congo’s mines minister, said before the report’s publication that he could not comment since he had not seen it.Yuma, Mukasa and Gecamines’ interim director-general Jacques Kamenga did not respond to additional requests for comment on Friday after the report was released publicly.Gecamines and the mines ministry have previously rejected accusations that company funds are misused, insisting that all of the company’s revenues are properly accounted for and are not used for political purposes, as its critics have alleged.The report did not suggest that any of Gecamines’ partners had acted improperly in relation to the missing funds.“Gecamines continues to be a financial black box,” said the report, which was based on 200 interviews and a review of thousands of mining contracts and other documents. “Poor governance has allowed ... Gecamines to engage in opaque mining deals that fail to serve the public interest,” the report said.Democratic Republic of Congo is Africa’s biggest copper producer and also mines significant quantities of gold, diamonds and cobalt but remains one of the world’s least developed countries, with an annual budget of roughly $5 billion.It is also in the throes of a political crisis prompted by repeated delays to an election to replace President Joseph Kabila, originally scheduled for 2016. Authorities have cited the more than $1 billion price tag for the presidential and other elections as one of the main obstacles.UPHEAVAL Gecamines was once one of Africa’s largest copper producers, with annual output peaking at about 500,000 tonnes in the late 1980s. But output has since tumbled due to political upheaval, mismanagement and the sell-off of assets to private investors like Freeport McMoRan and Glencore.Last year, it mined just 10,000 tonnes of copper despite repeated promises to dramatically scale up production.Gecamines collects significant revenues in the form of signing bonuses, royalties and dividends from its joint ventures with private investors.But when the Carter Center compared public disclosures of payments to Gecamines - including financial reports by partners and reports to an industry transparency group - to records obtained from an internal database maintained by Gecamines, it found a $740 million discrepancy in income between 2011-14.The Carter Center said the database it obtained was maintained by Gecamines’ partnership department, where all revenues from its more than 20 partnerships should be recorded.The Carter Center was able to trace about half of the money to specific expenditures, including investments in new equipment and asset purchases.However, the remaining half could not be traced and sources inside Gecamines told the Carter Center that much of the money was used on political expenditures like financing campaigns.Gecamines has also failed to publish dozens of mining contracts, amendments and annexes, as required by the law, the report said.Gecamines said in September that the company’s partnerships with foreign investors have not been managed in the best interest of Gecamines and that it intended to implement new controls to “hold its partners accountable”. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing By Edward McAllister and Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/congo-mining/congo-state-miner-failed-to-log-740-million-in-revenues-report-says-idUSL8N1N82QC'|'2017-11-03T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'a6b960f25c4f836bdbf77627020ebcdfe863fc43'|'UPDATE 1-Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Updates Vintage; Adds Nykredit, CVS Health Corp, EasyJet, Total, Bankrate, China Telecom, Broadcom)Nov 3 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:** Nestle announced its second small coffee acquisition in as many months on Friday, buying Texas-based Chameleon Cold-Brew as it seeks to bolster its world-leading coffee business.** U.S. private equity firm Leonard Green and Partners is set to acquire a controlling stake in British gym operator Pure Gym from CCMP Capital Advisors, the firms said in a statement.** Turkish investment firm Global Yatirim Holding will focus on renewable energy and infrastructure projects and look to buy an asset manager, its chairman said, as part of a shift in strategy since an investment from London-based fund Centricus.** Investor Daniel Kretinsky, the majority owner of central European energy group EPH, is near a deal to buy Czech bus and rail car manufacturer Skoda Transportation, a source with knowledge of the talks said on Friday.** Private-equity backed French clothing retailer Vivarte, which is aiming to restructure some 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of debt, said it had sold Spanish shoes brand Merkal to private investment firm OpCapita.** Torrent Pharmaceuticals said on Friday it would buy more than 120 brands from Unichem Laboratories in India and Nepal, and its manufacturing plant at Sikkim.** Vintage Capital offered to buy Rent-A-Center Inc for about $693 million, a week after the furniture retailer decided to explore strategic options under pressure from two activist investors.** Germany’s Continental AG said it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars against hacking.** Malaysian state energy company Petronas and Aramco are facing “technical issues” in finalising the Saudi oil major’s $7 billion investment in a refinery project, but the deal will be completed soon, state news agency Bernama reported.** Unilever said it would buy the specialty tea brand Tazo from Starbucks in a deal valued at $384 million.** Westpac Banking Corp said it had agreed to sell its Hastings fund management business to a London-based asset manager, in the latest move by a big Australian bank to offload a capital intensive division.** T-Mobile US and Sprint are working to salvage their $74 billion merger and could reach a deal within weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.** British energy supplier Centrica has bought Belgian demand response aggregator REstore for 70 million euros ($82 million), it said.** Nykredit, Denmark’s largest mortgage lender, said it could sell a minority stake rather than pursue a planned listing, after its main investor Forenet Kredit received an offer for its holding.** CVS Health Corp’s planned $66 billion buy of Aetna Inc is poised to boost the healthcare sector’s share of US investment-grade mergers and acquisitions lending beyond its current one-third share of the $122 billion total as the sector remains a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster market.** U.S. pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp and health insurer Aetna Inc are working toward finalizing merger terms and announcing a deal for more than $70 billion as early as December, according to people familiar with the matter.** EasyJet has agreed a deal with a German trade union over job terms for former crew of Air Berlin after the British budget carrier agreed to buy part of the failed airline’s operations.** French oil company Total said it had agreed to sell the Italian petrol station network it co-owns with partner ERG to refiner API, completing the planned disposal of the TotalErg joint venture’s assets.** Bankrate Inc will divest its Caring.com unit as a condition of its acquisition by Red Ventures LLC for $1.4 billion to avoid harm to competition in the third-party paid senior living facilities referral services, the Federal Trade Commission said.** China Telecom Corp may invest up to 20 billion reais($6 billion) to acquire a majority stake in Brazilian carrier Oi SA, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.** Broadcom Ltd is planning an unsolicited bid for smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc with an offer possible as soon as this weekend, a source familiar with the matter said. (Compiled by Manas Mishra and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/update-1-deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL4N1N94E1'|'2017-11-03T17:12:00.000+02:00'
'4e13a3403d9a37f300d1ce7c26d0b356a8e1431a'|'Prosecutors search Metro offices in insider trading probe'|' 42 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Prosecutors search Metro offices in insider trading probe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - German prosecutors searched offices of Metro ( B4B.DE ) in Duesseldorf on Friday as part of a probe of its supervisory board chairman and a member of the management board, a spokesman for the group said, confirming an earlier report. FILE PHOTO: Shopping carts of Germany''s biggest retailer Metro AG are lined up at a Metro cash and carry market near the city of Bonn. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo German weekly Spiegel reported earlier that the prosecutors’ probe was prompted by financial watchdog Bafin, which suspected that Chairman Juergen Steinemann bought shares in the company when he already knew that the company would announce plans to split into two, pushing up its share price. The spokesman for Metro said that the group published the news of the planned split in a timely fashion, in accordance with German rules. He said no insider information was available when Steinemann and an executive, whom he did not name, bought stock. The Duesseldorf prosecutor’s office said it would issue a statement on the matter on Monday. Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Arno Schuetze'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-metro-insidertrading/prosecutors-search-metro-offices-in-insider-trading-probe-idUKKBN1D31BU'|'2017-11-03T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'37a2fe56d4714e0cdd2c989edcf544d51f823c9d'|'Grain trade a boon as Brazil''s Itaqui seeks higher shipping volumes'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:00 AM / in 29 minutes Grain trade a boon as Brazil''s Itaqui seeks higher shipping volumes Ana Mano 3 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Itaqui port, the country’s closest deepwater gateway to the Panama Canal, has projected a rise in 2017 shipping volumes thanks to a record grain harvest and development of a new northern farming frontier. Most of Itaqui’s export cargo arrives by train instead of roads. It is the deepest public port in Brazil, and its travel time to Europe and North America is seven days shorter than from rivals in the South. Itaqui can handle minerals, grains, fertilizers, fuel and woodpulp consignments. Until recently, it was strategic to oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, which accessed its deepwater berth to import fuel in large vessels. With a change in Petrobras’ strategy causing its fuel transshipment activity to fall to almost zero, grains became even more crucial to Itaqui operations, Ted Lago, head of the state-owned company that controls the port, said in a telephone interview. After Petrobras’ move, overall 2016 cargo volumes dropped 23 percent as Itaqui’s new grain terminal was still ramping up operations. A fall in grain output from the Matopiba region, Brazil’s newest farming frontier in the north, also took its toll. “This was a double blow for us,” Lago said. Yet as Matopiba recovered and Brazil harvested a record grain crop this year, total Itaqui volumes should rise 12.5 percent to 19 million tonnes, with grains making up 8 million tonnes, Lago said. Recent regulatory challenges threatened Itaqui’s ambition to become one of Brazil’s best-run state ports. After global firms like Louis Dreyfus Corp and Glencore International spent about $184 million to build a new grain terminal as part of a wider consortium, a regulatory limit set by port watchdog Antaq was imposed on the amount of grains an established operator, VLI Operações Portuárias SA, could move at Itaqui. The cap, set at 2.4 million tonnes of soybeans and 90,000 tonnes of soymeal, was supposed to lure new private investors to Itaqui’s new terminal at the expense of VLI, Lago said. Partly owned by miner Vale SA, VLI operates one of the two railroads serving Itaqui. Until a consortium known as Tegram Operações Portuárias SA reaches full capacity by mid-2019, that limitation stands, Lago said. The cap was only loosened in September of 2016, after regulator Antaq defined that it excluded corn. “The cap issue was like throwing gasoline on fire,” Lago said. $1 = 3.2611 reais Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-grains-logistics/grain-trade-a-boon-as-brazils-itaqui-seeks-higher-shipping-volumes-idUSL2N1N719N'|'2017-11-03T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'693cd8256906f3b2cf0bf6c5ea0838521820fa15'|'Global policy tilt tempers easy feeling in euro zone bond markets'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields crept up on Thursday as the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in a decade and the U.S. Federal Reserve stayed on course for a hike at the end of the year.FILE PHOTO: The euro sign landmark is seen at the headquarters (R) of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt September 2, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Debt auctions from Spain and France also added to the slight upward pressure on the bloc’s benchmark yields, many of which fell to multi-month lows after the European Central Bank extended its monetary stimulus programme last week.The ECB’s easing bias contrasted with the U.S. Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday pointed to solid economic growth and a strengthening labour market, in a sign that it is on track to lift interest rates in December.There were hopes of more certainty around the future path of monetary policy in the world’s largest economy on Thursday with President Donald Trump expected to nominate Jerome Powell as the next head of its central bank.In Britain, policymakers raised rates for the first time since 2007 on Thursday, reversing last year’s emergency cut after Britain voted to leave the EU. The Bank of England added that it expected only “very gradual” further increases over the next three years.“Despite the symbolic significance of today’s rate increase, this will be a very shallow and gradual tightening cycle,” Aberdeen Standard’s chief economist Jeremy Lawson said.“If we are right about the outlook for UK policy rates, the pace of the BoE’s tightening cycle will be intermediate between that of the Fed on the one hand, and the ECB and the Bank of Japan on the other.”Aberdeen Standard expects at least five U.S. rate increases over the next two years. Money market pricing suggests the ECB will not hike rates until after current President Mario Draghi’s term ends in October 2019.German 10-year yields - the bloc’s benchmark - rose as much as 3 basis points to 0.40 percent, but then dropped back to 0.38 percent as investors focused on the caution expressed by the Bank of England at its meeting.Italian equivalents - which have seen some of the biggest falls since last week’s ECB meeting - were up 1 bp on the day at 1.81 percent and edged away from an 11-month low of 1.79 percent struck on Wednesday.Greek bond yields bucked the trend, with yields falling sharply as investors expected the country to soon launch a mammoth debt management exercise.The yield on Greece’s bond maturing in 2042 has fallen below 6 percent for the first time in 3-1/2-years, according to Tradeweb data.France and Spain sold around 13 billion euros of bonds on Thursday, which added to the upward pressure on yields as investors sold outstanding debt to make room in portfolios for the new supply.Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Gareth Jones and John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/global-policy-tilt-tempers-easy-feeling-in-euro-zone-bond-markets-idINKBN1D20X0'|'2017-11-02T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'e88977a16382598b0156c211e6c9e3302cdf8fa6'|'Evoqua Water Technologies'' IPO priced at $18 per share -source'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - Evoqua Water Technologies Corp’s initial public offering was priced at $18 per share, a source close to the matter said on Wednesday, the midpoint of the expected range of $17 to $19.The 27.78-million share offering raised about $500 million and is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AQUA” on Thursday.The source declined to be named because the matter is confidential. Evoqua was not immediately available for comment.Evoqua is the largest North American provider of water treatment solutions. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it makes filtration products used for removing impurities from water, rather than neutralizing them through the addition of chemicals.Evoqua has benefited from several global trends as population growth, increasing levels of urbanization and more stringent regulations have been driving demand for cleaner and sustainable waste streams.Private investment firm AEA owns 58.5 percent of Evoqua’s common stock and plans to own between 43 percent and 40 percent after the IPO.Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets are among top underwriters to the IPO. (Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/evoqua-ipo-pricing/evoqua-water-technologies-ipo-priced-at-18-per-share-source-idUSL2N1N72PI'|'2017-11-02T01:19:00.000+02:00'
'800e8bac011f3e9bc47da3be31da1495549c13ff'|'Arqiva and Bakkavör pull plans to float amid market ''volatility'' - Business'|'TV and mobile mast owner Arqiva and Bakkavör, one of the biggest providers of ready meals to British supermarkets, have both pulled plans to float on the London stock exchange citing concerns over the volatility of the market.Arqiva – which just last week announced plans for a £6bn flotation , in what would have been the UK’s largest stock market listing so far this year – said it intended to “postpone” its initial public offering until UK market conditions improve.“The board and shareholders have decided that pursuing a listing in this period of IPO market uncertainty is not in the interests of the company and its stakeholders, and will revisit the listing once IPO market conditions improve,” said Arqiva, which carried the BBC’s first TV broadcast in 1936 and is an investor in the YouView TV platform.Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read more Q&A What is an IPO? Show HideThere comes a time in the life of a private company when its original owners want to expand the business, raise funds for acquisitions or simply cash in some of their investment.One route for doing this is through an initial public offering (IPO), which essentially means moving from being a private business with few shareholders to a public company Quote: d on a stock exchange.A prospectus is issued and new shares offered, typically, to financial institutions in the first instance and then, if there is enough demand and the necessary regulatory hurdles have been overcome, the company is listed on the stock exchange. As a public company, any investor can now buy its shares on the open market.There are some disadvantages for the company. It faces more scrutiny and regulatory demands in the public eye, it could prove a target for a predator via a takeover bid and, if its performance is not up to scratch, its shares can plunge in value.Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.Bakkavör, which provides fresh prepared food from salad and pizza to stir fries as own-brand products to clients including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, announced plans for a £1.7bn flotation last month.The company, the UK’s biggest supplier of hummus, had been expected to put a price on its shares on Friday morning.“Whilst the company received sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering, the board has taken the decision that proceeding with the transaction would not be in the best interests of the company, or its shareholders, given the current volatility in the IPO market,” the company said.“Bakkavör will continue to pursue its proven strategy within the fast-growing fresh prepared food sector. The business continues to trade well and against this backdrop, the board remains confident in the outlook for the group.”In April, the company was at the centre of the UK “hummus crisis” after the mass withdrawal of the product from British supermarket shelves after customers complained of a metallic taste .The pulling of the flotation plans raise fresh fears about London’s status as a top destination for initial public offerings, the pace of which has slowed following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.Last month, TMF Group, the Dutch business outsourcer, abandoned plans for a £1bn float in London and move its headquarters to the UK in favour of going private in a €1.75bn (£1.55bn) deal with private equity firm CVC.The firm had positioned its proposed listing in London as a “vote of confidence for the UK”.Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s energy business En+ has priced its forthcoming flotation at the bottom of the price range it had announced.TI Fluid Systems, the car parts maker, floated for £1.5bn last week, having previously pulled plans following the Brexit vote.Topics London Stock Exchange Food & drink industry Arqiva Television industry news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/03/arqiva-bakkavor-float-market-ipo'|'2017-11-03T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'110d5aa9064ed04004f03524abcf00e96e4cf406'|'Singapore slaps prohibition orders on two people over 1MDB-related breaches'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:12 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Singapore slaps prohibition orders on two people over 1MDB-related breaches Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday said it has barred two individuals involved in breaches related to Malaysia’s 1MDB fund from taking part in financial services management and advisory activities. Men walk past a 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the fund''s flagship Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur March 1, 2015. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo - S1AETLIFDCAA The MAS said it has issued six-year prohibition orders against Ang Wee Keng Kelvin and Lee Chee Waiy, which took effect from Oct. 30. The orders will bar them from roles such as providing any financial advisory services and taking part in the management of any financial services firm in Singapore. The MAS said Ang, a former representative of Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd, was convicted of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act for bribing Lee with S$3,000 to expedite the preparation of a valuation report on PetroSaudi Oil Services Limited (PSOSL). Lee, who was the primary person in NRA Capital Pte Ltd working on the valuation of PSOSL, had accepted the bribe from Ang and applied inappropriate methodology and assumptions in the valuation of PSOSL, the central bank added. Lee does not face any charges, a spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Chambers said, adding that Ang was sentenced to a S$9,000 fine in May. “We are unable to comment as investigations are ongoing,” the spokesperson added. Lee could not immediately be reached by phone and did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on the MAS prohibition order. The MAS also said it has served notice of its intention to issue a permanent prohibition order against Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth manager of BSI Bank. In July, a Singapore court jailed Yeo for 4-1/2 years for money laundering and cheating in a case linked to investigations into the siphoning of billions of dollars from Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB. Singapore’s central bank had said in May that it had ended its review of banks with 1MDB-linked transactions. 1MDB, founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, is facing money laundering probes in at least six countries including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. Najib has denied any wrongdoing. Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sam Holmes '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-singapore/singapore-slaps-prohibition-orders-on-two-people-over-1mdb-related-breaches-idUSKBN1D13GT'|'2017-11-01T06:11:00.000+02:00'
'f0139e45fb4557259eefa67d2f378ff0eb88e2fa'|'Drugmaker Novo Nordisk warns U.S. legislation could make business difficult'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:25 AM / in 9 hours Drugmaker Novo Nordisk warns U.S. legislation could make business difficult Reuters Staff 1 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Drugmaker Novo Nordisk said on Wednesday that new legislation being prepared in some U.S. states to improve pricing transparency could potentially impact business in its key market. Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen speaks during the presentation of the 2016 results at the company''s headquarters in Bagsvaerd near Copenhagen, Denmark February 2, 2017. Scanpix Denmark/Liselotte Sabroe/via REUTERS “If the transparency bills lead to a disclosure level that is too excessive, it becomes difficult to do business, for instance, if we have to publicly share what is in our contracts,” Chief Executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen told reporters. “A couple of states like Nevada and California have pursued transparency bills where we have to disclose, basically, how we do business,” he said. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novo-nordisk-diabetes-usa/drugmaker-novo-nordisk-warns-u-s-legislation-could-make-business-difficult-idUSKBN1D13YD'|'2017-11-01T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'2d5fad1f497e6dea111e552637bab8a12a8dcc1b'|'Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Nov 3'|'ZURICH, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Here are some of the main factors that may affect Swiss stocks on Friday.NOVARTIS The Swiss drugmaker is working with Centerview to review options for its dermatology business, including a possible sale, as it trims non-core assets, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Amgen and Novartis announce expanded collaboration with Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in pioneering prevention programmeFor more news seeUBS Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has enlisted investment bank UBS Group AG for help in its effort to secure a higher price in Qualcomm Inc.’s planned purchase of NXP Semiconductors NV or bring in a new bidder, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.COMPANY STATEMENTS * Autoneum said it placed a 100 million Swiss franc 2025 bond with a coupon of 1.125 percent.* Pargesa said it had economic operating income of 348.1 million francs at September 30, up from 280.8 million francs in the year-earlier period.* Investis said it sees significantly lower income taxes for 2017, compared to the previous year, due to a 11 million franc reversal of deferred tax liabilities. Its full year operating targets are unchanged.* SGS buys Canadian group BioVision Seed Research Ltd, with 20 staff and annual sales of 3.4 million Canadian dollars* VZ Holding increases tax provisions by 5.2 million francs amid a legal dispute over value added tax* Wisekey increases full-year 2017 pro-forma revenue guidance to $56 million, approximately 383 percent higher than full-year 2016* Talbot controls 99.67 percent of the shares in ImmoMomentum after a takeover offer, final results showedECONOMY Reporting by Zurich newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-swiss-stocks/swiss-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-3-idINL8N1N888V'|'2017-11-03T02:37:00.000+02:00'
'b7e8b5489f635d980827094dc0ecd00c9db51f14'|'NAFTA talks causing business uncertainty: Rio Tinto executive'|'OTTAWA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The current state of talks to update the NAFTA trade pact is creating uncertainty among businesses and could hurt investments and growth, Rio Tinto Aluminium chief executive Alf Barrios said on Wednesday.Canada and Mexico say several U.S. proposals for modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement are unacceptable, prompting increasing concern that Washington could walk away from the trilateral deal.Rio Tinto exports 75 percent of the aluminium produced at its Canadian plants to the United States and supplies 30 percent of that market’s needs, Barrios told an evening conference organized by the Canadian-American Business Council.“The negotiation process has created some uncertainty among business on both sides of the border and I think this puts at risk to a certain degree investments and growth,” he said when asked about the NAFTA talks.U.S. President Donald Trump frequently describes the 1994 pact as a disaster and has threatened to walk away from the deal unless major changes are made.Company data show Rio Tinto’s Canadian plants accounted for 53 percent of the 3.65 million tonnes of aluminium that the company produced last year.Barrios said NAFTA had created a predictable business environment that made investment decisions easier and had also solidified ties between Canada and the United States.“So we’re watching very, very carefully how things evolve ... We encourage the negotiating teams at the table to continue looking at ways to strengthen that relationship,” he said.Speaking earlier in the day, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said the lack of clarity over the NAFTA talks meant companies would put off investment decisions. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Michael Perry) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trade-nafta-riotinto/nafta-talks-causing-business-uncertainty-rio-tinto-executive-idINL2N1N8027'|'2017-11-01T23:09:00.000+02:00'
'19e8f6d4128b1aae7221a31e38f37f0021f65153'|'Societe Generale plans to use branch structure for UK business after Brexit'|' 34 AM / in 19 minutes Societe Generale plans to use branch structure for UK business after Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) said on Friday that it would apply for a third-country branch licence with the UK financial regulator by early next year so it can continue to operate there after Britain leaves the European Union. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the French bank Societe Generale is seen in front of the bank''s headquarters building at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, France, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Many European banks, including SocGen’s French peer BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), currently operate some of their sizeable activities in Britain through a branch structure, which requires lower capital requirements. Societe Generale currently uses its EU licence to operate in Britain, and is hoping it can use a third country branch licence after Brexit rather than set up a full subsidiary which would be more expensive. However, it is not clear if that will be a long-term solution for the bank. The head of Britain’s Prudential Regulation Authority Sam Woods said in September that the regulator would also decide by Christmas if branches of some European Union financial firms in London must convert to subsidiaries and be directly supervised by the PRA. In this case, EU banks would have to reinforce their London operations with fresh capital. “Our central scenario is to have a third-country branch, so we do not plan to have a recourse to a full subsidiary,” Didier Valet, SocGen’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, in charge of global banking and investor solutions, told journalists. The Bank of England expects 130 financial firms from across Europe to apply for licences to continue operating in Britain after Brexit. SocGen said it had till early 2018 to file the branch application, as it would take around 12 months for the regulator to review it. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-societe-generale/societe-generale-plans-to-use-branch-structure-for-uk-business-after-brexit-idUKKBN1D30YX'|'2017-11-03T12:34:00.000+02:00'
'ec3e35f6cce58e148460f9c66509ca794b8bd364'|'Germany''s Continental buys Israeli auto cyber firm Argus'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:58 PM / in 7 hours Germany''s Continental buys Israeli auto cyber firm Argus Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HAMBURG/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Continental AG ( CONG.DE ) said on Friday it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars against hacking. The logo of Continental AG, a German automotive manufacturing company specialized in tyres, brakes and car safety products is pictured on a rim at the company''s stand during the Hannover Fair in Hanover, Germany, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Cybersecurity experts have criticized the automotive industry for failing to do more to secure internal communications of vehicles with network-connected features. The danger, they say, is that once external security is breached, hackers can have free rein to access onboard vehicle computer systems which manage everything from engines and brakes to air conditioning and infotainment. Argus already collaborates with Continental - last month it jointly launched a technology for delivering over-the-air vehicle software updates with Continental subsidiary Elektrobit. Continental said that Argus would now become part of Elektrobit and would continue to engage in commercial relations with all automotive suppliers globally. The purchase price was not disclosed though Israeli media reported earlier this week that Continental would pay about $400 million (£305.4 million) for Argus. Founded in 2013, Argus has raised $30 million, including $26 million two years ago from Magna International ( MG.TO ), Allianz ( ALVG.DE ), SBI Group and Israeli venture capital funds Magma and Vertex. Reporting by Jan Schwartz and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Arno Schuetze and Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argus-m-a-continental/germanys-continental-buys-israeli-auto-cyber-firm-argus-idUSKBN1D31DR'|'2017-11-03T19:58:00.000+02:00'
'007f3d940e2ce637f3461ac70cc84a2780f949c7'|'Expert Views: BoE raises rates for first time in a decade'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:20 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Expert Views: BoE raises rates for first time in a decade Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday and said it expected only “very gradual” further increases would be needed over the next three years. The Bank of England is seen in the City of London, Britain November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Story:'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-instant/expert-views-boe-raises-rates-for-first-time-in-a-decade-idINKBN1D21LB'|'2017-11-02T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'3183fb03d9e1313b416891163c3f30729b2effd2'|'Asian shares rise on Fed optimism, pushing back toward 10-year peak'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:42 AM / in 20 minutes Global stocks edge up after U.S. tax plan, Powell nomination; sterling drops Chuck Mikolajczak 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets edged higher on Thursday, with Wall Street up slightly and the U.S. dollar modestly weaker after details of a Republican tax plan were released and the nomination of Jerome Powell as the new head of the Federal Reserve. FILE PHOTO: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is pictured in New York City, New York, U.S., August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo The Republican tax plan called for broad changes to the U.S. tax code, including slashing the corporate tax rate and reducing the number of tax brackets for individuals. “Everyone knows it is a long shot, there is not a bunch of money trying to get ahead of this,” said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenberg Thalmann Asset Management in New York. “Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone believes this is going to go through; it is a wait and see opportunity.” President Donald Trump tapped Fed Governor Jerome Powell to become head of the U.S. central bank, promoting a soft-spoken centrist to replace Janet Yellen when her term expires in February 2018. Hopes for progress on tax reform and a solid earnings season helped push the S&P 500 up 2.2 percent in October. Apple ( AAPL.O ), the largest U.S. company by market capitalization, will report results after the market close. According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 384 companies that have reported earnings, 72.7 percent have topped Wall Street expectations, compared with a beat rate of 72 percent over the past four quarters. The growth expectation for the quarter is 7.7 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 81.25 points, or 0.35 percent, to 23,516.26, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.49 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,579.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 1.59 points, or 0.02 percent, to 6,714.94. FILE PHOTO: Workers stand on steps opposite the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Housing .HGX fell 1.07 percent on the tax plan, which would maintain the deductions for mortgage interest on existing loans and newly purchased homes for up to $500,000. The dollar fell to its lowest in a week against a basket of major currencies after the tax details were released, and showed little reaction to Powell’s nomination. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The dollar index .DXY fell 0.13 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.35 percent to $1.1658. Sterling skidded after the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years but said it expected only “very gradual” further increases over the next three years. Sterling dropped 1.1 percent GBP= and was on track for its biggest one-day drop since June, and Britain''s main FTSE 100 stock index climbed .FTSE 0.9 percent. The rest of Europe retreated from two-year highs hit in the prior session. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.36 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.05 percent. U.S. Treasuries prices ended the day higher. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR last rose 8/32 in price to yield 2.3487 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Wednesday. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-rise-on-fed-optimism-pushing-back-toward-10-year-peak-idUSKBN1D2022'|'2017-11-02T02:42:00.000+02:00'
'9cd07f21f5c229679f41642cf08ad281ffb12c50'|'Acacia Mining chief executive and financial head quit'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:33 AM / in 24 minutes Acacia Mining chief executive and financial head quit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Acacia Mining ( ACAA.L ) said on Thursday its chief executive and chief financial officers had resigned and appointed temporary replacements in the midst of negotiations to end a long running dispute with the Tanzanian government. Acacia chairman Kevin Dushnisky said the company would fully support its management team while seeking a resolution to the dispute in Tanzania. Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-acaciamining-moves/acacia-mining-chief-executive-and-financial-head-quit-idUKKBN1D20P3'|'2017-11-02T09:33:00.000+02:00'
'6dcadf18139085f5ee8c24a15d9e5fdae3d390c2'|'DoJ considers blocking AT&T deal for Time Warner -WSJ'|'Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is considering seeking to block AT&T Inc’s merger with Time Warner Inc as it continues talks with the two companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.The financial newspaper also said the DOJ might still consider approving the deal with certain conditions but that the two sides were not close to an agreement. on.wsj.com/2gW1l9OShares of Time Warner were down 4.2 percent at $94.2, while AT&T&rsquo;s shares inched up.The U.S. wireless carrier is in the process of buying Time Warner for $85.4 billion in a deal that is expected to close by the end of the year.Neither company had any immediate comment. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att/doj-considers-blocking-att-deal-for-time-warner-wsj-idUSL4N1N85DO'|'2017-11-02T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'18cd757cfb8ad70a4299762cc976947248a9d363'|'Westpac agrees on Hastings fund management sale to UK firm'|'(Reuters) - Westpac Banking Corp ( WBC.AX ) on Friday said it had agreed to sell its Hastings fund management business to a London-based asset manager, in the latest move by a big Australian bank to offload a capital intensive division.FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians walk past a logo of the Westpac Bank Corp on display in a window of a branch located in central Sydney, Australia, July 2, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The terms of the deal with Northill Capital are currently confidential and the deal is subject to regulatory approvals, the bank said in a statement to the Australian Stock ExchangeHastings currently manages about A$12.6 billion ($9.68 billion) in funds, the company said.The company had also been in talks with property manager Charter Hall Group ( CHC.AX ) regarding the sale of Hastings, but it ceased discussions in August.Australian banks have been vying to sell off their capital intensive assets amid stiffer bank capital rules aimed at protecting the sector from financial shocks.Recently, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd ( ANZ.AX ) said it was selling its pensions and investments business to IOOF Holdings ( IFL.AX ) in a A$975 million deal.Westpac shares were up about 0.8 percent on Friday, against a 0.5 percent rise in the broader market .Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-westpac-m-a-northill-capital/westpac-to-sell-hastings-fund-management-business-to-uk-firm-idINKBN1D307N'|'2017-11-03T00:36:00.000+02:00'
'6d440bfc034c6cbef04cae6b0ba400447fe168ae'|'Exclusive: Belgian state hires Nomura for Belfius bank float - sources'|'FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Belgium has hired Nomura ( 9716.T ) to prepare the country’s third-largest bank Belfius for an initial public offering (IPO) in a deal that could value the lender at up to 8 billion euros ($9.3 billion), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.The logo of Belgian state-owned bank Belfius is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Belfius, which was carved out from bailed-out lender Dexia, could be one of the biggest banking floats in Europe since the 2008 financial crisis and would follow a similar move by Allied Irish Banks (AIB) which raised 3 billion euros in an IPO in June.Belgium’s Federal Holding and Investment Company, the state agency in charge of Belfius, has asked Nomura to start preliminary work on the IPO which includes the selection of global coordinators and bookrunners, the sources said.Belfius is expected to list at least 20 percent of its shares and could raise more than 1.5 billion euros from the float which will test investor appetite for Belgian banks, one of the sources said.The listing could take place in the first half of 2018, one of the sources said, cautioning that the IPO window will depend on market conditions.Nomura declined to comment while Belfius and the Belgian government were not immediately available.Belfius has staged a strong recovery since 2011 when Franco-Belgian bank Dexia was broken up and partly nationalized after being hit by a funding squeeze during the financial crisis.The Belgian state took control of the banking arm of Dexia in a 4 billion euro rescue deal in 2011, which led to the creation of Belfius.Belfius, which also provides life and non-life insurance, has offloaded its predecessor’s riskier assets while growing its total equity capital to 9.3 billion euros.The group posted a 45 percent rise in net income after tax in the first half of 2017, representing a total of 361 million euros.Its legacy portfolios have been significantly reduced in recent years and no longer represent a material risk, ratings agency Fitch said in note earlier this year.The lender has a market share of 15 percent of loans in Belgium and 13 percent of deposits.($1 = 0.8621 euros)Editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-belfius-ipo/exclusive-belgian-state-hires-nomura-for-belfius-bank-float-sources-idINKBN1D32DL'|'2017-11-03T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'48ff147f690eb7af2b345b59ff7f770ddf11ffc8'|'BMW recalling 1 million vehicles in North America'|'Reuters TV United States November 3, 2017 / 2:41 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago BMW recalling 1 million vehicles in North America Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BMW AG said Friday it is recalling about 1 million vehicles in North America for two separate issues involving fire risks and said it may expand the recalls to other countries. FILE PHOTO: A BMW logo is seen at the 2017 New York International Auto Show in New York City, U.S. April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson One recall covers 670,000 2006-2011 U.S. 3-series vehicles to address a wiring issue for heating and air conditioning system may overheat and could increase the risk of a fire. The second recall covers 740,000 U.S. 2007-2011 vehicles with a valve that could rust and lead to a fire in rare cases. The recall includes some 128i vehicles, 3-series, 5-series and X3, X5 and Z4 vehicles. BMW spokesman Michael Rebstock said the recalls have overlapping vehicles and cover about 1 million vehicles, nearly all in the United States and about 15,000 in Canada. Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Laurence Frost in Paris; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-recall/bmw-recalling-1-million-vehicles-in-north-america-idUKKBN1D31MM'|'2017-11-03T16:38:00.000+02:00'
'30e356b1beffeae6850a0b95a704998bd313d273'|'British Airways owner IAG targets higher core earnings in coming years'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:41 AM / in 24 minutes British Airways owner IAG targets higher core earnings in coming years Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) said it was aiming for annual core earnings around 20 percent higher than previous targets on Friday as it stuck to its goals for earning-per-share growth and margins for the coming years. FILE PHOTO: British Airways planes are parked at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London, Britain May 27, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo IAG shares rose 1.7 percent after it said that it was targeting core earnings (EBITDAR) of 6.5 billion euros (5.80 billion pounds) per year between 2018-2022, compared to a goal of an annual 5.3 billion euros between 2016-2020. For the same period, the airlines group also provided higher targets for capital expenditure and capacity growth, measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) - a key metric for airlines. IAG, which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, a week ago said it expected profits to rise by nearly 20 percent this year. On Friday its senior management will update analysts at a capital markets day (CMD). The group stuck to its target for return on invested capital (ROIC), which one analyst said was a disappointment. “No increase in ROIC target of 15 percent, which is disappointing and we expect today’s CMD to focus on how profit guidance is being raised but no lift to the return target,” analysts at Goodbody said in a note. The group said it was still targeting average EPS growth of over 12 percent each year, and its target for an annual operating profit margin between 12-15 percent was also unchanged. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by James Davey and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-outlook/british-airways-owner-iag-lifts-annual-profit-outlook-for-coming-years-idUKKBN1D30K2'|'2017-11-03T11:04:00.000+02:00'
'bf8e763b54816499a912e1ef5ae3ce4592bf9778'|'Bitcoin skyrockets above $7,000 for first time ever'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin rocketed above $7,000 for the first time ever on Thursday, after a more than sevenfold increase in its value since the start of the year.A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Bitcoin has seen eye-watering gains in recent months and has more than doubled in value in the past seven weeks alone. It hit as high as $7,066.44 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Thursday.The latest rally was driven by news earlier this week that the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator CME Group is to launch bitcoin futures.The price move takes bitcoin’s aggregate value, or “market cap” -- its price multiplied by the number of bitcoins released into circulation -- to more than $117 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies is now at a record high of over $190 billion, the website said.Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan; CATEGORY-BUSINESS '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/newsloop-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-skyrockets-above-7000-for-first-time-ever-idINKBN1D217M'|'2017-11-02T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'4a22ecaea76ee0360d8863797bdfbf49fb27f485'|'Exclusive - Beleaguered Airbus looks outside for new sales chief'|'Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 4:24 PM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Beleaguered Airbus looks outside for new sales chief Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from soon-to-retire John Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen, said three people familiar with the plans. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy delivers his speech during the annual Airbus Commercial Press Briefing in Blagnac, Southwestern France, January 11, 2017. Picture taken January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Leahy’s deputy, Executive Vice-President Kiran Rao, had been identified as Leahy’s successor earlier this year, but his appointment to one of the industry’s most visible jobs was never confirmed as Leahy’s retirement slipped towards end-year. Chief Executive Tom Enders has now decided to look outside the core part of the company in a bid to denote a fresh start, but Rao is not being targeted in the compliance investigation which centres mainly on a defunct headquarters team, the people said. Rao confirmed he would not be in the running for the post. “I can confirm I am no longer pursuing the position of commercial director and intend to concentrate on Airbus product strategy,” Rao told Reuters. An Airbus spokesman declined comment on personnel matters. The search comes as the Airbus marketing machine is seen as demoralised as a result of British and French probes, which have also sparked a blanket internal investigation. Enders told a recent sales meeting Leahy would stay till the year-end, but failed to confirm Rao’s appointment, leaving what insiders described as a sense of vacuum amid dwindling sales. Rao, 53, has until recently combined the No. 2 sales role with product development, for which he received a French distinction in July. He has stood in for Leahy since July as the New Yorker prepared to retire, initially in September. The search for a new successor extends outside the core part of Airbus but will include affiliates such as 50-percent owned turboprop maker ATR, where CEO and former Airbus commercial strategy chief Christian Scherer is seen as a leading contender. ATR said Scherer was not available for comment. BROKEN MORALE Several outside candidates are being considered and Airbus could go head-hunting at suppliers, such as the recently overhauled management team at Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ). Planeview Partners founder Henri Courpron has been widely mentioned but the former Airbus executive is said to have no plans to leave his U.S.-based consulting firm after helping negotiate a recent deal for Airbus to buy Bombardier’s troubled CSeries jet programme. Courpron couldn’t be reached for comment. The handover is happening as Enders comes under mounting French pressure over the conduct of a compliance campaign, which widened this week to flawed paperwork in the United States. While German-born Enders has bet his future on overhauling the company, insiders worry the crackdown will stymie risk-taking and swing the pendulum too far towards bureaucracy just as a resurgent Boeing ( BA.N ) is aggressively winning orders. Enders’ own future is increasingly questioned, a source of uncertainty that sources say may put off some contenders. He has called for modernisation and fresh blood, but the change of policy on the key sales post underscores how the company’s ability to set its own direction has come under mounting pressure as investigations ripple through the group. Whoever replaces Leahy will face the job of repairing poor morale and absorbing the CSeries without upsetting demand for bread-and-butter larger jets offered by Airbus and Boeing. But his replacement is unlikely to enjoy the same latitude as Leahy in negotiations or influence over industrial moves. Airbus’s market share against Boeing has fallen to 35 percent so far this year - a gap likely to widen as U.S. President Donald Trump visits China with Boeing sales in view - but it aims to bounce back with at least one major deal in coming months. It may announce orders for the struggling A380 at this month’s Dubai Airshow. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-sales/exclusive-airbus-begins-external-search-for-new-sales-chief-sources-idUKKBN1D229C'|'2017-11-02T22:24:00.000+02:00'
'c8201e9bf5c75dfbb3741467b8b10b1f82f11fd6'|'EU regulators suspend Luxottica, Essilor probe, await data'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have suspended an investigation into the $54 billion merger between French glasses group Essilor ( ESSI.PA ) and Italy’s Luxottica ( LUX.MI ) after the companies failed to provide requested data.The deal has sparked regulatory concerns that it may lead to price rises or mean retailers are forced to buy both lens and eyewear from the merged company.The European Commission, which opened a full-scale investigation into the case on Sept. 26, said it stopped the clock on Oct. 25.“This procedure in merger investigations is activated if the parties fail to provide, in a timely fashion, an important piece of information that the Commission has requested from them,” the EU competition authority said in an email.“Once the missing information is supplied by the parties, the clock is re-started and the deadline for the Commission’s decision is then adjusted accordingly.”Australia’s competition agency cleared the deal last month, saying it did not see any issues. U.S. regulators are also examining the merger.Luxottica’s brands include Ray Ban and Persol, and licensed names such as Chanel and Armani.Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-luxottica-group-m-a-essilor-eu/eu-regulators-suspend-luxottica-essilor-probe-await-data-idINKBN1D318D'|'2017-11-03T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'f980b18cdbd7e6d42150121869e1c7a858cf318f'|'Singapore''s GIC takes 90 million pound stake in Britain''s OakNorth bank'|' 15 AM / in 33 minutes Singapore''s GIC takes 90 million pound stake in Britain''s OakNorth bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Singaporean sovereign investor GIC will take a 10 percent stake in British specialist bank OakNorth for 90 million pounds, OakNorth said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo for Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, is seen on a building in Singapore July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside/File Photo The bank, which lends to businesses and property developers, said GIC has signed a deal to buy the stake from Indian conglomerate Indiabulls. It follows on the heels of a 154 million pound investment in OakNorth last month from investors Coltrane, Toscafund and The Clermont Group. OakNorth said GIC’s investment will assist OakNorth’s plans to expand its global business via the launch of its ‘fintech’ platform ACORN machine, which is designed to use data collection and processing to assist lending decisions. Founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, OakNorth is one of a new breed of British lenders launched after the financial crisis in 2008 when the Bank of England lowered the capital requirements to set up new banks. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has been a boon to some small lenders like OakNorth in throwing up more lending opportunities, Khosla told Reuters last year. Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gic-oaknorth/singapores-gic-takes-90-million-pound-stake-in-britains-oaknorth-bank-idUKKBN1D313F'|'2017-11-03T13:15:00.000+02:00'
'd710eb1f2ababbc63fdfc2fa8d62785fb2bbe7da'|'Shark Tank-like podcast aims to get diverse founders funded'|'How broken luggage led to travel innovation The Pitch, known as the "Shark Tank" of the podcast world, is once again helping startups find investors. The podcast, which kicks off its third season Wednesday, takes listeners inside the nuanced fundraising process. In each episode, released weekly, a different entrepreneur pitches their company to investors. The episode includes follow-up calls with both parties to see how deals made during the pitch session shake out. The podcast launched in 2015 and was acquired this year by Gimlet Media, the parent company behind other popular podcast series such as StartUp and Reply All. The concept aims to provide a realistic peek into the process of fundraising and the issues facing the tech industry, such as the lack of diversity. According to its host Josh Muccio, this season of The Pitch includes a diverse set of founders, including five founders of color and seven women on the cofounding teams of the 12 pitches. Last season, all of the startup founders were white and only three of the 12 companies had female cofounders. Investors hear pitches from startup founders. "There are plenty of white, male founded companies that would probably get funding on our show, but we are looking at everyone," said Muccio . "We think it''s important to lead the charge in diversifying the companies with VC backing." The selection process includes a mix of referrals from other investors and accelerators, as well as applications from the public. The startups span a range of industries and issues, from menstruation and mental health to recruitment for veterans. Investors must navigate these conversations, whether they''re comfortable with the topic or not. When Claire Coder, founder of tampon supplier startup Aunt Flo, pitches her company, one male investor qualifies his understanding by telling her that he has two daughters. According to Muccio, a major draw for participating investors is for access to a "different pond of companies outside the Silicon Valley echo chamber." Coder, for example, is a 20-year-old founder based in Columbus, Ohio. Related: One man''s approach to confront his online harassers About 25% of the startups featured last season received funding, according to Muccio. Deals often fall through during the due diligence phase, which is made clear during a follow-up portion of episode. Muccio and Gimlet Media don''t get any cut of the deals made on the show. The Pitch landed on iTunes'' top 20 chart of downloaded podcasts following its season two debut. It also hit the download charts in five countries. The latest season also features some controversial figures such as Miki Agrawal, co-founder and former CEO of Thinx. In March, Agrawal abruptly left the company amid allegations which included a sexual harassment claim, criticism for paying company below-standard wages and providing poor benefits. Agrawal addressed the controversy in a Medium post. She appears on The Pitch on behalf of her bidet attachment startup, Tushy. When asked by investors why she left her fast-growing company to focus on Tushy, she declines to talk about what happened, citing a gag order. One startup that piqued investors'' attention is Shift, a recruiting pipeline to connect veterans to jobs. "I am going to bring this to the White House," said investor Jillian Manus of Structure Capital. Other investors include Daniel Gulati, a partner at Comcast Ventures, and Phil Nadel, managing director of Forefront Venture Partners. CNNMoney (New York)   3:24 PM ET'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/01/technology/culture/the-pitch-podcast/index.html'|'2017-11-01T22:24:00.000+02:00'
'4d6ba9f799f3f133f7bcd903420176877ad03a07'|'Wall Street holds slim gains as Fed stands pat on rates'|'(Reuters) - Wall Street held onto modest gains on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, as major equity indexes hovered around record-high levels.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The U.S. central bank pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labour market while downplaying the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.The Fed has raised rates twice this year and currently forecasts one more hike by the end of 2017 as part of a tightening cycle that began in late 2015.“I don’t think there is anything real surprising out of this,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin.“The comments on the economy were pretty good, talking about solid growth, strong labour market despite the hurricanes. I think those are all good things,” Frederick said. “I would say it pretty close to seals a December rate hike.”The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 58.23 points, or 0.25 percent, to 23,435.47, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 5.28 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,580.54 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 14.24 points, or 0.21 percent, to 6,713.43.Energy .SPNY was the best-performing sector, rising 0.8 percent while telecoms .SPLRCL lagged the most.Investors had all but ruled out a move at the U.S. central bank’s policy meeting this week with attention focused on who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018.President Donald Trump is set to announce his nomination on Thursday. Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, is viewed as relatively stock-market friendly and the likely choice.“The pending announcement regarding the new chair seems to be overshadowing most everything,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.Developments at the Fed come as corporate earnings, which have supported the stock market’s run to record highs, are coming in generally above expectations for the third quarter.With about two-thirds having reported, S&P 500 companies are on track to have earnings growth of 7 percent for the third quarter, up from 5.9 percent growth expected at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Lindsay Dunsmuir and Howard Schneider in Washington, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-holds-slim-gains-as-fed-stands-pat-on-rates-idINKBN1D15LG'|'2017-11-01T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'3fd528b05d3f3241dc78a76f0af988df04b7b160'|'CORRECTED-U.S. House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:04 PM / in 16 minutes CORRECTED-U.S. House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Corrects stock symbol for Tesla in paragraph 1) WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - House Republicans are proposing to eliminate a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles that could hurt automakers like General Motors Co, Tesla Inc and Nissan Motor Co that are selling larger numbers of vehicles, according to a summary seen by Reuters. Current law allows automakers to use the credit that phases out after an automaker hits 200,000 plug-in vehicles sold. Electric vehicles have expensive batteries that make them pricier than gasoline-powered vehicles. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-vehicles/u-s-house-republicans-propose-to-scrap-7500-electric-vehicle-credit-idUSL2N1N816P'|'2017-11-02T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'2af8acfbdda9f0a329e4acc3f295f7722b1fd8e7'|'Russia''s Otkritie bailout hits home in Ireland'|'* Bailed-out Russian bank used Irish funding vehicles* Loans of $500 million terminated* Experts say episode will hurt Russia, IrelandBy John O‘DonnellFRANKFURT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Russia’s bailed-out bank Otkritie will not repay $500 million of loans raised in Ireland, potentially making it harder for other Russian private banks to borrow abroad and casting a cloud over Dublin as a “shadow banking” hub.Otkritie’s refusal to pay sees shockwaves from Russia’s biggest ever bank bailout reach Ireland, which has been used by international firms including Russian banks to raise hundreds of billions of euros in such loans.In a stock-exchange filing on Tuesday, OFCB, a vehicle that had issued $300 million of loan notes and lent the proceeds to Otkritie, said the Russian bank had “terminated” the repayment of the debt and more than $7 million of interest.BKM Finance, another vehicle that borrowed $200 million on behalf of Otkritie, made a similar filing on Oct. 27, saying the bank could not repay the money and interest of $4.7 million.A spokeswoman for Otkritie said it had “grounds to terminate its obligations related to subordinated instruments” and that it had acted in accordance with the law.Russia’s central bank, which orchestrated a multi-billion dollar rescue of Otkritie after a run on the bank, had earlier warned that subordinated debt could be hit.OFCB has issued a further $500 million of subordinated debt, according to Otkritie’s website, although the status of this was not immediately clear.Otkritie’s fall was dramatic for a group that, with support from President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, snapped up rivals and even Lukoil’s diamond business to become Russia’s biggest private bank.“As Russia is gearing to raise more capital through international bonds ... this may well dampen investors’ appetite for Russian assets,” Anastasia Nesvetailova, an expert in financial crises at London’s City University, said.Sergey Dergachev, a bond investor with Germany’s Union Investment, said he feared others could suffer a similar fate.“If global economic conditions worsen, what will happen to Russia and its banks? I think the chances of seeing more subordinated debt out of Russian banks are slim.”REPUTATIONAL RISK? Also potentially at stake is Ireland’s shadow banking system, which has boomed since the financial crisis and given groups such as hedge funds increasing clout in global finance.The International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Board, which monitors the financial system, have highlighted concerns over Ireland’s outsized financial sector.The country is one of the euro zone’s largest centres for financial special purpose vehicles, according to central bank data, many of which are used to borrow by international groups.The sector had total assets such as loans of 345 billion euros ($402 billion) in the middle of this year - bigger than the Irish economy. Russian companies have sponsored 14 percent of those vehicles in Ireland.But fund raising by companies such as Otkritie, poses a potential threat to Ireland’s standing, said James Stewart of Trinity College Dublin who has written a report on the issue.“In terms of Ireland’s reputation, these cases indicate a problem,” said Stewart.“It reveals the absence of regulation and oversight of this important market. They create a systemic risk, if not to Ireland, then internationally.”The Irish Stock Exchange, which listed the debt, declined to comment, while a spokeswoman for Ireland’s central bank said the debt issues were restricted to “qualified investors” and that it had approved the prospectuses.“The veracity of that information is the responsibility of the issuer and its directors,” said a spokeswoman.The Irish law underpinning special purpose vehicles was created by the government in the early 1990s to build an international financial services centre in a then derelict part of Dublin, a central plank to the country’s economy and success.Many vehicles are shell companies set up to borrow and critics, including Stewart, say similar conduits hosted by Ireland helped trigger bank problems in Germany during the financial crisis.However, lobbyists, lawyers and many government officials want to keep the regime to attract business from London after Britain leaves the European Union. ($1 = 0.8579 euros) (Additional reporting by Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-ireland/russias-otkritie-bailout-hits-home-in-ireland-idINL8N1N84TJ'|'2017-11-02T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'd946d6e3411007f74dcb4cc852663a88e27c4b7f'|'UPDATE 1-Top Acacia Mining bosses quit in midst of Tanzania dispute'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:04 AM / in 17 minutes UPDATE 2-Top Acacia Mining bosses quit in midst of Tanzania dispute Reuters Staff * COO quit on Oct 20 without immediate replacement * CEO and CFO quit for personal reasons * Shares drop on news (Updates with detail, graphic, analysts, shares) By Zandi Shabalala LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Acacia Mining’s top two executives have resigned in the midst of talks between its parent company and the Tanzanian government aimed at ending a long-running dispute that has hit Acacia’s operations. Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold miner and 63.9 percent owner of Acacia, struck a deal with Tanzania last month to end the dispute, part of which involved Acacia making a $300 million payment to the east African country. But Acacia, whose three producing gold mines are in Tanzania and was not directly involved in the talks, appeared to have been taken by surprise by the announcement by Barrick chairman John Thornton and President John Magufuli. It said last week it could not immediately afford the payment. Acacia said on Thursday that its chief executive Brad Gordon and finance chief Andrew Wray would both leave at the end of the year two weeks after chief operating officer Mark Marcombe also resigned. It said Gordon was returning to Australia for family reason, while Wray was pursuing other opportunities. “The obvious conclusion would be that those two individuals feel that the situation in Tanzania is not going to get resolved sensibly or quickly,” said Peel Hunt analyst Peter Mallin-Jones SHARES FALL AS UNCERTAINTY GROWS Sudden changes in mining laws have dented the investment appeal of companies operating in countries such as South Africa and Tanzania, where nations feel they are not reaping the benefits of their minerals. Acacia stock ended 4 percent lower at 175 pence while the wider sector rose 1.5 percent. “I can’t see how it helps matters,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Breichmanas, adding that Gordon and Wray had been instrumental in Acacia’s turnaround. “While their successors are undoubtedly qualified to lead the company and see the process with the Tanzanian government through to a conclusion, the structure of the proposed agreement may introduce challenges to management’s ability to lead the company going forward and make retaining talent throughout the organization difficult,” the analyst said. Acacia said its head of organisational effectiveness Peter Geleta would take over as interim chief executive, while Jaco Maritz was moved to finance chief from his previous position as general manager in finance. Investec analysts said the departures might actually help smooth a deal with Tanzania. “Clearly not a positive given the depth of experience that Brad and Andrew have, but it could appease the Tanzanian government as Barrick will be able to say how they are sorting things out, even if it had nothing to do with them,” they said. Tanzania in March banned unprocessed mineral exports as part of a push to reap greater rewards from its natural resources. In July, Acacia was also served with a $190 billion bill for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. The dispute has wiped about $1.7 billion off Acacia’s market value since the ban was introduced. The miner said in September it would shut all underground mining at its flagship Bulyahulu mine. Chairman Kevin Dushnisky said the company would fully support its management team while seeking a resolution to the dispute in Tanzania. Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in London and Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/acacia-mining-ceo/update-1-top-acacia-mining-bosses-quit-in-midst-of-tanzania-dispute-idUSL8N1N81RC'|'2017-11-02T11:03:00.000+02:00'
'24c7f8c7259a07981e54d6f15c5b74f5bed137f2'|'Dark tourism spooks its way into the mainstream - Fatal attractions'|'ONE recent morning in Salem in the state of Massachusetts, a witch ran out of wands. Teri Kalgren, the owner of Artemisia Botanicals, an apothecary and magic shop, attributed the shortage to a witch-inspired boom. People have long flocked to Salem to learn about the infamous witch trials of 1692, in which Puritan hysteria led to the executions of 20 people (and two dogs). But since 1982 when the city introduced Haunted Happenings, a daylong Halloween festival for local families, the event has expanded to a commercial celebration lasting a month that attracts 500,000 tourists.Last year tourism pumped $104m into Salem and funded some 800 jobs. The revenues have been increasing by 5-6% every year, says Kate Fox of Destination Salem, the city’s marketing arm. Tourists can buy a spell kit, visit a witch museum, take a walking tour (ghostly, feminist or literary-themed) and have their fortune told. On the opposite coast, Scott Michaels has watched his Hollywood-based company, Dearly Departed Tours, grow from a one-man gig to an operation with seven employees who take tourists to celebrity grave sites every day of the week. “Just a few years ago, we were just the quirky ones doing tours in an old hearse,” he says.That tourism is soaring is well-known—between 1999 and 2016 the number of people opting for a foreign holiday doubled, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). And travellers have shifted from beach-oriented leisure time to experiences. These include visits to “dark tourism” sites, a catch-all term that includes atrocity sites such as Auschwitz or Cambodia’s killing fields, nuclear disaster zones such as Chernobyl in Ukraine and the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, as well as famous places of death, such as the Tower of London or the house where O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife was murdered. The internet has raised awareness of such places, and cheap flights have made them easier to access. “People are seeking unique experiences and we are seeing the market respond,” says Carolyn Childs of MyTravelResearch.com, a research firm.  3   Take Chernobyl. The nuclear disaster at a power plant in 1986 in what is now Ukraine killed more than 30 workers, afflicted thousands with radiation poisoning and forced 180,000 Soviet citizens to abandon their homes. A decade ago Dominik Orfanus, a Slovakian journalist, visited Pripyat, a modern city turned into a ghost town by the explosion, and founded a tour company just as the number of visitors to the “exclusion zone” took off (from 7,191 in 2009 to 36,781 in 2016). An easing of government restrictions in 2011 and Ukraine’s hosting of the 2012 European football championship helped numbers swell further. Mr Orfanus’s company, Chernobylwel.com, is one of three such firms, that collectively have more than 2,000 reviews on TripAdvisor, an influential travel-review website. Its guides wear shirts with slogans such as “Enjoy Chernobyl, die later.”Commodifying Chernobyl can be justified because tourism is seen by locals as a boon to its stunted economy. Salem, meanwhile, is easy to commercialise because the deaths occurred so long ago. But recent tragedies that left a large community grieving demand more sensitivity. Japanese authorities have banned tours to the vicinity of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after an earthquake caused a tsunami that engulfed the coast in 2011, killing nearly 19,000 people. Local guides take over 2,000 tourists each year anyway to villages near the stricken reactors.Michael Frazier of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York bristles at the word “attraction,” even though the museum charges admission, sells souvenirs and markets itself on its website as TripAdvisor’s “#2” of 1,055 Things to Do in New York City. It is also “#6” of the World’s Most Instagrammed Museums. Last year, more than 3m visitors brought in $67m in revenue for the non-profit foundation that runs the museum. At the 9/11 museum and at Auschwitz, crowds are controlled with carefully timed tours. Meanwhile, at Chernobyl, sometimes, “there are so many buses that all of a sudden the ghost town feels like Disneyland,” says Mr Orfanus. Leisure giants such as Disney, of course, are unlikely ever to enter the dark tourism market beyond scary theme-park rides. But Ms Childs sees plenty of room for architecture firms and design consultancies specialising in thoughtful curation to help sites walk the line between commemoration and commercialisation.It has long been the case that death sells, says Philip Stone of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research at the University of Central Lancashire. But most dark tourists seek meaning, not merely the deeply macabre. His research into their motives reveals not so much oddballs ticking atrocities off a list as amateur scholars of human nature. The Salem Witch Museum tries to cater to such cerebral interest, casting witch-hunts as a staple of America’s political culture, and citing examples such as Japanese internment after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, and Senator Joe McCarthy’s scapegoating of alleged communists in the 1950s. A guide asks a crowd clad in black and orange to come up with modern parallels. The visitors exit, deep in thought.'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21730816-visitor-numbers-salem-chernobyl-celebrity-grave-sites-and-other-frights-are-soaring?fsrc=rss'|'2017-10-31T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'50e026e8186a47425a1369ca7b3911e3aa6251fb'|'Canyon Bridge bid for Imagination Technologies approved by UK court'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:33 PM / in 17 minutes Canyon Bridge bid for Imagination Technologies approved by UK court Ben Martin 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Troubled chip designer Imagination Technologies will delist from the London Stock Exchange on Friday after a court approved a 550 million pound takeover by China-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge. The headquarters of technology company Imagination Technologies is seen on the outskirts of London, Britain, June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The High Court sanctioned the scheme of arrangement through which Canyon Bridge is acquiring Imagination for 182 pence a share in cash on Thursday, paving the way for its delisting. This will mark the completion of a deal which has drawn attention since it was announced on Sept. 22 because of problems Canyon Bridge has faced in the U.S., where its founder Benjamin Chow was charged with insider trading on Monday. In September, before the Imagination takeover was agreed, Canyon Bridge was blocked from buying chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor Corp for $1.3 billion by U.S. President Donald Trump, amid concerns the deal posed a risk to national security. Chow’s case relates to the attempted Lattice deal. He has denied wrongdoing and Imagination’s shareholders voted to approve the Canyon Bridge deal the day after he was charged. Britain’s Imagination was forced into a sale after its shares plunged in April when Apple, its biggest customer, said it would stop using its technology, plunging it into turmoil. The deal with Canyon Bridge comes as the British government seeks to increase scrutiny of acquisitions of UK firms by foreign companies. In October, Britain outlined proposals to heighten government oversight of deals involving businesses in the technology and military sectors. Reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imagination-technologies-deal/canyon-bridge-bid-for-imagination-technologies-approved-by-uk-court-idUKKBN1D22FQ'|'2017-11-02T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'f909efedcbca122c0700cc9fb512c215f16e1254'|'IWG reports 3.3 percent rise in three month total revenue'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago IWG reports 3.3 percent rise in three month total revenue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Serviced office provider IWG Plc ( IWG.L ) on Thursday reported a 3.3 percent rise in quarterly revenue boosted by high growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Total revenue for the group rose to 585.7 million pounds for the three months ended September 30. The company’s mature business revenue declined 1.8 percent to 538.8 million pounds at constant currency. Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iwg-outlook/iwg-reports-3-3-percent-rise-in-three-month-total-revenue-idUKKBN1D20PD'|'2017-11-02T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'1542b61b817b3bcb476d7dafabc08c1fdf5e24e8'|'British lender CYBG to take 39 million pound charge for legacy conduct costs'|'November 2, 2017 / 8:01 AM / in 3 minutes British lender CYBG to take 39 million pound charge for legacy conduct costs   British lender CYBG ( CYBGC.L ), spun off from National Australia Bank ( NAB.AX )(NAB), will take a pretax charge of 39 million pounds ($51.7 million) to help to cover the cost of the UK’s payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. CYBG said on Thursday that it is lifting provisions for so-called “legacy conduct costs” by 403 million pounds as of the end of September. Under an agreement it has with former parent NAB, CYBG is required to fund 9.7 percent of this provision increase, resulting in the 39 million pound charge, it said. This will hit CYBG’s 2017 CET1 capital ratio by about 20 basis points for 2017, though the ratio will remain “comfortably within its 12-13 percent guidance range”, the lender added. ($1 = 0.7545 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cybg-charge-nab/british-lender-cybg-to-take-39-million-pound-charge-for-legacy-conduct-costs-idUKKBN1D20S1'|'2017-11-02T10:01:00.000+02:00'
'28b75420c2255ddc43ec1b4469764f2ab25e3f45'|'Fed leaves rates unchanged; ''solid'' growth keeps December hike in view'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labour market while playing down the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Investors had all but ruled out a rate hike at the central bank’s policy meeting this week and attention has largely been focused on who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018.President Donald Trump is set to announce his nomination on Thursday afternoon with Fed Governor Jerome Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, seen as having a lock on the job.“The labour market has continued to strengthen and ... economic activity has been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions,” the Fed’s rate-setting committee said in a statement after its unanimous policy decision.In keeping with that encouraging tone, the central bank’s policymakers acknowledged that inflation remained soft but did not downgrade their assessment of pricing expectations.U.S. Treasury yields and short-term interest rate futures were little changed after the release of the statement, while federal fund futures put the odds of a December rate hike at about 98 percent, according to CME Group’s FedWatch program.The U.S. dollar pared gains against a basket of currencies .DXY and the S&P 500 index .SPX rose slightly.“It confirms a December move,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York. “If we get a confirmation that Trump picks Powell tomorrow, it’s a sign that monetary policy will continue on its current course that we have seen so far this year with gradual normalization.”The Fed has raised rates twice this year and currently forecasts another nudge upwards in its benchmark lending rate from its current target range of 1.00 percent to 1.25 percent by the end of 2017.BALANCE SHEET REDUCTION Fed policymakers have been buoyed in recent months by a stronger global and domestic economy and further tightening in the labour market, although they are divided over the causes and duration of the current weakness in inflation.The Fed’s preferred inflation measure sits at 1.3 percent after retreating further from the central bank’s 2 percent target for much of the year.Nevertheless, Yellen and some other key policymakers have said the Fed still expects to continue to gradually raise rates given the strength of the overall economy. In its statement, the central bank reiterated it expects inflation to rise back to its target over the medium term and emphasized that the unemployment rate has declined further.U.S. financial conditions remain loose, strengthening the argument that another rate rise would not slow the current brisk growth. The government reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the third quarter.A decline in hiring in September has largely been dismissed as a blip caused by the temporary displacement of workers due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That jobs report showed wages growing at an improved pace and the unemployment rate falling to more than a 16-1/2-year low of 4.2 percent.A strong rebound in job gains is anticipated when the Labor Department releases its October nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.The Fed also said on Wednesday it was proceeding with the reduction of its $4.2 trillion in holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, a process which began in October.New Fed Governor Randal Quarles, Trump’s first appointee to the central bank, voted at this week’s policy meeting. The Republican president could fill at least three more open vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member board in the coming months.The central bank is scheduled to hold its final policy meeting of the year on Dec. 12-13.Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by David Chance and Paul Simao '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed/fed-holds-rates-steady-solid-growth-keeps-december-hike-in-view-idINKBN1D15JI'|'2017-11-01T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'551570fecb5aae2a8c56765cbe01ebfe073c1c7f'|'MOVES-Saudi sovereign fund PIF hires BofA banker for senior role-source'|'LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) banker Alireza Zaimi for a senior role at the fund, a source familiar with the matter said.Zaimi is leaving his post as managing director EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) in the equities division at BofA, the source said.Zaimi joined BofA in late 2014 and has also previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, according to his linkedin profile.The PIF was not available to comment.The latest hiring comes as the Saudi sovereign fund plans to ramp up its assets from $224 billion to $400 billion by 2020.Over the last two years, the fund has been hiring financial professionals from around the world as it targets domestic as well as overseas investments.Earlier this year, the fund announced it planned to put $20 billion into a $40-billion fund with Blackstone Group.The PIF now has over 200 staff and expects eventually to have over 1,000, managing director Yasir al-Rumayyan told Reuters in an interview on Oct. 25. (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Additional reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pif-moves-bank-of-america/moves-saudi-sovereign-fund-pif-hires-bofa-banker-for-senior-role-source-idINL8N1N72AN'|'2017-11-01T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'41f3ae4ce25da3a0c1399a51b2d1badcd1f076ea'|'UPDATE 1-Australia''s Oil Search to buy oil assets in Alaska for $400 mln'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s Oil Search Ltd ( OSH.AX ) has agreed to buy stakes in a huge oil find in Alaska for $400 million, in a surprise push to diversify from its sweet spot of gas in Papua New Guinea.Oil Search will pick up stakes in three oil blocks from privately owned U.S. firms Armstrong Energy and GMT Exploration giving it a roughly 26 percent holding in the Nanushuk play, co-owned by Spain’s Repsol SA ( REP.MC ).The play includes the Horseshoe block, which hit oil in March in what Repsol called the biggest U.S. onshore find in 30 years. It estimated the field could hold 1.2 billion barrels.Oil Search bought in assuming the field holds 500 million barrels, expecting production to begin in 2023, with output to plateau at 80,000 to 120,000 barrels per day.“With the quality of the assets, the fact that they’re tier 1, and the fact that we’ve gone in very conservatively against what Repsol are saying, I think we can demonstrate to the market that this will be a super deal for Oil Search in the medium term,” Oil Search Chief Executive Peter Botten told Reuters.Investors were nervous about the $8 billion company’s move into a region where it has no experience and which is dominated by giants like BP ( BP.L ) and ExxonMobil Corp ( XOM.N ), sending its shares down 3 percent, especially after it gave up on a push into Kurdistan.Other Australian oil and gas producers rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday.“Questions will inevitably be asked about Oil Search’s competitive advantage to play in Alaska until it proves its operational capability there,” said Saul Kavonic, an analyst with energy consultants Wood Mackenzie.RBC analyst Ben Wilson said the move was well-timed near the bottom of the oil price cycle and with some of the appraisal work on the field already done. He said it had “good prospects” as the oil was high-grade.Botten began working on the deal eight months ago when oil prices were about 20 percent lower than now and said Oil Search managed to get the asset despite higher-priced interest from others in nearby fields, whom he declined to name.The owners of the neighboring fields are ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ), ExxonMobil and Italy’s ENI ( ENI.MI ).Oil Search has the option of doubling its stake in the Alaskan assets for a further $450 million. It plans to fund the deal from its cash reserves.Oil Search will work with oilfield services giant Halliburton Co ( HAL.N ) and Armstrong before taking over as operator of the assets in June 2018.Reporting by Sonali Paul and Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-search-deals/australias-oil-search-to-buy-oil-assets-in-alaska-for-400-million-idUSKBN1D033X'|'2017-11-01T01:38:00.000+02:00'
'f13c11eb283abccb58acd10a682ef811100329ce'|'India factory activity barely grows in Oct as GST stings'|'November 1, 2017 / 5:07 AM / Updated 13 hours ago India factory activity barely grows in Oct as GST stings Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian factory activity barely expanded in October as new orders fell, a survey showed on Wednesday, as price rises following the introduction of a goods and services tax dragged on the economy and underscored dim growth prospects over coming months. A power loom machine is seen inside a closed-down factory in an industrial area on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Files The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by IHS Markit, fell to 50.3 last month from September’s 51.2, marking its third month above the 50-point threshold that separates growth from contraction. That was below all projections in a Reuters poll which had predicted a modest uptick to 51.5 and comes after another recent Reuters survey forecast India’s economy will grow at its slowest pace in four years this fiscal year. “India’s manufacturing companies struggled somewhat as the recent recovery enjoyed by the sector lost impetus in October. Disappointingly, manufacturing production rose at the weakest pace in the current sequence of growth,” said Aashna Dodhia, an economist at IHS Markit. “Inflows of new orders stagnated as the negative effects arising from the implementation of GST continued to dampen demand levels.” Workers dye fabrics inside a dye factory at an industrial area in Mumbai, India October 6, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The government’s decision to ban high value-currency notes last November, combined with the introduction of a new unified tax system, dampened consumer spending and industrial activity. “Business confidence eased to the weakest since February as some firms expressed concerns over negative GST effects,” Dodhia said. Slideshow (2 Images) The new orders sub-index, a proxy for domestic demand, fell to a three-month low of 49.9 from September’s 51.0, discouraging firms from increasing output faster. Foreign demand contracted at the fastest pace since September 2013. Firms passed on greater cost burdens and raised prices more sharply, suggesting retail inflation could extend its uptrend over the coming months. Indian consumer inflation held steady at 3.28 percent in September, but is expected to accelerate over coming months led by higher petrol and diesel prices, complicating the task of the Reserve Bank of India as it seeks to stimulate the economy with more rate cuts. According to minutes from the central bank’s October 4 meeting a majority of board members voted to keep the repo rate unchanged as they were worried about rising consumer prices in the near-term. Reporting by Vivek Mishra; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-pmi/india-factory-activity-barely-grows-in-oct-as-gst-stings-idINKBN1D13JZ'|'2017-11-01T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'9cad209ca0125a41070fa06a7d887f9960b732b9'|'Exclusive - Karstadt owner Signa makes 3 billion euro bid for Hudson''s Bay''s Kaufhof: sources'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:46 PM / in 13 minutes Exclusive - Karstadt owner Signa makes 3 billion euro bid for Hudson''s Bay''s Kaufhof: sources Greg Roumeliotis , Carl O''Donnell 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Signa Holding, the Austrian property and retail group that owns German department store chain Karstadt, has made a 3 billion euro (£2.6 billion) offer to acquire Hudson’s Bay Co’s ( HBC.TO ) German peer Kaufhof, people familiar with the matter said. Hudson’s Bay shares jumped 7 percent to C$12.04 on the news, giving the company a market capitalisation of C$2.1 billion (£1.2 billion). The bid comes one week after Hudson’s Bay agreed to sell its flagship Lord & Taylor building in New York for $850 million to WeWork Cos. Signa submitted the fully financed bid this week, the sources said on Wednesday. They added that Signa expects Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay, which has been reluctant so far to engage in negotiations to sell Kaufhof, to respond to the offer by the middle of November. At a valuation of 3 billion euros including debt, Signa’s bid values Kaufhof’s real estate at 2.63 billion euros, the sources said. Signa has offered to assume all of Kaufhof’s liabilities, including a 1.34 billion euro real estate loan by German bank LBBW, the sources added. The sources asked not to be identified because the offer is confidential. Hudson’s Bay and Signa declined to comment. Signa tried to buy Kaufhof in 2015, but Hudson’s Bay outbid it by paying 2.5 billion euros including debt for the German chain and its Belgian subsidiary. Since then, Kaufhof’s finances have deteriorated, to the point where vendors are finding it more difficult to find trade credit insurance to make shipments. Hudson’s Bay financed Kaufhof’s acquisition by using a joint venture that acquired Kaufhof’s real estate and became its landlord. Hudson’s Bay kept a 63 percent stake in the joint venture, and sold the rest to other major investors, including Simon Property Group Inc ( SPG.N ). This financial engineering backfired, as Kaufhof struggled to cope with the higher rents the joint venture imposed, as well as declining foot traffic in stores. Kaufhof is now trying to convince labour unions in Germany to accept steep pay cuts, a tough ask ahead of the upcoming holiday shopping season. Hudson’s Bay said last week it would raise C$1.6 billion through divestiture of the Lord & Taylor building, as well as an equity investment in Hudson’s Bay by private equity firm Rhone Capital. Earlier this week, it also said a joint venture between Hudson’s Bay and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust ( REI_u.TO ) was exploring a sale of a store property in Toronto. Selling Kaufhoff would release Hudson’s Bay from its liabilities and provide an infusion of cash into the loss-making company at a time when retailers throughout North America are being squeezed by price competition from e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). Hudson’s Bay remains under pressure from activist hedge fund Land and Buildings, which says the company’s vast real estate portfolio would deliver more value to shareholders if it was sold or used for purposes other than retail. TURNING KARSTADT AROUND Privately held Signa, founded 17 years ago by property developer Rene Benko, now runs more than 125 retail locations in Northern Europe, generating annual revenue of about 3.8 billion euros, according to its website. It owns a big real estate portfolio with a gross asset value of more than 10 billion euros. Signa bought Karstadt from the brink of bankruptcy in 2014 for the nominal consideration of just one euro from its majority owner Nicolas Berggruen, son of an international art dealer. Signa restored Karstadt to profitability: realigning its offerings closer to the tastes of German consumers, cutting costs and making operations more efficient. Karstadt and Kaufhof are now the two largest department store operators in Germany. Last month, Signa said it had completed an equity raise of 1 billion euros, giving it more firepower to pursue acquisitions. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Carl O''Donnell in New York; Additional reporting by Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hudson-s-bay-kaufhof-signa/exclusive-karstadt-owner-signa-makes-3-billion-euro-bid-for-hudsons-bays-kaufhof-sources-idUKKBN1D15B4'|'2017-11-01T18:46:00.000+02:00'
'c4248b785acb25b31692b736ee30e115daa69472'|'CalSTRS reports its investment fees for second consecutive year'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - The California State Teachers’ Retirement System announced on Wednesday the total costs and fees paid to manage its investment portfolio for the second consecutive year.CalSTRS found total expenses, including carried interest, reached $1.64 billion in calendar year 2016, or less than 1 percent of the portfolio’s $195 billion net asset value.That percentage of fees and costs is virtually unchanged from last year, when the fund also paid less than one percent of its total portfolio.CalSTRS is among the first public pension funds to keep tabs on investment expenses. Chief Investment Officer Christopher Ailman expressed disappointment on Wednesday at the sluggish adoption of disclosure reporting by peer institutional investors and limited partners in private equity and real estate.Ailman said he knew of only five funds in the U.S. tracking private equity investment costs and fees. He did not know of any funds tracking real estate investment costs, as CalSTRS is doing.CalSTRS’s disclosure comes at a time when public pension funds, which manage the retirement benefits of public sector workers and retirees, face growing pressure to disclose the fees that they pay.CalSTRS is the country’s second largest public pension fund with assets totaling approximately $215.3 billion as of September 30, 2017. The fund represents teachers and other educators in California.Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/california-calstrs-fees/calstrs-reports-its-investment-fees-for-second-consecutive-year-idINL2N1N71N5'|'2017-11-01T14:58:00.000+02:00'
'c070ebbd14c6feb518205361da52b51cd56bc436'|'Brexit pushes up office rentals in Frankfurt'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:20 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Brexit pushes up office rentals in Frankfurt John O''Donnell 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Property firms in Frankfurt have seen an increase of more than 20 percent in office space rentals over the past year as the uncertainty over Britain’s divorce from the European Union prompts banks to look at moving to Germany’s financial capital, the city’s chief promoter said on Tuesday. Ships are seen on river Main in front of the characteristic skyline with its banking towers in Frankfurt, October 30, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The companies all saw an increase of more than a fifth in total office space rented out in the city at the end of September, compared with a year earlier, according to a poll of four large property investors and agents by Frankfurt Main Finance, which promotes the city and helps banks relocate. The poll revealed that rents during the same time had risen slightly. The rise in demand highlights a gradual trend towards more London-based banks looking for a foothold elsewhere in the European Union, with the slowness of Brexit negotiations between Brussels and London leading to a growing nervousness about future trading relations. Frankfurt, small compared to London or Paris, has appeal because it is in the centre of Germany, Europe’s strongest economy and most populous country. “Brexit has reached Frankfurt,” said Markus Kullman of JLL, adding that the vibrant German economy had also led to higher demand. “It is not a question of a full-scale relocation ... but of incrementally building up. It will not be an exodus from London to Frankfurt but more a case of hiring locally.” In the study, BNP Paribas Real Estate, one of the four companies asked, said 477,000 square metres of office space had been let at the end of September, an increase of more than a quarter on the previous year. 10,000 square metres provide space for about 500 people. The three others, Colliers International , JLL and Savills calculated that there had been a jump of at least a fifth during that time. Goldman Sachs has agreed to rent the top eight floors of a new 37-storey tower now being built, making it one of the city’s biggest wins since Brexit. Morgan Stanley has also signed a lease for offices. Reporting By John O''Donnell; Editing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-frankfurt-demand/brexit-pushes-up-office-rentals-in-frankfurt-idUKKBN1D14O5'|'2017-11-01T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'67782a90e1ca542b7617f71e769d29a8aa8e7930'|'Back from the abyss: South Korea''s shipbuilders begin ascent to growth'|'November 2, 2017 / 2:59 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Back from the abyss: South Korea''s shipbuilders begin ascent to growth Henning Gloystein , Jane Chung 5 Min Read BUSAN/SEOUL (Reuters) - Sparks light up the night-shift at giant shipyards on Korea’s southeast coast, as welders and fitters at some of the world’s biggest marine engineers forge next-generation container ships, oil rigs and even ice-breaking tankers in a bid to clamber out of a global industry abyss. Two large container ships and a tanker can be seen under construction in a ship yard close to Busan, South Korea October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/Files Sunk by drastic cuts in orders from customers hit by the 2008 financial crisis, South Korea’s shipping landscape has been littered with bankruptcies and billion-dollar losses. But some, like Busan’s DSME, are adding innovation to craftsmanship to tap new demand for nimbler ships and offshore energy platforms. The stakes are high for South Korea, jostling with Japan and China to lead an industry revival. Global orders - the trio account for four of every five merchant vessels built - grew nearly two-thirds during the first nine months of the year from a year earlier, according to shipping research firm Clarkson. In September alone, South Korean yards bagged half the business, Clarkson’s data shows. “After years of struggle, we’re finally seeing some growth,” said Adam Kent, director at consultancy Maritime Strategies International (MSI), speaking during the Kormarine industry event in Busan last week. “Earnings for most shipping sectors have improved from their recent historic lows and are expected to gradually improve.” The crisis hit bottom earlier this year with the bankruptcy of Korea’s Hanjin, one of the world’s biggest shipping companies. But DSME - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - is now back from the brink of collapse a year ago. This week its shares resumed trading after over a year’s suspension, slumping before stabilising at a level that still gives it a market value of about $1.7 billion. In what’s seen as a lifeline, DSME in September received an $820 million container ship order from Europe, its biggest in two years. “It’s hard to say the shipping market conditions have fully recovered, but the situation is much better than last year,” said Yohan Yoon, deputy general manager at DSME’s communications department. INNOVATE OR DIE Tens of thousands of employees work day and night at South Korea’s big three shipyards - Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and DSME - building dozens of mega-tankers, container giants and huge oil and gas production platforms at once. A large crane works on the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Maritime Engineering (DSME) yard near Geoje, South Korea October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/Files Based on the southeastern tip of South Korea, at the confluence of the Yellow Sea and waters off the east of the Korean peninsula, the trio has racked up billions of dollars in losses, prompting major restructuring in the face of stiff competition from its Chinese and Japanese rivals. The years of pain have made innovation all the more essential. “We have to become much smarter and more efficient in order to build better ships,” Yoon So Park, chairman of the Korea Maritime Equipment Association, also speaking in Busan. Improving shipping efficiency or even switching to cleaner fuels like liquefied natural gas (LNG) is necessary to comply with regulation coming into effect from 2020 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Shipping containers are seen at the Hanjin Shipping container terminal at Incheon New Port in Incheon, South Korea, September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files “We expect demand for environmentally friendly ships to grow in the future especially after stricter IMO measures,” DSME’s Yoon said. More recent DSME orders include 15 of a new type of ice-breaking tankers, three of which have been undergoing sea trials just outside DSME’s yard at Geoje. The ships, which cost over $300 million each, are understood to be heading soon to Russia to start exporting Arctic Russian LNG from the Yamal peninsula. NEW MARKETS NEEDED Barrie Stevens, senior adviser to the Ocean Economy Programme at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said South Korea remained the leading shipping innovator. “Korea stands out in terms of ship sector patent applications,” said Stevens, in Busan for the Kormarine event. To survive in the long-term, OECD’s Stevens said the industry would need to seek out openings in new sectors, including offshore wind power and acquaculture, or fish and seafood farming. “We are looking at explosive growth in offshore wind. This is a shipping business opportunity,” said Stevens. “Looking further, aquaculture is seeing sharp growth,” he said. “Korea has the world’s highest aquaculture patent growth, with a share of 35 percent of OECD (member country patents), and a global share of 30 percent. Korea is right on the cutting edge here.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein in BUSAN and Jane Chung in SEOUL; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/south-korea-shipping/back-from-the-abyss-south-koreas-shipbuilders-begin-ascent-to-growth-idINKBN1D2085'|'2017-11-02T04:58:00.000+02:00'
'7379e42e727c41fdec6c7f912600e20c2511b5b8'|'US, AT&T discussing conditions for Time Warner deal - sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:06 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago US, AT&T discussing conditions for Time Warner deal - sources David Shepardson 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) and the U.S. Department of Justice are discussing conditions the No. 2 wireless carrier needs to meet in order for its acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) to win government approval, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The $85.4 billion deal, hatched last October, is opposed by some consumer groups and TV companies on the grounds that it would give the wireless company too much power over the media it would carry on its own network. Donald Trump, who has accused media companies like Time Warner’s CNN of being unfair to him, criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and vowed that as president his Justice Department would block it. The proposed deal represents an early challenge for the Justice Department’s new antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, a Trump appointee who was confirmed by Congress in late September. Delrahim said at his confirmation hearing in May that he would decline to discuss antitrust matters with the White House. Delrahim may be looking to ramp up pressure on AT&T. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department was laying the groundwork for a potential lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal if settlement talks did not work out. on.wsj.com/2gW1l9O. The Journal reported that the outcome could go either way. It did not say what were the sticking points in the Justice Department’s talks with the merging companies. The Justice Department did not reply to requests for comment. Shares of Time Warner were down 4.1 percent at $94.33 in afternoon trading, while AT&T’s shares were down 1.2 percent at $33.15. ALL POSSIBLE SCENARIOS FILE PHOTO: People walk past the AT&T store in New York''s Times Square, New York, U.S., June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo AT&T has said it expected the deal to close by the end of the year. AT&T executives have repeatedly expressed confidence that it would reach an agreement with the antitrust enforcer. “When the DOJ reviews any transaction, it is common and expected for both sides to prepare for all possible scenarios,” AT&T said in a statement on Thursday. “For over 40 years, vertical mergers like this one have always been approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitors from the market,” AT&T said. “While we won’t comment on our discussions with DOJ, we see no reason in the law or the facts why this transaction should be an exception.” Arguments over the deal have focussed on how much power a pay-TV provider should have in steering its customers to cable channels that it also owns. Critics from both parties argue that AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner would give it the clout to steer customers to its own premium content. Time Warner properties include CNN, HBO, the film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. Trump has not repeated his criticism of the deal since becoming president, and he has met with AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson at least twice in 2017. Delrahim underscored in May that he would not be swayed by political considerations. “The independence of the decisions made in prosecuting and reviewing mergers as well as other conduct is a serious one that should be free from any political influence,” he said. “They will be free if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed.” Wall Street played down the news on Thursday as a threat to the deal. ”These headlines may be more about increasing the (Justice) Department’s leverage in negotiating conditions than a serious intent to try and sue to block the deal,” said Jennifer Fritzsche, analyst at Wells Fargo. “We would note that nothing about the actual law or precedent for DOJ approving vertical mergers has changed. This is still a vertical merger and the DOJ would face the same uphill battle in court if it sued to stop it, same hurdles it faced a month or six months ago.” Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/doj-considers-blocking-att-deal-for-time-warner-wsj-idUKKBN1D2222'|'2017-11-02T19:49:00.000+02:00'
'81ef6f04d4ada2ec3ca3454b0884c1772af45a40'|'Gradual? Try ''glacial'' for Bank of England rate hikes'|'November 1, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Gradual? Try ''glacial'' for Bank of England rate hikes 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England has a problem. A man holds his mobile phone outside the Bank of England in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay It is poised to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade on Thursday, with the hike expected to be from 0.25 to 0.5 percent. But many investors in British assets and economists are sceptical this will mark the start of a cycle of “limited and gradual” rises, as the Bank has been signalling since 2014. They are instead betting the uncertainties surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union and fundamental weaknesses in the British economy will hinder any plan to pursue a cycle of rate rises, no matter how gradual. Marc Ostwald, market strategist at ADM Investor Services, said the market expectations for rate rises was best summed up as “one and done”. He added the bank and its Governor Mark Carney had put themselves under undue pressure with their own recent guidance on rates. “The BoE has painted itself into a corner,” he said. Carney thinks leaving the EU will reduce the speed limit on how fast the economy can grow without pushing up inflation, which has hit a five-year high of 3 percent, above the Bank’s 2 percent target. In other words, higher rates will be needed even if growth is weak, although they are unlikely to return to pre-financial crisis rates of around 5 percent for the foreseeable future. While many investors accept his logic in principle, they say it is impossible to look beyond the hard data available now which shows a lacklustre economy and the likelihood of more turbulence from Brexit negotiations. “We think the UK economy is in a structurally weak place ... and as such further rate hikes after this week look very difficult,” said Nick D‘Onofrio, managing partner at North Asset Management, a hedge fund in London with around $500 million (£376.8 million) under management. He cited Britain’s current account deficit - the largest among major advanced economies last year - as a vulnerability. “We would look to sell sterling into any post BoE-rate hike bounce,” D‘Onofrio said. BALANCING ACT Financial market expectations for interest rates, measured by overnight index swaps, assign an almost 90 percent chance of a 25 basis-point hike on Thursday. BOEWATCH But after that, the chance of a further 25 basis-point increase stood on Tuesday between 30 and 38 percent for 2018, Ostwald said. He thinks Carney has left himself a tough task to explain the Bank’s future intentions for rates. If the Bank does hike this week, the governor faces a precarious balancing act: he will want to reassure the public that borrowing costs are not set to rise sharply, without encouraging complacency in markets that rates will stay super-low. Investors were surprised in September by a marked escalation in tone from the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), most of whose members felt a hike would probably be needed “over the coming months” if the economy and price pressures continued to grow. Markets had not been expecting a rate rise before 2019 but shifted fast to focus on November. A change in tone from the BoE on Thursday could cause further shifts. Almost all economists polled by Reuters last week expect the Bank to raise rates on Thursday. But most do not expect another one next year: the poll’s consensus shows the rate is likely to be stuck at 0.5 percent until mid-2019. Seventy percent said even one rate rise now would be a mistake. [BOE/INT] The latter view is common in markets, too. Carney may struggle to get his message about future rate hikes through to investors who are worried about the progress of Brexit talks above all else. “We are about to see the largest economic adjustment the country has seen in decades and the BoE is tightening policy into that,” said Russell Silbertson, head of Multi-Asset Absolute Return at Investec Asset Management in London. He has trimmed his sterling positions after the pound’s recent rally. “Given that households are leveraged up and the economy is weak, we remain sceptical about (the BoE‘s) optimism,” he said. FORWARD GRIEVANCE The Bank has long been criticised for its efforts to steer market expectations for interest rates, a policy called forward guidance introduced in 2013. Under Carney the Bank has made a habit of signalling higher rates and then being unable to deliver them. “It does look as if people have not received the Bank’s attempts (at forward guidance),” said former BoE deputy governor Rachel Lomax, speaking at a monetary policy discussion organised by economic research firm Fathom Consulting on Tuesday. Lomax, an MPC member for five years until 2008, recalled debates about the merits of forward guidance. “People who were against it always said no-one will ever understand that it’s conditional, we will just look like fools and so on,” Lomax said. “Maybe the naysayers were right. But I give Mark basically credit for trying.” Other economists are less forgiving. Erik Britton, Fathom Consulting’s managing director, said Carney faced a no-win scenario on Thursday. “I think there’s a high likelihood that they’re going to trip over their own forward guidance,” he said. “Either way, he’s going to look a bit silly. Because even if they (hike rates), people will judge it unnecessary. Or if they don’t do it, people will say ‘what on earth was that forward guidance about?''” Writing by Andy Bruce; Graphic by Michael Ovaska; Editing by William Schomberg and Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-analysis/gradual-try-glacial-for-bank-of-england-rate-hikes-idUKKBN1D155O'|'2017-11-01T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'7f15e37157b426acd279b2011e940b8be80735cf'|'China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 6:37 AM / in a few seconds China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint Marius Zaharia 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Growth in China’s manufacturing output slowed in October, threatening to chill activity across Asia, as tough steps to reduce air pollution forced factories to reduce production and a crackdown on financial risk-taking weighed on smaller firms. Electric cars are seen at a parking lot of an automobile factory in Xingtai, Hebei province, China April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo REUTERS While business surveys on Wednesday suggested Asia’s export-driven expansion still has legs, the readings are starting to reflect signs of fatigue after an impressive sprint so far this year, suggesting regional economic growth has peaked. Still, barring any unexpected shocks, most analysts polled by Reuters expect the global economy will remain on a roll for one more year, even if China sees a gradual loss of momentum.[ECILT/WRAP] In the West, similar preliminary surveys last week looked solid enough not to derail plans by Federal Reserve to gradually reduce its balance sheet and by the European Central Bank to slow bond buying. The Bank of England may raise interest rates for the first time since 2007 on Thursday despite the Brexit shock. Taken together, the recent data points to global economic growth of around 3.5 percent this year, analysts at Capital Economics said, adding the world economy should be able to sustain that rate in 2018. In China, a private survey showed manufacturing output rising at the weakest pace in four months in October and companies continued to shed staff despite a slight pick-up in domestic and export orders. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) was unchanged from September’s reading of 51.0, and in line with forecasts. But production growth slowed markedly, nearing the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction. Similar PMI surveys in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and India also suggested growth was starting to fade, while activity in Malaysia contracted. “We expect (China‘s) growth momentum to weaken in the coming months as the drags from slower credit growth, reduced fiscal support post-Party Congress and the environmental crackdown all intensify,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics. The Caixin China report followed a similar official survey on Tuesday which pointed to an unexpected cooldown in the manufacturing sector in the face of a weakening property market and a crackdown on smog, which is forcing some steel mills and factories in the northeast to curtail or halt production. China’s economy has surprised with growth of nearly 7 percent this year, driven by a renaissance in its “smokestack” industries, such as steel. It is now almost sure to surpass the official target of around 6.5 percent. But property and construction activity, two key growth drivers, are feeling the weight of government measures to cool the heat in the housing market. Higher borrowing costs are also hurting some firms as regulators clamp down on riskier forms of lending. FILE PHOTO: Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney sits before delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Officials speaking at a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress last month emphasized a shift in focus to high-quality rather than high-speed growth and alluded to further efforts to contain excessive risk-taking in the financial system, sending 10-year Chinese government bond yields to their highest in three years. “The Caixin PMI reflects companies that are smaller in scale and they are at the center of the deleveraging reform,” said Iris Pang, Greater China economist at ING. “I don’t think this is a one-off.” SUPER TECH Slideshow (2 Images) Strong global demand for electronics has fueled solid economic and corporate profit growth this year in Asia’s tech-oriented exporters: South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan reported its fastest quarterly growth in 2-1/2 years on Tuesday as it benefits from growth in more advanced technologies and the rollout of new smartphone models such as Apple Inc’s iPhones and other tech gadgets. Taiwan’s October PMI came in at 53.6, easing from September but still the highest reading in Asia. Soaring memory chip sales helped South Korea’s exports record a 12th consecutive month of growth in October, though the pace cooled from September, data showed on Wednesday. “Towards the end of the year ... the super-tech cycle is likely to slow,” said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis. She believes that the recent tech recovery has been cyclical, not structural, and that 2017 growth rates have been flattered to some extent by comparisons with a relatively soft performance last year. “We do not expect trade to recover to its pre-crisis levels. You have a deceleration of trade liberalization and of the expansion of the supply chains and the change in structure of the Chinese economy.” Asian financial markets showed little reaction to the PMIs, as investors focused on the progress of a U.S. tax-cut plan being developed by President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans and Trump’s imminent announcement of the next head of the Federal Reserve, which could shape the growth and policy outlooks for the global economy for years to come. The Fed, which ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, has raised rates twice this year and is expected to do so again in December, with data on Tuesday showing consumer confidence at a 17-year high reinforcing that view. Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy/chinas-war-on-smog-risk-taking-edge-off-asias-growth-sprint-idUKKBN1D13NP'|'2017-11-01T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'a95330e53e14723cd5baf35b9de4048fef3e70bc'|'EMERGING MARKETS-LatAm currencies nearly flat ahead of Fed rate decision'|'November 1, 2017 / 2:16 PM / in 12 minutes EMERGING MARKETS-LatAm currencies nearly flat ahead of Fed rate decision Reuters Staff 4 Min Read By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies were nearly flat on Wednesday as investors held off bets ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision. Traders widely expect the U.S. central bank to keep rates unchanged, with a hike coming in December. Nevertheless, the policy statement could provide valuable hints over the future path of monetary policy following mixed economic data. Traders are also waiting for the nomination of the next Fed chair, who will replace Janet Yellen after her term ends in February 2018. President Donald Trump, who has interviewed Yellen, Fed Governor Jerome Powell and three others for the job, is likely to announce the nomination on Thursday. Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen''s gradual approach to raising rates, is seen as having a lock on the position. A slower path of rate hikes could support demand for emerging market currencies, which offer higher yields. The Brazilian real and the Mexican peso treaded water. Both currencies posted their worst monthly losses in around a year in October. Brazil''s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 0.8 percent. Shares of miner Vale SA added the most points to the index, tracking higher iron ore prices after losing over 5 percent in the prior five trading days. Shares in retailer Magazine Luiza SA, which are not part of the benchmark index, rose 7.6 percent after posting stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings. In a client note, analysts at Banco BTG Pactual SA called Magazine Luiza an excellent vehicle for investors seeking exposure to the secular growth of Brazilian e-commerce in the next 5 years. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1400 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1131.85 1.14 29.78 MSCI LatAm 2826.85 0.62 20.02 Brazil Bovespa 74933.02 0.84 24.42 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48823.66 0.41 6.97 Chile IPSA 5588.08 -0.37 34.61 Chile IGPA 28028.35 -0.25 35.18 Argentina MerVal 27935.28 0 65.12 Colombia IGBC 10693.50 0.58 5.58 Venezuela IBC 681.34 0 -97.85 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2720 -0.01 -0.70 Mexico peso 19.1530 -0.07 8.31 Colombia peso 3036.64 0.14 -1.16 Peru sol 3.25 0.00 5.05 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.6600 0.03 -10.11 Argentina peso (parallel) 18.05 0.55 -6.81 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; editing by Susan Thomas)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-latam-currencies-nearly-flat-ahead-of-fed-rate-decision-idUSL2N1N70V0'|'2017-11-01T16:14:00.000+02:00'
'505069c65473a4f339293998c81b776ba85cebaf'|'Asia shares extend gains on economic optimism, oil firm'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets climbed to a fresh high on Wednesday, boosted by solid corporate earnings, while the dollar strengthened after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and solid economic data.The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labor market while downplaying the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December. Traders put the chance of a rate hike next month at 86.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.MSCI’s gauge of stock markets held gains in the wake of the announcement, although the index was off a high hit earlier in the session.“We are still looking at an environment of pretty aggressive monetary policy and that just flows through to asset pricing so I don’t see any big decline coming,” said Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.“It might be valuations hold the market back but that money has got to flow somewhere.”Next up for the central bank is the expected announcement on Thursday of a new Fed chair nominee from U.S. President Donald Trump. Market participants widely expect it to be Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is considered more dovish on interest rates than some other candidates and thus relatively stock-market friendly.Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy remained on solid footing ahead of Friday’s payrolls report. Although a measure of factory activity lost ground as hurricane-related supply disruptions faded, another report showed private sector hiring surged.The dollar index .DXY rose 0.26 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.23 percent to $1.1617.Trader Greg Rowe reacts after the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Shares of Japanese multinational Sony ( 6758.T ) soared as much as 12.3 percent to a nine-year high after the electronics and entertainment firm forecast its best-ever annual profit. U.S. listed shares of the stock were up 0.3 percent at $43.54.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 57.77 points, or 0.25 percent, to 23,435.01, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 4.1 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,579.36 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 11.14 points, or 0.17 percent, to 6,716.53.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 2/32 in price to yield 2.3703 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Tuesday.After the closing bell in the United States, earnings are expected from Facebook ( FB.O ), which was up 1.44 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. On Thursday, earnings are expected from iPhone maker Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ).Of 326 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 73 percent topped analyst expectations, compared with 72 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data. The earnings growth estimate for the quarter is currently at 7 percent.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.43 percent after touching its highest level since August 2015 and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.30 percent.A rise in oil prices to their highest level since mid-2015 also served to boost energy names. Oil prices retreated, however, after U.S. government data showed that the latest weekly draw in domestic crude stocks was not as big as an industry trade group had reported.U.S. crude CLcv1 settled at $54.30 per barrel, down 0.15 percent and Brent LCOcv1 settled at $60.49, down 0.74 percent on the day.The S&P energy index .SPNY gained 1.1 percent, on track for the best day since late September, while in Europe basic resources stocks .SXPP jumped 2.7 percent.Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-extend-gains-on-economic-optimism-oil-firm-idINKBN1D1392'|'2017-11-01T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'b6f0fbeca47a081742041988bc7942068d73ac3e'|'Carmakers post mixed U.S. October sales as trucks, SUVs reign'|'November 1, 2017 / 2:25 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Trucks, SUVs drive U.S. October new vehicle sales Nick Carey 5 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Major automakers posted mixed U.S. new vehicle sales in October on Wednesday, though America’s love affair with high-margin pickup trucks and SUVs remained in full bloom as larger, pricier vehicles fared better than passenger cars. Auto industry publication WardsAuto put the seasonally-adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for light vehicle sales in October at a robust level of 18 million units. But after a long boom cycle, carmakers are still ill-prepared for the slight decline in sales anticipated for full-year 2017 and have taken too few steps to trim production, said Doug Mehl, a partner in consultancy A.T. Kearney’s automotive practice. “When you make a new vehicle you have volume assumptions tagged to it and who wants to be the guy who says ‘I‘m going to make less of this really cool model’?” Mehl said. “But eventually the market is the reality and it’s going to force companies one way or other here.” General Motors Co ( GM.N ) reported a sales drop of 2.2 percent for the month, with consumer sales down 6.6 percent. Sales of high-margin pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers all rose. GM also cut its inventory of unsold vehicles - a source of concern for the market - slightly. The automaker has worked to reduce its volume of excess inventory, including through significant production shutdowns in the third quarter. GM had said its inventory would rise in October. “We are heading into the fourth quarter with good momentum, thanks to a strong U.S. economy and very strong pickup and crossover sales,” said Kurt McNeil, GM vice president for U.S. sales operations. GM slightly reduced consumer discounts as a percentage of average transaction prices to 13.5 percent, from 13.7 percent in the third quarter. Industry experts believe consumer discounts above 10 percent of the average transaction price are unhealthy as they erode resale values and are unsustainable in the long term. Consultants J.D. Power and LMC said last week that based on preliminary October sales numbers, discounts have exceeded 10 percent in 15 of the last 16 months. SOME UP, SOME DOWN The U.S. auto industry posted record sales of 17.55 million vehicles in 2016. New sales received a strong boost in September as consumers replaced vehicles damaged in southeast Texas by Hurricane Harvey the previous month. Full-year 2017 sales are expected to be slightly lower than 2016. FILE PHOTO: The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. Photo taken October 26. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) said vehicle sales rose 6.2 percent in October, driven largely by a 15.9 percent jump for its high-priced F-Series pickup trucks. Strong demand pushed the average price tag for an F-Series truck up $4,000 from the previous October to $47,300. High-margin pickup trucks were a dominant factor in Ford’s solid third-quarter results. Mark LaNeve, Ford’s U.S. sales chief, said the upgraded F-Series line “really has been a spectacular success,” adding the market would remain “competitive” into 2018. Ford’s low-margin fleet sales rose 14.6 percent in October. Slideshow (3 Images) Toyota Motor Corp’s ( 7203.T ) sales rose 5.2 percent in October as strong pickup truck and SUV sales offset a 12.7 percent drop in sedans and a 27.9 percent slide in luxury Lexus sedans. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) ( FCHA.MI ) ( FCAU.N ) reported a 13 percent sales decline. Consumer sales were down 4 percent, while fleet sales tumbled 43 percent, in line with the company’s strategy to reduce low-margin sales to car rental agencies. FCA has pushed to sell more profitable SUVs and pickup trucks, which helped lift its North American profit margin to 8 percent in the third quarter. Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s ( 7201.T ) U.S. October sales increased 8.4 percent, helped by a 12.9 percent jump in pickups, SUV and crossover sales. But sales at Nissan’s luxury Infiniti brand fell 8.1 percent, as luxury models dropped 16.2 percent. Nissan’s U.S. sales chief, Judy Wheeler, said the last two months of the year will be marked by fierce competition. “Everyone gets extremely aggressive as we get into these last two months of the year ... and everyone will be trying to out-shout each other,” she said. “So I think it’s a question of how do we separate ourselves” from the crowd. Honda Motor Co Ltd ( 7267.T ) bucked the trend as a 6.3 percent increase in passenger cars offset a 3.9 percent decline in SUV sales for an overall increase of nearly 1 percent. GM shares were down 0.2 percent at $42.91 on Wednesday afternoon while Ford shares rose 0.7 percent to $12.35. Fiat Chrysler increased 1.4 percent to $17.60 in U.S. trading. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-sales/carmakers-post-mixed-u-s-october-sales-as-trucks-suvs-reign-idUSKBN1D14YL'|'2017-11-01T16:24:00.000+02:00'
'487430d683dcf46128e748cfbb1906429b52d8f5'|'China Airbnb rival Xiaozhu gets Jack Ma backing, claims "Unicorn" status'|'SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese house-sharing platform Xiaozhu.com has raised $120 million in a funding round led by Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, boosting the firm’s financial muscle as it looks to compete with local rival Tujia.com and U.S. giant Airbnb.An employee of China short-term rental firm Xiaozhu.com''s works at company''s headquarters in Beijing, China November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Elias Glenn The country’s largest short-term rental firm platform said in a statement on Wednesday that the fundraising meant it was now a “unicorn startup”, a venture capitalist term referring to firms that hit valuations of more than $1 billion. Airbnb was valued at $30 billion in a fundraising round last year.China’s fast-growing middle class is driving a boom in domestic tourism, with younger millennials increasingly looking for alternatives to traditional tour group packages, which are popular among older travellers.Xiaozhu, however, said the Chinese market was not easy to crack, especially for international firms.“In terms of proving a business model that works in China and growing it to scale, this can only be done by a local company, though foreign firms may win a portion of market share,” Xiaozhu chief executive Chen Chi told Reuters.Airbnb, which said earlier this year it was looking to expand its presence in China, denied in April a Chinese media report saying it was in talks with Xiaozhu to work together in markets such as Japan and South Korea.Chen said that his firm was open to working with other companies either in China or overseas.“We don’t rule out the possibility of working with any overseas platforms, including Airbnb... We are open to cooperation in the China market, so it depends on how the other side views us,” he said.Both Airbnb and Xiaozhu had to withdraw their listings in the Chinese capital Beijing in October when the country held its sensitive five-yearly Communist Party Congress, underlining the challenges in the market of juggling business and politics.Chen said the political element was one “unique” aspect to operating in China, which gave local firms a further home advantage against overseas rivals.Xiaozhu, often described as Airbnb’s Chinese clone, has listings in over 400 locations globally and raised $65 million last November. Existing investors include Joy Capital, Morningside Ventures and Capital Today.Xiaozhu was open in the longer-term to going public, but had no clear listing plans, Chen added.“If clear rules and regulations are implemented for this industry over the next two to three years, a big barrier to a listing will be removed,” he saidReporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Sam Holmes '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/xiaozhu-fundraising/china-airbnb-rival-xiaozhu-gets-jack-ma-backing-claims-unicorn-status-idINKBN1D13JA'|'2017-11-01T06:53:00.000+02:00'
'b59738a450b1bdef5e654663d6f2e3e33b7afeb4'|'U.S.-based stock funds take in most cash since May: Lipper'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:14 AM / in 19 hours U.S.-based stock funds take in most cash since May: Lipper Trevor Hunnicutt 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Reluctant investors warmed to stocks in October, stockpiling $19.3 billion in U.S.-based equity funds, marking the first month of positive inflows for the funds since May, when they took in $31.8 billion, Lipper data showed on Thursday. The massive inflows come as third-quarter earnings seem to validate the strong market gains for stocks this year, with earnings estimated to have risen 7.7 percent over the year prior, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The S&P 500 is up 17 percent this year, including dividends. For their part, money market funds, where investors park cash, recorded withdrawals of $21.3 billion in the latest week ended Wednesday, as investors put money to work in equities. Some investors still expressed concern that traders are chasing lofty markets. But Garth Nisbet, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo & Co’s asset management unit, said the economy is thriving and that there is more upside to come. “There’s two things that destroy wealth: market timing and bearishness,” he said, referring to market skeptics. “This is a fairly market-friendly environment.” U.S.-based stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) pulled in $3.6 billion during their fourth straight week of inflows. Domestic stock fund inflows of $2.2 billion for the week were the largest since August, according to Lipper. Nisbet said it is possible that technology stocks are due for a pullback following “aggressive” gains, led by Amazon.com Inc, and that rising U.S. wages may chip away at corporate profits. Bond funds, popular for most of this year, saw their appeal fade a bit. Taxable-bond funds took in their 17th straight week of inflows, but just $678 million, down from the nearly $3 billion-a-week average this year. High-yield bond funds posted $1.2 billion in withdrawals, the most since August this year. Treasury fund outflows of $887 million were the largest since August 2016. Among developed markets outside the United States, investors favored Japan over Europe. Japanese stock inflows were the largest since February at $501 million, while European equity funds outflows of $404 million were the largest since September, according to Thomson Reuters’ Lipper unit. Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jennifer Ablan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-investment-mutualfunds-lipper/u-s-based-stock-funds-take-in-most-cash-since-may-lipper-idUSKBN1D300I'|'2017-11-03T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'a0e4acbd64d95a088d8bb1b731648375c396eedc'|'Movie Review: Ittefaq'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:47 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Movie Review: Ittefaq Shilpa Jamkhandikar 3 Min Read The best thing about " Ittefaq " is its runtime of 107 minutes. Director Abhay Chopra seems to have realised what many in Bollywood haven''t - when it comes to thrillers and mysteries, it is best to keep it short. Bereft of item songs and irrelevant sub-plots, the film sticks to its main theme and comes out looking good. Handout photo Unlike the original 1969 film with the same title, Chopra adopts a Rashomon-like approach in his remake. Vikram Sethi ( Siddharth Malhotra ) is a renowned author whose wife is found dead in her hotel room. Under suspicion for murder, he goes on the run and lands up at Maya’s ( Sonakshi Sinha ) doorstep. Next, we find Maya’s husband lying dead in their tastefully done-up living room with a fatal wound on the head. She claims Vikram killed her husband, but Vikram tells police that the man was likely dead before he arrived. Caught in the middle of these two versions is detective Dev ( Akshaye Khanna ). The wry and straight-talking policeman has to sift through the many clues and red herrings in his path, and he does so in style. Khanna is undoubtedly the star of this film. He gets the best lines and delivers them with panache - trademark half-scowl and deadpan wit in place. Both Vikram and Maya are merely supporting characters who hinder Dev’s pursuit of the truth, and that is a good thing. Malhotra and Sinha don’t have the acting chops to match Khanna, and seem happy to let him take center stage. Michal Luka’s cinematography is on point, painting Mumbai in apocalyptic, gloomy monsoon colours that go well with the tone of the film. In his debut film, Chopra seems to have enough control of his craft to never drift too far away from the core; and even though the twist in the tale doesn’t entirely come as a surprise, “Ittefaq” still manages to keep you hooked enough to want to know what happens in the end. '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/review-ittefaq/movie-review-ittefaq-idINKBN1D316Y'|'2017-11-03T08:47:00.000+02:00'
'a479842cf0a835fdb990da211251b12cda3754c1'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Emerging stocks gain, FX flail on dollar, Turkey woes'|'LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks were on track for a solid weekly rise on Friday, though currency markets were jittery ahead of U.S. jobs data with inflation fears rattling Turkey’s lira.MSCI’s emerging market index edged higher on the day and looked to add 1.6 percent over the week thanks to solid gains in Asia, where bourses traded within sight of their recent decade highs and Seoul stocks closed at a fresh record high.The daily gains came after investors guardedly welcomed plans for a massive U.S. tax cut and took some comfort from President Donald Trump tapping Fed Governor Jerome Powell to become head of the U.S. central bank, signalling a continuation of Janet Yellen’s cautious monetary policies.“(Emerging stocks) are really being driven by G7 equities and that in turn is being driven by the tax cut expectations from the U.S.,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, emerging markets strategist at Legal & General Investment Management.However, losses in Chinese mainland stocks tempered gains, with Shanghai on track to post the worst week since August on heightened worries over an economic slowdown.Despite the dollar treading water, currencies suffered as gains in key U.S. employment data due later in the day could seal the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December.Turkey’s lira racked up some of the biggest losses after data showed inflation spiked by more than expected with annual price increases hitting a nine-year high of 11.9 percent, adding to the central bank’s quandary.The lira weakened 0.8 percent against the dollar, flirting again with the 10-month low hit last week, and on track for a 1 percent fall since Monday in its eighth straight week of losses.Spreads of Turkish local government benchmark debt over U.S. Treasuries rose to their widest since 2011.“Given that inflation is surprising everybody on the upside, the expectation is that it’s not positive for the lira until we get some sort of policy reaction or message from the monetary authorities,” Quijano-Evans said, adding that other higher beta currencies such as the rand were also getting hit.South Africa’s rand weakened 0.6 percent on the day, on track to end the week lower as data showed private sector activity shrank again with both output and new orders falling.Despite higher oil prices, Russia’s rouble eased 0.6 percent on the day as data showed the service sector growing at the lowest pace in three months and companies faced debt repayments in the fourth quarter. Both the rand and rouble are in their third straight week in the red.Meanwhile, Venezuela announced late on Thursday plans to restructure "all future payments" on its burgeoning foreign debt, a move that may lead to a default by the cash-strapped OPEC nation whose collapsing socialist economy has left its population struggling to find food and medicine. For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see) Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chgon yearMorgan Stanley Emrg Mkt Indx 1128.98 +1.67 +0.15 +30.93Czech Rep 1058.80 -7.40 -0.69 +14.89Poland 2506.30 +4.90 +0.20 +28.67Hungary 39742.02 -407.84 -1.02 +24.18Romania 7803.74 +27.35 +0.35 +10.14Greece 0.00 +0.00 +0.00 -100.00Russia 1124.20 +5.54 +0.50 -2.44South Africa 53119.30 +273.67 +0.52 +21.00Turkey 12980.18 -14.68 -0.01 +44.59China 3371.21 -12.10 -0.36 +8.62India 33651.94 +78.72 +0.23 +26.39Currencies Latest Prev Local Localclose currency currency% change % changein 2017Czech Rep 25.68 25.68 +0.00 +5.17Poland 4.24 4.23 -0.11 +3.92Hungary 310.83 310.79 -0.01 -0.65Romania 4.59 4.60 +0.08 -1.28Serbia 118.54 118.61 +0.06 +4.06Russia 58.47 58.18 -0.49 +4.77Kazakhstan 334.22 334.75 +0.16 -0.17Ukraine 26.96 26.93 -0.11 +0.14South Africa 14.08 13.97 -0.78 -2.46Kenya 103.55 103.65 +0.10 -1.14Israel 3.51 3.51 -0.09 +9.72Turkey 3.83 3.80 -0.83 -7.88China 6.63 6.61 -0.32 +4.76India 64.60 64.57 -0.05 +5.17Brazil 3.27 3.27 -0.00 -0.42Mexico 19.05 18.98 -0.37 +8.72Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn IndexSov‘gn Debt EMBIG 304 0 .00 8 07.64 1Reporting and graphic by Karin Strohecker, additional reporting by Claire Milhench '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-emerging-stocks-gain-fx-flail-on-dollar-turkey-woes-idUSL8N1N91UK'|'2017-11-03T12:27:00.000+02:00'
'cc07cfffc93e21a940ebaec7add07d23cfd1e755'|'Unilever to buy tea brand Tazo from Starbucks for $384 million'|'(Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) said on Thursday it would buy the specialty tea brand Tazo from Starbucks in a deal valued at $384 million.FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo This acquisition is the latest in a string of deals by the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant to add smaller, healthier brands to expand its portfolio in a fast-growing specialty tea segment.“With its strong appeal to millennials, Tazo is a perfect strategic fit for our U.S. portfolio,” Kees Kruythoff, president, Unilever North America said.Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-starbucks-divestiture-unilever-nv/unilever-to-buy-tea-brand-tazo-from-starbucks-for-384-million-idINKBN1D22ZN'|'2017-11-02T19:31:00.000+02:00'
'5f3bd4837bb754e272be1df3f4895b42ef7c96b8'|'PRESS DIGEST-Canada-Nov 3'|'November 3, 2017 / 10:59 AM / in 14 minutes PRESS DIGEST-Canada-Nov 3 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL BuildDirect.com Tecnologies Inc has filed for creditor protection, days after the sudden departure of founder and CEO Jeff Booth. It''s the second crash of a west coast Canadian e-commerce company this year, following the demise of online shoe retailer Shoes.com Technologies Inc. tgam.ca/2z9JvbK The U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed final tariffs averaging 20.83 per cent against most Canadian shipments of softwood lumber into the United States, intensifying trade tensions between the two countries. tgam.ca/2zadFM8 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd''s train crews have voted down a one-year contract, dealing a setback to chief executive officer Keith Creel''s stated attempt to improve poor relations with the freight hauler''s biggest union. tgam.ca/2zao2Q1 NATIONAL POST Bombardier Inc has landed its first CSeries jet order in 18 months, a move the company says was bolstered by its blockbuster partnership with Airbus SE, but the company will deliver fewer jets than anticipated this year due to delays related to production ramp up. bit.ly/2zcAw9R Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-nov-3-idUSL4N1N939O'|'2017-11-03T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'8efadf5d0c91a6905566b06a2b7191b776fae87f'|'Nestle buys Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee business'|'November 3, 2017 / 10:32 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Nestle buys Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee business Martinne Geller 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ) announced its second small coffee acquisition in as many months on Friday, buying Texas-based Chameleon Cold-Brew as it seeks to bolster its world-leading coffee business. FILE PHOTO: The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The maker of Nescafe and Nespresso said Chameleon is the No.1 organic cold-brew brand in the United States. Nestle, which took a majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee in September, is trying to reignite slowing sales by snapping up small independent brands that appeal to younger consumers. Packaged food rivals across the sector, from Campbell Soup ( CPB.N ) to Unilever ( ULVR.L ), are taking similar steps as health-conscious and brand-savvy shoppers shun traditional big brands while social media helps start-ups to grow faster. Nestle, owner of the world’s largest packaged coffee business, also faces a specific threat from JAB Holding, a private investment company that has grown fast through a string of coffee deals in recent years, from mainstream players such as Douwe Egberts and Keurig to higher-end artisanal brands Stumptown and Intelligentsia. Speculation that JAB could acquire Dunkin Brands ( DNKN.O ) resurfaced this week, sending shares of that coffee and doughnut chain operator to record highs. Following criticism for being too slow to react to consumers’ changing habits, Nestle is taking steps to improve its performance under new CEO Mark Schneider. It had identified coffee as a key growth area. Nestle did not disclose the price it paid for Chameleon, which sells a range of refrigerated ready-to-drink bottled coffees as well as concentrated cold brews that can be diluted, cold-brew kits and whole bean coffee. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-m-a-coffee/nestle-buys-chameleon-cold-brew-coffee-idINKBN1D30Y8'|'2017-11-03T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'802935755b73d551294bc642ad8252e26957a0a8'|'UPDATE 1-Sanofi refines expectations on drop in sales at diabetes arm'|'November 2, 2017 / 7:32 AM / in 11 minutes UPDATE 1-Sanofi refines expectations on drop in sales at diabetes arm Reuters Staff * Global diabetes sales to fall 6-8 pct annually until 2018 * Q3 business net income down 1.1 percent to 2.14 bln euros * Keeps 2017 forecasts (Adds details) By Matthias Blamont PARIS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Sanofi confirmed its 2017 outlook after it posted slightly lower-than-expected third-quarter results, and gave a more precise range on expectations of a sales decline at its embattled diabetes business. The French drugmaker said currency-adjusted sales at its diabetes franchise would likely shrink by 6-8 percent per year between 2015 and 2018. It had previously seen a 4-8 percent drop due to persistent pricing pressure in the United States, the world’s largest health market. Third-quarter business net income fell 1.1 percent at constant exchange rates to 2.141 billion euros ($2.5 billion). Total sales rose 4.7 percent to 9.05 billion euros with revenue from the diabetes and cardiovascular unit down 14.8 percent. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting business net profit of 2.148 billion euros and net sales of 9.33 billion. Year-to-date, diabetes sales in the U.S are down 20.2 percent and Sanofi warned of an accelerated decline in the fourth quarter. “This reflects the phased impact of exclusions in commercial formularies at CVS and United Health as well as a high basis of comparison in the fourth quarter of 2016,” the company said. U.S. pharmacy benefit manager CVS and United Health said last year they had taken off Sanofi’s main insulin drug Lantus from the list of medicines they reimburse on behalf of health insurers in favour of Eli Lilly’s cheaper biosimilar drug Basaglar. Biosimilars are cheaper copies of protein-based biotech drugs such as Lantus, which are no longer protected by patents. They cannot be precisely replicated like conventional chemical drugs but have been shown to be equivalent in terms of their general efficiency, as well as on the side effects. Sanofi Chief Executive Olivier Brandicourt told journalists that the company had, however, secured coverage for Lantus and Toujeo, its next-generation insulin, on “the vast majority of formularies in the U.S. for 2018.” Sanofi’s biotech arm Genzyme and its vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur recorded another quarter of double-digit growth while the consumer healthcare division, boosted by an asset swap deal with Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim struck last year, saw revenues rise 48.5 percent to 1.13 billion euros. $1 = 0.8581 euros Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sanofi-results/update-1-sanofi-refines-expectations-on-drop-in-sales-at-diabetes-arm-idUSL8N1N816R'|'2017-11-02T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'985088c430d405f65a6a1a3b966b467af83eb3fc'|'UPDATE 1-HelloFresh makes positive debut, valuation double rival Blue Apron'|'* HelloFresh gains in revived IPO postponed 2 yrs ago* Market capitalisation more than double Blue Apron* Blue Apron warns of wider year losses as it posts Q3 results* Food delivery-kit firms face challenges from Amazon.com (Adds Blue Apron results; share price decline; other stock moves)By Eric Auchard and Arno SchuetzeFRANKFURT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - HelloFresh shares rose as much as 4 percent on their first day of public trading, valuing the Berlin-based meal-kit delivery firm at more than double Blue Apron, the U.S rival from which it is rapidly seizing market share.Majority-owned by German e-commerce group Rocket Internet , HelloFresh shares traded at 10.47 euros at 1525 GMT on Thursday, 2.2 percent above the 10.25 euro issue price announced by the company late on Wednesday.By contrast,shares in Blue Apron tumbled to new lows after the company reported on Thursday a modest rise in third-quarter sales, but warned that losses for the second half of 2017 would widen around 7 to 8 percent beyond its previous targets. The stock was off 7.5 percent to $4.32 on Nasdaq.Blue Apron has suffered a 50 percent drop since its own IPO in late June. It was hit hard in July after Amazon.com registered a trademark for a possible rival service. Last month, New York-based firm cut 6 percent of its workforce.HelloFresh sold 31 million new shares, giving it a valuation around 1.7 billion euros at current prices - more than double the $888 million (763 million euro) market capitalisation of Blue Apron.The listing represents a partial vindication for the HelloFresh after it cancelled a planned 2015 IPO when investors rejected a valuation above 2 billion euros at that time.However, HelloFresh faces mounting competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon.com as it moves to increase food delivery services after acquiring the Whole Earth Foods grocery chain in August. U.S. supermarket chain Albertsons acquired meal-kit rival Plated in September.MARKETING COSTS Both firms must spend heavily on marketing to win consumers to the concept of delivering pre-packaged ingredients to make home cooking more accessible. Marketing costs represent more than one-quarter of HelloFresh expenses, financial filings show.HelloFresh remains loss-making but has narrowed its losses and pledged to break even on an operating profit level within 15 months.HelloFresh, founded six years ago, has enjoyed rocketing growth in the United States, which is by far its largest market, accounting for 60 percent of revenue in the first hald of 2017.Its U.S. sales doubled to 263.4 million euros during the first six months of this year, while non-U.S. sales rose a subdued 8 percent to 172 million euros, according to its IPO prospectus. International operations range from Germany to Britain, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia.Its surging U.S. growth appears to be coming at least partly at the expense of Blue Apron, which held twice the market share of HelloFresh in 2015 and even as recently 2016, according to data from online audience measurement firm SimilarWeb.Blue Apron’s split of online traffic in the U.S. market has dropped to 56 percent while HelloFresh has steadily risen to where it had 44 percent in September, SimilarWeb data showed. (1 euro = $1.1637) (Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz and Douglas Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Maria Sheahan/Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hellofresh-ipo/update-1-hellofresh-makes-positive-debut-valuation-double-rival-blue-apron-idINL8N1N82AT'|'2017-11-02T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'71c7f384df5ffbb6d7e315df7d6c537e11a3270f'|'Alstom and Siemens among bidders for British high-speed train contract'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:39 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Alstom and Siemens among bidders for British high-speed train contract Reuters Staff 2   France’s Alstom ( ALSO.PA ) and Germany’s Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) are among the firms shortlisted to make trains to run on Britain’s new High Speed 2 network, the railway’s developer said on Thursday. Employees work at the Alstom high-speed train TGV factory in Belfort, France, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Bombardier Transportation ( BBDb.TO ), Hitachi Rail Europe and Spain’s Patentes Talgo are also on the shortlist of bidders for the 2.75 billion pound contract. China’s state-owned CRRC ( 601766.SS ), the world’s biggest trainmaker with increasingly international ambitions, is not on the list. The contract is to build at least 54 trains for the network, which is set to link London to the north of England from 2026, and it also covers the design and maintenance of the fleet. The new trains will operate at speeds of up to 225 miles per hour, HS2 said, adding that the rail project as a whole would create around 25,000 jobs. “Thousands of skilled British jobs and apprenticeships will be created by HS2, which gets a step closer as we reveal the companies shortlisted to build the high speed trains,” Paul Maynard, minister for rail and HS2, said in a statement. However, the project has divided opinion in Britain because of its rising costs and the potential impact on the countryside and local communities. The five bidders will be invited to tender in spring 2018, and the rail network’s developer confirmed that the contracts were still due to be awarded in 2019. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-trains-hs2/alstom-and-siemens-among-bidders-for-british-high-speed-train-contract-idUKKBN1D21NG'|'2017-11-02T14:38:00.000+02:00'
'e77d8adee159391e42fe039c5b3d00c232eabd5f'|'IKEA undertakes some home improvements - Frictionless furnishing'|'ON A Sunday afternoon, just beyond London’s M25 ring road, shoppers participate in the ritual that is a trip to IKEA. Fuelled by a lunch of Swedish meatballs, they negotiate their way around the 400,000-square-foot maze of a store, past children playing hide and seek and couples arguing over the merits of a PAX over a HEMNES wardrobe. Hours later, they emerge, wearily pushing trolleys loaded with flat-pack furniture and far more tea lights than they had intended to buy. The joy of assembly still awaits them.This experience has changed remarkably little since the late 1950s, when IKEA, which is still privately owned, set up its first store in southern Sweden and found that people would travel long distances for low-cost, self-assembled goods. IKEA has become the world’s largest seller of furniture, with over 400 shops around the world and €38bn ($42bn) of revenue. 6 25 Retail sales, producer prices, wages and exchange rates 6 hours ago See all updates But now it is acknowledging that customers might want to shop in new ways. In what Torbjörn Lööf, chief executive of Inter IKEA, which owns the brand, has described as its biggest change in interacting with customers since the IKEA concept was founded, it has said it will experiment with selling furniture on third-party online platforms (it already sells items on its own site). It is not yet known whether it will sell on Amazon or China’s Alibaba, the biggest names in e-commerce.The firm also recognises that DIY labour does not always make people fonder of their purchases. In September IKEA Group, which runs most of the retail outlets, announced its acquisition of TaskRabbit, an app that, among other things, connects handymen to customers with odd jobs to be done. Taken together with other changes introduced in recent years—such as a handful of click-and-collect sites in some city centres, home delivery and a new augmented-reality app for smartphones to help customers visualise furniture in their homes—it is clear that the company is keen to create alternatives to its vast suburban outlets.Such steps seem overdue. According to a survey of 29 countries by PwC, a consulting firm, around 30% of respondents would rather buy furniture on the internet than in shops. Although footfall at individual IKEA stores has been falling since 2015, the number of visits to the group’s website has increased by over a fifth (see chart). Yet in 2016 online sales accounted for only 4% of the firm’s total revenue. IKEA has doubtless noticed that an American competitor, Ashley Furniture, successfully sells its goods on Amazon, and that Alibaba, too, carries several ranges of furniture.The new strategy carries the usual risks faced by firms going online. Customers are not shifting entirely to e-commerce, notes Marc-André Kamel of Bain & Company, a consulting firm, but wish to mix and match channels. Mr Lööf therefore has little choice but to offer customers both physical and digital options, which could raise costs. IKEA is still planning bricks-and-mortar expansion both in established markets, such as Britain, and in new ones, such as India next year and South America and South-East Asia in the future.Its plan to experiment with using big third-party online sellers such as Amazon is surprising, says Mr Kamel, because it would need to cede some control over its branding. Being on Amazon or Alibaba would also invite direct comparison with other furniture manufacturers on price and quality. The Swedish giant is betting that it can win new customers online who would never trek to its superstores. But if it simply substitutes offline demand for online sales it could lose out, because it would have to hand over a big chunk of its profit margin to third parties (at least there is plenty to go round; IKEA Group’s gross profit margin averaged 40% between 2012 and 2016).Another risk comes from the demands of a new type of customer. IKEA is used to people who are willing to spend time on assembly in return for low prices, but will now try to appeal to online buyers who demand cheap, quick delivery. Keeping them happy will be hard. Online reviews of IKEA’s new-style click-and-collect store in London complain of long lead times and slow service. Constructing a sturdy new sales model, rather like a flat-pack cupboard, could turn out to be trickier than IKEA claims.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Frictionless furnishing"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730910-furniture-giant-belatedly-deepening-its-presence-e-commerce-ikea-undertakes-some-home?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-02T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'648a55e23d6aff624cb6bf31bcc2b33c43c5fbbd'|'Apple draws options bulls ahead of quarterly results'|'November 2, 2017 / 3:37 PM / in 3 hours Apple draws options bulls ahead of quarterly results Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ahead of Apple Inc’s quarterly report on Thursday, traders in the options market have taken positions close to the most bullish since late December, options data showed. FILE PHOTO: A man is reflected in a Apple store logo in San Francisco, California, U.S., August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs/File Photo Apple shares, which are up 44 percent this year and on pace for its best year since 2010, hit a record intraday high of $169.94 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 tech sector index is up 35 percent for the year. The stock’s sharp climb has inspired little fear of a reversal and traders in the options market have been busy adding to bullish bets. “The volume is stronger to the upside calls,” said Steve Claussen, vice president of trade strategy at E-Trade Financial in Chicago, referring to recent trading in Apple’s options. Calls convey the right to buy shares at a fixed price in the future and are usually used to bet on shares rising. Put options give the right to sell shares at a certain price in the future and are bought to profit from declining shares. “A lot of people are perhaps setting themselves up owning these upside calls thinking Apple is going to trade $180 or something,” Claussen said. There are about 1.43 Apple call options open for each open put contract, close to the most since late December, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert. Apple’s weekly options contracts imply a 4.5 percent swing in the shares, in either direction, by Friday. That is slightly shy of the 4.6 percent average one-day post-earnings move in the shares over the last eight quarters. The technology sector has surged in recent days as quarterly results from Google-parent Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp, have sent their shares soaring. For each of these companies, the shares outstripped their respective options-implied moves and made for big gains for bullish options bets. “I think a lot of people wish they had played the other stocks on the bullish side,” said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Connecticut. “Why wouldn’t you expect them to do that in Apple.” Some positive reviews of Apple’s eagerly awaited iPhone X may have helped boost investors sentiment ahead of results, Sosnick said. E-Trade’s Claussen, however, noted that some near-term Apple puts were priced relatively higher than calls, suggesting that despite the bulk of trading activity and positioning pointing to bullish expectations, some element of anxiety remains. Apple dipped 0.5 percent to $166.04 on Thursday. Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-results-options/apple-draws-options-bulls-ahead-of-quarterly-results-idUSKBN1D224X'|'2017-11-02T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'6164d99a5820b6905b2cd94a9fbb0ebde9995839'|'Six years after tremors halted fracking, Britain ready to try again'|' 02 AM / in 19 minutes Six years after tremors halted fracking, Britain ready to try again Susanna Twidale 8 Min Read LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Six years after Britain’s first fracking operation was stymied by earth tremors, its shale gas industry is poised to try again with a technology that could transform the UK gas market and drastically reduce its reliance on imports. While environmental and community concerns about fracking have not gone away, changes to the energy landscape since 2011 have added even more complexity to the effort to exploit Britain’s shale gas. On the one hand, imports are cheaper, at least for now. Global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices LNG-AS have more than halved from 2014 peaks as new supply from Australia and the United States saturated key Asian markets. At the same time, last year’s vote to leave the European Union has stoked fears about the security of Britain’s energy supplies. Britain’s main gas storage site is also due to close, which means the market may be vulnerable to price shocks over the winter months. “Not a lot of people think about where gas comes from and what happens if (Russian president Vladimir) Putin or others fall out with us,” said Francis Egan, the CEO of shale gas developer Cuadrilla, the first company to attempt fracking in the UK, near Blackpool in the northwest of England. “They only begin to think about that when the prices are going up,” he said. Natural gas is used to heat as much as 80 percent of British homes, which make up 35 percent of demand, closely followed by electricity generation at 33 percent and 17 percent by industry, according to data from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which formulates energy policy. Around 60 percent of that gas is currently imported, up from 40 percent less than 10 years ago. The figure is tipped to reach almost 95 percent by 2040 as known reserves in the North Sea run out. Pipelines with Norway and continental Europe, which can include gas from Russia, supply around 70 percent of imports, with the remainder delivered via LNG tankers, mostly from Qatar. Britain received its first U.S. LNG shipment in July. Weaning Britain off imports is one of the driving forces behind government support for hydraulic fracturing, which involves extracting gas obtained from rocks broken up or fractured at high pressure with water and chemicals. It’s impossible to know exactly how much shale gas might be underground - and more importantly, how much can be extracted - until fracking has started in earnest. The British Geological Survey estimates shale gas resources in northern England alone could contain 1,300 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, 10 percent of which could meet the country’s demand for almost 40 years. The government is not banking on a fracking bonanza, however, partly because there’s no urgency given that global gas prices so low. A BEIS study on gas supplies published in October concluded that Britain would have secure supplies of gas up until 2037 even if no shale reserves can be exploited. WOKEN FROM THEIR BEDS Shortly after fracking started in Blackpool in April 2011, a tremor registering 2.3 on the Richter scale woke residents from their beds in the middle of the night. Their homes shook, and they reported cracks in ceilings and a cracked toilet basin. It was followed by another 1.4 magnitude earthquake a month later. Cuadrilla said the quakes were caused by an unusual combination of geological features at the site, but they led to an 18-month ban on the use of fracking nationwide while further research was carried out. The government has since introduced a traffic-light system which immediately suspends work if any seismic activity of 0.5 or above on the Richter scale is detected, and has increased monitoring standards such as ground water checks. Cuadrilla expects to begin fracking at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire in the north west of Britain at the end of December or early next year. Third Energy, which is 95-percent-owned by Barclays , also said it expects to begin fracking before the end of the year at its Kirby Misperton site in Ryedale, Yorkshire, the north of England, once it gets the government’s sign-off. Exploration companies are anxious to see how the estimates match up to reality. “This will give us a better idea of what can potentially be recovered,” Third Energy CEO Rasik Valand told Reuters in September. Professor John Underhill, chief scientist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said recoverable reserves are likely to be much lower than estimated because the gas may be much harder to get out of the ground than in places like the United States. “The inherent geological complexity of UK geology is a major issue,” he said. ENVIRONMENTAL UNKNOWNS Environmental groups continue to be strongly opposed to fracking, concerned about the potential seismic activity, water contamination and other unknowables. Scotland recently extended a moratorium on the process and it is banned in several European countries. The groups argue that extracting more fossil fuels is incompatible with global targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to help fight climate change. “Fundamentally we are opposed to exploiting new fossil fuel reserves at a time when we are being told around 80 percent of global reserves need to be kept in the ground if global climate goals are to be met,” Guy Shrubsole, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, told Reuters. Britain has a legally binding target to cut its GHG emissions by 2050 to 80 percent below 1990 levels and has, along with 194 other nations, pledged to try to keep global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times as a part of the Paris Agreement. A U.N. report published this week said some 80-90 percent of global coal reserves and 50 percent of gas reserves would need to remain in the ground unused to meet the Paris target. Fracking firms argue that gas is a bridging fuel while renewable energy and battery storage costs come down because it emits half the amount of carbon dioxide as coal when burnt. They say the only way to prove it is safe is to start work. “There is a lot of myth-busting we have to do to really explain to people what we are trying to achieve,” said Stephen Bolwer, CEO of onshore oil and gas firm IGAS, which hopes to develop shale gas wells in the East Midlands. People in the UK communities affected remain worried about the impact on the landscape and on tourism and agriculture. “Ryedale is a beautiful part of the country that attracts many visitors. The idea fracking is in anyway compatible with that is nonsense,” said Leigh Coghill, campaigner with protest group Frack Free Ryedale. There has been a shift in public perceptions since the Brexit vote, however, said Tom Pickering, operation director at INEOS shale, part of the British petrochemicals group INEOS which has committed to spend 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) on British shale projects. “There still remains a very strong, anti-fossil fuel lobby, but Brexit has focused people’s minds on the ideas that if we are really going to stand on our own two feet then we are going to need domestic supplies of gas,” he said. ($1 = 0.8547 euros) Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-fracking/six-years-after-tremors-halted-fracking-britain-ready-to-try-again-idUSL8N1N18IQ'|'2017-11-02T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'6aed78cff96b91a1cd92e4cd37bea2d5566ea736'|'UK constructors'' return to growth marred by slump in expectations - PMI'|'November 2, 2017 / 9:35 AM / in 22 minutes UK constructors'' return to growth marred by slump in expectations - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - - British construction activity unexpectedly grew a little last month, a survey showed on Thursday, but confidence among firms in the sector dropped to the lowest level in nearly five years. A worker stacks bricks at the Vauxhall depot of building material supplier Travis Perkins in London, Britain, October 25, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo While the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) recovered to 50.8 from 48.1 in September - just above the 50 mark that signifies growth - that still marked the second-weakest reading since July 2016. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to an unchanged reading for the sector, which accounts for about 6 percent of overall British economic output. Official data has shown construction output shrank in the second and third quarters of 2017, so the weak PMI is unlikely to alter the thinking of Bank of England officials who are widely expected to announce an interest rate hike at 1200 GMT. But details from the PMI - historically a decent guide to economic growth - will largely bolster the view of a majority of analysts who think raising borrowing costs now would be a mistake. Despite a tiny recovery in new orders last month, construction firms’ confidence about business prospects for the next 12 months dropped to the lowest level since December 2012, around the last time Britain flirted with recession. Survey compiler IHS Markit said there was anecdotal evidence that the gloom related specifically to concerns about Britain’s economic outlook. “Greater house building was the sole bright spot in an otherwise difficult month for the construction sector,” said Tim Moore, associate director at IHS Markit. “Reduced tender opportunities and fragile demand are placing a dark cloud over the near-term outlook.” Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Hugh Lawson; andy.bruce@thomsonreuters.com; +442075423484; Reuters; Messaging: andy.bruce.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uk-economy-pmi/uk-constructors-return-to-growth-marred-by-slump-in-expectations-pmi-idUKKBN1D211B'|'2017-11-02T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'243f1dcabf202adb9088c8d74b2c4cc0af20fd92'|'WPP takes legal action in spat with Asatsu-DK over Bain offer'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:59 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago WPP takes legal action in row with Asatsu-DK over Bain''s $1.3 billion offer Junko Fujita 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP ( WPP.L ) said on Thursday it was taking legal action against partner Asatsu-DK Inc ( 9747.T ), deepening a row over the Japanese firm’s backing for a $1.3 billion buyout offer from Bain Capital. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bain Capital is displayed on the screen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo WPP, which holds 25 percent of Asatsu-DK, and other shareholders have said the bid by the U.S. private equity firm significantly undervalues the company. Last month, Asatsu-DK said it had told WPP it planned to end their two-decade business alliance, and had asked WPP to sell its shares to Bain. It said that, according to their contract, if WPP does not sell its shares to Asatsu-DK or a nominated party within a year of the Japanese firm’s notification to terminate their alliance, WPP must sell its shares to the general public on the market. The world’s largest advertising agency responded in an emailed statement on Thursday that it was seeking arbitration with a Japanese arbitration body and a preliminary injunction with the Tokyo District Court. In both cases, it is asking for a declaration that Asatsu-DK’s planned termination of their business alliance was invalid, and Asatsu-DK had no right to request or require WPP to sell its shares. A representative for Bain said the firm was confident the contract would stand up in court. Bain has offered 3,660 yen per share in its tender offer, which opened on Oct. 3, and is seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent. David Gross-Loh, head of Bain’s Asia business, told Reuters it would extend the tender offer deadline by about a week to Nov. 21 to give shareholders more time to consider the offer given WPP’s legal action. [L4N1N83RG] The extension is to comply with local financial requirements, he said, adding Bain’s offer is full and final. Shares in Asatsu-DK, which have traded above the offer level in the hope that Bain will raise its bid, closed down 0.4 percent on Thursday at 3,740 yen each. Apart from WPP, London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Company have also said Bain’s offer is too low. Silchester owns 17 percent of Asatsu-DK and Oasis’ holding is less than 5 percent. Asatsu-DK and WPP formed their alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures and cultivate clients together, and exchanged equity stakes, but the Japanese firm says that synergies from the tie-up failed to materialize. Asatsu-DK said it has not received a notice about legal action from WPP, but is aware of the move through media reports. It declined to comment further. ($1 = 113.9100 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/asatsu-dk-says-wpp-agrees-to-terminate-business-alliance-idUKKBN1D2034'|'2017-11-02T05:23:00.000+02:00'
'5dc9a991395c8a2cbe5d22bb84d4c272054fecad'|'StanChart reports third-quarter profit rises 78 percent'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:46 AM / Updated an hour ago Rising expenses take shine off Standard Chartered profit rise Lawrence White , Sumeet Chatterjee 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Higher expenses and flat revenues overshadowed better than expected quarterly profit for Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) on Wednesday, sending shares in the Asia-focused bank more than 5 percent lower. People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Pretax profit jumped 78 percent from the third quarter of last year to $814 million (£612.2 million), higher than the $809 million average of analysts’ estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data. But the bank’s shares looked set for their biggest single-day fall in three months, with analysts saying the profit increase was driven by a drop in provisions for bad loans rather than growing income significantly, as investors had hoped for. Loan impairment charges fell 42 percent year-on-year as the bank avoided heavy losses from private equity and bad loans that hit earnings a year ago. Impairment levels are closely watched by investors in the bank, which has had a glut of bad debts in the past few years following over-exuberant lending. Rising expenses largely came from reinvestment in the retail banking business and wealth management technology platform as StanChart tries to boost returns, finance director Andy Halford told reporters. “We have accelerated spend on some of the investment projects and that has put slightly more costs earlier into the P&L in the first nine months of the year ... it’s a conscious decision to invest more but at the same time we are taking the underlying costs out of the business,” he said. “We would expect the full-year cost this year, excluding regulatory, to be pretty flat on last year.” Investors are hoping StanChart can begin to grow revenues again, after a two-year restructuring under former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters that has seen him slash more than 15,000 jobs and axe business lines such as Asian equities. Low global interest rates, lost income from axed businesses and rising competition from regional players in its key markets have combined to temper hopes of higher income, however. The bank’s core capital ratio, another closely-watched measure of financial strength, fell from 13.8 percent at the end of June to 13.6 percent, reducing the chance of the bank resuming dividend payments this year. “This is likely to dash any hopes for a capital distribution this year,” Jefferies analyst Joseph Dickerson said. Income in StanChart’s financial markets business fell around 9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to $663 million, a more modest decline than at some U.S. and European rivals. StanChart had on Tuesday announced a reshuffle in its senior ranks, as it promoted Ben Hung to be its new global retail banking chief as Karen Fawcett retired. Additional reporting by Emma Rumney, Ben Martin, and John Geddie; Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stanchart-results/stanchart-reports-third-quarter-profit-rises-78-percent-idUKKBN1D140Z'|'2017-11-01T10:45:00.000+02:00'
'585477a1d28c62c562664f26ef0ea30e66def49c'|'China issues draft guidelines on overseas investment'|'BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - China’s state planner issued draft guidelines on Friday for Chinese companies investing overseas, aimed at improving oversight, safeguarding national security and increasing support, the government said in a statement.The statement issued by the National Development & Reform Commission builds on previous regulations released in 2014.China’s non-financial outbound direct investment has plunged this year as authorities keep a tight grip on outflows for what they call “irrational” overseas projects. The grip is part of efforts to curb speculative capital outflows that had pressured the yuan currency. (Reporting by Beijing news monitoring and Christian Shepherd; Writing by Josephine Mason; Editing by Kim Coghill) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-investment-overseas/china-issues-draft-guidelines-on-overseas-investment-idINB9N1MZ00Q'|'2017-11-02T22:46:00.000+02:00'
'b5d32bb2ac5b117c0d66f5c9217a02d80fa63a5d'|'Euro zone inflation may be higher than expected in 2018 - ECB''s Nowotny'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:36 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Euro zone inflation may be higher than expected in 2018 - ECB''s Nowotny Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Euro zone inflation could be higher next year than now projected as energy prices are moving higher, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny told Bloomberg television on Friday. European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member and OeNB governor Ewald Nowotny addresses a news conference in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger “I think that inflation rates in 2018 might be higher than anticipated now because what we see is that energy prices are moving up,” Nowotny said, predicting that headline inflation could still dip next year while underlying inflation would move up. In its latest projections published in September, the ECB predicted inflation at 1.2 percent next year, basing its forecast on oil prices LCOc1 averaging $52.6 per barrel, 16 percent below the current level. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-nowotny/euro-zone-inflation-may-be-higher-than-expected-in-2018-ecbs-nowotny-idUKKBN1D315D'|'2017-11-03T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'50ad79023497304ade0d5f22eb88a34165fad34f'|'Apple firmly on course for $1 trillion valuation - analysts'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:40 AM / in 10 minutes Apple firmly on course for $1 trillion valuation - analysts Nivedita Bhattacharjee , Munsif Vengattil 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s shares hit a record-high on Friday after the tech giant reported a blowout fourth quarter and shrugged off concerns related to the iPhone X, prompting more analysts to put a trillion-dollar (£764.8 billion) valuation on the company. An Apple Store staff shows Apple''s new iPhones X after they go on sale at the Apple Store in Regents Street, London, Britain, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The stock rose as much as 3.7 percent to $174.26, briefly breaching $900 billion in market value, amid declines in the broader market. The gains added nearly $32 billion to the company’s market capitalisation. The Cupertino, California-based company also forecast a strong holiday quarter ahead, which will include the iPhone X that started selling on Nov. 3. “We see iPhone X unlocking pent-up iPhone upgrades, especially in China, driving more than 20 percent iPhone unit growth and a revenue and earnings beat in 2018,” analyst Katy Huberty on Morgan Stanley said. The glass-and-steel $999 phone appeared to have brought back the frenzy associated with iPhone launches - long lines formed outside Apple stores in Asia as fans flocked to buy the new phone. The company will make 30 million iPhone X units during the current quarter, Nomura Instinet analysts estimated, allaying production worries related to the phone. Apple said on Thursday it expects first-quarter revenue of $84 billion to $87 billion, at the high end of analysts average expectations of $84.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. “We – and many others – had feared that guidance could be weaker, reflecting only 9 weeks of the flagship iPhone X and limitations on supply,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said. At least 13 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock, with Citigroup making the most bullish move by raising its price target by $30 to $200. Of the 37 analysts that track the stock, as per Thomson Reuters data, 31 had a “buy”, or higher rating. None had a “sell”. With the latest brokerage actions, at least nine Wall Street analysts now have target prices that puts Apple’s market value above $1 trillion. Drexel Hamilton’s Brian White is still the most bullish among Apple analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters, raising his target price further to $235. Apple’s fourth-quarter results underscored the company’s ability to drive growth not just on iPhones, but across its range of products, analysts said. The company’s suite now includes five different iPhone models, the iPad, the Mac and the Apple Watch as well as its fast-growing services. Apple said it sold 46.7 million iPhones in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, above analysts’ estimates of 46.4 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Mac and iPad sales too were above the estimates of most analysts. Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-results-stocks/iphone-x-seen-taking-apple-closer-to-trillion-dollar-valuation-idUKKBN1D315N'|'2017-11-03T17:05:00.000+02:00'
'8d137d6123d67c736c7f3fc3572e721d5d7642e2'|'UK economy peps up, bolstering BoE rate hike call - PMI'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:57 AM / Updated 3 hours ago UK economy peps up, bolstering BoE rate hike call - PMI Andy Bruce , David Milliken 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy appears to be picking up speed, according to a survey on Friday that will reassure the Bank of England a day after it raised interest rates for the first time a decade. A man looks from a building in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, Britain November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs Sterling hit a day’s high against the dollar after the IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped to 55.6 in October from 53.6 in September, its biggest one-month rise since August 2016. Despite nervousness among businesses about Brexit, the reading was its highest since April and exceeded all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. The survey of services businesses, which account for around 80 percent of British economic output, follows relatively upbeat PMI readings this week for the smaller manufacturing and construction sectors. Taken together they suggest the economy is growing at a quarterly rate of 0.5 percent, IHS Markit said, picking up from growth of 0.4 percent in the three months to September. Britain’s economy has lagged behind others in Europe and beyond this year as sterling’s plunge following last year’s vote to leave the European Union pushes up inflation and uncertainty over the shape of Brexit causes businesses invest more slowly. “The UK PMI may be starting to show some convergence with its firm global counterpart,” JPMorgan economist Allan Monks said. Growth in the services sector outpaced that in the euro zone, as measured by a flash estimate, for the first time since January, the PMI showed. IHS Markit will publish a final estimate for the euro zone on Monday. “The Bank of England will likely see October’s (PMIs) as supportive to the decision to raise interest rates,” said Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy. Many private economists had warned before Thursday’s decision by the BoE that a rate hike would be premature. “However, serious uncertainties over the outlook evident among services companies fuels suspicion that it is likely to be some considerable time before the Bank of England hikes interest rates again,” Archer said. The BoE raised rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday and said its next increases would be “very gradual”. Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Friday that the BoE’s signal that it may need to raise interest rates two more times to bring down inflation was not a promise. Businesses are unsure about the outlook, and optimism among services companies remained well below its long-run average, fuelled mainly by uncertainty over Brexit, the PMI data showed. “A deeper dive into the numbers highlights the fragility of the economy,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the PMIs. BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday that the central bank’s next move would be heavily influenced by the progress of talks on Britain’s departure from the EU. Growth could get a boost if a transitional deal gave businesses confidence to invest. But a failure to reach a deal would further weaken the pound and intensify inflation pressure. The services PMI, which covers non-retail businesses, said firms were putting up prices at the fastest rate since April. Costs increased rapidly, though at the slowest rate in just over a year, possibly tallying with the BoE’s view that the inflationary effect of last year’s more than 10 percent fall in the value of the pound is starting to fade. Across the economy as a whole, the PMI showed that job creation was at its weakest since March. “Squeezed margins and concerns about the economic outlook had led to more cautious hiring strategies,” IHS Markit said. Editing by William Schomberg and Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy-pmi/uk-economy-peps-up-bolstering-boe-rate-hike-call-pmi-idINKBN1D317V'|'2017-11-03T08:57:00.000+02:00'
'541debd2d719e09d98951ae499b2676ec7c9f02b'|'CVS, Aetna aim to finalize deal as early as December: sources'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) and health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) are working toward finalizing merger terms and announcing a deal for more than $70 billion as early as December, according to people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: The CVS logo is seen at one of their stores in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide. The companies have agreed that CVS will split its consideration for the deal between cash and CVS stock, a deal structure that would minimize tax liabilities for Aetna shareholders, the sources said. A deal will probably value Aetna at significantly more than $200 per share, the sources said, adding that the companies will agree to an exact price closer to signing the deal in December. The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Aetna declined to comment, while CVS did not respond to a request for comment. Aetna shares have risen more than 7 percent since the Wall Street Journal reported last week that CVS and Aetna were in merger talks. Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) such as CVS negotiate drug benefits for health insurance plans and employers, and have in recent years taken an increasingly aggressive stance in price negotiations with drugmakers. They often extract discounts and after-market rebates from drugmakers in exchange for including their medicines in PBM formularies with low co-payments. A tie-up with Aetna could give CVS more leverage in its price negotiations with drug makers. The deal would follow years of major changes to the U.S. health insurance industry under former President Barack Obama, whose 2010 Affordable Care Act created new ground rules for how insurers operate and expanded insurance to 20 million more Americans. Republican President Donald Trump has promised to turn back many of the Affordable Care Act’s facets, but Congress has not been able to agree on a repeal or a replacement. The lack of progress, along with Trump’s executive order to bring down healthcare costs, has created uncertainty for insurers as they head into 2018. Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-aetna-aim-to-finalize-deal-as-early-as-december-sources-idUSKBN1D32A6'|'2017-11-03T21:17:00.000+02:00'
'64cf39cc200c0625d62f5c6ad179e9cd3246c555'|'Punjab National Bank Q2 profit rises, beats estimates'|'NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Two of India’s big state banks saw the pace of bad loan growth slow in the second-quarter, but steep provisions for defaulters in bankruptcy proceedings mean profits will stay under pressure until at least March.The logo of Punjab National Bank is seen outside of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second-biggest state lender, reported a second quarter profit on Friday of 5.61 billion rupees, with additions to bad loans 42 percent less than the first quarter.Union Bank of India, the sixth-biggest state lender, reported a surprise 15.31 billion-rupee loss in the three months to Sept. 30, mainly due to front-loading of provisions for bankruptcy cases but additional bad loans dropped 40 percent on the previous quarter.Uco Bank, a smaller state-run lender that also reported second-quarter results, saw its net loss widening to 6.23 billion rupees.State-run lenders account for the bulk of India’s 9.5 trillion rupees in soured bank loans as of June. The surge in bad loans has choked new lending in an economy which needs more investment to help spur growth.The central bank has ordered commercial lenders to take 12 of the biggest loan defaulters, accounting for about a quarter of the sector’s non-performing loans, to bankruptcy proceedings.It has ordered nearly 30 more firms to be pushed to bankruptcy if other forms of debt resolution do not work out by mid-December.A $32 billion recapitalisation plan announced by the Indian government last month has given a lifeline to the 21 state-run banks, whose profitability is lower than the private lenders but they have higher capital requirements due to bigger loan books.Sunil Mehta, chief executive of New Delhi-based PNB, said the recapitalisation announcement “boosted the morale” of bankers and said the bank would boost credit growth.Ram Sangapure, a PNB executive director, said the bank aimed to increase loans at 11 percent in the full year to end-March, up from the 8.3 percent rise in domestic loans in the second quarter.Union Bank Chief Executive Rajkiran Rai G said his bank would aim for loan growth of 10 percent in the 2017/2018 fiscal year. He said higher provisions would be a drag in this and the next quarter but saw a return to profitability from March.The Reserve Bank of India has asked lenders to make minimum 50 percent provisioning by March on loans to firms in bankruptcy.PNB said it was ahead of requirements.For 65 billion rupees in bad debts held by 20 of the firms that could face bankruptcy proceedings from December, much of the provisioning has yet to be done, officials said.Union Bank has 74 billion rupees in loans to companies in bankruptcy and 47 billion rupees to those in the second list, CEO Rai said, adding they have 55 percent provision cover for the first list of loans and 30 percent for the second.($1 = 64.5950 Indian rupees)Additional reporting by Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-banks-results-punjab-nat-bk/punjab-national-bank-q2-profit-rises-beats-estimates-idINKBN1D30HH'|'2017-11-03T09:09:00.000+02:00'
'3b1fc173c40ac61de0ceeb8277e43abd6a3228f3'|'Amazon plans new corporate office in Vancouver, to double headcount'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:52 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Amazon plans new corporate office in Vancouver, to double headcount Julie Gordon 2 Min Read VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) said on Friday that it will a open second corporate office in Vancouver, doubling its staff in the western Canadian city by early 2020 as it looks to tap into a burgeoning local tech workforce. FILE PHOTO: Morning fog blankets the Lions Gate Bridge and parts of the downtown just before dawn in Vancouver, British Columbia January 26, 2007. REUTERS/Andy Clark/File Photo The Seattle-based company said the Vancouver expansion has been in the works for some time and is not related to the hotly contested race by cities across North America to land the e-commerce company’s $5 billion HQ2. “These will be largely software engineering, tech and non-tech jobs, and they’ll be contributing to products that are used globally,” Jesse Dougherty, general manager for the Vancouver office, told reporters. The Vancouver expansion comes as companies in the United States have struggled to secure visas in a timely fashion to import foreign workers to fill highly skilled and technical jobs. President Donald Trump’s administration has made it tougher for skilled foreigners to work in the United States, challenging visa applications more regularly than at nearly any point under former U.S. President Barack Obama. FILE PHOTO: A jogger runs along the seawall in Stanley Park with the city skyline in the background in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada June 24, 2003. REUTERS/Andy Clark/File Photo Tech companies have come to rely on such visas to fill many highly specialized jobs. FILE PHOTO: A boat owner tries to dig out his keel on Kitsilano Beach after a heavy wind storm blew into the area and stranded his boat in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada April 8, 2010. REUTERS/Andy Clark/File Photo Amazon officials did not answer questions on whether the new office was in response to difficulties bringing foreign talent to its U.S. offices. “Amazon likes to hire the smartest people we can find, and so Vancouver certainly is a place where we like to get that growth,” said Dougherty. Canada launched a fast-track visa program for highly skilled workers in June, as it seeks to take advantage of a tougher immigration environment in the United States. The expansion will see Amazon double its workforce in Vancouver to 2,000 by early 2020. The company currently employees about 4,400 people full time in Canada. Amazon employs more than 380,000 globally, with around 150,000 working outside of the United States. Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Phil Berlowitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-canada/amazon-plans-new-corporate-office-in-vancouver-to-double-headcount-idUKKBN1D328P'|'2017-11-03T20:56:00.000+02:00'
'd79f5645ec18148211722799249a2e00e944f2fc'|'Exclusive: Shareholder in Brazil''s Oi leans on distressed debt funds for support'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:20 PM / in 3 hours Exclusive: Shareholder in Brazil''s Oi leans on distressed debt funds for support Gram Slattery , Tatiana Bautzer 6 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - An influential shareholder in Brazil’s Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ) is working with U.S. and UK distressed debt hedge funds to maintain his central role at the telecoms provider as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy protection, four sources said. The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The funds, the smallest group of Oi bondholders known as the G6, could help Nelson Tanure, who has a 6.5 percent stake in Oi and significant board clout, fend off rival restructuring plans by the company’s two largest bondholder groups. The G6 includes Solus Alternative Asset Management LP, Attestor Capital LLP, Centerbridge Partners LP, Silver Point Capital LP, and Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP. Tanure’s alliance with distressed debt funds illustrates the tangled ties that have formed in Latin America’s largest-ever bankruptcy, which has seen a procession of hedge and private equity funds dip into the process before withdrawing amid creditor and shareholder infighting. It also shows the lengths to which shareholders such as Tanure - who has criticized opposing creditor groups as vulture funds - are willing to go to strengthen their hand before a Nov. 10 meeting in which creditors will vote on a plan to take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection. As negotiations about Oi’s future intensify ahead of the November meeting that could determine whether it survives as a going concern, a big question is whether the G6 funds will stick by Tanure, the sources said, as two of them have at least temporarily withdrawn support. A spokesman for Tanure, who has invested in distressed companies from the oil to media industries, defended the motivations of the allied funds, and denied any had withdrawn support. “They have very different strategies from vulture funds, who manipulate information, motivated by spurious motivations and are dedicated to ultra short-term gains,” the spokesman said. Solus, Silver Point, and Davidson Kempner, a big player in sovereign and territorial debt disputes in Argentina and Puerto Rico, declined to comment. Attestor and Centerbridge did not respond to requests for comment. Oi, Brazil’s fourth-largest carrier, filed for in-court restructuring 16 months ago, sagging under 65.4 billion reais ($20 billion) of debt. At stake is the future of the sole fixed-line telecoms carrier in about one-third of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities. SEPARATE TRACKS Negotiations to bring Oi out of bankruptcy protection have essentially split into three separate tracks, said the sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. The so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders and International Bondholders Committee, which – together with allied creditors – hold about 23 billion reais in debt, have met repeatedly with Oi’s management over the last two weeks. Those bondholders have put forth a proposal that would leave them with 88 percent of Oi’s equity. The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The government, which is exposed to billions of dollars of Oi debt through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines, has formed a working group of its own to protect its interests. On Monday, Brazil’s solicitor-general is meeting with U.S. private equity fund TPG Capital Management LP and state-owned China Telecom Corp ( 0728.HK ) about a possible bid for Oi after it emerges from bankruptcy protection, local media reported. Tanure – who has already formed an alliance with majority shareholder Pharol SGPS ( PHRA.LS ) – is working with the G6, who have only a fraction of the debt held by the main bondholder groups. His proposal would imply a significantly more severe haircut for the bondholders, the sources said. Under the Tenure deal, Oi would need to pay the G6 funds substantial fees up front in return for a commitment from the group to inject capital into the carrier, the sources said. People close to the other bondholder groups say the fees could reach 500 million reais, but people related to the Tanure group say this would only happen if the capital injection took two years to materialize. A short-term fee would be much lower, around 20 million reais, one of the sources said. Slideshow (2 Images) “This is about ... remunerating for the mobilization of capital, something that’s common in these types of negotiations,” Tanure’s spokesman said. It is unclear how solid the G6 block remains: Davidson Kempner and Silver Point Capital fund have at least temporarily dropped out, four sources said. But reasons the funds exited were unclear. One source said their withdrawal was only temporary, to avoid restricting the funds’ ability to trade on Oi´s debt while negotiating with the company. Both bondholder groups will need as much creditor support as possible going into the Nov. 10 meeting in Rio de Janeiro. A plan approved by Oi’s board last month was rejected by creditors for giving too much control to Tanure’s Societe Mondiale FIA, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. G6 support for Tanure’s alternative plan could change this. That’s because provisions in Brazilian bankruptcy law can lower the threshold needed for approval of a restructuring plan in some situations, lawyers involved in the deal say. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceeding could decree a “cram down”, in which disagreeing creditors are forced to accept what a majority agreed to, the lawyers added. Should creditors vote down the restructuring proposal outright, the company could be liquidated. The main bondholders want to avoid that at all costs, the sources said, as they would stand to lose more if the company were liquidated than if they accepted the Tanure-backed terms. ($1 = 3.28 reais) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring-exclusive/exclusive-shareholder-in-brazils-oi-leans-on-distressed-debt-funds-for-support-idUSKBN1D158Z'|'2017-11-01T18:19:00.000+02:00'
'f05aa487c5443f5ef2e2e4aa2ffc3c781294d467'|'Bank of England''s Cunliffe sees limits to EU supervision of clearing houses'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:01 PM / in 17 minutes Bank of England''s Cunliffe sees limits to EU supervision of clearing houses Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European Union proposals to supervise foreign clearing houses must not end with “multiple hands on the steering wheel”, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday. Britain''s Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Jon Cunliffe speaks during the Bank of England''s financial stability report at the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain June 27, 2017. REUTERS/ Jonathan Brady/Pool The bloc wants joint supervision of clearing houses that handle large amounts of euro-denominated financial transactions after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Cunliffe said cooperation between regulators from different countries was necessary, but “deference” to British authorities would be needed, as seen in relations between the United States and British regulators. “You have to make sure you don’t end up with multiple hands on the steering wheel and multiple feet on the brake,” Cunliffe told a House of Lords committee studying the effect of Brexit on financial regulation. Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-boe-clearing/bank-of-englands-cunliffe-sees-limits-to-eu-supervision-of-clearing-houses-idUKKBN1D14MJ'|'2017-11-01T14:01:00.000+02:00'
'905123dae9ace73a07a2d54e0117f11f00ba97bb'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 1'|'Nov 1 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 18 points higher at 7,511.2 points on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers. * IAG: Britain''s biggest trade union Unite said on Tuesday British Airways'' cabin crew had voted to accept a pay deal that brings their long-running dispute to an end. * ASTRAZENECA: AstraZeneca has won U.S. approval for a new blood cancer drug several months earlier than expected, boosting its oncology portfolio - and requiring it to pay $1.5 billion to shareholders in the biotech company that first discovered the medicine. * INDIVIOR: Indivior Plc''s experimental drug to treat opioid addiction should be approved, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded on Tuesday. * IMAGINATION TECH: Imagination Technologies shareholders approved a 550 million pound ($730 million) cash takeover by China-backed Canyon Bridge on Tuesday, a day after the buyout firm''s founder was charged by U.S. authorities with insider trading. * Britain''s FTSE sealed its best monthly gains since May on Tuesday as a series of upbeat earning updates including from oil major BP helped it rebound and end October on a high. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-1-idUSL4N1N72G8'|'2017-11-01T07:56:00.000+02:00'
'935698b9dc08d091c55a5c5c7fe6c6c53490e8f6'|'Hexagon CEO''s share trades were no crime, court hears'|'Reuters TV United States November 1, 2017 / 11:58 AM / a few seconds ago Hexagon CEO''s share trades were no crime, court hears Ole Petter Skonnord 3 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Hexagon ( HEXAb.ST ) Chief Executive Ola Rollen did not commit insider share trading when he bought shares in Next Biometrics ( NEXT.OL ) in 2015, the Swedish businessman’s lawyer told a Norwegian court on Wednesday. The prosecution team in the Ola Rollen insider trading case trial arrives at the district court in Oslo, Norway October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche Rollen, one of Sweden’s best known business leaders, went on trial this week in Oslo for alleged insider share trading related to a 2015 investment in Norway’s Next Biometrics. The transaction did not involve Hexagon itself. Rollen, who denies wrongdoing, faces up to six years in prison if found guilty. The case follows a string of scandals among leading companies in Sweden involving alleged bribery, offshore tax havens and the misuse of corporate money that have tarnished the country’s clean image. On Wednesday, defense lawyer Christian B. Hjort said his client did not possess privileged information about Next Biometrics at the time of the share purchase and that the transactions were motivated by his own independent analysis of the company whose products include fingerprint sensors. “His plans to buy shares in Next was not insider share trading according to the law,” Hjort told the court, in his first remarks to address the prosecution’s opening statement. “It is not an abuse when the investment is made according to his own plans ... What is against the law is when you trade in the market based on other people’s plans.” Lead prosecutor Marianne Bender in Ola Rollen insider trading case trial arrives at the district court in Oslo, Norway October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche A purchase of some 284,000 shares in Next Biometrics on Oct. 6 and 7, 2015, made by Rollen’s partly-owned investment firm Iskossala, amounted to illegal insider trading, police said, as Iskossala was also involved in negotiations with Next to take a larger stake at a higher price. When a cash infusion was announced a few days later, Next’s shares surged 83 percent. Hjort argued the shares jumped because of Rollen’s investments and his strong standing among Swedish retail investors, who started to buy when they saw his move. “Without Rollen there would be no rise in the share price. It was created by his own investment. That’s why there is no abuse of insider information,” said Hjort. On Monday, the prosecution played an audio tape of Rollen discussing with a broker buying Next Biometrics shares via Iskossala and also discussing the potential rights issue. In charge of Hexagon since 2000, Rollen discarded its old businesses and turned the company into a force in measurement technology and related software, making it one of Sweden’s biggest firms worth $17 billion (£12.7 billion). The trial continues.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hexagon-ab-ceo-trial/hexagon-ceos-share-trades-were-no-crime-court-hears-idUKKBN1D14LT'|'2017-11-01T13:51:00.000+02:00'
'92cc966ea7b9ecae9be301a1d44de5fdba8ed611'|'Next says trading "extremely volatile" in latest quarter'|' 23 AM / in 7 minutes Next says trading remains "extremely volatile" Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next ( NXT.L ) said trading remained “extremely volatile” as it posted third-quarter sales below some analysts’ expectations, hurt by mild weather in October. FILE PHOTO: A worker dresses a mannequin in a shop window display at a branch of clothing retailer Next in London''s West End, September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 11 SEP FOR ALL IMAGES - RC11CDDEB680 Shares in Next had risen by 26 percent in the last three months on hopes the group was starting to turn the corner after a difficult couple of years. On Wednesday Next said sales in August and September were significantly up on last year as cooler temperatures drove demand for autumn/winter ranges. However, sales dipped in October which was mild. “(The) sales performance has remained extremely volatile and is highly dependent on the seasonality of the weather,” it said. Next’s total full-price sales rose 1.3 percent in the 13 weeks to Oct. 29, its fiscal third quarter, below some analysts’ expectations of a rise of up to 4 percent but ahead of the second quarter’s 0.7 percent increase. Britain’s most successful clothing retailer this century in terms of profits, Next has faltered over the last two years due to a sector shift in spending away from clothing and into experienced-based areas such as holidays and entertainment that it first identified in 2015. British retailers are also having to deal with a tough macro backdrop. Consumers are being squeezed by high inflation and muted wage growth and face the prospect of a first rate rise in a decade on Thursday. Full-price sales in Next’s stores were down 7.7 percent, but were up 13.2 percent in its Directory online and home shopping business. Next maintained its central profit guidance for the full year - a pretax profit of 717 million pounds ($953 million), down from 790.2 million pounds in 2016-17. It narrowed its guidance for full-year, full-price sales, forecasting they would come in between 1.75 percent down and 1.25 percent higher. It had forecast a range of down 2.0 percent to up 1.5 percent in September. Next said comparative sales numbers with last year are much harder in the fourth quarter than they were in the third. Shares in Next closed Tuesday at 4,921 pence, valuing the business at 7.2 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.7526 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-next-outlook/next-says-trading-extremely-volatile-in-latest-quarter-idUKKBN1D13SP'|'2017-11-01T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'e347431c4bd60d5c5149bb333313232c9ebd2de6'|'NAFTA talks causing business uncertainty: Rio Tinto executive'|'Reuters TV United States November 2, 2017 / 2:29 AM / a few seconds ago NAFTA talks causing business uncertainty: Rio Tinto executive David Ljunggren 2 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - The current state of talks to update the NAFTA trade pact is creating uncertainty among businesses and could hurt investments and growth, Rio Tinto Aluminium ( RIO.L ) chief executive Alf Barrios said on Wednesday. Canada and Mexico say several U.S. proposals for modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement are unacceptable, prompting increasing concern that Washington could walk away from the trilateral deal. Rio Tinto exports 75 percent of the aluminum produced at its Canadian plants to the United States and supplies 30 percent of that market’s needs, Barrios told an evening conference organized by the Canadian-American Business Council. “The negotiation process has created some uncertainty among business on both sides of the border and I think this puts at risk to a certain degree investments and growth,” he said when asked about the NAFTA talks. U.S. President Donald Trump frequently describes the 1994 pact as a disaster and has threatened to walk away from the deal unless major changes are made. Company data show Rio Tinto’s Canadian plants accounted for 53 percent of the 3.65 million tonnes of aluminum that the company produced last year. Barrios said NAFTA had created a predictable business environment that made investment decisions easier and had also solidified ties between Canada and the United States. “So we’re watching very, very carefully how things evolve ... We encourage the negotiating teams at the table to continue looking at ways to strengthen that relationship,” he said. Speaking earlier in the day, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said the lack of clarity over the NAFTA talks meant companies would put off investment decisions. Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta-riotinto/nafta-talks-causing-business-uncertainty-rio-tinto-executive-idUKKBN1D206G'|'2017-11-02T04:14:00.000+02:00'
'00c083c7ca0169ed87ad1221f094a1b98f3530af'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 2'|'Nov 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* Michael Fallon quits in Westminster sexual misconduct storm. on.ft.com/2z6CZCK* HSBC accused of ''possible criminal complicity'' in Gupta scandal. on.ft.com/2z5Yun7* Trump set to name Powell as Fed chair nominee. on.ft.com/2z8lKBbOverview* British defence minister Michael Fallon quit on Wednesday, saying his conduct had fallen below the high standards demanded of his position, the first resignation in a sexual harassment scandal in parliament.* British lawmaker Peter Hain said on Wednesday he has asked finance minister Philip Hammond to refer an unidentified UK bank to regulators for an investigation into possible involvement in alleged money laundering involving South Africa’s Gupta family.* U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate current Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next chair of the U.S. central bank, according to two White House officials. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-2-idUSL2N1N802P'|'2017-11-02T03:26:00.000+02:00'
'c9a84905b51e1830bfef336c30598da788d7af74'|'BRIEF-Privet Fund Management says mulls taking Hardinge private'|'Nov 2 (Reuters) - Privet Fund Management:* Advised Hardinge that Privet Fund, affiliates evaluating going private deal to buy all of company’s stock it does not already own* Basing evaluation of going private deal for Hardinge on a price of $17.25/share - SEC filing* Requested Hardinge allow it, financial advisor, potential financing sources access to confidential business information* On Nov. 1, special committee of Hardinge board agreed to provide Privet parties the requested confidential information Source text - ( bit.ly/2lIpC8K ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-privet-fund-management-says-mulls/brief-privet-fund-management-says-mulls-taking-hardinge-private-idINFWN1N81LK'|'2017-11-02T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'81238410faa8c6b48f30a5e481226b9b4088b7cb'|'Exclusive - Airbus begins external search for new sales chief: sources'|'November 2, 2017 / 4:22 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Exclusive - Airbus begins external search for new sales chief: sources Tim Hepher 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from soon-to-retire John Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen, said three people familiar with the plans. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy delivers his speech during the annual Airbus Commercial Press Briefing in Blagnac, Southwestern France, January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Leahy’s deputy, Executive Vice-President Kiran Rao, had been identified as Leahy’s successor earlier this year, but his appointment to one of the industry’s most high-profile jobs was never confirmed as Leahy postponed his retirement to end-year. Chief Executive Tom Enders has now decided to look outside the core part of the company in a bid to denote a fresh start, but Rao is not being targeted in the investigation which centres mainly on a defunct headquarters team, the people said. Rao confirmed he would not be in the running for the post. “I can confirm I am no longer pursuing the position of commercial director and intend to concentrate on Airbus product strategy,” Rao told Reuters. An Airbus spokesman said the company does not comment on personnel matters. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The search comes as the Airbus marketing machine is seen as demoralised as a result of UK and French probes, which have also sparked a blanket internal investigation. Enders told a recent sales meeting Leahy would stay till the year-end, but failed to confirm Rao’s appointment, leaving what insiders described as a sense of vacuum amid dwindling sales. Rao, 53, has until recently combined the no. 2 sales role with product development, for which he received a French distinction in July. He has stood in for Leahy since July as the veteran New Yorker prepared to retire, initially in September. The search for a new successor extends outside the core part of Airbus but will include affiliates such as 50-percent owned turboprop maker ATR, where CEO and former Airbus commercial strategy chief Christian Scherer is seen as a leading contender. ATR said Scherer was not available for comment. Several outside candidates are being considered and Airbus could go looking at suppliers, such as the recently overhauled management team at Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ), for candidates. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-sales/exclusive-airbus-begins-external-search-for-new-sales-chief-sources-idUKKBN1D229A'|'2017-11-02T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'fa6faa16e18d4d9b931a4e9fabb20729f4e12c8f'|'easyJet agrees deal on job terms for ex-Air Berlin crew'|'November 3, 2017 / 1:57 PM / Updated 4 hours ago easyJet agrees deal on job terms for ex-Air Berlin crew Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - EasyJet ( EZJ.L ) has agreed a deal with a German trade union over job terms for former crew of Air Berlin after the British budget carrier agreed to buy part of the failed airline’s operations. Flight AB6210, the last by insolvent carrier Air Berlin, arrives at the Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke EasyJet has said it is looking to recruit around 1,000 Air Berlin pilots and cabin crew after taking on some of its operations at Tegel airport in the German capital, covering leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft. The airline said the agreement with Verdi would make terms for ex-Air Berlin staff very attractive, and the trade union also welcomed the deal. “Under these circumstances we are glad that easyJet was willing to negotiate and agree fair terms and conditions into our existing collective agreements for employment of former Air Berlin crew,” Holger Roessler, an officer with the Verdi union, said in a statement. “These include preferred and accelerated recruitment and comparable income conditions for crew who wish to join easyJet.” As part of the agreement, ex-Air Berlin staff will join easyJet gradually over a period of several months because they cannot all be trained at the same time, Roessler said, confirming a report by German magazine Spiegel. They will be paid according to their rank during the waiting period, he said, adding that a captain who starts only in September 2018 will receive 40,000 euros to bridge the gap. EasyJet said that the new recruits would be hired on local contracts, and would be subject to previously negotiated collective labour arrangements. “We very much look forward to welcoming ex Air Berlin crew to easyJet, their experience is sure to add significant value to our airline,” said Stuart MacDonald, head of industrial relations at easyJet Group. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Additional reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Keith Weir and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet/easyjet-agrees-deal-on-job-terms-for-ex-air-berlin-crew-idUKKBN1D31J0'|'2017-11-03T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'1012cf260391e994043e381b730cb1d754fe8664'|'Let’s move to Windsor & Eton, Berkshire: ‘A metaphor for the nation’ - Money'|'@tomdyckhoff Friday 3 November 2017 16.30 GMT What’s going for it? At Let’s move to... we like to press our faces up against the window, peer into the sweet shop and see ’ow the ovver ’arf lives. It’s a strange kind of masochism. Windsor, Eton and, a few hundred metres away (divided from the others by the M4), Slough are today almost a geographical metaphor for the nation. The royalty (Windsor), the 1% (Eton) and the rest of us (where do you think?). The addition of Legoland in 1996 just tips the surrealism of this landscape over the edge: boys in tailcoats, changing of the guards, and Star Wars rendered 1:20 in tiny bricks. Think Ruritania, and you’re halfway there. Royalty dominated even before William the Conqueror’s motte and bailey; Old Windsor, downstream, was a favourite of Saxon kings. Now, 1,000 years later, millionaires (even the odd billionaire) line the Thames; though the castle’s Royal Standard flapping highest of all makes sure even they know their place in the pecking order. Membership Event: Guardian Weekend Live The case against What do you think? Wealth. Well connected? Trains: half hourly from Windsor & Eton Riverside to London Waterloo (58 minutes) via Staines (14) and Richmond (34); a spur from Windsor & Eton Central goes to the mainline at Slough (six minutes) three times an hour. Driving: with the M4 so close, Heathrow is 20-30 minutes, the M25 10-15 and Reading 30; central London in an hour if the traffic’s good (at, say, 3am). Schools Primaries: Hilltop First and St Edward’s Catholic First “outstanding”. Secondaries: a tale of two genders – The Windsor Boys’ “requires improvement”, Windsor Girls’ is “outstanding”. Hang out at… The pleasant Greene Oak at Oakley Green (trivia: it’s run by Terry Wogan’s daughter). Where to buy Windsor is all razzmatazz, grand restaurants, tourists and stucco terraces; Eton, over the bridge, is more old money, antiques shops and plummy voices. New money congregates on the private St Leonard’s Hill. Poshest of all is Old Windsor, where property runs the gamut from castles to Victorian terraces. Clarence Road and around is full of lovely period town houses; Park Street as close as you can get to HRH; Eton is more impressive, though, architecturally. Normal homes abound in the pleasant postwar estates in Dedworth and Clewer New Town, though even they aren’t cheap. Detacheds and town houses, £450,000-£5m plus. Semis, £375,000-£2m. Terraces and cottages, £350,000-£1.4m. Flats, £250,000-£1.5m. Rentals: I beg your pardon? Well, if you must. A one-bed flat, £900-£1,500pcm; a three-bed house, £1,400-£2,500pcm. Bargain of the week Don’t be absurd. Let’s move to Hove, East Sussex: ‘It attracts more young people than anywhere in the country’ Read more From the streets Ally Onions “ Heidi bakery in Daniel department store serves delicious cakes. Lots happening: night markets, annual horse show, picnics in the park. Eton Natural History Museum is a gem.” Jon Parker “Walk from Windsor to Datchet along the river and pick up a train back to Windsor and Eton Riverside. The views of the castle are great.” • Do you live in Windsor & Eton? Join the debate below. Live in Kelso, Roxburghshire? Do you have a favourite haunt or pet hate? If so, email by Tuesday 7 November. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/03/lets-move-windsor-eton-berkshire-castle'|'2017-11-03T23:30:00.000+02:00'
'16b667795d079c5e03b36d183d68439708b11b84'|'Sanofi refines expectations on drop in sales at diabetes arm'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi confirmed its 2017 outlook after it posted slightly lower-than-expected third-quarter results, and gave a more precise range on expectations of a sales decline at its embattled diabetes business.FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen in front of the entrance at the headquarters French drugmaker Sanofi in Paris October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The French drugmaker said currency-adjusted sales at its diabetes franchise would likely shrink by 6-8 percent per year between 2015 and 2018.It had previously seen a 4-8 percent drop due to persistent pricing pressure in the United States, but added it had now better visibility on the sales expectations of this unit.Sanofi’s third-quarter business net income fell 1.1 percent at constant exchange rates to 2.141 billion euros ($2.5 billion). Total sales rose 4.7 percent to 9.05 billion euros.Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting business net profit of 2.148 billion euros and net sales of 9.33 billion.($1 = 0.8581 euros)Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sanofi-results/sanofi-refines-expectations-on-drop-in-sales-at-diabetes-arm-idINKBN1D20JW'|'2017-11-02T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'd35bd4bb70a3fe4e9c440405a64d807de1d12db4'|'NAFTA talks causing business uncertainty: Rio Tinto executive'|'OTTAWA (Reuters) - The current state of talks to update the NAFTA trade pact is creating uncertainty among businesses and could hurt investments and growth, Rio Tinto Aluminium ( RIO.L ) chief executive Alf Barrios said on Wednesday.Canada and Mexico say several U.S. proposals for modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement are unacceptable, prompting increasing concern that Washington could walk away from the trilateral deal.Rio Tinto exports 75 percent of the aluminum produced at its Canadian plants to the United States and supplies 30 percent of that market’s needs, Barrios told an evening conference organized by the Canadian-American Business Council.“The negotiation process has created some uncertainty among business on both sides of the border and I think this puts at risk to a certain degree investments and growth,” he said when asked about the NAFTA talks.U.S. President Donald Trump frequently describes the 1994 pact as a disaster and has threatened to walk away from the deal unless major changes are made.Company data show Rio Tinto’s Canadian plants accounted for 53 percent of the 3.65 million tonnes of aluminum that the company produced last year.Barrios said NAFTA had created a predictable business environment that made investment decisions easier and had also solidified ties between Canada and the United States.“So we’re watching very, very carefully how things evolve ... We encourage the negotiating teams at the table to continue looking at ways to strengthen that relationship,” he said.Speaking earlier in the day, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said the lack of clarity over the NAFTA talks meant companies would put off investment decisions.Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Michael Perry '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta-riotinto/nafta-talks-causing-business-uncertainty-rio-tinto-executive-idUSKBN1D206G'|'2017-11-02T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'99c9747d3b84520d6f880ddde72c1b699f08ceff'|'Georgia-Pacific unit seeks bankruptcy in wake of asbestos cases'|'WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - An affiliate of Georgia-Pacific LLC, which makes Brawny paper towels, has filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid soaring costs of defending against claims its products caused asbestos-related diseases, according to a company statement on Thursday.The affiliate, Bestwall LLC, joins scores of U.S. manufacturers that have filed for bankruptcy due to asbestos litigation, and comes as the U.S. Congress mulls a bill that plaintiffs’ lawyers say would discourage asbestos claims.Georgia-Pacific is unaffected by the filing and Bestwall will continue operating normally, the statement said.Bestwall’s legal costs from asbestos have risen to an average of $160 million a year, up from $6 million a year prior to 2000, according to company filings.Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral once prized for its resistance to heat but its fibers can cause deadly cancers, including mesothelioma, and leads to thousands of U.S. deaths annually, according to government statistics.A bill known as the FACT Act has been introduced in the U.S. House that proponents argue would shed light on possible fraudulent asbestos claims, although critics say it will make it harder for people sickened by asbestos to get compensation.In 1965, Georgia-Pacific acquired a maker of joint compound that contained asbestos. Georgia-Pacific, which is owned by Koch Industries Inc, ceased making the compound with asbestos in 1977.Since then, the company has spent $2.9 billion in legal costs on asbestos cases and is currently defending about 62,000 such cases.According to Bestwall, its products account for a tiny overall percentage of asbestos exposure, but it has been named in up to 80 percent of mesothelioma cases filed each year. Asbestos lawsuits often name multiple manufacturers as defendants.Asbestos litigation has cost more than $50 billion in compensation and legal fees and has forced about 100 U.S. companies into bankruptcy, including chemical company W.R. Grace and building products company Owens Corning Corp.Bankrupt companies and asbestos plaintiffs generally agree to establish and finance a trust for future claims. The company exits bankruptcy shielded from future asbestos lawsuits.However, many trusts are running low on cash and have reduced payouts, and business groups allege that has prompted plaintiffs to focus on suing non-bankrupt companies, even if plaintiffs only had a limited exposure to a company’s product.Allegations of fraudulent asbestos claims were a central part of the bankruptcy of Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC, which filed in 2010 the same court in Charlotte as Bestwall.Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-georgiapacific-asbestos-bankruptcy/georgia-pacific-unit-seeks-bankruptcy-in-wake-of-asbestos-cases-idINKBN1D21LP'|'2017-11-02T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'34f5e12eb4fcf44c32f405471feeb80492f4e530'|'CORRECTED-Argentina says euro bonds more than four times oversubscribed'|'(Corrects total bond sale amount in paragraph 1 to 2.75 billion euros, not $2.75 billion)BUENOS AIRES, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Argentina received 11.5 billion euros ($13.41 billion) in orders for three euro-denominated bonds sold on Thursday, the Finance Ministry said, with the 2.75 billion euro debt auction more than four times oversubscribed.South America’s No. 2 economy sold 1 billion euros in 5-year bonds at a 3.375 percent interest rate, 1 billion euros in 10-year bonds at 5.25 percent, and 750 million euros in 30-year bonds at a 6.25 percent, as Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported earlier. ($1 = 0.8576 euros) (Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Dan Grebler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/argentina-bonds/argentina-says-euro-bonds-more-than-four-times-oversubscribed-idINE6N1LB03B'|'2017-11-02T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'0424bb78f21b537e279ec883a930894e0c19216f'|'Asian shares rise on Fed optimism, pushing back toward 10-year peak'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets edged higher on Thursday, with Wall Street up slightly and the U.S. dollar modestly weaker after details of a Republican tax plan were released and the nomination of Jerome Powell as the new head of the Federal Reserve.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Republican tax plan called for broad changes to the U.S. tax code, including slashing the corporate tax rate and reducing the number of tax brackets for individuals.“Everyone knows it is a long shot, there is not a bunch of money trying to get ahead of this,” said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenberg Thalmann Asset Management in New York.“Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone believes this is going to go through; it is a wait and see opportunity.”President Donald Trump tapped Fed become head of the U.S. central bank, promoting a soft-spoken centrist to replace Janet Yellen when her term expires in February 2018.Hopes for progress on tax reform and a solid earnings season helped push the S&P 500 up 2.2 percent in October. Apple ( AAPL.O ), the largest U.S. company by market capitalisation, will report results after the market close.According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 384 companies that have reported earnings, 72.7 percent have topped Wall Street expectations, compared with a beat rate of 72 percent over the past four quarters. The growth expectation for the quarter is 7.7 percent.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 81.25 points, or 0.35 percent, to 23,516.26, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.49 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,579.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 1.59 points, or 0.02 percent, to 6,714.94.Housing .HGX fell 1.07 percent on the tax plan, which would maintain the deductions for mortgage interest on existing loans and newly purchased homes for up to $500,000.The dollar fell to its lowest in a week against a basket of major currencies after the tax details were released, and showed little reaction to Powell’s nomination.The dollar index .DXY fell 0.13 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.35 percent to $1.1658.Sterling skidded after the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years but said it expected only “very gradual” further increases over the next three years.Sterling dropped 1.1 percent GBP= and was on track for its biggest one-day drop since June, and Britain''s main FTSE 100 stock index climbed .FTSE 0.9 percent.The rest of Europe retreated from two-year highs hit in the prior session. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.36 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.05 percent.U.S. Treasuries prices ended the day higher.Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR last rose 8/32 in price to yield 2.3487 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Wednesday.Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asian-shares-rise-on-fed-optimism-pushing-back-toward-10-year-peak-idINKBN1D2021'|'2017-11-02T02:42:00.000+02:00'
'4377131d6d2bda197aea02a5a82297b4026cd75f'|'Pakistan to probe complaint that Shell, Total, PSO added manganese to gasoline'|'November 2, 2017 / 10:22 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Pakistan to probe complaint that Shell, Total, PSO added manganese to gasoline Saad Sayeed 2 Min Read ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s state oil and gas regulator said on Thursday it will investigate a complaint that fuel suppliers including local subsidiaries of Shell and Total as well as Pakistan State Oil (PSO) have added manganese to their gasoline. Honda Motor Co’s Pakistan subsidiary, Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd., filed the complaint, saying the harmful additive appeared to be damaging the engines in its vehicles. Manganese can be added to fuel to make it appear to be of a higher quality, but it can reduce fuel economy as well as potentially harm public health due to emissions. “We have received a complaint from Honda, and the relevant department will look into the issue,” said Imran Ghaznavi, a spokesman for the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The Honda complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said tests had found dangerous levels of manganese in fuel samples from Shell Pakistan Ltd, Total Parco Pakistan Ltd, and Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd. The tests showed levels of manganese of up to 53 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), while the additive is deemed at a “danger level” at 24 mg/kg, the Honda complaint said. Representatives for the individual fuel suppliers and for Honda could not be immediately reached for comment. Ilyas Fazil, head of Pakistan’s Oil Companies Advisory Council, said on Thursday that he had not heard of manganese additives being a problem in the industry. Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pakistan-gasoline/pakistan-to-probe-complaint-that-shell-total-pso-added-manganese-to-gasoline-idUKKBN1D2173'|'2017-11-02T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'ce0d17fa4b65e93cfc06434e8de9d2dfa12b0b39'|'BoE''s Carney says will reassess outlook when there is Brexit clarity'|'November 2, 2017 / 1:01 PM / in 9 minutes BoE''s Carney says will reassess outlook when there is Brexit clarity   The Bank of England will reassess the economic outlook once it has more visibility on the nature, and transition to, the country’s new relationship with the European Union after Brexit, Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, speaks at the Bank of England conference ''Independence 20 Years On'' at the Fishmonger''s Hall in London, Britain September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde Carney was speaking after the Bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years, but said it expected only “very gradual” further increases over the next three years. “The impact of Brexit on the forecast will evolve as negotiations progress,” Carney said. “In particular, any resolution of the uncertainty about the nature of, and transition to, the UK’s future relationship with the EU insofar as it affects the behaviour of households, businesses and financial market participants, would prompt a reassessment of the economic outlook.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-brexit/boes-carney-says-will-reassess-outlook-when-there-is-brexit-clarity-idUKKBN1D21QV'|'2017-11-02T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'dd759e032065ced522f6430d407786292e314585'|'Britain''s GVC readies for deals with sale of Turkish operations'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British online gambling company GVC ( GVC.L ) is selling its Turkish operations for up to 150 million euros ($175 million) in a deal that removes a hurdle to a potential takeover of Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) or another rival.FTSE 250-listed GVC said on Thursday that it had agreed to offload its Turkey-facing businesses to Ropso Malta, which provides IT services for the British company’s Turkish operations.GVC’s business in Turkey, a so-called gray market where many types of gambling are banned, were an obstacle to the company agreeing a takeover of Ladbrokes this year.Ladbrokes shares climbed more than 5 percent on Thursday amid speculation that a takeover by GVC is now more likely. GVC shares edged up by 0.5 percent, giving it a market capitalizations of 2.9 billion pounds ($3.84 billion), compared with 2.4 billion pounds for Ladbrokes.“Turkey was an issue that I feel we could have resolved (with Ladbrokes),” GVC Chief Executive Kenny Alexander told Reuters.“If we wanted to participate in consolidation, be it Ladbrokes or anybody else, or be a target ourselves, then this (the Turkey sale) is clearing the path for that.”The disposal comes two days after the British government unveiled proposals to cut the maximum stake allowed on gambling machines in UK betting shops, which could hit profits at companies including Ladbrokes and potentially trigger a wave of sector consolidation as gaming businesses seek to offset the financial impact.Alexander said that GVC is “unlikely” to strike a deal with a competitor until the government has completed its consultation process on betting machine stakes and made a final decision.He added that talks with Ladbrokes had ended after they leaked in August and that the government review had also been an obstacle to a deal.“There are a number of other potential M&A targets that we could look to explore and don’t be surprised if it’s not Ladbrokes,” he said, adding that GVC is not currently in any discussions.A Ladbrokes spokesman declined to comment.As well as paving the way for potential M&A, the disposal makes GVC more attractive to investors who had been deterred by the company’s exposure to Turkey, Alexander said.Regulated and locally taxed markets perceived as less risky will account for about 75 percent of the company’s net gaming revenue after the Turkish disposal, which is expected to complete by the end of December.Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gvc-holdings-divestiture/britains-gvc-readies-for-deals-with-sale-of-turkish-operations-idUSKBN1D2195'|'2017-11-02T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'9d8682815faf05a8844369c0f6341d713d26a5e8'|'Morning News Call - India, November 1'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek, Maruti Suzuki India Executive Advisor M.M. Singh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh at CII’s Invest North event in Mumbai. 10:00 am: Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at Assocham’s “A Global Way To Manage Working Capital” event in New Delhi. 10:00 am: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, J.K Paper Vice Chairman and MD Harsh Pati Singhania and other paper manufacturing industry officials at Paperex 2017 in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Trade Joint Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey at FICCI’s ‘E-commerce, Digital Infrastructure, Trade Rules and WTO’ event in New Delhi. 11:30 am: Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Junior Food Processing Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti to address media ahead of World Food India 2017, in New Delhi. 02:30 pm: TVS Motors post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 04:30 pm: Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar at 65th Foundation Day of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation in New Delhi. 04:30 pm: Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha to brief media on the proposed Civil Aviation Requirements regarding Unmanned Aircraft System, in New Delhi. 05:00 pm: Godrej Consumer Products post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:00 pm: JSW Energy post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:00 pm: Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:30 pm: Tech Mahindra post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 06:30 pm: Shriram Transport Finance post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. GMF: LIVECHAT - FX FOCUS Independent economist Clifford Bennett will discuss the outlook of major currency pairs amid the Federal Reserve chairman race, Turnbull government''s loss of majority, and the rise of Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, at 09:00 am IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • India jumps to 100th spot on World Bank''s Ease of Doing Business list India jumped into 100th place on the World Bank''s ranking of countries by Ease of Doing Business for the first time in its report for 2018, up about 30 places, driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors. • Bharti Airtel gets approach for controlling stake in mobile tower arm Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday it had been approached by global investors interested in a controlling stake in its mobile masts unit Bharti Infratel. • IndiGo says profit helped by Pratt, Airbus payouts InterGlobe Aviation, the owner of India''s biggest airline IndiGo, reported a rise in quarterly profit, helped by compensation received from Pratt & Whitney and Airbus on aircraft groundings and delivery delays. • Tata Steel elevates Narendran as global CEO & MD India''s Tata Steel has promoted T.V. Narendran as chief executive officer and managing director globally, the company said on Tuesday. • IDBI Bank betting on bad loan recovery, asset sales for turnaround India''s state-run IDBI Bank is betting on slowing the pace of additional bad loans, improving operating profit and selling non-core assets to help turn around its fortunes after reporting its fourth-straight quarterly loss on Tuesday. • State Bank of India cuts lending rates, first time in 10 months State Bank of India, the country''s top lender by assets, will cut marginal cost-based lending rates (MCLR) across maturities by 5 basis points, in what will be its first lending rate cut in 10 months. • Dr. Reddy''s Q2 profit beats estimates, shares rise Dr. Reddy''s Laboratories posted a better-than-expected second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, helped by higher revenue from its European business, driving shares of the drugmaker up to a one-month high. • JSW Steel second quarter profit up 27 percent Indian steel producer JSW Steel reported a 27 percent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by higher steel sales. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Eight dead in suspected terrorist truck attack on Manhattan bike path A man driving a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path alongside the Hudson River in New York City on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring about a dozen others in what authorities said was an act of terrorism. • U.S. pursues direct diplomacy with North Korea despite Trump rejection The United States is quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump''s public assertion that such talks are a waste of time. • Sony shares soar to 9-year high after forecast of record profit Shares in Sony soared to a nine-year high after it forecast record earnings, underscoring the success of its restructuring efforts and raising expectations of sustained momentum in profitability. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,416.50, trading up 0.37 percent from its previous close. Indian government bonds are likely to trade steady ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision due later today. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 may trade in a 6.84 percent-6.89 percent band. The Indian rupee will likely be little changed against the dollar in early trade, as investors await the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy later today. Possibility of Republican lawmakers introducing a bill on tax cuts, the U.S. Treasury Department’s refunding announcement and an imminent selection of the Fed’s head also kept investors on the edge. GLOBAL MARKETS • A jump in shares of consumer companies Mondelez and Kellogg after their quarterly reports on Tuesday, along with further gains for tech stocks, helped Wall Street end October on a positive note. • Asian shares hit a 10-year high on the back of solid economic growth globally, while oil prices extended a bull run on hopes that major oil producers will maintain their output cuts. • The dollar edged higher, as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve''s two-day policy meeting later in the session for clues about future tightening. • U.S. Treasury debt prices were steady on Tuesday as investors awaited a heavy calendar of events that market participants expected could prompt volatile prices moves for the rest of the week. • Brent crude oil prices were near two-year highs as OPEC has significantly improved compliance with its pledged supply cuts and Russia is also seen keeping to the deal. • Gold edged lower as the dollar firmed with investors awaiting hints on a U.S rate hike following the Federal Reserve''s two-day policy meeting. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.72/64.75 October 31 -$82.2 mln $247.72 mln 10-yr bond yield 6.99 pct Month-to-date $304.2 mln $2.66 bln Year-to-date $5.66 bln $25.95 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.7400 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Nayyar Rasheed in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-1-idINL4N1N71NK'|'2017-11-01T00:27:00.000+02:00'
'ac8cc3e129b976d739cdb7da2630f92b0c59f662'|'TPP talks without U.S. near final stretch ahead of APEC'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:08 PM / in a few seconds TPP talks without U.S. near final stretch ahead of APEC Reuters Staff 3 Min Read URAYASU, Japan (Reuters) - The 11 remaining nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the United States edged towards sealing a comprehensive free trade pact after New Zealand agreed to amend laws that are not subject to TPP, to enable its ban on foreign home purchases. The pact aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across an 11-nation bloc whose trade totaled $356.3 billion last year. This week’s compromise saves member nations from having to renegotiate the ambitious trade pact to accommodate the New Zealand government’s demands for firm measures to rein in housing prices. It also brings member countries closer to an important victory in support of free trade to be finalised at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next week in Vietnam’s central city of Danang. “The momentum towards (an agreement) at the meeting in Danang has significantly increased,” said Japan’s chief TPP negotiator, Kazuyoshi Umemoto. “The economic impact is certainly not small, but the even bigger message is this agreement can influence the global economic system and bring about peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.” Negotiators gathered for three days in Urayasu, east of the Japanese capital, to narrow down which terms of the original 12-nation deal to suspend, so as to salvage the pact at the Vietnam summit. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was sworn in last week, has announced plans to ban foreign home purchases that should curb speculation without forcing TPP countries to renegotiate the pact. Japan hopes the deal, which links 11 countries with a combined GDP of $12.4 trillion, can show other nations it can champion free trade in the absence of Washington’s influence. It could also help Japan resist U.S. pressure for a two-way trade pact, which is likely to come up when President Donald Trump visits, from Sunday until Tuesday, for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “A TPP agreement could damage the United States, so domestically people may start to realize that they can’t be left behind in free trade,” said Kensuke Yanagida, a research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. The TPP pact was thrown into doubt when Trump pulled the United States out in January to prioritize protecting jobs. New Zealand and Vietnam subsequently pushed to renegotiate it, but countries have been able to narrow their differences in the final stretch. Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Stanley White; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-tpp-japan/tpp-talks-without-u-s-near-final-stretch-ahead-of-apec-idUKKBN1D14MB'|'2017-11-01T13:57:00.000+02:00'
'3eb2905be0f638bc6fdd46fce90547a142344889'|'BUZZ-Loma Negra Cia Industrial Argentina: Up in debut'|'** Argentina’s largest cement producer rises as much as 14.2 pct in debut** Market valuation $12.93 billion based on 596 million shares outstanding** Opens at $21.65 vs IPO price of $19; raises about $954 million** 50.2 million American depositary shares sold at top of the proposed range of $15 to $19/ADS ( bit.ly/2z4C3Be )** One ADS represents 5 common shares listed on the local exchange, company says** Most of the proceeds will go to Intercement Brasil SA, Brazil’s second-largest cement producer, which owns 99 percent of Loma Negra (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buzz-loma-negra-cia-industrial-argentina/buzz-loma-negra-cia-industrial-argentina-up-in-debut-idINL4N1N755W'|'2017-11-01T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'f1fe5202deeee66f1c9d54d967d8bad3a365d073'|'Aircraft lessor Avolon eyeing No. 1 slot on acquisitions, organic growth - CEO'|'HONG KONG, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Avolon, the world’s third-biggest aircraft lessor, wants to double in size through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions at a time when the industry outlook looks positive for several years, the company’s CEO said on Wednesday.“Avolon’s strategic objective is to become No. 1 in the world in as short time as possible really,” Avolon Chief Executive Domhnal Slattery said, but topping GE Capital Aviation Services and AerCap Holdings would require doubling in size.“We’ll be opportunistically waiting for the moment (for acquisitions). My feeling though is that moment to pounce will only come in scale at the next downcycle,” Slattery told Reuters on the sidelines of Euromoney’s Asia Pacific Airfinance Conference.“So between now and then, Avolon will grow organically, which is in the region of $4 billion to $5 billion per year.”The aircraft lessor has a balance sheet of almost $30 billion, Slattery said.Dublin-based Avolon, a fully-owned owned subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed Bohai Capital Holding Co., which is part of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, has a portfolio of 915 owned, managed and committed planes catering to 151 airlines in 65 countries.Slattery said he expected a flood of Asian capital to continue to supply the industry over the next three to five years because Chinese institutional investors and asset managers liked the risk/reward ratio of investing in aircraft.“My opinion is we are several years away from a turn in the cycle,” he said, referring to the outlook.Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aviation-finance-avolon/aircraft-lessor-avolon-eyeing-no-1-slot-on-acquisitions-organic-growth-ceo-idINL4N1N7324'|'2017-11-01T05:38:00.000+02:00'
'cf3f223fbadd99cb744abfcf368beac82e8492c2'|'Wal-Mart triples online items, lowers prices as holiday season kicks in'|'November 1, 2017 / 4:04 AM / in 7 hours Wal-Mart triples online items, lowers prices as holiday season kicks in Nandita Bose 2 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is planning to boost sales and fend off rivals this holiday season by doubling down on incentives for shoppers who buy online and those who visit its stores. A general view shows a Wal-Mart store in Monterrey, Mexico, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril The world’s largest retailer said it tripled its online selections for the holiday season to 60 million items, and that it would provide free two-day shipping on more than two million products when the order size exceeds $35. It said it would also offer discounts for online orders picked up at its stores. The company said its stores and website would offer more exclusive products from companies such as appliance maker Cuisinart and audio equipment maker Bose. The plans were announced at a media briefing to outline Wal-Mart’s strategy for the November and December holiday shopping season, an important period for retailers during which they earn an outsized portion of their annual profits and sales. Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart said the retailer would offer “thousands of rollbacks” or reduced prices across products that would include lower prices on 400 toys from brands like Lego and Nerf. “We are buying as much inventory as we think we can handle and sell ... we think we are in a really strong position,” Bratspies said. Bratspies said that for the third consecutive year the retailer would focus more on discounts and offering the lowest prices on items instead of gimmicky product deals, as customers expect more consistent pricing. Wal-Mart will hold more than 20,000 holiday events at its stores where shoppers can test and try top-selling items, chief marketing officer Tony Rogers said, adding that the company was investing heavily in improving the shopping experience at its stores. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/wal-mart-triples-online-items-lowers-prices-as-holiday-season-kicks-in-idUSKBN1D13GX'|'2017-11-01T06:06:00.000+02:00'
'3fd1fe5ef0a0c41974da1e63ed8045df59a68900'|'Chesapeake Energy posts smaller loss as costs fall'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:28 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Chesapeake warns of modest 2018 production growth Yashaswini Swamynathan , John Benny 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp ( CHK.N ) on Thursday missed Wall Street’s quarterly revenue estimates and warned of flat-to-modest production growth next year, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent. FILE PHOTO - Chesapeake Energy Corporation''s 50 acre campus is seen in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. on April 17, 2012. REUTERS/Steve Sisney/File Photo Capital One Securities said Wall Street was looking for 7 percent production growth for 2018. Chesapeake is recovering from disruptions caused by Hurricane Harvey, which forced it to stop work in the Eagle Ford shale region of Texas. Revenue dropped 14.6 percent to $1.94 billion in the third quarter, missing average analysts’ estimate of $2.07 billion. Production fell 15 percent, in line with the company’s warning in September. The Oklahoma-based company said it expects to spend less in 2018, after raising the lower end of its capex budget for 2017 by $200 million. Chesapeake is selling assets worth $2 billion to $3 billion to shore up its balance sheet. The company is saddled with $9.90 billion in debt as of Sept. 30. Excluding items, Chesapeake earned 12 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimate by 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company’s shares were down 6 percent at $3.72 Thursday morning. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chesapeakeenergy-results/chesapeake-energy-posts-smaller-loss-as-costs-fall-idUSKBN1D21EJ'|'2017-11-02T13:27:00.000+02:00'
'c0f102c4325848647fe3f46e4af2f08cc57f904c'|'LPC-Office Depot highlights US retailers'' loan woes'|'LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Office supply retailer Office Depot Inc has been forced to sweeten terms on a US$750m term loan B as low US secondary loan prices continue to reflect the threat that the troubled sector is facing from online retail giants such as Amazon.The leads had to make a raft of changes including hiking pricing, shortening the tenor and securing the deal on Office Depot’s headquarters, to help the loan to clear the market after investors cited concerns over slumping sales.The loan backs Office Depot’s US$1bn acquisition of US IT services company CompuCom.Lead banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo increased Office Depot’s pricing to 700bp over Libor from 500bp-525bp, widened the original issue discount to 97 from 98.5 and shortened the tenor to five years from six years previously.The pricing changes reflect US retailers’ persistently low secondary loan prices, some of which fell further after J.C. Penney’s profit warning on October 27 sent its shares to an all-time low and pushed its secondary loan price lower.J.C. Penney’s term loan fell around four points on October 27 to 91.5-92.5% of face value from 95.5-96.5 after it cut its forecast. Neiman Marcus’ term loan was around 80 in October and was Quote: d lower at 78 on November 1.Retail companies have made up the bulk of defaults this year and Toys ‘R’ Us’ bankruptcy filing in September pushed the sector default rate to 7.3%, which could rise to 10% in 2018, according to Fitch Ratings. Teen retailer Styles For Less said last Wednesday that it is preparing to file for bankruptcy.The sector’s troubles, paired with online giants such as Amazon taking a bigger market share, means that investors need to be convinced that a retail credit is specialised enough to be able to compete with Amazon, a senior banker said.“If there’s a sector that ever needed a story told [in order to sell a credit], it’s retail,” the senior banker said.Low secondary prices could affect retailers’ ability to access the primary market going forward through the New Year, a banker said. Nordstrom had trouble securing financing to back a potential buyout, dropping its sale efforts, Reuters reported last month.“If you’re an underwriter and you’ve had a record year why would you take the chance on the sector? What are you trying to prove?” the senior banker said. “We wouldn’t touch the sector right now.”Investors may be prepared to make some distinctions as they cautiously distinguish between retailers.Off-price retailer Burlington held a lender call on October 30 for a term loan refinancing, which is expected to face fewer issues as discount retailers are considered stronger credits.Burlington’s strong financial track record is reflected in its low proposed pricing. The US$1.117bn seven-year loan is being guided in the 225bp-250bp range. Strong leadership at the company and its merchant background has inspired confidence among lenders and the company has a loyal fan base, a credit investor said.“Burlington is one of the few bright spots in retail that has differentiated itself,” the investor said.FURTHER CHANGES Office Depot’s loan saw several other changes. Amortisation has been increased to 10% annually, from 5% and the loan will have a 102/101 hard call schedule, compared to six months of soft call protection at 101 initially.The incremental starter basket, all grower baskets and the Most Favoured Nation sunset provision have been removed.More cashflow has been earmarked to repay debt and the company has less discretion over payments.The general restricted payments basket has been significantly reduced to US$10m from US$150m and the general investment basket has been reduced to US$50m from US$150m previously.The loan will also now be secured on Office Depot’s headquarters, which will be used as collateral.The CompuCom acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2017, pending regulatory approval. It will help position the company as a provider of broader business services and technology products.Office Depot is rated B1/B. The loan is rated B1/B+. (Additional reporting by Andrew Berlin, and Jonathan Schwarzberg in New York. Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/retail-loans/lpc-office-depot-highlights-us-retailers-loan-woes-idINL8N1N96FZ'|'2017-11-03T17:02:00.000+02:00'
'0a3f929aba5cc7c23705dd24921b474f85b599b7'|'Equifax committee clears executive stock sales made after data breach'|' 31 PM / in 31 minutes Equifax committee clears executive stock sales made after data breach Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Equifax Inc ( EFX.N ) said on Friday that executives who sold shares before the credit-reporting service disclosed a massive data breach were not aware of the incident when their trades were made. FILE PHOTO: Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo A special committee set up by the board to investigate the trades concluded that the four executives were not engaged in insider trading and that pre-clearance for the trades was appropriately obtained. ( reut.rs/2habhk9 ) The company’s shares rose 2 percent in premarket trading to $111.29. Equifax disclosed in September that a data breach had affected as many as 145.5 million U.S. consumers. Some senior executives, including the company’s chief financial officer, sold $1.8 million (£1.3 million) in shares three days after the company learned about the breach on July 29. “The conclusion that the Company executives in question traded appropriately is an extremely important finding and very reassuring,” said non-executive Chairman Mark Feidler. The hack, among the largest ever recorded, was especially alarming due to the richness of the information exposed, which included names, birthdays, addresses and Social Security and driver’s license numbers, cyber researchers have said. It prompted investigations by multiple federal and state agencies, including a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice. In September, the Atlanta-based company said Chief Executive Richard Smith would leave and forgo this year''s bonus. ( reut.rs/2h9YT3j ) Credit monitoring services such as Equifax collect vast amounts of financial information from consumers without their knowledge, working with banks and other lenders, for example, to track the creditworthiness of individuals. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-equifax-cyber/equifax-committee-clears-executive-stock-sales-made-after-data-breach-idUKKBN1D31GV'|'2017-11-03T15:30:00.000+02:00'
'5b582382870a67b44615d015c77e7b67baa52fd1'|'Ready meals firm Bakkavor shelves plans to list in London'|' 24 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Ready meals firm Bakkavor shelves plans to list in London Reuters Staff 1   Ready meals supplier Bakkavor has cancelled its planned initial public offering in London, blaming volatile market conditions. The company, which sources said had been set for a valuation of up to 1.5 billion pounds, said it had shelved the listing despite receiving “sufficient” institutional demand to cover its offering. “The board has taken the decision that proceeding with the transaction would not be in the best interests of the company, or its shareholders, given the current volatility in the IPO market,” it said in a statement. Reporting by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bakkavor-ipo/ready-meals-firm-bakkavor-shelves-plans-to-list-in-london-idUKKBN1D30IH'|'2017-11-03T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'41e9b573bff641a865f1be2d63d1ab8f20304269'|'UPDATE 1-Air France-KLM profit jumps as price trends improve'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:40 AM / in 13 minutes UPDATE 1-Air France-KLM profit jumps as price trends improve Reuters Staff * Q3 op profit up 38.7 pct to 1.022 bln euros * Airline sees improving price trends * Nov/December forward bookings up vs year ago PARIS/BERLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Air France-KLM said improving price trends helped it report better than expected third quarter profits, joining major European peers in benefiting from strong summer demand. The Franco-Dutch company reported third quarter operating profit up 38.7 percent to 1.022 billion euros ($1.2 billion), against the average analyst expectation of 953 million in a Reuters poll. Unit revenues - a closely watched measure of how much income is generates per unit of capacity - increased 4.1 percent in the quarter and Air France-KLM said it expected an increase in the fourth quarter as well, driven by long-haul bookings. “Unit revenues in October were positive, forward bookings for November and December are ahead of last year,” finance chief Frederic Gagey said. Lufthansa last week said unit revenues rose 4.5 percent in the third quarter, outpacing British Airways-parent IAG, which saw a 2.2 percent rise as it added capacity from Aer Lingus and low cost unit Level to transatlantic routes. Air France-KLM has also been benefiting from a return of U.S. and Asian passengers to Europe this year after attacks deterred travellers last year. The group also said on Friday it would be introducing an 11 euros one-way surcharge on bookings made via third-party GDS systems, such as Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre from April 1, 2018. It is following the example of Lufthansa and British Airways as airlines use new technology to gain more control over ticket sales. Air France-KLM said it still wanted to cut unit costs by 1-1.5 percent this year, although it now said that target was excluding effects caused by higher load factors and profit sharing. The group’s French brand has lagged rivals on the cost-cutting front, leading to lower profitability. Air France reported a Q3 profit margin of 11 percent, with KLM at 18.5 percent. That compares with an operating profit margin of 18.1 for the Lufthansa brand and 21.5 percent for British Airways. Its Air France business has set up a new lower cost airline Joon, which it hopes will attract a younger generation of customers and make it more competitive against leaner Gulf-based rivals and low cost carriers. Air France-KLM did not give a profit outlook for the year. Analysts forecast on average 1.519 billion euros, which would be a 45 percent jump on last year. $1 = 0.8573 euros Reporting by Cyril Altmeyer and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/air-france-klm-results/update-1-air-france-klm-profit-jumps-as-price-trends-improve-idUSL8N1N88IV'|'2017-11-03T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'2e09689926be67b77e343977062a1d8cd7656426'|'Turkey''s Global Yatirim eyes green energy deals after London investment'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:06 AM / in a few seconds Turkey''s Global Yatirim eyes green energy deals after London investment Can Sezer , Ebru Tuncay 3 Min Read ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish investment firm Global Yatirim Holding will focus on renewable energy and infrastructure projects and look to buy an asset manager, its chairman said, as part of a shift in strategy since an investment from London-based fund Centricus. In June Centricus bought a 31 percent stake in Global Yatirim for 245 million lira ($64 million). The Istanbul-listed firm now plans to exit less profitable operations such as real estate and mining, Chairman Mehmet Kutman told Reuters, and bid for the Turkish government’s next renewable energy tender. The change in strategy chimes with Turkey’s new long-term energy policy, announced this year, emphasizing renewable energy sources. Turkey, which is dependent on imports for almost all of its energy needs, in March awarded the first of an expected 10 tenders to build 1,000 megawatt (MW) solar energy plants. A consortium including South Korea’s Hanwha Corp and local firm Kalyon Holding won that tender, worth at least $1.3 billion. “We will certainly participate in the second tender with a foreign investor. Our bid will be a bit different and very competitive,” Kutman said in an interview late on Thursday. Centricus, previously called FAB Partners, was founded by former Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs bankers Nizar Al-Bassam and Dalinc Ariburnu. The two have advised the $93 billion Softbank Vision Fund, backed by SoftBank Group and its billionaire Japanese founder, Masayoshi Son. Kutman said Global Yatirim aimed to invest $500 million in biomass plants, which produce energy by incinerating natural waste. The firm is targeting a capacity of 250 MW by 2020. Individual plants have a capacity of 12-24 MW each. In collaboration with Centricus, Global Yatirim was also looking to buy a non-bank owned asset management company. Global Yatirim already owns asset management firm Actus Portfoy, which has 632 million lira in assets under management. Acquiring another fund manager would make Global Turkey’s largest non-bank asset manager in terms of assets under management, Kutman said. “Centricus have faith in that sector and they have a specific interest in Turkey. They want to expand,” he said. The two firms were also planning to work together and would hold a road show next year to raise $1 billion from foreign investors to finance large infrastructure investments, he said. Writing by Ece Toksabay and Dirimcan Barut; Editing by David Dolan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-global-yatirim/turkeys-global-yatirim-eyes-green-energy-deals-after-london-investment-idUKKBN1D312B'|'2017-11-03T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'7731e31ac73c8a13cf130b6c7bbdfe730922170d'|'Exclusive: General Electric mulls options for aircraft leasing unit - sources'|'November 6, 2017 / 8:49 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Exclusive: General Electric mulls options for aircraft leasing unit - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) is exploring options for its aircraft leasing operations, including the sale of all or part of that business, as the company’s new chief executive, John Flannery, searches for new divestitures, according to   matter. FILE PHOTO - The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril GE is considering options for GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the world’s second-largest lessor, following expressions of interest from some of its competitors, the sources said on Monday. A spin-off of the business is also a possibility, the sources said, cautioning that GE may decide to keep the business. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. GE declined to comment. Reporting by Anshuman Daga in Singapore   Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofssky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-aviation/exclusive-general-electric-mulls-options-for-aircraft-leasing-unit-sources-idUSKBN1D62OM'|'2017-11-06T22:48:00.000+02:00'
'bdcfac49474c8d430e1e6e10e112b0cf1aacdc9e'|'UPDATE 1-SoftBank Group Q2 operating profit rises 21 pct on Vision Fund boost - Reuters'|'* Q2 operating profit rises to 395.6 bln yen from 328.1 bln yr ago* Operating profit buoyed by Vision Fund gains (Adds details on Vision Fund)TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp reported on Monday a 21 percent rise in second-quarter operating profit as the value of its technology investments grew.The Japanese tech and telecoms firm is funnelling money to U.S. firms as it invests in technology companies around the world, including through its $98 billion Vision Fund, as founder Masayoshi Son pursues his vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence, interconnected devices and robotics.Profit for the July-September quarter rose to 395.6 billion yen ($3.46 billion) from 328.1 billion yen a year earlier, the company said. Excluding profit from the Vision Fund, income would have fallen 4 percent.Son is under pressure to turn around its U.S. wireless unit Sprint Corp, especially after it broke off merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc.SoftBank said on Sunday it would raise its stake in Sprint to under 85 percent from 83 percent in a show of commitment to the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier which, while managing to grow its customer base, has relied on heavy discounting to do so and is weighed down with $38 billion of debt. ($1 = 114.2700 yen) (Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/softbank-group-results/update-1-softbank-group-q2-operating-profit-rises-21-pct-on-vision-fund-boost-idINL3N1NC2M9'|'2017-11-06T03:46:00.000+02:00'
'a709c6775fae53d5b478483f25726740e012c19b'|'Barclays fails to end U.S. ''dark pool'' class action'|' 08 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Barclays fails to end U.S. ''dark pool'' class action Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barclays Plc ( BARC.L ) has failed to persuade a U.S. appeals court to unwind a class action lawsuit accusing the British bank of defrauding shareholders about its private “dark pool” trading platforms. FILE PHOTO: The Barclays   a branch of the bank in London, Britain, October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Monday’s decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York lets investors in Barclays’ American depository shares sue as a group despite a legal error by the judge who certified the class action. The appeals court called that error “harmless.” Class actions can allow plaintiffs to recover more money than if forced to sue individually. Jeremy Lieberman, a lawyer for the Barclays plaintiffs, said the 3-0 decision reflects the “common sense” idea that investors in widely traded securities be allowed to sue collectively. Barclays spokeswoman Kerrie Cohen declined to comment. The defendants also include former Chief Executives Robert Diamond and Antony Jenkins, and William White, former head of equities electronic trading at Barclays Capital. Dark pools were designed to let people quietly trade shares before investors in the broader market could bet against them. The Barclays investors accused the bank of misleading them about its business and culture by touting its Liquidity Cross, or LX, dark pool as a safe venue, when it actually gave high-frequency traders an unfair advantage. They said the truth came out when New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the bank on June 25, 2014, causing its share price to fall 7.4 percent the next day. In January 2016, Barclays admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay $70 million to settle dark pool claims by Schneiderman and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Writing for the appeals court, Circuit Judge Christopher Droney said a class action was proper because the Barclays investors “directly linked” their damages to the stock price decline resulting from Schneiderman’s lawsuit. “Investors were concerned with lack of management honesty and control” because such problems “could result in considerable costs,” he wrote. “Thus, the regulatory action and any ensuing fines were a part of the alleged harm the plaintiffs suffered.” Droney agreed with Barclays that U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who granted class-action status in February 2016, misapplied a U.S. Supreme Court precedent addressing investors’ reliance on information a defendant failed to disclose. But he said the error was harmless because Scheindlin could presume reliance on Barclays’ alleged misstatements under a different Supreme Court precedent. Scheindlin left the bench last year for private practise. The case is Waggoner et al v Barclays Plc et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-1912. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Dena Aubin in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-barclays-darkpool-lawsuit/barclays-fails-to-end-u-s-dark-pool-class-action-idUKKBN1D62IJ'|'2017-11-06T21:07:00.000+02:00'
'85647ed331c718a27d82d761146c8db76a818e44'|'Japanese logistics firm SG Holdings IPO to raise up to $1.1 billion'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese logistics company SG Holdings Co said on Monday its initial public offering would raise up to 124.5 billion yen ($1.1 billion), valuing the company at about 500 billion yen.The company, its employee shareholding association and others will sell 78,775,400 shares, including over-allotments, in a global offering tentatively priced at 1,580 yen, a regulatory filing showed.The company said the indicative price for book building, a process to gauge investor demand, will be set on Nov. 24 and the offering price will be finalised on Dec. 4. The shares will start trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 13.SG Holdings owns Sagawa Express Co, Japan’s second-largest parcel delivery company with a 30.6 percent market share. It also holds a 29 percent stake in Hitachi Transport System Ltd.Morgan Stanley and Daiwa Securities are joint global coordinators.Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sg-holdings-ipo/japanese-logistics-firm-sg-holdings-ipo-to-raise-up-to-1-1-billion-idUSKBN1D60NY'|'2017-11-06T15:43:00.000+02:00'
'cbd448844c916526a0c0c487088e41f16eb5c24f'|'ABB overhauls global Power Grids business, halts production at U.S, Swiss plants'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:27 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago ABB overhauls Power Grids, cuts U.S. and Swiss production John Revill 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB ( ABBN.S ) is reorganizing part of its global power grids operations as the Swiss engineering group responds to the division’s sluggish profitability and falling orders. ABB electrical transformer plant in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. on July 6, 2017. REUTERS/David Lawder The move comes as ABB seeks to justify its decision last year to reject calls from its second-largest shareholder to spin off Power Grids, the group’s biggest but least profitable business. Power Grids, which also makes electrical substations, has suffered a 9 percent drop in orders this year while its profit margin of 9.9 percent lags ABB’s other businesses and the group level of 12.5 percent. Although the business has improved in the third quarter, ABB is stepping up its efforts as it aims to achieve profitability for Power Grids of 10 to 14 percent from next year. ABB said on Monday that it will restructure operations in North America, halting production at its factory in St. Louis and investing in its sites in South Boston and Crystal Springs, Mississippi, as well as expanding its medium and large transformer factory in Varennes, Canada. The company said is also consolidating European production of traction transformers in Lodz, Poland, halting production of the train components at its factory in Geneva, Switzerland. Other initiatives include expansion of production in India to better supply the local market and a factory upgrade in Datong, China, to improve efficiency and meet increasing demand. ABB did not disclose the total number of jobs to be shed in the overhaul, though 100 are being axed in Geneva. The site will continue to produce high-speed chargers for electric buses. It said 120 jobs would go at the St. Louis site, with production shifting to South Boston. The eventual number of jobs going is expected to be balanced out by increased hiring in India, China and Boston, with more than 500 posts being created over the next two years. ABB declined to say how much the restructuring would cost, although analysts estimate $60 million to $80 million. The restructuring had been triggered by increased competition and the growing tendency for customers in India and China to buying products locally, ABB said. “This ... will enhance competitiveness and strengthen ABB’s global leadership in transformers by better aligning the business to reflect changing market dynamics,” said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s Power Grids division. Earlier on Monday ABB said it is putting its turnkey projects arm for the oil and gas industry into a joint venture majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering & Construction. Workers’ representatives in Geneva reacted angrily to the restructuring plan, saying that 100 fixed jobs and 43 temporary jobs would be lost. “The Geneva location has been profitable for a long time. The decision to outsource production will cost nearly 150 highly qualified jobs and the destruction of a modern production location in Geneva just for a short-term increase in profitability,” a spokesman for the Unia trade union said. (This version of the story has been corrected to remove reference to high voltage cables in third paragraph as company has sold this business) Reporting by John Revill; Editing by David Goodman and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abb-factories-restructure/abb-overhauls-global-power-grids-business-halts-production-at-u-s-swiss-plants-idUSKBN1D620Z'|'2017-11-06T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'51624d5fa86aafb3fd5318adef21127a1b2aff33'|'Has Lloyds come up with a credible shrinking bank branch?'|'Has Lloyds come up with a credible shrinking bank branch? Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds micro-branches have replaced counters with iPads Lloyds Banking Group offers customers tablets and cash machines, but no counters. Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Observer Has Lloyds come up with a credible shrinking bank branch? Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds micro-branches have replaced counters with iPads View more sharing options Rupert Jones Saturday 4 November 2017 07.00 GMT I t’s not just bars of chocolate, new homes and glaciers that are getting smaller – so are bank branches. Over the coming weeks and months, Lloyds Banking Group will be shrinking some of its existing high street outlets and turning them into “micro-branches”. These tiny branches won’t have traditional counters, so if you want to withdraw cash or pay money into your account you will have to serve yourself using a machine. And while staff will be on hand, customers are being warned that there will be lots of things that you won’t be able to do in these pint-sized branches. Plan to shut free-to-use cash machines could lead to ‘ATM deserts’ in UK Read more The Lloyds group is currently in the midst of a major shake-up of its network. As Guardian Money reported last month, it recently opened its first “flagship” branch in Manchester city centre : a huge Lloyds Bank boasting acres of space, its own coffee shop and dedicated business hub alongside all the services you would normally expect. But while some people are having their branch super-sized, others are getting the opposite treatment and will soon find that their local branch is arguably a shadow of its former self. Earlier this year the bank started trialling a micro-branch located near St Paul’s cathedral in London, and there are now three more up and running: in the Summertown suburb of Oxford (Lloyds Bank), in Weybridge, Surrey (Lloyds Bank), and in Windsor (Halifax). The group says it expects to open around 10 micro-branches by the end of the year across its Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands, adding: “We will continue to test these new formats and expect to open a small number in early 2018.” These will all be conversions of existing branches, not new outlets. A spokeswoman says they will provide convenient access to everyday banking in smaller towns or support larger branches in city centres, and will be primarily self-service, with staff there to provide assistance. She says the counters will be replaced by tablets, cashpoints and deposit machines that will give customers access to day-to-day banking services such as withdrawing and depositing cash, opening and closing accounts, arranging an overdraft or applying for a credit card. However, in letters being sent to customers outlining changes to their terms and conditions, Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland are saying that in branches without counters: • You can’t pay in cash or cheques to credit card, loan or mortgage accounts. • You can’t pay in or take out coins. • You can order travel money but only collect it or sell it back at a branch with counters. • There will be no Depositpoint/Express Pay-In, post boxes or night safe services. However, people applying for a mortgage will typically be able to use a new in-branch video appointment service. The spokeswoman adds: “The majority of these branches may not have been upgraded for a number of years, so this does represent an investment for the community.” When Money visited the London micro-branch earlier this year, we said it was about the size of a studio flat and resembled “a pint-sized Apple store … [with] iPad-wielding staff offering help and advice around a white table”. Folding doors allowed the creation of a private space for appointments. The banking group, meanwhile, says early feedback from customers has been “very positive”. “We will work closely with our customers to understand what they think of this new format and what we can learn to make sure we have a network which is fit for purpose based on how customers are using our branches today and in the future.” Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/04/has-lloyds-come-up-with-a-credible-shrinking-bank-branch'|'2017-11-04T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'dbf933f2a7137fae8e1f932234b6c7a4f6555a32'|'Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down, Gail Boudreaux to succeed -WSJ'|'Nov 3 (Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc’s Chief Executive Joseph Swedish will step down and be succeeded by Gail Boudreaux, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.It is unclear how quickly the transition will occur, but the plan is expected to be announced as soon as next week, the publication reported. ( on.wsj.com/2haxzSO )Anthem was not immediately available for comment.Swedish has led Anthem since 2013, replacing former CEO Angela Braly, who resigned under investor pressure. (Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/anthem-ceo/anthem-ceo-joseph-swedish-to-step-down-gail-boudreaux-to-succeed-wsj-idINL2N1N9270'|'2017-11-03T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'2921fbb040790180e154295311525a35a22e6a17'|'EU regulators suspend Luxottica, Essilor probe, await data'|'November 3, 2017 / 12:02 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago EU regulators suspend Luxottica, Essilor probe, await data Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have suspended an investigation into the $54 billion (£41.2 billion) merger between French glasses group Essilor ( ESSI.PA ) and Italy’s Luxottica ( LUX.MI ) after the companies failed to provide requested data. FILE PHOTO: The Luxottica name is reflected in a pair of sunglasses in this photo illustration taken in Rome February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/Illustration/File Photo The deal has sparked regulatory concerns that it may lead to price rises or mean retailers are forced to buy both lens and eyewear from the merged company. The European Commission, which opened a full-scale investigation into the case on Sept. 26, said it stopped the clock on Oct. 25. “This procedure in merger investigations is activated if the parties fail to provide, in a timely fashion, an important piece of information that the Commission has requested from them,” the EU competition authority said in an email. “Once the missing information is supplied by the parties, the clock is re-started and the deadline for the Commission’s decision is then adjusted accordingly.” Australia’s competition agency cleared the deal last month, saying it did not see any issues. U.S. regulators are also examining the merger. Luxottica’s brands include Ray Ban and Persol, and licensed names such as Chanel and Armani. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-luxottica-group-m-a-essilor-eu/eu-regulators-suspend-luxottica-essilor-probe-await-data-idUKKBN1D318F'|'2017-11-03T14:01:00.000+02:00'
'2d25d857ab910a6e5b9c78b317a3097369fcd3cd'|'Toyota''s October China vehicle sales up 13.5 percent year-on-year'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ), Japan’s biggest automaker by volume, has fallen to the No. 3 spot among Japanese automakers in China, due to lack of presence in a key segment – a situation experts say will likely prevail well past the middle of 2018.The logo of Toyota Motor Corp. is seen on a company''s Corolla car in Caracas, Venezuela October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello Through October, Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) and Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) both outsold Toyota in China, the world’s biggest car market.Toyota’s sales in the first 10 months of this year totaled 1.07 million vehicles, compared with 1.16 million vehicles Honda sold during the same period. Nissan’s volume through October amounted to 1.17 million vehicles.China-market experts believe the main cause for Toyota’s relative weakness lies in the lack of smallish crossover sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) that others, most notably Honda in recent months, have leveraged to accelerate growth.Honda’s sales have started to grow relatively rapidly and more consistently since 2015, after two key subcompact crossover SUVs hit the market in late 2014.Though volume growth from these two models – the XR-V and the Vezel – have decelerated more recently, the gap was filled by the redesigned Civic car, among other models. The Civic hit the Chinese market in April last year.However, Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight, isn’t all that pessimistic about Toyota’s sales outlook.“Toyota’s compact sedans, especially (gasoline-electric) hybrid versions of the Corolla and the Levin, are doing well,” Zhang said. “That would give Toyota moderate growth in 2017 and next year, but the issue is the lack of presence” in one of the hottest segment in the Chinese auto market, he said.If Toyota had subcompact crossover SUVs like Honda’s Vezel and XR-V, “the company can generate an extra volume of 150,000 units a year at the least, which would be a pure incremental volume for Toyota since they don’t offer any product in this segment today,” Zhang said.Toyota marketing and advertising officials said that gap in the company’s product offerings will not be addressed by the middle of 2018.China-market versions of the subcompact Toyota CH-R crossover SUV will likely hit showrooms in China in a June-July time frame, they said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak with reporters. The CH-R hit showrooms in the United States in April this year.Toyota had no immediate and particular response to who is up and who is down in sales rankings within China. “We would like to continue to grow steadily in the Chinese market,” a Beijing-based spokesman said.Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-toyota/toyotas-october-china-vehicle-sales-up-13-5-percent-year-on-year-idUSKBN1D30CN'|'2017-11-03T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'557cc6dc5aa51704feebd5ed6a2e56a7e6f69a82'|'RPT-UPDATE 3-Venezuela to restructure foreign debt, default looms as possibility'|'(Repeats to widen distribution with no changes to text)By Brian Ellsworth and Eyanir ChineaCARACAS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela on Thursday announced plans to restructure its burgeoning foreign debt, a move that may lead to a default by the cash-strapped OPEC nation whose collapsing socialist economy has left its population struggling to find food and medicine.President Nicolas Maduro vowed to make a $1.1 billion payment on a bond maturing on Thursday, but also created a commission to study “restructuring of all future payments” in order to meet the needs of citizens.Venezuela has few avenues to do that though because of sanctions by the United States that bar American banks from participating in or even negotiating such deals.Thus, Maduro’s most readily available recourse to ease payments is unilaterally halting them.“I am naming a special presidential commission led by Vice President Tareck El Aissami to begin refinancing and restructuring all of Venezuela’s external debt and (begin) the fight against the financial persecution of our country,” Maduro said in a televised speech.Venezuela and state-owned companies have $49 billion in bonds governed by New York Law and promissory notes, according to New York-based Torino Capital.The government and state oil company PDVSA owe some $1.6 billion in debt service and delayed interest payments by the end of the year, plus another $9 billion in bond servicing in 2018.The next hard payment deadline for PDVSA is an $81 million bond payment that was due on Oct 12 but on which the company delayed payment under a 30-day grace period. Failing to pay that on time would trigger a default, investors say.“Without a team, without a communications strategy and without a plan, I see a restructuring impossible,” said Asdrubal Oliveros of Caracas-based Ecoanalitica. “However, if the government decrees a unilateral restructuring - they say ‘take it or leave it’ - that is an event of default.”That would likely make countries less willing to do business with Venezuela, aggravating shortages of food and medicine and creating further problems for its all vital oil industry that is already hobbled by under-investment.Venezuela’s latest move could unleash a sovereign debt crisis of a scale not seen in Latin America since the massive 2001 default in Argentina that shut it out of global financial markets for years.Wall St. for years pumped billions of dollars into Venezuela by way of bond purchases, passing off the revolutionary rhetoric of the ruling Socialist Party as bluster that belied an iron-clad willingness to pay its debts.Maduro surprised many by maintaining debt service after the 2014 crash in oil prices, diverting hard currency away from imports of food and medicine toward Wall St. investors.PDVSA carried out a debt renegotiation in 2016.But that option was taken off the table after U.S. President Donald Trump levied sanctions blocking the purchase of new debt issued by Venezuela and government-owned entities.INVESTORS PUZZLED Investors seemed puzzled by Maduro’s statements on Thursday, which neither clearly declared default nor laid out a path to easing payment burden.And a restructuring plan would not get investor support without a clear plan to create a functioning market economy, said Jorge Piedrahita of New York-based Gear Capital Partners.“I don’t think they’ve thought through the issues,” said Piedrahita. “You need an economic program with some credibility behind it, otherwise why would people give you the benefit of the restructuring?”The mere presence of El Aissami on the new debt commission makes it a non-starter for U.S. financial institution. He was blacklisted this year by U.S. Treasury Department on accusations he is involved in drug trafficking.The increased pressure of the sanctions has already made banks more nervous about working with PDVSA, according to financial industry sources, leading to delays in simple operations.PDVSA struggled for days to deliver funds for a bond payment due last week amid confusion over which banks were charged with transferring the money.El Aissami on Thursday said settlement agent Euroclear had “blocked” a $1.2 billion bond payment.Critics say Maduro’s decision to put debt above imports has taken a huge toll on the population.Child malnutrition has reached the scale of a humanitarian crisis in four Venezuelan states, according to a May 2017 report by Caritas Internationalis, a Rome-based non-governmental organization with links to the Catholic Church. Medicine shortages have also left children dying of preventable diseases.Officials say ideological adversaries are exaggerating problems for political effect.But the situation is a stark contrast to the oil boom years of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who spent generously on social welfare programs while borrowing profusely to keep spending at full tilt.Venezuela’s debt is the highest yielding of emerging market bonds measured by JPMorgan’s EMBI Global Diversified Index , paying investors an average of 31 percentage points more than comparable U.S. Treasury notes.That is nearly double the spread on bonds issued by Mozambique, which is already in default, and more than six times the spread on bonds from war-torn Ukraine.Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Corina Pons, Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-bonds/rpt-update-3-venezuela-to-restructure-foreign-debt-default-looms-as-possibility-idINL2N1N905O'|'2017-11-03T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'829523371e23e873d70bfbdbfdd552b7a6032cb0'|'Bangladeshi firm signs deal with Germany''s Siemens to produce electricity'|'November 5, 2017 / 1:42 PM / in 18 minutes Bangladeshi firm signs deal with Germany''s Siemens to produce electricity Serajul Quadir 3 Min Read DHAKA (Reuters) - A state-run Bangladeshi power generation company has signed a deal with Germany’s Siemens AG ( SIEGn.DE ) to boost its electricity production by more than 20 percent to help support the country’s economic development. Siemens AG logo is seen during official opening of headquarters in Munich, Germany, June 24, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle “The project will cost $2.8 billion that comprised $2.4 billion(£1.84 billion) as loan and remaining $400 million will be equity participation of both companies,” A.M. Khurshidul Alam, the managing director of North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) of Bangladesh, said on Sunday. Alam said the project would be implemented in three phases and completed by 2021. It aims to produce 3,600 megawatts of electricity. “This will be the largest single power project and it will also be the largest single investment from any European country,” he added. The project will be set up in Payra of southern Patuakhali district, 320 km from (200 miles) Dhaka and from there power will be transmitted to the capital. “To be a middle income country by 2021 and a developed economy by 2041 the national demand of electricity will be 24,000 MW by 2021 and 60,000 MW by 2041,” said Nasrul Hamid, junior minister for power, energy and mineral resources. He said that to become a developed country Bangladesh needs uninterrupted and quality power supply all year round. The power generation will be fuelled by imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the country has no additional natural gas. “There is no additional gas in the country, and oil is too expensive with volatile price fluctuation, moreover LNG based power generation will be cheaper and it will also ensure clean energy,” Hamid said. At present Bangladesh has only 12.68 trillion cubic feet of gas and it will be exhausted by 2030 if no new gas fields are discovered and the consumption rate remains at the present level, energy officials said. Sunil Mathur, the chief executive officer of Siemens for south Asia, said that it would ensure Bangladesh acquired a world class power plant. At present Bangladesh has the theoretical capacity to produce power of up to 15,000 megawatts but it produces a maximum of 10,000. It cannot produce to the optimum level of capacity due to a lack of natural gas and the fact that some plants need upgrade work. About 81 percent people of 160 million population in Bangladesh have access to power. Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bangladesh-power-siemens/bangladeshi-firm-signs-deal-with-germanys-siemens-to-produce-electricity-idUKKBN1D50RE'|'2017-11-05T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'dc615390c40f8a124e42d657f490f4a812537f12'|'Japan Inc gingerly embraces more foreigners - The wa forward'|'MICHAEL WOODFORD, the first non-Japanese president of Olympus, likened the camera-maker’s board members who sacked him in 2011 to “children in a classroom”. Mr Woodford had confronted Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the company’s imperious chairman, over a $1.7bn hole in its finances. Mr Kikukawa responded by orchestrating a show of hands in a boardroom coup that sent the Englishman packing. It all fitted a cliché of Japan’s boardrooms as an all-Japanese, all-male club where wizened bosses ruthlessly enforce wa , or harmony.Gradually, the serenity is being disrupted. Nearly 15% of companies in the Nikkei 225 stock index now have at least one non-Japanese on their boards. That is still less than half the share in Britain’s FTSE 100, but it is up from 12% in 2013 and the trajectory seems set. Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Takeda, its largest pharmaceuticals company (which in 2015 appointed its first foreign chief executive, a Frenchman) announced the appointment of foreign directors this year. Of the ten directors at SoftBank, a telecoms and internet giant, seven are non-Japanese. When Japanese firms buy Western competitors, they often absorb foreigners into their higher echelons. Suntory, a drinks company, put the British chief executive of Beam, a spirits-maker, onto its board in 2014 when it acquired the American company. SoftBank’s embrace of foreigners reflects a diverse portfolio that includes ARM, a British chipmaker, and Sprint, an American telecoms firm. Greater outside influence over Japanese firms also stems from more overseas investors, who hold about 30% of Japanese shares, up from 23.5% in 2008.But more still needs to be done, and quickly, if large Japanese firms are to maintain global relevance, says George Buckley, an outside director of Hitachi, a conglomerate. Many boards continue to be rubber-stampers, not vigilant overseers of the sort that foreigners expect to sit on, agrees William Saito, a venture capitalist who advises the government. Elderly ex-chairmen and chief executives often wield considerable power even after retirement. (And if corporate giants are excluded, the number of foreigners on boards of listed firms has barely inched up, from 0.6% in 2001 to 0.8% last year.)Livelier boardrooms might help prod Japan’s risk-averse companies to invest more of their ¥214trn ($1.9trn) of cash, and boost the economy. Their foreign operations would also benefit from appointing more non-Japanese as business heads. In the past the easiest way for Japan’s manufacturers to control subsidiaries abroad was to send people they knew. That may not work for services, warns Masahiko Uotani, president of Shiseido, a cosmetics company. “You need people who can really understand local tastes,” he counsels.Unless Japanese business changes its ways, firms risk staying dangerously out of touch, agrees Christina Ahmadjian, a non-executive director at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, another conglomerate. The number of Japanese companies in the Fortune Global 500, a scorecard for big business, has dropped from 149 in 1995 to 51. A bit of disharmony can be productive.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "The wa forward"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730902-big-firms-are-putting-non-japanese-their-boards-japan-inc-gingerly-embraces-more-foreigners?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'db3a6850dafeaa3b523a6dd18660ea68937b3e34'|'CORRECTED-Puerto Rico''s PREPA utility creditors say power grid damage is overblown'|'(Corrects in paragraph 4 a preliminary figure provided by the bondholders for the number of observed distribution substations)By Nick BrownNEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Bondholders of Puerto Rico’s bankrupt power utility, PREPA, said on Friday that the damage to the local electric grid by Hurricane Maria is not as bad as the island’s government says, and could be fixed quickly with an outside energy expert in charge.The PREPA bondholders made the argument in a written filing in federal court in San Juan. The utility filed for a form of bankruptcy in June to shed $9 billion of debt, while Puerto Rico’s government filed for bankruptcy in May. It has $72 billion of total debt.The bondholders want to persuade the judge overseeing the island’s bankruptcy to pick an energy industry expert to run PREPA, from a list of names on which creditors may or may not have input.Citing their own assessment of grid damage, led by energy consultant Derek HasBrouck, the bondholders said some 95 percent of transmission assets are fully functional, and observed only “a few broken poles” among 75 distribution substations that were visually inspected.Those numbers contrast starkly with the Puerto Rican government’s assessment that 80 percent of the electric grid was destroyed when Maria made landfall on September 20, the most powerful storm to hit Puerto Rico in decades.Maria knocked out power to the entire island, and six weeks later only about 30 percent of electricity has been restored.The PREPA bondholders, who include mutual funds like Oppenheimer and Franklin Advisers, say HasBrouck’s findings prove Governor Ricardo Rossello’s administration has botched the response to Maria and that PREPA needs an outside manager.“It is imperative to retain an experienced, seasoned electric utility executive to run PREPA,” the bondholders said.In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, though, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello dismissed the idea that damage has been overstated.“To be clear and blunt, the devastation was severe,” Rossello said. “There is no way to minimize how significant that devastation was.”‘NOT ZAMOT’Whoever Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy judge appoints to step in at PREPA, the bondholders argued, it should not be Noel Zamot.The retired U.S. Air Force colonel was tapped for the role by a federal board that has a mandate to manage Puerto Rico’s finances. Zamot has worked with the board already on separate issues.His appointment must be confirmed by the judge. But Zamot, the bondholders argued, has no experience running a power utility.Their opposition hints at a broader power struggle over control of Puerto Rico’s financial turnaround between the board and investors bracing for big debt cuts.The squabble marks a return to a focus on Puerto Rico’s debt, after creditors stayed largely quiet for weeks following Maria, which killed at least 50 people on the island.Reporting by Nick Brown; editing by Daniel Bases and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-puertorico-creditors/puerto-ricos-prepa-utility-creditors-say-power-grid-damage-is-overblown-idUSL2N1N91LD'|'2017-11-04T03:16:00.000+02:00'
'8c319b8e6648784ea0f1517f969997c913000056'|'Quarter of oil refineries risk closure under climate goals - report'|'November 2, 2017 / 12:21 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Quarter of oil refineries risk closure under climate goals - report Ron Bousso 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A quarter of the world’s oil refineries risk closure by 2035 if governments meet targets to limit fossil fuel burning in the fight against global warming, a report released on Thursday said. FILE PHOTO - Oil tanks are seen at a Sinopec plant in Hefei, Anhui province, May 31, 2009. REUTERS/Jianan Yu A surge in electric vehicle sales and higher efficiency in internal combustion and jet engines are expected to slow demand growth for fuels such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel in the coming decades, potentially putting pressure on refining profits. At the same time, governments around the world are set to introduce legislation in the coming years to limit emissions of heat-capturing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in order to meet targets set at a U.N-backed Paris conference in 2015. As a result, companies such as Chevron ( CVX.N ), Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), France’ Total ( TOTF.PA ) and China’s largest refiner Sinopec could see profits from refining drop by 70 percent or more over the period, according to the report co-authored by environment thinktank Carbon Tracker, Swedish investment fund AP7 and Danish pension fund PKA. The study is based on the International Energy Agency’s 450 Scenario to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius under which oil demand declines by 23 percent between 2020 and 2035. Under this scenario, despite new refinery additions in Asia and the Middle East, only 62 percent of global capacity will be required to meet demand compared with around 80 percent today. Profits from converting crude oil into refined products will also shrink. That in turn means that approximately one quarter of the 2016 refining capacity, the equivalent of some 24.7 million barrels per day of oil demand, will need to be closed, the report said. The closures would likely be more pronounced in developed economies where oil demand is expected to peak earlier than in developing economies. Also, modern, complex refineries that can produce more high quality and cleaner fuels are likely to fare better than older plants. “The consequences of achieving a 2 degree Celsius world are far more detrimental to the refining sector than the upstream sector, as it results in structural over-capacity and associated poor refining margin environment, which can only be addressed by sustained capacity rationalisation,” said Alan Gelder, vice president for research at Edinburgh-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie which took part in the report. Meeting the emission reduction targets however seems distant today. A report published on Tuesday said global emissions are set to be 30 percent higher than the target needed by 2030. While oil companies including Shell have acknowledged that demand for some fuels such as gasoline could peak by the end of the 2020s, they expect demand for oil to remain strong for decades from heavy transport, aviation and chemical production. The authors of the report estimate that overall earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for refiners could fall by over 50 percent by 2035 from around $147 billion in 2015. “We consider that prospective investors should be wary of all new refinery investments,” the report said. “When demand growth stalls and turns negative, new investments will carry the risk of failing to earn an adequate return.” Carbon Tracker and a group of investors warned in a report earlier this year that oil giants risk spending trillions by 2025 on oil and gas projects that won’t be feasible under the international climate targets. Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climatechange-refining/quarter-of-oil-refineries-risk-closure-under-climate-goals-report-idUKKBN1D2017'|'2017-11-02T02:28:00.000+02:00'
'7395b2bcc76223dbdff470b7db0f547b5baf3cd8'|'Qualcomm sues Apple for contract breach'|'November 2, 2017 / 5:54 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Qualcomm sues Apple for contract breach Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) has sued Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), alleging that it violated a software license contract to benefit rival chipmaker Intel ( INTC.O ) for making broadband modems, the latest salvo in a longstanding dispute between the two companies. FILE PHOTO: One of many Qualcomm buildings is shown in San Diego, California, U.S. on November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm alleged in a lawsuit filed in the California state court in San Diego on Wednesday that Apple used its commercial leverage to demand unprecedented access to the chipmaker’s highly confidential software, including source code. Apple, which could not be immediately reached for comments, started using Intel’s broadband modem chips in the iPhone 7. Reuters had reported earlier this week that Apple would drop Qualcomm’s chips altogether from its iPhones and iPads from next year. (The story is corrected to add dropped word “not” in paragraph 3) Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-lawsuit-qualcomm/qualcomm-sues-apple-for-contract-breach-idUKKBN1D22HA'|'2017-11-02T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'6e9cc46b0535225bb1efa0abfd4b8986004d26ad'|'Growth without scale: Deutsche Telekom''s T-Mobile headache'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The collapse of the attempt by T-Mobile US to merge with Sprint Corp will underline its importance as a driver of growth when its main owner, Deutsche Telekom, reports quarterly results this week.A T-Mobile shop is pictured in San Ysidro, San Diego, California, U.S., October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake T-Mobile, under charismatic CEO John Legere, keeps hitting home runs, already reporting it that added 1.3 million net customers in the third quarter - the 18th time in a row it has achieved the feat.T-Mobile reported revenues in the third quarter that topped $10 billion for the first time, up 8 percent.The picture for Deutsche Telekom group on Thursday is likely to be different, with analysts on average forecasting group revenues of 18.4 billion euros ($21.4 billion) - a year-on-year gain of just 1.6 percent.That would reflect barely positive growth in Telekom’s crowded and heavily regulated home market, where sales rose just 0.4 percent in the first half, and at its European holdings that were ahead by just 1.5 percent.Deutsche Telekom, which has toyed with options for its U.S. business for years, put a brave face on the unraveling of the deal on Saturday night, saying T-Mobile would continue its successful growth strategy.“We supported our American subsidiary to invest more than $40 billion over the last years, thus building a basis for strong growth in the upcoming years,” CEO Tim Hoettges said.HOME AND AWAY But some investors wonder whether the best years may now be behind T-Mobile, whose shares have risen ninefold from the low they hit after the global financial crisis to a peak of $68 in June.“I’d just love them to sell it,” one UK-based fund manager who holds Deutsche Telekom stock said last week as reports surfaced that the T-Mobile-Sprint talks were in trouble.At T-Mobile’s latest share price, Deutsche Telekom’s 64 percent stake would be worth $31 billion.“There’s a tendency to run things for ever, sometimes, and then you end up selling at the wrong times,” the fund manager added.Together, T-Mobile and Sprint would have had about 130 million customers, putting a merged entity a close third in the United States behind market leaders AT&T and Verizon.Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers, requiring a lot more good quarters to close the gap on its own.Lacking sufficient scale and running a mobile-first strategy, T-Mobile may face challenges if Sprint, controlled by Japan’s Softbank Group, revives its efforts to hook up with a U.S. cable firm, according to a top-10 Telekom shareholder.An approach by Softbank chief Masayoshi Son was rebuffed in July by Charter Communications.($1 = 0.8615 euros)Additional reporting by Simon Jessop; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us-deutsche/growth-without-scale-deutsche-telekoms-t-mobile-headache-idINKBN1D50TE'|'2017-11-05T11:51:00.000+02:00'
'82c255049a29a9e432a1888beccfa0b44b61c2f0'|'Japan Oct services PMI rises to more than two-year high as new orders accelerate'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:36 AM / in 6 minutes Japan Oct services PMI rises to more than two-year high as new orders accelerate Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s services sector grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in October as new orders accelerated sharply, suggesting the economy is picking up momentum in the fourth quarter. Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. Picture taken October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White The Markit/Nikkei survey released on Monday showed its Japan Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.4 from 51.0 in September. The index remained above the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction for the 13th consecutive month and was at the highest level since August 2015. The new business index also expanded rapidly to 53.8 in October from 52.0 in the previous month, the fastest pace since May 2013. The strong demand and rising levels of new business encouraged the service sector to boost employment, extending the current sequence of increase to ten months. In another positive sign, the index for business sentiment rose to a fourth-month high of 55.5 from 53.3 in September. “The Japanese service sector made a strong start to the fourth quarter, with the headline business activity index hitting a 26-month high,” said Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey. “In the wake of (Prime Minister) Shinzo Abe’s election victory, confidence among Japanese service providers lifted.” Abe’s ruling coalition retained power with a comfortable victory in lower house elections last month, defeating a challenge from an upstart opposition party that threatened to alter the course of government policy. The composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services, rose to 53.4 from 51.7 in September to reach the highest level in five months. Some economists expect Japan’s growth to slow in July-September due to a bit of weakness in consumer spending. However, the services sector PMI suggests that any cooldown would be modest and the economy remains in good health in the current quarter. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-pmi-services/japan-oct-services-pmi-rises-to-more-than-two-year-high-as-new-orders-accelerate-idUKKBN1D601X'|'2017-11-06T02:35:00.000+02:00'
'c4acdea89e733672907005c3ce5ee00fdc311549'|'Alli eager to make amends on Champions League return'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:34 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Alli eager to make amends on Champions League return Martyn Herman 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Dele Alli was a spectator when Tottenham Hotspur earned a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid earlier this month but after a frustrating wait he will get his first taste of Champions League action this season in Wednesday’s return at Wembley. Tottenham''s Dele Alli celebrates scoring their second goal against Real Madrid. Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs The attacking midfielder’s red card for a dreadful tackle in last season’s Europa League exit at the hands of Belgian side Gent made him ineligible for Tottenham’s first three Champions League games this season. The north London club have done well without him, taking seven points from their first three Group H games and victory over Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid on Wednesday would guarantee a last-16 spot with two games to spare. Alli will be desperate to make an impression after he appeared in all six of Tottenham’s group games last season when they failed to emerge from the group after home defeats by Bayer Leverkusen and Monaco. His return will be a boost as Tottenham try to beat Madrid for the first time at the sixth attempt, although he said that they must learn quickly after a 1-0 Premier League defeat by Manchester United at the weekend stopped their recent momentum in its tracks. ”We don’t just want to compete, we want to win and as a team, we’re frustrated,“ Alli, who wasted a golden chance against United shortly before the hosts grabbed a late winner, said. ”We’ve got a huge game coming up in Real Madrid. ”It’s important we learn from this, work on what’s gone wrong and keep building as a team because we’re still in a fantastic position and we’ve been in good form. “We can’t let (the United defeat) knock us back.” Tottenham are still sweating on the fitness of striker Harry Kane ahead of Wednesday’s clash after a hamstring tweak meant he was unable to feature at Old Trafford. Kane has five goals already in the Champions League this season and his absence would be a bitter blow for Mauricio Pochettino as he seeks a first victory over Real as a manager, having lost all seven when he was in charge of Espanyol in La Liga. Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-champions-tot-mad/alli-eager-to-make-amends-on-champions-league-return-idUKKBN1D30JD'|'2017-11-03T09:33:00.000+02:00'
'b04280ba2b061832a9c8fe0cc1742f8e301be320'|'Lonmin shares lose a quarter of value after delays results'|'November 3, 2017 / 3:11 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Lonmin shares lose a quarter of value after delays results Zandi Shabalala 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Lonmin ( LMI.L ) ( LONJ.J ) shares fell around 25 percent on Friday after the platinum miner delayed its annual financial results because it could not yet give a specific figure for the impact of an ongoing business review. FILE PHOTO - A mine worker returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg October 5, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko The London and Johannesburg listed miner announced a review of its business in August to address uncertainties about its ability to continue as a going concern. The review includes the sale of some of its assets, cutting jobs and re-negotiating loan agreements. “The Operational Review, and the potentially significant outcomes, has required and continues to demand management’s undivided attention and, as a result, the preparation of the audited full year financial results has been delayed,” the company said. Lonmin said it had adequate liquidity to fund the business through the review process. The results had been due on Nov. 13. Shares fell 27 percent in London to 75.75 pence and dropped by a similar margin in Johannesburg by 1440 GMT. Despite reporting higher production over the last few months, Lonmin is still battling persistently low platinum prices which have cut into profits. “They are clearly far from out of the woods,” Shore Capital Stockbrokers analyst Yuen Low said. ”The problem for them is that PGM (platinum group metals) prices are too low and as for next year, if those prices persist, they are underwater and losing money. Lonmin’s lenders waived some of its debt covenants, the miner said in October and said it would fire more workers before the end of the year. Costs for South African miners are paid in rand and are a pain for producers when the currency strengthens Lonmin, which has all its operations in South Africa, said costs in its fourth quarter rose 4.3 percent year-on-year and were 8.9 percent higher in 2017, mainly on higher labour costs. Lonmin said it expected costs to rise next year to between 12,000 to 12,500 rand from 11,701 rand ($823) this year. Nedbank analysts said while the production figures were good, “rising costs essentially mean that Lonmin is still running just to stand still” “We strongly believe that Lonmin will have to be recapitalised in order to grow production back to sustainable profit levels,” they said. Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-funding/lonmin-shares-lose-a-quarter-of-value-after-delays-results-idUKKBN1D31PZ'|'2017-11-03T17:11:00.000+02:00'
'f4ff3f8748c039a0eb14027c7e47a0aa3e1e0205'|'Brazil''s Oi appoints two board members for management'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Oi SA has appointed two board members, Hélio Costa and João Ribeiro, as directors in the debt-laden carrier.Costa was appointed to the board last year by influential minority shareholder Nelson Tanure, through his fund Societé Mondiale. Tanure, allied with major shareholder Pharol SGPS SA , is in talks with creditors to restructure the company’s $20 billion debt. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chris Reese) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazils-oi-appoints-two-board-members-for-management-idINE6N1ML016'|'2017-11-03T17:27:00.000+02:00'
'488b2575dd7a7723945c1818f164ceb7da230cae'|'Russia''s Novatek signs agreement with China''s CNPC on strategic cooperation'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Russia’s Novatek signed agreement with state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) on strategic cooperation on Wednesday.China National Petroleum Corp Chairman Wang Yilin attends a news conference on the company''s annual results in Hong Kong, China March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Leonid Mikhelson, chairman of Novatek and Wang Yilin, chairman of CNPC, signed the agreement at the Great Hall of the People in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.Novatek also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Development Bank on broad cooperation.Russia’s Vneshekonombank and the Export-Import Bank of China signed a framework credit agreement worth up to $3 billion.Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-politics-russia-energy/russias-novatek-signs-agreement-with-chinas-cnpc-on-strategic-cooperation-idINKBN1D13I6'|'2017-11-01T01:33:00.000+02:00'
'c4e3028add5ab99ff649642fae9d0c66bf061ba2'|'Imperial Brands buys UK vaping company Nerudia'|'November 1, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Imperial Brands buying UK nicotine liquids maker Nerudia Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ) is buying Nerudia, a UK maker of nicotine liquids for e-cigarettes, as the British tobacco company seeks to expand its portfolio of cigarette alternatives. “Nerudia is a young and dynamic business and we’re delighted to confirm an acquisition which significantly enhances our innovation capabilities in the next generation products sector,” an Imperial spokesman said on Wednesday. Four-year-old Nerudia manufactures nicotine liquids used in e-cigarettes and provides services to help gain regulatory compliance in the vaping industry in Europe and the United States. A spokeswoman for the Liverpool-based company was not available for immediate comment. Imperial Brands - maker of Kool, Winston and Gauloises cigarettes - lags larger rivals Philip Morris International ( PM.N ) and British American Tobacco ( BATS.L ) in the nascent vaping market. It has so far stuck to e-cigarettes that use liquid, whereas the others are also rolling out tobacco-based vaping devices. The Imperial spokesman declined to disclose the value of the deal. Imperial shares were up 0.8 percent at 1254 GMT in London, outperforming the FTSE 100 .FTSE , which was up 0.2 percent. Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imperial-brands-m-a-vaping/imperial-brands-buys-uk-vaping-company-nerudia-idUKKBN1D14QV'|'2017-11-01T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'de0850b11814ec5c2371f8e1d6d510940c3d03ce'|'Tesla reports biggest-ever quarterly loss, Model 3 delays'|'November 1, 2017 / 8:23 PM / in 13 minutes Tesla reports biggest-ever quarterly loss, Model 3 delays Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) racked up a $619 million loss in the third quarter, its biggest-ever, driving its shares sharply lower as the electric-car maker spends to speed up production of its more affordable Model 3 sedan. FILE PHOTO: A Tesla charging station is seen in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. on September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The company, led by Silicon Valley star Elon Musk, also confirmed it had missed its Model 3 production goal for the third quarter, producing only 260 vehicles compared to an earlier estimate of 1,500. Its shares fell 5.4 percent in after hours trading. The company said it had $3.53 billion in cash and cash-equivalents as of Sept. 30, compared to $3.04 billion at the end of the second quarter. Tesla said last month it delivered 26,150 vehicles in the third quarter, a 4.5 percent rise on the same period of 2016, but added that “production bottlenecks” had left the company behind its planned ramp-up for the $35,000 Model 3. On Wednesday it said it now hoped to achieve a production rate of 5,000 per month by the end of the first quarter of next year, pushed back from the end of this year. It said automotive gross margin, which excludes the sale of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) credits, fell to 18.7 percent from 25 percent last year. Analysts on average had expected margins of 18.4 percent, according to FactSet. Led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, Tesla is struggling to overcome production bottlenecks as it builds the Model 3, seen as key to the company’s long-term profitability. The company said in October it missed its Model 3 production goal for the third quarter, producing only 260 vehicles compared with an earlier target of 1,500, and Musk said last month the car was “deep in production hell”. Tesla posted a net loss of $619.4 million, or $3.70 per share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared to a profit of $21.9 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier. ( bit.ly/2lF0H65 ) Revenue rose 30 percent to $2.98 billion. Excluding items, the company lost $2.92 per share. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-results/tesla-reports-biggest-ever-quarterly-loss-idUKKBN1D15TP'|'2017-11-01T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'c2a245f9b499ea1f76f9005d67e993b7f0c9e858'|'Bank of England''s Woods says 75,000 Brexit finance job losses ''plausible'''|'November 1, 2017 / 10:35 AM / in 17 minutes Bank of England''s Woods says 75,000 Brexit finance job losses ''plausible'' Huw Jones , David Milliken 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial sector could lose up to 75,000 jobs as banks and insurers shift operations to the European Union after Brexit, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Workers walk to work during the morning rush hour in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, Britain, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo Woods told British lawmakers that the 65,000 to 75,000 estimate was drawn up in a report from consultants Oliver Wyman and not the Bank of England. “I would say in terms of a long-term possibility among one of many scenarios, I regard that in the plausible range of scenarios,” Woods said. Banks and insurers have submitted plans to the BoE detailing how they would cope if their current level of access to the EU market ends in March 2019 when Britain leaves the bloc, and there is no subsequent transition period. “In that context...I would say ‘Look, it’s a moving feast and we won’t know until we get there’ but you could reasonably think of a day-one movement of perhaps around 10,000,” Woods said. “I would be surprised if it ends up being more than that for banks and insurance companies... That’s 2 to 3 percent of the City,” Woods said. The trading deal struck between the EU and Britain will be the key determinant on long-term job moves, said Woods, who head’s the BoE banking supervision arm. Financial firms operating in Britain who want to strengthen or set up a hub in the EU will start implementing their Brexit plans in the first quarter, Woods said. Some banks have already reserved school places in EU countries and let office space. This meant it was important for the UK government and the EU to agree a transition deal “the sooner the better” given that it was a “wasting asset”, Woods said. Without a transition deal agreed by the start of 2018, the BoE will have to begin re-authorising 75 banks and 85 insurers from the European Economic Area, Woods said. Barclays said on Wednesday it was having to put in place Brexit plans without political clarity. MULTIPLE HANDS Jon Cunliffe, BoE Deputy Governor for financial stability, took aim at EU plans for clearing houses in Britain that process euro-denominated transactions to be jointly supervised by the bloc after Brexit. As a last resort the clearer should relocate to the EU, a step Britain opposes. “Is the Bank prepared to think about extending, developing the models we have for supervision...? - Yes,” Cunliffe told the committee. The BoE already has an agreement with U.S. regulators over regulating a London-based clearing house that processes large amounts of dollar-denominated transactions. But even this agreement includes “deference” to the home supervisor to avoid confusion. “You have to make sure you don’t wind up with multiple hands on the steering wheel and multiple feet on the brake. It has got to be practical to reflect the balance of risks between the jurisdictions,” Cunliffe said. Reporting by Huw Jones and David Milliken; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-boe/bank-of-englands-woods-says-75000-brexit-finance-job-losses-plausible-idUKKBN1D14CI'|'2017-11-01T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'844e574ad9e20660532fab3a189c2c56eaf79a45'|'Gold dips as dollar gains ahead of Fed statement'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold advanced on Wednesday as traders repositioned themselves after the Federal Reserve said it will keep target interest rates unchanged for the time being.A sales person shows a gold ring to customers at a jewellery showroom in Ahmedabad, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave Prices held onto earlier gains after statements from the U.S. central bank indicating that while it would leave rates unchanged, it was on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.The Fed will leave rates unchanged at 1-1.25 percent. Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates, as these lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.Spot gold XAU= was 0.4 percent higher at $1,276.37 an ounce by 3:26 p.m. EDT (1926 GMT) , having earlier peaked at $1,280.87. Its upward move accelerated after it broke through its 100-day moving average at $1,275 an ounce, a key chart level.U.S. gold futures GCv1 for December delivery settled up $6.80, or 0.5 percent, at $1,277.30 per ounce.“The price action in gold was most likely positioning reversals. We saw some shorts cover and then the market came back,” said Daniel Ghali, commodities strategist for TD Securities in Toronto.The latest Fed statement came a day ahead of confirmation of a new chair, likely replacing incumbent Janet Yellen. Fed Governor Jerome Powell is widely seen as the favourite to take over next year. He is considered less hawkish and therefore more bullish for gold than his main challenger.Gold prices have recovered from Friday’s three-week low, but they remain within a less than $15 an ounce range.“Coming closer to the end of the year and two FOMC meetings in a month and half, which could determine the direction of monetary policy, is what has been keeping gold rangebound,” Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini said.Wall Street held onto modest gains on Wednesday, while the dollar recovered against a basket of major currencies. Oil prices retreated. [MKTS/GLOB] [FRX/] [O/R]Traders also awaited U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax plan, which Republicans plan to release Thursday morning.Elsewhere, silver XAG= rose 2.7 percent to $17.148, after reaching $17.195, the strongest since Oct. 20, while platinum XPT= climbed 2.06 percent to $934.10 an ounce after touching $937.30, the highest since Oct. 16.Palladium XPD= surged 2.2 percent at $1,001.75 an ounce, the strongest since Oct. 16.The metal rose nearly 5 percent in October and touched a 16-year peak of $1,010.50 an ounce mid-month.Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru and Eric Onstad in London; Editing by David Evans and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-dips-as-dollar-gains-ahead-of-fed-statement-idINKBN1D13A4'|'2017-11-01T03:21:00.000+02:00'
'fd4ee21e51d64421eaa1deda015779fe585311f9'|'Oil prices rise on expected extension of output cuts'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped in see-saw trade on Wednesday, hitting their highest in more than two years and then retreating after weekly U.S. government inventory data showed the latest crude stock draw was not as big as an industry trade group had reported.A Bharat Petroleum oil pump station displays the price of unleaded petrol (0.89$) and Diesel (0.66$) as a pedestrian walks past in New Delhi, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi While oil settled lower, both global marker Brent LCOc1 and U.S. crude CLc1 benchmarks remained near the highest levels since July 2015, as lower global supply pushed markets higher.“The market had a bit of a pull back today ... prompted by a bit of profit taking,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.“But, overall, the idea that the (OPEC) production cut will extend through 2018 and increased demand is tightening the supply balance and driving us higher overall.”The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude stocks fell 2.4 million barrels last week, exceeding the 1.8 million barrel draw analysts forecast in a Reuters poll, but short of the 5.1 million barrel decline reported late on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute (API). <EIA/S> <API/S> [ENERGYUSA]“Oil prices fell since the release of the (EIA) report,” said Carsten Fritsch, oil analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, Germany, noting that the crude draw was “significantly less than the API numbers.”Brent futures LCOc1 settled down 45 cents, or 0.74 percent, at $60.49 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 8 cents, or 0.15 percent at $54.30 a barrel.Before the EIA report, Brent was trading at its highest since July 2015 on data showing OPEC had significantly improved compliance with its pledged supply cuts and Russia was widely expected to keep to the deal.Meanwhile, the WTI “Dec Red” - the spread between December 2017 and 2018 U.S. crude CLZ7-Z8 - traded to as high as $1.83 a barrel, the strongest level since February 2014 before the oil price crash. WTI Dec 2017’s premium to 2018 suggested that the end of the crude glut may be in sight.On Wednesday, Gulf OPEC sources said members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was likely to continue its oil production curb through 2018. Member countries are scheduled to next meet in Vienna on Nov 30.OPEC’s October output fell 80,000 bpd to 32.78 million bpd. Adherence to its pledged supply curbs rose to 92 percent from September’s 86 percent.Analysts and traders expect Russia to stick to its agreement to curb oil output by 300,000 bpd from 11.247 million bpd reached in October 2016.Reporting by Scott DiSavino; additional reporting by Catherine Ngai; Editing by David Gregorio and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-prices-rise-on-expected-extension-of-output-cuts-idINKBN1D136K'|'2017-11-01T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'3b4d56b453577ef3e976c3640aad8eb512318df6'|'"Walking Dead" zombie game seeks Pokemon-style success'|'November 3, 2017 / 4:03 PM / in 2 hours ''Walking Dead'' zombie game seeks Pokemon-style success Tuomas Forsell , Jussi Rosendahl 3 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish game studio Next Games said on Friday it will launch a new augmented reality smartphone game in the coming months based on AMC Networks’ hit TV show “Walking Dead”. A view of the Next Games game Walking Dead is sen in this handout released November 3, 2017. Next Games/Handout via Reuters The game, in which players fight zombies that are superimposed onto the real world on smartphone screens, is tapping into the trend of augmented reality (AR) which gained mass adoption last year with the release of Niantic Inc’s Pokemon Go. Next Games said the “Walking Dead: Our World” game, which it hopes will mirror Pokemon Go’s success, will be available for test users on Apple’s App Store and Google Play in selected regions by January before a wider release later next year. The TV show tells the story of a world overrun by zombies, and the new game will use AR technology to let players battle the zombie characters in real world environments. Based on the same show, Next Games has previously developed a mobile strategy game which has been downloaded by more than 16 million users. “I have an optimistic view on (the new game‘s) potential. I expect this game to reach similar levels of revenue to their previous game,” said analyst Jerker Salokivi at Evli brokerage, with a “hold” rating on the stock. Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen at the company''s offices in Helsinki, Finland, September 11, 2017. Picture taken September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tuomas Forsell Shares in the company, which was listed in March, jumped more than 100 percent in August after the company released its first video trailer of the upcoming game. The stock fell more than 7 percent on Friday as the company reported a loss from the first nine months of the year due to investments in game development. Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen at the company''s offices in Helsinki, Finland, September 11, 2017. Picture taken September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tuomas Forsell Its sales from January to September rose 30 percent from a year ago to around 26 million euros ($30 million). This year, Google and Apple have both released augmented reality applications for their devices to compete for the attention of customers and software developers building such games. Pokemon Go, which has players walking around real life neighborhoods to catch and train creatures, has more than 750 million downloads. “AR games ... need to give the player a reason to look through their cameras, to change their surroundings into something else. With zombies, you don’t luckily get to do it any other way,” Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen told Reuters in September. In another recent AR initiative, Mattel and tech company Osmo launched an augmented reality version for “Hotwheels” toy car game. Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-next-games-walking-dead/walking-dead-zombie-game-seeks-pokemon-style-success-idUSKBN1D31UM'|'2017-11-03T17:51:00.000+02:00'
'5542a939c97630f98ce107eb4430cb6b2a498065'|'Qihoo to return to Shanghai via backdoor listing deal with China''s SJEC'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese anti-virus software maker Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd is set to return to China’s mainland stock exchange through a backdoor listing after agreeing a 50 billion yuan ($7.57 billion) deal with elevator maker SJEC Corp ( 601313.SS ).Logos of Qihoo 360 are seen at an expo in Beijing, China July 21, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily SJEC said in a stock exchange statement on Friday that it would acquire Qihoo 360 through an asset swap and share issue which would allow for the software firm’s backdoor A-share listing.Qihoo 360 was listed in the United States in 2011 until its privatization last year by a consortium led by its chief executive and founder, Zhou Hongyi, for about $9.3 billion.The deal with SJEC will see Zhou become the listed company’s controlling shareholder as he will hold 12.14 percent of its shares, and an additional 51.56 percent through two other shareholders that he indirectly controls.SJEC said the deal was still subject to shareholder and regulator approvals.Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-qihoo-360/qihoo-to-return-to-shanghai-via-backdoor-listing-deal-with-chinas-sjec-idINKBN1D304W'|'2017-11-02T23:11:00.000+02:00'
'0adcdb2f357ffed2e88bf9fe9bb4c46eb714c79d'|'Colombian president says he left firm listed in leaked tax haven papers'|'BOGOTA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in response to his name appearing in a trove of leaked documents about offshore investments, said he left a company registered in tax haven Barbados before taking a ministerial post with a previous government.The so-called Paradise Papers published on Sunday showed the investments of wealthy people and institutions ranging from United States Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. Reuters has not independently verified the documents.Santos was listed in the leaked documents as a board member of insurance company Nova Holding in April and May 2000 and also Global Tuition, an insurance firm focused on education, from April 1999 to May 2001.Santos said in a statement on Sunday that he left Global Tuition before taking up his duties as Finance Minister in the government of then-President Andres Pastrana in August 2000. He said he was not a partner, did not invest any money and was not paid for serving on the board.“I imagine they delayed in officially registering the changes,” Santos said in answers given to El Espectador newspaper and released by his office. “I participated until before I became Finance Minister.”Santos said that after 2000 he was a Global Tuition client “for some of their insurance for the education of my three children.”Global Tuition’s office was closed in Colombia for a public holiday on Monday and could not be reached for comment. The company’s office in the United States said any comment would come from the Colombia office.The president’s statement did not mention the other company, Nova Holding.Nova Holding could not immediately be reached for comment.The documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets, including El Espectador and Connectas website in Colombia.The names of three former Colombian defense ministers and two former ambassadors to the United States also appear in the leaked papers.Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/paradise-tax-colombia/colombian-president-says-he-left-firm-listed-in-leaked-tax-haven-papers-idINL1N1NC16H'|'2017-11-06T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'6f309f5d81f7a0b45a905b34692941b820e02307'|'China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint'|'November 1, 2017 / 6:37 AM / in 9 hours China''s war on smog, risk, taking edge off Asia''s growth sprint Marius Zaharia 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Growth in China’s manufacturing output slowed in October, threatening to chill activity across Asia, as tough steps to reduce air pollution forced factories to reduce production and a crackdown on financial risk-taking weighed on smaller firms. Electric cars are seen at a parking lot of an automobile factory in Xingtai, Hebei province, China April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo REUTERS While business surveys on Wednesday suggested Asia’s export-driven expansion still has legs, the readings are starting to reflect signs of fatigue after an impressive sprint so far this year, suggesting regional economic growth has peaked. Still, barring any unexpected shocks, most analysts polled by Reuters expect the global economy will remain on a roll for one more year, even if China sees a gradual loss of momentum.[ECILT/WRAP] In the West, similar preliminary surveys last week looked solid enough not to derail plans by Federal Reserve to gradually reduce its balance sheet and by the European Central Bank to slow bond buying. The Bank of England may raise interest rates for the first time since 2007 on Thursday despite the Brexit shock. Taken together, the recent data points to global economic growth of around 3.5 percent this year, analysts at Capital Economics said, adding the world economy should be able to sustain that rate in 2018. In China, a private survey showed manufacturing output rising at the weakest pace in four months in October and companies continued to shed staff despite a slight pick-up in domestic and export orders. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) was unchanged from September’s reading of 51.0, and in line with forecasts. But production growth slowed markedly, nearing the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction. Similar PMI surveys in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and India also suggested growth was starting to fade, while activity in Malaysia contracted. “We expect (China‘s) growth momentum to weaken in the coming months as the drags from slower credit growth, reduced fiscal support post-Party Congress and the environmental crackdown all intensify,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics. The Caixin China report followed a similar official survey on Tuesday which pointed to an unexpected cooldown in the manufacturing sector in the face of a weakening property market and a crackdown on smog, which is forcing some steel mills and factories in the northeast to curtail or halt production. China’s economy has surprised with growth of nearly 7 percent this year, driven by a renaissance in its “smokestack” industries, such as steel. It is now almost sure to surpass the official target of around 6.5 percent. But property and construction activity, two key growth drivers, are feeling the weight of government measures to cool the heat in the housing market. Higher borrowing costs are also hurting some firms as regulators clamp down on riskier forms of lending. FILE PHOTO: Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney sits before delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Officials speaking at a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress last month emphasized a shift in focus to high-quality rather than high-speed growth and alluded to further efforts to contain excessive risk-taking in the financial system, sending 10-year Chinese government bond yields to their highest in three years. “The Caixin PMI reflects companies that are smaller in scale and they are at the center of the deleveraging reform,” said Iris Pang, Greater China economist at ING. “I don’t think this is a one-off.” SUPER TECH Slideshow (2 Images) Strong global demand for electronics has fueled solid economic and corporate profit growth this year in Asia’s tech-oriented exporters: South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan reported its fastest quarterly growth in 2-1/2 years on Tuesday as it benefits from growth in more advanced technologies and the rollout of new smartphone models such as Apple Inc’s iPhones and other tech gadgets. Taiwan’s October PMI came in at 53.6, easing from September but still the highest reading in Asia. Soaring memory chip sales helped South Korea’s exports record a 12th consecutive month of growth in October, though the pace cooled from September, data showed on Wednesday. “Towards the end of the year ... the super-tech cycle is likely to slow,” said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis. She believes that the recent tech recovery has been cyclical, not structural, and that 2017 growth rates have been flattered to some extent by comparisons with a relatively soft performance last year. “We do not expect trade to recover to its pre-crisis levels. You have a deceleration of trade liberalization and of the expansion of the supply chains and the change in structure of the Chinese economy.” Asian financial markets showed little reaction to the PMIs, as investors focused on the progress of a U.S. tax-cut plan being developed by President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans and Trump’s imminent announcement of the next head of the Federal Reserve, which could shape the growth and policy outlooks for the global economy for years to come. The Fed, which ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, has raised rates twice this year and is expected to do so again in December, with data on Tuesday showing consumer confidence at a 17-year high reinforcing that view. Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy/chinas-war-on-smog-risk-taking-edge-off-asias-growth-sprint-idUSKBN1D13NP'|'2017-11-01T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'de3b0f4046420c4a7fec930597c6801b61aee775'|'UPDATE 1-Bunge considers IPO for Brazilian sugar business -CEO'|'(Adds details, Quote: s)By Tom Polansek and Karl PlumeCHICAGO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Bunge Ltd may be able to get the best value for its Brazilian sugar milling business by launching an initial public offering of the unit, Chief Executive Soren Schroder said on Wednesday, four years after he began exploring a sale.Schroder is weighing an IPO as a global oversupply of crops has hammered profits in the core grain trading and processing units of Bunge and its chief rivals, forcing rounds of cost-cutting that look to spill into 2018.“It appears to be a way in which we can best get a fair value for the assets,” Schroder said about an IPO of the sugar business, speaking in an interview after the company posted lower year-on-year profits for the third quarter in a row.Bunge is in the process of financially separating its sugar and bioenergy businesses, which report results together, to show the company is still working to reduce its exposure to sugar operations, Schroder said. In 2013, the company began exploring a sale of its loss-making mills, which are now turning a profit.Improvements in Brazil’s equity market could help pave the way for a public offering of the sugar business.“The Brazilian market feels like it is getting ready to take on that kind of an IPO,” Schroder said.Earnings in the sugar and bioenergy unit dropped 77 percent from a year ago to $8 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and Bunge lowered its guidance for the segment’s earnings for the year.Reporting by Tom Polansek and Karl Plume, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bunge-results-sugar/update-1-bunge-considers-ipo-for-brazilian-sugar-business-ceo-idINL2N1N719W'|'2017-11-01T13:48:00.000+02:00'
'08eb54f63c96680b8ac07fddfaf3221694fff821'|'A black-rights group warns would-be passengers about American Airlines - Discrimination in the skies?'|'TRAVEL advisory notices, which alert passengers to the risks of going to certain places, are standard business for frequent flyers. But last week brought an unusual one. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), America’s oldest civil-rights organisation, warned black flyers about the dangers of travelling with American Airlines.The NAACP says that “a pattern of disturbing incidents” has been reported by black passengers specifically about American Airlines. Such incidents “suggest a corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias”. Of the four incidents that the NAACP cite, two involved prominent black activists, PR Lockhart notes at Vox , a news site. Although the NAACP does not mention them by name, one is thought to be Rev William Barber, a former NAACP leader in North Carolina. He was removed from a flight from Washington, DC, after he responded to rude comments from two white passengers. The other is Tamika Mallory, a co-chair of the Women’s March movement, who was taken off a flight because of a seat assignment dispute.Latest updates Green investors and right-wing sceptics clash on the meaning of scripture Erasmus 4 minutes ago The 32 36 See all updates American Airlines are remaining tight-lipped on the issue. When asked to comment, the carrier’s press office referred Gulliver to a statement from Doug Parker, the chief executive. Mr Parker notes his disappointment with the issuance of the warning but said that they have contacted the NAACP about it. Both parties have said they were looking forward to meeting and discussing the issue.This is the second recent advisory notice from the NAACP. This summer the group issued one such warning about the state of Missouri—the first time it had done so for an entire state—due to suspected racial bias during traffic stops and other evidence of discrimination. In 2014, the shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked national protests and helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement. (The Department of Justice later concluded that the officer acted in self-defence.) The explosion of black activism that followed somewhat marginalised the NAACP, which for decades was the most-prominent group advocating for African-Americans. Ms Lockhart argues that the advisory notices may be part of the organisation’s attempts to regain relevance.But for black travellers, the advisory notice serves a different purpose. Like in any industry, passengers are inclined to shy away from companies with a poor reputations. And if American fails to respond to these incidents and the advisory notice in a way that black people find satisfactory, it could easily lose customers. Moreover, airlines will not want to alienate African-Americans, if not for reasons of basic morality, then for economic ones. Spending by that group has been growing faster than that of the overall population and is expected to continue to do so.Nevertheless, the carrier should hardly need that type of justification. If, as Mr Parker says, American truly does not tolerate any sort of discrimination, then it should be able to stamp out these kinds of incidents. Discrimination will not be going away anytime soon. But airlines can do their part to ensure that the issue is treated the seriously, and to reassure flyers, by acting decisively to redress any wrongdoing.Next Military and civil-aviation bosses are stepping up their efforts to recruit new pilots'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/10/discrimination-skies?fsrc=rss'|'2017-10-30T23:11:00.000+02:00'
'211dc8c5b92287199aa9b37ed98d79163a399bd5'|'Renault rallies after France reduces stake'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in Renault ( RENA.PA ) rose on Friday after France pared back its holding to the 15 percent level that preceded a 2015 power struggle with the carmaker’s CEO Carlos Ghosn, removing a residual irritant in their relationship.FILE PHOTO - Visitors walk past a Renault logo on the car maker''s booth during the second media day of the 86th International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo Renault, which has a stake of about 40 percent in Nissan ( 7201.T ), was up 4.2 percent at 90.18 euros in early trading after a move that some analysts said could herald further state sales.The company was the top performer on France''s benchmark CAC-40 index .FCHI and also outperformed a 0.6 percent advance on the STOXX Europe 600 Autos index .SXAP.The French state said it had sold a 4.7 percent stake in Renault for 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), implying a price of 86.60 euros per share in the disposal.Renault is buying back 10 percent of the shares sold by the state to hand out stock awards to current and former employees.The sale could help to ease long-standing tensions between Ghosn, who also heads alliance partner Nissan as chairman, and the government of French President Emmanuel Macron.“We expect this will be taken positively by the market and hope it is indicative of the government’s broader intention to play a less invasive role in the company,” wrote analysts at brokerage Evercore, keeping an “outperform” rating on the stock.The Evercore team added that the sale could be “indicative of a larger, future exit on the part of the government”.Renault’s relations with the government -- its largest shareholder -- had deteriorated in April 2015 when Macron, then economy minister, raised the state’s holding in a shareholder vote to almost 20 percent to secure double voting rights. The move was opposed by Ghosn.The disposal this week trim’s the government’s stake to 15.01 percent, fulfilling its 2015 promise that the state’s holding would later fall back to its historic level.That promise and expectations of the share sale have weighed on Renault shares, which are up 6 percent this year but have underperformed a 16 percent gain for the broader European autos sector.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-france-renault/renault-rallies-after-france-reduces-stake-idINKBN1D30MQ'|'2017-11-03T05:17:00.000+02:00'
'5053eab3d24160a73486bcf2918147322467958c'|'GSK''s R&D head to leave for top UK government job - source'|' 46 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago GSK''s R&D head to leave for top UK government job - source Reuters Staff 3   GlaxoSmithKline’s ( GSK.L ) research and development head Patrick Vallance is set to leave the drugmaker to become the British government’s new chief scientific adviser, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. His planned departure comes three months after GSK’s new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley announced a major shake-up in the pharmaceuticals division and said the group needed to do better in drug development by adopting a sharper commercial focus. Vallance, who joined GSK in 2006 and has been president of R&D since January 2012, has not yet officially resigned. When he does so, GSK will be obliged to issue a statement, since he is also a board member. GSK declined to comment on Vallance’s exit, which was first reported in the Financial Times. The British government was not immediately available for comment. In his new job, Vallance - a one-time professor of medicine at University College London - will replace Mark Walport as the senior science adviser to the prime minister and other officials. The exact timing of that handover is unclear. The move is a further sign of change under GSK’s new boss Walmsley, who earlier this year poached Luke Miels from AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) as her new head of pharmaceuticals. Miels will be a key lieutenant in driving productivity improvements. GSK has lagged behind rivals in recent years in producing multibillion-dollar blockbuster drugs. It has also suffered a number of high-profile clinical trial failures on Vallance’s watch, undermining faith in its R&D skills. In a bid to turn things around, Walmsley said in July she would narrow the focus of the group’s drug research by ditching more than 30 drug projects. GSK will in future allocate 80 percent of its R&D budget to respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases, along with two other potential areas of oncology and immuno-inflammation. Walmsley’s plans for overhauling Britain’s biggest drugmaker have yet to fully convince investors, many of whom worry that the dividend could be risk if she twins a revamp of pharma with a big acquisition in consumer healthcare. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gsk-r-d/gsks-rd-head-to-leave-for-top-uk-government-job-source-idUKKBN1D30KJ'|'2017-11-03T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'cacfe8f4c56e120bc67783dfd1dc04028cbcb410'|'Vintage Capital lowers bid to buy Rent-A-Center'|'(Reuters) - Vintage Capital on Friday offered to buy Rent-A-Center Inc ( RCII.O ) for about $693 million, a week after the furniture retailer said it was exploring strategic options after coming under pressure from two activist investors.The private equity firm’s offer of $13 per Rent-A-Center share is lower than the $15 per share it offered in July and represents a premium of 31 percent to the stock’s Thursday closing price. Rent-A-Center had rejected the first proposal.Shares of Plano, Texas-based Rent-A-Center rose 6 percent in trading before the bell to $10.50.Rent-A-Center has been pressured to sell itself, first by activist hedge fund Engaged Capital, and then by Marcato Capital, which argued that an overhaul of the struggling company could be best achieved in the hands of private owners.Last week, Rent-A-Center Chairman Steven Pepper resigned over disagreements with the board’s decision to explore strategic options.The company last month reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-rent-a-center-m-a-vintage/vintage-capital-lowers-bid-to-buy-rent-a-center-idINKBN1D31EZ'|'2017-11-03T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'e4202f68464223d3f61f308384a11bc38ef9fea3'|'Bankrate to divest Caring.com for Red Ventures merger -FTC'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bankrate Inc ( RATE.N ) will divest its Caring.com unit as a condition of its acquisition by Red Ventures LLC for $1.4 billion to avoid harm to competition in the third-party paid senior living facilities referral services, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday.The FTC said in a statement that two of Red Ventures’ largest shareholders jointly own A Place for Mom.com, the largest provider of such services, and Caring.com is the second largest provider.Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Phil Berlowitz '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bankrate-m-a-red-ventures/bankrate-to-divest-caring-com-for-red-ventures-merger-ftc-idINKBN1D326C'|'2017-11-03T15:22:00.000+02:00'
'58a44c5e7c6b9bde19e16e80a57316dffe6b5871'|'PM Modi says India may announce tax relief for traders next week'|'November 4, 2017 / 11:09 AM / Updated 8 hours ago PM Modi says India may announce tax relief for traders next week Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India may announce measures next week to help traders and small businesses who say a new nationwide goods and services tax (GST) has increased their tax and administrative burden. FILE PHOTO - India''s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton Prime Minister Narendra Modi said if there is consensus at the next GST council meeting due over Nov. 9 to Nov. 10, the government would take the necessary steps to help traders and strengthen the country’s economy. A panel of ministers last month recommended reducing tax rates for small businesses and traders and raising the minimum revenue threshold for companies that need to pay tax, local media reported. The launch in July of the long-awaited GST, which transformed India’s 29 states into a single customs union, has left thousands of small and medium-sized firms at the bottom of the supply chain short of working capital. Modi is facing criticism for the disruption to the economy caused by the roll-out of GST and the shock removal of higher-value bills from circulation last year. As a result of these issues India’s economy is expected to grow at its slowest pace in four years this fiscal year, a Reuters poll found. Modi’s comments came days after India jumped about 30 places to 100th on the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” rankings, reflecting reforms in accessing credit, power supply and the protection of minority investors. Modi said he expected India’s ranking to improve next year when the GST and other reforms were considered. “There are many other reforms that have already happened but need gestation and stabilization time before they are taken into account by the World Bank,” Modi said. He added that there were other reforms on which India and the World Bank would need to find common ground. Modi said along with manufacturing, India was also pushing for faster progress in developing infrastructure and was working to improve the investment climate. ($1 = 64.5500 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-india-tax-modi/pm-modi-says-india-may-announce-tax-relief-for-traders-next-week-idINKBN1D40D6'|'2017-11-04T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'31721b69a9a03ddb41da2ae2ec3e481a42de80a2'|'JPMorgan expects Fed to raise rates four times in 2018'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:20 PM / in 24 minutes JPMorgan expects Fed to raise rates four times in 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday raised its forecast on the number of U.S. interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve next year to four from three as the October payrolls data reinforced the view of a tightening domestic labor market. FILE PHOTO - A police officer keeps watch in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, U.S. on October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo “In this environment we believe the Fed will see even more need for a steady, regular removal of accommodation,” JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli wrote in a research note. Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-fed-rates/jpmorgan-expects-fed-to-raise-rates-four-times-in-2018-idUSKBN1D3260'|'2017-11-03T20:14:00.000+02:00'
'6af616f9ed199e38f34a129fd6f331cf6e46ad02'|'METALS-London nickel rises, on course for 10 pct weekly gain'|'BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - London nickel prices renewed their advance on Friday, putting the metal on course for a gain of nearly 10 percent this week and 27 percent year-to-date on expectations of bullish demand from the electric vehicle battery sector. FUNDAMENTALS * LME NICKEL: London Metal Exchange three-month nickel was up 1 percent at $12,735 a tonne by 0218 GMT, having closed down 1.4 percent the previous session. LME nickel hit its highest in more than two years at $13,030 a tonne on Wedneday. * NICKEL: Nickel prices have surged this week over bullish sentiment for electric vehicle demand as the metals industry gathered for its annual meet in London. Prices may temper as focus returns to China''s pollution-linked shutdowns next week. * BHP: Global miner BHP said that its Asutralian Nickel West operations, which it is retooling to meet battery sector demand, are for sale at the right price. * SHFE NICKEL: The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (Shfe) recovered from a dip in early trade to climb 0.5 percent to 101,500 yuan ($15,356) a tonne, following its highest close since June 2015 on Thursday. * COPPER: Copper was trading up 0.1 percent in London after ending the previous session little changed and gained 0.3 percent in Shanghai. * ALUMINIUM: London aluminium was essentially flat, with looming production curbs on Chinese smelters likely to come back into focus next week. * ZINC/LEAD: Zinc was down 0.3 percent in London and lost 0.1 percent in Shanghai, while lead gained 0.6 percent on the LME but slipped 0.4 percent on the Shfe . * ALUMINIUM DEMAND: Global demand for rolled aluminium products is expected to remain strong next year thanks largely to the automotive sector, leading producer Novelis said on Thursday. * PRIVATE EQUITY: North American institutional investors are raising their exposure to metals and mining partly through co-investments with private equity, industry sources at a mining conference said this week. * SOVEREIGN RISK: Kazakh miner Kaz Minerals said the government of Kyrgyzstan had suspended operations at its Bozymchak gold and copper mine on Thursday for three months. * TANZANIA: Acacia Mining''s top two executives have resigned in the midst of talks between its parent company and the Tanzanian government aimed at ending a long-running dispute that has hit Acacia''s operations. * MARKETS: Asian share markets edged higher on Friday as investors gave a guarded reception to Republican plans for massive U.S. tax cuts, while welcoming the appointment of a centrist at the helm of the Federal Reserve. * USD: The dollar held steady versus a basket of currencies on Friday, as focus shifted to U.S. jobs data. nL4N1N90ZN] BASE METALS PRICES 0218 GMT Three month LME copper 6937 Most active ShFE copper 54310 Three month LME aluminium 2175.5 Most active ShFE aluminium 16260 Three month LME zinc 3249 Most active ShFE zinc 25930 Three month LME lead 2458.5 Most active ShFE lead 18615 Three month LME nickel 12735 Most active ShFE nickel 101500 Three month LME tin 0 Most active ShFE tin 144170 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 699.12 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -497.07 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 452.34 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -926.75 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 1301.6 ($1 = 6.6097 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-nickel-rises-on-course-for-10-pct-weekly-gain-idINL4N1N918Q'|'2017-11-02T23:56:00.000+02:00'
'77f559aaaf7b3d13f47c6e634d602fd570e7fe36'|'Starbucks problems to linger through next year - analysts'|'Reuters TV United States  53 PM / in a few seconds Starbucks problems to linger through next year: analysts Sruthi Ramakrishnan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp’s ( SBUX.O ) slow service at stores and rising competition from high-end coffee shops are likely to pressure its performance next year, analysts said, after the U.S. coffee-chain reported disappointing fourth-quarter sales on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks store is seen inside the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on October 27, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The company has been struggling to fill orders at stores after it launched a mobile order-and-pay service to reach more customers, but that has caused congestion at its pickup counters, leading to slower service and frustrated customers. Starbucks shares are up 4 percent over the past 12 months, hugely underperforming the S&P 500 index .SPX that has surged 20 percent. The company''s shares were largely flat in premarket trading on Friday. While the sales environment had been challenged for most chain restaurants in the quarter, Starbucks seemed to be struggling to keep up with the customer flow, as mobile order-and-pay becomes more popular, Instinet analyst Mark Kalinowski said in research note. “We do believe that Starbucks may be struggling with in-store customer flow more than the Street believes.” Kalinowski cut his price target to $63 from $67. The median price target on the stock is $63, still 15 percent above its $54.87 close on Thursday. Starbucks has been bleeding customers to boutique coffee sellers like Intelligentsia and lower-price rivals including McDonald’s Corp ( MCD.N ) , which is selling small McCafe espresso drinks for $2. The company said on Thursday it was working to improve the time taken to service customer orders at peak morning hours, open up its mobile order-and-pay service to non-members, and bring in more innovative food items. Cowen & Co analyst Andrew Charles analyst, however, said the company should focus on building out its beverage menu as food items have lower margins. “We would prefer to see beverage sales accelerate given outsized foodsales growth has weighed on Americas gross margins by 80-90 basis points in the last 3 quarters,” Charles said. Several analysts said they had anticipated that Starbucks would temper its long-term target for earnings growth. The Seattle-based coffee chain said it expects to grow 12 percent or more, compared with its previous estimate of 15 percent to 20 percent. It also cut its global long-term same-store sales growth forecast to 3 percent to 5 percent from 4 percent to 6 percent. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-starbucks-results-stocks/starbucks-problems-to-linger-through-next-year-analysts-idUKKBN1D31D6'|'2017-11-03T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'1e66cbaafd9b59046b9335f9aa849f655d6a98df'|'GSK''s R&D head to leave for top UK government job: source'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:38 AM / in 7 hours GSK''s R&D head to leave for top UK government job: source Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline’s ( GSK.L ) research and development head Patrick Vallance is set to leave the drugmaker to become the British government’s new chief scientific adviser, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. FILE PHOTO - The GlaxoSmithKline building is pictured in Hounslow, west London June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo His planned departure comes three months after GSK’s new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley announced a major shake-up in the pharmaceuticals division and said the group needed to do better in drug development by adopting a sharper commercial focus. Vallance, who joined GSK in 2006 and has been president of R&D since January 2012, has not yet officially resigned. When he does so, GSK will be obliged to issue a statement, since he is also a board member. GSK declined to comment on Vallance’s exit, which was first reported in the Financial Times. The British government was not immediately available for comment. In his new job, Vallance - a one-time professor of medicine at University College London - will replace Mark Walport as the senior science adviser to the prime minister and other officials. The exact timing of that handover is unclear. The move is a further sign of change under GSK’s new boss Walmsley, who earlier this year poached Luke Miels from AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) as her new head of pharmaceuticals. Miels will be a key lieutenant in driving productivity improvements. GSK has lagged behind rivals in recent years in producing multibillion-dollar blockbuster drugs. It has also suffered a number of high-profile clinical trial failures on Vallance’s watch, undermining faith in its R&D skills. In a bid to turn things around, Walmsley said in July she would narrow the focus of the group’s drug research by ditching more than 30 drug projects. GSK will in future allocate 80 percent of its R&D budget to respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases, along with two other potential areas of oncology and immuno-inflammation. Walmsley’s plans for overhauling Britain’s biggest drugmaker have yet to fully convince investors, many of whom worry that the dividend could be risk if she twins a revamp of pharma with a big acquisition in consumer healthcare. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gsk-r-d/gsks-rd-head-to-leave-for-top-uk-government-job-source-idUSKBN1D30JL'|'2017-11-03T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'6b427032b7ba60904691ab5a439c775cc8df6cb9'|'May to tell business leaders a Brexit transition period ''crucial'' to success'|'November 5, 2017 / 10:50 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Britain''s May to tell business leaders a Brexit transition period ''crucial'' to success Andrew MacAskill 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will stress to wary business leaders a commitment to securing a transitional deal once Britain leaves the European Union, seeking to assuage fears of a cliff-edge departure. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry, May will highlight the importance of a transitional agreement after she recently unnerved executives by saying any deal would not be agreed until the entire exit agreement is sealed. “I know how important it is for business and industry not to face a cliff-edge and to have the time it needs to plan and prepare for the new arrangements,” May will say, according to advance extracts released by her office. “A strictly time-limited implementation period will be crucial to our future success.” Already rattled by the slow progress of Brexit talks, businesses operating in the world’s fifth largest economy have been pressing for months for details about what any transitional EU trade deal will actually look like. International businesses have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks over fears that Britain could crash out of the world’s biggest trading bloc without a deal. May surprised many executives two weeks ago when she said that any transition deal would only be part of a wider trade agreement - potentially stripping companies of the time they need to prepare to leave the EU. On Monday, May will say that she is confident that Britain and the EU will soon be able to start discussing the outlines of any transitional deal. May will also tell business leaders they should be “rational optimists” about the economy over the next decade once Britain has left the EU. Many business leaders are opposed to Britain’s plans to leave the EU fearing leaving the trading bloc will increase bureaucracy, drive up costs and eat into profitability. But supporters of Brexit say although there may be a short-term hit to the economy, Britain will benefit over the long term by being able to set its own rules. Ahead of a policy document on industrial strategy that will be published this month, May will also signal a new era of greater state intervention in a break with traditional Conservative laissez-faire economic policy. This will take lessons “from the past failures of governments to give sectors and places across the country the long-term support they need to cope with economic change and compete in a changing global market place”, May will say. Reporting By Andrew MacAskill Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-may/britains-may-to-tell-business-leaders-a-brexit-transition-period-crucial-to-success-idUKKBN1D514J'|'2017-11-06T00:38:00.000+02:00'
'f21d5a74cc981c6fdd465eed380ce41a0e6b2724'|'Oil hits highest levels since 2015 amid tightening markets, Saudi purge'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:10 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Oil hits highest levels since 2015 amid tightening markets, Saudi purge Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices hit their highest levels since July 2015 early on Monday as markets tightened, while Saudi Arabia’s crown prince cemented his power over the weekend through an anti-corruption crackdown that included high profile arrests. A rainbow is seen over a pumpjack during sunset outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann - RC170FB52660 Brent futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, hit $62.44 per barrel early on Monday, their highest level since July 2015. Brent was at $62.27 per barrel at 0051 GMT, up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent from the last close and 40 percent above June’s 2017 lows. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 hit $56.00 per barrel in early trading, also the highest since July 2015, and was at $55.83, up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent from the last settlement. WTI is a third above its 2017 lows. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s designated future king, has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including prominent business billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal and the head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah. “This consolidates the reforming process underway, part of which is a desire to drive the price of oil higher,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader, said that the purge. Bin Salman’s reforms include a plan to list parts of giant state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco next year, and a higher oil prices is seen as beneficial for the market capitalization of the future listed company. In oil fundamentals, traders said that there were ongoing signs of tightening market conditions. U.S. energy companies cut eight oil rigs last week, to 729, in the biggest reduction since May 2016. The decline in U.S. drilling activity comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a non-OPEC group lead by Russia have pledged to hold back about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil production to tighten markets. The pact to withhold supplies runs to March 2018, but there is growing consensus to extend the deal. While supplies are tightening, analysts say demand remains strong. “Synchronous global economic growth and new supply disruptions are creating the most constructive oil price environment since ... 2014,” Barclays bank said. The British bank said it was raising its average Q4 Brent price forecast by $6 per barrel to $60 per barrel. ”The surprisingly strong macro backdrop and the accelerated inventory drawdown mean that these slightly higher price levels are likely to be sustained through Q1 of next year. Barclays said it raised its full-year 2018 forecast by $3 per barrel to $55 per barrel. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-hits-highest-levels-since-2015-amid-tightening-markets-saudi-purge-idUKKBN1D603A'|'2017-11-06T03:04:00.000+02:00'
'ddfde37e5b5f51ba8ab8872790aff8b63c120073'|'Scandal-hit Kobe Steel has a ''look the other way'' culture, they say in hometown'|'November 5, 2017 / 1:18 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Scandal-hit Kobe Steel has a ''look the other way'' culture, they say in hometown Taro Fuse 6 Min Read KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - The fresh university graduate, eager to make a good impression on the job at one of Kobe Steel Ltd’s ( 5406.T ) main plants in Japan, punched the wrong measurements into machines making steel pipes, causing a large batch to come out too short. A car drives through Kobe near the Kobe Steel headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. Picture taken October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White “I thought I was going to be fired,” recalled the former employee nearly 40 years later. But Shinzo Abe, now Japan’s prime minister, stayed on the job at Japan’s third-largest steelmaker for three years before entering politics in 1982. Abe has called the steel industry the backbone of the nation. Kobe Steel, a 112-year-old company in south-central Japan’s Hyogo prefecture, has risen from wartime devastation and natural disaster but its past is littered with examples of corporate misconduct. Its admission last month that workers had tampered with product specifications for at least a decade is the latest in a string of scandals that has battered Japan’s reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse. Clients around the world, including top carmakers and airplane manufacturers, have been scrambling to check whether the safety or performance of their products have been compromised. Workers, executives and shopowners in Kobe, a gritty, industrial city bordered by sloping hills where cattle are bred for the famed Kobe beef, said they were concerned but not surprised by the scandal. Kobe Steel, which has apologized for the tampering, declined comment for this article. “The corporate culture was to look the other way even while you saw what was going on,” said a retired employee who worked at the company’s flagship steel plant, Kobe Works - a symbol of the city’s quick recovery from a 1995 earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people. The company’s other main plant in the area is Kakogawa Works, in the nearby city of Kakogawa. “They were supposed to be instilling a culture that paid attention when improprieties were discovered,” the former employee said. “In the end they didn’t create such a corporate culture. That’s management’s responsibility.” The company initially said some workers had falsified data on contract specifications for a relatively small amount of aluminum and copper products, but it later admitted the problem had spread. In 2006, Kobe Steel admitted falsifying soot-emissions data from the blast furnaces at Kobe Works and Kakogawa Works. The latest scandal reflects “exactly the same set-up”, said Shoichi Tarumoto, who was then mayor of Kakogawa. “It looks like nothing has changed at Kobe Steel.” PAST PROBLEMS Kobe Steel has admitted taking part in bid-rigging for a bridge project in 2005, and failing to report income to tax authorities in 2008, 2011 and 2013. The company exceeded established limits for ground and water pollution in 2006. Illegal political funding to candidates in local assembly elections in 2009 prompted the resignations of the then CEO and chairman. And last year Kobe Steel admitted a subsidiary falsified data on stainless-steel products. The Kobe Steel (Kobelco) logo is seen on the company''s headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. Picture taken October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White A senior official in local government who has dealt with the company for years said: “Kobe Steel always scouts the backstreets for shortcuts. That’s their nature.” Although its local dominance has waned, Kobe Steel remains one of only two Kobe-based companies, along with Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7012.T ), that have revenues over 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) a year. The Kakogawa Works is that city’s biggest company, vital as a local taxpayer and employer. More than a third of the Kobe Steel group’s 6,123 domestic customers are concentrated in Hyogo or neighboring Osaka, according to credit-research firm Teikoku Databank. More than half its customers are small and midsize Japanese companies. The other clients are spread around the world and include top automobile manufacturers, airplane makers, railways and nearly any industry that uses steel, aluminum or copper in any form. [nL4N1N834X] No safety issues have been found so far because of the tampering, but Kobe Steel has withdrawn its forecast for its first annual profit in three years. Whatever the eventual economic impact, the scandal is already affecting morale in Kobe city. Slideshow (9 Images) “If Kobe Steel suffers a blow, this is the area that will be most affected,” said Tsuyoshi Matsuda of Teikoku Databank’s Kobe office. Kobe Steel acknowledges some customers have shifted orders to other suppliers. Major banks are instructing their Kobe area branches to keep close watch on the credit management at companies that do business with the steelmaker, bankers say. “HEAVY MOOD” The scandal “isn’t an open topic on the job,” said a worker in his 30s, finishing the night shift around 8 a.m. at Kobe Works, a hulking jumble of rusting pipes, risers and tanks. “Nobody says it out loud, but I think people are worried,” he said. “It’s a heavy mood.” Shinzaike, the local train station closest to Kobe Works, is home to several bar-restaurants that count the company’s employees among their best customers. Since the latest scandal erupted, business has dried up, traders said. “Looks like they’re holding back from going drinking,” said a pub owner. Reservations for year-end parties would normally be starting now, but there haven’t been any yet, he added. Abe, who worked at both the Kobe and Kakogawa works, has called his years at Kobe Steel “the starting point of my adult life.” Last year, according to media reports, he urged young people entering the workforce to follow his example of learning from mistakes at Kobe Steel. “I got through it without incident,” he said. “I want you not to be discouraged by a few mistakes but rather do the best you can.” Reporting by Taro Fuse; Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Ritsuko Shimizu in Tokyo; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal-hometown/scandal-hit-kobe-steel-has-a-look-the-other-way-culture-they-say-in-hometown-idUKKBN1D5011'|'2017-11-05T03:09:00.000+02:00'
'4fd7021aa6490d316727e29ac46c18d623d0b8fe'|'PBOC governor urges China to promote equity, cut debt, eliminate ''zombie'' companies - official media'|'November 4, 2017 / 6:24 AM / in 14 hours PBOC governor urges China to promote equity, cut debt, eliminate ''zombie'' companies - official media Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank boss spelt out his strategy to prevent a future financial crisis, urging broadened equity funding and direct finance to reduce corporate leverage and eliminate “zombie” companies, official media reported on Saturday. China''s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan speaks during a session on the second day of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of People’s Bank of China, said that the market should play a “decisive role” in allocating financial resources, but also stressed the importance of stronger regulation and Communist Party leadership in guiding financial reform, according to the Shanghai Securities News. In warding off systemic financial risks, China should deal with “both cause and symptoms”, and be active in “both preemptive measures and reactive solutions,” Zhou wrote in an article aimed at helping the public deepen understanding of last month’s 19th Communist Party Congress report. During the Congress, Zhou, who is widely expected to step down soon, spoke of the risks of a “Minsky moment”, referring to a sudden collapse in asset prices after long periods of growth, sparked by debt or currency pressures. China has so far avoided a sharp slowdown in its economy, but analysts and global economic bodies such as the International Monetary Fund warn Beijing that China is over-indebted. Rating agencies estimate the overall debt burden at almost three times annual economic output. In his article, Zhou said that China should “actively develop equity financing, and steadily increase the proportion of direct finance.” In direct finance, borrowers borrow funds directly from the financial markets without using intermediaries, potentially reducing risks in the banking system. The more specific measures Zhou suggested included reforming China’s equity issuance mechanisms, further developing private equity funding, promoting debt-to-equity swaps, and expanding the bond market. Meanwhile Zhou also called for further financial deregulation, saying China will relax management of its forex market, promote yuan internationalization and broaden market access by foreign financial institutions. But in what may been seen as balancing measure to such market-friendly steps, Zhou also stressed the importance of tougher supervision, urging regulators and local governments to crack down on illegal arbitrage, shadow banking, and “illegitimate fundraising” that disrupted market order. Reporting by Samuel Shen and Alexandra Harney; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-cenbank-boss/pboc-governor-urges-china-to-promote-equity-cut-debt-eliminate-zombie-companies-official-media-idUKKBN1D406M'|'2017-11-04T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'9aea5c07f01a515d9d78a98f557605f40e8a2772'|'Amazon allowed by law to undercut Australian businesses - regulator'|'November 4, 2017 / 6:37 AM / in 6 hours Amazon allowed by law to undercut Australian businesses: regulator Benjamin Cooper 2 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Competition laws will allow Amazon to undercut local businesses with loss-making prices when it opens for business in Australia, expected to be later in November, the Australian competition regulator said on Saturday. The logo of the web service Amazon is pictured in this June 8, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims told Fairfax Media that Amazon.com.Inc ( AMZN.O ) was able under law to set prices low enough to win business without breaching competition laws. “In terms of misuse of market power, if you open a store in a new town and you set a common price point, you are going to lose money initially if you don’t have scale,” he said. “Eventually, if you get your business plan right, you will make that price point, that is in no way illegal.” Amazon has declined to comment on when its Australian operations will begin. It has been building a distribution warehouse in the southern city of Melbourne. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman Rod Sims speaks during an interview with Reuters in Sydney, Australia, October 31, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed Amazon country manager Rocco Braeuniger is due to hold a meeting in Sydney where he is expected to address more than 500 local suppliers. Australian Small Business Minister Michael McCormack has said he will watch Amazon closely to ensure it pays its fair share of tax. “Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in every country where we operate,” an Amazon spokeswoman told Fairfax. Perceived tax avoidance by large foreign companies is a big issue in Australia, and the government is now enforcing new measures known as the “Earned here, Taxed here” corporate tax laws. Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell said her organization has not seen a copy of the contract under which Amazon will allow small businesses to operate in its marketplace. Reporting by Benjamin Cooper; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-australia/amazon-allowed-by-law-to-undercut-australian-businesses-regulator-idUKKBN1D406W'|'2017-11-04T08:28:00.000+02:00'
'ddd80f6608e752adf3a7ebb7704444a2489283c0'|'Qatar Airways agrees to buy 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:56 AM / in 9 minutes Qatar Airways agrees to buy 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Middle Eastern carrier Qatar Airways said on Monday it had agreed to buy a 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific Airways ( 0293.HK ). FILE PHOTO- A Qatar Airways plane is seen in Doha, Qatar June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer Qatar Airways said in a statement it expected to close the transaction later on Monday in Hong Kong. Earlier, Hong Kong’s Kingboard Chemical Holdings ( 0148.HK ) said it had agreed to sell its 9.6 percent Cathay stake to Qatar Airways for HK$5.16 billion (506.01 million pounds). Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qatar-airways-cathay-pacific-m-a/qatar-airways-agrees-to-buy-9-61-percent-stake-in-cathay-pacific-idUKKBN1D604U'|'2017-11-06T04:06:00.000+02:00'
'37dc95dd60b739a3692ccdcaa571f3c167199d3d'|'Saudi stocks drop after corruption probe detains businessmen, officials - Reuters'|'DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell in early trade on Sunday after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved to consolidate his power and crack down on corruption with a Cabinet reshuffle and a string of detentions of prominent figures.The Saudi equities index was down 1.5 percent after eight minutes of trade. Investment firm Kingdom Holding , owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who was one of those detained, plunged 9.9 percent.Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported a new anti-corruption committee chaired by Prince Mohammed had detained 11 princes, four current ministers and tens of former ministers. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Paul Tait)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-stocks/saudi-stocks-drop-after-corruption-probe-detains-businessmen-officials-idINL5N1NB055'|'2017-11-05T04:15:00.000+02:00'
'1ae16f3cdb6cd71b41a2b19207f92d9ebf5b3204'|'Amazon discounts other sellers'' products as retail competition stiffens'|'NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is cutting prices of products from third-party sellers on its website, moving beyond its more typical method of discounts on items it sells directly.The “discount provided by Amazon” applies to products including board games and technological gadgets offered by other merchants as the holiday season approaches. The retailer has been trying to compete aggressively on some items to win sales and draw customers away from low-priced rivals like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.The move allows Amazon to sell the products at lower prices while still giving full price to the sellers.“When Amazon provides a discount, customers get the products they want at a price they’ll love, and small businesses receive increased sales at their listed asking price,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, noting that businesses can opt out at any time.Marketing the items at lower prices, however, risks angering Amazon’s third-party sellers, who instead could list their products elsewhere online. The move has drawn attention within Amazon Services’ seller forum.Some merchants have criticized Amazon in the past for discounting and, they say, devaluing their products. (Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Jeffrey Dastin in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/amazon-discounts/amazon-discounts-other-sellers-products-as-retail-competition-stiffens-idINL1N1NB0B1'|'2017-11-05T17:26:00.000+02:00'
'bb0fb4c2a76e0dc8b7fbb1463584b5ca9d68f8c4'|'Kobe Steel executives to decide whether to resign after external probe - sources'|'November 6, 2017 / 4:07 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Kobe Steel executives to decide whether to resign after external probe - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel ( 5406.T ) executives, including President Hiroya Kawasaki, will decide whether to resign to take responsibility for a cheating scandal after receiving a report from independent investigators, sources told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - The Kobe Steel (Kobelco) logo is seen on the company''s headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. Picture taken October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White The company is also planning to release an internal report on the falsification of product specifications around Friday, said one of the sources, who has been briefed on the matter. The other source is a senior executive at Kobe Steel. Both requested anonymity because decisions on the future of the executives and a firm date for the release of the report have been not been finalised. Kobe Steel’s admission last month that workers had tampered with product specifications for at least a decade has sent global carmakers, airplane manufacturers and other companies racing to check whether the safety or performance of their products have been compromised. The company was ordered by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) last month to provide a detailed explanation of the data cheating and steps to prevent future abuses by around November 12. It later appointed a team of outside investigators, who are due to report to management by the end of the year. “We received an instruction from METI on Oct. 12 to take steps to find the cause of the problem and craft preventive measures within a month and we are working toward that. We can’t comment on whether we will announce this on the 10th and we can’t comment on the issue of management responsibility,” a spokesman told Reuters by phone, when contacted on Monday. Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Ritsuko Shimizu; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal/kobe-steel-executives-to-decide-whether-to-resign-after-external-probe-sources-idUKKBN1D60BG'|'2017-11-06T06:06:00.000+02:00'
'19a4367f443b242bf9dd253b995d50c39064d5fe'|'U.S. yield curve seen even flatter under a Powell-led Fed'|'November 2, 2017 / 11:26 PM / Updated 3 hours ago U.S. yield curve seen even flatter under a Powell-led Fed Richard Leong 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nomination of Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair on Thursday was greeted with a potentially ominous signal from the bond market: the U.S. Treasury yield curve flattened. U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as Jerome Powell, his nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Trump formally confirmed his selection of Powell, a 64-year-old Fed board governor and former investment banker to succeed current Fed Chair Janet Yellen whose term expires in February. The shape of the Treasury yield curve, which plots the yields of the various debt securities issued by the U.S. government, often reflects investors’ perceptions of the health of the economy and the outlook for inflation. A steeper curve, when long-term yields rise relative to shorter-dated yields, typically augurs brisker economic growth and inflation. A flatter one, when the gap between short and long term yields narrows, most often occurs as the Fed is raising short-term interest rates as it is now, and signals a muted outlook for both growth and inflation. Bond investors are gearing up for a flatter yield curve as Powell is widely expected to continue to raise interest rates gradually, as Yellen began to do in late 2015, and to shrink the central bank’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet. “There’s already a picked path for him,” said Aaron Kohli, interest rate strategist at BMO Capital Markets in New York. “He wouldn’t be supportive for wholesale policy changes.” Since the Fed moved away from its near-zero rate policy nearly two years ago, the five-year and 30-year part of the yield curve has shrunken by 43 basis points. As investors waited for Trump’s announcement on Powell in recent days, the yield gap between five-year and 30-year Treasuries contracted to 82 basis points, a level not seen since late 2007, Tradeweb data showed. “Going forward, I am most focused on the shape of the yield curve - it’s going to tell us a lot,” Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer with Guggenheim Partners said in a tweet on Wednesday. However, if the tax plan outlined by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday were to pass through the Senate, it may stoke selling in long-maturity bonds due to concerns about a widening in the fiscal deficit, steepening the yield curve. And if the economy falters in the coming months due to say political instability abroad or a sustained rout in Wall Street stocks, the yield curve may also steepen again as traders would bet short-term yields would fall in anticipation of the Fed cutting interest rates again. But for now the flattening trend in the yield curve is expected to continue under a Powell-led Fed, as with little evidence of inflation accelerating globally, long-term bond yields may stay close to current levels. The core rate on personal consumption expenditure, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, edged up 0.1 percent in September. This brought its 12-month increase to 1.3 percent, undershooting the central bank’s 2 percent target for about 5-1/2 years. “We are going to see the curve flatter until we see a pickup in inflation,” said Sean Simko, head of fixed income investment at SEI Investments Co. in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Reporting by Richard Leong; editing by Dan Burns and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-fed-markets-analysis/u-s-yield-curve-seen-even-flatter-under-a-powell-led-fed-idINKBN1D231B'|'2017-11-02T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'8700851ea7d872e9f7959327d402872c27ac3894'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 6'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:53 AM / in 8 minutes UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 6 Reuters Staff 6 Min Read Nov 6 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 23 points lower at 7,537 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers. * BAT: British American Tobacco will shut shop in Philippine operations by the end of 2017 amid "difficult environment" and after it lost out on buying local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation, Manila Bulletin reported citing sources. ( bit.ly/2zyMnlD ) * LSE: UK activist investor TCI Fund Management has called on London Stock Exchange Group''s Chairman Donald Brydon to step down, saying that Chief Executive Xavier Rolet was being forced out of the company. * GLENCORE: Chadian government officials will meet Glencore executives in Paris on Monday to discuss restructuring the country''s debt, two senior Chadian government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Sunday. * LONMIN: Embattled London and Johannesburg-listed platinum producer Lonmin , will unveil new health and road projects in South Africa on Monday in a ceremony that will be overshadowed by its latest share price collapse. * RIO TINTO: Global miner Rio Tinto , said it had appointed Simon Trott as chief commercial officer, a newly created role, as it "increases focus on driving mine-to-market value". * SAUDI ARAMCO IPO: U.S. President Donald Trump publicly appealed on Saturday for Saudi Arabia to list national oil company Saudi Aramco''s shares in New York, intervening in a battle among the world''s top stock exchanges. The London Stock Exchange has also received some government support for its bid, although that has been less public. * BREXIT: Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will stress to wary business leaders a commitment to securing a transitional deal once Britain leaves the European Union, seeking to assuage fears of a cliff-edge departure. * BREXIT: Britain''s economy will grow more slowly in the short term if the country fails to secure a future trading deal with the European Union after Brexit, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Sunday. * BREXIT: Almost two in three British firms will have implemented Brexit contingency plans by March if Britain and the rest of the European Union have not struck a transitional deal by then, the Confederation of British Industry said. * UK ECONOMY: Growth in Britain''s private sector held steady in the three months to October after weakening recently, and the inflation hit to consumers and Brexit concerns for companies mean growth will probably stay modest, an industry survey showed. The Confederation of British Industry''s monthly indicator of output for manufacturers, retailers and services companies remained at +11, its joint lowest level since June. * PROPERTY: HomeRenter, a new British online property lettings website backed by newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror is to be launched on Monday, offering to cut out the role of traditional letting agents and the hefty fees which they levy on tenants. * UK CAR SALES: British new car sales in October fell by about 12 percent year on year, marking a seventh consecutive month of decline, preliminary data released by an industry body showed on Monday. Sales were hurt by a decline in business and consumer confidence, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. * OIL: Oil prices hit their highest levels since July 2015 early on Monday as markets tightened, while Saudi Arabia''s crown prince cemented his power over the weekend through an anti-corruption crackdown that included high profile arrests. * GOLD: Gold held steady on Monday, but hovered near a one-week low hit in the previous session, as largely upbeat U.S. economic data reinforced the prospects of another rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month. * METALS: London nickel and copper extended gains on Monday, supported by upbeat sentiment over potential demand from electric vehicles in the wake of last week''s cheery London industry week. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.1 percent higher on Friday at 7,560.35, after shares hit a record closing high, supported by a rally in global stocks and the Bank of England''s interest rate hike, which helped British exporters by putting pressure on sterling. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-6-idUSL3N1NC2G5'|'2017-11-06T07:50:00.000+02:00'
'fabbf3a590e60920c70115f17862b2e04a7df03b'|'U.S. truck firms accelerate into the merging lane'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. truck firms accelerate into the merging lane Eric M. Johnson , Nick Carey 7 Min Read The consolidation of the U.S. trucking industry is picking up speed, with big trucking companies and private equity funds scooping up smaller firms as a U.S. regulatory mandate is set to go into effect and as drivers push for higher wages. A transport truck passes through the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, U.S. on September 3, 2017. Picture taken on September 3, 2017. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang There have been 44 publicly announced freight movement and logistics deals within the U.S. so far this year, according to Thomson Reuters data, already topping the 38 deals announced in 2016. And the total is likely much higher because most deals are private, said Todd McMahon, managing director at investment bank Capstone Partners. Trucking companies by late December must start using electronic logging devices, known as ELDs, to track the number of hours drivers are behind the wheel. The new mandate makes it harder for trucking firms to dodge federal limits on the hours drivers can work and will likely cut into productivity, trucking industry officials have said. That would pressure already razor-thin margins at smaller trucking firms, fueling consolidation. Executives at larger trucking companies and private equity firms have said they are aggressively hunting for deals. And the trucking industry is recovering after a tough few years, making struggling firms more likely to sell, Dan Clark, transportation finance head at BMO Harris Bank, the largest U.S. truck-financing arm. XPO Logistics Inc ( XPO.N ) Chief Executive Officer Brad Jacobs said last week the company has a war chest of up to $8 billion for possible deals in the coming months, and has narrowed its target list to dozens of companies. XPO has used rapid-fire acquisitions to grow from a small truck brokerage into a diversified company. In a 2015 buying spree of roughly $6.5 billion, it snagged trucking and logistics firm Con-way for $3 billion as well as France’s Norbert Dentressangle for $3.53 billion. Scott Wheeler, chief financial officer at Daseke Inc ( DSKE.O ), which hauls industrial equipment for customers like Caterpillar ( CAT.N ) and Deere & Co ( DE.N ) on flatbed and specialized trailers, said acquisitions will fuel the company’s rapid growth. Daseke, with a market value of $597 million, has closed four deals in 2017 with more due before year-end. “There is so much opportunity,” said Wheeler, whose finance team is evaluating numerous merger targets with well-managed fleets and revenue of $40 million to $250 million. Daseke is the largest carrier in the $133 billion open-deck and specialized trucking niche, yet still has less than one percent of this fragmented market. In August, Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Schneider National Inc ( SNDR.N ) told analysts the company plans to focus on “specialty areas” for acquisitions. Echo Global Logistics ( ECHO.O ), with a market value of $664 million, has an “active pipeline” of so-called tuck-in deals aimed at strengthening a particular division that they are working on, CEO Douglas Waggoner told investors. Financial data provider Preqin said year-to-date North American fundraising for private equity funds that include logistics as part of a wider focus has hit $11.6 billion, compared to $7.5 billion for all of 2016. The top funds in that sector either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on their investment plans. FLURRY OF ACTIVITY The biggest deal so far this year was the merger of Swift Transportation Co, the sixth-largest U.S. trucking company, and Knight Transportation Inc ( KNX.N ), the 23rd-largest, creating the biggest truckload operator in North America with a combined market value of more than $5 billion. [L3N1HI3S9] “The big are getting bigger and then, with Knight-Swift, that’s the big-big getting huge,” said Jeff Sass, senior vice president at truckmaker Navistar International Corp ( NAV.N ). For a FACTBOX on major deals this year see: Industry executives say the electronic log rules give big trucking companies who already use electronic logs a stronger hand in the market. Companies like Schneider and Covenant Transportation Group Inc ( CVTI.O ), which provides long-haul services, have used electronic logs for years and backed the rule. But the mandate could sap productivity by 3 percent to 15 percent, according to industry estimates. Trucking firms have also had to raise driver pay as they struggle to attract and retain drivers amid a general driver shortage and tight U.S. labor markets, which has also pressured margins. In addition, many owners of family-owned truck firms that launched following industry deregulation, which reduced government controls on trucking rates and routes from 1980, have hit or are approaching retirement age with children pursuing different careers. For many, their options are sell out, or shut down. “It’s (the pace of acquisitions) been as busy as we’ve seen it since we started the business 13 years ago,” said Jim Parham, managing partner Florida-based M&A advisory firm Transport Capital Partners. “We expect this pace to continue, if not accelerate, in the coming months,” Parham said. Parham hopes to close four deals between firms with revenue of between $10 million to $250 million in the coming weeks but declined to provide specifics. In February, Parham helped less-than-truckload carrier Central Freight Lines buy Wilson Trucking Corp out of Waco, Texas, another LTL carrier, to expand into the U.S. Southeast. LTL carriers consolidate smaller freight loads onto a single truck. QUALITY AN ISSUE Some privately held carriers are focused on building out their own fleet rather than buying other firms. Brad Pinchuk, CEO of Dubuque, Iowa-based Hirschbach Motor Lines, said finding companies to buy that match his modern fleet and low annual driver turnover is tough. He has pursued aggressive expansion, nearly tripling his fleet since 2013 to around 1,100 trucks. Pinchuk says the outlook for family-owned truck firms is bleak because major customers want a handful of big suppliers. “Our big customers are getting bigger and they are doing business with fewer transportation providers,” Pinchuk said. “That makes it pretty darn tough for a small guy to do business directly with a large shipper.” Certain niche, higher-margin truckers may be targeted by private equity firms, said Capstone’s McMahon. For example, Magnate Worldwide, a joint venture between private equity firms CIVC Partners LP and Magnate Capital Partners, acquired New York-based fine art shipper Masterpiece International in April for an undisclosed sum. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Nick Carey in Detroit; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trucking-m-a/u-s-truck-firms-accelerate-into-the-merging-lane-idINKBN1D61EC'|'2017-11-06T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'122691b08fadaa873b90345ab29c6e0862adc91e'|'Drugmaker Mylan''s revenue drops 2.3 percent'|'Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Mylan NV reported a 2.3 percent decline in third-quarter revenue on Monday, hurt by lower sales in North America.The company’s net earnings were $88.3 million, or 16 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $119.8 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier.The year-ago quarter included litigation-related expenses of $558 million.Total revenue fell to $2.99 billion from $3.06 billion. (Reporting by Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mylan-nl-results/drugmaker-mylans-revenue-drops-2-3-percent-idUSL3N1NC4IB'|'2017-11-06T20:14:00.000+02:00'
'8b805f0c3b06afd4d73002742a262594c0c6f09a'|'United weighs purchase of new Boeing 767 passenger jets -WSJ'|'NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - United Continental Holdings Inc is considering replacing wide-body planes with new Boeing 767 passenger jets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.The move would mark a reversal for Boeing Co, which stopped making the passenger version of the jet three years ago. The aerospace company has been eyeing ways to restart production of the model, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans.United has been looking at options for replacing some 767 passenger jets used on transatlantic routes and to South America and whose average age is about 20 years old, according to the report.Neither United Continental nor Boeing responded immediately to requests for comment or confirmation on the report. (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/boeing-united-jets/united-weighs-purchase-of-new-boeing-767-passenger-jets-wsj-idUSL1N1NB07X'|'2017-11-05T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'7118d24b49c84f7f46ecef2aa9b44c1d1ec7de37'|'Toyota seeks more investments in Israeli auto tech, robotics'|'November 5, 2017 / 1:15 PM / Updated 14 hours ago Toyota seeks more investments in Israeli auto tech, robotics Tova Cohen 3 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp is seeking more investments in Israeli robotics and vehicle technologies after its venture arm led a $14 million investment in Intuition Robotics in July. A Toyota logo is seen on a car at City Toyota in Daly City, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/Files The startup, which makes robots for the elderly, was the first Israeli investment for Toyota AI Ventures, a new $100 million fund investing in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous mobility and data and cloud computing. “We will see more involvement of Toyota in the Israeli market in the future,” said Jim Adler, managing director of California-based Toyota AI Ventures, which is part of the $1 billion Toyota Research Institute. “There’s more in the pipeline,” he told Reuters during a visit to Israel, adding that technologies dealing with perception and prediction and planning were of particular interest to Toyota. Perception technology enables a self-driving vehicle to understand the world around it while prediction and planning can help a car interpret situations such as whether a child at an intersection might try to cross at a red light. “There’s a tremendous amount of innovation happening in Israel as cars become more produced by data,” said Adler, who is in the country meeting companies whose technologies interest Toyota. Israel is a growing centre for automotive technology. Earlier this year Intel Corp bought autonomous vehicle firm Mobileye - one of Israel’s biggest tech companies - for $15.3 billion. On Friday Germany’s Continental AG said it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars against hacking. Toyota AI Ventures has made five investments and expects to invest in at least 20 companies worldwide. Regarding its investment in Intuition Robotics - which plans to begin trials of its robots with older adults in their homes early next year - Adler said there were many common features between robotics and autonomous vehicles, which he referred to as “big robots with wheels”. Japan’s population is aging, with 40 percent expected to be over 65 in 20 years, he said, and there will be demand for technologies that help the elderly stay in their homes, rather than have to move to assisted-living facilities. “We think Toyota will have a role there,” he said. Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/israel-tech-toyota/toyota-seeks-more-investments-in-israeli-auto-tech-robotics-idINKBN1D50PP'|'2017-11-05T15:14:00.000+02:00'
'1bed7623b8b60867897152c64dbbaa702d984fa1'|'Subaru Q2 operating profit drops 13.2 pct, cuts annual forecast'|'TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Subaru Corp on Monday posted a 13.2 percent drop in operating profit for the second quarter, as the pace of vehicle sales growth slowed in the United States, its largest market.Japan’s No. 6 automaker said its operating profit came in at 92.8 billion yen ($812.54 million) in July-September, versus 107.0 billion a year ago. This was lower than a mean forecast for 113.8 billion yen from nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Subaru cut its full-year operating profit forecast to 380 billion yen from a previous forecast for 410 billion yen. It also lowered its forecast for full-year net profit to 207.0 billion yen, from a previous forecast of 228.5 billion yen. ($1 = 114.2100 yen) (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Himani Sarkar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/subaru-results/subaru-q2-operating-profit-drops-13-2-pct-cuts-annual-forecast-idINL4N1N84OH'|'2017-11-06T01:26:00.000+02:00'
'19105e07ef373850ea3d99ea2140ee22a450b9bf'|'UPDATE 1-Saudi princes accused of bribery, embezzlement, money laundering -official'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:43 AM / in 21 minutes UPDATE 1-Saudi princes accused of bribery, embezzlement, money laundering -official Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds detail) RIYADH, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Bribery, embezzlement, money laundering and abuse of power are among the accusations levelled against dozens of Saudi princes, officials and businessmen detained in an anti-corruption probe, a Saudi official told Reuters on Monday. Eleven princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers were detained late on Saturday after King Salman decreed the creation of an anti-corruption committee chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his 32-year-old son who has amassed expansive powers over the past two years. The new body was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions, and seize assets. The official said billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding , faces allegations of money laundering, bribery and extorting officials. Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was removed as head of the powerful National Guard, is accused of embezzlement, hiring ghost employees and awarding contracts to his own companies, including a $10 billion deal for walkie-talkies and bulletproof military gear worth billions of Saudi royals. Former Riyadh Governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah is accused of corruption in the Riyadh Metro project and of taking advantage of his influence to award contracts to his own companies, the official said. Former Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, a board member of national oil giant Saudi Aramco, is accused of embezzlement related to the expansion of Mecca’s Grand Mosque and taking advantage of his position and inside information to benefit from land deals, the official added. The accusations could not be independently verified. (Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Stephen Kalin; Editing by Paul Simao and Michael Perry)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-accusations/update-1-saudi-princes-accused-of-bribery-embezzlement-money-laundering-official-idUSL5N1NC0GG'|'2017-11-06T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'da46be82c5c94892082330cc78465a32154c3006'|'Chinese regulator questions Qihoo 360 over $7.5 billion listing'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese regulators are questioning anti-virus software maker Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd’s disclosures in its planned $7.5 billion backdoor listing.FILE PHOTO - Logos of Qihoo 360 are seen at an expo in Beijing, July 21, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily The Shanghai Stock Exchange sent a letter of enquiry to elevator maker SJEC Corp, Qihoo 360’s listing vehicle, requesting more information about the software maker’s business model, financial details and restructuring history, SJEC said in a statement on Saturday.The scrutiny came a day after SJEC ( 601313.SS ) said it would acquire Qihoo 360 through an asset swap and injection which would allow the formerly New York-listed software firm to list on China’s A-share market. Qihoo 360 was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016.The deal, which requires approval from regulators, is being watched as a litmus test for whether Beijing is relaxing curbs it imposed last year on A-share backdoor listings by overseas-listed Chinese companies.Chinese regulators have increased their scrutiny of company disclosures since the 2015 stock market crash as part of efforts to better protect small investors.In the letter of enquiry, which was published through an exchange filing, the Shanghai Stock Exchange asks how Qihoo 360 arrived at the conclusion that it controls 94.8 percent of China’s PC anti-virus software market with monthly active users averaging over 500 million.“Please disclose the data sources and methodology, and indicate if there were redundant calculations or dormant users.”Regulators also sought explanations for why Qihoo 360’s earnings rose so rapidly during the first half of this year. The company reported one billion yuan in net profit during the January-June period, exceeding its full-year total of 744.4 million yuan in 2016.The exchange also asked about the basis and rationale for Qihoo’s forecast that its profit would surge over 70 percent to 3.8 billion yuan in 2019, from an expected 2.2 billion yuan this year.In addition, the exchange raised questions about whether, after frequent restructuring over the past three years, Qihoo 360’s ownership structure was sufficiently clear to qualify for a listing.Reached by telephone, SJEC said there was no one available to answer questions regarding the statement over the weekend. Qihoo 360 executives did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday.Editing by Stephen Powell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-qihoo-listing/chinese-regulator-questions-qihoo-360-over-7-5-billion-listing-idINKBN1D40FM'|'2017-11-04T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'ce398a4a4207011235d17480d33ececc93e28f3d'|'Sprint and T-Mobile end merger negotiations'|'November 4, 2017 / 6:01 PM / in 10 minutes Sprint and T-Mobile call off merger after months of talks Liana B. Baker , Anjali Athavaley 6 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp ( S.N ) and T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) said on Saturday they have called off merger talks to create a stronger U.S. wireless to rival market leaders, leaving No. 4 provider Sprint to engineer a turnaround on its own. Smartphones with the logos of T-Mobile and Sprint are seen in front of a Soft Bank logo in this illustration taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustrations The announcement marks the latest failed attempt to combine the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers, as Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ), and T-Mobile parent, Deutsche Telekom AG ( DTEGn.DE ), show unwillingness to part with too much of their prized U.S. telecom assets. The failed merger could also keep wireless prices low as all four providers have been heavily discounting their cellphone plans in a battle for consumers. A combined company would have had more than 130 million U.S. subscribers, behind Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) and AT&T Inc ( T.N ). “Consumers are better off without the merger because Sprint and T-Mobile will continue to compete fiercely for budget-conscious customers,” said Erik Gordon, a Ross School of Business professor at the University of Michigan. The companies’ unusual step of making a joint announcement on the canceled negotiations could indicate they still recognize the merits of a merger, keeping the door open for potential future talks. The companies said they ended talks because they “were unable to find mutually agreeable terms.” John Legere, chief executive of T-Mobile, said in the statement that the prospect of combining with Sprint was compelling but “we have been clear all along that a deal with anyone will have to result in superior long-term value for T-Mobile’s shareholders compared to our outstanding stand-alone performance and track record.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said that even though the companies could not reach a deal, “we certainly recognize the benefits of scale through a potential combination.” Claure said Sprint has agreed it is best to move forward on its own with its assets “including our rich spectrum holdings, and are accelerating significant investments in our network to ensure our continued growth.” SPRINT‘S ROAD AHEAD Failure to clinch an agreement leaves SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, a dealmaker who raised close to $100 billion for his Vision Fund to invest in technology companies, with the need to find another option for Sprint. Sprint is in the middle of a turnaround plan and has sought to strengthen its balance sheet by cutting costs. But industry analysts have expressed concern that the company, weighed down with total debt of $38 billion, has few financial options. Even though its customer base has expanded under CEO Claure, growth has been driven by heavy discounting. Analysts said an end to talks to T-Mobile would leave debt-laden Sprint without the scale needed to invest in its network and to compete in a saturated market. Sprint has sought to strengthen its balance sheet by cutting costs and mortgaging a portion of its airwaves and equipment. “To really take the kind of next step from a business that has been stabilized to a business that has been growing is going to require a new more intense investment phase,” Mark Stodden, telecom analyst at Moody‘s, said about Sprint. T-Mobile is a better position as a standalone company, analysts have said. T-Mobile, controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom which owns roughly 65 percent of it, became the first major carrier to eliminate two-year contracts, a shift quickly embraced by consumers and copied by competitors. The company has also badgered rivals with its unlimited data plans. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said in a statement on Saturday that T-Mobile has a “strong basis for growth in the upcoming years.” MONTHS OF TALKS Both companies had expressed interest in a tie-up this year. SoftBank was prepared to give up control to do a deal with T-Mobile, sources familiar with the company’s thinking told Reuters in February. But no deal was announced immediately following the conclusion of a ban on merger talks in the spring that was associated with a U.S. government auction of wireless airwaves. Both Sprint and T-Mobile said they were open to exploring other options. An added wrinkle was Sprint’s negotiations with cable companies Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) and Charter Communications Inc ( CHTR.O ). A source told Reuters in July that SoftBank was considering an acquisition offer for Charter in a deal where it would combine the cable company with Sprint. The two companies came close to announcing a merger in 2014 but called it off at the last minute due to regulatory concerns. Industry executives have said a combined Sprint-T-Mobile entity would have the scale, network and enhanced portfolio of wireless airwaves and a better chance to develop 5G, the next generation of wireless technology. Legal experts also said earlier this year that it was difficult to predict whether the current administration would be more receptive of a deal. Industry executives have expressed optimism about the prospect of consolidation. But President Donald Trump has also made populist comments on antitrust and prioritized job creation as a key platform. (This version of the story was refiled to remove extraneous word in the first paragraph) Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Anjali Athavaley in New York; additional reporting by Doug Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us/sprint-and-t-mobile-end-merger-negotiations-idUSKBN1D40RY'|'2017-11-04T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'c03074de766613d333a6de994b4a9ac3102322b2'|'UPDATE 1-Trump pitches NYSE for Saudi Aramco IPO listing'|'(Adding background, response from Saudi Aramco )Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he “would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange.”“Very important to the United States!” Trump wrote on Twitter about Saudi Aramco’s plan to float around 5 percent of the company in an initial public offering next year.The kingdom is planning to float the IPO on the Saudi exchange but also is looking to list it internationally.NYSE Group President Thomas Farley said at an investment conference in Riyadh last month that he had not given up on the IPO and was in discussions with Saudi authorities.A Saudi Aramco spokesman had no comment. (Reporting from Jonathan Landay in Washington and Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-aramco/update-1-trump-pitches-nyse-for-saudi-aramco-ipo-listing-idINL2N1NA089'|'2017-11-04T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'8bec641280ad5a751d9a96a45628e34556c495b7'|'UAE''s ADNOC to launch fuel retail business stake sale in December :sources'|'ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plans to launch a share sale of a stake in its network of fuel service stations and retail convenience stores in December, sources told Reuters on Sunday.The listing for ADNOC Distribution, which manages petrol stations and convenience stores across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), comes as Abu Dhabi and other Gulf states seek to privatize energy assets as revenues are squeezed by lower oil prices.Sources told Reuters in September that the company could list more than 10 percent of its fuel retail business and one or two more businesses later as part of a major shake-up.Reporting By Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Tom Arnold; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-adnoc-ipo/uaes-adnoc-to-launch-fuel-retail-business-stake-sale-in-december-sources-idUSKBN1D50NC'|'2017-11-05T20:34:00.000+02:00'
'335971df11e81bc49eb6cc45944129eb5af9b303'|'Irish services sector growth slips to 11-month low in October'|'November 3, 2017 / 6:11 AM / in 2 hours Irish services sector growth slips to 11-month low in October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - - Growth in the Irish services sector slowed to an 11-month low in October following a sharp fall in expectations about future business, a survey showed on Friday. Dublin port is seen in cloudy weather in Dublin, Ireland October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Investec Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 57.5 from 58.7 in September, but remained well above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, as it has done since August 2012. Like the wider economy, services firms have so far proved resilient to the impact of neighbouring Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. But the October survey saw a sharp fall in the Business Expectations index - which measures expected business levels in 12 months’ time - to 68.9 from 77.3. The survey’s authors said a number of respondents expressed concerns about customer sentiment. But while confidence fell, it remained relatively high with almost six times as many firms expecting growth compared to those who expect a moderation in activity in the coming year. Investec Ireland chief economist Philip O‘Sullivan said that while there were some negative signs, the October survey still demonstrated a sharp pace of expansion in the Irish services sector. He noted that almost four times as many companies were reporting growth in new business as experiencing a softening of demand. ”Given the favourable economic outlook for the majority of Ireland’s key trading partners and the domestic economy, we are in the camp of those who expect 2018 to be another year of progress for the services industry,” he said. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by John Stonestreet; conor.humphries@thomsonreuters.com; +35315001518; Reuters; Messaging: conor.humphries.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-pmi/irish-services-sector-growth-slips-to-11-month-low-in-october-idUKKBN1D30CD'|'2017-11-03T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'f590ee585fd4320d2aa98cae15656b51531b252a'|'Broadcasting towers group Arqiva postpones planned $2 billion London IPO'|'November 3, 2017 / 7:22 AM / Updated 2 hours ago London IPO market hit as Arqiva and Bakkavor pull floats Ben Martin 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Broadcasting masts firm Arqiva and ready meals supplier Bakkavor abandoned plans for two of London’s biggest floats this year in a blow to Britain’s market for initial public offerings (IPOs). The announcement of their float plans had driven hopes of a revival of the IPO market in Britain that has been muted since Britons voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. So far in 2017 British IPOs have raised 5.2 billion dollars, a 13 percent drop on the same period a year ago. The failure of the Arqiva and Bakkavor listings raises questions about the way the IPOs were managed and investor appetite for the flotations that have been offered. Russian aluminum and hydropower group En+ Group went ahead with its London listing on Friday, but priced its global depositary receipts at $14, the lower end of its guided range. It slipped below its IPO price in early trade. “Some of the quality of IPOs that are coming along, even the ones that have gotten done, have not been great,” said one equity capital market banker. “It’s not a question of demand, it’s a question of the quality of the supply of deals.” Arqiva was “was too leveraged for the markets” and Bakkavor had not excited investors, he said, adding both firms had been too ambitious with the prices they had sought for their shares. Arqiva, which has net debt of 3.4 billion pounds, had tried to sell itself before announcing its listing on Oct. 23. It blamed “IPO market uncertainty” for postponing its float that it had hoped would raise about 1.5 billion pounds ($1.96 billion). Bakkavor also announced it was pulling its listing because of “volatility” in the float market, despite having “received sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering”. Arqiva had an implied enterprise value, which includes debt, of about 6 billion pounds and would have been the biggest IPO in London this year. Sandwiches and dips supplier Bakkavor was targeting a market capitalization of about 1.5 billion pounds. Friday’s two pulled IPOs come after business services firm TMF scrapped its float on Oct. 27 in favor of a 1.75 billion euro ($2.04 billion) sale to private equity house CVC Capital Partners. DISAPPOINTING DEBUTS Richard Marwood, a fund manager at Royal London Asset Management, said the decision by Doughty Hanson’s TMF to drop its IPO “was a bit galling” for investors. “Fund managers don’t like it when they’ve done all the work and that happens,” he said. Sources close to both Arqiva and Bakkavor said the decision to pull the listings had been driven by the disappointing performance of recently-floated businesses in the UK and Europe. London-listed cruise port operator Global Ports Holding ( GPH.L ), Austrian bank BAWAG ( BAWG.VI ), and French fashion group SMCP ( SMCP.PA ) are all trading below their IPO prices. Not all listings have slipped. Fashion and footwear retailer Footasylum floated at 164 pence a share in London on Thursday and surged to 193 pence on Friday. Shares in German metals recycling group Befesa ( BFSA.DE ) also rose in debut trading on Friday. Arqiva, which carried the BBC’s first television broadcast in 1936, said it would “revisit” its listing when conditions “improve”. But Bakkavor did not say in its statement whether it would revive its float at a later date. The cancellation of their IPOs comes as Cabot Credit Management, Britain’s biggest debt collector, gears up for a float that could value it at about 1 billion pounds. A bookrunner on its listing said on Friday the price range for its shares was 210 pence to 260 pence. Supermarket supplier Bakkavor, owned by Icelandic brothers Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson and U.S. hedge fund Baupost, is being advised by Rothschild, while HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citigroup, Rabobank and Peel Hunt have been working on its share sale. Rothschild is also advising Arqiva and HSBC, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Cazenove were managing its listing. The masts business is owned by a consortium that includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Macquarie. Reporting by Ben Martin; Additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Rachel Armstrong '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-arqiva-ipo/broadcasting-towers-group-arqiva-postpones-planned-2-billion-london-ipo-idINKBN1D30I4'|'2017-11-03T04:22:00.000+02:00'
'af1f4b8c1640bb4b2aeadcf7e8502fb33e166343'|'METALS-London nickel rises, on course for 10 pct weekly gain'|'(Updates London prices, adds Shanghai closing prices) BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - London nickel prices renewed their advance on Friday, putting the metal on course for a gain of nearly 10 percent this week and 27 percent year-to-date on expectations of bullish demand from the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector. Three-month London Metal Exchange nickel has climbed by over $1,100 a tonne since Monday, marking its biggest two-day jump in more than three years on Tuesday and Wednesday on positive sentiment about the EV growth story at the LME Week meeting in London, before slipping back 1.4 percent on Thursday. "While we agree that the potential is significant, we suspect the market has jumped the gun and a short-term pullback could be in order," ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes wrote in a note on Friday. "In saying that, it will just be a consolidation as the market is likely to remain tight even before the demand growth from the EV sector kicks in," he added. Hynes estimated that demand for nickel from EV batteries could rise fivefold by 2025. FUNDAMENTALS * LME NICKEL: London Metal Exchange three-month nickel was up 0.6 percent at $12,685 a tonne by 0723 GMT. The contract hit its highest in more than two years at $13,030 a tonne on Wednesday. * SHFE NICKEL: The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (Shfe) recovered from a dip in early trade to finish up 0.3 percent to 101,320 yuan ($15,304.44) a tonne, a fresh highest close since June 2015. * BHP: Global miner BHP said that its Australian Nickel West operations, which it is retooling to meet battery sector demand, are for sale at the right price. * COPPER: Copper was trading up 0.1 percent in London after ending the previous session little changed, and closed up 0.3 percent in Shanghai. * ALUMINIUM: Aluminium in London was up 0.1 percent, with looming production curbs on Chinese smelters likely to come back into focus next week as traders return from LME Week. Shanghai aluminium closed down 0.1 percent. * ZINC/LEAD: Zinc was down 0.5 percent in London and ended down 0.1 percent in Shanghai, while lead climbed 0.4 percent on the LME but closed down 0.5 percent on the Shfe. * ALUMINIUM DEMAND: Global demand for rolled aluminium products is expected to remain strong next year thanks largely to the automotive sector, leading producer Novelis said on Thursday. * PRIVATE EQUITY: North American institutional investors are raising their exposure to metals and mining partly through co-investments with private equity, industry sources at a mining conference said this week. * SOVEREIGN RISK: Kazakh miner Kaz Minerals said the government of Kyrgyzstan had suspended operations at its Bozymchak gold and copper mine on Thursday for three months. * TANZANIA: Acacia Mining''s top two executives have resigned in the midst of talks between its parent company and the Tanzanian government aimed at ending a long-running dispute that has hit Acacia''s operations. * MARKETS: Asian shares took a breather on Friday as investors gave a guarded reception to Republican plans for massive U.S. tax cuts, while welcoming the appointment of a centrist at the helm of the Federal Reserve. * USD/US JOBS: The dollar held steady versus a basket of currencies on Friday, as focus shifted to U.S. jobs data. BASE METALS PRICES 0723 GMT Three month LME copper 6933 Most active ShFE copper 54310 Three month LME aluminium 2173 Most active ShFE aluminium 16235 Three month LME zinc 3241 Most active ShFE zinc 25930 Three month LME lead 2453.5 Most active ShFE lead 18550 Three month LME nickel 12685 Most active ShFE nickel 101310 Three month LME tin 19585 Most active ShFE tin 143830 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 726.8 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -516.57 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 515.62 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1003.39 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2015.64 ($1 = 6.6203 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Richard Pullin and Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-nickel-rises-on-course-for-10-pct-weekly-gain-idINL4N1N91K6'|'2017-11-03T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'a003c5ea6fc8d547f081fbe6a1ab99c2f5de1c1d'|'FIMI fund invests $40 million in Israel Aerospace unit ImageSat - Reuters'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) [ISRAI.UL] said on Sunday it signed a deal with the FIMI private equity fund to invest in IAI’s subsidiary ImageSat.FIMI will invest $40 million in ImageSat (ISI), a commercial provider of satellite imagery services, for 53.6 percent of ISI’s capital, IAI said.Under terms of the deal, ImageSat will acquire a new high resolution observation satellite, the EROS-C, and on the closing date it will pay $35 million as part of ISI’s debt repayment.FIMI will receive preferred shares in which a profit sharing mechanism will be operated between IAI and FIMI.Completion of the deal is subject to the approval of the Defence Ministry and the anti-trust authority.“Space continues to be at the heart of IAI’s business strategy. The combining of forces with FIMI will create synergy between technological and business capabilities,” said IAI CEO Joseph Weiss.Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Tova Cohen '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-il-aerospace-ind-m-a/fimi-fund-invests-40-million-in-israel-aerospace-unit-imagesat-idINKBN1D50BE'|'2017-11-05T05:15:00.000+02:00'
'942edcdc0422532e5ac962931ce13221f679b1d2'|'UPDATE 1-MOVES-Credit Suisse names Galietto to head U.S. stock trading'|'(In paragraph 2, adds UBS saying that Galietto left UBS in 2015)By Olivia OranNov 3 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG has hired Paul Galietto as head of Americas equities trading, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, in a move to further boost its stock business.Galietto most recently was the chief of equities Americas at UBS Group AG and before that he worked more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch. A spokesperson for UBS said that Galietto left the company in 2015.A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the internal memo.Credit Suisse has made a number of senior hires this year in its stock trading unit under new equities head Mike Stewart. Those hires include Michael Ebert, who joined as global head of equity derivatives from Bank of America Corp; Doug Crofton, who was brought over from Bank of America to run U.S. equities sales and trading, and David Bleustein, who became head of Americas equity research and had worked at UBS.Under Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse has reduced its footprint in some parts of trading, including fixed income, while focusing on ways to boost lending to wealthy clients.Credit Suisse’s equities business in the United States ranked between No. 7 and No. 9 by revenue, according to industry tracker Coalition.The bank said on Thursday that equities revenue had risen 5 percent year over year during the third quarter. (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/credit-suisse-gp-moves/update-1-moves-credit-suisse-names-galietto-to-head-u-s-stock-trading-idINL2N1NA09E'|'2017-11-04T12:34:00.000+02:00'
'2a3aab7b3c2ac27992073103ea45825cde92507b'|'T-Mobile to pursue growth after Sprint talks end - Deutsche Telekom'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 4 (Reuters) - T-Mobile US will pursue a growth strategy in the United States after ending merger talks with Sprint Corp on Saturday, majority owner Deutsche Telekom said.“T-Mobile US, of which Deutsche Telekom holds 64 percent of the shares, plans to continue its successful growth strategy,” the German company said in a statement. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editign by Victoria Bryan) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-ma-t-mobile-us-deutsche-tele/t-mobile-to-pursue-growth-after-sprint-talks-end-deutsche-telekom-idINFWN1N91PG'|'2017-11-04T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'4ff670e9ee3cc50e8771cef19691158df9d29b36'|'Chipmaker Marvell Technology in talks to buy Cavium: Wall Street Journal'|'November 3, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Chipmaker Marvell Technology in talks to buy Cavium: Wall Street Journal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Marvell Technology Group Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Cavium Inc - a deal that would create a chipmaker worth about $14 billion, Wall Street Journal reported. Cavium shareholders would receive a modest premium, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. A deal could be announced in the next few weeks if talks do not fall apart. ( on.wsj.com/2zhtov9 ) As of Friday’s close, Cavium has a market capitalization of about $4.5 billion, while Marvell had a valuation of over $9 billion. Neither of the two companies immediately responded to request for comments. Shares of Cavium were up nearly 13 percent in after-hours trading on Friday, while Marvell’s stock was up about 6 percent. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cavium-m-a-marvell-technlgy/chipmaker-marvell-technology-in-talks-to-buy-cavium-wall-street-journal-idINKBN1D32IM'|'2017-11-03T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'9bd9508ba65b5d6dbefd14c61ff72ef25cff6c7c'|'Saudi''s Falih calls for more work to cut global oil inventory'|'November 4, 2017 / 9:08 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Russia, Saudi Arabia ready for more work to cut global oil inventory Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TASHKENT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are ready to do more work to reduce global oil inventories, the Russian energy ministry said in a statement on Saturday after a meeting of officials from the four countries. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih attends a meeting of the 4th OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee in St. Petersburg, Russia July 24, 2017. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov Russia and Saudi Arabia are leading a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to cut global oil production, with the aim of propping up oil prices. “The states-participant signified satisfaction of reducing commercial stocks of oil and stated their readiness to continue (to make) join efforts towards such a direction”, the statement said. OPEC, Russia and other oil producers are due to meet at the end of November in Vienna to decide whether to extend the current supply-cut pact. According to the Russian Energy Ministry, the formerly Soviet state Tajikistan will take part at the meeting as an observer. Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih said after the meeting that more work was needed to cut inventories. “There is a general satisfaction with the strategy of 24 countries that signed a declaration of cooperation”. “Everybody recognises that (the) job is not done yet by any means, we still have significant amount of work to do to bring inventories down. Mission is not yet complete, more needs to be done,” he added. He said members of the global pact he had spoken with have expressed the same views. “This is the same sentiment I’ve heard yesterday from (Kazakh) President (Nursultan) Nazarbayev, this is the same sentiment I’ve heard from all the oil-producing members of the Asia energy ministers’ round table”, he said. Officials from Malaysia, Ecuador, Nigeria and Libya have also given him similar feedback, Falih said. “All committed to working with other producers and supporting the agreement”, the Saudi oil minister added. Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov in TASHKENT and Vladimir Soldatkin in MOSCOW,; Writing by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Alexander Smith and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-oil-pact/saudis-falih-calls-for-more-work-to-cut-global-oil-inventory-idUKKBN1D408X'|'2017-11-04T11:08:00.000+02:00'
'ac567972d707ee67de655df44b658f18a85878be'|'Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down, Gail Boudreaux to succeed: WSJ'|'November 3, 2017 / 11:13 PM / in 21 hours Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down, Gail Boudreaux to succeed: WSJ Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc’s ( ANTM.N ) Chief Executive Joseph Swedish will step down and be succeeded by industry veteran Gail Boudreaux, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The office building of health insurer Anthem is seen in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas It is unclear how quickly the transition will occur, but the plan is expected to be announced as soon as next week, the publication reported. Anthem, the nation’s second largest health insurer by revenue, did not respond to requests for comment. Boudreaux is well-known among managed-care investors and has served as CEO of United Healthcare, a unit of the largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc ( UNH.N ). Boudreaux “will be the right executive to lead Anthem to its next phase of growth, after CEO Swedish’s successful 4-year tenure in turning around a troubled company during the challenging years of Obamacare implementation,” Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said in a research note. Swedish was behind the insurer’s $54 billion merger proposal with smaller rival Cigna Corp ( CI.N ), which was ultimately called off due to regulatory issues. That deal would have created the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs. Health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) and pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) are working toward finalizing merger terms and announcing a deal for more than $70 billion as early as December, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide. Anthem last week reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as its Obamacare individual insurance business broke even and forecast a slight 2018 profit for the government plans despite uncertainty about the market’s future. Anthem, which runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, said it had cut in half the number of areas where it will sell individual plans in 2018, which will reduce enrollment by 70 percent next year and help profits. Through Friday, Anthem shares had climbed about 47 percent this year to $211.80, compared with UnitedHealth’s 33 percent rise to $212.87. After hours on Friday, the shares were up 0.6 percent. Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anthem-ceo/anthem-ceo-joseph-swedish-to-step-down-gail-boudreaux-to-succeed-wsj-idUSKBN1D32K5'|'2017-11-04T01:11:00.000+02:00'
'ee7e3902c0f7f19cc3580c69bab2d0e63b7f6fb6'|'Irish PM says future of $1 billion Apple data center uncertain'|'November 4, 2017 / 10:32 AM / in 11 hours Irish PM says future of $1 billion Apple data center uncertain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - A planned $1 billion Apple data center is in doubt after Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the U.S. company’s Chief Executive Tim Cook would no longer commit to it, adding that Dublin would do whatever necessary to get it built. A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed European Union flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Apple announced plans in February 2015 to build the facility in a rural location in the west of Ireland to take advantage of green energy sources nearby, but the project has faced a two-year delay due to planning objections. In a meeting on Thursday, Cook did not commit to going ahead with it, Varadkar told state broadcaster RTE. “We didn’t get a start date, or a definite commitment or anything like that,” said Varadkar, who is on a tour of the United States to meet investors, adding he had told Cook that the government would do “anything within our power” to facilitate the resumption of the project. Ireland relies on foreign multinational companies like Apple for the creation of one in every 10 jobs across the economy and sees major investments such as data centers as a means of securing their presence in the country. Apple did not respond to an e-mail query asking about whether it was committed to the project. A similar Apple center announced at the same time in Denmark is due to begin operations later this year and Apple in July announced it would build its second EU data center there. The government has said it is considering amending its planning laws to include data centers as strategic infrastructure, thus allowing them to get through the planning process much more quickly. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ireland/irish-pm-says-future-of-1-billion-apple-data-center-uncertain-idUSKBN1D40BI'|'2017-11-04T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'b426034646dc7c304e92c33d3ce97ee8ad489ffd'|'CORRECTED-BRIEF-Tallgrass Energy says Pony Express crude pipeline refinery connections to come online Q1 2018'|'(Corrects to make clear the comparison of daily throughput is with contracted volumes, not versus Q2)Nov 2 (Reuters) - Tallgrass Energy Partners LP* Tallgrass Energy says Pony Express crude pipeline refinery connections to come online Q1 2018* Tallgrass Energy says daily average crude oil throughput on Pony Express in Q3 was 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to a contracted volumes of 300,000 bpd (Reporting by Bryan Sims)Our '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2N1N826X'|'2017-11-03T23:56:00.000+02:00'
'2b323910ec72447f01ab1a6140872959a8694747'|'Swiss engineering firm ABB cutting 100 jobs at Geneva factory'|'November 6, 2017 / 2:25 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Swiss engineering firm ABB cutting 100 jobs at Geneva factory Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss engineering group ABB ( ABBN.S ) is axing 100 jobs from its Secheron plant in Geneva and shifting production to a site in Poland, the company said on Monday. A logo is pictured on the ABB Secheron building in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Workers were told ABB is transferring the large-scale production of traction transformers, used by trains, to its site in Lodz over the next three years. The traction transformer repair business will be shifted to Halle, Germany, ABB said. ABB cited increasing competition and “challenging” market conditions for the decision. The Geneva factory belongs to ABB’s Power Grids division, currently the least profitable of its four businesses, having suffered a 9 percent drop in orders this year. A flag with ABB logo is pictured next to another one of County of Geneva in front of the ABB Secheron building in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The rest of the Geneva factory, which makes chargers for electric buses that are soon to start running in Geneva this month, will not be affected by the restructuring. Around 112 jobs will remain in Geneva, which will also continue to carry out research and development as well as small-scale production. Sales and marketing will not be affected. Slideshow (2 Images) “This plan is based on challenging market conditions resulting from external factors, loading of the factory and sustaining competitiveness,” ABB said. “The overall market and investment climate, coupled with changing market dynamics and buying patterns, with local procurement in growth markets like India and China, is affecting the viability of the Geneva traction transformer factory to remain competitive.” ABB, which employs around 6,000 people in Switzerland, said its other factories in the country are unaffected. Reporting by John Revill, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abb-factory-jobs/swiss-engineering-firm-abb-cutting-100-jobs-at-geneva-factory-idUSKBN1D61TB'|'2017-11-06T16:23:00.000+02:00'
'663a3a7687961f94c9b173be9496c897b2f192fa'|'Japanese cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer - On the other hand'|'THE Japanese make cars that last but replace them relatively quickly. The average car in Japan is three years younger than in America. This combination of durable manufacturing and dutiful consumption of a prized national product works out well for the rest of the world; many countries import older Japanese cars in bulk. Secondhand vehicles fill vast parking lots in Japan’s port cities, awaiting shipment to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.The third-most-popular destination is Myanmar, which imported over 80,000 used Japanese vehicles in the first nine months of this year, according to Japan’s International Auto Trade Association. Drivers believe that Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans can stand up to the country’s pockmarked roads, a faith not yet shown in South Korean and Chinese cars. 7 There is only one problem, which is that Japan drives on the left, Myanmar on the right. As a consequence, most of Myanmar’s drivers sit on the wrong side of the car, where it is harder to see oncoming traffic. Settle into the passenger seat of a Honda taxi on a narrow rural road and you may be called upon to perform unexpected duties like telling your driver when it is safe to overtake a slow-moving lorry, without hitting a scooter, gaggle of children or bonnet-less jalopy travelling in the other direction.Not everyone executes these responsibilities successfully. Myanmar has the highest rate of deaths per vehicle among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the World Health Organisation. Evidence of accidents litters the roadside outside Yangon: a silver Toyota that has lost everything in front of its windscreen and a red Suzuki hatchback that also now has a hatchfront.Myanmar’s government periodically tightens the import rules to keep older and less safe cars off the country’s roads. In October it said it will allow individuals to import only cars built in 2016 or after. And after this year, it will no longer grant import permits for right-hand-drive cars.The tighter policy may encourage local car assembly. Suzuki will open a new factory for left-hand-drive cars outside Yangon next year, adding to its existing plant in the city’s east. But the change will oblige drivers to buy cars that are either more expensive or less authentically Japanese. The new left-hand-drive Corolla on display in the Toyota “Mingalar” dealership in Yangon, for example, was made in Thailand and is listed at $33,900, over 26 times the country’s national income per person.One other constituency may also come to regret the altered rules. Many poorer residents of Yangon, where motorcycles are banned, ride bicycles or sit in three-wheeled “trishaws”, trundling alongside the kerb. As more of Myanmar’s drivers shift to the left seat, oncoming traffic will be easier to spot; but these kerbside pedal pushers will be more exposed than ever. "On the other hand"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/rss/business_rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730908-government-outlawing-right-hand-drive-cars-japanese-cars-enjoy-afterlife-myanmar?fsrc=rss%7Cbus'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'd0941296484aaff9f6f4478d49422f91c3c0e793'|'Pakistan''s Engro eyes 2019 start for new LNG terminal in Karachi'|'KARACHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corp expects to complete building its second liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in early 2019, a senior company official said, as Pakistan bets heavily on LNG imports to curb energy shortages.Engro built Pakistan’s first LNG terminal in 2015 and is now finalising plans with Royal Dutch Shell, Fatima Group and trading house Gunvor for another terminal with capacity of 4.5 million tonnes per year.Pakistan has become a hot destination for global energy giants, with producers such as Exxon and traders like Vitol seeking partners to build terminals after Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi re-oriented Pakistan’s energy policy towards gas.A second terminal is due to come on line later this month, easing gas shortages that have hobbled Pakistan’s manufacturing sector and wider economy for more than a decade. Private companies are racing to build several other terminals.Jahangir Piracha, chief executive of Engro’s LNG unit, Elengy Terminal Pakistan, said his consortium expects to sign a final investment decision (FID) in the next few months and would then build the terminal in about a year.“The technical studies are all done. We are looking at early 2019 (to complete the project) if everything goes right,” Piracha told Reuters in Karachi this week.A rival LNG terminal project by a six-member consortium that included ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum, appears to be in trouble after the American company pulled out, Pakistani officials said. ExxonMobil, however, remains very keen on Pakistan and is looking at other terminal projects.Unlike Pakistan’s first two terminals where the government guaranteed to buy all the gas due to be imported, the subsequent terminals are going to be entirely private ventures with no government off-take guarantees.Engro’s Piracha said the biggest challenge for the Engro consortium is to convince gas buyers such as power plants and factories to sign up before the project is on the ground.“Because there are so many people trying to develop a project, (local buyers) want to bet on the right horse. They don’t want to sign up with you to find out that your project didn’t come through,” he said.Piracha said this posed a problem for terminal developers who would prefer to have signed-up customers before making a final investment decision.“It’s a bit of a chicken and egg story,” Piracha said. “My own feeling is that people want to see an investment and then they will sign up.”Piracha said other companies in the Engro group could sign up to be consumers from the terminal, which has the capacity for regasification of up to 600 million cubic feet per day, as could businesses from consortium partner Fatima, another major Pakistani conglomerate.Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-lng/pakistans-engro-eyes-2019-start-for-new-lng-terminal-in-karachi-idINL8N1N92GZ'|'2017-11-04T06:43:00.000+02:00'
'b16f234f7e077d636a0f28cd244909608ed21d29'|'Prosecutors say investigating Metro officials for insider trading'|'Reuters TV United States November 6, 2017 / 10:11 AM / in a few seconds Prosecutors say investigating Metro officials for insider trading Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Monday that they were investigating multiple officials at Metro AG ( B4B.DE ) for possible insider trading and market manipulation. FILE PHOTO: Shopping carts of Germany''s biggest retailer Metro AG are lined up at a Metro cash and carry market near the city of Bonn. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo The prosecutors did not specify names, but on Friday the retailer said German prosecutors were investigating the supervisory board chairman and a senior executive of the retailer. Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Douglas Busvine'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-metro-insidertrading/prosecutors-say-investigating-metro-officials-for-insider-trading-idUKKBN1D612G'|'2017-11-06T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'525fc8893cc72c4db773ca4fd62d555bd99e388a'|'Fox held talks to sell most of company to Disney - CNBC'|' 01 PM / in 15 minutes Fox held talks to sell most of company to Disney - CNBC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox ( FOXA.O ) has held talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ), CNBC reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO - The 21st Century Fox   the News Corporation headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo While there is no certainty the deal will happen, Fox has held talks over the past few weeks, CNBC reported. The two sides are not talking currently, but the talks could be revisited, CNBC reported. cnb.cx/2hgHcPA Disney would not purchase all of Fox, CNBC reported, citing the sources. Neither company was immediately available for comment. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-walt-disney/fox-held-talks-to-sell-most-of-company-to-disney-cnbc-idUKKBN1D62I3'|'2017-11-06T21:13:00.000+02:00'
'6a55c7f371c3ec15c486c859b1cbad5c1fbb837a'|'Rivals AMD, Intel partner to take on Nvidia'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:37 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Rivals AMD, Intel partner to take on Nvidia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Bitter rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Intel Corp on Monday unveiled a partnership that will help the chipmakers take on Nvidia Corp. The Intel logo is displayed on computer screens at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 31, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Under the partnership, AMD’s semi-custom graphics chip will be integrated into Intel’s new multi-chip processor package for personal computing. AMD’s shares were up 6.5 percent at $11.84 in early trading. Intel was up 1 percent, while Nvidia was down 0.5 percent. Designed by Intel, the new product will integrate an Intel core processor together with a semi-custom radeon graphic chip and second-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM2) into one package, AMD said in a statement. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-intel-amd/rivals-amd-intel-partner-to-take-on-nvidia-idINKBN1D6215'|'2017-11-06T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'84cb28307c97910c1fcc353f465f65b599da2cf7'|'Shell looks beyond road fuels to secure future of refining'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:09 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Shell looks beyond road fuels to secure future of refining Ron Bousso , Dmitry Zhdannikov 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - While the world braces for the electric-vehicle revolution, Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) is betting on growing appetite for asphalt and plastics to sustain its century-old oil refining business for the coming decades. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Royal Dutch Shell is seen at a petrol station in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman Converting crude oil into products ranging from gasoline to industrial chemicals has long faced obstacles due to volatile profits, high costs, safety issues and pollution and more recently, forecasts of peaking demand for oil. But refining, together with trading, marketing and chemicals - known together as downstream - has proved its importance during the oil industry’s downturn since 2014, providing the bulk of Shell’s profits as the price of crude collapsed. Shell has in recent years transformed its downstream business by selling some plants and upgrading others to have them better resist oil price fluctuations and shifts in demand, delivering double-digit returns on capital employed. “Refining will continue to be part of our portfolio for decades to come,” said Shell’s head of manufacturing Lori Ryerkerk, who is in charge of refining. Shell is perhaps the most aggressive in its sector in forecasting that the demand for gasoline could reach an apex by the 2030s as drivers shift to electric vehicles and traditional engines become more efficient. But still, Shell says, the continued expansion of the world’s economy, particularly in Asia, means consumption of other refined oil products and petrochemicals is likely to grow. For instance, there are no economically viable substitutes for asphalt, needed to build roads, or for the polymers and chemicals used to produce plastics for cars, toys and clothes, Ryerkerk said. “While the peak demand for our products will come, it won’t come in decades. There are still many products that we make for which there is no other alternative at the moment – heavy transport, industrial applications that require high heat.” The Anglo-Dutch company plans to double the size of its chemicals business by the middle of the next decade with several new plants including in Louisiana and Pennsylvania that benefit from access to cheap shale gas, said Shell’s head of chemicals, Graham van’t Hoff. It also wants 20 percent of sales from its fuel stations worldwide to come from recharging electric vehicles and low-carbon fuels by 2025. The oil sector’s outlook for growth in demand for oil and plastics could prove wrong if governments around the world introduce regulations to reduce fossil fuel consumption in their fight against pollution and global warming. A study published last week said a quarter of the world’s oil refineries risk closure by 2035 if those targets are met. Just as some countries such as China and India contemplate banning gasoline and diesel vehicles, rules to limit consumption of plastics such as bottles and bags could dampen demand, analysts said. “Regulation is one of the biggest risks to the business,” said Jason Kenney, head of European oil and gas equity research at Banco Santander. Overcapacity is another danger as other companies including Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ) and France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) also expand into petrochemicals. “Shell currently offers double-digit returns on capital employed from downstream and chemicals. But then you could have a flood of capacity and it will be a difficult sector to remain competitive for decades,” Kenney said. RESILIENCE Even when demand starts to fall, Shell says its refining arm will have an edge over many competitors thanks to the company’s access to its own, cheaper crude and complex trading operations that curb its vulnerability to fluctuating oil prices. It has 43,000 petrol stations in 70 countries, making Shell the world’s largest fuel retailer. Shell recently introduced battery charging spots at a number of stations in Britain and plans to develop hydrogen fuelling stations in Germany. Shell also supplies 11 percent of the world’s lubricants needed in cars, trucks and heavy industrial machinery. It has one of the world’s largest aviation fuel businesses, fuelling a plane every 40 seconds. “Downstream is a highly resilient business. It is pretty independent to changes in crude price,” said John Abbott, head of Shell’s downstream business. “We have a competitive edge going into the energy transition,” Abbott said. Shell has interests in more than 20 refineries and processed around 2.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2016, while its 15 petrochemical plants processed 6.2 million tonnes last year. Reporting by Ron Bousso and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-refining/shell-looks-beyond-road-fuels-to-secure-future-of-refining-idUKKBN1D60LQ'|'2017-11-06T09:09:00.000+02:00'
'42192c986b4ed041958baa079152d097d3cf3328'|'Trump pitches NYSE for Saudi Aramco IPO listing'|'Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he “would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange.”“Very important to the United States!” Trump wrote on Twitter about Saudi Aramco’s plan to float around 5 percent of the company in an initial public offering next year. (Writing by Lisa Von Ahn; Editing by Matthew Lewis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-aramco/trump-pitches-nyse-for-saudi-aramco-ipo-listing-idINL2N1NA07W'|'2017-11-04T10:44:00.000+02:00'
'156b3e2e922489012375b2c5b39cc8aece6f2f9b'|'Sprint and T-Mobile call off merger talks after failure to reach agreement - Business'|'Wireless carriers Sprint and T-Mobile have called off a potential merger, saying they could not come to an agreement that would benefit customers and shareholders.The two companies have been dancing around a possible merger for years, and were again in the news in recent weeks with talks of coming together after all. But in a joint statement Saturday, Sprint and T-Mobile said they were calling off merger negotiations for the foreseeable future. “The prospect of combining with Sprint has been compelling for a variety of reasons, including the potential to create significant benefits for consumers and value for shareholders,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile US, in a prepared statement. “However, we have been clear all along that a deal with anyone will have to result in superior long-term value for T-Mobile’s shareholders compared to our outstanding stand-alone performance and track record.”Hackers rack up £12,000 phone bill and providers passed it on to me Read more T-Mobile and Sprint are the third- and fourth-largest US wireless carriers but they are significantly smaller than AT&T and Verizon, who effectively have a duopoly over US wireless service. The two companies have said they hoped to find a way of merging to make the wireless market more competitive. Sprint and its owner, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, have long been looking for a deal as the company has struggled to compete on its own. But Washington regulators have frowned on a possible merger. AT&T’s offer to buy T-Mobile in 2011 was spiked and the same regulators signaled in 2014 they would have been against Sprint doing the same thing. With the new Trump administration, it was thought regulators might be more relaxed.Sprint has a lot of debt and has posted a string of annual losses. The company has cut costs and made itself more attractive to customers, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk said, but it has not invested enough in its network and does not have enough airwave rights for quality service in rural areas. T-Mobile has been on a years-long streak adding customers. After the government nixed AT&T’s attempt to buy it in 2011, T-Mobile led the way in many consumer-friendly changes , such as ditching two-year contracts and bringing back unlimited data plans. Consumers are paying less for cellphone service thanks to T-Mobile’s influence on the industry and the resultant price wars. “T-Mobile does not need a merger with Sprint to succeed, but Sprint might need one to survive,” Piecyk wrote in an October research note. Topics Telecommunications industry T-Mobile news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/04/sprint-tmobile-merger-ends-us-cell-phone-carriers'|'2017-11-04T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'95f1f95028adf1ee87b738e48ff3cd152a93ebbb'|'Trump pitches NYSE for Saudi Aramco IPO listing'|'(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he “would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange.”Traders work on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Very important to the United States!” Trump wrote on Twitter about Saudi Aramco’s plan to float around 5 percent of the company in an initial public offering next year.Writing by Lisa Von Ahn; Editing by Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-aramco/trump-pitches-nyse-for-saudi-aramco-ipo-listing-idINKBN1D40IC'|'2017-11-04T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'1ac28f31331befeaaf3bde8664df6d780284d5cb'|'Schaeuble successor tells euro zone - let''s stick to the rules'|' 16 PM / in 15 minutes Schaeuble successor tells euro zone: let''s stick to the rules Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Peter Altmaier signaled little change from his hardline predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday, saying he wants to focus on strengthening the euro zone and following fiscal rules. Chancellor Angela Merkel named Altmaier as finance minister after the election in September that weakened her conservatives and cast doubt over whether she would extend her hand to French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious vision for Europe. Schaeuble, who agreed to leave his post and become president of the lower house, was seen by some as an obstacle to far-reaching reforms in the euro zone, partly given his insistence on austerity and the need to stick to fiscal rules. But Altmaier indicated he would not soften Germany’s stance. “I will maintain the continuity of German politics and urge that we work together on the stability of the euro, and abide by the rules,” Altmaier told reporters before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels. Two days after the German election on Sept. 24, Macron set out his vision for Europe in an impassioned speech, calling for the European Union to work more closely on defense and immigration and the euro zone to have its own budget. Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Joseph Nasr Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-eurozone-germany/schaeuble-successor-tells-euro-zone-lets-stick-to-the-rules-idUKKBN1D624L'|'2017-11-06T18:11:00.000+02:00'
'b2799b0ac2d766ac7fe2b9be3d20f4305de75cdd'|'Irish PM says future of $1 billion Apple data centre uncertain'|'November 4, 2017 / 10:32 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Irish PM says future of $1 billion Apple data center uncertain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - A planned $1 billion Apple data center is in doubt after Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the U.S. company’s Chief Executive Tim Cook would no longer commit to it, adding that Dublin would do whatever necessary to get it built. A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed European Union flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Apple announced plans in February 2015 to build the facility in a rural location in the west of Ireland to take advantage of green energy sources nearby, but the project has faced a two-year delay due to planning objections. In a meeting on Thursday, Cook did not commit to going ahead with it, Varadkar told state broadcaster RTE. “We didn’t get a start date, or a definite commitment or anything like that,” said Varadkar, who is on a tour of the United States to meet investors, adding he had told Cook that the government would do “anything within our power” to facilitate the resumption of the project. Ireland relies on foreign multinational companies like Apple for the creation of one in every 10 jobs across the economy and sees major investments such as data centers as a means of securing their presence in the country. Apple did not respond to an e-mail query asking about whether it was committed to the project. A similar Apple center announced at the same time in Denmark is due to begin operations later this year and Apple in July announced it would build its second EU data center there. The government has said it is considering amending its planning laws to include data centers as strategic infrastructure, thus allowing them to get through the planning process much more quickly. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ireland/irish-pm-says-future-of-1-billion-apple-data-center-uncertain-idUKKBN1D40BI'|'2017-11-04T12:36:00.000+02:00'
'dd9228ace7c768e22d0f80d1edf03d064c0f6f37'|'Vital that UK''s Brexit deal is in U.S. interests, says commerce chief Ross'|'November 6, 2017 / 2:51 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Vital that UK''s Brexit deal is in U.S. interests, says commerce chief Ross Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said it was vital that a Brexit deal between Britain and the European Union would be in the commercial interests of the United States and London should not to give in to the EU’s “highly protectionist” trade stance. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry''s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Ross was speaking at a British business conference on Monday which was dominated by the looming split between Britain and its EU neighbor, with firms stating their concerns about the impact on trade in goods and services. [L5N1NC1Q0] British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has placed great emphasis on the potential for a U.S. trade deal and bilateral deals with other non-EU countries, to allow it to flourish after leaving the bloc. Ross said he hoped the United States could become Britain’s number one trading partner, citing already large trade flows between the two, but said U.S. interests must be taken into account when striking an exit deal with the EU. “It is ... important that an eventual Brexit agreement takes into account our commercial interests, and does not hinder development of a closer post-Brexit U.S.-UK relationship by continuing divergent standards and regulations and other protectionist measures,” Ross said in a speech in London. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry''s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner He criticized the EU’s external trade policy, including import tariffs higher than those in the United States and regulatory barriers, saying: “The EU talks free trade but actually is highly protectionist.” But Ross was firm in response to a question about a trade dispute between Canadian planemaker Bombardier ( BBDb.TO ) and U.S. rival Boeing ( BA.N ), which has prompted British political involvement by May to try to protect UK jobs. The U.S. Department of Commerce last month imposed a 220-percent duty on Bombardier’s CSeries jets, whose wings are made at a plant in Belfast, following a complaint by Boeing which accuses Canada of unfairly subsidizing Bombardier. “We understand the political sensitivity both here and in Canada, we understand about ... Northern Ireland - we get all that,” he said when asked about a preliminary ruling from the U.S. Department of Commerce. “But the fundamentals remain: even our best friends really have to play by the rules.” Reporting by William James and William Schomberg, writing by Andy Bruce; editing by Michael Holden and Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-usa-ross/vital-that-uks-brexit-deal-is-in-u-s-interests-says-commerce-chief-ross-idUKKBN1D61WF'|'2017-11-06T16:51:00.000+02:00'
'6d3974cd93c5825a7a109c06b94a6727f8cc60c2'|'Prosecutors say investigating Metro officials for insider trading'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:00 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Prosecutors say investigating Metro officials for insider trading Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Monday that they were investigating multiple officials at Metro AG ( B4B.DE ) for possible insider trading and market manipulation. The logo of German retailer Metro is pictured on a shopping cart at a market in Langenzersdorf, Austria, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The prosecutors did not specify names, but on Friday the retailer said German prosecutors were investigating the supervisory board chairman and a senior executive of the retailer. The investigation centres on the flow of information ahead of a March 30, 2016, announcement by Metro on plans to separate its wholesale and food business from its consumer electronics chain to help each focus and grow faster, sending its stock 12 percent higher. The consumer electronics business is now listed on the stock exchange under the name Ceconomy ( CECG.DE ). “There are indications that three persons from the company and one person outside the company were acquiring shares in Metro or forwarding insider information by using insider information,” the Duesseldorf prosecutor, Ralf Moellmann, said in a statement. A regulatory filing shows that supervisory board Chairman Juergen Steinemann bought 43,000 shares in Metro on Feb. 22, 2016, worth just over 1 million euros (£884,700) at the time. Chief Operating Officer Pieter Boone purchased 2,175 shares on Feb. 26, 2016, a separate filing showed. Metro wasn’t immediately available for comment. On Friday, a spokesman for Metro said: “At the time that Mr. Steinemann and Mr. Boone bought shares, no insider information was available.” Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-metro-insidertrading/prosecutors-say-investigating-metro-officials-for-insider-trading-idUKKBN1D611W'|'2017-11-06T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'16754d8a7104e28c2979fa5851ca80ab811cc98a'|'Saudi''s Kingdom Holding says has support from government after chairman detained - Reuters'|'DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holding said on Sunday it had the support of the country’s government after billionaire chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was detained overnight.Prince Alwaleed, one of the country’s highest profile businessmen, was one of several princes, ministers, and former ministers detained as part of an anti-corruption crackdown, two senior Saudi officials told Reuters on Sunday.Kingdom Holding’s chief executive, listed on its website as Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman, has received the support of the government, and would continue to operate “business as usual”, the investment firm said in a stock market statement.Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of King Salman, and the grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdulaziz al-Saud, holds stakes in many major international companies including Citigroup, Twitter, ride-hailing firm Lyft and Time Warner .Earlier, Kingdom Holding reported it swung to a third quarter profit after restating the same year ago period to a loss. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Keith Weir)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-kingdom-holding/saudis-kingdom-holding-says-has-support-from-government-after-chairman-detained-idINL5N1NB0M6'|'2017-11-05T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'30a0523e8a52c8ebe29a2dadcae5479cf2133c62'|'Total and ERG sell Italian fuel retail business to API'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French oil company Total ( TOTF.PA ) said on Friday it had agreed to sell the Italian petrol station network it co-owns with partner ERG ( ERG.MI ) to refiner API, completing the planned disposal of the TotalErg joint venture’s assets.The logo of French oil giant Total is pictured at the entrance of the CSTJF Total Research Center in Pau, Soutwestern France, April 5, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Total did not disclose financial terms for the sale but said the transaction, the third in its plan to exit the Italian retail fuel market, brings the venture’s cumulative asset disposal proceeds to around 750 million euros ($871 million).The partners had been in exclusive talks with API after selling Total Italia Gas, another joint venture subsidiary, to UGI Corp ( UGI.N ).Total also said it was buying out Erg’s 51 percent stake in their shared lubricants business, terminating the joint venture.Momar Nguer, Total’s head for marketing and services, said the lubricants buyout would allow the French group to “focus and expand this high-return business”.Total also intends to maintain its presence in the Italian truck and aircraft refueling markets, he said. ($1 = 0.8610 euros)Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Laurence Frost '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-total-erg-m-a-api/total-and-erg-sell-italian-fuel-retail-business-to-api-idINKBN1D320W'|'2017-11-03T14:17:00.000+02:00'
'f09f494f260489c0addeee7f449498a3a4550ac2'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls shortly after open as banks, resources drag'|'TORONTO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell in early trading on Friday as bank and resource stocks pulled the market lower.The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 43.23 points, or 0.27 percent, to 15,971.76 shortly after the open.All but three of the index’s 10 main groups retreated. (Reporting by Solarina Ho) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-falls-shortly-after-open-as-banks-resources-drag-idINL2N1N90SJ'|'2017-11-03T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'2cf70914808bb7b199c1424a1846472ab60d526e'|'Germany''s Continental buys Israeli auto cyber firm Argus'|'November 3, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Germany''s Continental buys Israeli auto cyber firm Argus Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HAMBURG/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Continental AG ( CONG.DE ) said on Friday it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars against hacking. The logo of Continental AG, a German automotive manufacturing company specialized in tyres, brakes and car safety products is pictured on a rim at the company''s stand during the Hannover Fair in Hanover, Germany, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Cybersecurity experts have criticized the automotive industry for failing to do more to secure internal communications of vehicles with network-connected features. The danger, they say, is that once external security is breached, hackers can have free rein to access onboard vehicle computer systems which manage everything from engines and brakes to air conditioning and infotainment. Argus already collaborates with Continental - last month it jointly launched a technology for delivering over-the-air vehicle software updates with Continental subsidiary Elektrobit. Continental said that Argus would now become part of Elektrobit and would continue to engage in commercial relations with all automotive suppliers globally. The purchase price was not disclosed though Israeli media reported earlier this week that Continental would pay about $400 million (£305.4 million) for Argus. Founded in 2013, Argus has raised $30 million, including $26 million two years ago from Magna International ( MG.TO ), Allianz ( ALVG.DE ), SBI Group and Israeli venture capital funds Magma and Vertex. Reporting by Jan Schwartz and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Arno Schuetze and Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-argus-m-a-continental/germanys-continental-buys-israeli-auto-cyber-firm-argus-idINKBN1D31DR'|'2017-11-03T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'b2e53b0875056dedef762b16037d773606c599bd'|'Wall Street set for muted open; chip sector merger in focus'|'(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose to record highs on Monday after Broadcom made a monster bid for Qualcomm and investors bet that a Republican plan to cut corporate taxes would bolster earnings.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the opening bell in New York, NY, U.S. December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) rose 2.33 percent after Broadcom ( AVGO.O ) offered to buy the smartphone chip supplier for $103 billion, in what could be the biggest ever acquisition in the tech sector. Broadcom dipped 0.7 percent.“The fact that the deal is on the table is huge,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.“We have not seen much in the way of dealmaking this year. So this might jumpstart some of the dealmaking ahead of the tax policy changes.”Investor optimism was also fuelled by a Republican proposal last week to slash the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and end some tax breaks for companies and individuals.“I think that has to be the main driver,” said John Brady, managing director at R.J. O‘Brien & Associates in Chicago. “Even if it only goes to 25 percent or 27 percent, it’s still moving the right way.”Apple ( AAPL.O ) rose 1.23 percent and contributed more than any other stock to the benchmark S&P 500 index’s gain.Shares of Sprint ( S.N ) slumped 10.11 percent to more-than-a-year low after the wireless provider and T-Mobile ( TMUS.O ) called off a planned merger. T-Mobile lost 6.2 percent.All three major indexes were on track to close at record highs.At 2:25 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 0.1 percent at 23,563.4 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX had gained 0.15 percent to 2,591.83.The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.3 percent to 6,784.76.The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY surged 1.92 percent on gains in crude prices after the crown price of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge. [O/R]U.S. companies continue to report their quarterly earnings. With more than 400 of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings for the third quarter are expected to have climbed 8 percent, compared to an expectation of a 5.9 percent rise at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Michael Kors ( KORS.N ) jumped 15.07 percent after the fashion accessories maker raised its 2017 revenue forecast. The stock was the biggest percentage gainer on the S&P.Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD.O ) jumped 6.97 percent after a report that it plans to team up with Intel ( INTC.O ) to form a personal computer chip unit. Intel was down marginally.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.36-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.17-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-for-muted-open-chip-sector-merger-in-focus-idINKBN1D61R2'|'2017-11-06T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'fa4d27da1fbf09488ecfb20db24c820d299ce06d'|'UPDATE 1-Wow Air chief to weigh up potential IPO'|'(Adds Quote: s, detail)By Alistair SmoutLONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Icelandic transatlantic budget carrier Wow Air is considering a possible initial public offering (IPO) in 2019, its CEO told Reuters on Monday, as it explores opportunities for the fast-growing business.Wow Air is one of a new breed of carriers that have focused on low-cost travel across the Atlantic, prompting traditional long-haul players such as British Airways parent IAG to set up new operations or change pricing structures.Wow Air, which also competes with Norwegian Air on transatlantic routes, connects Europe and North America via its hub in Reykjavik, often with smaller A320 jets typically used for short-haul flights.Founder and CEO Skuli Mogensen said the Wow Air’s rapid expansion means he will start exploring options for the business from next year and will be ready to act in 2019.“By 2019 we’ll do about a billion in revenue, in U.S. dollars. So that’s when we’re hitting a point where we’ll be an interesting size to go public,” Mogensen told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Travel Market event in London.“To continue our growth we will have to look at various opportunities to find a strategic partner, go public, et cetera. We haven’t really selected which path to take.”Mogensen, Wow Air’s sole owner, said that possible partners had already expressed an interest in getting involved with the company, adding that he would not sell the airline.The company is also interested in acquiring collapsed airline Monarch’s slots at Gatwick for flights between Iceland and London, Mogensen said.Wow Air, founded in 2011, flew 1.6 million passengers last year and is forecasting a near-doubling of that to more than 3 million this year.It currently operates 17 Airbus jets, its website says, including three long-haul A330 planes that it uses to fly to California.Mogensen said that the focus for growth would remain on routes to North America, which now account for about 50 percent of its network, though four new A330-900neos to be leased next year could also offer routes to Asia.Mogensen said he expects ancillary revenue eventually to exceed $60 per passenger, which could supplement squeezed margins on transatlantic routes.“If you are willing to be a little bit flexible, a $99 fare is the new normal price. Everyone in the indsutry is getting smarter, and those who don’t simply fail.” (Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Victoria Bryan and David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wow-air-ipo/update-1-wow-air-chief-to-weigh-up-potential-ipo-idINL5N1NC4VS'|'2017-11-06T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'45700ebbeb9efdf5019574363ce5b59846a78919'|'Wow Air CEO says to weigh up possible IPO in 2019'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:09 PM / in 24 minutes Wow Air CEO says to weigh up possible IPO in 2019 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Icelandic low-cost transatlantic carrier Wow Air is considering a possible initial public offering in 2019, its CEO told Reuters on Monday, as it explores possible routes for the business. Skuli Mogensen, CEO of WOW air, poses with cabin crew members during a delivery ceremony of his first Airbus A321neo, during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Wow Air founder and CEO Skuli Mogensen told Reuters that 2019 was when the airline would be “hitting a point where we’ll be an interesting size to go public.” “In order to continue our growth, we will have to look into various opportunities to find a strategic partner, go public, et cetera. We haven’t really selected which path to take. It’s something which will be interesting to explore,” he said on the sidelines of the World Travel Market in London. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-wow-air-ipo/wow-air-ceo-says-to-weigh-up-possible-ipo-in-2019-idUKKBN1D61Z9'|'2017-11-06T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'e9288d68872036f38e7bbb51eca0c5b0ad529e94'|'Longer ECB bond buys anchor short-term rates - Praet'|' 45 AM / in 36 minutes Longer ECB bond buys anchor short-term rates - Praet Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s decision to extend asset purchases was warranted by weak inflation and reinforces its guidance to keep rates at their current level for an extended period of time, ECB chief economist Peter Praet said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - European Central Bank Executive Board Member, Peter Praet, speaks during a conference in Sofia, Bulgaria May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov “The longer horizon also anchors short-term interest rate expectations for a longer period, thereby reinforcing the Governing Council’s forward guidance on policy rates,” Praet told a conference. “Retaining the option to re-calibrate (asset purchases) if warranted is consistent with the forward guidance.” Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-rates-praet/longer-ecb-bond-buys-anchor-short-term-rates-praet-idUKKBN1D60TJ'|'2017-11-06T10:44:00.000+02:00'
'd02b82576e24d01d6755d41f50537a86ceec7702'|'Air France-KLM says to revamp frequent-flyer scheme'|' 30 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Air France-KLM says to revamp frequent-flyer scheme Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA ) said on Monday it is overhauling its Flying Blue frequent-flyer programme, hoping to increase its contribution to sales. An Air France pilot looks on as he taxis his Boeing 777 aircraft after landing at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, October 27, 2015. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann The Franco-Dutch airline group said it had spent two years and 15 million euros (£13.2 million) on IT to overhaul Flying Blue, the joint loyalty programme of Air France and KLM with 15 million active members. From next April members will earn miles based on the amount they spend on their ticket rather than the distance flown, with status members receiving more miles per euro spent. Status levels will also no longer be earned by racking up a specific number of flights. Members will instead collect more points for longer flights and for those in premium cabins. The two airlines earn nearly 55 percent of their revenue from loyalty schemes including corporate contracts with companies and the Flying Blue programme. Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac said the group wanted to increase by 10 to 15 percent the proportion of sales that Flying Blue contributes to turnover at the airlines. “It is a profit centre,” Frederic Kahane, head of loyalty at Air France-KLM said. Airlines tend not to give details of the profits they make from their loyalty schemes, but several have tried various strategies to release cash from them. Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), which ended operations last month, sold a 70 percent stake in its loyalty programme to major shareholder Etihad in 2012 for more than the market value of the German company as a whole at the time. In 2013, an IPO of Smiles helped Brazil’s Gol ( GOLL4.SA ) bring down its net debt. Air Canada ( AC.TO ) separated its frequent flyer programme Aeroplan in 2002 but said in May it wanted to launch its own loyalty programme, hitting shares of Aeroplan’s operator Aimia ( AIM.TO ). Air Canada said bringing the programme back in-house could be worth $2 billion-$2.5 billion (£1.5 billion - £1.9 billion) on a pre-tax basis over 15 years. More recently, airlines such as British Airways ( ICAG.L ) and Delta ( DAL.N ) have tweaked schemes to mean the amount of miles earned is based on ticket prices, such that premium cabin flyers earn more miles for the same journey than those in economy. Reporting by Cyril Altmeyer; Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Berlin; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airfrance-flying-blue/air-france-klm-says-to-revamp-frequent-flyer-scheme-idUKKBN1D61NK'|'2017-11-06T15:29:00.000+02:00'
'68cae043a4aa87e4850ad8a26383a3679292a562'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Malaysia Building Society Bhd, Bayer, German Energy Group Innogy, Chicago Stock Exchange, Twenty-First Century Fox; updates Sprint, Broadcom, ABB)Nov 6 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2030 GMT on Monday:** Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) said it plans to acquire Asian Finance Bank (AFB) from its foreign shareholders for 645 million ringgit ($152.5 million) in a deal that would give the non-bank lender a banking license.** The European Commission has resumed its antitrust review of Bayer’s planned takeover of U.S. seed maker Monsanto after the companies were given time to provide more information.** German Energy Group Innogy could sell its troubled British retail business Npower, or combine it with a local rival, four people familiar with the matter said, in a move that would end years of cost-cutting and losses.** Sprint Corp’s shares fell more than 13 percent on Monday after the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier called off merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc and a wireless partnership with cable company Altice USA failed to appease investors.** U.S. investors have agreed to increase their stake in a deal to buy the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) to prevent the politically sensitive bid, led by China-based investors, from falling apart, sources familiar with the matter said.** Chip maker Broadcom Ltd made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc on Monday, setting the stage for a major takeover battle as it looks to dominate the fast-growing market for semiconductors used in mobile phones.** Rupert Murdoch-controlled Twenty-First Century Fox has held talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co, CNBC reported on Monday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.** Marvell Technology Group Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Cavium Inc - a deal that would create a chipmaker worth about $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.** State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries said on Sunday it signed a deal with the FIMI private equity fund to invest in IAI’s subsidiary ImageSat.** India’s antitrust regulator has approved Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC’s bid to acquire a stake in a firm owned by DLF for 89 billion rupees ($1.4 billion), the country’s biggest real estate developer said in a statement late Saturday.** Chinese grains trader COFCO International has agreed to sell its crop seeds business to Swiss-based Syngenta AG as it overhauls its activities following a series of major overseas acquisitions.** South African lender FirstRand has agreed a 1.1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) takeover of British banking newcomer Aldermore Group ALD.L>, seeking to grow its revenue beyond its home continent.** Air China, said it viewed Qatar Airways’ acquisition of a 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd “positively” and that it hoped the shareholders could work together to find synergies.** Telecom operator Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) said it signed an agreement to sell its non-core Direct-to-Home business, in a bid to reduce debt load.** ABB is reorganizing part of its global power grids operations as the Swiss engineering group responds to the division’s sluggish profitability and falling orders.** Britain’s Prudential plans to break up its 10 billion pound ($13 billion) British pensions annuities book into four parts, in a move that could see the insurer leave its domestic market, Sky News said.** Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc has dropped a plan to form a joint venture in Myanmar, the airline said on Monday, after its application for an air operator’s certificate (AOC) was rejected by the authorities in the Southeast Asian country. (Compiled by Diptendu Lahiri and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NC42D'|'2017-11-06T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'fac4f6b5b64d4f79859d004efdffb828d355afc8'|'Japan’s smaller banks, desperate for new revenue, turn to dealmaking'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - The grim outlook for Japan’s smaller regional banks, who are suffering as Japan’s rural population shrinks rapidly, is prompting some to dive into a new, potentially lucrative line of business that until now was largely taboo: mergers and acquisitions.In Japan’s traditional banking culture, advising a client to sell a firm was considered unseemly, even rude - implying that the business had failed.Yet more small business owners in rural areas are struggling to find successors because their children - who have often moved to the big cities - are not interested in taking over. Some of these owners are now being persuaded by the smaller regional banks – numbering about 100 - that getting acquired isn’t such a bad solution.When 70-year-old Kuniya Shinohara decided to retire from his restaurant and catering business, he didn’t know what to do because his daughter and son-in-law weren’t interested in taking it over. Shinohara’s lender, Gunma Bank Ltd, suggested he sell his business in Maebashi city, about 80 miles north of Tokyo, to an outsourcing agency called K‘BIX Inc that was looking to diversify.“I was afraid I would become a loser by selling my business,” said Shinohara, who initially didn’t want anyone to know about the deal. “But Gunma Bank eased my concern by saying an M&A could benefit both parties.”Getting commissions on such deals could provide a lifeline to regional banks, whose profit margins are getting squeezed – not only by the dwindling rural population and the closures of family businesses but also by near-zero interest rates. Teikoku Databank, a nationwide corporate research firm, released a survey in 2016 showing that two-thirds of business owners across Japan don’t have successors.NEW STRATEGIES Traditionally, regional banks have focused on lending, which fuelled their profits, said Hironari Nozaki, professor at Kyoto Bunkyo University and a former banking analyst.“That was not necessarily meeting their clients’ needs,” he said. “Regional banks for a long time have failed to identify clients’ real problems.”That didn’t matter when they could pull in the deposits and then lend them out at an attractive margin. But now those deposits aren’t flowing in and margins have been squeezed with rates low and as corporate customers in small cities aren’t expanding and therefore don’t need to borrow.Unlike the biggest banks, which have operations nationwide, the business of regional banks is closely tied with the local economies where they are headquartered. Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the nation’s industry watchdog, said last month that more than half of the nation’s regional banks lost money on their core business - lending and fees - in the year to March 2017.In the past, when many businesses were handed down from father to son, banks tried to keep the value of businesses low to reduce taxes, said Kazutaka Nobusawa, an official at Gunma Bank’s consulting division. “Now we try to value the business as high as possible” to bring income to clients, he said.Gunma Bank, which in recent years arranged just ten M&A deals annually, says about 7,000 of its clients are potential candidates to acquire other businesses or be acquired.And the Bank of Kyoto Ltd in March brokered rice wholesaler Shinmei Co’s acquisition of Kobe Marukan Co, a seafood wholesaler in nearby Kobe.The bank, which employs 3,400 people, boosted the number of staff devoted to M&A to 10 last year from three in 2012, and aims to double its revenue from the division to 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) by the year ending March 2020, according to Bank of Kyoto.To the south, Fukuoka Bank Ltd, part of Fukuoka Financial Group, created an investment banking unit last year to focus on M&A. And a recent seminar in Tokyo on M&A was attended by representatives from about 30 regional banks.The trend won’t likely hurt the emergence of boutique advisors that handle micro M&A deals, said Kunihiko Arai, president of Strike Co, one such dealmaker. “Regional banks will not threaten our business because we are interdependent,” he said. “They need us when they look for a matching partner beyond their turf.” Over time, the trend could prompt regional banks to be merger candidates themselves because banks will need to expand their reach outside their local areas to increase earnings opportunities, said Nozaki at Kyoto Bunkyo University.That would mean a consolidation in Japan’s regional banking sector, which has remained largely unchanged even as big “city” banks have contracted from 21 to three “megabanks” over the past 20 years. “Regional banks’ resources are limited,” Nozaki said. “How they build their databases through alliances and reorganization will be key.”($1 = 114.0700 yen)Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-regional-banks-m-a/japans-smaller-banks-desperate-for-new-revenue-turn-to-dealmaking-idUSKBN1D514D'|'2017-11-06T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'610a2c9b36c50abf7958ce312f623a450a02b7ca'|'Innogy looks at sale, partnership for troubled Npower business'|' 56 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Innogy looks at sale, partnership for troubled Npower business Tom Käckenhoff , Arno Schuetze , Christoph Steitz 4 Min Read DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy group Innogy ( IGY.DE ) could sell its troubled British retail business Npower, or combine it with a local rival, four people familiar with the matter said, in a move that would end years of cost-cutting and losses. A sign hangs outside the building of electricity provider npower in Solihull, Britain, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo Npower, one of Britain’s big six energy retailers, has become a drag on Innogy since billing issues emerged in 2015, pushing the business into loss and leading to thousands of jobs being lost. “Management is no longer willing to accept the losses,” one of the people said, adding there were similar strategic discussions taking place at Npower’s rivals. “A partnership is the only thing that makes sense.” Innogy declined to comment. With 4.76 million customers and sales of 8.1 billion euros (£7.1 billion), Britain is Innogy’s most important foreign market, but also its most challenging. Innogy was carved out from RWE ( RWEG.DE ) last year and focuses on energy and gas networks, renewables and retail. Britain’s big six, which also include Centrica ( CNA.L ), SSE ( SSE.L ), Iberdrola ( IBE.MC ), E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) and EDF ( EDF.PA ), are all under pressure from smaller rivals offering cheaper deals to attract customers and who now control around 20 percent of the market, up from less than 1 percent a decade ago. In addition, the government has asked Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem to impose a price cap on the most widely used tariffs. “The British retail energy market is ripe for consolidation,” one of the people said. TRICKY VALUATION British newspaper The Telegraph reported that SSE was also considering pulling out of Britain’s energy supply business, either via a sell or spin-off, citing sources. Npower ranked fifth among the big six in terms of electricity supply in the second quarter, according to data from Ofgem. Innogy has set a target of being among the top three in all relevant markets by 2025. Last year, Npower made an adjusted loss before interest and tax of 109 million euros after 137 million in 2015. The loss narrowed to 12 million euros in the first half of 2017. Valuing the loss-making company will be difficult, but dealmakers may agree to put a price tag on the customer base, two people close to the matter said. “Every retail client is usually considered to be worth 250-300 euros,” one of the people said, adding that in Npower’s case the price would likely be at best the lower end of that range. Innogy Chief Executive Peter Terium in September said that there were no concrete plans to sell Npower, even though the business was under review. Innogy itself has been a subject to takeover speculation and one of the people said that a sale of Npower would make it easier to sell Innogy, in which parent RWE still holds a 76.8 percent stake. Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale and Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-innogy-npower-sale/innogy-looks-at-sale-partnership-for-troubled-npower-business-idUKKBN1D6233'|'2017-11-06T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'54593ef01a63468a9d4b333a2bc8b9c9aabc5e96'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 6'|'(Adds company news items and futures) Nov 6 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 23 points lower at 7,537 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures down 0.13 percent ahead of the cash market open. * LSE: London Stock Exchange Group said it had followed the "proper governance process" for its CEO succession, after major shareholder TCI Fund Management called on Chairman Donald Brydon to step down, saying that CEO Xavier Rolet was being forced out. * ALDERMORE: Aldermore Group and South African lender FirstRand said they had agreed on a 1.1 billion pound ($1.31 billion) takeover of the British bank. * BAT: British American Tobacco will shut shop in Philippine operations by the end of 2017 amid "difficult environment" and after it lost out on buying local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation, Manila Bulletin reported citing sources. ( bit.ly/2zyMnlD ) * LSE: UK activist investor TCI Fund Management has called on London Stock Exchange Group''s Chairman Donald Brydon to step down, saying that Chief Executive Xavier Rolet was being forced out of the company. * GLENCORE: Chadian government officials will meet Glencore executives in Paris on Monday to discuss restructuring the country''s debt, two senior Chadian government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Sunday. * LONMIN: Embattled London and Johannesburg-listed platinum producer Lonmin , will unveil new health and road projects in South Africa on Monday in a ceremony that will be overshadowed by its latest share price collapse. * RIO TINTO: Global miner Rio Tinto , said it had appointed Simon Trott as chief commercial officer, a newly created role, as it "increases focus on driving mine-to-market value". * SAUDI ARAMCO IPO: U.S. President Donald Trump publicly appealed on Saturday for Saudi Arabia to list national oil company Saudi Aramco''s shares in New York, intervening in a battle among the world''s top stock exchanges. The London Stock Exchange has also received some government support for its bid, although that has been less public. * BREXIT: Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will stress to wary business leaders a commitment to securing a transitional deal once Britain leaves the European Union, seeking to assuage fears of a cliff-edge departure. * BREXIT: Britain''s economy will grow more slowly in the short term if the country fails to secure a future trading deal with the European Union after Brexit, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Sunday. * BREXIT: Almost two in three British firms will have implemented Brexit contingency plans by March if Britain and the rest of the European Union have not struck a transitional deal by then, the Confederation of British Industry said. * UK ECONOMY: Growth in Britain''s private sector held steady in the three months to October after weakening recently, and the inflation hit to consumers and Brexit concerns for companies mean growth will probably stay modest, an industry survey showed. The Confederation of British Industry''s monthly indicator of output for manufacturers, retailers and services companies remained at +11, its joint lowest level since June. * PROPERTY: HomeRenter, a new British online property lettings website backed by newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror is to be launched on Monday, offering to cut out the role of traditional letting agents and the hefty fees which they levy on tenants. * UK CAR SALES: British new car sales in October fell by about 12 percent year on year, marking a seventh consecutive month of decline, preliminary data released by an industry body showed on Monday. Sales were hurt by a decline in business and consumer confidence, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. * OIL: Oil prices hit their highest levels since July 2015 early on Monday as markets tightened, while Saudi Arabia''s crown prince cemented his power over the weekend through an anti-corruption crackdown that included high profile arrests. * GOLD: Gold held steady on Monday, but hovered near a one-week low hit in the previous session, as largely upbeat U.S. economic data reinforced the prospects of another rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month. * METALS: London nickel and copper extended gains on Monday, supported by upbeat sentiment over potential demand from electric vehicles in the wake of last week''s cheery London industry week. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.1 percent higher on Friday at 7,560.35, after shares hit a record closing high, supported by a rally in global stocks and the Bank of England''s interest rate hike, which helped British exporters by putting pressure on sterling. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-6-idINL3N1NC34M'|'2017-11-06T04:46:00.000+02:00'
'9033c7b9a1ecdd29d63899a6fe0321049039d0c2'|'Euro zone growth robust in October, prices pressures stirring - PMI'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:11 AM / in 3 minutes Euro zone growth robust in October, prices pressures stirring: PMI Jonathan Cable 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone’s economy is on track for a strong finish to 2017 and firms are passing on more of their costs to consumers as pricing power increased, a survey showed on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Flags in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) before a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo IHS Markit’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone fell to 56.0 in October last month from September’s 56.7, pipping an earlier flash estimate of 55.9 and comfortably above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. “The final euro area PMI was revised up marginally from the flash to leave euro area growth looking healthy at the beginning of Q4,” said Cathal Kennedy at RBC Capital Markets. Earlier figures showed growth remained solid in Germany and France, the bloc’s two biggest economies, but slowed in Italy, suggesting a recent flurry in economic activity there may be petering out. Growth in Spain’s key services sector fell to its lowest in nine months as the political crisis in Catalonia weighed heavily on business sentiment. But with the euro zone enjoying a brisk economic recovery after years of stagnation, an investor sentiment index beat analyst expectations and climbed to its highest level since July 2007 in November, research group Sentix said on Monday. IHS Markit said the PMIs point to euro zone economic growth of 0.6-0.7 percent in the closing quarter of 2017, better than the 0.5 percent predicted in a Reuters poll last month. [ECILT/EU] New orders growth accelerated despite firms increasing their prices at the joint fastest rate since the middle of 2011. The output price index rose to a seven-month high of 53.1 from 52.7. More expensive energy and intermediate goods pushed up euro zone prices at factory gates more than expected in September, data from the European Union’s statistics office showed on Monday. “Some price rises merely reflect the pass-through of higher costs, but companies are also reporting stronger pricing power as demand conditions continue to improve, which suggests underlying inflationary pressures are becoming more engrained,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. Robust growth alongside increasing price pressures will be welcomed by policymakers at the European Central Bank who last month took a step toward weaning the euro zone off loose money. A PMI covering the bloc’s dominant service industry fell to 55.0 from 55.8, ahead of a preliminary reading of 54.9 and offsetting the strongest month in almost seven years for manufacturers. But indicating they expect activity to increase, firms took on staff at the second fastest rate in nearly 10 years. The employment index jumped to 54.2 from 53.7. Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-economy-pmi/euro-zone-growth-lost-momentum-in-oct-but-stayed-strong-pmi-idUKKBN1D60W0'|'2017-11-06T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'2d98698367878cb7fb41da377e8b27d5effaba2f'|'BP, Shell lead plan for blockchain-based energy trading platform'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:10 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago BP, Shell lead plan for blockchain-based energy trading platform Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A consortium including energy companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell will develop a blockchain-based digital platform for energy commodities trading expected to start by end-2018, the group said on Monday. The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Other members of the consortium include Norwegian oil firm Statoil, trading houses Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading, and Mercuria, and banks ABN Amro, ING and Societe Generale. Blockchain technology, which first emerged as the architecture underpinning cryptocurrency bitcoin, uses a shared database that updates itself in real-time and can process and settle transactions in minutes using computer algorithms, with no need for third-party verification. Mercuria has been a vocal advocate of implementing blockchain technology to significantly cut costs in oil trading. “Ideally, it would help to eliminate any confusion over ownership of a cargo and potentially help to make managing risk more exact if there are accurate timestamps to each part of the trade,” said Edward Bell, commodities analyst at Dubai-based lender Emirates NBD PJSC. Similar efforts for an energy trading platform have failed to take off, Bell said, but added this latest bid with backing from BP and Shell and the banks, “may have more success than if it were an independent party trying to convince oil and gas companies to make use of it.” The new venture is seeking regulatory approvals and would be run as an independent entity, the consortium said in a statement. “The platform aims to reduce administrative operational risks and costs of physical energy trading, and improve the reliability and efficiency of back-end trading operations...,” the statement said. Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-energy-blockchain/bp-shell-lead-plan-for-blockchain-based-energy-trading-platform-idUKKBN1D612I'|'2017-11-06T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'31ddfdbfdbfb8f08c116727e912b5492db984014'|'Failure of U.S. deal hits Deutsche Telekom shares, growth prospects'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) shares dropped in early Monday trading after the collapse of the merger of its T-Mobile US ( TMUS.O ) unit with Sprint Corp ( S.N ), which would have created a strong No.3 player on the U.S. market.FILE PHOTO: Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo The evaporation of synergies that analysts had estimated at more than Sprint’s $27 billion market capitalization triggered several broker downgrades and sent Telekom’s stock as much as 3.6 percent lower.But some praised Telekom for exercising discipline in not agreeing to pay a significant premium for heavily-indebted Sprint and insisting on control that would have allowed it to consolidate the merged entity into its results.Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said T-Mobile, in which the German company owns a 64 percent stake, would press ahead with a strategy that has added more than a million customers for 18 consecutive quarters.“Frankly, T-Mobile US is well enough positioned to succeed on its own without Sprint,” said Dhananjay Mirchandani, a telecoms analyst at Bernstein Research in London.“As for Deutsche Telekom, after the shares take a near term knock, I don’t see how this really alters strategy,” Mirchandani added. “So back to boring business-as-usual.”The slide in Telekom shares was similar to the Tokyo market falls for Sprint, majority owner Softbank Group ( 9984.T ), whose boss Masayoshi Son, sources said, had got cold feet over ceding control.SoftBank said on Sunday it would raise its stake in Sprint to under 85 percent from 83 percent in a show of commitment to the No.4 U.S. wireless carrier which, while managing to grow its customer base, is weighed down with $38 billion of debt.T-Mobile’s importance as a driver of growth - which could have been enhanced by the Sprint deal - is likely to be underscored when Deutsche Telekom reports results this week. T-Mobile has already reported third-quarter revenues that topped $10 billion for the first time, up 8 percent.The picture for Deutsche Telekom group on Thursday is likely to be different, with analysts on average forecasting group revenues of 18.4 billion euros ($21.4 billion) - a year-on-year gain of just 1.6 percent.That would reflect barely positive growth in Telekom’s crowded and heavily regulated home market, where sales rose just 0.4 percent in the first half, and at its European holdings that were ahead by 1.5 percent.Analysts at Berenberg bank said Deutsche Telekom management deserved some credit for not doing the deal for its own sake. Still, they lowered their share-price target to 14 euros from 15.80 and restated their ‘hold’ rating on the stock.Some investors wonder whether the best years may now be behind T-Mobile, whose shares have risen nine-fold from the low they hit after the global financial crisis to a peak of $68 in June.“I’d just love them to sell it,” Ben Lofthouse, a fund manager at the Henderson International Income Trust, said last week as reports surfaced that the T-Mobile-Sprint talks were in trouble.At T-Mobile’s latest share price, Deutsche Telekom’s 64 percent stake would be worth $31 billion.“There’s a tendency to run things for ever, sometimes, and then you end up selling at the wrong times,” added Lofthouse, whose fund holds Deutsche Telekom shares.Together, T-Mobile and Sprint would have had about 130 million customers, putting a merged entity a close third in the United States behind market leaders AT&T ( T.N ) and Verizon ( VZ.N ). Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers.Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Tom Sims and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us-deutsche/failure-of-u-s-deal-hits-deutsche-telekom-shares-growth-prospects-idINKBN1D60YA'|'2017-11-06T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'fb63e965597539ec55ca939d876c2a4241c00dcd'|'Spain services sector growth eases in October on Catalonia worries - PMI'|' 43 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Spain services sector growth eases in October on Catalonia worries - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MADRID, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The rate of growth in Spain’s key service sector fell to its lowest in nine months in October, a survey showed on Monday, with the political crisis in Catalonia weighing heavily on business sentiment. A waiter serves food to clients of a restaurant in the Andalusian capital of Seville, southern Spain March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo Spain’s central government took direct control of Catalonia at the end of October after the regional government staged an illegal vote on secession from the rest of Spain before declaring itself independent. Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of service companies stood at 54.6 in October, down from 56.7 in September. The index has held above the 50 line separating contraction from growth in every month since October 2013. The October data showed the service sector continued to expand as the Spanish economy maintained a solid growth trend, associate director at IHS Markit Andrew Harker said, adding that the Catalan crisis had weighed on the sector. “Events in Catalonia acted to dampen growth, with the impact on service providers greater than was seen for manufacturers in the sister PMI survey last week. There were reports of clients delaying spending decisions amid uncertainty, while business sentiment dropped to the lowest in over a year,” he said. Business sentiment in the service sector fell to 67.7 in October, the lowest level in just over a year, from 70.0 a month earlier, Markit said. Spanish manufacturing activity expanded in October at the fastest rate in 2-1/2 years, a poll showed on Thursday. Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Catherine Evans paul.e.day@thomsonreuters.com; +34 91 585 83 08; Reuters Messaging: paul.e.day.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-economy-pmi/spain-services-sector-growth-eases-in-october-on-catalonia-worries-pmi-idUKKBN1D60RB'|'2017-11-06T10:45:00.000+02:00'
'92d949c9b236efbbc10c6fb196ed308d9da8b7d9'|'Trump''s unusual plea to Saudis: list your oil company on New York Exchange - World news - The Guardian'|'Donald Trump pleaded on Saturday for Saudi Arabia to list its massive state-run oil company, Saudi Aramco, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).While previous presidents have championed the NYSE’s role in international finance – Ronald Reagan and George W Bush visited the floor during their presidencies – typically a president would not weigh into the private company decision of where to list its shares.Trump, who is on a visit to Asia , tweeted on Saturday morning that he would “very much appreciate” it if the Saudis would list Saudi Aramco on the NYSE, saying it would be “important to the United States!”North Korea looms large as Donald Trump embarks on Asia trip Read moreHe also claimed great progress for the US economy, writing : “Unemployment is down to 4.1%, lowest in 17 years. 1.5 million new jobs created since I took office. Highest stock Market ever, up $5.4 trill.”Saudi Arabia is expected to take a small portion of Saudi Aramco, which controls some of the world’s largest oil reserves, public some time in 2018.Play Video 0:56 The Trumps visit Pearl Harbor ahead of Asia tour – videoWhile it is expected to list its shares on Saudi Arabia’s own stock market, known as Tadawul, it’s also expected to do what is known as a dual listing with another stock exchange internationally. When Saudi Aramco goes public, it is expected to be one of the world’s most valuable companies.London and other major cities with exchanges have also been vying for the international listing. However the state-owned oil giant’s finances have long been opaque and there is reportedly concern that a public listing in New York or London could bring with it unwanted scrutiny and demands for transparency by shareholders.The NYSE is the world’s largest stock exchange by market value, with more than $21tn in market value of the companies listed there. Several international companies have dual listings with the NYSE, including Chinese technology giant Alibaba, Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda and European banks like Deutsche Bank and UBS.The Saudi Aramco flotation is part of a broad effort to raise Saudi Arabia’s profile and boost government revenues after a sharp drop in global energy prices hindered its ability to pay for large infrastructure projects and subsidies that citizens have come to rely on.Topics Saudi Arabia Oil Donald Trump Commodities Middle East and North Africa news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/04/donald-trump-saudi-oil-company-new-york-stock-exchange'|'2017-11-04T23:48:00.000+02:00'
'165c5e4f9a18af2c328a17be83ff75f437f2c961'|'U.S. commerce chief Ross says nothing improper about investments - BBC reporter'|'LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there was nothing improper about his investments in a shipping firm with significant ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, a BBC journalist reported on Monday.U.S. media, citing leaked documents from an offshore law firm, said partnerships used by Ross have a 31 percent stake in Navigator Holdings, which the New York Times said earns millions of dollars a year transporting gas for Russian petrochemical firm Sibur.“The fact that (Sibur) happens to be called a Russian company does not mean there’s any evil in it,” Ross said, according to a BBC journalist on Twitter reporting the content of an interview with Ross. (Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by Michael Holden) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/paradise-tax-ross-bbc/u-s-commerce-chief-ross-says-nothing-improper-about-investments-bbc-reporter-idUSL9N1ML007'|'2017-11-06T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'6e39ba1e228e166ac480ae1468a5dca1c56176cd'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s Oi proposes hefty fee to bondholders in exchange for capital'|'(Updates with regulator decision, shareholder statement)By Gram Slattery and Leonardo GoySAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The head of Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog, Anatel, demanded on Monday that debt-laden carrier Oi SA submit its latest restructuring proposal to the regulator before officially filing it with the bankruptcy court.The company on Monday unveiled through a securities filing a restructuring proposal that includes a provision requiring the company to pay bondholders significant annual fees in exchange for capital they would inject into the carrier.Oi, in the filing, said its plan would involve a minimum capital increase of 7.1 billion reais ($2.16 billion), of which 3.5 billion reais would come from a cash injection and 3.6 billion from a debt-for-equity swap.Speaking to reporters, Anatel head Juarez Quadros said the new plan could create “operational risks” for the company, which filed for Latin America’s largest bankruptcy proceeding ever, since it creates additional financial obligations. Quadros insisted on the right to approve the plan before the company files it with the court.Bondholders that inject capital into the company would receive an upfront fee of 6 percent on their contribution plus annual fees of 8 percent under the company’s plan. So-called “break-up fees,” resulting from contract breaches by Oi, would be around 10 percent to 13 percent, the company said in the filing.Oi said the new proposal would be filed shortly with the court in Rio de Janeiro that oversees Oi’s proceedings to restructure 65 billion reais ($20 billion) in debt.Societé Mondiale, a fund that manages influential shareholder Nelson Tanure’s stake in Oi, said in a statement that it was “satisfied” with the regulator’s demand.Negotiations around Oi have taken a number of dramatic turns just days before a key Nov. 10 assembly in which creditors will vote on a company plan to take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection. The company, the only fixed-line carrier in a third of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities, filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2016.On one side, the company - led by Tanure - has been negotiating with a number of distressed-debt and special-situation firms to push through a plan that would result in a huge haircut for many bondholders.Opposing the company is the Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, the International Bondholders Committee, and a group of export credit agencies, which together hold about 23 billion reais in debt.On Friday, Oi’s board, over which Tanure holds sway, appointed two new members to management, ensuring the company plan could formally be presented to creditors despite some internal opposition.In the Monday filing, Oi said its plan had several dozen approved assignees, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch , the investment banking unit of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs & Co, Morgan Stanley and distressed-asset and special-situations investors such as Aurelius Capital Management, Citadel Investment Group LLC, Solus Alternative Asset Management, KKR and Silver Point.It was not immediately clear which funds would participate in the capital injection. Many assignees hold significant portions of Oi’s equity and debt.Reuters reported Nov 1 that Tanure, allied with controlling shareholder Pharol SGPS SA, was counting on a new group of bondholders known as G6 to gain support for a new restructuring proposal.Preferred shares in Oi were down 5.9 percent at 4.16 reais in later afternoon trading. Common shares 5.5 percent lower at 5.01 reais.$1 = 3.28 reais Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Ana Mano in Sao Paulo; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-restructuring/update-1-brazils-oi-proposes-hefty-fee-to-bondholders-in-exchange-for-capital-idINL1N1NC0KU'|'2017-11-06T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'dce22a65bdb80412e23eb76ddac31dd9b18aa0b3'|'ECB to have 130 billion euros to reinvest in bonds over next year'|' 54 PM / in 9 minutes ECB to have 130 billion euros to reinvest in bonds over next year Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Nearly 130 billion euros (£114.8 billion) worth of bonds held by the European Central Bank will expire over the next year, ECB data showed on Monday, providing a key part of the bank’s policy accommodation as the cash gets reinvested in the market. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Maturities in the 12 months from November will average 10.8 billion euros, less than analyst expectations of around 15 billion euros, with big fluctuations expected between months, the data released for the first time showed. The ECB agreed last month to begin publishing data on bond redemptions as reinvestments are expected to play an increasing role for its policy support, particularly from next year, when monthly purchases are halved to 30 billion euros per month. Redemptions, part of the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro bond purchase programme, will peak in April, when they hit 24.3 billion euros, while the lowest monthly total will be in August, when they drop to 2 billion euros. The vast majority of redemptions -- 101.5 billion euros -- will be in the public sector purchase programme, which is dominated by government bonds, while 18 billion euros worth of covered bonds and 7 billion euros of asset backed securities, are also due to mature. Cash maturing from government bonds will be reinvested within two months in the same country as the original bond, provided that market conditions allow, the ECB said earlier. ECB data also showed that redemptions have been relatively minor this autumn with the public sector maturities totalling 22.7 billion euros until the end of October. Overall redemptions in November will total 3.1 billion euros with 2.2 billion of that coming in the public sector. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-qe/ecb-to-have-130-billion-euros-to-reinvest-in-bonds-over-next-year-idUKKBN1D622Z'|'2017-11-06T17:54:00.000+02:00'
'd6aa192985c6b65aa471f17a0ef1a7416075a132'|'Yellen''s bequest: A healthy economy but questions over future policy for Fed'|'November 5, 2017 / 9:09 PM / in 2 hours Yellen''s bequest: A healthy economy but questions over future policy for Fed Howard Schneider 7 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell will inherit healthy economic growth and a consensus on monetary policy at least for the next few months, if he is confirmed by the Senate as the next Fed chair when Janet Yellen’s term expires in February. Jerome Powell, U.S. President Donald Trump''s nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve at the announcement event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria But he will also inherit Yellen’s unfinished business: unresolved questions in economics about why inflation is so low, the role of financial market conditions in setting monetary policy and the way to fight recessions if interest rates stay low. The debates will leave Powell, a 64-year-old lawyer mediating among the economists on the Fed’s research staff, 12 regional reserve bank presidents seven of whom have doctorates, and colleagues like Lael Brainard, who would be the only other professional economist on the board currently, if Yellen was to leave the Fed’s board also once she relinquishes the chair. While Yellen’s term as Fed chair ends in February 2018, her term as a governor on the Fed board runs until 2024. And unless the U.S.’s near record-setting 101-month economic expansion lasts another four years, Powell may have to confront a recession for which many feel the central bank is unprepared. Powell will “have regulatory issues at heart,” said Axel Merk, president and portfolio manager of the Merk Hard Currency Fund, in Palo Alto, California. “The question is, what is he going to do in a crisis? Who will he rely on? I have no doubt about his intellect or integrity or anything like that but he might think it’s easier than it is.” Powell, a Fed board member since 2012, will be the first Fed chair without an advanced economics degree since William Miller, whose short-lived chairmanship in the 1970s saw inflation spiral out of control. IN THE SHORT TERM WE ARE ALL GOOD Though confident about the short-term economic outlook and monetary stance, policymakers are concerned that persistently low inflation in recent years may mean the economy could slide back into a recession more easily than in past years. In the meantime, steady growth in payrolls and low unemployment, as evidenced by Friday’s U.S. jobs report, indicate an expansion that is still on track. But some analysts note that the continued narrow gap between short term and long term interest rates, or the flat “yield curve”, suggests doubt in markets about the economic future. If interest rates stay low, the Fed will have limited room to combat a downturn with rate cuts before they hit zero which could force the use of bond buying again or more controversial tools like negative interest rates. Though Powell has arguably become more of a policy “dove”, favouring easy money, since he joined the consensus that Yellen developed, the next crisis could put him in an unenviable position. As a Republican, serving alongside a Republican president and what is currently a Republican congress, he would be forced to mull policies that conservatives in the GOP have often opposed. “One area of concern is whether a Powell-led (Federal Open Market Committee) would be as aggressive or proactive as a Yellen-led FOMC would be...in terms of confronting recessionary shocks,” said former Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, who is now an economics professor at the University of Rochester. He added that Powell, early in his term as Fed governor, “displayed uneasiness with unconventional monetary policy.” That “uneasiness” gave way over time to support for Fed policies which recognised that the scars from the 2008 financial crisis and recession needed time to heal, a process Powell has said he is committed to seeing continue. But the outcome may depend on who is around him, and who he finds convincing. A VAST TECHNOCRACY Yellen relied on thinking from inside and outside the central bank as she methodically worked through issues like whether people unemployed over the long term would ever return to work, and whether the mechanics of inflation have changed since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, a still unresolved issue. Yellen’s core speeches, delivered at venues like the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming research conference, typically included dozens of footnotes citing the work of Fed staff, and articles from peer-reviewed economic journals. Her grounding in economic research helped her steer the policy debate in favour of the Fed’s slow pace of interest rate increases, based on her perception there was still weakness in corners of the job market missed in headline figures like the unemployment rate. Just as her predecessors used similar insights about financial markets and productivity to shape policy on their watch, Yellen’s understanding of labour markets led her to the view that unemployment could fall much lower than expected without generating inflation. Powell will now have to prove he can draw similar insights from the Fed’s network of talent, and mould that into a policy. There will be other risks along the way. If the tax bill being debated in Congress is not structured properly, for example, Fed officials are concerned it could be inflationary, and force them to raise rates more quickly than otherwise. A NEW CHORUS Some of the key voices in the monetary policy debate are also still unknown. Trump can name three more Fed board governors, and a fourth if Yellen, when her term as chair expires, also gives up her seat on the board. One of them will serve as Powell’s vice chair. Top Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday that consultations with Powell would begin soon on the vacancies with a choice made by year end. “He might seek candidates with expertise in the theoretical underpinnings of monetary policy” to complement his expertise in markets developing during a career in investment banking, Barclays analysts said. “The most important question is the conduct of monetary policy during the next downturn. There has been significant criticism from Republicans. As a result, it would be reasonable to question whether the reaction function in the next downturn includes unconventional policies.” Reporting by Howard Schneider; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Dion Rabouin in New York; editing by Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-powell-agenda-analysis/yellens-bequest-a-healthy-economy-but-questions-over-future-policy-for-fed-idUKKBN1D5133'|'2017-11-05T23:09:00.000+02:00'
'3ac80c3c709eea5083f8add7ff13f65cf3bb31b3'|'United weighs purchase of new Boeing 767 passenger jets -WSJ'|'NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - United Continental Holdings Inc is considering replacing wide-body planes with new Boeing 767 passenger jets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.The move would mark a reversal for Boeing Co, which stopped making the passenger version of the jet three years ago. The aerospace company has been eyeing ways to restart production of the model, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans.United has been looking at options for replacing some 767 passenger jets used on transatlantic routes and to South America and whose average age is about 20 years old, according to the report.Neither United Continental nor Boeing responded immediately to requests for comment or confirmation on the report. (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/boeing-united-jets/united-weighs-purchase-of-new-boeing-767-passenger-jets-wsj-idINL1N1NB07X'|'2017-11-05T15:26:00.000+02:00'
'e2328dd0dedc7b1455aaf9ddf9c1b1bd91c4a322'|'T-Mobile to pursue growth after Sprint talks end: Deutsche Telekom'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - T-Mobile US will pursue a growth strategy in the United States after ending merger talks with Sprint Corp on Saturday, majority owner Deutsche Telekom said.T-Mobile sign on top of a T-Mobile retail store in Manhattan, New York, U.S. on September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/Files “T-Mobile US, of which Deutsche Telekom holds 64 percent of the shares, plans to continue its successful growth strategy,” the German company said in a statement.Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editign by Victoria Bryan '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us-deutsche-tel/t-mobile-to-pursue-growth-after-sprint-talks-end-deutsche-telekom-idINKBN1D503M'|'2017-11-05T00:45:00.000+02:00'
'd4b3de63d8cbfae15e7c32ed976837555782392d'|'Broadcom offers $103 billion for Qualcomm, sets up takeover battle'|'(Reuters) - Chip maker Broadcom Ltd made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc on Monday, setting the stage for a major takeover battle as it looks to dominate the fast-growing market for semiconductors used in mobile phones.Qualcomm said it would review the proposal. The San Diego-based company is inclined to reject the bid as too low and fraught with risk that regulators may reject it or take too long to approve it, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.A Broadcom-Qualcomm deal would create a dominant company in the market for supplying chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. It would raise the stakes for Intel Corp, which has been diversifying from its stronghold in computers into smartphone technology by supplying modem chips to Apple Inc.Qualcomm shareholders would get $60 in cash and $10 per share in Broadcom shares in a deal, according to Broadcom’s proposal. Including debt, the transaction is worth $130 billion.GBH Insight analyst Daniel Ives said bullish investors were hoping for $75 to $80 per share.“Now it’s a game of high-stakes poker for both sides,” he said.Shares of Qualcomm, whose chips allow phones to connect to wireless data networks, traded above $70 as recently as December 2016 and topped $80 in 2014.Qualcomm’s shares were up 2 percent at $63.09 at mid-afternoon, suggesting investors were skeptical a deal would happen.Broadcom shares fell 0.3 after hitting a record high of $281.80.REGULATORY SCRUTINY Qualcomm’s largest market is the so-called modem chips that allow phones to use mobile data plans, but it also sells connectivity chips for automobiles that handle “infotainment” systems and wireless electric vehicle charging. Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data.Any deal struck between the two companies would face intense regulatory scrutiny. A big hurdle would be getting regulatory approval in China, on which both Qualcomm and Broadcom rely on to make money.China is set to look at any deal closely after U.S. regulators blocked a flurry of chip deals by Chinese firms due to security concerns, thwarting the Asian country’s attempt to become self-reliant in chip manufacturing.Broadcom could spin out Qualcomm’s licensing arm, QTL, to get regulatory approval and funding for the deal, raising as much at $25 billion from a sale, Nomura Instinet analyst Romit Shah suggested.Broadcom had $5.25 billion in cash and cash equivalent as of July 30. Qualcomm had $35.03 billion as of Sept. 24.A building on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Broadcom said BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have advised it they are highly confident that they will be able to arrange the necessary debt financing for the proposed transaction.The company has also got a commitment letter for $5 billion in financing from private equity Silver Lake Partners, an existing Broadcom investor.VULNERABLE QUALCOMM Broadcom approached Qualcomm last year to discuss a potential combination, but did not contact Qualcomm prior to unveiling its $70 per share offer on Monday, according to sources.Qualcomm is more vulnerable to a takeover now because its shares have been held down by a patent dispute with key customer Apple, as well as concerns that it may have to raise a $38 billion bid for NXP Semiconductors NV that it made last year.Slideshow (2 Images) Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP together would have control over modems, Wi-Fi, GPS and near-field communications chips, a strong position that could concern customers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd because of the bargaining power such a combined company could have to raise prices. However, a combined company would also likely have a lower cost base and the flexibility to cut prices.Broadcom said its proposal stands irrespective of whether Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP goes through or not.Qualcomm’s entire 10-member board is up for re-election this spring, and Broadcom could seize on the Dec. 7 nomination deadline to put forward its own slate.Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan, who turned a small, scrappy chipmaker into a $100-billion company based in Singapore and the United States, told Reuters he would not rule out a proxy fight.“We are well advised and know what our options are, and we have not eliminated any of those options,” said Tan, who has pulled off a string of deals over the past decade. “We have a very strong desire to work with Qualcomm to reach a mutually beneficial deal.”Tan added that if Broadcom acquires Qualcomm which in turn has acquired NXP, the combined company’s net debt could be in the range of $90 billion.Two Qualcomm directors, Anthony Vinciquerra and Mark McLaughlin, have been aligned with activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, which pushed for a shakeup of the company two years ago. Jeffrey Henderson, another Qualcomm board director, was added last year as a compromise candidate.Apple, as a key customer, could pose a risk to the deal, said Karl Ackerman, an analyst at Cowen.Tan told Reuters that Broadcom taking over Qualcomm would improve relations with Apple: “We believe we can be very constructive in resolving these issues and resetting relationships.”Broadcom plans to move its headquarters solely to the United States, which would allow it to avoid review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign ownership of U.S. assets.Broadcom’s offer represents a premium of 27.6 percent to Qualcomm’s closing price of $54.84 on Thursday, a day before media reports of a potential deal pushed up the company’s shares.Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in New York and Arjun Panchadar and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr and Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-offers-to-buy-mobile-chipmaker-qualcomm-for-103-billion-idINKBN1D61EO'|'2017-11-06T09:07:00.000+02:00'
'23fb65af1f4ce0bf8da4f813a63a76d40c233dc9'|'India orders investigation after Paradise Papers leak'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:47 PM / Updated 5 hours ago India orders investigation after Paradise Papers leak Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India on Monday formed a panel of government officials to investigate cases that figure in the so-called Paradise Papers, a trove of leaked documents about offshore investments of wealthy individuals and institutions. Officials from government bodies and the central bank will carry out and monitor the investigation, the finance ministry said. The leaked documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets. Reuters has not independently verified the documents which relate to the affairs of individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and trading firm Glencore. Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/paradise-tax-india/india-orders-investigation-after-paradise-papers-leak-idINKBN1D6227'|'2017-11-06T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'080156b1174d964efe5a2556caf321bdf3704fc0'|'Prudential talks to buyers for 10 billion pound British annuities book - Sky'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:11 PM / a few seconds ago Prudential talks to buyers for $13 billion British annuities book: Sky Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Prudential ( PRU.L ) plans to break up its 10 billion pound ($13 billion) British pensions annuities book into four parts, in a move that could see the insurer leave its domestic market, Sky News said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of British life insurer Prudential is seen on their building, in London October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/File Photo The company has contacted potential buyers in the last few weeks, Sky News said on Monday. bit.ly/2h6AcRL The portfolio would be divided into four parts of between 2-3 billion pounds each, Sky said citing a person briefed on the insurer’s plans. Rothesay Life, Legal & General ( LGEN.L ) and Pension Insurance Corporation were potential buyers according to the media report. A spokesman for Prudential said the insurer does not “comment on market rumor and speculation”. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-prudential-divestiture-annuities/prudential-talks-to-buyers-for-13-billion-british-annuities-book-sky-idUKKBN1D61M3'|'2017-11-06T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'3ee9d1cf8e47bef19cfa3d12646ab2a4d94dc849'|'Innogy mulls sale, partnership for troubled Npower unit: sources'|'DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy group Innogy ( IGY.DE ) is looking at a possible sale or “partnership” for its troubled British retail energy supplier Npower, four people familiar with the matter said, following years of cost-cutting that have not led to a turnaround.A sign hangs outside the building of electricity provider npower in Solihull, Britain, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo Options for Npower, which has been hit by stiff local competition as well as billing issues, could include a sale or a partnership with a local peer, the sources said.Innogy declined to comment. No one at Npower was immediately available for comment.Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, Arno Schuetze and Christoph Steitz; Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-innogy-npower-sale/innogy-mulls-sale-partnership-for-troubled-npower-unit-sources-idINKBN1D61PR'|'2017-11-06T10:52:00.000+02:00'
'72d0f4ef7bbf6b9e2ab485cf4f9476ba80de7f61'|'HSBC pledges $100 billion of finance by 2025 to combat climate change'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:43 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago HSBC pledges $100 billion of finance by 2025 to combat climate change Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC ( HSBA.L ) has pledged to provide $100 billion (£76.3 billion) in financing and investment by 2025 to help combat climate change, the bank said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: HSBC headquarters is seen at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo HSBC said it will facilitate financial flows to help boost support for clean energy and lower carbon technologies. “This will involve direct lending, bonds and project finance, alongside new products in asset management,” an HSBC spokesman said. Over recent years, HSBC has helped develop standards for issuers of green bonds and has issued its own 500 million euro (£442.7 million) green bond. Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climatechange-hsbc-bank-plc/hsbc-pledges-100-billion-of-finance-by-2025-to-combat-climate-change-idUKKBN1D6103'|'2017-11-06T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'ff61fb4978afcade48f3133a5ccdb6659db02fe3'|'UPDATE 1-MOVES-Credit Suisse names Galietto to head U.S. stock trading'|'(Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG has hired Paul Galietto as head of Americas equities trading, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, in a move to further boost its stock business.Galietto most recently was the chief of equities Americas at UBS Group AG and before that he worked more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch. A spokesperson for UBS said that Galietto left the company in 2015.A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the internal memo.Credit Suisse has made a number of senior hires this year in its stock trading unit under new equities head Mike Stewart. Those hires include Michael Ebert, who joined as global head of equity derivatives from Bank of America Corp; Doug Crofton, who was brought over from Bank of America to run U.S. equities sales and trading, and David Bleustein, who became head of Americas equity research and had worked at UBS.Under Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse has reduced its footprint in some parts of trading, including fixed income, while focusing on ways to boost lending to wealthy clients.Credit Suisse’s equities business in the United States ranked between No. 7 and No. 9 by revenue, according to industry tracker Coalition.The bank said on Thursday that equities revenue had risen 5 percent year over year during the third quarter.Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Steve OrlofskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-credit-suisse-gp-moves/credit-suisse-names-galietto-to-head-u-s-stock-trading-idUSKBN1D40MJ'|'2017-11-04T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'66112a96328b917e44a363e8401b14b86ba338d5'|'.'|'(Corrects to make clear the comparison of daily throughput is with contracted volumes, not versus Q2)Nov 3 (Reuters) - Tallgrass Energy Partners LP* Tallgrass Energy says Pony Express crude pipeline refinery connections to come online Q1 2018* Tallgrass Energy says daily average crude oil throughput on Pony Express in Q3 was 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to a contracted volumes of 300,000 bpd (Reporting by Bryan Sims)Our '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2N1N91ZS'|'2017-11-04T00:01:00.000+02:00'
'76baf559d7872af0cf7350ed3deb9cd4a02bf1ce'|'Saudi stocks rebound after initial drop on corruption probe'|'November 5, 2017 / 11:12 AM / in an hour Saudi stocks rebound after initial drop on corruption probe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Saudi stock market rebounded into positive territory on Sunday after initially dropping sharply in response to a corruption inquiry that led to a string of detentions of prominent political and business figures. The stock index was up 0.02 percent an hour before the close, after falling 2.2 percent at one stage. Some investors worry the investigation could force people implicated to sell equity holdings. But many think the purge will remove opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, helping him accelerate economic reforms such as privatisation and big development projects. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; editing by Mark Heinrich)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-stocks-rebound/saudi-stocks-rebound-after-initial-drop-on-corruption-probe-idUSL5N1NB0BS'|'2017-11-05T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'2d78c0a06cf6666dedd4c53118d2326740511c23'|'DBS Q3 profit in surprise slide to five-year low on oil and gas provisions'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings booked an unexpected slide in quarterly profit on Monday, with income falling 23 percent to a five-year low as it nearly doubled provisions for loans to the troubled oil and gas industry.FILE PHOTO: A logo of DBS is pictured outside an office in Singapore January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo Singapore banks, long lauded for their conservative lending practices, have been tested over the last two years as a number of local offshore and marine firms have restructured their loans due to low prices and project delays.Net provisions for Singapore’s biggest lender jumped 87 percent to a record S$815 million ($597 million) - a move it said would remove uncertainty over its exposure to the oil and gas services sector.“The recognition of the residual weak oil and gas support service exposures as NPAs will enable investors to return their focus to our operating performance and digital agenda,” CEO Piyush Gupta said in a statement.Net profit came in at S$822 million in the three months ended September, below S$1.07 billion profit reported a year earlier and an average estimate of S$1.13 billion from four analysts compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.“Overall, we see a decent set of underlying results. Kitchen sinking should see DBS start next year with a clean slate,” Goldman Sachs’ analysts said in a report.DBS said its exposure to the oil and gas support services sector amounted to S$5.3 billion, less than 2 percent of its overall loan portfolio.While Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank, have also flagged stress in the oil and gas support services sector, DBS is more exposed than its smaller rivals.DBS also said the bank’s underlying loan growth is likely to be 7 percent to 8 percent for this year and next year. Net fee income rose 12 percent from a year ago, led by double-digit growth in wealth management and investment banking fees.The wealth management business is a key focus for DBS, which bought Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s wealth and retail business last year.Shares in DBS were down 1.3 percent in morning trade.Singapore state investor Temasek is the biggest shareholder in DBS with a stake of about 30 percent.($1 = 1.3645 Singapore dollars)Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dbs-results/dbs-q3-profit-in-surprise-slide-to-five-year-low-on-oil-and-gas-provisions-idINKBN1D609Y'|'2017-11-06T05:48:00.000+02:00'
'051e839eac050c6aa070d2a51a12506bc7466710'|'UK car sales in October down for seventh consecutive month'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:30 AM / in 29 minutes UK car sales in October down for seventh consecutive month Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - British new car sales in October fell by about 12 percent year on year, marking a seventh consecutive month of decline, preliminary data released by an industry body showed on Monday. Sales were hurt by a decline in business and consumer confidence, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. Demand for diesel cars slumped by about 30 percent, the industry body said. The SMMT urged the government to use this month’s autumn budget to restore stability to the market and encourage the purchase of the latest low emission vehicles. Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-economy-autos/uk-car-sales-in-october-down-for-seventh-consecutive-month-idUSL3N1NB0FS'|'2017-11-06T07:30:00.000+02:00'
'f853642a841fc5b545f42b05c4774a3f46c7532a'|'Billionaire Blavatnik weighs big share purchase in Teva Pharm-reports'|'JERUSALEM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik is looking to buy a significant stake in debt-ridden Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, according to Israeli media reports.Two of Israel’s leading financial news outlets, Globes and The Marker, reported on Sunday that Blavatnik has been examining a large share purchase in Teva, whose stock price hit a 17-year low last week after the company again cut its annual profit forecast.Officials at Blavatnik’s U.S.-based industrial group, Access Industries, were not immediately reachable for comment. Teva, the world’s biggest generic drugmaker, declined to comment.The Marker reported that Blavatnik was looking to acquire up to a $3 billion stake in Teva. The company has a $12.3 billion market cap.The investment could either be done through a private stock listing, which would help Teva deal with its nearly $35 billion debt burden, or the shares could be bought from pharmaceutical firm Allergan, the report said.Allergan received a 10 percent stake in Teva as part of a 2016 deal in which Teva bought its generics business for $40.5 billion. Allergan announced last week that it would begin selling down that stake.Blavatnik’s Access has investments in real estate, chemicals, media and technology with Warner Music among its highest profile businesses. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer; Editing by Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/teva-pharm-ind-ma/billionaire-blavatnik-weighs-big-share-purchase-in-teva-pharm-reports-idINL5N1NB0AV'|'2017-11-05T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'5da8bc554d6e6035748ec4a214bd7fb20d41022e'|'Saudi stocks rebound after initial drop on corruption probe'|'DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Saudi stock market rebounded into positive territory on Sunday after initially dropping sharply in response to a corruption inquiry that led to a string of detentions of prominent political and business figures.The stock index was up 0.02 percent an hour before the close, after falling 2.2 percent at one stage.Some investors worry the investigation could force people implicated to sell equity holdings. But many think the purge will remove opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, helping him accelerate economic reforms such as privatisation and big development projects. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; editing by Mark Heinrich) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-stocks-rebound/saudi-stocks-rebound-after-initial-drop-on-corruption-probe-idINL5N1NB0BS'|'2017-11-05T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'09a8b4ff7a981b5ae5e3bcf57e365b1a0f03639a'|'Departure of New York Fed''s Dudley hangs another question over Fed leadership'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirmed on Monday that William Dudley, among the most influential monetary policymakers throughout the financial crisis and its aftermath, expects to retire by mid-2018, raising another question over leadership at the U.S. central bank less than a week after President Donald Trump chose a new Fed chief.New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley speaks at a Thomson Reuters newsmaker event in New York, U.S. on April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Files Dudley, 64, one of the central bank’s strongest advocates of unprecedented monetary stimulus in the last decade and a steady hand on its delicate market operations, will step down before his term officially ends in January 2019.The New York Fed’s board said its search committee seeks a “broad, diverse” pool of candidates and aims to name a successor by the middle of next year. A source familiar with the effort said the search had already begun with preliminary calls for advice on what attributes might be sought in candidates and possible names.The announcement, which Reuters reported on Sunday, accelerates a revolution in Fed leadership that could upend its cautious approach to raising interest rates and to shedding some of the $3.5-trillion in bonds that were purchased to stimulate the economy in the face of the 2007-2009 crisis and recession.Trump, a Republican who seeks to pare down the central bank’s tough financial regulations while keeping interest rates moderately low, on Thursday named Fed Governor Jerome Powell as successor to Janet Yellen when her term ends in February. This decision broke a precedent of Fed chairs serving at least two terms.The White House has an unusually large window to reshape the Fed given three more seats are vacant on its powerful seven-seat Board of Governors, and four if Yellen retires next year. The Fed’s well respected vice chair, Stanley Fischer, and its point-person on bank supervision, Daniel Tarullo, stepped down earlier this year as the overhaul gained steam in the wake of the 2016 U.S. election.“It clears the deck for a Powell-led Fed,” said Peter Hooper, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Securities. The New York Fed president’s “bully pulpit is an important one” on both monetary and regulatory policy, he said, adding Trump’s selection of Powell and not a more reform-minded nominee for Fed chair may have allowed Dudley to retire early.(For an interactive graphic on the Fed''s doves and hawks, see: tmsnrt.rs/2d4Mta4 . For an interactive graphic on the Fed''s post-crisis stimulus, see: here )CRISIS-ERA TENURE Trump pick Randal Quarles assumed a board position last month as the Fed’s vice chair for financial supervision. The 12 regional Fed presidents are chosen by their regional directors, though they are approved by the Fed Board in Washington and they vote on policy on a rotating basis.The New York Fed president is unique in that the position has a permanent vote on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), serves as its vice chair, and acts as its eyes and ears on Wall Street and often as its liaison to international counterparts.In a statement, Yellen said Dudley made “enormous contributions” to Fed policy and helped leave the “American economy stronger and the financial system safer.” Dudley called it a “dream job” focused on public policy and service.A former Goldman Sachs chief economist, he joined the New York Fed as its markets head in 2007 and in the depths of the crisis took its helm in early 2009. He has since steered a mostly dovish path as a close ally of Yellen and her predecessor Ben Bernanke, often flagging pending policy changes that influenced world financial markets.In recent months Dudley has advocated a more aggressive tightening path even while inflation has drifted lower below target, an argument he may advance in a luncheon speech to the Economic Club of New York on Monday.As bank watchdog, he has repeatedly criticized poor culture among bankers and behavior that lead for example to the manipulation of the Libor reference rate. Yet Dudley himself has faced criticism from Congress and others, including for the New York Fed’s failure to stem JPMorgan’s risky so-called London Whale trades in 2012.NATIONWIDE SEARCH As its New York chief, Dudley oversaw the Fed’s mass asset purchases and its decision to start shrinking the balance sheet last month. Indeed financial conditions - including credit spreads, the dollar, stocks and bonds - have played an outsized role in his recommendations even while he has urged policies to drive U.S. unemployment as low as practicable.The central bank’s tricky task of edging away from bond markets suggests that Simon Potter, the current head of market operations at the New York Fed; Lorie Logan, the bank’s head of analysis and monitoring of market operations; and Brian Sack, who held the role before Potter and is now at D.E. Shaw, could be considered candidates.The search committee could also look to current and former Fed governors and presidents, according to former Fed officials and those familiar with past search efforts in New York and elsewhere within the central bank. Fed Governor Lael Brainard and former governor Kevin Warsh, whom Trump considered for the Fed chair job, could also be in the mix, they said.The chair of New York Fed’s board, Freelancers Union founder Sara Horowitz, will co-head the search committee with director Glenn Hutchins, the co-founder of private-equity firm Silver Lake. It hired firms Spencer Stuart and Bridge Partners for the nationwide search that will tap “academia, community and economic development organizations, labor, small business and industry” for advice, the board said.Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-dudley/departure-of-new-york-feds-dudley-hangs-another-question-over-fed-leadership-idINKBN1D61M5'|'2017-11-06T15:10:00.000+02:00'
'60b45ddabb96bac570bf2a0c03c57785e27511b5'|'Pilots'' union rejects Eurowings plan to speed up hiring'|' 49 AM / in 12 minutes Pilots'' union rejects Eurowings plan to speed up hiring   BERLIN (Reuters) - A German pilots union has rejected a labour agreement at Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings in Germany that would have allowed it to quickly take on former Air Berlin staff, calling on the airline to offer better conditions. People line up behind a barrier tape of Lufthansa''s budget airlines Eurowings during a 24-hour strike over pay and working conditions at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Lufthansa had previously come under fire from some unions for offering former Air Berlin staff contracts with its Eurowings Europe unit, where conditions aren’t as good as for those staff on German collective labour agreements. But it has since said it wanted to grow Eurowings Germany beyond the 23 planes it currently has and therefore offer contracts on German collective labour agreements. “Affected pilots should not be forced to accept conditions that are in some cases far below those of rivals,” Joerg Handwerg, board member at union Vereinigung Cockpit, said in a statement. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-eurowings-unions/pilots-union-rejects-eurowings-plan-to-speed-up-hiring-idUKKBN1D61CP'|'2017-11-06T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'1a811c448b8bc9335a1d934a49d3627a75da428b'|'U.S. top court rejects Samsung appeal of patent loss to Apple'|'November 6, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Supreme Court rejects Samsung appeal of patent loss to Apple Andrew Chung 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to step back into the years-long feud over patents between the world’s top smartphone makers, declining to hear Samsung’s ( 005930.KS ) appeal of a lower court ruling that reinstated a jury award of about $120 million in favor of Apple( AAPL.O ). 3D-printed Samsung and Apple logos are seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. Apple Inc is expected to report a 1.3 percent increase in iPhone sales in the holiday quarter, its slowest ever and a far cry from the double-digit growth investors have come to expect. Apple sold 75.5 million iPhones in the October-December quarter, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount, 1 million more than what was sold in the year-ago quarter. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - GF20000107877 The justices left in place a 2016 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a verdict that found South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd had infringed Apple Inc’s patents on several popular features of the California-based company’s iPhone. Those included slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quick links, which automatically turn information like addresses and phone numbers into links. The Supreme Court in December 2016 sided with Samsung in a separate case over its fight with Apple. In that one, the justices threw out a $399 million damages award against Samsung to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs. A judge in California in October ordered a new trial over damages in that case. The current appeal stems from a May 2014 verdict by a jury in federal court in San Jose, California ordering Samsung to pay $119.6 million for using the Apple features without permission. Infringement of the quick links feature accounted for nearly $99 million of the damages. A three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit, a Washington-based court that specializes in patent matters, had originally overturned the verdict, but it was reinstated in an October 2016 ruling by a full slate of 11 judges on that court. Appealing to the Supreme Court, Samsung said that the patent court’s judges did not follow proper procedure in reviving the verdict because they made the decision without considering additional legal papers or hearing oral arguments. The judges also wrongly changed the law related to invalidating patents and awarding injunctions, Samsung added. In a dig at the patent court, Samsung told the justices in legal papers that they have “long served as the bulwark when the Federal Circuit tips the balance too far in favor of patent-holders’ rights at the expense of innovation and competition.” Apple urged the justices to leave the jury award in place, saying there was nothing “novel or important” to review in its rival’s appeal. The Trump administration backed Apple’s view. Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-samsung-elec/supreme-court-rejects-samsung-appeal-of-patent-loss-to-apple-idUKKBN1D61W4'|'2017-11-06T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'8b83060f27b6b68858c1ad6fe81843b35fce5dd2'|'ECB''s Nouy says almost 50 banks considering post-Brexit relocation, source'|'November 6, 2017 / 4:26 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago ECB''s Nouy says almost 50 banks considering post-Brexit relocation, source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Nearly 50 banks have approached euro zone supervisors seeking information on how to relocate from Britain after it leaves the European Union, the European Central Bank’s top bank supervisor told EU finance ministers on Monday, an official said. The sky turns red over buildings in Canary Wharf as dust from the Sahara carried by storm Ophelia filters sunlight over London, Britain, October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Tom Jacobs Daniele Nouy told ministers meeting in Brussels that several large banks operating in the euro zone from Britain were progressing on their contingency plans and a few had already sought licenses in the euro zone, an EU official who attended the meeting said. She underlined that many other banks were still delaying their post-Brexit plans, however, and said that was a reason for concern at the ECB, the official said. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-banks-ecb/ecbs-nouy-says-almost-50-banks-considering-post-brexit-relocation-source-idUKKBN1D6258'|'2017-11-06T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'0cf5eb73201b9be53f13bda84f75c42f4bb920e2'|'Video shows Muddy Waters encounter with man it links to Casino'|'NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A new video shows a man accused of impersonating a Wall Street Journal reporter in an effort to uncover information from prominent short-seller Muddy Waters and allegedly learn more about its strategy toward French retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA.Groupe Casino, as the supermarket chain operator is also known, on Monday affirmed its denial of wrongdoing in its dealings with Muddy Waters and founder Carson Block.They had accused Casino in December 2015 of using accounting shenanigans and excessive leverage to exaggerate its health.Short-sellers sell borrowed shares, hoping to repurchase them later at lower prices. Muddy Waters and firms like it often issue negative research about the companies they short.The video, which Reuters reviewed, relates to a Nov. 1 petition in which Muddy Waters asked a New York state judge to force Alphabet Inc’s Google to identify who owns two Gmail accounts linked to alleged spying about Casino.Muddy Waters accused “John Does 1-5” of impersonating Journal reporter William Horobin and an investigator at French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) to learn of Block’s thoughts and whereabouts.The video depicts an Oct. 30 meeting at a Manhattan hotel that Muddy Waters said was requested the man claiming to be Horobin, but who the Journal said was Jean-Charles Brisard, a French security and intelligence consultant.Brisard has appeared often on television and the man in the video looks like him as pictured on his website. ( jean-charles-brisard.com/ )He could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment. Brisard declined to comment to the Journal on whether he had appeared in the video or worked for Casino.In the video, the imposter acknowledged not being Horobin, but telling Block he impersonated the reporter “because I want to meet you. There’s no other ways to meet you.”“So Casino has not paid you to do this?” Block asked.“No, no, not at all, not at all,” the imposter responded.After Block suggested “it seems kind of obvious” what he had in mind, the imposter walked away.“Casino already suffered several unfair attacks from Muddy Waters,” a Casino spokeswoman said on Monday. “This claim is another feeble attack to destabilize the group.”Block said in an email: “The company’s use of investigators to impersonate journalists and government officials shows management’s disregard for ethics and rules, and further reeks of desperation.”The Journal has said its reporter Horobin made no inquiries to Muddy Waters. AMF has declined to discuss its probe into activity by Casino and Muddy Waters, following Block’s criticisms of the retailer. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Dominique Vidalon in Paris; additional reporting by Pascale Denis in Paris, editing by G Crosse) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/casino-muddywaters/video-shows-muddy-waters-encounter-with-man-it-links-to-casino-idINL1N1NC107'|'2017-11-06T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'892dcb3f143365f8379ee26bb488df9312fd4adb'|'San Miguel to consolidate food, beverage units in share swap'|'MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp ( SMC.PS ) announced a share swap among its group companies on Monday to combine its core food and beverage assets valued at 336 billion pesos ($6.6 billion).A logo of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is seen at a main office in Ortigas city, metro Manila February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco San Miguel Pure Foods Co Inc ( PF.PS ) said in a filing to the Manila bourse that it will acquire San Miguel Corp’s majority stakes in both Ginebra San Miguel Inc ( GSMI.PS ) and San Miguel Brewery Inc and will issue 4.24 billion new shares to San Miguel Corp in exchange.San Miguel Pure Foods’ public float is 14.6 percent and San Miguel Corp currently owns 85.4 percent.San Miguel Corp also currently owns most of Ginebra San Miguel Inc and just over 50 percent of San Miguel Brewery Inc. Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co Ltd ( 2503.T ) owns the rest of San Miguel Brewery and it will retain that stake.Pure Foods will be renamed San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc to reflect the change.Shares in Pure Foods and Ginebra surged 50 percent on news of the restructuring on Monday, the daily limit on the Manila bourse, while parent San Miguel Corp gained 5.4 percent, outperforming the Philippines'' broader index .PSI , which closed up 1.75 percent at a new record high.San Miguel has pursued an aggressive expansion since 2008 to bolster revenues, adding infrastructure, mining, petroleum and power assets to its staple food and beverage businesses.The San Miguel companies appointed Standard Chartered and ING Bank as financial advisors on the deal. The share swap must now be approved by shareholders at a special meeting set for Jan. 18.Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sanmiguel-restructuring/san-miguel-to-consolidate-food-beverage-units-in-share-swap-idINKBN1D624X'|'2017-11-06T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'daad7d5e0ae146f272feafb8120d2719b12d6dc8'|'Earnings disappointments mar European share trading'|'November 6, 2017 / 8:45 AM / Updated 2 hours ago European shares take a breather near two-year highs Julien Ponthus , Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares ended the day in positive territory on Monday after a session in which promising euro zone economic data and rising oil prices failed to offset some earnings and corporate news disappointment. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The pan-European STOXX 600 rose a little more than 0.1 percent to 396.59 points, within range of two-year highs. “After the really good run we had, I think there is nothing bad about it if the market takes a breather,” said Tilmann Galler, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. Galler said that IHS Markit’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone in October was a positive signal for European stocks. “We believe that the euro zone can keep up this above-trend growth in the coming quarters because the region has one advantage versus the U.S. economy -- the cycle is much younger,” he argued. However, some results and negative developments on the corporate front disappointed investors. Energy company SBM Offshore ( SBMO.AS ) sank 13.8 percent after taking a $238 million provision to settle a U.S. investigation over a Latin American bribery case. The company said that a preliminary settlement reached with Brazilian authorities had fallen through and it would no longer be able to participate in tenders for Petrobras ( PETR4.SA ), one of its largest customers. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Chemical and oil storage company Vopak ( VOPA.AS ) fell 6.1 percent after profit missed expectations and it lowered earnings guidance for the full year, citing weaker occupancy rates and higher costs. Other energy stocks benefited after crude prices soared to their highest since July 2015. Among gainers, Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.AS ) rose by close to 1.5 percent to finish at a record high. Shares in Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) dropped 2.6 percent to the bottom of the DAX after an attempt by its T-Mobile U.S. unit to merge with Sprint Corp ( S.N ) collapsed at the weekend. The technology sector .SX8P, meanwhile, was up 0.8 percent after a boost from a potential $103 billion megadeal in the chip sector. The news also lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Broadcom ( AVGO.O ) made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) on Monday, setting the stage for a major takeover battle as the chip maker looks to dominate the fast-growing market for semiconductors used in mobile phones. Euro zone lenders .SX7E were down 0.9 percent, with investors exercising greater caution on the sector. Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) was among the worst performers with a 3.7 percent fall. A string of target price cuts from JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Kepler Cheuvreux and Natixis have hit the French banks. Spain''s IBEX index .IBEX fell 0.4 percent, lagging most European peers after sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont turned himself in to Belgian authorities while weekend polls showed parties favoring Catalan independence would be likely to win December''s regional election. Reporting by Helen Reid and Julien Ponthus; Editing by John Stonestreet and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/earnings-disappointments-mar-european-share-trading-idUSKBN1D60T6'|'2017-11-06T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'4bfe621f01faa63072a9c3d44aa1a86646d17276'|'Mitsubishi, Sumitomo raise profit forecasts on strong coal prices'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese trading houses Mitsubishi Corp and Sumitomo Corp on Monday lifted their net profit estimates for the current financial year by as much as 22 percent, spurred by higher prices of commodities such as coking coal.The signboard of Mitsubishi Corp is pictured at its head office in Tokyo, Japan August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files The moves followed a profit forecast increase by trading rival Mitsui & Co last week. Three out of Japan’s top five trading firms -- Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Itochu Corp -- are now predicting record annual profits.Top-ranked Mitsubishi raised its profit forecast for the year to March 31 by 11 percent to 500 billion yen ($4.38 billion), which will surpass a record 471.3 billion yen reached in the year to March 2008, as higher coal prices boost earnings of its metals business.The revised estimate means a 14 percent increase from a year earlier and beat a mean estimate of 488.8 billion yen from nine analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.“We are making solid profits from the businesses that are not linked to markets while we capitalise on gains in commodity markets,” Mitsubishi Chief Financial Officer Kazuyuki Masu told a news conference.Profits from non-resource operations such as machinery and real estate have grown over the past decade, he said.Sumitomo increased its annual profit projection by 22 percent to 280 billion yen, up 64 percent from the previous year and higher than the record 250.7 billion yen posted in the year to March 2012.The latest guideline came above a mean estimate of 250.6 billion yen from six analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.“Our resource businesses have suffered from slumping prices (of metals and energy) over the past few years, but they have become tougher as a result of sale or swap in some of our assets,” Sumitomo CFO Koichi Takahata told a separate news conference.Takahata said the company’s non-resource divisions such as overseas power generation and real estate have also grown steadily.Reflecting upbeat earnings, Mitsubishi boosted its annual dividend forecast to a record 95 yen per share while Sumitomo raised it to a record 56 yen per share, bolstering shares in the companies by 3.5 percent and 4.6 percent respectively. They outperformed the Nikkei 225 index which was nearly flat.Last week, Itochu Corp kept its estimate for a record net profit of 400 billion yen, while Marubeni Corp maintained its profit prediction at 170 billion yen.($1 = 114.1300 yen)Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr. '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mitsubishi-result/mitsubishi-sumitomo-raise-profit-forecasts-on-strong-coal-prices-idINKBN1D6164'|'2017-11-06T07:47:00.000+02:00'
'6fedba87603d277bc9028fd1dc4e0104861f0d30'|'BRIEF-Taiwan''s ASE acquires facilities and equipment from Acter for T$315 mln'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:33 AM / in 4 minutes BRIEF-Taiwan''s ASE acquires facilities and equipment from Acter for T$315 mln Reuters Staff Nov 6 (Reuters) - Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc * Says acquires facilities/equipment from Acter Co Ltd for T$315 million ($10.44 million) Source text on Eikon:'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-taiwans-ase-acquires-facilities-an/brief-taiwans-ase-acquires-facilities-and-equipment-from-acter-for-t315-mln-idUSS7N1IL00R'|'2017-11-06T11:32:00.000+02:00'
'eecfa541459a144665eee854b796fe22f68a030c'|'Evergrande to raise 60 billion yuan ahead of backdoor listing in China'|' 34 AM / in 19 minutes Evergrande to raise 60 billion yuan ahead of backdoor listing in China Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group ( 3333.HK ), the country’s No.3 property developer by sales, said it would sell 60 billion yuan (£6.9 billion) worth of shares in its property assets business that is slated for a backdoor listing in Shenzhen. FILE PHOTO: A promotional footage on a property development of China Evergrande Group is shown at a news conference on the company''s interim results in Hong Kong, China August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The developer plans to inject almost all of its property assets, held by Hengda Real Estate Group, into Shenzhen Real Estate ( 000029.SZ ). This round of fundraising, the third so far, exceeds the strategic investments of 30 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan that the company had initially planned to introduce. Evergrande said the latest round meant it had now raised a total of 130 billion yuan from investors who will hold about 36.5 percent of the enlarged equity interest of Hengda. Among the six investors in this round, Shandong Highway Group Investment and Suning Electrical Appliances Group Investment will each subscribe for 20 billion yuan new capital, while the rest will invest 5 million yuan each. Evergrande is seeking a backdoor listing valued at 365.2 billion yuan in Shenzhen, aiming to take advantage of higher valuations commanded on the mainland due to a large pool of retail investors. The plan will make it easier for heavily indebted Evergrande to raise funds. The company’s shares have surged almost 500 percent this year, in response to a widely expected backdoor listing of its real estate assets in China, fresh capital from strategic investors and share buybacks. Evergrande shares closed down 3.3 percent on Monday, versus a flat broader market .HSI Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-evergrande-fundraising/evergrande-to-raise-60-billion-yuan-ahead-of-backdoor-listing-in-china-idUKKBN1D615B'|'2017-11-06T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'fbff4f3a239f843810e035a6b83a91189cca9e87'|'Lonmin operations performing well, CEO says, amid share plunge'|'November 6, 2017 / 8:14 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Strike threat adds to headaches for Lonmin chief executive Ed Stoddard 3 Min Read MOOINOOI, South Africa (Reuters) - The threat of a strike in South Africa put renewed pressure on Lonmin ( LMI.L ) on Monday as Chief Executive Ben Magara sought to reassure investors that the platinum miner’s underlying business was robust. FILE PHOTO: Children play on second-hand tyres outside Lonmin''s Marikana Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo The South African firm, not for the first time, faces an uncertain future in the wake of a 30 percent plunge in its share price on Friday after it delayed annual financial results because it could not yet give a specific figure for the impact of an ongoing business review. The company has said it has sufficient liquidity to fund it through a review that could include the sale of assets, job cuts and the renegotiation of loan agreements. “There is no risk of closure,” Magara told Reuters on Monday, adding that the disposals of non-core greenfield projects and downstream processing capacity were on the table. Tensions with some of its workers risk adding to the problems facing Lonmin. Labour union Solidarity, which represents mostly skilled employees, said its members supported plans to go on strike next month or in January in a dispute over how the company handles investor relations. The union would also apply to have Lonmin protected from creditors, a process called “business rescue” in South Africa, if the company pleads poverty to cut jobs, Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A mine worker speaks on his mobile phone as he returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg, South Africa November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Magara was speaking at a ceremony to present new health and road projects Lonmin is funding near its mines west of Johannesburg. “Our underlying operations are continuing to perform very well ... So that we have some bit of cash. Because a loss-making business would not be able to buy ambulances,” Magara said. Lonmin was handing over a fleet of ambulances it has bought for the communities. It was also showcasing roads it has built. Lonmin, one of the world’s top platinum producers, has been in the doldrums for years due to low prices and soaring costs and has been to shareholders for rights issues to shore up its balance sheet three times since 2009. There has also been speculation about a deal to combine with fellow South African miner Sibanye-Stillwater ( SGLJ.J ). Shares in Lonmin, which is listed in London and Johannesburg and has a market capitalisation of only around 200 million pounds remained volatile on Monday. They were down 1.6 percent in Johannesburg by 1000 GMT after an initial fall of 10 percent. The London-listed stock actually made up a little lost ground. Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Mark Potter and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-crisis-ceo/lonmins-operations-continue-to-perform-well-despite-share-drop-ceo-idUKKBN1D60QT'|'2017-11-06T10:25:00.000+02:00'
'c367e55c46adcc8bf600bb9d4cd026327751f470'|'Evergrande to raise $9.1 billion ahead of backdoor listing in China'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group ( 3333.HK ), the country’s No.3 property developer by sales, said it would sell 60 billion yuan ($9.05 billion) worth of shares in its property assets business that is slated for a backdoor listing in Shenzhen.The developer plans to inject almost all of its property assets, held by Hengda Real Estate Group, into Shenzhen Real Estate ( 000029.SZ ).This round of fundraising, the third so far, exceeds the strategic investments of 30 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan that the company had initially planned to introduce.Evergrande said the latest round meant it had now raised a total of 130 billion yuan from investors who will hold about 36.5 percent of the enlarged equity interest of Hengda.Among the six investors in this round, Shandong Highway Group Investment and Suning Electrical Appliances Group Investment will each subscribe for 20 billion yuan new capital, while the rest will invest 5 million yuan each.Evergrande is seeking a backdoor listing valued at 365.2 billion yuan in Shenzhen, aiming to take advantage of higher valuations commanded on the mainland due to a large pool of retail investors. The plan will make it easier for heavily indebted Evergrande to raise funds.The company’s shares have surged almost 500 percent this year, in response to a widely expected backdoor listing of its real estate assets in China, fresh capital from strategic investors and share buybacks.Evergrande shares closed down 3.3 percent on Monday, versus a flat broader market .HSIReporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-evergrande-fundraising/evergrande-to-raise-9-1-billion-ahead-of-backdoor-listing-in-china-idINKBN1D6152'|'2017-11-06T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'46ca037e9eb1d5e8bd64b6624c2cfdb7ee0e3f73'|'Video shows Muddy Waters encounter with man it links to Casino'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:36 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Video shows Muddy Waters encounter with man it links to Casino Jonathan Stempel , Dominique Vidalon 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A new video shows a man accused of impersonating a Wall Street Journal reporter in an effort to uncover information from prominent short-seller Muddy Waters and allegedly learn more about its strategy toward French retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA. Groupe Casino, as the supermarket chain operator is also known, on Monday affirmed its denial of wrongdoing in its dealings with Muddy Waters and founder Carson Block. They had accused Casino in December 2015 of using accounting shenanigans and excessive leverage to exaggerate its health. Short-sellers sell borrowed shares, hoping to repurchase them later at lower prices. Muddy Waters and firms like it often issue negative research about the companies they short. The video, which Reuters reviewed, relates to a Nov. 1 petition in which Muddy Waters asked a New York state judge to force Alphabet Inc’s Google to identify who owns two Gmail accounts linked to alleged spying about Casino. Muddy Waters accused “John Does 1-5” of impersonating Journal reporter William Horobin and an investigator at French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) to learn of Block’s thoughts and whereabouts. The video depicts an Oct. 30 meeting at a Manhattan hotel that Muddy Waters said was requested the man claiming to be Horobin, but who the Journal said was Jean-Charles Brisard, a French security and intelligence consultant. Brisard has appeared often on television and the man in the video looks like him as pictured on his website. ( jean-charles-brisard.com/ ) He could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment. Brisard declined to comment to the Journal on whether he had appeared in the video or worked for Casino. In the video, the imposter acknowledged not being Horobin, but telling Block he impersonated the reporter “because I want to meet you. There’s no other ways to meet you.” “So Casino has not paid you to do this?” Block asked. “No, no, not at all, not at all,” the imposter responded. After Block suggested “it seems kind of obvious” what he had in mind, the imposter walked away. “Casino already suffered several unfair attacks from Muddy Waters,” a Casino spokeswoman said on Monday. “This claim is another feeble attack to destabilize the group.” Block said in an email: “The company’s use of investigators to impersonate journalists and government officials shows management’s disregard for ethics and rules, and further reeks of desperation.” The Journal has said its reporter Horobin made no inquiries to Muddy Waters. AMF has declined to discuss its probe into activity by Casino and Muddy Waters, following Block’s criticisms of the retailer. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Dominique Vidalon in Paris; additional reporting by Pascale Denis in Paris, editing by G Crosse)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/casino-muddywaters/video-shows-muddy-waters-encounter-with-man-it-links-to-casino-idUSL1N1NC107'|'2017-11-06T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'65ca8774102597680594366a2b4b456bd70f09b3'|'UK financial services watchdog to investigate wholesale insurance brokers'|'Reuters TV United States November 6, 2017 / 12:36 PM / in 32 minutes UK financial services watchdog to investigate wholesale insurance brokers Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial services industry regulator is to launch later this week a long-promised investigation into competition in the wholesale insurance broking market, where one top executive has complained of “abusive behavior”. The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday it would publish the terms of reference for the review on Wednesday at 0700 GMT. “We want to ensure that the wholesale insurance market is working well and fosters innovation and competition in the interests of a diverse range of consumers,” the FCA said in its business plan back in April, when it said it would examine the market. “Following the publication of this market study, we will consider appropriate remedial actions,” it said. The FCA declined to elaborate on Monday. Wholesale brokers mediate between sellers of insurance to consumers and the insurance underwriters, and often specialize in certain types of insurance. Evan Greenberg, chairman and chief executive of insurer Chubb ( CB.N ), told shareholders in April that the “soft” insurance market was a sign of “abusive behavior” by some brokers who “enrich themselves at the expense of both their customers and underwriters”. “These predatory behaviors, which have shown up around the world, and in London in particular, are simply unsustainable from an underwriting perspective and will come back to haunt these brokers,” Greenberg said. The study is due to be completed by 2019 and the FCA has powers to impose changes on the way the market works or take enforcement action if it discovers unfair practices. The big broking companies JLT ( JLT.L ), Aon AON.L, Marsh ( MMC.N ), and Willis Towers Watson ( WLTW.O ) and United Insurance Brokers (UIB) said earlier this year they were cooperating with an FCA probe into information-sharing over aviation insurance. The European Commission has taken over that investigation. Consultancy EY has said it expects insurance firms to be challenged on the value they provide to customers and level of reward they extract in return, which could place further strain on profitability. “Wholesale brokerage seems highly competitive to us but margins are still relatively healthy so there is likely to be plenty for the FCA to investigate,” financial research company Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a note on Monday. Reporting by Huw Jones and Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-insurance-regulator/uk-financial-services-watchdog-to-investigate-wholesale-insurance-brokers-idUKKBN1D61GV'|'2017-11-06T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'74ae5d90775dc9bc8bde3df8a2e1c3e22dd999b8'|'EU regulators clear Belgian tax measures for shipping companies'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:50 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago EU regulators clear Belgian tax measures for shipping companies Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU competition authorities approved on Monday Belgian tax measures for the shipping industry after the country pledged to open the scheme to all ships flying a European flag. The European Commission said the measures would ensure higher social, environmental and safety standards in Europe. “The Belgian scheme requires that if a shipping company wants to benefit from the scheme, a significant part of its fleet flies the flag of an EU or EEA State,” the EU executive said in a statement. “In this respect, the Belgian authorities have committed to extend the benefit of tonnage tax to all eligible ships that fly an EEA flag.” The EEA refers to the 28 EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-belgium-shipping/eu-regulators-clear-belgian-tax-measures-for-shipping-companies-idUKKBN1D6172'|'2017-11-06T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'91c52e667cb023f775e405f9aaa76de20e6329d7'|'Carillion boosted by two contracts with UK''s Network Rail'|'November 6, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Carillion boosted by two contracts with UK''s Network Rail Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Carillion ( CLLN.L ) has won two contracts with state-owned Network Rail which should generate revenue of almost 200 million pounds for the troubled British construction and support services company over the next three years. FILE PHOTO: A Carillion sign is seen in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Carillion wants to focus on rail and property services as it seeks to stabilise its business and rebuild its balance sheet. Securing a slice of major public works contracts is an important part of this process. Carillion has signed a contract with Network Rail to upgrade the existing track and infrastructure on the route from London to Corby, north of the capital, it said on Monday. The contract is expected to produce revenue for the company of 62 million pounds over the next two and a half years. Carillion Powerlines, its 50/50 joint venture with Powerlines Group, has signed a contract with Network Rail in respect of the midland mainline electrification programme. Under the contract, Carillion Powerlines will undertake work to complete the electrification of the route from London to Corby. The contract is expected to generate revenue for the JV of about 260 million pounds over the next three years. The British builder, which has issued two profit warnings this year, has been focusing on its disposals and cost savings programmes to cut debt. Its shares, down around 80 percent this year, traded 1 percent higher by 1050 GMT, after earlier rising by almost 5 percent. A consortium including Carillion has also won a 1.4 billion pound contract to help build Britain’s High Speed 2 railway, while another of its joint ventures secured a deal to supply catering and other services to British military sites. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carillion-orders/carillion-boosted-by-two-contracts-with-uks-network-rail-idUKKBN1D619O'|'2017-11-06T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'3559a48acd67bba6593f7b6b149743909fb6a5d9'|'EU to discuss blacklist of tax havens after Paradise Papers leaks'|'November 6, 2017 / 11:15 AM / in 20 minutes EU to discuss blacklist of tax havens after Paradise Papers leaks Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers will on Tuesday discuss setting up a blacklist of worldwide tax havens, EU officials said, after leaked documents from an offshore law firm exposed new high-profile cases of tax avoidance. An European Union (EU) flag is seen blowing in the wind in front of the city''s regional state administration headquarters in central Kiev, Ukraine, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko The decision to include the subject in the monthly meeting’s agenda came after the publication over the weekend in several media of the so-called Paradise Papers, a trove of leaked financial documents mostly from law firm Appleby that exposed dealings with tax havens by top public figures. EU countries had planned for months to reach an agreement on a blacklist for tax havens by the end of this year and the new revelations prompted an earlier discussion on the subject, EU officials said. No final decision is however expected on Tuesday. In the wake of earlier revelations on widespread tax dodging, like the so-called Panama Papers or Luxembourg Leaks, the EU discussed several measures to crack down on tax avoidance, including an EU-wide list of tax havens meant to discourage the rerouting of profits made in the EU to tax-free or low-tax countries, like Panama or Bermuda. At the moment, each EU country has its own list of jurisdictions that are seen as less cooperative on tax matters. Criteria to define a tax haven vary greatly among EU states and some of them include no jurisdictions in their national blacklists. An EU blacklist is believed to carry more weight. Jurisdictions included in the list could be subject to sanctions if they did not cooperate. There are no details yet of the type of sanctions to be discussed, although being on the blacklist in itself could discourage individuals and companies from putting money in those jurisdictions. Some EU countries remain sceptical about the blacklist and are themselves under scrutiny for unfair tax competition. Smaller EU states, like Luxembourg, Malta and Ireland, attract firms with lower corporate taxes. Some have been sanctioned for deals with multinationals that slashed their tax bills reducing revenues in other EU states. To win over their resistance, the proposed EU blacklist would apply only to non-EU countries. Also, states which charge no corporate taxes will not be automatically considered tax havens, under a preliminary deal reached by EU finance ministers last year. On tax matters the EU can take decisions only with the unanimous backing of its 28 member states, unless extraordinary procedures are launched - an option never tested so far. To reduce the appeal of tax havens, Brussels has also proposed the setting up of public registries that would show the real owners of companies, which are often hidden by frontmen in shell firms in offshore jurisdictions. It has also proposed compulsory reporting by large multinational firms of profits made and taxes paid in each state where they operate, in a bid to show how much of their revenues are booked in low-tax countries. EU states have been long discussing both proposals, but no deal has been reached yet. “EU governments such as Germany have been standing against the rising tide of financial transparency,” said Carl Dolan, director of Transparency International EU. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-ecofin-taxavoidance/eu-to-discuss-blacklist-of-tax-havens-after-paradise-papers-leaks-idUKKBN1D6192'|'2017-11-06T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'34d4eec95051f3832c7d25af6d6889c68a396b18'|'Large number of EU finance ministers want euro zone budget - Dijsselbloem'|'November 6, 2017 / 8:42 PM / in 15 minutes Large number of EU finance ministers want euro zone budget: Dijsselbloem Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A large number of European Union finance ministers believe that some form of a euro zone budget, called a fiscal capacity, would be a good to stabilize the single currency area, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday. Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem attends an European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir All European Union finance ministers except Britain held talks on Monday afternoon on how to integrate euro zone economies more deeply over the coming years. A euro zone fiscal capacity was among the topics, along with reducing and sharing risks in the banking sector to create a European deposit insurance scheme for all savers. “Quite a large number of ministers feel that to complement our toolkit with a fiscal capacity for as a stabilization tool would be useful,” Dijsselbloem told a news conference after the ministers’ deliberations. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-eurogroup-budget/large-number-of-eu-finance-ministers-want-euro-zone-budget-dijsselbloem-idUKKBN1D62NS'|'2017-11-06T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'5b71d051ec227a80d705f378aba0953ee8b878bb'|'Former Lloyds boss says takeover of HBOS was no act of charity'|' 04 PM / in 33 minutes Former Lloyds boss says takeover of HBOS was no act of charity Emma Rumney 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The former head of Lloyds Banking Group ( LLOY.L ) told a court on Monday the decision to buy troubled rival HBOS at the height of the financial crisis nine years ago was purely commercial and not an act of charity. FILE PHOTO - Eric Daniels, CEO of Lloyds TSB, speaks to journalists after a news conference, in the City of London on September 18, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor Eric Daniels, the most senior executive to take the stand in a trial where 6,000 shareholders are claiming around 550 million pounds in damages over the takeover, told London’s High Court that although he was aware that HBOS could be nationalised if the Lloyds deal did not go ahead, the bank only acted in the interests of shareholders. “I did not look at it as a rescue,” Daniels said, while being cross-examined by a lawyer for the claimants. Lloyds’ takeover of HBOS in September 2008 came at a moment of high crisis for its rival, whose share price had plunged following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and concerns about its exposure to bad loans. The deal valued HBOS at around 5.9 billion pounds. But as the economic recession deepened in the wake of the credit crisis, Lloyds itself had to be rescued with a 20.5 billion-pound government bailout in 2009. Daniels, who led Lloyds from 2003 to 2011 and throughout the takeover, is one of five former directors who, along with the bank itself, shareholders allege concealed crucial information about HBOS’s financial circumstances and breached their duties by recommending the reverse takeover in 2008. “This was something we would do only for the benefit of our shareholders, we were not a charitable institution ... we’ve got a foundation for that,” Daniels said. Britain’s largest retail bank and the individual defendants, who also include ex-chairman Victor Blank, former finance director Tim Tookey and Helen Weir and Truett Tate, the former heads of retail and wholesale banking respectively, deny any wrongdoing. Lloyds is defending itself and its former executives against the claim. The shareholders also allege that Lloyds should have told its investors about a 10 billion-pound loan it had extended to HBOS and emergency support its rival was receiving from the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve - information their lawyer has said showed HBOS was a “bust, failed bank”. NATIONALISATION Daniels said that around Sept. 17, 2008 the governor of the Bank of England at the time, Mervyn King, told him HBOS could face nationalisation if the takeover did not go ahead, confirming wide speculation in the market of this possibility. But it was the funding issues HBOS was facing that provided a possible route towards a takeover, he told the court. The government had already suggested competition hurdles could be circumvented if the deal was done quickly. The lawyer for the shareholders, Richard Hill, has alleged that Lloyds agreed to pay a significant premium to HBOS’s market value and trading share price when its struggling rival was in fact “worthless”. Daniels said while the aim was to pay as little as possible the bank had to balance this with the need to convince HBOS’s board and shareholders that they should approve the takeover. “I would have enjoyed greatly paying less,” he said. The trial, which got under way in October, continues. Additional reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trial-lloyds-shareholders/former-lloyds-boss-says-takeover-of-hbos-was-no-act-of-charity-idUKKBN1D623R'|'2017-11-06T18:03:00.000+02:00'
'e5f03ff524928ddfa8f3e681ed41edc8f13d2cf4'|'Wells Fargo launches robo-adviser to target new investors'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:07 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Wells Fargo targets post-boomer customers with robo-adviser Dan Freed 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wells Fargo Inc on Monday launched a new robo-adviser to give first-time investors a low-cost option to invest, joining other financial firms in the hunt for tech-savvy customers looking to enter the markets. A Wells Fargo logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren At a presentation unveiling the tool Monday in New York, Wells Fargo executives said the target market is Wells Fargo customers who already have another type of online account with the bank but do not yet have an investment account. Wells Fargo first said it was preparing to launch the robo-adviser, called Intuitive Investor, in February. Of the bank’s 72 million retail customers, 22 million are millennials or members of generation X, typically defined as born between 1965 and 1995, according to Jon Weiss, a longtime Wells Fargo executive who took over as head of that business some five months ago. A very small percentage of them, however, currently invest with the bank’s Wealth and Investment Management unit, he said. A push by Wells Fargo to get existing customers to buy more of the bank’s products, known as “cross-selling,” was at the heart of a fake accounts scandal that has dogged the bank for more than a year. “Cross selling is a word we’re not using a lot these days,” said Weiss, “but what’s not a dirty word is trying to solve your clients’ needs.” The robo-adviser, developed with technology firm SigFig, works with Wells Fargo’s online banking services and also gives users access to the Wall Street bank’s market research and financial advisers. The Intuitive Investor allows users to start with a minimum $10,000 investment, at half a percent annual advisory fee. Existing customers will be offered a discount. Wells Fargo is the latest Wall Street brokerage to join the robo-adviser party. Bank of America Corp launched its Merrill Edge Guided Investing earlier this year and independent firm Raymond James Financial Inc debuted its Connected Advisor in January. Wells’ scandal began after regulators found that employees opened as many as 2.1 million deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ permission. Wells Fargo later revised that number to as high as 3.5 million, and has since found problems in other areas, including auto insurance and mortgages. Multiple investigations and lawsuits are still pending. Reporting by Dan Freed in New York and Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; editing by Savio D''Souza and Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wealth-wells-fargo/wells-fargo-launches-robo-adviser-to-target-new-investors-idUSKBN1D628A'|'2017-11-06T19:07:00.000+02:00'
'5746d6d5bec8cd29ee62bae2a9af59a8c231f1c9'|'UK business needs clarity on Brexit transition by year-end - BT boss'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:16 PM / in 19 minutes UK business needs clarity on Brexit transition by year-end - BT boss Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest telecoms company BT ( BT.L ) said on Monday that unless businesses were clear by the beginning of 2018 about the terms of a transitional period after Britain leaves the European Union they would need to plan for a damaging “hard Brexit”. Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT, speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry''s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner BT’s Chief Executive Gavin Patterson said the most important thing was to “get some certainty” on a transition period. He told an audience of business leaders at the CBI’s annual conference that clarity was needed by the beginning of the next calendar year. Prime Minister Theresa May earlier told the conference she wanted Britain and the EU to agree the outlines of any transitional Brexit deal soon, but declined to say whether she was confident the details of a full trade deal will be agreed by October next year. Reporting by Paul Sandle, editing by James Davey '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-transition-bt/uk-business-needs-clarity-on-brexit-transition-by-year-end-bt-boss-idUKKBN1D61FZ'|'2017-11-06T14:15:00.000+02:00'
'a7b3a49abdfde951278a0e15dde543e6450053df'|'Prudential talks to buyers for 10 billion pound British annuities book - Sky'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:04 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Prudential talks to buyers for 10 billion pound British annuities book - Sky Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Prudential plans to break up its 10 billion pound British pensions annuities book into four parts, in a move that could see the insurer leave its domestic market, Sky News said. FILE PHOTO: Shadows are cast onto the logo of British life insurer Prudential on their building, in London October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/File Photo The company has contacted potential buyers in the last few weeks, Sky News said on Monday. bit.ly/2h6AcRL The portfolio would be divided into four parts of between 2-3 billion pounds each, Sky said citing a person briefed on the insurer’s plans. Rothesay Life, Legal & General and Pension Insurance Corporation were potential buyers according to the media report. A spokesman for Prudential said the insurer does not “comment on market rumour and speculation”. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-prudential-divestiture-annuities/prudential-talks-to-buyers-for-10-billion-pound-british-annuities-book-sky-idUKKBN1D61LP'|'2017-11-06T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'17c4f5af43fc3dedb2a84df18fc5af80582a97d4'|'BP, Shell lead plan for blockchain-based energy trading platform'|' 48 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago BP, Shell lead plan for blockchain-based energy trading platform Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A consortium including energy companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell will develop a blockchain-based digital platform for energy commodities trading expected to start by end-2018, the group said on Monday. The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Other members of the consortium include Norwegian oil firm Statoil, trading houses Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading, and Mercuria, and banks ABN Amro, ING and Societe Generale. Blockchain technology, which first emerged as the architecture underpinning cryptocurrency bitcoin, uses a shared database that updates itself in real-time and can process and settle transactions in minutes using computer algorithms, with no need for third-party verification. Mercuria has been a vocal advocate of implementing blockchain technology to significantly cut costs in oil trading. “Ideally, it would help to eliminate any confusion over ownership of a cargo and potentially help to make managing risk more exact if there are accurate timestamps to each part of the trade,” said Edward Bell, commodities analyst at Dubai-based lender Emirates NBD PJSC. Similar efforts for an energy trading platform have failed to take off, Bell said, but added this latest bid with backing from BP and Shell and the banks, “may have more success than if it were an independent party trying to convince oil and gas companies to make use of it.” The new venture is seeking regulatory approvals and would be run as an independent entity, the consortium said in a statement. “The platform aims to reduce administrative operational risks and costs of physical energy trading, and improve the reliability and efficiency of back-end trading operations...,” the statement said. Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-energy-blockchain/bp-shell-lead-plan-for-blockchain-based-energy-trading-platform-idUKKBN1D610H'|'2017-11-06T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'9ca716bf8a9a975a1a1f52d26ba1dd488436b6d3'|'UK financial services watchdog to investigate wholesale insurance brokers'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial services industry regulator is to launch later this week a long-promised investigation into competition in the wholesale insurance broking market, where one top executive has complained of “abusive behavior”.The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday it would publish the terms of reference for the review on Wednesday at 0700 GMT.“We want to ensure that the wholesale insurance market is working well and fosters innovation and competition in the interests of a diverse range of consumers,” the FCA said in its business plan back in April, when it said it would examine the market.“Following the publication of this market study, we will consider appropriate remedial actions,” it said.The FCA declined to elaborate on Monday.Wholesale brokers mediate between sellers of insurance to consumers and the insurance underwriters, and often specialize in certain types of insurance.Evan Greenberg, chairman and chief executive of insurer Chubb ( CB.N ), told shareholders in April that the “soft” insurance market was a sign of “abusive behavior” by some brokers who “enrich themselves at the expense of both their customers and underwriters”.“These predatory behaviors, which have shown up around the world, and in London in particular, are simply unsustainable from an underwriting perspective and will come back to haunt these brokers,” Greenberg said.The study is due to be completed by 2019 and the FCA has powers to impose changes on the way the market works or take enforcement action if it discovers unfair practices.The big broking companies JLT ( JLT.L ), Aon AON.L, Marsh ( MMC.N ), and Willis Towers Watson ( WLTW.O ) and United Insurance Brokers (UIB) said earlier this year they were cooperating with an FCA probe into information-sharing over aviation insurance. The European Commission has taken over that investigation.Consultancy EY has said it expects insurance firms to be challenged on the value they provide to customers and level of reward they extract in return, which could place further strain on profitability.“Wholesale brokerage seems highly competitive to us but margins are still relatively healthy so there is likely to be plenty for the FCA to investigate,” financial research company Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a note on Monday.Reporting by Huw Jones and Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-insurance-regulator/uk-financial-services-watchdog-to-investigate-wholesale-insurance-brokers-idUSKBN1D61GV'|'2017-11-06T20:32:00.000+02:00'
'e5832f86193fef269744a7104f8b6714e5fd9e56'|'PSA to cut Opel models, curb discounts - Frankfurter Allgemeine'|'Reuters TV United States November 6, 2017 / 2:16 PM / in a few seconds PSA to cut Opel models, curb discounts: Frankfurter Allgemeine Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) plans to cut the number of models and rein in discounts at its Opel division, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Monday, without citing the source of its information. An Opel logo is pictured on a car in front of the Opel headquarters in Ruesselsheim June 9, 2010. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The French carmaker is in the process of integrating Opel after buying it earlier this year from General Motors ( GM.N ), a task which analysts say will lead to sweeping job cuts. The chief executives of PSA and Opel will on Thursday present a turnaround plan for the German carmaker to return it to profitability over the next three years. Under the plan, PSA CEO Carlos Tavares wants to rein in Opel’s practice of selling its cars at big discounts, for instance via so-called self-registrations, Frankfurter Allgemeine said, without being more specific. Opel’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt will become a center for engineering and electrification at the German carmaker, the newspaper said. PSA has already said it will use its own technology and vehicle platforms for future Opel models to cut costs and bring down emissions. Emerging details of the PSA-Opel recovery program reinforce the impression that PSA CEO Tavares plans to repeat a similar cost-cutting deal implemented years ago at the French group which at the time was wrestling with a prolonged European auto-market slump. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-psa-opel/psa-to-cut-opel-models-curb-discounts-frankfurter-allgemeine-idUKKBN1D61SF'|'2017-11-06T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'8857b5cffa195f9e22979b74c688443e1d7c60e2'|'''It is right time'' to tackle bad loan woes, ECB''s Nouy tells EU ministers'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:58 PM / Updated an hour ago ''It is right time'' to tackle bad loan woes, ECB''s Nouy tells EU ministers Reuters Staff 2   The European Central Bank intends to move ahead with its plan to force banks to set aside more money against future bad loans, the bank’s top supervisor was quoted as telling   on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Daniele Nouy, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, speaks at a Thomson Reuters newsmaker event at Canary Wharf in London November 28, 2014. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The comment, reported by a European Union official, confirms earlier statements by top ECB policy makers defending draft guidelines that give euro zone banks seven years from January to provide for credit backed by collateral and two years for unsecured debt. Daniele Nouy, chair of the Supervisory Board at the ECB, told   in a meeting in Brussels that it was “the right time” to proceed with the more stringent measures, in order to avoid a new build-up of non-performing loans (NPLs) by euro zone lenders, the EU official said. The bloc’s banks accumulated 1 trillion euros (£835 billion) of bad loans during the decade-long financial and economic crisis, and the number has only recently decreased to nearly 800 billion euros. The mass of bad loans has affected banks’ ability to provide credit to firms and households, slowing down the bloc’s economic recovery. Italy, the euro zone country most affected by the problem, has opposed the new ECB move, fearing it could weaken some of the country’s banks. However, the main regulatory risk for lenders saddled with bad loans would come from ECB’s stricter directives to reduce the existing stock of NPLs, as it could force fire sales of assets leaving big holes in banks’ balance sheets. But this risk seems to have been receded as the ECB is unlikely to present tough guidelines on the reduction of the bad loan stock. New measures, expected by March, will be different from the planned guidelines on new bad loans, and are expected to focus only on the banks with acute problems, rather than on the whole sector Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-italy/it-is-right-time-to-tackle-bad-loan-woes-ecbs-nouy-tells-eu-ministers-idUKKBN1D62LM'|'2017-11-06T21:57:00.000+02:00'
'983a99db476a02ea3e7244d1d1281eb5570d5d09'|'Exclusive: France''s Lanvin in financial straits as sales slump - sources'|'November 6, 2017 / 6:09 PM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: France''s Lanvin in financial straits as sales slump - sources Pascale Denis 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Auditors for Lanvin, France’s oldest fashion house, have filed a warning with a commercial court in Paris over financial troubles at the label as it struggles to stem slumping sales, two sources familiar with the company’s performance said. FILE PHOTO - A woman walks past a Lanvin store in Paris, France, January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann The privately-owned label, founded in 1889 and long synonymous with Parisian chic, does not publish its earnings. However, the sources said the company’s provisional forecast for the year shows sales will fall 30 percent in 2017 after a 23 percent drop last year. Under French company law auditors have to inform managers and file court warnings when a firm’s operations risk being compromised by its financial situation. Lanvin and the auditor did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Lanvin has had trouble inspiring buyers since it stunned the fashion industry two years ago by firing star designer Alber Elbaz. The label has changed artistic director twice since then. “The auditor has now alerted the Paris commercial court over the company’s very worrying situation,” one of the sources said. The sources said Lanvin needed an injection of cash to buy some breathing space or it may not be able to pay employees’ salaries in January. However, they added that a recapitalization originally discussed for September may yet happen by the end of the year. The company is majority held by Chinese-born businesswoman Shaw-Lan Wang. It made an 18.3 million euro loss in 2016, sources with knowledge of the situation had previously told Reuters. They forecast that losses were set to deepen to at least 27 million euros in 2017. STRUGGLING FOR ORDERS Lanvin’s financial struggles come as rivals including France’s Louis Vuitton, part of LVMH ( LVMH.PA ), and Italy’s Gucci, owned by Kering ( PRTP.PA ), enjoy a sales bounce driven by resurgent demand from China. New artistic chief Olivier Lapidus - who has designed menswear for Balmain as well as wedding dresses and furniture -- has yet to make his mark. Industry analysts acknowledge brand reiventions can take several seasons before translating into an earnings boost. Lanvin unveiled its latest collection in September. Orders at the showroom, where designs are presented to department store buyers, were down about 50 percent on the previous year, a third source familiar with the matter said. Lapidus’s collection - a sober array of skimpy mini-dresses, many in black or imprinted with an assortment of letters evoking the Lanvin brand - was put together in 42 days after his appointment in July. “The buyers are struggling to figure out Lanvin and were thrown by the sudden appearance of the logo on the clothes,” the third source added. More ostentatious branding has worked well for other labels in recent years, including Christian Dior, although it was traditionally not an approach taken by Lanvin. Lapidus’s predecessor, Bouchra Jarrar, had brought in a more tailored style - a shift from Elbaz’s more exuberant, frilly designs - that also failed to reignite sales. Lanvin has been closing unprofitable stores and cutting advertising spending to control costs. Named after founding French “couturiere” Jeanne Lanvin, the label employed some 300 staff at the end of 2016. Wang, a media magnate based in Taiwan, owns 75 percent of Lanvin, with the remainder held by Swiss businessman Ralph Bartel, who stepped down from the firm’s board in July. Bartel has previously offered to inject extra capital into the label in exchange for majority control. Lanvin has shaken up its management in recent months with a series of board changes, including the appointment of Nicolas Druz, who was a close advisor to Wang and has just been appointed deputy managing director. Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Richard Lough, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lanvin-finances/exclusive-frances-lanvin-in-financial-straits-as-sales-slump-sources-idUSKBN1D62DY'|'2017-11-06T20:09:00.000+02:00'
'6f5a03f8516e5296fc1d648c9ed712055f56445d'|'Nissan to resume domestic production of cars for Japan on Tuesday'|'Reuters TV United States  31 PM / in 16 minutes Nissan to resume domestic production of cars for Japan on Tuesday Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan ( 7201.T ) plans to resume production of vehicles for its home market at five of its domestic plants from Tuesday after Japan’s transport ministry approved changes to the improper final-inspection procedures that forced a major vehicle recall. The logo of Nissan Motor Co is pictured at a showroom at the carmaker''s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Japanese carmaker had suspended domestic production of all passenger cars it makes for its home market on Oct. 19 after discovering that uncertified technicians had been signing off on final inspections for decades. That prompted the recall of 1.2 million vehicles for re-inspection, including all passenger cars it produced for sale in Japan over the past three years. Nissan said on Monday that its plants in Fukuoka, Kanagawa and Tochigi would restart production for the domestic market, along with plants operated by affiliate Nissan Shatai ( 7222.T ) in Fukuoka and Kanagawa. A plant operated by affiliate Kyoto Auto Works is awaiting ministry approval, Nissan said. Nissan said it had corrected inconsistencies between plant operating manuals and plant activities in documents provided to the ministry, and that it was taking measures to improve training and testing processes for inspectors. Japan’s transport ministry requires certified inspectors to sign off on vehicle checks for cars sold in Japan, a step that is not required for vehicles exported overseas. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-recall/nissan-to-resume-domestic-production-of-cars-for-japan-on-tuesday-idUKKBN1D61NE'|'2017-11-06T15:26:00.000+02:00'
'f14966f7192f500ade434e11089b8955949cf608'|'Sprint shares plunge after T-Mobile merger talks called off'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp’s ( S.N ) shares fell more than 13 percent on Monday after the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier called off merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) and a wireless partnership with cable company Altice USA ( ATUS.N ) failed to appease investors.The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo “It will not deliver the tens of billions in synergies we had foreseen in a merger with T-Mobile,” Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said of the Altice agreement on a call with analysts and reporters. “Nonetheless, it does deliver real value for Sprint.”Sprint’s shares fell 13.5 percent to $5.77 in early trading on Monday and were down 12.8 percent at 10:58 am ET (1538 GMT).Altice said it would sell mobile service on Sprint’s network under a new multi-year agreement announced on Sunday, becoming the latest cable company to enter the wireless market.A day earlier Sprint and T-Mobile ended merger talks, raising questions over how Sprint, in the middle of a turnaround plan to cut costs and shore up cash, can increase investment in its network.The Altice partnership was not contingent on merger talks with T-Mobile failing, Robbiati said.He also said comments by Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son on raising capital expenditures to $5 billion to $6 billion annually, up from $3.5 billion to $4 billion, was for the medium term and not for 2017.Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street Research, said $5 billion to $6 billion annually was the minimum level at which Sprint could build a credible network, but the company faced challenges in catching up with wireless carriers that are moving ahead with developing next generation networks, or 5G.“Sprint is trying to catch up to a moving target,” he said. “I think the market is going to be reasonably skeptical.”Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-altice-usa/altice-agreement-not-contingent-on-t-mobile-talks-failing-sprint-cfo-idINKBN1D620V'|'2017-11-06T12:27:00.000+02:00'
'4ee8e5babbe935e256bd139571f4f490f1a04a1c'|'Barclays fails to end U.S. ''dark pool'' class action'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:04 PM / in an hour Barclays fails to end U.S. ''dark pool'' class action Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barclays Plc has failed to persuade a U.S. appeals court to unwind a class action lawsuit accusing the British bank of defrauding shareholders about its private “dark pool” trading platforms. FILE PHOTO - The Barclays logo is seen outside a branch of the bank in central London October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville Monday’s decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York lets investors in Barclays’ American depository shares sue as a group despite a legal error by the judge who certified the class action. The appeals court called that error “harmless.” Class actions can allow plaintiffs to recover more money than if forced to sue individually. Jeremy Lieberman, a lawyer for the Barclays plaintiffs, said the 3-0 decision reflects the “common sense” idea that investors in widely traded securities be allowed to sue collectively. Barclays spokeswoman Kerrie Cohen declined to comment. The defendants also include former Chief Executives Robert Diamond and Antony Jenkins, and William White, former head of equities electronic trading at Barclays Capital. Dark pools were designed to let people quietly trade shares before investors in the broader market could bet against them. The Barclays investors accused the bank of misleading them about its business and culture by touting its Liquidity Cross, or LX, dark pool as a safe venue, when it actually gave high-frequency traders an unfair advantage. They said the truth came out when New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the bank on June 25, 2014, causing its share price to fall 7.4 percent the next day. In January 2016, Barclays admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay $70 million to settle dark pool claims by Schneiderman and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Writing for the appeals court, Circuit Judge Christopher Droney said a class action was proper because the Barclays investors “directly linked” their damages to the stock price decline resulting from Schneiderman’s lawsuit. “Investors were concerned with lack of management honesty and control” because such problems “could result in considerable costs,” he wrote. “Thus, the regulatory action and any ensuing fines were a part of the alleged harm the plaintiffs suffered.” Droney agreed with Barclays that U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who granted class-action status in February 2016, misapplied a U.S. Supreme Court precedent addressing investors’ reliance on information a defendant failed to disclose. But he said the error was harmless because Scheindlin could presume reliance on Barclays’ alleged misstatements under a different Supreme Court precedent. Scheindlin left the bench last year for private practice. The case is Waggoner et al v Barclays Plc et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-1912. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Dena Aubin in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-barclays-darkpool-lawsuit/barclays-fails-to-end-u-s-dark-pool-class-action-idUSKBN1D62I5'|'2017-11-06T21:02:00.000+02:00'
'a19b503448126203f66b558b485b1a1004bf1e90'|'UPDATE 2-Subaru dials back profit targets as U.S. car sales sputter'|'* Q2 operating profit 92.8 bln yen, vs 113.8 bln yen consensus* Subaru Q2 U.S. sales drop 7.3 pct y/y, 1st such drop since 2011* Subaru cuts full-year U.S. vehicle sales forecast* Sees 10 bln yen costs related to improper final inspection (Adds U.S. sales milestone, CEO comment, other details)By Naomi TajitsuTOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Subaru Corp’s U.S. sales have started losing steam, after having previously outpaced its bigger Japanese rivals, forcing the automaker to turn in a disappointing quarter and lower its profit outlook for the full year.Subaru had been outperforming in the key U.S. market partly due to an unusual strategy of marketing its cars as lifestyle products, rather than high-performing machines. But in the quarter ended September, its U.S. sales dropped from year-ago levels for the first time in six years, indicating competition and discounting were beginning to take a toll.Lowering the automaker’s annual U.S. sales estimate, CEO Yoshiyasu Yoshinaga told reporters at a briefing on Monday that the company was loathe to hand out more incentives as a means to attract buyers and maintain its initial sales forecast.“Increasing incentives just to boost sales would go counter to our business model,” he said on Monday. “We want to continue be able to meet our goals in a healthy manner.”Industry experts estimate incentives on Subaru’s Legacy sedan and the top-selling Outback SUV crossover had climbed around 20 percent in the past year in the United States, ramping up the company’s costs in what is its biggest market.For the second quarter, Subaru sold around 159,000 vehicles in the United States, down 7.3 percent from a year ago, its first such decline since July-September 2011. In Japan, Subaru’s No.2 market, sales rose around 13.5 percent over the period.Subaru said it expects U.S. vehicle sales, which account for nearly two-thirds of its global sales, to come in at around 668,000 in the year to March, around 3 percent lower than a prior forecast but a touch higher than a year ago.It pegged operating profit for the year at 380 billion yen ($3.33 billion), versus a prior forecast of 410 billion yen and lower than 410.8 billion yen a year ago.The company also lowered its annual net profit projection to 207.0 billion yen, from 228.5 billion yen.The automaker said it was preparing for a negative impact of 10 billion yen for the year due to costs related to its improper final inspection procedures, which it expects will result in vehicle recalls in the domestic market.Last month, Subaru said it had failed to follow proper procedures when doing final checks for vehicles made in Japan for the domestic market for around 30 years, following a similar discovery at rival Nissan Motor Co.For the second quarter, Subaru reported a 13.2 percent drop in operating profit to 92.8 billion yen. This was lower than a mean forecast for 113.8 billion yen from nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. ($1 = 114.2200 yen) (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Himani Sarkar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/subaru-results/update-1-subaru-q2-profit-disappoints-cuts-annual-forecast-as-us-sales-slow-idINL3N1NC247'|'2017-11-06T02:31:00.000+02:00'
'31c372853c55783c504180a4ae762fd83a306e2c'|'U.S. FDA approves Roche drug for rare type of blood cancer'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:29 PM / in 2 hours FDA approves Roche drug for rare type of blood cancer Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG won U.S. approval to market its skin cancer drug Zelboraf for certain patients with Erdheim-Chester Disease, a rare type of blood cancer. FILE PHOTO: Swiss drugmaker Roche''s logo is seen at their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The Food and Drug Administration approved Zelboraf to treat patients with Erdheim-Chester Disease whose cancer cells have a genetic mutation known as BRAF V600. It is the first FDA-approved treatment for the disease. Zelboraf is already approved to treat melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, in patients whose cancer cells also contain a BRAF V600 mutation. Only 600 to 700 patients world-wide suffer from Erdheim-Chester Disease, and about 54 percent of those have the BRAF V600 mutation, the FDA said. Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-roche-cancer-fda/fda-approves-roche-drug-for-rare-type-of-blood-cancer-idUSKBN1D62A4'|'2017-11-06T18:45:00.000+02:00'
'e57ffc71b5b6229930b1297fd10d01906fb14df4'|'Sprint shares plunge after T-Mobile merger talks called off'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:22 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Sprint shares plunge after T-Mobile merger talks called off Anjali Athavaley 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp’s shares fell more than 13 percent on Monday after the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier called off merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc and a wireless partnership with cable company Altice USA failed to appease investors. The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo “It will not deliver the tens of billions in synergies we had foreseen in a merger with T-Mobile,” Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said of the Altice agreement on a call with analysts and reporters. “Nonetheless, it does deliver real value for Sprint.” Sprint’s shares were down 12 percent at $5.84 after earlier falling as much as 13.5 percent, Altice said it would sell mobile service on Sprint’s network under a new multi-year agreement announced on Sunday, becoming the latest cable company to enter the wireless market. A day earlier, Sprint and T-Mobile ended merger talks, raising questions over how Sprint, in the middle of a turnaround plan to cut costs and shore up cash, could increase investment in its network. The Altice partnership was not contingent on merger talks with T-Mobile failing, Robbiati said. He also said comments by Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son on raising capital expenditure to $5 billion to $6 billion annually, from $3.5 billion to $4 billion, was for the medium term and not for 2017. Asked how Sprint would pay for the increase in spending, Robbiati said the company could fund it through cash, debt and borrowing against its spectrum, or wireless airwaves. Last year, Sprint said it would raise an initial $3.5 billion by mortgaging about 14 percent of its spectrum. Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street Research, said $5 billion to $6 billion annually was the minimum level at which Sprint could build a credible network, but the company faced challenges in catching up with wireless carriers that are moving ahead with developing next generation networks, or 5G. “Sprint is trying to catch up to a moving target,” he said. “I think the market is going to be reasonably skeptical.” Editing by Susan Thomas and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-altice-usa/sprint-shares-plunge-after-t-mobile-merger-talks-called-off-idINKBN1D629N'|'2017-11-06T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'5a7d118b70d36affb639df4ca7cd0bbeb0b3f28a'|'Brazil''s BB Seguridade sees private pension products leading growth'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Brazil’s BB Seguridade Participações SA, the insurance arm of state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA, expects a pickup in the country’s economic activity to compensate for falling interest rates and keep up profitability, Chief Financial Officer Werner Suffert told Reuters on Monday.The company expects the sale of private pension investment products to lead revenue growth over the next quarters, in addition to some growth in agribusiness-related insurance sales. (Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bb-seguridade-results/brazils-bb-seguridade-sees-private-pension-products-leading-growth-idINE6N1ML017'|'2017-11-06T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'4c0e9156128007a7d4c3a8500510166912b0d89d'|'Rivals AMD, Intel partner to take on Nvidia'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:34 PM / in 8 minutes Rivals AMD, Intel partner to take on Nvidia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Bitter rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc ( AMD.O ) and Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) on Monday unveiled a partnership that will help the chipmakers take on Nvidia Corp ( NVDA.O ). FILE PHOTO - Intel processors are displayed at a store in Seoul June 21, 2012. REUTERS/Choi Dae-woong/File Photo Under the partnership, AMD’s semi-custom graphics chip will be integrated into Intel’s new multi-chip processor package for personal computing. AMD’s shares were up 6.5 percent at $11.84 (£9) in early trading. Intel was up 1 percent, while Nvidia was down 0.5 percent. Designed by Intel, the new product will integrate an Intel core processor together with a semi-custom radeon graphic chip and second-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM2) into one package, AMD said in a statement. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-intel-amd/rivals-amd-intel-partner-to-take-on-nvidia-idUKKBN1D6217'|'2017-11-06T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'7b79031f5068863e91d312cca33a7e779b77aad1'|'Continental, Osram to launch car lighting joint venture'|'BERLIN/MUNICH (Reuters) - German auto parts supplier Continental ( CONG.DE ) and lighting company Osram ( OSRn.DE ) said they plan to set up a joint venture next year to develop lighting products for the automotive industry.The 50:50 venture, to be called Osram Continental GmbH, will target sales in 2018 in the 500 million euro ($581 million) range, the two companies said in separate statements on Monday.People familiar with the talks between Continental and Osram had told Reuters earlier on Monday that the new business was expected to generate annual sales of between 400 million euros and 600 million euros ($464 mln-$695 mln) initially.Continental, the world’s second-biggest supplier to carmakers by sales, is bolstering its expertise in electronics as customers such as Volkswagen ( DAIGn.DE ) and Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) increase spending on electric and self-driving technologies.The new venture would operate as an independent company and be fully consolidated in Osram’s balance sheet. Neither Continental nor Osram disclosed how much they will each invest in the new company.They have yet to sign binding contracts on the venture or seek approval from antitrust authorities, Osram said.The venture will employ 1,500 staff in 17 locations worldwide to combine semiconductor-based lighting modules, advanced electronics, optics and software expertise with access to sensor technology and innovative light sources, Continental said.“Osram Continental would therefore be able to offer a broad range of end-to-end, innovative lighting solutions, designed especially for headlight and tail light applications,” Continental said.($1 = 0.8613 euros)Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Irene Preisinger.; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-continental-osram/continental-osram-to-launch-car-lighting-joint-venture-idINKBN1D62J0'|'2017-11-06T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'7e4372d0959c2d86fe07a989e6fd215b637c00bb'|'RPT-COLUMN-Record low junk bond yields a warning sign for stocks: McGeever'|'(Repeats Friday’s story without changes)By Jamie McGeeverLONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Calling the top in world markets and getting the timing of it right seems like a lottery, but predicting the catalyst for the turnaround may be less random.High-yield, or so-called “junk”, bonds are on a tear that puts even record-busting stock markets in the shade. Last week, the yield on the Merrill Lynch global high-yield bond index fell below 5 percent for the first time ever. The European index yields barely 2 percent.To put that into context, European junk bonds yield less than 10-year U.S. Treasuries trading around 2.35 percent.If there’s evidence of irrational exuberance anywhere in financial markets, this may be it. And if that’s the case, this will be where the first tremors of a broader market earthquake will likely be felt.There’s a case to be made that high-yield bonds of firms with sub-investment grade credit ratings are in a sweet spot right now. Economic and company earnings growth are running at the fastest pace in years, yet subdued inflation means the global shift towards tighter monetary policy can be glacial.Put together, it’s a backdrop against which both stocks and fixed income can do well. Corporate bonds, which offer a higher rate of return than sovereign debt, can do well also.Within that universe, high-yield paper is doing even better. Ratings agency Moody’s said this week that defaults among U.S. non-financial junk-rated companies fell to a three-year low in the third quarter.So no surprise, perhaps, that the yield on Merrill Lynch’s global high yield index dipped below 5 percent last week and European junk yields threatened to go below 2 percent.But it’s precisely this supercharged run that should be ringing the alarm bells for investors. A selloff in high yield could hit stock markets hard.With stocks around the world higher than they’ve ever been, it’s easy to forget that there was a 20 percent drawdown from mid-2015 to early 2016, a correction that dovetailed with a collapse of the junk bond market.Historically, the correlation between junk bonds and stocks is nearly always positive, but had shown signs of breaking down through 2014 and early 2015, just before junk bonds and stocks began to slide.A plunge in oil prices decimated the U.S. high-yield market, which is dominated by energy companies. The yield on Merrill’s global high-yield index jumped to nearly 10 percent in February 2016 from under 6 percent the previous May.Investors pulled $46 billion out of high-yield bond funds in those 10 months, according to data provider EPFR, during which time MSCI’s world stock index fell 21 percent.To put that outflow into context, the net inflow into global junk bond funds since January 2010 stands at $64 billion, EPFR figures show.The correlation between junk bonds and equities is breaking down again. Last month, it fell to 0.18, its lowest in three years. A move back up towards historical norms and average levels would imply the two asset classes rising or falling together at a much closer speed.Given the lofty heights both markets find themselves at now, investors will be asking whether a correction of, say, 10-20 percent is more likely than a further 10-20 percent increase.Junk-rated companies are certainly taking advantage of the current sweet spot to borrow at these unprecedented low rates. They’ve issued $366 billion of debt so far this year, according to Thomson Reuters data, up 35 percent on last year’s total.But with interest rates rising in the United States and Britain - albeit at the most glacial pace imaginable - that may also be about to level off.Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets-highyield/rpt-column-record-low-junk-bond-yields-a-warning-sign-for-stocks-mcgeever-idUSL5N1NC1MK'|'2017-11-06T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'249e38b034c851c738a2974d9a061b50b3a7fc54'|'LSE says followed proper procedure for CEO succession'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:29 AM / in an hour London Stock Exchange denies CEO being forced out Simon Jessop , Noor Zainab Hussain 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group ( LSE.L ) rejected claims by leading shareholder and activist hedge fund TCI that it was forcing out Chief Executive Xavier Rolet, saying on Monday it had followed a “proper governance process”. FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The exchange was responding to a letter TCI wrote to Chairman Donald Brydon calling on him to stop the search for a new chief executive immediately and resign, with the fund saying it had lost confidence in him. TCI Fund Management, run by Chris Hohn and the LSE’s fourth-biggest investor with a more than 5 percent stake, said Rolet’s departure would damage shareholder value and it instead wanted his contract extended to 2021. LSE announced on Oct. 19 that Rolet would step down at the end of next year, just under a decade after he took charge and transformed the company with a string of deals. LSE said on Monday that regulator the Financial Conduct Authority had been kept informed throughout the process of its plans to hire a new CEO, that Rolet was helping pick his successor and was focused on his role as CEO. TCI did not immediately respond to an emailed request for additional comment. Rolet, who joined the group from Lehman Brothers, said last year that he would leave if a merger with rival Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) went through. But the collapse of that deal in March meant the 57-year-old Frenchman opted to stay on for longer. TESTING TIMES Rolet’s departure comes at a critical time for the LSE as the exchange bids to win a slice of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering, expected to be the biggest listing in history. Rolet is also liaising with governments and regulators over the impact of Britain’s impending exit from the EU. Chief among those challenges is that posed by rivals such as Deutsche Boerse, which is seeking to profit from any step by the European Union to move some clearing business away from London. LSE-owned LCH currently dominates the clearing of euro-denominated financial instruments in Europe, but the future location of such trading is uncertain following Brexit. TCI said on Friday it had met Brydon and a senior independent director last week and did not get a satisfactory answer for Rolet’s departure. It said it would call for an Extraordinary General Meeting if Rolet was not retained as CEO. Andrew King, head of European equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management said he had been “disappointed but not entirely surprised” by Rolet’s retirement announcement, but “hadn’t got the impression he had been forced out by the board.” Rolet has led a period of strong growth for the company, broadening the exchange’s focus beyond share trading into derivatives and data through a number of acquisitions, including LCH and global indexes firm Russell. Under his leadership, the LSE’s market value has risen from less than 1 billion pounds to almost 14 billion pounds. The move by TCI is not the first time it has turned up the pressure on an exchange’s board. Last year, it backed plans for a merger of Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange, 11 years after winning a high-profile campaign to prevent a deal. In 2005, TCI was a shareholder in Deutsche Boerse and was convinced the German exchange’s stock would suffer if it bought its British rival. Its campaign was so intense that Deutsche Boerse’s CEO at the time, Werner Seifert, was forced out. Noor Zainab Hussain reported from BENGALURU; Editing by Louise Heavens and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-ceo-tci/lse-says-followed-proper-procedure-for-ceo-succession-idUKKBN1D60N3'|'2017-11-06T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'fa91d1ac93ecb4f11ca64b26ad4ba042010b3535'|'Sprint and T-Mobile end merger negotiations'|'November 4, 2017 / 6:04 PM / Updated an hour ago Sprint and T-Mobile call off merger after months of talks Liana B. Baker , Anjali Athavaley 6 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp ( S.N ) and T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) said on Saturday they have called off merger talks to create a stronger U.S. wireless to rival to market leaders, leaving No. 4 provider Sprint to engineer a turnaround on its own. FILE PHOTO: A Sprint store logo is pictured on a building in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. on March 19, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo The announcement marks the latest failed attempt to combine the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers, as Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ), and T-Mobile parent, Deutsche Telekom AG ( DTEGn.DE ), show unwillingness to part with their prized U.S. telecom assets. The companies’ unusual step of making a joint announcement on the cancelled negotiations could indicate they still recognise the merits of a merger and could keep the door open for potential future talks. The companies said they ended talks because they “were unable to find mutually agreeable terms.” A combined company would have had more than 130 million U.S. subscribers, behind Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) and AT&T Inc ( T.N ). John Legere, president and chief executive of T-Mobile, said in the statement that the prospect of combining with Sprint was compelling but “we have been clear all along that a deal with anyone will have to result in superior long-term value for T-Mobile’s shareholders compared to our outstanding stand-alone performance and track record.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said that even though the companies could not reach a deal, “we certainly recognise the benefits of scale through a potential combination.” Claure said Sprint has agreed it is best to move forward on its own with “significant assets, including our rich spectrum holdings, and are accelerating significant investments in our network to ensure our continued growth.” Failure to clinch an agreement leaves SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, a dealmaker who raised close to $100 billion for his Vision Fund to invest in technology companies, with the need to find another option for Sprint. Sprint is in the middle of a turnaround plan and has sought to strengthen its balance sheet by cutting costs. But industry analysts have expressed concern that the company, weighed down with total debt of $38 billion, has few financial options. Even though its customer base has expanded under CEO Claure, growth has been driven by heavy discounting. Claure said in August that while Sprint could sustain itself, cost savings from a transaction were significantly better than remaining a standalone entity. Analysts said an end to talks to T-Mobile would leave debt-laden Sprint without the scale needed to invest in its network and to compete in a saturated market. FILE PHOTO: A T-Mobile sign on top of a T-Mobile retail store in Manhattan, New York, U.S. on September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/File Photo Sprint has sought to strengthen its balance sheet by cutting costs. To shore up cash over the past two years, the company has already mortgaged a portion of its airwaves and equipment through sale leaseback deals. Mark Stodden, telecom analyst at Moody‘s, said “To really take the kind of next step from a business that has been stabilized to a business that has been growing is going to require a new more intense investment phase.” T-Mobile is a better position than Sprint as a standalone company, analysts have said. German majority owner Deutsche Telekom, which owns roughly 65 percent of the U.S. carrier, was the first major carrier to eliminate two-year contracts, a shift quickly embraced by consumers and copied by competitors. The company has also badgered rivals with its unlimited data plans. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said in a statement on Saturday that T-Mobile has a “strong basis for growth in the upcoming years.” Smartphones with the logos of T-Mobile and Sprint are seen in front of a Soft Bank logo in this illustration taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustrations MONTHS OF TALKS Both companies had expressed interest in a tie-up this year, and industry analysts expected T-Mobile to have more leverage in discussions this time around. SoftBank was prepared to give up control to do a deal with T-Mobile, sources familiar with the company’s thinking told Reuters in February. But no deal was announced immediately following the conclusion of a ban on merger talks in April that was associated with a U.S. government auction of wireless airwaves. Both Sprint and T-Mobile said they were open to exploring other options. An added wrinkle was Sprint’s negotiations with cable companies Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) and Charter Communications Inc ( CHTR.O ). A source told Reuters in July that SoftBank was considering an acquisition offer for Charter in a deal where it would combine the cable company with Sprint. The two companies came close to announcing a merger in 2014 but called it off at the last minute due to regulatory concerns. Industry executives have said a combined Sprint-T-Mobile entity would have the scale, network and enhanced portfolio of wireless airwaves and a better chance to develop 5G, the next generation of wireless technology. Legal experts also said earlier this year that it was difficult to predict whether the current administration would be more receptive of a deal. Industry executives have expressed optimism about the prospect of consolidation on earnings calls. But President Donald Trump has also made populist comments on antitrust and prioritised job creation as a key platform. (This story corrects in the first paragraph that Sprint is No. 4 provider, not No. 3.) Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Anjali Athavaley in New York; additional reporting by Doug Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us/sprint-and-t-mobile-end-merger-negotiations-idUKKBN1D40S4'|'2017-11-04T20:04:00.000+02:00'
'dd259fc913ba1079fcecfa481faba83126b48bf3'|'Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down'|'November 6, 2017 / 11:19 AM / in 4 hours Anthem top executive Swedish to become adviser, Boudreaux named CEO Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Anthem Inc’s ( ANTM.N ) Joseph Swedish will be replaced as chief executive by industry veteran Gail Boudreaux but will stay on as executive chairman until May 2018 and be a senior adviser through May 2020, the health insurer said on Monday. People enter the office building of health insurer Anthem in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Friday. Swedish will continue to receive his current salary as executive chairman and be eligible for a prorated bonus and as an adviser, he will be paid $4.5 million per year. Swedish’s move comes at a time of change for Anthem, the No. 2 U.S. health insurer. The company cut Obamacare individual market participation by 70 percent for next year and recently announced plans to bring its pharmacy benefit management in house. It also may face a much larger Aetna Inc ( AET.N ), which is considering a deal with CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ), according to sources. Boudreaux was most recently CEO of United Healthcare, a unit of the biggest U.S. health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc ( UNH.N ). Before that, she was an executive at the next largest operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield licensed insurers, Health Care Services Corp, and at Aetna. BMO Markets analyst Matthew Borsch said in a research note that Boudreaux is held in high regard by investors but that Anthem’s stock is still a “market-perform” given the company’s slower-growth business mix. “We expect there may be a period of uncertainty among investors until the reasons for the reported leadership change are understood and fully accepted by the market,” he wrote. Boudreaux, who will take on the role of CEO on Nov. 20, will receive an annual salary of $1.4 million with a potential bonus of up to 350 percent of her salary, along with an initial stock grant worth $2 million. Long-term incentives are worth up to $10.25 million. Swedish orchestrated Anthem’s $54 billion deal for smaller rival Cigna Corp ( CI.N ) in 2015, which was ultimately scrapped as regulators said that and Aetna’s proposed acquisition of Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) would be anti-competitive. Two weeks ago, news broke that Aetna and CVS were in talks over a deal that would create a combined health insurance, pharmacy benefit management, and pharmacy company. The deal is expected in December, Reuters reported. The impact of that deal is unclear on Anthem’s recently announced plan to use CVS to help manage its pharmacy benefits business as it exits its contract with Express Scripts Holding ( ESRX.O ). Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anthem-ceo/anthem-ceo-joseph-swedish-to-step-down-idUSKBN1D619C'|'2017-11-06T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'dbc83db24391569c1464c7ac3068a3d8ce091946'|'LSE has made strong case for Aramco listing - PM''s spokesman'|'November 6, 2017 / 11:55 AM / in an hour LSE has made strong case for Aramco listing: UK PM''s spokesman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange has made a “very strong case” for oil company Saudi Aramco to lists its shares in Britain, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday after President Donald Trump urged the king of Saudi Arabia to list in New York. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo “Obviously there are lots of big stock exchanges which have an interest in Aramco including the London Stock Exchange which we believe has made a very strong case for it being based here,” the spokesman told reporters. Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-aramco-britain/lse-has-made-strong-case-for-aramco-listing-uk-pms-spokesman-idUKKBN1D61D7'|'2017-11-06T13:53:00.000+02:00'
'4fbfd4ba6322aabe2a29aa2f2c5f1cf781725229'|'Japan’s smaller banks, desperate for new revenue, turn to dealmaking'|'November 5, 2017 / 11:43 PM / in 15 minutes Japan’s smaller banks, desperate for new revenue, turn to dealmaking Junko Fujita 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The grim outlook for Japan’s smaller regional banks, who are suffering as Japan’s rural population shrinks rapidly, is prompting some to dive into a new, potentially lucrative line of business that until now was largely taboo: mergers and acquisitions. In Japan’s traditional banking culture, advising a client to sell a firm was considered unseemly, even rude - implying that the business had failed. Yet more small business owners in rural areas are struggling to find successors because their children - who have often moved to the big cities - are not interested in taking over. Some of these owners are now being persuaded by the smaller regional banks – numbering about 100 - that getting acquired isn’t such a bad solution. When 70-year-old Kuniya Shinohara decided to retire from his restaurant and catering business, he didn’t know what to do because his daughter and son-in-law weren’t interested in taking it over. Shinohara’s lender, Gunma Bank Ltd, suggested he sell his business in Maebashi city, about 80 miles north of Tokyo, to an outsourcing agency called K‘BIX Inc that was looking to diversify. “I was afraid I would become a loser by selling my business,” said Shinohara, who initially didn’t want anyone to know about the deal. “But Gunma Bank eased my concern by saying an M&A could benefit both parties.” Getting commissions on such deals could provide a lifeline to regional banks, whose profit margins are getting squeezed – not only by the dwindling rural population and the closures of family businesses but also by near-zero interest rates. Teikoku Databank, a nationwide corporate research firm, released a survey in 2016 showing that two-thirds of business owners across Japan don’t have successors. NEW STRATEGIES Traditionally, regional banks have focused on lending, which fuelled their profits, said Hironari Nozaki, professor at Kyoto Bunkyo University and a former banking analyst. “That was not necessarily meeting their clients’ needs,” he said. “Regional banks for a long time have failed to identify clients’ real problems.” That didn’t matter when they could pull in the deposits and then lend them out at an attractive margin. But now those deposits aren’t flowing in and margins have been squeezed with rates low and as corporate customers in small cities aren’t expanding and therefore don’t need to borrow. Unlike the biggest banks, which have operations nationwide, the business of regional banks is closely tied with the local economies where they are headquartered. Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the nation’s industry watchdog, said last month that more than half of the nation’s regional banks lost money on their core business - lending and fees - in the year to March 2017. In the past, when many businesses were handed down from father to son, banks tried to keep the value of businesses low to reduce taxes, said Kazutaka Nobusawa, an official at Gunma Bank’s consulting division. “Now we try to value the business as high as possible” to bring income to clients, he said. Gunma Bank, which in recent years arranged just ten M&A deals annually, says about 7,000 of its clients are potential candidates to acquire other businesses or be acquired. And the Bank of Kyoto Ltd in March brokered rice wholesaler Shinmei Co’s acquisition of Kobe Marukan Co, a seafood wholesaler in nearby Kobe. The bank, which employs 3,400 people, boosted the number of staff devoted to M&A to 10 last year from three in 2012, and aims to double its revenue from the division to 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) by the year ending March 2020, according to Bank of Kyoto.To the south, Fukuoka Bank Ltd, part of Fukuoka Financial Group, created an investment banking unit last year to focus on M&A. And a recent seminar in Tokyo on M&A was attended by representatives from about 30 regional banks. The trend won’t likely hurt the emergence of boutique advisors that handle micro M&A deals, said Kunihiko Arai, president of Strike Co, one such dealmaker. “Regional banks will not threaten our business because we are interdependent,” he said. “They need us when they look for a matching partner beyond their turf.” Over time, the trend could prompt regional banks to be merger candidates themselves because banks will need to expand their reach outside their local areas to increase earnings opportunities, said Nozaki at Kyoto Bunkyo University. That would mean a consolidation in Japan’s regional banking sector, which has remained largely unchanged even as big “city” banks have contracted from 21 to three “megabanks” over the past 20 years. “Regional banks’ resources are limited,” Nozaki said. “How they build their databases through alliances and reorganization will be key.” Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Martin Howell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-regional-banks-m-a/japans-smaller-banks-desperate-for-new-revenue-turn-to-dealmaking-idUKKBN1D5168'|'2017-11-06T01:42:00.000+02:00'
'9502e8eaad8fda5e3b1605617fc83bcc02c08801'|'Altice agreement ''not contingent'' on T-Mobile talks failing - Sprint CFO'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:26 PM / a minute ago Altice agreement ''not contingent'' on T-Mobile talks failing: Sprint CFO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp’s ( S.N ) wireless partnership with Altice USA ( ATUS.N ) was not contingent on merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) failing, the chief financial officer of the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier said on Monday. The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo “It will not deliver the tens of billions in synergies we had foreseen in a merger with T-Mobile,” said Chief Financial Officer Tarek A. Robbiati on a call with Wall Street analysts and reporters. “Nonetheless, it does deliver real value for Sprint and significant value for Sprint.” Sprint’s shares were down 12.6 percent to $5.82 in early trading on Monday. Altice said it will sell mobile service on Sprint’s network under a new multi-year agreement announced on Sunday, becoming the latest cable company to enter the wireless market. The companies announced the agreement a day after Sprint and T-Mobile ended merger talks. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-altice-usa/altice-agreement-not-contingent-on-t-mobile-talks-failing-sprint-cfo-idUKKBN1D620V'|'2017-11-06T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'd3e11d9558ab6c94833b06aee94d5a44c1fb1946'|'EU to discuss blacklist of tax havens after Paradise Papers leaks'|'November 6, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 2 hours ago EU to discuss tax havens blacklist after ''Paradise Papers'' leaks Francesco Guarascio 5 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states will on Tuesday discuss plans for a tax havens’ blacklist, officials said, in a bid to tackle offshore tax avoidance after leaked documents revealed investments by wealthy individuals and institutions around the globe. A general view of a high income neighborhood of Panama City, April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo The subject’s inclusion on the monthly meeting’s agenda of EU finance ministers came after weekend media reports citing the so-called “Paradise Papers”, a trove of financial documents leaked mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm. The documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets. Reuters has not independently verified them. Appleby was not immediately available for comment. The latest revelations “put renewed emphasis on the work the European Commission is doing to fight tax avoidance”, the vice president of the EU’s executive arm, Valdis Dombrovskis, told reporters on Monday. EU countries had planned for months to reach an agreement on a blacklist for tax havens by the end of this year. The new revelations prompted the discussion to be brought forward, EU officials said, but no final decision was expected on Tuesday. The EU has discussed several measures to crack down on tax avoidance, including in the wake of the “Panama Papers”, a release by the ICIJ last year which chronicled a shadowy world of offshore holdings and hidden wealth. Measures proposed by the European Commission include an EU-wide list of tax havens meant to discourage the rerouting of profits made in the EU to tax-free or low-tax countries, like Panama or Bermuda. At the moment, each EU state has its own list of jurisdictions that are seen as less cooperative on tax matters. Criteria to define a tax haven vary greatly among EU states and some of them omit any jurisdictions in their national blacklists. ONE-COUNTRY LIST? An EU-wide blacklist is believed to carry more weight. Jurisdictions included in the list could be subject to sanctions if they did not cooperate. “It’s time that we agree and publish a blacklist on tax havens,” EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters, calling for a “credible” list and “adequate sanctions” when serious breaches are unveiled. There are no details yet of the type of sanctions that could be imposed, although being on the blacklist in itself could discourage individuals and companies from putting money in those jurisdictions. Moscovici added that the EU blacklist should be more ambitious than the existing list of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global group of mostly rich nations that has so far been leading the fight against tax avoidance. The OECD list of non-cooperative jurisdictions on tax transparency includes to date only Trinidad and Tobago. Some EU countries remain skeptical about the blacklist and are themselves under scrutiny for unfair tax competition. Smaller EU states, like Luxembourg, Malta and Ireland, attract firms with lower corporate taxes. Some have been sanctioned for deals with multinationals that slashed their tax bills, reducing revenues in other EU states. To win over their resistance, the proposed EU blacklist would apply only to non-EU countries. Also, states which charge no corporate taxes will not be automatically considered tax havens, under a preliminary deal reached by EU finance ministers last year. On tax matters the EU can take decisions only with the unanimous backing of its 28 member states, unless extraordinary procedures are launched - an option never tested so far. To reduce the appeal of tax havens, Brussels has also proposed the setting up of public registries that would show the real owners of companies, which are often hidden by frontmen in shell firms in offshore jurisdictions. It has also proposed compulsory reporting by large multinational firms of profits made and taxes paid in each state where they operate, in a bid to show how much of their revenues are booked in low-tax countries. EU states have long been discussing both proposals, but no deal has been reached yet. “EU governments such as Germany have been standing against the rising tide of financial transparency,” said Carl Dolan, director of Transparency International EU.   Peter Maushagen; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg/Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eu-ecofin-taxavoidance/eu-to-discuss-blacklist-of-tax-havens-after-paradise-papers-leaks-idINKBN1D618S'|'2017-11-06T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'4a6f1e13946c6ed442efc9bfc6c34004cf5f6774'|'Lonmin to showcase social projects after share price meltdown'|'November 5, 2017 / 3:34 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Lonmin to showcase social projects after share price meltdown Ed Stoddard 4 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Embattled London and Johannesburg-listed platinum producer Lonmin ( LMI.L ) ( LONJ.J ) will unveil new health and road projects in South Africa on Monday in a ceremony that will be overshadowed by its latest share price collapse. FILE PHOTO: A mine worker speaks on his mobile phone as he returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg, South Africa November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Lonmin, not for the first time, is facing an uncertain future after its shares lost 30 percent on Friday when it delayed annual financial results due this month pending the conclusion of a business review. The company said it had adequate liquidity to fund it through a review that could include the sale of assets, job cuts and the renegotiation of loan agreements. There has also been speculation about a deal to combine with fellow South African miner Sibanye-Stillwater ( SGLJ.J ) Lonmin, one of the world’s top platinum producers, has been in the doldrums for years due to low prices and soaring costs and has been to shareholders for rights issues to shore up its balance sheet three times since 2009. Investors have not been rewarded for their support. Lonmin’s share price the past five years is down 97 percent. Monday’s ceremony will be held at Lonmin’s plush conference centre and game farm, a location that sets it up for a potential public relations “own goal” as the trade union Solidarity has urged the company to sell as it moves to cut over 1,100 jobs. “It is insensitive to retrench mine workers ... whilst enjoying the luxury of a game farm,” Lonmin General Secretary Gideon du Plessis said. It will at least offer Chief Executive Ben Magara a platform to deliver his first public comments since Friday’s meltdown. SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS FILE PHOTO: Children play on second-hand tyres outside Lonmin''s Marikana Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo The latest crisis comes after Lonmin said in September that South Africa’s mines ministry had informed it of failure to meet some of its social and labour obligations, but it did not think its operating licence was in jeopardy. South African mining companies must comply with a number of social and labour regulations, including providing proper housing, to help a mostly black labour force that was exploited and ill-treated under apartheid. Lonmin has fallen short here before. A probe into the police killing of 34 miners in 2012 during a violent wildcat strike at its Marikana mine found Lonmin had failed in its pledge to build 5,500 houses, with only three erected. On Monday, the company plans to show how it is now meeting its social and labour obligations, an added cost in a tough environment for all platinum producers. According to South Africa’s Chamber of Mines, 65 percent of the country’s platinum operations are loss-making as the industry grapples with soaring costs and depressed prices. Those that are performing well - such as African Rainbow Minerals ( ARIJ.J ) and Implats’ Two Rivers JV and Anglo American Platinum’s ( AMSJ.J ) Mogalakwena mine - are mechanised, shielding them from steeply rising wage costs and giving them productivity boosts. Lonmin several years ago abandoned a failed and costly attempt at mechanisation in the face of an unforgiving geology - one of many missteps that have cost it in the long run. On a range of fronts, Lonmin is battling. It posted a first-half operating loss of $181 million(£138 million), knocked by a fall in production and rising costs. The company last month agreed a pre-emptive loan covenant waiver for the period from September 30, 2017 to March 30, 2018. The waiver was to prevent a breach and allow the company to acquire the Pandora JV from Amplats and Northern Platinum ( NHMJ.J ). The loans comprise a $150 million term loan and revolving credit facilities totalling $70.8 million from international banks. The loans are committed until May 2019, with a one year extension option. Additional reporting by Tessa Welsh in London; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-crisis/lonmin-to-showcase-social-projects-after-share-price-meltdown-idUKKBN1D50U6'|'2017-11-05T17:38:00.000+02:00'
'cd2015e71ef712b1166ae23f4723321089345c3b'|'Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down, Gail Boudreaux to succeed -WSJ'|'Reuters TV United States November 3, 2017 / 11:12 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish to step down, Gail Boudreaux to succeed: WSJ Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc’s ( ANTM.N ) Chief Executive Joseph Swedish will step down and be succeeded by industry veteran Gail Boudreaux, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The office building of health insurer Anthem is seen in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas It is unclear how quickly the transition will occur, but the plan is expected to be announced as soon as next week, the publication reported. Anthem, the nation’s second largest health insurer by revenue, did not respond to requests for comment. Boudreaux is well-known among managed-care investors and has served as CEO of United Healthcare, a unit of the largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc ( UNH.N ). Boudreaux “will be the right executive to lead Anthem to its next phase of growth, after CEO Swedish’s successful 4-year tenure in turning around a troubled company during the challenging years of Obamacare implementation,” Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said in a research note. Swedish was behind the insurer’s $54 billion merger proposal with smaller rival Cigna Corp ( CI.N ), which was ultimately called off due to regulatory issues. That deal would have created the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs. Health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) and pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) are working toward finalizing merger terms and announcing a deal for more than $70 billion as early as December, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide. Anthem last week reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as its Obamacare individual insurance business broke even and forecast a slight 2018 profit for the government plans despite uncertainty about the market’s future. Anthem, which runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, said it had cut in half the number of areas where it will sell individual plans in 2018, which will reduce enrollment by 70 percent next year and help profits. Through Friday, Anthem shares had climbed about 47 percent this year to $211.80, compared with UnitedHealth’s 33 percent rise to $212.87. After hours on Friday, the shares were up 0.6 percent. Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-anthem-ceo/anthem-ceo-joseph-swedish-to-step-down-gail-boudreaux-to-succeed-wsj-idUKKBN1D32K5'|'2017-11-04T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'90fe5bd91352254929a58288aa2281d665539a16'|'Failure of U.S. deal hits Deutsche Telekom shares, growth prospects'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom shares dropped in early Monday trading after the collapse of the merger of its T-Mobile US unit with Sprint Corp, which would have created a strong No.3 player on the U.S. market. FILE PHOTO: Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo The evaporation of synergies that analysts had estimated at more than Sprint’s $27 billion market capitalization triggered several broker downgrades and sent Telekom’s stock as much as 3.6 percent lower. But some praised Telekom for exercising discipline in not agreeing to pay a significant premium for heavily-indebted Sprint and insisting on control that would have allowed it to consolidate the merged entity into its results. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said T-Mobile, in which the German company owns a 64 percent stake, would press ahead with a strategy that has added more than a million customers for 18 consecutive quarters. “Frankly, T-Mobile US is well enough positioned to succeed on its own without Sprint,” said Dhananjay Mirchandani, a telecoms analyst at Bernstein Research in London. “As for Deutsche Telekom, after the shares take a near term knock, I don’t see how this really alters strategy,” Mirchandani added. “So back to boring business-as-usual.” The slide in Telekom shares was similar to the Tokyo market falls for Sprint, majority owner Softbank Group, whose boss Masayoshi Son, sources said, had got cold feet over ceding control. SoftBank said on Sunday it would raise its stake in Sprint to under 85 percent from 83 percent in a show of commitment to the No.4 U.S. wireless carrier which, while managing to grow its customer base, is weighed down with $38 billion of debt. T-Mobile’s importance as a driver of growth - which could have been enhanced by the Sprint deal - is likely to be underscored when Deutsche Telekom reports results this week. T-Mobile has already reported third-quarter revenues that topped $10 billion for the first time, up 8 percent. The picture for Deutsche Telekom group on Thursday is likely to be different, with analysts on average forecasting group revenues of 18.4 billion euros ($21.4 billion) - a year-on-year gain of just 1.6 percent. That would reflect barely positive growth in Telekom’s crowded and heavily regulated home market, where sales rose just 0.4 percent in the first half, and at its European holdings that were ahead by 1.5 percent. Analysts at Berenberg bank said Deutsche Telekom management deserved some credit for not doing the deal for its own sake. Still, they lowered their share-price target to 14 euros from 15.80 and restated their ‘hold’ rating on the stock. Some investors wonder whether the best years may now be behind T-Mobile, whose shares have risen nine-fold from the low they hit after the global financial crisis to a peak of $68 in June. “I’d just love them to sell it,” Ben Lofthouse, a fund manager at the Henderson International Income Trust, said last week as reports surfaced that the T-Mobile-Sprint talks were in trouble. At T-Mobile’s latest share price, Deutsche Telekom’s 64 percent stake would be worth $31 billion. “There’s a tendency to run things for ever, sometimes, and then you end up selling at the wrong times,” added Lofthouse, whose fund holds Deutsche Telekom shares. Together, T-Mobile and Sprint would have had about 130 million customers, putting a merged entity a close third in the United States behind market leaders AT&T and Verizon. Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers. Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Tom Sims and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us-deutsche/failure-of-u-s-deal-hits-deutsche-telekom-shares-growth-prospects-idUSKBN1D60YA'|'2017-11-06T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'2eca1205f068717520dc07320924bbc63460b176'|'U.S. commerce chief sees trade deal with Britain after Brexit - BBC'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:06 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago U.S. commerce chief sees trade deal with Britain after Brexit: BBC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that there should be a free trade agreement between the United States and Britain after it leaves the European Union, a BBC journalist reported on Monday. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross speaks to the Economic Club of New York in New York City, U.S., October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “There should be a FTA between us once the UK is on its own,” Ross said according to a BBC journalist on Twitter reporting the content of an interview with him. Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by Michael Holden'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-usa/u-s-commerce-chief-sees-trade-deal-with-britain-after-brexit-bbc-idUKKBN1D61LR'|'2017-11-06T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'728c962aa033d804cf8f0eb6e13220db89be9ca5'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 6'|'Nov 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times* Britain''s premier business body has complained that the government''s industrial strategy has been too long coming and that ministers have been unclear on what they are trying to achieve. bit.ly/2An1tYO* A huge surge in trade with the Channel Islands and offshore tax havens has prompted calls for the government to explain the source of the growth amid concerns that it is masking the importance of trade with the European Union. bit.ly/2AkjGGaThe Guardian* The new Marks and Spencer chairman Archie Norman has told senior managers that the retailer needs to cut clothing prices and that too much of its fashion is aimed at the over-55s. bit.ly/2Am7uEU* Britain''s biggest rail franchise, which includes the strike-hit Southern service, is likely to be broken up when it expires in 2021, the government has said. bit.ly/2AmmT84The Telegraph* Plans for a blockbuster float of Saudi Arabia''s national oil explorer, Saudi Arabian Oil company ( IPO-ARMO.SE ), could be thrown into further doubt after one of the company''s board members was arrested as part of a corruption crackdown in the Gulf state. bit.ly/2AngdH6* The Church of England''s investment arm has called for the mining industry to review tailing dams and the governance of joint ventures in the wake of the Samarco mine disaster. bit.ly/2AkC7dLSky News* Officials from Bank of England contacted other accountancy firms in recent days to signal a contest that will threaten KPMG''s hold on a position it has held since just before the run on Northern Rock in 2007, according to Sky News. bit.ly/2AmfeH1The Independent* Saudi Arabia has arrested 11 princes, four officials and tens of former officials as part of a sweeping anti-corruption probe which further cements control in the hands of its young Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman. ind.pn/2Amnzu8 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-6-idINL1N1NC007'|'2017-11-05T21:11:00.000+02:00'
'0b9716fdb109475415933a303a3ebb61034ab763'|'UPDATE 1-Chad and Glencore to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss debt - gov''t sources'|'(Adds details)N‘DJAMENA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Chadian government officials will meet Glencore executives in Paris on Monday to discuss restructuring the country’s debt, two senior Chadian government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Sunday.Chad has been trying renegotiate its hefty external commercial debt to Glencore, which eats up nearly all of its oil profits - the country’s main source of revenue.One of the sources said Glencore was open to the idea of rescheduling. A Chadian government spokesman and a Glencore spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.Chad has been on a collision course with its top creditor, as it wants to divert oil from the Swiss trading house to U.S. energy company ExxonMobil from the new year amid the dispute over the debt restructuring.Chad wants to hand over crude oil marketing rights currently held by Glencore under a $1.4 billion loan agreement to Exxon, the biggest oil producer in the central African country.A sticking point has been a request from Chad for another grace period on principal repayment. The officials said this would be discussed on Monday.Hit by drought, a refugee crisis and a costly military campaign against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad has had loans from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank, with another $12.9 billion of pledged funding as of September from public and private donors for a 2017-2021 development plan. (Reporting by Madjiasra Nako; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/glencore-chad-oil/update-1-chad-and-glencore-to-meet-in-paris-on-monday-to-discuss-debt-govt-sources-idINL5N1NB13E'|'2017-11-05T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'9df935dfd0ea8e4f4d3b66b5d1513a786d103ccb'|'Lotte gets approval for China property project as bilateral tensions ease'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Lotte gets approval for China property project as bilateral tensions ease Joyce Lee 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Lotte Corp ( 004990.KS ) said on Monday that a major property development in China had received approval from local authorities to start a second phase of construction - the latest sign that tension between Beijing and Seoul is easing. FILE PHOTO: A flag bearing the logo of Lotte Hotel flutters at a Lotte Hotel in Seoul, South Korea, March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo The announcement comes one week after an unexpected detente between the two countries which have been at odds over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea - a dispute that has battered South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers. The Lotte conglomerate has been among the hardest hit by the political tension after it agreed to hand over land for the defence system, angering Beijing which says the system’s radar can penetrate its territory. A Lotte spokesman said the approval to build commercial complexes at its 66,000 square metre Chengdu land project, worth some 1 trillion won (684.99 million pounds), came on Oct. 31 - the same day that Seoul and Beijing announced they had agreed to mend ties. “Investors are hoping that from 2017 earnings will improve drastically as relations between South Korea and China get better and Chengdu is one piece of news that is adding to that,” said Joo Young-hun, analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities. But construction at Lotte’s Shenyang project, which covers 1.45 million square metres, remains suspended, said the spokesman for Lotte Corp, the conglomerate’s holding company. Construction has been halted since a December inspection for fire hazards. Lotte plans to build apartments and a theme park at the Shenyang project in addition to a department store and a movie theatre that are already open. Lotte’s retail outlets have been particularly hurt by the political tension with most of its hypermarkets and supermarkets in China shut down. They are set to sold for a fraction of what it invested. Shares in key Lotte units continued to climb on hopes of better earnings amid the thaw in tensions, with Lotte Shopping Co Ltd ( 023530.KS ) up 3.9 percent on Monday, bringing its gains since Oct. 31 to 12.9 percent. Hotel Shilla Co Ltd ( 008770.KS ) was up 3.7 percent and has risen 6.1 percent since last week. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lotte-china/lotte-gets-approval-for-china-property-project-as-bilateral-tensions-ease-idUKKBN1D608B'|'2017-11-06T05:21:00.000+02:00'
'e7eb06ecd68da190077699a765deef6c6c433754'|'Brookfield eyes mobile towers in India as deal with RCom stumbles'|'NEW DELHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A unit of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management said it is evaluating a number of telecom tower portfolios in India to scale its presence after talks to acquire over 40,000 towers from debt-laden Reliance Communications hit a snag.The deal with Brookfield hinged on Reliance Communications or RCom merging its mobile operations with rival Aircel but the merger was called off last month due to regulatory delays and legal uncertainties."The merger will not proceed and therefore our transaction as previously announced will not proceed either. However, we continue to monitor the evolving situation to determine if revised terms can be agreed upon," Brookfield Infrastructure Partners said in an SEC filing on Nov 3. ( bit.ly/2zdOh8i )Brookfield said it is still pursuing RCom and other opportunities in this sector to scale its presence in India.RCom, led by billionaire Anil Ambani, had 443 billion Indian rupees ($6.86 billion) of net debt as of March making it the most leveraged among listed Indian telecom companies.The debt load has spooked investors, sending RCom’s shares tumbling this year amid worries about whether it could pay back creditors at a time when profits across the sector are slumping due to stiff competition.To shed debt, telecom companies are increasingly looking to spin off their mobile mast businesses while focussing on core mobile services.India’s largest phone carrier, Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday it had been approached by global investors interested in a controlling stake in its mobile tower unit Bharti Infratel .The news of the approach from unidentified investors comes a day after Bharti Infratel said it was considering buying the rest of Indus Towers, the biggest mobile mast operator in India.Indus Towers, with nearly 123,000 towers, is owned 42 percent each by Bharti Infratel and Vodafone’s Indian unit. Third-ranked mobile carrier Idea Cellular along with its associate owns the remainder.Indian media have reported a consortium led by private equity firm KKR & Co LP is eyeing both Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers. ($1 = 64.5500 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Ros Russell) '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-rcom-brookfield-asset/brookfield-eyes-mobile-towers-in-india-as-deal-with-rcom-stumbles-idUSL4N1NA05T'|'2017-11-04T19:26:00.000+02:00'
'a2ddeb1fa2e4ec55464233854d81001cfcab5b81'|'Tesla''s head of battery engineering exits'|'Nov 6 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc’s director of battery engineering, Jon Wagner has left the electric car manufacturer, according to his LinkedIn profile.According to Wagner’s LinkedIn page, he is launching a battery and powertrain startup in California. The timeline of his departure is not know.Wagner, who joined the company in January 2013, was involved in developing technology for all of Tesla''s cars, as well as the Powerwall, according to his profile. ( bit.ly/2hagy7D )Last week, Tesla pushed back its target for volume production on its new Model 3 sedan by about three months, saying it was difficult to predict how long it would take to fix production bottlenecks.Tesla had also said that the main constraint was its battery module assembly line at its Nevada Gigafactory, where the company had to redesign part of the production process.Tesla and Wagner did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tesla-moves-jon-wagner/teslas-head-of-battery-engineering-exits-idINL3N1NC5LQ'|'2017-11-06T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'c2f5ef9ba19b874d6f39d377cec683c3da884bac'|'Mobile bank N26 sees customers tripling within two years - CEO'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:31 PM / in 43 minutes Mobile bank N26 sees customers tripling within two years: CEO Sophie Sassard 4   The smartphone-based bank N26 expects to peel away 5 to 10 percent of retail customers from established banks in its core continental European market in the next two to three years, its chief executive told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Valentin Stalf, Founder and CEO of the Fintech N26 (Number26), poses for a portrait in Berlin, Germany, August 19, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo The Berlin-based fintech start-up has been signing up 1,500 to 2,000 customers a day in recent months, putting it on track to triple in size to around 1.5 million clients within two years from its current 500,000 users, Valentin Stalf said in an interview in London on Friday. The company, which counts Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing and Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel among its backers, is competing with traditional branch-based retail banks by offering a suite of mobile banking services that customers can use entirely from their smartphones. It also faces competition from other digital banks such as Revolut and Monzo, and even French telecom operator Orange ( ORAN.PA ), which launched its own banking service last week. Since its launch in Germany in 2015, the company has expanded rapidly into 17 European countries including Austria, France, Spain and Italy. It recently said it will start operating in Britain and the United States next year. “We see the U.S. as a big opportunity because digital banking is underdeveloped,” Stalf said. “There are no clear rivals for us there.” The regulatory environment is also becoming more favorable, Stalf said. In 2018, new European Union rules will start to force banks to allow customer data to be made available to other companies if the customers agree. That will help the likes of N26 identify potential customers and offer them better deals than their current lenders. Stalf said that within three years N26 expects to have a 5 to 10 percent share of the market in the main countries where it operates. N26 offers a free current account, its “anchor product”, but makes most of its money through card usage, savings, credit and insurance services. The company made its name taking on traditional banks but came under scrutiny itself last year after a security researcher found that its apps exposed users to potential account hijacking. N26 then implemented fixes to prevent such problems. Stalf said the main advantages of being an app are having daily interactions with customers and as a result being able to better understand their needs and offer tailor-made, value-added services. “If I happen to book a trip and hire a car with my N26 card, my app would instantly use that information to offer me travel and car insurance.” With marketing costs of 5 to 10 million euros per year - far lower than those of traditional banks - and customer data gathered via payments, N26 has been able to either make a profit or break even from each newly acquired customer. Stalf said that excluding marketing costs, the company could be profitable in about a year. Acquiring a banking license has also helped keep costs down, and the company is now betting that word-of-mouth and good Apple Store ratings will help it contain its marketing costs and help it move along the path to profitability. “Today you can create a trusted brand much faster because everything is more transparent,” said the 32-year-old Vienna-born entrepreneur. Reporting by Sophie Sassard in London; Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in Frankfurt; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-number26-customers/mobile-bank-n26-sees-customers-tripling-within-two-years-ceo-idUKKBN1D62AA'|'2017-11-06T19:26:00.000+02:00'
'9af8022f3afa18c79a63174611aeafc50e792223'|'Oil options signal Brent bulls are not having it all their own way'|'November 6, 2017 / 2:17 PM / in 6 minutes Oil options signal Brent bulls are not having it all their own way Amanda Cooper 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Brent crude options show the market still has to win over the die-hard sceptics, even as investors are betting more heavily than ever before that the price break above $60 a barrel might be the start of a bigger move higher. A gas station attendant piles up coins on top of a fuel dispenser at a gas station of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) before the government raised the price for fuel, in Caracas, February 16, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello Data from the Intercontinental Exchange shows money managers hold more bullish positions in Brent crude futures and options than ever before, equivalent to a whopping 530.2 million barrels of oil, or nearly six days of total global consumption. [O/ICE] Oil prices hit their highest since July 2015 on Monday as Saudi Arabia’s crown prince cemented his power with an anti-corruption crackdown, while markets continued to tighten. [O/R] It is virtually a given that OPEC will agree later this month to extend its 1.8-million bpd joint supply cut into the whole of 2018. But will that be enough to persuade the markets that global oil inventories will drain fast enough to offset an anticipated 1.5-million bpd rise in 2018 non-OPEC supply growth alone? [IEA/M] The options market is pointing to this optimism persisting next year, but there is a degree of caution that has not yet been dispelled. After all, the higher the price goes, the greater the chances that the signatories to the deal might relax and allow their compliance to slip. Looking at the first three months of next year, most open interest is clustered at buy options, or calls, at $60, at a combined 41,000 lots. The position grew by 30 percent in the three-week run-up to the break above $60 on Oct 27, but has remained static since then. Meanwhile, the biggest individual position in the first quarter of 2018 is now in March sell options, or puts, at $45 a barrel, at just shy of 19,000 lots. This amount has stayed almost unchanged for the last month, even while the underlying prompt Brent futures price was surging first above $50 and then $60, overtaking prices of longer-dated contracts and pushing the market structure into backwardation. In fact, at nearly 115,000 lots, the amount of open interest in bearish puts with strikes between $40-55 in the first three months of the year is nearly triple that in bullish calls, a stark reminder to OPEC and its partners that any investors may be quick to punish slip-ups in compliance or commitment. “OPEC and the participating non-OPEC nations have done an excellent job in the second half of this year to start the re-balancing process. However, as any elite athlete would tell you, it is much easier to get to the top than to remain there,” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said in a note. Brent crude options show bulls'' faith in $60/bbl - reut.rs/2hfPK9K Brent crude options positions in Q1 2018 - reut.rs/2hfPK9K Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-options/oil-options-signal-brent-bulls-are-not-having-it-all-their-own-way-idUKKBN1D61SK'|'2017-11-06T16:16:00.000+02:00'
'a6bf5c0034d86faa1453e7bcc7219fa885c9ac43'|'Saudi economy vulnerable as corruption probe hits business old guard'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:50 PM / in 4 minutes Saudi economy vulnerable as corruption probe hits business old guard Katie Paul 5 Min Read RIYADH (Reuters) - Two weeks ago the glitzy Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh was the site of an international conference promoting Saudi Arabia as an investment destination, with over 3,000 officials and business leaders attending. Now the hotel is temporarily serving as a luxury prison where some of the kingdom’s political and business elite are being held in a widening crackdown on corruption that may change the way the economy works. By detaining dozens of officials and tycoons, a new anti-corruption body headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to dismantle systems of patronage and kick-backs that have distorted the economy for decades. But it is a risky process, because the crackdown is hurting some of the kingdom’s top private businessmen - leaders of family conglomerates who have built much of the non-oil economy over the past few decades. Many industries could suffer if investment by these families dries up in coming months, at a time when the economy has already fallen into recession because of low oil prices and austerity policies. Meanwhile, a new breed of state-backed companies is rising to compete with the old guard; many of the new enterprises are linked to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund. But it is not clear how smoothly the transition to these firms will happen. “The rules of the game are changing. But they’re changing indiscriminately,” said one financial analyst in the region, declining to be named because of political sensitivities. “Even people who thought they were within the rules don’t know if they will still be within those rules tomorrow. There’s just uncertainty.” Some private businessmen in Saudi Arabia are now trying to move their money out of the country “while they still can”, the analyst said. For many foreigners, the most shocking aspect of the purge has been the detention of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the flamboyant, internationally known chairman of investment firm Kingdom Holding. But for Saudis, the names of other detainees have been equally stunning: Nasser bin Aqeel al-Tayyar, founder of the Al Tayyar Travel group; billionaire Saleh Kamel; and Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the huge Saudi Binladin construction conglomerate. STATE CONTRACTS The saga of the Binladin group underlines how the business environment is changing. Binladin and another big construction group, Saudi Oger, long enjoyed preferential access to the kingdom’s biggest projects and control over pricing as a result of their close relationships with royal patrons. But the bottom fell out from under both companies last year, when a cash squeeze resulting from low oil prices caused the government to cancel or suspend projects and delay payments. The firms faced multi-billion dollar debt restructurings; Binladin has laid off tens of thousands of people while Oger’s bankers say it has essentially stopped operating. At the same time, state oil giant Saudi Aramco is moving to set up a construction company with local and international partners to build non-oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia - potentially taking billions of dollars of business that would previously have gone to the family conglomerates. Aramco and PIF, the sovereign fund, have also linked up with U.S. construction firm Jacobs Engineering to form a management company for strategic projects in the kingdom. Many in the Saudi business world are celebrating the downfall of the old patronage system and the shift towards a “cleaner” business environment. “It’s great news for the clean ones among us - 99.99 percent are ecstatic,” said one senior executive. But others express disquiet about the possible economic fallout of the purge. Some are concerned that banks could start calling in loans to families implicated in the probe, using loan clauses that permit this in cases of legal jeopardy; this could collapse companies’ share prices. Many new business deals may be put on hold. A businessman at a foreign technology services firm told Reuters he had been considering a venture with a Saudi partner, but decided against it this week because of the partner’s ties to the detained Bakr bin Laden. The new anti-corruption commission has broad authority to seize assets at home and abroad. Some businessmen wonder if these powers could be used to pressure firms into participating in Prince Mohammed’s economic development projects. “It’s the old royal fiefdoms that are not in the Al Salman branch of the royal family that are now being purged,” said a Western analyst. “It’s a further centralising of political and economic power, and a seizing of the private assets that those fiefdoms have accumulated.” Additional reporting by Tom Arnold and Stephen Kalin; Editing by Andrew Torchia/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-arrests-business/saudi-economy-vulnerable-as-corruption-probe-hits-business-old-guard-idUKKBN1D62L8'|'2017-11-06T21:49:00.000+02:00'
'd9cf50e5a8191b1caf98cd644c8ebb7f59a465d9'|'Oil hits highest levels since 2015 amid tightening markets, Saudi purge'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose 3 percent on Monday, hitting the highest since early July 2015, as Saudi Arabia’s crown prince cemented his power over the weekend with an anti-corruption crackdown, while the U.S. rig count fell and markets continued to tighten.A flame shoots out of a chimney at a petro-industrial factory in Kawasaki near Tokyo December 18, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/Files Brent crude futures were trading $1.86 or 3 percent higher at $62.46 a barrel by 12:00 p.m. Eastern time (1700 GMT).U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.49 or 2.7 percent to $57.13 a barrel.Both benchmarks are at their highest since early July 2015.“Whether it’s the purging of the Saudi ranks and oil rig counts ticking down and talk of OPEC extending cuts we’re seeing the volatility stretch this trading range,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tightened his grip with the arrest of royals, ministers and investors, including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal and the powerful head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah.The arrests, which an official said were just “phase one” of the crackdown, are the latest in a series of dramatic steps by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to amass more power for himself at home.The attorney general said on Monday detainees had been questioned and “a great deal of evidence” had been gathered.Analysts for now do not see Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, changing its policy of boosting crude prices.Prince Mohammed’s reforms include a plan to list shares of parts of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco next year, and a higher oil price is seen as beneficial for its market capitalization.Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that while there is “satisfaction” with a production-cutting deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers led by Russia, the “job is not done yet.”OPEC is expected to extend a cut of around 1.8 million barrels per day into the whole of 2018.On Monday Nigeria’s oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told Reuters that Nigeria supports an extension of a deal between OPEC, Russia and other non-members to cut oil supply until the end of 2018 “as long as the right terms are on the table” regarding its own participation.Nigeria itself, however, is exempt from the deal.Also boosting oil prices, U.S. energy companies cut eight oil rigs last week, to 729, in the biggest reduction since May 2016.While supplies are tightening, analysts say demand remains strong.Barclays bank raised its forecast for the average Brent price in the fourth quarter of this year by $6 to $60 a barrel, and its full-year 2018 forecast by $3 to $55 a barrel.Speculators have also increased to a record high their bets on gains in the price of Brent.ICE commitment-of-traders data showed money managers had increased their net long holdings of Brent crude futures and options by 23,500 contracts to 530,237. [O/ICE]Money managers raised their net long commitments on WTI by 63,072 contracts to 343,705, a more than six-month high.Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Evans and Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-hits-highest-levels-since-2015-amid-tightening-markets-saudi-purge-idINKBN1D60IU'|'2017-11-06T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'ad8bc2127f32676fd233d17961c07af119895142'|'China''s COFCO sells Latam seeds business to Syngenta'|'BEIJING/PARIS (Reuters) - Chinese grains trader COFCO International has agreed to sell its crop seeds business to Swiss-based Syngenta AG as it overhauls its activities following a series of major overseas acquisitions.FILE PHOTO: A Syngenta logo is pictured in their office in Singapore, February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo The deal to sell Nidera Seeds, which operates in Latin America, was announced by COFCO International and Syngenta in a statement on Monday.Financial terms were not disclosed but a Syngenta spokesman said it hoped to have regulatory approvals completed by the end of the year or early next year.State-owned COFCO’s plan to sell the seeds business was reported by Reuters in August and is the latest step of its integration of Dutch trader Nidera.“This agreement is an important step of our strategy to focus on our major businesses,” Johnny Chi, chief executive of COFCO International, said in a statement.COFCO has spent more than $3 billion buying Nidera and Noble Agri in the past three years, thrusting it into the league of multinational agricultural traders.COFCO International was officially launched in April this year to combine the overseas trading activities, but losses inherited from Nidera have raised uncertainty about its short-term prospects.The Chinese group has embarked on an overhaul of its operations in Europe and South America.Nidera’s seed business is concentrated in Argentina and Brazil, with a network in neighbouring countries, according to COFCO International’s website. It focuses on corn, sunflower, sorghum, soybeans and wheat.It represents COFCO International’s entire seed activity, a spokesman said.Selling the business to Syngenta means it will remain under Chinese ownership following ChemChina’s takeover this year of the Swiss crop chemical and seed group.The global seeds sector has witnessed a series of multi-billion consolidation deals as companies that supply farmers are pressured by persistently low crop prices.Syngenta has said it would pursue deals to become the third-biggest player in the seeds industry.Reporting by Dominique Patton in BEIJING, Gus Trompiz in PARIS and Joshua Frankkin in ZURICH; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-cofco-syngenta/chinas-cofco-sells-latam-seeds-business-to-syngenta-idINKBN1D613A'|'2017-11-06T07:17:00.000+02:00'
'60d55c23c451743527abd0ffc97288cb3adecbc2'|'Brazil''s Oi ends confidentiality agreement with main creditor groups'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian telephone carrier Oi SA’s confidentiality agreements with its main creditor groups aimed at restructuring the company’s debt have ended with no accord reached, it said in a securities filing on Monday.The company said there were no guarantees debt restructuring talks would resume or whether they would result in an agreement, according to the filing. Oi filed for Brazil’s largest ever bankruptcy in June last year to restructure about 65 billion reais ($19.7 billion) of debt. ($1 = 3.2944 reais) (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-restructuring/brazils-oi-ends-confidentiality-agreement-with-main-creditor-groups-idINL1N1NC0EE'|'2017-11-06T08:37:00.000+02:00'
'8341c431de683c26d9cf07289fcb6bd4c1474c86'|'UK economy holds steady but outlook remains weak - CBI'|'November 4, 2017 / 12:07 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK economy holds steady but outlook remains weak - CBI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Growth in Britain’s private sector held steady in the three months to October after weakening recently, and the inflation hit to consumers and Brexit concerns for companies mean growth will probably stay modest, an industry survey showed. FILE PHOTO: An employee is seen walking over a mosaic of pound sterling symbols set in the floor of the front hall of the Bank of England in London, in this March 25, 2008 file photograph. REUTERS/Luke Macgregor/files The Confederation of British Industry’s monthly indicator of output for manufacturers, retailers and services companies remained at +11, its joint lowest level since June. “Growth in the economy has remained relatively stable, although the pace of growth was a little slower than expected, particularly for retailers and manufacturers,” CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said. Britain’s economy slowed sharply in the first half of 2017 although it picked up a bit of pace in the third quarter. The Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in a decade on Thursday as it moved to head off what it sees as the inflationary impact of Brexit, even as it said economy will probably remain stuck in a slow gear over the next three years. Output expectations for the next three months fell to +12 from +18 in September, the weakest reading since January. The CBI said it expected growth to remain modest as inflation eats further into household spending power in late 2017 and early 2018 and uncertainty about Brexit dampens business investment next year. “We still expect more support to growth from net trade than has been the case in the recent past, as a lower exchange rate and firm global growth lift UK exports and softer domestic demand bears down on import growth,” it said. Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-cbi/uk-economy-holds-steady-but-outlook-remains-weak-cbi-idUKKBN1D4001'|'2017-11-04T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'a130dd1cebe83d4a5d1f8a0b13cd47ce22539495'|'Billionaire Blavatnik weighs big share purchase in Teva Pharm: reports'|'November 5, 2017 / 11:35 AM / Updated an hour ago Billionaire Blavatnik weighs big share purchase in Teva Pharm: reports Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik is looking to buy a significant stake in debt-ridden Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ), according to Israeli media reports. FILE PHOTO: A building belonging to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world''s biggest generic drugmaker and Israel''s largest company, is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Two of Israel’s leading financial news outlets, Globes and The Marker, reported on Sunday that Blavatnik has been examining a large share purchase in Teva, whose stock price hit a 17-year low last week after the company again cut its annual profit forecast. A spokesman for Blavatnik’s U.S.-based industrial group, Access Industries, declined to comment. Teva ( TEVA.N ), the world’s biggest generic drugmaker, also declined to comment. The Marker reported that Blavatnik was looking to acquire up to a $3 billion stake in Teva. The company has a $12.3 billion market cap. The investment could either be done through a private stock listing, which would help Teva deal with its nearly $35 billion debt burden, or the shares could be bought from pharmaceutical firm Allergan ( AGN.N ), the report said. Allergan received a 10 percent stake in Teva as part of a 2016 deal in which Teva bought its generics business for $40.5 billion. Allergan announced last week that it would begin selling down that stake. Blavatnik’s Access has investments in real estate, chemicals, media and technology with Warner Music among its highest profile businesses. Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-m-a/billionaire-blavatnik-weighs-big-share-purchase-in-teva-pharm-reports-idINKBN1D50KP'|'2017-11-05T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'f5374869e531d2748191c54d0e357451742bf0dd'|'Nissan to resume domestic production of cars for Japan on Tuesday'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:30 PM / in 30 minutes Nissan to resume domestic production of cars for Japan on Tuesday Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan ( 7201.T ) plans to resume production of vehicles for its home market at five of its domestic plants from Tuesday after Japan’s transport ministry approved changes to the improper final-inspection procedures that forced a major vehicle recall. The logo of Nissan Motor Co is pictured at a showroom at the carmaker''s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Japanese carmaker had suspended domestic production of all passenger cars it makes for its home market on Oct. 19 after discovering that uncertified technicians had been signing off on final inspections for decades. That prompted the recall of 1.2 million vehicles for re-inspection, including all passenger cars it produced for sale in Japan over the past three years. Nissan said on Monday that its plants in Fukuoka, Kanagawa and Tochigi would restart production for the domestic market, along with plants operated by affiliate Nissan Shatai ( 7222.T ) in Fukuoka and Kanagawa. A plant operated by affiliate Kyoto Auto Works is awaiting ministry approval, Nissan said. Nissan said it had corrected inconsistencies between plant operating manuals and plant activities in documents provided to the ministry, and that it was taking measures to improve training and testing processes for inspectors. Japan’s transport ministry requires certified inspectors to sign off on vehicle checks for cars sold in Japan, a step that is not required for vehicles exported overseas. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-recall/nissan-to-resume-domestic-production-of-cars-for-japan-on-tuesday-idUSKBN1D61NE'|'2017-11-06T15:28:00.000+02:00'
'017f9f4562c31a36758b66855b1aa770dbd2bb4e'|'UPDATE 2-SBM Offshore hit by rising bill for corruption cases'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:35 AM / in 22 minutes UPDATE 2-SBM Offshore hit by rising bill for corruption cases Reuters Staff * Preliminary deal with Brazilian authorities collapses * Company unable to participate in Petrobras tenders * Takes additional provision for U.S. settlement (Updates after conference call; shares drop 10 pct) By Toby Sterling AMSTERDAM, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Marine engineering group SBM Offshore said a Brazilian investigation into its role in corruption cases had not been resolved and set aside an additional $238 million provision on Monday to cover costs from an unexpected U.S. inquiry. The Dutch company has also been forced to suspend its involvement in tenders with Brazilian oil company Petrobras , a major customer. Shares fell 10 percent to 13.96 euros at 0930 GMT, wiping out gains made this year when investors believed the builder of floating oil and gas platforms had settled the issue. The scandal blew up in 2012 after the company said it had uncovered “improper sales practices.” Morgan Stanley analysts flagged that the new $238 million provision “compares to consensus 2017 net income estimate of $157 million.” SBM paid $240 million to Dutch authorities in 2014 to settle the Latin American bribery case and had set aside another $280 million last year to settle related issues in Brazil. But it announced on that Monday the Brazilian case remained unresolved. It also said it had taken an additional $238 million provision ahead of a settlement with U.S. authorities, both for the Brazil investigation and an separate investigation into its dealings with Monaco-based Unaoil. Chief Compliance Officer Erik Lagendijk said a prospective settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice would settle issues there “for ever and a day.” Lagendijk said in a statement that since 2012 SBM had “completely changed its business model and ways of working.” “Although it appears that the company can likely reach a resolution with the DoJ (U.S. Department of Justice) and thus make an important step towards closure of the past ... no global solution to bring finality is currently available,” he said. Chief Financial Officer Douglas Wood said the company has enough cash on hand to pay U.S. authorities once a settlement deal is finalised, but it would only detail implications for shareholders and dividends later. BRAZILIAN PICTURE CLOUDED In Brazil the picture is less clear. The company said earlier this year it was cleared to do business in the country and that it was participating in two tenders, leading to a major re-rating of shares. Brazil previously represented 60 percent of its business. On Monday it said those tenders had been moth-balled, and until a settlement is reached it will not participate in further tenders for Petrobras. The company offered a detailed explanation of its legal situation in Brazil where the courts have challenged aspects of its settlement agreements and it has no guarantee that any settlement would actually cap its liabilities. The company did not set aside any new provision for Brazil. In the 2014 settlement, Dutch prosecutors said payments made with the cooperation of SBM employees constituted “the indictable offence of bribery.” That settlement precluded the company and its officials from being prosecuted in the Netherlands, but did not rule out the possibility they could be indicted elsewhere. SBM said in Monday’s statement that “individuals” and former executives could still be prosecuted. SBM is due to report third quarter earnings on Wednesday. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter and Keith Weir)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sbm-offshore-corruption/update-1-sbm-offshore-takes-238-mln-provision-to-settle-u-s-probe-idUSL5N1NC0RL'|'2017-11-06T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'8d6024d018365bcb3aaabd3ffd02c097e650b39f'|'Japan’s smaller banks, desperate for new revenue, turn to dealmaking'|'November 5, 2017 / 10:21 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Japan’s smaller banks, desperate for new revenue, turn to dealmaking Junko Fujita 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The grim outlook for Japan’s smaller regional banks, who are suffering as Japan’s rural population shrinks rapidly, is prompting some to dive into a new, potentially lucrative line of business that until now was largely taboo: mergers and acquisitions. In Japan’s traditional banking culture, advising a client to sell a firm was considered unseemly, even rude - implying that the business had failed. Yet more small business owners in rural areas are struggling to find successors because their children - who have often moved to the big cities - are not interested in taking over. Some of these owners are now being persuaded by the smaller regional banks – numbering about 100 - that getting acquired isn’t such a bad solution. When 70-year-old Kuniya Shinohara decided to retire from his restaurant and catering business, he didn’t know what to do because his daughter and son-in-law weren’t interested in taking it over. Shinohara’s lender, Gunma Bank Ltd, suggested he sell his business in Maebashi city, about 80 miles north of Tokyo, to an outsourcing agency called K‘BIX Inc that was looking to diversify. “I was afraid I would become a loser by selling my business,” said Shinohara, who initially didn’t want anyone to know about the deal. “But Gunma Bank eased my concern by saying an M&A could benefit both parties.” Getting commissions on such deals could provide a lifeline to regional banks, whose profit margins are getting squeezed – not only by the dwindling rural population and the closures of family businesses but also by near-zero interest rates. Teikoku Databank, a nationwide corporate research firm, released a survey in 2016 showing that two-thirds of business owners across Japan don’t have successors. NEW STRATEGIES Traditionally, regional banks have focused on lending, which fuelled their profits, said Hironari Nozaki, professor at Kyoto Bunkyo University and a former banking analyst. “That was not necessarily meeting their clients’ needs,” he said. “Regional banks for a long time have failed to identify clients’ real problems.” That didn’t matter when they could pull in the deposits and then lend them out at an attractive margin. But now those deposits aren’t flowing in and margins have been squeezed with rates low and as corporate customers in small cities aren’t expanding and therefore don’t need to borrow. Unlike the biggest banks, which have operations nationwide, the business of regional banks is closely tied with the local economies where they are headquartered. Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the nation’s industry watchdog, said last month that more than half of the nation’s regional banks lost money on their core business - lending and fees - in the year to March 2017. In the past, when many businesses were handed down from father to son, banks tried to keep the value of businesses low to reduce taxes, said Kazutaka Nobusawa, an official at Gunma Bank’s consulting division. “Now we try to value the business as high as possible” to bring income to clients, he said. Gunma Bank, which in recent years arranged just ten M&A deals annually, says about 7,000 of its clients are potential candidates to acquire other businesses or be acquired. And the Bank of Kyoto Ltd in March brokered rice wholesaler Shinmei Co’s acquisition of Kobe Marukan Co, a seafood wholesaler in nearby Kobe. The bank, which employs 3,400 people, boosted the number of staff devoted to M&A to 10 last year from three in 2012, and aims to double its revenue from the division to 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) by the year ending March 2020, according to Bank of Kyoto.To the south, Fukuoka Bank Ltd, part of Fukuoka Financial Group, created an investment banking unit last year to focus on M&A. And a recent seminar in Tokyo on M&A was attended by representatives from about 30 regional banks. The trend won’t likely hurt the emergence of boutique advisors that handle micro M&A deals, said Kunihiko Arai, president of Strike Co, one such dealmaker. “Regional banks will not threaten our business because we are interdependent,” he said. “They need us when they look for a matching partner beyond their turf.” Over time, the trend could prompt regional banks to be merger candidates themselves because banks will need to expand their reach outside their local areas to increase earnings opportunities, said Nozaki at Kyoto Bunkyo University. That would mean a consolidation in Japan’s regional banking sector, which has remained largely unchanged even as big “city” banks have contracted from 21 to three “megabanks” over the past 20 years. “Regional banks’ resources are limited,” Nozaki said. “How they build their databases through alliances and reorganization will be key.”($1 = 114.0700 yen) Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-regional-banks-m-a/japans-smaller-banks-desperate-for-new-revenue-turn-to-dealmaking-idINKBN1D514D'|'2017-11-05T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'41cb4fba800ae8a6d83fcabf3fdbc1ce4804d4d0'|'SoftBank Group Q2 operating profit rises 21 percent on Vision Fund boost'|'November 6, 2017 / 6:51 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago SoftBank Group Q2 operating profit rises 21 percent on Vision Fund boost Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) reported on Monday a 21 percent rise in second-quarter operating profit as the value of its technology investments grew. FILE PHOTO - A woman using her smart phone walks outside a branch of SoftBank Corp in Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo The Japanese tech and telecoms firm is funnelling money to U.S. firms as it invests in technology companies around the world, including through its $98 billion Vision Fund, as founder Masayoshi Son pursues his vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence, interconnected devices and robotics. Profit for the July-September quarter rose to 395.6 billion yen (2.65 billion pounds) from 328.1 billion yen a year earlier, the company said. Excluding profit from the Vision Fund, income would have fallen 4 percent. Son is under pressure to turn around its U.S. wireless unit Sprint Corp ( S.N ), especially after it broke off merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ). SoftBank said on Sunday it would raise its stake in Sprint to under 85 percent from 83 percent in a show of commitment to the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier which, while managing to grow its customer base, has relied on heavy discounting to do so and is weighed down with $38 billion of debt. Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-softbank-group-results/softbank-group-q2-operating-profit-rises-21-percent-on-vision-fund-boost-idUKKBN1D60K8'|'2017-11-06T08:50:00.000+02:00'
'0bbb97e421ac6301470bb8d587c8c97c0a27c9cd'|'Chipmaker Marvell Technology in talks to buy Cavium: Wall Street Journal'|'(Reuters) - Marvell Technology Group Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Cavium Inc - a deal that would create a chipmaker worth about $14 billion, Wall Street Journal reported.Cavium shareholders would receive a modest premium, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. A deal could be announced in the next few weeks if talks do not fall apart. ( on.wsj.com/2zhtov9 )As of Friday’s close, Cavium has a market capitalization of about $4.5 billion, while Marvell had a valuation of over $9 billion.Neither of the two companies immediately responded to request for comments.Shares of Cavium were up nearly 13 percent in after-hours trading on Friday, while Marvell’s stock was up about 6 percent.Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun KoyyurOur '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cavium-m-a-marvell-technlgy/chipmaker-marvell-technology-in-talks-to-buy-cavium-wall-street-journal-idUSKBN1D32IM'|'2017-11-04T05:09:00.000+02:00'
'f3063f272852c45788101de4d5685b37573cece6'|'Sprint and T-Mobile end merger negotiations'|'SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Sprint Corp and T-Mobile USA Inc have ended merger negotiations, the companies said in a joint statement on Saturday.The companies said they ended talks because they “were unable to find mutually agreeable terms.”This would be the second time an attempted merger of Sprint, controlled by SoftBank Group Corp, and T-Mobile, controlled by Deutsche Telekom, has failed. A combined company would have had more than 130 million U.S. subscribers, behind Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc.Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-ma-t-mobile-us/sprint-and-t-mobile-end-merger-negotiations-idUSL2N1NA0BP'|'2017-11-04T19:55:00.000+02:00'
'8d78e8c067cab5748f56b1493977422345148136'|'Billionaire Blavatnik weighs big share purchase in Teva Pharm - reports'|'November 5, 2017 / 11:34 AM / Updated an hour ago Billionaire Blavatnik weighs big share purchase in Teva Pharm: reports Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik is looking to buy a significant stake in debt-ridden Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ), according to Israeli media reports. FILE PHOTO: A building belonging to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world''s biggest generic drugmaker and Israel''s largest company, is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Two of Israel’s leading financial news outlets, Globes and The Marker, reported on Sunday that Blavatnik has been examining a large share purchase in Teva, whose stock price hit a 17-year low last week after the company again cut its annual profit forecast. Officials at Blavatnik’s U.S.-based industrial group, Access Industries, were not immediately reachable for comment. Teva ( TEVA.N ), the world’s biggest generic drugmaker, declined to comment. The Marker reported that Blavatnik was looking to acquire up to a $3 billion stake in Teva. The company has a $12.3 billion market cap. The investment could either be done through a private stock listing, which would help Teva deal with its nearly $35 billion debt burden, or the shares could be bought from pharmaceutical firm Allergan ( AGN.N ), the report said. Allergan received a 10 percent stake in Teva as part of a 2016 deal in which Teva bought its generics business for $40.5 billion. Allergan announced last week that it would begin selling down that stake. Blavatnik’s Access has investments in real estate, chemicals, media and technology with Warner Music among its highest profile businesses. Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-m-a/billionaire-blavatnik-weighs-big-share-purchase-in-teva-pharm-reports-idUKKBN1D50KP'|'2017-11-05T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'ab79ab3629e9cf09c9a6c7496f0104f64770c517'|'PSA to cut Opel models, curb discounts: Frankfurter Allgemeine'|'November 6, 2017 / 2:14 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago PSA to cut Opel models, curb discounts: Frankfurter Allgemeine Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) plans to cut the number of models and rein in discounts at its Opel division, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Monday, without citing the source of its information. An Opel logo is pictured on a car in front of the Opel headquarters in Ruesselsheim June 9, 2010. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The French carmaker is in the process of integrating Opel after buying it earlier this year from General Motors ( GM.N ), a task which analysts say will lead to sweeping job cuts. The chief executives of PSA and Opel will on Thursday present a turnaround plan for the German carmaker to return it to profitability over the next three years. Under the plan, PSA CEO Carlos Tavares wants to rein in Opel’s practice of selling its cars at big discounts, for instance via so-called self-registrations, Frankfurter Allgemeine said, without being more specific. Opel’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt will become a center for engineering and electrification at the German carmaker, the newspaper said. PSA has already said it will use its own technology and vehicle platforms for future Opel models to cut costs and bring down emissions. Emerging details of the PSA-Opel recovery program reinforce the impression that PSA CEO Tavares plans to repeat a similar cost-cutting deal implemented years ago at the French group which at the time was wrestling with a prolonged European auto-market slump. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-psa-opel/psa-to-cut-opel-models-curb-discounts-frankfurter-allgemeine-idUSKBN1D61SF'|'2017-11-06T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'eac5e67c28a98dc531a858557bac297a45250fc8'|'Growth without scale: Deutsche Telekom''s T-Mobile headache'|'* T-Mobile-Sprint merger talks collapsed* Main owner Deutsche Telekom plays up T-Mobile growth prospects* U.S. business is growth driver but, alone, lacks scale* “I’d just love them to sell it,” says investorBy Douglas BusvineFRANKFURT, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The collapse of the attempt by T-Mobile US to merge with Sprint Corp will underline its importance as a driver of growth when its main owner, Deutsche Telekom, reports quarterly results this week.T-Mobile, under charismatic CEO John Legere, keeps hitting home runs, already reporting it that added 1.3 million net customers in the third quarter - the 18th time in a row it has achieved the feat.T-Mobile reported revenues in the third quarter that topped $10 billion for the first time, up 8 percent.The picture for Deutsche Telekom group on Thursday is likely to be different, with analysts on average forecasting group revenues of 18.4 billion euros ($21.4 billion) - a year-on-year gain of just 1.6 percent.That would reflect barely positive growth in Telekom’s crowded and heavily regulated home market, where sales rose just 0.4 percent in the first half, and at its European holdings that were ahead by just 1.5 percent.Deutsche Telekom, which has toyed with options for its U.S. business for years, put a brave face on the unravelling of the deal on Saturday night, saying T-Mobile would continue its successful growth strategy.“We supported our American subsidiary to invest more than $40 billion over the last years, thus building a basis for strong growth in the upcoming years,” CEO Tim Hoettges said.HOME AND AWAY But some investors wonder whether the best years may now be behind T-Mobile, whose shares have risen ninefold from the low they hit after the global financial crisis to a peak of $68 in June.“I’d just love them to sell it,” one UK-based fund manager who holds Deutsche Telekom stock said last week as reports surfaced that the T-Mobile-Sprint talks were in trouble.At T-Mobile’s latest share price, Deutsche Telekom’s 64 percent stake would be worth $31 billion.“There’s a tendency to run things for ever, sometimes, and then you end up selling at the wrong times,” the fund manager added.Together, T-Mobile and Sprint would have had about 130 million customers, putting a merged entity a close third in the United States behind market leaders AT&T and Verizon .Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers, requiring a lot more good quarters to close the gap on its own.Lacking sufficient scale and running a mobile-first strategy, T-Mobile may face challenges if Sprint, controlled by Japan’s Softbank Group, revives its efforts to hook up with a U.S. cable firm, according to a top-10 Telekom shareholder.An approach by Softbank chief Masayoshi Son was rebuffed in July by Charter Communications.$1 = 0.8615 euros Additional reporting by Simon Jessop; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-ma-t-mobile-us-deutsche-tele/growth-without-scale-deutsche-telekoms-t-mobile-headache-idUSL5N1NB0KE'|'2017-11-05T22:42:00.000+02:00'
'9acf6c1696dfd223fc2bed6a3919ab9a20e4f271'|'Saudi''s Kingdom Holding says has support from government after chairman detained'|'DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holding said on Sunday it had the support of the country’s government after billionaire chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was detained overnight.Prince Alwaleed, one of the country’s highest profile businessmen, was one of several princes, ministers, and former ministers detained as part of an anti-corruption crackdown, two senior Saudi officials told Reuters on Sunday.Kingdom Holding’s chief executive, listed on its website as Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman, has received the support of the government, and would continue to operate “business as usual”, the investment firm said in a stock market statement.Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of King Salman, and the grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdulaziz al-Saud, holds stakes in many major international companies including Citigroup, Twitter, ride-hailing firm Lyft and Time Warner .Earlier, Kingdom Holding reported it swung to a third quarter profit after restating the same year ago period to a loss. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-kingdom-holding/saudis-kingdom-holding-says-has-support-from-government-after-chairman-detained-idUSL5N1NB0M6'|'2017-11-05T22:27:00.000+02:00'
'18f922a31751246746efd04bedd83c95c12d7544'|'Royal purge sends shockwaves through Saudi Arabia''s elites - World news'|'Saudi Arabia’s leadership has pulled off its boldest move yet to consolidate power around its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, arresting 11 senior princes , one of the country’s richest men and scores of former ministers in what it billed as a corruption purge.The move sidelined at least 20 senior figures, among them outspoken billionaire, Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, sending shockwaves through the ranks of the kingdom’s elites, who had long viewed senior royals as immune.Saudi arrests show crown prince is a risk-taker with a zeal for reform Read moreThe scale and targets of Saturday’s purge – ordered by royal decree from King Salman – dwarfed anything seen in Riyadh in recent years, deliberately targeting figures deemed previously to be untouchables.Figures close to the crown prince said the move aimed to reshape public behaviour in a kingdom where patronage networks often determine business deals and prominent families secure substantial cuts from lucrative contracts.However, others in the Saudi capital described the move as a naked attempt to weed out dissent, and political rivals, as the ambitious heir to the throne continues to stamp his authority across most aspects of public life in Saudi Arabia . The move strengthens Prince Mohammed’s control of the kingdom’s security institutions, which had long been headed by separate powerful branches of the ruling family.Nearly six months into his tenure as crown prince, which will eventually see him succeed his father as monarch, Prince Mohammed has launched a dizzying series of reforms designed to transform the kingdom’s moribund economy and put the relationship between the state and its citizens on a new footing.Corruption has been rampant in recent generations in Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed had vowed to make business dealings more transparent. The spectacle of royal family members being arrested would add weight to claims of a crackdown on graft. However, such is the manner in which business is done in the kingdom, there would be few senior figures not connected to contract deals that would be considered corrupt in many other parts of the world.The attorney general, Saud al-Mojeb, said the newly mandated corruption commission had started multiple investigations. “The suspects are being granted the same rights and treatment as any other Saudi citizen,” he said. “A suspect’s position or status does not influence the firm and fair application of justice. During the investigation, all parties retain full legal privileges relating to their personal and private property, including funds.”The decree establishing the commission said: “The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable.”The arrested officials are believed to be being housed in the five-star Ritz Carlton Hotel, which two weeks ago held a high-profile investment summit under the auspices of Prince Mohammed. The convention centre next door was used to receive Donald Trump in May, when the US president travelled to Saudi Arabia to reset relations with his country’s long-term ally, which had deteriorated under the Obama administration, that had pivoted to Iran.Saudi king sacks top ministers and gives more power to crown prince Read moreThe Trump visit emboldened the kingdom, which has been locked in a decades-long tussle with Iran for power and influence across the region. Since then, a swath of economic policies have been launched, along with cultural reforms unprecedented in Saudi history. By mid next year, women are expected to be allowed to drive, to enter sports stadiums and travel abroad without the endorsement of their male guardians.Prince Mohammed will oversee the corruption commission, adding to his already formidable list of responsibilities, including his role as defence minister and champion of the economic transformation, dubbed Vision 2030, that aims to revolutionise most aspects of Saudi life within 12 years.Prince Mohammed told the Guardian last month that the kingdom had been “not normal” for the past 30 years and pledged to return Saudi Arabia to moderate Islam.The kingdom’s top council of clerics tweeted that anti-corruption efforts were “as important as the fight against terrorism”, essentially giving religious backing to the crackdown. In September, Prince Mohammed authorised the detention of some of the country’s most powerful clerics, fearing they may not be loyal to his agenda and supportive of his boycott of Qatar, which Saudi leaders accuse of destablising the region.Saturday’s moves on the home front followed a striking foreign policy stance earlier in the day that appeared to put the kingdom on a political collision course with Iran. Under Saudi pressure, the Lebanese prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, unexpectedly quit his job, citing Iranian interference across the Middle East.Hariri made his statement in Riyadh after twice being summoned to the Saudi capital during the week.Topics Saudi Arabia King Salman Middle East and North Africa analysis'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/05/royal-purge-shockwaves-saudi-arabia-elites-mohammed-bin-salman'|'2017-11-05T23:35:00.000+02:00'
'85421a0ac23d50c7584da0597b46a6c03f0ba374'|'Saudi purge worries investors but may speed reforms'|'November 5, 2017 / 1:42 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Saudi purge worries investors but may speed reforms Reuters Staff * Scale and suddeness of purge jolts stock market * International face of Saudi business is detained * Corruption probe could force sales of equity holdings * But crown prince gains more power to overule old guard * Centralisation of authority may be needed for reforms By Andrew Torchia   A purge of Saudi Arabia’s political and business elites briefly dragged down the kingdom’s stock market on Sunday but prices recovered to close higher as some investors bet the crackdown could bolster reforms in the long run. The size of the purge - 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers were detained by a newly created   headed by Crown   - raised questions about the stability and predictability of the Saudi government. For foreigners, a major shock was the detention of flamboyant   as a big investor in top Western companies such as Citigroup is known as the international face of Saudi business. Local investors, meanwhile, worried about whether a sustained investigation into corruption could turn up scandals in the kingdom’s opaque business world, forcing people implicated to sell off their equity holdings. But many bankers and analysts saw the purge, which replaced the head of the National Guard, as a power grab by Prince Mohammed, designed to remove any remaining obstacles to his authority and assure his eventual succession to the throne. This, they said, could help the economy by making it easier for Prince Mohammed to pursue radical reforms that include slashing the state budget deficit, putting more women into employment, lifting a ban on women driving, and selling $300 billion of state assets. “This is the latest act of concentration of power in Saudi,” said Hasnain Malik, global head of equity research at emerging markets investment bank Exotix. ”As unprecedented and controversial as it may be, this centralisation might also be a necessary condition for pushing the austerity and transformation agenda, the benefits of which very few investors are pricing in.” After initially tumbling as much as 2.2 percent on Sunday, the Saudi stock index rebounded to close slightly higher. Shares related to some of the detained people, such as Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding, sank but most banks rose, a sign of economic optimism. INSTABILITY The purge may increase Prince Mohammed’s grassroots support by tackling corruption, a problem that has long plagued the economy. “It’s a populist move that makes sense because a lot of the princes, businessmen and bureaucrats are corrupt, taking kickbacks and being involved in all kinds of shady deals,” said Bernard Haykel, professor of Near East studies at Princeton University. A danger for financial markets, however, is that Prince Mohammed is shaking up business practices and ties that have lasted for decades, a move which could backfire if it triggers an exodus of money and wealthy individuals from the country. “The fact that some of the country’s leading business people were arrested will scare the private sector and there might be even more capital flight than before. And most bureaucrats will now be terrified, perhaps justifiably,” Haykel said. Many corporate executives expect Prince Mohammed to persuade or pressure rich Saudis to repatriate some of the billions of dollars which they are believed to have transferred overseas for safe-keeping, and which could now help to kick-start the development projects that he plans. The corruption crackdown may be an initial step in this effort; the decree creating the committee gave it the right, pending the result of investigations, to seize assets at home or abroad and transfer them to the state Treasury. James Dorsey, senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, wrote that Prince Mohammed appeared to be reacting to growing opposition within the royal family and the military to his reforms and Riyadh’s military intervention in Yemen. “It raises questions about the reform process that increasingly is based on a unilateral rather than a consensual rewriting of the kingdom’s social contract.” For many people, however, a unilateral approach is seen as the best chance to push through the reforms. A chief economist at a big regional bank said Prince Mohammed’s main motive for acting was frustration that reforms were not moving fast enough. The privatisation programme, for example, including the planned sale of 5 percent of national oil giant Saudi Aramco, has been discussed for many months with little action. Now the programme may pick up. “The message this should send to foreign investors is it’s unwise to bet against MbS,” said Sam Blatteis, chief executive of regional advisory firm The MENA Catalysts, using a common abbreviation of Prince Mohammed’s name. “When he wants to get things done, he has proven that he can. This is not a consolidation of power, it’s an acceleration. The wheels of policy-making are moving faster.” Reporting by Andrew Torchia Additional reporting by Tom Arnold in Dubai and Stephen Kalin in Riyadh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-economy/saudi-purge-worries-investors-but-may-speed-reforms-idUSL5N1NB0EA'|'2017-11-05T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'9a459ff13b2d7ad8552b7f515a70ac4d6afbd4ce'|'Uzbekistan to attend OPEC, non-OPEC meeting on November 30, Saudi''s Falih says'|'November 5, 2017 / 10:59 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Uzbekistan to attend OPEC, non-OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, Saudi''s Falih says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan may attend a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Vienna this month as an observer, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Falih met his counterparts from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Tashkent on Saturday. The Saudi minister said after the meeting that more work was needed to cut inventories. “Uzbekistan has responded (positively) to participating at the Vienna meeting this month, and has expressed its readiness to attend as an observer,” Falih said on his Twitter account. Uzbekistan is a small oil producer with around 594 million barrels of proven crude oil reserves. In 2015, its total petroleum and other liquids production was 78,900 barrels per day (bpd), according to the EIA. Saudi Arabia and Russia are leading a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to cut oil supply, with the aim of draining global inventories and propping up oil prices. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, has been urging other producers to join the supply cut pact. Riyadh holds the presidency of OPEC this year. The involvement of Uzbekistan is a sign of how the pact is gaining more support from other producers, OPEC sources said. OPEC, Russia and other oil producers are due to meet on Nov. 30 in Vienna to decide whether to extend the current agreement which expires in March 2018. Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-uzbekistan/uzbekistan-to-attend-opec-non-opec-meeting-on-nov-30-saudis-falih-says-idUKKBN1D50HV'|'2017-11-05T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'a57e853b669bef17df4ba5aecf6dbc6a0885cbe8'|'PBOC governor urges China to promote equity, cut debt, eliminate zombie companies: official media'|'November 4, 2017 / 5:51 AM / in 16 hours PBOC governor urges China to promote equity, cut debt, eliminate "zombie" companies: official media Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank boss spelt out his strategy to prevent a future financial crisis, urging broadened equity funding and direct finance to reduce corporate leverage and eliminate “zombie” companies, official media reported on Saturday. China''s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan speaks during a session on the second day of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RC1E4532BFF0 Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of People’s Bank of China, said that the market should play a “decisive role” in allocating financial resources, but also stressed the importance of stronger regulation and Communist Party leadership in guiding financial reform, according to the Shanghai Securities News. In warding off systemic financial risks, China should deal with “both cause and symptoms”, and be active in “both preemptive measures and reactive solutions,” Zhou wrote in an article aimed at helping the public deepen understanding of last month’s 19th Communist Party Congress report. During the Congress, Zhou, who is widely expected to step down soon, spoke of the risks of a “Minsky moment”, referring to a sudden collapse in asset prices after long periods of growth, sparked by debt or currency pressures. China has so far avoided a sharp slowdown in its economy, but analysts and global economic bodies such as the International Monetary Fund warn Beijing that China is over-indebted. Rating agencies estimate the overall debt burden at almost three times annual economic output. In his article, Zhou said that China should “actively develop equity financing, and steadily increase the proportion of direct finance.” In direct finance, borrowers borrow funds directly from the financial markets without using intermediaries, potentially reducing risks in the banking system. The more specific measures Zhou suggested included reforming China’s equity issuance mechanisms, further developing private equity funding, promoting debt-to-equity swaps, and expanding the bond market. Meanwhile Zhou also called for further financial deregulation, saying China will relax management of its forex market, promote yuan internationalization and broaden market access by foreign financial institutions. But in what may been seen as balancing measure to such market-friendly steps, Zhou also stressed the importance of tougher supervision, urging regulators and local governments to crack down on illegal arbitrage, shadow banking, and “illegitimate fundraising” that disrupted market order. Reporting by Samuel Shen and Alexandra Harney; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy/pboc-governor-urges-china-to-promote-equity-cut-debt-eliminate-zombie-companies-official-media-idUSKBN1D405Z'|'2017-11-04T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'23093b11c9727d69d674717ab6ffee96d8167955'|'Saudi oil minister to meet Russian, Kazakh counterparts'|'November 4, 2017 / 5:42 AM / in an hour Saudi oil minister to meet Russian, Kazakh counterparts Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TASHKENT (Reuters) - Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih will meet Russian and Kazakh energy ministers Alexander Novak and Kanat Bozumbayev at a Community of Independent States’ Electric Power Council conference in Tashkent on Saturday, event organisers said. Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih speaks during the opening of Baghdad International Exhibition, Baghdad, Iraq October 21, 2017. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily Russia and Kazakhstan are parts of a global oil deal between OPEC and non-OPEC nations to shore up oil prices. “Our joint efforts between Russia, Saudi Arabia and 24 other states that have been working on stabilising the oil market will have great impact and I hope great benefits”, Falih told a meeting attended by Novak and Bozumbayev. Falih met Alisher Sultanov, Uzbek deputy prime minister and head of state energy firm UzbekNefteGaz, before the start of the conference. It was not clear at what time he would meet the Russian and Kazakh officials. Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov and Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-russia-oil/saudi-oil-minister-to-meet-russian-kazakh-counterparts-idUKKBN1D405S'|'2017-11-04T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'55c5b97a908852fc92c60e230a9b9c5a5380edea'|'ECB should accept lower inflation, says ex-chief economist'|'Reuters TV United States  56 PM / a few seconds ago ECB should accept lower inflation, says ex-chief economist Bart H. Meijer 3 Min Read THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should ditch its central inflation target and accept a less stringent one, as the current policy cornerstone has distorted markets and risks normalizing interventions, its former chief economist said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Former chief economist of European Central Bank (ECB) Juergen Stark gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Frankfurt October 22, 2012. Picture taken October 22, 2012. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner Juergen Stark said the ECB’s ultra-loose policy had pumped up prices of bonds, stocks and property to levels unhinged from economic reality, at a time when low rates of inflation did not pose an economic threat. “The ECB has to accept that inflation can be lower in the future than we were used to”, Stark -- who quit the ECB in 2011 in a row over policy -- told Reuters in an interview. “Then they won’t have to keep distorting markets.” In an attempt to pull inflation back to its mid-term target of just under 2 percent following the global financial crisis, the ECB has -- in common with other major central banks -- adopted unprecedented stimulus including cutting interest rates below zero and buying trillions of euros worth of bonds. “Low inflation has in fact helped economic growth in the euro area to its present levels”, the German economist said on the sidelines of an event organized by Aegon Asset Management in The Hague. “It has raised the disposable income of households and has worked like a tax reduction.” The ECB is reducing its bond-buying stimulus after extending it into next year, but has not ruled out a further prolongation beyond September, when the program is now scheduled to end, if economic conditions so dictate. Globalisation and technological innovations could put a lasting brake on inflation, in which case a narrow inflation goal would just lead to more and more interventions, Stark added. “A central bank is incapable of fine-tuning the inflation rate as the ECB is trying to do”, he said. “Accept lower inflation, so that you don’t harm the market economy.” Euro zone inflation has been below the ECB’s target since early 2013, and staff projections indicate it will not rise back towards 2 percent before 2020 at the earliest. Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-stark-interview/ecb-should-accept-lower-inflation-says-ex-chief-economist-idUKKBN1D61WX'|'2017-11-06T16:49:00.000+02:00'
'091b0aedc9bb6c226bf019a9020eff05260b2173'|'The Guardian view on the Paradise Papers: a light on murky dealings - Editorial - Opinion'|'Monday 6 November 2017 19.41 GMT Last modified on Monday 6 November 2017 20.20 GMT T he millions of leaked files in the Paradise Papers once again shine a bright light on where the uber-elite stash their cash. Until very recently the hidden web of investments made by the super-rich operated in the comforting darkness offered by secretive tax shelters. The disinfecting sunlight provided by whistleblowing-led investigations since 2013 has fundamentally altered how the world looks at, and regulates, tax affairs. Last year’s Panama Papers cost the leaders of Iceland and Pakistan their jobs . More than a dozen nations have changed their laws and the offshore law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers closed offices in tax havens. It is work that is both necessary and brave: one of the journalists involved in investigating the Panama Papers was blown up by a car bomb last month. This latest dump of data centres around the Bermudan law firm Appleby, a 119-year-old operation favoured by the global super-rich and big corporations, as well as the Singaporean company Asiaciti Trust and the mostly opaque company registries of 19 tax havens. The first stories have already generated global headlines: about why millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate went into an offshore portfolio which included an investment in the retailer BrightHouse , criticised for exploiting poor families with high-interest loans to purchase white goods; and about why anti-poverty campaigner Bono has so much money he didn’t know some of it bought a piece of a Lithuanian shopping centre via a tax haven. It’s clear a dramatic shift is under way: not only is the amount of wealth flooding into tax shelters around the world rising to unprecedented levels, but so much of wheeling and dealing is also done by a tiny fraction of humanity. Some of this is historical: until the early 1980s the wealthy really could only squirrel away their cash safely in Switzerland . Since then there has been an explosion in no-tax, high-secrecy locations at the same time that deregulation and globalisation swelled the ranks of the super-rich. Tax havens have facilitated the rise in global inequality. If it feels like there is one set of rules for the rich and another for the poor, it is because there is. A report in September , co-authored by the economist Gabriel Zucman, estimated that approximately 10% of global GDP – about $7.8tn (£6tn) – is held offshore. This is about the size of Japan’s and Germany’s economies combined. The academic says 80% of all offshore cash is now owned by 0.1% of the richest households. In Britain the top 0.01% of households stash about a third of their wealth in tax havens – and, once this is accounted for, their share of wealth is significantly higher today than in the 1960s. Taxes are, as a noted American jurist put it, the price we pay for civilisation. Voters tax themselves, among other things, for schools, roads, a health service, for welfare provision, to pay their soldiers and build a diplomatic corps. When a group at the top of society secedes and forms a globally mobile republic, able to choose which jurisdiction they wish to operate under, the public is right to ask why we allow this to happen. Why should taxes just be for the little people? This is true of corporate entities as well as individuals. Increasingly – and worryingly – the international profits of many corporations are showing up in tax havens. It’s no good for ministers to claim the sharing of information on British residents will assuage public anger. There’s little evidence that the tax authorities or the police have the resources to go toe-to-toe with the global elite . The government could shrink the tax avoidance industry overnight – by banning giving public sector contracts to big consulting firms that offer tax advisory services. If crown dependencies and overseas territories want to trade on an association with Britain then tell them to accept mainland standards for regulating financial services . After the austerity years of private affluence and public impoverishment, there are few takers for the idea that the rich shift cash offshore for laudable reasons. The public mood is one of cynicism, not merely scepticism – and it’s justified by the revelations that politicians have failed to take seriously enough for years. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/economics'|'https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/the-guardian-view-on-the-paradise-papers-a-light-on-murky-dealings'|'2017-11-06T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'2a715d423b3263edc9b544a720c31c84f5886d43'|'ABB overhauls global Power Grids business, halts production at U.S, Swiss plants'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB ( ABBN.S ) is reorganizing part of its global power grids operations as the Swiss engineering group responds to the division’s sluggish profitability and falling orders.ABB electrical transformer plant in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. on July 6, 2017. REUTERS/David Lawder The move comes as ABB seeks to justify its decision last year to reject calls from its second-largest shareholder to spin off Power Grids, the group’s biggest but least profitable business.Power Grids, which also makes electrical substations, has suffered a 9 percent drop in orders this year while its profit margin of 9.9 percent lags ABB’s other businesses and the group level of 12.5 percent.Although the business has improved in the third quarter, ABB is stepping up its efforts as it aims to achieve profitability for Power Grids of 10 to 14 percent from next year.ABB said on Monday that it will restructure operations in North America, halting production at its factory in St. Louis and investing in its sites in South Boston and Crystal Springs, Mississippi, as well as expanding its medium and large transformer factory in Varennes, Canada.The company said is also consolidating European production of traction transformers in Lodz, Poland, halting production of the train components at its factory in Geneva, Switzerland.Other initiatives include expansion of production in India to better supply the local market and a factory upgrade in Datong, China, to improve efficiency and meet increasing demand.ABB did not disclose the total number of jobs to be shed in the overhaul, though 100 are being axed in Geneva. The site will continue to produce high-speed chargers for electric buses.It said 120 jobs would go at the St. Louis site, with production shifting to South Boston. The eventual number of jobs going is expected to be balanced out by increased hiring in India, China and Boston, with more than 500 posts being created over the next two years.ABB declined to say how much the restructuring would cost, although analysts estimate $60 million to $80 million.The restructuring had been triggered by increased competition and the growing tendency for customers in India and China to buying products locally, ABB said.“This ... will enhance competitiveness and strengthen ABB’s global leadership in transformers by better aligning the business to reflect changing market dynamics,” said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s Power Grids division.Earlier on Monday ABB said it is putting its turnkey projects arm for the oil and gas industry into a joint venture majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering & Construction.Workers’ representatives in Geneva reacted angrily to the restructuring plan, saying that 100 fixed jobs and 43 temporary jobs would be lost.“The Geneva location has been profitable for a long time. The decision to outsource production will cost nearly 150 highly qualified jobs and the destruction of a modern production location in Geneva just for a short-term increase in profitability,” a spokesman for the Unia trade union said.(This version of the story has been corrected to remove reference to high voltage cables in third paragraph as company has sold this business)Reporting by John Revill; Editing by David Goodman and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-abb-factories-restructure/abb-overhauls-global-power-grids-business-halts-production-at-u-s-swiss-plants-idINKBN1D620Z'|'2017-11-06T12:27:00.000+02:00'
'441504879e426ed5111cdea9ec20fc2083b56705'|'Scandal-hit Kobe Steel has a ''look the other way'' culture, they say in hometown'|'November 5, 2017 / 4:50 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Scandal-hit Kobe Steel has a ''look the other way'' culture, they say in hometown Taro Fuse 6 Min Read KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - The fresh university graduate, eager to make a good impression on the job at one of Kobe Steel Ltd’s main plants in Japan, punched the wrong measurements into machines making steel pipes, causing a large batch to come out too short. A car drives through Kobe near the Kobe Steel headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Files “I thought I was going to be fired,” recalled the former employee nearly 40 years later. But Shinzo Abe, now Japan’s prime minister, stayed on the job at Japan’s third-largest steelmaker for three years before entering politics in 1982. Abe has called the steel industry the backbone of the nation. Kobe Steel, a 112-year-old company in south-central Japan’s Hyogo prefecture, has risen from wartime devastation and natural disaster but its past is littered with examples of corporate misconduct. Its admission last month that workers had tampered with product specifications for at least a decade is the latest in a string of scandals that has battered Japan’s reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse. Clients around the world, including top carmakers and airplane manufacturers, have been scrambling to check whether the safety or performance of their products have been compromised. Workers, executives and shopowners in Kobe, a gritty, industrial city bordered by sloping hills where cattle are bred for the famed Kobe beef, said they were concerned but not surprised by the scandal. Kobe Steel, which has apologised for the tampering, declined comment for this article. “The corporate culture was to look the other way even while you saw what was going on,” said a retired employee who worked at the company’s flagship steel plant, Kobe Works - a symbol of the city’s quick recovery from a 1995 earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people. The company’s other main plant in the area is Kakogawa Works, in the nearby city of Kakogawa. “They were supposed to be instilling a culture that paid attention when improprieties were discovered,” the former employee said. “In the end they didn’t create such a corporate culture. That’s management’s responsibility.” The company initially said some workers had falsified data on contract specifications for a relatively small amount of aluminium and copper products, but it later admitted the problem had spread. In 2006, Kobe Steel admitted falsifying soot-emissions data from the blast furnaces at Kobe Works and Kakogawa Works. The latest scandal reflects “exactly the same set-up”, said Shoichi Tarumoto, who was then mayor of Kakogawa. “It looks like nothing has changed at Kobe Steel.” PAST PROBLEMS Kobe Steel has admitted taking part in bid-rigging for a bridge project in 2005, and failing to report income to tax authorities in 2008, 2011 and 2013. The company exceeded established limits for ground and water pollution in 2006. Illegal political funding to candidates in local assembly elections in 2009 prompted the resignations of the then CEO and chairman. And last year Kobe Steel admitted a subsidiary falsified data on stainless-steel products. A senior official in local government who has dealt with the company for years said: “Kobe Steel always scouts the backstreets for shortcuts. That’s their nature.” Cars drive through Kobe near the Kobe Steel headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Files Although its local dominance has waned, Kobe Steel remains one of only two Kobe-based companies, along with Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, that have revenues over 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) a year. The Kakogawa Works is that city’s biggest company, vital as a local taxpayer and employer. More than a third of the Kobe Steel group’s 6,123 domestic customers are concentrated in Hyogo or neighbouring Osaka, according to credit-research firm Teikoku Databank. More than half its customers are small and midsize Japanese companies. The other clients are spread around the world and include top automobile manufacturers, airplane makers, railways and nearly any industry that uses steel, aluminium or copper in any form. No safety issues have been found so far because of the tampering, but Kobe Steel has withdrawn its forecast for its first annual profit in three years. Whatever the eventual economic impact, the scandal is already affecting morale in Kobe city. “If Kobe Steel suffers a blow, this is the area that will be most affected,” said Tsuyoshi Matsuda of Teikoku Databank’s Kobe office. Slideshow (4 Images) Kobe Steel acknowledges some customers have shifted orders to other suppliers. Major banks are instructing their Kobe area branches to keep close watch on the credit management at companies that do business with the steelmaker, bankers say. “HEAVY MOOD” The scandal “isn’t an open topic on the job,” said a worker in his 30s, finishing the night shift around 8 a.m. at Kobe Works, a hulking jumble of rusting pipes, risers and tanks. “Nobody says it out loud, but I think people are worried,” he said. “It’s a heavy mood.” Shinzaike, the local train station closest to Kobe Works, is home to several bar-restaurants that count the company’s employees among their best customers. Since the latest scandal erupted, business has dried up, traders said. “Looks like they’re holding back from going drinking,” said a pub owner. Reservations for year-end parties would normally be starting now, but there haven’t been any yet, he added. Abe, who worked at both the Kobe and Kakogawa works, has called his years at Kobe Steel “the starting point of my adult life.” Last year, according to media reports, he urged young people entering the workforce to follow his example of learning from mistakes at Kobe Steel. “I got through it without incident,” he said. “I want you not to be discouraged by a few mistakes but rather do the best you can.” ($1 = 114.1700 yen) Reporting by Taro Fuse; Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Ritsuko Shimizu in Tokyo; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kobe-steel-scandal-hometown/scandal-hit-kobe-steel-has-a-look-the-other-way-culture-they-say-in-hometown-idINKBN1D505W'|'2017-11-05T01:50:00.000+02:00'
'90ac4f1e565bad3aef06ecb11e64cd4a5f45d5db'|'Credit Suisse names Galietto to head U.S. stock trading'|'November 4, 2017 / 3:43 PM / in 10 minutes Credit Suisse names Galietto to head U.S. stock trading Olivia Oran 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG ( CSGN.S ) has hired Paul Galietto as head of Americas equities trading, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, in a move to further boost its stock business. The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at a branch in Winterthur, Switzerland November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Galietto most recently was the chief of equities Americas at UBS Group AG ( UBSG.S ) and before that he worked more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch. A spokesperson for UBS said that Galietto left the company in 2015. A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the internal memo. Credit Suisse has made a number of senior hires this year in its stock trading unit under new equities head Mike Stewart. Those hires include Michael Ebert, who joined as global head of equity derivatives from Bank of America Corp ( BAC.N ); Doug Crofton, who was brought over from Bank of America to run U.S. equities sales and trading, and David Bleustein, who became head of Americas equity research and had worked at UBS. Under Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse has reduced its footprint in some parts of trading, including fixed income, while focussing on ways to boost lending to wealthy clients. Credit Suisse’s equities business in the United States ranked between No. 7 and No. 9 by revenue, according to industry tracker Coalition. The bank said on Thursday that equities revenue had risen 5 percent year over year during the third quarter. Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-credit-suisse-gp-moves/credit-suisse-names-galietto-to-head-u-s-stock-trading-idUKKBN1D40MR'|'2017-11-04T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'52eeda879a7c853ee7960d78389aa889633143de'|'Japanese cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer - On the other hand'|'THE Japanese make cars that last but replace them relatively quickly. The average car in Japan is three years younger than in America. This combination of durable manufacturing and dutiful consumption of a prized national product works out well for the rest of the world; many countries import older Japanese cars in bulk. Secondhand vehicles fill vast parking lots in Japan’s port cities, awaiting shipment to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.The third-most-popular destination is Myanmar, which imported over 80,000 used Japanese vehicles in the first nine months of this year, according to Japan’s International Auto Trade Association. Drivers believe that Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans can stand up to the country’s pockmarked roads, a faith not yet shown in South Korean and Chinese cars. There is only one problem, which is that Japan drives on the left, Myanmar on the right. As a consequence, most of Myanmar’s drivers sit on the wrong side of the car, where it is harder to see oncoming traffic. Settle into the passenger seat of a Honda taxi on a narrow rural road and you may be called upon to perform unexpected duties like telling your driver when it is safe to overtake a slow-moving lorry, without hitting a scooter, gaggle of children or bonnet-less jalopy travelling in the other direction.Not everyone executes these responsibilities successfully. Myanmar has the highest rate of deaths per vehicle among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the World Health Organisation. Evidence of accidents litters the roadside outside Yangon: a silver Toyota that has lost everything in front of its windscreen and a red Suzuki hatchback that also now has a hatchfront.Myanmar’s government periodically tightens the import rules to keep older and less safe cars off the country’s roads. In October it said it will allow individuals to import only cars built in 2016 or after. And after this year, it will no longer grant import permits for right-hand-drive cars.The tighter policy may encourage local car assembly. Suzuki will open a new factory for left-hand-drive cars outside Yangon next year, adding to its existing plant in the city’s east. But the change will oblige drivers to buy cars that are either more expensive or less authentically Japanese. The new left-hand-drive Corolla on display in the Toyota “Mingalar” dealership in Yangon, for example, was made in Thailand and is listed at $33,900, over 26 times the country’s national income per person.One other constituency may also come to regret the altered rules. Many poorer residents of Yangon, where motorcycles are banned, ride bicycles or sit in three-wheeled “trishaws”, trundling alongside the kerb. As more of Myanmar’s drivers shift to the left seat, oncoming traffic will be easier to spot; but these kerbside pedal pushers will be more exposed than ever.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "On the other hand"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21730908-government-outlawing-right-hand-drive-cars-japanese-cars-enjoy-afterlife-myanmar?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'9d16b71bae808bb2ed5c0f1ca239951be951fedf'|'Qatar Airways buys 9.6 percent stake in Cathay Pacific: Kingboard Chemical'|'DUBAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Monday it had broadened its global reach with the acquisition of a 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ), complicating the Hong Kong carrier’s share registry and sparking a sharp fall in its share price.Qatar Airways aircrafts are seen at Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon Hong Kong’s Kingboard Chemical Holdings ( 0148.HK ) said it had sold the stake to Qatar Airways for HK$5.16 billion ($661 million), making the Middle Eastern carrier the third-largest shareholder in Cathay.For Cathay, the Qatar stake will give it a third strategic shareholder behind Swire Pacific Ltd ( 0019.HK ) and Air China Ltd ( 601111.SS ), potentially complicating a restructuring plan aimed at slashing HK$4 billion in costs over three years.Without domestic flights to underpin earnings, Asian carriers Cathay and Singapore Airlines Ltd ( SIAL.SI ) have struggled against Chinese and Middle Eastern rivals, with Cathay already shedding 600 jobs since May.For state-owned Qatar Airways, its first major stake in an Asian airline will allow it to boost its global influence and potentially traffic through its Doha hub, amid the worst political crisis in years among the Gulf Arab states.The airline has been unable to fly to the previously lucrative markets of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as part of an airspace rights dispute with neighbors, and has been looking to invest elsewhere to broaden its reach.It was rebuffed by American Airlines Group Inc ( AAL.O ) earlier this year.Despite Cathay’s troubles, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker described it as “one of the strongest airlines in the world ... with massive potential for the future”.Cathay shares have risen by 29.4 percent since the start of January despite the airline in August posting its worst first-half loss in 20 years.Shares of Cathay Pacific dropped as much as 4.7 percent on Monday morning, as investors worried about its direction with Qatar Airways on its registry. The stock was 1.7 percent down at 0342 GMT, while the broader market was down 1 percent.“Cathay will have three major shareholders, all with different and potentially conflicting interests - Swire, Air China and Qatar Airways,” said Corrine Png, CEO of transport research firm Crucial Perspective.“This may not necessarily be favorable for Cathay as it is facing operating challenges and undergoing transformation.”Swire Pacific owns 45 percent of Cathay and Air China 30 percent.Will Horton, a Hong Kong-based senior analyst at CAPA Center for Aviation, said that while Qatar Airways’ investment in Cathay was likely to be passive, difficulties could arise if they tried to better integrate their hubs.Cathay flew between Hong Kong and Qatar Airway’s Doha hub as part of a codeshare arrangement between 2014 and 2016, when the route was axed “for commercial reasons”.Qatar Airways’ investment strategy has seen it acquire 20 percent of British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines Group ( ICAG.L ), 10 percent of South America’s LATAM Airlines Group SA LTM.SN and 49 percent of Italy’s Meridiana.Investment holding company Kingboard said it would recognize a gain of HK$800 million on the sale of its entire Cathay stake.($1 = 7.8021 Hong Kong dollars)Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Jamie Freed; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cathay-pacific-m-a-qatar-airways/qatar-airways-buys-9-6-percent-stake-in-cathay-pacific-kingboard-chemical-idINKBN1D601T'|'2017-11-05T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'27e649ab1a9b24987cf98d3732a12194ac74a4e5'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 6'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:33 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 6 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - A young man clad in black and wearing a ballistic vest blasted his way into a Baptist church in this south Texas town on Sunday with an assault-type rifle, leaving at least 26 people dead and 20 others injured. on.wsj.com/2iyTVtU - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose business connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin''s family and inner circle on a required personal financial-disclosure form earlier this year, according to documents released over the weekend. on.wsj.com/2ixNcQK - Qatar Airways Co is buying a stake in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd for $661 million, the latest in a string of investments in global rivals by the Middle East carrier. on.wsj.com/2h8bgJK - A sweeping weekend roundup of more than five dozen princes, ministers and prominent businessmen in Saudi Arabia marks a dramatic escalation in the crown prince''s effort to consolidate power and accelerate far-reaching change in the kingdom. on.wsj.com/2h8bikQ - The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is set to announce he will retire next year, about six months earlier than scheduled, adding to an unusual wave of turnover among the central bank''s top monetary and regulatory decision makers and ushering in new uncertainty about its policy course. on.wsj.com/2h8bArW - The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating three international banks for their roles in selling about $2 billion of debt for Mozambique, opening a new phase in the global inquiry into the bond deals, people familiar with the matter said. on.wsj.com/2h9VqOx (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-6-idUSL3N1NC2CI'|'2017-11-06T07:29:00.000+02:00'
'24ab9181a64d73e1f54ac639c8cc0221a514bcc2'|'Rebuffed by American Airlines, Qatar Airways buys into Cathay Pacific'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:40 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago Rebuffed by American Airlines, Qatar Airways buys into Cathay Pacific Alexander Cornwell , Jamie Freed 4 Min Read DUBAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Monday it had broadened its global reach with the acquisition of a 9.61 percent stake in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ), complicating the Hong Kong carrier’s share registry and sparking a sharp fall in its share price. Qatar Airways aircrafts are seen at Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon Hong Kong’s Kingboard Chemical Holdings ( 0148.HK ) said it had sold the stake to Qatar Airways for HK$5.16 billion ($661 million), making the Middle Eastern carrier the third-largest shareholder in Cathay. For Cathay, the Qatar stake will give it a third strategic shareholder behind Swire Pacific Ltd ( 0019.HK ) and Air China Ltd ( 601111.SS ), potentially complicating a restructuring plan aimed at slashing HK$4 billion in costs over three years. Without domestic flights to underpin earnings, Asian carriers Cathay and Singapore Airlines Ltd ( SIAL.SI ) have struggled against Chinese and Middle Eastern rivals, with Cathay already shedding 600 jobs since May. For state-owned Qatar Airways, its first major stake in an Asian airline will allow it to boost its global influence and potentially traffic through its Doha hub, amid the worst political crisis in years among the Gulf Arab states. The airline has been unable to fly to the previously lucrative markets of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as part of an airspace rights dispute with neighbors, and has been looking to invest elsewhere to broaden its reach. It was rebuffed by American Airlines Group Inc ( AAL.O ) earlier this year. Despite Cathay’s troubles, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker described it as “one of the strongest airlines in the world ... with massive potential for the future”. Cathay shares have risen by 29.4 percent since the start of January despite the airline in August posting its worst first-half loss in 20 years. Shares of Cathay Pacific dropped as much as 4.7 percent on Monday morning, as investors worried about its direction with Qatar Airways on its registry. The stock was 1.7 percent down at 0342 GMT, while the broader market was down 1 percent. “Cathay will have three major shareholders, all with different and potentially conflicting interests - Swire, Air China and Qatar Airways,” said Corrine Png, CEO of transport research firm Crucial Perspective. “This may not necessarily be favorable for Cathay as it is facing operating challenges and undergoing transformation.” Swire Pacific owns 45 percent of Cathay and Air China 30 percent. Will Horton, a Hong Kong-based senior analyst at CAPA Center for Aviation, said that while Qatar Airways’ investment in Cathay was likely to be passive, difficulties could arise if they tried to better integrate their hubs. Cathay flew between Hong Kong and Qatar Airway’s Doha hub as part of a codeshare arrangement between 2014 and 2016, when the route was axed “for commercial reasons”. Qatar Airways’ investment strategy has seen it acquire 20 percent of British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines Group ( ICAG.L ), 10 percent of South America’s LATAM Airlines Group SA LTM.SN and 49 percent of Italy’s Meridiana. Investment holding company Kingboard said it would recognize a gain of HK$800 million on the sale of its entire Cathay stake. ($1 = 7.8021 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Jamie Freed; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cathay-pacific-m-a-qatar-airways/qatar-airways-buys-9-6-percent-stake-in-cathay-pacific-kingboard-chemical-idUKKBN1D601T'|'2017-11-06T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'aca099815d8ed1f40fdf435ee8d80f4dee521b15'|'Most EU firms plan retreat from UK suppliers - CIPS'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:25 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Most EU firms plan retreat from UK suppliers: CIPS Andy Bruce 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Most European businesses plan to cut back orders from British suppliers because of the slow progress of Brexit talks, a survey of company managers showed on Monday. A protestor waves an EU flag as he walks past the Houses of Parliament in central London, Britain September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Sixty-three percent of non-British European companies expect to move some of their supply chain out of Britain, up from 44 percent in May, the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) said. With only 17 months left until Britain is due to exit the European Union, the lack of clear progress in the negotiations has raised fears among executives of an abrupt departure with no transition. Monday’s survey raised the prospect of disruption for British manufacturers with EU clients. On Sunday, the Confederation of British Industry said almost two in three British firms will have implemented Brexit contingency plans by March if Britain and the rest of the EU have not struck a transitional deal by then. Britain and the EU said last week they were ready to speed up talks, but CIPS said it was already too late for scores of businesses that look likely to be dropped by European customers. “British businesses simply cannot put their suppliers and customers on hold while the negotiators get their act together,” said Gerry Walsh, CIPS’ group chief executive officer. “The lack of clarity coming from both sides is already shaping the British economy of the future - and it does not fill businesses with confidence.” British finance minister Philip Hammond said last month that a transition deal needed to be struck by early 2018. CIPS said a fifth of British businesses were struggling to secure contracts that extend beyond March 2019, the date Britain is due to leave the EU. Its survey also added to signs that the pound’s plunge after last year’s Brexit vote did more harm than good to Britain’s economy. Nearly two-thirds of firms said the fluctuations had raised the cost of managing their supply chains. Hammond is under pressure to help British businesses as he readies his Nov. 22 annual budget. Manufacturing association EEF urged him to take measures that will boost Britain’s patchy investment performance. “The chancellor has to offset acute anxiety among companies over Brexit with a budget that reassures business the government will deliver a comprehensive and ambitious industrial strategy,” said EEF chief executive Terry Scuoler. EEF recommended that Hammond should boost capital allowances and tax credits for research and design in British companies. The CIPS survey of 1,118 supply chain managers was conducted between Sept. 4 to Oct. 5. A total of 106 EU-based businesses with British supply chains took part in the survey. Editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-cips/most-eu-firms-plan-retreat-from-uk-suppliers-cips-idUKKBN1D600L'|'2017-11-06T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'c0ed78d9c6afffc7da6c01cf7e10ac813cb7110f'|'Trump pitches NYSE for Saudi Aramco IPO listing'|'November 4, 2017 / 1:58 PM / in 21 minutes Trump backs New York in bourses'' battle for Saudi Aramco listing Jonathan Landay , Reem Shamseddine 4 Min Read WASHINGTON/KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Intervening in a battle among the world’s top stock exchanges to list shares of national oil giant Saudi Aramco, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly appealed on Saturday for Riyadh to choose New York, saying it was in the U.S. national interest. Traders work on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Important to the United States!” Trump did not say why he chose to raise the issue at this time or whether he was responding to any information about the NYSE’s bid. But by describing the listing as a priority for Washington, he could help to sway the Saudis’ decision. The Saudi government, seeking to raise money as low oil prices strain its finances, plans to offer around 5 percent of Aramco next year in a sale which officials say could raise about $100 billion, making it the world’s largest-ever initial public offer. Saudi authorities have said they intend to list Aramco in Riyadh and on one or more foreign exchanges, setting off a competition between New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and other bourses to host the IPO. An Aramco spokesman had no comment on Trump’s tweet, while a spokeswoman for the NYSE declined to comment. NYSE Group president Thomas Farley said at a conference in Riyadh last week that he had not given up on the IPO and was in talks with Saudi authorities. The London Stock Exchange has also enjoyed some government support in its bid, though the support has been less public. Prime Minister Theresa May and the chief of the LSE pitched investments in Britain to the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund on a visit to Riyadh earlier this year. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Nearly two years after announcing their plan to sell Aramco shares, Saudi officials insist they have not yet decided on foreign listing venues. Sources told Reuters in August that Riyadh favored New York, by far the world’s biggest exchange by market capitalization, for Aramco’s main foreign listing. But some financial and legal advisers have recommended London as a less problematic and risky option. Aramco’s lawyers warned about litigation risks associated with the U.S. Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Passed last year, the law allows the Saudi government to be sued on the grounds that it helped to plan the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, an allegation which Riyadh denies. Mohammed al-Sabban, who has served as an adviser to former Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, told Reuters that Trump’s intervention would not resolve the JASTA problem. “President Trump has forgotten completely that the risks of implementing the JASTA law against Saudi assets are still there,” Sabban said. “Probably during his administration he could prevent any case against Saudi Arabia. However, when President Trump’s term ends, this will raise fears that the JASTA law could still be applied.” However, Trump may be able to wield diplomatic clout in Riyadh. He was warmly welcomed by Saudi leaders during a visit to the kingdom in May, partly because he has taken a tough stance against Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic arch-rival Iran, and Riyadh is eager for close military ties with Washington. Exchanges hosting Aramco can look forward to a boost in fee income from trading the stock, and the prestige associated with the company may help them attract more big listings in future - including the IPOs of other state companies from the Gulf, as governments there sell assets in an era of cheap oil. Additional reporting by; Rania El Gamal; Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-aramco/trump-pitches-nyse-for-saudi-aramco-ipo-listing-idUKKBN1D40IL'|'2017-11-04T15:59:00.000+02:00'
'7e8895f2d8c7672984ca95fe6ff8d9b4e28d5525'|'Failure of U.S. deal hits Deutsche Telekom shares, growth prospects'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:30 AM / in 6 minutes Failure of U.S. deal hits Deutsche Telekom shares, growth prospects Douglas Busvine 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) shares dropped in early Monday trading after the collapse of the merger of its T-Mobile US ( TMUS.O ) unit with Sprint Corp ( S.N ), which would have created a strong No.3 player on the U.S. market. FILE PHOTO: Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo The evaporation of synergies that analysts had estimated at more than Sprint’s $27 billion (20.67 billion pounds) market capitalization triggered several broker downgrades and sent Telekom’s stock as much as 3.6 percent lower. But some praised Telekom for exercising discipline in not agreeing to pay a significant premium for heavily-indebted Sprint and insisting on control that would have allowed it to consolidate the merged entity into its results. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said T-Mobile, in which the German company owns a 64 percent stake, would press ahead with a strategy that has added more than a million customers for 18 consecutive quarters. “Frankly, T-Mobile US is well enough positioned to succeed on its own without Sprint,” said Dhananjay Mirchandani, a telecoms analyst at Bernstein Research in London. “As for Deutsche Telekom, after the shares take a near term knock, I don’t see how this really alters strategy,” Mirchandani added. “So back to boring business-as-usual.” The slide in Telekom shares was similar to the Tokyo market falls for Sprint, majority owner Softbank Group ( 9984.T ), whose boss Masayoshi Son, sources said, had got cold feet over ceding control. SoftBank said on Sunday it would raise its stake in Sprint to under 85 percent from 83 percent in a show of commitment to the No.4 U.S. wireless carrier which, while managing to grow its customer base, is weighed down with $38 billion of debt. T-Mobile’s importance as a driver of growth - which could have been enhanced by the Sprint deal - is likely to be underscored when Deutsche Telekom reports results this week. T-Mobile has already reported third-quarter revenues that topped $10 billion for the first time, up 8 percent. The picture for Deutsche Telekom group on Thursday is likely to be different, with analysts on average forecasting group revenues of 18.4 billion euros- a year-on-year gain of just 1.6 percent. That would reflect barely positive growth in Telekom’s crowded and heavily regulated home market, where sales rose just 0.4 percent in the first half, and at its European holdings that were ahead by 1.5 percent. Analysts at Berenberg bank said Deutsche Telekom management deserved some credit for not doing the deal for its own sake. Still, they lowered their share-price target to 14 euros from 15.80 and restated their ‘hold’ rating on the stock. Some investors wonder whether the best years may now be behind T-Mobile, whose shares have risen nine-fold from the low they hit after the global financial crisis to a peak of $68 in June. “I’d just love them to sell it,” Ben Lofthouse, a fund manager at the Henderson International Income Trust, said last week as reports surfaced that the T-Mobile-Sprint talks were in trouble. At T-Mobile’s latest share price, Deutsche Telekom’s 64 percent stake would be worth $31 billion. “There’s a tendency to run things for ever, sometimes, and then you end up selling at the wrong times,” added Lofthouse, whose fund holds Deutsche Telekom shares. Together, T-Mobile and Sprint would have had about 130 million customers, putting a merged entity a close third in the United States behind market leaders AT&T ( T.N ) and Verizon ( VZ.N ). Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers. Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Tom Sims and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us-deutsche/failure-of-u-s-deal-hits-deutsche-telekom-shares-growth-prospects-idUKKBN1D60YZ'|'2017-11-06T11:29:00.000+02:00'
'2b70228cc2b4819a04eaee628e57f183d2c5ce4e'|'Broadcom offers to buy mobile chipmaker Qualcomm for $103 billion'|'November 6, 2017 / 12:06 PM / Updated an hour ago Broadcom offers $103 billion for Qualcomm, sets up takeover battle Supantha Mukherjee , Greg Roumeliotis 6 Min Read (Reuters) - Chip maker Broadcom Ltd made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc on Monday, setting the stage for a major takeover battle as it looks to dominate the fast-growing market for semiconductors used in mobile phones. Qualcomm said it would review the proposal. The San Diego-based company is inclined to reject the bid as too low and fraught with risk that regulators may reject it or take too long to approve it,   matter told Reuters. A Broadcom-Qualcomm deal would create a dominant company in the market for supplying chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. It would raise the stakes for Intel Corp, which has been diversifying from its stronghold in computers into smartphone technology by supplying modem chips to Apple Inc. Qualcomm shareholders would get $60 in cash and $10 per share in Broadcom shares in a deal, according to Broadcom’s proposal. Including debt, the transaction is worth $130 billion. GBH Insight analyst Daniel Ives said bullish investors were hoping for $75 to $80 per share. “Now it’s a game of high-stakes poker for both sides,” he said. Shares of Qualcomm, whose chips allow phones to connect to wireless data networks, traded above $70 as recently as December 2016 and topped $80 in 2014. Qualcomm’s shares were up 2 percent at $63.09 at mid-afternoon, suggesting investors were skeptical a deal would happen. Broadcom shares fell 0.3 after hitting a record high of $281.80. REGULATORY SCRUTINY Qualcomm’s largest market is the so-called modem chips that allow phones to use mobile data plans, but it also sells connectivity chips for automobiles that handle “infotainment” systems and wireless electric vehicle charging. Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data. Any deal struck between the two companies would face intense regulatory scrutiny. A big hurdle would be getting regulatory approval in China, on which both Qualcomm and Broadcom rely on to make money. China is set to look at any deal closely after U.S. regulators blocked a flurry of chip deals by Chinese firms due to security concerns, thwarting the Asian country’s attempt to become self-reliant in chip manufacturing. Broadcom could spin out Qualcomm’s licensing arm, QTL, to get regulatory approval and funding for the deal, raising as much at $25 billion from a sale, Nomura Instinet analyst Romit Shah suggested. Broadcom had $5.25 billion in cash and cash equivalent as of July 30. Qualcomm had $35.03 billion as of Sept. 24. A building on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Broadcom said BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have advised it they are highly confident that they will be able to arrange the necessary debt financing for the proposed transaction. The company has also got a commitment letter for $5 billion in financing from private equity Silver Lake Partners, an existing Broadcom investor. VULNERABLE QUALCOMM Broadcom approached Qualcomm last year to discuss a potential combination, but did not contact Qualcomm prior to unveiling its $70 per share offer on Monday, according to sources. Qualcomm is more vulnerable to a takeover now because its shares have been held down by a patent dispute with key customer Apple, as well as concerns that it may have to raise a $38 billion bid for NXP Semiconductors NV that it made last year. Slideshow (2 Images) Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP together would have control over modems, Wi-Fi, GPS and near-field communications chips, a strong position that could concern customers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd because of the bargaining power such a combined company could have to raise prices. However, a combined company would also likely have a lower cost base and the flexibility to cut prices. Broadcom said its proposal stands irrespective of whether Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP goes through or not. Qualcomm’s entire 10-member board is up for re-election this spring, and Broadcom could seize on the Dec. 7 nomination deadline to put forward its own slate. Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan, who turned a small, scrappy chipmaker into a $100-billion company based in Singapore and the United States, told Reuters he would not rule out a proxy fight. “We are well advised and know what our options are, and we have not eliminated any of those options,” said Tan, who has pulled off a string of deals over the past decade. “We have a very strong desire to work with Qualcomm to reach a mutually beneficial deal.” Tan added that if Broadcom acquires Qualcomm which in turn has acquired NXP, the combined company’s net debt could be in the range of $90 billion. Two Qualcomm directors, Anthony Vinciquerra and Mark McLaughlin, have been aligned with activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, which pushed for a shakeup of the company two years ago. Jeffrey Henderson, another Qualcomm board director, was added last year as a compromise candidate. Apple, as a key customer, could pose a risk to the deal, said Karl Ackerman, an analyst at Cowen. Tan told Reuters that Broadcom taking over Qualcomm would improve relations with Apple: “We believe we can be very constructive in resolving these issues and resetting relationships.” Broadcom plans to move its headquarters solely to the United States, which would allow it to avoid review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign ownership of U.S. assets. Broadcom’s offer represents a premium of 27.6 percent to Qualcomm’s closing price of $54.84 on Thursday, a day before media reports of a potential deal pushed up the company’s shares. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru   Stephen Nellis in New York and Arjun Panchadar and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-offers-to-buy-mobile-chipmaker-qualcomm-for-103-billion-idUSKBN1D61EO'|'2017-11-06T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'69ea84ecc22250d37d44e0aab350574b6f1f47ac'|'Chad and Glencore to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss debt - government sources'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:21 AM / in 10 minutes Chad and Glencore to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss debt - government sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read N‘DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chadian government officials will meet Glencore ( GLEN.L ) executives in Paris on Monday to discuss restructuring the country’s debt, two senior Chadian government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Chad has been trying renegotiate its hefty external commercial debt to Glencore, which eats up nearly all of its oil profits - the country’s main source of revenue. One of the sources said Glencore was open to the idea of rescheduling. A Chadian government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for official comment. A spokesman for Glencore declined to comment. Chad has been on a collision course with its top creditor, as it wants to divert oil from the Swiss trading house to U.S. energy company ExxonMobil ( XOM.N ) from the new year amid the dispute over the debt restructuring. Chad wants to hand over crude oil marketing rights currently held by Glencore under a $1.4 billion (£1.06 billion) loan agreement to Exxon, the biggest oil producer in the central African country. A sticking point has been a request from Chad for another grace period on principal repayment. The officials said this would be discussed on Monday. Hit by drought, a refugee crisis and a costly military campaign against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad has had loans from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank, with another $12.9 billion of pledged funding as of September from public and private donors for a 2017-2021 development plan. Reporting by Madjiasra Nako; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Mary Milliken and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-chad-oil/chad-and-glencore-to-meet-in-paris-on-monday-to-discuss-debt-government-sources-idUKKBN1D6141'|'2017-11-06T12:20:00.000+02:00'
'8b018e133ad1fe25ed20f5dd1a872e75633151c9'|'The inside story of Glencore''s hidden dealings in DRC'|'A secretive multinational company worth billions, whose founder turned fugitive was pardoned by a president.An Israeli diamond tycoon, rumoured to be the inspiration for a Hollywood blockbuster.And a struggling African nation, blessed and burdened by natural resources, riven by war and corruption.Behind the black letters of the Paradise Papers lies a world of extraordinary colour.Obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung , and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Guardian and more than 90 media partners across the globe, the Paradise Papers reveal the reality of the arcane world of offshore tax havens and global finance.Everything you need to know about Glencore, Dan Gertler and their interest in DRC Read more And they raise serious questions about the conduct of the commodities multinational Glencore and the Israeli mining billionaire Dan Gertler in Africa.They show that in 2009, Glencore, the world’s biggest mining company, gave a secret $45m loan to Gertler’s company after it enlisted him to secure a controversial mining agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .Over hundreds of pages, the papers expose in forensic detail how Gertler, whose previous diamond monopoly in DRC was described by the UN as a “disaster” for the country, held Glencore’s imprimatur as key negotiator with Congolese authorities.The ‘nightmare’ diamond deal In 1997, the 23-year-old scion of one of Israel’s most famous diamond trading families landed in Kinshasa, the dusty capital of DRC, seeking rough stones and a fresh fortune.The African nation, bitten as hard as any by the resource curse of the developing world, had just emerged from a military coup, which changed the name of the country from Zaire and put Laurent-Désiré Kabila in control.It was the self-declared president Gertler befriended, a move that would prove politically and commercially astute.In Kinshasa, Gertler first met the president’s son Joseph and then the president. A friendship had begun and, according to a 2001 UN investigation , a deal was struck: $20m in cash from Gertler that Kabila would use to buy weapons and fund his war against rebels to consolidate his grip on power. In exchange, Gertler’s company IDI was granted a monopoly on the DRC diamond trade, worth hundreds of millions a year. The deal was a “nightmare” for the country, the UN report found.Gertler’s lawyers said he denied all allegations in the UN report and was not given an opportunity to comment before publication. The UN has not cited him “in any negative context” since 2001, his lawyers said.The diamond deal would be the first of many. In the nearly two decades since, Gertler has become an unofficial gatekeeper in dozens of mining deals across DRC – a country the size of western Europe with a surfeit of natural resources.But those valuable resources have not uplifted the country from poverty. Instead, they have brought war and exploitation. DRC remains one of the least developed nations. Devastated by long-running conflict and famines, it remains a place of chronic communal and state violence, where infants die at almost the world’s worst rates and nearly half of all children are stunted by chronic malnutrition.According to the 2013 estimate of the Africa Progress Panel, headed by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, the unique ability of companies linked to Gertler to win cut-price mining licences and agreements in DRC cost the country more than $1.3bn , almost twice the nation’s combined health and education budgets, in one three-year period alone. Gertler’s lawyers said his companies “categorically refute” the allegations in the 2013 report, which they were not given an opportunity to respond to.Revealed: Glencore''s secret loan to secure DRC mining rights Read more While DRC has suffered, Gertler – speculated in media reports to have been the loose inspiration for the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond – has amassed a fortune. Forbes values his wealth at $1.22bn.A broad, bearded man, Gertler is described as an “ adventurer with a short fuse ”. Fiercely private, he is shown at mines in most of the extant public photos, wearing a high-vis vest over a suit and, on his head, a helmet or yarmulke.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dan Gertler at a copper mine in Katanga province, DRC, in 2012. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Gertler was raised in a secular household but in adulthood has grown increasingly religiously observant. He typically spends his working week in Africa , but flies home for the sabbath in Israel with his family.He has brought some development to DRC, building a 1,500-acre kibbutz-style farm to help address chronic food insecurity. And, in a country where sexual violence is systematically used as a weapon of war, the Gertler Family Foundation supports teenagers who become mothers after being raped, one of 50 programmes benefiting “tens of thousands of Congolese every year”, according to his lawyers.But the Paradise Papers cast new light on background dealings between Gertler and Glencore that appear to have saved them hundreds of millions of dollars – money lost to DRC and its people.The Glencore room The Paradise Papers are an insight into the inner machinations of Appleby, one of the “magic circle” of leading offshore investment firms.Glencore is one of Appleby’s most important clients. So central, in fact, has the company been that at one time, on the second floor of Appleby’s Bermuda headquarters, was the Glencore room.Across the hall from the women’s bathroom, it was nondescript and rarely used. Glencore executives never visited. It contained no more than a filing cabinet, computer, telephone, fax machine and chequebook. But the room gave Glencore a “robust footprint”, in the words of one Appleby MD, in the zero-tax island of Bermuda: a helpful asset in the event of any taxation investigation. The files that are likely to have once lived in that room, and the contents of which were known only to a handful of people, are now globally exposed by the Paradise Papers.Play Video 2:07 What are the Paradise Papers? – video The papers reveal some of the complexity of Glencore’s global operations and the breadth of its reach. Glencore is the largest commodity trader in the world and the biggest supplier of zinc and cobalt. The fruits of its products are used every day by millions, including anyone who drives a car or makes a call on a smartphone. And Glencore is a company with an extraordinary history, founded in 1974 as Marc Rich and Co. Rich, a former child refugee who became a naturalised US citizen after fleeing Nazi-occupied Belgium with his family, led his eponymous firm for two decades. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marc Rich. Photograph: Guido Roeoesli/AP The company forged a reputation for aggressive tactics and willingness to do business where others would not.Glencore and its forerunner company have been accused of sanctions-busting in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, apartheid South Africa and Iran. In 2004, Glencore was cited by the CIA as having paid $3.2m in illegal kickbacks in violation of sanctions to Iraq’s state-run oil monopoly. It has also been accused of catastrophic environmental pollution , poisoning rivers, and allowing child labour in its African mines. The company has denied all allegations.Rich fled the US in 1983, indicted on charges of sanctions-busting, fraud and tax evasion, and accused of arms dealing. After years on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, he was pardoned by Bill Clinton – to whom his family had been a substantial donor – in the final hours of his presidency.Bought out of the company in 1994, Rich died in Switzerland in 2013. But the firm, headquartered in Switzerland , has continued to drive hard for exploration and exploitation rights all over the world, particularly in resource-rich, regulation-poor Africa.And for Glencore, when it came to doing business in DRC, one man could open all doors, including the highest in the land.Joseph Kabila assumed the presidency in 2001, after his father was assassinated by his bodyguard. But the route to the presidential palace was unchanged.Glencore’s key man in DRC was the president’s friend: Gertler.Arcane deals News organisations and anti-corruption NGOs, such as Global Witness, have spent years piecing together arcane deals involving international investors, Gertler and DRC’s leaders. Now the extent of those deals has been laid bare by the Paradise Papers and a settlement in the New York district court.In September 2016, a New York hedge fund, Och-Ziff Capital Management, consented to a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice, in which Och-Ziff admitted to participating in widespread and systematic bribery of government officials in DRC and other countries, and accepted a $412m penalty .The agreement details bribery by a “DRC Partner”, described as an Israeli businessman, matching a description of Gertler, and widely reported to be him. “DRC Partner” controls a company called Lora Enterprises, the DPA states. Lora Enterprises is ultimately owned by the Gertler Family Trust.“DRC Partner” was Och-Ziff’s key access to government figures.The court agreement states that “DRC Partner”, together with others, paid $100m in bribes over a decade for Och-Ziff to have “special access to and preferential prices for opportunities in” the government-controlled mining sector in the DRC. According to the agreement, at times he was paying multimillion-dollar bribes several times a month to “DRC Official 2”, known to be Augustin Katumba Mwanke, the president’s most trusted adviser, and the man with de facto control over mining contract negotiations, known as “ dieu le père ” (god the father) of DRC.Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photograph of Augustin Katumba Mwanke at a ceremony after his death in 2012. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images It was, according to the DoJ, “ bribery in its purest form ”.Gertler was not a party to the DoJ agreement and, according to his lawyers, it “does not constitute evidence of anything against Mr Gertler”.“To the extent such agreement is alleged to relate to Mr Gertler, it did so without any participation by him or any opportunity to provide any comment whatsoever … Mr Gertler rejects absolutely any allegations of wrongdoing or criminality by him.”Alongside the Och-Ziff agreement, the Paradise Papers shed new light on a controversial deal to mine copper in the south-east of DRC, through a company called Katanga Mining .Several times over the course of 2008 and 2009, Gertler was called in to assist the embattled Katanga, in which he and Glencore held interests, by taking charge of negotiations with DRC, overseen by Katumba.Over the same period, “DRC Partner” was allegedly paying millions of dollars into the pocket of the same man on behalf of Och-Ziff, the DPA states.‘My twin brother’ In late 2007, as DRC rebuilt after a decade of war, on offer was a stake in Katanga, a poorly functioning operation but one holding some of the world’s largest copper deposits.A bidding war for the company broke out. Gertler already had a stake, but after one bidder’s offer collapsed, Glencore won out, offering a $150m loan – convertible to Katanga shares. Aristotelis Mistakidis, a Glencore co-director, was installed on the Katanga board in February 2008.In order to exploit its copper reserves, Katanga needed to renegotiate its joint venture agreement with DRC’s state-run mining company Gécamines, which owned one-quarter of the Katanga project. Initially, negotiations on the JVA progressed smoothly. But by May, they had stalled, and Katanga was growing increasingly frustrated. When Gécamines finally presented its proposal for the JVA, it differed dramatically from Katanga’s position.On 23 June, the Katanga board met at lunchtime in the Hilton hotel at Zurich airport, and a decision was taken to break the impasse: call in Gertler. “It was agreed that the Gécamines proposals as they stood were quite unacceptable. [It was] suggested that Dan Gertler, who had a substantial indirect interest in the company, should be given a mandate from the board to negotiate with the DRC authorities,” board notes state.Gertler had an agreement in 17 days.Katumba was also the man with ultimate authority over all mining negotiations for Gécamines.Elisabeth Caesens, an expert in Congolese mining deals who reviewed the leaked documents, said: “At the time, any major decision about Gécamines assets would require Katumba’s approval. He had more power over Gécamines than the minister in charge of state-owned companies.”Katumba was key to taking anything from the ground in DRC. He had, the DoJ said, “the ability to take official action and exert official influence over mining matters in the DRC”.In a revealing autobiography published posthumously, Katumba described his close relationship with Gertler in effusive terms: “Dan, my friend, my ‘twin brother’ … I am proud to be the brother you never had. Let us be as one, for ever.”“All I started then, I owed to Dan,” he wrote.Lawyers for Gertler told the Guardian that Katumba had only become acquainted with him “on a personal basis” after he had retired from the government. Gertler “categorically denies” any allegations of “corrupt relations” with Katumba.Despite Gertler’s intervention, Katanga’s problems were still not resolved.Facebook Twitter Pinterest An excavator at Katanga. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images In September 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed and the global financial crisis paralysed the global economy. Commodity prices plummeted further and shares in Katanga fell to record lows.Katanga’s longtime boss, Arthur Ditto, left and the Glencore employees Steven Isaacs and Tim Henderson took over as chief executive and chief operating officer respectively.By October, the JVA negotiations had stalled again. Gécamines wanted another half a billion dollars. The board of Katanga met again in October 2008.“Gécamines … were seeking $585m additional monies … This was a substantial change from the memorandum of understanding that had been agreed and signed … it was agreed that Steven Isaacs, Steven Jones, Telis Mistakidis and Malta Forrest would have a discussion with Dan Gertler,” board notes state.With Gertler again called in to negotiate, by December, that problem too had been solved. The additional signing bonus demanded of Katanga – in the form of a pas de porte price – was reduced in the final agreement by more than 75%, from $585m to $140m – a saving of $445m.Caesens, who advises the Carter Center , the nonprofit human rights group founded by the former US president Jimmy Carter, said virtually all joint venture partners accepted to pay $35 a ton of copper Gécamines brought to the joint venture.“Using this standard, KCC would have owed Gécamines a $581m signing bonus. Instead, it negotiated a bonus of $140m,” she said.In a statement , Glencore said the final price was negotiated over the extent of the mineral reserves to be taken into calculations, and was based on principles agreed before Gertler was mandated to assist the negotiations.“During the negotiations, Gécamines put forward various positions regarding the pas de porte it believed was payable … including amounts of $585m and $200m. Katanga successfully maintained its position that the sum it had previously announced was essentially correct … A joint venture agreement was concluded between Katanga and Gécamines which provided for the payment of a pas de porte of $140m,” it said.Gertler’s lawyers said all negotiations had been carried out “in a bona fide manner on arm’s length basis”. They said there was no basis for the allegation that Katanga received “preferential terms” as a result of his involvement.The financial crisis continued to damage Katanga’s prospects. Globally, the copper price plummeted , and with it the value of Katanga’s shares to near-worthlessness. By December, Glencore – or another benefactor – needed to inject another $100m into Katanga to keep it running. Still, the agreement with Gécamines had not been finally negotiated.In January 2009, Glencore upped its earlier loan – now to a combined $265m – convertible to shares. With the new money and moribund share price, Katanga would need to issue 1.4bn new shares to repay the loan, giving Glencore 77% of the company. Some on the Katanga board expressed alarm over a “backdoor takeover” of the company, but Glencore assured the firm it had no such intention.Glencore’s intervention was opposed by other shareholders – the new capital injection would dilute their holdings to near-worthlessness – but Gertler, alone of other shareholders, was able to maintain his interest by investing $45m in the loan through Lora Enterprises.However, the Paradise Papers show, the $45m was not Gertler’s capital, but a loan from Glencore, secretly given to Lora Enterprises. The loan, in the form of pledged shares, would have the effect of maintaining Gertler’s interest in Katanga, while other shareholders had their stakes diluted. Gertler alone received a loan.Gertler and Glencore’s secret deal was first reported in 2014 by Global Witness, but for the first time, the Paradise Papers reveal the conditions of the loan in unambiguous detail. Loan documents confirm not only that Gertler was to be given a mandate to handle negotiations with DRC, but Glencore’s largesse was dependent upon the contract being secured quickly. The loan could be immediately called in if he were not successful.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gertler walks through the Katanga mine complex. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images “The facility shall become immediately repayable on demand in the event that the amended KCC joint venture agreement … is not finalised within three months from the date of this term sheet,” the loan agreement states.“Glencore shall use its vote at the board of Katanga to have Dan Gertler exclusively mandated to assist Katanga in finalising the terms of the joint venture agreement.”Lawyers for Gertler told the Guardian that neither he nor any company or person related to him received any loan funds directly, and any allegation that the $45m loan was improper “demonstrates misapprehension of international finance transactions”.“In the context of an African mining transaction, events of default would ordinarily include events such as the expropriation of a mining licence or breach of an underlying joint venture. The Lora loan agreement reflects appropriate terms negotiated on an arms-length basis,” they said.Glencore said the loan to Lora “was made on commercial terms negotiated at arms length”, was filed to relevant registrars, and was fully repaid by Lora in 2010.On 12 March 2009, Gertler resumed negotiations with DRC on behalf of Katanga. This time, he had a deal within two weeks.The board met in late March, to good news.“Mr Isaacs [the Katanga chief executive and former managing director of Glencore Finance] updated the board on the JVA negotiations explaining that as a result of Gécamines constantly frustrating progress, he has had to take a different approach. Mr Isaacs had a discussion with Mr Dan Gertler in Kinshasa, as a result of which, revised proposals were made by Katanga which has resulted in the resolution of most issues,” board notes state.The final JVA was signed on 25 July 2009. Glencore now controlled Katanga and only Gertler remained as a significant co-owner. All the other shareholders had had their interests diluted.Legal experts on corruption say Glencore should have known that the risks in using Gertler to negotiate with DRC authorities were unacceptably high.“Glencore disregarded the many red flags Mr Gertler’s connections … should have raised, and exposed itself to the risk of non-compliance with anti-corruption rules,” Caesens said.Mark Pieth, a professor of criminal law at Basel University, told the Guardian there were “red flags, which already in 2007 should have made it impossible for any Swiss company to enter into a business relationship with Dan Gertler”.“The DRC is a high-risk territory in the first place. If you add to that a partner … getting access to state licence, the corruption risk becomes too high. Glencore’s compliance department should have stopped the partnership with Mr Gertler,” he said.In a written statement, lawyers for Gertler told the Guardian and media partners that all allegations of improper behaviour were “false and without any basis whatsoever, and Mr Gertler vehemently rejects them absolutely”.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Workers at Katanga. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images “Mr Dan Gertler is a respectable businessman who contributes the vast majority of his wealth and time to the needy and to different communities, amounting to huge sums of money. He transacts business fairly and honestly, and strictly according to the law,” the statement said.“There is no doubt that Mr Gertler has been a strategic investor in the DRC for many years and is highly familiar with the economic and regulatory systems therein. This fact makes Mr Gertler an important business partner for companies wishing to invest in the DRC, and the relations with him are based on clear and rational business interests. It certainly does not indicate in any way or manner whatsoever that the transactions … are tainted by inappropriate actions.”In February, Glencore bought Gertler out of their shared assets in DRC for $534m, a move described by analysts as an attempt by the company to dissociate itself from Gertler.DRC’s president, Joseph Kabila, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Topics Glencore Paradise Papers Mining Democratic Republic of the Congo Switzerland Africa Commodities features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/05/the-inside-story-of-glencore-hidden-dealings-in-drc'|'2017-11-06T01:00:00.000+02:00'
'2c72f61c69ed1dca8887f42a86f2cd92a2ad82eb'|'One-year since Trump''s win, U.S. funds enjoy strong growth'|'Reuters TV United States November 7, 2017 / 11:27 AM / a few seconds ago One-year since Trump''s win, U.S. funds enjoy strong growth Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Assets managed by U.S.-based funds have grown substantially, led by equity funds, since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential elections a year ago. An electoral poster of Donald Trump is displayed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) the morning after the U.S. presidential election in New York City, U.S., November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Though financial markets have been broadly skeptical about the ability of the Trump presidency to pass significant political reforms since he won the U.S. elections, funds have enjoyed inflows and have seen the value of their holdings rise as global financial markets enjoyed double-digit returns. As the Trump presidency approached a one-year anniversary on Wednesday, total net assets under management of U.S. mutual funds including exchange-traded funds climbed by a sixth to $21.1 trillion over the one-year period ending Sept. 30, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Equity funds were the leaders with assets under management for stock funds seeing the biggest increase over that period with total assets rising by a fifth to $11.4 trillion as of end-September global stock markets hit new peaks. U.S. stocks hit a record high on Monday with stocks up more than 15 percent year-to-date while an index of high yield U.S. bonds is up by a similar quantum in that period. While performance has been a key driver as rising markets pushed up valuations, inflows have also been robust, especially to passively managed funds as active managers faced another year of fierce competition from their exchange-traded counterparts. Of the $691 billion of net inflows that was pumped into U.S. mutual funds over the one-year period ending Sept. 30 2017, about $685 billion have gone into passively managed funds. Of that amount, nearly $500 billion have gone into passively managed equity funds, while actively-managed equity funds saw $235 billion of outflows during that period. In the fixed-income space, inflow trends were a bit more evenly matched with actively managed funds seeing $145 billion of net inflows compared with $191 billion of inflows into bond exchange-traded funds in that period. Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-funds-assets-trump/one-year-since-trumps-win-u-s-funds-enjoy-strong-growth-idUKKBN1D71EU'|'2017-11-07T13:15:00.000+02:00'
'c17355af8c4805b0e9b8c52a7391279be3253004'|'UPDATE 2-S.Africa to investigate tax service after Zuma gives go-ahead'|'* S.Africa finances strained by weak tax receipts* Credit ratings hovering near junk* Revenue service inquiry to be overseen by judge* Finmin says investors interested in SAA stake (Adds revenue service inquiry, details)By Tiisetso MotsoenengJOHANNESBURG, Nov 7 (Reuters) - South Africa will launch an inquiry into weak tax collection by the revenue service after receiving the approval of President Jacob Zuma, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.Gigaba shocked financial markets last month by flagging wider deficits and rising government debt in a closely watched budget speech, attributing the dismal forecasts to sluggish growth and low tax receipts.On Tuesday he told a news conference that Zuma had granted his request for an inquiry by a judge into the administration and governance of the South African Revenue Service (SARS).He added that the inquiry would be set up soon.“It is critical for government to determine the cause of the tax revenue under-collection in order to enable government to take urgent remedial steps to ensure that SARS is able to meet its revenue targets,” Gigaba told reporters.South Africa’s strained public finances are in the spotlight ahead of ratings reviews scheduled by major international agencies Moody’s and S&P Global later this month.If Moody’s and S&P downgrade South Africa’s local-currency rating one notch to sub-investment grade, or “junk” status, that could trigger forced selling of up to $12 billion of the country’s bonds.The gloom is compounded by allegations of influence-peddling in government that have hurt investor confidence, as well as infighting in the ruling African National Congress as it prepares to elect a new leader to succeed Zuma in December.Zuma’s two terms as president have seen growth slow to a near-standstill and have been marred by a series of corruption scandals, including over spending of state money on upgrading his private Nkandla home.SAA TURNAROUND Gigaba also addressed concerns about struggling state-owned South African Airways (SAA) on Tuesday, saying liquidity issues at the national airline had been attended to.SAA relies on government guarantees to keep it solvent and has been cited by the ratings agencies as a threat to South Africa’s public finances.Introducing new board members appointed to help turn around SAA, Gigaba said there were many investors interested in taking an equity stake in the airline and that he wanted to consolidate its assets.He said: “We will continue ... to have discussions about the strategic equity partner for South African Airways because ultimately we are going to need not only private sector capital, but also expertise for us to move forward and bring SAA back to sustainability.” (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/safrica-saa/update-2-s-africa-to-investigate-tax-service-after-zuma-gives-go-ahead-idINL5N1ND3LA'|'2017-11-07T09:53:00.000+02:00'
'7e73ba3f116add7f18b8d2d5625d95ea6079c883'|'SSE in talks with Innogy to create independent UK energy supplier'|' 35 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago SSE in talks with Innogy to create independent UK energy supplier Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British power utility SSE ( SSE.L ), the country’s second-biggest energy supplier said on Tuesday it has been in talks with Germany’s Innogy SE ( IGY.DE ) about creating a new independent UK energy supply company. Steam rises from the cooling towers at SSE''s Fiddlers Ferry electricity power station near Liverpool, northern England, January 28, 2011. REUTERS/Phil Noble SSE said the independent supply company would merge its own household energy supply and services business in the UK with Innogy’s rival UK supplier Npower. The discussions between the two companies were “well-advanced” but no binding agreements regarding the combination have been entered into, SSE said in a statement. Reuters reported on Monday Innogy could sell Npower, or combine it with a local rival. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sse-innogy/sse-in-talks-with-innogy-to-create-independent-uk-energy-supplier-idUKKBN1D721X'|'2017-11-07T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'588fbc35abcc6fa7a12e0eab396c101fe3d2150e'|'UAE''s ADNOC to launch fuel retail business stake sale in Dec -sources'|'ABU DHABI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plans to launch a share sale of a stake in its network of fuel service stations and retail convenience stores in December, sources told Reuters on Sunday.The listing for ADNOC Distribution, which manages petrol stations and convenience stores across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), comes as Abu Dhabi and other Gulf states seek to privatise energy assets as revenues are squeezed by lower oil prices.Sources told Reuters in September that the company could list more than 10 percent of its fuel retail business and one or two more businesses later as part of a major shake-up.Reporting By Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Tom Arnold; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/adnoc-ipo/uaes-adnoc-to-launch-fuel-retail-business-stake-sale-in-dec-sources-idIND5N1FF025'|'2017-11-05T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'f6adeb4ffb86b885679e561481d4c4fd8e3c245e'|'A boring choice for Fed chair, even though these are very interesting times - Business'|'Jerome Powell was Wall Street’s choice to run the Federal Reserve. Given Donald Trump ’s record on doing the unexpected, there was always the chance the president would pick another candidate, but for once he did not make waves.Powell was the business-as-usual candidate. Nothing he has said or done since he first joined the Fed’s board five years ago suggests he intends to make life difficult for Trump or rattle the financial markets. Well, not deliberately at least, for while Powell is the boring choice, he may not necessarily prove to be the safe choice.Clearly, the safest choice would have been for Trump to appoint Janet Yellen for a second term as chair of the world’s most powerful central bank. After all, she has presided over a period in which the US economy has grown, unemployment has fallen steadily and inflation has remained below its target. What’s more, without any real tremors, she took the first steps towards the normalisation of monetary policy by edging up interest rates and starting to unwind the Fed’s quantitative easing programme .This is quite a task, because all central banks are to an extent flying blind. Their models tell them that falling unemployment should by now have led to a significant pick-up in wage inflation, but that’s not happening. The chances of policy error are high.Washington politics explains why Powell has a seat on the board. Barack Obama wanted Jeremy Stein to fill one of two vacancies, but thought his nominee might be blocked by a Republican-dominated Senate. Needing a Republican makeweight to ease Stein’s passage, Obama chose Powell.Nothing that has happened since suggested that Powell was destined for greater things. His boilerplate speeches have tended to focus on regulation, and when straying into the realm of monetary policy he has been careful not to deviate from whatever the current Fed orthodoxy might be. Had Trump lost the presidential race, there would not have been the slightest chance of Powell getting the top job. Churchill’s put-down of Attlee – a modest man with much to be modest about – summed him up.Churchill was, of course, wrong about Attlee, and it is possible that Powell will go on to be one of the all-time great Fed chairmen. But it seems unlikely. Trump did not want Yellen because she was a Democrat. He didn’t want John Taylor or Kevin Warsh because they think the Fed needs to get ahead of the curve on inflation by raising interest rates more quickly.What the president wanted was a Republican without particularly strong views on monetary policy, someone who would continue with Yellen’s softly, softly approach to raising rates but would be ready to roll back some of the post-crisis regulations imposed on the financial sector. By those criteria, Powell was the perfect choice.And, in the right circumstances, he may do just fine. If monetary policy is all about the occasional tweak to interest rates – as it was in the Great Moderation of the 1990s – there will be little to fear. Things will get trickier if it proves harder than the Fed thinks to steer the US economy between recession and inflation, or if a crisis arrives from an unexpected quarter.Unlike Yellen or her predecessor Ben Bernanke, Powell is not an economist. He is a lawyer by training, and has worked in investment banking and private equity. Being a trained economist is not everything. There have been trained economists – Arthur Burns in the 1970s, for example – who have made a right pig’s ear of running the Fed.But equally there are times – such as when Mario Draghi rescued the euro from its existential crisis in 2012 – when being a journeyman is not sufficient. And there is nothing in Powell’s CV or his time at the Fed to suggest he is anything more than that.Oil is up: but what would really help renewables is costlier carbon High oil prices are a boon for the renewables industry. The higher the price of consuming black gold, the more consumers will be prepared to try alternatives, from solar to wind. So the industry might have been expected to cheer the surge last week in Brent crude prices to near a two-year high of $60 a barrel.Yet the steep cuts in the cost of offshore wind and especially solar electricity generation mean that the economics are already running in their favour. In some countries, wind and solar power are now cost-competitive with oil, coal and natural gas-fired power plants, even when carbon emissions are not priced in.That leaves the momentum with renewables, even when the oil price falls – as it did in 2014, when the price of a barrel tumbled from around $115 over 18 months to less than $40 in January 2016. And that’s just as well, since oil prices are unlikely to rise much more, despite the public statements from Opec and Russia that they will hold back about 1.8m barrels per day until next spring in an attempt to push prices higher.There is more to come from the Americans, who mothballed many of their derricks before hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf. So US production, despite hitting its highest level for at least three decades, is likely to rise further, which will act to depress prices.That’s not to say governments can relax and watch renewables win the day. Putting a price on carbon emissions remains important when global temperatures are rising fast.Unfortunately, the European system of carbon credits, which is supposed to tax heavy carbon users, is mired in controversy after several years of handing out credits that make it cheaper to belch out CO 2 than invest in environmentally friendly alternatives. The market price for credits is €6 a tonne when it needs to be nearer €50.The remedy is for governments to sidestep the failed market in carbon credits and impose a steeper cost on users. That would help much more than a rise in oil prices.Ryanair is flying as high as ever – even without its pilots Ryanair bosses chose not to face the press last week when announcing half-yearly results – an absence surely unrelated to a decision in September to cancel thousands of flights due to lack of pilots.Yet what the airline had to report was bulging profits , followed by news of its busiest October, cancellations or not. Plenty of pilots remain disgruntled, despite the airline’s deep delve into its pockets to prevent an exodus to competitors.The rotas fiasco was never likely to be a “Ratners moment” for chief executive Michael O’Leary, a man who had long made an art of upsetting his customers. But Ryanair looks to have been barely jolted by the turbulence – and now, as competitors fall by the wayside, it forecasts higher revenues for the winter.Not that much higher, though: this autumn’s lesson will reaffirm O’Leary’s conviction that the only way Ryanair could lose its passengers would be by raising fares.Topics Federal Reserve Business leader US economy Janet Yellen Donald Trump Renewable energy Oil (Business) comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/05/jerome-powell-boring-choice-fed-chairman-interesting-times'|'2017-11-05T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'ba0336030c3173d94a1ff2d553847b7bd26349ba'|'UK''s Aldermore agrees $1.3 bln takeover by FirstRand'|'November 6, 2017 / 7:47 AM / Updated 2 hours ago UK''s Aldermore agrees $1.3 billion takeover by FirstRand Lawrence White , Noor Zainab Hussain 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - South African lender FirstRand ( FSRJ.J ) has agreed a 1.1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) takeover of British banking newcomer Aldermore Group ( ALD.L ) to boost its business in developed markets. The 313 pence per share offer represents a 22.3 percent premium to Aldermore’s closing price of 245 pence on Oct. 12, the day before the companies announced they were in talks. At 0820 GMT, Aldermore’s shares were up 2.4 percent at 309.7 pence. FirstRand’s shares were up 0.2 percent at 52.49 rand. Aldermore is one of a group of so-called challenger banks that emerged after the financial crisis to fill a gap in small business lending and capitalize on problems at bigger lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) and Lloyds ( LLOY.L ). However, they have been seen as ripe for takeovers recently after a prolonged period of low interest rates and sluggish British economic growth squeezed earnings, while the pound’s fall has made them cheaper for foreign buyers. FirstRand has been looking to return to developed markets following a rethink of its strategy prompted by slowing growth and rising risks elsewhere in Africa. It already runs MotoNovo, a vehicle financing business, in Britain. African markets have been depressed by a slump in oil and other commodity prices - export mainstays of many economies - leading companies to scale back operations. Aldermore was founded in 2009 by a former Barclays executive with backing from private equity firm AnaCap. AnaCap said in an email statement that it welcomes the news of the takeover. Analysts at Canaccord Genuity, who rate Aldermore as “hold”, called the offer reasonable. BROADENING THE BASE FirstRand said on Monday that further growth could be unlocked in Britain through cross-selling the current product range across MotoNovo and Aldermore’s customer bases. “It (Aldermore) will allow the FirstRand to allocate more financial resources to our operations in Africa, whilst diversifying earnings in the UK,” FirstRand CEO Johan Burger said. Aldermore has been one of the better performing UK challenger banks. It released its third-quarter earnings on Monday, reporting higher nine-month new lending at 2.4 billion pounds thanks to strong demand from small and medium sized businesses, homeowners and landlords. [nRSF5920Va] Once the deal -- which will be put to a vote by Aldermore’s shareholders -- completes, FirstRand’s UK retail and SME operations will be joined with Aldermore, the African lender said. Aldermore’s CEO Phillip Monks will head the new combined UK business. “We’ve developed into a multiproduct diversified lender, and having spoken to FirstRand we can expand and accelerate that strategy in the UK,” Monks told Reuters. “I am personally attracted to continuing in my role,” he said. JPMorgan, RBC Capital Markets and Lazard are advising the British company. Credit Suisse and Rand Merchant Bank are acting as financial advisers to FirstRand. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru additional reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Louise Heavens and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aldermore-group-m-a-firstrand/uks-aldermore-agrees-1-3-bln-takeover-by-firstrand-idINKBN1D60O8'|'2017-11-06T04:47:00.000+02:00'
'c4d63cc42029ef35a82f4825523d44df1733f0b5'|'Lotte gets approval for China property project as bilateral tensions ease'|'November 6, 2017 / 3:21 AM / in 2 hours Lotte gets approval for China property project as bilateral tensions ease Joyce Lee 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Lotte Corp ( 004990.KS ) said on Monday that a major property development in China had received approval from local authorities to start a second phase of construction - the latest sign that tension between Beijing and Seoul is easing. FILE PHOTO: A flag bearing the logo of Lotte Hotel flutters at a Lotte Hotel in Seoul, South Korea, March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo The announcement comes one week after an unexpected detente between the two countries which have been at odds over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea - a dispute that has battered South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers. The Lotte conglomerate has been among the hardest hit by the political tension after it agreed to hand over land for the defence system, angering Beijing which says the system’s radar can penetrate its territory. A Lotte spokesman said the approval to build commercial complexes at its 66,000 square metre Chengdu land project, worth some 1 trillion won (684.99 million pounds), came on Oct. 31 - the same day that Seoul and Beijing announced they had agreed to mend ties. “Investors are hoping that from 2017 earnings will improve drastically as relations between South Korea and China get better and Chengdu is one piece of news that is adding to that,” said Joo Young-hun, analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities. But construction at Lotte’s Shenyang project, which covers 1.45 million square metres, remains suspended, said the spokesman for Lotte Corp, the conglomerate’s holding company. Construction has been halted since a December inspection for fire hazards. Lotte plans to build apartments and a theme park at the Shenyang project in addition to a department store and a movie theatre that are already open. Lotte’s retail outlets have been particularly hurt by the political tension with most of its hypermarkets and supermarkets in China shut down. They are set to sold for a fraction of what it invested. Shares in key Lotte units continued to climb on hopes of better earnings amid the thaw in tensions, with Lotte Shopping Co Ltd ( 023530.KS ) up 3.9 percent on Monday, bringing its gains since Oct. 31 to 12.9 percent. Hotel Shilla Co Ltd ( 008770.KS ) was up 3.7 percent and has risen 6.1 percent since last week. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-lotte-china/lotte-gets-approval-for-china-property-project-as-bilateral-tensions-ease-idUSKBN1D608B'|'2017-11-06T05:13:00.000+02:00'
'79b512e12c46694dec30bbf06e2fd0e31929c204'|'China Hongqiao seeks Hong Kong court order to stop negative research reports'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:44 AM / Updated an hour ago China Hongqiao seeks Hong Kong court order to stop negative research reports Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China Hongqiao Group ( 1378.HK ), the world’s largest aluminium producer, is seeking a court order to restrict previously published research reports by a group of analysts that alleged accounting irregularities at the company. China Hongqiao in March halted trading of its shares, which only resumed on Oct. 30, after a report released in February by a group called Emerson Analytics asserted that Hongqiao was understating its costs and exaggerating its profits. On Nov. 3, Hongqiao applied to the High Court of Hong Kong for an injunction to “restrain the publication” of the February report, an Oct. 30 report Emerson published as trading resumed and “further defamatory reports,” according to a statement to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on Sunday. An injunction is a court order that forbids actions or orders an action to be taken. A hearing on the matter is set for Nov. 27, Hongqiao said. A High Court spokesman was unable to confirm the case or the date without a case number, which was not provided in the stock exchange statement. Hongqiao told the exchange on Oct. 30 that it had filed a defamation lawsuit in Hong Kong against Emerson. After the February report from Emerson, Hongqiao called the allegations “untrue and groundless” but, with its share price tanking, the company asked to suspended trading. As trading resumed, Emerson Analytics issued a new report alleging inconsistencies in Hongqiao’s clarification statement on Oct. 25. Hongqiao’s shares have surged more than 30 percent since trading restarted, belatedly tracking a rally in aluminium prices CMAL3 in recent months. The stock was down 0.8 percent at HK$12.40 (1.22 pounds) by 0517 GMT on Monday. Emerson Analytics did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. The company describes itself on its website as a group of “seasoned equities analysts” who are “determined to expose as much of the fraud in the Chinese stock market as we can.” Other Emerson reports have targeted Tian Ge Interactive Holdings ( 1980.HK ), a social video platform in China, and Hua Han Health Industry Holdings ( 0587.HK ), a pharmaceutical firm. Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-metals-aluminium/china-hongqiao-seeks-hong-kong-court-order-to-stop-negative-research-reports-idUKKBN1D60FO'|'2017-11-06T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'6e2f0169ada24170d2f551067b0b78fb86867ba0'|'PRECIOUS-Gold inches down as dollar gains after strong U.S. data'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:23 AM / in 31 minutes PRECIOUS-Gold inches down as dollar gains after strong U.S. data Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Nov 6 (Reuters) - Gold edged lower early Monday as the dollar firmed after upbeat U.S. economic data strengthened the prospect of further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,267.01 per ounce at 0107 GMT. On Friday, it fell 0.5 percent and touched a one-week low of $1,265.16. * U.S. gold futures for December delivery dipped 0.1 percent to $1,267.70. * Asian shares hovered near decade highs, while the U.S. dollar was close to a three-and-half month high against a basket of currencies on Monday. * U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his tough rhetoric against North Korea when he arrived in Japan on Sunday, saying the United States and its allies are prepared to defend freedom and "no dictator" should underestimate U.S. resolve. * U.S. job growth accelerated in October after hurricane-related disruptions in the prior month, but wages grew at their slowest annual pace in more than 1-1/2 years in a sign that inflation probably will remain benign. * JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday raised its forecast on the number of U.S. interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve next year to four from three as the October payrolls data reinforced the view of a tightening domestic labor market. * U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday that Republican lawmakers are weighing a "host of ideas" as the House tax-writing committee begins revising a tax bill this week, though he expects the broad outlines to remain the same. * Demand for physical gold was lacklustre in top consumers India and China last week. The lure of the metal remained stable in Singapore, but India''s peak wedding season is expected to usher in renewed interest for bullion in coming weeks. * Embattled London and Johannesburg-listed platinum producer Lonmin , will unveil new health and road projects in South Africa on Monday in a ceremony that will be overshadowed by its latest share price collapse. * Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust , the world''s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.03 percent to 845.75 tonnes on Friday. * Hedge funds and money managers reduced their net long position in COMEX gold contracts for the seventh straight week, in the week to Oct. 31, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday. DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT) 0900 Euro Zone Markit Serv Final PMI Oct (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-precious/precious-gold-inches-down-as-dollar-gains-after-strong-u-s-data-idUSL3N1NC157'|'2017-11-06T03:19:00.000+02:00'
'2520f83540ff37025c67ca8a6678d03a4d28e233'|'Amazon discounts other sellers'' products as retail competition stiffens'|'November 5, 2017 / 8:25 PM / in 5 minutes Amazon discounts other sellers'' products as retail competition stiffens Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) is cutting prices of products from third-party sellers on its website, moving beyond its more typical method of discounts on items it sells directly. The logo of the web service Amazon is pictured in this June 8, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration The “discount provided by Amazon” applies to products including board games and technological gadgets offered by other merchants as the holiday season approaches. The retailer has been trying to compete aggressively on some items to win sales and draw customers away from low-priced rivals like Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ). The move allows Amazon to sell the products at lower prices while still giving full price to the sellers. “When Amazon provides a discount, customers get the products they want at a price they’ll love, and small businesses receive increased sales at their listed asking price,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, noting that businesses can opt out at any time. Marketing the items at lower prices, however, risks angering Amazon’s third-party sellers, who instead could list their products elsewhere online. The move has drawn attention within Amazon Services’ seller forum. Some merchants have criticized Amazon in the past for discounting and, they say, devaluing their products. Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Jeffrey Dastin in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-discounts/amazon-discounts-other-sellers-products-as-retail-competition-stiffens-idUKKBN1D512G'|'2017-11-05T22:20:00.000+02:00'
'2125808215697a30feeb949ea9e10409fb3f48ad'|'UPDATE 1-Subaru Q2 profit disappoints, cuts annual forecast as US sales slow'|'November 6, 2017 / 5:33 AM / in 26 minutes UPDATE 1-Subaru Q2 profit disappoints, cuts annual forecast as US sales slow Reuters Staff * Subaru cuts full-year U.S. vehicle sales forecast * Sees 10 bln yen costs related to improper final inspection * Q2 profit 92.8 bln yen, vs 113.8 bln yen consensus (Adds details on profit forecast, U.S. sales) TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Japan’s Subaru Corp on Monday reported a disappointing operating profit for the second quarter, and cut its full-year forecast as it expects to sell less cars in the United States, its biggest market, amid fierce competition. Subaru has been outperforming its bigger Japanese rivals in the key North American market, but increased competition and higher selling incentives have begun to weigh on the automaker, which also lowered its vehicle sales forecast for the region. Japan’s No.6 automaker expects operating profit in the year to March to come in at 380 billion yen ($3.33 billion), versus a previous forecast of 410 billion yen and lower than last year’s 410.8 billion yen U.S. sales account for about 60 percent of Subaru’s total global vehicle sales, and the automaker last year increased production capacity at its assembly plant in the country to keep up with increasing demand. The maker of the Forester and Outback models said it sold around 159,000 vehicles in the United States in the quarter ended September, down 7.3 percent from a year ago. In Japan, its second biggest market, sales rose around 13.5 percent. It now expects to sell around 668,000 vehicles in the United States in the year to March, lower than a prior forecast for around 687,700 units but a touch higher than the previous year. Subaru posted a 13.2 percent drop in operating profit for the second quarter, as the company handed out more incentives to boost U.S. sales that clocked a slower pace of growth. Its operating profit came in at 92.8 billion yen in July-September, versus 107.0 billion a year ago. This was lower than a mean forecast for 113.8 billion yen from nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. For the full year, Subaru expects a net profit of 207.0 billion yen, versus a previous forecast of 228.5 billion yen. It now expects the yen to trade around 111 yen to the U.S. dollar, weaker than a previous forecast for 110 yen. The automaker said it was preparing for a negative impact of 10 billion yen for the year due to costs related to its improper final inspection procedures, which it expects will result in vehicle recalls in the domestic market. Last month, Subaru said it had failed to follow proper procedures when doing final checks for vehicles made in Japan for the domestic market for around 30 years, following a similar discovery at rival Nissan Motor Co. ($1 = 114.2200 yen) (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Himani Sarkar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/subaru-results/update-1-subaru-q2-profit-disappoints-cuts-annual-forecast-as-us-sales-slow-idUSL3N1NC247'|'2017-11-06T07:31:00.000+02:00'
'426f72b77d821da2ac5884267903aff2c908338e'|'Britain introduces law seeking to help post-Brexit trade'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:14 AM / in 15 hours Britain introduces law seeking to help post-Brexit trade Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said it would submit legislation to parliament on Tuesday needed to let Britain pursue an independent trade policy once it leaves the European Union. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry''s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner The trade bill contains provisions to help Britain in its bid to convert existing EU free-trade agreements into British ones after it leaves the trading bloc, the government said. The legislation will also include powers to ensure British companies can continue to access government contracts in other countries and create a new trade body to defend businesses against unfair trade practices, such as dumping. “For the first time in over 40 years the UK will be able to shape our own trade and investment agenda - and we are determined that businesses and consumers can take advantage of this opportunity,” trade minister Liam Fox said in a statement. FILE PHOTO - A Union Jack flag flutters next to European Union flags ahead of a visit of Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain''s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Supporters of the vote to leave the EU have said the freedom to strike new trade deals independently of the bloc will be one of the main benefits. They say it will easier for Britain to strike deals more quickly with other nations, such as China, than the EU with all its member countries and their different priorities. But critics of Brexit say Britain does not have the individual capacity to negotiate dozens of new trade deals without the EU. The bill is part of an array of legislation that will be discussed by parliament over the next year aimed at ensuring a smooth departure from the EU. The government will also submit another bill soon that will allow it to vary the customs duty on goods. Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-trade/britain-introduces-law-seeking-to-help-post-brexit-trade-idUKKBN1D700P'|'2017-11-07T02:13:00.000+02:00'
'bc99c8e6e42765c20b7cf9ee6328dd874a0b863a'|'Kraft Heinz restates cash flow statements for two quarters'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:57 PM / in 7 hours Kraft Heinz restates cash flow statements for two quarters Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Kraft Heinz Co ( KHC.O ) said on Monday it restated its cash flow statements for two quarters after it found that it implemented a new accounting standard since the start of 2017, instead of from 2018. FILE PHOTO: Heinz tomato Ketchup is show on display during a preview of a new Walmart Super Center prior to its opening in Compton, California, U.S., January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The packaged foods company said it would file amended statements for the quarters ended April 1 and July 1 to correctly classify certain items in its of cash flow statements. Kraft Heinz said the misstatement did not have an impact on its income statements and balance sheets for the periods. ( bit.ly/2zBZnXN ) Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kraftheinz-restatement/kraft-heinz-restates-cash-flow-statements-for-two-quarters-idUSKBN1D62WM'|'2017-11-07T00:56:00.000+02:00'
'048a10cbc6401271dd39ad0e4d7870ef5ff1d2f3'|'From breakup bet to #Euroboom - the surprise of 2017'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:52 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago From breakup bet to #Euroboom - the surprise of 2017 Ritvik Carvalho , Dhara Ranasinghe 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone investments have turned in one of their best years since the single currency was born in 1999, confounding many who had bet on the bloc to be the disaster play of 2017. FILE PHOTO - The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Euro zone “break up” trades as a top investment play for 2017 hardly seemed outlandish a year ago. Brexit, fears of contagion from the near-collapse of Italy’s oldest bank, and anxiety about a surge in populist anti-euro sentiment in a year packed with elections turned investors decidedly negative on the bloc’s prospects. But a dramatic swing in fortunes instead brought the fastest growth rate since the height of the sovereign debt crisis six years ago. Fears of anti-euro victories in French, German and Dutch elections proved wide of the mark, although inroads were made. The brighter outlook and more stable politics has meantime allowed the European Central Bank to take its first gradual steps towards exiting the extraordinary monetary stimulus in place since 2015. With the recovery even gaining its own Twitter hashtag -- #Euroboom” -- this set of graphics highlights the turnaround. FASTEST GROWTH IN 6 YEARS (Euro zone posts fastest growth since 2011, reut.rs/2h61zz9 ) Third quarter figures released last week showed the euro zone hit its fastest growth rate since 2011, when the euro-crisis escalated and dented growth. That run also puts it in the top third of fastest growing quarters the bloc has posted since the birth of the single currency in 1999. A report by ratings firm S&P Global suggests the recovery will remain broad-based. SENTIMENT SURGE (Creditworthiness doubts ease, reut.rs/2h53dkH ) Investor and economic sentiment in the euro zone is close to record highs. Sentix’s index of investor morale is at its highest level in 10 years. The European Commission’s measure of economic sentiment for October hit its highest levels since the dot-com bubble in 2001, shrugging off jitters about an independence bid in the wealthy Spanish region of Catalonia. RATINGS REVIVAL (Euro zone lending rises, bad loans fall, reut.rs/2h6iTnr ) Ratings agency Fitch’s outlook balance for the euro zone is at its highest since July 2005. The outlook balance is the difference between the total of the positive and negative outlooks on each country. S&P Global unexpectedly lifted Italy’s sovereign rating last month, the first such rise for the country by the firm in at least three decades. In September, S&P became the first of the big three ratings agencies to lift Portugal back to investment grade. STOCKS, EURO SHINE (Euro zone sentiment hits multi-year peaks, reut.rs/2h3RQt2 ) The pan-European STOXX 600 index has risen to two-year highs as strong corporate earnings accompany the economic recovery. Overall 66 percent of companies in the MSCI Europe index have beaten or met earnings expectations for the third quarter of 2017, underpinning regional indexes’ gains. A surging euro EUR= also reflects improved sentiment towards the currency bloc. The single currency is up almost 12 percent against the dollar this year, which puts it on track for its biggest annual rise since 2007. CREDIT WORTHY (Euro zone ratings outlook balance at highest in over 10 years, reut.rs/2z7uYzO ) The borrowing costs of those countries bailed out during the euro zone debt crisis continue to fall as investors regain confidence in the growth that reforms have produced. TIGHTER LABOUR MARKETS (European assets on the rise, reut.rs/2hff5Am ) Faster euro zone growth helped push unemployment to its lowest level in nine years in October, despite soft inflation. Wages also grew at their fastest rate in two years in the second quarter of 2017, an encouraging sign for the ECB looking to wind down monetary stimulus. BANK WOES EASE (Euro zone labour market tightens, reut.rs/2z8aBml ) While still high, the number of non-performing loans in proportion to output in the euro area has halved since the peak of the crisis. Lending growth to both households and businesses is on the rise, with loans to households growing at their highest rate since June 2011. Efforts to address weakness in Italy’s banking system have helped banking stocks in the country .FTIT8300 rise over 20 percent this year. The Bank of Italy said last month that insolvent loans held by Italian banks fell to a three-year low in August. Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho and Dhara Ranasinghe Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-markets/asian-shares-probe-10-year-high-oil-edges-down-after-rally-idUKKBN1D702M'|'2017-11-07T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'27d685f66b8b1a83002e1673d1cb54897661d988'|'Multinationals grapple with U.S. Republican excise tax surprise'|'November 5, 2017 / 1:14 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Multinationals grapple with U.S. Republican excise tax surprise Amanda Becker , Tom Bergin 7 Min Read WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The Republican tax bill unveiled last week in the U.S. Congress could disrupt the global supply chains of large, multinational companies by slapping a 20-percent tax on cross-border transactions they routinely make between related business units. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds sample tax forms as he promotes a newly unveiled Republican tax plan with House Republican leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria European multinationals, some of which currently pay little U.S. tax on U.S. profits thanks to tax treaties and diversion of U.S. earnings to their home countries or other low-tax jurisdictions, could be especially hard hit if the proposed tax becomes law, according to some tax experts. Others said the proposal could run afoul of international tax treaties, the World Trade Organization and other global standards that forbid the double taxation of profits if the new tax did not account for income taxes paid in other countries. The proposed tax, tucked deep in the 429-page bill backed by President Donald Trump, caught corporate tax strategists by surprise and sent them scrambling to understand its dynamics and goals, as well as whether Congress is likely ever to vote on it. Reuters contacted seven multinational companies and four industry groups. None would comment directly on the proposal, with most saying they were still studying the entire tax package. The proposal is part of a broad tax reform bill unveiled by House of Representatives Republicans on Thursday, which promises to lower overall tax burdens and simplify the tax code. Whether the proposed reforms ever become law is uncertain, with weeks and possibly months of debate and intense lobbying still ahead. The House package overall has drawn criticism for adding too much to the federal budget deficit and too heavily favouring the rich and big business. However, the corporate tax part, experts said, included some ambitious proposals worthy of further discussion. They said the 20 percent excise tax is one such proposal targeting the abuses of so-called transfer-pricing where multinationals themselves set prices of goods, services and intellectual property rights that constantly move between their national business units. Under global standards, those prices should resemble those available on the open market. However, if a foreign parent charges U.S. affiliates inflated price, it can reduce its U.S. tax bill and effectively shift profits to a lower-tax country, reducing the entire corporation’s overall tax costs. BLUNT INSTRUMENT “Clearly there’s a transfer-pricing issue and something should be done,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “I would view this 20-percent excise tax as a blunt instrument to address the problem. And the problem with blunt instruments is sometimes they hit what you want to hit, and sometimes they hit what you don’t want to hit,” said Rosenthal, former legislation counsel at Congress’s Joint Tax Committee. Under the proposal, U.S. business units that import products, pay royalties or other tax-deductible, non-interest fees to foreign parents or affiliates in the course of doing business would either pay a 20-percent tax on these or agree to treat the amounts as income connected to their U.S. business and subject to U.S. taxes. As proposed, the new tax rule would apply only to businesses with payments from U.S. units to foreign affiliates exceeding $100 million. The rule would not take effect until after 2018. European companies that sell foreign-made products into the U.S. market through local distribution units could be among those most affected, said Michael Mundaca, co-director of the national tax department at the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Such companies could end up paying tax on the transfers twice - first if they paid the excise tax in the United States and then at home where they are taxed now and where the new U.S. tax would not be accounted for without changes to bilateral tax treaties. “That would be a structure that would at least initially be hit by the full force” of the excise tax, said Mundaca, a former U.S. Treasury Department assistant secretary for tax policy. He said European officials would be registering concern. “I am sure they are making calls right now to their counterparts in the U.S. Treasury looking for some explanation ... and making the point that this might be contrary to treaty obligations.” Gavin Ekins, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank, predicted that most multinationals would opt to avoid the excise tax by electing to pay U.S. corporate tax on all the profits related to products sold in the United States. Those include profits on activities conducted overseas, like manufacturing or research, which are also subject to foreign income taxes. The U.S. corporate tax rate on those profits would drop to 20 percent from 35 percent if the House bill becomes law. The promise of additional revenue and hopes that the new tax may entice multinationals to locate more production and jobs in the United States, may well outweigh international concerns. The entire Republican tax package is projected to add $1.5 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion federal debt and the planned excise tax is among sources of new revenue needed to avoid an even bigger shortfall. It is expected to bring about $155 billion over 10 years, according to a summary of the Republican proposal distributed last week. Still, as the tax debate heats up, foreign multinationals are likely to lobby hard against it, with domestic corporations linked to foreign affiliates possibly concerned as well. There is also uncertainty how the new rules would work in practice. It was unclear, for example, from the bill’s language how companies should calculate income “effectively connected” to their U.S. business, Tax Foundation’s Ekins said. “You don’t know what profit is included when you choose ‘effectively connected income’ and don’t know the formula,” he said. “Is it just for that product line? All the income that comes in from every other company or from every other source?” The House tax committee was scheduled to begin considering amendments to the Republican tax bill on Monday. Additional reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh in Washington, David Morgan in West Lafayette, Indiana, Joe White in Detroit, Michael Erman in New York, Paresh Dave and Jonathan Weber in San Francisco and Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Tomasz Janowski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-multinationals/multinationals-grapple-with-u-s-republican-excise-tax-surprise-idUKKBN1D50PI'|'2017-11-05T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'5f1280e8c200dcd12577dbb0ac6227c0125f8073'|'Brazil regulator Anatel demands review of Oi restructuring proposal'|'SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - The head of Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog, Anatel, demanded on Monday that debt-laden carrier Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ) submit its latest restructuring proposal to the regulator before officially filing it with a bankruptcy court.FILE PHOTO - The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Anatel head Juarez Quadros told reporters in Brasilia that the regulator, an Oi creditor due to billions of dollars in unpaid regulatory fines, would wait for the country’s solicitor-general to give an opinion on the company’s proposal before deciding whether or not to vote for it.Oi on Monday unveiled through a securities filing a restructuring proposal that includes a provision requiring the company to pay bondholders significant annual fees in exchange for capital they would inject into the carrier.The company said its plan would involve a minimum capital increase of 7.1 billion reais ($2.16 billion), of which 3.5 billion reais would come from a cash injection and 3.6 billion from a debt-for-equity swap.Quadros said the new plan could create “operational risks” for the company, which filed for Latin America’s largest bankruptcy proceeding ever last year, since it creates additional financial obligations.In a statement released after Quadros’ comments, Anatel said Oi has 24 hours to present the restructuring plan to the regulator. It added that Anatel will have a representative present at all Oi management meetings.Bondholders that inject capital into the company would receive an upfront fee of 6 percent on their contribution plus annual fees of 8 percent under the company’s plan. So-called “break-up fees,” resulting from contract breaches by Oi, would be around 10 percent to 13 percent, the company said in the filing.Oi said earlier on Monday the new proposal would be filed shortly with the court in Rio de Janeiro that oversees Oi’s proceedings to restructure 65 billion reais in debt.Societé Mondiale, a fund that manages influential shareholder Nelson Tanure’s stake in Oi, said in a statement that it was “satisfied” with the regulator’s demand.Negotiations around Oi have taken a number of dramatic turns just days before a Nov. 10 creditor vote on a company plan to take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection. The company, the only fixed-line carrier in a third of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities, filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2016.On one side, the company - led by Tanure - has been negotiating with a number of distressed-debt and special-situation firms to push through a plan that would result in a huge haircut for many bondholders.Opposing the company is the Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, the International Bondholders Committee, and a group of export credit agencies, which together hold about 23 billion reais in debt.Quadros told reporters that multiple plans could potentially be put on the table for creditors to vote on.On Friday, Oi’s board, over which Tanure holds sway, appointed two new members to management, ensuring the company plan could formally be presented to creditors despite some internal opposition.In the Monday filing, Oi said its plan had several dozen “initial approved assignees,” including Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ), the investment banking unit of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs & Co ( GS.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and distressed-asset and special-situations investors such as Aurelius Capital Management, Citadel Investment Group LLC, Solus Alternative Asset Management, KKR and Silver Point.It was not immediately clear which funds would participate in the capital injection. Many assignees hold significant portions of Oi’s equity and debt.Corrado Varoli, CEO of G5 Evercore, which is advising the International Bondholders Committee, said the list of funds provided by Oi were those that were eligible to participate. The list of funds that have agreed to Oi’s restructuring plan is much smaller, he said.Reuters reported on Nov. 1 that Tanure, allied with controlling shareholder Pharol SGPS SA ( PHRA.LS ), was counting on a new group of bondholders known as G6 to gain support for a new restructuring proposal.Preferred shares in Oi fell 6.3 percent on Monday to 4.14 reais. Common shares fell 6.8 percent to 4.94 reais.($1 = 3.28 Brazilian reais)Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Ana Mano in Sao Paulo; editing by Robin Pomeroy, Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-restructuring/shareholder-in-brazils-oi-says-satisfied-with-regulators-demands-idINKBN1D62IQ'|'2017-11-06T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'8db4f8e91998e0b074f705176a647f0b0163065d'|'Qatar Airways seeks to create a virtual mega carrier with deals - CEO'|' 17 AM / in 17 minutes Qatar Airways seeks to create a virtual mega carrier with deals: CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Qatar Airways wants to create a virtual mega-carrier that will give it economies of scale in negotiating fuel and operations, as it expands investments in other airlines, its chief executive said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO A Qatar Airways aircraft is seen at a runway of the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Greece, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo The Qatari carrier announced a $661 million deal on Monday to buy a 9.61 percent stake in Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ), in a deal that will broaden its reach and potentially allow the oneworld alliance member to increase traffic through its Doha hub. “Frankly I wish I could buy more. But the Swire Group and Air China hold most of it and I’m the third largest shareholder which is not bad,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said at the CAPA Asia Summit 2017 in Singapore, referring to Cathay’s top shareholders. The airline’s investment strategy has seen it acquire 20 percent of British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines Group ( ICAG.L ), 10 percent of South America’s LATAM Airlines Group SA LTM.SN and 49 percent of Italy’s Meridiana. He said Qatar Airways wants shareholdings to be exchanged between itself and its portfolio airlines and become a virtual mega carrier as such a move will help them get economies of scale in negotiating for fuel, ground handling, repairs and aircraft purchases. Reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-airways-strategy/qatar-airways-seeks-to-create-a-virtual-mega-carrier-with-deals-ceo-idUKKBN1D716P'|'2017-11-07T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'a4b502a063f5abbec6237c1e2e02c028737d8607'|'German minister warns EU against toughening car emissions targets'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:32 PM / a few seconds ago German minister warns EU against toughening car emissions targets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that he is against any toughening of European car emissions targets by 2025. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz “It is ... very important to me that we do not stifle the innovation power of the automotive industry by overly tight EU legislation,” Gabriel said in letter seen by Reuters. Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by Michael Nienaber'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-germany-emissions/german-minister-warns-eu-against-toughening-car-emissions-targets-idUKKBN1D71M5'|'2017-11-07T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'4797b8832413cb015d268c5bf2c66f5a7f6e8b2b'|'Toyota seeks more investments in Israeli auto tech, robotics'|'November 5, 2017 / 12:59 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Toyota seeks more investments in Israeli auto tech, robotics Tova Cohen 3 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp is seeking more investments in Israeli robotics and vehicle technologies after its venture arm led a $14 million investment in Intuition Robotics in July. A logo of Toyota Motor Corp is seen at the company''s showroom in Tokyo, Japan June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The startup, which makes robots for the elderly, was the first Israeli investment for Toyota AI Ventures, a new $100 million fund investing in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous mobility and data and cloud computing. “We will see more involvement of Toyota in the Israeli market in the future,” said Jim Adler, managing director of California-based Toyota AI Ventures, which is part of the $1 billion Toyota Research Institute. “There’s more in the pipeline,” he told Reuters during a visit to Israel, adding that technologies dealing with perception and prediction and planning were of particular interest to Toyota. Perception technology enables a self-driving vehicle to understand the world around it while prediction and planning can help a car interpret situations such as whether a child at an intersection might try to cross at a red light. “There’s a tremendous amount of innovation happening in Israel as cars become more produced by data,” said Adler, who is in the country meeting companies whose technologies interest Toyota. Israel is a growing center for automotive technology. Earlier this year Intel Corp bought autonomous vehicle firm Mobileye - one of Israel’s biggest tech companies - for $15.3 billion. On Friday Germany’s Continental AG said it was buying Israel’s Argus Cyber Security, whose technology guards connected cars against hacking. Toyota AI Ventures has made five investments and expects to invest in at least 20 companies worldwide. Regarding its investment in Intuition Robotics - which plans to begin trials of its robots with older adults in their homes early next year - Adler said there were many common features between robotics and autonomous vehicles, which he referred to as “big robots with wheels”. Japan’s population is aging, with 40 percent expected to be over 65 in 20 years, he said, and there will be demand for technologies that help the elderly stay in their homes, rather than have to move to assisted-living facilities. “We think Toyota will have a role there,” he said. Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-israel-tech-toyota/toyota-seeks-more-investments-in-israeli-auto-tech-robotics-idUKKBN1D50OI'|'2017-11-05T14:56:00.000+02:00'
'99e828b8202746d13e180d992663ec5869257140'|'Helvetia says Swiss watchdog opens investigation of chairman'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland’s Helvetia said on Sunday that Swiss financial watchdog FINMA had opened an investigation of the insurer’s chairman, Pierin Vincenz.“Helvetia is not affected by this investigation, and the investigation is not in any way related to his work at Helvetia,” the company said in a statement.Helvetia said it had no reason to question Vincenz’s chairmanship.In a separate statement, Vincenz said he was informed by FINMA on Nov. 1 of the investigation, which was opened in the course of a separate probe into Raiffeisen Switzerland, where he used to be chief executive.He said that the investigation related to his handling of conflicts of interest while with Raiffeisen and that he believed he treated the potential conflicts with the necessary care.Reporting by Joshua Franklin; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-helvetia-chairman-finma/helvetia-says-swiss-watchdog-opens-investigation-of-chairman-idUSKBN1D50ZT'|'2017-11-05T20:20:00.000+02:00'
'f83fbed933e0ff90371cceb54ab7f43c6457b3f0'|'CDPQ''s Ivanhoe Cambridge names Chanakya Chakravarti as managing director of India ops'|'Nov 6 (Reuters) - Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate investment arm of Canada’s second-biggest public pension fund, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), said on Monday it appointed Chanakya Chakravarti to head its Indian operations.Chakravarti’s role as managing director, India, Growth Markets will focus mainly on implementing investment and asset management strategies in India. His role will take effect from Jan. 8, Ivanhoe said in a statement.Chakravarti joins Ivanhoe from JPMorgan Chase & Co where he previously worked as managing director of global alternatives, Real Estate Asia. (Reporting By Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cdpq-ivanhoecambridge/cdpqs-ivanhoecambridge-names-chanakya-chakravarti-as-managing-director-of-india-ops-idINL3N1NC4T2'|'2017-11-06T10:22:00.000+02:00'
'44ab39d1647c8fe645dd255d2f415a5374eb984e'|'Japan October services PMI rises to more than two-year high as new orders accelerate'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s services sector grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in October as new orders accelerated sharply, suggesting the economy is picking up momentum in the fourth quarter.Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Files The Markit/Nikkei survey released on Monday showed its Japan Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.4 from 51.0 in September.The index remained above the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction for the 13th consecutive month and was at the highest level since August 2015.The new business index also expanded rapidly to 53.8 in October from 52.0 in the previous month, the fastest pace since May 2013.The strong demand and rising levels of new business encouraged the service sector to boost employment, extending the current sequence of increase to ten months.In another positive sign, the index for business sentiment rose to a fourth-month high of 55.5 from 53.3 in September.“The Japanese service sector made a strong start to the fourth quarter, with the headline business activity index hitting a 26-month high,” said Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey.“In the wake of (Prime Minister) Shinzo Abe’s election victory, confidence among Japanese service providers lifted.”Abe’s ruling coalition retained power with a comfortable victory in lower house elections last month, defeating a challenge from an upstart opposition party that threatened to alter the course of government policy.The composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services, rose to 53.4 from 51.7 in September to reach the highest level in five months.Some economists expect Japan’s growth to slow in July-September due to a bit of weakness in consumer spending. However, the services sector PMI suggests that any cooldown would be modest and the economy remains in good health in the current quarter.Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-pmi-services/japan-october-services-pmi-rises-to-more-than-two-year-high-as-new-orders-accelerate-idINKBN1D609W'|'2017-11-06T05:47:00.000+02:00'
'e420c014e87f0886ff3f13a89d700102aa20a79e'|'Sky investor Crispin Odey says he now opposes Fox takeover'|'November 7, 2017 / 1:28 PM / a minute ago Sky investor Crispin Odey says he now opposes Fox takeover Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Veteran hedge fund manager Crispin Odey now opposes Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) 11.7 billion pound ($15.4 billion) bid to take control of British pay-TV broadcaster Sky ( SKYB.L ) in a move that could raise further doubts about the deal. The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Odey, whose firm is Sky’s 17th biggest investor with a 0.9 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data, believes that Fox’s 10.75 pound-a-share bid “starts to look like it’s not a very good price” for the broadcaster. “I’d vote against the deal,” Odey told Reuters, when asked how he would vote on the offer. He added: “The interesting thing is: can Sky survive happily without Fox? I think it can quite happily.” Odey initially said he backed the Fox bid to acquire the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own, which was first announced in December. However, in August he told Reuters that he thought the offer was beginning to “look rather mean”, although he did not say at the time that he would oppose the takeover. Reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sky-plc-m-a-fox-odey/sky-investor-crispin-odey-says-he-now-opposes-fox-takeover-idUSKBN1D71RT'|'2017-11-07T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'd23f52d5043827e2221102668b16213b24bd7492'|'Eurowings says growth plans not jeopardised by union blow'|'November 7, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Eurowings says growth plans not jeopardised by union blow Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) budget carrier Eurowings does not not see its growth plans in jeopardy, management said on Tuesday after pilots’ union VC unexpectedly rejected a labour deal. An Airbus A330 belonging to Lufthansa''s low-cost brand Eurowings taxis on tarmac before its first long-haul flight to Havana, Cuba, at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany, November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay “We don’t think our growth plans will be restricted or hindered at all,” Eurowings operations director Michael Knitter told journalists on Tuesday. The deal rejected by the union would have allowed the airline to take on pilots at its Eurowings unit based in Germany, which has a full collective labour agreement. Instead, Eurowings will employ staff via its Austrian unit, Eurowings Europe. Staff at Eurowings Europe based in Germany will be on contracts with the same conditions as those at Eurowings Germany, only without being part of a collective labour agreement. Eurowings has not yet agreed a collective labour agreement with Austrian unions for Eurowings Europe. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-eurowings-unions/eurowings-says-growth-plans-not-jeopardised-by-union-blow-idUKKBN1D71V5'|'2017-11-07T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'c0e776872a51f5383ea0a52b8ba78f729e851454'|'Saudi central bank says corruption probe not hurting companies, banks'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s central bank sought to reassure the business community on Tuesday that a sweeping anti-corruption investigation would not hurt the economy, saying companies and banks could operate as normal.A man speaks on the phone as he walks past the Kingdom Centre Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 5, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser At the request of the attorney-general, the central bank is freezing personal bank accounts of suspects pending court rulings on their cases, but it is not suspending operations of their companies, the bank said in a statement.“In other words, corporate businesses remain unaffected. It is business as usual for both banks and corporates,” the central bank said, adding that there were no restrictions on money transfers through proper banking channels.Dozens of royal family members, officials and business executives have been detained in the crackdown and are facing allegations of money laundering, bribery, extorting officials and taking advantage of public office for personal gain.Commercial bankers told Reuters earlier on Tuesday that Saudi banks had frozen more than 1,200 accounts on the central bank’s instructions and that the number was continuing to rise almost hourly.This has raised fears among businessmen that payments of outstanding debts could be delayed and that day-to-day activities of some companies, such as paying staff and creditors, might be hindered.The share prices of some companies linked to detained tycoons have plunged about 20 percent in the past three days.Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Richard Balmforth '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-cenbank/saudi-central-bank-says-corruption-probe-not-hurting-companies-banks-idINKBN1D72PL'|'2017-11-07T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'4a5b0dcab05128354321a6fb8ee89bdc766089e5'|'Lyft COO Rex Tibbens to quit by year end'|'Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. ride-hailing service Lyft Inc’s Chief Operating Officer Rex Tibbens plans to step down by the end of the year, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.Tibbens’ move comes at a time when Lyft is close to hiring an advisory firm for it’s proposed initial public offering and it is crucial for the company to have these roles filled as it’s going public.A Lyft spokesman confirmed the departure of Tibbens when contacted by Reuters.Lyft has started looking for Rex’s successor, the memo said.Axios website earlier reported Tibbens’ move to step down. (Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lyft-coo/lyft-coo-rex-tibbens-to-quit-by-year-end-idINL3N1ND1QS'|'2017-11-07T00:22:00.000+02:00'
'af0477e5f7fe9cae45fc1d75f6029386ad3797c9'|'Underwriter Hiscox revises down hurricane claim estimates'|'November 7, 2017 / 7:49 AM / Updated an hour ago Underwriter Hiscox revises down hurricane claim estimates Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Lloyd’s of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd ( HSX.L ) said it now estimates net claims for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria to total around $225 million, having previously estimated the same amount for Harvey and Irma alone. FILE PHOTO: A car dealership is covered by Hurricane Harvey floodwaters near Houston, Texas, U.S. on August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo The insurer, which underwrites a range of risks from oil refineries to kidnappings, also said claims arising from the Mexico earthquakes and California wildfires are not expected to be material for the group. The third quarter of 2017 is expected to be the costliest on record for the insurance and reinsurance industry due to the run of natural catastrophes, with policy rates expected to go up as a result. However Hiscox seems so far to be weathering the impact better than some rivals. The underwriter reported gross written premiums for the first nine months rose 12.4 percent to 2.09 billion pounds ($2.75 billion), helped by its Hiscox USA business. As insurers report the full extent of the damage in their third-quarter results in coming weeks, investors will be looking for signs they can claw back some of those losses by raising premiums for customers. A turnaround in prices would be the first major reversal since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. “The recent catastrophes are estimated to have cost the industry $100 billion and follow a decade of rate reductions. Therefore, it is not surprising that we are seeing signs of a hardening market,” Hiscox said. Hiscox said it was seeing price increases of between 10-50 percent for loss-affected and exposed U.S. property lines, while rate reductions on London Market insurance lines are coming to an end. It added that for its U.S. catastrophe-exposed reinsurance business, it expects double-digit increases in rates during January renewals. However insurance and reinsurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson ( JLT.L ) said on Tuesday that it did not expect the recent series of natural disasters to have an impact on its 2017 “outturn”. It added that it was “premature” to draw conclusions on the insurance rating environment. Hiscox also said on Tuesday that demand has risen for FloodPlus,an alternative to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)it launched in 2016, following Hurricane Harvey. “Harvey has taught us a lot about the responsiveness of this product and we have seen strong increase in demand. We believe the opportunity to write more U.S. flood business is significant,” the insurer said. The underwriter added that a recent U.S. tax reform bill which seeks to levy a 20 percent excise tax on payments made to foreign affiliates, could have an impact on its “internal group reinsurance arrangements”. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Rachel Armstrong '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hiscox-outlook/underwriter-hiscox-revises-down-hurricane-claim-estimates-idUSKBN1D70QG'|'2017-11-07T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'58059f14174c46a75794195d396c4ede1d0bb2bf'|'Fortum will not raise offer for Uniper: CEO'|'FRANKFURT/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Germany’s E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) might have to pay as much as 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) if a deal to sell its stake in Uniper ( UN01.DE ) to Finnish power group Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) falls through, raising the bar for any rival to enter the auction.The logo of Uniper SE is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai To offset the cost of the break fee announced by Fortum on Tuesday, a competing bid would likely have to rise to at least 26.10 euros per Uniper share, or 9.55 billion euros, to win E.ON over. That would be up nearly a fifth on Fortum’s 22 euro-per-share offer, which the Finnish firm said was the maximum.Shares in Uniper - which opposes Fortum’s bid - currently trade at 23.81 euros, having more than doubled since E.ON spun off the power plant and energy trading business last year. E.ON has agreed to sell its remaining 46.65 percent stake to Fortum.“We will not raise the offer price. This is our last, best and final offer,” Fortum Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said in webcast comments after the company published its official takeover offer, which will run until Jan. 16.“We consider a competing bid highly unlikely.”Uniper’s Chief Financial Officer Christopher Delbrueck said the company was not aware of any other parties interested in a large stake.Uniper argues its coal- and gas-fired power plants are not a good fit for Fortum, which is trying to reduce its carbon footprint. Management also fears Fortum might break up Uniper if its takeover bid succeeds and sell off unwanted assets to third parties, something Fortum has denied.“The bidder has no intention to cause Uniper to relocate its seat away from Duesseldorf, nor does it intend to cause Uniper to relocate or close or dispose of any parts of its business,” Fortum said in its offer document.Under German takeover rules, Fortum has to make an offer for all of Uniper, whose shares were flat on Tuesday after it said nine-month operating profit fell almost a quarter.If E.ON does not tender its stake by Jan. 11 as agreed, it may have to pay compensation of up to 1.5 billion euros to Fortum, the Finnish group said.Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer said the company would examine Fortum’s offer and comment on it within the next two weeks. He said shareholders should “refrain from accepting” the offer until then.Additional reporting by Vera Eckart; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum/fortum-will-not-raise-offer-for-uniper-ceo-idINKBN1D70K3'|'2017-11-07T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'425b8a481c0304c1eaf843b5623bf9bc5b730323'|'Centerra Gold to buy AuRico Metals in C$310 mln deal'|'Nov 7 (Reuters) - Canadian miner Centerra Gold Inc said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival AuRico Metals Inc in a deal valued at C$310 million ($243 million).Centerra offered C$1.80 per share in cash, a 38.5 percent premium to AuRico last close on Monday. (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aurico-metal-ma-centerra-gold/centerra-gold-to-buy-aurico-metals-in-c310-mln-deal-idUSL3N1ND4K9'|'2017-11-07T20:32:00.000+02:00'
'26fe3f99daa6c69cd580b7830ca70db978ff2348'|'CEE MARKETS-Leu falls as central bank seen letting it move more'|'* Leu eases through 4.6 line vs euro on central bank comments * Comments interpreted as increased leniency to fx movements * Polish bank stocks surge on Q3 results, rate hike hopes * Small-cap stocks put Budapest index on rollercoaster (Recasts with Romanian central bank decision and comments, kuna and dinar fall) By Sandor Peto and Luiza Ilie BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The leu hit its weakest level against the euro since 2012 on Tuesday after the market interpreted comments by the Romanian central bank governor as favouring a looser grip on the exchange rate. The currency had already eased slightly before the central bank''s meeting as some investors expected the bank (NBR) to deliver a relatively dovish message. The NBR kept its main interest rate steady at 1.75 percent as expected and narrowed the interest rate corridor around it. The bank said later that it would shift to "firm" instead of "adequate" liquidity management, which means it wants to keep market interest rates closer to the main rate, market participants said. Together with other comments about more exchange rate flexibility, this suggests "that the central bank is shifting towards more interest rate control instead of exchange rate control", Erste economist Horia Braun-Erdei said in a note. The leu plunged almost a percent after the comments, made by NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu at a news conference. It pierced the 4.6 line against the euro, a level many market participants believed the NBR had been defending. At 1525 GMT the leu traded at 4.6215, down two-thirds of a percent from Monday. The upside for the euro is limited, though, as Romanian government spending is expected to jump late this year, boosting leu liquidity in markets, Braun-Erdei said. "The NBR will welcome the occasion to sell some EUR and thus absorb some of that excess in its pursuit of ''firm liquidity management''," she added. Elsewhere in Central Europe, the Polish central bank is also seen holding fire at its meeting on Wednesday, but it is expected to start to increase interest rates by late next year. Expectations for higher rates contributed to a rally in Polish banking shares, helping push Warsaw''s blue-chip share index to its highest level since December 2013. "It seems that banks will now be the bourse''s engine. This might result from the expectations of the interest rate hike and banks'' rising margins," a Warsaw-based broker said. Budapest''s main equities index briefly hit a record high, boosted by a short-lived rally of small-cap firms controlled by Lorinc Meszaros, a tycoon close to the government. Croatia''s kuna set a 10-month low against the euro, partly because companies need euros for provisions due to a crisis at food group Agrokor . Serbia''s dinar fell a quarter of a percent to 118.8 against the euro, after the IMF cut its economic forecast for Serbia and urged reforms. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1625 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.567 25.563 -0.01% 5.63% 0 5 Hungary 311.75 311.38 -0.12% -0.94% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2445 4.2414 -0.07% 3.76% Romanian leu 4.6215 4.5913 -0.65% -1.87% Croatian 7.5400 7.5378 -0.03% 0.20% kuna Serbian 118.80 118.52 -0.24% 3.83% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1055.7 1055.5 +0.02 +14.5 3 6 % 5% Budapest 39934. 40115. -0.45% +24.7 80 77 8% Warsaw 2542.8 2515.3 +1.10 +30.5 9 4 % 4% Bucharest 7746.0 7784.0 -0.49% +9.33 1 5 % Ljubljana 784.85 788.85 -0.51% +9.37 % Zagreb 1816.5 1815.7 +0.05 -8.94% 7 0 % Belgrade 729.68 729.65 +0.00 +1.72 % % Sofia 674.34 672.79 +0.23 +14.9 % 9% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.313 0.008 +107b +0bps ps 5-year 0.748 0.03 +112b +3bps ps 10-year 1.598 0 +126b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.62 -0.012 +238b -2bps ps 5-year 2.649 -0.026 +302b -2bps ps 10-year 3.432 -0.013 +309b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.89 0.99 1.11 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.07 0.1 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.766 1.829 1.924 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-leu-falls-as-central-bank-seen-letting-it-move-more-idINL5N1ND6JA'|'2017-11-07T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'0fced3bd0996027d8c3d4c58448be9200add12a8'|'UPDATE 2-Trump praises Saudi purge, voices confidence in King, Crown Prince'|'(Adds analysts, Pentagon, background)By Yara Bayoumy and Jonathan LandayWASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed a move by Saudi Arabia’s future king that tightened his grip on power through the arrests of royals, ministers and investors in an anti-corruption purge.The endorsement cemented a U.S.-Saudi relationship that has improved dramatically under Trump’s presidency, partly because of both leaders’ vision of confronting Riyadh’s arch-rival Iran more aggressively in the region.Trump tweeted on Monday that he had “great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia” following the mass arrests - the biggest such purge of the kingdom’s affluent elite in its modern history.Trump also tweeted that “they know exactly what they are doing,” adding: “Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years.”The purge was the latest in a series of dramatic steps by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MbS as he is commonly referred to in Western circles, to assert Saudi influence internationally and amass more power for himself at home.A U.S. official who declined to be named told Reuters that MbS “has become the primary driver of Saudi policy-making. He has moved aggressively to sideline opponents, concentrate decision-making authority, and establish himself as the undisputed heir to the al Saud legacy.””He seeks to reinvigorate the public’s confidence in the Saudi monarchy by diversifying the economy, loosening religious restrictions, and carrying out wide ranging social reforms,” the official said.‘IMPRESSIVE FEAT’Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser, who has cultivated a close relationship with MbS, recently returned from Saudi Arabia, fuelling speculation on whether he may have had wind of MbS’ plans.The White House said at the time the trip was reported that it was within the context of Kushner’s efforts on Israeli-Palestinian peace conversations.Among those arrested were billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal, who is one of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen and whose investments in companies like Twitter make him the most recognized Saudi name on Wall Street.“It’s an impressive feat to have basically neutered virtually all of the sources of potential opposition, dissent rivalry, whether it’s religious, media, political, military,” said Rob Malley, vice president for policy of the International Crisis Group.“On the other hand... it’s always risky to make too many enemies at the same time. It’s not clear how those enemies can react,” said Malley, a former senior adviser on Middle East affairs under President Barack Obama.Also detained was Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was replaced as minister of the National Guard, a pivotal power base rooted in the kingdom’s tribes. That recalled a palace coup in June that ousted Mohammed bin Nayef as heir to the throne.A former senior U.S. intelligence official cautioned that given the National Guard’s loyalties, MbS could face a backlash.“I find it difficult to believe that it (National Guard) will simply roll over and accept the imposition of new leadership in such an arbitrary fashion.”ANTI-IRANIAN CONFRONTATION U.S.-Saudi ties had been strained under Obama, who Riyadh felt considered their alliance less important than negotiating the Iran nuclear deal.But the Trump administration has vowed to confront Iran much more aggressively in the region, where it shares the Saudi view that Tehran is fomenting instability via a number of proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen among other countries. Tehran denies the allegations.Events in Saudi Arabia in recent days appeared to open the prospect for a sharper confrontation with Iran and its proxies.Saudi Arabia accused Lebanon on Monday of declaring war against it because of what it called aggression by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah.Saudi-allied Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri quit as prime minister on Saturday, announcing his resignation from Riyadh and blaming Iran and Hezbollah in his resignation speech.Also on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired from warring Yemen over the capital, Riyadh.The Pentagon praised Saudi Arabia for “exposing” Iran’s role in Yemen and Tehran’s provision of missile systems to Houthi militia fighting there.“Between that (Hariri’s resignation) and the missile launch on Riyadh ... the coincidence of those two does mean that the prospect of some escalation, some strike either against Hezbollah or against Iran or against both is more likely, certainly than it was a few days ago,” Malley told Reuters.Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Arshad Mohammed and Eric Walsh in Washington; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-trump/update-2-trump-praises-saudi-purge-voices-confidence-in-king-crown-prince-idUSL1N1NC22K'|'2017-11-07T04:00:00.000+02:00'
'5107a4d448d8d26e2984a80951795b6056c3b073'|'Imperial Brands'' H2 sales improve, to expand vaping products'|'November 7, 2017 / 7:35 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Imperial Brands'' vaping efforts overshadow earnings miss Martinne Geller 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ) announced a step-up in its vaping strategy on Tuesday, including tests of tobacco-heating products, as the British tobacco firm tries to keep pace with larger rivals. Packs of Gauloises cigarettes are on display in a tobacco shop in Vienna, Austria, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger News of its expanded efforts sent shares up 2.5 percent by 0910 GMT, as investors shrugged off weaker-than-expected full-year profit, hurt by investments in brand-building. Imperial said it would begin small-scale trials of products that heat, rather than burn, tobacco, dipping into a market where its larger rivals British American Tobacco ( BATS.L ), Philip Morris International ( PM.N ) and Japan Tobacco International ( 2914.T ) already play. The maker of Gauloises and West cigarettes had so far only developed e-cigarettes, which use nicotine liquid, and said on Tuesday that despite the tests, e-cigarettes would remain its focus. “It’s important to maintain optionality on both oral tobacco and heated tobacco products because there may inevitably be scenarios in which it makes sense to launch one or both, but our focus is on e-vapour,” said Imperial Chief Development Officer Matthew Phillips. Imperial plans to launch three new vapour products, it said, and expand the number of markets from four now, to at least ten in fiscal 2018 and at least 20 in fiscal 2019. “Planned launches of next-generation products, including heated tobacco trials, have been largely anticipated by the market – but are nevertheless likely to mitigate any disappointment over a 1.5 percent full-year 2017 miss at EPS (earnings per share) and operating profit level,” said analysts at Investec Securities. Net revenue in the company’s core tobacco business rose 8.2 percent to 7.76 billion pounds in the year to 30 Sept, helped by the weakness of the British currency. Excluding currency, revenue fell 2.6 percent, as the company sold fewer cigarettes. The company earned 267 pence per share. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of 7.7 billion pounds and earnings of 270.8 pence per share, according to a company-supplied consensus. The number of cigarettes Imperial sold last year fell 4.1 percent, but there was a marked improvement in the second half of the year, which saw a decline of 2.6 percent, better than the 4.5 percent decline seen by the broader industry. Imperial’s sales volumes had fallen 5.7 percent in the first half. Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imperial-brands-results/imperial-brands-h2-sales-improve-to-expand-vaping-products-idUKKBN1D70P4'|'2017-11-07T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'e78c8e82bdcdc08c214794fa82924be9bcba09e3'|'Exclusive: Foreign credit card firms hit JV obstacle in China push - sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 2:36 AM / in 9 hours Exclusive: Foreign credit card firms hit JV obstacle in China push - sources Sumeet Chatterjee , Matthew Miller 5 Min Read HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - China is pressing foreign payment card companies to form local joint ventures for onshore operations, said three people familiar with the matter, a move that would counter a pledge on market access Beijing made to U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE PHOTO: A Mastercard logo is seen on a credit card in this picture illustration August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The push to get foreign card issuers to enter into equity tie-ups with Chinese companies, instead of running fully-owned units, comes ahead of Trump’s visit to China this week, and could further delay access to China’s rapidly-growing market for foreign card companies like MasterCard ( MA.N ) and Visa ( V.N ). The Trump administration has been a fierce critic of what it sees as China’s mercantilist policies. In September, Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative, criticized China for forcing companies into joint ventures. Trump also called the U.S. trade deficit with China “horrible” ahead of a trip to Asia that started Friday and includes visits to five countries, including China. Foreign card companies have been lobbying for more than a decade for direct access to China, which is set to become the world’s No.1 bank card market by 2020, according to GlobalData, a research company. In 2012, the World Trade Organization ruled that China was discriminating against foreign card companies. In May, Beijing and Washington agreed on a deadline for China to issue guidelines for the launch of local operations by U.S. payment network operators, leading to “full and prompt market access”. Some of the foreign card issuers, who were looking to set up their wholly-owned operations in China, have “informally” been told by the authorities to enter into equity joint ventures with local companies, said the three people, who have been briefed on the discussions with the central bank. It was not immediately clear whether the foreigners would be allowed to own majority stakes in the joint ventures, the people said. In most other financial services businesses, foreign companies are allowed to own minority holdings. “While this is in line with how they treat foreign investments in other financial services, expectations were building up for wholly-owned operations because foreign firms can never be a big competitor to UnionPay,” said one of the people. The person was referring to the near monopoly of the state-backed China UnionPay Co Ltd in the domestic bank card market. Visa, the world’s largest payments network operator, was the first to submit its application for a license in July, after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, issued the guidelines on June 30. Visa’s application, however, has been put on hold, and the company has been asked informally to firm up its local equity partnership before resubmitting the application, said two people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: An American Express and a Visa credit cards are seen on a computer keyboard in this picture illustration taken September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/Illustration/File Photo All the people who spoke to Reuters declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. The PBOC did not respond to a faxed request for comment. A spokesman for American Express said the company had submitted an application for a payment clearing and settlement license in China. “We continue to consult with the PBOC and will seek their guidance as we progress,” he said, without elaborating. A Visa spokeswoman said the company had put in an application with the Chinese central bank and that it expected the PBOC would consider that “in line with the publicly released measures and guidelines.” Mastercard did not respond to request for comment. OPERATIONAL CONTROL The latest development in the long wait for U.S. card companies to access China’s yuan-denominated onshore settlement market would also add to foreign investors’ complaints over discriminatory Chinese policies and market access restrictions. While the foreign companies have been waiting to offer yuan-denominated cards since the WTO ruling in 2012, UnionPay has expanded well beyond China with a presence in over 160 countries including the United States, and many countries in Europe. It had a 55 percent share in the global debit card market in 2015, according to Euromonitor. Some industry insiders have privately expressed concerns about whether China would provide a level-playing field for foreign companies. Limiting the ownership of the global card companies in the local operations could have an impact on their operational control and dealings with overseas parents - a normal course of doing business for them elsewhere, they said. Even after getting a local equity partner, foreign bank card companies would have to subject themselves to unspecified national security reviews and agree to set up data systems within China. Some U.S. payment card companies however, could see benefits from forming joint ventures with large, local companies with an existing customer database and access to networks across China, two of the people said. Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Matthew Miller; Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-payments-usa-exclusive/exclusive-foreign-credit-card-firms-hit-jv-obstacle-in-china-push-sources-idUSKBN1D706T'|'2017-11-07T04:36:00.000+02:00'
'90b0b4f76330698623a555a133aec3472502e7b2'|'Rockwell Automation to focus on operations after rejecting Emerson bid'|'(Reuters) - U.S. factory automation equipment maker Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) said on Wednesday it would stick to its current strategic plan, after rebuffing a more than $27 billion takeover bid from larger rival Emerson Electric Co’s ( EMR.N ) in October.Rockwell’s executives made the comments during the company’s post-earnings call.Emerson indicated on Tuesday it remained interested in restarting deal talks with Rockwell.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/rockwell-automation-to-focus-on-operations-after-rejecting-emerson-bid-idINKBN1D820B'|'2017-11-08T11:35:00.000+02:00'
'd5537f35adc680f85a870e55b493e17b78a0e663'|'ECB''s Lautenschlaeger - wanted clear exit from QE: TV'|'November 7, 2017 / 8:45 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago ECB''s Lautenschlaeger - wanted clear exit from QE: TV Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The euro zone’s economic recovery is robust and inflation will pick up so the European Central Bank should have set a clear end date for its 2.55 trillion euro (2.25 trillion pounds) asset purchase programme, ECB board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “We have a strong growth momentum, we have growth for 17 consecutive quarters and now the labour market has a solid recovery, the sentiment factors are positive, the financial conditions for firms and households are very favourable so I’m very confident that the inflation rate will pick up,” Lautenschlaeger told Bloomberg television. “I think it was correct to reduce the amount purchased from January onwards ... I would have liked to see a clear exit,” she added. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-lautenschlaeger/ecbs-lautenschlaeger-wanted-clear-exit-from-qe-tv-idUKKBN1D70VL'|'2017-11-07T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'd35690acbb743b5227db1225b971bc5871e86c83'|'Exclusive - China''s Meituan-Dianping mulls U.S. IPO of at least $3 billion in 2018: sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 5:21 AM / in 4 hours Exclusive - China''s Meituan-Dianping mulls U.S. IPO of at least $3 billion in 2018: sources Kane Wu , Julie Zhu 4 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Meituan-Dianping, an online platform for ordering food and booking movies and restaurants, is considering an initial public offering in the United States as soon as next year, five people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Meituan logo is seen in this illustration photo October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo A listing could raise at least $3 billion (2.28 billion pounds) as the company’s investors look to capitalise on the current market bull run, which has taken U.S. stocks to a series of all-time highs. A deal of that size, representing at least 10 percent of Meituan-Dianping’s valuation, would be the largest listing of a Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) record $25 billion float in 2014. Meituan-Dianping, which offers a broad range of services including movie ticketing, food delivery and beauty services, said last month it had raised $4 billion in fresh funding, valuing the company at $30 billion. According to CB Insights, a data and analytics provider, that valuation ranked it as the world’s fourth-largest “unicorn” - technology start-ups valued at $1 billion or more. Led by serial entrepreneur Wang Xing, Meituan-Dianping’s backers include Tencent, Sequoia Capital Ltd, Singaporean state investors GIC Pte Ltd and Temasek, as well as DST Global and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. An IPO could take place as early as the first half of 2018, according to one of the people. Meituan-Dianping has started initial conversations with potential advisors to work on an IPO plan, two of the people said. Plans are still fluid and no bank has been mandated, according to the sources, who declined be named as the discussions were not public. FILE PHOTO: The Dianping logo is seen in this illustration photo October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo When contacted by Reuters about its IPO plans, a Meituan-Dianping spokeswoman declined to comment, adding the company’s focus is on investing the proceeds of last month’s fundraising. “We are concentrated on implementing various initiatives that will build out our platform and offerings,” she said. An IPO could help bolster Meituan-Dianping’s firepower for investments in offline retail and artificial intelligence technology - a strategy that would pitch it directly against China’s leading e-commerce heavyweights including Alibaba and JD.com Inc ( JD.O ). Going public would also require the company to disclose its financials and strategy at a point when many of its competitors are still privately held. These include Alibaba’s food delivery unit Ele.me and ride-hailing champion Didi Chuxing. Earlier this year Meituan-Dianping began to challenge Didi by offering ride-hailing services. Meituan-Dianping was formed in 2015 from the $15 billion merger of Groupon-like Meituan and Yelp-like Dianping. It now has 280 million users and serves as a platform for roughly 5 million businesses. “The listing plans are more driven by the investors as several of them look to cash out after years of investments. But the company isn’t in a rush to go public as it doesn’t lack capital for development,” said one of the sources. In July, Meituan-Dianping’s vice-president of strategy Chen Shaohui told Reuters the firm would not consider an IPO until it had established infrastructure for services including offline retail, and that it had roughly $3 billion in cash reserves. Both Alibaba and JD.com have championed a shift into offline stores in recent years, spurred by developments in cloud computing and big data technology. Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Lincoln Feast '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-meituan-usa-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-meituan-dianping-mulls-u-s-ipo-of-at-least-3-billion-in-2018-sources-idUKKBN1D70F3'|'2017-11-07T07:23:00.000+02:00'
'1021f412e0a6381a1f9c0e02f708fc3a30819a2d'|'Aramco oil reserves audit two-thirds complete, may not be finished in 2017: sources'|'LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - An audit of Saudi Aramco’s [IPO-ARMO.SE] oil reserves is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2017 because of the huge scale of the task, sources familiar with the matter said, a later timeframe than previously indicated.FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The audit has so far confirmed the reserves figures earlier given by Saudi Arabia, the sources said, an important part of the state oil company’s preparatory work for its planned initial public offering next year.Saudi Arabia’s reserves of easily recoverable oil have long been considered the world’s largest. But there have also been questions about their volume and quality, and the audit seeks to provide internationally recognized figures for investors.“It’s a huge task,” a source familiar with the matter said, commenting on the progress of the reserves audit. “They are about two-thirds of the way through. It’s all going well and smoothly - no surprises.”For nearly 30 years - despite rising production, large swings in oil prices and improved technology - Riyadh has annually reported the same number for reserves of 261 billion barrels, according to BP’s statistical review.Dallas-based DeGolyer and MacNaughton, and Gaffney, Cline and Associates, part of Baker Hughes BHI.N, are involved in the auditing, sources have said. Baker Hughes declined to comment on the progress of the work, while DeGolyer did not respond to a request for comment.Asked to comment, Aramco said: “We do not comment on rumors and speculation. Investors will receive relevant information in due course in connection with the IPO.”An industry source had told Reuters in March that Aramco aimed to have one of the two reserves auditors wrap up the review this year, long before the planned listing. But this now looks unlikely.“Aramco wants to make sure the companies are shown full data to avoid skeptical remarks on its reserves later on,” a second source said. “It’s unlikely the audit will be finished this year.”A third source said auditing work on the major Aramco fields was completed, leaving smaller fields still to be audited.A reserves total that is significantly above or below the 261 billion figure is likely to affect Aramco’s potential value. Earlier phases of the audit have supported Aramco’s statements on the total size of deposits.The sale of around 5 percent of Aramco next year is a centerpiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is championed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.No decision about the location of the international share listing has been announced, fuelling market speculation the IPO could be delayed or shelved. But Prince Mohammad told Reuters in October it was still on track for 2018.Additonal reporting by David French in New York and Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-ipo-reserves/aramco-oil-reserves-audit-two-thirds-complete-may-not-be-finished-in-2017-sources-idINKBN1D70TE'|'2017-11-07T05:18:00.000+02:00'
'f1b00595d3e96af17f8af4856170c82794c50e30'|'UPDATE 1-Merged fertilizer company Nutrien eyes U.S. farm suppliers as cash pile builds'|'(Adds CEO comments, share activity)By Rod NickelWINNIPEG, Manitoba, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Nutrien, the company to be formed by year-end from the merger of Agrium Inc and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, plans to expand its U.S. farm supply network and return cash to shareholders, Agrium Chief Executive Chuck Magro said on Wednesday.Regulators in China and India require Potash to divest itself of minority stakes in three fertilizer companies - SQM , ICL Israel Chemicals and Arab Potash Co PLC - as a condition of approving the $25-billion merger.The sales could fill Nutrien’s coffers with $5 billion after taxes and banker fees, according to a BMO estimate, helping it consolidate the fragmented U.S. farm retail sector, which sells seed, chemicals and fertilizer to farmers.Nutrien, which Magro will lead as CEO, will quickly clarify its capital strategy after the merger closes late this year and its new board takes shape, he said.An undetermined amount of capital will fund retail growth as a “key priority,” Magro said on a conference call with analysts. It will also return some cash to shareholders, either with a larger dividend or share buybacks, he said.“The allocation of capital is really going to be targeted toward long-term shareholder growth,” Magro said “... It’s fair to say that retail growth will be a key priority.”The company is open to big farm retail acquisitions, and Agrium already has some medium-sized deals in the works this quarter, he said. Agrium is the biggest U.S. farm retail supplier and has for years been steadily buying up stores.Agrium shares fell 1.6 percent in Toronto to C$136.36, after it posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss late on Tuesday. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/agrium-potashcorp-ma/update-1-merged-fertilizer-company-nutrien-eyes-u-s-farm-suppliers-as-cash-pile-builds-idINL1N1NE1D1'|'2017-11-08T14:25:00.000+02:00'
'49fddf894d175464344091ed65f47acac5a17401'|'Merkel''s party opposes Telekom selloff to fund broadband upgrade: sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:51 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Merkel''s party opposes Telekom selloff to fund broadband upgrade: sources Douglas Busvine , Paul Carrel 4 Min Read FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s ruling conservatives oppose selling the state’s holding in Deutsche Telekom to raise billions of euros for a national broadband upgrade, preferring instead to divest stock in Deutsche Post, a senior source said. Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer “Can we privatise companies to this end? Yes we can,” said the source, from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “But I wouldn’t necessarily start with Telekom.” The source added that “if we were to think at all” about selling off government interests, state-held shares in Deutsche Post could go first as that company is less sensitive to national security concerns. The CDU’s position is in stark contrast with calls by two smaller parties in talks to form a coalition government to sell down the state’s 31.9 percent holding in Deutsche Telekom to invest in a national rollout of ultra-fast glass-fiber to homes and businesses. The liberal Free Democrats want to sell off the entire holding. The Greens, meanwhile, propose parking the 14.5 percent of Telekom that is directly controlled by Berlin at a state development bank, raising 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion). A second CDU source dismissed the Greens’ proposal as a “book-keeping trick”. The disagreement comes as Germany, Europe’s industrial powerhouse, seeks billions to upgrade its creaking internet infrastructure and keep its factories competitive. Twelve years after Merkel first took power, just 2 percent of internet connections in Germany are super-fast glass fiber, the OECD estimates. That compares to 74 percent in South Korea and 75 percent in Japan. Analysts, investors and CEO Tim Hoettges warn that, without the government as an anchor owner, Telekom could draw an unwelcome foreign takeover bid. Telekom called off an attempt to merge its T-Mobile US unit with Sprint Corp at the weekend. With that deal off the table, concerns are turning to the risk that a large slug of Telekom shares could hit the stock market. “This could be highly negative for the Deutsche Telekom share price in our view,” Credit Suisse analyst Justin Funnell said in a note on Tuesday, adding that investors would only want to buy the shares at a steep discount. Analysts estimate the cost of a country-wide glass-fiber internet rollout to businesses and households at 80 to 100 billion euros ($93-$116 billion) - beyond the reach of Deutsche Telekom and its competitors. The Free Democrats want the government to commit 20-25 billion euros in subsidies through 2025, a figure the CDU views as too high. The state owns 31.9 percent in Deutsche Telekom. However, Berlin has already raised cash against a 17.4 percent stake by transferring it to the Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW), a state development bank. Were the KfW to sell these shares to investors it would only remit any price upside to the government. It’s a similar story with the 20.9 percent holding in Deutsche Post that has already been parked at the KfW, which does not disclose the valuation of the holdings in its books. Merkel aides argue the public finances are strong enough to fund the internet offensive without resorting to asset fire sales. Funneling some of that cash to Deutsche Telekom would benefit the state as its main shareholder, CDU sources say. That view is shared by a top-10 Telekom shareholder. “I should privatise when I have no money,” this investor told Reuters. “Revenues are flowing, so why privatise? It makes sense for the state to keep a stake.” ($1 = 0.8615 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-germany-coalition-digital/merkels-party-opposes-telekom-selloff-to-fund-broadband-upgrade-sources-idINKBN1D71NW'|'2017-11-07T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'4e48b906432a15b8e29cb7cae0dc7194ace01345'|'UK power market ripe for more mergers after SSE deal'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:11 PM / Updated 3 hours ago UK power market ripe for more mergers after SSE deal Nina Chestney , Christoph Steitz 6 Min Read LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A deal to merge the British retail power businesses owned by SSE ( SSE.L ) and Germany’s Innogy ( IGY.DE ) could pave the way for more industry consolidation as pressures mount on the big suppliers in an increasingly crowded market. An SSE vehicle is parked outside the Pitlochry Dam hydro electric power station in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne SSE and Innogy said on Wednesday they planned to join forces in Britain to create a company with $14 billion (£10.7 billion) in sales, which would reduce the country’s “Big Six” energy providers to five if the deal is approved by competition authorities. The new company would be the second largest player in Britain’s retail power market with a 23 percent market share, behind Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas which has 27 percent. Analysts and banking sources say more deals could follow as the long-standing market leaders wrestle with new rivals, low wholesale energy prices, a surge in renewable energy production and the prospect of a government cap on prices. “The big six are losing customers at a record pace to smaller suppliers. They also face a hit from price caps. Consolidation has its appeal in this kind of environment, just look at the gambling industry’s raft of deals,” Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said. The so-called Big Six energy companies - British Gas, SSE, Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, Innogy’s npower, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) and EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ) - emerged from a series of privatisations, mergers and break-ups in the 1990s and 2000s. “There is maybe room to be going down to four from five but certainly not beyond,” a senior banking source said. “The others may consider as an alternative to create their own brand, or they could consider listing their retail business and have it combined with a smaller company like Telecom Plus ( TEP.L ) or other smaller disruptor players to avoid the regulatory challenge that comes with consolidation,” the banking source said. Centrica and EDF Energy declined to comment. E.ON’s Chief Financial Officer Marc Spieker said the company was strong enough to compete on its own in Britain and was not currently examining strategic options for the business. Scottish Power did not immediately respond to requests for comment. UNDER PRESSURE Europe’s biggest power firms badly need to merge, bankers say. The 12 biggest have written off more than 100 billion euros ($116 billion) of assets since 2010 by shutting or mothballing loss-making coal and gas plants, Jefferies investment bank said. In Britain, power firms face additional regulatory pressure from the government to curb high energy bills, which have more than doubled over the last decade. Retail margins are already extremely thin and not expected to improve anytime soon. An SSE vehicle is parked outside the Pitlochry Dam hydro electric power station in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne E.ON, for example, said its profit margin in the UK supply business shrank to 2.8 percent after the first nine months of 2017 from 4.9 percent a year earlier. New, smaller suppliers now control 20 percent of the market compared with less than 1 percent a decade ago while heavy-hitters such as Sweden’s Vattenfall [VATN.UL] and France’s Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) also entered the UK home energy market this year. Overall, there are about 60 energy suppliers operating in Britain at the moment. Any consolidation in the British market would follow a similar shake-up of the German sector, which culminated in its two largest utilities, E.ON and RWE ( RWEG.DE ), both splitting their businesses in two to ensure their long-term survival. Slideshow (2 Images) E.ON spun off its power generation and energy trading businesses into a new company called Uniper ( UN01.DE ) while RWE put its retail power, networks and renewable energy businesses into Innogy. Even before the British deal announced on Wednesday, analysts and bankers had said utilities were looking at merger opportunities in Europe, including the sale of RWE’s 76.8 percent stake in Innogy. E.ON is also nearing a deal to sell its remaining 46.65 percent stake in Uniper to Finland’s Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ). SSE and Innogy said they were confident the British deal would be approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last year found that competition was not working in some parts of the retail market. Some analysts were not so sure, especially as British Gas and the new company to be formed from SSE and npower would have half the retail market between them. “In light of the CMA’s findings last year that competition in the domestic market is not very effective, it is unclear if the CMA will bless the deal given that HHI (market concentration index) levels will increase by 17 percent,” analysts at Bernstein said. Last month, the government asked industry regulator Ofgem to come up with price caps in what would be the biggest market intervention in 30 years, arguing this should eliminate excessive charging and increase competition. However, some industry participants view the SSE-Innogy deal as a reaction to the prospect of the price cap and customer losses, and say that reducing the number of dominant players might hinder rather than improve competition. “We don’t see how turning the Big Six into the Big Five will help consumers. Fewer suppliers means less competition and less competition means higher prices,” said Hayden Wood, co-founder of Bulb, a smaller energy supplier. Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale and Clara Denina in London; editing by David Clarke '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sse-innogy-analysis/uk-power-market-ripe-for-more-mergers-after-sse-deal-idUKKBN1D82BE'|'2017-11-08T18:10:00.000+02:00'
'fc8e78059bd71fd8898c1d1dadf2e3e3cab107da'|'London court rules that Monarch cannot sell airport slots'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:37 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago London court rules Monarch cannot sell airport slots Alistair Smout 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Monarch does not have the right to sell its airport takeoff and landing slots, potentially the most valuable remaining part of the failed airline, a court in London ruled on Wednesday. Monarch airplanes are parked on the runway after the airline went into administration at Newquay airport, Newquay, Britain, October 26, 2017, REUTERS/Toby Melville In a blow to administrators seeking to recoup money, the High Court rejected Monarch’s claim that it must be allocated slots for summer 2018 and said they will be placed into a pool. “We are disappointed with today’s ruling and will be seeking leave to appeal as a matter of urgency,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator of Monarch, said. Administrators had sought a judicial review to establish if they had the right to sell airport slots, reportedly worth 60 million pounds. But a judge dismissed the claim, saying that as Monarch was not flying and was unlikely to do so in the future, Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) had no duty to assign them slots. “There is no more than a theoretical possibility of Monarch emerging as a going concern or resuming the operation of air services,” Judge Peter Gross told the court. Gross said a decision on whether to grant an appeal would be adjourned until the full judgement was written. British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ), easyJet ( EZJ.L ), Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) and Wizz Air ( WIZZ.L ) have all expressed interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots, especially at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports. Monarch airplanes are seen parked on the runway after the airline went into administration at Newquay airport, Newquay, Britain, October 26, 2017, REUTERS/Toby Melville The court’s ruling means that the slots will go into the pool and will be assigned by ACL. A slot allocation conference began on Wednesday in Madrid. ACL said that slots at Manchester and Birmingham would immediately be returned to the pool, and allocated 50 percent to new entrants and 50 percent to incumbent operators. The court ordered a stay of its decision on the highly sought after slots in Gatwick and Luton until Nov. 17, pending the administrators’ application for permission to appeal. “As a result, the slots at Gatwick and Luton which were formerly operated by Monarch remain unallocated in the short-term,” ACL said in a statement. Instead of reaping the proceeds of slot sales, Monarch was order to pay ACL’s costs. Monarch investor Greybull Capital has agreed in principle that it should contribute to the cost of repatriating Monarch customers, should it emerge from the administration process in credit - a prospect less likely if administrators cannot sell or exchange airport slots. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the decision, saying slots should not be allocated to entities who only intended to sell them rather than operate flights. “If the High Court had decided that Monarch had the right to sell slots it could not operate, it would have set a deeply concerning precedent for the aviation industry,” IATA said. Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-licence/london-court-rules-that-monarch-cannot-sell-airport-slots-idUKKBN1D8178'|'2017-11-08T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'b92edc406fec457d2f73f140a434b550df28028a'|'METALS-Nickel, copper lead Shanghai metals down'|'SYDNEY, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Nickel and copper led an across-the-board-decline in Chinese base metals on Wednesday, triggered by a sharp selloff overnight in London metals markets.Investors locked in near-20 percent gains in the nickel market over the past month, with selling was sparked by data showing that higher prices have enticed more nickel ore exports from Indonesia, ANZ Bank said.Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Tuesday said it has issued export quota recommendations for 20.4 million tonnes of nickle ore.FUNDAMENTALS * LME NICKEL: London Metal Exchange three-month nickel was marginally weaker at $12,635 a tonne at 0100 GMT after falling 2.1 percent on Tuesday* SHFE NICKEL: The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 1.6 percent to 100,960 yuan ($15,209) a tonne.* ANGLO/DREYFUS: Mining giant Anglo American is among several companies interested in buying commodity trader Louis Dreyfus’s metals business, three trading and banking sources told Reuters.* OIL VS ELECTRIC: A rapid adoption of electric vehicles could cause world oil demand to reach a plateau in the second half of the 2030s, OPEC said in a report, a potential setback for the oil exporter group’s longer term prospects.* LONDON COPPER: LME copper was slightly firmer at $6,843 a tonne, partially offsetting a 2.1 percent loss overnight.* SHFE COPPER: ShFE copper was down 1.6 percent.* DOLLAR SLIPS: The dollar was a slim 0.1 percent lower against a basket of currencies,* For the top stories in metals and other news, click orMARKETS NEWS * Asian shares paused at decade peaks and the dollar dipped on Wednesday amid concerns Republican plans for major U.S. tax cuts were running into headwinds even before the Senate releases its own version of the proposals.DATA AHEAD (GMT) * China Trade data Oct 0745 France Trade data Sep*No fixed timingPRICES Three month LME copperMost active ShFE copperThree month LME aluminiumMost active ShFE aluminiumThree month LME zincMost active ShFE zincThree month LME leadMost active ShFE leadThree month LME nickelMost active ShFE nickelThree month LME tinMost active ShFE tinARBS ($1 = 6.6380 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by James Regan Editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-nickel-copper-lead-shanghai-metals-down-idUSL3N1NE1D5'|'2017-11-08T03:56:00.000+02:00'
'1ba151ffc59159e75945d986d8d631cfb5340df6'|'German court rules independent auditor should investigate VW scandal'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:01 PM / in 30 minutes German court rules independent auditor should investigate VW scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Investors seeking billions of dollars in damages from Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) were given a boost on Wednesday when a German court ruled an independent auditor should be appointed to investigate the carmaker’s emissions scandal. A Volkswagen logo is seen at Serramonte Volkswagen in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam Volkswagen’s (VW) main shareholders, the Porsche-Piech families and the state of Lower Saxony, had blocked requests by the DSW and SdK investor lobby groups for a special auditor to look into its cheating of U.S. diesel engine tests. But a regional court in Celle, about 54 kms (34 miles) west of VW’s Wolfsburg base, said on Wednesday such an auditor must be appointed in a decision that is legally binding and cannot be appealed by the carmaker. Shortly after the “Dieselgate” scandal broke in September 2015, VW hired U.S. law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the circumstances of its wrongdoing and who was responsible. Although VW had pledged to improve transparency, it never published the findings which was used as the basis for a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. “This is an extremely good day for the VW shareholders who have lost a lot of money in the wake of the diesel scandal,” DSW Vice President Klaus Nieding said. “At last, light will be shed on the darkness that has shielded VW for so long.” VW said in an emailed statement that it had taken note of the court decision, which it described as “unfounded”, adding it would carefully consider further steps. The auditor will also examine when VW’s top management board first learned of the test cheating and whether it disclosed the possible financial damage to investors promptly. German securities law requires firms to publish any market sensitive news in a timely fashion. The matter is also being investigated by German prosecutors. VW has said it believes its management complied with obligations under German disclosure rules. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-court/german-court-rules-independent-auditor-should-investigate-vw-scandal-idUSKBN1D82NY'|'2017-11-08T19:59:00.000+02:00'
'efa7a2f9446065c0cbe26d03af1d72ee76ff0e6c'|'Euronext''s third-quarter core profit rises on stable European macro environment'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:48 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Euronext''s third-quarter core profit rises on stable European macro environment Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Pan-European exchange Euronext ( ENX.PA ) said its third-quarter core earnings rose 13.3 percent, driven by improved trading volumes in a “stabilised macro environment” and gains from recent acquisitions. FILE PHOTO - Company stock price information are displayed on screens as they hang above the Paris stock exchange, operated by Euronext NV, in La Defense business district in Paris, France, December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Euronext, which operates bourses in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Lisbon, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 69.5 million euros (61.21 million pounds) in the third quarter from 61.3 million euros a year earlier. Revenue rose 14.1 percent to 128.7 million euros in the period. “The third quarter of 2017 saw an improved trading environment, despite very low volatility, with a stabilised macro environment in Europe. This translated into improved trading volumes on both cash and derivatives markets...” Euronext said in a statement. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-euronext-results/euronexts-third-quarter-core-profit-rises-on-stable-european-macro-environment-idUKKBN1D80JB'|'2017-11-08T08:51:00.000+02:00'
'd6d9f3db184de8b19500e5d1a48f33dfafe345f1'|'U.S. Justice Dept unseals charges in Rolls-Royce Holdings foreign bribery case'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:35 AM / in 10 minutes U.S. Justice Dept unseals charges in Rolls-Royce Holdings foreign bribery case Sarah N. Lynch 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department unsealed charges on Tuesday against five individuals for their alleged role in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials to benefit Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc ( RR.L ) and help secure a contract to provide services for a major gas pipeline from Central Asia to China. FILE PHOTO - The Rolls Royce logo is seen on a car at a Rolls Royce shop at Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok, Thailand June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva The newly unveiled charges against former company executives and other people come after Rolls-Royce in January paid more than $800 million (607.5 million pounds) to resolve U.S., British and Brazilian charges. Of the five people whose charges were announced Tuesday, four have since pleaded guilty. As part of the January corporate settlement, the company admitted to paying officials at state-run energy companies in Kazakhstan, Thailand, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Angola and Iraq more than $35 million in order to win contracts. The department said Tuesday it had charged Petros Contoguris, 70, who served as the founder and chief executive of a Turkish oil and gas company advisory firm called Gravitas & CIE. International Ltd, with money laundering and foreign bribery charges. It also said it had charged James Finley, a former senior executive in Rolls-Royce’s energy sales division; Keith Barnett, a former Rolls-Royce regional energy director in the United States; Andreas Kohler, an employee in the German office of an unnamed engineering and consulting firm; and Aloysius Johannes Jozef Zuurhout, a former employee for a Dutch subsidiary of Rolls-Royce. Finley pleaded guilty July 28 to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one count of violating the law. Zuurhout, Kohler and Barnett, meanwhile, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA during separate court appearances on June 13, June 6, and Dec. 20, 2016, respectively. The department said Contoguris is believed to be outside of the United States. A Rolls-Royce spokesman said in a statement that the company “has committed to full ongoing co-operation with the Department of Justice and cannot comment on action against individuals.” According to the cases unsealed, the individuals charged were part of a scheme to pay kickbacks and disguise those payments to Contoguris’ company Gravitas, in exchange for helping Rolls-Royce win contracts for the Asia Gas Pipeline. That pipeline ultimately awarded Rolls-Royce a contract in November 2009 for $145 million, and the company then made payments to Gravitas, the department said. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rolls-royce-hldg-corruption/u-s-justice-dept-unseals-charges-in-rolls-royce-holdings-foreign-bribery-case-idUKKBN1D801T'|'2017-11-08T02:34:00.000+02:00'
'b92125015f5be537e642c8d761367463af575824'|'E.ON lost British customers but can go it alone there'|' 45 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago E.ON lost British customers but can go it alone there Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) has lost about 200,000 customers in Britain so far this year, its chief financial officer told journalists on Wednesday, highlighting the growing challenges it faces in that market. FILE PHOTO: A shareholder carries a bag with the logo of E.ON during the company''s annual shareholders meeting in Essen, Germany May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo Marc Spieker said that the group was strong enough to compete on its own in Britain, adding it currently did not examine strategic options after rivals Innogy ( IGY.DE ) and SSE ( SSE.L ) said they would merge their local retail assets. Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-e-on-results-britain/e-on-lost-british-customers-but-can-go-it-alone-there-idUKKBN1D8113'|'2017-11-08T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'bab08cd798518e283c772303cecfde0ee22d8c90'|'UK retailers suffer worst October since 2008 - BRC'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:07 AM / in 2 hours UK retailers suffer worst October since 2008: BRC Andy Bruce 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shoppers cut back their spending last month at the fastest pace for any October since 2008, a reminder of the strain on household budgets even before the Bank of England raised interest rates, a survey showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - A woman shops in a supermarket in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Retail sales declined by an annual 1.0 percent on a like-for-like basis, which strips out changes in store size, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said. Sales rose 1.9 percent in September. Payments company Barclaycard ( BARC.L ) also reported weak consumer spending, with a split between spending on essentials and spending on discretionary items. Last Thursday, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years, despite a slowdown in economic growth this year. Most economists polled by Reuters before the decision thought raising rates would be a mistake, partly because of fragile consumer finances, which have been under pressure from weak wage growth and the rise in inflation since last year’s Brexit vote. Governor Mark Carney has said the worst of the squeeze on households is ending and the impact of the rate increase will not be big for households, whose spending is the main driver of Britain’s economy. But analysts were less sure in light of Tuesday’s figures, as well as a similar Confederation of British Industry survey published last month, which showed sales plunged during October at the fastest rate since 2009. “The UK BRC Retail Sales make for rather depressing reading ... thus raising further questions about the wisdom of last week’s BoE rate hike, let alone the prospect of any follow-up,” said Marc Ostwald, market strategist at ADM Investor Services. The BRC said its figures were a cause for concern ahead of the Christmas holidays. “The decline was driven by the worst performance of non-food sales since our record began in January 2011,” said Helen Dickinson, BRC’s chief executive. “The growth in food sales, meanwhile, adds some color to this otherwise anemic picture, but these figures are very much buoyed by inflation.” Consumer price inflation reached 3 percent in September, its highest level in more than five years and above the BoE’s 2 percent target. The central bank expects the consumer price index to peak at 3.2 percent in October. The BRC, whose figures are not seasonally adjusted, said total sales last month edged up 0.2 percent, which was also the weakest increase for any October since 2008. Dickinson said the last week’s rate hike - the first in more than a decade - would add more pressure on household budgets. The impact from the rise in borrowing costs on the housing market looks much less marked, mortgage lender Halifax said as it reported a pick-up in house prices in the three months to October. Barclaycard’s measure of consumer spending growth eased to 2.4 percent year-on-year, compared with an increase of 3 percent in September. “In light of the Bank of England’s announcement last week, it’ll be interesting to see how shoppers, who have so far demonstrated their resilience, continue to juggle the many demands on their budget,” said Paul Lockstone, managing director at Barclaycard. Editing by William Schombergk, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy/uk-retailers-suffer-worst-october-since-2008-brc-idUKKBN1D7003'|'2017-11-07T02:25:00.000+02:00'
'11652cb46774250149c7163fc3ab322c6c94778e'|'Russia''s Aeroflot sizes up Airbus, Boeing for narrow-body order'|'November 7, 2017 / 10:03 AM / in 6 minutes Russia''s Aeroflot sizes up Airbus, Boeing for narrow-body order Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Fast-growing Russian airline group Aeroflot ( AFLT.MM ) is considering a “sizeable” order for Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) A320neo family and Boeing Co’s ( BA.N ) 737 MAX narrow-body aircraft, a top executive said on Tuesday. The logo of Russia''s flagship airline Aeroflot is seen on an Airbus A320 in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The country’s biggest airline has yet to order the next generation of fuel-efficient aircraft to replace its fleet of 146 A320 family jets and 54 737-800s as of June 30. “That is something that we are looking at,” Aeroflot Deputy General Director for Strategy and Alliances Giorgio Callegari told Reuters of the potential order on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Summit 2017. “Probably in the next year we will at least know the direction. It will be a sizeable order,” he said, declining to provide estimated numbers. Callegari said Aeroflot wanted to retain both Airbus and Boeing narrow bodies in its fleet because it used them in different seating configurations and did not want to be reliant on a single manufacturer. Aeroflot, which has an average fleet age of just 4.1 years, increased capacity across its premium and low-cost carriers by 16.2 percent in the nine months ended Sept. 30 and still filled a higher percentage of its seats than in the prior year. It expects the growth rate to slow slightly in the fourth quarter, with a full-year capacity forecast of 12-14 percent growth, Callegari said. Russian aviation market conditions were particularly challenging in 2015 and 2016, after sanctions by the United States and Europe, along with weak oil prices, hit the Russian economy and the rouble, killing consumer demand. Demand started to recover along with the economy and Aeroflot has benefited from its scale and the bankruptcies of Russian carriers Transaero in 2015 and VIM Airlines this year. “The market is proving us right and offering us the possibility of growing,” Callegari said. “Others don’t seem to have such a successful approach. It makes some market segments more approachable because they cease to operate.” However, Aeroflot reported a 40 percent drop in its non-consolidated net income under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) in the nine months ended Sept. 30 to 25.5 billion rubles (£330.1 million), which ATON brokerage attributed to a lack of foreign exchange gains compared to last year. Aeroflot is a member of the SkyTeam alliance alongside carriers including Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), Air France KLM SA ( AIRF.PA ) and China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd ( 600115.SS ). It has codeshare arrangements with other airlines but has yet to agree a joint venture deal allowing it to coordinate scheduling and pricing. “We are having constructive conversations with a number of parties but no joint ventures are finalised yet,” Callegari said, adding airlines in Europe and Asia were the focus of talks. Reporting by Jamie Freed; additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aeroflot-strategy/russias-aeroflot-sizes-up-airbus-boeing-for-narrow-body-order-idUKKBN1D7150'|'2017-11-07T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'c0fc234393c1c9edf7a4067517db2df6e69a68c1'|'Southwest Airlines tries to bring music concerts to the skies - Hitting the wrong note'|'LAST week brought some good news for those who are fans of both flying and country music. Warner Music Nashville, a record label, and Southwest Airlines announced that they will be bringing concerts to the skies. The scheme is an expansion of the airline’s existing “Live at 35” series, in which bands surprise passengers by playing a few songs in the plane’s cabin. Devin Dawson (pictured), an artist on the label, marked the occasion with a performance on a flight from Nashville to Philadelphia. He told Billboard , a music publication, that:Some people don’t really enjoy flying; some people get very nervous and don’t like it. I hope that something like this [performance] is just a cool surprise for some [passengers] that helps them forget about their everyday woes, and I’ll just play a couple of songs to make them smile. However, Mr Dawson’s enthusiasm was not shared by everyone. The reactions on social media were swift and brutal. The New York Daily News tweeted that the carrier is forcing passengers to listen to in-flight music live “because air travel isn’t torture enough”. Vice ran the headline : “Southwest Airlines will regularly inflict live music on trapped passengers”. Frequent flyers asked how there could possibly be space for a band to perform, when airlines are cramming seats into every available inch of their planes. Business travellers complained about the distraction. Some vowed never to fly Southwest again.This is an example of airlines’ trying to make flying fun. (Other attempts include using ever-catchier safety videos or even making flight attendants perform dance numbers, as Gulliver has previously reported .) But the problem is that most travellers just want to get from one location to another with minimal hassle. Many business travellers reported in a recent survey that they prefer to avoid human interaction altogether when in transit. And although a concert is not an interaction, in some ways it is far worse. There is no way to cut off the conversation. Sleeping through it is a near-impossible challenge. Reading or working is harder still.Though misguided, the airlines’ attempts to enliven flights are understandable. Travellers tend to choose their carriers on the basis of price and convenience, even if they complain about the food or service along the way. That forces airlines to find cheap ways to attract customers without denting profit margins. A live concert seems like an affordable and potentially enjoyable gimmick. After all, if videos of the performances go viral, Southwest could become known as the “fun” airline.But most travellers do not want fun. They want quiet and they want reliability. Even though these qualities are harder for airlines to provide, they will make customers more satisfied—and perhaps more loyal too.Previous Why Qatar Airways has bought 9.6% of Cathay Pacific Next Smoking rooms are disappearing from hotels'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/hitting-wrong-note?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-04T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'e09de7d06288603a4326686e645928c58b465512'|'New UK property rental website to shut out letting agency fees'|' 21 AM / in 8 minutes New UK property rental website to shut out letting agency fees Esha Vaish 3 Min Read (Reuters) - HomeRenter, a new British online property lettings website backed by newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror is to be launched on Monday, offering to cut out the role of traditional letting agents and the hefty fees which they levy on tenants. These fees, which go towards the cost of conducting viewings, verifying references and drawing up contracts, have become an increasingly important earner for traditional agents as a shortage of affordable housing forces more people to rent each year. However, their sharp rise has inflated the cost of renting and fuelled public anger, prompting the British government to last year announce plans to ban such tenant fees. HomeRenter’s Airbnb-style online marketplace would allow renters to circumvent such fees. Instead, the business intends to make its revenue by tapping the estimated 2 million landlords who own fewer than three properties by charging them an annual membership cost of 99.99 pounds ($130) to showcase properties. “High fees and poor service on offers from traditional agents created the momentum to build HomeRenter,” Chief Executive Will Handley, the former managing director of Trinity Mirror’s news businesses division, told Reuters. “We firmly believe that through the digital means you can cut out the middle agent and create a world in which landlords and tenants enjoy happier tenancies.” If successful, the site could pose a further challenge to traditional estate agents such as Countrywide and Foxtons, who are struggling in a cooling market in the face of Brexit uncertainty and facing rising competition from online rivals such as Purplebricks. Recent results have shown online agents gaining traction, with Purplebricks having forecast a more than doubling in first-half revenues. Countrywide and Foxtons have reported profit falls. Property market experts say a growing number of people are being attracted by the cut-price fees of online estate agents in Britain, which means that a number of sites, including Gumtree and Spareroom, already allow people to find rooms to rent without an agent. However, where most other platforms target younger landlords and tenants in their marketing, HomeRenter is also attempting to tap under-serviced markets such as ‘mom and pop’ landlords and is in talks with institutional landlords such as The Collective and LIV Group. “Where we stand versus anyone else offering online lettings is that (we‘re) trying to create a marketplace ethos,” Handley said. HomeRenter’s partnerships also give its members limited-period access to online property market portal Rightmove and Zoopla. The company, which currently lists under 50 properties, has got 780,000 pounds of seed funding from Trinity Mirror and residential group Q Developments. Handley expects HomeRenter to seek fresh funds in the first quarter of 2018. “Building a self-sustaining model organic marketplace is no mean feat ... we will be looking to bring new money onboard to help us achieve that,” he said. Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-estate-agents-launch/new-uk-property-rental-website-to-shut-out-letting-agency-fees-idUKKBN1D6007'|'2017-11-06T02:20:00.000+02:00'
'16e9f2d4435c4974cc3758a2e5a702fd2217f73a'|'Tesla buys automation equipment maker Perbix'|'Nov 7 (Reuters) - Electric car maker Tesla Inc said on Tuesday it agreed to buy privately held Perbix Machine Co Inc, which designs automated manufacturing equipment.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Minnesota-based Perbix has been a Tesla supplier for nearly three years and an acquisition by the carmaker would allow it to bring more parts production in house. bit.ly/2hilfQb“With the acquisition of Perbix, Tesla further advances its efforts to turn the factory itself into a product – to build the machine that makes the machine,” Tesla said on its website.Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has insisted on performing much of the work within the company, one of the reasons Tesla has been continually pushing back production targets for the Model 3 sedan.Tesla makes many of its auto parts, including car seats, which big automakers usually farm out to specialists.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/perbix-ma-tesla/tesla-buys-automation-equipment-maker-perbix-idINL3N1ND4LE'|'2017-11-07T09:53:00.000+02:00'
'3327a16d8d0bb6a0b45639027d79790a34838a17'|'Ford, China''s Zotye Auto invest $756 million in electric vehicle JV'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:28 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Ford, China''s Zotye Auto invest $756 million in electric vehicle JV Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ford Motor and China’s Anhui Zotye Automobile have agreed to invest a combined $756 million to set up a 50-50 joint venture in China to build electric passenger vehicles, both companies said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: An airplane flies above a Ford logo in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo The new joint venture, Zotye Ford Automobile Co. Ltd, plans to build a manufacturing plant in Zhejiang province and will sell all-electric vehicles under a new Chinese brand, tapping into a boom for such vehicles in the world’s top auto market, Ford Motor said in a statement. “Zotye Ford will introduce a new brand family of small all-electric vehicles,” Ford group vice president Peter Fleet said in the statement. “We will be exploring innovative vehicle connectivity and mobility service solutions for a new generation of young city-dwelling Chinese customers.” The JV deal was signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China as the two countries inked commercial deals worth about $9 billion. In addition to the new JV, Ford and Zotye will explore offering mobility services to consumers in China as local demand for such solutions continues to grow, Ford’s statement added. China, struggling with alarming pollution levels in major cities, is aggressively pushing plug-in vehicles and has poured in tens of billions of yuan in investment, research funding and subsidies, drawing many new automakers to launch projects. Reporting by Meg Shen, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-china-electric-vehicle/ford-chinas-zotye-auto-invest-756-million-in-electric-vehicle-jv-idUSKBN1D81L4'|'2017-11-08T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'02e77fbcdb9fd6fb69ebed562e1fe6d1d1d94b39'|'Italy''s economic renaissance is less than meets the eye'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Italy''s economic renaissance is less than meets the eye Gavin Jones 8 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s slow economic recovery since 2014 is finally gathering pace, but the upturn is likely to prove short-lived as few, if any, of its structural problems have yet been fixed. FILE PHOTO : An Alcoa Inc. aluminium worker is silhouetted next to Aeolian Power''s wind turbine in Sardinia, in Portovesme, next to Cagliari, Italy, September 1, 2012. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/ File Photo Those Italian companies that are internationally competitive are performing strongly and hiring staff, helping gross domestic product to jump 0.5 percent in the first quarter. Infographic ID: ''2bxVe8n'' But long-standing weaknesses - ranging from red tape and corruption to underinvestment in education and a huge public debt - remain. This suggests the upturn is merely part of the business cycle and risks fading once temporary factors, such as government employment incentives and ultra-low interest rates, start falling away. Still, the Standard & Poor’s agency raised Italy’s sovereign credit rating last month for the first time in 35 years, citing improved growth prospects supported by rising investment and employment. This surprised many observers, and yet data in the euro zone’s third-largest economy is beating expectations. Business morale is at its highest for a decade, industrial output rose in August for the fourth month running, export volumes climbed 2.8 percent in the first eight months and GDP is forecast to grow this year at its fastest rate since 2010. “Business is going very well,” said Gaetano Bergami, the owner of BMC, a medium-sized company based in Bologna which makes air filters for cars and motor-bikes which it exports to more than 90 countries. “We are growing internationally because BMC is part of that 30 percent of Italian firms with competitive products,” he said. The company recently hired around 10 workers to bring its total Italian workforce to 96, and its turnover has risen steadily to an estimated 12 million euros this year. Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan estimated this week that growth bounced back to 0.5 percent in the third quarter after slipping to 0.3 percent in the second. “The recovery is consolidating and GDP growth is getting more robust,” he said. However, BMC and similarly successful firms which managed to thrive even during Italy’s double-dip recession between 2008 and 2013 mask the country’s overall lack of competitiveness. Bologna is capital of Emilia-Romagna, one of Europe’s strongest industrial regions and home to world beaters such as the Ferrari sports-car firm and Barilla food processing giant. But neither BMC nor Emilia-Romagna are typical. Italian labor productivity - measured as output per hour worked - has been stagnant for the last decade and is the weakest in the European Union after Greece, according to Eurostat data. So-called “multi-factor productivity”, which measures the overall efficiency of an economy, has been equally dismal and actually fell 0.2 percent in 2016, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Italy’s jobless rate of 11.1 percent and its youth unemployment at 35.7 percent remain among the highest in the EU. UNHEALED WOUNDS Italy is being tugged along by strong European and global growth but it remains the euro zone’s most sluggish performer. Not only did the economy contract far more than its euro zone partners following the global financial crisis, losing about 9 percent of its GDP between 2008 and 2013, but its subsequent rebound has also been less pronounced. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has taken care not to raise unrealistic expectations. “Finally we are in a phase of economic recovery but we mustn’t overstate it or imagine that the wounds opened by the crisis have healed,” he said last month. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 1.5 percent this year, which is strong by Italian standards and in line with Rome’s own estimate. But it is still the lowest projected growth rate of any EU country, and the IMF forecasts the gap between Italy and its partners will widen next year. FILE PHOTO : A man walks past a Bank of Italy sign in Rome, Italy April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo “It’s hard to imagine Italy growing more than the other European countries,” Roberto Perotti, economics professor at Milan’s Bocconi University, told Reuters. Perotti said that labor reform, attempted most recently in 2015 by Gentiloni’s predecessor Matteo Renzi, has been the only structural change in the economy of recent years. “It’s not clear if that has made things better or worse,” he added. Now monetary and political clouds are gathering. From January, the European Central Bank will begin scaling back its purchases of government bonds which have been aimed at stimulating the euro zone economy after the global crisis. These have benefited Italy more than most euro zone countries because of its massive public debt, the world’s fourth largest in absolute terms. The ECB has bought more than 300 billion euros ($350 billion) of Italian government bonds since March 2015, ensuring low interest rates for a country that spends 70 billion euros every year servicing its debt. “The ECB program gave us huge advantages and we have wasted them all,” said Gustavo Piga, economics professor at Rome’s Tor Vergata University. Slideshow (2 Images) Piga said that instead of spending billions of euros on tax cuts and fiscal breaks for companies, Italy should have overhauled its inefficient public administration and increased public investment in education and infrastructure. “DOPING THE ECONOMY” A tax cut for low earners, worth 80 euros a month, was introduced in 2014 and followed in 2015 by fiscal incentives for firms to hire workers on permanent contracts. More temporary tax breaks were granted this year for companies that invest in new machinery and research and development (R&D). Bellco, a northern Italian company that makes dialysis machines and employs more than 300 people in Italy, took advantage of the incentives by investing 13 million euros in machinery this year and 10 million in R&D. General Manager Luciano Frattini said Bellco’s U.S-based parent company had chosen Italy for the R&D investment due to the tax break. “I think these measures encourage foreign investments in Italy,” he said. While companies welcome such windfalls, critics say they offer no long-term benefits. “Doping the economy in this way is terribly dangerous,” said Perotti at Bocconi University. “Experience shows that when the incentives end, investments collapse.” The 2015 hiring incentives, for example, created a temporary surge in workers employed on open-ended contracts, but permanent hiring petered out as soon as the incentives expired. Of 387,000 new hires in the last year, 94 percent were on precarious, temporary contracts of exactly the kind that Renzi''s "Jobs Act" was supposed to overcome. Francesco Seghezzi, from the Italian labor market think tank ADAPT, said layoffs may rise next year when companies have to start paying welfare and pension contributions for the workers they hired cheaply in 2015 and 2016. The withdrawal of ECB stimulus is not the only threat facing Italy next year. Elections must be held by May and opinion polls point to a hung parliament and political logjam. “The country will be ungovernable,” said Perotti. “We will probably end up with a broad coalition that takes decisions to try to satisfy everyone, and that will be damaging for Italy.” ($1 = 0.8622 euros) (This version of the story was refiled to fix link to graphic) additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; editing by David Stamp '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-italy-economy-analysis/italys-economic-renaissance-is-less-than-meets-the-eye-idUKKBN1D829Q'|'2017-11-08T17:56:00.000+02:00'
'6b470ab20ba4608f922a196c37572f6573720ef3'|'Gold gains on possible delays in U.S. tax cut plan'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold rose on Wednesday, hovering near a three-week high as the dollar retreated on expectations of possible delays in long-awaited U.S. tax reforms, while palladium hit its highest since 2001.FILE PHOTO: An employee places ingots of 99.99 percent pure gold on a cart at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant, one of the world''s largest producers in the precious metals industry, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo Spot gold was up 0.6 percent at $1,283.20 an ounce by 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled up $7.90, or 0.6 percent, at $1,283.70 per ounce.U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan left the door open to a possible delay in implementing lower tax rates for corporations, following a media report that his fellow Senate Republicans were exploring the option.U.S. equities fell and the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, dipped 0.1 percent toward 3-1/2 month lows touched in recent weeks. [USD/] [STX]“The closer we get to the interest rate hike in December the lower the price of gold should get,” said Natixis precious metals analyst Bernard Dahdah.A December interest rate hike has been priced into the market, traders said. But a potential delay in the tax plan could mean a moderation in interest rate increases next year, which could support gold, they noted.“If (Republicans) can’t get something done, you could see more of a bid come back into gold,” said Josh Graves, senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago.Rising U.S. interest rates tend to boost the dollar and lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as gold.In physical demand, industry officials and analysts warned that India’s gold imports in the last quarter of 2017 could drop 25 percent from a year ago due to weak demand during key festivals and as investors seek better returns from riskier assets like equities.In other precious metals, palladium was up 2.4 percent at $1,016 an ounce, after hitting its highest since 2001 at $1,019.Palladium’s premium over platinum hit $85 per ounce, also its highest since May 2001. In September, palladium became more valuable than platinum for the first time in 16 years.The metal, mostly used for auto catalysts to clean pollution from exhaust fumes, has rallied on an expected supply deficit and higher demand in the automobile market. Much of the demand came from China and parts of the United States and the Caribbean where vehicles were damaged by hurricanes, Graves said.Meanwhile, silver was up 0.9 percent at $17.11 an ounce while platinum was up 1.2 percent at $933.60 an ounce.Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-gains-on-possible-delays-in-u-s-tax-cut-plan-idINKBN1D828B'|'2017-11-08T17:46:00.000+02:00'
'3e0c590b4fa070f5770e3ce4305222cdf82e00b9'|'OPEC sees slower growth in demand for its oil as rivals pump more'|'Reuters TV United States November 7, 2017 / 1:42 PM / in a few seconds OPEC sees slower growth in demand for its oil as rivals pump more Alex Lawler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global demand for OPEC’s crude will rise in the next two years more slowly than expected, the group forecast, as a recovery in prices resulting from an OPEC-led supply cut stimulates renewed output growth from non-members. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said in its 2017 World Oil Outlook that rapid adoption of electric vehicles could cause oil demand to plateau in the second half of the 2030s, denting OPEC’s longer-term prospects. OPEC and rivals including Russia have been cutting output in 2017 to get rid of a glut. A resulting price rise is spurring a rebound in non-OPEC supply, the report shows, but OPEC still expects its market share to increase further down the line. “It is evident that this major commitment to production adjustments has been central to the rebalancing process that the market has undergone this year,” OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo wrote in a foreword to the report. “The long-term focus for additional liquids demand remains on OPEC.” Demand for OPEC crude will reach 33.10 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, the report said. While up from 32.70 million bpd in 2016, the 2019 figure is down from 33.70 million bpd forecast in last year’s report. OPEC raised its forecast for the supply of tight oil, which includes U.S. shale. It said a rise in prices in 2017, plus sustained demand growth, had resulted in a higher forecast for supplies outside OPEC. “The medium-term outlook for non-OPEC liquids growth has changed quite considerably,” OPEC said in the report, referring to its 2016 forecasts. “Most strikingly, U.S. tight oil production has exceeded previous growth expectations.” Oil prices hit their highest since July 2015 on Monday, trading above $62 a barrel. This year’s report did not mention the oil price it assumes. Last year’s report assumed OPEC’s basket of crude oils would reach $65 per barrel in 2021. HIGHER FORECAST FOR TIGHT CRUDE Global output of tight oil will reach 7.0 million bpd by 2020 and 9.22 million bpd in 2030, the report said, as Argentina and Russia join North America as producers. Last year’s estimates were 4.55 million bpd by 2020 and 6.73 million bpd by 2030. Years of high prices - supported by OPEC output restraint – helped boost non-OPEC supply and make non-conventional oil, such as shale, viable. This exacerbated a glut, leading to the 2014 price collapse that the OPEC-led cut was designed to tackle. OPEC also increased its medium-term world oil demand forecast, expecting oil use to reach 102.3 million bpd by 2022 - 2.24 million bpd more than in last year’s report. Demand is seen at 111.1 million bpd in 2040, up from 109.4 million bpd expected last year, with OPEC’s share of the world oil market expected to rise to 46 percent from 40 percent in 2016. Still, OPEC, which normally forecasts ever-increasing oil demand, said more widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs) than assumed in the report’s main scenario could trim this figure. “In just a few years, EVs have gone from being completely unaffordable, impractical and not particularly nice, to representing a valid option for a niche pool of customers,” OPEC said. The 2040 oil demand forecast could be curbed to 108.60 million bpd if electric vehicles are adopted more widely than assumed in the report’s reference case. “Moreover, global oil demand is estimated to plateau around this level in the second half of the 2030s,” OPEC said. Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-opec-outlook/opec-sees-slower-growth-in-demand-for-its-oil-as-rivals-pump-more-idUKKBN1D71UF'|'2017-11-07T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'196c01ee608012b83807e4b59addbd9a9660cd36'|'Apple''s iPhone X has higher margin than iPhone 8: analysis'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:39 PM / in a day Apple''s iPhone X has higher margin than iPhone 8: analysis Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) new flagship iPhone X makes the company more money per phone than its iPhone 8 model, according to an analysis, which found the iPhone X’s flashier parts cost Apple 25 percent more than the iPhone 8, but that it retailed 43 percent higher. An iPhone X advertisement is pictured before its launch at the Apple store in Singapore November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su The iPhone X smartphone costs $357.50 to make and sells for $999, giving it a gross margin of 64 percent, according to TechInsights, a firm that tears down technology devices and analyzes the parts inside. The iPhone 8 sells for $699 and has a gross margin of 59 percent. The finding is surprising because technology products tend to become more profitable as they age and the parts for them drop in cost. The iPhone X is a brand new design that went on sale on Friday, to apparently strong demand, while the iPhone 8 is an update on last year’s iPhone 7, which itself was similar to the iPhone 6 released in 2014. Apple declined to comment on TechInsights’ analysis. Apple is unique in the electronics industry for its ability to charge a premium price for its latest devices and for its ability to maintain that price even when selling devices through third parties like telecom carriers, said Al Cowsky, the costing analyst for TechInsights, which planned to post the results to its site late on Monday. “Apple can be different here because they are the 800 pound gorilla,” Cowsky said. Several of Apple’s design choices for the iPhone X pushed up its price. In particular, its 5.8-inch (14.8 cm) edge-to-edge display and associated parts cost $65.50, compared with $36 for the iPhone 8’s 4.7-inch display, the analysis found. That is largely because the iPhone 8 uses older LCD technology, while the iPhone X uses what is called “Super AMOLED” technology, which allows for more vivid colors and a thinner overall design. Another pricey choice was the stainless steel chassis of the iPhone X, which cost $36 versus $21.50 for the aluminum housing of the iPhone 8. Cowsky said the steel is less likely than aluminum to bend when flexed, a problem that dogged the iPhone 6 when it came out. “This is their lesson learned from that,” he said. Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone/apples-iphone-x-has-higher-margin-than-iphone-8-analysis-idUSKBN1D62RZ'|'2017-11-06T23:38:00.000+02:00'
'1a34e08d9e4b2046ae49b02e97c26a7eedcfb415'|'U.S. House Republican tax bill would add $1.7 trillion to deficit - CBO'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican tax bill being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives would add $1.7 trillion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years, when recent changes put forth by the head of its tax-writing panel and estimated debt service costs are included, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.“By CBO’s estimate, additional debt service would boost the 10-year increase in deficits to $1.7 trillion,” the office said in a letter on Wednesday to Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.Reporting by David Morgan and Tim Ahmann; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Paul Simao '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-analysis/u-s-house-republican-tax-bill-would-add-1-7-trillion-to-deficit-cbo-idINKBN1D82T5'|'2017-11-08T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'2f7d390955f35cbf8eac3437aa41be116dbf2c86'|'YNAP 2017 revenue growth in lower range of guidance: CEO to Reuters'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:03 PM / in 34 minutes YNAP 2017 revenue growth in lower range of guidance: CEO to Reuters Giulia Segreti , Claudia Cristoferi 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Revenue at Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) ( YNAP.MI ) this year will grow in the lower part of the expected 17-20 percent range due to logistics delays at one of its website, the online luxury retailer’s chief executive said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Federico Marchetti, CEO of online clothing retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter speaks during a news conference at the unveiling of the company Tech Hub premises at White City in London Britain June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Federico Marchetti said the transfer of products between warehouses for the The Outnet - one of the group’s four websites – was slower than expected, impacting the availability of products and triggering a 20 million euro sales loss for the full-year. “We just had a very small bump in the road ... it happens, just like when you move houses”, Marchetti told Reuters in an interview ahead of the group’s third-quarter results. He underlined that the issue was a “one-off” event and would not have any knock-on effect in future years. Marchetti confirmed the group’s guidance to 2020 saying that the business was “strong, robust and solid”. He added that this year’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) would grow from last year while EBITDA margins would be “broadly in line” with 2016. Editing by Valentina Za '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ynap-ceo/ynap-2017-revenue-growth-in-lower-range-of-guidance-ceo-to-reuters-idUSKBN1D82H6'|'2017-11-08T19:01:00.000+02:00'
'32f641e01677611a8598211b7dcb7f92db8bbf74'|'BRIEF-Zosano Pharma announces initiation of long-term safety study for M207'|' 24 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago BRIEF-Zosano Pharma announces initiation of long-term safety study for M207 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 8 (Reuters) - Zosano Pharma Corp * Zosano Pharma announces initiation of long-term safety study for M207 as an acute treatment of migraine Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-zosano-pharma-announces-initiation/brief-zosano-pharma-announces-initiation-of-long-term-safety-study-for-m207-idUSFWN1NE181'|'2017-11-08T16:24:00.000+02:00'
'a4e3b4b58dd46e4f4db6baad60aeaf745f5bce08'|'Goldman promotes 509 people to managing director'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 6:20 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Goldman promotes 509 people to managing director Olivia Oran 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) on Wednesday promoted 509 people to managing director, the bank’s second-highest rank behind partner. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange near the Goldman Sachs stall July 16, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The bank, which names managing directors every two years, promoted 101 in its investment banking division and 130 to its securities division, which includes sales and trading, according to the bank. Around 24 percent of Goldman’s new managing directors are women, down slightly from a quarter two years ago. Goldman’s new managing directors will be promoted as of Jan. 1. The bank named 425 managing directors in 2015. New Goldman managing directors will receive a pay raise but are not paid out of the lucrative bonus pool designed for partners. Wall Street bonuses could be higher this year, according to a November report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Brokerage firms have set aside 4 percent more this year for compensation than they did a year earlier. Goldman said it had set aside 5 percent more money for compensation in the first nine months of the year, compared with the same period in 2016. Despite competition for employees from technology companies and private equity firms, CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in February at an investor conference that the bank has had no problem attracting top recruits. Goldman received 131,000 applications for just 5,000 summer internship and full-time campus roles in 2016, up 11 percent from a year prior. Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-promotions/goldman-promotes-509-people-to-managing-director-idUKKBN1D82PK'|'2017-11-08T20:17:00.000+02:00'
'4b63aa09912afc8d1eab939279700033b9110746'|'Dutch to review 4,000 "advance tax rulings" after P&G blunder'|'November 8, 2017 / 2:45 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Dutch to review 4,000 "advance tax rulings" after P&G blunder Toby Sterling 5 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government agreed on Wednesday to review 4,000 tax deals offered to international companies from 2012-2016 after being stung by leaks that show it failed to follow its own vetting procedures in a 2008 case involving Procter & Gamble. Documents leaked in the so-called “Paradise Papers” trove of offshore records shed light on a previously undisclosed deal with the Dutch government that gave P&G an estimated tax break of $169 million. P&G, the maker of Pampers diapers, Gillette razors and Tide laundry detergent, issued a statement on Tuesday denying involvement in any form of tax avoidance. And while there are no allegations the arrangement was in any way improper, the Dutch deputy minister for finance acknowledged in a letter to parliament on Tuesday that the deal, which was signed off on by a single inspector, should have been vetted by an entire team. “Not following prescribed procedures is unacceptable,” said Menno Snel in the letter. “Therefore I have given the order to investigate whether ... more than 4,000 international rulings were issued in conformity with the guidelines.” He said the investigation would be complete by year end. The new Dutch government must walk a delicate line as it attempts to satisfy allies and critics it is taking steps to reform abusive tax practices - while at the same time defending its attractiveness as a place for multinationals to do business. Expertise on tax advice, consulting on legal structures, accountancy and legal counseling are all seen as key competencies for the Netherlands. But its reputation has been hurt by a wave of protectionist sentiment that had a hand in derailing a bid by U.S. paint maker PPG Industries for Dutch coatings and chemicals firm Akzo Nobel. BREXIT BONUS The P&G deal was an “Advance Price Agreement”, a deal wherein a tax authority approves in advance prices one branch of a company charges another when they do business. Multinationals value the certainty APAs and other advance tax rulings bring, while critics say they are often used to shift profits into zero tax jurisdictions. Tax campaigners say that the Netherlands and Luxembourg specifically rubber-stamp such deals in order to attract investment and jobs. In addition, such deals are also often not available to smaller or less sophisticated firms. In 2015, the European Commission said the Netherlands had given Starbucks an unreasonably generous APA tax ruling, which helped encourage the company establish its European headquarters in the country. It ordered The Hague to recoup 30 million euros ($35 million) from the company, a decision the government is contesting. According to data published by the European Commission, EU members granted 978 APAs to EU companies in 2015. The Netherlands granted 236 of these. Belgium gave 474 and Luxembourg granted 145. The Paradise Paper revelations come at an awkward time for the Dutch government, which said at its installation just last month it would take new measures to crack down on mailbox companies and combat use of the Netherlands as a conduit to tax havens. Among other measures, the country introduced a tax on royalties when payments are sent to low-tax jurisdictions. However, in an bid to win over companies seeking new EU bases once Britain leaves the bloc -- which have so far mostly chosen bases elsewhere in Europe -- Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced a plan to scrap any withholding tax on dividends. The government has also promised to lower its tax rate to 21 percent from 25 percent to further woo foreign firms. “The cabinet is working to create an attractive environment that benefits companies with actual activities in the Netherlands, and is also tackling tax avoidance,” Snel said. The opposition Green Left party said the measures being adopted did not go far enough. “The Paradise Papers show that the Netherlands still plays a major role in global tax evasion,” Green Left lawmaker Tom van der Lee. The Paradise Papers are leaked documents from prominent offshore law firm Appleby that relate to the investments of wealthy individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. ($1 = 0.8621 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/paradise-tax-netherlands/dutch-to-review-4000-advance-tax-rulings-after-pg-blunder-idINKBN1D821I'|'2017-11-08T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'130ac6f284d46c588cd10e609d6efe037ea4d9ad'|'Tencent confirms China Literature shares priced at top of range'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - An IPO for China Literature ( 0772.HK ), Tencent Holdings’ online publishing arm, has raised $1.1 billion with the retail portion gathering demand that was 625 times the number of shares on offer, setting the stage for a sterling debut on Wednesday.The offering for China’s biggest e-book company priced at the top of its marketed range of HK$48–HK$55 range, Tencent said in a statement, confirming a report from Thomson Reuters IFR last week.Tencent added that the international portion of the offering was “very significantly over-subscribed.”“A hefty gain is expected, with the gray market price shooting as high as HK$77,” said Steven Leung, a sales director at UOB Kay Hian brokerage in Hong Kong. That represents a jump of about 40 percent over its IPO price.“China Literature is attractive as it has quite a sound business model and is a platform that is making money with a solid foundation. But still the valuation is way too high, in particular compared with its parent,” he said.China Literature, which is 62 percent owned by Tencent ( 0700.HK ), has a business akin to Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Kindle Store, operating a platform with 9.6 million literary works from 6.4 million authors.Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP ( CG.O ) owns 12.2 percent of China Literature while Trustbridge Partners, a private equity firm founded by Shujun Li, the former CFO of Shanda Interactive, holds 6 percent.The listing comes some six weeks after the debut of ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance Co ( 6060.HK ), which jumped 18 percent on its first day of trade and is now up almost 30 percent over its IPO price, boosting Hong Kong’s hopes of luring future Chinese technology start-ups.Razer Inc, a gaming hardware maker backed by Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has priced its IPO near the top end of the range, raising HK$4.12 billion ($528 million), IFR reported on Tuesday.Reporting by Donny Kwok and Anne Marie Roantree Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-literature-ipo-prices/tencent-confirms-china-literature-shares-priced-at-top-of-range-idINKBN1D703O'|'2017-11-06T22:12:00.000+02:00'
'f7d4552ec4af5a78abe572b9d9feb017a0b9dfde'|'Fund giant Templeton warns Libor doubts creating ''alarming'' practices'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:20 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Fund giant Templeton warns Libor doubts creating ''alarming'' practices Marc Jones 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Uncertainty over the future of the Libor global interest rate benchmark is seeing some debt sellers make “alarming” changes to their financial contracts, Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset managers has said. Regulators plan to replace the scandal-plagued Libor by the end of 2021, but with its use as reference point embedded in tens of trillions of dollars worth of loans, bonds and mortgages, the process is far from easy. There has been scepticism about whether such a huge transition could take place on time - or even at all, and in a blog post two of U.S.-based Franklin Templeton’s top debt managers warned serious problems were already emerging. Mark Boyadjian and Reema Agarwal from the asset manager’s ‘Floating Rate Debt Group’ said some companies were adding language to new-issue loan credit agreements that allow them to choose a replacement rate for Libor, without lenders’ consent. Perhaps even more worryingly, in some cases the language was not in draft documentation sent to investors, but added to the final executed versions of credit agreements, they said. “The legality and underhandedness of inserting such a provision are debatable,” Boyadjian and Agarwal wrote. Making it possible to even change the terms of a financial market contract without consulting those who had bought the related asset was “an alarming trend”, they added. Franklin Templeton would therefore be closely scrutinising the fine-print of the credit agreements and would walk away from potentially attractive deals if the terms weren’t transparent, they said. The company has roughly US$750 billion worth of assets under management. “In our opinion, it’s a cardinal rule of lending that each affected lender should consent to a proposed reduction in the interest rate of a loan.” For full blog click bit.ly/2AtijFo Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-libor-terms/fund-giant-templeton-warns-libor-doubts-creating-alarming-practices-idUKKBN1D82CR'|'2017-11-08T18:20:00.000+02:00'
'98092c9ce484bba416c4e0ed2975387bdb9b6035'|'Israeli start-up says Apple copied its patented smartphone camera technology'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:27 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Israeli start-up says Apple copied its patented smartphone camera technology Jan Wolfe 2 Min Read (Reuters) - An Israeli startup has sued Apple Inc, accusing the iPhone maker of copying its patented smartphone camera technology. FILE PHOTO - A man holds two boxes for the Apple''s new iPhone X at the Apple Store in Regents Street in London, Britain, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo Tel Aviv-based Corephotonics Ltd filed its patent infringement case against Apple in federal court in San Jose, California, on Monday. Corephotonics, which has raised $50 million (30 million pounds) from several high-profile venture capital firms and other investors, said its patented dual camera technology for mobile devices was incorporated by Apple in the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus without its authorization. According to the lawsuit, Corephotonics Chief Executive David Mendlovic approached Apple about a partnership. Apple praised the startup’s technology but refused to licence it, Corephotonics said, even suggesting it could infringe the latter’s patents with little consequence. According to the complaint, “Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something.” An Apple spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. Many high-end smartphones include dual camera systems that can zoom in without losing image quality. Apple has its own patents on dual camera technology. Through its latest funding round in January, Corephotonics raised $15 million from investors that included Samsung Ventures, electronics manufacturer Foxconn and chipmaker MediaTek Inc. MediaTek supplies modem chips to Apple and Foxconn is a contract manufacturer for Apple. Corephotonics’ other investors include Magma VC, Amiti Ventures, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and Solina Chau’s Horizon Ventures, as well as flash storage maker SanDisk and Chinese telephone services provider CK Telecom. Corephotonics is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the law firm that advised Samsung Electronics Co on its patent litigation with Apple. Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-patents-lawsuit/israeli-start-up-says-apple-copied-its-patented-smartphone-camera-technology-idUKKBN1D72M8'|'2017-11-07T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'426b740eb20d75d962b453c66fb12092e3288ff3'|'GSK nabs Calico scientist Barron as new R&D head, Vallance quits'|'November 8, 2017 / 2:24 PM / Updated 5 hours ago GSK grabs Roche veteran and Calico scientist Barron as new R&D head Ben Hirschler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline has poached veteran drug industry scientist Hal Barron from Alphabet-funded Calico to be its research head as new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley steps up her drive to improve productivity. Barron, who worked for Roche for many years before joining the new Google venture set up to tackle age-related health issues, will replace Patrick Vallance, who is taking up the post of chief scientific adviser to the British government. GSK has lagged behind rivals in recent years in producing multibillion-dollar blockbuster drugs. It has also suffered a number of high-profile clinical trial failures on Vallance’s watch, undermining faith in its R&D skills. Walmsley said the appointment of Barron as president of R&D and a board member from Jan. 1 was a “very significant” move for Britain’s biggest drugmaker. “This underscores the absolute, unequivocal prioritization I‘m placing on improving our performance in our biggest business, which is pharma,” she told Reuters on Wednesday. “Pharma R&D and the pipeline is at the heart of that.” GSK shares ended 1.5 percent higher in a broadly flat market. Vallance’s departure had been expected after a source familiar with the matter said last week he was quitting for the top British science post. His planned exit, at the end of March 2018, comes after Walmsley said in July she would narrow the focus of GSK’s drug research by ditching more than 30 drug projects. GSK will in future allocate 80 percent of its R&D budget to respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases, along with two other potential areas of oncology and immuno-inflammation. CANCER FOCUS? The appointment of Barron will stoke speculation that cancer may soon be confirmed as a third official therapy focus, given his role in overseeing a range of blockbuster cancer drugs at Roche, including Avastin, Tarceva and Perjeta. Although GSK sold its marketed cancer drugs to Novartis in 2015, it continues to invest in early-stage research and has recently made advances with a promising blood cancer drug. Walmsley said it would be up to Barron to decide where to invest once he joined the company in the new year, but she added his experience in oncology and in speciality therapy areas was “highly exciting”. Significantly, Barron will remain based in San Francisco, where GSK will have a new office focused on deal-making opportunities in drug research. Barron will be paid a base salary of $1.7 million, with a bonus of $1.7 million and an expected $4.25 million in long-term incentive plan stock awards. Walmsley’s plans for overhauling GSK have yet to fully convince investors, many of whom worry the dividend could be at risk if she twins a revamp of pharma with a big acquisition in consumer healthcare. She declined to comment any further on the dividend or her potential interest in Pfizer’s consumer health division, beyond noting the U.S. company had yet to make a definitive decision on selling the unit. Barron is Walmsley’s third key appointment, following her hiring of Luke Miels from AstraZeneca as head of pharmaceuticals and former Wal-Mart Stores executive Karenann Terrell as chief digital and technology officer. Barron and Miels both have experience working together at Roche and Walmsley said their partnership would help forge closer ties between commercial operations and drug R&D. Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gsk-r-d/gsk-nabs-calico-scientist-barron-as-new-rd-head-vallance-quits-idUKKBN1D81YO'|'2017-11-08T16:14:00.000+02:00'
'1412db0e9ef64cf27b97d60399e83490bc812118'|'UPDATE 1-Steinhoff didn''t tell investors about nearly $1bln in deals'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:53 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Steinhoff didn''t tell investors about nearly $1bln in deals Reuters Staff * Steinhoff did not disclose deal in debt, equity prospectuses * EU rules say companies must disclose large, related transactions * But law is murky and Steinhoff says disclosure was not required * Shares drop 4.6 pct (Adds share drop) By Tom Bergin and Alasdair Pal LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - German-listed Steinhoff International did not tell investors about almost $1 billion in transactions with a related company despite laws that some experts believe require it to do so, a Reuters examination of filings and prospectuses has found. European financial disclosure rules, including the European Union Prospectus Directive, say publicly traded companies must disclose all transactions that are material in the prospectuses they present before a debt or equity sale. The law says a material transaction is one that is big enough to influence investors’ view of the firm’s financial health. However, the law does not define the details of a material transaction. One lawyer and two accounting academics told Reuters the transaction was large enough to be material. The EU rules also require disclosure of all transactions with related parties. Those three experts said this would apply to Steinhoff because the transactions involved a company called GT Branding Holding, in which it holds a minority stake. But although the lawyer and two experts said the company should have disclosed the transaction, Steinhoff and one other academic that Reuters spoke to said it might not necessarily be required. Two traders said Steinhoff’s shares fell in response to the Reuters report. Shares were down 4.6 percent at 3.59 euros at 1350 GMT. Investors said the company would be under pressure to release more information on the transactions. Accounts and incorporation documents filed with Swiss, Austrian and German corporate registries show that in 2015 Europe’s second-largest furniture group by sales bought a 45 percent stake in Swiss company GT Branding Holding and then lent it around 810 million Swiss francs ($810 million). The details in the publicly available company filings have not previously been reported. Professor Emilios Avgouleas, University of Edinburgh Chair in International Banking Law and Finance, said that the potentially market-sensitive information should have been clearly flagged. “That transaction should be disclosed to investors. It’s a material transaction and arguably it can lend itself to all kinds of distortions of the share price,” he told Reuters. Dennis Jullens, lecturer in accounting at the University of Amsterdam, said the rules were less clear-cut. “The rules don’t say exactly what size transactions need to be disclosed so there is some judgment involved,” he said, adding that, conceivably, a company might argue a large transaction was not material or that very small related party transactions didn’t need to be disclosed. A spokesman for Steinhoff said the company complied with all reporting requirements including internal accounting rules and the Prospectus Directive. “TRANSACTIONS NOT MATERIAL” The company operates across many jurisdictions so many laws will apply. However, as a Dutch-registered and German-listed company, the most important rules it must comply with are those countries’ local regulations and the EU Prospectus Directive. The transactions were not disclosed in Steinhoff’s 2015 or 2016 annual reports, share prospectuses in August 2015 and Nov 2015 and a debt prospectus published in July 2017. The Steinhoff spokesman said the company did not need to provide detailed information about the loans, share purchase or royalties it paid to GT Branding’s subsidiary because they did not have a major impact on profitability. “All transactions to and from Steinhoff to GT Branding Holding are not material in a qualitative and quantitative way. Therefore in line with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) requirements no related party disclosure was presented in Steinhoff’s group financial statements,” he said. Spokespeople for the AMF, the financial regulator in the Netherlands where Steinhoff International is registered, German regulator Bafin, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Steinhoff’s auditor Deloitte all declined to comment on Steinhoff’s filings. A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it did not comment on individual cases and said national authorities were responsible for enforcement of the EU directive. Luxembourg financial regulator Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier approved a 2017 Steinhoff bond prospectus. A spokesman declined to say if it would investigate whether the company should have disclosed the transactions. “INVESTORS SHOULD KNOW” The loans came shortly after Steinhoff bought the 45 percent stake in GT Branding Holding. This created a related party relationship between the two groups. Campion Capital SA owns the other 55 percent. Campion did not reply to emails and phone calls, and Steinhoff declined to answer questions about Campion’s ownership. GT Branding Holding’s main asset is another Swiss company called GT Global Trademarks, which trademark registers show owns around 200 brands used by Steinhoff. Steinhoff used to own GT Global Trademarks. At the end of 2015, the GT Branding debt represented 3.2 percent of Steinhoff’s total assets. Three experts said this was significant enough to be above the reporting threshold laid out in the EU Prospectus Directive. It requires the disclosure of any information that could influence an investor’s view of the company’s financial health. A Steinhoff spokesman said while the interest on the loans and royalty payments were related party transactions, they did not need to be disclosed because when netted off, the amount of money flowing between the companies was small. Kecskes Andras, head of Department of Economic and Trade Law at the University of Pecs in Hungary, said transactions with associated companies worth hundreds of millions of euros should be disclosed. Steinhoff, which owns Poundland in Britain, Mattress Firm in the United States and Conforama in France, is under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany. That investigation is ongoing and Steinhoff denies all wrongdoing. It is not directly linked to the transactions outlined in this story. (Editing by Anna Willard)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/steinhoffintlaccounting-disclosure/update-1-steinhoff-didnt-tell-investors-about-nearly-1bln-in-deals-idUSL5N1NE531'|'2017-11-08T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'9917712bc7b4c5d471226f6593423597c3aa61dc'|'Judge says no evidence of wrongdoing by Deutsche Bank in Postbank suit'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 3:20 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Judge says no evidence of wrongdoing by Deutsche Bank in Postbank suit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - A German appeals court said on Wednesday it had not seen evidence to suggest Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) acted illegally in concert with another party during the lender’s takeover of Postbank, as alleged by a former Postbank shareholder. The logo of Deutsche Bank is seen at its headquarters ahead of the bank''s annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski A final ruling is set for Dec. 13. Former Postbank shareholder Effecten-Spiegel alleged Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Post ( DPWGn.DE ), Postbank’s two largest shareholders in 2008 when the takeover began, illegally acted in concert to the detriment of smaller shareholders. At a hearing on Wednesday, judge Christoph Wurm said the Cologne appeals court hadn’t seen evidence of such concerted action by Deutsche Bank. In 2008, Deutsche Bank bought a stake in Postbank of just under 30 percent for 57.25 euros per share. As Deutsche Bank gradually increased its stake over the following years, the financial crisis was in full swing and Deutsche Bank’s offer for remaining shares halved, irking Postbank’s smaller shareholders. The lawsuit has been bouncing around German courts since 2011. While lower courts have found no wrongdoing by Deutsche Bank, the Federal Supreme Court said in July 2014 it was possible that Germany’s flagship lender may have acted in concert over the Postbank deal. At that time, the Supreme Court asked the appeals court to check if that was the case. Reporting by Andreas Framke; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-deutschebank-postbank-lawsuit/judge-says-no-evidence-of-wrongdoing-by-deutsche-bank-in-postbank-suit-idUKKBN1D824U'|'2017-11-08T17:11:00.000+02:00'
'0232d4b0ca995c94a6217d1b1788072056cb271a'|'Dutch to investigate 4,000 corporate tax deals'|'November 8, 2017 / 9:55 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Dutch to review 4,000 ''advance tax rulings'' after P&G blunder Toby Sterling 5 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government agreed on Wednesday to review 4,000 tax deals offered to international companies from 2012-2016 after being stung by leaks that show it failed to follow its own vetting procedures in a 2008 case involving Procter & Gamble ( PG.N ). Documents leaked in the so-called “Paradise Papers” trove of offshore records shed light on a previously undisclosed deal with the Dutch government that gave P&G an estimated tax break of $169 million. P&G, the maker of Pampers diapers, Gillette razors and Tide laundry detergent, issued a statement on Tuesday denying involvement in any form of tax avoidance. And while there are no allegations the arrangement was in any way improper, the Dutch deputy minister for finance acknowledged in a letter to parliament on Tuesday that the deal, which was signed off on by a single inspector, should have been vetted by an entire team. “Not following prescribed procedures is unacceptable,” said Menno Snel in the letter. “Therefore I have given the order to investigate whether ... more than 4,000 international rulings were issued in conformity with the guidelines.” He said the investigation would be complete by year end. The new Dutch government must walk a delicate line as it attempts to satisfy allies and critics it is taking steps to reform abusive tax practices - while at the same time defending its attractiveness as a place for multinationals to do business. Expertise on tax advice, consulting on legal structures, accountancy and legal counselling are all seen as key competencies for the Netherlands. But its reputation has been hurt by a wave of protectionist sentiment that had a hand in derailing a bid by U.S. paint maker PPG Industries for Dutch coatings and chemicals firm Akzo Nobel. BREXIT BONUS The P&G deal was an “Advance Price Agreement”, a deal wherein a tax authority approves in advance prices one branch of a company charges another when they do business. Multinationals value the certainty APAs and other advance tax rulings bring, while critics say they are often used to shift profits into zero tax jurisdictions. Tax campaigners say that the Netherlands and Luxembourg specifically rubber-stamp such deals in order to attract investment and jobs. In addition, such deals are also often not available to smaller or less sophisticated firms. In 2015, the European Commission said the Netherlands had given Starbucks an unreasonably generous APA tax ruling, which helped encourage the company establish its European headquarters in the country. It ordered The Hague to recoup 30 million euros (£26.5 million) from the company, a decision the government is contesting. According to data published by the European Commission, EU members granted 978 APAs to EU companies in 2015. The Netherlands granted 236 of these. Belgium gave 474 and Luxembourg granted 145. The Paradise Paper revelations come at an awkward time for the Dutch government, which said at its installation just last month it would take new measures to crack down on mailbox companies and combat use of the Netherlands as a conduit to tax havens. Among other measures, the country introduced a tax on royalties when payments are sent to low-tax jurisdictions. However, in an bid to win over companies seeking new EU bases once Britain leaves the bloc -- which have so far mostly chosen bases elsewhere in Europe -- Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced a plan to scrap any withholding tax on dividends. The government has also promised to lower its tax rate to 21 percent from 25 percent to further woo foreign firms. “The cabinet is working to create an attractive environment that benefits companies with actual activities in the Netherlands, and is also tackling tax avoidance,” Snel said. The opposition Green Left party said the measures being adopted did not go far enough. “The Paradise Papers show that the Netherlands still plays a major role in global tax evasion,” Green Left lawmaker Tom van der Lee. The Paradise Papers are leaked documents from prominent offshore law firm Appleby that relate to the investments of wealthy individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Queen Elizabeth. Reporting by Bart Meijer, Anthony Deutsch, Toby Sterling and Tom Bergin; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-paradise-tax-netherlands/dutch-to-investigate-4000-corporate-tax-deals-idUKKBN1D812J'|'2017-11-08T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'c5ce80b4993771d7dfb91fce1ea7bee0a047b0d3'|'India''s ride hailing firm Ola ties up with Microsoft for connected car platform'|'November 7, 2017 / 7:51 AM / in 12 minutes India''s ride hailing firm Ola ties up with Microsoft for connected car platform Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Indian ride hailing service Ola has tied up with Microsoft Corp to build a new connected vehicle platform and will also use the U.S tech gaint’s Azure cloud computing service to power its in-car entertainment offering, it said on Tuesday. The platform will help with a vehicle’s diagnostics, predictive maintenance and navigation, Bengaluru-headquartered Ola   “Both companies will collaborate to take this platform to car manufacturers globally, to integrate with vehicle systems,” it said. The announcement comes at a time when the U.S. firm’s chief Satya Nadella is in India. Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ola-microsoft/indias-ride-hailing-firm-ola-ties-up-with-microsoft-for-connected-car-platform-idUSL3N1ND2XK'|'2017-11-07T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'9664e27b315a0149a17755bb88e24bd4fac428ea'|'UPDATE 1-Teen fashion retailer Styles For Less files for bankruptcy'|'November 7, 2017 / 3:35 PM / in 42 minutes Teen fashion retailer Styles For Less files for bankruptcy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Teen fashion retailer Styles For Less Inc filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest apparel retailer to go belly up following declining sales. The Anaheim, California-based company listed assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million in its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California on Monday. The company listed wholesale suppliers such as Vivace and Ambiance among its biggest creditors. Styles For Less sells women’s clothes and accessories at about 100 stores in malls and outlets in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Florida, according to its website. The retailer planned to reorganize its debt during the bankruptcy, and was seeking a loan to fund it through the process, Reuters had reported last week. The number of retail bankruptcies in 2017 has already surpassed last year’s total of nine and is set to eclipse the 20 filed during the 2008 financial crisis, according to consulting firm AlixPartners. Denim retailer True Religion and children’s wear seller Gymboree Corp [BNCPLY.UL] are among apparel retailers that have filed for bankruptcy this year. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stylesforless-bankruptcy/teen-fashion-retailer-styles-for-less-files-for-bankruptcy-idUSKBN1D728D'|'2017-11-07T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'5c5096fbee8e51bea0756dec8b99a2618f1c8267'|'Tornado replacement must be fifth generation - German air force chief'|'November 8, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Tornado replacement must be fifth generation - German air force chief Andrea Shalal , Sabine Siebold 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The German military needs a fifth-generation replacement for its Tornado fighter jets that is hard to detect on enemy radars and can strike targets from a great distance, the chief of staff of the air force said on Wednesday. A Eurofighter Typhoon EF2000 fighter jet from the Spanish Air Force makes a high speed pass during an international aerial and naval military exhibition commemorating the centennial of the Spanish Naval Aviation, over a beach near the naval airbase in Rota, southern Spain, September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Nazca Lieutenant General Karl Muellner’s comments are his clearest public statements to date on the Tornado replacement programme and indicate a preference for Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jet ( LMT.N ), the only Western aircraft that meets those requirements. The air force last month issued a formal request for information about the F-35, the F-15 and F/A-18E/F, both built by Boeing Co ( BA.N ), and the European Eurofighter Typhoon, as it kicks off the process of replacing its 85 Tornado jets, which will go out of service around 2030. The programme could be worth around 20 billion euros (£17.7 billion) for the winning bidder in coming years. Muellner told Reuters Germany would need to buy an off-the-shelf replacement that could enter service around 2025 to facilitate a smooth transition with the Tornado, noting that did not leave enough time to develop a unique solution. But he said changing warfare requirements and the need for a credible deterrent meant the successor fighter had to be “low-observable, and able to identify and strike targets from a great distance”. “It will have to be a fifth-generation jet to meet the full spectrum of our needs,” Muellner said. Many German allies in Europe, including Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy, Turkey and Denmark have selected the F-35 and some have received initial deliveries. Belgium is expected to make a decision next year. Any new fighter jet purchase would have to be approved by parliament in the next two years and a contract signed by 2020 or 2021 to ensure deliveries by 2025. A purchase of around 100 jets would help ensure German industry got a decent share of work on the programme. Muellner said he also strongly supported a Franco-German plan to develop a successor for its fleet of what will be 140 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, built by Britain’s BAE Systems Plc ( BAES.L ), Italy’s Leonardo ( LDOF.MI ) and Airbus ( AIR.PA ). The project, unveiled in July, would help preserve critical technology skills in Europe and allow Europe to develop its own low-observable technology, Muellner said. He said the German air force had also committed to NATO to provide a fleet of 14 electronic warfare aircraft by the middle of the next decade, which meant it would likely have to buy around 20 such jets. Possible candidates could be the Boeing EA-18 Growler, a modified A400M transport plane or a modified Eurofighter, experts said. No decisions on that programme have been made. Editing by Janet Lawrence'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-fighter/tornado-replacement-must-be-fifth-generation-german-air-force-chief-idUKKBN1D81W9'|'2017-11-08T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'abb23d826d7c360b5f2946e125c264f77e269f4d'|'IMF''s Lagarde warns protectionism, while now just words, may come to hurt Asia'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:44 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago IMF''s Lagarde warns protectionism, while now just words, may come to hurt Asia Leika Kihara , Takashi Umekawa 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Protectionist sentiment has not yet gone beyond mere words, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, but would hurt Asian economies with open and free markets if it did. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Lagarde brushed off the concerns of some investors that the divergent monetary paths of major central banks could disrupt Asian capital flows, stressing that policymakers had the tools and means of communication needed to prevent market upheaval. Global policymakers have raised concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda that aims to slash U.S. trade deficits, via which Washington appears to be walking away from or extensively renegotiating multilateral trade arrangements in favour of country-by-country deals. Lagarde said that while protectionism had not so far been seen “other than in words”, trade deals must be improved in a way that included people who felt left behind by globalisation. “If there was protectionism, it would hurt economies that are very open, and based on free and fair movement of goods and services,” Lagarde told Reuters during a visit for the 20th anniversary of the IMF’s Asia-Pacific regional office in Tokyo. “To continue to have trade as a global engine for growth, trade deals need to be improved,” she said, adding trade pacts had to include rules on labour practices and intellectual property. Lagarde said trade deals must be “rules based” and make use of existing dispute-settlement mechanisms such as the World Trade Organisation, though she declined to say whether Trump’s trade policies complied with these rules. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The IMF head said there had been no massive capital outflows from Asia thanks to central bankers’ cautious approach and clear communication around their policy shifts. “We believe these conditions can help to ensure that monetary policy changes do not provoke unnecessary capital flow movements,” she said. Lagarde said she would draw a “slight distinction” between the pace of policy shifts to be adopted by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. She noted that the Fed was expected to raise interest rates steadily in coming months, while the European Central Bank had stressed that its quantitative easing would continue and interest rates would remain low for a long period of time. “You can’t put the two - the Fed and the ECB - in the same basket,” she said. Lagarde said Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was acting appropriately by pledging to maintain the BOJ’s massive stimulus programme until inflation accelerates. “One of the strengths of central bankers is to be very clear in their communication and determined in their resolve, which clearly Governor Kuroda has demonstrated,” she said. “One thing that is unanimously recognised is his resolve and clear determination to stay the course and to adjust when the circumstances would so require.” Reporting by Leika Kihara and Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-lagarde/imfs-lagarde-warns-protectionism-while-now-just-words-may-come-to-hurt-asia-idUKKBN1D80NY'|'2017-11-08T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'847afe3ad32f2f88d4180ab214344fec30aa5654'|'IMF, BOJ member say Japan needs to keep stimulus running'|'November 8, 2017 / 8:54 AM / Updated 5 hours ago IMF, BOJ member say Japan needs to keep stimulus running Leika Kihara , Sumio Ito 4 Min Read TOKYO/MIYAZAKI, Japan (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday urged Japan to maintain its massive monetary stimulus to support struggling consumer prices, a view echoed by a central bank board member, reinforcing expectations policy will remain accommodative. FILE PHOTO: International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen at the IMF headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was doing the right thing by committing to keep the money spigot wide open until inflation hits his ambitious 2 percent target. Her comments come amid growing criticism that the BOJ’s huge asset purchases are distorting markets and pushing Tokyo stock prices - which hit a near 26-year high this week - beyond levels justified by economic fundamentals. “One of the strengths of central bankers is to be very clear in their communication and determined in their resolve, which clearly Governor Kuroda has demonstrated,” Lagarde told Reuters on Wednesday. With inflation distant from its target, the BOJ has said it is nowhere near dialing back its huge stimulus even as its U.S. and European counterparts eye an exit from crisis-mode policies. BOJ board member Yukitoshi Funo on Wednesday also defended the bank’s huge asset purchases, saying he saw no need now to slow its purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) from the current pace of 6 trillion yen ($53 billion) per year. “Stock prices aren’t overheating,” Funo told a briefing in Miyazaki, southern Japan, adding that it was “very favorable” that stock prices have risen so much. ROOM FOR TWEAKS Kuroda has been under growing calls for more transparency on how the BOJ could dial back stimulus. Many market players see a good chance he could be reappointed after his current five-year term ends in April next year. While Funo, a former auto executive, ruled out the chance of an immediate withdrawal of stimulus, he said the BOJ should be vigilant to the threats prolonged monetary easing pose. “We’re not assuming we won’t make any changes to all of our various policy tools until 2 percent inflation is achieved,” he said, leaving open the chance of tweaking some parts of the framework before others. The comment reflects a growing view within the BOJ that its next move should be to roll back, not ramp up, its stimulus given the rising cost and diminishing returns of the program, although there are varying opinions on how and when policy should be tweaked. Lagarde said the diverging policy paths of major central banks have not led to massive and disruptive capital outflows in Asia, thanks to the cautious approach and clear communication by central bankers on their policy shifts. “We believe these conditions can help to ensure that monetary policy changes do not provoke unnecessary capital flow movements,” she said. Under a policy framework adopted last year, the BOJ now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. It also buys government bonds and riskier assets, including ETFs. ($1 = 113.8100 yen) Reporting by Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Sumio Ito in Miyazaki; Additional reporting by Stanley White, Chris Gallagher, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-imf-japan/imf-boj-member-say-japan-needs-to-keep-stimulus-running-idUKKBN1D80V1'|'2017-11-08T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'28c6739d67c04b6f9c4d9644b322afd20cb754c4'|'Moscovici urges euro zone to seize ''unique'' reform window'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 1:55 PM / a few seconds ago Moscovici urges euro zone to sieze ''unique'' reform window Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The euro zone must seize a current window of opportunity for urgent reforms to the currency bloc, including by creating a joint finance minister answering to the European Parliament, European economic and financial affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said. European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici speaks during a news conference at the EU Commission Representation offices in Athens, Greece July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis “There is now a window of opportunity to carry out deep-rooted reforms to the euro zone,” he said at a conference in Berlin on Wednesday. “We cannot wait any longer. We must use this opportunity. We must make progress between December and June.” Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Writing by Thomas Escritt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-economy-moscovici/moscovici-urges-euro-zone-to-sieze-unique-reform-window-idUKKBN1D81V6'|'2017-11-08T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'c0b07408021d4b2a8454e63a785cc59666ea784c'|'May - U.S. Commerce secretary Ross showed enthusiasm for trade deal'|' 17 PM / in a few seconds UK PM May: Commerce secretary Ross showed enthusiasm for trade deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has shown enthusiasm for a trade deal with Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said on Tuesday when asked about Ross’s statement that any Brexit deal must be in United States’ interests. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry''s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner “What I took from the comments from Wilbur Ross was that he was very enthusiastic, as the president has been on a number of occasions previously, about doing an ambitious trade deal with the UK and believing that that trade deal can be done quickly,” the spokesman said. Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-usa-ross/uk-pm-may-commerce-secretary-ross-showed-enthusiasm-for-trade-deal-idUKKBN1D71KM'|'2017-11-07T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'8390b5bc2412aa2b26ca13338b4ed6d2b3454157'|'S.Korea says to fine BMW, Mercedes, Porsche units on emission rules breach'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to impose a combined fine of 70.3 billion won ($63.1 million) on units of automakers BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche citing violation of emission rules, the environment ministry said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of BMW before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, southern Germany, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo Seoul Main Customs, part of the country’s customs agency, have also asked prosecutors to probe the three units for violation of customs law such as illegal imports, the ministry added.The BMW unit will be fined 60.8 billion won for “falsifying” documents on emission test results and not obtaining approval for changes in emission-control components before their cars were sold, the Ministry of Environment said in a statement.The Mercedes-Benz and Porsche units will be fined about 7.8 billion won and 1.7 billion won respectively for not obtaining approval for changes in emission-control components before cars were sold.A Mercedes logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Certificates of fuel efficiency will be canceled by mid-November and sales to be stopped for 28 BMW models, the ministry said. This measure will not affect cars that have already been sold, it added.The BMW unit said it is “faithfully cooperating” with the government on their probe into certificate documentation errors, and will take necessary measures.A few of the 200,000 cars that had been imported through customs between 2012-2017 had been declared for customs before approval was given or changes in components were reported, the Mercedez-Benz unit said.Internal processes will be strengthened to prevent such instances in future, it added.A spokeswoman for the Porsche unit said the ministry’s measure will not have any impact on their business, as the fine addresses component changes between 2010 and 2015, and all cars being sold now are properly certified.Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-autos-emissions/south-korea-says-to-fine-bmw-mercedes-porsche-units-on-emission-rules-breach-idUSKBN1D910A'|'2017-11-09T10:48:00.000+02:00'
'6abfa533b0f34a353410e3f619867d99d12b8743'|'Dior boss Toledano set to step down - source'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:53 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Dior boss Toledano set to step down - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Sidney Toledano, the long-serving chief executive of LVMH-owned ( LVMH.PA ) fashion label Christian Dior, is set to step down, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Christian Dior Chief Executive Sidney Toledano stands in front of Dior''s new flagship store in Tokyo, Japan, April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Toledano, 66, will be replaced by Pietro Beccari, the CEO of Fendi, which is another brand owned by LVMH, Bloomberg added. It was not clear when the changes would happen. Dior declined to comment.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dior-lvmh-moves/dior-boss-toledano-set-to-step-down-source-idUKKBN1D81I4'|'2017-11-08T13:53:00.000+02:00'
'66181563175210077d9c0f6db848a7b45bb9033b'|'EU regulators to rule on easyJet, Air Berlin deal by Dec. 12'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:20 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago EU regulators to rule on easyJet, Air Berlin deal by Dec. 12 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will rule by Dec. 12 whether to allow British budget carrier easyJet ( EZJ.L ) to acquire parts of failed German airline Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ), the European Commission said on Wednesday. EasyJet Commercial passenger aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau EasyJet filed for approval on Tuesday, according to the EU competition authority’s website. The regulator can either clear the deal with or without demanding concessions or open a full-scale investigation of about four months if it has major concerns. The deal includes easyJet taking on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport in the German capital, covering leases for up to 23 A320 aircraft and around 1,000 of its pilots and cabin crew. The Commission is also reviewing Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) planned purchase of other parts of Air Berlin, with a decision due by Dec. 7. Lufthansa is expected to offer concessions, with the decision then likely to be extended by 10 working days. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet-eu/eu-regulators-to-rule-on-easyjet-air-berlin-deal-by-dec-12-idUKKBN1D81DP'|'2017-11-08T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'273e524b82e006022f3861c27bd6148ff7b16301'|'Oil mixed on expected strong China demand, rising U.S. output'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:47 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Oil dips on lower China crude imports, but market well supported overall Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday as Chinese crude imports slipped to their lowest level in a year, although traders said the overall market remains well supported because of OPEC-led supply cuts. FILE PHOTO - An oil pump jack of Canadian group Vermilion Energy is pictured in Parentis-en-Born, France, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Traders said they were closely eyeing escalating tensions in the Middle East, especially between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Brent futures LCOc1 were at $63.43 per barrel at 0744 GMT, down 26 cents, or 0.4 percent. The decline follows Brent rising to an over two-year high of $64.65 earlier this week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.90 per barrel, down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, from its last settlement. WTI also marked its highest in over two years earlier this week, at $57.69. China’s October oil imports fell sharply from a near record-high of about 9 million barrels per day (bpd) in September to just 7.3 million bpd, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday. That is the lowest level since October 2016, though imports were up 7.8 percent from a year ago. “Lower imports reflected less purchases from independent refineries as many of them are running out of crude quotas for this year,” said Li Yan, oil analyst with Zibo Longzhong Information Group. For next year, however, independent refiners are likely to boost their imports again as authorities on Wednesday raised the 2018 crude oil import quota by 55 percent over 2017 to 2.85 million bpd. Overall, oil markets remain well supported largely due to an ongoing effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold supplies to prop up prices. “Stronger oil fundamentals and investor inflows have been the catalyst for higher oil prices, but adding further support now is a focus on several geopolitical risks that have been looming over oil markets for a while,” said U.S. bank Citi. With crude up more than 40 percent since June, many U.S. shale oil drillers have locked in recent profits by selling future production, pushing up trading in WTI crude futures. (For a graphic on WTI vs Brent open interest, click reut.rs/2hj7qkD ) While producers are profiting from higher oil prices, oil-consuming industries are starting to feel the pinch. “Oil is back up to $60 a barrel, and I think it is going to put downward pressure on airline profits and margins in the coming years,” said Brian Prentice, a partner at aviation services firm Cavok. Despite recent oil price rises, offshore oil drilling activity remains low as companies are still reluctant to invest big sums into future output, Bernstein Research said on Wednesday. "We find little evidence of significant new work ahead ... We would have to see significant pick-up in sanctioning activity by year-end to believe in the beginning of a recovery," it added. (For a graphic on Brent vs WTI forward curves, click reut.rs/2hkCcd6 ) Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Jamie Freed; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-mixed-on-expected-strong-china-demand-rising-u-s-output-idUKKBN1D8067'|'2017-11-08T03:46:00.000+02:00'
'73cfbb35bcb3085638d9500e581564c0ed371f44'|'Brazil''s BRF and China''s COFCO sign agreement on food safety'|'(Repeats to add dropped word in headline)SAO PAULO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Brazil’s BRF SA and a subsidiary of China’s COFCO Corp signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to boost cooperation on food safety and quality controls, the Brazilian company said in a statement on Wednesday.BRF’s CEO Pedro Faria said in the statement that China’s market is a priority for BRF and the agreement with Cofco Meat Holdings Ltd should allow the two companies to improve product quality. BRF is a shareholder in Cofco Meat since its IPO in Hong Kong last year, BRF’s vice president Simon Cheng said in the statement. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brf-cofco-meat-hldg-food/brazils-brf-and-chinas-cofco-sign-agreement-food-safety-idINE6N1ML01F'|'2017-11-08T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'fda989806c4538a891807c29c522675785ac3b3e'|'Slow start for Lufthansa on new U.S. route after Air Berlin collapse'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:47 PM / Updated an hour ago Slow start for Lufthansa on new U.S. route after Air Berlin collapse Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) first flight from Berlin to the United States in over 16 years took off on Wednesday, although a slow start to sales shows the difficulties involved in trying to replace the gaps left by insolvent rival Air Berlin. FILE PHOTO: A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 plane is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Germany’s second largest carrier Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) filed for insolvency in August and carried out its last flight at the end of last month, leaving a gap in the market for long-haul flights from the German capital in particular. “Of course bookings are slow at this stage,” Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister told Reuters at Berlin’s Tegel airport ahead of the departure of the flight to New York’s JFK on Wednesday. He said that usually Lufthansa would give 12 months notice of a new long-haul route, or eight months at a minimum, but in this case it had only six weeks to sell tickets ahead of the first flight. “The next four weeks will be difficult, then we get a peak at Christmas time and then it will develop better, otherwise we wouldn’t do it,” Hohmeister said. Lufthansa has traditionally shied away from long-haul flights from Berlin, instead flying intercontinental routes from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Hohmeister said the Lufthansa group was currently looking at other long-haul options from Berlin, but that any would likely be flown by its budget arm Eurowings. Lufthansa is currently awaiting EU approval for a deal to take over large parts of Air Berlin, which will see it adding 81 planes to the group. The collapse of Air Berlin means Berlin Airports will see a dip in passenger number growth this year after a period of strong demand. Britain’s easyJet ( EZJ.L ), which is planning to take over some Air Berlin operations at Tegel, has said it expects to run a reduced schedule this winter from the airport. “We expect that new partners will quickly bring growth,” Berlin Airports CEO Engelbert Luetke Dalderup said, urging Lufthansa to “never say never” to the idea of Berlin as a hub. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-usa/slow-start-for-lufthansa-on-new-u-s-route-after-air-berlin-collapse-idUKKBN1D82SR'|'2017-11-08T20:46:00.000+02:00'
'1f8c9e67af5c13f04184a3f1060edd92eb2c03dd'|'Greece''s Tsipras says debt relief discussion to follow review'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:04 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Greece''s Tsipras says debt relief discussion to follow review Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Discussions on the long-term sustainability of Greece’s debt are expected to start after the conclusion of a review of the country’s reforms by its lenders, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks as he holds a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Tsipras told MPs of his leftist Syriza party that discussions with lenders were progressing well. “Immediately after the conclusion of the third review a discussion is expected to start on the long-term viability of debt, and enter the final stretch for emerging from the bailout,” he told parliamentarians. A cash-for-reforms bailout programme worth up to 86 billion euros (£75.9 billion) is expected to expire in Aug. 2018. Reporting By Lefteris Papadimas, writing by Michele Kambas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece/greeces-tsipras-says-debt-relief-discussion-to-follow-review-idUKKBN1D813B'|'2017-11-08T12:03:00.000+02:00'
'105e8d445667c7451287f3b62ee2b68f44e98151'|'Farm supply growth, returning cash are priorities for Nutrien: Agrium CEO'|'WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Nutrien, the company to be formed from the merger of Agrium Inc ( AGU.TO ) and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan ( POT.TO ), plans to expand its U.S. farm supply network and return cash to shareholders, Agrium Chief Executive Chuck Magro said on Wednesday, as it leverages unusually flush coffers during an agriculture slump.Regulators in China and India require Potash to divest minority stakes in three companies - SQM SQMa.SN, ICL Israel Chemicals ( ICL.TA ) and Arab Potash Co PLC APOT.AM - as a condition of approving the $25-billion merger.The sales could create a $5 billion warchest after taxes and banker fees, according to a BMO estimate, helping Nutrien to consolidate the fragmented U.S. farm retail sector, which sells seed, chemicals and fertilizer to farmers.Nutrien, which Magro will lead as CEO, will clarify its full capital strategy shortly after the merger closes late this year and its new board takes shape, he said.But some capital will fund retail growth and Nutrien will also return cash to shareholders, either with a larger dividend or share buybacks, Magro said on a conference call with analysts.“The allocation of capital is really going to be targeted toward long-term shareholder growth,” Magro said “Retail growth will be a key priority.”Indian regulators have approved the merger on the condition that Nutrien sell the three equity stakes by April 2019.The company is open to big farm retail acquisitions, and Agrium has some medium-sized deals in the works this quarter, Magro said.Agrium is already the biggest U.S. farm retail supplier and has for years been steadily buying up stores, which are seen as providing more stable profits than fertilizer that is sold wholesale.Bulking up the farm retail network would make Nutrien less prone to fertilizer price swings, said Justin Flowerday, head of equity research at TD Asset Management, the 10th-largest investor in Agrium and a top-20 Potash shareholder according to Reuters data.“This retail franchise in the U.S. is kind of the crown jewel of the combined organization,” Flowerday said in an interview before Magro’s comments. “They have the ability to be patient and find the right locations, the right businesses and build up that retail network.”TD also hopes Nutrien pays down debt and buys back shares.Agrium accounts for 19 percent of the U.S. farm retail market with cooperatives including CHS Inc ( CHSCP.O ) and small companies making up the rest.Expanding the farm retail business offers Nutrien the advantage of selling more of its own fertilizer in-house, said Rob Spafford, portfolio manager at Cidel Asset Management, which owns Agrium shares. But it could also enter the seed and chemical production sector if attractive assets become available from other pending mergers.Brian Madden, portfolio manager at Goodreid Investment Counsel, said Nutrien’s biggest priorities should be buying back shares, then hiking the dividend, to make the company appealing to more investors.Agrium shares fell 2.2 percent in Toronto to C$135.52, after it posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss late on Tuesday.Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-agrium-potashcorp-m-a/farm-supply-growth-returning-cash-are-priorities-for-nutrien-agrium-ceo-idINKBN1D82DW'|'2017-11-08T13:30:00.000+02:00'
'9513a8e1cade3d212672095ea0b15a11252a304a'|'UK firms to offer higher pay as Brexit deters EU workers'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:08 AM / Updated 9 hours ago UK firms to offer higher pay as Brexit deters EU workers William Schomberg 3   employers are having to raise their pay offers in the face of growing recruitment problems, two surveys showed on Wednesday, following a fall in the number of European Union workers since the Brexit vote. FILE PHOTO - Workers walk to work during the morning rush hour in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, Britain, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo Stronger pay growth would ease a big problem for Britain’s economy -- wages lagging inflation -- and could add to the case for further interest rates hikes by the Bank of England, which last week raised rates for the first time since 2007. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation said its monthly survey showed starting salaries rose in October at the second-quickest rate since November 2015. “We already know that EU workers are leaving because of the uncertainties they are facing right now,” REC chief executive Kevin Green said. “We therefore need clarity around what future immigration systems will look like. Otherwise, the situation will get worse and employers will face even more staff shortages.” Separately on Wednesday, the Bank of England said recruitment difficulties had intensified and were above normal in a range of activities. The BoE report, based on the findings of its regional agents across the country, said companies expected pay settlements next year to offer increases of around 2.5–3.5 percent rather than the 2–3 percent range seen during 2017. Last week, the BoE predicted overall pay growth of around 3 percent next year, up from just over 2 percent this year. Britain’s official statistics agency said in August that net migration fell to its lowest level in three years with more than half the drop caused by European Union citizens leaving and fewer arriving since the Brexit vote. REC said its survey, conducted with data firm IHS Markit, showed the availability of permanent and temporary workers continued to fall sharply last month. Last week, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in 10 years, in part because it expects the plunge in unemployment in Britain will soon start to push up wages. The BoE also thinks slower growth in investment by businesses ahead of Brexit will aggravate a problem already facing Britain’s economy: that it cannot grow as fast as before without generating extra inflation pressure. In its regional agents report, the BoE said business investment would continue to grow at a modest pace over the next year before weaker increases over the following two years. “Economic uncertainty was the biggest drag on investment plans,” the BoE said on Wednesday, citing a survey of 375 firms. “Expectations about future trading arrangements and other factors related to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, such as concerns around the future availability of overseas labor, were also reported to be restraining investment,” it said. Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-jobs/shortage-of-eu-workers-pushing-up-uk-pay-survey-of-recruiters-idUKKBN1D803V'|'2017-11-08T12:42:00.000+02:00'
'29bae4a3b4e80503d77accbdff2fbbba72b020ed'|'Wendy''s same-restaurant sales miss estimates'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:48 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Competition, hurricanes dampen Wendy''s results, forecast Karina Dsouza , Uday Sampath Kumar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wendy’s Co ( WEN.O ) reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit and sales as increased competition, lower grocery prices and hurricanes hit traffic at restaurants, leading the burger chain to cut its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast. A Wendy''s fast food restaurant is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The company’s shares were down 3.5 percent to $14.22 in morning trade on Wednesday. Wendy’s also said higher commodity costs hurt profit margins by 1.7 percentage points during the quarter. Commodities such as beef, bacon and chicken account for a large share of the company’s input costs, but Chief Financial Officer Gunther Plosch said high prices in the quarter were probably just a “onetime bubble”. “Beef and chicken are each about 20 percent of the commodity basket for Wendy‘s, so this has been a margin headwind,” Evercore ISI analyst Matt McGinley said. Wendy‘s, like its peers in the fast-food industry, is also dealing with a slide in grocery prices that is encouraging more consumers to prepare meals at home or use meal-kit delivery services such as Blue Apron ( APRN.N ), HelloFresh and Plated. This has intensified competition, with Wendy‘s, McDonald’s ( MCD.N ) and Burger King ( QSR.TO ) offering deeply discounted meals to get more customers to visit their outlets. Wendy’s is also launching delivery services under a partnership with DoorDash Inc, it said. The company trimmed its full-year adjusted profit forecast to 43 cents to 45 cents per share for full-year, from 45-47 cents it estimated earlier, blaming an unexpected rise in deferred tax expense. In the third quarter, Wendy’s same-restaurant sales in North America rose 2 percent in the third quarter but came in below the 2.4 percent increase forecast by Consensus Metrix. The burger chain, which has the highest number of its restaurants in Florida and Texas, said hurricanes Irma and Harvey reduced same-store sales in North America by 30 to 40 basis points. The company also trimmed the higher end of its North American comparable-store sales forecast for the year to 2 percent to 2.5 percent from 2 percent to 3 percent. Wendy’s sold 249 restaurants to franchisees in the quarter, resulting in a 15.4 percent drop in sales to $308 million. Analysts had expected $311.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding some items, earnings were 9 cents per share, missing analysts’ average estimate of 12 cents per share. Reporting by Uday Sampath Kumar and Karina Dsouza in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wendys-results/wendys-same-restaurant-sales-miss-estimates-idUSKBN1D81NI'|'2017-11-08T14:46:00.000+02:00'
'79c6a503eeffb2ca56fd1c260f21ed75ab472826'|'Shell to hand over Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield by end June 2018 – Iraqi oil officials'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:31 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Shell to hand over Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield by end June 2018 – Iraqi oil officials Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) agreed to exit the Majnoon oilfield and hand over its operation to the state-run Basra Oil Co. by the end of June 2018, two oil officials close to the deal said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A view of Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield in Basra, 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Baghdad, October 6, 2013. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo A letter signed by Iraqi oil minister Jabar Luaibi, dated Aug. 23 and seen by Reuters, gave approval for the Anglo-Dutch company to quit Majnoon, a major oilfield near Basra which started production in 2014. Reporting by Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iraq-oil-shell/shell-to-hand-over-iraqs-majnoon-oilfield-by-end-june-2018-iraqi-oil-officials-idUKKBN1D816R'|'2017-11-08T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'eeb40c6ec47403f89581666994bfda4eb286e91c'|'Airbus eyes Canadian military deal, further cooperation with Bombardier'|'OTTAWA/MONTREAL, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Airbus SE could cooperate further with Bombardier Inc beyond a recent venture in the CSeries jets, if its fighter jet is permitted to compete in a Canadian military procurement, and its partners agree, an executive said on Wednesday.Canada said last year it will launch an open competition to replace its aging fleet of fighter jets and a request for proposal for the open competition is expected in 2019.Dirk Hoke, chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space, said the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet could be an option for further collaboration with Bombardier, although he did not specify further.“We will definitely also look at additional potential further cooperation with Bombardier beyond just the CSeries,” Hoke told Reuters on the sidelines of an Ottawa aerospace conference, adding that he was “very optimistic and positive about us entering this competition.”Airbus last month agreed to take a majority stake in Bombardier’s CSeries jets programme, bolstering the Canadian plane’s sales and giving it a possible way out of a damaging trade dispute with Boeing Co and U.S. regulators.The CSeries trade dispute has muddied a potential interim military contract between Boeing and Canada for 18 Super Hornet fighter jets, creating new opportunities for rivals like Airbus, Dassault Aviation SA and Lockheed Martin.Boeing and Canada had initially discussed purchasing the fighters as a stop-gap measure while the country prepared an open five-year competition to replace its aging fleet of 77 Boeing CF-18 fighter jets. Canada has halted talks with Boeing because of the dispute.Hoke said Airbus is not considering jumping into the interim bid for fighter jets and is waiting to see the specifics from the Canadian government on the open competition.“Right now, we have a very positive feeling about it but of course we have to see ... what (are) the specifications that have been finally defined and confirmed.”In 2016, Canada selected Airbus C295W aircraft for its fixed-wing search and rescue program, estimated at C$3 billion ($2.36 billion).Boeing has accused Bombardier of receiving illegal subsidies and dumping the CSeries at “absurdly low” prices in the U.S. market to win a key April 2016 order from Delta Air Lines Inc . The U.S. Commerce Department has notched up proposed trade duties on U.S. sales of CSeries jets at nearly 300 percent, in a case that will be decided next year at the International Trade Commission.$1 = 1.2735 Canadian dollars Reporting By Leah Schnurr and Allison Lampert. Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-airbus/airbus-eyes-canadian-military-deal-further-cooperation-with-bombardier-idINL1N1NE1TV'|'2017-11-08T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'1cf0b754185a5f3a721bb66064d2b1389b7d38dc'|'HSBC, Wall Street''s Brexit worries and sexual abuse in the City'|'Companies HSBC, Wall Street''s Brexit worries and sexual abuse in the City Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss HSBC''s ''week of two halves'', Wall Street concerns about Brexit, and an FT survey of sexual abuse in the City Save to myFT Presented by Patrick Jenkins and Produced by Fiona Symon Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Banking Weekly from the Financial Times with me, Patrick Jenkins. Joining me in the studio today are Martin Arnold, our banking editor, and Caroline Binham our financial regulation correspondent. Down the line from Zurich we have Laura Noonan our investment banking correspondent. And we''ve been talking to the policy chairman of the Corporation of London, Catherine McGuinness. This week we''ll be discussing HSBC and its week of two halves, also a look at what Wall Street thinks of Brexit on the evidence of Catherine McGuinness''s trip from the Corporation of London to the US, and finally a look at The FT''s new sexual discrimination poll and what it''s telling us so far. First though to HSBC. As I said a week of two halves last week. We had another scandal emerging or evidence of one. Maybe Caroline you could start off talking about that, and then we''ll come to Martin and the rather more positive news that the bank was trying to convey a few days later. Yeah, last week we saw Lord Hain, who has ties to South Africa but is the former Labour cabinet minister making some quite strong accusations against an unnamed bank-- however, we named it as HSBC-- regarding the fact that large transfers tied to the Gupta family, who are at the heart of the corruption scandal in South Africa, were allegedly ignored by HSBC back in the UK. They were flagged up internally within HSBC South Africa, but then allegedly were ignored by UK. So Lord Hain has written to the treasury urging that the FCA and other authorities look at what he''s described as possible criminal complicity. Lord Hain had already flagged up issues at both Standard Chartered and HSBC in relation to the Guptas a few weeks ago. However, they were more general in terms of allegations and more historic. So this really represents the stepping up of the accusations against HSBC in particular. And the problem for the bank, really, is its earlier and separate deferred prosecution agreement with the US authorities back in 2012 for money laundering and sanctions breaches. So the issue for them is that if this is deemed a breach of that DPA, which is due to expire next year, that could be a real problem. Let me bring Martin in at this point, first for a view about the seriousness of this case, and then maybe your reflections on what some people might call greenwashing when a few days later HSBC came out with an announcement that they were going to invest $100 billion in essentially green environmental initiatives. Well, the bank is in the process of going through a change of leadership. And Stuart Gulliver is handing over in February as chief executive. And Douglas Flint has already handed over as chairman to Mark Tucker. John Flint is being promoted to take over as CEO. So this comes at a crucial point for HSBC. And the deferred prosecution agreement that Caroline referred to is a five year deal with the Department of Justice in the US, due to expire at the start of next year. So again, a crucial point for the bank. We don''t know the ins and outs of this. And by all accounts, the Gupta family used a very complex web of companies to handle their finances. So it''s not clear how involved HSBC was in getting money out of South Africa. But if it''s proved to be-- and as Lord Hain says, that he has proof that HSBC not only handled this money but also ignored internal warnings that it was doing so and that these were suspicious transactions, that''s really quite damaging for HSBC given their history. And I think it''s really very negative for the new management team taking over, and for the old management team that are handing over, because they would have very much hope to hand over a clean slate to the new team, and therefore to be able to take this bank forward without some of these sort of legacy issues coming to haunt them, as they have haunted Gulliver and Flint for the past five years. So no wonder they wanted to get a good news story out there a few days later with this $100 billion green initiative. Yeah, the bank has promised $100 billion financed for low carbon technology and sustainable development by 2025 as part of a package of measures to strengthen its commitment to tackling climate change and other green goals. Unfortunately for the bank, its commitment to $100 billion is far less than the $200 billion of financing for clean energy that was promised earlier this year by rival JPMorgan Chase in the same time frame. So it''s not doing as much as them. And it''s also not going as far as other banks. It hasn''t gone as far as Deutsche Bank or ING, for instance, which have adopted a worldwide ban on financing new coal-fired power plants in developing countries. HSBC says it won''t finance coal mines and it won''t finance coal-fired power plants in developed countries, but it is leaving itself the option to finance them in developing countries. And the excuse it gives for that is that it has a very strong presence in a lot of developing countries, and therefore to do this would be too wrenching. It would lose a lot of money, in short. OK, well thanks for those reflections both. Let''s move on to our second topic. Catherine McGuinness, who is the policy chair of the Corporation of London, is just back from her trip to the US where she was visiting policymakers and also representatives of the big banks. And she''s come back with a pretty downbeat message about what Wall Street thinks of Brexit. In particular she says the level of worry there is increasing, particularly about a hard Brexit, a kind of disorganised departure from the European Union. And that was really the sentiment that she first expressed. Now Catherine McGuinness was speaking to me and a few other journalists at a restaurant in the City of London early on Tuesday, so do excuse the background noise. We''re going to have [INAUDIBLE] our regular engagement with the US. We were going at, well, at least twice a year, but probably more regularly. We met with regulators. I think you''ve seen the list of people we''ve met with, but it was a range from regulators to market participants. We met with ISDA and a number of them. And ISDA, the Swaps and Derivatives Association. And we met with the Treasury, very interesting. I was out there in April just before I took office as chairman. Then there was curiosity about Brexit and what were we getting out to. This time, those who were involved in our sector, really there was concern about the possible implications. It was the fact that it''s taking us and the EU 27 so long, the fact that this might have repercussions and implications beyond our borders, whether it''s just disrupting markets or whether it''s more significant than that. And as I say, it was a clear statement that people were not going to take sides, but they were watching and were concerned. I think the fear of the hard, I think that''s really absolutely right. The fear of a crash is rising. Another point that Ms. McGuinness focused on was the interest that the US banks had in the so-called blueprint for a future UK-EU financial services deal that''s been proposed by the IRSG lobby group. This is the thing that Mark Hoban, the former city minister, fronts. We''ve talked about it before on the podcast. And this is, as I say, a blueprint which they are hoping, certainly the City is hoping that the government takes up as a formal policy document or something close to it, and then uses that as a negotiation basis with the EU. Wall Street very much liked this idea, but as Catherine McGuinness explained, she is getting frustrated and they are getting frustrated at the slow progress of turning this blueprint into policy. I have to say, as with anything on Brexit at the moment, fairly slowly. People who look into it in detail respect the work that''s being done. But I think we still have a bit of work to do to get it centre stage. Both domestically-- Both domestically and in Europe, yes. But not being accepted as the blueprint for government policy? Not yet. As I say, people have been positive. I mean, there are some in government who think that a simpler model might be possible. But I''m not sure that''s right. [INAUDIBLE] I think there are still some who hope that an enhanced equivalents route might be possible. I think that if we want a really aspirational relationship which works for us and for Europe, then the proposal that''s basically offering access is absolutely the best way forward. My biggest concern, our biggest concern, the obvious concern at the moment is getting transition agreed as soon as possible, with sufficient clarity that people can then rely on it, that we need to really assume is possible. Finally among the many topics that Catherine McGuinness covered was the state of UK politics and how frustrating the chaos within government is to the whole Brexit negotiation process. I think this is a moment when the country needs strong leadership and a clear direction. I think it''s quite difficult for a divided cabinet to get that. I think it''s very unfortunate that these other scandals have emerged just at this particular moment. And I also think, as I''ve said consistently and as others, Paul [INAUDIBLE] and so on have said, although Brexit was plainly a political decision, this is a moment where we need a really strong element of pragmatism in our approach, because we need to look at the damage we''re doing to-- damage we could do to jobs and the economy. I mean, they are very warm when we talk to them, but we need action, not warm words. The same with the tone in the Florence speech, which was great and actually, it''s a little bit more than just warm words because that has something changed the tone of the negotiations and the debate, and that''s positive. But we need action. We really need progress. I mean, you will be fed up of hearing about the three Ts, the talent closing transition, but we really do need to see that. Finally let''s speak to Laura Noonan now, our investment bank correspondent, who''s speaking down the line from Zurich. Laura, you''ve recently initiated a very interesting project, along with some colleagues here, to try and take the temperature of the City of London essentially as regards women in finance and the potential abuses that have taken place over years really, obviously looking at this in the light of Hollywood scandals, Westminster scandals. You launched this a couple of weeks ago. It''s early days. But what have you found out so far? The first thing to say is even though these are most commonly thought about as issues affecting women, we are soliciting and indeed getting responses from both men and women. So we define it pretty broadly. We''re asking for anyone who has experience any kind of sexual misconduct or inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workforce to come forward. And we have had men come forward as well. In terms of what we found out so far, from our initial research it does seem to be quite an issue in the industry. We''ve had a number of responses. We''re into the tens of responses now. The issues highlighted range from the very severe end, which is stuff like actual sexual assault, to the opposite end of the spectrum, which would fall into common, people being advised to wear certain things, people being advised to be nice to certain clients, those kind of issues. So there really is a whole spectrum here. And the litmus test we''re asking people to use is, how do you experience anything or seen anything which you wouldn''t want your own son or your own daughter to experience? And we find that when we phrase it that way, people actually think about things quite differently. There are behaviours people are fine with having experienced themselves, but they certainly wouldn''t want their own children to have. And I suppose we''ll obviously update people on this as it progresses, and I''m sure you''ll be writing up the results at some point. But in the meantime, it would obviously be good for anyone listening who has experienced this kind of thing to get in touch. What''s the best way for them to do that? How to reach us, we have a dedicated portal on the FT for that. If you go to FT.com/misconduct, you can reach us there. And you can email us in the strictest confidence, tell us about your experiences. Well that''s it for this week. All that''s left me to do is to thank Martin and Caroline here in the studio, also Laura Noonan down the line from Zurich, and the contributions from Catherine McGuinness from the Corporation of London. Remember, you can keep up to date with all of the latest banking stories at FT.com/banking. Banking Weekly was produced by Fiona Symon. Until next week, goodbye.'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/video/6bc10272-1c78-4e0c-9627-318f881be55d'|'2017-11-07T23:10:00.000+02:00'
'62c59eeb02d673358539387c208cd739d1e212e8'|'Qualcomm buy may pit Broadcom against Intel in ''connected car'' fight'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:02 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Qualcomm buy may pit Broadcom against Intel in ''connected car'' fight Stephen Nellis 4 Min Read (Reuters) - If Broadcom Ltd’s unsolicited $103 billion (£78.4 billion) bid for Qualcomm Inc succeeds, it could set up a battle with Intel Corp for dominance in the production of the next generation of communications chips, which will play a vital role in so-called connected cars. FILE PHOTO: A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Vehicles of every sort already are starting to add wireless chips to download everything from maps to entertainment, and in a few years nearly every new car may be connected. Self-driving cars, still in test mode, will accelerate the move. “The amount of chips per car is going to grow dramatically,” said Egil Juliussen, a principal analyst for automotive technology at IHSMarkit. Chip makers are scrambling to create new mobile networks, the so-called fifth generation, which will link phones as well as cars, drones and even industrial devices such as smart street lights, which count pedestrians and send data to city planners. Qualcomm long was the dominant communications chip maker for mobile phones, although computer chip maker Intel has begun muscling into the space. Each now supplies about half Apple Inc’s iPhone communications chips, for instance. Now they are jockeying in a mature market to design so-called 5G networks that will be up to 10 times as fast as wireless networks today, which are expected to start rolling out in 2020. Research firm IDC predicts 1.53 billion smart phones will be shipped in 2017 expanding to only 1.77 billion units in 2021. The market for modem chips for cars, by contrast, is expected to grow sharply. Tristan Gerra, a senior semiconductor analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co, said that this year, only about 12 million of the 90 million cars manufactured per year have internet connectivity. But connectivity will become ubiquitous on self-driving cars. FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo “You basically (will) have 80 million units per year that are going to get a modem,” he said. Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment. Qualcomm itself is trying to buy NXP Semiconductors, a maker of automotive chips from so-called “infotainment” system chips to camera systems, for $38 billion. It is unclear whether that deal will go through and whether Broadcom would take on NXP, but Broadcom has said it is willing to do so. A tie-up between the three companies could create a formidable competitor in the automotive chip space, said IHSMarkit’s Juliussen. He views Intel and Nvidia Corp, which make both make the main processors used in self-driving vehicles, as leaders in the young market, but a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm-NXP would be a strong third-place. Intel has bought itself into relationships with autonomous car developers thanks to its acquisition of vision system maker Mobileye. Broadcom would get something similar with NXP, Juliussen said. If Broadcom pulls off both deals, its market position in some areas could be dominant, said Cowen and Co analyst Karl Ackerman. “[Broadcom] would basically own the majority of the high-end components in the smart phone market and they would have a very significant influence on 5G standards, which are paramount as you think about autonomous vehicles” and connected factories, he said. Reporting by Stephen Nellis, editing by Peter Henderson and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom-intel/qualcomm-buy-may-pit-broadcom-against-intel-in-connected-car-fight-idUKKBN1D81AU'|'2017-11-08T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'1cb8f5080d4dd33ff52276eade5fe1d74242bffe'|'UPDATE 1-Dutch to investigate 4,000 corporate tax deals after P&G error'|'(Adds details)AMSTERDAM, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The Netherlands will review 4,000 corporate tax deals agreed between the government and companies between 2012 and 2016 to determine if they were properly issued, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.Dutch tax breaks to large international companies came under renewed fire on Tuesday after newly leaked documents revealed what the finance ministry acknowledges were errors in the drafting of a tax ruling for U.S. consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble.The ministry “would investigate whether more than 4,000 international tax rulings were issued according to the intended procedure,” the deputy finance minister said in a letter to parliament.Documents leaked in the so-called “Paradise Papers” trove of offshore records shed light on a previously undisclosed deal made in 2008, which gave P&G an estimated tax break of $169 million.The set-up of that deal did not meet requirements, as it was signed off only by one inspector of the tax authority. P&G, the maker of Papers diapers, Gillette razors and Tide laundry detergent, issued a statement on Tuesday denying involvement in any form of tax avoidance.The Netherlands has come under increasing pressure in recent years to clamp down on tax avoidance by multinational companies, which funnel trillions of dollars through the country every year to tax havens.The new Dutch government said last month it would try to make the country less attractive to shell companies that act as a conduit for money destined for tax havens. It also promised to lower the corporate tax rate to encourage foreign companies to move their activities to the Netherlands.The Paradise Papers are leaked documents from prominent offshore law firm Appleby that relate to the investments of wealthy individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Catherine Evans and Peter Graff)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/paradise-tax-netherlands/update-1-dutch-to-investigate-4000-corporate-tax-deals-after-pg-error-idINL5N1NE38R'|'2017-11-08T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'acf93e6973005cbbc31fb2375919515535299d42'|'Rockwell Automation to focus on operations after rejecting Emerson bid'|'Nov 8 (Reuters) - U.S. factory automation equipment maker Rockwell Automation Inc said on Wednesday it would stick to its current strategic plan, after rebuffing a more than $27 billion takeover bid from larger rival Emerson Electric Co’s in October.Rockwell’s executives made the comments during the company’s post-earnings call.Emerson indicated on Tuesday it remained interested in restarting deal talks with Rockwell. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rockwell-automat-ma-emerson-electric/rockwell-automation-to-focus-on-operations-after-rejecting-emerson-bid-idINL3N1NE4Z0'|'2017-11-08T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'b6c174e141e40743929e2ac6b9c502912e484be3'|'France proposes tax avoidance states face IMF, World Bank sanctions'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:52 AM / in 7 minutes France wants EU to cut international funding of ''Paradise Papers'' countries Francesco Guarascio , Lily Cusack 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France on Tuesday asked its European partners to agree on curbing international funding of states that provide tax shelters, following the huge leak of documents showing the tax affairs of the rich and famous. FILE PHOTO - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire watis for the start of the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, ahead of a meeting of European Union peers, called for a “credible” blacklist to be drawn up of tax havens and for sanctions for those who do not cooperate. Talks on a blacklist, initially planned for December, were brought forward by the EU ministers after media reports citing the “Paradise Papers”, a trove of financial reports leaked mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm. Though tax avoidance is legal in many circumstances, the papers have dragged in famous names, including Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. The documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets. Reuters has not independently verified them. Le Maire called for the EU to look at the funding of countries that provide shelter. “We are thinking, for instance, about the possibility of cutting financial support of the international institutions like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) or the World Bank on the states that would not provide the needed information on tax,” he told reporters before the meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. He said he would present these proposals to his EU counterparts on Tuesday. The debate is part of a new EU effort to contrast tax havens, as ministers consider setting up an EU blacklist of offshore jurisdictions that do not cooperate on tax matters. The EU has been working for more than a year on the common blacklist that would replace largely toothless national lists. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has called for sanctions for countries in the list, without giving details on the possible measures. But some states remain cautious about the project. Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said on Tuesday that blacklisting countries “is always a difficult exercise” and stressed all EU countries needed to agree on the plan. Other EU tax reforms have collapsed in past years because of opposition from some member states. BLACKLIST Le Maire said an existing list of tax havens compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global group of mostly rich nations, was not enough to counter tax avoidance. The OECD list currently includes only Trinidad and Tobago. By contrast, the European Commission is currently screening about 50 countries that may not respect EU criteria on tax cooperation. The final number is likely to be much lower than that, if an EU blacklist were agreed, officials said. Many of Britain’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, such as Guernsey and Bermuda, were subject to an initial screening by the EU Commission of 81 countries and jurisdictions deemed at risk of breeching EU criteria on tax transparency. The inclusion of these territories in an EU blacklist may further complicate relations with Britain, as the country negotiates its divorce from the EU. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Lily Cusack; Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-ecofin-france/france-proposes-tax-avoidance-states-face-imf-world-bank-sanctions-idUKKBN1D713R'|'2017-11-07T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'78b5b196bf6f32f30efbfb20cfcc33e3c668e6d7'|'Nykredit owner plans to sell stake, drop IPO plan'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:13 AM / Updated an hour ago Nykredit owner plans to sell stake, drop IPO plan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The board of the owner of Nykredit, Denmark’s largest mortgage lender, has agreed with five Danish pension funds to sell a 10.9 percent stake in Nykredit for 7.5 billion Danish crowns ($1.17 billion) instead of seeking an initial public offer. Forenet Kredit, which owns 89.8 percent of Nykredit, said the deal was subject to approval by its 104-member Committee of Representatives, and the authorities. If the deal goes through then preparations for an initial public offering next year will be discontinued, Nykredit and Forenet Kredit said in a joint statement. The funds involved are PFA Pension, PensionDanmark, PKA, AP Pension and MP Pension. The deal would raise their ownership of Nykredit to 16.9 percent, the largest unlisted equity investment by institutional investors in Denmark. Nykredit said in September it had chosen JPMorgan ( JPM.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and Danske Bank ( DANSKE.CO ) as joint global coordinators for its IPO. Reporting by Julie Astrid Thomsen and Teis Jensen; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nykredit-holding-equity/nykredit-owner-plans-to-sell-stake-drop-ipo-plan-idINKBN1D70YY'|'2017-11-07T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'ee71a93f73f4b16a4c0a593dd0752375567013c7'|'MOVES-Bank of America consumer bankers depart for Citigroup -sources'|'Nov 7 (Reuters) - A trio of Bank of America Corp investment bankers who focus on advising consumer companies are departing for rival Citigroup Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.The bankers include managing directors David Finkelstein, Carl Stickel and Jeremy Murphy, the two sources said, asking not to be named because the moves are not yet public.Stickel will co-head Citi’s consumer products group, alongside existing co-head Elinor Hoover, one of the people said, and Murphy joins as a member of that team.Finkelstein will join the bank’s M&A team with a focus on consumer and retail clients.Representatives for Bank of America and Citigroup declined to comment. Stickel, Finkelstein and Murphy did not respond to requests for comment.The hires come as Citi CEO Mike Corbat has said he is focusing on growing the bank, including picking up market share in investment banking, after years of scaling back businesses following the financial crisis. Citigroup ranked No.3 among big banks for advising on mergers and acquisitions in the first nine months of the year, up from No.7 a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data.Deals in the consumer sector continue to surge this year, with the number of transactions outpacing 2016 by 20 percent. Large food and beverage companies like Nestle SA, Unilever Plc and Conagra Brands Inc are snapping up smaller brands to combat growth challenges, while brick-and-mortar retailers are grappling with how to grow their online presence following Amazon.com Inc’s acquisition of Whole Foods. (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/citigroup-moves/moves-bank-of-america-consumer-bankers-depart-for-citigroup-sources-idINL1N1NC205'|'2017-11-07T18:03:00.000+02:00'
'cacc22ea7b212a395b394cfd4800284024b6e7bd'|'Apple says no operations were moved from Ireland'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:22 PM / in 7 hours Apple says no operations were moved from Ireland   (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) said none of its operations were moved from Ireland and that changes made to its corporate structure in 2015 were specially designed to preserve tax payments to the United States, and not to reduce taxes anywhere else. FILE PHOTO - A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed Irish flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo The statement on Monday from Apple comes following criticism of its tax affairs after reports based on the “Paradise Papers” showed that the iPhone maker shifted key parts of its business to Jersey as an offshore tax haven in a move to maintain a low tax rate. The “Paradise Papers” are a trove of financial documents leaked mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm. The documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets. Reuters has not independently verified them. Appleby was not immediately available for comment. Apple said it pays billions of dollars in taxes to the United States at the statutory 35 percent rate on investment income from its overseas cash. ( apple.co/2AohvBE ) Last month, Apple responded to questions from the ICIJ and others revealing that when Ireland changed its tax laws in 2015, the company complied by changing the residency of its Irish subsidiaries and informed Ireland, the European Commission and the United States. The changes made did not reduce its tax payments in any country, according to the company. Apple is the largest taxpayer in the world, paying over $35 billion (26.61 billion pounds) in corporate income taxes in the last three years, according to the statement. Tax reduction strategies have been employed for decades by companies including Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) and Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-tax-paradise-papers/apple-says-no-operations-were-moved-from-ireland-idUKKBN1D62UM'|'2017-11-07T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'f71d3ec7ee0573f337177f95bc4b3f343eede411'|'PayPal launches domestic operations in India'|'(Reuters) - Payment processor PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ) on Wednesday launched domestic operations in India, a market already dominated by China’s Alibaba-backed ( BABA.N ) PayTM, the country’s leading digital payments firm.FILE PHOTO: The PayPal app logo seen on a mobile phone in this illustration photo October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo PayPal’s entry in the Indian market comes as a push for cashless transactions by the Narendra Modi-led government is seeing more people use e-wallets and card payments.The online payment industry is pegged to grow ten-fold to $500 billion by 2020. ( reut.rs/2jaXbiS )“India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor – cash – and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale,” Anupam Pahuja, country manager and managing director, PayPal India said.“For us, the marathon has just begun.”Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google launched a localized payments app for India in September, trying to gain a foothold in the country’s rapidly-growing digital payments space.PayPal, the Elon Musk-founded company, will allow Indian consumers to use the platform to shop online at some of the country’s most popular businesses.Merchants accepting PayPal will be also able to process both local and global payments through PayPal, getting access to the payment processor’s more than 218 million customers around the world and in India.Reporting by Aparajita Saxena and Roopal Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paypalholdingsinc-india/paypal-launches-domestic-operations-in-india-idUSKBN1D82KM'|'2017-11-08T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'86653b288988c8cdbc4f9de7bf95e3a44aca11cf'|'China''s HNA agrees sale and repurchase deal on shares in Spain''s NH Hotel'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - China’s heavily indebted airline-to-property conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] has agreed a sale and repurchase deal on some of its shares in Spain’s NH Hotel Group ( NHH.MC ) to raise cash for internal financing.FILE PHOTO - The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo HNA, which has taken on billions in debt to fund a $50 billion acquisition spree in the last two years, faced rising funding costs in recent weeks as investors worry about its financial health.In a statement to Spain’s market regulator CNMV, HNA said it will sell and buy back a 1.14 percent stake in NH Hotel to “provide liquidity to HNA globally in the context of internal financing”. The transaction was done with an institutional investor not named by HNA.With a 29.5 percent stake in NH Hotel before the latest transaction, HNA is the biggest shareholder in the Spanish company, which has a market capitalization of 1.89 billion euros ($2.19 billion).A 1.14 percent stake in NH Hotel is valued at around 21.5 million euros. HNA did not say how much cash it would get from the sale and repurchase deal.HNA was not immediately available for a comment.Data from Thomson Reuters Eikon showed HNA Group has $17.2 billion of outstanding bonds, of which $2.3 billion are due in 2018 and $4.6 billion are due in 2019.Last week HNA sold $300 million worth of short-dated bonds at an 8.875 percent coupon at par, partly to refinance its foreign debt.Analysts said the sale showed HNA’s rising funding costs as the yield offered was higher than the yield on HNA’s December 2018 bond CN125936105= at the time of pricing, according to Thomson Reuters data.Headquartered in China’s southernmost island of Hainan, HNA is also one of the biggest shareholders in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ).The conglomerate, which is 52.3 percent controlled by two charities in China and New York, has attracted substantial regulatory scrutiny in the past year due to its ownership structure.HNA’s investment in NH Hotel has also run into problems. About 60 percent of shareholders in NH Hotel agreed earlier this year to oust HNA-appointed members from its board over what they said was a conflict of interest due to HNA’s takeover of a rival hotel group.Reporting by Koh Gui Qing '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hna-group-divestiture-nh-hoteles/chinas-hna-agrees-sale-and-repurchase-deal-on-shares-in-spains-nh-hotel-idINKBN1D72RX'|'2017-11-07T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'a5872c56c671b4775af395fca04c4e965f50382b'|'JPMorgan sees more Saudi firms looking at overseas listings after Aramco'|'ABU DHABI (Reuters) - JPMorgan is in early talks with Saudi Arabian companies about overseas listings, its investment bank chief said, raising the possibility that more firms could join oil giant Saudi Aramco in seeking an international flotation.FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo JPMorgan is among the banks advising Aramco on an international public offering (IPO), sources have told Reuters.Aramco’s listing is part of economic reforms being pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who wants to make the kingdom less reliant on oil and has been consolidating his power with sweeping arrests that officials say aim to end corruption.“If you want these companies to grow, they must have access to international capital markets,” Daniel Pinto, chief executive of JPMorgan’s investment bank, told Reuters about the possibility of other Saudi international listings.“Local companies have expressed interest to us. They are at a preliminary stage,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi.This was the first time an influential banker has said Saudi firms other than Aramco could seek IPOs overseas.The Saudi government plans to sell about 5 percent of Aramco next year, a move that Saudi officials say could raise about $100 billion, making it the world’s largest IPO.Pinto declined to comment on the bank’s role in the Aramco deal or to name other firms considering international listings.JPMorgan has deep ties with the government and firms Saudi Arabia, having worked in the kingdom for more than 80 years.MOMENTUM Pinto said the bank was also in talks with other Gulf companies to list their assets overseas.He said listings in New York, London, Hong Kong or Singapore might help increase the liquidity of these companies and make them attractive for international investors, he said.FILE PHOTO: A man walks into the JP Morgan headquarters at Canary Wharf in London May 11, 2012. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo “When you have this type of momentum, people will see the benefit of having a stock that is very liquid. Other companies in the region will probably follow,” Pinto said.Oman said earlier this year it planned to offer shares in some state-owned downstream energy companies to the public. Analysts and bankers have said Qatar and Kuwait may also consider plans to list energy assets.JPMorgan was considering raising its headcount by 30 percent in Saudi Arabia over the next two to three years from 70 now, as business opportunities expand, Pinto said.Saudi Arabia unveiled its Vision 2030 economic plan last year to diversify the economy away from oil, with proposals to float the Aramco stake and sell other state assets.“Saudi Arabia is going through a massive transformation as they diversify their economy,” Pinto said. “Over the past year, investors have reacted positively to this news.”The bank’s revenue from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the region is expected to be boosted by another record year of bond sales as lower oil prices curbed the ability of banks to finance investments and fund state budget deficits.Dollar-denominated bond issuance from the Gulf has totalled about $80 billion so far this year, higher than the record $63.5 billion in the whole of 2016, Thomson Reuters data shows.“The need to issue will still exist but be smaller next year because of higher oil prices and lower deficits and simply because so much refinancing was done this year,” Pinto said.As part of its reform drive, the Saudi government has launched an campaign of arrests of royals, ministers and businessmen, saying it is seeking to stamp out corruption. Those detained include leading Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose investment vehicle has a stake in Citigroup.Commenting on the anti-corruption drive, Pinto said: “If it is done in the right way and for the right reasons it is good to do for the future of the kingdom.”“Brazil went through a similar process. In the long-run, tackling these issues is very important,” he said.Two former presidents and business officials are among those ensnared in Brazil’s sprawling corruption purge.Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Tom Arnold; Additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/jpmorgan-saudi/jpmorgan-sees-more-saudi-firms-looking-at-overseas-listings-after-aramco-idINKBN1D7143'|'2017-11-07T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'3a345345c109e5fb3f0375382b614966aff32934'|'Apple''s iPhone X has higher margin than iPhone 8 - analysis'|'Reuters TV United States November 6, 2017 / 9:41 PM / a few seconds ago Apple''s iPhone X has higher margin than iPhone 8: analysis Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) new flagship iPhone X makes the company more money per phone than its iPhone 8 model, according to an analysis, which found the iPhone X’s flashier parts cost Apple 25 percent more than the iPhone 8, but that it retailed 43 percent higher. An iPhone X advertisement is pictured before its launch at the Apple store in Singapore November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su The iPhone X smartphone costs $357.50 to make and sells for $999, giving it a gross margin of 64 percent, according to TechInsights, a firm that tears down technology devices and analyzes the parts inside. The iPhone 8 sells for $699 and has a gross margin of 59 percent. The finding is surprising because technology products tend to become more profitable as they age and the parts for them drop in cost. The iPhone X is a brand new design that went on sale on Friday, to apparently strong demand, while the iPhone 8 is an update on last year’s iPhone 7, which itself was similar to the iPhone 6 released in 2014. Apple declined to comment on TechInsights’ analysis. Apple is unique in the electronics industry for its ability to charge a premium price for its latest devices and for its ability to maintain that price even when selling devices through third parties like telecom carriers, said Al Cowsky, the costing analyst for TechInsights, which planned to post the results to its site late on Monday. “Apple can be different here because they are the 800 pound gorilla,” Cowsky said. Several of Apple’s design choices for the iPhone X pushed up its price. In particular, its 5.8-inch (14.8 cm) edge-to-edge display and associated parts cost $65.50, compared with $36 for the iPhone 8’s 4.7-inch display, the analysis found. That is largely because the iPhone 8 uses older LCD technology, while the iPhone X uses what is called “Super AMOLED” technology, which allows for more vivid colors and a thinner overall design. Another pricey choice was the stainless steel chassis of the iPhone X, which cost $36 versus $21.50 for the aluminum housing of the iPhone 8. Cowsky said the steel is less likely than aluminum to bend when flexed, a problem that dogged the iPhone 6 when it came out. “This is their lesson learned from that,” he said. Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone/apples-iphone-x-has-higher-margin-than-iphone-8-analysis-idUKKBN1D62RZ'|'2017-11-06T23:34:00.000+02:00'
'553de7748542c4d2c6d42333c6140775307c9080'|'UPDATE 1-Whitecap among final-round bidders for Cenovus'' Weyburn asset -sources'|'(Adds details about Weyburn and Cenovus’ asset sale plan, share action)By John Tilak and David FrenchTORONTO/NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Canada’s Whitecap Resources Inc and at least three other companies have submitted final-round bids for Cenovus Energy Inc’s Weyburn oil facility in a deal that could fetch about C$1 billion ($782 million), people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.NAL Resources Management Ltd, a unit of insurer Manulife Financial Corp, Cona Resources Ltd and Spartan Energy Corp are among other suitors to place final bids, the people added, declining to be named as the matter is not yet public.Whitecap is the front runner for the asset, one of the people said.Cenovus has been selling assets to pay down debt used to fund its C$16.8 billion acquisition of some ConocoPhillips assets earlier this year. The Weyburn sale would bring Cenovus’ asset sale proceeds to about C$4 billion compared with its target of C$4 billion to C$5 billion in asset sales.To finance the acquisition, Whitecap is looking to raise about C$700 million through a share sale and fund the rest through debt, the people said.Whitecap shares closed down 1.5 percent on Tuesday. Cenovus shares, which were trading down 0.4 percent before the Reuters story, closed up 0.4 percent.Cenovus spokeswoman Sonja Franklin declined to comment. Whitecap, NAL, Cona and Spartan did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters seeking comment.Located in southern Saskatchewan, the Weyburn enhanced oil recovery facility uses carbon dioxide to boost crude output. Cenovus owns a 62 percent working interest in the project and operates the overall facility on behalf of 24 partners, according to its website.Weyburn was expected to be attractive because of its light oil output and low decline, long-life characteristics. Cenovus previously said it expected to sell Weyburn by the end of the year.Investors have been closely watching Cenovus’ asset sales process as the ConocoPhillips deal attracted the irk of shareholders and eventually led to Cenovus’ naming Alex Pourbaix, a former executive at TransCanada Corp, as its chief executive officer, replacing Brian Ferguson, who led the debt-fueled acquisition of ConocoPhillips assets.Cenovus so far has sold assets in Palliser, Pelican Lake and Suffield for a combined value of C$2.8 billion. The company may also sell a portion of its Deep Basin business and is talking to potential buyers, the people said. (Reporting by John Tilak in Toronto, David French in New York and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Denny Thomas and Leslie Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cenovus-energy-divestiture/update-1-whitecap-among-final-round-bidders-for-cenovus-weyburn-asset-sources-idINL1N1ND1TF'|'2017-11-07T18:28:00.000+02:00'
'4712cfa82480c809173b0e4976b472bf4891b38a'|'BRIEF-CSW Industrials Q2 non-GAAP earnings per share $0.56'|' 28 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago BRIEF-CSW Industrials Q2 non-GAAP earnings per share $0.56 Reuters Staff Nov 8 (Reuters) - CSW Industrials Inc: * CSW Industrials reports fiscal second quarter 2018 results * Q2 non-GAAP earnings per share $0.56 * Q2 GAAP earnings per share $0.46 * Q2 revenue rose 12.8 percent to $90.4 million Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-csw-industrials-q2-non-gaap-earnin/brief-csw-industrials-q2-non-gaap-earnings-per-share-0-56-idUSASB0BS96'|'2017-11-08T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'348e7dc6c29896052978c4a320c44c306f3aee30'|'No huge differences at BoE about path for rates - McCafferty'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:29 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago No huge differences at BoE about path for rates - McCafferty Reuters Staff 1   Bank of England policymaker Ian McCafferty said on Wednesday there were no big differences among top officials at the central bank about the path for interest rates. The Bank of England is seen through the columns of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville “I don’t think there have been huge differences in terms of the trajectory for rates on the (Monetary Policy) Commmittee,” McCafferty told LBC radio. “It’s purely a question of how much evidence one needs before one changes one’s mind.” The BoE’s nine rate-setters voted 7-2 last week to raise interest rates for the first time since 2007 and said they expected only “very gradual” rate rises ahead. Reporting by William Schomberg and Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-mccafferty/no-huge-differences-at-boe-about-path-for-rates-mccafferty-idUKKBN1D82KK'|'2017-11-08T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'd29f4e4dea80d7fed0f138a66d9793f140348cce'|'Saudi Aramco signs $4.5 billion oil, gas deals'|'DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco signed agreements on Thursday worth $4.5 billion with firms from Europe, the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates for work on a range of oil and gas development projects, mostly aimed at boosting gas production.Oil tanks seen at the Saudi Aramco headquarters during a media tour at Damam city November 11, 2007. REUTERS/ Ali Jarekji/File Photo Saudi Aramco is pushing ahead with energy projects that it has listed as a priority to keep the world well supplied with oil while meeting increased domestic demand for gas to fuel industrial growth.By freeing up more oil for export, gas projects will increase supplies to energy utilities and as feedstock for the petrochemical industry. Aramco has plans to double its gas output to 23 billion standard cubic feet per day.Signing the deals at a public ceremony in Dhahran, Aramco did not give the value of each agreement.Among the deals, Spanish engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas ( TRE.MC ) is to build gas compression plants for the Hawiyah and Haradh fields which will extend plateau production for both fields for the next 20 years, Aramco said.The project will boost gas production capacity by 1.3 billion standard cubic feet per day.In related work Italy’s Saipem ( SPMI.MI ) has won a deal estimated to be worth around $700 million to expand capacity at the Hawiyah gas processing plant, which is due to have a total capacity of 3.86 billion scfd by June 2021, when the new work is due to be completed.Meanwhile, China Petroleum Pipelines has been contracted to lay 450 kilometres of gas pipelines by early 2019 to take 290 million scfd of gas from the Haradh field to the Hawiyah processing plant.“This reflects our commitment to introducing new supplies of clean-burning natural gas. These new supplies will help reduce domestic reliance on liquid fuels for power generation, enable increased liquids exports, provide feedstock to petrochemical industries, and reduce carbon emissions,” Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco said.OIL CAPACITY UNCHANGED In a separate project U.S. company Jacobs Engineering ( JEC.N ) has been awarded preliminary engineering and project management services agreement for a new processing plant to handle 600,000 barrels per day of heavy crude production from the giant Zuluf field in the northeast of the Gulf.In the same area at Safaniya, Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Co (NPCC) and U.S. group McDermott International ( MDR.N ) were awarded contracts for additional work on the oil field.But despite these incremental projects the company is not aiming to increase its overall maximum sustainable production capacity, which currently stands at 12 million barrels per day, Nasser said.“Bringing new increments will sustain the production plateau (at the fields),” he told reporters after the signing ceremony.“We have other plans (for incremental projects) but they will come in due course.”Reporting by Reem ShamseddineEditing by David Evans, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-projects/saudi-aramco-signs-4-5-billion-oil-gas-deals-idINKBN1D925G'|'2017-11-09T12:07:00.000+02:00'
'c8f829e95db3bc9ebf12853aabe3f8e16821acd2'|'Nearly half Europeans who don''t own home reckon they never will'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:17 AM / Updated an hour ago Nearly half Europeans who don''t own home reckon they never will Jeremy Gaunt 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Europeans who do not own their own home have given up hope of ever doing so, a survey showed on Tuesday, with pessimism highest among Britons and Germans. FILE PHOTO: Terraced houses are seen in Primrose Hill, London, Britain, September 24, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo Overall, the survey by Dutch bank ING found 48 percent of people in 13 European countries who do not yet own their own home reckoned they probably never will. And it mattered to most of them. A majority of the non-homeowners - 65 percent - said they considered owning their own place to be a symbol of success, suggesting that buying is not just a financial decision. Poles (72 percent), Turks (70 percent) and Romanians (70 percent) topped the list of those judging homeownership as a sign of success. Ian Bright, senior economist and managing director of group research at ING, said the survey findings suggested many people may become disenchanted with their lot. “Most people want to buy a house. Yet many now accept that they are unlikely to buy,” he said. “If you combine this with our findings that a higher proportion of home owners are happy with their housing situation, compared with renters, then it seems that more people will feel incredibly frustrated with their housing choices in the future.” Apartment housing blocks are seen in this general view of the north district in Marseille, September 8,2012. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier The survey made no reference to politics, but a number of European elections in the past years have shown a rising anger among voters at what is perceived as a growing gap between the haves and have-nots. Hopes for being able to afford to buy a home, for example, were lowest in Britain and Germany, where about 56 percent of non-homeowners in both countries believed they would never be able to buy. In what were seen as at the very least snubs to the status quo, Britons last year voted to leave the European Union, and Germans this year put a far-right party into the Bundestag for the first time in half a century. House prices have long been out of reach for many in Britain and even with uncertainty over Brexit, data on Tuesday showed prices picking up speed in October. In Germany, though relatively cheap compared with other European countries in the past, house prices have risen sharply in recent years, partly as record low European Central Bank rates have encouraged households to take on debt. Average real estate prices in cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt have increased by more than 60 percent since 2010, the Bundesbank estimates. Non-homeowners in Turkey and Romania were the least pessimistic with only 29 percent and 31 percent, respectively, not expecting to be able to buy. Spain was next, but with a still hefty 43 percent saying they were probably priced out. Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Pritha Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-economy-housing/nearly-half-europeans-who-dont-own-home-reckon-they-never-will-idUKKBN1D700X'|'2017-11-07T02:17:00.000+02:00'
'36a8599a30494edbaf6d537459773a0dfc3d6d58'|'Shares in Tencent''s China Literature double in Hong Kong debut'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent’s e-book unit China Literature Ltd saw its shares double in their debut on Wednesday as Hong Kong investors embrace a rush of tech listings, with the stock on track to mark the biggest first-day pop for a large IPO globally this year.China Literature Co-Chief Executive Officers Liang Xiaodong (L) and Wu Wenhui make a toast during the debut of the company at the Hong Kong Exchanges in Hong Kong, China November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The company’s stunning debut has shown that Hong Kong has raised its game as it strives to compete with the New York and Nasdaq exchanges which have been the more traditional home for Chinese tech IPOs seeking to attract international investors.China Literature’s shares rose to as much as HK$110 in early trade, compared to its offering price of HK$55 per share, giving it a market value of nearly $13 billion. The shares eased to HK$100 in early afternoon trade.“As the first Tencent-controlled subsidiary tapping capital markets, China Literature has to perform well in the secondary market to set a good example for other Tencent units,” said an institutional investor who took part in the IPO, declining to identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.But while many investors cheered the stock on, others noted that Wednesday’s valuations for the Tencent Holdings Ltd unit were stretched.Company executives project net profit of 400 million yuan ($60 million) for 2017 and 1 billion yuan for 2018, according to investors who attended IPO roadshow meetings.That implies China Literature is trading at 201 times its forecast 2017 earnings and 80 times its 2018 projections. By contrast, Tencent is trading at 51 times its 2017 forecast profits.Co-CEO Liang Xiaodong told reporters after the opening bell ceremony that the stock’s surge was a pleasant surprise.“Going forward, we will conduct M&As and forge strategic alliances ...in a bid to stay ahead in our industry,” he said.China Literature Co-Chief Executive Officers Liang Xiaodong (R) and Wu Wenhui pose during the debut of the company at the Hong Kong Exchanges in Hong Kong, China November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip China’s biggest e-book platform offers 9.6 million literary works from 6.4 million authors. Tencent began e-book publishing in 2004 and after an internal reorganisation, formed China Literature in 2013.Demand for the IPO, which raised $1.1 billion, was such that retail investors bid for 625 times the shares on offer - tying up HK$521 billion ($67 billion), equivalent to a fifth of Hong Kong’s cash in circulation, as they waited to see whether their offers would be accepted.A closing gain of more than 44 percent would make it the best-performing debut this year worldwide by any company raising more than $500 million, according to Thomson Reuters data.FILE PHOTO: A sign of Tencent is seen during the third annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Its IPO success comes as the number of tech offerings in Hong Kong is picking up. Online insurance group ZhongAn raised $1.5 billion in September in Asia’s biggest-ever financial technology IPO. Its shares jumped 18 percent in their debut.Razer Inc, a gaming hardware maker backed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing as well as Intel Corp, will make its Hong Kong debut next Monday. It has priced its HK$4.12 billion ($528 million) IPO near the top end of its price range, IFR reported on Tuesday.“(ZhongAn) gave people size and returns, so retail and high net worth individuals got excited. And that is being reflected in China Literature and Razer,” said one banker involved in the China Literature deal, also declining to be identified.But even so, for many Chinese tech firms, the U.S. market remains more attractive.Sogou Inc, China’s second-largest search engine and around 45 percent owned by Tencent, is due to list on Thursday after pricing an up to $585 million IPO on Wednesday.Tencent owns 62 percent of China Literature, while Carlyle Group LP holds 12.2 percent. A further 6 percent is owned by Trustbridge Partners, which was founded by Shujun Li, the former CFO of Shanda Interactive.($1 = 6.639 yuan)Reporting by Jennifer Hughes and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong, and Gaurav Dogra in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-literature-listing/shares-in-tencents-china-literature-double-in-hong-kong-debut-idINKBN1D80AX'|'2017-11-08T05:26:00.000+02:00'
'c3cea4b933da9b36f547f2eda1cdf938fca59a79'|'Anglo American considers bid for Louis Dreyfus metals unit: sources'|'MELBOURNE/LONDON (Reuters) - Mining giant Anglo American ( AAL.L ) is among several companies interested in buying commodity trader Louis Dreyfus’s [AKIRAU.UL] metals business, three trading and banking sources told Reuters.The Anglo American logo is seen in Rusternburg October 5, 2015. Picture taken October 5, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Dreyfus started an official sale process for a stake in the business, which could be a majority shareholding, by hiring Citi and ING earlier this year to assist it. Its metals business had a book value of $314 million as of 2016, according to filings.Chinese conglomerate HNA Holding Group Co ( 0521.HK ) has also shown an interest in the business, one of the sources said, while another source said that Swiss steel trader Duferco was another possible bidder. [nL4N1LO4GB]“A strategic partnership would allow our metals business to further accelerate its growth and reinforce its leading market position and strong relationships in the industry,” a Dreyfus spokesperson said, declining to comment on the sale process.Anglo American also declined to comment.HNA, which bid in September for Singaporean logistics provider CWT Ltd ( CWTD.SI ), and Duferco were not immediately available to comment. Glencore ( GLEN.L ) is seen as a less likely bidder.The world’s biggest mining companies including BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX ) ( BLT.L ), Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX ) ( RIO.L ) and Anglo American sharpened their marketing strategies to seek higher margins, after a deep commodity downturn in 2015 hit profitability.For BHP and Anglo, the strategies include moving into commodities trading, although on a far smaller scale than Glencore, which began life as a pure trader and says income from this business helped it through the commodity slump. [nL8N1D54IM]Louis Dreyfus is one of four companies that dominate global agricultural trading, along with Archer Daniels Midland Co ( ADM.N ), Bunge Ltd ( BG.N ) and Cargill Inc CARG.UL, which have been hit by high global supply and subdued prices for grains and other agricultural products.Its struggling grain division saw a shakeup in personnel, with a group of senior European and Black Sea traders leaving the firm in August to launch a new business in Dreyfus’s home country Switzerland. [nL8N1MF5MY]Ring-fencing and selling stakes in some of its smaller businesses, including fertilisers, metals, juice and dairy units, would allow Dreyfus to focus on what it sees as core business.Dreyfus agreed to sell its African fertilizer business to private equity Helios Investment Partners in July. [nL5N1KF357]Technically, the metals business, which deals in refined copper, lead and zinc is a separate legal entity already but it is still fully owned by Dreyfus.Dreyfus started trading non-ferrous metals including copper, zinc and lead concentrates in 2006 and its metals unit has offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Connecticut, Geneva, Lima, Santiago, Puebla and Johannesburg. It also has warehousing and logistical operations in Peru, Mexico, Chile, Africa and Taiwan.Reporting by Clara Denina, Barbara Lewis and Melanie Burton; Additional reporting Gus Trompiz in Paris and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-louis-dryfs-com-metals-sale/anglo-american-considers-bid-for-louis-dreyfus-metals-unit-sources-idINKBN1D72H2'|'2017-11-07T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'7ce0398d57f35a7638c23db8d7d534a6d0329b69'|'Aramco oil reserves audit two-thirds complete, may not be finished in 2017 - sources'|' 17 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Aramco oil reserves audit two-thirds complete, may not be finished in 2017: sources Alex Lawler , Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - An audit of Saudi Aramco’s [IPO-ARMO.SE] oil reserves is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2017 because of the huge scale of the task, sources familiar with the matter said, a later timeframe than previously indicated. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The audit has so far confirmed the reserves figures earlier given by Saudi Arabia, the sources said, an important part of the state oil company’s preparatory work for its planned initial public offering next year. Saudi Arabia’s reserves of easily recoverable oil have long been considered the world’s largest. But there have also been questions about their volume and quality, and the audit seeks to provide internationally recognized figures for investors. “It’s a huge task,” a source familiar with the matter said, commenting on the progress of the reserves audit. “They are about two-thirds of the way through. It’s all going well and smoothly - no surprises.” For nearly 30 years - despite rising production, large swings in oil prices and improved technology - Riyadh has annually reported the same number for reserves of 261 billion barrels, according to BP’s statistical review. Dallas-based DeGolyer and MacNaughton, and Gaffney, Cline and Associates, part of Baker Hughes BHI.N, are involved in the auditing, sources have said. Baker Hughes declined to comment on the progress of the work, while DeGolyer did not respond to a request for comment. Asked to comment, Aramco said: “We do not comment on rumors and speculation. Investors will receive relevant information in due course in connection with the IPO.” An industry source had told Reuters in March that Aramco aimed to have one of the two reserves auditors wrap up the review this year, long before the planned listing. But this now looks unlikely. “Aramco wants to make sure the companies are shown full data to avoid skeptical remarks on its reserves later on,” a second source said. “It’s unlikely the audit will be finished this year.” A third source said auditing work on the major Aramco fields was completed, leaving smaller fields still to be audited. A reserves total that is significantly above or below the 261 billion figure is likely to affect Aramco’s potential value. Earlier phases of the audit have supported Aramco’s statements on the total size of deposits. The sale of around 5 percent of Aramco next year is a centerpiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is championed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. No decision about the location of the international share listing has been announced, fuelling market speculation the IPO could be delayed or shelved. But Prince Mohammad told Reuters in October it was still on track for 2018. Additonal reporting by David French in New York and Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-ipo-reserves/aramco-oil-reserves-audit-two-thirds-complete-may-not-be-finished-in-2017-sources-idUKKBN1D70TE'|'2017-11-07T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'4418af6a1fc8e8514f79d67cd7e83c09c6a488c7'|'Japan''s Nikkei tops 22,750.70 to hit highest level since 1992'|'TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei jumped to a level not seen since 1992 on Tuesday morning as foreign investors chased the market higher on hopes for strong earnings from Japan Inc.The Nikkei share average opened lower but later gained as much as 1.0 percent to 22,775.68, the highest level since January 1992.The broader Topix rose 0.7 percent to 1,805.25. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-morning/japans-nikkei-tops-22750-70-to-hit-highest-level-since-1992-idUSL3N1NC1KO'|'2017-11-07T04:22:00.000+02:00'
'ecdde974b992dc4f342d26496dbce7c4ce58b53a'|'PRECIOUS-Gold edges higher as dollar slips'|'(Corrects dateline to Nov 8) Nov 8 (Reuters) - Gold inched higher early on Wednesday, as the dollar slipped after a media report suggested that the implementation of a major corporate tax cut under a crucial U.S. tax reform plan could be delayed. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,276.30 per ounce as of 0103 GMT. The metal fell about 0.5 percent on Tuesday. * U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 0.1 percent to $1,277.30. * The dollar fell on Wednesday, after the Washington Post, citing unidentified sources, reported on Tuesday that Senate Republican leaders are considering a one-year delay in the implementation of a corporate tax cut to comply with Senate rules. * Asian shares, meanwhile, paused at decade peaks. * Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives forged ahead on Tuesday with legislation to reshape the U.S. tax code, while a top credit-ratings agency said the bill would balloon the budget deficit and give only a temporary boost to the economy. * U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned North Korea he was prepared to use the full range of U.S. military power to stop any attack, but in a more conciliatory appeal than ever before he urged Pyongyang to "make a deal" to end the nuclear standoff. * All major Gulf stock markets slid on Tuesday on jitters about Saudi Arabia''s sweeping anti-graft purge, a campaign seen by critics as a populist power grab but by ordinary Saudis as an overdue attack on the sleaze of a moneyed ultra-elite. * Oil settled lower on Tuesday after rising to the highest since July 2015 the previous day, while tension flared between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the Saudi crown prince tightened his grip on power. * The European Central Bank sought on Tuesday to defuse a conflict with European and Italian authorities over its plans for ridding euro zone banks of bad loans, opening the door to working with other institutions and tailoring its approach to each bank. * Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust , the world''s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.14 percent to 844.27 tonnes on Tuesday. * Canadian miner Centerra Gold Inc said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival AuRico Metals Inc in a deal valued at C$310 million ($243 million). DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT) * China Trade data Oct 0745 France Trade data Sep *No fixed timing (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-precious/precious-gold-edges-higher-as-dollar-slips-idUSL3N1NE0ZY'|'2017-11-08T03:30:00.000+02:00'
'95f6bb32e7c361bd6fb3d7dd314b59e5f8356688'|'Investor demands LSE let CEO Rolet speak about reasons for his departure'|'Reuters TV United States  55 AM / a few seconds ago Investor demands LSE let CEO Rolet speak about reasons for his departure Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A top investor in the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) demanded FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo that its outgoing chief executive, Xavier Rolet, be allowed to speak publicly about the reasons for his departure. In a letter to Chairman Donald Brydon dated Nov. 7, Chris Hohn, founder of The Children’s Investment Fund, reiterated his belief that Rolet was being forced out against his wishes, and repeated his threat to call a meeting to vote on removing Brydon if the company failed to act. Hohn called on Brydon to waive a confidentiality agreement TCI said had been signed by Rolet covering the reasons behind his departure. The LSE declined to comment. TCI - the fourth-biggest investor in LSE with a more than 5 percent stake, Thomson Reuters data shows - first raised its concerns in a letter to the board last Friday, which prompted the LSE to say it had followed good governance. “Confidentiality agreements which prohibit proper explanations to shareholders are bad corporate governance. Hence we refute your assertion that you followed proper governance procedures on succession planning,” Hohn wrote. “We ask you to waive immediately all confidentiality agreements on Xavier Rolet so that shareholders can now hear the truth and make informed judgements on the expected EGM [Extraordinary General Meeting] regarding your continued chairmanship and the retention of Xavier Rolet as CEO,” it said. Reporting by Simon Jessop and Noor Zainab Hussain, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lse-tci-letter/investor-demands-lse-let-ceo-rolet-speak-about-reasons-for-his-departure-idUKKBN1D810X'|'2017-11-08T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'0bf10d76c2d1097e82acbe3061a6abc222fc1033'|'Credit Agricole''s third-quarter profits fall as bank ramps up M&A to boost growth'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:12 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Credit Agricole''s third-quarter profits fall as bank ramps up M&A to boost growth Maya Nikolaeva , Matthieu Protard 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Credit Agricole ( CAGR.PA ) reported a fall in third-quarter profits as its markets trading and French retail banking arms struggled. FILE PHOTO: Logos are pictured on a Credit Agricole bank branch in Paris, France, February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD - SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 6 NOV FOR ALL IMAGES France’s second-biggest listed bank continued to narrow its business focus over the quarter and tried to woo investors with more acquisitions in Italy - one of its key markets along with France - while selling most of its holding in non-strategic assets in Egypt. Its reported net income came in at 1.07 billion euros (942.34 million pounds), compared to analysts’ forecasts for 1.03 billion euros, while revenues were below expectations at 4.58 billion versus a forecast for 4.76 billion according to a Reuters poll. Financial market trading was a dark spot for the bank, as has been the case with many of its rivals, with revenue from capital markets dropping 28 percent compared with a year ago, when it was boosted by higher market activity due to Brexit. Underlying revenue at its French bank LCL fell 3.4 percent, weighed down by a fall in home loans renegotiation fees and the impact of previous renegotiations on its interest margin. The French bank, which owns a majority stake in fund management firm Amundi ( AMUN.PA ), has been on an acquisition spree in the asset and wealth management sectors, as it seeks to bolster returns after years of slimming down its overall balance sheet to adapt to tougher European capital requirements. It has also overcome a complex revamp of shareholding ties with its cooperative parent banks with a promise of a stronger capital base, helping lift its share price to eclipse Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) as France’s second-biggest bank by market capitalization. NO INTEREST IN COMMERZBANK As part of its efforts to concentrate on key markets in France and Italy, it recently announced the acquisition of three small banks in Italy and a majority holding in Banca Leonardo. Credit Agricole said on Wednesday that the acquisitions, which are not yet finalised, would have a negative impact of 15 basis points for its key capital ration. However, it denied any plans for big mergers over the short period of time. “We do not believe in a European banking consolidation in the short term...all regulations are against it,” chief executive Philippe Brassac told journalists. Brassac was previously quoted as saying that Agricole would have expressed interest in Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) if the German lender were to be up for sale. “We have no plans to acquire capital or a portion of Commerzbank’s capital. The priority is organic growth.” Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-credit-agricole-results/credit-agricoles-profits-dragged-down-by-slump-in-market-trading-idUKKBN1D80GU'|'2017-11-08T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'222270dd7667935cfaad4f366e48f3c71e6224f6'|'Judge orders Rosneft CEO Sechin to appear as witness in bribery case'|' 59 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Judge orders Rosneft CEO Sechin to appear as witness in bribery case Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian judge on Wednesday ordered Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil major Rosneft, to appear as a witness in trial of ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev. Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin delivers a speech at the Zvezda shipyard in the far eastern town of Bolshoy Kamen, Russia September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Ulyukayev was dismissed and put under house arrest in November over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from Rosneft. He denies the charges. The former minister was detained at Rosneft’s Moscow headquarters. Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jack Stubbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-sechin-court/judge-orders-rosneft-ceo-sechin-to-appear-as-witness-in-bribery-case-idUSKBN1D810S'|'2017-11-08T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'afbeb9620150adad498183fccaed3429c2602dc8'|'James Hardie Industries to buy Germany''s Fermacell'|'(Reuters) - Australia-listed James Hardie Industries Plc ( JHX.AX ) said on Wednesday it would buy the German holding company of fiber gypsum board maker Fermacell GmbH from Xella International SA in a deal worth 473 million euros ($548 million).The fiber cement product maker said the purchase of holding company XI (DL) Holdings GmbH will also include units other than Fermacell.James Hardie intends to fund the deal with debt and expects it to be accretive in the second full fiscal year after its close. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the company’s 2018 fiscal year.“Fermacell will diversify our geographic, product and end-market portfolio, complementing our strong positions in North America and Australasia,” said Louis Gries, chief executive of James Hardie, in a statement.The company has a manufacturing presence in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.The stock was trading 0.9 percent lower at A$19.06 on the Australian Stock Exchange as at 2336 GMT, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index was 0.2 percent lower.Reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fermacell-m-a-james-hardie/james-hardie-industries-to-buy-germanys-fermacell-idINKBN1D734P'|'2017-11-07T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'55f4667806f993d4600557cdb2f29bd7132c6a98'|'Munich Re receives offers for run-off life portfolio'|'MUNICH, Nov 8 (Reuters) - German reinsurer Munich Re’s Ergo unit has received non-binding bids for its traditional life insurance business, which have ceased underwriting new contracts, it said on Wednesday.The company will decide at earliest in late November if it will enter into concrete talks on a potential sale of its so-called run-off portfolio, a company spokesman said.Ergo’s run-off life portfolio has 6 million customers and assets of 56 billion euros ($64.91 billion).Reuters reported in September that the company is considering a sale instead of the original intention to carry out the run-off itself.Ergo and fellow insurers are struggling to pay guaranteed returns to clients because of record-low interest rates. Combined with more stringent European capital rules, these have prompted some to offload life insurance operations. ($1 = 0.8627 euros) (Reporting by Alexander Hübner; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Tom Sims) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/munich-re-group-ergo-divestiture/munich-re-receives-offers-for-run-off-life-portfolio-idINL5N1NE615'|'2017-11-08T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'23ee023bb7e9e9175a0b287dd6ccb9834d247575'|'China''s Tencent buys 12 percent stake in Snapchat owner'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:37 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Snap says China''s Tencent holds 12 percent stake Supantha Mukherjee , Munsif Vengattil 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ) now has a 12 percent stake in Snapchat operator Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ), company filings showed on Wednesday, the latest in a string of major investments in the United States by China’s new tech heavyweights. FILE PHOTO - A woman stands in front of the logo of Snap Inc. on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while waiting for Snap Inc. to post their IPO, in New York City, New York, U.S. on March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The details of the stake, revealed by Snapchat after badly received quarterly results, came as U.S. and Chinese firms announced $9 billion (£6.8 billion) in new deals on the arrival of President Donald Trump in Beijing. It helped the U.S. company recoup a slide of almost 20 percent in pre-trading in New York after it reported third-quarter revenue and user growth well below Wall Street expectations. Snap shares recovered to trade down 12 percent at $13.29 in premarket trading from a close of $15.12 on Tuesday. Snap’s largely privately owned structure, which reserves 95 percent of voting rights for its co-founders, made it likely Tencent was just accumulating a financial stake. “While such news may be initially perceived as positive by the market, one has to remember that Tencent’s holdings in Snap is the non-voting Class A shares, which makes a possible acquisition of Snap by Tencent less likely,” said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi. Along with Alibaba ( BABA.N ) and Baidu ( BIDU.O ), Tencent has poured billions of cash from a decade of growth in China into buying U.S. firms and holds 5 percent of electric car maker Tesla ( TSLA.O ), as well as stakes in ride service company Lyft and augmented reality startup Magic Leap. Logo of Tencent is displayed at a news conference in Hong Kong, China March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The largest social media and gaming company in China and owner of the popular mobile application WeChat, it had previously invested in Snap through an affiliate in 2013, and has been referred as a “role model” by Snap’s co-founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel. Snap said in its quarterly report that Tencent had bought 145.8 million shares of its non-voting Class A common stock on the open market. Snap had about 1.2 billion shares outstanding, as of Oct 31.( bit.ly/2zqvybE ) FILE PHOTO: The Snapchat messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo “The positive side of this could be that the two companies may create business partnership of some kind or Tencent may aid Snap in expanding its reach into China,” Morningstar’s Mogharabi said. Unlike many U.S. stock market-listed corporations, Snap is not obligated to disclose changes in Tencent’s ownership of Snap’s Class A stock. Snap said it had only received the details of the stake from Tencent this month and declined to answer further questions on the filing. Snap, on Tuesday, reported third-quarter revenue and user growth well below Wall Street expectations, as it struggles to compete with Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) Instagram. The company has disappointed investors each quarter since it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March. Snap’s daily active users (DAU) stood at 178 million, below expectation of 181.8 million, according to research firm FactSet. “As evidenced by China’s Tencent taking a 10 percent plus stake in Snap this morning, there is clear inherent value in the company’s about 180 million DAU, strong engagement numbers, and growing international social media platform,” GBH Tech Research analyst Dan Ives said. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-snap-tencent-stake/chinas-tencent-buys-12-percent-stake-in-snapchat-owner-idUKKBN1D81G1'|'2017-11-08T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'dc3edf2bfd8242e8106ab02553387d445472f56d'|'Subsidiary of Philippines'' San Miguel to raise $3 billion via share sale'|'MANILA (Reuters) - The food and beverage unit of Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp ( SMC.PS ) plans to raise around $3 billion through a share sale early next year.San Miguel Pure Foods Co Inc ( PF.PS ), which will be renamed San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc, plans a follow-on offering in February next year, San Miguel President Ramon Ang told Reuters in a text message.The diversified conglomerate on Monday moved to transfer to Pure Foods its core brewery and alcohol assets valued at 336 billion pesos ($6.6 bln).Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sanmiguel-share-sale/subsidiary-of-philippines-san-miguel-to-raise-3-billion-via-share-sale-idINKBN1D80P8'|'2017-11-08T04:55:00.000+02:00'
'b88fc624945afaa4c81bf8ccb0d5219087cd4609'|'Credit Agricole''s Indosuez Wealth Management to buy Italy''s Banca Leonardo'|'November 7, 2017 / 7:04 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Credit Agricole''s Indosuez Wealth Management to buy Italy''s Banca Leonardo Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Credit Agricole’s ( CAGR.PA ) Indosuez Wealth Management has agreed to buy a majority stake in Italy’s Banca Leonardo, in a deal which it said would add a further 5.9 billion euros (5.20 billion pounds) to its assets under management. FILE PHOTo - Logos are pictured on BNP Paribas bank and CA Indosuez bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Indosuez Wealth Management said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Banca Leonardo’s main shareholders - GBH S.p.A., Exor S.A., Eurazeo S.A., Swilux S.A., and Torreal S.A. - to buy 67.7 percent of Banca Leonardo. The wealth manager added it may subsequently acquire a full 100 percent stake in the Italian bank. “The wealth management sector in Italy, which is expected to grow at a rate of four per cent per annum, offers great opportunities for growth and innovation and we look forward to working with our new colleagues from Banca Leonardo to enhance our positioning and expand our business in Italy,” Indosuez Wealth Management Chief Executive Paul de Leusse said in a statement. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-credit-agricole-leonardo/credit-agricoles-indosuez-wealth-management-to-buy-italys-banca-leonardo-idUKKBN1D70M4'|'2017-11-07T09:03:00.000+02:00'
'7751b7b715d43ff5cbff8ea8bb420739b7b8856b'|'Asian shares probe 10-year high, oil edges down after rally'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - A global rally in stocks paused on Tuesday, halting a nine-day advance that had sent the most widely tracked index of world stock markets to record highs.All three of Wall Street''s major indexes dipped in U.S. afternoon trading, sending the MSCI 47-country ''All World'' index .MIWD PUS down slightly after it had hit record highs above 500 points after Japan''s Nikkei .N225 notched its best level since 1992 and Germany''s DAX .GDAXI scored a record high. The index is up nearly 20 percent for the year to date.“You’ve had almost a perfect backdrop for equities,” said Pictet Asset Management’s global strategist Luca Paolini. “You have acceleration in nominal growth, earnings are between 10-15 (percent higher) globally and whatever you look at is pretty much in double digits.”After hitting all-time highs shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 11.21 points, or 0.05 percent, to 23,537.21, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.8 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,588.33 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 24.31 points, or 0.36 percent, to 6,762.13.Financial stocks .SPSY led the U.S. market lower, with the S&P 500 financial sector losing 1.2 percent, the largest decline of any sector. U.S. Treasury yields hit a two-week low.Oil prices fell slightly after posting the biggest rise in six weeks following the Saudi crown prince’s move to tighten his grip on power and crank up tensions between the kingdom and Iran.FILE PHOTO: An investor looks at an electronic screen at a brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, January 26, 2016. REUTERS/China Daily U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.28 percent to $57.19 per barrel and Brent crude futures LCOcv1 were last at $63.73, down 0.84 percent after touching a peak of $64.65.The dollar was also on the move amid signs of more change at the Federal Reserve, while President Donald Trump’s Republican party pushes ahead with its tax cut program.The dollar index .DXY rose 0.24 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.28 percent to $1.1576 - the single currency''s lowest since mid-July. The Japanese yen weakened 0.23 percent to 113.97 per dollar JPY= , while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3153, down 0.13 percent on the day.The Mexican peso lost 0.83 percent to 19.17 pesos to the U.S. dollar MXN= . The Canadian dollar CAD= fell 0.61 percent versus the greenback at C$1.28 per dollar.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 2/32 in price to yield 2.3127 percent, from 2.32 percent late on Monday.The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 12/32 in price to yield 2.7778 percent, from 2.796 percent late on Monday.Germany’s 10-year bond yields DE10YT=RR held near two-month lows at 0.338 percent after the European Central Bank firmed up its plans to reinvest the proceeds of its 2.5 trillion euro stimulus program. [GVD/EUR]Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Dan Grebler and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-probe-10-year-high-oil-edges-down-after-rally-idINKBN1D702E'|'2017-11-07T02:47:00.000+02:00'
'05c7ab1644754e44e1a571303fce9aadfc7f995d'|'Ackman''s ADP proxy battle nears climax with investor vote tally'|'ROSELAND, N.J. (Reuters) - William Ackman got what Automatic Data Processing Inc’s ( ADP.O ) chief executive called an “ass-whipping” on Tuesday as the activist hedge fund manager lost an acrimonious fight to win seats on the payroll company’s board.It was the latest in a string of public defeats for Ackman, who raised $500 million from investors to take a stake in ADP. Some of Ackman’s backers have told Reuters they are considering pulling their money from his funds.Fewer than 25 percent of votes were cast in favor of Ackman’s slate of three directors looking to shake up the company in the proxy contest, which became a three-month-long showdown between the billionaire investor and ADP CEO Carlos Rodriguez.Ackman arrived at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at its Roseland, New Jersey, headquarters looking relaxed. He helped himself to a pastry, then took a seat in the fourth row with his associates, a few feet away from an anxious-looking Rodriguez, seated alone.The mood changed after the vote tally was announced.Reading from prepared remarks, Ackman faulted the proxy voting system but accepted defeat. “We came in peace,” he began, later shaking Rodriguez’s hand.Rodriguez got in the last word. “This was an ass-whipping,” he told Ackman and the assembled shareholders.BITTER BARBS Over the last few months, Ackman and ADP had traded increasingly bitter barbs through securities filings, television appearances, conference calls, webcasts and private meetings with investors.Ackman said management complacency had turned ADP into an inefficient corporate slugabed pushing outmoded products that even a top sales force could not sell. ADP countered that Ackman brought no new ideas to the table, risked disrupting the company’s steady path to growth and behaved like a “spoiled brat.”ADP’s stock was up 0.8 percent at $112.17 in early trading after the vote results were announced.Ackman launched the ADP proxy contest as an underdog, taking aim at a company engaged in the unglamorous business of providing human resources technology and largely backed by Wall Street. ADP’s share price has more than doubled under Rodriguez’s tenure, and the company has posted relatively solid earnings growth.Ackman had asked ADP shareholders to approve his proposal to seat three new directors, including himself, and oust three others, including Chairman John Jones. He has also suggested Rodriguez is the wrong person for the job, and called for the departure of ADP’s technology chief, Stuart Sackman.INVESTOR UNREST William ''Bill'' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Several of Ackman’s Pershing Square investors who spoke to Reuters in the run-up to the ADP vote said the outcome would affect their confidence in his investment ability.Ackman, 51, made a name for himself during the 2007-2009 financial crisis with a public and aggressive bet against bond insurer MBIA Inc ( MBI.N ). He has made similarly contentious investments in or against companies ranging from retailers Target Corp ( TGT.N ) and JC Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) to Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd ( CP.TO ).Although the average annual returns for Pershing Square’s core fund are 15 percent since its inception in 2004, Ackman racked up double-digit losses in 2015 and 2016 after a 37 percent gain in 2014.Bets on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc ( VRX.TO ), Herbalife Ltd ( HLF.N ) and more recently Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc ( CMG.N ) have all weighed on returns. So far this year, the fund is barely in the black, compared with a 15 percent rise in the S&P 500 Index and a roughly 6 percent gain for the average hedge fund.On Tuesday, Kevin Walkush, a portfolio manager at Jensen Investment Management, said the firm had cast about 1 million votes in favor of ADP management, and has since sold some shares based on their rising value.Walkush said Ackman deserved credit for pushing ADP to disclose more details on its margins and other areas. But the portfolio manager said the company’s strategy was sound as it revamps its sales force and migrates to the cloud.“He seemed late to the party,” Walkush said of Ackman. “His expectations to us seemed unrealistic.”MORE AGITATING Among major investors, spokespeople for Vanguard Group and State Street Corp ( STT.N ) declined to comment on how they voted their ADP shares. A person familiar with the vote said funds run by BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ) supported at least one of Ackman’s nominees.Ackman’s Pershing Square owns almost 2 percent of ADP’s common shares, making it the seventh-largest voting shareholder, according to Thomson Reuters data. When counting unexercised options, the value of the stake is roughly $2.3 billion.After the meeting, Ackman said he was disappointed but felt he had accomplished a lot. He has said he will continue agitating for change.“The company, in order to win, made a number of very significant commitments to shareholders about growth,” he said. “If they achieve those objectives and they exceed them, then I think shareholders will be happy, the stock will go up. If they don’t, we’ll be back next year.”Rodriguez played down Ackman’s influence and said he was insulted by how Ackman had characterized ADP and its employees. Despite having little knowledge of the company, he was able to get media attention with his remarks, the CEO told Reuters.“This is all about who had the best narrative, who has the best hair,” Rodriguez said.Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Roseland, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Ross Kerber and Svea Herbst in Boston; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Bill Rigby and Colleen Jenkins '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adp-pershingsquare/ackmans-adp-proxy-battle-nears-climax-with-investor-vote-tally-idINKBN1D71CN'|'2017-11-07T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'55ac9144f92e8e33f72d47feb4da1480cd7b9a5f'|'Airbus trails Boeing in orders heading into Dubai showdown'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:41 PM / in 2 hours Airbus trails Boeing in orders heading into Dubai showdown Tim Hepher 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sold 24 aircraft and delivered 63 in October, leaving it well behind rival Boeing in the hunt for new orders going into next week’s Dubai Airshow, but on course to reach its recently softened target of 700 deliveries for the year. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Data from the European planemaker showed that orders for the year so far had reached 343 aircraft, or 288 when adjusted for cancellations that included new withdrawals of 7 out of 13 orders for A320 jets previously placed by Siberia Airlines. Airbus is struggling to catch up with Boeing in this year’s order race as Boeing continues to expand under a rejuvenated management and Airbus appears destabilised by probes into the use of middlemen. Boeing notched up 621 orders between Jan. 1 and Oct. 24, the latest period for which its data is available, or 538 after cancellations. It has 65 percent so far this year of a market usually shared roughly equally with its European rival. The U.S. planemaker is expected to extend its lead with a significant order announcement from China on Thursday as President Donald Trump visits Beijing, coming on top of an order for 39 wide-body jets from Singapore Airlines last month. However, analysts said some of the orders may be among the more than 300 from undisclosed buyers posted this year, and that it was not yet understood how much of the anticipated China deal would be entirely new business. Boeing’s orders also include 28 aircraft for its military division and 5 from collapsed Monarch Airlines, which a UK judge said on Wednesday was unlikely to fly again.. After supplier problems, Airbus deliveries picked up in October when it handed over 63 planes including 22 A320neo-family aircraft recently hit by engine problems, and 8 A350s. That brings the total to 513 for the first 10 months. Airbus maintains an official target of 700 deliveries, but told analysts last week that its de facto target of 720 aircraft, given verbally to investors, was no longer achievable. Qatar Airways took delivery in October of three out of four aircraft it had previously canceled over supplier issues. The largest A350 customer has reduced its order to 76 aircraft but agreed to reshuffle upcoming delivery slots. This means Airbus will eventually get less revenue than originally planned from the sale of 80 jets to Qatar, but its cashflow will not take a hit as aircraft that have already been built will be delivered, preventing a build-up of inventory. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-boeing-orders/airbus-trails-boeing-in-orders-heading-into-dubai-showdown-idUSKBN1D82W8'|'2017-11-08T21:39:00.000+02:00'
'3631cb703ca687c5fb0f1e0f3dc98750c095863d'|'UPDATE 2-Tender to pick Mexico''s new oil, gas marketer receives no bids'|' A tender to select an oil and gas marketer for the Mexican government’s share of output under new exploration and production contracts received no bids by a Monday deadline, the country’s oil regulator said.As a result, the auction was declared void, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) said in a statement. It did not provide further details.The commission said later tweeted that it would launch a new tender process for the potentially lucrative marketing rights “in the coming days.”Prior to a 2013 constitutional reform that ended the decades-long energy monopoly enjoyed by state-run oil company Petróleos Mexicanos [PEMX.UL], known as Pemex, all of Mexico’s crude exports were marketed by the company’s commercial arm, P.M.I. Comercio Internacional.Reporting by Adriana Barrera, editing by G Crosse and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-oil/tender-to-pick-mexicos-new-oil-gas-marketer-receives-no-bids-idUSKBN1D705A'|'2017-11-07T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'7df12d1dc600c306f4da1929e1082bcbaad51145'|'UPDATE 1-Hurricanes hurt Avis outlook, shares plunge'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - Avis Budget Group Inc ( CAR.O ) on Monday posted a better-than-expected net profit thanks to strong summer demand, but the car rental company’s shares fell more than 10 percent in after-market trading as it lowered its full-year earnings forecast citing the impact of hurricanes.The company said it estimated the combined damage of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria had lowered its pre-tax earnings by $15 million in the quarter.Shares in Avis and rival Hertz Global Holdings Inc ( HTZ.N ) rose in the wake of the hurricanes as investors expected stronger demand for rental cars as consumers waited to replace damaged vehicles.Doubts about over-capacity and industry pricing have weighed on the rental car companies’ shares, as have concerns that off-lease cars are flooding the used-car market. The rise of car-sharing companies also make some investors wary.“As a consequence of the hurricanes, we have updated our full year outlook to reflect the impact of the operational disruption we faced during the quarter,” Chief Executive Officer Larry De Shon said in a statement.Avis said it now expects full-year earnings per share in a range from $2.45 to $2.65, compared with a previous range of $2.40 to $2.80.The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company reported a net profit for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 of $245 million or $2.91 per share, up from $209 million or $2.28 a year earlier.Excluding one-time items the company reported earnings per share of $3.10. On that basis analysts had expected earnings per share of $3.04.In after-market trading Avis Budget shares were down more than 10 percent from their official close at $37.25.Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Chris Reese and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-avis-budget-grp-results/avis-budget-profit-rises-lifted-by-summer-rentals-idUSKBN1D62RX'|'2017-11-06T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'1217face643ed00c700f3dc1554da293fcd3b1d9'|'Indonesia plans automated system to flag contentious Internet material'|'  Indonesia plans automated system to flag contentious Internet material Cindy Silviana 3 Min Read JAKARTA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to launch in January a new automated system using 44 servers to help block websites displaying content such as pornography or extremist ideology, a communications ministry official said on Wednesday. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has stepped up scrutiny of online content following a surge of hoax stories and hate speech, as well as a controversial anti-pornography law pushed by Islamist parties. The so-called “crawling system” searches internet content and issues alerts when inappropriate material is found, Semuel Pangerapan, a director general at the communications and informatics ministry, told reporters. The ministry would immediately block foreign-owned sites carrying such content, but applications such as messaging services would receive warnings first, he added. This week, Indonesia threatened to block Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messenger service because of obscene Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images provided by third parties on the service. Tenor Inc, one of the GIF providers for WhatsApp, has been blocked in Indonesia. The company has “implemented a fix” for the issue, a Tenor spokeswoman said on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Pangerapan said the ministry would monitor Tenor’s filter for the next few days before it lifts the ban. Next week, the communications ministry will summon executives from other internet-based companies, such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and social media operator Twitter , he added. The ministry would discuss content Indonesia does not allow to be circulated, he said. Ministry data showed that Indonesia had blocked around 780,000 websites by the end of September, mostly those with pornographic content. Other blocked sites displayed material featuring violence, gambling and radicalism. The government has also asked the public to report obscene online content. “People need to be active to flag inappropriate content, not only on WhatsApp but also on Facebook and Twitter,” Pangerapan said. (Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-internet/indonesia-plans-automated-system-to-flag-contentious-internet-material-idUSL3N1NE33S'|'2017-11-08T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'6e1d6b8486ffa3be0f74cda45f1c47033d95ab1a'|'Israel''s Wix.com Q3 revenue rises, raises 2017 outlook'|'TEL AVIV, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Wix.com, which helps small businesses build and operate websites, swung to a profit in the third quarter and increased its revenue outlook for the full year.It posted on Wednesday a quarterly profit of 1 cent a share excluding one-time items, compared with a 4 cent loss a year earlier. Revenue grew 47 percent to $111 million.Israel-based Wix offers free basic features for setting up websites but users must pay for extra services such as shopping carts, individual web addresses and site traffic analysis.Wix projects 2017 revenue of $423-$424 million, up 46 percent from 2016 and up from a prior outlook of $421-$423 million.For the fourth quarter it estimates revenue of $116-$117 million, up 38-39 percent from a year earlier. (Reporting by Tova Cohen, Editing by Ari Rabinovitch) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wixcom-results/israels-wix-com-q3-revenue-rises-raises-2017-outlook-idINL5N1NE1RI'|'2017-11-08T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'9e62d058442c5ad971376d1922b36d2302b4f272'|'Qatar Airways seeks to create a virtual mega carrier with deals: CEO'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Qatar Airways wants to create a virtual mega-carrier that will benefit from economies of scale in negotiations on fuel and aircraft purchases while it boosts investment in other airlines, its chief executive said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO A Qatar Airways aircraft is seen at a runway of the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Greece, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo The Qatari carrier announced a $661 million deal on Monday to buy a 9.61 percent stake in Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways ( 0293.HK ) to broaden its reach and potentially allow the oneworld alliance member to increase traffic through its Doha hub.“Frankly, I wish I could buy more. But the Swire Group and Air China hold most of it and I’m the third-largest shareholder, which is not bad,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said at the CAPA Asia Summit in Singapore, referring to Cathay’s biggest stakeholders.Qatar Airways has been unable to fly to the previously lucrative markets of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia because of an airspace rights dispute, prompting investment elsewhere.Al Baker said the airline expects to report a loss in the financial year to March 31, 2018, as a result of the blockade.The airline has acquired 20 percent of British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group ( ICAG.L ), 10 percent of South America’s LATAM Airlines Group LTM.SN and 49 percent of Italy’s Meridiana.Al Baker said that Qatar Airways wants shareholdings to be exchanged between itself and its portfolio airlines as it seeks to become a virtual mega-carrier.“I see a lot of synergies we could bring as a group,” he said, referring to savings to be gained from the envisaged increase in bargaining power.“I hope that one day in the not too distant future we all, these four groups, get together and exchange shareholdings in each other so that we will become a real mega-carrier. That is something that some people have tried, but not successfully.”Etihad Airways has pulled back from a strategy of taking minority stakes in other airlines after struggling European carriers Alitalia and Air Berlin entered administration.Association of Asia Pacific Airlines Director General Andrew Herdman said the history of airlines owning minority stakes in other carriers is mixed.“It remains to be seen what influence you can exert as a minority shareholder,” he said during a panel discussion at the conference.”You have the added complication that in Cathay Pacific, Air China is a significant shareholder. And Cathay Pacific is a significant shareholder in Air China.”Swire Pacific ( 0019.HK ) is Cathay’s biggest shareholder with 45 percent followed by Air China ( 601111.SS ) with 30 percent. Cathay also owns about 18 percent of Air China.Reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-airways-strategy/qatar-airways-seeks-to-create-a-virtual-mega-carrier-with-deals-ceo-idUSKBN1D716P'|'2017-11-07T12:16:00.000+02:00'
'867e7749c2bce1fc343380738914e58dee3dca1b'|'OPEC sees slower growth in demand for its oil as rivals pump more'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Global demand for OPEC’s crude will rise in the next two years more slowly than expected, the group forecast, as a recovery in prices resulting from an OPEC-led supply cut stimulates renewed output growth from non-members.A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said in its 2017 World Oil Outlook that rapid adoption of electric vehicles could cause oil demand to plateau in the second half of the 2030s, denting OPEC’s longer-term prospects.OPEC and rivals including Russia have been cutting output in 2017 to get rid of a glut. A resulting price rise is spurring a rebound in non-OPEC supply, the report shows, but OPEC still expects its market share to increase further down the line.“It is evident that this major commitment to production adjustments has been central to the rebalancing process that the market has undergone this year,” OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo wrote in a foreword to the report.“The long-term focus for additional liquids demand remains on OPEC.”Demand for OPEC crude will reach 33.10 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, the report said. While up from 32.70 million bpd in 2016, the 2019 figure is down from 33.70 million bpd forecast in last year’s report.OPEC raised its forecast for the supply of tight oil, which includes U.S. shale. It said a rise in prices in 2017, plus sustained demand growth, had resulted in a higher forecast for supplies outside OPEC.“The medium-term outlook for non-OPEC liquids growth has changed quite considerably,” OPEC said in the report, referring to its 2016 forecasts. “Most strikingly, U.S. tight oil production has exceeded previous growth expectations.”Oil prices hit their highest since July 2015 on Monday, trading above $62 a barrel.This year’s report did not mention the oil price it assumes. Last year’s report assumed OPEC’s basket of crude oils would reach $65 per barrel in 2021.HIGHER FORECAST FOR TIGHT CRUDE Global output of tight oil will reach 7.0 million bpd by 2020 and 9.22 million bpd in 2030, the report said, as Argentina and Russia join North America as producers.Last year’s estimates were 4.55 million bpd by 2020 and 6.73 million bpd by 2030.Years of high prices - supported by OPEC output restraint – helped boost non-OPEC supply and make non-conventional oil, such as shale, viable. This exacerbated a glut, leading to the 2014 price collapse that the OPEC-led cut was designed to tackle.OPEC also increased its medium-term world oil demand forecast, expecting oil use to reach 102.3 million bpd by 2022 - 2.24 million bpd more than in last year’s report.Demand is seen at 111.1 million bpd in 2040, up from 109.4 million bpd expected last year, with OPEC’s share of the world oil market expected to rise to 46 percent from 40 percent in 2016.Still, OPEC, which normally forecasts ever-increasing oil demand, said more widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs) than assumed in the report’s main scenario could trim this figure.“In just a few years, EVs have gone from being completely unaffordable, impractical and not particularly nice, to representing a valid option for a niche pool of customers,” OPEC said.The 2040 oil demand forecast could be curbed to 108.60 million bpd if electric vehicles are adopted more widely than assumed in the report’s reference case.“Moreover, global oil demand is estimated to plateau around this level in the second half of the 2030s,” OPEC said.Editing by Dale Hudson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-opec-outlook/opec-sees-slower-growth-in-demand-for-its-oil-as-rivals-pump-more-idINKBN1D71UF'|'2017-11-07T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'c306b2e3d0f720b9c53723df2e8d8bf60100ee9c'|'British growth to slow in 2018, 2019 as Brexit uncertainty hits investment -EU'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:05 AM / Updated an hour ago British growth to slow in 2018, 2019 as Brexit uncertainty hits investment - EU Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British economic growth will slow sharply over the next two years as companies are likely to put investment on hold because of uncertainty over the outcome of Brexit negotiations with EU, the European Commission forecast on Thursday. City workers cross the Millennium footbridge in the financial district of London, Britain January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville The Commission slashed its forecast for economic growth in Britain for this year to 1.5 percent from 1.8 percent projected earlier this year and forecast growth of 1.3 percent in 2018 and 1.1 percent in 2019, the year Britain leaves the European Union. “Investment growth is forecast to weaken in 2018, as many firms are likely to continue deferring investments in the face of uncertainty,” the Commission said. “Given the ongoing negotiation on the terms of the UK withdrawal from the EU, our projections for 2019 are based on a purely technical assumption of status quo in terms of trading relations between the EU27 and the UK,” it said. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-forecasts/british-growth-to-slow-in-2018-2019-as-brexit-uncertainty-hits-investment-eu-idUKKBN1D9174'|'2017-11-09T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'57cebb286b68197985bb65b35710fd70258a5e1d'|'CEE MARKETS-Crown surges as Czech CPI rise fuel rate hike expectation'|'* Crown jumps after Oct CPI comes in higher than expected * Czech CPI rise underpins central bank rate hike expectation * Hungary''s CPI lower than forecast, forint sets one-month low * Leu steady ahead of new central bank economic forecasts By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Czech crown surged towards 4-year highs against the euro on Thursday after fresh Czech figures showed that annual inflation rose even more above the central bank''s (CNB) 2 percent target. Hungary''s forint, meanwhile, eased to a one-month low as October inflation was lower than expected, underpinning the Hungarian central bank''s monetary loosening policy. Czech inflation rose to 2.9 percent in October from 2.7 percent in September, above analysts'' 2.8 percent forecast. Hungary''s inflation retreated to 2.2 percent from 2.5 percent, below analysts'' 2.3 percent projection. The Czech crown firmed 0.3 percent to 25.53 against the euro by 0812 GMT. The forint traded at 312.15, off the day''s low of 312.44, but still weaker by 0.1 percent from Wednesday. A Reuters poll of analysts showed on Thursday that the crown could lead a firming of currencies in the European Union''s eastern wing in the next year, helped by the CNB''s tightening of monetary conditions. The bank has increased interest rates twice since August to fight inflation. "With this (inflation) number, the pressure for breaking through the 25.500 level will grow," one Prague-based dealer said. " "We will see if it gets there but if it does, we could move to a range of some 25.20-25.50 for the next cople of months," the dealer said, adding that another rate hike may come in December. The Hungarian central bank has pumped forint liquidity into interbank markets to ease monetary conditions and had pledged further measures to push long-term government bond yields and mortgage interest rates lower. "Since yesterday, Hungary''s 10-year bond yield is steadily below the 10-year U.S. Treasury," Takarekbank analysts said in a note. "Even in light of Fed rate hikes, this indicates the recent significant fall in the Hungarian economy''s risk level." The dinar was firmer by 0.1 percent at 118.72 against the euro ahead of the Serbian central bank''s meeting. It is expected to keep the region''s highest benchmark central bank rate of 3.5 percent on hold, after two surprise cuts in as many months. The leu was steady at 4.6285 against the euro, trading near its weakest levels in more than 5 years, ahead of a news conference where Romanian central bank Governor Mugur Isarescu is due to present the bank''s new economic forecasts. The Romanian currency fell on Tuesday after investors interpreted Isarescu''s comments after a rate-setting meeting of the bank as favouring a looser grip on the exchange rate. Fresh figures showed a widening of Romania''s trade deficit in the January-September period, adding to signs that the robustly growing economy may face overheating risks. Romania also faces political risks. The government on Wednesday approved a tax overhaul via emergency decree , despite criticism from investors, trade unions and the country''s president. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 0912 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.530 25.598 +0.27 5.79% 0 0 % Hungary 312.15 311.96 -0.06% -1.07% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2361 4.2353 -0.02% 3.96% Romanian leu 4.6285 4.6285 +0.00 -2.02% % Croatian 7.5360 7.5403 +0.06 0.25% kuna % Serbian 118.72 118.85 +0.11 3.90% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1056.6 1054.0 +0.24 +14.6 3 7 % 5% Budapest 40429. 40122. +0.77 +26.3 71 07 % 3% Warsaw 2513.3 2513.3 -0.01% +29.0 8 4 3% Bucharest 7790.7 7777.2 +0.17 +9.96 7 7 % % Ljubljana 0.00 792.07 +0.00 -100.0 % 0% Zagreb 0.00 1839.3 +0.00 -100.0 9 % 0% Belgrade 0.00 730.57 +0.00 -100.0 % 0% Sofia 672.49 672.49 +0.00 +14.6 % 8% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.312 0 +108b +1bps ps 5-year 0.721 0.003 +110b +0bps ps 10-year 1.592 0 +127b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.599 -0.001 +236b +1bps ps 5-year 2.647 0.012 +303b +1bps ps 10-year 3.405 0.009 +308b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.91 1.04 1.17 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.09 0.13 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.77 1.815 1.915 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-crown-surges-as-czech-cpi-rise-fuel-rate-hike-expectation-idINL8N1NF3MV'|'2017-11-09T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'8063367ae43fe4cf419bbc65b8b27a319b54a3cf'|'EU hits deadlock over Roundup herbicide licence extension'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:24 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago EU hits deadlock over licence for Roundup herbicide Philip Blenkinsop 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU countries hit deadlock on Thursday on the future of weed-killer glyphosate that some experts say causes cancer, with the European Commission urging them to reconsider its proposal to allow its use to continue for five years. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto''s Roundup weedkiller atomizers are displayed for sale at a garden shop at Bonneuil-Sur-Marne near Paris, France on June 16, 2015. GLYPHOSATE REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Europe has been wrestling for two years over what to do with the chemical, a key ingredient in Monsanto Co’s ( MON.N ) top-selling weed-killer Roundup. The chemical has been used by farmers for more than 40 years, but its use was cast in doubt when the World Health Organization’s cancer agency concluded in 2015 it probably causes cancer. The European Chemical Agency said in March this year, however, there was no evidence linking it to cancer in humans. A large long-term study published on Thursday of agricultural workers in the United States also found no link. On Thursday, the European Union’s 28 countries failed to approve or reject the Commission’s proposal for a five-year extension to the licence allowing glyphosate to be used. Fourteen countries voted in favour, nine against and five abstained, not enough to secure a “qualified majority” under EU voting rules, the Commission said, adding that it would resubmit its proposal in the next two weeks, before the current authorisation expires on Dec. 15. In theory, the Commission could then push through the extension but it would prefer the governments make the call on an issue that has become politically charged. France said it would push for a renewal of just three years. “For the moment we have brought round a certain number of countries towards this objective, not enough yet,” French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot told journalists. “Maybe we have to wait a few more weeks.” The European Parliament has called for glyphosate to be phased out over the next five years. Environmental group Greenpeace said the EU should ban it immediately. EU states failed twice in October even to vote on a proposal for a 10-year licence extension. French pollster Ipsos said in a study in September that a ban on glyphosate could cost the French grains sector, the EU’s largest, 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and wine producers 900 million euros due mainly to lower yields and a fall in exports. Total EU sales of glyphosate-based products are around 1 billion euros per year. Monsanto has a share of about 40 percent of the global market. ($1 = 0.8613 euros) Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-health-glyphosate/eu-hits-deadlock-over-roundup-herbicide-licence-extension-idUKKBN1D91ON'|'2017-11-09T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'd8bfb831dd915acd6fb841df031090559fc8829f'|'Wall Street retreats on worries over delays in tax-cut plan'|'(Reuters) - Wall Street dropped on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Apple Inc and other technology stocks as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay corporate tax cuts that investors want very much.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P 500 has surged about 21 percent since the election of President Donald Trump a year ago, fuelled by his promises to cut corporate taxes and promises of other business-friendly measures.Senate Republicans are unveiling a tax proposal that differs markedly on corporate, business and individual tax cuts from legislation detailed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives, Republican aides said on Thursday.The Senate proposal delays a corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent by a year and provides small-business owners with a deduction rather than a special business rate, said the aides.Earlier, uncertainty about the future of corporate tax rates pushed the S&P 500 down as much 1 percent, underscoring how much Wall Street is banking on a tax reduction.The S&P 500 is trading at 18 times expected earnings, expensive compared to its 10-year average of 14.3, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. Cutting corporate taxes would boost earnings and make stocks relatively less expensive.“It’s been a year since the election. We’ve gone up 22 percent on hopes of what the Trump agenda would bring, and while they’re trying to work toward this thing, they haven’t really accomplished much yet,” said Michael O‘Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.“If progress is not made, the equity market should either pause or correct until meaningful progress is made.”Doubts about how the Senate plan might affect mortgage interest deductions hit homebuilders: Toll Brothers fell 0.86 percent and the PHLX housing index fell as much as 0.85 percent before recovering and trading down 0.13 percent for the session.At 3:25 pm ET (2025 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.48 percent at 23,449.93, while the S&P 500 had lost 0.45 percent to 2,582.58.The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.73 percent to 6,739.88.The Philadelphia Semiconductor index, a top performer in 2017, slumped 2.3 percent ahead of a quarterly report by Nvidia, which fell 2 percent.Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors fell, with the technology index dropping 1 percent.Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle and Facebook were among the stocks weighing most on the S&P 500.Technology has been the best performing S&P 500 sector so far this year with a 37 percent rise. The sector’s stretched valuations make it vulnerable to selling as investors worry that promised tax reductions might not emerge.Roku soared 53.5 percent after the video streaming device maker’s quarterly results and guidance beat expectations.Macy’s jumped 10.87 percent after the department store operator’s profit came in above expectations.Dish Network rose 3.6 percent after the satellite and internet TV provider added subscribers in the United States in the third quarter and reduced the rate at which it lost existing customers.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.82-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-retreats-on-worries-over-delays-in-tax-cut-plan-idINKBN1D92FF'|'2017-11-09T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'57a4ec20d540d8271da8cfc235885a77951053fd'|'Russia''s Deripaska holds 65.2 pct of En+ after IPO - document'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:31 AM / in 2 hours Russia''s Deripaska holds 65.2 pct of En+ after IPO - document Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska will retain a 65.2 percent stake in En+ Group, which manages his aluminium and hydropower businesses, after an initial public offering (IPO) closed last week, the company’s documents showed. The IPO of En+ was the first major primary equity raising by a Russian company in Britain since Western sanctions were imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. En+ and Deripaska are not under sanctions. En+ raised a total of $1.5 billion from selling new and existing shares in the IPO, held in both London and Moscow. Following the deal, Russian bank VTB will hold a 3.8 percent share and another 6.2 percent will be held by AnAn, a partner of China’s CEFC, the document showed. En+ plans to repay a VTB loan of $942 million in full from the proceeds raised, according to the document. (Reporting by Anastalia Lyrchikova and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe)'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/en-ipo-deripaska/russias-deripaska-holds-65-2-pct-of-en-after-ipo-document-idUSL8N1NF3ZM'|'2017-11-09T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'dd884aa1e3ad904f02ad6dfbc29bfbfa506e4871'|'U.S. department stores tap brakes on stocking for holiday season'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:09 AM / in 2 hours U.S. department stores tap brakes on stocking for holiday season Nandita Bose 6 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - This holiday season, retailers are making a list, checking it twice, and then ordering less for U.S. shoppers. FILE PHOTO: The entrance to a Macy''s department store is seen in Austin, Texas, U.S., January 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Khursheed With foot traffic at their stores in decline, department stores that would have stocked up for the biggest shopping season of the year months ago are still in the process of placing new orders, according to nearly a dozen sources including company officials, vendors who work with the retailers and consultants who advise such chains. The strategy is aimed to keep their inventory costs down and avoid the experience of previous holiday seasons, when large piles of unsold stock led to deep markdowns that eroded profits. But these retailers risk losing sales if supplies run out at a time when many are struggling to keep up with Amazon.com Inc and a steady shift towards online shopping. Macy’s Inc, J.C Penney Co Inc Kohl’s Corp Nordstrom Inc, Dillard’s Inc and Hudson Bay Co’s Lord & Taylor are among the retailers buying in smaller batches with shorter lead times this year and relying on a more dynamic demand forecasting process than in the past, according to sources familiar with these companies’ practices. Macy‘s, Kohl‘s, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney declined to comment. Lord & Taylor said it is working on preparing a carefully selected merchandise assortment for the holiday season but did not share anything specific. Dillard’s did not respond to a request for comment. Keeping inventory levels low helps manage costs, and may also instill urgency in consumers to spend now rather than hold off on purchases in search of a better deal, according to the sources. But it also risks alienating customers who may end up having less choice, and is also putting strain on vendors to deliver on shorter lead times, the sources added. The high-stakes strategy takes a page from the playbook of Inditex SA-owned Zara, Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) and other so-called “fast fashion” retailers that consistently keep low inventories of trendy clothes and try to win customers with cheap prices. For a graphic, click reut.rs/2lEBkkT “I think in some sections the choice is limited this year like cashmere sweaters and sweaters in general,” said Dakota Whitlow, a 46 year old marketing executive as she shopped for winter clothing at Macy’s State Street store in Chicago. “But limiting choice is in many ways better than overcrowding the store with clothes, which makes it harder to shop,” she added. Traditionally, retailers lock in most of their purchases nine months to a year in advance. This year, retailers started placing a large portion of their holiday orders three to four months before the holiday season, and are refreshing fast-selling items within as little as six to eight weeks, vendors and consultants said. “There is a big push from department stores across the board this year to cut down lead times and manage inventory tightly,” said Robert D‘Loren, chairman and CEO of U.S.-based Xcel Brands, which supplies branded apparel to chains like Lord & Taylor and Dillard’s and private label clothing to other department stores. “We are delivering orders on weekly cycles with plans that are six weeks out.” The risk for department stores is whether suppliers can keep up with the new approach. Department stores rely on vendors whose traditional supply chains are not built for a fast turnaround, because they handle orders for several brands. Fast-fashion chains, on the other hand, have designed their supply chain to shift on a week to week basis versus the traditional four for department stores and work with vendors who can deliver quickly on private label items they stock. As a result, some smaller vendors of traditional department stores struggle to adapt to request for shorter lead times. “We are refusing to take (last-minute) orders. We just don’t have that kind of idle capacity in our factories, our production lines. Cargo delivery contracts are not built to react that way,” said a Bangladeshi supplier to J.C. Penney and Kohl‘s, who would only be quoted on condition of anonymity. WILLING TO LOSE A SALE So far this year, retailers have been willing to sacrifice some orders for tighter inventory management. “Between the risk of a lost sale and the risk of a loss of margin, department stores are willing to lose the sale this year,” said Greg Portell, a consultant with AT Kearney who advises retail chains on strategy. Retailers are optimistic about their new strategy. Macy’s expects a ”marked difference this holiday versus last“ in the way it buys stock, Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said on an earnings conference call in August. ”We definitely are buying closer in... to make sure we have the right goods in time for holiday, but not too far in advance. To be sure, ordering closer to demand can help a retailer cope with weak consumer spending, but it cannot offset its negative impact altogether. While consumer confidence has improved overall, the National Retail Federation cautioned in October that U.S. consumers will remain hesitant to spend until there is more certainty about policy changes on issues such as taxes and trade. The trade group estimated holiday sales for the U.S. retail industry will grow between 3.7-4.2 percent in 2017, from 3.75 percent in 2016. “(Retailers) simply don’t want to be stuck with excess stock. It takes up working capital and that was okay when times were good but not when things are this tough,” said Neil Stern, partner at McMillan Doolittle, a consultancy who works with retailers including department stores. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago, Additional Reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Edward Tobin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-retail-inventory/u-s-department-stores-tap-brakes-on-stocking-for-holiday-season-idUSKBN1D70HB'|'2017-11-07T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'007a68cdf34d7a2d97587532d57f428cdf921d3f'|'Equifax probes legal officer''s role in post-breach share sales - WSJ'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:37 PM / in an hour Equifax probes legal officer''s role in post-breach share sales - WSJ Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - An special committee of Equifax Inc’s board is investigating the role the credit reporting company’s chief legal officer played in approving share sales by four executives days after suspicious activity was discovered in its systems, according to The Wall Street Journal. FILE PHOTO: Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo Three of the four executives sold a total of $1.8 million of Equifax stock in early August, days after the company discovered what ended up being one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history, compromising the sensitive financial information of 145.5 million people. When Equifax later disclosed the breach to the public, the company’s shares plunged as much as 37 percent, erasing billions of dollars from its market value. The special committee, made up of independent directors, on Friday said it concluded that the executives did not know of the suspicious cyber activity at the time they sold the shares and that no insider trading occurred. Now the committee is looking into the level of knowledge John Kelley, Equifax''s chief legal officer, who was also in charge of security at the firm, had of the hack at the time he approved the stock sales, the Journal said, citing sources familiar with the matter. ( on.wsj.com/2zhkzSp ) Kelley is no longer in charge of security, the Journal said. Equifax did not immediately respond to email and voicemail requests for comment. An Equifax employee reached by phone at the company’s main line declined to forward the call to Kelley. The U.S. Justice Department is conducting its own criminal investigation into the share sales. The hack, and Equifax’s response to it, has also prompted investigations by multiple federal and state agencies as well as scores of class action lawsuits. Credit monitoring services such as Equifax collect vast amounts of financial information from consumers, working with banks and other lenders, for example, to track the creditworthiness of individuals. Reporting by John McCrank in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-equifax-cyber-legal/equifax-probes-legal-officers-role-in-post-breach-share-sales-wsj-idUKKBN1D62RT'|'2017-11-06T23:36:00.000+02:00'
'a724099c1f58c906b030bbe6491f19e1cf7e8449'|'Online travel sites getting squeezed by Airbnb, hotel chains'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online travel booking sites Priceline Group and TripAdvisor took a beating from investors on Tuesday, highlighting how the companies’ once industry-disrupting model is under growing pressure from other competitors.A 3D printed people''s models are seen in front of a displayed Airbnb logo in this illustration taken, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Shares of TripAdvisor ( TRIP.O ) fell 23 percent on Tuesday, while shares in Priceline ( PCLN.O ) declined 13.5 percent. Rival Expedia Inc’s ( EXPE.O ) shares skidded another 2.74 percent and are down 19 percent since Oct. 26, the day before the company reported weaker-than-expected third quarter results.Though the circumstances at the three companies vary, they all are encountering increased competition from sites such as Airbnb and others that offer alternatives to traditional hotels. Hotel chains also are putting up a tougher fight for the online sites’ business.“We’re a big business now,” Priceline Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said on the group’s third-quarter call on Monday. “And as one finds in large numbers, (growth) rates naturally slow down.”TripAdvisor Chief Financial Officer Ernst J. Teunissen warned investors during its quarterly earnings call that its year-over-year revenue per shopper had fallen 11 percent in the third quarter.Companies such as Hilton Worldwide Holdings ( HLT.N ) have become more aggressive in drawing customers from the third-party sites, offering incentives including free wifi and discounted pricing to make it more attractive for consumers to book a room directly through their mobile apps or websites.Hilton has for the third time this year raised its full-year profit forecast and said business travel to its properties had improved in the months following the U.S. presidential election in November 2016.“The highest growth that we’re seeing on a year-to-date basis continues to be in our direct channels. And I think we’ll continue to see that if we do our job,” said Hilton Chief Executive Officer Christopher Nassetta on the group’s third-quarter earnings call late last month.He added that there was still value in third-party agencies as long as they operated on “reasonable economic terms.”Hotels are driving harder bargains in negotiations on commissions paid to third-party sites, analysts said.“The hotels have been fairly effective at recapturing some of the share that would have gone to an online travel agent,” Raymond James and Associates analyst Justin Patterson said in a telephone interview.To attract customers, the online travel sites said they were spending more on advertising, including television commercials. Priceline told investors it increased its brand advertising spending by 55 percent in the third quarter to build brand awareness and drive traffic to its websites.Privately held rental company Airbnb enjoyed another successful summer, Patterson said. It raised an additional $1 billion in its latest round of funding in March, putting the company’s value at $31 billion.While traditional online travel agents have made efforts to attract vacation rental consumers - from Expedia’s acquisition of HomeAway to Priceline’s growing portfolio of owned properties - Airbnb still dominates the market.Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Joseph White and Colleen Jenkins '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-travel-stocks/online-travel-sites-getting-squeezed-by-airbnb-hotel-chains-idUSKBN1D7363'|'2017-11-08T01:55:00.000+02:00'
'5b963ac019be95e648ca06f220ae760200dc4e62'|'BRIEF-Clearside Biomedical Q3 loss per share $0.72'|' 28 PM / in 12 minutes BRIEF-Clearside Biomedical Q3 loss per share $0.72 Reuters Staff Nov 8 (Reuters) - Clearside Biomedical Inc: * Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces third quarter 2017 financial results and provides corporate update * Q3 loss per share $0.72 * Q3 earnings per share view $-0.55 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-clearside-biomedical-q3-loss-per-s/brief-clearside-biomedical-q3-loss-per-share-0-72-idUSASB0BS95'|'2017-11-08T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'2bdd313cc6fcaf4c90a0fe4dc81d2fc716519dc1'|'Creval''s clean-up move hits other Italian banks'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:08 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Creval''s clean-up move hits other Italian banks Valentina Za 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italian bank Creval’s ( PCVI.MI ) move to raise cash in order to shed bad debts prompted investors to dump the shares of its domestic peers on Wednesday on concerns they may also need fresh capital. Shares in Creval plunged 30 percent following the announcement of the share issue, dragging down Banco BPM ( BAMI.MI ), Italy’s third-largest bank, and BPER Banca ( EMII.MI ), which both fell more than 5 percent. Creval said late on Tuesday it would seek to raise up to 700 million euros (£618.7 million) in a share sale so as to rebuild capital while it writes down impaired debts and sells them off. The bank, which has soured loans equivalent to just over a fifth of its total loans, aims to reduce that share to just above 10 percent by the end of next year and boost provisions to cover 74 percent of bad debts and 45 percent of unlikely-to-pay loans. It would further cut the problematic loan ratio to just below 10 percent by 2020, while targeting a core capital ratio of more than 11 percent. “Creval’s targets confirm pressures from regulators to speed up bad loan reductions at banks which are more heavily exposed,” Equita analyst Giovanni Razzoli said in a note. “My impression is that in the short term banks will need to cut the impaired loan ratio to 10 percent with a lower medium-to-long-term target (5 percent) so as to allow the introduction of a common deposit guarantee and support progress in the banking union.” Italian banks hold a quarter of Europe’s problematic loans and the European Central Bank has been pushing them to cut their soured loan ratio, which is more than three times the European average of 5 percent. Creval follows in the footsteps of heavyweight UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ), which this year raised 13 billion euros in a share issue to offset the hit from bad loan disposals. Razzoli said banks such as Banco BPM, BPER Banca or Carige ( CRGI.MI ), where problem loans are more than a fifth of total loans, would be forced to overhaul their disposal strategies and may have to raise capital. An Italian bank executive confirmed that a problem loan ratio of around 10 percent was now seen as a benchmark. Applying Creval’s targets to other banks would generate a capital shortfall of 1.65 billion euros at Banco BPM, 900 million euros at BPER and UBI Banca <UBI.MI, and around 300 million euros at Popolare Sondrio BPSO.MI, analysts calculated. Shares in Creval had already lost more than 30 percent since early October, when the European Central Bank published draft rules on newly classified bad debts which from next year will require scheduled provisions against losses. The ECB is also due to review its guidelines on existing bad loans early next year and the draft rules fuelled concerns it may take a similar approach. Authorities in Italy, where banks are vulnerable due to extremely lengthy recovery procedures, have put up a fierce fight against such a possibility and repeatedly argued against measures which translate into fire-sales of bad loans. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-banks-cleanup/crevals-clean-up-move-hits-other-italian-banks-idUKKBN1D81IU'|'2017-11-08T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'711c92c35ad7b41a8447923a74caa0fc9af2b314'|'Steinhoff didn''t tell investors about nearly $1 billion in deals'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:06 AM / Updated an hour ago Steinhoff didn''t tell investors about nearly $1 billion in deals Tom Bergin , Alasdair Pal 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - German-listed Steinhoff International ( SNHG.DE ) did not tell investors about almost $1 billion in transactions with a related company despite laws that some experts believe require it to do so, a Reuters examination of filings and prospectuses has found. European financial disclosure rules, including the European Union Prospectus Directive, say publicly traded companies must disclose all transactions that are material in the prospectuses they present before a debt or equity sale. The law says a material transaction is one that is big enough to influence investors’ view of the firm’s financial health. However, the law does not define the details of a material transaction. One lawyer and two accounting academics told Reuters the transaction was large enough to be material. The EU rules also require disclosure of all transactions with related parties. Those three experts said this would apply to Steinhoff because the transactions involved a company called GT Branding Holding, in which it holds a minority stake. But although the lawyer and two experts said the company should have disclosed the transaction, Steinhoff and one other academic that Reuters spoke to said it might not necessarily be required. Accounts and incorporation documents filed with Swiss, Austrian and German corporate registries show that in 2015 Europe’s second-largest furniture group by sales bought a 45 percent stake in Swiss company GT Branding Holding and then lent it around 810 million Swiss francs (616.25 million pounds). The details in the publicly available company filings have not previously been reported. Professor Emilios Avgouleas, University of Edinburgh Chair in International Banking Law and Finance, said that the potentially market-sensitive information should have been clearly flagged. “That transaction should be disclosed to investors. It’s a material transaction and arguably it can lend itself to all kinds of distortions of the share price,” he told Reuters. Dennis Jullens, lecturer in accounting at the University of Amsterdam, said the rules were less clear-cut. “The rules don’t say exactly what size transactions need to be disclosed so there is some judgement involved,” he said, adding that, conceivably, a company might argue a large transaction was not material or that very small related party transactions didn’t need to be disclosed. A spokesman for Steinhoff said the company complied with all reporting requirements including internal accounting rules and the Prospectus Directive. “TRANSACTIONS NOT MATERIAL” The company operates across many jurisdictions so many laws will apply. However, as a Dutch-registered and German-listed company, the most important rules it must comply with are those countries’ local regulations and the EU Prospectus Directive. The transactions were not disclosed in Steinhoff’s 2015 or 2016 annual reports, share prospectuses in August 2015 and Nov 2015 and a debt prospectus published in July 2017. The Steinhoff spokesman said the company did not need to provide detailed information about the loans, share purchase or royalties it paid to GT Branding’s subsidiary because they did not have a major impact on profitability. “All transactions to and from Steinhoff to GT Branding Holding are not material in a qualitative and quantitative way. Therefore in line with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) requirements no related party disclosure was presented in Steinhoff’s group financial statements,” he said. Spokespeople for the AMF, the financial regulator in the Netherlands where Steinhoff International is registered, German regulator Bafin, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Steinhoff’s auditor Deloitte all declined to comment on Steinhoff’s filings. A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it did not comment on individual cases and said national authorities were responsible for enforcement of the EU directive. Luxembourg financial regulator Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier approved a 2017 Steinhoff bond prospectus. A spokesman declined to say if it would investigate whether the company should have disclosed the transactions. “INVESTORS SHOULD KNOW” The loans came shortly after Steinhoff bought the 45 percent stake in GT Branding Holding. This created a related party relationship between the two groups. Campion Capital SA owns the other 55 percent. Campion did not reply to emails and phone calls, and Steinhoff declined to answer questions about Campion’s ownership. GT Branding Holding’s main asset is another Swiss company called GT Global Trademarks, which trademark registers show owns around 200 brands used by Steinhoff. Steinhoff used to own GT Global Trademarks. At the end of 2015, the GT Branding debt represented 3.2 percent of Steinhoff’s total assets. Three experts said this was significant enough to be above the reporting threshold laid out in the EU Prospectus Directive. It requires the disclosure of any information that could influence an investor’s view of the company’s financial health. A Steinhoff spokesman said while the interest on the loans and royalty payments were related party transactions, they did not need to be disclosed because when netted off, the amount of money flowing between the companies was small. Kecskes Andras, head of Department of Economic and Trade Law at the University of Pecs in Hungary, said transactions with associated companies worth hundreds of millions of euros should be disclosed. Steinhoff, which owns Poundland in Britain, Mattress Firm in the United States and Conforama in France, is under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany. That investigation is ongoing and Steinhoff denies all wrongdoing. It is not directly linked to the transactions outlined in this story. Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoffintlaccounting-disclosure/steinhoff-didnt-tell-investors-about-nearly-1-billion-in-deals-idUKKBN1D80KF'|'2017-11-08T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'76014fe881f58a39ba8df989381190c906214498'|'Brazil''s Oi asks regulator for a week to explain new restructuring proposal'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:33 PM / in 9 minutes Brazil''s Oi asks regulator for a week to explain new restructuring proposal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRASILIA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Oi SA has asked the country’s regulator Anatel for a week to explain details of the new debt restructuring proposal approved by the company’s board, the regulator said on Wednesday. The carrier, which filed for Latin America’s largest bankruptcy proceeding 17 months ago, has proposed to pay hefty fees to bondholders who commit to injecting new money into the company. A pivotal creditors assembly is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 10. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazils-oi-asks-regulator-for-a-week-to-explain-new-restructuring-proposal-idUSE6N1ML01D'|'2017-11-08T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'85347c60a86cafca52eee8860a9bd822e3197d5c'|'Qualcomm buy may pit Broadcom against Intel in ''connected car'' fight'|'(Reuters) - If Broadcom Ltd’s unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc succeeds, it could set up a battle with Intel Corp for dominance in the production of the next generation of communications chips, which will play a vital role in so-called connected cars.FILE PHOTO: A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Vehicles of every sort already are starting to add wireless chips to download everything from maps to entertainment, and in a few years nearly every new car may be connected. Self-driving cars, still in test mode, will accelerate the move.“The amount of chips per car is going to grow dramatically,” said Egil Juliussen, a principal analyst for automotive technology at IHSMarkit.Chip makers are scrambling to create new mobile networks, the so-called fifth generation, which will link phones as well as cars, drones and even industrial devices such as smart street lights, which count pedestrians and send data to city planners.Qualcomm long was the dominant communications chip maker for mobile phones, although computer chip maker Intel has begun muscling into the space. Each now supplies about half Apple Inc’s iPhone communications chips, for instance.Now they are jockeying in a mature market to design so-called 5G networks that will be up to 10 times as fast as wireless networks today, which are expected to start rolling out in 2020. Research firm IDC predicts 1.53 billion smart phones will be shipped in 2017 expanding to only 1.77 billion units in 2021.The market for modem chips for cars, by contrast, is expected to grow sharply. Tristan Gerra, a senior semiconductor analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co, said that this year, only about 12 million of the 90 million cars manufactured per year have internet connectivity. But connectivity will become ubiquitous on self-driving cars.The Intel logo is shown at the E3 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 13, 2017. REUTERS/ Mike Blake “You basically (will) have 80 million units per year that are going to get a modem,” he said.Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment.FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm itself is trying to buy NXP Semiconductors, a maker of automotive chips from so-called “infotainment” system chips to camera systems, for $38 billion. It is unclear whether that deal will go through and whether Broadcom would take on NXP, but Broadcom has said it is willing to do so.A tie-up between the three companies could create a formidable competitor in the automotive chip space, said IHSMarkit’s Juliussen. He views Intel and Nvidia Corp, which make both make the main processors used in self-driving vehicles, as leaders in the young market, but a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm-NXP would be a strong third-place.Intel has bought itself into relationships with autonomous car developers thanks to its acquisition of vision system maker Mobileye. Broadcom would get something similar with NXP, Juliussen said.If Broadcom pulls off both deals, its market position in some areas could be dominant, said Cowen and Co analyst Karl Ackerman.“[Broadcom] would basically own the majority of the high-end components in the smart phone market and they would have a very significant influence on 5G standards, which are paramount as you think about autonomous vehicles” and connected factories, he said.Reporting by Stephen Nellis, editing by Peter Henderson and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom-intel/qualcomm-buy-may-pit-broadcom-against-intel-in-connected-car-fight-idINKBN1D81CP'|'2017-11-08T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'd3c60c4a8910ee9e5227c9a6a052503f1e61f364'|'Danish jeweller Pandora sees sales at lower end of forecast range'|' 22 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Danish jeweller Pandora sees sales at lower end of forecast range Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish jewellery maker Pandora ( PNDORA.CO ) said it expects full-year sales to be at the lower end of its forecast range, in part due to a challenging retail environment in its top market, the United States. Pandora said it still expects 2017 revenue in the range of 23 billion-24 billion Danish crowns (2.72 billion pounds-2.84 billion pounds) and an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of around 38 percent. But while sales in the United States rose 4 percent in local currency terms, it said the rise was driven by the acquisition of franchise stores rather than higher mall traffic. “The retail environment in the United States remained challenging, with most brands in the affordable space being increasingly promotional,” the company said in a statement. However, the launch of its Disney collection in Europe, Middle East and Africa had received a “positive initial reception,” it said. Pandora saw dramatic sales growth over the past decade as its customisable bracelets and charms gained huge popularity, prompting its share price to rise eight-fold between 2013 and 2016. But the stock has lost around 36 percent of its value this year, as growth rates have come down in recent quarters, in part due to disappointing sales in the United States, where it saw a drop in shopping mall activity. Shares rose as much as 5.5 percent in opening trade and were up 2.2 percent at 605.50 crowns by 0810 GMT. The company reported third-quarter sales of 5.19 billion crowns, compared with the 5.13 billion estimated by analysts polled by Reuters. EBITDA for the period stood at 1.97 billion crowns, compared with an expected 1.94 billion. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Sunil Nair and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pandora-results/danish-jeweller-pandora-sees-sales-at-lower-end-of-forecast-range-idUKKBN1D70U2'|'2017-11-07T10:22:00.000+02:00'
'cbf700b8c6c90aa5aef5aec06b40def183f93f13'|'Brazil''s Oi asks regulator for a week to explain new restructuring proposal'|'BRASILIA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Oi SA has asked the country’s regulator Anatel for a week to explain details of the new debt restructuring proposal approved by the company’s board, the regulator said on Wednesday.The carrier, which filed for Latin America’s largest bankruptcy proceeding 17 months ago, has proposed to pay hefty fees to bondholders who commit to injecting new money into the company. A pivotal creditors assembly is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 10. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazils-oi-asks-regulator-for-a-week-to-explain-new-restructuring-proposal-idINE6N1ML01D'|'2017-11-08T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'3c1b5b4435f677dc8252420efa169bc8ee680ddc'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 8'|'Nov 8 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The TimesBritish utility SSE Plc and German company Innogy SE''s British retail subsidiary Npower are in talks to spin off their energy supply businesses and combine them into a new independent utility giant, in a radical shake-up of the UK market. bit.ly/2ArOqVWProfessionals provided for free by City firms to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc''s restructuring unit abused their position by passing confidential information back to their parent companies, The Times reported. bit.ly/2Aqg19UThe GuardianThe Institute for Fiscal Studies, a tax and spending watchdog, said plans for a reduction in tax credits which boost the incomes of low paid workers will take a particularly large toll on households where one or more adults face cuts in hours or lower wages. bit.ly/2j9pqyCTreasury select committee will examine the debt levels of UK households as well as whether consumers are saving adequately as Britain leaves the European Union. Problem debt and the treatment of low income families by banks will also form part of the inquiry. bit.ly/2j93BikThe TelegraphSky Plc has warned it could close down Sky News if it proves a sticking point with regulators in its 11.7 billion pounds ($15.41 billion) takeover by Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox. bit.ly/2ApWqqiTata Steel Ltd is investing 30 million pounds ($39.51 million)in its Port Talbot steelworks in a move the company says shows its "commitment" to the industry in the UK. bit.ly/2ArFMGLSky NewsThe boards of 250 of Britain''s largest companies will this week be challenged to promote more women to senior leadership roles amid a cacophony of criticism about gender diversity and sexual discrimination in the public and private sectors. bit.ly/2Arz7woFormer Welsh government minister Carl Sargeant, who was suspended last week amid allegations about incidents with women, has died. bit.ly/2ArTbPiThe IndependentThe EU''s competition chief has asked Apple Inc to provide details of its latest tax structure as regulators try to recover 13 billion euros ($15.07 billion)in back taxes to Ireland. ind.pn/2ArhTiJ$1 = 0.8624 euros $1 = 0.7592 pounds Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-8-idUSL3N1NE07Z'|'2017-11-08T03:29:00.000+02:00'
'e8ff43646ce68a181b52c85f4bc8cef4dca17540'|'Nepal recovers ''most'' of the money hacked from bank'|' 12 PM / in 38 minutes Nepal recovers ''most'' of the money hacked from bank Gopal Sharma 3 Min Read KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A bank in Nepal has recovered most of the money stolen after its SWIFT server was hacked last month, two officials, involved in the investigation of the Himalayan nation’s first reported cyber heist, said on Tuesday. A man using a mobile phone passes the logo of global secure financial messaging services cooperative SWIFT at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Cyber attackers made about $4.4 million (£3.3 million) in illegal transfers from NIC Asia Bank, based in the Nepali capital, by hacking the SWIFT server at the private bank, to other countries, including the United States, Britain, China, Japan and Singapore last month when the bank was closed for annual festival holidays, Nepali media said. Chinta Mani Shivakoti, a deputy governor of the Central Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said the regulator had requested authorities in these countries not to release the payment of the stolen amount as soon as it was informed about the theft and had launched moves to recover it. “Most of the stolen amount of money has been recovered,” Shivakoti told Reuters. “A sum of amount $580,000 is yet to be recovered,” he said without giving details. The chief of Nepal police’s Central Investigation Bureau Pushkar Karki said his agency was investigating into how the passcode of the bank’s computer system had been stolen and who was involved in it. “We are still working on this,” Karki told Reuters. Nepali media reports said consultancy firm KPMG was also involved in the investigation. “The incident showed there are some weaknesses with the IT department of the bank. Once the investigation report is available we’ll provide guidelines to avoid such incidents in future,” Shivakoti of the central bank said. SWIFT said it does not comment on individual entities. A SWIFT spokesperson said: ”When a case of potential fraud is reported to us, we offer our assistance to the affected user to help secure its environment.” “We subsequently share relevant information on an anonymised basis with the community. This preserves confidentiality, whilst assisting other SWIFT users to take appropriate measures to protect themselves. We have no indication that our network and core messaging services have been compromised”. Officials from NIC Asia Bank, one of dozens of private banks in Nepal, were not immediately available for comments. Hackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank in February last year after gaining access to its SWIFT terminal and the emergence of other successful and unsuccessful hacks rocked faith in a system previously seen as totally secure. Reporting by Gopal Sharma, additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cyber-heist-nepal/nepal-recovers-most-of-the-money-hacked-from-bank-idUKKBN1D71YB'|'2017-11-07T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'44c26d88449103174724fd0bd5884b4614ab2b8c'|'EU''s Vestager says seeking details on Apple''s recent tax set-up'|' 47 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago EU''s Vestager says seeking details on Apple''s recent tax set-up Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read LISBON (Reuters) - EU regulators have asked iPhone maker Apple for details of its recent tax structure following last year’s order to pay back taxes of up to 13 billion euros ($15 billion) to Ireland, Europe’s anti-trust chief said on Tuesday. A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed European Union flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who issued the record back-tax bill against Apple in August 2016, said she wanted to make sure the company now complies with the bloc’s rules which ban unfair state aid. “I have been asking for an update on the arrangement made by Apple, the recent way they have been organized, in order to get the feeling whether or not this is in accordance with our European rules but that remains to be seen,” Vestager told a news briefing on the sidelines of an international tech summit in Lisbon. “We are looking into this of course without any kind of prejudice, just to get the information,” she said. Vestager said her request preceded reports based on the “Paradise Papers” which showed that Apple shifted key parts of its business to Jersey as an offshore tax haven in a move to maintain a low tax rate. Apple has said no operations were moved from Ireland. “We have no contact after the Paradise Papers. We are in the process. There is no particular need,” she said. She also said it was too early to say whether the latest leaks on tax arrangements by companies would lead to any investigation. “That remains to be seen if we will open more cases after the Paradise Papers.” The European Commission last month sued Ireland for its tardiness in collecting the money from Apple. “We have no indication when it comes to the time perspective of Apple’s recovery. We do have from the Irish government the progress made,” she said. ($1 = 0.8649 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-taxation/eus-vestager-says-seeking-details-on-apples-recent-tax-set-up-idUKKBN1D722L'|'2017-11-07T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'7d15c8ab62b64a33513262a9b55bbd1a57f29320'|'Fortum will not raise offer for Uniper - CEO'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:59 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Fortum will not raise offer for Uniper - CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said on Tuesday the Finnish utility had no plans to raise its 8 billion euro (7.05 billion pounds) offer for Germany’s Uniper ( UN01.DE ). FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Fortum headquarters in Espoo, Finland August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Lefteris Karagiannopoulos/File Photo Having agreed a deal in September to buy E.ON’s ( EONGn.DE ) 46.65 percent stake in Uniper, Fortum on Tuesday officially launched a bid for all shares in Uniper as required by German takeover rules. Fortum repeated that it was not looking to take over the utility completely. “We believe that our offer represents a very attractive valuation for Uniper’s shares ... while we welcome all shares offered to us, we are focused on acquiring E.ON’s 46.65 percent shareholding,” Lundmark said in a statement. “We have no plans whatsoever, nor do we see any reasons, to raise the offer price.” Uniper has considered the bid as hostile, saying Fortum was eventually looking to split it due to strategic differences. Lundmark said Fortum had no such plans. The offer will run through Jan. 16. Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uniper-m-a-fortum/fortum-will-not-raise-offer-for-uniper-ceo-idUKKBN1D70LL'|'2017-11-07T08:58:00.000+02:00'
'd38978adfbe9c587f71ca5109dda6ff8ae907d16'|'BRIEF-Affimed reports Q3 loss per share EUR 0.18'|' 42 PM / in 16 minutes BRIEF-Affimed reports Q3 loss per share EUR 0.18 Reuters Staff Nov 7 (Reuters) - Affimed Nv * Affimed reports financial results for third quarter 2017 * Q3 loss per share EUR 0.18 * Q3 earnings per share view EUR -0.17 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S * Q3 revenue eur 500,000 versus EUR 900,000 * Q3 revenue view EUR 933,000 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-affimed-reports-q3-loss-per-share/brief-affimed-reports-q3-loss-per-share-eur-0-18-idUSASB0BRTD'|'2017-11-07T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'82900f3d8ef48698c5a5f6418a70d64a248fde18'|'Exclusive: China''s Meituan-Dianping mulls U.S. IPO of at least $3 billion in 2018 - sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Meituan-Dianping, an online platform for ordering food and booking movies and restaurants, is considering an initial public offering in the United States as soon as next year, five people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.FILE PHOTO: The Dianping logo is seen in this illustration photo October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo A listing could raise at least $3 billion as the company’s investors look to capitalize on the current market bull run, which has taken U.S. stocks to a series of all-time highs.A deal of that size, representing at least 10 percent of Meituan-Dianping’s valuation, would be the largest listing of a Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) record $25 billion float in 2014.Meituan-Dianping, which offers a broad range of services including movie ticketing, food delivery and beauty services, said last month it had raised $4 billion in fresh funding, valuing the company at $30 billion.According to CB Insights, a data and analytics provider, that valuation ranked it as the world’s fourth-largest “unicorn” - technology start-ups valued at $1 billion or more.Led by serial entrepreneur Wang Xing, Meituan-Dianping’s backers include Tencent, Sequoia Capital Ltd, Singaporean state investors GIC Pte Ltd [GIC.UL] and Temasek, as well as DST Global and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.An IPO could take place as early as the first half of 2018, according to one of the people.Meituan-Dianping has started initial conversations with potential advisors to work on an IPO plan, two of the people said. Plans are still fluid and no bank has been mandated, according to the sources, who declined be named as the discussions were not public.FILE PHOTO: The Meituan logo is seen in this illustration photo October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo When contacted by Reuters about its IPO plans, a Meituan-Dianping spokeswoman declined to comment, adding the company’s focus is on investing the proceeds of last month’s fundraising.“We are concentrated on implementing various initiatives that will build out our platform and offerings,” she said.An IPO could help bolster Meituan-Dianping’s firepower for investments in offline retail and artificial intelligence technology - a strategy that would pitch it directly against China’s leading e-commerce heavyweights including Alibaba and JD.com Inc ( JD.O ).Going public would also require the company to disclose its financials and strategy at a point when many of its competitors are still privately held.These include Alibaba’s food delivery unit Ele.me and ride-hailing champion Didi Chuxing. Earlier this year Meituan-Dianping began to challenge Didi by offering ride-hailing services.Meituan-Dianping was formed in 2015 from the $15 billion merger of Groupon-like Meituan and Yelp-like Dianping. It now has 280 million users and serves as a platform for roughly 5 million businesses.“The listing plans are more driven by the investors as several of them look to cash out after years of investments. But the company isn’t in a rush to go public as it doesn’t lack capital for development,” said one of the sources.In July, Meituan-Dianping’s vice-president of strategy Chen Shaohui told Reuters the firm would not consider an IPO until it had established infrastructure for services including offline retail, and that it had roughly $3 billion in cash reserves.Both Alibaba and JD.com have championed a shift into offline stores in recent years, spurred by developments in cloud computing and big data technology.Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Lincoln FeastOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-meituan-usa-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-meituan-dianping-mulls-u-s-ipo-of-at-least-3-billion-in-2018-sources-idINKBN1D70F6'|'2017-11-07T02:23:00.000+02:00'
'8ac023fcf0cf399b6f98a867821e0988c6b019c2'|'Singapore''s GIC to invest $200 mln in ContourGlobal IPO -source'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:08 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Singapore''s GIC to invest $200 mln in ContourGlobal IPO -source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC will invest $200 million in the upcoming $2.2 billion initial public offering (IPO) of ContourGlobal ( IPO-CON.L ), a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Conditional trading in the power generator firm is due to start on Thursday, with the company pushing ahead with its listing in London despite two large IPOs there being cancelled last week. The price guidance for the listing is 250 pence per share a bookrunner said on Wednesday, the bottom of a previously announced range of between 250 and 275 pence. The implied market capitalisation of the company after the listing is 1.7 billion pounds ($2.2 billion). “It’s bottom of the range but it’s good it’s being done,” the source said. “It’s a sign that the London IPO market is open for the right companies.” Broadcasting masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L would have been this year’s biggest listing in London but was postponed last Friday, as was the listing of supermarket supplier Bakkavor. Business services firm TMF scrapped its float on Oct. 27 in favour of a 1.75 billion euro ($2.03 billion) sale to private equity house CVC Capital Partners. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the ContourGlobal deal. ($1 = 0.7618 pounds) ($1 = 0.8624 euros) (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Rachel Armstrong) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/contourglobal-ipo-gic/singapores-gic-to-invest-200-mln-in-contourglobal-ipo-source-idUSL5N1NE3R0'|'2017-11-08T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'd42297e849ad64c76c999b7a9494c3ea907b048f'|'IMF''s Lagarde warns protectionism, while now just words, may come to hurt Asia'|'November 8, 2017 / 8:29 AM / Updated 2 hours ago IMF''s Lagarde warns protectionism, while now just words, may come to hurt Asia Leika Kihara , Takashi Umekawa 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Protectionist sentiment has not yet gone beyond mere words, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, but would hurt Asian economies with open and free markets if it did. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Files Lagarde brushed off the concerns of some investors that the divergent monetary paths of major central banks could disrupt Asian capital flows, stressing that policymakers had the tools and means of communication needed to prevent market upheaval. Global policymakers have raised concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda that aims to slash U.S. trade deficits, via which Washington appears to be walking away from or extensively renegotiating multilateral trade arrangements in favour of country-by-country deals. Lagarde said that while protectionism had not so far been seen “other than in words”, trade deals must be improved in a way that included people who felt left behind by globalisation. “If there was protectionism, it would hurt economies that are very open, and based on free and fair movement of goods and services,” Lagarde told Reuters during a visit for the 20th anniversary of the IMF’s Asia-Pacific regional office in Tokyo. “To continue to have trade as a global engine for growth, trade deals need to be improved,” she said, adding trade pacts had to include rules on labour practices and intellectual property. Lagarde said trade deals must be “rules based” and make use of existing dispute-settlement mechanisms such as the World Trade Organisation, though she declined to say whether Trump’s trade policies complied with these rules. The IMF head said there had been no massive capital outflows from Asia thanks to central bankers’ cautious approach and clear communication around their policy shifts. “We believe these conditions can help to ensure that monetary policy changes do not provoke unnecessary capital flow movements,” she said. Lagarde said she would draw a “slight distinction” between the pace of policy shifts to be adopted by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. She noted that the Fed was expected to raise interest rates steadily in coming months, while the European Central Bank had stressed that its quantitative easing would continue and interest rates would remain low for a long period of time. “You can’t put the two - the Fed and the ECB - in the same basket,” she said. Lagarde said Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was acting appropriately by pledging to maintain the BOJ’s massive stimulus programme until inflation accelerates. “One of the strengths of central bankers is to be very clear in their communication and determined in their resolve, which clearly Governor Kuroda has demonstrated,” she said. “One thing that is unanimously recognised is his resolve and clear determination to stay the course and to adjust when the circumstances would so require.” Reporting by Leika Kihara and Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/imf-lagarde/imfs-lagarde-warns-protectionism-while-now-just-words-may-come-to-hurt-asia-idINKBN1D80SR'|'2017-11-08T10:29:00.000+02:00'
'1857dbed6d077d8b22437d207777f99c82d9e635'|'EU banks concerned about ECB plan to tackle bad loans - letter'|'November 7, 2017 / 10:01 AM / in 9 minutes EU banks concerned about ECB plan to tackle bad loans - letter Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - European banks are concerned about an increase in regulatory uncertainty from a central bank proposal to tackle soured bank debt, the European Banking Federation said in a letter to EU officials distributed by Italy’s banking association on Tuesday. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach In the letter, dated Nov. 6, EBF Chief Executive Wim Mijs said the proposal had an “ill-defined scope”, because it was not clear if it could be applied to existing exposures. “Moreover, the stricter requirements put European banks with exposure in (the) non-euro zone area at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis local banks,” Mijs said. The plan would also implement the changes in a very short time period, and without a prior impact assessment, Mijs added. The letter was addressed to European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, European Parliament Economy Committee chair Roberto Gualtieri, ECB supervisory chief Daniele Nouy and Estonian Finance Minister Toomas Toniste. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks/eu-banks-concerned-about-ecb-plan-to-tackle-bad-loans-letter-idUKKBN1D714G'|'2017-11-07T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'5df1bc71549a4fd36412cf9d555913e11b9b58ee'|'Twenty-First Century Fox''s first-quarter revenue rises'|'(Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) quarterly revenue topped market estimates on Wednesday as higher advertising sales and revenue from traditional and online distributors boosted its cable business. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo The company’s shares were up nearly 1 percent in extended trading. The results come after CNBC reported on Monday that Fox had, in the last few weeks, held talks about selling most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). The two sides are not currently in discussion, CNBC had reported. Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox did not address the report in its first-quarter report. Revenue from Fox’s cable division, which houses the Fox News and FX channels among others, rose 10 percent to $4.20 billion, accounting for more than half of total revenue in the quarter. That beat analysts average estimate of $4.12 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Domestic advertising revenue in the cable business rose 3 percent. Fox’s ad revenue can vary from quarter to quarter depending on events, but has been hit by viewer’s increasing preference for streaming services. Revenue at Fox’s filmed entertainment division rose 3 percent to $1.96 billion, edging past analysts estimate of $1.95 billion, according to FactSet. Fox said revenue rose to $7.00 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, higher than the $6.51 billion a year earlier and the $6.81 billion analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to shareholders increased to $855 million, or 46 cents per share, from $821 million, or 44 cents per share. Excluding items, Fox earned 49 cents per share, inline with market estimates. The reported talks with Disney adds another layer of uncertainty to Fox’s bid to buy the rest the nearly 61 percent of European pay-TV group Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) it does not already own in an offer worth $14.5 billion made in December. The offer is being closely scrutinized by the British government. Murdoch has repeatedly stated that deal would be approved in the first half of 2018. “Absent further delays, the transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2018,” Fox said on Wednesday. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-results/twenty-first-century-foxs-first-quarter-revenue-rises-idUSKBN1D8327'|'2017-11-08T23:12:00.000+02:00'
'e11c33de6d201fc68efc041fe8687330e55e2ff8'|'WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/2 AM ET'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:01 AM / in 2 hours WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/2 AM ET Reuters Staff Editor: Clarence Fernandez + 65 6870 3861 Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775 Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595 (All times GMT/ET) TOP STORIES Trump, at North Korea’s doorstep, says solution must be found to nuclear standoff CAMP HUMPHREYS - President Donald Trump flies into South Korea, the closest he has come to the frontlines of the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and vows that Washington would ultimately “work out” a solution to the urgent security challenge posed by Pyongyang. (TRUMP-ASIA/SOUTHKOREA (UPDATE 3, PICTURES, TV), moved, by Steve Holland, 993 words) + See also: - TRUMP-ASIA/CARRIERS (UPDATE 3), moved, by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali, 540 words - TRUMP-ASIA/JAPAN-BROMANCE (PICTURES, TV), moved, 380 words Purge of Saudi princes, businessmen widens, travel curbs imposed RIYADH - A campaign of mass arrests of Saudi Arabian royals, ministers and businessmen expands after a top entrepreneur is reportedly detained in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom’s affluent elite in its modern history. (SAUDI-ARRESTS/ (UPDATE 4, PICTURES, TV, GRAPHICS), moved, by Stephen Kalin and Reem Shamseddine, 1,200 words) + See also: - SAUDI-ARRESTS/TRUMP (UPDATE 2), moved, by Yara Bayoumy and Jonathan Landay, 830 words - SAUDI-ARRESTS/BUSINESS (PICTURES), moved, by Katie Paul, 750 words - SAUDI-ARRESTS/ALWALEED (UPDATE 1, FACTBOX), moved, 260 words U.S. commerce chief says he is likely to divest Russia-linked shipping stake WASHINGTON - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he probably will not keep his holdings in a shipping company with business ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and that he has fully and properly disclosed investments. (PARADISE-TAX/USA (UPDATE 5, PICTURES, TV), moved, 660 words) + See also: - PARADISE-TAX/USA-SIBUR (UPDATE 1), moved, 310 words - USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA (UPDATE 2, PICTURES, TV), moved, by Sarah N. Lynch, 500 words - USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA-SESSIONS (UPDATE 1, PICTURES), moved, by Warren Strobel and Sarah N. Lynch, 420 words - USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA-MAGNITSKY LAW, moved, 310 words Saudi Arabia says Lebanon declares war, deepening crisis BEIRUT - Saudi Arabia accuses Lebanon of declaring war against it because of aggression by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah, a dramatic escalation of a crisis threatening to destabilise the tiny Arab country. (LEBANON-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 6, PICTURES, TV), moved, by Tom Perry and Lisa Barrington, 690 words) ASIA Papua New Guinea court rejects bid to restore services to asylum-seeker camp SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea’s top court rejects an application to restore water, electricity and food supplies to an Australian-run detention centre for asylum seekers where nearly 600 men have been barricaded for a week. (AUSTRALIA-ASYLUM/ (UPDATE 1), moved, by Colin Packham, 531 words) Vietnam turns on taps at dangerously brimming reservoirs days before APEC summit DANANG - Vietnam releases water from seven dangerously full reservoirs, just days before a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders and after a typhoon killed nearly 70 people. (ASIA-STORM/VIETNAM (PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by Mai Nguyen, 322 words) After WhatsApp threat, Indonesia steps up Internet obscenity purge JAKARTA - Indonesia says it will summon representatives of messaging services and search engines, including Alphabet Inc’s Google, to demand they remove obscene content, a day after threatening to shut down WhatsApp Messenger. (FACEBOOK-WHATSAPP/INDONESIA (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, by Cindy Silviana, 542 words) + See also: - INDONESIA-ISLAMISTS/EDUCATION (PICTURES), moved, by Ed Davies and Augustinus Beo Da Costa, 940 words UNITED STATES Family strife, threats preceded Texas church massacre by former U.S. airman SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas - The gunman who shot 26 worshipers to death and wounded 20 at a Texas church was embroiled in a domestic dispute with his in-laws and had been sending threatening messages to his wife’s mother before the massacre, officials say. (TEXAS-SHOOTING/ (UPDATE 10, PICTURES, TV), moved, by Jon Herskovitz and Lisa Maria Garcia, 870 words) + See also: - TEXAS-SHOOTING/AIRFORCE (UPDATE 1), moved, by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Allen, 540 words) - TEXAS-SHOOTING/VICTIMS (UPDATE 2, FACTBOX, PICTURES), moved, by Angela Moon, 460 words - TEXAS-SHOOTING/GUNMAN (UPDATE 1, PICTURES, TV), moved, by Joseph Ax and Gina Cherelus, 680 words - TEXAS-SHOOTING/CHILD (PICTURES), moved, by Angela Moon, 380 words - TEXAS-SHOOTING/LOCALS (UPDATE 2, PICTURES, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by Sandra Stojanovic, 410 words Republicans push ahead with U.S. tax bill as Democrats sharpen attacks WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers begin revising their proposed overhaul of the U.S. tax code, as Democrats point to the loss of popular deductions as proof the legislation is an assault on the middle class. (USA-TAX/ (UPDATE 5, PICTURES), moved, by Amanda Becker, 820 words) + See also: - USA-TAX/MULTINATIONALS, moved, by Amanda Becker and Tom Bergin, 980 words - PARADISE-TAX/USA (UPDATE 4, PICTURES, TV), moved, 1,010 words Trump wants $4 bln more for missile defence, citing North Korea WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump asks Congress for $4 billion to support missile defence to counter the threat from North Korea, just ahead of his first visit to South Korea since taking office in January. (USA-PENTAGON/BUDGET (UPDATE 1), moved, by Patricia Zengerle, 490 words) EUROPE Eyeing national vote, Berlusconi celebrates win for centre right in Sicily PALERMO, Italy - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks poised for a stunning political comeback as his rightist bloc claims victory in an election in Sicily that puts it in pole position for a national vote due by next May. (ITALY-ELECTION/SICILY (UPDATE 6, PICTURES), moved, by Guglielmo Mangiapane, 800 words) EU to discuss tax havens blacklist after “Paradise Papers” leaks BRUSSELS - European Union states will bring forward a discussion on plans for a tax havens’ blacklists after newly leaked documents revealed investments by wealthy individuals and institutions around the globe, officials say. (EU-ECOFIN/TAXAVOIDANCE (UPDATE 3), moved, Francesco Guarascio, 690 words) + See also: - EUROZONE-EUROGROUP/BUDGET (UPDATE 1), moved, by Jan Strupczewski, 520 words) - BRITAIN-EU/TRADE, moved, 260 words - ECB-BANKS/ITALY (UPDATE 1), moved, 320 words AFRICA Liberian court halts presidential run-off vote amid fraud probe MONROVIA - Liberia’s Supreme Court puts a presidential run-off on hold until the electoral commission can investigate claims of irregularities and alleged fraud in last month’s first round of voting. (LIBERIA-ELECTION/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURES, TV), moved, 430 words) MIDDLE EAST U.S., Turkey restart issue of visas but tension over detentions festers ANKARA - The United States partially resumes issuing visas in Turkey after getting what it says are assurances about the safety of staff at its missions following a number of detentions. (USA-TURKEY/VISA (UPDATE 4), moved, by Ece Toksabay, 660 words)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-2-am-et/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-2-am-et-idUSL3N1ND28W'|'2017-11-07T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'da2c80b42ba68d152282b5f16b41803e38be8814'|'Exelon''s power unit files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy'|'(Reuters) - Exelon Corp’s ( EXC.N ) ExGen Texas Power LLC unit on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling to cope with massive swings in energy prices.Exelon said it would pay ExGen lenders $60 million to retain and operate the Handley Generating Station after it goes through a competitive bidding process and is approved by the court.The remaining four ExGen plants will be owned by lenders, who are giving up their debt for equity, Exelon said. ( bit.ly/2zkZwOx )Sources told Reuters in March that Exelon hired a debt restructuring adviser to help it evaluate options for the subsidiary.Natural gas prices have been under pressure due to oversupply and warm weather in the northeastern United States, which have driven down electricity prices, in turn hurting power plants’ profits.Increased use of renewable energy has also negatively affected power plants that run on fossil fuels.The bankruptcy was filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-exelon-exgen-restructuring/exelons-power-unit-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-idINKBN1D7277'|'2017-11-07T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'af38df627f0d6efa66649ed4ec0913185835f32f'|'Zalando lowers 2017 profit guidance after weak October'|' 41 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Zalando lowers 2017 profit guidance after weak October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German online fashion retailer Zalando ( ZALG.DE ) warned on Tuesday that its full-year operating profit margin would be lower than expected after trading in October was weaker than forecast. FILE PHOTO: A Zalando label lies on an item of clothing in a showroom of the fashion retailer Zalando in Berlin October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke Shares in Zalando, which dipped last month when it reported preliminary figures, were down 4.3 percent in early trading. Zalando, which has seen its profitability dented by heavy investments in logistics and technology as Amazon ( AMZN.O ) makes a big push into fashion, said construction would start this month on a second fulfilment hub in Poland. Zalando said third-quarter sales rose 29 percent to 1.075 billion euros (947.96 million pounds). Adjusted earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) came in at 0.4 million euros, missing average analyst expectations for 2.3 million. Zalando continues to expect full-year revenue growth in the upper half of a 20 to 25 percent range, but forecast its adjusted EBIT margin would come in slightly below 5 percent, under its previous forecast at the lower end of a 5 to 6 percent range. Zalando sales were weak in October due to unseasonally warm weather, co-Chief Executive Rubin Ritter told a conference call for journalists. British rival ASOS ( ASOS.L ) last month raised its sales growth forecast for the financial year from Sept. 1 to 25-30 percent, from a previous 20-25 percent, and said it expected a stable operating profit margin of 4 percent. Zalando said it had 22.2 million active customers at the end of the quarter, a rise on 15.7 percent since the same period last year and the strongest growth since the second quarter of 2015. It said investment would continue through the fourth quarter and beyond after new logistic sites started up in Sweden and Poland, reiterating that it expects about 250 million euros in capital expenditure in 2017, including acquisitions. Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zalando-results/zalando-lowers-2017-profit-guidance-after-weak-october-idUKKBN1D70V3'|'2017-11-07T10:40:00.000+02:00'
'c3f6661b749af1831a96229c4c6a32f9ab3e40fe'|'Draining the dark pools? EU trading rules face uncertain launch'|' 49 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Draining the dark pools? EU trading rules face uncertain launch Helen Reid , Simon Jessop 10 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European Union efforts to bring greater transparency to stock dealing risk having the opposite effect, forcing regulators to intervene once again after new rules come into force in January. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Overall, European regulators want to promote an orderly market following the financial crisis, when opaque trading led to disaster, and ensure small investors get a fair deal. So the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, aims to push more trading onto regulated public exchanges where prices and participants are visible to all. But some investors seeking anonymity and lower fees are likely to opt instead for “systematic internalisers” - dealing platforms run by banks and other market participants which reveal much less information about impending transactions. Market participants say institutional investors who mostly use the established exchanges, such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE), may be tempted to follow suit for some business. The longer-term consequences of the MiFID II regime, which applies from Jan. 3, remain highly uncertain and the exchanges are already fighting back with new products to regain business after suffering a sharp drop over the past decade. Major shifts in European equity trading are on the way due to the regulatory changes. Brian Schwieger, the LSE’s global head of equities, estimated that around a third of UK trade will be up for grabs in the New Year. “That’s all got to find a new home,” he told Reuters. However, Europe’s regulated exchanges already have a much lower market share than in other regions, and some people believe this will shrink rather than grow. “The exchanges will be the losers; not on Day One, but over time,” said Michael Horan, Head of Trading at broker Pershing Securities. He predicts the LSE’s share of European turnover could fall to as little as 30-40 percent from 50-60 percent now. The original MiFID I, born in 2007, has failed to curtail the growth of “dark pool” trading where dealing is done anonymously, unlike on the conventional “lit” markets. GRAPHIC: Dark pool trading volumes in Europe, 2008-2017: reut.rs/2zjamVs Regulators’ ambition this time is to ensure investors get “best execution”, which can mean achieving the fastest, most efficient transaction at the lowest cost for clients. Another aim is for deals on public exchanges to cause minimal price movement, a chief attraction of dark pools. Institutional investors such as pension fund managers and insurance companies putting through a big deal can find the market moves against them when others become aware of the impending transaction. The price can rise before their purchase is executed or conversely fall before their sale goes through. DESIRE FOR ANONYMITY MiFID II’s answer is more transparency to curb market operators’ ability to take advantage of private information which can drive up costs for the institutional investors and, ultimately, their clients. It will prevent investment banks from operating private trading networks, which match their clients’ buy and sell orders and lump the transactions in with their own proprietary dealing, without routing the business through a public market. The banks have to re-register these services as systematic internalisers (SIs), which must provide public price quotes for trades of up to the “standard market size”. However, MiFID II exempts larger deals handled by SIs, acknowledging investors’ desire for anonymity to limit the market impact. Institutional investors, who will ultimately determine where the biggest deals are transacted, are reluctant to say how the changes might affect their trading choices. Amundi, Blackrock, Fidelity, RAM and Vanguard all declined comment for this report. LSE’s Schwieger estimates the banks’ private networks currently handle up to a quarter of stock turnover, with the traditional dark pools accounting for a further 10 percent. So with MiFID II forcing roughly 35 percent of total liquidity into other markets, lit exchanges will gain business. “I can’t see all of it being swallowed by SIs,” he said. Regulators say they will act if their intentions are frustrated. Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), described greater transparency as one of the new rules’ chief aims. “If we see that MiFID doesn’t work as intended, we will use our tools to make sure that is corrected,” he told Reuters at a recent Regulation Summit. These tools could include issuing guidelines to promote consistent implementation, or changes to regulatory technical standards, if appropriate, an ESMA spokesman said. An additional element of uncertainty lies in the fact that Europe’s biggest stock exchange, the LSE, will cease to be in the EU when Britain leaves the bloc in 2019. However, MiFID II will be incorporated into British law and, as UK regulators were a major force in its creation, significant changes seem unlikely after Brexit. PERFORMING POORLY Europe performs comparatively poorly on transparency: around 50 percent of equity trade is conducted on lit public markets against 67 percent in the United States and 88 percent in east Asia, according to data from the OECD and trading software provider Fidessa. Turnover on lit order books on exchanges such as the LSE and the pan-European Euronext was 730 billion euros (£642.4 billion) in September 2017, half the 1.4 trillion euro level of January 2008, data from Reuters Market Share Reporter shows. GRAPHIC: Turnover across trade classes in Europe, 2008-2017: reut.rs/2zj8ITM UBS exchanges analyst Michael Werner said this drop was partly due to the proliferation of multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), alternative dealing systems born from the first iteration of MiFID. Werner sees the SIs - which will also be run by high frequency traders specialising in huge volumes of small orders with razor-thin margins - taking six percent market share, though due to the uncertainty his top-end forecast is 15 percent. The regulator has already closed a loophole in MiFID II which would have allowed SIs to hook up to each other to trade. But Better Finance, a group representing European investors, called on ESMA last month to address parts of the rules it says will give SIs an unfair advantage. One selling point for the SIs is they charge no commission fees because, unlike traditional exchanges and MTFs, they make money purely on bid/ask spreads and volumes traded. MiFID II exempts SIs from rules governing the minimum amount a stock can move for orders larger than standard market size. This means they could offer prices inside the bid/ask spread quoted by the traditional exchanges for certain stocks, lowering investors’ dealing costs. Rainer Riess, director of the Federation of European Stock Exchanges, said this price advantage could help SIs attract a greater share of orders, hurting investors overall. “The more you trade away from lit venues and price formation is weakened, the higher the spreads will become and the higher the transaction costs for everyone in the market,” he said. EXCHANGES FIGHT BACK The new rules cap the amount of a company’s shares that can be traded in dark pools, and the exchanges are using this to fight back. They are introducing products such as closed intra-day auctions, which mimic dark trading, to attract investors keen to avoid showing their hand in the market. For large orders, exchanges could be more attractive than MTFs as their deep pool of liquidity enables them to offer thinner bid/ask spreads on average, UBS analysis found. “If you have an order that’s 5 percent or 10 percent of the average daily volume, there’s a good probability you will have to go on exchange to complete that trade,” said Curtis Pfeiffer, chief business officer at trading algorithm provider Pragma. Recent data indicates exchanges’ strategies are working. Market share is strongly up for most European exchanges this year, figures from the U.S.-based market operator BATS show, while lit MTFs have all lost ground. Werner expects most of the dark pool business will go back to exchanges rather than MTFs. Both the LSE and Euronext have launched platforms for trading large blocks of shares in the dark, which are covered by the MiFID II waiver. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES Ultimately, some investors will always want to hide their orders from the rest of the market. “This whole ‘battle’ between exchanges and SIs is only happening because there’s a genuine market need for off-exchange liquidity, which is being squeezed by the incoming dark pool caps,” said Rob Boardman, CEO of trading platform ITG. Whatever the impact of MiFID II, it is likely to be gradual as participants adapt to the new regime. “There are unintended consequences of every rule. MiFID II is trying to address those but it’s almost certain that more will emerge, in which case we will have MiFID 3,” said Werner. Dark pool trading volumes in Europe, 2008-2017 - reut.rs/2zjamVs Turnover in trade classes in Europe, 2008-2017 - reut.rs/2zj8ITM Reporting by Helen Reid and Simon Jessop; editing by David Stamp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-markets-mifid-analysis/draining-the-dark-pools-eu-trading-rules-face-uncertain-launch-idUKKBN1D71HC'|'2017-11-07T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'2e887fa3e37dc11ce47966c0d8138bf4f651795c'|'Sky investor Odey opposes Fox bid as Disney talks fuel uncertainty'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Investor Crispin Odey said he opposed Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) $15 billion bid for Sky ( SKYB.L ) after a report of separate talks between Rupert Murdoch and Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) added more uncertainty to a takeover facing regulatory hurdles.Veteran hedge fund manager Odey, whose firm has a 0.9 percent Sky stake according to Thomson Reuters data, said that Fox’s 10.75 pound-a-share bid “starts to look like it’s not a very good price” for the European pay-TV broadcaster.Odey’s opposition to the 11.7 billion-pound ($15.4 billion) takeover comes after CNBC reported that Murdoch’s Fox had recently held talks about selling some assets to Disney.That scenario added to the potential obstacles to the Sky deal which faces an in-depth regulatory investigation and strong opposition from some British politicians.“I’d vote against the deal,” Odey told Reuters on Tuesday, when asked about Fox’s offer for the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own.He added: “The interesting thing is: can Sky survive happily without Fox? I think it can quite happily.”Odey, a former son-in-law of Murdoch, had initially backed the Fox bid for Sky, which was announced in December.But in August he told Reuters that he thought the offer was beginning to “look rather mean”, although he stopped short of saying he would oppose it.Sky shares traded 1.2 percent lower at 928 pence by 1520 GMT on Tuesday, well below the bid price.Odey said that he had changed his mind because Sky’s financial results have been “much better than people forecast” , since the offer was made.The Sky News logo is seen on the outside of offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Last month, the British broadcaster posted an 11 percent rise in core earnings to 582 million pounds for the three months to the end of September.DISNEY DEAL? Odey’s comments come after CNBC said that Disney recently discussed buying Fox’s movie and TV production studio studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic and international assets such as the Star network in India and its stake in Sky.The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The talks were not currently ongoing, the broadcaster said.Analysts at Liberum said they still saw a successful conclusion of Fox’s bid for Sky as the most likely outcome, but the Disney-Fox talks had thrown a curveball into the mix.They said Fox may scrap its bid for Sky as part of a proposed sale of assets, and they also noted that Fox’s willingness to consider including the Sky stake in any sale could be seen as a signal that it feels less confident of gaining regulatory approval from the British government.UBS, however, said a combination of Disney and Fox content could strengthen the rationale for buying all of Sky.The British company was already starting to build a pan-European streaming platform with its Now TV and Sky Ticket products, and the addition of content from Disney as well as Fox would only make that more compelling, it said.The bank also said in the event that a Fox/Sky deal was blocked, based on the CNBC article, Disney could be a potential strategic bidder for Sky and it noted it would not have the cross-media complications of a Fox bid.Fox and Sky both declined to comment.Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-walt-disney-sky-plc/sky-falls-as-report-of-disney-fox-talks-increase-deal-uncertainty-idINKBN1D71GN'|'2017-11-07T08:43:00.000+02:00'
'ebdf1b0266d96057fa726d5fcb640db0458ba3b6'|'BRIEF-Swiss cut fees for 5G frequencies, to allot more bands'|'Nov 8 (Reuters) -Swiss government says licence fees for mobile radio frequencies which will be used for future mobile radio technology (5g) are being reduced* Swiss government says licence fees for mobile radio frequencies in the 3 ghz range are being set at a level which is customary internationally* Swiss government says federal communications commission is preparing the allocation of frequencies, amended ordinance will enter into force on 1 january 2018* Swiss government says new frequency bands are to be allocated to the mobile communications sector to enable the launch of “5G” technology in switzerland* Swiss government says use of the 694-790 mhz range of frequencies, originally reserved for broadcasting, will henceforth be designated for broadband mobile radio applications* Swiss government says strategic measures are being taken to enable future use of mobile radio frequencies in additional frequency bands* Swiss government says new frequencies will be allocated in the coming year by swiss federal communications commission Source texts for Eikon:herehereReporting By Zurich newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-swiss-cut-fees-for-5g-frequencies/brief-swiss-cut-fees-for-5g-frequencies-to-allot-more-bands-idINZ8N1N900B'|'2017-11-08T06:15:00.000+02:00'
'dc93dc98be10ebfa58ffecf1435c33c97a6a3a5c'|'Former Yahoo CEO apologise for data breach, blames Russians'|'November 8, 2017 / 3:30 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Former Yahoo CEO apologizes for data breaches, blames Russians David Shepardson 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologized on Wednesday for two massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents for at least one of them, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks on major U.S. companies. ”As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc ( EFX.N ) and a senior Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) executive. “Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users’ data.” Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc’s assets in June, the same month Mayer stepped down. Verizon disclosed last month that a 2013 Yahoo data breach affected all 3 billion of its accounts, compared with an estimate of more than 1 billion disclosed in December. In March, federal prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding a 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber crimes. Those charges came amid controversy relating to alleged Kremlin-backed hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible links between Russian figures and associates of President Donald Trump. Russia has denied trying to influence the U.S. election in any way. Special Agent Jack Bennett of the FBI’s San Francisco Division said in March the 2013 breach was unrelated and that an investigation of the larger incident was continuing. Mayer later said under questioning that she did not know if Russians were responsible for the 2013 breach, but earlier spoke of state-sponsored attacks. Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer waits to testify before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Senator John Thune, a Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, asked Mayer on Wednesday why it took three years to identify the data breach or properly gauge its size. Mayer said Yahoo has not been able to identify how the 2013 intrusion occurred and that the company did not learn of the incident until the U.S. government presented data to Yahoo in November 2016. She said even “robust” defenses are not enough to defend against state-sponsored attacks and compared the fight with hackers to an “arms race.” Yahoo required users to change passwords and took new steps to make data more secure, Mayer said. Slideshow (2 Images) “We now know that Russian intelligence officers and state-sponsored hackers were responsible for highly complex and sophisticated attacks on Yahoo’s systems,” Mayer said. She said “really aggressive” pursuit of hackers was needed to discourage the efforts, and that even the most well-defended companies “could fall victim to these crimes.” The current and former chief executives of credit bureau Equifax, which disclosed in September that a data breach affected as many as 145.5 million U.S. consumers, said they did not know who was responsible for the attack. Senator Bill Nelson said “only stiffer enforcement and stringent penalties will help incentivize companies to properly safeguard consumer information.” Thune told reporters after the hearing the Equifax data breach had created “additional momentum” for Congress to approve legislation. He said Mayer’s testimony was “important in shaping our future reactions.” The Senate Commerce Committee took the unusual step of subpoenaing Mayer to testify on Oct. 25 after a representative for Mayer declined multiple requests for her voluntarily testimony. A representative for Mayer said on Tuesday she was appearing voluntarily. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-databreaches/former-yahoo-ceo-apologizes-for-data-breach-blames-russians-idUKKBN1D825V'|'2017-11-08T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'a6efdac6d414c4424e6f01f66a31e6b44a3cad47'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 8'|'Nov 8 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Syria announced during United Nations climate talks on Tuesday that it would sign the Paris agreement on climate change. The move, which comes on the heels of Nicaragua signing the accord last month, will leave the United States as the only country that has rejected the global pact. nyti.ms/2iD4HiN- On Tuesday, Snap Inc reported revenue for the third quarter that missed Wall Street expectations and also posted a larger-than-expected loss, as well as high costs. In the aftermath, its stock plunged about 20 percent in after-hours trading but recovered slightly. nyti.ms/2iCAcsY- Jarl Mohn, the chief executive of National Public Radio, said on Tuesday that he would take a leave of absence because of health problems. His decision came at a time when the public radio network is grappling with the aftershocks of a sexual harassment scandal. nyti.ms/2iEy2cG- Sina Corp, the Chinese internet company, won a proxy fight against American hedge fund Aristeia Capital last week. On Tuesday, it doubled down to avoid further challenges from activist investors. nyti.ms/2iDgmhn- Activist investor William Ackman suffered a stinging rebuke on Tuesday, failing in his campaign to shake up the board of Automatic Data Processing Inc, the $50 billion payroll-processing firm. nyti.ms/2iDgjlH (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-8-idINL3N1NE2HK'|'2017-11-08T02:24:00.000+02:00'
'6c8b9a133c82687bfd088a9ed2d2a451038501d7'|'Exclusive - Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay: court filing'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 3:05 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Exclusive: Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay - court filing Maki Shiraki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Creditors of bankrupt Takata Corp say the parts maker owes them more than $30 billion after the automotive industry’s biggest recall over its faulty air bags - many times more than the company can repay, a court filing seen by Reuters shows. FILE PHOTO: A woman stands next to a logo of Takata Corp at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo In the biggest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer, Takata sought court protection from creditors in June as costs and liabilities mounted from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits. Its air bag inflators have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles. Takata’s creditors, including automakers such as Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ), banks and bondholders, are seeking 3.77 trillion yen ($33.3 billion) from the supplier, mostly to cover recall costs, according to the filing outlining the company’s debt obligations, which hasn’t been made public. Takata had cash and securities worth just 78 billion yen at end-March - equivalent to just 2 percent of the sum creditors are seeking. It also had tangible assets such as buildings and machinery worth 93 billion yen, but much of these went to the company’s purchaser and the rest is needed to make replacement inflators to supply the recalls. Key Safety Systems, a Michigan-based parts supplier owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp ( 600699.SS ), agreed in June to buy Takata’s non-inflator assets, such as the seatbelt and air bag businesses, for $1.6 billion. A spokesman for Takata declined to comment on the matter. A Honda spokesman said: “We will continue to consider our legal options” to reach a financial settlement. Automakers have recalled or expect to recall by 2019 about 125 million vehicles worldwide to replace air bag inflators, including more than 60 million in the United States. As part of Takata’s bankruptcy restructuring plan, its steering committee recognizes debts of 1.05 trillion yen ($9.26 billion), accepting just 600 billion yen in recall-related costs, according to the filing submitted to the Tokyo District Court. Takata aims to file its restructuring plan to that court by Nov. 27. ($1 = 113.4000 yen) Reporting by Maki Shiaki, with additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by William Mallard and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-takata-bankruptcy-exclusive/exclusive-takata-creditors-seek-30-billion-far-more-than-it-can-pay-court-filing-idUKKBN1D822X'|'2017-11-08T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'db6b019aa17d1717f93ff63096270e99be737aa4'|'UPDATE 1-Wix.com Q3 profit misses estimates, raises 2017 rev forecast'|' 28 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Wix.com Q3 profit misses estimates, raises 2017 rev forecast Reuters Staff * Q3 EPS ex-items $0.01 vs $0.13 forecast * Q3 revenue up 47 percent to $111 mln * Raises 2017 revenue estimate to $423-$424 mln (Adds details, CFO comments, changes dateline from TEL AVIV) By Steven Scheer JERUSALEM, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Wix.com, which helps small businesses build and operate websites, raised its revenue outlook for 2017 due to a jump in conversions to paid products, after posting sharply lower than expected third-quarter profits. Boosted by more users paying for web design products like Wix ADI, the company on Wednesday projected full year revenue of $423-$424 million for 47 percent growth over 2016, up from a prior forecast of $421 million-$423 million. It reported third-quarter profit of 1 cent a share excluding one-time items, compared with a 4 cent loss a year earlier. Revenue grew 47 percent to $111 million. Operating expenses rose to $103.7 million from $73.6 million. Wix was forecast to earn 13 cents a share on revenue of $110 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Chief Financial Officer Lior Shemesh attributed the profit miss to the company opting to use its revenue for marketing of a new product called Wix Code and for research and development. “We prefer to invest in growth, which also increases our free cash flow,” he told Reuters. “We invested more in marketing because we beat our top line (revenue) and also invested more in R&D to be ready for (Wix Code).” Israel-based Wix offers free basic features for setting up websites but users must pay for extra services such as shopping carts, individual web addresses and site traffic analysis. It has 114 million users. During the quarter it converted 188,000 free users to paying -- up 33 percent over the prior year -- for a total of 3.1 million premium customers. In the next few weeks, Wix Code will be launched and targeted towards professional web designers. Shemesh said 90 percent of websites are built by professionals. “We are trying to capture the entire spectrum of the (web design) market,” he said, adding he expects further conversions to premium. Wix Code is not expected to start generating cash until 2019, he said. Shares of Nasdaq-listed Wix, which has a market value of $3.2 billion, are up 56 percent so far this year. Shemesh said that while Wix has generated $210 million of cash, the company was not in a hurry to make acquisitions. Wix, he said, will not air a commercial during the Super Bowl in 2018 as it did this year due to shifting its marketing budget to other advertising. For the fourth quarter Wix estimates revenue of $116-$117 million, up 38-39 percent from a year earlier. (Additional reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Angus MacSwan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/wixcom-results/update-1-wix-com-q3-profit-misses-estimates-raises-2017-rev-forecast-idUSL5N1NE2WG'|'2017-11-08T12:24:00.000+02:00'
'9f764fb2caa3badeac6511b5b155d70250044744'|'LPC-Etraveli finally launches buyout loans'|'Nov 9 (Reuters) - Swedish online travel agency Etraveli has launched €270m of leveraged loans to back its acquisition, some five months after private equity firm CVC agreed to buy the business, banking sources said.CVC announced in June it was buying Etraveli, which operates with brands Gotogate, Supersaver and Seat24, from German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, for €508m.Credit Suisse, Jefferies and UBS committed to the financing but didn’t underwrite it at the time.CVC bought the business eniterly with equity and decided to hold off putting any debt in place until a merger with Greek peer e-Travel was agreed, the banking sources said.That merger was announced earlier this week, triggering the launch of the financing to investors via a syndication process, the sources said.The financing comprises a €240m, seven-year term loan B and a €30m, six-year revolving credit facility, the sources said.A bank meeting is scheduled for November 13, when pricing is expected to emerge. Investors have been asked to commit to the loan by November 24, the sources said.Etraveli is an e-commerce platform for flight tickets and conducts a majority of its business in Western Europe and the Nordics. e-Travel has a similar set-up, but a more robust position in Eastern Europe and a growing presence in the Middle East and Asia Pacific region, according to a statement.Editing by Claire Ruckin '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/etraveli-leveraged-loans/lpc-etraveli-finally-launches-buyout-loans-idINL5N1NF00W'|'2017-11-09T09:52:00.000+02:00'
'5b37a6668981d99fb62723fc45504207d2b81221'|'Fiat Chrysler hopes to win approval for diesel fix by early ''18 - lawyer'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 11:00 PM / a few seconds ago Fiat Chrysler hopes to win approval for diesel fix by early ''18: lawyer David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ) said on Wednesday it hopes to reach an agreement over a fix for vehicles linked to a U.S. diesel emissions scandal by next spring if not earlier. A screen displays the ticker information for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid In May, the U.S. Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler, accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in nearly 104,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States since 2014. It also faces numerous lawsuits from owners of those vehicles. Company lawyer Robert Giuffra said at a court hearing in San Francisco the company expects to win U.S. approval of its proposed fix for the emissions issue by the end of March or early April. Testing is expected to last about three months and start later this month, he said. In July, Fiat Chrysler won approval from federal and California regulators to sell 2017 diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel models. Giuffra has said the company hopes to be able to use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles to address concerns over 2014-2016 Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles. A court mediator, Ken Feinberg, on Wednesday met with the company, government and lawyers for owners to talk about the testing plans. Giuffra has said the engine and emissions controls were identical in the older vehicles to those in the 2017 models. Regulators have said that the older Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution during normal driving. The company has denied wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules. Fiat Chrysler’s emissions case came after Volkswagen AG’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) diesel emissions scandal prompted increased industry scrutiny. The German automaker pleaded guilty in March to having intentionally cheated on emissions tests for vehicles it sold since 2009. Volkswagen has agreed to spend up to $25 billion to address claims from U.S. owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers, and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles. Regulators are also investigating emissions in Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles, but have yet to take any action. Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ) withdrew a request for approval to sell its 2017 Mercedes-Benz diesel models in the United States in May. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-emissions/fiat-chrysler-hopes-to-win-approval-for-diesel-fix-by-early-18-lawyer-idUKKBN1D8384'|'2017-11-09T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'05b64b18c3665293dcc9eaaa1f64dae78207f3b8'|'Dutch to investigate 4,000 corporate tax deals after P&G error'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:54 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Dutch to investigate 4,000 corporate tax deals after P&G error Reuters Staff 2 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands will review 4,000 corporate tax deals agreed between the government and companies between 2012 and 2016 to determine if they were properly issued, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Procter & Gamble (PG) is seen on a tube of toothpaste in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Dutch tax breaks to large international companies came under renewed fire on Tuesday after newly leaked documents revealed what the finance ministry acknowledges were errors in the drafting of a tax ruling for U.S. consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble ( PG.N ). The ministry “would investigate whether more than 4,000 international tax rulings were issued according to the intended procedure,” the deputy finance minister said in a letter to parliament. Documents leaked in the so-called “Paradise Papers” trove of offshore records shed light on a previously undisclosed deal made in 2008, which gave P&G an estimated tax break of $169 million. The set-up of that deal did not meet requirements, as it was signed off only by one inspector of the tax authority. P&G, the maker of Papers diapers, Gillette razors and Tide laundry detergent, issued a statement on Tuesday denying involvement in any form of tax avoidance. The Netherlands has come under increasing pressure in recent years to clamp down on tax avoidance by multinational companies, which funnel trillions of dollars through the country every year to tax havens. The new Dutch government said last month it would try to make the country less attractive to shell companies that act as a conduit for money destined for tax havens. It also promised to lower the corporate tax rate to encourage foreign companies to move their activities to the Netherlands. The Paradise Papers are leaked documents from prominent offshore law firm Appleby that relate to the investments of wealthy individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Catherine Evans and Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-paradise-tax-netherlands/dutch-to-investigate-4000-corporate-tax-deals-after-pg-error-idUKKBN1D8191'|'2017-11-08T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'038bc5aad193ed5a34ca81886a5b9b6c71a4e327'|'U.S. consumer agency sues Freedom Debt Relief for misleading consumers'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:49 PM / in a few seconds U.S. consumer agency sues Freedom Debt Relief for misleading consumers Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Freedom Debt Relief, the largest U.S. debt-settlement services provider, and its co-Chief Executive Andrew Housser for deceiving consumers. The CFPB said its suit alleges “that Freedom charges consumers without settling their debts as promised, makes customers negotiate their own settlements, misleads them about its fees and the reach of its services and fails to inform them of their rights to funds they deposited with the company.” The agency is also seeking compensation for affected consumers, civil penalties, and an injunction against the San Mateo, California-based company and Housser to end their unlawful conduct, it said in a statement. Reporting by Eric Walsh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-freedomdebt-cfpb/u-s-consumer-agency-sues-freedom-debt-relief-for-misleading-consumers-idUSKBN1D82X4'|'2017-11-08T21:45:00.000+02:00'
'a1c523a77cec4dea60f685d2ae828f7ce19a2fc1'|'Johnston Press says Custos Group requisition is invalid'|'November 8, 2017 / 8:10 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Johnston Press says Custos Group requisition invalid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher Johnston Press Plc ( JPR.L ) said on Wednesday the requisition notice from its top shareholder Custos Group seeking a general meeting was “invalid”, but if it gets a valid requisition it would be put to shareholders. A source close to Johnston Press told Reuters the letter was invalid because it had been signed by a wrong person. Activist investor Custos Group, which owns about 20 percent of JPR and run by Christen Ager-Hanssen, on Tuesday sought a shareholder meeting to oust interim Chairman Camilla Rhodes and Michael Butterworth as directors. Ager-Hanssen told Reuters on Tuesday that Custos would push for the appointment of Scotland’s former nationalist first minister Alex Salmond as the publisher’s chairman. JPR publishes the Scotsman newspaper that opposed independence for Scotland in the 2014 vote. The newspaper industry has been hit by the migration of advertisers to online platforms, forcing print publishers, such as Trinity Mirror ( TNI.L ) and Daily Mail and General Trust ( DMGOa.L ) to cut costs drastically. Last week, shareholder Crystal Amber Fund ( CRSL.L ) cut its stake in Johnston Press to 10.48 percent from 18.15 percent. Reporting by Arathy S Nair and Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-johnston-press-shareholders/johnston-press-says-custos-group-requisition-is-invalid-idUKKBN1D80QP'|'2017-11-08T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'0b6860b2a48e5e9414bfd27caddb4c1779196984'|'Shortage of EU workers pushing up UK pay - survey of recruiters'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:07 AM / Updated an hour ago Shortage of EU workers pushing up UK pay - survey of recruiters Reuters Staff 2   British employers are having to raise their pay offers to hire new staff and counter a growing shortage of European Union workers ahead of Brexit, a group representing recruitment firms said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - People walk through the financial district of Canary Wharf, London, Britain 28 September 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde The Recruitment and Employment Confederation said its monthly survey showed starting salaries rose in October at the second-quickest rate since November 2015. “We already know that EU workers are leaving because of the uncertainties they are facing right now,” REC chief executive Kevin Green said. “We therefore need clarity around what future immigration systems will look like. Otherwise, the situation will get worse and employers will face even more staff shortages.” Britain’s official statistics agency said in August that net migration fell to its lowest level in three years with more than half the drop caused by European Union citizens leaving and fewer arriving since the Brexit vote. REC said its survey, conducted with data firm IHS Markit, showed the availability of permanent and temporary workers continued to fall sharply last month. So far, there is little sign that the pressure on salaries detected by REC for workers hired via recruitment agencies is filtering through into the rest of the labour market, despite unemployment falling to its lowest level since the 1970s. Average weekly earnings are rising by just over 2 percent a year, below the rate of inflation which has hit 3 percent. Last week, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in 10 years, in part because it expects the plunge in unemployment in Britain will soon start to push up wages. Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-jobs/shortage-of-eu-workers-pushing-up-uk-pay-survey-of-recruiters-idUKKBN1D8045'|'2017-11-08T03:07:00.000+02:00'
'a80cf061e15ee47e841088f9d07be0b1fa3501ea'|'Innogy, SSE enter binding agreement on UK retail merger'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated an hour ago SSE, Innogy to create UK retail power firm with 11 billion pound sales Christoph Steitz , Susanna Twidale 4 Min Read FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - SSE ( SSE.L ) aims to turn up the heat on top-ranked British Gas with a merger of its UK power and gas retail operations with those of npower, owned by Germany’s Innogy ( IGY.DE ). FILE PHOTO: A sign hangs outside the building of electricity provider npower in Solihull, Britain, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo The deal will bolster second-ranked SSE, creating a supply group with 11 billion pounds in combined sales that could kick off a consolidation in the British energy market where established firms are battling smaller, nimble rivals. The roughly 11.5 million customer accounts of the new firm would move SSE closer to Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas, which has more than 14 million. The company, in which SSE would have a stake of about two thirds, and British Gas would together control more than 50 percent of the market, but Innogy Chief Executive Peter Terium said he was confident British regulators would approve the deal. “When we look at the competitive landscape and the uncertain political environment for energy retailers in Great Britain, it is clear that npower would be better placed to offer value to our customers and our shareholders as part of a new company,” Terium said. The deal, which needs support from SSE shareholders and Innogy’s supervisory board, would cut the number of big energy retailers in Britain to five from six. Closing is expected in late 2018 or early 2019. By merging their retail units, Innogy and SSE form a group with pro-forma sales of 10.9 billion pounds and operating profit of 123 million pounds in 2017. It is expected to become a small or midcap stock once listed on the London Stock Exchange. Innogy and SSE are advised by Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, respectively, Terium said. “TOXIC LIMB” FILE PHOTO - Innogy logo in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen Smaller rivals, often able to offer cheaper deals due to lower overheads, now control around 20 percent of Britain’s market up from less than 1 percent a decade ago. Analysts expect further consolidation in future. Rival E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), one of Britain’s big six power suppliers, on Wednesday said it had lost 200,000 customers in Britain so far this year. Overall, there are around 60 energy suppliers operating in Britain at the moment. “Given the interference in the market with the price cap, and pressure on margins, the natural reaction is for companies is to try to gain scale,” said Peter Atherton, an associate at consultancy Cornwall Insight. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which will need to approve the merger, said it was aware of the deal but would not comment when asked if it would give its approval. Analysts expressed concerns about potential problems combining Innogy’s and SSE’s IT platforms, which according to Bernstein run on two different systems. “While SSE and Innogy can sever a toxic limb through the transaction, 100 percent of RetailCo’s earnings will be exposed to UK political risks and competitive risks,” Deepa Venkateswaran, senior analyst at Bernstein, said. SSE will hold 65.6 percent of the new entity, which will not include its business retail and Ireland operations. Innogy will hold the rest. It will receive a 60 million pounds break fee if SSE fails to get approval for the move by July 31, 2018. “This process is likely to take some time and in the interim we remain absolutely focused on the critical job of delivering for customers,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE. Editing by Maria Sheahan and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sse-innogy/innogy-sse-enter-binding-agreement-on-uk-retail-merger-idUKKBN1D80NM'|'2017-11-08T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'086617fcb4b3103ddb4cf09aca86d8e817a1a97f'|'German ''wise men'' press ECB to tighten monetary policy'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:19 AM / Updated an hour ago German advisers want tighter ECB policy, longer Brexit talks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should wind down its asset purchases quickly and publish a strategy for normalizing its expansive monetary policy, a panel of economic advisers to the German government said on Wednesday. Christoph M. Schmidt, President of the Institute for Economic Research hands over a report of the German Council of Economic Expert''s (SVR) (Sachverstaendigenrat), also known as ''the five wise men'', to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, November 4, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke In their annual report, the five-member German Council of Economic Experts who advise the German government on economic policy said the ECB’s expansive monetary policy risks jeopardizing financial stability and creating market volatility. Germans have led criticism of the ECB’s bond-buying program, which was introduced three years ago to depress borrowing costs and reignite growth in the euro zone’s heavily indebted southern periphery. “In view of macro economic developments, the ECB should quickly reduce the purchases and end them earlier,” group said in its report. Last month, the ECB took a step towards weaning the euro zone off loose money but promised years of stimulus and even left the door open to backtracking. [nL8N1N132C] Flags in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) before a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Market interest rate developments “suggest the ECB should significantly tighten its monetary policy to adapt to macro economic developments”, the group said, pressing the central bank to urgently publish a strategy for normalizing policy. Slideshow (4 Images) The German economy, Europe’s largest, was heading for a “boom phase”, the group added. They raised their forecasts for German economic growth to 2.0 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year. However, the group identified a disorderly, so-called ‘hard Brexit’ as one risk that would hit Britain hardest but also create upheaval in the remaining 27 European Union member countries. “The Council of Experts believes a one-off extension (of Brexit negotiations) that largely preserves the status quo would be sensible,” the group added. With the German economy in robust shape, the wise men urged the next government to tackle the looming challenges of demographic change and digitization rather than focusing on social welfare. Reporting by Paul Carrel and Joseph Nasr Editing by Jeremy Gaunt '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-wisemen/german-wise-men-press-ecb-to-tighten-monetary-policy-idUKKBN1D814P'|'2017-11-08T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'33a87ab8cb2c27d296181f908001a58dfade05de'|'Russian tycoon Mordashov set to sell 2.1 pct of Severstal'|'MOSCOW, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Alexei Mordashov, the majority owner of Severstal is planning to sell a 2.1 percent stake in the Russian steel firm, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday.Goldman Sachs, which is acting as bookrunner on the accelerated bookbuild, said in a statement that it was offering 18 million Severstal shares it had acquired from a company connected to Mordashov.Based on the price of Severstal’s shares in London on Wednesday, the offer could raise up to $276.5 million.Assuming all the shares on offer were placed, Mordashov would retain about 77 percent of Severstal, Goldman Sachs said.Severstal said in a separate statement: “The deal on the sale of the shares should provide more certainty to our most demanding investors from the point of view of share liquidity, and could also potentially unlock additional value for all of the company’s shareholders.” (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Anastasia Teterevleva; writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-severstal-mordashov/russian-tycoon-mordashov-set-to-sell-2-1-pct-of-severstal-idINL5N1NE8BV'|'2017-11-08T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'77c27c3ac327513eac23c8e369003fd0de5280eb'|'Bitcoin surges to new high on reports software ''fork'' suspended'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit a record high just shy of $8,000 on Wednesday after a coalition of developers and investors suspended a software upgrade planned for next Thursday that could have split the digital currency in two.Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration In an email on Wednesday, the lead developer of the team planning to carry out the upgrade said “Segwit2x” would be scrapped for now as it could “divide the community.” The email by Mike Belshe, chief executive of blockchain security firm BitGo, was also signed by some of the biggest names in the bitcoin world.SegWit2x is an agreement among high-profile figures in the bitcoin world aimed at upgrading the bitcoin network’s capacity. It received significant support when it was announced in May but many bitcoin developers had withdrawn support for the upgrade over the last few months, analysts said.The software upgrade would have attempted to address the bitcoin network’s limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. The network has not kept pace with growth and is unable to process transactions fast enough.The upgrade would have changed bitcoin’s rules leading to a so-called fork, effectively cloning the existing bitcoin to create another crypto-currency.Segwit2x was supposed to be the second step in a broad two-step process to enhance transaction capacity. The first step occurred over the summer.“Indefinitely postponing the fork is a healthy move for crypto assets,” said Guy Zyskind, CEO and co-founder of Enigma, a data-driven, crypto-investment platform.“The ability of the bitcoin community to self-correct and avoid a contentious fork inspires confidence and shows how the ecosystem is entering a more mature phase,” he added.Bitcoin surged to a record high of $7,888 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange in the 20 minutes that followed the statement. It was last traded up 3 percent on the day at $7,354.10 BTC=BTSP .“Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for bitcoin,” BitGo’s Belshe said in his email. “Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together.”Charlie Lee, creator of the Litecoin crypto-currency and a leading industry expert, said in a post on Twitter the bitcoin community may need to implement Segwit2x in the future anyway, but it should be done when there is consensus.Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Jemima Kelly in London; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-bitcoin-fork/bitcoin-surges-to-new-high-on-reports-software-fork-suspended-idINKBN1D82OA'|'2017-11-08T20:07:00.000+02:00'
'309e23e6f239f77d7f80765e8d8a46ffcff37268'|'Snap''s shares tumble as user growth fall short of expectations'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:22 PM / in 3 minutes Snapchat launches redesign as growth disappoints Wall Street David Ingram , Pushkala Aripaka 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ) is redesigning its disappearing-message app Snapchat in an attempt to reach a broader audience, going back to the drawing board after being clobbered by Wall Street for another quarter of slowing user growth. A woman stands in front of the logo of Snap Inc. on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while waiting for Snap Inc. to post their IPO, in New York City, NY, U.S. March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Venice, California-based firm, which had the hottest debut of any tech stock in years in March, reported revenue and user growth for the third quarter well below Wall Street expectations as it struggles to compete with Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) Instagram. The disappointing financials and announcement of the redesign sent shares down as much as 20 percent in after-hours trading. They rebounded partially to $12.57, still well below the initial public offering price of $17 in March. Snap’s user growth in the last three months was about half what investment analysts expected. Daily active users rose to 178 million in the third quarter from 173 million in the second quarter. Analysts had expected 181.8 million, according to research firm FactSet. Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said the company was launching the redesign after hearing for years that Snapchat was difficult to understand or hard to use. “We are going to make it easier to discover the vast quantity of content on our platform that goes undiscovered or unseen every day,” Spiegel, 27, said in written remarks prepared for a call with investment analysts. He said that there was a “strong likelihood” the redesign would be disruptive in the short term, but that Snap was willing to take the risk for long-term gain. Such a radical change so soon after an IPO is unusual. But Snap is not the only social media company looking to revive growth by changing its look. Microblogging service Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ) said on Tuesday it would roll out 280-character tweets to users across the world, double the length of its iconic 140-character tweets. Asked on the analyst call what the redesign would look like, Spiegel offered no details but said the company had been studying the evolution of mobile content feeds such as Twitter streams and the Facebook News Feed. “There’s a really exciting opportunity here for another evolution,” he said. REVENUE MISS Revenue, the bulk of which comes from advertisements, rose to $207.9 million from $128.2 million. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $236.9 million. Snap’s average revenue per user rose to $1.17 in the latest quarter, from 84 cents a year earlier, but missed analysts’ average estimate of $1.30. Snap Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan said revenue was affected by a shift toward a software-based auction system for selling ads - a method employed by Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google - which has driven down the average price. The auction system hit revenue in the short term but “builds the foundation for long-term scalable revenue,” Khan said in written remarks. The amount of ads in Snapchat compared to non-ad content, known as “ad load,” remains very low, Spiegel said. Snap recorded a $39.9 million charge in the quarter related to inventory of its hardware product “Spectacles.” The company said it “misjudged strong early demand” and ended up buying more of the product than it could sell. Snap’s Spectacles, at $129.99 a pair, are sunglasses with a video camera on one corner. They allow users to take 10-second videos with the press of a button on the frame, which are then saved to users’ Snapchat account. INVESTORS SOUR In its third earnings report since the company went public in March with a $3.4 billion valuation, Snap posted a net loss of $443.2 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $124.2 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. Wall Street had expected a loss of 32 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Snapchat, popular among millennials for the bunny faces and floral tiaras that people can add to pictures, allows users to chat through a series of disappearing photos and videos. Users can also post images and videos as “stories” - ephemeral posts that can be viewed in chronological order and that disappear after 24 hours. Investors’ view of Snap has soured since its IPO. Before the quarterly release, Snap’s share price was already down 39 percent from its close on March 2, its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Facebook’s shares were up 32 percent over that time. Facebook’s Instagram said in September that it had 500 million daily active users. As of June, Instagram Stories - a replica of Snapchat’s synonymous feature - had 250 million daily users, up from 200 million in April, according to the company. Reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-snap-results/snap-reports-lower-than-expected-daily-active-users-in-third-quarter-idUKKBN1D72YE'|'2017-11-07T23:29:00.000+02:00'
'b4c69b4e5dd4f03debff291571301cf9506dda5b'|'EU to set 30 percent reduction CO2 target for cars and vans by 2030'|'November 8, 2017 / 9:34 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago EU plans credits, fines to boost low-emission car production Alissa de Carbonnel 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union proposed tougher car emissions targets on Wednesday including a credit system for carmakers to encourage the rollout of electric vehicles and fines for exceeding carbon dioxide limits. FILE PHOTO: Cars and trucks are stuck in a traffic jam near Irschenberg, Germany July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo But the plan faces stiff opposition from nations with big automotive industries, with German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel warning on Tuesday that stricter emissions rules could cost growth and jobs. The European Commission’s proposal aims to curb greenhouse gases from transport as part of a drive to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The EU’s executive is keen for legislation to stimulate European industry to develop electric vehicles, afraid that it is falling behind China, Japan and the United States. “The competition is here,” Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said, citing the use of Chinese electric cars by Brussels taxis firms. “The car was invented in Europe and I believe it should be reinvented here.” The proposal calls for a 30 percent reduction in the average CO2 emission of carmakers’ fleets by 2030 compared with 2021 levels. It also sets an interim goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2025 to help ensure automakers start investments early. If they are found in breach of new rules, carmakers face potential fines in the millions of euros, with penalties set at 95 euros for every gram of CO2 above the limit and for each new vehicle registered in that year. Inspired by Californian climate policy, the draft bill would allow carmakers to offset their overall target if the share of zero and low-emission vehicles in their fleet surpasses a benchmark set by regulators. The bar for low-emissions vehicles is set at 50 grams per kilometre - ruling out most hybrid vehicles. European Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete holds a news conference on mobility and climate change package at the EC headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2017. Reuters/Eric Vidal Unlike California’s system - viewed by many in the sector as the leading laboratory for policy on electric cars - EU regulators shied away from quotas. There is also no penalty for failing to meet the zero-emission vehicle benchmark. Heralding tough negotiations with member states and the European Parliament before the bill becomes law, companies called the proposals too ambitious, while environmental campaigners and consumer groups said they did not go far enough. The European carmakers lobby ACEA said the 30 percent target was “overly challenging” and the 2025 interim target did not give the industry enough time to make changes. Slideshow (2 Images) “The current proposal is very aggressive when we consider the low and fragmented market penetration of alternatively-powered vehicles across Europe,” Erik Jonnaert, ACEA secretary general, said in a statement. In a nod to manufacturers’ concerns, the Commission is set to earmark 800 million euros (£708.2 million) to support the rollout of charging points for electric vehicles and 200 million euros for battery development. Outrage over Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) cheating of U.S. emissions tests has put pressure on EU regulators to tighten controls, with several European governments and cities announcing bans of combustion-engine cars in the next two decades. “We want the European automotive industry get back in the race for global leadership on clean vehicles,” EU climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said. The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) said its analysis showed a more ambitious CO2 target would foster the uptake of electrified vehicles. “From a technical standpoint, more progress is definitely possible,” said Peter Mock, the ICCT’s EU managing director. The Commission also set targets for public authorities to source a percentage of either low emission or zero emission vehicles in their public procurement by 2030, for example garbage trucks. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Additional reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-autos-emissions/eu-to-set-30-percent-reduction-co2-target-for-cars-and-vans-by-2030-idUKKBN1D80ZM'|'2017-11-08T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'286ee2b364662e15d0badbaa2239595ec3233a8d'|'U.S. Justice Dept. mulls limits on overlapping corporate penalties'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:21 PM / in 19 minutes U.S. Justice Department mulls limits on overlapping corporate penalties Sarah N. Lynch 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is exploring ways to prevent multiple law enforcement agencies from slapping companies with corporate penalties over the same underlying misconduct, a senior official said on Wednesday. File photo: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces new legislation to stop deadly fentanyl and other opiate substances from entering the United States, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas “Repeated punishment for the same conduct has the potential to undermine the spirit of fair play and the rule of law,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the department’s No. 2 official, said in prepared remarks to a New York conference held by The Clearing House banking trade group. “This is why the department is committed to making a concerted effort to apportion penalties among both international and domestic agencies, where appropriate,” Rosenstein added. Big global banks in recent years have been forced to fork over billions of dollars to settle charges brought in the United States and sometimes abroad stemming from a variety of offenses. These ranged from shoddy practices involving mortgage foreclosures and disclosure violations over the sale of toxic subprime mortgages to the manipulation of key benchmarks such as Libor and violating sanctions. In many cases, such monetary settlements have involved multiple U.S. law enforcement and regulatory agencies and foreign governments that pursued the banks over the same underlying misconduct. Having multiple offices pursue a single company over the same issue can result in a “piling-on problem” that can be unfair to the business, its employees and its shareholders, Rosenstein said. The Justice Department is considering proposals to “improve coordination in those situations and to help avoid duplicative and unwarranted payments,” Rosenstein said, though he did not elaborate on what those proposals could entail. In response to a question by Bank of America Corp ( BAC.N ) General Counsel David Leitch, Rosenstein said that the Justice Department also should consider reviewing how suspicious activity reports, or SARs, are worded. Federal law requires banks to file these reports with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to help the U.S. government detect money laundering. The reports are not always readable or written in a useful way, Rosenstein said. FinCEN on Wednesday announced that it had tapped Kenneth Blanco, the acting head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, as its new director. The Justice Department is in the process of reviewing a number of policies related to white collar crime. Rosenstein previously said the department was reviewing a memo penned by his predecessor, Sally Yates, that urged federal prosecutors to emphasize holding individuals accountable for misconduct and to require companies to cooperate by providing information about possibly culpable employees. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-penalties/u-s-justice-dept-mulls-limits-on-overlapping-corporate-penalties-idUSKBN1D82VE'|'2017-11-08T21:20:00.000+02:00'
'9538164443425c8a146f27dc25bbea592ae57183'|'Bell Helicopter signs deal to sell 50 aircraft to Reignwood International'|'BEIJING, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Bell Helicopter, part of Textron Inc, on Wednesday reached a deal to sell 50 additional Bell 505 helicopters to Reignwood International, the company said in a news release.The companies also agreed that Reignwood would serve as the exclusive reseller for the Bell 505 in China.The deal was witnessed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross during President Donald Trump’s state visit to China, the announcement said.Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-commerce/bell-helicopter-signs-deal-to-sell-50-aircraft-to-reignwood-international-idINS6N1MZ025'|'2017-11-08T05:25:00.000+02:00'
'1b37b6ef59bf54685bb7ee532fe7e6ac6ab5ea00'|'BP joins Shell in helping Mexico execute oil hedge - sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 11:37 AM / in 5 minutes BP joins Shell in helping Mexico execute oil hedge - sources Dmitry Zhdannikov 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - BP ( BP.L ) helped Mexico executive its 2018 oil hedge, the biggest in the industry, becoming the second major after Shell to participate in the highly coveted programme and challenging the traditional role of banks in the operation. FILE PHOTO: A general view of a new BP petrol station on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo Three industry sources said BP has become a participant of the 2018 programme on which Mexico spent some $1.26 billion (£958.7 million) to hedge its 2018 oil exports against oil price falls as part of government’s efforts to stabilise its budget. BP declined to comment. BP joins rival Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), which made a first foray last year to become the first major to challenge years of dominance of big Wall Street banks in the programme. Shell declined to comment. Banks such as Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Citi ( C.N ) and JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) have dominated Mexico’s programme for years but their role has diminished with tighter regulations on bank commodity trading, including a near total ban on proprietary trading. Commodities-related revenue across Wall Street banks broadly tumbled in the first half of 2017 to its lowest level since at least 2006, consultancy Coalition said in a report. This was due mainly to a drop in client activity and a slump in trading performance in the energy sector. Mexico did not disclose the volumes of oil hedged nor detail of the average price per barrel of put options that the government has purchased. In September, the finance ministry proposed a 2018 budget that based expected oil export revenue on an estimate of $46 per barrel. In October, members of Congress increased that estimate to $48.5 per barrel as global oil prices rose. On Tuesday, Brent oil prices stood at $64 per barrel [O/R] For more than a decade, Mexico’s government has paid for a hedge every year in a bid to guarantee its revenues from oil exports by state company Pemex. The programme is seen as the world’s top sovereign derivatives trade. Last year, the government bought put options at an average price of $38 per barrel to cover 250 million barrels of crude at a cost of $1.03 billion and underpin the 2017 budget, which was based on an average price of $42 per barrel. This year, Mexico is on track to not see any income from its oil hedge as prices for Mexican crude trade well above $50 per barrel. In 2016, Mexico saw a $2.65 billion payout from its oil hedge. Mexico used to receive about one-third of federal revenues from oil sales, but it now funds less than one-fifth of the budget with oil sales after the collapse of crude prices in late 2014 and a decline in production. Additional reporting by Julia Payne and Ron Bousso, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mexico-oil-bp/bp-joins-shell-in-helping-mexico-execute-oil-hedge-sources-idUKKBN1D71G7'|'2017-11-07T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'80c153040f4a1348702e0c23e38ca1a98b08dc66'|'T-Mobile-Sprint merger would not have created value-D.Telekom CEO'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom ended talks on a merger between its T-Mobile US business and Sprint Corp because it would not have created value, CEO Tim Hoettges told staff after the deal collapsed at the weekend.Hoettges said he flew 50,000 km in seven days to try to save the deal, meeting Masayoshi Son, head of Sprint owner Softbank Corp, at his private home in Tokyo only for the two sides to decide against a deal.“In the end, it is always about creating value for shareholders. Our impression was that this did not work out,” Hoettges wrote in a blog post to staff that was seen by Reuters.The deal would have created a business with 130 million customers - a close third behind AT&T and Verizon.Alone, T-Mobile has 70.7 million customers and although it has added more than a million subscribers for 18 quarters in a row it will take a long time to close the gap.T-Mobile has invested more than $40 billion in the last six years to scale up its operations, but without Sprint’s spectrum portfolio faces further spending as U.S. telecoms players gird for the rollout of 5G services, analysts say.Hoettges said day-to-day control and respective ownership of the merged entity; valuation; financing; and regulatory issues had all been important issues throughout the talks on bringing T-Mobile and Sprint together.“On the basis of these four points, we together decided against a merger,” he said. “This decision was not easy for us, we struggled hard. But on the other hand, I have always said: We don’t do bad deals.”Shares in Deutsche Telekom were slightly higher after shedding 2.6 percent on Monday. It reports third-quarter results on Thursday.Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sprint-corp-ma-t-mobile-deutsche-telekom/t-mobile-sprint-merger-would-not-have-created-value-d-telekom-ceo-idINL5N1ND24E'|'2017-11-07T05:48:00.000+02:00'
'389119f1c608bb9d90dd9d9cec3886849d7038b9'|'ECB looking at case-by-case solutions for soured bank credit'|'Reuters TV United States  47 AM / a few seconds ago ECB looking at case-by-case solutions for soured bank credit Reuters   The   will look for case-by-case solutions to resolve nearly 900 million euros ($1.04 billion) worth of soured debt weighing down the bloc’s banking sector, ECB supervisory chief Daniele Nouy said on Tuesday. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the   (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The ECB has come under fire recently for proposing blanket provisioning rules on new non performing loans and some critics, particularly in Italy, have warned the ECB against setting similar rules for soured debt already on the books. “For the legacy (NPLs), well, the situation is very diverse, so it has to be only case by case assessment and solutions,” Nouy   are working with all the banks that have too high levels of non performing exposures.” “They have submitted their own plans to address the issue,” she said. “We challenge those plans to make sure they are ambitious enough and they are credible enough. To be credible, they have to be realistic; they can’t promise us miracles.”   Writing by Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-ecb-nouy/ecb-looking-at-case-by-case-solutions-for-soured-bank-credit-idUKKBN1D712E'|'2017-11-07T11:41:00.000+02:00'
'abccb3a8b2164dc89597b54b6dd9ee518edc57a5'|'CEE MARKETS-Zloty firms, Polish central bank may signal CPI worry'|'* Polish central bank is seen keeping rates on hold * Forecasts may show CPI worries, zloty firms slightly * Leu regains some ground after plunge * Regional labour markets are tight By Sandor Peto and Luiza Ilie BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The zloty firmed slightly on Wednesday as the Polish central bank (NBP) started a meeting which may be followed by comments showing increasing worries over inflation. All 14 analysts in a Reuters poll last week projected that the bank will keep its record-low 1.5 percent key rate on hold. According to the median forecast in the poll, the next likely move is a 25 basis point hike in the fourth quarter of 2018. Any signal from the bank, which will also publish new economic forecasts, that it is worried about inflation could be interpreted as a sign that a rate hike may come earlier than expected, market participants said. "We reiterate our projection of additional zloty appreciation potential towards EUR/PLN 4.20 until year-end," Raiffeisen analyst Wolfgang Ernst said in a note. The zloty firmed 0.1 percent to 4.2406 against the euro by 0855 GMT. Expectations for interest rate rises have also helped bank stocks listed in Warsaw. Their index and the bourse''s bluechip index steadied, after hitting multi-year highs on Tuesday. A rebound in inflation in the past year have nudged some central bankers in the Eastern wing of the European Union towards more hawkish bias. The Czech central bank has lifted its key interest rates twice since August, and the crown trades near four-year highs against the euro. Romania''s central bank said on Tuesday that it was moving towards a full-fledged inflation targeting, focusing on keeping market interest rates closer to its benchmark rate. The leu plunged to its weakest levels in more than five years after the comments because governor Mugur Isarescu signalled more flexibility on the exchange rate. On Wednesday, the currency regained some ground, trading at 4.6295 against the euro. A decline in the ratio of foreign currency lending in Romania makes a weaker leu less painful. But the euro continues to play an important role in the economy, and any downward leu adjustment is likely to be gradual and controlled, ING Romania chief economist Ciprian Dascalu said. A likely surge in government leu spending late this year maintains uncertainty in markets, and the government meets on Wednesday to discuss a controversial tax overhaul plan. Romania has led a regional surge in wages and economic output, and the expected inflation and budget impacts have triggered worries. Regional labour markets are very tight, mainly due to a flow of workers into richer Western countries. Czech figures released on Wednesday showed a drop in the unemployment rate to 3.5 percent, the EU''s lowest level, in October. Poland''s jobless rate fell to a record low of 6.6 percent, Labour Minister Elzbieta Rafalska said. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 0955 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.555 25.561 +0.02 5.68% 0 0 % Hungary 311.80 311.58 -0.07% -0.96% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2406 4.2457 +0.12 3.85% % Romanian leu 4.6295 4.6316 +0.05 -2.04% % Croatian 7.5404 7.5410 +0.01 0.19% kuna % Serbian 118.76 118.76 +0.00 3.86% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1057.0 1055.7 +0.12 +14.6 4 3 % 9% Budapest 39732. 39809. -0.19% +24.1 27 00 5% Warsaw 2537.0 2536.3 +0.03 +30.2 3 7 % 4% Bucharest 7766.9 7747.6 +0.25 +9.62 4 9 % % Ljubljana 786.09 784.85 +0.16 +9.55 % % Zagreb 1816.4 1816.5 -0.01% -8.94% 3 7 Belgrade 730.05 729.68 +0.05 +1.77 % % Sofia 675.14 674.34 +0.12 +15.1 % 3% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.377 0.079 +114b +8bps ps 5-year 0.746 0.045 +112b +4bps ps 10-year 1.563 -0.035 +124b -4bps ps Poland 2-year 1.615 0 +238b +0bps ps 5-year 2.653 0.002 +303b +0bps ps 10-year 3.413 0.003 +309b +0bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.89 0.99 1.11 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.085 0.115 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.78 1.83 1.93 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-zloty-firms-polish-central-bank-may-signal-cpi-worry-idINL5N1NE31H'|'2017-11-08T06:55:00.000+02:00'
'5dd2b2429cc8f772085740e38c04bcd6188ae035'|'US wants ''structural remedies'' for approval of AT&T''s purchase of Time Warner -source'|'Nov 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing AT&T Inc for “structural remedies” in order to satisfy antitrust concerns over its purchase of Time Warner Inc, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.Structural remedies generally involve the sale of assets or creation of new competitors through licensing of intellectual property. (Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-remedies/us-wants-structural-remedies-for-approval-of-atts-purchase-of-time-warner-source-idINL1N1NE139'|'2017-11-08T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'b51ab034ea2dc1fcc594eeb3006d02f4f6c331cf'|'JPMorgan chief held private talks with PM May, Hammond - Sky News'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:50 PM / Updated 2 hours ago JPMorgan chief held private talks with UK''s May, Hammond: Sky News Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, held private talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May and finance minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday, Sky News reported. FILE PHOTO: Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Dimon warned May and Hammond that the French government is intensifying efforts to lure British banking jobs to France, Sky News also reported. bit.ly/2m4GTJD In the meeting which was also attended by Daniel Pinto, who runs JPMorgan''s investment bank globally, the bankers committed to retaining "a large proportion" of their existing UK operations after Brexit, Sky News also reported. bit.ly/2m4GTJD JPMorgan and British Government were not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-britain-vacancies/jpmorgan-chief-held-private-talks-with-uks-may-hammond-sky-news-idUKKBN1D82WX'|'2017-11-08T21:39:00.000+02:00'
'aa0ec65022549086685c0e515e89143cee2f5adf'|'Prysmian reports 3 pct rise in 9-mth core earnings'|'MILAN, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Prysmian, the world’s largest cable maker, reported on Monday a 3.3 percent rise in 9-month adjusted core earnings, amid speculation it is one of the bidders in the race to buy U.S. rival General Cable.The Milan-based group said 9-month adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at 545 million euro, exactly in line with an analyst consensus published by the company.The cable maker confirmed a guidance of between 710 and 750 million euros for full-year core earnings, despite the negative impact of results reported by its subsidiary Oman Cable Industries and adverse currency swings.Revenue in the period fell 1.1 percent on organic basis to 5.865 billion euros due to contraction of its energy project business. (Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Stephen Jewkes) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/prysmian-results/prysmian-reports-3-pct-rise-in-9-mth-core-earnings-idINI6N1MU029'|'2017-11-07T12:33:00.000+02:00'
'10081cb256834cd8ecf3cc3062bf0a461ced41c4'|'ECB''s Draghi calls for joint effort with lawmakers on bad loans'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:45 AM / in 17 minutes Stung by criticism, ECB seeks to defuse conflict on bad loans Francesco Canepa 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank sought on Tuesday to defuse a conflict with European and Italian authorities over its plans for ridding euro zone banks of bad loans, opening the door to working with other institutions and tailoring its approach to each bank. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi waits to address the European Parliament''s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in Brussels, Belgium September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The ECB has come under fire for setting blanket rules for how much money banks should set aside for new unpaid loans. It is due to draft guidelines by March for existing soured credit, a much bigger issue at nearly 900 billion euros (£792.7 billion). Critics, including Italian Economic Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and the Italian head of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, fear the new rules will force banks to curtail lending or even need new capital. They also say the guidelines encroach on the European Parliament’s prerogatives and fail to account for countries, such as Italy, where justice is slow and the economic recovery fragile. But ECB President Mario Draghi appeared to extend an olive branch on Tuesday, calling for a “joint effort” between regulators, supervisors and national authorities. “Currently the most important issue here is tackling non-performing loans,” Draghi, himself an Italian, told an ECB conference. “We therefore need a joint effort by banks, supervisors, regulators and national authorities to address this issue in an orderly manner,” Draghi said. His comments raised the chances the ECB’s guidelines on legacy loans will be influenced by a legislative proposal that the European Commission is preparing in parallel on the matter, as reported by Reuters last month. Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday there was “a general agreement” among euro zone finance ministers about the ECB approach. But Italy’s Padoan dissented, saying on Tuesday the plan went “beyond the supervisory limits” set for the ECB and called for a “reasonable method and timeframe” that did not create “new fragility”. ITALIAN FEARS For Italian banks, sitting on a quarter of the euro zone’s bad loans, the main fear is that the guidelines for new bad loans, which give banks seven years to provide for credit backed by collateral and two years for unsecured debt, may be applied to legacy ones too. Their worries were echoed by the European Banking Federation, which said in a letter to EU authorities the new rules will put euro zone’s banks at a competitive disadvantage. Speaking after Draghi, the ECB’s chief supervisor Daniele Nouy sought to assuage those fears, stressing the approach to legacy loans will be “case by case”. “For the legacy (NPLs), well, the situation is very diverse, so it has to be only case by case assessment and solutions,” Nouy told a conference. “We are working with all the banks that have too high levels of non performing exposures.” Sources had told Reuters the ECB was rethinking its approach to legacy NPLs, originally modelled around its guidelines on new bad loans, due in part the Italian backlash. Editing by Balazs Koranyi and Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-ecb/ecbs-draghi-calls-for-joint-effort-with-lawmakers-on-bad-loans-idUKKBN1D712I'|'2017-11-07T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'42eea0aeb1c4a525d54238cf9f1fcbbca411f485'|'UPDATE 1-Drop in German industrial output masks robust outlook'|' 11 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Drop in German industrial output masks robust outlook Reuters Staff * Output falls 1.6 pct m/m in September after August’s surge * Reuters poll had projected a drop of 0.8 pct * Strong orders data signals further output gains * Economy ministry says industrial sector remains “lively” (Adds analysts, data) By Paul Carrel BERLIN, Nov 7 (Reuters) - German industrial production fell in September after surging a month earlier, but output still grew by 0.8 percent in the third quarter as a whole and should increase further in the months ahead, the Economy Ministry said. Industrial output fell by 1.6 percent in September after rising by 2.6 in August, the biggest gain in more than six years, data from the Economy Ministry showed on Tuesday. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast a drop of 0.8 percent. A breakdown of the data showed a sharp drop in production of capital goods. But industrial activity remained “very lively” and production rose by 0.8 percent in the third quarter as a whole, the ministry said, adding: “Overall, industrial production should expand further in the coming months.” Figures from the ministry on Monday showed industrial orders rose unexpectedly in September, driven by demand from other euro zone countries for capital goods. That suggests the economy will extend its expansion in the coming months. “Despite today’s setback, all ingredients are in place to see a resurgence of industrial activity in the coming months,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. Despite protracted talks on forming a new German coalition government, Brzeski said, “spending more money in our view remains the easiest-to-agree-on common denominator for any next German government. Therefore, keep your seat belts fastened, the fast ride of the German economy should continue soon.” Despite weeks of exploratory discussions, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens remain far apart on a range of issues as they try to form a three-way coalition. Helping the coalition negotiators is the strong economy, which is generating a budget surplus that leaves room to satisfy all sides, to some degree, by paying for both tax cuts and investment in areas such as upgrading infrastructure. Germany’s DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce last month raised its growth forecast for Europe’s biggest economy to 2.0 percent for this year from its previous estimate of 1.8 percent and sees an even stronger expansion next year. Gross domestic product growth data for the third quarter will be published on Nov 14. Underlining the health of the economy, carmaker BMW on Tuesday raised its outlook for pretax profit this year, although third-quarter earnings fell on upfront costs for new technologies and models. It is counting on record sales of luxury cars. Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Michael Nienaber'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-economy-output/update-1-drop-in-german-industrial-output-masks-robust-outlook-idUSL5N1ND1EI'|'2017-11-07T10:11:00.000+02:00'
'562b1a7bd17a7438d6f499faf0a8163d7ecbd316'|'EU Parliament legal service says ECB bad loan plan beyond its competence'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 3:10 PM / a few seconds ago EU Parliament legal service says ECB bad loan plan beyond its competence Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The legal service of the European Parliament said on Wednesday that the European Central Bank’s plan to force banks to set aside more money for new loans that turn sour goes beyond the bank’s competence, adding new criticism to the battered project. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The document, dated Nov. 8 and seen by Reuters, said the ECB had “no competence” to adopt the plan in its current form, because it imposes “binding rules of general scope applicable to all banks” supervised by the bank. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-ecb-parliament/eu-parliament-legal-service-says-ecb-bad-loan-plan-beyond-its-competence-idUKKBN1D823S'|'2017-11-08T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'32feba9306dc38dd132b2f4ea4f22cec7d9a5f40'|'Toyota forecasts tough outlook for U.S. sales, yen boost to overall profit'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:26 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Toyota forecasts tough outlook for U.S. sales, yen boost to overall profit Naomi Tajitsu 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) upgraded its full-year operating profit forecast by 8 percent on expectations of a weaker yen but flagged a dour outlook for North America, its biggest market, where quarterly sales fell to the lowest in nearly three years. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toyota Motor Corp. is seen on a company''s Corolla car in Caracas, Venezuela October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo Japan’s largest automaker is struggling to sell more cars in North America, where automakers are battling for customers with aggressive discounts, particularly on sedans as driver preferences shift to bigger SUVs and pick-up trucks. This has raised marketing costs for Toyota and other automakers. Profitable growth in North America is important to Toyota to help it sustain big investments it is planning to make in fast-growing new technologies such as automated driving functions and artificial intelligence. Toyota said on Tuesday it now expects full-year operating profit to come in at 2.0 trillion yen ($17.54 billion), up from a previous forecast of 1.85 trillion yen, based on a revised assumption that the yen will trade around 111 yen JPY= to the U.S. dollar, from 110 yen. The updated profit forecast number is more or less similar to last year’s operating profit of 1.99 trillion yen and in line with forecasts of a profit of 2.04 trillion from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Toyota Executive Vice President Osamu Nagata said that the improved forecast was largely due to a positive currency impact, adding that marketing activities, including financial incentives in the United States, would cut into overall profitability this year. “Weakening profitability in our U.S. operations is still having a negative impact,” Nagata told reporters at an earnings conference, adding that the shift in demand from sedans to SUVs and falling residual values of leased vehicles would continue to weigh on the company. “We still have a lot of work to do there.” In July-September, the maker of the Prius gasoline hybrid and the RAV4 SUV crossover sold around 672,000 vehicles in North America, down from around 684,000 a year ago. It was Toyota’s lowest quarterly sales there since the January-March 2015 quarter. The automaker anticipates lower annual retail sales in the region for the year to March. At home, sales fell 4.2 percent during the quarter to 543,000 units. QUARTERLY RESULTS, SHARE BUYBACK Honda Motor Co Ltd ( 7267.T ), Japan’s third-biggest automaker, and smaller Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) both reported earlier this month that they sold fewer vehicles in North America during July-September and spent more on incentives to whittle down inventories. Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ), the nation’s second-biggest vehicle maker, will report its results on Wednesday. Toyota is fighting to stay competitive in the U.S. market, which is coming off a strong run that culminated in record sales of 17.55 million vehicles industry-wide in 2016. For the past year or so, Toyota has been raising the production of its Tacoma and Tundra pick-up trucks and its RAV4 SUV crossover, to capitalize on strong demand for larger models. But improving sales in other markets have been offsetting weakness in the United States. Quarterly vehicle sales rose 8.0 percent in Europe, and 0.3 percent in Asia. In growing markets, which include central and South America, sales rose 0.6 percent. “Even if sales in the U.S. have flattened out, they’re seeing growth in a lot of other markets, like ASEAN, Brazil and Russia, which were considered weak spots not so long ago,” CLSA managing director Chris Richter said. Toyota posted a 10 percent rise in operating profit for the second quarter, exceeding analysts’ forecasts for 515.3 billion yen. It also announced a share buyback worth 250 billion yen, the latest in a series of buybacks it has been making over the past few years. ($1 = 114.0000 yen) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-results/toyota-posts-10-pct-rise-in-q2-operating-profit-above-expectations-idUSKBN1D70JC'|'2017-11-07T13:32:00.000+02:00'
'c512ec1a4fd6b1d38c3aea02103371d624e4b4d3'|'Drug distributor McKesson to buy CVS''s specialty distribution unit'|'(Reuters) - Drug distributor McKesson Corp ( MCK.N ) said on Monday it would buy drugstore operator CVS Health Corp’s ( CVS.N ) unit that provides various tailored services to pharma firms in a $735 million deal to expand the range of services it offers.The unit, RxCrossroads, provides reimbursement support, integration with network pharmacies, patient adherence programs, specialty logistics services, sales operations support and mail-order pharmacy services.McKesson said the deal will also add plasma logistics to its manufacturer services, which will allow it “to serve biopharma companies of all sizes and throughout the product life cycle.”The deal comes as growing speculation that Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) is planning to enter the prescription drug business has sent tremors through the pharmaceutical supply chain and rattled the shares of the drug distributors, pharmacy benefit managers and drug retailers.Many companies in the industry are preparing for the online retailer’s entry, with the latest comments coming from CVS Health itself earlier in the day after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.CVS Health said it would start next-day delivery from its stores in 2018, a move analysts said was to fortify itself against Amazon’s possible entry.CVS Health, which acquired RxCrossroads from Omnicare Inc in 2015, is also reported to be in talks to buy health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ).McKesson said the deal to buy RxCrossroads was valued at about $635 million, net of the present value of incremental cash tax benefits. The deal will be funded by cash on hand.McKesson said the deal will add about 20 cents to its adjusted earnings per share by the third year after the deal closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.Shares of McKesson and CVS Health were little changed in trading after the bell.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D''SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cvs-health-m-a-mckesson/drug-distributor-mckesson-to-buy-cvs-healths-unit-for-735-million-idINKBN1D62RB'|'2017-11-06T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'196e1e59fc8f8e95aa263481c3c9bb50b40725af'|'Shell to hand over Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield by end June 2018 – Iraqi oil officials'|' 28 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Shell to hand over Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield by end June 2018 – Iraqi oil officials Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BASRA, Iraq, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell agreed to exit the Majnoon oilfield and hand over its operation to the state-run Basra Oil Co. by the end of June 2018, two oil officials close to the deal said on Wednesday. A letter signed by Iraqi oil minister Jabar Luaibi, dated Aug. 23 and seen by Reuters, gave approval for the Anglo-Dutch company to quit Majnoon, a major oilfield near Basra which started production in 2014. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed, editing by Louise Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/iraq-oil-shell/shell-to-hand-over-iraqs-majnoon-oilfield-by-end-june-2018-iraqi-oil-officials-idUSL5N1NE3GK'|'2017-11-08T12:27:00.000+02:00'
'18dbd9c7d6af35bf990e880f6d80c8a4a4badcd1'|'Tesla buys automation equipment maker Perbix'|'Reuters TV United States November 7, 2017 / 1:07 PM / in a few seconds Tesla buys automation equipment maker Perbix Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Electric car maker Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) said on Tuesday it agreed to buy privately held Perbix Machine Co Inc, which designs automated manufacturing equipment. A Tesla Model X is photographed alongside a Model S at a Tesla electric car dealership in Sydney, Australia, May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Minnesota-based Perbix has been a Tesla supplier for nearly three years and an acquisition by the carmaker would allow it to bring more parts production in house. bit.ly/2hilfQb “With the acquisition of Perbix, Tesla further advances its efforts to turn the factory itself into a product – to build the machine that makes the machine,” Tesla said on its website. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has insisted on performing much of the work within the company, one of the reasons Tesla has been continually pushing back production targets for the Model 3 sedan. Tesla makes many of its auto parts, including car seats, which big automakers usually farm out to specialists. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-perbix-m-a-tesla/tesla-buys-automation-equipment-maker-perbix-idUKKBN1D71PH'|'2017-11-07T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'9161e3cc5ff62b117661b44ba248160ea609a505'|'Exclusive - Foreign credit card firms hit JV obstacle in China push: sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 2:35 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Exclusive - Foreign credit card firms hit JV obstacle in China push: sources Sumeet Chatterjee , Matthew Miller 5 Min Read HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - China is pressing foreign payment card companies to form local joint ventures for onshore operations, said three people familiar with the matter, a move that would counter a pledge on market access Beijing made to U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE PHOTO: A Mastercard logo is seen on a credit card in this picture illustration August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The push to get foreign card issuers to enter into equity tie-ups with Chinese companies, instead of running fully-owned units, comes ahead of Trump’s visit to China this week, and could further delay access to China’s rapidly-growing market for foreign card companies like MasterCard ( MA.N ) and Visa ( V.N ). The Trump administration has been a fierce critic of what it sees as China’s mercantilist policies. In September, Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative, criticized China for forcing companies into joint ventures. Trump also called the U.S. trade deficit with China “horrible” ahead of a trip to Asia that started Friday and includes visits to five countries, including China. Foreign card companies have been lobbying for more than a decade for direct access to China, which is set to become the world’s No.1 bank card market by 2020, according to GlobalData, a research company. In 2012, the World Trade Organisation ruled that China was discriminating against foreign card companies. In May, Beijing and Washington agreed on a deadline for China to issue guidelines for the launch of local operations by U.S. payment network operators, leading to “full and prompt market access”. Some of the foreign card issuers, who were looking to set up their wholly-owned operations in China, have “informally” been told by the authorities to enter into equity joint ventures with local companies, said the three people, who have been briefed on the discussions with the central bank. It was not immediately clear whether the foreigners would be allowed to own majority stakes in the joint ventures, the people said. In most other financial services businesses, foreign companies are allowed to own minority holdings. “While this is in line with how they treat foreign investments in other financial services, expectations were building up for wholly-owned operations because foreign firms can never be a big competitor to UnionPay,” said one of the people. The person was referring to the near monopoly of the state-backed China UnionPay Co Ltd in the domestic bank card market. Visa, the world’s largest payments network operator, was the first to submit its application for a licence in July, after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, issued the guidelines on June 30. Visa’s application, however, has been put on hold, and the company has been asked informally to firm up its local equity partnership before resubmitting the application, said two people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: An American Express and a Visa credit cards are seen on a computer keyboard in this picture illustration taken September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/Illustration/File Photo All the people who spoke to Reuters declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. The PBOC did not respond to a faxed request for comment. A spokesman for American Express said the company had submitted an application for a payment clearing and settlement licence in China. “We continue to consult with the PBOC and will seek their guidance as we progress,” he said, without elaborating. A Visa spokeswoman said the company had put in an application with the Chinese central bank and that it expected the PBOC would consider that “in line with the publicly released measures and guidelines.” Mastercard did not respond to request for comment. OPERATIONAL CONTROL The latest development in the long wait for U.S. card companies to access China’s yuan-denominated onshore settlement market would also add to foreign investors’ complaints over discriminatory Chinese policies and market access restrictions. While the foreign companies have been waiting to offer yuan-denominated cards since the WTO ruling in 2012, UnionPay has expanded well beyond China with a presence in over 160 countries including the United States, and many countries in Europe. It had a 55 percent share in the global debit card market in 2015, according to Euromonitor. Some industry insiders have privately expressed concerns about whether China would provide a level-playing field for foreign companies. Limiting the ownership of the global card companies in the local operations could have an impact on their operational control and dealings with overseas parents - a normal course of doing business for them elsewhere, they said. Even after getting a local equity partner, foreign bank card companies would have to subject themselves to unspecified national security reviews and agree to set up data systems within China. Some U.S. payment card companies however, could see benefits from forming joint ventures with large, local companies with an existing customer database and access to networks across China, two of the people said. Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Matthew Miller; Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-payments-usa-exclusive/exclusive-foreign-credit-card-firms-hit-jv-obstacle-in-china-push-sources-idUKKBN1D706P'|'2017-11-07T04:37:00.000+02:00'
'bffd45d1116e3fdcb29f5d3392b5886bf2938d8a'|'CEE MARKETS-Leu eases, Romanian central bank hawks seen still weak'|'* Leu eases ahead of Romanian central bank meeting * Romanian bank may cool rate hike expectations-analysts * Polish bank stocks surge on Q3 results, rate hike hopes * Small-cap stocks put Budapest index on rollercoaster By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The leu eased on Tuesday while other Central European currencies were mixed ahead of a meeting of the Romanian central bank that is expected to deliver a relatively dovish message. The latest meetings of the European Central Bank and then the Czech central bank surprised many people by giving less-hawkish-than-expected guidance, even though the latter increased its key rate last week for the second time in three months. Romania may also try to curb expectations for rate hikes, some analysts said. Seven out of nine analysts in a Reuters poll projected that its main rate will stay 1.75 percent and only two forecast a 25 basis point hike to fight increasing inflation pressures in the robustly growing economy. "We anticipate a dovish tightening by the central bank with the narrowing of the standing facilities corridor being widely expected but we see a more cautious message from the central bank to trim some aggressive rate hike expectations for 2018," ING analysts said in a note. "A dovish tightening from the central bank today could offer more support for Romanian government bonds," they added. The leu eased 0.1 percent to 4.5974 against the euro by 1000 GMT. Romanian bond yields mostly dropped mildly according to Reuters data, while Polish yields edged up. The Polish central bank is also seen holding fire at its meeting on Wednesday but it is expected to start to increase interest rates by late next year. Expectations for higher rates contributed to a rally of Polish banking sector shares. The Warsaw bourse''s banking sector index reached its highest levels since May 2015, before the conservative Law and Justice party came to power in late 2015 and knocked down bank stocks with some of its measures and policy pledges. Good third-quarter results, including a rise in credit volumes, from Polish banks, particularly Bank Millennium and MBank, help stocks in the sector, said Grzegorz Skowronski, trader of Wood&Company. "It seems that the economic rebound translates into a rise of demand for credits and helps banks'' results," he said. "Also it seems that there are more hawkish voices in the MPC (central bank Monetary Policy Council), and one can not rule out that the MPC may start to talk about rate rises next year, despite earlier denials," he added. Budapest''s main equities index briefly hit a record high, boosted by a rally of small-cap firms controlled by Lorinc Meszaros, a tycoon close to the government. Appeninn and Opus initially rose by about 15 percent and later plunged and traded by over 10 percent lower from Monday. "These are highly speculative papers," one Budapest-based trader said. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1100 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.570 25.563 -0.03% 5.62% 0 5 Hungary 311.05 311.38 +0.11 -0.72% forint 00 50 % Polish zloty 4.2400 4.2414 +0.03 3.87% % Romanian leu 4.5970 4.5913 -0.12% -1.35% Croatian 7.5410 7.5378 -0.04% 0.19% kuna Serbian 118.46 118.52 +0.05 4.13% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.5 1055.5 -0.09% +14.4 9 6 3% Budapest 40120. 40115. +0.01 +25.3 83 77 % 7% Warsaw 2563.7 2515.3 +1.92 +31.6 2 4 % 1% Bucharest 7774.3 7784.0 -0.12% +9.73 9 5 % Ljubljana 787.47 788.85 -0.17% +9.74 % Zagreb 1808.5 1815.7 -0.39% -9.34% 8 0 Belgrade 731.08 729.65 +0.20 +1.91 % % Sofia 670.58 672.79 -0.33% +14.3 5% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.408 0.104 +116b +10bp ps s 5-year 0.673 -0.045 +104b -5bps ps 10-year 1.552 -0.046 +120b -6bps ps Poland 2-year 1.62 -0.002 +238b -1bps ps 5-year 2.685 0.004 +305b +0bps ps 10-year 3.452 0.013 +310b +0bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.93 1.06 1.19 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.07 0.08 0.13 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.79 1.85 1.925 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-leu-eases-romanian-central-bank-hawks-seen-still-weak-idINL5N1ND33Z'|'2017-11-07T07:23:00.000+02:00'
'03b3ce6ec4cf97fee54529d86796c1df529e4b68'|'EU tax havens blacklist seen in December, but enforcement unclear'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:50 AM / in 2 hours EU tax havens blacklist seen in December, but enforcement unclear Francesco Guarascio 5 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers called on Tuesday for a blacklist of tax havens to be drawn up for approval next month as part of kick back against what it sees as tax dodging by the rich and famous. Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann (L) and European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis (R) take part in a European Union finance ministers'' meeting in Brussels, Belgium November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Underlining the difficulty of such an approach, however, they were divided over how to impose sanctions on countries that help tax avoidance, which is often legal. The ministers made the issue the main topic of their monthly meeting after release of the “Paradise Papers”, a trove of financial documents mostly from offshore law firm Appleby. The papers made public the tax affairs of numerous companies and investors. To reduce the appeal of jurisdictions that charge little or no taxes, EU ministers discussed plans for a common blacklist that would shine the light on such countries. “There was strong support for the idea of moving forward quickly,” Estonia’s Finance Minister Toomas Tõniste, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told reporters. He added that “most countries” wanted the adoption of the list next month, tacitly acknowledging however that not all the 28 EU member states were equally keen to go that fast. Jurisdictions in the limelight include offshore banking centres such as Jersey and Bermuda. But some EU countries, notably Luxembourg and Malta have also been criticised for acting as tax havens. The main sticking point for the EU is whether blacklisted countries should be subject to sanctions. “I am not sure if there will be sanctions,” an EU official said, citing differences among member states, who need to unanimously back proposals on tax matters. Luxembourg and Malta, for example, said that sanctions would be unnecessary because investors would be deterred from putting money in highlighted tax havens, an EU official who attended the meeting said. But many other EU countries want real punishment for non-cooperative jurisdictions accused of drawing away tax revenues from EU states. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, for example, urged EU states to consider suspending funding for tax havens. Italy''s Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan takes part in a European Union finance ministers'' meeting in Brussels, Belgium November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman “We are thinking, for instance, about the possibility of cutting financial support of the international institutions like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) or the World Bank on the states that would not provide the needed information on tax,” he told reporters before the meeting. Although many states backed the idea of sanctions, Le Maire’s proposals did not gather much support, as it may be difficult to convince international organisations to apply the measures. The EU commission’s vice president Valdis Dombrovskis declined to comment on the French proposals. “We hope an agreement on the blacklist will be possible by the end of the year,” he told a news conference. He however stressed that “countermeasures” for non-cooperative countries were needed. Slideshow (2 Images) NEW MOMENTUM? The Paradise Papers revelations gave new impetus to EU countries willing to counter tax avoidance, but turning plans into concrete actions is not easy. Similar leaks last year led to a deluge of legislative proposals by the EU commission, but most of them are still stuck in talks among EU states. The EU has been working for more than a year on the common blacklist that would replace largely toothless national lists. An existing list of tax havens compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global group of mostly rich nations, currently includes only Trinidad and Tobago. By contrast, the EU is currently screening about 50 countries that may not respect the bloc’s criteria on tax cooperation. The final number is likely to be much lower than that, officials said without giving details on screened jurisdictions. States that charge no corporate tax are not automatically considered at risk of breaching EU tax criteria, but they are subject to screening if they also facilitate the creation of shell companies and other structures that could help tax avoidance. Screened countries are expected to make commitments by the end of November, an EU official said, adding that states hit by recent hurricanes were given more leeway. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Additional reporting by Lily Cusak and Philip Blenkinsop Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-ecofin-france/france-proposes-tax-avoidance-states-face-imf-world-bank-sanctions-idUKKBN1D712W'|'2017-11-07T22:36:00.000+02:00'
'0a025b1403db8f1d81b6107d4e66a8b0d8c8cec1'|'San Francisco fund manager gets 2-1/2 years for fraud conspiracy'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - A San Francisco investment fund manager was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud investors by fabricating an impressive investing track record.Nicholas Mitsakos, 57, was sentenced by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in New York, U.S. prosecutors announced. Mitsakos, who ran a fund called Matrix Capital Markets, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in May.As part of a plea agreement, Mitsakos agreed not to appeal any sentence of 37 months or shorter, and to forfeit about $861,000.“Nick stepped forward and took responsibility for what he did,” Mitsakos’ lawyer, Eric Creizman, said in an email.He added that he did not believe Mitsakos should have gotten any prison time. “The justice system in this country is far too harsh and fails to consider alternatives to incarceration when they are available.”Mitsakos was arrested and charged in August 2016. Prosecutors said he tried to lure investors by representing Matrix as a hedge fund managing more than $60 million of assets, posting annual returns ranging from 20 percent to 66 percent between 2012 and 2015.In fact, prosecutors said, Mitsakos managed no customer assets at all before receiving an investment of about $2 million from a Cayman Islands fund in September 2015. He then spent about $800,000 on personal expenses and lost a significant amount of the $1.2 million he did invest, according to prosecutors.“As he admitted in pleading guilty today, Nicholas Mitsakos purported to operate a successful hedge fund, but in reality, it was a sham from the outset,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan said in a statement.The case is USA v. Mitsakos, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00631.Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fraud-matrix/san-francisco-fund-manager-gets-2-1-2-years-for-fraud-conspiracy-idUSKBN1D733Z'|'2017-11-08T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'b8b8ef076b01e96cbfa54ede1bdb87e193ebf10d'|'Asia stocks eke out another peak, China trade data mixed'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:53 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago U.S., European stocks edge higher despite U.S. tax-cut doubts David Randall 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gains in technology shares helped push the U.S. stock market to record highs on Wednesday despite concerns that Republicans’ plans to cut corporate taxes may not win congressional approval as early as expected, prolonging a rally that started in Asia and sent the MSCI All World Index to a record high. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The dollar edged lower against a basket of currencies, while European shares were flat, led by a broad decline in bank stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 6.13 points, or 0.03 percent, to end at 23,563.36, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.74 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,594.38 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 21.34 points, or 0.32 percent, to 6,789.12. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 .SPSY fell 0.6 percent, dragged down in part by concerns that a flattening yield curve would eat into profits before a U.S. tax cut could take effect. Derek Halpenny, head of global markets research at Mitsubishi UFJ in London, said he was dubious about the progress of the tax overhaul bill proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, which includes a big cut in corporate taxes. “The initial phases of discussions within the House (of Representatives) have brought up a lot of divisions and problems. ... If the story is true that they’re considering a delay of one year to the corporate tax cut, those big differences will need to be sorted,” he said. A report in the Washington Post late Tuesday said Senate Republican leaders were considering a one-year delay in implementing the corporate tax cut. Francois Savary, chief investment officer at wealth manager Prime Partners, said the doubts over the tax issue reinforce the case for some consolidation in the market, which has been fully priced for good news. “It’s something that would impact the domestic stocks in the U.S. and would be a setback for the market in general, (and) it’s more than stock-specific as people would reassess earnings growth expectations to the downside,” he said. The U.S. two-to-10-year Treasury yield curve hit its flattest in a decade, potentially cutting into the profits of banks, which borrow money at short-term interest rates in order to lend it out at longer terms. US2YT=RR US10YT=RR Such a move could also imply that investors are expecting a slowdown. Technology stocks .SPLRCT rose 0.5 percent, boosted by a 2.2 percent gain in Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), which was upgraded by analysts after competitor Broadcom made an unsolicited $103 billion takeover bid for the company. A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell 7/32 in price to yield 2.3325 percent, from 2.307 percent late on Tuesday. European bonds were also snared by the yield-curve flattening, with yields on long-term German bonds falling to two-month lows. This was a reversal of the trend when Trump was elected a year ago. Yields and stock prices jumped in late 2016 on what was dubbed the “Trumpflation” trade: a bet on rising rates, inflation and securities prices   and beyond. Analysts believe that a flattening yield curve at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking U.S. interest rates is a sign that investors are concerned about the sustainability of economic growth and inflation in the world’s biggest economy. In the European session, the two main banking indexes suffered the most, with the euro zone index .SX7E falling 0.1 percent and the Europe-wide banking equivalent .SX7P also dropping 0.1 percent, dragging an index of pan-European stocks 0.05 percent lower. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.01 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.17 percent. ASIA Earlier, Asian shares wrung out another decade peak as data showed China’s demand for imports remained buoyant, pushing the MSCI world equity index to a fresh high. Beijing reported imports in October rose 17.2 percent from a year earlier, beating forecasts of 16 percent, but export growth was just under estimates at 6.9 percent. Chinese crude imports slipped to their lowest in a year, pushing oil prices lower, although traders said the overall market remains well supported because of OPEC-led supply cuts. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.66 percent to $56.82 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.49, down 0.31 percent. The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 point or 0.04 percent, to 94.873. (For a graphic on ''World FX rates in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh ) Reporting by David Randall and Abhinav Ramnarayan; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly and Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-pause-at-peaks-ponder-u-s-tax-muddle-idUKKBN1D802R'|'2017-11-08T06:39:00.000+02:00'
'4111a4a56c35cb879dac929e80b4699e6fb0ff43'|'LPC-Stonepeak’s euNetworks buy backed with €300m leveraged loan'|'LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - US private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners’ acquisition of a majority stake in UK-headquartered internet service provider euNetworks will be backed with a €300m leveraged loan, banking sources said.The acquisition was announced on November 6 and existing euNetworks investors, including Columbia Capital and Greenspring Associates, will continue to hold a material interest in the company.Barclays, JP Morgan and RBC are providing the debt financing to back the buyout, which will include a €300m senior term loan, the sources said.The total debt size will be higher, once undrawn facilities are taken into account, the sources said.The loan is expected to be sold down to investors in a syndication process before the end of the year, the sources added.Stonepeak, euNetworks and Columbia Capital were not immediately available to comment.Headquartered in London and with offices across Europe, euNetworks is a leading data centre and cloud connectivity provider, according to its website.Editing by Christopher Mangham '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eunetworks-leveraged-loans/lpc-stonepeaks-eunetworks-buy-backed-with-300m-leveraged-loan-idINL5N1NE4L9'|'2017-11-08T08:55:00.000+02:00'
'c9d192aebdb7c7237306cec82f47df6544f92ab0'|'AT&T says timing of Time Warner acquisition now uncertain'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:57 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago U.S. demands CNN or DirecTV sale to approve AT&T/Time Warner deal - sources Jessica Toonkel , David Shepardson 4 Min Read NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. antitrust regulators want AT&T Inc to sell either the parent company of CNN or its DirecTV satellite television unit before they will allow the wireless carrier to buy media company Time Warner Inc, sources told Reuters on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The unexpected move by the U.S. Department of Justice casts fresh doubt on the $85.4 billion deal that was announced in October 2016. Shares of Time Warner closed down 6.5 percent at $88.54. A Justice Department source told Reuters that AT&T had offered to divest just CNN, rather than the whole of Turner Broadcasting, but that the Justice Department’s antitrust division, which is reviewing the deal, rejected the offer. In a statement, AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson denied that. “Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.” AT&T is prepared to fight any divestitures required to win regulatory approval of the deal, according to sources familiar with the matter. The deal has attracted political interest since its inception. U.S. President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN, attacked the deal on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it. The Justice Department’s new demand is likely to complicate its continuing antitrust conversations with AT&T, which said on Wednesday it was now uncertain when the deal, announced in October 2016, would be completed. AT&T had previously said the acquisition would close by the end of this year. FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The Justice Department could still file a lawsuit as early as this month to challenge the deal, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner, which owns the premium channel HBO, movie studio Warner Bros and news channel CNN, so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment. Both companies have struggled to keep younger viewers from flocking to online services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video. The deal is opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers. The new concessions suggest the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, has changed his view of AT&T’s plan to buy Time Warner, since giving an interview in 2016 where he declared it not “a major antitrust problem.” Delrahim was subsequently nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division and was confirmed in September. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter. AT&T and the White House declined comment. Another sticking point in discussions is the length of time that the U.S. government wants to impose conditions on what AT&T can and cannot do after a deal. Two people briefed on the talks told Reuters the government has sought as long as 10 years for such conditions while AT&T has pressed for a shorter period. AT&T also said it would invest an additional $1 billion   next year if Trump signed into law the provisions in the current House of Representatives tax bill. “By immediately lowering the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, this bill will stimulate investment, job creation and economic growth  ,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chief executive. Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Greg Roumeliotis, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York, and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a/att-says-timing-of-time-warner-acquisition-now-uncertain-idUKKBN1D81VN'|'2017-11-08T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'961b6adda71086157fa7e7e6bb9a9de41c637d1d'|'LVMH boss Arnault says assets referred to in ''Paradise Papers'' known to tax bodies'|'November 8, 2017 / 1:15 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago LVMH boss Arnault says assets referred to in ''Paradise Papers'' known to tax bodies Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Bernard Arnault, France’s richest billionaire and the head of luxury goods group LVMH ( LVMH.PA ), said on Wednesday that assets referred to by Le Monde newspaper, in the “Paradise Papers” leaks tracking tax affairs, were known to tax authorities. LVMH Group CEO Bernard Arnault attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to start-ups development, innovation and digital technology in Paris, France, June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Martin Bureau/Pool Arnault issued a statement in response to the “Paradise Papers” - leaked documents from prominent offshore law firm Appleby that relate to the investments of wealthy individuals and institutions ranging from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to Queen Elizabeth. Le Monde’s article had said Arnault owned a large house in England via a holding company in Jersey - a domicile known for its tax breaks. However, Arnault’s statement said the house in question in England had been declared to both French and British tax authorities, and was subject to a French wealth tax. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Sarah White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-paradise-tax-arnault/lvmh-boss-arnault-says-assets-referred-to-in-paradise-papers-known-to-tax-bodies-idUKKBN1D81QX'|'2017-11-08T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'9517d73728c11e5a56a6bb918fb0feaffd64a326'|'IMF, BOJ member say Japan needs to keep stimulus running'|' 41 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago IMF, BOJ member say Japan needs to keep stimulus running Leika Kihara , Sumio Ito 4 Min Read TOKYO/MIYAZAKI, Japan (Reuters) - The IMF on Wednesday urged Japan to maintain its massive monetary stimulus to boost consumer prices, a view echoed by a central bank board member, reinforcing expectations policy will remain accommodative. A businessman walks in Tokyo''s business district April 18, 2014. REUTERS/Toru Hanai International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was doing the right thing by committing to keep the money spigot wide open until inflation hit his 2 percent target. “One of the strengths of central bankers is to be very clear in their communication and determined in their resolve, which clearly Governor Kuroda has demonstrated,” Lagarde told Reuters on Wednesday. The BOJ has faced mounting criticism that its huge asset purchases are distorting markets and pushing Tokyo stock prices - which hit a near 26-year high this week - beyond levels justified by economic fundamentals. But with inflation distant from its target, the BOJ has said it is nowhere near dialling back the stimulus, even as its U.S. and European counterparts eye an exit from crisis-mode policies. BOJ board member Yukitoshi Funo on Wednesday also defended the asset buys, saying he saw no need now to slow its purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) from the current pace of 6 trillion yen (£40.3 billion) per year. “Stock prices aren’t overheating,” Funo told a briefing in Miyazaki, southern Japan, adding that it was “very favourable” that stock prices had risen so much. ROOM FOR TWEAKS Market players see a good chance Kuroda could be reappointed after his current five-year term ends in April, though he has been under growing calls for more transparency on how the BOJ could dial back stimulus. A contender for the job who is a close aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the central bank needed a new leader to rebuild the regime. “How do you evaluate the fact the core-core inflation rose a meagre 0.1 percent after (nearly) five years (under Kuroda) and how do you evaluate the governor who has done only so much?” Etsuro Honda, Japan’s ambassador to Switzerland, told Reuters. While Funo, a former auto executive, ruled out the chance of an immediate withdrawal of stimulus, he said the BOJ should be vigilant to the threats prolonged monetary easing posed. “We’re not assuming we won’t make any changes to all of our various policy tools until 2 percent inflation is achieved,” he said, leaving open the chance of tweaking some parts of the framework before others. The comment reflects a growing view within the BOJ that its next move should be to roll back, not ramp up, its stimulus given the rising cost and diminishing returns of the programme, although there are varying opinions on how and when policy should be tweaked. Lagarde said the diverging policy paths of major central banks had not led to massive and disruptive capital outflows in Asia, thanks to the cautious approach and clear communication by central bankers on their policy shifts. “We believe these conditions can help to ensure that monetary policy changes do not provoke unnecessary capital flow movements,” she said. Under a policy framework adopted last year, the BOJ guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. It also buys government bonds and riskier assets, including ETFs. Reporting by Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Sumio Ito in Miyazaki; Additional reporting by Stanley White, Chris Gallagher, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Sam Holmes and John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-japan/imf-boj-member-say-japan-needs-to-keep-stimulus-running-idUKKBN1D81TC'|'2017-11-08T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'57cac9a3da0141a4eeaa75cd51a5c08c0b01bb4a'|'Tullow Oil''s outlook lifted by higher output, oil prices'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:17 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Tullow Oil lifts outlook on higher crude prices, output Ron Bousso 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ) raised its production targets on Wednesday thanks to higher output from its flagship West African fields and as higher crude prices brightened the outlook for the indebted British explorer. The London-listed firm, which has had a heavy focus on Africa, struck a cautious note for the oil exploration business despite a 46 percent rise in the oil price in the three months to above $60 a barrel following a three years of weak prices. “The offshore market is still depressed,” Chief Financial Officer Les Wood told Reuters. “It will take a little bit of time in my expectation. People are waiting to see whether this rally solidifies and stays at this level.” Tullow, which brought its multi-billion Ghana field on stream near the lowest point of the oil price slump, plans to continue reining in spending next year as it begins exploring for new resources in Suriname, Guyana and Jamaica, Wood said. Tullow also slashed its 2017 spending target by a quarter to $300 million (£228.4 million) due to lower expenses in East Africa, where it is developing production, and reduced its debt to $3.6 billion while increasing free cashflow to $400 million. “We expect Tullow to generate continued interest as Brent trends above $60 a barrel,” RBC Capital Markets said in a note. Tullow shares traded 2.9 percent higher at 0910 GMT. Stronger-than-expected output from Ghana, where it has deferred to 2018 major maintenance at its Jubilee field, helped Tullow lift its 2017 output target to 85,000-89,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from a previous 78,000-85,000 boepd, including production-equivalent insurance payments. The repairs on the turret mooring system for Jubilee’s floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which reduced output since March 2016, were now expected to take place in the first quarter of 2018 and result in four to six weeks of shutdowns, Tullow said. Delayed maintenance and good performance from Jubilee helped boost its full-year production estimate to 89,000 boepd, of which Tullow owns 31,600 boepd. Tullow is in the final stages of securing a rig to resume drilling at Ghana’s Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) fields in 2018, after an international tribunal ruling in September favoured Ghana in a dispute with neighbouring Ivory Coast. Kosmos Energy Ltd ( KOS.N ) ( KOS.L ), Anadarko Petroleum Corp ( APC.N ), Ghana National Petroleum Corp and PetroSA also have stakes in the TEN project. Tullow, which was forced to abandon an exploration well offshore Suriname last month after failing to make a commercial discovery, said net debt fell to $3.6 billion at Oct. 31. Tullow last month began talks with banks to refinance a $2.5 billion reserves-based lending facility over seven years and was on track to complete this before the end of the year, Wood said. Additional reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tullow-outlook/tullow-oil-raises-full-year-production-guidance-on-ghana-fields-idUKKBN1D80LH'|'2017-11-08T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'32c771514044b33afa1f300c8dbf64378b3363cb'|'Judge orders Rosneft CEO Sechin to appear as witness in bribery case'|'November 8, 2017 / 9:43 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Judge orders Rosneft CEO Sechin to appear as witness in bribery case Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A Russian judge on Wednesday ordered Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil major Rosneft , to appear as a witness in trial of ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev. Ulyukayev was dismissed and put under house arrest in November over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from Rosneft. He denies the charges. The former minister was detained at Rosneft’s Moscow headquarters. (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jack Stubbs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-sechin-court/judge-orders-rosneft-ceo-sechin-to-appear-as-witness-in-bribery-case-idUSR4N1N7010'|'2017-11-08T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'4bf54b609266f8e2afcc5a90ec76ead50b25877f'|'CEE MARKETS-Zloty firms after minor rise in central bank''s CPI forecasts'|'* Polish central bank keeps rates on hold * Zloty keeps gains after rise in CPI, GDP forecasts (Recasts with Polish central bank decision and comments) By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The zloty held onto its gains against the euro on Wednesday, outperforming Central European peers, after the Polish central bank revised its economic output and inflation forecasts mildly upwards. The bank kept is main interest rate on hold as expected. Governor Adam Glapinski reiterated at a news conference that interest rates should remain unchanged until the end of next year, and said a recent firming of the zloty meant monetary conditions had tightened. The zloty has gained more than 2 percent since late September, and has 4 percent this year, outperforming regional peers apart from the Czech crown. On Wednesday it firmed 0.2 percent by 1624 GMT, to 4.2365. "At this point, the inflation rate is not expected to overshoot the target, yet the inflationary pressure is likely to gradually build throughout 1H18 (the first half of 2018)," Erste analyst Katarzyna Rzentarzewska said in a note. She said she expected the bank''s first rate hike to come in the last quarter of 2018, "yet the risks for monetary tightening to begin sooner have increased". The Czech central bank is the only one in Central Europe to have increased interest rates due to a rise in inflation in the past year. The bank delivered its second hike since August last week, but its less-hawkish-than-expected guidance has pushed back the crown from 4-year highs. On Wednesday it eased 0.1 percent against the euro, in tandem with the Hungarian forint. Expectations for interest rate rises have also helped bank stocks listed in Warsaw. Their index and the bourse''s bluechip index steadied, after hitting multi-year highs on Tuesday. The index <.WIG2)> fell almost one percent. It was knocked mainly by a more than 5 percent plunge in the shares of Poland''s biggest power producer PGE after Chief Financial Officer Emil Wojtowicz said it was too early to resume paying dividends. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1724 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.592 25.561 -0.12% 5.53% 0 0 Hungary 311.94 311.58 -0.12% -1.00% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2365 4.2457 +0.22 3.95% % Romanian leu 4.6304 4.6316 +0.03 -2.06% % Croatian 7.5400 7.5410 +0.01 0.20% kuna % Serbian 118.85 118.76 -0.08% 3.79% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.0 1055.7 -0.16% +14.3 7 3 7% Budapest 40122. 39809. +0.79 +25.3 07 00 % 7% Warsaw 2513.3 2536.3 -0.91% +29.0 4 7 3% Bucharest 7777.2 7747.6 +0.38 +9.77 7 9 % % Ljubljana 792.07 784.85 +0.92 +10.3 % 8% Zagreb 1839.3 1816.5 +1.26 -7.79% 9 7 % Belgrade 730.57 729.68 +0.12 +1.84 % % Sofia 672.49 674.34 -0.27% +14.6 8% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.321 0.023 +108b +2bps ps 5-year 0.738 0.037 +112b +4bps ps 10-year 1.591 -0.007 +127b -1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.605 -0.014 +237b -2bps ps 5-year 2.629 -0.008 +301b -1bps ps 10-year 3.399 -0.015 +307b -1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.91 1.04 1.17 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.08 0.115 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.763 1.801 1.894 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-zloty-firms-after-minor-rise-in-central-banks-cpi-forecasts-idINL5N1NE762'|'2017-11-08T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'4e877fff6f9530c910fd22e168ae401d5fc35068'|'Why Qatar Airways has bought 9.6% of Cathay Pacific - Akbar al-Baker’s Chinese takeaway'|'THIS morning’s news that Qatar Airways, a national carrier with global ambitions, has bought nearly 10% of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flag-carrier, came as a shock for financial markets. Shares in Cathay Pacific dropped in value by around 5% in the minutes after trading resumed first thing today. But the fact that Qatar Airways was in the market for another acquisition came as no surprise for analysts in the aviation industry. Since 2015 Qatar has acquired 20% of IAG, a European group of airlines that flies 100m passengers a year, 10% of LATAM, Latin America’s biggest carrier, and 49% of Meridiana, an Italian outfit. It has even been invited by the Indian government to start up a new airline there with 100 jets. So why has Akbar al-Baker, Qatar Airways’ outspoken chief executive, gone on a shopping spree worth billions of dollars?On the face of it, such a strategy does not look wise. Etihad, a rival to Qatar Airways based nearby in Abu Dhabi, attempted to do the same a few years ago, buying stakes in Air Berlin, Alitalia and Jet Airways. The idea was to use the carriers to feed passenger traffic from Germany, Italy and India via its hub in Abu Dhabi. But the strategy came unstuck this year with the bankruptcy of Air Berlin and Alitalia, the collapse of which some sources estimate may have cost Etihad as much as $4.5bn in losses. Following this path would bring Qatar few rewards especially as, in the words of Greg Waldron of Flightglobal, an online trade journal, “ Qatar seems to invest in far flung assets with no clear synergies .” 12 17 But Mr Baker has no intention of repeating Etihad’s errors. The search for partners abroad is not simply an attempt to drive passenger traffic through its base in Doha. Instead, it is a search for allies in the face of hostility from its neighbours in the Middle East. As Gulliver writes in this week’s print edition :Since June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Qatar, banning its flag-carrier’s jets from their skies. That has resulted in the cancellation of over 50 daily flights to these countries, costing the airline a tenth of its business and $500m in profit this year, calculates Diogenis Papiomytis of Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy.But even before the blockade Mr Baker surely knew that there were limited growth opportunities in the Middle East. The forces that caused passenger traffic through the region to sky-rocket over the past decade are unwinding. Terror attacks and geopolitical instability have reduced the attraction of transiting through airports such as Doha. Low oil prices have sapped demand for business-class travel from energy companies in the region. Cheaper fuel prices, combined with the introduction of fuel-efficient aircraft such as Boeing’s 787 jetliner, have improved the economics of direct flights between Europe and Asia that do not require a stop in the Middle East.And so buying up other airlines in the oneworld alliance—of which Qatar Airways, IAG, LATAM and Cathay Pacific are members—seems more sensible than throwing more aircraft and investment at its Doha base. So far the strategy has worked: the share prices of IAG and LATAM have surged since Mr Baker first took stakes in the duo. Cathay Pacific also looks like a good bet. Its shares have been performing poorly since it revealed its first annual loss since 2008 earlier this year. But if its managers play their cards right, the Hong Kong-based carrier should be able to benefit from the rapid rise in outbound tourism from mainland China.Whether this increase in Qatar’s influence in the aviation industry is good for consumers is another question. Most airline bosses Gulliver has met in recent months predict privately that within the next five or ten years, the long-haul international travel market will be controlled by three massive airline groups. This, they predict, will be the result of the members of today’s alliances—oneworld, Skyteam and Star—buying stakes in each other. The Cathay Pacific deal adds more evidence to the argument that Mr Baker wants Qatar Airways to be the leader of one of these future goliaths of the aviation industry. So far, the only major oneworld carrier to refuse Qatar’s advance point blank is American Airlines, a determined enemy of the Gulf carriers, which Mr Baker tried and failed to buy 10% of earlier this summer. With the global airline business moving towards consolidation, however, how much longer it can resist its rival’s courtship remains to be seen.Next Southwest Airlines tries to bring music concerts to the skies'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/akbar-al-baker-s-chinese-takeaway?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-07T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'0d799a95586c50056aae05df7582078177235355'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls at open as resources weigh'|'TORONTO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index opened lower on Thursday with across-the-board losses led by energy and material stocks, even as a batch of corporate earnings came out mostly positive.The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 59.53 points, or 0.37 percent, to 16,045.82.All 10 of the index’s main sectors were in negative territory. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-falls-at-open-as-resources-weigh-idUSL1N1NF14D'|'2017-11-09T22:44:00.000+02:00'
'7ddc23e61af54c242c127d4f996b3e26e531b1fb'|'UPDATE 2-Croatia''s Agrokor accepts debt claims for $6.35 bln, disputes Sberbank''s claim'|'* Agrokor disputes 16.5 billion kuna worth of claims* Sberbank’s claims disputed due to court cases abroad* Final settlement must take place by early July 2018 (Adds Sberbank comment, paras 8-9)By Igor IlicZAGREB, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Insolvent Croatian food and retail conglomerate Agrokor recognises creditor claims worth 41.2 billion kuna ($6.35 billion) but disputes other claims totalling 16.5 billion kuna, including that of Russia’s Sberbank , its biggest single creditor, the administrator said on Thursday.Agrokor, the biggest employer in the Balkans with around 60,000 staff, was put into state-run administration in April and has until July 2018 to achieve a final settlement with creditors to avoid bankruptcy.Its founder Ivica Todoric, who was detained and released on bail in London on Tuesday, and 14 other people are being investigated over Agrokor’s problems.Agrokor’s creditors include bondholders, local and foreign banks as well as suppliers. The biggest single debt, around 1.1 billion euros, is held by Sberbank.But the administrator said the size of Sberbank’s claim remained open to dispute because it had launched legal proceedings against Agrokor companies in other countries, including Serbia and Bosnia, to get some of the debt repaid.Administrator Ante Ramljak said that if Sberbank withdraws these legal proceedings its debt could be recognised.“We are in permanent communication (with Sberbank),” Ramljak said.Sberbank said in a statement it was “unpleasantly surprised” with Agrokor’s stance.“Everyone, including Sberbank, can resort to any legally allowed measure, in Croatia or in other countries, to protect its interests and must not be discriminated against because of that,” the statement said. Sberbank added it would file an appeal against Agrokor’s decision.Ramljak said that Sberbank could not block the final settlement with creditors since that requires the backing of creditors holding at least 66 percent of the claims. Sberbank’s claims amount to less than 20 percent.Agrokor earlier said that Sberbank could net up to 115 million euros from all its proceedings outside Croatia.“If they participated in this (restructuring) process in an amicable manner, they could surely secure that amount, maybe even more,” Ramljak said.He did not want to speculate on likely write-offs, but analysts reckon that some creditors would have to accept write-offs of up to 70 percent.Ramljak said that no companies within Agrokor group would be offered for sale before the final settlement.“We see strong interest in (some) Agrokor firms, but there will be no sale until the creditors agree on the settlement,” he said. ($1 = 6.4913 kuna) (Reporting by Igor Ilic, Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/agrokor-debt/update-1-croatias-agrokor-accepts-6-35-bln-debt-claims-in-sberbank-talks-idINL8N1NF5SQ'|'2017-11-09T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'0da536e72289333f8fc52cbdb808da5875350a61'|'BMW probe into cartel allegations needs more time: CEO'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) has hired a law firm to help with an internal investigation of an alleged cartel among German carmakers and needs more time before any conclusions can be reached, Chief Executive Harald Krueger said.A BMW logo is seen on a car during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse “Of course we will keep investigating this,” Krueger said on Tuesday during an earnings call. “This is going to take a while.”BMW, Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) were raided by European Union and German antitrust officials last month over allegations that they had engaged in an illegal cartel to fix prices in diesel and other technologies over decades.Separately, finance chief Nicolas Peter said provisions made in the third quarter were not linked to cartel allegations but, above all, related to patent and supplier issues.Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Ludwig Burger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-results-cartel/bmw-probe-into-cartel-allegations-needs-more-time-ceo-idUSKBN1D71AN'|'2017-11-07T12:45:00.000+02:00'
'e414360d6bd8d0031c318a9c135823c31202e80d'|'JGBs largely down, underpinned by volatile stocks'|'TOKYO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Most Japanese government bonds edged down on Thursday, while superlong maturities came off their highs after a 30-year bond sale.An afternoon selloff in Japanese stocks underpinned bond market sentiment and kept losses in check.The benchmark 10-year cash JGB yield was up half a basis point at 0.025 percent, while the 10-year JGB futures contract ended down 0.04 point at 150.95.The 30-year JGB yield was flat at 0.800 percent, after sinking to as low as 0.785 percent earlier in the session. The 40-year JGB yield was down 1.5 basis points at 0.970 percent, above its session low of 0.950 percent.The Ministry of Finance offered 800 billion yen of 30-year JGBs with a 0.80 percent coupon, with 3.4180 percent of the bids accepted at the lowest price of 100.0685.The sale drew bids of 3.43 times the amount offered, indicating decent demand but was still down from the previous sale’s bid-to-cover ratio of 3.98.Data released early in the session showed Japan’s core machinery orders tumbled at their fastest pace in more than two years in September, a decline that companies expect to persist into October-December.The Bank of Japan’s nine-member board debated calls from one of its policymakers to target the longer end of the yield curve at a rate review in October, a summary of their opinions showed on Thursday, with several stressing that the current stimulus was sufficient.At the October rate review, the BOJ held monetary policy steady by a 8-1 vote, with board newcomer Goushi Kataoka dissenting. Kataoka also called for the BOJ to guide 15-year bond yields below 0.2 percent through its bond purchases.Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Vyas Mohan '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-largely-down-underpinned-by-volatile-stocks-idINL3N1NF3AL'|'2017-11-09T04:37:00.000+02:00'
'7a21f7756692ba640aed1005399bb72a1f42ec66'|'ECB''s Nouy defends stricter rules on bad loans in Parliament'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:16 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago ECB''s Nouy defends stricter rules on bad loans in Parliament Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s top supervisor defended on Thursday the ECB’s new and stricter rules on unpaid bank loans against accusations they overstep the ECB’s bounds and may hurt the economy. FILE PHOTO - European Central Bank''s chief supervisor Daniele Nouy speaks during a banking conference in Lisbon, Portugal, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante “Now is the right time for such an additional step given that we currently have very favourable economic conditions in Europe,” Daniele Nouy told the European Parliament economic committee in Brussels. “This addendum, once adopted, falls within the supervisory mandate and powers of the ECB.” Reporting By Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-parliament/ecbs-nouy-defends-stricter-rules-on-bad-loans-in-parliament-idUKKBN1D90XY'|'2017-11-09T10:15:00.000+02:00'
'9dd758f9512a33889df070fbb767041f91efec39'|'ECB flags possible delay of stricter rules on bad loans'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:16 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago ECB flags possible delay of stricter rules on bad loans Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The   is prepared to delay the introduction of stricter rules on bad bank loans after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and Italy, the ECB’s top supervisor   The headquarters   (ECB) are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Daniele Nouy defended the proposed new guidelines, which force banks to set aside more money for loans that sour, but said the ECB could push back their introduction from Jan. 1 if it could examine all the feedback it received. The guidelines, under consultation until Dec. 8, have drawn fire from Parliament, raising the risk of an unprecedented conflict between the institutions. “If between 8 December and the beginning of the year... we have difficulties to fully exploit what’s been given to us, it may mean that the first of January 2018 is not be the best date to get started,” Nouy said in the European Parliament. “I can propose that we give us a bit more time.” But she insisted the new rules were both necessary and legitimate. “Now is the right time for such an additional step, given that we currently have very favourable economic conditions in Europe,” Nouy told the assembly’s economic committee in Brussels. “This addendum, once adopted, falls within the supervisory mandate and powers of the ECB.” FILE PHOTO -  ''s chief supervisor Daniele Nouy speaks during a banking conference in Lisbon, Portugal, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante The guidelines give banks seven years to provide for credit backed by collateral and two years for unsecured debt. The Parliament’s legal services office said on Wednesday they encroached on the assembly’s law-making prerogatives. “In its current form, the addendum goes beyond these (ECB) prerogatives, which are clearly bank-specific, because it lays down general rules applicable to all banks,” the committee’s chair Roberto Gualtieri, an Italian, said as he introduced Nouy’s hearing. “This could only be done though an appropriate amendment to legislation.” The big worry for Italy is the rules are also being applied to the euro zone’s near 900 billion euros (795.22 billion pounds) stock of existing bad loans, a quarter of which sit at Italian banks. Authorities there say that could force banks to curtail lending or even raise capital on the market, a task that has eluded some Italian banks in recent months, triggering state interventions. Sources have told Reuters that ECB staff had indeed started crafting rules on existing bad loans that were modelled around those for new soured credit, but were now having to rethink their approach due to the Italian backlash. The ECB’s vice President Vitor Constancio and Nouy herself have since confirmed the approach to the stock of non-performing loans would be different. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-loans/ecbs-nouy-defends-stricter-rules-on-bad-loans-in-parliament-idUKKBN1D90XY'|'2017-11-09T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'12cb749c182730c795100e0040e52a9e4d8f7628'|'Factbox - EU''s vision of post-Brexit transition and future ties with Britain'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:18 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Factbox - EU''s vision of post-Brexit transition and future ties with Britain Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union wants a post-Brexit transition in which Britain would no longer have a say in the bloc but would still fall under EU laws, according to EU documents and diplomats of the bloc’s 27 remaining states. FILE PHOTO: An anti Brexit protester adjusts his EU flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo Here is a summary of the EU’s vision of both the immediate period after Britain leaves the bloc and its future trade relationship, as outlined in the documents seen by Reuters ahead of a meeting of the 27 on Wednesday. The EU plans to engage with Britain on these two issues only after the first, ongoing round of divorce talks advances enough to merit new negotiations with London on what comes after Brexit. The current, slow-moving talks have focused mainly on matters surrounding Britain’s actual split from the bloc, namely the exit bill, safeguarding expatriate rights and the future Irish border. The EU is waiting for Britain’s moves on these key issues before it agrees to open talks about the transition and future ties. That may happen in December but is not a given. * Crucially, the EU is determined to ensure Brexit does not leave Britain better off economically or otherwise, as this could create a precedent undermining the bloc’s purpose and existence in the future. A discussion document for the Wednesday meeting in Brussels hence says that “a non-member of the Union, that does not live up to the same obligations as a member, cannot have the same rights and enjoy the same benefits as a member.” * Britain’s request for a transition period of about two years in which the status quo would be largely preserved “would require a temporary application of Union law to and within the United Kingdom together with... regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures,” it reads. * EU 27 will look further into how such a temporary arrangement would impact the bloc’s cooperation with third countries, including on trade, fisheries or air transport. * The bloc will also seek to ensure Britain adheres to EU rules - including any changes - during transition, and the possible avenue for communication with London since it would “no longer be represented in the EU institutions and participate in the decision-making process.” * For any agreement on the future ties with London, the EU expects safeguards to preserve financial stability and rules out British participation in parts, but not all, of its single market. * The bloc is keen to protect itself against “unfair competitive advantages through... tax, social, environmental and regulatory measures and practices.” * Beyond trade, the EU is keen to maintain cooperation with Britain on security - including fighting terrorism and international crime - defence and foreign policy. * The bloc seeks a “balance of rights and obligations” for Britain and is determined to preserve the “indivisible” four freedoms of its single market - of goods, capital, services and labour. * Inside the bloc, the EU wants to preserve the role of the top European Court of Justice, from whose jurisdiction London wants to remove itself. * After Britain leaves, no agreement between the EU and UK would apply to Gibraltar without a separate accord between London and Madrid. * In preparing their own stance on transition and future ties, the 27 will “bear in mind the UK position.” Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-factbox/factbox-eus-vision-of-post-brexit-transition-and-future-ties-with-britain-idUKKBN1D81CV'|'2017-11-08T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'badc971d584f3590ecea603062c902753bedef81'|'Exclusive: Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay - court filing'|'November 8, 2017 / 3:20 PM / in a few seconds Exclusive: Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay: court filing Maki Shiraki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Creditors of bankrupt Takata Corp say the parts maker owes them more than $30 billion after the automotive industry’s biggest recall over its faulty air bags - many times more than the company can repay, a court filing seen by Reuters shows. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Takata Corp is seen on its display at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo In the biggest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer, Takata sought court protection from creditors in June as costs and liabilities mounted from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits. Its air bag inflators have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles. Takata’s creditors, including automakers such as Honda Motor Co, banks and bondholders, are seeking 3.77 trillion yen ($33.3 billion) from the supplier, mostly to cover recall costs, according to the filing outlining the company’s debt obligations, which hasn’t been made public. Takata had cash and securities worth just 78 billion yen at end-March - equivalent to just 2 percent of the sum creditors are seeking. It also had tangible assets such as buildings and machinery worth 93 billion yen, but much of these went to the company’s purchaser and the rest is needed to make replacement inflators to supply the recalls. Key Safety Systems, a Michigan-based parts supplier owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp, agreed in June to buy Takata’s non-inflator assets, such as the seatbelt and air bag businesses, for $1.6 billion. A spokesman for Takata declined to comment on the matter. A Honda spokesman said: “We will continue to consider our legal options” to reach a financial settlement. Automakers have recalled or expect to recall by 2019 about 125 million vehicles worldwide to replace air bag inflators, including more than 60 million in the United States. As part of Takata’s bankruptcy restructuring plan, its steering committee recognises debts of 1.05 trillion yen ($9.26 billion), accepting just 600 billion yen in recall-related costs, according to the filing submitted to the Tokyo District Court. Takata aims to file its restructuring plan to that court by Nov. 27. ($1 = 113.4000 yen) Reporting by Maki Shiaki, with additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by William Mallard and Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/takata-bankruptcy/exclusive-takata-creditors-seek-30-billion-far-more-than-it-can-pay-court-filing-idINKBN1D823E'|'2017-11-08T17:07:00.000+02:00'
'7bd20cc0ec3d3d5d45aa08f17b09ad0a0f246de2'|'UPDATE 1-London court rules that Monarch cannot sell airport slots'|'* Court says Monarch has no right to slot allocation* Administrator KPMG seeks to appeal High Court ruling* Judge orders stay on decision on valuable London slots (Updates with reaction from Monarch administrators, ACL and IATA, adds detail)By Alistair SmoutLONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Monarch does not have the right to sell its airport takeoff and landing slots, potentially the most valuable remaining part of the failed airline, a court in London ruled on Wednesday.In a blow to administrators seeking to recoup money, the High Court rejected Monarch’s claim that it must be allocated slots for summer 2018 and said they will be placed into a pool.“We are disappointed with today’s ruling and will be seeking leave to appeal as a matter of urgency,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator of Monarch, said.Administrators had sought a judicial review to establish if they had the right to sell airport slots, reportedly worth 60 million pounds ($79 million).But a judge dismissed the claim, saying that as Monarch was not flying and was unlikely to do so in the future, Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) had no duty to assign them slots.“There is no more than a theoretical possibility of Monarch emerging as a going concern or resuming the operation of air services,” Judge Peter Gross told the court.Gross said a decision on whether to grant an appeal would be adjourned until the full judgment was written.British Airways owner IAG, easyJet, Norwegian and Wizz Air have all expressed interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots, especially at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports.The court’s ruling means that the slots will go into the pool and will be assigned by ACL. A slot allocation conference began on Wednesday in Madrid.ACL said that slots at Manchester and Birmingham would immediately be returned to the pool, and allocated 50 percent to new entrants and 50 percent to incumbent operators.The court ordered a stay of its decision on the highly sought after slots in Gatwick and Luton until Nov. 17, pending the administrators’ application for permission to appeal.“As a result, the slots at Gatwick and Luton which were formerly operated by Monarch remain unallocated in the short-term,” ACL said in a statement.Instead of reaping the proceeds of slot sales, Monarch was order to pay ACL’s costs.Monarch investor Greybull Capital has agreed in principle that it should contribute to the cost of repatriating Monarch customers, should it emerge from the administration process in credit - a prospect less likely if administrators cannot sell or exchange airport slots.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the decision, saying slots should not be allocated to entities who only intended to sell them rather than operate flights.“If the High Court had decided that Monarch had the right to sell slots it could not operate, it would have set a deeply concerning precedent for the aviation industry,” IATA said. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monarch-licence/update-1-london-court-rules-that-monarch-cannot-sell-airport-slots-idINL5N1NE3TW'|'2017-11-08T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'22dbbfa858ba311c841586fbabb635f9e72c6cf3'|'Fund giant Templeton warns Libor doubts creating ''alarming'' practices'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:40 PM / a few seconds ago Fund giant Templeton warns Libor doubts creating ''alarming'' practices Marc Jones 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Uncertainty over the future of the Libor global interest rate benchmark is seeing some debt sellers make “alarming” changes to their financial contracts, Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset managers has said. Regulators plan to replace the scandal-plagued Libor by the end of 2021, but with its use as reference point embedded in tens of trillions of dollars worth of loans, bonds and mortgages, the process is far from easy. There has been scepticism about whether such a huge transition could take place on time - or even at all, and in a blog post two of U.S.-based Franklin Templeton’s top debt managers warned serious problems were already emerging. Mark Boyadjian and Reema Agarwal from the asset manager’s ‘Floating Rate Debt Group’ said some companies were adding language to new-issue loan credit agreements that allow them to choose a replacement rate for Libor, without lenders’ consent. Perhaps even more worryingly, in some cases the language was not in draft documentation sent to investors, but added to the final executed versions of credit agreements, they said. “The legality and underhandedness of inserting such a provision are debatable,” Boyadjian and Agarwal wrote. Making it possible to even change the terms of a financial market contract without consulting those who had bought the related asset was “an alarming trend”, they added. Franklin Templeton would therefore be closely scrutinizing the fine-print of the credit agreements and would walk away from potentially attractive deals if the terms weren’t transparent, they said. The company has roughly US$750 billion worth of assets under management. “In our opinion, it’s a cardinal rule of lending that each affected lender should consent to a proposed reduction in the interest rate of a loan.” For full blog click bit.ly/2AtijFo Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-libor-terms/fund-giant-templeton-warns-libor-doubts-creating-alarming-practices-idUKKBN1D82EU'|'2017-11-08T18:20:00.000+02:00'
'71065032f5cf187a97e1cbf1d8d5ae1ccbb4a2f6'|'Whiff of French revolution is good for banks - Bank of England policymaker'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:43 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Whiff of French revolution is good for banks - Bank of England policymaker Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England has not overstepped the mark in regulating lenders and interventions in politically sensitive sectors like housing have been modest rather than revolutionary, a BoE policymaker said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - People walk past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Martin Taylor described the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee on which he sits as a “committee of public safety”, a nod to the government of 18th-century revolutionary France that ushered in the “Reign of Terror” to maintain stability. “The FPC in its almost five years of existence... may have been more circumspect than its Parisian forerunner but has nevertheless shown real determination to use macroprudential policy tools in a disciplined and effective manner,” Taylor said in a speech in London. The aim of the FPC is to spot risks from destabilising the financial system after central bankers failed to see the 2007-09 banking meltdown coming. But it has faced criticism from British lawmakers for not explaining properly what it does when it steps into politically sensitive areas like housing and consumer credit. Some of its members have made very few speeches. Taylor, an external FPC member, noted that Brian Griffiths, an international adviser to Goldman Sachs bank, called in May for the FPC to be abolished because it would fail to predict the next financial crisis, and that intervention in the housing market would create winners and losers. In a spirited defence of the committee, Taylor said the FPC’s “modest interventions” in 2014 and this year to prevent the mortgage and consumer credit markets overheating were “technical” in nature. “It might surprise some observers of the FPC to learn how much time we spend asking ourselves whether in a given situation we have the right to intervene between willing borrowers and willing lenders,” Taylor said. “We may not be able to avoid crises, but we certainly ought to be able to prevent the financial system from amplifying a crisis as it did in 2008.” Banks have accused the FPC of piling on capital requirements, but Taylor said it was adopting a balanced approach by taking into account other reforms such as a requirement for the high street arms of lenders to be separated from risky investment banking by 2019. Without this, the FPC would “feel the need” to increase core capital requirements for banks by about 500 basis points. “Those who consider the present system onerous should reflect on this point,” said Taylor, a former bank CEO. “I don’t believe financial regulation has gone too far. No way.” Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-taylor/whiff-of-french-revolution-is-good-for-banks-bank-of-england-policymaker-idUKKBN1D72NS'|'2017-11-07T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'7fa8abe4d17d2d0b2cc900e2d5fa916f537a77a3'|'British app-only bank Monzo attracts $93m in fresh funding'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:26 AM / in 15 minutes British app-only bank Monzo attracts $93 million in fresh funding Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British digital challenger bank Monzo has raised 71 million pounds in a funding round, the mobile-only lender said on Tuesday, to boost investment in its chase for customers disenchanted with traditional banks. Monzo and peers such as Revolut and Starling Bank are gaining popularity in Britain, with customers attracted by their slick mobile apps, lack of fees and instant overview of spending on different goods and services. Monzo has signed up more than 400,000 customers since it was founded in 2015 and says it is increasing that total by 5 percent a week. The latest funding round is the bank’s biggest yet -- almost four times the 19.5 million pounds raised in February -- and doubles its valuation to 280 million pounds. Monzo said it attracted strong interest from the United States, including investments from venture capital firm Goodwater Capital and payments company Stripe. However, Britain’s new breed of app-only banks does face challenges, chiefly how to translate popularity among users into profitability. Monzo reported a pretax loss of 7.9 million pounds for the year to end-February and has said that each new user is costing it about 50 pounds. Digital banks such as Monzo have yet to expand into full-scale mortgage and consumer lending, the traditional way banks make money alongside charging fees for their services. Monzo’s fundraising comes ahead of new regulation aimed at boosting competition in the UK banking sector by cracking open the dominance of the big players and helping smaller financial technology companies to vie for customers. Incumber lenders have responded by investing in their own digital platforms. HSBC ( HSBA.L ), for example, last month becoming the first to launch a new app that allows customers to manage accounts with multiple banks in one place. Monzo said it would use its fresh funding to hire more staff, improve its product and expand its user base, which now stands at 470,000. “We will continue to hire talented people, focus on building the best produc, and bring Monzo to as many people as possible,” said CEO Tom Blomfield. Monzo, which has offered a coral-coloured pre-paid card since October 2015, secured a full banking licence in April and is currently in the process of rolling out current accounts. It also plans to build a “marketplace” on which other firms will be able to offer their services to users. The funding campaign also raised capital from Crankstart Foundation -- a charitable investment vehicle run by Michael Moritz, the head of Sequoia Capital -- and follow-on investments from Passion Capital, Thrive Capital and Orange Digital Ventures, which backed Monzo in previous rounds. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Additional reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monzo-fundraising/british-app-only-bank-monzo-attracts-93m-in-fresh-funding-idUKKBN1D701L'|'2017-11-07T02:26:00.000+02:00'
'9208d3116d36b838e500f681694b556cb9bd58bd'|'U.S. 3-year note sold at highest yield since 2010'|'NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sold $24 billion of three-year government notes at a yield of 1.750 percent, which was the highest for this debt maturity at an auction since April 2010, Treasury data showed.The ratio of bids to the amount of three-year debt offered was 2.76, down from 2.83 at the prior three-year note sale in October. (Reporting by Richard Leong; editing by Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-treasury-auction/u-s-3-year-note-sold-at-highest-yield-since-2010-idINL1N1ND1EV'|'2017-11-07T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'1141fc8411951eb597d9597509966207cfeb9846'|'BMW raises pretax profit guidance despite third-quarter earnings drop'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:01 AM / in 26 minutes BMW raises pretax profit guidance despite third-quarter earnings drop Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) slightly raised its profit outlook counting on demand for new models and cuts in development spending even as third-quarter earnings fell on technology costs. FILE PHOTO - The logo of BMW before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, southern Germany, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder The world’s second-biggest luxury automaker by sales on Tuesday forecast a 5-10 percent gain in pretax profit, raising a previous forecast of 1-5 percent. New vehicles are stoking demand, including its redesigned 5 Series, BMW’s second best-selling model, and an upgraded 4 Series which came to market this year. The overhauled X3 sport-utility vehicle hits dealerships this month. The Munich-based carmaker, which has been pushing cuts in development costs by restricting parts complexity, said it still expects a rise in deliveries to a new record this year. BMW is “keeping (its) promises and raising the bar for our own ambitious targets,” Chief Executive Harald Krueger said. Still, growing spending on electric and self-driving technologies keeps weighing on results. Quarterly pretax profit fell 5.9 percent to 2.42 billion euros (2.13 billion pounds), near the 2.41-billion-euro low-end forecast in a Reuters poll of bank and brokerage analysts. BMW plans to offer a convertible version of the electric i8 Roadster next year as part of efforts to expand battery-powered offerings to 25 models by 2025, about half of them fully-electric. The carmaker’s operating profit margin slipped to 8.3 percent in the July-to-September quarter from 8.5 percent a year earlier, within its 8-10 percent target range but below Audi’s ( NSUG.DE ) 8.9 percent and the 9.2 percent at Mercedes-Benz ( DAIGn.DE ). BMW pared expectations for revenue gains this year, forecasting sales in core automotive operations to grow by between 1 and 5 percent amid currency headwinds and political volatility, lowering previous guidance of 5-10 percent. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Maria Sheahan and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bmw-results/bmw-raises-pretax-profit-guidance-despite-third-quarter-earnings-drop-idUKKBN1D70X7'|'2017-11-07T11:01:00.000+02:00'
'1bf7e2452dbd422047ec7ec44a1e9283b7777c81'|'China commerce ministry conditionally approves Potash-Agrium merger'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said on Tuesday it has granted conditional regulatory approval to the proposed $25 billion merger between fertilizer companies Agrium Inc ( AGU.TO ) and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc PTO.TO.The ministry, in a statement, said the merged entity should divest some assets including those in Israel and Chile. The merged entity also cannot acquire stakes in industry competitors for five years without regulatory approval, it added.Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-agrium-m-a-potashcorp-china/china-commerce-ministry-conditionally-approves-potash-agrium-merger-idINKBN1D708W'|'2017-11-07T00:18:00.000+02:00'
'ec888e9bfd7ef44bfb340e69de529fa10fc56582'|'Snapchat outage prompts complaints on Twitter'|'(Reuters) - Snapchat faced a worldwide outage for at least four hours on Monday, prompting a flood of complaints on rival mobile application Twitter a day before posting its third quarterly earnings as a public company.The Snapchat app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration "We''re aware of the issue and working on a fix," Snapchat said on its support Twitter account, recommending that users stay logged on. ( bit.ly/2AgZCnj )Many users tweeted about being unable to sign on after logging off the app, which is popular among people under 30 for posting pictures that are automatically deleted within 24 hours.Twitter user @bradleykeegan11 wrote, “(Snapchat)Won’t let me log in and keeps saying ‘could not connect’.”A spokesman for the Snap Inc unit did not immediately respond to a query about the size and cause of the outage.Snapchat had at least a couple of technical issues in October, according to its Twitter support page.Snap, which went public in May, is scheduled to report third quarter earnings on Tuesday. Its stock closed down 2.8 percent at $14.83 on Monday, below its initial public offering price of $17.Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti and Subrat Patnaik; Editing by Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-snapchat-outages/snapchat-outage-prompts-complaints-on-twitter-idUSKBN1D703I'|'2017-11-07T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'8ad6fe26e6e6ebecfca322f14aeadfa36b494b07'|'HSBC, Wall Street''s Brexit worries and sexual abuse in the City'|'Banking Weekly podcast Banking Weekly podcast Add to myFT HSBC, Wall Street''s Brexit worries and sexual abuse in the City Save to myFT Save to myFT November 7, 2017 The Financial Times banking team discusses the biggest banking stories of the week, bringing you global insight and commentary on the top issues concerning this sector. Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss HSBC''s ''week of two halves'', a recent visit to Wall Street by Kathryn McGuinness, policy chair of the Corporation of London, and the concerns she found there about Brexit, and a special FT investigation into sexual abuse in the City of London Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don''t copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'2017-11-07T20:21:00.000+02:00'
'1218fa9ae3feb3b2f90a1d7cb027ea9d9c11028e'|'EU antitrust regulators to investigate ArcelorMittal, Ilva deal'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:15 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago EU antitrust regulators to investigate ArcelorMittal, Ilva deal Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators opened a full-scale investigation on Wednesday into ArcelorMittal’s ( MT.AS ) proposed purchase of Italian steel plant Ilva, ratcheting up the pressure on the Luxembourg-based steelmaker to offer more concessions to address competition concerns. A logo is seen on the roof of the ArcelorMittal steelworks headquarters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, April 1, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny The world’s largest steelmaker reached a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal to acquire Europe’s biggest capacity steel plant in June. The loss-making plant in the southern Italian city of Taranto is grappling with a serious pollution issue. The European Commission said it was concerned the merger may reduce competition in some flat carbon steel products and result in higher prices, especially for customers in southern Europe. “Those European industries need access to steel at competitive prices to compete in global markets,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. The Commission said concessions offered by ArcelorMittal last month failed to address its concerns, without providing details about the proposals. It will rule by March 23 whether to clear or block the deal. Italian authorities are keen to keep the deal to save more than 10,000 jobs ahead of general elections due early next year. ($1 = 0.8628 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ilva-m-a-arcelormitta-eu/eu-antitrust-regulators-to-investigate-arcelormittal-ilva-deal-idUKKBN1D82I9'|'2017-11-08T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'b6c0ca7b0cf5f27b7f8f5fe260c41ce506b4f931'|'UPDATE 1-Sears sees smaller third-quarter loss, pension contribution relief'|'November 8, 2017 / 2:23 PM / in 10 minutes UPDATE 1-Sears sees smaller third-quarter loss, pension contribution relief Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details on pension payment, share price) Nov 8 (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp on Wednesday forecast a smaller loss for the third quarter, and said it signed a deal to relieve itself from making some future pension contributions. As part of an agreement, Sears will pay $407 million to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC) and relieve itself from making pension contributions for the next two years. Sears said it would raise the money by selling some stores and through financing secured by some properties. The payment would also release 140 Sears properties from a ring-fence arrangement with PBGC. Ringfencing separates a company’s assets or profits from its finances, and is done to protect assets from creditors or for regulatory or tax purposes. Sears said it has contributed about $4.5 billion to pension plans since the 2005 merger of Sears and Kmart. The retailer, which has reported years of declining sales, said it expects a net loss of between $525 million and $595 million for the third quarter from store closures, compared with a $748 million loss in the same period a year ago. Sears also said it would look at options to meaningfully reduce cash interest payments in 2018. The company’s shares were down 3 percent in premarket trading. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar, Bernard Orr)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sears-outlook/update-1-sears-sees-smaller-third-quarter-loss-pension-contribution-relief-idUSL3N1NE53L'|'2017-11-08T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'2e13fb7dbe53013d4a2e46e3d3dbf6c5686129f9'|'Sprint to accelerate network investment, CEO says'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:59 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago Sprint to accelerate network investment, CEO says Anjali Athavaley 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Corp ( S.N ) will accelerate investment in its network as it plots a future as a standalone company, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday, days after the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier and rival T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) said merger talks had failed. FILE PHOTO: Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure speaks during the National Council of La Raza annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. July 13, 2015. REUTERS/Dave Kaup/File Photo Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said at an investor conference the company could spend more than its previous guidance of $5 billion to $6 billion per year on capital expenditures, and that cash on hand could dip next year as it builds out its network. “We came to the realization that we’re still far away from what the Sprint network can actually deliver,” Claure said on Wednesday. “I don’t think we’ve put all our assets to work.” Sprint and No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile said on Saturday they have called off merger talks to create a combined U.S. wireless company to rival market leaders AT&T Inc ( T.N ) and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ). Claure said on Wednesday that the talks fell through because SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) CEO Masayoshi Son was not prepared to relinquish control of Sprint. SoftBank owns a majority of Sprint shares. “We’re always going to be open to looking at possible alternatives,” he said, adding that “we believe that eventually there’s going to need to be a tie-up between a telco and a cable company.” Sprint shares rose 4.2 percent to $5.99 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sprint-corp-ceo/sprint-to-accelerate-network-investment-ceo-says-idUKKBN1D82TP'|'2017-11-08T20:59:00.000+02:00'
'f627c5ce8bbf67feba36e89f2aa448d5b5483238'|'Former Yahoo CEO apologizes for data breach, blames Russians'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologised on Wednesday for two massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents for at least one of them, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks on major U.S. companies.”As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologise to each and every one of our users,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc and a senior Verizon Communications Inc executive.“Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users’ data.”Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc’s assets in June, the same month Mayer stepped down. Verizon disclosed last month that a 2013 Yahoo data breach affected all 3 billion of its accounts, compared with an estimate of more than 1 billion disclosed in December.In March, federal prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding a 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber crimes.Those charges came amid controversy relating to alleged Kremlin-backed hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible links between Russian figures and associates of President Donald Trump. Russia has denied trying to influence the U.S. election in any way.Special Agent Jack Bennett of the FBI’s San Francisco Division said in March the 2013 breach was unrelated and that an investigation of the larger incident was continuing. Mayer later said under questioning that she did not know if Russians were responsible for the 2013 breach, but earlier spoke of state-sponsored attacks.Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer waits to testify before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Senator John Thune, a Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, asked Mayer on Wednesday why it took three years to identify the data breach or properly gauge its size.Mayer said Yahoo has not been able to identify how the 2013 intrusion occurred and that the company did not learn of the incident until the U.S. government presented data to Yahoo in November 2016. She said even “robust” defences are not enough to defend against state-sponsored attacks and compared the fight with hackers to an “arms race.”Yahoo required users to change passwords and took new steps to make data more secure, Mayer said.“We now know that Russian intelligence officers and state-sponsored hackers were responsible for highly complex and sophisticated attacks on Yahoo’s systems,” Mayer said. She said “really aggressive” pursuit of hackers was needed to discourage the efforts, and that even the most well-defended companies “could fall victim to these crimes.”The current and former chief executives of credit bureau Equifax, which disclosed in September that a data breach affected as many as 145.5 million U.S. consumers, said they did not know who was responsible for the attack.Senator Bill Nelson said “only stiffer enforcement and stringent penalties will help incentivise companies to properly safeguard consumer information.”Thune told reporters after the hearing the Equifax data breach had created “additional momentum” for Congress to approve legislation. He said Mayer’s testimony was “important in shaping our future reactions.”The Senate Commerce Committee took the unusual step of subpoenaing Mayer to testify on Oct. 25 after a representative for Mayer declined multiple requests for her voluntarily testimony. A representative for Mayer said on Tuesday she was appearing voluntarily.Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-databreaches/former-yahoo-ceo-apologizes-for-data-breach-blames-russians-idINKBN1D827P'|'2017-11-08T18:04:00.000+02:00'
'90947c3c06f99892e85576d2cbabcd90568e8661'|'China''s Tencent buys 12 percent stake in Snapchat owner'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:39 AM / Updated an hour ago Snap says China''s Tencent holds 12 percent stake Supantha Mukherjee , Munsif Vengattil 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Snapchat owner Snap Inc on Wednesday revealed that China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd has a 12 percent stake in the company, a day after dismal results pummeled the stock. FILE PHOTO: A sign of Tencent is seen during the third annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Snap’s shares recouped losses in pre-market trade after saying in regulatory filings that the Chinese tech giant owns 145.8 million shares of its non-voting Class A common stock. But the stock fell again after Wall Street weighed in and downplayed the news as just another investment by Tencent, and kept the focus on Snap’s slower-than-expected quarter revenue and user growth. Snap said it had only received the details of the stake from Tencent this month and declined to answer further questions on the filing. Shares of Snap were down 15 percent at $12.85. Tencent has bought stakes in several companies over the past few years, including electric car maker Tesla, as well as stakes in ride service company Lyft, and in 2013 invested in Snap through an affiliate. Investments in the United States by Chinese tech heavyweights have become common, and the two countries unveiled $9 billion in new deals on the arrival of President Donald Trump in Beijing on Wednesday. Apart from Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu have poured billions of cash from a decade of growth in China into buying stakes in U.S. firms. Snap’s ownership structure, which reserves 95 percent of voting rights for its co-founders, made it likely Tencent was just accumulating a financial stake, analysts said. “While such news may be initially perceived as positive by the market, one has to remember that Tencent’s holdings in Snap is the non-voting Class A shares, which makes a possible acquisition of Snap by Tencent less likely,” said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi. While the stake could lead to a business partnership with Tencent and help Snap expand its reach into China, Mogharabi said Snap’s problems - lack of user growth and competition from Facebook Inc’s Instagram - remained. ROLE MODEL Co-founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel, who has in the past referred to Tencent as a role model, said on Tuesday that he was looking to redesign Snapchat to reach a broader audience. Snap’s daily active users (DAU) stood at 178 million in the third quarter, below expectations of 181.8 million, according to research firm FactSet. The company has disappointed investors each quarter since it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March. Snap has fallen 48.7 pct up to Tuesday’s close since hitting a high of $29.44 on March 3, a day after it went public. Tencent''s stake would be valued at $2.20 billion, based on Snap''s $15.12 close on Tuesday. Snap had about 1.2 billion shares outstanding, as of Oct 31.( bit.ly/2zqvybE ) “(Tencent) buys all sorts of minority investments, and I don’t think we can extrapolate that this means they intend to take over the company,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. Unlike many U.S. stock market-listed corporations, Snap is not obligated to disclose changes in Tencent’s ownership of Snap’s Class A stock. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-snap-tencent-stake/chinas-tencent-buys-12-percent-stake-in-snapchat-owner-idUKKBN1D81G3'|'2017-11-08T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'afe2c7b2c30463b8edaa081702e02fc485c7dbda'|'China gives conditional approval to Maersk Line''s acquisition of Hamburg Sud'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:34 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China gives conditional approval to Maersk Line''s acquisition of Hamburg Sud Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday it has granted conditional approval for Maersk Line’s planned acquisition of Hamburg Sud. Shipping containers belonging to Hamburg Sud and Maersk companies are seen stacked at La Guaira port, in La Guaira, Venezuela, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipping company, will pay 3.7 billion euros ($4.3 billion) to buy German rival Hamburg Sud. The ministry, in a statement, said the company could not enter a new ship sharing alliance on Far East-South America routes in the five years after the deal. The company will withdraw some ships from certain routes such as the Far East-western coast of South America, it added. ($1 = 0.8622 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-maersk-m-a-hamburgsud-china/china-commerce-ministry-approves-maersk-lines-acquisition-of-hamburg-sud-idUKKBN1D8169'|'2017-11-08T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'c6efe6c2dc4c8fdfb40149885fe29560d0447121'|'VW has still not fixed one in three dieselgate cars in Britain'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 4:00 PM / a minute ago Volkswagen has still not fixed one in three dieselgate cars in Britain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) has yet to fix one in three of the 1.2 million cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal in Britain, over two years since the revelations first came to light, according to a parliamentary committee. Trees are reflected on the bonnet of a Volkswagen (VW) car in the morning sunshine in London, Britain May 5, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Boyce The German carmaker admitted in September 2015 to using software to cheat diesel emission tests in the United States and has since paid out compensation to U.S. motorists but has refused to do so in Europe. The British parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee said that Volkswagen had slowed the pace of its work in recent months and called on the transport ministry to take action. “It is over two years since the VW emissions scandal was discovered, a third of vehicles have yet to be fixed and rates have slowed considerably,” said committee Chairwoman Mary Creagh, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party. “We have written to the Department for Transport to ask what action they are taking in response to the stalled progress.” Volkswagen said it had made technical changes to 810,134 cars out of just under 1.2 million in Britain but that as the process was voluntary, rather than a safety recall, it may never fix every single model. “The campaign will remain open for the foreseeable future but the 100 percent point can never be reached for the following reasons: Some vehicles will have been scrapped, some written off, some exported and some owners decline or never respond,” a spokesman said. Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-britain/volkswagen-has-still-not-fixed-one-in-three-dieselgate-cars-in-britain-idUKKBN1D829C'|'2017-11-08T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'66434b1e8d3a0aedbf757b78066bfce44bde4318'|'SSE, npower to merge British ops to create UK''s No.2 energy supplier'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s SSE ( SSE.L ) and npower, owned by Germany’s Innogy ( IGY.DE ), announced plans on Wednesday to merge their British retail energy business in a deal that would create the country’s second largest supplier.A new independent company will be formed through the deal, which will be held by SSE shareholders with minority participation by Innogy, SSE said.Combined, the two companies have around 11.5 million customers, making the new company second only to Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas, which has more than 14 million customer accounts.Reporting by Susanna Twidale; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-innogy-m-a-sse/sse-npower-to-merge-british-ops-to-create-uks-no-2-energy-supplier-idINKBN1D80O2'|'2017-11-08T04:45:00.000+02:00'
'ed27bab580c951540e97bb4dddc4a619ccc54d72'|'Equifax probes legal officer''s role in post-breach share sales: WSJ'|'November 6, 2017 / 9:36 PM / in 11 hours Equifax probes legal officer''s role in post-breach share sales: WSJ Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - An special committee of Equifax Inc’s board is investigating the role the credit reporting company’s chief legal officer played in approving share sales by four executives days after suspicious activity was discovered in its systems, according to The Wall Street Journal. Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell Three of the four executives sold a total of $1.8 million of Equifax stock in early August, days after the company discovered what ended up being one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history, compromising the sensitive financial information of 145.5 million people. When Equifax later disclosed the breach to the public, the company’s shares plunged as much as 37 percent, erasing billions of dollars from its market value. The special committee, made up of independent directors, on Friday said it concluded that the executives did not know of the suspicious cyber activity at the time they sold the shares and that no insider trading occurred. Now the committee is looking into the level of knowledge John Kelley, Equifax''s chief legal officer, who was also in charge of security at the firm, had of the hack at the time he approved the stock sales, the Journal said, citing sources familiar with the matter. ( on.wsj.com/2zhkzSp ) Kelley is no longer in charge of security, the Journal said. Equifax did not immediately respond to email and voicemail requests for comment. An Equifax employee reached by phone at the company’s main line declined to forward the call to Kelley. The U.S. Justice Department is conducting its own criminal investigation into the share sales. The hack, and Equifax’s response to it, has also prompted investigations by multiple federal and state agencies as well as scores of class action lawsuits. Credit monitoring services such as Equifax collect vast amounts of financial information from consumers, working with banks and other lenders, for example, to track the creditworthiness of individuals. Reporting by John McCrank in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-equifax-cyber-legal/equifax-probes-legal-officers-role-in-post-breach-share-sales-wsj-idUSKBN1D62RJ'|'2017-11-06T23:35:00.000+02:00'
'069b1fa39a771ad2876b5ce1f228473684b920e2'|'Brazil''s Petrobras kicks off African oil venture stake sale'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ), on Tuesday revealed plans to sell its stake in an African oil exploration venture as part of a wider divestment plan.A man walks past the Brazil''s state-run Petrobras oil company headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Petrobras, as the company is known, is looking to sell its 50 percent stake in Petrobras Oil & Gas BV, or Petrobras Africa. BTG Pactual E&P BV, a subsidiary of Grupo BTG Pactual SA, holds a 40 percent stake in the joint venture, while Helios Investment Partners owns the remaining 10 percent.Petrobras, the world’s most indebted oil company and focus of a massive corruption scandal, is seeking to offload $21 billion in assets through 2018 and has moved aggressively to cut debt.Petrobras Africa participates in two deepwater oil exploration blocks off the coast of Nigeria that contain the Akpo and Agbami producing fields and are operated by Total SA ( TOTF.PA ) and Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) respectively.Reporting by Ana Mano and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Jason Neely and Steve Orlofsky '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-petrobras-divestiture-petrobras-afric/brazils-petrobras-kicks-off-african-oil-venture-stake-sale-idINKBN1D71IK'|'2017-11-07T08:58:00.000+02:00'
'54b35285300d6e66d503c361ccc77ae315cd436e'|'European shares dip slightly as more third-quarter earnings announced'|'MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - European shares fell on Thursday as a series of underwhelming earning updates, including from industrial giant Siemens, ( SIEGn.DE ) prompted investors to take profits out of a market still trading near two-year highs.The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 benchmark index fell 1.1 percent, suffering its biggest daily loss since end-June, while Germany''s DAX .GDAXI fell 1.5 percent.The STOXX 600 is up 7.9 percent so far this year following a rally that has been fueled by a combination of strong economic data, solid earnings and easing political fears. Earlier this month it climbed back to its highest since August 2015.Following such a strong run traders said earnings needed to deliver strong positive surprises to justify further gains but on Thursday a number of companies disappointed.Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) fell 3.7 percent. The German engineer posted a worse than expected 10 percent drop in quarterly industrial profit and signaled a tough year ahead as it restructures its turbine and wind power businesses.“The going is getting a bit harder at this stage,” wrote Barclays analyst James Stettler, reiterating his “equal weight” rating on the stock.Vestas ( VWS.CO ) fell 19 percent after the world’s largest maker of wind turbines lowered its 2017 profit margin outlookAmong heavy losers were also British luxury brand Burberry ( BRBY.L ), down 9.9 percent after results, and drug maker Hikma ( HIK.L ), which lost 4.1 percent after lowering 2017 revenue guidance for its generics business for a third time.According to Deutsche Bank strategists, EPS (earnings per share) growth for the STOXX 600 has slowed to 7.6 percent in the third quarter following the broad-based earnings surge in the first quarter and the financials-driven beat in the second.It said the result were in line with expectations, with earnings beats hitting the lowest since the end of 2015 as euro strength offset the positive impact of a strong growth backdrop.The mood on Thursday was also dampened by worries over tax reforms in the United States.In spite of the pull-back some investors remained upbeat for prospects of the region’s equities.”European equities have delivered excess returns this year and we see this as one of the better markets for coming years,” said Kamal Fahad, senior market strategist at Kleinwort Hambros.Elsewhere ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ) fell 3.4 percent after EU regulators said they would investigate whether its proposed purchase of Italian steel plant Ilva would lead to price hikes.Banks were again in focus with Italian lenders .FTIT8300 rebounding 1 percent after being hit in the previous session by worries over non-performing loans and Creval’s ( PCVI.MI ) move to raise cash to shed bad debts.Daniele Nouy, the ECB’s top supervisor, said on Thursday that the European Central Bank was prepared to delay and improve its new, stricter rules on bad bank loans after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and Italy.Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) rose 2.4 percent after it swung to net profit in the third quarter. The German bank reiterated it was still expecting to eke out a “slightly positive” net profit for the full year.Still in the financial sector, shares in Dutch insurer Aegon ( AEGN.AS ) were up 4.8 percent as it reported earnings above consensus.Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Julien Ponthus, additional reporting by Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Alison Williams '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-open-a-touch-lower-as-more-third-quarter-earnings-pour-in-idINKBN1D90ZI'|'2017-11-09T05:42:00.000+02:00'
'cfd9d0cf52c6927c0134bc799b2249aedeaa0d93'|'Third Point takes stake in mall-owner Macerich: Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC has taken a stake in U.S. shopping mall owner Macerich Co ( MAC.N ), Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.The New York-based hedge fund owns about 5 percent of the real estate investment trust (REIT) and is expected to push for change at the company, which could include a potential sale, the report said. ( bloom.bg/2iIV3eq )It was unclear whether there have been talks between the activist investor and Macerich’s management or board, the report said.Macerich was not immediately available for comment.Shares of the REIT were up 8 percent in afternoon trading.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-macerich-stake-third-point/third-point-takes-stake-in-mall-owner-macerich-bloomberg-idINKBN1D92TM'|'2017-11-09T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'82bcf50da6dc418af3f49f642f9590de305fc6db'|'Canadian insurer Manulife''s 3rd qtr earnings beat market view'|'TORONTO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Canada’s biggest insurer Manulife Financial Corp on Wednesday reported third quarter results which were ahead of expectations, driven in part by strong growth from its Asian business.Manulife said earnings per share, excluding one-off items, were C$0.53 in the third quarter to Sept. 30, compared with C$0.49 in the same period the year before.Analysts had, on average, forecast earnings per share, excluding one-off items, of C$0.52, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Chris Reese) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/manulife-financi-results/canadian-insurer-manulifes-3rd-qtr-earnings-beat-market-view-idUSL1N1NE2FE'|'2017-11-09T00:18:00.000+02:00'
'b643041f9793fdd50f0a6f201158eb104bf00753'|'Why Qatar Airways has bought 9.6% of Cathay Pacific - Akbar al-Baker''s Chinese takeaway'|'THIS morning’s news that Qatar Airways, a national carrier with global ambitions, has bought nearly 10% of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flag-carrier, came as a shock for financial markets. Shares in Cathay Pacific dropped in value by around 5% in the minutes after trading resumed first thing today. But the idea that Qatar Airways was the market for another acquisition came as no surprise for analysts in the aviation industry. Since 2015 Qatar has acquired 20% of IAG, a European group of airlines that flies 100m passengers a year, 10% of LATAM, Latin America’s biggest carrier, and 49% of Meridiana, an Italian outfit. It has even been invited by the Indian government to start up a new airline there with 100 jets. So why has Akbar al-Baker, Qatar Airways’ outspoken chief executive, gone on a shopping spree worth billions of dollars?On the face of it, such a strategy does not look wise. Etihad, a rival to Qatar Airways based nearby in Abu Dhabi, attempted to do the same a few years ago, buying stakes in Air Berlin, Alitalia and Jet Airways. The idea was to use the carriers to feed passenger traffic from Germany, Italy and India via its hub in Abu Dhabi. But the strategy came unstuck this year with the bankruptcy of Air Berlin and Alitalia, the collapse of which some sources estimate may have cost Etihad as much as $4.5bn in losses. Following this path would bring Qatar few rewards especially as, in the words of Greg Waldron of Flightglobal, an online trade journal, "Qatar seems to invest in far flung assets with no clear synergies" . But as Gulliver revealed in an article in this week’s print edition , Mr al-Baker has no intentions of repeating Etihad’s errors. The search for partners abroad is not simply an attempt to drive passenger traffic through its base in Doha. Instead, it is a search for allies in the face of hostility from its neighbours in the Middle East:Since June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Qatar, banning its flag-carrier’s jets from their skies. That has resulted in the cancellation of over 50 daily flights to these countries, costing the airline a tenth of its business and $500m in profit this year, calculates Diogenis Papiomytis of Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy.But even before the blockade Mr al-Baker surely knew that there were limited growth opportunities in the Middle East. The forces that caused passenger traffic through the region to sky-rocket over the past decade are unwinding. Terror attacks and geopolitical instability have reduced the attraction of transiting through airports such as Doha. Low oil prices have sapped demand for business-class travel from energy companies in the region. Cheaper fuel prices, combined with the introduction of fuel-efficient aircraft such as Boeing’s 787 jetliner, have improved the economics of direct flights between Europe and Asia that do not require a stop in the Middle East.And so buying up other airlines in the oneworld alliance—of which Qatar Airways, IAG, LATAM and Cathay Pacific are members—seems more sensible than throwing more aircraft and investment at its Doha base. So far the strategy has worked: the share prices of IAG and LATAM have surged since Mr al-Baker first took stakes in the duo. Cathay Pacific also looks like a good bet. Its shares have been performing poorly since it revealed its first annual loss since 2008 earlier this year. But if its managers play their cards right, the Hong Kong-based carrier should be able to benefit from the rapid rise in outbound tourism from mainland China.Whether this increase in Qatar’s influence in the aviation industry is good for consumers is another question. Most airline bosses Gulliver has met in recent months predict privately that within the next five or ten years, the long-haul international travel market will be controlled by three massive airline groups. This, they predict, will be the result of the members of today’s alliances—oneworld, Skyteam and Star—buying stakes in each other. The Cathay Pacific deal adds more evidence to the argument that Mr al-Baker wants Qatar Airways to be the leader of one of these future goliaths of the aviation industry. So far, the only major oneworld carrier to refuse Qatar’s advance point blank is American Airlines, a determined enemy of the Gulf carriers, which Mr al-Baker tried and failed to buy 10% of earlier this summer. With the global airline business moving towards consolidation, however, how much longer it can resist its rival’s courtship remains to be seen.Next Southwest Airlines tries to bring music concerts to the skies'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/akbar-al-bakers-chinese-takeaway?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-07T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'd55c22c6dca4b87ed7c827e15ccb8440835c3da1'|'Regional airline KLM Cityhopper has kind words but no orders for Embraer''s E2'|'November 9, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Regional airline KLM Cityhopper has kind words but no orders for Embraer''s E2 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The top executive at the biggest European operator of Embraer ( EMBR3.SA ) passenger jets took a close look at the planemaker’s next-generation aircraft on Wednesday, but said it is too early to think about placing an order. Warner Rootliep (L), managing director of regional airline KLM Cityhopper, shakes hands with John Slattery, head of commercial aviation at Brazilian planemaker Embraer, in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Nacho Doce Warner Rootliep, the managing director of regional airline KLM Cityhopper, a unit of Air France KLM SA ( AIRF.PA ), said in an interview that he and his team were “very impressed” with the E190-E2 that they saw at Embraer’s headquarters in Brazil. “Embraer colleagues were kind enough to roll out the E2, and we had a very close look at it ... It looks very promising,” he told Reuters, during his first visit to Brazil since taking his new role last month. “In due time, the E2 could be a nice addition, but I think that it’s a bit too early.” With a 40-aircraft fleet made up exclusively of Embraer E-Jets and eight more on order, KLM Cityhopper is the sort of happy customer that Embraer is targeting with the re-engined E2 lineup that enters service starting in April with the E190-E2. Yet KLM’s backlog of orders for current-generation jets underscores the challenge of selling and producing two overlapping families of aircraft over the next four years. Embraer warned last month that profit margins are likely to suffer next year as it ramps up E2 production. Warner Rootliep, managing director of regional airline KLM Cityhopper, poses at Embraer''s factory in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Nacho Doce John Slattery, the head of Embraer’s commercial aviation unit, said in a joint interview that part of the planemaker’s plan was to stimulate new demand from flagship European airlines with a longer version of its largest aircraft, the E195-E2. Slideshow (3 Images) That passenger jet, Embraer’s biggest ever, enters service in 2019 targeting the same market as Bombardier’s ( BBDb.TO ) CSeries, which got a boost last month when Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) took a majority stake in the programme. At the smaller end of Embraer’s line-up, Rootliep said KLM had taken part in the Brazilian planemaker’s recent advisory board to discuss a possible entrant into the turboprop market now dominated by ATR, a joint venture between Airbus and Italian company Leonardo SpA ( LDOF.MI ). Slattery said the board gathered representatives from 22 global airlines and two leasing companies for conversations in Amsterdam, but stressed that it was part of a standard exploratory process rather than a signal of development plans. “Embraer is always running the ruler over the natural franchise footprint that we have, which is everything below 150 seats,” Slattery said. Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-embraer-air-france-klm/regional-airline-klm-cityhopper-has-kind-words-but-no-orders-for-embraers-e2-idUKKBN1D91UL'|'2017-11-09T15:12:00.000+02:00'
'70a9c7735c2eb9f498ca37ad67a074ca2e48b462'|'Wisconsin board clears way for $3 billion Foxconn deal'|'November 9, 2017 / 1:24 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Wisconsin board clears way for $3 billion Foxconn deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Wisconsin’s economic development agency on Wednesday approved a $3 billion (2.29 billion pounds) incentives package for Taiwan-based Foxconn to build a massive liquid-crystal display plant in the state, Governor Scott Walker said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, is seen on top of the company''s headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan on March 29, 2016. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo The vote by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation clears a final hurdle for the controversial deal, in which Foxconn ( 2317.TW ) hopes to open a $10 billion plant in 2020 at a 1,000-acre site in southeastern Wisconsin. Foxconn, formerly known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, is a major supplier to Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) for its iPhones. “WEDC’s board approved the deal with Foxconn. Wisconsin is ready to welcome the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer to Wisconsin and the United States!,” Walker said on Twitter. The governor told local media he intends to sign the incentive package, which was approved by the Republican-controlled state Assembly in August, at a ceremony with the company’s chief executive officer on Friday. Walker ordered the legislature into special session in August to consider the incentives package, which would award Foxconn $3 billion over 15 years in mostly cash incentives. The 20-million-square-foot LCD plant would initially employ 3,000 people, but Walker and Foxconn said the company could ultimately employ 13,000 at the site. Proponents have touted the project’s investment potential and job creation, including an expected 22,000 ancillary and 10,000 construction jobs. Critics, including some Democrats, have attacked the plan as corporate welfare, too expensive, rushed and potentially harmful to the environment. Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-foxconn-wisconsin/wisconsin-board-clears-way-for-3-billion-foxconn-deal-idUKKBN1D905K'|'2017-11-09T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'ba632e58fef62920048c29d703ca12c35236f3e0'|'Dutch government under fire over tax cut favoured by big business'|' 35 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Dutch government under fire over tax cut favoured by big business Bart H. Meijer , Toby Sterling 3 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The new Dutch government came under fire in parliament on Thursday for scrapping a 15 percent dividend withholding tax, after a national broadcaster NOS said Shell ( RDSa.L ), Unilever ( ULVR.L ), Akzo Nobel ( AKZO.AS ) and Philips ( PHG.AS ) had lobbied for the change. Netherland''s Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives at the EU summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Dario Pignatelli Shell confirmed to Reuters it had sought the change, while Philips denied it. Akzo Nobel declined to comment. Unilever would not say whether it asked for the change but it “welcomes measures that improve the business climate in countries where we operate.” Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said the policy will help the country retain its appeal to foreign investors as it cuts other tax perks in response to concerns that Dutch tax policies have helped multinationals avoid paying fair taxes. It is also cutting its corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 25 percent. The withholding tax meant the Dutch state levied tax on dividends when they were paid. Dutch citizens were able to reclaim that money in their annual tax returns and many foreign investors could claim exemption from taxes levied by their own governments to avoid double taxation. But those based in countries without dividend taxes - such as Britain - had no way to claw back the Dutch tax. The idea of getting rid of the dividend withholding tax met resistance from Dutch voters, as it would primarily benefit those foreign investors. Opposition parties demanded clarity from Finance Minster Wopke Hoekstra in his first appearance on the floor of parliament. “I had a lot of romantic and less romantic ideas of how my start here would go, but I’ll admit right away that I did not really expect this,” he said, facing demands for an explanation, which he may submit to the house in a written statement. Last week, Shell CFO Jessica Uhl said the company would consider simplifying its dual class share structure - designed to shield non-Dutch investors from the tax - if the plan proceeds. Shell spokesman Frank van Hoorn said there was nothing secret or nefarious about Shell’s lobbying for the change, as it was common for interest groups to seek to convince the government to adopt policies favourable to them. In a company statement, Shell said abolishing the dividend withholding tax “improves the competitiveness of the Dutch economy, attracts foreign investment, and reduces the administrative burden for companies.” Thursday’s debate follows a discussion earlier in the week about “advance tax rulings” favourable to big business revealed in the so-called “Paradise Papers”. That led to a promise by the Finance Ministry on Wednesday to review whether 4,000 such rulings granted in 2012-2016 were properly vetted. Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-netherlands-tax/dutch-government-under-fire-over-tax-cut-favoured-by-big-business-idUKKBN1D91WR'|'2017-11-09T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'eac979d44df61efbd990bddf8de9263f734ee0af'|'Subaru plans to expand Japan recall over inspection issue'|' 47 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Subaru plans to expand Japan recall over inspection issue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Automaker Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) plans to recall about 400,000 vehicles for the Japanese market after discovering that it had been following improper procedures for final inspections at domestic plants, the company said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Subaru Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo It widened the scope of the recall from a previous expectation for 255,000, adding that costs associated with the issue would exceed 10 billion yen (£67.2 million). Last month Subaru said that for more than 30 years, final inspections of new vehicles at its main Gunma complex north of Tokyo were sometimes done by inspectors who were not listed as certified technicians, violating transport ministry requirements. Reporting by Maki Shiraki'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-subaru-recall/subaru-plans-to-expand-japan-recall-over-inspection-issue-idUKKBN1D9158'|'2017-11-09T11:46:00.000+02:00'
'96165d8e00ab8e148e2a4c567e9cfb6231c876c4'|'Steinhoff didn''t tell investors about nearly $1 billion in deals'|'LONDON (Reuters) - German-listed Steinhoff International ( SNHG.DE ) did not tell investors about almost $1 billion in transactions with a related company despite laws that some experts believe require it to do so, a Reuters examination of filings and prospectuses has found.European financial disclosure rules, including the European Union Prospectus Directive, say publicly traded companies must disclose all transactions that are material in the prospectuses they present before a debt or equity sale.The law says a material transaction is one that is big enough to influence investors’ view of the firm’s financial health. However, the law does not define the details of a material transaction.One lawyer and two accounting academics told Reuters the transaction was large enough to be material.The EU rules also require disclosure of all transactions with related parties. Those three experts said this would apply to Steinhoff because the transactions involved a company called GT Branding Holding, in which it holds a minority stake.But although the lawyer and two experts said the company should have disclosed the transaction, Steinhoff and one other academic that Reuters spoke to said it might not necessarily be required.Two traders said Steinhoff’s shares fell in response to the Reuters report. Shares were down 4.6 percent at 3.59 euros at 1350 GMT. Investors said the company would be under pressure to release more information on the transactions.Accounts and incorporation documents filed with Swiss, Austrian and German corporate registries show that in 2015 Europe’s second-largest furniture group by sales bought a 45 percent stake in Swiss company GT Branding Holding and then lent it around 810 million Swiss francs ($810 million).The details in the publicly available company filings have not previously been reported.Professor Emilios Avgouleas, University of Edinburgh Chair in International Banking Law and Finance, said that the potentially market-sensitive information should have been clearly flagged.“That transaction should be disclosed to investors. It’s a material transaction and arguably it can lend itself to all kinds of distortions of the share price,” he told Reuters.Dennis Jullens, lecturer in accounting at the University of Amsterdam, said the rules were less clear-cut.“The rules don’t say exactly what size transactions need to be disclosed so there is some judgment involved,” he said, adding that, conceivably, a company might argue a large transaction was not material or that very small related party transactions didn’t need to be disclosed.A spokesman for Steinhoff said the company complied with all reporting requirements including internal accounting rules and the Prospectus Directive.“TRANSACTIONS NOT MATERIAL”The company operates across many jurisdictions so many laws will apply. However, as a Dutch-registered and German-listed company, the most important rules it must comply with are those countries’ local regulations and the EU Prospectus Directive.The transactions were not disclosed in Steinhoff’s 2015 or 2016 annual reports, share prospectuses in August 2015 and Nov 2015 and a debt prospectus published in July 2017.The Steinhoff spokesman said the company did not need to provide detailed information about the loans, share purchase or royalties it paid to GT Branding’s subsidiary because they did not have a major impact on profitability.“All transactions to and from Steinhoff to GT Branding Holding are not material in a qualitative and quantitative way. Therefore in line with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) requirements no related party disclosure was presented in Steinhoff’s group financial statements,” he said.Spokespeople for the AMF, the financial regulator in the Netherlands where Steinhoff International is registered, German regulator Bafin, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Steinhoff’s auditor Deloitte all declined to comment on Steinhoff’s filings.A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it did not comment on individual cases and said national authorities were responsible for enforcement of the EU directive.Luxembourg financial regulator Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier approved a 2017 Steinhoff bond prospectus. A spokesman declined to say if it would investigate whether the company should have disclosed the transactions.“INVESTORS SHOULD KNOW”The loans came shortly after Steinhoff bought the 45 percent stake in GT Branding Holding. This created a related party relationship between the two groups.Campion Capital SA owns the other 55 percent. Campion did not reply to emails and phone calls, and Steinhoff declined to answer questions about Campion’s ownership.GT Branding Holding’s main asset is another Swiss company called GT Global Trademarks, which trademark registers show owns around 200 brands used by Steinhoff. Steinhoff used to own GT Global Trademarks.At the end of 2015, the GT Branding debt represented 3.2 percent of Steinhoff’s total assets.Three experts said this was significant enough to be above the reporting threshold laid out in the EU Prospectus Directive. It requires the disclosure of any information that could influence an investor’s view of the company’s financial health.A Steinhoff spokesman said while the interest on the loans and royalty payments were related party transactions, they did not need to be disclosed because when netted off, the amount of money flowing between the companies was small.Kecskes Andras, head of Department of Economic and Trade Law at the University of Pecs in Hungary, said transactions with associated companies worth hundreds of millions of euros should be disclosed.Steinhoff, which owns Poundland in Britain, Mattress Firm in the United States and Conforama in France, is under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany.That investigation is ongoing and Steinhoff denies all wrongdoing. It is not directly linked to the transactions outlined in this story.Editing by Anna Willard '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoffintlaccounting-disclosure/steinhoff-didnt-tell-investors-about-nearly-1-billion-in-deals-idINKBN1D81BZ'|'2017-11-08T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'9d4d5be11a1be147ba7076b603bffc6701f28fbb'|'Global stocks stutter as longest winning run in 14 years looms'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broad equity market declines in Asia and Europe on Thursday, combined with growing concerns that the Republican-led corporate U.S. tax cut may not pass this year, threatened to spoil the longest winning streak for MSCI’s global stock index since 2003.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Wall Street stocks opened lower after Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, said that the Senate tax proposal will delay a corporate tax cut by one year to 2019. Major stock indexes came off their session lows after Senator John Cornyn said Senate Republicans were looking to avoid such a delay. [.N ]The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 130.51 points, or 0.55 percent, to 23,432.85, the S&P 500 lost 14.82 points, or 0.57 percent, to 2,579.56 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 57.13 points, or 0.84 percent, to 6,731.99.“The stock market has run out of a little momentum,” said Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes. “We are waiting for some news from the Republicans on the (U.S.) tax plans, there is a bond market that has stalled and we’ve got rather soggy-looking emerging markets ... We probably need to get U.S. Treasury yields higher to get things going again.”Junk bonds fell to their lowest intraday levels since March, victims of a broader flight to safety as the Republican-led proposed U.S. corporate tax cut seemed on the verge of a delay. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were last down 4/32 in price to yield 2.331 percent, from 2.317 percent late on Wednesday.Earlier in the day, Japan’s Nikkei index .N225 swung by a wild 2 percent after hitting its highest since 1992 [.T] and Europe''s main indexes were firmly in the red as tech and commodity stocks tumbled while Brexit talks resumed amid low expectations in Brussels.MSCI''s all-country equity index is clocking year-to-date gains of almost 19 percent. ( reut.rs/1WAiOSC )But as a measure of relative calm amid the current bull market and a reflection of the low volatility environment that has dominated all year, none of the most recent 10 daily gains has exceeded half a percent and more than half of them were less than 0.1 percent.TAXING TIMES Visitors looks at an electronic board showing the Japan''s Nikkei average at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Files The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six key currencies, fell 0.44 percent to 94.448.“There’s very much a risk of disappointment. The U.S. dollar could go through a weakening phase on the back of uncertainty around that tax reform,” said Steven Dooley, currency strategist for Western Union Business Solutions in Melbourne.Some also focused on fallout from Democrat wins in regional U.S. elections this week as a signal for next year’s mid-term congressional elections for President Donald Trump.Trump was in China on Thursday, pressing President Xi Jinping to do more to rein in North Korea and to open the Chinese economy, the second-biggest in the world after the United States, to more foreign firms.The euro was last up 0.47 percent at $1.1648 while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index dropped 1.09 percent at 1,534.88.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.39 percent.Oil prices steadied just below two-year highs, supported by supply cuts by major exporters, but analysts said the market could be vulnerable to a sell-off after several months of gains. U.S. crude rose 0.58 percent to $57.14 per barrel and Brent was last at $63.88, up 0.61 percent.Spot gold added 0.5 percent to $1,287.41 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 0.36 percent to $1,288.30.Cryptocurrency bitcoin skidded about 3.5 percent after being down almost 5 percent.It had hit a record high just shy of $8,000 on Wednesday after a coalition of developers and investors suspended a software upgrade planned for next Thursday that could have split the digital currency in two.Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Dan Grebler and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-stocks-stutter-as-longest-winning-run-in-14-years-looms-idINKBN1D916I'|'2017-11-09T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'cd37213fcb2de394bc3bdd1f2a8c16ba0c82bc7e'|'JPMorgan sees more Saudi firms looking at overseas listings after Aramco'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:28 AM / in 12 minutes JPMorgan sees more Saudi firms looking at overseas listings after Aramco Saeed Azhar , Tom Arnold 5 Min Read ABU DHABI (Reuters) - JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) is in early talks with Saudi Arabian companies about overseas listings, its investment bank chief said, raising the possibility that more firms could join oil giant Saudi Aramco ( IPO-ARMO.SE ) in seeking an international flotation. Daniel Pinto, chief executive of JPMorgan''s investment bank, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Tom Arnold JPMorgan is among the banks advising Aramco on an international public offering (IPO), sources have told Reuters. Aramco’s listing is part of economic reforms being pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who wants to make the kingdom less reliant on oil and has been consolidating his power with sweeping arrests that officials say aim to end corruption. “If you want these companies to grow, they must have access to international capital markets,” Daniel Pinto, chief executive of JPMorgan’s investment bank, told Reuters about the possibility of other Saudi international listings. “Local companies have expressed interest to us. They are at a preliminary stage,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. This was the first time an influential banker has said Saudi firms other than Aramco could seek IPOs overseas. The Saudi government plans to sell about 5 percent of Aramco next year, a move that Saudi officials say could raise about $100 billion, making it the world’s largest IPO. Pinto declined to comment on the bank’s role in the Aramco deal or to name other firms considering international listings. JPMorgan has deep ties with the government and firms Saudi Arabia, having worked in the kingdom for more than 80 years. MOMENTUM Pinto said the bank was also in talks with other Gulf companies to list their assets overseas. He said listings in New York, London, Hong Kong or Singapore might help increase the liquidity of these companies and make them attractive for international investors, he said. “When you have this type of momentum, people will see the benefit of having a stock that is very liquid. Other companies in the region will probably follow,” Pinto said. Oman said earlier this year it planned to offer shares in some state-owned downstream energy companies to the public. Analysts and bankers have said Qatar and Kuwait may also consider plans to list energy assets. JPMorgan was considering raising its headcount by 30 percent in Saudi Arabia over the next two to three years from 70 now, as business opportunities expand, Pinto said. Saudi Arabia unveiled its Vision 2030 economic plan last year to diversify the economy away from oil, with proposals to float the Aramco stake and sell other state assets. “Saudi Arabia is going through a massive transformation as they diversify their economy,” Pinto said. “Over the past year, investors have reacted positively to this news.” The bank’s revenue from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the region is expected to be boosted by another record year of bond sales as lower oil prices curbed the ability of banks to finance investments and fund state budget deficits. Dollar-denominated bond issuance from the Gulf has totalled about $80 billion so far this year, higher than the record $63.5 billion in the whole of 2016, Thomson Reuters data shows. “The need to issue will still exist but be smaller next year because of higher oil prices and lower deficits and simply because so much refinancing was done this year,” Pinto said. As part of its reform drive, the Saudi government has launched an campaign of arrests of royals, ministers and businessmen, saying it is seeking to stamp out corruption. Those detained include leading Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose investment vehicle has a stake in Citigroup ( C.N ). Commenting on the anti-corruption drive, Pinto said: “If it is done in the right way and for the right reasons it is good to do for the future of the kingdom.” “Brazil went through a similar process. In the long-run, tackling these issues is very important,” he said. Two former presidents and business officials are among those ensnared in Brazil’s sprawling corruption purge. Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Tom Arnold; Additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-jpmorgan-saudi/jpmorgan-sees-more-saudi-firms-looking-at-overseas-listings-after-aramco-idUKKBN1D710C'|'2017-11-07T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'7c1134a21682f886f682573d5eceb3ce17c3b76a'|'U.S. investors target ''buyback stocks'' in bet on Trump tax plan'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago U.S. investors target ''buyback stocks'' in bet on Trump tax plan David Randall 6 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rather than waiting to see how the Republican tax bill will fare in Congress, some investors are already picking out gingerly technology, healthcare and consumer companies they expect to use potential tax savings to buy back more of their own stock. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Fund managers from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Hodges Capital, and SSI Investment Management are among those that are adding to or holding on to their shares of those of companies such as Texas Instruments Inc, Microsoft Co and Southwest Airlines Co in part because they expect to see more share buybacks or special dividends if a tax reform passes in some form. The House Republican plan would cut corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent and allow companies bring back foreign profits at a 12 percent tax rate, a process known as repatriation. Overall, U.S. companies hold some $2.6 trillion in untaxed offshore cash. Fund managers say that while it is far too soon to tell whether the tax bill will pass, the prospect of increased buybacks is worth taking a bet on companies that would benefit the most from the plan. “If you have two companies that you are looking at and one would get a bigger boost from bringing back its cash from overseas, that provides an extra level of return,” said Peter Santoro, a portfolio manager of the $11 billion Columbia Dividend Income fund. For example, cash-rich tech companies with big international presence, such as Microsoft, are likely to return cash to shareholders via a one-time dividend even if Congress passes a repatriation bill rather than a broad tax reform, Santoro said. When Congress allowed U.S. companies to bring back foreign profits at a discounted tax rate in 2004, Microsoft issued a special $3-per-share dividend and the Trump tax windfall would likely lead to something similar, Santoro said. Santoro declined to say whether he was adding to his Microsoft position in recent months. Microsoft is the largest position in Santoro’s fund, according to Morningstar data, and its shares are up 36 percent for the year largely driven by the expansion of its cloud-based business. Goldman Sachs estimates that the Republican tax bill would increase corporate buybacks by $75 billion, to $590 billion, in 2018. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, estimates about half of repatriated cash would go into buybacks and the rest would get spent on acquisitions and other investments. Stock buybacks often provide a short-term bump in a company’s share price both by eliminating the total number of available shares and improving metrics such as earnings per share and return on equity. LAGGING THE MARKET Yet buybacks, which peaked in 2016, have been slowing over the last three years as rising stock valuations made them more costly and investors have called on companies to invest more in their future by spending on factories or research. The S&P 500 Buyback Index is lagging the broader market this year after having beaten the S&P 500 by nearly 83 percent between 2009 and the end of 2016. The buyback index tracks 100 of the companies in the S&P 500 with the highest buyback ratios, such as Boeing Co, Michael Kors Holdings, and Tyson Foods Inc. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2zcj87u ) The Powershares Buyback Achievers fund, which tracks companies that have repurchased at least 5 percent of their outstanding shares over the last 12 months, is up 11.2 percent so far this year, compared with a 15.7 percent gain in S&P 500. Eric Marshall, a fund manager at $2 billion Hodges Capital, said he has been adding to his position in buyback-heavy companies such as Texas Instruments and Lowe’s Companies Inc because he expects them to increase their current buyback programs if a tax bill does pass. Texas Instruments, for instance, said in September it would buy a further $6 billion of its own shares, extending a program that has reduced its total number of shares by a quarter over the last five years. Texas Instruments shares make up about 2 percent of the Hodges Blue Chip Equity Income fund. The firm last bought the stock in June, according to the latest publicly available data. “Buybacks are the most tax efficient thing you can do with your capital, and when you are repurchase your own stock you know exactly what you are buying,” Marshall said. Ravi Malik, a portfolio manager at $1.6 billion SSI Investment Management Inc, said that a cut in the repatriation rate would benefit convertible bonds in his portfolio such as Citrix Systems Inc, Amgen Inc and Lam Research Corp. SSI Investment examines its biggest holdings with a significant share of overseas revenues to assess the impact of tax legislation on those companies, Malik said. “That’s how we identified these companies as significant beneficiaries of the changes proposed.” Barry James, a portfolio manager of the $3.1 billion James Balanced Golden Rainbow fund, said that he expected fund holdings, such as lawn mower maker Toro Co and Southwest Airlines to boost existing buyback schemes should a tax bill pass. Such a move would be preferable to an acquisition or hiring more employees, he said. “Over the long run, we are fans of companies that reward shareholders, and now is not the right time to find an acquisition cheaply.” Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Tomasz Janowski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-buybacks/u-s-investors-target-buyback-stocks-in-bet-on-trump-tax-plan-idUSKBN1D70HX'|'2017-11-07T08:14:00.000+02:00'
'be4dee767c2cbe5add33062bfe318f79e938959a'|'House prices rising at fastest since start of year, says Halifax - Money - The Guardian'|'House prices in the UK are rising at their fastest rate since the start of the year, largely due to a shortage of homes on the market, according to mortgage lender Halifax.Its house price index shows property values up 4.5% between August and October compared with the same period in 2016, the fastest pace of growth since February. The average house price was up 0.3% between September and October, rising to a record £225,826. The annual rate hit a post-financial crisis peak of 10% in March 2016, a few months before the Brexit vote, before falling to 2.1% in July this year. Since then price growth has picked up again.Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read more Q&A How is UK house price data compiled? Show Hide Wonder why one index says prices are soaring, but another says falling? They are all calculated in different ways. Halifax and Nationwide use mortgage transaction data, allowing them to claim their figures are a great snapshot of the market right now - but are accused of failing to capture what cash buyers are doing. Rightmove uses asking prices, which are even more up-to-the-minute, but may not be actually what a buyer pays. RICS’ index, from Britain’s surveyors, works on "sentiment" rather than hard data. The ONS index is considered the most thorough, as it reflects the real prices paid by all buyers, on a mix-adjusted basis. But critics say it gives a rear-view of the market as it relies on data hitting the Land Registry months after a sale may have been agreed.Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. A rival survey from Nationwide out last week also showed house prices picking up in October , to an annual rate of 2.5%, the highest reading recorded in three months.Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax Community Bank, said low mortgage rates, high rates of employment and a shortage of homes for sale was pushing up prices “and is likely to do so over the coming months”.He added: “Increasing pressure on household finances and continuing affordability concerns are some of the factors likely to dampen buyer demand. That said we do not anticipate the base rate rise will be a barrier to buying a house.”UK house prices (seasonally adjusted) Photograph: Halifax Forecasters at the EY Item Club reckon house prices will remain subdued for the rest of the year and then rise by a modest 2%-3% next year, as squeezed households hold back from buying property.Estate agents were more upbeat and dismissed the notion that the pick-up in price growth was a last hurrah following the Bank of England’s interest rate rise last week to 0.5% – the first increase in borrowing costs in a decade.Lucy Pendleton, the founder director of estate agent James Pendleton, said: “We’ve since had a rate rise but what you’re seeing isn’t one last hurrah as people rush to grab the best mortgage rates. It’s that same old ball and chain around the UK property market’s neck – weak supply.“There will also be an echo from September’s back-to-work bounce, as deals brokered before the summer holidays complete in the autumn, but such a strong second month is uncharacteristic and shows the market in surprisingly rude health.”Topics Property Bank of England House prices Housing market news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/07/house-prices-rise-at-fastest-since-start-of-year-halifax'|'2017-11-07T19:25:00.000+02:00'
'87aae75a7602bf2d22012121f7aea9beecc6266e'|'GRAPHIC-From breakup bet to #Euroboom: the surprise of 2017'|' 00 AM / in 12 minutes GRAPHIC-From breakup bet to #Euroboom: the surprise of 2017 Ritvik Carvalho , Dhara Ranasinghe 4 Min Read LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Euro zone investments have turned in one of their best years since the single currency was born in 1999, confounding many who had bet on the bloc to be the disaster play of 2017. Euro zone “break up” trades as a top investment play for 2017 hardly seemed outlandish a year ago. Brexit, fears of contagion from the near-collapse of Italy’s oldest bank, and anxiety about a surge in populist anti-euro sentiment in a year packed with elections turned investors decidedly negative on the bloc’s prospects. But a dramatic swing in fortunes instead brought the fastest growth rate since the height of the sovereign debt crisis six years ago. Fears of anti-euro victories in French, German and Dutch elections proved wide of the mark, although inroads were made. The brighter outlook and more stable politics has meantime allowed the European Central Bank to take its first gradual steps towards exiting the extraordinary monetary stimulus in place since 2015. With the recovery even gaining its own Twitter hashtag -- #Euroboom” -- this set of graphics highlights the turnaround. FASTEST GROWTH IN 6 YEARS Third quarter figures released last week showed the euro zone hit its fastest growth rate since 2011, when the euro-crisis escalated and dented growth. That run also puts it in the top third of fastest growing quarters the bloc has posted since the birth of the single currency in 1999. A report by ratings firm S&P Global suggests the recovery will remain broad-based. SENTIMENT SURGE Investor and economic sentiment in the euro zone is close to record highs. Sentix’s index of investor morale is at its highest level in 10 years. The European Commission’s measure of economic sentiment for October hit its highest levels since the dot-com bubble in 2001, shrugging off jitters about an independence bid in the wealthy Spanish region of Catalonia. RATINGS REVIVAL Ratings agency Fitch’s outlook balance for the euro zone is at its highest since July 2005. The outlook balance is the difference between the total of the positive and negative outlooks on each country. S&P Global unexpectedly lifted Italy’s sovereign rating last month, the first such rise for the country by the firm in at least three decades. In September, S&P became the first of the big three ratings agencies to lift Portugal back to investment grade. STOCKS, EURO SHINE The pan-European STOXX 600 index has risen to two-year highs as strong corporate earnings accompany the economic recovery. Overall 66 percent of companies in the MSCI Europe index have beaten or met earnings expectations for the third quarter of 2017, underpinning regional indexes’ gains. A surging euro also reflects improved sentiment towards the currency bloc. The single currency is up almost 12 percent against the dollar this year, which puts it on track for its biggest annual rise since 2007. CREDIT WORTHY The borrowing costs of those countries bailed out during the euro zone debt crisis continue to fall as investors regain confidence in the growth that reforms have produced. TIGHTER LABOUR MARKETS Faster euro zone growth helped push unemployment to its lowest level in nine years in October, despite soft inflation. Wages also grew at their fastest rate in two years in the second quarter of 2017, an encouraging sign for the ECB looking to wind down monetary stimulus. BANK WOES EASE While still high, the number of non-performing loans in proportion to output in the euro area has halved since the peak of the crisis. Lending growth to both households and businesses is on the rise, with loans to households growing at their highest rate since June 2011. Efforts to address weakness in Italy’s banking system have helped banking stocks in the country rise over 20 percent this year. The Bank of Italy said last month that insolvent loans held by Italian banks fell to a three-year low in August. Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho and Dhara Ranasinghe Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-markets/graphic-from-breakup-bet-to-euroboom-the-surprise-of-2017-idUSL8N1N75SH'|'2017-11-07T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'89b0f39e8cca0e58e30343f9ea35dc34ee3abc2e'|'Sky falls as report of Disney-Fox talks increase deal uncertainty'|'LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A report that Rupert Murdoch held talks about selling film and television assets to Walt Disney Co added another layer of uncertainty to his $14.5 billion bid to buy all of Britain’s Sky.Disney recently discussed buying Twenty-First Century Fox’s movie and TV production studio studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic and international assets such as the Star network in India and its stake in Sky, CNBC said on Monday.The talks were not currently ongoing, the broadcaster said.Fox has bid 10.75 pounds a share to acquire the remaining 61 percent of Sky it does not own, but the deal is tied up in regulatory purgatory until the middle of next year.Shares in Sky, which on Monday briefly fell to 893 pence, the lowest level since the deal was announced, were trading down 1.3 percent at 927.5 pence at 1110 GMT.Analysts at Liberum said they still saw a successful conclusion of Fox’s bid for Sky as the most likely outcome, but the Disney-Fox talks had thrown a curveball into the deal.They said Fox may scrap its bid for Sky as part of a proposed sale of assets, and they also noted that Fox’s willingness to consider including the Sky stake in any sale could be seen as a signal that it feels less confident of gaining regulatory approval from the British government.UBS, however, said a combination of Disney and Fox content could strengthen the rationale for buying all of Sky.The British company was already starting to build a pan-European streaming platform with its Now TV and Sky Ticket products, and the addition of content from Disney as well as Fox would only make that more compelling, it said.The bank also said in the event that a Fox/Sky deal was blocked, based on the CNBC article, Disney could be a potential strategic bidder for Sky and it noted it would not have the cross-media complications of a Fox bid.Fox and Sky both declined to comment.Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Keith WeirOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-walt-disney-sky-plc/sky-falls-as-report-of-disney-fox-talks-increase-deal-uncertainty-idINL5N1ND3AU'|'2017-11-07T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'34877fe7f434ad4456935ea7115eb3b6c4496ddc'|'UPDATE 1-Options exchange Cboe''s profit edges past estimates'|'(Adds details from results, CEO Quote: , background)Nov 7 (Reuters) - Cboe Global Markets Inc’s profit topped analysts’ forecasts in the third quarter, as the largest U.S. options exchange earned higher fees from record trading of options and futures and its purchase of European exchange operator Bats.Cboe said on Tuesday net income allocated to common stockholders surged 48 percent to $59.7 million or 53 cents per share in the quarter ended Sept. 30. reut.rs/2hbH3tiExcluding one-time items, Cboe earned 89 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected 88 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Cboe’s revenue soared to $611.4 million, from $168.7 million last year, driven mainly by Bats Global, Europe’s largest stock exchange, which the company bought for $3.2 billion last year.U.S. exchanges have been on an acquisition spree as they try to diversify their revenue streams, mainly as a hedge against swings in market volatility, that affects trading and clearing revenues.The third quarter also saw “strong record quarterly average daily trading volume in VIX options and futures,” said Chief Executive Edward Tilly. (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cboe-glo-markets-results/update-1-options-exchange-cboes-profit-edges-past-estimates-idINL3N1ND4LN'|'2017-11-07T09:58:00.000+02:00'
'97a538f2a624e2cca8582ec6736f2fb19fed00cc'|'Qatar affiliate selling $1.46 billion stake in Bharti Airtel - term sheet'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - A Qatari investor plans to sell a 5 percent stake in top Indian telecoms carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd on Friday for about 95 billion rupees ($1.46 billion), adding to the Gulf nation’s recent stake sales in foreign companies.An employee works at a billing counter inside a Bharti Airtel store in New Delhi, India April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Three Pillars Pte Ltd, an affiliate of the Qatar Foundation, has put up for sale through stock market transactions about 199.9 million shares in Bharti Airtel in a price range of 473-490 rupees each, according to a deal term sheet.The price range is a discount of 4.7-8 percent to Bharti Airtel’s Tuesday closing price, but far higher than the 340 rupees Three Pillars paid for it in 2013.The stake sale comes after other Qatari companies, including its sovereign wealth fund, have been cutting stakes in foreign companies and raising cash to withstand pressure on its economy, which has been hit by economic sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since early June.The Gulf countries cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5, accusing it of backing terrorism, a charge which Doha denies.Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has responded to the crisis by pumping billions of dollars into local banks to shore up their deposits.It has also reduced its stake in upscale jeweller Tiffany & Co, Russian energy giant Rosneft and Swiss bank Credit Suisse.Indian telecom stocks, including Bharti Airtel, have also gained on signs of an end to a bruising price war and hopes that industry consolidation will benefit established players.Bharti Airtel shares fell 3.4 percent to close at 514.35 rupees ahead of the news on Tuesday, but are still up more than 68 percent in 2017.A spokesman for the Bharti Group declined to comment.Rashed Fahad Al-Noaimi, chief executive officer of investments at Qatar Foundation, is on Bharti Airtel’s board.UBS is the handling the planned share sale, according to the term sheet.($1 = 64.9900 Indian rupees)Reporting by S. Anuradha of IFR, Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai and Sankalp Phartiyal in Mumbai; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/qatar-bharti-airtel-stake/qatar-affiliate-selling-1-46-billion-stake-in-bharti-airtel-term-sheet-idINKBN1D71RX'|'2017-11-07T15:22:00.000+02:00'
'bed80887d8cb7c54e445fd7368a4944bd1247fa5'|'Centerra Gold to buy AuRico Metals in C$310 million deal'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:43 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Centerra Gold to buy AuRico Metals in C$310 million deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Canadian miner Centerra Gold Inc ( CG.TO ) said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival AuRico Metals Inc ( AMI.TO ) in a deal valued at C$310 million ($243 million). Centerra offered C$1.80 per share in cash, a 38.5 percent premium to AuRico last close on Monday. Canadian miners have been boosting acquisitions at home as they come under pressure from foreign governments over profit-sharing at crucial mines. Toronto-based Centerra reached an agreement with Kyrgyzstan in September to settle all outstanding disputes over the Kumtor gold mine, the company’s biggest. Earlier this year, miner Alamos Gold Inc ( AGI.TO ) ( AGI.N ), agreed to buy Richmont Mines Inc ( RIC.TO ) ( RIC.N ) in a deal valued at about C$905 million, creating a top-10 gold producer in North America. Centerra’s deal will be funded through cash in hand and debt and is expected to close in January 2018, the companies said in a joint statement. Scotia Capital was financial adviser to Centerra, while Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd advised AuRico. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aurico-metal-m-a-centerra-gold/centerra-gold-to-buy-aurico-metals-in-c310-million-deal-idINKBN1D71NR'|'2017-11-07T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'1a193d814973444c9bea8f91a1c3cf6c48ee6a59'|'Fortum''s 8.05 billion euro offer for Uniper is final - CEO'|'November 7, 2017 / 6:47 AM / in 7 minutes Fortum''s $9.3 billion offer for Uniper is final: CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HELSINKI/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) has no plans to raise its 8.05 billion euro ($9.33 billion) offer for Germany’s Uniper ( UN01.DE ), the Finnish group’s chief executive said on Tuesday, adding he saw any rival bid for the German group as unlikely. “We will not raise the offer price. This is our last, best and final offer,” Lundmark said in webcast comments after Fortum published its official takeover offer, which will run until Jan. 16. Fortum is offering 22 euros per share for Uniper and in September struck a preliminary deal to buy E.ON’s ( EONGn.DE ) 46.65 percent stake it still holds in Uniper following a spin-off last year. If E.ON does not tender its stake by Jan. 11, it may have to pay a compensation of up to 1.5 billion euros to Fortum, the Finnish group said, suggesting any rival bid would have to be substantially above 22 euros to change E.ON’s mind. Under German takeover rules, Fortum has to make an offer for all of Uniper, whose shares are currently trading around 24 euros per share and were indicated to open unchanged after it said nine-month operating profit fell by nearly a quarter. Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer, who is opposed to the deal, said the company would carefully examine Fortum’s submitted offer and comment on it within the next two weeks. He said shareholders should “refrain from accepting” the offer until then. Uniper is concerned that Fortum would eventually be looking to break up the group due to strategic differences. Lundmark said Fortum had no such plans. Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Stephen Coates and Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum/fortum-will-not-raise-offer-for-uniper-ceo-idUKKBN1D70K3'|'2017-11-07T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'90522a6336a8113a3f9166814fd95a09befe9091'|'Will.i.am''s startup raises $117 million, enters enterprise market'|'November 6, 2017 / 10:35 PM / Updated 14 hours ago Will.i.am''s startup raises $117 million, enters enterprise market Salvador Rodriguez 2 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - I.am+, the tech startup founded by pop star and entrepreneur will.i.am, has raised $117 million in venture funding, the company told Reuters on Monday as it announced its entry into the corporate computing market with a voice assistant for customer service. FILE PHOTO - Will.i.am speaks at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers event in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Elizabeth Shafiroff The company, founded in 2012, initially focused on consumer electronics devices such as headphones. The new artificial intelligence product, similar to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, marks a sharp departure for the firm, which now employs about 300 people. Its most recent funding round, an $89 million investment by a group including Salesforce Ventures, closed in March but had not been previously announced. Will.i.am, who rose to prominence as a member of The Black Eyed Peas, said the corporate market offered the company an opportunity to quickly deploy and develop its assistant, called Omega. “I wanted to create something that allows us to do many things,” said will.i.am, founder and chief executive of the company, in a telephone interview with Reuters. “There’s so much you can do with a voice platform.” Though many celebrities and athletes including Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher and Joe Montana have made their way into the tech sector through investments and their own startups, most have tended to focus on consumer technology. I.am+’s first enterprise customer is Deutsche Telekom AG ( DTEGn.DE ), the German telecommunications giant and parent company of T-Mobile. Since July, the company has been using Omega to power an AI customer support chatbot and it plans to add a voice phone system soon, i.am+ said. Will.i.am said customer support is just the start of Omega. The plan is to use the technology to build several more enterprise voice AI products. “One of those things is handling hundreds of thousands of customers’ inquiries about their data plans simultaneously,” will.i.am said. “If it can do that, your imagination’s the limit.” Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iam-enterprise/will-i-ams-startup-raises-117-million-enters-enterprise-market-idUSKBN1D62V4'|'2017-11-07T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'95fad1494c0a0c5a2c6521932f041447475ddc6f'|'SocGen investigated over possible French anti-corruption law breach'|' 12 PM / a few seconds ago SocGen investigated over possible French anti-corruption law breach Maya Nikolaeva 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) said the French financial prosecutor had opened a preliminary investigation into possible violations by the bank of French anti-corruption laws, and had requested documents on its ties with the Libyan Investment Authority. A view shows the logo on the headquarters of French bank Societe Generale at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris, France, September 6, 2017. Picture taken September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Earlier this year Societe Generale agreed to pay nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to settle a long-running dispute with the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), avoiding a costly and potentially embarrassing court case. LIA, Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, had presented allegations that trades were secured as part of a “fraudulent and corrupt scheme” involving the payment of $58.5 million by SocGen to a Panama-registered company. The bank said in an update to its 2016 annual report published on Monday, that in September and October 2017 it had received judicial requests from the French financial prosecutor. “Societe Generale also received two judicial requests to produce documents regarding its relations with the LIA in the scope of a preliminary investigation opened by the French National Financial Prosecutor’s office regarding possible violations of French anticorruption laws,” it said. A spokesman for SocGen declined to comment further on Tuesday. SocGen is also currently in discussions with U.S. authorities in order to reach an agreement to resolve an investigation into potential violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in connection with certain transactions involving Libyan counterparties, including the Libyan Investment Authority. “Any such agreement would include a requirement that Societe Generale pay a monetary fine and may in addition impose other sanctions,” the bank said in the update, adding that it was impossible to determine with certainty the amount of the fine. “It is possible, without it being certain, that the pending discussions lead to an agreement in the next weeks or months”. The bank had 2.2 billion euros in litigation provisions as of end-September. ($1 = 0.8650 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-socgen-litigation/socgen-investigated-over-possible-french-anti-corruption-law-breach-idUKKBN1D71JW'|'2017-11-07T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'd09dce56359f9ea7400fa0a239c1b5b32461b743'|'German minister warns EU against toughening car emissions targets'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:17 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago German minister warns EU against toughening car emissions targets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that he is against any toughening of European car emissions targets by 2025. FILE PHOTO: A motor mechanic measures exhaust emissions in a diesel-engined car in Eichenau, Germany July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo “It is ... very important to me that we do not stifle the innovation power of the automotive industry by overly tight EU legislation,” Gabriel said in letter seen by Reuters. Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by Michael Nienaber'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-germany-emissions/german-minister-warns-eu-against-toughening-car-emissions-targets-idUKKBN1D71KQ'|'2017-11-07T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'3a010ece11624754ee9a48d1b80ef617f7245c51'|'Twitter to roll out 280-character tweets worldwide'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:40 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Twitter to roll out 280-character tweets worldwide Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Microblogging website Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ), known for its iconic 140-character tweets, said on Tuesday it would roll out 280-character tweets to users across the world. FILE PHOTO - The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Twitter said it ran a test on 280-character tweets in September that showed users spent less time editing their tweets and were less likely to abandon them. ( bit.ly/2zkXZIj ) User posting in languages including Japanese, Korean and Chinese, which do not face the issue of “cramming”, will continue to have a limit of 140 characters, Twitter said. The company did not say when it would start allowing users to post 280-character tweets. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-twitter-character/twitter-to-roll-out-280-character-tweets-worldwide-idUKKBN1D72ZK'|'2017-11-07T23:40:00.000+02:00'
'5f23dc9939fa1c28c17069ce56f36803db3f87e1'|'Qatari investor selling $1.5 billion stake in Bharti Airtel'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:31   Qatari investor selling $1.5 billion stake in Bharti Airtel S.Anuradha , Devidutta Tripathy 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/MUMBAI (Reuters) - A Qatari investor is selling a 5 percent stake in top Indian telecoms carrier Bharti Airtel ( BRTI.NS ) on Wednesday for about 95 billion rupees (1.11 billion pounds), adding to the sanctions-hit Gulf nation’s recent stake sales in foreign companies. FILE PHOTO: A girl checks her mobile phone as she walks past the Bharti Airtel office building in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Three Pillars Pte Ltd, an affiliate of the Qatar Foundation, has put up for sale through stock market transactions about 199.9 million shares in Bharti Airtel in a price range of 473-490 rupees each, according to a deal term sheet seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The price range indicates a discount of 4.7-8 percent to Bharti Airtel’s Tuesday closing price, but is higher than the 340 rupees Three Pillars paid for the shares in 2013. Bharti Airtel shares fell almost 6 percent on Wednesday as more than 243 million shares changed hands in multiple block deals, Thomson Reuters data showed. The plan for the stake sale was reported after market close on Tuesday. The sale comes at a time when other Qatari firms, including its sovereign wealth fund, are cutting stakes in foreign companies to raise cash and withstand pressure on the economy, which has been hit by sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since early June. The Gulf countries cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5, accusing it of backing terrorism, a charge which Doha denies. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has responded to the crisis by pumping billions of dollars into local banks to shore up their deposits. It has also reduced its stake in upscale jeweller Tiffany & Co ( TIF.N ), Russian energy giant Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) and Swiss bank Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ). A spokesman for the Bharti Group declined to comment on the Qatar stake sale. Rashed Fahad Al-Noaimi, CEO of investments at Qatar Foundation, is on Bharti Airtel’s board. UBS is the handling the planned share sale. Even with Wednesday’s drop, Bharti Airtel shares are up about 60 percent in 2017 on signs of an end to a bruising price war in the Indian telecoms space and hopes that industry consolidation would benefit established players. Reporting by S. Anuradha of IFR and Devidutta Tripathy, additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai, Sankalp Phartiyal and Swati Bhat in Mumbai; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qatar-bharti-airtel-stake/qatari-investor-selling-1-5-billion-stake-in-bharti-airtel-idUKKBN1D80EY'|'2017-11-08T07:31:00.000+02:00'
'893d5ad774f0dae3847db34226d6ceda31a5e805'|'France''s LVMH expands its gourmet grocer in Paris'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:01 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago France''s LVMH expands its gourmet grocer in Paris Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Luxury goods firm LVMH ( LVMH.PA ) is opening a second high-end food hall in Paris, betting on growing appetite from locals for gourmet groceries as the group spruces up its stores across the French capital. A view shows La Grande Epicerie de Paris, a three-story food hall, in the 16th district of Paris, France, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer The launch of the three-story food hall, in the well-heeled 16th district of western Paris, comes amid a wave of investment in luxury stores and hotels in the French capital by LVMH and other firms hoping to profit from a recovery in tourist traffic following a wave of deadly Islamist militant attacks. The new branch of La Grande Epicerie de Paris, LVMH’s high-end grocery brand, however, is away from the city’s usual tourist trails. The group said it was pitching this launch at Paris residents who might think twice before crossing town to the southerly Left Bank to shop at LVMH’s existing gourmet grocery, which is next to the group’s landmark Le Bon Marche department store and comes under that retailer’s umbrella. The new branch - on the site of a former department store, Franck & Fils, which LVMH already owned - is the first attempt to expand the Grande Epicerie brand. “Franck & Fils was running out of steam. We wanted to energise our retail sites,” Le Bon Marche’s Chairman and Chief Executive Patrice Wagner, said. A view shows La Grande Epicerie de Paris, a three-story food hall, in the 16th district of Paris, France, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer LVMH, run by Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man, is also renovating its riverside La Samaritaine department store, which has been closed since 2005. The project to turn it into a luxury complex with a hotel, designer shops and offices had hit several snags, but it is due to open next year. A view shows the entrance of La Grande Epicerie de Paris, a three-story food hall, in the 16th district of Paris, France, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Rival hoteliers are also re-launching sites in Paris. LVMH’s new food hall, due to open on Thursday, boasts a vertical herb garden on one of its facades, an underground wine cellar and Iberian ham outlet, and a high-end restaurant. Wagner declined to detail how much LVMH had invested in the revamp or to give sales figures, adding only that revenues at the new store were expected to reach two or three times Franck & Fils levels in the next three years. Analysts estimate Le Bon Marche’s annual sales stand at around 550 million euros (£486 million). LVMH does not break out sales at its brands, which include fashion house Louis Vuitton and Krug champagne. Roughly 40 percent of Le Bon Marche’s sales are driven by tourists, Wagner said, though the grocery segment relies less on foreign visitors. Reporting by Sarah White and Pascale Denis; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lvmh-grocers/frances-lvmh-expands-its-gourmet-grocer-in-paris-idUKKBN1D82NJ'|'2017-11-08T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'256663664fbc88fd9eb9e5071140000cd2a508e4'|'AT&T CEO says open to litigation on Time Warner deal'|'Nov 9 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc is ready to litigate if the U.S. Department of Justice blocks its $85.4 billion Time Warner Inc deal, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday.“If we are going to go for litigation our preference would be sooner is better. We are prepared to litigate now,” Stephenson told CNBC on the sidelines of the New York Times Dealbook conference.“We have been working very diligently on a litigation strategy and a litigation plan,” he said, adding: “We would obviously ask for an expedited hearing. We feel that a transaction of this size you would likely get an expedited hearing.”The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded significant asset sales in order to approve the deal, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, and asked AT&T to sell CNN-parent Turner Broadcasting or its DirecTV satellite TV operation in discussions on Monday. (Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att-litigation/att-ceo-says-open-to-litigation-on-time-warner-deal-idINL3N1NF6FY'|'2017-11-09T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'97248357f221254af9d0b0a4b0e55fd8f01a854b'|'Hindustan Petroleum second-quarter profit more than doubles, but misses estimates'|'(Reuters) - State-owned oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd’s ( HPCL.NS ) second-quarter net profit more than doubled, but fell short of analysts’ estimates.An employee fills diesel into an oil drum at a fuel station in New Delhi June 25, 2010. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta/Files Net profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 soared to 17.35 billion rupees ($267 million) from 7.01 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a filing on Thursday. bit.ly/2jd0DJRAnalysts on average had expected a profit of 20.58 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.Average gross refining margin, the profit earned on each barrel of crude processed, advanced to $6.75 per barrel for the half year ended Sept. 30, from $5.12 per barrel in the same period last year.Sales grew 13 percent to 541.53 billion rupees in the quarter.($1 = 64.9900 Indian rupees)Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar WarrierOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hpcl-results/hindustan-petroleum-second-quarter-profit-more-than-doubles-but-misses-estimates-idINKBN1D9111'|'2017-11-09T11:04:00.000+02:00'
'308fefe84bbd3e5c44cd28b204a46f52c98d0230'|'UPDATE 4-Rockwell defends standalone strategy in the face of Emerson bid'|'* Shares fall as much as 4.4 pct* Sees FY18 adj. EPS $7.20-$7.50 vs est $7.38 (Adds CEO comments, background on the companies, updates shares)By Greg RoumeliotisNov 8 (Reuters) - Rockwell Automation Inc Chief Executive Blake Moret said on Wednesday that he would stick with delivering the company’s factory automation equipment on one platform, reinforcing its rebuff of Emerson Electric Co’s $27.6 billion takeover bid.Moret’s comments offer the clearest indication yet that Rockwell has been resisting Emerson’s overtures not just because of disagreements over price, but also because of a different vision of how its business should be run.“While we sometimes get caught up in looking at what pieces of the overall automation market can be used, what matters is the outcomes that you bring to a specific customer, and that specific customer is looking for a single platform,” Moret said on a call with analysts after the publication of Rockwell’s latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday.Emerson’s strength is in process automation, helping factories in sectors such as mining and oil and gas operate more efficiently. Rockwell is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to manufacture items such as automobiles, household appliances and computer systems.At the heart of the dispute is how effectively the two companies could be integrated. Emerson’s latest $215 per share cash-and-stock bid for Rockwell is based on estimated capitalized synergies between the two companies of around $6 billion, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.Rockwell caters to its discrete automation customers using a programmable logic controller platform it calls Logix. It has been seeking to expand this control platform to process automation and cater to so-called hybrid customers using a combination of process and discrete automation.Emerson uses a distributed control system platform for its process and hybrid automation customers called DeltaV. Should it acquire Rockwell, it plans to offer its Logix platform to customers alongside DeltaV.“By leveraging the key technology platforms that are strengths of Emerson and Rockwell, where this technology can mutually coexist and thrive, we would create an industry leader, better positioned in an environment where the global customer base is asking for a more integrated solution in a process world and a hybrid world,” Emerson CEO David Farr said during his company’s earnings call on Tuesday.Rockwell has argued that this approach could disrupt the business of some of its customers who want a single platform, and even cost it revenue. This is despite it previously having tried to challenge Emerson’s DeltaV by developing a similar distributed control system platform called PlantPAx, which never captured significant market share.Rockwell has been gradually making progress in increasing its footprint in process automation, thanks partly to acquisitions, including a company called MAVERICK Technologies last year.Rockwell’s process business revenue was up 9 percent year-over-year organically in the latest quarter and up almost 20 percent with the Maverick acquisition included, Moret said.ROCKWELL APPREHENSIVE Based on Emerson’s latest bid, Rockwell shareholders would own about a quarter of the combined company. Rockwell has been apprehensive about accepting Emerson’s stock as a currency because of what it perceives as Farr’s poor track record of integrating acquisitions, sources told Reuters last week.“Rockwell seems uninterested in engaging,” Vertical Research Partners LLC analysts wrote in a research note on Tuesday. “It has made arguments that a combination with Emerson will create dis-synergies, as channels are disrupted and control platforms would require migration.”Emerson has not commented on whether it would make a new offer for Rockwell. Emerson shares ended trading on Wednesday down 0.9 percent at $65.52, valuing the company at $40 billion. Rockwell shares ended trading down 3.5 percent at $193.78, valuing it at $25 billion.In its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Rockwell forecast its fiscal 2018 adjusted profit to be $7.35 per share at the mid-point, below Wall Street estimates of $7.38 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Rockwell’s operating margins fell to 17 percent in the fourth quarter from 19.8 percent a year earlier, hurt by its control products business.Rockwell’s net income rose 10.5 percent to $204.6 million, or $1.57 per share, in the quarter ending Sept. 30.On an adjusted basis, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company earned $1.69 per share. Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.73 per share.On Tuesday, Emerson said adjusted net earnings per share for the fiscal year ending September 2018 were expected to be $2.85 at the mid point, compared with an average analysts’ estimate of $2.90 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Colleen Jenkins) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rockwell-automat-results/update-1-rockwell-automations-profit-misses-on-higher-investment-spending-idINL3N1NE4NA'|'2017-11-08T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'54a63cb4940279552bfa80f1800dcad369a2d74c'|'Qualcomm signs $12 billion in China deals amid Trump visit'|'November 9, 2017 / 3:11 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Qualcomm signs $12 billion in China deals amid Trump visit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) has signed $12 billion worth of deals with three Chinese mobile handset makers on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm signed three non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOUs) at the capital’s Great Hall of the People to sell components over three years to phone makers Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, the firm said on Thursday. The agreement was part of an over $250 billion package of deals unveiled between U.S. and Chinese firms during Trump’s first state visit to China. Trump has long railed against China’s massive trade surplus with the United States. Qualcomm, which earns more than half of its revenues in China, became the takeover target of rival chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) earlier this week. It is also facing a legal battle with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) over patent fees it charges. The chip maker’s chief executive, Steve Mollenkopf, said in a statement that the firm had a longstanding relationship with the three smartphone makers, adding that the move fit with China’s own ambitions to boost its domestic industry. “We are continuing our commitment to investing and helping advance China’s mobile and semiconductor industries,” he said. Reporting by Matthew Miller; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-china-deals/qualcomm-signs-12-billion-in-china-deals-amid-trump-visit-idINKBN1D90AX'|'2017-11-09T00:11:00.000+02:00'
'75e0b43cb9e052006715a3a4633dcf91274ba065'|'UPDATE 2-Coty profit beats on demand for brands aimed at younger consumers'|'(Adds details on quarter, conference call, background and share price)Nov 9 (Reuters) - Beauty products maker Coty Inc on Thursday posted a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street estimates, selling more high-margin products like Younique makeup and ghd hair care merchandise that are popular with millennials.Coty, to keep pace with rivals Estee Lauder and LVMH’s Sephora, has added brands that appeal to younger customers. Younique has beauty consultants who sell products only through social media and ghd offers haircare and styling items.This past year, Coty became the third-largest beauty products maker after buying more than 40 brands, including luxury licenses Hugo Boss and Gucci, from Procter & Gamble .Coty’s shares rose 9 percent to $16.10 before the bell.In the latest first quarter, Coty’s luxury beauty unit sales rose 4 percent and consumer beauty, its biggest unit, saw a 2 percent increase.Coty’s adjusted gross margins rose 2.8 percent, gaining from the acquisition of higher-margin businesses, and integrating the supply-chain of the new units.Even after expanding its portfolio of brands, Chief Executive Camillo Pane said some of the newer ones such as CoverGirl and Clairol, are facing waning demand as retailers cut back on inventories.“Results are likely to be a bit uneven from quarter to quarter going forward,” Pane said in a statement, adding on a conference call that sales in the second half would be roughly comparable with the previous year.The company posted a net loss of $19.7 million, or 3 cents per share, in quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with break-even last year, on higher costs from the P&G deal.Excluding items, Coty earned 10 cents per share, compared to analysts’ estimates of a profit of 7 cents. Net sales more than doubled to $2.24 billion, but was in line with analysts’ estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Estee Lauder reported better-than-expected sales and profit last week and lifted its expectations for the holiday-quarter, banking on its newly-acquired Too Faced and Becca brands, which come in pastel colors and are popular with millennials. (Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan and Uday Sampath Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva, Bernard Orr) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/coty-results/update-1-coty-profit-beats-on-demand-for-ghd-younique-brands-idINL3N1NF4YW'|'2017-11-09T09:07:00.000+02:00'
'fcd3ed58d77f80ebb7a508fec1d4e714107db030'|'Stock futures lower after Wall Street''s record run'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:31 PM / in 2 hours Stock futures lower after Wall Street''s record run Tanya Agrawal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Thursday, a day after Wall Street closed at a record high, as investors fretted about possible obstacles to a Republican tax bill that the lawmakers are debating. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid * A U.S. Senate tax-cut bill, differing from one already in the House of Representatives, was expected to be unveiled on Thursday, complicating a tax overhaul push and increasing scepticism on Wall Street about the effort. * The S&P 500 has risen about 21 percent since the election of President Donald Trump a year ago, partly on the back of his promises to cut taxes and other business-friendly measures. * However, Republicans have yet to score a major legislative win since Trump took office in January, even though the party controls both chambers of Congress as well as the White House. * Investors were also concerned about the potential fallout from Democrat wins in regional U.S. elections this week - a signal for next year’s mid-term Congressional elections for Trump. * Investors will also focus on another batch of earnings, with Walt Disney ( DIS.N ), News Corp ( NWSA.O ), Nvidia ( NVDA.O ) and Nordstrom ( JWN.N ) set to report results after the closing bell. * With third-quarter earning season winding down, earnings for the quarter are expected to have climbed 8 percent, compared with expectations of a 5.9 percent rise at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. * Economic data at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT) includes weekly jobless claims, which are forecast having risen to 231,000 from 229,000 in the week ended Oct. 28. * Wall Street closed at a record high on Wednesday as videogame makers rallied and Apple’s market value climbed above $900 billion. * Shares of Roku ( ROKU.O ) soared 30 percent in premarket trading after the television streaming device maker’s quarterly results and guidance beat expectations. * Perrigo ( PRGO.N ) rose 12.1 percent as the generic drugmaker raised its adjusted profit forecast. * Dish Network ( DISH.O ) fell 1 percent as the satellite TV service provider’s third-quarter profit missed analysts’ estimates. * Payments company Square ( SQ.N ) was down 3.2 percent, despite the company posting better-than-expected third-quarter results and raising its forecast. Futures snapshot at 7:04 a.m. ET: * Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 69 points, or 0.29 percent, with 41,821 contracts changing hands. * S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 8 points, or 0.31 percent, with 233,238 contracts traded. * Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 22.25 points, or 0.35 percent, on volume of 35,676 contracts. Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-lower-after-wall-streets-record-run-idUSKBN1D91PF'|'2017-11-09T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'2c6fe7a1d27d2362509bb5284f9cdbd420e4f440'|'Russia''s Mordashov sells 2.1 pct stake in steelmaker Severstal'|'MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Severstal, one of Russia’s largest steelmakers, said on Thursday that its controlling shareholder, Alexei Mordashov, has sold a 2.1 percent in the company via accelerated book building.Based on the sale price, Mordashov raised almost 16 billion roubles ($270 million) from the deal.Ordinary shares were offered at 885.35 roubles ($14.94) per share and global depository receipts were sold at $14.97 per piece. The shares were sold to Goldman Sachs, which was arranging the deal, for resale to institutional investors.Severstal shares were down 2.7 percent at 887 roubles per share in early trade on Thursday.Following the deal, Mordashov would retain about 77 percent of Severstal, the company said, adding that Severstal itself would not receive any proceeds from the sale.A Severstal spokeswoman said that the deal should support the liquidity of the stocks and improve the shares’ weight in indexes.According to VTB Capital’s research, Severstal’s free float should increase to 20.4 percent from 18.3 percent as a result of the deal, potentially increasing the company’s weight in the MSCI Russia and EM indexes. ($1 = 59.2455 roubles) (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Zlata Zarasyuta; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-severstal-mordashov/russias-mordashov-sells-2-1-pct-stake-in-steelmaker-severstal-idINL8N1NF38O'|'2017-11-09T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'b403e7fc4d0b27174f4aa7f098a3f0eb03a78247'|'Macy''s posts bigger-than-expected comparable sales drop'|'November 9, 2017 / 1:16 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Macy''s third-quarter sales disappoint Wall Street, but profit beats Reuters Staff 2 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Department store chain Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) reported a bigger-than-expected drop in third-quarter comparable store sales on Thursday, but managed to grow margins and topped earnings estimates by keeping a tight hold on inventory. Department stores have been struggling with declining mall traffic and tough competition from off-price retailers and Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). In response, Macy’s has closed stores, tightly controlled inventory, built its Backstage discount business and monetized prime real estate properties. Net income attributable to shareholders rose to $36 million, or 12 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 28, from $17 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier. Excluding items, Macy’s earned 23 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 19 cents. Shares were up 1.9 percent in premarket trading, having faltered earlier after retailer Kohl’s Corp ( KSS.N ) reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, dragging the sector down. A customer exits after shopping at a Macy''s store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Sales at Macy’s stores open more than 12 months, including sales in departments licensed to third parties, were down 3.6 percent. The average analyst estimate was for a 2.6 percent decline, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. “We believe they have not generated enough newness to attract consumers,” Jane Hali, head of a retail investment research firm wrote in a pre-earnings note. “The continued amount of sales and clearance is still very heavy and is only driving lower income consumers to their stores.” Net sales fell 6.1 percent to $5.28 billion, declining for the 11th straight quarter due to fewer stores from a year earlier. The average analyst estimate was $5.31 billion. Gross margins rose to 39.9 percent from 39.8 percent a year ago. Cost of sales declined to $3.18 billion from $3.39 billion. Macy’s shares traded at $17.90 after closing at $17.57. Reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago and Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-macy-s-results/macys-posts-bigger-than-expected-comparable-sales-drop-idUSKBN1D91V1'|'2017-11-09T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'54c1e3848946a2cdbcd6e589ad25d6a9320dd20e'|'Bargaining chip? China seen closely scrutinising Qualcomm, Broadcom deal'|' 32 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Bargaining chip? China seen closely scrutinizing Qualcomm, Broadcom deal Adam Jourdan 6 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A potential mega-merger between chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) and U.S. rival Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) is likely to face stern scrutiny in China, antitrust lawyers say, amid a strategic push by Beijing into semiconductors. A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Broadcom made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm on Monday, aimed at creating a $200-billion-plus behemoth that could reshape the industry at the heart of mobile phone hardware. But Chinese regulatory approval could be a hold-up.   have sparred over technology deals, including in chips, with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) knocking back a number of takeovers involving Chinese firms this year. The thorny topic is likely to come up when U.S. President Donald Trump visits China this week - with Qualcomm executives in tow. The merger would face a lengthy review from the anti-monopoly unit of China’s commerce ministry, due to strategic concerns, the huge size of the deal and because Qualcomm has come under fire before in the country over competition concerns. “This is a critical industry for China and Qualcomm has been fined by the Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) before so it’s on its radar,” said Wendy Yan, Shanghai-based partner at law firm Faegre Baker Daniels. Qualcomm agreed to pay a record fine of $975 million in China in 2015 to end a probe into anti-competitive practices related to so-called “double dipping” by billing Chinese customers patent royalty fees in addition to charging for the chips. China is making a major push to develop its own semiconductor industry under local champions such as Tsinghua Unigroup and Fujian Grand Chip Investment to help cut reliance on global operators including Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) and Intel Corp ( INTC.O ). Beijing’s push adds a political edge to the case. “(Mofcom) will consider industry security for the whole country, as the semi-conductor industry has strategic importance to China,” a second Shanghai-based antitrust lawyer said, asking not to be named because Qualcomm was a client of his firm. China chipmaker rivals could also raise concerns about the deal, he added, putting pressure on Mofcom’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau to act. The most likely outcome would be restrictions on the deal rather than it being blocked, he said. Firms pursuing major takeovers must notify China before closing a deal if the merging companies’ combined global turnover in the previous year exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) or their combined China income exceeds 2 billion yuan - both easily hit in this case. Mofcom did not immediately respond   sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake INDUSTRIAL POLICY The Shanghai-based antitrust lawyer said the size and complexity of the deal - and potential sensitivities - meant it would likely have to go through all three phases of Mofcom’s merger approval, on paper a 180-day process. While Broadcom and Qualcomm have little overlap, the firms are looking to complete a $5.5 billion purchase of Brocade Communications Systems Inc ( BRCD.O ) and a $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) respectively. Mofcom approved the Brocade acquisition with conditions earlier this year with after a five-month investigation. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm declined to comment. “We expect China, as with other countries, will welcome this deal as a solution to the double-dipping issue, and will find there are no significant issues beyond this,” a Broadcom spokeswoman said, referring to the patent charging issue. Last week, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said the company would move its headquarters to the United States from Singapore, citing Trump’s efforts to improve business conditions and reforming tax. Trump praised the move, calling Broadcom “one of the really great, great companies.” “Mofcom will be motivated by the government to look very closely not just from a competition perspective but also from a broader industrial policy perspective,” said another Beijing-based antitrust lawyer involved in similar transactions. The lawyer, who asked not to be   matter, said Beijing had been making a big push in the area including with deals to buy international firms - some successfully and some which had hit obstruction. “You should expect Mofcom will take a very, very close look at this transaction,” he said. Mofcom has been flexing its muscle more on global deals over the last few years, lawyers say, including putting restrictions on a deal between Dow Chemical and DuPont earlier this year. However, blocking deals outright was a rare step for Mofcom, especially when Chinese companies were not directly involved, several Chinese lawyers said. Instead, the firms may be asked to sell certain business units or make pledges to Chinese partners as conditions for it going ahead. “This case will be subject to more scrutiny from the Chinese authorities (than normal),” said Faegre Baker Daniels’ Yan. “I think it’s quite likely the deal will be subject to some restrictions from Mofcom.” Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI;   Liana Baker in SAN FRANCISCO and Yawen Chen in BEIJING; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom-china-analysis/bargaining-chip-china-seen-closely-scrutinizing-qualcomm-broadcom-deal-idUKKBN1D706H'|'2017-11-07T04:38:00.000+02:00'
'6e029cbcd46ac1ff55d6253e2e8d31efea4e2f19'|'European shares rise, shrugging off disappointing earning updates'|'Government introduces law seeking to help post-Brexit trade wider image London life laid bare in rubbish along the Thames Johnson did not make a gaffe over jailed aid worker - Fox Reuters TV United States  42 AM / a few seconds ago European shares rise, shrugging off disappointing earning updates Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares rose on Tuesday buoyed by exuberant markets in New York and Asia with early sluggishness in the euro boosting the export-oriented DAX .GDAXI index to a new record high. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote A rebound in banks and gains among commodity stocks underpinned the broader market, sending the pan-European STOXX 600 index up 0.2 percent by 0819 GMT and helping offset a number of disappointing earning updates including from BMW ( BMWG.DE ). The German carmaker fell 2 percent after its third-quarter earnings fell 5.9 percent, near the low-end forecast in a Reuters poll, due to upfront costs for new technologies and models. The world’s second-largest luxury automaker however slightly lifted its outlook for pretax profit this year. Its fall was more than offset by broad-based gains that sent the DAX, the German country benchmark index, up 0.3 percent. On the STOXX 600, the biggest fallers were shares in chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ), down 6.1 percent following a cautious outlook for the fourth quarter. Also under pressure following their updates were shares in Danish shipping group A.P. Moller Maersk ( MAERSKb.CO ), Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ) and London-listed security group G4S ( GFS.L ). The FTSE .FTSE was up 0.1 percent. Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Helen Reid'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-rise-shrugging-off-disappointing-earning-updates-idUKKBN1D70UZ'|'2017-11-07T10:25:00.000+02:00'
'0a9985a24cf7bc8962a06fc6a0b48825b01573c7'|'Insurer Aviva plans its first listed UK property trust'|' 46 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Insurer Aviva plans its first listed UK property trust Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Insurer Aviva’s ( AV.L ) fund arm announced plans on Tuesday for its first listed UK property trust, joining a number of other such listings since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union increased demand for more liquid property assets. A man is reflected in a window near the entrance to the AVIVA headquarters building in Dublin October 19, 2011. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton The Aviva Investors Secure Income REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) intends to raise 200 million pounds through an initial public offering in London, Aviva Investors said in a statement. Property industry experts say real estate yield-seeking investors have been switching to listed REITs from open-ended funds since the Brexit vote. REITs are closed-ended vehicles which investors buy and sell in the secondary market. Such trusts had raised 2.3 billion pounds in new issues and initial public offerings by mid-October, compared with 2.1 billion pounds in the whole of 2016. In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, open-ended funds were forced to sell property to satisfy higher levels of investor redemptions, raising shareholder concerns about investing in them. Several, including Aviva‘s, froze for several weeks while they offloaded properties. However, an Aviva spokesman said the planned REIT was not in competition with Aviva Investors’ existing open-ended fund. “The REIT will allow us to broaden our investor base for long (term) income real estate,” he said, adding the average lease would be 15 years. The REIT will invest in traditional sectors such as industrial, logistics, offices and supermarkets, as well as alternative sectors such as doctors’ surgeries, student accommodation, hotels and car showrooms, the spokesman added. Aviva Investors says it is the largest manager of UK commercial real estate, with 24 billion pounds under management as of Sept 30. Jefferies is acting as adviser and bookrunner on the offering. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-property-aviva/insurer-aviva-plans-its-first-listed-uk-property-trust-idUKKBN1D71H5'|'2017-11-07T13:45:00.000+02:00'
'3136929ee4904032a818d81f917098e5a00e9d3c'|'Peugeot speeds Opel technology shift to secure savings'|'FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group vowed to move Opel models onto its own technology faster than initially planned to improve their emissions performance and secure promised savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German carmaker.Rapid product launches will complete the transition to PSA vehicle architectures by 2024, three years ahead of the previous timetable, Opel said, as it outlined turnaround plans that leave a 1.7 billion euro ($2 billion) synergies goal unchanged.The adjustment suggests PSA and Opel will have to do more, and faster, to achieve savings the French carmaker had promised after agreeing to buy Opel from General Motors in a March deal that valued the business at 2.2 billion euros.It also reflects the tougher task of meeting European Union emissions rules with legacy Opel vehicles and engines developed under GM. The EU has just published proposals for a further 30 percent carbon dioxide emissions cut by 2030.“We quickly came to the conclusion that Opel was not ready to reach the CO2 targets set by the EU for 2020-2021,” Opel boss Michael Lohscheller told reporters and analysts at the brand’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt.“The good news is that synergies are validated (at) a detailed level,” he said.PSA shares fell 2.2 percent to 19.70 euros at 1217 GMT, after Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said Opel’s financial health had worsened as plans were being drawn up. “The situation gets worse by the day,” he said, without giving details.Yet Opel pledged to avoid factory closures or forced layoffs, instead relying on a doubling of exports by 2020 to fill underused plants as it enters new markets such as Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Weak international development under GM was a frustration in Ruesselsheim.“Opel will go global, finally,” Lohscheller said, while cautioning the plan will nonetheless require “reduction of cost in all areas including labour”.Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group Carlos Tavares and Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller attend a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Wage costs will be pared from about 15 percent of revenue to an 11 percent benchmark as Opel negotiates voluntary departures, early retirements and shorter hours with its workers - part of a broader effort to cut 700 euros of costs per vehicle.“PSA has taken on a damaged company with weak brands,” said Bernstein analyst Max Warburton. “But automotive turnarounds usually surprise, and this one has a good smell about it,” he added, reiterating an “outperform” rating on the group’s shares.The renaissance of Opel and its British Vauxhall unit will be based on “German engineering for all and a perfect match with (the) PSA brands”, Lohscheller said, referring to Peugeot, Citroen and DS.Slideshow (12 Images) Opel will introduce at least two new cars in 2019 including the Corsa mini, with a larger car and SUV to follow, among nine models or variants promised by the following year.All models will offer electric or plug-in hybrid versions by 2024, and Opel’s Ruesselsheim engineering center will specialize in future technologies such as fuel cells and driving autonomy.The product blitz will be more ambitious than previously suggested. PSA had said in March that technology convergence would begin in 2019 and take another eight years to complete.Despite the faster pace, however, PSA maintained both the 1.7 billion euro synergies goal and its 2026 deadline, with 1.1 billion or roughly two-thirds of that amount due by 2021.It also confirmed previously announced profitability targets for Opel that call for a 2 percent operating margin in 2020, rising to 6 percent in 2026.($1 = 0.8616 euros)Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-peugeot-opel/opel-speeds-shift-to-psa-vehicle-platforms-idINKBN1D90NT'|'2017-11-09T03:42:00.000+02:00'
'2f108fd92a527a02c5ec28a80f37db86476c6f4a'|'Siemens industrial profit dives 10 percent as turbines business tanks'|'Reuters TV United States  21 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Siemens industrial profit dives 10 pct as turbines business tanks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - German engineering group Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) reported a worse-than-expected 10 percent drop in industrial profit for its fiscal fourth quarter as its large gas-turbines unit struggled with price pressure and overcapacity. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Siemens is pictured on a building in Mexico City, Mexico, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo Industrial profit came in at 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for the quarter to end-September, below the lowest estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts, whose forecasts averaged 4.94 billion euros. Profit at the Power and Gas unit, Siemens’ second-biggest after healthcare, plunged 40 percent to 303 million euros, including 70 million euros of positive inventory effects. Siemens is about to embark on a restructuring of the unit. “We have to tackle structural issues in some individual businesses,” Chief Executive Joe Kaeser said in a statement on Thursday. “There is a lot of work ahead of us in fiscal 2018.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-results/siemens-industrial-profit-dives-10-pct-as-turbines-business-tanks-idUKKBN1D90LP'|'2017-11-09T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'80f9d9fe194fdc1b5f717e18a29a1d0c377c3dd7'|'Tax avoidance – Politics Weekly podcast'|'Photograph: Cj Gunther/EPA Subscribe via Apple Podcasts Download MP3 Podcast feed URL Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Presented by Heather Stewart with Juliette Garside , Hilary Osborne , Phillip Inman , Nicholas Shaxson and Mark Wallace Wednesday 8 November 2017 17.16 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 8 November 2017 17.26 GMT After another leak from an offshore law firm, tax avoidance is back on the political agenda this week. The Paradise Papers investigation by the Guardian and others has shone a light on the vast offshore industry based in many of the UK’s crown dependencies. Even the Queen and Prince Charles have been shown to hold offshore investments via their private trusts. Joining Heather Stewart to discuss it all are the Guardian reporters Juliette Garside and Hilary Osborne , the Observer’s economics editor, Phillip Inman, and the author of Treasure Islands , Nicholas Shaxson .Also this week : the list of cabinet ministers in hot water grew again this week with mistakes and misjudgments bringing pressure on Boris Johnson and Priti Patel. Can Theresa May’s government continue to weather the storm? We hear from ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace . Topics Politics The Guardian UK: Politics Weekly Tax avoidance Tax and spending Economics Conservatives'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2017/nov/08/the-paradise-papers-politics-weekly-podcast'|'2017-11-08T19:16:00.000+02:00'
'9becf85306f7fad32d76d40a851a5efe5916d0eb'|'Foreign payment card firms not required to establish JVs to enter local market -China c.bank'|'BEIJING, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Chinese regulations do not require foreign payment card firms to establish joint ventures to operate in the onshore market, the central bank said on Wednesday.American Express and Visa have not submitted additional material required for review and the central bank cannot officially process their applications as of now, the People’s Bank of China said in a faxed statement to Reuters.Reuters reported on Tuesday that China was pressing foreign payment card companies to form local joint ventures for onshore operations, a move that would counter a pledge on market access that Beijing made to U.S. President Donald Trump. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Edmund Klamann) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-payments-usa/foreign-payment-card-firms-not-required-to-establish-jvs-to-enter-local-market-china-c-bank-idINS6N1MZ02C'|'2017-11-08T05:55:00.000+02:00'
'd5aeefe52453228db16e86382692ae1e6f4ce204'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 9)'|'BRUSSELS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS -- Private equity firm Apollo Management to acquire insurer Aegon Ireland (approved Nov. 8)NEW LISTINGS -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified)EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES NoneFIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE NOV 11 -- Medical device maker Avantor, which is controlled by private equity firm New Mountain Capital, to acquire laboratory equipment distributor VWR (notified Oct. 11/deadline Nov. 17/withdrawn Oct. 9/refiled Oct. 11)NOV 14 -- French insurer Axa and Dutch property developer Unibail-Rodamco to jointly acquire a shopping centre in Leipzig, Germany (notified Oct. 6/deadline Nov. 14)NOV 16 -- West Midland Holdings Ltd, which is a joint venture between Dutch rail operator Abellio Transport Holding BV, East Japan Railway Co and Mitsui Co, to acquire the West Midlands franchise from London & Birmingham Railway Ltd (notified Oct. 10/deadline Nov. 16/simplified)NOV 22 -- Private equity firms CVC and Blackstone to jointly acquire online payuments processing provider Paysafe Group (notified Oct. 16/deadline Nov. 22)-- Techno Polymer Co. Ltd, a unit of Japanese chemicals company JSR Corp, and UMG ABS Ltd, which is jointly controlled by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Ube Industries Ltd, to merge their resin businesses (notified Oct. 16/deadline Nov. 22/simplified)NOV 23 -- French insurer Axa and Dutch insurer NN Group to acquire joint control of a newly created Spanish joint venture (notified Oct. 17/deadline Nov. 23/simplified)NOV 24 -- U.S. private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners and HPS Investment Partners to jointly acquire private holding company Ardonagh Group, which owns insurance broker Towergate Insurance Ltd, and Nevada Investment Holdings 2 Ltd (notified Oct. 18/deadline Nov. 24/simplified)NOV 27 -- Commodities trader Cargill and UK poultry supplier Faccenda Investments to set up a joint venture (notified Oct. 19/deadline Nov. 27/simplified)-- UK oil company BP and holding company Bridas Corp to acquire oil refiner Axion Energy Holding (notified Oct. 19/deadline Nov. 27/simplified)NOV 28 -- Dutch pension fund APG and property developer Hines Cherrywood Town Centre Associates LLC to set up a joint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- German car parts maker Continental Automotive and French industrial group Alstom to jointly acquire a minority stake in driverless car technologies company EasyMile (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- Canadian fund manager CDPQ and U.S. conglomerate GE casubsidiary GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to set up a global aircraft financing cajoint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- Japanese company Mitsui and Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby to set up a joint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)DEC 1 -- French oil major Total to acquire Danish shipping company Maersk’s oil and gas business(notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)-- Apollo Capital Management to acquire Dutch toy store chain Intertoys Holdings (notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)DEC 4 -- Austrian energy and petrol station company OMV to acquire 40 percent of electric car charging company Smatrics which is owned by hydropower company Verbund and Germany’s Siemens (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)-- Infrastructure fund DIF and French fund manager Caisse des Depots et Consginations to jointly acquire French broadband network operator ADTIM (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)DEC 5 -- German travel services provider Der Touristik Deutschland, which is part of German conglomerate REWE , to acquire Czech tourism company Exim (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)-- China’s COSCO Shipping to acquire Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- French car rental company Europcar to acquire Spanish peer Goldcar (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- Private equity firms Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Pimco to jointly acquire a portfolio of properties in Poland (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)DEC 6 -- Private equity firm EQT to acquire Dutch dental services group Curaeos Holding (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Deutsche Alternative Asset Management, which is an affiliate of Deutsche Bank, and UK insurer Prudential’s subsidiary M&G Alternatives Investment Management to set up a joint venture (notified Dec. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6)DEC 7 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline Dec. 7)DEC 8 -- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)DEC 12 -- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12)MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5)MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8)MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5)MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions)SUSPENDED -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline suspended from Aug. 17/concessions offered Oct. 5)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idINL8N1NF8MA'|'2017-11-09T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'31ec2d1770dfeb73cb86210ed8b6006a58b04cac'|'Rising French corporate debts are a concern - ECB''s Coeure'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:15 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Rising French corporate debts are a concern - ECB''s Coeure Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Rising French corporate debt is a source of concern for the   (ECB) although it is not a reason for withdrawing monetary stimulus, ECB policy maker Benoit Coeure   Benoit Coeure, board member   (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Big French companies have been gorging on cheap debt in recent years with bank loans up 5.4 percent in September, twice as much as the euro zone average, according to the Bank of France. “For now we don’t see financial bubbles at the euro zone level, (but) there are worrying small signs, in France for example,” Coeure, who is a member of the ECB’s Executive Council, said in an interview with franceinfo television. “Corporate debt is rising very fast, which is something we are watching. But there is nothing today that justifies that the ECB withdraw its support for growth,” he added, speaking in Lyon ahead of an economics conference. Last month, the ECB said it would reduce its bond purchases from January as the euro zone economy was recovering, although it still needed support. The Bank of France is also taking a close look at corporate credit growth in France and has said it could take measures to rein it in if deemed necessary. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-coeure/rising-french-corporate-debts-are-a-concern-ecbs-coeure-idUKKBN1D912C'|'2017-11-09T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'351d5dc4050ccc46610a8c84f9e08a8ddc0f9a7c'|'AccorHotels drops booking service for independent hoteliers'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:56 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago AccorHotels drops booking service for independent hoteliers Dominique Vidalon , Pascale Denis 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - AccorHotels, Europe’s largest hotel group, said on Thursday it would pull the plug on an online service that enables independent hotels to offer rooms on its booking website because the scheme had failed to meet expectations. The logos of AccorHotels group is pictured during a news conference at the Pullman Bangkok King Power hotel, in Bangkok, Thailand, June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha The decision is a setback for Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin, who launched the initiative in 2015 to fight online travel agents such as Expedia and Booking.com that have been accused of hitting the margins of traditional hoteliers. “The group has decided to stop marketing independent hotels on its website by end-2017 as the results were mixed,” a spokeswoman for AccorHotels said, confirming a report from L‘Echo Touristique magazine. The service had aimed to triple to 10,000 the number of hotels offered on AccorHotels online by 2018. But only 2,000 independent hoteliers signed up. One hurdle was that clients using the website were more likely to book one of the group’s well-known brands such a Pullman, Mercure, Ibis or Raffles than an unknown hotelier. Giving small independent hoteliers greater visibility would have required stepping up marketing investments. AccorHotels, which runs more than 4,000 hotels worldwide and has been expanding through acquisitions in the luxury end of the market and with new concierge services, now wants to focus on integrating and developing its large brand portfolio. The cost of launching the online marketplace project was estimated at 22 million euros ($25.59 million), on top of the 225 million euros AccorHotels said it would spend to beef up its digital business between 2014 and 2018. ($1 = 0.8598 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-accorhotels-digital/accorhotels-drops-booking-service-for-independent-hoteliers-idUKKBN1D91SJ'|'2017-11-09T14:45:00.000+02:00'
'6b48cb7304337e6c7a0526c254521db6ef4877fb'|'Bondholder group asks for court to intervene in board of Brazil''s Oi'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The law firm representing a bondholder group in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA has asked a court to nullify decisions made by the company’s board, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters on Wednesday.The motion by law firms including Pinheiro Neto Advogados, which represents the so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, asked the court in Rio de Janeiro to suspend appointments the board made on Friday of two members of Oi’s management.The filing also asks the court to suspend the voting rights of board members associated with major shareholders Pharol SGPS SA and Nelson Tanure’s Société Mundiale on any matters relating to the company’s current debt restructuring. In the filing, the bondholders argued those groups have obstructed all attempts by the company to talk to creditors to the detriment of Oi, among other issues.A spokesman for Tanure responded that the motion lacks legal founding. Oi and Pharol did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Oi, Brazil’s fourth largest telecoms company, filed for Latin America’s largest ever bankruptcy proceeding last year, sagging under 65.4 billion reais ($20.1 billion) of debt. The restructuring process has been messy, with fighting between and among shareholders, bondholders and the government.On Friday, Oi’s board, which Tanure and Pharol control, appointed two new members to the company’s management, allowing a restructuring plan approved by the board to be finalized. On Wednesday, however, Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel demanded that plan be presented to the regulator before it is filed with a bankruptcy court.While a final creditor vote on the company’s restructuring plan is scheduled for Friday, Brazilian public banks with debt in Oi requested on Wednesday that it be delayed, a government source told Reuters. Even if the meeting is officially convened, creditors may decide to delay a vote to a later date.In the bondholders’ filing on Wednesday, creditors also requested that the Oi board’s most recent restructuring plan only be signed after the bankruptcy judge on the case reviews and approves it. ($1 = 3.25 reais) (Reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/bondholder-group-asks-for-court-to-intervene-in-board-of-brazils-oi-idUSL1N1NE2CD'|'2017-11-09T06:24:00.000+02:00'
'9511da66e4cb274d1774a8053506797e50e59fb4'|'UPDATE 1-Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 bln to China'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:44 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 bln to China Reuters Staff (Corrects name to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, not China Aviation Suppliers Holding Company) * China Aviation Supplies Holding Company to buy planes * Orders and commitments for single-aisle and twin-aisle planes * Analysts say unclear how much of deal is new business BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Boeing signed an agreement on Thursday to sell 300 planes to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company worth $37 billion at list prices - part of a slew of deals announced during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing. State-run China Aviation Supplies, which leases planes to Chinese airlines, said the order was for 260 B-737s as well as 40 B777s and B787s. Analysts said, however, that some of the order may be among the more than 300 from undisclosed buyers posted this year and that it was not yet understood how much of the China deal would be entirely new business. Boeing had 334 orders by unidentified customers as of Oct. 24, of which 290 were for its 737 narrow body family. Representatives for Boeing did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the planes were new or existing orders. Aircraft orders are also announced at list prices but buyers usually get discounts. China Aviation Supplies has also played a prominent role in deals announced during previous government exchanges. In July, it agreed to buy 140 aircraft from Airbus in a deal worth $23 billion at list prices during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Germany. In 2015, it was among three Chinese companies that agreed to buy 300 planes from Boeing during Xi’s visit to the United States. Boeing’s latest signing in China follows an order for 39 wide-body jets from Singapore Airlines last month. Earlier on Thursday, aircraft engine marker General Electric said it had signed deals worth $3.5 billion in China, including an agreement with Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd and ICBC Leasing, the leasing arm of state bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd . Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI, Ben Blanchard and Stella Qiu in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-deals-boeing/update-1-boeing-signs-deal-to-sell-300-planes-worth-37-bln-to-china-idUSL3N1NF2VA'|'2017-11-09T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'ce97f35880825ba1063dee375ac67c3274a98351'|'UPDATE 1-Sky investor Odey opposes Fox bid as Disney talks fuel uncertainty'|'* Sky investor Odey says would not vote for Fox deal* Report of Disney-Fox talks stirs intrigue* Fox bid for Sky undergoing regulatory review (Writes through with comments from investor Odey)By Ben Martin and Paul SandleLONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Investor Crispin Odey said he opposed Twenty-First Century Fox’s $15 billion bid for Sky after a report of separate talks between Rupert Murdoch and Walt Disney Co added more uncertainty to a takeover facing regulatory hurdles.Veteran hedge fund manager Odey, whose firm has a 0.9 percent Sky stake according to Thomson Reuters data, said that Fox’s 10.75 pound-a-share bid “starts to look like it’s not a very good price” for the European pay-TV broadcaster.Odey’s opposition to the 11.7 billion-pound ($15.4 billion) takeover comes after CNBC reported that Murdoch’s Fox had recently held talks about selling some assets to Disney.That scenario added to the potential obstacles to the Sky deal which faces an in-depth regulatory investigation and strong opposition from some British politicians.“I’d vote against the deal,” Odey told Reuters on Tuesday, when asked about Fox’s offer for the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own.He added: “The interesting thing is: can Sky survive happily without Fox? I think it can quite happily.”Odey, a former son-in-law of Murdoch, had initially backed the Fox bid for Sky, which was announced in December.But in August he told Reuters that he thought the offer was beginning to “look rather mean”, although he stopped short of saying he would oppose it.Sky shares traded 1.2 percent lower at 928 pence by 1520 GMT on Tuesday, well below the bid price.Odey said that he had changed his mind because Sky’s financial results have been “much better than people forecast” , since the offer was made.Last month, the British broadcaster posted an 11 percent rise in core earnings to 582 million pounds for the three months to the end of September.DISNEY DEAL? Odey’s comments come after CNBC said that Disney recently discussed buying Fox’s movie and TV production studio studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic and international assets such as the Star network in India and its stake in Sky.The talks were not currently ongoing, the broadcaster said.Analysts at Liberum said they still saw a successful conclusion of Fox’s bid for Sky as the most likely outcome, but the Disney-Fox talks had thrown a curveball into the mix.They said Fox may scrap its bid for Sky as part of a proposed sale of assets, and they also noted that Fox’s willingness to consider including the Sky stake in any sale could be seen as a signal that it feels less confident of gaining regulatory approval from the British government.UBS, however, said a combination of Disney and Fox content could strengthen the rationale for buying all of Sky.The British company was already starting to build a pan-European streaming platform with its Now TV and Sky Ticket products, and the addition of content from Disney as well as Fox would only make that more compelling, it said.The bank also said in the event that a Fox/Sky deal was blocked, based on the CNBC article, Disney could be a potential strategic bidder for Sky and it noted it would not have the cross-media complications of a Fox bid.Fox and Sky both declined to comment. (Editing by Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-walt-disney-sky-plc/update-1-sky-investor-odey-opposes-fox-bid-as-disney-talks-fuel-uncertainty-idINL5N1ND5U3'|'2017-11-07T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'89de096ae3786dab73ce561d713226cbf45641a6'|'European shares open a touch lower as more Q3 earnings pour in'|'LONDON (Reuters) - European shares opened in negative territory on Thursday, as a flurry of corporate earnings for the third quarter triggered sharp price moves, many negative, across some sectors and bourses.The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.1 percent, failing to recover from the previous session’s dip and ignoring new highs in Asia and on Wall Street.“My feeling is that there is some kind of skepticism that is a little more present in Europe, as the main drivers of the markets, notably the ‘Trumpflation’ trade, are fading away,” Pierre Martin, a senior sales trader at Saxo Bank, said.“Trumpflation” refers to bets on rising rates, inflation and stock prices made after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election a year ago this week.Martin added that investors were still digesting this season’s corporate results and were finding it hard to position themselves without any new clear catalysts to drive the market up again.He also noted that investors were expecting positive earnings and could be unforgiving for those which fail to deliver on expectations, as it was the case with companies such as Vestas ( VWS.CO ).The world’s largest maker of wind turbines was the worst performer of the STOXX 600, falling over 17 percent as it lowered its 2017 profit margin outlook.British luxury brand Burberry ( BRBY.L ) was another big loser, down about 10.8 percent after first-half results, while Hikma Pharmaceuticals ( HIK.L ) lost 5.9 percent after lowering 2017 revenue guidance for its generics business for a third time.It was not all bad though in the sector as AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) rose 1.6 percent as the pace of decline in drug sales slowed in the third quarter.German commercial broadcaster ProSieben ( PSMGn.DE ) was also among companies being punished and was down close to 7 percent.Still in Germany, Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) was down 1.7 percent after posting a worse-than-expected 10 percent drop in industrial profit for its fiscal fourth quarter.ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ) was trading in the red, down 1.3 percent, after EU antitrust regulators said they would investigate whether its proposed purchase of Italian steel plant Ilva would lead to price hikes.Shares in the financial sector were leading gainers with Italian banks bouncing back after losing ground on Wednesday due to worries over non-performing loans and Creval’s ( PCVI.MI ) move to raise cash to shed bad debts.BPER Banca ( EMII.MI ) rose over 10 percent after Italy’s sixth-largest bank said its core capital had strengthened in the third quarter and ruled out tapping investors for cash.Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) rose 3.4 percent and other smaller players were also rising with Ubi Banca ( UBI.MI ) up 4.6 percent and Banco BPM AMI.MI 3.7 percent.Italy’s biggest insurer, Generali ( GASI.MI ) was flat after keeping its guidance unchanged.Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) also rose, gaining 3.3 percent after it swung to net profit in the third quarter. The German bank reiterated it was still expecting to eke out a “slightly positive” net profit for the full year.Still in the financial sector, shares in Dutch insurer Aegon ( AEGN.AS ) were up 5.2 percent as it reported earnings above consensus.Reporting by Julien Ponthus, editing by Sujata Rao and Ralph Boulton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-open-a-touch-lower-as-more-third-quarter-earnings-pour-in-idUSKBN1D90ZI'|'2017-11-09T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'0497f788edf6b4ca7c1e8c50d71a71db3fbe65ed'|'Twenty-First Century Fox''s quarterly revenue beats Street'|'(Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) quarterly revenue topped market estimates on Wednesday as higher advertising sales and revenue from traditional and online distributors boosted its cable business.The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The company’s shares were up nearly 1 percent in extended trading.The results come after CNBC reported on Monday that Fox had, in the last few weeks, held talks about selling most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). The two sides are not currently in discussion, CNBC had reported.Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox did not address the report in its first-quarter report.Revenue from Fox’s cable division, which houses the Fox News and FX channels among others, rose 10 percent to $4.20 billion, accounting for more than half of total revenue in the quarter.That beat analysts average estimate of $4.12 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet.Domestic advertising revenue in the cable business rose 3 percent. Fox’s ad revenue can vary from quarter to quarter depending on events, but has been hit by viewer’s increasing preference for streaming services.Revenue at Fox’s filmed entertainment division rose 3 percent to $1.96 billion, edging past analysts estimate of $1.95 billion, according to FactSet.Fox said revenue rose to $7.00 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, higher than the $6.51 billion a year earlier and the $6.81 billion analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net income attributable to shareholders increased to $855 million, or 46 cents per share, from $821 million, or 44 cents per share.Excluding items, Fox earned 49 cents per share, inline with market estimates.The reported talks with Disney adds another layer of uncertainty to Fox’s bid to buy the rest the nearly 61 percent of European pay-TV group Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) it does not already own in an offer worth $14.5 billion made in December.The offer is being closely scrutinized by the British government. Murdoch has repeatedly stated that deal would be approved in the first half of 2018.“Absent further delays, the transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2018,” Fox said on Wednesday.Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-results/twenty-first-century-foxs-quarterly-revenue-beats-street-idINKBN1D8391'|'2017-11-09T01:08:00.000+02:00'
'9dfd7086a0c1ba006c863ed5b00ef5eefee8ec22'|'Britain says will provide Saudi Aramco with credit guarantees'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 12:17 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Britain to provide Saudi Aramco with $2 billion credit guarantees Andy Bruce , Dasha Afanasieva 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will provide $2 billion in credit guarantees to Saudi Aramco so it can buy British goods and services more easily, but denied it was part of efforts to persuade the energy giant to list its shares in London. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed The loan agreement comes as London Stock Exchange, with backing from British Prime Minister Theresa May, competes to host part of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to be the biggest float ever. “This builds on previous support for UK exports as part of Saudi Aramco joint venture projects,” the government said in a statement on Thursday, while a spokesman for Britain’s finance ministry said the guarantees were not part of the country’s attempt to secure the IPO for London. Saudi officials have said domestic and international exchanges, including New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, have been considered for a partial listing of the state-run firm. Britain’s financial regulator has proposed new rules to allow sovereign-controlled entities like Saudi Aramco to have their own ‘premium listing’ category while being exempt from requirements such as how much of a company has to be floated. The British government and the City of London are keen to win the listing as a boost to the country’s capital markets just as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. However, some fund managers oppose the proposals, which they say would erode the rights of minority investors. “(Britain’s government) guaranteeing a loan to ARAMCO would be a further lurch in descent to mercantilism,” Nick Macpherson, who was top civil servant at the finance ministry until last year and is now chairman of C. Hoare and Co private bank, said on Twitter. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said last month that the IPO, part of an ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, was on track to go ahead in 2018. The $2 billion facility is being finalised by UK Export Finance, a ministerial department which works to increase British exports by providing finance to overseas buyers of the country’s goods and services. Reporting by Andy Bruce and Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-britain/britain-says-will-provide-saudi-aramco-with-credit-guarantees-idUKKBN1D91NV'|'2017-11-09T14:12:00.000+02:00'
'e65f683e55bc44a9f1cefdb0af0536b46eee32bf'|'ContourGlobal makes sluggish London stock market debut'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:51 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago ContourGlobal makes sluggish London stock market debut Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Power generator ContourGlobal ( GLO.L ) was virtually flat on its stock market debut on Thursday, faring better than a number of other recent London IPOs that were either cancelled or traded lower. The company is a global platform of contracted wind, solar, hydro, and thermal power generation, and investors in the IPO included Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. It was up a tenth of a percent at 250.25 pence by 0939 GMT, having been priced at the bottom of a previously announced range. London’s IPO market has been hit as broadcasting masts firm Arqiva [IPO-ARGL.L], which would have been this year’s biggest UK listing, and supermarket supplier Bakkavor scrapped their floats last week, blaming volatility and market uncertainty. They followed business services firm TMF, which cancelled its float on Oct. 27 in favour of a 1.75 billion euro (£1.5 billion) sale to private equity house CVC Capital Partners. ContourGlobal is an international company and so had its pick of international listing venues, but opted for London. “London was the deepest pool of international capital and given they have assets all over the world, it would make sense (to list there),” a source familiar with the listing said. ContourGlobal’s appeal to investors lies in its exposure to long-term and wholesale contracted power generation worldwide and a record of low-risk, long-term contracted cash flows. The source said the order book demonstrated a “high degree of conviction among high quality long only investors”. The top five investors took about 65 percent of the book and the top 10 took 80 percent, the source said. Singapore’s GIC was one of the top investors, having put in $200 million. In the six months ended 30 June 2017, GlobalContour generated revenue of $462.4 million (£353.1 million) and $234.5 million of adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). Other disappointing recent London IPOs include global depositary receipts in En+ ( ENPLq.L ), which manages Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminium and hydropower businesses. They were trading close to $13, below the listing price of $14 set last week. Cabot Credit Management will be the next main IPO in London, with trading scheduled to start on Nov. 17. On Monday, Shefa Yamim, a minerals company focused on the exploration for precious stones in Northern Israel said it intended to list on London’s main market. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-contourglobal-ipo/contourglobal-makes-sluggish-london-stock-market-debut-idUKKBN1D91DG'|'2017-11-09T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'ad9ad3b07baddfe5ea8693f92bba867db6059a5b'|'French group Lagardere could sell assets to boost cashflow'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Lagardere ( LAGA.PA ), the French media group behind magazine brands such as Elle and Paris Match, said it was open to a strategic review of its business which could lead to the sale of assets.FILE PHOTO - Arnaud Lagardere, the head of French media group Lagardere, attends the groups annual general meeting in Paris, France, May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Arnaud Lagardere, the principal managing partner of the company, on Thursday emphasized his determination to improve Lagardere’s cashflow.“If we want to go further and really, radically improve it, as I have said before, that would imply that we could have a review of some of the assets we own. Why not?” Lagardere said on a conference call after the group’s third-quarter sales figures.“This would probably form part of our forthcoming talks. Be patient,” added Lagardere, whose family owns a stake of around 7 percent in the group according to Reuters data.Earlier on Thursday, Lagardere reported third-quarter revenues down 6.3 percent from a year ago on a consolidated basis. It kept its 2017 target for recurring EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) growth of between 5-8 percent.No cashflow numbers were given as part of those quarterly sales figures. At the time of Lagardere’s first-half results in July, the company reported a negative free cashflow due partly to the effect of working capital costs.Shares in Lagardere, a company in which the Qatar Investment Authority has a 13 percent stake, were flat in afternoon trading.The stock is up around 7 percent so far in 2017, outperforming a 6 percent fall on the STOXX Europe 600 Media & Publishing index .SXMP.Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-lagardere-m-a/french-group-lagardere-could-sell-assets-to-boost-cashflow-idINKBN1D920F'|'2017-11-09T11:17:00.000+02:00'
'a59441b60ab80d20c2018ad6108f372ef07d81e2'|'Thousands of drugs face Brexit risk, makers to duplicate testing'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:08 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Thousands of drugs face Brexit risk, makers to duplicate testing Ben Hirschler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Supplies of thousands of medicines are at risk of disruption if Britain leaves the European Union without a trade deal, forcing manufacturers to prepare for duplicate product testing to ensure their drugs stay on the market. More than 2,600 drugs have some stage of manufacture in Britain and 45 million patient packs are supplied from the UK to other European countries each month, while another 37 million flow in the opposite direction, drugmakers said on Thursday. Brexit threatens the free flow of these goods, given stringent medicine regulations that will require the retesting of drugs shipped across borders in the absence of an agreed trading arrangement. The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (Efpia) said a survey of its members showed 45 percent of companies expected trade delays if Britain and Europe fell back onto World Trade Organization rules after Brexit. Drugmakers also face an additional hurdle when it comes to licensing their products, since more than 12,000 medicines will require a separate UK licence in order for them to be prescribed. “For life-saving and life-improving medicines, the EU and UK cannot afford to wait any longer to ensure that the necessary cooperation on medicines is in place from the day the UK leaves the EU,” said Efpia Director General Nathalie Moll. Pharmaceutical companies have insisted since last year’s Brexit referendum that a comprehensive agreement is needed to ensure maximum alignment between EU and British pharmaceutical regulations. But with the clock ticking down to Brexit in March 2019 with no sign yet that a trade deal will be concluded, many companies are drawing up detailed procedures to protect drug supply chains. AstraZeneca’s ( AZN.L ) chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said his company was working on additional systems for quality control and release of products after manufacturing. “What we are doing now is duplicating this process, so that we can release goods in Europe that have been manufactured in the UK,” he told reporters after the company announced its quarterly results on Thursday. GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK.L ) also said last month it was preparing a system to test drugs inside the European Union if Britain crashes out of the bloc without a trade deal. Reporting by Ben HirschlerEditing by Toby Chopra, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-pharmaceuticals/thousands-of-drugs-at-risk-if-no-brexit-deal-companies-warn-idUKKBN1D838N'|'2017-11-09T12:56:00.000+02:00'
'269ae81ba0d79bbda20e16b7e1d47f4411f0afd0'|'European markets not deep enough for indefinite QE - ECB''s Coeure'|' 10 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago European markets not deep enough for indefinite QE - ECB''s Coeure Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - European financial markets are not deep enough to allow ECB quantitative easing to run on indefinitely, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said on Thursday. Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “A lot of people would like us to continue quantitative easing forever, but the depth of European capital markets is totally different to that in the United States,” Coeure told an economics conference in Lyon. “Personally, I don’t think quantitative easing can be a permanent instrument of ECB monetary policy simply because financial markets are not deep enough,” he added. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Michel Rose'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-coeure-qe/european-markets-not-deep-enough-for-indefinite-qe-ecbs-coeure-idUKKBN1D91FC'|'2017-11-09T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'2ae5a8ebc292f982fd63850cdf81bf77b523088a'|'Kobe Steel to report on causes of data cheating, CEO to speak'|'Reuters TV United States November 10, 2017 / 4:22 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Kobe Steel to report on causes of data cheating, CEO to speak Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) said it would announce on Friday the results of an internal investigation into the causes of a data-cheating scandal that has rocked the Japanese steelmaker and affected hundreds of its customers globally. FILE PHOTO: The Kobe Steel (Kobelco) logo is seen on the company''s headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. Picture taken October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White Japan’s third-biggest steelmaker said it would release the internal report, which includes countermeasures to prevent a recurrence, at 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT). The 112-year-old company admitted last month that workers had tampered with product specifications for at least a decade, causing global automakers, aircraft manufacturers and other companies to check whether the safety or performance of their products had been compromised. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. Kobe Steel was ordered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) last month to provide by around Nov. 12 a detailed explanation of the data cheating and say what steps it would take to prevent future abuses. But the explanations may not be conclusive as the company has since appointed a trio of outside investigators who are due to report back by the end of the year. Kobe Steel’s internal probe also may not address questions of responsibility, as sources have told Reuters that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hiroya Kawasaki and other executives will decide whether to resign for the scandal happening on their watch only after the external report. Kawasaki will hold a news conference at 5:00 p.m. (0800 GMT), after reporting to METI. Kobe Steel, now the subject of a U.S. Justice Department inquiry as well, has had a Japanese government-sanctioned seal of quality revoked on some of its products and lost customers. As of Tuesday, the company said 470 out of 525 affected customers found no safety issues or their products were deemed safe by Kobe Steel, up from 443 on Oct. 31. The company has said it cannot yet fully state what impact the tampering will have on its finances. Last week, it pulled its forecast for its first annual profit in three years for the 12 months through next March. Kobe Steel’s shares have fallen by nearly a fifth since it revealed the data fabrication a month ago. The company''s shares ( 5406.T ) were up 2 percent by 0558 GMT on Friday, while the Nikkei 225 .N225 was down 0.8 percent. For graphic on Kobe Steel revenues and products, click: tmsnrt.rs/2zxslFu Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal/kobe-steel-to-announce-causes-of-data-cheating-ceo-to-brief-idUKKBN1DA0C9'|'2017-11-10T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'00e0c474c4ef89ace71e7407bb18446e8cd61516'|'AT&T-Time Warner deal not dead yet: Dish CEO Ergen'|'(Reuters) - AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), which is being scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Justice, may not be dead yet, Dish Network Corp ( DISH.O ) Chief Executive Charlie Ergen said.FILE PHOTO - Charlie Ergen attends the Google''s annual developers conference in San Francisco, California May 20, 2010. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith “By no means is it dead and I think there certainly may be ways they can work it out,” Ergen said on a post-earnings conference call with analysts on Thursday.The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded significant asset sales to approve the $85.4 billion deal, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, and has asked AT&T to sell CNN-parent Turner Broadcasting or its DirecTV satellite TV operation in discussions on Monday.“There definitely would be a huge concentration of content and distribution in one company and the net effect of that, as many people have highlighted in the press and to the Justice Department, certainly could have negative impact on the consumer,” Ergen said.Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-dishceo/att-time-warner-deal-not-dead-yet-dish-ceo-ergen-idUSKBN1D92SI'|'2017-11-10T02:50:00.000+02:00'
'2304fe25d04f0412c568f9d36fb3c6472a5ea3b2'|'Take Five: World markets themes for the week ahead'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.Investors look on in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai March 17, 2015. REUTERS/Aly Song 1/DELEVERAGING DISCOMFORT China''s market participants are having a hard time deciding if the government''s intent to redouble efforts to deleverage the economy are good for stock prices. The stock market .SSEC has been volatile since the 19th Communist Party congress in mid-October, particularly after China''s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said authorities will do their best to fend off risks from excessive optimism that could lead to a "Minsky Moment", while other policymakers pledged to strengthen financial regulation.Government bond yields have risen on expectation lending markets will remain tight. But the worst fears about the deleveraging exercise seem to be abating. This week, the blue-chip index has hit two-year highs, while stock funds are selling faster and margin lending in the stock markets is at levels last seen in early 2016. The newly formed Financial Stability and Development Committee has pledged to prevent instability, and the securities regulator is sending signals it is going to be tough and rigorous in approving new share offerings.The CSI’s banking sub-index is still hurting but the healthcare index, a barometer of economic and financial optimism, is at record highs. In contrast, start-up board ChiNext once the darling of local investors and a hotbed for speculation, is on the decline.(Graphic: China markets overcome deleveraging concerns - reut.rs/2zs83zk )2/ RAW POWER U.S. stocks are striking record highs on a weekly, if not daily, basis of late as a nearly nine-year bull market grinds ever onward even as Congress and the Trump administration struggle to deliver their long-promised tax reform. It prompts analysts, economists, investors and other market observers to repeatedly ask: When is the correction coming?One popular indicator, devised by Ed Yardeni at Yardeni Research, does not suggest a turn around in equities is at all imminent. Yardeni’s ‘Boom-Bust Barometer’ divides the CRB industrial raw materials spot index by the four-week moving average of U.S. first-time claims for unemployment benefits.Its premise is that if industrial raw materials prices are rising - which on balance they have been - and the U.S. job market is stable or strengthening - which it is - then the outlook for growth and equities is constructive. When the S&P 500 is overlaid, it appears that Yardeni’s ‘BBB’ is a reliable coincidental indicator for U.S. equities.The brief dive in the BBB in September and October was largely do to the short-lived jump in jobless benefits claims caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Claims have since dropped back to recent trend and the BBB has recovered.(Graphic: Industrial raw materials v S&P 500 - reut.rs/2zu1V9K )3/ JUNK IN THE YARD Nervous traders fretting about how long the bull market can carry on and what might spark the long-awaited correction would do worse than keep their other eye on high yield, or “junk”, bonds. The rally they’ve been on this year puts the stock market charge in the shade, and by some measures they are the most expensive assets in the world right now. A selloff here could ripple quickly and deeply across all markets. The first signs of these tremors were felt this week. Global high yield bonds had their biggest fall since March on Thursday, and European junk bonds their biggest fall in a year. Outflows from high yield bond funds stand at $1.8 billion in just two weeks, according to Lipper, and are the highest in two months, according to EPFR. No surprise that Wall Street and other major stock markets wobbled. There’s precedence too - the 20 percent market correction in 2015-16 was in large part sparked by the collapse of the junk bond market. Will history repeat itself?(Graphic: U.S. 2s/10s yield curve - reut.rs/2zKMdHP )4/SHIFTING SANDS Markets will be watching the fast-moving developments in the Middle East where Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince in midst of a major consolidation of his power and Lebanon has been thrown into turmoil again by the surprise resignation of its Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.Local stock markets have the dollar-bonds of many Gulf and Middle Eastern states have been left at either record or multi-year lows and traders will now be on alert for any sign that these countries currency pegs are a risk of being abandoned.Lebanese officials have said they believe Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia, while Riyadh and other Gulf countries have warned their citizens against travel to Lebanon, sparking speculation Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince may be sizing up a strike at Hezbollah.Meanwhile Saudi intercepting a ballistic missile that it said was fired toward Riyadh by the Iran-allied Houthi militia controlling large parts of neighboring Yemen has added to the tension.(Graphic: Global junk bonds - yield - reut.rs/2zLJhL4 )5/ CURVE CONTROL Along with stubbornly low volatility and productivity, one of the conundrums dominating economic and market debate recently is the flatness of bond yield curves. The U.S. curve, in particular, is subject of much debate. It’s the flattest in over a decade and dragging other yield curves around the world down with it.Is this the traditional signal that slowing growth is just around the corner, or are other forces keeping longer-dated yields down? What is clear is, for whatever reason, demand for long-dated bonds is pretty strong. The euro zone bond market faces its first major test since the ECB announced it will gradually begin pulling back its extraordinary stimulus, with 25-30 billion euros of bond supply next week.Demand at these auctions will give us an indication of whether the bond market can ride the storm of lower policy support. Spain’s auction of 50-year bonds on Thursday will be closely scrutinized.(Graphic: Middle East CDS - reut.rs/2ztcxWw )Reporting by Marc Jones '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUSKBN1DA2C3'|'2017-11-11T00:52:00.000+02:00'
'f4c1237260671dc00095bab6f989231e8fed38a3'|'Sky-high stock market has investors looking to commodities'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - A growing number of investors are plowing money into commodities, seeking to diversify their holdings on gnawing concerns about a stock market correction as equities scale new highs almost daily.FILE PHOTO: Sample bottles of crude oil are seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Low interest rates, solid economic growth across the globe and rising corporate earnings have hoisted the S&P 500 16 percent this year. It reached an all-time high on Tuesday. By contrast the bellwether S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) gained 7 percent in that same period.The last five years presents an even starker divergence. The S&P has gained 82 percent in that time, while the GSCI has dropped by 34 percent.That may start to shift, portfolio managers and investment advisors say. Strong demand in markets like oil and copper, along with tightening supply, is shifting the fundamental outlook, boosting commodity flows. Oil prices recently hit a two-and-a-half-year high, while copper hit a three-year high.While commodity markets pale in size to equities and fixed income, a notable shift toward the asset class could help validate the concerns of those who believe stocks have become overvalued.“We’ve been through a terrible bear market in commodities and equities have been in a tremendous bull market. Both are likely to change,” said Roland Morris, portfolio manager and commodity strategist at VanEck Global, an investment manager in New York.In the past week, a net $324 million has flowed into funds that invest in a broad basket of commodities, Thomson Reuters data shows. In August, flows into commodity mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) hit $2.1 billion, the highest in more than six years.However, flows into commodities were patchy in September and October, and the $3.8 billion in net inflows this year through October pales in comparison to $6.5 billion for the same period in 2016.Commodity prices steadied after sinking to multi-year lows in 2016, but supply gluts in energy and grains markets have prevented heavily traded commodities from keeping up with stocks.The spread between the indices such as the GSCI, or the Thomson Reuters/CoreCommodity CRB Index, and the S&P 500 are at or near their widest on record.Commodities, unlike equities, can be expensive to hold for long periods of time, if future-dated prices are higher than current ones. That has exaggerated the spread between commodities and equities, Morris said, as passive investors in commodities lose money when the managers of commodity indices sell cheaper contracts as they come due for physical delivery, then buy costlier futures.As one example, even though the spot U.S. crude oil futures contract has gained nearly 6 percent this year, the United States Oil ETF, which mimics that contract’s daily moves, is down 2.8 percent, in the same period of time.Over the last few months, later-dated Brent crude prices have fallen below the spot oil price, so now when passive funds sell expiring contracts to buy fresh ones, they make money, rather than lose it.“The returns (from commodities) since mid-summer have been high ... oil right now has a positive roll yield for the first time in a few years,” said Greg Sharenow, portfolio manager at PIMCO, who helps manage more than $3 billion in assets.Historically, such a move has been an indicator of future gains and that has, in part, led to increased interest in commodities, Sharenow said.Benchmark Brent and U.S. crude fell to the lowest levels in more than a decade in 2016 and have recovered sharply in recent weeks, boosting commodity indices, where oil often carries the greatest weight.“Brent (crude) has already broken through the psychological barrier of $60 a barrel and if (U.S. crude) can get to $60 as well, it could spur even further investor interest,” said Matt Sallee, portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors.There has been rising interest in recent months from funds in livestock and metals, said Chip Whalen, vice president of education and research at Commodity and Ingredient Hedging LLC, a commodity trading advisor in Chicago.Industrial metals and livestock have this year fetched the highest returns within the S&P GSCI Enhanced Commodity Index, which reflects yields to investors, according to Goldman Sachs.The bank forecasts returns of 1.2 percent for three months, 3.2 percent over the next six months and 3.6 percent for 12 months from the index.Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Chris Prentice in New York; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Julia Simon; Editing by Alden Bentley and David Gaffen '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-commodities-stocks/sky-high-stock-market-has-investors-looking-to-commodities-idINKBN1D90O1'|'2017-11-09T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'd32f84a1672879e838c5fd07934ca8153be3c5a6'|'UPDATE 2-Embraer halts flights of military cargo jet after test incident'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Embraer SA has stopped flying the first prototype of its new military cargo jet after a stall test last month pushed the aircraft beyond its operating limits, the planemaker said on Wednesday, adding that the project is still on schedule.The KC-390 prototype suffered no damage to its “primary aircraft structure,” but some of its access hatches and aerodynamic fairings must be repaired before the aircraft can resume flights, Embraer said in a statement.Embraer shares fell as much as 2 percent in Sao Paulo trading before paring losses to 1 percent.Embraer said the incident would not affect the certification schedule of the KC-390, which enters service next year. The Brazilian Air Force has already ordered 28 of the aircraft for 7.2 billion reais ($2.3 billion), with two deliveries in 2018 and three in 2019.Earlier on Wednesday, Brazilian trade publication Aero Magazine reported that test equipment inside the plane had come loose during a maneuver, throwing off its center of gravity, according to an unnamed engineer involved in the project.Embraer did not address the cause of the Oct. 12 incident, but said the crew recovered control after losing substantial altitude that surpassed the plane’s airspeed and load factor envelope. The company said at the time it was testing the KC-390 at low speeds with simulated ice shapes on the aircraft.“All aircraft systems have behaved as expected during the whole flight,” Embraer said in the statement.Flight records from plane-tracking website Flightradar24 on Oct. 12 show the KC-390 prototype lost more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) in altitude during a two-minute stretch before leveling off at around 3,000 feet. Pilots deal with an aerodynamic stall, or loss of lift, by pointing the nose downwards and dropping altitude to get air back under the wings.Portugal has agreed to purchase six of the KC-390 airlifters, Brazil’s President Michel Temer said in August.Executives have said the KC-390 could eventually account for $1.5 billion in annual exports, as Embraer aims to compete with Lockheed Martin Corp to replace more than 700 aging C-130 Hercules turboprops around the world.Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-defense/embraer-grounds-military-cargo-jet-after-flight-test-incident-idUSKBN1D833R'|'2017-11-09T00:32:00.000+02:00'
'c5715fd96ef9e427c4ac48a92b758569c378d427'|'Facebook to train U.S. businesses on ads after Russia scandal'|'SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is kicking off an effort to get U.S. small businesses to spend more on advertising as the image of the social media network’s ads have taken a hit for their role in alleged Russian attempts to sway U.S. voters.Zuckerberg is traveling on Thursday to St. Louis, Missouri, to launch the program, after which Facebook will dispatch teams to 30 U.S. cities next year to run free training classes about its advertising, the company said in a statement.Facebook disclosed in September that Russians bought ads on its platform in an attempt to divide Americans in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Russian government has denied meddling in the election.The company has responded by pledging to root out fake accounts and build a publicly searchable archive of ads related to elections, among other steps.Facebook named five of the 30 cities it will target for its advertising push: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Des Moines, Iowa; Greenville, South Carolina; Houston, Texas; and St. Louis.Politicians including Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas are backing the effort, Facebook said.Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have come to dominate digital advertising with self-serve platforms that allow people to buy highly targeted ads based on data Facebook and Google collect about users.That has come at the expense of traditional players such as newspapers, and it has spooked consumer advocates who are concerned about the rise of a duopoly. (Reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Colleen Jenkins) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/facebook-advertising/facebook-to-train-u-s-businesses-on-ads-after-russia-scandal-idINL1N1NE2HJ'|'2017-11-09T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'32541e347d4dc9ce08f70813256e398f228afc80'|'US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St ends lower with tech; focus on tax plan'|'NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street ended lower on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Apple Inc and other technology stocks as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay corporate tax cuts that investors want very much.Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 101.42 points, or 0.43 percent, to 23,461.94, the S&P 500 lost 9.76 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,584.62 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 39.07 points, or 0.58 percent, to 6,750.05. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-snapshot-wall-st-ends-lower-with-tech-focus-on-tax-plan-idINZXN0R5L2I'|'2017-11-09T18:08:00.000+02:00'
'fb0e9a397a9f8380ae6882eceaf92b6a357eddc5'|'Oil markets stable, but doubts over recent bull run emerge'|'November 9, 2017 / 2:11 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago Oil markets stable, but doubts over recent bull run emerge Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices held steady on Thursday after falling late in the previous session, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC and Russia. FILE PHOTO: An oil rig drilling a well at sunrise, owned by Parsley Energy Inc. near Midland, Texas, U.S., May 3, 2017. Picture taken May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder However, traders said a price rally that has pushed up Brent crude by over 40 percent since July may have run its course due to increases in U.S. supplies and some indicators of a demand slowdown. Brent futures LCOc1 were at $63.58 per barrel at 0516 GMT, up 9 cents, or 0.1 percent, from their last close, but over $1 off the more than two-year high of $64.65 reached earlier this week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.87 per barrel, up 6 cents, or 0.1 percent, but also some way off this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel. Key support was coming from efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold supplies in order to tighten the market and prop up prices. OPEC will discuss output policy during a meeting on Nov. 30, and it is expected the group will extend the current cuts beyond their expiry in March 2018. “With the OPEC/non-OPEC deal extension beyond March 2018 a certainty, prices may become stronger and temporarily reach the $65-$70 per barrel range in 2018,” said energy consultancy FGE. Despite this, many analysts say the strong price rally of the past months has likely run its course, at least for now. U.S. crude stockpiles C-STK-T-EIA rose 2.2 million barrels in the week to Nov. 3, to 457.14 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, contrary to analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 2.9 million barrels. U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA inched up 67,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.62 million bpd, the highest on record. And output is set to rise further. Texas issued 997 oil and gas drilling permits last month, up nearly 17 percent versus the same month a year ago, the state’s energy regulator said on Wednesday. On the demand side, global oil demand remains strong, although the latest figures from top importer China came in below expectations. “At 7.34 million bpd, China crude oil imports dipped to the lowest level since October last year... The trend could continue for the rest of the year,” Barclays bank said, although it added that it expected demand growth to pick up again in 2018. Key for the last weeks of the year is whether traders remain confident about their huge bets on further price rises, or whether they sell out of these positions, satisfied with recent strong gains. “It doesn’t matter how bullish the fundamentals are ... when an asset goes vertical there is always room for a pullback and consolidation of recent price moves. That’s where oil prices find themselves this morning,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-stable-but-doubts-over-recent-bull-run-emerge-idUKKBN1D9084'|'2017-11-09T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'58e1dc6503236af6fb5067d7286e23baca304f6f'|'UPDATE 1-China to buy another 12 mln t of US soybeans in 2017/18 in $5 bln deals'|'* 2 letters of intent signed as Trump visits Beijing* In one agreement COFCO to buy 4 mln T of beans from ADM* Agreements come as U.S. seeks to offload record crop (Adds detail, background)By Dominique PattonBEIJING, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The United States soybean industry has signed two letters of intent with Chinese importers covering the $5 billion purchase by the latter of an additional 12 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2017/18 marketing year.The non-binding agreements, disclosed by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) in a statement, are among a series of trade accords announced during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing. China is the world’s top soybean buyer of and the U.S. its second supplier after Brazil.In the first agreement, signed on Nov. 8, the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce said it intended to purchase 8 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans worth $3.4 billion.A second agreement will be signed on Thursday between grains trader ADM and China’s COFCO for intent to purchase 4 million tonnes of soybeans worth $1.6 billion, said the USSECThe two deals follow a pledge by Chinese importers to buy 12.53 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans during a visit to the U.S. in July. They also come as U.S. farmers seek to export more beans after growing a record crop.Separately, China’s agriculture ministry revised up its forecast for soybean imports in the 2017/18 crop year on Thursday to 95.97 million tonnes from a previous forecast of 94.5 million tonnes. (Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-soybeans/update-1-china-to-buy-another-12-mln-t-of-us-soybeans-in-2017-18-in-5-bln-deals-idINL3N1NF1UL'|'2017-11-09T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'd547986c457b15c774344840712e7414b9922708'|'D.Telekom CEO: T-Mobile US can stand alone but open to consolidation'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:14 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago D.Telekom CEO: T-Mobile US can stand alone but open to consolidation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said its T-Mobile US unit was ideally positioned for an independent future after the failure of merger talks with Sprint Corp, but left the door open to consolidation. “It was right to make an attempt. But it is just as right for T-Mobile US to continue now along its own path,” Hoettges told a conference call after Telekom announced stronger third-quarter core earnings and raised its full-year outlook. Hoettges flew 50,000 km in seven days in a bid to save the deal to unite the third- and fourth-largest U.S. market players, only to call it off last weekend because, he later told staff, it would not have added value. “T-Mobile US is ideally positioned for an independent future,” Hoettges also said. “That is not to say that the company is not open to considering consolidation and convergence options to further advance itself in the future.” (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Maria Sheahan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deutsche-telekom-results-ceo/d-telekom-ceo-t-mobile-us-can-stand-alone-but-open-to-consolidation-idUSL8N1NF3QM'|'2017-11-09T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'2b88ccf1be9b837973c7407309a6b5e95e20bcd9'|'UPDATE 4-D.R. Horton beats profit estimate, raises 2018 forecast'|'* Raises 2018 revenue growth forecast to 13-19 pct* FY 2018 cash flow forecast to $500 mln from $300-$500 mln* Q4 profit 82 cents/shr beats estimated 81 cents/shr* Shares rise as much as 2.5 pct to record-high (Adds details from conference call, updates shares)By Ankit AjmeraNov 9 (Reuters) - Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday and raised its fiscal 2018 revenue and cash flow forecasts, further evidence that a strong U.S. job market is feeding through to demand for houses.Horton’s shares rose as much as 2.5 percent in morning trading, hitting a record-high of $46.55.Housing demand in the United States declined sharply for four years running after the sub-prime crash of 2007-2008 but has steadily gained momentum since, supported by falling unemployment and ultra-low interest rates.Thursday’s results from Horton showed orders at the country’s largest housebuilder climbed 18.2 percent to 10,333 homes in the quarter ended Sept. 30 and the average selling price rose 3.2 percent to $306,502.Horton, which also sells homes under the Express and Emerald brands, said it now expected fiscal 2018 consolidated revenue to rise about 13-19 percent, compared with its previous estimate of 10-15 percent.The company also raised its full-year forecast for cash flow from operations to at least $500 million, excluding the impact of the acquisition of real estate developer Forestar.That compared to a previous estimated range of $300 million to $500 million. Horton added that it expects cash flow from operation to exceed $1 billion by 2020.Horton said it expects to deliver between 50,500 and 52,500 homes in the fiscal year ending September 2018, up 10-15 percent from the past year. Its net income rose to $313.2 million, or 82 cents per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of 81 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/.Home sales revenue rose 10.9 percent to $4.04 billion.In October, the United States’ No. 2 homebuilder Lennar Corp agreed to buy smaller rival CalAtlantic Group Inc for $5.7 billion in a deal that would make the resulting company bigger than Horton.Analysts said the moves reflect builders’ efforts to deal with higher land acquisition costs and a tighter labor market, with some speculating Horton might follow suite with further acquisitions of its own.Horton said on Thursday it would continue to look at deals, but had no immediate plans for something “big”.“We’ve had a lot of success integrating small private companies in over the last 4-5 years ... you get the return of the cash pretty quick,” Chief Executive David Auld said on a conference call with analysts.Up to Wednesday’s close, the company’s stock had risen about 66 percent this year, compared with a 15.9 percent increase in the S&P 500 index. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Patrick Graham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dr-horton-results/update-1-d-r-horton-beats-profit-estimate-raises-2018-forecast-idINL3N1NF4UQ'|'2017-11-09T08:52:00.000+02:00'
'4ecfcc72c1d52d9f43f838643acd9e35dbe61cd1'|'Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 billion to China'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 10:41 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 billion to China Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA.N ) signed an agreement on Thursday to sell 300 planes to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company worth $37 billion at list prices - part of a slew of deals announced during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing. Boeing facilities are seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S. April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo State-run China Aviation Supplies, which leases planes to Chinese airlines, said the order was for 260 B-737s as well as 40 B777s and B787s. Analysts said, however, that some of the order may be among the more than 300 from undisclosed buyers posted this year and that it was not yet understood how much of the China deal would be entirely new business. Boeing had 334 orders by unidentified customers as of Oct. 24, of which 290 were for its 737 narrow body family. Representatives for Boeing did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the planes were new or existing orders. Aircraft orders are also announced at list prices but buyers usually get discounts. China Aviation Supplies has also played a prominent role in deals announced during previous government exchanges. In July, it agreed to buy 140 aircraft from Airbus in a deal worth $23 billion at list prices during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Germany. In 2015, it was among three Chinese companies that agreed to buy 300 planes from Boeing during Xi’s visit to the United States. Boeing’s latest signing in China follows an order for 39 wide-body jets from Singapore Airlines last month. Earlier on Thursday, aircraft engine marker General Electric said it had signed deals worth $3.5 billion in China, including an agreement with Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd ( 603885.SS ) and ICBC Leasing, the leasing arm of state bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd ( 601398.SS ). Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI, Ben Blanchard and Stella Qiu in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-china-deals-boeing/boeing-signs-deal-to-sell-300-planes-worth-37-billion-to-china-idUKKBN1D91BZ'|'2017-11-09T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'512eb2c0cea428614f95956b692de2f25db70ddf'|'Exclusive: Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments, used Russian bank to pay ONGC - sources'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:10 AM / in 4 hours Exclusive: Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments to India''s top oil producer Nidhi Verma 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil-firm PDVSA has not made debt payments to India’s top oil producer ONGC ( ONGC.NS ) for six months, and has previously used a Russian state-owned bank and another Indian energy company as intermediaries to make payments, two sources familiar with the transactions said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of the state oil company PDVSA is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, confirmed that PDVSA had fallen behind on the payments, but declined to give details on the delays. “They have got certain challenges at this stage,” ONGC Videsh said in an emailed response to Reuters’ questions. “They have assured that they are working on it (payment of dues). In due course it will be settled and follow up steps will be undertaken.” “We have a good working relationship with PDVSA,” ONGC said. PDVSA declined to comment. But the two sources, who requested anonymity, said PDVSA has made no payment since April on what was a $540 million backlog of dividends owed to ONGC for an investment the Indian firm made in a an energy project in Venezuela. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said last week that the country planned to restructure some $60 billion of bonds, much of it held by PDVSA, as the country struggles to meet debt repayments. [nL2N1N90IR] The OPEC member’s economy has collapsed since global oil prices plummeted in 2014. Venezuela depends on oil for more than 90 percent of export revenue. PDVSA has delayed a range of payments, such as for oil services and supplies, as Caracas uses the scant dollar supplies available to make sovereign debt repayments. LATE PAYMENTS, SANCTIONS International banks and suppliers have reduced or halted credit to PDVSA since cash flow problems led the firm to start delaying payments to creditors in 2014. U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan officials including PDVSA executives, have also deterred banks from offering credit. Maduro’s government has increasingly turned to ally Russia for the cash and credit it needs to survive, according to a Reuters special report published in August. [nL1N1KW27W] Russia’s state-run Gazprombank in January cleared a payment of $19.75 million of Venezuela’s pending dues to ONGC, the two sources said. Details of the payment and Gazprombank’s involvement have not previously been published. India’s Reliance Industries Ltd ( RELI.NS ), owner of the world’s biggest refining complex and one of PDVSA’s biggest oil buyers, paid $68.66 million to ONGC on behalf of PDVSA in April, the sources said. Gazprombank and Reliance did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. PDVSA and ONGC Videsh Ltd last year signed a deal for PDVSA to pay the debt by assigning the Indian firm 17,000 barrels per day of oil. Under the agreement, PDVSA sells the oil on behalf of ONGC and sends the cash to the Indian company. ONGC cannot take delivery of the oil because its Mangalore refinery is unable to process Venezuela’s heavy crude. Venezuela has often used oil to repay debt: it owes billions of dollars to both Russia and China and is paying both with oil. Many multinational firms have written off their Venezuelan operations and investments, but ONGC is aiming to expand in the South American country. The Indian firm is seeking to raise funding for Venezuela’s San Cristobal oil project, in which the Indian company has a 40 percent stake. PDVSA and ONGC aim to raise oil output from the project to about 27,000 bpd from 18,000 bpd. Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in CARACAS and Editing by Simon Webb and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-india-oil-exclusive/exclusive-venezuelas-pdvsa-misses-debt-payments-used-russian-bank-to-pay-ongc-sources-idUSKBN1D90L4'|'2017-11-09T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'b9f29b587177d2f6244c614d2893a803bd5c6e46'|'UPDATE 1-US firm Air Products, China''s Yankuang plan to build $3.5 bln coal-to-syngas plant in China'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:45 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago UPDATE 1-US firm Air Products, China''s Yankuang plan to build $3.5 bln coal-to-syngas plant in China Reuters Staff * Announcement part of Trump’s state visit to China * Deal is yet to be finalised * Syngas can be used to generate energy (Adds detail) BEIJING, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A top Chinese coal miner, Yankuang Group, and U.S. industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals Inc on Thursday said they planned to build a $3.5 billion coal-to-synthesis gas (syngas) plant in China. The announcement on the facility in the province of Shaanxi comes as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to China, the world’s biggest consumer of coal. The deal is yet to be finalised, although the companies said in a statement that they would look to do this as soon as possible. Syngas is a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some carbon dioxide that is typically manufactured by gasifying a solid hydrocarbon fuel. It can be used to create energy or to help churn out products such as methane or methanol. Under the agreement, Air Products and Shaanxi Future Energy Group Co (SFEC), a subsidiary of Yankuang, will form a joint venture, in which Air Products will have a majority stake. It will build, own and operate an air separation, gasification and syngas clean-up system in the city of Yulin to supply SFEC, the firms said in a statement. The air separation units are expected to produce about 40,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of oxygen to support the production of about 2.5 million normal cubic metres an hour of syngas. SFEC will supply coal, steam and power and receive syngas under a long-term, onsite contract. Air Products currently supplies SFEC’s Phase 1 project in Yulin with 12,000 TPD of oxygen. The addition of Phase 2 would make the complex one of the largest coal-to-fuel and chemicals facilities in China, with SFEC Phase 2 producing 4 million tonnes per year of liquid fuels and downstream chemicals, it said. The companies expect the overall project to come onstream in 2021. Reporting by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-coal/update-1-us-firm-air-products-chinas-yankuang-plan-to-build-3-5-bln-coal-to-syngas-plant-in-china-idUSL3N1NF2OY'|'2017-11-09T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'cbddb84426165c4a370a754a39ea165faba70a6c'|'Twenty-First Century Fox''s quarterly revenue beats Street'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 9:15 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Twenty-First Century Fox''s quarterly revenue beats Street Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) quarterly revenue topped market estimates on Wednesday as higher advertising sales and revenue from traditional and online distributors boosted its cable business. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo The company’s shares were up nearly 1 percent in extended trading. The results come after CNBC reported on Monday that Fox had, in the last few weeks, held talks about selling most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). The two sides are not currently in discussion, CNBC had reported. Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox did not address the report in its first-quarter report. Revenue from Fox’s cable division, which houses the Fox News and FX channels among others, rose 10 percent to $4.20 billion, accounting for more than half of total revenue in the quarter. That beat analysts average estimate of $4.12 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Domestic advertising revenue in the cable business rose 3 percent. Fox’s ad revenue can vary from quarter to quarter depending on events, but has been hit by viewer’s increasing preference for streaming services. Revenue at Fox’s filmed entertainment division rose 3 percent to $1.96 billion, edging past analysts estimate of $1.95 billion, according to FactSet. Fox said revenue rose to $7.00 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, higher than the $6.51 billion a year earlier and the $6.81 billion analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to shareholders increased to $855 million, or 46 cents per share, from $821 million, or 44 cents per share. Excluding items, Fox earned 49 cents per share, inline with market estimates. The reported talks with Disney adds another layer of uncertainty to Fox’s bid to buy the rest the nearly 61 percent of European pay-TV group Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) it does not already own in an offer worth $14.5 billion made in December. The offer is being closely scrutinized by the British government. Murdoch has repeatedly stated that deal would be approved in the first half of 2018. “Absent further delays, the transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2018,” Fox said on Wednesday. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-results/twenty-first-century-foxs-first-quarter-revenue-rises-idUKKBN1D8327'|'2017-11-08T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'f20f41ab8875b7f8f077cec875d1daddab13e8c3'|'U.S. farm study finds no firm cancer link to Monsanto weedkiller'|' 06 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago U.S. farm study finds no firm cancer link to Monsanto weedkiller Kate Kelland 4 Min Read LONDON, (Reuters) - A large long-term study on the use of the big-selling weedkiller glyphosate by agricultural workers in the United States has found no firm link between exposure to the pesticide and cancer, scientists said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto''s research farm is pictured near Carman, Manitoba, Canada August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Zachary Prong/File Photo Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), the study found there was “no association between glyphosate”, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s popular herbicide RoundUp, “and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including non-Hogkin Lymphoma (NHL) and its subtypes.” It said there was “some evidence of increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) among the highest exposed group”, but added “this association was not statistically significant” and would require more research to be confirmed. The findings are likely to impact legal proceedings taking place in the United States against Monsanto, in which more than 180 plaintiffs are claiming exposure to RoundUp gave them cancer - allegations that Monsanto denies. The findings may also influence a crucial decision due in Europe this week on whether glyphosate should be re-licensed for sale across the European Union. That EU decision has been delayed for several years after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed glyphosate in 2015 and concluded it was “probably carcinogenic” to humans. Other bodies, such as the European Food Safety Authority, have concluded glyphosate is safe to use. The research is part of a large and important project known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), which has been tracking the health of tens of thousands of agricultural workers, farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina. Since the early 1990s, it has gathered and analyzed detailed information on the health of participants and their families, and their use of pesticides, including glyphosate. Reuters reported in June how an influential scientist was aware of new AHS data while he was chairing a panel of experts reviewing evidence on glyphosate for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in early 2015. But since it had not at that time been published, he did not tell the experts panel about it and IARC’s review did not take it into account. The publishing of the study on Thursday comes more than four years since drafts based on the AHS data on glyphosate and other pesticides were circulating in February and March 2013. In a summary conclusion of the results, the researchers, led by Laura Beane Freeman, the principal investigator of the AHS at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, reported that among 54,251 (pesticide) applicators in the study, 44,932, or 82.9 percent of them used glyphosate. “Glyphosate was not statistically significantly associated with cancer at any site,” the conclusion said. The researchers said they believed the study was the first to report a possible association between glyphosate and AML, but that it could be the result of chance and should be treated with caution. Reporting by Kate Kelland, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-cancer-glyphosate/u-s-farm-study-finds-no-firm-cancer-link-to-monsanto-weedkiller-idUKKBN1D916C'|'2017-11-09T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'2eda54f1cebd47275cec30d4654fd7d28a68eed7'|'Ireland will not change rules for deferred tax assets - minister'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:45 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Ireland will not change rules for deferred tax assets - minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s finance minister, who has threatened to penalise banks if they do not quickly compensate mortgage customers they overcharged, said on Thursday he will not change how deferred tax assets (DTAs) are taxed in the banking system. FILE PHOTO: Irish Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Ministry of Finance in Dublin, Ireland September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo “As I speak now, I do not have any intention of changing how we tax the deferred losses within the banking system because I believe there would be consequences to such a statement,” Paschal Donohoe told a parliamentary committee, referring to how it would impact the sale of further state stakes in the banks. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-banks/ireland-will-not-change-rules-for-deferred-tax-assets-minister-idUKKBN1D91CW'|'2017-11-09T12:45:00.000+02:00'
'e3fd6e8471836a43239d224f9d9f44550517f4cb'|'HDFC Life''s $1.3 billion Indian IPO nearly five times subscribed'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd’s initial public offering was subscribed 4.9 times on the last day of the sale on Thursday, in what was the fourth billion dollar-plus IPO in India this year.The insurer’s two main shareholders aim to raise 86.95 billion rupees ($1.3 bln) from the offering, and institutional investors bid for 16.6 times the number of shares on offer for that segment, while the retail portion was subscribed 91 percent, data as of 1330 GMT showed.India has seen a record year for IPOs with more than $11 billion of initial share sales, including HDFC Life‘s, so far. But high valuations, especially for some of the recent insurance IPOs, have weighed on investor sentiment.HDFC Life’s rival SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd ( SBIL.NS ), which made its trading debut last month after a $1.3 billion offering, is trading 6 percent below its IPO issue price.State-run reinsurer General Insurance Corp of India ( GENA.NS ), which also listed last month after a $1.7 billion IPO, has lost more than 13 percent from the IPO issue price. Top non-life insurer New India Assurance Co Ltd ( THEE.NS ), also state-run, is set to start trading on Monday after its $1.5 billion IPO last week was subscribed 1.2 times.HDFC Life’s two main shareholders - Housing Development Finance Corp ( HDFC.NS ) and Standard Life ( SLA.L ) - were selling a combined 299.8 million shares in the IPO.Morgan Stanley, HDFC Bank, Credit Suisse, Citic CLSA and Nomura were the global coordinators and bookrunners for the IPO. Edelweiss, Haitong Securities, IDFC Bank, IIFL Holdings and UBS were the other bookrunners.($1 = 64.9650 Indian rupees)Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hdfc-standard-ipo/hdfc-lifes-1-3-billion-indian-ipo-nearly-five-times-subscribed-idINKBN1D924B'|'2017-11-09T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'cc44c71265a0f12fb3476cba729d2bfa6807693d'|'British shell companies linked to 52 money laundering scandals'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British shell companies have been linked to 52 money laundering scandals involving 80 billion pounds ($105 billion) in the past 14 years, according to researchers at campaign group Transparency International.A pedestrian walks past Britain''s Treasury building in central London February 23, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall Tax evasion and financial crime has shot to the top of the international agenda in recent days following reports based on leaked documents from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm founded in Bermuda.But the report from Transparency International’s UK arm said it’s not just Caribbean islands that are used to hide illicit money flows and that Britain was a key link in many of the largest corruption scandals of recent years.Fraudsters in eastern Europe and elsewhere often channel money through UK-registered entities because they appear to many people as more legitimate than tax haven-registered companies, the non-governmental body said.The UK Treasury declined immediate comment on the report. Britain says it is doing more than most countries to tackle illicit money flows.It is the only country to have introduced a functioning, publicly-available register of true beneficial owners of companies.However, the system is poorly policed. Companies House, the body which overseas British corporate records, does not have the resources to verify the information submitted to it.Also, successive British governments have sought to make it easy to register companies, for example allowing people to do so online and without verifying their identification, in the hope this spurs entrepreneurship.This has led to a small industry of formation agents establishing blocks of companies and partnerships which they then make available to overseas parties.Transparency International found that around half of the 766 companies alleged to have been involved in money laundering schemes were based at just eight UK addresses.“Financially these scandals could amount to 80 billion pounds or more in illicit wealth, with some of them threatening the financial stability of whole economies. The human damage inflicted on the victims of these crimes is still being counted,” the report said.($1 = 0.7631 pounds)Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-finance-crime/british-shell-companies-linked-to-52-money-laundering-scandals-idUSKBN1D918H'|'2017-11-09T12:16:00.000+02:00'
'afc37be7c0525b376953f342056a730d0888ed75'|'AT&T says timing of Time Warner deal closing now uncertain'|'November 8, 2017 / 2:24 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago U.S. demands CNN or DirecTV sale to approve AT&T/Time Warner deal: sources Jessica Toonkel , David Shepardson 4 Min Read NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing AT&T Inc ( T.N ) to sell Turner Broadcasting, parent of CNN cable network, or its DirecTV satellite television unit to satisfy antitrust concerns over its purchase of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), sources told Reuters on Wednesday. A CNN camera operator waits by his camera as the network prepares for the first democratic presidential candidate debate at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada October 13, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Time Warner’s CNN and other media of being unfair to him and criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it. AT&T is prepared to fight any divestitures required to win regulatory approval of the $85.4 billion deal, according to sources familiar with the matter. The development was a surprise to investors. Shares of Time Warner fell 6.5 percent to $88.54, while AT&T shares were down 0.2 percent at $33.15. The Justice Department’s demand is likely to complicate its continuing antitrust conversations with AT&T, which said on Wednesday it was now uncertain when the deal, announced in October 2016, would be completed. AT&T had previously said the acquisition would close by the end of this year. The Justice Department could still file a lawsuit as early as this month to challenge the deal, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. A DirecTV satellite dish is seen on a residential home in Encinitas, California November 5, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo AT&T wants to buy Time Warner, which owns the premium channel HBO, movie studio Warner Bros and news channel CNN, so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment. Both companies have struggled to keep younger viewers from flocking to online services like Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Prime Video. The deal is opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers. The AT&T logo is pictures on a building in Los Angeles, California, U.S. August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The new concessions suggest the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, has changed his view of AT&T’s plan to buy Time Warner, since giving an interview in 2016 where he declared it not “a major antitrust problem.” Delrahim was subsequently nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division and was confirmed in September. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter. AT&T and the White House declined comment. Another sticking point in discussions is the length of time that the U.S. government wants to impose conditions on what AT&T can and cannot do after a deal. Two people briefed on the talks told Reuters the government has sought as long as 10 years for such conditions while AT&T has pressed for a shorter period. AT&T also said it would invest an additional $1 billion in the United States next year if Trump signed into law the provisions in the current House of Representatives tax bill. “By immediately lowering the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, this bill will stimulate investment, job creation and economic growth in the United States,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chief executive. Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Greg Roumeliotis, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York, and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a/att-says-timing-of-time-warner-deal-closing-now-uncertain-idUKKBN1D81Z8'|'2017-11-08T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'b8f8c91996e57b03a78e316a115d61936015436d'|'BRIEF-Areva says uranium deliveries not impacted by suspension on Saskatchewan operations'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:24 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago BRIEF-Areva says uranium deliveries not impacted by suspension on Saskatchewan operations Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 9 (Reuters) - AREVA: * AREVA acknowledges decision of Cameco Corporation to temporarily suspend by end-January 2018 production from the McArthur River mining and Key Lake milling operations in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, due to continued low uranium price. * AREVA says temporary suspension - which is expected to last ten months – will not affect uranium delivery to its customers * Regarding Cigar Lake mine and McClean Lake mill, 2018 production is expected at the same level as in 2017 * AREVA says market conditions have been very unfavourable with a drop of uranium spot price from early 2015 to the end of 2016 by 50% to reach 20$/lb and so far, the market does not show any sign of recovery * New AREVA is committed to remain a reliable and competitive long-term uranium supplier * New AREVA was split off from state-owned integrated nuclear group Areva this year after its parent company’s equity was wiped out following years of losses. * The French state recapitalised the new AREVA company with a 2.5 billion euro capital increase in July, while Japan’s MHI and JNFL also plan to put in 500 million euros.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-areva-says-uranium-deliveries-not/brief-areva-says-uranium-deliveries-not-impacted-by-suspension-on-saskatchewan-operations-idUSL8N1NF3BW'|'2017-11-09T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'07c914450cc9634583517b4eeb5397771e21f5c5'|'India''s Titan sees jewellery sales rising more than 25 pct in 2017/18 - CFO'|'MUMBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - India’s biggest-listed jeweller Titan Co expects jewellery sales to leap more than a quarter this fiscal year as tighter rules on cash flows and a new sales tax hurt the mom-and-pop firms that dominate the business, a senior company official told Reuters.Both “demonetisation” - removing higher currency bills from circulation - and a new national goods and services tax (GST) are expected to have a marked impact on the gold jewellery industry in India, the world’s second-biggest consumer of the precious metal.Family firms control nearly 70 percent of the $30 billion gold jewellery trade, but many cash transactions are believed to take place outside the taxman’s purview. Greater transparency in the economy and higher tax receipts are key policy goals for India’s government.“Events like demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax are helping us to increase market share as the industry is getting organised,” said Subbu Subramaniam, Chief Financial Officer of Titan, predicting sales growth of more than 25 percent in the 12 months through March.Titan last week reported a 71 percent surge in net profit in the July-September quarter. In the first half of 2017/18, the company’s jewellery sale surged 47 percent to 61 billion rupees ($941 million), the company said in a statement last week.The company’s shares surged 19 percent on Monday after touching a record high of 824.65 rupees. They have more than doubled this year up to Monday’s close.India this year set the GST sales tax on jewellery at 3 percent - a level industry players said was low enough to avoid curbing sales while at the same time steering customers to larger players abiding by tax laws and away from cash deals of questionable legal status.Subramaniam said Titan plans to open 15 jewellery stores in the second half of the fiscal year, on top of its existing 268 stores, to extend its geographical reach.Reflecting Titan’s growth prospects, Deutsche Bank on Monday raised the jewellery retailer’s price target to 900 rupees from 625 rupees, and forecast company’s earnings will double by 2018/19 from last year’s base. ($1 = 64.8300 Indian rupees)Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/titan-company-outlook/indias-titan-sees-jewellery-sales-rising-more-than-25-pct-in-2017-18-cfo-idINL3N1ND2BW'|'2017-11-07T05:08:00.000+02:00'
'be45d34e4e26a7724a09d3bd8540d7031b3bfecb'|'Brexit talk breakthrough would bestow biggest boost on sterling - poll'|'November 9, 2017 / 5:43 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Brexit talks breakthrough would bestow biggest boost on sterling - poll Jonathan Cable 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Progress in Britain’s divorce talks with the European Union would give the biggest boost to sterling in the coming year, according to foreign exchange strategists who painted a benign outlook for the pound. FILE PHOTO - Pound coins are seen in the photo illustration taken in Manchester, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Illustration There has been scant headway in negotiations and embattled   faces a political balancing act as she tries to meet EU demands for more concrete pledges on Britain’s exit bill without triggering a backlash from Brexit campaigners at home. READ: EU states see Britain failing to meet Brexit divorce terms “Brexit has been the main bearish driver for sterling and we would expect a significant appreciation of the pound derived from a ‘soft Brexit’,” said Roberto Cobo Garcia at BBVA. Seventeen of 33 strategists who answered an extra question said progress in the talks would give the biggest boost, eight said a pickup in the pace of Bank of England rate hikes and six a surge in productivity. Two said a reversal of Brexit. Sterling is down about 10 percent on the greenback since June 2016’s vote to leave the EU. A hard Brexit, where Britain leaves without a deal, would be the most damaging outcome for the economy and currency, several previous Reuters polls found. READ: The EU''s vision of post-Brexit transition and future ties with Britain The likelihood of such a disorderly Brexit crept higher last month, a Reuters poll found a few weeks ago, and since then May’s powerbase has been damaged further by criticism of her handling of other issues: from a sexual harassment scandal to ministers breaking parliamentary rules. A record majority of Britons disapprove of May’s handling of Brexit talks and they are increasingly sceptical that leaving the EU will make the country better off, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - People are silhouetted on a sunny morning as they walk past the columns of the Bank of England in the City of London, May 19, 2014.REUTERS/Andrew Winning Britain heads into another round of talks later on Thursday but there are growing doubts over May’s ability to deliver a good Brexit deal, adding pressure on the pound. So with little clarity on what position Britain will be in when it leaves the bloc in March 2019, median forecasts in the poll of almost 60 specialists gave a flat outlook for sterling in the coming year. Currently trading around $1.31, cable was forecast at $1.32 in one month, $1.30 in six months and $1.32 in a year, little changed from an October poll. Last week, sterling plummeted after the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in over a decade, to try and combat inflation running well above target, but pushed back investors’ expectations for further rate hikes. “The pound has suffered on the back of rising hard Brexit fears and the BoE delivering on a dovish hike,” analysts at CA-CIB wrote in a note to clients. “With political uncertainty unlikely to further increase and as long-term rate expectations are likely to stabilise, we expect sterling downside to prove limited from current levels.” Britain’s central bank added 25 basis points to a record low Bank Rate of 0.25 percent, but that move won’t be repeated until after Brexit in 2019, another Reuters poll found. Echoing the BoE’s tentative move, and a cautious approach from the United States Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank last month took only a baby step towards weaning the euro zone off loose money. Yet against the common currency the pound is predicted to weaken. Worth about 88.3 pence on Wednesday, one euro will get you 88.8p in a month and 90.0p in six and twelve months, the latest forecasts showed. Polling by Indradip Ghosh and Mumal Rathore; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forex-poll-sterling/brexit-talk-breakthrough-would-bestow-biggest-boost-on-sterling-poll-idUKKBN1D90JG'|'2017-11-09T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'081735c505f6cff24f9afeee604c6822641bb65b'|'New ECB rules on bad loans can be delayed and improved: Nouy'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is prepared to delay and improve its new, stricter rules on bad bank loans after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and Italy, the ECB’s top supervisor said on Thursday.Daniele Nouy, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, attends the 2016 Institute of International Finance (IIF) Spring Membership meeting in Madrid, Spain May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Susana Vera Daniele Nouy defended the proposed new guidelines, which force banks to set aside more money for loans that sour, but said they would be “improved” by taking feedback into account.The rules, which are being consulted upon until Dec. 8, have been criticized as potentially damaging to the economy and encroaching on the EU Parliament’s prerogatives, raising the risk of an unprecedented conflict between the institutions.“When I see so many people saying something different, I can easily draw the conclusion that the drafting can be improved, for sure, and it will be improved,” Nouy told the parliament in Brussels.“We will of course seriously take into account all the good legal advice that we are receiving. It can have consequences.”She added the ECB could push back the entry into force of the guidelines from Jan. 1 to examine all the feedback it receives during the consultation.“I can propose that we give us a bit more time,” she said during her hearing before the Parliament’s economic committee.The guidelines, published as an “addendum” last month, give banks seven years to provide for credit backed by collateral and two years for unsecured debt.The Italian head of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said last month they overstepped the ECB’s bounds, a view upheld this week by the assembly’s legal office and by the head of the economic committee.“In its current form, the addendum goes beyond these (ECB) prerogatives, which are clearly bank-specific, because it lays down general rules applicable to all banks,” the committee’s chair Roberto Gualtieri, also an Italian, said as he introduced Nouy’s hearing.“This could only be done though an appropriate amendment to legislation.”But Nouy insisted the new rules were both necessary and legitimate.“Now is the right time for such an additional step, given that we currently have very favorable economic conditions in Europe,” she told the committee.“This addendum, once adopted, falls within the supervisory mandate and powers of the ECB.”The big worry for Italy is the rules are also being applied to the euro zone’s near 900 billion euros ($1.04 trillion) stock of existing bad loans, a quarter of which sit at Italian banks.Authorities there say that could force banks to curtail lending or even raise capital on the market, a task that has eluded some Italian banks in recent months, triggering state interventions.Sources have told Reuters that ECB staff had indeed started crafting rules on existing bad loans that were modeled around those for new soured credit, but were now having to rethink their approach due to the Italian backlash.The ECB’s vice President Vitor Constancio and Nouy herself have since confirmed the approach to the stock of non-performing loans would be different.($1 = 0.8626 euros)editing by John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-banks-loans/ecbs-nouy-flags-possible-delay-of-new-rules-on-bad-loans-idINKBN1D911H'|'2017-11-09T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'1c28bce5d28605254cd921c71dbd6cdd58f4b15c'|'British shell companies linked to 52 money laundering scandals'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:16 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago British shell companies linked to 52 money laundering scandals Tom Bergin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shell companies have been linked to 52 money laundering scandals involving 80 billion pounds ($105 billion) in the past 14 years, according to researchers at campaign group Transparency International. A pedestrian walks past Britain''s Treasury building in central London February 23, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall Tax evasion and financial crime has shot to the top of the international agenda in recent days following reports based on leaked documents from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm founded in Bermuda. But the report from Transparency International’s UK arm said it’s not just Caribbean islands that are used to hide illicit money flows and that Britain was a key link in many of the largest corruption scandals of recent years. Fraudsters in eastern Europe and elsewhere often channel money through UK-registered entities because they appear to many people as more legitimate than tax haven-registered companies, the non-governmental body said. The UK Treasury declined immediate comment on the report. Britain says it is doing more than most countries to tackle illicit money flows. It is the only country to have introduced a functioning, publicly-available register of true beneficial owners of companies. However, the system is poorly policed. Companies House, the body which overseas British corporate records, does not have the resources to verify the information submitted to it. Also, successive British governments have sought to make it easy to register companies, for example allowing people to do so online and without verifying their identification, in the hope this spurs entrepreneurship. This has led to a small industry of formation agents establishing blocks of companies and partnerships which they then make available to overseas parties. Transparency International found that around half of the 766 companies alleged to have been involved in money laundering schemes were based at just eight UK addresses. “Financially these scandals could amount to 80 billion pounds or more in illicit wealth, with some of them threatening the financial stability of whole economies. The human damage inflicted on the victims of these crimes is still being counted,” the report said. ($1 = 0.7631 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-finance-crime/british-shell-companies-linked-to-52-money-laundering-scandals-idUKKBN1D918H'|'2017-11-09T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'bcb7a08ea869669f9537cf4e763ec78c7e637730'|'IFR Americas ECM Pipeline'|'Nov 8, 2017 - PRICED: Apellis Pharmaceuticals (US, biotech) – $150m IPO. 10.71m shares (100% prim) at$14 versus marketing at $13-$15. CITI, JPM. Cadence Bancorp (US, commercial bank) – $209m FO. 9.5m shares (100% sec) at $22.00 versus $23.00 last sale and $25.46 launch. GS, JPM. Sogou (Cayman Islands/China, internet search) – $585m IPO. 45m ADSs (100% prim) at $13.00 versus marketing at $11-$13. JPM, CS, GS, CICC, CREN. NEAR-TERM CALENDAR: November 8 (PM): Sarepta Therapeutics (US, biotech) – $375m 7y cvt talked at 1.5%–2%, up 35%–40%. JPM, GS. November 9 (AM): Bright Horizons Family Solutions (US, child care) – $354m Block. 4m shares (100% sec) at $87.50-$88.50 versus $89.96 last sale. GS, BARC. November 9 (AM): James River Group Holdings (US, insurance) – $120m Block. 3m shares (100% sec) at $39-$40 versus $41.71 last sale. MS. November 9 (AM): SRC Energy (US, energy E&P) – $297.5m ABB. 35m shares (100% prim) at $8.00-$8.50 versus $9.06 last sale. CS, JPM. November 9 (AM): Taylor Morrison Home (US, homebuilder) – $232.5m Block. 10m shares (100% sec) at $23.10-$23.25 versus 23.58 last sale. CITI, MS. November 9 (AM): TransMontaigne Partners (US, MLP) – $98.1m ABB. 2.5m shares (100% prim) at $38-$39.25 versus $42.20 last sale. BAML. November 9: Atento (Luxembourg/LatAm, business process outsourcer) – $150m FO. 12.3m shares (100% sec) versus $12.20 launch. MS, CS, ITAU. November 9: Bandwidth (US, communications software) – $88m IPO. 4m shares (100% prim) marketed at $20-$22. MS, KEYB, BAIRD. Nasdaq "BAND". November 9: Erytech Pharma (France, biotech) – $127.7m IPO. 5.3m shares (100% prim) at $23-$24. JEFF, COWN, ODDO. November 9: PPDAI (Cayman Islands/China, online consumer finance) – $323m IPO. 17m ADSs (100% prim) marketed at $16-$19. CS, CITI, KBW. NYSE "PPDF". November 9: Workspace Property Trust (US, REIT) - $585m IPO. 39m shares (100% prim) at $12-$15. GS, JPM, BAML. November 14: SendGrid (US, software) - $119.4m IPO. 7.7m shares (100% prim) at $13.50-$15.50. MS, JPM. November 15: Arsanis (US, biotech) – $53.1m IPO. 3.125m shares (100% prim) at $15-$17. CITI, COWN, PJ. November 15: Jianpu Technology (China, credit) – $236.3m IPO. 22.5m ADSs (100% prim) at $8.50-$10.50. GS, MS, JPM. NYSE "JT". November 15: Momentive/MPM Holdings (US, specialty chemicals) – $365m IPO. 14.6m shares (71% prim, 29% sec) at $23-$25. JPM, GS. "NYSE" MPMH. November 16: Bluegreen Vacations (US, vacation timeshare) – $117m IPO.6.5m shares (57% prim, 43% sec) at $16-$18. STFL, CS. NYSE “BXG”. November 16: Canuelas Mill (Argentina, branded foods) – $331.5m IPO. 19.5m ADS (50% prim, 50% sec) at $14- $17 JPM, UBS. November 16: SailPoint Technologies (US, enterprise identity software) – $220m IPO. 20m shares (71.5% prim/28.5% sec) at $9-$11. MS, CITI, JEFF, RBC. NYSE "SAIL". November 16: scPharmaceuticals (US, biotech) – $102.4m IPO. 6.4m shares (100% prim) at $14-$16. JEFF, LEER, BMO. November 16: Stitch Fix (US, retail) – $200m IPO. 10m shares (100% prim) at $18-$20. GS, JPM. (The daily IFR US ECM Briefing covers US, Canadian and LatAM IPOs, secondary and convertible offerings. For trial info: www.ifrbriefings.com/usecm.php ; Reporting By Robert Sherwood) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ifr-americas-ecm-pipeline/ifr-americas-ecm-pipeline-idINL1N1NE28N'|'2017-11-08T22:06:00.000+02:00'
'9f8f78761894145cf5e4a330721ac79cb9c22501'|'Sky falls as report of Disney-Fox talks increase deal uncertainty'|'November 7, 2017 / 11:42 AM / in 5 minutes Sky falls as report of Disney-Fox talks increase deal uncertainty Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A report that Rupert Murdoch held talks about selling film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) added another layer of uncertainty to his $14.5 billion bid to buy all of Britain’s Sky ( SKYB.L ). The Sky News logo is seen on the outside of offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Disney recently discussed buying Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) movie and TV production studio studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic and international assets such as the Star network in India and its stake in Sky, CNBC said on Monday. The talks were not currently ongoing, the broadcaster said. Fox has bid 10.75 pounds a share to acquire the remaining 61 percent of Sky it does not own, but the deal is tied up in regulatory purgatory until the middle of next year. Shares in Sky, which on Monday briefly fell to 893 pence, the lowest level since the deal was announced, were trading down 1.3 percent at 927.5 pence at 1110 GMT. Tennis - US Open - Mens Final - New York, U.S. - September 10, 2017 - Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of Fox News Channel stands before Rafael Nadal of Spain plays against Kevin Anderson of South Africa. REUTERS/Mike Segar Analysts at Liberum said they still saw a successful conclusion of Fox’s bid for Sky as the most likely outcome, but the Disney-Fox talks had thrown a curveball into the deal. They said Fox may scrap its bid for Sky as part of a proposed sale of assets, and they also noted that Fox’s willingness to consider including the Sky stake in any sale could be seen as a signal that it feels less confident of gaining regulatory approval from the British government. UBS, however, said a combination of Disney and Fox content could strengthen the rationale for buying all of Sky. The British company was already starting to build a pan-European streaming platform with its Now TV and Sky Ticket products, and the addition of content from Disney as well as Fox would only make that more compelling, it said. The bank also said in the event that a Fox/Sky deal was blocked, based on the CNBC article, Disney could be a potential strategic bidder for Sky and it noted it would not have the cross-media complications of a Fox bid. Fox and Sky both declined to comment. Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-walt-disney-sky-plc/sky-falls-as-report-of-disney-fox-talks-increase-deal-uncertainty-idUKKBN1D71GN'|'2017-11-07T13:27:00.000+02:00'
'6a2e0f71e3bfc32013c2a9503818d8fd2e619e74'|'Lebanese bonds fall, CDS jump as political crisis escalates'|'LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s dollar bonds fell and the cost of insuring exposure to its debt jumped on Tuesday, as Saudi Arabia accused Beirut of declaring war against it, a dramatic escalation of a crisis engulfing the country.Lebanon’s 2022 issue fell 1.95 cents to 93.5 cents in the dollar, the lowest level since July 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data.Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) for Lebanon jumped 13 basis points (bps) from Monday’s close to 550 bps, according to IHS Markit data, the highest level since early December.Reporting by Claire Milhench, editing by Marc Jones '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lebanon-eurobonds/lebanese-bonds-fall-cds-jump-as-political-crisis-escalates-idINL9N0VN02I'|'2017-11-07T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'cfe99cc50cb1bd2e599b847f5a5f7ae9b65ba19b'|'Top trade union demands guarantees in Thyssen-Tata steel JV'|'November 7, 2017 / 11:53 AM / Updated an hour ago Top trade union demands guarantees in Thyssen-Tata steel JV Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union called on Thyssenkrupp’s ( TKAG.DE ) management to provide guarantees for jobs, plants and future investments in relation to a planned European steel tie-up with Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). A man wears a helmet with glasses attached during a Thyssenkrupp steel workers protest rally in Bochum, Germany, September 22, 2017, against the planned combination of the group''s European steel operations with those of Tata Steel. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay In an information leaflet seen by Reuters, IG Metall said management had failed to address employees’ concerns about their future once the joint venture goes ahead next year. “Until now, there have been lots of warm words instead of reliable information. Under these circumstances we cannot approve of this joint venture,” IG Metall said, adding it expected management to respond to its demands by Nov. 10. Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in September announced plans for a joint venture that would create Europe’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ). The merger will also result in up to 4,000 job cuts, although workers fear that will be the tip of the iceberg. IG Metall also demands that Thyssenkrupp remains a long-term shareholder in the planned 50-50 joint venture and that crucial co-determination agreements will be safeguarded for the merged entity, to be headquartered in the Netherlands. Labour representatives hold half of the 20 seats on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, and while a deal can still be pushed through without their consent, their approval could significantly smooth the transaction. To appease workers a group of board members and labour representatives was set up shortly after the announcement. “We take the demands of worker representatives very seriously. They create a basis for negotiations in the joint working group,” Thyssenkrupp board member Oliver Burkhard said in an e-mailed statement. “For us, this is an important further step.” Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers/top-trade-union-demands-guarantees-in-thyssen-tata-steel-jv-idUKKBN1D71IA'|'2017-11-07T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'57a270a2ae1a4ba4550e113d03ffb719713ea3c7'|'Airbus knew of software vulnerability before A400M crash'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 10:59 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Airbus knew of software vulnerability before A400M crash Tim Hepher 6 Min Read PARIS/SEVILLE (Reuters) - Airbus and European safety authorities were warned in late 2014 of a software vulnerability in the A400M military plane that was similar to a weakness that contributed to a fatal crash seven months later, Spanish investigators have found. FILE PHOTO: The remains of Airbus A400M are seen after crashing in a field near the Andalusian capital of Seville May 9, 2015. Picture taken May 9, 2015. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo The Airbus-built cargo and troop carrier crashed near Seville during a test flight in May 2015, killing four of the six crew, after three out of four engines froze minutes after take-off. Data needed to run the engines had been accidentally erased when Airbus workers installed software on the ground, and pilots had no warning there was a problem until the engines failed, Reuters reported weeks after the disaster, citing several sources with knowledge of the matter. A confidential report by Spanish military investigators into the crash, completed this summer, sheds new light on poor coordination and misjudgments that have dogged Europe’s biggest military project. The findings confirmed the engines were compromised by data being wiped, according to extracts of the report seen by Reuters and three people familiar with the inquiry. The report also said the engine-makers had warned Airbus and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in October 2014 that software installation errors could lead to a loss of engine data, and that technicians may not receive any warning before take-off that a problem had occurred. When contacted by Reuters, Airbus said the crash was the result of “multiple, different factors and contributory causes”, but declined detailed comment about the investigators’ findings because they are not public. The planemaker has since reviewed all systems and acted to “ensure the chain of identified causes could not happen ever again”, a spokesman added. EASA declined to comment. The engine-makers Europrop International (EPI), a pan-European consortium owned by Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ), Germany’s MTU ( MTXGn.DE ) and France’s Safran ( SAF.PA ), declined to comment. Spain’s defense ministry, whose air accident agency conducted the investigation, also declined to comment. The crash is seen by some safety experts as an example of how failures - though rare - can occur in increasingly complex aircraft systems when several apparently minor weaknesses line up together to produce a serious risk. DISAGREEMENT The A400M was developed for Spain, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Turkey and has been beset by delays and cost overruns which have taken it well beyond the original budget of 20 billion euros ($23 billion). The A400M faced flight restrictions immediately following the crash but France’s air force has since praised its performance in operations against Islamist militants in Africa’s Sahel region, and it has also been used by France, Germany and Britain in hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean. The findings of the investigators show a rift between Airbus and its engine suppliers, at a time when the planemaker is negotiating a new delivery schedule with European governments and expects further writedowns on the A400M project this year. FILE PHOTO - An aerial view of an Airbus A400M aircraft during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Airbus and EPI disagree on who was responsible for installing the engine software, according to the investigators. The software was installed by Airbus workers using the planemaker’s systems, but EPI says it should have been loaded by its own staff and using EPI systems, the report said. EPI argued that it had authority over the software installation under civil rules, according to the report, which sheds light on regulatory confusion at the time of the accident about civil and military jurisdiction over the aircraft. The A400M is a rare hybrid: a military plane with European civil certification. Airbus argues it was right to install the software itself because it had authority under military rules, but says the design did not meet its specifications - a claim denied by EPI, according to the three people familiar with the inquiry, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Spanish officials have backed Airbus, saying the assembly line is a defense facility and not subject to civil rules. FILE PHOTO: Investigators in white suits work with remains of Airbus A400M which crashed in a field in the Andalusian capital of Seville May 11, 2015. Picture taken May 11. 2015. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo RISK ANALYSIS The potential problems flagged to Airbus by the engine-makers in October 2014 involved the possibility of human error in the installation process, according to the investigators. The problem that actually occurred before the crash was of a technical nature, they added. The data for three engines was wiped when the software installation initially failed, and those files were never restored in the subsequent uploading process. The investigators said the response to the 2014 warning from the engine-makers was inadequate. “The mitigation measures derived from that (problem) report were not sufficient,” they said in their findings. The warning should have led to a fuller risk analysis of the installation process, they added. Once the plane was airborne, the fatal chain of events accelerated. Unable to understand how to run the engines because of missing data, the plane froze the power at maximum, priming the huge transporter to go higher and faster, according to the three sources familiar with the inquiry. But controllers ordered the crew to stay at 1,500 feet. Trying to obey, the crew reduced thrust, unaware that the faulty engines could only offer all or nothing, the sources said. The engines were then locked at idle, leaving only one working. Seconds later, the plane plunged into a field. Even though technical odds were against them, some experts have questioned how the pilots responded, saying that when an engine problem occurred they could have ignored controllers and climbed to safer levels before adjusting power. Investigators found the pilots had not been trained to expect this scenario and that the A400M’s troubleshooting system did not help them. Airbus said the pilots were qualified and highly experienced. ($1 = 0.8649 euros) Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris and by Seville newsroom; Additional reporting by Sarah White in Paris; Editing by Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-a400m/airbus-knew-of-software-vulnerability-before-a400m-crash-idUKKBN1D819P'|'2017-11-08T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'c2814a075b22207736c88d8280832fbb0324a9f4'|'India''s Jindal Steel & Power Q2 loss narrows'|'Nov 9 (Reuters) - Jindal Steel and Power Ltd reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, helped by higher revenue from its iron and steel business.The steelmaker reported a loss of 4.48 billion rupees ($69.00 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of 7.46 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Thursday. bit.ly/2jcSBknAnalysts on average had expected the company to post a loss of 4.84 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.Revenue from its iron and steel segment rose about 25 percent to 49.97 billion rupees. ($1 = 64.9300 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/jindal-steel-results/indias-jindal-steel-power-q2-loss-narrows-idINL3N1NF4WR'|'2017-11-09T08:52:00.000+02:00'
'b7c6eba6974a188564cce30f95949aa04fc861e9'|'AT&T CEO says open to litigation on Time Warner deal'|'(Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) is ready to litigate if the U.S. Department of Justice blocks its $85.4 billion Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) deal, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday.File photo: Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Randall Stephenson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust Subcommittee during a hearing on the proposed deal between AT&T and Time Warner in Washington, U.S., December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts “If we are going to go for litigation our preference would be sooner is better. We are prepared to litigate now,” Stephenson told CNBC on the sidelines of the New York Times Dealbook conference.“We have been working very diligently on a litigation strategy and a litigation plan,” he said, adding: “We would obviously ask for an expedited hearing. We feel that a transaction of this size you would likely get an expedited hearing.”The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded significant asset sales in order to approve the deal, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, and asked AT&T to sell CNN-parent Turner Broadcasting or its DirecTV satellite TV operation in discussions on Monday.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-litigation/att-ceo-says-open-to-litigation-on-time-warner-deal-idINKBN1D92WW'|'2017-11-09T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'2d91a5c3455783f944b1369ecb7321b8cc222864'|'UPDATE 1-Canadian insurers Manulife, Sun Life beat earnings forecasts'|'(Adds Sun Life earnings)TORONTO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Two of Canada’s biggest insurance companies on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings that beat market expectations, benefiting in part from strong growth in Asia.Canada’s biggest insurer Manulife Financial Corp on Wednesday said earnings per share, excluding one-off items, were C$0.53 in the third quarter to Sept. 30, compared with C$0.49 in the same period the year before.Analysts had, on average, forecast earnings per share, excluding one-off items, of C$0.52, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.Sun Life Financial reported earnings per share, excluding one-off items, of C$1.05 in the third quarter to Sept. 30, compared with C$1.04 in the same period the year before.Analysts had, on average, forecast earnings, excluding one-off items, of C$1.01 Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/manulife-financi-results/update-1-canadian-insurers-manulife-sun-life-beat-earnings-forecasts-idINL1N1NE2FY'|'2017-11-08T19:26:00.000+02:00'
'a3e0c1458b9369efcf15a0721a975329c3d1638f'|'UPDATE 2-Chinese companies agree to develop LNG in Alaska as Trump visits'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:24 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Chinese companies agree to develop LNG in Alaska as Trump visits Reuters Staff * Sinopec interested in LNG supply from project * Bank of China, CIC also on board * Deal comes as China needs more LNG in clean fuel push * (Updating with more details) BEIJING, Nov 9 (Reuters) - China’s top state oil major Sinopec, one of the country’s top banks and its sovereign wealth fund have agreed to help develop Alaska’s gas sector as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit, company and government statements said on Thursday. Sinopec, China Investment Corp and the Bank of China will work with the Alaskan government on LNG marketing, financing and China’s role in developing the state’s major liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Aiming to tap its North Slope gas reserves, the state created Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC) in 2010 to build a gas treatment plant and pipeline network to produce up to 20 million tons of LNG per year for export. The U.S. government said in a statement the deal will involve investment of up to $43 billion, create up to 12,000 U.S. jobs during construction and reduce the trade deficit between the United States and Asia by $10 billion a year. Securing supplies of LNG will help meet China’s growing appetite for clean fuel as the government tries to wean the country off dirty coal as part of its push to clear the skies. The United States wants to sell more of its excess gas abroad. Sinopec said in a statement it was interested in buying a “stable” supply of LNG from the project, while CIC said it has been interested in investing in U.S. LNG infrastructure for a while. Alaska and the U.S. government touted the economic benefits of China’s involvement in the project. “This is an agreement that will provide Alaska with an economic boom comparable to the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in the 1970s,” Alaskan Governor Bill Walker said in a statement. AGDC’s project includes a gas treatment plant, an 800-mile (1,287 km) pipeline to south central Alaska for in-state use, and a liquefaction plant in Nikiski to produce up to 20 million tons of LNG per year for export. Alaska is pursuing foreign investors for its oil and gas industry in a bid to compete with lower-cost shale projects and reverse a decades-long output decline. Alaskan crude production has fallen by three-quarters since 1988, a decline that has contributed to budget deficits and jeopardized the operation of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, which runs from the North Slope to the southern port of Valdez. Reporting by Matt Miller and Josephine Mason; Editing by Tom Hogue and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-gas/update-2-chinese-companies-agree-to-develop-lng-in-alaska-as-trump-visits-idUSL3N1NF2G6'|'2017-11-09T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'b33972dfaa9cf2bc3be38cd7ab02879aae93d926'|'UPDATE 1-Bond issues approved for Houston, other issuers in Tuesday voting'|'(Adds more measures passed)By Karen PierogCHICAGO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Houston voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved $1 billion of bonds the city needs to complete a state-approved fix for its financially ailing pension funds, the city controller’s office said on Wednesday. The bond measure, which passed with 77 percent of the vote, was one of 370 debt issues totaling $24.5 billion on ballots in 26 U.S. states, according to data company Ipreo.The taxable pension bonds, which are slated for pricing the week of Dec. 11, are a critical part of a 30-year cost-saving plan signed into law in May by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to address Houston’s $8.2 billion unfunded pension liability.Voters in the nation’s fourth most populous city also approved four bond issues totaling $495 million for public safety and other projects, the Harris County Clerk reported. Pricing for those bonds is scheduled for Nov. 30, said Max Moll, a spokesman for Houston Controller Chris Brown.Texas issuers had the most bonds on Tuesday’s ballots at $11.67 billion in 112 issues, according to Ipreo. It said voters across about 26 states approved $21.08 billion worth of bonds in Tuesday’s elections, while voters in 22 states rejected about $3.59 billion in debt issuance.Results concerning about $1.49 billion of debt in seven states are still pending.The biggest single bond issue on ballots nationwide, $1.05 billion for the Austin Independent School District in Texas, passed with 72 percent of the vote, the district’s web page announced.Some other Texas school districts also reported successful bond referendums. The Spring Branch Independent School District said its voters approved $898 million of bonds, while the Katy Independent School District said $609 million of bonds won approval. A spokeswoman for the Fort Worth Independent School District said a $750 million bond referendum passed.All 10 bond issues totaling just over $1 billion that Dallas put on the ballot for capital improvements passed, according to Dallas County unofficial election results.North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said voters approved $922 million of bonds “to address pressing capital needs.”Seven bond referendums totaling $938 million on the city and county of Denver’s ballot passed, according to the city’s website.Miami voters approved $400 million of bonds to reduce flooding risks and improve affordable housing, according to a Miami-Dade County website.In Maine, voters approved a constitutional amendment for the state’s pension systems that doubles the length of time over which the state could pay back unfunded liabilities created by investment and other losses to 20 years.Voters across Ohio approved 87 of 122 public school tax issues, a decrease from last year’s general election, according to a statement from the Ohio School Boards Association.“Ohio school districts that were unsuccessful on the ballot Tuesday likely will be forced to make tough budget decisions, including new rounds of cuts,” the statement said. (Reporting By Karen Pierog; Additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Daniel Bases and Tom Brown) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-election-bonds/update-1-bond-issues-approved-for-houston-other-issuers-in-tuesday-voting-idINL1N1NE1OA'|'2017-11-08T20:06:00.000+02:00'
'1c18d29bdc728a6ed0fb2e8abfd4093053655e56'|'Mobile-app errors expose data on 180 mln phones -security firm'|'November 9, 2017 / 2:00 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Mobile-app errors expose data on 180 mln phones -security firm Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read Nov 9 (Reuters) - Up to 180 million smart phone owners are at risk of having some of their text messages and calls intercepted by hackers because of a simple coding error in at least 685 mobile apps, cyber-security firm Appthority warned on Thursday. Developers mistakenly coded credentials for accessing services provided by Twilio Inc, said Appthority’s director of security research, Seth Hardy. Hackers could access those credentials by reviewing the code in the apps, then gain access to data sent over those services, he said. The findings highlight new threats posed by the increasing use of third-party services such as Twilio that provide mobile apps with functions like text messaging and audio calls. Developers can inadvertently introduce security vulnerabilities if they do not properly code or configure such services. “This isn’t just limited to Twilio. It’s a common problem across third-party services,“ Hardy said. ”We often notice that if they make a mistake with one service, they will do so with other services as well.” Many apps use Twilio to send text messages, process phone calls and handle other services. Hackers could access related data if they log into the developer accounts on Twilio, Hardy said. The mistakes were caused by developers, not Twilio, Hardy said. Twilio’s website warns developers that leaving credentials in apps could expose their accounts to hackers. Twilio spokesman Trak Lord said the company has no evidence that hackers used credentials coded into apps to access customer data but that it was working with developers to change the credentials on affected accounts. The vulnerability only affects calls and texts made inside of apps that use messaging services from Twilio, including some business apps for recording phone calls, according to Appthority’s report. Credentials for back-end services like Twilio are coveted by hackers because developers often reuse their accounts to build multiple apps. In a survey of 1,100 apps, Appthority found 685 problem apps that were linked to 85 affected Twilio accounts. That suggests the theft of credentials for one app’s Twilio account could pose a security threat to all users of as many as eight other apps. Appthority said it also warned Amazon.com Inc that it had found credentials for at least 902 developer accounts with cloud-service provider Amazon Web Services in a scan of 20,098 different apps. Those credentials could be used to access app user data stored on Amazon, Hardy said. A representative with Amazon declined comment. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Jim Finkle and Leslie Adler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cyber-mobile-vulnerability/mobile-app-errors-expose-data-on-180-mln-phones-security-firm-idUSL1N1NE27Y'|'2017-11-09T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'350b78a6c12be68d55351c8e9895e9257351bc95'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 9'|'Nov 9 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* Ex-Yahoo chief says best-defended groups open to hacking. on.ft.com/2hnNtsW* Theresa May loses second minister as Priti Patel resigns. on.ft.com/2hmQ2LY* U.S. regulators demand CNN sale to approve AT&T-Time Warner deal. on.ft.com/2hkdvxeOverview* Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologised on Wednesday for two massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents for at least one of them, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks on major U.S. companies.* British aid minister Priti Patel was forced from office on Wednesday over undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials after Prime Minister Theresa May sought to reassert her diminished authority as she negotiates Brexit.* U.S. antitrust regulators and AT&T Inc sparred on Wednesday over whether the wireless carrier would be required to sell Time Warner Inc’s CNN cable network as a condition of approval of its deal to buy the media company. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-9-idINL1N1NF02J'|'2017-11-08T22:11:00.000+02:00'
'60a0fc552f16b6e95bb7d5b7a0911fd962b02ff0'|'AT&T says timing of Time Warner deal closing now uncertain'|'NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing AT&T Inc ( T.N ) to sell Turner Broadcasting, parent of CNN cable network, or its DirecTV satellite television unit to satisfy antitrust concerns over its purchase of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), sources told Reuters on Wednesday.A CNN camera operator waits by his camera as the network prepares for the first democratic presidential candidate debate at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada October 13, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Time Warner’s CNN and other media of being unfair to him and criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it.AT&T is prepared to fight any divestitures required to win regulatory approval of the $85.4 billion deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.The development was a surprise to investors. Shares of Time Warner fell 6.5 percent to $88.54, while AT&T shares were down 0.2 percent at $33.15.The Justice Department’s demand is likely to complicate its continuing antitrust conversations with AT&T, which said on Wednesday it was now uncertain when the deal, announced in October 2016, would be completed. AT&T had previously said the acquisition would close by the end of this year.The Justice Department could still file a lawsuit as early as this month to challenge the deal, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.A DirecTV satellite dish is seen on a residential home in Encinitas, California November 5, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo AT&T wants to buy Time Warner, which owns the premium channel HBO, movie studio Warner Bros and news channel CNN, so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment. Both companies have struggled to keep younger viewers from flocking to online services like Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Prime Video.The deal is opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers.The AT&T logo is pictures on a building in Los Angeles, California, U.S. August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The new concessions suggest the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, has changed his view of AT&T&rsquo;s plan to buy Time Warner, since giving an interview in 2016 where he declared it not “a major antitrust problem.”Delrahim was subsequently nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division and was confirmed in September. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter. AT&T and the White House declined comment.Another sticking point in discussions is the length of time that the U.S. government wants to impose conditions on what AT&T can and cannot do after a deal. Two people briefed on the talks told Reuters the government has sought as long as 10 years for such conditions while AT&T has pressed for a shorter period.AT&T also said it would invest an additional $1 billion in the United States next year if Trump signed into law the provisions in the current House of Representatives tax bill.“By immediately lowering the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, this bill will stimulate investment, job creation and economic growth in the United States,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chief executive.Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Greg Roumeliotis, Jessica Toonkel and Anjali Athavaley in New York, and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a/att-says-timing-of-time-warner-deal-closing-now-uncertain-idINKBN1D81Z8'|'2017-11-08T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'1228ab01b9fe65e392877bc035d1dcef1f9df472'|'Man City post record revenue, third consecutive year of profit'|'(Reuters) - Manchester City announced record revenue of 473.4 million pounds ($620.11 million) and a third consecutive year of profitability as the club’s annual report for 2016-17 was published on Wednesday.Premier League leaders City posted a profit of 1.08 million pounds, down from 20.5 million pounds last year. The club said an extended 13-month reporting period had affected profitability.A 21 percent increase in revenue meant that the ratio of wage costs to revenue fell to 56 percent.The club is operating with zero debt and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said that revenue was pushing towards “towards the 500 million pounds mark”.“This report is about making sure our fans and our partners can see the true detailed status of every aspect of the club,” he said in a statement.“What hopefully comes across is that the football organisation and off-field business have the right symmetry and balance to allow us to continue to further strengthen and grow.”Despite finishing last season without a trophy, chief executive Ferran Soriano was satisfied with the team’s progress and potential under manager Pep Guardiola, who took charge before the start of last season.“We are committed to playing beautiful football and to win. Both elements are compatible and the second is a consequence of the first,” said Soriano. “I am convinced we will see further progress and silverware in the seasons to come.”City spent heavily in the summer transfer window on Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Danilo, building a squad that is currently eight points clear at the top of the Premier League league table.($1 = 0.7634 pounds)Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/soccer-england-mci-results/man-city-post-record-revenue-third-consecutive-year-of-profit-idINKBN1D82P0'|'2017-11-08T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'66a7ddf51d7760a92fb5354fa7125dbc022420af'|'IMF''s Lagarde - Ageing, productivity pose challenges to Asia'|'November 8, 2017 / 3:57 AM / in 15 minutes IMF''s Lagarde - Ageing, productivity pose challenges to Asia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Two big challenges to achieving sustainable growth in Asia are demographics and productivity, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Japan, South Korea, and China will need to take steps to deal with their rapidly ageing societies, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a seminar in Tokyo. Improving productivity is a problem that all Asian countries face, she said. Lagarde also said there was more room for Japan to improve access to childcare, lower working hours, and promote equal pay for equal work. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-lagarde-japan/imfs-lagarde-ageing-productivity-pose-challenges-to-asia-idUKKBN1D80BT'|'2017-11-08T05:58:00.000+02:00'
'b3614d68a08028bc04f216a344966e6a2fad4f3d'|'Glencore extends lockout at Australia coal mine as talks stall again'|'November 8, 2017 / 6:36 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Glencore extends lockout at Australia coal mine as talks stall again Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Glencore ( GLEN.L ) has extended a lockout of 190 workers at a coal mine in eastern Australia for a further two weeks after the latest attempt to end a long-running labour dispute failed, the company and a trade union said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The Oaky North mine is largely being operated by non-union staff and contractors during the lockout, which started in June, with no impact on production, said Glencore spokesman Francis De Rosa. Glencore and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) have made little headway in hammering out a so-called enterprise work agreement for the mine since the last one expired in mid-2015, despite sitting down at the negotiating table 23 times, according to the spokesman. The latest attempt, under mediation from the Australian government’s Fair Work Commission, failed to bring a resolution closer, with the CFMEU vowing in a statement to “fight Glencore every step of the way”. Stephen Smyth, a CFMEU district president, said the latest move banning union workers from the mine would take the lockout to 132 days. Coal from the mine is used in steelmaking and is shipped to buyers in Asia, North Africa Europe and South America. The dispute is focused on wages, benefits, working conditions and hiring practices. Glencore’s proposals include lifting wage rates, which average A$180,000 (104,660.08 pounds) per year including retirement funds by 8.24 percent over the term of a new agreement, according to the company spokesman. In a statement issued late on Tuesday, Smyth said Glencore ordered the lockout despite the union making some concessions on issues regarding workplace representation and the resolution of workplace disputes. Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-australia-coal/glencore-extends-lockout-at-australia-coal-mine-as-talks-stall-again-idUKKBN1D80II'|'2017-11-08T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'f9cbf9819da6e762b4e5263bcc648281b0a6c080'|'Linde reaches important acceptance level for Praxair merger'|'Reuters TV United States  30   Linde reaches important acceptance level for Praxair merger Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Industrial gases group Linde has exceeded an important 74 percent approval threshold for its planned $80 billion tie-up with Praxair, it said on Wednesday. Linde Group logo is seen at company building before the annual news conference in Munich, Germany March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Lukas Barth As a consequence, it is anticipated that the right of both companies to terminate the deal will cease, Linde added. Reaching the threshold was seen as crucial to avoid making the deal unattractive for tax reasons. Shareholders still have until Nov. 21 to tender their shares. Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Ludwig Burger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-linde-m-a-praxair/linde-reaches-important-acceptance-level-for-praxair-merger-idUKKBN1D81ZM'|'2017-11-08T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'1ea7bea8f506fd921b6dc38f293e0e4c0eb30134'|'Qatari investor selling $1.46 billion stake in Bharti Airtel - term sheet'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:59 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Qatari investor sells $1.5 billion stake in Bharti Airtel S.Anuradha , Devidutta Tripathy 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/MUMBAI (Reuters) - A Qatari investor sold its entire 5 percent stake in top Indian telecoms carrier Bharti Airtel on Wednesday for 96 billion rupees ($1.48 billion), adding to the sanctions-hit Gulf nation’s recent stake sales in foreign companies. FILE PHOTO: An employee works at a billing counter inside a Bharti Airtel store in New Delhi, India April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo An affiliate of the Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE) sold about 199.9 million shares in the phone carrier at 481 rupees each via a block trade, it said in a statement. The sale price was a 6.4 percent discount to Bharti Airtel’s Tuesday closing price, but will still give the Qatari investor a significant return over its 68 billion-rupee investment in the Indian company in May 2013. QFE will reinvest the proceeds from Bharti Airtel stake sale as part of growth of its global portfolio and diversification, it said in the statement. Rashed Fahad Al-Noaimi, chief executive of investments at Qatar Foundation will step down from Bharti Airtel’s board after the settlement of the sale. The sale comes at a time when other Qatari firms, including its sovereign wealth fund, are cutting stakes in foreign companies to raise cash and withstand pressure on the economy, which has been hit by sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since early June. The Gulf countries cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5, accusing it of backing terrorism, a charge which Doha denies. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has responded to the crisis by pumping billions of dollars into local banks to shore up their deposits. It has also reduced its stake in upscale jeweller Tiffany & Co, Russian energy giant Rosneft and Swiss bank Credit Suisse. Bharti Airtel shares closed 3.7 percent down at 495.30 rupees. Still, the stock is up 62 percent in 2017 on signs of an end to a bruising price war in the Indian telecoms space and hopes that industry consolidation would benefit established players. JPMorgan on Wednesday upgraded the stock to “neutral” from “underweight”, saying the fundamentals for large players in were “falling in place sooner than expected”. ($1 = 64.9750 Indian rupees) Reporting by S. Anuradha of IFR and Devidutta Tripathy, additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai, Sankalp Phartiyal and Swati Bhat in Mumbai; Editing by Himani Sarkar and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/qatar-bharti-airtel-stake/qatari-investor-selling-1-46-billion-stake-in-bharti-airtel-term-sheet-idINKBN1D80E2'|'2017-11-08T06:57:00.000+02:00'
'7f425a1aabe285bebdfcf93f1f1390c9aa455c23'|'Large oil traders escape EU''s MIFID II trading rules, for now'|'November 8, 2017 / 4:52 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Large oil traders escape EU''s MIFID II trading rules, for now Julia Payne , Dmitry Zhdannikov 4   Less than two months before strict European Union rules on derivatives come into force, most large oil traders have persuaded regulators to exempt them for now from limits on the positions they can hold, arguing they are not speculators. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Shell is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The EU’s revamped Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID), known as MIFID II, aims to curb speculative trading and make markets more resilient. It comes into force in January and includes position limits on the volume of commodity derivatives a trader can hold, such as Brent oil futures LCOc1. Oil majors have repeatedly called on EU regulators to refrain from imposing strict capital requirements and greater disclosure measures on oil trading. Sources at major traders such as Shell ( RDSa.L ), BP ( BP.L ). Glencore ( GLEN.L ) and Vitol said their firms have so far not registered with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, saying they have argued they trade derivatives to hedge large physical positions rather than for speculative purposes. Under the new rules, a firm can be exempt from such limits provided that their paper positions are ancillary, in other words, necessary to support physical trades. But proving who is trading what and for which purposes has long been one of the key debates in the industry. The new MIFID rules sent alarm bells across trading floors and many banks, traders have called for a rethink of the strategy. Wall Street has been given a 30-month compliance grace period while a major German bank lobby complained last month about the implementation costs. Mike Muller, vice president for trading at Shell, has for example called against imposing position limits on derivatives trading saying unattractive regulations could force companies to flee Europe for other locations. Muller has said hedging at companies such as Shell is often done upfront, even before the physical position is taken, which makes smart regulations an even more challenging task. Key oil products are traded via the Intercontinental Exchange’s London hub and therefore come under the purview of the FCA, which has progressively been releasing position limits. The FCA declined to comment. A number of position limits were published last month, including first line Brent crude futures LCOc1, which will be limited to 133,350 lots for a calendar month. The remainder are expected to be released in the first quarter of 2018. Key products still without limits include Brent contract-for-differences (CFDs) and dated Brent, the benchmark used to trade two-thirds of the world’s oil. Limits are also awaited for U.S. oil futures contract WTI CLc1 and WTI front-month spreads, Dubai crude futures, fuel oil futures, diesel futures front-month spreads and some non-oil products like coal futures and gold. “Firms may not be certain whether they will be able to benefit from the exemption until the data on market size becomes available,” according to a question and answer brochure from the European Securities and Markets Authority. Sources familiar with the regulator’s intentions said the FCA may speak with firms which are on the margin of exemption status next year once the limits have been established. Additional reporting by Huw Jones, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-mifid-oil/large-oil-traders-escape-eus-mifid-ii-trading-rules-for-now-idUKKBN1D82GJ'|'2017-11-08T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'72dfc6d2e255cd0f9fde854b61c9c65c8f88424c'|'Revolut becomes latest UK fintech firm to seek banking licence'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:13 AM / in a few seconds Revolut becomes latest UK fintech firm to seek banking license Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British financial technology firm Revolut said on Wednesday it has applied for a European banking license, as it bids to join a growing number of digital-only banks looking to win away customers from larger, traditional lenders. Revolut, which has offered a pre-paid cash card since 2015, is one of a number of smaller upstart finance firms hoping that coming regulation and technology can help it break the dominance of bigger banks. Financial technology firms like Revolut are trying to chip away at traditional banks by offering users slick apps, slashed fees and an instant overview of their finances. From challenger banks to digital currencies like Bitcoin, the British government regards the ‘fintech’ sector as a key source of growth. Changes coming into force in Britain and across the European Union will see banks forced to open up their closely held customer data to rivals, who will be able to use it to build products and better target clients. Peers like Britain’s Starling Bank and Monzo and Germany’s N26 have already secured banking licenses ahead of the new rules. “Even without a banking license, we have attracted over 950,000 users across Europe, many of whom consider Revolut as their primary current account and spending card,” said Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut’s founder and CEO. The firm’s tagline promises an experience “beyond banking”, but so far it has been unable to offer some of the core services provided by banks, including current accounts, overdrafts, loans and direct debits. It expects to receive a license effective in the first half of 2018 and to start offering these services in select markets straightaway. It said it has applied for its license through the Lithuanian central bank and has sufficient capital in place. Current accounts and credit will initially be available to users in Lithuania, before being rolled out to Estonia and Latvia and, as soon as possible, Britain. Next in line are France, Germany and Italy and eventually the rest of the European Union, the firm said. Fintech lender Cashplus said last week it was considering applying for a UK banking license, while telecoms giant Orange has launched its own bank in France in a bid to steal established lenders’ market share by capitalizing on the rise of smartphones. But incumbent banks are stepping up investment in their own digital platforms too. Last month, HSBC ( HSBA.L ) became the first to launch an app that allows customers to manage accounts with multiple banks in one place and offers them a similar financial overview as the app-only challengers. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-revolut-banking-license/revolut-becomes-latest-uk-fintech-firm-to-seek-banking-license-idUKKBN1D800H'|'2017-11-08T02:11:00.000+02:00'
'294310473d68df9881b11fa032fd5003d44cabcc'|'Regional airline KLM Cityhopper has kind words but no orders for Embraer''s E2'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:00 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Regional airline KLM Cityhopper has kind words but no orders for Embraer''s E2 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The top executive at the biggest European operator of Embraer passenger jets took a close look at the planemaker’s next-generation aircraft on Wednesday, but said it is too early to think about placing an order. Warner Rootliep, the managing director of regional airline KLM Cityhopper, a unit of Air France KLM SA, said in an interview that he and his team were “very impressed” with the E190-E2 that they saw at Embraer’s headquarters in Brazil. “Embraer colleagues were kind enough to roll out the E2, and we had a very close look at it ... It looks very promising,” he told Reuters, during his first visit to Brazil since taking his new role last month. “In due time, the E2 could be a nice addition, but I think that it’s a bit too early.” With a 40-aircraft fleet made up exclusively of Embraer E-Jets and eight more on order, KLM Cityhopper is the sort of happy customer that Embraer is targeting with the re-engined E2 lineup that enters service starting in April with the E190-E2. Yet KLM’s backlog of orders for current-generation jets underscores the challenge of selling and producing two overlapping families of aircraft over the next four years. Embraer warned last month that profit margins are likely to suffer next year as it ramps up E2 production. John Slattery, the head of Embraer’s commercial aviation unit, said in a joint interview that part of the planemaker’s plan was to stimulate new demand from flagship European airlines with a longer version of its largest aircraft, the E195-E2. That passenger jet, Embraer’s biggest ever, enters service in 2019 targeting the same market as Bombardier’s CSeries, which got a boost last month when Airbus SE took a majority stake in the program. At the smaller end of Embraer’s line-up, Rootliep said KLM had taken part in the Brazilian planemaker’s recent advisory board to discuss a possible entrant into the turboprop market now dominated by ATR, a joint venture between Airbus and Italian company Leonardo SpA. Slattery said the board gathered representatives from 22 global airlines and two leasing companies for conversations in Amsterdam, but stressed that it was part of a standard exploratory process rather than a signal of development plans. “Embraer is always running the ruler over the natural franchise footprint that we have, which is everything below 150 seats,” Slattery said. (Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/embraer-air-france-klm/regional-airline-klm-cityhopper-has-kind-words-but-no-orders-for-embraers-e2-idUSL1N1NF01M'|'2017-11-09T11:00:00.000+02:00'
'86db6c3687475b4cd69261ef312c815698c55b7b'|'Thai Gulf Energy Development plans to raise up to $725 million in IPO'|'BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai power producer Gulf Energy Development Pcl plans to raise up to 24 billion baht ($725.08 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) to help finance investment and repay debt.The firm will offer up to 533.3 million new shares at a price between 40 baht and 45 baht, which would raise 21.3 billion to 24 billion baht, it said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.It plans a roadshow to promote the IPO on Nov. 14, it said.Kasikorn Securities, Bualuang Securities and Siam Commercial Bank are the financial advisers, the company said.($1 = 33.10 baht)Reporting by Pilaiporn Promsompan and Wirat Buranakanokthanasan; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulfenergy-ipo/thai-gulf-energy-development-plans-to-raise-up-to-725-million-in-ipo-idUSKBN1D91AQ'|'2017-11-09T18:29:00.000+02:00'
'60ad3eb6614004f70bc8e8f60a372fb13f45b9a2'|'Global regulators want to limit accountants'' say on audit rules'|'Reuters TV United States  11 AM / a few seconds ago Global regulators want to limit accountants'' say on audit rules Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators want to shake up how corporate audit rules are written to curb the influence of accountants and avoid any conflict of interest. Audit rules are currently written under the umbrella of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), a global body that represents a profession dominated by the “Big Four” - PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY - which also check the books of nearly all blue chip companies globally. Regulators now want audit rulemakers who are independent of the accounting industry, and issued a paper for public consultation on Thursday that set out options for change. They aim to replicate a similar change made to accounting rules two decades ago that is now the benchmark for book-keeping in over 100 countries, and aim to have it in place by 2020. “The status quo is definitely not an option,” Gerben Everts, who chairs the group of global regulators that monitors IFAC, told Reuters. “We are the driving force for this change.” “I am not saying the current standards are weak or should not be complied with, but I think there is a lot of potential for stronger standards in the audit world with less flexibility, less optionality,” said Everts, who is also a board member at Dutch markets watchdog AFM. A new, independent body would need phasing in over about a year and half to be up and running in 2020. It would include views from investors, companies, regulators and analysts. There have already been some moves to bolster broader interests in IFAC rulemaking, such as setting up the Public Interest Oversight Board, but Everts views these as a “temporary situation”. “The standards as they are will remain in place, but we need to make sure that for revision of standards and new standards we have a broader group of people independent from the profession, with the technical know-how and strategic focus,” he said. The consultation will end in February and the monitoring group will publish a final proposal next summer, said Everts. The group will work on a separate paper on how the new body would be funded. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-accounts-auditor-regulation/global-regulators-want-to-limit-accountants-say-on-audit-rules-idUKKBN1D91FP'|'2017-11-09T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'3f206dd8ac5c352a15e3abd2e914af853a1ca450'|'Honda at fault in complaint over Pakistan gasoline, oil cos say'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:56 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Honda at fault in complaint over Pakistan gasoline, oil cos say Saad Sayeed 3 Min Read ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A body representing oil companies in Pakistan said Honda Motor Co, which has blamed local gasoline companies for damage to engines in one of its vehicle models, appears to know the engines are incompatible with Pakistani fuel standards and need to be calibrated. Honda Motor Co’s Pakistan subsidiary, Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd. ( HATC.KA ), filed the complaint with the country’s oil and gas regulator last week, saying high levels of manganese appeared to be damaging engines in its vehicles. “The Honda Civic 1.5 I VTEC Turbo model is currently incompatible with market fuels available in Pakistan,” head of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) Ilyas Fazil said in a statement on Wednesday. “Pakistan is currently at the beginning of its clean fuels journey, and sulphur levels in fuel remain higher than those in required for Euro 4 vehicles such as the Honda Civic 1.5,” Fazil said. Honda has said it is temporarily suspending production of the model in Pakistan due to the problem. “The fact that sales of this vehicle are to be suspended, may suggest that the vehicle manufacturer is aware of this and intends to properly calibrate the vehicle for the Pakistan market,” he added. Honda declined to comment on the statement issued by OCAC. “We have filed a complaint with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA),” senior Honda executive Nadeem Azam told Reuters. “OGRA is now investigating, so let that investigation result come,” he added. Senior industry officials told Reuters that Pakistan’s path to meeting the clean fuel standards found in developed countries could take up to 20 years. Honda’s complaint states that Pakistani suppliers used the additive to elevate the Research Octane Number (RON) used to grade petroleum and lower quality fuel up to the RON 92 grade required by regulatory standards. In response, OCAC states that Honda is “attempting to blame catalyst failures and potential warranty claims on fuel quality, rather than on the inappropriate calibration of the vehicle.” Pakistan’s petroleum sales have spiked in the past two years, rising 10 percent between 2015 and 2017 and continued growth is expected as Chinese-backed development projects spur the transportation and automotive sectors. Reporting by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pakistan-gasoline/honda-at-fault-in-complaint-over-pakistan-gasoline-oil-cos-say-idUKKBN1D91SX'|'2017-11-09T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'9cc95df2d3aaefcfd43020790ecfa1bef57bfc07'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil regulator rejects Oi request for deadline extension'|'(Adds Banco do Brasil CEO confirming having requested delay)BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian regulator Anatel on Thursday rejected a request by telecommunications company Oi SA to extend a deadline to explain its latest restructuring proposal.Anatel demanded on Monday that Oi explain whether its latest debt restructuring proposal posed “operational risks” to the company. On Wednesday, Oi asked for a seven-day extension to respond to Anatel’s inquiries.Following the regulator’s rejection of the extension request, Oi will now need to present a response by 2 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Thursday, Anatel said in a statement.On Friday, creditors are set to vote on a restructuring plan to take Oi out of bankruptcy protection. It is unclear if that meeting will take place, since public banks with debt in Oi, such as Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Economica Federal, asked for it to be delayed.Banco do Brasil Chief Executive Officer Paulo Caffarelli confirmed at a news conference on Thursday that the bank requested the delay. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy in Brasilia and Aluisio Alves in Sao Paulo; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/update-1-brazil-regulator-rejects-oi-request-for-deadline-extension-idINL1N1NF0OQ'|'2017-11-09T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'961a3a1013e3288d4527c5623f471fc40a22dfae'|'Trump''s $250 billion China ''miracle'' adds gloss to off-kilter trade'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:16 AM / in 5 hours Trump''s $250 billion China ''miracle'' adds gloss to off-kilter trade Matthew Miller , Adam Jourdan 4 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether. FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Watched by Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping at a signing ceremony in Beijing, U.S. planemaker Boeing Co, General Electric Co and chip giant Qualcomm Inc sealed lucrative multi-billion dollar deals. “This is truly a miracle,” China’s Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said at a briefing in Beijing. The quarter of a trillion dollar haul underscores how Trump is keen to be seen to address a trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy that he has long railed against and called “shockingly high” on Thursday. Trump has ratcheted up his criticism of China’s massive trade surplus with the United States - $34.6 billion in September - calling it “embarrassing” and “horrible” last week. But many long-standing concerns that U.S. businesses have in China remain, including unfettered access to the China market, cybersecurity and the growing presence of China’s ruling Communist Party inside foreign firms. “This (deal) shows that we have a strong, vibrant bilateral economic relationship, and yet we still need to focus on levelling the playing field, because U.S. companies continue to be disadvantaged doing business in China,” William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told Reuters. U.S. tech companies like Facebook Inc and Google are mostly blocked in China. Automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors must operate through joint ventures, while Hollywood movies face a strict quota system. PUMP IT UP FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo As is often the case during state visits, many of the deals were packaged as “non-binding” agreements, gave scant details or rolled over existing tie-ups, helping pump up the headline figure. Qualcomm signed non-binding deals worth $12 billion with Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, three Chinese handset makers the firm said it had “longstanding relationships” with. Qualcomm already earns more than half of its revenues in China. Boeing signed $37 billion in commercial deals, although initial details were scarce. FILE PHOTO: The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “Interesting to see how many of those are past agreements/purchase orders repackaged. Beijing is a master of selling the same agreement 10 times,” former Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo posted on Twitter. Trump did, however, press Xi hard on improving the trade balance between the two countries on Thursday. “The United States has to change its policies because they have gotten so far behind on trade with China and frankly with many other countries,” he told reporters, adding previous U.S. administrations had allowed it to get “out of kilter”. “We have to fix this,” he said. Asked whether the big package of deals would go some way towards helping fix American trade concerns in China, executives were cautiously optimistic. “Generally, the sense was that this is all a good thing, and that’s great,” said Gentry Sayad, a Shanghai-based lawyer who took part in the delegation in Beijing. “Now let’s see what really happens.” Reporting Matt Miller in BEIJING, Adam Jourdan and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Bill Tarrant '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-deals/trumps-250-billion-china-miracle-adds-gloss-to-off-kilter-trade-idINKBN1D90L7'|'2017-11-09T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'96f9b27bdac3e65852236dbdfb0ee91fd9eb3433'|'UPDATE 1-Coca-Cola HBC Q3 sales rises on volume growth in new markets'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:21 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Coca-Cola HBC Q3 sales rises on volume growth in new markets Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds detail) LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Drinks maker Coca-Cola HBC reported higher third-quarter sales on Thursday, helped by volume growth in developing and emerging markets and a hot summer in southern Europe. The company, which sells Coca-Cola Co drinks in 28 countries mostly in Europe and Asia, reported sales grew 5 percent in the quarter. Volume rose 3.4 percent. On a currency neutral basis, total group revenue grew 6 percent in the period. The company said currency-neutral revenue per unit case was up 2.5 percent, helped by an ongoing roll-out of revenue growth initiatives, along with price increases. Volume in emerging markets - which include Romania, Serbia and Ukraine - increased by 3.5 percent, while volume in developing markets - including Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary - rose by 5.1 percent, the company said. Established markets volume grew by 2.2 percent in the quarter, benefiting from a good tourist season and exceptionally warm summer weather in Italy and Greece. “We are very pleased with the strong revenue delivery in the quarter, well balanced between broad-based volume growth and substantial price/mix improvement,” acting CEO Michalis Imellos said in a statement. The company suddenly lost its CEO last month, when Dimitris Lois died, only weeks after the company announced he would take a temporary leave of absence for medical treatment. Coca-Cola HBC said it has a succession plan for the CEO position and a “thorough” process is under way. The company had been seen as a possible bidder for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, a business being sold by Coca-Cola. (Reporting by Martinne Geller and Radhika Rukmangadhan; Editing by Susan Fenton and Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cocacolahbc-outlook/update-1-coca-cola-hbc-q3-sales-rises-on-volume-growth-in-new-markets-idUSL8N1NF2US'|'2017-11-09T10:20:00.000+02:00'
'fe83afdf302dc3eef4e402e4eca4609970c56dce'|'Airbus nears deal to sell over 30 A380s - sources'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:02 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Airbus nears deal to sell over 30 A380s - sources Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 3 Min Read PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) is close to a deal worth at least $14 billion (10.68 billion pounds) to sell over 30 of its A380 jetliners to Dubai’s Emirates to seek to secure production of its struggling superjumbo until the middle of next decade, two people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The deal, if confirmed, is expected to be announced at the opening of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday. Airbus said it does not comment on commercial discussions. A spokeswoman for Emirates, which is by far the largest A380 buyer with 142 on order and 100 already delivered, said: “We do not comment on rumours or speculation.” The airline’s chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, said last week it hoped to order more A380s at the Nov 12-16 event. The deal comes as Airbus trails rival Boeing ( BA.N ) in orders this year, with 35 percent of their combined tally ahead of the industry’s largest Middle East event. That gap widened as Boeing announced orders and commitments for 300 jets during a visit to China by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday. The 544-seat European A380 entered service amid huge fanfare in 2007, but its future has been thrown into doubt by sluggish sales as airlines turn to efficient twin-engined jets. Airbus has not sold a four-engined A380 since March 2015. So far this year it has posted only two cancellations. Airbus has cut production of the A380 to eight per year from a peak of 30 but needs to secure more sales to hold production at this rate. It recently launched a programme of improvements called A380plus to make the double-decker jet more efficient. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders has said he believed it would be producing the superjumbo 10 years from now and was working on sales. Airbus has almost 100 A380s left on order, but roughly half of these are seen unlikely to be delivered as airlines alter their plans. Of the rest, Emirates is the dominant customer. “On the basis of the current order book its future is not terribly exciting, but an order for another 30 or so would underpin production to the middle of next decade,” said Sash Tusa, aerospace analyst at UK-based Agency Partners. Analysts say Emirates also has a stake in the future of the A380 because it has built a large part of its network and brand around the aircraft, alongside the Boeing 777, and could see the value of its fleet suffer if the programme fades away. Its chief executive has praised the aircraft’s ability to pull in passengers to its Dubai hub and lamented patchy interest from other airlines. But executives at many airlines remain worried about the challenges of filling such a large plane. Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-a380/airbus-nears-deal-to-sell-over-30-a380s-sources-idUKKBN1D90WI'|'2017-11-09T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'c0804497cb82f02be0f30a370778ab22025d3f6c'|'UK house price growth peters out, London weakest since 2009 - RICS'|' 04 AM / Updated an hour ago UK house price growth peters out, London weakest since 2009 - RICS William Schomberg , Andy Bruce 3   House prices in Britain are no longer rising and in London they are falling at the fastest pace since 2009, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said on Thursday, citing political worries and last week’s interest rate hike. New residential homes are seen at a housing estate in Aylesbury, Britain, February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh RICS’s benchmark house price index for Britain as a whole fell more sharply than expected to +1 in October, a level consistent with flat price growth, down from +6 in September. Economists taking part in a Reuters poll had expected a gentler fall to +4. RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said a lack of homes on the market, political uncertainty as Britain tries to negotiate its exit from the European Union and last week’s first interest rate hike by the Bank of England since 2007 were all taking their toll on the housing market. First-time buyers are increasingly focusing on new-build homes which are supported by government incentives, he added. “A stagnant second-hand market is bad news for the wider economy, not just in terms of spending but also because it restricts mobility,” Rubinsohn said. CONSTRUCTION SHARES HIT The survey of a housing market that has been cooling since the June 2016 Brexit vote weighed on the share prices of British construction firms, which were mostly down 2-4 percent on the day. Housebuilder Redrow said ongoing political and economic uncertainty had caused a slowdown in sales in recent weeks. “The latest RICS survey shows that housing market demand was weakening rapidly even before the (Bank of England) raised interest rates last week,” said Samuel Tombs, economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Other measures of house prices have shown a slight pickup in recent months, but RICS painted a gloomier picture, saying most regions were starting to see a drop in sales, following the trend in London. The RICS survey is a good guide to other measures of construction industry activity. The fall in sales mirrored a recent slide in demand from buyers and suggested sales would fall over the next 12 months. RICS’ gauge of price expectations for the next three months fell in October to -11 from -8. With the exception of a sharp dip in June 2016 - the month of the Brexit vote - this was the weakest reading since mid-2012. While London and the southeast of England were seeing house price falls, prices were still rising in North West England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, RICS said. The high price of property means many people in Britain are unable to afford a home of their own, putting pressure on the finance minister Philip Hammond to encourage more homebuilding when he announces a budget plan on Nov. 22. RICS called on Hammond to lift a cap on borrowing by councils to fund homebuilding. Additional reporting by Alasdair Pal and Tricia Wright; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-houseprices-rics/uk-house-price-growth-peters-out-london-weakest-since-2009-rics-idUKKBN1D9009'|'2017-11-09T02:05:00.000+02:00'
'05119ff9373b4813c51ecfedf4bb7ea8d0e9b5d1'|'Lockheed to work with U.S. in bid to sell F-35s to Germany: CEO'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:37 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Lockheed to work with U.S. in bid to sell F-35s to Germany: CEO Joachim Dagenborg 3 Min Read KONGSBERG, Norway (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp will work with the U.S. government as it talks to Germany about a replacement for its Tornado fighter jets, its chief executive said on Thursday, adding she believed Lockheed’s F-35 would be the “best choice” for Berlin. One of three F-35 fighter jets ordered by Norway''s Air Force is seen at Oerland Main Air Station, near Trondheim, Norway November 3, 2017. NTB Scanpix/Ned Alley via REUTERS Germany is kicking off the process of replacing its 85 Tornado jets, which will go out of service around 2030. The programme could be worth billions of euros in coming years. The German air force last month issued a formal request for information about the F-35, as well as three other jets: the F-15 and F/A-18E/F, both built by Boeing Co, and the European Eurofighter Typhoon. On Wednesday, the chief of staff of the German air force said the country needed a “fifth-generation” replacement for its Tornado fighters that is hard to detect on enemy radars and can strike targets from a great distance. Lieutenant General Karl Muellner’s comments indicated a preference for the F-35, which meets those requirements. “I saw in the media that there is an interest in the F-35, and we stand ready to support the U.S. government on their interactions with the German government on their assessment of the F-35,” Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson told Reuters during a visit to Norway. “I do think it would be the best choice for them,” she added. She was non-committal when asked how many planes Lockheed could potentially sell to Berlin, saying it was up to Germany. Lockheed Martin also hopes to increase its sales of the F-35 to South Korea, Hewson said. “Their initial buy is at 40 (aircraft), but I hope that over time they will look at additional buy,” she said. “We are happy that the F-35 is being considered by a number of countries around the world ... Countries like Belgium, Finland, Canada and others are going to continue to look at the programme and make their decision,” she added. Many German allies in Europe, including Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy, Turkey and Denmark have selected the F-35 and some have received initial deliveries. Belgium is expected to make a decision next year. Writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lockheed-f35-norway-germany/lockheed-to-work-with-u-s-in-bid-to-sell-f-35s-to-germany-ceo-idINKBN1D91QN'|'2017-11-09T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'1faab61441f45f83f41e7b678c3ce18e734de413'|'U.S. investors target ''buyback stocks'' in bet on Trump tax plan'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rather than waiting to see how the Republican tax bill will fare in Congress, some investors are already picking out gingerly technology, healthcare and consumer companies they expect to use potential tax savings to buy back more of their own stock.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the announcement that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in New York, U.S., December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files Fund managers from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Hodges Capital, and SSI Investment Management are among those that are adding to or holding on to their shares of those of companies such as Texas Instruments Inc, Microsoft Co and Southwest Airlines Co in part because they expect to see more share buybacks or special dividends if a tax reform passes in some form.The House Republican plan would cut corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent and allow companies bring back foreign profits at a 12 percent tax rate, a process known as repatriation. Overall, U.S. companies hold some $2.6 trillion in untaxed offshore cash.Fund managers say that while it is far too soon to tell whether the tax bill will pass, the prospect of increased buybacks is worth taking a bet on companies that would benefit the most from the plan.“If you have two companies that you are looking at and one would get a bigger boost from bringing back its cash from overseas, that provides an extra level of return,” said Peter Santoro, a portfolio manager of the $11 billion Columbia Dividend Income fund.For example, cash-rich tech companies with big international presence, such as Microsoft, are likely to return cash to shareholders via a one-time dividend even if Congress passes a repatriation bill rather than a broad tax reform, Santoro said.When Congress allowed U.S. companies to bring back foreign profits at a discounted tax rate in 2004, Microsoft issued a special $3-per-share dividend and the Trump tax windfall would likely lead to something similar, Santoro said.Santoro declined to say whether he was adding to his Microsoft position in recent months. Microsoft is the largest position in Santoro’s fund, according to Morningstar data, and its shares are up 36 percent for the year largely driven by the expansion of its cloud-based business.Goldman Sachs estimates that the Republican tax bill would increase corporate buybacks by $75 billion, to $590 billion, in 2018. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, estimates about half of repatriated cash would go into buybacks and the rest would get spent on acquisitions and other investments.Stock buybacks often provide a short-term bump in a company’s share price both by eliminating the total number of available shares and improving metrics such as earnings per share and return on equity.LAGGING THE MARKET Yet buybacks, which peaked in 2016, have been slowing over the last three years as rising stock valuations made them more costly and investors have called on companies to invest more in their future by spending on factories or research.The S&P 500 Buyback Index is lagging the broader market this year after having beaten the S&P 500 by nearly 83 percent between 2009 and the end of 2016. The buyback index tracks 100 of the companies in the S&P 500 with the highest buyback ratios, such as Boeing Co, Michael Kors Holdings, and Tyson Foods Inc. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2zcj87u )The Powershares Buyback Achievers fund, which tracks companies that have repurchased at least 5 percent of their outstanding shares over the last 12 months, is up 11.2 percent so far this year, compared with a 15.7 percent gain in S&P 500.Eric Marshall, a fund manager at $2 billion Hodges Capital, said he has been adding to his position in buyback-heavy companies such as Texas Instruments and Lowe’s Companies Inc because he expects them to increase their current buyback programs if a tax bill does pass.Texas Instruments, for instance, said in September it would buy a further $6 billion of its own shares, extending a program that has reduced its total number of shares by a quarter over the last five years. Texas Instruments shares make up about 2 percent of the Hodges Blue Chip Equity Income fund. The firm last bought the stock in June, according to the latest publicly available data.“Buybacks are the most tax efficient thing you can do with your capital, and when you are repurchase your own stock you know exactly what you are buying,” Marshall said.Ravi Malik, a portfolio manager at $1.6 billion SSI Investment Management Inc, said that a cut in the repatriation rate would benefit convertible bonds in his portfolio such as Citrix Systems Inc, Amgen Inc and Lam Research Corp.SSI Investment examines its biggest holdings with a significant share of overseas revenues to assess the impact of tax legislation on those companies, Malik said. “That’s how we identified these companies as significant beneficiaries of the changes proposed.”Barry James, a portfolio manager of the $3.1 billion James Balanced Golden Rainbow fund, said that he expected fund holdings, such as lawn mower maker Toro Co and Southwest Airlines to boost existing buyback schemes should a tax bill pass. Such a move would be preferable to an acquisition or hiring more employees, he said.“Over the long run, we are fans of companies that reward shareholders, and now is not the right time to find an acquisition cheaply.”Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Tomasz Janowski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-buybacks/u-s-investors-target-buyback-stocks-in-bet-on-trump-tax-plan-idINKBN1D71S9'|'2017-11-07T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'98f42d921415f565d779fa68268b77bf006c704f'|'Nissan resumes some production amid scandal, fresh wrongdoing found'|'November 6, 2017 / 1:27 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Nissan resumes some production amid scandal, fresh wrongdoing found Naomi Tajitsu 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) resumed on Tuesday most of the domestic car production that had been suspended in the wake of a scandal over uncertified technicians signing off on final inspections for decades. FILE PHOTO: The Nissan company logo is seen on a modified Nissan Leaf, driverless car, during its first demonstration on public roads in Europe, in London, Britain February 27, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo The resumption of production, which follows Japan’s transport ministry approval of changes to inspection procedures, came as the automaker said a third-party investigation had also found new evidence that inspection staff had not been properly trained. The investigation found Nissan had shared test questions with examinees and failed to teach trainees for the correct number of hours, the company said in e-mailed statement. It was not immediately apparent if the new revelations of wrongdoing would have further regulatory implications for Nissan. Nissan said it was retraining and retesting inspectors and that it had corrected inconsistencies between plant operating manuals and plant activities in documents provided to Japan’s transport ministry. The carmaker’s discovery that uncertified technicians had signed off on final inspections led to the suspension of domestic production of all passenger cars it makes for its home market on Oct. 19. It also prompted the recall of 1.2 million vehicles for re-inspection, including all passenger cars it produced for sale in Japan over the past three years. Japan’s transport ministry requires certified inspectors to sign off on vehicle checks for cars sold in Japan, a step that is not required for vehicles exported overseas. Nissan has said Japan sales of new passenger vehicles probably fell by half in October from a year ago due to the scandal - just one of several that has engulfed corporate Japan in recent years. The automaker said its plants in Fukuoka, Kanagawa and Tochigi would restart production for the domestic market on Tuesday, along with plants operated by affiliate Nissan Shatai ( 7222.T ) in Fukuoka and Kanagawa. A plant operated by affiliate Kyoto Auto Works is still awaiting ministry approval, Nissan said. Nissan’s shares were flat in afternoon trade. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by David Goodman and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nissan-recall/nissan-to-resume-domestic-production-of-cars-for-japan-on-tuesday-idUKKBN1D61NG'|'2017-11-07T05:28:00.000+02:00'
'c5d2fbd6b13405b3666eba59814d5f71af4f249d'|'South African retailer TFG buys Britain''s Hobbs'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:18 AM / Updated an hour ago South African retailer TFG buys Britain''s Hobbs Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) ( TFGJ.J ) will buy British womenswear brand Hobbs for an undisclosed sum, the company said on Tuesday. Hobbs has 140 outlets, which include standalone stores and concessions in other stores in the United Kingdom, and is also available in some department stores in the United States and Germany, TFG said. Reporting by TJ Strydom; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hobbs-m-a-foschini-grp/south-african-retailer-tfg-buys-britains-hobbs-idINKBN1D70ZN'|'2017-11-07T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'965e2a6f52319344cdefe065c39b92754ca711bf'|'Sky investor Crispin Odey says he now opposes Fox takeover'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Veteran hedge fund manager Crispin Odey now opposes Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) 11.7 billion pound ($15.4 billion) bid to take control of British pay-TV broadcaster Sky ( SKYB.L ) in a move that could raise further doubts about the deal.The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Odey, whose firm is Sky’s 17th biggest investor with a 0.9 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data, believes that Fox’s 10.75 pound-a-share bid “starts to look like it’s not a very good price” for the broadcaster.“I’d vote against the deal,” Odey told Reuters, when asked how he would vote on the offer. He added: “The interesting thing is: can Sky survive happily without Fox? I think it can quite happily.”Odey initially said he backed the Fox bid to acquire the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own, which was first announced in December.However, in August he told Reuters that he thought the offer was beginning to “look rather mean”, although he did not say at the time that he would oppose the takeover.Reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sky-plc-m-a-fox-odey/sky-investor-crispin-odey-says-he-now-opposes-fox-takeover-idINKBN1D71RT'|'2017-11-07T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'8f414114592e1ddbd37adae9819a503b921793c0'|'UK retail sales falter in ''meagre'' October – business live - Business'|'Close Skip to main content switch to the International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home become a supporter subscribe find a job jobs sign in my account Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out news opinion sport arts life All sections news headlines world news UK news science cities global development tech business environment obituaries opinion opinion home the guardian view columnists cartoons opinion videos letters sport sport home football rugby union cricket tennis cycling F1 golf US sports arts culture home books music tv & radio art & design film games classical stage life lifestyle home fashion food recipes love & sex health & fitness home & garden women family travel money What term do you want to search? Search with google become a supporter subscribe Sign in/up my account Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition jobs dating holidays the guardian app video podcasts pictures newsletters today''s paper the observer digital archive crosswords Facebook Twitter jobs dating holidays business economics banking money markets project syndicate b2b more sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: dating find a job change edition: switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the AU edition International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition The Guardian - Back to home home › business › retail markets project syndicate economics banking home UK world sport football opinion culture business selected lifestyle fashion environment tech travel browse all sections close Business Business live UK retail sales falter in ''meagre'' October, but house prices climb – business live All the day’s economic and financial news, including a worrying drop in non-food sales in the UK and the Halifax’s house price surveyLatest: John Lewis sales fell again last week Halifax says house prices jumped by 4.5% in October UK retail sales fell 1% in October Non-food sales worst hit Could FTSE 100 hit a record high today? LIVE Updated The Zara shopfront on Oxford Street, London. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Graeme Wearden Tuesday 7 November 2017 15.10 GMT First published on Tuesday 7 November 2017 07.42 GMT Key events Show 3.10pm GMT 15:10 SSE and npower in talks 2.17pm GMT 14:17 World stock market hit new high 1.57pm GMT 13:57 Greek finance minister denies threat of economic collapse 11.35am GMT 11:35 Retailers drag FTSE 100 away from record high 11.03am GMT 11:03 John Lewis sales fall again 9.47am GMT 09:47 Sign up for our email 8.58am GMT 08:58 Halifax: UK house prices are still rising Live feed Show 3.10pm GMT 15:10 SSE and npower in talks There’s big news in the British energy market this afternoon, with SSE and npower announcing plans to create a new UK energy provider. If they succeed, it would leave Britain with just five major suppliers. That could threaten competition at a time when public anger over rising energy bills is palpable.My colleague Adam Vaughan explains:SSE and npower, two of the UK’s biggest energy companies, are planning to combine their household energy supply businesses in a potentially seismic shake-up of the market.The two firms said they are in well-advanced talks to create a new independent energy supply firm. The new business would combine the 13 million customers they currently supply with electricity and gas.If the move goes ahead it would see the end of two of the biggest brands in the energy retail market, and is likely to raise competition concerns as the so-called big six that own 80% of the energy market shrinks to the “big five”....More here:SSE and npower in talks to create UK''s biggest energy supplier Read more Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.37pm GMT 14:37 Over in New York, the main US stock indices have hit new record highs at the start of trading.CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 hit record highs shortly after opening bell. https://t.co/FzRobQH1RD pic.twitter.com/MrGzLVvrkq November 7, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.17pm GMT 14:17 World stock market hit new high The long equities rally has driven world stock markets to a new record high. The MSCI All-Country World Index burst through the 500-point mark for the first time today.The MSCI ACWI Photograph: MSCI That follows a series of record highs on Wall Street, and yesterday’s rally in London which pushed the FTSE 100 to a record close.Earlier today, Japan’s Nikkei also popped higher to its highest closing point in 25 years.lemasabachthani (@lemasabachthani) *JAPAN''S NIKKEI 225 CLOSES AT HIGHEST SINCE JANUARY 1992November 7, 2017 Investors are in an optimistic mood following after a series of big companies beat expectations recently (Apple, Amazon, Caterpillar, Mastercard, BP and Goldman Sachs to name but a few).Perhaps surprisingly, the rally has continued despite some central banks preparing to unwind their monetary stimulus programme.Government bond prices have also rallied in recent years, of course, as this chart from g+ Economics shows:MSCI world equity ETF (red) and Bloomberg Barc Global HY Bonds (blue) Photograph: G+ Economics G+’s Lena Komileva says the financial universe has “tilted in recent months”, with the US Federal Reserve unwinding its balance sheet, the ECB slowing its quantitative easing scheme next year, and the Bank of England raising interest rates last week.She warns that there could be volatility ahead, as the process of normalising monetary policy continues.Global bonds - equity correlations have been virtually 1 over the past year (see above chart), following virtually uninterrupted linear growth, pretty much void of volatility, despite historically tight credit spreads and a growing negative-yield bonds universe. This is the type of artificial liquidity environment where asset bubbles and systemic crises are born.As QE tapering gets underway expect a gradual pivot in market sensitivity back towards domestic fundamentals and real risk pricing. It is little surprise that central banks want to exit the current markets environment and follow a return to normal economic activity with policy normalisation, as fast as possible, without putting reflation objectives at risk.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.57pm GMT 13:57 Greek finance minister denies threat of economic collapse Helena SmithOver in Greece finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos has reacted furiously to claims – issued by parliament’s state budget office no less – that the country faces economic collapse if its staggering debt load is not substantially reduced.Our correspondent Helena Smith reports from Athens The budget office’s dramatic warning that bankrupcy looms unless Greece gets debt relief was dismissed outright by Tsakalotos.In comments to the leftwing daily, Efimerida twn Syntakton , the Greek finance minister described the claim as a “mistake” based on “outdated figures.”“This is a error,” he said insisting that the office had been lead to the wrong conclusions on account of “erroneous calculations” over the amount of debt repayments Greece will be called to make between 2021 and 2026.In a subsequent announcement the finance ministry said the House office had employed data from 2013 before short-term debt relief measures were agreed by eurogroup finance ministers in May 2016 and when the interest rates on payments was much higher. Parliament’s president Nikos Voutsis went further accusing the state budget office of fear-mongering, saying:“I am surprised at the use of invalid data and ensuing public relations stunt.”In its quarterly report released Monday the budget office warned that bankruptcy was inevitable because interest payments on maturing debt after 2021 were so high.“Without substantial debt relief, Greece will go bankrupt,” it warned. At 180%, Greece has the highest debt to GDP ratio of any EU member state. But with less than a year to go before the country exits a third international bailout progamme, Athens’ leftist-led coalition is keen to change the narrative to one of hope after years of gruelling austerity meted out in exchange for rescue funds.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.41pm GMT 12:41 I mentioned earlier that house price shortages were keeping UK prices up.......and bang on cue, online estate agents HouseSimple.com have confirmed that this is an issue.Its Property Supply Index found that the total number of new properties marketed by estate agents across the UK fell by 4.3% in October.The number of listings fell in 75% of UK towns and cities, including a 37.4% drop in Torquay and 37.0% in Oxford. In Wolverhampton, property listings have fallen for five months in a row.Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com . says:“The housing market is in desperate need of a prolonged period of supply growth rather than isolated months where seller numbers rise, only to fall back the following month.We probably won’t see numbers jump again this year, but steady levels in November and December would at least give the market a strong base going into the New Year, particularly with some heavy Brexit headwinds heading our way.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 11.48am GMT 11:48 This month’s Black Friday sales will be crucial for UK retailers, especially as Amazon is gunning for them with 10 days of sales and a pop-up store in Soho . High Fletcher , global head of consultancy and innovation at consultancy firm Salmon says retailers might profit by launching their own promotions pronto....A strong focus on digital and innovation will be vital for consumers wanting a quick and convenient service – the figures are suggesting, after all, a shift from buying items they want to rather buying items they need.As consumers increasingly flock online to purchase goods, retailers should be looking to start Black Friday sales sooner rather than later to boost the slump in non-food sales, perhaps by even creating their own ‘peak days’ to stave off the competition from Black Friday stalwarts such as Amazon.The next month or so will be a game-changer for many in the retail business.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 11.35am GMT 11:35 Retailers drag FTSE 100 away from record high Shares in several major British retailers have dropped today, following the news that sales fell in October.Kingfisher, which operates the B&Q DIY chain, and Marks & Spencer are both among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 this morning. That has helped to pull the blue-chip index down by 16 points to 7546, denting hopes that we could see a record alltime high today.The top fallers on the FTSE 100 Photograph: Thomson Reuters Security firm G4S are the biggest faller after downgrading its full-year sales growth forecasts this morning, guidance from between four and six per cent to three and four per cent.Associated British Foods are also out of favour, after warning this morning that sugar profits would fall in 2017-2018 due to lower EU prices. Neil Wilson (@neilwilson_etx) #ABF shares taking a bit of a pasting on outlook -3.71%November 7, 2017 That has taken the shine off Primark’s decent performance .Incidentally, Primark’s UK sales rose by 10% on a total basis, not a like-for like basis as I wrote earlier (now corrected).Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 11.03am GMT 11:03 John Lewis sales fall again In another sign that shoppers are cutting back, sales at John Lewis’s department stores fell by 3.7% last week compared to a year earlier. Takings in the seven days to 4th November fell to £102.03m, from £105.98m in 2016.Homeware sales shank by 7% and electrical and home technology takings tumbled by 8.4% -- despite the iPhone X launch boosting mobile phone sales.The spooky season provided some cheer, though; John Lewis’s Halloween sales jumped by 24% year on year.One week’s sales can be deceptive, but this chart shows that sales have been lagging 2016 for several weeks now...John Lewis’s weekly sales figures Photograph: John Lewis Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis group, reported a 0.5% drop in total sales last week.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 10.26am GMT 10:26 Eurozone retail sales have beaten forecasts, in another sign that Europe’s economy is strengthening. Eurozone retail sales jumped by 0.7% in September, according to new figures from Eurostat. On an annual basis ,sales volumes were 3.7% higher than a year ago.EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) Euro area #Retailtrade +0.7% in September over August, +3.7% over August 2016 https://t.co/FShaHDrjXI pic.twitter.com/BVJsSdqD9z November 7, 2017 Frederik Ducrozet (@fwred) Euro area consumers BUY MORE STUFF. pic.twitter.com/sGvUMoqhmz November 7, 2017 In contrast, retail sales across the UK shrank by 0.8% in September, according to figures released last month .Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.57am GMT 09:57 Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent, agrees that the shortage of UK houses are keeping prices up . On the face of it, these figures are quite encouraging because they continue to demonstrate the market resilience that we have grown accustomed to over the past few months. However, when you look behind the numbers you realise that much of the growth is supported by continuing shortage of supply which we are also finding on the high street.‘Looking forward there is no doubt that people will continue to trade but more nervously, particularly in the light of higher mortgage costs and pressure on real income.’Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.47am GMT 09:47 Sign up for our email Every weekday morning, Business Today delivers the biggest stories, smartest analysis and hottest topics direct to your inbox. Besides the key news headlines that you’d expect, there is an at-a-glance agenda of the day’s main events, insightful opinion pieces and a quality feature to sink your teeth into each day. You can sign up here .Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read more Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.39am GMT 09:39 The drop in retail sales last month shows that UK shoppers are holding onto their cash until they see a real bargain, says Hannah Maundrell, editor in chief of money.co.uk :She explains:“Despite retailers best efforts it’s not surprising households have tightened their purse strings in light of inflation rising and the lack of wage growth. Everyone is dubious about parting with their cash “just in case”.“We’re coming into what is typically the busiest period of the year for retailers, however bargain blindness has hit the retail sector hard as the expectation of rock bottom prices means we’re less and less willing to part with our cash if we have to pay full price.“We’re less likely to buy and expect discounts which causes the perfect storm for retailers.”Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.23am GMT 09:23 Discount fashion chain Primark has defied the slowdown in UK retail sales. It has reported a 10% rise in sales across its British stores in the last year [corrected].Parent company Associated British Foods says Primark’s share of the UK clothing market “increased significantly” -- suggesting it is grabbing sales from other retailers.After a good first half, third quarter trading was strong in the lead-up to Easter, with the growth also benefiting from comparison with prior year results that were affected by poor weather and an earlier Easter holiday. Fourth quarter trading was equally strong, fully reflecting the success of our consumer offering.This was driven by the ability of our buying, merchandising and design teams to identify and deliver key seasonal trends. The consumer response to our new autumn/winter range has been encouraging.In total, Primark posted a 14% rise in sales on a “constant currency” basis (stripping out foreign exchange moves) across Europe and the US. Like-for-like sales were only up by 1% thoughUpdated at 10.46am GMT Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.08am GMT 09:08 If Halifax are right, then house prices are rising much faster than wages (up 2.1% in the last year) and interest rates (now 0.5%). Lucy Pendleton, Founder Director of independent estate agents James Pendleton , says the lack of supply of new homes is pushing prices up. Here’s her take on the news that prices rose by 4.5% in the last year .“We’ve since had a rate rise but what you’re seeing isn’t one last hurrah as people rush to grab the best mortgage rates. It’s that same old ball and chain around the UK property market’s neck - weak supply.“The countdown on rates may have helped support demand but mortgage approvals were down. We know stiff competition for homes exists but to see approvals and prices diverge in such dramatic fashion is surprising.“There will also be an echo from September’s back-to-work bounce, as deals brokered before the summer holidays complete in the Autumn, but such a strong second month is uncharacteristic and shows the market in surprisingly rude health.”Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 8.58am GMT 08:58 Halifax: UK house prices are still rising UK house price inflation has accelerated again, according to the latest survey from Halifax. The lender reports that house prices rose by 4.5% in the last quarter, compared to a year ago. That’s up from 4% a month ago, and the fastest annual increase since February.During the month, prices picked up by 0.3%.It suggests that buyers weren’t deterred by (accurate) predictions that the Bank of England would raise interest rates this week.Henry Pryor (@HenryPryor) Halifax marks house prices up 4.5% over the past year even if it doesn’t feel like it is. pic.twitter.com/PMYpc5MH8i November 7, 2017 These housing surveys can be volatile, so should be treated cautiously.Last week, Nationwide also reported that house prices had risen -- but only at an annual rate of 2.5% .Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 8.49am GMT 08:49 Brits may be cutting back on clothes, but they’re still finding money for essentials such as, err, posh tonic water. Fever-Tree, the upmarket mixer maker, has told the City that its results this year will be ‘materially’ ahead of market expectations. It looks like its 5th profit upgrade this yearThe company, founded just 12 years ago, reckons that it’s dominating the rest of the market, saying:The exceptional performance in the UK, the Group’s largest market, has been particularly impressive with the rate of sales growth and momentum strong across both the on and off trade.The mixer category is now the fastest growing category across the UK soft drinks sector with Fever-Tree responsible for 97% of the value growth in retail over the last 12 months.Shares have jumped 10% in early trading, to £21.40. Three years ago they floated at just 134p....Fever-Tree’s share price Photograph: Thomson Reuters Updated at 8.49am GMT Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 8.27am GMT 08:27 Customers browse the displays at a New Look store on Oxford Street, London. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images UK fashion retailer New Look has also reported a drop in sales over the last six months, another sign that the sector is going through a tough patch. New Look posted a loss after tax of £72.7m for the six months to 23rd September this morning, after suffering a 4.5% drop in revenues.The retailer firm also revealed that Alistair McGeorge, former boss, been parachuted in as executive Chairman.McGeorge says:“Today’s results reflect another tough period of trading for the company amid a challenging retail environment on the UK high street.Whilst we’re not anticipating a reversal in fortunes overnight, I am confident we will implement the necessary changes to get the company back on track.Today’s financial results , though, show that McGeorge has a challenge on his hands:Revenue -4.5% to £686.0m (H1 FY17: £718.1m) New Look Brand like-for-like sales -8.6% UK like-for-like sales -8.4% Own website sales -7.6% Third Party E-commerce sales +17.0% Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 7.53am GMT 07:53 Paul Martin, head of retail at KPMG, says the drop in UK retail sales in October is a “real disappointment” “Clothing sales were particularly hard hit. After a brief uptick, fashion sales reverted back to the dreary theme we have seen for a number of months this year.Unseasonably warm weather last month will not have helped, but this is unlikely to be the only reason the new ranges are proving unpopular.He suggests that customers might be holding back until the ‘Black Friday’ deals arrive. “Overall growth online was lacklustre at best, although health and beauty products continued to stand out as a strong performer. The burning questions for retailers will be whether shoppers are holding off their purchases until Black Friday, and whether retailers can recover from this month’s poor performance to end the year on a high. Black Friday (an idea imported from America) lands on 24th November, so we’ll soon know whether October’s meagre pickings were just a blip or something more serious....Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 7.36am GMT 07:36 The agenda: UK retailers hit by falling non-food sales Non-food sales in UK stores shrank by almost 3% in the last quarter, as customers shun the shops Photograph: Alamy Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business. The storm clouds gathering over the UK’s retail sector have darkened, with a new survey showing that Brits cut back last month.Retail sales shrank by 1.0% on a like-for-like basis in October, compared to a year ago, according to the British Retail Consortium.Worryingly, non-food retail sales shrank by 0.4% over the last quarter on a like-for-like basis -- the worst reading since the BRC started counting in January 2011. That includes a 2.9% slump in sales of non-food items within stores (rather than online).Although food sales did rise, the report is another indication that Britain’s consumers are being squeezed by the rising cost of living, and economic uncertainty.Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium , says the report will alarm shop owners:“It was a meagre month in October for retail sales as shopping activity slumped. With total growth at its lowest since May and below the 12-month average, retailers will have cause for concern as they prepare for the crucial run up to Christmas.“The decline was driven by the worst performance of non-food sales since our record began in January 2011, as consumers appear to have opted for outdoor experiences and excursions during half term, over visits to the shops. The growth in food sales meanwhile, adds some colour to this otherwise anaemic picture, but these figures are very much buoyed by inflation.She blames the jump in inflation -- which hit 3% in September as the fall in the pound drove up import costs.“Real consumer spending power has been on a downward trend in the last year as the acceleration in inflation has caused shoppers to become ever more cautious in considering what purchases they can afford. Many now face higher borrowing costs, given the rise in interest rates, which will only serve to heap further pressure onto household finances.Here’s our report:Retailers urge ''shoppers'' budget'' as figures point to squeeze Read more Foreign exchange expert Kit Juckes of Société Générale isn’t impressed either:Kit Juckes (@kitjuckes) Yipper Dee doo dah not....UK retail sales falter in October – BRC https://t.co/BHHJ8oIg8k via @fastFT November 7, 2017 Also coming up today.... European stock markets are expected to open higher, after the FTSE 100 hit a record closing high last night.Ipek Ozkardeskaya (@IpekOzkardeskay) European opening call @LCGTrading $FTSE +18 points at 7580 $DAX +42 points at 13510 $CAC +10 points at 5517 $IBEX +42 points at 10358November 7, 2017 We’ll get a new healthcheck on Britain’s property market when Halifax publishes its monthly house price figures.Trader will also be watching the oil price, which nudged a two-year high yesterday after last weekend’s Saudi political shake-up. Overnight, US president Donald Trump backed Riyadh....Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing....November 6, 2017 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) ....Some of those they are harshly treating have been “milking” their country for years!November 6, 2017 Car firms Toyota and BMW are reporting results this morning, as are food and clothing group Associated British Foods , security group G4S and insurance companies Hiscox and Direct Line .The agenda: 7am GMT: German industrial production figures for September8.30am GMT: Halifax’s UK house price survey for October10am GMT: Eurozone retail sales for SeptemberUpdated at 7.46am GMT Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close Topics Business Business live Stock markets House prices'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/nov/07/uk-retail-sales-ftse-100-halifax-house-price-business-live'|'2017-11-07T14:53:00.000+02:00'
'6784907b12a96d4e65f5065cb8aa0293a907c266'|'From breakup bet to #Euroboom: the surprise of 2017'|'November 7, 2017 / 10:23 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago From breakup bet to #Euroboom: the surprise of 2017 Ritvik Carvalho , Dhara Ranasinghe 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone investments have turned in one of their best years since the single currency was born in 1999, confounding many who had bet on the bloc to be the disaster play of 2017. Euro coins are seen in front of displayed flag and map of European Union in this picture illustration taken in Zenica, May 28 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Euro zone “break up” trades as a top investment play for 2017 hardly seemed outlandish a year ago. Brexit, fears of contagion from the near-collapse of Italy’s oldest bank, and anxiety about a surge in populist anti-euro sentiment in a year packed with elections turned investors decidedly negative on the bloc’s prospects. But a dramatic swing in fortunes instead brought the fastest growth rate since the height of the sovereign debt crisis six years ago. Fears of anti-euro victories in French, German and Dutch elections proved wide of the mark, although inroads were made. The brighter outlook and more stable politics has meantime allowed the European Central Bank to take its first gradual steps towards exiting the extraordinary monetary stimulus in place since 2015. With the recovery even gaining its own Twitter hashtag -- #Euroboom” -- this set of graphics highlights the turnaround. FASTEST GROWTH IN 6 YEARS Third quarter figures released last week showed the euro zone hit its fastest growth rate since 2011, when the euro-crisis escalated and dented growth. That run also puts it in the top third of fastest growing quarters the bloc has posted since the birth of the single currency in 1999. A report by ratings firm S&P Global suggests the recovery will remain broad-based. SENTIMENT SURGE Investor and economic sentiment in the euro zone is close to record highs. Sentix’s index of investor morale is at its highest level in 10 years. The European Commission’s measure of economic sentiment for October hit its highest levels since the dot-com bubble in 2001, shrugging off jitters about an independence bid in the wealthy Spanish region of Catalonia. RATINGS REVIVAL Ratings agency Fitch’s outlook balance for the euro zone is at its highest since July 2005. The outlook balance is the difference between the total of the positive and negative outlooks on each country. S&P Global unexpectedly lifted Italy’s sovereign rating last month, the first such rise for the country by the firm in at least three decades. In September, S&P became the first of the big three ratings agencies to lift Portugal back to investment grade. STOCKS, EURO SHINE The pan-European STOXX 600 index has risen to two-year highs as strong corporate earnings accompany the economic recovery. Overall 66 percent of companies in the MSCI Europe index have beaten or met earnings expectations for the third quarter of 2017, underpinning regional indexes’ gains. A surging euro EUR= also reflects improved sentiment towards the currency bloc. The single currency is up almost 12 percent against the dollar this year, which puts it on track for its biggest annual rise since 2007. CREDIT WORTHY The borrowing costs of those countries bailed out during the euro zone debt crisis continue to fall as investors regain confidence in the growth that reforms have produced. TIGHTER LABOUR MARKETS Faster euro zone growth helped push unemployment to its lowest level in nine years in October, despite soft inflation. Wages also grew at their fastest rate in two years in the second quarter of 2017, an encouraging sign for the ECB looking to wind down monetary stimulus. BANK WOES EASE While still high, the number of non-performing loans in proportion to output in the euro area has halved since the peak of the crisis. Lending growth to both households and businesses is on the rise, with loans to households growing at their highest rate since June 2011. Efforts to address weakness in Italy’s banking system have helped banking stocks in the country .FTIT8300 rise over 20 percent this year. The Bank of Italy said last month that insolvent loans held by Italian banks fell to a three-year low in August. Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho and Dhara Ranasinghe Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-markets/from-breakup-bet-to-euroboom-the-surprise-of-2017-idUKKBN1D717F'|'2017-11-07T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'8f186adb0038f673e488ea02debd941972c45c76'|'REFILE-Opel speeds shift to PSA vehicle platforms'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:44 AM / Updated an hour ago Peugeot speeds Opel technology shift to cut emissions Laurence Frost , Gilles Guillaume 4 Min Read FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group vowed to move Opel models onto its own technology faster than initially planned to improve their emissions performance and secure promised savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German carmaker. Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group Carlos Tavares and Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller attend a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Rapid product launches will complete the transition to PSA vehicle architectures by 2024, three years ahead of the previous timetable, Opel said, as it outlined turnaround plans that leave a 1.7 billion euro ($2 billion) synergies goal unchanged. The adjustment suggests PSA and Opel will have to do more, and faster, to achieve savings the French carmaker had promised after agreeing to buy Opel from General Motors in a March deal that valued the business at 2.2 billion euros. It also reflects the tougher task of meeting European Union emissions rules with legacy Opel vehicles and engines developed under GM. The EU has just published proposals for a further 30 percent carbon dioxide emissions cut by 2030. “We quickly came to the conclusion that Opel was not ready to reach the CO2 targets set by the EU for 2020-2021,” Opel boss Michael Lohscheller told reporters and analysts at the brand’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt. “The good news is that synergies are validated (at) a detailed level,” he said. PSA shares fell 2.2 percent to 19.70 euros at 1217 GMT, after Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said Opel’s financial health had worsened as plans were being drawn up. “The situation gets worse by the day,” he said, without giving details. Yet Opel pledged to avoid factory closures or forced layoffs, instead relying on a doubling of exports by 2020 to fill underused plants as it enters new markets such as Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Weak international development under GM was a frustration in Ruesselsheim. “Opel will go global, finally,” Lohscheller said, while cautioning the plan will nonetheless require “reduction of cost in all areas including labour”. Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller attends a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Wage costs will be pared from about 15 percent of revenue to an 11 percent benchmark as Opel negotiates voluntary departures, early retirements and shorter hours with its workers - part of a broader effort to cut 700 euros of costs per vehicle. “PSA has taken on a damaged company with weak brands,” said Bernstein analyst Max Warburton. “But automotive turnarounds usually surprise, and this one has a good smell about it,” he added, reiterating an “outperform” rating on the group’s shares. The renaissance of Opel and its British Vauxhall unit will be based on “German engineering for all and a perfect match with (the) PSA brands”, Lohscheller said, referring to Peugeot, Citroen and DS. Slideshow (11 Images) Opel will introduce at least two new cars in 2019 including the Corsa mini, with a larger car and SUV to follow, among nine models or variants promised by the following year. All models will offer electric or plug-in hybrid versions by 2024, and Opel’s Ruesselsheim engineering center will specialize in future technologies such as fuel cells and driving autonomy. The product blitz will be more ambitious than previously suggested. PSA had said in March that technology convergence would begin in 2019 and take another eight years to complete. Despite the faster pace, however, PSA maintained both the 1.7 billion euro synergies goal and its 2026 deadline, with 1.1 billion or roughly two-thirds of that amount due by 2021. It also confirmed previously announced profitability targets for Opel that call for a 2 percent operating margin in 2020, rising to 6 percent in 2026. ($1 = 0.8616 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peugeot-opel/opel-speeds-shift-to-psa-vehicle-platforms-idUSKBN1D90NT'|'2017-11-09T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'780cfb5f14e12e8e3285d1043a2590622cefb2c3'|'AT&T ready to fight U.S. on Time Warner deal - CEO'|'WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc will not sell cable network CNN to win antitrust approval of its proposed $85.4 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc and will fight the government in court if a negotiated settlement is not reached, the wireless company’s chief executive said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Justice Department staff recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit, which includes news company CNN, a government official told Reuters on Thursday, on the grounds that a combined company would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation.The two sides are still in talks on approving the deal, which was announced in October 2016, but have disagreed on whether asset sales are necessary to gain approval.“If we feel like litigation is a better outcome then we will litigate,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday. He said the company had been ready to go to court the day the deal was announced.AT&T has signalled it would not agree to sell DirecTV, which it acquired for $49 billion in 2015, leaving CNN and other cable TV assets as the main sticking point in negotiations.The antitrust regulator is worried the combined company could make it harder for rivals to deliver content to consumers using new technologies, the official said. AT&T has said it wants to disrupt “entrenched pay TV models.”FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Stephenson said several times on Thursday that a combined AT&T and Time Warner will create a data and advertising company whose competitors will be the newest and most disruptive entrants into the media sector, Amazon.com Inc , Facebook Inc , Netflix Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, not other wireless phone companies.The Justice Department’s desire for asset sales has raised concerns about political influence on the $85.4 billion deal, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of CNN. As a candidate, Trump vowed to block the deal shortly after it was announced, but has not addressed the issue publicly as president.The head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, said in a statement late on Thursday that he has “never been instructed by the White House” on the AT&T deal.Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said in a separate statement that Trump “did not speak with the Attorney General about this matter, and no White House official was authorized speak with the Department of Justice on this matter.”The deal is opposed by an array of rivals and consumer groups worried that it would give the combined company too much power. Opponents are pushing for conditions that would limit AT&T&rsquo;s ability to charge media rivals higher prices to carry Time Warner content.Shares of Time Warner were down nearly 1 percent in afternoon trading at $87.85. AT&T shares rose 1.6 percent to $33.97.Reporting by David Shepardson and Anjali Athavaley; Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Aishwarya Venugopal; Writing by Anna Driver; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-worried-att-and-time-warner-would-hike-costs-for-media-rivals-idINKBN1D92NC'|'2017-11-09T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'1e8b01b56c7735627164774742a66f2dd92e7013'|'UPDATE 1-UAE asks banks for information on 19 Saudis'' accounts -sources'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:40 AM / Updated 2 hours ago UPDATE 1-UAE asks banks for information on 19 Saudis'' accounts -sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds number known to be detained, no comment by regulator, context) ABU DHABI/DUBAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates central bank and securities regulator have asked banks and finance companies in the UAE to provide information on the accounts of 19 Saudi citizens, banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. Saudi authorities have previously confirmed that almost all the 19 have been detained in a sweeping corruption investigation. One of those is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of international investment firm Kingdom Holding . The regulators’ request was contained in a circular sent earlier this week and banks have responded, the sources said, adding that the banks had not been asked to freeze the accounts. The UAE’s securities regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority, declined to comment while officials at the central bank were not available to comment. Commercial bankers said they believed UAE authorities were acting at the request of Saudi authorities, but this was not confirmed. Saudi officials have said they will try to recover billions of dollars of illicit assets from dozens of senior businessmen and officials detained in the probe. Saudia Arabia has mutual legal assistance arrangements with other Gulf Arab countries that help it seek such information in criminal cases. (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Tom Arnold; Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-emirates/update-1-uae-asks-banks-for-information-on-19-saudis-accounts-sources-idUSL8N1NF0WA'|'2017-11-09T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'6ff2d132a838179266187ee6fe84d18e75a73e8b'|'METALS-London nickel slides more than 2 percent'|'(Adds comment, detail, updates prices) MELBOURNE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - London nickel fell by more than two percent on Thursday to its weakest since October as hype over potential electric vehicle demand that drove last week''s rally died down. The nickel market had been ignoring downside risks from policy developments in Indonesia and the Philippines, and instead was focusing on potential future demand from electric vehicle batteries, said Morgan Stanley in a report. "We (have) heard little to alter our view that producing NiSO (nickel sulphate) isn''t particularly challenging/costly and we see near-term downside risk to price," it said. The bank expects annual demand for nickel from the EV sector to grow to 300,000 tonnes by 2025. FUNDAMENTALS * NICKEL: London nickel fell by 2.4 percent in its biggest one-day slide since September, while Shanghai Futures Exchange nickel fell by 2.3 percent. Traders said prices were correcting after they surged by 10 percent across an industry week in London last week. * CHINA: Appetite for nickel has been driven up as battery makers increasingly turn to the base metal to help power global electric car sales. Demand for nickel will outstrip global supply for the third year in a row in 2018, according to Chinese state-backed research firm Antaike. * COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper eased by 0.4 percent to $6,824.50 a tonne by 0448 GMT, erasing a small gain from the previous session. Before posting its Wednesday gain, LME copper touched $6,780, its lowest since Oct. 11. ShFE copper slipped 0.5 percent to 53,530 yuan ($8,073) a tonne. * SHFE ALUMINIUM: Shanghai aluminium fell 2.6 percent to its weakest since early August amid speculation that China''s war on pollution could also hit manufacturers of aluminium products and curb demand. * CHINA INFLATION: China''s producer prices were surprisingly strong in October, while consumer inflation picked up pace, suggesting the world''s second-largest economy remains robust despite expected curbs on factory output as the government pursues a punishing war on smog. * JAPAN: Japan''s core machinery orders tumbled in September, a decline that companies expect to continue into October-December in a sign that business investment is losing momentum. * NICKEL: Brazil''s miner Vale SA said on Wednesday it had received bids to invest in its New Caledonia nickel project as the company re-evaluates its nickel business. * POLL: Resurgent industrial metals prices, powered by enthusiasm for the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and a Chinese pollution crackdown are starting to look overcooked - raising the risk of a correction next year, a Reuters poll showed. * COMING UP: Germany Trade data for Sep PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0510 GMT Three month LME copper 6826.5 Most active ShFE copper 53530 Three month LME aluminium 2098 Most active ShFE 15480 aluminium Three month LME zinc 3183 Most active ShFE zinc 25370 Three month LME lead 2498 Most active ShFE lead 18790 Three month LME nickel 12395 Most active ShFE nickel 99020 Three month LME tin 19425 Most active ShFE tin 141740 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 695.45 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -691.57 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 446.42 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1059.02 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 1799.86 ($1 = 6.6305 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath and Tom Hogue) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-nickel-slides-more-than-2-percent-idINL3N1NF20Z'|'2017-11-09T02:31:00.000+02:00'
'425fb7a7bbf5d4471a7b9cf6009eb594fa9cbc45'|'UPDATE 1-AIRSHOW-Airbus nears deal to sell over 30 A380s -sources'|'(Adds details)By Tim Hepher and Alexander CornwellPARIS/DUBAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Airbus is close to a deal worth at least $14 billion to sell over 30 of its A380 jetliners to Dubai’s Emirates to seek to secure production of its struggling superjumbo until the middle of next decade, two people familiar with the matter said.The deal, if confirmed, is expected to be announced at the opening of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday.Airbus said it does not comment on commercial discussions.A spokeswoman for Emirates, which is by far the largest A380 buyer with 142 on order and 100 already delivered, said: “We do not comment on rumours or speculation.”The airline’s chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, said last week it hoped to order more A380s at the Nov 12-16 event.The deal comes as Airbus trails rival Boeing in orders this year, with 35 percent of their combined tally ahead of the industry’s largest Middle East event.That gap widened as Boeing announced orders and commitments for 300 jets during a visit to China by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday.The 544-seat European A380 entered service amid huge fanfare in 2007, but its future has been thrown into doubt by sluggish sales as airlines turn to efficient twin-engined jets.Airbus has not sold a four-engined A380 since March 2015. So far this year it has posted only two cancellations.Airbus has cut production of the A380 to eight per year from a peak of 30 but needs to secure more sales to hold production at this rate. It recently launched a programme of improvements called A380plus to make the double-decker jet more efficient.Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders has said he believed it would be producing the superjumbo 10 years from now and was working on sales.Airbus has almost 100 A380s left on order, but roughly half of these are seen unlikely to be delivered as airlines alter their plans. Of the rest, Emirates is the dominant customer.“On the basis of the current order book its future is not terribly exciting, but an order for another 30 or so would underpin production to the middle of next decade,” said Sash Tusa, aerospace analyst at UK-based Agency Partners.Analysts say Emirates also has a stake in the future of the A380 because it has built a large part of its network and brand around the aircraft, alongside the Boeing 777, and could see the value of its fleet suffer if the programme fades away.Its chief executive has praised the aircraft’s ability to pull in passengers to its Dubai hub and lamented patchy interest from other airlines. But executives at many airlines remain worried about the challenges of filling such a large plane. (Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-a380/update-1-airshow-airbus-nears-deal-to-sell-over-30-a380s-sources-idUSL8N1NF32N'|'2017-11-09T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'930bff0adb93f93f3c02d58b78a968adff1e6fcf'|'Small banks oppose U.S. regulator offering olive branch to tech sector'|'NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Small Main Street banks vowed on Wednesday to fight any review of a ban that prevents retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and tech companies like Amazon.com Inc from becoming fully fledged banks.Keith Noreika, a top U.S. banking regulator, stirred disquiet among community bankers with his call for a review of the current regulations. The proposal by the acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) was made at a banking conference in New York and comes as technology companies such as Amazon and Apple Inc have already broken into the financial arena with payment services and different types of lending.“Mixing banking and commerce is a bad idea that keeps recurring like a bad dream,” said Paul Merski with the Independent Community Bankers of America.“It’s one of our bedrock resolutions to oppose the threat of full blown mixing of banking and commerce.”Mixing banking and other commercial activities has traditionally been prohibited in the United States, amid fears customer deposits would be used to fund or subsidize unrelated and potentially risky non-banking business.Even so, technology companies have been making inroads.Earlier this week, Apple released a product called Apple Pay Cash. The feature allows iPhone users to send each other cash that can then immediately be used in stores that take Apple Pay. The system uses a so-called “virtual debit card” to enable in-store payments. Amazon, meanwhile, offers small-business lending.Nonetheless, Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive Tim Sloan said he does not view Silicon Valley as a threat to banks. “I don’t think Apple fundamentally wants to become a bank. I don’t think Amazon wants to become a bank,” he said during a CEO round table at an industry conference in New York Tuesday. “They want to use financial services products to help their customers succeed.”Amazon had no immediate comment and Apple did not return a request for comment.THE NEXT FDIC BOSS Technology firms would have to submit to a welter of regulation and oversight and apply for a banking charter from the OCC if they wanted to become full-service banks. Bank holding companies are also prohibited from engaging in nonfinancial activities.In a statement, Colin Walsh the CEO of mobile banking startup Varo Money, said its charter application was going through the approval process. Student online lender Social Finance Inc withdrew its application last month.Mobile payments company Square, which reported better-than-expected results on Wednesday, has applied to be a so-called industrial loan company, an entity that enjoys some of the same privileges as a traditional bank but falls short of a full bank charter.“It (industrial loan charter) does allow us to engage more directly with regulatory bodies so it’s great to hear that comment coming today from the OCC,” said Sarah Friar, the chief financial officer of Square.The comments from Noreika, who has built up a reputation for a strong deregulatory bent since taking over in May, puts a spotlight on the OCC’s sister organization the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).While the OCC issues the bank charter, the FDIC insures any deposits and must also approve the charter.The term of current FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, a holdover from the administration of former President Barack Obama, expires this month. Gruenberg has the option of staying on as chairman until his replacement is nominated and confirmed by the Senate.Some bankers said they were comfortable with corporations entering their turf, as long as they were subject to the same rules.“If Wal-Mart wants to be a bank that’s fine, as long as they make the appropriate investments to protect the parts of the banking system that are so critical,” said Kelly King, chief executive at regional lender BB&T Corp.King added that he was “absolutely opposed” to the idea of a limited banking license.Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, abandoned plans for its own bank in 2007 after opposition from lawmakers, bankers and watchdog groups.Wal-Mart does not intend to resurrect those plans after Noreika’s comments, spokeswoman Erin Hulliberger said.Wal-Mart already operates hundreds of money centers within its stores, which offer services like check cashing, money transfers, bill payment along with prepaid debit cards and credit cards.Facebook Inc in 2015 began letting people send money to friends through its Messenger app, but a move into banking is not on the company’s roadmap, said spokeswoman Vanessa Chan.Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker in Washington, Anna Irrera in New York, Jeffrey Dastin and David Ingram in San Francisco and Nandita Bose in Chicago; Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-banks-rivals/small-banks-oppose-u-s-regulator-offering-olive-branch-to-tech-sector-idUSL1N1NE1K1'|'2017-11-09T08:17:00.000+02:00'
'5cafcb85e0a6ce5ce2922b29aeda7f06a2c8930e'|'Japan''s Aso - Won''t use FTA to resolve trade deficit with U.S.'|'November 7, 2017 / 1:19 AM / in 8 minutes Japan''s Finance Minister says won''t use FTA to resolve U.S. trade imbalance Tetsushi Kajimoto 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that Japan would not enter a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States as a means to resolve the two countries’ trade imbalance. FILE PHOTO: Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services of Japan, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Aso said it was true that the United States was running a trade deficit but said the situation was different from that of the 1980s, when trade friction strained bilateral relations. “In the 1980s, Japan accounted for 53 percent of U.S. trade deficits, but the situation is totally different now,” Aso said. He added that his country now accounts for only 9 percent of the U.S. trade deficit, compared with China, which accounts for 47 percent of the deficit. “We won’t do an FTA to deal with the issue. We agreed we are going to discuss how we should rectify the U.S. trade deficit with Japan through our economic dialogue. There are various ways so we will consider” how to proceed, he said. Aso’s comments came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump, during his visit to Japan, bemoaned the trade imbalance and called for “free, fair, and reciprocal” trade. In a second round of economic talks in Washington last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Aso, who doubles as deputy premier, failed to bridge differences on trade issues. The two sides are at odds over how to frame future trade talks, with Tokyo pushing back against U.S. calls to discuss a bilateral FTA. Japan is firmly committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, which Trump announced Washington would abandon soon after he took office. The 11 remaining nations in the TPP are edging closer to sealing a comprehensive free trade pact without the United States. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-usa/japans-aso-wont-use-fta-to-resolve-trade-deficit-with-u-s-idUKKBN1D7042'|'2017-11-07T03:18:00.000+02:00'
'899197448c225a6bd026e2aa7fe865d0ffac6330'|'Aramco oil reserves audit two-thirds complete, may not be finished in 2017 -sources'|'LONDON/DUBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - An audit of Saudi Aramco’s oil reserves is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2017 because of the huge scale of the task, sources familiar with the matter said, a later timeframe than previously indicated.The audit has so far confirmed the reserves figures earlier given by Saudi Arabia, the sources said, an important part of the state oil company’s preparatory work for its planned initial public offering next year.Saudi Arabia’s reserves of easily recoverable oil have long been considered the world’s largest. But there have also been questions about their volume and quality, and the audit seeks to provide internationally recognised figures for investors.“It’s a huge task,” a source familiar with the matter said, commenting on the progress of the reserves audit. “They are about two-thirds of the way through. It’s all going well and smoothly - no surprises.”For nearly 30 years - despite rising production, large swings in oil prices and improved technology - Riyadh has annually reported the same number for reserves of 261 billion barrels, according to BP’s statistical review.Dallas-based DeGolyer and MacNaughton, and Gaffney, Cline and Associates, part of Baker Hughes, are involved in the auditing, sources have said. Baker Hughes declined to comment on the progress of the work, while DeGolyer did not respond to a request for comment.Asked to comment, Aramco said: “We do not comment on rumours and speculation. Investors will receive relevant information in due course in connection with the IPO.”An industry source had told Reuters in March that Aramco aimed to have one of the two reserves auditors wrap up the review this year, long before the planned listing. But this now looks unlikely.“Aramco wants to make sure the companies are shown full data to avoid sceptical remarks on its reserves later on,” a second source said. “It’s unlikely the audit will be finished this year.”A third source said auditing work on the major Aramco fields was completed, leaving smaller fields still to be audited.A reserves total that is significantly above or below the 261 billion figure is likely to affect Aramco’s potential value. Earlier phases of the audit have supported Aramco’s statements on the total size of deposits.The sale of around 5 percent of Aramco next year is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is championed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.No decision about the location of the international share listing has been announced, fuelling market speculation the IPO could be delayed or shelved. But Prince Mohammad told Reuters in October it was still on track for 2018. (Additonal reporting by David French in New York and Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; editing by David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aramco-ipo-reserves/aramco-oil-reserves-audit-two-thirds-complete-may-not-be-finished-in-2017-sources-idINL8N1N744H'|'2017-11-07T05:03:00.000+02:00'
'2bca2a740fc5e6b9c5e2dc18a0c8a60e2884c4ef'|'Banco do Brasil misses third-quarter profit estimates on weak loan demand'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - State-controlled lender Banco do Brasil SA missed third-quarter profit estimates on Thursday as weak demand for loans weighed on interest income.Net income rose 2.2 percent from the prior three months to 2.708 billion reais ($832 million) when adjusted for non-recurring items, according to a securities filing, below the 2.708 billion real consensus estimate compiled by Reuters.The bank’s so-called organic loan book contracted by 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year amid a slow economic recovery and looked set to miss a year-end target of a 1 percent to 4 percent decline.Still, the bank cut loan-loss provisions to the lowest levels in two years as defaults fell for the first time since the third quarter of 2016. ($1 = 3.2545 reais) (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Susan Fenton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/banco-do-brasil-results/banco-do-brasil-misses-third-quarter-profit-estimates-on-weak-loan-demand-idUSE6N1M3023'|'2017-11-09T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'70bc74b75c6db7b5a19ccbf2752d0e9f2c5a0790'|'Apple says no operations were moved from Ireland'|'(Reuters) - Apple Inc said none of its operations were moved from Ireland and that changes made to its corporate structure in 2015 were specially designed to preserve tax payments to the United States, and not to reduce taxes anywhere else.A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed Irish flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo The statement on Monday from Apple comes following criticism of its tax affairs after reports based on the “Paradise Papers” showed that the iPhone maker shifted key parts of its business to Jersey as an offshore tax haven in a move to maintain a low tax rate.The “Paradise Papers” are a trove of financial documents leaked mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm.The documents were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets. Reuters has not independently verified them. Appleby was not immediately available for comment.Apple said it pays billions of dollars in taxes to the United States at the statutory 35 percent rate on investment income from its overseas cash. ( apple.co/2AohvBE )Last month, Apple responded to questions from the ICIJ and others revealing that when Ireland changed its tax laws in 2015, the company complied by changing the residency of its Irish subsidiaries and informed Ireland, the European Commission and the United States.The changes made did not reduce its tax payments in any country, according to the company. Apple is the largest taxpayer in the world, paying over $35 billion in corporate income taxes in the last three years, according to the statement.Tax reduction strategies have been employed for decades by companies including Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc.Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-tax-paradise-papers/apple-says-no-operations-were-moved-from-ireland-idUSKBN1D62UC'|'2017-11-07T00:13:00.000+02:00'
'739017e535884be32971f60cf3c202abe91cb9aa'|'Banking whistleblowers being gagged and hunted down - Lord Cromwell'|'Reuters TV United States November 7, 2017 / 2:27 PM / a few seconds ago Banking whistleblowers being gagged and hunted down: UK lawmaker Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Whistleblowers in banking are being gagged and risk ending up broke and unemployed despite reforms introduced since the financial crisis, a senior British lawmaker said on Tuesday. Workers walk to work during the morning rush hour in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, Britain, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh Lord Cromwell, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking, said the American system of compensating whistleblowers should be looked at given the financial hardship that people who speak face. “What actually happens to whistleblowers in our system is they become unemployable, they have their lives trashed, and they are heavily persecuted in the most intimidatory way,” Cromwell told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on conduct in banking. “In America, if you are a genuine whistleblower and an eyewatering fine is imposed on the institution, you get a share of that - and you are going to need it.” “You pay for vermin control, so why do you expect people to do the right thing for nothing and then have their lives destroyed,” Cromwell said. Tougher whistleblowing rules was introduced after the 2007-09 financial crisis, but they stop short of offering financial rewards. The all-party group will now hold meetings to look at how whistleblowing is working. The industry is also waiting to see how the Financial Conduct Authority deals with attempts by Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays ( BARC.L ) bank, to unmask a whistleblower’s identity. Norman Blackwell, chairman of Lloyds ( LLOY.L ) bank, told the City & Financial conference there should be the option of speaking out anonymously, and a crackdown on penalizing anyone for speaking out publicly. Robert Francis, a barrister who led a government review into whistleblowing in Britain’s public healthcare system, said a “re-employment” scheme for staff who often face job loss if they turn to employment tribunals, would be better than a financial reward. “The law isn’t hitting the target,” Francis said. Anthony Belchambers, chairman of Saxo Capital Markets, said that a decade after the crisis began, the industry was “shamefully slow” in improving conduct. There was a risk that a “morass” of new codes could become a “bit of a mess” and not be enforced properly, Belchambers said. Additional reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-banks-regulation/banking-whistleblowers-being-gagged-and-hunted-down-uk-lawmaker-idUKKBN1D720P'|'2017-11-07T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'd691d550c3bea8bb49a2d0e18b031962eb3e87f8'|'UK dealership Lookers says car firms reducing targets in Britain'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:43 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Dealership Lookers says carmakers cut UK sales targets Costas Pitas 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Major carmakers are reducing their sales targets in Britain by around 10 percent amid weakening demand, dealership chain Lookers ( LOOK.L ) said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Newly manufactured Ford Fiesta cars are seen on the deck of the car transport ship "Tossa", during its journey from a Ford plant in the German city of Cologne to the Dutch seaport of Vlissingen, as it enters a water-gate at Krammer in the Netherlands September 13, 2013. REUTERS/Wolfgang Ratta New car registrations in Europe’s second-biggest auto market have fallen for seven months in a row, according to industry data, hit by weaker consumer confidence and uncertainty over possible future levies on diesel cars. Lookers said it now expected sales would fall by around 5 percent this year, the first annual decline since 2011. At the start of 2017 it expected demand to match 2016’s record 2.69 million sales but in August it revised that to forecast a 3 percent drop. The chain, which sells vehicles for almost all major brands including Volkswagen, Ford and BMW, said manufacturers were cutting sales targets by on average around 10 percent to reflect the cooling market. “Our key manufacturer partners recognise the more difficult trading environment and are taking pragmatic and supportive actions such as reducing targets, increasing tactical incentives and helping us to reduce operating costs,” the firm said in a statement. Although Lookers said it would still meet full-year expectations thanks to the particular range of models it sells, Chief Executive Andy Bruce told Reuters that the Brexit-induced fall in the pound had hit demand. Most of the cars sold in Britain are imported and several car firms have passed on some of the extra cost of bringing in their vehicles to consumers since sterling depreciated by around 15 percent in the wake of the Brexit vote in June last year. “That direct impact on the exchange rate has impacted the volumes and of course then the more indirect impact on consumer confidence,” Bruce said. “There’s quite a lot of negative news out there at the moment.” Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Alistair Smout and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lookers-outlook/uk-dealership-lookers-says-car-firms-reducing-targets-in-britain-idUKKBN1D90UB'|'2017-11-09T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'5d47e17852a3f31b6b0d720d3dd388918000e34a'|'Thousands of drugs at risk if no Brexit deal, companies warn'|'November 8, 2017 / 11:05 PM / Updated 10 hours ago Thousands of drugs at risk if no Brexit deal, companies warn Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Supplies of thousands of medicines are at risk of disruption if Britain leaves the European Union without a trade deal, European pharmaceutical companies warned on Thursday. More than 2,600 drugs have some stage of manufacture in Britain and 45 million patient packs are supplied from the UK to other European countries each month, while another 37 million flow in the opposite direction. Brexit threatens the free flow of these goods, given stringent medicine regulations that may require the retesting of drugs shipped across borders in the absence of an agreed trading arrangement. The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (Efpia) said a survey of its members showed 45 percent of companies expected trade delays if Britain and Europe fell back onto World Trade Organization rules after Brexit. Drugmakers also face an additional hurdle when it comes to licensing their products, since more than 12,000 medicines will require a separate UK license in order for them to be prescribed. “For life-saving and life-improving medicines, the EU and UK cannot afford to wait any longer to ensure that the necessary cooperation on medicines is in place from the day the UK leaves the EU,” said Efpia Director General Nathalie Moll. Pharmaceutical companies have insisted since last year’s Brexit referendum that a comprehensive agreement is needed to ensure maximum alignment between EU and British pharmaceutical regulations. But with the clock ticking down to Brexit in March 2019 with no sign yet that a trade deal will be concluded, many companies are now starting to draw up plans to protect drug supply chains, including building extra testing centers in Europe. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-pharmaceuticals/thousands-of-drugs-at-risk-if-no-brexit-deal-companies-warn-idUKKBN1D838L'|'2017-11-09T01:07:00.000+02:00'
'bd97d1e67ea46dca0bf0cf56e5b5d4757f9824cb'|'China electric car startup Nio raises over $1 bln from Tencent, others -sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent Holdings Ltd, valuing the firm at about $5 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said.FILE PHOTO: People gather at the booth of Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio as it unveils its ES8 SUV at the Shanghai autoshow, in Shanghai, China April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo New investors in the round include U.S. hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, Chinese investment firm CITIC Capital and Scottish fund manager Baillie Gifford, said one of the people.The fundraising comes as Beijing has been promoting electric vehicles in its battle with urban smog, with startups flooding the market after it opened up the sector to investment from technology firms and other backers outside the industry.It marks a hectic news week for Tencent, Asia’s second-most valuable company with a market capitalization of around $475 billion.Snap Inc said on Wednesday that Tencent had taken a 12 percent stake in the messaging app. A day earlier, Tencent’s e-book unit China Literature Ltd saw its shares surge more than 80 percent in their debut.Tencent, CITIC Capital and Baillie Gifford didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the Nio fundraising. Nio declined to comment. Lone Pine Capital was not immediately available for comment outside of normal business hours.The sources declined to be named as the financing plans were not public.FILE PHOTO: A man is silhouetted in front of Nio cars at the auto show, in Shanghai, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Shanghai-based Nio, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, has already attracted big-name investors, counting Tencent as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is also among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.Its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle is set to be released in mid- December, according to the company. Chairman Li told Reuters in April that the model would offer more features than the Tesla Model X at a lower price.Tencent is also an investor in U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc.Nio has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020. The firm said in April it was teaming up with China’s fourth-largest automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile to form a joint venture to cooperate on researching and selling electric cars.It was valued at about 20 billion yuan ($3.02 billion) when it raised $600 million in March, according to Chinese media reports at the time.Tencent’s own news portal, Tencent Technology, first reported Nio’s latest financing round on Wednesday.Reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nio-fundraising/china-electric-car-startup-nio-raises-over-1-billion-from-tencent-others-sources-idUSKBN1D90MS'|'2017-11-09T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'b8e5df1086bb07f7402263f75610fc8d6eabc729'|'Exclusive - Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments, used Russian bank to pay ONGC: sources'|' 15 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Exclusive - Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments, used Russian bank to pay ONGC: sources Nidhi Verma 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil-firm PDVSA has not made debt payments to India’s top oil producer ONGC ( ONGC.NS ) for six months, and has previously used a Russian state-owned bank and another Indian energy company as intermediaries to make payments, two sources familiar with the transactions said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is seen next to a mural depicting Venezuela''s late President Hugo Chavez at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela March 2, 2017. Picture taken March 2, 2017. To match Insight VENEZUELA-INDIA/OIL REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, confirmed that PDVSA had fallen behind on the payments, but declined to give details on the delays. “They have got certain challenges at this stage,” ONGC Videsh said in an emailed response to Reuters’ questions. “They have assured that they are working on it (payment of dues). In due course it will be settled and follow up steps will be undertaken.” “We have a good working relationship with PDVSA,” ONGC said. PDVSA declined to comment. But the two sources, who requested anonymity, said PDVSA has made no payment since April on what was a $540 million backlog of dividends owed to ONGC for an investment the Indian firm made in a an energy project in Venezuela. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said last week that the country planned to restructure some $60 billion of bonds, much of it held by PDVSA, as the country struggles to meet debt repayments. The OPEC member’s economy has collapsed since global oil prices plummeted in 2014. Venezuela depends on oil for more than 90 percent of export revenue. PDVSA has delayed a range of payments, such as for oil services and supplies, as Caracas uses the scant dollar supplies available to make sovereign debt repayments. LATE PAYMENTS, SANCTIONS FILE PHOTO - A view of a gas station of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela March 2, 2017. Picture taken March 2, 2017. To match Insight VENEZUELA-INDIA/OIL REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins International banks and suppliers have reduced or halted credit to PDVSA since cash flow problems led the firm to start delaying payments to creditors in 2014. U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan officials including PDVSA executives, have also deterred banks from offering credit. Maduro’s government has increasingly turned to ally Russia for the cash and credit it needs to survive, according to a Reuters special report published in August. Russia’s state-run Gazprombank in January cleared a payment of $19.75 million of Venezuela’s pending dues to ONGC, the two sources said. Details of the payment and Gazprombank’s involvement have not previously been published. India’s Reliance Industries Ltd ( RELI.NS ), owner of the world’s biggest refining complex and one of PDVSA’s biggest oil buyers, paid $68.66 million to ONGC on behalf of PDVSA in April, the sources said. Gazprombank and Reliance did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. PDVSA and ONGC Videsh Ltd last year signed a deal for PDVSA to pay the debt by assigning the Indian firm 17,000 barrels per day of oil. Under the agreement, PDVSA sells the oil on behalf of ONGC and sends the cash to the Indian company. ONGC cannot take delivery of the oil because its Mangalore refinery is unable to process Venezuela’s heavy crude. Venezuela has often used oil to repay debt: it owes billions of dollars to both Russia and China and is paying both with oil. Many multinational firms have written off their Venezuelan operations and investments, but ONGC is aiming to expand in the South American country. The Indian firm is seeking to raise funding for Venezuela’s San Cristobal oil project, in which the Indian company has a 40 percent stake. PDVSA and ONGC aim to raise oil output from the project to about 27,000 bpd from 18,000 bpd. Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in CARACAS and Editing by Simon Webb and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-india-oil-exclusive/exclusive-venezuelas-pdvsa-misses-debt-payments-used-russian-bank-to-pay-ongc-sources-idUKKBN1D90LE'|'2017-11-09T08:14:00.000+02:00'
'5196783ca93e8d9798ca8917c8bb5d3e79b613d1'|'Twenty-First Century Fox''s first-quarter revenue rises'|'November 8, 2017 / 9:11 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Twenty-First Century Fox''s quarterly revenue beats Street Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) quarterly revenue topped market estimates on Wednesday as higher advertising sales and revenue from traditional and online distributors boosted its cable business. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo The company’s shares were up nearly 1 percent in extended trading. The results come after CNBC reported on Monday that Fox had, in the last few weeks, held talks about selling most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). The two sides are not currently in discussion, CNBC had reported. Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox did not address the report in its first-quarter report. Revenue from Fox’s cable division, which houses the Fox News and FX channels among others, rose 10 percent to $4.20 billion (£3.20 billion), accounting for more than half of total revenue in the quarter. That beat analysts average estimate of $4.12 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Domestic advertising revenue in the cable business rose 3 percent. Fox’s ad revenue can vary from quarter to quarter depending on events, but has been hit by viewer’s increasing preference for streaming services. Revenue at Fox’s filmed entertainment division rose 3 percent to $1.96 billion, edging past analysts estimate of $1.95 billion, according to FactSet. Fox said revenue rose to $7.00 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, higher than the $6.51 billion a year earlier and the $6.81 billion analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to shareholders increased to $855 million, or 46 cents per share, from $821 million, or 44 cents per share. Excluding items, Fox earned 49 cents per share, inline with market estimates. The reported talks with Disney adds another layer of uncertainty to Fox’s bid to buy the rest the nearly 61 percent of European pay-TV group Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) it does not already own in an offer worth $14.5 billion made in December. The offer is being closely scrutinized by the British government. Murdoch has repeatedly stated that deal would be approved in the first half of 2018. “Absent further delays, the transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2018,” Fox said on Wednesday. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-results/twenty-first-century-foxs-first-quarter-revenue-rises-idUKKBN1D8323'|'2017-11-08T23:11:00.000+02:00'
'c56b25c0ec9513e241ab4c59c64cab6d0ca5efc5'|'UPDATE 1-Encana''s profit falls 7 pct as production slips'|' 53 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Encana''s profit falls 7 pct as production slips Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details on production, analyst quote, updates shares) Nov 8 (Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas producer Encana Corp’s profit fell 7.3 percent in the third quarter, hurt by lower oil and gas production. The Calgary-based company said on Wednesday its net profit slipped to $294 million, or 30 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $317 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier. Total oil and gas production fell to 284,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) from 338,000 boe/d a year ago, led by a 29 percent fall in natural gas production. Liquids production, which takes into account oil and condensate, rose 9 per cent. Chief Executive Doug Suttles said the company was “firmly” on track to meet its 2017 targets. Encana said production in the Permian basin in October averaged 80,000 boe/d, higher than its fourth quarter target of 75,000 boe/d. “We ... are particularly encouraged by the combination of strong productivity in the Permian and robust condensate rates,” Raymond James analyst Chris Cox said in a note to clients. U.S.-listed shares of the company were down 2 percent at $12.50 in premarket trading. (Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/encana-results/update-1-encanas-profit-falls-7-pct-as-production-slips-idUSL3N1NE4XJ'|'2017-11-08T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'9fb0a960e4a25fddf1296f63ed2fa9fc4eabcc89'|'Siemens CEO says not motivated by large industrial automation deals'|'MUNICH, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Siemens is not interested in taking part in large industrial automation merger deals at the moment, its chief executive said when asked about consolidation in the context of Emerson Electric’s attempt to buy Rockwell Automation.“We are not motivated by large deals at this point in time,” Joe Kaeser said on an analyst call after the German industrial group reported fourth-quarter results.“We do not really need to do something to catch up with the ones who are leading the pack.”Siemens is the market leader in industrial software, although Kaeser said it could use some additional expertise in process industries, as used in the oil and gas or food industries, as opposed to discrete manufacturing, in which individual objects are produced. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Christoph Steitz) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/siemens-results-rockwell-automat/siemens-ceo-says-not-motivated-by-large-industrial-automation-deals-idINL8N1NF5EW'|'2017-11-09T08:47:00.000+02:00'
'2d45970ee189ede90dfcd0ed4b915a3641a6426f'|'Cyprus suggests bailout fund for bail-in deposit grab'|' 30 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Cyprus suggests bailout fund for bail-in deposit grab Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Cyprus on Thursday said it would set up a fund to support bank depositors who lost funds in a 2013 bail-in, forced on the island by lenders in return for a 10 billion euro (£8.8 billion) bailout. Authorities would initially pledge 25 million euros to the fund, which would be replenished over years from state coffers, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said. “We consider this a viable prospect, even though it does not offer an immediate remedy,” he told reporters. Scores of people saw savings exceeding 100,000 euros wiped out in the Cyprus Popular Bank, which was wound down as a condition for financial aid extended to Cyprus by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Persons holding deposits in a second bank, Bank of Cyprus, had funds seized and converted into equity to recapitalise the lender. Both banks took a hit when sizeable quantities of Greek sovereign debt were written down in an EU-sanctioned haircut of privately-held debt in 2012. The move was designed at the time to make Greece’s debt mountain more manageable, but had a disproportionate spillover effect in Cyprus. The fund would operate on guidelines which would be established by parliament and the island’s cabinet, Georgiades said. Authorities would also consider including state assets in the fund, he said. Cyprus emerged from a three year adjustment programme in 2016. Presidential elections are scheduled for January 2018. Writing By Michele Kambas; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cyprus-bailout-fund/cyprus-suggests-bailout-fund-for-bail-in-deposit-grab-idUKKBN1D91PM'|'2017-11-09T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'76683940b6c07bd62ee3f725c667fa4a27119255'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 9'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:39 AM / in 4 minutes PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 9 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 9 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Russian Finance minister Anton Siluanov announced that Venezuela and Russia have agreed to the restructuring of roughly $3 billion in Kremlin loans. nyti.ms/2zuQe0n - Senate Republicans, under pressure to pass a sweeping tax rewrite before year''s end, are expected to unveil legislation on Thursday that would eliminate the ability of people to deduct state and local taxes but would stop short of fully repealing the estate tax, according to lobbyists and other people familiar with the bill. nyti.ms/2zw70fp - AT&T Inc''s pending $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc could hinge on whether they agree to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN. nyti.ms/2zudECU - Apple Inc has secured one of the most sought-after new projects in television, landing the rights to a new drama centered on a morning TV show and starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, the company announced on Wednesday. nyti.ms/2ztqNvR - Responding to what one travel expert categorized as "a wake-up call," TripAdvisor Inc has begun placing symbols next to hotels and resorts that have been identified as locations of sexual assault and other major concerns. nyti.ms/2ztYOML (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-9-idUSL3N1NF386'|'2017-11-09T09:35:00.000+02:00'
'2366a1ffea294352936925ab76bd75565c08fe8f'|'Octopus Investments increases solar portfolio financing'|'November 7, 2017 / 10:15 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Octopus Investments increases solar portfolio financing Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Octopus Investments has increased its solar financing to 564 million pounds and added new assets to its portfolio, the British fund management company said on Tuesday. Octopus Investments is part of the Octopus Group which manages more than 7 billion pounds of funds. Octopus Investments invests in solar, wind, biogas, biomass, landfill gas, and reserve power assets. It says it is the largest commercial solar in investor in Europe. Earlier this year, it closed its 484 million pound solar portfolio refinancing, but said it has now added 80 million pounds of new financing from nine banks. It has added 100 megawatts (MW) of solar assets to its portfolio, bringing the total to 622 MW, it said. The new financing came from a syndicate which includes AIB, Barclays ( BARC.L ), BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), CaixaBank, Banca IMI [ISPNM.UL], The Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ), Sabadell ( SABE.MC ), Santander Global Corporate Banking and SMBC. Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-octopus-solar/octopus-investments-increases-solar-portfolio-financing-idUKKBN1D7168'|'2017-11-07T12:14:00.000+02:00'
'fcc66cb6d16a3ef74815057b251cd8cecc970173'|'Drug distributor McKesson to buy CVS Health''s services unit'|'(Reuters) - Drug distributor McKesson Corp ( MCK.N ) said on Monday it would buy drugstore operator CVS Health Corp’s ( CVS.N ) unit that provides various tailored services to pharma firms in a $735 million deal to expand the range of services it offers.The unit, RxCrossroads, provides reimbursement support, integration with network pharmacies, patient adherence programs, specialty logistics services, sales operations support and mail-order pharmacy services.McKesson said the deal will also add plasma logistics to its manufacturer services, which will allow it “to serve biopharma companies of all sizes and throughout the product life cycle.”The deal comes as growing speculation that Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) is planning to enter the prescription drug business has sent tremors through the pharmaceutical supply chain and rattled the shares of the drug distributors, pharmacy benefit managers and drug retailers.Many companies in the industry are preparing for the online retailer’s entry, with the latest comments coming from CVS Health itself earlier in the day after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.CVS Health said it would start next-day delivery from its stores in 2018, a move analysts said was to fortify itself against Amazon’s possible entry.CVS Health, which acquired RxCrossroads from Omnicare Inc in 2015, is also reported to be in talks to buy health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ).McKesson said the deal to buy RxCrossroads was valued at about $635 million, net of the present value of incremental cash tax benefits. The deal will be funded by cash on hand.McKesson said the deal will add about 20 cents to its adjusted earnings per share by the third year after the deal closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.Shares of McKesson and CVS Health were little changed in trading after the bell.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cvs-health-m-a-mckesson/drug-distributor-mckesson-to-buy-cvs-healths-unit-for-735-million-idUSKBN1D62RB'|'2017-11-07T05:34:00.000+02:00'
'61480fa3374a07512057ce1869e70dc9a4ca8448'|'U.S. oil prices edge down from near two-and-a-half year high'|' 57 AM / in 18 minutes U.S. oil prices edge down from near two-and-a-half year high Reuters Staff 2 Min   U.S. oil prices edged lower on Tuesday after posting the biggest gains in six weeks a day earlier, buoyed by moves by Saudi   to tighten his grip on power and a drop in U.S. drilling rigs. FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunset near Midland, Texas, U.S., on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 slipped 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $57.22 a barrel by 0028 GMT. The contract surged 3 percent on Monday, the biggest percentage gain since late September. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were yet to trade. On Monday, they closed 3.5 percent higher, also their biggest percentage gain in about six weeks. Both benchmarks hit their highest since mid-2015 during the session. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved to shore up his power base with the arrest of royals,   billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal and the powerful head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah. The arrests, which an official described as part of “phase one” of the crackdown, are the latest in a series of dramatic steps by Prince Mohammed to tighten his grip at home. Analysts said they   boosting crude prices for now. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that while there is “satisfaction” with a production-cutting deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers led by Russia, the “job is not done yet.” OPEC is expected to extend a cut of around 1.8 million barrels per day into the whole of 2018. U.S. drillers cut eight oil rigs last week, the biggest reduction since May 2016, helping to support prices. While supplies are tightening, analysts said demand remains strong. Speculators increased their bets on gains in the price of Brent to a record high. Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-edge-down-from-near-two-and-a-half-year-high-idUKKBN1D702Y'|'2017-11-07T02:57:00.000+02:00'
'4a0b92307de4b98bc069b63f4bcf0bedc2f80ca0'|'Choppy Irish consumer sentiment edges slightly lower in October'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:11 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Choppy Irish consumer sentiment edges slightly lower in October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish consumer sentiment edged slightly lower in October as a pattern of ‘one and a half steps forward, one step back’ continued in the European Union’s fastest growing economy, the authors of the monthly survey said on Tuesday. Shoppers buy fruit and vegetables from market stalls, on the north side of Dublin, Ireland October 2nd, 2010. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton While Ireland’s economy is on course to be the best performer in the EU for the fourth consecutive year, morale has been choppy over the past 18 months as the recovery only filters slowly into people’s pockets and living costs rise. The KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 104.8 in October from 105.8 in September, remaining broadly where it has all year and shy of a 15-year high of 108.6 in January 2016 before neighbouring Britain’s vote to leave the EU. “Irish consumer sentiment continued the pattern of ‘one and a half steps forward, one step back’ that has characterised the monthly sentiment survey readings for the past year or so,” said KBC Bank Ireland Chief Economist Austin Hughes. “As income growth is still modest for most households and significant uncertainty persists about future prospects, it remains the case that caution rather than confidence is the key influence on Irish consumer behaviour at present.” Hughes said the “reasonably positive” trend was consistent with an economy experiencing an ongoing if uneven upswing and that any increase in household spending in the final months of 2017 was likely to be healthy rather than huge as a result. The stuttering Irish sentiment contrasts with results across the broader euro zone - where the recovery was initially slower to take hold but has seen morale rise for five successive months to reach its highest level since the start of 2001. “The contrast with the US and Euro area readings highlights the lack of a self-reinforcing feel-good’ factor in the Irish economy that would drive confidence consistently higher,” Hughes said. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-consumersentiment/choppy-irish-consumer-sentiment-edges-slightly-lower-in-october-idUKKBN1D700J'|'2017-11-07T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'0d2b89e5f18d1d864f1bc1fbbb7d7e7583e5b5d4'|'Asian shares probe 10-year high, oil edges down after rally'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:51 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Asian shares hit 10-year highs, oil slips after rally Lisa Twaronite 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rallied to their highest in a decade on Tuesday, while oil prices gave up some of their gains having previously surged to a more than two-year peak on an anti-corruption purge by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. FILE PHOTO: An investor looks at an electronic screen at a brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, January 26, 2016. REUTERS/China Daily MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS extended early gains, rising 0.8 percent to its loftiest peak since November 2007. The index got a bump higher after all three major U.S. equity indexes closed at record highs overnight. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 reversed early losses and jumped 1.1 percent to nearly 26-year highs. [.T] “Foreign investors who were underweight on Japanese stocks in the summer are raising their investment stances to neutral and even overweight,” said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index jumped 0.8 percent to its highest since February 2008, bolstered by strong commodities prices. Australia’s central bank held rates at record lows for a 14th straight policy meeting on Tuesday as expected, and signaled it would stay sidelined for months to come amid stubbornly low inflation. U.S. crude CLc1 shed 2 cents to $57.33 after breaking above $56 a barrel for the first time in more than two years overnight. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 10 cents at $64.17. Mohammed bin Salman’s clampdown on graft led to arrests of royalty, ministers and investors, including prominent billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal. Analysts for now do not see Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, changing its policy of supporting crude prices, but the crackdown has spurred concerns of Middle Eastern money pulling out of global financial markets “For now, concerns about the Saudi news do not appear to be weighing on U.S. shares, but if they do become a problem in the future, it could eventually have an impact on Japanese shares,” Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was nearly flat on the day at 94.735 .DXY. The dollar added 0.2 percent against the yen to 113.89 JPY= but remained well below its eight-month high of 114.737 marked in the previous session. The euro was steady on the day at $1.1613 EUR= . The lack of clarity on the progress of U.S. tax reform as well as leadership at the U.S. central bank clouded the dollar’s outlook. Tax negotiators in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek to overcome their differences this week and work on a plan, aiming for their self-imposed deadline of passage this month. The Federal Reserve confirmed on Monday that influential monetary policymaker William Dudley plans to retire by mid-2018, leaving the leadership of the U.S. central bank unusually open. Lower U.S. yields also weighed on the dollar, with the benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR at 2.325 percent in Asian trading compared to 2.320 percent, its U.S. close on Monday, when it plumbed its lowest levels in two weeks. It was at a seven-month high of 2.47 percent as recently as late October. [US/] The gap between U.S. short-dated and long-dated Treasury yields on Monday contracted to its tightest levels in a decade amid sluggish domestic inflation. Spot gold XAU= was down 0.2 percent at $1,279.56 per ounce after gaining nearly one percent in the previous session, easing in line with firmer Asian equities markets. [GOL/] Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-probe-10-year-high-oil-edges-down-after-rally-idUKKBN1D702E'|'2017-11-07T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'210918d75bfef07c080f09c7a4751d97de7bac32'|'CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-South Africa finmin: many interested in equity stake in SAA'|'(Corrects name of ratings agency in final paragraph)JOHANNESBURG, Nov 7 (Reuters) - South African Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday that many investors were interested in taking an equity stake in South African Airways (SAA), after the government appointed new board members to turn around the struggling national airline.SAA relies on government guarantees to keep it solvent and has been repeatedly cited by the major credit rating agencies as a threat to South Africa’s public finances.Gigaba told a news conference that he wanted the new chief executive of SAA, Vuyani Jarana, to restore confidence in the airline and consolidate its assets.“We will continue ... to have discussions about the strategic equity partner for South African Airways because ultimately we are going to need not only private sector capital, but also expertise for us to move forward and bring SAA back to sustainability,” Gigaba said.Last month, Gigaba cited bailouts to state-owned companies like SAA when unveiling dismal medium-term budget forecasts - which Moody’s described as “credit negative”. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Ralph Boulton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/safrica-saa/update-1-south-africa-finmin-many-interested-in-equity-stake-in-saa-idINL5N1ND2HB'|'2017-11-07T06:33:00.000+02:00'
'2456654d4e37b3fae94d6652c63a4056866c1dbd'|'Beazley ups catastrophe profit impact to $175 mln'|' 50 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Beazley ups catastrophe profit impact to $175 mln Reuters Staff * Follows September estimate of $150 mln * Increase driven by impact of California wildfires * CEO says sees rates up on some business lines By Carolyn Cohn LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley on Thursday increased the expected second-half pretax profit hit from natural catastrophes by $25 million to $175 million as a result of wildfires in California. The increase took the shine off a 6 percent rise in gross written premiums in the first nine months of 2017 to $1.8 billion, boosted by the firm’s speciality lines division, which focuses on professional liability insurance. Beazley said it faced $200-300 million in insured losses, net of reinsurance, from natural catastrophes in the second half of 2017, which at the mid-point would have a $175 million negative impact on pretax profit. The insurer, which posted pretax profits of $293.2 million in 2016, said in Sept 2017 it estimated a hit of $150 million from hurricanes and earthquakes. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which hit the United States and Caribbean in recent months, have caused more than $100 billion in insured losses, risk modelling agencies say. In addition, earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires in California mean the second half of 2017 is expected to be one of the worst on record for insurance losses. “The third quarter of 2017 was defined by the high frequency and severity of natural catastrophes,” Beazley Chief Executive Andrew Horton said in a trading statement. “These events will naturally affect our full year results but our diverse underwriting portfolio continues to serve us well.” Beazley said it expected its combined ratio, a measure of underwriting profitability, to be 100 percent for 2017. A level below 100 percent indicates a profit. Horton said he expected rates to rise “across some lines of business”, without giving specific details. Insurers and brokers are divided as to whether the size of recent losses will lead to rises in reinsurance rates across the board at key January 2018 renewals, or only in areas already hit by disasters. Fellow Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox said this week it expected double-digit rate rises in U.S. catastrophe-exposed reinsurance rates, but broker JLT said it was premature to draw conclusions about rates. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/beazley-results/beazley-ups-catastrophe-profit-impact-to-175-mln-idUSL8N1NF2Q2'|'2017-11-09T09:50:00.000+02:00'
'7f363bb7327f3fa4089ef0b2bfcdaa16ed9e3a33'|'Investor demands LSE let CEO Rolet speak about reasons for his departure'|'November 8, 2017 / 9:55 AM / Updated an hour ago Investor demands LSE let CEO Rolet speak about reasons for his departure Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A top investor in the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) demanded FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo that its outgoing chief executive, Xavier Rolet, be allowed to speak publicly about the reasons for his departure. In a letter to Chairman Donald Brydon dated Nov. 7, Chris Hohn, founder of The Children’s Investment Fund, reiterated his belief that Rolet was being forced out against his wishes, and repeated his threat to call a meeting to vote on removing Brydon if the company failed to act. Hohn called on Brydon to waive a confidentiality agreement TCI said had been signed by Rolet covering the reasons behind his departure. The LSE declined to comment. TCI - the fourth-biggest investor in LSE with a more than 5 percent stake, Thomson Reuters data shows - first raised its concerns in a letter to the board last Friday, which prompted the LSE to say it had followed good governance. “Confidentiality agreements which prohibit proper explanations to shareholders are bad corporate governance. Hence we refute your assertion that you followed proper governance procedures on succession planning,” Hohn wrote. “We ask you to waive immediately all confidentiality agreements on Xavier Rolet so that shareholders can now hear the truth and make informed judgements on the expected EGM [Extraordinary General Meeting] regarding your continued chairmanship and the retention of Xavier Rolet as CEO,” it said. Reporting by Simon Jessop and Noor Zainab Hussain, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lse-tci-letter/investor-demands-lse-let-ceo-rolet-speak-about-reasons-for-his-departure-idUSKBN1D810X'|'2017-11-08T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'415d39e49f290aab61820019c2b0ee5c5e405c9b'|'Former Yahoo CEO apologises for data breach, blames Russians'|'November 8, 2017 / 3:30 PM / Updated an hour ago Former Yahoo CEO apologises for data breach, blames Russians David Shepardson 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologised on Wednesday for a pair of massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks involving major U.S. companies. Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer waits to testify before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque ”As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologise to each and every one of our users,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc ( EFX.N ) and a senior Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) executive. “Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users’ data.” Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc’s assets in June, the same month Mayer stepped down. Verizon disclosed last month that a 2013 Yahoo data breach affected all 3 billion of its accounts, compared with an estimate of more than 1 billion disclosed in December. In March, federal prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding a 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber crimes. Those charges came amid controversy relating to alleged Kremlin-backed hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible links between Russian figures and associates of President Donald Trump. Russia has denied trying to influence the U.S. election in any way. Special Agent Jack Bennett of the FBI’s San Francisco Division said in March the 2013 breach was unrelated and that an investigation of the larger incident was continuing. Equifax Interim CEO Paulino Barros (L), former Equifax CEO Richard Smith (C) and former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer testify before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Senator John Thune, a Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, asked Mayer on Wednesday why it took three years to identify the data breach or properly gauge its size. Mayer said Yahoo has not been able to identify how the 2013 intrusion occurred and that the company did not learn of the incident until the U.S. government presented data to Yahoo in November 2016. She said even “robust” defences are not enough to defend against state-sponsored attacks and compared the fight with hackers to an “arms race.” Slideshow (4 Images) Yahoo required users to change passwords and took new steps to make data more secure, Mayer said. “We now know that Russian intelligence officers and state-sponsored hackers were responsible for highly complex and sophisticated attacks on Yahoo’s systems,” Mayer said. The current and former chief executives of credit bureau Equifax, which disclosed in September that a data breach affected as many as 145.5 million U.S. consumers, said they did not know who was responsible. Senator Bill Nelson said “only stiffer enforcement and stringent penalties will help incentivise companies to properly safeguard consumer information.” The Senate Commerce Committee took the unusual step of subpoenaing Mayer to testify on Oct. 25 after a representative for Mayer declined multiple requests for her voluntarily testimony. A representative for Mayer said on Tuesday she was appearing voluntarily. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-databreaches/former-yahoo-ceo-apologises-for-data-breach-blames-russians-idUKKBN1D825X'|'2017-11-08T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'64959cf9bec3f208a2450d2e4de582efec3117e1'|'FCA delays banning jailed Libor trader Tom Hayes'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:03 PM / Updated an hour ago FCA delays banning jailed Libor trader Tom Hayes Kirstin Ridley 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets regulator said on Wednesday it would postpone banning jailed former trader Tom Hayes from the financial services industry until an investigation into his conviction has been completed. Former trader Tom Hayes arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Britain July 29, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said Hayes, a former UBS ( UBSG.S ) and Citigroup ( C.N ) derivatives trader serving an 11-year sentence for conspiracy to rig global Libor interest rates, was not a “fit and proper person”. But it said the case has been put on ice until after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates where people have lost an appeal but believe they have been wrongly convicted, examines his case. Hayes, who became the first person jailed worldwide in 2015 for Libor manipulation offences, maintains his innocence and said he welcomed a decision that allowed him to concentrate fully on the CCRC investigation. “I‘m pleased that the FCA has accepted my CCRC application is substantive and expects it to be considered seriously,” he said in a statement released by his lawyers. “There is a huge amount of new evidence available and I will fight my conviction until the truth comes out.” Hayes referred the FCA’s planned ban to the Upper Tribunal, which hears appeals on cases brought by the regulator. The FCA said on Wednesday the Tribunal would delay a decision until after a CCRC ruling. If the conviction is not upheld, the FCA will need to begin fresh proceedings on different facts if it maintains Hayes is not fit and proper, the Tribunal said. Hayes, a gifted mathematician with mild Asperger’s syndrome, was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to rig the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a benchmark for rates on around $450 trillion worth of loans worldwide, while a Tokyo-based trader from 2006 to 2010. The sentence - one of the longest for white-collar crime in Britain - was reduced to 11 years on appeal. But his attempt to overturn his conviction failed and London’s Court of Appeal blocked any further appeal at the Supreme Court. Britain’s CCRC agreed in April to review Hayes’s case to see whether it could be referred back to the Court of Appeal. Hayes and his family have raised more than 90,000 pounds through a crowdfunding campaign to fund the appeal. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-libor-hayes-ban/fca-plans-to-ban-former-libor-trader-tom-hayes-idUKKBN1D82HJ'|'2017-11-08T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'dd66776a38ccb47b8c9e9bd8609bba4f8c386ea8'|'CORRECTED-AIRSHOW-Airbus nears deal to sell over 30 A380s -sources'|' 49 AM / in 7 minutes CORRECTED-AIRSHOW-Airbus nears deal to sell over 30 A380s -sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Corrects headline to read “30” A380s not 300) PARIS/DUBAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Airbus is close to a deal worth at least $14 billion to sell over 30 of its A380 jetliners to Dubai’s Emirates in a bid to secure production of its struggling superjumbo until the middle of the next decade, said two people familiar with the matter. The deal, if confirmed, is expected to be announced at the opening of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday. Airbus has been trailing its rival Boeing in terms of orders, going into the Dubai Airshow. Negotiations at such events typically go down to the wire. Airbus said it does not comment on commercial discussions. A spokeswoman for Emirates, which is by far the largest A380 buyer with 142 on order and 100 already delivered, said: “We do not comment on rumours or speculation.” (Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-a380/airshow-airbus-nears-deal-to-sell-over-300-a380s-sources-idUSL8N1NF2S6'|'2017-11-09T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'b3dab96ae47192a3b4ba0a585d57204f740f61c9'|'Trump''s $250 billion China ''miracle'' adds gloss to off-kilter trade'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Trump''s $250 billion China ''miracle'' adds gloss to ''off-kilter'' trade Matthew Miller , Adam Jourdan 5 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether. FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Watched by Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping at a signing ceremony in Beijing, U.S. planemaker Boeing Co, General Electric Co and chip giant Qualcomm Inc sealed lucrative multi-billion dollar deals. “This is truly a miracle,” China’s Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said at a briefing in Beijing. The quarter of a trillion dollar haul underscores how Trump is keen to be seen to address a trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy that he has long railed against and called “shockingly high” on Thursday. But U.S. businesses still have many long-standing concerns to complain about, including unfettered access to the China market, cybersecurity and the growing presence of China’s ruling Communist Party inside foreign firms. William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the deals pointed to “a strong, vibrant bilateral economic relationship” between the two countries. “Yet we still need to focus on leveling the playing field, because U.S. companies continue to be disadvantaged doing business in China.” U.S. tech companies like Facebook Inc and Google are mostly blocked in China. Automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors must operate through joint ventures, while Hollywood movies face a strict quota system. “(These deals) allow Trump to portray himself as a master dealmaker, while distracting from a lack of progress on structural reforms to the bilateral trade relationship,” Hugo Brennan, Asia analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said in a note. PUMP IT UP Some huge deals were announced. Among them is a 20-year $83.7 billion investment by China Energy Investment Corp in shale gas developments and chemical manufacturing projects in West Virginia, a major energy producing state that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 election. [ “The massive size of this energy undertaking and level of collaboration between our two countries is unprecedented,” West Virginia Secretary of Commerce H. Wood Thrasher said in a statement. It marks the first major overseas investment for the newly founded China Energy, which formed from the merger of China Shenhua Group, the country’s largest coal producer and China Guodian Corp, one of China’s top five utilities. Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China''s smartphone maker Xiaomi, attends signing ceremony and meeting of business leaders with with U.S. President Donald Trump and China''s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj However, as is often the case during state visits, many of the deals were packaged as “non-binding” agreements, gave scant details or rolled over existing tie-ups, helping pump up the headline figure. “I am somewhat skeptical of such a large number,” Alex Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments, told the Reuters Global Markets Forum, adding that the overall tone of the visit so far had been “positive”. “I suspect they might be primarily MOUs (memorandum of understandings) instead of actual contracts and the actual contract amount may be substantially less.” Qualcomm signed non-binding agreements worth $12 billion with Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, three Chinese handset makers that the firm said it had “longstanding relationships” with. Qualcomm already earns more than half of its revenues in China. Boeing announced a deal with state-run China Aviation Suppliers Holding Co to sell 300 Boeing jets with a valuation of $37 billion at list prices, though analysts said it was unclear how many of these were new orders. Slideshow (3 Images) “Interesting to see how many of those are past agreements/purchase orders repackaged. Beijing is a master of selling the same agreement 10 times,” former Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo posted on Twitter. XI VOWS TRANSPARENCY Speaking alongside Trump in Beijing as they announced the deals, Xi said the Chinese economy would become increasingly open and transparent to foreign firms, including those from the United States, and welcomed U.S. companies to participate in his ambitious “Belt and Road” infrastructure-led initiative. Trump made clear he blamed his predecessors, not China, for allowing the U.s. trade deficit to get “out of kilter”, and repeatedly praised Xi, calling him “a very special man”. “But we will make it fair and it will be tremendous for both of us,” Trump said. Xi smiled widely when Trump said he does not blame China for the deficit. Asked whether the big package of deals would go some way towards helping fix American trade concerns in China, executives were cautiously optimistic. “Generally the sense was that this is all a good thing, and that’s great,” said Gentry Sayad, a Shanghai-based lawyer who attended the trade delegation event in Beijing. “Now let’s see what really happens and whether or not the agreements signed during this trip can become a basis for a better bilateral trade relationship going forward.” Reporting Matt Miller in BEIJING, Adam Jourdan and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by David Stanway in SHANGHAI and Billy Chan in HONG KONG; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Bill Tarrant '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-china-deals/trumps-250-billion-china-miracle-adds-gloss-to-off-kilter-trade-idUSKBN1D90L2'|'2017-11-09T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'a7d2ccad8a8fc61a6031bc16937757d5a575605e'|'New Zealand says unclear if TPP agreement can be reached this week'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:21 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago New Zealand says unclear if TPP agreement can be reached this week Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - It is not clear if countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) can reach an agreement this week at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders to carry forward the trade pact, New Zealand’s trade minister said on Thursday. Ministers from the 11 countries are meeting in Vietnam’s central resort of Danang on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping to discuss how to proceed with the deal after the United States withdrew. “The negotiation is proceeding but it has not yet been finalised,” New Zealand Trade Minister David Parker told Reuters. “There are many countries that want to achieve finality this week, but it’s not yet clear whether consensus can be achieved.” Parker added that the 11 countries were discussing suspension of certain provisions of TPP in order to proceed with the trade deal, but no consensus had been reached. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apec-summit-newzealand/new-zealand-says-unclear-if-tpp-agreement-can-be-reached-this-week-idUKKBN1D919C'|'2017-11-09T12:18:00.000+02:00'
'5bd701b5d3d91d2824aa6246f7e76c0cc47efb66'|'Sears expects smaller 3rd-qtr loss, pension contribution relief'|' 53 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Sears expects smaller 3rd-qtr loss, pension contribution relief Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 8 (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp on Wednesday forecast a smaller loss for the third quarter, and said it signed a deal to relieve itself from making some future pension contributions. As part of an agreement, Sears will pay $407 million to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp and relieve itself from making pension contributions for the next two years. Sears said it would raise that amount by selling some stores and through financing secured by some properties. The retailer, which has been shutting stores following years of declining sales, said it expects a net loss of between $595 million and $525 million for the third quarter, compared with a $748 million loss in the same period a year ago. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sears-outlook/sears-expects-smaller-3rd-qtr-loss-pension-contribution-relief-idUSL3N1NE50D'|'2017-11-08T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'90865e367c1d9d82e8f59dfd2edd77b25607f39e'|'Airbus trails Boeing in orders heading into Dubai showdown'|'November 8, 2017 / 7:46 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Airbus trails Boeing in orders heading into Dubai showdown Tim Hepher 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sold 24 aircraft and delivered 63 in October, leaving it well behind rival Boeing in the hunt for new orders going into next week’s Dubai Airshow, but on course to reach its recently softened target of 700 deliveries for the year. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Data from the European planemaker showed that orders for the year so far had reached 343 aircraft, or 288 when adjusted for cancellations that included new withdrawals of 7 out of 13 orders for A320 jets previously placed by Siberia Airlines. Airbus is struggling to catch up with Boeing in this year’s order race as Boeing continues to expand under a rejuvenated management and Airbus appears destabilised by probes into the use of middlemen. [nL8N1MX0TL] Boeing notched up 621 orders between Jan. 1 and Oct. 24, the latest period for which its data is available, or 538 after cancellations. It has 65 percent so far this year of a market usually shared roughly equally with its European rival. The U.S. planemaker is expected to extend its lead with a significant order announcement from China on Thursday as President Donald Trump visits Beijing, coming on top of an order for 39 wide-body jets from Singapore Airlines last month. However, analysts said some of the orders may be among the more than 300 from undisclosed buyers posted this year, and that it was not yet understood how much of the anticipated China deal would be entirely new business. Boeing’s orders also include 28 aircraft for its military division and 5 from collapsed Monarch Airlines, which a UK judge said on Wednesday was unlikely to fly again. [nL5N1NE3TW]. After supplier problems, Airbus deliveries picked up in October when it handed over 63 planes including 22 A320neo-family aircraft recently hit by engine problems, and 8 A350s. That brings the total to 513 for the first 10 months. Airbus maintains an official target of 700 deliveries, but told analysts last week that its de facto target of 720 aircraft, given verbally to investors, was no longer achievable. Qatar Airways took delivery in October of three out of four aircraft it had previously cancelled over supplier issues. The largest A350 customer has reduced its order to 76 aircraft but agreed to reshuffle upcoming delivery slots. This means Airbus will eventually get less revenue than originally planned from the sale of 80 jets to Qatar, but its cashflow will not take a hit as aircraft that have already been built will be delivered, preventing a build-up of inventory. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-boeing-orders/airbus-trails-boeing-in-orders-heading-into-dubai-showdown-idUKKBN1D82WA'|'2017-11-08T21:45:00.000+02:00'
'769bf0b783ebd8e86de382f8f8baef2615ba13cb'|'Exclusive: Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments, used Russian bank to pay ONGC - sources'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:06 AM / in 6 hours Exclusive: Venezuela''s PDVSA misses debt payments, used Russian bank to pay ONGC - sources Nidhi Verma 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil-firm PDVSA has not made debt payments to India’s top oil producer ONGC for six months, and has previously used a Russian state-owned bank and another Indian energy company as intermediaries to make payments, two sources familiar with the transactions said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, confirmed that PDVSA had fallen behind on the payments, but declined to give details on the delays. “They have got certain challenges at this stage,” ONGC Videsh said in an emailed response to Reuters’ questions. “They have assured that they are working on it (payment of dues). In due course it will be settled and follow up steps will be undertaken.” “We have a good working relationship with PDVSA,” ONGC said. PDVSA declined to comment. But the two sources, who requested anonymity, said PDVSA has made no payment since April on what was a $540 million backlog of dividends owed to ONGC for an investment the Indian firm made in a an energy project in Venezuela. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said last week that the country planned to restructure some $60 billion of bonds, much of it held by PDVSA, as the country struggles to meet debt repayments. The OPEC member’s economy has collapsed since global oil prices plummeted in 2014. Venezuela depends on oil for more than 90 percent of export revenue. PDVSA has delayed a range of payments, such as for oil services and supplies, as Caracas uses the scant dollar supplies available to make sovereign debt repayments. LATE PAYMENTS, SANCTIONS International banks and suppliers have reduced or halted credit to PDVSA since cash flow problems led the firm to start delaying payments to creditors in 2014. U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan officials including PDVSA executives, have also deterred banks from offering credit. Maduro’s government has increasingly turned to ally Russia for the cash and credit it needs to survive, according to a Reuters special report published in August. Russia’s state-run Gazprombank in January cleared a payment of $19.75 million of Venezuela’s pending dues to ONGC, the two sources said. Details of the payment and Gazprombank’s involvement have not previously been published. India’s Reliance Industries Ltd, owner of the world’s biggest refining complex and one of PDVSA’s biggest oil buyers, paid $68.66 million to ONGC on behalf of PDVSA in April, the sources said. Gazprombank and Reliance did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. PDVSA and ONGC Videsh Ltd last year signed a deal for PDVSA to pay the debt by assigning the Indian firm 17,000 barrels per day of oil. Under the agreement, PDVSA sells the oil on behalf of ONGC and sends the cash to the Indian company. ONGC cannot take delivery of the oil because its Mangalore refinery is unable to process Venezuela’s heavy crude. Venezuela has often used oil to repay debt: it owes billions of dollars to both Russia and China and is paying both with oil. Many multinational firms have written off their Venezuelan operations and investments, but ONGC is aiming to expand in the South American country. The Indian firm is seeking to raise funding for Venezuela’s San Cristobal oil project, in which the Indian company has a 40 percent stake. PDVSA and ONGC aim to raise oil output from the project to about 27,000 bpd from 18,000 bpd. Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in CARACAS and Editing by Simon Webb and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-india-oil/venezuelas-pdvsa-misses-debt-payments-used-russian-bank-to-pay-ongc-sources-idINKBN1D90KI'|'2017-11-09T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'6a7faeb11e62d7fff76ec3ff9c3752da208305e5'|'State Bank of India eyes profitable expansion outside home'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India (SBI) will open more branches in Nepal and consider options to re-enter Vietnam under a three-year goal to grow its international operations to as much as 15 percent of total business, a senior executive said.The State Bank of India (SBI) logo is seen on bags carried by participants during a news conference in Mumbai, India October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade India’s top lender, with assets of more than $500 billion, was catapulted into the league of the top 50 global banks this year after it merged five subsidiary banks with itself.But mergers and acquisitions are expected to play only a tiny role as SBI seeks to ramp up growth in the overseas business, which now makes up about 11 percent of all operations. Instead, it will rely on organic growth and ensure profitability is not forsaken.SBI, which is present in 35 countries but has more than half of its 206 offices in Asia, aims to increase the number of offices in neighbouring Nepal to 100 in the next one year from 88 currently to better tap a market it considers “under-penetrated” for banking, said Siddhartha Sengupta, a deputy managing director who leads the bank’s international business.The Indian government majority-owned bank is also looking at options to re-enter Vietnam, where it closed its office long ago, possibly through a partnership, Sengupta said, noting the Vietnamese economy, and trade between the Southeast Asian nation and India, were growing rapidly.“We had an Asian focus. But we are trying to make that focus sharper,” Sengupta said in an interview with Reuters.“In terms of inorganic growth, whatever our aspirations are would be far smaller compared to what we have seen in the domestic market. We have a limited dollar balance sheet.”The Indian lender’s overseas push comes at a time when rivals in China, Japan and Southeast Asia are expanding outside their home nations and have made far deeper inroads into Asia, often through M&As.SBI’s overseas growth plan also comes at a tricky time for India lenders who have been burdened with a record $146 billion in bad loans.Sengupta said the overseas growth would be in a “risk-mitigated” fashion and not at the cost of profitability. The expansion may not lead to a substantial rise in the total number of international offices as SBI is also shutting unprofitable ones, he said.Siddharth Purohit, an analyst with Mumbai’s SMC Institutional Equities, said it was prudent for SBI to be choosy in growing its international exposure.“Some other Indian banks have reduced their international exposure recently, one reason being their main clients, the Indian corporates, are also going slow on overseas acquisitions and the focus is on cutting debt at home.”As part of its plan, SBI is aiming to partner with Japanese regional banks to offer products and services for small- and medium-sized companies there that plan to set up manufacturing base in India to cater to big Japanese companies including automakers in India.The bank will also step up its offerings in neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Sengupta said, adding SBI plans to pursue more collaboration and syndication opportunities at the annual meeting of the Asian Bankers Association it is hosting in Mumbai next week.SBI expects a new subsidiary that will house its retail operations in the United Kingdom to begin functioning in January-March 2018, Sengupta said.($1 = 64.9725 Devidutta Tripathy; Additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/state-bank-india-international/state-bank-of-india-eyes-profitable-expansion-outside-home-idINKBN1D9181'|'2017-11-09T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'f49c8eb069b26cf8c31963f1b03f08f00efcc925'|'UPDATE 1-Peugeot speeds Opel technology shift to secure savings'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Peugeot speeds Opel technology shift to secure savings Reuters Staff * To complete transition to PSA architecture by 2024 * Opel to introduce at least two new cars in 2019 * Synergies target unchanged at 1.7 bln euros * Opel pledges to avoid factory closures, forced layoffs (Adds Opel CEO comments, further details) By Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume FRANKFURT/PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group will shift the Opel/Vauxhall model lineup to its own technology faster than initially planned to secure promised savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German carmaker, the Paris-based group said on Thursday. Rapid-fire product launches will complete the transition to PSA architectures by 2024, three years ahead of the previous timetable, Opel said as it detailed turnaround plans that leave a 1.7 billion euro ($1.97 billion) synergies goal unchanged. The adjustment suggests PSA and Opel may have to do more, faster to achieve the savings that PSA had promised in March, when it agreed to buy Opel from General Motors in a deal valuing the business at 2.2 billion euros. “The good news is that synergies are validated (at) a detailed level,” Opel boss Michael Lohscheller said during a conference call with journalists. Opel pledged to avoid any factory closures or forced layoffs, instead relying partly on exports to fill its underused factories. While it gave no sales goals, the strategy outlined on Thursday included plans to enter 20 new markets by 2022. The brand’s renaissance and return to profit will be based on “German engineering for all and a perfect match with (the) PSA brands’ positioning”, Lohscheller said, referring to the Peugeot, Citroen and DS marques. Opel will introduce at least two new cars in 2019 including the Corsa mini, with a larger SUV to follow among a total of nine models or variants promised by the following year - a more ambitious product blitz than previously announced. All models will offer electric or plug-in hybrid versions by 2024. PSA had said in March that the convergence of vehicle architectures would begin in 2019 and take another eight years to complete. The unchanged 1.7 billion euro synergies goal will be achieved by 2026, PSA reiterated, with roughly two-thirds or 1.1 billion euros due by 2021. $1 = 0.8616 euros Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/peugeot-opel/update-1-peugeot-speeds-opel-technology-shift-to-secure-savings-idUSL8N1NF1MA'|'2017-11-09T09:38:00.000+02:00'
'b390473e65d95cb8ba60b61904186dd6b5152f7a'|'Britain says will provide Saudi Aramco with credit guarantees'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will provide $2 billion in credit guarantees to Saudi Aramco so it can buy British goods and services more easily, but denied it was part of efforts to persuade the energy giant to list its shares in London.Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed The loan agreement comes as London Stock Exchange, with backing from British Prime Minister Theresa May, competes to host part of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to be the biggest float ever.“This builds on previous support for UK exports as part of Saudi Aramco joint venture projects,” the government said in a statement on Thursday, while a spokesman for Britain’s finance ministry said the guarantees were not part of the country’s attempt to secure the IPO for London.Saudi officials have said domestic and international exchanges, including New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, have been considered for a partial listing of the state-run firm.Britain’s financial regulator has proposed new rules to allow sovereign-controlled entities like Saudi Aramco to have their own ‘premium listing’ category while being exempt from requirements such as how much of a company has to be floated.The British government and the City of London are keen to win the listing as a boost to the country’s capital markets just as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union.However, some fund managers oppose the proposals, which they say would erode the rights of minority investors.“(Britain’s government) guaranteeing a loan to ARAMCO would be a further lurch in descent to mercantilism,” Nick Macpherson, who was top civil servant at the finance ministry until last year and is now chairman of C. Hoare and Co private bank, said on Twitter.Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said last month that the IPO, part of an ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, was on track to go ahead in 2018.The $2 billion facility is being finalised by UK Export Finance, a ministerial department which works to increase British exports by providing finance to overseas buyers of the country’s goods and services.Reporting by Andy Bruce and Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-britain/britain-says-will-provide-saudi-aramco-with-credit-guarantees-idUSKBN1D91NV'|'2017-11-09T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'1523372dc86fd8bf9f5e7c8f65366aa5ab572607'|'Asia stocks near decade highs on buoyant Wall Street, kiwi rallies'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:55 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Asia stocks near decade highs on buoyant Wall Street, kiwi rallies Shinichi Saoshiro 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asia stocks hovered near a decade high on Thursday following another record breaking day on Wall Street, while the New Zealand dollar rallied as hawkish-sounding statements by the country’s central bank boosted the recently battered currency. A man is reflected in an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.3 percent and in close reach of a 10-year high set the previous day. Australian shares rose 0.4 percent and to their highest level since January 2008 while South Korea''s KOSPI .KS11 added 0.2 percent. Shanghai .SSEC advanced 0.1 percent and Hong Kong''s Hang Seng .HSI climbed 0.6 percent. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 gained 1.4 percent, reaching a high not seen since January 1992. Wall Street rose overnight thanks to a rally by videogame makers, with all three major indexes closing at record highs. [.N] “It is a case of equity markets in emerging economies, already firm on internal demand and growth, being lifted by gains in those of developed economies,” said Kota Hirayama, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. “Each country obviously has its own particular factors affecting local markets, but U.S. equities continue to drive overall risk sentiment.” In currencies, the New Zealand dollar was a big mover, surging about 1 percent to a two-week high of $0.6974 NZD=D4 before last trading at $0.6951. The kiwi flew after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) said early on Thursday that added fiscal stimulus and a lower local dollar would lead to faster inflation and likely an earlier rise in interest rate. The central bank held rates steady at 1.75 percent as widely expected. The New Zealand dollar had sunk to a five-month low of $0.6818 in late October as a change in government unsettled investors. The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 94.899 .DXY, staying below a three-month high of 95.150 set in late October. It had reached that peak on hopes towards U.S. tax reforms being enacted. But recent uncertainty over the fate of the tax reform plans have weighed on the dollar. [FRX/] A U.S. Senate tax-cut bill, differing from one in the House of Representatives, was expected to be unveiled on Thursday, complicating a Republican tax overhaul push and increasing scepticism on Wall Street about the effort. “There’s very much a risk of disappointment. The U.S. dollar could go through a weakening phase on the back of uncertainty around that tax reform,” said Steven Dooley, currency strategist for Western Union Business Solutions in Melbourne. The greenback edged up 0.1 percent to 113.980 yen JPY= , pulling away from a one-week low of 113.395 plumbed overnight, as long-term U.S. yields bounced back from three-week troughs. The euro was little changed at $1.1594 EUR= and in sight of a 3-1/2-month low of $1.1553 set at the week''s start. U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 was up 0.25 percent at $56.92 a barrel. Government data showing a rise in domestic crude production had weighed on oil overnight but rising tensions in the Middle East limited the losses. [O/R] U.S. crude rose to $57.92 on Wednesday, highest since July 2015, as tension flared between Saudi Arabia and Iran, while the Saudi crown prince tightened his grip on power. Brent crude gained 0.25 percent to $63.65 per barrel LCOc1 to edge back towards a 2-1/2-year high of $64.65 scaled on Tuesday. Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,280.66 an ounce. The precious metal had risen to a three-week high of $1,287.13 an ounce the previous day as a potential delay in the U.S. tax reform plan was seen moderating the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes next year and support non-yielding gold. [GOL/] Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano in Singapore; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-near-decade-highs-on-buoyant-wall-street-kiwi-rallies-idUKKBN1D9039'|'2017-11-09T04:26:00.000+02:00'
'e6eb2774c3852455324b06deb94a25ad6b38abdd'|'ECB sees unabated euro zone growth in H2 - bulletin'|' 08 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago ECB sees unabated euro zone growth in second half - bulletin Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Euro zone economic growth is likely to continue unabated in the second half of the year, the European Central Bank said in a regular economic bulletin on Thursday. “Overall, the latest economic indicators are, on balance, consistent with a continued robust growth pattern in the second half of 2017,” the ECB said in a bulletin that echoes its assessment after the October interest rate decision. FILE PHOTO - A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “Private consumption is underpinned by rising employment, which is also benefiting from past labour market reforms, and by increasing household wealth,” the ECB said. “The upswing in business investment continues to benefit from very favourable financing conditions and improvements in corporate profitability.” Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-ecb/ecb-sees-unabated-euro-zone-growth-in-h2-bulletin-idUKKBN1D911J'|'2017-11-09T11:08:00.000+02:00'
'547e1968244e07676b16f4ab300cc6633d9c07a1'|'Canada set to auction C$500 mln of its ultra-long bonds on Nov. 16'|'TORONTO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Canada’s government plans to sell C$500 million of its ultra-long bonds at an auction on Nov. 16, the Bank of Canada said on Thursday, the second time in less than three months that these bonds will be sold.The C$750 million auction in August attracted strong demand from investors for the 2.75 percent bonds, which mature in December 2064. August’s auction lifted issuance of the bonds, which were first sold in April 2014, to C$4.25 billion.Ultra-long bonds have a term to maturity of 40 years or more and are not as common as 30-year issuance. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-bonds/canada-set-to-auction-c500-mln-of-its-ultra-long-bonds-on-nov-16-idINL1N1NC199'|'2017-11-09T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'9b4d723481692b43c5c86645f65ba361245faed8'|'South Korean firms woo China''s Singles Day shoppers as detente boosts hopes'|'Reuters TV United States November 8, 2017 / 11:30 PM / a few seconds ago South Korean firms woo China''s Singles Day shoppers as detente boosts hopes Joyce Lee , Haejin Choi 5 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean companies, after all but giving up on marketing in China during a diplomatic spat this year, are rolling out major promotions for Saturday’s Singles Day shopping extravaganza, hoping Chinese consumers - and their big bucks - will return. FILE PHOTO: Chinese tourists ask a sales assistant for directions at a Lotte department store in central Seoul, South Korea, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo South Korean businesses from cosmetics firms to casinos and duty free stores were hit hard after China unofficially banned group tours to South Korea in March, upset with Seoul over its decision to install a U.S. anti-missile system that Beijing believes threatens its security. But last week’s agreement by Seoul and Beijing to move past the dispute has boosted hopes group tours may be allowed in the near future, spurring the first big marketing push in nearly a year by South Korean firms. They have seized on China’s Singles Day online shopping bonanza, which has grown to the world’s biggest retail event and last year shifted more goods than the United States’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Chinese internet giant Alibaba ( BABA.N ) introduced the annual online shopping extravaganza concept in 2009 as part of a day for bachelors and bachelorettes to celebrate their single life, with November 11 chosen as “1” resembles a solitary person. Last year, Alibaba alone racked up a record $18 billion worth of Singles Day sales. This year, South Korean duty free operator Hanwha Galleria ( 027390.KS ) is offering 110,000 won ($100) for 111 members of its Chinese site that click a banner starting 11am on November 11, while Doota Duty Free offered 111,111 won toward purchases for 1,111 people every day starting 11:11 am until November 11 at its Chinese online mall. Asiana Airlines ( 020560.KS ) is offering discounted tickets from China to South Korea and other destinations on Alibaba’s Alitrip travel agency website between November 11-15, as well as free airport lounge passes for passengers transiting at Seoul’s Incheon Airport. Lotte Duty Free, world’s second largest duty free operator after Dufry ( DUFN.S ), is also offering cash toward purchases for people who write their Singles Day wish list and get replies on its website. “We tried to diversify our customers to Southeast Asia and other places since the THAAD crisis, but their buying power falls far short of the Chinese,” said a Lotte Duty Free official. “We are hoping for a rebound to past years’ sales levels.” FILE PHOTO: Chinese tourists rest as they shop at a Lotte department store in central Seoul, South Korea, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo So are investors. Shares in South Korea''s largest department store chain Lotte Shopping ( 023530.KS ) and duty free operator Hotel Shilla ( 008770.KS ) rose more than 12 percent and 7 percent respectively, compared to a 2 percent rise in the wider market .KS11 since the two countries announced their detente on Oct. 31. ‘NO POINT’ South Korean firms’ burst of promotions is a far cry from their silence during the diplomatic standoff, as South Korean retailers quietly passed Chinese holidays such as August’s Double Seventh Day and national holidays in October. “All (South Korean) duty free stores cut back on marketing toward Chinese customers starting April. With circumstances like the travel ban, there was no point,” said a Hanwha Galleria official. South Korea’s duty free industry, the world’s largest with 12.3 trillion won in sales last year, was hardest hit as Chinese group tourists had contributed around 50-60 percent of their revenue before March. Travellers from China to South Korea in the seven months from March to September fell 61 percent from a year ago. Lotte reported its first operating loss in 14 years in the April-June quarter, while The Shilla Duty Free’s operating profit in the first half of 2017 fell more than 40 percent. Duty free operators know Singles Day alone won’t be a panacea. China online sales are only a small proportion of total revenue - about 10 percent for Lotte Duty Free last year - but they hope it will set the stage for a strong recovery once the travel ban is lifted. “With a lift in the travel ban, charter flights will first need to be booked, all the manpower at Chinese travel agencies that’s been taken off South Korea and redirected to other destinations restored, tour packages remade. We expect three to six months before things normalize,” said the Lotte Duty Free official. “We’re waiting for the day.” Reporting by Joyce Lee and Haejin Choi; Additional reporting by Yuna Park and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-singles-day-southkorea-china/south-korean-firms-woo-chinas-singles-day-shoppers-as-detente-boosts-hopes-idUKKBN1D83A7'|'2017-11-09T01:13:00.000+02:00'
'14cdf26327f455b6834e6e2773a418095dcbdab4'|'Platinum miner Lonmin adds more security due to protests around mines'|'November 9, 2017 / 11:34 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Platinum miner Lonmin adds more security due to protests around mines Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - South African-focused Lonmin ( LMI.L ) ( LONJ.J ) said workers employed by its community shareholder Bapo Ba Mogale were protesting around the platinum miner’s operations, leading to delays in production at two shafts. FILE PHOTO: A mine worker speaks on his mobile phone as he returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg, South Africa November 10, 2015. Picture taken November 10, 2015 REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo “We are experiencing minimal challenges as some buses to our E2 and E3 shafts are running later than usual,” said spokeswoman Wendy Tlou. “We are monitoring the situation and have added security to assist with the safe transportation of our workers.” Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Veronica Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-safrica/platinum-miner-lonmin-adds-more-security-due-to-protests-around-mines-idUKKBN1D91I9'|'2017-11-09T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'45da27a6e06b04b87a68f4bc1e7fcb1c9659d033'|'US STOCKS-Wall St set to open lower on lack of fresh catalysts'|'(Reuters) - Wall Street stocks dropped on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Microsoft and other technology issues as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay corporate tax cuts that investors want very much. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P 500 has surged about 21 percent since the election of President Donald Trump a year ago, fueled by his promises to cut corporate taxes and other business-friendly measures. Senate Republicans are unveiling a tax proposal that differs markedly on corporate, business and individual tax cuts from legislation detailed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives, Republican aides said. The Senate proposal delays a corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent by a year and provides small-business owners with a deduction rather than a special business rate, said the aides. Earlier, uncertainty about the future of corporate tax rates pushed the S&P 500 down as much 1 percent, underscoring how much Wall Street is banking on a tax reduction. The S&P 500 is trading at 18 times expected earnings, expensive compared with its 10-year average of 14.3, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. Cutting corporate taxes would boost earnings and make stocks relatively less expensive. “It’s been a year since the election. We’ve gone up 22 percent on hopes of what the Trump agenda would bring, and while they’re trying to work toward this thing, they haven’t really accomplished much yet,” said Michael O‘Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. “If progress is not made, the equity market should either pause or correct until meaningful progress is made.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI lost 0.43 percent to end at 23,461.94, while the S&P 500 .SPX declined 0.38 percent to 2,584.62. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.58 percent to 6,750.05. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX, a top performer in 2017, slumped 2 percent ahead of a quarterly report by Nvidia ( NVDA.O ), which fell 1.84 percent. Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors fell, with industrials .SPLRCI down 1.28 percent and the technology .SPLRCT index off 0.85 percent. Apple ( AAPL.O ), Microsoft ( MSFT.O ), Alphabet ( GOOGL.O ), Oracle ( ORCL.N ) and Facebook ( FB.O ) were among the stocks weighing most on the S&P 500. Technology has been the best-performing S&P 500 sector so far this year, with a 37 percent rise. The sector’s stretched valuations make it vulnerable to selling as investors worry that promised tax reductions might not emerge. Roku ( ROKU.O ) soared 55 percent after the video streaming device maker’s quarterly results and guidance beat expectations. Macy’s ( M.N ) jumped 10.98 percent after the department store operator’s profit came in above expectations. In extended trade, Nordstrom dropped 4 percent after that retailer reported quarterly sales short of analysts’ expectations. Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) lost 3 percent after the bell following its quarterly report. During the session, Dish Network ( DISH.O ) rose 3.22 percent after the satellite and internet TV provider added subscribers in the United States in the third quarter and reduced the rate at which it lost existing customers. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.67-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.62-to-1 ratio favored decliners. About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 6.6 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-lower-after-wall-streets-record-run-idUSKBN1D91PH'|'2017-11-09T15:49:00.000+02:00'
'684f7a3dcfa00550a5c47c1cc83cf8aebce19340'|'Activist investor TCI might call EGM to oust LSE chairman Brydon - source'|'November 9, 2017 / 2:01 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Activist investor TCI might call EGM to oust LSE chairman Brydon - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Activist firm TCI Fund Management might call an extraordinary shareholder meeting to oust London Stock Exchange Group ( LSE.L ) chairman Donald Brydon, a source close to the firm told Reuters. Chris Hohn’s London-based hedge fund firm TCI may write to the board to request the meeting on Thursday afternoon after it first sent a letter asking for Brydon to step down last week. A spokesman at LSE declined to comment. Sky News reported earlier on Thursday that TCI was ‘plotting’ an imminent move to unseat Brydon. Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-egm/activist-investor-tci-might-call-egm-to-oust-lse-chairman-brydon-source-idUKKBN1D91YY'|'2017-11-09T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'f12a069707b5c30aeafb8e8859f613bc592b5627'|'Merkel''s party opposes Telekom selloff to fund broadband upgrade - sources'|'November 7, 2017 / 12:52 PM / a few seconds ago Merkel''s party opposes Telekom selloff to fund broadband upgrade: sources Douglas Busvine , Paul Carrel 4 Min Read FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s ruling conservatives oppose selling the state’s holding in Deutsche Telekom to raise billions of euros for a national broadband upgrade, preferring instead to divest stock in Deutsche Post, a senior source said. Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer “Can we privatise companies to this end? Yes we can,” said the source, from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “But I wouldn’t necessarily start with Telekom.” The source added that “if we were to think at all” about selling off government interests, state-held shares in Deutsche Post could go first as that company is less sensitive to national security concerns. The CDU’s position is in stark contrast with calls by two smaller parties in talks to form a coalition government to sell down the state’s 31.9 percent holding in Deutsche Telekom to invest in a national rollout of ultra-fast glass-fiber to homes and businesses. The liberal Free Democrats want to sell off the entire holding. The Greens, meanwhile, propose parking the 14.5 percent of Telekom that is directly controlled by Berlin at a state development bank, raising 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion). A second CDU source dismissed the Greens’ proposal as a “book-keeping trick”. The disagreement comes as Germany, Europe’s industrial powerhouse, seeks billions to upgrade its creaking internet infrastructure and keep its factories competitive. Twelve years after Merkel first took power, just 2 percent of internet connections in Germany are super-fast glass fiber, the OECD estimates. That compares to 74 percent in South Korea and 75 percent in Japan. Analysts, investors and CEO Tim Hoettges warn that, without the government as an anchor owner, Telekom could draw an unwelcome foreign takeover bid. Telekom called off an attempt to merge its T-Mobile US unit with Sprint Corp at the weekend. With that deal off the table, concerns are turning to the risk that a large slug of Telekom shares could hit the stock market. “This could be highly negative for the Deutsche Telekom share price in our view,” Credit Suisse analyst Justin Funnell said in a note on Tuesday, adding that investors would only want to buy the shares at a steep discount. Analysts estimate the cost of a country-wide glass-fiber internet rollout to businesses and households at 80 to 100 billion euros ($93-$116 billion) - beyond the reach of Deutsche Telekom and its competitors. The Free Democrats want the government to commit 20-25 billion euros in subsidies through 2025, a figure the CDU views as too high. The state owns 31.9 percent in Deutsche Telekom. However, Berlin has already raised cash against a 17.4 percent stake by transferring it to the Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW), a state development bank. Were the KfW to sell these shares to investors it would only remit any price upside to the government. It’s a similar story with the 20.9 percent holding in Deutsche Post that has already been parked at the KfW, which does not disclose the valuation of the holdings in its books. Merkel aides argue the public finances are strong enough to fund the internet offensive without resorting to asset fire sales. Funneling some of that cash to Deutsche Telekom would benefit the state as its main shareholder, CDU sources say. That view is shared by a top-10 Telekom shareholder. “I should privatise when I have no money,” this investor told Reuters. “Revenues are flowing, so why privatise? It makes sense for the state to keep a stake.” ($1 = 0.8615 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-coalition-digital/merkels-party-opposes-telekom-selloff-to-fund-broadband-upgrade-sources-idUKKBN1D71NW'|'2017-11-07T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'a9f02e301b043d3cd2f2c8b5055be9afe0d7e7de'|'Clothes, furniture boost euro zone retail sales in September'|'November 7, 2017 / 10:32 AM / in 16 minutes Clothes, furniture boost euro zone retail sales in Sept Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A surge in sales of clothes, furniture and electrical goods boosted euro zone retail sales in September by more than expected despite a fall in motor fuel sales, pointing to rising domestic demand as the economy gathers pace. A customer pushes a shopping trolley on an escalator at the Bercy shopping centre in Charenton Le Pont, near Paris, August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday that retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.7 percent month-on-month for a 3.7 percent year-on-year jump. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a monthly rise of 0.6 percent and a 2.7 percent annual gain. Eurostat also revised sharply upwards retail sales data for August to -0.1 percent month-on-month from -0.5 percent previously estimated and to a gain of 2.3 percent year-on-year from 1.2 percent. Retail sales signal the strength of domestic demand -- a vital component of the euro zone’s gross domestic product, which in the third quarter rose 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter and 2.5 percent year-on-year, accelerating from 2.3 percent in the previous three months. Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-retail/clothes-furniture-boost-euro-zone-retail-sales-in-sept-idUKKBN1D717T'|'2017-11-07T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'584b6bb96608dc46666d5b15768f4ba5868c5a24'|'UPDATE 1-Germany''s FlixBus to take on Greyhound in the United States'|'November 8, 2017 / 10:55 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Germany''s FlixBus to take on Greyhound in the United States Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds that Amtrak has reported increased ridership, Chaddick Institute study was withdrawn and would be revised) FRANKFURT, Nov 8 (Reuters) - German long-distance bus firm FlixBus plans to expand to the United States next year, taking on rivals such as Greyhound and Megabus from a base in Los Angeles, it said on Wednesday. “There is a significant shift in the American transport market at the moment. Public transportation and sustainable travel is becoming more important,” FlixBus founder and manager Andre Schwaemmlein said in a statement. FlixBus became a major player on European long-distance routes after Germany liberalised the market for inter-city bus services in 2013. It survived a fierce price war among new market entrants to boost its market share in Germany to more than 90 percent, making its bright green coaches a common sight on German motorways. It does not own any of the buses but rather works with local and regional partners. In the United States, it would compete with companies such as Megabus, operated by Britain’s Stagecoach Group, which launched in the United States in 2006, and the famous Greyhound bus line. Greyhound, founded in 1914 and now owned by Britain’s FirstGroup PLC, transports around 18 million passengers a year in a fleet of around 1,700 vehicles. FlixBus said it had already sent a small team to Los Angeles to start setting up a base for its U.S. business, though it was not yet clear when and on which routes it would start its bus service there. It may face an uphill battle in the United States, where existing bus companies and the Amtrak rail system are competing for travelers with airlines and personal vehicles. Researchers at the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University in Chicago in August issued a report saying that cheap gasoline was encouraging travelers to drive cars between certain cities that are 120 miles to 400 miles apart, leaving gaps in the bus and rail networks. The Chaddick Institute has since withdrawn that study. Amtrak has reported the system’s ridership increased to 31.3 million passengers in the 2016 fiscal year from 30.9 million in the 2015 fiscal year. An Amtrak spokesman said by email on Wednesday that the system expected to show another increase in ridership and revenue in fiscal 2017. Joseph Schwieterman, an author of the Chaddick study, said on Wednesday that the institute expected to reissue the study. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Editing by Louise Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/flixbus-usa/update-1-germanys-flixbus-to-take-on-greyhound-in-the-united-states-idUSL8N1NE1OE'|'2017-11-09T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'd2117ec8ed17c9ce35db4033da72228047c8aad0'|'Munich Re posts large Q3 loss as natural catastrophes weigh'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:14 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Munich Re posts large Q3 loss as natural catastrophes weigh Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German reinsurance giant Munich Re ( MUVGn.DE ) posted a net loss of 1.4 billion euros (1.24 billion pounds) in the third quarter after a spate of major costly natural catastrophes in North America. FILE PHOTO - The company logo of German reinsurer Munich Re is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo The reinsurer warned last month that it would record a loss of that magnitude. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-munich-re-results/munich-re-posts-large-q3-loss-as-natural-catastrophes-weigh-idUKKBN1D90RP'|'2017-11-09T09:14:00.000+02:00'
'5ffe3c8fd91c75fd200aba6cda8a416054baa13d'|'Amid Trump cuts, Uber kicks off campaign to enroll drivers in Obamacare'|'November 9, 2017 / 12:08 PM / Updated an hour ago Amid Trump cuts, Uber kicks off campaign to enroll drivers in Obamacare Salvador Rodriguez 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and some smaller technology companies are launching campaigns to publicize Obamacare enrollment among their contract workers after the Trump administration slashed government marketing for the health program by 90 percent. FILE PHOTO: An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York, U.S. June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo Freelance and contract workers are an important part of the workforce for many Silicon Valley companies, including drivers at Uber and rival Lyft Inc, and technology companies also have been among the most vocal in confronting Trump administration policies - particularly immigration - that they perceive as hurting their workforce. Uber describes its program as a response to a growing need for drivers rather than a political act. The program is part of an effort started in June by Uber to improve the company’s relationship with drivers by rolling out new initiatives and features, such as tipping, that better serve them. Starting on Friday, Uber will hold events for drivers in 28 U.S. cities, from Los Angeles to Indianapolis, to offer in-person assistance in signing up for insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Uber did not disclose a budget for the initiative. The Uber program is an expansion of a partnership with Stride Health, a health consultant startup that specializes in helping independent workers choose health, dental and vision insurance plans. Stride said it is also working separately with a group of companies, including Etsy Inc ( ETSY.O ), DoorDash Inc and Postmates Inc, to sign up independent contractors for insurance. Uber has had a difficult year in the face of a federal probe into whether it broke bribery laws, allegations of sexual harassment, and other issues that led the company to bring in a new chief executive and promise to take better care of drivers. Former CEO Travis Kalanick also drew criticism for joining President Donald Trump’s business advisory council. Kalanick left the council in February. Across the United States, Obamacare enrollment for 2018 is clouded by uncertainty as experts expect reduced participation amid bitter political debate around the program’s future. FILE PHOTO: Employees work inside Uber''s Centre of Excellence (COE) office in Cairo, Egypt October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Republicans in Congress have repeatedly failed to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, which they have said drives up costs for consumers and interferes with personal medical decisions. Democrats have warned that repeal would leave millions of Americans without health coverage. Uber has about 600,000 drivers in 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S., February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Meghan Joyce, Uber’s regional general manager of the United States and Canada, said in a phone interview this week that there was an appetite for healthcare among drivers. Nearly 150,000 Uber drivers searched for insurance plans through Stride Health last year, and most of them enrolled. “This year we’re doubling down on that,” Joyce said. The Trump administration has shortened the Affordable Care Act enrollment period, which is currently open. It also has cut the advertising budget to $10 million and slashed by 40 percent the budget for support staff, known as navigators, who help people choose policies. “Those are gone in most parts of the country,” said Stride Health Chief Executive Noah Lang in a phone interview on Friday. The enrollment period ends on Dec. 15. in most states. “There’s independent contractors who need coverage right now. The law of the land says they have access to it. It’s our No. 1 job to make sure they get it,” Lang said. (In 10th paragraph, corrects to say 150,000 Uber drivers searched, not enrolled, for insurance plans through Stride Health last year.) Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez; Editing by Peter Henderson and Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-obamacare/amid-trump-cuts-uber-kicks-off-campaign-to-enroll-drivers-in-obamacare-idUSKBN1D91M6'|'2017-11-09T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'ae7943c62e347be7993550ac372290cbdc2f26c3'|'Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 billion to China'|'(Reuters) - Boeing Co said it signed an agreement on Thursday to sell 300 planes to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company worth $37 billion at list prices, one of several deals announced during a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing.FILE PHOTO: The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo General Electric Co said it had signed jet engine deals worth $2.5 billion and a $1 billion agreement for power plant equipment and services.State-run China Aviation Supplies, which leases planes to Chinese airlines, said the Boeing agreement covered 260 B-737s and 40 B-777s and B-787s. The breakdown between firm orders and non-binding commitments was not immediately available.Analysts said, however, that some of the orders may be among more than 300 from undisclosed buyers posted this year, and it was not clear how much of the China deal was new business.The new agreement also may overlap substantially with a similar, 300-plane agreement Boeing signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 2015 visit to the United States..That deal, valued at $38 billion at the time, included orders and commitments for 190 B-737s and 50 Boeing wide-body planes, as well as leases for an additional 60 B-737s.A spokesman for the planemaker declined to comment on what proportion of the new China agreement represented new or existing orders, but it was believed that some of the orders were already in Boeing’s backlog. Boeing typically lets plane buyers determine what details to reveal about orders.Boeing shares were down 1.4 percent at $260.30.STRONG DEMAND Boeing says one out of every four jetliners now rolling off its assembly lines is being delivered to Chinese customers, suggesting Chinese demand is strong, despite vagueness about how many actual Chinese orders it has won.Plane makers also acknowledge a multi-step wooing process with customers such as China. The government first determines how many airplanes its airlines will need, allowing detailed contract discussions to take place. After talks conclude, the government must give final approval to the contracts before the orders become firm.Some customers ask Boeing to not identify them as buyers even on firm orders, and China is typically among those, according to industry experts. Boeing had 323 orders by unidentified customers as of Nov. 7, of which 282 were for its 737 narrow body family.Separately on Thursday, Boeing said it had received orders for 42 B-737 MAX jets and 10 B-787-9 Dreamliners from CDB Aviation, a unit of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co . The order was worth $7.4 billion at list prices.Boeing and European rival Airbus have been jostling for market share in China, the world’s fastest growing aviation market, with both opening assembly plants in the country.China’s owned aircraft fleet is currently equally split between Boeing and Airbus, but going by order book trends, Boeing seems to have gained a big lead in terms of the number of aircraft orders from China, said Corrine Png, chief executive of transport research firm Crucial Perspective.China Aviation Supplies has also played a prominent role in deals announced during previous government exchanges.In July, it agreed to buy 140 aircraft from Airbus in a deal worth $23 billion at list prices during a visit by Xi to Germany. It also was among three Chinese companies involved in the 2015 Boeing order.Boeing’s latest signing in China follows an order for 39 wide-body jets from Singapore Airlines last month.Earlier on Thursday, General Electric said it had signed deals worth $3.5 billion in China.They included a $1.4 billion agreement for GEnx engines for 10 B-787-9 Dreamliners, signed with Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd and ICBC Leasing, the leasing arm of state bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.It also included an order valued at $1.1 billion for 80 LEAP engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between GE and Safran SA of France.GE’s power division also signed a partnership agreement with China Datang Group to provide gas- and steam-powered turbines and components, plus services and digital technology for power projects in China. It valued that deal at $1 billion.A GE spokesperson said its engine orders were new, and deferred to Boeing on how much of aircraft order was new.Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI, Ben Blanchard and Stella Qiu in BEIJING, Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE and Alwyn Scott in NEW YORK; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-deals-boeing/boeing-signs-deal-to-sell-300-planes-worth-37-billion-to-china-idINKBN1D90VI'|'2017-11-09T04:57:00.000+02:00'
'cf2fadcaf10aa1611f13d1fdbd37877ed9e98ec1'|'Saudi budget airline Flynas picks Morgan Stanley for IPO: sources'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi budget airline Flynas, part owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s firm, is pressing ahead with an initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to work on it, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.A model of Saudi airline Flynas is on display during a ceremony to sign a deal between Airbus andFlynas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser Flynas is proceeding with its plan to sell existing shares to the public that may include part of Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding’s ( 4280.SE ) 34 percent stake, people familiar with the matter said. That is despite the detention of Alwaleed in an investigation by a new Saudi anti-corruption body.Saudi Arabian IPOs typically involve the sale of around 30 percent of a business.The central bank has sought to reassure the business community this week that the investigation would not hurt the economy, saying companies and banks owned by detained persons could operate as normal.Kingdom Holding, whose shares have lost around a fifth of their value over the past week, was not available to comment.It made a statement earlier this week, citing chief executive, Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman, that it has received the support of the government, and would continue to operate “business as usual”.Investment banks pitched for the role two weeks ago, and the decision came this week, according to two sources, declining to be named as the matter was not public.NCB Capital, the investment arm of National Commercial Bank 1180.SE, the kingdom’s largest lender, will be working with Morgan Stanley, one of the sources said.Flynas spokesman Bander al-Hassan told Reuters that the airline was yet to made a decision on who would advise on the IPO, while Morgan Stanley declined to comment.Flynas was previously working with Banque Saudi Fransi 1050.SE for its public share sale, said the sources, but they faced a conflict of interest after Kingdom Holding agreed to buy a 16.2 percent stake in the Saudi bank for $1.5 billion in September.In January, flynas ordered 60 Airbus A320neos and converted a past order for 20 older versions of the A320 to the neo model. The 80 jets are likely to give flynas one of the largest budget airline fleets in the Middle East.Flynas, which launched as Nas Air in 2007 and first turned a profit in 2015, is facing increasing competition in Saudi Arabia, its primary market. State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines launched a budget airline, flyadeal, in September.additional reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-flynas-ipo/saudi-budget-airline-flynas-picks-morgan-stanley-for-ipo-sources-idINKBN1D90Y8'|'2017-11-09T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'a6e92001407c6de03df6410dff1460c687f924fb'|'Britain says will provide Saudi Aramco with credit guarantees'|'LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Britain’s government said on Thursday it will provide Saudi Aramco with $2 billion in credit guarantees so that the Saudi energy giant can buy goods and services from Britain more easily.“This builds on previous support for UK exports as part of Saudi Aramco joint venture projects,” a government spokesperson said in a statement.The Financial Times earlier reported the British plan which coincided with efforts by Britain to persuade the state Saudi energy company to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in an initial public offering.A spokesman for Britain’s finance ministry said the credit guarantees were not part of the attempt to secure the IPO. (Reporting by Andy Bruce) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-aramco-britain/britain-says-will-provide-saudi-aramco-with-credit-guarantees-idINL9N1M100V'|'2017-11-09T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'fa006a2b9263c03eb361db64b2781c12d968cd03'|'UPDATE 1-Siemens industrial profit drops as turbines, wind struggle'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 6:20 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Siemens industrial profit dives ahead of year of change Georgina Prodhan 4 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - German engineering company Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) reported a worse than expected 10 percent drop in quarterly industrial profit and signaled a tough year ahead as it restructures its turbine and wind power businesses. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Siemens is pictured on a building in Mexico City, Mexico, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo Siemens is shedding operations as it seeks to shrug off its conglomerate structure and remodel itself as an industrial software company. It is listing its healthcare unit and putting its wind and rail businesses into joint ventures. But its results were dragged down by the large gas turbines that are increasingly unloved in a world moving to renewable energy, and setbacks at its Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ) wind energy joint venture. Industrial profit came in at 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for the quarter to the end of September, below the lowest estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts, in which forecasts averaged 2.49 billion euros. “We have to tackle structural issues in some individual businesses,” Chief Executive Joe Kaeser said in a statement on Thursday. “There is a lot of work ahead of us in fiscal 2018.” “We have understood that conglomerates of the old-fashioned kind have no future,” he later told a news conference. Siemens shares fell to a two-week low and were down 1.9 percent by 0950 GMT. The German blue-chip DAX .GDAXI was flat and remained close to all-time highs. “The going is getting a bit harder at this stage,” wrote Barclays analyst James Stettler, reiterating his “equal weight” rating on the stock. JOBS FEAR Siemens forecast a steady industrial profit margin of 11-12 percent for 2018, excluding severance charges its finance chief said would be “significant”, and a moderate increase in revenue. Revenue edged up 1 percent in Siemens’ fourth quarter to 22.3 billion euros. Orders jumped 16 percent to 23.7 billion euros. Profit from Power and Gas, Siemens’ second-biggest business line after healthcare, plunged 40 percent to 303 million euros as it battled overcapacity and falling prices. About 50 Siemens employees and trade unionists protested outside the company’s headquarters in the center of Munich against possible job cuts in the group they said they had learned of only through the media. “Of course something has to happen, we don’t dispute it, but we do accuse Siemens of waiting until the problem is so big that there will have to be compulsory redundancies. We won’t take it,” said an IG Metall spokesman. Siemens plans to inform labor representatives about its plans in an initial meeting on Nov. 16. The group now wants to focus more clearly on its industrial automation division, Digital Factory, where it is market leader. Factory automation is an increasingly attractive business, with China targeting rapid growth in domestically manufactured goods. Digital Factory posted an unexpected 3 percent slide in profit to 501 million euros, burdened by expenses for developing its MindSphere industrial software platform, the $4.5 billion acquisition of Mentor Graphics and severance charges. Siemens competes with European rivals ABB ( ABBN.S ) and Schneider Electric ( SCHN.PA ) as well as Rockwell Automation ( ROK.N ) in the United States, which just rebuffed a takeover offer from Emerson Electric ( EMR.N ). Emerson said this week it saw the automation industry ahead of two-year upswing, while Rockwell forecast organic sales growth of 3.5 to 6.5 percent for the year ahead, saying it saw “attractive opportunities in the industrial automation and information market”. ($1 = 0.8621 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-results/siemens-industrial-profit-dives-10-pct-as-turbines-business-tanks-idUSKBN1D90LP'|'2017-11-09T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'3c30da0d3c7b783aa65dc75f3de019b534410990'|'India doubles wheat import tax to 20 percent: govt order'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has doubled its import tax on wheat to 20 percent, according to a government order made on Wednesday, as the world’s second biggest producer tries to rein in imports to support local prices.FILE PHOTO - A worker spreads wheat crop for drying at a wholesale grain market in Chandigarh, India, April 22, 2015. REUTERS/Ajay Verma In the last two years India has been importing wheat after local production fell due to successive droughts. Indian farmers have started sowing new season wheat that will be ready for harvesting from March.India had imported 5.75 million tonnes of wheat in the 2016/17 fiscal year ended on March.The government on Wednesday also imposed 50 percent import tax on peas as prices of pulses fell below the government-set support level in the local market.India imports peas mainly from Canada, Russia, United States and France. In 2016/17, India’s pea imports jumped 41 percent from a year ago to a record 3.17 million tonnes.Imports of wheat are not possible with a 20 percent import duty and even overseas purchases of peas will slow in the coming months, Pravin Dongre, chairman of the India Pulses and Grains Association told Reuters.“These are very good moves to support local prices and farmers.”Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Greg Mahlich and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-wheat-imports/india-doubles-wheat-import-tax-to-20-percent-govt-order-idINKBN1D82EM'|'2017-11-08T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'94f68ea820979116624ec953968a6c09e5b481eb'|'Airbus CEO says share price doesn''t show any loss of support'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:34 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Airbus CEO says share price doesn''t show any loss of support Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) CEO Tom Enders said on Wednesday the company’s share price did not back up the idea he had lost the trust of stakeholders, amid media reports of a campaign to oust him. Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders speaks during a news conference on the aerospace group''s annual results, in London, Britain February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine said last week that French President Emmanuel Macron hoped to find a French replacement for Enders, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s support, amid growing turmoil at the company. The report rekindled memories of governments intervening directly in one of Europe’s flagship companies after it was brought under French and German industrial leadership in 2000. Speaking during a panel discussion at a French-German business conference in Berlin, Enders said recent media headlines were “pretty much exaggerated”. “If you mention the trust of the shareholders, then please look at our share price. I cannot conclude from this that we lost the trust of the shareholders,” the German said, when asked to comment on the reports. The French government has called for more transparency at Airbus as the company weathers a growing crisis over investigations into past sales practices. Germany, though, has taken a stance against sweeping changes to Airbus’ ownership structure and governance. Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-ceo/airbus-ceo-says-share-price-doesnt-show-any-loss-of-support-idUKKBN1D81LY'|'2017-11-08T14:34:00.000+02:00'
'1ffe58f96bcae85a0db465ec583a9c9a66549c9f'|'Tata Motors second-quarter profit jumps three-fold, beats estimates'|'MUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - India’s Tata Motors reported a sharp rise in second-quarter profits on Thursday, helped by higher sales of its Jaguar and Land Rover cars, but warned of challenges ahead for its flagship British subsidiary.FILE PHOTO: A vehicle drives past three men walking out of a Tata Motors car plant at Sanand in the western Indian state of Gujarat, India, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which has been driving Tata Motors’ profits for several years, expects sales in the UK and United States to soften because of competition but is confident of growth in China, JLR CEO Ralf Speth told reporters in Mumbai.“We know that overall the economies are stronger around the world but it’s also clear that we see, one or the other, weakness from a political side, from an economy side. Think about Brexit, think about the U.S. at the current moment,” Speth said.JLR plans to launch several new products next year including the Jaguar XF Sportbrake sport-utility vehicle (SUV), the E-Pace, a compact SUV, and the I-Pace, its first electric sports car, Speth said after the company announced a three-fold rise in profit.Tata Motors'' consolidated net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to 24.83 billion rupees ($382 million) compared with 8.28 billion rupees a year ago, helped by strong demand for Range Rover Velar and other new models. ( bit.ly/2jbVXEc )Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 14.99 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.Pre-tax profit at JLR rose 38 percent to 385 million pounds ($505 million) and its margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 11.8 percent from 10.9 percent a year ago.Retail sales of its Jaguar saloons and Land Rover sport-utility vehicles were up 5 percent on the same quarter last year, as an increase in sales in China helped offset lower UK sales.JLR, Britain’s biggest carmaker, has said it is already feeling the first effects of Brexit, with EU citizens from outside the UK demanding more secure employment contracts and international suppliers less willing to commit to investing in the country.While JLR will spend between 4 and 4.5 billion pounds on capital expenditure this year, going forward it will expand its product portfolio in a very controlled manner to ensure sustainable, profitable growth, Speth said.Second-quarter losses at Tata Motors’ domestic business narrowed to 2.95 billion rupees from 6.31 billion rupees a year ago, helped by a 30 percent jump in revenues.Tata Motors Chief Executive Guenter Butschek said work on turning round the company’s domestic car and truck business was underway. The plan focuses on launching new products, reducing costs and consolidating its supply chain, he told reporters.($1 = 64.9700 Indian rupees)($1 = 0.7622 pounds)Writing by Aditi ShahEditing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tata-motors-results/tata-motors-second-quarter-profit-jumps-three-fold-beats-estimates-idINKBN1D90Z5'|'2017-11-09T05:36:00.000+02:00'
'e04355d7375eaa1e87fb076b0bfaf8e211161906'|'World Cup, new products to speed Adidas sales growth'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 7:11 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago World Cup, new products to speed Adidas sales growth Emma Thomasson 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ) hopes the launch of new team kits before next year’s soccer World Cup will restore sales growth after the German sportswear firm reported a slowdown in Europe in the last three months. FILE PHOTO: Germany''s national team unveil their new jerseys, ahead of the upcoming international friendly matches against England and France, in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo Adidas is making shirts for teams including World Cup holders Germany and Spain. It is lifting marketing spending and expects a sales acceleration in the Christmas shopping season, Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted told journalists. Third-quarter sales rose 9 percent to 5.677 billion euros ($6.59 billion), missing average analyst expectations for 5.86 billion euros. Growth slowed in Europe even as the German firm powers ahead in China and North America. Rorsted said the lower growth in Europe was largely due to a general slowdown in the market, while the termination of sponsorship deals with the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) and Premier League champions Chelsea led to an overall decline in basketball and soccer sales. The World Cup, to be played in Russia in June and July 2018, will allow companies such as Adidas, Nike ( NKE.N ) and Puma ( PUMG.DE ) to market soccer kits and boots to a global audience. STICKING TO FORECASTS Adidas shares, which are up more than a third this year, were down 2.6 percent by 1110 GMT to their lowest level in almost four months, making them the second biggest decliner on Germany’s blue chip index .GDAX. Some investors had predicted that Adidas might lift its forecasts for 2017 after smaller German brand Puma last month increased its targets for the year. But Adidas, which had already raised its 2017 outlook in July and lifted its long-term forecast in March, confirmed it expects 2017 currency-neutral sales to rise between 17 and 19 percent and net income to increase at between 26 and 28 percent. An Adidas logo is pictured inside a shoe before the company annual general meeting in Fuerth near Nuremberg, Germany, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle “While implied fourth-quarter growth of 20-30 percent looks challenging, profitability targets look well underpinned,” said Citi analyst Dan Homan, who rates Adidas shares “neutral”. Inventories from continuing operations rose a currency-neutral 16 percent in the third quarter, which finance chief Harm Ohlmeyer said was an indicator of expected growth. Quarterly net profit jumped more than a third to 526 million euros, beating analyst consensus for 512 million euros, as the popularity of the Adidas brand meant it could keep prices up, helping offset higher input costs and currency fluctuations. FILE PHOTO: Germany''s national team unveil their new jerseys, ahead of the upcoming international friendly matches against England and France, in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo NORTH AMERICA TURNAROUND Adidas and Puma have been gaining market share in North America as customers snap up their retro styles and lifestyle shoes instead of basketball and sports performance gear, hurting Nike and Under Armour ( UAA.N ). Sales of the Adidas and Reebok brands rose 28 percent in greater China and 23 percent in North America, after stripping out currency effects, but by just 7 percent in western Europe. Rorsted expects the struggling Reebok fitness brand to return to growth in the U.S. market next year, saying the firm’s commitment to turn the business around is underlined by a new deal to partner with designer Victoria Beckham. Sales fell 17 percent in Russia, which Adidas blamed on the “ongoing challenging consumer sentiment” and store closures. Rorsted said he did not expect the weakness of the Russian economy to dent sales of merchandise compared to previous World Cups as most replica shirts are bought by fans at home. ($1 = 0.8618 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-adidas-results/adidas-reports-more-strong-growth-in-north-america-china-idUKKBN1D90R1'|'2017-11-09T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'824cd1a4aaacdf59afdb02258efa8db0f3286d62'|'Exclusive - Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay: court filing'|'November 8, 2017 / 3:01 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Exclusive - Takata creditors seek $30 billion, far more than it can pay: court filing Maki Shiraki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Creditors of bankrupt Takata Corp say the parts maker owes them more than $30 billion (£22.9 billion) after the automotive industry’s biggest recall over its faulty air bags - many times more than the company can repay, a court filing seen by Reuters shows. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Takata Corp is seen on its display at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo In the biggest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer, Takata sought court protection from creditors in June as costs and liabilities mounted from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits. Its air bag inflators have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles. Takata’s creditors, including automakers such as Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ), banks and bondholders, are seeking 3.77 trillion yen (£25.3 billion) from the supplier, mostly to cover recall costs, according to the filing outlining the company’s debt obligations, which hasn’t been made public. Takata had cash and securities worth just 78 billion yen at end-March - equivalent to just 2 percent of the sum creditors are seeking. It also had tangible assets such as buildings and machinery worth 93 billion yen, but much of these went to the company’s purchaser and the rest is needed to make replacement inflators to supply the recalls. Key Safety Systems, a Michigan-based parts supplier owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp ( 600699.SS ), agreed in June to buy Takata’s non-inflator assets, such as the seatbelt and air bag businesses, for $1.6 billion. A spokesman for Takata declined to comment on the matter. A Honda spokesman said: “We will continue to consider our legal options” to reach a financial settlement. Automakers have recalled or expect to recall by 2019 about 125 million vehicles worldwide to replace air bag inflators, including more than 60 million in the United States. As part of Takata’s bankruptcy restructuring plan, its steering committee recognises debts of 1.05 trillion yen ($9.26 billion), accepting just 600 billion yen in recall-related costs, according to the filing submitted to the Tokyo District Court. Takata aims to file its restructuring plan to that court by Nov. 27. Reporting by Maki Shiaki, with additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by William Mallard and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-takata-bankruptcy/exclusive-takata-creditors-seek-30-billion-far-more-than-it-can-pay-court-filing-idUKKBN1D822Y'|'2017-11-08T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'9f2460ec71111ca0be3e57a5bbc36811b14e7893'|'Asia stocks pause at peaks, ponder U.S. tax muddle'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:50 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago U.S., European stocks flat, bonds rise on U.S. tax-cut doubts David Randall 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Increasing concern that U.S. Republicans’ plans to cut corporate taxes may not win congressional approval as early as expected weighed on American stock indexes on Wednesday, overshadowing strong economic data in Asia that sent the MSCI All World Index to a record high. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The dollar edged lower against a basket of currencies .DXY, while European shares dipped, led by a broad decline in bank stocks. Derek Halpenny, head of global markets research at Mitsubishi UFJ in London, said he was dubious about the progress of the tax overhaul bill proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, which includes a big cut in corporate taxes. “The initial phases of discussions within the House (of Representatives) have brought up a lot of divisions and problems. ... If the story is true that they’re considering a delay of one year to the corporate tax cut, those big differences will need to be sorted,” he said. A report in the Washington Post late Tuesday said Senate Republican leaders were considering a one-year delay in implementing the corporate tax cut. Francois Savary, chief investment officer at wealth manager Prime Partners, said the doubts over the tax issue reinforce the case for some consolidation in the market, which has been fully priced for good news. “It’s something that would impact the domestic stocks in the U.S. and would be a setback for the market in general, (and) it’s more than stock-specific as people would reassess earnings growth expectations to the downside,” he said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 9.27 points, or 0.04 percent, to 23,566.5, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.56 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,593.2 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 14.81 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,782.59. The U.S. two-to-10-year Treasury yield curve hit its flattest in a decade, potentially cutting into the profits of banks, which borrow money at short-term interest rates in order to lend it out at longer terms. US2YT=RR US10YT=RR Such a move could also imply that investors are expecting a slowdown. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 .SPSY fell 0.6 percent, while technology stocks .SPLRCT rose 0.35 percent, boosted by a 1.2 percent gain in Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), which was upgraded by analysts after competitor Broadcom made an unsolicited $105 billion takeover bid for the company. A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last down 6/32 in price to yield 2.3271 percent, from 2.307 percent late on Tuesday. European bonds were also snared by the yield-curve flattening, with yields on long-term German bonds falling to two-month lows. This was a reversal of the trend when Trump was elected president a year ago. Yields and stock prices jumped in late 2016 on what was dubbed the “Trumpflation” trade: a bet on rising rates, inflation and securities prices in the United States and beyond. Analysts believe that a flattening yield curve at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking U.S. interest rates is a sign that investors are concerned about the sustainability of economic growth and inflation in the world’s biggest economy. In the European session, the two main banking indexes suffered the most, with the euro zone index .SX7E falling 0.1 percent and the Europe-wide banking equivalent .SX7P also dropping 0.1 percent, dragging an index of pan-European stocks 0.05 percent lower. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.01 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.14 percent. ASIA Earlier, Asian shares wrung out another decade peak as data showed China’s demand for imports remained buoyant, pushing the MSCI world equity index to a fresh high. Beijing reported imports in October rose 17.2 percent from a year earlier, beating forecasts of 16 percent, but export growth was just under estimates at 6.9 percent. Chinese crude imports slipped to their lowest in a year, pushing oil prices lower, although traders said the overall market remains well supported because of OPEC-led supply cuts. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.73 percent to $56.78 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.54, down 0.24 percent. (For a graphic on ''World FX rates in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh ) Reporting by David Randall and Abhinav Ramnarayan; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly and Sujata Rao; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-pause-at-peaks-ponder-u-s-tax-muddle-idUSKBN1D802R'|'2017-11-08T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'867e4a6f0f56365fd34fb02d22372aa964b497d6'|'China''s Bytedance buys selfie video app Musical.ly 10,'|'In sync: China''s hottest news app buys Musical.ly by Rishi Iyengar @Iyengarish November 10, 2017: 6:24 AM ET Inside the life of Musical.ly star Baby Ariel The company behind China''s hottest news app is buying one of the country''s biggest social media platforms. Bytedance is set to acquire Musical.ly, a video sharing app with more than 100 million users worldwide, the companies said on Friday. Bytedance will pay between $800 million and $1 billion, according to several media reports . A person with knowledge of the deal confirmed that price range to CNNMoney. Musical.ly, founded three years ago in Shanghai, is the first Chinese social media app to make it big in the U.S., where it has about 20 million users. Millions of teens use the app to share videos of themselves lip-syncing to popular songs and making funny faces. It also has a live-streaming platform called live.ly. Related: How China''s musical.ly cracked the U.S. market Bytedance, meanwhile, is best known for the Toutiao app, which uses artificial intelligence to create customized news feeds for its users. The company was valued at $11 billion in June, according to CB Insights, and is now reportedly worth $20 billion . The Beijing-based firm, which recently bought video platform Flipagram and also owns English news app TopBuzz, declined to comment on its current valuation. Related: This Chinese app wants to organize the world''s information The acquisition of Musical.ly is expected to be completed by the end of November once certain conditions are met, the companies said. The app''s cofounders, Alex Zhu and Louis Yang, will join Bytedance and will continue running Musical.ly as an independent platform. The merger should help Musical.ly grow in new markets such as Japan and South Korea as well as in China, where it has struggled to gain a foothold despite its popularity in other parts of the world. CNNMoney (New Delhi) First published November 10, 2017: 5:19 AM ET '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/10/technology/musically-bytedance-toutiao-china/index.html'|'2017-11-10T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'5fe076f0f011b93ab31499e9805245ae880789b1'|'China''s deliverymen face robot revolution as parcel demand soars'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:49 AM / in 7 minutes China''s deliverymen face robot revolution as parcel demand soars Brenda Goh , Pei Li 6 Min Read SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - At Beijing’s sprawling Renmin University of China, two shiny new couriers dart through throngs of students to deliver parcels throughout the day. A BEST Inc employee inspects goods at one of the company''s Shanghai warehouses in Shanghai, China November 8, 2017. Picture taken November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brenda Goh But they’re not typical Chinese deliverymen. Bright red, grey and black, they are the robot postmen of the future, and are controlled from a command centre 40 kms (25 miles) away by e-commerce giant JD.com JD.N. The robots are among technologies revolutionising China’s vast delivery industry, which is struggling to keep pace with 50 percent annual growth in parcel volumes amid staff shortages, tight competition and declining margins. China’s top delivery firms such as S.F. Express ( 002352.SZ ), BEST Inc BSTI.N and ZTO Express ( ZTO.N ) have begun testing robots and automated sorting lines ahead of China’s Singles Day on Saturday - an annual online discount shopping extravaganza which could see 1.5 billion packages shipped around the country. “Wages are going up and the technology cost is actually going down,” said Bao Yan, director of strategy at JD Logistics, which manages parent JD.com’s logistics network. “We own the full process... we want to have automation throughout, from the fulfilment centre to transportation and for last-mile delivery.” To be sure, the robot revolution isn’t unique to China. U.S. online retailer Amazon AMZO.N has staffed warehouses with thousands of robots since 2014, helping cut operating costs and delivery times. However, Chinese industry executives say they are leapfrogging Amazon as they make use of and develop these technologies at a faster pace, with many investing proceeds from stock market listings last year. “The adoption rate among Chinese firms is extremely fast. The economy develops so fast so everyone’s rushing to compete, to keep up,” said Johnny Chou, chairman and founder of BEST. ROBOTS GALORE The experiments taking place across China are wide-ranging. BEST, and Kaola, an e-commerce unit of video games publisher NetEase Inc ( NTES.O ), are using robots that can shift goods weighing up to 1,000 kgs (1 tonne) across warehouse floors to help human packers. Online retailers Alibaba ( BABA.N ), JD.com and S.F. Express are investing in drone programmes they hope will one day perform so-called last-mile deliveries, especially in hard to reach rural areas. Others, like ZTO Express, have rolled out automated sorting lines that can self-scan and tip parcels into bags earmarked for different destinations lined up on either side of the belt. ZTO‘S Chief Financial Officer James Guo said automated lines, which cost about 4 million yuan ($602,419) apiece, can sort up to 25,000 parcels an hour with 40 workers, versus a manually-operated line that can sort 4,000 parcels with 120 workers. ZTO has 44 of these automated lines. BEST Inc employees sort packages on a conveyor belt network at a warehouse in Shanghai, China November 8, 2017. Picture taken November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brenda Goh “By saving the annual salaries of 70-80 workers, I can easily get back my investment in one line,” Guo said. Other executives said wages in the industry, which has about 3 million workers, were rising by double-digit percentages annually, outpacing China’s economic growth. RIPPLE EFFECT The shift is rippling down through the broader industry, logistics suppliers say, driving orders for and research into new technologies and placing new demands on warehouse landlords. At one end of the chain are robotics and technology firms such as Qingdao Kengic Automation Equipment Co Ltd and Hikvision ( 002415.SZ ), which say they are partnering with logistics companies to develop new systems. Slideshow (6 Images) “We achieved 100 percent (revenue) growth last year,” said Xu Ke, deputy general manager of Kengic, a unit of rubber machinery maker Mesnac Co Ltd ( 002073.SZ ), which says its automated sorting belts are used by JD.com and online discount retailer Vipshop Holdings ( VIPS.N ). That kind of growth, he says, is attracting over a hundred new competitors into a sector that only five years ago had just a few dozen firms. “The price competition is becoming extremely harsh as everyone tries to grab market share.” Warehouse owner Global Logistics Properties ( GLPL.SI ) said customers who want to install robotics were asking for larger floorplates, reliable power supply and higher ceilings. GOVERNMENT SUPPORT China’s government has been both boon and bane to the speed of the shift, other executives said. Beijing has encouraged the fragmented logistics industry to modernise and become more efficient. The “Made in China 2025” initiative to upgrade the country’s manufacturing base has also spurred growth in robots. But the government maintains tight control of its airspace, holding back the widespread introduction of drones, which many firms see as a potential last-mile delivery solution. Few firms have been granted drone licenses by the aviation regulator. Still, industry executives confidently predict more parts of the supply chain will see machines replace human workers. “We may not even need 10 years to achieve completely unmanned warehouses and unmanned distribution,” said BEST’s Chou. “Developments are happening just too quickly.” (For a graphic on China Singles Day spending, click tmsnrt.rs/2fg8Ad8 ) Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and Pei Li in BEIJING; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singles-day-china-logistics/chinas-deliverymen-face-robot-revolution-as-parcel-demand-soars-idUKKBN1DA0RV'|'2017-11-10T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'7c0b953339d181bd563a30fc15c97f244a6a3e64'|'Indian banks'' loans rose 7.2 percent in two weeks to Oct 27 - RBI'|' 33 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Indian banks'' loans rose 7.2 percent in two weeks to Oct 27 - RBI Reuters Staff 1 Min Read REUTERS - Indian banks’ loans rose 7.2 percent in the two weeks to Oct. 27 from a year earlier, while deposits rose 9.2 percent, the Reserve Bank of India’s weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO - An India rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Outstanding loans rose 262.00 billion rupees ($4.02 billion) to 79.17 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Oct. 27. Non-food credit rose 119.60 billion rupees to 78.54 trillion rupees, while food credit rose 142.40 billion rupees to 628.20 billion rupees. Bank deposits fell 272.80 billion rupees to 108.50 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Oct. 27.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-cenbank-loans/indian-banks-loans-rose-7-2-percent-in-two-weeks-to-oct-27-rbi-idINKBN1DA1EE'|'2017-11-10T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'6646653ae450191c55b700d135509c6cd7d60b4d'|'Coca-Cola HBC sales rise 5 percent in third quarter'|'November 9, 2017 / 7:47 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Coca-Cola HBC third-quarter sales rises on volume growth in new markets Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Drinks maker Coca-Cola HBC ( CCH.L ) reported higher third-quarter sales on Thursday, helped by volume growth in developing and emerging markets and a hot summer in southern Europe. The company, which sells Coca-Cola Co ( KO.N ) drinks in 28 countries mostly in Europe and Asia, reported sales grew 5 percent in the quarter. Volume rose 3.4 percent. On a currency neutral basis, total group revenue grew 6 percent in the period. The company said currency-neutral revenue per unit case was up 2.5 percent, helped by an ongoing roll-out of revenue growth initiatives, along with price increases. Volume in emerging markets - which include Romania, Serbia and Ukraine - increased by 3.5 percent, while volume in developing markets - including Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary - rose by 5.1 percent, the company said. Established markets volume grew by 2.2 percent in the quarter, benefiting from a good tourist season and exceptionally warm summer weather in Italy and Greece. “We are very pleased with the strong revenue delivery in the quarter, well balanced between broad-based volume growth and substantial price/mix improvement,” acting CEO Michalis Imellos said in a statement. The company suddenly lost its CEO last month, when Dimitris Lois died, only weeks after the company announced he would take a temporary leave of absence for medical treatment. Coca-Cola HBC said it has a succession plan for the CEO position and a “thorough” process is under way. The company had been seen as a possible bidder for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, a business being sold by Coca-Cola. Reporting by Martinne Geller and Radhika Rukmangadhan; Editing by Susan Fenton and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cocacolahbc-outlook/coca-cola-hbc-sales-rise-5-percent-in-third-quarter-idUKKBN1D90UV'|'2017-11-09T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'db97253151aa22df61804e0e33379af18c75f842'|'Fiat Chrysler hopes to win approval for diesel fix by early ''18 -lawyer'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ) said on Wednesday it hopes to reach an agreement over a fix for vehicles linked to a U.S. diesel emissions scandal by next spring if not earlier.A screen displays the ticker information for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid In May, the U.S. Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler, accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in nearly 104,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States since 2014. It also faces numerous lawsuits from owners of those vehicles.Company lawyer Robert Giuffra said at a court hearing in San Francisco the company expects to win U.S. approval of its proposed fix for the emissions issue by the end of March or early April. Testing is expected to last about three months and start later this month, he said.In July, Fiat Chrysler won approval from federal and California regulators to sell 2017 diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel models.Giuffra has said the company hopes to be able to use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles to address concerns over 2014-2016 Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles. A court mediator, Ken Feinberg, on Wednesday met with the company, government and lawyers for owners to talk about the testing plans.Giuffra has said the engine and emissions controls were identical in the older vehicles to those in the 2017 models.Regulators have said that the older Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution during normal driving.The company has denied wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules.Fiat Chrysler’s emissions case came after Volkswagen AG’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) diesel emissions scandal prompted increased industry scrutiny. The German automaker pleaded guilty in March to having intentionally cheated on emissions tests for vehicles it sold since 2009.Volkswagen has agreed to spend up to $25 billion to address claims from U.S. owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers, and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles.Regulators are also investigating emissions in Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles, but have yet to take any action. Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ) withdrew a request for approval to sell its 2017 Mercedes-Benz diesel models in the United States in May.Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-emissions/fiat-chrysler-hopes-to-win-approval-for-diesel-fix-by-early-18-lawyer-idUSKBN1D8384'|'2017-11-09T00:51:00.000+02:00'
'4849a12f62fbaf52535477054f5e17875080ba96'|'Subaru plans to expand Japan recall over inspection issue'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Automaker Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) plans to recall about 400,000 vehicles for the Japanese market after discovering that it had been following improper procedures for final inspections at domestic plants, the company said on Thursday.The logo of Subaru Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai It widened the scope of the recall from a previous expectation for 255,000, adding that costs associated with the issue would exceed 10 billion yen ($88.18 million).Last month Subaru said that for more than 30 years, final inspections of new vehicles at its main Gunma complex north of Tokyo were sometimes done by inspectors who were not listed as certified technicians, violating transport ministry requirements.($1 = 113.4100 yen)Reporting by Maki Shiraki '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-subaru-recall/subaru-plans-to-expand-japan-recall-over-inspection-issue-idUSKBN1D915C'|'2017-11-09T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'f880f0ea142193b796e7c815c65aa55c59e70c78'|'UPDATE 1-US firm Air Products, China''s Yankuang plan to build $3.5 bln coal-to-syngas plant in China'|'* Announcement part of Trump’s state visit to China* Deal is yet to be finalised* Syngas can be used to generate energy (Adds detail)BEIJING, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A top Chinese coal miner, Yankuang Group, and U.S. industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals Inc on Thursday said they planned to build a $3.5 billion coal-to-synthesis gas (syngas) plant in China.The announcement on the facility in the province of Shaanxi comes as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to China, the world’s biggest consumer of coal.The deal is yet to be finalised, although the companies said in a statement that they would look to do this as soon as possible.Syngas is a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some carbon dioxide that is typically manufactured by gasifying a solid hydrocarbon fuel. It can be used to create energy or to help churn out products such as methane or methanol.Under the agreement, Air Products and Shaanxi Future Energy Group Co (SFEC), a subsidiary of Yankuang, will form a joint venture, in which Air Products will have a majority stake.It will build, own and operate an air separation, gasification and syngas clean-up system in the city of Yulin to supply SFEC, the firms said in a statement.The air separation units are expected to produce about 40,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of oxygen to support the production of about 2.5 million normal cubic metres an hour of syngas.SFEC will supply coal, steam and power and receive syngas under a long-term, onsite contract. Air Products currently supplies SFEC’s Phase 1 project in Yulin with 12,000 TPD of oxygen.The addition of Phase 2 would make the complex one of the largest coal-to-fuel and chemicals facilities in China, with SFEC Phase 2 producing 4 million tonnes per year of liquid fuels and downstream chemicals, it said.The companies expect the overall project to come onstream in 2021.Reporting by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Joseph Radford '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-asia-china-coal/update-1-us-firm-air-products-chinas-yankuang-plan-to-build-3-5-bln-coal-to-syngas-plant-in-china-idINL3N1NF2OY'|'2017-11-09T03:46:00.000+02:00'
'5a86545272df0b649e26340fdfaec089e2093bf3'|'Tencent-backed search firm Sogou jumps 10 percent in U.S. market debut'|'(Reuters) - China-based Sogou Inc’s ( SOGO.N ) shares rose more than 10 percent in their U.S. market debut, as investors expect a massive base of Chinese smartphone users to help the Tencent-backed search engine company narrow the gap with market leader Baidu.Shares of Sogou rose as much as 13.1 percent on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, valuing the Beijing-based firm at $5.76 billion.Sogou’s initial public offering was priced at $13 per American depository share, at the high end of the expected $11 to $13 range, and raised $585 million.Its IPO follows Wednesday’s hugely successful Hong Kong IPO of China Literature Ltd ( 0772.HK ), the e-book unit of Chinese internet and media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ).It also represents the latest in a recent flurry of New York listings by Asian companies, joining other Chinese firms as well as startups from Singapore and Taiwan in tapping U.S. equity markets for capital this year.Founded in 2005 by internet firm Sohu.com Inc ( SOHU.O ), Sogou runs China’s second largest search engine by mobile queries, rivaling Baidu Inc ( BIDU.O ), and Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) UCWeb. It generates revenue mainly through search advertising services.Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is largely blocked in China.Sogou expects the size of the domestic online search industry will balloon to $30.7 billion in 2021 from $11.5 billion in 2016, driven by the hundreds of millions of Chinese who browse the internet on their mobile phones. Sogou says this massive user base represents a largely untapped opportunity to make money through ads.Sogou, the default search service on Tencent''s Mobile QQ browser and qq.com, has about 483 million mobile monthly active users, according to its IPO paperwork bit.ly/2jdluwP with U.S. securities regulators.Baidu, in contrast, had some 665 million monthly active mobile search users in December 2016, the last period for which it disclosed the metric.Sogou’s net income climbed 47 percent to $66.7 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30. Its revenue jumped 29 percent to $630.6 million in that period.Sohu will remain Sogou’s controlling shareholder after the IPO, while Tencent will own a 38.7 percent stake.Tencent’s other notable investments include stakes in ride service Lyft, electric car maker Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) and most recently a substantial investment Snapchat owner Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ).JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and CICC were among the underwriters to Sogou’s IPO.Reporting by Roopal Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sogou-ipo/tencent-backed-search-firm-sogou-jumps-10-percent-in-u-s-market-debut-idINKBN1D92AS'|'2017-11-09T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'3bfac726d7b86a8503bfd333654477cfff709d59'|'Tata Motors'' second quarter profits boosted by rise in Jaguar Land Rover sales'|' 21 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Tata Motors'' second quarter profits boosted by rise in Jaguar Land Rover sales Sankalp Phartiyal , Arnab Paul 3 Min Read MUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - India’s Tata Motors ( TAMO.NS ) reported a sharp rise in second-quarter profits on Thursday, helped by higher sales of its Jaguar and Land Rover cars, but warned of challenges ahead for its flagship British subsidiary. Guenter Butschek, Tata Motors, CEO and Managing Director, attends a news conference announcing the company''s quarterly results in Mumbai, India, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which has been driving Tata Motors’ profits for several years, expects sales in the UK and United States to soften because of competition but is confident of growth in China, JLR CEO Ralf Speth told reporters in Mumbai. “We know that overall the economies are stronger around the world but it’s also clear that we see, one or the other, weakness from a political side, from an economy side. Think about Brexit, think about the U.S. at the current moment,” Speth said. JLR plans to launch several new products next year including the Jaguar XF Sportbrake sport-utility vehicle (SUV), the E-Pace, a compact SUV, and the I-Pace, its first electric sports car, Speth said after the company announced a three-fold rise in profit. Tata Motors'' consolidated net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to 24.83 billion rupees (£291 million) compared with 8.28 billion rupees a year ago, helped by strong demand for Range Rover Velar and other new models. ( bit.ly/2jbVXEc ) Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 14.99 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. FILE PHOTO: A vehicle drives past three men walking out of a Tata Motors car plant at Sanand in the western Indian state of Gujarat, India, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Pre-tax profit at JLR rose 38 percent to 385 million pounds and its margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 11.8 percent from 10.9 percent a year ago. Retail sales of its Jaguar saloons and Land Rover sport-utility vehicles were up 5 percent on the same quarter last year, as an increase in sales in China helped offset lower UK sales. JLR, Britain’s biggest carmaker, has said it is already feeling the first effects of Brexit, with EU citizens from outside the UK demanding more secure employment contracts and international suppliers less willing to commit to investing in the country. While JLR will spend between 4 and 4.5 billion pounds on capital expenditure this year, going forward it will expand its product portfolio in a very controlled manner to ensure sustainable, profitable growth, Speth said. Second-quarter losses at Tata Motors’ domestic business narrowed to 2.95 billion rupees from 6.31 billion rupees a year ago, helped by a 30 percent jump in revenues. Tata Motors Chief Executive Guenter Butschek said work on turning round the company’s domestic car and truck business was underway. The plan focuses on launching new products, reducing costs and consolidating its supply chain, he told reporters. Writing by Aditi ShahEditing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tata-motors-results/tata-motors-second-quarter-profits-boosted-by-rise-in-jaguar-land-rover-sales-idUKKBN1D91VP'|'2017-11-09T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'874063174240157e19e89e2da18e78dcedb06d03'|'Chinese search engine Sogou''s U.S. IPO priced at $13/ADS'|'(Reuters) - Sogou Inc ( SOGO.N ), China’s second-largest search engine, said its initial public offering was priced at $13 per American Depositary Share (ADS), raising $585 million, .The 45 million ADS offering, with each ADS representing one Class A ordinary share, was priced at the top end of the expected range of $11-$13.The stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol “SOGO”.Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings ( 0700.HK ), a major Sogou shareholder, uses Sogou Search as the default search engine in its Mobile QQ browser and qq.com site.Sogou is a unit of China’s Sohu.com Inc ( SOHU.O ), an internet service company that includes search and gaming platforms. Sohu.com will remain as Sogou’s controlling shareholder after the IPO.Underwriters will have the option to buy up to an 6.75 million more shares to cover over-allotments, Sogou said.Proceeds from the offering will be used for research and development and marketing purposes, Sogou said in a filing.Beijing-based Sogou, which competes with Baidu ( BIDU.O ) and Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) UCWeb, reported a net income of $66.7 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with $45.4 million for the same period a year earlier.J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and CICC were among top underwriters to the offering.Reporting by Nikhil Subba and Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney and Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sogou-ipo-pricing/chinese-search-engine-sogous-ipo-priced-at-13-ads-source-idINKBN1D907U'|'2017-11-08T23:06:00.000+02:00'
'9bd3a0d6913b86c4fb4b2ad20e13424ce84e6884'|'Petrobras, BTG Pactual to sell their Nigerian oil venture'|'SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - State-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is leading an effort to sell Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (Petrobras Africa), after being joined in the sale by shareholders Grupo BTG Pactual SA and Helios Investments, it said on Thursday.Heavily indebted Petrobras announced plans this week to sell its 50 percent stake, and began sending information on the company to potential investors.It has been joined in the sale by BTG Pactual E&P BV, a subsidiary of investment bank Grupo BTG Pactual SA, and Helios Investments, who will offer their respective 40 percent and 10 percent stakes.Grupo BTG Pactual tried to sell its stake separately earlier this year. It held talks with a group of Nigerian investors but failed to reach an agreement, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. BTG Pactual did not immediately comment.Petrobras, the world’s most indebted oil company and focus of a massive corruption scandal, is seeking to offload $21 billion in assets through 2018 and has moved aggressively to cut debt.Petrobras Africa participates in two deepwater oil exploration blocks off the coast of Nigeria that contain the Akpo and Agbami producing fields and are operated by Total SA and Chevron Corp respectively. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in Sao Paulo and Alex Alper in Rio; Editing by Susan Thomas) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrobras-divestiture-petrobras-africa/petrobras-btg-pactual-to-sell-their-nigerian-oil-venture-idINL1N1NF1KJ'|'2017-11-09T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'4c55bb52e257c5da13a90ae1ece9d80a46bf7238'|'UPDATE 1-North American hurricanes to cost insurance industry $100 bln -Munich Re'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 8:15 AM / a few seconds ago North American hurricanes to cost insurance industry $100 billion: Munich Re Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Insured losses from three big hurricanes in North America this year have cost the industry around $100 billion, German reinsurance giant Munich Re ( MUVGn.DE ) said on Thursday. Damages from storms Harvey, Irma and Maria of that magnitude would exceed by far industry-wide losses of about $74 billion caused by Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. For Munich Re alone, the three hurricanes accounted for losses of 2.7 billion euros ($3.13 billion) in the third quarter, leading to a quarterly net loss of 1.4 billion euros at the reinsurer. Munich Re confirmed on Thursday it would eke out only a “small profit” for the full year. That marks a sharp turnaround from expectations earlier this year for a net profit of between 2 billion to 2.4 billion euros ($2.4 billion-$2.8 billion). Its estimate for industry-wide losses from the three hurricanes is higher than Swiss Re’s estimate of $95 billion in total market losses from the hurricanes and earthquakes in Mexico. A series of hurricanes as well earthquakes have rocked the insurance industry after years of muted losses. The disasters have only compounded extreme pressure from low prices caused by fierce competition and low interest rates that have eroded profit. Munich Re finance chief Joerg Schneider said he expected reinsurance rates to rise, especially in areas hit by disasters. As a sign of the strain of the disasters on profitability, Munich Re said that its property and casualty reinsurance group would report a so-called combined ratio of 112 percent for the full year, compared with 97 percent in 2016. The ratio is a closely watched measure of expenses to premium income and figures over 100 percent point to losses. The third-quarter loss, while large, does not come as a surprise. The reinsurer warned last month that it would record a 1.4 billion loss. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-munich-re-results/north-american-hurricanes-to-cost-insurance-industry-100-billion-munich-re-idUSKBN1D90XK'|'2017-11-09T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'3044ab48cfa465f9a11d0fcc34fe0fd0b425c1b6'|'Bondholder group asks for court to intervene in board of Brazil''s Oi'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The law firm representing a bondholder group in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA has asked a court to nullify decisions made by the company’s board, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters on Wednesday.The motion by law firms including Pinheiro Neto Advogados, which represents the so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, asked the court in Rio de Janeiro to suspend appointments the board made on Friday of two members of Oi’s management.The filing also asks the court to suspend the voting rights of board members associated with major shareholders Pharol SGPS SA and Nelson Tanure’s Société Mundiale on any matters relating to the company’s current debt restructuring. In the filing, the bondholders argued those groups have obstructed all attempts by the company to talk to creditors to the detriment of Oi, among other issues.A spokesman for Tanure responded that the motion lacks legal founding. Oi and Pharol did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Oi, Brazil’s fourth largest telecoms company, filed for Latin America’s largest ever bankruptcy proceeding last year, sagging under 65.4 billion reais ($20.1 billion) of debt. The restructuring process has been messy, with fighting between and among shareholders, bondholders and the government.On Friday, Oi’s board, which Tanure and Pharol control, appointed two new members to the company’s management, allowing a restructuring plan approved by the board to be finalized. On Wednesday, however, Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel demanded that plan be presented to the regulator before it is filed with a bankruptcy court.While a final creditor vote on the company’s restructuring plan is scheduled for Friday, Brazilian public banks with debt in Oi requested on Wednesday that it be delayed, a government source told Reuters. Even if the meeting is officially convened, creditors may decide to delay a vote to a later date.In the bondholders’ filing on Wednesday, creditors also requested that the Oi board’s most recent restructuring plan only be signed after the bankruptcy judge on the case reviews and approves it. ($1 = 3.25 reais) (Reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/bondholder-group-asks-for-court-to-intervene-in-board-of-brazils-oi-idINL1N1NE2CD'|'2017-11-08T19:26:00.000+02:00'
'c5f38177f579624f96892df0868c0f0af3effe2e'|'New ECB rules on bad loans can be delayed and improved - Nouy'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:11 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago New ECB rules on bad loans can be delayed and improved: Nouy Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is prepared to delay and improve its new, stricter rules on bad bank loans after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and Italy, the ECB’s top supervisor said on Thursday. Daniele Nouy, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, attends the 2016 Institute of International Finance (IIF) Spring Membership meeting in Madrid, Spain May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Susana Vera Daniele Nouy defended the proposed new guidelines, which force banks to set aside more money for loans that sour, but said they would be “improved” by taking feedback into account. The rules, which are being consulted upon until Dec. 8, have been criticized as potentially damaging to the economy and encroaching on the EU Parliament’s prerogatives, raising the risk of an unprecedented conflict between the institutions. “When I see so many people saying something different, I can easily draw the conclusion that the drafting can be improved, for sure, and it will be improved,” Nouy told the parliament in Brussels. “We will of course seriously take into account all the good legal advice that we are receiving. It can have consequences.” She added the ECB could push back the entry into force of the guidelines from Jan. 1 to examine all the feedback it receives during the consultation. “I can propose that we give us a bit more time,” she said during her hearing before the Parliament’s economic committee. The guidelines, published as an “addendum” last month, give banks seven years to provide for credit backed by collateral and two years for unsecured debt. The Italian head of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said last month they overstepped the ECB’s bounds, a view upheld this week by the assembly’s legal office and by the head of the economic committee. “In its current form, the addendum goes beyond these (ECB) prerogatives, which are clearly bank-specific, because it lays down general rules applicable to all banks,” the committee’s chair Roberto Gualtieri, also an Italian, said as he introduced Nouy’s hearing. “This could only be done though an appropriate amendment to legislation.” But Nouy insisted the new rules were both necessary and legitimate. “Now is the right time for such an additional step, given that we currently have very favorable economic conditions in Europe,” she told the committee. “This addendum, once adopted, falls within the supervisory mandate and powers of the ECB.” The big worry for Italy is the rules are also being applied to the euro zone’s near 900 billion euros ($1.04 trillion) stock of existing bad loans, a quarter of which sit at Italian banks. Authorities there say that could force banks to curtail lending or even raise capital on the market, a task that has eluded some Italian banks in recent months, triggering state interventions. Sources have told Reuters that ECB staff had indeed started crafting rules on existing bad loans that were modeled around those for new soured credit, but were now having to rethink their approach due to the Italian backlash. The ECB’s vice President Vitor Constancio and Nouy herself have since confirmed the approach to the stock of non-performing loans would be different. ($1 = 0.8626 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-banks-loans/ecbs-nouy-flags-possible-delay-of-new-rules-on-bad-loans-idUKKBN1D911H'|'2017-11-09T12:17:00.000+02:00'
'a64787d8ca0e1f983d1a4d134becba94310c6921'|'Argentine vineyards complain tax proposal would crush business'|'November 8, 2017 / 8:58 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Argentine vineyards complain tax proposal would crush business Cassandra Garrison 4 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Wine producers in Argentina, renowned for its plush Malbecs, are furious over a tax proposal they say would crush exports and domestic sales as vineyards struggle after two of their lowest vintages in recent history. A man works inside a wine store in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci The bill, unveiled last week by President Maurico Macri’s government, proposes a 10 percent tax on wine for consumers. Argentine wine is not taxed, unlike beer, mineral water and sugary drinks. Vineyards in Argentina, the world’s No. 6 wine producer and No. 10 exporter, have struggled to stay competitive internationally due to high labour, shipping and production costs. While 70 percent of Argentine wine is consumed locally, much of it in the country’s famed cafes and steakhouses, years of double-digit inflation has cut domestic sales. Volatile weather ravaged crops for the past two seasons. Producers say the tax would cripple them and hurt efforts to boost exports just as Macri seeks to open Argentina’s economy to the world after more than a decade of protectionism. “When you don’t have a cost advantage in the domestic market, you cannot compete outside because you have a big chunk of your business here,” said Rafael Calderon, chief executive of Bodegas Bianchi, a winery based in Argentina’s top wine-producing province, Mendoza. Businesses are generally happy with Macri’s tax reform proposal, which aims to slash corporate income taxes. It also aims to be revenue neutral in five years to avoid straining a wide fiscal deficit, so it added taxes on consumption. These included a 17 percent duty on champagne and a doubling in the tax on beer to 17 percent. OPEN TO DISCUSSION Macri told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday his government was willing to listen to wine producers’ concerns and said he wants Argentina to be a top wine exporter. A basket with bottles of wine for sale are seen at a wine store in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 8, 2017. The sign reads "Red wine on discount per bottle" REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci “We bet on the future of that industry,” he said. “We think we can substantially increase our wine exports in future years if we succeed to open markets because we compete with many other producers.” Government officials, who will meet on Wednesday with the governor of Mendoza, have noted that alcoholic beverages in Argentina are taxed much lower than in other wine-producing countries like Chile, where domestic consumption is taxed at 20.5 percent. Argentine producers are also angry about being lumped into the same category as beer, spirits and sugary drinks. They say wine has proven health benefits. Slideshow (6 Images) They note internal consumption fell 9.2 percent in 2016 from 2015 according to the National Institute of Viticulture. Potentially adding to the sour grapes, Brazil’s Agriculture Minister has said the European Union is trying to negotiate access for European wines to the Mercosur trade bloc, which includes Brazil and Argentina. Argentine wine producers had hoped for a lifeline from Macri to boost exports in the form of financing or subsidies. “This is an industry the government should help to grow abroad. Nobody can do Malbec better than us,” said wine producer Esteban Baigun, director general of Codorniu Group in Latin America. Baigun said his cost of goods shot up by 47 percent in the last year and it was cheaper to ship wine to China than truck it from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. Together with other wine producers, he planned to ask the government to consider a gradual tax increase, delaying its start so the industry has more time to recover. “We understand that we all need to contribute something, but they need to take the consideration that we are struggling,” Baigun said. Additional reporting by Christian Plumb in New York; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-argentina-wine/argentine-vineyards-complain-tax-proposal-would-crush-business-idUKKBN1D82TR'|'2017-11-08T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'36afb937ac5621a8ded032cb5fc2883b3fa062ad'|'American Tower to buy Indian telecoms masts from Idea, Vodafone for $1.2 billion'|'MUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - American Tower Corp ( AMT.N ) has agreed to buy about 20,000 mobile phone masts for 78.5 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) from Indian network operators Idea Cellular ( IDEA.NS ) and Vodafone India ( VOD.L ), who are seeking to merge.FILE PHOTO - A telecommunications tower managed by American Tower is seen in Golden, Colorado February 25, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Wilking As part of the merger deal agreed in March, Vodafone India and Idea are selling the masts they own separately from their Indus Towers joint venture. Idea’s share of the sale to American Tower will be 40 billion rupees, while Vodafone India will get 38.5 billion rupees.The two companies have also said they will look at selling their holdings in Indus, the country’s biggest mobile masts operator with 123,000 towers, which is jointly owned with an affiliate of rival network operator Bharti Airtel ( BRTI.NS ).Last month Bharti Infratel ( BHRI.NS ) said it would consider buying out its partners in Indus Towers, where Vodafone has a 42 percent stake and Idea along with private equity firm Providence owns 16 percent.India’s network operators are rushing to consolidate amidst a year-long price war sparked by the entry of new competitor Reliance Jio with a brand new 4G broadband network financed by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.Idea Cellular, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate, on Monday reported its fourth straight quarterly loss, mainly due to it having to compete against Jio’s series of cut-price service offers.American Tower, which agreed to take control of Indian masts operator Viom in 2015 for 76 billion rupees, has been steadily expanding its presence in India - the world’s second biggest wireless market with 1.2 billion mobile subscribers.American Tower said the latest acquisition would be immediately accretive to its adjusted funds from operations per share, with the deal expected to be completed in the first half of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.Consistent returns in the longer term have also attracted private equity investors to the market, although in the near term mast operators will struggle to grow revenue as some of their tenant phone network operators merge or shut down.Media reports have said KKR & Co LP ( KKR.N ), which along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, already owns over a 10th of Bharti Infratel ( BHRI.NS ), the only publicly-traded mast operator in India, is leading a group of investors to take control of the company.Canada’s Brookfield ( BAMa.TO ), which called off talks to buy a stake in struggling Indian network operator Reliance Communications ( RLCM.NS ) masts arm, has said it is open to acquiring the business under revised terms, while it looks at other potential opportunities in the India.IDEA‘S Q2 LOSSIdea, the third-biggest Indian network operator by revenue and subscribers, said on Monday it suffered a net loss of 11.07 billion rupees in its second quarter ended Sept. 30, which compared with a net profit of 915 million rupees in the same period last year but was less than the 11.25 billion-rupee loss expected on average by analysts.Revenue was down 20.3 percent on a year ago at 75.11 billion rupees, while average monthly revenue per user fell 6.4 percent from the previous quarter to 132 rupees.Shares in Idea closed 3.8 percent lower at 93.35 rupees, while the Mumbai market index .NSEI was down 0.94 percent.Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised Idea on the American Tower deal, while Morgan Stanley advised Vodafone India.($1 = 65.4200 Indian rupees)Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal, Arnab PaulAdditional reporting by Tanvi MehtaWriting by Devidutta TripathyEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-idea-cellular-results/american-tower-to-buy-indian-telecoms-masts-from-idea-vodafone-for-1-2-billion-idINKBN1DD1P2'|'2017-11-13T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'ad00e9e609de0478a223349079a5648ef0440004'|'MOVES-RBC investor, treasury unit hires former J.P. Morgan exec David Brown'|' 45 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago MOVES-RBC investor, treasury unit hires former J.P. Morgan exec David Brown Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 13 (Reuters) - RBC Investor & Treasury Services (I&TS), a Royal Bank of Canada unit, appointed David Brown managing director and head of global client coverage, Australia. Brown previously worked at J.P. Morgan as executive director in sales and relationship management in Australia. He will report to David Travers, who is managing director and head of I&TS. (Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Martina D‘Couto)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/rbc-investor-treasury-services-moves-dav/moves-rbc-investor-treasury-unit-hires-former-j-p-morgan-exec-david-brown-idUSL3N1NJ3T0'|'2017-11-13T12:40:00.000+02:00'
'f85d3e05c8e9f465f9b82d3358ebe76363163536'|'Russia''s Mordashov sells 2.1 pct stake in steelmaker Severstal'|'MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Severstal, one of Russia’s largest steelmakers, said on Thursday that its controlling shareholder, Alexei Mordashov, has sold a 2.1 percent in the company via accelerated book building.Based on the sale price, Mordashov raised almost 16 billion roubles ($270 million) from the deal.Ordinary shares were offered at 885.35 roubles ($14.94) per share and global depository receipts were sold at $14.97 per piece. The shares were sold to Goldman Sachs, which was arranging the deal, for resale to institutional investors.Severstal shares were down 2.7 percent at 887 roubles per share in early trade on Thursday.Following the deal, Mordashov would retain about 77 percent of Severstal, the company said, adding that Severstal itself would not receive any proceeds from the sale.A Severstal spokeswoman said that the deal should support the liquidity of the stocks and improve the shares’ weight in indexes.According to VTB Capital’s research, Severstal’s free float should increase to 20.4 percent from 18.3 percent as a result of the deal, potentially increasing the company’s weight in the MSCI Russia and EM indexes. ($1 = 59.2455 roubles) (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Zlata Zarasyuta; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-severstal-mordashov/russias-mordashov-sells-2-1-pct-stake-in-steelmaker-severstal-idUSL8N1NF38O'|'2017-11-09T10:18:00.000+02:00'
'2fb1fda746790263c324a3ebc84cfbcb37403334'|'D.Telekom CEO: T-Mobile US can stand alone but open to consolidation'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said its T-Mobile US unit was ideally positioned for an independent future after the failure of merger talks with Sprint Corp, but left the door open to consolidation.“It was right to make an attempt. But it is just as right for T-Mobile US to continue now along its own path,” Hoettges told a conference call after Telekom announced stronger third-quarter core earnings and raised its full-year outlook.Hoettges flew 50,000 km in seven days in a bid to save the deal to unite the third- and fourth-largest U.S. market players, only to call it off last weekend because, he later told staff, it would not have added value.“T-Mobile US is ideally positioned for an independent future,” Hoettges also said. “That is not to say that the company is not open to considering consolidation and convergence options to further advance itself in the future.” (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Maria Sheahan)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deutsche-telekom-results-ceo/d-telekom-ceo-t-mobile-us-can-stand-alone-but-open-to-consolidation-idINL8N1NF3QM'|'2017-11-09T06:17:00.000+02:00'
'7af97c78a26ce5909ef6ab94201d87bc726603dd'|'Oil prices stabilise just below two-year highs'|'November 9, 2017 / 2:15 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Oil prices stabilise just below two-year highs Christopher Johnson 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied just below two-year highs on Thursday, supported by supply cuts by OPEC and other major exporters including Russia. FILE PHOTO - Oil tankers are seen in Shandong Haike Group in Dongying, Shandong province, China January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Aizhu Chen Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was unchanged at $63.49 a barrel by 0840 GMT. On Tuesday, Brent reached an intra-day high of $64.65, its highest since June 2015. U.S. light crude CLc1 was steady at $56.81, not too far off this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel. Traders said a rally that has pushed up Brent by more than 40 percent since July may have run its course due to increases in U.S. supplies and some indicators of a demand slowdown. “Prices may have reached a short-term peak,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com. Prices are still supported by efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to withhold supplies in order to tighten the market and prop up prices. OPEC will discuss output during a meeting on Nov. 30, and is expected to extend the limits beyond their expiry in March 2018. “With the OPEC/non-OPEC deal extension beyond March 2018 a certainty, prices may become stronger and temporarily reach the $65-$70 per barrel range in 2018,” said energy consultancy FGE. Despite this, many analysts say the price rally of the past months may have run its course, at least for now. U.S. crude stockpiles C-STK-T-EIA rose 2.2 million barrels in the week to Nov. 3, to 457.14 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, contrary to analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 2.9 million barrels. U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA inched up 67,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.62 million bpd, the highest on record. (For a graphic on U.S. oil production and storage levels, click reut.rs/2zHpdcG ) Output looks set to rise further. Texas issued 997 oil and gas drilling permits last month, up nearly 17 percent versus the same month a year ago, the state’s energy regulator said on Wednesday. Global fuel consumption remains strong, although the latest figures from top importer China were below expectations. Key for the last weeks of 2017 is whether traders remain confident about their huge bets on further price rises, or if they sell out, satisfied with recent strong gains. “It doesn’t matter how bullish the fundamentals are ... when an asset goes vertical there is always room for a pullback and consolidation of recent price moves,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at brokerage AxiTrader. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/global-oil-markets-stable-but-doubts-over-recent-bull-run-emerge-idUKKBN1D908F'|'2017-11-09T11:04:00.000+02:00'
'a0ce1801607cfcdf6dcd6c632c6ed6bbbe40dfca'|'Ministerial meeting on Airbus A400M delayed to February'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - NATO buyer nations for the European A400M military transport plane have postponed a ministerial meeting on the troubled program for three months until February, said two sources familiar with the 20 billion euro project.An Airbus A400M military transport plane is parked at the Airbus assembly plant during an event in the Andalusian capital of Seville, southern Spain, December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo Ministers had planned to meet in London in mid-November to discuss a potential reset after Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sought relief from heavy fines incurred due to technical snags and delays.Airbus took a writedown of 1.2 billion euros on the program in February and warned of “significant risks ahead”.It has been in talks with officials from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK about the way forward.Those talks are making steady progress but have not reached a conclusion, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named.Germany, the largest A400M buyer and seen as the buyer most opposed to granting Airbus new relief after a previous bailout, is in the middle of protracted talks about forming a new coalition government, and it remains unclear if Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen will stay in her post.Airbus declined comment. Pan-European purchasing agency OCCAR, which oversees Europe’s largest defense project on behalf of the seven core buyer nations, could not be reached for comment.Airbus received a 3.5 billion euro bailout from the seven nations in 2010, but it has suggested the funds did not go far enough in limiting the company’s financial exposure.Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Tim Hepher and Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-a400m/ministerial-meeting-on-airbus-a400m-delayed-to-february-idUSKBN1DA1NG'|'2017-11-10T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'd0882a021720b20611d403cde4bdbd8374c48949'|'Ireland''s PTSB no longer required to hold extra capital buffer'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:53 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Ireland''s PTSB no longer required to hold extra capital buffer Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish mortgage lender permanent tsb (PTSB) ( IL0A.I ), which has reduced the size of its loan book, will not have to hold an extra buffer of capital from 2019 because it is no longer large enough to be considered a systemically important bank, Ireland’s Central Bank said on Friday. Like other European banks, Irish lenders identified as systemically important to the domestic economy due to their size and market share have to hold additional capital to increase their ability to withstand losses on their lending. The Central Bank began applying the new rules in 2015 and last year added PTSB to its list, setting the amount of extra capital it had to set aside at 0.25 percent of risk-weighted assets from July 2019, rising to 0.5 percent a year later. PTSB, the smallest of Ireland’s three domestically-owned lenders which is more exposed to the cost of regulation than its rivals, completed a deleveraging programme last year by selling the remains of its mortgage book in the United Kingdom. The Central Bank kept the mark for the other two larger domestic banks, Allied Irish Banks ( ALBK.I ) and Bank of Ireland ( BIRG.I ), at 1.5 percent, to be phased in at a rate of 0.5 percent per year from July 2019. It also increased the buffer set to be applied to Citigroup ( C.N ) by 2021 to 1 percent from 0.5 percent previously due to “its increased importance”. It will be introduced at 0.25 percent in 2019 and 0.5 percent in 2020. Citigroup shifted the head office of its European retail banking operation to Dublin from London in 2015. The buffers for RBS’s Irish retail unit Ulster Bank and UniCredit’s ( CRDI.MI ) Irish subsidiary, which is primarily involved in structured finance and treasury activities, were unchanged at 0.5 percent and 0.25 percent respectively. The buffers for Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SIIs) can be set at between 0 and 2.5 percent and are aimed at protecting lenders from potential losses related to excessive credit growth. Ireland’s banks required the euro zone’s costliest state bailout following a 2008 property crash, with inadequate regulation identified as one of the causes. Reporting by Padraic HalpinEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-banks/irelands-ptsb-no-longer-required-to-hold-extra-capital-buffer-idUKKBN1DA1U1'|'2017-11-10T15:53:00.000+02:00'
'cf6037631437c5c3a4414bca8b2d5ae49050d916'|'MUFG may buy 40 percent of Indonesia''s Bank Danamon for $1.75 billion: Nikkei'|'TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is in talks to buy a 40 percent stake in Bank Danamon Indonesia for around 200 billion yen ($1.75 billion), a person with direct knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: Japan''s national flag is seen behind the logo of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) at its bank branch in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo MUFG, through its core unit Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, intends to buy Danamon shares from Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, a major shareholder, said two sources, who declined to be named as the talks were not public.Faced with sluggish growth at home, MUFG has expanded its presence in Southeast Asia in recent years, and already holds stakes in Vietnam’s Vientinbank, Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya and Security Bank Corp of the Philippines.MUFG plans to invest in Indonesia’s fifth-largest bank in the financial year starting April 2018, and is aiming to reach a basic agreement this year, the first source said.“The company is strategically considering various investment opportunities in Indonesia,” an MUFG representative said, adding that domestic media reports on plans for a Danamon stake were not based on any announcement made by the company.Danamon said its controlling shareholder had received an “expression of interest” related to its shareholding in the company, but no deal had been confirmed.“We understand that this interest depends on further negotiations ... It is not definite that the transaction will be implemented,” Rita Mirasari, Danamon’s corporate secretary, said in a statement. The bank’s shares rose 15 percent.Temasek declined to comment, while an official at the Indonesian Financial Services Authority said there had not been “any submission from MUFG to own or enter Bank Danamon”.FILE PHOTO: People walk near the automatic teller machines (ATM) of Danamon Bank in Jakarta June 1, 2012. REUTERS/Enny Nuraheni/File Photo Danamon lends primarily to the retail and corporate sectors and is a major private player in microfinance. Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings had sought to buy a controlling stake in Danamon in 2013, but dropped the bid after Indonesia changed laws to restrict single ownership in banks to 40 percent.However, Indonesia can relax these curbs on special grounds, including if the investing bank is financially strong.Temasek, one of the world’s biggest investors, currently owns about 68 percent in Danamon.MUFG has future plans to seek a majority stake in Danamon if it gets regulatory approval, the first source said.The Indonesian banking sector has attracted several deals over the past few years, as Asian lenders look to get a foothold in the world’s fourth-most populous nation.South Korean Shinhan Bank acquired a majority stake in Bank Metro Ekspress in 2015, while China Construction Bank entered the Indonesian market by acquiring Bank Windu in 2016.MUFG’s last major acquisition in the region was a 20 percent stake in Security Bank in 2016, in line with its efforts to grow its global banking business amid low interest rate policies and strict capital regulation at home.In the year ended March 2016, MUFG’s global banking business accounted for 31 percent of its net operating profit, up from 17 percent in the year ended March 2012.($1 = 114.0000 yen)Reporting by Taro Fuse in TOKYO and; Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE, Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in TOKYO and Kanupriya Kapoor and Cindy Silviana in JAKARTA; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bank-danamon-m-a-mufg/mufg-may-buy-40-percent-of-indonesias-bank-danamon-for-1-75-billion-nikkei-idINKBN1D903T'|'2017-11-08T22:06:00.000+02:00'
'2e99711200b77313ba664155fd9861a356b50ede'|'Saudi budget airline Flynas picks Morgan Stanley for IPO-sources'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi budget airline Flynas, part owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s firm, is pressing ahead with an initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to work on it, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.A model of Saudi airline Flynas is on display during a ceremony to sign a deal between Airbus andFlynas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser Flynas is proceeding with its plan to sell existing shares to the public that may include part of Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding’s 4280.SE 34 percent stake, people familiar with the matter said. That is despite the detention of Alwaleed in an investigation by a new Saudi anti-corruption body.Saudi Arabian IPOs typically involve the sale of around 30 percent of a business.The central bank has sought to reassure the business community this week that the investigation would not hurt the economy, saying companies and banks owned by detained persons could operate as normal.Kingdom Holding, whose shares have lost around a fifth of their value over the past week, was not available to comment.It made a statement earlier this week, citing chief executive, Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman, that it has received the support of the government, and would continue to operate “business as usual”.Investment banks pitched for the role two weeks ago, and the decision came this week, according to two sources, declining to be named as the matter was not public.NCB Capital, the investment arm of National Commercial Bank 1180.SE, the kingdom’s largest lender, will be working with Morgan Stanley, one of the sources said.Flynas spokesman Bander al-Hassan told Reuters that the airline was yet to made a decision on who would advise on the IPO, while Morgan Stanley declined to comment.Flynas was previously working with Banque Saudi Fransi 1050.SE for its public share sale, said the sources, but they faced a conflict of interest after Kingdom Holding agreed to buy a 16.2 percent stake in the Saudi bank for $1.5 billion in September.In January, flynas ordered 60 Airbus A320neos and converted a past order for 20 older versions of the A320 to the neo model. The 80 jets are likely to give flynas one of the largest budget airline fleets in the Middle East.Flynas, which launched as Nas Air in 2007 and first turned a profit in 2015, is facing increasing competition in Saudi Arabia, its primary market. State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines launched a budget airline, flyadeal, in September.additional reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-flynas-ipo/saudi-budget-airline-flynas-picks-morgan-stanley-for-ipo-sources-idUSKBN1D90Y8'|'2017-11-09T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'f223fb14e6ff361851b0d7ef81159bc9805a7a13'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. Justice pledges to prosecute activists who damage pipelines'|'November 10, 2017 / 9:45 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-U.S. Justice pledges to prosecute activists who damage pipelines Reuters Staff (Adds reaction from protester, details on pipeline that was shut) By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday pledged to prosecute protesters who damage oil pipelines and other energy infrastructure, a decision that could escalate tensions between climate activists and the administration of President Donald Trump. The DOJ said it was committed to vigorously prosecuting those who damage “critical energy infrastructure in violation of federal law.” Attempts to “damage or shut down” pipelines deprive communities of services and can put lives at risk, cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and threaten the environment, a department official said in a statement sent to Reuters. The statement was in response to a letter sent last month to Attorney General Jeff Sessions by 84 U.S. representatives asking whether domestic terrorism law covers activists who shut oil pipelines in October 2016. The DOJ said it was reviewing the letter. The DOJ did not say whether it would investigate or prosecute the protesters who broke fences in four states last year and twisted shut valves on several pipelines importing crude oil from Canada that carry the equivalent of as much as 15 percent of U.S. daily oil consumption. The group Climate Direct Action said at the time the action was in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has protested Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access Pipeline. Last month’s letter to Sessions, spearheaded by Representative Ken Buck, a Republican, and signed by at least two Democrats, said that when a protester burns a hole in an operating pipeline it risks igniting the contents and “killing not only the perpetrator but other innocent victims.” The letter had no details on any protesters who had ever actually taken a blowtorch to a live pipeline. Five of the protesters, who say they only turned off valves on the pipelines, responded to Buck this week in a letter saying that their actions were nonviolent and were the “last resort in a desperate and necessary effort to avert catastrophic climate change.” States brought charges against the protesters. Ken Ward, who closed an emergency valve on a Kinder Morgan pipeline in Washington state that transports oil sands crude from Canada, was sentenced to 32 days with most of it to be spent in community service. The DOJ’s statement on the protesters is an escalation of the department’s stance from the days of the administration of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. In 2016, the DOJ along with the Army Corps of Engineers gave a temporary victory to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe by refusing to approve an easement for Dakota Access. Trump moved to open Dakota Access early in his presidency. Ward said the Justice Department was going after the wrong parties. “In a sane world, the DOJ would be using its discretion to prosecute pipeline and fossil fuel companies for causing irreparable harm to the planet,” he said. Divisions over another pipeline project that has galvanized environmentalists but which Trump supports could escalate later this month. Nebraska regulators are set to decide then whether TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would also ship crude from the Canadian oil sands, should go forward. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-pipelines-justice/update-1-u-s-justice-pledges-to-prosecute-activists-who-damage-pipelines-idUSL1N1NG1Q0'|'2017-11-10T23:44:00.000+02:00'
'56056244fe11f4dd583b3658ac451c1010958e3c'|'Deutsche Bank picks asset-management IPO bookrunners -source'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has selected Barclays, Citigroup and Credit Suisse as senior bookrunners for the initial public offering (IPO) of its asset-management arm, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.A spokesman for Deutsche Asset Management declined to comment on the selection of bookrunners, which was first reported on Friday by Bloomberg.Deutsche Bank, which will be the main bookrunner, said in March it planned to list the asset management arm, which could achieve a total valuation of around 8 billion euros ($9 billion), within two years as part of an overhaul following costly lawsuits and trading scandals.It is expected to raise about 2 billion euros from listing about a quarter of the business.The junior bookrunners helping to market the IPO to investors will be BNP Paribas, Unicredit, UBS, Morgan Stanley and ING.“The decision in favour of these banks has already been taken,” the person said. ($1 = 0.8574 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Framke; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deutsche-bank-asset-management/deutsche-bank-picks-asset-management-ipo-bookrunners-source-idINL8N1NH0M1'|'2017-11-11T12:45:00.000+02:00'
'a8d9bb70f9cabfd61c714054aad87df33c001171'|'Special Report: The decisions behind Monsanto''s weed-killer crisis'|'(Reuters) - In early 2016, agri-business giant Monsanto faced a decision that would prove pivotal in what since has become a sprawling herbicide crisis, with millions of acres of crops damaged. FILE PHOTO: John Weiss looks over his crop of soybeans, which he had reported to the state board for showing signs of damage due to the drifting of pesticide Dicamba, at his farm in Dell, Arkansas, U.S. July 25, 2017. Picture taken July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht/File Photo Monsanto had readied new genetically modified soybeans seeds. They were engineered for use with a powerful new weed-killer that contained a chemical called dicamba but aimed to control the substance’s main shortcoming: a tendency to drift into neighboring farmers’ fields and kill vegetation. The company had to choose whether to immediately start selling the seeds or wait for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sign off on the safety of the companion herbicide. The firm stood to lose a lot of money by waiting. Because Monsanto had bred the dicamba-resistant trait into its entire stock of soybeans, the only alternative would have been “to not sell a single soybean in the United States” that year, Monsanto Vice President of Global Strategy Scott Partridge told Reuters in an interview. Betting on a quick approval, Monsanto sold the seeds, and farmers planted a million acres of the genetically modified soybeans in 2016. But the EPA’s deliberations on the weed-killer dragged on for another 11 months because of concerns about dicamba’s historical drift problems. Timeline of the Monsanto crisis That delay left farmers who bought the seeds with no matching herbicide and three bad alternatives: Hire workers to pull weeds; use the less-effective herbicide glyphosate; or illegally spray an older version of dicamba at the risk of damage to nearby farms. The resulting rash of illegal spraying that year damaged 42,000 acres of crops in Missouri, among the hardest hit areas, as well as swaths of crops in nine other states, according to an August 2016 advisory from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The damage this year has covered 3.6 million acres in 25 states, according to Kevin Bradley, a University of Missouri weed scientist who has tracked dicamba damage reports and produced estimates cited by the EPA. Infographic ID: ''2yLFjC5''   The episode highlights a hole in a U.S regulatory system that has separate agencies approving genetically modified seeds and their matching herbicides. Monsanto has blamed farmers for the illegal spraying and argued it could not have foreseen that the disjointed approval process would set off a crop-damage crisis. But a Reuters review of regulatory records and interviews with crop scientists shows that Monsanto was repeatedly warned by crop scientists, starting as far back as 2011, of the dangers of releasing a dicamba-resistant seed without an accompanying herbicide designed to reduce drift to nearby farms. In 2015, just before Monsanto released its soybeans seeds, Arkansas regulators notified the firm of damage from illegal spraying of its dicamba-resistant cotton seeds. Some cotton farmers chose to illegally spray old versions of dicamba because other herbicides approved for use on the seeds were far less effective. The EPA did not approve the new dicamba formulation that Monsanto now sells for use with cotton and soybean seeds - XtendiMax with Vapor Grip - until after the 2016 growing season. Monsanto’s Partridge acknowledged that the company misjudged the regulatory timeline for approval of its new herbicide. “The EPA process was lengthier than usual,” Partridge said. Monsanto, however, denies culpability for the crisis that followed the two-stage approval. “The illegal misuse of old dicamba herbicides with Xtend seeds was not foreseeable,” the company’s attorneys said in a response to one class action suit filed by farmers in Missouri. “Even if it were foreseeable that farmers would illegally apply old dicamba to their Xtend crops, which it was not, Monsanto is not liable for harms caused by other manufacturers’ products.” Monsanto’s Partridge said in a written statement that the reports of damage from illegal spraying of dicamba on its cotton seeds in 2015 were “extremely isolated.” “Those who applied dicamba illegally should be held responsible,” Partridge said. Monsanto’s handling of the delayed herbicide approval may cause the firm legal and public relations damage, but it has boosted the company’s business considerably. Instead of halting seed sales while waiting on herbicide approval, Monsanto captured a quarter of the nation’s massive soybean market by the start of 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even the damage from dicamba may have boosted sales. Some farmers whose crops were harmed said in interviews that they bought Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant seeds as a defense against drift from nearby spraying. State regulators believe the illegal spraying of dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean crops continued in 2017 - after the EPA approved Monsanto’s new herbicide. Farmers would still benefit from using old versions of dicamba because it is cheaper than XtendiMax. Many growers also have dicamba on hand because it is legal to use for limited purposes. Regulators have not yet determined, however, how much damage came from illegal spraying and how much came from the legal application of XtendiMax, which weed scientists say still vaporizes under certain conditions. Monsanto concedes that XtendiMax has caused crop damage, but blames farmers who the company says did not properly follow directions for applying the herbicide. The EPA, after delaying a decision on XtendiMax, gave the herbicide a limited two-year approval - as opposed to the standard 20 years - in case drift issues arose. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman, Rick Corker, acknowledged in a statement to Reuters that the release of an engineered seed before its companion herbicide caused problems. The department, he said, is now in talks with the EPA about whether to coordinate approvals of paired seeds and chemicals. “USDA and EPA are in discussions regarding the timing of our deregulations,” Corker said in a statement. The EPA did not comment on whether it planned any policy changes in response to the dicamba crisis. EARLY WARNINGS Dicamba is cheap, plentiful, and has been used as a weed killer for decades. But its tendency to damage nearby fields had caused U.S. regulators to limit its use to the task of clearing fields before planting or after harvest, when there are no crops to damage and cooler temperatures make it less likely the substance will migrate. Farmers who illegally sprayed dicamba during growing season are now facing fines of up to $1,000 for each violation of EPA rules limiting the use of dicamba, which are enforced by state regulators. FILE PHOTO: John Weiss looks over his crop of soybeans, which he had reported to the state board for showing signs of damage due to the drifting of pesticide Dicamba, at his farm in Dell, Arkansas, U.S. July 25, 2017. Picture taken July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht/File Photo Farmers with damaged crops have filed at least seven lawsuits — five class-action suits and two by individuals — seeking compensation from Monsanto. The suits claim the company should have known that releasing the seeds without a paired herbicide would cause problems. Monsanto officials had been repeatedly warned of the potential for damage from illegal spraying of dicamba on seeds designed to resist the chemical. In October 2011, five scientists from Ohio State University addressed a conference in Columbus focused on the future of dicamba. In attendance were agriculture researchers from across the country as well as representatives of the companies Monsanto, Dow Chemical and BASF. According to Douglas Doohan, one of the conference’s organizers, three Monsanto employees, including Industry Affairs Director Douglas Rushing, attended the meeting. Monsanto had a keen interest in the topic because the company was far along in developing its new line of dicamba products at the time. In their introduction to the symposium, Doohan and his colleagues outlined what they called an increased risk of illegal dicamba spraying by farmers once dicamba-resistant seeds became available. They also argued that dicamba-resistant seeds - and the illegal spraying that might accompany them - would lead farmers whose crops were damaged to buy their own dicamba-tolerant seeds to protect themselves from further drift, according to conference records. Monsanto’s Rushing gave his own presentation about dicamba to the symposium, according to conference records. Rushing explained the need for a new herbicide-and-seed combination to replace those that had grown less effective as weeds become more tolerant to certain chemicals, according to slides outlining Rushing’s conference presentation. He raised the issue of damage from dicamba drift, but said the risks could be reduced by using certain kinds of sprayers and taking other precautions. Rushing could not be reached for comment. Monsanto did not directly respond to questions about the symposium. DAMAGE REPORTS Years later, some of what the scientists outlined in their presentations was becoming reality. Monsanto released its dicamba-resistant cotton seed in the summer of 2015. The seed was compatible with two other legally available herbicides, giving farmers options for dealing with weeds before the EPA’s approval of XtendiMax. But farmers started digging into their dicamba stockpiles anyway, and damage reports started to trickle in. Monsanto officials were among the first to see those reports, according to minutes of an Arkansas Plant Board committee meeting in July 2015. Slideshow (4 Images) Jammy Turner, a Monsanto salesman, was on the Arkansas Plant Board, the agricultural regulator that investigated the complaints. He and Duane Simpson, a Monsanto lobbyist, attended the committee meeting. There, the board’s Pesticide Division Director Susie Nichols gave a report about drift damage complaints linked to the new seed technology. At that meeting, lobbyist Simpson was asked by the board what Monsanto was doing about drift damage complaints, according to the minutes. Simpson told the committee that the firm had been telling farmers not to spray dicamba illegally, even over crops specifically designed to withstand it. He said the company would consider pulling whatever licenses Monsanto had given to offending farmers to use its technology. At an Aug. 8, 2016 meeting of the same committee, Simpson was asked again how Monsanto was dealing with farmers illegally spraying dicamba on Xtend crops. This time, he responded that Monsanto saw no way to pull farmers’ seed licenses over the issue. Monsanto did not comment on Simpson’s statements in response to written questions from Reuters. The company said it would consider revoking a particular farmer’s license if asked to do so by state regulators “when they have investigated and adjudicated an egregious violation.” Larry Steckel, a weed scientist and professor at the University of Tennessee, said those early damage reports should have been a red flag to Monsanto against releasing its soybean seeds the following year. “It turned out to be a precursor of what was to come,” he said. Neither Turner nor Simpson responded to calls and emails seeking comment. Monsanto did not comment on the company’s involvement in the Arkansas investigations. By the end of 2015, the damage reports linked to the Xtend cotton seeds were making the rounds among scientists. Weed scientist Michael Owen, a professor at Iowa State University, said he warned at the ISU Annual Integrated Crop Management Conference on Dec. 2-3, 2015 that no dicamba formulations had been approved for use on Xtend crops. He told attendees it wasn’t clear when the formulas would be greenlighted, and that the situation was cause for concern. Monsanto representatives attended that conference, according to ISU Program Services Coordinator Brent Pringnitz, who handled the registration. He would not identify them. Owen said he also repeated his warning directly to Monsanto officials around the same time, but did not name them. Monsanto did not comment on Owen’s assertion that he warned the company about dicamba spraying. FLAWED ASSUMPTIONS Farmers who spoke to Reuters and others who gave testimony recorded in state records described a variety of reasons why they purchased Xtend seeds before XtendiMax was available. One farmer in Arkansas, Doug Masters, planted Xtend cotton in 2015 and was caught illegally spraying dicamba, according to Arkansas Plant Board records. He said the Monsanto salesman who sold him the Xtend seeds told him that, by the time the plants came up in the summer of 2015, it would be legal to spray dicamba and he should go ahead and do it, according to the board records. Masters declined to identify the Monsanto salesman to Arkansas regulators, records show. He declined again, when reached by Reuters, to identify the representative. Masters admitted that he illegally sprayed dicamba, and the Plant Board fined him $4,000, assessing the maximum penalty allowed for four violations. Monsanto did not comment on Masters’ testimony to the plant board. Ritchard Zolman, another Arkansas farmer caught illegally spraying his cotton in 2015, said in a disciplinary hearing held by the Arkansas Plant Board that he’d planted Xtend seeds because he thought he could spray dicamba legally over his fields 14 days before his crops came up from the ground, according to records. But the Plant Board ruled it was illegal to spray dicamba onto a field where planted crops had not yet sprouted, disciplinary records show. Zolman was fined $3,000 for three dicamba spraying violations, records show. Zolman declined to comment. In Missouri, Gary Dalton Murphy III said he and his family planted Xtend soybeans in 2016 after “hearing” that dicamba would be legal to spray by the summer. He did not say who told him dicamba would be legal that season. When Murphy learned XtendiMax would not be available, the family got rid of their weeds by hand, hiring extra workers to help. Additional reporting by Steve Barnes in Little Rock, Arkansas; Editing by Rich Valdmanis and Brian Thevenot '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-dicamba-specialreport/special-report-the-decisions-behind-monsantos-weed-killer-crisis-idUSKBN1D91PZ'|'2017-11-09T14:44:00.000+02:00'
'ade49b52157eb61b79fbbd811f1d19b8b7320729'|'Amid Trump cuts, Uber kicks off campaign to enroll drivers in Obamacare'|'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and some smaller technology companies are launching campaigns to publicize Obamacare enrollment among their contract workers after the Trump administration slashed government marketing for the health program by 90 percent.FILE PHOTO: An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York, U.S. June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo Freelance and contract workers are an important part of the workforce for many Silicon Valley companies, including drivers at Uber and rival Lyft Inc, and technology companies also have been among the most vocal in confronting Trump administration policies - particularly immigration - that they perceive as hurting their workforce.Uber describes its program as a response to a growing need for drivers rather than a political act. The program is part of an effort started in June by Uber to improve the company’s relationship with drivers by rolling out new initiatives and features, such as tipping, that better serve them.Starting on Friday, Uber will hold events for drivers in 28 U.S. cities, from Los Angeles to Indianapolis, to offer in-person assistance in signing up for insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Uber did not disclose a budget for the initiative.The Uber program is an expansion of a partnership with Stride Health, a health consultant startup that specializes in helping independent workers choose health, dental and vision insurance plans. Stride said it is also working separately with a group of companies, including Etsy Inc ( ETSY.O ), DoorDash Inc and Postmates Inc, to sign up independent contractors for insurance.Uber has had a difficult year in the face of a federal probe into whether it broke bribery laws, allegations of sexual harassment, and other issues that led the company to bring in a new chief executive and promise to take better care of drivers.Former CEO Travis Kalanick also drew criticism for joining President Donald Trump’s business advisory council. Kalanick left the council in February.Across the United States, Obamacare enrollment for 2018 is clouded by uncertainty as experts expect reduced participation amid bitter political debate around the program’s future.FILE PHOTO: Employees work inside Uber''s Centre of Excellence (COE) office in Cairo, Egypt October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Republicans in Congress have repeatedly failed to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, which they have said drives up costs for consumers and interferes with personal medical decisions. Democrats have warned that repeal would leave millions of Americans without health coverage.Uber has about 600,000 drivers in 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S., February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Meghan Joyce, Uber’s regional general manager of the United States and Canada, said in a phone interview this week that there was an appetite for healthcare among drivers. Nearly 150,000 Uber drivers searched for insurance plans through Stride Health last year, and most of them enrolled. “This year we’re doubling down on that,” Joyce said.The Trump administration has shortened the Affordable Care Act enrollment period, which is currently open. It also has cut the advertising budget to $10 million and slashed by 40 percent the budget for support staff, known as navigators, who help people choose policies.“Those are gone in most parts of the country,” said Stride Health Chief Executive Noah Lang in a phone interview on Friday.The enrollment period ends on Dec. 15. in most states.“There’s independent contractors who need coverage right now. The law of the land says they have access to it. It’s our No. 1 job to make sure they get it,” Lang said.(In 10th paragraph, corrects to say 150,000 Uber drivers searched, not enrolled, for insurance plans through Stride Health last year.)Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez; Editing by Peter Henderson and Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uber-obamacare/amid-trump-cuts-uber-kicks-off-campaign-to-enroll-drivers-in-obamacare-idINKBN1D91M6'|'2017-11-09T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'c1387dfe57f5151cf0053ecfe8528c30afecd9c4'|'Jobless claims rise more than expected as hurricane backlog clears'|'November 9, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Jobless claims rise more than expected as hurricane backlog clears Howard Schneider 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, suggesting that claims processing disrupted by recent hurricanes has begun to improve. FILE PHOTO: Job seekers listen to a recruiter at the Colorado Hospital Association job fair in Denver, Colorado, U.S. on October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo - Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims had fallen to 229,000 in the prior week, near a 44-1/2-year low, and remain well below the 300,000 level generally regarded as signaling a healthy labor market. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 231,000 in the latest week. They have declined from an almost three-year high of 298,000 hit at the start of September in the aftermath of hurricanes that ravaged parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Labor Department noted that it is now processing backlogged claims in Puerto Rico though its operations in the Virgin Islands remain severely disrupted. U.S. Treasury yields held near session highs after the data, while the dollar trimmed losses. U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower, a day after Wall Street closed at a record high. Last week marked the 139th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 1,250, to 231,250 last week, the lowest level since March 31, 1973. That suggests ongoing job growth in an economy many regard as near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The so-called continuing claims rose 17,000 to 1.90 million. Economists polled by Reuters had expected continuing claims of 1.89 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell 750, to 1.90 million, the lowest level since Jan. 12, 1974, suggesting a continued decline in labor market slack. Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/jobless-claims-rise-more-than-expected-as-hurricane-backlog-clears-idUSKBN1D91WM'|'2017-11-09T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'4bc0addcc0efe2d6b07585c3a39a7ba325587f4a'|'Adidas reports more strong growth in N.America, China'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:49 AM / in 13 minutes Adidas reports more strong growth in N.America, China Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - German sportswear firm Adidas reported another strong quarter of sales and profit growth, driven by expansion in China and North America, where it has been taking market share from arch rival Nike. Adidas reported third-quarter sales rose 9 percent to 5.677 billion euros ($6.59 billion), while net profit jumped more than a third to 526 million euros, versus average analyst forecasts for 5.86 billion and 512 million euros respectively. Adidas, which hiked its full-year outlook in July, reiterated its forecast for 2017 currency-neutral sales to rise between 17 and 19 percent and for net income to increase at between 26 and 28 percent. ($1 = 0.8618 euros) (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Victoria Bryan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/adidas-results/adidas-reports-more-strong-growth-in-n-america-china-idUSFWN1NF027'|'2017-11-09T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'94fd5682f735d631572fceba908dc348c77f874d'|'Coca-Cola HBC sales rise 5 pct in Q3'|'Reuters TV United States  35 AM / a few seconds ago Coca-Cola HBC sales rise 5 percent in third-quarter Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Drinks maker Coca-Cola HBC ( CCH.L ) reported higher third-quarter sales on Thursday, helped by volume growth in developing and emerging markets and a hot summer in Southern Europe. The company, which sells Coca-Cola Co ( KO.N ) drinks in 28 countries mostly in Europe and Asia, reported sales grew 5 percent in the quarter. Volume rose 3.4 percent. Established markets segment volume increased by 2.2 percent and developing markets segment volume increased by 5.1 percent, the company said. The company suddenly lost its CEO last month, when Dimitris Lois died, only weeks after the company announced he would take a temporary leave of absence for medical treatment. Coca-Cola HBC said it has a succession plan for the CEO position and a “thorough” process is under way. The company had been seen as a possible bidder for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, a business being sold by Coca-Cola. Reporting by Martinne Geller and Radhika Rukmangadhan; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cocacolahbc-outlook/coca-cola-hbc-sales-rise-5-percent-in-third-quarter-idUSKBN1D90TL'|'2017-11-09T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'8480340de4368071b8ddbd827a31825fc8ab6c2b'|'Fast-growing Lufthansa surpasses 2016 passenger number by end-October'|' 19 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Fast-growing Lufthansa surpasses 2016 passenger number by end-October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has already carried more passengers in the first 10 months of this year than it did for the whole of 2016, thanks to rapid growth at its Eurowings budget brand and the takeover of Brussels Airlines. A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 plane is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Ryanair ( RYA.I ) overtook Lufthansa Group as Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers last year, but Lufthansa is slightly ahead so far this year. Lufthansa last year carried 109.7 million passengers. By the end of October this year, it had carried 111 million passengers, it said on Thursday in a monthly traffic update. In the first 10 months of 2017, Ryanair carried just over 110 million passengers. Along with expansion thanks to Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa is also set to be a big beneficiary of the collapse of local rival Air Berlin. Lufthansa is using a 747 jumbo jet during November for the short flight between Frankfurt and Berlin to meet additional demand on that popular route. The German group, which also owns Austrian Airlines and Swiss, plans to take over large parts of Air Berlin and is awaiting EU approval for the deal, which would see its fleet increase by a further 81 planes. Lufthansa also added that it saw positive pricing in October, the sixth month in a row that the measure has improved compared with last year. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-traffic/fast-growing-lufthansa-surpasses-2016-passenger-number-by-end-october-idUKKBN1D91V5'|'2017-11-09T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'20a33b15a6a1ddeb15a57ca14e877bdfdcf71492'|'Euro zone to grow fastest in decade in 2017, to slow slightly in 2018, 2019'|' 06 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Euro zone to grow fastest in decade in 2017, to slow slightly in 2018, 2019 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone economy will grow at its fastest pace in a decade this year, the European Commission forecast on Thursday sharply increasing its projections from earlier this year, but the expansion will slow somewhat next year and in 2019. People watch stores advertising sales in central Madrid, Spain, February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Juan Medina In its regular forecasts for the all European Union economies, the Commission said the economy of the 19 countries sharing the euro would grow 2.2 percent this year, up from 1.8 percent in 2016. In May the Commission forecast 2017 growth at 1.7 percent. “The European economy has performed significantly better than expected this year, propelled by resilient private consumption, stronger growth around the world, and falling unemployment,” the Commission said in a statement. “Investment is also picking up amid favourable financing conditions and considerably brightened economic sentiment as uncertainty has faded,” it said. Growth in 2018 is to slow to 2.1 percent and to 1.9 percent in 2019, the Commission said. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-forecast/euro-zone-to-grow-fastest-in-decade-in-2017-to-slow-slightly-in-2018-2019-idUKKBN1D917G'|'2017-11-09T12:06:00.000+02:00'
'ad1c7acd222f07cc0c28323cecceaa8b0e734a1b'|'AT&T armed for fight with U.S. on Time Warner deal - CEO'|'November 9, 2017 / 4:55 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Trump''s CNN attacks may hobble legal case to block AT&T-Time Warner deal David Shepardson , Jan Wolfe 5 Min Read WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s broadsides against cable network CNN may complicate the U.S. government’s legal case if it decides to block AT&T’s deal to buy media company Time Warner, according to legal experts. Trump’s repeated claims that CNN produces “fake news” and other criticisms of the network could hurt legitimate legal arguments the Department of Justice may use to show the deal gives the company too much power over media rivals and is bad for consumers. “His comments have soiled the process,” said John Kwoka, an economics professor at Northeastern University. “If I were AT&T’s lawyers I would certainly introduce them into the evidentiary record as meddling with what is really a law enforcement process.” The fate of AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), hatched in October 2016, looks set to end up in court as the two sides have so far failed to agree on what conditions AT&T needs to meet in order to gain antitrust approval. Justice Department staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner Inc’s ( TWX.N ) Turner Broadcasting unit, which includes news company CNN, a government official told Reuters on Thursday, on the grounds that a combined company would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation. AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday he would not sell CNN to win antitrust approval and would fight the government in court if the two sides could not reach an agreement. “If we feel like litigation is a better outcome then we will litigate,” Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday. He said the company had been ready to go to court the day the deal was announced in October 2016. TRAVEL BAN COULD BE PRECEDENT The deal took on broader political significance soon after it was announced when Trump attacked it on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it. He has not commented on the transaction since taking office in January. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Trump’s aggressive campaign comments have harmed legal arguments of his administration before. Earlier this year, an appeals court refused to reinstate a ban on travellers from a group of Muslim-majority nations on the grounds that it illegally targeted people of one religion. Explaining the decision, the chief judge cited a statement on Trump’s campaign website calling for a ”total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” The U.S. Supreme Court later partially reinstated the travel ban. FILE PHOTO: The CNN building (L) in Dubai Media City Park March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Boyce/File Photo OVER BY APRIL Stephenson has rejected the Justice Department’s arguments against the deal, saying it was a classic “vertical” merger that removed no competitors from any market and denied the company would be too powerful. He said a combined AT&T and Time Warner would create a data and advertising company competing against the newest and most disruptive entrants into the media sector: Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Facebook Inc ( FB.O ), Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google, not other wireless phone companies. Stephenson told the conference he has no reason to think Trump would be a factor in the deal’s approval and said he hoped the matter would be settled well before the April 22, 2018 deadline when parties can walk away from a deal. The head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, said in a statement late on Thursday that he has “never been instructed by the White House” on the AT&T deal. AT&T told the Justice Department on Monday that it believed it had complied with all legal requirements for the deal to be cleared, a person briefed on the matter said. That sets a deadline for the government to sue if it wants to block the merger. Officials said that detail could be as early Nov. 27. Shares of Time Warner closed down 1.6 percent at $87.05. AT&T shares rose 1.6 percent to $34.00. Reporting by David Shepardson and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Anjali Athavaley, Subrat Patnaik and Aishwarya Venugopal; Writing by Anna Driver; Editing by Bill Rigby and Chris Sanders'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-worried-att-buying-time-warner-would-hike-costs-for-media-rivals-source-idUKKBN1D92HH'|'2017-11-09T23:48:00.000+02:00'
'b194fbda1e6b10f315e0ff503f3177b779ca343b'|'Galliford says affordable housing business benefiting from UK policies'|'November 10, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Galliford says affordable housing business benefiting from UK policies Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British housebuilder Galliford Try Plc ( GFRD.L ) said on Friday its affordable housing business was benefiting from government policies. FILE PHOTO - A builder assembles scaffolding as he works on new homes, in south London June 3, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/Files Britain has a long-term housing shortage, especially in southern England, and Prime Minister Theresa May in October promised a further 10 billion pounds to Help to Buy, a programme that subsidises new construction. Galliford said the order book at its partnerships and regeneration business -- which operates as a developer and contractor in the affordable housing sector -- rose to 1.3 billion pounds in the period from July 1 to Nov. 6, from 873 million a year ago. It said government announcements had provided increased certainty to its clients to bring forward investment in that business, It also said it continued to see good market conditions across all its businesses. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-galliford-outlook/galliford-says-affordable-housing-business-benefiting-from-uk-policies-idUKKBN1DA0TI'|'2017-11-10T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'a7eb1e13f6a1e22df8abf2d2888719b8f7267690'|'''Last Jedi'' director Rian Johnson to oversee new ''Star Wars'' trilogy'|'LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The galaxy far, far away is expanding further on screen with a new trilogy of “Star Wars” films outside of the ongoing Skywalker saga, Walt Disney Co said Thursday, to be overseen by Rian Johnson, the director of the franchise’s upcoming film “The Last Jedi.”Johnson, 43, will write and direct the first of a new “Star Wars” trilogy that will bring new characters and worlds not yet explored on screen, Disney said.”He’s a creative force, and watching him craft ‘The Last Jedi’ from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy,” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in a statement.Disney said no release dates have been set for the new trilogy. In addition to the new film trilogy, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday that a “Star Wars” live-action TV series was also being developed for the company’s upcoming streaming service.Johnson was brought on to write and direct the second film in Disney’s rebooted trilogy of the Skywalker stories, which George Lucas first brought to screen in 1977.“The Last Jedi,” which follows on from 2015’s hit film “The Force Awakens” and is expected to focus on Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), will be in theaters on Dec. 15.The final installment in the current trilogy, “Star Wars: Episode IX,” will be written and directed by J.J. Abrams and scheduled for release in December 2019.Disney is also making three standalone “Star Wars” films outside of the Skywalker saga, including last year’s “Rogue One” and next year’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” following the origins of the charming roguish smuggler Han Solo, made famous by Harrison Ford in the film franchise.Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-starwars/last-jedi-director-rian-johnson-to-oversee-new-star-wars-trilogy-idUSKBN1D93C4'|'2017-11-10T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'b3c10afe46a95aa60051a321b5c613a5f4b65469'|'StanChart agrees to extend deferred prosecution agreements'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:24 PM / Updated an hour ago StanChart agrees to extend U.S. sanctions compliance scrutiny Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British bank Standard Chartered Plc said on Thursday it had agreed to a further extension of its U.S. Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA) until July 28 next year. FILE PHOTO: People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo The company had entered into DPAs with the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York County District Attorney’s Office in December 2012, which was extended for a further three years in 2014. A deferred prosecution agreement is when a prosecutor agrees to grant amnesty in exchange for the defendant agreeing to fulfill certain requirements. The bank is being investigated over whether it continued to violate Iran-related sanctions after 2007, in violation of deferred prosecution agreements between the bank and U.S. state and federal prosecutors. Thursday’s agreement acknowledged the company had made progress to improve its sanctions compliance programme, but that it had not reached standards required by the DPA, the bank said. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stanchart-deferred-prosecution-agreem/stanchart-agrees-to-extend-deferred-prosecution-agreements-idUKKBN1D93AD'|'2017-11-10T00:23:00.000+02:00'
'6eb3ee777969d3068820f5c6dc23462a4c306aec'|'UAE military interested in ''fifth-generation'' fighter jets'|'November 11, 2017 / 1:31 PM / Updated an hour ago UAE military interested in ''fifth-generation'' fighter jets Alexander Cornwell 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates military is interested in fifth-generation fighter jets, a senior air force official said on Saturday. FILE PHOTO - A Lockheed Martin Corp''s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter is shown on the deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier after making the plane''s first ever carrier landing using its tailhook system, off the coast of California, November 3, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake Deputy Commander Rashed al-Shamsi’s comments indicate a possible preference for Lockheed Martin Corp’s ( LMT.N ) F-35 which is the only Western-made jet that fully meets those requirements, according to its manufacturer. “We are interested in new technology ... and so to have a fifth-generation capability is something of interest to the UAE Air Force and Air Defense,” al-Shamsi told reporters at a military conference in Dubai. Fifth generation is a definition that varies according to each manufacturer but broadly includes advanced stealth capability and a high level of computerised connectivity between fighter jets. The U.S. has sold the F-35 to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan, and Israel, but sales to the Gulf require a deeper review due to U.S. policy for Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East. Al-Shamsi said the UAE had heard that the United States could now be willing to sell them the stealth fighter jet. The UAE is one of the U.S.’s closest Middle East allies. It hosts American soldiers in the country, and has flown sorties against the so-called Islamic States as part of a U.S.-led coalition. The UAE was also the first foreign country to purchase the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system. U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Stephen Wilson told Reuters that he expected the UAE would soon be briefed on the F-35, but said he was not able to provide a time frame on when that would happen. He said he was not aware of any classified briefings on the stealth fighter jet at the week long Dubai Airshow which starts on Sunday. On Friday, Wilson said the U.S. was in talks to sell F-35 fighter jets to partner nations, but did not disclose which countries. The UAE has been analysing the European Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale fighter jets for years, though deals for the fourth generation jets have never been secured. The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin Corp, with companies including Northrop Grumman Corp ( NOC.N ), United Technologies Corp’s ( UTX.N ) Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems Plc ( BAES.L ) also involved. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; editing by Ros Russell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-uae/uae-military-interested-in-fifth-generation-fighter-jets-idUKKBN1DB0IK'|'2017-11-11T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'a80d9ab3242e93e9364cf77e2e95922e4941b550'|'UPDATE 1-AIRSHOW-Boeing studying business case for new mid-sized jet - Reuters'|'(Adds details) Boeing is deepening its study of a proposed new mid-market aircraft as it prepares to decide whether to bring the project to market, a senior executive said on Saturday.Kevin McAllister, Chief Executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said a team at the U.S. planemaker would be exploring the business plan in detail, including how the aircraft would be produced, over the next few months.Referring to the cost of building the possible new jet, which is expected to carry some 220-270 passengers, he said, “We know the box we have got to get into and we are working towards it.” There is no timeframe for making a decision, he added.“We like how it is shaping up. We are just down to a spot where we want to put some structure around the right business plan and that includes the right production system,” he added.Boeing has had a good year for wide-body aircraft orders and “the year is not over,” McAllister said at a briefing on the eve of the Dubai Airshow, adding Boeing was seeing good interest for long-range models including its newest 787-10.The current version of 777 is sold out in 2018 and Boeing is making “good progress” for 2019 as it seeks to fill delivery slots until the new 777X model comes out from 2020, he said.Boeing Defense & Space CEO Leanne Caret said Boeing sees strong demand for rotorcraft and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and has overcome technical difficulties on its U.S. Air Force 767-based KC-46A tanker programme, following a series of writedowns.“The key for us is to get through (safety) certification; we are well on track for that,” Caret said, adding the first plane slated for delivery will stage its maiden flight next month.McAllister confirmed Boeing is looking at reviving the passenger version of the 767, which is currently offered as a freighter or tanker, but stressed this was “only a study”.United Airlines is interested in replacing some older jets with new 767s in a reversal of fortune for the 35-year-old jet, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.Boeing Global Services CEO Stan Deal said the newly created unit plans was focusing on boosting growth after going live in July.“We certainly plan to expand our order base here at the air show,” he told reporters. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-boeing-executives/update-1-airshow-boeing-studying-business-case-for-new-mid-sized-jet-idINL8N1NH0PY'|'2017-11-11T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'56283f699985aed76cf6e996a14e2c5b7f158b89'|'India''s industrial output grows 3.8 percent in September - government'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s industrial output grew 3.8 percent in September from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.Employees work on a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) at an excavation site operated by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (MMRC) in Mumbai, India, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast 4.2 percent growth in output compared with an upwardly revised 4.5 percent year-on-year increase in August.Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini MenonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-output/indias-industrial-output-grows-3-8-percent-in-september-government-idINKBN1DA1JF'|'2017-11-10T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'a760780ea0365af34c85f189a1a3e9d2da94f5e2'|'China shopping festival smashes record with $25 billion haul'|'November 10, 2017 / 5:09 PM / Updated 4 hours ago China shopping festival smashes record with $25 billion haul Adam Jourdan 5 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Alibaba ( BABA.N ), the Chinese e-commerce giant, said on Saturday its Singles’ Day sales extravaganza hit $25.4 billion, smashing its own record from last year and cementing it as the world’s biggest shopping event. Once a celebration for China’s lonely hearts, Singles’ Day has become an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, and acts as a barometer for China’s consumers. As tills shut midnight on Saturday, Alibaba’s live sales ticker registered 168.3 billion yuan, up 39 percent from 120.7 billion yuan last year. The dollar figure was up more steeply due to the strength of the yuan against the greenback this year. The event began soon after a star-studded event in Shanghai late on Friday. As midnight hit, a deluge of pre-orders helped drive a billion dollars of sales on Alibaba’s platforms in the first two minutes and $10 billion in just over an hour. “In terms of scale it just dwarfs any other event out there,” said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group. At just past the halfway mark, the headline gross merchandise volume swept past last year’s dollar total just shy of $18 billion. Shortly afterwards, sales surpassed the 2016 total in the local currency. The event gets shoppers around China scouting for bargains and loading up their online shopping carts, while delivery men - and robots - brace for an estimated 1.5 billion parcels expected over the next six days. “This is a big event for China, for the Chinese economy,” Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s co-founder and vice chairman, said. “On Singles’ Day, shopping is a sport, it’s entertainment.” Tsai said rising disposable incomes of China’s “over 300 million middle-class consumers” was helping drive the company’s online sales - and would continue. “This powerful group is propelling the consumption of China,” he said. The final total - more than the GDP of Iceland or Cameroon - leaves other shopping days in the shade. Cyber Monday in the United States saw $3.45 billion in online sales last year. Investors closely watch the headline number, though some analysts say the way it is calculated is too opaque. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched a probe into Alibaba’s accounting practices in 2016, including into its Singles’ Day data. That investigation is as yet unresolved. Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, and actor Nicole Kidman attend a show during Alibaba Group''s 11.11 Singles'' Day global shopping festival in Shanghai, China, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Last year, the sales number rose by nearly a third at the eighth iteration of the event - though that was slower than the 60 percent increase logged in 2015. SLOWER GROWTH? At Alibaba’s Friday night gala, the company’s co-founder and chairman, Jack Ma, hosted guests including the actress Nicole Kidman, singer Pharrell Williams and Chinese musicians and film stars such as Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing. The excitement around the shopping blitz, however, masks the challenges facing China’s online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com Inc ( JD.O ), which are having to spend more to compete for shoppers in a broader economy where growth is slowing. Slideshow (6 Images) “A lot of the lower hanging fruit has been picked and there’s increased competition for a share of consumer spending,” said Matthew Crabbe, Asia Pacific research director at Mintel. The sale did though beat his forecast of 20 percent growth. Online retailers were being forced to push offline as well as overseas to attract new shoppers, and the overall online retail market was close to “saturation”, raising questions about whether current rapid growth could be sustained. “They’re having to spill over out of the purely online realm into the wider consumer market,” Crabbe said. This has sparked deals to buy bricks-and-mortar stores in China, and overseas tie-ups especially in Southeast Asia. Technology, too, has been key, with virtual reality dressing rooms and live fashion shows to attract shoppers. Alibaba also said it had turned 100,000 physical shops around China into “smart stores” for this year’s event. Goods perused by people at the stores, but then bought and paid for on Alibaba’s platforms, were added towards the sales total. China Market Research Group’s Cavender said brands were also increasingly making smaller price cuts to avoid “margins getting killed”, and were often asking for deposits in advance. In previous years, prices were often halved. Fu Wenyue, a 23-year-old dresser in Shanghai, said offers this year were smaller but more “personalized” as brands used big data to hone their targets. Fu spent 4,000 yuan on clothes, cosmetics and kitchen utensils in pre-event sales, and kept shopping on the day. “In actual fact, I think I spent even more than I did last year,” she said. Reporting by Adam Jourdan and SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Ros Russell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singles-day-alibaba/chinas-24-hour-online-shopping-binge-tops-1-5-billion-in-first-three-minutes-idUKKBN1DA2E1'|'2017-11-11T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'627f2ba1b55e790169508c2b0c9ec85c33b217b5'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Nov 13 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1045 GMT on Monday:** U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc is making preparations to reject rival Broadcom Ltd’s $103 billion bid as early as this week, four people familiar with the matter said, setting the stage for one of the biggest-ever takeover battles.** Uber Technologies Inc’s warring board members have struck a peace deal that allows a multibillion-dollar investment by SoftBank Group Corp to proceed, and which would resolve a legal battle between former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick and a prominent shareholder.** Austria’s Signa, which is trying to buy German department-store chain Kaufhof from Hudson’s Bay for 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion), has bought five trophy assets from RFR in Germany’s biggest real-estate transaction of 2017.** Grupo Caoa, Hyundai’s local partner in Brazil, said it had bought 50 percent of Chinese automaker Chery’s Brazilian operations, according to a written statement.** Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) will pay $1.35 billion to buy a further 12.1 percent stake in Kuwaiti telecoms company Zain in a deal that will expand its reach to nine Middle Eastern and North African countries.** Peugeot maker PSA Group signed a joint venture with three Algerian partners to launch a manufacturing unit building cars for the Algerian market, it said on Sunday.** Singapore-listed Jardine Cycle and Carriage Ltd said one of its units has agreed to buy a 5.53 percent stake in Vietnamese dairy firm Vinamilk, the country’s biggest listed company, for $616.6 million.** Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings said it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt.** Royal Dutch Shell said it was selling part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum Ltd to equity investors for about $1.7 billion.** Equity Commonwealth, a U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on office space and chaired by property mogul Sam Zell, has approached Forest City Realty Trust Inc to discuss a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said.** Hasbro Inc has made an approach to acquire rival Mattel Inc, a source familiar with the matter said, the latest attempt to combine the two biggest U.S. toymakers in more than two decades.Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1NJ3M1'|'2017-11-13T12:50:00.000+02:00'
'9e9e97c1bea3b55070211af2e9f99098c26a1151'|'Second British Libor trader to have conviction examined'|'November 9, 2017 / 5:12 PM / in 5 hours Second British Libor trader to have conviction examined Kirstin Ridley 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A second former trader who was jailed in Britain for manipulating Libor interest rates will have his conviction reviewed by a public body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice. Former Barclays employee Jonathan Mathew arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London March 3, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Files The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will review the conviction of former Barclays ( BARC.L ) banker Jonathan Mathew alongside that of jailed Libor trader Tom Hayes, a CCRC spokesman said on Thursday. “We are not at all surprised that they have accepted it (for review),” said Mathew’s lawyer Matthew Frankland, a partner at Byrne and Partners. “It is a powerful and legitimate invitation to the CCRC to consider the safety of that conviction.” The CCRC, which has the power to refer cases back to the appeal courts, can investigate convictions or sentences on the basis of compelling new evidence or arguments in cases where people have exhausted other legal appeals. Mathew was sentenced to four years in jail in 2016 after being found guilty of conspiring to rig Libor, the London interbank offered rate, that serves as a benchmark for interest rates on around $450 trillion of financial contracts and loans. His lawyer said that “very real issues” had arisen since Mathew’s conviction, including compelling evidence that more than one witness has misled the court during the trial. Scrutiny of Libor cases has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic. A U.S. appeals court in July overturned the convictions of two British former Rabobank traders over the use of compelled testimony in their trials. The CCRC in April started examining the conviction of Hayes, a mildly autistic former UBS ( UBSG.S ) and Citigroup ( C.N ) trader, who was the first person jailed worldwide over Libor-rigging in 2015. He was initially handed a 14-year sentence, before his sentence was cut to 11 years on appeal. Hayes and Mathew, who are among five men who have been convicted of Libor manipulation in Britain, will have their cases investigated by the same CCRC team, the spokesman said, although each case will ultimately turn on its own facts. Mathew was jailed last year alongside three other former Barclays traders. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two others, who were later acquitted after a retrial in April. The retrial raised questions about the credibility of the Serious Fraud Office prosecutor’s key banking witness. Only a fraction of all cases received by the CCRC are referred back to the appeal courts. The commission says cases are only referred if there is a “real possibility” that an appeal court would quash the conviction or change a sentence. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-libor-appeal-conviction/second-british-libor-trader-to-have-conviction-examined-idUKKBN1D92IL'|'2017-11-09T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'6c531ee97f2d73a9669b28422ae43bfd1a65cf6b'|'Aramco plans to spend $300 billion over 10 years in upstream oil and gas - CEO'|' 34 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Aramco plans to spend $300 billion over 10 years in upstream oil and gas - CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco ( IPO-ARMO.SE ) plans to spend close to $300 billion over 10 years in upstream oil and gas projects, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Amin Nasser, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aramco arrives to the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Speaking at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, Nasser said: “This is mainly upstream, onshore, offshore and joint ventures in the kingdom and out of the kingdom.” He also said a decision would hopefully be made soon on the location for the listing of shares in the oil giant. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said last month that Aramco’s initial public offering, part of an ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, was on track to go ahead in 2018. Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Writing by Tom Arnold; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-aramco-ipo-investment/aramco-plans-to-spend-300-billion-over-10-years-in-upstream-oil-and-gas-ceo-idUKKBN1DD0TW'|'2017-11-13T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'b13eeeda4c512db23862b478f7823a867bf246ed'|'British car insurer Sabre seeks 213 million pounds listing in London'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:17 AM / Updated 7 hours ago British car insurer Sabre seeks 213 million pounds listing in London Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British car insurance underwriter Sabre will seek to raise around 213 million pounds in an initial public offering in London next month, the company said on Monday. The announcement is a boost to the outlook for London Stock Exchange listings after earlier this month ready meals supplier Bakkavor BAKK.L and telecoms masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L both pulled deals. Bakkavor reversed that decision just a week later, after cutting its share price. Founded in 1982, Sabre generated gross written premiums of 197 million pounds in 2016 and said it intends to maintain its focus on the UK private motor insurance market. The listing would value the whole company at around 600 million pounds, a source familiar with the deal said. Sabre’s private equity owner BC Partners is looking to list the Dorking-based firm in London following an unsuccessful joint approach from U.S. investment firm Centerbridge and Qatar Reinsurance Company, sources told Reuters in September. BC Partners took a majority stake in Sabre in 2013 in a 240 million-pound deal. The company, which is behind the Insure 2 Drive, Go Girl and Drive Smart brands, abandoned talking with prospective buyers in favour of a listing. Barclays ( BARC.L ) and Numis Securities Limited are acting as joint global co-ordinators on the deal. Reporting by Lawrence White, additional reporting by Ben Martin, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sabre-ipo/british-car-insurer-sabre-seeks-280-million-listing-in-london-idUKKBN1DD0OV'|'2017-11-13T09:18:00.000+02:00'
'e4a86f43f36e0df754287a2412872ebcf5097381'|'Volkswagen''s truck brand MAN spends $2.8 billion to upgrade plants'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Volkswagen''s truck brand MAN spends $2.8 billion to upgrade plants Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) heavy-trucks brand MAN ( MANG.DE ) said it will spend more than 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) through 2020 on upgrading plants in Europe, Asia and Africa as part of efforts to overhaul production and boost profit. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past a truck in the truck production plant of German truck and bus-maker MAN AG in Munich, Germany July 30, 2015. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Parent Volkswagen (VW) has been building a global trucks business to challenge rivals Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and Volvo ( VOLVb.ST ) by integrating its MAN and Scania divisions and getting them to share development of engines, transmissions, axles and emissions-treatment systems. MAN Truck & Bus has production sites in three European countries as well as in Russia, South Africa, India and Turkey. About half of the planned investments, some 1.1 billion euros, will be spent by 2020 at its Munich headquarters where a new paint shop for drivers’ cabins and extra research and development facilities are being added, MAN said on Monday. The supervisory board at VW, the world’s largest automaker, is expected to sign off on Friday on new targets for group spending over the next five years on property, plants and equipment. VW is pushing a strategic shift to electric cars and new mobility services more than two years after its diesel emissions test-cheating scandal broke. MAN said on Monday it will spend a mid-range three-digit million-euro amount on electric mobility with battery-powered buses due to come to market next year. ($1 = 0.8581 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-trucks-man/volkswagens-truck-brand-man-spends-2-8-billion-to-upgrade-plants-idUSKBN1DD1KE'|'2017-11-13T15:23:00.000+02:00'
'60cb5979e5c9020ee3f07620c263d1f07c672e17'|'Brazil resumes murder trial in Samarco mining disaster'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:26 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Brazil resumes murder trial in Samarco mining disaster Reuters Staff 2 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A court in Brazil decided on Monday to resume criminal proceedings, including consideration of murder charges, related to the 2015 Samarco mine disaster, throwing out a challenge from two defendants claiming that evidence was illegally collected. The Bento Rodrigues district is pictured covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst in Mariana, Brazil, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd, joint owners of the Samarco iron mine, are part of a group that includes 22 people and two other companies that stand accused of crimes related to a tailing dam that burst. The burst unleashed a torrent of toxic mud that killed 19 people. The court in the state of Minas Gerais suspended proceedings in July to consider claims from two Samarco executives who alleged that phone data, instant messages and emails were illegally collected outside of the period legally authorised. The judge ruled certain material based on transcripts of corporate emails and chats to be invalid but that it did not impact the validity of telephone surveillance and other evidence, federal prosecutors said in a statement. Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vale-sa-bhp-billiton-samarco/brazil-resumes-murder-trial-in-samarco-mining-disaster-idUKKBN1DD2IV'|'2017-11-13T22:25:00.000+02:00'
'd898d7815df272e72a550d616256b2dee261bc0f'|'New York state regulator fines Credit Suisse $135 million over forex practices'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:04 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago New York state regulator fines Credit Suisse $135 million over forex practices Karen Freifeld 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG ( CSGN.S ) has agreed to pay $135 million to settle allegations that its foreign exchange traders deceived customers, improperly shared their information and tried to manipulate currency prices, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) said on Monday. The Credit Suisse logo is seen at the headquarters in downtown Milan, Italy, March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini The settlement stems from a DFS investigation that found “unlawful, unsafe and unsound conduct” in the Swiss bank’s forex business from at least 2008 to 2015, the regulator said. In addition to the fine, Credit Suisse will have to improve its controls and compliance, and hire a consultant to review remedial efforts for at least a year, subject to DFS approval. Credit Suisse foreign exchange traders used chat rooms to share confidential customer information, coordinate trades and try to manipulate currencies or benchmark rates, DFS said. Through these communications, the traders were able to trade ahead of clients, or sometimes use a tactic called “building ammo,” with which they coordinated activity to ensure they were not taking positions that would hurt one another, the regulator said. Credit Suisse also used an algorithm offered by its electronic trading platform, eFX, to trade ahead of known client orders, DFS said. In a statement, DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo blamed Credit Suisse executives who “deliberately fostered a corrupt culture that failed to implement effective controls.” DFS’s agreement with Credit Suisse is the latest in a string of global regulatory settlements with big Wall Street banks over forex trading practices since 2015. Rivals including Citigroup Inc ( C.N ), JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ), Barclays PLC ( BARC.L ), UBS AG ( UBSG.S ) and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC ( RBS.L ) have collectively paid $10 billion to settle allegations by U.S. and European authorities that their forex traders coordinated to cheat clients and boost their own profits. Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-credit-suisse-gp-forex-settlement/new-york-state-regulator-fines-credit-suisse-135-million-over-forex-practices-idUKKBN1DD2AY'|'2017-11-13T21:02:00.000+02:00'
'919e2ecbb4114f5fd6d5add8b05a8b999e1cdd82'|'Not material that Hexagon CEO knew of Next Biometrics deal, court told'|'OSLO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Hexagon chief executive Ola Rollen’s knowledge that Next Biometrics had signed a major client when he made an investment in the Norwegian company was not material, an Oslo court was told on Monday.Rollen, who denies wrongdoing, is on trial for alleged insider trading related to a 2015 investment in Next Biometrics through Greenbridge, his part-owned investment firm, which is the biggest investor in the company with a 17 percent stake.During his testimony at Oslo’s district court, Next Biometrics’ former CEO Tore Etholm-Idsoee, who is now its acting chairman, said the essential information about the major client Next Biometrics had won was already known in the stockmarket.“All the substantial information was already out: that it was one of the big five, Acer, Asus, HP , Lenovo or Dell, and that we would start deliveries in the second half of 2015,” he said on Monday.“The only thing was to confirm which one of the big five it was,” Etholm-Idsoee said in court, adding that Rollen did not know that Dell was the client in question. The prosecution alleges that a purchase of shares in Next Biometrics on Oct. 6 and 7, 2015 by Greenbridge amounted to illegal insider trading, as Greenbridge was also involved in talks to take a larger stake in Next Biometrics at a higher price.It was also alleged that Rollen, who faces six months in prison if found guilty, knew the release of the name of the client would increase Next Biometrics’ share price and that his knowledge amounted to privileged information.Etholm-Idsoee said the pricing of Next Biometrics’ share issue at 60 crowns per share was not a question that Rollen was much interested in when the two men discussed its plans.“Ola was clearly more interested in other things: what does it take to be successful in the smart card business going forward...I don’t remember a discussion about the pricing.”Etholm-Idsoee also said the cancellation of a royalty agreement was agreed around midday Oslo-time on Oct. 7 and that Rollen was not involved in that negotiation. The prosecution has alleged that the cancellation contributed to a share price rise and had motivated Rollen’s investment in the firm.Rollen and his lawyers have said that he did not possess privileged information about Next Biometrics at the time of the share purchase, which was motivated by his own independent analysis of the Norwegian company.Next Biometrics’ share price jumped by 85 percent to 89 crowns on Oct. 9, 2015 after Rollen’s investment was made public, but later dropped after Next Biometrics carried out a private placement in February 2017.Shares in Next Biometrics, which is due to release its third-quarter results on Tuesday, closed down 5.66 percent at 50.0 crowns on Monday.The trial continues. (Writing by Gwladys Fouche; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hexagon-ab-ceo-trial/not-material-that-hexagon-ceo-knew-of-next-biometrics-deal-court-told-idINL8N1NJ68J'|'2017-11-13T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'7526807d95ec89874cfc6135ab16316ab8f7bcc2'|'Hasbro makes takeover offer for Mattel: WSJ'|'November 10, 2017 / 10:19 PM / Updated 15 hours ago U.S. toymaker Hasbro makes new approach to buy Mattel: source Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Hasbro Inc ( HAS.O ) has made an approach to acquire rival Mattel Inc ( MAT.O ), a source familiar with the matter said on Friday, the latest attempt to combine the two biggest U.S. toymakers in more than two decades. FILE PHOTO: Mattel''s Wonder Woman doll is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S. on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo A deal would create a toy powerhouse, uniting Hasbro’s My Little Pony, Monopoly and Nerf brands with Mattel’s Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels toys. A combined company would have more pricing power to negotiate with entertainment studios over TV and movie franchises. Mattel’s stance toward Hasbro in this overture is not clear, and it remains far from certain that a deal will materialize, the source said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Hasbro and Mattel declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported Hasbro’s latest approach to Mattel. Shares of Mattel jumped about 24 percent in after-hours trading. Hasbro shares rose about 3.3 percent. Hasbro has a market value of about $11 billion after a near 18 percent increase in its stock price so far in 2017. Mattel’s shares have slumped 47 percent this year, valuing the company at $4.8 billion and making it more vulnerable as a takeover target. The September bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us, the biggest U.S. toy retailer, highlighted the struggles facing the sector, including online competition and children’s shifting preference for electronics over traditional toys. Some of Mattel''s Star Wars merchandise is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith Mattel has pointed to that bankruptcy as a reason for weak sales. Two weeks ago, Mattel suspended its dividend and Chief Executive Margo Georgiadis, who took the job in January, warned the company would miss its full-year revenue forecast. Mattel’s stock fell to its lowest level since 2009 that day. FILE PHOTO: The Mattel company logo is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo “Both companies would benefit from a merger, but Mattel stockholders might oppose a deal that values the company on its depressed stock price,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Hasbro and Mattel have had talks several times over the years, including in 1996 and again sometime in late 2015. Hasbro, which is trying to diversify its revenue stream, also sought to buy U.S. movie studio and entertainment company Lions Gate Entertainment Corp ( LGFa.N ) this year, but those talks ended without a deal, Reuters reported in August. That deal would have given Hasbro a direct pipeline into Hollywood, with more movies and TV shows tied to its toy brands. In 2014, Hasbro held merger discussions with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, the studio behind “Shrek,” but DreamWorks was subsequently bought by Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ). Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York and Yashaswini Swamynathan and Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mattel-m-a-hasbro/hasbro-makes-takeover-offer-for-mattel-wsj-idUSKBN1DA2WV'|'2017-11-11T00:27:00.000+02:00'
'8237bc62471d31fcfd7194e6db1ad1fb9647804e'|'Exclusive: Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO - sources'|'November 10, 2017 / 8:12 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Exclusive - Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO - sources Jessica Toonkel 6 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch telephoned AT&T Inc ( T.N ) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months and talked about cable network CNN, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday. According to one of the sources, the 86-year-old executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) offered to buy CNN in both conversations. Another source said Murdoch had “zero interest” in owning CNN. Representatives of Twenty-First Century Fox, AT&T and Time Warner, CNN’s parent, declined comment. CNN has become the focal point in antitrust approval of AT&T’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), hatched in October 2016. U.S. Department of Justice staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit - which includes CNN - a government official told Reuters on Thursday, in order to gain antitrust approval. On Thursday Stephenson said he had no interest in selling CNN and that he was ready to defend the deal in court if necessary. According to one of the sources on Friday, Murdoch called Stephenson twice, unprompted, on May 16 and Aug. 8 and on both occasions asked if CNN was for sale. Stephenson replied both times that it was not, according to the source. TRUMP COMMENTS WEIGH The fate of CNN has broader political significance. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the network for its coverage of his campaign and his administration, while he has publicly praised Murdoch’s Fox News. In the run-up to last year’s election he vowed that as president his Justice Department would block AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner. He has not commented on the transaction since taking office in January. Trump’s comments have provoked concern that he may improperly influence the U.S. Department of Justice to block the deal. The White House has said Trump has not spoken to the attorney general about the matter. Nevertheless, a group of eight Democratic U.S. senators on Friday wrote to Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, urging the department “to oppose any attempt by the White House to interfere with antitrust law enforcement decisions, particularly for political reasons.” Rupert Murdoch stands at the U.S. Open men''s final in New York, September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar Delrahim said he had not had any contact with the White House or the attorney general on the matter, speaking at an event at the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles later in the day. “I’ve got to keep my nose down and be a law enforcer and do what’s good and what I’ve committed to doing to the American people,” said Delrahim. But he appeared to voice doubts about AT&T’s reasoning that the purchase of Time Warner would not result in a company with too much power because the combined company would have to compete with powerful new online rivals such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Facebook Inc ( FB.O ). Delrahim referred to a comment by former President Ronald Reagan that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I‘m from the government and I‘m here to help.” FILE PHOTO: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corporation, reacts during a panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed//File Photo “I’d say you should be equally terrified when someone in an incumbent company, whatever industry, comes to you and says I’m here to help you against the evils of Netflix, Amazon, Google and Facebook,” said Delrahim. “Some of these pro-competitive comments and justifications remind me of that quote strongly.” ‘NO SENSE’ It would not be the first time Murdoch has attempted to take control of CNN. His Twenty-First Century Fox made an $80 billion offer for Time Warner in 2014 but abandoned the plan in the face of Time Warner’s resistance. At that time, Fox had planned to divest CNN - which competes with Fox News - in order to avoid antitrust issues. There is no law against a company owning two cable networks, but there is a Federal Communications Commission prohibition on owning two broadcast networks. A Fox deal with CNN could also raise antitrust concerns because of the market share that a combined company would have among cable news viewers. “I have been called and asked if I would sell CNN by numerous people,” Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday. But he added: “Selling CNN makes no sense.” Fox has held talks in the last few weeks to sell most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ), CNBC reported this week, which would leave the company with its Fox News, sports programming and broadcasting stations.. Twenty-First Century Fox would sell its stake in European satellite broadcaster Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) in a deal with Disney, according to CNBC’s report. Fox is trying to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own but the bid is strongly opposed by some lawmakers and has been subject to lengthy regulatory scrutiny. Time Warner shares closed up 4 percent at $90.60. Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cnn-murdoch-exclusive/exclsuive-rupert-murdoch-twice-discussed-cnn-with-att-ceo-sources-idUKKBN1DA2Q5'|'2017-11-11T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'b0f4ce4c3996496b623c5125744c8cb370a9b879'|'ASEAN signs free trade, investment pacts with Hong Kong'|'Reuters TV United States November 12, 2017 / 8:46 AM / a few seconds ago ASEAN signs free trade, investment pacts with Hong Kong James Pomfret , Enrico Dela Cruz 3 Min Read MANILA (Reuters) - Hong Kong on Sunday signed free trade and investment pacts with the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in what one of the Chinese territory’s senior officials called a “loud and clear” vote against rising regional trade protectionism. The pacts conclude nearly three years of talks, are expected to take effect on January 1 at the earliest, and aim to bring “deeper and bolder” integration of market access with the bloc, said Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s commerce and development secretary. “In the face of protectionist sentiments in other parts of the world, these two agreements are in fact a loud and clear vote from all of us here for freer and more open trade,” Yau said. “Hong Kong, being a free trade promoter and advocate of a strong, rule-based multilateral trading system, will continue to take this pathway, continue to do our utmost.” Total merchandise trade between Hong Kong and ASEAN was HK$833 billion ($107 billion) last year, official figures show. Total services trade was HK$121 billion ($16 billion) in 2015. The ASEAN Hong Kong China Free Trade Agreement (AHKCFTA) was signed on the sidelines of a summit of the regional grouping in the Philippine capital of Manila. It came after leaders attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam agreed to tackle “unfair trade practices” and “market distorting subsidies” in a statement on Saturday that bore the imprint of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the global trade landscape. That summit offered a contrast between the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy and a traditional consensus favoring multinational deals that China now seeks to champion. While Hong Kong already has one of the world’s freest and most open economies, the pacts will see many ASEAN countries gradually eliminate or slash customs duties on goods from the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Professional services are also expected to benefit, with increased investment flows, Yau added. The ASEAN grouping includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ($1=7.8009 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summmit-hongkongtrade/asean-signs-free-trade-investment-pacts-with-hong-kong-idUKKBN1DC08Z'|'2017-11-12T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'bf9b5227d06102f80a4ce4d9e6680857147d504c'|'REFILE-UPDATE 1-Ex-SBM executives plead guilty in U.S. to Petrobras bribe charges'|'(Corrects day Robert Zubiate pleaded guilty to Monday in third paragraph)By Nate RaymondNov 9 (Reuters) - Two former executives at Dutch oil services company SBM Offshore NV have pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that they participated in a scheme to bribe officials at three foreign state-run oil companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras.Anthony Mace, SBM’s chief executive officer from 2008 to 2011, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Houston in one of the first U.S. Justice Department cases filed against individuals related to bribery allegations involving Petroleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras.The plea by Mace, 65, to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act came after a former sales and marketing executive at a SBM U.S. subsidiary, Robert Zubiate, pleaded guilty on Monday, prosecutors said.Lawyers for the two men did not respond to requests for comment and neither did SBM or Petrobras.Mace’s plea came after SBM on Monday said it had set aside $238 million amid advanced discussions to resolve a U.S. probe into improper payments to foreign government officials.Prosecutors said that after becoming chief executive, Mace joined a scheme that began in 1996 to pay bribes to officials at Petrobras, Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol and Equatorial Guinea’s GEPetrol.Prosecutors said Mace authorized paying $16 million to five people listed on a spreadsheet despite being aware of a high risk they were Equatorial Guinean officials or people accepting money on their behalf.Mace also deliberately avoided learning whether the ultimate recipients of certain payments he authorized were to Petrobras officials, prosecutors said.Mace, a British citizen, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2. Zubiate, who was based in Texas and California while with SBM, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.Petrobras has been at the center of Brazil’s largest ever corruption scandal amid investigations into a political kickback scheme involving contractors.SBM previously in 2014 agreed to pay $240 million to settle a Dutch inquiry into improper payments to officials in Angola, Brazil and Equatorial Guinea.SBM said at the time, the U.S. Justice Department said it was closing a related probe. But the department reopened the investigation after Brazilian prosecutors in 2015 charged a former U.S. employee, SBM said on Monday.SBM last year had also set aside $280 million to settle related issues in Brazil. But it announced on Monday that the Brazilian case remained unresolved. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sbm-offshore-corruption/update-1-ex-sbm-executives-plead-guilty-in-u-s-to-petrobras-bribe-charges-idINL1N1NF2Y5'|'2017-11-09T20:53:00.000+02:00'
'b1dc7e5c760896460cf81f5ac6488e625435aa45'|'Brazil''s Grupo Caoa buys 50 pct of automaker Chery''s local operations'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Grupo Caoa, Hyundai’s local partner in Brazil, said on Saturday it had bought 50 percent of Chinese automaker Chery’s Brazilian operations, according to a written statement.The statement did not say what the deal was worth.The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported that Caoa had paid $60 million, though it did not say where it got the information from, and Caoa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The company, which will be known as Caoa Chery, plans to invest $2 billion in Brazil in the next five years, the statement said. It did not give any further details.Chery has a plant in Sao Paulo state, and the partnership with Caoa means that production for Caoa Chery vehicles will continue there and also take place at Caoa’s plant in Goias.Chery produces three models of cars in Brazil - the New QQ, Celer Hatch and the Celer Sedan. The statement did not provide details on any new models Caoa Chery may develop. (Reporting by Brad Brooks; editing by Clelia Oziel) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/caoa-chery-brazil/brazils-grupo-caoa-buys-50-pct-of-automaker-cherys-local-operations-idINL8N1NH0HZ'|'2017-11-11T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'1533091bc09ebbb680bc3c20b0e421a10d014f24'|'Column: Britain’s mess extends beyond Brexit'|'REUTERS - Britain – ever-ready to boast stable politics and a faultless, often-called “Rolls Royce” civil service – is in a mess. Between scandals over sex, secret meetings, political donors and the royal family, the government is melting down.Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The country’s own newspapers say so. On Thursday, The Times carried the front page headline “Brussels braced for fall of Theresa May’s government” – this before that government has served half a year.Where British journalism fails to convey the dimensions of the mess, foreign journalists oblige. Steven Erlanger of The New York Times told his Sunday readers in early November that the country is “heading to nowhere, while on deck, fire has broken out and the captain — poor Theresa May — is lashed to the mast, without the authority to decide whether to turn to port or to starboard.” The Irish writer Fintan O’Toole writes in the New York Review of Books that “Brexit is fueled by fantasies of ‘Empire 2.0,’ a reconstructed global trading empire in which the old colonies will be reconnected to the mother country.”The first of these, if finely phrased, is overblown; the second is absurd. No one but a real fantasist believes the empire can be reconstituted, or wishes it to be. But schadenfreude is too attractive an emotion to pass up, an occasion to pay back the U.K. for its haughtiness to other countries it deems less well governed than itself.The real question here is whether the May government can survive. And what happens if it can’t?The current mess is the result of the workings of democracy, which decreed opening the gates to the barbarians. Barbarians are the forces which mainstream politicians try to keep outside the walls; now, they have forced an entry. In the United States, the invasion is led by Donald Trump: his barbarians are those who take seriously his calls to “drain the swamp” (of Washington) and “put America first.”Britain’s barbarians have breached the walls of both major parties. Labour is now led by a group of far leftists, gathered around the figure of Jeremy Corbyn, a man who believes in the socialization of much of the economy, has supported and praised the Irish Republican Army, Hamas and Hezbollah and favors a call for the former Labour leader, Tony Blair, to be tried for war crimes. Corbyn and his fellow radical members of parliament were barely tolerated by the rest of their parliamentary colleagues, yet when he ran for Labour’s leadership in 2015, a sudden swell of support from mainly young party members propelled him, astonished, to the leadership. The barbarians had flooded in; the party’s unexpectedly good showing in the general election this summer confirmed they were inside the walls to stay.The Conservative barbarians are those who hate Britain’s membership in the European Union. The parliamentary barbarian group – a minority – plagued the leadership: John Major, prime minister from 1991-1997, called them, unaware of an open microphone, “bastards.” Their strength forced David Cameron, prime minister from 2010-2016, into the fateful decision to put the issue of EU membership to a referendum. He lost, and so the victorious barbarians inherited the party.It was not, however, one of their number who became prime minister. That was “poor Theresa May”, an unenthusiastic European Union remainer, who won the party leadership over two Brexiteer challengers, but who fully accepted that the people had spoken and Britain’s exit from the EU would be pursued.A woman walks past a Brexit related placard in central London, Britain, September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Files In that pursuit, a sea of troubles has washed about her, and about the country. Many in her cabinet are not Brexiteers; they believe that exit is folly, and seek to extend the period of leaving the Union in order to give British business and finance more time to prepare for the new conditions. The three cabinet members most concerned with Brexit include Boris Johnson, the unpredictable Foreign Secretary, who differed sharply with the cautious chancellor, Philip Hammond, a Remainer, on the timetable for leaving. David Davis, the main negotiator with the EU on the terms of Brexit, was called stupid, lazy and “vain as Narcissus” by the former campaign director of the Vote Leave campaign, a supposed ally. The upper reaches of the governing party are murderous.Negotiations are, in any case, going badly. The EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, has insisted on a rigid timetable which doesn’t suit the U.K., while issues like the amount the U.K. must pay before leaving remain an obstacle to progress.The sea has been made much rougher by a growing sexual harassment scandal that led to the resignation of defense minister Michael Fallon. Damian Green, effectively the deputy prime minister, is fighting allegations of harassment and “extreme pornography” said to have been found on his parliamentary computer.Slideshow (2 Images) The scandals multiply, usually displayed at the top of TV bulletins and on front pages. A careless remark by Foreign Secretary Johnson may have prolonged the prison sentence of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British citizen jailed in Iran on spying charges, by wrongly claiming she had been training journalists there. Lord Ashcroft, a major Conservative donor, was revealed in the “Paradise Papers” leak to have sheltered a large part of his wealth offshore.He was not alone: both the Queen and her son, Prince Charles, were revealed by the leak as having benefitted from tax-free shelters.In the same week, International Development Secretary Priti Patel was forced to resign when she was found to have concealed a series of meetings with Israeli ministers without the knowledge of either the Foreign Office or the prime minister. Patel’s replacement – Penny Mordaunt – had to be, like her, a keen Brexiteer; May does not have the freedom to choose on the basis of competence, only on the basis of alignment.The prime minister is clearly weak, and has been since nearly losing the election to Labour. The enormity of the task – of unpicking hundreds of regulations, laws and agreements while forging new trading links, staunching a retreat of the finance sector from the City of London, attracting new and keeping established investment and combating the Scots nationalists who continue to threaten another referendum on independence – calls for strength and confidence.Neither is much in evidence. The assumption of weakness is such that speculation on who could follow May as prime minister is a daily game. Most bets are on Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary and former journalist – clever, agile and a keen Brexiteer, but inheriting the same gnawing problems with which May has been forced to grapple. Were the Conservatives to lose their thin majority in the House of Commons on a confidence vote, a new election would be ordered – with the far-left-led Labour Party, on present poll figures, favored. The country would then be even more deeply divided than before.This is barbarian rule, otherwise known as democracy. Tens of millions in the democratic world experience insecurity, stagnant incomes or fear of mass immigration – sometimes all of these. They have chosen to vote for barbarians because the civilized people were not, they thought, caring, or at least not responding. Deeply uncomfortable, even dangerous, as the effects are, the rules by which states which offer political choice live must respect these votes. And hope for civilization to win, even among the barbarians.Reporting by John Lloyd '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lloyd-britain/column-britains-mess-extends-beyond-brexit-idINKBN1DB02Y'|'2017-11-11T00:50:00.000+02:00'
'b4941c24e9a9b1b61c0470590c98e732c338114f'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slides, but notches longest weekly win streak since 1996'|'(Updates throughout with closing figures)* TSX down 42.83 points, or 0.27 percent, to 16,039.26* Half of the TSX’s 10 main groups finish lower* TSX hits nine straight weeks of gains* Index rose for 13 straight weeks in late 1996By Solarina HoTORONTO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index finished lower for a third straight session on Friday, but it managed to rise for the full week, notching its longest weekly winning streak in more than two decades.The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 42.83 points, or 0.27 percent, to end at 16,039.26, with half of the 10 main sectors recording a loss.For the week, however, it squeezed out a 0.12 percent gain, its ninth consecutive weekly rise, a feat not seen since late 1996 when it rose for 13 straight weeks.After underperforming major global indexes for much of the year, the TSX has rallied 7 percent since early September, fueled in large part by energy stocks that profited from a nearly 25 percent rise in U.S. crude oil prices.Manulife Financial Corp ended down 2 percent to C$26.91 on Friday. Financial stocks gave back 0.7 percent, and accounted for five of the index’s six most influential decliners.TSX operator TMX Group Ltd was one of the sector’s bright spots, adding 1.8 percent to close at C$71.68 after posting a quarterly profit that exceeded expectations.The materials group, home to precious and base metals miners, lumber and other resource companies, lost 0.8 percent. Gold futures fell 0.9 percent to $1,274.50 an ounce on Friday, but were still set to see the first weekly rise in a month.Wheaton Precious Metals Corp was the most impactful non-financial stock on the down side, losing 4.5 percent to C$25.53 after its third-quarter revenue fell short of forecasts.Energy stocks gave up earlier gains to end down 0.2 percent. Oil prices were slightly lower as expectations of an output deal extension were offset by U.S. drillers’ adding the most oil rigs in a week since June.Industrials also added pressure, falling 0.3 percent. Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc tumbled 10.1 percent to C$32.15 and CAE Inc lost 3.3 percent to C$22.13 after both companies reported weaker-than-expected results.Hydro One Ltd shares fell 1.2 percent to C$22.71 as third-quarter profit fell, while overall utilities lost 0.3 percent.On the positive side, consumer staples gained 0.9 percent helped by Cott Corp, which rose 7.4 percent to C$20.46, extending its previous session’s post-earnings gains.Telecoms added 0.9 percent as Telus Corp rose 2 percent to C$48.47.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the TSX by 160 to 84, for a 1.90-to-1 ratio on the downside. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-slides-but-notches-longest-weekly-win-streak-since-1996-idUSL1N1NG1TZ'|'2017-11-11T00:24:00.000+02:00'
'af885cdf06d05d6b2e78de4ced5fe52d8dd33f91'|'As sliced bread sales fall and costs rise, are UK''s leading bakers toast? - Business - The Guardian'|'One of the UK’s biggest bakers has warned that it is making “unsustainable losses” as Britons’ appetite for bread wanes and costs rise.Bread remains one of the most popular items on weekly shopping lists, but the trend for low-carb diets, concerns about gluten and an increase in alternatives to the lunchtime sarnie – from protein pots and salad bowls to sushi and macaroni cheese – have all hit sales.The basic sliced loaf has proved the biggest victim with sales volumes slumping about 12% over the last five years, according to the research firm Mintel, a loss of about 23,000 tonnes. The amount of bread rolls and freshly baked bread sold is also down.Avocado toast may be an Instagram sensation, but growing preference for buying a takeaway breakfast or lunch rather than making toast or sandwiches at home has also hit sales.Rising prices have put a further dampener on demand and squeezed suppliers.The price of a loaf is up 4% in the past year alone, according to Kantar Worldpanel, as the cost of wheat and other commodities has been bumped up . Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sushi has become a popular lunchtime snack. Photograph: Alamy George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods , which owns the baker Kingsmill, said commodity price inflation had eaten away profits as costs for bakers had soared ever higher.“We are making an unsustainable level of loss and are in discussions with retail customers. We need to put that right,” Weston said. The price of the kind of wheat used in bread has soared 24% in the past two years, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, as the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote has combined with rising demand for wheat for animal feed and to make fuel.Some bread wheat is imported from Germany and Canada and so has been affected by the more than 10% fall in the value of the pound. But even the price of wheat grown in the UK is partly governed by overseas prices because farmers have the option of exporting if the price is not good enough.Facebook Twitter Pinterest One supermarket told the Guardian it expected to cut space devoted to bakery items within 18 months. Photograph: Alamy Although British farmers planted more wheat suitable for baking in recent years, the recent damp August also held back supplies.Kingsmill is a brand worth £500m, but Weston said that even though Associated British Foods had invested heavily in its bakeries – making it one of the lowest-cost operations in the country – it continued to make a loss. He said that Kingsmill was negotiating with supermarkets over how its costs could be better met.The baker Hovis also reported losses of £30m last year, up from a £19m loss the year before. It said the amount of bread sold had fallen by 9% in 2016, partly because some of its lines were dropped by Asda , according to accounts filed at Companies House.Warburton’s, the UK’s other leading baker, saw sales dip 4.6%, though it increased profits by tightly controlling costs and introducing new products such as giant crumpets.Britain’s bakers are caught in a pincer movement between rising costs and falling demand.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hovis lost £30m last year. Photograph: Premier Foods/PA About 42% of Britons eat bread on a daily basis, down from 52% two years ago, according to the Harris Interactive poll carried out for the Grocer trade journal. The change is being led by young people, with only a quarter of 16- to 24-year-olds eating bread every day compared with about half of those over 45.Industry analysts say at least one of the major bakers is likely to have to cut back operations as there is too much capacity in the industry.One supermarket told the Guardian it expected to reduce space devoted to bakery items within the next 18 months because of declining interest from its shoppers.“Sales of sliced bread have been coming off for maybe four years. People see it as highly calorific. It’s gone from being a real staple to being perceived as a negative food,” said one supermarket executive.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Consumers are switching to wraps and bagels. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian “Women in particular are trying to limit their carb intake and bread is in the firing line when they are making those cutbacks,” says Emma Clifford, a food and drink analyst at Mintel. She said some people were switching to wraps, bagels or garlic bread, as they were looking for something healthier and more interesting at lunchtime.“People are eating less bread and when they do they want to really enjoy it and are likely to trade up to more special options,” she said.'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/11/are-uks-leading-bakers-toast-bread-sales-fall-costs-rise'|'2017-11-11T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'44c038de1d65c02f49b00117aefbf3f4a139e03a'|'Draining the dark pools? EU trading rules face uncertain launch'|'Reuters TV United States November 7, 2017 / 12:02 PM / in a few seconds Draining the dark pools? EU trading rules face uncertain launch Helen Reid , Simon Jessop 10 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European Union efforts to bring greater transparency to stock dealing risk having the opposite effect, forcing regulators to intervene once again after new rules come into force in January. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Overall, European regulators want to promote an orderly market following the financial crisis, when opaque trading led to disaster, and ensure small investors get a fair deal. So the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, aims to push more trading onto regulated public exchanges where prices and participants are visible to all. But some investors seeking anonymity and lower fees are likely to opt instead for “systematic internalisers” - dealing platforms run by banks and other market participants which reveal much less information about impending transactions. Market participants say institutional investors who mostly use the established exchanges, such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE), may be tempted to follow suit for some business. The longer-term consequences of the MiFID II regime, which applies from Jan. 3, remain highly uncertain and the exchanges are already fighting back with new products to regain business after suffering a sharp drop over the past decade. Major shifts in European equity trading are on the way due to the regulatory changes. Brian Schwieger, the LSE’s global head of equities, estimated that around a third of UK trade will be up for grabs in the New Year. “That’s all got to find a new home,” he told Reuters. However, Europe’s regulated exchanges already have a much lower market share than in other regions, and some people believe this will shrink rather than grow. “The exchanges will be the losers; not on Day One, but over time,” said Michael Horan, Head of Trading at broker Pershing Securities. He predicts the LSE’s share of European turnover could fall to as little as 30-40 percent from 50-60 percent now. The original MiFID I, born in 2007, has failed to curtail the growth of “dark pool” trading where dealing is done anonymously, unlike on the conventional “lit” markets. GRAPHIC: Dark pool trading volumes in Europe, 2008-2017: reut.rs/2zjamVs Regulators’ ambition this time is to ensure investors get “best execution”, which can mean achieving the fastest, most efficient transaction at the lowest cost for clients. Another aim is for deals on public exchanges to cause minimal price movement, a chief attraction of dark pools. Institutional investors such as pension fund managers and insurance companies putting through a big deal can find the market moves against them when others become aware of the impending transaction. The price can rise before their purchase is executed or conversely fall before their sale goes through. DESIRE FOR ANONYMITY MiFID II’s answer is more transparency to curb market operators’ ability to take advantage of private information which can drive up costs for the institutional investors and, ultimately, their clients. It will prevent investment banks from operating private trading networks, which match their clients’ buy and sell orders and lump the transactions in with their own proprietary dealing, without routing the business through a public market. The banks have to re-register these services as systematic internalisers (SIs), which must provide public price quotes for trades of up to the “standard market size”. However, MiFID II exempts larger deals handled by SIs, acknowledging investors’ desire for anonymity to limit the market impact. Institutional investors, who will ultimately determine where the biggest deals are transacted, are reluctant to say how the changes might affect their trading choices. Amundi, BlackRock, Fidelity, RAM and Vanguard all declined comment for this report. LSE’s Schwieger estimates the banks’ private networks currently handle up to a quarter of stock turnover, with the traditional dark pools accounting for a further 10 percent. So with MiFID II forcing roughly 35 percent of total liquidity into other markets, lit exchanges will gain business. “I can’t see all of it being swallowed by SIs,” he said. Regulators say they will act if their intentions are frustrated. Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), described greater transparency as one of the new rules’ chief aims. “If we see that MiFID doesn’t work as intended, we will use our tools to make sure that is corrected,” he told Reuters at a recent Regulation Summit. These tools could include issuing guidelines to promote consistent implementation, or changes to regulatory technical standards, if appropriate, an ESMA spokesman said. An additional element of uncertainty lies in the fact that Europe’s biggest stock exchange, the LSE, will cease to be in the EU when Britain leaves the bloc in 2019. However, MiFID II will be incorporated into British law and, as UK regulators were a major force in its creation, significant changes seem unlikely after Brexit. PERFORMING POORLY Europe performs comparatively poorly on transparency: around 50 percent of equity trade is conducted on lit public markets against 67 percent in the United States and 88 percent in east Asia, according to data from the OECD and trading software provider Fidessa. Turnover on lit order books on exchanges such as the LSE and the pan-European Euronext was 730 billion euros ($850 billion) in September 2017, half the 1.4 trillion euro level of January 2008, data from Reuters Market Share Reporter shows. GRAPHIC: Turnover across trade classes in Europe, 2008-2017: reut.rs/2zj8ITM UBS exchanges analyst Michael Werner said this drop was partly due to the proliferation of multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), alternative dealing systems born from the first iteration of MiFID. Werner sees the SIs - which will also be run by high frequency traders specializing in huge volumes of small orders with razor-thin margins - taking six percent market share, though due to the uncertainty his top-end forecast is 15 percent. The regulator has already closed a loophole in MiFID II which would have allowed SIs to hook up to each other to trade.[nL8N1LF4M6] But Better Finance, a group representing European investors, called on ESMA last month to address parts of the rules it says will give SIs an unfair advantage. One selling point for the SIs is they charge no commission fees because, unlike traditional exchanges and MTFs, they make money purely on bid/ask spreads and volumes traded. MiFID II exempts SIs from rules governing the minimum amount a stock can move for orders larger than standard market size. This means they could offer prices inside the bid/ask spread quoted by the traditional exchanges for certain stocks, lowering investors’ dealing costs. Rainer Riess, director of the Federation of European Stock Exchanges, said this price advantage could help SIs attract a greater share of orders, hurting investors overall. “The more you trade away from lit venues and price formation is weakened, the higher the spreads will become and the higher the transaction costs for everyone in the market,” he said. EXCHANGES FIGHT BACK The new rules cap the amount of a company’s shares that can be traded in dark pools, and the exchanges are using this to fight back. They are introducing products such as closed intra-day auctions, which mimic dark trading, to attract investors keen to avoid showing their hand in the market. For large orders, exchanges could be more attractive than MTFs as their deep pool of liquidity enables them to offer thinner bid/ask spreads on average, UBS analysis found. “If you have an order that’s 5 percent or 10 percent of the average daily volume, there’s a good probability you will have to go on exchange to complete that trade,” said Curtis Pfeiffer, chief business officer at trading algorithm provider Pragma. Recent data indicates exchanges’ strategies are working. Market share is strongly up for most European exchanges this year, figures from the U.S.-based market operator BATS show, while lit MTFs have all lost ground. Werner expects most of the dark pool business will go back to exchanges rather than MTFs. Both the LSE and Euronext have launched platforms for trading large blocks of shares in the dark, which are covered by the MiFID II waiver. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES Ultimately, some investors will always want to hide their orders from the rest of the market. “This whole ‘battle’ between exchanges and SIs is only happening because there’s a genuine market need for off-exchange liquidity, which is being squeezed by the incoming dark pool caps,” said Rob Boardman, CEO of trading platform ITG. Whatever the impact of MiFID II, it is likely to be gradual as participants adapt to the new regime. “There are unintended consequences of every rule. MiFID II is trying to address those but it’s almost certain that more will emerge, in which case we will have MiFID 3,” said Werner. ($1 = 0.8581 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-markets-mifid-analysis/draining-the-dark-pools-eu-trading-rules-face-uncertain-launch-idUKKBN1D71IW'|'2017-11-07T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'dfba69f6888b11929cdaf800795731af1793c592'|'UPDATE 1-Imperial Brands'' vaping efforts overshadow earnings miss'|'(Recasts; Adds comments from company, analyst, share activity)By Martinne GellerLONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Imperial Brands announced a step-up in its vaping strategy on Tuesday, including tests of tobacco-heating products, as the British tobacco firm tries to keep pace with larger rivals.News of its expanded efforts sent shares up 2.5 percent by 0910 GMT, as investors shrugged off weaker-than-expected full-year profit, hurt by investments in brand-building.Imperial said it would begin small-scale trials of products that heat, rather than burn, tobacco, dipping into a market where its larger rivals British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International already play.The maker of Gauloises and West cigarettes had so far only developed e-cigarettes, which use nicotine liquid, and said on Tuesday that despite the tests, e-cigarettes would remain its focus.“It’s important to maintain optionality on both oral tobacco and heated tobacco products because there may inevitably be scenarios in which it makes sense to launch one or both, but our focus is on e-vapour,” said Imperial Chief Development Officer Matthew Phillips.Imperial plans to launch three new vapour products, it said, and expand the number of markets from four now, to at least ten in fiscal 2018 and at least 20 in fiscal 2019.“Planned launches of next-generation products, including heated tobacco trials, have been largely anticipated by the market – but are nevertheless likely to mitigate any disappointment over a 1.5 percent full-year 2017 miss at EPS (earnings per share) and operating profit level,” said analysts at Investec Securities.Net revenue in the company’s core tobacco business rose 8.2 percent to 7.76 billion pounds ($10.2 billion) in the year to 30 Sept, helped by the weakness of the British currency. Excluding currency, revenue fell 2.6 percent, as the company sold fewer cigarettes.The company earned 267 pence per share.Analysts on average were expecting revenue of 7.7 billion pounds and earnings of 270.8 pence per share, according to a company-supplied consensus.The number of cigarettes Imperial sold last year fell 4.1 percent, but there was a marked improvement in the second half of the year, which saw a decline of 2.6 percent, better than the 4.5 percent decline seen by the broader industry. Imperial’s sales volumes had fallen 5.7 percent in the first half. ($1 = 0.7605 pounds) (Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/imperial-brands-results/update-1-imperial-brands-vaping-efforts-overshadow-earnings-miss-idINL5N1ND1Z4'|'2017-11-07T06:43:00.000+02:00'
'906e309dba4163669c8379767941031bdd57f324'|'Emirates may order 36-38 Airbus A380 jets - source'|'November 11, 2017 / 9:44 AM / Updated an hour ago Emirates may order 36-38 Airbus A380 jets - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai’s Emirates [EMIRA.UL] may place an order at the Dubai Airshow for 36-38 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, worth some $16 billion (£12 billion) at list prices, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A380 is taking part in a flying display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Emirates and Airbus ( AIR.PA ) both declined to comment. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow/emirates-may-order-36-38-airbus-a380-jets-source-idUKKBN1DB09J'|'2017-11-11T11:43:00.000+02:00'
'0fe59582e927b268c81f82f123261ff31ce92b68'|'StanChart Private Equity offers to buy Singapore crane company for $277 million'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Tat Hong Holdings Ltd ( TAT.SI ), a Singapore-based supplier of cranes, said it had received a non-binding letter from Standard Chartered Private Equity (Singapore) proposing to buy shares in the company at S$0.50 apiece.The Standard Chartered PE (SCPE) proposal is subject to conditions including an agreement of definitive partnership terms with the existing management team and founding family members, Tat Hong said a filing to the stock exchange on Friday.The offer represents a premium of nearly 9 percent to Tat Hong’s closing price of S$0.46 on Thursday. Trading in the stock was halted on Friday ahead of the announcement.There was no certainty that any transaction would arise from the proposal by SCPE, the company said. Tat Hong informed the markets in September about being approached by certain parties for a potential transaction.Tat Hong, whose shares are valued by the market at about S$345 million ($254 million), has been listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2000. It says it is the largest crane-owning company in the Asia-Pacific region with a fleet size of more than 1,500 crawler, mobile and tower cranes.The controlling shareholders, Chwee Cheng and Sons along with related parties, own more than half the shares, according to its latest annual report.(This story corrects headline and first paragraph to show offer is to buy Tat Hong shares, not entire firm; consequent changes to the second and fifth paragraphs.)Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tat-hong-standard-chartered/stanchart-private-equity-offers-to-buy-singapore-crane-company-for-277-million-idINKBN1DA0N8'|'2017-11-10T04:08:00.000+02:00'
'e50cfdddfb8e88c0d6ef22532413321f907ebd6e'|'French group Lagardere could sell assets to boost cashflow'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Lagardere ( LAGA.PA ), the French media group behind magazine brands such as Elle and Paris Match, said it was open to a strategic review of its business which could lead to the sale of assets.FILE PHOTO - Arnaud Lagardere, the head of French media group Lagardere, attends the groups annual general meeting in Paris, France, May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Arnaud Lagardere, the principal managing partner of the company, on Thursday emphasized his determination to improve Lagardere’s cashflow.“If we want to go further and really, radically improve it, as I have said before, that would imply that we could have a review of some of the assets we own. Why not?” Lagardere said on a conference call after the group’s third-quarter sales figures.“This would probably form part of our forthcoming talks. Be patient,” added Lagardere, whose family owns a stake of around 7 percent in the group according to Reuters data.Earlier on Thursday, Lagardere reported third-quarter revenues down 6.3 percent from a year ago on a consolidated basis. It kept its 2017 target for recurring EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) growth of between 5-8 percent.No cashflow numbers were given as part of those quarterly sales figures. At the time of Lagardere’s first-half results in July, the company reported a negative free cashflow due partly to the effect of working capital costs.Shares in Lagardere, a company in which the Qatar Investment Authority has a 13 percent stake, were flat in afternoon trading.The stock is up around 7 percent so far in 2017, outperforming a 6 percent fall on the STOXX Europe 600 Media & Publishing index .SXMP.Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lagardere-m-a/french-group-lagardere-could-sell-assets-to-boost-cashflow-idUSKBN1D920F'|'2017-11-09T22:19:00.000+02:00'
'69e9dedc7b91eb0a787b080fbbf21194a6d9953d'|'EMERGING MARKETS-U.S. tax bill doubts, Middle East tension weigh on emerging markets'|'LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks suffered and currencies were treading water on Friday as doubts over the U.S. tax reform plans weighed on equities around the globe while escalating tension across the Middle East further crimped risk appetite.MSCI’s emerging market index slipped 0.3 percent with bourses across much of Asia , Russia , Turkey and central Europe nursing losses.Yet China mainland stocks defied the wider sell-off with blue chips’ index up nearly 1 percent on the day and 3 percent on the week, bolstered by solid economic data and encouraged by Beijing’s move to lift foreign ownership limits on financial firms.The mood was glum following rising uncertainty about U.S. tax reforms after Senate Republicans unveiled a plan that differed from the House of Representatives’ version in several areas.Adding to the woes were rising tensions in the Middle East in the wake of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s resignation during a visit to Saudi Arabia nearly a week ago, plunging Beirut into a deepening political crisis.Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have warned their citizens against travel to Lebanon. Lebanese officials have said they believes Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia.“All wait for Saudi Arabia’s next move,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, emerging markets strategist at Legal & General Investment Management.“Emerging markets otherwise focused on the U.S. Senate’s own version of a tax bill that apparently delays a corporate tax cut to January 2019.”Lebanon dollar bonds took another hit, with many issues at multi-year or record lows while both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia both saw the cost to insure exposure to their sovereign debt rising.Currencies were treading water or trading weaker despite the dollar being on track for a weekly fall.South Africa’s rand - down 0.6 percent on the day - and Russia’s rouble are both on track for a fourth straight week in the red.The rand was also suffering from comments by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, raising concerns about higher spending on education that could add strain on stretched public finances while central bank governor Lesetja Kganyago warned the economy faced major challenges.Turkey’s lira is flat on the day, but on track to eek out a small weekly gain, snapping an eight-week losing streak.Meanwhile investors in cash-strapped OPEC nation Venezuela are expecting to hear from finance industry association ISDA if Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is in default because of a delayed bond payment.The announcement could come ahead of a meeting called by President Nicolas Maduro who urged bondholders to come to Caracas on Monday and meet for debt restructuring talks with officials from the country struggling under a failing socialist economic system and Washington sanctions.For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see) (Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Janet Lawrence) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-u-s-tax-bill-doubts-middle-east-tension-weigh-on-emerging-markets-idUSL8N1NG39V'|'2017-11-10T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'fca70e296a3721ed853de712ae8198bd90c1d6de'|'Blackstone buys China-based packager ShyaHsin in $800-900 million deal - sources'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:28 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Blackstone buys China-based packager ShyaHsin in $800-900 million deal - sources Carol Zhong , Kane Wu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global asset manager Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ) has reached a deal to acquire China-based cosmetics packaging firm ShyaHsin Packaging (China) Co Ltd for about $800 million to $900 million (608.83 million pounds to 684.93 million pounds) four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The deal will be Blackstone’s first private equity investment in China since 2014, Thomson Reuters data showed. The U.S.-based investment house has signed the deal agreement but is still lining up loan financing of about $600 million to fund the transaction, said two of the people, who declined to be identified as the information was confidential. Blackstone declined to comment. ShyaHsin could not be reached for comment. Based in southeast China’s Kunshan province, Taiwanese-owned ShyaHsin specialises in the production of cosmetics packaging containers, with clients from China, South Korea, Japan and Europe, according to its website. The investment comes as Blackstone seeks to raise up to $3 billion for its first pan-Asia buyout fund, aiming to lock in the first tranche of investment by the end of 2017. The fund will focus on sectors such as healthcare, high-end manufacturing and services, and the so-called consumer upgrade sector - goods and services geared to consumers who want to upgrade their lifestyles. Blackstone’s last investment in China was in medical devices maker Suzhou Xinrong Best Medical Instrument Co Ltd. In the same year, it acquired Pactera Technology International Ltd, an information technology outsourcing and consulting service provider in China which it sold to a unit of conglomerate HNA Group Co Ltd last year for about $675 million in cash. Blackstone is among potential bidders short-listed by Link Real Estate Investment Trust ( 0823.HK ) to buy Hong Kong retail assets valued at about $2 billion, Reuters reported in October. It is also selling portfolio companies including Trans Maldivian Airways, a private airline headquartered in Maldives, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Reporting by Carol Zhong of Basis Point and Kane Wu; additonal reporting by Chien Mi Wong; editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-blackstone-m-a-china/blackstone-buys-china-based-packager-shyahsin-in-800-900-million-deal-sources-idUKKBN1DA0QD'|'2017-11-10T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'3b7619d1959797c34008b95bc7b1d253c312c8bc'|'AIRSHOW-Airbus, Boeing close in on Dubai deals worth $30 bln'|'DUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - A battle for orders erupted on day one of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday as Europe’s Airbus and its U.S. arch-rival Boeing prepared to fire opening salvos worth almost $30 billion.Airbus was widely expected to announce a fresh order worth $16 billion at list prices for the world’s largest passenger jet, the A380, from Dubai’s Emirates, injecting new life into its soft-selling superjumbo programme.But sources familiar with the matter said Boeing could try to upstage its European competitor by grabbing a surprise early order worth $12-13 billion for its 787-10 Dreamliner.Boeing was close on Sunday to the deal to sell around 40 of the longest version of its Dreamliner family, also to Emirates, the sources said.Airbus, Boeing and Emirates all declined comment.Boeing held a lead over Airbus going into the largest Middle East industry gathering, with about 65 percent of the combined orders posted by the two plane giants so far this year.Airbus is looking for a boost to the A380 superjumbo, which after a decade in service has seen sales decline in favour of smaller but equally efficient long-haul jetliners.The deal for an expected 36-38 A380s aircraft is likely to be secured with the help of an agreement by Airbus to buy back some of the earlier A380s as they leave the Emirates fleet.“A few trade-ins will be involved,” a person familiar with the matter said.Emirates meanwhile joined forces with Mercedes-Benz to launch new first-class suites, inspired by the styling of luxury car interiors.Emirates, which was the first airline to put showers on commercial jets, rolled out the futuristic design at the start of the Nov 12-16 show.The six fully enclosed cabins for its Boeing 777 jets feature seats that recline into flat beds and a 32-inch television.“This is the first time we have seen anything like this in the civil aviation world,” Emirates President Tim Clark said.B/E Aerospace, recently acquired by Rockwell Collins , is the supplier of the seats. (Additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi, Noah Browning) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airshow-airbus-boeing-close-in-on-dubai-deals-worth-30-bln-idINL8N1NI077'|'2017-11-12T05:02:00.000+02:00'
'674b0f1ef2a594356a1b9e2253d17d67ff949440'|'InsingerGilissen to buy Lombard Odier''s Dutch private banking ops'|'AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch bank InsingerGilissen said on Thursday it would buy Lombard Odier’s Dutch private banking operations, with around 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of assets under management, for an undisclosed sum.Lombard’s 12 employees will join Insinger, a subsidiary of KBL European Private Bankers, in Amsterdam. The deal is expected to close in mid-2018 after regulatory approval, Insinger said in a statement.($1 = 0.8625 euros)Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-lombard-odier-restructuring-insingerg/insingergilissen-to-buy-lombard-odiers-dutch-private-banking-ops-idINKBN1D913G'|'2017-11-09T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'845c70eb12346718afa924a403083c17db34fc91'|'Qualcomm signs $12 billion in China deals amid Trump visit'|'November 9, 2017 / 3:10 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Qualcomm signs $12 billion in China deals amid Trump visit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) has signed $12 billion worth of potential deals with three Chinese mobile handset makers on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump who has been looking to stir up U.S.-China trade. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Qualcomm signed three non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOUs) to sell components over three years to phonemakers Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement on Thursday. Qualcomm, which earns more than half of its revenues in China, became the takeover target of rival chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) earlier this week. It is also facing a lengthy legal battle with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) over patent fees it charges. Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-china-deals/qualcomm-signs-12-billion-in-china-deals-amid-trump-visit-idUKKBN1D90AX'|'2017-11-09T05:08:00.000+02:00'
'a28a24214223b611139cb4a17d7ae826f67dfdd1'|'UPDATE 1-Canadian auto parts maker Magna beats profit estimate'|'(Adds Q3 details, full-year forecast)Nov 9 (Reuters) - Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc’s profit topped analysts’ estimates, helped by higher sales in North America, and the company raised its full-year sales forecast.The company said it now expects 2017 total sales of $38.3 billion to $39.5 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $37.7 billion to $39.4 billion.Magna, which also assembles cars under contract from motor vehicle manufacturers, counts General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG, BMW and Ford Motor Co as its biggest customers.Magna said sales in North American, which makes up bulk of its total sales, rose 14.2 percent to $2.50 billion in the third quarter, lifting up its total sales by 7.3 percent to $9.50 billion.On an adjusted basis, the company reported a profit of $1.37 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.32, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net income attributable to Magna was flat at $503 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30.However, on a per-share basis it rose to $1.36 from $1.29 a year earlier as the latest quarter saw a drop in the number of shares outstanding. (Reporting By Akshara P in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva and Maju Samuel) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/magna-results/update-1-canadian-auto-parts-maker-magna-beats-profit-estimate-idINL3N1NF4G5'|'2017-11-09T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'acdcc5552814a5d7739d7a845b49e809f65c6dad'|'Airbus to buy back some A380s in new Emirates deal - sources'|'November 12, 2017 / 6:26 AM / Updated an hour ago Airbus to buy back some A380s in new Emirates deal - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) will have to buy back or find new homes for some of the older A380s currently operated by Dubai’s Emirates as it finalises a deal to sell new superjumbos to the Gulf carrier, industry sources said on Sunday. Airport staff watch as an Emirates Airbus A380-800 lands at Manchester Airport, northern England September 1, 2010. REUTERS/Phil Noble The European planemaker is expected to announce an order for some 36-38 A380 superjumbos at the opening of the Dubai Airshow later on Sunday. “A few trade-ins will be involved,” a person familiar with the matter said. An Airbus spokesman said, “We do not comment on our contractual agreements”. Asked at a news conference on the launch of a new first-class cabin whether Emirates would place an A380 order at the show, Emirates president Tim Clark said, “maybe, maybe not”. The decision by Airbus to buy back aircraft to facilitate the anticipated deal comes as the aviation market struggles to absorb some of the first A380s, which entered service a decade ago. A German asset manager is trying to place four aircraft being returned by Singapore Airlines ( SIAL.SI ), which was the first to offer superjumbo services in 2007, financiers say. Industry sources say at least one of the ex-Singapore jets will be operated by Portugal-based HiFly. The company, which rents out aircraft on a ‘wet lease’ basis complete with crew, was not immediately available for comment. Placing the rest of the aircraft is no easy task as demand for the double-decker aircraft remains thin, aircraft financiers say. Airbus is seen as keen to support the second-hand market to avoid having to break up one of the planes, a potential public relations setback as it tries to breathe new life into the iconic European programme following recent production cuts. Securing the new order from Emirates, which is by far the largest customer for the A380, clears a major hurdle to extending production towards the middle of next decade. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Saeed Azhar, Alexander Cornwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-a380-buyback/airbus-to-buy-back-some-a380s-in-new-emirates-deal-sources-idUKKBN1DC05M'|'2017-11-12T08:25:00.000+02:00'
'd82dcdc2f178659e5f1d47df37d36a166b90778e'|'Australian hotelier Meriton manipulated TripAdvisor ratings - court'|'November 10, 2017 / 6:10 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Australian hotelier Meriton manipulated TripAdvisor ratings - court Will Ziebell 2 Min Read SYDNEY, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Australian hotel operator owned by billionaire Harry Triguboff deliberately withheld unhappy customers’ details from travel review site TripAdvisor to avoid bad reviews, a court found on Friday. Between November 2014 and October 2015, Meriton Serviced Apartments either withheld or falsified the contact details of customers it thought might be critical, Federal Court Justice Mark Moshinsky said in a written judgment. The company’s booking software allowed staff to add letters to customers’ email addresses to stop TripAdvisor reaching them if they had made complaints, he said. The company also refrained from passing on customer details during periods of hotel renovations or maintenance, which reduced the number of negative reviews of Meriton properties on the TripAdvisor website. In court, internal emails tendered as evidence showed senior Meriton staff reminding other workers that negative reviews “could have been prevented” if customer emails were “masked” before being sent to TripAdvisor. The company was found to have breached Australian competition law and would be fined an amount yet to be determined. Meriton disputed that the practice had any effect on its TripAdvisor rating and said it was considering its legal options. The company stopped withholding customers details as soon Triguboff - who was rated Australia’s wealthiest man in 2016 - found out, it said in a statement on Friday. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which brought the proceedings against Meriton, said it was “vital” reviews for TripAdvisor were not manipulated. “In reducing the chances of a customer posting a negative review, Meriton created a more positive or favourable impression of the quality or amenity of the Meriton properties on the TripAdvisor website,” ACCC Commisioner Sarah Court said in a statement. (Reporting by Will Ziebell; Editing by Stephen Coates)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/australia-meriton-court/australian-hotelier-meriton-manipulated-tripadvisor-ratings-court-idUSL3N1NG26Q'|'2017-11-10T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'4a21b542750a1a4f58b5bbe107974226a3b0da23'|'TPP countries agree to keep trade deal alive, much work remains'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:47 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Trans-Pacific trade deal advances without United States Kiyoshi Takenaka , Mai Nguyen 5 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal have agreed on the core elements to move ahead without the United States, officials said on Saturday, after last-minute resistance from Canada raised new doubts about its survival. Japanese Minister of Economic Revitalization Toshimitsu Motegi walks out of a talk of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Ministerial Meeting during the APEC 2017 in Da Nang, Vietnam November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Kham Taking the agreement forward is a boost for the principle of multilateral trade pacts after U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the TPP early this year in favour of an “America First” policy he believes would save U.S. jobs. Talks - often heated - have been held on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Vietnamese resort of Danang, where Trump and other leaders held their main meeting on Saturday. “We have overcome the hardest part,” Vietnam’s trade minister, Tran Tuan Anh, told a news conference. The agreement, which still needs to be finalised, would now be called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), he said. Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he hoped that moving ahead with the deal would be a step towards bringing back the United States. Partly to counter China’s growing dominance in Asia, Japan had been lobbying hard for the TPP pact, which aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across the 11-nation bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year. Some 20 provisions of the original agreement were suspended. Those included some related to protecting labour rights and the environment, although most were related to intellectual property - one of the main sticking points after the U.S. withdrawal. “The overall impact on most firms is quite modest,” said Deborah Elms of the Asian Trade Centre think-tank, adding that the new version was “essentially identical to the original document”. DOUBTS Any kind of deal looked doubtful on Friday, when a summit of TPP leaders was called off after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not attend. Canada’s trade minister later blamed Trudeau’s absence on “a misunderstanding about the schedule”. Canada, which has the second-biggest economy among remaining TPP countries after Japan, had said it wanted to ensure an agreement that would protect jobs. Canada’s position has been further complicated by the fact that it is simultaneously renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the Trump administration. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Trudeau said though Canada was pleased with the progress made on TPP, there was “still more important work to be done.” U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the final day of the APEC CEO Summit ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit in Danang, Vietnam, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Nyein Chan Naing/Pool Trudeau said Canada will always be “extremely closely linked to the American economy” but there was a need to diversify trade through other deals. NAFTA talks with the United States were not affecting Canada’s stance on TPP negotiations, he said. In a speech in Danang, Trump sent out a strong message that he was only interested in bilateral deals in Asia that would not disadvantage the United States. Chinese President Xi Jinping used the same forum to stress multilateralism and said globalisation was an irreversible trend. China had noted that the 11 TPP countries had made some progress on the deal, but it “hasn’t paid too much attention” because it is focused on APEC work during the meeting, Zhang Jun, Director General of the Department of International Economic Affairs of China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters. Slideshow (16 Images) He said all trade arrangements in the region should promote openness and inclusiveness, with no “exclusive clubs”. Zhang said the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact will not be impacted by TPP, to which China is not party. The two trade deals are not mutually exclusive, and some countries would be members of both. ‘RAPID, COMPLEX CHANGES’ The APEC leaders met in closed sessions on Saturday, pausing for the traditional “family photograph”, taken above the South China Sea. At the start of the meeting, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang noted APEC’s success in removing barriers to trade - as well as the new uncertainty in the world. “We have witnessed changes more rapid and complex than we expect,” he said in opening remarks. APEC trade and foreign ministers released a joint statement on Saturday, three days later than planned because of wrangling over customary language the United States wanted to change. The statement still refers to free and open trade, but it also refers to fair trade and to members “improving adherence to rules agreed upon”. A reference to strengthening the multilateral trading system was dropped. The ministers also said they would work to improve the functioning of the World Trade Organisation - which Trump criticised in Friday’s speech. Later, leaders of the 21 APEC economies agreed to address “unfair trade practices” and called for the removal of “market distorting subsidies,” in contrast to communiques they have issued in the past. Additional reporting by Michael Martina and A. Ananthalakshmi in DANANG, David Ljunggren in OTTAWA; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Stephen Coates and Ros Russell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apec-summit/japanese-minister-says-all-tpp-countries-now-agree-on-trade-pact-idUKKBN1DA2OF'|'2017-11-10T22:32:00.000+02:00'
'6f40e42a08748d78e2e913f768a71d7bae50035d'|'Toshiba considering $5.3 bln capital injection - NHK'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, is considering raising about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday.FILE PHOTO: Shoppers look at Toshiba Corp''s Regza television at an electronics store in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, June 25, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The Japanese conglomerate has received proposals from several domestic and overseas brokerages for plans to raise money through a public offering or third-party allotment, and is looking into the option of allocating shares mainly to overseas investors, the person said.In early trade, shares of Toshiba fell as much as 8 percent on the capital injection plan, first reported by public broadcaster NHK. They were down 4.5 percent by mid-morning, underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average’s 1 percent fall.Strapped with liabilities arising from its bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, Toshiba agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. It needs to beef up its balance sheet by the end of the fiscal year in end-March to avoid a possible delisting.The source told Reuters that Toshiba wants to finalize the capital injection plan by year-end because it would need shareholder approval depending on the offering price and scope of share dilution. The person declined to be identified because the plan is not public.In a statement, Toshiba repeated its stance that it was aiming to close the deal to sell its chip business by the end of March, saying in response to the NHK report that nothing specific had been decided regarding any funding plans.Announcing half-year results a day earlier, Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata said Toshiba had launched a working group to consider various options to raise capital in case the deal did not close in time. He offered no specifics.Toshiba reported robust second-quarter results with a 76 percent jump in operating profit driven almost entirely by a strong performance from its memory chip unit.If Toshiba fails to close the sale in time, that could keep Toshiba in negative net worth for a second year in a row, putting pressure on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist it.Reporting by Taro Fuse; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting/toshiba-considering-5-3-billion-capital-injection-nhk-idUSKBN1DA003'|'2017-11-10T02:05:00.000+02:00'
'41eb1e16d9e7f80b88ded818cb795ce93a53c8dc'|'Investment veterans launch real estate, hospitality buyout vehicle'|'November 9, 2017 / 5:31 PM / Updated 18 hours ago Investment veterans launch real estate, hospitality buyout vehicle Reuters Staff 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The former chairman of fund manager Man GLG and the ex-president of Vornado Realty Trust are behind a buyout vehicle that will seek deals in the real estate and hospitality sectors, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters on Thursday. Landscape Acquisition Holdings Limited, a special purpose acquisition , or SPAC, is raising $500 million through an initial public offering and will focus primarily on North America and Europe. The duo behind Landscape are Noam Gottesman and Mike Fascitelli, who both have extensive experience in investing in their target industries. Gottesman co-founded investment manager GLG Partners in 1995, which was sold to Man Group in 2010 for $1.6 billion. Since then, he has made a number of restaurant investments, including in Eleven Madison Park in New York City. He also founded another SPAC, Nomad Foods, which in 2015 bought Iglo Group for $2.8 billion. At the time, it was Europe’s largest frozen foods business. Fascitelli was president of Vornado for 16 years until 2013, during which time the real estate investment trust grew into one of the most significant owners of property in Manhattan. Its current portfolio includes buildings in San Francisco and Chicago, according to its website. The two are putting $40 million into Landscape as part of the IPO, which will list the SPAC on the London Stock Exchange on Nov. 15, according to a document from one of the investment banks arranging the float. Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the global coordinators for the IPO, which is offering 50 million units at $10 each. The size of the IPO could be increased above the stated $500 million target, depending on investor demand for the SPAC, said IFR, a Thomson Reuters unit, attributing the information to bankers involved in the listing. Under the SPAC’s terms, Landscape will have two years to make an investment, with an option for a one-year extension at the discretion of unit holders, the document said. If nothing is purchased in that time period, money is to be returned to investors. “The company expects to focus on acquiring an operating company or business with a real estate component (such as a business within the hospitality, lodging, gaming, real estate, property services or asset management industries),” according to the document. Reporting by David French; Additional Reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-landscape-ipo/investment-veterans-behind-real-estate-hospitality-buyout-vehicle-idUSKBN1D92KO'|'2017-11-10T01:31:00.000+02:00'
'bda3258f4277b730aa869d106ed10a1395ba119d'|'General Electric, China''s Silk Road Fund to launch energy investment platform'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:32 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago General Electric, China''s Silk Road Fund to launch energy investment platform Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Electric Co and a Chinese state fund set up for the Belt and Road trade initiative plan to jointly establish an energy infrastructure investment platform, China’s government said on Thursday. The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril - RC1A633B01B0 The announcement came on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been looking to rev up U.S.-China trade. The Silk Road Fund and GE Energy Financial Services signed a “cooperation” deal to set up the platform in Beijing, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement. “The two sides will jointly invest in electric power grids, new energy and oil and gas, in countries and regions along the Belt and Road,” SAFE said. “The cooperation between the Silk Road Fund and GE will not only boost cooperation between high-end manufacturing industries from China and the U.S., but also promote economic and trade development in the regions where of investment,” SAFE added. The step was part of a flurry of deals between GE and Chinese companies. These included an engine and repair deal for GEnx-1B engines from Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd worth $1.4 billion at list prices, and another $1.1 billion order for 80 Leap-1B engines to power 40 Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft from ICBC Leasing, the leasing arm of state bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. The Silk Road Fund was set up at the end of 2014 and is backed by China’s foreign exchange reserves, China Investment Corp, the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank. Reporting by Engen Tham; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-china-deals-ge/general-electric-chinas-silk-road-fund-to-launch-energy-investment-platform-idUKKBN1DA057'|'2017-11-10T03:30:00.000+02:00'
'b681a69b9838fb2124184355e84756b74964b349'|'Volkswagen re-registers Cayman Islands planes in Germany'|'November 12, 2017 / 3:31 PM / in 10 minutes Volkswagen re-registers Cayman Islands planes in Germany Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) has re-registered in Germany six company jets that were previously registered in the Cayman Islands, a company spokesman said on Sunday, confirming an article in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The spokesman said the move was sparked by new EU regulations stipulating that aircraft must be governed by the authority of the territory where the planes are stationed. Volkswagen had previously denied that the planes were registered in the Cayman Islands for tax-avoidance reasons, saying it was simply a matter of less bureaucracy. Europe’s biggest carmaker used to have an Airbus A319 for executives’ use but sold it in the wake of the 2015 dieselgate crisis - which has cost it around $30 billion so far - as a signal of cutting back on an ostentatious corporate lifestyle. Volkswagen now has a total of nine company jets, seven of which were registered in the Cayman Islands. The seventh of those is due to be sold, the spokesman said. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-planes-cayman/volkswagen-re-registers-cayman-islands-planes-in-germany-idUSKBN1DC0PP'|'2017-11-12T23:31:00.000+02:00'
'b709c4cc75adfbad07ff219287bba55d2c6eeed1'|'Emirates places provisional order for 40 Boeing 787-10'|'November 12, 2017 / 7:30 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Emirates places provisional order for 40 Boeing 787-10   DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai’s Emirates unveiled a provisional order for 40 Boeing ( BA.N ) 787-10 jetliners, worth $12.5 billion (9.48 billion pounds) at list prices, at the Dubai Airshow on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: The new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner taxis on the runway during it''s first flight at the Charleston International Airport in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Randall Hill Emirates chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, said the carrier had chosen the latest version of Boeing’s mid-sized wide-body jet after comparing it with the Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A350. Deliveries will start in 2022, he added. Reuters earlier reported that Boeing was close to clinching a deal for around 40 of the 787-10 jets. Reporting by Tim Hepher'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-boeing/boeing-nears-deal-with-emirates-for-787-10-jets-sources-idUKKBN1DC06L'|'2017-11-12T11:49:00.000+02:00'
'ed83648ac0a354713c7255cd9cd7fc304ffca7a5'|'UPDATE 1-AIRSHOW-Boeing studying business case for new mid-sized jet'|'November 11, 2017 / 8:07 PM / in 10 minutes UPDATE 1-AIRSHOW-Boeing studying business case for new mid-sized jet Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds details) DUBAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Boeing is deepening its study of a proposed new mid-market aircraft as it prepares to decide whether to bring the project to market, a senior executive said on Saturday. Kevin McAllister, Chief Executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said a team at the U.S. planemaker would be exploring the business plan in detail, including how the aircraft would be produced, over the next few months. Referring to the cost of building the possible new jet, which is expected to carry some 220-270 passengers, he said, “We know the box we have got to get into and we are working towards it.” There is no timeframe for making a decision, he added. “We like how it is shaping up. We are just down to a spot where we want to put some structure around the right business plan and that includes the right production system,” he added. Boeing has had a good year for wide-body aircraft orders and “the year is not over,” McAllister said at a briefing on the eve of the Dubai Airshow, adding Boeing was seeing good interest for long-range models including its newest 787-10. The current version of 777 is sold out in 2018 and Boeing is making “good progress” for 2019 as it seeks to fill delivery slots until the new 777X model comes out from 2020, he said. Boeing Defense & Space CEO Leanne Caret said Boeing sees strong demand for rotorcraft and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and has overcome technical difficulties on its U.S. Air Force 767-based KC-46A tanker programme, following a series of writedowns. “The key for us is to get through (safety) certification; we are well on track for that,” Caret said, adding the first plane slated for delivery will stage its maiden flight next month. McAllister confirmed Boeing is looking at reviving the passenger version of the 767, which is currently offered as a freighter or tanker, but stressed this was “only a study”. United Airlines is interested in replacing some older jets with new 767s in a reversal of fortune for the 35-year-old jet, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Boeing Global Services CEO Stan Deal said the newly created unit plans was focusing on boosting growth after going live in July. “We certainly plan to expand our order base here at the air show,” he told reporters. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Alexander Smith)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-boeing-executives/update-1-airshow-boeing-studying-business-case-for-new-mid-sized-jet-idUSL8N1NH0PY'|'2017-11-11T22:05:00.000+02:00'
'54ef55b59b5f983b27dfa242d496c4c3ece98464'|'UPDATE 2-Telecom Italia''s CEO says Brazil business is core asset'|'* CEO says Brazil will generate value in coming years* CEO says nobody has suggested TIM losing control of fixed-line* Q3 group EBITDA down 2.5 pct, revenues up 1.3 pct* Non-recurring charges of 127 mln euros larger than expected (Recasts after conference call, adds details, updates shares)By Agnieszka FlakMILAN, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Telecom Italia’s (TIM) new boss poured cold water on Friday on speculation of a potential sale of the phone group’s Brazilian business, as investors await his strategic plan due in February next year.Since being appointed as chief executive last month, speculation has been rife about the options Amos Genish, a protege of TIM’s top shareholder Vivendi, might pursue.TIM Participações, Brazil’s second-largest wireless phone company, has often been cited as a possible candidate for sale, especially as it would help bring down TIM’s debt pile of 26 billion euros ($30 billion).“We see TIM Brasil as a core asset, strategic asset for the company,” Genish said on Friday after the group’s third-quarter results fell short of forecasts. “It’s part of our strategic perimeters, and we see it as that going forward. A lot of value could be created in TIM Brasil in the coming years. The economy in Brazil is turning around.”Earlier this week the Brazilian business delivered better than expected quarterly earnings.The former Israeli army captain and veteran telecoms dealmaker said on Friday he was open to exploring options regarding the group’s telecoms masts business INWIT, which TIM controls with a 60 percent stake.“We are open to any potential possibility with respect to that asset as long as it preserves our strategic influence,” Genish told analysts after the results.He said discussions with the authorities regarding ensuring fair access to the group’s main fixed-line network were “constructive and positive”, and it was too early to discuss any potential separation or listing of that business.Italian politicians have been calling for TIM’s network - which according to some estimates could be worth up to 15 billion euros - to be transferred to a state-controlled entity as a neutral platform open to all phone companies.Genish said that whatever the outcome of the discussions, nobody had suggested TIM losing control of the fixed-line business.TUMULTUOUS YEAR TIM’s third-quarter results fell short of forecasts, dragged lower by litigation costs and severance payments in a tumultuous year for the former state monopoly. The shares closed down 1.7 percent.TIM lost its CEO in July as top shareholder Vivendi tightened its grip on the company. Then last month Italy’s government, alarmed at the French company’s growing influence, activated a “golden power” to have a say in TIM’s strategic decisions.The ousted CEO had made it a priority to revive growth in Italy, but on Friday the company said Italian sales growth slowed to less than 1 percent in the third quarter from 4 percent in the second. Profits in Italy fell 6 percent.Rival investments in broadband infrastructure by power firm Enel have been undermining TIM’s broadband drive and the imminent arrival of low-cost French mobile challenger Iliad is also likely to squeeze profits further.However, Genish said he expected the mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key financial indicator - to remain strong.He also sees great potential for growth in the pay-TV market in Italy, adding TIM’s joint venture with Vivendi’s pay-TV unit Canal+ had attracted lots of interest from potential partners.Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 2.5 percent to 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) during the period. One-off charges of 127 million euros for litigation, regulatory and severance items included a 25 million-euro leaving package for the former CEO.Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/telecomitalia-results/update-1-telecom-italia-earnings-hit-by-litigation-severance-costs-idINL8N1NG2LA'|'2017-11-10T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'aec5fd72d1031dc880939ee17cee1d93e9272d64'|'LPC: Lenders to embrace a record Broadcom bridge loan'|' 46 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago LPC: Lenders to embrace a record Broadcom bridge loan Lynn Adler 5 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Banks are eager to open their wallets for what could be the biggest syndicated loan financing ever for an investment-grade acquisition, if chipmaker Broadcom’s unsolicited US$103bn bid to buy Qualcomm is accepted. With lending to back high-quality mergers and acquisitions down 18% this year from the same 10 months last year, bankers said they hope this deal comes to fruition and sets the stage for more dealflow. Five banks - Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley - told Broadcom they are “highly confident” they can arrange the funds needed for a takeover that is valued at US$130bn including debt. Broadcom is rated BBB- by S&P and Baa2 by Moody’s. This tactic, often used for large hostile takeovers, allows borrowers to avoid paying fees on funds committed by banks to a huge deal that may not take place. Banks do not immediately tie up their balance sheets, while signaling to markets that financing will be there if the deal is approved. ”We’ve been talking about when the first US$100bn deal is going to come for a while,” said one banker, adding there is plenty of demand to accommodate a funding of this size. “The attractiveness of something like this is the fees you get on the bonds.” Specific financing plans for the deal are not yet clear. If there is an initial bridge loan of around US$100bn, upfront fees to arranging banks would be at least US$100m - and possibly much more, according to Freeman Consulting Services. If roughly US$100bn of investment-grade bonds are issued later, banks would earn an additional US$400m to US$600m in underwriting fees. Asked about the risks of underwriting a jumbo bridge at a time of potential geopolitical upheaval, the head of investment banking at one of the banks involved said: “Yes, there are idiosyncratic risks out there, but the markets feel pretty good. If it were a Single B rated deal it would be a different story, but we are confident about providing a bridge for a deal like this at the moment.” BRIDGE RECORDS FALLING The bridge financing is likely to exceed the record US$75bn loan that backed Belgium-based global brewer AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller in 2015. Verizon Communications’ US$61bn bridge loan in 2013 to acquire the stake in Verizon Wireless it didn’t already own from Vodafone is the second-biggest such deal globally and the largest US bridge loan. German drug and chemical company Bayer backed its takeover of US seed company Monsanto with a US$57bn bridge loan, the third-biggest loan. “The questions are how long will banks hold the risk on their books, how fast can banks de-risk and how big of a bond deal can you do in a single gulp?” the first banker said. “The biggest single gulp has been Verizon’s US$49bn bonds, and the market is clearly more robust now than it was then.” The high-grade corporate bond market saw its busiest October issuance ever, at US$131bn, while dealer inventories were at their highest since July 2014. Such a large new bond issue would likely become part of indexes that investors use as benchmarks, and investors as a result would need to add exposure, several bankers said. “We haven’t heard how much they’re going to raise, but obviously it will be very big numbers and it will be interesting to see what ratings emerge,” a third banker said. “My guess is that the debt will be priced to move.” Along with bonds, permanent financing is likely to include short-dated term loans of varied maturities, helping assure rating agencies of the merged company’s deleveraging plans, this banker said. TRUST OR ANTITRUST? Broadcom told Reuters that it would not rule out a proxy fight to push this merger, which is seen reshaping the industry at the core of mobile phone hardware. In addition to the initial bank group’s highly confident letters, Silver Lake Partners committed to provide Broadcom with US$5bn of convertible debt financing. Without US tax reform one year into the Trump administration, mergers have mostly been by companies seeking growth by buying complementary businesses while expecting little regulatory push-back. Earlier in the year, two major proposed health insurance mergers – Aetna with Humana and Cigna with Anthem – were scrapped by separate antitrust rulings. The US Department of Justice is now pushing AT&T to shed key assets to satisfy antitrust concerns, clouding the timing of the deal’s close. As some mergers drag on, and US tax policy debates escalate, attention strongly shifts to Broadcom. “All eyes are on Broadcom,” said the third banker. “This deal might persuade other companies to redouble efforts or take a fresh look at something they might have shelved because of tax and other uncertainties in Washington.” Additional reporting by Matthew Davies in London Reporting by Lynn Adler; Editing By Chris Mangham and Michelle Sierra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/broadcom-bankerseager/lpc-lenders-to-embrace-a-record-broadcom-bridge-loan-idUSL1N1NG0UQ'|'2017-11-10T17:46:00.000+02:00'
'af15f28a0b44d5d0b3f5b5adaf75df583c0d655c'|'UAE, Solvay to produce carbon fibres for Boeing''s 777X'|' 15 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago UAE, Solvay to produce carbon fibres for Boeing''s 777X Reuters Staff 1   Strata, the manufacturing arm of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Mubadala Aerospace, and Belgian chemicals group Solvay ( SOLB.BR ) said on Sunday they had entered into a joint venture to supply Boeing ( BA.N ) with advanced composite materials. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Belgian chemical group Solvay is pictured at its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 29, 2015. Solvay has agreed to buy U.S. peer Cytec for $5.5 billion, giving it a bigger presence in the lightweight materials business where demand from the aerospace industry is booming. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The materials - pre-impregnated carbon fibres known as “prepreg” - will be produced at a facility at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates and will supply Boeing’s 777X, the latest generation aircraft, the companies said in a statement. Pre-impregnated carbon fibres are a strong, light material used to make composite structures for the aviation industry. The facility will be commissioned in 2020 to support growth in the UAE’s growing advanced manufacturing sector, the statement said, adding the two companies would now seek anti-trust approvals for their joint venture. Reporting by Sylvia Westall;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airshow-dubai-strata-boeing/uae-solvay-to-produce-carbon-fibres-for-boeings-777x-idUKKBN1DC0OS'|'2017-11-12T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'0f7fd9a1d51de1228608f65125eb14aae1bd4b5d'|'Boeing sees steady Gulf demand, interest in mid-sized jet'|'Reuters TV United States November 11, 2017 / 8:19 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Boeing sees steady Gulf demand, interest in mid-sized jet Tim Hepher 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA.N ) sought to dispel concerns about a slowdown in the growth of Gulf airlines as the aerospace industry gathered on Saturday for the Dubai Airshow. FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Speaking on the eve of the showcase event, executives at the U.S. planemaker also played down the impact of growing political tensions in the region. “Traffic is coming back and yields are improving and this is going to be a very positive backdrop to the Dubai Airshow,” Marty Bentrott, vice president for Boeing’s commercial sales in the region, said, citing higher profit at Dubai’s Emirates. Boeing had been asked to reschedule some deliveries according to a normal pattern but had not seen cancellations since a rift between Arab nations and Qatar earlier this year. At a news conference, Boeing executives mainly deflected questions about a domestic purge of dozens of members of Saudi Arabia’s political and business elite in the past week but played down concerns over its economic impact. “There is absolutely no change. We consider the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be a very strong partner and we are going ahead with our plans,” Ahmed Jazzar, president of Boeing Saudi Arabia, said. The planemaker, meanwhile, said it had seen strong regional interest in a proposed new mid-sized passenger jet. Industry sources expect a commercial launch of the roughly 220-270 seat jet next year. It would enter service in 2024-25 as Boeing attempts to leapfrog the hot-selling Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A321neo. The aircraft will be designed around an unusual elliptical, or ‘squashed’, shape of fuselage that contains less room for cargo than other planes of its size. Experts say that is in order to improve the aerodynamics and cut running costs. Boeing planners say most airlines interested in that type of plane do not expect to carry much cargo on their targeted routes. Asked whether that would be a problem for airlines in the Gulf, most of which carry significant amounts of freight in the bellies of their passenger planes, Bentrott said: “There is nothing but tons of interest and excitement (in the region). There is not any concern about cargo capability.” He added, “We hope to get it into the market in the not-too-distant future.” Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-boeing/boeing-sees-steady-gulf-demand-interest-in-mid-sized-jet-idUKKBN1DB074'|'2017-11-11T14:51:00.000+02:00'
'85145f065815f9e2e8132bd2c6d4fcc09fae8caa'|'3G Capital, magicians of the consumer industry, need to learn a new act - Schumpeter'|'OCCASIONALLY a business idea emerges that is so simple you cannot believe it works. Consider the five founders of 3G Capital, an investment firm. Warren Buffett co-invests with them and calls them “among the best businessmen in the world”. They use debt to buy consumer-product firms, then they revamp their brands and slash costs. In total, since 1997, they have launched $470bn of deals, through 3G Capital or earlier entities (for simplicity this article lumps these all together and calls them “3G”). That makes 3G the second most acquisitive organisation in modern history. It sells every Budweiser slurped, Whopper burger munched and bottle of Heinz ketchup squirted on the planet.Yet despite its superb long-term record, 3G is losing steam. In the past two years its total portfolio has lagged slightly behind the S&P 500 index, Schumpeter estimates. Its two biggest firms, AB InBev, a beer giant, and Kraft Heinz, a food company, have returned 6% and 16% respectively, well behind the S&P 500 (29%) and a basket of 20 big rivals (24%). On November 1st shares in Kraft fell after poor results. Once, 3G seemed to be reinventing the consumer industry. Now a better description is that it brilliantly took advantage of a window of opportunity that is closing.  16   By their own description 3G’s founders started out, in Brazil, as mere “finance guys”. The first big deal was the acquisition of Brahma, a local beer firm, in 1989. In the booze industry they bought Interbrew in 2004, Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser, in 2008, and SAB Miller in 2016. The resulting beer colossus, AB InBev, is Europe’s third most valuable company. In the food business, 3G took control of Heinz in 2013 in partnership with Mr Buffett. Heinz then bought Kraft in 2015, and the combined firm tried and failed to buy Unilever in February. 3G also controls Burger King, which it has merged with Tim Hortons, a Canadian fast-food chain where hypothermic Torontonians huddle in winter.3G is expert at “zero-based budgeting”, a technique that involves scrutinising consumer firms’ bloated costs. But its magic rests on two simple insights formed decades ago. First, it noted that although the cost of debt financing was low, the yield on consumer firms’ shares was quite high, meaning a juicy spread. Second, conventional managers underestimated how resilient consumer-product firms’ sales are thanks to strong brands and oligopolistic market shares. So costs could be cut (including marketing) without prompting a fall in the top line.The takeover of Anheuser-Busch, worth $62bn, shows these principles in action. The deal was mostly financed by debt with an annual post-tax cost of 3%. The firm being bought yielded 6% (its annual cashflow after capital spending, as a share of its market capitalisation plus net borrowings). Cost cuts eventually lifted that return to 8%. Normally such high leverage is reckless, because profits are volatile. But Anheuser was different. It had a 48% market share in America, with famous brands that people would keep chugging come hell or high water. After the 2007-08 financial crisis, share prices and interest rates fell, pushing the gap between the cost of debt and consumer firms’ yields wider still. 3G pursued big deals around the world, eventually paying $123bn in 2016 for London-listed SAB Miller.Those two original insights are getting tired, though. First, the gap between the cost of debt and the yield of consumer firms has narrowed as their market values have risen. The median yield for a basket of 20 big consumer firms has fallen from 7% in 2010 to 4% now, making deals less profitable. Some firms are pricier than they would otherwise be because their share prices reflect speculation that 3G might make a bid. Mondelez and others have all been rumoured targets in a Wall Street game of “who’s next?”. The cost of debt may start to rise as monetary policy normalises.The second intuition—that consumer firms’ sales are near-indestructible—is no longer safe. Many customers are opting for niche brands; craft ales instead of Bud Light, or organic take-home meals instead of Kraft’s classic Macaroni and Cheese. In the last quarter, both AB InBev and Kraft Heinz reported stagnant volumes globally and shrinking sales in America. In the medium term e-commerce could reduce the power of big brands. Instead of having a privileged spot on Walmart’s finite shelf space, established consumer companies must now slug it out with smaller brands on Amazon.Such shifts will not threaten 3G’s current firms. Cost savings are still going to help their bottom lines. Profits at AB InBev and Kraft Heinz would have to fall by two-thirds or more before they struggled to make interest payments. And their combined debt pile, though huge (equivalent to the fourth-largest of any non-financial firm in the world), is well-organised, with repayments spread out over years. Even so, a decade of mediocrity beckons.The number’s upOne option is a final flurry of deals. The possibility cannot be ruled out—which is why consumer-product firms must stay on their toes. But as well as being expensive, cross-border deals and job cuts have become more politically sensitive (Kraft Heinz has cut 10,000 jobs since 2013). 3G’s bid for Unilever caused a stink in Britain and the Netherlands. Trustbusters would block another big beer deal. Perhaps reflecting this, 3G is trying a new approach, of expanding firms through investment and innovation. Here, AB InBev is in a reasonable position, given its exposure to fast-growing emerging economies and its experience of turning niche beer brands into big sellers. Energising Kraft is a taller order, since creativity is not in its DNA and 69% of its sales are in America.3G’s pivot will be a struggle. But what a run it has had. It took advantage of a time when rates were low, stockmarkets were cheap, protectionist instincts subdued, anger over job losses muted and digital competition still nascent. Its adventures have not necessarily made the world a fairer place, but as a piece of intelligent, opportunistic investing they deserve three cheers.  Business   "And now for my next trick"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731179-investment-firms-main-propscheap-debt-and-stable-demand-big-foods-productsare-wearing?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-09T22:47:00.000+02:00'
'bba44066bda35a51e5d18544fda230614ec7d099'|'Signa buys German trophy assets in biggest real-estate deal of 2017'|'November 11, 2017 / 1:37 PM / in 8 hours Signa buys German trophy assets in biggest real-estate deal of 2017 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Austria’s Signa, which is trying to buy German department-store chain Kaufhof from Hudson’s Bay for 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion), has bought five trophy assets from RFR in Germany’s biggest real-estate transaction of 2017. The portfolio is worth 1.5 billion euros and comprises properties in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, Germany’s four largest cities, Austrian property and retail group Signa said late on Friday. The properties are the Upper West commercial high rise in Berlin, the upmarket shopping centres Kaufmannshaus and Alsterarkaden in Hamburg, the Upper Zeil shopping mall that is in development in Frankfurt, and the remaining 50 percent of the Karstadt department store at Munich’s main train station. Privately held Signa already owns the Karstadt chain, the biggest rival to Kaufhof. Hudson’s Bay is reviewing Signa’s offer for Kaufhof but has called it incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited. ($1 = 0.8574 euros) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-realestate-signa/signa-buys-german-trophy-assets-in-biggest-real-estate-deal-of-2017-idUSL8N1NH0I7'|'2017-11-11T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'c0142d0997bdde7ae2ff85a7492e3ad3f5eeac83'|'Hong Kong''s Trinity says Shandong Ruyi to buy control for $285 million'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Menswear group Trinity Ltd ( 0891.HK ) said Shandong-based textile maker Shandong Ruyi International Fashion Industry Investment Holding Co Ltd has agreed to buy shares representing 51.38 pct of its enlarged share capital for HK$2.22 billion ($284.62 million), raising funds for future acquisitions and to repay debt.The retailer and wholesaler of menswear brands including Kent Curwen, Gieves Hawkes, and Cerruti 1881, said late on Thursday Ruyi would buy 1.85 billion new shares at HK$1.20 apiece, or a 60 percent premium over the stock’s previous closing price.The announcement sent Trinity shares to their highest in 20 months at HK$0.99 on Friday morning before trimming gains to HK$0.87, still up 16 percent. That compared with a 0.01 percent gain the benchmark index .HSI .Ruyi, which operates 13 industrial parks in China and over 3,000 points of sale in the Asia-Pacific region, will continue Trinity’s existing business and does not intend to dispose of any assets, Trinity said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.Fung Retailing Ltd, which currently owns 40.95 pct of Trinity, will remain a substantial shareholder on completion of the deal holding 19.79 percent.Ruyi has a distribution and point of sales network that services a global customer base. It has over 20 subsidiaries including listed firms Shandong Ruyi Woolen Garment Group Co Ltd ( 002193.SZ ), SMCP SAS ( SMCP.PA ) and Renown Inc ( 3606.T ).Reporting by Donny KwokEditing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trinity-m-a-ruyi-group/hong-kongs-trinity-says-shandong-ruyi-to-buy-control-for-285-million-idUSKBN1DA0EN'|'2017-11-10T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'406b99e9b6a62128f1602aa83228f70c8b311623'|'Ultra Electronics hit by U.S. delay to Sparton defense deal'|'(Reuters) - British defense contractor Ultra Electronics said it expected a delayed decision from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on its $234 million purchase of Sparton Corp.Ultra Electronics, whose shares fell 7.9 percent to 1577 pence at 0840 GMT and were the worst performers on the FTSE Midcap Index, said on Friday that it had agreed with the DoJ on time targets for further document submission and time limits for the DoJ’s discovery and decision-making.Assuming that Ultra Electronics and the DoJ meet a Nov. 30 target, a decision from the DoJ is now expected at the end of March next year, the British firm said.Ultra Electronics said in July that it would buy Sparton Corp, which makes anti-submarine warfare devices used by the U.S. Navy, creating a major supplier in underwater warfare, including to the U.S. Department of Defense.However, the British firm said in September that the DoJ had asked for additional information under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.Liberum analysts, who rate Ultra Electronics shares as a “buy”, said further delays were possible, while analysts at Berenberg downgraded the stock to a “sell” from “hold”, citing “persistent organic decline”.Berenberg analysts also pointed to budgetary pressure in the British defense market, which accounts for about 15 percent of the group’s revenue and forecast Ultra Electronics would miss its full-year targets.U.S. President Donald Trump has sought what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending and has criticized European nations for low defense spending.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sparton-m-a-ultra-electronic/ultra-electronics-hit-by-u-s-delay-to-sparton-defense-deal-idUSKBN1DA0YO'|'2017-11-10T17:02:00.000+02:00'
'862467b0086a02bfce473c76296eaec0b1d1c24c'|'HDFC Life''s $1.3 billion Indian IPO nearly five times subscribed'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd’s initial public offering was subscribed 4.9 times on the last day of the sale on Thursday, in what was the fourth billion dollar-plus IPO in India this year.The insurer’s two main shareholders aim to raise 86.95 billion rupees ($1.3 bln) from the offering, and institutional investors bid for 16.6 times the number of shares on offer for that segment, while the retail portion was subscribed 91 percent, data as of 1330 GMT showed.India has seen a record year for IPOs with more than $11 billion of initial share sales, including HDFC Life‘s, so far. But high valuations, especially for some of the recent insurance IPOs, have weighed on investor sentiment.HDFC Life’s rival SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd ( SBIL.NS ), which made its trading debut last month after a $1.3 billion offering, is trading 6 percent below its IPO issue price.State-run reinsurer General Insurance Corp of India ( GENA.NS ), which also listed last month after a $1.7 billion IPO, has lost more than 13 percent from the IPO issue price. Top non-life insurer New India Assurance Co Ltd ( THEE.NS ), also state-run, is set to start trading on Monday after its $1.5 billion IPO last week was subscribed 1.2 times.HDFC Life’s two main shareholders - Housing Development Finance Corp ( HDFC.NS ) and Standard Life ( SLA.L ) - were selling a combined 299.8 million shares in the IPO.Morgan Stanley, HDFC Bank, Credit Suisse, Citic CLSA and Nomura were the global coordinators and bookrunners for the IPO. Edelweiss, Haitong Securities, IDFC Bank, IIFL Holdings and UBS were the other bookrunners.($1 = 64.9650 Indian rupees)Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hdfc-standard-ipo/hdfc-lifes-1-3-billion-indian-ipo-nearly-five-times-subscribed-idUSKBN1D924B'|'2017-11-09T22:54:00.000+02:00'
'76d0f98dee2005aca10436c94e7d726f99e45369'|'Pfizer exits China joint venture for generic drugs'|'(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc ( PFE.N ) said on Friday it has sold its 49 percent stake to exit a joint venture it had set up with China’s Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceuticals ( 600267.SS ) in 2012 to develop and market generic drugs.FILE PHOTO: The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in New York April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo The U.S. drugmaker said it sold its stake in the venture, Hisun-Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd, to Sapphire I Holdings Ltd. ( on.pfizer.com/2yQmeyC )The venture will change its name, but retain the rights to manufacture and sell all the drugs being marketed or developed in China, Pfizer and Hisun Pharma said in a joint statement.Pfizer’s shares were marginally lower in afternoon trading.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zhejiang-hisun-pharmaceuticals-stake/pfizer-exits-china-joint-venture-for-generic-drugs-idUSKBN1DA2LW'|'2017-11-11T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'71f7464128263c83a4dd1e39be5a72fd1edea1c3'|'REFILE-Ex-SBM executives plead guilty in U.S. to Petrobras bribe charges'|'(Corrects day Robert Zubiate pleaded guilty to Monday in third paragraph)Nov 9 (Reuters) - Two former executives at Dutch oil services company SBM Offshore NV have pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that they participated in a scheme to bribe officials at three foreign state-run oil companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras.Anthony Mace, who was SBM’s chief executive officer from 2008 to 2011, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Houston in one of the first U.S. Justice Department cases filed against individuals related to bribery allegations involving Petrobras.The plea by Mace, 65, to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act came after a former sales and marketing executive at an SBM U.S. subsidiary, Robert Zubiate, pleaded guilty on Monday to the same charge, prosecutors said.Mace, a British citizen, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2. Zubiate, who was based in Texas and California while with SBM, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.Lawyers for the two men did not respond to requests for comment and neither did SBM or Petrobras.The guilty pleas came after SBM on Monday said that a Brazilian investigation into its role in corruption cases had not been resolved and it has set aside an additional $238 million to cover costs from an unexpected U.S. inquiry.The Dutch company had also been forced to suspend its involvement in tenders with Petróleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, a major customer.SBM had paid $240 million to Dutch authorities in 2014 to settle the Latin American bribery case and set aside another $280 million last year to settle related issues in Brazil.It announced on that Monday the Brazilian case remained unresolved.Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sbm-offshore-corruption/ex-sbm-executives-plead-guilty-in-u-s-to-petrobras-bribe-charges-idUSL1N1NF2XC'|'2017-11-10T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'3a7564063273e686d9e66167a4dec368bccafbe0'|'Toshiba considering $5.3 billion capital injection - NHK'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, is considering raising about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday.The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen behind cherry blossoms at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Japanese conglomerate has received proposals from several domestic and overseas brokerages for plans to raise money through a public offering or third-party allotment, and is looking into the option of allocating shares mainly to overseas investors, the person said.In early trade, shares of Toshiba fell as much as 8 percent on the capital injection plan, first reported by public broadcaster NHK. They were down 4.5 percent by mid-morning, underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average’s 1 percent fall.Strapped with liabilities arising from its bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, Toshiba agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. It needs to beef up its balance sheet by the end of the fiscal year in end-March to avoid a possible delisting.The source told Reuters that Toshiba wants to finalise the capital injection plan by year-end because it would need shareholder approval depending on the offering price and scope of share dilution. The person declined to be identified because the plan is not public.In a statement, Toshiba repeated its stance that it was aiming to close the deal to sell its chip business by the end of March, saying in response to the NHK report that nothing specific had been decided regarding any funding plans.Announcing half-year results a day earlier, Masayoshi Hirata said Toshiba had launched a working group to consider various options to raise capital in case the deal did not close in time. He offered no specifics.Toshiba reported robust second-quarter results with a 76 percent jump in operating profit driven almost entirely by a strong performance from its memory chip unit.If Toshiba fails to close the sale in time, that could keep Toshiba in negative net worth for a second year in a row, putting pressure on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist it.($1 = 113.3700 yen)Reporting by Taro Fuse; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-accounting/toshiba-considering-5-3-billion-capital-injection-nhk-idINKBN1DA00A'|'2017-11-10T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'd3608ac7f0513ca5c197786272c5f0ac57b37597'|'General Electric, China''s Silk Road Fund to launch energy investment platform'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Electric Co and a Chinese state fund set up for the Belt and Road trade initiative plan to jointly establish an energy infrastructure investment platform, China’s government said.The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril The announcement came on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been looking to rev up U.S.-China trade.The Silk Road Fund and GE Energy Financial Services signed a “cooperation” deal to set up the platform in Beijing, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement dated Thursday and seen by Reuters on Friday.“The two sides will jointly invest in electric power grids, new energy and oil and gas, in countries and regions along the Belt and Road,” SAFE said.“The cooperation between the Silk Road Fund and GE will not only boost cooperation between high-end manufacturing industries from China and the U.S., but also promote economic and trade development in the regions where of investment,” SAFE added.The step was part of a flurry of deals between GE and Chinese companies. These included an engine and repair deal for GEnx-1B engines from Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd worth $1.4 billion at list prices, and another $1.1 billion order for 80 Leap-1B engines to power 40 Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft from ICBC Leasing, the leasing arm of state bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.The Silk Road Fund was set up at the end of 2014 and is backed by China’s foreign exchange reserves, China Investment Corp, the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank.(This story has been refiled to make clear that government statement was dated Thursday)Reporting by Engen Tham; Editing by Joseph Radford '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-china-deals-ge/general-electric-chinas-silk-road-fund-to-launch-energy-investment-platform-idINKBN1DA057'|'2017-11-10T03:40:00.000+02:00'
'6d442f5e3df5d6efbcd269295ed30a88ac019293'|'Bitcoin slides by over $1,000 in less than 48 hours'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin dropped below $7,000 on Friday to trade more than $1,000 down from an all-time high hit on Wednesday, as some traders dumped it for a clone called Bitcoin Cash, sending its value up around a third.A bitcoin (virtual currency) coin placed on Dollar banknotes is seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Bitcoin has been on a tear in recent months, with a vertiginous sevenfold increase in value since the start of the year that has led to many warnings the bitcoin market - now worth well over $100 billion - has become a bubble that is about to burst.It reached a record high of $7,888 around 1800 GMT on Wednesday after a software upgrade planned for next week that could have split the cryptocurrency in a so-called “fork” was suspended.But it has quickly retreated from that peak, falling to as low as $6,718 around 1330 GMT on Friday. It later recovered a touch to trade around $6,880 by 1645 GMT, but that was still down almost 4 percent on the day.“Bitcoin is all ups and downs,” said Thomas Bertani, chief executive of Eidoo, a cryptocurrency wallet provider that recently became the first startup in the space to take out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal newspaper.“The market realized that the price rise was an over-reaching, so people started selling... (and) there are many long and short positions that amplify price movements.”As bitcoin tumbled, Bitcoin Cash, which was generated from another software split on Aug.1, surged, trading up as much as 35 percent on the day to around $850, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.Bitcoin Cash’s transactions are processed in so-called “blocks” that are larger in capacity than bitcoin‘s, so can therefore in theory allow for more transactions to be processed at any given time, making transaction fees much cheaper.The fork that had been planned for next week, known as “SegWit2x”, had also intended to increase the capacity of the blocks, and could thus have reduced fees for bitcoin transactions.Any investors, therefore, that see bitcoin more as a currency than a store of value might be choosing to buy into Bitcoin Cash now that Segwit2x had been scrapped, Bertani said.“People who had been supporting Segwit2x could as an alternative move to Bitcoin Cash,” he said.“There are good reasons to believe that Bitcoin Cash could be an alternative for people who believe that low fees on bitcoin transactions are needed today.”Reporting by Jemima Kelly, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-slides-by-over-1000-in-less-than-48-hours-idINKBN1DA1L9'|'2017-11-10T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'ac2e56dcc32c1b4333cfea3a5afcc84cec426a13'|'Deutsche Bank picks asset-management IPO bookrunners -source'|'November 11, 2017 / 3:50 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Deutsche Bank picks asset-management IPO bookrunners -source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) has selected Barclays BARC., Citigroup ( C.N ) and Credit Suisse CSGN. as senior bookrunners for the initial public offering (IPO) of its asset-management arm, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. FILE PHOTO : Logos of Deutsche Bank AG are seen in Tokyo July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo A spokesman for Deutsche Asset Management declined to comment on the selection of bookrunners, which was first reported on Friday by Bloomberg. Deutsche Bank, which will be the main bookrunner, said in March it planned to list the asset management arm, which could achieve a total valuation of around 8 billion euros (7.07 billion pounds), within two years as part of an overhaul following costly lawsuits and trading scandals. It is expected to raise about 2 billion euros from listing about a quarter of the business. The junior bookrunners helping to market the IPO to investors will be BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), Unicredit ( CRDI.MI ), UBS ( UBSG.S ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and ING ( INGA.AS ). “The decision in favour of these banks has already been taken,” the person said. Reporting by Andreas Framke; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-asset-management/deutsche-bank-picks-asset-management-ipo-bookrunners-source-idUKKBN1DB0NJ'|'2017-11-11T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'3c982ab37ff546ccf173752570ec0c6de726c8e9'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf shares mostly weak on geopolitics, Saudi corruption inquiry'|'* Bahrain links pipeline explosion to Iran, Saudis may act* Saudi state-linked funds continue support operation* But trading volume lowest since corruption crisis began* Dar Al Arkan continues surge after earnings* Dubai’s Emaar rises before earningsBy Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Gulf stock markets mostly fell on Sunday because of rising geopolitical tensions and jitters related to Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption investigation, although trading volume in Riyadh shrank, suggesting there was less panic selling of shares.Geopolitical worries increased at the weekend after Bahrain linked an explosion at its main oil pipeline on Friday to Iran. There is now considerable concern about the possibility of aggressive Saudi action against Iranian interests in the region.Meanwhile, wealthy Saudi individuals have been selling stocks in Riyadh and around the region - some of them hoping to move money out of the Gulf - since the anti-graft investigation was revealed at the start of last week.The Saudi index fell as much as 1.5 percent during the day but closed only 0.3 percent lower after state-linked funds once again bought stocks in late trade, a deliberate operation to support the market and prevent a crash, asset managers said. National Commercial Bank, a key stock held by the Public Investment Fund, rose 1.3 percent.But total volume, while active, was at its lowest level since the investigation was announced, suggesting the funds were no longer having to work as hard to support the market.Among stocks linked to people who have been detained in the probe, Kingdom Holding rebounded 5.8 percent, although it remained 16 percent below its level before chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was arrested.Al Tayyar Travel, whose founder was detained, sank a further 5.0 percent in heavy trade, bringing its losses to 24 percent.Real estate developer Dar Al Arkan surged 7.0 percent and was the most heavily traded stock. On Thursday, it had jumped its 10 percent daily limit after reporting third-quarter net profit almost doubled from a year ago to 209.6 million riyals ($55.9 million), as sales more than doubled.MedGulf rose 2.2 percent after reporting a flat third-quarter profit before zakat; for the second quarter, it had posted a net loss that widened from a year earlier.Dubai’s index climbed 0.4 percent. Falling stocks outnumbered rising ones by 17 to 13, but Emaar Properties added 1.0 percent before it reported quarterly earnings.After the close, Emaar posted a 32 percent rise in third-quarter net profit to 1.51 billion dirhams ($411.2 million), beating SICO Bahrain’s forecast of 1.36 billion dirhams.Amusement park operator DXB Entertainments fell 2.6 percent after reporting its third-quarter loss more than doubled from a year earlier to 284.1 million dirhams ($77.4 million).Qatar’s index edged down 0.1 percent as Qatar National Cement tumbled 5.9 percent to 58.23 riyals, its lowest level since 2010, falling below technical support at 60 riyals, which had been tested and held since June.HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA * The index fell 0.3 percent to 6,933 points.DUBAI * The index rose 0.4 percent to 3,465 points.ABU DHABI * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 4,374 points.QATAR * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 7,876 points.EGYPT * The index fell 0.6 percent to 14,271 points.KUWAIT * The index dropped 1.3 percent to 6,176 points.BAHRAIN * The index fell 0.3 percent to 1,264 points.OMAN * The index added 0.2 percent to 5,067 points. (Editing by Larry King) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-gulf-shares-mostly-weak-on-geopolitics-saudi-corruption-inquiry-idINL8N1NI0EO'|'2017-11-12T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'5bd3d16070382826fb066aa1a0e33130f0f8e718'|'London mayor supports compromise efforts between regulator and Uber'|'How Saudi Arabia turned on Lebanon''s Hariri WORLD Why Niger and Mali''s cattle herders turned to jihad Ministers rally around Johnson over Iran Reuters TV United States November 12, 2017 / 9:56 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago London mayor supports compromise efforts between regulator and Uber Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London mayor Sadiq Khan said on Sunday he supported efforts by the city’s transport regulator Transport for London to try to reach a compromise with Uber after the taxi app confirmed it would appeal in a running row over workers’ rights. FILE PHOTO - A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson “Uber are challenging Transport for London through the courts as is their right to do so ... I support the TFL commissioner meeting with the global CEO of Uber to see if we can reach a compromise,” Khan told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain-khan/london-mayor-supports-compromise-efforts-between-regulator-and-uber-idUKKBN1DC0BX'|'2017-11-12T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'a1ce026fde8143dc6e1c6c3b7ca1f768b33298d8'|'Azerbaijan Airlines orders five Boeing 787 Dreamliners'|'Reuters TV United States November 12, 2017 / 10:46 AM / a few seconds ago Azerbaijan Airlines orders five Boeing 787 Dreamliners Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Azerbaijan Airlines President Jahangir Askerov announced an order for five Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets at the Dubai Airshow on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The airline has also agreed to order two wide-body freighters from the U.S. planemaker. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President & Chief Executive Kevin McAllister said at a news conference a decision would be made at a later date on whether the Central Asian carrier opts for the 747 or 777 freighter. The total value of the deal at current list prices, which also includes a landing gear maintenance agreement, is valued at around 1.9 billion dollars, a Boeing executive said. Azerbaijan Airlines at present has two 787-8s in its fleet. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-azerbaijan/azerbaijan-airlines-orders-five-boeing-787-dreamliners-idUKKBN1DC0E0'|'2017-11-12T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'f939c7ac47dba0e85ef8fa48a0ab056000cbc387'|'Continental eyes investment in solid-state batteries'|'November 11, 2017 / 12:26 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Continental eyes investment in solid-state batteries Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - German automotive supplier Continental is considering investing in battery production to compete with Asian and U.S. manufacturers, Chief Executive Elmar Degenhart told trade weekly Automobilwoche in an interview published on Saturday. “We could well imagine getting into the production of innovative batteries,” he said. “That also goes for producing battery cells.” Degenhart said, however, that Conti would not invest in the lithium-ion batteries that are currently in use, but rather in the next generation of solid-state batteries, which might go into production in 2024 or 2025. “We need a technology leap in energy density and costs,” he said. “Such solid-state cells can manage without liquid electrolyte and so are far less flammable.” Although European carmakers assemble battery packs for electric cars, the region has no significant player in battery cells - the essential building blocks for the batteries that are now mostly made in Asia. The market is dominated by Japanese firms Panasonic and NEC, Korea’s LG and Samsung and China’s BYD and CATL, as well as U.S. manufacturer Tesla. Degenhart said he would aim for a consortium to share the cost, which he estimated at 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for a plant that could supply around 500,000 electric cars a year. The European Union last month hosted automotive, chemical and engineering executives to discuss developing battery manufacturing in the bloc, and said EU funding could support the creation of such a consortium. Degenhart said it would make sense to build three plants, one in Europe, one in America and one in Asia to be close to customers in each region. He added that Germany would be out of the question as a location due to its high electricity prices, pointing out that LG and Samsung were building smaller battery factories in Poland and Hungary, where electricity was 50 percent cheaper. ($1 = 0.8574 euros) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Ros Russell)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/continental-batteries/continental-eyes-investment-in-solid-state-batteries-idUSL8N1NH0FE'|'2017-11-11T14:26:00.000+02:00'
'6304694165b5c0d0ed3c18837c774f1821ded59a'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds American Tower, Dangote Industries Limited, CRH, Brookfield Property Partners, Zhongwang USA, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Nisa Retail, Inmobiliaria Colonial, Immofinanz)Nov 13 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1500 GMT on Monday:** American Tower Corp has agreed to buy about 20,000 mobile phone masts for 78.5 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) from Indian network operators Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, who are seeking to merge.** Nigeria’s Dangote Industries Limited sold 128.5 million shares of Dangote Cement at 210 naira each on Monday in a one-off stock market deal valued at 27 billion naira ($85.9 million), traders said.** Irish building materials firm CRH has made a cash bid for cement maker PPC, taking on South African rival Afrisam and Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim.** Real estate company Brookfield Property Partners LP on Monday offered to buy the 66 percent stake in mall owner GGP Inc it does not own for $14.8 billion in cash and stock.** Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc on Monday rejected rival Broadcom Ltd’s $103 billion takeover bid, saying the offer “dramatically” undervalued the U.S. company.** Zhongwang USA, an investment firm backed by a Chinese aluminum tycoon, and U.S. aluminum maker Aleris Corp have dropped plans to merge, Aleris and Zhongwang USA said on Monday.** A unit of top Indian phone carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd will sell a stake worth about 26.17 billion rupees ($400 million) in mobile masts operator Bharti Infratel Ltd on Tuesday, according to a deal term sheet.** The shopowner members of Nisa Retail, the British wholesaler and convenience retailer, on Monday voted in favour of the Co-operative Group’s 137.5 million pounds ($180 million) takeover.** Spanish real estate company Inmobiliaria Colonial said on Monday it had agreed to launch a takeover bid for rival Axiare Patrimonio, valuing the company at 1.46 billion euros ($1.70 billion).** Austrian real estate group Immofinanz has agreed to sell its five Moscow shopping centres to Russia’s Fort Group for 901 million euros ($1.05 billion), clearing the last hurdle to its merger with Austrian rival CA Immo.** Uber Technologies Inc’s warring board members have struck a peace deal that allows a multibillion-dollar investment by SoftBank Group Corp to proceed, and which would resolve a legal battle between former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick and a prominent shareholder.** Austria’s Signa, which is trying to buy German department-store chain Kaufhof from Hudson’s Bay for 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion), has bought five trophy assets from RFR in Germany’s biggest real-estate transaction of 2017.** Grupo Caoa, Hyundai’s local partner in Brazil, said it had bought 50 percent of Chinese automaker Chery’s Brazilian operations, according to a written statement.** Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) will pay $1.35 billion to buy a further 12.1 percent stake in Kuwaiti telecoms company Zain in a deal that will expand its reach to nine Middle Eastern and North African countries.** Peugeot maker PSA Group signed a joint venture with three Algerian partners to launch a manufacturing unit building cars for the Algerian market, it said on Sunday.** Singapore-listed Jardine Cycle and Carriage Ltd said one of its units has agreed to buy a 5.53 percent stake in Vietnamese dairy firm Vinamilk, the country’s biggest listed company, for $616.6 million.** Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings said it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt.** Royal Dutch Shell said it was selling part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum Ltd to equity investors for about $1.7 billion.** Equity Commonwealth, a U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on office space and chaired by property mogul Sam Zell, has approached Forest City Realty Trust Inc to discuss a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said.** Hasbro Inc has made an approach to acquire rival Mattel Inc, a source familiar with the matter said, the latest attempt to combine the two biggest U.S. toymakers in more than two decades.Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NJ56A'|'2017-11-13T12:09:00.000+02:00'
'7e0d3d270fd423eac62ef7ecd9cd6a56645202a8'|'U.S. tax policy doubt stunts stocks, sterling falls'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:05 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago U.S. tax policy doubt stunts stocks, sterling falls Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets were down on Monday amid uncertainty over the fate of U.S. tax reform efforts, while Britain’s pound fell on growing concerns about the future of Prime Minister Theresa May. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid U.S. stock indexes made little ground. Some investors sought bargains after a few days of losses while others were put off by a dividend cut from heavyweight General Electric ( GE.N ), as well as the company’s plan to radically shrink to focus on sectors where it thinks it can make a profit. Investors were waiting for any signs of compromise on U.S. tax policy after U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a plan that would cut corporate taxes a year later than a rival House of Representatives’ bill. “What the market seems to be focussed on is if and when tax reform will be agreed on by Republicans in both the Senate and the House and how it’ll fare in Congress,” said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 35.76 points, or 0.15 percent, to 23,457.97, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.16 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,585.46 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 8.21 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,759.15. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.53 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.25 percent and was on track for a third straight day of declines after hitting an intraday record high on Thursday. Sterling GBP= was down 6 percent against the dollar, on course for its biggest daily fall against the greenback since Nov. 2. It was also down 0.6 percent against the euro EURGBP= The Sunday Times newspaper reported that 40 members of parliament from May''s Conservative Party agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her -- eight short of the number needed to trigger a party leadership contest. “That just highlights some of the internal weakness that the Conservative party has within its own self and I think that’s going to undermine the Brexit negotiations going forward,” said Sireen Harajli, foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho in New York. [L8N1NJ5BU] The dollar edged higher against a basket of other major currencies on Monday, recovering ground after logging a 0.6 percent decline last week. It .DXY rose 0.11 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.03 percent to $1.1666. U.S. Treasury two-year note yields hit a fresh nine-year high as the yield curve resumed its flattening, with investors pricing in a U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike in December. The two-year yield US2YT=RR hit a nine-year peak of 1.679 percent, up from 1.662 percent last Friday. [L1N1NJ0RR] Oil prices held steady in a tight range Monday after briefly testing lower, with support from Middle East tensions and record long bets by fund managers balanced by rising U.S. production. [nL3N1NJ1BB] A purge of Saudi Arabia’s leadership by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has raised concerns about political stability in the region’s largest oil producer. U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.09 percent to $56.79 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.18, down 0.54 percent on the day. Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Jessica Resnick-Ault, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Dhara Ranasinghe and Saikat Chatterjee in London, Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by John Stonestreet and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-shares-down-on-caution-over-us-tax-reform-plan-sterling-falls-idUKKBN1DD025'|'2017-11-13T21:44:00.000+02:00'
'62ab5c432965c8dcf477c9d21ce11049b048a1a9'|'Exclusive: Greece''s Energean weighs IPO to fund Israel gas plan - sources'|'LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek energy firm Energean is considering listing on the London stock exchange to raise cash for a $1.5 billion development of gas fields off Israel’s coast, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Energean, Greece’s sole oil producer, said in a statement it was in the process of developing Israel’s Karish and Tanin offshore fields and was “engaged in a range of contracting and financing discussions to achieve this.”“We are currently examining all options of funding the project’s requirements,” a company spokesman said in an email, without saying if this included a public listing.Four sources, including three banking sources, told Reuters that investment banks Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and Citi ( C.N ) were advising the firm on the initial public offering (IPO) process.The banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.If management opted for an IPO, the listing would take place next year although it was unclear how much cash Energean would seek to raise, the sources said.Energean, a private exploration and production firm operating in the eastern Mediterranean, and private equity fund Kerogen Capital bought the Karish and Tanin licenses from Israel’s Delek Group ( DLEKG.TA ) in December 2016 for an upfront cost of $40 million and $108.5 million in contingent payments.Led by Chief Executive Mathios Rigas, Energean expects to make a final investment decision on developing the fields, estimated to hold 2.4 trillion cubic feet of gas, by the end of 2017. The development is expected to cost $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, according to the company website.Energean said in May it had signed contracts to supply up to 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas to private Israeli power stations from the fields.London energy listings have been sporadic and small in the past three years as a dip in oil prices dried up investor interest. But 2017 has seen eight such listings on London’s junior market so far, compared to five in the whole of 2016, when oil prices reached a 12-year low of around $26 a barrel.Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was trading above $62 a barrel on Monday.Additional reporting by Clara Denina in London; Editing by Veronica Brown and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-energean-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-greeces-energean-weighs-ipo-to-fund-israel-gas-plan-sources-idINKBN1DD23V'|'2017-11-13T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'7c07193390f61b15798d2885802d33a8de126a12'|'Ultra Electronics forecasts weak second-half, CEO steps down'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Ultra Electronics forecasts weak second-half, CEO steps down Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British defence contractor Ultra Electronics Holdings ( ULE.L ) on Monday forecast a weaker second-half and said its chief executive, Rakesh Sharma, has stepped down. “The UK market has been difficult and has become increasingly so in the second half,” the company said, citing delays and pauses in the UK’s defence programmes. The company forecast full-year total revenue to be around 770 million pounds, below the 785 million pounds it reported last year. Former chief executive and current chairman Douglas Caster will assume the role of executive chairman until a replacement for Sharma is found, the company said in a statement. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ultra-electronic-results/ultra-electronics-forecasts-weak-second-half-ceo-steps-down-idUKKBN1DD0RX'|'2017-11-13T10:01:00.000+02:00'
'54525a8e65c12ec9ac80da6759b1695a277ef945'|'CEE MARKETS-Romanian yields set multi-year highs after inflation jump'|'* Romania''s inflation surges to 2.6 pct, leu at new 5-yr low * Romanian government bond yields highest since 2014 * CEE GDP data due Tuesday seen showing robust growth (Recasts with surge in Romanian bond yields, renewed leu weakening) By Sandor Peto and Luiza Ilie BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Romanian government bond yields rose to their highest levels in more than three years on Friday after data showed Romanian inflation rose faster in October than analysts had expected. Adding to signs of overheating in the Romanian economy, the country''s inflation has been rapidly catching up with a rebound across Central Europe since mid-2016. Annual inflation ran at 2.6 percent in October, compared with 1.8 percent in September and 1.2 percent in August, fueling expectations the central bank will have to tighten policy. Romanian assets stood out in otherwise subdued CEE markets ahead of GDP data next week from the region''s biggest economies. The yield on Romania''s 10-year bonds rose 5 basis points to 4.48 percent, according to Reuters data. The leu initially rebounded from five-year lows after the data. But some investors later decided to cover euro selling positions ahead of the weekend, one Bucharest-based dealer said, knocking the leu to its weakest level in more than five years. At 1353 GMT, it traded at 4.655 against the euro, down by a quarter of a percent. It plunged through 4.6 earlier this week, after the Romanian central bank said that in future it would focus on keeping interest rates near its benchmark rate and be more flexible over the exchange rate. That policy will face a test later this year when government spending is expected to surge, increasing inflation pressures. Some investors believe that the leu has reached the bottom, others see further weakening. "After this week''s steep falls it may only edge down," one Bucharest dealer said. Governor Mugur Isarescu said that the leu''s weakness reflected a widening of the trade deficit, but the currency was "relatively close" to its equilibrium levels. Focus is turning to next Tuesday when the region''s biggest economies are due to release third-quarter economic output figures, which are expected to show continuing robust growth. Romania''s data could highlight overheating pressure in its economy. Hungary''s figures are unlikely to deter its central bank from its dovish policy. It is widely expected to announce new easing measures at its Nov. 21 meeting to push long-term yields down. Hungary''s debt yield curve is already below U.S. Treasuries levels up to the 10-year maturity. Hungarian yields edged up slightly on Friday, tracking yield gains across Europe amid a sell-off in German Bunds. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1453 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.551 25.542 -0.03% 5.70% 0 5 Hungary 312.06 311.66 -0.13% -1.04% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2296 4.2324 +0.07 4.12% % Romanian leu 4.6550 4.6445 -0.23% -2.58% Croatian 7.5450 7.5375 -0.10% 0.13% kuna Serbian 118.43 118.67 +0.20 4.15% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1066.5 1060.5 +0.57 +15.7 9 3 % 3% Budapest 39864. 40273. -1.02% +24.5 21 66 6% Warsaw 2473.4 2478.2 -0.19% +26.9 8 1 8% Bucharest 7764.5 7746.9 +0.23 +9.59 3 9 % % Ljubljana 792.00 788.58 +0.43 +10.3 % 7% Zagreb 1859.5 1848.4 +0.60 -6.78% 8 7 % Belgrade 738.64 734.99 +0.50 +2.96 % % Sofia 670.88 671.73 -0.13% +14.4 0% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.461 0.125 +121b +12bp ps s 5-year 0.73 -0.01 +107b -1bps ps 10-year 1.674 0.075 +128b +6bps ps Poland 2-year 1.599 -0.006 +235b -1bps ps 5-year 2.598 -0.04 +294b -4bps ps 10-year 3.41 -0.008 +301b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.97 1 1.22 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.09 0.09 0.14 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.775 1.8075 1.89 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-romanian-yields-set-multi-year-highs-after-inflation-jump-idINL8N1NG5A9'|'2017-11-10T12:14:00.000+02:00'
'4defd3bbb0620b9edc3e2d8da954e33d7471c4d9'|'Australia''s cenbank cuts inflation forecasts, rate rises some distance away'|'November 10, 2017 / 5:18 AM / in 2 hours Australia''s cenbank cuts inflation forecasts, rate rises some distance away Swati Pandey , Wayne Cole 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s central bank has sliced its forecasts for core inflation which is seen lurking under its long-term target band for another two years, a strong signal that interest rates won’t rise for a long time to come. FILE PHOTO: Business people walk outside the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in Sydney May 5, 2015. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo In its 72-page statement on monetary policy on Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) also projected little improvement in the unemployment rate despite a surge in jobs since the start of the year. Just last August, the central bank had predicted core inflation would reach 2 percent in the second half of this year. But data out last month showing another quarter of lukewarm consumer prices has poured cold water over those projections. Tepid core inflation, which has been stuck under the 2-3 percent target for two full years now, was the single biggest reason for the central bank to cut interest rates to an all-time trough of 1.50 percent last year. But it is loathe to easing again on concerns lower rates would fuel further borrowing in the property market by households who are already saddled with a mountain of debt. “We see a shift in the RBA’s mindset. They are willing to tolerate weak inflation and weak growth to guard against any risks from housing,” said JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy. “It’s very hard for them to play a hawkish game if they have their core inflation forecasts below target. For us, they are on hold indefinitely.” Weighing on inflation is all-time low wage growth, crawling at a much slower pace than the rise in household debt and sapping consumer spending power. In addition, a five-year update of household spending patterns released this week implied the consumer price index (CPI) was overstating core inflation by around 0.3 percentage points. SLOW GROWTH A major overhang for both growth and inflation is household consumption which is forecast to pick up at a slower rate than the average seen before the 2008 global financial crisis. Australian retail sales are already in the dumps as shoppers struggle with stagnant wages and rising utility bills, holding back on purchases of everything from clothing and footwear to television and appliances. The RBA tempered forecasts for growth in mid-2018 to 2.75 percent, from earlier projection of 3 percent. It sees the jobless rate steadying around 5.5 percent right out to June 2019. Still, the central bank is confident the A$1.7 trillion economy would accelerate around 3 percent over the next couple of years. Corporate profits are surging while measures of business confidence and conditions are the strongest since 2008 as the drag from a once-in-a-generation mining boom comes to an end. That has helped boost employment growth which was a rapid 2.7 percent in the year to August, much faster than the 1.6 percent growth in the population. “Taken at face value, today’s forecasts suggest scope to ease should activity, the labour market, and wages growth disappoint,” said Su-Lin Ong, economist at Royal Bank of Canada. “Persistently sub-target inflation would be harder to ignore in such circumstances.” Reporting by Swati Pandey and Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-rba-minutes/australias-cenbank-cuts-inflation-forecasts-rate-rises-some-distance-away-idINKBN1DA0FE'|'2017-11-10T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'f4e98caa42b9fbf9d58feedf88ccc532b442308d'|'China''s Xi vows to ''open wider'' while defending jobs'|'November 12, 2017 / 3:21 AM / Updated 5 hours ago China''s Xi vows to ''open wider'' while defending jobs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping vowed to further free up China’s economy, again urging Asian countries to work closely together in a speech at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Vietnam. China''s President Xi Jinping speaks on the final day of the APEC CEO Summit ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit in Danang, Vietnam, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Nyein Chan Naing/Pool The comments echo Xi’s call to support a “multilateral trading system” and contrast with those delivered at the weekend by U.S. President Donald Trump, who pulled out of the regional Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and told the meeting the U.S. would pursue bilateral trade deals instead. Xi said his government would continue to prioritise domestic employment and ensure economic development at home “supports job creation”, according to a text of his remarks published by the official Xinhua news agency late on Saturday. “China will open still wider and its development will deliver even greater benefits to the rest of the world,” Xi told the APEC leaders. China has created 13 million new jobs in cities and towns in recent years, Xi added. “Economic restructuring does not have to come at the expense of employment,” Xi said. “On the contrary, stable employment would allow greater leeway for reform and development.” Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apec-summit-xi/chinas-xi-vows-to-open-wider-while-defending-jobs-idUKKBN1DC025'|'2017-11-12T05:20:00.000+02:00'
'7722efdd995fe2edcc817cff91c87d2f0aa904ac'|'AIRSHOW-UAE military interested in ''fifth-generation'' fighter jets'|'November 11, 2017 / 1:17 PM / Updated 7 hours ago AIRSHOW-UAE military interested in ''fifth-generation'' fighter jets Alexander Cornwell 3 Min Read DUBAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates military is interested in fifth-generation fighter jets, a senior air force official said on Saturday. Deputy Commander Rashed al-Shamsi’s comments indicate a possible preference for Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 which is the only Western-made jet that fully meets those requirements, according to its manufacturer. “We are interested in new technology ... and so to have a fifth-generation capability is something of interest to the UAE Air Force and Air Defense,” al-Shamsi told reporters at a military conference in Dubai. Fifth generation is a definition that varies according to each manufacturer but broadly includes advanced stealth capability and a high level of computerised connectivity between fighter jets. The U.S. has sold the F-35 to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan, and Israel, but sales to the Gulf require a deeper review due to U.S. policy for Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East. Al-Shamsi said the UAE had heard that the United States could now be willing to sell them the stealth fighter jet. The UAE is one of the U.S.’s closest Middle East allies. It hosts American soldiers in the country, and has flown sorties against the so-called Islamic States as part of a U.S.-led coalition. The UAE was also the first foreign country to purchase the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system. U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Stephen Wilson told Reuters that he expected the UAE would soon be briefed on the F-35, but said he was not able to provide a time frame on when that would happen. He said he was not aware of any classified briefings on the stealth fighter jet at the week long Dubai Airshow which starts on Sunday. On Friday, Wilson said the U.S. was in talks to sell F-35 fighter jets to partner nations, but did not disclose which countries. The UAE has been analysing the European Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale fighter jets for years, though deals for the fourth generation jets have never been secured. The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin Corp, with companies including Northrop Grumman Corp, United Technologies Corp’s Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems Plc also involved. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; editing by Ros Russell)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airshow-uae-military-interested-in-fifth-generation-fighter-jets-idUSL8N1NH0E5'|'2017-11-11T15:14:00.000+02:00'
'7de2e2bf51ec723abb3f07b72ac4412ba4fcee24'|'Exclusive: Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO - sources'|'November 10, 2017 / 8:13 PM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO - sources Jessica Toonkel 6 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch telephoned AT&T Inc ( T.N ) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months and talked about cable network CNN, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday. According to one of the sources, the 86-year-old executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) offered to buy CNN in both conversations. Another source said Murdoch had “zero interest” in owning CNN. Representatives of Twenty-First Century Fox, AT&T and Time Warner, CNN’s parent, declined comment. CNN has become the focal point in antitrust approval of AT&T’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), hatched in October 2016. U.S. Department of Justice staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit - which includes CNN - a government official told Reuters on Thursday, in order to gain antitrust approval. On Thursday Stephenson said he had no interest in selling CNN and that he was ready to defend the deal in court if necessary. According to one of the sources on Friday, Murdoch called Stephenson twice, unprompted, on May 16 and Aug. 8 and on both occasions asked if CNN was for sale. Stephenson replied both times that it was not, according to the source. TRUMP COMMENTS WEIGH The fate of CNN has broader political significance.   Trump has repeatedly attacked the network for its coverage of his campaign and his administration, while he has publicly praised Murdoch’s Fox News. In the run-up to last year’s election he vowed that as president his Justice Department would block AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner. He has not commented on the transaction since taking office in January. Trump’s comments have provoked concern that he may improperly influence the U.S. Department of Justice to block the deal. The White House has said Trump has not spoken to the attorney general about the matter. Nevertheless, a group of eight Democratic U.S. senators on Friday wrote to Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, urging the department “to oppose any attempt by the White House to interfere with antitrust law enforcement decisions, particularly for political reasons.” Rupert Murdoch stands at the U.S. Open men''s final in New York, September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar Delrahim said he had not had any contact with the White House or the attorney general on the matter, speaking at an event at the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles later in the day. “I’ve got to keep my nose down and be a law enforcer and do what’s good and what I’ve committed to doing to the American people,” said Delrahim. But he appeared to voice doubts about AT&T’s reasoning that the purchase of Time Warner would not result in a company with too much power because the combined company would have to compete with powerful new online rivals such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Facebook Inc ( FB.O ). Delrahim referred to a comment by former President Ronald Reagan that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I‘m from the government and I‘m here to help.” FILE PHOTO: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corporation, reacts during a panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed//File Photo “I’d say you should be equally terrified when someone in an incumbent company, whatever industry, comes to you and says I’m here to help you against the evils of Netflix, Amazon, Google and Facebook,” said Delrahim. “Some of these pro-competitive comments and justifications remind me of that quote strongly.” ‘NO SENSE’ It would not be the first time Murdoch has attempted to take control of CNN. His Twenty-First Century Fox made an $80 billion offer for Time Warner in 2014 but abandoned the plan in the face of Time Warner’s resistance. At that time, Fox had planned to divest CNN - which competes with Fox News - in order to avoid antitrust issues. There is no law against a company owning two cable networks, but there is a Federal Communications Commission prohibition on owning two broadcast networks. A Fox deal with CNN could also raise antitrust concerns because of the market share that a combined company would have among cable news viewers. “I have been called and asked if I would sell CNN by numerous people,” Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday. But he added: “Selling CNN makes no sense.” Fox has held talks in the last few weeks to sell most of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ), CNBC reported this week, which would leave the company with its Fox News, sports programming and broadcasting stations.. Twenty-First Century Fox would sell its stake in European satellite broadcaster Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ) in a deal with Disney, according to CNBC’s report. Fox is trying to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own but the bid is strongly opposed by some lawmakers and has been subject to lengthy regulatory scrutiny. Time Warner shares closed up 4 percent at $90.60. Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cnn-murdoch-exclusive/exclusive-rupert-murdoch-twice-discussed-cnn-with-att-ceo-sources-idUKKBN1DA2PY'|'2017-11-10T23:58:00.000+02:00'
'380dc4d1915cf27d7cabe77758acdbbd26ae1dd2'|'Hasbro makes takeover offer for Mattel - WSJ'|'November 10, 2017 / 10:23 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Hasbro makes takeover offer for Mattel: WSJ Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. toymaker Hasbro Inc ( HAS.O ) has made a takeover approach for rival Mattel Inc ( MAT.O ), the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: Mattel''s Wonder Woman doll is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S. on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Hasbro''s approach was made recently, the WSJ said, citing one person. The terms of a potential deal could not be learned, the newspaper said. ( on.wsj.com/2yPm6PV ) Hasbro, the maker of Disney Princess dolls and Star Wars action figures, declined to comment on the report. Mattel was not immediately available for comment. Mattel, the maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels, has been struggling to boost sales. Last month the company suspended its dividend and warned it would miss forecasts for revenue this year. Both toymakers have been struggling with waning demand and the recent bankruptcy of Toys‘R‘Us, a major outlet for toy sales. Mattel’s shares jumped 20 percent in after hours trading, while Hasbro rose 2.2 percent. The two companies had a combined market capitalization of about $16 billion as of Friday’s close. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mattel-m-a-hasbro/hasbro-makes-takeover-offer-for-mattel-wsj-idUKKBN1DA2WV'|'2017-11-11T00:30:00.000+02:00'
'3927ff95514ef5e8d86626512728572216b6a073'|'Altice ousts CEO after shares dropped 30 percent in a week'|' 38 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Altice ousts CEO after shares dropped 30 percent in a week Sophie Sassard , Gwénaëlle Barzic 5 Min Read LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Altice NV ( ATCA.AS ) has ousted Chief Executive Michel Combes and brought back founder Patrick Drahi as president as the telecoms group seeks to reassure investors after its shares dropped around 30 percent in a week. Combes, 55, was brought in two years ago to put Altice’s ailing French mobile operator SFR back on track. But the performance of France’s second largest carrier has hardly improved, squeezed between market leader Orange’s higher quality services and Iliad’s cheaper offer. Shares in Altice have plunged about a third in value since the Amsterdam-based company said last week it lost around 75,000 broadband customers in France in the third quarter and its debt had reached 49.6 billion euros (44 billion pounds). A company insider told Reuters Combes had struggled to find his place alongside Drahi’s inner circle, which includes Altice USA boss Dexter Goei, SFR director Armando Pereira and General Secretary Jeremie Bonnin. “Michel was not part of the inner circle, which became a problem because Altice is almost run like a family business, around a close clan of trusted allies,” said the person, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Combes and Drahi have very different public profiles. Part of the French establishment, having graduated from the elite Ecole Polytechnique, Combes was close to France’s previous Socialist government, while Franco-Israeli tycoon Drahi has come under fire for not paying more tax in the country and President Emmanuel Macron has publicly criticised Altice’s high debts. Altice said Drahi would return as president after stepping down from that role in 2016, while Goei was named as CEO and will also continue as CEO and chairman of Altice USA ( ATUS.N ). Drahi is widely respected in the industry and is Altice’s largest shareholder with a 31.1 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data. Goei is the 10th-largest shareholder with a 0.75 percent stake. “The organisation changes are meant to align public shareholders’ interests with the ones of the group’s managers, and seek to restore investors’ confidence, but we are not convinced it will be the case,” Bryan Garnier analysts said in a note to clients. “The concentration of the new governance around historical Altice executives might indicate the group is having difficulties attracting and retaining top executives from the industry.” At 1200 GMT, Altice shares were down 4.4 percent at 10.175 euros. ‘CART BEFORE THE HORSES’ Under Combes, Altice embarked in a media spending spree, bidding for expensive sports rights and acquiring digital companies. However, bankers and analysts said the poor quality of its network was regarded as the main issue to be solved by customers and investors. “There is a general feeling that he put the cart before the horses”, said a banker close to Altice. Another Altice insider said Combes’ announcement in July of an ambitious fibre roll-out project to connect the whole of France was another reason that prompted Drahi to replace him. Altice’s poor performance in Europe has led investors to question its strategy and fuelled concerns the highly leveraged company will not be able to maintain its debt level in an environment of rising interest rates. Altice says 85 percent of its debt has fixed interest rates and the group has refinanced 36 billion euros of debt over the past 18 months, extending maturities. As a result, only 44 percent of its debt matures before 2023. “The U.S. has been doing well, better than expected, and the European operations have generally been sort of bouncing along the bottom,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeff Wlodarczak. “Change had to be made.” Combes was appointed chief operating officer of Altice in 2015, after leaving as head of telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent ahead of its takeover by Finland’s Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ). He became Altice’s CEO the following year when Goei stepped down from the role to take the reins at Altice USA. In other changes, Dennis Okhuijsen was named Altice Europe chief executive in addition to serving as chief financial officer of Altice NV, and Alain Weill, CEO of the company’s SFR Media unit, was appointed SFR Group chairman and CEO as well as Altice Media chief operating officer. ($1 = 0.8585 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-altice-ceo/altice-ousts-ceo-after-shares-dropped-30-percent-in-a-week-idUKKBN1DA1LJ'|'2017-11-10T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'e5b3e2d0ffacea9d0a4057d2b9b97f70b64feea6'|'Oil markets stable, but analysts expect high volatility ahead'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:36 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Oil markets creep higher on supply pact expectations Nina Chestney   Crude oil markets were slightly higher on Friday, supported by continuing supply cuts and expectations that an output deal will be extended at the end of the month. FILE PHOTO: An oil rig off the coast of Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo Brent crude LCOc1 was at $64.22 a barrel at 1017 GMT, up 27 cents from the previous close and 43 cents off a more than two-year high of $64.65 reached this week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $57.26, up 9 cents and also not far from this week’s peak of $57.92, its highest in more than two years. The higher prices are a result of efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to tighten the market by cutting output, as well as strong demand and rising political tensions. There are also expectations in the market that OPEC’s next meeting on Nov. 30 will agree to extend cuts beyong the current expiry date in March 2018. “Clearly the market is still convinced that OPEC will succeed in tightening the market to a sufficient extent by extending its production cuts. Attention is therefore paid to any news that supports this view,” Commerzbank analysts said. “Even significantly weaker Chinese crude oil imports in October and an increase in U.S. crude production to a record level failed to exert any lasting pressure on oil prices.” On Friday Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper cited UAE Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui as saying that oil producers will have little difficulty taking a decision on extending the pact. “The market needs a bit of a correction. No one is talking about not extending the cut,” he told the newspaper, adding that it is more a case of deciding on the duration of an extension. Also supporting prices is strong demand in southeast Asia, where the number of tankers holding oil in storage around Singapore and Malaysia has halved since June. However, technicals signal that gains might not be sustained, some analysts say. “The uptrend that has dominated oil futures contracts for most of the last five months is still in place, but it is beginning to look weary,” said Robin Bieber, chart analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. “RBOB’s (gasoline futures) action is evidence of this. Watch the five-day moving averages very carefully. The trend is OK while these are intact - below, and the contracts are very vulnerable to a correction lower to the eight-day moving averages,” he added. U.S. bank Goldman Sachs also warned of greater price volatility ahead, citing rising tensions in the Middle East, especially between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran, along with soaring U.S. oil production. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-markets-stable-but-analysts-expect-high-volatility-ahead-idUKKBN1DA05H'|'2017-11-10T08:29:00.000+02:00'
'5d228536b68a99050658a5286d2851c7271b1586'|'Ultra Electronics hit by U.S. delay to Sparton defense deal'|'(Reuters) - British defense contractor Ultra Electronics said it expected a delayed decision from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on its $234 million purchase of Sparton Corp.Ultra Electronics, whose shares fell 7.9 percent to 1577 pence at 0840 GMT and were the worst performers on the FTSE Midcap Index, said on Friday that it had agreed with the DoJ on time targets for further document submission and time limits for the DoJ’s discovery and decision-making.Assuming that Ultra Electronics and the DoJ meet a Nov. 30 target, a decision from the DoJ is now expected at the end of March next year, the British firm said.Ultra Electronics said in July that it would buy Sparton Corp, which makes anti-submarine warfare devices used by the U.S. Navy, creating a major supplier in underwater warfare, including to the U.S. Department of Defense.However, the British firm said in September that the DoJ had asked for additional information under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.Liberum analysts, who rate Ultra Electronics shares as a “buy”, said further delays were possible, while analysts at Berenberg downgraded the stock to a “sell” from “hold”, citing “persistent organic decline”.Berenberg analysts also pointed to budgetary pressure in the British defense market, which accounts for about 15 percent of the group’s revenue and forecast Ultra Electronics would miss its full-year targets.U.S. President Donald Trump has sought what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending and has criticized European nations for low defense spending.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sparton-m-a-ultra-electronic/ultra-electronics-hit-by-u-s-delay-to-sparton-defense-deal-idINKBN1DA0YO'|'2017-11-10T06:03:00.000+02:00'
'9e30b54aeae8a4f41dea6e0971819e5492fab5fb'|'Telecom Italia earnings hit by litigation, severance costs'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:41 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Telecom Italia earnings hit by litigation, severance costs Agnieszka Flak 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia’s (TIM) ( TLIT.MI ) quarterly results fell short of forecasts, dragged lower by litigation costs and severance payments in a tumultuous year for the former state monopoly. FILE PHOTO: A Telecom Italia tower is pictured in Rome, Italy, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo TIM lost its chief executive in July as top shareholder Vivendi ( VIV.PA ) tightened its grip on the company. Then last month Italy’s government, alarmed at the French company’s growing influence, activated a “golden power” to have a say in TIM’s strategic decisions. TIM’s fixed-line business is losing value, new competitors are appearing in both broadband and mobile and its only foreign business, Brazil, is still in recovery mode. Ousted CEO Cattaneo had made it a priority to revive growth in Italy, but on Friday the company said Italian sales growth slowed to less than 1 percent in the third quarter from 4 percent in the second. Profits in Italy fell 6 percent. In the first set of results released under Cattaneo’s replacement, Vivendi protege Amos Genish, TIM said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 2.5 percent to 2.1 billion euros (1.82 billion pounds), below a consensus analyst forecast provided by the company of 2.2 billion euros. The shares were up 1.3 percent by 1223 GMT after a sharp early sell-off that traders blamed on human error. “Domestic indicators have softened a bit, but Brazil is doing well and guidance was confirmed, so positive overall,” a Milan-based trader said. Earlier this week, TIM’s Brazilian unit, TIM Participações ( TIMP3.SA ), beat estimates with its quarterly earnings as customers continued to shift away from pre-paid plans in the strengthening economy. REGULATOR BATTLES Genish inherits a company saddled with 26 billion euros of debt. The imminent arrival of low-cost French mobile challenger Iliad ( ILD.PA ) is likely to squeeze profits further. Rival investments in broadband infrastructure by power firm Enel ( ENEI.MI ) are also undermining TIM’s broadband drive. Non-recurring charges of 127 million euros for litigation, regulatory and severance items were bigger than expected. TIM did not say exactly what they related to. However, the company gave a 25 million euro severance package to Cattaneo, who left after just 16 months in the job following clashes with Vivendi. The company has been fighting a number of regulatory battles. Earlier this year Italy’s antitrust authority launched an inquiry into TIM’s roll-out of ultrafast broadband in rural and sparsely populated areas. A conference call with Genish later on Friday could offer clues on the strategy that the former Israeli army captain and favourite of Vivendi chairman Vincent Bollore might pursue. Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-telecomitalia-results/telecom-italia-earnings-hit-by-litigation-severance-costs-idUKKBN1DA1M4'|'2017-11-10T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'03a6bd7e7d83c3d16909cf12d5414166cdf68cc5'|'Disney shares rise as focus turns to streaming commitment'|'November 10, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Disney shares rise as focus turns to streaming commitment Arjun Panchadar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Walt Disney’s shares rose 3 percent on Friday, as Wall Street shrugged off poor financial results and focussed instead on the media giant’s commitment to build a service that will compete aggressively with video streaming pioneer Netflix. FILE PHOTO: The water tank of The Walt Disney Co Studios is pictured in Burbank, California February 5, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Disney’s sharper focus on streaming comes amid subscriber losses at its legacy cable networks that include ESPN and ABC, which many viewers are deserting for cheaper, on-demand streaming options. On Thursday, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger talked up his commitment to streaming, calling it the company’s “highest priority this year.” In a step that will further cement Disney’s strong position as a content powerhouse, Iger also unveiled a deal to develop a new “Star Wars” trilogy. Perhaps more importantly, Iger said Disney’s planned streaming service would be “substantially” cheaper than Netflix. Analysts said the lower price likely reflected Disney’s relatively smaller content slate but that the move could help the service gain subscribers quickly. “We think Disney wants strong uptake early on and that this move recognises that the equity market rewards strong (streaming) subscriber growth,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Steven Cahall said. To compete better with Netflix and other streaming services, Disney has also said it will keep new Disney releases out of Netflix, starting from 2019. Disney was making all the right strategic decisions as it builds out the streaming business, Evercore ISI’s Vijay Jayant said. The company is developing family-friendly streaming services that will sell directly to consumers. It will launch a sports-focused service called ESPN Plus in early 2018. According to news reports, Disney has held talks in recent weeks about a potential acquisition of most of Twenty-First Century Fox’s media assets including FX, National Geographic and its movie studio. While Iger declined to comment on the speculation on Thursday, analysts said a deal could help Disney expand its content library as it prepares to launch the streaming service. Disney’s shares have been a laggard on the Dow Jones industrial average, having fallen about 1.5 percent this year through Thursday, compared to the 18.7 percent gain the index has seen. Netflix’s stock, which has climbed 52 percent this year, was down 2 percent on Thursday morning. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-walt-disney-stocks/disney-shares-rise-as-focus-turns-to-streaming-commitment-idUKKBN1DA28A'|'2017-11-10T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'351f41694783ebd49a550ace02b75a9e7be4f6ec'|'HK''s Razer IPO raises $528 million amid heavy retail demand'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:12 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago HK''s Razer IPO raises $528 million amid heavy retail demand Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Razer Inc ( 1337.HK ), backed by Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, on Friday set its initial public offering price at HK$3.88 per share, confirming a report by a Reuters’s publication that the gaming hardware maker had priced its shares near the top of a range. Razer products are displayed at a news conference ahead of its IPO in Hong Kong, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Razer is set to raise HK$4.12 billion ($528 million) after pricing the Hong Kong IPO of 1.063 billion primary shares near top of the HK$2.93-HK$4.00 range, IFR reported on Tuesday. The retail portion of the IPO gathered demand that was 291.24 times the number of 106.36 million shares on offer, the company said. It sets the stage for a sterling debut on Monday, tracking a similar path of a strong debut of China Literature Ltd ( 0772.HK ) Earlier this week, Tencent’s ( 0700.HK ) e-book unit China Literature Ltd ( 0772.HK ) saw its shares surge more than 80 percent in their debut, as Hong Kong investors embrace a rush of tech listings, marking the biggest first-day gain for a large IPO globally this year. Razer said the proceeds would be used to develop new verticals in the gaming and digital entertainment industry, including mobile devices, audio visual technology, live-streaming and broadcasting technology, as well as to fund acquisitions as it expands its ecosystem. Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-razer-ipo/hks-razer-ipo-raises-528-million-amid-heavy-retail-demand-idUKKBN1DA03J'|'2017-11-10T03:12:00.000+02:00'
'4a49069b2d9ab65800a0c4343478c68da8bacfec'|'Italy sees other European countries joining fighter jet programme'|' 27 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Italy sees other European countries joining fighter jet programme Alexander Cornwell 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Italian air force official said on Saturday that he expects French and German plans to develop a new warplane will eventually include other European countries. France and Germany announced in July they would jointly build a new European fighter jet to eventually replace the European Eurofighter and the French Dassault Rafale. The joint declaration did not say what role, if any, other European countries would play. Italy is a partner in the Eurofighter project alongside France, Germany, Spain and Britain. Italian Air Force Chief of Staff Enzo Vecciarelli told Reuters that he could not see the development of “such a complicated system” without including the wider European aerospace industry. “We have to look for all the countries to join for a new venture towards a fifth generation plane,” he said at a military conference in Dubai. The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) in the United States, is the only Western-made fifth generation fighter jet, according to its manufacturer. Fifth generation is a definition that varies among manufacturers but broadly includes advanced stealth capabilities and a high level of computerised connectivity between fighter jets. France and Germany aim to come up with a roadmap by mid 2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of rival warplanes. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-italy/italy-sees-other-european-countries-joining-fighter-jet-programme-idUKKBN1DB0LB'|'2017-11-11T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'3bd1aeac63520d12f2f41f352917e63aaff282c9'|'Signa buys German trophy assets in biggest real-estate deal of 2017'|'November 11, 2017 / 1:40 PM / Updated an hour ago Signa buys German trophy assets in biggest real-estate deal of 2017 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Austria’s Signa, which is trying to buy German department-store chain Kaufhof from Hudson’s Bay ( HBC.TO ) for 3 billion euros (2.65 billion pounds), has bought five trophy assets from RFR in Germany’s biggest real-estate transaction of 2017. The portfolio is worth 1.5 billion euros and comprises properties in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, Germany’s four largest cities, Austrian property and retail group Signa said late on Friday. The properties are the Upper West commercial high rise in Berlin, the upmarket shopping centres Kaufmannshaus and Alsterarkaden in Hamburg, the Upper Zeil shopping mall that is in development in Frankfurt, and the remaining 50 percent of the Karstadt department store at Munich’s main train station. Privately held Signa already owns the Karstadt chain, the biggest rival to Kaufhof. Hudson’s Bay is reviewing Signa’s offer for Kaufhof but has called it incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-realestate-signa/signa-buys-german-trophy-assets-in-biggest-real-estate-deal-of-2017-idUKKBN1DB0J1'|'2017-11-11T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'880ae5ab61c66ea61eb64a0393a43ea8b39be82c'|'Venezuela creditors sceptical despite pledges on Caracas meeting'|'November 9, 2017 / 8:53 PM / in an hour Venezuela creditors sceptical despite pledges on Caracas meeting Corina Pons , Davide Scigliuzzo 5 Min Read CARACAS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venezuela has promised investors that government officials under sanction by the United States will not participate in debt talks next week, three market sources told Reuters on Thursday, but creditors said they were still unlikely to attend. The corporate logo of the state oil company PDVSA is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares President Nicolas Maduro has urged bondholders to meet for debt restructuring talks in Caracas with officials from the cash-strapped OPEC nation, which is struggling under a failing socialist economic system and Washington sanctions that block it from refinancing. Many investors have said they would be reluctant to take part in the talks, as Venezuela’s two chief debt negotiators have been sanctioned by the U.S. government, which has warned investors of stiff penalties if they break the rules. The Venezuelan government had promised that sanctioned officials would not attend Monday’s meeting, said a local finance industry source with knowledge of the preparations. In New York, two other sources knowledgeable of the Venezuelan debt situation said they had heard the same proposal. Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Creditors still seemed sceptical, with investors Reuters spoke to saying they would not attend the meeting. As well as the sanctions, they have cited concerns about security in Caracas and a lack of clarity on the proposals. “We are not going,” said Kaan Nazli, senior economist for emerging debt at Neuberger Berman. “It is unclear what the proposal will be ... there are so many obstacles that you don’t see in any other restructuring.” A fund manager at a U.S.-based Emerging Markets advisory boutique said: “I personally do not know anyone who would entertain this ‘invitation’. I can tell you right now that there’s no way my wife (and mom) would let me go!” Maduro has invited creditors to discuss the restructuring of some $60 billion of bonds, but also vowed to continue making debt payments. Investors say they would have little reason to participate in renegotiation talks if payments continue, and that such talks generally begin after a default has taken place. U.S.-based creditors are not prohibited from attending meetings, but are barred from dealings with sanctioned officials. The government of U.S. President Donald Trump has issued several rounds of sanctions this year, accusing Maduro’s government of undermining democracy and violating human rights. Vice President Tareck El Aissami is under sanction for alleged drug trafficking, while Economy Minister Simon Zerpa has been sanctioned for corruption. On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury added 10 officials of modest influence to its list of Venezuelans under sanction, including several members of the National Elections Council. The new sanctions do not show any evident link to the debt talks. They appear to have come in response to October elections for state governors that broadly favoured the ruling Socialist Party amid opposition complaints of fraud and voter intimidation. ‘CREDIT EVENT’ Creditors have also asked finance industry association ISDA to determine if Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] is in default due to a delayed bond payment. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) website showed PDVSA was on its agenda for Friday at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). The full payment for PDVSA’s 2017N bond of $1.169 billion, which includes $1.121 billion in principal and $47 million in interest, was due on Nov. 2. Market sources said on Wednesday that PDVSA had transferred most of the funds to make the final payment, but investors had still not received the money by Thursday. If ISDA determines that a ‘credit event’ has taken place, that could allow creditors to collect on derivatives known as credit default swaps, a form of insurance against default. Since October, Venezuela and PDVSA have been skipping interest payments, invoking a 30-day grace period in an apparent effort to ease a cash crunch that has left the country desperately short of basic goods such as food and medicines. Maduro said last week that the bond would be paid in full. He says the country is victim of an “economic war” led by his political adversaries and fuelled by Washington’s sanctions. An ISDA spokeswoman said Friday’s meeting may not be conclusive. “It is always possible that they will need more time to deliberate,” said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, in an email to Reuters. PDVSA did not respond to an email seeking comment. Additional reporting by Umesh Desai in Hong Kong, Lesley Wroughton in Washington, and Karin Strohecker in London, writing by Brian Ellsworth,; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-bonds/venezuela-creditors-sceptical-despite-pledges-on-caracas-meeting-idUKKBN1D931O'|'2017-11-09T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'993867c47bef3e5987d7a5e530b48923a8d879a0'|'Communication breakdown?'|'Reuters TV United States November 10, 2017 / 11:38 AM / a few seconds ago Global Economy: Communication breakdown? Catherine Evans 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A flattening of government bond yield curves that may presage an economic downturn could prompt verbal interventions in the coming week by central bankers still struggling to hit this cycle’s inflation targets. Governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda (L to R), United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi walk after posing for a photo opportunity during the annual central bank research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Jade Barker European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England head Mark Carney will form an all-star panel on Tuesday at an ECB-hosted conference in Frankfurt. The subject? “Challenges and opportunities of central bank communication.” Curve-flattening on both sides of the Atlantic, but more markedly in the United States, suggests investors have doubts over the future path of inflation and may be starting to price in a downturn just as the global economy picks up speed. Since the Fed began raising rates in 2015, the difference between long- and short-term U.S. yields has shrunk to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis, reaching 67 basis points US2US10=RR -- its flattest in a decade -- in the past week. That partly reflects uncertainty about the passage of a Republican-sponsored bill to cut U.S. taxes, which has hauled down longer-term projections of inflation while expectations for upcoming rate increases push short-term yields higher. With curve-flattening typically signaling a muted outlook for both growth and inflation, the trend suggests investors see a risk that the Fed’s current monetary tightening cycle will start to slow the world’s biggest economy. A flatter curve, which makes lending less profitable, also poses a risk to the banking sector, nursed back to fragile health by central banks after it nearly collapsed a decade ago. But with crisis-era policies still largely in place, how would central banks cushion the impact of a downturn? RECESSION RISK S&P Global Ratings said in the past week that it sees a 15-20 percent risk of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months based on economic conditions, government policy uncertainty and continued gradual tightening by the Fed. Citing economic indicators that show the expansion is either in or approaching a late cycle -- though not overheating -- it forecast robust GDP growth in the second half of 2017. “Still, monetary policy risk remains in the coming months that is not captured in our quantitative assessment,” S&P said. ”The economy has now more or less closed the output gap ...That means monetary policy is more likely to transition away from the current accommodative stance. FILE PHOTO: Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney sits before delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo “Furthermore, if a sizeable fiscal stimulus from the U.S. government is to indeed go through in the coming months, it increases the chance of the Fed tightening policy more aggressively.” Market expectations that the Fed will continue to tighten gradually have generally been preserved by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Jerome Powell as Fed Chair when Yellen’s term expires in February. But with a number of Fed vacancies to be filled, analysts at ING say the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee could yet take on a hawkish hue. “The combination of upside risks to growth and mounting inflationary pressures, as well as a hawkish rotation in the make-up of Fed voters, suggests that markets are too cautious in only pricing in one (rate) hike next year,” they wrote. “We’re expecting a December rate hike, and these various factors mean there is upside risk to our call for two further rate rises next year. What’s more, the long end of the (yield) curve will also have to deal with additional supply from the Fed’s balance sheet reduction programme.” Powell, a 64-year-old Fed board governor and former investment banker, will take over an economy that has been expanding for more than eight years and where unemployment has fallen to its lowest since the early 2000s. Under his leadership the Fed is widely expected to continue to raise borrowing costs gradually, as Yellen began to do in late 2015, and to shrink the central bank’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet. It has raised rates twice this year and is widely expected to do so again -- to a target range of 1.25 to 1.5 percent -- next month. Investors in Europe are also focused on potential future price growth, although the European Central Bank’s more accommodative stance means a different dynamic for bond markets. The hunt for returns drove the German yield curve, Europe’s benchmark, to its flattest in about two months in the past week, though that trend was reversed on Thursday and Friday. Market measures of long-term inflation expectations in the bloc have risen in recent months but remain well below the ECB’s near-2-percent target, giving funds confidence that the value of those investments will not be materially eroded. EUIL5YF5Y=R The ECB’s decision last month to extend its asset purchase program until at least September and pledge to keep rates at record lows until well after that scheme ends have helped push bond yields across the bloc to multi-month lows. The European Commission said on Thursday that it expected the euro zone economy to grow at its fastest pace in a decade this year before slowing somewhat. A flash estimate of third-quarter GDP in the euro area will be released on Tuesday and October’s inflation reading on Thursday. A clutch of other Fed policymakers will also be out and about, while Draghi, Kuroda and Carney are all due to make speeches during the week. Reporting by Catherine Evans; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/global-economy-communication-breakdown-idUKKBN1DA1EC'|'2017-11-10T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'289c5c54e236baceb68ff6b1841bde064c76aa0d'|'EU watchdog defends Brexit guidance for asset managers'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago EU watchdog defends Brexit guidance for asset managers Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s securities watchdog defended on Friday its disputed guidance on how asset managers in Britain can run funds based in the bloc after Brexit. FILE PHOTO: Steven Maijoor, Chair of European Securities and Markets Authority, addresses the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong January 19, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo - RC167A71E2D0 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued guidance on “delegation”, or an asset manager in one country running a fund based in another, after the UK leaves the EU in 2019. Asset managers in Britain run many funds listed in EU states like Ireland and Luxembourg, but managers say the ESMA guidance could make delegation unworkable by forcing them to relocate from Britain to the bloc. Richard Stobo, investment management leader at ESMA, said there were still different views among European regulators over how delegation structures should be treated. There was merit, however, in seeking supervisory convergence over this sensitive issue, he said. “Having said that, we fully recognise the importance of the delegation model in the current market set up,” Stobo told the Irish Funds Industry Association’s annual London meeting. Delegation is accepted within the bloc’s mutual and alternative funds industry rules. “The idea is not to change that model,” Stobo said. The guidance has been painted by critics as a backdoor attempt by France to wrest more funds business not only from London after Brexit, but also from Luxembourg and Ireland. Over 480 asset managers run 6,000 funds listed in Dublin that have 2.25 trillion euros of assets under management. Between 160 and 170 of the managers are based in Britain, with another large chunk in the United States, and U.S. based managers worry the Brexit guidance will impinge on transatlantic delegation. Pat Lardner, chief executive of Irish Funds, said the current system was a well-functioning market and savings patterns must not be disrupted. “We have a number of reasonable questions about what is the problem that one is trying to fix here. That is not apparent,” Lardner said. “There are a lot of questions,” added Martina Kelly, a senior official at the Central Bank of Ireland. Nick Miller, head of investment management supervision at Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, said delegation as a global model works well and there is no need to disrupt it. “We want to see good cooperation between regulators. We want to see delegation that works well,” Miller said. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-funds/eu-watchdog-defends-brexit-guidance-for-asset-managers-idUKKBN1DA1MN'|'2017-11-10T14:44:00.000+02:00'
'e616346029b5b7cc916f4dd7d710ce6c414a2e56'|'Stock market fall "not the Big One", says BAML'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Investors poured a record $1.3 billion into funds managing tech shares over the past week, contrasting with a picture of ebbing inflow into world equity vehicles and losses on U.S. stock funds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) said on Friday.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The data, which tracks flows through Wednesday, also showed some alarm over junk debt, with some $600 million in outflows from high-yield bond funds, an eight-week high.World stocks are witnessing their second day of losses, albeit after the longest daily winning streak in almost 11 years. A 0.4 percent pullback in U.S. tech shares on Thursday came after a 40 percent jump in 2017 alone.“The recent pullback is a ‘dress rehearsal’ not the Big One,” BAML told clients, noting the fall had been preceded by “insane gains” which had pushed for instance the value of U.S. tech firms and their U.S.-listed Chinese peers past the entire market capitalisation of Germany’s DAX index.U.S. as well as European junk bond yields have hit record lows in recent months, with the latter having fallen below U.S. Treasuries, the bank noted.A meltdown would “require recession risk or moves higher in wage inflation, bond yields and volatility or credit spreads.”Equity funds received a net $3.9 billion, slowing from the previous week’s $5 billion, though mutual funds witnessed $1 billion in outflow.U.S. equities suffered outflows of $5.6 billion while European funds took in $2.9 billion, having enjoyed gains in nine of the past 10 weeks.Bonds took in $6.5 billion, with the 46th straight week of flow to investment-grade funds and $500 million going to emerging debt funds, the latter slowing from recent weeks.Reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Peter Graff '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-flows-baml/stock-market-fall-not-the-big-one-says-baml-idINKBN1DA1CA'|'2017-11-10T13:30:00.000+02:00'
'157027740f464e81ce51c0b3fff38b471e46046d'|'ECB should have signalled intent to end asset buys, Nowotny says'|' 13 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago ECB should have signalled intent to end asset buys, Nowotny says   VIENNA (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should have signalled a clear intent to end asset buys when it extended purchases until September but left the door open to another extension, ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny said in remarks broadcast on Friday. FILE PHOTO - European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member and OeNB governor Ewald Nowotny addresses a news conference in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Nowotny, who sits on the ECB’s Governing Council and heads the Austrian National Bank, told Austrian broadcaster ORF that he agreed with his German counterpart Jens Weidmann, who made a similar point the day after the ECB announced its decision. “In this respect I am in absolute agreement with my German colleague,” Nowotny said when asked about Weidmann’s remarks. The ECB said last month it would halve the pace of its bond purchases from January but also extend the 2.55 trillion euro buying programme until the end of next September. “This new purchasing programme is valid until September 2018 and in my view we should then go about bringing it to an end if the economy develops as we currently expect it to,” Nowotny said, echoing remarks he made last week. Reporting by Francois Murphy and Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-nowotny/ecb-should-have-signalled-intent-to-end-asset-buys-nowotny-says-idUKKBN1DA0ZR'|'2017-11-10T11:12:00.000+02:00'
'ef90e79248d55a18267c912a41445c5e4fbae788'|'AT&T armed for fight with U.S. on Time Warner deal - CEO'|'November 9, 2017 / 4:56 PM / Updated an hour ago AT&T armed for fight with U.S. on Time Warner deal: CEO David Shepardson , Anjali Athavaley 4 Min Read WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) will not sell cable network CNN to win antitrust approval of its proposed $85.4 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) and will fight the government in court if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the wireless company’s chief executive said on Thursday. The AT&T logo is seen on a store in Golden, Colorado United States July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Justice Department staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit, which includes news company CNN, a government official told Reuters on Thursday, on the grounds that a combined company would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation. The two sides are still in talks over approval of the deal but have disagreed over the necessity of asset sales. “If we feel like litigation is a better outcome then we will litigate,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday. He said the company had been ready to go to court the day the deal was announced in October 2016. AT&T has signaled it would not agree to sell DirecTV, which it acquired for $49 billion in 2015, leaving CNN and other cable TV assets as the main sticking point in negotiations. The antitrust regulator is worried the combined company could make it harder for rivals to deliver content to consumers using new technologies, the official said. For its part, AT&T has said it wants to disrupt “entrenched pay TV models,” most likely by making more video available on its customers’ smartphones and tablets. OVER BY APRIL FILE PHOTO: The CNN building (L) in Dubai Media City Park March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Boyce/File Photo Stephenson said the deal was a classic “vertical” merger that removed no competitors from any market and denied the company would be too powerful. He said a combined AT&T and Time Warner would create a data and advertising company competing against the newest and most disruptive entrants into the media sector: Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Facebook Inc ( FB.O ), Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google, not other wireless phone companies. The Justice Department’s desire for asset sales, which normally would not be required in a merger between companies that are not direct competitors, has raised concerns about political influence on the deal, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of CNN. As a candidate, Trump vowed to block the deal shortly after it was announced, but has not addressed the issue publicly as president. Stephenson told the conference he has no reason to think Trump would be a factor in the deal’s approval and said he hoped the matter would be settled well before the April 22, 2018 deadline when parties can walk away from a deal. AT&T told the Justice Department on Monday that it believed it had complied with all legal requirements for the deal to be cleared, a person briefed on the matter said. That sets a deadline for the government to sue if it wants to block the merger. Officials said that detail could be as early Nov. 27. The head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, said in a statement late on Thursday that he has “never been instructed by the White House” on the AT&T deal. Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said in a separate statement that Trump “did not speak with the Attorney General about this matter, and no White House official was authorized speak with the Department of Justice on this matter.” The deal is opposed by an array of rivals and consumer groups worried that it would give the combined company too much power. Opponents are pushing for conditions that would limit AT&T’s ability to charge media rivals higher prices to carry Time Warner content. Shares of Time Warner closed down 1.6 percent at $87.05. AT&T shares rose 1.6 percent to $34.00. Reporting by David Shepardson and Anjali Athavaley; Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Aishwarya Venugopal; Writing by Anna Driver; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-worried-att-buying-time-warner-would-hike-costs-for-media-rivals-source-idUKKBN1D92HF'|'2017-11-10T00:26:00.000+02:00'
'0103602d6b17d013ba300585abef70b50955a46c'|'CBS'' buyout of Australia''s Ten Network nears final hurdle'|'November 10, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 4 hours ago CBS'' buyout of Australia''s Ten Network nears final hurdle Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - CBS Corp’s buyout of embattled Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings won approval from an Australian court on Friday, leaving only sign-off from the nation’s securities regulator before the deal is done. FILE PHOTO - The CBS "eye" and logo are seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th St. in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The bankrupt television station had been the subject of a bidding war between CBS and Twenty-First Century Fox Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, until Ten’s creditors voted in September to accept the CBS offer. Although a ratings laggard, Ten’s national reach and strong brand recognition in the world’s 12th-largest economy made it an attractive buyout target and CBS swooped after Ten went into administration in July. Murdoch and his co-bidder, billionaire Bruce Gordon, already lost a legal bid to derail the deal two months ago and did not contest Friday’s procedural application for court permission to transfer Ten’s shares to CBS control. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black dismissed opposition from three small shareholders to give the deal the green light. Barring an appeal from the shareholders, all stock in Ten will be transferred to CBS after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, Ten’s administrator KordaMentha said in a statement after the verdict. The buyout won approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board last month, and though it requires final clearance from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the regulator has already offered its in-principle support for the buyout. A spokeswoman for Murdoch and Gordon declined to comment. Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ten-network-m-a-cbs-corp/cbs-buyout-of-australias-ten-network-nears-final-hurdle-idINKBN1DA0UN'|'2017-11-10T05:18:00.000+02:00'
'df760d8d6c57ecf4bb640822713099ef57a81949'|'BlackRock CEO Fink says global economy strong despite politics'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:13 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago BlackRock CEO Fink says global economy strong despite politics Trevor Hunnicutt 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ) Chief Executive Larry Fink on Thursday said the global economic outlook looks positive despite U.S. political dysfunction. Larry Fink, Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, takes part in the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in New York, U.S., February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Speaking at the New York Times DealBook conference, Fink said he has been surprised by the strength of U.S. corporate profits. S&P 500 .SPX profits in the third quarter rose 7.9 percent year-on-year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates. “We have a very strong global economy,” Fink said, noting that growth has been more synchronized across major global economies than it has been in a decade. BlackRock manages nearly $6 trillion in assets. Fink said he expects $2 trillion to $5 trillion (3.80 trillion pounds) more to move into the “passive” index-tracking funds for which the company is known as a result of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MIFID II, in the European Union and the “fiduciary rule” in the United States. Each regulation is aimed at undermining conflicts of interest in financial advice and fund management, but companies have warned that each may generate unintended consequences as they are implemented. Reporting by Trevor HunnicuttEditing by Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-blackrock-ceo/blackrock-ceo-fink-says-global-economy-strong-despite-politics-idUKKBN1D939F'|'2017-11-10T00:12:00.000+02:00'
'5fce89a70761367c754f87f8c9f3791a5d3b7fd9'|'Toshiba considering $5.3 billion capital injection - source'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:07 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Toshiba considering $5.3 billion capital injection: source Taro Fuse 3   Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, is considering raising about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers look at Toshiba Corp''s Regza television at an electronics store in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, June 25, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The Japanese conglomerate has received proposals from several domestic and overseas brokerages for plans to raise money through a public offering or third-party allotment, and is looking into the option of allocating shares mainly to overseas investors, the person said. In early trade, shares of Toshiba fell as much as 8 percent on the capital injection plan, first reported by public broadcaster NHK. They were down 4.5 percent by mid-morning, underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average’s 1 percent fall. Strapped with liabilities arising from its bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, Toshiba agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. It needs to beef up its balance sheet by the end of the fiscal year in end-March to avoid a possible delisting. The source told Reuters that Toshiba wants to finalize the capital injection plan by year-end because it would need shareholder approval depending on the offering price and scope of share dilution. The person declined to be identified because the plan is not public. In a statement, Toshiba repeated its stance that it was aiming to close the deal to sell its chip business by the end of March, saying in response to the NHK report that nothing specific had been decided regarding any funding plans. Announcing half-year results a day earlier, Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata said Toshiba had launched a working group to consider various options to raise capital in case the deal did not close in time. He offered no specifics. Toshiba reported robust second-quarter results with a 76 percent jump in operating profit driven almost entirely by a strong performance from its memory chip unit. If Toshiba fails to close the sale in time, that could keep Toshiba in negative net worth for a second year in a row, putting pressure on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist it. Reporting by Taro Fuse; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting/toshiba-considering-5-3-billion-capital-injection-nhk-idUKKBN1DA003'|'2017-11-10T03:53:00.000+02:00'
'24e39adf37b0b0d3e71e7a2870f10064d8f18f31'|'Airbus, Boeing close in on Dubai deals worth $30 billion'|'November 12, 2017 / 8:15 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Boeing takes head start in Dubai with Emirates Dreamliner order Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates unveiled a preliminary order worth $15 billion for 40 Boeing ( BA.N ) jets on Sunday, but kept Europe’s Airbus ( AIR.PA ) waiting for a lifeline order for A380 superjumbos as the Dubai Airshow opened amid worries over tensions in the Middle East. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (L), CEO & Chairman of Emirates Airline and Kevin Mcallister (R), Executive VP & CEO of Commercial Airplanes Boeing, shake hands during the press conference at Dubai Air Show in Dubai, UAE November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar The largest Middle East carrier signed a draft deal for the largest version of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the 787-10, watched by Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, credited for the launch of Emirates more than 30 years ago. Airline chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said the carrier had chosen the latest version of Boeing’s mid-sized wide-body jet after comparing it with the Airbus A350. Deliveries will start in 2022 and Emirates has yet to decide between engines offered by General Electric ( GE.N ) and Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ). Reuters earlier reported that Boeing was close to clinching a deal for 787-10s, upstaging expectations of an early Airbus deal. The 40 jets are worth $12.5 billion at list prices, but Boeing said the value had risen to $15.1 billion after including other related equipment. Boeing landed the order even as business confidence in the region has wobbled. A rift emerged in the summer between Qatar and Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates. That dispute has meant that Qatar Airways, who four years ago opened the Dubai Airshow with a blockbuster order announced jointly with Emirates, is not at the show this week. Saudi Arabia, the region’s biggest economy, meanwhile detained dozens of top officials this month in an unprecedented, sweeping corruption crackdown. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (L), CEO & Chairman of Emirates Airline, Kevin Mcallister (R), Executive VP & CEO of Commercial Airplanes Boeing, sign contract during the press conference at Dubai Air Show in Dubai, UAE November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar But Sheikh Ahmed said the deal was proof that the region’s hub aviation model was working and highlighted the impact on jobs in the United States and elsewhere. “This is a long-term commitment that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, not only at Boeing but throughout the aviation supply chain,” he said. “Our announcement today also speaks to our confidence in the future of aviation in the UAE and the region.” Slideshow (5 Images) Airbus has been looking for a boost to the A380 superjumbo, which after a decade in service has seen sales decline in favour of smaller but equally efficient long-haul jetliners and had expected to close the deal with Emirates. Airbus envoys arrived in the press conference room apparently expecting a combined announcement, only to see Boeing take the honours. No further announcements were scheduled by Emirates for Sunday, but could not be ruled out later in the week. “Emirates are still talking to Airbus about it. There are no promises,” a Gulf source said. A key to the deal could be the extent to which Airbus is prepared to buy back A380s due to leave the Emirates fleet. “A few trade-ins will be involved,” a person familiar with the matter said. Azerbaijan Airlines meanwhile announced an order for five Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets and two freighters. And, distancing itself from rivals that have cut out first class seats, Emirates joined forces with Mercedes-Benz to launch new first-class suites inspired by luxury car interiors. Additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi, Noah Browning; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow/airbus-boeing-close-in-on-dubai-deals-worth-30-billion-idUKKBN1DC07K'|'2017-11-12T10:14:00.000+02:00'
'dfdc721712e16b4e63d361426a7a30b0b56a2a09'|'Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group resurrects cancelled IPO'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:23 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group resurrects cancelled IPO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Ready meals supplier Bakkavor Group plc BAKK.L said on Friday it had revived plans to float on the London Stock Exchange only a week after saying it was shelving its plans for an initial public offering due to market volatility. The firm had said on Nov. 3 that the transaction would not be in the interests of the company or shareholders even though it had received “sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering”. However it said on Friday that it was now going to go ahead and float 25 percent of the firm at a price of 180 pence per share, valuing the company at 1.04 billion pounds. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bakkavor-ipo/ready-meals-firm-bakkavor-group-resurrects-cancelled-ipo-idUKKBN1DA0PX'|'2017-11-10T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'9eca60cae3cf154442aa9fd5efa68528042ae2af'|'China will lift foreign ownership limits on financial market JVs - vice finance minister'|'November 10, 2017 / 5:08 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago China lifts foreign ownership limits on financial firms Reuters Staff 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese government on Friday said it will raise foreign ownership limits in domestic financial firms, a long-anticipated step that grants greater access to overseas investors into the Asian giant’s financial services market. FILE PHOTO - China''s Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao, attends a conference during the 2016 IIF G20 Conference at the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China, February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song The move, announced by vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao, comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated calls for better access to Chinese markets in meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The changes include raising the limit on foreign ownership in joint-venture firms involved in the futures, securities and funds markets to 51 percent from the current 49 percent. They will take effect immediately following the drafting of specific related rules, Zhu told a news conference. The foreign business community welcomed the news but urged caution until it was clear how rules would be implemented. “Financial services further opening definitely has been high on our list,” said Ken Jarrett, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. “It’s a step in the right direction. We’ll have to see the detailed rules. In China you always have to pay attention to the fine print to see how quickly it moves, but to finally ease up on the cap is something that is welcome.” A JPMorgan spokesperson said the firm “welcomes any decision made by the Chinese government that looks to liberalize its financial sector further.” The plan to ease ownership restrictions comes as Beijing faces mounting pressure from Western governments and business lobbies to remove investment barriers and onerous regulations that restrict overseas companies’ operations in its markets. During his trip to Beijing this week, Trump said that trade between the two nations was unfair, and called for greater market access for U.S. companies. “We really have to look at access, forced technology transfer, and the theft of intellectual property, which just, by and of itself, is costing the United States and its companies at least $300 billion a year,” Trump said. “Both the United States and China will have a more prosperous future if we can achieve a level economic playing field. Right now, unfortunately, it is a very one-sided and unfair one.” China has been sluggish to give foreign players more access to its financial sector, but has promised to quicken the pace as foreign investment into the world’s second-biggest economy slows. China has implemented strict capital controls to contain capital outflows, while opening up new channels for foreign money to come into the domestic markets, though foreign financial firms are still small players in the financial sector. Reuters reported on Tuesday that China planned to allow global banks to take a stake of up to 51 percent in their onshore securities ventures for the first time and tie up with local non-financial firms. TOO LITTLE TOO LATE? Some industry watchers said the changes are too little too late. “This looks good, but in reality it is pretty small and it is too late,” said Keith Pogson, head of the Asia financial services team at EY. “If you are an international investment bank, you will be there for the sake of your global franchise and having it as part of your network, not because you think you will make much money in China.” Markets reacted positively to the news, with insurers and futures-related firms rallying strongly. New China Life Insurance ( 601336.SS ) jumped nearly 6 percent after the announcement, while Ping An Insurance ( 2318.HK ) ( 601318.SS ) advanced more than 4 percent and China Pacific Insurance Group ( 601601.SS ) rose over 3 percent. China will drop foreign ownership restrictions on local banks and asset management companies, Zhu said, adding that the time is right for the nation to step up the liberalisation of its financial sector. Full foreign ownership of local firms involved in the futures, securities and funds markets will not be permitted until after three years, while full overseas ownership of insurance firms will be allowed only after five years, Zhu said. Reporting by Kevin Yao and Stella Qiu; additional reporting by John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Matthew Miller in Beijing and Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong; writing by Elias Glenn; Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-finance/china-will-lift-foreign-ownership-limits-on-financial-market-jvs-vice-finance-minister-idUKKBN1DA0EH'|'2017-11-10T07:13:00.000+02:00'
'1c1c678d268ada6968a8239476615c147f7c91ac'|'MOVES-Morgan Stanley''s head of sports, entertainment division to leave'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The head of Morgan Stanley wealth management’s global sports and entertainment division is leaving the firm, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday.A 28-year veteran of the firm, Drew Hawkins oversaw roughly 80 advisers who collectively managed around $45 billion of assets belonging to celebrities and professional athletes.Hawkins could not immediately be reached for comment. The firm declined to comment on when his last day would be or whether it has named a replacement for Hawkins.Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morgan-stanley-wealth-moves/morgan-stanleys-head-of-sports-entertainment-division-to-leave-idUSKBN1D93DA'|'2017-11-10T00:58:00.000+02:00'
'796724b2d665a611edc91bcf80d7a89935f55b56'|'General Electric wins $643 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon'|'November 9, 2017 / 11:35 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago General Electric wins $643 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - General Electric Co has been awarded a $643 million contract to provide F110-GE-129 aircraft engines and related equipment and services to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an expected completion date of Nov. 8, 2024, it said in a statement. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ge-pentagon/general-electric-wins-643-mln-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUSL1N1NF31G'|'2017-11-10T01:33:00.000+02:00'
'7cab23ba1d55c6ca9cf73c6cde10906772a7b947'|'British aviation authority revokes Monarch''s operating licence'|'November 9, 2017 / 6:23 PM / Updated 4 hours ago British aviation authority revokes Monarch''s operating licence Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s aviation authority on Thursday revoked the operating licence of Monarch [MONA.UL] following its sudden collapse in early October. FILE PHOTO: Monarch airplanes are seen parked on the runway at Newquay airport, Newquay, Britain, October 26, 2017, REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Monarch had argued to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it should retain its operating licence, as Air Berlin did when it entered administration earlier this year. It also said that a suspension rather than a revocation of the licence could help to achieve a better outcome for creditors. However, the CAA ruled that as Monarch no longer had the aircraft at their disposal or the ability to operate flights, it was in a different situation from Air Berlin, and that the issues that led to Monarch’s failure would not go away. “It might be appropriate to suspend a licence rather than revoke it where there is a prospect of the carrier remedying the problem,” the CAA said in its decision. But it added: “All the evidence suggests that there is no such prospect.” Over 100,000 holidaymakers needed repatriating after Monarch’s sudden collapse, and administrators at KPMG are trying to recover value from the company. This week a court ruled that Monarch had no right to be allocated airport slots for next year, which were valued at around 60 million pounds ($80 million) and were potentially the most valuable remaining part of the business. While the implementation of that decision at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports has been paused pending a decision over permission to hold an appeal, the CAA’s decision to revoke the operating licence could further damage any remaining hopes Monarch had of hanging on to its slots. Alex Cruz, chief executive of IAG’s British Airways, said during a trip to Israel on Thursday that he hoped the ambiguity over the slots could be sorted out quickly, as airlines would need to allocate planes to the slots and customers would need to start booking flights. IAG ( ICAG.L ), easyJet ( EZJ.L ), Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) and Wizz Air ( WIZZ.L ) have all expressed interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots, especially at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports. Cruz said that British Airways, along with other IAG ( ICAG.L ) owned airlines, was interested in the Gatwick slots. “We are in limbo here ... This cannot go on forever - and the summer is coming,” he told Reuters. “I sincerely hope we can reach a decision over the next two, three, four weeks.” Reporting by Alistair Smout; additional reporting by Steven Scheer in Tel-Aviv; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-airlines-licence/british-aviation-authority-revokes-monarchs-operating-licence-idUKKBN1D92QM'|'2017-11-09T20:22:00.000+02:00'
'039be85111720ba60a4b946317d73d9ef34e838c'|'New kids on the block: tech giants turning Sydney''s CBD into ''Silicon Place'''|'* Tech firms moving in; tightening office rental market* Sydney office vacancy rate at near-decade low* Building spree should boost jobs in construction industry* Move comes as economy shifts away from mining boomBy Swati PandeySYDNEY, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Global technology titans including Amazon.com Inc, LinkedIn and Expedia are moving into Sydney’s central business district, providing a commercial property fillip just as Australia’s record housing boom starts to tire.The tech invasion - with locals now dubbing Martin Place, once the heartland of the finance sector, ‘Silicon Place’ - has tightened the office rental market and helped drive down the city’s vacancy rate to a near-decade low, according to property manager Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL).The premium of Australian property yields to 3-year term deposit is close to record highs, and gross rents in Sydney have risen by nearly a quarter in the 12 months to September.“The global economy is on an upswing and you’ve got a geographically constrained market in Sydney. I’d call it a perfect storm,” said Trent James, office property portfolio manager at Charter Hall Office Trust.Amazon, among the latest tech heavyweights to expand in Australia, has snapped up a sprawling nine-floor office in the city’s financial hub, with sweeping views of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hyde Park.Nasdaq-listed cloud computing firm LogMeIn has taken over two floors in a Martin Place building that also houses a glitzy Tesla showroom, in what it calls its new Asia-Pacific headquarters.Martin Place, once dominated by the country’s major banks - which have mostly decamped to other locations in the central business district - now also has Facebook and Alphabet’s Google among its residents.As new entrants come in and existing residents expand, several time-worn buildings have been demolished to make way for the high-tech spaces now in vogue.But office property managers and landlords don’t expect new supply to come in before 2020, meaning the market will remain tight for the next couple of years at least.The building spree should add to growth and boost employment in the construction industry, a big plus as Australia’s A$1.7 trillion economy transitions away from a once-in-a-decade mining boom.Sydney and Melbourne - Australia’s two biggest cities - are both seeing strong leasing enquiries for offices, and other business hubs, including Perth, have gathered momentum, JLL data shows.“Sydney and Australia are very similar to the United States in terms of technology adoption, growth and maturity. It’s a nice gateway to Asia,” said Lindsay Brown, Asia-Pacific vice president at LogMeIn.“Sydney’s CBD is a tight market for office properties so we had a bit of luck and good timing to secure this place.”WILD WEST The renewed interest in modern spaces has attracted heavy fund inflows, driving construction work also into Sydney’s western suburbs, once no-go areas for big business.National Australia Bank (NAB) has said it will have a large office in the western suburb of Parramatta by 2020, making it the country’s first major lender to have a significant presence there. Headquartered in Melbourne, NAB has another office in Sydney’s CBD.HSBC and accounting firms Deloitte, KPMG and PwC are also moving west.“We tend to see the office sector is ultimately a microcosm of corporate Australia,” said Andrew Ballantyne, national director at real estate services firm JLL.“It’s an expression of confidence in your business moving forward that you’re ultimately going to need more space. Because, quite simply, real estate is a cost.”The activity comes amid signs that Australia’s biggest home-building boom is levelling off and the government embarks on major infrastructure projects, with plans to spend A$75 billion over the next 10 years, including on major rail and road connections.The value of total buildings approved in Australia is the second-highest on record, and infrastructure activity is at a decade high.“All the infrastructure that’s happening around Sydney right now makes it a very dynamic economy,” JLL’s Ballantyne said. “That also makes Parramatta a much more desirable place to work than it was 20 years ago.”WINNERS AND LOSERS Shares of most office property funds have outperformed returns on the benchmark stock index this year, with Charter Hall rising 27 percent and developer Goodman Group up 19 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 index has added 6 percent so far this year.However, retail landlords have fared less well, amid worries that Australia’s retail sector could suffer at the hands of Amazon.com, which has yet to spell out its full strategy for the local market.Shares of Vicinity Centres, which manages shopping centres around Australia, have fallen almost 8 percent this year, and Stockland shares have gained just 1 percent.Private equity giant Blackstone Group has called off the sale of its A$3.5 billion Australian shopping mall portfolio as Amazon’s arrival has spooked buyers of bricks-and-mortar stores.Also, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cautioned investors as growth in commercial property prices has outpaced the increase in rents. The central bank is worried that highly leveraged investors could be caught out if global interest rates see a marked increase.“Typically, they could then be required to provide additional equity, potentially triggering sales and further price falls,” the RBA said in its latest half-yearly financial stability review.Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-economy/new-kids-on-the-block-tech-giants-turning-sydneys-cbd-into-silicon-place-idINL3N1NE3VG'|'2017-11-11T22:01:00.000+02:00'
'61903ebc3989c4fc1cece3717167f639b48870cd'|'UPDATE 1-Ghana names Fieldstone, PWC as leads for thermal assets sale'|'(Adds details)By Kwasi KpodoACCRA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Ghana has named Fieldstone and PricewaterhouseCoopers to lead its planned sale of thermal assets worth up to $2 billion, in an effort to relieve its debt-laden power sector, government sources told Reuters on Friday.The West African nation also appointed consulting firms Boulders Advisors Ltd and Mott Macdonald as co-managers of the sale, with Accra-based law firm Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah as legal advisors.The government said it wants to cut its stake in the majority of thermal plants - facilities that run on gas or light crude oil to generate electricity - that state-run Volta River Authority (VRA) operates. The authority has a total capacity of 1,325 megawatts and runs at 50 to 65 percent capacity.Apart from VRA’s installed generating capacity of 2,456 megawatts, which includes hydro and solar units, independent power producers have a total installed capacity of 1,925 megawatts, mostly thermal.VRA’s board chairman Kweku Awotwi said last month that more than 20 potential bidders had expressed interest in the assets.No date has yet been fixed for the sale, which was first mentioned in the 2017 budget statement released in March. It forms part of government plans to clear a 10 billion-cedi ($2.3 million) debt owed by VRA and other utilities to banks and bulk suppliers.Ghana is recovering from a prolonged power crisis caused by drought and years of political interference. Repeated blackouts have crippled industries and stifled economic growth.Since assuming office in January, President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government have launched plans to clear the country’s debt, alongside a $918 million credit programme with the International Monetary Fund to restore fiscal balance by April 2019. (Additional reporting by Colin Leopold reports at Project Finance International, a Thomson Reuters company; writing by Kwasi Kpodo, editing by Sofia Christensen and Larry King)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ghana-power-advisers/update-1-ghana-names-fieldstone-pwc-as-leads-for-thermal-assets-sale-idINL8N1NG4R3'|'2017-11-10T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'2b7251d49177122de7b9f5c8d208123b6473e0a5'|'Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump'|'HAVANA (Reuters) - Packed into a remote corner of a pavilion, just 13 U.S. companies took stands at Cuba’s sprawling trade fair this year, in a sign of how firms’ interest in doing business on the island has dwindled in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency.Last year, amid enthusiasm following a detente in relations agreed between former President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in 2014, 33 U.S. companies took stands at the fair, the premier event on Cuba’s business calendar.The mood was very different at this year’s edition, which took place last week in Havana. While China brought a record company delegation, and more than 150 Spanish businesses packed into five pavilions, the handful of U.S. businessmen were downbeat.“I’ve never seen it this deserted,” said Jay Brickman, vice president of Florida-based shipping company Crowley Maritime Corp, who has been attending the fair for 15 years. “People have really gotten discouraged, and feel they maybe should be investing their time someplace else.”U.S. companies embraced Cuba in the wake of the detente, jostling for a foothold in an opening market of 11 million consumers.Thanks to travel-related exemptions to the embargo, U.S. airlines restored regular flights. Starwood Hotels, a subsidiary of Marriott International Inc ( MAR.O ), took over management of a Cuban hotel and cruise operators like Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line ( CCL.N ) included Cuba in their itineraries.But worsening U.S. relations as well as growing awareness of the difficulty of doing business in Cuba put a dampener on that.Trump in June ordered tighter trade and travel restrictions including a ban on business with the military, which controls vast swathes of the economy. The regulations were unveiled on Wednesday.“This is a huge step backwards,” said former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the Cuban-born head of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council. “We had made so much progress.”An unfolding diplomatic crisis over allegations of attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana is adding to the gloom.Cuba Trade magazine, based in Miami, last month cut its issuance from monthly to bi-monthly, citing the deteriorating business environment under Trump. Several Cuba business conferences in the United States have also been canceled since June, including an agriculture conference in Chicago.Following the Obama detente, U.S. farmers hoped for legislation allowing them to access credit for exports to Cuba. But Trump has made it clear he is not about to ease, let alone lift, the embargo.“We need to get the diplomatic issue off the table first,” said Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, adding U.S. food exports to Cuba could total $1 billion if relations were normalized.HARDER Even before Trump took office, some of the interest fizzled as companies realized doing business in Cuba was hard with its red tape, shortage of hard currency, poor telecommunications and labor restrictions.A view of the pavilion stalls run by Cuban companies at Cuba''s annual trade fair in Havana, Cuba, November 1, 2017. Picture taken on November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ) sent its chief executive in Obama’s delegation on his historic visit to Cuba in March 2016. It had been interested in making its Xoom money transfer service available in Cuba but said operational challenges were too great.“When we are able to deliver the speed, convenience and security our customers have come to expect from Xoom, we will launch in Cuba,” a PayPal spokeswoman told Reuters.Still, some companies made headway. After receiving all the necessary licenses under Obama, the Puerto Rican dealer for U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc ( CAT.N ) last week agreed to open a distribution center in Cuba’s Mariel special development zone.Future deals with Mariel, which boasts tax and customs breaks, will not be possible, as it features on a list published Wednesday of 180 government entities that Americans are now banned from doing business with.“The Mariel restriction particularly sticks out because it is the most dynamic and exciting opportunity in Cuba,” said James Williams, president of lobby group Engage Cuba.Slideshow (12 Images) The diplomatic crisis has also complicated the logistics for U.S. businesses. The Trump administration in September expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, including all those dealing with U.S. businesses.The following week, the chair of the port of Cleveland, Darrell McNair, traveled to Havana to sign an agreement with Cuba’s port authority. He said the now-disbanded embassy commercial team had been instrumental in arranging his visit.“Cutbacks obviously are going to slow things down,” he said.LONG-TERM PLAY The tougher environment under Trump has separated the wheat from the chaff, some business consultants say.“The serious players who understand the risks are staying the course,” said Pedro Freyre, who heads the international practice at Miami-based law firm Akerman LLP.Jeff Nelson said his firm Strategic Staffing Solutions, which provides companies with IT and other services, was prepared to put in the time laying the groundwork for business with Cuba given the potential of its educated workforce.“Doing business in Cuba is a very long-term proposition,” said Nelson, who has visited eight times in two years.Some companies were pursuing deals behind closed doors so as to not lose capital with the Trump administration, consultants said. Many Obama-era exemptions to the embargo remain in place.The publication of the new regulations at least provided clarity about what was allowed.“Companies know where they stand now and there are definitely opportunities still,” said Gutierrez. “Every day that goes by is just the missed opportunity where someone else is building a brand, someone else is building awareness among Cubans.”Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and Anna Irrera and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-trade/blooming-u-s-business-interest-in-cuba-wilts-under-trump-idINKBN1DA1VJ'|'2017-11-10T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'325ad2212763becf037a2ebde2f60e24d7dd1bd1'|'Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:29 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump Sarah Marsh 6 Min Read HAVANA (Reuters) - Packed into a remote corner of a pavilion, just 13 U.S. companies took stands at Cuba’s sprawling trade fair this year, in a sign of how firms’ interest in doing business on the island has dwindled in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. A view of the pavilion stalls run by U.S. companies at Cuba''s annual trade fair in Havana, Cuba, October 30, 2017. Picture taken on October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Last year, amid enthusiasm following a detente in relations agreed between former President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in 2014, 33 U.S. companies took stands at the fair, the premier event on Cuba’s business calendar. The mood was very different at this year’s edition, which took place last week in Havana. While China brought a record company delegation, and more than 150 Spanish businesses packed into five pavilions, the handful of U.S. businessmen were downbeat. “I’ve never seen it this deserted,” said Jay Brickman, vice president of Florida-based shipping company Crowley Maritime Corp, who has been attending the fair for 15 years. “People have really gotten discouraged, and feel they maybe should be investing their time someplace else.” U.S. companies embraced Cuba in the wake of the detente, jostling for a foothold in an opening market of 11 million consumers. Thanks to travel-related exemptions to the embargo, U.S. airlines restored regular flights. Starwood Hotels, a subsidiary of Marriott International Inc, took over management of a Cuban hotel and cruise operators like Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line included Cuba in their itineraries. But worsening U.S. relations as well as growing awareness of the difficulty of doing business in Cuba put a dampener on that. Trump in June ordered tighter trade and travel restrictions including a ban on business with the military, which controls vast swathes of the economy. The regulations were unveiled on Wednesday. “This is a huge step backwards,” said former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the Cuban-born head of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council. “We had made so much progress.” An unfolding diplomatic crisis over allegations of attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana is adding to the gloom. Cuba Trade magazine, based in Miami, last month cut its issuance from monthly to bi-monthly, citing the deteriorating business environment under Trump. Several Cuba business conferences in the United States have also been canceled since June, including an agriculture conference in Chicago. Following the Obama detente, U.S. farmers hoped for legislation allowing them to access credit for exports to Cuba. But Trump has made it clear he is not about to ease, let alone lift, the embargo. “We need to get the diplomatic issue off the table first,” said Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, adding U.S. food exports to Cuba could total $1 billion if relations were normalized. HARDER Even before Trump took office, some of the interest fizzled as companies realized doing business in Cuba was hard with its red tape, shortage of hard currency, poor telecommunications and labor restrictions. Online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc sent its chief executive in Obama’s delegation on his historic visit to Cuba in March 2016. It had been interested in making its Xoom money transfer service available in Cuba but said operational challenges were too great. A view of the booth of Rimco, Caterpillar Inc''s dealer for Cuba, at the 35th Havana International Fair in Havana, Cuba, November 1, 2017. Picture taken on November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini “When we are able to deliver the speed, convenience and security our customers have come to expect from Xoom, we will launch in Cuba,” a PayPal spokeswoman told Reuters. Still, some companies made headway. After receiving all the necessary licenses under Obama, the Puerto Rican dealer for U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc last week agreed to open a distribution center in Cuba’s Mariel special development zone. Future deals with Mariel, which boasts tax and customs breaks, will not be possible, as it features on a list published Wednesday of 180 government entities that Americans are now banned from doing business with. “The Mariel restriction particularly sticks out because it is the most dynamic and exciting opportunity in Cuba,” said James Williams, president of lobby group Engage Cuba. The diplomatic crisis has also complicated the logistics for U.S. businesses. The Trump administration in September expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, including all those dealing with U.S. businesses. The following week, the chair of the port of Cleveland, Darrell McNair, traveled to Havana to sign an agreement with Cuba’s port authority. He said the now-disbanded embassy commercial team had been instrumental in arranging his visit. “Cutbacks obviously are going to slow things down,” he said. LONG-TERM PLAY The tougher environment under Trump has separated the wheat from the chaff, some business consultants say. “The serious players who understand the risks are staying the course,” said Pedro Freyre, who heads the international practice at Miami-based law firm Akerman LLP. Jeff Nelson said his firm Strategic Staffing Solutions, which provides companies with IT and other services, was prepared to put in the time laying the groundwork for business with Cuba given the potential of its educated workforce. “Doing business in Cuba is a very long-term proposition,” said Nelson, who has visited eight times in two years. Some companies were pursuing deals behind closed doors so as to not lose capital with the Trump administration, consultants said. Many Obama-era exemptions to the embargo remain in place. The publication of the new regulations at least provided clarity about what was allowed. “Companies know where they stand now and there are definitely opportunities still,” said Gutierrez. “Every day that goes by is just the missed opportunity where someone else is building a brand, someone else is building awareness among Cubans.” Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and Anna Irrera and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cuba-usa-trade/blooming-u-s-business-interest-in-cuba-wilts-under-trump-idINKBN1DA1VG'|'2017-11-10T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'a4ae890db639d0ac9c44ea4335eb6a4e6a813283'|'US STOCKS-Tech tugs Wall St lower, investors fret about cut delays'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:32 PM / Updated 6 hours ago US STOCKS-Tech tugs Wall St lower, investors fret about tax cut delays Reuters Staff * Chip stocks tumble ahead of Nvidia’s quarterly report * Roku soars after strong forecast, quarterly results * Oracle, Microsoft, Alphabet weigh on S&P 500 * Indexes end down: Dow 0.43 pct, S&P 0.38 pct, Nasdaq 0.58 pct (Updates to close) By Noel Randewich Nov 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks dropped on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Microsoft and other technology issues as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay corporate tax cuts that investors want very much. The S&P 500 has surged about 21 percent since the election of President Donald Trump a year ago, fueled by his promises to cut corporate taxes and other business-friendly measures. Senate Republicans are unveiling a tax proposal that differs markedly on corporate, business and individual tax cuts from legislation detailed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives, Republican aides said. The Senate proposal delays a corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent by a year and provides small-business owners with a deduction rather than a special business rate, said the aides. Earlier, uncertainty about the future of corporate tax rates pushed the S&P 500 down as much 1 percent, underscoring how much Wall Street is banking on a tax reduction. The S&P 500 is trading at 18 times expected earnings, expensive compared with its 10-year average of 14.3, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. Cutting corporate taxes would boost earnings and make stocks relatively less expensive. “It’s been a year since the election. We’ve gone up 22 percent on hopes of what the Trump agenda would bring, and while they’re trying to work toward this thing, they haven’t really accomplished much yet,” said Michael O‘Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. “If progress is not made, the equity market should either pause or correct until meaningful progress is made.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.43 percent to end at 23,461.94, while the S&P 500 declined 0.38 percent to 2,584.62. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.58 percent to 6,750.05. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index, a top performer in 2017, slumped 2 percent ahead of a quarterly report by Nvidia , which fell 1.84 percent. Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors fell, with industrials down 1.28 percent and the technology index off 0.85 percent. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle and Facebook were among the stocks weighing most on the S&P 500. Technology has been the best-performing S&P 500 sector so far this year, with a 37 percent rise. The sector’s stretched valuations make it vulnerable to selling as investors worry that promised tax reductions might not emerge. Roku soared 55 percent after the video streaming device maker’s quarterly results and guidance beat expectations. Macy’s jumped 10.98 percent after the department store operator’s profit came in above expectations. In extended trade, Nordstrom dropped 4 percent after that retailer reported quarterly sales short of analysts’ expectations. Walt Disney Co lost 3 percent after the bell following its quarterly report. During the session, Dish Network rose 3.22 percent after the satellite and internet TV provider added subscribers in the United States in the third quarter and reduced the rate at which it lost existing customers. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.67-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.62-to-1 ratio favored decliners. About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 6.6 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. (Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-tech-tugs-wall-st-lower-investors-fret-about-tax-cut-delays-idINL1N1NF2FM'|'2017-11-09T18:32:00.000+02:00'
'3d6d48e3e4e194fa82651c9113169ab322de1e39'|'UPDATE 1-Toshiba considering $5.3 bln capital injection - source'|'* Toshiba needs cash to avoid negative net worth, delisting* Plan centred on third-party allotment of new shares -source* Toshiba wants to finalise funding plan by year-end - source* Shares fall as much as 8 pct, down 4.5 pct in mid-morning (Recasts throughout with details, adds share price move)By Taro FuseTOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, is considering raising about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday.The Japanese conglomerate has received proposals from several domestic and overseas brokerages for plans to raise money through a public offering or third-party allotment, and is looking into the option of allocating shares mainly to overseas investors, the person said.In early trade, shares of Toshiba fell as much as 8 percent on the capital injection plan, first reported by public broadcaster NHK. They were down 4.5 percent by mid-morning, underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average’s 1 percent fall.Strapped with liabilities arising from its bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, Toshiba agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. It needs to beef up its balance sheet by the end of the fiscal year in end-March to avoid a possible delisting.The source told Reuters that Toshiba wants to finalise the capital injection plan by year-end because it would need shareholder approval depending on the offering price and scope of share dilution. The person declined to be identified because the plan is not public.In a statement, Toshiba repeated its stance that it was aiming to close the deal to sell its chip business by the end of March, saying in response to the NHK report that nothing specific had been decided regarding any funding plans.Announcing half-year results a day earlier, Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata said Toshiba had launched a working group to consider various options to raise capital in case the deal did not close in time. He offered no specifics.Toshiba reported robust second-quarter results with a 76 percent jump in operating profit driven almost entirely by a strong performance from its memory chip unit.If Toshiba fails to close the sale in time, that could keep Toshiba in negative net worth for a second year in a row, putting pressure on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist it. ($1 = 113.3700 yen) (Reporting by Taro Fuse; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-accounting/update-1-toshiba-considering-5-3-bln-capital-injection-source-idINL3N1NG010'|'2017-11-09T22:43:00.000+02:00'
'1eeba85b19aa91258b154516bd5665b896c8f632'|'UPDATE 2-Telus misses profit estimates as it spends heavily to add subscribers'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 11:26 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Telus misses profit estimates as it spends heavily to add subscribers Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Canadian telecom company Telus Corp’s ( T.TO ) third-quarter profit missed analysts’ estimates as it spent heavily to expand its wireless and fiber-optic networks and add more subscribers in a fiercely competitive industry. A Telus Corporation sign is pictured in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Vancouver-based Telus faces increasing competition from Shaw Communications ( SJRb.TO ), which has rolled out new internet and television products and is also building up a low-cost wireless business. Telus said on Thursday its capital expenditure for wireline unit rose 19 percent in the quarter, mainly as it boosted its fiber-optic network. Total operating expenses rose 3.6 percent. Shaw also reported last month an increase in costs that squeezed its margins. Telus said it added about 115,000 new wireless postpaid customers in the quarter, compared with RBC Capital Markets’ expectation of over 99,000. The company also said churn rate, or the percentage of subscribers who discontinued services, fell to 0.86 percent from 0.94 percent a year earlier. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless services rose 3 percent in the quarter. “Our capital investments have been instrumental in the success of our wireless and wireline growth strategy, which has now delivered 28 consecutive quarters of wireless ARPU growth and 20 successive quarters of wireline EBITDA growth,” Chief Executive Darren Entwistle said. Telus said it expects capital expenditure of about $2.85 billion for 2018, slightly lower than the estimated capital expenditure for 2017 of about $2.9 billion. Excluding one-time items, the company reported a profit of 66 Canadian cents per share, missing the average analyst estimate of 69 Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to shareholders rose to C$367 million, or 62 Canadian cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30 from C$348 million, or 59 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier. Operating revenue rose 4 percent to C$3.37 billion. Reporting by Taenaz Shakir and Alastair Sharp; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-telus-results/telus-profit-rises-on-strong-demand-for-wireless-services-idUSKBN1D91GX'|'2017-11-09T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'49627aa31ed609eba0652dac3b9ece72c27b3dfa'|'TPP leaders'' meeting postponed after Canada disagreement - Japan''s Abe'|'November 10, 2017 / 11:35 AM / in 19 minutes TPP trade pact in disarray as Canada holds up talks Mai Nguyen , Matthew Tostevin 5 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Efforts to revive the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal foundered on Friday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to show up for a meeting to agree a path forward without the United States. Trade ministers and delegates from the remaining members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) attend the TPP Ministerial Meeting during the APEC 2017 in Da Nang, Vietnam November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Na Son Nguyen/Pool The lack of a deal on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit underscored the convulsions in global trade policy since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the TPP early this year in the name of an “America First” approach. Speaking ahead of the APEC summit, Trump said he only wanted bilateral trade deals in Asia - and deals in which the United States was not at a disadvantage. It was left to President Xi Jinping of China to champion a multilateralist vision of trade with a speech in the Vietnamese resort city of Danang that described globalisation as an irreversible trend. It was partly to counter China’s growing dominance in Asia that Japan had been lobbying hard for the TPP pact, which aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across an 11-nation bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year. Japan said ministers from the 11 remaining countries reached broad agreement to push ahead with it on Thursday, though Canada had said that was not true. The leaders of 10 of the countries arrived for a meeting on Friday, but officials said Trudeau did not. “The Canadian side said today they are not yet at the stage where its leader can confirm the agreement reached among ministers,” Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe told reporters, adding that all the other leaders had agreed. Canadian officials said the TPP was not dead and they were still at the table in Danang. They say Canada cannot be rushed into an agreement if it isn’t beneficial enough for Canadian jobs. “If we need to keep working at other tables, so be it. Let’s get it right,” said one Canadian official. Canada’s position is complicated by renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the Trump administration. An agreement to push forward TPP would have been a boost for the principle of multilateral trade deals as opposed to the Trump approach. BUFFETED BY TRUMP APEC, whose leaders hold their full summit on Saturday, has itself been buffeted by the changes under Trump. Talks between trade and foreign ministers from the group failed to reach agreement on their usual joint statement in the face of U.S. demands to remove language about supporting free trade and fighting protectionism. “I see a tremendous shift,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said at the summit. “I see the rise of anti-globalisation, the rise of more inward-looking (policies), which ironically is against the whole philosophy of setting up of APEC.” Trump set out a strong message which made clear there was no turning back - particularly in a region which he believes is taking U.S. jobs by running trade surpluses with the United States. “We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore,” Trump said. “I am always going to put America first, the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first.” He expressed a willingness to do bilateral deals in the region on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, while saying the United States had suffered from World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules by obeying them while others did not. “It signalled clearly a move away from the rules-based multilateral system that the U.S. has actually done very well under,” James Fatheree of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business lobby group told Reuters. “We have done well in helping lead the system.” President Xi made clear China’s aspiration to take that leadership role in a speech that immediately followed Trump‘s. “Should we steer economic globalisation, or should we dither and stall in the face of challenge? Should we jointly advance regional cooperation or should we go our separate ways?” Xi asked. “Openness brings progress, while self-seclusion leaves one behind.” Reporting by Mai Nguyen, Matthew Tostevin, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Michael Martina, A. Ananthalakshmi, Steve Holland; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Nick Macfie, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apec-summit-postpone/tpp-leaders-meeting-postponed-after-canada-disagreement-japans-abe-idUKKBN1DA1EA'|'2017-11-10T13:35:00.000+02:00'
'8f08c35053c36859a069f13e0b88a2ebd014171b'|'China to expand corporate tax cuts for hi-tech services firms nationwide'|'November 10, 2017 / 4:10 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago China to expand corporate tax cuts for hi-tech services firms nationwide Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will expand corporate tax rate cuts for high-tech services firms nationwide, in an effort to attract more foreign capital into its high tech, high value-added services industry. The tax rate for high-tech services firms would be reduced to 15 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2017, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website on Friday. The ministry did not provide details on previous tax rates. The preferential tax rate is the same as the rate the ministry gave to 21 major cities in 2014, as part of its trial programme to boost the overall industry’s competitiveness. China’s leaders are counting on growth in services and consumption to rebalance their growth model from its heavy reliance on investment and exports. The services sector accounts for over half of the economy. Firms eligible for the tax cuts range from information technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing to knowledge process outsourcing, the ministry added. Revenues from high-tech services business will have to account for half of firms’ annual revenue for companies to apply for the tax incentives, while offshore outsourcing business will have to take up more than 35 percent of the annual revenue. China’s economy has surprised global financial markets and investors with robust growth of nearly 7 percent so far this year, driven by a renaissance in long-ailing “smokestack” industries such as steel. But under the weight of official measures to cool heated housing prices and a government crackdown on pollution, property and factory output are starting to cool, with analysts expecting China to post slower growth in the fourth quarter. Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-tax/china-to-expand-corporate-tax-cuts-for-hi-tech-services-firms-nationwide-idUKKBN1DA0BV'|'2017-11-10T06:10:00.000+02:00'
'eebb446f280970516a8af4a56295124fb46868e2'|'Nvidia Corp reports 54.6 percent rise in quarterly profit'|'November 9, 2017 / 9:35 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Chipmaker Nvidia tops estimates on gaming, data centre gains Reuters Staff 2   Nvidia Corp ( NVDA.O ) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by strong demand for its graphics chips used in personal computers and devices for gaming, and in data centres. A NVIDIA logo is shown at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 31, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake - RC1C8FF654B0 Revenue from gaming, for which the company is best known, rose 25.5 percent to $1.56 billion, accounting for nearly 60 percent of total revenue in the third quarter. That beat analysts average estimate of $1.31 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Nvidia’s growth, however, hinges on newer areas such as artificial intelligence, self driving cars – for which it unveiled its first chip in October – as well as data centres, where its customers include Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp’s ( MSFT.O ) Azure. Revenue from the data centre business, its second-biggest revenue contributor, more than doubled to $501 million, beating analysts’ estimate of $474.2 million. Revenue from automotive business rose 13.3 percent to $144 million, but fell shy of analysts’ estimate of $149.8 million. Nvidia’s total revenue rose 31.5 percent to $2.64 billion. Net income rose to $838 million, or $1.33 per share, in the quarter ended Oct. 29, from $542 million, or 83   Analysts’ on average were expecting a profit of 94 cents per share on revenue of $2.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company’ shares were down 0.14 percent in volatile trading after the bell. They have surged about 92 percent this year, making its the third-best performing stock on the PHLX semiconductor index .SOX. Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee   and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nvidia-results/nvidia-corp-reports-54-6-percent-rise-in-quarterly-profit-idUKKBN1D935F'|'2017-11-09T23:34:00.000+02:00'
'c7aaf8e63e549ad3b179843c88e5ec8cf401e6d2'|'Allergan to sell a quarter of its Teva stake in first quarter 2018'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:37 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Allergan to sell a quarter of its Teva stake in first quarter 2018 Michael Erman 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Allergan Plc said on Monday it will sell just under a quarter of its roughly 10 percent stake in Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries during the first quarter of 2018, as it starts to unwind its position in the struggling generic drugmaker. The Allergan logo is seen in this photo illustration November 23, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Botox maker Allergan said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will sell 25 million shares to a JP Morgan Chase and Co unit - acting as a dealer for the shares - sometime next quarter. The JP Morgan unit will pay a price based on the average trading price over a yet-to-be determined period before the sale. Allergan sold its generics business to Teva in August 2016 for $33 billion (£25.15 billion) in cash and 100 million shares of the Israeli generic drugmaker, worth around $5.3 billion at the time. Under the terms of the deal, Allergan had to hold the shares for at least one year. That has turned out to be a costly agreement for the drugmaker, as Teva’s shares have lost more than three-fourths of their value since the deal. Allergan’s shares have lost around a third of their value over that period. Allergan said on Nov. 1 that it planned to begin selling its Teva stake, and this was the first announced sale of the stock. Two of Israel’s leading financial news outlets reported later that week that billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik was looking to buy a significant stake in debt-ridden Teva, possibly through a deal with Allergan. It was not clear who the ultimate buyer of Allergan’s shares will be in the JP Morgan transaction. In the same filing, Allergan said it had taken a margin loan from JP Morgan on its whole 100 million-share stake in Teva. It did not say how much it was borrowing against the shares, but said it planned to use proceeds from the loan to finance the buyback of 2019 bonds. Reporting by Michael ErmanEditing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-allergan-teva-pharm-ind/allergan-to-sell-a-quarter-of-its-teva-stake-in-first-quarter-2018-idUKKBN1DD2JG'|'2017-11-13T22:37:00.000+02:00'
'56e7f337686c143dfd58bfb0011d197e6f113b8a'|'Pro-Brexit British billionaire buys Swiss football club Lausanne - Business'|'Ineos, the petrochemicals company founded by billionaire Brexit backer Jim Ratcliffe, has announced plans to buy a Swiss football club, the latest in a spree of seemingly unconnected acquisitions.The privately owned firm said it was buying FC Lausanne-Sport, which plays in Switzerland’s top football league, to build on existing links it had forged with teams near its offices in Lausanne and the Swiss canton of Vaud.David Thompson, the chief executive of Ineos Football, said the club had a good record of bringing forward young players locally. “It’s just a great opportunity for us really. We plan to bring in three or four senior players to form the core, the spine, of the team,” he said.Thompson said the team’s manager, Fabio Celestini, had his backing and Ineos would support the club moving to a new stadium in 18 months’ time.Facebook Twitter Pinterest FC Lausanne-Sport plays Grasshopper Club Zurich in the Swiss Super League. Photograph: Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesThe value of the investment was not disclosed. It is not the first eye-opening acquisition by the company, which last month bought fashion brand Belstaff , famous for its motorcycle jackets.In September the firm said it wanted UK government subsidies to build a successor to the Land Rover Defender , which ceased production in 2016. “It’s the opportunity that has arisen at the time,” said Thompson of the connection between the three projects.Ineos attracted criticism for avoiding tax when it moved its headquarters to Switzerland in 2010 , before moving back to the UK in 2016 . About half of its businesses, including the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland which was at the centre of a bitter dispute over working conditions , are in the UK. The rest are in Switzerland.Ratcliffe has overseen the company’s plan to become a big player in fracking, buying up more licences to explore for shale gas and oil in England.Ineos is also fighting a legal challenge against an injunction it secured against protests near its shale sites, but it is yet to begin drilling or fracking.The company cemented its foothold in fossil fuels this year, buying up oil and gas fields from a Danish state-owned firm for £1bn and paying BP £200m for a North Sea pipeline .Topics Energy industry Fracking Energy Switzerland news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/13/brexit-football-lausanne-jim-ratcliffe-ineos'|'2017-11-13T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'f22958e831d368445455d0e336782255b69c97ad'|'UAE Defence Ministry enters $1.6 bln deal with Lockheed Martin to upgrade F-16 fighters'|' 03 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago UAE Defence Ministry enters $1.6 bln deal with Lockheed Martin to upgrade F-16 fighters   DUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates’ Defence Ministry announced a 6 billion dirham ($1.63 billion) deal with Lockheed Martin Corp to upgrade F-16 jet fighters, a spokesman said on Sunday. The deal is to upgrade 80 F-16 jet fighters, Major General Abdullah Al Sayed Al Hashemi, Chief of the Military Committee and the spokesman of the UAE Armed Forces, told a news conference. $1 = 3.6725 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Tom Arnold)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-lockheed-airshow/uae-defence-ministry-enters-1-6-bln-deal-with-lockheed-martin-to-upgrade-f-16-fighters-idUSL8N1NI06K'|'2017-11-12T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'a22b42c466eb65a8506d3c8ad2450fbdab8a2974'|'Aluminium maker Aleris says Zhongwang USA deal is off'|'November 13, 2017 / 2:18 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Aluminium maker Aleris says Zhongwang USA deal is off Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Zhongwang USA, an investment firm backed by a Chinese aluminium tycoon, and U.S. aluminium maker Aleris Corp ( ALSD.PK ) have dropped plans to merge, Aleris and Zhongwang USA said on Monday. The companies had tried unsuccessfully to win approval for the $2.33 billion deal from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which assesses mergers to ensure they do not endanger national security. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aleris-m-a-zhongwangusa/aluminium-maker-aleris-says-zhongwang-usa-deal-is-off-idUKKBN1DD1PV'|'2017-11-13T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'6a9c3a02b2746d542d4d1b1cdbad6fa989cadc9d'|'CEE MARKETS-Leu nears record low on fiscal concerns, despite expected strong GDP growth'|'* Romania fiscal, monetary policy uncertainty weighs on its assets * Leu tests record lows though robust Q3 growth figure is expected * Zloty eases ahead of detailed Oct inflation figures By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The leu neared record lows on Monday despite expectations for robust output data from Romania, depressed by uncertainty over a likely government spending spree. Loose fiscal policy including steep wage hikes have already boosted Romania''s inflation to a four-year high of 2.6 percent in October and led to an upwards revision in the Romanian central bank''s (NBR) inflation forecast last week. The bank also signalled that in the future its monetary policy will focus on keeping market interest rates near its benchmark rate, and it would be more flexible on the exchange rate. Its comments pushed the leu through the 4.6 line against the euro, which market participants had believed was defended by the NBR in the past. On Monday the leu eased 0.1 percent against the euro, to trade at 4.6533 at 0938 GMT, near to record lows set at 4.655 on Friday and again touched early on Monday. Romanian government bond yields, which rose to multi-year highs on Friday, were mixed. The 10-year bond traded at a yield of 4.44 percent on Monday, up one basis point, one trader said. "There are no reasons for the leu to firm going forward," said another dealer, based in Bucharest, adding that concerns over a rise in the budget deficit would maintain the pressure on the currency. A controversial tax overhaul plan has also weighed on the leu. The main Central European economies are due to release to third-quarter economic output figures on Tuesday. Romania is expected to report the strongest annual growth rate in the region, about 6.5 percent, but going forward a strong rise in wages is likely to lose steam, Erste analysts said in a note. The median forecast of analysts in a Reuters poll was 5.8 percent for Romania''s growth. Given uncertainties over fiscal policy, government spending late this year and the NBR''s response, Romanian assets will remain fragile, market participants said. "Whereas we would not exclude additional short-term setbacks for the leu..., a fast depreciation towards EUR/RON 4.70 would increase pressure for policy makers to react," Raiffeisen analyst Gunter Deuber said in a note. The prospect of strong output data did not help Poland''s zloty either, which eased 0.2 percent to 4.2358, sticking to the past month''s typical levels. Detailed October inflation figures due from Poland at 1300 GMT could show that core inflation stays low and may even fall a tad to 0.9 percent year-on-year, the Raiffeisen note said. That could supply the Polish central bank''s doves with important arguments, the note added. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1038 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.549 25.556 +0.03 5.71% 0 5 % Hungary 311.85 311.73 -0.04% -0.97% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2358 4.2263 -0.22% 3.97% Romanian leu 4.6533 4.6481 -0.11% -2.54% Croatian 7.5480 7.5465 -0.02% 0.09% kuna Serbian 118.43 118.62 +0.16 4.15% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1064.7 1063.7 +0.10 +15.5 5 0 % 3% Budapest 39634. 39435. +0.51 +23.8 62 24 % 5% Warsaw 2450.9 2457.6 -0.27% +25.8 2 2 2% Bucharest 7765.1 7771.6 -0.08% +9.60 2 3 % Ljubljana 789.19 792.00 -0.35% +9.98 % Zagreb 1846.5 1857.0 -0.57% -7.44% 0 2 Belgrade 736.90 738.64 -0.24% +2.72 % Sofia 671.60 671.78 -0.03% +14.5 2% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.49 0.145 +124b +15bp ps s 5-year 0.761 0 +110b +2bps ps 10-year 1.718 0.004 +133b +3bps ps Poland 2-year 1.609 0.042 +236b +4bps ps 5-year 2.619 0.043 +296b +6bps ps 10-year 3.405 0.032 +302b +6bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.97 1.1 1.21 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.09 0.1 0.16 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.77 1.805 1.895 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-leu-nears-record-low-on-fiscal-concerns-despite-expected-strong-gdp-growth-idINL8N1NJ2UH'|'2017-11-13T07:29:00.000+02:00'
'1c9aa12cb5f81e2caf86e5dfa56f2b82ebc1fe93'|'World stocks lower on U.S. tax reform uncertainty, May''s woes rattle sterling'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Uncertainty over a U.S. tax reform deal pushed world stock markets further away from recent record highs on Monday, while Britain’s pound fell on growing concern about the future of Prime Minister Theresa May.Visitors looks at an electronic board showing the Japan''s Nikkei average at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Files Stock markets in Frankfurt, Paris and London edged up in early European trade after suffering their worst week since August on Friday.But the overall tone in global stock markets was defensive after last week’s sudden stumble. MSCI’s world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was down 0.2 percent -- pulling away from record highs hit last week.Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei fell 1.3 percent, pulling down MSCI’s Asia-Pacific Index 0.6 percent.There was caution as investors waited to see whether a U.S. tax deal would be hammered out soon.U.S. Senate Republicans have unveiled a new tax plan that differs from the House of Representatives’ version and there are few signs of a compromise.“All eyes are on what the Senate and the House of Representatives will do on their tax bills,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities.“That there is debate is not surprising at all. Still, it is an uphill moment for markets,” he said.STERLING TUMBLES In currency markets, the spotlight fell on Britain’s pound, which slipped 0.8 percent to $1.3082 as trouble mounted for May, while Brexit talks face a crucial deadline.Sterling was set for its biggest one day fall against the dollar since Nov. 2 and was down 0.6 percent at 88.97 pence per euro.The Sunday Times newspaper reported over the weekend that 40 members of parliament from May’s Conservative Party had agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her.That is eight short of the number needed to trigger a party leadership contest, the mechanism through which May could be forced from office and replaced by another Conservative.“The political news over the weekend shows that her (May‘s) position is coming under increasing pressure and currency markets are reacting to that,” said Alvin Tan, a FX strategist at Societe Generale in London.“Though market positions are more evenly balanced than six months ago, the outlook for sterling is cloudy for now.”The dollar was shackled by uncertainty over the fate of the tax cut plans. It fetched 113.41 yen, more than a full yen below its near seven-month high of 114.735 yen touched a week ago.The euro traded at $1.1647, down slightly after showing its first weekly gain in four weeks last week.Most emerging market currencies were stable though the South African rand was the exception, hitting a one-year low of 14.47 per dollar on fears the country’s credit rating would be downgraded.Elsewhere, bitcoin fell to as low as $5,555 on Sunday, logging a weekly fall of 22 percent, its biggest since early July as some traders dumped it for a clone called Bitcoin Cash.The digital currency bounced back 7.6 percent on Monday to trade at $6,295, still down 20 percent from its record high of $7,888 touched on Wednesday.Elsewhere, oil trading was cautious amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East and after a rising rig count in the United States suggested producers there are preparing to increase output.Brent crude futures were at $63.51 per barrel, little changed on the day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $56.71 per barrel, down 2 cents.Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in TOKYO and Saikat Chatterjee in LONDON; Editing by Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/world-stocks-lower-on-u-s-tax-reform-uncertainty-mays-woes-rattle-sterling-idINKBN1DD0XW'|'2017-11-13T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'effb39f5bb0194ded877a40fb650f8fc3da41a89'|'Grupo Mexico prices rail unit IPO at bottom of range-sources'|'MEXICO CITY, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Mexican miner and infrastructure company Grupo Mexico priced the the initial public offering (IPO) of its rail unit GMexico Transportes on Thursday at the low end of expectations, two sources with knowledge of the deal said.The long-delayed IPO priced at 31.50 pesos per share, at the bottom of the expected 31.50 and 39 peso range, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. (Reporting by Christine Murray) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/grupomexico-ipo/grupo-mexico-prices-rail-unit-ipo-at-bottom-of-range-sources-idINL1N1NF1FH'|'2017-11-09T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'0ada45228a9224cded5b99d2dcca181c699748eb'|'Nikkei tumbles, hit by weakness in tech shares; Toshiba dives'|'TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell sharply on Friday morning hit by drops in tech shares after their U.S. counterparts languished overnight, while Toshiba Corp stumbled on dilution fears after media reported it will issue new shares to raise funds.The Nikkei dropped 1.4 percent to 22,552.06 by the midday break. For the week, the benchmark index has risen 0.1 percent.If the index advances for a ninth straight week, that will match the longest such winning streak since Abenomics started in late 2012.The November Nikkei options likely settled at 22,531.30, according to market sources. The official settlement price will be released after the market close.The closely watched options settlement price, known in Japan as the special quotation, or “SQ,” is calculated from the opening prices of the 225 shares in the Nikkei average on the second Friday of every month.Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, dived 5.1 percent after media reports that it is considering raising about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment.Tire maker Bridgestone Corp tumbled 8.4 percent after the company cut its operating profit forecast for the full year ending December to 430 billion yen ($3.79 billion), a 4.3 percent drop on the year.Chip-related stocks lost ground, with Tokyo Electron Ltd shedding 2.1 percent and Advantest Corp declining 2.7 percent.The broader Topix shed 1.1 percent to 1,794.14. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Richard Borsuk) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-tumbles-hit-by-weakness-in-tech-shares-toshiba-dives-idUSL3N1NG1RP'|'2017-11-10T05:15:00.000+02:00'
'fac8807e9deaa2e8d51c0eb56306bba012321ea8'|'China will lift foreign ownership limits on financial market JVs - vice finmin'|'November 10, 2017 / 5:18 AM / Updated 2 hours ago China will lift foreign ownership limits on financial market JVs - vice finmin Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will lift the ceiling on foreign equity ownership in joint-venture firms involved in the futures, securities and funds markets to 51 percent, a vice finance minister said on Friday. China''s Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Chinese embassy in London, Britain July 18, 2015. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/Files No specific timetable was given for lifting the equity ownership limit to 51 percent from the current 49 percent. China will remove all equity ownership limits in these sectors after three years, Vice Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao told a news conference. Zhu said the time is right for China to step up the liberalisation of its financial sector. Reporting by Kevin Yao and Stella Qiu; Editing by Sam Holmes '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-finance/china-will-lift-foreign-ownership-limits-on-financial-market-jvs-vice-finmin-idINKBN1DA0FA'|'2017-11-10T07:15:00.000+02:00'
'80ae6bbdbdd7fce847cb9f1433949c257775cd03'|'Japan PM Abe says welcomes broad agreement on TPP trade deal'|'November 10, 2017 / 6:13 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Japan PM Abe says welcomes broad agreement on TPP trade deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday welcomed “a broad agreement” reached by the 11 countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), even as others in the trade pact disputed that any deal had been reached. FILE PHOTO - Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Trade ministers from the TPP countries met on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Danang, Vietnam. After the meeting, Japan said an agreement in principle had been reached, but the Canadian trade minister said on Twitter: “Despite reports, there is no agreement in principle on TPP.” The spat highlighted the continuing challenge to reviving a pact whose survival was thrown into doubt when President Donald Trump ditched it, in one of his first acts in office, in favour of bilateral deal-making by the United States. Abe told Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski that he welcomed a broad agreement reached at the TPP ministerial meeting, a written statement by the Japanese government said on Friday. The Japanese leader told Kuczynski that Japan would like to continue cooperating closely with Peru, one of the TPP countries, so that the pact will go into effect at an early date. Japan had lobbied hard to proceed with a pact after the U.S. withdrawal that could also help to contain China’s growing regional dominance. The TPP aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across a bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year. It also has provisions for protecting everything from labour rights to the environment to intellectual property - one of the main sticking points. Leaders of the 11 TPP countries are scheduled to meet Friday afternoon. In a separate panel discussion at the APEC summit on Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was “reasonably confident” a deal could be reached without the United States. “We believe TPP is important for the region... The 11 countries led by Japan, we are trying to come up with our new version,” Najib said. “I am reasonably confident. I am quite sanguine that we will get a deal but of course it has got to go through the process of ratification,” he said. Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apec-summit-japan/japan-pm-abe-says-welcomes-broad-agreement-on-tpp-trade-deal-idUKKBN1DA0J8'|'2017-11-10T09:31:00.000+02:00'
'2773b45ee5f0c605aa1b0358bc513df716bfb540'|'Ex-SBM executives plead guilty in U.S. to Petrobras bribe charges'|'(Reuters) - Two former executives at Dutch oil services company SBM Offshore NV have pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that they participated in a scheme to bribe officials at three foreign state-run oil companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras.Anthony Mace, SBM’s chief executive officer from 2008 to 2011, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Houston in one of the first U.S. Justice Department cases filed against individuals related to bribery allegations involving Petroleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras.The plea by Mace, 65, to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act came after a former sales and marketing executive at a SBM U.S. subsidiary, Robert Zubiate, pleaded guilty on Monday, prosecutors said.Lawyers for the two men did not respond to requests for comment and neither did SBM or Petrobras.Mace’s plea came after SBM on Monday said it had set aside $238 million amid advanced discussions to resolve a U.S. probe into improper payments to foreign government officials.Prosecutors said that after becoming chief executive, Mace joined a scheme that began in 1996 to pay bribes to officials at Petrobras, Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol and Equatorial Guinea’s GEPetrol.Prosecutors said Mace authorized paying $16 million to five people listed on a spreadsheet despite being aware of a high risk they were Equatorial Guinean officials or people accepting money on their behalf.Mace also deliberately avoided learning whether the ultimate recipients of certain payments he authorized were to Petrobras officials, prosecutors said.Mace, a British citizen, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2. Zubiate, who was based in Texas and California while with SBM, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.Petrobras has been at the center of Brazil’s largest ever corruption scandal amid investigations into a political kickback scheme involving contractors.SBM previously in 2014 agreed to pay $240 million to settle a Dutch inquiry into improper payments to officials in Angola, Brazil and Equatorial Guinea.SBM said at the time, the U.S. Justice Department said it was closing a related probe. But the department reopened the investigation after Brazilian prosecutors in 2015 charged a former U.S. employee, SBM said on Monday.SBM last year had also set aside $280 million to settle related issues in Brazil. But it announced on Monday that the Brazilian case remained unresolved.(This version of the story has been refiled to correct day Robert Zubiate pleaded guilty to Monday in third paragraph)Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sbm-offshore-corruption/ex-sbm-executives-plead-guilty-in-u-s-to-petrobras-bribe-charges-idUSKBN1D93C2'|'2017-11-10T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'd70647caba1ba851471daadec28f444ccb3b92b0'|'Uber loses UK appeal bid to overturn workers'' rights decision'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Taxi app Uber [UBER.UL] lost a bid on Friday to overturn a decision by a tribunal which had said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, in a blow to the company as it also battles to keep its license in London.Uber immediately said it would appeal to higher courts against Friday’s decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in central London.The U.S. ride-hailing service has faced regulatory and legal setbacks around the world amid opposition from traditional taxi services and concern among some regulators. It has been forced to quit several countries, such as Denmark and Hungary.Last year, two drivers successfully argued at a British employment tribunal that Uber exerted significant control over them to provide an on-demand taxi service and should grant them workers’ rights such as holiday entitlement and rest breaks.That decision did not automatically apply to the app’s 50,000 drivers in Britain but was seen as likely to prompt more claims.It could benefit workers at thousands of companies including firms in the “gig economy”, where individuals work for multiple employers without a fixed contract, such as courier Deliveroo.The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, which backed the two drivers, said these companies were “choosing to deprive workers of their rights”.“Today’s victory is further proof, as if any more was needed, that the law is clear and these companies are simply choosing to deprive workers of their rights,” said Jason Moyer-Lee, the IWGB’s general secretary.A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, with London Taxis in the background, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Uber says its drivers enjoy the flexibility of their work and are self-employed, entitling them in British law to only basic entitlements such as health and safety.The firm argued in September that its drivers operate in the same way as minicabs, or private hire vehicles, which sprung up in Britain more than 50 years ago.Slideshow (3 Images) On Friday it confirmed it would appeal against the latest decision. A spokesman said the company had 14 days to submit its application and decide whether to apply to take the case to the Supreme Court, Britain’s top judicial body.“Over the last year we have made a number of changes to our app to give drivers even more control,” said Uber UK’s Acting General Manager Tom Elvidge in a statement. “The main reason why drivers use Uber is because they value the freedom to choose if, when and where they drive.”Yaseen Aslam, one of the drivers involved in the case, said they would continue their fight to ensure workers’ rights were respected.“I am glad that the judge today confirmed what I and thousands of drivers have known all along: that Uber is not only exploiting drivers, but also acting unlawfully,” he said.Uber, which is valued at around $70 billion with backers including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, will be back in court on Dec. 11 to appeal a decision by London’s transport regulator to strip the app of its license.Transport for London shocked Uber in September by deeming it unfit to run a taxi service and refusing to renew its license, citing the firm’s approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.Reporting by Michael Holden and Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/uber-loses-uk-appeal-bid-to-overturn-workers-rights-decision-idUSKBN1DA18U'|'2017-11-10T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'8d6c7207aa702837bcf84475c2069c9454ca46ac'|'Finnish nickel producer aims to tap electric vehicle boom'|'HELSINKI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Finland’s Terrafame nickel mine is planning to start producing material for electric vehicle batteries by 2020, the company said on Friday.The mine, formerly known as Talvivaara, has been under government control since 2015 after years of losses and production problems. It returned to profit last year and commodities trader Trafigura agreed in February to take a stake and help to ramp up production.Terrafame said it plans to build a new chemical plant by 2020, which would convert nickel into a valuable form of sulfate, a powder-like substance particularly suited for use in batteries.Most electric vehicles rely on lithium-ion batteries, with the main component comprised mostly of nickelLithium batteries, which keep a charge over longer distances, are being installed in electric cars from Tesla’s top-of-the-line Model X to General Motors’ more modestly priced Chevy Bolt.“The availability of nickel and cobalt is critical for the electric vehicles market to continue developing. As a producer of these metals, Terrafame is aiming to take a leading role in supplying battery manufacturers,” Terrafame CEO Joni Lukkaroinen said in a statement.The new plant would have annual capacity of about 150,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate, which Terrafame said would make it one of the largest producers globally.The company said it expects to make a final decision on the investment in the first half of 2018. (Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/terrafame-nickel-batteries/finnish-nickel-producer-aims-to-tap-electric-vehicle-boom-idINL8N1NG2W4'|'2017-11-10T06:58:00.000+02:00'
'92b38bc5bc57d8fccfb3bf0769a623998fc688fe'|'AIRSHOW-Air Arabia leases six Airbus A321neos from Air Lease Corp'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Air Arabia, the United Arab Emirates’ only listed airline, announced on Monday a leasing agreement for six Airbus A321neo long-range jets from U.S.-based Air Lease Corp at the Dubai Airshow.The aircraft, powered by CFM International engines, will be delivered from 2019, Air Arabia Chief Executive Adel Ali said.The 215-seat, long-range jets will be used on high density routes, and could be used to launch new routes in Asia, including to cities in China, Malaysia, Thailand.It is the first time Air Arabia has added newer model A320 family jets to its fleet. Its current fleet is all Airbus jets.Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Tom Arnold and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-airarabia/air-arabia-leases-six-airbus-a321neos-from-air-lease-corp-idUSKBN1DD198'|'2017-11-13T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'5cef98c1ade02f0d1da3ff610209e85f653c74dc'|'Asia shares slip on U.S. tax uncertainty, sterling falls on doubts over May'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:07 AM / Updated an hour ago Asia shares slip on U.S. tax uncertainty, sterling falls on doubts over May Hideyuki Sano 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares stepped back in cautious trade on Monday as investors look to see whether U.S. Republicans can hammer out a tax reform deal quickly, while the British pound fell on growing doubts over Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership. Passersby walk past an electronic board showing market indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato European shares are expected to be largely unchanged. Spread betters expect France''s CAC .FCHI and Germany''s DAX .GDAXI to open almost flat, while Britain''s FTSE .FTSE is seen rising 0.3 percent from Friday''s six-week low. Tokyo''s benchmark Nikkei .N225 dropped 0.9 percent, bringing down MSCI''s Asia-Pacific Index .MIAP PUS 0.5 percent. Excluding Japan, shares in the region .MIAPJ0000PUS were down just 0.1 percent, with mainland Chinese shares .CSI rising as much as 0.6 percent to two-year highs. The S&P 500 index .SPX had ended its eight-week winning streak By Friday''s Wall Street close as investors took their profits after U.S. Senate Republicans had unveiled a new tax plan that differed from the House of Representatives'' version. There are few signs of a compromise yet, with the head of the House of Representatives’ tax-writing committee opposing a proposal from Senate Republicans that would hike taxes for some middle class Americans. “All eyes are on what the Senate and the House of Representatives will do on their tax bills,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities. “That there is debate is not surprising at all. Still, it is an uphill moment for markets,” he said. In the currency market, the dollar was also shackled by the uncertainty over the fate of the tax cut plans. The euro EUR= traded at $1.1647, down slightly after showing its first weekly gain in four weeks last week. The dollar fetched 113.42 yen JPY= , more than a full yen below its near seven-month high of 114.735 yen touched a week ago. The British pound GBP=D4 came under renewed pressure, slipping 0.5 percent to $1.3120 after the Times newspaper reported on Sunday that 40 Conservative lawmakers had agreed to sign a letter of no confidence in May. Most emerging market currencies were stable though the South African rand was the exception, falling to one-year low of 14.44 per dollar on fears its credit rating would be downgraded. Elsewhere, bitcoin fell to as low as $5,555 BTC=BTSP on Sunday, logging a weekly fall of 22 percent, its biggest since early July as some traders dumped it for a clone called Bitcoin Cash. The digital currency bounced back 6 percent on Monday to trade at $6,255, still down more than 21 percent from its record high of $7,888 touched on Wednesday. Oil prices held firm, propped up by concerns about the political instability in Saudi Arabia. The news of a pipeline explosion in Bahrain, which Bahraini authorities said was caused by “terrorist” sabotage, are fanning worries about mounting tensions between Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies and Shiite Iran. Brent futures LCOc1 traded at $63.50 per barrel, flat on the day and not far from their two-year peak of $64.65 set last week. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were also flat at $56.75. Traders were also keeping a wary eye on Venezuela, as the cash-strapped OPEC nation will hold a keenly-awaited meeting with investors to discuss renegotiating $60 billion in foreign debt on Monday. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday the country would never default on its debt and its bonds had rallied on Friday on optimism ahead of the meeting. “Fundamentally there still remains risk of default and if it runs out of money, its oil operations will be halted. If that happens, there could be an impact on oil prices, given its sizable oil output,” said Tatsufumi Okoshi, senior commodity economist at Nomura Securities. Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-down-on-caution-over-us-tax-reform-plan-sterling-falls-idUKKBN1DD027'|'2017-11-13T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'8946c6f0c562edb6835cde78d5bd9a3b77dd5aea'|'Pfizer exits China joint venture for generic drugs'|'(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc ( PFE.N ) said on Friday it has sold its 49 percent stake to exit a joint venture it had set up with China’s Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceuticals ( 600267.SS ) in 2012 to develop and market generic drugs.FILE PHOTO: The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in New York April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo The U.S. drugmaker said it sold its stake in the venture, Hisun-Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd, to Sapphire I Holdings Ltd. ( on.pfizer.com/2yQmeyC )The venture will change its name, but retain the rights to manufacture and sell all the drugs being marketed or developed in China, Pfizer and Hisun Pharma said in a joint statement.Pfizer’s shares were marginally lower in afternoon trading.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-zhejiang-hisun-pharmaceuticals-stake/pfizer-exits-china-joint-venture-for-generic-drugs-idINKBN1DA2LW'|'2017-11-10T15:54:00.000+02:00'
'6a49386c6198045ca4bdb02c7c7780b93eca8d6e'|'UPDATE 1-Avianca pilots in Colombia agree to lift strike'|'November 10, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Avianca pilots in Colombia agree to lift strike Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds quote from Avianca chairman) BOGOTA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The majority of Colombian flagship airline Avianca’s local pilots have voted to end a seven-week strike and return to work, their union said on Friday, despite no resolution in their dispute over wages and benefits. Pilots from the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators, or ACDAC, began a walkout on Sept. 20, demanding increased salary and benefits they said would have put them on par with the airline’s pilots in other countries. After weeks of stalemate between the union and Avianca Holdings management, the union met for much of Thursday to discuss and vote on an initiative put forward by Colombia’s ombudsman, Carlos Alfonso Negret, to lift the strike. They agreed late on Thursday to return to work in 72 hours, according to ACDAC. “ACDAC and the unionized civilian aviators, as a result of the intervention by the ombudsman, have decided to suspend the strike, resume air operations 72 hours after signing this document and thus normalize their work activities,” said the agreement, signed by the union. More than 700 of the company’s 1,300 Colombian pilots voted to strike in September, forcing Avianca to ground hundreds of flights, and causing headaches for thousands of passengers who were forced onto later flights or different airlines. The protest was ruled illegal by a Colombian tribunal as it interfered with essential public transport. Avianca chairman German Efromovich told local radio that the airline had not made a deal with anyone involved in the strike, and that pilots who participated would face regular disciplinary procedures if they returned to work. “All the pilots who return to work will be welcomed, but all, without exception, will be subject to disciplinary processes,” Efromovich, Avianca’s majority shareholder, told Blu Radio. Though it was invited, the airline did not attend meetings between the union, ombudsman and labor ministry, the agreement said. Avianca had called the pilots’ demands unreasonable. Pilots wanted reduced working hours and for Avianca to pay 70 percent of their monthly taxes, among other things. In an effort to mitigate the effect of the cancellations, the civil aviation authority allowed Avianca to bring in foreign pilots to fill in on some routes. Avianca, a member of the Star Alliance, carried 29.5 million passengers in 2016. It has more than 21,000 employees and serves 105 destinations in 28 countries in the Americas and Europe. (Reporting by Helen Murphy, additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Rosalba O‘Brien)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/colombia-avianca/update-1-avianca-pilots-in-colombia-agree-to-lift-strike-idUSL1N1NG0W3'|'2017-11-10T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'f08df49a2a3f015ab50a232fcc3d3b6f2b28e3ca'|'Chinese vice premier pledges fair treatment of foreign firms as China opens up'|'November 10, 2017 / 5:43 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Chinese vice premier pledges fair treatment of foreign firms as China opens up Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China should improve the business environment for foreign investors and further widen access to its services sector, Vice Premier Wang Yang wrote in the official People’s Daily, as the country seeks to raise its competitiveness in the global economy. FILE PHOTO: Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang speaks at the U.S.-China: A Shared Vision of Global Economic Partnership event in Chicago, Illinois December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Nelles Wang was recently named a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the height of power in China, at the party’s twice-a-decade national congress. Wang said China should also bring in more foreign technology and business expertise, not just foreign capital, while also stepping up its outbound investment and encouraging firms to expand globally. “The domestic and international trends facing (economic) opening are undergoing deep and complex changes. The opportunities and challenges are unprecedented, but the opportunities are greater than the challenges,” Wang wrote. At the recently concluded twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “making new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts”, and has pledged to allow greater access to China’s markets for foreign investors. China has been accused of unfairly subsidizing exports and of restricting foreign access to its domestic market, with U.S. President Donald Trump often complaining of the massive trade surplus China runs with the United States. During his trip to Beijing this week, Trump again said trade between the two nations was unfair, while Xi said the Chinese economy would become increasingly open and transparent to foreign firms, including those from the United States. Wang wrote that China should compete for global capital not by offering preferential policies, but by creating a fair, transparent, law-based and predictable business environment. China must also protect intellectual property, not require technology transfer as a condition of gaining market access, and should treat domestic and foreign firms equally in government procurement and the country’s “China 2025” plan to upgrade its manufacturing sector, Wang wrote. China must focus on higher-quality production and building competitive advantages in technology, standards and brands as the “traditional development model has hit a bottleneck”, Wang wrote. “Labor costs continue to rise, resource constraints are increasingly tight, the load on the environment is reaching a limit, and traditional competitive advantages of opening have weakened,” Wang wrote, while adding that China’s large market, good infrastructure and environment for innovation give it advantages. In line with regular pledges by government officials to open more sectors to foreign firms, Wang said China would focus on orderly opening of the financial, education, culture, and health care industries, while lowering market entry limitations on e-commerce, logistics, early childhood education and elderly care. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-businessinvestment/chinese-vice-premier-pledges-fair-treatment-of-foreign-firms-as-china-opens-up-idUKKBN1DA0G4'|'2017-11-10T07:39:00.000+02:00'
'd336bb8cf36ebc732f0700bc7dcb29a95f3e2cf5'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX down, still set for longest weekly gain in 21 years'|' 45 PM / in 16 minutes CANADA STOCKS-TSX down, still set for longest weekly gain in 21 years Reuters Staff (Updates throughout with historical milestone, stock and index moves) * TSX down 23.08 points, or 0.14 percent, to 16,059.01 * Half of the TSX’s 10 main groups were lower * TSX on track for nine straight weeks of gains * Index rose for 13 straight weeks in late 1996 TORONTO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell on Friday, but was still on track for its longest weekly winning streak in more than two decades after hitting a record high on Tuesday. After underperforming major global indices for much of the year, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index has rallied more than 7 percent since early September. The TSX’s nine consecutive weeks of gains, a feat not seen since 1996 when it rose for 13 straight weeks, was fueled in large part by energy stocks that profited from a nearly 25 percent rise in U.S. crude oil prices. On Friday, Manulife Financial Corp was the most influential drag on the index, falling 1.7 percent to C$27.01. Four of the index’s five heftiest negative drivers were bank stocks, with the financial subgroup slipping 0.5 percent. Offsetting some of the declines was TSX operator, TMX Group Ltd, which rose 0.8 percent to C$71.01 after posting a better-than-expected quarterly profit. At 10:19 a.m. ET (1519 GMT), the TSX fell 23.08 points, or 0.14 percent, to 16,059.01. Half out of the 10 primary sectors lost ground. Offsetting some of the losses was a 0.3 percent rise in energy stocks. U.S. crude prices held steady as supply cuts and expectations of an output deal extension underpinned support. TransCanada Corp was up 1.1 percent at C$62.42 to lead the gainers. Industrials also added some pressure, falling 0.5 percent. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc dropped 7.5 percent to C$33.08 and CAE Inc lost 3.7 percent to C$22.04 after both companies reported weaker-than-expected results. The materials group, home to precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, dipped 0.1 percent. Gold futures were off 0.2 percent at $1,283.3 an ounce, but on track for its first weekly rise in a month. Copper prices advanced 0.2 percent to $6,820 a tonne as a weaker U.S. dollar bolstered metal prices. Hydro One Ltd shares fell 0.8 percent to C$22.79 as third-quarter profit fell. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the TSX by 137 to 102, for a 1.34-to-1 ratio on the downside. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Susan Thomas)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-down-still-set-for-longest-weekly-gain-in-21-years-idUSL1N1NG104'|'2017-11-10T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'b8970ef74c275a5fe2b62f9fc4e3f63056a3f015'|'Fisher & Paykel says UK court rules rival Resmed''s patent is invalid'|'WELLINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A British court has ruled that a patent held by health appliance firm Resmed Inc for a mask that treats sleep apnea was invalid, rival firm Fisher & Paykel Healthcare said on Monday.Auckland-based Fisher & Paykel had filed the case in the High Court in 2016 and has similar legal proceedings underway in Germany.The ruling allows the New Zealand company to continue selling its sleep apnea masks in the British market.California-based ResMed has said the New Zealand firm’s masks violate its patented technology. (Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Susan Fenton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/resmed-fphealthcare-lawsuit/fisher-paykel-says-uk-court-rules-rival-resmeds-patent-is-invalid-idINL3N1NI0GT'|'2017-11-12T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'7f789087db8b77e04fd7d9a0f179376bd3dd21f8'|'UPDATE 1-AIRSHOW-Boeing takes head start in Dubai with Emirates Dreamliner order'|'(Recasts, add details)By Tim Hepher and Alexander CornwellDUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Emirates unveiled a preliminary order worth $15 billion for 40 Boeing jets on Sunday, but kept Europe’s Airbus waiting for a lifeline order for A380 superjumbos as the Dubai Airshow opened amid worries over tensions in the Middle East.The largest Middle East carrier signed a draft deal for the largest version of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the 787-10, watched by Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, credited for the launch of Emirates more than 30 years ago.Airline chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said the carrier had chosen the latest version of Boeing’s mid-sized wide-body jet after comparing it with the Airbus A350.Deliveries will start in 2022 and Emirates has yet to decide between engines offered by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.Reuters earlier reported that Boeing was close to clinching a deal for 787-10s, upstaging expectations of an early Airbus deal.The 40 jets are worth $12.5 billion at list prices, but Boeing said the value had risen to $15.1 billion after including other related equipment.Boeing landed the order even as business confidence in the region has wobbled.A rift emerged in the summer between Qatar and Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates.That dispute has meant that Qatar Airways, who four years ago opened the Dubai Airshow with a blockbuster order announced jointly with Emirates, is not at the show this week.Saudi Arabia, the region’s biggest economy, meanwhile detained dozens of top officials this month in an unprecedented, sweeping corruption crackdown.But Sheikh Ahmed said the deal was proof that the region’s hub aviation model was working and highlighted the impact on jobs in the United States and elsewhere.“This is a long-term commitment that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, not only at Boeing but throughout the aviation supply chain,” he said.“Our announcement today also speaks to our confidence in the future of aviation in the UAE and the region.”Airbus has been looking for a boost to the A380 superjumbo, which after a decade in service has seen sales decline in favour of smaller but equally efficient long-haul jetliners and had expected to close the deal with Emirates. Airbus envoys arrived in the press conference room apparently expecting a combined announcement, only to see Boeing take the honours.No further announcements were scheduled by Emirates for Sunday, but could not be ruled out later in the week.“Emirates are still talking to Airbus about it. There are no promises,” a Gulf source said.A key to the deal could be the extent to which Airbus is prepared to buy back A380s due to leave the Emirates fleet.“A few trade-ins will be involved,” a person familiar with the matter said.Azerbaijan Airlines meanwhile announced an order for five Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets and two freighters.And, distancing itself from rivals that have cut out first class seats, Emirates joined forces with Mercedes-Benz to launch new first-class suites inspired by luxury car interiors. (Additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi, Noah Browning; Editing by Catherine Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/update-1-airshow-boeing-takes-head-start-in-dubai-with-emirates-dreamliner-order-idINL8N1NI07Z'|'2017-11-12T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'cdd3c67e82d248b5d3bbc14723d4ea2610b4eedd'|'Richemont appoints insider as watchmaking head, cautions on FY'|'November 10, 2017 / 6:22 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Cartier-maker Richemont elevates insider to head watch business Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Luxury goods group Richemont ( CFR.S ) on Friday appointed Richemont veteran Jerome Lambert to the newly created role of chief operating officer to steer its watchmaking business into calmer waters. FILE PHOTO - The logo of luxury goods group Richemont''s flagship brand Cartier is seen at a branch in Zurich, Switzerland, January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Richemont cautioned in a statement it would not be able to reiterate the “exceptional level of growth” seen in the six months to Sept. 30 for the full year. The maker of Cartier jewellery and IWC watches last month pre-released a 12 percent rise in constant-currency sales and an 80 percent jump in net profit for its first half. Richemont’s watchmaking division was thoroughly shaken in July when its boss, Georges Kern, who was appointed just months earlier to put brands such as Piaget and Vacheron Constantin back on track after a severe downturn, threw in the towel to join competitor Breitling. After months of uncertainty and speculation about the likely appointment of an outsider, the world’s second biggest luxury goods group named Jerome Lambert, a 20-year Richemont veteran, to head the group’s watch brands in addition to the fashion brands, which he took over in April. Jewellery brands Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels have kept their current chief executives. Lambert will be assisted in his new task by Emmanuel Perrin who was appointed as the head of specialist watchmakers distribution. Lambert, in his late 40s, joined Richemont’s Jaeger-LeCoultre brand in 1996, where he rapidly rose to the CEO job and later successfully restructured Montblanc. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Joshua Franklin and Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-richemont-results/richemont-appoints-insider-as-watchmaking-head-cautions-on-fy-idUKKBN1DA0K7'|'2017-11-10T08:21:00.000+02:00'
'a467551e15c34b0ee95abaa4ff512b60da05beec'|'Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group resurrects canceled IPO'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:22 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group resurrects canceled IPO Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Ready meals supplier Bakkavor Group plc BAKK.L said on Friday it has revived plans to float on the London Stock Exchange only a week after saying it was shelving its   due to market volatility. The firm, which counts supermarkets Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ). Waitrose and Tesco ( TSCO.L ) as its major customers, had said on Nov. 3 that the IPO would not be in the interests of the company or shareholders even though it had received “sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering”. However it said on Friday that it was now going to go ahead and float 25 percent of the firm at a price of 180 pence per share, valuing the company at 1.04 billion pounds ($1.37 billion). Bakkavor’s announcement last week that it was cancelling its listing was seen as a blow for Britain’s IPO market, coming on the same day that broadcasting masts firm Arqiva said it was also shelving plans to go public. A source familiar with the company’s plans said Bakkavor had been worried some investors it had marketed the IPO to had not been convinced by the firm’s long-term plans. However the source said that over the past week the company and its advisors had met with some new potential shareholders and got together a more “concentrated group of longer term” investors, prompting it to push ahead with the listing again. “It is particularly pleasing that our initial register has such a strong presence of well-respected long-term investors,” said Bakkavor chairman Simon Burke. The firm, which is the UK’s largest producer of hummus, will raise 100 million pounds from the sale of new shares in the group while some of its existing shareholders will sell some of their stakes as well. Bakkavor started out as a cod roe manufacturer and exporter before brothers Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson expanded the business. The company’s growth strategy led to it running into difficulties during Iceland’s financial crisis, causing it to restructure and attract new investors. It generated revenues of almost 1.8 billion pounds and a pretax profit of 63.1 million pounds last year. HSBC ( HSBA.L ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) are leading the IPO process, with Barclays ( BARC.L ), Citigroup ( C.N ), Rabobank and Peel Hunt also working on it. It is expected to start trading on LSE on Nov 16. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bakkavor-ipo/ready-meals-firm-bakkavor-group-resurrects-canceled-ipo-idUSKBN1DA0PC'|'2017-11-10T15:22:00.000+02:00'
'9c30f2fe03baec4828d5fa6592ec276f671a6f02'|'Uber loses UK appeal bid to overturn workers'' rights decision'|' 44 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Uber loses UK appeal bid to overturn workers'' rights decision Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Uber lost an appeal on Friday to overturn a decision by a tribunal which said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, in a blow to the taxi app as it also battles to keep its licence in London. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-britain/uber-loses-uk-appeal-bid-to-overturn-workers-rights-decision-idUSL5N1NE35X'|'2017-11-10T12:43:00.000+02:00'
'5bd6dab7a00ad727c826989dacb5a363896b3f17'|'Mauritania gets staff-level approval for $163 mln 3-year IMF deal'|'DAKAR, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it had reached a staff-level agreement with Mauritania for a $163-million three-year programme of reforms under an Extended Credit Facility.Mauritania was hard hit by a decline in iron ore prices in 2014-15, which cut the country’s exports in half, depressed economic growth and caused external debt to spike.The IMF said in a statement it would extend financial assistance worth up to $163 million over three years while the government would gradually reduce spending to free up money for investments in social sectors and infrastructure.“Mauritania’s economic reform program supported by the IMF aims to foster inclusive and diversified growth,” said Eric Mottu, the head of a recent IMF staff visit to the country.The agreement still requires approval from the IMF’s Executive Board, which is expected to consider it next month.In addition to iron ore, the country has reserves of copper and gold, with mines owned by Kinross Gold Corp and First Quantum. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mauritania-economy/mauritania-gets-staff-level-approval-for-163-mln-3-year-imf-deal-idINL8N1NG742'|'2017-11-10T17:54:00.000+02:00'
'420e735a9999801f80bd07a71292efdb210fc3c3'|'Disney profit, revenue misses Street as cable business weighs'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 9:12 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Disney shares drop on disappointing results in all businesses Lisa Richwine , Aishwarya Venugopal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) on Thursday reported earnings that missed Wall Street targets as profit fell at its media networks unit, the movie studio and its consumer products division, sending shares down 3 percent. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Disney store on the Champs Elysee is seen in Paris, France, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo Revenue from Disney’s cable business, the largest unit which includes ESPN and Disney Channel, fell marginally to $3.95 billion in the fourth quarter, missing the $4.06 billion consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Results at sports channel ESPN were comparable to the prior year, Disney said, but subscribers and advertising revenue declined even as affiliate revenue rose. Chief Executive Robert Iger focused on the power of Disney brands, rather than the quarterly results, in a statement in the press release. “No other entertainment company is better equipped to navigate the ever-evolving media landscape,” he said. Disney’s television networks have been under pressure as audiences rapidly embrace online streaming services and ditch traditional pay TV packages. Sports channel ESPN, Disney’s biggest network, has lost subscribers at the same time its programming costs are rising. To navigate the changes, Disney plans to launch its own online offerings. The company said in August it was pulling its new movie releases from Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) starting in 2019 to create its own streaming service centered around family entertainment. A sports-related service is planned for 2018. Disney also held talks in recent weeks about buying some of Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) film and TV businesses, according to media reports, which could bring Disney more content to compete with Netflix and others. In addition, Disney’s board is searching for a chief executive to succeed Bob Iger, who has said he plans to retire from the company in July 2019. Disney shares have fallen roughly 1 percent this year, while the S&P 500 has risen 15 percent. Disney recently traded at 16 times expected earnings, compared with 14 times earnings for Time Warner and 13 times earnings for Fox, according to Thomson Reuters data. Disney’s movie business generated revenue of $1.4 billion in the quarter, down about 21 percent and missing analysts’ average estimate of $1.61 billion. Broadcast revenue of $1.51 billion missed Wall Street’s target of $1.69 million, and Disney’s theme parks posted revenue of $4.67 billion, just missing expectations of $4.70 billion. Disney’s total revenue fell to $12.78 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $13.14 billion a year earlier. Net income attributable to the company declined to $1.75 billion from $1.77 billion. Excluding items, it earned $1.07 per share. Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $1.13 per share and revenue to rise to $13.23 billion. Disney shares fell to $99.59 in trading after the bell. Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-walt-disney-results/disney-reports-2-8-percent-fall-in-quarterly-revenue-idUKKBN1D933B'|'2017-11-09T23:27:00.000+02:00'
'067e9693e3a5d9708596bbdd7b1b99d6af4c3bed'|'Halfords profit falls as weaker pound lifts costs'|' 31 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Halfords profit falls as weaker pound lifts costs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British bicycles to car parts retailer Halfords Group ( HFD.L ) on Thursday reported a smaller than expected half-year profit, hurt by higher costs resulting from a weaker pound. Weakness in the currency since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has raised Halfords’ sourcing costs, prompting it to implement a plan to reduce the impact, including working with suppliers and raising prices. Sterling’s depreciation resulted in a rise of 15 million pounds to Halfords’ cost of sales in first half, which the company said was in line with its forecast of a total of 25 million pounds for the full year. “Our plans to mitigate the forex impact are on track and working well. At current exchange rates this impact will reduce significantly going forward,” Chief Financial Officer Jonny Mason said on a post-earnings call. Underlying pretax profit fell by 9.8 percent to 36.8 million pounds in the 26 weeks to Sept. 29, slightly missing analysts’ average estimate of 37.4 million pounds, on revenue up 3.8 percent at 588.7 million pounds. The retail gross margin dropped by 182 basis points to 45.7 percent, the company said in a statement. Shares in Halfords were down 5.6 percent at 315 pence 0921 GMT, though Investec Securities analysts said the worst of the forex headwinds are now behind the company. Halfords, undergoing a leadership transition after former CEO Jill McDonald moved to Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ), stuck to its guidance for the full year, which will include the crucial Black Friday and Christmas holiday season sales. The retailer has appointed Dixons Carphone ( DC.L ) executive Graham Stapleton as its new CEO from January, with Mason filling the post on an interim basis. Haldfords said it would pay a 3 percent higher interim dividend of 6 pence per share. Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-halfords-grp-results/halfords-profit-falls-as-weaker-pound-lifts-costs-idUKKBN1D9144'|'2017-11-09T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'074346d8752116174b0e42820d140e1d1a8094c7'|'Investment veterans behind real estate, hospitality buyout vehicle'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The former chairman of fund manager Man GLG and the ex-president of Vornado Realty Trust are behind a buyout vehicle that will seek deals in the real estate and hospitality sectors, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters on Thursday.Landscape Acquisition Holdings Limited, a special purpose acquisition , or SPAC, is raising $500 million through an initial public offering and will focus primarily on North America and Europe.The duo behind Landscape are Noam Gottesman and Mike Fascitelli, who both have extensive experience in investing in their target industries.Gottesman co-founded investment manager GLG Partners in 1995, which was sold to Man Group in 2010 for $1.6 billion. Since then, he has made a number of restaurant investments, including in Eleven Madison Park in New York City.He also founded another SPAC, Nomad Foods, which in 2015 bought Iglo Group for $2.8 billion. At the time, it was Europe’s largest frozen foods business.Fascitelli was president of Vornado for 16 years until 2013, during which time the real estate investment trust grew into one of the most significant owners of property in Manhattan. Its current portfolio includes buildings in San Francisco and Chicago, according to its website.The two are putting $40 million into Landscape as part of the IPO, which will list the SPAC on the London Stock Exchange on Nov. 15, according to a document from one of the investment banks arranging the float.Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the global coordinators for the IPO, which is offering 50 million units at $10 each.Under the SPAC’s terms, Landscape will have two years to make an investment, with an option for a one-year extension at the discretion of unit holders, the document said. If nothing is purchased in that time period, money is to be returned to investors.“The company expects to focus on acquiring an operating company or business with a real estate component (such as a business within the hospitality, lodging, gaming, real estate, property services or asset management industries),” according to the document.Reporting by David French; Additional Reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-landscape-ipo/investment-veterans-behind-real-estate-hospitality-buyout-vehicle-idINKBN1D92KO'|'2017-11-09T14:32:00.000+02:00'
'490ee8ec362a8a3d7a03c91ac91855587fd79eab'|'Boeing nears deal with Emirates for 787-10 jets - sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 12, 2017 / 7:36 AM / Updated an hour ago Boeing nears deal with Emirates for 787-10 jets: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA.N ) is close to a deal to sell around 40 of its 787-10 passenger jets to Dubai’s Emirates, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. A Rolls Royce jet engine is seen on Boeing 787-10 on the static display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The deal, which may be announced as early as this week’s Dubai Airshow, could be worth some $12.5 billion at list prices, the sources said, asking not to be identified. Boeing ( BA.N ) and Emirates declined comment. Reporting by Tim Hepher'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-boeing/boeing-nears-deal-with-emirates-for-787-10-jets-sources-idUKKBN1DC06R'|'2017-11-12T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'ab3e14de1164dd833ed36a8ec0ceb019832bb7a8'|'Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer -sources'|'Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc is making preparations to reject rival Broadcom Ltd’s $103 billion bid as early as this week, four people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, setting the stage for one of the biggest-ever takeover battles.Qualcomm’s board of directors could meet as early as Sunday to review the unsolicited acquisition offer and decide on its strategy, the sources said. The preparations for the board meeting indicate that Qualcomm is poised to rebuff the bid as insufficient as early as Monday, although it may decide to spend a few more days this week to prepare its full response to Broadcom, the sources added.Qualcomm Chief Executive Steven Mollenkopf has spent the past few days soliciting feedback from Qualcomm shareholders, and feels that Qualcomm’s $70-per-share bid undervalues the company and does not price in the uncertainty associated with getting the deal approved by regulators, according to the sources.Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, who said earlier this month he would redomicile his company to the United States from Singapore, has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle. The sources said Broadcom was preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. That would allow Qualcomm shareholders to vote to replace the company’s board and force it to engage with Broadcom.Broadcom has also been deliberating the possibility of raising its bid for Qualcomm, including through more debt financing, some of the sources said, although it was not clear when Broadcom would choose to make such a move.The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc, and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal.NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not plan to significantly raise its price for NXP as a defensive strategy to make its acquisition by Broadcom more expensive, according to one of the sources.Qualcomm shares closed at $64.57 on Friday, while Broadcom ended at $264.96. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Cooney) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/qualcomm-ma-broadcom/qualcomm-draws-up-plans-to-rebuff-broadcoms-103-billion-offer-sources-idINL8N1NI0XZ'|'2017-11-12T18:28:00.000+02:00'
'06882e9cdd3be7adda8c8a7bf9e70fa5d3516168'|'Volkswagen re-registers Cayman Islands planes in Germany'|' 53 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Volkswagen re-registers Cayman Islands planes in Germany Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) has re-registered in Germany six company jets that were previously registered in the Cayman Islands, a company spokesman said on Sunday, confirming an article in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The spokesman said the move was sparked by new EU regulations stipulating that aircraft must be governed by the authority of the territory where the planes are stationed. Volkswagen had previously denied that the planes were registered in the Cayman Islands for tax-avoidance reasons, saying it was simply a matter of less bureaucracy. Europe’s biggest carmaker used to have an Airbus A319 for executives’ use but sold it in the wake of the 2015 dieselgate crisis - which has cost it around $30 billion so far - as a signal of cutting back on an ostentatious corporate lifestyle. Volkswagen now has a total of nine company jets, seven of which were registered in the Cayman Islands. The seventh of those is due to be sold, the spokesman said. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Writing by Georgina Prodhan;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-planes-cayman/volkswagen-re-registers-cayman-islands-planes-in-germany-idUKKBN1DC0OC'|'2017-11-12T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'd299b245bfaaad63e49c0e82eb8f11bf5ac5c10e'|'Brazil''s B3 to decide on additional dividends in December'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - B3 SA Brasil Bolsa Balcão , the operator of Brazil’s main stock exchange, will decide in December whether to distribute more dividends to shareholders for the fourth quarter, an executive said on Monday.Speaking to analysts following the release of quarterly results, investor relations head Rogério Santana added that B3 is confident it will win all legal cases regarding tax obligations from a 2008 tie-up. B3 is not making provisions for any losses related to the case, he said. (Reporting by Gabriela Mello; Writing by Gram Slattery) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/b3-sa-brasil-bolsa/brazils-b3-to-decide-on-additional-dividends-in-december-idINE6N1G504Z'|'2017-11-13T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'058a461faedf19f6f7c78173c90e0cfe10771eb2'|'Lyft to drive into Canada in first international foray'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:58 PM / a minute ago Lyft to drive into Canada in first international foray Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc said on Monday it would launch its service in Toronto, marking the first international expansion for the U.S.-based rival of Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. An illuminated sign appears in a Lyft ride-hailing car in Los Angeles, California, U.S. September 21, 2017. Picture taken September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren "Before you know it, Lyft will be coming to you live in Toronto," the company said in a blogpost, without giving a launch date. lft.to/2AFQ5at Lyft is crossing into Canada at a time when rival Uber has opted out of operating in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, to avoid following tough new regulations for drivers. Lyft raised $1 billion in October, in a financing round led by CapitalG, the growth investment fund of Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) and had in September hired an initial public offering advisory firm. Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-expansion/lyft-to-drive-into-canada-in-first-international-foray-idUKKBN1DD1NJ'|'2017-11-13T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'fcef4284c70014693bbb4c05f585e78baeb811a3'|'Exclusive: Japan to delay multi-billion dollar fighter jet development - sources'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will delay a decision to develop a new advanced fighter jet, four sources said, as military planners struggle to settle on a design and officials splash out on new U.S. equipment such as ballistic missile interceptors and F-35 stealth planes.Faced with a growing military threat from North Korea and increased activity by Chinese air force jets over the East China Sea, Japan is under pressure to improve its defences on two fronts.Any delay to the new fighter, known as the F-3, will raise a question mark over the future of what could be one of the world’s most lucrative upcoming military contracts, estimated at more than $40 billion to develop and deploy.A decision after the first half of 2018 would be too late for it to be included as a core programme in a new five-year defence equipment plan beginning April 2019 that Japan will reveal at the end of next year.“The direction is for the F-3 decision to be put back,” said one the sources who have knowledge of the discussion. The people who spoke to Reuters asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media.They said the decision, on whether to forge ahead as a domestic programme or seek international collaboration, would now likely come after 2018.“Regarding the F-3 decision, including whether we will delay a choice, we have haven’t come to any conclusion,” a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence Acquisition Technology & Logistics Agency said.SQUEEZE Analysts estimate developing the F-3 could cost $40 billion, a figure described another source as an “initial cost.”With a defence budget of around $50 billion that has increased in the past few years at just under an annual 1 percent, that outlay, even spread out over years of development, represents a major undertaking.It would come at a time when Japan is spending a record amounts on U.S. equipment, including Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 jet, Raytheon defence missiles and Boeing Co and Textron Inc’s tilt-rotor Osprey troop aircraft.In 2013, Japan procured 118 billion yen ($1 billion) of equipment through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system. By last year, that outlay had quadrupled to 486 billion yen.President Donald Trump in Tokyo last week called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to purchase additional U.S.-made weapons as his administration pushes Washington’s allies to contribute more to their joint defence.DUAL ROLE For now, that defence is focused on countering the threat posed by North Korean ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.Japan’s defence forces, however, want the F-3 to counter growing Chinese air power in the skies over the western Pacific and East China Sea where Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a territorial dispute.Japanese fighters scrambled a record 806 times to intercept Chinese planes in the year that ended March 31.A second role for the yet-to-be-built fighter is to reinforce Japan’s defence industry by giving Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and its suppliers their first fighter jet programme since Japan built its F-2 fighter two decades ago.Mitsubishi Heavy, the maker of the World War Two-era Zero fighter, in January 2016 tested a prototype jet, the ATD-X. Developed for around $350 million, it was seen as the first step toward a new homegrown frontline stealth fighter.While support for a domestic-only programme is strong among some government officials, other bureaucrats are worried about the potentially enormous expense of developing components from scratch. They support international collaboration to share costs with overseas partners and tap their technology.“What we have now is a flying box” without all the systems that constitute a fighter such as weapons and sensors, said another of the sources.Possible overseas partners include BAE Systems, a leading designer of the high-altitude Eurofighter interceptor backed by the British government, F-35 builder Lockheed Martin and Boeing, maker of the F-18 strike fighter. All have responded to initial requests for information from Ministry of Defence overseeing F-3 plans.($1 = 113.9900 yen)Reporting by Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Lincoln Feast '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-defence-fighter-jet/exclusive-japan-to-delay-multi-billion-dollar-fighter-jet-development-sources-idINKBN1DD0F3'|'2017-11-13T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'fe3d7811faf2569ffca4759ed33a8e131381e908'|'Shell to sell part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum for $1.7 billion'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:15 AM / Updated an hour ago Shell to sell part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum for $1.7 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) said on Monday it was selling part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum Ltd ( WPL.AX ) to equity investors for about $1.7 billion (1.30 billion pounds). FILE PHOTO - A man walks behind a signboard of Showa Shell Sekiyu at its gas station in Tokyo, Japan, November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino Shell said its unit, Shell Energy Holdings Australia Limited (SEHAL), had entered into an agreement with two investment banks for the sale of 71.6 million shares in Woodside for 31.10 Australian dollars (18.19 pounds) per share. The company said that represented 64 percent of its interest in Woodside and 8.5 percent of the issued capital in Woodside. Upon completion of the sale, SEHAL will continue to own a 4.8 percent interest in Woodside. Shell has so far sold or agreed to sell over $26 billion as part of its three-year $30 billion asset sales programme launched following the acquisition of BG Group in 2015. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru and Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-divestiture-woodside/shell-to-sell-part-of-its-stake-in-woodside-petroleum-for-1-7-billion-idUKKBN1DD0XT'|'2017-11-13T11:15:00.000+02:00'
'874aace7941ab4ecdb85a1f58eca1b81beea8de7'|'Lyft to drive into Canada in first international foray'|' 49 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Lyft to drive into Canada in first international foray Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 13 (Reuters) - Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc said on Monday it would launch its service in Toronto, marking the first international expansion for the U.S.-based rival of Uber Technologies Inc. "Before you know it, Lyft will be coming to you live in Toronto," the company said in a blogpost, without giving a launch date. lft.to/2AFQ5at Lyft is crossing into Canada at a time when rival Uber has opted out of operating in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, to avoid following tough new regulations for drivers. Lyft raised $1 billion in October, in a financing round led by CapitalG, the growth investment fund of Alphabet Inc and had in September hired an initial public offering advisory firm. Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lyft-expansion/lyft-to-drive-into-canada-in-first-international-foray-idUSL3N1NJ4UP'|'2017-11-13T15:47:00.000+02:00'
'2a57a1b1acfd087a6103f8b22f9ea95c36569c1d'|'Selling CNN does not fix AT&T deal for Time Warner: Justice Department officials'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Justice Department officials said on Wednesday that selling cable channel CNN would not solve antitrust concerns about AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) deal to buy media company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ).There are many ways to resolve concerns about the deal, the officials said, adding that no decision had been made and that conversations were continuing.Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-antitrust/selling-cnn-does-not-fix-att-deal-for-time-warner-justice-department-officials-idINKBN1D835D'|'2017-11-08T19:06:00.000+02:00'
'7a3b0567f089b635c70991063800f30dc9e0e2cd'|'Brazil soy growers ask court to cancel Monsanto''s Intacta patent'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Soybean growers in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s largest producing state, have asked a court to cancel Monsanto’s ( MON.N ) Intacta RR2 PRO patent claiming irregularities, including the company’s alleged failure to prove it brings de facto technological innovation.FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The Mato Grosso branch of Aprosoja, the association representing the growers that filed the lawsuit at a federal court on Wednesday, claimed “the patent does not fully reveal the invention so as to allow, at the end of the exclusivity period, any person can freely have access to it.”That requirement “avoids that a company controls a technology for an undetermined period of time,” Aprosoja said, adding Intacta’s patent protection extends through October 2022.Monsanto said it has not been formally notified of the lawsuit and therefore would not make a statement.Mato Grosso farmers are leading a push in Brazil to replace genetically modified soybeans with non-GM seeds.“Aprosoja is not against innovation or paying for intellectual property,” its head Endrigo Dalcin said, but added that farmers should not have to pay for technology that is protected by what it claims to be an invalid patent.With about 53 percent of Brazil’s soy area planted with Intacta technology in the 2016/17 crop cycle, Monsanto is a dominant force, Aprosoja says, citing data from consultancy Agroconsult.Some 40 percent of the country’s area is grown with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seed technology and only 7 percent is non-GM, the data showed.This is the second time Mato Grosso farmers have challenged Monsanto in Brazil, its most important market outside the United States. In 2012, Aprosoja claimed Monsanto was charging royalties over a patent that had expired two years prior.By 2013, after legal disputes, Monsanto had stopped collecting royalties linked to its first-generation Roundup Ready technology, Intacta’s predecessor, according to Aprosoja. At that point, some farmers agreed to a discount rate on using Monsanto’s newer Intacta seeds for four years, it said.Monsanto, which is being acquired by Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ), is also facing close scrutiny from regulators concerning that deal.As one condition for approval in Brazil, Aprosoja’s national branch is seeking to persuade local competition watchdog Cade to force the biotech company to sell its Intacta soy seed technology.Biotech crops are genetically engineered to resist pests or disease, tolerate drought or withstand weedkillers such as glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.Reporting by Ana Mano; editing by Marguerita Choy and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-patent-litigation/brazil-soy-growers-ask-court-to-cancel-monsantos-intacta-patent-idUSKBN1D90X0'|'2017-11-09T10:05:00.000+02:00'
'51df45b5941e9d0754199b445136fabae2831cbd'|'Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group resurrects canceled IPO'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Ready meals supplier Bakkavor Group plc BAKK.L said on Friday it has revived plans to float on the London Stock Exchange only a week after saying it was shelving its initial public offering due to market volatility.The firm, which counts supermarkets Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ). Waitrose and Tesco ( TSCO.L ) as its major customers, had said on Nov. 3 that the IPO would not be in the interests of the company or shareholders even though it had received “sufficient institutional demand to cover the offering”.However it said on Friday that it was now going to go ahead and float 25 percent of the firm at a price of 180 pence per share, valuing the company at 1.04 billion pounds ($1.37 billion).Bakkavor’s announcement last week that it was cancelling its listing was seen as a blow for Britain’s IPO market, coming on the same day that broadcasting masts firm Arqiva said it was also shelving plans to go public.A source familiar with the company’s plans said Bakkavor had been worried some investors it had marketed the IPO to had not been convinced by the firm’s long-term plans.However the source said that over the past week the company and its advisors had met with some new potential shareholders and got together a more “concentrated group of longer term” investors, prompting it to push ahead with the listing again.“It is particularly pleasing that our initial register has such a strong presence of well-respected long-term investors,” said Bakkavor chairman Simon Burke.The firm, which is the UK’s largest producer of hummus, will raise 100 million pounds from the sale of new shares in the group while some of its existing shareholders will sell some of their stakes as well.Bakkavor started out as a cod roe manufacturer and exporter before brothers Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson expanded the business. The company’s growth strategy led to it running into difficulties during Iceland’s financial crisis, causing it to restructure and attract new investors.It generated revenues of almost 1.8 billion pounds and a pretax profit of 63.1 million pounds last year.HSBC ( HSBA.L ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) are leading the IPO process, with Barclays ( BARC.L ), Citigroup ( C.N ), Rabobank and Peel Hunt also working on it.It is expected to start trading on LSE on Nov 16.Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Rachel Armstrong '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bakkavor-ipo/ready-meals-firm-bakkavor-group-resurrects-canceled-ipo-idINKBN1DA0PC'|'2017-11-10T04:23:00.000+02:00'
'6d3370ed93340e501fb9b4fbaac3793fea65e6b9'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Mexico peso up on wary central bank, Brazil stocks fall'|'(Recasts with peso gains) By Miguel Gutierrez SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Mexico''s peso gained on Thursday after the central bank signaled it would not cut interest rates anytime soon after a recent currency slump threatens to fan inflation while Brazilian stocks fell after a batch of weak corporate reports. Mexico''s peso firmed nearly 0.3 percent after the central bank said that the inflation outlook had worsened and that it would maintain a prudent monetary policy given the risks Latin America''s No. 2 economy is facing. The peso was battered last month to its weakest level since March on concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump could pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada. "[The central bank board] is very worried about the potential impact on the currency from uncertainty around NAFTA talks," said Banorte analyst Alejandro Cervantes. The benchmark Bovespa stock index fell over 1.9 percent after rising the most in a month on Wednesday. Shares of fuel distributor Ultrapar Participações SA fell after slightly weaker-than-expected third-quarter operating profits fueled doubt over its year-end target. Lender Banco do Brasil SA and petrochemical company Braskem SA also dropped in the wake of quarterly earnings figures. The move came in a week of heightened volatility as uncertainty grew over President Michel Temer''s efforts to streamline the social security system. Lawmakers seem increasingly unwilling to support Temer''s austerity efforts, which contributed to driving his approval rates to single digits. Investors see the pension reform as key to curbing growth of public debt and stimulating the economy. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2215 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1133.30 -0.12 31.59 MSCI LatAm 2790.14 -1.11 20.54 Brazil Bovespa 72930.69 -1.93 21.09 Mexico IPC 48713.51 -0.25 6.73 Chile IPSA 5443.89 -0.76 31.13 Chile IGPA 27398.65 -0.71 32.14 Argentina MerVal 27951.54 -0.46 65.22 Colombia IGBC 10806.63 0.74 6.70 Venezuela IBC 685.51 -2.56 -97.84 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2589 0.13 -0.09 Mexico peso 19.0350 0.28 8.98 Chile peso 629.85 0.23 6.49 Colombia peso 3009 0.30 -0.25 Peru sol 3.241 0.12 5.34 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.5025 0.13 -9.30 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.9 0.00 -6.03 (Additional reporting by Bruno Federowski in Sao Paulo; editing by Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-mexico-peso-up-on-wary-central-bank-brazil-stocks-fall-idUSL1N1NF2SH'|'2017-11-10T00:38:00.000+02:00'
'8ae47db552b74cd61a4bb04c3a1fb3d6a9000548'|'Airbus looks at more capacity for A350 with new layout'|'Reuters TV United States  29 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Airbus looks at more capacity for A350 with new layout Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) is working on increasing the capacity of its A350-900 aircraft as airlines look to reduce their operating costs per seat, industry executives said on Monday. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The plans were presented to Emirates airline last week, they added, but did not sway the Dubai carrier in its eventual decision to buy Boeing’s ( BA.N ) 787-10 at this week’s Dubai Airshow. Billed as Europe’s answer to the 787 Dreamliner, the A350-900 is designed for airlines that want long range. But for carriers prepared to settle for less range on certain busy routes, the recently introduced 787-10 carries more passengers and is therefore potentially more efficient per seat. The proposed A350 layout would help to close the seat gap, by moving the pressure bulkhead back by two and a half feet and changing the rest of the layout to leave more space for seats. Plane manufacturers have already been steadily adding more seats to their existing aircraft models by improving the way the cabins are set out, or by providing denser configurations. Airbus says the A350-900, which was originally marketed for 317 passengers, now holds 325 in standard layout. The Boeing 787-10 is a stretched version of the earlier 787-9 Dreamliner and was originally designed to carry 323 passengers. Boeing now says it carries 330 people. Airbus said it was constantly looking at improvements but declined to discuss details. “As with all programs, we are also studying new cabin improvements on the A350 as it offers a versatile and flexible platform,” a spokeswoman said. “As a leading aircraft manufacturer we always consider future improvements in line with market and customer needs.” Reporting by Tim HepherEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-dubai/airbus-looks-at-more-capacity-for-a350-with-new-layout-idUKKBN1DD216'|'2017-11-13T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'3013322455038418d7d75a24938a1ea2ec07d602'|'BOJ to persist with monetary easing to boost inflation - Kuroda'|'November 13, 2017 / 6:30 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago BOJ to persist with monetary easing to boost inflation - Kuroda John Revill 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan will continue to persist with “powerful monetary easing” to nurture positive inflation developments, BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in Zurich on Monday. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda makes a speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “Going forward, with the output gap improving steadily, firms’ stance is likely to gradually shift towards raising wages and prices,” Kuroda said in a lecture at the University of Zurich. “If further price rises come to be widespread, inflation expectations are likely to rise steadily.” “The Bank will continue to persist with powerful monetary easing to ensure that such positive developments are not cut short,” he added. Kuroda launched a massive asset buying programme in 2013 to revive inflation with the aim of reaching the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, but inflation remains around 0.5 percent. “This powerful monetary easing ... has been producing remarkable effects,” Kuroda said. “We judge that the economy is no longer in deflation, which is generally defined as a sustained decline in prices.” But while CPI inflation was in the range of 0.5 to 1 percent, Kuroda remained cautious, saying the deflationary mindset remained entrenched in Japan. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda poses for a picture before his speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “As a result of 15 years of deflation, a deflationary mindset -- that is, the perception that prices will not increase easily -- has become deeply entrenched among firms and consumers, and there is still a long way to go before the price stability target of 2 percent is achieved.” He said it remained important for the Bank of Japan not to ease up on its efforts to stimulate inflation. Slideshow (2 Images) Under a policy framework adopted last year, the BoJ now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent, and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. The BoJ’s expansive stance contrasts with the first stages of monetary tightening by the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, which are beginning to roll back the unconventional policies deployed after the global financial crisis. “I think that the Bank’s strong stance and persistent efforts towards achieving the price stability target of 2 percent are important,” Kuroda said. Although there remained issues to resolve to achieve the target of 2 percent inflation, he said the environment surrounding prices in Japan had improved steadily in the last five years. “I am convinced that this shows that the Bank’s efforts based on the economic theories underpinning (quantitative easing) have been going in the right direction,” he said. Reporting by John Revill; Writing by Balazs Koranyi and John Revill; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-boj-policy-kuroda/boj-to-persist-with-monetary-easing-to-boost-inflation-kuroda-idUKKBN1DD28V'|'2017-11-13T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'47095e655ac34745c57cbc10b056fa2a9d2523bd'|'Bombardier in talks to reshuffle Delta CSeries deliveries'|' 04 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Bombardier in talks to reshuffle Delta CSeries deliveries Alexander Cornwell 2   Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) is in talks to reshuffle Delta Air Line ( DAL.N ) CSeries delivery slots with other customers in case a trade dispute holds up the U.S. carrier’s order, a senior executive said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. Picture taken September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne A U.S. trade commission will decide in early 2018 on whether to impose duties of nearly 300 percent on the CSeries, after Boeing ( BA.N ) complained the planes had been subsidized and sold below cost in the United States. Delta, which ordered 75 CSeries jets in 2016, and Bombardier have each said they are unwilling to swallow the duties. “We are looking at alternative opportunities for aircraft to be delivered to other customers,” Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow. He declined to name who Bombardier was in talks with, but said the Canadian company intended to deliver the 40 to 45 CSeries jets it had said it would in 2018 even if the Delta order was held up. Cromer did not say how many CSeries jets Delta was scheduled to take next year. A Bombardier spokeswoman was not immediately able to provide the number. CSeries customers include Air Canada ( AC.TO ), Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) and Latvia’s AirBaltic. Airbus ( AIR.PA ) agreed in October to take a majority stake in Bombardier’s troubled CSeries jetliner programme, and has said any CSeries jets intended for the U.S. market would be built at its production facility in Alabama, potentially allowing the planes to avoid punitive duties. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-bombardier/bombardier-in-talks-to-reshuffle-delta-cseries-deliveries-idUKKBN1DC0OI'|'2017-11-12T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'e316f38dadf4e1b9948789a985b9bbfbecb02050'|'British airline easyJet appoints Johan Lundgren as new CEO'|'November 10, 2017 / 11:38 AM / Updated an hour ago British airline easyJet appoints Johan Lundgren as new CEO Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British budget airline easyJet ( EZJ.L ) said on Friday its new chief executive officer would be industry veteran Johan Lundgren, a travel executive who most recently spent 12 years at rival travel firm TUI ( TUIT.L ). EasyJet Commercial passenger aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Lundgren replaces Carolyn McCall, who has run easyJet since 2010 and is leaving at the end of the year to become CEO of ITV, at a tumultuous time for the industry and a busy time for the airline. Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch have all gone into administration this year, a symptom of the intense price competition in the sector. But easyJet has found opportunities within the turmoil. It has agreed a deal to buy parts of Air Berlin after its failure, and has also bid for parts of Alitalia, both while McCall’s successor was not known. EasyJet also applied for an air-operators certificate in Vienna to help shield the airline from ongoing uncertainty over Brexit. Lundgren will become CEO on Dec. 1, and as an industry insider, represents a change of tack from McCall, who arrived at easyJet from the publishing industry. “Johan has proven experience in European travel as CEO and in broader group roles,” easyJet chairman John Barton said in a statement. EasyJet said McCall would stay to assist with the transition until the end of the year. Lundgren left TUI in 2015 just one day before TUI made a major presentation on the progress of the merger between its UK and German divisions. TUI said Lundgren had been supportive of the new structure, but did not want a role within it. In his time as deputy chief executive of TUI Travel, the company said he had increased profitability by some 48 percent from 370 million pounds to 546 million between 2011 and 2014 pounds. He began his career with Swedish travel group Fritidsresor which was eventually acquired by TUI Travel. His career contrasts with McCall, who was CEO at newspaper publisher Guardian Media Group before moving to easyJet. At easyJet, McCall expanded its network to focus more on primary airports to compete with traditional carriers rather than low-cost rivals such as Ryanair ( RYA.I ). She has overseen an increase in passenger numbers and a trebling in the share price. Reporting by Alistair Smout,; additional reporting by Victoria Bryan and Lina Saigol; editing by James Davey and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-easyjet-ceo/british-airline-easyjet-appoints-johan-lundgren-as-new-ceo-idUKKBN1DA1F4'|'2017-11-10T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'52613bf601f42f2bc790f971e5b111508ebd6ee6'|'Global regulators want to limit accountants'' say on audit rules'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:18 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Global regulators want to limit accountants'' say on audit rules Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators want to shake up how corporate audit rules are written to curb the influence of accountants and avoid any conflict of interest. Audit rules are currently written under the umbrella of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), a global body that represents a profession dominated by the “Big Four” - PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY - which also check the books of nearly all blue chip companies globally. Regulators now want audit rulemakers who are independent of the accounting industry, and issued a paper for public consultation on Thursday that set out options for change. They aim to replicate a similar change made to accounting rules two decades ago that is now the benchmark for book-keeping in over 100 countries, and aim to have it in place by 2020. “The status quo is definitely not an option,” Gerben Everts, who chairs the group of global regulators that monitors IFAC, told Reuters. “We are the driving force for this change.” “I am not saying the current standards are weak or should not be complied with, but I think there is a lot of potential for stronger standards in the audit world with less flexibility, less optionality,” said Everts, who is also a board member at Dutch markets watchdog AFM. A new, independent body would need phasing in over about a year and half to be up and running in 2020. It would include views from investors, companies, regulators and analysts. There have already been some moves to bolster broader interests in IFAC rulemaking, such as setting up the Public Interest Oversight Board, but Everts views these as a “temporary situation”. “The standards as they are will remain in place, but we need to make sure that for revision of standards and new standards we have a broader group of people independent from the profession, with the technical know-how and strategic focus,” he said. IFAC said regular reviews of the standard setting process are in the public interest, and the current system already has many of the elements called for by the monitoring group. “We do, however, have reservations about the lack of an evidence-based case for radical change, and the fact that key issues such as governance structure, funding model and risk assessment are deferred,” IFAC said in a statement. The consultation will end in February and the monitoring group will publish a final proposal next summer, said Everts. The group will work on a separate paper on how the new body would be funded. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/accounts-auditor-regulation/global-regulators-want-to-limit-accountants-say-on-audit-rules-idINKBN1DA03R'|'2017-11-10T03:13:00.000+02:00'
'3c1feb138281d11e785aaefcdb5262e7c64226e0'|'Hong Kong''s Trinity says Shandong Ruyi to buy control for $285 million'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Menswear group Trinity Ltd ( 0891.HK ) said Shandong-based textile maker Shandong Ruyi International Fashion Industry Investment Holding Co Ltd has agreed to buy shares representing 51.38 pct of its enlarged share capital for HK$2.22 billion ($284.62 million), raising funds for future acquisitions and to repay debt.The retailer and wholesaler of menswear brands including Kent Curwen, Gieves Hawkes, and Cerruti 1881, said late on Thursday Ruyi would buy 1.85 billion new shares at HK$1.20 apiece, or a 60 percent premium over the stock’s previous closing price.The announcement sent Trinity shares to their highest in 20 months at HK$0.99 on Friday morning before trimming gains to HK$0.87, still up 16 percent. That compared with a 0.01 percent gain the benchmark index .HSI .Ruyi, which operates 13 industrial parks in China and over 3,000 points of sale in the Asia-Pacific region, will continue Trinity’s existing business and does not intend to dispose of any assets, Trinity said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.Fung Retailing Ltd, which currently owns 40.95 pct of Trinity, will remain a substantial shareholder on completion of the deal holding 19.79 percent.Ruyi has a distribution and point of sales network that services a global customer base. It has over 20 subsidiaries including listed firms Shandong Ruyi Woolen Garment Group Co Ltd 002193.SZ, SMCP SAS ( SMCP.PA ) and Renown Inc ( 3606.T ).Reporting by Donny KwokEditing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-trinity-m-a-ruyi-group/hong-kongs-trinity-says-shandong-ruyi-to-buy-control-for-285-million-idINKBN1DA0EN'|'2017-11-10T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'a370507d1cbaf169f6da601c3aa7519541e76c38'|'Miner Vedanta''s first-half profit jumps 37 percent on higher output, prices'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:20 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Rising zinc output helps lift miner Vedanta''s first-half profit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Diversified miner Vedanta Resources ( VED.L ) announced a 37.4 percent rise in half-year profit on Friday, buoyed by rising commodity prices and higher zinc and aluminium output. Vedanta, which is currently searching for a new chief executive after the departure of Tom Albanese in August, has been recovering after being hard hit by the commodities slump. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to $1.69 billion (1.29 billion pounds) in the six months ended Sept. 30, from $1.23 billion, a year ago. The company, which mines zinc in India, South Africa and Namibia, reported a near 80 percent jump in operating profit from its zinc business, helped by a 42.1 percent jump in total zinc content mined in India. Zinc prices rose by more than a third on average in the six months to Sept. 30. Vedanta also forecast higher mined zinc production for the full year ending March. The company, whose Indian unit acquired oil and gas assets in India and South Africa by taking over Cairn India Ltd earlier this year, said it was investing more to explore its oil & gas assets and has a near-term production target of 275,000-300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company’s total aluminium production also rose more than 39 percent while average prices for aluminium have jumped about 23 percent in the period. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vedanta-res-plc-results/miner-vedantas-first-half-profit-jumps-37-percent-on-higher-output-prices-idUKKBN1DA0OZ'|'2017-11-10T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'130f144a9a09cfa5d1a17c1cd8c28218046d640f'|'UPDATE 2-News Corp profit beats on digital real estate unit strength'|'(Compares with estimates; Adds context, background, digital real-estate unit numbers)Nov 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street Journal owner News Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by a tight control on expenses and growth in revenue across all its businesses.News Corp said revenue in its rapidly growing digital real-estate unit, which includes REA Group Ltd, rose nearly 20 percent to $271 million.Increased competition from digital media and a declining readership is driving print advertising down. Spending on print advertising in the U.S. is expected to fall 14 percent this year to about $18 billion, a third of what it was 10 years ago, according to media research firm Magna Intelligence. ( bit.ly/2zJsXdP )Major publishers have not been immune to eroding print ad sales. New York Times Co reported a 20.1 percent decline in print ad revenue in the latest quarter, while Chicago Tribune Media owner Tronc Inc posted an 18 percent fall.News Corp, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been implementing various cost-cutting measures like reducing staff in its Dow Jones division, which includes the Journal, while boosting its digital real estate business to improve margins.Operating expenses fell to $1.14 billion from $1.16 billion.Revenue in the company’s news and information division, which accounts for about two-thirds of total revenue, rose 1.6 percent to $1.24 billion in its first quarter.Net income available to shareholders was $68 million, or 12 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $15 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.On an adjusted basis, the company earned 7 cents per share, beating the average analysts’ estimate of a profit of 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Total revenue rose 4.5 percent to $2.06 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.98 billion.Thomson Reuters the parent of Reuters News, competes with Dow Jones Newswires. (Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/news-corp-results/update-1-news-corp-posts-1st-qtr-profit-on-lower-expenses-idINL3N1NF71S'|'2017-11-09T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'cb48a1ba74f7561b280dafcd3846089c092f98f5'|'Belgian activist investor hikes Burberry stake as overhaul starts'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:42 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Belgian activist investor hikes Burberry stake as overhaul starts Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Belgian billionaire Albert Frere has raised his stake in Burberry ( BRBY.L ) from 4 to 6 percent, the British trench coat maker said on Friday, a day after it unveiled a plan to go further upmarket that sent its shares tumbling on cost concerns. The exterior of a Burberry store is seen in central London, Britain, November 3, 2017. Picture taken November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Frere - who along with other activist investors spurred a turnaround at German sportswear maker Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ) after taking stakes in 2015 - first disclosed a 3 percent stake in Burberry in February. The holding is owned by a subsidiary of Frere’s Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), which also has investments in French drinks company Pernod Ricard and energy firm Total. Burberry’s sales growth has lagged that of peers in the luxury and fashion world as a rebound in demand from Chinese consumers helps the industry recover from a few lean years. Under new CEO Marco Gobbetti, the 161-year-old outerwear maker wants to become a top-end luxury player and is banking on a creative overhaul as it prepares to part ways with long-time designer Christopher Bailey. Burberry shares fell sharply on Thursday as investors baulked at the costs of Gobbetti’s plan and the longer-than-expected turnaround time he outlined. Growth in revenue and operating profit will take until 2021, he said. The stock was down another 2.3 percent at 1406GMT on Friday. Analysts at Berenberg said Frere’s greater investment was positive. “The news should reinstate some confidence amongst investors, confirming our view that despite the short-term downside risks to earnings, the company is on the right path to long-term success,” the analysts said in a note. Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-burberry-investor/belgian-activist-investor-hikes-burberry-stake-as-overhaul-starts-idUKKBN1DA20A'|'2017-11-10T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'abc9698a92c97522f46bae91c3f32b78ca5482b8'|'IMF to revise up 2017 Kosovo growth forecast'|'November 10, 2017 / 3:30 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago IMF to revise up 2017 Kosovo growth forecast Fatos Bytyci 2 Min Read PRISTINA (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund will revise up its 2017 growth forecast for Kosovo, but still considers its economic model unsustainable, IMF resident representative Ruud Vermeulen told Reuters on Friday. Kosovo, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has seen average annual economic growth of 3.4 percent over the past decade, but widespread corruption, organised crime and political tensions have deterred foreign investors. Unemployment remains at around 30 percent, and youth unemployment around 50 percent. “We are right now in the process of revising our projections,” Vermeulen told Reuters in an interview. “We predicted to have 3.5 pct growth for this year and next year, but the fact is that the official statistics show that the economy is already growing 4.3 percent over the first half of 2017.” However, he said the economy of Kosovo, which has a population of around 1.8 million, was still in need of structural reform: “Growth is high, but relies on an unsustainable model, driven by consumption and investments in non-tradable sectors financed primarily by remittances, with high unemployment and low activity as a result.” Remittances from some 800,000 Kosovars who live abroad account for about 13 percent of national output. The IMF in July failed to complete a final review of a 184 million euro loan deal with Kosovo, freezing remaining funds worth some 15 million euros. However, Vermeulen said the economy was “in a much better shape” than in 2015, when the last standby deal was reached, and the IMF was ready to negotiate another programme with the government that was elected this year. Kosovo’s public debt is the lowest in the region at around 17 percent of GDP. “We have not received a request for another programme but we stand ready for a new programme,” Vermeulen said. “We are here to support Kosovo in any way we can, within our mandate.” Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-kosovo/imf-to-revise-up-2017-kosovo-growth-forecast-idUKKBN1DA25K'|'2017-11-10T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'9da4c13ec4b2f0c0453843a03f74a3abf4330f1d'|'Sadiq Khan: Holiday Inn owner has broken vow to pay living wage - Business'|'  12.30 GMT First published on   12.18 GMT The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan , has accused the owner of the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotel chains of reneging on a commitment to pay the living wage to staff in the capital. Intercontinental Hotels pledged to pay the higher wage rate to secure the title of official hotels provider to the 2012 London Olympics. Khan said he was shocked at the breach of trust by the hotel group, which has refused to honour a commitment made in 2012 to pay the living wage within the next five years. UK living wage rises to £8.75 per hour Read more The mayor warned the company it was unlikely he would endorse any future partnerships with the Greater London Authority without a change of policy. Officials from City Hall had hoped this week to hear from Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) that it was ready to make good on its pledge. However, the group’s new chief executive, Keith Barr, said that since 2012, employment costs had increased dramatically, preventing it from paying the £10.20 an hour rate to all staff. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA Khan said in a letter to Barr that he understood that businesses faced rising costs, including higher rents and business rates, but “given the ongoing success and profitability of IHG, I believe your business has the ability and responsibility to keep the promise you made both to Londoners and to your own staff”. An IHG spokesperson said: “Over the past five years there have been several valuable changes to UK pay and benefits legislation, including the introduction of a national living wage, pension auto-enrolment, higher national insurance and the apprenticeship levy. “We won’t be moving forward with gaining the voluntary London living wage accreditation, but remain focused on hospitality as a great career, as well as the associated pay and benefits, to ensure we remain an employer of choice.” The row comes at the end of a week of events to publicise the living wage that kicked off on Monday with the announcement of rise in the voluntary minimum to £10.20 in London and £8.75 per hour in the rest of the country . The Living Wage Foundation, which grew out of a campaign started in 2001 by the community group Citizens UK, sets new rates each year to reflect the wage a worker needs to sustain a decent quality of life. More than 3,600 companies are signatories and pay their employees the higher rate. Khan said: “To truly tackle the scourge of in-work poverty in London I need businesses such as yours to take the responsible step, especially when you have already committed to do so.” Citizens UK’s executive director, Neil Jameson, said: “Back in 2012 IHG, the owners of Holiday Inn promised they would pay a London living wage to hotel staff in the capital but, five years on, hardworking staff are still waiting for this pay rise. “It is deeply disappointing that IHG have let down workers and customers by not paying the London living wage after saying they would. We would urge IHG to meet with workers and urgently agree a timetable towards paying the London living wage and accreditation with the Living Wage Foundation.” In April 2016, the government introduced a new £7.50 national living wage to supplement the minimum wage, though just for workers aged 25 years and older. IHG added: “We have made good progress in increasing the pay and benefits of managed hotel colleagues over the past five years, including going beyond legislative requirements for national living wage by paying the 19% of our workforce under 25 years old the new rate. “Nearly 90% of colleagues are now paid more than the national living wage rate. Through our IHG academy programme we have also helped to train and upskill more than 500 local people.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/10/sadiq-khan-holiday-inn-living-wage-intercontinental-hotels'|'2017-11-10T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'74987cae74ee657e108bef2ed8a224971165fda9'|'AT&T CEO says open to litigation on Time Warner deal'|'(Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) is ready to litigate if the U.S. Department of Justice blocks its $85.4 billion Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) deal, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday.File photo: Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Randall Stephenson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust Subcommittee during a hearing on the proposed deal between AT&T and Time Warner in Washington, U.S., December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts “If we are going to go for litigation our preference would be sooner is better. We are prepared to litigate now,” Stephenson told CNBC on the sidelines of the New York Times Dealbook conference.“We have been working very diligently on a litigation strategy and a litigation plan,” he said, adding: “We would obviously ask for an expedited hearing. We feel that a transaction of this size you would likely get an expedited hearing.”The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded significant asset sales in order to approve the deal, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, and asked AT&T to sell CNN-parent Turner Broadcasting or its DirecTV satellite TV operation in discussions on Monday.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-litigation/att-ceo-says-open-to-litigation-on-time-warner-deal-idUSKBN1D92WW'|'2017-11-10T03:52:00.000+02:00'
'2d698740cb87eb0ca25eca89c838c63bf15cac82'|'Airbus to buy back some A380s in new Emirates deal: sources'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) will have to buy back or find new homes for some of the older A380s currently operated by Dubai’s Emirates as it finalises a deal to sell new superjumbos to the Gulf carrier, industry sources said on Sunday.FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A380 aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The European planemaker is expected to announce an order for some 36-38 A380 superjumbos at the opening of the Dubai Airshow later on Sunday.“A few trade-ins will be involved,” a person familiar with the matter said.An Airbus spokesman said, “We do not comment on our contractual agreements”.Asked at a news conference on the launch of a new first-class cabin whether Emirates would place an A380 order at the show, Emirates president Tim Clark said, “maybe, maybe not”.The decision by Airbus to buy back aircraft to facilitate the anticipated deal comes as the aviation market struggles to absorb some of the first A380s, which entered service a decade ago.A German asset manager is trying to place four aircraft being returned by Singapore Airlines ( SIAL.SI ), which was the first to offer superjumbo services in 2007, financiers say.Industry sources say at least one of the ex-Singapore jets will be operated by Portugal-based HiFly.The company, which rents out aircraft on a ‘wet lease’ basis complete with crew, was not immediately available for comment.Placing the rest of the aircraft is no easy task as demand for the double-decker aircraft remains thin, aircraft financiers say.Airbus is seen as keen to support the second-hand market to avoid having to break up one of the planes, a potential public relations setback as it tries to breathe new life into the iconic European programme following recent production cuts.Securing the new order from Emirates, which is by far the largest customer for the A380, clears a major hurdle to extending production towards the middle of next decade.Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Saeed Azhar, Alexander Cornwell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-a380-buyback/airbus-to-buy-back-some-a380s-in-new-emirates-deal-sources-idUSKBN1DC05B'|'2017-11-12T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'064345abea53426a97b8550a8b9f3a9415085ac3'|'Gold investors hold their nerve as stock markets fly'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:05 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Gold investors hold their nerve as stock markets fly Jan Harvey 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Gold’s resilience in the face of soaring equities and a dramatic fall in demand this year points to underlying confidence in the metal among investors unconvinced by this autumn’s scorching stock market rally. FILE PHOTO: Gold bullions are displayed at Degussa shop in Singapore June 16, 2017. Picture taken June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo Bullion’s price has barely budged XAU= as stocks soared to record high after record high since mid-October and, with a month and a half to go, is on track to post its narrowest trading range of any year since 2005. Physical gold demand, meanwhile, hit an eight-year low in the third quarter. But that masks solid underlying support from investors. While gold’s price performance during this autumn’s stock market boom has been underwhelming, they have not been bailing out of the metal. “In theory, and in the past, when you have exceptional markets and low volatility, gold was much, much lower - but nobody’s selling gold,” Davis Hall, head of FX and precious metals at Indosuez Wealth Management, said. “At some point, this stock market run is going to run into some profit-taking, for one reason or another,” he said. “As a hedge, gold’s definitely still the best viable alternative for high exposure to global equity positions.” Last time there was a strong retracement in equities, during the financial crisis of 2008, it precipitated a years-long rally in gold that took it to record highs near $2,000 an ounce, even after stocks started to recover. Hedge funds and money managers have cut their net long positions in Comex gold futures in the past seven weeks, but after strong inflows in the third quarter, positioning remains elevated compared to the start of the year. And while inflows into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds have been sparse this year -- helping to drive that eight-year low in gold demand in the last quarter -- there have been no significant outflows. The past quarter’s drop in physical demand sounds dramatic, particularly as gold is tipped to repeat that performance in the full year. However, for gold, this is less disastrous than it sounds. Unlike most other commodities, physical demand is typically dictated by price, rather than the other way round. This is particularly true in huge Asian markets such as China and India, where investors buy for the long term and have an eye for a bargain. Much more important for setting gold prices is investment appetite. There have been plenty of headwinds for that, not just in terms of rising stocks and a stronger dollar - which makes gold more expensive for holders of other currencies - but also the prospect of another rise in interest rates this year. Federal Reserve interest rate policy has been the single biggest driver of gold investment over the last decade, with ultra-low rates in the wake of the financial crisis keeping the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion at a minimum. Its subsequent decline through to early last year was largely a reflection of expectations that rates would start to normalise. The Fed has indeed pressed ahead with rate hikes, but these have been relatively benign so far. With moderate Jerome Powell now tipped to take over from Janet Yellen as head of the U.S. central bank early next year, confidence in a continuation of that policy is growing. “With Jerome Powell, Fed policy will remain relatively unchanged in the next quarter, and that will represent good news for gold,” Arnaud du Plessis, portfolio manager at CPR Asset Management, said. “If (more hawkish candidate) John Taylor had been selected, the situation would definitely have been different.” Meanwhile there is plenty in the wider markets to support gold. The flattening of the U.S. yield curve suggests that investors may be rotating out of nominally safer short-dated U.S. Treasuries and into riskier assets such as equities, Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. This, he said, has traditionally been seen as an indicator of trouble ahead. “It does seem like we have another canary in the coal mine here,” he said. “Equities are making new all-time highs, the dollar’s doing okay, but yields are signalling that something is not quite right in the fixed income market.” “There is still an element of support for gold to hedge some of the riskier equity trades.” Reporting by Jan Harvey; Editing by Veronica Brown and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gold-stall/gold-investors-hold-their-nerve-as-stock-markets-fly-idUKKBN1DA1UK'|'2017-11-10T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'8e58fb7cddb07adfbe0faaedebd702c921364942'|'AIRSHOW-UAE agrees $1.6 bln deal with Lockheed Martin to upgrade F-16 fighters'|'(Adds details and background)DUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates will pay Lockheed Martin Corp 6 billion dirhams ($1.63 billion) to upgrade 80 F-16 jet fighters, a Defence Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.Major General Abdullah Al Sayed Al Hashemi, Chief of the Military Committee and spokesman for the UAE Armed Forces was speaking at a news conference at the Dubai Airshow.The ministry also announced other deals, including 66 million dirhams to U.S.-based OTNA INC for Blu-109 ammunition and a 35 million dirham agreement with Thales Communications and Security SAS to secure defence communications.The UAE is also interested in fifth-generation fighter jets with a preference for Lockheed Martin’s F-35, which is the only Western-made jet that fully meets those requirements.Fifth generation is a definition that varies according to each manufacturer but broadly includes advanced stealth capability and a high level of computerised connectivity between fighter jets.The U.S. company has sold the F-35 to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan, and Israel. Sales to the Gulf require more scrutiny, however, due to the U.S. government’s policy of helping Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East.Al Hashemi said he was optimistic that the UAE would be able to buy the F-35 in the near future. “It is an excellent jet,” he said, declining to give details on talks with the U.S. administration.Ishaq Saleh al Baloushi, executive director of Defence, Industry and Capability Development at the ministry of defence, said the UAE has been also in talks with Russia to buy dozens of Sukhoi 35 fighter jets.The wealthy Gulf state has also been analysing the European Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale fighter jets for years, though deals for the fourth generation jets have never been secured.“Nothing is finalised, we are talking to all. The technical team is working on this.” he said declining to give details.The UAE has been waging war, along with its closest regional ally Saudi Arabia, against the Houthi group in neighbouring Yemen, while tensions are also high with the Gulf states’ arch-foe Iran.$1 = 3.6725 UAE dirham Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-lockheed-airshow/airshow-uae-agrees-1-6-bln-deal-with-lockheed-martin-to-upgrade-f-16-fighters-idINL8N1NI0C5'|'2017-11-12T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'd041b30d1800bb1bbf272a4ee4d392645a951751'|'Russia, UAE in early talks to build civil aircraft – Rostec CEO'|' 51 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Russia, UAE in early talks to build civil aircraft – Rostec CEO Stanley Carvalho 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Russia has initiated preliminary talks with the United Arab Emirates for joint production of a civil aircraft in the Gulf state, the head of Russia’s state-owned defence company said on Sunday. The aircraft would be based on Russia’s new single aisle twin passenger jet, the MC 21-400, and would compete with similar jets from Boeing and Airbus. “A working group will be created to discuss it further. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi expressed his desire to start production of the MC 21-400,” Rostec’s CEO Sergei Chemezov told Reuters in an interview at the Dubai Air Show. Chemezov said he met Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Sunday and discussed the joint production of the passenger jet and other areas of cooperation. Several Middle Eastern countries have shown interest in the passenger jet but no specific contracts have been signed yet, he said. ”The Middle East North Africa region is important for us, accounting for around 48 percent of our total sales, both civil and military,” Chemezov said. Russia rolled out its single-aisle twin passenger jet, the MC 21-300, in 2016 with its first flight in May 2017. It is expected to start flying passengers in 2019 after completing testing. There are three variants in the MC jets – MC 21-200, MC 21-300 and MC 21-400. They are produced by Russia’s Irkut Corporation with a maximum capacity of 165 passengers. In February, during the defence expo in Abu Dhabi, Chemezov announced that Russia had initiated talks with the UAE to co-develop a new generation fighter jet.  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-emirates-airshow/russia-uae-in-early-talks-to-build-civil-aircraft-rostec-ceo-idUKKBN1DC0O5'|'2017-11-12T16:50:00.000+02:00'
'567ec20adc1bab1bfffcd377320e1a19746d95f9'|'Fisher & Paykel says UK court rules rival Resmed''s patent is invalid'|'WELLINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A British court has ruled that a patent held by health appliance firm Resmed Inc for a mask that treats sleep apnea was invalid, rival firm Fisher & Paykel Healthcare said on Monday.Auckland-based Fisher & Paykel had filed the case in the High Court in 2016 and has similar legal proceedings underway in Germany.The ruling allows the New Zealand company to continue selling its sleep apnea masks in the British market.California-based ResMed has said the New Zealand firm’s masks violate its patented technology. (Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Susan Fenton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/resmed-fphealthcare-lawsuit/fisher-paykel-says-uk-court-rules-rival-resmeds-patent-is-invalid-idUSL3N1NI0GT'|'2017-11-13T04:54:00.000+02:00'
'a8c896f6fdef49e4e3f9a0df882c0695b49ea4db'|'Novartis posts eye drug data amid play for Eylea''s turf'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis’s bid to move in on Bayer’s and Regeneron’s eye-drug turf was buoyed on Friday by data showing patients on the Swiss drugmaker’s new RTH258 drug showed less disease activity than those on its rivals’ drug Eylea.Swiss drugmaker Novartis'' logo is seen at the company''s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Active disease was observed in 23.5 percent of RTH258 patients versus 33.5 percent of Eylea patients at 16 weeks, Novartis said, of its investigational treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), where abnormal, leaky blood vessels can cause blindness.A second, similar study found active disease in 21.9 percent of RTH258 patients versus 31.4 percent of those on Eylea for the condition affecting 20-25 million people worldwide.Novartis in June touted initial data showing its drug may require fewer injections directly into the eye than Eylea, while matching it on vision and safety measures.The Basel-based drugmaker hopes this latest analysis lends RTH258 additional muscle when matched head-to-head with Eylea as well as Lucentis, which Roche sells in the United States.“When you take all of that together ... we believe we have a very compelling proposition,” Vas Narasimhan, Novartis’s chief drug developer who will become CEO in 2018, said on a conference call.Novartis, which released the data at the American Academy of Opthalmology conference in New Orleans, predicts RTH258 annual sales will top $1 billion and aims to file for U.S. approval in late 2018.Making it a success is by no means clear sailing.For one, Novartis owns Lucentis rights in Europe where it has contractual obligations to continue marketing that drug. Analysts say cannibalization from RTH258 will be a challenge.Competition abounds, too: Eylea, with $5 billion in annual sales, has made inroads against the $3.2 billion-per-year Lucentis, whose 2020 U.S. patent expiration will expose it to cheaper copies.Moreover, Roche’s cancer drug Avastin is effective in off-label AMD use and has won favor because it costs a fraction of Lucentis and Eylea. In Britain, Novartis and Bayer are fighting doctor groups aiming to switch to Avastin.NEEDLE IN THE EYE Other would-be rivals are racing to market, too.Allergan, whose investigational Abicipar is in Phase III trials, is also trumpeting prospects of reduced injections compared to Lucentis. Gene therapies may also be on the distant horizon.Still, Novartis’s Narasimhan remains optimistic for RTH258’s reception when it hits the market, likely in 2019.“When you actually see an image of a patient having a needle inserted into their eye, this is something patients definitely want to avoid,” he said.“Retinal surgeons have busy offices and want to do more complex retinal surgery. Today, they have offices filled with patients waiting for injections.”Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-eye-drug-bayer/novartis-posts-eye-drug-data-amid-play-for-eyleas-turf-idUSKBN1DA2XT'|'2017-11-11T00:30:00.000+02:00'
'c64f10a5e053018ea05ff18368ab24215e4b3382'|'TPP trade deal advances without United States'|'November 10, 2017 / 7:13 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Asia-Pacific leaders say to fight ''unfair trade'' in nod to Trump A. Ananthalakshmi , Matthew Tostevin 4 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to address “unfair trade practices” and “market distorting subsidies” in a statement that bore the imprint of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the global trade landscape. The summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam has put on show the contrasting vision of Trump’s “America First” policy with the traditional consensus favoring multinational deals that China now seeks to champion. On the sidelines of the APEC summit, 11 countries kept alive a Trans Pacific trade deal whose future has been in doubt since Trump withdrew from it early this year in the name of protecting American jobs. A joint statement issued by the 21 APEC countries contrasted sharply with the group’s communique from last year. “We will work together to make trade more inclusive, support improved market access opportunities, and address unfair trade practices,” the statement read. “We urgently call for the removal of market-distorting subsidies and other types of support by governments and related entities.” The comments echoed Trump’s own themes in an address in the resort city of Danang. So did a mention of the importance of bilateral trade deals alongside bigger agreements and a call to improve the World Trade Organization (WTO). The 2016 statement was not critical of the WTO. Trump says that the United States has lost out because other countries do not play by the rules, using state subsidies and measures that distort trade to the extent that Asian countries have built huge trade surpluses - China’s the biggest of all. Earlier in the week, trade and foreign ministers wrangled over the language to be used in APEC statements. Officials said the 20 other countries had been pitted against a U.S. push to change the traditional wording. Those countries still managed to ensure references to pushing for free trade and fighting protectionism - core reasons for APEC’s founding in 1989 - made it into the final statement. Leaders pose during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. (Front L-R) Chile''s President Michelle Bachelet, China''s President Xi Jinping, Vietnam''s President Tran Dai Quang, Indonesia''s President Joko Widodo, Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korea''s President Moon Jae-in, (back L-R) Peru''s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Philippines'' President Rodrigo Duterte, Russia''s President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, Thailand''s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Singapore''s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. REUTERS/Jorge Silva TRANS PACIFIC DEAL LIVES In a boost for the principle of multilateral trade pacts, countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal agreed on the core elements to move ahead without the United States. Their talks had looked in doubt in the face of last minute resistance from Canada, but ministers announced they were near agreement on a deal they rebaptised the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Slideshow (16 Images) Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he hoped that moving ahead with the deal would be a step towards bringing back the United States. Partly to counter China’s growing dominance in Asia, Japan had been lobbying hard for the TPP pact, which aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across the 11-nation bloc whose trade totaled $356 billion last year. Some 20 provisions of the original agreement were suspended. Those included some related to protecting labor rights and the environment, although most were related to intellectual property - one of the main sticking points after the U.S. withdrawal. Canada, which has the second-biggest economy among remaining TPP countries after Japan, had said it wanted to ensure an agreement that would protect jobs. Chinese President Xi Jinping said APEC members needed to remain true to the group’s founding purposes, which included advancing trade, liberalization and strengthening the multilateral trade regime, China’s Xinhua news agency said. He spoke in favor of an ambitious free trade area that covers the entire region. “We need to take determined steps toward a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific in line with the agreed roadmap, and herald a new round of development in the Asia-Pacific in the course of opening up,” he said. Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi, Matthew Tostevin, Mai Nguyen, Michael Martina, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apec-summit/tpp-countries-salvage-agreement-to-keep-trade-deal-alive-idUKKBN1DA2MW'|'2017-11-11T06:54:00.000+02:00'
'e7b24c276e9081ed2aed9a742bda3fcebaf7cf68'|'Volkswagen AG to invest $650 million in Argentina: governor'|'November 10, 2017 / 3:02 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Volkswagen AG to invest $650 million in Argentina - governor Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Germany’s Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) will invest $650 million (491.70 million pounds) in Argentina to modernize its operations, the governor of Buenos Aires province, where the carmaker has a factory, said on Friday. Volkswagen''s logo is seen at its dealer shop in Beijing, China, October 1, 2015. China has halved sales tax on small cars to revive growth in the world''s biggest automobile market, a move likely to provide a limited boost to carmakers including Volkswagen AG, the company embroiled in a global diesel emissions scandal. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The investment will go into Volkswagen’s automotive terminal in Pacheco, a town in the province, Argentina’s largest, that is governed by Maria Eugenia Vidal. Vidal is part of business-friendly President Mauricio Macri’s coalition. Macri has been seeking investments since his allies won the five largest population centres in Argentina in last month’s midterm elections. “We are breaking records, more than 780,000 cars sold today and, more importantly, a record for trucks, which means production is moving, construction is moving,” Macri said at the announcement after Vidal spoke. The automaker, which plans to manufacture the first SUV in Argentina for the entire region, presented the global MQB A platform that will allow the production of new models. Argentina’s car output climbed 15.9 percent year-on-year in October, to 43,854 units. It accumulated six consecutive months of growth compared to 2016, according to the Association of Automotive Factories. Reporting by Walter Bianchi; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-argentina/volkswagen-ag-to-invest-650-million-in-argentina-governor-idUKKBN1DA225'|'2017-11-10T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'6a397227e3ffc34989a1a7597248a15cc31a6f8b'|'Aramco CEO - IPO preparations ongoing, no decision on venue abroad'|'Reuters TV United States November 12, 2017 / 12:16 PM / a few seconds ago Aramco CEO: IPO preparations ongoing, no decision on venue abroad Reuters Staff 2 Min Read KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Preparations to float shares of Saudi Aramco next year are proceeding, but no decision has been taken yet on the venue for the international listing, the chief executive of the state oil company told Al Arabiya Television channel. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo “Preparations are proceeding to the fullest extent for listing in 2018,” Amin Nasser told the channel in an interview aired on Sunday. He was speaking after the company signed engineering and construction deals with international firms worth $4.5 billion. Nasser told Al Arabiya Aramco’s shares will certainly be listed on the Saudi stock market, Tadawul. After extensive studies of other international stock markets, the “right” decision on the international venue will be taken “at the right time”, Nasser said. “For sure, it will be listed in the Saudi market. As for other markets, a complete study was made,” he said naming New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The studies are under discussion now, he said, adding “This takes time.” Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said last month that the Aramco’s initial public offering, part of an ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, was on track to go ahead in 2018. The sale of around 5 percent of the oil giant is expected to be the biggest in the world. Saudi officials sought to reassure the business community last week, saying that a sweeping anti-corruption investigation would not hurt the economy, and that companies and banks could operate as normal. Saudi authorities have questioned 208 people in an anti-corruption investigation and estimate at least $100 billion has been stolen through graft. Dozens of princes, senior officials and prominent businessmen, including cabinet ministers and billionaires, have been detained in the inquiry. Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; writing by Rania El Gamal'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-ipo/aramco-ceo-ipo-preparations-ongoing-no-decision-on-venue-abroad-idUKKBN1DC0I0'|'2017-11-12T13:56:00.000+02:00'
'dfa3dbafb024e83278ec349581aa56725c88828d'|'FTSE outperforms steady open for European shares; EDF slumps'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:28 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Poor earning updates keep European shares at 12-day low Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Heavy losses in utility EDF ( EDF.PA ) after a profit warning and other disappointing company updates weighed on European shares on Monday, while a weaker pound helped the FTSE outperform. FILE PHOTO - Traders work in front of the German share price index, DAX board, at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote EDF fell 8 percent, leading losers on the STOXX 600 and helping push the pan-European benchmark index down 0.4 percent by 0934 GMT to its lowest since Oct. 26. The French group lowered its 2018 earnings and cash flow forecasts due to lower than expected power consumption, lower availability of some of its nuclear reactors in early 2018 and a drop in capacity compensation in Britain. Exane BNP Paribas affirmed its underperform rating on EDF. “The market is overly focused on the power price strength and not reflecting appropriately all the other issues facing the group, including the fact that if nuclear output falls short of expectations, higher power prices are actually a negative for them,” it said in an email to clients. Sonova ( SOON.S ) was another leading faller, down 6.6 percent. The Swiss hearing aid maker reported first-half results that fell short of analyst expectations, as sales in the U.S. were dented by an overhaul of the company’s retail network there. According to Thomson Reuters IBES data, about 76 percent of MSCI EMU companies have reported earnings so far, with 50 percent of them beating expectations. That compares to 72 percent for the S&P 500 and 54 percent for the broader MSCI Europe index. Losses in EDF and Sonova were partly offset by gains in pharma heavyweight Novartis ( NOVN.S ). Its shares rose 1 percent after data showed that patients on its new eye-drug showed less disease activity than those on its rivals Bayer’s ( BAYGn.DE ) and Regeneron’s ( REGN.O ) drug. Bayer was down 0.4 percent The broader market was also supported by gains in the FTSE, which rose 0.3 percent, buoyed by gains in big export-oriented including Diageo ( DGE.L ) and Shire ( SHP.L ). They found support in falls in the pound following press reports of a building parliamentary mutiny against Prime Minister Theresa May.. The top faller on the FTSE was Coca-Cola HBC ( CCH.L ), down 5.9 percent, following a downgrade to neutral from JP Morgan. Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Helen Reid; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/ftse-outperforms-steady-open-for-european-shares-edf-slumps-idUKKBN1DD0T0'|'2017-11-13T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'67fe635e57f8b71333b67a8a4a397a22d1cca7c3'|'Brookfield Property offers to buy rest of mall owner GGP for $14.8 billion'|'November 13, 2017 / 4:02 PM / a few seconds ago Brookfield Property offers to buy rest of mall owner GGP for $14.8 billion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Brookfield Property Partners LP ( BPY.N ), one of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies, on Monday made an unsolicited bid to buy the 66 percent stake in mall owner GGP Inc ( GGP.N ) it does not already own for $14.8 billion (£11.2 billion). The $23 cash-and-stock offer for each GGP share represents a premium of 3.6 percent to GGP’s Friday close. But is at a 21 premium to GGP’s close on Nov.6, a day before Bloomberg reported that Brookfield was in preliminary talks with GGP. GGP’s shares were trading above the offer price at $23.85, suggesting some investors were expecting a higher bid. Brookfield’s shares were down 5 percent at $22.44 in morning trade. With about 127 properties, mostly in the United States, GGP’s tenants include carmaker Tesla ( TSLA.O ), jeweller Tiffany & Co ( TIF.N ) and retailer Macy’s Inc ( M.N ). Brookfield Property, spun off from Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc ( BAMa.TO ), holds about 34 percent in GGP through several entities. GGP said its board had formed a special committee to review and consider the proposal. A potential deal is expected to create a company with an ownership interest in almost $100 billion real estate assets globally and annual net operating income of about $5 billion, Brookfield said. GGP shareholders will own about 30 percent of the combined company. Citigroup Global Markets Inc is serving as financial adviser and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is serving as legal counsel to GGP. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ggp-m-a-brookfld-prpty/brookfield-property-offers-to-buy-rest-of-mall-owner-ggp-for-14-8-billion-idUKKBN1DD1ZL'|'2017-11-13T18:02:00.000+02:00'
'7a8aa0887dd41fa307a802fd6f6a4662651fff1a'|'GE to focus on three key units, exit most other operations - WSJ'|'November 13, 2017 / 5:47 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago GE to shrink, investors worry it will be less profitable Alwyn Scott , Ankit Ajmera 5 Min Read (Reuters) - General Electric Co will radically shrink to focus on aviation, power and healthcare, betting on sectors it thinks it can make profits in, as the most famous U.S. conglomerate tries to revive its share price after a decade and a half of stagnation. FILE PHOTO: The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The 125-year-old company cut its dividend and profit outlook in half as it begins the transition, in a widely expected plan unveiled on Monday by new Chief Executive John Flannery in New York. GE shares fell 6 percent to $19.22, its lowest in more than five years, valuing the entire company at about $168 billion, as investors worried how the slimmed-down company would generate cash to justify its stock valuation. “By the numbers, we see a core operating performance that is below plan, and, currently, a consensus expectations curve that we think remains too high,” said JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa. GE is the worst-performing Dow component this year, down 35 percent through Friday’s close. GE stock has effectively been dead money since September 2001, when recently retired Chief Executive Jeff Immelt took over, posting a negative total return even after reinvesting its juicy dividends. (For a graphic of the top five dividend yields in the Dow 30 click reut.rs/2zx3aoR ) Flannery, who took over as CEO on Aug. 1, said he was “looking for the soul of the company again” and would focus on “restoring the oxygen of cash and earnings to the company.” The transition likely means the sale of $20 billion of assets. GE will jettison businesses with “a very dispassionate eye,” Flannery said, keeping only units that offer growth, a leading market position and a large installed base. That could mean exiting businesses like lighting, transportation and oil and gas, closing factories around the globe, analysts said. GE also plans to cut 25 percent of corporate staff at its Boston headquarters. It has already started shedding jobs at its software business. DIVIDEND CUT The dividend cut, only the third in the company’s 125-year history and the first not in a broader financial crisis, is expected to save about $4 billion in cash annually. FILE PHOTO: A man walks past the Global Operations Center of General Electric Co. in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo “This dividend cut will be a major disappointment to GE’s (roughly 40 percent) retail shareholder base,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Deane Dray. The cut will save GE $4.16 billion in payouts, the eighth biggest dividend cut in history among S&P 500 companies, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst of S&P Dow Jones Indices. GE also had the biggest cut when it slashed its dividend by $8.87 billion in 2009, Silverblatt said. GE forecast adjusted 2018 industrial free cash flow of $6 billion to $7 billion, up from an estimated $3 billion in 2017. The move to make GE smaller and nimbler is a turnaround from the previous multi-business approach taken by former CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt. Flannery’s changes repudiate much of Immelt’s vision of a “digital industrial” company that builds software to manage and optimize GE’s jet engines, power plants, locomotives and other products. OUT OF FAVOR Conglomerates have long been out of favor on Wall Street, where investors prefer to bet on specific industries rather than a mixed portfolio. GE forecast 2018 adjusted earnings per share of $1 to $1.07 per share, compared with its earlier estimate of $2 per share. Wall Street was expecting $1.16, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company on Monday cut its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per share, from 24 cents, starting in December. GE’s dividend cut - a bid to save cash when the company’s cash flow is deteriorating - is the third in its history. The other two cuts came during the Great Depression and the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. Flannery’s strategy is a turning point for the company, which over several decades built itself into a sprawling conglomerate with interests across media, energy, banking, aviation, railroads, marine engines and chemicals. GE executives have said that analysts have undervalued the company’s digital business. They argue the digital units should be valued more like Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and other fast-growing tech companies. GE will also cut its board to 12 from 18 members. Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh and Bill Rigby; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-review/ge-to-focus-on-three-key-units-exit-most-other-operations-wsj-idUKKBN1DD0H3'|'2017-11-13T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'9ce492841a3d748932640ccd1ae9a8f2eb827e00'|'Emirates partners with Mercedes, Jeremy Clarkson for new first class'|'DUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Dubai airline Emirates joined forces with Mercedes-Benz and motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson to launch its new first-class suites on Sunday, inspired by the styling of luxury car interiors.Emirates, which was the first airline to put showers on commercial jets, rolled out the futuristic design at the start of the Dubai Airshow.“This is the first time we have seen anything like this in the civil aviation world,” Emirates President Tim Clark said.The six fully enclosed cabins for its Boeing 777 jets feature seats that recline into flat beds and a 32-inch television.B/E Aerospace, recently acquired by Rockwell Collins , is the supplier of the seats.Emirates said it spent “many millions” of dollars developing the new premium section over several years.“The investment is an awful lot of money,” Clark said, declining to disclose exactly how much the airline had spent.Emirates has placed high-definition cameras outside the planes, enabling passengers sitting in the middle of the first class cabin to have a window-like experience.The airline has recruited Jeremy Clarkson, co-presenter of Amazon car show Grand Tour, for their advertising campaign to promote the new first class.“You may not like him, but most people find him amusing, sometimes a little irritating, but he is very impactful,” Clark said.Clarkson was dropped from co-presenting BBC’s Top Gear in 2015 after he physically attacked a producer.The size of the suites will reduce the number of first- class seats on Emirates’ 777s from eight to six.Clark said Emirates was studying how to add them to its A380 fleet, and dismissed skepticism of first class by other airlines, telling reporters that there was strong demand for the premium class including on routes to China, Paris, and London.Some carriers have reduced the size of their first class, or dropped it altogether in favour of business class and a premium economy class product. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Larry King) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-airlines/emirates-partners-with-mercedes-jeremy-clarkson-for-new-first-class-idINL8N1NI04M'|'2017-11-12T04:07:00.000+02:00'
'637a48b69cca37e9717579e118adcc4be96554b7'|'Chicago school bonds top next week''s $9.84 bln muni bond sales'|'CHICAGO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The junk-rated Chicago Board of Education will sell $922 million of bonds next week in the wake of a new Illinois education funding formula that allocates more money to the cash-strapped district.The two-part bond sale, pricing through J.P. Morgan on Wednesday and Thursday, tops the $9.84 billion of bonds and notes selling in the municipal market in the coming week, according to Thomson Reuters estimates on Friday.Escalating pension payments have led to drained reserves and debt dependency for Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the nation’s third-largest public school system.The state funding formula enacted in August allocates an additional $450 million to CPS in the current fiscal year from new state money for operations and pensions and a local property tax increase.“CPS is a different credit than it was just a few months ago,” Ronald DeNard, the district’s senior vice president of finance, said in an investor presentation.But the district’s general obligation ratings remain in junk with major credit rating agencies. Ahead of the deal, Fitch Ratings upgraded the district to BB-minus with a stable outlook from B-plus, citing the additional state aid. It also noted a continued high dependence on cash-flow borrowing. CPS has said it will decrease its reliance on tax anticipation notes to $1.3 billion in fiscal 2018 from $1.55 billion the prior year.S&P rated the GO bonds B with a stable outlook, noting the district’s “extremely weak liquidity and its vulnerability to unexpected variances in its cash-flow forecast.”CPS will sell $632.5 million of GO refunding bonds and nearly $225 million of new GO bonds, as well as $64.9 million of dedicated capital improvement tax bonds that are rated at the investment-grade level of A by Fitch.The biggest chunk of the GO bond deal, $441.7 million, will restructure 9 percent floating-rate debt that CPS sold in 2011, 2013, and 2015 into a fixed-rate mode.Another low-rated Illinois issuer, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, will sell $475 million of new and refunding expansion project bonds through Citigroup on Tuesday. The bonds are rated BB-plus by S&P and BBB-minus by Fitch.Meanwhile, U.S. municipal bond fund flows turned positive in the latest week, according to Lipper, a Thomson Reuters unit. Funds reported net inflows of $463 million in the week ended Nov. 8 compared to net outflows of $655 million in the prior week. (Reporting By Karen Pierog; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/municipals-markets-deals/chicago-school-bonds-top-next-weeks-9-84-bln-muni-bond-sales-idINL1N1NF1P4'|'2017-11-10T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'17dd345a20345a8cac0ade328f69569ccc79abdb'|'Dubai wants guarantee on A380 output before placing new order'|'November 13, 2017 / 6:30 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Dubai pressures Airbus as A380 order hopes fizzle Tim Hepher 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai wants a guarantee that Airbus ( AIR.PA ) will keep production of the A380 superjumbo open for at least 10 years before state-owned Emirates places a new order for the world’s largest jetliner, the airline’s president said on Monday. Speaking to Reuters at the Dubai Airshow, Tim Clark also said the largest Middle East carrier would probably stick with the Boeing 787 for its mid-sized fleet needs after ordering 40 of the jets on Sunday, and could order more in future. Airbus’s hopes of a new order from top customer Emirates for the slow-selling A380 were thwarted on Sunday when the airline unveiled a surprise order for 40 Boeing 787-10 jets worth $15.1 billion (£11.5 billion) at list prices, but no European contract. Delegates said Airbus may be willing to meet Dubai’s conditions to steady A380 output, but hopes of an announcement during the rest of the Nov 12-16 air show all but evaporated on Monday as Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders left empty-handed. “We continue to have a dialogue with them,” Clark said. “If that comes to some kind of fruition during the course of the week, or the next few months, is very much down to them.” Delegates said an air show order was not impossible but now looked unlikely. Airbus has been scaling back production plans for the A380, which was launched as the solution to ever-rising air travel between major international hubs but has been outflanked by improvements in the efficiency of smaller jets. With 100 A380s already in Emirates’ fleet, Clark made plain the concerns about Airbus’ commitment to the project were being felt as high as the Dubai government, which owns the airline. “I think the ownership here are concerned about continuation (of the A380). They need some copper-bottom guarantees that if we do buy some more, then the line will be continued for a minimum period of years and that they are fully aware of the consequences of cancellation and leaving us high and dry.” “Those assurances I am sure will come. Quite when, I don’t quite know.” Asked what would be a reasonable commitment to unblock a deal, he said: “A minimum 10 years. These are vast capital investments for us and we can’t afford to have anything less than 10 years; hopefully it would be 15. But it is their call”. Airbus declined to comment. Visitors walk next to an Airbus A380, showing a picture of United Arab Emirates''s Former President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan during the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar GUARANTEES Emirates is by far the biggest customer for the A380, which entered service in 2007 during the financial crisis and never generated as many sales from other carriers as Airbus had hoped. Emirates has ordered 142 of the jets, worth $436 million each at list prices, and last week took delivery of its 100th. Scrapping production would raise concerns about future support and the value of jets in Emirates’ portfolio. Slideshow (3 Images) Dubai’s demand for industrial guarantees raises the stakes in negotiations and would be a matter for the Airbus board. “There has to be a fleshing out of the undertakings. My own view is that Airbus are ready to make those, but whether it is today or tomorrow or next week or in the next few months, I don’t know,” Clark said. Airbus has been driving down A380 costs in an effort to ensure the line can stay open and break even, even if Emirates remains the only significant buyer of new jets, something that would help it to give the carrier assurances over its future. Emirates’ tough negotiating position also reflects growing concerns about management uncertainty at Airbus, whose veteran sales chief John Leahy is about to retire. “We know management is likely to be structured slightly differently. On the basis of that we wish to know that irrespective of what the management does, that once that commitment is made and signed for ... that they will honour it and nobody will change it,” Clark said. Clark, who is also seen as approaching retirement, squashed suggestions that Emirates may still buy A350s as well as 787s. Asked whether Emirates’ plans still left room for the A350, Clark said: “No. I would say that once we have gone for the 787 we will stay with the 787, but I can never say never.” He also played down reports that Emirates, which had previously said it was seeking 50-70 twin-engined jets, had taken a more conservative tack by ordering only 40 787-10s. “Will it stop at 40? My own view? No, it will grow,” he said, adding that Emirates may take some smaller 787-9s. Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-airline/dubai-wants-guarantee-on-a380-output-before-placing-a380-order-idUKKBN1DD0KC'|'2017-11-13T11:17:00.000+02:00'
'cfbe714dc06b5b22c4a6421711b5dba060889d95'|'General Electric wins $643 million U.S. defence contract - Pentagon'|'Reuters TV United States November 9, 2017 / 11:47 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago General Electric wins $643 million U.S. defense contract: Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) has been awarded a $643 million contract to provide F110-GE-129 aircraft engines and related equipment and services to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an expected completion date of Nov. 8, 2024, it said in a statement. Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-pentagon/general-electric-wins-643-million-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUKKBN1D93EV'|'2017-11-10T01:45:00.000+02:00'
'f07ecf430d7985349eb65e356596d870455a74cc'|'Japan manufacturers'' mood slips but hovers near decade high - Reuters Tankan'|'November 10, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Japan manufacturers'' mood slips but hovers near decade high - Reuters Tankan Tetsushi Kajimoto , Izumi Nakagawa 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Confidence among Japanese manufacturers slipped in November from a decade high seen the previous month, a Reuters poll showed, but it remained strong - underscoring the economy’s continuing expansion. FILE PHOTO - Cranes are pictured against the sunset at construction site in the Toyosu district in Tokyo, February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The Reuters Tankan, which tracks the Bank of Japan’s closely-watched tankan quarterly survey, also found service-sector firms’ sentiment edging up, a further sign of broadening recovery. “The Reuters Tankan indicated that sentiment in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing remained elevated and that the outlook was also firm, reflecting strong domestic and overseas demand,” said Yuichiro Nagai, economist at Barclays Securities. “We expect the BOJ tankan sentiment index in December to exceed company projections at the time of the September survey.” The latest survey results bolster the argument that Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, is gathering momentum from its brisk export performance and firmer domestic demand. “The economy is in a moderate recovery trend, but capital spending lacks some strength due to uncertainty over the outlook on the global economy,” a manager of a machinery maker wrote in the survey, in which companies respond anonymously. The poll of 547 large- and mid-sized companies, in which 255 firms responded, was conducted Oct. 26 to Nov. 7. The sentiment index for manufacturers fell to 27 from a decade-high of 31 in October. Sentiment deteriorated sharply among producers of industrial materials such as refined oils and chemicals, likely reflecting worsening terms of trade due to a weakening yen and rising oil prices. Service-sector sentiment rose one point to 31, led by real estate/construction firms that benefit from the BOJ’s easy money. Retailers were more muted, a concern for the health of private consumption that constitutes some 60 percent of the economy. “The operating rate of buildings is performing well. Marked increase in activity is seen among the wealthy who seek residences worth 300 million yen to 1 billion yen (6.71 million pounds). Demand for real estate among ordinary people is slow,” a real estate firm said. The Bank of Japan’s last tankan showed big manufacturers were the most optimistic for the business outlook in a decade. Japan’s economy expanded at an annualised 2.5 percent in the second quarter as consumer and corporate spending picked up, with steady growth likely to be sustained in coming quarters. BOJ policymakers hope a sustained economic recovery will boost wages and consumer spending, but analysts expect inflation to remain below the central bank’s 2 percent target for some time. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Izumi Nakagawa; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-tankan/japan-manufacturers-mood-slips-but-hovers-near-decade-high-reuters-tankan-idUKKBN1DA0AT'|'2017-11-10T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'3f35fac85affea42a8a9eb62dd01c97447714104'|'India wedding gold demand lacklustre as buyers await price dip'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:48 PM / in 3 hours India wedding demand lacklustre as gold buyers await price dip Rajendra Jadhav , Vijaykumar Vedala 3 Min Read MUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Demand for physical gold in Asia remained tepid this week as high prices kept buyers on the sidelines despite the start of the wedding season in India. Gold bangles are on display as a woman makes choices at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Kolkata, India October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri Gold is considered an essential part of weddings in India, the world’s second-biggest consumer of the metal after China, and it is a popular gift for special occasions. “Wedding season has started, but demand is poor compared to last year,” said Ketan Shroff, managing director of Mumbai-based bullion dealer Penta Gold. “Retail buyers are waiting for a correction. Jewellers need to replenish inventory but, they want to do it at lower levels.” Dealers in India were charging a premium of up to $2 an ounce over official domestic prices this week, down from $3 premium last week. Local gold rates jumped to a three-week high of 29,687 rupees per 10 grams on Thursday. India’s gold consumption is likely to drop to its lowest in eight years in 2017, hit by government moves to make bullion trading more transparent and by faltering demand in some rural areas, the World Gold Council (WGC) said. A woman tries a gold earring at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Mumbai, India October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Industry officials said earlier this week that India’s gold imports in the last quarter of 2017 could drop by a fourth from a year ago as investors seek better returns from riskier assets such as equities. Spot gold benchmark prices were on track for its first weekly gain in about a month, having hit a three-week high of $1,288.34 an ounce on Thursday. [GOL/] “Expectations earlier were that prices will come down, which has not happened. So, overall demand (in Asia) has been pretty weak,” said a Singapore-based trader. In China, gold was being sold at a premium of $5-$7 an ounce over benchmark rates, compared with a $5-$9 level in the previous week. “With prices going higher, there was not much interest for gold purchases. A fall below $1,270 could lead to some buying,” said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong. Premiums in Hong Kong, and Singapore remained unchanged from last week in the 60 cents-$1.20 and 70-90 cents levels respectively, traders said. “In Singapore, we continue to see strong physical demand for gold bars and gold coins, with a steady flow of customers,” said Ronan Manly, precious metals analyst at Singapore-based dealer BullionStar. Meanwhile, there was a slight uptick in activity in Japan but gold continued to be sold flat versus the benchmark, a Tokyo-based trader said. Additional reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-gold-demand/india-wedding-demand-lacklustre-as-gold-buyers-await-price-dip-idINKBN1DA1MF'|'2017-11-10T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'11e0c1fd9294cac20dc4f0116895114928f09ca0'|'Japan hails progress in TPP trade talks, but discord raises doubts'|'November 9, 2017 / 5:19 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Japan hails progress in TPP trade talks, but discord raises doubts Mai Nguyen 3 Min Read DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Discord emerged between Japan and Canada over progress on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal on Thursday, as Japan said countries “agree in principle” on a way forward, but Canada said there was no such agreement. The spat highlighted the continuing challenge to reviving a pact whose survival was thrown into doubt when President Donald Trump ditched it, in one of his first acts in office, in favour of bilateral dealmaking. Japan had lobbied hard to proceed with a pact that could also help to contain China’s growing regional dominance, ahead of talks in the Vietnamese resort of Danang this week alongside Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings. Some other members have not shown a readiness to move so fast. Asked by reporters about the results of a meeting of TPP ministers, Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said “(they) agree in principle”, adding that the ministers had finalised “a list of suspensions” - clauses that would be suspended to avoid renegotiating the whole agreement. But Candian Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne later said on Twitter: “Despite reports, there is no agreement in principle on TPP.” The TPP aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across a bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year. It also has provisions for protecting everything from labour rights to the environment to intellectual property - one of the main sticking points. Trade ministers and delegates from the remaining members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) attend the TPP Ministerial Meeting during the APEC 2017 in Da Nang, Vietnam November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Na Son Nguyen/Pool Canada, whose economy is the second biggest among the TPP-11 after Japan, said on Wednesday it would not be rushed into a revived TPP deal. Like Mexico, its position is further complicated by renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the Trump administration. Mexico’s trade minister said on Thursday the TPP countries had reached agreement in talks, but he gave no details and said there would be an announcement on Friday. The leaders of TPP countries are tentatively scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss the proposals of ministers. Slideshow (7 Images) One Canadian official who declined to be named said ministers from different countries may have had different interpretations of Thursday’s discussions. Options discussed by the TPP countries have included suspending some provisions of the original agreement to avoid having to renegotiate it and potentially to entice the United States back in the long term. Trump and other APEC leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China and Russian President Vladimir Putin, will meet on Friday in Danang. APEC trade and foreign ministers separately ended a meeting on Thursday with a “very good outcome”, despite differing views on trade and protectionism, Vietnamese Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh said. Ministerial talks on a communique for the APEC leaders were extended into a second day on Thursday in the face of U.S. demands for changes to the language used concerning issues such as free trade and protectionism, officials at the talks said. Additional reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apec-summit/tpp-countries-to-discuss-agreement-in-principle-on-trade-deal-japan-idUKKBN1D90I8'|'2017-11-10T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'bfb1b79e5d8723a6b8d1fc0774d5275d9f1fa11e'|'METALS-Copper prices pick up from 1-mth low as weaker dollar lifts metals'|'November 10, 2017 / 3:15 AM / in 2 hours METALS-Copper holds above 1-month low as weaker dollar lifts metals Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds Shanghai closing prices, updates London prices) MELBOURNE/BEIJING, Nov 10 (Reuters) - London Metal Exchange copper held above one-month lows on Friday as a weaker dollar broadly lifted base metals, although it remained on track for a weekly loss. "Copper prices will continue to trade sideways over the coming weeks as a stronger U.S. dollar outlook and weakening Chinese imports of refined copper weigh on prices," said BMI Research in a report. "High-frequency indicators such as stable stock levels, a persistently negative cash to 3-month spread and a global monthly surplus registered in August imply the copper price rally is overdone compared to near-term fundamentals." BMI expects prices to average $6,100 a tonne in 2018. FUNDAMENTALS * COPPER: LME copper was up 0.5 percent at $6,840 a tonne, as of 0732 GMT, following small losses in the previous session when it sank to its weakest since Oct. 11 at $6,761.50. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper closed up 0.1 percent at 53,580 yuan ($8,070.98) a tonne. * OPEN INTEREST: Open interest in the LME copper contract has fallen below 320,000 lots to the lowest since May and close to the lowest in a year. MCU-OI-TOT * U.S. DOLLAR: The U.S. dollar slipped to a six-day low against a basket of currencies on Thursday as investors fretted over a Republican tax plan that would delay corporate tax cuts. * JAPAN MANUFACTURERS: Confidence among Japanese manufacturers slipped in November from a decade-high seen the previous month, a Reuters poll showed, but it remained strong - underscoring the economy''s continuing expansion. * NOBLE: Commodities trader Noble Group reported a third-quarter loss of $1.17 billion, hit by charges from disposals of some of its businesses, and warned that the operating environment remains challenging. * FREEPORT: Armed separatists have occupied five villages in Indonesia''s Papua province, threatening to disrupt Freeport-McMoRan Inc''s giant Grasberg copper mine, which has already been hit this year by labour unrest and a dispute over operating rights. * LEAD: LME lead was the only metal on track for a weekly gain, of near 3 percent, as prices hit the highest since Oct. 17 at $2,545 a tonne at 0700 GMT before easing back to $2,542 a tonne. LME stocks have fallen to the lowest in almost two years below 150,000 tonnes. MPBSTX-TOTAL * LEAD FUNDAMENTALS: Global demand for refined lead metal will exceed supply by 125,000 tonnes this year, while a deficit of 45,000 tonnes is expected in 2018, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG). MARKETS NEWS * Asian shares slipped on Friday on the uncertainty over U.S. tax reforms. BASE METALS PRICES 0732 GMT Three month LME copper 6840 Most active ShFE copper 53570 Three month LME aluminium 2087 Most active ShFE aluminium 15520 Three month LME zinc 3195 Most active ShFE zinc 25600 Three month LME lead 2542 Most active ShFE lead 19280 Three month LME nickel 12370 Most active ShFE nickel 99120 Three month LME tin 19575 Most active ShFE tin 143880 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 526.65 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -598.52 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 528.28 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -962.05 ($1 = 6.6386 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Burton and Tom Daly in BEIJING; Editing by Richard Pullin and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-copper-prices-pick-up-from-1-mth-low-as-weaker-dollar-lifts-metals-idUSL3N1NG1QR'|'2017-11-10T05:13:00.000+02:00'
'020667090017eba6664d859965a22e0749d1ac67'|'Lufthansa says has resources for more European deals - BZ'|' 43 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Lufthansa says has resources for more European deals - BZ Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has financial firepower to take part in future consolidation of Europe’s airlines, its chief executive told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday. FILE PHOTO - German airline Lufthansa CFO Ulrik Svensson attends the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle “We have a certain financial cushion,” Ulrik Svensson said, saying 3 billion euros (2.65 billion pounds) in liquidity would be left over after paying for investments in Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) and putting money into its pension fund. Lufthansa agreed last month to buy large parts of insolvent Air Berlin for 210 million euros to quickly expand its Eurowings budget business, consolidating its position as German leader by buying its closest rival. Svensson said Eurowings would be operationally profitable as early as this year. He said it would make no sense to split up Eurowings or list part of it, as Lufthansa still had big plans for the business that would be harder to execute with co-owners. Asked about Italy’s ailing flagship carrier Alitalia, for which Lufthansa has put in a bid, Svensson said it was “hard to tell” how the offer was being received. “I’ve recommended to analysts that they do not yet include a possible Alitalia deal in their models,” he said. Svensson added that reports that Lufthansa was offering 500 million euros for Alitalia were incorrect, but he did not elaborate. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-m-a/lufthansa-says-has-resources-for-more-european-deals-bz-idUKKBN1DB0LV'|'2017-11-11T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'145c2fe645c1cc32e8fde041f9993f459a344c08'|'WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET'|'Editor: Clarence Fernandez + 65 6870 3861Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595(All times GMT/ET)TOP STORIES EXCLUSIVE-Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO -sourcesNEW YORK - Rupert Murdoch telephoned AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson twice in past six months and talked about cable network CNN, sources briefed on matter tell Reuters. (CNN-MURDOCH/ (UPDATE 3, EXCLUSIVE, PIX), moved, by Jessica Toonkel, 447 words)Trump and Putin chat at Asia-Pacific summitDANANG - U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin chat as they walk together for the “family photograph” at the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Vietnam. (APEC-SUMMIT/USA-RUSSIA (UPDATE 1, TV, PIX), expect by 0700 GMT/2 AM ET, by Steve Holland, 300 words)Deficit worries complicate path for U.S. Republican tax cutsWASHINGTON - Unease among Republicans about massive increase in federal deficit could complicate passage of two tax-cut bills working their way through U.S. Congress, endangering President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority. (USA-TAX/ (PIX), moved, by David Morgan, 638 words)Flynn lawyer denies reports of quid pro quo plan to deliver cleric to TurkeyWASHINGTON - The lawyer for former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn labels as “outrageous” and “false” media reports suggesting his client may have been involved in an alleged plan to seize a Muslim cleric and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars. (USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA (UPDATE 2), moved, 585 words)ASIA TPP trade deal advances without United StatesDANANG - Countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal agree on the core elements to move ahead without the United States, officials say, after last minute resistance from Canada raised new doubts about its survival. (APEC-SUMMIT/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mai Nguyen, 514 words)Australian MP resigns over dual nationality in new blow for governmentSYDNEY - Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he will not call a general election after a citizenship crisis claims another member of parliament, leaving his government clinging to power with the support of two independents. (AUSTRALIA-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 1, TV, PIX), by Alison Bevege, 375 words)China shopping festival smashes record at halfway markSHANGHAI - Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said its Singles’ Day sales surged past last year’s total just after midday Saturday, hitting a record $18 billion, pointing to a likely giant haul for the world’s biggest shopping event. (SINGLES-DAY/ALIBABA (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by Adam Jourdan, 686 words)China faces historic corruption battle, ruling party’s new graft buster saysSHANGHAI - China must win its battle against corruption or face being erased by history, its new top graft buster says in an editorial, underscoring the ruling Communist Party’s focus on eliminating corrupt behaviour. (CHINA-CORRUPTION/ (UPDATE 1), moved, 391 words)UNITED STATES Republican establishment bails on Alabama candidate after sex allegationsRepublican Senate campaign wing cuts fund-raising ties with Roy Moore, party’s U.S. Senate nominee in Alabama, latest sign that Republican establishment is abandoning his campaign after sexual misconduct allegations upend seemingly one-sided race. (USA-CONGRESS/MOORE (UPDATE 2, PIX), moved, by Joseph Ax, 702 words)Investigators probe Trump knowledge of campaign’s Russia dealings - sourcesWASHINGTON - Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of President Donald Trump’s election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team’s contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation say. (USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA-INVESTIGATION, moved, by Mark Hosenball and John Walcott, 528 words)Comedian Louis C.K. admits sexual misconduct, entertainment outlets cut tiesLOS ANGELES - U.S. comedian Louis C.K. admits allegations against him by several women of sexual misconduct are true and apologizes for his actions. (PEOPLE-LOUIS CK/ (UPDATE 7, TV, PIX), moved, by Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy, 559 words)AMERICAS Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under TrumpHAVANA - Packed into remote corner of a pavilion, just 13 U.S. companies take stands at Cuba’s sprawling trade fair, in sign of how firms’ interest in doing business on island dwindles in first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. (CUBA-USA/TRADE (FEATURE, PIX, TV), moved, by Sarah Marsh, 890 words)EUROPE Brexit never? Britain can still change its mind, says Article 50 authorLONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May should stop misleading voters and admit that Brexit can be avoided if Britain decides unilaterally to scrap divorce talks, man who drafted Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty says. (BRITAIN-EU/ARTICLE50 (UPDATE 2, PIX), moved, by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew MacAskill, 642 words)German parties see momentum in coalition talks despite lingering divisionsBERLIN - German parties cite progress after three weeks of talks about three-way coalition, with their leaders due to thrash out remaining differences over transport and climate Sunday. (GERMANY-POLITICS/ (TV, PIX), moved, by Andreas Rinke and Andrea Shalal, 497 words)AFRICA EXCLUSIVE-South Sudan’s government using food as weapon of war -U.N. reportUNITED NATIONS - South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s government is using food as weapon of war to target civilians by blocking life-saving aid in some areas, U.N. sanctions monitors tell Security Council in confidential report seen by Reuters. (SOUTHSUDAN-SECURITY/UN (EXCLUSIVE), moved, by Michelle Nichols, 569 words) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et-idINL3N1NH04F'|'2017-11-11T03:05:00.000+02:00'
'6f78d1b8b81e2a01120c87da7b9de4a657a72f65'|'FEATURE-Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:00 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago FEATURE-Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump Sarah Marsh 6 Min Read HAVANA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Packed into a remote corner of a pavilion, just 13 U.S. companies took stands at Cuba’s sprawling trade fair this year, in a sign of how firms’ interest in doing business on the island has dwindled in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. Last year, amid enthusiasm following a detente in relations agreed between former President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in 2014, 33 U.S. companies took stands at the fair, the premier event on Cuba’s business calendar. The mood was very different at this year’s edition, which took place last week in Havana. While China brought a record company delegation, and more than 150 Spanish businesses packed into five pavilions, the handful of U.S. businessmen were downbeat. “I’ve never seen it this deserted,” said Jay Brickman, vice president of Florida-based shipping company Crowley Maritime Corp, who has been attending the fair for 15 years. “People have really gotten discouraged, and feel they maybe should be investing their time someplace else.” U.S. companies embraced Cuba in the wake of the detente, jostling for a foothold in an opening market of 11 million consumers. Thanks to travel-related exemptions to the embargo, U.S. airlines restored regular flights. Starwood Hotels, a subsidiary of Marriott International Inc, took over management of a Cuban hotel and cruise operators like Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line included Cuba in their itineraries. But worsening U.S. relations as well as growing awareness of the difficulty of doing business in Cuba put a dampener on that. Trump in June ordered tighter trade and travel restrictions including a ban on business with the military, which controls vast swathes of the economy. The regulations were unveiled on Wednesday. “This is a huge step backwards,” said former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the Cuban-born head of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council. “We had made so much progress.” An unfolding diplomatic crisis over allegations of attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana is adding to the gloom. Cuba Trade magazine, based in Miami, last month cut its issuance from monthly to bi-monthly, citing the deteriorating business environment under Trump. Several Cuba business conferences in the United States have also been canceled since June, including an agriculture conference in Chicago. Following the Obama detente, U.S. farmers hoped for legislation allowing them to access credit for exports to Cuba. But Trump has made it clear he is not about to ease, let alone lift, the embargo. “We need to get the diplomatic issue off the table first,” said Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, adding U.S. food exports to Cuba could total $1 billion if relations were normalized. HARDER Even before Trump took office, some of the interest fizzled as companies realized doing business in Cuba was hard with its red tape, shortage of hard currency, poor telecommunications and labor restrictions. Online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc sent its chief executive in Obama’s delegation on his historic visit to Cuba in March 2016. It had been interested in making its Xoom money transfer service available in Cuba but said operational challenges were too great. “When we are able to deliver the speed, convenience and security our customers have come to expect from Xoom, we will launch in Cuba,” a PayPal spokeswoman told Reuters. Still, some companies made headway. After receiving all the necessary licenses under Obama, the Puerto Rican dealer for U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc last week agreed to open a distribution center in Cuba’s Mariel special development zone. Future deals with Mariel, which boasts tax and customs breaks, will not be possible, as it features on a list published Wednesday of 180 government entities that Americans are now banned from doing business with. “The Mariel restriction particularly sticks out because it is the most dynamic and exciting opportunity in Cuba,” said James Williams, president of lobby group Engage Cuba. The diplomatic crisis has also complicated the logistics for U.S. businesses. The Trump administration in September expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, including all those dealing with U.S. businesses. The following week, the chair of the port of Cleveland, Darrell McNair, traveled to Havana to sign an agreement with Cuba’s port authority. He said the now-disbanded embassy commercial team had been instrumental in arranging his visit. “Cutbacks obviously are going to slow things down,” he said. LONG-TERM PLAY The tougher environment under Trump has separated the wheat from the chaff, some business consultants say. “The serious players who understand the risks are staying the course,” said Pedro Freyre, who heads the international practice at Miami-based law firm Akerman LLP. Jeff Nelson said his firm Strategic Staffing Solutions, which provides companies with IT and other services, was prepared to put in the time laying the groundwork for business with Cuba given the potential of its educated workforce. “Doing business in Cuba is a very long-term proposition,” said Nelson, who has visited eight times in two years. Some companies were pursuing deals behind closed doors so as to not lose capital with the Trump administration, consultants said. Many Obama-era exemptions to the embargo remain in place. The publication of the new regulations at least provided clarity about what was allowed. “Companies know where they stand now and there are definitely opportunities still,” said Gutierrez. “Every day that goes by is just the missed opportunity where someone else is building a brand, someone else is building awareness among Cubans.” (Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and Anna Irrera and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cuba-usa-trade/feature-blooming-u-s-business-interest-in-cuba-wilts-under-trump-idUSL8N1NF049'|'2017-11-10T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'40aaf3b9be2368ee7ec2bbcddd5f4d3eea0cd064'|'Exclusive: Global regulators to ditch ''too big to fail'' gauge for insurers - source'|'November 10, 2017 / 6:31 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive: Global regulators to ditch ''too big to fail'' gauge for insurers - source Pete Schroeder , Michelle Price 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global financial regulators have decided to ditch a “too big to fail” gauge for assessing the riskiness of insurers, according to a source briefed on the matter, in a big win for companies such as American International Group ( AIG.N ) and Prudential Financial Inc ( PRU.N ). The AIG logo is seen at its building in New York''s financial district March 19, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which coordinates financial regulation across the Group of 20 Economies (G20), is expected to announce in coming weeks a switch in focus from insurers’ size to their activities when deciding whether to subject them to increased regulatory scrutiny, said the source, who requested anonymity because the matter has not been made public. Companies singled out for such scrutiny are required to hold extra capital to cover potential losses, increasing overall business costs and potentially reducing shareholder returns. The insurance industry has been lobbying for years for regulators to move to the activities-based approach, arguing that their huge size should not automatically qualify them as systematically risky and on the hook for onerous bank-like capital rules. The shift in the FSB’s approach to designating globally systematically important insurers, or GSIIs, follows pressure from the U.S. Treasury Department, which has been pushing the FSB to ease up on insurers and asset managers, the source said. A spokesman for the FSB declined to comment. The administration of President Donald Trump has pledged to overhaul regulations introduced following the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and put U.S. interests first when engaging in international bodies such as the FSB and the Basel Committee of banking supervisors. In September, a group of U.S. regulators - known as the Financial Stability Oversight Council - removed AIG from its domestic list of systematically important insurers, raising questions over whether the FSB would keep AIG on its global list and continue to add new firms. In a policy report published last month, the U.S. Treasury rejected the idea of singling out specific asset management and insurance firms as systematically risky and criticized the FSB for mission-creep and a lack of transparency. The U.S. Treasury is shortly due to release a policy report on the FSOC designation process and powers, which critics including regulatory experts and insurers have said are too opaque and unaccountable. AIG BAILOUT AIG helped spark the global financial crisis, and the labelling of major financial institutions as systematically important stems largely from its $182 billion U.S. government-led rescue in September 2008. The bailout came just before the company would have been forced to file for bankruptcy protection amid mounting losses on its derivatives book. Worried the insurance giant was “too big to fail,” the government stepped in to prevent further chaos to the financial system. The company ultimately repaid taxpayers in full by the end of 2012, with a profit of $22.7 billion, according to AIG. Since then, regulators have primarily focused on the size of a company’s overall assets when assessing the risk they pose to the global financial system. Moving to an activities-based approach could see firms on the list that largely engage in traditional insurance activities removed, but other non-designated insurers that use their cash to invest in risky assets, or which deploy high levels of leverage, added. The suspension of the 2017 review means the 2016 list of nine GSIIs - which also includes MetLife Inc ( MET.N ), Allianz SE ( ALVG.DE ) and Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd ( 601318.SS ) - will continue to stand for at least the next 12 months until the FSB has completed an assessment based on the new methodology, the source said. Reporting by Michelle Price and Pete Schroeder; Additional reporting by Huw Jones in London; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-financial-insurers-exclusive/exclusive-global-regulators-to-ditch-too-big-to-fail-gauge-for-insurers-source-idUKKBN1DA2KR'|'2017-11-10T22:29:00.000+02:00'
'591d387c89771d929954b9b869525779b1f52eff'|'AIRSHOW-Emirates may order 36-38 Airbus A380 jets -source'|'DUBAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Dubai’s Emirates may place an order at the Dubai Airshow for 36-38 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, worth some $16 billion at list prices, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.Emirates and Airbus both declined to comment. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Alexander Smith)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airshow-emirates-may-order-36-38-airbus-a380-jets-source-idINL8N1NH098'|'2017-11-11T06:20:00.000+02:00'
'385e65b29bd26874dc3b558937d68faceeb01f7b'|'RPT-Membership revoked? Veteran GE''s spot in exclusive Dow may be shaky'|'(Repeats story first published on Sunday)By Lewis KrauskopfNEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - It is hard to imagine the Dow Jones Industrial Average without General Electric Co. The U.S. industrial conglomerate’s stock is the lone original component of the venerable blue-chip index that debuted in 1896.But GE’s dwindling share price and the likelihood that its new chief executive will dramatically slim down its sprawling operations is leading some index-watchers to consider the possibility of the company losing its membership in the elite 30-stock Dow.“Since it is trading at a low share price and has a small weighting in the index, that does put it at an increased risk of getting removed,” said Alex Bryan, director of passive strategies research at Morningstar in Chicago. “I don’t think it’s obvious that it is going to be removed from the index, but it certainly is at risk.”GE’s shares last week closed under $20 for the first time in more than five years, its struggles made clear by a disappointing third-quarter earnings report last month. The stock closed at $20.49 on Friday, marking a 35 percent decline in 2017.The stock price is now the lowest among Dow members. Because the Dow is a price-weighted index, unlike the benchmark S&P 500 which is influenced by the market values of its constituents, that means GE has the least impact on the Dow’s daily swings.As of Friday, GE’s weight stood at only 0.6 percent. By comparison, aircraft maker Boeing Co, whose stock is above $260, has a 7.7 percent weight.Changes to the Dow are made on an as-needed basis and selection is not governed by quantitative rules, according to published methodology for the index.A spokesman for S&P Dow Jones Indices said the committee that oversees the Dow index meets regularly and that its discussions are confidential. GE declined to comment.Ivan Cajic, vice president for index and ETF research for ITG, said if the Dow were to make a change in the near future, GE is the likeliest to be removed.”I wouldn’t be surprised if the company is safe for the time being and Dow Jones adopts a wait-and-see approach over the next few months to see how both the stock price and what the overall company looks like in the coming months,” Cajic said.SHRINKING COMPANY GE’s fate as a Dow component may become clearer on Monday when CEO John Flannery, who took the helm on Aug. 1, is expected to detail the businesses the company plans to exit as it seeks to revive its financial prospects.If GE starts selling big parts of its operation, the committee overseeing the Dow “would give serious thought to whether or not the new GE, (excluding) those businesses, still represents as much a part of the economy as they once had,” said Dave Nadig, CEO of ETF.com.“If they continue to spin off and restructure businesses, they are going to just shrink,” said Chuck Carlson, contributing editor to Dow Theory Forecasts newsletter. “That isn’t necessarily the worst thing from a stock perspective, but they may start paring down to the point where the remaining businesses are similar to others that are in the Dow.”For now, GE still holds a major position in industries such as aviation, power and healthcare, and its market value of about $175 billion puts it in the middle of Dow components. Its historic place in the Dow may also be an argument for it to remain.If GE is removed from the Dow, it may not spark much immediate selling of the stock. Only about $20 billion is invested in exchange traded funds tied to the Dow, the vast majority in the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust , much less than the $380 billion in ETFs tied to the S&P 500, according to Lipper data. But the indirect impact of GE losing its blue-chip status could weigh in the longer term.TOO EXPENSIVE It is not clear what company would replace GE in the Dow if it were kicked out. Three companies missing from the Dow with some of the largest market values - Amazon.com Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc - have strikes against them.Share prices of online retailer Amazon.com and internet company Alphabet exceed $1,000 so they would warp the price-weighted Dow. Social media company Facebook only went public in 2012, which some market-watchers say is too recent to join the Dow.Industrial companies may find their applications denied. The sector represents about 22.5 percent of the Dow, which would be only marginally reduced by GE’s departure. That level is more than twice the amount the sector represents in the S&P 500.According to its published methodology, the Dow covers all industries except for transportation and utilities, which are covered by other Dow Jones indexes, and that “maintaining adequate sector representation within the indices is also a consideration in the selection process.”According to Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA: “There are sectors more under-represented than industrials within the index that could encourage a replacement from another group.”Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ge-review-stocks/rpt-membership-revoked-veteran-ges-spot-in-exclusive-dow-may-be-shaky-idUSL1N1NG1TH'|'2017-11-13T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'e6e75587ecac2a2e16e44a074617c8cf6651d17d'|'Hard Brexit threat may send pound to $1.20 - Northern Trust CIO'|'November 13, 2017 / 3:11 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Hard Brexit threat may send pound to $1.20-Northern Trust Asset Management CIO Sujata Rao 3 Min Read LONDON - The British pound could relapse by almost 10 percent to as low as $1.20-$1.22 if a “no deal” Brexit becomes likely, keeping investors wary of buying UK assets, Northern Trust Asset Management said on Monday. Wayne Bowers, CIO Europe and APAC at Northern Trust Asset Management attends the Reuters Investment Summit, London, Britain, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hackett Wayne Bowers, Northern Trust’s EMEA and Asia-Pacific CEO and chief investment officer, who helps manage around $1 trillion in assets, also told the first day of the 2018 Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit that his portfolio remained “risk-on” with expectations for 6-8 percent global equity returns in 2018. He said, however, that if the UK risked crashing out of the European Union without a trade deal in place sterling could be hit again. “This, I think, will suppress any significant gains we could expect to see from the pound...We are probably looking at 1.20-1.22 level I suppose.” “With the pound at these levels and with the potential for it to go lower, UK assets...could be picked up at a lower price going forward,” Bowers told the summit at the Reuters office in London. He expects global stocks to add to the near-20 percent rise so far in 2017 but reckons gains will remain concentrated in a few sectors - for instance technology has led returns in recent years, with U.S. tech shares up 40 percent year-to-date. “The current winners take all, and winners take all for a few more years,” Bowers said. While tech firms’ high share price valuations are often seen as exuberant, Bowers said these might be justified. “If you accept that companies are, in aggregate, implementing digitization strategies, then the historical references that we have used for those companies are perhaps out of date,” he said. Wayne Bowers, CIO Europe and APAC at Northern Trust Asset Management attends the Reuters Investment Summit, London, Britain, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hackett “The question is what value do you ascribe to companies that have a more serious view on digitalization ... will they be the winners? You can argue I think the market does justify the high level of valuations, on top of this global growth environment.” Other positions: Wayne Bowers, CIO Europe and APAC at Northern Trust Asset Management attends the Reuters Investment Summit, London, Britain, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hackett * Overweight high-yield U.S. bonds but has been reducing exposure; underweight investment grade debt * “Modestly overweight” emerging markets with a tilt towards Asia * Shocks caused by a “significant” war, especially in Asia is the main risk, along with possible trade war. * Probably no place in traditional investment portfolio for cryptocurrencies but sees potential for blockchain technology to improve capital markets efficiency Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits (This version of the story gives firm’s full name in headline, Bowers’ full titles CEO as well as CIO in paragraph 2) Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-investment-summit-northern-trust/hard-brexit-threat-may-send-pound-to-1-20-northern-trust-cio-idUKKBN1DD1UJ'|'2017-11-13T17:05:00.000+02:00'
'c38e2b23eaf218551e9f96240ebff843c34ec241'|'LSE to hold vote on investor''s call to oust chairman'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:09 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago LSE to hold vote on investor''s call to oust chairman Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group ( LSE.L ) will fix a date within three weeks for a shareholder vote on the removal of Chairman Donald Brydon and retention of CEO Xavier Rolet at the behest of activist investor TCI Fund Management, it said on Friday. A red London bus passes the Stock Exchange in London February 9, 2011. The London Stock Exchange is to buy the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange TMX Group in an all share deal that will create a mining-dominant exchange at a time of rising commodity prices. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN - Tags: BUSINESS) - LM1E7291DUE01 TCI had called for a vote to remove Brydon, saying the company had not explained why Rolet was leaving and that it also wanted the company to persuade Rolet to extend his tenure until 2021. “LSEG will meet its obligations in respect of the requisition,” the bourse operator said in a statement on Friday, indicating that it would hold the shareholder meeting “as soon as reasonably practicable”. The company must send out notice of an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) within 21 of receiving TCI’s letter on Thursday. Once sent, it must hold the meeting within 28 days, meaning it would take place before the end of the year at the latest. LSE said on Oct. 19 that Rolet would step down by the end of 2018, nearly a decade after he took charge. During his tenure LSE’s stock has risen from about 6 pounds to 37 pounds. The removal of a director has to be passed by a majority of those voting at the EGM. TCI, led by British billionaire Chris Hohn, first complained about Rolet’s planned exit in a letter to the LSE last Friday. The letter said that Brydon and the board were trying to force out the CEO, an allegation denied by LSE on Monday. Other LSE shareholders have since said they would like Rolet to stay at the helm. A small institutional investor told Reuters on Friday that he would be happy for Rolet to remain as chief executive to guide the business through Britain’s impending exit from the European Union, which could cause upheaval for the country’s financial services industry. “Particularly with Brexit going on, you need someone who knows what they’re doing there (at the LSE),” the investor said. The fund manager said he had not yet engaged with LSE or TCI but added: “I presume that he (Hohn) wouldn’t be doing this unless he had been given the nod by Xavier that he’s prepared to stay on.” A source close to Egerton Capital, another LSE investor, has also told Reuters that the hedge fund will support a resolution to keep Rolet at the company. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Huw Jones and Ben Martin in London; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-ceo-tci/lse-to-hold-vote-on-investors-call-to-oust-chairman-idUKKBN1DA1OS'|'2017-11-10T15:09:00.000+02:00'
'bba0048938d9214752b0e37c0349beae17a9563c'|'Reborn Canada steelmaker Stelco eyes organic, M&A growth: CEO'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Resurrected Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc ( STLC.TO ) is banking on growth from ramped-up production and acquisitions, Chief Executive Alan Kestenbaum said on Friday, as the 107-year-old company completed its initial public offering.Hamilton, Ontario-based Stelco, owned by U.S. private equity group Bedrock Industries, will use part of its C$230 million ($181 million) IPO proceeds on projects that boost capacity at its two steel-processing facilities in southern Ontario.The listing also allows quick access to capital markets if a suitable M&A deal emerges among “numerous” potential targets, Kestenbaum said.Stelco, which emerged in June from its second bankruptcy protection in 13 years, produces flat-rolled, value-added steels for the construction, automotive and energy industries.“Many companies and owners today have broken balance sheets, are forced asset sellers and have operational issues. We talk to everybody,” Kestenbaum said in an interview with Reuters.“We could look at buying another steel mill, we also could look at buying other finishing operations, or things like that, that help us penetrate markets.”Declining to identify targets or timing, Kestenbaum said “attractively priced” North American assets, with synergy benefits, are ideal.Stelco shares began trading last week on a “when-issued” basis and quickly jumped above the C$17 pricing to C$19. On Friday, the stock was unchanged at C$19.45.Stelco emerged from nearly three years of bankruptcy protection with C$3 billion in debt and C$1.4 billion in pension and retirement obligations extinguished.That coincides with mostly weak North American auto sales this year, after a record 2016, though global steel prices SRBcv1 have gained 157 percent since end-2015 as China, the world’s top steel producer and consumer, shut capacity in an environmental crackdown.Stelco, under bankruptcy protection between 2004 and 2006, was acquired in 2007 by U.S. Steel Corp.Kestenbaum said Stelco will now operate under a “tactical flexibility” strategy, adjusting the products and industries it pursues based on margins.While its shipments to automakers fell to 3 percent last year, from 37 percent in 2006, Stelco plans to boost production of lightweight, higher-strength steels increasingly sought by the industry.Auto industry gains are not critical to Stelco’s growth, but offer an opportunity to boost margins, Kestenbaum said.“The auto industry wants more suppliers and they remember Stelco,” he said.Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-stelco-holdings-ipo/reborn-canada-steelmaker-stelco-eyes-organic-ma-growth-ceo-idINKBN1DA2LL'|'2017-11-10T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'31ef9aea75eeeab8dea6fa03d963071e0bb792eb'|'Mahindra & Mahindra second-quarter profit up about 25 percent'|' 59 AM / in 7 hours Mahindra & Mahindra second-quarter profit up about 25 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read REUTERS - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd ( MAHM.NS ) reported a 25 percent jump in quarterly profit, beating street estimates. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Mahindra and Mahindra is seen at a showroom in Mumbai, India, August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo Net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to 13.32 billion rupees ($204.73 million) from 10.67 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter. bit.ly/2zw2kWJ Analysts on average had expected a profit of 11.31 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data. Revenue from operations rose 6.4 percent to 121.82 billion rupees. Mahindra shares were up 2.1 percent at 1390 rupees as of 0856 GMT ($1 = 65.0600 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mahindra-results/mahindra-mahindra-second-quarter-profit-up-about-25-percent-idINKBN1DA0YG'|'2017-11-10T10:58:00.000+02:00'
'22062226aa50c50d6951203a53d5b6423498e7c9'|'Croatia''s Agrokor accepts debt claims for $6.35 billion, disputes Sberbank''s claim'|'ZAGREB (Reuters) - Insolvent Croatian food and retail conglomerate Agrokor [AGROK.UL] recognises creditor claims worth 41.2 billion kuna ($6.35 billion) but disputes other claims totalling 16.5 billion kuna, including that of Russia’s Sberbank, its biggest single creditor, the administrator said on Thursday.Agrokor, the biggest employer in the Balkans with around60,000 staff, was put into state-run administration in April and has until July 2018 to achieve a final settlement with creditors to avoid bankruptcy.Its founder Ivica Todoric, who was detained and released on bail in London on Tuesday, and 14 other people are being investigated over Agrokor’s problems.Agrokor’s creditors include bondholders, local and foreign banks as well as suppliers. The biggest single debt, around 1.1 billion euros, is held by Sberbank.But the administrator said the size of Sberbank’s claim remained open to dispute because it had launched legal proceedings against Agrokor companies in other countries, including Serbia and Bosnia, to get some of the debt repaid.Administrator Ante Ramljak said that if Sberbank withdraws these legal proceedings its debt could be recognised.“We are in permanent communication (with Sberbank),” Ramljak said.Sberbank said in a statement it was “unpleasantly surprised” with Agrokor’s stance.“Everyone, including Sberbank, can resort to any legally allowed measure, in Croatia or in other countries, to protect its interests and must not be discriminated against because of that,” the statement said. Sberbank added it would file an appeal against Agrokor’s decision.Ramljak said that Sberbank could not block the final settlement with creditors since that requires the backing of creditors holding at least 66 percent of the claims. Sberbank’s claims amount to less than 20 percent.Agrokor earlier said that Sberbank could net up to 115 million euros from all its proceedings outside Croatia.“If they participated in this (restructuring) process in an amicable manner, they could surely secure that amount, maybe even more,” Ramljak said.He did not want to speculate on likely write-offs, but analysts reckon that some creditors would have to accept write-offs of up to 70 percent.Ramljak said that no companies within Agrokor group would be offered for sale before the final settlement.“We see strong interest in (some) Agrokor firms, but there will be no sale until the creditors agree on the settlement,” he said.Reporting by Igor Ilic, Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-agrokor-debt/croatias-agrokor-accepts-debt-claims-for-6-35-billion-disputes-sberbanks-claim-idUSKBN1D92VE'|'2017-11-10T03:31:00.000+02:00'
'58d26f27e9859b69d1252e36442f31c1fff9c136'|'News Corp profit beats on digital real estate unit strength - Reuters'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:58 AM / in 2 hours News Corp profit beats on digital real estate unit strength Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street Journal owner News Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by a tight control on expenses and growth in revenue across all its businesses. The Fox News electronic ticker is seen outside the News Corporation building in New York City, in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton News Corp said revenue in its rapidly growing digital real-estate unit, which includes REA Group Ltd, rose nearly 20 percent to $271 million. Increased competition from digital media and a declining readership is driving print advertising down. Spending on print advertising in the U.S. is expected to fall 14 percent this year to about $18 billion, a third of what it was 10 years ago, according to media research firm Magna Intelligence. ( bit.ly/2zJsXdP ) Major publishers have not been immune to eroding print ad sales. New York Times Co reported a 20.1 percent decline in print ad revenue in the latest quarter, while Chicago Tribune Media owner Tronc Inc posted an 18 percent fall. News Corp, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been implementing various cost-cutting measures like reducing staff in its Dow Jones division, which includes the Journal, while boosting its digital real estate business to improve margins. Operating expenses fell to $1.14 billion from $1.16 billion. Revenue in the company’s news and information division, which accounts for about two-thirds of total revenue, rose 1.6 percent to $1.24 billion in its first quarter. Net income available to shareholders was $68 million, or 12 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $15 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 7 cents per share, beating the average analysts’ estimate of a profit of 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Total revenue rose 4.5 percent to $2.06 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.98 billion. Thomson Reuters the parent of Reuters News, competes with Dow Jones Newswires. Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/news-corp-results/news-corp-profit-beats-on-digital-real-estate-unit-strength-idINKBN1DA02V'|'2017-11-09T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'62cb1b9a741080fd067e53a3b2ee425f1c04f7ac'|'Indonesian forces prepare to storm Papua villages held by rebels'|'JAKARTA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Indonesian security forces in the eastern province of Papua are preparing to storm five villages that they say are being held by an armed rebel group, police officials said on Saturday.Around 200 police and military personnel have been deployed and are awaiting orders to secure the area, where an armed separatist group linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is preventing about 1,000 people from leaving an area near a giant copper mine, operated by the American miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc .“Today the joint police and military forces have occupied various posts to be able to take action,” said Papua police spokesman, Suryadi Diaz.“They will be taken dead or alive,” he said of the around 100 rebels that police say have tortured and abused the villagers since taking over the area several days ago.A state of emergency has been declared in the area and at least 300 additional security forces have been deployed to the area of the province after a string of shootings since Aug. 17 that killed one police officer and wounded six.The rebel group, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), on Friday denied occupying villages near the mine, but said it was “at war” with the police, military, and Freeport.Papua has had a long-running and sometimes violent separatist movement since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.President Joko Widodo has sought to ease tension in the two provinces by stepping up investment, freeing political prisoners and addressing human rights concerns. This is the first escalation of violence during his term.Freeport’s Grasberg mine has been dogged by security concerns for decades due to a low-level conflict waged by pro-independence rebels in Papua. Between 2009 and 2015, shootings within the mine project area killed 20 people and wounded 59.More recently, Freeport, the world’s largest publicly listed copper producer, has been grappling with labour problems at Grasberg and a dispute with the Indonesian government over rights to the mine.Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Ros Russell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-security/indonesian-forces-prepare-to-storm-papua-villages-held-by-rebels-idINL3N1NH06D'|'2017-11-11T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'6127e7239dfc7ed0f0615e4570e18654ed0f4aa7'|'Grupo Mexico raises nearly $1 billion in rail unit IPO: sources'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:28 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Grupo Mexico raises nearly $1 billion in rail unit IPO: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican miner and infrastructure company Grupo Mexico on Thursday priced an initial public offering of its rail unit at 31.50 pesos per share, two sources said, raising around 19 billion pesos ($998 million). FILE PHOTO: The logo of mining and infrastructure firm Grupo Mexico is pictured at its headquarters in Mexico City, Mexico, August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ginnette Riquelme/File Photo GMexico Transportes priced at the bottom of a 31.50 pesos to 39 pesos per share range, two sources with knowledge of the deal said, requesting anonymity. The company sold 603 million shares, including overallotment, according to a filing with the Mexican stock exchange. In 2016, GMexico Transportes had sales of $1.77 billion. The IPO will help to fund the purchase of Florida East Coast Railway, an asset it snapped up in March for $2.1 billion, according to the document seen by Reuters late on Monday. Inbursa, the bank owned by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, said on Thursday that it expects to see profit of 4.65 billion pesos ($245 million) from selling most of its 8.25 percent stake in GMexico Transportes as part of the share offering. Reporting by Christine Murray and Michael O''Boyle.; Editing by Diane Craft & Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-grupomexico-ipo/grupo-mexico-raises-nearly-1-billion-in-rail-unit-ipo-sources-idINKBN1DA010'|'2017-11-09T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'd45cf0d5f1ea1a29a4e1e6f68e1d9de7e8916148'|'Ford, Ekso team up for ''bionic'' auto workers'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:33 PM / Updated 16 hours ago Ford, Ekso team up for ''bionic'' auto workers Nick Carey 4 Min Read WAYNE, Mich. (Reuters) - Robots have replaced many U.S. manufacturing workers, but new mechanical exoskeletons being tested by Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) may help factory workers to function like bionic people, reducing the physical damage of millions of repetitive tasks over many years. Ford Motor Co assembly worker Paul Collins wears a EksoVest as he works on the assembly line producing the Ford Focus and C-max at Wayne Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook The U.S. automaker said on Thursday that workers at two U.S. factories are testing upper-body exoskeletons developed by Richmond, California-based Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc ( EKSO.O ), which are designed to reduce injuries and increase productivity. The four EksoVests were paid for by the United Auto Workers union, which represents hourly workers at Ford, and the automaker plans tests for the exoskeleton in other regions including Europe and South America. The cost of the exoskeletons, which were developed as part of a partnership between Ford and Ekso, was undisclosed. Two workers at each of the company’s Wayne and Flat Rock factories have been testing the exoskeletons since May. The lightweight vest supports workers while they perform overhead tasks, providing lift assistance of up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg) per arm through a mechanical actuator that uses torque to take the stress off a worker’s shoulders. If you try one on, if feels like an empty backpack, but it enables you to hold a weight such as a heavy wrench straight out in front of you indefinitely and without strain. Ekso began by developing exoskeletons for the military and medical fields, but branched out in manufacturing and construction in 2013. Paul “Woody” Collins, 51, a worker at Ford’s Wayne plant, has been at the automaker for 23 years and has worn an EksoVest since May. He attaches bolts and parts to the undersides of Ford Focus and C-Max models, raising his hands above his head around 1 million times a year. Ford Motor Co assembly worker Paul Collins wears an EksoVest as he works on the assembly line producing the Ford Focus and C-max at Wayne Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook Since wearing the vest, he has stopped having to put ice and heat on his neck three or four days a week and finds he has energy after work instead of feeling exhausted. Russ Angold, Ekso’s chief technology officer, said the aim is to get workers used to the technology before moving eventually into “powered” exoskeletons that “will help with lift and carry” work. “The idea is to demonstrate this isn’t science fiction, it’s real and it has real value,” Angold said on Thursday. “As we prove its value, we will be able to expand into other tasks.” Slideshow (5 Images) The No. 2 U.S. automaker has been studying for years how to lower its workers’ injury rates and the exoskeleton venture is the latest step in that process. From 2005 to 2016, Ford recorded an 83 percent decrease in injuries or incidents that resulted in days away, work restrictions or job transfers, to a rate of 1.55 incidents per 100 full-time employees. That is a little over half the rate of 2.9 cases per 100 workers for private employers in 2016, according to U.S. government data. “We have made great progress, but shoulders are still our number one injury and they take a lot of time to heal,” Marty Smets, the Ford ergonomics engineer in charge of testing the exoskeletons, said on Thursday.. Collins, the Ford worker in Wayne, was supposed to wear the vest only until August, but has now asked to keep it. “If they want it back now, they’re going to have to fight me to get it off,” he said. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-ekso-workers/ford-ekso-team-up-for-bionic-auto-workers-idUSKBN1D93B0'|'2017-11-10T00:33:00.000+02:00'
'19565fa56ba1a336cd7e5fbb8404bea753090e4f'|'Allianz lowers 2017 profit outlook after natural disasters'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:06 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Allianz lowers 2017 profit outlook after natural disasters Tom Sims 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Allianz ( ALVG.DE ) has slightly downgraded its profit outlook for the full year after increased claims from natural disasters in North America, the German insurance giant’s finance chief said. FILE PHOTO: People arrive for the annual shareholders'' meeting of Europe''s biggest insurer Allianz SE, in Munich, Germany May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD - SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 6 NOV FOR ALL IMAGES Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, two earthquakes in Mexico, and fires in California have prompted the insurer to lower its forecast for the year “by a smidgen”, Allianz Chief Financial Officer Dieter Wemmer told journalists on Friday. Allianz forecast operating profit in the “upper half” of its target range of between 10.3 billion euros (9.10 billion pounds) and 11.3 billion euros on Thursday. It had previously said that profit would be “near the upper end” of that range. Allianz posted a 17 percent fall in net profit in the third quarter to 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion), with the catastrophes costing it more than 500 million euros. Analysts at KBW said in a note that the hit to Allianz was “actually not too bad in a global context” after Munich Re ( MUVGn.DE ) this week posted a big third-quarter loss, while Hannover Re ( HNRGn.DE ) reported a profit after selling its nearly 1 billion euro stock portfolio. “Third quarter results were robust, given the massive natural catastrophe events that impacted our property and casualty segment,” Oliver Baete, Allianz’s CEO, said. The series of natural disasters has rocked the insurance industry after years of muted losses, compounding pressure from low prices caused by fierce competition and low interest rates. Insured losses from the three big hurricanes have cost the industry around $100 billion, Munich Re said, that would exceed industry-wide losses of about $74 billion caused by Katrina, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005. In a sign of their toll on profit, Allianz said its combined ratio, a closely-watched measure of expenses to premium income, rose to 96.9 percent from 93.5 percent for its property and casualty division. Allianz’s asset management business showed signs of strength, with third-party assets under management rising by 7 billion euros to 1.4 trillion euros at the end of the third quarter compared to the end of the second quarter. But lower performance fees dragged on operating profit at the unit, which includes bond fund manager PIMCO. Allianz also announced a 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion) share buy-back programme. Shares in the insurer were 1 percent higher at 202.30 euros at 1209 GMT. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Arno Schuetze/Toby Chopra/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-allianz-results/allianz-lowers-2017-profit-outlook-after-natural-disasters-idUKKBN1DA1O7'|'2017-11-10T15:05:00.000+02:00'
'2c8b0ff2f92d682f6283866702fbbdd4890634b7'|'Kobe Steel to announce causes of data cheating, CEO to brief'|'November 10, 2017 / 4:25 AM / Updated an hour ago Kobe Steel blames data scandal on focus on profit, lack of controls Yuka Obayashi , Kentaro Hamada 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) said on Friday a lack of quality controls and a focus on profits was behind the widespread data tampering that has shaken up the supply chains of car and plane makers around the world. Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, which has posted losses in the last two business years, promised to automate more of its operations and reorganize its quality control systems to recover from one of the nation’s biggest corporate scandals. The 112-year-old company admitted last month that workers had tampered with product specifications, causing global automakers, aircraft manufacturers and other companies to check whether the safety or performance of their products had been compromised. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. (Graphics on ''Kobe Steel scandal'' - tmsnrt.rs/2zxslFu ) Kobe Steel was ordered last month by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to provide a detailed explanation of the data cheating and say what steps it would take to prevent future abuses. “Improving our management and corporate governance and instilling a culture where employees can say anything are imperative,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hiroya Kawasaki said at a press briefing after submitting its report to the government. “This is my utmost priority and I will work on these with unflagging resolve,” he said. Kawasaki said his “ultimate management responsibility” will be decided after recently appointed outside investigators report back to the company. “Given the magnitude of the scandal, we expect upper management to get the boot,” Thanh Ha Pham, an analyst at Jefferies in Tokyo, wrote in a note on Friday, without saying when that might happen. Kobe Steel President and CEO Hiroya Kawasaki attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Multiple workers and managers at nine production sites were involved in tampering data on specifications of products, the company said in its internal report. Some of the fabrication of data went on for 10 years, Managing Executive Officer Koji Yamamoto said, though he could not say when exactly it started. The company is in talks with fewer than 10 customers who want to recover the costs of safety inspections, Managing Executive Officer Yoshihiko Katsukawa said. Slideshow (6 Images) “Clarifying your company’s thinking on the causes of this incident is a meaningful step towards restoring trust,” Akihiro Tada, director general of METI’s manufacturing industries bureau, told Kawasaki as he arrived to deliver the report. Kobe Steel, also subject of a U.S. Justice Department inquiry as well, has had a Japanese government-sanctioned seal of quality revoked on some of its products and lost customers. As of Friday, the company said 474 out of 525 affected customers found no safety issues or their products were deemed safe by Kobe Steel, up from 470 earlier this week. The company has said it cannot yet fully state what impact the tampering will have on its finances. Last week, it pulled its forecast for its first annual profit in three years for the 12 months through next March. Kobe Steel’s shares have fallen by nearly a fifth since it revealed the data fabrication a month ago. The company''s shares rose nearly 2 percent on Friday, while the Nikkei 225 .N225 fell 0.8 percent. Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal/kobe-steel-to-announce-causes-of-data-cheating-ceo-to-brief-idUKKBN1DA0CF'|'2017-11-10T06:24:00.000+02:00'
'f6c3d5e4fdbe0ddd5a8b62d89055d4240effcd7e'|'UK industrial output rises in Sept at fastest pace this year, trade gap improves'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British industry had its strongest month so far this year in September, but more signs of strain on consumers and a plunge in construction were reminders that the economy looks set for a difficult 2018 as Brexit approaches.The figures published on Friday suggested manufacturing may help to counteract a consumer-led slowdown and offered some vindication to the Bank of England which last week raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years.“Stronger global growth and the effect of the weaker pound seems to be finally showing through in the UK manufacturing numbers,” said ING economist James Smith.The Office for National Statistics also announced a 1.6 percent monthly drop in construction, while separate figures published on Friday showed British shops suffered their worst October for sales in a decade.“Given that manufacturing represents a relatively small share of the UK economy, the persistent weakness in consumer spending is a bigger consideration for the Bank of England,” Smith said.Most economists polled by Reuters think Britain’s economy will slow next year, in large part due to uncertainty created by a lack of progress in talks on the terms of Britain’s divorce from the European Union.But next week’s data on wage growth, inflation and retail sales will offer a more complete picture of an uneven economy around which finance minister Philip Hammond must engineer an annual budget, due on Nov. 22.NO CHANGE TO GDP VIEW The ONS said Friday’s data backed up its preliminary estimate of growth of 0.4 percent in the third quarter, picking up a bit from earlier in 2017 but still slower than the rate in the euro zone.A worker inspects biscuits on the production line of Pladis'' McVities factory in London Britain, September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/Files Industrial and manufacturing output shot up by a monthly 0.7 percent in September, the fastest growth for each sector since December last year and above all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, which pointed to a reading of 0.3 percent for both.Industrial output, which includes manufacturing, accounts for 14 percent of Britain’s economic output.Figures for the much bigger services sector are due on Nov. 23.For the third quarter as a whole, there was little change to estimates for industrial, manufacturing and construction output that appeared in the ONS’ preliminary economic growth estimate.Until now, the official readings of manufacturing have tended to show a weaker picture for the sector than upbeat surveys over 2017.Separately, the ONS said Britain’s goods trade deficit narrowed by much more than expected to 11.253 billion pounds in September from 12.350 billion, helped by a rise in exports. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 12.8 billion.That was not enough to prevent a deterioration in Britain’s trade performance in the third quarter, however, which looks likely to be a sizeable drag on economic growth.Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the narrowing of the deficit in September almost entirely reflected an improvement in trade in erratic items.Until now, there has been little sign of any big boost to British exports from the sharp fall in the value of the pound that followed last year’s Brexit vote.Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy/uk-industrial-output-rises-in-sept-at-fastest-pace-this-year-trade-gap-improves-idINKBN1DA183'|'2017-11-10T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'fbae0b41fc41b6101b1bf16c56d7990f1f7c1081'|'Russian Helicopters sees rising Middle East demand on higher oil prices'|' 08 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Russian Helicopters sees rising Middle East demand on higher oil prices Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Higher oil prices are boosting demand for civil helicopters in the Middle East and parts of Asia, and that should help Russian Helicopters lift the share of civil aircraft in its global sales to 50 percent within three to five years, its chief executive said on Sunday. Demand for civil helicopters slowed over the past two to three years as low oil prices caused oil- and gas-producing countries to cut spending. But since early October, Brent oil LCOc1 has climbed to two-year highs near $65 (49.29 pounds) a barrel from around $55. Currently, civil helicopters account for around 35 percent of state-owned Russian Helicopters’ global sales. Military choppers contribute over 60 percent. “Oil prices are increasing, so we can forecast demand will increase for offshore purposes as well as for medical and general purposes,” Andrey Boginsky told Reuters at the Dubai Air Show. “Our main goal is to increase civil helicopters to not less than 50 percent in the next three to five years.” He declined to talk about military helicopters, saying Russia’s Rosoboronexport agency was responsible for that. There are currently 80 civilian choppers in operation among some 600 Russian helicopters flying in the Middle East and North African region, Boginsky said. Russian Helicopters, along with Rosoboronexport, expects to sign a final contract with India’s ministry of defence in the first quarter of 2018 to supply 140 KA-226T military choppers. Under a $1 billion-plus initial deal signed in 2015, Russia will deliver 40 helicopters to India. The rest will be assembled and manufactured in India under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd ( HIAE.NS ) The business plan and the Indian location for assembly and manufacture will be finalised this month, Boginsky added. Russian Helicopters will also sign a contract on Monday with an Indian company to supply MI-171A2 civil helicopters, he said, declining to name the company or give details. Iran has shown interest in helicopters for medical purposes. While no contract has yet been signed, Boginsky said Iran could potentially need more than 50 such choppers. Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Andrew Torchia, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airshow-russia-helicopters/russian-helicopters-sees-rising-middle-east-demand-on-higher-oil-prices-idUKKBN1DC0F8'|'2017-11-12T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'd46a4952468d1a7b49cb00662ff114d7d693a550'|'Metro, Ceconomy CEOs in suspected market manipulation probe'|'November 12, 2017 / 3:58 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Metro, Ceconomy CEOs in suspected market manipulation probe Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - The chief executives of Germany’s Metro ( B4B.DE ) and Ceconomy ( CECG.DE ) are among those being investigated by prosecutors for suspected market manipulation in 2016 ahead of a split of the retail group into two, a company spokesman said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Shopping carts of Germany''s biggest retailer Metro AG are lined up at a Metro cash and carry market near the city of Bonn. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo The investigation centres on the flow of information ahead of a Metro announcement on March 30, 2016, about plans to separate its wholesale and food business from its consumer electronics chain, sending its shares 12 percent higher. The consumer electronics business is now listed on the stock exchange under the name Ceconomy ( CECG.DE ). Prosecutors are investigating the committee at Metro that was responsible for planning the split at the time, which included Metro CEO Olaf Koch, current Ceconomy chief Pieter Haas and Ceconomy Finance Chief Mark Frese, the spokesman said. The news was first reported by Der Spiegel magazine. Metro and Ceconomy deny that market manipulation occurred. Prosecutors have said they are investigating multiple officials at Metro for suspected market manipulation and insider trading. They have conducted a raid on Metro’s headquarters and are now evaluating the evidence. Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Richard Balmforth '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-metro-insidertrading-ceo/metro-ceconomy-ceos-in-suspected-market-manipulation-probe-idUKKBN1DC0QE'|'2017-11-12T17:58:00.000+02:00'
'5d24073e4c0fd2c6a21a3287b05add222feff85c'|'Swiss bourse SIX appoints Dijsselhof as new CEO'|'ZURICH, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group said on Friday former Euronext Chief Operating Officer Jos Dijsselhof will take over on Jan. 1 as chief executive from Urs Rueegsegger, who had said in May he would leave SIX in 2018.SIX also said in a statement its card payments unit will be split out from its core business and developed “as part of a strategic partnership”.Reuters reported in September SIX had hired JPMorgan to look at options for its card payments business, including a sale worth up to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.01 billion). ($1 = 0.9937 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Oliver Hirt) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/six-ceo/swiss-bourse-six-appoints-dijsselhof-as-new-ceo-idINZ8N1N900S'|'2017-11-10T03:28:00.000+02:00'
'f5bf35a658d63cad52a37124328fb7aa6cfd0207'|'Asian Stocks slip as U.S. tax doubts snap global winning streak'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:47 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Asian stocks slip as U.S. tax doubts snap global winning streak Hideyuki Sano 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Friday on uncertainty about U.S. tax reforms after Senate Republicans unveiled a plan that differed from the House of Representatives’ version in several key areas, including a delay in the timing of a corporate tax cut. A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.1 percent while Japan''s Nikkei .N225 lost 1.0 percent. MSCI’s all-country equity index .MIWD PUS posted its first daily loss in more than two weeks on Thursday, ending its longest daily winning streak since 2003. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.38 percent while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.58 percent. U.S. Republican Senators said they want to slash the corporate tax rate in 2019, later than the House’s proposed schedule of 2018, complicating a push for the biggest overhaul of U.S. tax law since the 1980s. The House was set to vote on its measure next week but the Senate’s timetable was less clear, with a formal bill yet to be drafted in that chamber, where Republicans have a much smaller majority and a narrower path to winning approval for any legislation, let alone one as contentious as a tax package. “Things look fluid, including on when the tax cut deal will be reached,” said Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities. “I would say a compromise will be reached in the end, and we don’t need to be too pessimistic. But if they indeed decide to delay the tax cut by a year, there is likely to be some disappointment,” he said. The U.S. dollar also faced the head wind, with the euro EUR= firming to $1.1644, extending its rebound from $1.1553, its 3 1/2-month low touched on Tuesday. The dollar slipped to 113.47 yen JPY= , from Monday''s high of 114.735, its highest level since March. The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield US10YT=RR also briefly fell, though it came back to 2.340 percent, pressured by this week’s government and corporate debt supply. U.S. junk bonds were sold off, with the price of major junk bond ETF ( HYG ) plunging to its lowest level since March. Oil prices held firm, on course to log their fifth straight week of gains, on hopes of supply cuts by major exporters as well as continuing concern about political developments in Saudi Arabia. A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said the kingdom plans to cut crude exports by 120,000 barrels per day in December from November. U.S. light crude futures CLc1 traded at $57.04, down 0.2 percent in early Asian trade but still just shy of this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel. Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-stocks-slip-as-u-s-tax-doubts-snap-global-winning-streak-idUKKBN1DA021'|'2017-11-10T02:44:00.000+02:00'
'845a992d9d8fd661c91db06491f562d7da52f9b4'|'Japan’s top two lavatory-makers are at last making inroads overseas - Nature calls'|'WHEN staff at the Louvre in Paris head to the bathroom, the toilet lid opens as they approach, a warm seat heats their derrières , and, once done, their nether regions are washed and dried precisely. Selling the equipment is a coup for Toto, Japan’s biggest producer of “shower toilets”.Toto and its rival Lixil carve up the Japanese market for fancy, multi-function loos between them. At home they have market shares of 60% and 30% respectively, according to Nomura Securities, a brokerage. Yet they have struggled to win foreign bottoms over to luxuries enjoyed in Japan for many decades.  16   Today 26% of Toto’s and 30% of Lixil’s revenues come from abroad (much of it from products other than shower toilets). The Japanese market is profitable, but their loos are already ubiquitous there (including in public facilities, from Tokyo’s metro system to remote hiking trails); the majority of domestic sales come from the renovation of private homes and hotels. And whereas Japan’s population is declining, in other countries sanitaryware is a rapidly growing market as people get richer, says Daisuke Fukushima of Nomura Securities.But it is not an easy sell abroad. In Japan, shower toilets appeal because of their heated seats in dwellings that are usually kept cold, and due to a Japanese obsession with hygiene and a horror of inconveniencing others (some models play music to hide noises). Other cultures are less stringent. And the toilets are expensive; Toto’s “Neorest” model ranges in price from ¥270,000-¥540,000 ($2,365-$4,730), before tax.Toto and Lixil differ in their approaches to these challenges. Toto is expanding under its own name, opening showrooms and getting its loos into hotels and buildings where lots of people will see them. “People have to experience it to want to buy it,” says Madoka Kitamura, its president, who wants to create “Toto fans”. In contrast, Lixil, formed in 2011 by a merger of five Japanese companies, is buying foreign competitors. In 2013 it acquired American Standard and a year later Grohe, a German bathroom-fittings giant. It sells a high-tech toilet under the Grohe brand.Lixil’s strategy is sensible. It does not have quite the same brand recognition as Toto. Kinya Seto, its president, who took over last year, readily admits that Toto currently betters it abroad as well as at home. He is trying to make the company a little less Japanese, whereas Toto is more culturally conservative (a motto, “take pride in your work and strive to do your best,” is recited by every worker in every factory every day to aid team-building). Mixing Japanese technology and Grohe’s European design could give an edge.Lixil is also casting its net wider in terms of products. Toto is putting more emphasis on those that are not available abroad—meaning high-tech lavatories. In some countries, such as India, Lixil is selling (and donating) basic, cheap kit—plastic pans to use with pit latrines—betting that in several years people will get richer and upgrade.No market can match the potential of China, yet many mainlanders opt for products from lower down the price range. So for near-term profits, the two companies are looking to America and Europe. There they encounter obstacles such as strict regulations (on water use, say), an absence of sockets in bathrooms and the lack of a “wet culture” beyond southern Europe.But Toto’s positioning of its toilets in America as better for the environment is going down well. And Lixil launched a new Grohe-branded shower toilet worldwide last year which is selling particularly well in Germany. It is designed to look good from the side (Japanese toilets are usually in a separate tiny room, so are seen only from above) and is made from ceramic (in Japan plastic seats are the norm). Aficionados will be glad that other features, such as a remote-control panel with multiple buttons and anatomical diagrams, remain the same.Correction (November 10th 2017): The original version of this article suggested that Lixil was smaller than Toto; Lixil is bigger in terms of revenues overall. This has been corrected.   Business   "Nature calls"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731200-toto-and-lixil-have-different-strategies-selling-high-tech-loos-foreigners-japans-top-two?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-11T12:00:00.000+02:00'
'c7c0146f927186e0211886a012112e429def7f71'|'Impossible to seal Brexit deal by 2019 - German industry group BDI'|' 33 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Impossible to seal Brexit deal by 2019 - German industry group BDI Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union and Britain will not be able to reach a comprehensive deal on their future economic relations by the March 29, 2019, exit deadline, Germany’s largest industry group BDI warned on Friday, adding that a hard Brexit was very likely. FILE PHOTO - The Union Flag and a European Union flag fly near the Elizabeth Tower, housing the Big Ben bell, during the anti-Brexit ''People''s March for Europe'', in Parliament Square in central London, Britain September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen The two sides will need many years to complete a comprehensive deal on trade and investments, BDI Managing Director Joachim Lang told Reuters. Reporting by Gernot Heller; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Michael Nienaber and Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-germany/impossible-to-seal-brexit-deal-by-2019-german-industry-group-bdi-idUKKBN1DA0W7'|'2017-11-10T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'35d7205df0ce96d6c8ef742abea7341becf2bedb'|'News Corp posts first-quarter profit on lower expenses'|'November 9, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 7 hours ago News Corp profit beats on digital real estate unit strength Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street Journal owner News Corp ( NWSA.O ) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by a tight control on expenses and growth in revenue across all its businesses. The Fox News electronic ticker is seen outside the News Corporation building in New York City, in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton News Corp said revenue in its rapidly growing digital real-estate unit, which includes REA Group Ltd ( REA.AX ), rose nearly 20 percent to $271 million. Increased competition from digital media and a declining readership is driving print advertising down. Spending on print advertising in the U.S. is expected to fall 14 percent this year to about $18 billion, a third of what it was 10 years ago, according to media research firm Magna Intelligence. ( bit.ly/2zJsXdP ) Major publishers have not been immune to eroding print ad sales. New York Times Co ( NYT.N ) reported a 20.1 percent decline in print ad revenue in the latest quarter, while Chicago Tribune Media owner Tronc Inc ( TRNC.O ) posted an 18 percent fall. News Corp, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been implementing various cost-cutting measures like reducing staff in its Dow Jones division, which includes the Journal, while boosting its digital real estate business to improve margins. Operating expenses fell to $1.14 billion from $1.16 billion. Revenue in the company’s news and information division, which accounts for about two-thirds of total revenue, rose 1.6 percent to $1.24 billion in its first quarter. Net income available to shareholders was $68 million, or 12 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $15 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 7 cents per share, beating the average analysts’ estimate of a profit of 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Total revenue rose 4.5 percent to $2.06 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.98 billion. Thomson Reuters ( TRI.N ) ( TRI.TO ) the parent of Reuters News, competes with Dow Jones Newswires. Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-news-corp-results/news-corp-posts-first-quarter-profit-on-lower-expenses-idUKKBN1D9396'|'2017-11-10T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'7e48d3e33f964b21c4e2601f1974649e788636ec'|'US STOCKS-Wall St to open lower on worries over delay in coporate tax cuts'|'(Reuters) - Wall Street ended marginally lower on Friday, with losses in Intel and Apple as investors worried about the future of promised corporate tax cuts following dueling plans unveiled by Republican lawmakers.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week lower for the first time in nine weeks.U.S. Senate Republicans released a tax plan on Thursday that differed from a version put forth by the House of Representatives on several key fronts, including putting off corporate tax cuts for a year.Expectations of lower taxes, one of President Donald Trump’s key campaign promises, have helped drive the S&P 500 up 20 percent since the 2016 presidential election.Failure to cut corporate taxes would increase concerns about Trump’s ability to pass legislation and could shake markets that have been banking on lower tax rates to boost company earnings.The S&P 500 on Friday stood at 18.1 times expected earnings, the highest since 2004, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.Arrow Funds Director of Research John Serrapere put the chances of successfully passing meaningful tax cuts at 50 percent, and he warned that failing could trigger a correction of as much as 15 percent in stocks.“There’s not a lot of confidence. I‘m not pessimistic, but there are a lot of pieces that need to be put together,” Serrapere said.The Dow .DJI fell 0.17 percent to end at 23,422.21, while the S&P 500 .SPX slipped 0.09 percent to 2,582.3.The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC edged up 0.01 percent to 6,750.94.For the week, the Dow lost 0.5 percent and the S&P 500 slipped 0.21 percent. The Nasdaq gave up 0.2 percent for the week, snapping six weeks of weekly gains.Intel ( INTC.O ) fell 1.55 percent and Apple ( AAPL.O ) lost 0.33 percent, both accounting more than any other companies for the S&P 500’s decline.Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors fell, with the energy index’s .SPNY 0.81 percent dip leading the decliners as oil prices fell.Nvidia ( NVDA.O ) jumped 5.27 percent and hit a record high after the chipmaker’s revenue forecast for the current quarter topped estimates.A rise in media stocks also helped limit the slide.Disney ( DIS.N ) rose 2.05 percent as the promise of a new “Star Wars” trilogy overshadowed its weak quarterly results.Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) jumped 4.08 percent while News Corp ( NWSA.O ) climbed 5.15 percent.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.31-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored advancers.About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.6 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.Reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Sweta Singh; Editing by Savio D''Souza and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-down-on-worries-about-tax-cut-bill-delays-idUSKBN1DA1LT'|'2017-11-10T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'8e283c5406e3abffa01301d81e29df550cce7927'|'High-speed raceway for drivers and fans - Reuters'|'The Phoenix Raceway is undergoing a major upgrade as part of a partnership with a technology company to provide faster internet connectivity to fans and more interactive experiences. Bryan Sperber who is the president of the motorsports facility explains the project. Plus, a look at a new survey ranking the most marketable players in the NBA.Rick Horrow is the CEO of Horrow Sports. As an attorney and consultant, he has been the architect of 100+ deals worth more than $20 billion in sports, performing arts, and other urban infrastructure projects. Horrow pioneered the public/private partnership and infrastructure branding concepts that, to date, have enticed more than $4 billion in corporate funding to cities and development projects. The opinions expressed here and in videos and podcasts hosted by Rick are his alone and do not represent the views of Reuters '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-keepingscore-9nov2017/high-speed-raceway-for-drivers-and-fans-idUSKBN1D92X9'|'2017-11-10T04:26:00.000+02:00'
'dc268799c1db3ba92d39b7f0e879ce34f64b336e'|'Swiss court rejects BMW appeal against $158 million fine'|'November 10, 2017 / 11:19 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago BMW loses appeal against $158 million fine for blocking shipments to Switzerland John Revill 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) has lost an appeal in Switzerland against a 157 million franc (139.54 million pounds) fine imposed after it banned Swiss customers from buying its cars elsewhere in Europe and bringing them home. A BMW Z4 concept car is displayed during media preview of the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The fine was originally imposed in 2012 following an investigation by Switzerland’s competition authority into Swiss customers’ complaints that they had been stopped from buying BMW and Mini vehicles in other European countries, where they are less expensive than in Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court announced on Friday that it rejected an appeal by BMW in a ruling on Oct. 24. The German carmaker, which is the third-biggest selling brand in Switzerland according to data from Auto Schweiz, declined to comment on the court’s decision. The case began in 2010 when a Swiss customer was prevented from buying a new car from an authorized BMW and Mini dealer outside Switzerland. Around 20 complaints were later received by Switzerland’s WEKO competition authority after customers with Swiss addresses were prevented from buying cars at BMW dealerships in southern Germany. Customers in Switzerland had travelled across the border to buy cars that were 20 to 25 percent cheaper in Germany, or 7,000 to 41,000 Swiss francs less than Swiss prices, depending on the vehicle model and its equipment options, WEKO said. The competition authority said in 2012 that BMW and its dealers had agreed not to ship cars from dealerships elsewhere in Europe to Switzerland, infringing Swiss competition laws. A Swiss TV show investigating the case said the German automaker had imposed the ban to maintain higher prices of models on sale in Switzerland, the court noted in its judgement. “BMW was not allowed to say to its dealers you have no right to sell in Switzerland,” Patrik Ducrey, deputy director of WEKO said after the court’s decision on Friday. “This was a clear violation of Swiss competition law. It closed the Swiss market to foreign suppliers, prevented fair pricing in Switzerland and put Swiss consumers at a disadvantage.” Wealthy Switzerland has traditionally been a lucrative market for carmakers, with many customers opting for larger models with extra features, which can drive up profits. Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-bmw-fine/swiss-court-rejects-bmw-appeal-against-158-million-fine-idUKKBN1DA1CP'|'2017-11-10T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'da3371579c0ebcf9c2ddddd54ae3f0ac4b9f547b'|'Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer: sources'|'November 12, 2017 / 9:42 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer: sources Greg Roumeliotis , Liana B. Baker 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) is making preparations to reject rival Broadcom Ltd’s ( AVGO.O ) $103 billion bid as early as this week, four people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, setting the stage for one of the biggest-ever takeover battles. A building on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Qualcomm’s board of directors could meet as early as Sunday to review the unsolicited acquisition offer and decide on its strategy, the sources said. The preparations for the board meeting indicate that Qualcomm is poised to rebuff the bid as insufficient as early as Monday, although it may decide to spend a few more days this week to prepare its full response to Broadcom, the sources added. Qualcomm Chief Executive Steven Mollenkopf has spent the past few days soliciting feedback from Qualcomm shareholders, and feels that Broadcom’s $70-per-share bid undervalues the company and does not price in the uncertainty associated with getting the deal approved by regulators, according to the sources. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, who said earlier this month he would redomicile his company to the United States from Singapore, has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle. The sources said Broadcom was preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. That would allow Qualcomm shareholders to vote to replace the company’s board and force it to engage with Broadcom. Broadcom has also been deliberating the possibility of raising its bid for Qualcomm, including through more debt financing, some of the sources said, although it was not clear when Broadcom would choose to make such a move. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Slideshow (2 Images) Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not plan to significantly raise its price for NXP as a defensive strategy to make its acquisition by Broadcom more expensive, according to one of the sources. Qualcomm shares closed at $64.57 on Friday, while Broadcom ended at $264.96. (This version of the story changes Qualcomm reference to Broadcom in paragraph 3) Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/qualcomm-draws-up-plans-to-rebuff-broadcoms-103-billion-offer-sources-idINKBN1DC10V'|'2017-11-12T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'80dd0e55ded40e5c50ab30b5749699d11ff63728'|'Mexico retail group says Oct same-store sales rose 2.1 pct'|' 45 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Mexico retail group says Oct same-store sales rose 2.1 pct Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MEXICO CITY, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Mexico’s retail association said on Monday that sales at stores open for at least a year rose by 2.1 percent in October, compared to the same month a year earlier. The group, known as ANTAD, includes retail chains such as Wal-Mart de Mexico and Soriana. Total sales grew by 5.3 percent compared to October 2016, the group said. (Reporting by Mexico City Newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mexico-retail/mexico-retail-group-says-oct-same-store-sales-rose-2-1-pct-idUSS0N1LF00W'|'2017-11-13T20:45:00.000+02:00'
'ed6cd0006f612066801d8fc52e63aaea712308d1'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks on longest losing streak since Sept, rand rocked again'|'* EM stocks fall for third session despite China, CEE gains* Rand hits one-year low as talk of Treasury resignation swirls* Trump warns of trade imbalance in Asia* Venezuela to meet debt holders, participation uncertainBy Marc JonesLONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Emerging markets began the week on the back foot after a barely disguised broadside at China from Donald Trump reawakened worries about trade wars and as crisis-hit Venezuela prepared for a meeting with its creditors.MSCI’s widely-tracked emerging market stocks index fell for a third straight session for the first time since September and many of the big regional currencies also struggled as the dollar made ground.The standout was South Africa’s rand though as speculation that one of its top Treasury officials was set to quit the government sent it to its lowest level in a year and pushed bond markets down too.Lebanon’s dollar bonds rebounded meanwhile after Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said he would return to the country soon and could rescind his resignation if Shi‘ite group Hezbollah agreed to stay out of regional conflicts.The bonds have sold off heavily over the last week on belief Hariri had been coerced by Saudi Arabia into resigning. The resignation and its aftermath thrust Lebanon back to the forefront of the conflict between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Muslim Iran.The 2024 bond rose 2.4 cents while issues maturing 2027, 2028 and 2032 rose as much as 1.6 cents ,,, Reuters data showed.“There’s been a slight easing in concerns that a proxy conflict will erupt between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” said Jason Tuvey, an economist at Capital Economics.“But with (Prince Mohammed bin Salman) taking an increasingly aggressive stance, markets have built in an additional risk premium into the regional volatile markets.”There were few other new developments over the weekend in the Middle East after last week’s purge of fellow royals and officials by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Price.The Saudi stock index fell as much as 1.5 percent during Sunday but closed only 0.3 percent lower after state-linked funds once again bought stocks in late trade, a deliberate operation to support the market and prevent a crash, asset managers said.The index was down about 0.5 percent again early on Monday.There were data and political signals regarding China too.Figures from Beijing showed new bank loans fell more than expected in October to their lowest in a year, as banks tightened up on mortgage and corporate lending amid a continuing clampdown on more risky lending activities.Banks extended 663.2 billion yuan ($99.83 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, down from 1.27 trillion yuan in September and below a Reuters forecast 780 billion yuan. Chinese stocks ended the day at a near 2-1/2 year high.CARACAS MEETING Investors also piled into financial stocks, betting Beijing’s latest move on Friday to widen foreign access to its giant financial sector would attract fresh international money, and push up the valuations of Chinese lenders and insurers.The latest changes include raising the limit on foreign ownership in joint-venture firms involved in the futures, securities and funds markets to 51 percent from the current 49 percent. Meanwhile, China will drop the foreign ownership cap on banks.“Given the fast expansion in financial assets over the past few years, we believe that there will be a slew of optimistic headlines carrying positive emphasis on their value,” wrote Raymond Yeung, ANZ’s chief economist of Greater China.Comments from Donald Trump after the Chinese leg of his first trip to Asia also grabbed attention. Speaking in Vietnam a day after leaving China, he struck a stark tone on trade saying the current trade imbalance was “not acceptable”.“From this day forward, we will compete on a fair and equal basis. We are not going to let the US be taken advantage of anymore.”The other main focus was on Venezuela and its planned meeting with debt holders.It is unclear how widespread investor participation in Monday’s meeting in Caracas will be.U.S.-based creditors are not prohibited from attending the meeting, but are barred from dealings with Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Economy Minister Simon Zerpa, effectively its top debt officials."People have bet on Venezuela declaring default - never," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "Default will never reach Venezuela. (We) will always have a clear strategy and right now that strategy is to renegotiate and refinance the foreign debt." For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see) (Additional reporting by Sujata Rao; editing by Mark Heinrich) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-stocks-on-longest-losing-streak-since-sept-rand-rocked-again-idUSL8N1NJ2WZ'|'2017-11-13T12:26:00.000+02:00'
'322a007f18a7b9e2796c79de3749b9109f07a608'|'Shell to sell part of its stake in Woodside Petroleum for $1.7 billion'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:14 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Shell sells out of Woodside Petroleum for $2.7 billion Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell on Monday sold its entire stake in Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum Ltd for $2.7 billion as it pushes ahead with its vast disposal program. Staff members work at the booth of Royal Dutch Shell at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Shell, which has been slowly divesting its Woodside holding, initially said its Shell Energy Holdings Australia Limited (SEHAL) unit had struck a deal with two investment banks to sell 71.6 million Woodside shares for A$31.10 ($23.79) apiece. Several hours later, the Anglo-Dutch company said in another statement that “following strong demand from institutional investors,” SEHAL upsized its sale to 111.8 million shares worth a total of $2.7 billion before tax proceeds. That represented 13.28 percent of Woodside shares and the entirety of SEHAL’s shareholding in the company, it said. Shell shares were up 0.8 percent at 1525 GMT. The announcements came after the close of trade on the Australian bourse, where Woodside ended 1 percent lower at A$32.24 a share. With the Woodside deal, Shell has so far sold or agreed to sell nearly $25 billion as part of a three-year, $30 billion asset sales program launched following the acquisition of BG Group in 2015. “Proceeds from the sale will contribute to reducing our net debt,” Shell Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl said in the initial statement. Analysts at investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co said that Shell’s $30 billion target “is easily within reach and we see the potential for this to be increased at the Management Day” on Nov. 28. Logos of Woodside Petroleum are seen at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai A sell down of Shell’s 98 million shares in Canadian Natural Resources, worth around $2.8 billion “is only a matter of time,” TPH said in a note. Equity capital markets teams from a number of international banks had been asked earlier on Monday to submit bids and lock in cornerstone investors, a banking source requesting anonymity told Reuters. Even before Shell set out to sell assets, it was distancing itself from Woodside. In November 2010, it sold 10 percent of the issued capital of Woodside, taking its stake to 24.27 percent. This was further diluted to 23.08 percent after Shell decided not to participate in Woodside’s dividend re-investment program. In June 2014, Shell sold another 9.5 percent of Woodside’s issued shares, dropping its interest to 13.28 percent after again opting out of the dividend reinvestment scheme. Australia blocked a takeover bid by Shell for Woodside in 2001 on national interest grounds. Shell will remain joint venture partner in two liquefied natural gas projects in Australia, according to Woodside. “Woodside will maintain a close working relationship with Shell - as a joint venture partner and customer of Shell technology - and we recognize that Shell will always be part of our history,” Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said in a statement. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru, Ron Bousso in London and James Regan in Sydney; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-shell-divestiture-woodside/shell-to-sell-part-of-its-stake-in-woodside-petroleum-for-1-7-billion-idINKBN1DD0XM'|'2017-11-13T06:14:00.000+02:00'
'08a86146929129ee8e97137f62f150c40b5127df'|'CBS'' buyout of Australia''s Ten Network nears final hurdle'|'November 10, 2017 / 8:16 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago CBS'' buyout of Australia''s Ten Network nears final hurdle Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - CBS Corp’s ( CBS.N ) buyout of embattled Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings ( TEN.AX ) won approval from an Australian court on Friday, leaving only sign-off from the nation’s securities regulator before the deal is done. FILE PHOTO: The CBS "eye" and logo are seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th St. in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The bankrupt television station had been the subject of a bidding war between CBS and Twenty-First Century Fox ( FOXA.O ) Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, until Ten’s creditors voted in September to accept the CBS offer. Although a ratings laggard, Ten’s national reach and strong brand recognition in the world’s 12th-largest economy made it an attractive buyout target and CBS swooped after Ten went into administration in July. Murdoch and his co-bidder, billionaire Bruce Gordon, already lost a legal bid to derail the deal two months ago and did not contest Friday’s procedural application for court permission to transfer Ten’s shares to CBS control. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black dismissed opposition from three small shareholders to give the deal the green light. Barring an appeal from the shareholders, all stock in Ten will be transferred to CBS after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, Ten’s administrator KordaMentha said in a statement after the verdict. The buyout won approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board last month, and though it requires final clearance from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the regulator has already offered its in-principle support for the buyout. A spokeswoman for Murdoch and Gordon declined to comment. Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ten-network-m-a-cbs-corp/cbs-buyout-of-australias-ten-network-nears-final-hurdle-idUKKBN1DA0UP'|'2017-11-10T10:15:00.000+02:00'
'547464ff304368244b10a7a663e1b654d91c7c41'|'Thai Gulf Energy Development plans to raise up to $725 million in IPO'|'BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai power producer Gulf Energy Development Pcl plans to raise up to 24 billion baht ($725.08 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) to help finance investment and repay debt.The firm will offer up to 533.3 million new shares at a price between 40 baht and 45 baht, which would raise 21.3 billion to 24 billion baht, it said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.It plans a roadshow to promote the IPO on Nov. 14, it said.Kasikorn Securities, Bualuang Securities and Siam Commercial Bank are the financial advisers, the company said.($1 = 33.10 baht)Reporting by Pilaiporn Promsompan and Wirat Buranakanokthanasan; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gulfenergy-ipo/thai-gulf-energy-development-plans-to-raise-up-to-725-million-in-ipo-idINKBN1D91AQ'|'2017-11-09T07:27:00.000+02:00'
'3b524d11f8d96bf819d846c07e1c5daff20da366'|'UPDATE 1-Court lifts stay for Williams Atlantic Sunrise natgas pipe'|'(Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a temporary stay of construction on Williams Cos Inc’s nearly $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to South Carolina.Some energy traders had worried the stay could have caused a delay in the pipeline’s in service date, which would keep gas trapped in the Marcellus shale.Williams has said it expects to complete the pipeline in mid-2018. Atlantic Sunrise will transport up to 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas from the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania to markets in the U.S. Mid Atlantic and Southeast.One bcfd is enough gas for about 5 million U.S. homes.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dissolved the Nov. 6 stay on Wednesday because the petitioners opposed to the pipeline “have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review.”“We will promptly resume construction activities on this important pipeline project, which will leverage existing energy infrastructure to deliver economic growth and help millions of Americans gain access to affordable Pennsylvania-produced clean-burning natural gas,” Chris Stockton, a spokesman at Williams said in an email.The Sierra Club and other opponents of the pipeline secured the stay with a filing last week.Officials at the Sierra Club were not immediately available for comment.On Tuesday, Williams said the purpose of the stay was to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of the pipeline opponent’s motion.“Atlantic Sunrise has undergone a nearly four-year, extensive review process and is operating and being constructed in compliance with all state and federal permits,” said Micheal Dunn, Williams Partners’ chief operating officer.Analysts at Simmons & Co, energy specialists at U.S. investment bank Piper Jaffray, said in a report earlier on Wednesday that they did not anticipate a prolonged stay, according to a report about Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, which expects to use Atlantic Sunrise to transport gas.Cabot has secured about 1 bcfd of transport capacity on Atlantic Sunrise. Simmons said they do not expect Cabot to ramp up production into Atlantic Sunrise until the fourth quarter of 2018.The temporary stay was a result of a lawsuit against the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for not extending the permitting process, Williams said.Williams warned the stay put 8,000 jobs at risk in Pennsylvania.Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-williams-pipeline-atlanticsunrise/court-lifts-stay-for-williams-atlantic-sunrise-natgas-pipe-idUSKBN1D837P'|'2017-11-09T00:47:00.000+02:00'
'37250923603909563047bcf1a21602981f9f8459'|'Time Inc revenue slips 9.5 percent in third quarter'|'November 9, 2017 / 11:20 AM / Updated an hour ago Time Inc misses revenue estimates as print ads decline Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Magazine publisher Time Inc’s ( TIME.N ) revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts for the third quarter, as an uptick in online advertising failed to offset a decline in print ads. FILE PHOTO - A supporter holds up a copy of Time Magazine with the cover headline "How Trump Won" during Trump''s speech at a veteran''s rally in Des Moines, Iowa January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The New York-based publisher of Time, Sports Illustrated and People magazines said on Thursday its total advertising revenue fell 11.5 percent to $369 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, led by a 17.7 percent decline in print advertising revenue. Digital advertising revenue rose 2.3 percent to $132 million. The results come weeks after Time said it would sell assets worth $488 million including Time Inc UK and a majority stake in the Essence magazine amid a prolonged decline in its mainstay print business. Time’s third-quarter revenue slipped 9.5 percent to $679 million, missing analysts’ estimates of $693.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to Time Inc was $13 million or 14 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $112 million or $1.13 per share a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Time earned 36 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected 29 cents. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-results/time-inc-revenue-slips-9-5-percent-in-third-quarter-idUSKBN1D91G6'|'2017-11-09T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'a0440183e692faf0c430a1c07b672ed1292d6920'|'Brazil regulator rejects Oi request for deadline extension'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecommunications regulator Anatel on Thursday rejected a request by telecoms company Oi SA to extend the regulator’s deadline to explain Oi’s latest restructuring proposal.On Monday, Anatel demanded that Oi explain to the regulator how its latest debt restructuring proposal would be in the best interests of the company. On Wednesday the company asked for a seven-day extension to respond to Anatel’s inquiries. With Anatel’s rejection, Oi will now need to present a response by 2 p.m. Thursday. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Gram Slattery; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-regulator-rejects-oi-request-for-deadline-extension-idINE6N1ML01G'|'2017-11-09T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'288be6a2c0b0826960434535cf53272aa71d1284'|'PE owner of OneMain offloads partial stake as subprime lender sale ends'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The majority shareholder of OneMain Holdings ( OMF.N ) said on Tuesday it would divest part of its stake through an accelerated share sale, following the abandonment of the sale process for all of the subprime lender.The consumer credit firm, which makes car loans and other personal loans, had put itself up for sale and was running an auction process to solicit takeover bids, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Oct. 8.This ended without an agreement with a potential buyer, according to the quarterly earnings of SpringLeaf Holdings, a unit of Fortress Investment Group ( FIG.N ) which bought OneMain in 2015 for $4 billion.“(OneMain) recently completed an evaluation of certain alternatives to maximize stockholder value, including a sale of its business,” the company’s results filing said. “The evaluation has concluded and (OneMain) continues to implement its previously disclosed strategies.”The news sent OneMain’s share price down 12.1 percent on Tuesday to $27.81, valuing the company at $3.76 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.The failure of the OneMain sale process coincides with Fortress selling a number of assets in the wake of its takeover by SoftBank Group ( 9984.T ). Among the divestments were Florida East Coast Railway and bond fund manager Logan Circle Partners.After the market close, SpringLeaf Holdings said in a separate bourse filing that it was selling 10 million shares through a secondary offering being managed by Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ), the proceeds of which would go to the investment firm.No price for the shares was given in the statement, although such offerings are usually marketed at a slight discount to that day’s closing price to encourage investors to buy the stock.SpringLeaf Holdings held around 57 percent of OneMain on Sept. 30, according to its earnings release.OneMain, which has provided loans and other credit products to more than 10 million customers in 44 states according to its website, was Citigroup’s ( C.N ) former consumer lending arm, CitiFinancial, until it was renamed in 2011.The Wall Street Journal in October initially reported the plan to sell the full company, adding that rival lenders and private equity firms were among the parties studying a bid.Reporting by David French; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-onemain-holdings-sale/pe-owner-of-onemain-offloads-partial-stake-as-subprime-lender-sale-ends-idINKBN1D803P'|'2017-11-07T22:04:00.000+02:00'
'251d187e8c4491eb6fc1ebdf3fda630fac7b74e7'|'EU, Chile to start talks to update free trade deal'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:19 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago EU, Chile to start talks to update free trade deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and Chile will launch talks this week to update their existing free trade agreement after EU foreign ministers gave their backing on Monday to the start of negotiations. The EU and Chile signed a deal on political and economic cooperation in 2002, but have decided it needs updating to increase work together on issues including climate change, education policy and trade. The first round of negotiations will be held in Brussels on Thursday. On trade, the European Union is looking to increase commerce in services and also open up access to public tenders, for example allowing EU companies to sell to Chilean government agencies. The two are also working to include provisions on sustainable development, small- and medium-sized companies, tacking corruption and on issues related to women and trade. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-chile-trade/eu-chile-to-start-talks-to-update-free-trade-deal-idUKKBN1DD2CU'|'2017-11-13T21:17:00.000+02:00'
'a0ea21f8dec2f5d931231ddb2b211dc44c1e67ae'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 13'|'Nov 13 - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times * Questions have been raised over the proposed listing of Cabot Credit Management ( IPO-CAB.L ), Britain''s largest debt collector, with some investors saying that its equity could be valued at more than five times what they think it is worth amid concerns about a growing bubble in the credit market. bit.ly/2jiPVS2* Britain must radically change its approach to research and development because the existing system of tax credits is a waste of money, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research. bit.ly/2jkIxpsThe Guardian* Denise Coates, the billionaire founder and boss of gambling firm Bet365, paid herself 217 million pounds ($284.55 million) last year as her company made a 525 million pounds profit from a record 47 billion pounds of bets. bit.ly/2jlTh6M* British finance minister Philip Hammond is to receive some crucial evidence about the health of the UK economy this week as he puts the finishing touches to one of the most difficult budgets in recent times. bit.ly/2jnihdPThe Telegraph* Andy Clarke, the former Asda boss, is becoming non-executive chairman of Spoon Guru, a small technology start-up which allows consumers to search retailers'' produce ­according to their specific dietary need. bit.ly/2jneHAJ* Airbus''s troubled A380 airliner will be thrown a lifeline when Gulf carrier Emirates places a multi-billion dollar order for the "superjumbo" jets. The deal will help keep production of the double-decker aircraft running for several years and assist in maintaining supply chains. bit.ly/2jniOMRSky News* Lone Star Funds has hired bankers at Citi, JPMorgan and Numis Securities to oversee an initial public offering of MRH GB, according to Sky News. bit.ly/2jkfWAB* A number of the London Stock Exchange Group''s non-executive directors have begun to privately acknowledge that their tenure will become untenable if Chairman Donald Brydon is forced out of the company in the next few weeks, according to Sky News. bit.ly/2jkptrlThe Independent* The airline battle for big spenders has intensified, with Emirates launching what it claims to be "game-changing" First Class" – with design inspired by a car maker. ind.pn/2jm63ST ($1 = 0.7626 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-13-idINL1N1NJ00J'|'2017-11-12T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'fe95ed87caa3eb77d70660f7348ce89265461705'|'UPDATE 2-Euro zone bond yields dip, Italy kicks off heavy supply week'|'* German bond yields hit 2-week high, reverse early fall* Italian bond yields dip but near recent highs* Italy kicks off heavy supply week with 6 bln euro bond sale* Over 30 billion euros of supply due this week* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates throughout)By Abhinav Ramnarayan and Dhara RanasingheLONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Most euro zone government bond yields dipped on Monday but struggled to move too far from highs hit last week, with markets absorbing the first chunk of hefty debt supply scheduled for this week.Italy, one of the euro zone’s biggest bond issuers, sold 6 billion euros of government debt.That was at top end of a targeted range, suggesting appetite for regional bonds remains firm despite a sharp sell-off last week.But bond markets from Germany to Italy struggled to make significant headway in one of the busiest weeks this year for supply, with more than 30 billion euros of debt to be sold.New supply often puts upward pressure on bond yields, pushing prices down.Italy’s 10-year bond yield was 1 basis point lower at around 1.83 percent, trimming earlier falls and holding near 1-1/2 week highs hit on Friday.By late afternoon trade in Europe, German Bund yields had reversed their earlier falls, touching a two-week high at around 0.42 percent.“Bonds could be somewhat weak during these auctions,” said DZ Bank analyst Sebastian Fellechner.Euro zone bond yields had risen sharply on Thursday and Friday, triggered by a large seller of Bund futures on Thursday.That curbed a rally which began after the European Central Bank’s October policy meeting, when the central bank extended its bond-buying scheme until at least September 2018.DZ Bank’s Fellechner said he believed that in the long term southern European bonds will outperform their better-rated counterparts because of the benign environment.“Overall, it’s a ‘Goldilocks’ environment for peripheral spreads,” he said, pointing to fading political concerns and an extension of ECB stimulus.Belgian 10-year bond yields outperformed, dropping 5 bps to 0.60 percent, after the country’s debt management office cancelled a planned auction on Nov. 20.Most other euro zone bond yields were little changed to slightly lower on the day. Analysts said they suspected many investors had also moved to the sidelines ahead of a number of key central banker speakers this week.ECB chief Mario Draghi, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England head Mark Carney will form an all-star panel on Tuesday at an ECB-hosted conference in Frankfurt.Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Dhara Ranasinghe; editing by Mark Heinrich '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/update-1-euro-zone-bond-markets-brace-for-series-of-auction-tests-idINL8N1NJ320'|'2017-11-13T09:04:00.000+02:00'
'95620025ff43c91e2f78caa1422a8f7c435bad13'|'Trouble for the AT&T-Time Warner deal - Dropped connection'|'THE titans of media in America have decided this is an opportune moment to join together in mega-mergers, the better to take on the giants of Silicon Valley. The problem for them is that the Department of Justice (DoJ), and President Donald Trump himself, are less keen.On November 8th reports surfaced that the DoJ is preparing to block a proposed $109bn acquisition by AT&T of Time Warner, owner of CNN, HBO and the Warner Brothers film studio—a deal that was announced a year ago and which had been expected to win approval by the end of 2017. The DoJ have reportedly told AT&T executives that to get the merger through they would have to sell off assets: either Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting division, including CNN, which Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked as “fake news”, or DirecTV, the wireless giant’s satellite-TV business. Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said on November 8th he would not sell CNN to secure the deal.  15   Time Warner’s share price fell by 6.5% in one day, to nearly $20 below the agreed acquisition price of $107.50 per share. A possible court battle looms, at a time when other industry players are eyeing consolidation. It was also reported this week that Disney has had talks with 21st Century Fox about buying much of the group; although the discussions ended inconclusively, Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, who together oversee Fox, may be open to the idea of selling. The travails of AT&T and Time Warner could give clues to the fate of other possible media deals.Some suggest politics is at work: that Mr Trump intervened with the DoJ to scuttle a deal that he criticised during his election campaign as a symbol of unfair concentration of media power. But if Mr Trump is not directly involved, what else is going on? The acquisition does not involve conventional antitrust concerns, in that it is a vertical integration of distribution (wireless, broadband and satellite-TV) and content (TV networks, HBO and films). In the past the DoJ has been more concerned with horizontal mergers that create market dominance in one industry.Yet there is legitimate reason for scrutiny. AT&T’s commanding presence in distribution, especially in wireless—it has but one like-sized rival, Verizon—raises the potential for abuse as it sells content. It is true that regulators could seek a promise from AT&T that it not favour its own networks, such as HBO, and that it not discriminate against rival companies’ networks as it sets carriage terms. Similar assurances were extracted from Comcast when it bought NBC Universal in 2011, a vertical merger that went through. But it is difficult to enforce such behavioural conditions.Nor would a forced sale of assets necessarily solve competition issues. Selling DirecTV would not dent the carrier’s strength in wireless. Selling the Turner networks would still leave AT&T with the firm’s most valuable content brand, HBO. Either sale might be so onerous to execute, however, that it would probably stop the merger.Whatever the DoJ decides, the logic of mergers remains. Netflix delivers content to 109m customers; Amazon is doing the same for tens of millions of Prime customers. To compete in the future TV market, media executives believe that they need to achieve scale in both distribution and content. They may have persuaded Wall Street of their case but not, it seems, the right people in Washington, DC.  Business   "Dropped connection"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731199-media-giants-look-consolidate-climate-mergers-gets-chillier-trouble?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-11T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'39b8e29b88fd408ded4cbfcf9f71461f8970c838'|'APEC leaders agree to address ''unfair trade practices'''|'DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to address “unfair trade practices” and “market distorting subsidies” in a statement that bore the imprint of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the global trade landscape.Leaders pose for a group photo at the APEC economic leaders meeting in Danang, Vietnam, November 11, 2017. (L-R): Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; Brunei''s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah; Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Peru''s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; Chile''s President Michelle Bachelet; Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte; China''s President Xi Jinping; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang; U.S. President Donald Trump; Indonesian President Joko Widodo; Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; South Korean President Moon Jae-in; New Zealand''s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; Malaysia''s Prime Minister Najib Razak; Taiwan''s representative James Soong; Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. REUTERS/Hau Dinh/Pool The summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam has put on show the contrasting vision of Trump’s “America First” policy with the traditional consensus favouring multinational deals that China now seeks to champion.On the sidelines of the APEC summit, 11 countries kept alive a Trans Pacific trade deal whose future has been in doubt since Trump withdrew from it early this year in the name of protecting American jobs.A joint statement issued by the 21 APEC countries contrasted sharply with the group’s communique from last year.“We will work together to make trade more inclusive, support improved market access opportunities, and address unfair trade practices,” the statement read. “We urgently call for the removal of market-distorting subsidies and other types of support by governments and related entities.”The comments echoed Trump’s own themes in an address in the resort city of Danang.So did a mention of the importance of bilateral trade deals alongside bigger agreements and a call to improve the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The 2016 statement was not critical of the WTO.Trump says that the United States has lost out because other countries do not play by the rules, using state subsidies and measures that distort trade to the extent that Asian countries have built huge trade surpluses - China’s the biggest of all.Earlier in the week, trade and foreign ministers wrangled over the language to be used in APEC statements. Officials said the 20 other countries had been pitted against a U.S. push to change the traditional wording.Those countries still managed to ensure references to pushing for free trade and fighting protectionism - core reasons for APEC’s founding in 1989 - made it into the final statement.TRANS PACIFIC DEAL LIVES In a boost for the principle of multilateral trade pacts, countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal agreed on the core elements to move ahead without the United States.Their talks had looked in doubt in the face of last minute resistance from Canada, but ministers announced they were near agreement on a deal they rebaptised the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he hoped that moving ahead with the deal would be a step towards bringing back the United States.Partly to counter China’s growing dominance in Asia, Japan had been lobbying hard for the TPP pact, which aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across the 11-nation bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year.Some 20 provisions of the original agreement were suspended. Those included some related to protecting labour rights and the environment, although most were related to intellectual property - one of the main sticking points after the U.S. withdrawal.Canada, which has the second-biggest economy among remaining TPP countries after Japan, had said it wanted to ensure an agreement that would protect jobs.Chinese President Xi Jinping said APEC members needed to remain true to the group’s founding purposes, which included advancing trade, liberalisation and strengthening the multilateral trade regime, China’s Xinhua news agency said.He spoke in favour of an ambitious free trade area that covers the entire region.“We need to take determined steps toward a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific in line with the agreed roadmap, and herald a new round of development in the Asia-Pacific in the course of opening up,” he said.Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi, Matthew Tostevin, Mai Nguyen, Michael Martina, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/apec-summit-statement/apec-leaders-agree-to-address-unfair-trade-practices-idINKBN1DB0A3'|'2017-11-11T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'cde4420ffca9489d8a77fc855d23e74663db3560'|'Roark Capital offers to buy Buffalo Wild Wings - WSJ'|'Nov 13 (Reuters) - Restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings Inc has received a takeover bid valued at more than $2.3 billion from private-equity firm Roark Capital Group, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.Roark made an offer of more than $150 a share in recent weeks, according to the report. ( on.wsj.com/2jmdx8l )Roark Capital declined to comment.The restaurant chain’s shares rose 27.5 percent to $149.51 after the bell following the report. (Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buffalo-wild-ma-roark-capital/roark-capital-offers-to-buy-buffalo-wild-wings-wsj-idINL3N1NJ6BJ'|'2017-11-13T18:54:00.000+02:00'
'd41e67902c9e83b28e3b66ed7dfff7e6337a3c70'|'Shell to sell part of its Woodside Petroleum stake for $1.7 billion'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:13 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Shell to sell part of its Woodside Petroleum stake for $1.7 billion Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is selling part of its stake in Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company, Woodside Petroleum Ltd, to equity investors for about $1.7 billion. Staff members work at the booth of Royal Dutch Shell at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Shell, which has been slowly divesting its Woodside holding, said on Monday its Shell Energy Holdings Australia Limited (SEHAL) unit had struck a deal with two investment banks over the sale of 71.6 million Woodside shares for A$31.10 ($23.79) apiece. The oil major said that represented 64 percent of its interest in Woodside and 8.5 percent of the issued capital in Woodside. The announcement came after the close of trade on the Australian bourse, where Woodside ended 1 percent lower at A$32.24 a share. Upon completion of the sale, SEHAL will own a 4.8 percent interest in Woodside. Shell has so far sold or agreed to sell over $26 billion as part of a three-year, $30 billion asset sales program launched following the acquisition of BG Group in 2015. “Proceeds from the sale will contribute to reducing our net debt,” Shell’s Chief Financial Officer, Jessica Uhl, said in a statement. Equity capital markets teams from a number of international banks had been asked earlier on Monday to submit bids and lock in cornerstone investors, a banking source requesting anonymity told Reuters. Logos of Woodside Petroleum are seen at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Shell said it had agreed not to dispose of any of its remaining shares in Woodside for a minimum of 90 days from completion of the latest sale. Even before Shell set out to sell assets, it was distancing itself from Woodside. In November 2010, it sold 10 percent of the issued capital of Woodside, taking its stake to 24.27 percent. This was further diluted to 23.08 percent after Shell decided not to participate in Woodside’s dividend re-investment program. In June 2014, Shell sold another 9.5 percent of Woodside’s issued shares, dropping its interest to 13.28 percent after again opting out of the dividend reinvestment scheme. Australia blocked a takeover bid by Shell for Woodside in 2001 on national interest grounds. Shell will remain joint venture partner in two liquefied natural gas projects in Australia, according to Woodside. “Woodside will maintain a close working relationship with Shell - as a joint venture partner and customer of Shell technology - and we recognize that Shell will always be part of our history,” Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said in a statement. ($1 = 1.3074 Australian dollars) Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru, Ron Bousso in London and James Regan in Sydney; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-shell-divestiture-woodside/shell-to-sell-part-of-its-stake-in-woodside-petroleum-for-1-7-billion-idUKKBN1DD0XM'|'2017-11-13T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'e410a01b41b8f458e96c80af5cd73316bb50a052'|'Members of UK convenience retailer Nisa back Co-op takeover'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:37 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Members of UK convenience retailer Nisa back Co-op takeover Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The shopowner members of Nisa Retail, the British wholesaler and convenience retailer, on Monday voted in favour of the Co-operative Group’s ( 42TE.L ) 137.5 million pounds takeover. Nisa said that at a court meeting held in Leeds, northern England, members voted 75.8 percent in favour of the Co-op’s offer. The offer still requires clearance from Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which Nisa said was expected around March next year. Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nisa-m-s-co-op/members-of-uk-convenience-retailer-nisa-back-co-op-takeover-idUKKBN1DD1HJ'|'2017-11-13T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'741f1505d8807f39c58875172ea67bc2f44292d2'|'Japan''s economy set to show seven straight growth quarters'|' 12 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Japan''s economy set to show seven straight growth quarters Kaori Kaneko 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s economy was expected have grown for a seventh straight quarter in July-September, a period of unbroken expansion last seen between 1999 and 2001, a Reuters poll found on   People cross a street in the Shinjuku shopping and business district in Tokyo, Japan May 17, 2017. Picture taken May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have grown at an annualised rate of 1.3 percent in the third quarter, the poll of 20 analysts showed. That result would mark a seventh straight growth quarter, the longest period of expansion since an eight-quarter run from April-June 1999 to January-March 2001. Quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.3 percent is expected after a revised 0.6 percent rise in the second quarter. “Consumer spending was seen stalling in July-September but export growth likely supported solid economic expansion,” said Atsushi Takeda, chief economist at Itochu Economic Research Institute. The poll found that private consumption, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of GDP, probably slipped 0.4 percent in the third quarter, the first fall in seven quarters. External demand - or exports minus imports - was seen contributing 0.4 percentage point to growth, the poll found, after it subtracted 0.3 percentage point from GDP growth in April-June. Capital spending was seen rising 0.3 percent in the third quarter, growing for a fourth straight quarter, following a 0.5 percent rise the previous quarter. “We forecast the economy will continue to grow as both domestic and external demand pick up thanks to the global economic recovery and a softer yen,” said Hidenobu Tokuda, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “But there is downside risk from the Chinese economy and we also need to closely monitor geopolitical risk from the North Korean situation,” he said. The Cabinet Office will announce the GDP data on Nov. 15 at 8:50 a.m.(2350 GMT, Nov. 14). The Bank of Japan’s corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the prices companies charge each other for goods and services, was seen likely to have risen an annual 3.1 percent in October, the poll found. Such a result would mark a 10th straight rising month and the fastest annual rate of increase since October 2008, excluding the effect of a sales tax hike in 2014. The central bank will release the CGPI data on Nov 14 at 2350 gmt. (This story has been refiled to fix format) Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-gdp/japans-economy-set-to-show-seven-straight-growth-quarters-idUKKBN1DA0F0'|'2017-11-10T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'a9753bf0cadb7ac753821fc20db53022c0ccd821'|'Ryanair launches programme to improve pilot management - memo'|'November 10, 2017 / 9:50 PM / Updated 16 hours ago Ryanair launches programme to improve pilot management - memo Conor Humphries , Padraic Halpin 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair is to increase the number of pilots it employs directly and hire more staff to respond to their queries as part of a new programme to improve its pilot management, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The airline in September cancelled 20,000 flights, saying rostering problems had left it without enough standby pilots to operate without significant delays. The resulting wave of passenger outrage threatened to undo the success of its ‘Always Getting Better’ customer service drive. Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers has responded by promising pilots improved pay and conditions, which it says exceed those offered by rivals. In the memo, Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said almost 20 of Ryanair’s 86 bases had voted for the pay deal as of Friday. However, a number of bases, including its largest hub at London Stansted, have rejected the offer. Some pilots have been using September’s rostering issue to press for better conditions and the creation of a pan-European representative body; Ryanair has long opposed recognising unions. Ryanair said in the memo sent on Friday that it would “dramatically increase” the number of pilots employed directly rather than by outside agencies; over 180 first officers would be offered Ryanair contracts in November, and 300 more offers would be made by December. It also said it had hired 1,040 new pilots this year, with the newest entrants receiving the better pay terms, and that it expected another 400 to join by March, bringing its crewing ratio to 11.0 pilots per aircraft from 10.5 by the time the busy European summer schedule begins. A new crew control mobile phone app has also been introduced to speed up the logging of absences, and the memo says Ryanair will double the number of base managers to eight in the weeks ahead to “respond even faster to even more pilot queries”. “We have launched an Always Flying Better (AFB) programme to fill the infrastructure gaps in pilot communications, admin support and effective structures for resolving pilot queries,” Wilson said. Wilson also said a problem with allocated leave for December had caused inconvenience to a small number of pilots. Some pilots have said that a significant number of their colleagues have reported being assigned annual leave days without consultation. Asked for more detail, a spokesman said Ryanair did not comment on its internal communications, or its direct engagement with staff. Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-launches-programme-to-improve-pilot-management-memo-idUKKBN1DA2VM'|'2017-11-10T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'20522716034872e9af965920a0970a1a3351d186'|'BUZZ-U.S. stocks weekly: Cold front'|'** S&P 500 ends 8-week winning streak, though dips just 0.2 pct as tax plan details weigh** This as DJ Transport Avg starts to drag on DJ Composite . Indeed, charts show risk for DJT trip into bear country** And with an NYSE breadth measure as well as a high-yield bond ETF stumbling , indices can ultimately fall into a deep freeze** In the end, more sectors do manage to stay warm; staples and real estate snug, while industrials, materials, and financials shiver. Growth continues dominance over value** Financials drop 2.7 pct. U.S. banks fall as Treasury yield curve close to flattest in a decade . KBW Nasdaq Bank index slides 4.4 pct. DJI financial constituents may start to hinder** Tech flat. Apple in market cap journey to $1 trln . Analysts keen on potential Qualcomm/Broadcom tie-up, while investors skeptical. Chip sector index closing in on its dotcom boom peak** Cons Disc up 0.7 pct. Twenty-First Century Fox jumps on Disney deal talks. This as DIS has its own deal for a new Star Wars trilogy** Energy rises 1.1 pct. Energy ETF tries to gush higher on the charts as crude futures gain for 5th straight week** Real estate rallies 3.2 pct. GGP up 16 pct on talks of going private and Macerich up 18 pct as Third Point goes mall shopping** SPX sector YTD performance: reut.rs/2zMYMCN** Meanwhile, high profile 2017 IPOs Snap Inc and Blue Apron still feeling under the weather '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buzz-us-stocks-weekly-cold-front/buzz-u-s-stocks-weekly-cold-front-idINL1N1NF2FL'|'2017-11-10T18:24:00.000+02:00'
'f388de6e2137391ead55c6b0568935f8d780ef57'|'RPT-New kids on the block: tech giants turning Sydney''s CBD into ''Silicon Place'''|'(Repeats article first published on Sunday. No changes to text.)* Tech firms moving in; tightening office rental market* Sydney office vacancy rate at near-decade low* Building spree should boost jobs in construction industry* Move comes as economy shifts away from mining boomBy Swati PandeySYDNEY, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Global technology titans including Amazon.com Inc, LinkedIn and Expedia are moving into Sydney’s central business district, providing a commercial property fillip just as Australia’s record housing boom starts to tire.The tech invasion - with locals now dubbing Martin Place, once the heartland of the finance sector, ‘Silicon Place’ - has tightened the office rental market and helped drive down the city’s vacancy rate to a near-decade low, according to property manager Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL).The premium of Australian property yields to 3-year term deposit is close to record highs, and gross rents in Sydney have risen by nearly a quarter in the 12 months to September.“The global economy is on an upswing and you’ve got a geographically constrained market in Sydney. I’d call it a perfect storm,” said Trent James, office property portfolio manager at Charter Hall Office Trust.Amazon, among the latest tech heavyweights to expand in Australia, has snapped up a sprawling nine-floor office in the city’s financial hub, with sweeping views of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hyde Park.Nasdaq-listed cloud computing firm LogMeIn has taken over two floors in a Martin Place building that also houses a glitzy Tesla showroom, in what it calls its new Asia-Pacific headquarters.Martin Place, once dominated by the country’s major banks - which have mostly decamped to other locations in the central business district - now also has Facebook and Alphabet’s Google among its residents.As new entrants come in and existing residents expand, several time-worn buildings have been demolished to make way for the high-tech spaces now in vogue.But office property managers and landlords don’t expect new supply to come in before 2020, meaning the market will remain tight for the next couple of years at least.The building spree should add to growth and boost employment in the construction industry, a big plus as Australia’s A$1.7 trillion economy transitions away from a once-in-a-decade mining boom.Sydney and Melbourne - Australia’s two biggest cities - are both seeing strong leasing enquiries for offices, and other business hubs, including Perth, have gathered momentum, JLL data shows.“Sydney and Australia are very similar to the United States in terms of technology adoption, growth and maturity. It’s a nice gateway to Asia,” said Lindsay Brown, Asia-Pacific vice president at LogMeIn.“Sydney’s CBD is a tight market for office properties so we had a bit of luck and good timing to secure this place.”WILD WEST The renewed interest in modern spaces has attracted heavy fund inflows, driving construction work also into Sydney’s western suburbs, once no-go areas for big business.National Australia Bank (NAB) has said it will have a large office in the western suburb of Parramatta by 2020, making it the country’s first major lender to have a significant presence there. Headquartered in Melbourne, NAB has another office in Sydney’s CBD.HSBC and accounting firms Deloitte, KPMG and PwC are also moving west.“We tend to see the office sector is ultimately a microcosm of corporate Australia,” said Andrew Ballantyne, national director at real estate services firm JLL.“It’s an expression of confidence in your business moving forward that you’re ultimately going to need more space. Because, quite simply, real estate is a cost.”The activity comes amid signs that Australia’s biggest home-building boom is levelling off and the government embarks on major infrastructure projects, with plans to spend A$75 billion over the next 10 years, including on major rail and road connections.The value of total buildings approved in Australia is the second-highest on record, and infrastructure activity is at a decade high.“All the infrastructure that’s happening around Sydney right now makes it a very dynamic economy,” JLL’s Ballantyne said. “That also makes Parramatta a much more desirable place to work than it was 20 years ago.”WINNERS AND LOSERS Shares of most office property funds have outperformed returns on the benchmark stock index this year, with Charter Hall rising 27 percent and developer Goodman Group up 19 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 index has added 6 percent so far this year.However, retail landlords have fared less well, amid worries that Australia’s retail sector could suffer at the hands of Amazon.com, which has yet to spell out its full strategy for the local market.Shares of Vicinity Centres, which manages shopping centres around Australia, have fallen almost 8 percent this year, and Stockland shares have gained just 1 percent.Private equity giant Blackstone Group has called off the sale of its A$3.5 billion Australian shopping mall portfolio as Amazon’s arrival has spooked buyers of bricks-and-mortar stores.Also, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cautioned investors as growth in commercial property prices has outpaced the increase in rents. The central bank is worried that highly leveraged investors could be caught out if global interest rates see a marked increase.“Typically, they could then be required to provide additional equity, potentially triggering sales and further price falls,” the RBA said in its latest half-yearly financial stability review.Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-economy/rpt-new-kids-on-the-block-tech-giants-turning-sydneys-cbd-into-silicon-place-idINL3N1NI0FN'|'2017-11-12T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'c491e35cd4d421b4376d7f3807d18d2e92b45ac1'|'Roku hits record high on licensing deal for Phillips-branded TVs'|'(Reuters) - Roku Inc’s ( ROKU.O ) shares surged nearly 43 percent to a record high on Monday after the streaming device maker said it signed a licensing deal that would put its technology on Philips-branded televisions in the United States this year.A video sign displays the logo for Roku Inc, a Fox-backed video streaming firm, in Times Square after the company''s IPO at the Nasdaq Market in New York, U.S., September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The company said the licensing partnership with Japan’s Funai Electric Co Ltd ( 6839.T ), which manufactures Philips N.V. ( PHG.AS ) televisions for North American, would place its operating system on Phillips’ smart TVs.Separately, Roku also said its customer would get a free one-month trial of AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) streaming service DirecTV Now.Roku’s shares closed up 28.5 percent at $42.71 on Monday after hitting a high of $47.49 earlier in the session.The stock has gained 127 percent in the past three days in a rally that was spurred by the company’s strong third-quarter report late on Wednesday.The stock has now more than tripled from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $14 on Sept. 27. The stock debuted at $15.78 on the Nasdaq on Sept. 28.Los Gatos, California-based Roku’s success in the stock market is in stark contrast to the fortunes of other technology companies to make their market debuts this year.Snap Inc’s ( SNAP.K ) shares have fallen 26 percent since its February IPO, while Blue Apron Holdings Inc ( APRN.N ) has lost about 70 percent since its IPO in June.Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-roku-stocks/roku-hits-record-high-on-licensing-deal-for-phillips-branded-tvs-idINKBN1DD2NT'|'2017-11-13T18:33:00.000+02:00'
'a5e7858da2d71668e617a27272d5e6cbc175885d'|'Analysis - Fears for Lebanese economy if Saudis impose Qatar-style blockade'|'BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politicians and bankers believe Saudi Arabia intends to do to their country what it did to Qatar - corral Arab allies into enforcing an economic blockade unless its demands are met.A poster depicting Saad al-Hariri, who has resigned as Lebanon''s prime minister is seen in Beirut, Lebanon, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Unlike Qatar, the world’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas with a population of just 300,000, Lebanon has neither the natural nor financial resources to ride it out, and people there are worried.Up to 400,000 Lebanese work in the Gulf region, and remittances flowing back into the country, estimated at between $7-8 billion a year, are a vital source of cash to keep the economy afloat and the heavily-indebted government functioning.“These are serious threats to the Lebanese economy which is already dire. If they cut the transfer of remittances, that will be a disaster,” a senior Lebanese official told Reuters.Those threats came from Lebanon’s former prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, who resigned on Nov. 4 in a shock broadcast from Riyadh that Lebanese political leaders have ascribed to pressure from the Saudis.Hariri, an ally of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday warned of possible Arab sanctions and a danger to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese living in the Gulf.And he spelled out Saudi conditions for Lebanon to avoid sanctions: Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that is Lebanon’s main political power and part of the ruling coalition, must stop meddling in regional conflicts, particularly Yemen.According to a Lebanese source familiar with Saudi thinking, Hariri’s interview “gave an indication of what might be waiting for us if a real compromise is not reached. The playbook is there in Qatar.”Hariri’s resignation has thrust Lebanon to the centre of an escalating rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Iran.The non-confrontational Saudi policy of the past towards Lebanon has gone, analysts say, under the new leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32-year-old son of King Salman.He is now the de facto ruler of the kingdom, running its military, political and economic affairs.Whether Iran and Hezbollah are willing to make significant concessions to Riyadh is doubtful, sources said.“They (Hezbollah) might make some cosmetic concessions, but they won’t submit to the Saudi conditions,” a source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said.“BALL IN HEZBOLLAH‘S COURT”Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum said Riyadh wanted Hariri to return to Lebanon and press President Michel Aoun to open dialogue and address their conditions on Hezbollah’s regional interventions.“They need to come up with a position that will be satisfactory to the Saudis ... If the Saudis decide on sanctions they will do it,” Naoum said.A source close to Hariri said he had ”put the ball in the court of Aoun, Hezbollah and its allies, by saying ‘business cannot continue as usual.’A poster depicting Saad al-Hariri, who has resigned as Lebanon''s prime minister is seen in Beirut, Lebanon, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir “There was no sugar-coating. The sanctions were spelled out clearly. They want Lebanon to be disassociated from Hezbollah”.Aoun has welcomed comments that the former premier planned to return home soon, palace sources said on Monday.Saudi frustration with Lebanon seems to have boiled over after a string of setbacks to its foreign policy.Riyadh has been bogged down in the war it launched against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2015.Saudi Arabia has accused Iran and Hezbollah of backing the Houthis, and also said Hezbollah had a role in firing a ballistic missile from Yemen towards Riyadh earlier this month.Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Syria has also transformed the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, while Saudi support for Sunni rebels in Syria’s civil war have amounted to little.Hezbollah, a movement with a heavily armed fighting force in addition to seats in parliament and government, is Iran’s spearhead in the region.Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard looks to be trying to replicate it by building coalitions of militia groups in Iraq and Syria, according to some analysts.The list of potential sanctions against Lebanon, political sources there say, could include a ban on flights, visas, exports and transfer of remittances.Some of those have been imposed on Qatar, but that blockade, initiated in June, has had limited effect on the emirate so far, beyond driving it closer to Iran.NEW SAUDI POLICY Allegiance to foreign backers is not new to Lebanon. Sunnis have always looked to Saudi Arabia for support and funding while Shi‘ite Lebanese tended to turn to Tehran and Hezbollah.“The Lebanese have always been agents of foreign powers. They take their money, make promises, commitments and alliances,” Naoum said. But while Hezbollah fulfilled its promises to Iran, Sunni factions let Riyadh down, he said.Thanks in part to Iranian investment in the group, Hezbollah now calls the shots in the Lebanese capital as well as playing a pivotal role in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.Riyadh has historically channelled billions of dollars to Lebanon to help its reconstruction after the 1975-90 civil war and following massive Israeli incursions of south Lebanon.Now it appears ready to do serious economic damage to Lebanon that could weaken Hezbollah’s standing at home and in the region, should its demands not be met.The Saudi conditions are causing alarm among some Lebanese, who have long viewed Hezbollah as a “state-within-a-state”. Many believe the solution is outside the control of local players.“Lebanon will pay the price,” a top Lebanese banker told Reuters. “The only pressure the Saudis have is economic ... they can put pressure by imposing sanctions that can hurt.”Additional reporting by Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam; Editing by Mike Collett-White '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lebanon-politics/analysis-fears-for-lebanese-economy-if-saudis-impose-qatar-style-blockade-idINKBN1DD2KI'|'2017-11-13T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'08a24ff024341a6a5ba78c531d7a7a385e7d588f'|'UPDATE 1-British car insurer Sabre seeks $280 mln listing in London'|'(Adds background, valuation)LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - British car insurance underwriter Sabre will seek to raise around 213 million pounds ($279.22 million) in an initial public offering in London next month, the company said on Monday.The announcement is a boost to the outlook for London Stock Exchange listings after earlier this month ready meals supplier Bakkavor and telecoms masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L both pulled deals.Bakkavor reversed that decision just a week later, after cutting its share price.Founded in 1982, Sabre generated gross written premiums of 197 million pounds in 2016 and said it intends to maintain its focus on the UK private motor insurance market.The listing would value the whole company at around 600 million pounds, a source familiar with the deal said.Sabre’s private equity owner BC Partners is looking to list the Dorking-based firm in London following an unsuccessful joint approach from U.S. investment firm Centerbridge and Qatar Reinsurance Company, sources told Reuters in September.BC Partners took a majority stake in Sabre in 2013 in a 240 million-pound deal.The company, which is behind the Insure 2 Drive, Go Girl and Drive Smart brands, abandoned talking with prospective buyers in favour of a listing.Barclays and Numis Securities Limited are acting as joint global co-ordinators on the deal. ($1 = 0.7628 pounds) (Reporting by Lawrence White, additional reporting by Ben Martin, editing by Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sabre-ipo/update-1-british-car-insurer-sabre-seeks-280-mln-listing-in-london-idINL8N1NJ1CM'|'2017-11-13T04:44:00.000+02:00'
'bb911295b2a8f12cee2f0f8bc7ee0f89cb5a368a'|'OPEC sees tighter 2018 oil market as demand grows, supply falls'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:08 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago OPEC points to 2018 oil supply deficit as market tightens Alex Lawler 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC raised its forecast on Monday for demand for its oil in 2018 and said its deal with other producers to cut output was reducing excess oil in storage, potentially pushing the global market into a deficit next year. Oil field technicians work with a drill at an oil rig of Ecuador''s state oil company Petroamazonas, in Tiputini, Ecuador October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Tapia The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said in a monthly report it had cut its estimate of 2018 supply from producers outside the group and said oil use would grow faster than previously thought due to a stronger-than-expected world economy. OPEC said the world would need 33.42 million barrels per day (bpd) of OPEC crude next year, up 360,000 bpd from its previous forecast and marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the projection from its first estimate made in July. “The global economic growth dynamic has continued its broad-based and relatively strong momentum,” OPEC said. “The ongoing momentum could still provide some slight upside potential.” Oil prices LCOc1, which are trading close to the highest since 2015, rose further towards $64 a barrel after the report was issued. Crude is still about half its level of mid-2014, when a build-up of excess supply led to a price collapse. The 14-country producer group said its oil output in October, as assessed by secondary sources, was below the 2018 demand forecast at 32.59 million bpd, a drop of about 150,000 bpd from September. The report’s OPEC production figures mean compliance with the supply cut by the 11 members with output targets has risen above 100 percent from 98 percent in September, according to a Reuters calculation. “The high conformity levels of participating OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries ... have clearly played a key role in supporting stability in the oil market and placing it on a more sustainable path,” the report said. Should OPEC keep pumping at October’s level, the market could move into a deficit next year, the report indicates. Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by Jane Merriman and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-oil-report/opec-sees-tighter-2018-oil-market-as-demand-grows-supply-falls-idUKKBN1DD1F8'|'2017-11-13T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'de888d0c23d407aa7802cfd2f1e1f339eed2f881'|'ECB policy must stay easy as inflation lags target - Constancio'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:43 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago ECB policy must stay easy as inflation lags target - Constancio Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s monetary policy must remain easy as inflation in the euro zone continues to lag its 2 percent target despite stronger economic growth and falling unemployment, the ECB’s vice president said on Monday. European Central Bank Vice-President Vitor Constancio listens during a news conference following the Governing Council meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins “We are not yet fulfilling our mandate and that is why monetary policy will have to continue to be very accommodative, assuring favourable financial conditions to foster growth and spur wages and prices,” Vitor Constancio, a policy dove, told a conference. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-constancio/ecb-policy-must-stay-easy-as-inflation-lags-target-constancio-idUKKBN1DD10Q'|'2017-11-13T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'cc55e3188caf04235753e147a6435bafb6bd973f'|'UAE Defence Ministry enters $1.6 billion deal with Lockheed Martin to upgrade F-16 fighters'|'November 12, 2017 / 10:06 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UAE Defence Ministry enters $1.6 billion deal with Lockheed Martin to upgrade F-16 fighters Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates’ Defence Ministry announced a 6 billion dirham (1.24 billion pounds) deal with Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) to upgrade F-16 jet fighters, a spokesman said on Sunday. The deal is to upgrade 80 F-16 jet fighters, Major General Abdullah Al Sayed Al Hashemi, Chief of the Military Committee and the spokesman of the UAE Armed Forces, told a news conference. Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Tom Arnold'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-lockheed-airshow/uae-defence-ministry-enters-1-6-billion-deal-with-lockheed-martin-to-upgrade-f-16-fighters-idUKKBN1DC0CA'|'2017-11-12T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'e07b00a2ab1862e2931b40b24b2562b3ee880ee5'|'S.Korea celebrity appears in Chinese ad in subtle sign of thawing diplomatic tension'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:37 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago S.Korea celebrity appears in Chinese ad in subtle sign of thawing diplomatic tension Reuters Staff * S.Korean actress promotes cosmetics on Alibaba’s Taobao mall * S.Koreans vanished from Chinese ads during missile spat -exec * S.Korean entertainment shares up on hope of earnings rebound By Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang SEOUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A South Korean actress is promoting cosmetics on China’s biggest online mall, in a subtle sign of easing diplomatic tension that has seen once-ubiquitous South Korean celebrities vanish from Chinese marketing campaigns. Jun Ji-hyun, who has played the lead roles in hit movies and dramas such as 2013’s “My Love from the Star,” featured prominently on Monday on the product page of health goods maker Mentholatum on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Taobao.com. Jun’s appearance comes toward the end of a year in which South Korea’s entertainment industry suffered a drop in Chinese demand for South Korean cultural exports. The drop came as Beijing objected to Seoul’s use of a U.S. anti-missile system, prompting popular anti-South Korean sentiment in China. South Korean celebrities soon reported being unable to attend promotional events and having work visa applications delayed, officials at South Korean talent agencies told Reuters. “Chinese TV ads featuring South Korean celebrities were suddenly dropped and new ones aired with Chinese celebrities,” said a director of a South Korean talent agency, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, at a regular briefing on Monday, said he was not aware of any restrictions on South Korean cultural exports, and that “China will work hard with South Korea to promote the early return to the correct and healthy track of bilateral exchanges and cooperation.” Mentholatum’s Asia-Pacific headquarters did not have an immediate comment. Alibaba could not be immediately reached. In late October, Beijing and Seoul agreed to move beyond their year-long stand-off over the missile issue. “We haven’t seen any immediate tangible change, but we hope the agreement will have a positive impact on future cultural exchange,” South Korean entertainment and media firm CJ E&M Corp told Reuters. The impact of the stand-off has been deep. K-Pop agency YG Entertainment Inc has not scheduled any concerts in China since July 2016. In its most recent earnings report, it said July-September operating profit fell 88 percent. Peer S.M. Entertainment Co has also not scheduled a concert in China since September 2016. Its latest earnings showed a 61 percent profit drop for January-June. But analysts expect the agreement ending the stand-off to see earnings at entertainment firms begin to recover from as soon as early 2018. Reflecting that expectation, shares of CJ E&M rose 5.6 percent on Monday, while S.M. was up 3.9 percent and YG was 6.1 percent higher. The benchmark Kospi index fell 0.5 percent. Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-china-entertainment/s-korea-celebrity-appears-in-chinese-ad-in-subtle-sign-of-thawing-diplomatic-tension-idUSL3N1NJ1K1'|'2017-11-13T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'62eb59b56df0464d91ce63cfcee371613965f4ec'|'Bitcoin rebounds over $1,000 after losing almost a third of value'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:16 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Bitcoin rebounds over $1,000 after losing almost a third of value Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged on Monday, recovering more than $1,000 (£763.5) after losing almost a third of its value in less than four days as traders bought back into the volatile cryptocurrency. A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Bitcoin tumbled in the second half of last week, falling as low as $5,555 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday, a slide of almost 30 percent from a record high just shy of $7,900 on Wednesday.. It rebounded on Monday, trading up more than 14 percent on the day at $6,718 (£5,130), though that was still more than $1,000 less than last week’s record high. Market-watchers said the fall had been driven by a decision on Wednesday to abandon a planned software upgrade that could have split the cryptocurrency in a so-called “fork” - a move that had initially had a positive impact on the digital coin, sending it to a record high of $7,888 on the view that this marked a resolution of a long-term dispute. But some were disappointed that “Segwit2x” fork had been abandoned. It would have increased the capacity of the “blocks” transactions are processed in, thereby reducing competition to get payments processed and lowering transaction fees. Consequently, analysts said, some of those who see low fees as important to the future of bitcoin were selling it for a clone called Bitcoin Cash that spun off from the original in August. Its block sizes are larger, and therefore transaction fees are lower. Bitcoin Cash tripled in value at the end of the week as bitcoin slid, reaching an all-time high just below $2,000 on Sunda and briefly overtaking Ethereum as the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency. But traders bought back into the original bitcoin on Monday, sending Bitcoin Cash plummeting. It was trading down over 30 percent on the day at around $1,097, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. “Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will co-exist and serve different use cases, just like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s not a zero sum game,” bitcoin and security expert Andreas Antopolous said in a post on Twitter. Bitcoin is up more than 500 percent so far this year. Reporting by Jemima Kelly, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-rebounds-over-1000-after-losing-almost-a-third-of-value-idUKKBN1DD1KH'|'2017-11-13T15:16:00.000+02:00'
'92d3e18eab02fc8ecdd8ed5455abc1d4e849955c'|'Membership revoked? Veteran GE''s spot in exclusive Dow may be shaky'|' 10 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Membership revoked? Veteran GE''s spot in exclusive Dow may be shaky Lewis Krauskopf 6 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - It is hard to imagine the Dow Jones Industrial Average without General Electric Co ( GE.N ). The U.S. industrial conglomerate’s stock is the lone original component of the venerable blue-chip index that debuted in 1896. FILE PHOTO: The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo But GE''s dwindling share price and the likelihood that its new chief executive will dramatically slim down its sprawling operations is leading some index-watchers to consider the possibility of the company losing its membership in the elite 30-stock Dow .DJI . “Since it is trading at a low share price and has a small weighting in the index, that does put it at an increased risk of getting removed,” said Alex Bryan, director of passive strategies research at Morningstar in Chicago. “I don’t think it’s obvious that it is going to be removed from the index, but it certainly is at risk.” GE’s shares last week closed under $20 for the first time in more than five years, its struggles made clear by a disappointing third-quarter earnings report last month. The stock closed at $20.49 on Friday, marking a 35 percent decline in 2017. The stock price is now the lowest among Dow members. Because the Dow is a price-weighted index, unlike the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX which is influenced by the market values of its constituents, that means GE has the least impact on the Dow''s daily swings. As of Friday, GE’s weight stood at only 0.6 percent. By comparison, aircraft maker Boeing Co ( BA.N ), whose stock is above $260 (197.15 pounds), has a 7.7 percent weight. Changes to the Dow are made on an as-needed basis and selection is not governed by quantitative rules, according to published methodology for the index. A spokesman for S&P Dow Jones Indices said the committee that oversees the Dow index meets regularly and that its discussions are confidential. GE declined to comment. Ivan Cajic, vice president for index and ETF research for ITG, said if the Dow were to make a change in the near future, GE is the likeliest to be removed. ”I wouldn’t be surprised if the company is safe for the time being and Dow Jones adopts a wait-and-see approach over the next few months to see how both the stock price and what the overall company looks like in the coming months,” Cajic said. SHRINKING COMPANY GE’s fate as a Dow component may become clearer on Monday when CEO John Flannery, who took the helm on Aug. 1, is expected to detail the businesses the company plans to exit as it seeks to revive its financial prospects. If GE starts selling big parts of its operation, the committee overseeing the Dow “would give serious thought to whether or not the new GE, (excluding) those businesses, still represents as much a part of the economy as they once had,” said Dave Nadig, CEO of ETF.com. “If they continue to spin off and restructure businesses, they are going to just shrink,” said Chuck Carlson, contributing editor to Dow Theory Forecasts newsletter. “That isn’t necessarily the worst thing from a stock perspective, but they may start paring down to the point where the remaining businesses are similar to others that are in the Dow.” For now, GE still holds a major position in industries such as aviation, power and healthcare, and its market value of about $175 billion puts it in the middle of Dow components. Its historic place in the Dow may also be an argument for it to remain. If GE is removed from the Dow, it may not spark much immediate selling of the stock. Only about $20 billion is invested in exchange traded funds tied to the Dow, the vast majority in the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust ( DIA.P ), much less than the $380 billion in ETFs tied to the S&P 500, according to Lipper data. But the indirect impact of GE losing its blue-chip status could weigh in the longer term. TOO EXPENSIVE It is not clear what company would replace GE in the Dow if it were kicked out. Three companies missing from the Dow with some of the largest market values - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Google parent Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) and Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) - have strikes against them. Share prices of online retailer Amazon.com and internet company Alphabet exceed $1,000 so they would warp the price-weighted Dow. Social media company Facebook only went public in 2012, which some market-watchers say is too recent to join the Dow. Industrial companies may find their applications denied. The sector represents about 22.5 percent of the Dow, which would be only marginally reduced by GE’s departure. That level is more than twice the amount the sector represents in the S&P 500. According to its published methodology, the Dow covers all industries except for transportation and utilities, which are covered by other Dow Jones indexes, and that “maintaining adequate sector representation within the indices is also a consideration in the selection process.” According to Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA: “There are sectors more under-represented than industrials within the index that could encourage a replacement from another group.” (For a graphic on GE''s place in the Dow, click tmsnrt.rs/2zzl9KU ) Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ge-review-stocks/membership-revoked-veteran-ges-spot-in-exclusive-dow-may-be-shaky-idUKKBN1DC0FD'|'2017-11-12T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'fc32ea5a1765c550ce24b741d46ba14ee109e04c'|'Airline revenue of $1.2 billion blocked across Africa - IATA'|'November 13, 2017 / 2:48 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Airline revenue of $1.2 billion blocked across Africa - IATA Clement Uwiringiyimana 2 Min Read KIGALI (Reuters) - The global airline industry has $1.2 billion (£916.6 million) blocked in nine dollar-strapped African countries, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. The global commodities price crash that began in 2014 hit economies across Africa hard, particularly big resource exporters such as Angola and Nigeria. Low oil and mineral prices have reduced government revenue and caused chronic dollar shortages and immense pressure on local currencies. The fiscal slump has meant governments have not allowed foreign airlines to repatriate their dollar profits in full. At an aviation meeting in the Rwandan capital, IATA’s Vice President for Africa, Raphale Kuuchi, said that airlines were in talks with “a few governments to unblock airline funds”. He did not specify the companies were affected. “To do business effectively, airlines must be able to reliably repatriate their revenues,” Kuuchi said. “And that’s not the case in nine African countries: Angola, Algeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan and Zimbabwe.” Of the total of $1.2 billion, Angola has blocked the largest amount, $500 million, while Sudan has held up $200 million, another IATA official, Adefunke Adeyemi, told Reuters. Last year Nigeria owed airliners $600 million but as of October the amount had fallen to $221 million, she said. Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airlines-iata-africa/airline-revenue-of-1-2-billion-blocked-across-africa-iata-idUKKBN1DD1SU'|'2017-11-13T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'71244066a56feb7af2b63446f92b809667f7b0ea'|'Roku hits record high on licensing deal for Phillips-branded TVs'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:34 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Roku hits record high on licensing deal for Phillips-branded TVs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Roku Inc’s ( ROKU.O ) shares surged nearly 43 percent to a record high on Monday after the streaming device maker said it signed a licensing deal that would put its technology on Philips-branded televisions in the United States this year. A video sign displays the logo for Roku Inc, a Fox-backed video streaming firm, in Times Square after the company''s IPO at the Nasdaq Market in New York, U.S., September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The company said the licensing partnership with Japan’s Funai Electric Co Ltd ( 6839.T ), which manufactures Philips N.V. ( PHG.AS ) televisions for North American, would place its operating system on Phillips’ smart TVs. Separately, Roku also said its customer would get a free one-month trial of AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) streaming service DirecTV Now. Roku’s shares closed up 28.5 percent at $42.71 on Monday after hitting a high of $47.49 earlier in the session. The stock has gained 127 percent in the past three days in a rally that was spurred by the company’s strong third-quarter report late on Wednesday. The stock has now more than tripled from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $14 on Sept. 27. The stock debuted at $15.78 on the Nasdaq on Sept. 28. Los Gatos, California-based Roku’s success in the stock market is in stark contrast to the fortunes of other technology companies to make their market debuts this year. Snap Inc’s ( SNAP.K ) shares have fallen 26 percent since its February IPO, while Blue Apron Holdings Inc ( APRN.N ) has lost about 70 percent since its IPO in June. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-roku-stocks/roku-hits-record-high-on-licensing-deal-for-phillips-branded-tvs-idUSKBN1DD2NT'|'2017-11-13T23:32:00.000+02:00'
'4615c56f7bcfb409ac82d9c2fd71adbf89aaeaf4'|'EU wants feedback on impact of fake news to help draft strategy'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:10 AM / Updated 8 hours ago EU wants feedback on impact of fake news to help draft strategy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is seeking feedback on the impact of fake news as part of a move to help the bloc’s 500 million citizens assess news sources and make sure that social platforms such as Facebook live up to their responsibilities. Concerns about fake news arose after accusations of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election to prevent Democrat Hillary Clinton winning and in this year’s French presidential election in which eventual winner Emmanuel Macron’s team complained his campaign was targeted by a “massive and coordinated” hacking operation. Russia has denied meddling in foreign elections. The European Commission, the EU executive, said it wanted input from EU citizens, online platforms and news media in the public consultation which kicked off on Monday. It will also set up a group of academics, online platforms, news media and civil society organisations to assist it. “We live in an era where the flow of information and misinformation has become almost overwhelming,” Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a statement. “That is why we need to give our citizens the tools to identify fake news, improve trust online, and manage the information they receive.” Respondents have until February to comment on the issue after which the Commission will present a strategy next spring. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-data-fakenews/eu-wants-feedback-on-impact-of-fake-news-to-help-draft-strategy-idUSKBN1DD18K'|'2017-11-13T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'47fc99e6a076f13d350c15fa602ba09b35088cd5'|'FCA plans to ban former Libor trader Tom Hayes'|'November 8, 2017 / 5:10 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago UK regulator plans to ban former Libor trader Tom Hayes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets regulator said on Wednesday it plans to ban convicted former Libor trader Tom Hayes from the financial services industry because he is not a “fit and proper person”. FILE PHOTO - Former trader Tom Hayes arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Britain July 29, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said Hayes, who has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for interest rate benchmark manipulation, disputes the decision and is appealling it. Hayes had applied to prevent the planned ban to be published because he has referred his conviction to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which examines miscarriages of justice. The FCA said the Upper Tribunal, which reviews FCA decisions, will examine the proposed ban after Hayes’ case has gone through the CCRC. In the meantime the ban is not formally in effect. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley and Huw Jones; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-libor-hayes-ban/uk-regulator-plans-to-ban-former-libor-trader-tom-hayes-idUKKBN1D82HV'|'2017-11-08T19:02:00.000+02:00'
'ca8794c8f74f543260a2e1e65607d0de4b60dde4'|'Amazon to produce ''Lord of the Rings'' television series'|'(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has bought the global television rights to “The Lord of the Rings,” the company said on Monday, in what may be its biggest and most expensive move yet to draw viewers to its streaming and shopping club Prime. The Amazon streaming video app for Apple''s iPad is seen in Los Angeles August 1, 2012. Amazon.com launched the video application for Apple''s iPad on Wednesday, the latest effort by the world''s largest retailer to get its digital content on as many gadgets as possible. REUTERS/Sam Mircovich (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT) Amazon said it will produce a multi-season series that explores new storylines preceding author J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first installment in the famed fantasy trilogy. Three movies made of the trilogy in the early 2000s, filmed in New Zealand and based on Tolkien’s novels, garnered nearly $3 billion at the box office and 17 Academy Awards. New Line Cinema, which distributed the film trilogy, the Tolkien Estate and Trust, and publisher HarperCollins will work with Amazon to produce the television series. Amazon did not say how much it was paying for the rights. The project underscores a shift in Amazon’s video programming. Its studio started in 2010 with a focus on unique shows beloved by critics, such as “Transparent,” about a father coming out as transgender to his family. That was a winning formula for attracting Hollywood talent, awards and buzz, though not Prime subscribers around the world. Now, Amazon is looking for a dramatic show that could be a hit globally, much like HBO’s popular fantasy series “Game of Thrones.” This puts Amazon in uncharted territory, with higher-than-usual production costs expected so it can transport viewers to Middle Earth. Amazon justifies its spending on programming as a way to draw new sign-ups to Prime, whose members buy more goods more often from the world’s largest online retailer. “Amazon is committed to producing super high quality, recognized, branded entertainment,” said Wedbush Securities industry analyst Michael Pachter. “That’s a departure from shows like ”Transparent“ and ”Catastrophe.“” “By definition this will be expensive,” he added. Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-lord-of-the-rings/amazon-to-produce-lord-of-the-rings-television-series-idUSKBN1DD293'|'2017-11-13T20:30:00.000+02:00'
'644071d3343a4fbaa26eab915a20ee98cc2d593c'|'Bombardier in talks with EgyptAir for $1.1 billion CSeries deal: Bloomberg'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:56 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Bombardier in talks with EgyptAir for $1.1 billion CSeries deal: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Canadian plane-and-train-maker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) is in advanced talks with EgyptAir over a potential $1.1 billion order for CSeries jets, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A Bombardier CSeries aircraft is pictured during a news conference to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the C Series aircraft programme, in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The deal is likely to include a firm order for 12 CS300 jets, and could be announced as early as Tuesday at the Dubai Air Show, according to the report. ( bloom.bg/2iSDNU1 ) European planemaker Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) recently agreed to take a majority stake in the CSeries program, in exchange for Airbus’s purchasing and marketing power and support for the aircraft that had few orders due to doubts over its future. Bombardier said, earlier this month, that it received a letter of intent from an unnamed European customer for 31 firm CSeries orders. Bombardier spokeswoman, Nathalie Siphengphet said there was clearly a strong momentum for the CSeries, and there was growing interest from airlines around the world. Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bombardier-egyptair/bombardier-in-talks-with-egyptair-for-1-1-billion-cseries-deal-bloomberg-idUSKBN1DD2L5'|'2017-11-13T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'2dc88e865221a015a60dc006ccfcf6f65aa8beec'|'Spanish property group Colonial launches $1.7 billion bid for rival Axiare'|'(Reuters) - Spanish office buildings owner Inmobiliaria Colonial ( COL.MC ) said on Monday it has launched a takeover bid for Axiare Patrimonio ( AXIA.MC ), valuing the rival company at 1.46 billion euros ($1.70 billion).Colonial, which already owns nearly 29 percent of Axiare after buying an additional 13.3 percent from its own former shareholders, said it was offering 18.50 euros in cash for the remaining shares, a 13 percent premium to Friday’s closing price.Axiare’s share price jumped as much as 15.5 percent to a record high of 18.89 euros, before slipping back to 18.48 euros by 1606 GMT, when shares in Colonial were down 2 percent at 7.54 euros.Analysts said the deal could spark further deals in the sector, with shares in Lar Espana ( LRES.MC ) up 1.6 percent on Monday.“With this transaction, Colonial consolidates its position as the leading European platform for the prime office market in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona,” Colonial said in a statement.Colonial, which recently announced plans to move its headquarters to Madrid from Barcelona, where Catalonia’s local government is in turmoil over its attempt to split from Spain, said the transaction was fully financed through a combination of equity, bonds and the disposal of non-core assets.“We believe that Colonial is paying a fair price for the company,” a Banco Sabadell analyst said in a note.Axiare did not issue a response on the move and could not immediately be reached for comment.Colonial had not discussed the structuring of the deal with Axiare’s management, Colonial’s chief executive, Pere Vinolas Serra, said on a conference call. Colonial expects to close the deal during the first half of 2018.J.P. Morgan is the financial adviser to Colonial on the deal.($1 = 0.8586 euros)Reporting by Joanna Jonczyk-Gwizdala in Gdynia; Editing by Jane Merriman, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axiare-patrimoni-m-a-inmobiliaria-col/spanish-property-group-colonial-launches-1-7-billion-bid-for-rival-axiare-idINKBN1DD20U'|'2017-11-13T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'4e7208428ea4e15e3c8b63dcaed7c8b2395b2110'|'GE slashes quarterly dividend'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:38 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago GE slashes quarterly dividend Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) said on Monday it would halve its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per share. The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril This is the third time in its history that the 125-year-old industrial conglomerate has cut its dividend. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-review-dividend/ge-slashes-quarterly-dividend-idUKKBN1DD1BE'|'2017-11-13T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'e85961f455985b2783582603ae4f1cc3222bcfc6'|'Mitie appoints former Virgin Active CEO Woolf as CFO'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:54 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Mitie appoints former Virgin Active boss Woolf as CFO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Struggling British outsourcing company Mitie Group ( MTO.L ) has named Paul Woolf, the former boss of Virgin Active Health Clubs, as chief financial officer. The company, which has been restructuring after a string of profit warnings, said Woolf will replace Sandip Mahajan, who has held the role of Group CFO since February. Like its peers, Mitie has been hit hard over the past year by rising labour costs after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and unplanned changes on contracts taken on during the financial downturn, often with paper-thin margins. The provider of pest control, cleaning, security and healthcare services said in September it may cut up to 480 jobs as it overhauls its cleaning and engineering divisions, adding that the cost of its turnaround would be higher than expected. Mahajan will step down from the company’s board and will take up a new role as the group’s Chief Financial Transformation Officer, Mitie said. Mahajan had joined in February from construction firm Balfour Beatty Plc ( BALF.L ), where he served as the finance head. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mitie-group-cfo/mitie-appoints-former-virgin-active-ceo-woolf-as-cfo-idUKKBN1DD17D'|'2017-11-13T12:53:00.000+02:00'
'833440c1d6561cb5720b25474ec0e011e52985d3'|'Emirates partners with Mercedes, Jeremy Clarkson for new first class'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai airline Emirates [EMIRA.UL] joined forces with Mercedes-Benz and motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson to launch its new first-class suites on Sunday, inspired by the styling of luxury car interiors.FILE PHOTO: Signs point to the Emirates Airlines check in desks at JFK International Airport in New York, U.S., March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Emirates, which was the first airline to put showers on commercial jets, rolled out the futuristic design at the start of the Dubai Airshow.“This is the first time we have seen anything like this in the civil aviation world,” Emirates President Tim Clark said.The six fully enclosed cabins for its Boeing ( BA.N ) 777 jets feature seats that recline into flat beds and a 32-inch television.B/E Aerospace, recently acquired by Rockwell Collins ( COL.N ), is the supplier of the seats.Emirates said it spent “many millions” of dollars developing the new premium section over several years.“The investment is an awful lot of money,” Clark said, declining to disclose exactly how much the airline had spent.Emirates has placed high-definition cameras outside the planes, enabling passengers sitting in the middle of the first class cabin to have a window-like experience.The airline has recruited Jeremy Clarkson, co-presenter of Amazon car show Grand Tour, for their advertising campaign to promote the new first class.“You may not like him, but most people find him amusing, sometimes a little irritating, but he is very impactful,” Clark said.Clarkson was dropped from co-presenting BBC’s Top Gear in 2015 after he physically attacked a producer.The size of the suites will reduce the number of first- class seats on Emirates’ 777s from eight to six.Clark said Emirates was studying how to add them to its A380 fleet, and dismissed skepticism of first class by other airlines, telling reporters that there was strong demand for the premium class including on routes to China, Paris, and London.Some carriers have reduced the size of their first class, or dropped it altogether in favor of business class and a premium economy class product.Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-airlines/emirates-partners-with-mercedes-jeremy-clarkson-for-new-first-class-idUSKBN1DC06J'|'2017-11-12T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'2ae00d40d983e593bef8dc9d20107b0e491adf13'|'UK industrial output rises in Sept at fastest pace this year, trade gap improves'|'November 10, 2017 / 9:35 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Industry shines in otherwise hazy vista for UK economy Andy Bruce , Alistair Smout 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British industry had its strongest month so far this year in September, but more signs of strain on consumers and a plunge in construction were reminders that the economy looks set for a difficult 2018 as Brexit approaches. FILE PHOTO - Robotic arms load biscuits onto pallets on the production line of Pladis'' McVities factory in London Britain, September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls. The figures published on Friday suggested manufacturing may help to counteract a consumer-led slowdown and offered some vindication to the Bank of England which last week raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years. “Stronger global growth and the effect of the weaker pound seems to be finally showing through in the UK manufacturing numbers,” said ING economist James Smith. The Office for National Statistics also announced a 1.6 percent monthly drop in construction, while separate figures published on Friday showed British shops suffered their worst October for sales in a decade. “Given that manufacturing represents a relatively small share of the UK economy, the persistent weakness in consumer spending is a bigger consideration for the Bank of England,” Smith said. Most economists polled by Reuters think Britain’s economy will slow next year, in large part due to uncertainty created by a lack of progress in talks on the terms of Britain’s divorce from the European Union. But next week’s data on wage growth, inflation and retail sales will offer a more complete picture of an uneven economy around which finance minister Philip Hammond must engineer an annual budget, due on Nov. 22. NO CHANGE TO GDP VIEW The ONS said Friday’s data backed up its preliminary estimate of growth of 0.4 percent in the third quarter, picking up a bit from earlier in 2017 but still slower than the rate in the euro zone. Industrial and manufacturing output shot up by a monthly 0.7 percent in September, the fastest growth for each sector since December last year and above all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, which pointed to a reading of 0.3 percent for both. Industrial output, which includes manufacturing, accounts for 14 percent of Britain’s economic output. Figures for the much bigger services sector are due on Nov. 23. For the third quarter as a whole, there was little change to estimates for industrial, manufacturing and construction output that appeared in the ONS’ preliminary economic growth estimate. Until now, the official readings of manufacturing have tended to show a weaker picture for the sector than upbeat surveys over 2017. Separately, the ONS said Britain’s goods trade deficit narrowed by much more than expected to 11.253 billion pounds in September from 12.350 billion, helped by a rise in exports. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 12.8 billion. That was not enough to prevent a deterioration in Britain’s trade performance in the third quarter, however, which looks likely to be a sizeable drag on economic growth. Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the narrowing of the deficit in September almost entirely reflected an improvement in trade in erratic items. Until now, there has been little sign of any big boost to British exports from the sharp fall in the value of the pound that followed last year’s Brexit vote. Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/uk-industrial-output-rises-in-sept-at-fastest-pace-this-year-trade-gap-improves-idUKKBN1DA12C'|'2017-11-10T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'a2012e61951f05579066b94fb462543141f56575'|'French agricultural group InVivo to buy garden retailer Jardiland'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:30 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago French agricultural group InVivo to buy garden retailer Jardiland Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French agricultural group InVivo has agreed to buy gardening chain Jardiland to strengthen its position in a sector drawing competitors from do-it-yourself stores to internet distributors. InVivo’s retail division will acquire Jardiland from investment fund L-GAM, which will become a shareholder in InVivo Retail, InVivo CEO Thierry Blandinieres told reporters. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Blandinieres said that InVivo may bring in other financial investors in its retail division alongside L-GAM. Jardiland will add a third chain to InVivo’s gardening activities alongside Gamm Vert and Delbard. InVivo and Jardiland had announced last month exclusive talks over an alliance under which their gardening chains would continue to operate separately, without giving further details. Combined annual sales at the three chains represent more than 2 billion euros (1.74 billion pounds), including 730 million for Jardiland, and the acquisition will reinforce InVivo’s position as France’s largest garden retailer, it said. “The idea is to work together faced with a market situation which is complicated for gardening pure players,” Blandinieres said. “Even if we’re a market leader, we’re under pressure from new entrants like mass retail and internet.” Do-it-yourself retailers are now the biggest channel for garden products in France while online sellers were also growing fast, InVivo said. In pet products, which represent a sizeable part of gardening stores’ sales, there was stiff competition from supermarkets in particular, it added. InVivo did not anticipate significant regulatory hurdles given limited geographical overlap between Gamm Vert, which is concentrated in rural areas, and Jardiland, which tends to have large stores on the outskirts of towns, the group said. The planned acquisition of Jardiland also marks another step in InVivo’s expansion in retail activities. It is developing a grocery retail network under the Frais d‘Ici banner, seeing potential for 200 outlets in France. InVivo’s activities also span agricultural supplies, animal nutrition, grain trading and more recently wine distribution. The group generated sales of 5.5 billion euros in its 2016/17 fiscal year to June 30. ($1 = 0.8585 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-invivo-jardiland/french-agricultural-group-invivo-to-buy-garden-retailer-jardiland-idUKKBN1DA1YY'|'2017-11-10T16:29:00.000+02:00'
'43f0485915638e86729ad1776199344c5965b55a'|'Multi-manager hedge funds hook investors with returns recovery'|'November 10, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Multi-manager hedge funds hook investors with returns recovery Maiya Keidan , Lawrence Delevingne 5 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Multi-manager hedge funds, often star performers, have recovered from below-par returns in 2016, with investors adding $1.2 billion (908 million pounds) to them during the first three quarters of 2017. Although traditionally they are meant to achieve some of the best returns by running different investment strategies and moving money between them based on their success, many investing approaches used by hedge funds actually lost money in 2016. As a result, $1.8 billion flowed out of multi-manager funds last year, industry tracker Eurekahedge data shows. The sector posted returns of 5.1 percent up to the end of September 2016, data from Preqin shows, while the S&P 500 index made gains of 8.6 percent over the same period. Although these funds have generated returns of 8.14 percent on average so far to Sep. 30 this year, they have again lost out to the S&P 500 index, which was up 12.7 percent. (Source: multi-strategy gains from Preqin, equities, macro and hedge fund gains from HFR) Despite this, their improvement over last year is enabling some firms to return profits to investors. Citadel, one of the largest team-based hedge funds with $28 billion in investment capital, is among the top performers this year, with gains of 11.43 percent in its flagship fund through October, a source close to the firm said. It is now planning on returning all profits from 2017 to investors, a letter reviewed by Reuters shows. Traditionally some funds want to keep funds under management below a certain level as it becomes harder to manage assets above that threshold. A spokesman for Citadel, founded by Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin, said it routinely returns profits, though it did not in 2016 when it made 5 percent, a source close to the firm said. ”We have routinely made profit distributions, in whole or in part, across a number of our funds over the past 20 years,” Citadel spokesman Zia Ahmed said. Other multi-managers may not be far behind after improved performances. Folger Hill’s fund, for example, is up 4.5 percent through end-October, according to a person familiar with the situation, a turnaround from losing 17.5 percent last year. Millennium Management’s International fund is up 5.54 percent in the year to Sept. 30, compared to just 3.38 percent in 2016, according to data compiled by HSBC. Balyasny’s Atlas Global Investments fund was up 3.59 percent to Oct. 13, after losing 0.73 percent in 2016, the same data showed. “Multi-strategy funds are (in general) having a better year so far in 2017 relative to 2016,” Russell Barlow, head of hedge fund investments at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said. Last year saw some firms doing particularly badly, notably Blackstone Group’s ( BX.N ) Senfina Advisors, which lost almost a quarter of assets from performance losses and closed down. “Security selection based on fundamentals is being rewarded, equity sector dispersion has increased and interest rate divergence has resulted in better opportunities for relative value strategies,” Barlow added. CITADEL LEADS WAY Smaller funds run by Boothbay Absolute Return Strategies and Verition Fund Management are up an estimated 11.8 percent and 9.7 percent through Oct. 31, respectively, both outstripping 2016 returns, people familiar with the situation said. Multibillion-dollar U.S. investor Schonfeld Strategic Advisors made gains of 14 percent in the year to end-September, a person familiar with the matter said. However, Citadel appears to be the only multi-manager so far to have performed strongly enough to return profits. But Citadel has not always performed well and asking to make redemptions has frustrated some investors who have stuck with them, particularly when many firms are already closed to new investment due to their popularity. “I find this very sad,” said one fund-of-fund investor who received a letter to redeem capital. “Especially that we have trusted them in 2009 ...after having had a very difficult 2008.” Citadel’s flagship funds lost 55 percent in 2008 and investors asked to withdraw $1.5 billion. Many investors prefer to keep profits from their initial investment with a manager in order to best generate year-on-year returns and avoid having to find a new home for their cash. Reporting by Maiya Keidan; additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hedgefunds-multistrategy/multi-manager-hedge-funds-hook-investors-with-returns-recovery-idUKKBN1DA26G'|'2017-11-10T17:48:00.000+02:00'
'5010e9d0a4872e430ab8f7b763a88ee36f58d48a'|'Global Economy - Communication breakdown?'|'November 10, 2017 / 11:39 AM / in 4 hours Global Economy: Communication breakdown? Catherine Evans 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A flattening of government bond yield curves that may presage an economic downturn could prompt verbal interventions in the coming week by central bankers still struggling to hit this cycle’s inflation targets. Governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda (L to R), United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi walk after posing for a photo opportunity during the annual central bank research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Jade Barker European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England head Mark Carney will form an all-star panel on Tuesday at an ECB-hosted conference in Frankfurt. The subject? “Challenges and opportunities of central bank communication.” Curve-flattening on both sides of the Atlantic, but more markedly in the United States, suggests investors have doubts over the future path of inflation and may be starting to price in a downturn just as the global economy picks up speed. Since the Fed began raising rates in 2015, the difference between long- and short-term U.S. yields has shrunk to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis, reaching 67 basis points US2US10=RR -- its flattest in a decade -- in the past week. That partly reflects uncertainty about the passage of a Republican-sponsored bill to cut U.S. taxes, which has hauled down longer-term projections of inflation while expectations for upcoming rate increases push short-term yields higher. With curve-flattening typically signaling a muted outlook for both growth and inflation, the trend suggests investors see a risk that the Fed’s current monetary tightening cycle will start to slow the world’s biggest economy. A flatter curve, which makes lending less profitable, also poses a risk to the banking sector, nursed back to fragile health by central banks after it nearly collapsed a decade ago. But with crisis-era policies still largely in place, how would central banks cushion the impact of a downturn? RECESSION RISK S&P Global Ratings said in the past week that it sees a 15-20 percent risk of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months based on economic conditions, government policy uncertainty and continued gradual tightening by the Fed. Citing economic indicators that show the expansion is either in or approaching a late cycle -- though not overheating -- it forecast robust GDP growth in the second half of 2017. “Still, monetary policy risk remains in the coming months that is not captured in our quantitative assessment,” S&P said. ”The economy has now more or less closed the output gap ...That means monetary policy is more likely to transition away from the current accommodative stance. Arrangement of various world currencies including Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, pictured in Warsaw, January 26, 2011. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel “Furthermore, if a sizeable fiscal stimulus from the U.S. government is to indeed go through in the coming months, it increases the chance of the Fed tightening policy more aggressively.” Market expectations that the Fed will continue to tighten gradually have generally been preserved by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Jerome Powell as Fed Chair when Yellen’s term expires in February. But with a number of Fed vacancies to be filled, analysts at ING say the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee could yet take on a hawkish hue. “The combination of upside risks to growth and mounting inflationary pressures, as well as a hawkish rotation in the make-up of Fed voters, suggests that markets are too cautious in only pricing in one (rate) hike next year,” they wrote. “We’re expecting a December rate hike, and these various factors mean there is upside risk to our call for two further rate rises next year. What’s more, the long end of the (yield) curve will also have to deal with additional supply from the Fed’s balance sheet reduction programme.” Powell, a 64-year-old Fed board governor and former investment banker, will take over an economy that has been expanding for more than eight years and where unemployment has fallen to its lowest since the early 2000s. Under his leadership the Fed is widely expected to continue to raise borrowing costs gradually, as Yellen began to do in late 2015, and to shrink the central bank’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet. It has raised rates twice this year and is widely expected to do so again -- to a target range of 1.25 to 1.5 percent -- next month. Investors in Europe are also focused on potential future price growth, although the European Central Bank’s more accommodative stance means a different dynamic for bond markets. The hunt for returns drove the German yield curve, Europe’s benchmark, to its flattest in about two months in the past week, though that trend was reversed on Thursday and Friday. Market measures of long-term inflation expectations in the bloc have risen in recent months but remain well below the ECB’s near-2-percent target, giving funds confidence that the value of those investments will not be materially eroded. EUIL5YF5Y=R The ECB’s decision last month to extend its asset purchase program until at least September and pledge to keep rates at record lows until well after that scheme ends have helped push bond yields across the bloc to multi-month lows. The European Commission said on Thursday that it expected the euro zone economy to grow at its fastest pace in a decade this year before slowing somewhat. A flash estimate of third-quarter GDP in the euro area will be released on Tuesday and October’s inflation reading on Thursday. A clutch of other Fed policymakers will also be out and about, while Draghi, Kuroda and Carney are all due to make speeches during the week. Reporting by Catherine Evans; editing by John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/global-economy-communication-breakdown-idINKBN1DA1EC'|'2017-11-10T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'2494738a2343574ff9c66aa138597a9d631bc43a'|'Xi says China to be more open, transparent to foreign companies including America''s'|'November 9, 2017 / 4:51 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Xi says China to be more open, transparent to foreign companies including America''s Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday China will be more open and transparent to foreign companies, including those from the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump and China''s President Xi Jinping meet business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj U.S. companies are also welcome to take part in China’s Belt and Road initiative, Xi told a briefing in Beijing after talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. China’s door to the world will only open wider, he said. Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trump-asia-china-open/xi-says-china-to-be-more-open-transparent-to-foreign-companies-including-americas-idUKKBN1D90FH'|'2017-11-09T07:50:00.000+02:00'
'53eb7ad051eec893b91241689b75ada7ccd97ca3'|'Tencent sees video games, more ads in Snapchat''s future'|'November 9, 2017 / 3:02 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Tencent sees video games, more ads in Snapchat''s future David Ingram , Sijia Jiang 5 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Thursday it could help Snapchat owner Snap Inc publish video games and improve ad sales after acquiring a 12 percent stake in the U.S. social media network. FILE PHOTO: Visitors use their smartphones underneath the logo of Tencent at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing May 6, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Snap’s disclosure in a U.S. regulatory filing that Tencent had recently bought 145.8 million of its shares on the open market set off a wave of speculation among investors about the relationship between the firms. Shares in Snap closed at $12.91 on Wednesday, down 14.6 percent, as investors pummel the company for slow user growth and treated Tencent’s move as an investment rather than the precursor to an acquisition. Tencent’s shares do not have voting power and it will not have a board seat, but the two companies broadly believe in cooperation that goes beyond passive investing, according to Snap’s filing on Wednesday. Tencent on Thursday described a potentially close relationship. “The investment enables Tencent to explore cooperation opportunities with the company on mobile games publishing and newsfeed as well as to share its financial returns from the growth of its businesses and monetization in the future,” it said in an emailed statement. It also referred to the potential for “newsfeed ads”. Games and a newsfeed have not been a part of Snapchat, although the company on Tuesday said it was planning a redesign. Analysts say Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, has benefited from its social media apps for the phenomenal popularity of its smartphone games such as Honour of Kings, and will need the help of local social networks in promoting its games in overseas markets. The Snapchat app, though, is banned in China, where non-Chinese social media networks are generally restricted, although some videos originating in China were visible on the network on Wednesday presumably because of technological workarounds. U.S. investment analysts said they did not expect a change in that regard. FILE PHOTO: The Snapchat messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo It is unlikely that Snap “would ever be allowed to establish a foothold in China even if their relationship with Tencent were deeper,” Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York, said in a report to clients. The companies operate on different scales. Tencent’s holdings include messaging apps QQ and WeChat, both ubiquitous in China, and its market capitalisation of $469 billion is among the largest in the world. Snap’s is $15 billion. While Snapchat focuses on sharing pictures and video between friends, WeChat offers payment processing and more. Tencent said that it expected Snapchat to continue to grow, particularly in “affluent Western markets” such as the United States and Europe. “The China market is in some ways more advanced in social media and messaging than the U.S. is,” said Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon, a website that writes about China and California’s Silicon Valley. “Tencent might have teams come in and work with them,” Fannin said. Snap declined to comment beyond a filing in which it said the California company was inspired by Tencent’s creativity and entrepreneurial spirit and grateful to continue a productive relationship. Snap has an office in Shenzhen, China, where Tencent has its headquarters, to assist in the manufacture of Spectacles, Snap’s sunglasses that have a built-in camera. Tencent has aspirations to assume a global role in technology and may be buying shares with that strategy in mind, said Lindsay Conner, a Los Angeles lawyer who has represented Chinese companies in the United States. “They often invest in companies to have a seat at the table, to understand businesses better, to see where the leading edge is between technology and content, and to have an insight into technology they should adopt or licence,” he said. Tencent first became an investor in Snap in 2013. The total size of its investment has not been disclosed. Although Snap’s shares began to trade publicly in March in the hottest debut of a U.S. tech stock in years, results since then have sent Snap shares down below its IPO price of $17. Reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco and Sijia Jiang in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Peter Henderson and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-snap-tencent-holdings-videogames/tencent-says-it-wants-to-cooperate-with-snap-on-games-idUKKBN1D90AE'|'2017-11-09T07:26:00.000+02:00'
'952c9082ef9cb93c2437edf0e9c8346fce1eddfb'|'Lebanon dollar bonds slammed again by rising regional tensions'|'LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s sovereign dollar bonds came under renewed pressure on Friday, with some issues falling more than 2 cents amid rising regional tensions in the wake of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s resignation nearly a week ago.The 2024 bond dropped as much as 2.5 cents to trade at 91.3 cents, having lost 7.5 cents since the start of the week, according to Thomson Reuters data. The bond maturing in 2032 lost as much as 2.15 cents to 86.6 cents.Most issues across the curve were trading around multi-year or record lows.On Thursday, three Gulf states advised their citizens against traveling to Lebanon and asked those already there to leave as soon as possible, amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Lebanon and Yemen.Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Jamie McGeever '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lebanon-crisis-eurobonds/lebanon-dollar-bonds-slammed-again-by-rising-regional-tensions-idINS8N1MY00E'|'2017-11-10T05:58:00.000+02:00'
'0ee59c701ab796b7716c769ece97a6c1681b1aff'|'Lack of funding, bad loans limit credit growth in Western Balkans'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:07 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Lack of funding, bad loans limit credit growth in Western Balkans Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BELGRADE (Reuters) - Lack of funding, a high level of bad loans and poor bankruptcy procedures have slowed the growth of lending at the banks in six Western Balkan states, an International Monetary Fund report said on Monday. External bank funding rose by more than 500 percent before 2008, pushing economic growth in the six countries - Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia - the IMF said in a chapter of its European outlook. In that period, 70 to 95 percent of banking assets in the various countries were controlled by foreign banks, mostly based in the European Union. But eight years after the world financial crisis broke, foreign banks still see limited prospects in the region, which has prompted the local banks to curb funding from abroad and rely on self-funding, the IMF report said. Return on equity fell 10 to 35 percentage points during the crisis and still has not recovered to pre-crisis levels. In addition, a high percentage of non-performing loans (NPL) in most of the countries continues to hurt profitability. To tackle weak credit growth and boost economic prospects for the region, states need to secure a legal framework for dealing with non-performing loans, accelerate judicial reforms and improve bankruptcy and insolvency laws. “Weak judiciaries make banks weary of lending for fear that debts will not be recovered,” the IMF said in its report. They also need to sort out property rights, since uncertainty means a range of asserts cannot be easily collateralised. In addition those constraints, most of countries have too many banks. For example, Serbia, the biggest of the six, has 30 separate banking chains. To expand the funding base and help banks grow, the countries could develop local capital markets where banks could issue corporate bonds, the report said. Setting up private-sector pension funds and insurance companies would help create demand for bank bonds and could more generally spur domestic saving, the IMF said in the report. Despite healthy economic growth rates - exceeding 3 percent at the moment - the region is lagging behind its European peers. Incomes in the region are 30 percent of those in the euro area. Reporting by Ivana Sekularac, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-balkans-banks/lack-of-funding-bad-loans-limit-credit-growth-in-western-balkans-idUKKBN1DD0XG'|'2017-11-13T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'6caca432ac8d9476c185c7c3d356a4f9508d2381'|'China property investment growth cools in October, sales decline accelerates'|'November 14, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 2 hours ago China property investment growth cools in October, sales decline accelerates Reuters Staff 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s October property sales and new construction starts fell in October as the property market cooled from a two-year boom in the face of a tighter liquidity environment and a crackdown on riskier lending. A general view of Mount Nicholson project developed by Wheelock and Company, with one of the four-bedroom houses sold for HK$1.16 billion ($148.7 million), in Hong Kong, China November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files Real estate investment growth also cooled in October, in line with expectations, as the government looks to engineer a soft landing for the property sector amid a gradual slowdown in China’s economy. Real estate, which directly affects 40 other business sectors in China, is a crucial driver for the economy but also poses a major risk as Beijing looks to tame soaring home prices without triggering a crash. Property sales by floor area fell by 6.0 percent in October from a year earlier, compared with a 1.5 percent decline in September, according to Reuters calculations. The decline was the biggest since the first two months of 2015. “(That decline) is exactly what the government is looking for,” said Jonas Short, who heads the Beijing office at investment bank Sun Hung Kai Financial (SHKF). “What’s driving a lot of the declines, particularly in sales, is mortgage rates spiking up.” Sales by value fell by 1.7 percent on-year for the month of October, the first decline in monthly property sales value since March 2015, and compared to a 1.6 percent gain in September. Data on Monday showed household loans, mostly mortgages, fell to 450 billion yuan in October from 735 billion yuan in September, Reuters calculated from central bank data, alongside reports that banks have slowed mortgage approvals. Property investment grew 5.6 percent in October from a year earlier, cooling from expansion of 9.2 percent in September, Reuters calculated from National Bureau of Statistics out data on Tuesday. October’s growth was the slowest since July. China’s housing market has been on a near two-year tear, giving the economy a major boost but stirring fears of a property bubble even as the authorities try to contain risks from a rapid build-up of debt. The head of the central bank warned in October that China’s household debt was rising too quickly, and some analysts suspect a recent burst of consumer lending points to the illicit use of loans for property investment. China’s outstanding household consumer loans surged nearly 30 percent by end September from a year earlier, data showed. Taming the overheated property market has been a top priority for China’s policymakers this year as they looked to ensure social stability and reduce risks to the financial system as China shifted to focus more on high-quality growth in its economy. Investment in the first 10 months of the year rose 7.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with 8.1 percent in Jan-Sept. The figure focuses mainly on residential real estate but also includes commercial and office space. New construction starts measured by floor area, a telling indicator of developers’ confidence, were down 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, after only rising 1.4 percent in September, Reuters calculations showed. The biggest previous decline was 7.0 percent in July. Home prices in the biggest cities have softened slightly and gains in smaller cities have slowed in response to cooling measures, though there have been no hints of a crash which could destabilise the economy or stir social unrest. Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to curb illegal financing for mortgage down payments and have asked banks to step up checks on home buyers’ income authenticity, the official Xinhua news agency reported in early November. China’s economy surprised financial markets this year with 6.9 percent growth through the first three quarters, and analysts say resilience in manufacturing, infrastructure investment and consumer spending could offset a slowdown in property. “I think this is exactly what the government is looking to do. I don’t see them changing their policy course,” said Short, referring to government efforts to cool the property market. “The economy is fundamentally strong in other areas...industrial production is only moderating, it’s still at really high levels. There’s other areas and other levers that the government is willing to lean on.” Reporting by Stella Qiu and Kevin Yao; additional reporting and writing by Elias Glenn; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-property-investment/china-property-investment-growth-cools-in-october-sales-decline-accelerates-idINKBN1DE0XW'|'2017-11-14T10:40:00.000+02:00'
'db47a4fc061280c0e80a42b17cb58127a370060b'|'AIRSHOW-Italy sees other European countries joining fighter jet programme'|'November 11, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago CORRECTED-AIRSHOW-Italy sees other European countries joining fighter jet programme Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Corrects paragraph 3 to remove France from list of Eurofighter project countries and paragraph 6 to add dropped words ‘available for export’) By Alexander Cornwell DUBAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A senior Italian air force official said on Saturday that he expects French and German plans to develop a new warplane will eventually include other European countries. France and Germany announced in July they would jointly build a new European fighter jet to eventually replace the European Eurofighter and the French Dassault Rafale. The joint declaration did not say what role, if any, other European countries would play. Italy is a partner in the Eurofighter project alongside Germany, Spain and Britain. Italian Air Force Chief of Staff Enzo Vecciarelli told Reuters that he could not see the development of “such a complicated system” without including the wider European aerospace industry. “We have to look for all the countries to join for a new venture towards a fifth generation plane,” he said at a military conference in Dubai. The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin Corp in the United States, is the only Western-made fifth generation fighter jet available for export, according to its manufacturer. Fifth generation is a definition that varies among manufacturers but broadly includes advanced stealth capabilities and a high level of computerised connectivity between fighter jets. France and Germany aim to come up with a roadmap by mid 2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of rival warplanes. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; editing by Clelia Oziel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airshow-italy-sees-other-european-countries-joining-fighter-jet-programme-idUSL8N1NH0G0'|'2017-11-11T16:19:00.000+02:00'
'd5174704bbdc2140871d74b8229dc3ca97ebc42a'|'M&A fee battle pits David v Goliath'|'* Boutique advisers, bulge-bracket banks find uneasy peace in advisory gameBy Shankar Ramakrishnan and Philip ScipioNEW YORK, Nov 13 (IFR) - Independent investment banks have been well represented on every large M&A transaction over the past 15 years, and Broadcom’s new US$103bn (US$130bn including debt) hostile bid for Qualcomm is no exception.Evercore, Moelis and Centerview Partners have earned coveted advisory spots advising both sides in what would be the largest and possibly most contentious tech takeover ever.Bringing the boutiques on board for large mergers and acquisitions has become the norm since the financial crisis; companies count on them to resolve perceived conflicts of interest at the bulge-bracket banks.Indeed, the boutique shops have become a formidable force in M&A advisory by offering independent advice, the individualised focus of senior bankers and a heightened sense of discretion.Understandably, some of their much larger rivals do not like it much.“I think they’re bottom-feeders,” the head of one of the world’s largest investment banks told IFR on condition of anonymity.“They are used for validation of other people’s opinions or sometimes for a banker’s contacts. But they’re not usually driving deals.”CONFLICT RESOLUTION Driving or not, boutiques have been present on both the buyside and sellside in every M&A deal over US$100bn since the financial crisis.The largest companies in particular are keen to avoid any perceived conflict of interest and to show they were advised by a firm that had nothing to sell but its expertise.“In the US there is a desire to have at least one adviser who is purely impartial and has no balance sheet exposure to the companies involved in the transaction,” said one banker.On occasion the boutiques have even out-earned their larger counterparts - an impressive achievement for firms that are not underwriting or guaranteeing financing.“Financial capital is fungible but intellectual capital is far more valuable, and that principle is driving the success of boutique advisers,” said a senior boutique banker.“We are looking to provide the best solution to a client - and not push products on them like the big banks do.”But the bigger banks naturally argue that the boutiques are far from unbiased because they need the fees more - and thus are always biased in favour of doing a deal.“You could attribute their growth to this five-year M&A cycle,” said one banker at a large European bank.“When things slow down, that will be the true test of the boutique business model.”PLAYING NICE For now at least, that model certainly seems to be paying off, with Evercore, Moelis and Lazard all posting record revenue this year.Evercore, Lazard and Rothschild are in the top 10 for advisory for globally announced deals over the first nine months of the year - ahead of UBS and Deutsche Bank - while Centerview and Weinberg are in the top 25.On Broadcom’s deal, Moelis is advising the acquirer along with Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Deutsche. They will split fees of between US$110m and US$135m, according to Freeman & Co.Qualcomm meanwhile is being advised by Goldman Sachs, Evercore and Centerview. They will share an estimated US$120m to US$145m.Whatever either side says privately, the fact is that they have reached a kind of detente that allows them to work side by side in search of fees.And whatever is said publicly is congenial of necessity.“You never want the client to see you as combative,” said another senior boutique banker.“If the client wants an independent adviser, we have to accept that and work as a team - because as a bank you never want to be larger than the deal.” (This story appeared in the November 11 issue of IFR Magazine.; Reporting by Philip Scipio and Shankar Ramakrishnan; Editing by Marc Carnegie) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ma-fee-battle-pits-david-v-goliath/ma-fee-battle-pits-david-v-goliath-idINL1N1NG04M'|'2017-11-13T16:14:00.000+02:00'
'c3e277c41f47b63569c74a3e60bc9ffbb0b55af6'|'LPC-St Hubert €270m buyout loan launches for syndication'|'LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Banks have launched a €270m leveraged loan financing to back Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co Ltd and Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group’s €625m acquisition of French margarine maker St Hubert, banking sources said.Sanyuan and Fosun said in July they had signed an agreement with European private equity firm Montagu to acquire Brassica TopCo S.A. and PPN Management SAS, which are controlling shareholders of St Hubert.JP Morgan, Societe Generale and UniCredit are leading the loan financing and bank meetings are set to take place on November 14 and November 15 in Paris and London, respectively, to show the deal to investors, the sources said.Commitments to the loan are due by December 1.The financing comprises a €260m seven-year term loan B, guided to pay 400bp over Euribor with a 0% floor. An Original Issue Discount is expected to emerge at the bank meetings, the sources said.The term loan is offered with a leveraged covenant.The financing also comprises a €10m six-year revolving credit facility, the sources said.Montagu acquired St Hubert from Dairy Crest for €430m in 2012, backed with a €217m leveraged loan financing from BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Bank of Ireland, Commerzbank, ING Bank, Natixis and UniCredit, according to Thomson Reuters LPC.Set up in 1904, St Hubert reported consolidated net turnover of €129m in the 2016 financial year and has 213 employees. It has more than 40% market share in France and almost 70% in Italy. (Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/st-hubert-leveraged-loans/lpc-st-hubert-270m-buyout-loan-launches-for-syndication-idINL8N1NJ39D'|'2017-11-13T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'5698652dbc41fbf9afbceb71f593621b389dcd73'|'MOVES-LaSalle Investment names Karim Habra head of continental Europe'|' 40 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago MOVES-LaSalle Investment names Karim Habra head of continental Europe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 13 (Reuters) - Real estate investment manager LaSalle Investment Management appointed Karim Habra as head of continental Europe. Habra was previously head of France at LaSalle and will continue to be based in Paris. In his new role, Habra will be responsible for the acquisitions, asset management and fund management teams across continental Europe. LaSalle Investment is owned by real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lasalle-moves-karim-habra/moves-lasalle-investment-names-karim-habra-head-of-continental-europe-idUSL3N1NJ3R1'|'2017-11-13T12:36:00.000+02:00'
'f030b92c44ca1acbb5239eaf99aa5ceca527ae85'|'Brazil''s Grupo Caoa buys 50 pct of automaker Chery''s local operations'|'November 11, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Brazil''s Grupo Caoa buys 50 pct of automaker Chery''s local operations Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Grupo Caoa, Hyundai’s local partner in Brazil, said on Saturday it had bought 50 percent of Chinese automaker Chery’s Brazilian operations, according to a written statement. The statement did not say what the deal was worth. The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported that Caoa had paid $60 million, though it did not say where it got the information from, and Caoa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company, which will be known as Caoa Chery, plans to invest $2 billion in Brazil in the next five years, the statement said. It did not give any further details. Chery has a plant in Sao Paulo state, and the partnership with Caoa means that production for Caoa Chery vehicles will continue there and also take place at Caoa’s plant in Goias. Chery produces three models of cars in Brazil - the New QQ, Celer Hatch and the Celer Sedan. The statement did not provide details on any new models Caoa Chery may develop. (Reporting by Brad Brooks; editing by Clelia Oziel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/caoa-chery-brazil/brazils-grupo-caoa-buys-50-pct-of-automaker-cherys-local-operations-idUSL8N1NH0HZ'|'2017-11-11T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'7b4335785e3653373af750ef69782ba2e4a0a0ff'|'UK industry shines but Brexit still looms over economy'|'November 10, 2017 / 9:38 AM / a minute ago Industry shines in otherwise hazy vista for UK economy Andy Bruce , Alistair Smout 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British industry had its strongest month so far this year in September, but more signs of strain on consumers and a plunge in construction were reminders that the economy looks set for a difficult 2018 as Brexit approaches. Construction cranes are seen by St Paul''s cathedral at dawn in London, Britain, January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The figures published on Friday suggested manufacturing may help to counteract a consumer-led slowdown and offered some vindication to the Bank of England which last week raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years. “Stronger global growth and the effect of the weaker pound seems to be finally showing through in the UK manufacturing numbers,” said ING economist James Smith. The Office for National Statistics also announced a 1.6 percent monthly drop in construction, while separate figures published on Friday showed British shops suffered their worst October for sales in a decade. “Given that manufacturing represents a relatively small share of the UK economy, the persistent weakness in consumer spending is a bigger consideration for the Bank of England,” Smith said. Most economists polled by Reuters think Britain’s economy will slow next year, in large part due to uncertainty created by a lack of progress in talks on the terms of Britain’s divorce from the European Union. But next week’s data on wage growth, inflation and retail sales will offer a more complete picture of an uneven economy around which finance minister Philip Hammond must engineer an annual budget, due on Nov. 22. NO CHANGE TO GDP VIEW The ONS said Friday’s data backed up its preliminary estimate of growth of 0.4 percent in the third quarter, picking up a bit from earlier in 2017 but still slower than the rate in the euro zone. Industrial and manufacturing output shot up by a monthly 0.7 percent in September, the fastest growth for each sector since December last year and above all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, which pointed to a reading of 0.3 percent for both. Industrial output, which includes manufacturing, accounts for 14 percent of Britain’s economic output. Figures for the much bigger services sector are due on Nov. 23. For the third quarter as a whole, there was little change to estimates for industrial, manufacturing and construction output that appeared in the ONS’ preliminary economic growth estimate. Until now, the official readings of manufacturing have tended to show a weaker picture for the sector than upbeat surveys over 2017. Separately, the ONS said Britain’s goods trade deficit narrowed by much more than expected to 11.253 billion pounds in September from 12.350 billion, helped by a rise in exports. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 12.8 billion. That was not enough to prevent a deterioration in Britain’s trade performance in the third quarter, however, which looks likely to be a sizeable drag on economic growth. Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the narrowing of the deficit in September almost entirely reflected an improvement in trade in erratic items. Until now, there has been little sign of any big boost to British exports from the sharp fall in the value of the pound that followed last year’s Brexit vote. Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy/uk-industrial-output-rises-in-sept-at-fastest-pace-this-year-trade-gap-improves-idUKKBN1DA12A'|'2017-11-10T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'fce4cbdd332ba7494b0f4c7c758f523c2965b7dd'|'UPDATE 1-IAC/InterActiveCorp 3rd-qtr profit misses estimates'|'(Reuters) - Media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp ( IAC.O ) reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, as expenses rose.In May, IAC bought consumer review website operator Angie’s List for $500 million, combining Angie’s with its digital home services marketplace business, HomeAdvisor.The closing of the deal, resulted in about $122.9 million in expenses in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.Revenue from Match Group Inc ( MTCH.O ), in which IAC holds a majority stake, accounted for nearly half of IAC’s total revenue of $828.4 million.Analysts on average had expected revenue of $810.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Net earnings attributable to shareholders rose to $179.6 million, or $1.79 per share, in the quarter, from $43.2 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier.Excluding items, IAC reported a profit of 55 cents per share, missing the average analysts’ estimate of 83 cents.IAC’s shares had nearly doubled this year up to Wednesday’s close.Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iac-results/iac-interactivecorp-third-quarter-profit-misses-estimates-idUSKBN1D836P'|'2017-11-09T00:23:00.000+02:00'
'68f27d5467c4745441b7f0246aa57424a7147481'|'OPEC, allies unlikely to delay decision on oil cut extension'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:23 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago OPEC, allies unlikely to delay decision on oil cut extension Rania El Gamal , Maha El Dahan 2 Min Read ABU DHABI (Reuters) - OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers are moving towards deciding at their Nov. 30 meeting whether to extend a global agreement to curb oil supply further into 2018, two ministers said on Monday, a quicker time frame than previously indicated. The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, are cutting output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March in an attempt to eradicate a glut, and are considering extending the deal for longer. Reuters reported last month, citing OPEC sources, that producers were leaning towards prolonging the agreement until the end of 2018, though the decision could be postponed until early next year depending on the market. But United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Monday he saw no need for the decision to be delayed beyond the Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. His Omani counterpart voiced confidence there would be an agreement this month. “I don’t see the need to delay the decision until March ... We are not going to meet in that quarter unless it is extraordinary,” Mazroui said at an energy industry conference. If there is a decision to extend the supply cut it will be until the end of 2018, said the Omani oil minister, Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi, adding that he did not think producers would agree to deepen the curbs. Mazroui, whose country next year holds the rotating OPEC presidency, said that while the UAE backed an extension, he could not say yet whether it would support maintaining the supply cut until the end of 2018. Additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Alex Lawler; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oil-emirates-adipec-decision/opec-allies-unlikely-to-delay-decision-on-oil-cut-extension-idUKKBN1DD123'|'2017-11-13T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'1ce7a0978fcbc0ca67a16d6ec797cd272416de40'|'UAE''s ADNOC to sell at least 10 percent of fuel distribution in IPO'|'November 13, 2017 / 6:33 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago UAE''s ADNOC to sell at least 10 percent of fuel distribution business in IPO Maha El Dahan , Rania El Gamal , Saeed Azhar 3 Min Read ABU DHABI/DUBAI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) aims to sell at least 10 percent of its fuel distribution unit in an initial public offering in Abu Dhabi, as Gulf states step up plans to privatise energy assets in an era of cheap crude. FILE PHOTO - A worker injects a car with fuel at an ADNOC petrol station in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer The listing details came as Saudi Arabia and Oman are also looking to privatise energy assets as low oil prices squeeze revenues. Saudi Arabia plans to list 5 percent of its national oil company Aramco ( IPO-ARMO.SE ) by next year, which Saudi officials say could raise $100 billion (76.21 billion pounds), making it the world’s biggest IPO. At the holding company level, ADNOC will continue to be owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber at an energy conference. “The IPO of ADNOC Distribution represents an important milestone in this new approach and is a natural evolution for the growth and expansion of this exciting retail-focused business,” al-Jaber said. The ADNOC statement confirms a Reuters story in September that said the company could list more than 10 percent of its fuel retail business. The transformation of ADNOC is also seen as part of an economic reform drive led by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. ADNOC produces some 3 million barrels of oil per day, or around 3 percent of global production. It also produces more than 9.8 billion cubic feet of raw gas per day, placing it among the largest energy producers in the world. ADNOC Distribution is the leading fuel distributor in the United Arab Emirates with an approximately 67 percent market share by number of retail fuel service stations, which stood at 360 by end of September. Citigroup ( C.N ), First Abu Dhabi Bank ( FAB.AD ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ) and Bank of Merrill Lynch are joint global coordinators for the offering and also bookrunners alongside EFG Hermes ( HRHO.CA ), Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) Rothschild & Co is the financial adviser.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-adnoc-ipo/uaes-adnoc-to-sell-at-least-10-percent-of-fuel-distribution-in-ipo-idUKKBN1DD0KT'|'2017-11-13T08:32:00.000+02:00'
'b4c5421291725ceaa29dba585962805e0b287312'|'Google faces antitrust investigation in Missouri'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:17 PM / Updated an hour ago Google faces antitrust investigation in Missouri Paresh Dave 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Missouri’s attorney general said Monday his office would investigate whether Alphabet Inc’s Google violated the state’s consumer protection and antitrust laws. FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Josh Hawley, a Republican seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill in next year’s elections, announced at a press conference that he issued an investigative subpoena to Google. He expressed concern over the accuracy of the company’s privacy policy, allegations it misappropriated content from rivals and claims it demoted competitors’ websites in search results. Google said it had not yet received the subpoena. “However, we have strong privacy protections in place for our users and continue to operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment,” spokesperson Andrea Faville said in a statement. Google has come under growing scrutiny globally as it has become a top provider of online search, mobile software and advertising technology. But formal investigations have reached varying results in the last seven years. Attorney generals of 37 states reached a $7 million settlement in 2013 over Google’s unauthorized collection of Wi-Fi data through its Street View digital-mapping cars. A Federal Trade Commission inquiry also prompted Google that year to agree to provide advertisers and patent licensees more flexible terms. The FTC, though, did not bring the stronger antitrust charges that Google rivals such as Microsoft Corp and Yelp Inc sought. States including Ohio, Mississippi and Texas saw inquiries falter without substantive consequences. Missouri’s Hawley said the FTC’s inaction created an opening. “We are going to act to hold corporate giants accountable ... for the good of the people of Missouri,” Hawley said. Asked at the press conference whether his senate candidacy played a role in opening the Google inquiry, Hawley said he acted upon his oath of office and desire “to get to the truth.” He pointed to the European Union fining Google $2.7 billion in June for unfairly favoring links to its own shopping service over those from other e-commerce websites. Hawley said he was moved to act because of concern that Google is engaging in similar behavior domestically. Google is appealing the EU fine. The other issue cited by Hawley may be tied to complaints from Yelp. The business reviews’ website wrote the FTC and the attorney generals of all 50 states in September that Google has copied images from its service without permission in violation of a commitment made to the U.S. antitrust regulator. Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-antitrust/google-faces-antitrust-investigation-in-missouri-idUSKBN1DD2CE'|'2017-11-13T21:16:00.000+02:00'
'68c909026591cd5f654623a625ee701ff6860cd0'|'GE slashes quarterly dividend'|'(Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) said on Monday it would halve its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per share.The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, on May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril This is the third time in its history that the 125-year-old industrial conglomerate has cut its dividend.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ge-review-dividend/ge-slashes-quarterly-dividend-idINKBN1DD1BE'|'2017-11-13T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'752a9e7f5791b96160053e8f624151f3fbe67d21'|'House Democrats seek probe of FCC chairman''s treatment of Sinclair'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. House Democrats on Monday asked the Federal Communications Commission inspector general to probe whether FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is seeking approval of a $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co.Ajit Pai, Chairman of U.S Federal Communications Commission, delivers his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Representatives Frank Pallone and Elijah Cummings cited FCC decisions that benefited Sinclair, the largest U.S. television broadcast group, and a media report last year that the election campaign of President Donald Trump struck a deal with Sinclair for favorable coverage.“All of these actions – when taken in context with reported meetings between the Trump administration, Sinclair, and Chairman Pai’s office – have raised serious concerns about whether Chairman Pai’s actions comply with the FCC’s mandate to be independent,” the pair wrote.Advocacy group Free Press said in an FCC filing in August that Sinclair forces its stations to “air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration.”A spokeswoman for Pai said the “request appears to be part of many Democrats’ attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views ... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless.”Politico, citing unnamed sources, reported in December that Trump’s campaign made a deal with Sinclair to get favorable coverage in exchange for more access to Trump.Sinclair did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, told a congressional committee last month, “All of our media policy decisions seem to be custom-built for this one company.”Sinclair announced plans in May to acquire Tribune’s 42 TV stations in 33 markets as well as cable network WGN America, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households.The FCC is set to vote Thursday on Pai’s plan to eliminate the ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in a major market and make it easier for media companies to buy additional TV stations in the same market. Approval would make it easier for Sinclair to acquire more TV stations.The FCC will also vote Thursday on Pai’s proposal to allow broadcasters to use new technology to improve picture quality and allow better reception on mobile phones, but it could force consumers to eventually buy new equipment.Sinclair holds some patents for the TV technology and Rosenworcel said Sinclair and others could profit.Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-ma/house-democrats-seek-probe-of-fcc-chairmans-treatment-of-sinclair-idINKBN1DD2HP'|'2017-11-13T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'4fef09e254e9cc8d637598c6e53401a6a8380d5b'|'Australia''s Aurizon in talks to buy debt-saddled coal port'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:18 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Australia''s Aurizon in talks to buy debt-saddled coal port Sonali Paul , James Regan 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings ( AZJ.AX ) said on Monday it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt. A purchase would mark a change in strategy under new Chief Executive Andrew Harding for Australia’s largest rail freight operator, which runs nearly 2,700 kms (1,680 miles) of rail lines transporting millions of tonnes of coal a year. A successful deal would also be a relief for mining giant Glencore ( GLEN.L ) and four partners who face a September 2018 deadline to start paying down the debt on the world’s most expensive coal port. “It is strategically sensible for Aurizon to be considering the acquisition of WICET,” said Morgans Stockbroking analyst Nathan Lead. “It’s already providing the rail logistics into the terminal, so an acquisition would be a vertical integration play.” Aurizon said it was in preliminary discussions with undisclosed parties for a deal that would see it acquire the coal terminal, while “other consortium members” would acquire one or more of the coal mines that use the port. Macquarie Group ( MQG.AX ) is another consortium member, the Australian Financial Review reported. Macquarie declined comment. The deal could involve Macquarie buying Glencore’s Rolleston mine and Wesfarmers Ltd’s ( WES.AX ) Curragh mine, both of which use the port and are up for sale, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters. The source declined to be named as talks are confidential. Glencore said in a statement emailed to Reuters that it was seeing “strong interest” from a number of parties for the Rolleston mine. WICET was built to service a consortium of eight coal companies. It was funded entirely by debt backed by port fees on 27 million tonnes of coal a year, whether that volume was shipped or not. The port is exporting much less than that as three of its original eight users have folded, meaning the remaining five partners must shoulder all of the port’s debt and port fees. As a result, they pay about $25 a tonne at WICET - about five times the port fee at the adjacent RG Tanna terminal. One of the aims of the Aurizon deal is to bring down port charges. “Through restructuring and the proposed introduction of lower, market-competitive port charges, there would be incentive for miners to increase throughput at the port,” Aurizon said. If the port is not refinanced by September 2018, loan terms require Glencore and its partners to pay off the full $3 billion over the following decade. Since Harding took over in December after 24 years with Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX ), Aurizon has quit its loss-making freight business, allowing it to focus on coal haulage. Reporting by Sonali Paul and James Regan, additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing Stephen Coates and Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aurizon-m-a-port/australias-aurizon-in-talks-to-buy-debt-saddled-coal-port-idINKBN1DC11S'|'2017-11-12T21:18:00.000+02:00'
'326a26e9d14dbfc289060135971b1a68405416ea'|'New York state regulator fines Credit Suisse $135 mln over forex practices'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:07 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago New York state regulator fines Credit Suisse $135 million over forex practices Karen Freifeld 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG ( CSGN.S ) has agreed to pay $135 million to settle allegations that its foreign exchange traders deceived customers, improperly shared their information and tried to manipulate currency prices, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) said on Monday. The Credit Suisse logo is seen at the headquarters in downtown Milan, Italy, March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini The settlement stems from a DFS investigation that found “unlawful, unsafe and unsound conduct” in the Swiss bank’s forex business from at least 2008 to 2015, the regulator said. In addition to the fine, Credit Suisse will have to improve its controls and compliance, and hire a consultant to review remedial efforts for at least a year, subject to DFS approval. Credit Suisse foreign exchange traders used chat rooms to share confidential customer information, coordinate trades and try to manipulate currencies or benchmark rates, DFS said. Through these communications, the traders were able to trade ahead of clients, or sometimes use a tactic called “building ammo,” with which they coordinated activity to ensure they were not taking positions that would hurt one another, the regulator said. Credit Suisse also used an algorithm offered by its electronic trading platform, eFX, to trade ahead of known client orders, DFS said. In a statement, DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo blamed Credit Suisse executives who “deliberately fostered a corrupt culture that failed to implement effective controls.” DFS’s agreement with Credit Suisse is the latest in a string of global regulatory settlements with big Wall Street banks over forex trading practices since 2015. Rivals including Citigroup Inc ( C.N ), JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ), Barclays PLC ( BARC.L ), UBS AG ( UBSG.S ) and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC ( RBS.L ) have collectively paid $10 billion to settle allegations by U.S. and European authorities that their forex traders coordinated to cheat clients and boost their own profits. Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-credit-suisse-gp-forex-settlement/new-york-state-regulator-fines-credit-suisse-135-million-over-forex-practices-idUSKBN1DD2AY'|'2017-11-13T21:00:00.000+02:00'
'27536a329efa5442747bba34a33ad69701308445'|'Banco Santander plans to lay off 2,000 workers due to Popular integration -union'|'November 8, 2017 / 12:48 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Banco Santander plans to lay off 2,000 workers due to Popular integration -union Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s biggest bank Banco Santander ( SAN.MC ) plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees due to the integration of Banco Popular, which it acquired in June, a union official said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past Santander bank branch in Rio de Janeiro October 7, 2009. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes/File Photo The official said the Comisiones Obreras union, one of Santander’s largest, wanted the bank to find jobs for 575 of the employees at the company’s other units. Representatives for Santander were not immediately available to comment. Reporting By Jesús Aguado; Editing by Angus Berwick'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-santander-layoffs/banco-santander-plans-to-lay-off-2000-workers-due-to-popular-integration-union-idUKKBN1D81NQ'|'2017-11-08T14:47:00.000+02:00'
'dc4909b0d7be968c00471a3a650eb5047406c5ee'|'Snapchat launches redesign as growth disappoints Wall Street'|'November 7, 2017 / 9:24 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Snapchat launches redesign as growth disappoints Wall Street David Ingram , Pushkala Aripaka 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ) is redesigning its disappearing-message app Snapchat in an attempt to reach a broader audience, going back to the drawing board as Wall Street clobbered it for another quarter of slowing user growth. The Snapchat app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The Venice, California-based firm, whose March stock market debut was the hottest of any tech stock in years, reported revenue and user growth for the third quarter well below Wall Street expectations as it struggles to compete with Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) Instagram. Snap’s shares tumbled as much as 20 percent in after-hours trading, before paring losses to trade at $12.57. Snap went public at a price of $17 a share. Snap has disappointed investors each quarter of its brief existence as a public company. User growth in the last three months was well below what investment analysts expected. Daily active users rose to 178 million in the third quarter from 173 million in the second quarter. Analysts had expected 181.8 million, according to research firm FactSet. Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said the company was launching the redesign after hearing for years that Snapchat was difficult to understand or hard to use. “We are going to make it easier to discover the vast quantity of content on our platform that goes undiscovered or unseen every day,” Spiegel told analysts on a conference call. The 27-year-old CEO said there was a “strong likelihood” the redesign would be disruptive in the short term, but said Snap was willing to take the risk for long-term gain. Such a radical change so soon after an IPO is unusual. Snap is not the only social media company looking to revive growth by changing its look. Microblogging service Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ) said on Tuesday it would roll out 280-character tweets to users across the world, double the length of its iconic 140-character tweets. Asked on the analyst call what Snapchat’s redesign would look like, Spiegel said the company had been studying the evolution of mobile content feeds such as Twitter streams and the Facebook News Feed and saw room for a “personalized content service.” Spiegel said the company next year would also build more tools for people to share with broad audiences beyond their friends, the type of public broadcasting common on Instagram and Twitter. “It seems like a significant amount of change in a short period of time,” analyst Rich Greenfield of BTIG told Spiegel on the call. He asked what led to the shifts. Spiegel said Snap needed to evolve rapidly. “We’re just not afraid to make changes in the long-term interest of the business,” he said. REVENUE MISS Snaps’s third-quarter revenue, the bulk of which comes from advertisements, rose to $207.9 million from $128.2 million. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $236.9 million. Average revenue per user rose to $1.17 in the quarter, from 84 cents a year earlier, but missed analysts’ average estimate of $1.30. Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan said revenue was affected by a shift towards a software-based auction system for selling ads - a method employed by Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google - which has driven down the average price. The auction system hit revenue in the short term but “builds the foundation for long-term scalable revenue,” Khan said in written remarks. He said Snap more than tripled revenue from small- and medium-sized businesses in the third quarter compared with the first half of the year. Snap is far behind Facebook and Google in making its ad system accessible to small businesses and should move faster, said Greg Portell, a consultant at A.T. Kearney. “I think they spent a little too much time being different,” Portell said. Snap recorded a $39.9 million charge in the quarter related to excess inventory of its “Spectacles,” sunglasses with a built-in camera. INVESTORS SOUR Snap posted a net loss of $443.2 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $124.2 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. Wall Street had expected a loss of 32 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Snapchat, popular among millennials for the bunny faces and floral tiaras that can be added to pictures, allows users to chat through a series of disappearing photos and videos. Users can also post images and videos as “stories” - ephemeral posts that can be viewed in chronological order and disappear after 24 hours. Before the quarterly release, Snap’s share price was already down 39 percent from its close on March 2, its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Facebook’s shares were up 32 percent over that time. Facebook’s Instagram said in September that it had 500 million daily active users. Last week Facebook said that Instagram Stories - a replica of Snapchat’s synonymous feature - had 300 million daily users. Reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Bill Rigby and Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-snap-results/snap-reports-lower-than-expected-daily-active-users-in-q3-idUKKBN1D72YK'|'2017-11-08T03:13:00.000+02:00'
'ecbc2eb3746f2f1742153eaa0467f3df203476b1'|'Venezuela crude output hits 28-year low - OPEC'|'November 13, 2017 / 3:57 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Venezuela crude output hits 28-year low - OPEC Reuters Staff 3 Min Read CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil-dependent Venezuela’s crude output dipped last month below 2 million barrels per day, its lowest level in nearly three decades, global producer group OPEC said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of the state oil company PDVSA is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares/File Photo The output fall could not come at a worse time, with the economy in crisis and the socialist government struggling to pay its foreign debt. The government opens talks on Monday with creditors to renegotiate its debt and avert a default that would plunge its economy into deeper trouble. Compounding the situation, another eight managers and employees of state oil company PDVSA in eastern Venezuela were arrested in recent days for fiddling production figures, chief prosecutor Tarek Saab told reporters. In a major corruption sweep engulfing the oil sector, about two dozen high-level executives have already been arrested in recent weeks, ridding PDVSA of much of its top brass. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ latest monthly data showed Venezuela reporting production of 1.955 million bpd in October, versus 2.085 million in September. The figure was even lower based on secondary sources rather than what the government reports, at 1.863 million bpd in October, according to OPEC. Venezuela depends on oil for more than 95 percent of hard currency export revenues, fuelling both social welfare programs and payment on some $60 billion of outstanding bonds. PDVSA is the financial motor for President Nicolas Maduro’s government, but has been suffering from the oil price drop, crippling operational problems, and internal corruption. Houston-based Latin American oil expert Francisco Monaldi said the latest monthly drop in Venezuela’s oil production was “really extraordinary” and would likely only get worse. “If we extrapolate to annual numbers, we’d be talking about a similar impact to what we saw during the 2002-03 strike,” he said, referring to turbulent industrial action that hit the sector during the rule of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez. Even though OPEC does not publish historical data on output reported by members as far back as the 1980s, the last time Venezuela produced less than 2 million bpd was in 1989 according to Oil Ministry figures. Venezuela’s annual oil output was 2.373 million bpd in 2016 and 2.654 million in 2015, according to the data it gives OPEC. Monaldi said the sector’s key indicators - such as numbers of active rigs, exports, and crude quality - were all deteriorating at an “alarming” rate. Next year could see another 10 percent fall in production, he said in an interview. “And all of this when the country is trying to restructure its foreign debt and faces U.S. sanctions,” he added, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s measures aimed at preventing the Maduro government from contracting new debt. Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Marianna Parraga and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-oil/venezuela-oil-output-hits-28-year-low-opec-idUKKBN1DD1Z2'|'2017-11-13T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'7ab356a06cd575a58a44301e764303ffe2c40aa5'|'Greece to distribute 1.4 bln euros to the crisis-hit, following fiscal outperformance'|'ATHENS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday that his government would distribute 1.4 billion euros to 3.4 million austerity-hit Greeks, following a better than expected fiscal performance.Tsipras said in a televised statement that Greece had outpeformed its bailout target for a primary surplus - excluding debt servicing costs - of 1.75 percent of gross output in 2017 and its performance “was surprisingly good”.“For a second year, we are in a position to distribute a social dividend to the people who need it most. Better prepared and more effective this year, we will be able to pay out an even bigger amount,” he said.Greece paid out about 600 million euros to pensioners in 2016. (Reporting by Renee Maltezou) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-greece-pm/greece-to-distribute-1-4-bln-euros-to-the-crisis-hit-following-fiscal-outperformance-idINA8N1HS00A'|'2017-11-13T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'33bf836a80646d94b6859ab01e37e44c93e81f3f'|'Bombardier in talks with EgyptAir for $1.1 billion CSeries deal - Bloomberg'|'November 13, 2017 / 8:58 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Bombardier in talks with EgyptAir for $1.1 billion CSeries deal: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Canadian plane-and-train-maker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) is in advanced talks with EgyptAir over a potential $1.1 billion order for CSeries jets, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A Bombardier CSeries aircraft is pictured during a news conference to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the C Series aircraft programme, in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The deal is likely to include a firm order for 12 CS300 jets, and could be announced as early as Tuesday at the Dubai Air Show, according to the report. ( bloom.bg/2iSDNU1 ) European planemaker Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) recently agreed to take a majority stake in the CSeries program, in exchange for Airbus’s purchasing and marketing power and support for the aircraft that had few orders due to doubts over its future. Bombardier said, earlier this month, that it received a letter of intent from an unnamed European customer for 31 firm CSeries orders. Bombardier did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bombardier-egyptair/bombardier-in-talks-with-egyptair-for-1-1-billion-cseries-deal-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DD2L5'|'2017-11-13T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'12708da740c6e8ad57bfb1f6f1e0fbf92b2982b2'|'UK bookmaker Ladbrokes revenue rises helped by online trading'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:35 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago UK bookmaker Ladbrokes revenue rises helped by online trading Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s largest bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral Group ( LCL.L ) reported a 3 percent rise in net revenue on Monday driven by strong trading online. The group, created by the merger of Ladbrokes and Gala Coral last year, said digital net revenue rose 12 percent in the period from July 1 to October 29, with sportsbook net revenue increasing 18 percent. Ladbrokes Coral said group net revenue rose 3 percent versus a fall of 2 percent in the second quarter. The company said its performance for the year remains in line with expectations. Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ladbrokes-coral-outlook/uk-bookmaker-ladbrokes-revenue-rises-helped-by-online-trading-idUKKBN1DD0PZ'|'2017-11-13T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'cd89e6d4c04c78769fa56b9be121a8058b0f5e5e'|'Russia''s Cherkizovo to drop London listing, considers Moscow offer'|' 26 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Russia''s Cherkizovo to drop London listing, considers Moscow offer Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Cherkizovo ( GCHE.MM ) ( CHEq.L ), Russia’s biggest meat producer, has decided to cancel its London listing due to low trading since February and has decided to consolidate its free-float and trading in its shares in Moscow, it said. A man walks past a Russian meat company Cherkizovo sign at the Tambov Turkey facility, a joint venture between Cherkizovo and Spanish agricultural holding company Grupo Fuertes, outside Tambov, Russia May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov “In the context of its new capital markets strategy, the company is also evaluating a range of alternatives available to it, including a potential equity offering of ordinary shares on the Moscow Exchange,” it added in a statement. Reporting by Polina DevittEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-cherkizovo-delisting/russias-cherkizovo-to-drop-london-listing-considers-moscow-offer-idUKKBN1DE2E0'|'2017-11-14T19:25:00.000+02:00'
'2e6afd35c7185213560422d09798fd42d913e99c'|'Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero: source'|'(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc has written down to zero the value of its stake in the Weinstein Company, the movie studio whose co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of the Sydney offices of Goldman Sachs in Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Goldman Sachs’ move comes as the Weinstein Company looks for fresh financing after more than 50 women claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades.Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.Last month, Goldman Sachs said it was trying to find a buyer for its stake in the Weinstein Company. A Goldman Sachs spokesman had said at the time that the bank valued the stake at less than $1 million.The source did not disclose how much of the Weinstein Company Goldman Sachs owns, but described the stake as small. He asked not to be identified because the bank has not publicly released its latest valuation.A Weinstein Company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.One of the Weinstein Company’s lenders, AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, filed a lawsuit last Friday in New York State Supreme Court demanding immediate repayment of its approximately $44 million loan.Referring to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, AI International stated in court papers that his actions and his departure from the company have “left [the business] in shambles,” and “exposed to potentially massive liabilities [that] have severely, if not fatally, damaged its standing in the marketplace.”A spokeswoman for Harvey Weinstein declined to comment.The Weinstein Company’s other lenders include Bank of America and MUFG Union Bank N.A., according to the lawsuit. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The Weinstein Company’s board of directors has been receiving advice from investment bank Moelis & Co on its efforts to raise cash, including by potentially selling assets and finding a rescue loan, sources have previously told Reuters. A Moelis spokeswoman declined to comment.Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal last week, according to another person familiar with the matter. Fortress would consider providing Weinstein Co with funding to help it through a bankruptcy process, if it came to that, the person said.A Fortress spokesman declined to comment.The Weinstein Company’s lenders have hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc for financial advice in a potential restructuring, a source close to that situation said.The Weinstein Co has been one of Hollywood’s most influential forces since its launch in October 2005 and has produced and distributed films including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; editing by Ben Klayman and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weinsteincompany-goldman/goldman-sachs-marks-stake-in-weinstein-co-down-to-zero-source-idUSKBN1DE021'|'2017-11-14T02:39:00.000+02:00'
'0861c63af78e2f13027b4c1e3c2dadc5445f1546'|'Morning News Call - India, November 10'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 08:30 am: Aurobindo Pharma post-earnings analyst conference call in Mumbai. 09:15 am: Mahindra Logistics lists on stock exchanges in Mumbai. 10:00 am: Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council meets in New Delhi. 10:30 am: Auto association body SIAM to brief details of October auto sales data in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Ashoka Buildcon Q2 post-earnings conference call in in Mumbai. 12:30 pm: State Bank of India Q2 post-earnings conference call in Mumbai. 01:00 pm: Bank of India Q2 post-earnings press conference in Mumbai. 01:45 pm: Allahabad Bank earnings press conference in Kolkata. 03:00 pm: Mahindra & Mahindra Q2 post-earnings press conference in Mumbai. 03:00 pm: Skill Development and Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan delivers keynote address at FICCI’s Private Security Industry Conclave 2017 in New Delhi. 04:30 pm: Federal cabinet likely to meet, agenda not known in New Delhi. 05:00 pm: RBI releases weekly forex reserves data in Mumbai. 05:30 pm: Government to release September Industrial output data in New Delhi. 06:00 pm: Hindustan Copper earnings briefing in Kolkata. LIVE CHAT- QUIZ EAST The first of our Friday quizzes focuses on Asia and the week''s top news.Tests your wits and googling speed at 11:00 am IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Steel Authority of India posts 10th straight quarterly loss Steel Authority of India Ltd posted a narrower second-quarter loss on Thursday, the tenth straight loss in a row. • HDFC Life''s $1.3 billion Indian IPO nearly five times subscribed HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd''s initial public offering was subscribed 4.9 times on the last day of the sale on Thursday, in what was the fourth billion dollar-plus IPO in India this year. • Tata Motors'' Q2 profits boosted by rise in Jaguar Land Rover sales India''s Tata Motors reported a sharp rise in second-quarter profits on Thursday, helped by higher sales of its Jaguar and Land Rover cars, but warned of challenges ahead for its flagship British subsidiary. • India gold demand seen falling to lowest in 8 years in 2017 -WGC India''s gold consumption is likely to drop to its lowest in eight years in 2017, hit by government moves to make bullion trading more transparent and by faltering demand from some rural areas, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday. • Aurobindo Pharma Q2 profit rises 29 percent, beats estimates India''s Aurobindo Pharma Ltd posted a better-than-expected 29 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by higher sales at its formulations business in the United States. • India''s Jindal Steel & Power Q2 loss narrows Jindal Steel and Power Ltd reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, helped by higher revenue from its iron and steel business. • India''s Hindustan Petroleum Q2 profit more than doubles, but misses estimates State-owned oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd''s second-quarter net profit more than doubled, but fell short of analysts'' estimates. • India''s Petronet LNG turns focus to poorly supplied east coast India''s biggest gas importer Petronet LNG Ltd wants to build up its liquefied natural gas (LNG) regassification capacity in the east of the country where supply is limited, after focussing till now on the west, the CEO said on Thursday. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Dueling Republican tax plans advance in U.S. Congress U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a tax plan on Thursday that differed from the House of Representatives'' version on several key fronts, including how they treat the corporate tax rate, the tax deduction for state and local taxes, and the estate tax. • Toshiba considering $5.3 billion capital injection - source Toshiba Corp, desperate for cash to avoid a possible delisting, is considering raising about 600 billion yen by offering new shares in a third-party allotment, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. • Trump''s CNN attacks may hobble legal case to block AT&T-Time Warner deal U.S. President Donald Trump''s broadsides against cable network CNN may complicate the U.S. government''s legal case if it decides to block AT&T''s deal to buy media company Time Warner, according to legal experts. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,322.00, trading down 0.5 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are expected to edge higher in early trade after the government announced a buyback of notes next week, raising hopes that such purchases will help offset the supply of fresh papers. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 6.90 percent-6.95 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open lower against the dollar, as gains in crude oil prices dent sentiment for the local assets, even as the greenback fell overnight amid uncertainty over a potential delay in U.S. tax reforms. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street stocks dropped on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Microsoft and other technology issues, as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay expected corporate tax cuts. • Asian shares slipped on uncertainty about U.S. tax reforms after Senate Republicans unveiled a plan that differed from the House of Representatives'' version in several key areas, including a delay in the timing of a corporate tax cut. • The dollar licked its wounds, on track for weekly losses after dropping on disappointment with a tax bill put forth by U.S. Senate Republicans that would delay expected corporate tax cuts. • U.S. Treasury yields rose on Thursday, with 10-year yields bouncing from near three-week lows, due to this week''s government and corporate debt supply which was partly offset by concerns about the passage of a federal tax plan • Oil markets were little changed, supported by ongoing supply cuts and strong demand, although the prospect of rising U.S. shale output capped prices around recent gains. • Gold inched up, holding near a three-week high amid uncertainty over U.S. tax reforms, and was on track for its first weekly rise in a month. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.94/64.97 November 9 -- -$248.38 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.03pct Month-to-date $1.61 bln -$494.51 mln Year-to-date $7.26bln $25.45bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.9700 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Nachiket Tekawade in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-10-idINL3N1NG1SG'|'2017-11-10T00:28:00.000+02:00'
'79160497743ec42de2e2f2954701c7e9216db110'|'Oil markets stable, but analysts expect high volatility ahead'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:37 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Oil markets stable, but analysts expect high volatility ahead Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets were stable on Friday, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC and Russia as well as by strong demand, although the prospect of rising U.S. shale output capped prices around recent gains. A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude futures were at $63.84 per barrel at 0120 GMT, down 9 cents from their last close, but still near a more than two-year high of $64.65 a barrel reached earlier this week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $57.05 per barrel, down 12 cents but also still close to this week’s more than two-year peak of $57.92 a barrel. Analysts said that the high prices were a result of efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold supplies to tighten the market, as well as strong demand and rising political tensions. “Oil prices have rallied sharply over the past week ... The latest catalyst for this move higher was the sharp rise in geopolitical tensions last weekend, with growing confidence in an OPEC extension and strong oil demand fueling the rally previously,” said U.S. bank Goldman Sachs. Goldman warned of greater price volatility ahead due to increasing tensions in the Middle East, especially between OPEC fellows but political arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, along with soaring U.S. oil production. “We see potential for high spot price volatility in the coming weeks,” Goldman said. “A rise in the U.S. rig count and a non-committal OPEC meeting would push prices lower, in our view, yet additional escalation of recent geopolitical tensions could lead to another large rally,” it added. ANZ bank said that “political stability was jolted awake this week” in the Middle East. “While the likelihood of a disruption to (oil) supply remains low, we believe the events raise the probability of Saudi Arabia taking a more aggressive stance on production curbs. In fact, the risks now lie towards curbs remaining in place longer than expected. As such, we see oil prices remaining well supported in the short term,” ANZ said. OPEC is due to discuss output policy during a meeting on Nov. 30, and it is expected the group will extend the cuts beyond the current expiry date in March 2018. “Recent OPEC communication suggests that an extension will be announced but there are no details on volumes,” Goldman said. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-stable-but-analysts-expect-high-volatility-ahead-idUKKBN1DA05F'|'2017-11-10T03:35:00.000+02:00'
'edde75ca6a3187303923e2b642a93660b2dc968d'|'Black Sea wheat shipments to India threatened by import tax hike'|' 28 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Black Sea wheat shipments to India threatened by import tax hike Pavel Polityuk , Rajendra Jadhav , Polina Devitt 4 Min Read KIEV/MUMBAI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - India’s decision to raise its wheat and peas import tax will reduce the flow of wheat shipments from the main Black Sea producers Ukraine and Russia and has already hit the Russian market for peas, traders and analysts said. A wheat field is pictured near the village of Zhovtneve, Ukraine, July 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko India has doubled its import tax on wheat to 20 percent on Wednesday, as the world’s second biggest producer tries to rein in imports to support local prices. The move is a significant blow for Ukraine, India’s largest supplier, and there are concerns that Kiev will now need to cut prices to compete more fiercely in other markets which could be bad news for rivals such as Russia and the European Union. “Twenty percent is basically a prohibitive tariff, and we are likely to leave the (Indian) market,” Yelizaveta Malyshko at UkrAgoConsult consultancy said. The tax hike by India will reduce Ukraine’s wheat supplies to the country this season to about 1 million tonnes from the previously expected 1.5 million-1.6 million tonnes, a trader in Ukraine said. Ukraine exported a total of 5.8 million tonnes of wheat in July-September, of which 360,000 tonnes went to India. INDIA‘S BUMPER CROP IN 2018 India imports wheat mainly from Ukraine, Australia, Bulgaria and Russia, and its supply and demand balance along with good prospects for the next year show that the decision on the wheat import tax is unlikely to be short-lived. “As monsoon rainfall was good in northern India, we are expecting another bumper crop in 2018,” said an official with state-run Food Corporation of India. India had imported 5.75 million tonnes of wheat in the 2016/17 fiscal year ended on March, the highest since the 2006/07 season. Wheat stocks with government agencies stood at 23.9 million tonnes as on Nov. 1, up 27 percent from a year ago. “Supplies situation is very much comfortable now. Local crop can easily fulfil demand. That’s why government wants to restrict import and support farmers,” said Harish Galipelli at Inditrade Derivatives & Commodities. Indian farmers have started sowing new season wheat that will be ready for harvesting from March. India’s wheat production rose to a record 98 million tonnes in 2017 after poor crops in 2015 and 2016. “The duty hike has erased import parity. Imports from Ukraine or Australia have become expensive,” said a dealer in Mumbai. IMPORT TAX ON PEAS For Russian wheat, India is a small market with supplies of 56,900 tonnes in July-September. However, there is a risk that Kiev will have to decrease its wheat prices due to the partial loss of the Indian market, increasing pressure on the Black Sea prices, said Vladimir Petrichenko at ProZerno consultancy. Russia is expected to be affected more by India’s decision to impose a 50 percent import tax on peas, announced also on Wednesday, as prices of pulses fell below the government-set support level in the local market. Russia had exported 550,000 tonnes of peas since the start of the season on July 1, of which 27 percent were supplied to India, Dmitry Rylko at the IKAR consultancy said. India is the second largest market for Russian peas after Turkey, and the duty hike has already hit the Russian market, a Russia-focused trader said. “Nobody knows where to sell their (Russian) peas now and there are not too many options. A week ago, I saw bids at $230-240 per tonne, now they are at $180,” the trader said. According to the trader, Russian farmers will reduce their area under pea sowings in spring if the Indian import duty is not removed in the coming months. Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai and Polina Devitt in Moscow; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Maria Kiselyova and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/blacksea-exports-india/black-sea-wheat-shipments-to-india-threatened-by-import-tax-hike-idINKBN1DA1DB'|'2017-11-10T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'a3004ba1a5fd9e022af72cf35c3abbcfd2f46d18'|'UK retailers slump to worst October in a decade - BDO survey'|'November 10, 2017 / 9:11 AM / Updated 3 hours ago UK retailers slump to worst October in a decade - BDO survey Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shops suffered their worst October for sales in a decade, a survey showed on Friday, adding to signs of weakening consumer spending even before interest rates were raised last week. FILE PHOTO - Shoppers are reflected in a window as they walk along Oxford Street in London, Britain July 9, 2016. Picture taken July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK consumers’ spending power is being squeezed as inflation rises and wage growth falters. Last week, the Bank of England raised borrowing costs for the first time in a decade. Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO said its monthly High Street Sales Tracker (HSST) found like-for-like sales fell 5.2 percent in October year-on-year -- the largest drop ever recorded by the survey. It said fashion sales slumped 7.9 percent, hurt by an unusually warm month, while homewares were down 0.5 percent. “As wage increases continue to be outstripped by higher inflation, and with the (now real) anticipation of higher mortgage payments, then it comes as little surprise that people are tightening their belts prior to the anticipated Christmas expenditure,” said BDO. The BDO data chimes with other recent surveys from the British Retail Consortium and the Confederation of British Industry. Department store chain John Lewis posted six straight weeks of sales declines, while clothing retailer Next ( NXT.L ) missed analysts’ quarterly forecasts. Reporting by James Davey; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-retail/uk-retailers-slump-to-worst-october-in-a-decade-bdo-survey-idUKKBN1DA0Z9'|'2017-11-10T11:13:00.000+02:00'
'7c841a76170fdab29afa97228414926514e89c26'|'Middle East tensions loom over Dubai aerospace pageant'|' 43 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Middle East tensions loom over Dubai aerospace pageant Alexander Cornwell , Tim Hepher 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Rising Middle East tensions and a corruption crackdown in Saudi Arabia will cast a shadow over next week’s Dubai Airshow, as military and aerospace leaders try to gauge whether they might prolong a weapons-buying spree in the region. FILE PHOTO: Al Fursan, the UAE Air Force performs during Dubai Airshow November 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo Fraying business confidence since the summer, when a sudden rift emerged between Arab powers, means the recent rapid growth of major Gulf airlines will also be under scrutiny when the Middle East’s largest industry showcase opens on Sunday. The biennial gathering has produced a frenzy of deals in the past, especially four years ago when Dubai’s Emirates and Qatar Airways opened the show with a display of unity as they unveiled a headline-grabbing order for passenger jets. But highlighting the current rift between Qatar and Arab nations including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar Airways’ outspoken chief executive will not be at the show, which has also been overshadowed by political upheaval in Saudi Arabia. Distrust between Arab Gulf states, on top of escalating tensions between regional arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, is likely to keep defence spending high on the agenda at the Nov 12-16 event, to be attended by dozens of military delegates. Saudi Arabia and allies are exploring increases in missile defences following ballistic missile tests in Iran, which have been heavily criticised by Saudi Arabia and the United States. Iran views its ballistic missile programme as an essential precautionary defence. “The hot area for the Middle East has been air defence,” said Sash Tusa, aerospace analyst at UK-based Agency Partners. “While the issue of Iran’s missile tests is new, demand from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia already reflects the fact that they have been at war, in some cases on two fronts, for over two years.” Saudi Arabia and Iran are facing off in proxy wars in Yemen and Syria. Saudi Arabia, which recently committed to tens of billions of dollars of U.S. equipment, says it has intercepted a missile fired from Yemen over Saudi capital Riyadh. SAUDI CRACKDOWN Few defence deals get signed at the show itself, but it is seen as a major opportunity to test the mood of arms buyers and their mainly Western suppliers. But analysts say the way of doing business is up for discussion after an unprecedented crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia that erupted days before the show’s opening. “The big question on many multinational company minds now ... {is} will they will change the way in which decision making works when it comes to purchases of their equipment and services,” said Sorana Parvulescu, partner at Control Risks in Dubai. Those detained in the crackdown include billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose Kingdom Holding part owns Saudi Arabia’s second biggest airline flynas, and Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, head of the country’s elite internal security forces. “There will be questions around how does this impact their (foreign firms) model of operations in the country and their market share and their market position,” Parvulescu said. Airbus and Boeing will be pushing hard for new deals on the civil side of the show at Dubai’s future mega-airport, after a pause for breath at the last edition in 2015. Boeing goes into the event with a wide lead in this year’s order race. Emirates, the region’s biggest carrier, is expected to finalise an additional order for Airbus A380s, which if secured could be crucial to extending the costly superjumbo programme. After years of expansion, some analysts are questioning the viability of the Gulf hub model, which has seen three airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways, emerge as some of the world’s most influential after taking advantage of their geographic location of connecting east and west. Leasing executives have also raised doubts over whether the Big Three will take delivery of all of the more than 500 wide-body jets currently on order from Airbus and Boeing. In September, Middle Eastern carriers saw their slowest rate of international demand growth in over eight years. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Tim Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/middle-east-tensions-loom-over-dubai-aerospace-pageant-idINKBN1DA1R6'|'2017-11-10T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'1e9b47bf47d426a03cb539c655521210a7a7c351'|'China''s JD.com, Alibaba rival, reports $19.1 billion in shopping event sales'|'November 12, 2017 / 12:06 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago China''s JD.com, Alibaba rival, reports $19.1 billion in shopping event sales Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - JD.com, China’s e-commerce behemoth, said on Sunday that sales for Singles’ Day - and its run-up - reached 127.1 billion yuan ($19.14 billion), up 50 percent from a year ago. FILE PHOTO - A sign of China''s e-commerce company JD.com is seen at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Asia 2016 in Shanghai, China, May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Sales included 11 days of transactions, JD said in a statement, unlike its rival Alibaba, which reported on Saturday that its one-day sales reached 168.3 billion yuan ($25.35 billion), up 39 percent from last year. Singles’ Day, an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that takes place in China on Nov. 11, has emerged as the world’s biggest shopping event. It exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States. JD started its sales event on Nov. 1, to reduce delivery bottlenecks and to give users more time to make their purchasing decisions, it said. Fresh foods and cosmetics were some of the online retailer’s biggest movers, with JD selling 500,000 Thailand black tiger shrimp and 55 million facial masks over the period. The company also said it sold 500 million yuan in air conditioners over a 30-minute period, and 100 million yuan in televisions over a one-minute period. Reporting By Matthew Miller, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-singles-day-jd-com/chinas-jd-com-alibaba-rival-reports-19-1-billion-in-shopping-event-sales-idUKKBN1DC0H9'|'2017-11-12T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'7ea332ed2990ebf3dd70daf292828e1fd31dfe82'|'UPDATE 1-Bradesco expects companies to raise up to $4.5 bln by year-end'|'(Adds CEO comments, background)By Tatiana BautzerNEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Banco Bradesco SA expects Brazilian companies to raise up to 15 billion reais ($4.5 billion) in new share offerings by year-end as Latin America’s largest economy continues to recover.Firms already have raised around 39 billion reais so far in 2017, executive director Renato Ejnisman said, as signs of newfound economic strength, global demand for emerging-market assets and government austerity efforts have lifted the nation’s benchmark stock index to all-time highs.Companies are now increasingly using proceeds of their share offerings to fund investments and expand capacity, instead of repaying debt, Ejnisman said, a sign that the economic recovery may be stepping up a notch.Bradesco is hosting its seventh annual CEO Forum in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, which brings together senior executives from 90 Latin American companies with around 300 investors.Ejnisman said some companies are rushing ahead with their listings in order to avoid market volatility that is likely to spike ahead of the Brazil’s presidential elections in October 2018.Bankers and fund managers had told Reuters that could make the third week of December the busiest for IPOs in four years as several companies push ahead with their listings before the year-end holidays.Investor interest in Brazilian assets could remain strong through next year if there is a clear sign that Brazil’s next president will commit to fiscal discipline and market-friendly policies, Bradesco executives said.Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi said investors are clearly more optimistic towards Brazil in spite of electoral uncertainty.“I think Brazilian society will choose a candidate committed to an agenda of fiscal discipline,” Trabuco told reporters on the sidelines of the event.Trabuco, who is also Bradesco’s chairman, will chose his successor as CEO before a shareholders assembly in March 2018. His pick from a group of seven vice-presidents will be tasked with increasing the bank’s efficiency in a bid to maintain profitability amid falling interest rates.$1 = 3.3034 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brazil-ceos-banco-bradesco/update-1-bradesco-expects-companies-to-raise-up-to-4-5-bln-by-year-end-idINL1N1NK1LB'|'2017-11-14T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'bf8e0800a67cf8be942bf6d6f8c29b9c615bbc7c'|'Scout24 targets faster growth after fixing property platform'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:07 PM / in 2 hours Scout24 targets faster growth after fixing property platform Reuters Staff * CEO targets revenue and profit growth in mid-teen percentages * On lookout for real estate deal in the Netherlands * Says Germany is in a “controlled, structural” property boom By Douglas Busvine FRANKFURT, Nov 14 (Reuters) - German online property and autos marketplace Scout24 is fixing glitches on its real estate platform and is on the lookout for acquisitions to boost revenue and profit growth, Chief Executive Greg Ellis told Reuters. Scout24 last week reported third-quarter core profits from operating activities up nearly 8 percent, driven by a 27 percent increase at its AutoScout24 division, but its property site ImmobilienScout24 posted a gain of less than 4 percent. Addressing inherited problems with the acquired property platform has delayed its growth push by about 18 months, Ellis said in a telephone interview. “At ImmobilienScout24 we have been doing so much product, technical and business re-engineering during the past two years,” he said. “Somewhere from 2019 to 2020 we’d be really wanting the group revenue (growth) to be up towards the mid-teens.” Frankfurt-listed Scout24 competes with units of Axel Springer and eBay as real estate sale and rental markets increasingly move online, along with sales of new and used cars. The company sees opportunities for an additional 20 billion euros ($23 billion) of business from activities including services such as financing. STRUCTURAL BOOM Scout24, with a market value of 3.6 billion euros, is part of Germany’s SDAX small-cap index but has an unusually high free float of 87 percent after strategic investors such as Deutsche Telekom sold their stakes. It operates in five core markets -- Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria -- and has chunky core margins of more than 50 percent, enabling it to invest and pounce on opportunistic acquisitions. Ellis, an Australian who joined Scout24 from REA Group in 2014, said he would be interested in a real-estate acquisition in the Netherlands after its recently acquired autos product became the market leader there. “We certainly think we’ve got fill-in acquisitions ahead of us,” he said. The company is testing analytics on its German autos platform, which would give users detailed guidance on whether a vehicle offers value for money based on parameters such as mileage, condition and other specifications. “We’d like some of this stuff to become available progressively through 2018,” he said. Ellis said the new car market Germany had taken a hit from the “Dieselgate” scandal in which manufacturers had been caught cheating on emissions tests, but the second-hand market has changed little in the past few years. Germany’s real estate market, meanwhile, is in a “controlled, structural boom”, he said, helped by accelerating urbanisation and growing desire among Germans for owning their own homes rather than renting. “You can borrow money in Germany at something from 1.5-2.5 percent fixed for 15 to 20 years, (so) it really doesn’t make sense to rent,” he said. “Germans now understand that property is really affordable.” ($1 = 0.8576 euros) (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by David Goodman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/scout24-strategy/scout24-targets-faster-growth-after-fixing-property-platform-idUSL3N1NJ54V'|'2017-11-14T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'57feada944230d69751d9b1141d1088aedabb9da'|'Exclusive: Carlyle explores sale or IPO of Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics - sources'|'November 10, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Carlyle explores sale or IPO of Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics - sources Greg Roumeliotis , Carl O''Donnell 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP is exploring a sale or initial public offering of Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc, a U.S. diagnostics company that could be valued at more than $7 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: A general view of the lobby outside of the Carlyle Group offices in Washington, U.S. May 3, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo A divestment of Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, which Carlyle acquired from Johnson & Johnson in 2014 for $4 billion, would show how buyout firms can turn unloved businesses of major corporations into lucrative investments within a few years. Carlyle has hired investment banks to run a sale process for Ortho-Clinical, the sources said this week. Carlyle may also pursue an IPO of the company if the offers it receives do not meet valuation expectations, the sources added. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Carlyle declined to comment. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics did not respond to a request for comment. Headquartered in Raritan, New Jersey, Ortho-Clinical produces in-vitro diagnostics equipment and associated assays and reagents. It generates about $1.7 billion in annual revenue and employs about 4,300 people worldwide, according to its website. Ortho-Clinical has incurred significant expenses in the last three years to find its footing as a standalone company. These implementation and restructuring costs are expected to taper off by the end of the year, as it severs most of its ties with Johnson & Johnson, according to credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service Inc. The company sells its products in more than 125 countries, but has potential to grow in emerging markets, according to Moody‘s. Any deal for Ortho-Clinical would likely come in the first half of 2018, making it one of the first major Carlyle portfolio companies to be divested under the leadership of Glenn Youngkin and Kewsong Lee, who are set to become co-chief executive officers of Carlyle in January, taking over the reins from founders David Rubenstein, William Conway and Daniel D‘Aniello. Carlyle has a long track record of investing in healthcare companies and has been seeking to cash out on some of them this year. In April, Carlyle agreed to sell down part of its 60 percent stake in U.S. clinical trials firm Pharmaceutical Product Development LLC at a $9.05 billion corporate valuation. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Carl O''Donnell in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-orthoclinicaldiagnostics-m-a-exclusiv/exclusive-carlyle-explores-sale-or-ipo-of-ortho-clinical-diagnostics-sources-idINKBN1DA0IW'|'2017-11-10T03:08:00.000+02:00'
'feef7f87e9f4866333dc7e2c991ed92b6625f435'|'CBS'' buyout of Australia''s Ten Network nears final hurdle'|'SYDNEY, Nov 10 (Reuters) - CBS Corp’s buyout of embattled Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings won approval from an Australian court on Friday, leaving only sign-off from the nation’s securities regulator before the deal is done.The bankrupt television station had been the subject of a bidding war between CBS and Twenty-First Century Fox Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, until Ten’s creditors voted in September to accept the CBS offer.Although a ratings laggard, Ten’s national reach and strong brand recognition in the world’s 12th-largest economy made it an attractive buyout target and CBS swooped after Ten went into administration in July.Murdoch and his co-bidder, billionaire Bruce Gordon, already lost a legal bid to derail the deal two months ago and did not contest Friday’s procedural application for court permission to transfer Ten’s shares to CBS control.New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black dismissed opposition from three small shareholders to give the deal the green light.Barring an appeal from the shareholders, all stock in Ten will be transferred to CBS after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, Ten’s administrator KordaMentha said in a statement after the verdict.The buyout won approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board last month, and though it requires final clearance from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the regulator has already offered its in-principle support for the buyout.A spokeswoman for Murdoch and Gordon declined to comment. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ten-network-ma-cbs-corp/cbs-buyout-of-australias-ten-network-nears-final-hurdle-idINL3N1NG3DR'|'2017-11-10T05:13:00.000+02:00'
'154ef1f6535dbfba92d9784e5fc866b86fe662b1'|'CORRECTED-Multi-manager hedge funds hook investors with returns recovery'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:55 PM / Updated 41 minutes ago CORRECTED-Multi-manager hedge funds hook investors with returns recovery Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Corrects date in paragraph 10 to 2016) * Citadel to return cash equal to 2017 gains - letter * Citadel flagship funds up 11.43 pct to Oct. 31 - source * Investors add $1.2 bln in first three quarters of 2017 By Maiya Keidan and Lawrence Delevingne LONDON/NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Multi-manager hedge funds, often star performers, have recovered from below-par returns in 2016, with investors adding $1.2 billion to them during the first three quarters of 2017. Although traditionally they are meant to achieve some of the best returns by running different investment strategies and moving money between them based on their success, many investing approaches used by hedge funds actually lost money in 2016. As a result, $1.8 billion flowed out of multi-manager funds last year, industry tracker Eurekahedge data shows. The sector posted returns of 5.1 percent up to the end of September 2016, data from Preqin shows, while the S&P 500 index made gains of 8.6 percent over the same period. Although these funds have generated returns of 8.14 percent on average so far to Sep. 30 this year, they have again lost out to the S&P 500 index, which was up 12.7 percent. Despite this, their improvement over last year is enabling some firms to return profits to investors. Citadel, one of the largest team-based hedge funds with $28 billion in investment capital, is among the top performers this year, with gains of 11.43 percent in its flagship fund through October, a source close to the firm said. It is now planning on returning all profits from 2017 to investors, a letter reviewed by Reuters shows. Traditionally some funds want to keep funds under management below a certain level as it becomes harder to manage assets above that threshold. A spokesman for Citadel, founded by Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin, said it routinely returns profits, though it did not in 2016 when it made 5 percent, a source close to the firm said. "We have routinely made profit distributions, in whole or in part, across a number of our funds over the past 20 years,” Citadel spokesman Zia Ahmed said. Other multi-managers may not be far behind after improved performances. Folger Hill''s fund, for example, is up 4.5 percent through end-October, according to a person familiar with the situation, a turnaround from losing 17.5 percent last year. Millennium Management''s International fund is up 5.54 percent in the year to Sept. 30, compared to just 3.38 percent in 2016, according to data compiled by HSBC. Balyasny''s Atlas Global Investments fund was up 3.59 percent to Oct. 13, after losing 0.73 percent in 2016, the same data showed. "Multi-strategy funds are (in general) having a better year so far in 2017 relative to 2016," Russell Barlow, head of hedge fund investments at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said. Last year saw some firms doing particularly badly, notably Blackstone Group''s Senfina Advisors, which lost almost a quarter of assets from performance losses and closed down. "Security selection based on fundamentals is being rewarded, equity sector dispersion has increased and interest rate divergence has resulted in better opportunities for relative value strategies," Barlow added. CITADEL LEADS WAY Smaller funds run by Boothbay Absolute Return Strategies and Verition Fund Management are up an estimated 11.8 percent and 9.7 percent through Oct. 31, respectively, both outstripping 2016 returns, people familiar with the situation said. Multibillion-dollar U.S. investor Schonfeld Strategic Advisors made gains of 14 percent in the year to end-September, a person familiar with the matter said. However, Citadel appears to be the only multi-manager so far to have performed strongly enough to return profits. But Citadel has not always performed well and asking to make redemptions has frustrated some investors who have stuck with them, particularly when many firms are already closed to new investment due to their popularity. "I find this very sad," said one fund-of-fund investor who received a letter to redeem capital. "Especially that we have trusted them in 2009 ...after having had a very difficult 2008." Citadel''s flagship funds lost 55 percent in 2008 and investors asked to withdraw $1.5 billion. Many investors prefer to keep profits from their initial investment with a manager in order to best generate year-on-year returns and avoid having to find a new home for their cash. Benchmark/Fund 2016 at Oct. 31 2017 YTD Oct. 31 Multi-strategy 5.1 pct(to Sept.30) 8.14 pct(to Sept.30) S&P 500 7.5 pct 15.92 pct Equities 3.71 pct 10.69 pct Macro 0.17 pct 2.35 pct Hedge funds 3.59 pct 7.23 pct Source: multi-strategy gains from Preqin, equities, macro and hedge fund gains from HFR (Reporting by Maiya Keidan; additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Alexander Smith)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hedgefunds-multistrategy/multi-manager-hedge-funds-hook-investors-with-returns-recovery-idUSL8N1N938J'|'2017-11-10T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'1846b2005d720ba60cc9722a00d5deb793a75910'|'Belgian activist investor hikes Burberry stake as overhaul starts'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Belgian billionaire Albert Frere has raised his stake in Burberry ( BRBY.L ) from 4 to 6 percent, the British trench coat maker said on Friday, a day after it unveiled a plan to go further upmarket that sent its shares tumbling on cost concerns.The exterior of a Burberry store is seen in central London, Britain, November 3, 2017. Picture taken November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Frere - who along with other activist investors spurred a turnaround at German sportswear maker Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ) after taking stakes in 2015 - first disclosed a 3 percent stake in Burberry in February.The holding is owned by a subsidiary of Frere’s Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), which also has investments in French drinks company Pernod Ricard and energy firm Total.Burberry’s sales growth has lagged that of peers in the luxury and fashion world as a rebound in demand from Chinese consumers helps the industry recover from a few lean years.Under new CEO Marco Gobbetti, the 161-year-old outerwear maker wants to become a top-end luxury player and is banking on a creative overhaul as it prepares to part ways with long-time designer Christopher Bailey.Burberry shares fell sharply on Thursday as investors baulked at the costs of Gobbetti’s plan and the longer-than-expected turnaround time he outlined. Growth in revenue and operating profit will take until 2021, he said.The stock was down another 2.3 percent at 1406GMT on Friday.Analysts at Berenberg said Frere’s greater investment was positive.“The news should reinstate some confidence amongst investors, confirming our view that despite the short-term downside risks to earnings, the company is on the right path to long-term success,” the analysts said in a note.Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-burberry-investor/belgian-activist-investor-hikes-burberry-stake-as-overhaul-starts-idINKBN1DA204'|'2017-11-10T11:49:00.000+02:00'
'39be89382a9d115faf3bdb1a7e447e92f506fdc3'|'CORRECTED-Brazil''s Kroton reports net income of 451 mln reais, below consensus - Reuters'|'(Corrects to say Q3 net income rose 22.4 pct (not 34 pct) and EBITDA rose 10.7 pct (not 41 pct)SAO PAULO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Kroton Educacional SA , Brazil’s largest for-profit education company, on Friday reported third-quarter net income of 450.8 million reais ($139 million), up 22.4 percent (not 34 percent) from a year earlier, according to a securities filing.Profit missed an average estimate of 504 million reais in a Thomson Reuters survey of analysts. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 10.7 percent (not 41 percent) to 544.3 million reais, below an average estimate of 584 million reais. ($1 = 3.2520 reais) (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Susan Fenton)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kroton-results/brazils-kroton-reports-net-income-of-451-mln-reais-below-consensus-idINE6N1JV02L'|'2017-11-10T06:58:00.000+02:00'
'410972d14f001f09abe61b873b3cab97991ab0ee'|'Indonesian regulator confirms Japan’s MUFG eyeing Bank Danamon stake'|'JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s financial services authority (OJK) confirmed on Friday that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) ( 8306.T ) is interested in buying a stake in Bank Danamon Indonesia ( BDMN.JK )FILE PHOTO: Japan''s national flag is seen behind the logo of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) at its bank branch in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo ”Yesterday I called the bank’s management and contacted Temasek and indeed it’s MUFG that is looking at Danamon,” Heru Kristiyana, a commissioner at OJK, told reporters.”It’s normal. What’s important is how we push them to make a real contribution to our economy,” Kristiyana said.MUFG, through its core unit Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, intends to buy Danamon shares worth around $1.75 billion from Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings TEM.UL, a major shareholder, two sources told Reuters on Thursday.Reporting by Hidayat Setiaji; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bank-danamon-m-a-mufg/indonesian-regulator-confirms-japans-mufg-eyeing-bank-danamon-stake-idINKBN1DA08Q'|'2017-11-09T23:43:00.000+02:00'
'522ed6de190679e821c1933e0957348ea74295ed'|'Central banks struggle to adjust to life without the big guns'|'November 13, 2017 / 3:19 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Central banks struggle to adjust to life without the big guns Balazs Koranyi 6 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - As financial markets come to terms with the end of cheap money being pumped into the system, central bankers must learn again how to use a more subtle but effective policy weapon: words. FILE PHOTO: The euro sign landmark is seen at the headquarters (R) of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany September 2, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Massive asset buying programs and drastic interest rate cuts have stabilized the world’s economies following the global financial crisis but central bankers are starting to put their big policy guns away. As they shepherd economies back to full health central bankers will instead need to choose their words carefully to manage expectations about future policy and avoid any damaging overreaction or misinterpretation by markets. Communication is becoming such a policy focus that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney are meeting in Frankfurt on Tuesday to discuss how central banks should speak. “Once the asset purchase program is tapered the ECB will have to use its guidance on rates as the main policy instrument,” an ECB Governing Council member, who asked not to be named, said. Part of the problem now is that central bankers just keep talking. Fed governors talk on an almost daily basis, Kuroda speaks frequently and some of the ECB’s 25 rate-setters appear to live a life of their own, sometimes giving speeches at odds with the European central bank’s main policy lines. Last Thursday, eight European Central Bank policymakers, including five board members, spoke publicly but there was no major policy glitch that needed addressing specifically and few of the speeches carried any significant policy message. In the United States, a survey by the Brookings Institute think-tank found that two-thirds of Fed watchers wanted governors to speak less frequently and over half wanted Yellen to speak more instead to streamline and focus the message. ‘UNRELIABLE BOYFRIEND’ Interest rates are expected to stay below historic averages for years, if not a decade, so the scope for actual rate changes has diminished and promises about future policy will play a bigger role in guiding markets, central bankers say. The Fed estimates that neutral interest rates are 2.75 percent, down from 4.25 percent before the crisis, but current rates are still less then half this despite four rate rises by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) since the end of 2015. “With a low neutral federal funds rate, there will typically be less scope for the FOMC to reduce short-term interest rates in response to an economic downturn, raising the possibility that we may need to resort again to enhanced forward rate guidance and asset purchases to provide needed accommodation,” Yellen said last month. The ECB is in an even more precarious position. It may end its 2.55 trillion euro ($3 trillion) asset purchases next year but will still be far from raising interest rates. That too will leave its “forward guidance” - a pledge to keep rates low until well after the bond buying ends - as the chief tool to guide long-term interest rates. FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi addresses an ECB news conference December 4, 2014, for the first time in the ECB''s new 1.3 billion euro headquarters in Frankfurt. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo While central banks have often relied on guidance as a policy tool, communication flops during the post-crisis normalization process have been aplenty. In 2013, the Fed’s suggestion that asset purchases might be coming to a close caused market mayhem. Analysts say the so-called taper tantrum probably ended up prolonging the U.S. bond buying program. Draghi’s speech in Sintra this year, which suggested that tighter monetary policy might be on the cards, resulted in such a big market sell-off that the eventual policy change was considered relatively mild. Carney has also had his run-ins with words as his guidance on the path for interest rates was repeatedly knocked off course by surprises in the economy, prompting one lawmaker to call him an “unreliable boyfriend”. CREDIBILITY ISSUE Slideshow (3 Images) The challenge for central bankers now is to nuance their communication to chart a path for long-term rates in a very low interest rate environment - and also start to explain what a new policy framework would look like if another crisis emerges. “That comes with a number of challenges that have not been fully addressed,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Pictet Wealth Management said. “Forward guidance to me is too short an answer.” “What’s the new monetary style? Will there be a regime shift to some sort to some sort of nominal GDP (gross domestic product) targeting? Do they want to use the balance sheet as a normal tool?” Ducrozet said. For now, the Bank of Japan is coming under pressure to start discussing how it will eventually end its prolonged period of ultra-easy monetary policy. Kuroda has so far rejected that demand, even though he has recently suggested that the Bank of Japan could tweak monetary policy before achieving its inflation target. The day of reckoning is also coming for the ECB. It has learned from the mistakes of others and kept markets calm by promising low rates until “well past” the end of its asset buying program. But some investors say this time frame is too vague and needs to be refined. Indeed, some argue that the ECB’s decision to extend it’s bond buying program by nine months to September 2018 was really designed to push back expectations of a rate rise, given the stimulus won’t be that significant. “Doesn’t the bank have a credibility issue when a its pledge is not enough?” another ECB Governing Council said. ($1 = 0.8569 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cenbank-policy-communication-analysis/central-banks-struggle-to-adjust-to-life-without-the-big-guns-idUKKBN1DD1V7'|'2017-11-13T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'735313966784fcc3ded1f491a9a5d1f4d0c42183'|'German regulator launches another probe into VW over scandal'|'Reuters TV United States November 10, 2017 / 5:43 PM / Updated 4 hours ago German regulator launches another probe into VW over scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s financial watchdog said on Friday it was investigating whether Volkswagen illegally disclosed information about its emissions scandal to third parties, adding to the carmaker’s legal headaches more than two years after the scandal broke. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Europe’s largest automaker is already the subject of a probe by the BaFin watchdog over suspected insider trading related to its “Dieselgate” scandal, and an investigation by Braunschweig prosecutors over suspected market manipulation. Earlier this week, a German court also ruled an independent auditor should be appointed to investigate Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) cheating of U.S. diesel engine tests, boosting investors’ hopes for compensation. On Friday, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Volkswagen’s (VW) CEO at the time, Martin Winterkorn, informed then-Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt and the head of Germany’s KBA motor vehicle watchdog on Sept. 21, 2015, about the extent of the carmaker’s cheating. But VW did not make public until Sept. 22, 2015, that about 11 million cars worldwide were fitted with emissions-cheating software and that it would set aside billions of euros to cover the potential cost of the scandal. “We are looking at this process with a view to a potentially unauthorized disclosure of inside information,” a spokesman for BaFin said, confirming the Der Spiegel report. VW declined to comment on the latest BaFin investigation, but reiterated its view that its management board “duly fulfilled” its obligations regarding capital market disclosure rules. The Transport Ministry couldn’t be reached for comment. Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-probe/german-regulator-launches-another-probe-into-vw-over-scandal-idUKKBN1DA2GZ'|'2017-11-10T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'c24209fa166a34608ca658aae973ec35efe93ba7'|'ASEAN signs free trade, investment pacts with Hong Kong - Reuters'|'MANILA (Reuters) - Hong Kong signed free trade and investment agreements with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Sunday, in what one of the Chinese territory’s officials called a “loud and clear” vote against rising regional trade protectionism.The pacts, which conclude nearly three years of talks, are expected to take effect on January 1, 2019, at the earliest. They aim to bring “deeper and bolder” integration of market access with the bloc, said Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s commerce and development secretary.“In the face of protectionist sentiments in other parts of the world, these two agreements are in fact a loud and clear vote from all of us here for freer and more open trade,” Yau said.“Hong Kong, being a free trade promoter and advocate of a strong, rule-based, multilateral trading system, will continue to take this pathway, continue to do our utmost.”Total merchandise trade between Hong Kong and ASEAN was HK$833 billion ($107 billion) last year, official figures show. Total services trade was HK$121 billion in 2015.The ASEAN Hong Kong China Free Trade Agreement (AHKCFTA) was signed on the sidelines of a summit of the regional grouping in the Philippine capital of Manila.It came after leaders attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam agreed to tackle “unfair trade practices” and “market-distorting subsidies” in a statement on Saturday that bore the imprint of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the global trade landscape.That summit offered a contrast between the vision of Trump’s “America First” policy and the usual consensus favoring multinational deals that China now seeks to champion.Hong Kong has one of the world’s freest and most open economies, and the pacts will see many ASEAN countries gradually reduce or eliminate customs duties on Hong Kong goods. Professional services should also benefit, with increased investment flows, Yau said.The partnership “will usher in greater trade synergies and more job opportunities for people and businesses in the region,” said Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez.The ASEAN grouping includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summmit-hongkongtrade/asean-signs-free-trade-investment-pacts-with-hong-kong-idINKBN1DC08Z'|'2017-11-12T05:47:00.000+02:00'
'd1e62431e688b7241c4fa50cfcd44b718a124bc5'|'China''s JD.com, Alibaba rival, reports $19.1 billion in shopping event sales'|'November 12, 2017 / 11:43 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago China''s JD.com, Alibaba rival, reports $19.1 billion in shopping event sales Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - JD.com ( JD.O ), China’s e-commerce behemoth, said on Sunday that sales for Singles’ Day - and its run-up - reached 127.1 billion yuan (14.51 billion pounds), up 50 percent from a year ago. FILE PHOTO - A sign of China''s e-commerce company JD.com is seen at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Asia 2016 in Shanghai, China, May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Sales included 11 days of transactions, JD said in a statement, unlike its rival Alibaba ( BABA.N ), which reported on Saturday that its one-day sales reached 168.3 billion yuan ($25.35 billion), up 39 percent from last year. Singles’ Day, an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that takes place in China on Nov. 11, has emerged as the world’s biggest shopping event. It exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States. JD started its sales event on Nov. 1, to reduce delivery bottlenecks and to give users more time to make their purchasing decisions, it said. Fresh foods and cosmetics were some of the online retailer’s biggest movers, with JD selling 500,000 Thailand black tiger shrimp and 55 million facial masks over the period. The company also said it sold 500 million yuan in air conditioners over a 30-minute period, and 100 million yuan in televisions over a one-minute period. Reporting By Matthew Miller, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singles-day-jd-com/chinas-jd-com-alibaba-rival-reports-19-1-billion-in-shopping-event-sales-idUKKBN1DC0GG'|'2017-11-12T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'a1b6ef1eb2a7239e6464442cf8b6ec5aa569ce95'|'Peugeot launches joint venture to build cars in Algeria'|'November 12, 2017 / 1:36 PM / Updated an hour ago Peugeot launches joint venture to build cars in Algeria Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) signed a joint venture with three Algerian partners to launch a manufacturing unit building cars for the Algerian market, it said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - Carlos Tavares, Chairman of the Managing Board of French carmaker PSA Group addresses the media during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The French carmaker said it would hold 49 pct of the joint venture’s capital, representing a total investment of around 100 million euros (88.44 million pounds). The Algerian partners are Condor Electronics, Palpa Pro and Entreprise Nationale de Production de Machines-Outils (PMO). A production unit will be fully operational in 2019 with local operations gradually starting from 2018, Peugeot said. Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peugeot-algeria/peugeot-launches-joint-venture-to-build-cars-in-algeria-idUKKBN1DC0L2'|'2017-11-12T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'a8179a5928751d6b8503b347559d20ed3a5967f8'|'China''s JD.com third-quarter revenue beat estimates'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s second biggest e-commerce company, JD.com, reported an unexpected profit in the third quarter, though it lost about 100 merchants to fierce competition in the run-up to this month’s Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza.A sign of China''s e-commerce company JD.com is seen during the third annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song JD ( JD.O ) posted net earnings of 1 billion yuan ($151 million), its highest ever quarterly profit, in the three months to Sept. 30, far above an analyst consensus forecast of a 213 million yuan loss.The unexpected profit and a 39 percent rise in revenue boosted the company’s shares, which were 5 percent higher at 1554 GMT. The company reported a net loss of 807.9 million yuan in the third quarter last year.More recently, JD said it had lost roughly 100 merchants to competition during the promotion period for “Singles’ Day”, China’s biggest online sales event which ended on Saturday.Chief Financial Officer Sidney Huang said the brands that left the platform were all major Chinese clothing brands, and that the company expected apparel growth to remain stagnant for the next two quarters before recovering.JD accused its main competitor, Alibaba, of engaging in “coercive” tactics, saying its rival obliged merchants to choose between online platforms.“Based on the feedback we received from these merchants, the move was mainly due to the coercive tactics from our competitor,” Huang said on a call with analysts.Alibaba said JD’s allegations were false, and that merchants were free to choose which platforms they use.“Merchants make their own choices. Alibaba’s scale and technological advantages make it the preferred partner for the world’s top brands,” an Alibaba spokeswoman told Reuters.JD.com booked $19 billion in total sales over the Singles’ Day festival, which will be reflected in fourth-quarter earnings. Alibaba recorded over $25 billion in revenue during the event’s peak on Saturday.Once a celebration for China’s lonely hearts, Singles’ Day has become an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, and acts as a barometer for China’s consumers.Competition between JD and Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd ( BABA.N ) has become increasingly heated as the companies invest heavily in overlapping markets.While JD traditionally leads in online retail sales, backed by extensive infrastructure, Alibaba has sought to win over merchants to its own growing retail platform, underpinned by new investments in logistics this year.JD’s revenue for the third quarter was 83.8 billion yuan, just above analysts’ mean estimate of 83.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Despite strong bottom-line results, gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth still dropped to its lowest rate in a year, reflecting a seasonal lull in sales before Singles’ Day.Chinese e-commerce giants increasingly experience competitive peaks around bonanza sales events in June and November, interspersed with sluggish interim periods.“[Sales of appliances and mobile phones] both were dragged by weaker growth in September ... mainly due to competition and slow seasonality,” said TH Data Capital analyst Tian Hou in a research note ahead of the earnings.JD expects revenue for the quarter ending in December to be 107-110 billion yuan, a rise of 35-39 percent, roughly in line with analyst expectations. However, marketing costs related to the November sales, which ran for over a month, are expected to cut into its bottom line.This year, JD is investing in logistics infrastructure in Southeast Asia, expanding from existing commitments in Indonesia. At home, JD is hoping to tap big spenders with new “white glove” platforms which feature imported food, fashion and electronics.Last week during a visit to China by U.S. President Donald Trump, JD said it would buy $2 billion in U.S. goods, including $1.2 billion in beef, over the next three years.($1 = 6.6395 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr, Mark Potter and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-results/chinas-jd-com-third-quarter-revenue-beat-estimates-idUSKBN1DD16G'|'2017-11-13T12:42:00.000+02:00'
'2e0eff261a8cd9bd5f369fe71bd85f78058fa65b'|'General Electric to focus to power, healthcare and aviation, cuts outlook'|'November 13, 2017 / 2:05 PM / in 28 minutes General Electric to focus to power, healthcare and aviation, cuts outlook Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 13 (Reuters) - General Electric Co said on Monday it will narrow its focus to power, healthcare and aviation business, and set an earnings target between $1.00 and $1.07 per share for next year, a drop from its earlier forecast, the company said on Monday. GE also said it will cut its board size to 12 from 18 members and add three new directors in 2018, at an annual investor event. The company said it is focusing on businesses where it sees the best growth potential and where it has good technology, scale and a large base of installed customers, and where it can use its digital software to enhance performance. (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Bill Rigby)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ge-review-outlook/general-electric-to-focus-to-power-healthcare-and-aviation-cuts-outlook-idUSFWN1NJ0X2'|'2017-11-13T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'6bbdeac471ce64b5be19fe5834d3ac0639f4494e'|'FTSE rises as sterling''s decline boosts exporters'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:44 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Banks drag FTSE to six-week low, mid-caps hit by pound Helen Reid , Sujata Rao 5 Min   equities closed at nearly six-week lows on Monday, dragged down by financial sector shares and ceding earlier gains fuelled by the weak pound. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Mid-cap firms, meanwhile, suffered their worst day in five months after the pound weakened more than half a percent against the dollar GBP= . The currency headed for its biggest loss in 11 days on news of a rebellion among Conservative MPs against the leadership of   May. But the pound''s tumble gave a boost to dollar-earning companies on the FTSE 100 .FTSE , with Unilever ( ULVR.L ), Diageo and AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) up around 1 percent or more. Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and BP ( BP.L ) also received a helping hand from the currency. Cruise operator Carnival was the biggest gainer on the day, up 1.7 percent ( CCL.L ). “While UK equities remain vulnerable in the face of uncertain Brexit negotiations, we believe they are supported by the robust global economy as the FTSE 100 generates about two-thirds of its revenue from outside the country,” Coutts analysts told clients. The bank added that its UK equity portfolio was “tilted towards high-quality large-cap companies with significant overseas earnings which make them less dependent on the domestic economy.” The FTSE 100 index closed 0.2 percent lower, however, as financials took a beating from political uncertainty. Shares in RBS ( RBS.L ), Lloyds ( LLOY.L ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ) closed lower. The sector took as much as nine points off the index. Mid-sized companies bore the brunt of currency weakness, with the index .FTMC falling for the sixth day in a row and losing more than one percent. Rory McPherson, head of investment strategy at PSigma, said he had switched out of domestic companies and into large-caps to benefit from likely falls in sterling in the event of a leadership election. “A lot of companies close to the consumer have guided downwards in terms of outlook for the UK,” McPherson said. That view appeared to be borne out by a survey from payments company Visa which found British shoppers reined in their spending by the most in four years in October. Supermarket chains Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ), Morrison’s and Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ) fell between 1.5 and 3 percent. Analysts have also downgraded their earnings estimates for small-cap companies, indicating potential weakness ahead for the best-performing part of the UK stock market this year. The day’s worst performer was defence contractor Babcock ( BAB.L ) which sank more than 7 percent Defence contractor Ultra Electronics ( ULE.L ) was the latest in a string of companies to issue a profit warning. Its shares plummeted to eight-year lows after it forecast a weaker second half. It closed almost 20 percent down on the day. Liberum analysts cut their estimates for the company and removed a planned acquisition of U.S. company Sparton from their calculations because of uncertainty about its completion. Defence contractors Babcock ( BAB.L ) fell more than 7 percent while BAE Systems ( BAES.L ) lost 3.5 percent. Coca Cola HBC ( CCH.L ) shares fell 5 percent following a downgrade to “neutral” by JPMorgan. JP Morgan analysts said investors in the bottling company should take profits and await a better entry point after a potential deal to buy a stake in Coca Cola Beverages Africa. Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-rises-as-sterlings-decline-boosts-exporters-idUKKBN1DD168'|'2017-11-13T12:43:00.000+02:00'
'80a0efbe6ea55c7637fa84a68749df2e5e2fe426'|'British judge to issue ruling on $700 million Dana Gas sukuk case soon'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:26 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago British judge to issue ruling on $700 million Dana Gas sukuk case soon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British High Court judge George Leggatt said on Monday that he would not further adjourn a trial over about $700 million (£535 million) of outstanding Islamic bonds issued by United Arab Emirates firm Dana Gas ( DANA.AD ), and would issue a judgement soon. He did not say whether the judgement would come later on Monday or in coming days. Dana is claiming it does not need to redeem the sukuk, which matured at the end of last month, because the instruments became invalid under UAE law. Dana had asked for further postponement of the trial pending developments in a UAE court, where motions in the case have also been filed. Reporting by Emma Rumney and Davide Barbuscia, Writing by Andrew Torchia '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dana-gas-sukuk/british-judge-to-issue-ruling-on-700-million-dana-gas-sukuk-case-soon-idUKKBN1DD1AS'|'2017-11-13T13:26:00.000+02:00'
'b281a9eb7b8c59804dce5a37d17d4661227b8ef8'|'Aramco CEO: IPO preparations ongoing, no decision on venue abroad'|'November 12, 2017 / 3:07 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Aramco CEO: IPO preparations ongoing, no decision on venue abroad Reuters Staff 2 Min Read KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Preparations to float shares of Saudi Aramco next year are proceeding, but no decision has been taken yet on the venue for the international listing, the chief executive of the state oil company told Al Arabiya Television channel. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo “Preparations are proceeding to the fullest extent for listing in 2018,” Amin Nasser told the channel in an interview aired on Sunday. He was speaking after the company signed engineering and construction deals with international firms worth $4.5 billion. Nasser told Al Arabiya Aramco’s shares will certainly be listed on the Saudi stock market, Tadawul. After extensive studies of other international stock markets, the “right” decision on the international venue will be taken “at the right time”, Nasser said. “For sure, it will be listed in the Saudi market. As for other markets, a complete study was made,” he said naming New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The studies are under discussion now, he said, adding “This takes time.” Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said last month that the Aramco’s initial public offering, part of an ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, was on track to go ahead in 2018. The sale of around 5 percent of the oil giant is expected to be the biggest in the world. Saudi officials sought to reassure the business community last week, saying that a sweeping anti-corruption investigation would not hurt the economy, and that companies and banks could operate as normal. Saudi authorities have questioned 208 people in an anti-corruption investigation and estimate at least $100 billion has been stolen through graft. Dozens of princes, senior officials and prominent businessmen, including cabinet ministers and billionaires, have been detained in the inquiry. Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; writing by Rania El Gamal '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-aramco-ipo/aramco-ceo-ipo-preparations-ongoing-no-decision-on-venue-abroad-idINKBN1DC0OQ'|'2017-11-12T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'f5fc6149fc05ad5b6900d00ae951c1d3af038fb3'|'China''s Tencent buys 12 percent stake in Snapchat owner'|'(Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd now has a 12 percent stake in Snapchat operator Snap Inc, company filings showed on Wednesday, the latest in a string of major investments in the United States by China’s new tech heavyweights.FILE PHOTO: A sign of Tencent is seen during the third annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo The details of the stake, revealed by Snapchat after badly received quarterly results, came as U.S. and Chinese firms announced $9 billion in new deals on the arrival of President Donald Trump in Beijing.It helped the U.S. company recoup a slide of almost 20 percent in pre-trading in New York after it reported third-quarter revenue and user growth well below Wall Street expectations.Snap shares recovered to trade down 12 percent at $13.29 in premarket trading from a close of $15.12 on Tuesday.Snap’s largely privately owned structure, which reserves 95 percent of voting rights for its co-founders, made it likely Tencent was just accumulating a financial stake.“While such news may be initially perceived as positive by the market, one has to remember that Tencent’s holdings in Snap is the non-voting Class A shares, which makes a possible acquisition of Snap by Tencent less likely,” said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi.Along with Alibaba and Baidu, Tencent has poured billions of cash from a decade of growth in China into buying U.S. firms and holds 5 percent of electric car maker Tesla, as well as stakes in ride service company Lyft and augmented reality startup Magic Leap.The largest social media and gaming company in China and owner of the popular mobile application WeChat, it had previously invested in Snap through an affiliate in 2013, and has been referred as a “role model” by Snap’s co-founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel.Snap said in its quarterly report that Tencent had bought 145.8 million shares of its non-voting Class A common stock on the open market. Snap had about 1.2 billion shares outstanding, as of Oct 31.( bit.ly/2zqvybE )“The positive side of this could be that the two companies may create business partnership of some kind or Tencent may aid Snap in expanding its reach into China,” Morningstar’s Mogharabi said.Unlike many U.S. stock market-listed corporations, Snap is not obligated to disclose changes in Tencent’s ownership of Snap’s Class A stock. Snap said it had only received the details of the stake from Tencent this month and declined to answer further questions on the filing.Snap, on Tuesday, reported third-quarter revenue and user growth well below Wall Street expectations, as it struggles to compete with Facebook Inc’s Instagram. The company has disappointed investors each quarter since it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March.Snap’s daily active users (DAU) stood at 178 million, below expectation of 181.8 million, according to research firm FactSet.“As evidenced by China’s Tencent taking a 10 percent plus stake in Snap this morning, there is clear inherent value in the company’s about 180 million DAU, strong engagement numbers, and growing international social media platform,” GBH Tech Research analyst Dan Ives said.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-snap-tencent-stake/chinas-tencent-buys-12-percent-stake-in-snapchat-owner-idINKBN1D81G3'|'2017-11-08T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'b1ec635f107099f83471a9c9b23c85400be3fe5a'|'Singapore''s GIC to invest $200 million in ContourGlobal IPO - source'|' 10 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Singapore''s GIC to invest $200 million in ContourGlobal IPO - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC will invest $200 million (£152.3 million) in the upcoming $2.2 billion initial public offering (IPO) of ContourGlobal ( IPO-CON.L ), a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo for Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, is seen on a building in Singapore July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside/File Photo Conditional trading in the power generator firm is due to start on Thursday, with the company pushing ahead with its listing in London despite two large IPOs there being cancelled last week. The price guidance for the listing is 250 pence per share a bookrunner said on Wednesday, the bottom of a previously announced range of between 250 and 275 pence. The implied market capitalisation of the company after the listing is 1.7 billion pounds. “It’s bottom of the range but it’s good it’s being done,” the source said. “It’s a sign that the London IPO market is open for the right companies.” Broadcasting masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L would have been this year’s biggest listing in London but was postponed last Friday, as was the listing of supermarket supplier Bakkavor. Business services firm TMF scrapped its float on Oct. 27 in favour of a 1.75 billion euro (£1.5 billion) sale to private equity house CVC Capital Partners. JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) and Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) are leading the ContourGlobal deal. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-contourglobal-ipo-gic/singapores-gic-to-invest-200-million-in-contourglobal-ipo-source-idUKKBN1D81BW'|'2017-11-08T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'ada9899e9ef87e295a19bb287eb88c4773339589'|'OPEC, allies unlikely to delay decision on oil cut extension'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:24 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago OPEC, allies unlikely to delay decision on oil cut extension Rania El Gamal , Maha El Dahan 2 Min Read ABU DHABI (Reuters) - OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers are moving towards deciding at their Nov. 30 meeting whether to extend a global agreement to curb oil supply further into 2018, two ministers said on Monday, a quicker time frame than previously indicated. The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, are cutting output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March in an attempt to eradicate a glut, and are considering extending the deal for longer. Reuters reported last month, citing OPEC sources, that producers were leaning towards prolonging the agreement until the end of 2018, though the decision could be postponed until early next year depending on the market. But United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Monday he saw no need for the decision to be delayed beyond the Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. His Omani counterpart voiced confidence there would be an agreement this month. “I don’t see the need to delay the decision until March ... We are not going to meet in that quarter unless it is extraordinary,” Mazroui said at an energy industry conference. If there is a decision to extend the supply cut it will be until the end of 2018, said the Omani oil minister, Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi, adding that he did not think producers would agree to deepen the curbs. Mazroui, whose country next year holds the rotating OPEC presidency, said that while the UAE backed an extension, he could not say yet whether it would support maintaining the supply cut until the end of 2018. Additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Alex Lawler; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oil-emirates-adipec-decision/opec-allies-unlikely-to-delay-decision-on-oil-cut-extension-idINKBN1DD123'|'2017-11-13T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'835adfcb27110986160f1bac5a0e6ecbc66ac2c9'|'Boeing sees steady Gulf demand, interest in mid-sized jet'|'November 11, 2017 / 12:52 PM / Updated 11 hours ago Boeing sees steady Gulf demand, interest in mid-sized jet Tim Hepher 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA.N ) sought to dispel concerns about a slowdown in the growth of Gulf airlines as the aerospace industry gathered on Saturday for the Dubai Airshow. FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Speaking on the eve of the showcase event, executives at the U.S. planemaker also played down the impact of growing political tensions in the region. “Traffic is coming back and yields are improving and this is going to be a very positive backdrop to the Dubai Airshow,” Marty Bentrott, vice president for Boeing’s commercial sales in the region, said, citing higher profit at Dubai’s Emirates. Boeing had been asked to reschedule some deliveries according to a normal pattern but had not seen cancellations since a rift between Arab nations and Qatar earlier this year. At a news conference, Boeing executives mainly deflected questions about a domestic purge of dozens of members of Saudi Arabia’s political and business elite in the past week but played down concerns over its economic impact. “There is absolutely no change. We consider the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be a very strong partner and we are going ahead with our plans,” Ahmed Jazzar, president of Boeing Saudi Arabia, said. The planemaker, meanwhile, said it had seen strong regional interest in a proposed new mid-sized passenger jet. Industry sources expect a commercial launch of the roughly 220-270 seat jet next year. It would enter service in 2024-25 as Boeing attempts to leapfrog the hot-selling Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A321neo. The aircraft will be designed around an unusual elliptical, or ‘squashed’, shape of fuselage that contains less room for cargo than other planes of its size. Experts say that is in order to improve the aerodynamics and cut running costs. Boeing planners say most airlines interested in that type of plane do not expect to carry much cargo on their targeted routes. Asked whether that would be a problem for airlines in the Gulf, most of which carry significant amounts of freight in the bellies of their passenger planes, Bentrott said: “There is nothing but tons of interest and excitement (in the region). There is not any concern about cargo capability.” He added, “We hope to get it into the market in the not-too-distant future.” Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-boeing/boeing-sees-steady-gulf-demand-interest-in-mid-sized-jet-idUKKBN1DB0GZ'|'2017-11-11T22:07:00.000+02:00'
'9604fc420c3445063f672fbb535d31a2df570b74'|'BRIEF-Tiger Global dissolves share stake in Alphabet, ups stake in Facebook'|'Nov 14 (Reuters) - Tiger Global Management:* Tiger Global dissolves share stake in Alphabet Inc - SEC filing* Tiger Global Management ups share stake in Facebook Inc to 1.8 million class A shares from 531,000 class A shares* Tiger Global Management ups share stake in Restaurant Brands by 35 percent to 2.5 million shares* Tiger Global Management ups share stake in Domino’s Pizza by 16.4 percent to 2.3 million shares* Tiger Global Management ups share stake in Fleetcor Technologies by 22.6 percent to 2.8 million shares* Change in holdings are as of Sept 30, 2017 and compared with the previous quarter ended as of June 30, 2017 Source text for quarter ended Sept 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2zE2sX3 ) Source text for quarter ended June 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2wJDukF ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-tiger-global-dissolves-share-stake/brief-tiger-global-dissolves-share-stake-in-alphabet-ups-stake-in-facebook-idINFWN1NK1GA'|'2017-11-14T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'2dbc57afd8600edcaa62188a355715026ef83d99'|'JPMorgan to launch new trade venue for non-equity products - memo'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:01 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago JPMorgan to launch new trade venue for non-equity products - memo Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - JP Morgan Chase & CO ( JPM.N ), one of the world’s top bond dealers, is planning to launch a new trading venue for all non-equity instruments, according to the contents of a memo sent to clients and seen by Reuters. A sign outside the headquarters of JP Morgan Chase & Co in New York, September 19, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Segar The move of its current bank trading system to a dealing platform structured as a “systematic internaliser” (SI) is in response to new European Union rules set to go live in January. The EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, aims to push more trading onto regulated public exchanges where prices and participants are visible to all and comes into effect on Jan. 3. Trading in fixed income markets is more opaque than equities with bonds largely traded via Bloomberg, Tradeweb, which is majority owned by Thomson Reuters Corp ( TRI.TO ) and a multitude of banks’ own trading platforms. But some investors seeking anonymity and lower fees are likely to opt instead to trade on SIs -- run by banks and other market participants -- which reveal much less information about impending transactions than more traditional exchanges and other trading platforms. After the move, the U.S. investment bank said more pre-trade and post-trade information would be made available to trading platforms such as Tradeweb and BATS. Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Simon Jessop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-jpmorgan-trading-fixed-income/jpmorgan-to-launch-new-trade-venue-for-non-equity-products-memo-idUKKBN1DE2BZ'|'2017-11-14T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'f0290937ddcd4195e3e5d2b40b5b20fe321dfa85'|'General Electric to focus to power, healthcare and aviation, cuts outlook'|'(Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) said on Monday it will narrow its focus to power, healthcare and aviation business, and set an earnings target between $1.00 and $1.07 per share for next year, a drop from its earlier forecast, the company said on Monday.GE also said it will cut its board size to 12 from 18 members and add three new directors in 2018, at an annual investor event.The company said it is focusing on businesses where it sees the best growth potential and where it has good technology, scale and a large base of installed customers, and where it can use its digital software to enhance performance.Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ge-review-outlook/general-electric-to-focus-to-power-healthcare-and-aviation-cuts-outlook-idINKBN1DD1OW'|'2017-11-13T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'3ef650dcb80c1b0d091686291b596ac10e6be325'|'Kingspan warns of some signs of slowdown in UK construction market'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Kingspan warns of some signs of slowdown in UK construction market   DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish building materials group Kingspan’s ( KSP.I ) reported a rise in profits on Monday but warned it had seen some recent evidence of a slowdown in the British commercial and industrial construction market, sending its share price lower. Kingspan, a maker of insulation products in Britain where it generates over a quarter of its revenue, said in a trading statement sales rose 19 percent to 2.69 billion euros (£2.4 billion) in the first nine months of the year and it expected trading profits to rise 10 percent this year to 375 million euros. However, it said it had also experienced “a sense of near-term indecision” in the placing of orders for insulated panels, while UK office work activity, affecting its access floor division which creates underfloor space to accommodate utility services, was softening as expected. The shares were down 4 percent at 33.37 euros by 1037 GMT. “It is unclear whether this (report of a slowdown) is a blip or represents a more profound shift, but it is clearly a concern,” analysts at Davy Stockbrokers said in a note. Chief Executive Gene Murtagh had told Reuters in August that the only sign of an impact from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union at that point was a small deterioration in planned office projects in London. “In general our end markets are relatively stable, notwithstanding some recent evidence of a slowdown in UK commercial and industrial activity,” Kingspan said in a trading update on Monday. Britain’s economy looks set for a difficult 2018 as Brexit approaches with most economists polled by Reuters predicting slower growth next year. Data on Friday showed construction fell 1.6 percent month-on-month in September, while confidence among firms in the sector dropped to the lowest level in nearly five years according to a survey earlier this month. Reporting by Padraic HalpinEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kingspan-group-outlook/kingspan-warns-of-some-signs-of-slowdown-in-uk-construction-market-idUKKBN1DD17S'|'2017-11-13T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'9e180beb1e8a75495d40d74dc2ee41890618f151'|'South Africa''s Zuma again denounces ''monopoly'' white economic power'|'JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma reiterated a call on Monday for radical reforms to shift the balance of “monopoly” economic power away from whites who dominated under apartheid, saying without such change blacks would stay poor for a long time.FILE PHOTO: South Africa''s President Jacob Zuma attends a SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Pretoria, South Africa, August 19, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo He made the remarks, reiterating a staple criticism levelled by his ruling ANC about South Africa’s economy, against the backdrop of widespread allegations of corruption against Zuma and his friends, the Indian-born Gupta brothers.Zuma was responding to a question about his role as an enemy of “white capital”, during an interview with the ANN7 news network, which was founded by the Guptas. Zuma and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing.“I don’t know why there is a debate in fact. Because there is a monopoly capital and in South Africa it is white ... because of our history, it does have a colour. It is white,” Zuma, who steps down as head of the ANC in December but can remain head of state until elections due in 2019, said.“Companies that dominate in the mines, there are not many ... You will find the same companies in charge. That means they are monopolising the economy and they’re not black,” he said.The Chamber of Mines in the world’s top platinum producer says that in 2016, 39 percent of the sector was owned by “historically disadvantaged South Africans” - meaning non-whites.Zuma said the policy of “radical economic transformation,” which has also seen moves to change the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land for redistribution to landless blacks, was needed to “correct the past.”“The ANC must follow this policy because if you don‘t, we are going to stay in poverty, in inequality, for a long time.”The frontrunners to replace Zuma at the helm of the ANC are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a trade unionist who amassed a fortune in the world of business, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union and Zuma’s ex-wife.Ramaphosa is viewed more favourably by foreign investors, who help cover the country’s deficits. Many of them are unsettled by Dlamini-Zuma’s calls to radically redistribute wealth and her perceived links to her former husband.In a separate interview on state broadcaster SABC, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said “state capture is a reality,” referring to allegations that the Guptas and others have undue political influence with access to state resources and contracts under Zuma.Mantashe is regarded as an ally of Ramaphosa with ties that go back to the 1980s when they were involved in the founding of the National Union of Mineworkers.Reporting by Ed Stoddard, Editing by William Maclean '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/safrica-zuma/south-africas-zuma-again-denounces-monopoly-white-economic-power-idINKBN1DD2LP'|'2017-11-13T18:04:00.000+02:00'
'a54c971ae293406f5a4d00ab523b4134bc7c3994'|'Gas and electricity fuel price rises at triple rate of inflation - Money'|'Gas and electricity fuel price rises at triple rate of inflation Latest data shows utility bills soar by 139%, as incomes rise 78% Energy bills are the main culprits for raising the cost of living. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Gas and electricity fuel price rises at triple rate of inflation Latest data shows utility bills soar by 139%, as incomes rise 78% View more sharing options   12.30 GMT Last modified on   12.31 GMT Gas and electricity companies have been the biggest culprits for raising prices over the past 20 years, according to an analysis published just a day after utility giants SSE and npower revealed plans for a mega-merger – prompting fears of yet more price rises. The research found that the cost of utilities has risen at triple the rate of inflation over the past two decades. The average rise in prices for a basket of goods between 1997 and 2016 was 50.7%, but utility bills went up by 139% – far outstripping the average 78% rise in weekly household income, which has gone up from £316 to £562 over the period. Alcohol and tobacco was the only category that went up more, but this was largely down to government-mandated tax increases on items such as cigarettes. Housing costs have also accelerated faster than incomes, rising 98% over the period, while holidays and eating out have also become relatively more expensive than in 1997. Households have been saved by sharp falls in some categories, especially shoes and clothing, where prices have plummeted as Chinese factories have pumped out low-cost goods. The research, by financial planners Tilney, used a mix of ONS and Family Spending Survey data. It also found that higher income households – as they spend more on housing, eating out and holidays – have had a higher effective inflation rate than lower income groups. Andy Cowan, head of financial planning at Tilney, says: “In the case of the top 10% of UK households – those with an income in excess of £78,500 a year – our research found that they have endured considerably higher overall inflation than the headline figures, while also being exposed to a much greater income tax burden than the wider population.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/10/gas-electricity-price-rises-triple-rate-inflation-incomes'|'2017-11-10T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'80b230bb9ef070ee1450b0651ee33700dba16428'|'Grupo Mexico prices rail unit IPO at bottom of range-sources'|'MEXICO CITY, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Mexican miner and infrastructure company Grupo Mexico priced the the initial public offering (IPO) of its rail unit GMexico Transportes on Thursday at the low end of expectations, two sources with knowledge of the deal said.The long-delayed IPO priced at 31.50 pesos per share, at the bottom of the expected 31.50 and 39 peso range, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. (Reporting by Christine Murray) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/grupomexico-ipo/grupo-mexico-prices-rail-unit-ipo-at-bottom-of-range-sources-idUSL1N1NF1FH'|'2017-11-10T01:27:00.000+02:00'
'516a272065bd3a4e47cf8ea0e4ed451f58166946'|'Reborn Canada steelmaker Stelco eyes organic, M&A growth: CEO'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Resurrected Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc ( STLC.TO ) is banking on growth from ramped-up production and acquisitions, Chief Executive Alan Kestenbaum said on Friday, as the 107-year-old company completed its initial public offering.Hamilton, Ontario-based Stelco, owned by U.S. private equity group Bedrock Industries, will use part of its C$230 million ($181 million) IPO proceeds on projects that boost capacity at its two steel-processing facilities in southern Ontario.The listing also allows quick access to capital markets if a suitable M&A deal emerges among “numerous” potential targets, Kestenbaum said.Stelco, which emerged in June from its second bankruptcy protection in 13 years, produces flat-rolled, value-added steels for the construction, automotive and energy industries.“Many companies and owners today have broken balance sheets, are forced asset sellers and have operational issues. We talk to everybody,” Kestenbaum said in an interview with Reuters.“We could look at buying another steel mill, we also could look at buying other finishing operations, or things like that, that help us penetrate markets.”Declining to identify targets or timing, Kestenbaum said “attractively priced” North American assets, with synergy benefits, are ideal.Stelco shares began trading last week on a “when-issued” basis and quickly jumped above the C$17 pricing to C$19. On Friday, the stock was unchanged at C$19.45.Stelco emerged from nearly three years of bankruptcy protection with C$3 billion in debt and C$1.4 billion in pension and retirement obligations extinguished.That coincides with mostly weak North American auto sales this year, after a record 2016, though global steel prices SRBcv1 have gained 157 percent since end-2015 as China, the world’s top steel producer and consumer, shut capacity in an environmental crackdown.Stelco, under bankruptcy protection between 2004 and 2006, was acquired in 2007 by U.S. Steel Corp.Kestenbaum said Stelco will now operate under a “tactical flexibility” strategy, adjusting the products and industries it pursues based on margins.While its shipments to automakers fell to 3 percent last year, from 37 percent in 2006, Stelco plans to boost production of lightweight, higher-strength steels increasingly sought by the industry.Auto industry gains are not critical to Stelco’s growth, but offer an opportunity to boost margins, Kestenbaum said.“The auto industry wants more suppliers and they remember Stelco,” he said.Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stelco-holdings-ipo/reborn-canada-steelmaker-stelco-eyes-organic-ma-growth-ceo-idUSKBN1DA2LL'|'2017-11-11T02:45:00.000+02:00'
'efb7c676a208102f5cc8f38c7bd7bcd2d4cc7398'|'Toshiba considering $5.3 billion capital injection - NHK'|'November 10, 2017 / 12:52 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Toshiba mulling plan for $5.3 billion capital injection - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) is considering a capital injection of about 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion or 4.03 billion pounds) centred on a third-party allotment of new shares, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen as window cleaners work on the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Toshiba has received proposals from several domestic and overseas brokerages for plans to raise money through a public offering or third-party allotment, and is looking into the option of allocating shares mainly to investors outside Japan, the person said. The source declined to be identified because the plan is not public. Toshiba needs to beef up its balance sheet by the end of the fiscal year in March to avoid a possible delisting. The company wants to finalise the capital injection plan by year-end because it would need shareholder approval depending on the offering price and scope of share dilution, the person said. ($1 = 113.3700 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-accounting/toshiba-considering-5-3-billion-capital-injection-nhk-idUKKBN1DA02H'|'2017-11-10T02:52:00.000+02:00'
'6747def947d08f2cf08d05d4a3d70acf19086648'|'About 75,000 bpd of Gulf oil output still shut after Shell fire'|'November 15, 2017 / 7:29 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago About 75,000 bpd of Gulf oil output still shut after Shell fire Bryan Sims 2 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - A combined 75,206 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 215,122 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production are shut-in at four platforms in the wake of a Nov. 8 fire at Royal Dutch Shell’s ( RDSa.L ) Enchilada platform, according to U.S. government data. The figures include Shell’s Enchilada, Salsa and Augers platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Hess Corp’s ( HES.N ) Baldpate platform and Hess-operated Conger field, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). Shell holds a 37.5 percent share in the Conger field. Hess temporarily abandoned production at its Baldpate, Conger and Penn State fields, according to the company, adding that production coming through its Garden Banks Gas Pipeline system will be closed until further notice. A plan to repair damage caused by an operational incident at the Enchilada platform is under way, according to Shell. Hess is cooperating with Shell to determine when the platform will restart. The Gulf produces about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day and 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily. Reporting by Bryan SimsEditing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-gulfmexico-shutins/about-75000-bpd-of-gulf-oil-output-still-shut-after-shell-fire-idUKKBN1DF2UQ'|'2017-11-15T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'89914b4b127e4e9a47741ff0703cc1032480e5c6'|'U.S. investor nears record 400-jet Airbus order - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 6:09 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Record Airbus order as Franke ups bet on budget airlines Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus hailed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an umbrella agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion (£37.9 billion) to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke. The preliminary deal for A320neo-family narrowbody jets was signed at the Dubai Airshow and offers a major boost to Airbus, which has lagged arch-rival Boeing in orders this year. It also ensures veteran sales chief John Leahy retires on a high in the coming months. Boeing immediately hit back with a provisional agreement to sell 175 planes to budget airline flydubai. Including options to buy a further 50 planes, that deal could be worth $27 billion at list prices. The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is billed as the industry’s largest by number of aircraft. For Airbus, the $49.5 billion list price value is seen as a record, though it is eclipsed by a $76 billion Emirates deal with Boeing in 2013. “I think we could buy several countries’ GDP with it,” said Franke, a gentlemanly but hard-nosed negotiator who is said to have won unusually steep discounts to advertised prices. “Hopefully I can do better than that,” he added. The package technically covers four separate agreements jointly negotiated through Franke as a common investor, and Airbus billed the deal only as a record “announcement”. Franke did not take part in a signing by airline chiefs. A person close to the talks said that such “wholesale” aircraft deals could become more common as more private equity and new sources of funding come into the airline business. ‘HERDING CATS’ Bill Franke, Managing Partner of Indigo Partners LLC, attends a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar Indigo plans to supply the narrowbody jets to four airlines in which it has stakes: U.S. carrier Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, Chilean JetSMART and Hungary’s Wizz Air. Ultra-low-cost carriers such as these have rewritten the industry rule book by combining bargain fares with optional services and upgrades for passengers prepared to pay extra. Franke went to Airbus several months ago with a proposal to pool the needs of his airlines, setting in train a complex negotiation that one observer described as “herding cats”. Airbus, shares of which rose by 2.4 percent on Wednesday, said it expects to finalise the transaction directly with the airlines in the coming weeks as it tries to close a 250-plane deficit in its order race with Boeing. Franke described this as an aggressive but achievable target. John Leahy, Airbus Sales Chief, and Bill Franke, Managing Partner of Indigo Partners LLC, pose during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar For now, the headline total of almost 700 jets covered by air show announcements fails to change the order battle as barely 30 of the deals so far represent finalised contracts. The framework deal, along with flydubai’s deal for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets, underscores how airlines are taking advantage of slowing global demand to negotiate competitive deals to add to their fleets. SWAN SONG The Franke deal also marks a dramatic swan song for Airbus sales chief Leahy, who is due to retire in the coming months from a role he has held since 1994. The 67-year-old has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and helped to lift Airbus’s market share from a mere 18 percent to stand roughly at par with Boeing. The two rivals account for the vast majority of the market. This year, however, Airbus’s share of the order tally had dropped to 35 percent before the Dubai show, with a rejuvenated Boeing management having made advances in Singapore and elsewhere. The blockbuster finale to the main part of the Nov. 12-16 show lifted a despondent mood that had settled over the Airbus chalet when a deal for A380 superjumbos collapsed on day one. “I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters. Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow/u-s-investor-nears-record-400-jet-airbus-order-sources-idUKKBN1DF0MB'|'2017-11-15T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'044795b2b82f4c35906d01d4f7abb2664e97e57a'|'Innogy to exit British retail joint venture with SSE in long-term - CEO'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:07 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Innogy to exit British retail JV with SSE in long term - CEO Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - German energy group Innogy ( IGY.DE ) will at some point pull out of the planned British retail supply joint venture with peer SSE ( SSE.L ), its chief executive said. FILE PHOTO -An SSE company logo is seen on signage outside the Pitlochry Dam hydro electric power station in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Last week, the two groups announced plans to merge and list their British retail units to better compete with smaller rivals and reap badly-need synergies in a market with razor-thin margins. Innogy will hold a 34.4 percent stake in the combined entity, with SSE to own the rest, but Innogy Chief Executive Peter Terium said this structure would not last forever. “No, we will not hold on to it in the long-term,” Terium told journalists late on Tuesday, adding this did not mean that the company would sell its stake soon. Innogy has committed to holding its stake for at least six months from admission of the joint venture, which would combine Innogy’s struggling British unit npower with SSE’s British retail supply business. The deal is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2019 at the latest. FILE PHOTO - Innogy logo in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo Terium said Innogy could sell its remaining stake if there is a good offer, but added the group did not need the cash in the short term and could focus on maximising the entity’s value in a first step. “This can well take several years, we are in no rush,” he said, adding that Innogy would not completely withdraw from Britain, which remains a key market for wind farms, as does the United States, where Republicans have proposed wind support cuts. Terium said that despite this the group remained committed to the United States wind market, where it plans to invest a triple-digit million euro amount, possibly more. “We will certainly show further growth there,” Terium said, confirming plans for a first U.S. wind project in 2018. Terium said he regretted the decision of supervisory board Chairman Werner Brandt to step down from his post, adding that collaboration had been excellent. He did say that Brandt’s reasons for the move were personal, seeking to allay possible concerns that there was a conflict of interest due to Brandt’s post of supervisory board chairman at Innogy’s parent RWE ( RWEG.DE ). “There are no business reasons that affect Innogy or RWE,” Terium said, also trying to prevent speculation about a possible offer for RWE’s 76.8-percent stake in Innogy, which sources said has caught the eye of peers including Engie ( ENGIE.PA ), Iberdola ( IBE.MC ) and Enel ENEI.ML. Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sse-innogy/innogy-to-exit-british-retail-joint-venture-with-sse-in-long-term-ceo-idUKKBN1DF13Z'|'2017-11-15T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'3a01c93553af0edb27022cb55d1f20c228bbe424'|'Sampo CEO signs up for software firm Efecte''s planned IPO - Reuters'|'HELSINKI (Reuters) - Kari Stadigh, the chief executive of Nordic financial holding company Sampo ( SAMPO.HE ), has signed up as one of the largest investors in software company Efecte, which on Wednesday announced its plans for initial public offering.Efecte, which makes cloud-based service and identity management software for companies and public organizations, is looking to raise about 5.7 million euros ($6.7 million) in the planned IPO, and to list its shares in Helsinki bourse’s First North list for growth companies.Sampo, 12 percent owned by the state of Finland, is known for successful M&A moves, including selling its banking business to Danske Bank ( DANSKE.CO ) just before the financial crisis and buying Nordea shares at low levels in 2008 and 2009.Stadigh has committed to personally invest 2.5 million euros in the IPO in which some owners will also sell shares, Efecte said.The company’s biggest owner is currently First Fellow Partners, a venture capital firm founded by Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) chairman Risto Siilasmaa.Efecte had sales of 8.3 million euros last year and it targets organic average growth of more than 20 percent annually through 2022 by international expansion.Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-efecte-ipo-sampo/sampo-ceo-signs-up-for-software-firm-efectes-planned-ipo-idINKBN1DF10L'|'2017-11-15T05:32:00.000+02:00'
'c6986bd9d1d77f1f51a99828e54483c2108518ee'|'USITC says launches probe of allegations of patent infringement by Apple'|'November 14, 2017 / 10:05 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago USITC says launches probe of allegations of patent infringement by Apple Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into allegations of patent infringement by Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) on various devices. FILE PHOTO: A attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The commission said in a statement the probe was based on a complaint by Aqua Connect Inc and Strategic Technology Partners of Orange, California. The products at issue are certain Apple Mac computers, iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple TVs, it said. Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Walsh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-investigation/usitc-says-launches-probe-of-allegations-of-patent-infringement-by-apple-idUKKBN1DE301'|'2017-11-15T01:07:00.000+02:00'
'586efcf10d4106b8107b343e937f9f7e398cfc52'|'Sessions will not answer if White House asked about AT&T Time Warner merger'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined on Tuesday to answer if any White House officials contacted the Justice Department to discuss the government’s review of AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ).FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Sessions would not answer a question at a U.S. House hearing about if the White House had any communications about the deal. President Donald Trump as a candidate had vowed not to approve the merger and has repeatedly criticized Time Warner’s CNN network. Reuters reported the Justice Department demanded last week that AT&T divest DirecTV or the Turner Broadcasting unit in order to win approval.Reporting by David Shepardson and Sarah Lynch; Editing by Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/sessions-will-not-answer-if-white-house-asked-about-att-time-warner-merger-idINKBN1DE2JN'|'2017-11-14T15:31:00.000+02:00'
'22a601f3a64543d1982eaf929a253e1f1ab6f5e2'|'Vietnamese researcher shows iPhone X face ID ''hack'''|'November 14, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Vietnamese researcher shows iPhone X face ID ''hack'' Mai Nguyen 3 Min Read HANOI (Reuters) - A researcher in Vietnam has demonstrated how he apparently fooled Apple Inc’s face recognition ID software on its new iPhone X using a mask made with a 3D printer, silicone and paper tape. A 3D mask and an iPhone X are seen during a demonstration of recognition ID at the office of Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm in Hanoi, Vietnam November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kham An announcement on Friday by Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm, that it had cracked Apple’s Face ID, and a subsequent video apparently showing an iPhone being unlocked when pointed at a mask, were greeted with some skepticism. Ngo Tuan Anh, Bkav’s vice president, gave Reuters several demonstrations, first unlocking the phone with his face and then by using the mask. It appeared to work each time. However, he declined to register a user ID and the mask on the phone from scratch because, he said, the iPhone and mask need to be placed at very specific angles, and the mask to be refined, a process he said could take up to nine hours. Apple declined to comment, referring journalists to a page on its website that explains how Face ID works. That page says the probability of a random person unlocking another user’s phone with their face was approximately 1-in-a-million, compared to 1-in-50,000 for the previously used fingerprint scanner. It also says Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts before a passcode is required. Anh acknowledged that preparing the mask wasn’t easy, but he said he believed the demonstration showed facial recognition as a way to authenticate users would be risky for some. Ngo Tuan Anh, Vice President of Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm, demonstrates iPhone X Apple''s face recognition ID software with a 3D mask at his office in Hanoi, Vietnam November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kham “It’s not easy for normal people to do what we do here, but it’s a concern for people in the security sector and important people like politicians or heads of corporations,” he said. “(These) important people should absolutely not lend their iPhone X to anyone if they have activated the Face ID function.” Slideshow (3 Images) It’s the first reported case of researchers apparently being able to fool the Face ID software. Cybersecurity experts said the issue was not so much whether Face ID could be hacked, but how much effort a hack required. “Nothing is 100 percent secure,” wrote Terry Ray, chief technology officer at U.S.-based cybersecurity company Imperva, in a note. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The questions are: How much trouble would someone go to, and how much would they spend, to get your data?” Bkav’s Anh said the research took about a week, and included numerous failures. The mask frame was made of plastic, covered with paper tape to resemble skin, with a silicone nose and paper for eyes and mouth. As far back as 2009, Bkav researchers highlighted what they said were problems with using facial recognition as a way to authenticate users. They said then that they had hacked three laptop manufacturers which used webcams to authenticate users. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing and additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-vietnam-hack/vietnamese-researcher-shows-iphone-x-face-id-hack-idUKKBN1DE1TH'|'2017-11-14T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'b9d422ee01281523b27d15619426b493f19d6566'|'China''s OTC equity market touches 3-year low amid regulation concerns'|'SHANGHAI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The benchmark index on China’s main over-the-counter (OTC) equity market on Tuesday finished at its lowest level in almost three years, having broken below the 1,000 point mark, amid growing investor worries about tighter regulations.The prolonged loss in the New Third Board - the board is now down over 60 percent from its April 2015 peak - contrasts sharply with a strong recovery in China’s main stock exchanges, and casts a cloud over the future of a marketplace some had hoped could incubate China’s Google or Microsoft.On Tuesday, investors pushed the NEEQ Market Making Component Index - which tracks the most liquid companies on the New Third Board - to as low as 998.89 points, its weakest since Jan. 12, 2015. It closed on Tuesday at 1,000.437 points.“It’s a wake-up call that prods thinking about the board’s fate - how to reform it, and when,” said Wang Jin, a lawyer at Hiways Law Firm, who represents some New Third Board companies.He said the market, potentially a key financing channel for China’s small private firms, is strangled by low liquidity, as regulators tighten supervision.The market had strong expectations that regulators would soon lower the investment threshold, which currently bars participation by investors with less than 5 million yuan in their trading accounts. However, Wang said “any relaxation now seems unlikely with regulators becoming increasingly cautious”.Meanwhile, regulators have tightened scrutiny on initial public offerings over the past weeks, dealing a blow to investors who had hoped that many companies traded on the New Third Board would be soon eligible for a public listing.“Investors’ interest is waning as IPOs are getting more difficult,” said Peng Hai, an analyst at Lianxun Securities.“Liquidity is extremely poor now. If there is little trading, how can this market develop?” (Reporting by Samuel Shen and John Ruwitch; Editing by Sam Holmes) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-markets-otc/chinas-otc-equity-market-touches-3-year-low-amid-regulation-concerns-idINL3N1NK3EJ'|'2017-11-14T06:55:00.000+02:00'
'f3bd89b8834320198996a1a289504e1ac467df2d'|'Asia stocks shaky before China data, ponder yield curve'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:47 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Stocks, oil prices decline; German growth lifts euro Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks were down for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday, while strong economic growth in Germany boosted the euro to an almost three-week high. FILE PHOTO: A container ship is seen at the shipping terminal Eurokai in the Port of Hamburg, Germany November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Wall Street was lower on weak oil prices, uncertainty about U.S. tax policy and the economy’s ability to deal with more interest rate hikes. European stocks fell to a two-month low. U.S. Treasury two-year note yields climbed to a nine-year peak while long-dated debt yields fell, flattening the yield curve flattened for a second straight day, while investors braced for a Federal Reserve December rate hike. In Germany a 0.8-percent third-quarter growth reading beat forecasts and showed the economy expanding at annualized rates of more than 3 percent. “It’s been a euro trade today, and it’s stronger against just about everything,” Brad Bechtel, managing director FX at Jefferies in New York, said. “The numbers out of Germany were pretty good last night.” The dollar index .DXY fell 0.74 percent, with the euro EUR= up 1.13 percent to $1.1797. On Wall Street, investors sought updates on rival U.S. House of Representatives and Senate tax reform proposals. Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul said he would seek to add a provision to repeal Obamacare’s requirement Americans obtain health insurance and scale back its elimination of a federal deduction for state and local taxes. “As proposed, both plans, but especially the House package, would be good for corporate America. There’s uncertainty whether anything is going to be passed or how much compromise is going to occur,” said J. Bryant Evans, portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management, in Champaign, Illinois. After an upcoming break for the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, there are only 12 legislative days before year-end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 57.08 points, or 0.24 percent, to 23,382.62, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.3 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,575.54 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 35.68 points, or 0.53 percent, to 6,721.92. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.69 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.17 percent. A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Monetary policy was also on traders’ minds with the heads of the U.S., European, British and Japanese central banks attending a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt. The U.S. two-year yield US2YT=RR hit a nine-year peak just shy of 1.7 percent, up from Monday’s 1.687 percent. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 6/32 in price to yield 2.3788 percent, from 2.4 percent late on Monday. Stocks in Asia had fallen after China’s retail sales and industrial output data missed market expectations. MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.4 percent in its third consecutive day of losses. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 was unchanged after four sessions of losses. Oil declined for a third day as evidence of rising U.S. output and a gloomier outlook for demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) weighed on prices. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 1.97 percent to $55.64 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.07, down 1.73 percent on the day. (For a graphic on ''MSCI and Nikkei chart'' click reut.rs/2sSBRiD ) (For a graphic on ''World FX rates in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh ) (For a graphic on ''Global assets in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2yaWht3 ) (For a graphic on ''Global market cap'' click reut.rs/2mcp7T1 ) (For a graphic on ''Emerging markets in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV ) Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Marc Jones in London, Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-shaky-before-china-data-ponder-yield-curve-idUSKBN1DE02N'|'2017-11-14T02:47:00.000+02:00'
'4c52f1a6686c6dda1a35cca4a1b4700aea5edca0'|'Google faces antitrust investigation in Missouri'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:18 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Google faces antitrust investigation in Missouri Paresh Dave 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Missouri’s attorney general said Monday his office would investigate whether Alphabet Inc’s Google violated the state’s consumer protection and antitrust laws. FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Josh Hawley, a Republican seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill in next year’s elections, announced at a press conference that he issued an investigative subpoena to Google. He expressed concern over the accuracy of the company’s privacy policy, allegations it misappropriated content from rivals and claims it demoted competitors’ websites in search results. Google said it had not yet received the subpoena. “However, we have strong privacy protections in place for our users and continue to operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment,” spokesperson Andrea Faville said in a statement. Google has come under growing scrutiny globally as it has become a top provider of online search, mobile software and advertising technology. But formal investigations have reached varying results in the last seven years. Attorney generals of 37 states reached a $7 million settlement in 2013 over Google’s unauthorized collection of Wi-Fi data through its Street View digital-mapping cars. A Federal Trade Commission inquiry also prompted Google that year to agree to provide advertisers and patent licensees more flexible terms. The FTC, though, did not bring the stronger antitrust charges that Google rivals such as Microsoft Corp and Yelp Inc sought. States including Ohio, Mississippi and Texas saw inquiries falter without substantive consequences. Missouri’s Hawley said the FTC’s inaction created an opening. “We are going to act to hold corporate giants accountable ... for the good of the people of Missouri,” Hawley said. Asked at the press conference whether his senate candidacy played a role in opening the Google inquiry, Hawley said he acted upon his oath of office and desire “to get to the truth.” He pointed to the European Union fining Google $2.7 billion in June for unfairly favoring links to its own shopping service over those from other e-commerce websites. Hawley said he was moved to act because of concern that Google is engaging in similar behavior domestically. Google is appealing the EU fine. The other issue cited by Hawley may be tied to complaints from Yelp. The business reviews’ website wrote the FTC and the attorney generals of all 50 states in September that Google has copied images from its service without permission in violation of a commitment made to the U.S. antitrust regulator. Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-antitrust/google-faces-antitrust-investigation-in-missouri-idUKKBN1DD2CE'|'2017-11-13T21:16:00.000+02:00'
'bf6701c1d82046ff84c71361ae47dc4799cb0927'|'Indonesia delivers supplies to villages after Papua rebels'' threat to Freeport'|'JAKARTA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Authorities in Indonesia’s eastern province of Papua are delivering food and aid to villages where security forces say an armed rebel group has blocked residents’ movement, as police and military surround the area, a police official said on Sunday.Police say a group linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is preventing about 1,000 people from leaving five villages near a giant copper mine operated by the American miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc.“We continue to try a persuasive approach and dialogue,” said Viktor Mackbon, police chief of the Mimika area, where the villages are located. Talks with the group would be conducted through public and religious figures in the region, he added.Officials delivered two truckloads of rice, instant noodles, and toiletries for the villagers.“Their access to these goods is not yet normal, so we must provide help,” said Mackbon, adding that the rebel group had not tried to disrupt the supply effort.Officials on Saturday said about 200 police and military personnel had been deployed in preparation for orders to secure the area by force, if necessary.Reuters could not immediately reach members of the rebel group, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), to seek comment.On Friday, the group denied occupying villages near the mine, but said it was “at war” with the police, military, and Freeport.A state of emergency has been declared in the area and security stepped up after a string of shootings since Aug. 17 that killed one police officer and wounded six.Papua has had a long-running, and sometimes violent, separatist movement since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.The incident is the first escalation of violence during the term of President Joko Widodo, who has sought to ease tension in the region by stepping up investment, freeing political prisoners and tackling human rights concerns.Freeport’s Grasberg mine has been dogged by security concerns for decades over the low-level conflict waged by the rebels. Between 2009 and 2015, shootings within the mine project area killed 20 people and wounded 59.More recently, Freeport, the world’s largest publicly listed copper producer, has been grappling with labour problems at Grasberg and a mine rights dispute with Indonesia. (Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-security-papua/indonesia-delivers-supplies-to-villages-after-papua-rebels-threat-to-freeport-idINL3N1NI04C'|'2017-11-12T01:41:00.000+02:00'
'960f99397dee1f7bff67e0825d9a840cc2d02da2'|'Legionnaires sickens 12 in California, including 9 at Disneyland'|'LOS ANGELES, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Disneyland has shut down and decontaminated two cooling towers following an outbreak of Legionnaires disease that sickened 12 people, nine of them guests or employees at the theme park in Anaheim, county health officials said on Saturday.One of the three cases of the respiratory illness not linked to Disneyland was fatal in an individual who had additional health issues, said Jessica Good of the Orange County Health Care Agency.The chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Pamela Hymel, said in a written statement that after learning of the Legionnaires cases, park officials ordered the cooling towers treated with chemicals to destroy the bacteria and shut them down.Cooling towers provide cold water for various uses at Disneyland and give off a vapor or mist that could have carried the Legionnella bacteria.Disneyland, which opened in 1955 and attracts tens of thousands of visitors a day, is owned by The Walt Disney Company .Hymel said that local health officials had assured them that there was no longer any risk to guests or employees of the park.There was no information on the condition of the remaining 11 victims, due to patient confidentiality laws.Good said an investigation of Legionnaires cluster discovered that the 12 people sickened by the serious lung disease had traveled to, lived in, or worked in Anaheim during the month of September.Ten of the victims, who ranged in age from 52 to 94, were hospitalized.Legionnaires disease is caused by the Legionella bacteria and can cause potentially fatal respiratory illness and pneumonia. Older people and those with health issues are particularly at risk.According to the Orange County health agency Legionella is becoming more common in the United States and in Orange County, where 55 cases have been reported through October 2017, compared with 53 for all of 2016 and 33 in 2015.Symptoms develop 2 to 10 days after exposure, the OCHCA said, and include fever, chills, cough, muscle aches, and headaches. It is treated with antibiotics, which can improve symptoms and shorten the length of illness.The disease is not contagious. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-disneyland-legionnaires/legionnaires-sickens-12-in-california-including-9-at-disneyland-idINL1N1NH0IW'|'2017-11-11T19:16:00.000+02:00'
'aac2c20180eca21c196c8734faa38e20a2bb5b90'|'UPDATE 1-Freeport Indonesia shuts main supply route to mine after shooting'|'(Recasts with Freeport comment, adds details)JAKARTA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc has temporarily shut the main supply route to its Papua mine after a shooting incident, a spokesman said, amid escalating tensions between security forces and an armed rebel group in the area.No one had been reported hurt after shots were fired at a vehicle, but the main supply route to the world’s second-biggest copper mine had been temporarily closed while the security situation was assessed, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said in text message.Authorities in Indonesia’s eastern province of Papua are delivering food and aid to villages near the mine where security forces say the rebel group has blocked residents’ movement, as security personnel surround the area, a police official said.Police say a group linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is preventing about 1,000 people from leaving five villages near the Grasberg mine operated by the U.S. company.“We continue to try a persuasive approach and dialogue,” said Viktor Mackbon, police chief of the Mimika area, where the villages are located. Talks with the group would be conducted through public and religious figures in the region, he added.Officials on Saturday said about 200 police and military personnel had been deployed in preparation to secure the area by force, if necessary.Police sad they will distribute on Monday a notice in the area for the “armed criminal group” to give themselves up and surrender weapons.Reuters could not immediately reach members of the rebel group, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), to seek comment.On Friday, the group denied occupying villages near the mine, but said it was “at war” with the police, military, and Freeport.A resident from one of the villages, Banti, said security forces had blocked access to the village.Residents he had spoken were not being held hostage by separatists but “are only worried about what might happen if the police and military come into their area”, he said.A state of emergency has been declared in the area and security stepped up after a string of shootings since Aug. 17 that killed one police officer and wounded six.Papua has had a long-running, and sometimes violent, separatist movement since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.The incident is the first escalation of violence under President Joko Widodo, who has sought to ease tension in the region by stepping up investment, freeing political prisoners and tackling human rights concerns.The Grasberg mine has been dogged by security concerns for decades. From 2009-2015 shootings within the mine project area killed 20 people and wounded 59. (Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Fergus Jensen; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Peter Graff) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-security-papua/update-1-freeport-indonesia-shuts-main-supply-route-to-mine-after-shooting-idINL3N1NI0CT'|'2017-11-12T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'ec5b14e73c7a175157901017f09173d622c573f7'|'Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer: sources'|'(Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) is making preparations to reject rival Broadcom Ltd’s ( AVGO.O ) $103 billion bid as early as this week, four   matter said on Sunday, setting the stage for one of the biggest-ever takeover battles. A building on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Qualcomm’s board of directors could meet as early as Sunday to review the unsolicited acquisition offer and decide on its strategy, the sources said. The preparations for the board meeting indicate that Qualcomm is poised to rebuff the bid as insufficient as early as Monday, although it may decide to spend a few more days this week to prepare its full response to Broadcom, the sources added. Qualcomm Chief Executive Steven Mollenkopf has spent the past few days soliciting feedback from Qualcomm shareholders, and feels that Qualcomm’s $70-per-share bid undervalues the company and does not price in the uncertainty associated with getting the deal approved by regulators, according to the sources. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, who said earlier this month he would redomicile his company to the United States from Singapore, has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle. The sources said Broadcom was preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. That would allow Qualcomm shareholders to vote to replace the company’s board and force it to engage with Broadcom. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Broadcom has also been deliberating the possibility of raising its bid for Qualcomm, including through more debt financing, some of the sources said, although it was not clear when Broadcom would choose to make such a move. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom   requests for comment. Slideshow (2 Images) Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not plan to significantly raise its price for NXP as a defensive strategy to make its acquisition by Broadcom more expensive, according to one of the sources. Qualcomm shares closed at $64.57 on Friday, while Broadcom ended at $264.96. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/qualcomm-draws-up-plans-to-rebuff-broadcoms-103-billion-offer-sources-idUSKBN1DC10V'|'2017-11-13T05:37:00.000+02:00'
'65603ad2aca8e6c4cac1506fd3aca781274bc71d'|'Interview: IMF says Europe''s growth more durable, warns of ''disruptive'' Brexit threat'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:09 AM / a few seconds ago IMF says Europe''s growth more durable, warns of ''disruptive'' Brexit threat Marc Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Europe’s economy is now hitting its stride, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, but a disruptive Brexit could result in “appreciably” lower growth for both Britain and the euro zone. FILE PHOTO: International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen at the IMF headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas The IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook, which looks at more than 40 countries from Germany and the UK to Turkey and Russia, said the current recovery looks increasingly assured. It is partly driven by central bank stimulus and low interest rates, but also by improving fundamentals, as evidenced by a pick-up in investment across a broad range of economies. “This recovery looks increasingly durable,” the deputy director of the IMF’s European Department, Joerg Decressin, told Reuters at a presentation of the report published on Monday. “Growth in the euro area has been positive for 18 quarters, lately around 2.5 percent. Many countries in eastern Europe have seen growth around or above 3 percent for some time already. So this recovery has not only become broader but also stronger.” The IMF’s World Economic Outlook, published at September meetings in Washington, forecasts region-wide growth of 2.4 percent this year and 2.1 percent next year, but much has shifted in the background since then. Decressin said it supported the European Central Bank’s careful approach to cutting its stimulus. He also said inflation justified the Bank of England’s raising its interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis. The main uncertainty on the horizon remains Brexit and what kind of trade relationship Britain can set up when it leaves the European Union with the 27 remaining countries. Decressin said the IMF’s expectation remained that a deal with a transition period would be struck. Its economists have not run any “no deal” forecasts, he said, but a “disruptive” Brexit is likely to have a damaging impact. “Under such circumstances, our concern is that economic growth will suffer, especially in the UK, but also the euro area,” he said. “We are then possibly looking at appreciably lower growth than we presently project.” For now, though, he flagged how much more positive the mood was than just one or two years ago, when worries were still rife in the euro zone that Greece would be forced out. French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposals to accelerate euro zone integration have been an important part of that, Decressin said. He also gave the IMF’s clearest backing yet for plans to convert the European Stability Mechanism into IMF-style crisis lender. “We are supportive of the objective,” he said. “With an appropriate governance structure and a strong surveillance mandate, an EMF (European Monetary Fund) could really strengthen crisis prevention and management.” An ability to make swift and decisive decisions will be key. The euro zone often labored during its various crises because it needed to get formal approval for measures from numerous national parliaments. The IMF has also been left badly bruised by its involvement in Greece’s rolling crisis over the last seven years, which often saw it at odds with Athens and the likes of Berlin. “We do not have an objective to retreat from supporting Europe, on the contrary,” Decressin said. “We remain at the disposal of our European shareholders to help with any crisis if and when it emerges. We also hope to continue to play a useful role via our surveillance.” Reporting by Marc Jones, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-imf/imf-says-europes-growth-more-durable-warns-of-disruptive-brexit-threat-idINKBN1DD0X4'|'2017-11-13T11:02:00.000+02:00'
'd3dcddb58ab6b6abc7297f858b3539e611732b83'|'Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer - sources'|'November 12, 2017 / 9:37 PM / Updated an hour ago Qualcomm draws up plans to rebuff Broadcom''s $103 billion offer: sources Greg Roumeliotis , Liana B. Baker 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) is making preparations to reject rival Broadcom Ltd’s ( AVGO.O ) $103 billion bid as early as this week, four people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, setting the stage for one of the biggest-ever takeover battles. A building on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Qualcomm’s board of directors could meet as early as Sunday to review the unsolicited acquisition offer and decide on its strategy, the sources said. The preparations for the board meeting indicate that Qualcomm is poised to rebuff the bid as insufficient as early as Monday, although it may decide to spend a few more days this week to prepare its full response to Broadcom, the sources added. Qualcomm Chief Executive Steven Mollenkopf has spent the past few days soliciting feedback from Qualcomm shareholders, and feels that Broadcom’s $70-per-share bid undervalues the company and does not price in the uncertainty associated with getting the deal approved by regulators, according to the sources. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, who said earlier this month he would redomicile his company to the United States from Singapore, has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle. The sources said Broadcom was preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. That would allow Qualcomm shareholders to vote to replace the company’s board and force it to engage with Broadcom. Broadcom has also been deliberating the possibility of raising its bid for Qualcomm, including through more debt financing, some of the sources said, although it was not clear when Broadcom would choose to make such a move. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Slideshow (2 Images) Qualcomm provides chips to carrier networks to deliver broadband and mobile data. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not plan to significantly raise its price for NXP as a defensive strategy to make its acquisition by Broadcom more expensive, according to one of the sources. Qualcomm shares closed at $64.57 on Friday, while Broadcom ended at $264.96. (This version of the story changes Qualcomm reference to Broadcom in paragraph 3) Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/qualcomm-draws-up-plans-to-rebuff-broadcoms-103-billion-offer-sources-idUKKBN1DC10V'|'2017-11-13T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'54e37207b6d8c992db3e1960c28c03a1f7f847b8'|'Vodacom revenue lifted by strong growth in South Africa'|'November 13, 2017 / 5:39 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Vodacom revenue lifted by strong growth in South Africa Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Vodacom Group ( VODJ.J ) reported a 2 percent increase in first-half service revenue on Monday, lifted by rising demand for data services in its home market. FILE PHOTO - A branch South African mobile communications provider Vodacom in Cape Town is shown in this picture taken November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings Vodacom, majority owned by Britain’s Vodafone ( VOD.L ), has invested heavily in its network to provide faster internet services as increasing numbers of consumers use smartphones. Group service revenue rose 2 percent to 34.7 billion rand (1.84 billion pounds), while group revenue increased 4.6 percent to 42 billion rand. The group said it added 2.9 million customers in South Africa, breaching the 40 million mark for the first time. It added 1.4 million customers in its international markets, an increase of 11.4 percent. Vodacom, which gained a 35 percent stake in Kenya’s Safaricom ( SCOM.NR ) as Vodafone consolidated two of its African interests in May, said revenue at Safaricom’s money transfer service M-Pesa rose 14 percent in the first half. Headline earnings per share - a profit gauge that strips out certain one-off items - came in at 445 cents in the six-months ended September, compared with 440 cents a year earlier. Vodacom, which is still being investigated by the Competition Commission for suspected market dominance, declared an interim dividend per share of 390 cents, slight lower than the previous year. Shares in the company fell 2.6 percent to 148.50 rand at 0742 GMT. Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Joe Brock and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vodacom-grp-results/south-africas-vodacom-half-year-earnings-inch-up-1-percent-idUKKBN1DD0GI'|'2017-11-13T09:48:00.000+02:00'
'7eb93db58ed128c508b6a8c8c1180188f96a6c9f'|'Wall Street bonuses may jump 10 percent this year -report'|'Nov 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street bonuses may climb as much as 10 percent this year, in the first meaningful jump for the industry since 2013, according to a closely watched report.Bankers who advise companies on issuing stock or bonds could see an even bigger pay jump, as much as 20 percent, compensation firm Johnson Associates Inc said on Sunday.A reduced emphasis on financial regulation under U.S. President Donald Trump has boosted shares of banks to peak levels on hopes higher interest rates, lower taxes and faster economic growth under the Trump administration would lift profits.The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which measures the largest U.S. banks, has risen 34 percent since the election, compared with the benchmark S&P 500 index’s 24 percent gain over the same period.But looser banking regulations haven’t translated yet into better trading results amid low market volatility and tepid client activity. Wall Street firms’ bond trading revenue has fallen for about seven years amid new rules on trading and capital.Banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, that once relied heavily on trading, are now leaning more heavily on businesses like private equity and wealth management.As a result, fixed income traders are likely to see their bonuses fall as much as 10 percent, the report said.“The profit engine of fixed income continues to sputter,” Johnson Associates managing director Alan Johnson said in an interview. “There are a lot of people who don’t think that business is coming back.” (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/wall-street-compensation/wall-street-bonuses-may-jump-10-percent-this-year-report-idUSL1N1NF1FE'|'2017-11-13T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'95617385ee787424e7e5d559588c1b2cc5ff2c80'|'Qualcomm rejects Broadcom''s $103-billion takeover bid'|'November 13, 2017 / 2:03 PM / Updated an hour ago Qualcomm rejects Broadcom''s $103-billion takeover bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc on Monday rejected rival Broadcom Ltd’s $103-billion takeover bid, saying the offer “dramatically” undervalued the U.S. company. A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Shares of Qualcomm were up 1 percent at $65.25 in premarket trading, while those of Broadcom fell 0.7 percent to $263. “After a comprehensive review, conducted in consultation with our financial and legal advisors, the Board has concluded that Broadcom’s proposal dramatically undervalues Qualcomm and comes with significant regulatory uncertainty,” Qualcomm’s Presiding Director Tom Horton said in a statement. Broadcom made an unsolicited bid last week in its efforts to become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. Reuters reported on Sunday that Qualcomm would rebuff the $70 per share offer, citing people familiar with the matter. Broadcom could not immediately be reached for comment. A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The offer also comes at a time when Qualcomm is trying to close its pending $38-billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to buy Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. A sale to Broadcom would also need a nod from the antitrust officials, who are still considering Qualcomm’s purchase of NXP. Qualcomm, an early pioneer in mobile phone chips, supplies so-called modem chips to phone makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG that help the phones connect to wireless data networks. “No company is better positioned in mobile, IoT, automotive, edge computing and networking within the semiconductor industry,” Qualcomm’s Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf said. “We are confident in our ability to create significant additional value for our stockholders.” Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/qualcomm-rejects-broadcoms-103-billion-takeover-proposal-idUKKBN1DD1NU'|'2017-11-13T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'21f0e47f2b17658df1757a15c129a0be3766d959'|'The new American Apparel: claims of ''ethically made'' abroad clash with reality'|'Under a page headlined “Sweatshop Free Stories” on American Apparel’s website is a video profile of a young Honduran man, Heber Lopez, a garment worker at one of the factories in San Antonio, Honduras responsible for producing the retailer’s clothing.American Apparel founder Dov Charney: ‘Sleeping with people you work with is unavoidable’ Read more Lopez recounts his hardscrabble life story, the death of his mother when he was nine, a close brush with drug involvement after struggling to find work. “His options in life were limited,” reads the caption alongside the video – until he found a job at a factory owned by Gildan Activewear, a giant clothing manufacturer that acquired American Apparel for $88m earlier this year.Once one of the largest apparel producers in the US, American Apparel has long been known for its “Made in USA” trademark, its sometimes controversial advertising aesthetic and its commitment to manufacturing clothes in sweatshop-free facilities. But after a string of scandals related to its founder and former chief executive Dov Charney , and years of financial troubles the brand was auctioned off to Gildan Activewear, an American Canadian manufacturer whose factories are located primarily in Central America and the Caribbean. American Apparel then reopened as an online-only retailer, and by February, it swapped its “Made in USA” mantra with the phrase “Globally-Sourced,” as most of its apparel is now sourced from factories based in Central America, primarily in Honduras.Still, American Apparel maintains all their products remain ethically made and sweatshop free, claiming its goal is to “give more ethical jobs to more people around the world” in the Sweatshop Free Stories section of its website. But while the story of Heber Lopez might seem uplifting, many claim that the reality for garment workers is far from the glossy facade it has projected since Gildan acquired the company nine months ago.Ingrid Alicia Benitez, a 39-year-old mother of four, was one of 1,800 garment workers who were left jobless after four years of working at Gildan’s El-Progreso factory in 2004. Her job there was to inspect garments for any defects, and with a quota of 6,000 inspections per day – every second of her day was accounted for. For Ingrid, that meant a maximum of 10 minutes for lunch each day. It meant avoiding restroom visits unless absolutely necessary. It also meant pushing herself to go to work, regardless of how sick she was feeling that day. “If we fell short of the quota, our supervisor would threaten us by asking: Do you want to be here tomorrow, or not?” she told The Guardian. Facebook Twitter Pinterest But Ingrid needed to support her family, and so, she stayed. By her third year, she had developed consistent muscle pains and a bad cough that she says was widespread amongst garment workers who suffered from the fumes coming from the machinery. By the end of her fourth year, she was let go as part of a mass termination that took place when Gildan shut down its El Progreso plant in order to suppress a unionization effort amongst employees who had banded together to complain about labor rights violations occurring at the factory. The list of complaints included mandatory work shifts longer than the legal maximum limit, illegal dismissals of employees involved in unions – including the dismissal of a pregnant woman, as well as consistent harassment and verbal abuse targeted at employees. “The image that Gildan Activewear presents to the world is well-crafted. But we have six organized worker unions from Gildan factories, and they all have health problems,” said María Luisa Regalado, director of CODEMUH: The Honduran Women’s Collective, an organization which advocates for better living and working conditions for women in garment factories. “Many of the workers have developed disabilities due to health problems acquired on the job – the hours, high productions goals, and other problems that stem from the lack of studies on the health implications of working in these positions,” she said. Over the years, Regalado and her staff at CODEMUH have worked with dozens of women to address labour rights violations that have taken place in Gildan’s facilities. “In my experience, Gildan is one of the worst companies as far as labor exploitation goes,” said Regalado.While Ingrid’s experience with Gildan happened over a decade ago, the reality for some women who have worked there more recently is not so different. Just last November, five women came to CODEMUH’s offices in Choloma, Honduras, claiming they were fired for developing health problems incurred while on the job at Gildan’s San Miguel facility. In the dismissal letters issued by Gildan to each woman, almost identical in nature and issued just five days apart, the company informs Paola, another woman named Rosa, Santa, Maria and Aracely that they are being permanently dismissed, and that there is no other position they can be relocated to within Gildan’s facilities due to the medical issues they’ve incurred. The women, whose health issues range from chronic tendonitis in the arms and shoulders, myalgia in the neck and a number of degenerative spinal disorders, were all left without a job, or the ability to work in another factory due to their health troubles. In a letter addressed to Gildan’s chief executive Glenn Chamandy, eight labour organizations from Germany and Switzerland came together to express their disagreement with the dismissals and to criticize conditions at Gildan’s factories, writing: “You have full knowledge of the work-related illnesses that your workers suffer from. It is NOT fair for you to harm them, and then discard them as if they are objects at your disposal.”Gary Bell, vice-president of communications at Gildan, said Gildan has a strong labour compliance program and has steadily worked with labour unions to address any issue brought to its attention. According to him, the parallels between Gildan’s brand and that of American Apparel are pretty straightforward. “Our corporate social responsibility program is an assurance that former American Apparel customers can basically take and feel just as confident that these products are ethically-made and sweatshop free,” explains Bell.“Obviously with 50,000 employees it would be erroneous on my part to say that every single one of these employees loved every minute of their jobs every single day of the year – that just is not possible. So I think the important thing for us is to build our system in such a way so we can continuously improve on the value we deliver to our employees.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dov Charney, the ousted former head of American Apparel. Photograph: Melissa Lyttle for the Guardian The Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) in Washington, DC has had a long history investigating Gildan’s factories since the El Progreso incident in 2004. According to executive director, Scott Nova, the WRC has identified significant labour rights violations in a number of wholly owned Gildan facilities in recent years. In Nova’s view, the idea that American Apparel built its brand on – clothing made in the US by workers who make a living wage – directly clashes with the reality of the operations that take place in Gildan’s factories abroad.“Obviously, Gildan is not making the products in the US, but it is also not paying workers a living wage, and there is no particular reason to think that the conditions under which American Apparel clothing are now being made are superior to the general conditions in Honduras or other countries that export apparel,” said Nova. “Using terms like ethically-made and sweatshop free – there is no way that that doesn’t make a misleading impression on consumers looking at the American Apparel website,” he added. The rise and fall of American Apparel Read more In the eyes of the WRC, and other labour organizations both in the US and abroad, there is no independent documented evidence to suggest that any Gildan facility in Honduras can be termed ethically made and sweatshop free.Since the video featuring Heber Lopez was posted on the American Apparel website, three more videos have been uploaded on the same page – one depicting a school in Honduras supported by Gildan, one outlining their environmentally-friendly wastewater treatment system, and another of an in-factory clinic tending to the ailments of Gildan garment workers. Above them all, the same catchphrase is outlined in large, bold, centered letters at the very top of the page: “Globally-Sourced, Ethically-Made, and Sweatshop Free. That’s American Apparel!”Topics American Apparel Retail industry Rana Plaza news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/12/the-new-american-apparel-claims-of-ethically-made-abroad-clash-with-reality'|'2017-11-12T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'634c0d91f03b8d7faf4fd2e71ed594b71df8521d'|'Wall Street bonuses may jump 10 percent this year -report'|'Nov 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street bonuses may climb as much as 10 percent this year, in the first meaningful jump for the industry since 2013, according to a closely watched report.Bankers who advise companies on issuing stock or bonds could see an even bigger pay jump, as much as 20 percent, compensation firm Johnson Associates Inc said on Sunday.A reduced emphasis on financial regulation under U.S. President Donald Trump has boosted shares of banks to peak levels on hopes higher interest rates, lower taxes and faster economic growth under the Trump administration would lift profits.The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which measures the largest U.S. banks, has risen 34 percent since the election, compared with the benchmark S&P 500 index’s 24 percent gain over the same period.But looser banking regulations haven’t translated yet into better trading results amid low market volatility and tepid client activity. Wall Street firms’ bond trading revenue has fallen for about seven years amid new rules on trading and capital.Banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, that once relied heavily on trading, are now leaning more heavily on businesses like private equity and wealth management.As a result, fixed income traders are likely to see their bonuses fall as much as 10 percent, the report said.“The profit engine of fixed income continues to sputter,” Johnson Associates managing director Alan Johnson said in an interview. “There are a lot of people who don’t think that business is coming back.” (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wall-street-compensation/wall-street-bonuses-may-jump-10-percent-this-year-report-idINL1N1NF1FE'|'2017-11-12T22:03:00.000+02:00'
'c22360b40ff1d7233e550c2d3541beef3de82e30'|'Ireland''s CRH joins battle for South African cement maker PPC'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Ireland''s CRH joins battle for South African cement maker PPC TJ Strydom , Noor Zainab Hussain , Padraic Halpin 3 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish building materials firm CRH ( CRH.I ) has made a cash bid for cement maker PPC ( PPCJ.J ), taking on South African rival Afrisam [AFRSMV.UL] and Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim ( LHN.S ). PPC, which did not disclose the value of CRH’s non-binding offer, said on Monday it would give the Irish group time for due diligence and to submit an updated bid next week. The cement producer, which has been a consolidation target on-and-off for several years, said in a statement CRH’s updated expression of interest would include a per share value, adding that its discussions with LafargeHolcim and CRH “may or may not lead to the submission of firm intention letters”. CRH, the world’s third-largest building materials supplier by market capitalisation behind LafargeHolcim and France’s Saint Gobain ( SGOB.PA ), said in August it had around 5 billion euros in cash to spend on M&A over the next 18-24 months. It has committed 3 billion euros (£2.6 billion) of that to buying Ash Grove Cement Co ( ASHG.PK ), reinforcing its grip on the North American market where it is the biggest maker of concrete products and second largest supplier of aggregate materials for construction. Shares in PPC, which has a market capitalisation of 10.12 billion rand (£531.2 million) and had net debt of 4.7 billion rand at the end of March, were down 2.8 percent at 6.51 rand by 1243 GMT, while CRH’s stock was down 1.8 percent at 30.03 euros. A spokesman for Dublin-based CRH said it had no further comment at this stage. POPULAR TARGET AfriSam’s third attempt in three years to merge with PPC is an all-share merger bid valuing PPC at $700 million. AfriSam is backed in the transaction by the African unit of Canada’s Fairfax Africa Holdings ( FAHu.TO ). LafargeHolcim has said that it was in talks with the board of PPC regarding a possible transaction in Africa, while Dangote Cement ( DANGCEM.LG ), majority owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is still interested in it too. Dangote Cement made an approach in September, but later withdrew, saying it did not want to get into a lengthy process with an uncertain outcome. PPC flagged an increase of as much as 40 percent in half-year profit this month, citing robust performance in Zimbabwe and Rwanda and lower finance costs. Reporting by TJ Strydom in Johannesburg, Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ppc-m-a-crh/irelands-crh-joins-battle-for-south-african-cement-maker-ppc-idUKKBN1DD1LU'|'2017-11-13T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'63035dfad67a0141f8b5dd92851093097c4418f9'|'Noble Group says Jeffrey Frase resigns as co-CEO'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:12 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Noble Group says Jeffrey Frase resigns as co-CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Beleaguered commodities trader Noble Group ( NOBG.SI ) said on Monday that Jeffrey Frase has resigned as co-chief executive officer (CEO) and global head of oil liquids. FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Noble Group is seen at its headquarters in Hong Kong March 23, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo William Randall, currently serving alongside Frase as co-CEO, will assume the role of chief executive, the company   Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-noblegroup-moves-ceo/noble-group-says-jeffrey-frase-resigns-as-co-ceo-idUKKBN1DD13V'|'2017-11-13T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'5637ecae79fe74f405e16292f1bf2dee96d85f02'|'MOVES-PGIM Investments names Sheri Taylor Gilchrist global marketing chief'|'Nov 13 (Reuters) - PGIM Investments has named Sheri Taylor Gilchrist global chief marketing officer.Previously Gilchrist held the role of director and global head of marketing services at Bank of New York Mellon.PGIM Investments is the global fund manufacturer of PGIM, the $1 trillion global investment businesses of U.S.-headquartered Prudential Financial Inc.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pgim-investment-moves-sherigilchrist/moves-pgim-investments-names-sheri-taylor-gilchrist-global-marketing-chief-idINL3N1NJ5FF'|'2017-11-13T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'dfddcc41f35dbc8cc7a110b75c4c851252a2e726'|'Immofinanz sells Moscow malls to Fort on way to CA Immo merger'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian real estate group Immofinanz ( IMFI.VI ) has agreed to sell its five Moscow shopping centers to Russia’s Fort Group for 901 million euros ($1.05 billion), clearing the last hurdle to its merger with Austrian rival CA Immo ( CAIV.VI ).FILE PHOTO - The logo of Austrian real estate group Immofinanz is pictured on top of the company''s headquarters building in Vienna August 13, 2010. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Both Austrian groups have portfolios of around 4 billion euros each across Germany and central and eastern Europe, including almost 3.2 million square meters of rentable space combined.Immofinanz shares rose more than 3.5 percent to a two-month high on the news. CA Immo shares were up 0.4 percent.Immofinanz had offered its Russian tenants, many of whom struggled to pay dollar-denominated bills, rent reductions for years, which weighed heavily on its results.For Fort Group, which Reuters reported on Oct. 4 was the likely buyer, the sale means it can expand from its St Petersburg base into Moscow’s retail market.The sale includes 675 million euros, converted from rubles, in debt on the portfolio.“This transaction will immediately recover equity and significantly reduce our financial liabilities and average financing costs,” Immofinanz Chief Executive Oliver Schumy said in a statement.“Immofinanz can now concentrate on further growth to become one of the largest players on the commercial property market in Europe.”The deal will cut around 169 million euros from Immofinanz’s bottom line in the third quarter, which translates into a reduction of its net asset value per share of 0.15 euros.Over the next four years Immofinanz hopes to recover 151 million euros based the malls’ future earnings and tax reimbursements, it said.Immofinanz bought 26 percent in CA Immo in April 2016, the first step towards a merger of the two office and commercial property groups. Schumy has said the aim of the merger was to become one of the top twelve players in Europe.Previous merger attempts have failed and the latest talks were halted a year ago until Immofinanz shed its Russian assets.A spokeswoman for Immofinanz said the company will soon agree with CA Immo an updated schedule for resumed talks.CA Immo had no comment, beyond stating it has taken note of the sale.($1 = 0.8587 euros)Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-immofinanz-russia-fortgroup/immofinanz-sells-moscow-malls-to-fort-on-way-to-ca-immo-merger-idINKBN1DD14F'|'2017-11-13T07:19:00.000+02:00'
'90161ce7a1daf9b4ffb6b7f767c114c749527296'|'ISDA to reconvene to discuss Venezuela''s PDVSA bond on Tuesday'|'November 13, 2017 / 6:21 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago ISDA to reconvene to discuss Venezuela''s PDVSA bond on Tuesday Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CARACAS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A committee of derivatives industry group ISDA will reconvene on Tuesday to discuss whether Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has triggered a credit event through a late payment of its 2017N bond, ISDA said on its website on Monday. (Reporting by Corina Pons and Andreina Aponte, writing by Brian Ellsworth, Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-bonds-isda/isda-to-reconvene-to-discuss-venezuelas-pdvsa-bond-on-tuesday-idUSL1N1NJ18W'|'2017-11-13T20:21:00.000+02:00'
'8beca125a8c0d7f1118fc0caf0a433ad1579ca74'|'UAE''s ADNOC to sell at least 10 percent of fuel distribution in IPO'|'ABU DHABI/DUBAI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) aims to sell at least 10 percent of its fuel distribution unit in an initial public offering in Abu Dhabi, as Gulf states step up plans to privatize energy assets in an era of cheap crude.The listing details came as Saudi Arabia and Oman are also looking to privatize energy assets as low oil prices squeeze revenues.Saudi Arabia plans to list 5 percent of its national oil company Aramco by next year, which Saudi officials say could raise $100 billion, making it the world’s biggest IPO.At the holding company level, ADNOC will continue to be owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber at an energy conference.“The IPO of ADNOC Distribution represents an important milestone in this new approach and is a natural evolution for the growth and expansion of this exciting retail-focused business,” al-Jaber said.The ADNOC statement confirms a Reuters story in September that said the company could list more than 10 percent of its fuel retail business.The transformation of ADNOC is also seen as part of an economic reform drive led by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.ADNOC produces some 3 million barrels of oil per day, or around 3 percent of global production. It also produces more than 9.8 billion cubic feet of raw gas per day, placing it among the largest energy producers in the world.ADNOC Distribution is the leading fuel distributor in the United Arab Emirates with an approximately 67 percent market share by number of retail fuel service stations, which stood at 360 by end of September.Citigroup, First Abu Dhabi Bank , HSBC and Bank of Merrill Lynch are joint global coordinators for the offering and also bookrunners alongside EFG Hermes , Goldman Sachs and Morgan StanleyRothschild & Co is the financial adviser. '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adnoc-ipo/uaes-adnoc-to-sell-at-least-10-percent-of-fuel-distribution-in-ipo-idINKBN1DD0KM'|'2017-11-13T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'1ff556b3b35aba2153e875f1bceaea7c2b848e8b'|'Exclusive - India seeks hefty dividends from state firms as its revenues falter'|'Reuters TV United States November 13, 2017 / 10:43 AM / a few seconds ago Exclusive: India seeks hefty dividends from state firms as its revenues falter Neha Dasgupta 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is demanding millions of dollars in dividends from 12 reluctant state companies to make up for an expected tax revenue shortfall this fiscal year, as a slump in economic growth risks New Delhi overshooting its fiscal deficit target. The demand has been made following a finance ministry assessment on Oct. 25 of the financial health of 14 state companies, including top miner NMDC Ltd ( NMDC.NS ) and trading firm MMTC Ltd ( MMTC.NS ), according to a government document reviewed by Reuters. The ministry asked 12 of the companies to payout between 30 percent and as much as 100 percent of their 2016/17 or 2017/18 net profit in dividends, share buybacks or bonus shares. The other two companies were exempted. All state companies evaluated by the government sought exemptions. The finance ministry, NMDC and MMTC did not reply to Reuters emails seeking comment. India’s federal budget is under pressure this year following an unexpected slump in economic growth, which slipped to its lowest level in three years in the three-months ending June, the first quarter of the 2017/18 fiscal year. As of September, the half-way mark for the fiscal year, the budget deficit had reached 4.99 trillion rupees or more than 91 percent of its full-year target. Surjit Bhalla, a member of the prime minister’s economic advisory council, told Reuters in an interview in October that the government wanted to stick with a budget deficit target of 3.2 percent. The government’s revenues have also been hit by a sharply lower dividend from the central bank. DEMANDS The assessment by the finance ministry did not specify the combined amount of payouts expected of the 12 companies. But New Delhi has budgeted $21.86 billion in payouts from all state companies this fiscal year, slightly down on the previous fiscal year. Indian businesses have been disrupted by last year’s shock ban on high-value notes and the roll-out of a new national goods and services tax. Indian state firms will only finalize their full dividend payouts for the current 2017/18 fiscal year in September next year. NMDC has told the finance ministry it would only be able to pay less than half of the 25 billion rupees in dividend payouts that the government is demanding for the current fiscal year of 2017/18, a senior company executive said. He declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. Three senior government officials said NMDC is reluctant to comply with the government’s demands because it already has to pay a 30-billion-rupee penalty to the eastern state of Odisha for illegal mining and needs cash for capital investments. The senior company executive said a payment of 25 billion rupees to the government would mean paying out a further 35 billion rupees to other shareholders in the company. “Where will the money come from?” the source said. That would compare with NMDC’s projected 2017/18 net profit, based on Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate data, of 37.7 billion rupees. NMDC has also been asked to issue bonus shares before Sept. 30, 2018, the document showed. The government has asked MMTC to pay 300 million rupees in dividends and issue bonus shares for 2016/17. The firm is seeking exemptions from both. “The committee noted that MMTC’s defined reserves and surplus is more than 10 times of its paid-up equity share capital,” the document said. Three unlisted companies from defense and railways were asked to pay a maximum 100 percent of their net profit as dividend, the document showed. A. Prasanna, an economist with ICICI Securities Primary Dealership in Mumbai, said the government had the right to seek higher dividends from cash-rich companies as long as the money was sitting idle. “But asking all public sector units to step up investments and dividends at the same time may become counterproductive,” he said. ($1=64.97 Indian rupees) Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Neil Fullick'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-india-economy-dividend-exclusive/exclusive-india-seeks-hefty-dividends-from-state-firms-as-its-revenues-falter-idUKKBN1DD162'|'2017-11-13T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'4d5cfb05f67ca6a0e1e077fbda5c64879d63b726'|'EU lawmakers clear law to limit cheap Chinese imports'|' 37 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago EU lawmakers clear law to limit cheap Chinese imports Reuters Staff 2 Min Read STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament approved legislation on Wednesday designed to protect EU industries against excessively cheap imports from China. FILE PHOTO - A worker ties a pile of steel pipes on a crane at the yard of a steel pipe plant in Tangshan in China''s Hebei Province November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The new law, which was passed by 554 votes to 48 against, amends regulations on dumping and subsidies by third countries, such as China. It also allows investigators to take into account environmental and labour standards when setting import duties. The law, due to enter force before the end of the year, comes after China demanded it should no longer be treated as a special case from December 2016, 15 years after it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). The EU will in future determine that dumping is taking place if prices for export are lower than domestic prices for all members of the WTO. However, it will make exceptions for cases of “significant market distortions”, such as excessive state intervention, an exception expected to cover many Chinese firms. The European Commission is expected to produce a report on China when the law enters force, outlining instances of market distortion. Reporting by Lily Cusack; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-trade-china/eu-lawmakers-clear-law-to-limit-cheap-chinese-imports-idUKKBN1DF220'|'2017-11-15T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'56f7622c1a804dad2d15a544161f36637f165939'|'Central banks can''t fight rise in asset prices explicitly - Fed''s Evans'|' 25 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Central banks can''t fight rise in asset prices explicitly - Fed''s Evans Reuters Staff 1   Central banks can’t explicitly fight fast rising financial market asset prices, Federal Reserve policymaker Charles Evans said on Wednesday. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans participates in a moderated discussion in Zurich, Switzerland October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Referring to rising assets Evans, president of the Federal Reserve bank of Chicago, said: “The real side of the economy, monetary policy can’t fight that explicitly.” “I worry that monetary policy is called upon to address financial issues and in the current environment that would be a more restrictive policy,” added Evans, during a panel session at a banking conference. “We are under-running our inflation objective. That type of policy decision would be to affirmatively reduce our inflation outcome against our policy mandate. I think that’s inappropriate,” he said. Evans also said the Fed “had to be mindful” of U.S. fiscal policy becoming more expansionary as a result of planned tax cuts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Marc Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-evans/central-banks-cant-fight-rise-in-asset-prices-explicitly-feds-evans-idUKKBN1DF16E'|'2017-11-15T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'56dd164b67f570bbb075d770dfd7afd8312924ca'|'Rolls Royce warns Brexit will cause supply chain kinks'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Rolls Royce warns Brexit will cause supply chain kinks Aby Jose Koilparambil , Sonam Rai 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC ( RR.L ) worries border checks after Britain leaves the European Union will disrupt its global supply chain and is looking at measures to offset the rise in national protectionism that it represents, a member of its executive leadership said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - A Rolls-Royce logo is seen at the company''s aerospace engineering and development site in Bristol, Britain, December 17, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Speaking at the launch of a new partnership with Indian software firm Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS.NS ), the enginemaker’s head of strategy and marketing Ben Story laid out a range of concerns over the Brexit process for one of Britain’s highest profile industrial exporters. “We are worried about border checks and whether that will make our supply chain flow less fluidly,” Story, formerly head of Citibank’s UK Investment Banking and Broking unit, told Reuters. “We are worried about the talent and making sure that we always get the right talent. We also work very closely with European universities and we worry that may break down and some of the research funding may fall away. We worry about regulations.” Business leaders told Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday that she needs to speed up negotiations with the European Union amid concern that Britain will crash out of the world’s biggest trading bloc in 2019 without a deal. Slow progress in the talks with Brussels has unsettled businesses and drawn warnings that unless a transition is agreed soon, some may begin activating Brexit contingency plans - which may include moving out of the country. “We built our whole supply chain assuming a kind of a globalising world and an open world,” Story said. “What Brexit has made us do is ... step back and think about that a little more. Going forward we need to be thoughtful and careful about where we make investments, where we build capabilities, how to build in redundancy.” Story said the engineering major has “a lot of flexibility and choice” as it has manufacturing facilities outside Britain, in Germany and Singapore among others. Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-rollsroyce/rolls-royce-warns-brexit-will-cause-supply-chain-kinks-idUKKBN1DF21Q'|'2017-11-15T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'eda52502126a47430add91073918109b1fe97e5e'|'Roark Capital offers to buy Buffalo Wild Wings: Wall Street Journal'|'(Reuters) - Restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings Inc ( BWLD.O ) has received a takeover bid valued at more than $2.3 billion from private equity firm Roark Capital Group, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.The Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Superior, Colorado, United States July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Roark made an offer of more than $150 per share in recent weeks, the WSJ reported. ( on.wsj.com/2jmdx8l )The restaurant chain’s shares rose 27.93 percent to $150 after the bell following the report.Roark Capital declined to comment, while Buffalo Wild Wings was not immediately available for comment.In June, activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management won a bitter proxy contest that put three of its directors on the chicken-wing restaurant’s board following which the company’s chief executive Sally Smith said she would retire by the end of the year.Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings had a market value of $2.6 billion at the time.Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-m-a-roark-capital/roark-capital-offers-to-buy-buffalo-wild-wings-wall-street-journal-idUSKBN1DD2PP'|'2017-11-14T00:01:00.000+02:00'
'4b631b122f22f21f8ef206a5a0c96738cdb19a6b'|'India''s RCom shares slump 9 pct after co reports Sept-qtr loss'|'MUMBAI, Nov 13 (Reuters) - India’s Reliance Communications Ltd shares fell more than 9 percent in early trade on Monday after the company reported a loss in the September quarter.Shares in the company were trading at 12.80 rupees by 0359 GMT, down 9.3 percent. It dropped to a low of 12.75 earlier in the session.Reliance Communications reported a loss after tax of 27.09 billion rupees ($414.76 million) in the July-September quarter versus a profit of 620 million rupees in the same period a year ago. ($1 = 65.3150 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/reliance-communications-stocks/indias-rcom-shares-slump-9-pct-after-co-reports-sept-qtr-loss-idINL3N1NJ1UH'|'2017-11-13T01:03:00.000+02:00'
'15429b6922223346fc8e233dcf475005bb882505'|'CEOs urge May to speed up Brexit talks to avoid exodus'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:06 AM / Updated 6 hours ago CEOs urge May to speed up Brexit talks to avoid exodus Andrew MacAskill 4   Prime   needs to speed up negotiations with the European Union, business leaders told her on Monday, amid concern Britain will crash out the world’s biggest trading bloc without a deal. Business leaders including Germany''s BDI Managing Director Joachim Lang and Carolyn Julie Fairbairn director-general of the Confederation of British Industry pose for a group picture outside 10 Downing Street, London, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Slow progress in the talks with the European Union has unsettled businesses and drawn warnings that unless a transition is agreed soon, some may begin activating Brexit contingency plans - which may include moving out of Britain. May had invited 15 business groups from Britain and continental Europe for talks in her Downing Street office to urge them to back her Brexit strategy and persuade companies not to move overseas. The executives told May she needed to provide more clarity on three issues critical for talks to progress: negotiating any potential exit bill, settling the rights of EU citizens living in Britain, and arrangements for the border in Ireland. “Business is extremely concerned with the slow pace of negotiations and the lack of progress,” said Emma Marcegaglia, president of BusinessEurope, a lobby group that speaks for companies in European countries, including Britain. May wants to agree with the EU the broad outline of a so-called implementation period of around two years after Britain’s exit from the EU in March 2019. During that period, its access to the EU single market would remain largely unchanged while new arrangements were put in place. International companies have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks over fears that Britain will leave the EU without a trade deal, a move that would send shockwaves through global markets and fracture some supply chains. Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, said all the businesses at the meeting warned May about the damage leaving without a trade deal could do. Paul Drechsler, President of the Conferederation of British Industry speaks to David Davis, Britain''s Secretary of State for Leaving the EU, in Downing Street, London, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “We now need to move beyond warm words if jobs, investment and living standards are to be protected,” she said. Talks between Britain and the EU are currently deadlocked. The European Union told Britain last week to spell out what it will pay Brussels when it leaves the bloc in 2019 or face more delay in talks on future trade ties that are vital for business. Slideshow (6 Images) Progress at a Brussels summit next month is seen as an important milestone in the talks as businesses seek clarity by the new year when many will take investment decisions dependent on conditions after Brexit. May has stepped up her engagement with businesses in recent months, regularly meeting with British lobby groups and senior executives, but they say the government has offered little detail about what a future trade deal will actually look like. Monday’s meeting was the first time she expanded that programme to include representatives from industry groups from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other member states as well as EU-wide organisations. They also met business minister Greg Clark, Brexit minister David Davis and the junior Treasury minister Stephen Barclay. Danny McCoy, chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, told national broadcaster RTE that Davis had outlined plans for a free-trade agreement that involved no tariffs and no regulatory barriers. “That was one of the more concrete things to come out from the discussion,” he said. “For business, I would be more confident today than I was a week ago that we can avoid a hard Brexit.” Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Padraic Halpin.; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-business/may-to-meet-business-leaders-in-bid-to-avoid-brexit-exodus-idUKKBN1DD18W'|'2017-11-13T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'0b17457d7916db527386a32400cc842e873ab8f4'|'Exclusive - Greece''s Energean weighs IPO to fund Israel gas plan: sources'|'November 13, 2017 / 5:13 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Exclusive: Greece''s Energean weighs IPO to fund Israel gas plan - sources Ron Bousso , Karolina Tagaris 3 Min Read LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek energy firm Energean is considering listing on the London stock exchange to raise cash for a $1.5 billion development of gas fields off Israel’s coast, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Energean, Greece’s sole oil producer, said in a statement it was in the process of developing Israel’s Karish and Tanin offshore fields and was “engaged in a range of contracting and financing discussions to achieve this.” “We are currently examining all options of funding the project’s requirements,” a company spokesman said in an email, without saying if this included a public listing. Four sources, including three banking sources, told Reuters that investment banks Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and Citi ( C.N ) were advising the firm on the initial public offering (IPO) process. The banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. If management opted for an IPO, the listing would take place next year although it was unclear how much cash Energean would seek to raise, the sources said. Energean, a private exploration and production firm operating in the eastern Mediterranean, and private equity fund Kerogen Capital bought the Karish and Tanin licenses from Israel’s Delek Group ( DLEKG.TA ) in December 2016 for an upfront cost of $40 million and $108.5 million in contingent payments. Led by Chief Executive Mathios Rigas, Energean expects to make a final investment decision on developing the fields, estimated to hold 2.4 trillion cubic feet of gas, by the end of 2017. The development is expected to cost $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, according to the company website. Energean said in May it had signed contracts to supply up to 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas to private Israeli power stations from the fields. London energy listings have been sporadic and small in the past three years as a dip in oil prices dried up investor interest. But 2017 has seen eight such listings on London’s junior market so far, compared to five in the whole of 2016, when oil prices reached a 12-year low of around $26 a barrel. Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was trading above $62 a barrel on Monday. Additional reporting by Clara Denina in London; Editing by Veronica Brown and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-energean-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-greeces-energean-weighs-ipo-to-fund-israel-gas-plan-sources-idUKKBN1DD23V'|'2017-11-13T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'1298fe0e341664370e543cdf6d0f7a7b6b621e30'|'BOJ''s Kuroda expects to hit inflation goal in fiscal 2019'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:34 PM / in an hour BOJ''s Kuroda expects to hit inflation goal in fiscal 2019 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda expects to achieve the central bank’s long term inflation target of 2 percent by fiscal year 2019, he told an event in Zurich on Monday. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda listens to questions from the audience after his speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The BOJ was making good progress tackling low inflation until oil prices slumped from 110 dollars per barrel to less than 30 dollar per barrel in 2014, dragging down prices in Japan, which imports all of its oil. “The inflation situation has slightly improved, and now unless another price shock or something happens, we expect inflation rate to reach around 2 percent in fiscal 2019,” he told an event at Zurich University. The Japanese government which has built up a debt to GDP ratio of more than 200 percent also needed to reduce its debts over the next decade, he said. The current level is “simply unsustainable”, Kuroda said. Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Balazs Koranyi '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/swiss-kuroda-target/bojs-kuroda-expects-to-hit-inflation-goal-in-fiscal-2019-idINKBN1DD2DR'|'2017-11-13T21:30:00.000+02:00'
'b3f5d6db561a08623c238cc57cfc7d6ed3a80569'|'India''s Jet Airways in ''serious talks'' for 75 more Boeing 737 Max planes'|'November 13, 2017 / 5:22 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago India''s Jet Airways in ''serious talks'' for 75 more Boeing 737 Max planes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Indian airline Jet Airways ( JET.NS ) is in “serious discussions” about ordering a further 75 Boeing ( BA.N ) 737 Max aircraft, having already ordered 75, chairman and founder Naresh Goyal told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow on Monday. Naresh Goyal, chairman of India''s Jet Airways, attends an interview with Reuters in Hong Kong April 14, 2008. REUTERS/Victor Fraile (CHINA) It was not immediately clear whether the additional order would be announced at the airshow. The airline said last month it had agreed to buy 75 of the aircraft and that it could acquire another 75 to help it expand in a booming Indian market. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-jet-airways/indias-jet-airways-in-serious-talks-for-75-more-boeing-737-max-planes-idUKKBN1DD24D'|'2017-11-13T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'9d57a36ba08c7414b3d45c1598a9c9883d8e35bb'|'Oil markets cautious on Middle East tensions, increased U.S. drilling'|'November 13, 2017 / 1:11 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Oil steady near two-year highs, U.S. supply increase caps rise Jessica Resnick-Ault 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices held steady in a tight range Monday after briefly testing lower, with support from Middle East tensions and record long bets by fund managers balanced by rising U.S. production. FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunset near Midland, Texas, U.S., on May 3, 2017. Picture taken May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled down 36 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $63.16 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 settled up 2 cents a barrel at $56.76. Last week, Brent rose to $64.65, its highest since June 2015, and WTI hit $57.92, its highest since July 2015. Middle East tensions have supported the market, despite concerns that output could rise further. “The rise by Saudi Arabia to produce more than 10 million barrels per day would have registered more,” said John Kilduff Partner at Again Capital. “This is a new level of geopolitical risk,” he said. Additionally, the market has less supply overhang than it did a year ago, he said. On the supply side, tensions in the Middle East raised the prospect of disruptions, traders said. A purge this month of Saudi Arabia’s leadership by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is one of the key factors raising concerns about political stability of the region’s largest oil producer. Other regional concerns include war in Yemen and growing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a concern to investors too. Additionally, traders said it was unclear whether a strong earthquake that hit Iran and Iraq on Sunday had affected the region’s oil production. Bahrain said at the weekend that an explosion that caused a fire at its main oil pipeline on Friday was caused by sabotage, linking the attack to Iran, which denied any role. Traders said crude prices were well supported as output cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia have contributed to a reduction in excess supply that had dogged markets since 2014. OPEC forecast higher demand for its oil in 2018 and said its production-cutting deal with rival producers was reducing excess oil in storage, pointing to an even tighter global market next year. However, it also pointed out that Saudi output had risen above 10 million barrels per day. The level of inventories held by industrialised above the five-year average “has fallen by more than 50 percent in 2017, with inventories currently at around 160 million barrels,” consultancy Timera Energy said. “If current trends continue, inventories are likely to return to the five-year average at some stage in 2018,” it said, adding that strong demand had also helped reduce the glut. OPEC has sought to push stocks to the five-year average. Hedge funds increased holdings of Brent futures and options in the latest week, extending their bet on a rally to the highest on record. Managers now hold net long positions equivalent to nearly 544 million barrels of oil. “Overall, there are a few reasons for confidence - compliance from OPEC - and it seems likely they’ll extend the cut,” said Jasper Lawler, a market strategist at London Capital Group, referring to the output deal due to expire in March. U.S. producers added nine oil rigs last week, the biggest jump since June, raising the count to 738, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. The rig count RIG-OL-USA-BHI fell in August, September and October, but last week’s rise was the second in three weeks, indicating that the U.S. oil industry was comfortable operating at current prices. Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-markets-firm-on-middle-east-tensions-but-u-s-drilling-caps-gains-idUKKBN1DD02E'|'2017-11-13T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'614304aa5dc2011899fcdb26719c276e355456d8'|'GE slashes quarterly dividend ahead of expected restructuring'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:37 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago GE to shrink, investors worry it will be less profitable Alwyn Scott , Ankit Ajmera 5 Min Read (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) will radically shrink to focus on aviation, power and healthcare, betting on sectors it thinks it can make profits in, as the most famous U.S. conglomerate tries to revive its share price after a decade and a half of stagnation. General Electric Chief Executive Officer John Flannery presents the company''s new strategy and financial targets to investors at a meeting in New York, U.S., November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott The 125-year-old company cut its dividend and profit outlook in half as it begins the transition, in a widely expected plan unveiled on Monday by new Chief Executive John Flannery in New York. GE shares fell 6 percent to $19.22 (£14.7), its lowest in more than five years, valuing the entire company at about $168 billion (£128.1 billion), as investors worried how the slimmed-down company would generate cash to justify its stock valuation. “By the numbers, we see a core operating performance that is below plan, and, currently, a consensus expectations curve that we think remains too high,” said JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa. GE is the worst-performing Dow component this year, down 35 percent through Friday’s close. GE stock has effectively been dead money since September 2001, when recently retired Chief Executive Jeff Immelt took over, posting a negative total return even after reinvesting its juicy dividends. Flannery, who took over as CEO on Aug. 1, said he was “looking for the soul of the company again” and would focus on “restoring the oxygen of cash and earnings to the company.” The transition likely means the sale of $20 billion of assets. GE will jettison businesses with “a very dispassionate eye,” Flannery said, keeping only units that offer growth, a leading market position and a large installed base. That could mean exiting businesses like lighting, transportation and oil and gas, closing factories around the globe, analysts said. GE also plans to cut 25 percent of corporate staff at its Boston headquarters. It has already started shedding jobs at its software business. DIVIDEND CUT The dividend cut, only the third in the company’s 125-year history and the first not in a broader financial crisis, is expected to save about $4 billion in cash annually. “This dividend cut will be a major disappointment to GE’s (roughly 40 percent) retail shareholder base,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Deane Dray. General Electric Power Chief Executive Officer Russell Stokes presents the turnaround strategy of the power-plant business to investors at a meeting in New York, U.S., November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott The cut will save GE $4.16 billion in payouts, the eighth biggest dividend cut in history among S&P 500 companies, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst of S&P Dow Jones Indices. GE also had the biggest cut when it slashed its dividend by $8.87 billion in 2009, Silverblatt said. GE forecast adjusted 2018 industrial free cash flow of $6 billion to $7 billion, up from an estimated $3 billion in 2017. The move to make GE smaller and nimbler is a turnaround from the previous multi-business approach taken by former CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt. Flannery’s changes repudiate much of Immelt’s vision of a “digital industrial” company that builds software to manage and optimise GE’s jet engines, power plants, locomotives and other products. FILE PHOTO: The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo OUT OF FAVOUR Conglomerates have long been out of favour on Wall Street, where investors prefer to bet on specific industries rather than a mixed portfolio. GE forecast 2018 adjusted earnings per share of $1 to $1.07 per share, compared with its earlier estimate of $2 per share. Wall Street was expecting $1.16, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company on Monday cut its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per share, from 24 cents, starting in December. GE’s dividend cut - a bid to save cash when the company’s cash flow is deteriorating - is the third in its history. The other two cuts came during the Great Depression and the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. Flannery’s strategy is a turning point for the company, which over several decades built itself into a sprawling conglomerate with interests across media, energy, banking, aviation, railroads, marine engines and chemicals. GE executives have said that analysts have undervalued the company’s digital business. They argue the digital units should be valued more like Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google and other fast-growing tech companies. GE will also cut its board to 12 from 18 members. GRAPHIC-Top five dividend yields in the Dow 30: reut.rs/2zx3aoR Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh and Bill Rigby; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ge-review/ge-slashes-quarterly-dividend-idUKKBN1DD1BK'|'2017-11-13T13:57:00.000+02:00'
'8c5f9b53d101e73158a2bbe3ccf5ffcf34ece494'|'Tesla hit by class-action lawsuit claiming racial discrimination'|'(Reuters) - U.S. automaker Tesla Inc on Monday was hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming its California production plant is a “hotbed for racist behavior.”The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei, Taiwan August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The lawsuit filed in California state court in Oakland is at least the third filed this year by black workers who say they were addressed using racial slurs and that the company ignored their complaints.But Monday’s lawsuit, filed by former Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, is the first to bring those claims on behalf of a large class of black workers at the automaker’s Fremont, California factory.Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.The company is also facing lawsuits accusing it of discrimination against gay and older workers. It has denied those claims.Vaughn in the lawsuit says he was routinely called the “n-word” by supervisors and coworkers after he began working at the factory in April. He says he complained in writing to human resources officials, but the company never investigated his claims.Vaughn says he was fired in October for “not having a positive attitude.” He is seeking unspecified damages under a California anti-discrimination law.The growing number of discrimination lawsuits against Tesla come as the company is also facing a unionization campaign from the United Auto Workers.In February, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk told the website Gizmodo that an employee who wrote a blog post criticizing the company was “paid by the UAW to join Tesla and agitate for a union.”The union and the worker denied that he had been paid by UAW. Last month, the union filed a complaint with a federal labor board on behalf of scores of workers who it says were laid off because they support the union.The company denied the claims and said the decision was based on employee performance reviews.Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; editing by Clive McKeefOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-lawsuit/tesla-hit-by-class-action-lawsuit-claiming-racial-discrimination-idINKBN1DD2RS'|'2017-11-14T00:36:00.000+02:00'
'38d51c63245e65c58386a4d514f36029d8cc7e88'|'Blooming U.S. business interest in Cuba wilts under Trump'|'HAVANA (Reuters) - Packed into a remote corner of a pavilion, just 13 U.S. companies took stands at Cuba’s sprawling trade fair this year, in a sign of how firms’ interest in doing business on the island has dwindled in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency.Last year, amid enthusiasm following a detente in relations agreed between former President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in 2014, 33 U.S. companies took stands at the fair, the premier event on Cuba’s business calendar.The mood was very different at this year’s edition, which took place last week in Havana. While China brought a record company delegation, and more than 150 Spanish businesses packed into five pavilions, the handful of U.S. businessmen were downbeat.“I’ve never seen it this deserted,” said Jay Brickman, vice president of Florida-based shipping company Crowley Maritime Corp, who has been attending the fair for 15 years. “People have really gotten discouraged, and feel they maybe should be investing their time someplace else.”U.S. companies embraced Cuba in the wake of the detente, jostling for a foothold in an opening market of 11 million consumers.Thanks to travel-related exemptions to the embargo, U.S. airlines restored regular flights. Starwood Hotels, a subsidiary of Marriott International Inc ( MAR.O ), took over management of a Cuban hotel and cruise operators like Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line ( CCL.N ) included Cuba in their itineraries.But worsening U.S. relations as well as growing awareness of the difficulty of doing business in Cuba put a dampener on that.Trump in June ordered tighter trade and travel restrictions including a ban on business with the military, which controls vast swathes of the economy. The regulations were unveiled on Wednesday.“This is a huge step backwards,” said former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the Cuban-born head of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council. “We had made so much progress.”An unfolding diplomatic crisis over allegations of attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana is adding to the gloom.Cuba Trade magazine, based in Miami, last month cut its issuance from monthly to bi-monthly, citing the deteriorating business environment under Trump. Several Cuba business conferences in the United States have also been canceled since June, including an agriculture conference in Chicago.Following the Obama detente, U.S. farmers hoped for legislation allowing them to access credit for exports to Cuba. But Trump has made it clear he is not about to ease, let alone lift, the embargo.“We need to get the diplomatic issue off the table first,” said Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, adding U.S. food exports to Cuba could total $1 billion if relations were normalized.HARDER Even before Trump took office, some of the interest fizzled as companies realized doing business in Cuba was hard with its red tape, shortage of hard currency, poor telecommunications and labor restrictions.A view of the pavilion stalls run by Cuban companies at Cuba''s annual trade fair in Havana, Cuba, November 1, 2017. Picture taken on November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ) sent its chief executive in Obama’s delegation on his historic visit to Cuba in March 2016. It had been interested in making its Xoom money transfer service available in Cuba but said operational challenges were too great.“When we are able to deliver the speed, convenience and security our customers have come to expect from Xoom, we will launch in Cuba,” a PayPal spokeswoman told Reuters.Still, some companies made headway. After receiving all the necessary licenses under Obama, the Puerto Rican dealer for U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc ( CAT.N ) last week agreed to open a distribution center in Cuba’s Mariel special development zone.Future deals with Mariel, which boasts tax and customs breaks, will not be possible, as it features on a list published Wednesday of 180 government entities that Americans are now banned from doing business with.“The Mariel restriction particularly sticks out because it is the most dynamic and exciting opportunity in Cuba,” said James Williams, president of lobby group Engage Cuba.Slideshow (12 Images) The diplomatic crisis has also complicated the logistics for U.S. businesses. The Trump administration in September expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, including all those dealing with U.S. businesses.The following week, the chair of the port of Cleveland, Darrell McNair, traveled to Havana to sign an agreement with Cuba’s port authority. He said the now-disbanded embassy commercial team had been instrumental in arranging his visit.“Cutbacks obviously are going to slow things down,” he said.LONG-TERM PLAY The tougher environment under Trump has separated the wheat from the chaff, some business consultants say.“The serious players who understand the risks are staying the course,” said Pedro Freyre, who heads the international practice at Miami-based law firm Akerman LLP.Jeff Nelson said his firm Strategic Staffing Solutions, which provides companies with IT and other services, was prepared to put in the time laying the groundwork for business with Cuba given the potential of its educated workforce.“Doing business in Cuba is a very long-term proposition,” said Nelson, who has visited eight times in two years.Some companies were pursuing deals behind closed doors so as to not lose capital with the Trump administration, consultants said. Many Obama-era exemptions to the embargo remain in place.The publication of the new regulations at least provided clarity about what was allowed.“Companies know where they stand now and there are definitely opportunities still,” said Gutierrez. “Every day that goes by is just the missed opportunity where someone else is building a brand, someone else is building awareness among Cubans.”Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and Anna Irrera and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-trade/blooming-u-s-business-interest-in-cuba-wilts-under-trump-idUSKBN1DA1VJ'|'2017-11-10T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'2955af2f2fe04492d46cf5b20a82e7f24321f57e'|'LPC-Irish funds market to benefit from ‘regrettable’ Brexit'|'Nov 10 (Reuters) - Ireland is making it easier for alternative investment funds to operate in an attempt to take advantage of increased interest following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.Michael D’Arcy, Irish minister of state for financial services and insurance, said that Brexit was “regrettable” and affirmed the country’s commitment to the EU.“Ireland will not leave the EU,” he told delegates at the Irish Funds annual UK Symposium in London on Friday.With the increased uncertainty following the Brexit vote, direct lenders are considering their options once the UK leaves in order to continue to market funds to investors across the continent.Nick Fenn, a founding partner of private debt investment firm Beechbrook Capital, a London headquartered firm that manages investments across Northern Europe, said the firm is planning to open an office in both Cork and Dublin.“Our working assumption is that there will not be a satisfactory arrangement in April 2019 [between the UK and EU]. We’re looking to establish an AIFMD in Ireland, so we have a Brexit-proof solution for our investors,” he said.In July, the government announced it is aiming to overhaul the 1994 Investment Limited Partnerships Act.While the legislation is at early stages, there is hope it will open up closed-ended funds to be managed under more flexible structures, as well as further clarifications on capital call structures.“It is sensible that in Ireland they’re having a fresh look at the existing legislation and putting together something that actually suits the needs of funds managers in 2017,” Fenn said.Around €2.3trn is managed in funds domiciled in Ireland with approximately a quarter of the amount in alternatives, according to figures from the Central Bank of Ireland.The country is the second most popular jurisdiction for funds management globally, behind both the US and the UK.The private debt market in Ireland continues to increase in size as funds capitalise on the difficulty of middle market companies to obtain credit from traditional banks.According to Deloitte, 91 deals have been closed by direct lenders in the Irish market since 2011 by 18 different funds.Large private debt funds such as BlueBay and Ares have closed deals in the region, while Dunport Capital, a spin out from BlueBay, recently announced it will launch a €300m fund to provide debt financing to small and medium-sized industries across Ireland. (Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/loans-direct-lending/lpc-irish-funds-market-to-benefit-from-regrettable-brexit-idINL8N1NG568'|'2017-11-10T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'd0f4699261044fc64b0e983e9a0d7ef00f0147a6'|'German prosecutors raid German bank in tax evasion probe'|'November 10, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago German prosecutors raid German bank in tax evasion probe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Friday they had searched a major Frankfurt bank as well as the homes of several suspects on suspicion of tax evasion via so-called “cum-ex” transactions. The statement followed a report by daily Handelsblatt that said Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) was the target of the investigators’ probe. Commerzbank was not immediately available for comment. Using cum-ex transactions, also known as dividend stripping, banks in Germany exploited a legal loophole that allowed two parties to claim ownership of the same shares. Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Tom Sims; Editing by Douglas Busvine'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-taxes-commerzbank/german-prosecutors-raid-german-bank-in-tax-evasion-probe-idUKKBN1DA1TE'|'2017-11-10T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'07f690743610b6e235334eeca96c506f412c8a1b'|'Japan finance minister Aso - Don''t think final TPP-11 pact has been reached'|'November 10, 2017 / 2:02 AM / in 2 hours Japan Finmin Aso: Not aware that agreement on TPP-11 pact has been reached   TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday that he was not aware that a final agreement had been reached among the 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as there are some lingering issues involving Mexico and Vietnam. FILE PHOTO: Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services of Japan, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Aso told reporters in Tokyo that an agreement among the TPP-11 would be a “good thing” for global trade. Ministers from the 11 countries met in Danang, Vietnam on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss how to proceed with a TPP deal after the United States withdrew this year. Asked if an agreement among the TPP-11 will make it easy for the United States to return to the pact, Aso said: “I don’t know how the United States feels, but the TPP was originally formed upon U.S. agreements. When it comes to discussing this or that, it’s the U.S. turn to join.” “The United States had originally agreed on the TPP as it was not a bad thing for America.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on how Japan would be involved in letting the United States return to the TPP, saying that a final agreement on the TPP-11 should wait until TPP leaders’ meeting that kicks off later Friday. Mexico’s trade minister said on Thursday the TPP countries had reached agreement in talks, but he gave no details and said there would be an announcement on Friday. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-tpp-japan/japan-finance-minister-aso-dont-think-final-tpp-11-pact-has-been-reached-idUKKBN1DA06V'|'2017-11-10T03:55:00.000+02:00'
'7ef36bea394b8599d2394a9ef695277954c6a637'|'Exclusive: Rupert Murdoch twice discussed CNN with AT&T CEO - sources'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch telephoned AT&T Inc ( T.N ) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months and talked about cable network CNN, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday.Rupert Murdoch stands at the U.S. Open men''s final in New York, September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar According to one of the sources, the 86-year-old executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) offered to buy CNN in both conversations.Another source said Murdoch had “zero interest” in owning CNN.Representatives of Twenty-First Century Fox, AT&T and Time Warner, CNN’s parent, declined comment.CNN has become a sticking point in antitrust approval of AT&T&rsquo;s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), hatched in October 2016.Justice Department staff have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit - which includes CNN - a government official told Reuters on Thursday, in order to gain antitrust approval.On Thursday Stephenson said he had no interest in selling CNN and that he was ready to defend the deal in court if necessary.According to one of the sources on Friday, Murdoch called Stephenson twice, unprompted, on May 16 and Aug. 8 and on both occasions asked if CNN was for sale. Stephenson replied both times that it was not, according to the source.It would not be the first time Murdoch has attempted to take control of CNN.Twenty-First Century Fox made an $80 billion offer for Time Warner in 2014 but abandoned the plan in the face of Time Warner’s resistance. At that time, Fox had planned to divest CNN - which competes with Fox News - in order to avoid antitrust issues.There is no law against a company owning two cable networks, but there is a Federal Communications Commission prohibition on owning two broadcast networks. A Fox deal with CNN could face antitrust concerns because of the market share that a combined company would have among cable news viewers.“I have been called and asked if I would sell CNN by numerous people,” Stephenson told the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday, but that selling CNN made no sense.Time Warner shares were up 3.7 percent in afternoon trading.Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cnn-murdoch-exclusive/exclusive-rupert-murdoch-twice-discussed-cnn-with-att-ceo-sources-idINKBN1DA2PY'|'2017-11-10T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'c29b61416ff9dd4e4a21b43c76c331a6a242164f'|'Cisco profit beats on strength in security business'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:37 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Cisco profit beats on strength in security business Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc ( CSCO.O ) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, driven by gains from its newer businesses such as security, which more than offset the declines in its traditional switches and routers business. FILE PHOTO: A newly installed phone made by Cisco is shown in San Diego, California, U.S., April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The world’s largest network gear maker forecast second-quarter adjusted profit between 58 cents to 60 cents per share, largely above analysts’ estimate of 58 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company’s shares rose 3.2 percent to $35.20 after market. Revenue from Cisco’s security business — which offers firewall protection and breach detection systems — rose 8 percent to $585 million. Cisco has shifted its focus to newer high-growth areas such as security, Internet of Things and cloud computing like other legacy technology companies. The company’s net income rose to $2.39 billion, or 48 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Oct. 28, from $2.32 billion, or 46 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned 61 cents per share. Revenue fell 1.7 percent to $12.14 billion. Analysts on average had expected Cisco to report a profit of 60 cents per share on revenue of $12.11 billion. Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cisco-results/cisco-profit-beats-on-strength-in-security-business-idINKBN1DF32S'|'2017-11-15T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'9cd6e71d718af3dadb941d712bbaa7442a118549'|'Border jam puts Mongolia''s coal lifeline under threat'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:33 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Border jam puts Mongolia''s coal lifeline under threat Terrence Edwards 6 Min Read KHANBOGD, Mongolia (Reuters) - In Mongolia’s Gobi desert, thousands of heavy-duty trucks laden with coal inch along a cluttered highway towards the Chinese border in a journey that can take more than a week. A man sits on top of his truck to get a better signal to make a phone call at Khangobd Soum near the border with China in the Gobi desert, Mongolia, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/B. Rentsendorj SEARCH "RENTSENDORJ KHANBOGD" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. Truckers cook, eat and sleep in vehicles covered in coal dust, many subsisting on the same meat soup that fuelled Genghis Khan’s Mongol Horde more than eight centuries ago. Alongside the trucks a bustling microeconomy has sprung up of traders peddling cigarettes, water and diesel as drivers wait to clear Chinese customs in a queue that can stretch for 130 kilometres (80 miles). (Click reut.rs/2yowSsj to view a picture package on the truck traffic jams on the China-Mongolia border.) A rebound in coal prices and a surge in exports to China this year has meant a bonanza for miners in Mongolia, and a vital lifeline for the country’s tiny economy, after a currency and debt crisis forced it to seek an economic rescue package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But long delays at the Gashuun Sukhait-Gants Mod crossing, the main transit point between the two countries, are undercutting those gains as fleets of trucks carrying coal from Gobi desert mines to China pile up at the border. The long delays have been blamed on a surge in traffic driven by the thriving cross-border coal trade. However, Mongolia’s inability to stop rampant smuggling across the border has also played a role as China has imposed more stringent checks on incoming deliveries in recent months. Customs officials in China’s Inner Mongolia declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The General Administration of Customs in Beijing also did not respond to requests for comment. RECOVERY STALLED The rise in coal prices this year has doubled border traffic, according to local police, putting law enforcement and customs staff under heavy pressure in both China and Mongolia. With Gobi miners hoping to boost output further next year in a bid to take advantage of higher prices in China the bottlenecks are expected to get worse. An environmental crackdown in China has resulted in the closure of hundreds of mines and the restriction of coal deliveries into smaller ports, driving up prices. Curbs on coal imports from North Korea as a result of international sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program have also allowed Mongolia to fill the breach. Mongolia’s coal exports to China rose more than four-fold in the first half of the year, but growth has petered out since the delays at the border crossings first arose in July. A photographer casts his shadow near a coal truck which flipped over at Khanbogd Soum, near the border with China in the Gobi desert, Mongolia, October 29, 2017. Getting to the border can be a harrowing ordeal, as vehicles speed towards China and back down the one-lane road. With no street lamps to guide the way and drink-driving a constant problem, danger levels increase at night, drivers say. REUTERS/B. Rentsendorj SEARCH "RENTSENDORJ KHANBOGD" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Bataa Davaasuren, director of Mongolia’s Customs House at Gashuun Sukhait, said customs on both sides of the border were short-staffed, adding that the situation had been exacerbated by events like the Chinese Communist Party Congress in October. Mongolia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the problem was initially caused by the Naadam summer festival, when many Mongolians take long holidays. Mongolian customs officers are also taking more time to screen cargoes after their Chinese counterparts complained that raw meat and even guns had been secreted in coal heading to China, Davaasuren said. There was even one incident when a driver tried to sneak a live wolf across the border, he said. “Nobody wants the long queue, of course,” said Davaasuren, who said the problem would quickly disappear if Mongolian customs could raise its handling capacity to 3,000 trucks a day from 700 currently. “It’s bad for the drivers and the country, so we’re all working to resolve the issue.” Slideshow (10 Images) When trucks aren’t stuck in grinding traffic, just getting to the border is also a harrowing ordeal, as vehicles speed towards China and back down the one-lane road. With no street lamps to guide the way and drink-driving a constant problem, danger levels increase at night, drivers say. “It’s very risky,” said one driver, who identified himself as Bat-Erdene. “We see flipped-over cars on the side of the road every day.” On a recent trip down the road, a team of Reuters journalists saw numerous overturned trucks and vehicles smashed up from head-on collisions littering the side of the road. “We see unbelievable things,” said Dunshig Baasanjav, a driver standing outside his truck amid the motionless traffic. “Others who see it would think it’s the worst they’ve ever seen, but we see it all the time. We’re numb to it.” Miners say the long-term solution to the border bottleneck problem is a new rail link connecting mines with the Gashuun Sukhait crossing. Mongolia built more than 200 kilometres of foundations for railway tracks for the link but the project was put on hold after financing ran dry. Local authorities believe the project may have to start again from scratch because the foundation blocks have been left at the mercy of Mongolia’s harsh environment for so long. Whatever the fate of the railroad, those plying the roads from the Gobi to China in stop-and-go traffic have little choice but to keep driving given the lack of opportunities in a country strapped by austerity measures linked to the IMF bailout. “This job is very risky and life threatening, but we have no other choice,” said Choijiljav Ganbold, a trucker who emerged from his truck as the sun set on the motionless traffic. “We have nothing else to do.” Editing by David Stanway and Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mongolia-coal-trucks/border-jam-puts-mongolias-coal-lifeline-under-threat-idUKKBN1DD2QF'|'2017-11-14T00:32:00.000+02:00'
'955c391d5ddbc328846ee62aa6920403615a00e7'|'VW likely to back electric car assembly at east German plant - sources'|' 19 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago VW likely to back electric car assembly at east German plant: sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HAMBURG (Reuters) - Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) leaders will on Friday probably approve more investment in a plant in eastern Germany to ramp up production of electric cars there, sources said, as the carmaker strives to create a mass market for zero-emission vehicles. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The world’s largest automaker plans to spend more than 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion) on electric mobility by 2030, including costs to develop battery models and upgrade factories. Until it admitted in 2015 to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen (VW) had been slow to embrace zero-emission cars. Under its “roadmap E”, VW now aims to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030. With its nearly 9,000 workers, VW’s plant in Zwickau makes the Golf and Passat models. The combustion-engine vehicles could be shifted to the under-utilized factories at Wolfsburg and Emden to make room for electric-car production at the site in Saxony, three sources close to VW said on Tuesday. “Things are moving in this direction,” one of them said. A spokesman for VW’s operations in Saxony, which also include an engine plant in Chemnitz and a site in Dresden, said Zwickau has been earmarked to build an electric model but declined to elaborate. A spokesman at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters   VW’s supervisory board will meet on Friday to sign off on management’s capital and development spending targets for the next five years. At the previous budget round a year ago, VW pledged to cut group spending on factories, equipment and technology to 6 percent of automotive sales by 2020 from 6.9 percent in 2015. VW is struggling to fund a strategic shift to electric cars and new mobility services while grappling with its emissions scandal which has cost it around $30 billion so far. Reporting by Jan Schwartz. Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-spending/vw-likely-to-back-electric-car-assembly-at-east-german-plant-sources-idUKKBN1DE1XQ'|'2017-11-14T16:16:00.000+02:00'
'06f919ece9e05c3990db361009178e3fc543e46b'|'EgyptAir signs $1.1 billion deal for 12 Bombardier CSeries jets'|'Reuters TV United States November 14, 2017 / 11:49 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago EgyptAir signs $1.1 billion deal for 12 Bombardier CSeries jets Alexander Cornwell , Allison Lampert 3 Min Read DUBAI/MONTREAL (Reuters) - State-owned EgyptAir on Tuesday signed an initial order for 12 Bombardier CSeries jets, marking the Canadian plane maker’s second deal for its largest planes this month - agreements that end an 18-month drought of no sales of the aircraft. The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. Picture taken September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The two orders, the other for 31 aircraft from an undisclosed European buyer, are expected to be finalized by the end of 2017, a senior Bombardier executive said. The two agreements, which total 43 firm CSeries orders, are expected to generate momentum for the narrowbody jets and follow an October decision by Airbus SE to take a majority stake in the plane program. “We anticipate both of them by year end,” Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer told reporters. “That will take our firm order book to over 400 airplanes.” Cromer said both sales had already being under negotiation and were not the result of the Airbus venture. EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Moslem told a Dubai Airshow news conference on Tuesday the CS300 aircraft, which seat 130 passengers, would be used by the airline’s domestic and regional carrier EgyptAir Express.[L8N1NK4Y0] The deal is valued at $1.1 billion based on list prices. In Dubai, Ethiopian Airlines’ chief executive said he would decide next year whether to buy CSeries or Brazil-based Embraer’s E-jet series as a replacement for its Boeing’s 737-7. “We are respecting the customer’s wishes to not disclose the identity,” Cromer said from Dubai. Colin Bole, Bombardier’s senior vice president of commercial aircraft, said there were no particular conditions or terms that needed to be met to finalize the deals. Bombardier’s deal with EgyptAir follows signed agreements with Iraqi Airways, Bahrain’s Gulf Air, among other Middle East regional carriers. Bole said, “I think it’s a great template and it’s something that will be followed extremely closely by the other carriers in the region,” he said. The EgyptAir LOI also includes purchasing options for a further 12 CSeries that, if exercised, would increase the total value of the deal to nearly $2.2 billion. Bombardier is engaged in a trade dispute with Boeing, which complained that the CSeries had been subsidized and sold below cost in the United States. A U.S. trade commission will decide in early 2018 on whether to impose duties of nearly 300 percent on the planes as urged by the U.S. Commerce Department. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in DUBAI and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Mark Potter and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-egyptair-bombardier/egyptairs-bombardier-cseries-outline-deal-valued-at-1-1-billion-idUKKBN1DE1HW'|'2017-11-14T17:30:00.000+02:00'
'0d76fef8ea4ab3f0a9242e036def142d9e1c54f0'|'Europcar charged me £468 because it didn''t have the model I booked - Money - The Guardian'|'In July, I booked a hire car with Europcar through arguscarhire.com and paid £458.88 upfront. The voucher which I was to present at the hire desk stated that I would be given an Opel Astra or “similar”.On arrival at Europcar, I was told the Astra was not available but that I could have a similar Ford Focus. Because I did not wish to buy their collision damage waiver I was told I would have to preauthorise £468 on my credit card as a deposit. The card machine screen said the word “preauthorisation” and I entered my pin after being assured that no money would be debited.I was then asked to sign rental paperwork which, the assistant claimed, was necessary for Europcar’s record-keeping where the hire is arranged through a third-party broker. This was presented as a formality and it was not explained that, in doing so, I was agreeing to pay an excess of £468 for taking a different car to the one I had booked.I only realised they had charged me this huge sum when this amount was collected from my current account over a month later. Europcar and my credit card provider have refused to refund me because I signed the rental paperwork.I would never have done so if they had not assured me there were no other charges involved.This experience leaves me with the impression that Europcar is, at best, incompetent, or, at worst, being wilfully deceptive in covertly upselling to customers who purchase hire through third-party sites. SH, LondonThe first thing to be said is that you should always, always, read through what you are signing, regardless of time pressures or misleading assurances.It is almost impossible to prove you were misled when you have put your name to the terms of a contract.However, many of us would have done the same given the stress and hurry at car hire desks and, knowing that, firms are notorious for trying to trap customers into paying needless extras, usually for in-house insurance.In 2015 Europcar was one of the firms that, under pressure from the Competition and Markets Authority, committed to improving their practices and make their charges and key terms and conditions clear. Last month the CMA launched enforcement action against two online brokers to compel them to comply.Most of the letters I receive about Europcar concern unannounced debits for disputed damage, weeks after a hire vehicle is returned. Your experience is unique in its apparent brazenness and Europcar doesn’t even attempt to justify itself, declining to respond to my questions about its sales practices.It does, however, decide to refund you the £468 after I raised your concerns, although it allows itself up to 10 working days to do so.If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.Topics Consumer affairs Your problems with Anna Tims Consumer rights Motoring features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/14/europcar-charged-me-468-didnt-have-model-booked'|'2017-11-14T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'353f1768b01030e1608d71b611339719b7b31b3e'|'Airbus nears deal to sell around 400 jets to Indigo Partners - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 3:36 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Airbus nears deal to sell around 400 jets to Indigo Partners - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) is close to agreeing a blockbuster order worth more than $40 billion (30.44 billion pounds) at list prices to sell around 400 aircraft to U.S.-based investment fund Indigo Partners, founded by low-cost airline pioneer Bill Franke, two sources said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The sources, who were familiar with the matter, said the deal could be unveiled at the Dubai Airshow later on Wednesday in a huge comeback for the European planemaker, which had so far been upstaged by rival Boeing Co ( BA.N ) at the airshow and in the annual aircraft orders race. Airbus and Indigo Partners declined to comment. Reporting by Tim Hepher in Dubai; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-airbus/airbus-nears-deal-to-sell-around-400-jets-to-indigo-partners-sources-idUKKBN1DF0CS'|'2017-11-15T05:48:00.000+02:00'
'6b39a456901b499828e8ab5af789783b38de22f9'|'CEE MARKETS-Leu sets record low despite expected strong GDP growth'|'* Romania fiscal, monetary policy uncertainty weighs on its assets * Leu hits record lows though robust Q3 growth figure is expected * Zloty eases, CPI figures do not support case of rate hikes (Adds leu record low, failed Romanian bond auction, Polish data, new comment) By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The leu set record lows on Monday despite expectations for robust output data from Romania, depressed by uncertainty over a likely government spending spree and continuing fraud investigations in Bucharest. Anti-corruption prosecutors opened a probe into the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party, Liviu Dragnea, on suspicion of forming a "criminal group" to siphon off cash from state projects. A controversial tax overhaul plan has also weighed on Romanian asset prices. The leftists'' fiscal policy has been loose, including steep wage hikes which boosted Romania''s inflation to a four-year high of 2.6 percent by October and led to an upwards revision in the central bank''s (NBR) inflation forecast last week. It also signalled a shift in its monetary policy focus to keeping market interest rates near its benchmark rate, and said that it would be more flexible on the exchange rate. Its comments pushed the leu through the 4.6 line against the euro, which market participants had believed was defended by the NBR in the past. The leu set record lows and slipped further on Monday to 4.657. At 1425 GMT, it traded at 4.6553, weaker by 0.15 percent from Friday''s close. Romanian government bond prices have also dropped and their yields reached multi-year highs by Friday. On Monday, Romanian debt managers rejected all bids at a tender to sell March 2022 bonds as demand was less than half the offered amount. The main Central European economies are due to release third-quarter economic output figures on Tuesday. Romania is expected to report the strongest annual growth rate in the region. The median forecast of analysts in a Reuters poll was 5.8 percent for Romania''s growth. Given uncertainties over fiscal policy, government spending late this year and the NBR''s response, Romanian assets will remain fragile, market participants said. "Whereas we would not exclude additional short-term setbacks for the leu..., a fast depreciation towards EUR/RON 4.70 would increase pressure for policy makers to react," Raiffeisen analyst Gunter Deuber said in a note. The prospect of strong output data did not help Poland''s zloty either, which eased 0.2 percent to 4.2355 against the euro, even though the central bank (NBP) said fundamentals would justify some zloty firming. Detailed October inflation data did not change the perception that the bank is unlikely to tighten interest rates before the last quarter of 2018. "(Capital) inflow to the region continues, but from the other side, the NBP maintain that there is no hurry with hikes, so the zloty lost some wind in the sails," said Piotr Poplawski, senior economist of ING Bank. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1525 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.554 25.556 +0.01 5.69% 0 5 % Hungary 311.92 311.73 -0.06% -0.99% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2355 4.2263 -0.22% 3.98% Romanian leu 4.6553 4.6481 -0.15% -2.58% Croatian 7.5500 7.5465 -0.05% 0.07% kuna Serbian 118.47 118.62 +0.13 4.12% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1061.8 1063.7 -0.17% +15.2 4 0 2% Budapest 39446. 39435. +0.03 +23.2 86 24 % 6% Warsaw 2443.2 2457.6 -0.59% +25.4 1 2 3% Bucharest 7750.9 7771.6 -0.27% +9.40 6 3 % Ljubljana 787.92 792.00 -0.52% +9.80 % Zagreb 1844.4 1857.0 -0.68% -7.54% 0 2 Belgrade 736.12 738.64 -0.34% +2.61 % Sofia 669.31 671.78 -0.37% +14.1 3% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.49 0.145 +123b +14bp ps s 5-year 0.881 0.009 +121b +1bps ps 10-year 1.713 -0.001 +131b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.614 0.042 +236b +4bps ps 5-year 2.592 0.014 +292b +2bps ps 10-year 3.422 0.047 +302b +5bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.96 1.11 1.22 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.767 1.81 1.913 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-leu-sets-record-low-despite-expected-strong-gdp-growth-idINL8N1NJ5Q4'|'2017-11-13T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'06d71cc1b3de66c402884c171c066b008b89579d'|'India''s Idea Cellular posts bigger-than-expected Q2 loss'|'Nov 13 (Reuters) - Indian telecom carrier Idea Cellular Ltd posted its fourth straight quarterly loss on Monday, as it struggled with the aggressive pricing structure brought in by an upstart rival.Net loss after tax was 11.07 billion rupees ($169.45 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of 915 million rupees a year earlier, Idea Cellular said on Monday. ( bit.ly/2i9WwuO )Analysts on average expected the company to post a loss of 11.25 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.Revenue from operations of the company, which is merging its operations with Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian unit, fell about 20 percent to 74.66 billion rupees.$1 = 65.3300 Indian rupees Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/idea-cellular-results/indias-idea-cellular-posts-bigger-than-expected-q2-loss-idINL3N1NJ1UG'|'2017-11-13T01:03:00.000+02:00'
'01f8b50ee014884df20ce71c73af39008843d9b3'|'South Korean workers seek assurances over Opel shift to Europe'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:26 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago South Korean workers seek assurances over Opel shift to Europe Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Opel’s plan to shift car production from South Korea to Europe fuelled concerns among workers about a sharp fall in output at General Motors’ ( GM.N ) South Korean unit, which is already grappling with slumping sales. FILE PHOTO: A man cleans the floor near a wall with an Opel logo on it during the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Sources in GM’s South Korean union said they were seeking assurances about future production volumes, after Opel boss Michael Lohscheller said in a briefing on Thursday that GM’s former European arm planned to move “volumes from Korea to Europe”. “By 2020, we will import nearly 200,000 vehicles less per year,” Lohscheller said. GM this year agreed to sell its Opel and Vauxhall brands in Europe to PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ), dealing a severe blow to output at GM Korea, which has exported Opel-badged models like Karl and Mokka to Europe. GM Korea’s four manufacturing factories exported 134,137 vehicles to Europe last year, accounting for about 20 percent of its total production. “We have no choice but to die,” a union official told Reuters, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. “If they don’t make up for Opel’s lost volume, we have no choice but to believe that GM is determined to intentionally kill us.” Several union figures expressed similar concerns when contacted by Reuters for comment. A union spokesman was not available to comment. GM executives have complained about South Korea’s relatively high wages and its strike-prone labour union. The Opel announcement came as GM Korea and its union are having annual wage talks, during which workers call for more production. When asked whether GM would pull out of Korea at a parliamentary audit last month, GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem repeatedly said it was focussed on turning around the loss-making operations. Since taking over as GM’s CEO in January 2014, Mary Barra has taken a closer look at profitability, withdrawing from markets including Russia and Indonesia, and dropping its Chevrolet brand in Europe. Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Yuna Park; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gm-southkorea-opel/south-korean-workers-seek-assurances-over-opel-shift-to-europe-idUKKBN1DD0PC'|'2017-11-13T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'6d398b61236b49b2cf54137d7191f803e3618073'|'OPEC points to larger 2018 oil supply deficit as market tightens'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:13 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago OPEC points to larger 2018 oil supply deficit as market tightens Alex Lawler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC raised its forecast on Monday for demand for its oil in 2018 and said its deal with other producers to cut output was reducing excess oil in storage, potentially pushing the global market into a larger deficit next year. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen before a news conference at OPEC''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said in a monthly report it had cut its estimate of 2018 supply from non-OPEC producers and said oil use would grow faster than previously thought due to a stronger-than-expected world economy. “The global economic growth dynamic has continued its broad-based and relatively strong momentum,” OPEC said. “The ongoing momentum could still provide some slight upside potential.” OPEC said the world would need 33.42 million barrels per day (bpd) of OPEC crude next year, up 360,000 bpd from its previous forecast and marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the projection from its first estimate made in July. The report is OPEC’s last before a Nov. 30 meeting in which the group and its allies are expected to extend their supply-cutting deal further into next year. The projections pointing to a growing 2018 supply deficit could influence debate on how long to maintain the curbs. Oil prices, which are close to their highest since 2015, rose further towards $64 a barrel after the report was issued. Crude is still about half its level of mid-2014, when a build-up of excess supply led to a price collapse. The 14-country producer group said its oil output in October, as assessed by secondary sources, was below the 2018 demand forecast at 32.59 million bpd, a drop of about 150,000 bpd from September. The report’s OPEC production figures mean compliance with the supply cut by the 11 members with output targets has risen above 100 percent from 98 percent initially reported in September, according to a Reuters calculation. “The high conformity levels of participating OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries ... have clearly played a key role in supporting stability in the oil market and placing it on a more sustainable path,” the report said. In a further sign supply excess is easing, OPEC said inventories in developed economies declined by 23.6 million barrels in September to 2.985 billion barrels, 154 million barrels above the five-year average. “The excess overhang has fallen considerably,” said OPEC, which aims to reduce stocks to the five-year average through the supply-curbing deal. DEMAND BOOST Stronger demand has given tailwind to the supply cut, in which OPEC plus Russia and nine other non-OPEC producers are reducing output by about 1.8 million bpd until March 2018. OPEC now expects oil demand to rise by 1.51 million bpd next year, up 130,000 bpd from previously, to 98.45 million bpd. World economic growth is seen accelerating to 3.7 percent, up from 3.5 percent in the previous forecast. And in another forecast moving in OPEC’s favor, the report lowered its estimate of supply growth from non-OPEC countries next year. It now sees a rise of 870,000 bpd, down 70,000 bpd from the previous forecast. OPEC cited downward adjustments to Mexico and Norway for the revision. OPEC and its allies are discussing extending their supply pact for as long as nine months, officials have said ahead of the Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. Doing so could lead to a sizeable supply shortfall next year. Should OPEC keep pumping at October’s level and other things remain equal, the market could move into a deficit of about 830,000 bpd next year, the report indicates. Last month’s report pointed to a smaller deficit of about 310,000 bpd. Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by Dale Hudson and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-opec-oil-report/opec-sees-tighter-2018-oil-market-as-demand-grows-supply-falls-idUKKBN1DD1FG'|'2017-11-13T17:02:00.000+02:00'
'972430aca9973313a614ffbfb58dc3df947f35ca'|'Value of Saudi sovereign fund jumps amid market turmoil'|'November 13, 2017 / 4:08 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Value of Saudi sovereign fund jumps amid market turmoil Andrew Torchia , Saeed Azhar 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - As Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption purge sends the shares of some if its companies into a tailspin, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has gained in value. FILE PHOTO: An investor gestures as he monitors a screen displaying stock information in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser/File Photo Last week the market value of the Public Investment Fund’s portfolio of Saudi equities jumped by almost $3 billion (£2.2 billion), Reuters calculations show, even as the arrest or questioning of more than 200 people in the probe caused stocks in many privately controlled firms to slump. The share price of National Commercial Bank ( 1180.SE ), for example, surged 8.7 percent; Saudi Arabian Mining Co 1211.SE gained 4.7 percent. They and the remainder of the PIF’s top 10 holdings rose, while the main stock market index moved sideways. Some fund managers said government-linked funds - possibly the PIF itself - bought stocks in order to support the market and avert panic. The PIF did not respond to a request for comment on its market activity. In addition, the managers added, money poured into PIF-related shares from other parts of the stock market as investors decided the fund was the safest bet, a sign of its growing importance in the Saudi economy. “It is already arguably the country’s most important investor in so many aspects of the economy, from banking to transport,” said Sam Blatteis, chief executive of regional business advisory firm The MENA Catalysts. “As a consequence of what’s happening, they may accelerate what they’ve been doing.” For most of its life, the PIF, established in 1971, was a low-key institution making low-interest, low-risk loans to industries which Riyadh wanted to develop. That has changed under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, architect of economic reforms designed to help Saudi Arabia escape its dependence on oil exports. In the past two years he handed the PIF new responsibilities, including developing defence and tourism, undertaking huge real estate projects, creating a $500 billion business zone and raising returns on Saudi state money invested abroad. With assets over $220 billion - some $100 billion of that in stakes in nearly two dozen listed Saudi firms - the PIF has said it aims to hit $400 billion in assets by 2020, partly by obtaining money from a planned sale of shares in national oil giant Saudi Aramco. BIG GETTING BIGGER? The anti-graft probe may accelerate that growth, say bankers, lawyers and analysts familiar with the PIF. One of Prince Mohammed’s top planners, economy minister Adel Fakieh, was sacked and detained in the purge. That left PIF managing director Yasir al-Rumayyan as one of only a few top advisers involved in the reform project since the beginning. And for investors keen to push ahead with Saudi projects despite the uncertainty, the PIF and its stable of firms look safer than most alternatives, said a corporate lawyer based in the Gulf who advises foreign companies entering Saudi Arabia. That said, the overall impact of the anti-corruption crackdown could be to deter investment. Alarmed by the scope of the crackdown, multinationals and banks doing business in Saudi Arabia are deciding whether they can safely keep their ties to partners in the kingdom, corporate executives, bankers, lawyers and business consultants in the region said. Some decisions on new foreign investments have been suspended until the situation becomes clearer, the sources added. A businessman at a foreign technology services firm said he had been considering a venture with a Saudi partner, but decided against it last week because of the partner’s ties to detained construction magnate Bakr bin Laden. “This may concentrate more power into the PIF because they are seen as a clean entity close to the ruler,” said the Gulf-based corporate lawyer. “That makes them untouchable.” Additional reporting by Katie Paul and Stephen Kalin in Riyadh, and Tom Arnold in Dubai'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-fund/value-of-saudi-sovereign-fund-jumps-amid-market-turmoil-idUKKBN1DD203'|'2017-11-13T18:08:00.000+02:00'
'57c9bb1a21285bff8b899b6826e19d3f27369cc9'|'B of A''s Montag says Q4 trading environment ''remains muted'''|'November 14, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago B of A''s Montag says Q4 trading environment ''remains muted'' Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 14 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp chief operating officer Tom Montag said the trading environment in the fourth quarter “remains muted,” and looks similar to the third quarter. Montag, who declined to give any numbers to describe the bank’s trading performance, made the comments during a presentation at an industry conference his bank hosted Tuesday. (Reporting by Dan Freed in New York)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-banks-conference-bank-of-america/b-of-as-montag-says-q4-trading-environment-remains-muted-idUSL1N1NK0UA'|'2017-11-14T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'687fc18435fe8ca4502031e6119829d65d38d8c8'|'AT&T, Verizon strike tower agreement in effort to diversify vendors'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:58 PM / in 2 hours AT&T, Verizon strike tower agreement in effort to diversify vendors Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc said on Monday they have agreed to lease hundreds of new cell towers from owner and operator Tillman Infrastructure, a move they hope will give them more leverage in negotiations with major U.S. tower vendors. FILE PHOTO: The Verizon logo is seen on the side of a truck in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The U.S. cell tower market is currently dominated by three companies: American Tower Corp, SBA Communications Corp, and Crown Castle International Corp. The agreement announced on Monday shows that Verizon and AT&T, the No. 1 and No. 2 biggest U.S. wireless carriers, are willing to strike deals with other vendors to secure better prices for the towers they use to transmit wireless signals, analysts and company officials said. Both carriers are seeking to add to their network capacity at a time when consumers are using increasing amounts of cellular data. Carriers are “always looking for alternative partners to lessen their dependence on the big three guys,” said Jonathan Chaplin, analyst at New Street Research. As part of the agreement, Tillman will construct the towers and AT&T and Verizon will serve as anchor tenants. Construction will begin in the first quarter of 2018. “This is Verizon and AT&T working together with a new provider to put some competition into the mix,” said Susan Johnson, AT&T’s senior vice president of supply chain, in an interview, adding, “we do really hope this will be a future model.” Shares of American Tower were flat in afternoon trading, while shares of SBA Communications were down 1.9 percent and Crown Castle was down 0.3 percent. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Frances Kerry '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-at-t-verizon-mobilephone/att-verizon-strike-tower-agreement-in-effort-to-diversify-vendors-idUSKBN1DD2G2'|'2017-11-13T21:56:00.000+02:00'
'1aa9f4833ad5e7c279dc775f8113633c04a9b677'|'Pfizer names Bourla as chief operating officer'|'November 13, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Pfizer creates chief operating officer role for Bourla Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc ( PFE.N ) has promoted Albert Bourla to the newly created post of chief operating officer, freeing up Chief Executive Officer Ian Read to focus more on long-term strategy and engaging with government and industry leaders. The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Bourla, 56, will assume his new position at the largest U.S. drugmaker next year, Pfizer said on Monday. He joined the company in 1993 and has been president of its Innovative Health business, which holds its newer, patent-protected medicines, since the beginning of 2016. Many had already viewed Bourla as the likely successor to Read, 64, and his promotion clarifies that, according to SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst John Boris. Pfizer “is an innovative health company,” Boris said. “It was clear that Albert would be the successor apparent as long as he continued to launch products appropriately.” Boris also said that with Bourla in the new role, Read would be free to focus on deal-making. Each of Read’s three predecessors as Pfizer CEO pulled off a huge acquisition, adding Warner-Lambert Corp for $90 billion in 2000, Pharmacia Corp for $60 billion in 2003 and Wyeth for $68 billion in 2009. Read was twice thwarted in efforts for even larger deals, to acquire UK-based rival AstraZeneca Plc ( AZN.L ) and later Botox maker Allergan Plc ( AGN.N ). Both would have allowed Pfizer to take advantage of lower corporate taxes in Europe. During Pfizer’s pursuit of Allergan, it was widely speculated that the company’s highly regarded CEO, Brent Saunders, would be groomed as Read’s eventual successor. Reporting by Michael Erman and Bill Berkrot; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pfizer-coo/pfizer-names-bourla-as-chief-operating-officer-idUSKBN1DD1TN'|'2017-11-13T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'19757bafc39a0a9a0d3dd43095855004f815dab2'|'BRIEF-Terra Firma Capital Q3 revenue C$3.6 million'|' 12 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago BRIEF-Terra Firma Capital Q3 revenue C$3.6 million Reuters Staff Nov 13 (Reuters) - Terra Firma Capital Corp: * Terra Firma Capital Corporation reports financial results for the third quarter ended september 30, 2017 * Q3 earnings per share C$0.00 * Q3 earnings per share view C$0.01 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S * Q3 revenue C$3.6 million  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-terra-firma-capital-q3-revenue-c36/brief-terra-firma-capital-q3-revenue-c3-6-million-idUSASB0BTG9'|'2017-11-13T15:12:00.000+02:00'
'00c57e324d14597b080c645c4105162371c1c68e'|'Outside investors distract from Oi restructuring -CEO'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Debt-laden Brazilian telecoms provider Oi SA would stand to gain from a third-party capital injection, but the company should focus on talks between creditors and shareholders before engaging other strategic investors, its chief executive said on Monday.In an interview on the company’s third-quarter results, CEO Marco Schroeder said he thought it was “extremely important” that a long-delayed creditors meeting be held on Dec. 7 even if creditors and shareholders had not reached an agreement.In the results, Oi reported a net profit of 8 million reais ($2 million) in the third quarter, up from a net loss of 1.214 billion reais a year earlier, as a stronger currency reduced the burden of its dollar-denominated debts.$1 = 3.29 reais Reporting by Gram Slattery and Brad Haynes; editing by Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-results/outside-investors-distract-from-oi-restructuring-ceo-idINE6N1G5050'|'2017-11-13T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'22a6f4511e35575191ab56c2fb0c54eca4dca230'|'Australia''s Aurizon in talks to buy debt-saddled coal port'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings ( AZJ.AX ) said on Monday it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt.A purchase would mark a change in strategy under new Chief Executive Andrew Harding for Australia’s largest rail freight operator, which runs nearly 2,700 kms (1,680 miles) of rail lines transporting millions of tonnes of coal a year.A successful deal would also be a relief for mining giant Glencore ( GLEN.L ) and four partners who face a September 2018 deadline to start paying down the debt on the world’s most expensive coal port.“It is strategically sensible for Aurizon to be considering the acquisition of WICET,” said Morgans Stockbroking analyst Nathan Lead. “It’s already providing the rail logistics into the terminal, so an acquisition would be a vertical integration play.”Aurizon said it was in preliminary discussions with undisclosed parties for a deal that would see it acquire the coal terminal, while “other consortium members” would acquire one or more of the coal mines that use the port.Macquarie Group ( MQG.AX ) is another consortium member, the Australian Financial Review reported. Macquarie declined comment.The deal could involve Macquarie buying Glencore’s Rolleston mine and Wesfarmers Ltd’s ( WES.AX ) Curragh mine, both of which use the port and are up for sale, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters.The source declined to be named as talks are confidential.Glencore said in a statement emailed to Reuters that it was seeing “strong interest” from a number of parties for the Rolleston mine.WICET was built to service a consortium of eight coal companies. It was funded entirely by debt backed by port fees on 27 million tonnes of coal a year, whether that volume was shipped or not.The port is exporting much less than that as three of its original eight users have folded, meaning the remaining five partners must shoulder all of the port’s debt and port fees.As a result, they pay about $25 a tonne at WICET - about five times the port fee at the adjacent RG Tanna terminal.One of the aims of the Aurizon deal is to bring down port charges.“Through restructuring and the proposed introduction of lower, market-competitive port charges, there would be incentive for miners to increase throughput at the port,” Aurizon said.If the port is not refinanced by September 2018, loan terms require Glencore and its partners to pay off the full $3 billion over the following decade.Since Harding took over in December after 24 years with Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX ), Aurizon has quit its loss-making freight business, allowing it to focus on coal haulage.Reporting by Sonali Paul and James Regan, additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing Stephen Coates and Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aurizon-m-a-port/australias-aurizon-in-talks-to-buy-debt-saddled-coal-port-idUSKBN1DC11S'|'2017-11-13T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'19c95717dd1f8b566421dd813eac95565432a4fa'|'UK shoppers cut spending by most in more than four years - Visa'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:27 AM / Updated 7 hours ago UK shoppers cut spending by most in more than four years: Visa Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shoppers reined in their spending by the most in more than four years in October, according to a survey by payments company Visa which added to other signs that the squeeze on incomes is hitting the high street. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past a sale sign in central London, Britain June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Consumer spending - adjusted for inflation and seasonal effects - fell by 2.0 percent in October compared with the same month last year, Visa said, based on its credit and debit card data. It was the fifth fall in the last six months. In monthly terms, spending was down 0.9 percent from September. “The figures are a stark indicator of the strain on household budgets even before the Bank of England’s recent interest rate rise,” Mark Antipof, Visa’s chief commercial officer, said. The BoE last week increased its benchmark borrowing rate to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent, despite many private economists warning that high inflation and weak wage growth was already squeezing household spending hard. A survey published on Monday showed British employers expect to raise pay for their workers only a little despite strong demand for staff and already low unemployment. Visa said clothing and footwear suffered the biggest fall in October, down an annual 9 percent, as warm weather put shoppers off buying winter clothes. Falls were also seen in other key areas of spending such as on food and drink and recreation and culture which until recently was growing strongly. Visa said November’s so-called Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales would provide a clearer sign of how the Christmas season was shaping up. The weak data from Visa echoed other surveys which have pointed to a sharp slowdown in spending in October. Economists polled by Reuters expect official retail sales data, due to be published on Thursday, will show the sharpest fall since March 2013, when Britain’s economy was just starting to emerge from its post-financial crisis lethargy. Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-visa/uk-shoppers-cut-spending-by-most-in-more-than-four-years-visa-idUKKBN1DD00S'|'2017-11-13T02:04:00.000+02:00'
'1d3fa8e3692ac626e83b4c9d1315a765d157fb7c'|'Greece to distribute 1.4 billion euros to the crisis-hit, following fiscal outperformance'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:06 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Greece to distribute 1.4 billion euros to citizens hit by austerity Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will distribute 1.4 billion euros as a social dividend to pensioners and others hit hard by the country’s austerity programmes, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks as he holds a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The money is available because the country outperformed its bailout targets, he said. Greece’s 2017 primary surplus excluding debt servicing costs is 1.75 percent of gross economic output, Tsipras said and called the performance “surprisingly good”. Tsipras’s left-leaning coalition government came to power in 2015 promising to end austerity. It later signed up to the country’s third bailout, which expires in August 2018, in exchange for more belt-tightening. The government now hopes that Greece’s fiscal performance will help it emerge from bailouts after seven years of crisis. “For a second year, we are in a position to distribute a social dividend to the people who need it the most. Better prepared and more effective this year, we will be able to pay out an even bigger amount,” he said in a televised statement. Last year, Tsipras unexpectedly announced that the state would pay out about 600 million euros to low-income pensioners, a move that angered the country’s international lenders. It was not clear if this year’s benefits had been approved by the lenders, who are reviewing Greece’s bailout progress. Their representatives are expected in Athens this month to resume talks on fiscal targets and on reforms. Tsipras said about 720 million euros would be distributed by mid-December to 3.4 million Greeks as a one-off, tax-free benefit, based on income and wealth criteria and household size. The country’s population is around 11 million. Another 315 million euros would be directed to pensioners, he said, to compensate them for “unfair” health contribution payments in 2012-2016, while 360 million euros would be paid to Greece’s biggest power utility, Public Power Corporation ( DEHr.AT ), to prevent electricity tariff increases. Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-pm/greece-to-distribute-1-4-billion-euros-to-the-crisis-hit-following-fiscal-outperformance-idUKKBN1DD2BF'|'2017-11-13T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'fe0dd50e357b12984265b328fa75e75781d52432'|'Credit checker Experian reports 6 percent rise in first-half operating profit'|'November 15, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Experian profit rises 6 percent, eyes Equifax breach Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Profits at Experian Plc ( EXPN.L ) rose 6 percent in the first half as the world’s biggest credit checker reported some initial gains from a data breach at U.S. rival Equifax and broader growth across its operations. The FTSE 100 company, which is best known for running consumer credit checks for banks, landlords and retailers, said operating profit rose to $518 million (394.25 million pounds) for the six months to Sept. 30 from $490 million a year earlier. Revenue from ongoing activities rose 5 percent to $2.19 billion. “Looking ahead, we continue to expect good levels of growth for the year, with organic revenue growth in the mid-single digit range and stable margins,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Cassin said in a statement. Experian said it had seen a spike in enrolments at its new identity monitoring service in the immediate aftermath of the Equifax ( EFX.N ) data breach. One of the worst cyber attacks in history has seen Equifax managers dragged before U.S. lawmakers, its chief executive resign and formal state and federal probes launched into the September incident. The two firms, along with U.S.-based TransUnion TRUN.N dominated the generation of credit reports and scores based on consumers’ borrowing and payment habits, including bankruptcies and court judgements. Lawmakers have indicated the firms will be subject to stricter regulatory monitoring following the Equifax data breach. Revenue at Experian’s credit services business, which accounts for 55 percent of its sales, rose 6 percent at constant currency rates to 1.23 billion pounds. That for its consumer services division fell to 460 million pounds at constant currency rates. Growth of 6 percent in Experian’s biggest market North America and strong performance in Latin America and EMEA-Asia Pacific helped offset a 3 percent fall in organic revenue in the UK and Ireland, Experian said. The company said it would pay an interim dividend of 13.5 cents per share, 4 percent higher than a year earlier. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-experian-results/credit-checker-experian-reports-6-percent-rise-in-first-half-operating-profit-idUKKBN1DF0V3'|'2017-11-15T09:38:00.000+02:00'
'5fe889c1a5452d2b62038dd06af283a36209cb70'|'Aberdeen fund ''100 percent'' behind Elliott''s push for change at BHP'|' 55 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Aberdeen fund ''100 percent'' behind Elliott''s push for change at BHP James Regan 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global fund manager Aberdeen Standard Investments fully supports activist investor Elliott Management’s push for widespread structural changes at mining giant BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX ), a senior Aberdeen manager said on Wednesday. Australian mining company BHP''s corporate logo, released to Reuters from their Melbourne, Australia, headquarters May 15, 2017. BHP/Handout via REUTERS. Commenting a day before BHP holds its Australian general meeting in Melbourne, where the board of the world’s biggest mining house is expected to come under renewed scrutiny over its ill-fated $20 billion investment in U.S. shale, Aberdeen Asia managing director Hugh Young said Elliott was “100 percent correct” in pressuring for change. Aberdeen is the third-biggest shareholder in BHP’s London- listed stock, with a 4.88 percent stake, just behind Elliott, which has a 5.04 percent holding, according to Thomson Reuters data. Elliott, founded by billionaire Paul Singer, has been pushing for BHP to jettison U.S. oil and gas assets and dismantle its dual-listed structure. It has also staged an unusual public campaign to muster small investors to help drive changes at BHP, one of the most recognisable corporate names in Australia, using social media to state its position. Speaking to reporters, Young said Aberdeen was in “very close contact with Elliott”, despite Elliott holding “slightly shorter” investment horizons than Aberdeen. Aberdeen manages $718 billion in assets and is known for taking a long-term view on investments. In April, it said Elliott’s plan was OK in principle but added that it may prove complex. BHP Chairman Ken MacKenzie has previously rejected any suggestions that Elliott was dictating polices at BHP. BHP entered the shale business at the height of the fracking boom in 2011 and invested billions developing the operations. The fall in oil prices since then has led to pre-tax writedowns of about $13 billion. BHP last month said divestment of a small portion of onshore shale acreage was completed in the September 2017 quarter, with “work underway” to exit the remaining acreage. Young said the timing of future divestments was up to BHP. “But they should not necessarily succumb to short-term pressure to do something for the sake of doing something,” Young said. Elliott also wants BHP to abandon its London stock listing, while retaining in Australian bourse listing, a move BHP insists would cost more to implement than it would save. Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bhp-billiton-aberdeen-elliott/aberdeen-fund-100-percent-behind-elliotts-push-for-change-at-bhp-idUKKBN1DF0X1'|'2017-11-15T09:55:00.000+02:00'
'bba83ab322760d6a7cda79777085ca811131d28f'|'Dubai raises stakes in talks for A380 lifeline order'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:07 AM / in 2 hours Dubai pressures Airbus as A380 order hopes fizzle Tim Hepher 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai wants a guarantee that Airbus ( AIR.PA ) will keep production of the A380 superjumbo open for at least 10 years before state-owned Emirates places a new order for the world’s largest jetliner, the airline’s president said on Monday. Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airlines, gestures during a news conference at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, UAE, November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar Speaking to Reuters at the Dubai Airshow, Tim Clark also said the largest Middle East carrier would probably stick with the Boeing 787 for its mid-sized fleet needs after ordering 40 of the jets on Sunday, and could order more in future. Airbus’s hopes of a new order from top customer Emirates for the slow-selling A380 were thwarted on Sunday when the airline unveiled a surprise order for 40 Boeing 787-10 jets worth $15.1 billion at list prices, but no European contract. Delegates said Airbus may be willing to meet Dubai’s conditions to steady A380 output, but hopes of an announcement during the rest of the Nov 12-16 air show all but evaporated on Monday as Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders left empty-handed. “We continue to have a dialogue with them,” Clark said. “If that comes to some kind of fruition during the course of the week, or the next few months, is very much down to them.” Delegates said an air show order was not impossible but now looked unlikely. Airbus has been scaling back production plans for the A380, which was launched as the solution to ever-rising air travel between major international hubs but has been outflanked by improvements in the efficiency of smaller jets. With 100 A380s already in Emirates’ fleet, Clark made plain the concerns about Airbus’ commitment to the project were being felt as high as the Dubai government, which owns the airline. “I think the ownership here are concerned about continuation (of the A380). They need some copper-bottom guarantees that if we do buy some more, then the line will be continued for a minimum period of years and that they are fully aware of the consequences of cancellation and leaving us high and dry.” “Those assurances I am sure will come. Quite when, I don’t quite know.” Asked what would be a reasonable commitment to unblock a deal, he said: “A minimum 10 years. These are vast capital investments for us and we can’t afford to have anything less than 10 years; hopefully it would be 15. But it is their call”. Airbus declined to comment. Visitors walk next to an Airbus A380, showing a picture of United Arab Emirates''s Former President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan during the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar GUARANTEES Emirates is by far the biggest customer for the A380, which entered service in 2007 during the financial crisis and never generated as many sales from other carriers as Airbus had hoped. Emirates has ordered 142 of the jets, worth $436 million each at list prices, and last week took delivery of its 100th. Scrapping production would raise concerns about future support and the value of jets in Emirates’ portfolio. Slideshow (2 Images) Dubai’s demand for industrial guarantees raises the stakes in negotiations and would be a matter for the Airbus board. “There has to be a fleshing out of the undertakings. My own view is that Airbus are ready to make those, but whether it is today or tomorrow or next week or in the next few months, I don’t know,” Clark said. Airbus has been driving down A380 costs in an effort to ensure the line can stay open and break even, even if Emirates remains the only significant buyer of new jets, something that would help it to give the carrier assurances over its future. Emirates’ tough negotiating position also reflects growing concerns about management uncertainty at Airbus, whose veteran sales chief John Leahy is about to retire. “We know management is likely to be structured slightly differently. On the basis of that we wish to know that irrespective of what the management does, that once that commitment is made and signed for ... that they will honor it and nobody will change it,” Clark said. Clark, who is also seen as approaching retirement, squashed suggestions that Emirates may still buy A350s as well as 787s. Asked whether Emirates’ plans still left room for the A350, Clark said: “No. I would say that once we have gone for the 787 we will stay with the 787, but I can never say never.” He also played down reports that Emirates, which had previously said it was seeking 50-70 twin-engined jets, had taken a more conservative tack by ordering only 40 787-10s. “Will it stop at 40? My own view? No, it will grow,” he said, adding that Emirates may take some smaller 787-9s. Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-airline/dubai-raises-stakes-in-talks-for-a380-lifeline-order-idUSKBN1DD0XD'|'2017-11-13T11:11:00.000+02:00'
'ebe7455fc8baf7c204f370c87a34064146aa77e2'|'Legal & General enters European ETF market with Canvas platform deal'|'November 15, 2017 / 7:25 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Legal & General launches ETF foray with Canvas platform deal Simon Jessop , Lawrence White 3   Legal & General (L&G) ( LGEN.L ), the owner of Britain’s biggest fund manager, has staked its claim for a slice of the growing market for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with a deal to buy Europe-focused platform Canvas. Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), which runs a third of its $1.2 trillion (£909 billion) in assets in index funds, but none in ETFs, will acquire the platform and $2.7 billion in assets from ETF Securities for an unspecified sum, L&G said on Wednesday . The deal comes amid growing demand from fee-conscious investors to buy cheaper index-tracking products, and follows recent moves from rivals including Invesco, Vanguard and Wisdomtree to expand operations. Vanguard, one of the world’s biggest providers, has said continental Europe will be a key growth market in the future, fuelled in part by new regulations aiming to remove inducements for financial advisers to push higher-cost funds. Unlike straight index funds, ETFs are classed as an equity and traded on a stock exchange, making it easier for investors to buy and sell. “We thought the time was right to enter ETFs now,” Chad Rakvin, global head of index funds, told Reuters. “Especially with ETFs becoming more efficient (and) our clients starting to understand them better.” The deal for the UK and Ireland-based Canvas platform will help LGIM break into the booming European ETF market via the 14 countries in which it is licensed for distribution. L&G did not disclose a value for the deal. As part of the deal, the chief executive, chief operating officer and a team of product specialists, portfolio managers, legal and compliance staff will move across to LGIM when the deal closes, likely in the first quarter of 2018, Rakvin said. “The ETF market is one of the fastest growing segments in asset management,” said Mark Zinkula, CEO of LGIM. “A number of long-term macro trends, including the increasing use of passive vehicles and the drive to digitalisation, will lead to a growing demand for ETF products.” Investors have increasingly put their money into exchange-traded products and funds in recent years, with the global market reaching a record $4.6 trillion at the end of October. While European ETF assets are just a small slice of that, at around 550 billion euros, Morningstar data to end-2016 showed, the pace of growth is higher and Rakvin said he expected LGIM’s assets to grow. “This year alone, $95 billion has gone into European ETF products, so we do expect it to be a more material part of our growth going forward,” he said, adding he was “open” to further bolt-on acquisitions. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-legal-general-etf/legal-general-enters-european-etf-market-with-canvas-platform-deal-idUKKBN1DF0T2'|'2017-11-15T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'940a99bde5c74c8d5604e8ac9eb7a40b594caed0'|'Russia restructures Venezuelan debt, PDVSA loans not included'|' 45 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Russia restructures Venezuelan debt, PDVSA loans not included Jack Stubbs , Polina Nikolskaya , Darya Korsunskaya 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Venezuela signed a debt restructuring deal on Wednesday allowing Caracas to make “minimal” payments to Moscow in the next six years to help it meet obligations to other creditors, the Russian Finance Ministry said. People queue to withdraw cash from an ATM outside a Banco BFC branch in Caracas, Venezuela November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello Under the deal, Venezuela will pay Russia back a total of $3.15 billion (£2.3 billion) over a 10-year period, the ministry said. S&P Global Ratings declared Venezuela in selective default on Tuesday after the South American country failed to make $200 million in coupon payments on its global bonds due in 2019 and 2024 within a 30-day grace period. Venezuela has public external debts of about $150 billion, including $45 billion in government debt and another $45 billion of the state oil company PDVSA’s debt, according to the International Institute of Finance, an adviser to a group of U.S. and international holders of Venezuelan debt. The Russian Finance Ministry said on Wednesday the restructuring should free up more funds to allow Venezuela to develop its economy and “will improve the debtor’s payment ability, increasing the chances of all creditors to get their loans back.” The ministry statement did not mention PDVSA debt to Rosneft, last estimated by the Russian oil company at $6 billion in August. Asked whether PDVSA debt was part of Wednesday’s deal, Venezuelan Economy and Finance Minister Simon Zerpa told a briefing in Moscow that no corporate debt was included in the new deal, which was purely between the two governments. Pavel Fyodorov, one of Rosneft’s first vice presidents, said on Tuesday that Venezuela was paying its debt in tranches of “hundreds of million of dollars,” and that his company had no plans to lend any more money to the country. Rosneft declined further comment on Wednesday. The company’s shares were down 3.3 percent in mid-day trading in Moscow while the overall MICEX index was down by 1.1 percent. Venezuela has borrowed billions of dollars from Russia and China over the years, primarily through oil-for-loan deals that have crimped the country’s hard currency revenue by requiring oil shipments to be used to service those loans. Venezuela has not requested any help from Russia beyond a debt restructuring deal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. [nR4N1NF01L] Russia’s Audit Chamber said in June that Venezuela had not fulfilled its obligations under an intergovernmental protocol from September 2016. That agreement was an amendment to a Russian loan granted in December 2011. Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Denis Pinchuk and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn/Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-venezuela-debt-details/russia-restructures-venezuelan-debt-pdvsa-loans-not-included-idUKKBN1DF1XR'|'2017-11-15T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'a95c3415697d39506a09f3ffc8d7acb9bacb14fe'|'Lockheed''s CH-53K helicopter to make global debut at Berlin air show - sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 7:16 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Lockheed''s CH-53K helicopter to make global debut at Berlin air show: sources Andrea Shalal 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. military has approved Lockheed Martin Corp’s ( LMT.N ) new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter to fly at the Berlin air show next April, according to two sources familiar with the program. Lockheed Martin''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon It will mark the CH-53K’s international debut at time when a German helicopter competition could start heating up again. The German defense ministry is nearing the kickoff of a competition valued at nearly 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) between two U.S. helicopters - Lockheed’s massive Sikorsky CH-53K and the smaller Boeing Co ( BA.N ) CH-47 twin-rotor helicopter. A formal decision on how to structure the competition has stalled as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives try to forge a ruling coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens, an endeavor that could take until the end of the year. Military sources expect the program to proceed only after a new government is in place, but say it could be delayed further if the current defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, is replaced. Any successor would want to review major weapons programs like the heavy-lift helicopter. Europe’s Airbus ( AIR.PA ) is also challenging the ministry’s plans, arguing that German firms should get a big share of the maintenance and management of the project. The ministry has pushed back, saying it would be too unwieldy to award separate contracts for production and sustainment of the planes. Bringing the CH-53K helicopter to Berlin will allow military officials to compare the two aircraft on site. Two Boeing CH-47 helicopters were brought to a conference in Germany in July, but the Lockheed aircraft, just entering production for the Marine Corps, was not on site. Eight other NATO countries already use the CH-47 Chinook, while Germany currently flies the CH-53G, an older version of the CH-53K that Lockheed will offer. Some German military officials favor the CH-47 which they say is combat-proven and cheaper, but others say the larger CH-53K would allow growth in future missions. The U.S. Marine Corps expect to declare the CH-53K ready for combat use in 2019. They have said the average cost of the huge aircraft will be around $88 million a copy. The cost could drop somewhat if Germany, Israel and Japan also buy the planes. Experts say it would cost less to buy the Chinook, but it will require several upgrades in coming years that could add cost. It also carries less, so it takes more flights to accomplish the same mission. Beth Parcella, in charge of Lockheed’s drive to win the German contract for the CH-53K, told Reuters she thought the helicopter still had good chances in the German competition. “The price differential is not going to be anywhere as significant as it’s being portrayed,” she said. “It’s a larger, heavier aircraft, so it’s going to cost more. But it’s going to be a lot closer than people think.” She said the new aircraft would also cost far less to service given its on-board diagnostic system. Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-helicopter-germany/lockheeds-ch-53k-helicopter-to-make-global-debut-at-berlin-air-show-sources-idUKKBN1DF2TH'|'2017-11-15T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'ed4918d77af4bb771d629116eaf40535c9c9ce33'|'Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero - source'|' 41   Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero - source Jessica DiNapoli 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has written down to zero the value of its stake in the Weinstein Company, the movie studio whose co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Harvey Weinstein speaks at the UBS 40th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, NY, U.S. on December 5, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Goldman Sachs’ move comes as the Weinstein Company looks for fresh financing after more than 50 women claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations. Last month, Goldman Sachs said it was trying to find a buyer for its stake in the Weinstein Company. A Goldman Sachs spokesman had said at the time that the bank valued the stake at less than $1 million. The source did not disclose how much of the Weinstein Company Goldman Sachs owns, but described the stake as small. He asked not to be identified because the bank has not publicly released its latest valuation. A Weinstein Company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. One of the Weinstein Company’s lenders, AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, filed a lawsuit last Friday in New York State Supreme Court demanding immediate repayment of its approximately $44 million loan. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, United States April 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Referring to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, AI International stated in court papers that his actions and his departure from the company have “left [the business] in shambles,” and “exposed to potentially massive liabilities [that] have severely, if not fatally, damaged its standing in the marketplace.” A spokeswoman for Harvey Weinstein declined to comment. The Weinstein Company’s other lenders include Bank of America and MUFG Union Bank N.A., according to the lawsuit. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Weinstein Company’s board of directors has been receiving advice from investment bank Moelis & Co ( MC.N ) on its efforts to raise cash, including by potentially selling assets and finding a rescue loan, sources have previously told Reuters. A Moelis spokeswoman declined to comment. Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC ( FIG.N ) was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal last week, according to another person familiar with the matter. Fortress would consider providing Weinstein Co with funding to help it through a bankruptcy process, if it came to that, the person said. A Fortress spokesman declined to comment. The Weinstein Company’s lenders have hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc ( HLI.N ) for financial advice in a potential restructuring, a source close to that situation said. The Weinstein Co has been one of Hollywood’s most influential forces since its launch in October 2005 and has produced and distributed films including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; editing by Ben Klayman and Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-weinsteincompany-goldman/goldman-sachs-marks-stake-in-weinstein-co-down-to-zero-source-idUKKBN1DE025'|'2017-11-14T02:40:00.000+02:00'
'40fd2236cd4ad4f5d9f13e9fc8cd5668d4d91fe2'|'Emirates believes Airbus can guarantee development of A380 programme'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:37 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Emirates believes Airbus can guarantee development of A380 programme Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates believes Airbus ( AIR.PA ) can meet demands from the airline’s owner, the Dubai government, for the European planemaker to guarantee development of the superjumbo A380 programme. Visitors walk past an Airbus A380 during the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar “I am sure that if we get closer to a further order, the Airbus board will make that undertaking,” airline President Tim Clark told reporters on Tuesday at the Dubai Airshow. An anticipated order for A380 superjumbos worth $16 billion (12.20 billion pounds) failed to materialise at the last moment on Sunday, forcing Emirates and Airbus into further talks to finalise a deal. Clark declined to speculate when a deal might be reached. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-airline/emirates-believes-airbus-can-guarantee-development-of-a380-programme-idUKKBN1DE0FD'|'2017-11-14T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'b7c43f2979ed3349fadb1b6785d46e7e454619a9'|'BRIEF-Carl Icahn cuts shared share stake in Freeport-Mcmoran'|'Nov 14 (Reuters) -* Carl Icahn cuts shared share stake in Freeport-Mcmoran Inc by 15.8 percent to 77.16 million Class B shares - SEC filing* Change in holdings are as of Sept 30, 2017 and compared with the previous quarter ended as of June 30, 2017 Source text for quarter ended Sept 30, 2017: bit.ly/2zDrg1i Source text for quarter ended June 30, 2017: bit.ly/2zBeQqF '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-carl-icahn-cuts-shared-share-stake/brief-carl-icahn-cuts-shared-share-stake-in-freeport-mcmoran-idINFWN1NK1IE'|'2017-11-14T19:11:00.000+02:00'
'4ff5b3ceb042aac77c7542008003a9dc1f518adf'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 14'|'Nov 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- The Justice Department said prosecutors were looking into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate political rivals U.S. President Donald Trump has singled out for scrutiny, including Hillary Clinton. nyti.ms/2hwQIyt- John Flannery, the new chief of General Electric Co , is backing away from the ambitious designs of his two predecessors. The new G.E., he declared repeatedly in his first detailed presentation on its future, will be a smaller company with fewer businesses. nyti.ms/2hxBSaH- U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Alex Azar II, a former president of the American division of Eli Lilly and Co and a health official in the George Bush administration, on Monday to be secretary of health and human services. nyti.ms/2jnGFfB- Two U.S. Navy SEAL commandos under investigation in the strangling of an Army Green Beret soldier in June in Mali have also been under scrutiny in the theft of money from a fund used to pay confidential informants, according to three service members briefed on the matter. nyti.ms/2jo8556- For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a digital pill — a medication embedded with a sensor that can tell doctors whether, and when, patients take their medicine. The approval, announced late on Monday, marks a significant advance in the growing field of digital devices designed to monitor medicine-taking and to address the expensive, longstanding problem that millions of patients do not take drugs as prescribed. nyti.ms/2jsvTF2 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-14-idINL3N1NK2HE'|'2017-11-14T02:50:00.000+02:00'
'71bf340615f3df4be5ac3f981d850ef64f6fbec2'|'Glencore says grain M&A hunt goes after it passes on several targets'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:37 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Glencore says grain M&A hunt goes on after it passes on several targets Gus Trompiz 3 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - Commodities giant Glencore ( GLEN.L ) has made unsuccessful moves for three or four smaller targets in the grain sector this year as it seeks acquisitions to grow upstream, the head of its agricultural arm said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo “We have looked at three or four possibilities in our core area already this year but couldn’t reach agreement with the seller,” Chris Mahoney, chief executive of Glencore Agriculture, told the Global Grain conference in Geneva. He added, following the presentation, that the attempted takeover targets would have represented relatively small deals. He did not give further details or mention international trader Bunge ( BG.N ), for which Glencore made an informal approach this year, a move fanning speculation that the grain trading industry was set for large-scale consolidation. Glencore remained focused on acquisitions for growth, and saw scope for consolidation in the grain sector due to excess capacity, Mahoney said, reiterating comments made at another commodity conference this year. “Finding value is the big challenge in the industry today,” he said. Glencore would concentrate on upstream, export-focused assets such as grain handling and crushing assets, rather than look at downstream activities, he said. “We feel we can capture benefits of strong demand by being strong at origin,” said Mahoney. “Origin in our mind lends itself better to big scale and more efficient assets,” he added. Other traders have looked to food processing and specialist ingredient activities to reduce their dependence on traditional grain trading, which has been hit by high supply and low prices. Bunge rebuffed Glencore’s approach and later announced a deal to buy a 70 percent stake in Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Loders Croklaan for $946 million (£718.2 million). Bunge is part of the so-called ABCD quartet of global agricultural commodity traders that also includes Archer Daniels Midland( ADM.N ), Cargill [CARG.UL] and Louis Dreyfus [AKIRAU.UL]. Glencore became a major international grain trader through its 2012 takeover of Canadian based Viterra. Glencore Agriculture was spun off last year when the commodity group sold a 50 percent stake in its agricultural division to two Canadian pension funds. The opening of the capital would give Glencore Agriculture the means to pursue growth by acquisitions, Mahoney said. (The story was refiled to add a dropped word to the headline) Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-grains/glencore-says-looked-at-3-4-smaller-acquisition-targets-but-could-not-conclude-deal-idUKKBN1DF1RV'|'2017-11-15T17:54:00.000+02:00'
'549653e33281e5c78172094bb8f39823d1b7c696'|'Japan''s GDP grows for seven straight quarters, outlook remains solid'|'November 14, 2017 / 11:56 PM / Updated an hour ago Japan''s GDP grows for seven straight quarters, outlook remains solid Stanley White , Leika Kihara 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter due to strong exports, posting the longest period of uninterrupted growth in more than a decade. FILE PHOTO: Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo The economy expanded at a 1.4 percent annualised rate in July-September, slightly above the median estimate for annualised growth of 1.3 percent, Cabinet Office data showed on Wednesday. That followed revised annualised growth of 2.6 percent in April-June. Consumer spending fell for the first time in seven quarters but this is expected to be temporary because the economy is near full employment, which should bolster domestic consumption in the future. Rising capital expenditure and exports are also expected to keep the economy growing, which should ease some concerns about sluggish inflation. “Japan’s potential growth rate is around 1 percent, so the results for the third quarter show the actual rate of growth is quite high,” said Hidenobu Tokuda, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “The jobs market is doing so well that consumer spending is sure to pick up in the future. Capital expenditure still looks healthy. The economy is doing well.” Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.3 percent compared to the previous quarter, which matched the median estimate and followed a 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter expansion in April-June, Cabinet Office data showed on Wednesday. The results show that Japan’s economy has grown for the seventh straight quarter, the longest period of expansion since an eight-quarter run from April-June 1999 to January-March 2001. External demand - or exports minus imports - was the biggest reason for expansion, adding 0.5 percent to growth.Shipments of cars and electronic parts to the United States and Asia were strong in the third quarter, reflecting improving global demand, a Cabinet Office official told reporters. In comparison, negative external demand subtracted a revised 0.2 percentage point from GDP growth in April-June. Private consumption, which accounts for about two-thirds of GDP, fell 0.5 percent from the previous quarter, more than the median estimate of a 0.3 percent contraction to mark the first decline since October-December 2015. The decline was driven by lower spending at restaurants and hotels, as well as reduced spending on cars and mobile phones, the official said. Bad weather during the quarter may have hurt spending, the official said. “There’s no change to our view the economy is recovering moderately as a trend,” Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters. “We need to make the recovery a durable one, so we’ll proceed with reforms to boost Japan’s productivity.” Capital expenditure rose 0.2 percent in July-September from the previous quarter, less than the median estimate for a 0.3 percent increase but still up for the fourth straight quarter. Capital Economics’ Senior Japan Economist Marcel Thielant said available data suggested that economic activity continued to expand in the current quarter, noting household incomes maintained solid growth and external demand was holding up. “However, the economy is running into capacity constraints which suggests that growth will start to slow next year. We reiterate our forecast that growth will moderate from 1.5 percent this year to 1 percent in 2019,” he said. Japan’s government is due to announce a package of economic measures by year-end aimed at increasing investment in skills training and raising productivity. This long run of growth should encourage the Bank of Japan to stick with the current monetary easing framework, given its argument that inflationary pressure will percolate through the economy as long as growth is on track. Reporting by Stanley White and Leika Kihara; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-gdp/japan-third-quarter-gdp-up-1-4-percent-annualised-on-export-growth-idUKKBN1DE37F'|'2017-11-15T04:14:00.000+02:00'
'6edb9bd2e12b3e7bae584e6da697c0420ca20e8a'|'Cost of diabetes epidemic reaches $850 billion a year'|'(Reuters) - The number of people living with diabetes has tripled since 2000, pushing the global cost of the disease to $850 billion a year, medical experts said on Tuesday.The vast majority of those affected have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and lack of exercise, and the epidemic is spreading particularly fast in poorer countries as people adopt Western diets and urban lifestyles.The latest estimates from the International Diabetes Federation mean that one in 11 adults worldwide have the condition, which occurs when the amount of sugar in the blood is too high.The total number of diabetics is now 451 million and is expected to reach 693 million by 2045 if current trends continue.The high price of dealing with the disease reflects not only the cost of medicines but also the management of a range of complications, such as limb amputations and eye problems.Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-diabetes/cost-of-diabetes-epidemic-reaches-850-billion-a-year-idUSKBN1DD2SW'|'2017-11-14T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'c4eab2e3ce78b5c838648ec43dea9a66d4075ff3'|'Vietnamese researcher shows iPhone X face ID ''hack'''|'November 14, 2017 / 1:38 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Vietnamese researcher shows iPhone X face ID ''hack'' Mai Nguyen 3 Min Read HANOI (Reuters) - A researcher in Vietnam has demonstrated how he apparently fooled Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) face recognition ID software on its new iPhone X using a mask made with a 3D printer, silicone and paper tape. A 3D mask and an iPhone X are seen during a demonstration of recognition ID at the office of Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm in Hanoi, Vietnam November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kham An announcement on Friday by Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm, that it had cracked Apple’s Face ID, and a subsequent video apparently showing an iPhone being unlocked when pointed at a mask, were greeted with some scepticism. Ngo Tuan Anh, Bkav’s vice president, gave Reuters several demonstrations, first unlocking the phone with his face and then by using the mask. It appeared to work each time. However, he declined to register a user ID and the mask on the phone from scratch because, he said, the iPhone and mask need to be placed at very specific angles, and the mask to be refined, a process he said could take up to nine hours. Apple declined to comment, referring journalists to a page on its website that explains how Face ID works. That page says the probability of a random person unlocking another user’s phone with their face was approximately 1-in-a-million, compared to 1-in-50,000 for the previously used fingerprint scanner. It also says Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts before a passcode is required. Anh acknowledged that preparing the mask wasn’t easy, but he said he believed the demonstration showed facial recognition as a way to authenticate users would be risky for some. Ngo Tuan Anh, Vice President of Bkav, a Vietnamese cybersecurity firm, demonstrates iPhone X Apple''s face recognition ID software with a 3D mask at his office in Hanoi, Vietnam November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kham “It’s not easy for normal people to do what we do here, but it’s a concern for people in the security sector and important people like politicians or heads of corporations,” he said. “(These) important people should absolutely not lend their iPhone X to anyone if they have activated the Face ID function.” Slideshow (3 Images) It’s the first reported case of researchers apparently being able to fool the Face ID software. Cybersecurity experts said the issue was not so much whether Face ID could be hacked, but how much effort a hack required. “Nothing is 100 percent secure,” wrote Terry Ray, chief technology officer at U.S.-based cybersecurity company Imperva, in a note. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The questions are: How much trouble would someone go to, and how much would they spend, to get your data?” Bkav’s Anh said the research took about a week, and included numerous failures. The mask frame was made of plastic, covered with paper tape to resemble skin, with a silicone nose and paper for eyes and mouth. As far back as 2009, Bkav researchers highlighted what they said were problems with using facial recognition as a way to authenticate users. They said then that they had hacked three laptop manufacturers which used webcams to authenticate users. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing and additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-vietnam-hack/vietnamese-researcher-shows-iphone-x-face-id-hack-idUKKBN1DE1TC'|'2017-11-14T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'2aa82869b831aad9759eae7c35547a28f5920145'|'Britain pledges protection for bankers from EU migration curbs'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:25 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Britain pledges protection for bankers from EU migration curbs Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Brexit Minister David Davis sought to reassure the financial services sector on Tuesday with a commitment to make bankers exempt from curbs on immigration after Brexit. A bird flies between the buildings in the early morning mist in London''s Canary Wharf financial district, Britain March 28, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Boyce Responding to industry concerns that it will be harder to recruit European staff after Britain leaves the European Union, Davis said the government’s new immigration policy will aim to allow highly skilled workers to move around the continent. For example, Davis told a conference of bankers in London, a bank should be able to temporarily move an employee to an office in Germany or a lawyer visit a client in Paris. He said the government will introduce a new immigration bill next year setting out those plans in more detail. Banks have expressed concern that a crackdown on immigration may hamper their ability to find staff with the right skills. “Ensuring that the financial services sector can attract the talent it needs to thrive is also vital as we leave the EU,” Davis said. “We want to ensure that our new partnership with the EU protects the mobility of workers and professionals.” The City of London, home to global foreign exchange, bonds and fund management operations and to more banks than any other financial center, faces upheaval as firms decide whether to shift jobs to continental Europe to keep serving customers there after Britain leaves the EU in 2019. “Its clear that Government understands the sector’s concerns surrounding Brexit, and we welcome that,” City of London policy chair Catherine McGuinness said in a statement, adding “But we now need to see these words turned into action”. Davis said the government wants a trade pact with the EU in financial services that will ensure financial stability, consumer protection and honor the global regulatory rules adopted in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Davis said he was “confident that in conversations about the future partnership we want with the EU, we will be able to achieve these objectives, together, and provide clarity and certainty to businesses working across Europe.” Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Huw Jones; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-banking/britain-pledges-protection-for-bankers-from-eu-migration-curbs-idUKKBN1DE2DF'|'2017-11-14T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'cc5b285c0ed6057071feeff7145be19fcc443bab'|'UPDATE 2-Peru''s Grana y Montero probed for alleged Odebrecht bribes -prosecutor'|'November 13, 2017 / 4:50 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UPDATE 2-Peru''s Grana y Montero probed for alleged Odebrecht bribes -prosecutor Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds response from Grana) LIMA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The Peruvian attorney general’s office is investigating construction group Grana y Montero for alleged involvement in bribes paid to a former president by its Brazilian partner Odebrecht, a lead prosecutor said. Speaking in a televised interview with America Television, Hamilton Castro said that his office has been investigating Grana and other local partners of scandal-plagued Odebrecht despite not speaking publicly about it previously. “There is an investigation against the partner companies ... against Grana y Montero and others,” Castro, the lead prosecutor on the Odebrecht case, said in the interview late on Sunday. Grana said on Monday that it had not been notified that the company or any of its directors, executives or collaborators were included in the Odebrecht probe. “Notwithstanding ... we wish to record our deep interest in knowing the truth and our willingness to collaborate fully in the investigations,” Grana said in a statement. Opposition lawmakers have accused prosecutors of political bias for not targeting Grana, Odebrecht’s most important partner in Peru. Attorney General Pablo Sanchez has dismissed the allegation as retaliation for a separate probe into campaign financing. Grana’s shares on the Lima and New York stock exchanges, which have plummeted since the Odebrecht scandal broke nearly a year ago, closed more than 4 percent lower on Monday. The company has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said an internal probe turned up no evidence that its employees knew about or took part in bribes that Odebrecht has admitted paying to local officials in exchange for lucrative contracts. Castro said an Odebrecht executive who turned state’s witness, Jorge Barata, told prosecutors the companies that Odebrecht partnered with on two highway projects had paid their share of bribes given to former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, who denies wrongdoing. “That statement must be corroborated,” said Castro, who did not provide additional details on the investigation into Grana. Last week Peru’s Congress passed legislation to expand a raft of new anti-graft rules and financial restrictions to Grana and other local partners of Odebrecht - driving a more than 20 percent drop in its share value on Friday. Reporting by Mitra Taj; editing by Susan Thomas and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/grana-y-montero-odebrecht-fin-investigat/update-1-perus-grana-y-montero-probed-for-alleged-odebrecht-bribes-prosecutor-idUSL1N1NJ0S5'|'2017-11-14T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'286c29acabbdc220e4f01251cdc28b27c2aa0210'|'JGBs mostly edge down, taking cue from Treasuries'|'TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds mostly edged down on Tuesday, taking their cue from U.S. Treasuries but underpinned by decent demand at a five-year JGB sale and the Bank of Japan governor reiterating the BOJ’s commitment to easy monetary policy.The benchmark 10-year cash JGB yield was up half a basis point at 0.050 percent, while the 10-year JGB futures contract ended flat at 150.71.In the superlong zone, the 20-year JGB yield and the 30-year JGB yield both added one basis point to 0.590 percent and 0.830 percent, respectively.The yield on two-year U.S. Treasury notes rose to a nine-year high on Monday, as the U.S. yield curve resumed its flattening and investors priced in a 25-basis-point hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve next month.The Ministry of Finance offered 2.2 trillion yen ($19.37 billion) of five-year JGBs with a 0.10 percent coupon, and 53.5278 percent of the bids were accepted at the lowest price of 101.00.The sale drew bids of 4.19 times the amount offered, indicating solid demand though down from the previous sale’s bid-to-cover ratio of 4.24.The 5-year JGB yield was flat at minus 0.105 percent.The BOJ will continue to persist with “powerful monetary easing” to nurture positive inflation developments, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in Zurich on Monday.$1 = 113.6000 yen Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-mostly-edge-down-taking-cue-from-treasuries-idINL3N1NK2QX'|'2017-11-14T03:55:00.000+02:00'
'8757665f57dee17e74f419a820a382e10630a8a8'|'SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached'|' 28 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp said on Tuesday that it was considering investing in Uber Technologies Inc but there was no final agreement at this stage. FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo “If conditions on share price and a minimum of shares are not satisfactory for the SoftBank Group side, there is a possibility the SoftBank Group may not make an investment,” it said in a statement. Uber said earlier this week that a planned deal with SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The investment could be worth up to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-softbank/softbank-says-considering-investment-in-uber-but-no-final-agreement-reached-idUKKBN1DE045'|'2017-11-14T03:27:00.000+02:00'
'1709a2e37f93b634adbe4e4e189719ea7eeea1f3'|'BRIEF-Mosys Q3 GAAP loss per share $0.22'|' 51 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago BRIEF-Mosys Q3 GAAP loss per share $0.22 Reuters Staff Nov 13 (Reuters) - Mosys Inc: * Mosys, Inc reports third quarter 2017 financial results * Q3 non-GAAP loss per share $0.18 excluding items * Q3 GAAP loss per share $0.22 * Q3 revenue $2.5 million versus $1.6 million * Sees Q4 2017 revenue $3.3 million to $3.6 million Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-mosys-q3-gaap-loss-per-share-022/brief-mosys-q3-gaap-loss-per-share-0-22-idUSASB0BTL9'|'2017-11-13T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'1eabbb2b6e7c4c9b5b27646f6daa7cc27a5dd111'|'UPDATE 1-Finnish reactor owner sees upper hand in reactor dispute with Areva'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:40 AM / in 40 minutes Finnish reactor owner wins another partial victory in dispute with Areva Jussi Rosendahl , Tuomas Forsell 4 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) has won a third partial ruling from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in its long-running nuclear reactor dispute with plant suppliers Areva and Siemens, TVO said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - A Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) specialist works inside Olkiluoto-3 nuclear reactor control room in Eurajoki, Finland August 17, 2017. REUTERS/Lefteris Karagiannopoulos TVO and the suppliers are claiming billions of euros from each other due to years of delays and cost overruns on the Olkiluoto 3 reactor project in southwest Finland. Its start was postponed last month to May 2019 - a decade later than planned. Areva-Siemens, which started the dispute over delays, is claiming 3.6 billion euros ($4.3 billion) from TVO, while the Finnish company has filed a counter-claim of 2.6 billion euros. TVO said the partial award resolved matters related to the construction works in its favor. It was the last partial decision before the final ruling on compensation, expected in the coming months. TVO deputy CEO Risto Siilos said he was optimistic over the final outcome. “We maintain our view that our case is stronger than the plant supplier’s claims,” he told Reuters by phone. “The partial decisions are final and binding, and although no financial decisions have yet been made, they give an indication of what’s coming.” An Areva spokesman said the firm disagreed with TVO’s interpretation that the partial ruling was an indication of the final ruling as it did not cover the key issues at stake in the arbitration. “We remain confident about the final sharing of responsibilities,” he said. French energy newsletter Enerpresse reported that TVO would be willing to end the litigation provided that Areva ensures that it has the financial means to finalize the reactor project. FILE PHOTO - The logo of French state-controlled nuclear group Areva is seen at a news conference to announce the company''s 2015 annual results where he reported a 2 billion euro ($2.2 billion) full-year net loss in Nanterre, France, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau A TVO spokesman declined to comment on that. The Areva spokesman said Areva remains open to a balanced agreement to end the long arbitrage procedure. “It is TVO’s intransigence which led to the collapse of talks 18 months ago, at both parties’ expense. The basis for a win-win agreement is on the table,” he said. TVO also filed an appeal in September to the European Commission over France’s restructuring of its nuclear industry. TVO argued the French plan to inject 4.5 billion euros into state-owned Areva was not enough and could leave the troubled company unable to meet its future liabilities. A turnkey contract for Olkiluoto 3, signed in 2003, fixed the cost of the reactor at 3.2 billion euros. Areva has since estimated the overall cost at closer to 8.5 billion euros. TVO’s largest owner, Pohjolan Voima Oy (PVO), told Reuters on Tuesday it might seek further compensation from the suppliers. PVO is majority-owned by Finnish paper makers UPM and Stora Enso, while utility Fortum owns a direct stake in TVO. Olkiluoto 3, a European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), is set to become Finland’s fifth and largest nuclear unit and provide about 10 percent of the country’s power needs. Analysts have estimated delays at the plant have translated into additional annual costs of hundreds of millions of euros for Finnish consumers through higher electricity prices. Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell, additional reporting by Bate Felix and Geert De Clercq in Paris, Editing by Mark Potter and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tvo-areva-olkiluoto-arbitration/finnish-reactor-owner-sees-upper-hand-in-reactor-dispute-with-areva-idUSKBN1DF17G'|'2017-11-15T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'8fc0277e2923437b33b33999249b9fc44b34100d'|'LSE Group lobbies for U.S support in Brexit clearing battle'|'Reuters TV United States  36 AM / a few seconds ago LSE Group lobbies for U.S support in Brexit clearing battle Michelle Price , Huw Jones 6 Min Read WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange Group is lobbying to win American political support in its battle with Europe to preserve London as a global financial center after Brexit. A red London bus passes the Stock Exchange in London February 9, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor LCH, the clearing arm of the LSE, is among the world’s biggest derivatives clearing houses, guaranteeing the completion of hundreds of billions of euro- and dollar-denominated trades. As part of the Brexit divorce, Brussels would like clearing of euro-denominated transactions to be relocated to Europe, if it can’t have some control of it in London. But U.S. regulators say it could be risky for the global derivatives market to separate euro- and dollar-clearing and want to keep it in one place. LSE, backed by British officials, are hoping to convince U.S. policymakers and regulators to help rebuff European efforts to grab clearing, according to regulatory, government, and lobbyist sources. “The Americans are proving to be very useful allies,” said one British official who has held talks with U.S. counterparts. Asked to confirm if Britain was supporting LSE in lobbying U.S. officials, a spokeswoman for Britain’s finance ministry said: “We are also committed to ensuring that London remains the world’s preeminent financial center.” She said UK clearing houses play a crucial role in supporting economic growth in Britain and across the EU. If they wanted to exert pressure, U.S. officials could threaten to retaliate against European banks operating in the United States if American banks’ business is affected by any Brexit changes. LSE has set up its first “political action committee” (PAC), a group commonly used by companies to lobby U.S. politicians to support their business interests, according to public documents seen by Reuters. The group is also hiring a new senior lobbyist for its public affairs team in Washington D.C., according to its website. An LSE Group spokeswoman declined to comment on whether these changes were aimed at lobbying U.S. politicians about Brexit. The LSE Group has become a leading player in post-trade and indexing businesses in U.S. financial markets. It has 600 employees in the United States and eight business licenses. ”The US continues to be one of our key areas for growth as we build scale in our core business to deliver efficiency and meet the needs of our global customer base,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. It is not unusual for companies with significant U.S. businesses to establish PACs. LSE Group’s rivals CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange also operate PACs, according to public documents. GLOBAL DOMINANCE IN QUESTION In May, Brussels proposed a law giving itself joint supervision over LCH in London after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019. If this arrangement proves insufficient, euro clearing for customers in the bloc must move to mainland Europe. The European Commission has said the clearing proposals would not affect clearing houses in the United States. Officials in the City of London see the plans as an attack on its global dominance in finance. They worry that if clearing moves to Europe, other parts of the City would unravel. Catherine McGuinness, head of policy at the City of London Corporation, the municipal authority for the capital’s financial district, said “any strong voice from outside” Europe could be helpful. She was speaking to Reuters following a trip this month to New York and Washington to meet officials at the U.S. Treasury, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as financial lobbyists and bankers, during which Brexit was discussed extensively. “They’re not going to take sides or wade in unless U.S. interests are affected, which is totally fair. But... there is increasing nervousness that Brexit could have implications beyond EU borders and there might be ripple effects on the U.S. I think that nervousness is well-placed,” she said. LCH clears roughly 90 percent of global dollar-denominated interest rate swaps and euro-denominated swaps in London. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the CFTC which regulates LCH’s U.S. operations, said if the EU decides euro clearing must shift to the continent, the U.S. would have to rethink the location of U.S. dollar clearing too. “If the European Union mishandles Britain’s exit, the consequences for U.S. businesses and consumers could be serious,” he said this month. The powerful regulator is widely respected by influential Congressional Republicans and Democrats, who would likely have to sign off any major changes to U.S. clearing rules. His comments have been welcomed in the City of London. “It’s fairly clear from his public statements that he is watching very closely and is aware of the potential systemic implications of splitting clearing,” said McGuinness. REPO COMPROMISE The regulatory, government and lobbyist sources also said LSE Group has opened the door to a compromise with Europe on some parts of clearing. It has conceded London may not be the “optimal” place for clearing some euro products, those sources said. Euro sovereign debt repurchase agreements (repos) that currently clear at LCH in London could be moved to its Paris unit after Brexit because they play a direct role in the European Central Bank’s monetary policy operations. “It makes no sense to keep it in London,” a repo industry official said. France wants euro clearing in some form to move to Paris there after Brexit and allowing this could increase LCH’s chances of keeping its global, multi-currency interest swaps pool intact in London, the sources said. An LCH spokeswoman declined to comment on whether it was pursuing such tactics to avoid fragmenting its London interest rate swaps business. Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lse-clearing/lse-group-lobbies-for-u-s-support-in-brexit-clearing-battle-idUKKBN1DF1CH'|'2017-11-15T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'b7b110dda2996d30e80683495627e3765a585aa8'|'Altice shifts focus from acquisitions to easing debt - CFO'|'BARCELONA/LONDON (Reuters) - Embattled billionaire Patrick Drahi is shifting the focus at Altice ( ATCA.AS ), the telecoms and cable group he founded, from acquisitions to debt reduction and customer satisfaction following disappointing third-quarter results.The Franco-Israeli president of Altice made an unexpected appearance at Morgan Stanley’s TMT conference in Barcelona on Wednesday to shore up the confidence of investors who have pummeled Altice’s stock over the last two weeks.Shares of the Amsterdam-holding company have fallen by more than 40 percent since it reported weak third-quarter results on Nov. 2, prompting Drahi to oust chief executive Michel Combes.The results showed the group had lost around 75,000 broadband customers in France in the third quarter and its debt had reached 49.6 billion euros.“We need to make the customer happy to be with us,” Drahi told investors, analysts and industry specialists at Morgan Stanley’s annual TMT conference.He said the company’s French business SFR “was a little unfocused over the last three quarters” and that the group needed to fix “little operational problems.”APPEASING INVESTORS Altice has grown massively in both the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, which in turn has raised the weight of its net debt to more than five times its annual core operating profit.But the high debt and weak third-quarter performance has unsettled investors about the company’s strategy and management.“Altice needs real operational managers in each country,” a TMT sector banker, who had been speaking to investors following Altice’s results, said. “Investors don’t want to see a European manager who would just serve as an intermediary, it doesn’t work.”Drahi’s business partner and Altice co-founder Armando Pereira joined SFR in September to oversee its core telecoms business and address this issue.But that might not be enough to convince investors.“My first question to Drahi would be: where have you been all that time and what are you going to do differently now?”, a European fund manager, who does not currently own Altice shares, said.“Drahi has the capacity to reassure investors because of his great track record in cable but this time will prove harder because the sector is not growing,” the fund manager said.DELEVERAGING The group will “go back to the basics” and will not be looking for acquisitions in the near future, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Okhuijsen said at the TMT conference.“We will be focused on deleveraging by looking at the disposal on non-core assets, (with) potential tower sales,” he said.A senior banker familiar with the situation said that Altice’s towers in Europe could be worth up to 4 billion euros. The banker also said that management had yet to decide whether to sell them country by country or bundle them into a tower company and float it while retaining a majority stake.Altice could also explore the sale of some of its telecoms businesses in Europe, bankers said. The bankers declined to be named because the matter is private.Drahi, sitting next to Okhuijsen at the conference, said the group’s overall strategy of bundling media content and telecoms services remained in place, and that Altice would focus on improving its operational performance, particularly in France.Drahi also announced a postponement of SFR’s rebranding plan, initially scheduled for the first half of 2018.This would help to save “hundreds million of euros”, he said, after acknowledging that the group’s target of growing revenue in France next year would be put off by a year.He said Altice would spend in total about 1 billion euros on sports rights, including those for broadcasting the European Champions League soccer matches up to 2021 in France.“My philosophy of life is... when I buy something for one I try to sell it for at least two,” he said. “So I haven’t become stupid the day I decided to buy rights.”The sports rights acquisition should help to generate at least 1.5 to 1.7 billion euros, he said. Advertising revenue would come on top of it, he said.Altice’s bonds have sold off since Altice’s results earlier this month and yields have spiked higher though they eased slightly on Wednesday after the company sought to address investors’ concerns.Bonds worth 1.3 billion euros have traded so far this month, more than double for all of last month, according to MarketAxess subsidiary Trax.Altice shares were up 5.80 percent in late session trading, although the stock remains down by around 50 percent since the start of 2017.($1 = 0.8450 euros)Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris; Editing by Richard Lough/Sudip Kar-Gupta and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-altice-debt/altice-shifts-focus-from-acquisitions-to-easing-debt-cfo-idUSKBN1DF1VQ'|'2017-11-15T15:12:00.000+02:00'
'1d9b1e033ca5b37537f329ddda02e366c4d9e320'|'Deutsche Bank CEO meets with chief of big shareholder HNA: WSJ'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:25 PM / in an hour Deutsche Bank CEO meets with chief of big shareholder HNA: WSJ Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank’s ( DBKGn.DE ) chief executive officer John Cryan has met with the chief of its major shareholder China’s HNA, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan speaks during the bank''s annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the meeting between Cryan and HNA CEO Adam Tan took place last week in Frankfurt. The paper reported last month that Cryan had resisted meeting HNA. Deutsche Bank and a representative for HNA declined to comment. Earlier this year, the German lender disclosed that the Chinese conglomerate had built up a stake of just under 10 percent. Reporting by Andreas Framke and Tom Sims, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-hna/deutsche-bank-ceo-meets-with-chief-of-big-shareholder-hna-wsj-idUSKBN1DE1Y4'|'2017-11-14T16:24:00.000+02:00'
'2542eb904685ebb890b2260a0cf406311e312bbb'|'AXA''s U.S. insurance, asset management unit files for IPO'|'NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. unit of the French insurer AXA has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), according to a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday.The listed company, AXA Equitable Holdings, would have more than $600 billion of assets under management which will come from two existing American channels, AXA Equitable Life and AllianceBernstein, according to the S-1 document published on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.AXA currently holds approximately 63 percent of AllianceBernstein across three entities, ownership of which will be transferred into AXA Equitable Holdings prior to the initial public offering.No valuation for the new business, in which AXA will retain a majority position after the flotation, was given in the document, but a source familiar with the matter said it could be close to 13 billion euros ($15.16 billion).AXA Chief Executive Thomas Buberl outlined plans in May to overhaul the group’s U.S. operations ahead of a spin-off IPO in 2018, in order to free up capital and pursue takeover targets elsewhere.JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have been chosen to coordinate the IPO, the document said. A number of other banks will assist as bookrunners on the deal, bankers aware of the matter said.As part of the reorganization process ahead of the IPO, AXA’s U.S. property and casualty business would be transferred to the parent firm. Reinsurance currently in place for AXA Equitable Life would also be unwound, the document added.Total pro forma revenue of AXA Equitable Holdings in the six months to June 30 was $6.99 billion, according to the SEC filing.A number of insurance companies have spun off their U.S. life insurance businesses, or are considering such an action, as the low interest rate environment continues to stymie growth in the sector.In August, Metlife split off its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial, and distributed shares in the company to its own shareholders. The Chief Executive of Canadian insurer Manulife Financial Corp said last week that it was considering “all options” for its John Hancock unit. ($1 = 0.8573 euro) (Reporting by David French; editing by Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/axa-sa-ipo-usa/axas-u-s-insurance-asset-management-unit-files-for-ipo-idINL8N1NJ8AL'|'2017-11-13T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'6c16105c8a329c65d314e354760f72cdcf8b6b94'|'UPDATE 1-Nebraska regulator to announce Keystone XL permit decision on Nov. 20'|'(Adds background on project, details on Nebraska commission’s role)By Valerie VolcoviciWASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The Nebraska Public Service Commission announced Monday it will issue its decision on whether to approve the permit to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on Nov. 20, the last regulatory hurdle for the controversial project.On that day, the five-member PSC will take a vote on the decision in Lincoln, Nebraska, which will be open to the public.The decision will mark the final hurdle for the long-delayed project after President Donald Trump gave it federal approval in March.The proposed 1,179-mile (1,897 km) pipeline linking Canada’s Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries has been a lightning rod of controversy for nearly a decade, pitting environmentalists worried about spills and global warming against business advocates who say the project will lower fuel prices, shore up national security and bring jobs.The commission is charged with weighing whether the project is in the public interest of Nebraskans, and will mainly consider aspects like jobs, revenue, and other issues impacting the local economy.It is not permitted to consider issues that fall outside that remit, however. It is also barred from considering any environmental issues because the pipeline route already has an environmental permit.The Nebraska PSC held a week of court-like hearings in August to hear arguments on whether to approve the project’s route. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-pipeline/update-1-nebraska-regulator-to-announce-keystone-xl-permit-decision-on-nov-20-idINL1N1NJ22M'|'2017-11-13T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'ef8c860a8b6fa15245e04a713b818ebe5234b89f'|'BP begins share buybacks as years of austerity pay off'|'(Reuters) - BP Plc ( BP.L ) said on Wednesday it would begin a share buyback program, making it the first major European energy company to resume buybacks since the 2014 price slump in a sign years of austerity have paid off.The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The British oil company, which recently reported a doubling in third-quarter profit, said the buyback program had been authorized for between Nov. 15 and the date of its 2018 annual general meeting, with the maximum number of shares not exceeding 1.96 billion.BP first announced the buyback on Oct. 31, as it gradually shakes off the impact of the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, known as Macondo, that cost it over $63 billion in clean-up costs and penalties.BP said then it would buy back the equivalent number of shares it was issuing as part of its scrip dividend scheme through which investors can opt to receive dividend payouts in shares rather than cash.It will buy back around $1.6 billion worth of shares a year in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend program, BP Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said then.Europe’s other top oil and gas companies are making other moves to woo shareholders. Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) has said it will stop offering a scrip dividend in the fourth quarter, while France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) plans to do so next year.BP''s shares, which had risen to their highest in over three years on news of the resumption of buybacks, were down 0.9 percent at 498.6 pence at 0908 GMT, broadly in line with London''s blue-chip index .FTSE .Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bp-buyback/bp-begins-share-buybacks-as-years-of-austerity-pay-off-idINKBN1DF193'|'2017-11-15T07:02:00.000+02:00'
'8b30235cfbb2441339722254cfb864b0be1170bc'|'BP begins share buybacks as years of austerity pay off'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:48 AM / Updated 2 hours ago BP begins share buybacks as years of austerity pay off Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - BP Plc ( BP.L ) said on Wednesday it would begin a share buyback programme, making it the first major European energy company to resume buybacks since the 2014 price slump in a sign years of austerity have paid off. FILE PHOTO - An aircraft of Korean Airlines is seen above a BP petrol station approaching to land at Zurich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The British oil company, which recently reported a doubling in third-quarter profit, said the buyback programme had been authorised for between Nov. 15 and the date of its 2018 annual general meeting, with the maximum number of shares not exceeding 1.96 billion. BP first announced the buyback on Oct. 31, as it gradually shakes off the impact of the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, known as Macondo, that cost it over $63 billion (£47.8 billion) in clean-up costs and penalties. BP said then it would buy back the equivalent number of shares it was issuing as part of its scrip dividend scheme through which investors can opt to receive dividend payouts in shares rather than cash. It will buy back around $1.6 billion worth of shares a year in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend programme, BP Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said then. Europe’s other top oil and gas companies are making other moves to woo shareholders. Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) has said it will stop offering a scrip dividend in the fourth quarter, while France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) plans to do so next year. BP''s shares, which had risen to their highest in over three years on news of the resumption of buybacks, were down 0.9 percent at 498.6 pence at 0908 GMT, broadly in line with London''s blue-chip index .FTSE . Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bp-buyback/bp-begins-share-buybacks-as-years-of-austerity-pay-off-idUKKBN1DF11U'|'2017-11-15T10:48:00.000+02:00'
'f4aee8748d8b36b63295ede4111c478fa2272110'|'Wells Fargo repays $5.4 million for repossessing service members'' cars'|'(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) has repaid another $5.4 million to about 450 military service members whose vehicles it repossessed illegally, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo branch is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, U.S. February 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo The third-largest U.S. bank has now repaid about $10.2 million to roughly 860 service members and their co-borrowers for improper repossessions, under a settlement announced in September 2016.Other violations covered by that settlement were discovered more recently, leading to the latest payout, the Justice Department said.Wells Fargo was also fined $20 million in September 2016 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in a related case.The OCC had cited the San Francisco-based lender for violations of the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act from 2006 to 2016.It said the violations included exceeding a 6-percent interest rate cap on loans, failing to accurately disclose service members’ active duty status to courts, and failing to obtain court orders before conducting repossessions.In a statement, Wells Fargo spokeswoman Natalie Brown said the $5.4 million payout came “as part of our commitment to a comprehensive, ongoing account review process and as part of our consent order work.”Wells Fargo has for more than a year been addressing fallout from a variety of practices, including its creation of potentially millions of unauthorised customer accounts.In August, it agreed to pay the U.S. government $108 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit accusing it of charging military veterans hidden fees to refinance mortgages, and concealing those fees when seeking federal loan guarantees.Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wellsfargo-justice/wells-fargo-repays-5-4-million-for-repossessing-service-members-cars-idINKBN1DE35M'|'2017-11-14T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'6b38d45f73b85356afa134abb7b55d8cd9ec1023'|'Glencore says looked at 3-4 smaller acquisition targets but could not conclude deal'|'GENEVA (Reuters) - Commodities giant Glencore ( GLEN.L ) has made unsuccessful moves for three or four smaller targets in the grain sector this year as it seeks acquisitions to grow upstream, the head of its agricultural arm said.The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “We have looked at three or four possibilities in our core area already this year but couldn’t reach agreement with the seller,” Chris Mahoney, chief executive of Glencore Agriculture, told the Global Grain conference in Geneva.He added, following the presentation, that the attempted takeover targets would have represented relatively small deals.He did not give further details or mention international trader Bunge ( BG.N ), for which Glencore made an informal approach this year, a move fanning speculation that the grain trading industry was set for large-scale consolidation.Glencore remained focused on acquisitions for growth, and saw scope for consolidation in the grain sector due to excess capacity, Mahoney said, reiterating comments made at another commodity conference this year.“Finding value is the big challenge in the industry today,” he said.Glencore would concentrate on upstream, export-focused assets such as grain handling and crushing assets, rather than look at downstream activities, he said.“We feel we can capture benefits of strong demand by being strong at origin,” said Mahoney.“Origin in our mind lends itself better to big scale and more efficient assets,” he added.Other traders have looked to food processing and specialist ingredient activities to reduce their dependence on traditional grain trading, which has been hit by high supply and low prices.Bunge rebuffed Glencore’s approach and later announced a deal to buy a 70 percent stake in Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Loders Croklaan for $946 million.Bunge is part of the so-called ABCD quartet of global agricultural commodity traders that also includes Archer Daniels Midland ( ADM.N ), Cargill [CARG.UL] and Louis Dreyfus [AKIRAU.UL].Glencore became a major international grain trader through its 2012 takeover of Canadian based Viterra.Glencore Agriculture was spun off last year when the commodity group sold a 50 percent stake in its agricultural division to two Canadian pension funds.The opening of the capital would give Glencore Agriculture the means to pursue growth by acquisitions, Mahoney said.(This version of the story was refiled to add dropped word in headline)Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-grains/glencore-says-looked-at-3-4-smaller-acquisition-targets-but-could-not-conclude-deal-idINKBN1DF1SN'|'2017-11-15T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'd251f34f13a7a33f3cb92f622d0e88c441f8e259'|'Shanghai Pharma buys U.S. Cardinal Health''s China business for $557 million'|'November 15, 2017 / 3:39 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Shanghai Pharma buys U.S. Cardinal Health''s China business for $557 million Julie Zhu 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co has agreed to buy Cardinal Health Inc’s China drug distribution business for $557 million, winning a highly competitive auction in a move that will greatly expand its presence nationwide. The deal will also help Shanghai Pharma, China’s third largest drug distributor, become a leading importer of foreign medicine into the world’s second-largest drug market. Including shareholder loans, the deal gives Cardinal’s business in mainland China and Hong Kong an enterprise value of $1.2 billion, equivalent to about 15 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the year ended June. By comparison, Shanghai Pharma, which is backed by the Shanghai government, trades at 11 times EBITDA. Cardinal Health put its China business up for sale in July amid worries that the country’s upcoming drug distribution reform could slow its growth. The sale drew keen interest from state-backed Chinese pharmaceutical companies and private equity firms. “It was a very competitive bidding process as a target like this is very rare in the market,” David Liu, head of M&A at Shanghai Pharma told Reuters on Wednesday. Warburg Pincus and a consortium led by Cardinal China’s management team were also among bidders in the final stage of the auction, said two people with knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media. Warburg Pincus declined to comment while representatives for Cardinal China did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing introduced a so-called “two-invoice” procurement system in January on a trial basis as part of an overhaul of the country’s fragmented healthcare sector aimed at streamlining the distribution chain. Under the new system, expected to be fully implemented in 2018, drug manufacturers can only work with a single distributor that directly supplies products to healthcare facilities such as hospitals. The overhaul is expected to reshape China’s drug distribution landscape and squeeze margins for distributors lacking links to big manufacturers and healthcare facilities in China. Cardinal’s China business is the 8th largest drug distributor in the country, operating 14 direct sales units and 17 distribution centers that cover 322 cities and 11,000 medical institutions, Shanghai Pharma said in a statement. It generated 25.5 billion yuan ($3.85 billion) in revenue for the last financial year, compared with 22.6 billion yuan a year earlier. Executives from Shanghai Pharma also told Reuters that the company is looking to acquire more than 3,000 domestic retail stores in a drive to expand its retail network to 5,000 within five years. Morgan Stanley and China Merchants Securities advised Shanghai Pharma on the deal, which is subject to an anti-monopoly review by China’s Ministry of Commerce. Reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cardinalhealth-china-shanghai-pharma/shanghai-pharma-buys-u-s-cardinal-healths-china-business-for-557-million-idINKBN1DF0D5'|'2017-11-15T00:39:00.000+02:00'
'b04990f0f588cf23c9710ee3fd8bbe7afb5f3497'|'U.S. investor Cerberus takes 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. investor Cerberus takes 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Cerberus [CBS.UL] has taken a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), Germany’s flagship lender said on Wednesday, making the U.S. buyout fund the fourth-largest shareholder after China’s HNA group, Qatar and money manager Blackrock ( BLK.N ). FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Germany''s Deutsche Bank are seen early evening in Frankfurt, Germany January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo The move comes after the investor built a 5 percent stake in Germany’s second-largest listed bank, Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ), in July. “We have a constructive view of European fundamentals and believe Germany is a highly attractive place to invest, in particular,” a Cerberus spokesman said, adding it saw long-term opportunities in retail and corporate banking due to Germany’s robust economy and high savings rate. He declined to comment on the investment in Deutsche Bank. Shares in Deutsche Bank recouped losses made earlier in the day to trade nearly 1 percent higher at 1251 GMT. “This has fueled the fantasy of a merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, which came up months ago,” said a trader. “I can understand this speculation because Cerberus wouldn’t buy into German banks without reason.” In 2016, top executives of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank held talks on a potential combination, but shelved the project to complete their restructurings before taking steps towards any merger, a person close to the matter said at the time. Commerzbank would not comment on Cerberus. Speculation that a new shareholder would emerge heightened after Deutsche Bank disclosed on Tuesday that Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) had acquired a significant holding in voting rights linked to financial instruments. It remains unclear whether the Cerberus and Morgan Stanley disclosures are linked. Morgan Stanley holds 6.86 percent of voting rights in the German lender, with the vast majority of those rights through instruments, Deutsche Bank said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Instruments include call options, rights of recall over securities lending agreements, equity swaps and put options. Morgan Stanley previously held 0.47 percent of voting rights in shares. German law require disclosure when stakes exceed the 3 percent and 5 percent level. The Morgan Stanley threshold was crossed on Nov. 6, while the Cerberus threshold was reached on Nov. 14. Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt declined to comment. Reporting Arno Schuetze, Hans Seidenstuecker and Tom Sims; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-shareholders/cerberus-takes-3-percent-stake-in-deutsche-bank-idINKBN1DF1U0'|'2017-11-15T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'f0de6f3c11837a6bba7f6ec1ccd817077eac3a26'|'STRATIM details its platform to manage fleets for share car services'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:00 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago STRATIM details its platform to manage fleets for share car services Nick Carey 3 Min Read DETROIT, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Software startup STRATIM is tracking more than 1 million vehicles in car- or ride-sharing services for around 50 customers in North America, including major automakers, to help them boost usage and keep their vehicle fleets in working order, the company said on Tuesday. STRATIM gave its first public update on Tuesday on its software platform for such services, which help manage vehicle fleets, keep cars in good working order, fueled up and generating sufficient revenue. San Francisco-based STRATIM’s platform is operating in 20 U.S. cities and its clients include General Motors Co’s Maven car sharing and rental unit, Ford Motor Co’s Chariot shuttle service, Toyota Motor Corp and BMW AG . Major automakers are racing to roll out alternatives to private car ownership including ride sharing amid the rise of Uber and Lyft Inc, as well as to develop commercially viable self-driving cars. The rush is based on the notion that instead of buying cars - the auto industry’s business model for a century - consumers in the future will generate revenue through car usage. One challenge for automakers is how to monitor or manage fleets of vehicles when their core traditional business is building cars. STRATIM says it may be part of the answer. Keeping shared cars in service is key to boosting profit margins as fleet management services can, for instance, provide alerts on when to fuel a car, fix a cracked windshield or replace a flat tire, STRATIM Chief Executive Sean Behr told Reuters. “It doesn’t matter how great your vehicle or self-driving car is if you can’t reliably keep it on the street to pick up customers, the best technology in the world is not going to save you,” he said. Companies such as Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, face the same fleet-management challenge. Earlier this month AutoNation Inc announced a multi-year partnership where the largest U.S. auto retail chain will maintain and repair Waymo’s self-driving fleet. In June, Waymo also signed a multi-year agreement with Avis Budget Group Inc for the car rental firm to service its growing autonomous vehicle fleet. DriveNow, the car-sharing business operated by BMW and car rental agency Sixt SE, has been expanding into cities across Europe. STRATIM’s Behr said the ride-sharing industry is still in its infancy, but is growing rapidly. This quarter his company expects to complete 150,000 car services versus 16,000 in the same quarter in 2016. “The people who can best maintain those Waymos, Ubers or Mavens ... are ultimately the companies that will have the right kind of margins and will be around for the long haul,” he said. (Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Frances Kerry)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-autos-stratim/stratim-details-its-platform-to-manage-fleets-for-share-car-services-idUSL1N1NJ1DZ'|'2017-11-14T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'9e32d78c10760ac6109abf70359d28cf74810dfa'|'Farmers, retailers sign ''fair price'' agreement for produce'|'November 14, 2017 / 6:16 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Farmers, retailers sign ''fair price'' agreement for produce Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French farmers, food producers and retailers signed an agreement on Tuesday to improve relationships throughout the food chain, notably by ensuring that farmers be paid a fair price for their output, they said. A French farmer drives his tractor as he mows mustard plants in his field in Bourlon, near Cambrai, France, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The so-called charter of commitment is part of a wider field-to-fork review promised by President Emmanuel Macron to appease farmers, an important constituency in French politics, who have long complained of being hit by squeezed margins and a retail price war. Most of the main retailers operating in France signed the charter at the French agriculture ministry, notably Carrefour ( CARR.PA ), Casino ( CASP.PA ), Auchan [AUCH.UL] and unlisted Leclerc which had expressed reluctance in signing an agreement. Other parties included French farm cooperatives, food producer groups, farm unions and industry representatives. Macron announced last month some of the measures he would push for as part of a wider food bill. But a law is not expected until early next year, after the price negotiations in the food chain that have just kicked off in France. One of the main measures agreed on Tuesday is that price fixing would start with producers, based on market prices and production costs which would be taken into account by manufacturers and suppliers and passed on to retailers. “If a butter producer comes to us and tells us that milk prices have soared 30 percent we commit to pass on the increase,” an Auchan spokesman said. “Will this mean a rise in prices for consumers? Not necessarily.” Last year a third of farmers earned less than 350 euros ($403) a month, the Agricultural Mutual Assistance Association (MSA) said, a third of the net minimum wage. Farm unions welcomed the agreement but stressed that there was still a need for a wider law to include measures promised by Macron such as minimum prices for food products and limiting promotions that tend to squeeze farmers. “‘Good intentions’ alone cannot transform years of unbalanced relationships in terms trade negotiations,” said Coop de France, which brings together 2,600 farm cooperatives, calling on the government to take further measures for farmers. Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics-food/farmers-retailers-sign-fair-price-agreement-for-produce-idUKKBN1DE2HR'|'2017-11-14T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'ac8559aa47c4f6d6bac8e9616faea012812c2095'|'TalkTalk see earnings towards bottom of range, adds 26,000 customers in second quarter'|' 33 AM / Updated an hour ago TalkTalk see earnings towards bottom of range, adds 26,000 customers in second quarter Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British broadband company TalkTalk ( TALK.L ) said on Wednesday core earnings for the year would be towards the bottom of its range, which stood at 270-300 million pounds, as it steps up investment to attract higher paying customers. FILE PHOTO - A man passes a branded logo outside the Talktalk headquarters in London, Britain May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The company said it had added 26,000 net customers in its second quarter as customers responded positively to its fixed low-price plans. “We have now delivered a third consecutive quarter of growth in our broadband base, with both retail and wholesale bases growing; returned to on-net revenue growth; and delivered lower churn than a year ago,” Chief Executive Tristia Harrison said. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-talktalk-tlcm-gp-results/talktalk-see-earnings-towards-bottom-of-range-adds-26000-customers-in-second-quarter-idUKKBN1DF0TX'|'2017-11-15T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'b8c5cae308dd6216ef56e184abef6333a377f065'|'Israel prepares to send tax bills to Facebook, Google - report'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:40 AM / Updated an hour ago Israel prepares to send tax bills to Facebook, Google: report Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is planning to send tax bills within a year to internet companies Google and Facebook, financial newspaper TheMarker reported on Wednesday, joining efforts by several countries, including the European Union, to get the internet giants to pay more tax. A Facebook logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski TheMarker cited Moshe Asher, chairman of Israel’s Tax Authority, as saying work on preparing tax bills had already begun. The authority is now working on figuring out how to make its calculations. It will have to decide what percentage of the companies’ profits from their Israeli customers should be taxable in Israel. “Ultimately, taxes can be charged based on their operations in Israel,” Asher told TheMarker. “Our goal is to obtain as much data as we can, even if many of these figures are held outside of Israel. Within a year we’ll issue these companies tax bills.” A spokeswoman for the authority confirmed Asher’s comments, while Asher declined to speak to Reuters. Google and Facebook were not immediately available for comment. The Google app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The new Israeli policy would come amid a push by the OECD to cut down on international tax avoidance strategies. The EU has threatened to move ahead alone with a tax on internet companies’ turnover. Asher said that the OECD was appointing an inspection committee. “We believe in the process, and ultimately we’ll be able to issue justified tax bills, even if we’re among the first in the world,” he said. Israel’s corporate tax rate is 24 percent of profits, with taxes based on whether companies are considered to have a permanent presence in Israel. However, companies may receive tax breaks for making significant capital investments. In August 2016, the European Commission ordered Apple to pay Ireland 13 billion euros ($15.4 billion) in taxes. ($1 = 0.8450 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-israel-taxation-multinationals/israel-prepares-to-send-tax-bills-to-facebook-google-report-idUKKBN1DF1LN'|'2017-11-15T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'0e189b7fcd789c6d588bada1791f2086b7f95e95'|'Wal-Mart partners with Lord & Taylor to expand online fashion presence'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:05 PM / in 5 minutes Wal-Mart partners with Lord & Taylor to expand online fashion presence Nandita Bose 3 Min Read (This version of the Nov 13 story corrects to say that Wal-Mart is the largest clothing retailer in the United States, not the world, in 7th paragraph) Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/Files By Nandita Bose CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ) said on Monday it will offer Hudson’s Bay Co- ( HBC.TO ) owned department store chain Lord & Taylor dedicated space on its website, as it looks to make deeper inroads into the fast-growing online fashion business. The world’s largest retailer will start offering higher-end clothing and accessories from Lord & Taylor to its customers in spring 2018. The partnership will allow Lord & Taylor to open a virtual storefront on Walmart.com and boost customer traffic to its website by reaching a wider audience. It will boost Wal-Mart’s online assortment with premium products and advance the retailer’s effort to access millennial customers who usually do not shop on Walmart.com. “Our goal is to create a premium fashion destination within Walmart.com,” Denise Incandela, Head of Fashion, Walmart U.S. eCommerce told Reuters in an interview on Monday. She said Wal-Mart shoppers search the retailer’s website for premium items and the company aims to expand its online business with a focus on such products. “This is a part of a larger business strategy where we are working to create a new Walmart.com,” Incandela said. She did not comment on the financial terms of the partnership. In the past year, Wal-Mart has been acquiring small online fashion brands like Shoebuy, Modcloth and Bonobos in an attempt to recover lost ground against Amazon and others in the online fashion world. Wal-Mart is the largest brick-and-mortar clothing retailer in the United State, with 2016 sales for that category exceeding $23 billion, according to retail think tank Fung Global Retail & Technology. But despite its store muscle, Wal-Mart has failed to replicate that success online. It has not only struggled to attract the type of affluent young consumers who tend to shop for clothes online but due to its low-income customer base and brand perception, has also faced challenges in persuading well-known apparel brands to sell on its website. Amazon leads the U.S. online clothing and footwear market with sales of $13 billion in 2016, up $9 billion from five years ago. It is expected to triple its share of the U.S. apparel market over the next four years, according to data from Euromonitor and Forrester. Virtual storefronts have become a strong e-commerce tool with retailers including Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) routinely offering dedicated space to brands on their website. Virtual stores are also a preferred route for U.S. retailers to enter new countries where they don’t have operations. For example, Macy’s in 2015 said it would enter China with a virtual store on Alibaba and test demand in that market. Reporting by Nandita Bose Editing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-lord-taylor/wal-mart-partners-with-lord-taylor-to-expand-online-fashion-presence-idUSKBN1DD2Q7'|'2017-11-14T00:05:00.000+02:00'
'6d7e28683e1122e7704cd483fb8ee2db4f4e18ea'|'BRIEF-Weight Watchers announces proposed private offering of $500 mln of senior notes due 2025'|' 51 PM / in 10 minutes BRIEF-Weight Watchers announces proposed private offering of $500 mln of senior notes due 2025 Reuters Staff Nov 13 (Reuters) - Weight Watchers International Inc : * Weight Watchers announces proposed private offering of $500 million of senior notes due 2025 * Weight Watchers - to use proceeds of offering, with expected borrowings from new term loan facility, to repay amounts under existing credit facilities Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-weight-watchers-announces-proposed/brief-weight-watchers-announces-proposed-private-offering-of-500-mln-of-senior-notes-due-2025-idUSASB0BTM4'|'2017-11-13T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'62e9f3abcb66b1d28a19ae458d2ad1ed72dd960a'|'Australia''s Santos target of proposed investor takeover bid: report'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:34 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Australia''s Santos target of proposed investor takeover bid: report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - A consortium of global energy investors has approached Australian oil and gas major Santos Ltd ( STO.AX ) with a proposal for an all-cash takeover worth A$11 billion ($8.34 billion), media reported on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd is pictured at their Sydney office February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File photo The Australian Financial Review reported Linda Cook, a former executive director of Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), had recently approached the Santos’ board with an invitation to support a scheme takeover. Indicative pricing for the bid was expected to be around A$5.30 per share, a 21 percent premium to Wednesday’s closing price of A$4.38. The pitch was expected to be ready to present to Santos within weeks, the AFR said without citing sources. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-santos-m-a/australias-santos-target-of-proposed-investor-takeover-bid-report-idUKKBN1DF2Y2'|'2017-11-15T22:34:00.000+02:00'
'c3f8605629ca84c25b5cb63caf7531dc25b2b88c'|'Vancouver imposes sharp restrictions on Airbnb, homesharing sites'|'VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The city of Vancouver passed new rules on Tuesday banning homeowners from renting out certain kinds of property on short-term rental websites like Airbnb, as part of an attempt to deal with a housing shortage that has led to soaring rents.A 3D printed people''s models are seen in front of a displayed Airbnb logo in this illustration taken, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Homeowners will not be allowed to list homes that are unoccupied in the long term, entire condos, or secondary suites - self-contained dwellings within a house or on the same grounds as the main property.They will be allowed to rent out a room in their principle residence, or rent their principle residence on a temporary basis when, for example, on vacation, the city said, though they will have to pay a licensing fee to the city government of C$49 ($38.50) per year.“Housing is first and foremost for homes, and I‘m very pleased to see this approach to short-term rentals move forward,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson in a statement.The new rules are expected to free up about 1,000 units for long-term rentals, while also providing a legal framework for homeowners who want to use websites like Airbnb and Expedia’s HomeAway.Vancouver is Canada’s most expensive property market, which has seen prices jump 75 percent in five years, and rents climb sharply. It has become a hotly contested issue for local residents, who have blamed foreign buyers and short-term rentals, among other issues, for making housing unaffordable.Earlier this year, the city implemented a steep tax on empty homes, which it hopes will add up to 25,000 units to the long-term rental market.Airbnb said in a statement that it would continue to operate in Vancouver and supports the city’s efforts to “recognize and regulate home sharing.” HomeAway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The housing shortage has been compounded by entire units being removed from the long-term rental stock to be listed as short-term rentals on homesharing websites, city officials say. A short-term rental is anything under 30 days.Homeowners who use the websites argue that short-term rentals provide flexibility and that they can earn far more money listing on a service like Airbnb than renting on a monthly basis, important in an expensive city like Vancouver.Reporting by Julie Gordon, Additional reporting by Nicole Mordant, editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-housing-airbnb/vancouver-imposes-sharp-restrictions-on-airbnb-homesharing-sites-idUSKBN1DE2YY'|'2017-11-14T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'7337af51ae8f8d6db08b0d344933e794ef062aa0'|'Qualcomm-NXP ruling may be in 2018 - EU competition commissioner'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:30 AM / Updated an hour ago Qualcomm-NXP ruling may be in 2018: EU competition commissioner Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A ruling on Qualcomm Inc’s proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV may come in 2018, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday. A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake People familiar with the matter told Reuters in October that Qualcomm has offered to buy NXP without some of its patents in a bid to win EU antitrust regulatory approval. The deal, the biggest-ever for the semiconductor industry, would make Qualcomm the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Writing by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nxp-semicondtrs-m-a-qualcomm-eu/qualcomm-nxp-ruling-may-be-in-2018-eu-competition-commissioner-idUKKBN1DF1K2'|'2017-11-15T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'9b5a2be2e12a1e355fe4f5d4c0f66fdce3197e2d'|'Akzo Nobel: options for chemicals arm are sale or spin-off, no IPO'|'November 14, 2017 / 9:15 AM / Updated an hour ago Story on Akzo Nobel withdrawn Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - The story “Akzo Nobel: options for chemicals arm are sale or spin-off, no IPO” was based on an Oct. 18 press release and was sent in error. The story also contained an incorrect reference to the company stating that it would not consider an IPO for its Specialty Chemicals division. The story has been withdrawn and no substitute story will be published. '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-akzo-nobel-specialty-chemicals/akzo-nobel-options-for-chemicals-arm-are-sale-or-spin-off-no-ipo-idINKBN1DE10Z'|'2017-11-14T06:15:00.000+02:00'
'29301059aabec8f60020cc5da2ff58d5e99fe950'|'BRIEF-Natural Alternatives International Q1 EPS $0.21'|' 46 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago BRIEF-Natural Alternatives International Q1 EPS $0.21 Reuters Staff Nov 13 (Reuters) - Natural Alternatives International Inc : * Natural Alternatives International, Inc. announces fiscal 2018 Q1 results * Q1 earnings per share $0.21 * Q1 sales $28.1 million Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-natural-alternatives-international/brief-natural-alternatives-international-q1-eps-0-21-idUSASB0BTMN'|'2017-11-13T23:46:00.000+02:00'
'4ab2c8192ccafbdee2372800c810e377f74992dc'|'Tesla says it will fight lawsuit claiming racial discrimination'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:13 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Tesla says it will fight lawsuit claiming racial discrimination Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) said on Wednesday it would fight a class-action lawsuit filed against it earlier this week claiming the electric automaker’s California production plant was a “hotbed for racist behavior.” The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei, Taiwan August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The lawsuit, filed on Monday by former Tesla worker Marcus Vaughn on behalf of a group of black workers at the plant, claimed that they were addressed using racial slurs and that the company ignored their complaints. Tesla contested details of the lawsuit in a blog post on Tuesday and signaled it would fight it. "At Tesla, we would rather pay ten times the settlement demand in legal fees and fight to the ends of the Earth than give in to extortion and allow this abuse of the legal system," the blog post said. bit.ly/2mrs8R5 Vaughn had said in the lawsuit that he was routinely called the “n-word” by supervisors and coworkers after he began working at the factory in April, and that Tesla never investigated his claims following written complaints. Tesla said it had investigated “disappointing behavior” several months ago involving a group of individuals who worked on or near Vaughn’s team and fired three employees. Monday’s lawsuit was at least the third filed this year against Tesla by black workers who say the company ignored their complaints of racial harassment. Vaughn in the lawsuit also said he was fired in October for “not having a positive attitude.” Tesla said in its blog post that Vaughn was not fired, he left when his six-month temporary contract had simply ended. “Tesla is absolutely against any form of discrimination, harassment, or unfair treatment of any kind,” said Tesla. “When we hear complaints, we take them very seriously, investigate thoroughly and, if proven to be true, take immediate action.” Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-lawsuit/tesla-says-it-will-fight-lawsuit-claiming-racial-discrimination-idUSKBN1DF204'|'2017-11-15T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'2bfa44e388e30df560c5361f22cb300d817ef67c'|'Moscow Exchange bets on growth in Russia-China investments'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:08 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Moscow Exchange bets on growth in Russia-China investments Matthew Miller 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Deepening cross-border financial cooperation between Russia and China remains a priority, said a senior official with the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), with more products expected for companies and investors to raise funds and buy securities. Russia and China have signed a series of agreements over the last two years, including memorandums of understanding between Bank of Russia and China’s central bank on clearing and settlement of Chinese yuan payments in Russia, and cooperation on gold exchange trading. But cross-border individual and portfolio investment has been slow to materialise, with Chinese investors now holding only about $3 billion (£2.2 billion) in Russian equities and bonds, compared with $65 billion in annual trade between the two countries. “The ultimate goal is to reach with China the same level of partnership we have had for many years with western financial markets,” said Igor Marich, who oversees MOEX’s money and derivatives markets. New issuances now under discussion include exchange-trade funds along with the long-anticipated issuance of a yuan-denominated bond at MOEX, said Marich, who expected fixed income to be a main driver, with some Russian sovereign bonds offering yields of more than 8 percent. China’s Belt and Road initiative, the global infrastructure and investment strategy enshrined in China’s Communist Party constitution last month, should also accelerate developments. “I see growing interest of Chinese investors into Russia,” Marich told Reuters. “That’s one reason for cautious optimism. The other real transactions have happened.” Marich pointed to CEFC China Energy’s $9.1 billion purchase of a stake in Russia’s Rosneft Oil ROSM.MM and the participation of China’s Fosun International Ltd ( 0656.HK ) in a consortium of investors that bought a 10 percent stake in Polyus ( PLZL.MM ), Russia’s top gold producer. Marich was in Beijing to promote the Moscow Exchange and Belt and Road investment opportunities on the final leg of a three-city tour that included Shenzhen and Shanghai. In May, MOEX signed an expanded strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Stock Exchange that included provisions to improve collaboration on market data and develop and launch yuan and rouble quoted products. In December, MOEX also signed an agreement with CITIC Securities and Galaxy Securities to see the Chinese brokerages provide access for their clients to Russian securities traded in Moscow. Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-russia-bri/moscow-exchange-bets-on-growth-in-russia-china-investments-idUKKBN1DF1A4'|'2017-11-15T12:07:00.000+02:00'
'52ee68b217876e7d67f13382ee039a14f624629d'|'Oil explorer Finder seeks $150 mln for Australia drilling'|'LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Australia-focused oil and gas explorer Finder Exploration is seeking to raise $150 million for the drilling of five wells off the country’s northwest coast, a document seen by Reuters showed.The wells could hold as much as 600 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent, the privately owned company said in a presentation to potential investors.Finder, a joint venture with energy services company Fugro , hopes to start drilling in the third quarter of 2018.The exploration blocks are adjacent to the Browse basin and Northern Carnarvon basin, where a number of large oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell operate.Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Dale Hudson '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-exploration-australia/oil-explorer-finder-seeks-150-mln-for-australia-drilling-idINL8N1NL5NJ'|'2017-11-15T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'ebdb5f4fc1addf0e924e4cebd34812f6de127ff1'|'Greece doing necessary work to facilitate market access - Finance Minister'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:27 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Greece doing necessary work to facilitate market access - Finance Minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece is taking the necessary steps to facilitate liquidity for its future market forays, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Wednesday. Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos gestures during a news conference with Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem (not pictured) at the Finance ministry in Athens, Greece September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas “We are doing the necessary spade work to ensure appropriate liquidity conditions for future exits to the market,” Tsakalotos told Reuters, asked to comment on Greece’s debt swap plans announced earlier on Wednesday. Athens said it planned a debt swap to replace 20 small bonds with five benchmark ones, a move designed to boost liquidity and smooth out the state’s yield curve. Reporting By Renee Maltezou'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-debt-minister/greece-doing-necessary-work-to-facilitate-market-access-finance-minister-idUKKBN1DF1WC'|'2017-11-15T15:26:00.000+02:00'
'ac98c464494c107530c5206d6cd02dcf0d6119e1'|'Global stocks weighed by doubts on U.S. tax reform, sterling falls'|'November 13, 2017 / 3:28 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Global stocks weighed by doubts on U.S. tax reform, sterling falls Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks notched a small gain in choppy trade on Monday amid uncertainty over the fate of U.S. tax reform efforts, while Britain’s pound fell as investors worried if Theresa May can remain Prime Minister and get a good European Union exit deal. FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid U.S. stock indexes made little ground. Some investors sought bargains after a few days of losses while others were put off by a dividend cut and weak financial forecasts at heavyweight General Electric ( GE.N ) which plans to radically shrink to focus on aviation, power and healthcare. Investors were waiting for any signs of compromise on U.S. tax policy after U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a plan that would cut corporate taxes a year later than a rival House of Representatives’ bill. “What the market seems to be focussed on is if and when tax reform will be agreed on by Republicans in both the Senate and the House and how it’ll fare in Congress,” said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago. While senators and representatives are trying to reach a deal, investors can still hope, said Nathan Thooft, senior managing director at Manulife Asset Management in Boston. “They’re still working through the math attached to the two plans. They still have to go through reconciliation but the fact the conversations are happening is a positive.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 17.49 points, or 0.07 percent, to 23,439.7, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.54 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,584.84 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 6.66 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,757.60. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.53 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.25 percent, a third straight day of losses after hitting an intraday record high on Thursday. Sterling GBP= fell 0.6 percent, its biggest daily fall against the dollar since Nov. 2. It was also down 0.6 percent against the euro EURGBP= after the Sunday Times newspaper reported that 40 members of parliament from May''s Conservative Party agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her, eight short of the requirement to trigger a party leadership contest. “That just highlights some of the internal weakness that the Conservative party has within its own self and I think that’s going to undermine the Brexit negotiations going forward,” said Sireen Harajli, foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho in New York. [nL1N1NJ1AQ] The+ dollar edged higher against a basket of other major currencies, recovering ground after a 0.6 percent drop last week. It .DXY rose 0.1 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.03 percent to $1.1666. U.S. two-year Treasury note yields hit a fresh nine-year high as the yield curve resumed its flattening, with investors pricing in a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in December. The two-year yield US2YT=RR hit a nine-year peak of 1.687 percent, up from 1.662 percent Friday. Oil prices held steady in a tight range Monday after briefly testing lower, with support from Middle East tensions and record long bets by fund managers balanced by rising U.S. production. [nL3N1NJ1BB] A purge of Saudi Arabia’s leadership by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has raised concerns about political stability in the region’s largest oil producer. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.04 percent to $56.72 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.13, down 0.61 percent.   Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Jessica Resnick-Ault and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Dhara Ranasinghe and Saikat Chatterjee in London, and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-shares-down-on-uncertainty-over-us-tax-reform-plans-sterling-falls-idINKBN1DD09H'|'2017-11-13T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'da78b1a4772a5438592e784657248f57623a628c'|'More cases against Google to come, EU commissioner says'|' 26 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago More cases against Google to come, EU commissioner says Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - There are more cases against Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google to come, Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, said on Wednesday during a trip to Beijing. The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The European Commission slapped a record 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) fine on the world’s most popular internet search engine in June and told the firm to stop favoring its shopping service. Reporting by Seu-Lin Wong; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-google-antitrust/more-cases-against-google-to-come-eu-commissioner-says-idUKKBN1DF1BR'|'2017-11-15T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'354289ab46a015f403cdc68351c43cce81a43ea7'|'Poland turns to fossil fuel soulmate Trump as coal output flags'|' 55 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Poland turns to fossil fuel soulmate Trump as coal output flags Agnieszka Barteczko , Barbara Lewis 8 Min Read WARSAW/LONDON (Reuters) - “Whenever you need energy, just give us a call,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on a visit to Poland in the summer. Now, with winter setting in, Warsaw is taking him up on the offer. A bulldozer works on a heap of coal at the Zeran Heat Power Plant in Warsaw, Poland November 4, 2017. Picture taken November 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Poland’s state coal trader Weglokoks is to due receive its first ever shipment of U.S. coal imminently and industry sources expect state or private buyers to take at least three more cargoes over the next seven months, even though Europe as a whole is shifting away from the most carbon-intensive energy source. With both countries led by fossil fuel advocates, the benefits are mutual. Poland has to meet a shortfall left by the failure of national mining giant PGG to achieve its production targets, while U.S. miners are relying on export growth as power utilities at home switch to cheaper, cleaner alternatives. Poland’s government, which like the Trump administration is championing its national mining industry, came to power in 2015 promising energy self-sufficiency for the European Union’s biggest coal-burning nation. Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski rejects any suggestion of crisis due to the problems at PGG, even though smaller traders have often queued for coal in recent weeks. “A psychosis related to coal shortages has appeared on the market,” he told reporters. “I can say that this winter no one will be cold in their homes because of a lack of coal.” Tchorzewski declined to comment on possible imports and PGG, the EU’s biggest coal miner which accounts for almost 60 percent of Polish output, has yet to announce its 2017 production data. However, the pledges of national self-sufficiency made by Prime Minister Beata Szydlo - a miner’s daughter - are under strain as PGG will miss its 2017 target of 32 million tonnes by 4 or 5 million tonnes, industry sources say. Last year the companies that now form PGG mined 33.5 million tonnes out of Poland’s total output of 57.2 million. The shortfall will be relatively small in 2017 but is likely to grow in years to come. The Navios Helios, a vessel which has brought the 73,616 tonne shipment for Weglokoks from Baltimore, is waiting off the Baltic port of Gdansk and will probably enter the harbor on Thursday afternoon, a port spokeswoman said. Until now, only private importers have bought coal cargoes from the United States, and the industry sources say the Weglokoks purchase proves the trend is gathering momentum. “Everyone is trying to buy U.S. coal. If you have coal now, you’re the king,” an executive at one Polish mine said. COMMON CAUSE WITH TRUMP Europe is playing a leading role in United Nations action to limit global warming. Talks on implementing the 2015 Paris climate agreement are underway in Germany and scientists say world carbon emissions are set to rise this year to a new record, dashing hopes that they had already peaked. Since Szydlo’s nationalist Law and Justice Party came to power, Warsaw has been at odds with the EU over several issues, including environmental standards. Poland will host next year’s round of U.N. climate talks in the southern city of Katowice - the center of the coal-producing Silesia region and PGG’s home. In promoting a national coal industry and trying to preserve jobs in traditional heavy industries, Poland can appear to have more in common with Trump than its western European partners. However, while Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement, Warsaw is staying in. The government of Silesian-born Szydlo has opposed EU policies to reduce carbon emissions as they set binding targets, but backs the Paris deal as it did not impose specific obligations on signatories. Warsaw does share at least one EU energy aim in seeking to avoid dependency on Russia, which has in the past curbed gas supplies piped via Ukraine to countries including Poland. The EU’s answer is to reduce energy consumption but Poland, which relies on coal to produce 80 percent of its electricity, is simply seeking alternative sources to Russia. A heap of coal is seen at the Zeran Heat Power Plant in Warsaw, Poland November 4, 2017. Picture taken November 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Trump is eager to oblige. “America stands ready to help Poland and other European nations diversify their energy supplies, so that you can never be held hostage to a single supplier,” he said on his visit in July. Polish imports of U.S. coal have already leapt more than 500 percent in the first half of this year, figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show. HUGE AND INEFFICIENT Warsaw is banking on coal even more than Washington. Despite Trump’s incentives, U.S. utilities are shutting coal-fired plants and shifting to gas, wind and solar power. By contrast, Poland is building three new coal power stations. But Polish mines are suffering from years of underinvestment. PGG has yet to prove it can meet the demand of power generators and some district heating plants on which many homes rely for winter warmth. Previously known as Kompania Weglowa, the company was saved from bankruptcy when state-run utilities bailed it out in 2016. It merged with another ailing coal firm, KHW, this year. Chief Executive Tomasz Rogala blames what he says are temporary problems on cost-cutting, but it is unclear how much investment will increase. Slideshow (5 Images) Analysts at the state-run ARP agency, which monitors the Polish coal market, expect imports this year will definitely exceed the 8 million tonnes reported in 2016. Some private analysts believe the figure could be as high as 10 million. This comes at a cost: European coal prices are around $85 a tonne, just below their highest level since June 2013 due largely to Chinese demand. POLITICAL PRICE Until now, most imported coal has been from Russia but it largely supplies households as the government does not allow state-run power generators to burn it. However, a source close to one utility said Russian imports could be essential due to the risk that not enough U.S. coal arrives in time, should the winter be severe. “Imports from Russia would be more politically correct than cold heaters in the winter,” he told Reuters, asking not to be named. Analysts say the price of U.S. coal is around $110 per tonne, about $25 more than the European price due to transport costs from North Sea ports to Poland. Private Polish importers currently pay about $95 per tonne for Russian coal including delivery costs, a Russian market source told Reuters. The utilities pay far less for Polish coal, although costs are climbing. In September, coal for power production rose 4.6 percent year-on-year to 206.17 zlotys ($57) per tonne, while coal for heating plants rose 19 percent to 237.66 zlotys, ARP data showed. FUTURE NEEDS Analysts say the mines’ production difficulties due to underinvestment and deep seams which are expensive to exploit will last far beyond this winter. Andrzej Rubczynski of the Forum for Energy, a Warsaw-based thinktank, predicts annual output will almost halve to 30 million tonnes by 2030. “The real problem is how to balance declining hard coal and lignite supplies in Poland with demand in the long term,” he said. The Forum has found that by around 2050 Poland faces similar costs whether it sticks to coal or switches to cleaner energy. Environmental campaigners say that while renewable sources are becoming cheaper, the cost of using conventional fuels will keep rising, especially under reforms to the EU emissions market which places a price on carbon. For them, the argument for Polish wind and solar power is compelling. “Coal is no longer perceived as a secure fuel,” said Aleksander Sniegocki, an analyst at Wise Europa, another Warsaw-based thinktank. ($1 = 3.6077 zlotys) Additional reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw, Wojciech Zurawski in Katowice, Polina Devitt in Moscow, Vera Eckert in Frankfurt and Tim Gardner in Washington; editing by David Stamp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-poland-coal-analysis/poland-turns-to-fossil-fuel-soulmate-trump-as-coal-output-flags-idUKKBN1DF1YJ'|'2017-11-15T15:53:00.000+02:00'
'f5955444fcbe27d88229261d2e788f7dc4acd1ee'|'SoftBank plans to invest up to $25 bln in Saudi Arabia - Bbg'|'(Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) plans to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Softbank plans to deploy around $15 billion in a new business and industrial city called NEOM and its Vision Fund would invest around $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co 5110.SE, Bloomberg reported.The $500-billion mega-city will be floated on financial markets alongside oil giant Saudi Aramco as part of the kingdom’s drive to diversify away from oil, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had told Reuters in an interview in October.Reuters had also reported that Saudi Arabia will consider selling a large stake in Saudi Electricity to Vision Fund, the world’s largest private equity fund.SoftBank Group was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arabia-softbank-group/softbank-plans-to-invest-up-to-25-billion-in-saudi-arabia-bloomberg-idUSKBN1DF26G'|'2017-11-15T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'5c0934128e6d7ce6bb4253691bd997952df8c4f2'|'UPDATE 1-SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached'|'* Negotiations on investment terms still ongoing - company* SoftBank may not invest if not satisfied with share price terms* Progress came this week with Benchmark-Kalanick deal (Adds background)TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp said on Tuesday it was considering investing in Uber Technologies Inc but there was no final agreement at this stage.“If conditions on share price and a minimum of shares are not satisfactory for the SoftBank Group side, there is a possibility the SoftBank Group may not make an investment,” it said in a statement.Uber said this week that a planned deal with SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The investment could be worth up to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter have said..SoftBank and Dragoneer are leading a consortium that plans to invest $1 billion to $1.25 billion in Uber, the mostly highly valued venture-backed company in the world, along with a purchase of up to 17 percent of existing shares in a secondary transaction.Progress in the negotiations came after venture capital firm Benchmark, an early investor with a board seat in the ride-services company, and former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick Kalanick struck a peace deal, reaching agreement over terms of the planned SoftBank investment.The Japanese tech and telecoms firm has become a prolific investor in ride sharing firms such China’s Didi and India’s Ola as it works to achieve SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s vision of a future driven by artifical intelligence and interconnected devices. (Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-softbank/update-1-softbank-says-considering-investment-in-uber-but-no-final-agreement-reached-idINL3N1NK18M'|'2017-11-13T23:45:00.000+02:00'
'923cc7f6268834ae235dad58b889a0da1e88fe8f'|'Column: Oil prices hit by profit-taking after funds build record bullish position'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Crude oil prices and calendar spreads have started to soften in recent trading sessions, in what is likely to be profit-taking after hedge funds amassed a record bullish position in the petroleum complex.A view shows Saudi Aramco''s Abqaiq oil facility in eastern Saudi Arabia in this undated handout photo. Courtesy Saudi Aramco/Handout via REUTERS/Files Hedge funds and other money managers had accumulated a record net long position in the five largest futures and options contracts linked to crude and fuels by Nov. 7, according to regulatory and exchange data.Fund managers held a net long position equivalent to 1,085 million barrels of crude, gasoline and heating oil, up from 305 million at the end of June, and beating the previous peak of 1,025 million set in February.Long positions in crude and fuels have been boosted to a record 1,295 million barrels while shorts have been cut to just 211 million, the lowest since April ( tmsnrt.rs/2zBrPbN ).Hedge funds hold record or near-record bullish positions in Brent, U.S. gasoline, U.S. heating oil and European gasoil, only in WTI is their positioning is still well below previous highs.There may be fundamental reasons to believe prices will head higher, but the lopsided hedge-fund positioning and concentration of long positions has increased the risk of a price reversal in the short term.Brent futures prices for delivery in January 2018 hit a high on Nov. 6 but have since stalled and started to drift lower. Brent calendar spreads for the first half of 2018 also peaked on Nov. 6 and have since eased sharply.Brent prices, which have rallied faster than WTI since the middle of August, have been hit harder in recent trading sessions, which is consistent with profit-taking.Hedge funds held a record net long position of 543 million barrels in Brent on Nov. 7. By contrast, the net long position in WTI was just 382 million barrels, well below the record of 444 million barrels set in February.Fund managers held almost 11 long positions in Brent for every short position, but just 4.5 long positions for every short in WTI, a sign that Brent had become far more stretched than its U.S. counterpart.Positioning in U.S. gasoline and heating oil was also at or close to multi-year highs. The net long position in heating oil hit a record 70 million barrels on Nov. 7. Gasoline stood at a near-record 90 million barrels.With so many long positions already established by last week, and few short ones left to cover, the rise in petroleum prices was at risk of running out of momentum and falling prey to a correction, which is what seems to have happened.The balance of risks has clearly shifted towards the downside in the near term, particularly if fund managers try to realise some profits and reduce their risk exposure before the end of the financial year.In the medium term, the cyclical recovery in oil markets should support a continued rise in prices and spreads, and put a higher floor under the market, even if it is hit by a wave of long liquidation ( tmsnrt.rs/2zWhB6e ).Related columns:“Hedge funds go all-in on oil”, Reuters, Nov. 6“Booming oil demand is eroding inventories”, Reuters, Nov. 2“Brent crude tries new trading range as funds stay bullish”, Reuters, Oct. 30“Oil market set to move from rebalancing to tightening”, Reuters, Oct. 30Editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-prices-kemp/column-oil-prices-hit-by-profit-taking-after-funds-build-record-bullish-position-idINKBN1DE1NE'|'2017-11-14T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'78cae6173009124e46c8c8551ea637b57b552c03'|'Mike Bloomberg says London will stay Europe''s financial centre though dumb Brexit will cut growth'|'LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - London will remain Europe’s financial centre for the foreseeable future and keep its position alongside New York as one of the world’s dominant trading capitals though Brexit will reduce its growth, billionaire Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday.Bloomberg said he would still have committed to building a new European headquarters for his global data and news business in the heart of London’s financial district had he known that Britain would vote for Brexit.“London is always going to be the financial centre of Europe for the foreseeable future. It has the things that the finance industry needs,” Bloomberg told BBC radio.“What will happen with Brexit is that some jobs will move, although they may very well be replaced here, but that the growth rate of London as a financial centre will certainly not be what it would be if Brexit doesn’t take place.”The City of London, home to global foreign exchange, bonds and fund management operations and to more banks than any other financial centre, faces upheaval as firms decide whether to shift jobs to continental Europe to keep serving customers there after Britain leaves the EU in 2019.Bloomberg, who founded the information and technology company that bears his name in 1981 after leaving Salomon Brothers, said voting for Brexit was the “single dumbest thing that any country has ever done”.But the former New York mayor said London would retain its top spot as one of the world’s major financial capitals alongside New York.“New York and London will be the two big financial centres,” he said. “In Asia there is no one city that dominates. New York is the financial centre of the United States, London is the financial centre of Europe, it’s going to stay that way for a long time.”When asked about whether he would one day run for U.S. president, he sidestepped the question.“Well I’ve thought about running for the presidency of my block association but it’s not clear I could get elected there,” he quipped.Thomson Reuters , parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP, as well as News Corp’s Dow Jones unit. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; Editing by Catherine Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-bloomberg/mike-bloomberg-says-london-will-stay-europes-financial-centre-though-dumb-brexit-will-cut-growth-idINL8N1NK29Y'|'2017-11-14T05:20:00.000+02:00'
'05abfb1dffc24aa336d0366024e2f49087a1e67f'|'Norway should cancel 2015 Arctic oil licenses, court told'|'OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s plan for Arctic oil exploration is unconstitutional because it violates the right to a healthy environment, a lawyer for Greenpeace and the Nature and Youth environmental group told an Oslo court on Tuesday.Fredrik Sejersted, NorwayÕs Attorney General, in the district court in Oslo, Norway November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche The case is the first of its kind in Norway and says a 2015 oil licensing round in the Arctic that gave awards to Statoil, Chevron and others violates the constitution.Norway signed the 2016 Paris accord, which aims to end the fossil fuel era this century. The country is Western Europe’s largest oil producer and oil and gas are its most important exports.Government lawyers say the case is a publicity stunt that would cost jobs if it is successful.But it is part of an emerging branch of law worldwide in which plaintiffs invoke a nation’s founding principles in a bid to bring about policy change to limit global warming.“We argue that these licenses are not allowed under the law as per the Constitution,” Cathrine Hambro, representing the plaintiffs, told the court in her opening argument of a case likely to last two weeks.“We ask the court to make a quality check of these decisions, which have large and irreversible consequences.”The state is represented by Attorney General Fredrik Sejersted, which underlines the gravity of the case.In another sign of its high profile, former Supreme Court judge, Ketil Lund, is advising the plaintiffs on behalf of Norwegian Grandparents Against Climate Change, who are co-plaintiffs.“Under article 112 of the constitution ... the Norwegian state has a duty to not hurt the climate,” Lund, who sat on the Supreme Court for two decades, testified.Truls Gulowsen, the leader of Greenpeace Norway, poses for a picture next to a block of sculpted ice in front of the district court in Oslo, Norway November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche FIRST SNOWFALL Campaigners packed courtroom 250, the largest at Oslo district court. Some wore traditional Norwegian costumes and made the victory sign.Outside, as the first snow fell over the city, Greenpeace campaigners had placed a five-tonne sculpted block of ice, engraved with the article of the constitution under which they are challenging the state in court.Fredrik Sejersted, NorwayÕs Attorney General, passes underneath the symbol of the Norwegian state in a courtroom in the district court in Oslo, Norway November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche “Our goal is that the court agrees with us that licenses awarded in the Barents Sea are invalid and should be withdrawn because it violates future generations’ right to a healthy environment,” Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace Norway, told Reuters.The government says it is inappropriate to invoke the constitution rather than focus on taxes and regulations to control greenhouse gases.“This is a type of constitutional activism we have not seen before and that is different from our legal tradition in Norway,” Attorney General Fredrik Sejersted, representing the state, told the court in his opening statement.“This is an American-style use of our judicial system,” he said to some shock laughter in the audience, adding that the lawsuit was a “performance” aimed at getting public attention.Sejersted told the court the lawsuit by the plaintiffs, should the court find in their favor, would have wider consequences than just suspending the 10 licenses awarded in 2015 to Lukoil, ConocoPhillips and others.“It would stop all future oil licenses awarded off Norway and would imperil hundreds of thousands of jobs,” he said, adding that the case is based on an expansive and political interpretation of the constitution’s article 112.The suit is being heard as nations are gathered in Bonn, Germany, to agree a “rule book” for the 2015 climate pact, which seeks to end the fossil fuel era this century with a shift to wind, solar and other clean energies.Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-norway/norway-should-cancel-2015-arctic-oil-licenses-court-told-idUSKBN1DE173'|'2017-11-14T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'9357ddfa451741996eaff6d6d23fb3906e6d04ad'|'Central Asia Metals pauses for breath after Macedonia mine deal'|'November 13, 2017 / 7:27 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Central Asia Metals pauses for breath after Macedonia mine deal Barbara Lewis 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Central Asia Metals (CAML) ( CAML.L ), which has just bought a lead and zinc mine in Macedonia, would consider further purchases but not for six months, its chairman said on Monday. The $402.5 million acquisition of Lynx Resources, completed on Nov. 6, adds diversity to a miner that until now based its revenues on copper in Kazakhstan and whose chairman had spent around three years looking for a purchase. In the mining sector, still bruised by the commodity price crash of 2015 and early 2016, the Macedonia acquisition is one of this year’s standout deals among smaller companies that can still find it hard to raise financing. “Absolutely not currently, but in six months’ time when we’ve fully integrated the mine, absolutely,” Executive Chairman Nick Clarke said in an interview on the sidelines of a mining conference, when asked if he would buy anything else. The biggest criterion is not which mineral but how cost-effective any mine is to ensure profit is possible when volatile commodity prices fall. Clarke said any purchase had to be operating in the lowest cost quartile, which is already true of the newly-acquired Sasa underground zinc-lead mine in Macedonia, although he said he would look at whether productivity could be improved. Other assets he considered buying were copper, but Clarke said nothing was available that was cost-effective enough. Lead and zinc also offered more diversification for London-based CAML. “We have been a single country, single asset company and that is not without risks,” he said. Zinc CMZN3, lead CMPB3 and copper CMCU3 prices have all risen by roughly a quarter so far this year. In Kazakhstan, CAML’s focus is on low-cost copper extraction from waste dumps accumulated from open-cast mining. The company raised $60 million through a stock market listing in 2010 and, since it began producing copper in 2012, it has returned $105 million through dividends to shareholders, which include U.S. investment managers BlackRock and Fidelity. The Macedonia deal was financed through debt and equity, taking the net debt to EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation) ratio to a still modest 1.65, a much-watched indicator in the capital-intensive mining industry. Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-caml-acquisitions/central-asia-metals-pauses-for-breath-after-macedonia-mine-deal-idUKKBN1DD2DG'|'2017-11-13T21:26:00.000+02:00'
'fb087165085e9ef926bc8550be4e5fb76d8e28eb'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks set for longest losing streak since March, euro shines'|'* Graphic: World FX rates in 2017 tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVhBy Ritvik CarvalhoLONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - World stocks were set for their longest losing streak in more than six months on Wednesday as weaker commodities weighed, while the euro hit its highest levels in three weeks.The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, fell almost 0.2 percent and was set for its fifth straight day of declines -- its longest run in the red since March.A slide in crude oil prices on worries over the outlook for demand and weaker metals prices weighed on mining and energy stocks across Asia and Europe, which took their cues from the previous day’s stock declines in the United States.The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.6 percent and at its lowest level since Sept. 21. The index is still up nearly 6 percent so far this year.The UK’s top share index, the FTSE 100, declined 0.3 percent while Germany’s export-oriented DAX fell 0.7 percent, weighed down by a stronger euro, which had risen nearly half a percent in European trading hours.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had earlier fallen 0.6 percent.China’s Shanghai index was down 0.55 percent, Australian stocks dropped 0.6 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI shed 0.4 percent. Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.5 percent.“It was nearly a week ago when we had that sharp and unexpected selloff in the Nikkei and given that we’ve lost over a percent in Japan yet again overnight, it appears this negative move has yet again spread to this part of the world, ” said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets in London.“I think it’s a combination of people just viewing it (last week’s selloff) as a wake up call that even though the political and economic outlook haven’t changed a whole lot, equity markets just don’t go up forever.”Lifted by steady economic growth, supportive monetary policies and solid corporate earnings, global equities have rallied hard, with those in the United States, Germany and South Korea scaling record heights recently, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed to a 26-year peak.For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarketsEURO SHINES Analysts also said the rising euro, which on Tuesday got a boost from strong German economic growth data, also put some pressure on euro zone stocks. The single currency hit its highest against the dollar since Oct. 20 on Wednesday.German 10-year bond yields fell 2 basis points to 0.38 percent, down from more than two-week highs hit on Tuesday at 0.43 percent.With the euro zone’s annual economic growth rate outstripping that of the United States in the third quarter, led by Germany, markets are increasingly optimistic about the regional outlook.Pressured by the euro’s surge, the dollar index against a basket of six major currencies lost about 0.3 percent to 93.509. .The greenback was half a percent lower at 112.835 yen after pulling back from a high of 113.910 the previous day.“The dollar is getting hit against the euro and the yen and the strong data out of Europe is definitely a factor, with some investors bailing out of the long dollar trade,” said Alvin Tan, an FX strategist at Societe Generale in London.U.S. inflation data is due later in the day.Crude oil prices stretched losses, weighed by forecasts for rising U.S. crude output and a gloomier outlook for global demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).U.S. crude futures were down 0.84 percent at $55.23 per barrel and on track for their fourth day of losses. Brent lost 0.8 percent to $61.72 per barrel.Shanghai nickel and zinc tumbled alongside steel, extending losses from the previous session, with the commodities still reeling after the previous day’s indicators pointed to slowing industrial production growth in China.On Tuesday, a batch of data from China -- Australia’s biggest export market -- showed the economy cooled further last month, with industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales missing expectations.Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho; Editing by Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-stocks-set-for-longest-losing-streak-since-march-euro-shines-idUSL8N1NL2V1'|'2017-11-15T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'be05f80c89122a2cd85372ed589c1df2cfb57ccf'|'Britain targets tech talent by doubling visa numbers'|'November 14, 2017 / 10:44 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Britain targets tech talent by doubling visa numbers Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to double the number of visas available to exceptional workers in areas like digital technology and science to 2,000 to help retain an edge after Brexit. FILE PHOTO: Tourists carrying Union Flag umbrellas shelter from the rain in front of the London Eye wheel in London, Britain, August 9, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo The digital sector has voiced concerns that Brexit, and in particular the ending of free movement, could threaten London’s status as the leading European destination for tech start-ups and investment by major internet groups. Companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon and Snapchat have announced plans to expand in London since the Brexit vote, although they have said they need to be able to attract the best people. Prime Minister Theresa May said the digital sector had the full backing of the British government after she met digital entrepreneurs and innovators on Tuesday. “Technology is at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy, and we will continue to invest in the best new innovations and ideas, in the brightest and best talent, and in revolutionary digital infrastructure,” she said. “And as we prepare to leave the European Union, I am clear that Britain will remain open for business.” The extra visas were in a package of measures that also included a 20 million pound ($26 million) fund to help public services take advantage of British developments in technologies like artificial intelligence. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-technology-visas/britain-targets-tech-talent-by-doubling-visa-numbers-idUKKBN1DE32T'|'2017-11-15T00:37:00.000+02:00'
'7605e08db13dfe3b330e2e37fd84bab2f240fc06'|'Volkswagen says offices of CFO, HR chief, chairman raided by tax authorities and prosecutors'|'November 14, 2017 / 9:27 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Volkswagen says offices of CFO, HR chief, chairman raided by tax authorities and prosecutors Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Prosecutors and tax authorities on Tuesday raided the offices of several senior officials of Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), the German car-maker said. FILE PHOTO - A Volkswagen logo is seen at Serramonte Volkswagen in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo Investigators searched the offices of supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, finance chief Frank Witter, and human resources head Karlheinz Blessing, a Volkswagen spokesman said. Files and computers were seized. The raid was related to suspicions of overpayments for works council chief Bernd Osterloh, the spokesman said. Osterloh’s office was also searched. Neither the works council nor the prosecutor in Braunschweig were immediately available for comment. A person with knowledge of the matter said the tax authorities were acting on suspicion of tax evasion. That is because over-remuneration could result in overly high operating expenses and the payment of too little tax. It was revealed earlier that German prosecutors were investigating current and former executives at Volkswagen on suspicion that they paid works council chief Bernd Osterloh an excessive salary. In Germany, wasting corporate funds is legally a breach of fiduciary duty. Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Angus MacSwan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-raid/volkswagen-says-offices-of-cfo-hr-chief-chairman-raided-by-tax-authorities-and-prosecutors-idUKKBN1DE2X2'|'2017-11-14T23:42:00.000+02:00'
'3c3746d5e8a72962aefdf3d498075b472a8135da'|'JPMorgan says fears Brexit day upheaval if UK clearing houses cut off'|'Reuters TV United States  46 PM / a few seconds ago JPMorgan says fears Brexit day upheaval if UK clearing houses cut off Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Financial markets face Brexit day upheaval if clearing houses in Britain are abruptly cut off from continental customers, a senior JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) bank official said on Wednesday. The Union Flag and a European Union flag fly near the Elizabeth Tower, housing the Big Ben bell, during the anti-Brexit ''People''s March for Europe'', in Parliament Square in central London, Britain September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen Sally Dewar, international head of regulatory affairs at the U.S. bank, said that without European Union recognition of UK clearers before Britain’s departure from the bloc in March 2019, there could be significant market disruption. Under current EU rules, a British clearing house could not obtain this recognition until after Brexit. “The lack of recognition could lead to market disruption on Day One, and that’s why we can’t predict the extent of it,” Dewar told a House of Lords committee. Clearing houses like LCH ( LSE.L ) and ICE Clear ( ICE.N ) ensure that trillions of pounds of financial transactions are completed safely, and Dewar said they will need transitional arrangements. JPMorgan and its peers who serve customers across Europe from a base in London are now activating plans to avoid disruption in customer links, such as by setting up new hubs or expanding existing ones in the EU. “Clearly there is a ticking clock. We are already in execution mode in terms of the infrastructure, licenses, approvals that we need,” Dewar said. Some key decisions on moving staff have also been taken. “But by the end of Q1 (2018) we have to start taking decisions around informing clients, which becomes more difficult to unravel,” Dewar said. She acknowledged that if EU trades cannot be booked in London, it would mean a loss of tax revenue for Britain. The European Central Bank, which licenses banking hubs in the euro zone, said in a newsletter on Wednesday that it was “not comfortable” with booking models being proposed by lenders who want to continue using London after Brexit. Julian Adams, group regulatory and government relations director at UK insurer Prudential ( PRU.L ), said the financial industry also needed to know how “inoperables”, or issues only governments can resolve, will be dealt with. These include ensuring that cross-border insurance contracts still work. LONDON COMPETITIVENESS The House of Lords committee is looking at how UK regulation should be shaped after Brexit. Dewar and Adams - both former UK regulators - signaled differences over this, reflecting how JPMorgan will have significant business in the EU27 after Brexit, while Prudential is more focused on Britain and Asia. Dewar said Britain should not diverge too much from EU rules otherwise it would undermine its ability to reach agreement with the EU on financial services trade. Adams, however, said there was no point in Brexit unless it gave British regulators leeway to tailor rules, while avoiding a “race to the bottom”. The objectives of UK regulators after Brexit may need broadening beyond “safety and soundness” to include the competitiveness of London as a global financial center, Adams said. “There is a debate to be had about whether competitiveness or the promotion of London as a financial center could and should be part of a Brexit regulatory landscape,” Adams said. UK regulators have said there must be no return to the “light touch” era seen before the global financial crisis forced Britain to bail out undercapitalized banks. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-banks/jpmorgan-says-fears-brexit-day-upheaval-if-uk-clearing-houses-cut-off-idUKKBN1DF1XY'|'2017-11-15T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'76e29f8d1f8835e37859d06cca5adb5281a9cbf2'|'Great Portland upgrades guidance on London rental prices'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:07 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Great Portland upgrades guidance on London rental prices Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Central London property developer Great Portland Estates ( GPOR.L ) improved its guidance on full year rental values on Wednesday, saying the market was so far holding up well in the face of the political uncertainties related to Brexit. Having previously said rental values could fall by as much as 7.5 percent, the company now expects values across its office and retail portfolios to range between growth of 1.5 percent and a fall of 2.5 percent for the full year ending March 31, 2018. “Central London’s commercial property markets have to date proven resilient,” the developer said, reporting growth of 0.7 percent in its rental value in the first half of the year. “We expect the uncertain economic and political environment to weigh on rental levels and yields for secondary properties. However, we remain positive on the long-term prospects for London as a truly global city.” The developer’s EPRA net assets per share, a measure of the value of their properties, rose to 813 pence per share in the half year ended 30 Sept 2017 from 808 pence a year earlier. The value of Great Portland’s portfolio of assets, dominated by office spaces but also including retail and residential property, rose 1 percent in the first half to 3.28 billion pounds. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-great-portland-results/great-portland-upgrades-guidance-on-london-rental-prices-idUKKBN1DF0YX'|'2017-11-15T10:07:00.000+02:00'
'4461e77ce648bd0a1cbb9d2f18d69c9172fcb9ae'|'Altice shifts focus from acquisitions to easing debt - CFO'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:21 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Altice shifts focus from acquisitions to easing debt: CFO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BARCELONA (Reuters) - Altice ( ATCA.AS ) is shifting its focus from acquisitions to reducing its 50 billion-euro ($59 billion) net debt, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Okhuijsen said on Wednesday. The Amsterdam-based cable and telecoms holding has lost more than half of its market value since it reported disappointing third-quarter results on Nov. 2, which led to the ouster of its chief executive Michel Combes last week. The group will “go back to the basics” and will not be looking for acquisitions in the near future, Okhuijsen said at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in Barcelona. ($1 = 0.8450 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-altice-debt/altice-shifts-focus-from-acquisitions-to-easing-debt-cfo-idUKKBN1DF1VQ'|'2017-11-15T15:16:00.000+02:00'
'0cc17616d77e61abaab725f668dfde8d3fea19aa'|'Euro steadies after rallying on strong German data'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:46 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Euro steadies after rallying on strong German data Lisa Twaronite 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The euro remained close to 2-1/2 week highs in early Asian trading on Wednesday, getting a boost from upbeat German economic data as investors awaited U.S. consumer inflation data later in the global session. 20 Euro banknotes are displayed is this picture illustration taken November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration The common currency edged down slightly to $1.1791 EUR= after jumping more than 1 percent in the previous session. It moved well away from a 3-1/2-month low of $1.1553 plumbed last week. The euro’s ascent pushed down the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals. It was steady on the day at 93.856 .DXY, wallowing at its lowest levels since late October and well below its overnight high of 94.542. Germany’s seasonally adjusted gross domestic product rose by 0.8 percent on the quarter, beating a Reuters poll forecast of 0.6 percent. Investors awaited U.S. consumer inflation data for October later on Wednesday, which is expected to show a marginal increase in consumer prices. “If it is weaker, then that may push down the probability of a Fed rate hike in December,” said Jeff Kravetz, regional investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “Right now, Fed fund futures are pricing in around 80 percent, but it could go down to like 50-50,” he said. “And if we do get a weak number, then I would think the euro would continue to strengthen, versus the dollar.” Data on Tuesday showed U.S. producer prices rose a more-than-expected 0.4 percent last month, boosting the PPI 2.8 percent in the 12 months through October for the biggest annual increase in wholesale inflation in more than 5-1/2 years. But economists said the strong producer price readings probably did not translate into higher consumer prices in October because the correlation between the PPI and consumer price index has weakened. Against the yen, the greenback inched slightly lower to 113.43 JPY= , remaining well below its eight-month high of 114.735 hit last week. Data released earlier on Wednesday showed Japan’s economy posted its longest period of uninterrupted growth in more than a decade, expanding at a 1.4 percent annualised rate in the July-September quarter. That was slightly above the median estimate for annualised growth of 1.3 percent. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-forex/euro-steadies-after-rallying-on-strong-german-data-idINKBN1DF031'|'2017-11-14T21:46:00.000+02:00'
'c3358f8ed0c8945348bfdaec7366cf0fb4b21ae3'|'Exclusive - Carlyle seeks to raise $1 billion for new energy fund: sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 11:55 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Exclusive: Carlyle seeks to raise $1 billion for new energy fund - sources Ron Bousso 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Carlyle Group ( CG.O ), the world’s largest private equity firm, is raising $1 billion for a new fund to invest in oil and gas outside the United States as a stronger outlook for oil prices rekindles investor appetite, banking sources told Reuters. A general view of the lobby outside of the Carlyle Group offices in Washington, U.S. May 3, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The new vehicle comes after Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), the group’s overseas energy investment fund set up in 2013, nearly exhausted its $2.5 billion warchest following a number of high-profile deals. CIEP managing directors Bob Maguire and Marcel van Poecke met investors during a roadshow in the United States in recent weeks to raise interest in the new fund, several banking sources said. The new fund will be used to create a New York-listed special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that focuses on investment in oil and gas exploration and production outside the United States. The fund is expected to be launched next year, they said. A Carlyle spokeswoman declined to comment. CIEP has been one of the most active private equity funds in recent years amid a downturn in the energy sector, backing companies in Europe, Africa and Asia. Those include Neptune, a joint venture with CVC Partners that in May acquired Engie’s ( ENGIE.PA ) international exploration and production portfolio for $3.9 billion; and Assala Energy, which in March acquired Royal Dutch Shell’s ( RDSa.L ) Gabon operations for $587 million. A recovery in oil prices - up around 40 percent since June - has bolstered confidence in the energy industry. “There is definitely an upswing in appetite for oil and gas acquisitions as evidenced by our recent capital confidence barometer survey,” Andy Brogan, global oil and gas transaction leader at consultancy EY, told Reuters. “Much of this is down to the (oil) pricing outlook and the confidence that comes with it.” According to the EY survey published on Wednesday, 69 percent of oil and gas executives indicated they intend to pursue acquisitions, a record high for the poll. Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-carlyle-energy-exclusive/exclusive-carlyle-seeks-to-raise-1-billion-for-new-energy-fund-sources-idUKKBN1DF1N0'|'2017-11-15T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'01c63069828a921fa5547f0dee64fa33cd4c86cb'|'Bank of England''s Broadbent says low unemployment to boost wages'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:03 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Bank of England''s Broadbent says low unemployment to boost wages Reuters Staff 2   The Bank of England needs to stick with its assumption that lower unemployment will generate faster inflation, despite uncertainty about both this and the impact of Brexit on the economy, Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Wednesday. Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Ben Broadbent speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event at Canary Wharf in London, Britain, November 18, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Broadbent, part of the 7-2 majority on the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee who backed the central bank’s first interest rate rise in a decade earlier this month, said above-target inflation and dwindling spare capacity justified the move. Broadbent made his comments in a speech at the London School of Economics, hours after official data showed the number of Britons in work recorded its biggest fall in two years. His BoE colleague Jon Cunliffe expressed doubts about wage growth late on Tuesday. “Several commentators have questioned the MPC’s central prediction that wage growth will rise next year. Some have gone further and pronounced the death of the Phillips curve. There are always risks to any forecast. But the latter claim, at least, is premature,” Broadbent said. The Phillips curve shows the historic relationship between falling unemployment and faster wage growth. British inflation hit a five-year high of 3.0 percent in September. The Bank forecasts it will slowly fall, but Broadbent said the balance of risks around price pressures -- and future interest rates -- was uncertain. For now, Broadbent said, the BoE needed to take signs of ongoing inflation pressure seriously. “What’s been in front of us for several months is an economy with above-target inflation and dwindling spare capacity. That’s why I think it was the right thing to remove a degree of monetary accommodation,” he said. Britain’s looming departure from the European Union in March 2019 did not imply rates were more likely to fall than to rise. “There’s no inevitability about the balance of these effects,” he said. “Some of those effects could come through faster than people often assume.” Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-broadbent/bank-of-englands-broadbent-says-low-unemployment-to-boost-wages-idUKKBN1DF1UA'|'2017-11-15T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'cad9f3af6dce9296a344499e9834ff2af5bc34f5'|'Delta Air says tax cut would buy new planes, pay down debt'|' 43 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Delta Air says tax cut would buy new planes, pay down debt Alana Wise 2 Min Read DETROIT, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines would use savings from a lower U.S. corporate tax rate to buy new equipment and pay down some of its debt, the carrier’s chief executive said on Wednesday, as congressional Republicans work to push forward a tax cut bill. “We’ve had a philosophy - for every dollar of cash we make, we take 50 percent and put it back in the business. So investing in new equipment, investing in new airports, more airplanes for the airline,” Chief Executive Ed Bastian told reporters in Detroit. Bastian said that additional relief from the current rate would “certainly enable us to pay our people more,” while the rest of the savings would be used to pay down some of the airline’s bills. Delta and other companies have expressed support for Republican proposals to trim the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, which they say would allow them to create more jobs and invest more resources in employees. Senate Republicans want to pass their tax bill by December, but are facing pushback from some of their own lawmakers. After an industry period of financial turmoil marked by years of significant losses, Delta does not currently pay federal corporate taxes, but is due to become a full cash federal taxpayer in 2019, when it will have exhausted its deferrals. Bastian said the savings would not be spent on investors in the form of share repurchases. “We would put it to work,” Bastian said. Pilots and flight attendants at the three largest U.S. airlines - Delta, United and American - are keeping a close eye on company plans for spending any tax windfall. Tensions between management and employees remain high on contract negotiations for salary and benefits. (Reporting by Alana Wise, Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-delta-air-lines/delta-air-says-tax-cut-would-buy-new-planes-pay-down-debt-idUSL1N1NL20P'|'2017-11-15T23:43:00.000+02:00'
'a20ef407481b099b9f4bbce4e902fa42c2169094'|'Russia''s Rosneft says managing exit from OPEC+ deal is a serious challenge'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:26 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Russia''s Rosneft says managing exit from OPEC+ deal is a serious challenge Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ), the world’s top listed oil company by oil output, sees managing the exit from the global oil production cut deal as a serious challenge, its spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Russian state oil firm Rosneft is seen at its office in Moscow, October 18, 2012. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is meeting Russian oil company executives in Moscow on Wednesday ahead of meetings in Vienna at the end of November between OPEC states and non-OPEC oil producers. The meetings in Vienna may decide whether to extend the current deal further. “Speaking about the company’s concerns, first of all it was about how to prepare for suspending measures to restrict production,” Leontyev said. “This is a serious question. Sooner or later, of course, these measures will be lifted,” Leontyev said. “Now or later, that’s a separate question. It’s a serious challenge, for which one needs to prepare.” Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-opec-rosneft/russias-rosneft-says-managing-exit-from-opec-deal-is-a-serious-challenge-idUKKBN1DF105'|'2017-11-15T10:25:00.000+02:00'
'ab66fd27da641071ea475c23370fb1294f490403'|'BP begins share buybacks as years of austerity pay off'|'(Reuters) - BP Plc said on Wednesday it would begin a share buyback programme, making it the first major European energy company to resume buybacks since the 2014 price slump in a sign years of austerity have paid off.The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/Files The British oil company, which recently reported a doubling in third-quarter profit, said the buyback programme had been authorised for between Nov. 15 and the date of its 2018 annual general meeting, with the maximum number of shares not exceeding 1.96 billion.BP first announced the buyback on Oct. 31, as it gradually shakes off the impact of the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, known as Macondo, that cost it over $63 billion in clean-up costs and penalties.BP said then it would buy back the equivalent number of shares it was issuing as part of its scrip dividend scheme through which investors can opt to receive dividend payouts in shares rather than cash.It will buy back around $1.6 billion worth of shares a year in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend programme, BP Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said then.Europe’s other top oil and gas companies are making other moves to woo shareholders. Norway’s Statoil has said it will stop offering a scrip dividend in the fourth quarter, while France’s Total plans to do so next year.BP’s shares, which had risen to their highest in over three years on news of the resumption of buybacks, were down 0.9 percent at 498.6 pence at 0908 GMT, broadly in line with London’s blue-chip index.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bp-buyback/bp-begins-share-buybacks-as-years-of-austerity-pay-off-idINKBN1DF1GK'|'2017-11-15T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'0f98506d7f896f5acb669ec5abd5dc041dbfbfdf'|'UPDATE 1-Indonesian police officer killed in shooting near Freeport mine'|'* One officer killed, another wounded in shooting* Officers on patrol in area near Tuesday’s shooting on vehicle* Main mine access road remains closed, Freeport spokesman says (Adds details of incident, Freeport comment; paragraphs 2,3)By Sam WandaTIMIKA, Indonesia, Nov 15 (Reuters) - An Indonesian police officer was killed and a second wounded on Wednesday, after being shot in the back in an area near Freeport-McMoRan Inc’s giant Grasberg copper mine in the eastern province of Papua, a police spokesman said.The officers were patrolling an area close to where a Freeport vehicle was targeted in a shooting on Tuesday, Papua police spokesman Suryadi Diaz said in a statement. Both were taken by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Timika.Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said the main mine access road from Timika to Freeport’s mining town of Tembagapura remained closed.A string of shooting incidents in the area since mid-August that wounded at least eight people and killed two police officers has been blamed by police on an “armed criminal group”, but linked to separatist rebels by others.The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, has said it is at war with police, military and Freeport, but it was not immediately clear if TPN-OPM were behind the latest shootings.The shootings took place on the 79-mile (127-km) winding road linking with the sprawling lowland urban hub of Timika.The road, with many check points, runs beside a river rich with gold in tailings from Grasberg upstream. For decades, there have been sporadic attacks along it, but authorities’ efforts to catch the perpetrators have been hampered by thick surrounding jungle.Papua has had a long-running, and sometimes violent, separatist movement since the province was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised 1969 U.N.-backed referendum.Foreign journalists have in the past required special permission to report in Papua, and once there, have had security forces restrict their movement and work.President Joko Widodo has pledged to make the region more accessible to foreign media by inviting reporters on government-sponsored trips, although coverage remains difficult. (Reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA; Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-security/update-1-indonesian-police-officer-killed-in-shooting-near-freeport-mine-idINL3N1NL1KG'|'2017-11-15T00:26:00.000+02:00'
'e6a07942ba2927c6590cc9d0fa5279635c007aa0'|'Exclusive - Glencore offers Chad new plan to repay more than $1 billion loan'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 1:20 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Exclusive: Glencore offers Chad new plan to repay more than $1 billion loan Julia Payne 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Commodities trader Glencore has offered Chad a grace period from principle repayments on a more than $1 billion cash-for-crude loan and extended the deadline for full repayment to 2025 from 2022, a letter seen by Reuters showed. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The central African nation is under pressure to restructure its Glencore debt for a second time after the International Monetary Fund said this year that Chad’s external commercial debt, mostly to Glencore, was unsustainable. The Swiss-based commodities trader and miner, which lent Chad the money before oil prices began tumbling in mid-2014, said in the letter to Chad’s finance minister that it hoped the proposal would satisfy the IMF, which was copied. Glencore held meetings with Chad’s delegation in Paris last week to discuss the loan, but no deal was reached. The letter from Glencore, dated Nov. 14, offered Chad a grace period from principle repayments until the last quarter of 2019, with the interest rate in that period lowered to 4 percent from 6.75 percent. In addition, the firm offered to release Chad from its call on $1 billion worth of the country’s crude during the next three years, the letter said. The letter, addressed to Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye, said Glencore was “told on Friday night that one more time, our enhanced proposal was not enough and that the Republic of Chad was retracting its latest position once more.” Officials at the Finance Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Glencore and a consortium of the trading firm’s bankers had lent Chad’s state oil firm $1.45 billion in 2014 in exchange for crude. The deal was restructured in 2015 following the crash in global oil prices. Chad still owes about $1.3 billion. Negotiations on the loan, led by Glencore, became fraught last month after Chad decided to divert some crude being marketed by Glencore to the country’s biggest producer, ExxonMobil. Hit by drought, a refugee crisis and a costly military campaign against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad has had loans from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank, with another $12.9 billion of pledged funding as of September from public and private donors for a 2017-2021 development plan. Additional reporting by Madjiarsa Nako in N''Djamena; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-chad-oil-exclusive/exclusive-glencore-offers-chad-new-plan-to-repay-more-than-1-billion-loan-idUKKBN1DF1VP'|'2017-11-15T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'df36611822f102274a95c558798e9a9aae089230'|'Gocompare rejects takeover offer from property group ZPG'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:11 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Gocompare rejects takeover offer from property group ZPG Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British property group ZPG Plc ( ZPG.L ) on Tuesday said it had made a merger approach to Gocompare.com Group Plc ( GOCO.L ) which the price comparison website had rejected. ZPG made the approach on Nov. 8 to combine the businesses. The 110 pence per share offer for Gocompare valued the company at about 418 million pounds, a premium of 18.6 percent to the Gocompare’s closing price on Nov. 13, according to Reuters calculations. Gocompare said in a statement ZPG’s all-share offer “fundamentally undervalued” the company’s prospects and its business, which enables consumers to shop around for financial, travel and utility services. Price comparison websites operated by Gocompare and Moneysupermarket.com ( MONY.L ) have become increasingly popular as consumers look to shop around for the most attractive deals on products and services. Gocompare demerged from British insurer esure Group Plc ( ESUR.L ) in November last year. Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gocmopare-zpg-m-a/gocompare-rejects-takeover-offer-from-property-group-zpg-idUKKBN1DE2CR'|'2017-11-14T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'0a1f2cc1dd172e7f4e4b39b6a103171fdf71f09f'|'Lufthansa offers 250 million euros to take on most of Alitalia''s fleet, half of staff - source'|'November 14, 2017 / 3:45 PM / a few seconds ago Lufthansa offers 250 million euros to take on most of Alitalia''s fleet, half of staff: source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has offered 250 million euros ($294 million) to take on most of Alitalia’s fleet of aircraft and half of its staff, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday. Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its 70-year history, was put under special administration earlier this year after staff rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries. Lufthansa is one of seven companies that submitted binding offers for Alitalia by Oct. 16. ($1 = 0.8508 euros) Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing and additional reporting by Agnieszka Flak in Milan; Editing by Kathrin Jones and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alitalia-lufthansa/lufthansa-offers-250-million-euros-to-take-on-most-of-alitalias-fleet-half-of-staff-source-idUKKBN1DE24E'|'2017-11-14T17:37:00.000+02:00'
'80f1e14c4c644b568decf3a80c1cd82a197cbc0c'|'Australia business conditions jump to all-time high in October - survey'|' 34   Australia business conditions jump to all-time high in October - survey Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - A measure of Australian business conditions surged to its highest on record in October as strength in sales and profits across a range of industries completely overwhelmed protracted weakness in the retail sector. A shopper looks at clothes on sale at a retail store located in a shopping mall in central Sydney, Australia, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore National Australia Bank’s ( NAB.AX ) survey of more than 400 firms showed its index of business conditions climbed 7 points to +21 in October, quadruple its long-run average of +5 and the highest since the survey began in 1997. The survey’s often volatile measure of business confidence held steady for once at +8. “Overall, results from the Survey indicate that the business sector in Australia is very strong at present, which is having positive spill-overs into the labour market and investment,” said NAB group chief economist Alan Oster. The strength was broad based across States and industries, with even retail seeing some modest improvement having lagged for months. This survey has been running hot for months now in stark contrast to the mood of consumers, who were fretting over rising utility costs and subdued wage growth. Still, there has been a pick up in sentiment in the most recent consumer surveys with an ANZ-Roy Morgan poll out on Tuesday hitting a seven-week top. Household spending accounts for around 56 percent of annual economic output (GDP) so any improvement would be welcomed by policy makers. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) last week reaffirmed its expectation that economic growth would accelerate to around 3 percent over the next couple of years, even as it trimmed forecasts for inflation. Businesses certainly seemed to be doing well with NAB’s measure of sales jumping 11 points to +30 in October, while profitability climbed 9 points to +26. The construction sector reported booming conditions thanks to strength in public investment and housing, while mining had recovered to be one of the best performing industries this year. The survey’s measure of employment held at a relatively high +7 in October, firm enough to put more downward pressure on the unemployment rate. Labour costs remained subdued in the month as did measures of purchase costs and retail prices. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-economy-businesssentiment/australia-business-conditions-jump-to-all-time-high-in-october-survey-idUKKBN1DE01R'|'2017-11-14T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'de219b5a8f313311390d64f654676dc389b08fae'|'U.S. investor nears record 400-jet Airbus order - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:06 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. investor nears record 400-jet Airbus order - sources Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airline pioneer Bill Franke looked set to place a historic $40 billion order for around 400 Airbus A320 jets, shaking up the low-cost industry and turning the annual race between Airbus and Boeing for plane orders on its head. Franke, 80, flew to the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday and was due to sign at the Dubai Airshow, marking one of the industry’s biggest deals by volume and the most planes sold by Airbus in one batch, two people familiar with the matter said. Franke’s Indigo Partners, which controls Denver-based Frontier Airlines and owns part of Mexico’s Volaris, is known for unbundled or a la carte fares in so-called ultra-low-cost airlines, where passengers are offered cheap base prices with the option of paying more for extras. Airbus and Indigo Partners declined to comment on the deal, which Bloomberg News said could involve 430 jetliners. The deal marks a dramatic turnaround for Airbus, which had been lagging behind Boeing in the contest for orders so far this year and had started the Nov 12-16 air show on a backfoot. With Boeing so far dominating the headlines, delegates said all eyes were on Airbus where sales chief John Leahy, a veteran of last-minute air show surprises, was plotting a blockbuster climax to a more-than-20-year stint as marketing boss. Even so, competition at the show remained intense. Reuters reported on Sunday that budget carrier flydubai was talking to Airbus and Boeing about a potential new order for up to 175 passenger jets and talks had accelerated. Such a large order could be split between the makers, but Boeing has the advantage as flydubai’s current supplier, industry sources said. Boeing and flydubai declined to comment. Separately, Egyptair, which placed an initial order for 12 Bombardier CSeries on Tuesday, could return for more airplanes from the larger planemakers, industry sources said. The focus was however on two industry titans of the $100 billion a year airplane business: the investor Franke and the salesman Leahy. Leahy, 67, is due to retire in coming months after serving as sales chief for the European planemaker since 1994. Since then, he has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and Airbus’s market share has risen from 18 percent to be roughly evenly split with arch-rival Boeing. This year, however, Airbus’s share of the two giants’ combined order tally has dropped to 35 percent as a rejuvenated Boeing management made advances in Singapore and elsewhere and Airbus’s morale was hampered by compliance investigations. That has triggered industry talk of a swan-song order worth tens of billions of dollars to be negotiated by Leahy before end-year. Separately, the immediate prospect of a much-discussed deal to keep the A380 in production beyond the end of the decade remained in suspense with Emirates seeking guarantees over the longevity of the programme, plagued by slow orders from other carriers. “I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters. Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell: Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPOR:; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Neil Fullick '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/u-s-investor-nears-record-400-jet-airbus-order-sources-idINKBN1DF0YD'|'2017-11-15T05:06:00.000+02:00'
'7ae36cad724bcf45aa7dad3bc4ecb9707f56c94c'|'UPDATE 1-Bradesco expects companies to raise up to $4.5 bln by year-end'|' 47 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Bradesco expects companies to raise up to $4.5 bln by year-end Reuters Staff (Adds CEO comments, background) By Tatiana Bautzer NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Banco Bradesco SA expects Brazilian companies to raise up to 15 billion reais ($4.5 billion) in new share offerings by year-end as Latin America’s largest economy continues to recover. Firms already have raised around 39 billion reais so far in 2017, executive director Renato Ejnisman said, as signs of newfound economic strength, global demand for emerging-market assets and government austerity efforts have lifted the nation’s benchmark stock index to all-time highs. Companies are now increasingly using proceeds of their share offerings to fund investments and expand capacity, instead of repaying debt, Ejnisman said, a sign that the economic recovery may be stepping up a notch. Bradesco is hosting its seventh annual CEO Forum in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, which brings together senior executives from 90 Latin American companies with around 300 investors. Ejnisman said some companies are rushing ahead with their listings in order to avoid market volatility that is likely to spike ahead of the Brazil’s presidential elections in October 2018. Bankers and fund managers had told Reuters that could make the third week of December the busiest for IPOs in four years as several companies push ahead with their listings before the year-end holidays. Investor interest in Brazilian assets could remain strong through next year if there is a clear sign that Brazil’s next president will commit to fiscal discipline and market-friendly policies, Bradesco executives said. Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi said investors are clearly more optimistic towards Brazil in spite of electoral uncertainty. “I think Brazilian society will choose a candidate committed to an agenda of fiscal discipline,” Trabuco told reporters on the sidelines of the event. Trabuco, who is also Bradesco’s chairman, will chose his successor as CEO before a shareholders assembly in March 2018. His pick from a group of seven vice-presidents will be tasked with increasing the bank’s efficiency in a bid to maintain profitability amid falling interest rates. $1 = 3.3034 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-ceos-banco-bradesco/update-1-bradesco-expects-companies-to-raise-up-to-4-5-bln-by-year-end-idUSL1N1NK1LB'|'2017-11-14T20:46:00.000+02:00'
'0dee876454efb2533e88a3c46dee9f18a7e85e22'|'BRIEF-Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Mastercard, Visa and Monsanto'|'Nov 14 (Reuters) - Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Mastercard to 923,068 class a shares from 267,006 class a shares* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Monsanto Co to 429,184 shares from 215,534 shares - sec filing* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd more than doubles share stake in Visa to 3.3 million class a shares - sec filing* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Virtu Financial Inc by 65.1 percent to 20.3 million class A shares* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd cuts share stake in IHS Markit Ltd by 18.1 percent to 17.3 million shares* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Ctrip.Com International by 37.0 percent to 7.26 million ADSs* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd takes share stake of 6.6 million shares in Coherus Biosciences Inc* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd ups share stake in Celgene Corp by 23.9 percent to 255,406 shares* Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd - change in holdings are as of sept 30, 2017 and compared with the previous quarter ended as of june 30, 2017 Source text for quarter ended Sept 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2yBi2ic ) Source text for quarter ended June 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2vUxgkf ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-temasek-holdings-ltd-ups-share-sta/brief-temasek-holdings-ltd-ups-share-stake-in-mastercard-visa-and-monsanto-idINFWN1NK0W6'|'2017-11-14T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'1e2896a75f8db0dc0463637344e69584dbcc2f40'|'Shanghai Pharma buys U.S. Cardinal Health''s China business for $557 mln'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - State-owned Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co has agreed to acquire Cardinal Health Inc’s China business, one of the nation’s largest drug distributors, for $557 million.The deal, which includes shareholder loans, gives the China unit an enterprise value of $1.2 billion. (Reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cardinalhealth-china-shanghai-pharma/shanghai-pharma-buys-u-s-cardinal-healths-china-business-for-557-mln-idUSL3N1NL1KU'|'2017-11-15T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'6a31c8f537b565fe8e620a4a89b3bfab43168455'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s Oi focused on creditors meeting, not on new investors -CEO'|'(Adds details throughout on CEO’s comments, earnings)By Gram Slattery and Brad HaynesSAO PAULO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Debt-laden Brazilian telecoms provider Oi SA could benefit from a third-party capital injection, but the company should focus on talks between creditors and shareholders before engaging new strategic investors, its chief executive said.In a Monday interview regarding third-quarter results, CEO Marco Schroeder said he thought it was “extremely important” that a long-delayed creditors meeting be held on Dec. 7 even if creditors and shareholders had not reached an agreement.In the results, Oi reported a net profit of 8 million reais ($2 million) in the third quarter, compared with a net loss of 1.214 billion reais a year earlier, as a stronger currency reduced the burden of its dollar-denominated debts.Oi, Brazil’s fourth largest carrier, filed for Latin America’s largest ever bankruptcy protection process last year to restructure 65 billion reais in debt.Many firms without a significant stake in the carrier have proposed injecting capital into Oi in return for equity, with TPG Capital Management LP and state-run China Telecom Corp Ltd being the latest to do so.“I think it’s not a good moment to have this conversation,” Schroeder said. “We have to overcome the matter of the recovery plan before really engaging more intensely with those groups.”The next deadline for the recovery plan is a vote at the Dec. 7 creditors assembly.“I think it’s extremely important to hold the creditors meeting on Dec. 7, even if it’s not conclusive,” he said. “People start to talk, they start to put their ideas forth.”If the meeting does take place, and creditors vote against the plan, Oi runs the risk of being liquidated. Still, Schroeder said that possibility is “practically non-existent” as private bondholders would lose almost everything in that scenario.Oi’s third-quarter net profit, following a string of quarterly losses over the past two years, was helped heavily by currency effects. Almost $9 billion of Oi’s debt is dominated in U.S. dollars, which lost ground against the Brazilian real last quarter.Oi also kept up a cost-cutting drive. Quarterly operating expenditures dropped 7.2 percent from the same period a year earlier to 4.321 billion reais, and operating expenses year-to-date have dropped 1.5 billion reais.Still, earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes, and amortization (EBITDA) fell 2.4 percent to 1.605 billion reais, underscoring the need fresh capital to keep Oi competitive.$1 = 3.29 reais Reporting by Gram Slattery and Brad Haynes; editing by Grant McCool and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-results/update-1-brazils-oi-focused-on-creditors-meeting-not-on-new-investors-ceo-idINL1N1NJ1W3'|'2017-11-13T19:34:00.000+02:00'
'144cf23dc6f8adbbd6a7e94937c4da3f1dff84cb'|'Trump''s tax breaks for the rich won''t trickle down to help working Americans - Steven Greenhouse - Opinion'|'I t’s time to drive a stake through the heart of President Trump’s and Republicans’ misleading assertion that their tax cuts are for the middle class and for workers . These tax cuts are overwhelmingly designed to help the rich, to further comfort the already very comfortable.If the tax plan were truly a plan for the middle class and not a plan for the rich, it wouldn’t lavish nearly as many benefits on the wealthiest Americans : phasing out the estate tax, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, cutting the business pass-through tax rate. The Trump-GOP plan would also chop the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 20% – a move that heavily favors affluent people because they own a disproportionate share of corporate stocks.Key Republican signals House-Senate clash on Trump tax-cuts plan Read moreThe GOP plan does include some measures that will help many middle-class Americans, like doubling the standard deduction and modestly increasing the child tax credit, but in truth those measures do little to undo the huge tilt toward the rich.According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy , the richest 5% of households will receive 61% of the tax cuts in 2027 under the House plan. The middle fifth of households would get 8% of the cuts, just one-sixth of the 48% share going to the top 1%. The bottom 60% of Americans would get just 14% of the cuts in 2027, less than a third of what the top 1% gets. Does that seem like a plan for the middle class and for workers?Facebook Twitter Pinterest A short guide to Trump’s next battle: tax reformThe Joint Committee on Taxation found that, on average, households earning between $20,000 and $40,000 would end up paying more, not less, under the House GOP plan. Several analyses have found that between 25% and 45% of middle-class Americans would ultimately pay more, not less, under the tax plan. How can this be a tax cut for middle-class Americans if so many middle-class Americans will be facing tax increases instead of tax cuts?When House Republicans were searching for revenues to keep the national debt from soaring by more than $1.5tn, they repeatedly targeted benefits enjoyed by millions of middle-class Americans. The House plan would eliminate the adoption tax credit and deductions for student loans, medical expenses and moving costs. Instead of wiping out those benefits for the middle class, House Republicans could have scaled back the windfall for the rich, for example, by preserving the estate tax or by cutting the corporate income tax less. Or in its search for revenues, the GOP could have gone after a tax break for the ultra-rich that Donald Trump vowed to eliminate – the carried interest loophole that enables many hedge-fund billionaires to pay lower marginal tax rates than many middle-class Americans.There’s a lively debate about the $2tn in planned corporate tax cuts, with many conservatives maintaining that most of that money will go to workers’ wages. The stock market evidently disagrees. Would investors bid up stock prices so much if they expected lower corporate taxes to translate into tons of money for increased wages. No, investors expect those cuts to mean higher profits and dividends.Corporate America’s profits have been at or near record levels in recent years, but wages have remained largely stagnant, with the labor share of national income falling to record lows.It’s a total mystery – and defies logic – why cutting the corporate income tax would make profit-maximizing companies suddenly change course and share far more of their profits with workers in the form of wage increases.Trump is a puppet of the rich. He made that clear this week - Richard Wolffe Read morePresident Trump has promised that cutting corporate income taxes will fuel job creation. Cutting corporate taxes should spur at least some increased investment in the US, but let’s not forget that American corporations have been sitting on $2tn in cash for years, and have seemed far more interested in investing in lower-wage countries overseas than in the US. Let’s be frank, these corporate tax cuts are likely to prove a windfall for shareholders while producing merely marginal gains for wages and jobs.If Trump truly wants corporate tax cuts to help workers, he can set some conditions. For instance, corporations wouldn’t qualify for the lower rates unless they agreed to pay a minimum wage of, say, $12 or $15 an hour, and at least $3 more per hour for any worker with at least 10 years on the job.Or the tax law could state that CEOs can’t receive a pay increase of more than 10% unless every worker in their company receives a raise of at least the inflation rate plus 1%. There can be plenty of variations on that theme.If President Trump is serious about creating middle-class jobs, there are better ways than praying that cutting corporate taxes will somehow trickle down and create good jobs. A far surer way of creating good jobs would be to push full speed ahead on rebuilding our ailing infrastructure. If the US devoted $1tn to roads, bridges, airports and rail, that could create one million jobs.Most of those would be middle-class jobs with good pay and benefits – the exact type of jobs that the president and many blue-collar Americans complain have been disappearing.If the goal is to create good, middle-class jobs, spending on infrastructure would be far more effective than lavishing big tax breaks on the rich. And unlike tax breaks for the rich, it could also do wonders for our decaying roads, bridges and airports.Steven Greenhouse was a reporter with the New York Times for 31 years and continues to write about labor and workplace issues Topics US taxation Opinion Trump administration US politics Donald Trump Republicans comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/trumps-tax-breaks-rich-wont-trickle-down-working-americans'|'2017-11-14T20:37:00.000+02:00'
'a1e0bf5ec86f997b6acb86d3e49436721897e584'|'Greece, EU to conclude talks on coal-fired plants sale this month - minister'|'November 15, 2017 / 3:39 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Greece, EU to conclude talks on coal-fired plants sale this month - minister Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece and the European Union are expected to wrap up talks on which coal-fired plants the country will put up for sale in line with an EU court ruling this month, Greek energy minister said on Wednesday. Greece and its international lenders have agreed that PPC ( DEHr.AT ), which is 51 percent-owned by the state, will sell plants equal to about 40 percent of its coal-fired capacity after a European court ruled that the utility had abused its dominant position in the coal market. Energy minister George Stathakis met PPC’s largest labour union on Wednesday and said talks with EU’s competition authorities were ongoing and were seen concluding in the next couple of weeks. “Our aim is to find common ground,” he said, according to a statement from the energy ministry. Athens and the European Commission have been in talks since July, trying to define which plants will be put up for sale. Greece is keen to divest plants that will not significantly reduce PPC’s generation capacity. The EU wants to ensure that the plants will attract investors’ interest. Under its latest bailout, Greece also needs to cut PPC’s share of the retail market to below 50 percent from 88 percent by the end of 2019. The country has launched power sales to open the electricity market to other producers but the measure has been insufficient so far. PPC has proposed to transfer about seven percent of its clients to an entity, aiming at selling it to investors to help cut its dominance. However, Greece has no plans to sell PPC’s clients, Stathakis said. Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-public-power-plants/greece-eu-to-conclude-talks-on-coal-fired-plants-sale-this-month-minister-idUKKBN1DF27W'|'2017-11-15T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'45cec901eb3ab1ac1bcc5fe81b7d6cb4c471b54c'|'Nestle reorganises infant nutrition business'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:37 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Nestle shakes up infant nutrition to tackle local rivals Martinne Geller , Silke Koltrowitz 4 Min Read LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle, the world’s largest packaged food firm, is reorganising its infant nutrition unit to compete with regional rivals, the latest in a string of shake-ups for global packaged goods companies struggling to reignite sales. FILE PHOTO: The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The Swiss maker of Gerber baby food and Illuma formula said on Wednesday it would appoint regional managers for the $10 billion business to address local trends faster. The change comes five months after Nestle’s new CEO listed its highly profitable infant formula as a priority focus. Consumer groups like Nestle, Unilever and Procter & Gamble are under intense investor pressure to lift margins as people flock to smaller, independent brands. Infant nutrition is a key battleground for Nestle and rivals such as Danone, which also ranks its baby unit as its most profitable, and Reckitt Benckiser, which recently bought Mead Johnson, the maker of infant formula Enfamil. Major brands still retain consumer trust that they have lost in other areas of packaged food, particularly in China, a big focus for future growth due to its growing affluence and a policy to allow two children per family instead of one. Nestle has come under pressure to shift gear from activist shareholder Third Point, which in June revealed a $3.5 billion stake. Nestle has satisfied some demands, such as buying back shares and setting a margin target. Nestle said it would manage some areas of infant nutrition globally via a “strategic business unit” for innovation, quality management, compliance and global manufacturing capacity. But the position of global nutrition head will be replaced by three regional business chiefs. Current Nutrition head Heiko Schipper leaves at the end of 2017, to lead Bayer AG’s consumer health unit. REGIONAL FOCUS Nestle already manages most of its businesses regionally, with exceptions such as bottled water, Nespresso, Nestle Health Science and Nestle Skin Health. “The new organisation will allow Nestle’s infant nutrition business to deliver accelerated organic growth and realise further efficiency gains,” Nestle said, adding it would allow it to be more “agile and efficient” in responding to local demands. Strengthening local management and decision-making has become a trend for consumer firms that had relied on strategies outlined by headquarters. Both Unilever and Diageo have shifted towards decentralisation. Nestle is the world’s biggest infant formula maker, with about 21 percent of the market, according to Euromonitor International. It is also No. 1 in China, which accounts for a third of a global market worth $68 billion. The Chinese market has temporarily slowed ahead of new rules from January that require manufacturers to register with the government. But analysts see international players benefiting next year as some smaller brands fail to meet the requirements. Danone has been outperforming rivals, helped by its presence on new Chinese e-commerce sites and in shops targetting mothers and babies. The French firm said strong China sales aided a 4.7 percent rise in underlying third-quarter sales. Nestle Chief Executive said in September that he was “reasonably optimistic” about China over the next two years, due to the two-child policy and a stronger focus on quality. Schneider said in June he would focus capital spending on particular high-growth categories including coffee, petcare, bottled water and infant nutrition. Nestle said Chief Technology Officer Stefan Catsicas was leaving “to pursue entrepreneurial and venture capital activities outside Nestle”. He will be replaced at the start of the year by Stefan Palzer, head of the Nestle Research Center. Nestle shares, up about 15 percent this year, were flat at 84 Swiss francs at 1356 GMT. ($1 = 0.9864 Swiss francs) Reporting by Martinne Geller and Silke Koltrowitz; Additional reporting to Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nestle-restructuring/nestle-reorganises-infant-nutrition-business-idINKBN1DF1LZ'|'2017-11-15T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'c6e1d328d89954d4416680db7a1b8f8024b1fdd4'|'Exclusive: Glencore offers Chad new plan to repay more than $1 billion loan'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:19 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Exclusive: Glencore offers Chad new plan to repay more than $1 billion loan Julia Payne 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Commodities trader Glencore has offered Chad a grace period from principal repayments on a more than $1 billion cash-for-crude loan and extended the deadline for full repayment to 2025 from 2022, a letter seen by Reuters showed. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The Central African nation is under pressure to restructure its Glencore debt for a second time after the International Monetary Fund said this year that Chad’s external commercial debt, mostly to Glencore, was unsustainable. The Swiss-based commodities trader and miner, which lent Chad the money before oil prices began tumbling in mid-2014, said in the letter to Chad’s finance minister that it hoped the proposal would satisfy the IMF, which was copied. Glencore held meetings with Chad’s delegation in Paris last week to discuss the loan, but no deal was reached. The letter from Glencore, dated Nov. 14, offered Chad a grace period from principal repayments until the last quarter of 2019, with the interest rate in that period lowered to 4 percent from 6.75 percent. In addition, the firm offered to release Chad from its call on $1 billion worth of the country’s crude during the next three years, the letter said, to support the Chadian budget and domestic fuel needs. The letter, addressed to Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye, said Glencore was “told on Friday night that one more time, our enhanced proposal was not enough and that the Republic of Chad was retracting its latest position once more”. Officials at the Finance Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Glencore and a consortium of the trading firm’s bankers had lent Chad’s state oil firm $1.45 billion in 2014 in exchange for crude. The deal was restructured in 2015 following the crash in global oil prices. Chad still owes about $1.3 billion. Negotiations on the loan, led by Glencore, became fraught last month after Chad decided to divert some crude being marketed by Glencore to the country’s biggest producer, Exxon Mobil. In the letter, Glencore said it had made “substantial concessions” despite significant changes to the renegotiation parameters from Chad’s original July proposal. Such changes included “the discovery” that the Chadian government had decided to divert about 40 percent of its oil, which it called a “blatant breach of the agreement”. Hit by drought, a refugee crisis and a costly military campaign against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad has had loans from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank, with another $12.9 billion of pledged funding as of September from public and private donors for a 2017-2021 development plan. Chad’s production has averaged 131,000 barrels per day so far in 2017, government data showed. Additional reporting by Madjiarsa Nako in N''Djamena; Editing by Edmund Blair and Dale Hudson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-chad-oil-exclusive/exclusive-glencore-offers-chad-new-plan-to-repay-more-than-1-billion-loan-idUSKBN1DF1VP'|'2017-11-15T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'f7f0cd7f478700c219fac1fcdb6acc5d4c8ec689'|'"Raj Pink" diamond fails to sell at Geneva sale - Sotheby''s'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:13 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago ''Raj Pink'' diamond fails to sell at Geneva sale: Sotheby''s Stephanie Nebehay 3 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - “The Raj Pink”, the largest known diamond graded “fancy intense pink” for its rare color, was among several major jewels stranded on the auction block on Wednesday at Sotheby’s sale in Geneva. FILE PHOTO: A model poses with a 37.30 carat "The Raj Pink", the world''s largest known fancy intense pink diamond, during a Sotheby''s preview in Geneva, Switzerland November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo The cushion-shaped stone, weighing 37.30 carats and mounted on a ring, was billed as the star lot at Sotheby’s semi-annual jewelry sale in the Swiss city. The pre-sale estimate for the diamond, found in South Africa in 2015, was $20 million to $30 million. Bidding opened on “The Raj Pink” at 9.9 million Swiss francs ($10.02 million) and climbed to 14 million Swiss francs before stalling. “It was not sold,” David Bennett, worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s international jewelery division who conducted the auction, told the crowded sale room. Other major lots were left on the block, failing to meet the secret reserve price set by their sellers. They included a blue diamond ring by Moussaieff, where the last bid was 12.4 million Swiss francs, and a pair of yellow diamonds that formerly belonged to the German princely family of Von Donnersmarck, which reached 7.8 million Swiss francs but failed to find a new owner. Only 303 of the 349 lots found new owners, according to Sotheby’s figures. In all, the sale netted 77.9 million francs. FILE PHOTO: A model poses with a 37.30 carat "The Raj Pink", the world''s largest known fancy intense pink diamond, during a Sotheby''s preview in Geneva, Switzerland November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo A Harry Winston light pink diamond ring, described as an “absolutely sensationally beautiful stone” by Bennett, brought the strongest price of the night. It sold for 12.6 million Swiss francs to a telephone bidder who purchased it from a European noble family which owned it since the piece was made by the New York jeweler around 1970, Sotheby’s said. FILE PHOTO: A model poses with a 37.30 carat "The Raj Pink", the world''s largest known fancy intense pink diamond, during a Sotheby''s preview in Geneva, Switzerland November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo “Pieces must be exceptional to sell today at the same level as two years ago,” Eric Valdieu, a Geneva-based jewelery dealer formerly of Christie‘s, told Reuters after the auction. The Raj Pink was not an easy stone to sell, he said, adding: “It was a modern, recent stone and not a 10 out of 10 in terms of its color and form. It had no history,” Valdieu said. Another prominent dealer told Reuters: “It’s a big disappointment. The timing was not good.” Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77Diamonds.com, Europe’s largest online diamond jeweler, said in a statement: “I‘m worried for the top end of the diamond market.” At rival Christie’s on Tuesday night, an emerald and diamond necklace set with the largest flawless white diamond ever to come to auction sold for a world record 33.5 million Swiss francs ($34 million), the star lot at its Geneva sale. Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auction-diamonds-sothebys/raj-pink-diamond-fails-to-sell-at-geneva-sale-sothebys-idUSKBN1DF30I'|'2017-11-15T23:08:00.000+02:00'
'628293d022c4e3d3d40f9a4b2455c3cb4746af7a'|'Fed should signal tolerance for higher U.S. inflation, Evans says'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:07 AM / in 6 minutes Fed should signal tolerance for higher U.S. inflation, Evans says Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Wednesday said he is worried about a drop in U.S. inflation expectations, and called for the U.S. central bank to respond by flagging the likelihood of higher inflation ahead. FILE PHOTO: Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans takes a question during a round table with the media in Shanghai, China March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Nir Elias/File Photo “When I look at the downward drift in multiple expectations measures, I find it tougher to confidently buy into the idea that inflation today is just temporarily low once again,” Evans said in remarks prepared for delivery to the UBS European Conference in London. To prevent low inflation expectations becoming entrenched, he said, “our public commentary needs to acknowledge a much greater chance of inflation running at 2-1/2 percent in the coming years than I believe we have communicated in the past.” Evans, a voter this year on Fed policy, did not say in his prepared remarks whether he would support an interest-rate hike in December, as many of his colleagues have said they would, and as markets overwhelmingly expect. But his comments suggest he has become increasingly frustrated with falling inflation, despite an economy he said is headed for “continued solid growth” in 2018. Evans warned Wednesday that unless the Fed addresses falling inflation expectations, “we could be in for the kind of trouble that Bank of Japan has faced for so long.” Inflation by the Fed’s preferred measure, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE), was just 1.3 percent in September, even though the unemployment rate, at 4.1 percent, suggests the U.S. economy is at full employment. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said she believes that as the labor market tightens, inflation will rise back toward 2 percent. Evans is not so sure. “With each low monthly reading, it gets harder and harder for me to feel comfortable with the idea that the step-down last spring was simply transitory,” Evans said. “There is a big strategic risk in failing to get core PCE inflation symmetrically around 2 percent before this economic cycle ends.” Regional Fed presidents like Evans have varying degrees of influence on the direction of Fed policy. In 2010, Evans tried and failed to win support at the Fed for a new strategy of monetary policy known as price-level targeting that at the time he thought could have lifted troublingly low inflation. In 2012, though, the Fed included a promise to keep rates near zero until unemployment or inflation reached certain thresholds, an idea Evans had publicly championed for a year before it became policy. Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-evans/fed-should-signal-tolerance-for-higher-u-s-inflation-evans-says-idINKBN1DF0XZ'|'2017-11-15T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'17de5bb1f0d710a41090f4f6129d2d88667bd9b9'|'Crest Nicholson flags London weakness as average house price growth sinks'|' 47 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Crest Nicholson flags London weakness as average house price growth sinks Radhika Rukmangadhan 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc ( CRST.L ) was the latest property firm to flag weakness in central London property prices on Wednesday while reporting average house price growth across its UK business fell to a quarter of that in 2016. “The housing market is generally robust across the Group’s principal operating areas and sales prices continue to show moderate growth although Central London transactions are suffering from some volume and price weakness,” the company said in a statement. Average selling prices for the builder’s homes increased 5.4 percent to 391,000 pounds compared to growth of 18 percent in 2016. With concerns over Brexit weighing and the Bank of England this month raising interest rates for the first time in a decade, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said last week that house prices in Britain were no longer rising. In London they are falling at the fastest pace since 2009, it added, knocking shares of house builders including Crest Nicholson lower. In its annual trading update, Crest Nicholson said it built 2.3 percent more homes in the 12 months to the end of October but that its underlying sales rate per outlet per week fell to an average of 0.77 from 0.81 last year. The company, which builds homes in south Wales, London and southern and eastern England, however stuck to its sales target of 1.4 billion pounds in 2019. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-crest-hold-outlook/crest-nicholson-flags-london-weakness-as-average-house-price-growth-sinks-idUKKBN1DF0VR'|'2017-11-15T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'34080bec443daecf6838e925909380dcb22e3288'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds Magnit, Cenovus Energy and BNP Paribas) Nov 15 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Wednesday: ** Shares in Russian low-cost food retailer Magnit fell 9 percent after its main owner sold a stake at a big discount, raising around $730 million which the company said will be re-invested in the business. ** Canadian oil producer Cenovus Energy inc has put a package of mainly non-core Deep Basin gas assets for sale, its new CEO Alex Pourbaix said in his first media briefing on Wednesday. ** BNP Paribas plans to bolster its banking teams in the Nordic region and would consider buying corporate banking portfolios if offered up by European rivals, an executive said. ** Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc has sold another large piece of its stake in IBM Corp, backing further away from an investment that the billionaire has admitted was not one of his best. ** Airbus landed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke. ** Viacom Inc should package 10 percent of its international operations and take it public, Mario Gabelli, chief executive officer of GAMCO Investors Inc, said on Tuesday at the Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook. ** Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co has agreed to buy Cardinal Health Inc’s China drug distribution business for $557 million, winning a highly competitive auction in a move that will expand its presence nationwide. ** French facilities management and vouchers group Sodexo is buying Centerplate, a U.S. company that provides food and hospitality services, for $675 million to expand in the U.S. sports and leisure market. ** Carlyle Group, the world’s largest private equity firm, is raising up to $1 billion for a new fund to invest in oil and gas outside the United States as a stronger outlook for oil prices rekindles investor appetite, banking sources said. ** India’s Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd has launched a share sale to institutions to raise as much as 20 billion rupees ($307 million), according to a deal term sheet seen by Reuters on Wednesday. ** Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy said it would buy rival Bonanza Creek in a deal valued at $746 million to expand its presence in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. ** U.S. buyout fund Cerberus has taken a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship lender said. ** A ruling on Qualcomm Inc’s proposed $38-billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV may come in 2018, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said. ** Atlantia Chief Executive told the Financial Times that there is room for the Italian infrastructure group to improve its offer on Spain’s Abertis. ** The Vietnamese government aims to complete a stake sale in the country’s biggest brewer Sabeco in December, the trade ministry said, in the clearest signal yet that the long-awaited state divestment might happen this year after repeated delays. ** Legal & General (L&G), the owner of Britain’s biggest fund manager, has staked its claim for a slice of the growing market for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with a deal to buy Europe-focused platform, Canvas. ** German energy group Innogy will at some point pull out of the planned British retail supply joint venture with SSE, its chief executive said. Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas and Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1NL3ZM'|'2017-11-15T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'1a747a506efa180a045e372d41775c30898f33e3'|'As demand outlook dims, oil could catch a dose of contango fever'|' 01 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago As demand outlook dims, oil could catch a dose of contango fever Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - The oil price is set for its longest losing streak since March after the International Energy Agency’s downbeat assessment for demand growth next year, drawing attention to a warning light that had been blinking in products markets for weeks. FILE PHOTO: Boats float in front of the VOPAK oil storage terminal in Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo The IEA on Tuesday cut its forecast for oil demand growth by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) for both 2017 and 2018, in part because of consumption being reduced by unseasonably warm weather. [IEA/M] Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell by more than 1 percent to about $61.50 a barrel on Wednesday, heading for a fourth day of losses and cutting the premium of the front-month futures contract over that for delivery in six months’ time LCOc6 to nearly its smallest in two months. ICE Brent crude futures grow gloomier - reut.rs/2A0BBVr This structure, or backwardation, is now at only 70 cents, having halved in a week. A joint 1.8 million bpd cut by the world’s largest exporters since January has helped to force a three-year old overhang of fuel to drain and pushed crude and products markets into backwardation, which suggests traders and investors believe supply is falling below demand. But this market structure, the opposite of the bearish contango, is starting to look fragile. Refining margins for diesel, Europe’s most commonly used transportation fuel, haven fallen by $3 a barrel so far in the fourth quarter, on course for their weakest performance in the final three months of the year since 2015. Diesel margins, or cracks, tend to gain most in the third quarter as refineries gear up to stock enough heating oil and other products ahead of the northern hemisphere winter before easing in the last quarter. But this year is weak even by seasonal standards. The diesel futures curve <0#LGO:> is now at its steepest contango since the summer, around $1.70 a tonne, compared with backwardation of $7.50 a tonne a month ago. European gasoline, diesel forward curves - reut.rs/2zDQRHd Much of the 30 percent rise in crude prices in the second half of this year has been predicated on strong refining margins, particularly for gasoline, which has gained about $3 a barrel since Sept. 30, its strongest fourth-quarter performance since 2009. Gasoline margins typically gain the most in the first quarter of the year, but an anticipation of slower demand has prompted the backwardation at the front of the gasoline swaps curve to evaporate as well, to only $3.70 a tonne from closer to $14 only two weeks ago. In Brent’s defence, aside from the weakness in the products markets, three months of backwardation in physical North Sea crude prices have unleashed stored-up oil. Inevitably, higher supply weighs more heavily on prices for prompt-loading cargoes, which has also been partly responsible for the physical North Sea market tilting back into contango BFO- BFO-2M. With a busy European and Asian refinery maintenance schedule ahead, the crude market was already prepared for a lull in demand. The risk now is that the products markets are pricing in the same scenario. Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-futures/as-demand-outlook-dims-oil-could-catch-a-dose-of-contango-fever-idUKKBN1DF1U1'|'2017-11-15T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'55c34845f8244d040fc7c56241bc8da5fa29bd8b'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 15'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 4 points at 7,410.4 on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers. * ASTRAZENECA: Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca Plc on Tuesday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug Benralizumab, as an add-on treatment for patients with severe asthma aged 12 years and older. * GOCMOPARE-ZPG: British company GoCompare has rejected a 460 million pound ($600 million) takeover approach made by rival ZPG, owner of the real estate website Zoopla and utility price comparisons website uSwitch. * BREXIT: The European Union is sizing up Britain for a post-Brexit free trade deal along the lines of one it agreed last year with Canada, people familiar with talks among national envoys on Tuesday told Reuters. * GOLD: Gold prices firmed on Wednesday as investors awaited the October consumer inflation data from the United States for potential hints on the Federal Reserve''s monetary tightening policy. * OIL: Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Wednesday, continuing Tuesday''s slide after the International Energy Agency cast doubts over the past few months'' narrative of tightening fuel markets. * The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index ended the session flat in percentage terms at 7,414.42.6 points on Tuesday, as Tesco rallied after it won approval for a takeover and Vodafone reported strong results, outweighing weakness among mining companies. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Falanx Group Ltd Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Game Digital PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Cobham PLC Trading Statement Release Great Portland Estates Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Fenner PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Barratt Developments Trading Statement Release Helical PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Card Factory PLC Q3 2017 Trading Statement Release Talktalk Telecom Interim 2018 Earnings Release Crest Nicholson Trading update Experian PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-15-idUSL3N1NL2DQ'|'2017-11-15T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'237d110b131eedc4cbf97c1e18aeca8f003674a4'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 15'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times* Bankers working on the float of Cabot Credit Management ( IPO-CAB.L ) have yet to sell all the shares in the business, despite offering them well below its mooted 1 billion pounds ($1.32 billion) market value. bit.ly/2jru4YX* British bankers and lawyers should be able to offer their services freely across the European Union as they do today after Brexit, David Davis has said. bit.ly/2jq6TxVThe Guardian* Big increases in the price of fish, fats and vegetables have driven food price inflation in Britain to the highest level in more than four years. New data from the Office for National Statistics shows food prices last month were up by 4.2 percent on 12 months earlier. bit.ly/2jrkBAG* Deliveroo won the right not to give its couriers the minimum wage or holiday pay on Tuesday, dealing a blow to campaigners for workers'' rights in the gig economy. bit.ly/2jrPl4wThe Telegraph* Zurich Insurance Group has become the latest insurance giant to cut ties with coal-intensive businesses, bringing the amount insurers have pulled from these companies to around 20 billion pounds in just two years. bit.ly/2jsw8zO* UK business leaders would prefer to stick with EU rules on goods and services in order to preserve their current trading relationships, according to a survey of more than 900 members of the Institute of Directors. bit.ly/2js7GyCSky News* Labour is seeking to increase the pressure on ministers over a $2 billion loan guarantee to Saudi Arabian Oil Co ( IPO-ARMO.SE ) as it weighs a London flotation that would become the biggest stock market listing in history. bit.ly/2jrCCio* Coca-Cola has been accused by Health watchdog Public Health England of undermining efforts to cut childhood obesity by targeting children in the poorest parts of the country with its Christmas truck promotional tour. bit.ly/2jpV1vXThe Independent* London will remain an important global financial hub after Brexit, according to billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. ind.pn/2jumxIV* Aldi and Lidl have pulled several products from their shelves, with customers urged to return them immediately. ind.pn/2jpWEK5 ($1 = 0.7602 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-15-idINL1N1NL017'|'2017-11-14T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'127986d37504930b7d8aff96ea8b5b7ec42eac4d'|'EU money for governments should be tied to fiscal rules - European Fiscal Board'|'November 15, 2017 / 5:32 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago EU money for governments should be tied to fiscal rules - European Fiscal Board Jan Strupczewski 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The enforcement of European Union fiscal rules would improve if payouts from the EU budget relied on observing borrowing limits rather than the empty threat of sanctions, the European Fiscal Board (EFB) said. The EFB, created in late 2015, is an independent advisor to the European Commission. It is to evaluate the implementation of EU budget rules under the bloc’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), and suggest a common position on fiscal issues. Euro zone finance ministers have openly criticised the complexity of the rules, policed by the executive Commission, and the lack of predictability of the Commission’s decisions on disciplining governments who break them. “The credibility and effectiveness of fiscal rules also hinges on their enforceability,” the EFB said in its first ever report on Wednesday. “Existing provisions on sanctions in the SGP turned out to be impracticable. A promising alternative to sanctions is to make wider and more effective use of conditionality in relation to the EU budget.” The EFB said that under this approach, a country would be eligible for EU funds if it abided by agreed policies or achieved certain results. If not, funds could be suspended. But the approach could only be considered for the next EU long-term budget starting in 2021. The EFB said the idea of linking access to EU money to observing EU rules would also help in talks on the future of EU finances, which involve the idea of a euro zone budget, known as a fiscal or stabilisation capacity. The Board said that of the two most prominent proposals for such a centralised stabilisation capacity, a scheme to protect public investment during economic downturns and a EU unemployment reinsurance scheme, it preferred the former. “(It) would be easier to implement both technically and politically,” the Board said. The head of the euro zone’s bailout fund, Klaus Regling, has criticised the investment budget idea, arguing that the EU already had the European Investment Bank for that purpose and a special European Fund for Strategic Investments. Regling also said that an investment support function for a euro zone budget would be useless because investment projects took too long to get going when an unexpected economic downturn happened. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-fiscal-board/eu-money-for-governments-should-be-tied-to-fiscal-rules-european-fiscal-board-idUKKBN1DF2I2'|'2017-11-15T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'41792ed17dc2e6f5e34b69b647e034cdd424372d'|'Exclusive - Britain, Canada ally to boost support for global coal phase-out'|' 51 PM / a minute ago Exclusive: Britain, Canada ally to boost support for global coal phase-out Nina Chestney , Alister Doyle 3 Min Read BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Britain and Canada will urge nations at U.N. climate talks on Thursday to join them in a global alliance to phase out coal, a letter seen by Reuters shows, defying U.S. lobbying in favor of the fossil fuel at the same event. Their Powering Past Coal alliance, which also includes the low-lying Marshall Islands, will be launched in Bonn days after a pro-coal presentation by the Trump administration jarred with many ministers who want the talks to focus on cleaner energy sources. The pact is expected to attract at least another nine countries, a source close to the matter told Reuters. Mexico, France, Finland, New Zealand, Italy and an African country, are expected to sign up on Thursday, as well as at least 20 other entities including U.S. states, Canadian provinces and businesses. Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aims to wean the world economy off fossil fuels, several countries have pledged to phase out coal, including Britain, Canada, France and the Netherlands. “Joining Powering Past Coal is an opportunity to bring these national initiatives together, with sub-national and private sector action,” said the letter to around 100 ministers gathered at the talks. A group of around 100 countries formed a “high-ambition coalition” in Paris in 2015 that seeks to go beyond the 2 degree Celsius limit on global warming set down in Paris, a level the Marshall Islands and states in similar positions say may not be enough to stop them being submerged by the end of the century. Coal is responsible for more than 40 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The letter was signed by Britain’s climate change and industry minister Claire Perry, Canadian minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna and the Marshall Islands’ minister for foreign affairs and trade, John Silk. “We would strongly urge you to sign or endorse the declaration of the global alliance to Power Past Coal,” they said. The letter said the alliance would work to expand its partners to 50 by the next U.N. climate summit in 2018 which will be held in Poland’s Katowice, one of Europe’s most polluted cities. Germany, where the current U.N. climate conference is being held, was not mentioned as a signatory. Divisions over the pace of exit from coal power have this week dominated talks in Berlin on forming a new German coalition government. Last month, Britain and Canada joined forces to focus on getting rid of coal as a power source. editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-accord-coal-exclusive/exclusive-britain-canada-ally-to-boost-support-for-global-coal-phase-out-idUKKBN1DF2QR'|'2017-11-15T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'66f1d83f0345c9872f0f6f0d4264718ba598b60f'|'Oil prices fall for fourth day after U.S. crude stocks rise'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:44 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Oil prices settle lower after U.S. crude stocks rise David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Wednesday after the U.S. government reported an unexpected increase in crude and gasoline stockpiles, but an increase in refining runs and a drawdown in distillates helped prices bounce off session lows. FILE PHOTO - Oil pumpjacks are seen near Aneth, Utah, U.S., October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen Prices also remained under pressure from this week’s International Energy Agency (IEA) outlook for slower growth in global crude demand. While the crude build of 1.9 million barrels reported by the Energy Information Administration was more than forecast, it was not as big as the increase of 6.5 million barrels reported on Tuesday by industry group the American Petroleum Institute. The EIA data encouraged buying at session lows. “Overall, the report is somewhat supportive because it was not as bearish as the previous API report last night – that is why we are slowly digging our way out of the downside seen earlier this morning,” said Phil Flynn, senior energy analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. The data also showed distillate stocks in the U.S. Gulf fell to a one-year low, while overall refining rates rose in the latest week, led by a jump in East Coast refining, which is operating at a record 99.8 percent of capacity. Increased refining rates could eventually reduce crude inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 settled down 37 cents to $55.33 a barrel. Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled off 34 cents to $61.87 a barrel, a fourth straight day of declines for Brent. The benchmarks have dipped from earlier in the month, when a surfeit of buying from funds, bolstered by expected strength in demand and momentum from the ongoing rally, boosted prices to two-year highs. Those recent buyers may be getting washed out of the market now, analysts said. “It’s started to look like there’s a little bit too much momentum, and the quality of the buyer coming into the market at the $56 to $57 level wasn’t the smartest crude oil money,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities in Charlotte. On Tuesday, the IEA cut its oil demand growth forecast by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) for both 2017 and 2018. That could mean world oil consumption may not breach 100 million bpd next year as many had expected. Also, supplies are likely to exceed that level, particularly as U.S. production continues to rise. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has jumped more than 14 percent since mid-2016 to 9.65 million bpd and is expected to grow further. The IEA said non-OPEC production would rise 1.4 million bpd in 2018, undermining efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers to limit global crude supplies and support prices. OPEC meets on Nov. 30 and is expected to agree an extension to its output cuts. Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova, Henning Gloystein and Scott DiSavino; Editing by David Gregorio, Marguerita Choy and Frances Kerry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-slide-after-iea-casts-doubt-over-demand-outlook-idUKKBN1DF037'|'2017-11-15T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'4abe70e7bca63831074fdad5c78bf8f37eb9ed70'|'U.S. delivery companies dig deep to hire holiday season help'|'November 15, 2017 / 6:52 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. delivery companies dig deep to hire holiday season help Eric M. Johnson 6 Min Read SEATTLE (Reuters) - The tightest U.S. labor market this century is putting pressure on margins for freight haulers and warehouse operators as they bid for hundreds of thousands of workers to move packages during the peak holiday period. Forrest Lampe-Martin poses for a portrait during a UPS delivery as the international delivery service gears up for the upcoming peak delivery season prior to Christmas, in Seattle, Washington, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/David Ryder Transportation and delivery companies from United Parcel Service Inc ( UPS.N ) and FedEx ( FDX.N ) to XPO Logistics ( XPO.N ), Werner Enterprises ( WERN.O ) are raising pay beyond national averages, offering attendance bonuses, and adding attractive new trucks to their fleets. Competition for seasonal workers has intensified this year as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and others have set ambitious hiring goals in anticipation of strong holiday shopping. A risk for established delivery and trucking companies is that Amazon, which has beefed up its own delivery operations, could use its own networks more instead of paying vendors’ higher prices. Transportation companies must also weed out applicants who fail drug tests, and faced disruptions from summer hurricanes that idled thousands of workers. The added costs are pinching margins at some of the biggest U.S. logistics companies. Last week, trucking giants Schneider National ( SNDR.N ), Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc ( KNX.N ), and flatbed carrier Daseke Inc ( DSKE.O ) missed analyst earnings expectations, partly due to driver pay hikes. Cowen & Co analyst Jason Seidl said solid freight demand should push truck contract prices higher, but earnings for the next few quarters could be “somewhat curtailed” by driver costs and the timing of contracts. For UPS, cost pressures from peak season hiring and higher purchased transportation in certain locations could pressure margins and affect the success of the holiday season, Credit Suisse analyst Allison Landry said. Trucking and delivery companies will try to offset higher wages by raising prices, said Craig Fuller, Chief Executive of TransRisk, which creates trucking futures contracts using industry pricing data. Truck contract rates should increase between 6.5 and 12.5 percent in 2018 - the top of that range would be record-setting for the industry - and a “significant portion” will go into drivers’ pockets, Fuller said. Companies are seeking ways to offset labor costs. This year UPS rolled out peak season surcharges for residential packages, and has already announced increases for 2018. Separately, workers in UPS sorting facilities use Bluetooth audio linked to mobile devices to receive live directions on package routing, eliminating some 40 hours of on-the-job training. Rival FedEx is building out a network of drop-off locations to reduce residential delivery costs, which are higher than drop-offs to businesses. Economists predict faster wage growth as the labor market nears full employment. The unemployment rate is now 4.1 percent, the lowest since December 2000. A detail of Forrest Lampe-Martin''s uniform is seen during a UPS delivery as the international delivery service gears up for the upcoming peak delivery season prior to Christmas, in Seattle, Washington, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/David Ryder DRUG TEST TOLL To get seasonal workers, employers are easing some hiring criteria but keeping others in place. For trucking firm Werner, which has invested in new trucks and raised pay, applicants were plentiful this year but qualified ones were not. Werner hired just 2.7 percent of the roughly 100,000 drivers who applied, and eliminated more than 1,000 applicants who could not pass hair-follicle or urine drug tests. “It’s very difficult in this market not only for Werner but for every carrier,” Werner Chief Financial Officer John Steele told Reuters. At one Seattle terminal, managers stopped requiring seasonal drivers to know how to operate a manual transmission, offer $700 bonuses for seasonal drivers who show up every day for a week, and cash bonuses for employees who refer peak-season hires. Slideshow (15 Images) Supervisors plan additional overtime pay as needed. Median pay for truck drivers rose 4.1 percent from last year to $52,629, according to jobs website Glassdoor, well above overall wage growth. As truck firms hiked wages in the past couple of years, industry employment has followed suit, Jefferies analyst Stephen Volkmann said. For a graphic on trucking wages, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zC6YFf. UPS is using messaging app Snapchat ( SNAP.N ) to find workers in competitive markets like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, UPS global recruitment strategies director Paul Tanguay said. UPS is also seeking 2,700 rural drivers to deliver packages using their own cars, expanding a 2016 pilot program, Tanguay said. He declined to provide specifics on how close UPS was to reaching its goal of 95,000 seasonal workers. The labor market “definitely makes things more challenging to find people,” he said. Higher pay lured Seattle college student Forrest Lampe-Martin to UPS as a seasonal worker last year. The now full-time employee delivers packages for $18.69-an-hour plus overtime, well above the city’s minimum wage. “I bring people things that they are eagerly awaiting,” said Lampe-Martin, 23, said during a ride-along last week. “I feel like Santa with a brown suit.” Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-transportation-hiring/u-s-delivery-companies-dig-deep-to-hire-holiday-season-help-idINKBN1DF2R9'|'2017-11-15T21:07:00.000+02:00'
'5c90e7394668dc1ae8963a8ba82167b8ab94635a'|'Exclusive - Apple to help India develop anti-spam app after face-off with regulator'|' 51 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Exclusive: Apple to help India develop anti-spam app after face-off with regulator Aditya Kalra 6 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to give limited help to the Indian government to develop an anti-spam mobile application for its iOS platform, after refusing to do so based on privacy concerns, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man speaks on his mobile phone as he walks past an Apple iPhone advertisement billboard on a street in New Delhi, India, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo The U.S. tech giant has been locked in a tussle with India’s telecoms regulator for more than a year. Officials complained Apple dragged its feet on advising the government how to develop an app that would allow iPhone users to report unsolicited marketing texts or calls as spam. The government app was launched on Google’s Android platform last year, but an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said Apple pushed back on requests for an iOS version due to concerns that a government app with access to call and text logs could compromise its customers’ privacy. Facing public criticism from the regulator, Apple executives flew to New Delhi last month and told officials the company would help develop the app, but only with limited capabilities, according to a government official aware of the matter. Apple’s executives have told India that its current iOS platform might not allow for some of the government’s requests, such as making call logs available within the app that would allow users to report them as spam, the official said. “They (Apple) will help develop an app which, to an extent, can solve the requirements,” said the official. An Apple spokesman confirmed that the new iOS features to combat spam text messages would help the government build the app, but did not comment on the app’s potential inability to access call logs for reporting spam, as the Android version does. The spokesman said Apple had not changed its stance on privacy. Apple’s stand-off with the regulator comes at a time when it is seeking greater access in India, the world’s third-largest smartphone market. The company has been lobbying the government for tax breaks to expand its phone assembly operations in the country, where it reported doubling its revenue versus the previous year for the quarter ending Sept. 30. Balancing growth and market share with protecting customer privacy has become a defining challenge for global tech companies such as Apple, which regularly clash with governments over allowing access to content on their devices, especially for law enforcement needs. “This has now become more of an ego tussle between Apple and the regulator,” said Neil Shah of Hong Kong-based technology research firm Counterpoint Research. He added that Apple was unlikely to agree to any requests specific to India because of the precedent that would set. The chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) R.S. Sharma said he was unhappy with Apple for not responding swiftly to the government’s requests. “We’ve told them they are harming their consumers,” Sharma told Reuters in an interview. “I hope good sense prevails upon them.” Apple did not comment on TRAI’s criticism, but said that it had taken time to develop a privacy-friendly solution. APP TUSSLE, PRIVACY WOES Pesky marketing calls and unsolicited commercial text messages have become a big problem in India. FILE PHOTO: A salesman checks a customer''s iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Despite mobile users having the option to register themselves under a so-called “do not disturb” service to block marketers, businesses have gamed the system by using multiple phone numbers for promotions. TRAI’s anti-spam mobile application, also called Do Not Disturb, has been downloaded more than 100,000 times from the Google Android app section. Before the app launches, it asks the user to allow it access to contacts and view text messages. Users can then start reporting numbers as spam. A spokesman for Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, did not directly comment on the app, but said: “We believe in openness and in the ability of users to make purchasing and downloading choices without top-down enforcement or censorship. Users are prompted with requests for permissions that they can choose to accept or decline.” Apple, however, has been worried. FILE PHOTO: Men ride on motorbikes past an Apple iPhone advertisement billboard in Mumbai, India, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo “The app can peep into logs, Apple had conveyed that their (privacy) policy does not allow this,” said the industry source familiar with the matter. TRAI said the app does not raise any privacy concerns. MEETINGS, E-MAILS Apple has flown in several overseas-based executives to resolve the dispute with the Indian regulator, including its senior director for global privacy, and former Google executive, Jane Horvath. At least seven meetings have been held between the two sides and dozens of emails exchanged since last year, according to government officials and documents reviewed by Reuters. In August this year, months after the talks began, Apple wrote to TRAI saying that a technical meeting would help them establish “what is possible and not possible”. The TRAI pushed back. “The whole exercise in organizing the proposed meeting would be a waste of resources ... please share concrete solutions that have a likelihood of addressing the issues we have been discussing over the past one year,” the regulator wrote in September. Later that month, Apple again approached the TRAI saying it had identified potential solutions but they would require additional discussions with the regulator’s technical staff. Horvath and other Apple executives met TRAI officials in October and conveyed they would help them develop the first version of the app with limited features. “They (Apple) are adopting dilatory tactics,” said Sharma, the TRAI chief. “They’ve had meetings, meetings and meetings.” Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Tom Lasseter and Alex Richardson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-india-exclusive/exclusive-apple-to-help-india-develop-anti-spam-app-after-face-off-with-regulator-idUKKBN1DF122'|'2017-11-15T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'91f417584b1689e98db5580cb393bd3833b1eda9'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 3-week low as energy shares track oil lower'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:08 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 3-week low as energy shares track oil lower Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell to a three-week low on Wednesday as energy stocks again led a broad retreat on the back of sliding oil prices, pushing the market to its sixth straight daily decline after hitting an all-time high. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed down 34.65 points, or 0.22 percent, at 15,878.48, its lowest close since Oct. 25. Seven of the index’s 10 main groups ended lower. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by James Dalgleish)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-close/canada-stocks-tsx-hits-3-week-low-as-energy-shares-track-oil-lower-idUSL1N1NL1ZC'|'2017-11-15T23:06:00.000+02:00'
'588e0783cd6066b9391e0a2cdf82781339abeaf6'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 14'|'(Adds company news items, futures) Nov 14 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 7 points lower at 7,407.7 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.10 percent ahead of the cash market open. * VODAFONE: Vodafone , the world''s second-largest mobile operator, raised its forecast for full-year earnings growth to around 10 percent, from 4-8 percent, on Tuesday after reporting a strong first-half helped by demand for data and broadband in Europe. * ELECTROCOMPONENTS: Electrocomponents Plc reported a 16.6 percent rise in first-half revenue, buoyed by strong growth across all its markets. * TESCO: Tesco won provisional approval for its proposed 3.7 billion pound ($4.9 billion) takeover of wholesaler Booker from the UK competition regulator on Tuesday, moving Britain''s biggest retailer closer to securing a new avenue of growth. * DCC: Support services company DCC Plc reported a 14.4 percent rise in profit for the first half of the year, helped by growth across its divisions and the impact of its acquisitions over the past year. * AVIVA: British insurer Aviva said it had agreed to buy Irish insurer Friends First Life Assurance Company for 130 million euros ($151 million) in cash, making it one of the biggest insurers in Ireland. * BOVIS: British housebuilder Bovis , the subject of two failed takeover bids earlier this year after it warned on profits, said it was on course to meet profit expectations in 2017 as its new chief executive tries to turn the business around. * RIO TINTO: Mick Davis, the former head of global miner Xstrata, has emerged as a frontrunner to become the next chairman of Anglo Australian miner Rio Tinto , , the Financial Times newspaper reported. * RIO TINTO: The Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc closed the main access road to its giant Grasberg copper mine in the eastern province of Papua on Tuesday for the second time in three days after another shooting incident. Rio Tinto has a joint venture with Freeport-McMoRan for a 40 percent share of production above specific levels until 2021, and 40 percent of all production after 2021. * BHP BILLITON: A court in Brazil decided on Monday to resume criminal proceedings, including consideration of murder charges, related to the 2015 Samarco mine disaster, throwing out a challenge from two defendants claiming that evidence was illegally collected. Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd , joint owners of the Samarco iron mine, are part of a group that includes 22 people and two other companies that stand accused of crimes related to a tailing dam that burst. * SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it was in the process of developing a plan for repairing the damaged parts at its Enchilada platform and re-deploying personnel following its shutdown after a fire last week. * EN+/ANGLO AMERICAN: Anglo American blocked Jim Rutherford, a member of its audit and remuneration committees, from joining the board of Russia''s En+ Group , which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska''s aluminium and hydropower businesses and recently listed in London, the Financial Times newspaper reported citing people familiar with the matter. on.ft.com/2zVdxU2 * CENTRAL ASIA METALS: Central Asia Metals , which has just bought a lead and zinc mine in Macedonia, would consider further purchases but not for six months, its chairman said on Monday. * GRENFELL FIRE: Hundreds of people displaced by a fire that killed about 80 people in London in June are still living in hotels or friends'' houses because of a failure by local authorities to rehouse them, the lawmaker representing the area said on Monday. * BREXIT: British Brexit minister David Davis said on Monday the government would allow parliament the opportunity to debate, scrutinise and vote on any final Brexit agreement, offering a concession to Conservative Party rebels. * BREXIT: Prime Minister Theresa May''s blueprint for Britain''s exit from the European Union faces a crucial test starting on Tuesday, when lawmakers try to win concessions from a weakened leader on the government''s legislation to sever ties. * GOLD: Gold prices were little changed early on Tuesday, with the dollar supported by higher U.S. Treasury yields and Asian stocks down amid uncertainty over tax reforms in the United States. * OIL: Oil prices fell on Tuesday as the prospect of further rises in U.S. output undermined ongoing OPEC-led production cuts aimed at tightening the market. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.2 percent lower at nearly six-week lows on Monday, dragged down by financial sector shares and ceding earlier gains fuelled by the weak pound. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-14-idINL3N1NK349'|'2017-11-14T04:55:00.000+02:00'
'a92e2d606b93ff1a745393c44dc99e8f9a44a396'|'Fed may need ''extreme'' policy to deal with future shocks: Evans'|'November 14, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Fed may need ''extreme'' policy to deal with future shocks: Evans Ann Saphir 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Tuesday became the second Fed policymaker in recent days to call for a new approach to rate-setting that would allow the central bank to respond to shocks when interest-rate cuts alone are not enough. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans participates in a moderated discussion in Zurich, Switzerland October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/Files One option is so-called price-level targeting, Evans said in remarks prepared for a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt. Under such a strategy, a central bank combats bouts of too-low inflation by allowing inflation to run too high for a time. Evans championed this policy in 2010 to deal with sagging inflation, but ultimately the Fed rejected such an “extreme” idea as too difficult to undertake during an economic crisis, Evans said on Tuesday. Now that economic times are calmer, Evans said, the Fed can study and analyze this and other approaches, and prepare the public for their possible use in the next severe downturn if the Fed cuts rates to zero and still needs more firepower to get the economy growing again. Bouts of zero interest rates are likely to become more common in the future as potential economic growth slows, Evans and other Fed policymakers believe. Last week, San Francisco Fed President John Williams embraced the idea of price-level targeting as a way to set rates in the future, though he too said such a shift would require plenty of study and debate. Both men referenced the recent work of former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, who last month argued for a framework where the Fed is to adopt price-level targeting on a temporary basis when rates became too low for conventional policy. “My aim today is not to argue for state-contingent price-level targeting,” Evans said on Tuesday. “That may be a good way to go, but at this point I just don’t know. My point is that we should be planning for these inevitable future situations today.” Evans cautioned that success of any new strategy hinges on the Fed delivering on its current policy goal of 2-percent inflation. “If we fail to do so under our current relatively normal circumstances, why then would the public believe us in the future when we try again to implement unconventional policies?” Evans asked. Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-evans/fed-may-need-extreme-policy-to-deal-with-future-shocks-evans-idINKBN1DE0XF'|'2017-11-14T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'c6b0e49113378fdf9b46581ece0bba849248e528'|'Oil markets cautious as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC supply cuts'|'November 14, 2017 / 1:30 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Oil markets cautious as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC supply cuts Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday as the prospect of further rises in U.S. output undermined ongoing OPEC-led production cuts aimed at tightening the market. FILE PHOTO: An oil rig off the coast of Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $62.94 per barrel at 0415 GMT, down 22 cents, or 0.35 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.62 per barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.25 percent. The falls came after both crude benchmarks early last week hit highs last seen in 2015, but traders said the market had lost some momentum since then. Traders said they were cautious on betting on further price rises. “Prices...are starting to look like a pause or pullback is needed,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader. (For a graphic on ''Losing momentum? Brent crude oil prices,'' click reut.rs/2zAkkSo ) This sentiment comes in part on the back of rising U.S. oil output C-OUT-T-EIA, which has grown by more than 14 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.62 million barrels per day (bpd). The U.S. government said on Monday U.S. shale production for December would rise for a 12th consecutive month, increasing by 80,000 bpd. Fitch Ratings said in its 2018 oil outlook that it assumed 2018 “average oil prices will be broadly unchanged year-on-year and that the recent price recovery with Brent exceeding $60 per barrel may not be sustained”. So far in 2017, Brent has averaged at $54.5 per barrel. Despite the cautious sentiment, traders said oil prices would unlikely fall very far, largely due to ongoing supply restrictions led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, which have contributed to a reduction in excess supplies. OPEC also raised its oil demand forecast, saying the world would need 33.42 million barrels per day (bpd) of OPEC crude next year, up 360,000 bpd from its previous forecast and marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the outlook since July. In China, refiners raised crude oil processing runs to near record monthly levels in October, with operations increasing by 7.4 percent to 50.51 million tonnes, or 11.89 million bpd, China’s statistics bureau said on Tuesday. OPEC is due to meet on Nov. 30 to discuss further output policy. The group is expected to agree an extension of the cuts beyond their current expiry date in March 2018. Looking further out, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday there will be 50 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road by 2025 and 300 million by 2040, from around 2 million now. This is expected to cut 2.5 million bpd, or about 2 percent, off global oil demand by that time. Still, the IEA’s “New Policies Scenario”, based on existing legislation and policy intentions, expects oil prices to rise towards $83 a barrel by the mid-2020s. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-markets-cautious-as-opec-cuts-are-met-by-rising-u-s-output-idUKKBN1DE04J'|'2017-11-14T06:26:00.000+02:00'
'03a70b0c6973b895fac19187ca63bd3aace0220f'|'FCA takes on binary options scams'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:16 PM / Updated 4 hours ago FCA takes on binary options scams Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets regulator is bringing quick-fire binary options under its remit in an effort to crack down on scams that have conned investors out of nearly 60 million pounds over the last five years, it said on Tuesday. A maintenance worker cleans the entrance area of the headquarters of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren High-risk binary options allow people to place bets on whether the value of securities such as shares, commodities, indices and currencies will rise or fall over periods that can be as short as 30 seconds or five minutes. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it would take over regulating firms that offer binary options, that can lure investors by advertising on social media under an illusion of respectability, from the Gambling Commission on Jan. 3. The move comes after nearly 700 people reported losing a total of more than 18 million pounds on binary options scams in the first six months of this year, prompting police to raid 20 London offices last month as part of a broader crackdown on investment frauds. The FCA warned investors that fraudsters were linking binary options adverts to websites that appear professional, promising higher-than-average returns for bets that are never placed, manipulating software to distort prices and payouts and often refusing to pay winnings before disappearing. From next January, victims will be able to seek redress at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, a safety net for investors in regulated businesses. Countries such as Israel and Belgium have banned binary options trading, while the United States requires them to be traded on regulated markets. The FCA also issued a warning to investors about the risks of putting money into speculative cryptocurrency contracts for differences (CFDs). Cryptocurrency CFDs allow investors to speculate on a change in price of a virtual currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which have proved volatile. The CFDs can have little price transparency, come with high charges and with leverage that can multiply losses. The FCA said it did regulate CFDs, but warned such bets should only be placed by experienced investors with sophisticated knowledge of financial markets. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-investments-warnings/fca-takes-on-binary-options-scams-idUKKBN1DE1K8'|'2017-11-14T14:15:00.000+02:00'
'd2642b876248d5fbe34ed0cf35a7f0d2f0ed5966'|'FDA approves first drug in U.S. with digital ingestion tracking'|'November 14, 2017 / 1:05 AM / Updated 3 hours ago U.S. approves digital pill that tracks when patients take it Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. regulators have approved the first digital pill with an embedded sensor to track if patients are taking their medication properly, marking a significant step forward in the convergence of healthcare and technology. The medicine is a version of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s established drug Abilify for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, containing a tracking device developed by Proteus Digital Health. The system offers doctors an objective way to measure if patients are swallowing their pills on schedule, opening up a new avenue for monitoring medicine compliance that could be applied in other therapeutic areas. Shares in Otsuka rose 2.5 percent on Tuesday after news of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late on Monday. The FDA said that being able to track ingestion of medicines prescribed for mental illness may be useful “for some patients”, although the ability of the digital pill to improve patient compliance had not been proved. “The FDA supports the development and use of new technology in prescription drugs and is committed to working with companies to understand how technology might benefit patients and prescribers,” said Mitchell Mathis of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. A digital pill with an embedded sensor to track if patients are taking their medication. REUTERS/Proteus Digital Health The system works by sending a message from the pill’s sensor to a wearable patch, which then transmits the information to a mobile application so that patients can track the ingestion of the medication on their smartphone. About the size of a grain of salt, the sensor has no battery or antenna and is activated when it gets wet from stomach juices. That completes a circuit between coatings of copper and magnesium on either side, generating a tiny electric charge. In the longer term, such digital pills could also be used to manage patients with other complicated medicine routines, such as those suffering from diabetes or heart conditions. Poor compliance with drug regimens is a common problem in many disease areas, especially when patients suffer from chronic conditions. Proteus has been working on the pill tracking system for many years and the sensor used in Abilify MyCite was first cleared for use by the FDA in 2012. The unlisted Californian company has attracted investments from several large healthcare companies, including Novartis AG, Medtronic Inc and St. Jude Medical Inc, as well as Otsuka. Abilify MyCite is not approved to treat patients with dementia-related psychosis and contains a boxed warning alerting health care professionals that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death. Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma and Ben Hirschler, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-otsuka-holdings-fda/fda-approves-first-drug-in-u-s-with-digital-ingestion-tracking-idUSKBN1DE039'|'2017-11-14T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'ab2036f7878b7bfabf90471a2898a2fae83df156'|'China battery giant CATL plans $2 billion IPO to fund expansion'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) is planning a 13.1 billion yuan ($1.97 billion) initial public offering in Shenzhen to drive its expansion and meet soaring demand for electric car batteries.CATL said in an prospectus it would issue 217 million new shares, or about 10 percent of its enlarged capital, using the funds to build two battery plants, including a giant 24 gigawatt hour (GWh) facility that would massively boost its output.The IPO suggests a valuation of around $20 billion.The Ningde-based firm’s move to list on China’s NASDAQ-style ChiNext board would give investors a potential way into a firm pegged as one of China’s electric car battery champions.China, the world’s largest market for electric cars, is driving a seismic shift towards so-called new-energy vehicles, and wants to build a dominant domestic industry of both NEV carmakers and battery manufacturers to help drive that push.Beijing has set strict quotas for electric and hybrid cars that comes into effect from 2019. It has an ambitious target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has signaled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol engine cars.In the prospectus, first posted by China’s securities regulator late on Friday, CATL said it had brought in 14.9 billion yuan in sales last year, up almost threefold versus 2015. Net profits were up sharply also to 3.1 billion yuan.The funds will help CATL boost its lithium-ion car battery output, helping hit earlier targets of 50 GWh by 2020. CATL competes with Japan’s Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ), South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd ( 051910.KS ), local rival BYD ( 002594.SZ ) and Tesla Motor Inc ( TSLA.O ).CATL is also looking at potentially taking market share overseas as well, leveraging huge China demand to become competitive in markets such as the United States and Europe, that are also making shifts away from petrol engine cars.Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-catl-batteries/china-battery-giant-catl-plans-2-billion-ipo-to-fund-expansion-idUSKBN1DE0I4'|'2017-11-14T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'99efea4574993322fde7569b9e614b951685514b'|'Buffalo Wild Wings shares soar on report of takeover bid'|'November 14, 2017 / 3:46 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Buffalo Wild Wings shares soar on report of takeover bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Buffalo Wild Wings’ shares rose nearly 26 percent in early trading on Tuesday, a day after a report said the company received a $2.3-billion takeover bid from private-equity firm Roark Capital Group. Roark’s offer of more than $150 per share was a premium of at least 28 percent to the fast-food chain’s close on Monday. Wedbush analysts on Tuesday raised their price target to $130 from $115 and called the offer realistic. Buffalo’s management could view it favorably as the stock’s current price presents limited scope for same-store sales growth and margin trajectory, they said in a client note. Activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management has been pressuring Buffalo Wild Wings to change its leadership and improve its restaurant operations. The company’s Chief Executive Sally Smith said she would retire by the end of the year after Marcato won a bitter proxy battle in June that put three of its directors on the chicken-wing restaurant’s board. The Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Superior, Colorado, United States July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Roark’s takeover offer follows several other deals involving private equity firms buying restaurant chains. In October, casual dining chain Ruby Tuesday was bought by NRD Capital for about $335 million, while Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings took popular U.S. food chains Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts private in the last two years. Roark has stakes in other restaurants chains like Arby’s and CKE Restaurants, the owner of Carl’s Jr, and could be a credible buyer of Buffalo Wild Wings, Stifel analyst Chris O‘Cull said in a note. “Buffalo Wild Wings could be appealing to Roark because of the brand’s dominant positioning among sports-bars, potential to improve company-owned restaurant performance with better execution, and stable base of franchise income”, O‘Cull wrote. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-stocks/buffalo-wild-wings-shares-soar-on-report-of-takeover-bid-idUSKBN1DE24Q'|'2017-11-14T17:44:00.000+02:00'
'1734022aab86c378ecdbf7eb35bc0f039a113a5b'|'CANADA STOCKS-Energy shares drag TSX lower for 4th straight day'|' 21 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-Energy shares drag TSX lower for 4th straight day Reuters Staff (Adds details on energy sector and updates prices) * TSX ends down 13 points, or 0.08 percent, at 16,026.26 * Index posts lowest close since Nov. 3 * Five of TSX’s 10 main groups fall TORONTO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell for the fourth straight session on Monday as the energy sector, which had been a major driver of the index’s rally since September, declined by 1.3 percent. Cenovus Energy Inc fell 2.5 percent to C$13.93 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd retreated 0.9 percent to C$45.89. Canadian Natural Resources declined as Royal Dutch Shell , which holds shares in the Canadian company, pushed ahead with its vast disposal program. Crude oil futures, which have been supported by Middle East tensions, settled 2 cents higher at $56.76 a barrel. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed down 13 points, or 0.08 percent, to 16,026.26, its lowest close since Nov. 3. It touched its lowest intraday level since Nov. 3 at 15,999.10, as uncertainty over the U.S. tax legislation being considered in Congress pushed world stock markets further away from recent record highs.. Still, the TSX has rallied more than 7 percent since September. It rose last week for the ninth straight week, its longest run in more than two decades. Five of the index’s 10 main groups ended lower on Monday. The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.3 percent. Shares of Intertape Polymer Group Inc, surged 14.3 percent to C$20.00 after the manufacturer of specialty tapes reported stronger-than-expected revenue for the third quarter. Teck Resources Ltd climbed 1.9 percent to C$27.80, while copper, one of the metals that the company produces, advanced 1.7 percent to $6,898.5 a tonne. Canada Goose Holdings Inc, which had surged last week to a record high after reporting quarterly earnings, fell 3.5 percent to C$31.81. Financials, which account for 35 percent of the index’s weight, edged 0.1 percent higher. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Peter Cooney and Grant McCool)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-energy-shares-drag-tsx-lower-for-4th-straight-day-idUSL1N1NJ220'|'2017-11-14T00:17:00.000+02:00'
'49fd7a51a3aec8642bd01f90d0a57bed95dd077b'|'COMMENT-World Bank "doubled" to US$2bn'|' 53 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago COMMENT-World Bank "doubled" to US$2bn Julian Baker 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 15 (IFR) - A US$2bn 10yr at MS+21 didn’t seem anything special but is nonetheless viewed now as a “pretty respectable” outcome for IBRD. Just pipping ADB’s trade from three weeks ago (MS+22), a short window opened up with yields - all-important at the tenor - backing up on Friday and popping higher again into the mandate announcement (even if going on to rally all the way back down through bookbuilding the next day). Was it, as the press release claims, a doubling of an initial US$1bn offering? Seems unlikely. That size aspiration wasn’t communicated to the market and anyway would have looked strangely unambitious given ADB raised US$1.5bn and Washington peer IADB even more from a US$2.3bn deal back in the summer. Books closed over US$2.4bn - in the same ballpark as ADB (US$2.2bn+) but somehow enough for leads Barclays, BNPP, Nomura and TD to justify a much meatier deal size. IADB for note fared a lot better, generating US$3.5bn+ of orders. Those two supra markers were as tight as MS+17.5 and MS+19.5 bid on Eikon pre-mandate with IBRD IPTs next to those at MS+22 area and official guidance in a basis point at MS+21 area the next morning on IoIs of some US$1.3bn. Most fawning quotes from the press release? Leads on the whole were quite restrained, actually. It was a “very solid benchmark” (BNPP); a “rare and impressive achievement” executed with “great precision” (Barclays); a “world-class outing” from a borrower with an “unparalleled investor following” (Nomura); and a deal that was “timed ... perfectly” (TD). Asia is 38%, Europe 34% and Americas 28%. Central banks are 53%, banks/corps 24%, asset managers 23%.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/comment-world-bank-doubled-to-us2bn/comment-world-bank-doubled-to-us2bn-idUSL8N1NL392'|'2017-11-15T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'3be1bd15bd9968579c2b5a47e9f943d010473909'|'Buffett''s Berkshire Hathaway slashes IBM stake'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc has sold another large piece of its stake in IBM Corp, backing further away from an investment that the billionaire has admitted was not one of his best.Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett talks with a reporter before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Berkshire reduced its IBM stake 32 percent in the third quarter to about 37 million shares from 54.1 million shares, according to a quarterly regulatory filing on Tuesday detailing Berkshire’s U.S.-listed stock holdings.It had by the end of September reduced its IBM stake by 54 percent since the end of 2016, when it owned roughly 81 million shares. IBM’s full name is International Business Machines Corp.Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-investment-funds-buffett/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-slashes-ibm-stake-idINKBN1DE2YE'|'2017-11-14T18:46:00.000+02:00'
'57223c558c3d745a2f084d9dbd5a4a6d85057956'|'Vodafone bets on customer data to avoid India-style price war in Italy'|'November 15, 2017 / 7:06 PM / a minute ago Vodafone bets on customer data to avoid India-style price war in Italy Mathieu Rosemain , Sophie Sassard 3 Min Read BARCELONA/LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone plans to use its expertise in customer data to help to fend off competition in Italy from French newcomer Iliad and avoid an India-style price war, its chief executive said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Branding hangs outside a Vodafone shop in Oxford, Britain, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Iliad, backed by French billionaire Xavier Niel, is aiming to grab a quarter of the Italian mobile market using the same cut-throat prices that helped it to conquer France five years ago, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters. In India, new entrant Reliance Jio took more than 6 percent of the Indian market in just a year thanks to free voice and cheap data, forcing rivals - which include Vodafone - to drop prices and merge. “Do we expect something crazy? Honestly, after India, you can expect everything. We are ready to see everything,” Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said at Morgan Stanley’s annual TMT conference in Barcelona. With the French and Indian examples in mind, Colao, a former McKinsey consultant, said Vodafone’s strong data analytics had allowed the group to identify its “most vulnerable” Italian customers and to offer them special conditions adapted to their needs. He said the company had prepared for several possible scenarios but declined to give more details about its strategy. The 56-year-old Italian said he was “very happy” with the performance of the Italian business, as adjusted core profit rose 8.8 percent in the first half of the year, despite continuing price pressure. Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile operator, is the number three mobile player in Italy where it competes against former monopoly Telecom Italia and low-cost operator Wind-Tre. A senior telecoms banker said that Colao did a great job in India where Vodafone reacted swiftly by merging with Idea Cellular. But the banker said Colao’s options would be more limited in Italy because Vodafone will go head to head with Iliad in mobile services. But in B2B, which covers corporate customers, Vodafone could make some headway as Iliad is not expected to be chasing these clients for now. Berenberg analyst Nicolas Didio said Vodafone was doing the right thing to prepare for Iliad’s arrival. But he also said the approaching battle was likely to go beyond pricing because Italy is a complex market and a new player like Iliad could be more inventive and audacious than existing players. “Iliad wants to be the customers’ champion and that’s precisely where they could win,” he said. Didio said he expected Iliad to launch with a sole price including unlimited voice and texts messages and a generous data package, and offer additional services such as free international calls from Italy or unlimited usage of voicemail. “These services will unlikely weigh on Iliad’s profits as their marginal cost is limited but they would be very powerful in terms of marketing,” he said. Reporting by Sophie Sassard; Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tmt-conference-vodafone-group/vodafone-bets-on-customer-data-to-avoid-india-style-price-war-in-italy-idUKKBN1DF2S4'|'2017-11-15T21:02:00.000+02:00'
'3fa9ccbccc5bb7414bc6c2b335545489cab6d46f'|'Maple Brexit? EU eyes Canada model for UK trade'|'November 14, 2017 / 10:59 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Maple Brexit? EU eyes Canada model for UK trade Jan Strupczewski , Gabriela Baczynska 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is sizing up Britain for a post-Brexit free trade deal along the lines of one it agreed last year with Canada, people familiar with talks among national envoys on Tuesday told Reuters. Canada''s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) and Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May walk in the Hall of Honour on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has long cited the Canadian example, and since EU leaders agreed last month to ready negotiations on the future relationship with the UK, the 27 states have looked closely at the Canadian trade deal as a model, given British demands, EU diplomats said. Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out staying in the EU single market, with its obligations of free migration, EU budget payments and obeying EU courts, and so diplomats concluded these terms rule out the models followed by Norway, and by Switzerland which has a web of bilateral agreements. “From the red lines they have we know there are some things that are clearly off limits and that was clear today,” one of the people familiar with Wednesday’s roundtable discussion said. “We are in free trade agreement territory. There is no doubt about that. Then you can call it what you want -- Canada Plus or Minus, or Korea Plus or whatever, but that’s where we are.” Like Canada, South Korea signed up to a far-reaching accord with Brussels on goods and services trade in 2011. The UK economy is nearly twice the size of Canada‘s, and British officials have said that their current alignment with EU standards and much closer trading links with the continent give them scope to seek an even deeper relationship some call “Canada Plus”. For businesses worried about disruption to trade when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019, a major concern is how quickly such a deal could be concluded. The envoys’ discussions showed there is still no willingness among the 27 to open trade talks with London until May meets conditions set by the Union. DECEMBER DEADLINE? At a summit a month ago, the prime minister was encouraged by EU leaders to see the next regular EU summit a month from now as the moment when trade negotiations could be launched, but EU diplomats who took part in talks on Tuesday said there was no sign yet that Britain was doing enough to make that happen. A key sticking point is May’s refusal to give more detail on what parts of the EU budget Britain would contribute to for some years after Brexit. This “bill” the EU puts at tens of billions of euros. As a result, participants in the talks said, they have yet to start drafting guidelines for EU negotiators to follow. Barnier has given London until the end of the month to make a new offer on the financial settlement, improve its terms for EU expatriates’ rights, and develop a plan for an open border with Ireland, if May is to secure what she wants on Dec. 14-15. “The preparatory process for the guidelines starts later and the trigger will depend on sufficient progress on the Phase One issues,” said a second person involved in the discussions. A third source said that member states were holding back on such detailed preparations to avoid sending the “wrong impression” to London that agreement was a foregone conclusion. “Many member states said that as long as we don’t see progress there is no need to kill ourselves,” the official said. Barnier said last week that if there is no deal on Phase One next month, the negotiations will simply continue in 2018. Many states stressed that broad guidelines for negotiations issued by EU leaders in April still held good, offering Britain a “balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging” free trade agreement. Barnier has said that it could take about three years to agree a full free trade deal, giving just enough time if talks start in the new year and Britain agrees to a transition period from March 2019 to the end of 2020, during which it would effectively remain bound by EU rules while no longer participating in the setting of them. Additional reporting and writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-trade/maple-brexit-eu-eyes-canada-model-for-uk-trade-idUKKBN1DE33S'|'2017-11-15T00:58:00.000+02:00'
'c515d10d9981894d2f5979b21cec83280a139855'|'Altice shifts focus from acquisitions to easing debt: CFO'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:22 PM / in 4 hours Embattled Altice shifts focus from M&A to cutting debt, customers Mathieu Rosemain , Sophie Sassard 5 Min Read BARCELONA/LONDON (Reuters) - Embattled billionaire Patrick Drahi is shifting the focus at Altice ( ATCA.AS ), the telecoms and cable group he founded, from acquisitions to debt reduction and customer satisfaction following disappointing third-quarter results. The Franco-Israeli president of Altice made an unexpected appearance at Morgan Stanley’s TMT conference in Barcelona on Wednesday to shore up the confidence of investors who have pummeled Altice’s stock over the last two weeks. Shares of the Amsterdam-holding company have fallen by more than 40 percent since it reported weak third-quarter results on Nov. 2, prompting Drahi to oust chief executive Michel Combes. The results showed the group had lost around 75,000 broadband customers in France in the third quarter and its debt had reached 49.6 billion euros. “We need to make the customer happy to be with us,” Drahi told investors, analysts and industry specialists at Morgan Stanley’s annual TMT conference. He said the company’s French business SFR “was a little unfocused over the last three quarters” and that the group needed to fix “little operational problems.” APPEASING INVESTORS Altice has grown massively in both the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, which in turn has raised the weight of its net debt to more than five times its annual core operating profit. But the high debt and weak third-quarter performance has unsettled investors about the company’s strategy and management. “Altice needs real operational managers in each country,” a TMT sector banker, who had been speaking to investors following Altice’s results, said. “Investors don’t want to see a European manager who would just serve as an intermediary, it doesn’t work.” Drahi’s business partner and Altice co-founder Armando Pereira joined SFR in September to oversee its core telecoms business and address this issue. But that might not be enough to convince investors. “My first question to Drahi would be: where have you been all that time and what are you going to do differently now?”, a European fund manager, who does not currently own Altice shares, said. “Drahi has the capacity to reassure investors because of his great track record in cable but this time will prove harder because the sector is not growing,” the fund manager said. DELEVERAGING The group will “go back to the basics” and will not be looking for acquisitions in the near future, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Okhuijsen said at the TMT conference. “We will be focused on deleveraging by looking at the disposal on non-core assets, (with) potential tower sales,” he said. A senior banker familiar with the situation said that Altice’s towers in Europe could be worth up to 4 billion euros. The banker also said that management had yet to decide whether to sell them country by country or bundle them into a tower company and float it while retaining a majority stake. Altice could also explore the sale of some of its telecoms businesses in Europe, bankers said. The bankers declined to be named because the matter is private. Drahi, sitting next to Okhuijsen at the conference, said the group’s overall strategy of bundling media content and telecoms services remained in place, and that Altice would focus on improving its operational performance, particularly in France. Drahi also announced a postponement of SFR’s rebranding plan, initially scheduled for the first half of 2018. This would help to save “hundreds million of euros”, he said, after acknowledging that the group’s target of growing revenue in France next year would be put off by a year. He said Altice would spend in total about 1 billion euros on sports rights, including those for broadcasting the European Champions League soccer matches up to 2021 in France. “My philosophy of life is... when I buy something for one I try to sell it for at least two,” he said. “So I haven’t become stupid the day I decided to buy rights.” The sports rights acquisition should help to generate at least 1.5 to 1.7 billion euros, he said. Advertising revenue would come on top of it, he said. Altice’s bonds have sold off since Altice’s results earlier this month and yields have spiked higher though they eased slightly on Wednesday after the company sought to address investors’ concerns. Bonds worth 1.3 billion euros have traded so far this month, more than double for all of last month, according to MarketAxess subsidiary Trax. Altice shares were up 5.80 percent in late session trading, although the stock remains down by around 50 percent since the start of 2017. ($1 = 0.8450 euros) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-altice-debt/altice-shifts-focus-from-acquisitions-to-easing-debt-cfo-idINKBN1DF1VQ'|'2017-11-15T10:22:00.000+02:00'
'ae33de04d9146b465309f7211289e60733b262d7'|'Wall Street heads lower, tax plan doubts weigh'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes fell on Tuesday as General Electric shares plunged for a second straight day and a drop in crude oil prices hit energy stocks.Traders work on floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly before the close of trading in New York, U.S., December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files GE ( GE.N ) fell 5.9 percent to $17.90 in the largest daily volume in two years as investors wondered if a massive overhaul of the company by new Chief Executive John Flannery will be enough to revive the industrial conglomerate.The stock touched $17.46, its lowest in nearly six years.Energy was the largest decliner among the 11 S&P 500 sectors as oil prices fell the most in a month. The International Energy Agency forecast rising U.S. crude output and had a gloomy outlook for global demand growth. [O/R]Exxon ( XOM.N ) fell 0.8 percent and ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) was down 2.5 percent, while the S&P 500 energy sector .SPNY fell 1.5 percent, the most in more than four months.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 30.23 points, or 0.13 percent, to end at 23,409.47, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.97 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,578.87 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 19.72 points, or 0.29 percent, to 6,737.87.Stocks favored by investors seeking yield, the so-called bond proxies, were the best performers as the yield curve, or the gap between short- and long-term U.S. government bond yields, remained near its flattest in a decade.Utilities .SPLRCU and consumer staples .SPLRCS, sectors that pay relatively high dividends, were the best performers on the day. Utilities rose 1.2 percent for a 2.4 percent gain since Friday’s close, the largest two-day percentage gain since late February.“People are looking for yield across the globe so potentially there’s foreign flows going into bond proxies,” said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Voya Investment Management in New York.He said the outperformance of stocks in the utilities and consumer staples sectors could also be due to investors getting more defensive “after growth sectors and the overall market have been doing so well this year.”The S&P 500 fell for the third session in the last four, but it remains within 1 percent of a record closing high hit last week.TV streaming device maker Roku ( ROKU.O ) snapped a three-day winning streak after hitting a record high of $48.80, ending down 13.5 percent at $36.95.Advance Auto Parts ( AAP.N ) soared 16.3 percent to $95.72 after it affirmed its full-year profit forecast and beat quarterly profit estimates.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.47-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.23-to-1 ratio favored decliners.The S&P 500 posted 45 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 87 new lows.About 6.73 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, roughly in line with the daily average over the last 20 sessions.Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-heads-lower-tax-plan-doubts-weigh-idINKBN1DE1VV'|'2017-11-14T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'1c03b448c3b32290c32385cae9269a90dc6eba25'|'Ireland sees Brexit uniting smaller EU states on benefits of trade'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Ireland sees Brexit uniting smaller EU states on benefits of trade Makini Brice 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baltic and Nordic countries will join Ireland in becoming more vocal on the benefits of trade once market-friendly Britain leaves the bloc, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Monday. Ireland''s Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe holds a copy of the budget on the steps of Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne While Ireland is most worried about the damage Brexit may do to its economy and border with the British province of Northern Ireland, the loss of a major pro-business country that has a big influence on financial regulation and trade is also a concern. Dublin is responding by boosting other alliances. Donohoe joined a dinner of his Nordic and Baltic counterparts at last week’s EU finance ministers’ meeting while Prime Minister Leo Varadkar held a meeting with a similar group, plus the prime minister of the Netherlands, at a recent EU leaders’ summit. “Many of our neighbours and friends within the European Union were quite happy to let countries like Ireland and the UK do the work on their behalf of making the public case that needed to be made,” Donohoe told Washington’s Brookings Institute at the start of a four-day trip to the United States. “I don’t think it will be a case, necessarily, of new allies .... It’s more the need for these friendships to be now more proactively vocal than they have been in the past and more the case now that there will be an awareness that a big country has gone.” Donohoe, whose predecessors have relied on neighbouring Britain’s support in areas such as defending its low corporate tax rate from French and German calls for greater harmonisation, said the smaller countries share strong common views. “I think you will see Ireland working more closely with Nordic countries and with Baltic states, all of whom are small and will have strong views on the benefits of trade... believe very strongly in the benefits of multilateral institutions.” Writing by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ireland/ireland-sees-brexit-uniting-smaller-eu-states-on-benefits-of-trade-idUKKBN1DD2Q9'|'2017-11-14T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'26dbed03eefd0cbe393b9791c2cb3c978cc6e366'|'Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero - source'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:45 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero - source Jessica DiNapoli 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has written down to zero the value of its stake in the Weinstein Company, the movie studio whose co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Harvey Weinstein speaks at the UBS 40th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, NY, U.S. on December 5, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Goldman Sachs’ move comes as the Weinstein Company looks for fresh financing after more than 50 women claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations. Last month, Goldman Sachs said it was trying to find a buyer for its stake in the Weinstein Company. A Goldman Sachs spokesman had said at the time that the bank valued the stake at less than $1 million. [nL4N1MO4QA] The source did not disclose how much of the Weinstein Company Goldman Sachs owns, but described the stake as small. He asked not to be identified because the bank has not publicly released its latest valuation. A Weinstein Company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. One of the Weinstein Company’s lenders, AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, filed a lawsuit last Friday in New York State Supreme Court demanding immediate repayment of its approximately $44 million loan. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, United States April 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Referring to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, AI International stated in court papers that his actions and his departure from the company have “left [the business] in shambles,” and “exposed to potentially massive liabilities [that] have severely, if not fatally, damaged its standing in the marketplace.” A spokeswoman for Harvey Weinstein declined to comment. The Weinstein Company’s other lenders include Bank of America and MUFG Union Bank N.A., according to the lawsuit. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Weinstein Company’s board of directors has been receiving advice from investment bank Moelis & Co ( MC.N ) on its efforts to raise cash, including by potentially selling assets and finding a rescue loan, sources have previously told Reuters. A Moelis spokeswoman declined to comment. Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC ( FIG.N ) was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal last week, according to another person familiar with the matter. Fortress would consider providing Weinstein Co with funding to help it through a bankruptcy process, if it came to that, the person said. A Fortress spokesman declined to comment. The Weinstein Company’s lenders have hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc ( HLI.N ) for financial advice in a potential restructuring, a source close to that situation said. The Weinstein Co has been one of Hollywood’s most influential forces since its launch in October 2005 and has produced and distributed films including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; editing by Ben Klayman and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/weinsteincompany-goldman/goldman-sachs-marks-stake-in-weinstein-co-down-to-zero-source-idINKBN1DE02B'|'2017-11-14T02:41:00.000+02:00'
'782bcce432e65b2786b18b18a1bae2633471a08b'|'French insurer AXA narrows M&A focus to 16 countries'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French insurer AXA ( AXAF.PA ) will narrow its acquisition focus to 16 key countries and could sell some assets in markets where it lacks scale, its executives said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: Logo of France''s biggest insurer Axa is seen in front the compagny headquarter in Paris, France, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo “We want to focus on fewer countries. We want to focus on these countries where we have scale and potential,” Chief Executive Thomas Buberl told analysts at an investors’ day in Paris.AXA singled out 10 developed markets - such as Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and the United States - and six in emerging markets - Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand - countries that together account for nearly 90 percent of AXA’s profits.“Our M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy will focus only on those 10 plus six countries,” Buberl said.AXA earlier this year ruled out major takeovers. Buberl said on Tuesday that the company did not want to overpay for acquisitions, and would be ready to use the money for share buybacks, if it did not find the right takeover target.The insurer also said on Tuesday it would dedicate 200 million euros ($234 million) of its annual one billion euro mergers and acquisitions budget to innovation.The company said it could sell some assets in 26 markets where it lacks scale.Chief Financial Officer Gerald Harlin said that did not mean that activities in these countries - which include Algeria, Colombia, Turkey and Russia - would all be sold.“What we said is that we will rationalize it. There will be some that will be sold and there will be others that indeed will be managed for more profit,” Harlin said.Buberl, at the helm of the insurer since 2016, aims to grow the business in areas such as health, protection and property and casualty insurance for small and mid-sized companies to help boost profitability.NO CHANGE IN TARGETS AXA earlier confirmed its earnings per share and cashflow targets at the investors’ day, drawing a muted response from the market, with AXA shares down 0.9 percent by 1430 GMT.In reply to an analyst who voiced disappointment that the company had not revised up targets, Buberl said that now was not the right time to raise them, given the company was only a year and a half into its original business plan.“We are well on the journey and we are accelerating. Due to the fact that I am coming from a German culture with a very prudent approach, I’d really like to keep it there and leave some room for later till 2020,” he added.In health insurance, one of the business areas where it wants to expand, Buberl said AXA would consider putting money into medical centers.AXA aims to increase earnings per share by 3 to 7 percent a year over 2016-2020 and have a cumulative cashflow of 24-27 billion euros over that time frame, before the proceeds from an initial public offering of its combined U.S. life insurance and asset management unit, scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.On Monday, AXA presented a plan to simplify its operating model with a new structure based on geographical areas, rather than business units.The reshuffle saw the departures of two executives who had worked at the group for more than 15 years - Gaëlle Olivier, head of AXA’s global property and casualty business and Paul Evans, head of life, savings and health.($1 = 0.8556 euros)Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axa-strategy/french-insurer-axa-narrows-ma-focus-to-16-countries-idINKBN1DE0RF'|'2017-11-14T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'50817201edaa1c38c53d1336a07fc76d3f3dafb7'|'Ethiopian interested in Boeing''s proposed mid-sized jet, could buy 10-20'|'November 14, 2017 / 6:50 AM / Updated an hour ago Ethiopian interested in Boeing''s proposed mid-sized jet, could buy 10-20 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines ( BA.N ) would be interested in around 10 to 20 mid-sized jets that Boeing ( BA.N ) is studying possibly developing, the African airline’s chief executive said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - A worker services an Ethiopian Airlines plane at the Bole International Airport in Ethiopia''s capital Addis Ababa, January 26, 2017. Picture taken January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh Ethiopian also ordered two Boeing 777 Freighters, and exercised options for two more, Chief Executive Tewolde Gebremariam said at a Dubai Airshow press conference. Industry sources have said they expect a commercial launch of the roughly 220 to 270 seat jet next year. It would enter service in 2024 or 2025 as Boeing attempts to leapfrog the hot-selling Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A321neo. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-ethiopian/ethiopian-interested-in-boeings-proposed-mid-sized-jet-could-buy-10-20-idUKKBN1DE0KX'|'2017-11-14T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'4d037db0f0b52ccae063676b15c1523c1c6206d3'|'Buffett''s Berkshire Hathaway slashes IBM stake'|'November 14, 2017 / 9:48 PM / Updated a day ago Buffett''s Berkshire slashes IBM stake, adds to Apple Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( BRKa.N ) has sold another large piece of its stake in IBM Corp ( IBM.N ), backing further away from an investment that the billionaire has admitted was not one of his best. Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett talks with a reporter before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Berkshire cut its IBM stake 32 percent in the third quarter to about 37 million shares worth $5.37 billion from 54.1 million shares worth $8.32 billion, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing detailing its U.S.-listed stock holdings. The IBM share stake has fallen by 54 percent since the end of 2016, when Berkshire owned roughly 81 million shares for which it paid about $13.8 billion. During the quarter, Berkshire also boosted its stake in Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) 3 percent to 134.1 million shares worth $20.7 billion, and became Bank of America Corp’s ( BAC.N ) largest shareholder by exercising warrants for 700 million shares. IBM, whose full name is International Business Machines Corp, accounted for most of the stock sales that Buffett and his deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler made in the quarter. In May, Buffett revealed he had begun selling IBM, telling CNBC he did not value Big Blue as highly as he did six years earlier when he started buying. “IBM is a big strong company, but they’ve got big strong competitors, too,” he said. The IBM investment had been viewed as a surprise, given the 87-year-old Buffett’s resistance to investing in technology companies and businesses he found harder to understand. Berkshire has said it paid an average of about $170 per share for IBM. The shares closed up 49 cents at $148.89 on Tuesday, but fell in after-hours trading. For the third quarter, Berkshire also reported lower stakes in Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) and cable TV company Charter Communications Inc ( CHTR.O ), and higher stakes in seed company Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) and credit card issuer Synchrony Financial ( SYF.N ). It also no longer reported a stake in Wabco Holdings Inc ( WBC.N ), which sells brake and suspension systems for commercial vehicles. Berkshire is one of Wells Fargo’s largest shareholders, with a nearly 10 percent stake. In April, it withdrew a Federal Reserve application for permission to exceed that level, citing restrictions on its ability to do business with the bank. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-investment-funds-buffett/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-slashes-ibm-stake-idUSKBN1DE2YE'|'2017-11-14T23:43:00.000+02:00'
'b2c43478a83b45d6ff2712140415ad6837b5cef3'|'EU set to fine car seatbelt, airbag cartel in coming weeks - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 4:11 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago EU set to fine car seatbelt, airbag cartel in coming weeks: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are set to fine a group of companies involved in a cartel for car seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels in the coming weeks, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The decision by the European Commission followed a six-year long investigation following dawn raids in June 2011. Regulators worldwide have gone after numerous cartels, levying billions of euros in fines and even putting some executives in jail. The EU competition enforcer did not name the raided companies. World No. 1 airbag and seatbelt maker Autoliv ( ALV.N ) said in 2011 that two of its German factories were targeted. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-autos-antitrust/eu-set-to-fine-car-seatbelt-airbag-cartel-in-coming-weeks-sources-idUKKBN1DF2AO'|'2017-11-15T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'cb27c6763aa849bfd26d06302076bbba3e377936'|'U.S. delivery companies dig deep to hire holiday season help'|'SEATTLE (Reuters) - The tightest U.S. labor market this century is putting pressure on margins for freight haulers and warehouse operators as they bid for hundreds of thousands of workers to move packages during the peak holiday period. Forrest Lampe-Martin poses for a portrait during a UPS delivery as the international delivery service gears up for the upcoming peak delivery season prior to Christmas, in Seattle, Washington, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/David Ryder Transportation and delivery companies from United Parcel Service Inc ( UPS.N ) and FedEx ( FDX.N ) to XPO Logistics ( XPO.N ), Werner Enterprises ( WERN.O ) are raising pay beyond national averages, offering attendance bonuses, and adding attractive new trucks to their fleets. Competition for seasonal workers has intensified this year as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and others have set ambitious hiring goals in anticipation of strong holiday shopping. A risk for established delivery and trucking companies is that Amazon, which has beefed up its own delivery operations, could use its own networks more instead of paying vendors’ higher prices. Transportation companies must also weed out applicants who fail drug tests, and faced disruptions from summer hurricanes that idled thousands of workers. The added costs are pinching margins at some of the biggest U.S. logistics companies. Last week, trucking giants Schneider National ( SNDR.N ), Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc ( KNX.N ), and flatbed carrier Daseke Inc ( DSKE.O ) missed analyst earnings expectations, partly due to driver pay hikes. Cowen & Co analyst Jason Seidl said solid freight demand should push truck contract prices higher, but earnings for the next few quarters could be “somewhat curtailed” by driver costs and the timing of contracts. For UPS, cost pressures from peak season hiring and higher purchased transportation in certain locations could pressure margins and affect the success of the holiday season, Credit Suisse analyst Allison Landry said. Trucking and delivery companies will try to offset higher wages by raising prices, said Craig Fuller, Chief Executive of TransRisk, which creates trucking futures contracts using industry pricing data. Truck contract rates should increase between 6.5 and 12.5 percent in 2018 - the top of that range would be record-setting for the industry - and a “significant portion” will go into drivers’ pockets, Fuller said. Companies are seeking ways to offset labor costs. This year UPS rolled out peak season surcharges for residential packages, and has already announced increases for 2018. Separately, workers in UPS sorting facilities use Bluetooth audio linked to mobile devices to receive live directions on package routing, eliminating some 40 hours of on-the-job training. Rival FedEx is building out a network of drop-off locations to reduce residential delivery costs, which are higher than drop-offs to businesses. Economists predict faster wage growth as the labor market nears full employment. The unemployment rate is now 4.1 percent, the lowest since December 2000. A detail of Forrest Lampe-Martin''s uniform is seen during a UPS delivery as the international delivery service gears up for the upcoming peak delivery season prior to Christmas, in Seattle, Washington, U.S., November 9, 2017. REUTERS/David Ryder DRUG TEST TOLL To get seasonal workers, employers are easing some hiring criteria but keeping others in place. For trucking firm Werner, which has invested in new trucks and raised pay, applicants were plentiful this year but qualified ones were not. Werner hired just 2.7 percent of the roughly 100,000 drivers who applied, and eliminated more than 1,000 applicants who could not pass hair-follicle or urine drug tests. “It’s very difficult in this market not only for Werner but for every carrier,” Werner Chief Financial Officer John Steele told Reuters. At one Seattle terminal, managers stopped requiring seasonal drivers to know how to operate a manual transmission, offer $700 bonuses for seasonal drivers who show up every day for a week, and cash bonuses for employees who refer peak-season hires. Slideshow (15 Images) Supervisors plan additional overtime pay as needed. Median pay for truck drivers rose 4.1 percent from last year to $52,629, according to jobs website Glassdoor, well above overall wage growth. As truck firms hiked wages in the past couple of years, industry employment has followed suit, Jefferies analyst Stephen Volkmann said. For a graphic on trucking wages, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zC6YFf. UPS is using messaging app Snapchat ( SNAP.N ) to find workers in competitive markets like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, UPS global recruitment strategies director Paul Tanguay said. UPS is also seeking 2,700 rural drivers to deliver packages using their own cars, expanding a 2016 pilot program, Tanguay said. He declined to provide specifics on how close UPS was to reaching its goal of 95,000 seasonal workers. The labor market “definitely makes things more challenging to find people,” he said. Higher pay lured Seattle college student Forrest Lampe-Martin to UPS as a seasonal worker last year. The now full-time employee delivers packages for $18.69-an-hour plus overtime, well above the city’s minimum wage. “I bring people things that they are eagerly awaiting,” said Lampe-Martin, 23, said during a ride-along last week. “I feel like Santa with a brown suit.” Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-transportation-hiring/u-s-delivery-companies-dig-deep-to-hire-holiday-season-help-idUSKBN1DF2R9'|'2017-11-16T02:55:00.000+02:00'
'93fa505ba18becb9f97723b564573be1208418a2'|'Canada''s Cenovus to sell Weyburn asset to Whitecap for $739 mln'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canada’s Cenovus Energy Inc ( CVE.TO ) has reached a deal to sell its Weyburn oil facility for C$940 million ($738.53 million), the company said on Monday, completing its main divesture plans.Weyburn, to be sold to the western Canadian energy company Whitecap Resources Inc ( WCP.TO ), is the last of four main assets for which Cenovus has reached agreements to sell to pay down debt incurred in the C$16.8 billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) assets this year.The sale of Cenovus’s majority interest in Weyburn would bring its asset sale proceeds to just under C$4 billion, compared with its target of C$4 billion to C$5 billion in asset sales.Reuters last week reported Whitecap was a front-runner in bidding for the asset.Whitecap said in a statement it has agreed to buy a 62.1 percent operated working interest in Weyburn, which produces 14,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and other minor assets in the Saskatchewan province.Cenvous said in a statement the sales of Weyburn and other assets would help it retire a C$3.6 billion bridge loan it took for the ConocoPhillips deal, a move that is expected to please investors who balked at how the deal was financed.The acquisition eventually led to Cenovus’s naming Alex Pourbaix, a former executive at TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ), as its chief executive officer, replacing Brian Ferguson, who led the deal.Cenovus has said it may also sell part of the Deep Basin gas assets it acquired from ConocoPhillips.The company has been talking to potential buyers, sources have said.Reporting by Ethan LouEditing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cenovus-energy-divestiture-weyburn/canadas-cenovus-to-sell-weyburn-asset-to-whitecap-for-739-million-idUSKBN1DD2Q1'|'2017-11-13T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'efef22906b4a2a673efde55588c5994cca378e89'|'Red or dead: China shoot-em-up video game plays up socialist values'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:55 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Red or dead: China shoot-em-up video game plays up socialist values Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A popular Chinese video game, which involves battling other players with a variety of weapons, is showing off its red credentials after recent criticism by regulators of violent games in the world’s biggest gaming market. China’s content regulator said late last month it was unlikely to give licenses to gory, violent video games that deviated from core socialist values and that went against traditional Chinese culture and morals. But “Wildness Action”, a battleground game developed by China’s NetEase, may have found a solution. It has added red banners into the game with slogans such as “safeguard national security, safeguard world peace”. The state-run Global Times newspaper said late on Tuesday the game had changed violent elements into “harmonious ones with Chinese characteristics” and had slogans with excerpts from a report delivered at the recent Communist Party congress. Under President Xi Jinping, China has been on a drive to cleanse online content, from video streaming to games, to meet strict rules that ban material that is too violent or goes against Communist Party values. NetEase did not respond to requests for comment. However, in an earlier statement posted prominently on the game’s official website, NetEase said it would act “strictly in accordance” with regulators’ guidance and would tweak its games to make sure they adhered to “core socialist values”. NetEase and rival game developer Tencent Holdings Ltd dominate China’s fast-growing gaming market, which is set to rake in $27.5 billion in sales this year, according to gaming consultancy Newzoo. China criticized top-selling “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” last month - a South Korea-made multiplayer game, whose players kill to be the last survivor. Wildness Action is seen as a close imitation of that game. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-gaming/red-or-dead-china-shoot-em-up-video-game-plays-up-socialist-values-idUSL3N1NL3EA'|'2017-11-15T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'0b9d44a16bdadfdaae3ceef4da8c836e6c3531ff'|'Firefox opts for Google as default search in U.S., surprising Yahoo'|'November 14, 2017 / 11:44 PM / Updated an hour ago Firefox opts for Google as default search in U.S., surprising Yahoo Paresh Dave 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google reclaimed on Tuesday its spot as the default search engine on Mozilla Corp’s Firefox Internet browser in the United States and other regions as the browser maker stunned Verizon Communication Inc’s ( VZ.N ) Yahoo by cancelling their deal. FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Google confirmed the move but declined, along with Mozilla, to disclose revenue-sharing terms of the multiyear agreement. Google’s growing spending to be the primary search provider on apps and devices such as Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhone has been a major investor concern. Google will be Firefox’s default search provider on desktop and mobile in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s chief business and legal officer. The decision was “based on a number of factors including doing what’s best for our brand, our effort to provide quality web search and the broader content experience for our users,” Dixon said. “We believe there are opportunities to work with Oath and Verizon outside of search.” Yahoo had been the default in the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Firefox did not have an official partner in Canada. Verizon said Mozilla terminating the Yahoo agreement caught it off guard. “We are surprised that Mozilla has decided to take another path, and we are in discussions with them regarding the terms of our agreement,” said Charles Stewart, a spokesman for Verizon’s Oath unit, which oversees Yahoo. The search provider switch came as Mozilla announced Firefox Quantum, a faster, new version of the browser that company says is “30 percent lighter” than Google Chrome in that it uses less computer memory. For a decade until 2014, Google had been Firefox’s worldwide search provider. Google then remained the default in Europe while regional rivals such as Yahoo, Russia’s Yandex ( YNDX.O ) and China’s Baidu Inc ( BIDU.O ) replaced it elsewhere. Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer won a five-year contract with Mozilla in 2014 when Firefox and Google''s Chrome browser were battling for users. ( reut.rs/2hsYZQo ) Chrome’s U.S. market share has since doubled to about 60 percent, according to data from analytics provider StatCounter, with Mozilla, Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) browsers capturing the rest. Yahoo paid Mozilla $375 million in 2015 and said that it would pay at least the same amount annually through 2019, according to regulatory filings. Yahoo and Google aim to recoup placement fees by selling ads alongside search results and collecting valuable user data. Google said in October that contract changes drove a 54 percent increase in such fees to $2.4 billion in the third quarter. Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alphabet-search/firefox-opts-for-google-as-default-search-in-u-s-surprising-yahoo-idUKKBN1DE36E'|'2017-11-15T04:21:00.000+02:00'
'a4acd87dffe636998c305a953b4d1257aaa0e87f'|'Sun, wind and water: Africa''s renewable energy set to soar by 2022'|' 43 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Sun, wind and water: Africa''s renewable energy set to soar by 2022 Wendell Roelf 3 Min Read CAPE TOWN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Strong demand is set to give a huge boost to renewable energy growth in Sub-Sahara Africa over the next five years, driving cumulative capacity up more than 70 percent, a senior international energy official said on Wednesday. From Ethiopia to South Africa, millions of people are getting access to electricity for the first time as the continent turns to solar, wind and hydropower projects to boost generation capacity. “A big chunk of this (growth) is hydro because of Ethiopia, but then you have solar ... in South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia and wind in South Africa and Ethiopia as well,” said Paolo Frankl, head of the renewable division at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). He forecast installed capacity of renewable energy in the Sub-Sahara region almost doubling from around 35 gigawatts now to above 60 GW given the right conditions. Ethiopia has an array of hydropower projects under construction, including the $4.1 billion Grand Renaissance Dam along the Nile River that will churn out 6,000 MW upon completion. That is enough for a good-sized city for a year. “Africa has one of the best potential resources of renewables anywhere in the world, but it depends very much on the enabling framework, on the governance and the right rules,” Frankl told Reuters on the sidelines of a wind energy conference. The transition to a low-carbon trajectory to reduce harmful greenhouse gases is creating opposition from the coal industry and fueling uncertainty in countries where job creation was linked to coal mining. In Africa, this tension and its impact on new investment has been best illustrated by South Africa’s state-owned Eskom and its reluctance to sign new deals with independent power producers, according to analysts. In May, the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) said the energy regulator agreed to investigate Eskom’s refusal to sign agreements that delayed 2,942 MW in new solar and wind projects. “Our government does not appear to appreciate the forces of nature,” said Mark Pickering, chairman of SAWEA, on Wednesday. The inability of Eskom to sign the new power purchase agreements for two years has delayed investment of 58 billion rand ($4.03 billion), and hit investor confidence with at least one wind turbine manufacturing plant closing down, said SAWEA. “The continent has a lot of potential, but the problem is financial and political issues, so all of our projects are being delayed for quite a long time, like with Eskom,” said Mason Qin, business development manager for southern and eastern Africa at China’s Goldwind. ($1 = 14.3803 rand) (Reporting by Wendell Roelf Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/africa-windpower/sun-wind-and-water-africas-renewable-energy-set-to-soar-by-2022-idUSL8N1NL3MR'|'2017-11-15T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'2ef36dd18e7e52f4a8aa4707a49d8ed58a90f0e8'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. SEC chair says does not support call for delay to new regulatory audit system'|'(Recasts with statement by SEC Chair Jay Clayton)By John McCrankNEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Chairman of the U.S. securities regulator said on Tuesday he did not support an industry request that had cited cyber security concerns to delay the rollout of a massive new database aimed at helping the regulator better police markets.U.S. stock exchanges on Monday requested the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postpone by a year implementation of the first phase of the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT, which was to begin on Wednesday, according to a letter to the SEC dated Nov. 13 and posted on its website.It was signed by representatives from Intercontinental Exchange’s New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Inc, CBOE Global Markets and other exchanges.The request is largely due to security concerns, including the lack of ability for users to test the system in an environment with production-level security, the exchanges said.“Recent high-profile security breaches, such as the breach at Equifax, have highlighted the vulnerability of systems holding large volumes of sensitive financial data to hacking and other forms of attack,” they said in the letter.The exchanges also said they have had difficulties approving a chief information security officer to oversee security of the database, which would be one of the world’s largest.However, on Tuesday SEC Chair Jay Clayton said he could not support the requested delay but that he would continue to work closely with the exchanges to address their concerns.“With regard to cybersecurity, I have informed the that protection of the information submitted to the CAT is of paramount importance and that I am open to various paths for addressing cybersecurity matters,” he said in a statement.“Additionally, I have made it clear that the SEC will not retrieve sensitive information from the CAT unless we believe appropriate protections are in place.”Clayton’s rejection of the request means the implementation of the first phase of CAT is set to formally begin as scheduled on Wednesday, although it is unclear if the exchanges will be able to comply on time.The CAT has been hit by a series of delays since being ordered by the SEC after the May 2010 “flash crash”, even though the regulator has said it views completion of the database as critical to its oversight of markets.It has been likened to a Hubble Telescope for financial markets and will be a central database for all stock and options “message traffic”, meaning every trade order, execution, modification and cancellation. It will also hold highly sensitive personal identifying information, such as the social security numbers of exchange customers.After the flash crash, in which around $1 trillion was wiped from the stock market within minutes before an almost equally rapid rebound, it took several months to piece together the data needed to attempt to diagnose what caused the event. CAT would greatly speed up such an investigation.The SEC tasked the exchanges with creating CAT’s rules, including how it would be funded. A fee plan for the project has faced delays after some financial firms complained that the exchanges wanted fees from brokers, banks and other traders to cover the bulk of the costs. (Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Dan Grebler and Muralikumar Anantharaman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-exchanges-regulation/update-1-u-s-sec-chair-says-does-not-support-call-for-delay-to-new-regulatory-audit-system-idUSL1N1NL05T'|'2017-11-15T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'd6967e4a266387a3493fde7b2cd0034574579c6c'|'AerCap near deals to supply Airbus and Boeing jets to EgyptAir -sources'|'DUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Leasing company AerCap is nearing deals to supply Airbus and Boeing jets to EgyptAir, sources familiar with the matter said.The deals were due to be announced at the Dubai Airshow on Wednesday, they said.AerCap, the world’s largest independent aircraft leasing company, could not be reached for comment. Airbus and Boeing declined to comment. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Tom Arnold) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-aercap-hldg/aercap-near-deals-to-supply-airbus-and-boeing-jets-to-egyptair-sources-idINL8N1NL146'|'2017-11-15T04:12:00.000+02:00'
'3897045fa03c06c5659d3222eaeb0f76bfc9c046'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Turkish lira near record lows, emerging stocks at two-week low'|'LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Turkish lira hovered near record lows on Wednesday and emerging market equities fell to two-week lows, tracking developed markets after falling oil prices shook enthusiasm for energy stocks.The Russian rouble also weakened to its lowest against the dollar since early August after falling almost 2 percent on Tuesday, before rebounding 0.4 percent.With the dollar weakening 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies, emerging market currencies were mainly trading flat or higher.But the Turkish lira continued to struggle after hitting a record low against the euro on Tuesday. Against the dollar, it was 0.2 percent firmer but still not far off the record lows seen in January.The lira has come under sustained pressure in recent weeks following a diplomatic spat with the United States and a deteriorating economic position.The Turkish budget showed a deficit of 3.3 billion lira in October, compared with 104 million lira in the same period a year ago, and September’s current account deficit widened by more than expected.“We continue to see the lira as a losing currency over the long term,” said Cristian Maggio, head of emerging markets strategy at TD Securities.“I would expect the lira to be cheap if it reaches higher levels, but it is a tactical opportunity, rather than being related to anything fundamental in the long run.”The average yield spread of Turkish sovereign bonds over U.S. Treasuries on the JPMorgan EMBI Global Diversified was also 2 basis points wider at 330 bps, having risen 23 bps since the start of November.MSCI’s benchmark emerging market stocks index was down 0.3 percent, falling for a fifth straight day, its longest losing streak since September.Oil producers were hit after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global oil demand, triggering a sell-off in oil prices on Tuesday.Brent crude futures extended losses on Wednesday, falling around 1 percent to below $62 a barrel.Russian stocks fell 0.9 percent to one-week lows and some Gulf bourses continued to struggle, with Saudi Arabia down 0.3 percent and Dubai down 0.5 percent.In Asia, Chinese mainland markets extended Tuesday’s losses, hurt by resources shares amid signs of a slowdown in industrial production .The blue-chip index fell 0.6 percent, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.8 percent and Hong Kong stocks were down over 1 percent.Venezuela remained in the spotlight. On Tuesday, Fitch downgraded Venezuelan bonds to selective default, citing delays in paying interest on bonds maturing in 2019 and 2024 .The decision followed a similar one by S&P on Monday and another by Fitch on the debt of PDVSA, the state oil company. Trade body ISDA said that it would reconvene again on Thursday to discuss whether PDVSA had triggered a credit event through a late payment of its 2017N bond.PDVSA dollar bonds were steady, but some sovereign issues continued to fall, with the 2023 issue down 4.3 cents and the 2027 bond down 1.5 cents.Investors were also watching Zimbabwe, where the military seized power, targeting “criminals” around President Robert Mugabe. In the last year, an absence of dollars has led to long queues outside banks and an economic and financial collapse.South African President Jacob Zuma called for the government and army to resolve their differences amicably.The rand was 0.25 percent firmer, after dipping in early trade. Maggio at TD Securities said the impact from Zimbabwe could play out in different ways, noting that the first reaction had not been harsh.“You could see some money move out of Zimbabwe and move into neighbouring countries, which could be good for South Africa. Then again, if you get a full-blown civil war and refugees, that could be negative for South Africa. It is really hard to say at this point which scenario is playing out,” he said.For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see) Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chgon yearMorgan Stanley Emrg Mkt Indx 1115.14 -3.18 -0.28 +29.33Czech Rep 1060.36 -2.09 -0.20 +15.06Poland 2445.73 -18.62 -0.76 +25.56Hungary 38905.44 -235.00 -0.60 +21.57Romania 7806.97 +2.24 +0.03 +10.19Greece 714.21 -5.97 -0.83 +10.96Russia 1123.86 -13.00 -1.14 -2.47South Africa 53294.92 +21.18 +0.04 +21.40Turkey 10268.68 +120.23 +0.11 +41.12China 3402.54 -27.01 -0.79 +9.63India 32739.66 -202.21 -0.61 +22.96Currencies Latest Prev Local Localclose currency currency% change % changein 2017Czech Rep 25.68 25.60 -0.34 +5.16Poland 4.25 4.25 -0.07 +3.67Hungary 311.68 311.63 -0.02 -0.92Romania 4.63 4.64 +0.21 -2.08Serbia 118.40 118.43 +0.03 +4.18Russia 60.19 60.44 +0.42 +1.79Kazakhstan 332.66 332.40 -0.08 +0.30Ukraine 26.48 26.50 +0.08 +1.96South Africa 14.32 14.36 +0.26 -4.11Kenya 103.60 103.60 +0.00 -1.19Israel 3.53 3.53 +0.16 +9.10Turkey 3.88 3.88 +0.13 -9.10China 6.62 6.64 +0.27 +4.93India 65.16 65.40 +0.37 +4.27Brazil 3.31 3.31 -0.02 -1.81Mexico 19.14 19.16 +0.11 +8.22Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn IndexSov‘gn Debt EMBIG 328 4 .03 7 96.08 1Reporting by Claire Milhench,; additional reporting by Karin Strohecker; graphic by Sujata Rao, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-turkish-lira-near-record-lows-emerging-stocks-at-two-week-low-idUSL8N1NL2D0'|'2017-11-15T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'cd8a4b8ac6735b2fe4096a4ceb6b8a76a2840b54'|'AXA''s U.S. insurance, asset management unit files for IPO'|' The U.S. unit of the French insurer AXA has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), according to a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday.The listed company, AXA Equitable Holdings, would have more than $600 billion of assets under management which will come from two existing American channels, AXA Equitable Life and AllianceBernstein, according to the S-1 document published on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.AXA currently holds approximately 63 percent of AllianceBernstein across three entities, ownership of which will be transferred into AXA Equitable Holdings prior to the initial public offering.No valuation for the new business, in which AXA will retain a majority position after the flotation, was given in the document, but a source familiar with the matter said it could be close to 13 billion euros ($15.16 billion).AXA Chief Executive Thomas Buberl outlined plans in May to overhaul the group’s U.S. operations ahead of a spin-off IPO in 2018, in order to free up capital and pursue takeover targets elsewhere.JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have been chosen to coordinate the IPO, the document said. A number of other banks will assist as bookrunners on the deal, bankers aware of the matter said.As part of the reorganization process ahead of the IPO, AXA’s U.S. property and casualty business would be transferred to the parent firm. Reinsurance currently in place for AXA Equitable Life would also be unwound, the document added.Total pro forma revenue of AXA Equitable Holdings in the six months to June 30 was $6.99 billion, according to the SEC filing.A number of insurance companies have spun off their U.S. life insurance businesses, or are considering such an action, as the low interest rate environment continues to stymie growth in the sector.In August, Metlife split off its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial, and distributed shares in the company to its own shareholders. The Chief Executive of Canadian insurer Manulife Financial Corp said last week that it was considering “all options” for its John Hancock unit.Reporting by David French; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-axa-sa-ipo-usa/axas-u-s-insurance-asset-management-unit-files-for-ipo-idUSKBN1DD2VA'|'2017-11-14T01:39:00.000+02:00'
'8628e6c4d49ad9dcb38145ff886d6c9809ad6f53'|'Surging wages, spending kick central Europe''s economies into higher gear'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:04 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Surging wages, spending kick central Europe''s economies into higher gear Jason Hovet , Radu-Sorin Marinas 4 Min Read PRAGUE/BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Central and eastern Europe’s economies kicked into higher gear in the third quarter with forecast-beating growth, as manufacturers thrived and tightening labour markets boosted wages and consumer spending. A block of new flats is built as the growing economy and low interest rates are fuelling a housing boom in Budapest, Hungary October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo The European Union’s eastern half has been outpacing growth in the richer euro zone, moving the region further along a path towards catching up with its western neighbours -- a trend that Tuesday’s preliminary estimates suggested would continue. The data may also shift some of emerging Europe’s central banks closer to raising interest rates, weeks after the European Central Bank extended the stimulus programme that underpins its ultra-loose policy to next September. Romania’s economy was the standout, with a near 9 percent year-on-year jump in output. Czech year-on-year growth, at 5.0 percent, was the fastest in two years, while Poland expanded by 4.7 percent to mark the biggest gain since 2011. Hungary grew by 3.6 percent, Slovakia 3.3 percent and Bulgaria 3.9 percent. The growth surge, which is expected to peak this year, has been driven by rising demand for exports of cars, electronics and supply chain parts. Fast-falling unemployment is, in turn, driving wages higher and lifting households’ spending. That combination is also putting monetary authorities on alert over inflation after years of easy policy. “We still think growth will slow in 2018, but today’s data mean the risks to our forecasts lie to the upside,” Capital Economics emerging Europe economist Liam Carson said. “These strong GDP data support our view that interest rates will be hiked sooner and by more than most expect across the region.” Moving first to get ahead of price growth, the Czech central bank has already lifted its main rate - which had sat near zero since 2012 - to 0.5 percent with two hikes since August. With Czech wages set to grow over 7 percent this year and next, according to central bank forecasts, analysts are expecting a steady stream of rate hikes in 2018 as well. CZCBIR=ECI Poland may start hiking next year and Romania, too, is forecast to begin lifting its base rate, at 1.75 percent, by the end of the first quarter. WAGE BOOSTER While private employers have lifted wages to get workers, governments have also been promising hefty pay rises and other benefits. Poland launched a child benefit programme in the first half of 2016 worth about 1 percent of GDP and an outgoing Czech government lifted state workers’ pay by 10-15 percent this year. Wage and pension hikes are also fuelling consumption in Romania, where third-quarter GDP growth surged to 8.8 percent, a full 3 percentage points above expectations. Without a clear breakdown yet, analysts saw consumption as the main economic driver. “(The Romanian central bank) will surely need to tighten policy,” Ionut Dumitru, chief economist at Raiffeisen Bank in Bucharest, said. “The size of economic growth is way above potential, we’re probably discussing now clear signs of overheating.” ING estimated the data will help push full-year growth to above 7.0 percent before it slows next year due to labour shortages. Faster growth in the euro zone, seen in third-quarter German data on Tuesday showing GDP rising 2.3 percent year-on-year, should continue to nurse Romania and others in central Europe through any slowdowns. Growth in Poland, where unemployment is around the lowest level since its transition from communism in the early 1990s, may reach over 4 percent in 2017, while the Czech central bank sees its economy growing 4.5 percent this year before slowing to 3.4 percent in 2018. The two countries are also seeing recovering investments adding another driver to growth following a lull in recent years connected to a drop in EU subsidy flows. “The fast and pronounced revival of investments, strong household consumption and robust export growth will push this year’s (Czech) GDP growth,” the Czech Banking Association said. Reporting by Jason Hovet and Robert Muller in Prague, Krisztina Than in Budapest, and Marcin Goettig in Warsaw; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-easteurope-economy/surging-wages-spending-kick-central-europes-economies-into-higher-gear-idUKKBN1DE1J2'|'2017-11-14T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'ed7ecd4a4cd552cd3939c2ca04044823f64ff5b6'|'Air France indignant after cabin crew held in Argentina'|'November 14, 2017 / 4:01 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Air France indignant after cabin crew held in Argentina Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The president of Air France-KLM Jean-Marc Janaillac has expressed “indignation” at the detention of members of a flight crew in Argentina and referred the matter to the French Foreign Ministry. Jean-Marc Janaillac, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM and Chairman of Air France, poses next to the logo of the new "Joon" lower-cost airline during a news conference in Paris, France, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau The incident, which occurred in late October, could further test relations after French complaints over the renewed imports of Argentine biodiesel to the European Union and as French shipbuilding company Naval Group negotiates the sale of four ships to the South American country. France’s SNPNC labour union, which represents cabin crew, said the employees were detained over a two-day period after the daughter of a former Argentine justice minister, who was a passenger on the transatlantic flight, filed a complaint. “Chairman Jean-Marc Janaillac expressed his indignation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the arbitrary detention conditions that the Air France crew were subjected to,” Air France-KLM said in a statement on Tuesday. “Air France has asked the relevant authorities to shed light on this case.” The SNPNC union said the passenger had demanded an upgrade to business class which was refused because the cabin was full. The passenger then sought a different seat, citing a neighbour with a disagreeable attitude. “They were arrested by police and interrogated under conditions that flouted fundamental rights, before they were incarcerated and later released without explanation,” the SNPNC said in a statement on its website. In a letter to the Argentine Embassy in Paris, the union said the flight crew’s purser was separated from colleagues during questioning and held in a room measuring one square metre without food or water under the surveillance of two armed guards. France’s Foreign Ministry has demanded an explanation from the Argentine authorities, a ministry official told Reuters. A spokeswoman for Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said it was investigating the conduct of the airport police with the security ministry. “If they were excessive in their use of force their superiors will decide what to do,” the spokeswoman said. Reporting by Cyril Altmeyer and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris and Nicolas Misculin in Buenos Aires; Editing by Richard Lough'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-argentina-airfrance/air-france-indignant-after-cabin-crew-held-in-argentina-idUKKBN1DE25X'|'2017-11-14T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'62e48febc5e6293f1dc87a918accf4a4fe23cb32'|'Britain pledges protection for bankers from EU migration curbs'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:20 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Britain pledges protection for bankers from EU migration curbs Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit secretary David Davis sought to reassure the financial services sector on Tuesday with a commitment to make bankers exempt from curbs on immigration after Brexit. David Davis, Britain''s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, arrives in Downing Street, London, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Responding to industry concerns that it will be harder to recruit European staff after Britain leaves the European Union, Davis said the government’s new immigration policy will aim to allow highly skilled workers to move around the continent. For example, Davis told a conference of bankers in London, a bank should be able to temporarily move an employee to an office in Germany or a lawyer visit a client in Paris. He said the government will introduce a new immigration bill next year setting out those plans in more detail. Banks have expressed concern that a crackdown on immigration may hamper their ability to find staff with the right skills. “Ensuring that the financial services sector can attract the talent it needs to thrive is also vital as we leave the EU,” Davis said. “We want to ensure that our new partnership with the EU protects the mobility of workers and professionals.” The City of London, home to global foreign exchange, bonds and fund management operations and to more banks than any other financial centre, faces upheaval as firms decide whether to shift jobs to continental Europe to keep serving customers there after Britain leaves the EU in 2019. “Its clear that Government understands the sector’s concerns surrounding Brexit, and we welcome that,” City of London policy chair Catherine McGuinness said in a statement, adding “But we now need to see these words turned into action”. Davis said the government wants a trade pact with the EU in financial services that will ensure financial stability, consumer protection and honour the global regulatory rules adopted in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Davis said he was “confident that in conversations about the future partnership we want with the EU, we will be able to achieve these objectives, together, and provide clarity and certainty to businesses working across Europe.” Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Huw Jones; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banking/britain-pledges-protection-for-bankers-from-eu-migration-curbs-idUKKBN1DE2DD'|'2017-11-15T03:08:00.000+02:00'
'ad940c01bccf2cdb8910f870b8c698e3c0e6d6cf'|'AIRSHOW-Record Airbus order as Franke ups bet on budget airlines'|'* Preliminary wholesale deal worth $50 bln at list prices* A320neo-family planes for Frontier, Volaris, JetSMART, Wizz Air* Boeing in $27 bln deal with flydubai (Adds detail)By Tim Hepher and Alexander CornwellDUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Airbus hailed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an umbrella agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke.The preliminary deal for A320neo-family narrowbody jets was signed at the Dubai Airshow and offers a major boost to Airbus, which has lagged arch-rival Boeing in orders this year.It also ensures veteran sales chief John Leahy retires on a high in the coming months.Boeing immediately hit back with a provisional agreement to sell 175 planes to budget airline flydubai. Including options to buy a further 50 planes, that deal could be worth $27 billion at list prices.The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is billed as the industry’s largest by number of aircraft.For Airbus, the $49.5 billion list price value is seen as a record, though it is eclipsed by a $76 billion Emirates deal with Boeing in 2013.“I think we could buy several countries’ GDP with it,” said Franke, a gentlemanly but hard-nosed negotiator who is said to have won unusually steep discounts to advertised prices.“Hopefully I can do better than that,” he added.The package technically covers four separate agreements jointly negotiated through Franke as a common investor, and Airbus billed the deal only as a record “announcement”.Franke did not take part in a signing by airline chiefs.A person close to the talks said that such “wholesale” aircraft deals could become more common as more private equity and new sources of funding come into the airline business.‘HERDING CATS’Indigo plans to supply the narrowbody jets to four airlines in which it has stakes: U.S. carrier Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, Chilean JetSMART and Hungary’s Wizz Air.Ultra-low-cost carriers such as these have rewritten the industry rule book by combining bargain fares with optional services and upgrades for passengers prepared to pay extra.Franke went to Airbus several months ago with a proposal to pool the needs of his airlines, setting in train a complex negotiation that one observer described as “herding cats”.Airbus, shares of which rose by 2.4 percent on Wednesday, said it expects to finalise the transaction directly with the airlines in the coming weeks as it tries to close a 250-plane deficit in its order race with Boeing. Franke described this as an aggressive but achievable target.For now, the headline total of almost 700 jets covered by air show announcements fails to change the order battle as barely 30 of the deals so far represent finalised contracts.The framework deal, along with flydubai’s deal for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets, underscores how airlines are taking advantage of slowing global demand to negotiate competitive deals to add to their fleets.SWAN SONG The Franke deal also marks a dramatic swan song for Airbus sales chief Leahy, who is due to retire in the coming months from a role he has held since 1994. The 67-year-old has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and helped to lift Airbus’s market share from a mere 18 percent to stand roughly at par with Boeing. The two rivals account for the vast majority of the market.This year, however, Airbus’s share of the order tally had dropped to 35 percent before the Dubai show, with a rejuvenated Boeing management having made advances in Singapore and elsewhere.The blockbuster finale to the main part of the Nov. 12-16 show lifted a despondent mood that had settled over the Airbus chalet when a deal for A380 superjumbos collapsed on day one.“I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters. (Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter and David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airshow-record-airbus-order-as-franke-ups-bet-on-budget-airlines-idINL8N1NL52V'|'2017-11-15T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'70b7722043a6264a8ec735d5a3bafac446e77ade'|'Boeing in 175 plane deal with budget carrier flydubai'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Boeing Co. ( BA.N ) reached a preliminary deal for 175 of its 737 MAX jets with flydubai on Wednesday, potentially committing the budget airline’s fleet to the U.S. planemaker for another decade.Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President & Chief Executive Kevin McAllister attend a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar The Dubai-based carrier wants more than 50 of Boeing’s largest narrowbody jet, the 737-10, as well as to-be-determined numbers of its 737-9s and 737-8s, Boeing said in a statement at the Dubai Airshow.Reuters had reported that Boeing was close to reaching a deal with flydubai for 175 737 MAX jets.Flydubai Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum told a news conference the provisional deal was struck Tuesday night.It is flydubai’s third aircraft deal. It agreed to buy 75 737-8 MAX aircraft at the Dubai Airshow four years ago.“We try to grow as fast as we want,” Chief Executive Ghaith al-Ghaith told reporters.Delivery of flydubai’s 175 planes will begin in 2019 and be spread across 10 years with some overlap with the delivery of its 2013 order, al-Ghaith said.The current fleet of flydubai, which started flights in 2009, is all Boeing. It currently only operates 737-8s.The provisional deal is worth $27 billion, including purchasing options for an additional 50 planes.Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, Flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al-Ghaith, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President & Chief Executive Kevin McAllister pose during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar Al-Ghaith told Reuters the airline was interested in the new mid-sized jet that Boeing is studying whether to develop, but that it had not been discussed during the 737 negotiations.Boeing is looking at potentially filling a market gap between narrow and widebody jets with a new aircraft that could seat 220 to 270 passengers.Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Kevin McAllister told the news conference that flydubai’s 737 commitment would be good for jobs in the United States and in the Middle East.Slideshow (2 Images) Gulf customers are keen to stress the importance of their orders for U.S. jobs as they are locked in a trade dispute with three major American carriers.Sheikh Ahmed said the airline had picked the 737s after also looking at Airbus’ ( AIR.PA ) similar-sized A320s, echoing comments he made this week in his role as Emirates [EMIRA.UL] chairman when he said the 787 had been chosen over the Airbus A350.Dubai-based Emirates this week committed to buying 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.Emirates and flydubai are both owned by the government of Dubai, which has pushed the two airlines to work more closely.McAllister said the flydubai and Emirates deals were negotiated separately.Also on Wednesday, Airbus reached a preliminary deal for a record 430 of its A320neo-family jets from U.S. investor Bill Franke’s Indigo Partners.Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-flydubai-jets/flydubai-orders-175-boeing-jets-purchasing-options-for-50-more-idUSKBN1DF11M'|'2017-11-15T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'fba1ddc54b9ab62b468facc91ccd341e796455cb'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 14'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:51 AM / Updated an hour ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 14 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - The Justice Department said prosecutors were looking into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate political rivals U.S. President Donald Trump has singled out for scrutiny, including Hillary Clinton. nyti.ms/2hwQIyt - John Flannery, the new chief of General Electric Co , is backing away from the ambitious designs of his two predecessors. The new G.E., he declared repeatedly in his first detailed presentation on its future, will be a smaller company with fewer businesses. nyti.ms/2hxBSaH - U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Alex Azar II, a former president of the American division of Eli Lilly and Co and a health official in the George Bush administration, on Monday to be secretary of health and human services. nyti.ms/2jnGFfB - Two U.S. Navy SEAL commandos under investigation in the strangling of an Army Green Beret soldier in June in Mali have also been under scrutiny in the theft of money from a fund used to pay confidential informants, according to three service members briefed on the matter. nyti.ms/2jo8556 - For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a digital pill — a medication embedded with a sensor that can tell doctors whether, and when, patients take their medicine. The approval, announced late on Monday, marks a significant advance in the growing field of digital devices designed to monitor medicine-taking and to address the expensive, longstanding problem that millions of patients do not take drugs as prescribed. nyti.ms/2jsvTF2 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-14-idUSL3N1NK2HE'|'2017-11-14T07:48:00.000+02:00'
'e8ed897e516184e839fb27320b2b40612e33f96d'|'SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached'|' 23 AM / Updated 4 hours ago SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp said on Tuesday that it was considering investing in Uber Technologies Inc but there was no final agreement at this stage. “If conditions on share price and a minimum of shares are not satisfactory for the SoftBank Group side, there is a possibility the SoftBank Group may not make an investment,” it said in a statement. Uber said earlier this week that a planned deal with SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The investment could be worth up to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. (Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-softbank/softbank-says-considering-investment-in-uber-but-no-final-agreement-reached-idUST9N1N6041'|'2017-11-14T03:22:00.000+02:00'
'c19c5d81351d7155b72cf4451a2c8b71cf0467c6'|'UPDATE 1-TJX''s same-store sales flat in hurricane-hit Q3, shares fall'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago UPDATE 1-TJX''s same-store sales flat in hurricane-hit Q3, shares fall Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details, share price) Nov 14 (Reuters) - TJX Cos Inc reported flat same-store sales in the third quarter, blaming the impact of hurricanes in the United States and unseasonably warmer weather that dampened sales of cold weather apparel at its Marmaxx stores. Shares of the company, which also missed quarterly revenue forecast, were down 6 percent in trading before the bell on Tuesday. Shoppers seeking the company’s hallmark bargain deals drove sales higher by 6 percent to $8.8 billion in the third quarter, slightly below the $8.86 billion that analysts on average had expected. However, comparable store sales in the company’s Marmaxx unit, which includes T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, reported a surprise 1 percent drop compared to analysts’ expectations of a 1.4 percent rise, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Overall, TJX’s comparable store sales were flat in the third quarter, missing the 2.2 percent rise expected by analysts. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company’s net income rose to $641.44 million, or $1 per share in the third quarter ended Oct. 28, from $550 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier. The company said it expects holiday-quarter same-store sales growth of 1-2 percent and added it continues to see its fiscal 2018 profit forecast at the high-end of the range of $3.91 to $3.93 per share. (Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Patrick Graham)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/tjx-companies-results/update-1-tjxs-same-store-sales-flat-in-hurricane-hit-q3-shares-fall-idUSL3N1NK5GR'|'2017-11-14T15:59:00.000+02:00'
'beae2cddebc7897cbd795de94bdfc13a9117a5ef'|'JPMorgan Asset Management long on sterling, optimistic on Italian debt'|'November 14, 2017 / 3:08 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago JPMorgan AM long on sterling, optimistic on Italian debt Saikat Chatterjee 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates was a correct move and policymakers may raise them a couple of times next year, a top JP Morgan Asset Management executive said on Tuesday. Nick Gartside, the fund firm’s international chief investment officer for fixed income, currency and commodities, said risks to economic growth in Britain are tilted to the upside given global growth. So the firm has taken a “modestly long” sterling position. “On gilts we have no particular position because of valuations but on sterling we are long and we tactically started that position about three to four weeks ago,” Gartside who also co-manages their multi-sector fixed income products told Reuters’ 2018 Global Investment Summit. Sterling has taken a beating since the Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates earlier this month, falling nearly 2 percent as markets have ramped up their bets that interest rates will rise only twice over the next three years. Gartside expects the U.S. yield curve to flatten more in the coming months and could “get really close to zero next year” as higher interest rates push up the shorter end of the curve while low inflation continues to pressure longer term interest rates lower but that is unlikely a recession indicator. JP Morgan Asset Management expects the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates three times next year. UPBEAT ON HIGH YIELD, ITALY Despite last week’s outflows from high yield debt and a widening in spreads, Gartside remained upbeat on the outlook for both U.S. and European high yield debt due to an improving global economy which has increased the likelihood of more upgrades than downgrades in ratings. More ratings upgrades also trigger a change in the composition of the underlying high yield bond index as more lower-yielding but lower-rated bonds are upgraded leaving behind a basket of higher-yielding but lower-quality debt. “Over the next 6 to 9 months it could shrink by as much as 10 percent,” Gartside who has had stints with Schroders, Mercury Asset Management before joining JPMorgan Asset Management in 2010 said. (For a graphic on Eurozone bonds returns click reut.rs/2zMUknj )Gartside said yields on junk bonds rise because of two main factors, namely the prospects of recession and when companies start to undertake debt to do a lot of equity-friendly activity such as finance transactions and pay dividends, both of which are unlikely in the European scenario. Yields on Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s high yield bond indexes for both European and U.S. high yield debt has risen by 25-30 basis points so far this month with funds facing outflows. “If you are a corporate treasurer in Europe then the memory of the crisis is a very recent and raw memory and levels of leverage are generally sensible,” he said. JP Morgan AM is also bullish on Italian bonds because the underlying economic fundamentals are improving as evident from a recent upgrade by ratings agency S&P, its first in more than two decades and underlying structural strengths such as a current account surplus. “Growth in Italy is not going to be super strong but the direction has shifted and turned and we’d argue that’s the real story,” Gartside said. OTHER POSITIONS: * Overweight emerging market local debt funded by a basket of developed market currencies including the dollar and the euro compared to only using the greenback earlier. * Overweight Turkey and South Africa local debt. * No place for cryptocurrencies in investment portfolios. Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits For other news from Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit, click here Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee Additional reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-investment-summit-jpmorgan-am/jpmorgan-am-long-on-sterling-optimistic-on-italian-debt-idUKKBN1DE21N'|'2017-11-14T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'b5c651db056f2aa6bfe2d50b6ca86ce5e8881dfc'|'Sensex edges lower on inflation concerns; banks, IT stocks down'|'(Reuters) - Indian shares ended lower on Tuesday as accelerating inflation reduced the possibility of the central bank cutting interest rates at its next policy meeting.A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files Retail inflation picked up in October to a seven-month high, government data showed on Monday, driven by faster rises in prices of food and fuel products.The broader NSE index closed 0.38 percent lower at 10,186.60, while the benchmark BSE index dropped 0.28 percent to 32,941.87.Larsen & Toubro was the biggest drag with a decline of 2.45 percent.Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-edges-lower-on-inflation-concerns-banks-it-stocks-down-idINKBN1DE0I6'|'2017-11-14T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'0fa3ab4ca356ce849f0e2b4ee58e1206c8a2d287'|'The fatal flaw of neoliberalism: it''s bad economics'|'The long read The fatal flaw of neoliberalism: it''s bad economics Neoliberalism and its usual prescriptions – always more markets, always less government – are in fact a perversion of mainstream economics. By Dani Rodrik Neoliberalism and its usual prescriptions – always more markets, always less government – are in fact a perversion of mainstream economics. By Dani Rodrik The fatal flaw of neoliberalism: it''s bad economics View more sharing options Close Tuesday 14 November 2017 06.00 GMT A s even its harshest critics concede, neoliberalism is hard to pin down. In broad terms, it denotes a preference for markets over government, economic incentives over cultural norms, and private entrepreneurship over collective action. It has been used to describe a wide range of phenomena – from Augusto Pinochet to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, from the Clinton Democrats and the UK’s New Labour to the economic opening in China and the reform of the welfare state in Sweden. The term is used as a catchall for anything that smacks of deregulation, liberalisation, privatisation or fiscal austerity. Today it is routinely reviled as a shorthand for the ideas and practices that have produced growing economic insecurity and inequality, led to the loss of our political values and ideals, and even precipitated our current populist backlash. We live in the age of neoliberalism, apparently. But who are neoliberalism’s adherents and disseminators – the neoliberals themselves? Oddly, you have to go back a long time to find anyone explicitly embracing neoliberalism. In 1982, Charles Peters, the longtime editor of the political magazine Washington Monthly, published an essay titled A Neo-Liberal’s Manifesto . It makes for interesting reading 35 years later, since the neoliberalism it describes bears little resemblance to today’s target of derision. The politicians Peters names as exemplifying the movement are not the likes of Thatcher and Reagan, but rather liberals – in the US sense of the word – who have become disillusioned with unions and big government and dropped their prejudices against markets and the military. The use of the term “neoliberal” exploded in the 1990s, when it became closely associated with two developments, neither of which Peters’s article had mentioned. One of these was financial deregulation, which would culminate in the 2008 financial crash and in the still-lingering euro debacle . The second was economic globalisation, which accelerated thanks to free flows of finance and to a new, more ambitious type of trade agreement. Financialisation and globalisation have become the most overt manifestations of neoliberalism in today’s world. That neoliberalism is a slippery, shifting concept, with no explicit lobby of defenders, does not mean that it is irrelevant or unreal. Who can deny that the world has experienced a decisive shift toward markets from the 1980s on? Or that centre-left politicians – Democrats in the US, socialists and social democrats in Europe – enthusiastically adopted some of the central creeds of Thatcherism and Reaganism, such as deregulation, privatisation, financial liberalisation and individual enterprise? Much of our contemporary policy discussion remains infused with principles supposedly grounded in the concept of homo economicus , the perfectly rational human being, found in many economic theories, who always pursues his own self-interest. But the looseness of the term neoliberalism also means that criticism of it often misses the mark. There is nothing wrong with markets, private entrepreneurship or incentives – when deployed appropriately. Their creative use lies behind the most significant economic achievements of our time. As we heap scorn on neoliberalism, we risk throwing out some of neoliberalism’s useful ideas. The real trouble is that mainstream economics shades too easily into ideology, constraining the choices that we appear to have and providing cookie-cutter solutions. A proper understanding of the economics that lie behind neoliberalism would allow us to identify – and to reject – ideology when it masquerades as economic science. Most importantly, it would help us to develop the institutional imagination we badly need to redesign capitalism for the 21st century. N eoliberalism is typically understood as being based on key tenets of mainstream economic science. To see those tenets without the ideology, consider this thought experiment. A well-known and highly regarded economist lands in a country he has never visited and knows nothing about. He is brought to a meeting with the country’s leading policymakers. “Our country is in trouble,” they tell him. “The economy is stagnant, investment is low, and there is no growth in sight.” They turn to him expectantly: “Please tell us what we should do to make our economy grow.” The economist pleads ignorance and explains that he knows too little about the country to make any recommendations. He would need to study the history of the economy, to analyse the statistics, and to travel around the country before he could say anything. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton: centre-left politicians who enthusiastically adopted some of the central creeds of Thatcherism and Reaganism. Photograph: Reuters But his hosts are insistent. “We understand your reticence, and we wish you had the time for all that,” they tell him. “But isn’t economics a science, and aren’t you one of its most distinguished practitioners? Even though you do not know much about our economy, surely there are some general theories and prescriptions you can share with us to guide our economic policies and reforms.” The economist is now in a bind. He does not want to emulate those economic gurus he has long criticised for peddling their favourite policy advice. But he feels challenged by the question. Are there universal truths in economics? Can he say anything valid or useful? So he begins. The efficiency with which an economy’s resources are allocated is a critical determinant of the economy’s performance, he says. Efficiency, in turn, requires aligning the incentives of households and businesses with social costs and benefits. The incentives faced by entrepreneurs, investors and producers are particularly important when it comes to economic growth. Growth needs a system of property rights and contract enforcement that will ensure those who invest can retain the returns on their investments. And the economy must be open to ideas and innovations from the rest of the world. But economies can be derailed by macroeconomic instability, he goes on. Governments must therefore pursue a sound monetary policy , which means restricting the growth of liquidity to the increase in nominal money demand at reasonable inflation. They must ensure fiscal sustainability, so that the increase in public debt does not outpace national income. And they must carry out prudential regulation of banks and other financial institutions to prevent the financial system from taking excessive risk. Now he is warming to his task. Economics is not just about efficiency and growth, he adds. Economic principles also carry over to equity and social policy. Economics has little to say about how much redistribution a society should seek. But it does tell us that the tax base should be as broad as possible, and that social programmes should be designed in a way that does not encourage workers to drop out of the labour market. By the time the economist stops, it appears as if he has laid out a fully fledged neoliberal agenda. A critic in the audience will have heard all the code words: efficiency, incentives, property rights, sound money, fiscal prudence. And yet the universal principles that the economist describes are in fact quite open-ended. They presume a capitalist economy – one in which investment decisions are made by private individuals and firms – but not much beyond that. They allow for – indeed, they require – a surprising variety of institutional arrangements. So has the economist just delivered a neoliberal screed? We would be mistaken to think so, and our mistake would consist of associating each abstract term – incentives, property rights, sound money – with a particular institutional counterpart. And therein lies the central conceit, and the fatal flaw, of neoliberalism: the belief that first-order economic principles map on to a unique set of policies, approximated by a Thatcher/Reagan-style agenda. Consider property rights. They matter insofar as they allocate returns on investments. An optimal system would distribute property rights to those who would make the best use of an asset, and afford protection against those most likely to expropriate the returns. Property rights are good when they protect innovators from free riders, but they are bad when they protect them from competition. Depending on the context, a legal regime that provides the appropriate incentives can look quite different from the standard US-style regime of private property rights. This may seem like a semantic point with little practical import; but China’s phenomenal economic success is largely due to its orthodoxy-defying institutional tinkering. China turned to markets, but did not copy western practices in property rights. Its reforms produced market-based incentives through a series of unusual institutional arrangements that were better adapted to the local context. Rather than move directly from state to private ownership, for example, which would have been stymied by the weakness of the prevailing legal structures, the country relied on mixed forms of ownership that provided more effective property rights for entrepreneurs in practice. Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs), which spearheaded Chinese economic growth during the 1980s, were collectives owned and controlled by local governments. Even though TVEs were publicly owned, entrepreneurs received the protection they needed against expropriation. Local governments had a direct stake in the profits of the firms, and hence did not want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. China relied on a range of such innovations, each delivering the economist’s higher-order economic principles in unfamiliar institutional arrangements. For instance, it shielded its large state sector from global competition, establishing special economic zones where foreign firms could operate with different rules than in the rest of the economy. In view of such departures from orthodox blueprints, describing China’s economic reforms as neoliberal – as critics are inclined to do – distorts more than it reveals. If we are to call this neoliberalism, we must surely look more kindly on the ideas behind the most dramatic poverty reduction in history. One might protest that China’s institutional innovations were purely transitional. Perhaps it will have to converge on western-style institutions to sustain its economic progress. But this common line of thinking overlooks the diversity of capitalist arrangements that still prevails among advanced economies, despite the considerable homogenisation of our policy discourse. What, after all, are western institutions? The size of the public sector in OECD countries varies, from a third of the economy in Korea to nearly 60% in Finland. In Iceland, 86% of workers are members of a trade union; the comparable number in Switzerland is just 16%. In the US, firms can fire workers almost at will; French labour laws have historically required employers to jump through many hoops first. Stock markets have grown to a total value of nearly one-and-a-half times GDP in the US; in Germany, they are only a third as large, equivalent to just 50% of GDP. ‘China turned to markets, but did not copy western practices ... ’ Photograph: AFP/Getty The idea that any one of these models of taxation, labour relations or financial organisation is inherently superior to the others is belied by the varying economic fortunes that each of these economies have experienced over recent decades. The US has gone through successive periods of angst in which its economic institutions were judged inferior to those in Germany, Japan, China, and now possibly Germany again. Certainly, comparable levels of wealth and productivity can be produced under very different models of capitalism. We might even go a step further: today’s prevailing models probably come nowhere near exhausting the range of what might be possible, and desirable, in the future. The visiting economist in our thought experiment knows all this, and recognises that the principles he has enunciated need to be filled in with institutional detail before they become operational. Property rights? Yes, but how? Sound money? Of course, but how? It would perhaps be easier to criticise his list of principles for being vacuous than to denounce it as a neoliberal screed. Still, these principles are not entirely content-free. China, and indeed all countries that managed to develop rapidly, demonstrate the utility of those principles once they are properly adapted to local context. Conversely, too many economies have been driven to ruin courtesy of political leaders who chose to violate them. We need look no further than Latin American populists or eastern European communist regimes to appreciate the practical significance of sound money, fiscal sustainability and private incentives. O f course, economics goes beyond a list of abstract, largely common-sense principles. Much of the work of economists consists of developing stylised models of how economies work and then confronting those models with evidence. Economists tend to think of what they do as progressively refining their understanding of the world: their models are supposed to get better and better as they are tested and revised over time. But progress in economics happens differently. Economists study a social reality that is unlike the physical universe. It is completely manmade, highly malleable and operates according to different rules across time and space. Economics advances not by settling on the right model or theory to answer such questions, but by improving our understanding of the diversity of causal relationships. Neoliberalism and its customary remedies – always more markets, always less government – are in fact a perversion of mainstream economics. Good economists know that the correct answer to any question in economics is: it depends. Does an increase in the minimum wage depress employment? Yes, if the labour market is really competitive and employers have no control over the wage they must pay to attract workers; but not necessarily otherwise. Does trade liberalisation increase economic growth? Yes, if it increases the profitability of industries where the bulk of investment and innovation takes place; but not otherwise. Does more government spending increase employment? Yes, if there is slack in the economy and wages do not rise; but not otherwise. Does monopoly harm innovation? Yes and no, depending on a whole host of market circumstances. ‘Today [neoliberalism] is routinely reviled as a shorthand for the ideas that have produced growing economic inequality and precipitated our current populist backlash’ … Trump signing an order to take the US out of the TPP trade pact. Photograph: AFP/Getty In economics, new models rarely supplant older models. The basic competitive-markets model dating back to Adam Smith has been modified over time by the inclusion, in rough historical order, of monopoly, externalities, scale economies, incomplete and asymmetric information, irrational behaviour and many other real-world features. But the older models remain as useful as ever. Understanding how real markets operate necessitates using different lenses at different times. Perhaps maps offer the best analogy. Just like economic models, maps are highly stylised representations of reality . They are useful precisely because they abstract from many real-world details that would get in the way. But abstraction also implies that we need a different map depending on the nature of our journey. If we are travelling by bike, we need a map of bike trails. If we are to go on foot, we need a map of footpaths. If a new subway is constructed, we will need a subway map – but we wouldn’t throw out the older maps. Economists tend to be very good at making maps, but not good enough at choosing the one most suited to the task at hand. When confronted with policy questions of the type our visiting economist faces, too many of them resort to “benchmark” models that favour the laissez-faire approach. Kneejerk solutions and hubris replace the richness and humility of the discussion in the seminar room. John Maynard Keynes once defined economics as the “science of thinking in terms of models, joined to the art of choosing models which are relevant”. Economists typically have trouble with the “art” part. This, too, can be illustrated with a parable. A journalist calls an economics professor for his view on whether free trade is a good idea. The professor responds enthusiastically in the affirmative. The journalist then goes undercover as a student in the professor’s advanced graduate seminar on international trade. He poses the same question: is free trade good? This time the professor is stymied. “What do you mean by ‘good’?” he responds. “And good for whom?” The professor then launches into an extensive exegesis that will ultimately culminate in a heavily hedged statement: “So if the long list of conditions I have just described are satisfied, and assuming we can tax the beneficiaries to compensate the losers, freer trade has the potential to increase everyone’s wellbeing.” If he is in an expansive mood, the professor might add that the effect of free trade on an economy’s longterm growth rate is not clear either, and would depend on an altogether different set of requirements. This professor is rather different from the one the journalist encountered previously. On the record, he exudes self-confidence, not reticence, about the appropriate policy. There is one and only one model, at least as far as the public conversation is concerned, and there is a single correct answer, regardless of context. Strangely, the professor deems the knowledge that he imparts to his advanced students to be inappropriate (or dangerous) for the general public. Why? The roots of such behaviour lie deep in the culture of the economics profession. But one important motive is the zeal to display the profession’s crown jewels – market efficiency, the invisible hand, comparative advantage – in untarnished form, and to shield them from attack by self-interested barbarians, namely the protectionists . Unfortunately, these economists typically ignore the barbarians on the other side of the issue – financiers and multinational corporations whose motives are no purer and who are all too ready to hijack these ideas for their own benefit. As a result, economists’ contributions to public debate are often biased in one direction, in favour of more trade, more finance and less government. That is why economists have developed a reputation as cheerleaders for neoliberalism, even if mainstream economics is very far from a paean to laissez-faire. The economists who let their enthusiasm for free markets run wild are in fact not being true to their own discipline. H ow then should we think about globalisation in order to liberate it from the grip of neoliberal practices? We must begin by understanding the positive potential of global markets. Access to world markets in goods, technologies and capital has played an important role in virtually all of the economic miracles of our time. China is the most recent and powerful reminder of this historical truth, but it is not the only case. Before China, similar miracles were performed by South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and a few non-Asian countries such as Mauritius . All of these countries embraced globalisation rather than turn their backs on it, and they benefited handsomely. Defenders of the existing economic order will quickly point to these examples when globalisation comes into question. What they will fail to say is that almost all of these countries joined the world economy by violating neoliberal strictures. South Korea and Taiwan, for instance, heavily subsidised their exporters, the former through the financial system and the latter through tax incentives. All of them eventually removed most of their import restrictions, long after economic growth had taken off. But none, with the sole exception of Chile in the 1980s under Pinochet, followed the neoliberal recommendation of a rapid opening-up to imports. Chile’s neoliberal experiment eventually produced the worst economic crisis in all of Latin America. While the details differ across countries, in all cases governments played an active role in restructuring the economy and buffering it against a volatile external environment. Industrial policies, restrictions on capital flows and currency controls – all prohibited in the neoliberal playbook – were rampant. Protest against Nafta in Mexico City in 2008: since the reforms of the mid-90s, the country’s economy has underperformed. Photograph: EPA By contrast, countries that stuck closest to the neoliberal model of globalisation were sorely disappointed. Mexico provides a particularly sad example. Following a series of macroeconomic crises in the mid-1990s, Mexico embraced macroeconomic orthodoxy, extensively liberalised its economy, freed up the financial system, sharply reduced import restrictions and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). These policies did produce macroeconomic stability and a significant rise in foreign trade and internal investment. But where it counts – in overall productivity and economic growth – the experiment failed . Since undertaking the reforms, overall productivity in Mexico has stagnated, and the economy has underperformed even by the undemanding standards of Latin America. These outcomes are not a surprise from the perspective of sound economics. They are yet another manifestation of the need for economic policies to be attuned to the failures to which markets are prone, and to be tailored to the specific circumstances of each country. No single blueprint fits all. A s Peters’s 1982 manifesto attests, the meaning of neoliberalism has changed considerably over time as the label has acquired harder-line connotations with respect to deregulation, financialisation and globalisation. But there is one thread that connects all versions of neoliberalism, and that is the emphasis on economic growth . Peters wrote in 1982 that the emphasis was warranted because growth is essential to all our social and political ends – community, democracy, prosperity. Entrepreneurship, private investment and removing obstacles that stand in the way (such as excessive regulation) were all instruments for achieving economic growth. If a similar neoliberal manifesto were penned today, it would no doubt make the same point. Globalisation: the rise and fall of an idea that swept the world Read more Critics often point out that this emphasis on economics debases and sacrifices other important values such as equality, social inclusion, democratic deliberation and justice. Those political and social objectives obviously matter enormously, and in some contexts they matter the most. They cannot always, or even often, be achieved by means of technocratic economic policies; politics must play a central role. Still, neoliberals are not wrong when they argue that our most cherished ideals are more likely to be attained when our economy is vibrant, strong and growing. Where they are wrong is in believing that there is a unique and universal recipe for improving economic performance, to which they have access. The fatal flaw of neoliberalism is that it does not even get the economics right. It must be rejected on its own terms for the simple reason that it is bad economics. A version of this article first appeared in Boston Review Main illustration by Eleanor Shakespeare • Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread , or sign up to the long read weekly email here . Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/14/the-fatal-flaw-of-neoliberalism-its-bad-economics'|'2017-11-14T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'31561ccc2a0d1d511075bf3650cec97ee5d81213'|'China battery giant CATL plans $2 billion IPO to fund expansion'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) is planning a 13.1 billion yuan ($1.97 billion) initial public offering in Shenzhen to drive its expansion and meet soaring demand for electric car batteries.CATL said in an prospectus it would issue 217 million new shares, or about 10 percent of its enlarged capital, using the funds to build two battery plants, including a giant 24 gigawatt hour (GWh) facility that would massively boost its output.The IPO suggests a valuation of around $20 billion.The Ningde-based firm’s move to list on China’s NASDAQ-style ChiNext board would give investors a potential way into a firm pegged as one of China’s electric car battery champions.China, the world’s largest market for electric cars, is driving a seismic shift towards so-called new-energy vehicles, and wants to build a dominant domestic industry of both NEV carmakers and battery manufacturers to help drive that push.Beijing has set strict quotas for electric and hybrid cars that comes into effect from 2019. It has an ambitious target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has signaled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol engine cars.In the prospectus, first posted by China’s securities regulator late on Friday, CATL said it had brought in 14.9 billion yuan in sales last year, up almost threefold versus 2015. Net profits were up sharply also to 3.1 billion yuan.The funds will help CATL boost its lithium-ion car battery output, helping hit earlier targets of 50 GWh by 2020. CATL competes with Japan’s Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ), South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd ( 051910.KS ), local rival BYD ( 002594.SZ ) and Tesla Motor Inc ( TSLA.O ).CATL is also looking at potentially taking market share overseas as well, leveraging huge China demand to become competitive in markets such as the United States and Europe, that are also making shifts away from petrol engine cars.Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-catl-batteries/china-battery-giant-catl-plans-2-billion-ipo-to-fund-expansion-idINKBN1DE0I4'|'2017-11-14T03:20:00.000+02:00'
'06cf471353630f1ff5c07dfcaa1bf81f9d289891'|'Infineon reports sales slowdown as weak U.S. dollar weighs'|'FRANKFURT/MUNICH, Nov 14 (Reuters) - German chipmaker Infineon, the top supplier of power controls to auto and industrial markets, on Tuesday reported a slowdown in sequential sales due to a weaker dollar and guided lower for the current quarter.Infineon reported fourth-quarter operating income of 177 million euros ($207 million), a year-on-year decline of 22 percent, below average expectations of 281 million euros in a Reuters poll of analysts.Revenues rose 9 percent from a year earlier to 1.82 billion euros but were down 1 percent on a sequential basis. The consensus forecast was for 1.838 billion euros, according to 15 analysts polled by Reuters.“Infineon continues to grow. We raised the outlook for the full fiscal year in March 2017 and achieved the higher targets, despite stronger headwinds caused by the weaker U.S. dollar,” CEO Reinhard Ploss said in a statement.Infineon shares were indicated 2.6 percent lower in pre-market trading by broker Lang & Schwarz. ($1 = 0.8570 euros) (Reporting by Irene Preisinger and Douglas Busvine; Editing by Ludwig Burger) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/infineon-results/infineon-reports-sales-slowdown-as-weak-u-s-dollar-weighs-idINF9N1LZ007'|'2017-11-14T04:00:00.000+02:00'
'4e6ccce010bf6411ed17c63511a25713494aec47'|'Euro zone growth, eclipsing U.S. economy, set to be best in decade'|'November 14, 2017 / 10:30 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Euro zone growth, eclipsing U.S. economy, set to be best in decade Jan Strupczewski 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone’s annual economic growth rate outstripped that of the United States in the third quarter setting up 2017 as the best year for the currency area since financial markets crashed a decade ago. Germany was a major factor, but even some of the bloc’s laggards, such as Italy, showed signs of revival. Eurostat, the European Union statistics office, confirmed a preliminary estimate that euro zone gross domestic product (GDP)grew 0.6 percent from July to September from the previous quarter and on a year on year basis was 2.5 percent higher. This was higher than the 2.3 percent year-on-year rate for the U.S. economy, which had been growing faster than the euro zone. The U.S. quarterly numbers were slightly better than the euro zones at 0.7 percent, however. “A robust labour market recovery, growing export markets, an accommodative monetary stance, improving lending conditions and modest inflation are but a few of the tailwinds that the euro zone economy is experiencing,” ING economist Bert Colijn said. “Because of that, this could well be its strongest year for growth since 2007. The euro zone will likely outpace both the U.S. and UK in terms of GDP growth in 2017,” he said. Euro zone GDP grew 3.0 percent in 2007, and reached 2.1 percent in 2010 and 2015. Partly as a result of the growth, euro zone investments have turned in one of their best years since the single currency was born in 1999, confounding many who had bet on the bloc to be the disaster play of 2017. Euro zone grows - reut.rs/2zC2LSc GERMANY, ITALY, NETHERLANDS The shopping mall "Galeria Kaufhof" in Frankfurt, Germany, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The strong euro zone growth was powered by the biggest economy Germany, which shifted into an even higher gear in the third quarter, propelled by buoyant exports and rising company investments in equipment. Seasonally adjusted German GDP rose 0.8 percent on the quarter, beating a consensus forecast of 0.6 percent, which was also the second-quarter growth rate. Second biggest France grew 0.5 percent on the quarter and 2.2 percent in annual terms and the third biggest Italy beat expectations with a 0.5 percent quarterly, and 1.8 percent annual growth, supported by exports and domestic demand. The Netherlands, the fifth biggest economy, grew an expected 0.4 percent on the quarter after a record jump of 1.5 percent in the previous three months, putting it on track for a 3.3 percent expansion this year, the strongest since 2007. Outside the bloc, euro zone growth also exceeded that of Britain, the EU’s second-ranked economy which will leave the bloc in March 2019. The British economy, affected by a drop in the pound against the euro since last year’s Brexit vote, expanded 0.4 percent on the quarter in sterling terms and just 1.5 percent annually. Separately, Eurostat said euro zone industrial production fell by 0.6 percent month-on-month in September as expected by markets but rose 3.3 percent year-on-year, slightly beating economists’ average forecast of a 3.2 percent increase. ”The outlook for production in the fourth quarter remains strong,“ ING’s Colijn said. ”New orders for manufacturing surged in August and businesses are reporting large backlogs of work according to the PMI survey. “That should result in continued strength in industry in the final quarter of the year, adding to the possibility that our estimate for GDP growth in 2017 of 2.3 percent could still be too low,” he said. The stronger growth supports the European Central Bank’s decision last month to start weaning the euro zone off ultra-loose money by saying that from January it will halve the amount of bonds it buys every month to 30 billion euros (£26.9 billion). It nevertheless promised years of stimulus and left the door open to backtracking. Reporting by Jan Strupczewski Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-gdp/euro-zone-annual-growth-exceeds-u-s-backs-ecb-qe-taper-idUKKBN1DE17Z'|'2017-11-14T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'39da55627aab4dcdbcc0227a25c433898142bc06'|'Bradesco expects Brazilian companies to raise up to $4.5 billion by year-end'|'NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Banco Bradesco SA expects Brazilian companies to raise up to 15 billion reais ($4.54 billion) in new share offerings by year-end, executive director Renato Ejnisman said on Tuesday.Ejnisman said the companies are rushing with filings to issue shares and debt to avoid volatility expected before presidential elections in October 2018. The investment banking unit of Banco Bradesco SA is hosting a conference in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday with 90 Latin American companies.$1 = 3.3034 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brazil-ceos/bradesco-expects-brazilian-companies-to-raise-up-to-4-5-billion-by-year-end-idINE6N1LL00A'|'2017-11-14T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'110f4a03811e993bd5409bab7fb019d505876ec2'|'Bharti Airtel and Tigo merge in Ghana to form AirtelTigo'|'November 14, 2017 / 11:45 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Bharti Airtel and Tigo merge in Ghana to form AirtelTigo Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ACCRA (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel ( BRTI.NS ) has merged with Millicom’s Tigo ( MICsdb.ST ) in Ghana to become the country’s second largest mobile operator, the new company AirtelTigo said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A girl checks her mobile phone as she walks past the Bharti Airtel office building in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo The merger, the first of its kind in Ghana, is a bid to increase share in the West African country where mobile phone use is one of the highest in Africa and competition for 37.4 million mobile phone users is fierce. South Africa’s MTN ( MTNJ.J ) dominates with 47.5 percent of subscribers. Others include Britain’s Vodafone ( VOD.L ), Globacom of Nigeria and Sudan’s Sudatel Expresso. The National Communications Authority regulator granted conditional approval for the merger in September, following an agreement in March by the two companies to combine their operations. . AirtelTigo will serve around 10 million subscribers with revenues close to $300 million, it said in a statement. Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Edward McAllister and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tigo-m-a-bharti-airtel-ghana/bharti-airtel-and-tigo-merge-in-ghana-to-form-airteltigo-idINKBN1DE1HE'|'2017-11-14T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'989cd6335aba7d0463836de85c121c3ce69da031'|'Qatar First Bank sells stake in Amanat Holdings as Qatar-UAE ties unwind'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar First Bank (QFB) said on Tuesday that one of its units had sold its stake in United Arab Emirates healthcare and education investment firm Amanat Holdings, the latest sign of an unwinding of business ties between Qatar and the UAE.The stake was sold by QFB’s subsidiary Astro AD Cayman Ltd for 150 million UAE dirhams ($40.8 million). QFB did not disclose the size of the stake or the buyer, but said the deal value did not exceed 10 percent of the bank’s total assets.Astro AD Cayman was previously listed as owning 5 percent of Amanat, according to Thomson Reuters data.Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport links with Doha on June 5, alleging that Qatar funded terrorism, which Doha vehemently denies.Since then, business ties between Qatar and its neighbors have been unwinding gradually. In August, shipping group Qatar Navigation said it was shifting its regional hub from Dubai to the Omani port of Sohar because direct shipments between Jebel Ali and Doha were no longer possible.In September, Qatar Insurance said it was closing its branch in Abu Dhabi because authorities there had not renewed its license, while Doha Bank cut around 10 jobs in the UAE and planned to put some staff in the region on unpaid leave.Reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Andrew Torchia '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qfb-amanat-hldg/qatar-first-bank-sells-stake-in-amanat-holdings-as-qatar-uae-ties-unwind-idINKBN1DE0LN'|'2017-11-14T03:55:00.000+02:00'
'ab2d931358006a88ccde60fa49b5311695d7f337'|'Deutsche Bank CEO meets with chief of big shareholder HNA - WSJ'|' 25 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago Deutsche Bank CEO meets with chief of big shareholder HNA - WSJ   FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank’s ( DBKGn.DE ) chief executive officer John Cryan has met with the chief of its major shareholder China’s HNA, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan speaks at the bank''s annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski /File Photo The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the meeting between Cryan and HNA CEO Adam Tan took place last week in Frankfurt. The paper reported last month that Cryan had resisted meeting HNA. Deutsche Bank and a representative for HNA declined to comment. Earlier this year, the German lender disclosed that the Chinese conglomerate had built up a stake of just under 10 percent. Reporting by Andreas Framke and Tom Sims, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-hna/deutsche-bank-ceo-meets-with-chief-of-big-shareholder-hna-wsj-idUKKBN1DE1Y7'|'2017-11-14T16:24:00.000+02:00'
'e44e4ab76576da92be2570220dc22745a3c8d8ab'|'Glencore says looked at 3-4 smaller acquisition targets but could not conclude deal'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:46 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Glencore says looked at 3-4 smaller acquisition targets but could not conclude deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - Commodities giant Glencore ( GLEN.L ) has looked at three or four smaller acquisition targets this year but was unable to conclude deals, the head of the company’s agricultural arm said on Wednesday. The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Chris Mahoney, chief executive of Glencore Agriculture, told the Global Grain conference in Geneva that Glencore nevertheless remained focus on acquisitions for growth and would concentrate on upstream origination assets. There was scope for consolidation in the grain sector due to excess capacity, but the challenge was in securing good value in acquisitions, said Mahoney. He added, following the presentation, that the attempted takeover targets would have represented relatively small deals. “We feel we can capture benefits of strong demand by being strong at origin,” said Mahoney. “Origin in our mind lends itself better to big scale and more efficient assets,” he added. Glencore said in May it had made an informal approach to Bunge ( BG.N ) about “a possible consensual business combination”, fanning speculation that the grain trading industry was set for large-scale consolidation after seeing profits eroded by high supply and low prices. Bunge reacted by saying it was not in talks, and the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Glencore had a standstill agreement temporarily preventing it from making a hostile bid for Bunge. Bunge is part of a the so-called ABCD quartet of global agricultural commodity traders that also includes Archer Daniels Midland ( ADM.N ), Cargill [CARG.UL] and Louis Dreyfus [AKIRAU.UL]. Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-grains/glencore-says-looked-at-3-4-smaller-acquisition-targets-but-could-not-conclude-deal-idUKKBN1DF1SN'|'2017-11-15T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'887314fadc830b6ab0612bdb5a990e87ac57a19e'|'Volkswagen says adheres to works council remuneration law'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 8:30 AM / a minute ago Volkswagen says adheres to works council remuneration law Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) said on Wednesday that it obeyed the law in the payment of its works council chief, Bernd Osterloh. FILE PHOTO: Bernd Osterloh, head of Volkwagen''s works council, addresses a news conference at the company''s headquarters in Wolfburg, Germany October 6, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke The statement comes a day after prosecutors and tax authorities raided the offices of several senior officials of Volkswagen on suspicions of overpayment to Osterloh. The works council said Osterloh’s office had also been searched, adding that Osterloh himself was not the target of the investigation. Both VW and the works council said they were confident that Osterloh’s remuneration would be found to be compliant with the law. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-raid/volkswagen-says-adheres-to-works-council-remuneration-law-idUKKBN1DF107'|'2017-11-15T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'39202f7df06c0281082153007e231d29d6152d72'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Major markets sag, Dubai''s DSI surges after loss'|'November 15, 2017 / 1:10 PM / Updated an hour ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Major markets sag, Dubai''s DSI surges after loss Reuters Staff * Saudi regulator to exempt firms from initial Q4 statements * Real estate developer Dar Al Arkan plunges * Investors look beyond DSI’s poor Q3 * Qatar hits new six-year low as Ezdan sags further * Global Telecom drags down Egypt By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Major Gulf stock markets fell on Wednesday, partly because of retreating global equities and oil prices, though builder Drake & Scull surged in Dubai despite a heavy quarterly loss. The Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued a statement before the market opened saying that listed companies would be exempt from publishing fourth-quarter financial statements because they are transitioning to the International Financial Reporting Standards style of accounting. This surprised many fund managers, but the Arabic version of the statement said the exemption applied to “preliminary” financial statements, which seemed to imply that companies would still have to release final statements at a later date. The CMA did not respond to a request for comment. Under CMA rules, interim financial statements must be released within 30 days of the end of each period and annual statements within three months of the end of the financial year. The Saudi index spent most of the day only slightly lower but its losses snowballed towards the close and it finished 1 percent down. Real Estate developer Dar Al Arkan , which had risen in recent days after strong quarterly earnings, plunged by nearly 10 percent. Petrochemicals company Chemanol fell by 4.8 percent after jumping by its 10 percent daily limit on Tuesday. Saudi Industrial Export, which this week proposed a capital reduction to write off accumulated losses, slid 5.7 percent. The Dubai index fell 0.6 percent. But Drake & Scull, the most heavily traded stock, gained 4.1 percent after reporting a third-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders of 317.6 million dirhams ($86.5 million) versus a loss of 46.3 million dirhams a year ago. The company said lack of liquidity before its recapitalisation, which has now been completed, hurt its third-quarter performance and that it would be able to secure funding requirements after restructuring debt in key markets this quarter. Marie Salem, director of Capital Markets at FFA Dubai, said investors had been expecting poor third-quarter results and were looking ahead to the fourth quarter. “They believe that DSI has decided to report all losses related to its restructuring in the third quarter, so that it can have a clean fourth quarter and end the year on the positive side.” Qatar’s index, still feeling the effects of sanctions imposed on Doha by other Arab states since June, sank 1.4 percent to its lowest since March 2011. Real estate company Ezdan Holding which had dropped 2.3 percent on Tuesday after Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating by two notches into junk territory, plunged a further 6.5 percent. The stock has lost 52 percent this year. Inflation data released late on Tuesday showed the downturn in Qatar’s real estate market deepened in October because of the sanctions. Housing and utility prices sank 5.4 percent last month from a year earlier -- the biggest drop for several years. Egypt’s index dropped 0.8 percent as Global Telecom lost 1.6 percent to 7.40 Egyptian pounds. It had jumped last week after VEON Holdings, its parent, said it planned a mandatory tender offer for Global shares at 7.90 pounds. HIGHLIGHTS * The index slipped 1.0 percent to 6,912 points. DUBAI * The index fell 0.6 percent to 3,468 points. ABU DHABI * The index dropped 0.7 percent to 4,337 points. QATAR * The index lost 1.4 percent to 7,761 points. EGYPT * The index dropped 0.8 percent to 14,025 points. KUWAIT * The index rose 0.6 percent to 6,286 points. BAHRAIN * The index added 0.4 percent to 1,265 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-major-markets-sag-dubais-dsi-surges-after-loss-idUSL8N1NL2WX'|'2017-11-15T15:09:00.000+02:00'
'8fce1a7393bbb0cfda01cafb73fc858c98ed3603'|'Sampo CEO signs up for software firm Efecte''s planned IPO'|'HELSINKI (Reuters) - Kari Stadigh, the chief executive of Nordic financial holding company Sampo ( SAMPO.HE ), has signed up as one of the largest investors in software company Efecte, which on Wednesday announced its plans for initial public offering.Efecte, which makes cloud-based service and identity management software for companies and public organizations, is looking to raise about 5.7 million euros ($6.7 million) in the planned IPO, and to list its shares in Helsinki bourse’s First North list for growth companies.Sampo, 12 percent owned by the state of Finland, is known for successful M&A moves, including selling its banking business to Danske Bank ( DANSKE.CO ) just before the financial crisis and buying Nordea shares at low levels in 2008 and 2009.Stadigh has committed to personally invest 2.5 million euros in the IPO in which some owners will also sell shares, Efecte said.The company’s biggest owner is currently First Fellow Partners, a venture capital firm founded by Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) chairman Risto Siilasmaa.Efecte had sales of 8.3 million euros last year and it targets organic average growth of more than 20 percent annually through 2022 by international expansion.Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-efecte-ipo-sampo/sampo-ceo-signs-up-for-software-firm-efectes-planned-ipo-idUSKBN1DF10L'|'2017-11-15T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'b613f87d2866516c27fdf594eaa9183aa5aefe00'|'Airbus in record 430 plane deal with budget airline backer Franke'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:02 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Biggest deal yet for Airbus as Franke ups bet on budget airlines Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus landed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke. The preliminary deal for A320neo narrowbody jets was signed at the Dubai Airshow and offers a major boost to Airbus, which has lagged archrival Boeing in deals this year. It also ensures veteran sales chief John Leahy retires on a high in the coming months. But Boeing immediately hit back with a provisional agreement to sell 175 planes to budget airline flydubai. Including options to buy a further 50 planes, that deal could be worth $27 billion at list prices. The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is the industry’s largest ever by number of aircraft. Indigo plans to supply the A320neo narrowbody jets to four airlines in which it has stakes: Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, Chilean carrier JetSmart and Hungary’s Wizz Air. Airbus said it expected to finalise the transaction with the 80-year-old Franke in the coming weeks. Its shares were up 2.5 percent to 85.59 euros at 1150 GMT. The agreement, along with flydubai’s deal for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets, underscores how budget carriers are rewriting the industry rule book by combining bargain fares with optional services and upgrades for which passengers pay extra. John Leahy, Airbus Sales Chief, and Bill Franke, Managing Partner of Indigo Partners LLC, pose during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar According to some delegates at the air show, the deals also suggest airlines are taking advantage of a recent slowdown in demand for new jets to negotiate competitive prices. SWAN SONG Slideshow (2 Images) The Franke deal marks a dramatic swan-song for Airbus sales chief Leahy, who is due to retire in the coming months after holding the job since 1994. The 67-year-old has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and helped engineer a rise in Airbus’s market share to a par with Boeing from just 18 percent. This year, however, Airbus’s share of the order tally had dropped to 35 percent prior to the Dubai show, as a rejuvenated Boeing management made advances in Singapore and elsewhere. Airbus management, meanwhile, is dealing with investigations by British, French and U.S. authorities after the company uncovered inaccuracies in sales documents. Airbus also aims to sell more of its A380 superjumbo, with main customer Emirates seeking guarantees on keeping production lines open. “I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters. Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; editing by Mark Potter and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/airbus-in-record-430-plane-deal-with-budget-airline-backer-franke-idINKBN1DF1FU'|'2017-11-15T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'e4638b5a5ff7dddb637c2cf9e4a8a740dafdcccc'|'ECB rules on old bad loans may include transition arrangements - Angeloni'|' 24 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago ECB rules on old bad loans may include transition arrangements - Angeloni Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank still plans to present new guidelines in resolving the bank sector’s stock of soured debt but the new rules could also include “transitional arrangements”, ECB bank supervisor Ignazio Angeloni said on Wednesday. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The ECB has come under fire for proposing stringent rules on building provisions for new non-performing loans and said it may delay and refine its guidelines in light of the criticism. “Going forward, we plan to present our considerations to address the existing stock of NPLs by the first quarter of 2018, possibly including appropriate backstops and adequate transitional arrangements,” Angeloni said in the ECB’s Supervision Newsletter. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-ecb/ecb-rules-on-old-bad-loans-may-include-transition-arrangements-angeloni-idUKKBN1DF1BT'|'2017-11-15T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'b7c3ac4cc8c285f8851ab857200e1b521648a1de'|'UPDATE 1-Petrobras CEO says to discuss refining partnership with CNPC CEO'|'(Adds minister comments on transfer of rights discussions)NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente said he will meet this month with the CEO of China National Petroleum Corp in Brazil to discuss the details of their partnership to build a refinery complex in Rio de Janeiro.Parente told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New York that the stake CNPC will have in the refinery is not yet defined. Discussions between Petroleo Brasileiro SA , as the company is formally known, and the Chinese company began last month.Parente added that said he expects to have a first agreement with the government on the revaluation of stakes in offshore oil blocks known as “Transfer of Rights” areas by the end of 2017.During a panel in the same conference, Brazilian Energy Minister Fernando Coelho said the government wants to conclude the talks “as soon as possible.” (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrobras-ceo/update-1-petrobras-ceo-says-to-discuss-refining-partnership-with-cnpc-ceo-idINL1N1NL1NZ'|'2017-11-15T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'5fd40cf8334d2677bf6e825b51aedbf39ea3fd0c'|'Investor TCI demands LSE answer more questions in board tussle'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:16 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Investor TCI demands LSE answer more questions in board tussle Simon Jessop 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Activist investor TCI has demanded the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) answer a series of questions ahead of a shareholder meeting called by the fund to oust the chairman over his handling of the planned replacement of its chief executive. The London Stock Exchange is seen attached to the building London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Among the questions TCI wants answered by the LSE board before the meeting, the date of which has yet to be set, are the specific reasons behind the exit of CEO Xavier Rolet, who TCI said in a letter dated Nov. 15 was “dismissed”. TCI said investors needed to know if concerns about Rolet’s performance or other business reason drove the decision, whether Rolet was still fit to remain as CEO and how the board assessed risks of removing him. The fund also said it wanted details about any payments made to Rolet, either as severance or in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement about the reasons for his departure, as well as the board’s succession plan for the chairman, who TCI is seeking to push from his post. The LSE was not immediately available for comment. The letter is the latest salvo by TCI founder Chris Hohn in his battle to overturn the decision to replace Rolet, who has presided over a period of stellar growth for the City institution that has seen its shares surge in value. The LSE said on Oct. 19 that Frenchman Rolet would step down by the end of 2018, a move viewed by many at the time as consensual, before TCI wrote its first letter to Chairman Donald Brydon on Nov. 3 saying Rolet was being forced out. A denial by the LSE was followed by a demand from TCI that Rolet be allowed to speak to investors about his decision. TCI said it would use its power as a shareholder with a more than 5 percent stake to force a shareholder meeting if he did not. The threat was carried out in a letter dated Nov. 9 in which TCI said it wanted investor backing for Brydon to be sacked and for Rolet to be asked to stay. The company was given three weeks to fix a date for the meeting, which has to take place before the end of the year. Additional reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-ceo-tci/investor-tci-demands-lse-answer-more-questions-in-board-tussle-idUKKBN1DF1J2'|'2017-11-15T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'8ef1c5c9265d467a9942039496cdb3906e085684'|'BP begins share buybacks as years of austerity pay off'|'(Reuters) - BP Plc ( BP.L ) said on Wednesday it would begin a share buyback program, making it the first major European energy company to resume buybacks since the 2014 price slump in a sign years of austerity have paid off.The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The British oil company, which recently reported a doubling in third-quarter profit, said the buyback program had been authorized for between Nov. 15 and the date of its 2018 annual general meeting, with the maximum number of shares not exceeding 1.96 billion.BP first announced the buyback on Oct. 31, as it gradually shakes off the impact of the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, known as Macondo, that cost it over $63 billion in clean-up costs and penalties.BP said then it would buy back the equivalent number of shares it was issuing as part of its scrip dividend scheme through which investors can opt to receive dividend payouts in shares rather than cash.It will buy back around $1.6 billion worth of shares a year in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend program, BP Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said then.Europe’s other top oil and gas companies are making other moves to woo shareholders. Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) has said it will stop offering a scrip dividend in the fourth quarter, while France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) plans to do so next year.BP''s shares, which had risen to their highest in over three years on news of the resumption of buybacks, were down 0.9 percent at 498.6 pence at 0908 GMT, broadly in line with London''s blue-chip index .FTSE .Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-buyback/bp-begins-share-buybacks-as-years-of-austerity-pay-off-idUSKBN1DF193'|'2017-11-15T11:58:00.000+02:00'
'282fca862c8dab4df53a675979c22f76def37ceb'|'Bank of England''s Cunliffe wants to see wage growth before backing rate hike'|' 33 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Bank of England''s Cunliffe wants to see wage growth before backing rate hike David Milliken 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe - one of the two policymakers who opposed this month’s rise in interest rates - said on Tuesday he preferred to wait for clearer signs that wage growth is picking up before he backs higher rates. A man wears a bowler hat outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Limited evidence that the British economy was generating too much inflation pressure meant the Bank could afford to hold off on rates, rather than relying too heavily on theories about how growth, inflation and wages are linked, he said. The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to raise rates for the first time in more than a decade on Nov. 2. Governor Mark Carney has justified the decision by pointing to low levels of unemployment that were likely to trigger faster wage growth. He also mentioned low productivity growth that increased the risk that Britain’s sluggish economy, weighed down by uncertainty about Brexit, could trigger persistent inflation. But Cunliffe said past BoE forecasts of higher wage growth had proven wrong, and the central bank had time to wait to see if this time was different. “The low level of domestic pressure on inflation now ... (makes) it possible to wait before tightening policy until there is clear evidence that pay growth is responding to the level of unemployment in line with our forecast,” he said in a speech to economics students at the University of Oxford. Figures earlier on Tuesday showed that British inflation held at a five-year high of 3.0 percent last month, undershooting BoE forecasts that it would peak at 3.2 percent before falling slowly back towards its 2 percent target. Wage growth remains weak by pre-crisis standards in Britain and other countries around the world. Data due on Wednesday is expected to show the pay of British workers increased by just above 2 percent on a year-on-year basis in the three months to September, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Many economists share Cunliffe’s view that there was little need to raise rates by a quarter percentage point to 0.5 percent earlier this month, especially given the uncertain economic outlook caused by the Brexit process. Most do not expect the Bank to raise rates again until 2019. Uncertainty was a common problem for central bankers, but the current situation was trickier than usual, Cunliffe said. Aside from the difficulty of predicting the reactions of households and businesses to the ongoing Brexit talks, the link between low unemployment and faster wage growth appeared to have weakened in Britain and other countries, he said. “Given the ... serial disappointments we have had in recent years in forecasting the impact of unemployment on pay growth, there is ... a not immaterial risk that ... domestic inflation pressure will undershoot the (Monetary Policy) Committee’s collective expectation,” Cunliffe said. Even if this “longish leave of absence” in historic economic relationships turned out to be temporary, central bankers needed to be cautious, he added. “Against that background ... I tend to put more weight on the evidence we can or cannot see in the data and a little less on the unobservables and on how we think the economy works,” Cunliffe said. Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-cunliffe/bank-of-englands-cunliffe-wants-to-see-wage-growth-before-backing-rate-hike-idUKKBN1DE2EL'|'2017-11-14T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'789beb691facfe2ce5adf18982327312db77a5e5'|'Dollar underpinned by U.S. yields, sterling steadies'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro rose to a 2-1/2 week high against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday and was on track for its largest percentage gain in more than four months, after data showed Germany’s economy shifted into a higher gear in the third quarter.FILE PHOTO: A bank employee holds a pile of 500 euro notes at a bank branch in Madrid January 13, 2011. REUTERS/Andrea Comas/File Photo The euro was up 1.11 percent at $1.1794, set for its largest one-day percentage gain against the greenback since June 27.“Most of what appears to have driven the euro’s strength was the solid German data earlier this morning,” said Eric Viloria, currency strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in New York.Germany’s seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.8 percent on the quarter, compared with a Reuters poll forecast of 0.6 percent.In a further positive sign for Europe’s biggest economy, the ZEW institute said investor morale improved in November and prospects for the economy remained “encouragingly positive.”Germany helped the euro zone economy expand by 2.5 percent in the September quarter compared with the same period in 2016, and more than the United States, data showed on Tuesday.Viloria also attributed part of the strength of the move in the single currency to a break above a key technical level - its 100-day simple moving average of $1.1733.Lennon Sweeting, chief market strategist at XE in Toronto pointed to the dollar’s recent sensitivity to any positive news out of Europe as contributing to the euro’s strength.“Any time we have seen stronger or as expected news out of Europe I think it leaves the dollar in a very vulnerable position on that particular cross,” he said.The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.7 percent at 93.828. The index was little changed after data showed U.S. producer prices rose more than expected in October.The Fed is expected to raise interest rates next month. Investors will now turn their focus to U.S. consumer prices data due on Wednesday.The euro was up 0.74 percent against sterling. The British pound weakened against the common currency after UK inflation data came in slightly lower than expected, weakening the case for further interest rate rises.Sterling has been volatile in recent sessions against a backdrop of political turmoil as British lawmakers this week debate legislation underpinning the government’s plan to leave the European Union.New Zealand’s commodity-linked currency, which is sensitive to signals on Chinese demand, slipped after disappointing data on Chinese retail sales and industrial production.Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-forex/dollar-underpinned-by-u-s-yields-sterling-steadies-idINKBN1DE02J'|'2017-11-14T02:44:00.000+02:00'
'b12eb342bfa11c69a0555a75f326cdc8dd06492b'|'China aims to stop renewable energy being wasted by 2020'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to prevent power generated by its renewable energy sector being wasted by 2020, the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: An employee walks between rows of solar panels at a solar power plant on the outskirts of Dunhuang, Gansu province, China, June 10, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Power from wind, solar and hydro plants is often wasted as there is not enough transmission capacity to absorb it, leading to high curtailment rates, especially in northwestern China.The NEA said in a statement that the utilisation rate of hydro-power plants in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan should reach around 90 percent by 2017.It expects the wind power curtailment rate to drop to about 30 percent in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang and to around 20 percent in the northeastern region of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia in 2017.Solar power waste in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces should be controlled below around 20 percent and in Shaanxi and Qinghai to below 10 percent this year, it added.Power generated from wind and solar power plants in other regions across the country will have to meet the 2017 targets set by the NEA last year, it said in the statement.China has vowed to raise the portion of its renewable and non-fossil fuel power consumption to 15 percent of total energy mix by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030.It also said that it will promote the power trade market and improve its cross-region power transmission capacity to boost renewable energy consumption and cut its coal dependence.Coal-fired power capacity across the country will be capped at 1,100 gigawatts by 2020, the NEA said.Reporting by Muyu Xu and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-renewables-waste/china-aims-to-stop-renewable-energy-being-wasted-by-2020-idINKBN1DE0XP'|'2017-11-14T10:38:00.000+02:00'
'3de7e44de2829de64286c0f6c53359f00b58efca'|'JPMorgan to launch new trade venue for non-equity products - memo'|'LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - JP Morgan Chase & CO, one of the world’s top bond dealers, is planning to launch a new trading venue for all non-equity instruments, according to the contents of a memo sent to clients and seen by Reuters.The move of its current bank trading system to a dealing platform structured as a “systematic internaliser” (SI) is in response to new European Union rules set to go live in January.The EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, aims to push more trading onto regulated public exchanges where prices and participants are visible to all and comes into effect on Jan. 3.Trading in fixed income markets is more opaque than equities with bonds largely traded via Bloomberg, Tradeweb, which is majority owned by Thomson Reuters Corp and a multitude of banks’ own trading platforms.But some investors seeking anonymity and lower fees are likely to opt instead to trade on SIs -- run by banks and other market participants -- which reveal much less information about impending transactions than more traditional exchanges and other trading platforms.After the move, the U.S. investment bank said more pre-trade and post-trade information would be made available to trading platforms such as Tradeweb and BATS. (Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Simon Jessop) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/jpmorgan-trading-fixed-income/jpmorgan-to-launch-new-trade-venue-for-non-equity-products-memo-idINL8N1NK7S1'|'2017-11-14T13:51:00.000+02:00'
'fab4fb9b1bb6307e875a824fc6ff45b32d60c100'|'Henkel raises earnings forecast despite tough market'|' 56 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Henkel raises earnings forecast despite tough market Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German consumer goods maker Henkel ( HNKG_p.DE ) raised its forecast for full-year earnings per share on Tuesday after it reported third-quarter underlying sales growth of 3 percent in what it called an “increasingly challenging environment”. FILE PHOTO - A logo of consumer goods group Henkel is pictured before its annual news conference in Duesseldorf March 8, 2012. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo Henkel stuck to its standard forecast for organic or underlying sales growth in 2017 of 2 to 4 percent, but said it now expects increase of around 9 percent in adjusted earnings per preferred share, up from a previous 7 to 9 percent. However, it warned that difficult conditions in the consumer goods market were likely to persist and said “currency effects will have an increasingly negative impact”. Known for laundry detergent Persil, beauty line Schwarzkopf and adhesives brand Loctite, Henkel said quarterly earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), adjusted for one-offs, rose 7 percent to 897 million euros (799.00 million pounds) on sales of 4.981 billion euros, missing average analyst estimates for 907 million and 5.1 billion respectively. Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Ludwig Burger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-henkel-ag-results/henkel-raises-earnings-forecast-despite-tough-market-idUKKBN1DE0LR'|'2017-11-14T08:55:00.000+02:00'
'b05980bb847f47ea73589608dd04d7744a54d3d9'|'Dollar underpinned by U.S. yields, sterling steadies'|'  Dollar underpinned by U.S. yields, sterling steadies Lisa Twaronite 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar got support from higher U.S. Treasury yields in early Asian trading on Tuesday, while sterling arrested a recent slide, which followed concerns about Theresa May’s ability to stay on as British prime minister. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar and Euro notes are seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, was steady on the day at 94.499 .DXY. Against its Japanese counterpart, the dollar inched 0.1 percent higher to 113.70 yen JPY= , but remained below its eight-month high of 114.735 hit last week. “The dollar is getting support from U.S. yields, but I am actually surprised that it did not go higher, so perhaps the correlation between yields and the dollar is breaking down,” said Masashi Murata, currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo. “But with the Fed expected to hike rates in December, the dollar could go higher” in the coming weeks, he said. The yield on two-year U.S. Treasury notes scaled a nine-year peak on Monday, as the yield curve resumed its flattening and investors priced in a 25-basis-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month. [US/] The 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR rose to 2.405 percent from its U.S. close on Monday of 2.400 percent. It was at 2.304 percent as early as Nov. 8. The euro was steady at $1.1670 EUR= , holding well above last week''s a 3-1/2-month low of $1.1553. Sterling edged up 0.1 percent to $1.3122 after coming under pressure from political turmoil ahead of this week’s debate by British lawmakers about the government’s plan to leave the European Union. The debate on the Brexit bill kicks off on Tuesday and Wednesday, and takes place against an unstable political backdrop. As many as 40 of May’s lawmakers would support a no-confidence motion against her, according to the Sunday Times newspaper. Also in focus this week, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England head Mark Carney will form a panel on central bank communication at the ECB-hosted conference in Frankfurt later on Tuesday. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-forex/dollar-underpinned-by-u-s-yields-sterling-steadies-idINKBN1DE02D'|'2017-11-14T02:44:00.000+02:00'
'f1394d73c0608e54cd9305c4d01d4a5455e4f3aa'|'Global oil demand to withstand rise of electric vehicles - IEA'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:02 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Global oil demand to withstand rise of electric vehicles - IEA Reuters Staff 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil demand will fall only modestly alongside the expected rise in electric vehicles over the next two decades, with consumption in petrochemicals and other transportation still growing, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An oil rig off the coast of Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo Oil is already facing stiff competition from ever-cheaper and more environmentally friendly energy sources as traditional fossil fuel users switch to cleaner, low-carbon alternatives. In its World Energy Outlook 2018, the Paris-based IEA said it had cut its longer-term oil price projections from last year, partly because of the falling cost of both renewable and conventional sources of energy, the worldwide push to tackle climate change and improve air quality and the boom in U.S. shale oil and gas output. Under the IEA’s “New Policies Scenario”, based on existing legislation and announced policy intentions relative to emissions and climate change, the oil price should continue to rise towards $83 a barrel by the mid-2020s. The oil market should be able to find a longer-term equilibirum, with the oil price in a range of $50-70 a barrel, the agency said. The IEA estimates that there will be 50 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025 and 300 million by 2040, from closer to 2 million now. However, this is expected to cut only 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 2 percent, off global oil demand by that time. “It’s quite spectacular, because you’re going to see the number of cars on the road (globally) double from 1 billion to 2 billion, thanks to electric vehicles and fuel economy standards,” said Laura Cozzi, head of the Energy Demand Outlook division. “Many commentators say we are writing the obituary for oil demand ... it is certainly true in the passenger car segment and in power generation, but it is not true in the other two elements of oil demand: transportation and petrochemicals.” Power generation will move increasingly away from relying on coal and crude oil, with renewables taking a much larger proportion of the global energy mix. Between 2017 and 2040 the IEA estimates that more solar power capacity will be added globally each year than any other source of energy, with an annual average increase of nearly 70 gigawatts. “These changes brighten the prospects for affordable, sustainable energy and require a reappraisal of approaches to energy security,” the agency said. “There are many possible pathways ahead and many potential pitfalls if governments or industry misread the signs of change.” The largest disruptive force on the supply front will be the United States, the IEA said. The United States will look set to establish itself as the “undisputed leader” in crude and gas production by 2040 thanks to surging growth in shale oil, which has proved more resilient to the low-price environment than most market observers expected, the IEA said. “We are now witnessing a period of expansion in U.S. oil and gas production that matches or exceeds any historical records ever achieved by the oil and gas industry,” said Tim Gould, head of the Energy Supply Outlook division. The IEA estimates that U.S. crude oil is expected to rise until reaching a peak in the 2020s of about 17 million bpd. Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-outlook-iea/global-oil-demand-to-withstand-rise-of-electric-vehicles-iea-idUKKBN1DE002'|'2017-11-14T02:01:00.000+02:00'
'ad02548be388378667bdd52bd82337d75e324908'|'Qualcomm-NXP ruling may be in 2018: EU competition commissioner'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:32 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Qualcomm-NXP ruling may be in 2018: EU competition commissioner Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A ruling on Qualcomm Inc’s proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV may come in 2018, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday. A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake People familiar with the matter told Reuters in October that Qualcomm has offered to buy NXP without some of its patents in a bid to win EU antitrust regulatory approval. The deal, the biggest-ever for the semiconductor industry, would make Qualcomm the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Writing by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nxp-semicondtrs-m-a-qualcomm-eu/qualcomm-nxp-ruling-may-be-in-2018-eu-competition-commissioner-idINKBN1DF1K2'|'2017-11-15T08:32:00.000+02:00'
'c44e7ffc9da734c5df16aa22aa76b91019a25164'|'CEE MARKETS-Oil stocks fall, no lift for currencies from hawkish hints'|'* Oil, energy stocks follow global decline, push down indices * Euro strength puts lid on currencies, crown at 12-day low * Czech rate setter Hampl, Polish Hardt hint at rate hike * Romanian government bonds take a pause after yield surge By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Energy, crude and metals sector stocks knocked Central European equities lower on Wednesday after a continuing decline in crude prices caused similar movements in Wall Street and elsewhere in the world. Warsaw''s bluechip index led the decline, shedding 0.6 percent by 0933 GMT. It was led lower by copper producer KGHM, which sank 5 percent after cutting its 2017 investment and output goals, while oil group PKN Orlen fell 1.7 percent. Global weakness in equities has weighed on stocks across the region this week even though a batch of third-quarter data early on Tuesday showed robust economic growth in Central Europe. Regional currencies have also not benefited from the figures because a surge in German output has triggered euro buying. Hawkish comments from a Polish and a Czech central banker, Quote: d by local papers on Wednesday, had no effect either. Czech central bank (CNB) Vice-Governor Mojmir Hampl said he may vote for a 25 basis point interest rate hike at the next policy meeting on Dec. 21. That would be the third hike since August when the bank started to reverse years of easing. The Czech crown eased a quarter of a percentage point against the euro to 25.695 despite the comments. Keeping rate hike expectations alive is a key tool of the CNB to buoy the crown, whose strength helps it fight inflation which has exceeded its 2 percent target. The zloty eased even though Polish rate setter Lukasz Hardt was Quote: d by the daily Rzeczpospolita as saying he may consider a small rate hike early next year if inflation is still heading towards the bank''s 2.5 percent target. Polish government bonds tracked a retreat in yields in the main developed markets, with the 10-year yield dropping 3 basis points to 3.416 percent. Romania''s corresponding yield was 4.62 percent, flat after a recent surge in the country''s yields to their highest levels since 2014. The leu firmed 0.1 percent to 4.636 versus the euro. Tuesday''s data showed Romania growing faster in the third quarter than any of its central European peers, at 8.8 percent. That figure and higher-than expected inflation data have underlined fears that the economy is overheating. "Some market watchers may see the rising pressure on the regulator (Romanian central bank) to deliver a faster policy response (monetary tightening) amid the increased risk of falling ''behind the curve''," Raiffeisen analyst Gintaras Shlizhyus said in a note. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1033 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.695 25.629 -0.25% 5.11% 0 5 Hungary 311.80 311.76 -0.01% -0.96% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2495 4.2482 -0.03% 3.63% Romanian leu 4.6360 4.6417 +0.12 -2.18% % Croatian 7.5505 7.5533 +0.04 0.06% kuna % Serbian 118.43 118.54 +0.09 4.15% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1060.1 1062.4 -0.21% +15.0 9 5 4% Budapest 39020. 39140. -0.31% +21.9 91 44 3% Warsaw 2448.7 2464.3 -0.63% +25.7 9 5 1% Bucharest 7798.8 7804.7 -0.08% +10.0 4 3 7% Ljubljana 786.38 789.08 -0.34% +9.59 % Zagreb 1843.1 1842.6 +0.03 -7.60% 6 3 % Belgrade 738.51 739.05 -0.07% +2.95 % Sofia 671.57 670.66 +0.14 +14.5 % 2% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.473 0.141 +123b +15bp ps s 5-year 0.917 0.092 +127b +11bp ps s 10-year 1.713 -0.033 +134b -1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.593 -0.004 +235b +1bps ps 5-year 2.585 -0.036 +294b -2bps ps 10-year 3.425 -0.032 +305b -1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.95 1.11 1.22 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.1 0.15 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.775 1.805 1.915 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-oil-stocks-fall-no-lift-for-currencies-from-hawkish-hints-idINL8N1NL35A'|'2017-11-15T07:37:00.000+02:00'
'1ae80eef6a226b63bba7f73134993bd0c0ba3f51'|'Asia stocks shaky before China data, ponder yield curve'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:55 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Global stocks, oil prices decline; German growth lifts euro Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks were down for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday, while strong economic growth in Germany boosted the euro to an almost three-week high. FILE PHOTO - A container ship is seen at the shipping terminal Eurokai in the Port of Hamburg, Germany November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Wall Street was lower on weak oil prices, uncertainty about U.S. tax policy and the economy’s ability to deal with more interest rate hikes. European stocks fell to a two-month low. U.S. Treasury two-year note yields climbed to a nine-year peak while long-dated debt yields fell, flattening the yield curve flattened for a second straight day, while investors braced for a Federal Reserve December rate hike. In Germany a 0.8-percent third-quarter growth reading beat forecasts and showed the economy expanding at annualized rates of more than 3 percent. “It’s been a euro trade today, and it’s stronger against just about everything,” Brad Bechtel, managing director FX at Jefferies in New York, said. “The numbers out of Germany were pretty good last night.” The dollar index .DXY fell 0.74 percent, with the euro EUR= up 1.13 percent to $1.1797. On Wall Street, investors sought updates on rival U.S. House of Representatives and Senate tax reform proposals. Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul said he would seek to add a provision to repeal Obamacare’s requirement Americans obtain health insurance and scale back its elimination of a federal deduction for state and local taxes. “As proposed, both plans, but especially the House package, would be good for corporate America. There’s uncertainty whether anything is going to be passed or how much compromise is going to occur,” said J. Bryant Evans, portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management, in Champaign, Illinois. After an upcoming break for the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, there are only 12 legislative days before year-end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 57.08 points, or 0.24 percent, to 23,382.62, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.3 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,575.54 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 35.68 points, or 0.53 percent, to 6,721.92. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.69 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.17 percent. FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Monetary policy was also on traders’ minds with the heads of the U.S., European, British and Japanese central banks attending a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt. The U.S. two-year yield US2YT=RR hit a nine-year peak just shy of 1.7 percent, up from Monday’s 1.687 percent. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 6/32 in price to yield 2.3788 percent, from 2.4 percent late on Monday. Stocks in Asia had fallen after China’s retail sales and industrial output data missed market expectations. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.4 percent in its third consecutive day of losses. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 was unchanged after four sessions of losses. Oil declined for a third day as evidence of rising U.S. output and a gloomier outlook for demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) weighed on prices. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 1.97 percent to $55.64 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.07, down 1.73 percent on the day. (For a graphic on ''MSCI and Nikkei chart'' click reut.rs/2sSBRiD ) (For a graphic on ''World FX rates in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh ) (For a graphic on ''Global assets in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2yaWht3 ) (For a graphic on ''Global market cap'' click reut.rs/2mcp7T1 ) (For a graphic on ''Emerging markets in 2017'' click tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV ) Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Marc Jones in London, Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-shaky-before-china-data-ponder-yield-curve-idINKBN1DE02N'|'2017-11-14T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'b47e5af98386e48deec64c81cd43064cca669e6f'|'Kinder Morgan appeals to Canada regulator over Trans Mountain pipeline'|' 52 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Kinder Morgan appeals to Canada regulator over Trans Mountain pipeline Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd has appealed again to the country’s energy regulator, asking it to set up a process to resolve potential disagreements with provincial or municipal governments over its planned Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project. Kinder Morgan made the request on Tuesday after the National Energy Board last week rejected its proposal to expedite an earlier appeal to obtain permits from the city of Burnaby in British Columbia. (Reporting by Ethan Lou and Nia Williams; Editing by Tom Brown)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-kinder-morgan-cn-regulator/kinder-morgan-appeals-to-canada-regulator-over-trans-mountain-pipeline-idUSL1N1NK1RU'|'2017-11-14T20:49:00.000+02:00'
'61a617417dc329f0e860d5f928c7de7a665dc0c6'|'Innogy books 480 million euro impairment charge on Npower'|'November 13, 2017 / 6:14 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Innogy cuts value of lossmaking UK retail arm npower by 480 million euro Christoph Steitz 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German utility Innogy ( IGY.DE ) cut 480 million euros (£427 million) off the value of its British electricity and gas supply business npower on Monday, warning more impairment charges could come after this month’s deal to merge the unit with rival SSE’s ( SSE.L ) bigger retail arm. FILE PHOTO: A sign hangs outside the building of electricity provider npower in Solihull, Britain, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo Power suppliers in Britain have been under pressure from the emergence of small and aggressive rivals as well as being threatened by a price cap on retail prices proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May’s government. “For some time now our business in the UK is facing immense competition and regulatory risks. Therefore, the associated book values have had to be adjusted accordingly,” Innogy Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Guenther said on Monday. “Market conditions are currently extreme,” he added. The goodwill impairment charge, which cuts npower’s value by 10.5 percent to 4.08 billion euros, comes less than a week after Innogy and SSE announced plans to merge their UK retail power businesses and list the new entity on the stockmarket. Innogy said the planned tie-up with SSE had not changed the assessment of the impairment. SSE declined to comment on the news, saying npower remained a competitor for now. Analysts have warned that the stockmarket listing of the demerged entity, in which Innogy will hold a 34.4 percent stake, could result in additional charges. FILE PHOTO: Innogy logo in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo Guenther said this might happen if the market environment in Britain deteriorated further. Britain’s “big six” energy suppliers, Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas, Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ), SSE and npower, are all currently struggling. “The competitive landscape in the UK retail business remains very tough and pressure on margins is very high,” Innogy said. Britain is the second-largest market for Innogy, Germany’s biggest energy firm by market value. Also plagued by billing issues unrelated to the market environment in Britain, npower reported a nine-month adjusted loss before interest and tax of 102 million euros, up from an 81 million-euro loss in the same period last year. “The UK retail business has been a well-known drag and it is positive that Innogy tackles this problem,” a trader said. Shares in Innogy, which have increased by 15 percent since it was demerged as the renewables, networks and retail power division of German energy group RWE ( RWEG.DE ) last year, were down 1.2 percent at 40.81 euros at 1115 GMT, when shares in SSE were down 0.7 percent at 1,350 pence. Npower added 47,000 customers in the third quarter, the group said, but cautioned that some customers could be retained only by offering cheaper contracts, further eroding margins. Its end-September total of 4.804 million UK electricity and gas customers was down 2.4 percent from the end of 2016. Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale in London; Editing by Jason Neely, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-innogy-results/innogy-books-480-million-euro-impairment-charge-on-npower-idUKKBN1DD0J7'|'2017-11-13T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'fc411838e98376be8e11e2182ed7df02d79a1267'|'World leaders to meet under all-female co-chair team at Davos 2018'|' 15 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago World leaders to meet under all-female co-chair team at Davos 2018 Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - The next World Economic Forum of world leaders and CEOs in Davos will be chaired by women including International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and IBM’s ( IBM.N ) chief executive Ginni Rometty. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The seven co-chairs for the four-day event in January were announced in the face of criticism that the conference has in the past lacked female representation. “Co-chairs ... were chosen to reflect global stakeholders,” said a spokeswoman for WEF, adding the co-chairs were all leaders in their fields. The co-chairs shape the programme and lead discussions and panels. The theme of the 48th conference is to “explore the root causes of, and pragmatic solutions for, the manifold political, economic and social fractures facing global society,” WEF said. FILE PHOTO: Norway''s Prime Minister Erna Solberg speaks during the news conference in Berlin, Germany June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo WEF, in an annual report this month, found it will take another 217 years before women earn as much as men and have equal representation in the workplace, revealing an economic gap of 58 percent. It is the second straight year the Swiss non-profit has recorded worsening economic inequality. President and CEO of IBM Ginni Rometty takes part in a strategic and policy CEO discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Eisenhower Execution Office Building in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts A typical representative of the more than 2,500 titans of industry and influence that each January descend upon the Alps has received the unofficial moniker of "Davos Man" -- a sign of the further shift in representation and thinking still necessary to balance uneven gender dynamics. [ reut.rs/1nfXJAq ] Other co-chairs are Isabelle Kocher, head of French energy conglomerate Engie ( ENGIE.PA ); Italian physicist and director general of the CERN particle physics research centre Fabiola Gianotti; founder of the rural cooperative Mann Deshi Bank for women, Chetna Sinha; and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow. Next year’s event will take place January 23-26, 2018. Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-davos-meeting-women/world-leaders-to-meet-under-all-female-co-chair-team-at-davos-2018-idUKKBN1DD20E'|'2017-11-13T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'c3168a354e7edda527bc3e10eae3cc4e9729a13b'|'AIRSHOW-Kuwait''s Alafco finalises order for 20 Boeing 737 MAX jets'|'November 13, 2017 / 11:32 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Kuwait''s Alafco finalizes order for 20 Boeing 737 MAX jets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait’s Aviation Lease and Finance Company (ALAFCO) on Monday announced it was exercising options for 20 Boeing 737-8 MAX jets at the Dubai Airshow. The order, first announced at the Paris show in June, is valued at $2.2 billion at list prices. The aircraft will start being delivered from 2020, Boeing Commercial Airplanes sales chief Ihssane Mounir said at a news conference. Boeing dominates the scorecard so far at the Nov 12-16 show, with $19 billion of orders and provisional commitments while Airbus has yet to disclose an order. Industry sources said Airbus’s energetic sales chief John Leahy was working on closing some business during the show, possibly his last before retirement. Egyptair could announce indirect orders with Airbus and Boeing involving third parties, they added. Both planemakers declined to comment. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Jane Merriman and Daid Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-boeing-alafco/kuwaits-alafco-finalises-order-for-20-boeing-737-max-jets-idUSKBN1DD1B2'|'2017-11-13T13:25:00.000+02:00'
'f9b12b0c3a0155e51325a6b68321c250f0e80337'|'IMF says Europe''s growth more durable, warns of ''disruptive'' Brexit threat'|'November 13, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 6 hours ago IMF says Europe''s growth more durable, warns of ''disruptive'' Brexit threat Marc Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Europe’s economy is now hitting its stride, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, but a disruptive Brexit could result in “appreciably” lower growth for both Britain and the euro zone. FILE PHOTO - EU and Union flags fly above Parliament Square during a Unite for Europe march, in central London, Britain March 25, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook, which looks at more than 40 countries from Germany and the UK to Turkey and Russia, said the current recovery looks increasingly assured. It is partly driven by central bank stimulus and low interest rates, but also by improving fundamentals, as evidenced by a pick-up in investment across a broad range of economies. “This recovery looks increasingly durable,” the deputy director of the IMF’s European Department, Joerg Decressin, told Reuters at a presentation of the report published on Monday. “Growth in the euro area has been positive for 18 quarters, lately around 2.5 percent. Many countries in eastern Europe have seen growth around or above 3 percent for some time already. So this recovery has not only become broader but also stronger.” The IMF’s World Economic Outlook, published at September meetings in Washington, forecasts region-wide growth of 2.4 percent this year and 2.1 percent next year, but much has shifted in the background since then. Decressin said it supported the European Central Bank’s careful approach to cutting its stimulus. He also said inflation justified the Bank of England’s raising its interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis. The main uncertainty on the horizon remains Brexit and what kind of trade relationship Britain can set up when it leaves the European Union with the 27 remaining countries. FILE PHOTO - International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen at the IMF headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas Decressin said the IMF’s expectation remained that a deal with a transition period would be struck. Its economists have not run any “no deal” forecasts, he said, but a “disruptive” Brexit is likely to have a damaging impact. “Under such circumstances, our concern is that economic growth will suffer, especially in the UK, but also the euro area,” he said. “We are then possibly looking at appreciably lower growth than we presently project.” For now, though, he flagged how much more positive the mood was than just one or two years ago, when worries were still rife in the euro zone that Greece would be forced out. French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposals to accelerate euro zone integration have been an important part of that, Decressin said. He also gave the IMF’s clearest backing yet for plans to convert the European Stability Mechanism into IMF-style crisis lender. “We are supportive of the objective,” he said. “With an appropriate governance structure and a strong surveillance mandate, an EMF (European Monetary Fund) could really strengthen crisis prevention and management.” An ability to make swift and decisive decisions will be key. The euro zone often laboured during its various crises because it needed to get formal approval for measures from numerous national parliaments. The IMF has also been left badly bruised by its involvement in Greece’s rolling crisis over the last seven years, which often saw it at odds with Athens and the likes of Berlin. “We do not have an objective to retreat from supporting Europe, on the contrary,” Decressin said. “We remain at the disposal of our European shareholders to help with any crisis if and when it emerges. We also hope to continue to play a useful role via our surveillance.” Reporting by Marc Jones, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-imf/imf-says-europes-growth-more-durable-warns-of-disruptive-brexit-threat-idUKKBN1DD0WZ'|'2017-11-13T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'a2a023de573f92d0cb9044e632a60d46ae07c92e'|'EU markets agency warns new crypto coins could prove worthless'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:15 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago EU markets agency warns new crypto coins could prove worthless John O''Donnell 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Europe’s top markets regulator has warned investors about the pitfalls of buying newly issued crypto coins, an experimental and unregulated form of online crowd funding particularly used by start-up businesses. A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The European Securities and Markets Watchdog (ESMA) said on Monday such Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were unregulated, volatile, not transparent and technologically untested. “ICOs are extremely risky and highly speculative investments,” the agency said, adding there was a risk of “the total loss of your investment”. “Many of the coins or tokens ... have no intrinsic value other than ... to use them to access or use a service/product,” said the agency, warning coin issuers they may be subject to existing regulations. After Swiss and Wall Street regulators, ESMA is the latest to demand tighter scrutiny of cryptocurrencies. China has banned ICOs. By creating and issuing digital tokens, entrepreneurs can sometimes raise tens of millions of dollars within hours - with little regulatory oversight. Token holders are generally not given a share in a project or security. ICOs have fueled a rapid rise in the value of all cryptocurrencies, from about $17 billion at the start of the year to a record high of close to $180 billion in early September. Reporting by John O''Donnell; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-regulator-coin/eu-markets-agency-warns-new-crypto-coins-could-prove-worthless-idUKKBN1DD143'|'2017-11-13T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'e53b46c6d89825c77eb03b0dad5186ab1cd8f6da'|'Outlook for UK pay growth improves, but only a little - CIPD'|'November 13, 2017 / 12:06 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Outlook for UK pay growth improves, but only a little - CIPD Reuters Staff   British employers expect to raise pay for their workers only a little despite strong demand for staff and already low unemployment, according to an industry survey that suggested no immediate respite for the country’s squeezed households. FILE PHOTO - City workers make their way home in the City of London, Britain October 18, 2017. October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development said its gauge of pay intentions for the private and public sector rose 2 percent in the latest quarter from 1 percent previously. CIPD said planned pay rises in the private sector were clustering around 2 percent, the median for the last five years. Last week the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time since 2007 and predicted wage growth will pick up next year to 3 percent, up from a range of 1.8 to 2.2 percent seen in recent months. But CIPD said 38 percent of private sector firms faced no pressure at all to raise wages for the majority of their workforce, compared with only 24 percent that said they did. The squeeze on household incomes from high inflation and weak wage growth was a big factor behind the slowdown in Britain’s economy in the first half of 2017. A separate survey from payments company Visa on Monday showed British shoppers reined in their spending by the most in more than four years in October. “Over time we might expect low unemployment levels to lead to increased pressure on pay, as the Bank of England has predicted,” Gerwyn Davies, CIPD senior labour market analyst, said. “However, it’s the UK’s ongoing poor productivity growth that’s currently preventing employers from paying more, not their inability to find or retain staff.” Last month, Britain’s official budget watchdog said it expects to “significantly” downgrade its forecasts for productivity growth in the next five years, something that could hurt the government’s finances. There was better news for public sector workers. CIPD said 59 percent of public sector employers reported pressure to hike salaries for most staff, most of whom are subject to a long-standing pay cap for state workers that may soon be ditched. Prime Minister Theresa May has eased seven years of public sector pay caps modestly and for police and prison guards. Finance   is under pressure to relax pay constraints further in his annual budget on Nov. 22. CIPD said its gauge of employment demand eased only slightly from the previous quarter and remained near record high levels. Official labour market data due on Wednesday is expected to show the unemployment rate will stay at a four-decade low of 4.3 percent, but with no improvement in wage growth, according to a Reuters poll of economists. CIPD’s survey was based on 2,007 employers and was conducted between Sept. 11 and Oct. 3. Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pay/outlook-for-uk-pay-growth-improves-but-only-a-little-cipd-idUKKBN1DD006'|'2017-11-13T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'a9f4cfb289add9c53020abfab2ceb5f4fba5e156'|'Italy - Factors to watch on Nov. 13'|'The following factors could affect Italian markets on Monday.Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy. New items are marked with (*).For a complete list of diary events in Italy please click on .DEBT Treasury sells 4.5-6.0 billion euros over three bonds due in 2020, 2024 and 2033 at auction.Offer of new ‘BTP Italia’ retail-linker due November 2023 starts for to small investors. Ends on Nov. 15 barring early closure.POLITICS The outcome of local elections in Sicily has further weakened the ruling party of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and strengthened the populist 5-Star Movement’s lead, a poll conducted after the regional vote showed.COMPANIES BANKS The European Central Bank can impose capital requirements on banks to provide for bad loans only on a case-by-case basis, the European Commission said in a document published on Friday, a clarification that could weaken the ECB plan.TELECOM ITALIA The phone group’s new boss poured cold water on Friday on speculation of a potential sale of the phone group’s Brazilian business, as investors await his strategic plan due in February next year.Italy’s justice ministry has raised objections over the way the industry ministry was planning to amend the law on the government’s special power over strategic companies in order to cut or drop a fine against Telecom Italia, Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Saturday, adding the industry ministry was now trying to reformulate the amendments.The paper also said Italy’s telecoms authority will refrain from recommending a spin-off of Telecom Italia’s fixed-line network in a report ready to be sent to Industry Minister Carlo Calenda but will illustrate remedies enforceable to ensure the network’s neutrality.Rolling Enel’s broadband infrastructure network into that of Telecom Italia would make sense, Fastweb CEO Alberto Calcagno told Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday. But he said Fastweb would continue with its own broadband network, whose roll-out is being done in partnership with TIM, while remaining a client of TIM or Open Fiber in the so-called non-economically viable areas. Calcagno ruled out any idea of a sale of Fastweb by parent Swisscom.LEONARDO Leonardo could be part of an Italian-French defence and security consortium led by France’s Thales, La Republica said on Sunday, adding the idea had been spoken of. Such a consortium would follow the one between Finacntieri and STX.Leonardo said on Sunday it had signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence, to provide equipment that will simulate radar threats to the RAF’s new A400M transport aircraft prior to take-off.Milestone Aviation Group, global leader in helicopter leasing, and Leonardo announced on Sundays that Falcon Aviation of Abu Dhabi would expand its AgustaWestland AW169 helicopter fleet with the addition of a further three aircraft.UNIPOL , BANCA CARIGE CEO Carlo Cimbri told an analyst call on Friday the insurer is “rooting with great enthusiasm” for the bank to successfully complete its new share issue. Unipol has taken up a bond conversion offer by Carige and holds 50 million euros of the bank’s senior debt.MEDIASET The directors of the Italian broadcaster proposed on Friday a change in the size of its board and the way its members are appointed, in a move that could restrict French shareholder Vivendi’s influence.BPER BANCA CEO Alessandro Vandelli told Class CNBC in an interview the bank was focused on lowering its problematic loans and would consider potential mergers only at a later stage, Milano Finanza reported on Saturday.AZIMUT HOLDING CEO Pietro told Milano Finanza the dividend of 1 euro a share paid out last year should be consider “a floor without ruling anything out.”IL SOLE 24 ORE The group posted a 9-month net loss of 20.4 million euros, up from a loss of 35.1 million euros a year ago.BONIFICHE FERRARESI Share are suspended from negotiation ahead of de-listing on Nov. 14.EXPERT SYSTEM Capital increase starts; ends on Nov. 30.GRUPPO WASTE ITALIA Meeting of the holders of the 2019 Senior Secured Notes (0930 GMT).UNIEURO Presents new partnership with LG, with CEO Giancarlo Nicosanti Monterastelli (1000 GMT).A2A Board meeting on Q3 results, followed by conference call (1530 GMT).ENAV Board meeting on Q3 results, followed by conference call.IMMSI Board meeting on Q3 results.IREN Board meeting on Q3 results.PININFARINA Board meeting on Q3 results.For Italian market data and news, click on codes in brackets:20 biggest gainers (in percentage)20 biggest losers (in percentage)FTSE IT allshare indexFTSE Mib indexFTSE Allstars index...FTSE Mid Cap index....Block tradesStories on Italy IT-LENFor pan-European market data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide FTSEurofirst 300 index DJ STOXX index Top 10 STOXX sectors Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors Top 25 European pct gainers Top 25 European pct losers Main stock markets: Dow Jones Wall Street report Nikkei 225 Tokyo report FTSE 100 London report Xetra DAX Frankfurt market stories CAC-40 Paris market stories... World Indices Reuters survey of world bourse outlook Western European IPO diary European Asset Allocation Reuters News at a Glance: Equities Main currency report: '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-factors-nov-13/italy-factors-to-watch-on-nov-13-idINL8N1NG3D5'|'2017-11-13T02:03:00.000+02:00'
'f525c1f221fcf764efe155b601e04dd80c14f496'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 3-week low as energy shares track oil lower'|' 43 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 3-week low as energy shares track oil lower Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details throughout and updates prices to close) TORONTO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell to a three-week low on Wednesday as energy stocks again led a broad retreat on the back of sliding oil prices, pushing the market to its sixth straight daily decline after hitting an all-time high. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed down 34.65 points, or 0.22 percent, at 15,878.48, its lowest close since Oct. 25. * The index has retreated 1.6 percent since posting a record high of 16,131.79 last week. * The energy group fell 0.5 percent, with Cenovus Energy Inc down nearly 2 percent to C$12.99, as oil prices fell for a fourth session after the U.S. government reported an unexpected increase in crude and gasoline stockpiles. * U.S. crude prices settled 0.7 percent lower at $55.33 a barrel. * Industrials declined 0.7 percent as railroad stocks lost ground. * Seven of the index’s 10 main groups ended lower. * The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Martinrea Intl, which rose 11.1 percent, after the car parts maker posted third-quarter earnings that beat expectations. * The largest decliner was Canopy Growth Co, down 7.5 percent. * Teck Resources Ltd, which Reuters reported has held talks with Dominic Barton, the global managing partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Co, about becoming the Canadian miner’s next chairman, rose 0.5 percent to C$27.10. * The TSX posted six 52-week highs and nine new lows, while volume was 176.93 million shares. * Canada’s biggest securities regulator is seeking a suspension of trading in two alternative trading venues run by Omega Securities Inc for failure to comply with market regulations, it said in an order dated Monday and released late on Tuesday. (Reporting by Fergal Smith and Alastair Sharp; Editing by Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-hits-3-week-low-as-energy-shares-track-oil-lower-idUSL1N1NL20U'|'2017-11-15T23:39:00.000+02:00'
'ae25695885f6b93646cf47da92a0793ddd5ad77c'|'European shares rise off 7-week low as telecoms earnings impress'|'November 14, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago European shares mope at seven-week low as disappointing earnings weigh Helen Reid , Kit Rees 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares remained stuck at seven-week lows on Tuesday as a fall among commodities-related sectors and telecoms firm Altice ( ATCA.AS ) outweighed a buoyant tech sector. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 erased earlier gains to end the session 0.6 percent lower. This was the sixth day of straight losses for the benchmark. “Markets have moved quite a long way and a pause is probably warranted, but we don’t think it’s a big turning point,” said Ronan Carr, European equity strategist at Bank of America Merrill-Lynch (BAML). “Underlying fundamentals are still pretty constructive in terms of global growth, and we would be a buyer of any material dip in markets,” he added. While materials stocks .SXPP and oil firms .SXEP were the biggest sectoral fallers due to a pullback in oil and copper prices, the biggest individual faller was Altice ( ATCA.AS ). Altice plummeted more than 13 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the stock by 34 percent, adding to pressure on the shares which are already down 46 percent this year. Italy’s Saipem ( SPMI.MI ) was another big faller, down more than 7 percent after it was removed from the MSCI Italy Index, while utility RWE ( RWEG.DE ) dropped 5.6 percent after an earnings update. Stocks have had violent reactions to results this quarter, Goldman Sachs strategists said. Earnings-day price moves have been more than 3.5 times the average daily move – the most extreme results reactions the bank had data for. “The companies that are missing … are then getting clobbered 10 percent, probably because the markets were too optimistic of where we were economically,” Neil Dwane, global strategist at AllianzGI, said. “There’s been probably more disappointments than we would expect with European economic growth trundling along in good fashion.” However, results from tech companies gave investors something to smile about. Software maker Simcorp ( SIM.CO ) jumped 10 percent after earnings beat forecasts, while internet services provider United Internet ( UTDI.DE ) gained 3.5 percent after its acquisition of mobile firm Drillisch ( DRIG.DE ) boosted its profits. Peer Scout24 ( G24n.DE ) also jumped 6.1 percent. Chipmaker Infineon ( IFXGn.DE ) gained 2.7 percent despite reporting weaker dollar-dented sales. “While slightly disappointing, we continue to expect Infineon’s margins to resume their upward trajectory,” wrote Liberum analysts, saying the main headwind to sales and profitability was the stronger euro. “Underlying growth trends in the tech sector are quite strong,” said BAML’s Carr. “Tech sector revisions momentum has not definitively bottomed out but it looks like it’s finding a floor, much like the broader market.” As the earnings season nears its end, MSCI euro zone companies are tracking 9.9 percent year-on-year earnings growth in U.S. dollar terms, and 62 percent of companies in the euro zone index have beaten or met earnings estimates. Analysts have revised down earnings estimates for the broader MSCI Europe, but downgrades seem to have stabilized as the results season developed. Reporting by Helen Reid and Kit Rees; Editing by Janet Lawrence'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-rise-off-seven-week-low-as-telecoms-earnings-impress-idUSKBN1DE0Z9'|'2017-11-14T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'423be976257ce52196befa72ca298b4167268cd7'|'Global vehicle sales to fall by 2040, but oil demand to rise, study predicts'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:04 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Global vehicle sales to fall by 2040, but oil demand to rise, study predicts Paul Lienert , Jessica Resnick-Ault 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Global vehicle sales will decline over the next two decades as consumers embrace on-demand ride services like Uber, but demand for oil will keep rising, according to a study released Tuesday. Imported cars are parked in a storage area at Sheerness port, Sheerness, Britain, October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Another counterintuitive finding from the study by IHS Markit was that more than 80 percent of the vehicles sold worldwide in 2040 will still use some form of petroleum-fueled combustion engine. Annual sales of privately owned vehicles in the United States, Europe, China and India will decline over the next 23 years to 54 million in 2040, as total miles traveled rises 65 percent to around 11 billion miles a year, the study projected. About 67 million vehicles a year are sold currently in those regions. Although there will be fewer cars sold, demand for petroleum, especially for non-transportation uses, is expected to rise, from the current 98 million barrels a day to 115 million barrels a day in 2040. According to IHS Markit, which provides economic forecasts and data to the global energy and automotive markets, battery-powered all-electric vehicles will account for about 19 percent of sales by 2040. This compares with an estimated 14 percent of production by 2030 in a forecast by Boston Consulting Group on Nov. 2. IHS Markit forecast that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles - those with electric motors and combustion engines - will account for another 14 percent of sales in 2040. “Consumers are starting to embrace” the advanced technologies in electric and self-driving vehicles, Tom De Vleesschauwer, IHS Markit’s transport and mobility practice leader, said in an interview. While the adoption of electric vehicles is being driven in part by technology advances and government policy, “the part that’s most consumer-driven is ride hailing,” the on-demand service offered by such startups as Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] and China’s Didi Chuxing, according to Daniel Yergin, IHS Markit vice chairman. He said the firm was ”surprised when we saw (oil) demand increasing rather than going down.” Yergin noted that cars only account for a third of oil demand. The study’s authors expect 43 million barrels a day of new oil production will need to be brought into development by 2040 as demand rises and existing fields decline naturally. (In 3rd paragraph, clarifies that annual sales are of privately owned vehicles. Also corrects to 67 million from 80 million the number of vehicles currently sold in those regions) Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autos-electric-ihs/global-vehicle-sales-to-fall-by-2040-but-oil-demand-to-rise-study-predicts-idUKKBN1DE0D3'|'2017-11-14T19:58:00.000+02:00'
'f390425bfca3fb8c903e0a89ebde641d81a43132'|'China''s economy cools as government curbs hit factories, property and retailers'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:05 AM / Updated 2 hours ago China''s economy cools as gov''t curbs hit factories, property and retailers Reuters Staff 6 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s economy cooled further last month, with industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales missing expectations as the government extended a crackdown on debt risks and factory pollution. FILE PHOTO: Apartment blocks are pictured next to a construction site on a hazy day in Wuqing district of Tianjin, China, December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Beijing is already in the second year of a campaign to reduce high levels of debt as authorities worry that riskier lending practices, especially in the real estate sector, could imperil the economy. Data on Tuesday suggested policy makers are making progress in defusing financial risks by weaning China off its years-long addiction to cheap credit, and signalled moderating growth over the next few quarters. Industrial output rose 6.2 percent year-on-year in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, missing analysts’ estimates of a 6.3 percent gain and lagging a 6.6 percent increase in September. Fixed-asset investment growth also slowed to 7.3 percent in the January-October period, from 7.5 percent in the first nine months. Analysts had expected an increase of 7.4 percent. “The moderation in activity data released today suggests that growth slowed in October and adds to our conviction that it will continue to do so in the quarters ahead,” Nomura analysts wrote in a note to clients. In the property sector, where authorities have tightened rules to flush out speculative financing that has helped drive a two-year boom, sales and new construction starts fell in October. Property investment growth also cooled to 5.6 percent in October year-on-year, from 9.2 percent in September, Reuters calculated from National Bureau of Statistics data out on Tuesday. “I think this (slowdown in real estate) is exactly what the government is looking to do. I don’t see them changing their policy course,” said Jonas Short, who heads the Beijing office at investment bank Sun Hung Kai Financial (SHKF). Data on Monday showed China’s new loans fell more than expected last month to their lowest in a year as banks tightened mortgage lending. SURPRISING STRENGTH China’s economy has surprised financial markets with robust growth of nearly 6.9 percent in the first nine months of this year, underpinned by a recovery in its manufacturing and industrial sectors thanks to a government-led infrastructure spending spree, a resilient property market and unexpected strength in exports. That has supported the world economy as the Asian giant has continued to hoover up commodities and consumer goods, helping to stoke underlying global demand for cars and smartphones to TVs and industrial products. And the overall picture backs the consensus view that the Chinese economy is entering a period of moderation rather than a rapid deceleration. China’s producer prices, for instance, were surprisingly strong in October, while profits at the country’s industrial heavyweights surged 27.7 percent in September, the most in nearly six years. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said on Saturday it hit $25.4 billion in sales from China’s Singles’ Day - an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States and acts as a barometer for China’s consumers. FILE PHOTO: Customers shop at a supermarket in Shanghai March 8, 2013. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo QUALITY OVER SPEED Since the third quarter, however, the world’s second-largest economy has started to show signs of fatigue, with momentum seen slackening further as Beijing’s crackdown on debt risks curbs demand and tighter pollution rules hits factory output. China’s exports and import growth both eased last month, while the smog war dragged on manufacturing activity and pulled average daily crude steel output down for a second straight month in October The latest data also showed consumers might be tightening their purse strings. Retail sales gained 10 percent in October on-year, versus an expected 10.4 percent rise and below the 10.3 percent growth in September. FILE PHOTO: Employees work in a Hangzhou Iron and Steel Group Company workshop in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province August 4, 2009. REUTERS/Steven Shi/File Photo Private sector fixed-asset investment slowed to 5.8 percent for Jan-Oct, from 6.0 percent in the nine months ended September. Analysts say that fiscal stimulus might also be pared back. Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics, said the economic impact of debt curbs and capacity closures to meet environmental standards were partly offset by strong infrastructure spending. “But this support seems unlikely to last given that local governments are set to reduce spending in the final months of the year in order to meet budget targets.” At China’s recently-concluded Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping said the country would focus on quality over speed as it pursues economic growth, and reinforced a pledge to win the war on pollution and clamp down on riskier types of lending. That leaves policy makers walking a tight rope as China continues to rebalance its economic drivers away from investment and exports toward domestic demand. Most China observers say Beijing would not risk a sharp slowdown in growth through its debt and pollution clampdown given a major focus on creating jobs. While the People’s Bank of China kept liquidity tight through much of the year by raising short term rates, growth is still expected to easily meet the government’s full-year target of around 6.5 percent for 2017. “The economy is fundamentally strong in other areas...industrial production is only moderating, it’s still at really high levels,” SHKF’s Short said. “There’s still some caution (on the economy), but we’re certainly not pessimistic. I’d say we are quite optimistic.” Reporting by Cheng Fang and Kevin Yao; Writing by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-activity/chinas-economy-cools-as-government-curbs-hit-factories-property-and-retailers-idINKBN1DE0CX'|'2017-11-14T07:03:00.000+02:00'
'3f18ea1e2b93448095511a5726a9c6eb57892127'|'Only in ''foothills'' of another tech bubble-RLAM''s Greetham'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Only in ''foothills'' of another tech bubble-RLAM''s Greetham Claire Milhench 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The equity market is only in the “foothills” of another technology bubble rather than at the peak, Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) said on Wednesday. Its head of multi-asset Trevor Greetham also said a managed Chinese slowdown could be positive for stocks. Greetham, who manages the asset allocation for some 50 billion pounds of life and pension funds, also told the 2018 Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit that sterling faced a big two-way risk on Brexit, and he was not ruling out a reversal on Brexit. Greetham is currently overweight equities taking the view that although Chinese growth could slow next year, keeping a lid on inflation, developed markets were likely to stay strong. “That China slowdown, as long as it’s managed, is something which is actually quite positive for the risk story, keeps the equity market running and reminds me of the 1990s, where we saw strong growth and falling commodity prices,” he said. “We are in the foothills of another tech bubble rather than at the peak of it.” Global equities .MIWD PUS are up 17 percent so far this year, hitting record highs. Technology stocks have helped fuel this rally, with the S&P 500 tech sector .SPLRCT up almost 37 percent year-to-date. But Greetham said that although things looked “a little hot” in this sector, it was not yet as “ridiculous” as the 1990s. “Bitcoin is the only thing at the moment that to me looks like dotcoms,” he said. On sterling, he said the currency faced big two-way risks given the binary outcomes around Brexit. “Rarely has there been the degree of uncertainty around sterling that we see today,” he said. His sterling position is currently not far off neutral versus the different benchmarks with which he operates. “If sterling volatility starts to pick up ... we reduce sterling exposure, and when volatility comes down again we close that position. So we’re trading between slightly underweight and more underweight depending on the volatility picture.” If Britain leaves the European Union with no deal agreed, Greetham said there could be another referendum-style shock, with a potential 10-15 percent downside for sterling. But his biggest outside risk for 2018 was a commodity-led inflationary shock. “(It) could come through a big upside growth surprise in China, it could come through a supply problem in the Middle East. So the Saudi situation is something we’re monitoring,” he said. Reporting by Claire Milhench Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-investment-summit-rlam/only-in-foothills-of-another-tech-bubble-rlams-greetham-idUKKBN1DF23H'|'2017-11-15T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'b85c575d1ac305b4ad92af190de029ce7f0483c5'|'Dutch court rejects government''s Groningen gas production plan'|' 43 AM / a few seconds ago Dutch court rejects government''s Groningen gas production plan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read AMSTERDAM, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The highest Dutch court on Wednesday rejected a government plan to cap production at the Groningen gas field for the next five years, ordering it to review its decision within 12 months. In the meantime, the Council of State said production could be maintained at 21.6 billion cubic meters per year. (Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Mark Potter)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/netherlands-gas-groningen/dutch-court-rejects-governments-groningen-gas-production-plan-idUSA5N1KV03M'|'2017-11-15T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'd9be2417b4d1785329ca7bb57c7cd0a012fe8d27'|'Man Group says bitcoin futures would draw it toward cryptocurrencies'|'November 14, 2017 / 3:28 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Man Group says bitcoin futures would draw it toward cryptocurrencies Maiya Keidan , Simon Jessop 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund firm Man Group ( EMG.L ) will add cryptocurrencies to its investment universe if the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launches a bitcoin futures contract as planned, CEO Luke Ellis told Reuters on Tuesday. Speaking at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in London, Ellis said there are a number of challenges with cryptocurrencies but that doesn’t mean they’re not investable. “Conceptually digital currencies are an interesting thing,” he said. “It’s not part of our investment universe today – it could be. If there is a CME future on bitcoin, it would be.” Futures market operator CME Group announced on Oct. 31 it would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter. “There is a big difference between a digital currency and a traditional currency...Traditional ones are supported by governments who have armies and tax men that can make people follow their rules, and digital ones don‘t,” said Ellis. “But that doesn’t invalidate digital currencies at all.” Turning to emerging markets debt, Ellis said there appeared to be a mispricing across the sovereign credits, where investors were overly focused on broad indices. “You’ve got a few countries where there is a real problem about getting paid your money back - like Venezuela and Lebanon. There are high yields but not if you’re not going to get your money back, and (then) there’s a whole bunch of countries that trade with sort of no premium,” he said. Extreme pricing was best highlighted during the summer when Russian government debt yields were trading below U.S. Treasuries, he added. On other potential market mispricings, Ellis said upcoming European financial markets regulation, called MiFID II, will increase the number of companies trading at “significantly incorrect” valuations. “Is transparency about what’s going on in small and mid-cap stocks going to get materially worse? Yes. Is it going to create some what are inherently false markets which will hurt some inexperienced investors? Yes.” He said big stocks have far too many people covering them, a lot of whom don’t add value, while small stocks don’t have many analysts covering them, leading to a worse situation overall. Other views: For other news from Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit, click here Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Simon Jessop; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-investment-summit-man-group/man-group-says-bitcoin-futures-would-draw-it-toward-cryptocurrencies-idUKKBN1DE232'|'2017-11-14T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'b5486d2adfb1d139ed0d8d28c1321e5906d7e209'|'Oil markets cautious as OPEC cuts are met by rising U.S. output'|'Reuters TV United States  34 AM / a few seconds ago Oil markets cautious as OPEC cuts are met by rising U.S. output Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets were treading water early on Tuesday, continuing the cautious trading seen over the last week as bullish factors such as ongoing OPEC-led production cuts and Middle East tensions are countered by rising U.S. output. A worker at an oil field owned by Bashneft, Bashkortostan, Russia, January 28, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $63.13 per barrel at 0127 GMT, down 3 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.72 per barrel, down 4 cents. The dips came after both crude benchmarks early last week hit highs last seen in 2015, but traders said the market had lost some momentum since then. “Oil is fairly calm. OPEC is talking its book and boosting demand expectations but the U.S. rig count seems to have countered that,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader. Price support came from ongoing output cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, which have contributed to a reduction in excess supplies. OPEC is due to meet on Nov. 30 to discuss further policy, and the group is expected to agree an extension of the cuts beyond their current expiry date in March 2018. Also, tensions in the Middle East raised the prospect of supply disruptions, traders said, though they were cautious on betting on further price rises. “Prices ... are starting to look like a pause or pullback is needed,” said McKenna. U.S. oil producers have raised output C-OUT-T-EIA by more than 14 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.62 million barrels per day (bpd). Rating agency Fitch said in its 2018 oil and gas sector outlook that it assumed “average oil prices will be broadly unchanged year-on-year and that the recent price recovery with Brent exceeding $60 per barrel may not be sustained”. So far, the 2017 average Brent price has been $54.5 per barrel. “Lower costs and U.S. shale growth could restrict oil prices below $60 per barrel in the long-term,” Fitch said. Looking further out, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday global oil demand would only fall modestly due to the expected rise of electric vehicles, with consumption in petrochemicals and other transportation still growing. In its World Energy Outlook 2018, the IEA estimates there will be 50 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025 and 300 million by 2040, from around 2 million now. This is expected to cut 2.5 million bpd, or about 2 percent, off global oil demand by that time. Still, the IEA’s “New Policies Scenario”, based on existing legislation and announced policy intentions, expects oil prices to rise towards $83 a barrel by the mid-2020s. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-cautious-as-opec-cuts-are-met-by-rising-u-s-output-idUKKBN1DE04H'|'2017-11-14T03:29:00.000+02:00'
'67dc2186a43bcaa3a4c5db7fd2a98b98b25fa5cb'|'Only in ''foothills'' of another tech bubble-RLAM''s Greetham'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:45 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Only in ''foothills'' of another tech bubble: RLAM''s Greetham Claire Milhench 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The equity market is only in the “foothills” of another technology bubble rather than at the peak, Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) said on Wednesday. Its head of multi-asset Trevor Greetham also said a managed Chinese slowdown could be positive for stocks. Greetham, who manages the asset allocation for some 50 billion pounds ($65 billion) of life and pension funds, also told the 2018 Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit that sterling faced a big two-way risk on Brexit, and he was not ruling out a reversal on Brexit. Greetham is currently overweight equities taking the view that although Chinese growth could slow next year, keeping a lid on inflation, developed markets were likely to stay strong. “That China slowdown, as long as it’s managed, is something which is actually quite positive for the risk story, keeps the equity market running and reminds me of the 1990s, where we saw strong growth and falling commodity prices,” he said. “We are in the foothills of another tech bubble rather than at the peak of it.” Global equities .MIWD PUS are up 17 percent so far this year, hitting record highs. Technology stocks have helped fuel this rally, with the S&P 500 tech sector .SPLRCT up almost 37 percent year-to-date. But Greetham said that although things looked “a little hot” in this sector, it was not yet as “ridiculous” as the 1990s. “Bitcoin is the only thing at the moment that to me looks like dotcoms,” he said. On sterling, he said the currency faced big two-way risks given the binary outcomes around Brexit. “Rarely has there been the degree of uncertainty around sterling that we see today,” he said. His sterling position is currently not far off neutral versus the different benchmarks with which he operates. “If sterling volatility starts to pick up ... we reduce sterling exposure, and when volatility comes down again we close that position. So we’re trading between slightly underweight and more underweight depending on the volatility picture.” If Britain leaves the European Union with no deal agreed, Greetham said there could be another referendum-style shock, with a potential 10-15 percent downside for sterling. But his biggest outside risk for 2018 was a commodity-led inflationary shock. “(It) could come through a big upside growth surprise in China, it could come through a supply problem in the Middle East. So the Saudi situation is something we’re monitoring,” he said. Other positions: * Overweight global high yield but may lighten up gradually * Has been trimming emerging market equities and adding to Japanese stocks * Has been underweight commodities, now buying up towards neutral ($1 = 0.7598 pounds) Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits For other news from Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit, click here Reporting by Claire Milhench Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-investment-summit-rlam/only-in-foothills-of-another-tech-bubble-rlams-greetham-idUKKBN1DF22A'|'2017-11-15T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'3826073841b415f2a96c9f5313b4014ecf4610e6'|'Oil prices slide after IEA casts doubt over demand outlook'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:50 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Oil prices slide after IEA casts doubt over demand outlook Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday, continuing Tuesday’s slide after the International Energy Agency cast doubts over the past months’ narrative of tightening fuel markets. A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $61.47 per barrel at 0106 GMT, down 74 cents, or 1.2 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $55.10 per barrel, down 60 cents, or over 1 percent. The price falls mean that crude prices are now down by around 5 percent since hitting 2015 highs last week, ending a 40-percent rally between June and early November. “Crude oil prices fell sharply after the IEA raised doubts about the outlook for 2018,” ANZ bank said on Wednesday. The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Tuesday cut its oil demand growth forecast by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) for this year and next, to an estimated 1.5 million bpd in 2017 and 1.3 million bpd in 2018. “The oil market faces a difficult challenge in 1Q18 with supply expected to exceed demand by 600,000 bpd followed by another, smaller, surplus of 200,000 bpd in 2Q18,” the agency said. The demand slowdown could mean world oil consumption may not, as many expect, breach 100 million bpd next year, while supplies are likely to exceed that level. (For a graphic on ''Global crude oil supply & demand balance'' click reut.rs/2zCLx75 ) The IEA report countered the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which just a day earlier said 2018 would see a strong rise in oil demand. On the supply side, rising U.S. output also pressured prices. Greg McKenna of futures brokerage AxiTrader said prices were dragged down as “current demand will fall and longer term the growth of U.S. oil production will eclipse anything we’ve seen before – including the Saudis and Russians”. U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has already increased by more than 14 percent since mid-2016 to 9.62 million bpd and is expected to grow further. The latest government data is due on Wednesday. The IEA said non-OPEC production will add 1.4 million bpd of additional production in 2018. The IEA’s outlook pressures OPEC to keep restraining output in order to defend crude prices, which its members rely on for revenue. OPEC and some non-OPEC producers including Russia have been withholding production this year to end years of oversupply. The deal expires in March 2018 but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss policy, and it is expected to agree an extension of the cuts. Further down the line, analysts said the oil industry also faced difficult conditions. “On global oil demand, longer term questions persist around the driving forces, with the oil market contending with deindustrialisation, a global reduction in carbon emissions and an increasing shift to renewable technologies,” said Graham Bishop, investment director at Heartwood Investment Management. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-slide-after-iea-casts-doubt-over-demand-outlook-idUKKBN1DF03B'|'2017-11-15T03:16:00.000+02:00'
'b01c13e6d11c9bf3863c9a94a5b5422aa2e26d2b'|'Exclusive - Mattel snubs Hasbro''s latest acquisition approach: sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 9:41 PM / a minute ago Exclusive: Mattel snubs Hasbro''s latest acquisition approach - sources Greg Roumeliotis 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Mattel Inc has rebuffed Hasbro Inc’s latest takeover approach, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, casting uncertainty over the potential combination of the world’s two largest toy companies. FILE PHOTO: Mattel''s Wonder Woman doll is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S. on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Mattel’s rebuttal indicates that Margaret Georgiadis, who took over as the company’s chief executive in February, is seeking to drive a hard bargain in negotiations with Hasbro, even though Mattel’s stock has significantly underperformed that of Hasbro in the last year. Mattel has informed Hasbro its proposal undervalues the company and does not take sufficiently into account the potential for regulators to reject the deal based on antitrust concerns, the sources said. The terms Hasbro has proposed could not be learned, and it is not clear whether negotiations between the two companies will continue. The companies have engaged in multiple rounds of deal talks over the last two decades. The three sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Hasbro did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Mattel declined to comment. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mattel-m-a-hasbro-exclusive/exclusive-mattel-snubs-hasbros-latest-acquisition-approach-sources-idUKKBN1DF32W'|'2017-11-15T23:36:00.000+02:00'
'da7903fa0b7955bc27b865aba291885bca7e4abe'|'Exclusive - Britain, Canada ally to boost support for global coal phase-out'|'November 15, 2017 / 6:58 PM / in 2 hours Exclusive - Britain, Canada ally to boost support for global coal phase-out Nina Chestney , Alister Doyle 3 Min Read BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Britain and Canada will urge nations at U.N. climate talks on Thursday to join them in a global alliance to phase out coal, a letter seen by Reuters shows, defying U.S. lobbying in favour of the fossil fuel at the same event. A bulldozer works on a heap of coal at the Zeran Heat Power Plant in Warsaw, Poland November 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Their Powering Past Coal alliance, which also includes the low-lying Marshall Islands, will be launched in Bonn days after a pro-coal presentation by the Trump administration jarred with many ministers who want the talks to focus on cleaner energy sources. The pact is expected to attract at least another nine countries, a source close to the matter told Reuters. Mexico, France, Finland, New Zealand, Italy and an African country, are expected to sign up on Thursday, as well as at least 20 other entities including U.S. states, Canadian provinces and businesses. Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aims to wean the world economy off fossil fuels, several countries have pledged to phase out coal, including Britain, Canada, France and the Netherlands. “Joining Powering Past Coal is an opportunity to bring these national initiatives together, with sub-national and private sector action,” said the letter to around 100 ministers gathered at the talks. A group of around 100 countries formed a “high-ambition coalition” in Paris in 2015 that seeks to go beyond the 2 degree Celsius limit on global warming set down in Paris, a level the Marshall Islands and states in similar positions say may not be enough to stop them being submerged by the end of the century. Coal is responsible for more than 40 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The letter was signed by Britain’s climate change and industry minister Claire Perry, Canadian minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna and the Marshall Islands’ minister for foreign affairs and trade, John Silk. “We would strongly urge you to sign or endorse the declaration of the global alliance to Power Past Coal,” they said. The letter said the alliance would work to expand its partners to 50 by the next U.N. climate summit in 2018 which will be held in Poland’s Katowice, one of Europe’s most polluted cities. Germany, where the current U.N. climate conference is being held, was not mentioned as a signatory. Divisions over the pace of exit from coal power have this week dominated talks in Berlin on forming a new German coalition government. Last month, Britain and Canada joined forces to focus on getting rid of coal as a power source. editing by John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/climatechange-accord-coal-exclusive/exclusive-britain-canada-ally-to-boost-support-for-global-coal-phase-out-idINKBN1DF2RR'|'2017-11-15T20:53:00.000+02:00'
'627e268430626d79f3b28487b1ddb83a88678145'|'Department of Justice approaches state AGs to block AT&T-Time Warner deal: source'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has approached 18 state attorneys general to try to win their support for an antitrust lawsuit to block pay TV and wireless powerhouse AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion deal to buy media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.The department, conducting an antitrust review stretching more than a year, so far has failed to persuade any of the states to join a potential lawsuit, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another source said at least one state is still considering joining the Justice Department.The deal has become a political flashpoint because Republican President Donald Trump vowed last year as a candidate to block it and because of his frequent sharp criticism of news network CNN, owned by Time Warner, including in a new tweet on Wednesday. In talks with AT&T, the department has voiced concern that if the merger goes through, the combined company would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation.The department reached out to a group of state attorneys general -- the top law enforcement officials at the state level -- that earlier joined the review, the source said. State attorneys general have been assessing whether the deal could harm competition, and they interviewed industry officials this summer as part of the review, the source added.The Justice Department declined comment on the matter.The Justice Department could file suit on its own to try to stop the merger. Its Antitrust Division often works with states on big, complex deals to figure out how a transaction would affect them. Once the department files a complaint, it typically does the bulk of the courtroom fight, not the states.The Justice Department has a winning record in fighting mergers in recent years. It forced AT&T to scrap a plan to buy T-Mobile USA in 2011 and last year successfully battled in court to stop two insurance industry mergers, among others.AT&T&rsquo;s share price was up slightly on Wednesday at $33.91 while Time Warner slipped about half a percent to trade at $87.23 in mid-afternoon trading.The AT&T logo is seen on a store in Golden, Colorado United States July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking ANTI-COMPETITION CONCERNS Beyond worries over potential political influence in the department’s review, critics including Democratic lawmakers, consumer advocates and smaller television networks have raised anti-competition concerns about an AT&T-Time Warner marriage.A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The proposed merger would give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. It has prompted concerns that AT&T might try to limit distribution of Time Warner content.AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier and a major pay-TV provider, and Time Warner have struggled to keep viewers who have flocked to online services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video.AT&T wants to buy Time Warner so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment and take online advertising from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc.Justice Department staff members have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner Inc’s Turner Broadcasting unit, which includes CNN, in order to win approval of the deal, a government official said last week.Trump, just back from a trip to Asia, attacked the news network again on Wednesday morning, writing on Twitter: “While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!”U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday refused during congressional testimony to say whether the White House had contacted his department about its review of the deal.Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington; Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Will Dunham '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a/department-of-justice-approaches-state-ags-to-block-att-time-warner-deal-source-idINKBN1DF25Q'|'2017-11-15T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'7dfeb1d50a898061fbe525e76f9134c0c4815e52'|'Global vehicle sales to fall by 2040, but oil demand to rise, study predicts'|'November 14, 2017 / 5:09 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Global vehicle sales to fall by 2040, but oil demand to rise, study predicts Paul Lienert , Jessica Resnick-Ault 3   Global vehicle sales will decline over the next two decades as consumers embrace on-demand ride services like Uber, but demand for oil will keep rising, according to a study released Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Imported cars are parked in a storage area at Sheerness port, Sheerness, Britain, October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Another counterintuitive finding from the study by IHS Markit was that more than 80 percent of the vehicles sold worldwide in 2040 will still use some form of petroleum-fuelled combustion engine. Annual vehicle sales in the United States, Europe, China and India will decline over the next 23 years to 54 million in 2040, as total miles travelled rises 65 percent to around 11 billion miles a year, the study projected. About 80 million vehicles a year are sold currently in those regions. Although there will be fewer cars sold, demand for petroleum, especially for non-transportation uses, is expected to rise, from the current 98 million barrels a day to 115 million barrels a day in 2040. According to IHS Markit, which provides economic forecasts and data to the global energy and automotive markets, battery-powered all-electric vehicles will account for about 19 percent of sales by 2040. This compares with an estimated 14 percent of production by 2030 in a forecast by Boston Consulting Group on Nov. 2. IHS Markit forecast that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles - those with electric motors and combustion engines - will account for another 14 percent of sales in 2040. “Consumers are starting to embrace” the advanced technologies in electric and self-driving vehicles, Tom De Vleesschauwer, IHS Markit’s transport and mobility practice leader, said in an interview. While the adoption of electric vehicles is being driven in part by technology advances and government policy, “the part that’s most consumer-driven is ride hailing,” the on-demand service offered by such startups as Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] and China’s Didi Chuxing, according to Daniel Yergin, IHS Markit vice chairman. He said the firm was ”surprised when we saw (oil) demand increasing rather than going down.” Yergin noted that cars only account for a third of oil demand. The study’s authors expect 43 million barrels a day of new oil production will need to be brought into development by 2040 as demand rises and existing fields decline naturally. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autos-electric-ihs/global-vehicle-sales-to-fall-by-2040-but-oil-demand-to-rise-study-predicts-idUKKBN1DE0DP'|'2017-11-14T07:09:00.000+02:00'
'8e1e31fd6d24f3a5eeec5ed4b2c742f6501041cc'|'Scope for ''prudent but obvious'' recalibration of ECB policy - Hansson'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:39 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Scope for ''prudent but obvious'' rejig of ECB policy - Hansson Helen Reid 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The better outlook for the euro zone’s economy justifies a shift in European Central Bank policies, and the central bank should not depend solely on asset purchases to implement its goals, policymaker Ardo Hansson said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Estonian bank governor Ardo Hansson listens during a news conference following the Governing Council meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins “With greater confidence in the outlook for the real economy there is some scope for a prudent but obvious recalibration of policies,” Hansson said at a banking conference hosted by UBS. Hansson, who is Estonia’s ECB member and seen as one of its more hawkish ratesetters, added: “The world looks better to us,” noting the euro zone economy was enjoying “strong” growth. Thanks to this more supportive economic backdrop, the bank feels “more and more confident” that inflation will reach the desired levels in the bloc, he said. The ECB’s array of monetary policy tools should not be limited to asset purchases, he emphasised. “Monetary policy is not only about asset purchases. We can’t make the stance of policy synonymous with one important but still limited part of the programme,” he said. “One of my colleagues always likes to say monetary policy is not a solo, it’s a quartet: you have the asset purchases, the accumulated stock of purchases, the reinvestment policy and forward guidance.” Late last month the ECB laid out plans to cut its stimulus programme from the start of next year to 30 billion euros a month from 60 billion. That arrangement will run until September. Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Marc Jones/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-ecb-hansson/scope-for-prudent-but-obvious-recalibration-of-ecb-policy-hansson-idUKKBN1DF118'|'2017-11-15T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'c037b0a2fc14926edc4ae0827522d172f204d7c7'|'Golf-Garcia leaning towards Callaway after split with TaylorMade'|'November 15, 2017 / 5:52 AM / in 6 hours Golf: Garcia leaning toward Callaway after split with TaylorMade Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. Masters champion Sergio Garcia will use a new ball and clubs at this week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai after parting company with the TaylorMade equipment company. FILE PHOTO: Golf - European Tour - British Masters - Close House, Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain - September 28, 2017 Spain''s Sergio Garcia in action during the first round. Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith TaylorMade announced last week that it was splitting with the Spaniard, who on Tuesday said he was leaning towards signing with Callaway, whose gear he will use during the European Tour’s season-ending event at Jumeirah Golf Estates. “(I) spent 15 years with TaylorMade, but unfortunately things come to an end,” Garcia said ahead of Thursday’s opening round. ”It wasn’t only my decision... I guess all companies change, and the politics with TaylorMade have changed now after leaving Adidas. “We couldn’t come to an agreement. So I understand that it’s also difficult when you have so many top players, to keep all of them.” Adidas announced in May that it was selling TaylorMade to KPS Capital Partners. TaylorMade earlier this year signed Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the two biggest names in world golf. Other TaylorMade players include world number one Dustin Johnson and former number one Jason Day. After 22 previous top-10 finishes in the grand slam events, the 37-year-old Garcia finally broke his major duck when he beat Justin Rose in a playoff at Augusta National in April. The Spaniard said adjusting to a new ball was more difficult than the transition to new clubs. “What we’ve been testing, the numbers have been really good with the balls that Callaway has brought to me,” he said. ”Now it’s just a matter of trying it on the golf course and trying it in tournament play, and seeing how it reacts and seeing how it feels. “Then if there’s any changes that need to be made, then we have time in the off-season to get it sorted out.” Reporting by Andrew Both in Tokyo; Editing by John O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-golf-dpchampionship-garcia/golf-garcia-leaning-toward-callaway-after-split-with-taylormade-idUSKBN1DF0KM'|'2017-11-15T07:46:00.000+02:00'
'a8cb73dc92669489c2f89378f56ce2252876b62e'|'CEE MARKETS-Oil stocks fall, no lift for currencies from hawkish hints'|' 38 AM / in 2 minutes CEE MARKETS-Oil stocks fall, no lift for currencies from hawkish hints Reuters Staff 8 Min Read * Oil, energy stocks follow global decline, push down indices * Euro strength puts lid on currencies, crown at 12-day low * Czech rate setter Hampl, Polish Hardt hint at rate hike * Romanian government bonds take a pause after yield surge By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Energy, crude and metals sector stocks knocked Central European equities lower on Wednesday after a continuing decline in crude prices caused similar movements in Wall Street and elsewhere in the world. Warsaw''s bluechip index led the decline, shedding 0.6 percent by 0933 GMT. It was led lower by copper producer KGHM, which sank 5 percent after cutting its 2017 investment and output goals, while oil group PKN Orlen fell 1.7 percent. Global weakness in equities has weighed on stocks across the region this week even though a batch of third-quarter data early on Tuesday showed robust economic growth in Central Europe. Regional currencies have also not benefited from the figures because a surge in German output has triggered euro buying. Hawkish comments from a Polish and a Czech central banker, quoted by local papers on Wednesday, had no effect either. Czech central bank (CNB) Vice-Governor Mojmir Hampl said he may vote for a 25 basis point interest rate hike at the next policy meeting on Dec. 21. That would be the third hike since August when the bank started to reverse years of easing. The Czech crown eased a quarter of a percentage point against the euro to 25.695 despite the comments. Keeping rate hike expectations alive is a key tool of the CNB to buoy the crown, whose strength helps it fight inflation which has exceeded its 2 percent target. The zloty eased even though Polish rate setter Lukasz Hardt was quoted by the daily Rzeczpospolita as saying he may consider a small rate hike early next year if inflation is still heading towards the bank''s 2.5 percent target. Polish government bonds tracked a retreat in yields in the main developed markets, with the 10-year yield dropping 3 basis points to 3.416 percent. Romania''s corresponding yield was 4.62 percent, flat after a recent surge in the country''s yields to their highest levels since 2014. The leu firmed 0.1 percent to 4.636 versus the euro. Tuesday''s data showed Romania growing faster in the third quarter than any of its central European peers, at 8.8 percent. That figure and higher-than expected inflation data have underlined fears that the economy is overheating. "Some market watchers may see the rising pressure on the regulator (Romanian central bank) to deliver a faster policy response (monetary tightening) amid the increased risk of falling ''behind the curve''," Raiffeisen analyst Gintaras Shlizhyus said in a note. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1033 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.695 25.629 -0.25% 5.11% 0 5 Hungary 311.80 311.76 -0.01% -0.96% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2495 4.2482 -0.03% 3.63% Romanian leu 4.6360 4.6417 +0.12 -2.18% % Croatian 7.5505 7.5533 +0.04 0.06% kuna % Serbian 118.43 118.54 +0.09 4.15% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1060.1 1062.4 -0.21% +15.0 9 5 4% Budapest 39020. 39140. -0.31% +21.9 91 44 3% Warsaw 2448.7 2464.3 -0.63% +25.7 9 5 1% Bucharest 7798.8 7804.7 -0.08% +10.0 4 3 7% Ljubljana 786.38 789.08 -0.34% +9.59 % Zagreb 1843.1 1842.6 +0.03 -7.60% 6 3 % Belgrade 738.51 739.05 -0.07% +2.95 % Sofia 671.57 670.66 +0.14 +14.5 % 2% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.473 0.141 +123b +15bp ps s 5-year 0.917 0.092 +127b +11bp ps s 10-year 1.713 -0.033 +134b -1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.593 -0.004 +235b +1bps ps 5-year 2.585 -0.036 +294b -2bps ps 10-year 3.425 -0.032 +305b -1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.95 1.11 1.22 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.1 0.15 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.775 1.805 1.915 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask quotes prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-oil-stocks-fall-no-lift-for-currencies-from-hawkish-hints-idUSL8N1NL35A'|'2017-11-15T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'4c2a3fd4a6bae3f41f2b888f6834411328a21ab3'|'Russia''s Rosneft says managing exit from OPEC+ deal is a serious challenge'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Rosneft, the world’s top listed oil company by output, sees the exit from a global oil production-cutting deal as a serious challenge, a spokesman for the firm said.FILE PHOTO - The shadow of a worker is seen next to a logo of Russia''s Rosneft oil company at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met Russian oil company executives in Moscow on Wednesday ahead of talks in Vienna at the end of November between OPEC and non-OPEC producers.The ministry said Russian domestic oil producers are committed to a global deal to cut oil output. It said Novak and the companies would continue consultations on the global oil market situation.Another meeting was scheduled in a week, oil company officials told reporters.“The discussions are continuing,” said Alexander Dyukov, the head of Gazprom Neft.“The agreement that was signed and has been effective since July ... not so much time has passed since. That’s why we need to continue monitoring. We will gather in a week and will discuss.”The gathering in the Austrian capital could decide to extend the current deal further.OPEC sources last month told Reuters that producers were leaning towards prolonging the agreement until the end of 2018, though the decision could be postponed until early next year depending on the market.“Speaking about the company’s concerns, first of all it was about how to prepare for suspending measures to restrict production,” said Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev.“This is a serious question. Sooner or later, of course, these measures will be lifted. Now or later, that’s a separate question. It’s a serious challenge, for which one needs to prepare.”Rosneft is limiting output at its newest fields under the deal, in which Russia has pledged to cut production by 300,000 bpd. The Kremlin-controlled company accounts Russia’s total oil output.Eric Liron, a first vice president at Rosneft, on Tuesday said that the company may delay some greenfield projects if the deal is extended beyond its March 31 expiry date.Leontyev reiterated that Rosneft is sticking to its commitments under the pact but noted that Chief Executive Igor Sechin had expressed concerns over the deal.Leontyev said Rosneft’s tactics towards the deal are being prepared jointly with the Russian state.Russian President Vladimir Putin last month said that the pact was helping the global economy and should be extended at least until the end of 2018.Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by David Goodman and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-opec-rosneft/russias-rosneft-says-managing-exit-from-opec-deal-is-a-serious-challenge-idINKBN1DF1SR'|'2017-11-15T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'c80e0bf8d4c9938949a1aec3376e3020a5ac8d18'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. Senate drops proposal to change taxes on startup stock options'|'(New throughout, adds comments from trade groups and Menlo Ventures)By Heather SomervilleSAN FRANCISCO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Venture capitalists and startup executives, who had mounted a campaign against a proposal to change how the federal government taxes stock options, expressed relief on Wednesday after the U.S. Senate dropped the measure from its tax overhaul plan. The Senate tax bill had proposed taxing employee stock options, a crucial part of compensation at technology startups, as they vest. Options generally vest over a four-year period.The result would have been annual tax bills for startup employees that soared into the tens of thousands of dollars, warned startup founders and employees. Startup options give employees the right to purchase shares in the future and are illiquid, meaning employees cannot spend or save their options.The Senate removed that provision late Tuesday night following heavy lobbying from the National Venture Capital Association, the industry trade group, and an outpouring of opposition from Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. They predicted the demise of the startup industry should the tax become law.“The entrepreneurial ecosystem can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Bobby Franklin, president and chief executive of the trade association.More than 600 startups, investors and executives from companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Stripe signed a letter Tuesday to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, urging him to remove the provision.“This shift would have profound negative consequences for technology startups by, among other things, undermining their ability to compete with large incumbents for employees,” they wrote in the letter, organized by technology advocacy group Engine.A spokesman for Hatch did not respond to a request for comment.The current tax code taxes employees only when they exercise their options. The Senate proposal would have required employees to pay regular income tax on the value gain of stock options even before cashing them in.The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) was also successful in getting a similar proposal removed from the original House tax reform bill.“We don’t anticipate it coming back up again,” said Ben Veghte, spokesman for the NVCA.In the new version of the Senate bill, the finance committee also added language that would enable startup employees to defer for five years their stock options tax bill if they reach the deadline to exercise them but the company is still private and shares do not trade on the public markets.Venky Ganesan, managing director of Menlo Ventures, called the changes “consistent with economic growth and job creation.” (Reporting by Heather Somerville; editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-options/update-1-u-s-senate-drops-proposal-to-change-taxes-on-startup-stock-options-idINL1N1NL1K8'|'2017-11-15T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'0ee73c12a2b0b18a175c73e1ac03f04190baf3b8'|'Canada''s Obsidian Energy settles fraud charges with U.S. regulator'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:05 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Canada''s Obsidian Energy settles fraud charges with U.S. regulator Reuters Staff 2 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas producer Obsidian Energy, the company formerly known as Penn West Petroleum Ltd, announced on Wednesday a $8.5 million settlement with U.S. financial regulators over civil accounting fraud charges filed in June. Calgary-based Obsidian Energy said it had agreed to pay the financial penalty without admitting or denying any of the factual allegations in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint. Earlier this year, the SEC alleged the company had artificially reduced its operating costs by as much as 20 percent and improved metrics for oil extraction efficiency by moving hundreds of millions of dollars from operating expense accounts to capital expenditure accounts. The company issued a statement at the time saying the lawsuit was based on historic accounting practices that were discovered and reported to the SEC in July 2014. “Our settlement resolves this legacy Penn West issue, and we are focused on looking forward as a new company,” David French, chief executive of Obsidian Energy said on Wednesday. Penn West was one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers at the time of the alleged offences, producing around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has since downsized by selling most of its assets and now produces 31,000 boepd, primarily in Alberta’s Cardium, Peace River and Viking plays. Obsidian Energy shares were last up 4 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$1.54. “We view the settlement positively, given the very limited financial impact,” GMP FirstEnergy analyst Darren Engels said in a research note. “The settlement with the SEC enables the company to move forward away from the historical issue and remain focused on operations.” Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Alistair Bell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-obsidian-energy-sec-settlement/canadas-obsidian-energy-settles-fraud-charges-with-u-s-regulator-idUSKBN1DF2ZZ'|'2017-11-15T23:04:00.000+02:00'
'e82268439515fdf06296c3487986c12a10163123'|'Dwindling British fortunes to be laid bare'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:49 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Dwindling British fortunes to be laid bare Padraic Halpin 4 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - The diverging trajectories of Britain and other major economies is set to be further laid bare in the coming week with London’s budget forecasters poised to cut their growth outlook and data elsewhere likely to remain solid. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo Finance minister Philip Hammond will deliver Britain’s budget for 2018 on Wednesday, likely the last full spending and tax plan before the terms of Brexit are hammered out with the economy set for a difficult year as its EU withdrawal approaches. Under pressure for bold action after a disastrous election in June highlighted voters’ weariness with years of austerity, Hammond has almost no scope for sizeable tax cuts or a big increase in investment, unless he tears up his budget rules aiming to turn the deficit into a surplus by the mid-2020s. Coming hot on the heels of the first increase in UK interest rates for over 10 years, Britain’s budget forecasters have said they will “significantly” cut their outlook for productivity growth, complicating an already delicate task. “The Chancellor is in an unenviable position heading into the budget,” Mark Gregory, chief UK economist at accountancy firm EY, wrote in a note. “Given the major uncertainties facing the economy centered on Brexit, the Chancellor is reportedly concerned that investor confidence in the UK could be seriously damaged if he abandons the fiscal framework adopted only a year ago.” “However if he maintains his fiscal stance, the UK economy will be facing both monetary and fiscal tightening at the same time as growth slows — a potentially unappetizing cocktail.” Such a predicament means any ‘giveaways’ in areas such as house-building and public sector pay will have to be balanced by ‘takeaways’, according to economists at Oxford Economics, who predict a fiscally-neutral set of measures. EURO ZONE MOMENTUM While economists polled by Reuters this week predicted that British economic growth will remain tepid over the coming few years, and could even be worse than currently forecast, the euro zone is exhibiting increasingly better fortunes. A protestor waves an EU flag as he walks past the Houses of Parliament in central London, Britain September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Polling over the same period suggested the euro zone economy will mark its best year in a decade and maintain solid growth well into 2018, with respondees noting that the risk was that their forecasts might not be optimistic enough. Annual growth forecast to average 2.2 this year and 1.9 percent next year across the 19-member currency bloc compared with UK growth of 1.5 percent in 2017 and 1.3 percent in 2018. Just three years ago, Britain’s economy was growing at an annual rate of 2.9 percent, more than twice that of the euro zone. Top investors attending the Reuters 2018 Global Investment Outlook Summit this week were also enthused by strong European growth and tightening of the Franco-German axis at the heart of the euro zone. That differing momentum is likely to be highlighted the day after Hammond’s budget with the release of flash surveys of private business activity in France, Germany and the euro zone as a whole. The euro zone’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased off slightly to 56.0 from 56.7 in October but remained in line with its third quarter average and new orders rose. “The overall PMI level is likely to remain high, and these projected outcomes would be consistent with Q4 GDP growth of around 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter after 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3,” analysts at Nomura said. PMIs for Japan and the United States follow on Friday. Few expect U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week data or Wednesday’s minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting to halt a third interest rate hike in 2017 next month. “We don’t expect any significant news from the minutes of the November 1 FOMC (Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee) meeting,” RBC Capital Markets economists wrote in a note. “Which is fortunate because most market participants will be busy baking pumpkin pies.” Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/dwindling-british-fortunes-to-be-laid-bare-idUKKBN1DH21F'|'2017-11-17T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'e057a058419803412a5850e2573db3b3c5773b85'|'Kobe Steel''s Hatano plant to lose all JIS certifications - Nikkei'|'November 15, 2017 / 5:46 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Kobe Steel plant loses remaining industrial quality badge Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A Kobe Steel ( 5406.T ) plant, which is at the centre of a data falsification scandal that has roiled supply chains around the world, has been stripped of all its industrial quality certifications, Japan’s government said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The Kobe Steel (Kobelco) headquarters building is seen in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo The government-sanctioned seal on insulated copper tubing from Kobe’s Hatano plant was revoked after an investigation by a certification firm into its quality controls, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement. The plant, located southwest of Tokyo, has also lost its ISO 9001 quality certificate from the International Standards Organization, Japan Quality Assurance Organization said. Earlier, the plant’s Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) seal for its seamless copper pipe products was removed, as part of the fallout of one of Japan’s biggest industrial scandals. Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, which supplies producers of cars, planes, trains and other products across the world, said last month that about 500 of its customers had received products with falsified specifications. The company is planning to make a statement on the standards revocation at 0730 GMT, a Kobe Steel spokesperson said when contacted by Reuters. Having the quality seals revoked means the company can no longer sell the products with the JIS label, potentially restricting the number of customers that can buy them. Japanese manufacturing prowess has taken a hit in recent weeks due to the Kobe Steel scandal and news of improper final domestic inspection procedures at Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ). Nissan said earlier on Wednesday it had been informed that the ISO 9001 certification of its plants and those of affiliate Nissan Shatai ( 7222.T ) had been revoked for production of Japan-bound vehicles. JIS-certified products account for about 40 percent of Hatano’s sales by weight, Kobe Steel said. Kobe Steel has an extensive role in global supply chains. It produces engine valve springs found in half the world’s cars, according to its website. Kobe shares have plunged nearly a quarter since news of the data tampering in early October. They fell 4 percent on Wednesday, versus a 1.6 percent drop in the Nikkei 225 .225. Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal/kobe-steels-hatano-plant-to-lose-all-jis-certifications-nikkei-idUKKBN1DF0KB'|'2017-11-15T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'e7790c43ead705c0c70b13e8da182b503fc39d37'|'SandRidge Energy to buy Bonanza Creek in a deal worth $746 mln'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy said on Wednesday it would buy rival Bonanza Creek in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $746 million.SandRidge Energy’s offer of $36 per Bonanza Creek share is a 17.4 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Tuesday.The offer consists of $19.20 in cash and $16.80 of SandRidge shares for each Bonanza Creek share. (Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bonanz-creek-egy-ma-sandridge/sandridge-energy-to-buy-bonanza-creek-in-a-deal-worth-746-mln-idINL3N1NL4EF'|'2017-11-15T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'90d9430cfc681318b73660d9fba1051be5d31cf7'|'Global forex code bans ''last look'' trading tactic'|' 27 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Global forex code bans ''last look'' trading tactic Reuters Staff 2   A controversial trading tactic used on the $5 trillion (£3.78 trillion) a day foreign exchange markets has been banned by a global committee of central bankers and industry officials. An employee counts U.S. banknotes among Vietnamese banknotes at a branch of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) in Hanoi, Vietnam November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kham The Global Foreign Exchange Committee said on Wednesday it had concluded that traders should not undertake trading activity that uses information from a customer’s trading request during the “last look” window. “Last look” refers to the ability of dealers to reject a trade at the last minute. Critics say traders could potentially abuse this by using the market intelligence gained to influence other trades. The committee said the decision would be reflected in a revised version of its code that was launched in May in response to banks being fined billions of dollars for rigging currency benchmarks. The committee said it had also agreed to clarify conditions under which certain trading arrangements could be distinguished from “last look”. “The GFXC has made a number of decisions that will help to strengthen and embed the Code across the global market,” the committee’s chair, Chris Salmon, said in a statement. Salmon, who is executive director for markets at the Bank of England, said in September the code may need tweaking. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forex-markets-regulation/global-forex-code-bans-last-look-trading-tactic-idUKKBN1DF16I'|'2017-11-15T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'31d63ef60ffcbb510eaae9da186bbd2391f32aef'|'Airbus in record 430 plane deal with budget airline backer Franke'|'Reuters TV United States November 15, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Biggest deal yet for Airbus as Franke ups bet on budget airlines Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 3 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus landed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke. Bill Franke, Managing Partner of Indigo Partners LLC, attends a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar The preliminary deal for A320neo narrowbody jets was signed at the Dubai Airshow and offers a major boost to Airbus, which has lagged arch rival Boeing ( BA.N ) in deals this year. It also ensures veteran sales chief John Leahy retires on a high in the coming months. But Boeing immediately hit back with a provisional agreement to sell 175 planes to budget airline flydubai. Including options to buy a further 50 planes, that deal could be worth $27 billion at list prices. The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is the industry’s largest ever by number of aircraft. Indigo plans to supply the A320neo narrowbody jets to four airlines in which it has stakes: Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, Chilean carrier JetSmart and Hungary’s Wizz Air ( WIZZ.L ). Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said it expected to finalize the transaction with the 80-year-old Franke in the coming weeks. Its shares were up 2.5 percent to 85.59 euros at 1150 GMT. The agreement, along with flydubai’s deal for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets, underscores how budget carriers are rewriting the industry rule book by combining bargain fares with optional services and upgrades for which passengers pay extra. John Leahy, Airbus Sales Chief, and Bill Franke, Managing Partner of Indigo Partners LLC, pose during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar According to some delegates at the air show, the deals also suggest airlines are taking advantage of a recent slowdown in demand for new jets to negotiate competitive prices. SWAN SONG FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The Franke deal marks a dramatic swan-song for Airbus sales chief Leahy, who is due to retire in the coming months after holding the job since 1994. The 67-year-old has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and helped engineer a rise in Airbus’s market share to a par with Boeing from just 18 percent. This year, however, Airbus’s share of the order tally had dropped to 35 percent prior to the Dubai show, as a rejuvenated Boeing management made advances in Singapore and elsewhere. Airbus management, meanwhile, is dealing with investigations by British, French and U.S. authorities after the company uncovered inaccuracies in sales documents. Airbus also aims to sell more of its A380 superjumbo, with main customer Emirates seeking guarantees on keeping production lines open. “I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters. Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; editing by Mark Potter and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow/u-s-investor-nears-record-400-jet-airbus-order-sources-idUKKBN1DF0M1'|'2017-11-15T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'7199ea471305f996b68512db1317a3fa043782b5'|'SoftBank plans to invest up to $25 billion in Saudi Arabia - Bbg'|'Reuters TV United States  20 PM / a minute ago SoftBank plans to invest up to $25 billion in Saudi Arabia: Bloomberg   Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) plans to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Softbank plans to deploy around $15 billion in a new business and industrial city called NEOM and its Vision Fund would invest around $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co ( 5110.SE ), Bloomberg reported. The $500-billion mega-city will be floated on financial markets alongside oil giant Saudi Aramco as part of the kingdom’s drive to diversify away from oil, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had told Reuters in an interview in October. Reuters had also reported that Saudi Arabia will consider selling a large stake in Saudi Electricity to Vision Fund, the world’s largest private equity fund. SoftBank Group was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. Reporting by Shubham Kalia   Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arabia-softbank-group/softbank-plans-to-invest-up-to-25-billion-in-saudi-arabia-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DF26G'|'2017-11-15T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'5a20e163715de8b000bd46a653f7f7f5f6fd1146'|'Monsanto, U.S. farm groups sue California over glyphosate warnings'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:34 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Monsanto, U.S. farm groups sue California over glyphosate warnings Tom Polansek 5 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) and U.S. farm groups sued California on Wednesday to stop the state from requiring cancer warnings on products containing the widely used weed killer glyphosate, which the company sells to farmers to apply to its genetically engineered crops. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto''s Roundup weedkiller atomizers are displayed for sale at a garden shop at Bonneuil-Sur-Marne near Paris, France on June 16, 2015. GLYPHOSATE REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The government of the most populous U.S. state added glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, to its list of cancer-causing chemicals in July and will require that products containing glyphosate carry warnings by July 2018. California acted after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded in 2015 that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic”. For more than 40 years, farmers have applied glyphosate to crops, most recently as they have cultivated genetically modified corn and soybeans. Roundup and Monsanto’s glyphosate-resistant seeds would be less attractive to customers if California requires warnings on products containing the chemical. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), which is named in the federal lawsuit, said it stands by the decision to include glyphosate on the state’s list of products known to cause cancer and believes it followed proper legal procedures. Monsanto and groups representing corn, soy and wheat farmers reject that glyphosate causes cancer. They say in the lawsuit that California’s requirement for warnings would force sellers of products containing the chemical to spread false information. “Such warnings would equate to compelled false speech, directly violate the First Amendment, and generate unwarranted public concern and confusion,” Scott Partridge, Monsanto’s vice president of global strategy, said in a statement. The controversy is an additional headache for Monsanto as it faces a crisis around another herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba that was linked to widespread U.S. crop damage this summer. The company, which is being acquired by Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) for $63.5 billion, developed the product as a replacement for glyphosate following an increase of weeds resistant to the chemical. Monsanto has already suffered damage to its investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in glyphosate products since California added the chemical to its list of cancer-causing products, according to the lawsuit. U.S. farmers apply glyphosate to fields to kill weeds before planting corn fed to livestock, spray it on genetically engineered soybeans while they are growing and sometimes on wheat before it is harvested. The crops are then shipped across the country in food products. “Everything that we grow is probably going to have to be labelled,” said Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Certain goods that meet a standard for containing low amounts of glyphosate, known as a No Significant Risk Level (NSRL), may be able to be sold without warnings under a proposal California is considering, said Sam Delson, a state spokesman. “We do not anticipate that food products would cause exposures that exceed the proposed NSRL,” he said. “However, we cannot say that with certainty at this point and businesses make the determination.” A large, long-term study on glyphosate use by U.S. agricultural workers, published last week as part of a project known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), found no firm link between exposure to the chemical and cancer. Reuters reported in June that an influential scientist was aware of new AHS research data while he was chairing a panel of experts reviewing evidence on glyphosate for IARC in 2015. He did not tell the panel about it because the data had not been published, and IARC’s review did not take it into account. A 2007 study by OEHHA also concluded the chemical was unlikely to cause cancer. Still, flour mills have started asking farmers to test wheat for glyphosate in anticipation of California’s requirement, said Gordon Stoner, president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, another plaintiff. Such tests add costs for farmers and could push up food prices or unnecessarily scare consumers away from buying products that contain crops grown with glyphosate, he said. The case is National Association of Wheat Growers et al v. Lauren Zeise, director of OEHHA, et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, No. 17-at-01224. Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-u-s-farm-groups-sue-california-over-glyphosate-warnings-idUKKBN1DF1LP'|'2017-11-15T22:45:00.000+02:00'
'0349ee1163675d7bf90881e091a865150800d1e0'|'Asia stocks shaky before China data, ponder yield curve'|'November 14, 2017 / 12:51 AM / Updated an hour ago Global stocks, oil prices decline; German growth lifts euro Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks were down for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday, while strong economic growth in Germany boosted the euro to an almost three-week high. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Wall Street was lower on weak oil prices, uncertainty about U.S. tax policy and the economy’s ability to deal with more interest rate hikes. European stocks fell to a two-month low. U.S. Treasury two-year note yields climbed to a nine-year peak while long-dated debt yields fell, flattening the yield curve flattened for a second straight day, while investors braced for a Federal Reserve December rate hike. In Germany a 0.8-percent third-quarter growth reading beat forecasts and showed the economy expanding at annualised rates of more than 3 percent. “It’s been a euro trade today, and it’s stronger against just about everything,” Brad Bechtel, managing director FX at Jefferies in New York, said. “The numbers out of Germany were pretty good last night.” The dollar index fell 0.74 percent, with the euro up 1.13 percent to $1.1797. On Wall Street, investors sought updates on rival U.S. House of Representatives and Senate tax reform proposals. Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul said he would seek to add a provision to repeal Obamacare’s requirement Americans obtain health insurance and scale back its elimination of a federal deduction for state and local taxes. “As proposed, both plans, but especially the House package, would be good for corporate America. There’s uncertainty whether anything is going to be passed or how much compromise is going to occur,” said J. Bryant Evans, portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management, in Champaign, Illinois. After an upcoming break for the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, there are only 12 legislative days before year-end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57.08 points, or 0.24 percent, to 23,382.62, the S&P 500 lost 9.3 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,575.54 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 35.68 points, or 0.53 percent, to 6,721.92. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.69 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.17 percent. Monetary policy was also on traders’ minds with the heads of the U.S., European, British and Japanese central banks attending a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt. The U.S. two-year yield hit a nine-year peak just shy of 1.7 percent, up from Monday’s 1.687 percent. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 6/32 in price to yield 2.3788 percent, from 2.4 percent late on Monday. Stocks in Asia had fallen after China’s retail sales and industrial output data missed market expectations. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.4 percent in its third consecutive day of losses. Japan’s Nikkei was unchanged after four sessions of losses. Oil declined for a third day as evidence of rising U.S. output and a gloomier outlook for demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) weighed on prices. U.S. crude fell 1.97 percent to $55.64 per barrel and Brent was last at $62.07, down 1.73 percent on the day. Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Marc Jones in London, Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-stocks-shaky-before-china-data-ponder-yield-curve-idUKKBN1DE02V'|'2017-11-14T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'e6abc120280199f5e262e594dde95dbabea03ce6'|'UPDATE 1-Bank of America exec: Volcker Rule fuels private trading firms'' rise'|'(Adds details throughout.)By Dan FreedNov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. post-financial crisis rules that place strong trading restrictions on banks has fueled the rise of private trading firms that have grabbed market share, a top Bank of America Corp executive said on Tuesday.In particular, Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag mentioned the “Volcker Rule,” named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, which prevents banks from making directional bets on market moves.Montag said Virtu Financial Inc and Tradeweb Markets were two trading firms that have taken share from large banks in products such equities and U.S. Treasury bonds.He said because they face fewer restrictions, the firms are able to move more quickly than banks and use information they gather for trading.“The rise of the private trading firm is real,” Montag said, adding that “it has changed the dynamic of the markets.”Turning to Bank of America’s near-term performance, Montag said the trading environment in the fourth quarter “remains muted,” similar to the third quarter. He declined to provide any numbers about the bank’s trading performance.Regarding its plans related to Britain’s plans to leave the European Union, Montag said B of A will move people out of London to Dublin, but mostly to Paris and Frankfurt. He estimated Bank of America will relocate about 200 employees from the bank’s sales and trading operations. (Reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-banks-conference-bank-of-america/update-1-bank-of-america-exec-volcker-rule-fuels-private-trading-firms-rise-idINL1N1NK0WU'|'2017-11-14T11:51:00.000+02:00'
'1d5593c1c125bf7117abf1a3511fe8f5104fad87'|'Goldman Sachs CEO praises France for strong government and good food'|' 35 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Goldman Sachs CEO praises France for strong government and good food Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein praised the French government for its commitment to economic reforms during a visit to Paris on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Struck by the positive energy here in Paris,” Blankfein wrote on Twitter. “Strong govt and biz leaders are committed to economic reform and are well thru the first steps. And the food’s good too!”. France has stepped up efforts to attract London banks preparing for Brexit to Paris after the election of President Emmanuel Macron, who has begun to make labour law more flexible and cut taxes. Blankfein did not mention any post-Brexit plans for Paris. Earlier last month Goldman Sachs chief executive visited Frankfurt, and said that he would spend more time there as the Wall Street bank pushes ahead with plans to make the German city a major base after Britain leaves the European Union. The Wall Street bank is also still investing in London where it still expects to fill new European headquarters currently under construction, Blankfein has also said on twitter. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva, Editing by Anjuli Davies'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gs-france/goldman-sachs-ceo-praises-france-for-strong-government-and-good-food-idUKKBN1DE2EZ'|'2017-11-14T19:34:00.000+02:00'
'9646e933d876b69d6682e6461667fe55dfcba08d'|'Volkswagen agrees to pay $69 million to settle New Jersey emissions suits'|' 50 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Volkswagen agrees to pay $69 million to settle New Jersey emissions suits Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) confirmed Tuesday it has agreed to pay $69 million to settle New Jersey state diesel emissions claims, one of the last major outstanding diesel legal issues the German automaker faces in the United States. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo VW has previously agreed to spend more than $750 million to resolve various state environmental and consumer claims. In total, VW has agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions/volkswagen-agrees-to-pay-69-million-to-settle-new-jersey-emissions-suits-idUKKBN1DE2GG'|'2017-11-14T19:49:00.000+02:00'
'9641a05173ee4e86d619124bb8aba69fc2f55a08'|'About 75,000 bpd of Gulf oil output still shut after Shell fire'|'HOUSTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A combined 75,206 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 215,122 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production are shut-in at four platforms in the wake of a Nov. 8 fire at Royal Dutch Shell’s Enchilada platform, according to U.S. government data.The figures include Shell’s Enchilada, Salsa and Augers platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Hess Corp’s Baldpate platform and Hess-operated Conger field, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).Shell holds a 37.5 percent share in the Conger field.Hess temporarily abandoned production at its Baldpate, Conger and Penn State fields, according to the company, adding that production coming through its Garden Banks Gas Pipeline system will be closed until further notice.A plan to repair damage caused by an operational incident at the Enchilada platform is under way, according to Shell.Hess is cooperating with Shell to determine when the platform will restart.The Gulf produces about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day and 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily. (Reporting by Bryan Sims Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/shell-gulfmexico-shutins/about-75000-bpd-of-gulf-oil-output-still-shut-after-shell-fire-idINL1N1NL1JP'|'2017-11-15T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'764e31e84ff7717af6fb70fbf1a61c1b05986057'|'Bombardier plans hiring spree for business jet program -sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:01 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Bombardier plans hiring spree for business jet program: sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MONTREAL (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc expects to hire around 1,000 workers in Montreal over 18 months, as the Canadian plane and train maker ramps up production of its new Global 7000 business jet, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne An announcement about the jobs, which are for completion work on the new corporate jet, is expected as early as Friday, said two of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the latest figure is not yet public. A spokeswoman for Bombardier business jets could not be immediately reached for comment. Bombardier has said the Global 7000 is expected to enter service next year and is sold out until 2021. The hiring comes at a time when Montreal’s aerospace industry is facing a shortage of labor, with companies actively recruiting and encouraging enrollment at specialized training centers. According to data from the industry group Aero Montreal, almost 32,000 aerospace positions will need to be filled in Quebec over the next 10 years, both for new positions and to replace retiring workers. “It is very difficult,” said one of the sources, an aerospace supplier who said he needed to consider hiring workers abroad. While Bombardier has not announced a specific figure, the company has previously said it would hire workers for its new plane programs, the CSeries single-aisle jets and the Global 7000, even as it sheds thousands of employees through 2018 as part of a five-year turnaround plan. According to the company’s 2016 annual report, the most recent figures available, the company had 66,000 employees last year, down from 70,900 in 2015. Bombardier had 9,400 employees in its business jet division as of 2016. Reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Susan Thomas and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bombardier-jobs/bombardier-plans-hiring-spree-for-business-jet-program-sources-idUSKBN1DF2ZJ'|'2017-11-15T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'4b725fcbfa832586507ab16c3d1060331c2f7b73'|'Moody''s withdraws RCom''s credit rating after missed payment'|'November 18, 2017 / 6:30 AM / Updated 15 hours ago Moody''s withdraws RCom''s credit rating after missed payment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Rating agency Moody’s said on Friday it has withdrawn its credit rating on Reliance Communications, as it considers the Indian telecom operator to be in default for missing an interest payment on its bonds that was due last week. A shareholder fills a form before the Reliance Communications annual general meeting in Mumbai September 22, 2009. REUTERS/Arko Datta/Files Debt-laden Reliance Communications posted a fourth straight quarterly loss last week and said it had failed to pay interest on some debentures, sending its shares tumbling. “Moody’s has withdrawn the ratings as a missed scheduled payment of either interest or principal is considered a default under Moody’s definitions,” the rating agency said in a note. With net of debt of 443 billion rupees as of end-March, RCom - as the company is widely known - is the most leveraged listed Indian telecom company, and along with its rivals has been hit badly by a price war with upstart rival Reliance Jio, which is controlled by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. RCom, controlled by Ambani’s younger brother, Anil, is attempting to convert roughly 70 billion rupees of its debt to equity via a strategic debt restructuring plan. As part of the plan, the company is under a debt standstill and hence there are no payments of interest or principal being made to RCom lenders or bondholders, said Moody‘s, adding it was thus withdrawing its ‘Ca’ corporate family rating on the company and its ‘Ca’ rating on RCom’s senior secured notes. Earlier in November, RCom signed a deal to sell its non-core direct-to-home business, in a bid to reduce its debt load. Reporting by Rahul Bhatia; Editing by Euan Rocha'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rcom-debt/moodys-withdraws-rcoms-credit-rating-after-missed-payment-idINKBN1DI06U'|'2017-11-18T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'48b7f0480f4c3df9c55693fdb43eed5eb0644a68'|'Metal recyclers prepare for electric car revolution'|'November 17, 2017 / 12:13 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Metal recyclers prepare for electric car revolution Jan Harvey 9 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Recycling companies are honing processes to extract metals from old batteries more cheaply and efficiently so they can capitalise on an expected shortfall in materials such as cobalt and lithium when sales of electric cars take off. An employee sorts used primary non-rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries before being recycled by the German recycling firm Accurec in Krefeld, Germany, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay The main obstacle recyclers face now is a shortage of spent batteries to recycle to make their technology cost-effective, but those at the forefront of the industry are confident the supply, and profits, will come. “The value of lithium carbonate and natural or synthetic graphite has doubled or tripled in the last three or four years, becoming the most valuable materials besides cobalt in the automotive battery,” Albrecht Melber, co-managing director of German recycling firm Accurec, said. “There are big values that can be recycled in the future.” Electric vehicle sales are expected to pass 14 million a year by 2025 from less than a million now, fuelling a surge in the consumption of battery materials. Data specialist Benchmark Mineral Intelligence predicts the industry will need an extra 30,000 tonnes of cobalt and 81,000 tonnes of lithium a year to meet demand by 2021. GRAPHIC-Forecast demand growth for lithium ion battery materials: reut.rs/2zzGHaG Commodity research group CRU expects 11,600 tonnes of cobalt to come from recycling in 2021, up from 7,110 a year now, and 24,900 tonnes by 2026, accounting for 9.7 percent and 17.9 percent of the total market supply respectively. In China, where electric vehicle sales topped half a million last year, recyclers are getting ready to deal with a mountain of battery waste and others also see opportunities. “A 1,000-pound lithium cobalt battery contains about $6,000 worth of cathode material at the top end of the value chain and about $1,700 for a nickel-cobalt-aluminum battery at the low end,” said Larry Reaugh, chief executive of Canadian metals recycler American Manganese ( AMY.V ). “If this equated to mining you would have a very high grade feedstock,” he said. “We’re mining batteries, you might say.” COBALT PRESSURE Most electric cars are powered by lithium NMC batteries which use a cathode composed of nickel, manganese and cobalt and a graphite anode. Mining enough cobalt to meet demand is a particular concern as most of the world’s supplies come from Democratic Republic of Congo, where mining areas are prone to conflict. The price of cobalt COB-CATH-LON has more than doubled so far this year. Supplies of lithium, mainly mined in Chile, are under far less pressure at the moment and new production is due to come on stream in Argentina and Australia. But concern the supply of lithium in battery-ready form will struggle to keep pace with electric car sales has pushed prices up more than 30 percent to a record $12,000 (£9,091) a tonne this year. Besides a shortage of old batteries to recycle, companies also face challenges extracting lithium in a reusable form. Most recyclers heat old batteries to high temperatures to retrieve metals, a process known as pyrometallurgy. But this generally only yields cobalt, and sometimes nickel, while lithium is more difficult and expensive to extract. The cost of recycling varies widely, but to be economical, CRU estimates it would need to be transformed back into lithium carbonate at a maximum cost of $7,000 a tonne. For now, lithium usually ends up in waste slag, which can be used as a building material, or is thrown away. But with the price of all these metals rising, that picture may change. MATERIAL MATRIX Technological advances are key to retrieving more waste metal from batteries and some companies say they have developed ways to get lithium that will come into their own once there’s a steady supply of spent batteries to recycle. Umicore ( UMI.BR ) uses a combination of pyrometallurgy and a chemical process known as hydrometallurgy to retrieve lithium and rare earths from slag, as well as extracting cobalt, nickel, and copper. A pile of used primary non-rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries is pictured before being recycled by the German recycling firm Accurec in Krefeld, Germany, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay “A battery is a complex material matrix,” Umicore says. “However, our process allows (us) to separate and concentrate the lithium in one process step, and yields alloys with cobalt, nickel and copper.” Umicore operates a pilot plant with a 7,000-tonne capacity that can process some 35,000 electric vehicle batteries a year. Analysts say the Belgian company, a well-established materials recycler, is by far the most developed lithium ion battery processor in Europe. “For investors to play the recycling theme, for now the best way is Umicore,” said Tobias Bischoff, a portfolio manager at de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Cie who advises NSF Wealth Management’s Global New Mobility fund. U.S. company Retriev Technologies has been recycling lithium ion batteries at its plant in Trail, British Columbia, since 2002, recovering cobalt, nickel and copper. It expanded a facility in Ohio to process lithium ion batteries two years ago. Between 2012 and the end of last year production at its Trail facility doubled, with the plant processing about 1,200 tonnes of batteries. The company expects growth at a similar rate over the next five years, vice president Todd Coy said. Other companies are also pushing into lithium ion battery recycling. Accurec now has a 1,000-tonne capacity demonstration plant for recycling car batteries at its Krefeld facility in western Germany, though it says volumes remain small. Slideshow (14 Images) Australia’s Neometals ( NMT.AX ) is building a pilot plant in Montreal, aiming to develop processes tested in laboratories and small-scale plants for extracting cobalt, lithium and nickel. Also in Canada, American Manganese says it can retrieve 100 percent of the lithium - as well as cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminium - from batteries, using technology originally developed to process low-grade manganese ores. It has completed a proof of concept for its process and has a patent pending. A pilot plant is the next step. SECOND LIFE But commercial development for recyclers is tough without the economies of scale that will come with a greater supply of spent batteries. Retriev, for example, says large volumes will be key to developing lithium recycling using hydrometallurgy. “At current commodity prices we need approximately 4,000 tonnes per year of batteries to justify the estimated capital costs,” Retriev’s Coy said, more than three times its current processing volumes. “We are confident this volume will be coming in the future - beyond 2023 - but the market is not there yet.” While electronic car sales are growing fast, lithium ion car batteries last eight to 10 years on average, meaning it will be the best part of a decade before significant numbers are spent. American Manganese’s Reaugh says it is planning to focus initially on recycling material from faulty batteries to get around the wait for working batteries to expire. Even when they do, battery makers say many will have a second life as grid storage, potentially for the best part of another decade. German carmaker BMW ( BMWG.DE ), for example, says its batteries are specifically designed for that purpose. Grid storage systems use batteries no longer performing at levels to power cars to store electricity which can be used to even out fluctuations in supply and demand. Still, not everyone is convinced grid storage will put the brakes on recycling. “At the end of the day it’s going to come down to whether the raw materials in the battery are worth more than the battery as grid storage,” CRU analyst George Heppel said. “I think there will be a better incentive to recycle the materials, and from there build a more efficient battery with new technology.” Umicore says it expects volumes of spent batteries to rise above 100,000 tonnes a year in the next decade, with “massive volumes” coming onto the market around 2025. Once that happens, the opportunities for recyclers to capitalise will take off. “It definitely is a market that could become materially important,” said portfolio manager Bischoff. “We’ve looked at it, and we’ll look at it again.” GRAPHIC-Electric vehicles on the rise: tmsnrt.rs/2eNwQoZ Reporting by Jan Harvey; editing by David Clarke'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-batteries-recycling-analysis/metal-recyclers-prepare-for-electric-car-revolution-idUKKBN1DH1D7'|'2017-11-17T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'f4c727c054167cbc956e38a4a8dde21640b10838'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Bharti Airtel, Raytheon, Bombardier, Lufthansa, Dangote and Buffalo Wild Wings)Nov 14 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Tuesday:** Tesco won provisional approval for its 3.7 billion pound ($4.9 billion) takeover of wholesaler Booker from the UK competition regulator on Tuesday, moving Britain’s biggest retailer closer to securing a new avenue of growth.** Canada’s Cenovus Energy Inc has reached an agreement to sell its Weyburn oil facility for C$940 million ($738.53 million) to Whitecap Resources Inc, Cenovus said, completing its main divesture plans.** British insurer Aviva said it had agreed to buy Irish insurer Friends First Life Assurance Company for 130 million euros ($151 million) in cash, making it one of the biggest insurers in Ireland.** Amazon.com Inc is selling off the hardware from its public cloud business in China, amid tightening regulation over online data that is creating a hurdle for technology firms operating in the world’s second-largest economy.** French construction and engineering group Vinci said it wanted to expand further its airport operations and would systematically bid for opportunities in markets worldwide.** Top Indian mobile carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd said on Tuesday it sold part of its holdings in mobile masts arm Bharti Infratel Ltd for 33.25 billion rupees ($507.52 million) in a bid to reduce debt.** Qatar First Bank (QFB) said that one of its units had sold its stake in United Arab Emirates healthcare and education investment firm Amanat Holdings, the latest sign of an unwinding of business ties between Qatar and the UAE.** Goldman Sachs Group Inc has written down to zero the value of its stake in the Weinstein Company, the movie studio whose co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations, a person familiar with the matter said.** Kuwait’s Aviation Lease and Finance Company (ALAFCO) announced it was exercising options for 20 Boeing 737-8 MAX jets at the Dubai Airshow.** Spanish office buildings owner Inmobiliaria Colonial said it has launched a takeover bid for Axiare Patrimonio, valuing the rival company at 1.46 billion euros ($1.70 billion).** Indian airline Jet Airways is in “serious discussions” about ordering a further 75 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, having already ordered 75, chairman and founder Naresh Goyal told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow.** Kenya’s government converted some loans to Kenya Airways into equity, lifting its stake to nearly 50 percent in an effort to return the carrier to profitability, the finance minister said.** Allergan Plc said it will sell just under a quarter of its roughly 10 percent stake in Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries during the first quarter of 2018, as it starts to unwind its position in the struggling generic drugmaker.** Bharti Airtel has merged with Millicom’s Tigo in Ghana to become the country’s second-largest mobile operator, the new company AirtelTigo said.** The United Arab Emirates’ military said it was buying laser guided bombs from U.S. missile maker Raytheon Co in a deal worth 2.5 billion dirhams ($684.4 million).** State-owned EgyptAir on Tuesday signed an initial order for 12 Bombardier CSeries jets, marking the Canadian plane maker’s second deal for its largest planes this month - agreements that end an 18-month drought of no sales of the aircraft.** Germany’s Lufthansa has offered 250 million euros ($294 million) to take on most of Alitalia’s fleet of aircraft and half of its staff, a source close to the matter said.** Dangote Noodles Ltd, a unit of Nigerian company Dangote Flour Mills, has sold two production lines to rival pasta maker De United Foods Industries for 3.75 billion naira ($12.26 million), the company said.** Buffalo Wild Wings’ shares rose nearly 26 percent in early trading on Tuesday, a day after a report said the company received a $2.3 billion takeover bid from private-equity firm Roark Capital Group. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NK488'|'2017-11-14T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'c08cd727e6f40d3bf8454aff0c47f6c2efba2ef6'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 14'|'November 14, 2017 / 1:06 AM / Updated an hour ago PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 14 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Headlines - Google faces local antitrust investigation in U.S. ( on.ft.com/2jmT5UZ ) - Mick Davis leads contenders to become next Rio Tinto chairman. ( on.ft.com/2hxiA5i ) - GE boss unveils dividend cut and $20 billion asset sales. ( on.ft.com/2hvw1mi ) Overview - Missouri’s attorney general said Monday his office would investigate whether Alphabet Inc’s Google violated the state’s consumer protection and antitrust laws. - Mick Davis, the former head of Xstrata, has emerged as a frontrunner to become the next chairman of Anglo Australian miner Rio Tinto Plc. Davis has held talks with Rio, according to people familiar with the matter. - General Electric Co is cutting its dividend and will divest two of its longest-held divisions, including the remainder of the lighting business created by Thomas Edison, as a part an effort by its new chief executive John Flannery to revive the storied conglomerate. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-14-idUSL3N1NK08U'|'2017-11-14T03:05:00.000+02:00'
'883f494910ef55fc540aaeb21a8b1362cc3380ff'|'Hudson''s Bay investors want debt reduction, payouts from real estate proceeds'|' 42 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Hudson''s Bay investors want debt reduction, payouts from real estate proceeds Nichola Saminather 3 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - As Hudson’s Bay Co steps up the pace of extracting value from its $5 billion property portfolio, the department store chain’s shareholders want it to reduce debt, return cash to them and not invest the proceeds in traditional retail operations. Hudson’s Bay is not new to selling real estate, but its actions are under greater scrutiny amid rising tensions between the company and activist hedge fund Land & Buildings, which says it holds about 5 percent of the company. The fund wants the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor to sell or convert stores to alternate uses and transform itself into a real estate play. It values HBC’s real estate at about C$35 a share, three times more than the company’s current level. “The perception, and in some cases, the reality, is that (Amazon.com Inc) is speeding bricks and mortar retailers into submission,” said Jonathan Norwood of Mackenzie Investments, HBC’s eighth-biggest shareholder. “If they sell the real estate, we want to see the money used to reduce debt and returned to shareholders,” added Norwood, who co-leads Mackenzie’s value-focused Cundill team. “We don’t want it going to revitalize or grow the retail operations.” HBC is exploring the sale of its Vancouver flagship store, estimated at about C$800 million ($628.4 million), after selling its Lord & Taylor property in Manhattan for $850 million last month.. Selling properties will further expose HBC to a brutal retail market but has not deterred the company from opening new stores in the Netherlands this year. “It’s hard for an investor to get excited about new store openings when existing stores are on rocky ground,” said Joshua Varghese, portfolio manager at CI Investments, HBC’s sixth-largest shareholder. The company should “seriously consider” a 3 billion euro offer from Signa Holdings for its German stores, Varghese said, noting HBC shares are unlikely to see significant gains without clarity on the company’s strategy. An HBC spokeswoman declined to say whether the company has identified areas to deploy the proceeds from any future asset sales. It will use funds from the Lord & Taylor sale to pay down debt, which totaled C$3.4 billion as of July 29, excluding its two joint ventures. HBC’s net debt was 4.7 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after the Lord & Taylor sale, compared with an industry average of 2, according to Royal Bank of Canada. “If Richard (Baker, HBC’s executive chairman) sells the Vancouver store, he’ll probably pay off debt on the operating company,” said an HBC shareholder who declined to be identified. “I don’t think they’ll sell all the stores; they’re monetizing individual stores where demand is good.” ($1 = 1.2717 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hudsonsbay-propertysales/hudsons-bay-investors-want-debt-reduction-payouts-from-real-estate-proceeds-idUSL3N1NF6ZF'|'2017-11-14T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'9cb3560e02a0836d61570036debe24b56bd28b42'|'Tesco wins UK regulator''s provisional approval for Booker takeover'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco ( TSCO.L ) won provisional approval for its 3.7 billion pound ($4.9 billion) takeover of wholesaler Booker ( BOK.L ) from the UK competition regulator on Tuesday, moving Britain’s biggest retailer closer to securing a new avenue of growth.FILE PHOTO: A Tesco supermarket is seen, in west London on September 30, 2008. . REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had conducted an in-depth review and provisionally concluded that Tesco’s purchase of Booker does not raise competition concerns.Tesco’s move on Booker in January sparked further consolidation in Britain’s 185 billion pound grocery market as supermarkets seek additional sources of growth.Analysts expect more M&A activity as supermarkets seek to utilize excess capacity within their supply chains.“The wholesale trade in particular will be wondering why on earth it ever bothered engaging at all with the CMA, an organization that seemingly lives in a different universe,” said Shore Capital analyst Clive Black.“If Tesco and Booker can merge with unconditional approval, then the scope for further large-scale consolidation cannot be ruled out,” he said.The provisional clearance will come as a big relief to Tesco. Most analysts had expected it would have to agree to store divestments or restrictions on operations to gain clearance.Tesco and Booker have argued their deal will enhance competition in Britain and promote consumer interests. However, rival wholesalers, including Bestway, Spar, Bidfood and Sugro, reject that and have called for the deal to be blocked.UNSHAKEABLE GRIP They believe if the deal proceeds Tesco will have an unshakeable grip on the procurement of all grocery categories in Britain and that suppliers will find it even harder to resist Tesco’s demands.Both Tesco and Booker, the country’s biggest grocery wholesaler, welcomed the CMA announcement. Tesco said it expected to complete the deal, which also requires shareholder approvals, in early 2018.Shares in Tesco and Booker were both up 7 percent at 1422 GMT.Rival grocers declined to comment on the record. But a source at one grocer described the CMA’s decision as “ridiculous”.FILE PHOTO: A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Though it is unusual for provisional findings to be reversed, rival wholesale and retail groups do have the chance to present further evidence and comment before the CMA’s final ruling due in December.In consolidation moves already prompted by the deal, Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ), Britain’s No. 2 supermarket group, considered a bid for the Nisa convenience chain before the Co-operative Group ( 42TE.L ) secured a 138 million pound deal. Morrisons ( MRW.L ), the No. 4, has signed a wholesale supply deal with the McColl’s ( MCLSM.L ) chain.Some Tesco shareholders have criticized the Booker bid, saying Chief Executive Dave Lewis is overpaying and that it will distract from the company’s turnaround plan.CALLS FOR HIGHER PRICE? The approval could spur calls from Booker shareholders for Tesco to raise its bid.One top 20 Booker investor said he believed Tesco should pay more “as Booker is Tesco’s last hope”. He said the investor would reiterate to Booker that it could extract a higher price.Bernstein analysts said they expect some uncertainty to remain, with the focus shifting to whether investors will approve the deal.Their analysis indicates that Tesco will achieve the required 50 percent shareholder approval and that the focus will be on Booker, where the threshold is 75 percent.“With a higher shareholder hurdle and the Tesco share price below the level when the bid was made, Booker shareholders may argue for a higher share price,” the broker’s analysts said.The Booker deal is Lewis’s boldest move yet, giving Tesco access to the faster growing “out of home” food market.For each Booker share, Tesco is offering 0.861 new Tesco shares and 42.6 pence in cash.The CMA said it found that Tesco as a retailer and Booker as a wholesaler supplying caterers and independent retailers Premier, Londis, Budgens and Family Shopper do not compete head-to-head in most of their activities.In particular, it found that Tesco does not supply the catering sector that accounts for more than 30 percent of Booker’s sales.“Our investigation has found that existing competition is sufficiently strong in both the wholesale and retail grocery sectors to ensure that the merger between Tesco and Booker will not lead to higher prices or a reduced service for supermarket and convenience shoppers,” said Simon Polito, chair of the CMA’s inquiry group. ($1 = 0.7631 pounds)Additional reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by David Goodman and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-booker-m-a-tesco/uk-regulator-gives-provisional-approval-to-tesco-booker-deal-idINKBN1DE0PL'|'2017-11-14T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'f7c27cf277a34a30c72eaa6883b61b1ceb487390'|'Canada''s Cenovus finishes main divesture plans with Weyburn sale'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canada’s Cenovus Energy Inc ( CVE.TO ) has reached a deal to sell its Weyburn oil facility for C$940 million ($738.53 million), the company said on Monday, completing its main divesture plans.Weyburn, to be sold to the western Canadian energy company Whitecap Resources Inc ( WCP.TO ), is the last of four main assets for which Cenovus has reached agreements to sell to pay down debt incurred in the C$16.8 billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) assets this year.The sale of Cenovus’s majority interest in Weyburn would bring its asset sale proceeds to just under C$4 billion, compared with its target of C$4 billion to C$5 billion in asset sales.Reuters last week reported Whitecap was a front-runner in bidding for the asset.Whitecap said in a statement it has agreed to buy a 62.1 percent operated working interest in Weyburn, which produces 14,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and other minor assets in the Saskatchewan province.Cenvous said in a statement the sales of Weyburn and other assets would help it retire a C$3.6 billion bridge loan it took for the ConocoPhillips deal, a move that is expected to please investors who balked at how the deal was financed.The acquisition eventually led to Cenovus’s naming Alex Pourbaix, a former executive at TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ), as its chief executive officer, replacing Brian Ferguson, who led the deal.Cenovus has said it may also sell part of the Deep Basin gas assets it acquired from ConocoPhillips.The company has been talking to potential buyers, sources have said.Reporting by Ethan LouEditing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cenovus-energy-divestiture-weyburn/canadas-cenovus-to-sell-weyburn-asset-to-whitecap-for-739-million-idINKBN1DD2Q1'|'2017-11-13T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'ac1214ae92eb5522732d7e116208fea2a8b49ee8'|'IBM urges lawmakers to ''narrow'' bill targeting Chinese investment'|'November 14, 2017 / 7:53 PM / Updated an hour ago IBM urges lawmakers to ''narrow'' bill targeting Chinese investment Diane Bartz 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp has urged lawmakers to use a different strategy than toughening foreign investment rules because of U.S. concerns about Chinese military actions and intellectual property theft, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The logo of IBM is seen on a computer screen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo In the letter dated Nov. 9 and sent to the bills’ sponsors and co-sponsors, IBM said it was worried the bills would needlessly expand the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States so that it is bogged down with routine transactions. CFIUS, an inter-agency panel, blocks international deals that could harm U.S. national security. ”As drafted, the bill could turn CFIUS into a supra-export control agency, unilaterally limiting the ability of American firms to do business abroad while empowering foreign competitors to capture global markets,” wrote Christopher Padilla, IBM’s vice president for government and regulatory affairs. Instead, IBM urged the lawmakers to update export control rules to address their unease. Officials are concerned about Chinese intellectual property theft, including U.S. high-tech know-how, and militarizing islands in the South China Sea. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Republican leadership, introduced a Senate bill while Republican Representative Robert Pittenger introduced an identical bill in the House. Under the bills, CFIUS could stop smaller investments than ones it now reviews and add new national security factors for CFIUS to consider, including whether information about Americans, such as Social Security numbers, would be exposed as part of the transaction. Cornyn, in a speech on Tuesday to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued the bills were needed because of China’s military provocations. “Unless these trend lines change, we may one day see some of our own technology used against us should, heaven forbid, we ever have to face China in some sort of military confrontation,” he said. Cornyn said he hoped for a Senate hearing on the bill before the end of the year and committee action soon after. “Every timeline I might speculate about in the Senate I’ll probably be wrong. Things always happen slower than we would like but I have a great sense of urgency about this,” he said. IBM did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. IBM has had transactions successfully go before CFIUS. In 2014, the panel allowed IBM to sell a low-end server business to China’s Lenovo. In 2005, it sold its personal computer business, also to Lenovo. (This version of the story corrects spelling of name in paragraph 8) Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-ibm/ibm-urges-lawmakers-to-narrow-bill-targeting-chinese-investment-idUSKBN1DE2PH'|'2017-11-14T21:53:00.000+02:00'
'25e5249c419cb3675915efaf37f4f00c649203e6'|'Dutch PM to defend tax cut seen benefiting Shell, Unilever, British investors'|'November 15, 2017 / 5:31 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Dutch PM defends tax cut seen benefiting Shell, Unilever, UK investors Toby Sterling , Bart H. Meijer 4 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday returned to parliament for the second time in a week to defend a tax cut that benefits Anglo-Dutch multinationals and British equity investors in general. Rutte’s unexpected decision to scrap the 15 percent dividend withholding tax has fed into a mood of public resentment at large companies widely perceived as being taxed too lightly. Populist lawmaker Geert Wilders loudly questioned why the Dutch should approve a measure that benefits foreigners. “This is about jobs,” Rutte said of the tax cut, after acknowledging protesters in the public gallery. “It’s important that we have a strong industry made up of a rich tapestry of small businesses, mid-size businesses, but also large companies ...that we know are very important for jobs.” According to Statistics Netherlands, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever and other multinationals account for more than 2 million jobs, or about 40 percent of all employment, in the country of 17 million people. Rutte said competition to attract multinational companies has become more fierce in light of Britain’s imminent departure from the European Union. He argued scrapping the tax would make Dutch blue-chip shares more attractive to foreign investors, raising their valuations and hence making them less likely to be targeted for takeovers. He described failed attempts by U.S. companies to buy Unilever and paint maker Akzo Nobel ( AKZO.AS ) in the past year as “undesireable.” Describing the government as “just scared”, tax consultant Rudolph de Vries of Ernst & Young said it was worried that, having surrendured several corporate tax perks in the face of international criticism, the country would lose its allure as a European base and companies already located there could leave. With Brexit in mind, Unilever is reviewing its dual corporate structure to see whether consolidating into either a single Dutch or British entity makes sense. The company said of the Dutch dividend cut that it “welcomes measures that improve the business climate” in any country it operated in. Shell, which openly lobbied for the cut, has said it will likely be able to scrap its dual share structure as a result, saving significantly on costs. [L8N1NF6M6] DIVIDEND TAX BEHIND THE HYBRIDS The dividend tax has been one of the main reasons both Shell and Unilever have maintained their unusual dual-nationality structure over the years. In the Netherlands and most other countries, investors are able to offset the dividend tax withheld by the Dutch government against other taxes. But because Britain, almost alone among developed nations, does not levy any dividend withholding tax, investors there are unable to reclaim the Dutch tax, so Shell and Unilever maintained a way to pay dividends directly to their British shareholders. Unilever says a third of its shareholders are British. The removal of the tax takes away one reason the firm might not choose the Netherlands as a headquarters if it decided to unify its structure. Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-tax/dutch-pm-to-defend-tax-cut-seen-benefiting-shell-unilever-british-investors-idUKKBN1DF2HQ'|'2017-11-15T19:27:00.000+02:00'
'144b1ca82cd8c5590cd68b413e93e4c43e0ecdbd'|'LSE Group lobbies for U.S support in Brexit clearing battle'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:34 AM / in 2 hours LSE Group lobbies for U.S support in Brexit clearing battle Michelle Price , Huw Jones 6 Min Read WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange Group is lobbying to win American political support in its battle with Europe to preserve London as a global financial center after Brexit. A red London bus passes the Stock Exchange in London February 9, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor LCH, the clearing arm of the LSE, is among the world’s biggest derivatives clearing houses, guaranteeing the completion of hundreds of billions of euro- and dollar-denominated trades. As part of the Brexit divorce, Brussels would like clearing of euro-denominated transactions to be relocated to Europe, if it can’t have some control of it in London. But U.S. regulators say it could be risky for the global derivatives market to separate euro- and dollar-clearing and want to keep it in one place. LSE, backed by British officials, are hoping to convince U.S. policymakers and regulators to help rebuff European efforts to grab clearing, according to regulatory, government, and lobbyist sources. “The Americans are proving to be very useful allies,” said one British official who has held talks with U.S. counterparts. Asked to confirm if Britain was supporting LSE in lobbying U.S. officials, a spokeswoman for Britain’s finance ministry said: “We are also committed to ensuring that London remains the world’s preeminent financial center.” She said UK clearing houses play a crucial role in supporting economic growth in Britain and across the EU. If they wanted to exert pressure, U.S. officials could threaten to retaliate against European banks operating in the United States if American banks’ business is affected by any Brexit changes. LSE has set up its first “political action committee” (PAC), a group commonly used by companies to lobby U.S. politicians to support their business interests, according to public documents seen by Reuters. The group is also hiring a new senior lobbyist for its public affairs team in Washington D.C., according to its website. An LSE Group spokeswoman declined to comment on whether these changes were aimed at lobbying U.S. politicians about Brexit. The LSE Group has become a leading player in post-trade and indexing businesses in U.S. financial markets. It has 600 employees in the United States and eight business licenses. ”The US continues to be one of our key areas for growth as we build scale in our core business to deliver efficiency and meet the needs of our global customer base,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. It is not unusual for companies with significant U.S. businesses to establish PACs. LSE Group’s rivals CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange also operate PACs, according to public documents. GLOBAL DOMINANCE IN QUESTION In May, Brussels proposed a law giving itself joint supervision over LCH in London after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019. If this arrangement proves insufficient, euro clearing for customers in the bloc must move to mainland Europe. The European Commission has said the clearing proposals would not affect clearing houses in the United States. Officials in the City of London see the plans as an attack on its global dominance in finance. They worry that if clearing moves to Europe, other parts of the City would unravel. Catherine McGuinness, head of policy at the City of London Corporation, the municipal authority for the capital’s financial district, said “any strong voice from outside” Europe could be helpful. She was speaking to Reuters following a trip this month to New York and Washington to meet officials at the U.S. Treasury, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as financial lobbyists and bankers, during which Brexit was discussed extensively. “They’re not going to take sides or wade in unless U.S. interests are affected, which is totally fair. But... there is increasing nervousness that Brexit could have implications beyond EU borders and there might be ripple effects on the U.S. I think that nervousness is well-placed,” she said. LCH clears roughly 90 percent of global dollar-denominated interest rate swaps and euro-denominated swaps in London. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the CFTC which regulates LCH’s U.S. operations, said if the EU decides euro clearing must shift to the continent, the U.S. would have to rethink the location of U.S. dollar clearing too. “If the European Union mishandles Britain’s exit, the consequences for U.S. businesses and consumers could be serious,” he said this month. The powerful regulator is widely respected by influential Congressional Republicans and Democrats, who would likely have to sign off any major changes to U.S. clearing rules. His comments have been welcomed in the City of London. “It’s fairly clear from his public statements that he is watching very closely and is aware of the potential systemic implications of splitting clearing,” said McGuinness. REPO COMPROMISE The regulatory, government and lobbyist sources also said LSE Group has opened the door to a compromise with Europe on some parts of clearing. It has conceded London may not be the “optimal” place for clearing some euro products, those sources said. Euro sovereign debt repurchase agreements (repos) that currently clear at LCH in London could be moved to its Paris unit after Brexit because they play a direct role in the European Central Bank’s monetary policy operations. “It makes no sense to keep it in London,” a repo industry official said. France wants euro clearing in some form to move to Paris there after Brexit and allowing this could increase LCH’s chances of keeping its global, multi-currency interest swaps pool intact in London, the sources said. An LCH spokeswoman declined to comment on whether it was pursuing such tactics to avoid fragmenting its London interest rate swaps business. Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lse-clearing/lse-group-lobbies-for-u-s-support-in-brexit-clearing-battle-idUSKBN1DF1CH'|'2017-11-15T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'74ee3a6063a0f38c2194d34ad9b8807766a5ea40'|'Greek bond yields dip on bond swap announcement'|'LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Greece’s borrowing costs dipped on Wednesday after the country announced a debt swap plan that analysts said would be significant for the country’s bond market.Greece on Wednesday invited private holders of about 30 billion euros in Greek debt to swap 20 small bonds for five new ones of longer maturity to boost its market liquidity before it emerges from bailouts in August 2018.The country has been kept afloat with rescue funds since 2010 and is anxious to draw a line under financial upheaval next year and be able to service debt itself.Two-year Greek bond yields were down 2.5 basis points at 2.91 percent, while 5-year bond yield were about 1.5 bps lower at 4.13 percent.“This is very significant news for Greek government bonds because it means more liquidity for the market,” said DZ Bank rates strategist Sebastian Fellechner. “Greek bond spreads have already tightened in anticipation of this news.” (Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds-greece/greek-bond-yields-dip-on-bond-swap-announcement-idINL8N1NL4IZ'|'2017-11-15T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'eeaefbbda7c43015ed538384eb9cc3588f0797c8'|'Whole Foods unveils further price cuts ahead of Thanksgiving'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:21 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Amazon cuts prices again at Whole Foods ahead of the holidays Sruthi Ramakrishnan 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) said on Wednesday it will offer more discounts and steeper price cuts at Whole Foods Market on many organic foods and groceries popular during the holidays. A Whole Foods Market is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S. June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri The plan was announced just ahead of Thanksgiving and is on the heels of price cuts in August when Amazon completed its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods. “Price cuts are permanent,” Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, told Reuters in an email. Investors have been closely watching for price cuts at Whole Foods, concerned that cheaper prices would further hurt U.S. grocers already struggling to stay competitive with Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), which are locked in an intense battle for market share. “Ever since Amazon bought Whole Foods Market, this is exactly what the other grocery store competitors have been fearing,” Fort Pitt Capital analyst Kim Forrest told Reuters. “Other grocers are going to have to come back in competitive replies – and it could be better service, better products and better pricing.” Shares of rival U.S. grocers Costco ( COST.O ), Sprouts Farmers Market ( SFM.O ) and Kroger ( KR.N ) all fell on Wednesday morning between 1 percent to 2 percent after the news. Target Corp’s ( TGT.N ) stock also moved lower. The shares were already pressured after the company forecasted disappointing earnings for the key holiday quarter. Amazon, which forayed into brick-and-mortar retailing with Whole Foods, could upend the grocery industry with its deep pockets and large presence, analysts have said. In September, Target slashed prices on thousands of items, including cereal and baby formula, and said it would continue to offer discounts on some products in addition to the price-cuts. ( bit.ly/2vT4elO ) Prices at Whole Foods, however, are still higher than most grocery stores because it caters to an up-market clientele. “As we saw with Sprouts Farmer and really other grocery reports, the prior cuts haven’t had a material impact on leading players,” said Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh. “(Whole Food) prices are still quite high versus peers,” he said. Sprouts Farmer reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit and net sales this month and raised its full-year forecasts. Amazon said on Wednesday that Whole Foods will sell organic turkeys for $3.49 per pound to all customers, while Amazon Prime members can buy them at $2.99 a pound. The company said it will also offer lower prices on items from national brands including Chobani Yogurt and Applegate Hot Dogs, as well as smaller organic brands such as Eden Foods. A study last month showed Whole Foods’ previous price cuts on items including bananas, avocados and beef had drawn customers away from Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat Raman and Karina D''souza; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Bernard Orr '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-prices-whole-foods/whole-foods-unveils-further-price-cuts-ahead-of-thanksgiving-idUSKBN1DF20M'|'2017-11-15T16:20:00.000+02:00'
'9e22ed16d0c56ce8ca1606f13756985881156f10'|'FTSE weighed down by mining and oil shares'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:44   Mining and oil stocks send FTSE to five-week lows Kit Rees 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British stocks suffered their fifth straight day of losses on Wednesday, dragged to five-week lows by big falls in mining and energy shares. FILE PHOTO: People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index fell 0.6 percent - similar to the move on Europe''s STOXX benchmark - while mid-cap UK shares .FTMC lost 0.8 percent. The main source of pressure was a slide in crude and base metals prices, with the former down for the fourth day in a row after the International Energy Agency cut its outlook for 2018 oil demand growth [O/R]. Metals prices meanwhile have taken a hit from signs China’s economy - the world’s top commodities consumer - is slowing. The FTSE 350 Mining index .FTNMX1770 fell one percent to the lowest level in more than a month. “With the miners falling ... it’s a very heavily-weighted sector on the FTSE,” said Henry Croft, a research analyst at Accendo Markets. “We’ve been really in a consistent downtrend since the beginning of November.” Shares in mining companies Glencore ( GLEN.L ), Anglo American ( AAL.L ) and Rio Tinto ( RIO.L ) fell around 1.5 percent, recovering slightly from earlier deeper losses [MET/L]. Among oil firms, shares in Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) fell 1.3 percent and BP ( BP.L ) declined 1.5 percent. However, precious metals miners benefited from gold’s safe-haven status. Fresnillo ( FRES.L ) led gains, rising 3.3 percent, and Randgold ( RRS.L ) advanced almost one percent. Fresnillo shares also received a lift from HSBC raising its rating on the stock to “buy” from “hold”. Some telecoms performed strongly too, with BT ( BT.L ) gaining 1.4 percent and Vodafone ( VOD.L ) building on the previous session’s gains after it lifted its full-year earnings forecast for the first time in recent history. Vodafone shares added 0.6 percent to near four-month highs - adding to Tuesday’s 5 percent jump - as the stock received more price-target upgrades from brokers. Outside the blue chips, company updates were very much in focus, with some large declines among British mid-caps .FTMC . Talktalk ( TALK.L ) plummeted as much as 10 percent after a profit warning but closed some 6 percent down on the day, having hit its weakest level since May. Crest Nicholson ( CRST.L ) dropped 4.4 percent after flagging weakness in central London property prices. Average house-price growth across the property company’s UK business fell to a quarter of that in 2016, it said. Smaller more UK-focused companies are seen bearing the brunt of the economy’s Brexit-related weakness and rising inflation. Latest data showed the number of people in work in Britain fell by the most in more than two years in the three months to September. Guy Stephens, technical investment director at Rowan Dartington said political uncertainty would also weigh on markets. “Whilst this persists, and it is likely to get worse before it improves, the UK equity market is off-limits to many international investors,” Stephens told clients in a note. Reporting by Kit Rees and Sujata Rao; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-weighed-down-by-mining-and-oil-shares-idUKKBN1DF17O'|'2017-11-15T11:43:00.000+02:00'
'762ff70d965478ab3deba2c306412bf9ad517cd4'|'UPDATE 3-Fashion miss adds to TJX sales woes in hurricane-hit Q3'|'(Adds CEO, analyst comment; updates share price)By Gayathree GanesanNov 14 (Reuters) - TJX Cos Inc disappointed Wall Street, posting its worst quarterly same-store sales performance since 2009, as its fashion apparel failed to click with customers and fewer people bought winter clothes in an unusually hot fall season.Shares of the off-price retailer, which also issued a full-year profit forecast that were below estimates, were down 4.7 percent at $67.38 in afternoon trading on Tuesday.The news took investors by surprise as the company has been holding up well in the face of a broader slowdown in business for brick-and-mortar retailers such as Macy’s and Nordstrom.“It was absolutely a fashion miss ... This was, really, on our own part a selection issue and had nothing to do with availability out there,” Chief Executive Ernie Herrman said, adding that a bulk of the fashion missteps would be fixed in the holiday quarter.The company said same-store sales for the third quarter were flat despite higher traffic at its stores across divisions. Analysts had expected a 2.2 percent rise in same-store sales, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.“Investor concerns have been heightened on near-term worries, including warmer weather, hurricanes and peer liquidation sales,” RBC analyst Brian Tunick wrote in a note.Comparable-store sales in Marmaxx, the company’s biggest and most profitable unit which includes T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, fell 1 percent, surprising analysts who were expecting a 1.4 percent rise.The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company, however, said it would hit the higher end of its fiscal 2018 adjusted profit forecast of $3.91 to $3.93 per share.“The reiterated full-year guidance at the upper-end gives us confidence that TJX enters holiday on a clean slate and is demonstrating a return to positive comparable store sales,” MKM Partners analyst Roxanne Meyer wrote in a note.TJX said it expects holiday-quarter same-store sales growth of 1 to 2 percent. Overall sales rose 6 percent to $8.8 billion in the third quarter, slightly below the $8.86 billion average estimate.Net income rose to $641.44 million, or $1 per share in the quarter ended Oct. 28, from $550 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier.Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1 per share, in-line with analysts’ estimates. (Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Patrick Graham) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tjx-companies-results/update-1-tjxs-same-store-sales-flat-in-hurricane-hit-q3-shares-fall-idINL3N1NK5GR'|'2017-11-14T11:00:00.000+02:00'
'becd134850965ea813cc0b207cfb870e4069da8e'|'BRIEF-Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Chesapeake, Bank of America'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:32 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago BRIEF-Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Chesapeake, Bank of America Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 14 (Reuters) - * Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp to 766,000 shares from 3.6 million shares - sec filing * Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Bank of America Corp by 27.9 percent to 6.3 million shares * Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in PNC Financial Services Group Inc by 48.2 percent to 922,510 shares * Change in holdings are as of September 30, 2017 and compared with the previous quarter ended as of June 30, 2017 Source text for quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 ( bit.ly/2zJRjl2 ) Source text for quarter ended June 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2uWm5mq )'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-appaloosa-lp-cuts-share-stake-in-c/brief-appaloosa-lp-cuts-share-stake-in-chesapeake-bank-of-america-idUSFWN1NK16M'|'2017-11-14T16:29:00.000+02:00'
'3308409a8f254a2796a4b1caa6999063b0e1f197'|'Petrobras hikes 2017 fundraising forecast, cuts divestment outlook'|'RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ), the world’s most indebted oil company, nearly doubled its fundraising forecast for 2017 but trimmed its outlook for divestments.The logo of Brazil''s state-run Petrobras oil company is seen on a tank in at Petrobras Paulinia refinery in Paulinia, Brazil July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker In a presentation the day after posting a third-quarter profit that missed analysts’ forecasts for a big rise, Petrobras said it expects to raise $22 billion this year compared with a previous target of $13 billion.It also expects to receive $7 billion from divestments this year, excluding a planned initial public offering for fuel distribution unit BR Distribuidora, below the $8 billion it previously expected.Petrobras has promised to sell off $21 billion in assets this year and next but has been hamstrung by court decisions freezing asset sales.The company said the BR Distribuidora IPO could still move forward this year. Sources told Reuters that the IPO is expected to be priced in the third week of December.Petrobras injected 6.3 billion reais ($1.9 billion) into the unit this year to entice investors wary of the distributor’s hefty debts, after reviving stalled IPO plans.The company also said it expects its final cash balance to reach $21 billion this year, compared with $20 billion in a prior forecast.Petrobras expects to prepay $23 billion in bonds this year, including bond buy-backs, compared with $12 billion in a prior forecast.Petrobras said on Monday it had cut debt by 11 percent from 2016 to 279.237 billion reais ($85.15 billion) in the third quarter, but remains the world’s most indebted oil company, scarred by years of poor management, a deep slump in oil prices and a massive corruption scandal.($1 = 3.2856 reais)Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-petrobras-outlook/petrobras-hikes-2017-fundraising-forecast-cuts-divestment-outlook-idINKBN1DE20L'|'2017-11-14T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'9b91f2091ab6b14dc474fef25468ff00d98bb0a9'|'U.S. consumer prices edge up; retail sales unexpectedly increase'|' 41 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago U.S. consumer prices edge up; retail sales unexpectedly increase Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices barely rose in October as the boost to gasoline prices from hurricane-related disruptions to Gulf Coast oil refineries was unwound, but rising rents and healthcare costs pointed to a gradual buildup of underlying inflation. A shopper walks down an aisle in a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011 file photo. REUTERS/Jim Young/Files Low inflation is, however, helping to underpin consumer spending. Other data on Wednesday showed an unexpected increase in retail sales last month as heavy price discounting by automobile manufacturers lifted purchases of motor vehicles. Rising retail sales and steadily firming underlying price pressures likely will keep the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates next month. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index edged up 0.1 percent last month after jumping 0.5 percent in September. That lowered the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent in September. The increases were in line with economists’ expectations. Gasoline prices fell 2.4 percent after surging 13.1 percent in September, which was the largest gain since June 2009. September’s jump in gasoline prices followed Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas in late August and disrupted production at oil refineries in the Gulf Coast region. Food prices were unchanged after nudging up 0.1 percent in September. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in October amid a pickup in the cost of rental accommodation, healthcare costs, tobacco and a range of other goods and services. The so-called core CPI gained 0.1 percent in September. October’s increase lifted the year-on-year increase in the core CPI to 1.8 percent. The year-on-year core CPI had increased by 1.7 percent for five straight months. The slight pickup in the monthly core CPI could offer some comfort to Fed officials amid concerns that stubbornly low inflation might reflect not only temporary factors but developments that could prove more persistent. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, has consistently undershot the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target for more than five years. The Fed has lifted borrowing costs twice this year and has projected three rate increases in 2018. Prices of U.S. Treasuries fell and the U.S. dollar .DXY pared losses against a basket of currencies after the data. U.S. stock index futures extended losses. RENTS, HEALTHCARE COSTS RISE Last month, owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence climbed 0.3 percent, quickening after September’s 0.2 percent increase. The cost of hospital services increased 0.5 percent and prices for doctor visits rose 0.2 percent. There were also increases in prices for wireless phone services, airline fares, education and motor vehicle insurance. Prices for used cars and trucks rose 0.7 percent, ending nine straight months of declines. New motor vehicle prices, however, fell for a second consecutive month as manufacturers resorted to deep discounting to eliminate an inventory overhang. In a separate report on Wednesday, the Commerce Department said retail sales increased 0.2 percent last month. Data for September was revised to show sales jumping 1.9 percent, which was the largest gain since March 2015, rather than the previously reported 1.6 percent advance. Retail sales increased 4.6 percent on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that retail sales would be unchanged in October. The slowdown in retail sales last month from September’s robust pace largely reflected an unwinding of the boost to building materials and gasoline prices after recent hurricanes. Receipts at auto dealerships increased 0.7 percent after soaring 4.6 percent in September, supported by the deep price discounting by manufacturers. Sales at gardening and building material stores fell 1.2 percent last month after surging 3.0 percent in September. Receipts at service stations decreased 1.2 percent in October. That followed a 6.4 percent gain in September. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales increased 0.3 percent last month after climbing 0.5 percent in September. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. Last month’s increase in core retail sales indicated a healthy pace of consumer spending at the start of the fourth quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 2.4 percent annualized rate in the third quarter. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-inflation/u-s-consumer-prices-rise-marginally-core-cpi-firming-idUKKBN1DF1X9'|'2017-11-15T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'76fe5e48659fd74de382f215a2b2a18a84785d7c'|'Nestle restructures infant nutrition business'|' 46 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Nestle restructures infant nutrition business Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ), the world’s largest packaged food company, said on Wednesday it would reorganise its infant nutrition business to improve its performance. FILE PHOTO - The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The company said from January 1 that unit will be managed regionally, not globally. In addition, Stefan Catsicas, Nestle’s chief technology officer, is leaving the company to be replaced by Stefan Palzer at the start of the year. Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nestle-restructuring/nestle-restructures-infant-nutrition-business-idUKKBN1DF0VT'|'2017-11-15T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'89f590b3ab1229f84f39910e992907b51e388d6b'|'Toyota to consider selling locally-developed EVs in China'|'November 17, 2017 / 2:00 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Toyota to consider selling locally-developed EVs in China Reuters Staff 1 Min Read GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) will consider selling in China all-electric battery car models developed by its two local joint ventures, the automaker said on Friday in a press release. FILE PHOTO - The Toyota logo is seen at the company''s display during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch The electric vehicles (EVs) would expand Toyota’s lineup of all-electric battery cars and help the company comply with stringent so-called new-energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales quotas that will take effect in China in 2019. Toyota said it also planned to launch an EV model, developed in Japan, in China in 2020. Reporting By Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autoshow-guangzhou-toyota/toyota-to-consider-selling-locally-developed-evs-in-china-idUKKBN1DH06Z'|'2017-11-17T03:59:00.000+02:00'
'd0f3528279a77d3f5e44aedcb333ad1df74555a8'|'Exclusive - Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection Monday to stay listed: sources'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:18 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exclusive - Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection Monday to stay listed: sources Taro Fuse 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) will decide on Monday to raise some $5 billion (£3.7 billion) from overseas investors, allowing the troubled conglomerate to remain a publicly traded company even if the sale of a key business is delayed, two people with direct knowledge of the process said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen as window cleaners work on the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Toshiba, reeling from the bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Co in the wake of an accounting scandal, needs to raise 750 billion yen (£5 billion) by the end of March to avoid being kicked off the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The laptops-to-nuclear-reactors company has agreed to sell its prized NAND semiconductor unit for $18 billion, and is planning to sell its TV business and reportedly looking to hive off its personal-computer unit to raise cash. But with the March deadline looming to avoid delisting and the chip sale threatened by antitrust concerns from China and elsewhere, Toshiba’s board will on Monday approve a plan to raise 600 billion yen by offering shares to a group of overseas investors, the sources said. In addition, the sources told Reuters, Toshiba will agree to take upfront losses that will allow tax write-offs sufficient to boost its assets back above liabilities for the first time in two years - allowing the firm to remain listed. Toshiba declined to comment on the plan. To plug the huge hole in its balance sheet, Toshiba agreed in late September to sell its Toshiba Memory unit to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. But regulatory reviews globally threaten its ability to close the sale by the March end of the business year, which would put the company in negative net worth for a second year in a row, imperilling its TSE listing. Without any gains from the chip unit sale, Toshiba forecasts it would post negative net worth of 750 billion yen at the end of March. The company could use the proceeds from a share allotment to pay all at once the $5.8 billion in parent-company guarantees on Westinghouse’s much-delayed nuclear projects in the United States, one source said. The current plan is to guarantee payments to two U.S. power utilities over six years. Paying them off in full now would allow Toshiba to book losses that would reduce its tax burden enough to ensure it has the cash to remain listed, the source said. Reporting by Taro Fuse; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by William Mallard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-financing/exclusive-toshiba-set-to-ok-5-billion-injection-monday-to-stay-listed-sources-idUKKBN1DH1YY'|'2017-11-17T17:17:00.000+02:00'
'352345e6bf7f0e9b69b224fb6d59d288fc372546'|'VW to spend over 34 billion euro on electric and self-driving cars'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Volkswagen accelerates push into electric cars with £30 billion spending plan Andreas Cremer , Jan Schwartz 5 Min Read WOLFSBURG/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) approved a 34 billion euro (30.37 billion pounds) spending plan on Friday that accelerates its efforts to become a global leader in electric cars. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The world’s largest carmaker by unit sales will spend the money on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022, it said after a meeting of its supervisory board. “With the planning round now approved, we are laying the foundation for making Volkswagen the world’s No. 1 player in electric mobility by 2025,” Chief Executive Matthias Mueller told a press conference. The carmaker’s projected spending is significantly bigger than its pledge two months ago that it would invest more than 20 billion euros on electric and self-driving cars through 2030. Electric and autonomous vehicles are widely seen as the keystones of future transport, but pioneers such as Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) and other manufacturers are still working out how to make money on them as poor charging infrastructure, high battery costs and electric vehicles’ still limited driving range weigh on customer demand. Until it admitted two years ago to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen had been slow to embrace electric cars and self-driving technology. But the emissions fraud, and new Chinese quotas for electric cars, prompted a strategic shift to zero-emission and self-driving technology, and Volkswagen now has one of the most ambitious targets in the industry. It has pledged to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030. The group said its total investments in electric vehicles capacity and projects will amount to about 72 billion euros by 2022, confirming an earlier Reuters story. To fund greater spending on electric vehicles, it will draw on cost savings in all areas of operations, including vehicle development, administration and manufacturing, as well as strong cash reserves. Its net liquidity still stood at around 24 billion euros after nine months even though about 17 billion euros of funds have been paid out to cover costs for its dieselgate scandal. VW’s core autos division has made cost savings of about 1.9 billion euros since the start of this year, nearly meeting budgeted cost cuts for the full year. Mueller said VW will maintain spending discipline in order to shoulder the increased investments in new technologies while it grapples with billions of dollars of costs for its emissions scandal. COST CONTROL The carmaker aims to cut overall spending on factories, equipment and technology to 6 percent of automotive sales by 2020 from 6.9 percent last year, counting on growing revenue and deliveries in coming years. Wolfsburg-based VW wants to increase the share of electrified vehicles to 3 million cars, or a quarter of group deliveries, by 2025. The forecast assumes that group auto sales will keep growing to reach about 12 million a year by the middle of next decade from 10.3 million last year. “Investors should welcome a commitment towards more contemporary investment discipline,” said Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst who has an “outperform” rating on VW shares. “So far this year, VW has made good progress, lowering both capex and cash R&D costs.” Works council chief Bernd Osterloh said spending targets approved on Friday would strengthen VW’s 10 German factories, noting that 3 billion euros alone will be invested at the base plant in Wolfsburg, including to prepare for the launch of the next-generation Golf hatchback. Investments of more than 1 billion euros will be assigned to a plant in Zwickau, eastern Germany to ramp up electric-car production at the site, which in future will only make zero-emission vehicles, VW said. Output of the combustion-engine Golf hatchback as well as the Golf and Passat station wagons will be shifted from Zwickau to the underutilised factories at Wolfsburg and Emden, VW said, confirming a Reuters story. “It was long and hard bargaining to safeguard the interests of the employees but I think we can live well with the compromise,” Osterloh said. Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-investment/vw-to-spend-more-than-34-billion-euro-on-electric-cars-autonomous-driving-idUKKBN1DH1LY'|'2017-11-17T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'66f8b6b1c516b835b2f989af4c002cacd3cd030c'|'Star Wars Battlefront II: Game maker apologizes after uproar from fans - Nov. 16, 2017'|'Star Wars video game maker apologizes after uproar from fans by Jethro Mullen and Ivana Kottasová @ivanakottasova November 17, 2017: 12:38 AM ET ''Star Wars'' really is from ''a long time ago...'' The company behind the new Star Wars video game has turned off a money-spinning part of it after an outcry from angry fans and scrutiny from regulators. Gamers had complained in recent days that it takes huge amounts of time -- or money -- to unlock features in Star Wars Battlefront II. Regulators in Belgium, meanwhile, are looking at whether the game constitutes a form of gambling. Some Star Wars fans who paid roughly $60 to buy Battlefront II were upset to find that optional charges built into the game can cost them hundreds more. "We hear you loud and clear, so we''re turning off all in-game purchases," said Oskar Gabrielson, the general manager of the unit of gaming giant Electronic Arts ( EA , Tech30 ) that developed Battlefront II. "We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning." Related: The new Star Wars video game is under attack Fans were angry because Battlefront II essentially gave players a choice. They could spend a huge number of hours collecting in-game credits to unlock new features and cooler characters, or pay real money to get them instantly. In the gaming world, this is called "pay to win." It''s not unusual, but the format has typically been used in mobile games that are free to download. Some gamers calculated that it would take six years of playing two hours a day to unlock all the features in Battlefront II without handing over any real money. Paying for everything, meanwhile, would cost over $2,000. "It''s a complete ripoff and the multiplayer is rigged for whoever is willing to spend more money," one gamer said on Twitter last week. "It is designed to make you spend more money after buying." VIDEO GAME PSA:Do not buy Star Wars Battlefront 2 for friends or family. It''s a complete ripoff and the multiplayer is rigged for whoever is willing to spend more money. It is designed to make you spend more money after buying.I''m more than happy to reccomend alternatives. — David Schroeder (@DavidSchroeder_) November 10, 2017 "We''ve heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages," Gabrielson said. "And we''ve heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn''t get this right." Previously, the game developers had tried to placate fans by reducing the cost of unlocking "hero" characters by 75%. The in-game purchases aren''t gone forever, though. Gabrielson said they would return "at a later date, only after we''ve made changes to the game." Related: Nintendo exec: Failed Wii U is responsible for Switch''s success His statement didn''t directly address the concerns of the Belgian Gaming Commission, which is investigating how players in Battlefront II and similar games are rewarded by unlocking "loot boxes." The idea is that players pay real money to unlock a virtual "loot box" without knowing what kind of reward is inside. They also don''t know how many boxes they might need to unlock in order to finish the game. Hands on with Star Wars'' new BB-9E and R2D2 droids Peter Naessens, general director of the Belgian Gaming Commission, said the regulator is examining whether the rewards are allocated by chance, and whether this might constitute a form of gambling. In Belgium, companies involved in gambling are required to have a license. Minors and people with gambling addiction problems are not allowed to play. Related: New ''Star Wars'' trilogy with new characters in development Electronic Arts has dismissed the idea that its game falls into that category, saying that the "mechanics of Star Wars Battlefront II are not gambling." "A player''s ability to succeed in the game is not dependent on purchasing [loot boxes]," it said in a statement. "Players can also earn [loot boxes] through playing the game and not spending any money at all." Star Wars owner Disney ( DIS ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published November 16, 2017: 10:50 PM ET '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/16/technology/battlefront-ii-star-wars-game-ea-costs/index.html'|'2017-11-17T05:50:00.000+02:00'
'bc40c79b087ae5250c37157c9614cd406f301e8b'|'HSBC pays 300 million euro to settle French probe of Swiss bank'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:35 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago HSBC pays 300 million euro to settle French probe of Swiss bank Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings ( HSBA.L ) has agreed to pay 300 million euros (£269 million) to settle a long-running investigation into tax dodging by French citizens via its private bank in Switzerland, the lender said on Tuesday. The HSBC headquarters is seen in the Canary Wharf financial district in east London, Britain February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The agreement is a first under a French system introduced in 2016 that lets companies settle without any finding of guilt, HSBC said in a statement, adding the amount of the fine had been fully provisioned. The investigation of HSBC Holdings has been dismissed. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hsbc-france-swiss/hsbc-pays-300-million-euro-to-settle-french-probe-of-swiss-bank-idUKKBN1DE1YZ'|'2017-11-14T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'435010772a6e65c9fc86a2e3eb64b0c39033ad4b'|'BRIEF-Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Chesapeake, Bank of America'|'Nov 14 (Reuters) -* Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp to 766,000 shares from 3.6 million shares - sec filing* Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in Bank of America Corp by 27.9 percent to 6.3 million shares* Appaloosa Lp cuts share stake in PNC Financial Services Group Inc by 48.2 percent to 922,510 shares* Change in holdings are as of September 30, 2017 and compared with the previous quarter ended as of June 30, 2017Source text for quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 ( bit.ly/2zJRjl2 )Source text for quarter ended June 30, 2017: ( bit.ly/2uWm5mq ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-appaloosa-lp-cuts-share-stake-in-c/brief-appaloosa-lp-cuts-share-stake-in-chesapeake-bank-of-america-idINFWN1NK16M'|'2017-11-14T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'9e440283f7382ef2bea8f4b6009d1a21a77fabc3'|'EU finds Chinese steel sent via Vietnam evaded tariffs'|'November 14, 2017 / 4:21 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU finds Chinese steel sent via Vietnam evaded tariffs Maytaal Angel 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) said it has found Chinese steel was shipped through Vietnam to evade the bloc’s tariffs. Steelmakers are now awaiting a similar but more widespread U.S. circumvention investigation involving China and Vietnam. Trade tensions between Beijing and Western nations continue to simmer, with the United States taking a tough line even though China, producer of half the world’s steel, has cut excess capacity by a quarter and reined in its exports of the alloy. OLAF told Reuters roughly 8.2 million euros (£7.3 million) of anti-dumping duties were evaded when organic coated steel from China was shipped through Vietnam and given Vietnamese certificates of origin. The amount involved is small and the case was concluded at the end of 2016, but market participants say Vietnam remains a hub not for fraud, but for Chinese trade tariff circumvention involving large tonnages of steel. Financial recommendations were sent to the customs authorities of Belgium, Greece, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden for the recovery of roughly 8.2 million euros of antidumping and countervailing duties. Western steelmakers are hoping the EU will launch a similar circumvention case to the one pending in the United States. A European Commission source said there was no ongoing investigation into that matter, but authorities would not hesitate to initiate a probe if they were made aware of circumvention allegations. “If the EU ultimately applied duties currently levied against Chinese steel to imports from Vietnam, it would help close another loophole for Asian steelmakers to access the euro market,” Jefferies analyst Seth Rosenfeld said. The United States is due to rule shortly on whether Chinese steelmakers subject to U.S. duties diverted their shipments to Vietnam for minor processing into cold-rolled and corrosion-resistant steel, before selling them on to the United States. By some estimates, up to 90 percent of the value of the Vietnamese steel shipped to the United States was produced in China. The United States is also investigating a similar case involving 1 million tonnes of Chinese aluminium shipped to Vietnam and then on to Mexico allegedly to evade U.S. duties. China produces half the world’s aluminium. “The OLAF case will definitely raise, if not confirm, suspicions for (the U.S.) Commerce (Department). Also it would not be a surprise if there is an EU complaint already filed on circumvention via Vietnam,” said Laurent Ruessmann, a partner at lawyers FieldFisher. European steel lobby Eurofer, which usually launches such complaints, declined to comment. Authorities in Vietnam did not respond to requests for comment while China’s Commerce Ministry said it had not been informed of the U.S. or OLAF case. After duties were imposed in 2016, U.S. imports of cold-rolled and corrosion-resistant steel from China almost ceased, falling to just over 45,000 tonnes from 1.2 million in 2015, according to the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB). Over the same period, U.S. imports of the two products from Vietnam surged ten-fold to nearly 700,000 tonnes. U.S. cold rolled and corrosion resistant steel imports - reut.rs/2zWSwrY In the EU, Chinese imports of corrosion-resistant steel, which nearly doubled last year, steadied in the year to August just as imports from Vietnam surged from historically negligible levels. The EU imposed provisional duties on Chinese corrosion-resistant steel in August this year. Vietnam, the world’s sixth-largest steel importer, has slapped a variety of duties on Chinese steel in recent years, as it ramps up efforts to build a local steel industry and tackle its steel trade deficit with China. Steelmaking capacity in Vietnam nearly doubled last year to 21.15 million tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. That nearly matched demand, which the Vietnamese Steel Association estimates at 22.3 million tonnes. China accounts for some 60 percent of Vietnam’s steel exports and more than a fifth of global steel exports, but with a persistent glut in steel, as well as in aluminium, there is little need for what Western producers say are subsidised Chinese exports of the metal. “Another fast-developing steel market investing in internal capacity and erecting trade barriers cannot be a long-term benefit for the global industry,” the ISSB said in a note on Vietnam. The EU is the world’s largest steel importer, followed by the United States. Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels, Xu Muyu and Lian Yuanyuan in Beijing, Mai Nguyen in Hanoi and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Veronica Brown and Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steel-china-vietnam/eu-finds-chinese-steel-sent-via-vietnam-evaded-tariffs-idUKKBN1DE284'|'2017-11-14T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'e9224696d661811c9a72fa742f051c6beeeb9f05'|'PokerStars owner looks to raise up to $2.50 billion for M&A: CEO'|'(Reuters) - PokerStars owner Stars Group Inc could raise up to $2.50 billion to fund acquisitions if needed, Chief Executive Rafael Ashkenazi said in an interview on Monday.Ashkenazi took over reins of the online gaming and betting company last year following David Baazov’s departure after being charged with insider trading.After a name change to better align with its mainstay game PokerStars and a management reshuffle, Ashkenazi is now looking for ways to expand the company previously known as Amaya.Stars Group has about $255 million of cash and reduced its debt by $515 million in the last one year, giving it enough leverage to turn acquisitive.Talks are already underway, but Ashkenazi did not name the companies involved.Ashkenazi said he is looking at buying either one big company or three to five small-to-medium companies.While Stars Group is looking to infuse money to expand its fast-growing online casino and sports betting businesses, it expects poker to continue to be its biggest revenue generator over the next five years.Last week, the company posted a third-quarter profit that increased six fold, helped by strong performance across its three verticals.As Pennsylvania looks to expand online gambling, Stars is planning to secure a license with a partner in one of the state’s 12 casinos over the next few months, Ashkenazi said.(This version of the story corrects headline and first paragraph to say company could raise, not looks to raise, funds)Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-starsgroup-offering-debt/pokerstars-owner-looks-to-raise-up-to-2-50-billion-for-ma-ceo-idINKBN1DD2SK'|'2017-11-13T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'564f958f3e740a7438243a989203f5b9228c9e7a'|'Bond Collective raises $50 million to expand co-working beyond New York'|'November 14, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Bond Collective raises $50 million to expand co-working beyond New York Herbert Lash 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Bond Collective, which provides shared workspace for startups, said on Tuesday an investor pledged $50 million to help it expand beyond New York with plans to build 30 sites in three years and it announced the formation of a fund to buy property in trendy big city neighborhoods. The push is a move to establish a name outside of New York City, where Bond operates six sites, said co-founder and Chief Executive Shlomo Silber. An unnamed investor from a family with real estate holdings in Manhattan and Brooklyn has committed the cash to Bond and will spearhead a fund to invest in emerging neighborhoods such as Wynwood in Miami and East Nashville in that city, he said. The announcement is the latest indication that demand for shared workspace is growing. Co-working rival WeWork gained the backing of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp with $4.4 billion in investment earlier this year. “This is the future of work,” Silber said. “It makes so much sense.” So far, Bond has leased the top floor of 20-story One Penn Center in Philadelphia’s Center City district, and aims to lease sites in Chicago, Washington and likely Austin, Texas, Silber told Reuters. The firm also is looking at running boutique-like hotels and possibly a “co-living” space. Plans to open 10 locations annually over the next three years and beta testing a co-living site, most likely in Miami, are in the works, he said. “The question really is whether we’re going to go ahead and have a boutique hotel operator that we’re going to partner up with or a different co-living company and how exactly we’re going to do that. But it’s definitely in the cards,” he said. The attraction of flexible workspace is that an office can be delivered immediately while building out a corporate office can take a year to do. This has led many co-working companies to see themselves as service providers in the hospitality industry. “You have a plug-and-play environment with everything they need and they have no headaches,” Silber said. “We are just more and more into the hospitality angle of this business. Ultimately it’s a lifestyle brand and a service industry.” Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-property-coworking/bond-collective-raises-50-million-to-expand-co-working-beyond-new-york-idUSL1N1NJ0MO'|'2017-11-14T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'a9d4529a4b85be1816f9340300cd043dbca9cb88'|'Vodafone bets on customer data to avoid India-style price war in Italy'|' 43 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Vodafone bets on customer data to avoid India-style price war in Italy Mathieu Rosemain , Sophie Sassard 3 Min Read BARCELONA/LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone ( VOD.L ) plans to use its expertise in customer data to help to fend off competition in Italy from French newcomer Iliad and avoid an India-style price war, its chief executive said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Branding hangs outside a Vodafone shop in Oxford, Britain, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Iliad, backed by French billionaire Xavier Niel, is aiming to grab a quarter of the Italian mobile market using the same cut-throat prices that helped it to conquer France five years ago, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters. In India, new entrant Reliance Jio took more than 6 percent of the Indian market in just a year thanks to free voice and cheap data, forcing rivals - which include Vodafone - to drop prices and merge. “Do we expect something crazy? Honestly, after India, you can expect everything. We are ready to see everything,” Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said at Morgan Stanley’s annual TMT conference in Barcelona. With the French and Indian examples in mind, Colao, a former McKinsey consultant, said Vodafone’s strong data analytics had allowed the group to identify its “most vulnerable” Italian customers and to offer them special conditions adapted to their needs. He said the company had prepared for several possible scenarios but declined to give more details about its strategy. The 56-year-old Italian said he was “very happy” with the performance of the Italian business, as adjusted core profit rose 8.8 percent in the first half of the year, despite continuing price pressure. Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile operator, is the number three mobile player in Italy where it competes against former monopoly Telecom Italia and low-cost operator Wind-Tre. A senior telecoms banker said that Colao did a great job in India where Vodafone reacted swiftly by merging with Idea Cellular. But the banker said Colao’s options would be more limited in Italy because Vodafone will go head to head with Iliad in mobile services. But in B2B, which covers corporate customers, Vodafone could make some headway as Iliad is not expected to be chasing these clients for now. Berenberg analyst Nicolas Didio said Vodafone was doing the right thing to prepare for Iliad’s arrival. But he also said the approaching battle was likely to go beyond pricing because Italy is a complex market and a new player like Iliad could be more inventive and audacious than existing players. “Iliad wants to be the customers’ champion and that’s precisely where they could win,” he said. Didio said he expected Iliad to launch with a sole price including unlimited voice and texts messages and a generous data package, and offer additional services such as free international calls from Italy or unlimited usage of voicemail. “These services will unlikely weigh on Iliad’s profits as their marginal cost is limited but they would be very powerful in terms of marketing,” he said. Reporting by Sophie Sassard; Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tmt-conference-vodafone-group/vodafone-bets-on-customer-data-to-avoid-india-style-price-war-in-italy-idUKKBN1DF2Q4'|'2017-11-15T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'c94d36ace32c35f90533ffa9e63e3512661c927d'|'FCA targets pension scammers in Welsh steelworks'|'November 15, 2017 / 3:46 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago FCA targets pension scammers in Welsh steelworks Huw Jones , Carolyn Cohn 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets watchdog is sending supervisors to Wales to make sure that 15 billion pounds in steelworker pensions does not become a “honey pot” for crooks. FILE PHOTO: Tata steelworks Port Talbot, Wales, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Naden/File Photo The move -- made public at a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday -- is part of a broader crackdown by the Financial Conduct Authority to avert pension scams across Britain following changes in the law. Since 2015, Britain has made it possible for people to cash in their pension pots rather than waiting until retirement, resulting in people getting cold calls about taking the money. Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s director of strategy and competition, was accused by MPs sounding a “tad complacent” about the potential for scams. But quizzed by parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee, he sought to reassure the MPs the watchdog was taking action -- including for the steelworkers’s pensions. “We have got a programme of visiting advisers in the Port Talbot and Swansea areas to remind them of their requirements,” Woolard said. Steelworkers there are being forced to choose between a new pension scheme and a pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund, following the closure of their 15 billion pounds pension scheme. The closure has paved the way for a merger of the European steel operations of Germany’s Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) and India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). Pensions freedom also gives workers the option of cashing in their pensions. Committee chair Frank Field said employees in general are worried about the future of their company and pension. “Big pension schemes like British Steel are such a honey pot for crooks,” Field said. In the run up to “pension freedom”, MPs warned that people would be tempted to blow the cash on a sports car, but Woolard said that 94 percent of the pots cashed in were not a person’s main retirement income. Field was also worried that the public purse will come under pressure if people cash in pots and then rely on state benefits in their old age. “If one gets this culture developing, we threaten something great about welfare,” he said. Separately on Wednesday, Trevor Greetham, head of multi-asset at Royal London Asset Management, said pension freedom means people have to be stewards of their own investment risk at older ages. “There is a risk that if people are not taking financial advice, they can end up investing in something quite risky,” Greetham told the Reuters Global 2018 Investment Outlook Summit. But Woolard said most of the cash taken out of a pot was invested elsewhere rather than “blowing it”. A large number of people were cashing in without taking advice, but often the pots involved were small, he said. The government has said it will ban “cold calling” in a bid to crack down on scams, and will present draft legislation next year, too slow for some MPs. “It’s a question of understanding the complexities around that,” economic secretary Stephen Barclay told the committee. “Addressing all cold calling is difficult, nigh on impossible, often it’s from offshore,” Barclay said. “No one wants to see people ripped off of their life savings.” People aged 55 or over are sent “wake up” packs with options for pensions, but Woolard said it would be more effective if this happened at 50 years of age. There is already a draft amendment in the upper house that would require financial firms to refer people to a new financial guidance body, introducing a greater element of compulsion in advice. Reporting by Huw Jones and Carolyn Cohn, editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-pensions-regulation/fca-targets-pension-scammers-in-welsh-steelworks-idUKKBN1DF282'|'2017-11-15T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'd463e4b6c8d837361049e18e50a65b998e16ae2b'|'U.S. DoJ approaches state AGs to block AT&T-Time Warner deal - source'|'November 15, 2017 / 3:10 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago U.S. government approaches 18 states to fight AT&T-Time Warner deal Diane Bartz , David Shepardson 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has approached 18 state attorneys general to try to win their support for an antitrust lawsuit to block pay TV and wireless powerhouse AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion deal to buy media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The department, conducting an antitrust review stretching more than a year, so far has failed to persuade any of the states to join a potential lawsuit, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another source said at least one state is still considering joining the Justice Department. The deal has become a political flashpoint because Republican President Donald Trump vowed last year as a candidate to block it and because of his frequent sharp criticism of news network CNN, owned by Time Warner, including in a new tweet on Wednesday. In talks with AT&T, the department has voiced concern that if the merger goes through, the combined company would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation. The department reached out to a group of state attorneys general -- the top law enforcement officials at the state level -- that earlier joined the review, the source said. State attorneys general have been assessing whether the deal could harm competition, and they interviewed industry officials this summer as part of the review, the source added. The Justice Department declined comment on the matter. The Justice Department could file suit on its own to try to stop the merger. Its Antitrust Division often works with states on big, complex deals to figure out how a transaction would affect them. Once the department files a complaint, it typically does the bulk of the courtroom fight, not the states. The Justice Department has a winning record in fighting mergers in recent years. It forced AT&T to scrap a plan to buy T-Mobile USA in 2011 and last year successfully battled in court to stop two insurance industry mergers, among others. AT&T’s share price was up slightly on Wednesday at $33.91 while Time Warner slipped about half a percent to trade at $87.23 in mid-afternoon trading. The AT&T logo is seen on a store in Golden, Colorado United States July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking ANTI-COMPETITION CONCERNS Beyond worries over potential political influence in the department’s review, critics including Democratic lawmakers, consumer advocates and smaller television networks have raised anti-competition concerns about an AT&T-Time Warner marriage. A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The proposed merger would give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. It has prompted concerns that AT&T might try to limit distribution of Time Warner content. AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier and a major pay-TV provider, and Time Warner have struggled to keep viewers who have flocked to online services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment and take online advertising from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc. Justice Department staff members have recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner Inc’s Turner Broadcasting unit, which includes CNN, in order to win approval of the deal, a government official said last week. Trump, just back from a trip to Asia, attacked the news network again on Wednesday morning, writing on Twitter: “While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday refused during congressional testimony to say whether the White House had contacted his department about its review of the deal. Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington; Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a/department-of-justice-approaches-state-ags-to-block-att-time-warner-deal-source-idUKKBN1DF25Q'|'2017-11-15T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'400a6f69c3f5d1aff51487e583538ab178305095'|'Trade sterling like emerging market currency, say investors'|' 25   Trade sterling like emerging market currency, say investors Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The pound should be traded like the currency of an emerging-market country, money managers at the 2018 Reuters Global Investment Summit said on Wednesday, because of uncertainty surrounding Brexit. UK pound coins plunge into water in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Portfolio managers told the summit that high levels of political risk, a hefty current account deficit, and high levels of debt made Britain appear more like an developing economy than an advanced one, and trading its currency should therefore reflect that. “If you look at sterling though an emerging-market (EM) prism it’s a screaming sell,” said Paul McNamara, an investment director at GAM, a fund management firm which manages 184 billion Swiss francs ($186 billion) in assets globally. “If you take an EM-style analysis to the UK, it looks pretty horrible.” Sterling has fallen almost 13 percent on a trade-weighted basis GBP= since Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the European Union, and is not expected to recover while uncertainty remains over what kind of divorce deal emerges. As well as keeping the currency under pressure, that political uncertainty has made sterling vulnerable to bouts of volatility, mainly on worries that Britain could opt for a “hard” Brexit in which it loses any kind of preferential access to Europe’s single market. “What we tend to do is if sterling volatility starts to pick up ... is we reduce sterling exposure. And when the volatility calms down again we close our position,” Royal London Asset Management’s head of multi-asset Trevor Greetham, told the summit. Realised volatility in sterling has picked up in recent weeks with daily market swings rising markedly from earlier this year. “So we’re trading between slightly underweight and more underweight depending on the volatility picture, which is a technique that actually comes from emerging-market currency trading,” he added. Greetham said he did not rule out a “reversal of Brexit” if public opinion were to swing against a departure, giving that outcome around a 10 percent chance. Earlier in the week, Northern Trust Asset Management told the summit the pound could relapse by almost 10 percent to as low as $1.20-$1.22 if a “no deal” Brexit became likely. JP Morgan Asset Management offered a more positive assessment, saying it had gone “modestly long” on the currency three or four weeks ago. Nick Gartside, the firm’s London-based international CIO for fixed income currencies and commodities, said risks to economic growth in Britain were tilted to the upside given robust global growth. And even in "the very worst-case scenario" of Brexit negotiations, he said, sterling would only slip to the $1.20s - a modest fall from current trading levels around $1.31 GBP=D3 . ($1 = 0.9896 Swiss francs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-sterling-volatility/trade-sterling-like-emerging-market-currency-say-investors-idUKKBN1DF2GM'|'2017-11-15T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'48de79aeaba0e34bd5697522101e4e08fe7eb77e'|'Japan''s MUFG hires 180 staff in London in Europe expansion drive'|'November 13, 2017 / 3:54 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Japan''s MUFG hires 180 staff in London in Europe expansion drive Lawrence White , Anjuli Davies 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) ( 8306.T ) is hiring staff in London in a drive to expand its investment banking operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and boost income outside its home market, a senior executive said. FILE PHOTO: Japan''s national flag is seen behind the logo of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) at its bank branch in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The plan by Japan’s biggest bank is a filip for London, at a time when many banks are considering moving jobs out of the city ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union. MUFG has hired 180 staff in London since April 1 and plans “a few dozen” more hirings in EMEA, Sebastien Rozes, head of corporate banking for the region, told Reuters in an interview. “We want to continue to deepen MUFG’s relevance for our clients as a major European and global fixed income powerhouse, as well as one of the region’s principal corporate and investment banks,” he said. Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the country is denied access to Europe’s single market, according to a Reuters survey in September. MUFG, which now employs around 2,100 staff in London, said in September it would set up a new subsidiary in Amsterdam to ensure it can continue to serve European clients even if Britain loses access to the single market. The bank is also opening an investment banking branch in Paris and has said it will move a few dozen staff from London to either Amsterdam or the French capital. The lender has more than 20 offices across Europe already and is well positioned to cope with Brexit, Rozes said. MUFG plans to use its lending muscle and strength in structured finance to expand its capital markets business, Rozes said, at a time when some European banks are shrinking their business. The hirings include expanding the bank’s coverage of sectors such as telecommunications, media, technology and healthcare, Rozes said, and adding more senior investment bankers to win business from financial institutions across the EMEA region. With interest rates still at historic lows across the euro zone, standalone bank lending is largely unprofitable and investment banks in the region have focused in recent years on persuading borrowers to pay for additional products such as advice on deals, hedging, and finance. MUFG will in pursuing this strategy also expand the number of countries in which it operates, Rozes said, opening a branch in Saudi Arabia next year to benefit from the deal activity associated with the country’s privatisation plans. The EMEA region currently contributes around 10 percent of MUFG’s non-Japan profits, which in turn comprise 30 percent of the lender’s overall profits. More than half the non-Japan revenues come from the United States, where MUFG has a retail banking business in addition to its investment bank. The expansion into the EMEA region forms part of a broader drive by MUFG to combat sluggish growth in Japan by increasing the income from the 50 countries in which it operates. The lender is also in talks to buy a 40 percent stake in Bank Danamon Indonesia ( BDMN.JK ), sources told Reuters earlier this month, having earlier bought bank stakes in other Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mufg-europe/japans-mufg-hires-180-staff-in-london-in-europe-expansion-drive-idUKKBN1DD1YO'|'2017-11-13T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'8329001ac7b1ef4ad80fb5d416278133f238769d'|'CME to launch new Black Sea grain futures with Platts'|'November 13, 2017 / 10:12 AM / in 10 minutes CME to launch new Black Sea grain futures with Platts Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - CME Group is to launch next month Black Sea wheat and corn futures based on S&P Global Platts’ price benchmarks to target the fast-growing exporting region. The cash-settled Black Sea Wheat FOB (Platts) and Black Sea Corn FOB (Platts) futures contracts will begin trading on Dec. 18, subject to regulatory clearance, the Chicago-based derivatives exchange said on Monday. The wheat contract is based on the Platts Russian Wheat 12.5 percent protein FOB (free on board) Black Sea Deep Water daily price assessment, while the Black Sea Corn contract is based on the Platts Ukrainian Corn FOB Black Sea daily assessment, CME said in a statement. The contracts will be denominated in U.S. dollars, have 50 metric tonne lots, and tradeable as blocks with a minimum of five lots. Like in Australia, where CME this year launched wheat derivatives based on a Platts price index, the Black Sea contracts will be available for trading via CME’s Globex futures platform and for clearing through CME Clearport for off-exchange trades. The Black Sea contracts would also offer two settlement periods, whereby 12 whole-month contracts and 24 half-month futures contracts are available to trade. A CME spokeswoman said this was tailored to local market practices where two-week shipping windows are common. The Black Sea region, which includes the world’s biggest wheat exporter, Russia, has increasingly attracted interest for developing price references. The CME spokeswoman said the group would maintain its existing Black Sea grain futures that offer physical delivery. The contracts have attracted minimal volume. The new Black Sea products extend CME’s reach in grain markets, after its launch last year of a European Union wheat contract, and also marks a push to cater for derivative deals not traded on exchanges. Euronext, whose France-based contract is the benchmark for the western European wheat market, is also looking at Black Sea derivatives. Reporting by Gus Trompiz, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cme-group-blacksea-futures/cme-to-launch-new-black-sea-grain-futures-with-platts-idUSL8N1NJ2FS'|'2017-11-13T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'd92fd5d54444a3df12d295a7fa3a531fd22f4ce2'|'BoE''s Carney says two more rate hikes likely in coming years - report'|' 36 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago BoE''s Carney says two more rate hikes likely in coming years - report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will probably need to raise interest rates a couple more times over the next few years if Britain’s economy develops as expected, Governor Mark Carney was quoted as saying on Thursday, echoing guidance the Bank has given previously. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, smiles at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble “We’ll see how the economy evolves. If it evolves broadly in line with our projections, we would probably raise interest rates a couple of times over the next few years,” Carney told the Liverpool Echo newspaper. Carney also told the newspaper that Brexit could affect the path of Britain’s economy but the “fundamental economic impact of leaving the European Union will only be known over a very long period of time.” The Bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years earlier this month and Carney said at the time that he agreed broadly with investors who had been pricing in two more rate hikes over the next three years. Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-carney-rates/boes-carney-says-two-more-rate-hikes-likely-in-coming-years-report-idUKKBN1DG2JZ'|'2017-11-16T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'50a0a97857cb7aff3cfe28e60a6e5ea6d69251b5'|'Rosneft board approves oil deal with China''s CEFC - source'|' 14 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Rosneft board approves oil deal with China''s CEFC - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Russian state oil giant Rosneft’s ( ROSN.MM ) board of directors has approved the 2018 annual deal to supply CEFC China Energy about 12 million tonnes of crude oil, a Chinese source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A worker is seen at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Of the total supply, CEFC expects to receive 8 to 10 million tonnes of ESPO crude from Russia’s Far East, the source said. The private Chinese conglomerate will start receiving oil from January, with volumes estimated at around 2 million tonnes for the first quarter. A CEFC spokesman couldn’t immediately comment. Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Josephine Mason and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cefc-rosneft-oil/rosneft-board-approves-oil-deal-with-chinas-cefc-source-idUKKBN1DG1GS'|'2017-11-16T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'b5c289133ec8e64fbd1f337599d36c920a01dd0e'|'ECB criticises banks'' relocation plans after Brexit - Business - The Guardian'|'The European Central Bank has warned banks that some of their Brexit plans are inadequate as they involve setting up “empty shell” operations in the EU that are not properly staffed.The Frankfurt-based institution said “elements in a number” of relocation plans submitted by banks that use the UK as their gateway to the EU “did not fully meet” its expectations.In a quarterly supervisory update , the ECB warned about “double-hatting” – where employees hold roles across different locations – and expressed concern about employees not being physically located in the euro area.The ECB’s view may alarm the City of London, where banks are preparing for a hard Brexit – without any agreement on trade or access to the single market – and have warned that they are likely to implement plans in the first three months of next year without a transition deal.The Bank of England has analysed the Brexit plans of 400 banks and concluded that 10,000 jobs could leave on day one after the UK leaves the EU, suggesting 75,000 roles may be lost over the long term.The ECB said many banks wanted to transfer all their market risk back to a third-country entity, perhaps in the UK or the US, which it said it was “not comfortable” with. It added that banks needed to have permanent local trading capabilities and risk-management operations.“Banks do not only need to be well capitalised and have sufficient liquidity and funding, they also need to have substance locally. In other words, there cannot be empty shells or letterbox banks,” the ECB said.“It is not straightforward to draw a line between a well-established bank that is integrated into an international group and an empty shell that is overly reliant on group entities in third countries. Still, some of the relocation plans submitted seem to lean towards the latter.”The central bank’s intervention came as a senior official at JP Morgan admitted the US bank was already in “execution mode” to beef up operations in Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg . Some “key people” had been told of their moves, Sally Dewar, head of regulatory affairs at JP Morgan, told the Lords EU financial affairs subcommittee. Clients would be informed about changes in by the end of March, she added.Topics European Central Bank Economics Europe Brexit Financial sector European Union'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/15/ecb-criticises-banks-relocation-plans-brexit-euro-area'|'2017-11-16T01:09:00.000+02:00'
'd42b5bc07773fca022112dc809acada0393234a0'|'AIRSHOW-EgyptAir signs $1.1 bln deal for 12 Bombardier CSeries jets'|'(Adds comments from CEO at Goldman conference, share reaction)By Alexander Cornwell and Allison LampertDUBAI/MONTREAL, Nov 14 (Reuters) - State-owned EgyptAir signed an initial order for 12 Bombardier Inc CSeries jets on Tuesday, marking the Canadian planemaker’s second deal for the aircraft this month after a 1-1/2-year-long sales drought. The two orders, the other for 31 planes from an undisclosed European buyer, are expected to be finalized by the end of 2017, a senior Bombardier executive said.The agreements are expected to generate momentum for the narrowbody jets and follow an October decision by European planemaker Airbus SE to take a majority stake in the CSeries program, throwing its marketing and purchasing power behind the aircraft.“We anticipate both of them by year end,” Fred Cromer, who heads Bombardier’s commercial aircraft division, told reporters of the new sales deals.“We are respecting the customer’s wishes to not disclose the identity,” Cromer said from Dubai, referring to the European buyer.He added that the two deals would bring Bombardier’s firm CSeries orders to a total of more than 400 jets.The EgyptAir deal is valued at $1.1 billion based on list prices.The CSeries has won fans for its design and fuel efficiency but the lack of orders for the 110-130 seat plane over 18 months stemmed from doubts over its future before the industry-changing deal with Airbus.At the Dubai Airshow on Tuesday, Ethiopian Airlines’ chief executive said he would decide next year whether to buy CSeries or Brazil-based Embraer’s E-jet series as a replacement for its Boeing’s 737-7.Colin Bole, Bombardier’s senior vice president of commercial aircraft, said there were no particular conditions or terms that needed to be met to finalize the two deals.But the EgyptAir letter of intent to purchase the jets includes options for a further 12 CSeries that, if exercised, would increase the total list value of the deal to nearly $2.2 billion.Bombardier is engaged in a trade dispute with Boeing, which complained that the CSeries had been subsidized and sold below cost in the United States. A U.S. trade commission will decide in early 2018 whether to impose duties of nearly 300 percent on the planes as urged by the U.S. Commerce Department.As part of the Airbus venture, Bombardier has said it would invest $300 million to set up an Alabama assembly line for CSeries purchased by American carriers.The Alabama facility will create 500 U.S. jobs and make the CSeries a “fully U.S. domestic product,” Bombardier Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare said on Tuesday, at a Goldman Sachs conference in Boston.Legal experts say Bombardier’s strategy of performing final assembly in Alabama might allow the CSeries to avoid duties because the trade case targets partially and fully-assembled aircraft.Bombardier and Airbus could argue they are importing parts, like the wing from Northern Ireland, to be assembled in the United States.Bombardier shares were up 1.6 percent late on Tuesday, while the benchmark Canada share index was down 0.6 percent. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in DUBAI and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Tom Brown) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow-egyptair-bombardier/airshow-egyptair-signs-1-1-bln-deal-for-12-bombardier-cseries-jets-idUSL1N1NK1WJ'|'2017-11-15T06:02:00.000+02:00'
'e3ab3493b637ce8957947035bff2a10147ffbee9'|'Fed should signal tolerance for higher U.S. inflation, Evans says'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:12 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Fed should signal tolerance for higher U.S. inflation, Evans says Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Wednesday said he is worried about a drop in U.S. inflation expectations, and called for the U.S. central bank to respond by flagging the likelihood of higher inflation ahead. FILE PHOTO: Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans takes a question during a round table with the media in Shanghai, China March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Nir Elias/File Photo “When I look at the downward drift in multiple expectations measures, I find it tougher to confidently buy into the idea that inflation today is just temporarily low once again,” Evans said in remarks prepared for delivery to the UBS European Conference in London. To prevent low inflation expectations becoming entrenched, he said, “our public commentary needs to acknowledge a much greater chance of inflation running at 2-1/2 percent in the coming years than I believe we have communicated in the past.” Evans, a voter this year on Fed policy, did not say in his prepared remarks whether he would support an interest-rate hike in December, as many of his colleagues have said they would, and as markets overwhelmingly expect. But his comments suggest he has become increasingly frustrated with falling inflation, despite an economy he said is headed for “continued solid growth” in 2018. Evans warned Wednesday that unless the Fed addresses falling inflation expectations, “we could be in for the kind of trouble that Bank of Japan has faced for so long.” Inflation by the Fed’s preferred measure, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE), was just 1.3 percent in September, even though the unemployment rate, at 4.1 percent, suggests the U.S. economy is at full employment. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said she believes that as the labour market tightens, inflation will rise back toward 2 percent. Evans is not so sure. “With each low monthly reading, it gets harder and harder for me to feel comfortable with the idea that the step-down last spring was simply transitory,” Evans said. “There is a big strategic risk in failing to get core PCE inflation symmetrically around 2 percent before this economic cycle ends.” Regional Fed presidents like Evans have varying degrees of influence on the direction of Fed policy. In 2010, Evans tried and failed to win support at the Fed for a new strategy of monetary policy known as price-level targeting that at the time he thought could have lifted troublingly low inflation. In 2012, though, the Fed included a promise to keep rates near zero until unemployment or inflation reached certain thresholds, an idea Evans had publicly championed for a year before it became policy. Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-evans/fed-should-signal-tolerance-for-higher-u-s-inflation-evans-says-idUKKBN1DF0Z7'|'2017-11-15T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'83542ae11612481aa3c520b9300e8a0cb6e3de62'|'Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine'|' 03 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine Sam Wanda , Fergus Jensen 2 Min Read JAKARTA/TIMIKA, Indonesia, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia on Friday began evacuating villages that authorities said had been occupied by armed separatists after a string of shootings near the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport McMoRan Inc in the eastern province of Papua. Two police have been killed and at least 12 people have been wounded by gunfire in the area since mid-August. Police have blamed an “armed criminal group”, but others have said the gunmen were linked to separatist rebels. According to police reports, the armed group occupied the villages of Banti and Kimbely near the mining town of Tembagapura, and had prevented an estimated 1,300 residents from leaving the area, leading to food shortages. Police and military leaders said they have urged the gunmen to surrender, but have also warned that tough measures could follow if their “persuasive” approach fails. Residents were being evacuated to a sports hall in Tembagapura, according to a source at Freeport. Mimika Deputy Regent Yohanes Bassang asked families in Timika to accommodate relatives being evacuated from the villages “to avoid further problems”. Bassang said many of the villagers were from the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi and had come to the area to pan for gold. The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility for the shootings and declared war against the military, police and Freeport, but denied it was holding villagers hostage. According to several residents interviewed by Reuters, military and police officers were preventing them from getting food from Tembagapura, where food aid was delivered in a cargo container on Saturday. “The atmosphere has really heated up,” one resident said, referring to the shootings and concerns over food supplies and safety. Reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA and Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Macfie'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-security/indonesia-evacuates-villagers-after-shootings-near-freeport-mine-idUSL3N1NN2FS'|'2017-11-17T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'f8f7c137620046efb94cc26bed941d7d1fdd2bdc'|'China finance official says country''s financial sector faces bubble risk'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:29 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago China finance official says country''s financial sector faces bubble risk Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s financial sector faces bubble risks, which are reflected in the country’s high broad money supply, Huang Qifan, deputy chairman of the economic and finance committee under the National People’s Congress, said at a conference on Thursday. Huang also said China needs to reform its foreign exchange reserves system and that the People’s Bank of China should have independence to enact monetary policy. Huang, appointed to his current post in February, is considered a leading financial expert in China and is best known for his term as mayor of Chongqing. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-finance/china-finance-official-says-countrys-financial-sector-faces-bubble-risk-idUKKBN1DG08X'|'2017-11-16T04:48:00.000+02:00'
'74449b9239f98828fc8d637c3d1eef258af0f58b'|'UPDATE 1-Hudson''s Bay says no merit in appeal against Rhone investment'|'(Adds details on Rhone Capital investment)Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canadian department store operator Hudson’s Bay Co said it saw no merit in activist fund Land and Buildings’ recent appeal against the Toronto Stock Exchange’s conditional approval for a $500 million investment from Rhone Capital.Hudson’s Bay said on Wednesday it had written consent for the equity investment from shareholders representing well over 50 percent of its outstanding common shares.Land and Buildings had filed the appeal with the Ontario Securities Commission, Hudson’s Bay said.Earlier this month, Land and Buildings, headed by activist investor Jonathan Litt, had urged the company to call for a non-insider vote on Rhone Capital’s investment, saying the ones who voted had a “special interest” in the deal.Last month Hudson’s Bay said Rhone Capital would invest the $500 million in the form of eight-year mandatory convertible preferred shares.Land and Buildings, which had a near 5 percent stake in Hudson’s Bay as of July, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hudsons-bay-land-and-buildings/update-1-hudsons-bay-says-no-merit-in-appeal-against-rhone-investment-idINL3N1NL636'|'2017-11-15T20:23:00.000+02:00'
'55010cfd7e462415e8cd868700475fb6cf20b2db'|'Wal-Mart''s third-quarter comparable sales beat estimates'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:20 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Wal-Mart shares jump on strong U.S. sales growth Nandita Bose 4 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ) reported better-than-expected U.S. comparable sales on Thursday, as customers stocked up on food and other supplies ahead of hurricanes and online purchases soared, sending its shares up more than 8.5 percent. The third quarter marked Wal-Mart’s strongest U.S. sales growth since 2009 despite sluggish demand and competition from Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) that has hurt brick-and-mortar rivals. The retailer has notched more than three straight years of overall comparable sales growth. “Momentum in the business is really strong,” Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said on an earnings conference call. Hurricane-related sales contributed 30 to 50 basis points to overall comparable sales, the world’s largest retailer said, as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma spurred demand for food and grocery items as well as building materials. “Food delivered its strongest quarterly performance in six years,” Wal-Mart U.S. Chief Executive Greg Foran said. Wal-Mart has invested in its online business, cut prices and improved its in-store shopping experience by raising worker wages and making stores cleaner and more efficient. These investments weighed on operating margins and profit, however, which both fell compared to the year-ago quarter. Online sales soared 50 percent, exceeding growth at other big retailers but coming in below the previous quarter’s 60 percent surge. Those sales added 80 basis points to the quarter’s comparable sales gain, boosted by walmart.com, the retailer’s online grocery delivery service and the acquisition of e-commerce startup Jet.com last year. “Wal-Mart’s online performance continues to validate its substantial investments in this critical channel,” said Moody’s retail analyst Charlie O‘Shea. An employee walks out from a Walmart store in Monterrey, Mexico, April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril Wal-Mart forecast strong performance in the key holiday quarter and raised its full-year profit forecast. It now expects earnings per share of $4.38 to $4.46 for the fiscal year versus $4.30 to $4.40 previously. Rival Target Corp ( TGT.N ) has also slashed prices and invested in its website and delivery, but has been less successful at translating that into sales and profit growth. Its holiday-quarter profit forecast fell short of analysts’ expectations on Wednesday, sending shares down 10 percent. The holiday shopping season can account for as much as 40 percent of a retailers’ annual sales. Wal-Mart has said it will double down on incentives and has tripled its online selections. To compete with Amazon, Wal-Mart will offer free two-day shipping on more than two million products when the order exceeds $35 and discounts for online orders picked up at stores. Excluding special items, earnings per share were $1 in the quarter ended Oct. 31, exceeding the average analyst estimate of 97 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Operating income fell 6.9 percent, while operating margins slipped to 3.9 percent from 4.4 percent the same period a year earlier. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 2.7 percent, excluding fuel price fluctuations, topping expectations for a rise of 1.7 percent, according to Consensus Metrix. Net income dropped to $1.75 billion from $3.03 billion a year earlier due to a charge related to retiring higher-rate debt and exiting properties in international markets. Wal-Mart said it was close to settling a years-long foreign-bribery probe and recorded a $283 million accrual charge related to a settlement. Shares of Wal-Mart were last up 8.4 percent at $97.38. They have risen more than 30 percent so far this year. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-results/wal-marts-third-quarter-comparable-sales-beat-estimates-idUSKBN1DG1NH'|'2017-11-16T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'03455614305dab0ce79ca51eab2294d9e9ef225b'|'Oil prices weighed down by rising U.S. supplies, but OPEC cuts prevent falls'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:21 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Oil extends losing streak on U.S. oversupply worries David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices ended lower again on Thursday on increased concerns about growth in U.S. production and inventories, despite expectations that major world producers will extend a supply-cut deal later this month. Oil pumpjacks are seen near Aneth, Utah, U.S., October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled 51 cents, or 0.8 percent, lower at $61.36 per barrel, running its streak of losses to five straight days. U.S. light crude CLc1 fell for a fourth consecutive session, ending down 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $55.14 a barrel. Oil prices have slipped from the two-year highs hit last week by both crude benchmarks on signs that U.S. supply is rising and could potentially undermine OPEC’s efforts to tighten the market. The market has been bolstered of late by funds extending long positions on a bullish outlook for the commodity due to tightening supply worldwide. Expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree to extend their supply-cut pact with other major world producers in Vienna on Nov. 30 has offset some of the recent pressure on prices. Now, some analysts believe there won’t be clarity on the market’s direction until after OPEC meets on November 30. “Certainly U.S. oil production is not slowing down. If crude imports remain elevated and exports don’t rebound, then the bullish underlying tone begins to fade,” said Kyle Cooper, analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed domestic crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA rising for a second week, building by 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 10. Stockpiles of gasoline also surprisingly rose. The United States is expected to account for more than 80 percent of the growth in world crude supply in the next decade, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, and weekly data shows ongoing boosts in production. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA hit a record of 9.65 million barrels per day, meaning output has risen by almost 15 percent since its mid-2016 low. By contrast, RBC commodity strategist Michael Tran noted on Thursday that most of the rest of the world’s inventories are in line with historic averages. “It is no coincidence that the recent price rally has occurred concurrently with several weeks of record setting surges in exports,” he wrote. OPEC and non-OPEC exporters including Russia agreed a year ago to cut crude output by 1.8 million bpd between January this year and March 2018 to bolster prices. Oil ministers have signaled that they are likely to extend the agreement, possibly until the end of next year. (For a graphic on ''U.S. oil production, storage'' click reut.rs/2A2L5zF ) (For a graphic on ''Global crude oil supply and demand balance'' click reut.rs/2zCLx75 ) Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-weighed-down-by-rising-u-s-supplies-but-opec-cuts-prevent-falls-idUKKBN1DG055'|'2017-11-16T03:19:00.000+02:00'
'b3c82483c86a4fe344735b3dc06e51a1519b9275'|'Nearly 2,000 Siemens employees protest against job cuts'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) employees protested in various German cities on Friday against the company’s proposal to cut 6,900 jobs, which a senior Siemens official said could be revised after negotiations with the union. Siemens said on Thursday it wanted to cut about 6,900 jobs, or close to 2 percent of its global workforce. Roughly half of those would be in Germany, mainly at its power and gas division, which has been hit by the rapid growth of renewable energy. IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union, called for the protests in Berlin and the city of Offenbach near Frankfurt, urging Siemens to revise plans it said would harm the company. “We have concepts, alternatives, and we expect the company to have a serious talk with us, the works councils, about the future for Siemens,” said Klaus Abel, a senior union representative in Berlin. Siemens’ human resources chief on Friday said it could modify its plans after talking with the union. Siemens workers protest in Berlin, Germany, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski Iris Gleicke, the German government’s commissioner for eastern German affairs, urged Siemens to strike a fair bargain with workers, noting the job cuts would be devastating for sites in structurally weak parts of eastern Germany. Slideshow (6 Images) “I expect that Siemens and the workers’ representatives would agree on a fair balance of interests,” she said. Horst Schneider, the mayor of the city of Offenbach, where Siemens plans to cut 700 jobs, said the city “has a further right to exist in this global company.” “It cannot be that the big ones always eat the small ones,” Schneider said. “We will fight for our work,” said Tanja Scorrano, who has among the protesters, having worked for Siemens in Offenbach for 27 years. Reporting By Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-power-restructuring/nearly-2000-siemens-employees-protest-against-job-cuts-idUSKBN1DH29Z'|'2017-11-17T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'29d046c93ddf73066a4cdf580cff7d7e5f37353a'|'Colombia''s Ecopetrol, Spain''s Repsol acquire four blocks in Gulf of Mexico'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:50 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Colombia''s Ecopetrol, Spain''s Repsol acquire four blocks in Gulf of Mexico Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol ( ECO.CN ), in partnership with Spain’s Repsol ( REP.MC ), has acquired four new blocks in the Gulf of Mexico for deep water oil exploration, Ecopetrol said on Friday. Ecopetrol’s U.S. subsidiary, Ecopetrol America Inc., and Repsol can explore the blocks for five years at a depth of about 240 meters. The blocks, Garden Banks 77, 78, 121 and 122, are close to platforms and existing infrastructure, allowing for early production if there is a discovery, Ecopetrol said in a statement. The new blocks are part of Ecopetrol’s deep-water focused efforts to increase its reserves and production. The company currently produces more than 12,000 barrels per day in the Gulf of Mexico. Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-oil-ecopetrol/colombias-ecopetrol-spains-repsol-acquire-four-blocks-in-gulf-of-mexico-idINKBN1DH2C5'|'2017-11-17T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'25feb0246331bf64c1194d84ebbac70606c04ee8'|'Uber''s London licence appeal could take years - Mayor Khan'|'November 16, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Uber''s London licence appeal could take years - Mayor Khan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Uber’s appeal process against a decision by London’s transport regulator to strip the taxi app of its operating licence in the British capital could take years, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on Thursday. A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, with London Taxis in the background, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Transport for London shocked Uber in September by deeming it unfit to run a taxi service and refusing to renew its licence, a decision the Silicon Valley firm is appealing. “My understanding is that it could go on for a number of years,” Khan said at a monthly question session when asked about how long the appeals process could last. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain/ubers-london-licence-appeal-could-take-years-mayor-khan-idUKKBN1DG1FN'|'2017-11-16T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'841ec8d6454552662ce5065a5fbd3a53ca9db398'|'Qualcomm could win EU approval for NXP by end of year - Bloomberg'|'November 16, 2017 / 8:42 PM / a few seconds ago Qualcomm could win EU approval for NXP by end of year: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) may win European Union approval for its bid to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. One of many Qualcomm buildings is shown in San Diego, California November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), is set to become the leading supplier to the fast growing automotive chip market following the deal, the largest-ever in the semiconductor industry. Regulators have dropped their concerns after accepting Qualcomm''s pledge not to acquire standard essential and system-level patents belonging to NXP, according to the Bloomberg report. ( bloom.bg/2A5VN8E ) Qualcomm recently rejected rival Broadcom Ltd’s ( AVGO.O ) $103-billion takeover bid in November, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles. Qualcomm said in June it was confident of addressing EU’s antitrust concerns and expected to close the NXP deal by the end of 2017. The European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday a ruling on Qualcomm’s proposed acquisition of NXP may come in 2018. Qualcomm and NXP did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while the European Commission was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nxp-semicondtrs-m-a-qualcomm/qualcomm-could-win-eu-approval-for-nxp-by-end-of-year-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DG2YG'|'2017-11-16T22:37:00.000+02:00'
'65d95532fcf4a52e765ce98ff9c1c03442b1b2e4'|'China faces waste hangover after Singles'' Day buying binge'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:44 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago China faces waste hangover after Singles'' Day buying binge David Stanway 6 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Singles’ Day online discount sales bonanza on Saturday saw bargain-hungry buyers spend over $38 billion, flooding the postal and courier businesses with around 331 million packages - and leaving an estimated 160,000 tonnes of packaging waste. A laborer works at a paper products recycling station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The annual Nov. 11 buying frenzy is a regular fillip for giant online retailers like Alibaba ( BABA.N ) and JD.com ( JD.O ), but the mountains of trash produced from just one day of conspicuous consumption have angered environmentalists. “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste,” said Nie Li, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace, which estimates this year’s orders will produce more than 160,000 tonnes of packaging waste, including plastic, cardboard and tape. Total sales from Singles’ Day hit 254 billion yuan (28.9 billion pounds), with 1.38 billion orders placed, state media reported. Around a quarter of the total sales involved household electric devices or mobile phones. China’s State Post Bureau (SPB) said postal and courier companies are having to deal with at least 331 million packages, up 31.5 percent from last year. Greenpeace described the annual promotion as a “catastrophe for the environment” that not only creates waste, but leads to a surge in carbon emissions from manufacturing, packaging and shipping. In a report published last week, it estimated that total orders last year produced 52,400 tonnes of additional climate-warming carbon dioxide. E-commerce firms have drawn up measures aimed at solving the problem, and aim to replace cardboard boxes with reusable plastic ones that courier companies can share. They have also experimented with biodegradable delivery bags and tape-free boxes, but Nie said the efforts were still not enough. “China’s online retail giants have taken few real steps to reduce delivery packaging waste,” she said. “Ultimately, packaging that we throw out after one use is not a sustainable option.” A spokesman for JD.com said it is “continually improving ways to better reduce waste and pollution” and, among other measures, aims to raise the proportion of biodegradable materials in its packaging materials to 80 percent by 2020. Alibaba’s Cainiao logistics arm said in emailed comments that it had launched initiatives aimed at minimising its environmental impact. “We are committed to work closely with different stakeholders to protect the environment and contribute to the sustainable development of the industry,” it said. MOUNTAINS OF WASTE China’s packaging waste problems are not confined to Singles’ Day. Official data shows China’s courier firms delivered around 20 billion orders in 2015, using 8.27 billion plastic bags, 9.92 billion packing boxes and enough sticky tape to go around the globe more than 400 times. Overall deliveries continue to surge, with the number of packages expected to hit 50 billion next year, up from 30 billion in 2016, according to forecasts by the SPB. But even that’s only a small part of China’s mounting waste problem, with large sections of the country’s soil and water contaminated by untreated industrial, rural and household trash. Laborers work at a paper products recycling station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song With China’s major cities producing around 2 billion tonnes of solid waste a year, they are already surrounded by circles of landfill known in Beijing as the “seventh ring road”. China has also struggled to finance the infrastructure required to handle surging volumes of discarded white goods, consumer electronics and batteries. Despite massive production volumes that have left the country dependent on imported raw materials, overall recycling rates in industries like steel, glass or textiles remain way behind their international counterparts. On top of that, China has only just started to impose restrictions on imported waste, which stood at 47 million tonnes in 2015. Recycling of foreign and domestic trash was traditionally handled by migrant workers, known as “scavengers”, who ripped apart discarded goods in back-street workshops. Laborers work at a paper products recycling station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song But rising economic prosperity means fewer people seek to make a living recycling waste, and tougher environmental regulations have forced small-scale recyclers to close. CONSUMER HABITS As well as ordinary couriers, China’s many food delivery services are under pressure to reduce waste. The Chongqing Green Volunteer League, a local environmental group, said earlier this year it was taking legal action against some operators for failing to handle the problem. Activists claimed just one online delivery platform used enough chopsticks every day to destroy the equivalent of 6,700 trees. They said the firms fail to inform customers or give them opportunities to choose greener options. Hu Zhengyang, a director at the China Packaging Association, told Reuters that his own industry body had appealed to delivery businesses to use fewer materials, but he said it ultimately “required more attention from government and ordinary people.” The SPB issued new guidelines to deal with the problem last year, urging delivery companies to eliminate substandard packaging products by the end of 2020, and to establish a proper recycling system. Delegates from central China’s Henan province, who raised the issue of packaging waste at this year’s parliament, said courier firms should be punished for violating rules, and incentives are needed to encourage the use of recyclable materials, which often cost more. “This is not going to be welcomed by courier companies or consumers, and it needs state support in areas like policy, financing and taxation,” they said. Ultimately, said Greenpeace’s Nie, it needs a shift in consumers’ mind-set. “If we really want to ‘green’ our buying habits, we need to consume less, re-use more and go back to repairing things that are broken,” she said. Reporting by David Stanway and the Shanghai newsroom; Additional reporting by Cate Cadell in BEIJING; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singles-day-waste/china-faces-waste-hangover-after-singles-day-buying-binge-idUKKBN1DH0WW'|'2017-11-17T10:43:00.000+02:00'
'33b4986ea60abaa829c85d475d6109772d0d4484'|'Fox shares jump on signs of more takeover interest'|' 32 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Fox shares jump on signs of more takeover interest Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) shares jumped 8 percent in premarket trading on Friday after sources said both Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) were also interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. on November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo A week after reports of interest from Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) in buying out much of Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. film and television empire, the sources hinted at the prospect of a battle between other media suitors for the assets. Buyers have expressed interest in Fox’s production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India and Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ), sources told Reuters on Thursday. “Either Disney or Comcast would be a good fit, but its always about price and neither has to be a strategic buyer, only opportunistic,” said JBL Advisors analyst Jeffrey Logsdon. Shares of other media companies which could be dragged into a round of consolidation of U.S. film and TV production and distribution were largely unchanged. Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, has steadily boosted its content ownership over the years and buying Fox’s assets would give it an international distribution footprint and strengthen its position against Disney. Traditional media companies have been struggling with subscriber declines as streaming service Netflix ( NFLX.O ) has gained traction with younger audiences that shun traditional cable and satellite offerings. Netflix and Verizon shares were marginally higher in premarket trade on Friday. Disney and Comcast shares both inched down. Fox and Disney are co-owners of Hulu, a streaming service that offers on-demand and live TV packages. Hulu is also partially owned by Comcast and Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). Although acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for wireless carrier Verizon, its interest in Fox assets was likely piqued by rival AT&T’s ( T.N ) bid for HBO and CNN owner Time Warner, which is awaiting regulatory approval. “(I am) sceptical of a Verizon deal, creative businesses are very tough to manage for an outsider,” Logsdon said. Fox’s other assets include Fox television network, Fox News Channel and Fox Entertainment Group, which owns the popular movies studio 20th Century Fox. Fox shares have gained about 9 percent in value in the last six months. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-stocks/fox-shares-jump-on-signs-of-more-takeover-interest-idUKKBN1DH1NG'|'2017-11-17T15:31:00.000+02:00'
'95c135cf8928c3f78d00f8db11c83487fa0b147a'|'Flat tyre? China bike sharing boom shows signs of strain'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s bike sharing bubble is showing signs of strain, after the country’s third largest firm said it was going under.FILE PHOTO: A man looks for a shared bike to ride outside an office building, in Beijing, China April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The country has seen a wave of iconic, brightly colored shared bicycles hits its city streets over the last year, helping revolutionize urban travel, but also drawing some public ire over mountains of bike clogging up sidewalks.The chief executive of Bluegogo said in a public letter posted online he had “made mistakes” and the firm was winding up. He apologized to investors, partners and 20 million registered users of the company’s 600,000 bikes.“We fought until the very last and I believe we can all leave with pride and our heads held high,” Li Gang wrote, adding he had endured months of sleepless nights.He said financing in the market had become a “bubble”.China’s bike sharing craze has been driven by huge investments, especially into the two market leaders Mobike and Ofo, which have raised billions of dollars from tech giants like Tencent Holdings ( 0700.HK ) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ).The two brands - often seen as China’s “Uber for bikes” - have deployed millions of bicycles around the country, and pushed overseas into markets in the United States and Europe.The trend hasn’t been without its opponents. Regulators have tightened rules around shared bikes and raised concerns too many bikes were hitting the streets. Some cities have put bans on shared bikes, citing safety concerns.Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-bikesharing/flat-tire-china-bike-sharing-boom-shows-signs-of-strain-idINKBN1DH19Z'|'2017-11-17T13:25:00.000+02:00'
'df3ce61f8c83905b10656abc41286d21c57f58bf'|'HSBC pays 300 million euros to settle investigation of Swiss bank'|'Reuters TV United States November 14, 2017 / 3:49 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago HSBC pays 300 million euros to settle investigation of Swiss bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings has agreed to pay 300 million euros ($353 million) to settle a long-running investigation into tax evasion by French citizens via its private bank in Switzerland, the lender said on Tuesday. HSBC bank is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The agreement is a first under a French system introduced in 2016 to allow companies to settle without any finding of guilt, HSBC said in a statement, adding the fine had been fully provisioned. “The investigation regarding HSBC Holdings has been dismissed,” HSBC said in its statement. Governments around the world are working to clamp down on tax evasion, given public anger at the perception that the richest members of society may not be paying their full dues. The French financial prosecutor’s office also confirmed the settlement ends proceedings against HSBC, provided that HSBC makes the payment. It added, however, that two unnamed former directors of HSBC’s Swiss private bank remained subject to possible legal action. HSBC’s Swiss private bank was plunged into turmoil in 2008 when Herve Falciani, a former IT employee, leaked client data that has spawned investigations in several countries. Falciani, a French citizen, has said he is a whistleblower trying to help governments to track down citizens who used Swiss accounts to evade tax. In 2015 a Swiss court sentenced him in absentia to five years in prison for industrial espionage. “HSBC has publicly acknowledged historical control weaknesses at the Swiss private bank on a number of occasions and has taken firm steps to address them,” the bank said. The French investigation found that several French taxpayers had not declared to tax authorities assets held in the books of the Swiss private bank, which provided French clients with services used to conceal assets. Swiss bank UBS has not agreed on a settlement in a similar case in France and now faces trial after a long-running investigation into allegations it helped wealthy clients to avoid taxes. ($1 = 0.8508 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-france-swiss/hsbc-pays-300-million-euros-to-settle-investigation-of-swiss-bank-idUKKBN1DE1Z1'|'2017-11-14T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'4ad72fcc6a0f30758fd463fcbf79798945c71d03'|'Asian stocks slip as oil woes sap sentiment, euro stands tall'|'November 15, 2017 / 12:41 AM / in an hour Asian stocks skid as oil woes sap sentiment, euro stands tall Shinichi Saoshiro 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks stumbled on Wednesday after weaker crude oil prices took a toll on Wall Street, while the euro kept big gains after enjoying a boost from robust German economic growth. People walk past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Spreadbetters tipped opening losses for Britain’s FTSE of 0.1 percent, a 0.25 percent decline for Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC is seen down 0.15 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.6 percent. China’s Shanghai index was down 0.55 percent, Australian stocks dropped 0.6 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI shed 0.4 percent. Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.5 percent. “The decline by U.S. equities led by energy shares is having a knock-on effect, dampening sentiment in sectors related to energy and industry,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo. “Broadly speaking equities had enjoyed an almost uninterrupted run for the past few months, so we are seeing a bit of a correction finally emerging.” Lifted by steady economic growth, supportive monetary policies and solid corporate earnings, global equities have rallied hard, with those in the United States, Germany and South Korea scaling record heights recently, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed a 26-year peak. BofA Merrill Lynch’s November fund manager survey found that a record high 16 percent of respondents are taking above normal levels of risk in their investment. “Icarus is flying ever closer to the sun,” said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch. All three major U.S. stock indexes dipped on Tuesday as an extended drop in crude oil prices hit energy shares and as General Electric plunged for a second straight day. [.N] The euro stood little changed at $1.1787 after rising 1.1 percent overnight to a 2-1/2-week high of $1.1805 as data showed Germany’s economy shifted into a higher gear in the third quarter. Pressured by the euro’s surge, the dollar index against a basket of six major currencies lost about 0.7 percent overnight. It last stood flat at 93.870.. The greenback was 0.2 percent lower at 113.230 yen after pulling back from a high of 113.910 the previous day. The yen as well as Japan’s equity and bond markets showed little reaction to Wednesday’s GDP data. Japan’s economy grew for the seventh straight quarter during the July-September period, although this was tempered somewhat as private consumption declined for the first time since the last quarter of 2015. The immediate focus for the dollar, and a potential catalyst, was data on U.S. consumer prices due later in the global day. Financial markets, which are betting the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in December, will be looking for clues to gauge how many more rate increases could be in store next year. Crude oil prices stretched losses, weighed by forecasts for rising U.S. crude output and a gloomier outlook for global demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). U.S. crude futures were down 1.1 percent at $55.07 per barrel and on track for their fourth day of losses. Brent lost 1.3 percent to $61.42 per barrel. With oil prices having slid steadily from 28-month highs scaled last week, commodity currencies came under pressure. The Canadian dollar stood at C$1.2740 per dollar after weakening to a one-week low of C$1.2773 overnight. The Australian dollar faced additional headwinds after Wednesday’s data showed the country’s wages did not rise as much as expected last quarter. The Aussie fell about 0.7 percent to a four-month trough of $0.7576. Shanghai nickel and zinc tumbled alongside steel, extending losses from the previous session, with the commodities still reeling after the previous day’s indicators pointed to slowing industrial production growth in China. [MET/L] On Tuesday, a batch of data from China - Australia’s biggest export market - showed the economy cooled further last month, with industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales missing expectations. Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asian-stocks-slip-as-oil-woes-sap-sentiment-euro-stands-tall-idINKBN1DF02T'|'2017-11-14T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'fe59371c4f4a35d587673a8e174f5f112d284084'|'France''s Vivendi posts strong third quarter, rules out Ubisoft takeover for now'|' 57 PM / a few seconds ago France''s Vivendi posts strong third-quarter, rules out Ubisoft takeover for now Sudip Kar-Gupta , Sophie Sassard 2 Min Read PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Acquisitive French media conglomerate Vivendi ( VIV.PA ) reported higher third-quarter earnings and kept its 2017 outlook for an increase in sales and profit over the year. The Vivendi logo is pictured at the main entrance of the entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate headquarters in Paris, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Vivendi’s third-quarter EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) rose 5.7 percent from a year ago to 293 million euros ($345 million), while its revenue increased by 19.3 percent to 3.18 billion euros. That fell short of a consensus of analysts polled by Inquiry Financial for Reuters who had expected EBITA of 324 million euros. The group also said it would not launch a takeover bid in the next six months for French video games group Ubisoft ( UBIP.PA ), in which it has a 26 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data. Vivendi, chaired by French billionaire Vincent Bollore ( BOLL.PA ), has built up stakes in companies such as Telecom Italia ( TLIT.MI ), MediaSet ( MS.MI ) and Ubisoft and it bought advertiser Havas ( HAVA.PA ) this year. Vivendi kept its 2017 outlook for revenue to increase more than 5 percent and for a rise of around 25 percent in its EBITA, prior to its integration of the Havas business. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by David Evans and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-vivendi-results/frances-vivendi-posts-strong-third-quarter-rules-out-ubisoft-takeover-for-now-idUKKBN1DG2LF'|'2017-11-16T19:43:00.000+02:00'
'4c2b1b20b2d3a07920b9c68e913485c17579de2e'|'UPDATE 1-ASML expects to announce new share buyback plan in Jan - CFO'|'* Company to ship systems to 5 Chinese customers next year* Sees bottleneck in EUV systems in 2019, will ship 30* Almost 1 bln euros left in current buyback plan at Q3 end (Updates with details, Quote: s)By Eric Auchard and Toby SterlingBARCELONA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML is currently buying back its own shares and expects to announce a new buyback programme in January, its finance chief said on ThursdaySpeaking at the Morgan Stanley European Technology, Media and Telecoms conference in Barcelona, Wolfgang Nickl also said that although memory chip firms were expanding rapidly, demand was as well, and he did not believe there was overcapacity.The boom and high margins are one reason Chinese manufacturers are entering the market, and ASML expects to ship to five customers in China next year, two of them logic chip makers and three of them memory chip makers, he said.ASML is one of the world’s two largest tool suppliers to semiconductor makers, and its share price is up 42 percent in the year to date. It is Europe’s second most valuable technology stock after software maker SAP.As of the end of the third quarter, ASML had completed just 569 million euros of a 1.5 billion euro share buyback programme that expires at the end of the year.“At current levels, there is no consideration to stop buybacks .... It is a very good use of our cash. It is shareholder friendly,” Nickl said.In China, Nickl said he saw the market as worth 3 billion euros in sales in the coming years, specifying that he meant native Chinese manufacturers and not the many big foreign chipmakers that already have facilities in China.“Right now our memory customers, particularly in the DRAM space, have off the chart profitability,” he said, referring to the type of memory chip most commonly associated with personal computers.Eventually the entry of Chinese and other manufacturers into that segment could lead to price pressure, he said, but that seemed several years away given the time it takes to build manufacturing capacity.Discussing ASML’s newest line of lithography systems, which cost more than $100 million apiece, Nickl said the company expected to ship more than 20 in 2018 and targets 30 in 2019. In 2019, output will be limited by a production bottleneck.“We are unclogging that bottleneck in 2020, where we should have 40 tools or so,” he said.The new systems, called EUV systems because they use “Extreme Ultraviolet” light waves to help create the circuitry of modern chips, are seen as the centerpiece of the company’s profitability over the next decade.Nickl said its new EUV line was close to breakeven and is targeting margins around 40 percent starting around 2020. (Reporting by Eric Auchard and Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/tmt-conference-asml/update-1-asml-expects-to-announce-new-share-buyback-plan-in-jan-cfo-idUSL8N1NM1UQ'|'2017-11-16T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'3ce1519c6f25d320b48b0f69a4c06a08addaf160'|'Exclusive: Mattel snubs Hasbro''s latest acquisition approach - sources'|'(Reuters) - Mattel Inc ( MAT.O ) has rebuffed Hasbro Inc’s ( HAS.O ) latest takeover approach, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, casting uncertainty over the potential combination of the world’s two largest toy companies.FILE PHOTO: Mattel''s Wonder Woman doll is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S. on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Mattel’s rebuttal indicates that Margaret Georgiadis, who took over as the company’s chief executive in February, is seeking to drive a hard bargain in negotiations with Hasbro, even though Mattel’s stock has significantly underperformed that of Hasbro in the last year.Mattel has informed Hasbro its proposal undervalues the company and does not take sufficiently into account the potential for regulators to reject the deal based on antitrust concerns, the sources said.The terms Hasbro has proposed could not be learned, and it is not clear whether negotiations between the two companies will continue. The companies have engaged in multiple rounds of deal talks over the last two decades.The three sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Hasbro did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Mattel declined to comment.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mattel-m-a-hasbro-exclusive/exclusive-mattel-snubs-hasbros-latest-acquisition-approach-sources-idINKBN1DF32W'|'2017-11-15T18:38:00.000+02:00'
'f103e171d68ad73035fc0ac66576143083df620e'|'Verizon close to announcing digital streaming deal with NFL: Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc, no. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, is close to a new deal with the National Football League for digital streaming rights, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO - Denver Broncos fans react to a play while watching their team''s NFL Super Bowl XLVIII football game against the Seattle Seahawks at the View House bar in Denver, Colorado February 2, 2014. REUTERS/Marc Piscotty With the new agreement, Verizon will be able to give subscribers access to games on all devices, including big-screen TVs, and not just phones, according to the people, Bloomberg said. ( bloom.bg/2zNqtua )Verizon will lose exclusive rights to air games on mobile devices, Bloomberg Quote: d two people as saying. Verizon’s rights will include the NFL’s Thursday night games, among others, one of the people said, according to Bloomberg.Financial details and the duration of Verizon’s contract with the NFL could not immediately be learned, Bloomberg said.Neither NFL nor Verizon could immediately be reached for a comment by Reuters.Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in BengaluruEditing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-verizon-communications-inc-m-a-nfl/verizon-close-to-announcing-digital-streaming-deal-with-nfl-bloomberg-idINKBN1DI01Z'|'2017-11-17T22:16:00.000+02:00'
'154e2f56e40b0901bef208ccddf2cfbcd4736560'|'Hong Kong IPO surge challenges New York in battle for China listings'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:15 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Hong Kong IPO surge challenges New York in battle for China listings Jennifer Hughes , Julie Zhu 7 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - It’s not often Hong Kong can boast hotter initial public offerings than New York, but some recent deals and a potential pipeline of big Chinese tech floats suggest a shift in the balance between the two fundraising rivals. FILE PHOTO: A company logo of China Literature is displayed during a news conference on its IPO in Hong Kong, China October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo While New York is set to top the IPO league this year, it’s Hong Kong which is seeing the biggest pre-sale demand and first-day pops for new tech listings. So far this year, the New York Stock Exchange has hosted listings worth $27.9 billion, more than double Hong Kong’s $12.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. But last week’s Hong Kong float of China Literature ( 0772.HK ), the Kindle-like e-publishing arm of Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ), jumped 86 percent on its debut, making it the most successful first-day listing of any large company this year - far outpacing a 44 percent gain by Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ), the U.S. social media platform. Big first-day gains have become a rarity in Hong Kong where a stream of Chinese state-backed IPOs failed to attract much interest, leaving mainland groups - which bankers dub “friends and family” - to take up most of the shares. This week, Razer Inc ( 1337.HK ), backed by Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) and billionaire Li Ka-shing, gained 18 percent on its Hong Kong debut, and Yixin ( 2858.HK ), China’s largest online car retailing platform, ended its Thursday debut up 6 percent. While modest, those first-day gains stand out in Hong Kong where half the big deals in the past six years have ended flat or lower. In New York, 80 percent of IPOs saw a first-day pop. Retail investors in Hong Kong have helped spur the gains, bidding for 625 times the shares initially on offer to them in China Literature’s deal and 560 times for Yixin’s new shares. Fund managers, too, sought many times the shares on offer in both. Bankers predict that sharp rise in interest can continue - especially for technology firms heading to market. “Now you’ve had some deals go well, investor interest in Hong Kong IPOs has returned,” said David Binnion, Goldman Sachs’ head of equity capital markets distribution and risk for Asia excluding Japan. “There’s a backlog of Chinese tech deals – notably fintech – and a growing number will look to list in Hong Kong.” TECH DRAW The shift in sentiment comes as bankers eye a string of potential blockbuster Chinese tech IPOs in the next 18 months - of greater value than the most likely U.S. listings. They include Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion. Top of the list is Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) payments affiliate Ant Financial, which was valued at $60 billion in a funding round last year. “Hong Kong is definitely going to attract more tech firms from China,” said Jin Zhong, co-head of TMT at investment bank CICC. “The successes ... this year have given them confidence that Hong Kong is a good choice.” Meituan-Dianping, Lufax and Ant Financial have not commented publicly on their listing plans. The decision each must make over where to list comes as the advantages between New York and Hong Kong become less clear-cut. Typically, New York has offered higher valuations, a deeper pool of tech-savvy investors, a more flexible listing system that includes dual-class shares, and the prestige of being the world’s biggest market. For its part, Hong Kong boasts familiarity with China, an army of retail investors hungry for ‘shoot-for-the-stars’ stocks, and a convenient time-zone for Asian executives. Also, the Stock Connect schemes linking trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen with Hong Kong can build added Chinese interest once shares have listed. The links don’t yet allow IPO investments. John Hall, co-head of investment banking for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan, says the valuation argument has become less of an issue. “All deals are global now in terms of investor base, especially for Chinese deals which often attract investors from both the United States as well as Asia.” SECOND-CLASS? One clear difference is New York’s acceptance of dual-class shares. Just days after China Literature’s Hong Kong debut, Sogou Inc ( SOGO.N ), China’s number-two Internet search engine, raised $585 million in a New York IPO, involving dual-class shares. “Maybe in the future, Hong Kong becomes more attractive,” said Charles Zhang, CEO at Sohu.com ( SOHU.O ), Tencent’s partner in Sogou, who talked also of U.S. investors’ maturity and sophistication. “You can also list in the United States with a dual-class of shares, which was important for us.” Hong Kong is, however, poised to consider dropping its strict one-share-one-vote principle in an effort to better compete with New York for Chinese listings. Du Yilong, managing partner in law firm Latham & Watkins’ Beijing office, says that could encourage Chinese tech groups to reconsider Hong Kong. “With regulators’ encouragement and Chinese capital flowing into the city via Stock Connects, the market will gradually increase its attractiveness to Chinese tech firms and establish itself. It will be a virtuous circle,” he said. Would-be U.S. listings may also have been discouraged by how some recent floats performed there. Best Inc BSTI.N, a logistics group backed by Alibaba, had to halve the amount it sought in September, raising $450 million, following tepid demand, and rival ZTO Express Inc ( ZTO.N ), which raised $1.4 billion in New York a year earlier, fell 15 percent on its debut and has since lagged its offer price. U.S. investors can also see the attractions of Hong Kong for Chinese groups. “You look at the entrepreneurial environment in China, there are emerging companies that need to go public,” said Michael Underhill, founder and chief investment officer of Capital Innovations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “Would it be suitable for them to go public on a New York exchange? Maybe, but it’s easier for them to do it in Hong Kong.” Reporting by Jennifer Hughes and Julie Zhu in HONG KONG, with additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Gregory Roumeliotis in NEW YORK; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-ipo-analysis/hong-kong-ipo-surge-challenges-new-york-in-battle-for-china-listings-idUSKBN1DG264'|'2017-11-16T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'adf9fae3c24cb59b27ec7c264ad3d89228379e82'|'Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing - source'|' 37 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing: source Greg Roumeliotis 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is in talks again to buy Time Inc ( TIME.N ) in a potential deal backed by billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO -- Businessman David Koch arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2015 celebrating the opening of "China: Through the Looking Glass," in Manhattan, New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The Koch brothers have agreed to support Meredith’s offer by investing around $600 million, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Spokesmen for Koch Industries, Meredith and Time declined to comment. Time was up over 25 percent in afternoon trading at $15.93, while Meredith was up over 9 percent at $59.45. The New York Times was the first to report the potential deal Wednesday evening. Deal talks between Time, the publisher of Time and People magazines, and Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, had collapsed in April. Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/meredith-approaches-time-again-with-koch-brothers-backing-source-idUKKBN1DG2T7'|'2017-11-16T21:34:00.000+02:00'
'38ff63d35e402ddec77208b76f9ad198c3a0de70'|'Few banks seen queuing for China''s red carpet invite'|'November 16, 2017 / 9:18 AM / Updated an hour ago Few banks seen queuing for China''s red carpet invite Sumeet Chatterjee 7 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China stunned the finance world last week when it unveiled plans to allow foreign control of its financial institutions. Few bankers thought their long-held dream of better access to the world’s largest banking market was within reach. FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a branch of Citibank in Beijing, China, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The likelihood, however, is that even fewer will rush to take advantage of that opening. In theory, foreign banks will be allowed to take larger stakes in their Chinese commercial peers - currently capped at 20 percent - while investment banks will be able to take control of their securities joint ventures. In practice, a combination of well-entrenched local companies and an opaque regulatory regime means global banks will move only very cautiously to exploit the new rules, bankers and lawyers said. Besides its stringent ownership limits, China has for decades carefully controlled the range of activities open to foreign banks in an effort to protect domestic players, they say, and few expect that to change soon. “Lifting shareholding limits is just one part of the problem, the bigger concern is whether the foreigners will get a level-playing field in the country,” said a Beijing-based lawyer, who works with Chinese banking and securities regulators. “The global financial industry has changed a lot in the last few years and there’s a lot more scrutiny happening on capital allocation, compliance and risks,” he said, he said referring to bank managements. “The impact of this move would have been very different four, five years ago.” Before the 2008 global financial crisis, many western banks took stakes in Chinese peers. But most of the banks were forced to sell them after the crisis as global regulators tightened capital standards. The banks also found that their investments did not give them the solid foothold they had hoped for in China. Tighter capital regulations are also likely to curb interest this time around by making already costly acquisitions even tougher. Since the global financial crisis, “most foreign banks have refocused on home markets, serving key customers overseas and, for some, had to repair balance sheets,” said Paul McSheaffrey, head of banking at KPMG. With a 19 percent equity holding in Bank of Communications ( 601328.SS ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ), is one of the few global banks to still hold a substantial stake in a Chinese bank. China’s banking system has also grown rapidly, along with the Chinese economy in the last few years. Ten years ago, foreign lenders held 2.4 percent of the country’s banking assets, according to KPMG. In spite of those foreign-held assets growing at 20 percent a year for the past decade, today foreigners hold just 1.4 percent of what has become a 181.7 trillion yuan (20.79 trillion pounds) market. Foreign entrants also face a banking market dominated by China’s big five state-backed lenders who themselves face a tough environment due to rising bad loans and the country’s hard-to-read regulatory regime. “It would be very difficult for them to change the (business) landscape,” said a banker with an European bank. The bankers and lawyers declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) did not respond to a request for comment. SECURITIES JOINT VENTURES FILE PHOTO: People are seen inside the Standard Chartered Tower in Beijing November 8, 2010. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo One area with potential could be the securities joint ventures operated by big global investment banks in partnership with local players, industry insiders said. China has said banks will be able to raise stakes to 51 percent from the current cap of 49 percent, and that in three years, even those restrictions will be lifted. The joint ventures, operated by banks including Citigroup ( C.N ), whose joint venture topped the foreign securities’ business list in China last year in terms of profit, Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), and UBS ( UBSG.S ) among others. These joint ventures offer services like stock and bond underwriting, sales and trading. The lack of management control and regulatory curbs have limited the range of services the ventures can offer and compete with local players, who dominate the market, industry data showed. None of the foreign ventures figure in lists of the top 70 securities firms in China in terms of profit. Citi welcomes any government moves to further liberalize the financial markets, said Christine Lam, chief executive of Citi China, adding that the bank continued to grow its own retail and institutional business in the country. FILE PHOTO: A man walks past the HSBC logo at the bank''s new China headquarters in the Pudong district of Shanghai September 29, 2010. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo UBS Securities, the bank’s China joint venture, was ranked 85th in China with profit of about $14 million last year, even as it remains an investment banking powerhouse in Asia. Meanwhile, the local industry leader, Gutai Junan Securities, raked in $1.5 billion in the same period. “China is a key market for UBS and, as indicated previously, we continue to work towards increasing our stake in UBS Securities Co. Ltd.,” Eugene Qian, the chairman of the UBS China Strategy Board, said in a statement. Last year, JPMorgan reported global corporate and investment banking profits of $10.8 billion, while its Chinese joint venture produced $8 million - to be split with its partner. The U.S. bank sold its 33 percent holding in that entity to its partner last December but is in talks to set up a new joint venture, people with knowledge of the matter have previously said. JPMorgan said the bank was fully committed to China and had a strategic long-term approach to its business in the country. It will continue to “evaluate viable options to strengthen its position” in China, the bank said in a statement. Credit Suisse looks forward to being a part of China’s financial markets development, the bank said in a statement, without elaborating. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Taking over management control of these joint ventures would help foreign banks by allowing their staff to run the businesses and better integrate local operations with their global networks, the bankers said. It would also minimise any “reputational risk” by tightening governance, they said. But stringent “know-your-customer” requirements and limited business lines would mean it would be years before they manage to take market share away from local players such as Gutai Junan, CITIC Securities and Haitong Securities, they said. “Pricing competition is also intense, particularly in the brokerage and underwriting segments, where brokerage commission rates have fallen to less than 3 basis points,” Fitch Ratings analysts wrote in a report on Tuesday. “Moreover, business relationships tend to be important to winning institutional business which could represent a practical hurdle for potential foreign entrants.” Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; additional reporting by Umesh Desai, Matthew Miller, Shu Zhang and Xiaochong Zhang; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-investment-analysis/few-banks-seen-queuing-for-chinas-red-carpet-invite-idUKKBN1DG13B'|'2017-11-16T11:17:00.000+02:00'
'23eed3969dc117bbb79748012b34075e0a85db81'|'Carlyle eyes Varo Energy IPO valuing European refiner at $2 billion: WSJ'|'(Reuters) - Varo Energy BV’s owners, U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group ( CG.O ) and commodities trader Vitol, are looking at an initial public offering next year that could value the European oil refiner at about $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.Varo is expected to list its shares on the Amsterdam stock exchange, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.Vivo Energy Investments BV, a fuel-stations operator partially backed by Vitol, is also gearing up for a possible IPO next year that could value the company at above $3 billion, the newspaper said.A spokeswoman for Varo Energy said the company does not “comment on industry speculation,” while a Vitol representative declined to comment.Carlyle was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-varo-energy-ipo/carlyle-eyes-varo-energy-ipo-valuing-european-refiner-at-2-billion-wsj-idINKBN1DF1ND'|'2017-11-15T08:57:00.000+02:00'
'488813645961f20eb8f5a53204980d1fcc18682e'|'Cerberus takes stake in Deutsche Bank sparking merger speculation'|'Cerberus takes stake in Deutsche Bank sparking merger speculation US buyout group now owns a 3% stake in Deutsche and 5% in Commerzbank Read next Play audio for this article Pause This is an experimental feature. Give us your feedback. Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback Cerberus, the US private equity group, has taken a 3 per cent stake in Deutsche Bank, making it the fourth-largest shareholder in the lender and sparking speculation of a merger between Germany’s two largest banks. The move by Cerberus, whose Deutsche stake is worth just under €1bn, boosts the private equity group’s exposure to Germany’s financial sector as it already holds a 5 per cent stake in Deutsche’s domestic rival Commerzbank . Cerberus said in a statement that it believes “there are attractive long-term opportunities in [German] retail and corporate banking”, because of the country’s “robust economy, high savings rate, and a number of other factors”. Last year, Deutsche and Commerzbank briefly discussed the idea of a tie-up but the talks came to nothing. “Cerberus is positioning itself very cleverly for future consolidation, as they would be on both sides of a merger between Deutsche and Commerzbank,” a Frankfurt based financial insider said. A tie-up between Germany’s two biggest listed banks would create a national champion with a joint market share of 10 per cent in German retail banking, according to Morgan Stanley. A large regional overlap creates a huge potential to close branches and cut costs. However, bankers in Frankfurt stress that any potential merger between Deutsche and Commerzbank would only make sense once Deutsche has finished its restructuring, which according to chief executive John Cryan’s timetable will be in 2021. “At the moment, a merger [between Deutsche and Commerzbank] it is completely out of the question,” a senior manager of one of the two lenders said. Germany’s flagship bank is in the midst of a deep restructuring after suffering billions of euros of losses in 2015 and 2016. In December 2016 , Deutsche agreed to pay $7.2bn to US law enforcement authorities, which accused the lender of misleading investors over the sale of toxic mortgage securities. A few months later, Mr Cryan raised €8bn in a capital increase. Over the next four years, the chief executive has committed to cutting the lender''s cost base by more than €3bn, or 13 per cent compared with 2016. He wants to fully integrate its domestic retail bank Postbank into Deutsche’s own retail operations, and win back lost market share of Deutsche’s investment bank. Separately, on Tuesday, US bank Morgan Stanley revealed that it held a 6.9 per cent stake in Deutsche. People familiar with the matter said that the Cerberus and Morgan Stanley announcements were not related. “There’s no link between the two, they are totally separate,” said one of the people, pointing out that the Morgan Stanley stake is held by multiple investors using the US bank as their broker. Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don''t copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/f88420c4-ca26-11e7-ab18-7a9fb7d6163e'|'2017-11-15T20:38:00.000+02:00'
'391b03c9bf81f23222144c959366cb10a4bfc2e1'|'MOVES-Invesco, LGIM Real Assets, Intercontinental Exchange'|'November 15, 2017 / 2:08 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago MOVES-Deutsche Bank, Santander, Invesco, Intercontinental Exchange Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 15 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Wednesday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. DEUTSCHE BANK AG The bank’s U.S. securities division has hired a veteran of the exchange-traded fund (ETF) business to manage sales in the growing sector, according to a person familiar with the matter. BANCO SANTANDER SA Santander has hired Bart White from UBS to head European infrastructure debt advisory in the Spanish bank’s global corporate banking business. INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE INC The New York Stock Exchange-owner has promoted Chief Operating Officer Charles Vice to vice-chairman and Chief Commercial Officer Benjamin Jackson to president. INVESCO LTD The investment management firm named Mark Humphreys as head of its EMEA client solutions development business. LGIM REAL ASSETS The unit of asset manager Legal & General Investment Management promoted Simon Russian to head of retail. HAWKSMOOR INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT The investment management firm appointed Chris Nevile as senior investment manager. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas and Karan Nagarkatti)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-invesco-lgim-real-assets-intercontinental-exchange-idUSL3N1NL4PY'|'2017-11-15T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'e5ca6917cfd0cd199832286fecab069d60da5c0b'|'Italy''s Carige set to seal backing for crucial cash call - source'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:36 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Italy''s Carige set to seal backing for crucial cash call - source Valentina Za , Andrea Mandala 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) could sign an underwriting accord with banks for its share issue as soon as Friday, a source close to the matter said, paving the way for the launch of a capital increase needed to safeguard its future. Carige, saddled with bad loans and accumulated losses, needs the 560 million euro (£500.15 million) cash call to avert the possibility of being wound down by the European Central Bank. The Italian bank must boost its core capital ratio, which lags the threshold recommended by the ECB, by the end of the year and its share issue is a key plank of a capital plan, which also includes asset disposals and a debt swap. Carige, which has lost nearly 3 billion euros since 2013, has warned its business could be at risk if the plan fails. Although some technical details needed to be ironed out, all conditions for the underwriting had been met and Carige should launch the share issue around the middle of next week, the source said. “The underwriting contract will be finalised this weekend, maybe already tonight (Friday),” the person added. Carige had hoped to finalise underwriting for the rights issue on Wednesday, but last-minute difficulties meant Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ) did not commit to take on any unsold shares. Banca Carige’s Chief Executive Paolo Fiorentino has been in meetings all Friday to try salvage the cash call. Failure to carry out the share issue would undermine confidence in the sector just as risks of contagion seemed to have subsided following a string of bailouts. It could also jeopardise efforts by small lenders to tap investors for cash in order to meet regulatory demands to step up bad loan disposals. CONTAGION Carige’s troubles have reverberated across Italy’s banking sector, hitting in particular Creval ( PCVI.MI ), which has just announced plans to raise 700 million euros, or more than five times its market value, in a share issue. Italian banks are saddled with a quarter of Europe’s soured loans, a hangover from a deep recession that ended in 2014, and are struggling to offload them as they can only sell at a loss. Creval shares fell 19 percent on Thursday and closed down 25 percent on Friday. Moody’s downgraded its ratings, saying it saw “material execution risk” in the bank’s planned share issue. “If the Carige deal falls apart, Creval’s won’t work either,” fund manager Giuseppe Sersale of Anthilia Capital said. Carige said late on Thursday that commitments from investors so far totalled around 11.75 percent of capital, or 328 million euros based on Reuters calculations. On Friday, Malacalza Investimenti, Carige’s top shareholder with a 17.6 percent stake, said it would subscribe to the cash call pro quota. The investment vehicle of the Malacalza family has also sought regulatory approval to raise its stake to 28 percent and pledged to support Carige. Malacalza has invested 264 million euros to build its stake since 2015, when Carige last sold new shares at 1.17 euros each. The stock, which was suspended from trading, last closed at just under 15 euro cents. Meanwhile, the bank’s second largest investor, Gabriele Volpi, committed to raising his stake to 9.9 percent from 6 percent, a source close to the matter said. The first source added that Carige was set to enter exclusive talks over the planned sale of its bad loan portfolio and its consumer credit unit before the launch of the cash call. Additonal reporting and writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich/Elaine Hardcastle/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-italy-carige/carige-set-to-sign-share-issue-underwriting-accord-friday-or-over-weekend-source-idUKKBN1DH2I6'|'2017-11-17T22:52:00.000+02:00'
'ab89bc995be6b56fa379ac3398dbbafb49224771'|'CEE MARKETS-Zloty eases, wage data may polarise central bankers'|'* Zloty eases in positioning ahead of key Polish wage figures * Wage growth pick-up could make central bank hawks louder * CEE FX volatility subdued; Fed, ECB clues awaited * Polish bank stocks index rises 1.1 pct By Sandor Peto and Bartosz Chmielewski BUDAPEST/BUDAPEST, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The zloty slipped on Friday before the release of wage data that could give Polish rate setters clues about inflationary pressure. Both the zloty and the forint eased 0.1 percent against the euro by 0900 GMT. The crown and the leu were little changed. Accelerating wage increases help to drive economic growth and inflation, which would be exacerbated in Poland by a labour shortage, with many of its workers moving to richer Western countries. Analysts expect Poland''s annual wage growth rose to 6.45 percent in October from 6 percent in September. A lower figure would strengthen expectations the Polish central bank will not raise rates before next year or later. Faster wage growth would bolster NBP hawks. Conflicting comments from two members demonstrated a split in the Monetary Policy Council on Thursday. Jerzy Kropiwnicki played down inflation risks and said rates should remain unchanged for at least the next 12 months . Eugeniusz Gatnar said inflation could pick up faster than expected and the bank may need a rate hike as early as in the first quarter of next year. "If growth of corporate sector wages visibly accelerates, one cannot exclude further polarisation of NBP representatives views," Pekao SA analysts in a note, adding that trading volumes might rise around the publication of the figures as well. Volatility in local currency markets has mostly died down in recent weeks as investors wait for domestic data and clues about Federal Reserve and European Central Bank monetary policy. The crown has been gaining amid expectations for further rate increases by the Czech central bank. The forint has been easing as the Hungarian central bank loosens policy further. The latter is expected to keep its base rate on hold for years, but it may launch new unconventional tools at its Nov. 21 meeting to push long-term market interest rates lower. Expectations for a rise in rates have helped buoy the listed shares of banks in the region. The profits of Warsaw''s top 10 listed banks rose 23 percent in annual terms in the third quarter of 2018, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita said. The index of Polish listed bank shares rose by 1.1 percent on Friday, approaching a 2 1/2-year high. The kuna traded a bit off nine-month lows against the euro after Croatia launched a 2030-expiry euro bond on Thursday. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1000 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.570 25.564 -0.02% 5.62% 0 5 Hungary 312.25 312.03 -0.07% -1.10% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2405 4.2377 -0.07% 3.85% Romanian leu 4.6380 4.6394 +0.03 -2.22% % Croatian 7.5630 7.5645 +0.02 -0.10% kuna % Serbian 118.33 118.42 +0.08 4.24% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.7 1052.8 +0.18 +14.4 5 8 % 5% Budapest 39190. 38982. +0.54 +22.4 86 30 % 6% Warsaw 2436.1 2411.1 +1.04 +25.0 3 1 % 6% Bucharest 7740.4 7716.2 +0.31 +9.25 0 6 % % Ljubljana 792.21 790.95 +0.16 +10.4 % 0% Zagreb 1850.8 1852.7 -0.10% -7.22% 9 4 Belgrade 731.09 733.26 -0.30% +1.91 % Sofia 671.27 668.91 +0.35 +14.4 % 7% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.39 0.025 +109b +1bps ps 5-year 0.869 -0.073 +121b -8bps ps 10-year 1.738 0.009 +135b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.593 -0.002 +229b -2bps ps 5-year 2.62 0.02 +296b +1bps ps 10-year 3.409 0.013 +302b +0bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.01 1.17 1.29 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.1 0.15 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.771 1.795 1.885 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-zloty-eases-wage-data-may-polarise-central-bankers-idINL8N1NN1ZF'|'2017-11-17T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'1d0da2fa2c8fce879a2d771593098feb25836f73'|'Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) said on Saturday that it was recalling about 900,000 minivans because second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched after being adjusted. Honda Motor''s logo is seen on Civic sedan car at its showroom in Tokyo, Japan October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The Japanese automaker said the recall covered 2011-2017 Honda Odyssey minivans, all but 2,000 of which are in North America, and that it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue. Honda said it was working on a recall fix to help ensure proper latching and, in the interim, had posted a detailed instruction sheet on how to ensure seats are properly latched. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-honda-recall/honda-recalling-900000-minivans-because-seats-may-tip-forward-idUSKBN1DI0I6'|'2017-11-18T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'b9423ccf21acbb0270f1be66963a6e09a212271e'|'Despite Amazon, brick stores are not dead yet'|'November 17, 2017 / 10:09 PM / Updated 13 hours ago Despite Amazon, brick stores are not dead yet Rodrigo Campos 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just in time for the Black Friday kick-off to holiday season shopping, stock market investors have been handed tools to bet on the decline of brick-and-mortar retail. The front facade of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is seen in New York, U.S., November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid As of Friday, these tools were not yet for sale on Amazon. An exchange-traded fund launched Thursday allows investors to bet on the decline of traditional retail and a second one doubles down by betting at the same time on the rise to supremacy of online sales. The Decline of Retail Stores ETF and the Long Online Short Stores ETF are self-explanatory. The main index they track inversely, the equal-weighted Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail Store Index, is composed of 64 retailers including Barnes & Noble, Sears, Office Depot, Macy’s and Walmart, which have chains of physical stores as well as online presence. They are not the only or the first planning for a decimation of the retail sector at the hands of Amazon and other online retailers. Research firm Bespoke introduced its Death by Amazon Index, currently with 54 components, in 2012. The trend to online shopping is not new, but with online taking only a fraction of all retail sales, the ETFs expect to capitalize on the long-term trend. “Online penetration is about 10 percent right now so there is a long way ahead for the strategy in our opinion,” said Michael Sapir, CEO of ProShare Advisors in Bethesda, Maryland. “A minority of brick and mortar (retailers) will be able to make the transition and it is going to be expensive and painful.” So far this year, the S&P 500 retail index is up 20 percent but only half of its 29 components have had a positive price return. Amazon, up over 50 percent this year at $1,129.88, has alone added $192 billion in market capitalization in 2017. The full index has gained roughly $230 billion. Glen Kacher, whose Light Street Capital Management hedge fund was up 53 percent from January to October, said he is “shorting almost every retailer,” betting their share prices will fall. Kacher said many big retailers have failed to adapt to changing customer preferences, lagging even some corner delis that now use technology that lets people buy their breakfast sandwiches and coffee in seconds with the tap of a finger. “The retailing industry is going to be an apocalypse,” he said, without identifying which retailers will go down in flames. “Anyone working in the consumer retailing industry ... should be training for a new job.” For a graphic on retailers'' market value see ( reut.rs/2zLFXiN ) CLICK AND MORTAR Reports of the death of brick and mortar retail could be mildly exaggerated, however. Retail and food service sales in the United States during the first three quarters of 2017 totaled $4.78 trillion, with the $484.4 billion in September a monthly record high, according to U.S. government data. About 164 million Americans plan to shop in the coming Thanksgiving weekend, including on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. Results from this week show the battle for consumers is far from lost at physical stores. Walmart, for instance, said third-quarter U.S. sales growth online and in-store was the strongest since 2009. A combination of online presence and easy access for consumers known as ‘click and mortar’ will allow some names to survive by letting their customers browse all their options online while offering the convenience of a quick pickup of the product on their drive home. Shares of Walmart touched a record high on Friday, as did those of Home Depot, which earlier in the week raised its full-year profit and sales forecasts. They are one of two kinds of retailers that analysts said would be better able to weather the online retail storm. Size will matter, and with more than 5,000 U.S. stores at Walmart and over 2,200 Home Depots in North America, their distribution network will be a key lifeline. “Walmart is transforming itself into a major competitor of Amazon,” said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey. “Our belief is there will be some winners on brick and many online retailers will start looking more traditional.” The other retailers seen surviving are those in search of a small niche that will allow them to keep margins growing, countering the trend of ever-smaller margins online. “Unless you know exactly what you’re going to order and it is mass market, you don’t go to Amazon,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. “Holiday shopping means meaningful gifts. If you’re a good retailer you can take advantage of that.” Reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York; Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Megan Davies and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-weekahead/despite-amazon-brick-stores-are-not-dead-yet-idUSKBN1DH2R4'|'2017-11-18T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'64e49fbc1fd5d71255ae936b8df7392e82b172d0'|'Macron names new chief of French public-sector lender CDC'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:42 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Macron names new chief of French public-sector lender CDC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron has chosen the former head of insurer Generali’s French business, Eric Lombard, to lead public-sector lender Caisse des Depots (CDC), his office said on Thursday. A view shows the State-controlled bank Caisse des Depots (CDC) headquarters in Paris, France, July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Lombard, a former advisor in Socialist governments in the 1990s, rose through the ranks of BNP Paribas bank before taking the helm of the Italian insurer’s French business in 2013. His nomination must be confirmed in both houses of parliament. The CDC manages deposits in popular tax-free savings accounts and also holds stakes in many top French companies, including CNP Assurances ( CNPP.PA ), Icade ( ICAD.PA ), the biggest office space developer in the Paris region, and Compagnie des Alpes ( CDAF.PA ), which operates the biggest ski resorts in France. Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Michel Rose, Editing by Leigh Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-cdc/macron-names-new-chief-of-french-public-sector-lender-cdc-idUKKBN1DG2F1'|'2017-11-16T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'69cb771c40ad78161b7dcfd128f3fbd0da30a99e'|'China central bank adviser expects less forceful deleveraging in 2018'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:32 AM / Updated an hour ago China central bank adviser expects less forceful deleveraging in 2018 Kevin Yao 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese central bank adviser said on Thursday he expects the government’s financial deleveraging to be less forceful next year, a campaign that has weakened credit expansion at a time when the world’s second-biggest economy is showing signs of slowing. China is in its second year of a crackdown on speculative investment and high corporate debt levels as it looks to defuse financial risks and a property bubble. But it walks a fine line - a dramatic clamp-down on financial risks could stunt economic growth. Factory output, fixed asset investment and retail sales last month all fell short of expectations. “Currently, our financing deleveraging has achieved obvious results. Next year, we will continue to deleverage, but the deleveraging will not be as forceful as this year,” central bank adviser Sheng Songcheng said at a finance forum in Beijing. China’s new loans slumped more than expected in October to their lowest in a year, the latest data from the central bank show. Broad M2 money supply, which includes cash, and short- and long-term deposits, missed growth forecasts in October with a gain of 8.8 percent, expanding at the slowest pace since records began in 1996. The central bank said in June that slowing M2 growth could be a “new normal” due to the crackdown on risky shadow lending activities. “I expect M2 growth to pick up somewhat next year. It cannot be as low as this year,” Sheng said. Sheng expects China to maintain prudent monetary policy in 2018 and make appropriate fine-tuning based on economic and financial conditions. NOT LETTING GUARD DOWN China’s total social financing (TSF), which includes off-balance sheet forms of financing such as loans from trust companies, bond sales and initial public offerings, slumped to 1.04 trillion yuan in October from 1.82 trillion yuan in September, and indication the curbs are working. Still, monetary authorities are not about to let their guard down. Huang Qifan, deputy chairman of the economic and finance committee under the National People’s Congress, China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, said the ratio of China’s financial sector to the overall economy is the highest in the world. “This is not a good thing,” Huang told the finance forum on Thursday. Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned last month that corporate debt levels are still relatively high and household debt is rising too quickly. Central bank adviser Sheng on Thursday said he expects China to keep the yuan stable, with no sharp moves in either direction. A rapid rise in the yuan could hurt China’s economy while a dramatic fall could trigger some risks, he said. The yuan could trade around 6.6 per dollar by the end of 2017, Sheng said. It started the year around 6.9 per dollar and has since made steady gains. Sheng said he also expects market interest rates in China to fluctuate at high levels next year. PROPERTY TAX Huang said a property tax could be on the cards in the next few years, adding it will help temper speculation in a sector that has drawn a raft of government curbs in the past year. China has discussed a recurring property tax for years, but public progress on the initiative ground to a halt after a very limited pilot scheme in 2011. “I believe (a property tax) will happen in the near future, not take 10-20 years. It could happen in the next several years,” he said. Huang, appointed to his current post in February, is considered a leading financial expert in China and is best known for his term as mayor of Chongqing. On Thursday, he also called for changes to how China manages its massive pile of foreign exchange reserves, which rose to $3.109 trillion in October. “China has reached a stage where the foreign exchange reserves system must be reformed,” Huang said, adding that the Ministry of Finance should play a bigger role in managing the country’s foreign reserves. The reserves are primarily managed by the People’s Bank of China. Huang said China’s forex reserves can currently only be invested in liquid foreign debt, which generates low returns. “We want to be a true financial power. To be a financial power, we should not lend more money to other countries, but invest globally and have high and sustainable returns.” Reporting by Kevin Yao; Writing by Elias Glenn and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-finance/china-finance-official-says-countrys-financial-sector-faces-bubble-risk-idUKKBN1DG08T'|'2017-11-16T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'44697505f6b9b0b4b13d47cd69118c24515ceaf8'|'Siemens says to cut about 6,900 jobs'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:05 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Siemens to cut 6,900 jobs to tackle flailing turbines business Georgina Prodhan , Christoph Steitz 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) will cut about 6,900 jobs, or close to 2 percent of its global workforce, mainly at its power and gas division, which has been hit by the rapid growth of renewables. The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder Most of the cuts, about 6,100, will be made before 2020 at Siemens’s Power and Gas division, which once thrived on supplying large gas turbines for electricity generation but has been overtaken by the global surge in solar and wind capacity. “The power generation industry is experiencing disruption of unprecedented scope and speed,” Siemens management board member Lisa Davis said. “With their innovative strength and rapidly expanding generation capacity, renewables are putting other forms of power generation under increasing pressure,” she added. Siemens’ Process Industries and Drives division, which makes large mechanical drives for oil and gas extraction and turbines, will also be hit, Siemens said, not ruling out forced layoffs as part of the plan. Aside from loss-making wind power venture Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ), Process Industries and Drives was Siemens’s least profitable business last quarter, with a profit margin of just 2.9 percent. Siemens said roughly half of the job cuts would be made in Germany, a move likely to be unpopular with politicians currently trying to form a government. It did not specify the costs of the layoffs. IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union, lashed out at management, accusing Siemens of having been to late in responding to the crisis in conventional power generation and demanding no forced redundancies be implemented. “Job cuts of this magnitude are totally unacceptable given the company is in an outstanding overall position,” said IG Metall board member Juergen Kerner, who also sits on Siemens’s supervisory board. German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries urged Siemens to treat employees fairly. “The workers are very concerned and uncertain about their future. I hope that Siemens works closely with the unions to find fair solutions for the affected sites.” She said particularly sites in structurally weak regions should be preserved. “BURNING TO THE GROUND” In contrast to arch-rival General Electric ( GE.N ), Siemens was able to shield itself from a sharp downturn in demand for large turbines thanks to an 8 billion-euro ($9 billion) order for power generation in Egypt - the largest in its history - which has kept its German factories humming for the past two years. As that order has now been fulfilled, both groups find themselves staring into a future of vast overcapacity, where supply outstrips demand by a ratio of three to one, and prices have dropped 30 percent since 2014. Demand for powerplant sized gas turbines has tumbled and is expected to bottom out at 110 turbines a year, compared with total global manufacturing capacity of around 400 turbines, Siemens said. “The market is burning to the ground,” Siemens board member Janina Kugel who is in charge of group human resources, told journalists in a call following the announcement. General Electric on Monday announced a halving of both its dividend and its 2018 earnings outlook, largely due to its flailing turbines business, which it acknowledged it had mismanaged as it underestimated the scale of the problem. It was only the third time in the group’s 125-year history that GE had lowered its dividend, with previous cuts during the Great Depression of the 1930s and last decade’s financial crisis. GE is also selling large parts of its empire to focus on power, aviation and healthcare. Siemens employs about 16,000 people in power generation in Germany, roughly a third of its global workforce in that business, including service. Editing by Jane Merriman, Elaine Hardcastle and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-power-restructuring/siemens-says-to-cut-about-6900-jobs-idUSKBN1DG257'|'2017-11-16T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'8a56d1087a454a0ff3bdc096cb1a6f8493bddf87'|'German court releases on bail ex-Audi manager in emissions inquiry'|'November 17, 2017 / 4:23 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago German court releases on bail ex-Audi manager in emissions inquiry Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - A former Audi ( NSUG.DE ) manager is being released following his arrest earlier this year on suspicion of fraud and false advertising in connection with the carmaker’s emissions scandal, a spokesman for Munich’s higher regional court said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Audi is pictured at the Auto China 2016 auto show in Beijing, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The court on Friday suspended a U.S. arrest and extradition warrant against Giovanni Pamio, having already suspended a German arrest warrant a week ago, the spokesman said, adding he was released against 80,000 euros (£71,401) in bail. The U.S. Justice Department had charged Pamio in July with directing employees at the company to design software to cheat U.S. emissions tests in thousands of Audi diesel cars. Pamio was subsequently arrested by Munich prosecutors and had since remained in custody, pending ongoing German investigations and an extradition request by U.S. authorities. Reporting by Irene Preisinger; writing by Christoph Steitz; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-audi-emissions/german-court-releases-on-bail-ex-audi-manager-in-emissions-inquiry-idUKKBN1DH24F'|'2017-11-17T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'd481e131ab57fbaabd145d7d5671aa855d1ff5a1'|'BBC looking at 500 mln pound bid for UKTV - Telegraph'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - The BBC’s commercial arm is considering a 500-million-pound ($658.55 million) bid for full control of broadcaster UKTV, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing sources.BBC Worldwide is in talks with advisers about borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds from private investors to buy out the half of UKTV it does not already own, the newspaper added. bit.ly/2jv77nCUKTV, whose channels include Dave and Gold, is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and U.S. broadcaster Scripps Networks Interactive.Discovery Communications Inc had announced earlier this year that it is acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive Inc for $11.9 billion.BBC, UKTV and Scripps were not immediately available for comment. ($1 = 0.7592 pounds) (Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uktv-ma-bbc/bbc-looking-at-500-mln-pound-bid-for-uktv-telegraph-idUSL8N1NL7U5'|'2017-11-16T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'1455cb4da7e050f253052653695341feeed94ebd'|'Activist investor draws up plan to take Barnes & Noble private-WSJ'|'Nov 16 (Reuters) - Sandell Asset Management Corp, an activist investor in Barnes & Noble Inc, has proposed a transaction that would take the bookseller private with the help of current shareholders and debt financing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.Sandell''s plan values Barnes & Noble at more than $650 million, or more than $9 a share, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter. ( on.wsj.com/2ANekD0 )Shares of Barnes & Noble, which has a market capitalization of about $480 million, were up 12.5 percent at $7.40 in afternoon trading.The WSJ said the proposal faces a number of obstacles, including raising $500 million in debt financing and Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio’s refusal to roll his roughly 18 percent stake in to a private company as per Sandell’s proposal.The company is still evaluating the proposal, the newspaper reported.Barnes & Noble and Sandell did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. (Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D‘Souza) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/barnes-noble-inc-ma/activist-investor-draws-up-plan-to-take-barnes-noble-private-wsj-idINL3N1NM53S'|'2017-11-16T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'44a413d27732e0d7920c3bfc4c976fe89f7a0cd8'|'U.S. exit from NAFTA would not be devastating for Mexico - minister'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s economy minister said on Thursday he did not agree with statements made by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that it would be devastating for Mexico if the United States pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo delivers a speech during the inauguration of the IP Statistics for Decision Makers (IPSDM) Forum in Mexico City, Mexico, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/ Edgard Garrido “No, I don’t think so,” Ildefonso Guajardo said in a television interview when asked if he agreed with Ross.“Without a doubt, Mexico could face a short-term impact because the market is very sensitive to marketing, branding ... Our ability to adjust, and the manner in which we do it, is what will allow us to resist any potential change.”In an interview with The Wall Street Journal CEO Council on Tuesday, Ross said that it “would be devastating to the Mexican economy” if the United States were to pull out of NAFTA.Guajardo said that if NAFTA talks, which are currently in their fifth round in Mexico City, do end up stretching into March, the United States must ask itself if it wants the trade talks to influence Mexico’s July 2018 election.The fifth round of NAFTA talks entered their second day on Thursday, proceeding under the shadow of tough U.S. demands and without the presence of trade ministers who agreed to sit out the discussions.On Wednesday, Guajardo said that Mexican negotiators will propose that NAFTA be rigorously reviewed every five years to counter a U.S. “sunset clause” proposal that would kill the deal if it is not renegotiated after five years, an idea widely criticized as undermining long-term investments.The economy minister described the proposal as a “more rigorous evaluation mechanism” than currently exists. Under current rules, each country has the right to leave the deal when it wants.Guajardo emphasized that the counterproposal would not let the trade agreement automatically expire and said he thought it is unlikely that U.S. President Donald Trump would trigger the existing deal’s termination clause later this year.But the minister, who served as part of Mexico’s NAFTA negotiating team in the early 1990s, added he could not rule out the possibility that Trump would decide to trigger a U.S. withdrawal from the 23-year-old accord in the first quarter of 2018.Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Veronica Gomez; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/u-s-exit-from-nafta-would-not-be-devastating-for-mexico-minister-idINKBN1DG1ZV'|'2017-11-16T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'89ce2fb1835ffe43205cac3bc4a9bdff7d7ca9ad'|'Norway''s $1 trillion wealth fund proposes to drop oil, gas stocks from index'|' 04 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Norway''s $1 trillion wealth fund proposes to drop oil, gas stocks from index Gwladys Fouche 5 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund is proposing to drop oil and gas companies from its benchmark index, which would mean cutting its investments in those companies, the deputy central bank chief supervising the fund told Reuters. If accepted by the finance ministry and adopted by parliament, the fund would over time divest billions of dollars from oil and gas stocks, which now represent 6 percent - or around $37 billion (£28 billion) - of the fund’s benchmark equity index. The proposal came in a letter sent by the central bank to the finance ministry and signed by its governor, Oeystein Olsen, and the chief executive of the fund, Yngve Slyngsad, Deputy Central Bank Governor Egil Matsen said in an interview. It aims to reduce the exposure of the fund - and therefore the Norwegian government - to oil price fluctuations. “Our advice is to simply remove the oil and gas sector, as it is defined in the FTSE reference index, from the fund’s reference index,” Matsen said. “That would mean all companies that the FTSE has classified with the sector, should be removed from our reference index.” The fund is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. It invests Norway’s revenues from oil and gas production for future generations in stocks, bonds and real estate abroad. It is among the largest investors in a wide range of oil companies, holding stakes at the end of 2016 of 2.3 percent in Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), 1.7 percent of BP ( BP.L ), 0.9 percent of Chevron ( CVX.N ) and 0.8 percent of Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ). It also held 1.7 percent of Italy’s Eni ( ENI.MI ), 1.6 percent of France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) and 0.9 percent of Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum ( LUPE.ST ), among others. At the end of the third quarter, Royal Dutch Shell was the fund’s third-biggest equity investment overall, worth around $5.34 billion and exceeded only by its ownership in Apple APPL.O and Nestle ( NESN.S ). “It clearly stands out, perhaps not surprisingly, but not obviously, that indeed there is a substantial difference ... in return between the oil and gas sector and the broad stock market in periods when the oil price changes substantially,” Matsen said. “Oil price exposure of the government’s wealth position can be reduced by not having the fund invested in oil and gas stocks.” The fund could still invest in the sector if other parts of the fund’s mandate are fulfilled by having some investments in some of the companies, Matsen said. “But clearly the direction is that ... if the ministry and the politicians think it is good advice and they say yes to it, clearly the investments in the oil and gas sector will decrease over time,” he added. Oil and gas stocks would be replaced by investments in other companies. “The straight answer is that all other sectors would be weighted up in proportion ... (under) our current mandate,” said Matsen. At the end of 2016, the fund’s equity investments were split between investments in the financial sector (23.3 percent), industrial companies (14.1 percent), consumer goods (13.7 percent), consumer services (10.3 percent), healthcare (10.2 percent), technology (9,5 percent), oil and gas (6.4 percent), basic materials (5.6 percent), telecoms (3.2 percent) and utilities (3.1 percent). The timing of the coming divestments is as yet unclear. The proposal has to be reviewed by the Finance Ministry, which in turn needs to decide whether to propose it to parliament. At the earliest, the ministry’s first opportunity could come in the spring, with a vote in parliament in June. In addition to its holdings via the fund, Norway has exposure to oil and gas via large untapped offshore hydrocarbon reserves, as well as its 67 percent stake in the national oil company, Statoil ( STL.OL ). The fund has grown so large that even though the Norwegian state is taking less than 3 percent of the fund’s value every year for its fiscal budget in recent years, oil spending now accounts for one in five crowns spent by the state. Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-norway-swf/norways-1-trillion-wealth-fund-proposes-to-drop-oil-gas-stocks-from-index-idUKKBN1DG1SJ'|'2017-11-16T15:04:00.000+02:00'
'dfd7beb58c2603a491fb0a99b1abce3afb2450ad'|'Australia''s Santos target of proposed investor takeover bid-report'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian gas producer Santos Ltd said on Thursday it rejected a A$9.5 billion ($7.2 billion) takeover approach in August, sending its shares up 13 percent on speculation another offer was likely to emerge.The logo of Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd is pictured at their Sydney office February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File photo Santos, with stakes in three liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in a region where gas demand is soaring, said it rebuffed the approach from private equity-backed Harbour Energy as too cheap and has not received a further proposal.It revealed the August approach after a newspaper reported that U.S.-based Harbour, led by a former executive director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Linda Cook, was set to make a bid worth around A$11 billion.Santos said in a statement it had turned down the “non-binding conditional and indicative” takeover proposal from Harbour at A$4.55 a share, but said it had no current proposal from Harbour and was not in talks with the group.The Australian Financial Review said Harbour is lining up a bid of around A$5.30 a share, well above analysts’ average price target of A$4.26, according to Thomson Reuters data.Harbour Energy’s general counsel declined to comment.“Linda was an architect of Shell’s LNG business in Australia and had overseen its development. It is therefore not surprising that Linda would be interested in getting involved in Australian LNG with Harbour,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.Santos, whose shares hit a 15-month high of A$4.97 on Thursday, also rejected a A$7.1 billion proposal in 2015 from a fund backed by the ruling families of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates, at a time when the company was saddled with nearly A$9 billion in debt.Analysts said a bid even at A$5.30 was unlikely to be accepted by a company that has since slashed debt, cut costs and is poised to benefit from rising oil and gas prices at its Gladstone LNG project, Papua New Guinea LNG, Australia’s Cooper Basin and offshore northern Australia.“Santos is a considerably improved business, with a strong management team and soon to be fresh set of eyes as Chairman,” said Credit Suisse analyst Mark Samter.Santos should only consider “serious discussions” at A$6.50 a share, he said.RIVAL INTEREST The main prize in Santos is its stake in the Papua New Guinea LNG project, run by ExxonMobil Corp.PNG, considered the lowest cost source of LNG growth, has been a hotbed of takeover activity, which could see other bidders emerge for Santos, analysts at UBS said.Woodside Petroleum was rebuffed in a bid for PNG LNG partner Oil Search Ltd two years ago, while ExxonMobil swallowed another PNG player, InterOil, this year, after trumping a bid from Total SA and Oil Search.Santos’ biggest shareholder is China’s ENN Ecological Holdings Co, which together with private equity partner Hony Capital holds 15.1 percent of the group.They have an agreement with Santos that they must accept any takeover recommended by the Santos board, as long as it is pitched above their average entry price into the company, but are not blocked from making a counter offer.Hony declined to comment on Thursday and ENN was not immediately available for comment.Harbour Energy was formed in 2014 by private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners to make investments outside the United States.Earlier this year Harbour bought Shell’s UK North Sea assets with Chrysaor Holdings Ltd for $3 billion, making it the largest independent oil and gas producer in the North Sea.EIG has already invested in Australia, taking a 12 percent stake in junior gas producer Senex Energy.If an A$11 billion ($8.4 billion) for Santos emerges, it will be the biggest U.S. offer for an Australian company ever and Australia’s second-biggest private equity buyout, according to Reuters data.Reporting by Sonali Paul; Additional reporting by Gary McWilliams, Ron Bousso, Julie Zhu and Byron Kaye; Editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-santos-m-a/australias-santos-target-of-proposed-investor-takeover-bid-report-idINKBN1DF342'|'2017-11-15T18:53:00.000+02:00'
'9505d643fe6ce8c5136051325c902ec33d98e8c8'|'Narrow win for Fox shows restlessness with dual-class shares'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Narrow win for Fox shows restlessness with dual-class shares Lisa Richwine , Ross Kerber 5 Min Read LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A shareholder proposal calling for Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) to scrap its dual-class share structure was rejected on Wednesday, though the measure received significant support among voters outside the controlling Murdoch family. FILE PHOTO: Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch (C) poses for a photograph with his sons Lachlan (L) and James as they arrive at St Bride''s church for a service to celebrate the wedding between Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall which took place on Friday, in London, Britain March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo Fifty-seven percent of votes cast sided with the position of Fox’s board, which argued that the current share structure provides flexibility and enhances the company’s ability to focus on long-term results, a Fox regulatory filing said. The majority of Fox shares traded publicly are class A shares ( FOXA.O ), which have no voting rights. The Murdoch family owns about 39 percent of the class B voting shares, according to a proxy from the company, which owns the Fox broadcast network, cable channels and a movie studio. Critics argue that the current set-up concentrates too much power with the Murdoch family. Forty-three percent of votes cast were in favour of eliminating the two classes of shares and giving all shares a vote. The vote was advisory, so passage would not have forced any changes at the company. Even so, it was noteworthy that more than half of shareholders outside of the Murdoch’s control voted in favour, said Paul Hodgson, an independent governance consultant. In addition to the family stake, another 6.7 percent of the voting shares are held by ValueAct Capital, whose chief executive Jeff Ubben is also a Fox director. “The message the public shareholders are sending management is get rid of the dual voting class of shares,” Hodgson said. The measure’s supporters may use the results to try to persuade Fox management to meet with them to discuss the issue, he added. Kevin McManus, a vice president of proxy adviser Egan Jones, said the number of people voting against the dual voting class marked “a very significant percentage and puts pressure on the company.” A representative for the measure’s sponsor, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, did not immediately return message seeking comment. Asked about the result, a Fox spokesman sent remarks by director Viet Dinh, who said at the company’s annual meeting that the board believes the current structure is valued by shareholders. “The board believes that many are attracted to our stock by the dual class structure and stability and leadership provided by the Murdoch family, both of which have contributed to the long-term success of the company,” Dinh said. FILE PHOTO: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corporation, reacts during a panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed//File Photo Major mutual fund firms have been pushing the importance of equal voting rights as a way to improve the way companies are run. Fund executives worry about cases like technology initial public offerings such as Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ), which offered outside investors no voting rights. The fear is that unequal voting structures concentrate too much power in the hands of insiders. At a 26-minute annual meeting on Fox’s movie and television studio lot in Los Angeles, shareholders on Wednesday also easily re-elected Rupert Murdoch and his two sons to the company’s board, suggesting continued support for the family even as its Fox News division is recovering from a series of costly sexual harassment settlements. That issue has slowed Britain’s regulatory review of the company’s bid to take over broadcaster Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ). Co-Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, speaking at the annual meeting, said the company was confident the deal will close by the middle of next year. Fox also has recently talked to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) about selling much of itself, according to a CNBC report. The company did not directly address that matter during the meeting but said it was confident in its current assets. “We have the required scale to continue to execute on our aggressive growth strategy,” Lachlan Murdoch said. The proposed new voting structure, is aimed at beefing up investor oversight over Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James, who are all Fox board members. “This structure leaves some shareholders with disproportionate voting power and others with none at all. We think eliminating it would benefit the shareholders and the company,” said Roxana Tynan, speaking on behalf of the foundation. The current structure, she said, “can create corporate cultures with no accountability.” On another advisory measure, 78 percent of votes cast were in support of Fox executives’ annual compensation. Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Ross Kerber in New York and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Anna Driver, Bill Rigby and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-agm/shareholders-take-aim-at-murdochs-with-fox-voting-rights-push-idUKKBN1DF1GS'|'2017-11-16T02:47:00.000+02:00'
'67c601e5d9c6a1637e7f5942b5bad680335969d2'|'City of Buenos Aires repurchases dollar bonds, to issue peso bonds'|'BUENOS AIRES, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The city of Buenos Aires has repurchased $458 million of dollar-denominated bonds of differing maturities averaging one year, and on Thursday will issue 10-year peso bonds worth at least $500 million, a local official told Reuters.“By doing this we are extending the duration and changing the mix of currencies,” Abel Fernández, undersecretary of finance of the Argentine capital. (Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Caroline Stauffer Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/argentina-bonds/city-of-buenos-aires-repurchases-dollar-bonds-to-issue-peso-bonds-idINE6N1M700U'|'2017-11-16T10:04:00.000+02:00'
'1171f4e3ba169f8d4f8e7f7a2a11b59a28da0f9d'|'UPDATE 1-Britain''s shoppers rein in spending, first yearly decline since 2013'|'* UK retail sales decline y/y for first time since March 2013 * Monthly sales up 0.3 percent * Data better than expected, but shows inflation impact (Adds market reaction, economists) By David Milliken and Paul Sandle LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - British retail sales recorded their first year-on-year decline since 2013 last month as consumers struggled with fast-rising prices and stagnant wages. Although the fall was less severe than analysts had expected, the official data showed a 0.3 percent year-on-year fall in sales volumes -- the biggest since March 2013. That partly reflected a very strong performance by retailers in October 2016 which distorted the comparison. "We are continuing to see an underlying picture of steady growth in retail sales, although this October suffered in comparison with a very strong October in 2016," ONS statistician Kate Davies said. Mild weather also put shoppers off buying winter clothes, adding to the weakness in the figures. But volumes were still far lower that they were before the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union hit sterling and drove up inflation. Looking at the three months to October, which smooths out monthly volatility in the data, sales growth picked up to 0.9 percent from 0.7 percent in the three months to September. This meant sales volumes in the three months to October were just 1.1 percent higher than the year before, the weakest growth rate since May 2013. Sterling rose slightly after the data and British government bond prices edged down as the sales figures came in less weak than suggested by a series of other surveys of retailers. "This is in stark contrast to the survey data which were pointing to an absolute bloodbath," Alan Clarke, an economist with Scotiabank, said. "Things are probably as bad as they are going to get, so I''d be hesitant to extrapolate the downward trend too far," he said. "Next year should be a better year as lower inflation and firmer wages reverse this year''s downwards trend." Economists taking part in a Reuters poll had predicted sales would drop 0.6 percent on the year and grow just 0.1 percent on the month, according to the median forecasts. The ONS said monthly sales in fact rose by 0.3 percent along with the minus 0.3 percent year-on-year figure. SLOW DOWN The Bank of England raised interest rates on Nov. 2, saying it forecast household consumption growth, adjusted for inflation, would slow to 1 percent next year from 1.5 percent. It also said it expected inflation would peak in October before slowly falling back towards its 2 percent target over the next three years. Official data earlier this week showed that consumer price inflation held at a five-year high of 3 percent in October while regular pay, adjusted for inflation, suffered its longest run of falls in almost three years. Recent reports from British retailers have also indicated consumers may be tightening their belts. Department store chain John Lewis has posted seven straight weeks of sales decline, clothing retailer Next missed analysts'' quarterly forecasts, and Marks & Spencer said it faced "stronger headwinds" in food and was slowing openings of its upmarket convenience stores. The ONS said that retail sales growth in cash terms slowed to an annual 2.8 percent in October, down from 4.6 percent in September and the weakest since June 2016. The gauge of inflation used in the retail sales data, the retail price deflator, dropped to 3.1 percent in October from 3.3 percent in September. (Reporting by David Milliken and Paul Sandle Editing by William Schomberg/Jeremy Gaunt) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy/update-1-britains-shoppers-rein-in-spending-first-yearly-decline-since-2013-idINL8N1NM2Q2'|'2017-11-16T07:58:00.000+02:00'
'af803d9137628c355d056a5a8fe3926166803275'|'FTSE steadies as earnings in focus, GKN tumbles'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:01 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago FTSE rebounds as earnings in focus, GKN tumbles Danilo Masoni , Helen Reid 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - The UK’s top share index shrugged off weakness from oil stocks on Thursday as a handful of earnings updates were in focus, though GKN ( GKN.L ) plunged on uncertainty following the ditching of its CEO designate. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The FTSE was up 0.2 percent at 7,386.94 points at its close, with gains in the healthcare and consumer sectors offsetting weaker commodity stocks. Midcaps .FTMC were up 0.8 percent. Oil stocks were among the top fallers on the FTSE, hit after Reuters reported that Norway’s trillion-dollar wealth fund proposed to drop oil and gas companies from its benchmark index. This would mean the fund cutting its investment in those companies. Shares in Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and BP ( BP.L ), in which the fund holds a stake, fell 2.9 percent and 0.8 percent respectively. Some investors, however, were not immediately concerned. ”Nothing is imminent and even if the advice is fully implemented we believe this will have limited impact on the Oil & Gas producers, as the holdings of Norges Bank are relatively small and no doubt will be disposed of over an extended time frame,” Liz Dhillon, equity analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said in a note. Norges Bank Investment Management manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. Elsewhere, GKN’s shares dropped after the firm said that CEO-designate Kevin Cummings was leaving. This followed a second large writedown at the aerospace division Cummings used to run. The shares ended 4.8 percent lower, after falling as much as 12 percent to their lowest level in 16 months. “After such upheaval, it is not clear what the next stage in GKN’s development will be, but it could be profound change,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note. Mediclinic ( MDCM.L ) was down 2.7 percent after South Africa’s largest private hospital group reported an 11 percent drop in first-half underlying profit. Royal Mail ( RMG.L ) rose 1.7 percent in volatile session which saw its shares dip into negative territory at one point. Strong growth at its European parcels business helped the company to beat first-half profit forecasts, though it warned a labour dispute could hit its second-half performance. Well-received earning updates lifted shares in private equity firm 3i Group ( III.L ) and property company British Land ( BLND.L ) which rose both more than 2 percent. Data showing that British retail sales recorded their first year-on-year decline since 2013 last month had no impact on the main benchmark indices. Worries over a slowing British economy has discouraged some investors from taking exposure to domestic stocks, as households battle with fast-rising prices and Brexit talks drag on. “We don’t have a huge exposure but I think it’s fair to say the UK domestic plays are finding the environment far tougher than for the Europeans on the continent,” said Andrew King, head of European equity strategy at BNP Paribas Investment Partners. “The UK economy is struggling a bit undoubtedly because of Brexit concerns,” he added. Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Helen Reid and Kit Rees; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-steadies-as-earnings-in-focus-gkn-tumbles-idUKKBN1DG189'|'2017-11-16T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'aecc6df8e10070b9bf2c2d0108b91f4954ee058d'|'Unicredit''s Germany chief to take the helm of Deutsche Boerse'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:34 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Deutsche Boerse hires new CEO from UniCredit''s German business Reuters Staff 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) named UniCredit banker Theodor Weimer as its new CEO on Thursday to steer the company away from an insider trading investigation and move on from a failed merger with the London Stock Exchange. FILE PHOTO: A guard secures the entrance of Germany''s stock exchange Deutsche Boerse Group in Frankfurt, Germany January 14, 2005. REUTERS/Kao Pfaffenbach/File Photo Weimer, who headed UniCredit’s ( CRDI.MI ) business in Germany, will take the reins from Carsten Kengeter, who resigned from the German exchange operator amid an ongoing insider trading investigation. Kengeter has denied any wrongdoing. The changing of the guard propels Weimer to the pinnacle of German finance and comes at a crucial moment for Deutsche Boerse. It hopes to profit from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union by capturing a portion of the lucrative euro clearing market that is currently centred in London. Weimer said that Deutsche Boerse will work to make Frankfurt “a financial centre that should become even stronger.” In his new role, Weimer joins the ranks of Germany’s highest paid chief executives. Kengeter in 2016 was Germany’s 7th highest-paid CEO on the DAX index of top companies, earning a total of 7.5 million euros (6.69 million pounds), according to consultancy HKP group. Weimer, 57, will start his new job in January and has a contract for three years. He began his career in consulting for McKinsey and then Bain, before becoming an investment banker with Goldman Sachs where he was promoted to partner in 2004. He joined Italian bank UniCredit in 2007, initially as head of global investment banking. Weimer, an amateur pianist, fulfils many of the requirements that Joachim Faber, chairman of Deutsche Boerse’s supervisory board, has said would be needed for the top job, including German as his native language, good political contacts and a strong knowledge of regulation. “Theodor Weimer is a highly respected financial sector expert who understands the business of our clients very well,” Faber said. At Unicredit, where he was responsible for nearly 14,000 staff, he was well respected. “He has the necessary grace for the job at Deutsche Boerse,” said an employee representative on Unicredit’s works council in Germany. “Our preference would be for him to stay.” Separately, UniCredit said Michael Diederich would take over from Weimer. “We are relieved that an appropriate successor could be found quickly,” said Ingo Speich, fund manager at Union Investment. “Most importantly, Deutsche Boerse can now fully focus on business as usual with an untainted leader.” Deutsche Boerse has said that it will shy away from big acquisitions following the failed merger attempt with London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ). Kengeter, just months into his stint as CEO, designed the bold merger to create a global titan in the industry, but the plan collapsed, costing shareholders tens of millions of euros in advisory and legal fees. It also irked local politicians because Kengeter had agreed to the merged company’s headquarters being in London, rather than Frankfurt, a decision then made more complicated by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The deal ensnared Kengeter in an insider trading scandal that cost him his job. He bought 4.5 million euros in shares two months before the announcement of formal merger talks which were a boon to the share price and later aroused suspicions of insider trading. Investigators raided his office and home on Feb. 1, and he has been under investigation ever since. All along, Kengeter and Deutsche Boerse have denied wrongdoing. Kengeter said he bought the shares through an official executive compensation programme. Reporting by Tom Sims and Andreas Framke; Additional reporting by Alexander Huebner; Editing by Susan Fenton and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-boerse-ceo/unicredits-germany-chief-to-take-the-helm-of-deutsche-boerse-idUKKBN1DG286'|'2017-11-16T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'34cb0f033747d19952f71a14f4bf179d38de9fae'|'Synchrony to buy $6.8 billion receivables portfolio from PayPal'|' 22 PM / a few seconds ago Synchrony to buy $6.8 billion receivables portfolio from PayPal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Consumer financial services company Synchrony Financial ( SYF.N ) said on Thursday that it would buy $6.8 billion in receivables from PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ), including the payment processor’s U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio. The PayPal app logo seen on a mobile phone in this illustration photo October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018, the companies said. Reporting by Roopal Verma in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-paypal-hldg-synchrony-fincl/synchrony-to-buy-6-8-billion-receivables-portfolio-from-paypal-idUKKBN1DG1U6'|'2017-11-16T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'c715c103d3f80033ad6744aee24d8229138e4186'|'UK govt to consider tax on throwaway plastic'|'November 18, 2017 / 10:20 AM / Updated 9 hours ago UK govt to consider tax on throwaway plastic Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s finance department said on Saturday it expected finance minister Philip Hammond’s budget statement next week to include a consultation on taxing and charging environmentally damaging single-use plastics. FILE PHOTO - Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Single-use plastics include packaging and bubble wrap, polystyrene takeaway boxes and throwaway coffee cups. The finance ministry said the move would build on the introduction of charges for plastic bags, which has led to an 80 percent reduction in UK plastic bag use since 2015. “The Chancellor is expected to announce in the budget that this work will specifically look at taxes and charges to help prevent pollution, and protect the environment,” the finance ministry said. It said the consultation is expected to launch in the new year and will take into account another government consultation on deposit return schemes for drinks containers. Hammond is under pressure to turn around the fortunes of Prime Minister Theresa May with his budget, but with Brexit weighing on the economy he has limited options. Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget-plastic/uk-govt-to-consider-tax-on-throwaway-plastic-idUKKBN1DI0AZ'|'2017-11-18T12:19:00.000+02:00'
'3c4fcda294c538919fa210d454b3cd0f9f58382d'|'METALS-Nickel prices drop on worries China steel demand is losing its shine'|'SYDNEY, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Shanghai nickel prices fell on Friday on worries about growth in Chinese steel markets, with the sector heading into a low consumption period over winter.The base metal, used widely to help make stainless steel, was heading for a 7-percent weekly loss on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.FUNDAMENTALS * SHFE NICKEL: The most-traded ShFE nickel contract had slipped 1.43 percent to 93,030 yuan ($14,044) a tonne by 0137 GMT. The contract closed 2.6 percent weaker the previous day.* OTHER SHFE METALS: The sell-off in nickel came amid across-the-board declines in Chinese metals futures. Active ShFE copper dipped 0.09 percent, while zinc was off 0.44 percent and aluminium 0.68 percent* CHINA ECONOMY: China’s economy cooled further last month, with industrial output, fixed-asset investment and retail sales missing expectations.* DOLLAR STEADY: The dollar steadied on Friday after coming off the week’s lows against its peers as earlier risk aversion in global financial markets receded, pushing up U.S. yields.* FREEPORT FIRE: A fire has broken out at the main port used by copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc in Papua, Indonesia, on Thursday night, company sources said.* BHP Billiton, hopes to fully divest its troubled U.S. onshore shale business in around two years and is also seeking a buyer for its nickel business in Australia.* VW: Volkswagen is not looking to secure long-term supplies of cobalt, a key ingredient of electric-car batteries, by investing in mines, a senior official at the automaker said.* For the top stories in metals and other news, click orMARKETS NEWS * Asian shares rose on Friday as strong U.S. earnings and a step forward in the U.S. Congress on tax reform brightened the mood, even though investors noted that many more hurdles must be passed to reach a final deal on tax cuts.DATA AHEAD (GMT) 0900 Euro zone Current account Sep 1330 U.S. Housing starts Oct 1330 U.S. Building permits OctPRICES Three month LME copperMost active ShFE copperThree month LME aluminiumMost active ShFE aluminiumThree month LME zincMost active ShFE zincThree month LME leadMost active ShFE leadThree month LME nickelMost active ShFE nickelThree month LME tinMost active ShFE tinARBS ($1 = 6.6241 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Joseph Radford '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-nickel-prices-drop-on-worries-china-steel-demand-is-losing-its-shine-idUSL3N1NN17S'|'2017-11-17T03:52:00.000+02:00'
'c1a679319b7247959f564b21b4f0c29a7c4c43ac'|'U.S. housing starts hit one-year high; permits increase'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago U.S. housing starts hit one-year high; permits increase Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. homebuilding jumped to a one-year high in October likely as disruptions caused by recent hurricanes in the South faded and communities in the region started replacing houses damaged by flooding. Construction workers build a single family home in San Diego, California, U.S. February 15, 2017. Picture taken February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The sharp rebound in home construction reported by the Commerce Department on Friday could ease concerns about the housing market, which has been a drag on the economy since the second quarter. Housing starts surged 13.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.29 million units. That was the highest level since October 2016. September’s sales pace was revised up to 1.135 million units from the previously reported 1.127 million units. Groundbreaking activity in the South, which accounts for almost half of U.S. residential construction, plummeted in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The storms slammed Texas and Florida in late August and early September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts rising to a pace of 1.185 million units last month. Prices of U.S. Treasuries were lower in early morning trading, while stock index futures were mixed. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. HOMEBUILDER CONFIDENCE HIGH Housing starts in the South soared 17.2 percent in October to 621,000 units, with single-family construction vaulting 16.6 percent to its highest level since 2007. There were also increases in homebuilding in the Midwest and Northeast. October’s increase in starts ended three straight months of declines. Homebuilding has struggled this year, hamstrung by shortages of land and labor as well as expensive lumber. Investment in homebuilding has contracted for two consecutive quarters. That has contributed to a worsening housing shortage, which has held back home sales. A survey on Thursday showed confidence among homebuilders in November at the second-highest level since July 2005 amid optimism about current sales conditions and buyer traffic. Builders, however, continued to complain about the lack of buildable lots, land and pricey materials. Single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, increased 5.3 percent to a rate of 877,000 units in October, the highest level in eight months. Single-family starts fell 22.4 percent in the Northeast and slipped 7.7 percent in the West. They rose 7.8 percent in the Midwest. Groundbreaking on single-family housing projects has slowed since racing to near a 9-1/2-year high in February. Last month, starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment surged 36.8 percent to a rate of 413,000 units. Building permits increased 5.9 percent to a rate of 1.297 million units in October, the highest level since January. Single-family home permits rose 1.9 percent to their highest level since September 2007, while permits for the construction of multi-family homes jumped 13.9 percent. Housing completions increased 12.6 percent to a rate of 1.232 million units last month, the highest level since February 2008. The rise in completions was, however, driven by the multi-family housing segment, which will probably do little to eliminate the acute shortage of properties available for sale. Home completions for buildings with five units or more surged 37.9 percent to their highest level since April 1988. Single-family home completions increased only 2.6 percent last month. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-housing/u-s-housing-starts-surge-to-one-year-high-permits-up-idUKKBN1DH1NP'|'2017-11-17T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'96a47a779256f5fc0f85b59a86d602d678eccb4d'|'Italy Treasury kicks off sale of stakes in ENAV, Eni with letter to CDP: source'|'ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s Treasury has sent a letter to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to formally start the sale to the state lender of stakes in air traffic controller ENAV ( ENAV.MI ) and energy group ENI ( ENI.MI ), a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.CDP has received the letter and will evaluate the matter, the person said. The Treasury, which controls ENAV through a stake of 53.37 percent, is interested in selling a 50.37 percent holding in that company, the source added.CDP declined to comment while the Treasury could not immediately be reached for comment.The source’s comments follow a report in financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, which said the Treasury had officially kicked off the sale process with a letter to CDP.The paper added that the Treasury was planning to sell 3.3 percent of ENI, hoping to raise from both disposals a total of 2.8 billion euros ($3.30 billion).Reporting by Massimiliano di Giorgio, writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Isla Binnie '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-italy-cdp-enav-eni/italy-treasury-kicks-off-sale-of-stakes-in-enav-eni-with-letter-to-cdp-source-idINKBN1DG0R2'|'2017-11-16T04:38:00.000+02:00'
'535bcd45f8bd16276dc33ab2000c55bcb413d3ba'|'Seven apps that will make you more productive - Business Made Simple with Vodafone'|'There just aren’t enough hours in the day. Luckily most of us have a smartphone, which means we have a secret weapon in the quest to make the most of the time we have. There’s a whole wealth of apps out there that can streamline your day by making everything you do more productive.We’ve found seven great productivity apps that every small business can benefit from:Apps to help you focus Pushover Pushover combines all your notifications in one place, which means you can view messages and notifications from the dozens of applications on all your devices. It’s a way of unifying your communications into one easy place, meaning you get an instant overview of all your communications, without needing to check each app and device individually.Available on Android and iOS. Free to install. Apps and services: five steps to workplace tech heaven Read more Apps to help you with task management Any.do Any.do is a life manager, which means it pulls in all your calendars, to-do lists and reminders into one app. It syncs across Android, iOS, web and desktop, meaning it’s available anytime, anywhere and on any device. It even has useful location-based reminders, perfect for delivering to-do lists when you arrive at your office or reminding you to pick up a pint of milk when you walk past your local supermarket. Cost of usage up to $2.99 (£2.25) a month.Available on Android, iOS and web. RescueTime RescueTime is a time tracker that helps you to understand your daily habits. It then generates reports that will help you to focus and become more productive. It runs securely in the background on your computer or any mobile device. This means you get to find out exactly how long you’re spending on apps and websites, and gives you alerts when your scheduled time for a particular task finishes. To help you focus on the task at hand, you can also block distractions like gaming apps or social media. There’s a free basic version, or pay $72 (£55) annually for the Premium version.Available on Android, iOS, Windows and Linux. Apps to help you collaborate TalkBoard TalkBoard turns your Apple devices into an interactive whiteboard. You can invite people to collaborate/draw on it in real-time, meaning everyone can participate, no matter where they are in the world. It’s an easy way to give a huge productivity and efficiency boost to the way you collaborate – particularly in helping remote teams to feel closer and more unified.Available exclusively on Apple iPads. Install for £16.99. Flow Flow is a project management app that allows teams to share tasks, keep track of what they’re doing and work together – no matter where they’re based. It’s fully customisable and you can create individual workflows for each user or project, that they can then access across any device.Available on Android, iOS and web. You can start a free trail, but then monthly costs depend on the size of the team using the app ranging up to $341 (£260) a month.Apps to help you with your finances Abukai Abukai claims to be the world’s quickest and easiest way to create expense reports. It tracks your expenses and then automatically generates a report, which streamlines a fiddly but essential process. There’s a basic free options, a standard option at $99 (£75), and other prices depend on need.Available on Android, iOS, Blackberry and web. Quickbooks Intuit Quickbooks is an easy-to-use, one-stop finance solution for small businesses. It offers a huge variety of features, from accepting payments to running payroll, and since it’s a web app, it can be accessed from anywhere with a broadband or data connection. Available on web. Take a free 30-day trial before signing up to one of three monthly pay plans ranging from £2.99 to £15.99 for the first six months.This article originally appeared on Your Ready Business . Content on this page is paid for and produced by Vodafone, sponsors of the Business Made Simple hub on Guardian Small Business Network Topics Business Made Simple with Vodafone advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business-made-simple-with-vodafone/2017/nov/03/seven-apps-that-will-make-you-more-productive'|'2017-11-03T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'c1a3ebca8055073098dcdc8ffb7459f8d55ec705'|'UK charges two in Unaoil investigation'|'November 16, 2017 / 5:11 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago UK charges two in Unaoil investigation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Serious Fraud Office has charged two people in an ongoing investigation into oil and gas company Unaoil, it said on Thursday. Ziad Akle and Basil Al Jarah have been charged by requisition with conspiracy to make corrupt payments to secure contracts in Iraq to Unaoil’s client SBM Offshore between June 2005 and August 2011, it said. Akle, 42, was Unaoil’s territory manager for Iraq and Al Jarah, 68, was Unaoil’s Iraq partner. Both live in England. A third man, Saman Ahsani, Unaoil’s former commercial director, is subject to an extradition request to Monaco on related charges, the SFO said. Akle and Al Jarah have been told to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, December 7. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Rachel Armstrong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unaoil-charges/uk-charges-two-in-unaoil-investigation-idUKKBN1DG2HS'|'2017-11-16T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'79f99b93eebeaabff95f1e3121b83b5ccac65d28'|'Saudi crackdown will not hit investments - energy minister Falih'|'BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s corruption investigations are linked to a just few individuals and will not hinder investments in the kingdom, its energy minister said on Thursday.Saudi Oil Minister, Khalid al-Falih, arrives at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Khalid al Falih said the inquiries were way overdue and would also not have any impact on plans to float shares in oil giant Saudi Aramco.“Everybody understands that this is a limited, domestic affair that the government is simply cleaning house,” he said on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference in Bonn, Germany.Saudi Arabia’s future king has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal who is one of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen.The move by Prince Mohammed bin Salman against Saudi’s political and business elite also targeted the head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was detained and replaced as minister of the powerful National Guard by Prince Khaled bin Ayyaf.The energy minister said many foreign investors who had been have been doing business in Saudi Arabia for decades “will tell you that they have not seen corruption in their interactions with the Saudi government or with the Saudi entities”.“It (the crackdown) has no impact on foreign direct investment. It has no impact whatsoever on the kingdom’s openness, capital flows and our wide open investment environment,” he added.Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Andrew Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-minister/saudi-crackdown-will-not-hit-investments-energy-minister-falih-idINKBN1DG33K'|'2017-11-16T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'af511c8fd9b5d02f5fdb9b536be9c255183eed75'|'Lufthansa offers 250 million euros to take on most of Alitalia''s fleet, half of staff - source'|'November 14, 2017 / 3:38 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Lufthansa offers 250 million euros to take on most of Alitalia''s fleet, half of staff - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has offered 250 million euros (£224 million) to take on most of Alitalia’s fleet of aircraft and half of its staff, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An airplane of Alitalia approaches to land at Fiumicino international airport in Rome, Italy, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its 70-year history, was put under special administration earlier this year after staff rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries. Lufthansa is one of seven companies that submitted binding offers for Alitalia by Oct. 16. Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing and additional reporting by Agnieszka Flak in Milan; Editing by Kathrin Jones and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alitalia-lufthansa/lufthansa-offers-250-million-euros-to-take-on-most-of-alitalias-fleet-half-of-staff-source-idUKKBN1DE23Y'|'2017-11-14T17:37:00.000+02:00'
'cfa557f1e4c4e14f6bd6e4668cec53edaf861637'|'UPDATE 1-Canadian Pacific eyeing signs of life in crude by rail shipments'|' 47 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Canadian Pacific eyeing signs of life in crude by rail shipments Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds context, background on pipeline projects) MONTREAL/CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd sees shipments of crude by rail “coming alive a little bit,” Chief Marketing Officer John Brooks said on Tuesday, signaling a pickup in a business that had been hurt by low energy prices and competition from pipelines. Many traders are expecting a pickup in crude by rail volumes in 2018 as oil sands projects including Suncor Energy Inc’s Fort Hills plant and the latest phase of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd’s Horizon oil sands start producing at the end of this year. Canadian railway executives, however, remain cautious about crude-by-rail demand after they were forced to slash rates for shipping crude in 2015 due to a rout in global oil prices. “The energy sector is really getting interesting,” Brooks told a Toronto transportation conference, noting demand for shipping several energy-related products including frac sand, which is used in the hydraulic fracturing process. CP, Canada’s second-largest railroad, in October reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on higher shipments of crude oil, coal and potash. Energy industry players are bracing for congestion on Canada’s major export pipelines, which are running close to capacity, while underutilized rail loading terminals built during a crude-by-rail boom in 2014 are increasing loading volumes. TransCanada Corp’s in October scrapped its $12 billion Energy East pipeline that would have taken crude from Alberta to the Atlantic coast, which could further increase producers’ reliance on crude-by-rail. Calgary-based Gibson Energy said on a third-quarter earnings call that it has started to see its Hardisty rail terminal in central Alberta being used more than in the past. And Cenovus Energy Inc, which owns the Bruderheim terminal near Edmonton, Alberta, said earlier this month that it has additional capacity to meet increased demand as it arises. “With new production expected to come on line in the next year … we are about to reach the limits of current pipeline infrastructure. This will likely result in a need to turn to rail as a stopgap to allow the new crude production to reach refineries,” analysts from consultancy Turner Mason & Company said on Tuesday in a client note. The most recent National Energy Board data showed Canada exported 93,000 barrels per day (bpd) by rail in July, down 40 percent from a 2017 high of 156,000 bpd in March. However, since the summer the price discount on Canadian crude in Alberta versus its global benchmark has widened and is expected to deepen in coming months. With the wider differential rail shipments become more economic, even though they are still costlier than moving crude by pipelines. (Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cp-crude/update-1-canadian-pacific-eyeing-signs-of-life-in-crude-by-rail-shipments-idUSL1N1NK1FY'|'2017-11-14T20:45:00.000+02:00'
'd2aafe517fad8159323d1c38bba93c0d74e0082f'|'Exclusive - Vale delays sale of stake in New Caledonia nickel mine: sources'|'November 17, 2017 / 6:50 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive - Vale delays sale of stake in New Caledonia nickel mine: sources Tatiana Bautzer , Nicole Mordant 3 Min Read NEW YORK/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Vale SA ( VALE5.SA ) has decided to postpone the sale of a stake in its New Caledonia nickel mine after the world’s largest iron ore producer decided initial bids were too low, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The logo of Vale SA is pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 7, 2017. Picture taken August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The sale may be delayed for up to a year as the company anticipates a rebound in nickel prices, the sources said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. One source said Vale was seeking an investment of $500 million to $1 billion in New Caledonia, which have been beset by technical setbacks, a chemical spill and violent protests by locals. The company has recently reduced its debt burden, and new Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman has been conducting a broad strategic review. Vale had been in talks with Chinese battery recycler GEM Co Ltd ( 002340.SZ ) for several months about the stake in the mine, but those talks stalled, the sources said. GEM did not reply to requests for comment sent by Reuters. Makers of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles are looking to lock in supplies of cobalt, lithium and nickel, which are key battery ingredients. Vale and its adviser on the sale process, Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), did not reply to requests for comment. Overbudget and years late when it finally started up in 2010, the New Caledonia project accumulated nearly $1.3 billion in losses between 2014 and 2016, according to a June presentation to investors. This has also narrowed the field of potential bidders, the second source said. At an investor conference in New York this week, Schvartsman said nickel had brought Vale lower returns than expected and vowed to cut new investments in the business. “We expect nickel to have more demand as it becomes a raw material for car batteries, but prices have not reacted so far,” Schvartsman said. Murilo Ferreira, whom Schvartsman replaced as CEO in May, had decided to sell the New Caledonia nickel mine as part of a $15 billion divestiture plan announced in 2016 to reduce Vale’s debt. The company’s net debt shrank 18 percent in the 12 months through September to 21 billion reais ($6.4 billion). It stood at 4.9 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, down from 8.6 times a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in New York and Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Additional reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro, Melanie Burton in Melbourne, Susan Taylor and John Tilak in Toronto and Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/vale-sa-divestiture/exclusive-vale-delays-sale-of-stake-in-new-caledonia-nickel-mine-sources-idINKBN1DH2F5'|'2017-11-17T20:45:00.000+02:00'
'd983c2733c5b02b87946cd67ca5f5dc673228a6b'|'Asia shares cautious as mood turns skittish'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:43 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Asia shares gain despite Wall Street weakness, dollar edges higher Lisa Twaronite , Wayne Cole 4 Min Read TOKYO/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares shrugged off Wall Street losses and a lacklustre start to rally on Thursday, while the dollar edged up as investors priced in more U.S. rate hikes after upbeat economic data. FILE PHOTO: (L-R) The Hong Kong Exchanges flag, Chinese national flag and Hong Kong flag are hoisted outside the Hong Kong Stocks Exchange in Hong Kong June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo “European equity traders will likely inherit a positive market,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at London Capital Group, said in a note. Futures portended solid openings for European bourses, with European stock futures up 0.3 percent, Dax futures up 0.4 percent, and FTSE futures and CAC futures each up 0.3 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.7 percent. Australian stocks added 0.2 percent, with sentiment helped by data showing the country’s jobless rate dipped to 5.4 percent in October, its lowest since early 2013. Japan’s Nikkei reversed early losses and surged 1.5 percent as investors hunted for bargains after a six-day losing streak. EMini futures for the S&P 500 added 0.3 percent after major indexes dropped on Wall Street overnight, with the S&P 500 energy sector suffering a four-day decline of 4 percent, its weakest such period in 14 months. Investor concern over the progress of a massive U.S. tax reform plan showed no sign of abating as two Republican lawmakers on Wednesday criticised the Senate’s latest proposal. “If we look at what the markets are focusing on, it’s still very much the tax cut debates in the U.S., and how much progress there’s going to be on this front,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of Asia macro strategy for Barclays in Singapore. “Clearly, there’s some way to go before any deal is on the table, and I think markets perhaps may have reassessed some bullish expectations, and hence some of the dollar weakness yesterday, and probably the fact that the dollar has been unable to make up much lost ground today,” Kotecha said. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was slightly higher on the day at 93.828. The euro was steady at $1.1791, retreating from a one-month top of $1.1860 on Wednesday. Against its Japanese counterpart, the dollar gained 0.2 percent to 113.04 yen after it sunk as deep as 112.47 overnight. But it remained well shy of its eight-month high of 114.735 hit last week as Japanese stocks pushed to multi-decade highs. Doubts that the latest round of talks to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement would make much headway in the face of tough U.S. demands saw Mexico’s peso sink to an eight-month low on Wednesday, though it steadied in Asian trade. Mostly upbeat economic news added to expectations that the Federal Reserve would not only hike in December, which is now almost fully priced in, but multiple times next year as well. Core U.S. inflation edged higher and retail sales beat forecasts in a positive sign for growth. The rate outlook could push the two-year Treasury yields up further from its nine-year peaks, after the yield curve hit its flattest in a decade. Investors also suspect this tightening will slow the U.S. economy and stop inflation ever getting to the Fed’s 2 percent target, pulling down longer-term yields. As a result the gap between two- and 10-year yield has shrunk to its thinnest premium since late 2007. “Whether it is the flattest yield curve in a decade, and what that has historically signalled for future growth, the recent troubles in high-yielding credit or lingering geopolitical tensions, it is not entirely clear what has markets spooked,” ANZ analysts wrote in a note. In commodity markets, gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,277.29 an ounce. It reached $1,289.09 overnight, its highest since Oct. 20. Oil prices gained despite pressure after the U.S. government reported an unexpected increase in crude and gasoline stockpiles. They had lost ground to this week’s International Energy Agency (IEA) outlook for slower growth in global crude demand. U.S. crude added 5 cents to $55.38 a barrel. Brent crude futures were 15 cents higher at $62.02. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Richard Borsuk & Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-shares-cautious-as-mood-turns-skittish-idINKBN1DG02V'|'2017-11-16T02:38:00.000+02:00'
'299d74c29779e5d7a05b2166ea9637a957b12ea5'|'Cabot Credit Management drops LSE IPO plans'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:57 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Cabot Credit Management latest victim of London IPO market, Bakkavor trades up Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest debt collector Cabot Credit Management ( IPO-CAB.L ) abandoned its plan on Thursday for an initial public offering (IPO), the latest in a string of companies to ditch attempts to list on the London Stock Exchange. So far in 2017 British IPOs have raised 5.2 billion dollars (£3.9 billion), down 13 percent on the same period a year ago. The IPO market has been muted since the country voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, making firms skittish about market launches. Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group ( BAKK.L ), which this month pulled but then resurrected its market debut plan, was trading up 5 percent at 189 pence by 1527 GMT. The British supermarket supplier cut the asking price for its shares before reviving its IPO move. Cabot blamed its decision on current conditions in the IPO and credit market, and it follows reports that the firm had struggled to generate sufficient orders for shares within the price range. “The high level of engagement and interest that we received from a wide array of investors was very encouraging, but the timing has been unfortunate with respect to IPO market conditions,” said Ken Stannard, the firm’s CEO. The IPO, originally planned for September, had already been postponed as Peter Crook, the former chief of Provident Financial ( PFG.L ), stepped down from the board. In October, it said the transaction would go ahead this month, with a source familiar with the matter telling Reuters it was targeting a 1 billion-pound market capitalisation. At the start of the month broadcast and mobile masts company Arqiva abandoned its attempt to list, citing uncertainty in the IPO market. Business services firm TMF scrapped its float last month in favour of an outright sale to a private equity firm. Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ), Jefferies and Numis ( NUM.L ) were all managing the Cabot float. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cabot-credit-ipo/cabot-credit-management-drops-lse-ipo-plans-idUKKBN1DG1YD'|'2017-11-16T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'44e3d92eb06bf9b70bd62ac1b911e470555f5d6a'|'Mexico bristles at U.S. proposal that would benefit AT&T in NAFTA'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:01 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Mexico bristles at U.S. proposal that would benefit AT&T in NAFTA Julia Love , David Lawder 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico shot down a proposal by the United States to include provisions in the North America Free Trade Agreement that would benefit AT&T Inc ( T.N ), Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo delivers a speech during the inauguration of the IP Statistics for Decision Makers (IPSDM) Forum in Mexico City, Mexico, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/ Edgard Garrido “AT&T, which is North American, asked its government to reflect its interests in the negotiation,” Guajardo said in an interview on local radio without specifying the details of the U.S. proposal. “You cannot have an agreement... that gives a tailor’s cut, a perfect handiwork, to a specific company.” AT&T and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment. During the last round of talks in Virginia, the United States proposed incorporating Mexico’s landmark telecommunications reform into a NAFTA provision that would apply only to Mexico, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Mexico’s 2013-14 telecommunications reform aimed to break up the dominance of America Movil ( AMXL.MX ), the telecommunications firm owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, which emerged from a state monopoly in the 1990s. Negotiators are still working to make sure the reform is included in the agreement, Guajardo said. “What we said is that we cannot accept a specific annex,” he said. “We can reflect conceptually the commitments that are reflected in the law, which for us is very important to consolidate.” Beckoned by the reform, AT&T entered the Mexican market in 2014, spending $4.4 billion to buy Mexico’s No.3 and No.4 carriers. FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS OCT 23 FOR ALL IMAGES - RC1797708750 But the market was plunged into uncertainty in August when the Mexico Supreme Court ruled America Movil should not be barred by law from charging its rivals for calls to its network, weakening a key pillar of the reform. The turmoil has spilled over into NAFTA negotiations, Guajardo said. “What has kept us from closing (he telecoms chapter)is that it was contaminated a little bit by this debate over the zero-rate,” he said. The telecommunications reform, which sharply lowered prices for consumers, is one of Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto’s signature accomplishments. But throughout the negotiations, Mexico has consistently rejected proposals that isolate the nation, trade experts say. “What’s surprising (about the telecommunications proposal) is that there is the principle that we are negotiating as three countries,” said Mexico Senator Gerardo Flores, who was briefed on the proposal. “And suddenly the United States puts on the table a proposal that demands commitments specifically from Mexico, which converts the negotiation into a bilateral negotiation.” Mexico has been enthusiastic about enshrining a 2014 energy reform in NAFTA, but also with the condition that the language applies to all three countries in the pact, said Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “Mexico doesn’t want to be singled out in any way,” he said. “You set a precedent where side deals with individual countries can be made.” Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Christine Murray and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-nafta-telecoms/mexico-bristles-at-u-s-proposal-that-would-benefit-att-in-nafta-idUKKBN1DG0AX'|'2017-11-16T05:00:00.000+02:00'
'16a6ac1071d5e412f858f425833f59574b7971e1'|'Siemens to cut 6,900 jobs across its energy businesses'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 3:07 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Siemens to cut 6,900 jobs across its energy businesses Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) plans to cut about 6,900 jobs across its businesses supplying the power generation and oil and gas industries, which have been hit by the rapid growth of renewable energy. The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder Siemens will make the cuts at its Power and Gas division, as well as at its Process Industries and Drives division, which makes large mechanical drives for oil and gas extraction and turbines. They will represent close to 2 percent of the company’s global workforce. “The power generation industry is experiencing disruption of unprecedented scope and speed,” Siemens management board member Lisa Davis said in a statement. “Today’s action follows a nearly three-year effort to right-size the business for this changing marketplace.” Aside from loss-making wind power venture Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ), Process Industries and Drives was Siemens’s least profitable business last quarter, with a profit margin of just 2.9 percent. Siemens is also shedding operations to remodel itself as an industrial software company. It is listing its healthcare unit and putting its wind and rail businesses into joint ventures. The announcement follows a meeting with labor representatives at which Siemens outlined for the first time the scale of a planned restructuring of its power division. Siemens said roughly half of the job cuts would be in Germany, which is likely to be unpopular with politicians currently trying to form a government. ($1 = 0.8480 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-power-restructuring/siemens-says-to-cut-about-6900-jobs-idUKKBN1DG257'|'2017-11-16T18:19:00.000+02:00'
'60c01f3ba4011d8885284bf12426e4370b0fb97d'|'The week in sports: Italy in shock after World Cup dream deferred - Reuters'|'Listen to this week’s Keeping Score podcast:2018 World Cup Qualifications - Europe - Italy vs Sweden - San Siro, Milan, Italy - November 13, 2017 Italy players look dejected after the match. REUTERS/Max Rossi A wrap-up of the week in sports news:Italy whiffs World Cup bid: Italians, who consider a spot in the World Cup finals a virtual birthright, slumped into collective despair after the national team failed to win a place among soccer’s elite for the first time in 60 years. Click here for a list of the countries that did make the cut.Elliott serving suspension: Dallas Cowboys’ running back Ezekiel Elliott withdrew his appeal of a six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. Elliott’s agents said the decision was made “from a practical assessment of the current legal landscape” and a “desire for closure in this matter.”Celtics hit a streak: The Boston Celtics extended their winning streak to 14 games on Thursday, after toppling the Warriors 92-88.A fight breaks out in front of the benches during a time out in the third period between the Detroit Red Wings and the Calgary Flames. Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports Click here to see more of the week’s top sports photography.And finally, this week sports business marketing expert Rick Horrow sat down with baseball''s Iron Man Cal Ripken Jr. Watch the interview here: '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weekinsports-11nov2017/the-week-in-sports-italy-in-shock-after-world-cup-dream-deferred-idUSKBN1DH2NR'|'2017-11-18T05:03:00.000+02:00'
'3888e188523b9a292481b47867c9de5e008d197f'|'Nissan''s Infiniti to start producing new SUV in China next year'|'Reuters TV United States November 17, 2017 / 1:23 AM / a few seconds ago Nissan''s Infiniti to start producing new SUV in China next year Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co’s ( 7201.T ) premium brand Infiniti will start producing a new crossover SUV in China next year, using existing manufacturing capacity in the northeastern city of Dalian. Nissan signs are seen outside a Nissan auto dealer in Broomfield, Colorado October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The new sport-utility vehicle would be the third Infiniti vehicle model to be produced locally in China, the Hong Kong-headquartered brand’s No.2 market after the United States. The company did not provide any more details about the SUV in a statement seen by Reuters. Infiniti is expected to announce the move as early as at a planned press briefing at the Guangzhou auto show on Friday. Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-nissan-infiniti/nissans-infiniti-to-start-producing-new-suv-in-china-next-year-idUKKBN1DH051'|'2017-11-17T03:18:00.000+02:00'
'7b115b4b04896a5167129ea12d9e151b79b44499'|'America Movil CFO says has had interest in KPN stake'|'BARCELONA (Reuters) - America Movil ( AMXL.MX ) has seen has seen interest from potential buyers for its 21.4 percent stake in Dutch telecoms group KPN ( KPN.AS ) and may consider selling, the CFO of the Mexican telecoms company said on Friday.The logo of America Movil is pictured on the wall of a reception area in the company''s corporate offices in Mexico City, Mexico, May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido “We have gotten expressions of interest in the past from other players but we are getting expressions of interest again,” Carlos Garcia Moreno said, speaking to investors at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in Barcelona.Movil has held KPN shares following its takeover attempt in 2013 that faced opposition from the company’s boards and the Dutch political establishment.In May 2015, the Mexican company issued bonds worth 3 billion euros ($3.54 billion) that are convertible into KPN shares or cash in 2020 at Movil’s discretion. In September of the same year, it issued a 750 million euro, three-year bond, also convertible into KPN shares.Moreno said the company could choose to sell the shares before 2020, and settle the 2020 convertibles in cash.“We have 20 percent of the company and we may sell it through the bonds or we may sell it as a package to somebody,” he said.KPN shares were around 1.5 percent lower on Friday.($1 = 0.8473 euros)Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Toby Sterling. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tmt-conference-kpn-america-movil/america-movil-cfo-says-has-had-interest-in-kpn-stake-idINKBN1DH1D5'|'2017-11-17T09:10:00.000+02:00'
'0ffc472d9aa4959165585efc64a1e2be1a50288a'|'Cobalt hedging not mining the route for VW in EV drive, official says'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 6:42 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago Cobalt hedging not mining the route for VW in EV drive, official says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) is not looking to secure long-term supplies of cobalt, a key ingredient of electric-car batteries, by investing in mines, a senior official at the automaker said. FILE PHOTO - A Volkswagen logo is seen at Serramonte Volkswagen in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo Demand for cobalt is expected to soar as carmakers rush to embrace electric vehicles (EVs) in response to governments around the world cracking down on pollution. Volkswagen (VW), which is struggling to draw a line under its 2015 emissions test-cheating scandal, plans to invest more than 20 billion euros ($23.6 billion) in battery-powered cars by 2030 to challenge Tesla ( TSLA.O ) in creating a mass market. Asked whether VW would be prepared to invest in mines to safeguard future supplies of battery metals, Gerhard Praetorius, head of sustainability at VW group, told Reuters: “As far as I can see, options are being examined but not in this direction.” “Hedging by means of long-term (supplier) contracts is really the way to control such new issues (of securing materials supplies),” Praetorius said. Asked what VW does to ensure that its cobalt supplies do not come from child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Praetorius said: “We are now in the midst of starting a process by which we can retrace very well” where the cobalt comes from. He gave no details. Two months ago, Reuters reported that the world’s largest automaker had asked producers to submit proposals on supplying cobalt for up to 10 years from 2019. VW, which aims to make up to three million EVs a year by 2025, wanted all the cobalt tender proposals submitted by the end of September, the sources had said. Praetorius declined to comment on procurement issues. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-cobalt/cobalt-hedging-not-mining-the-route-for-vw-in-ev-drive-official-says-idUKKBN1DG2PT'|'2017-11-16T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'9e4c1fb40aa5ac528a984961d7124dfdeb0ed79a'|'ECB''s Villeroy - Strengthen European bank rescue fund'|' 51 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago ECB''s Villeroy - Strengthen European bank rescue fund Reuters Staff 3 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Euro zone countries need to strengthen their fund aimed at preventing state bail-outs of failing banks, the head of the French central bank said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO -- Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo “The case of the Italian banks has illustrated just how complex it is to combine the resolution regime with the state- aid framework”, Francois Villeroy de Galhau said in Amsterdam. Earlier this year, the Italian government used state aid to save ailing bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ) and to wind down two regional banks, despite European rules intended to prevent the use of taxpayer money to rescue banks. The EU has set up a bank-financed rescue fund for failing lenders, the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), but its 17 billion- euro (£15.1 billion) is considered too small to deal with a large financial crisis. “Confidence in the Single Resolution Fund and its capacity to intervene has to be bolstered”, Villeroy said. A common backstop to increase the firepower of the fund, as proposed by the European Commission is “a promising avenue”, he said. Different authorities responsible for the European banking sector, such as the European Central Bank, the Single Resolution Mechanism and the European Banking Authority, should better coordinate their roles, Villeroy said, to have a clearer “pilot in the plane” in times of crisis. “At a later stage, we should even consider establishing a single banking authority for our single banking union, acting to bolster the robustness of the European banking sector.” MONETARY POLICY Villeroy also said the ECB will follow a gradual path to normalisation of monetary policy, decreasing the emphasis on its 2.55 trillion-euro bond-buying programme as it unwinds its crisis-era stimulus, the head of the French central bank said on Thursday. “We will clearly follow this path of gradual normalisation, with caution but combining the whole range of our instruments - and there shouldn’t be excessive focus on the net purchases of assets,” the central bank president, a member of the ECB’s rate- setting Governing Council, said. “But monetary policy cannot be the only game in town, and therefore we should not overburden it,” he said, just weeks after the ECB agreed to halve its asset purchases from the start of next year in light of improved economic growth. Reporting by Bart H. Meijer; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Gareth Jones, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-villeroy/ecbs-villeroy-strengthen-european-bank-rescue-fund-idUKKBN1DG2FL'|'2017-11-16T18:50:00.000+02:00'
'477e48f8407e6de6bfc1f58534344b6a76fa9a28'|'Amex launches blockchain-based business payments using Ripple'|' 12 PM / a few seconds ago Amex launches blockchain-based business payments using Ripple Jemima Kelly 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - American Express ( AXP.N ) has introduced instant blockchain-based payments using Ripple, a fintech start-up, for U.S. corporate customers sending funds to UK-based businesses that bank with Santander UK STN.SN, the companies said on Thursday. The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company American Express (AXP) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson American Express said its FX International Payments (FXIP) business had partnered with Ripple to provide real-time, trackable non-card payments from the United States to Britain. Customers are already using the service, the companies said, and it would be extended in the future. This marks one of the first major uses of blockchain, a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet that is best known as the system underpinning bitcoin. Financial firms hope the nascent technology can reduce the cost and complexity of burdensome processes such as securities settlement and international payments, but many say widespread use of the technology is still several years away. ”American Express has a long history of integrating new technologies...,” said American Express’s chief information officer Marc Gordon, in a statement. “This collaboration with Ripple and Santander represents the next step forward on our blockchain journey, evolving the way we move money around the world.” New York-based Ripple, whose main focus is blockchain-based cross-border payments, works with many big banks and is backed by firms including Standard Chartered Plc ( STAN.L ), Accenture Plc (ACN.N) and SBI Holdings. The company is in a legal battle with rival blockchain startup R3 Holdco LLC over an options contract to purchase Ripple’s digital currency XRP. XRP has increased in value by more than 30 times as other cryptocurrencies have also soared. [nL2N1LP1SH] “Transfers that used to take days will be completed in real time, allowing money to move as fast as business today,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a statement. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-amex-ripple/amex-launches-blockchain-based-business-payments-using-ripple-idUKKBN1DG1SX'|'2017-11-16T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'6640bf34fe5fe8f2ff4c2284226e8ecffc232775'|'Caesars Entertainment to buy casino operator Centaur for $1.7 billion'|'(Reuters) - Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp ( CZR.O ) said on Thursday it would buy privately owned U.S. casino and horse racing company Centaur Holdings LLC for $1.7 billion in cash to expand in Indiana.The marquee sign at Caesars Palace hotel is seen on the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. February 16, 2011. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo Centaur has more than 6.5 million guests each year across its properties and serves more than 1.1 million members as part of its loyalty program, Caesars said.Reuters had reported in May, citing sources, that Centaur Gaming was exploring a sale.Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-centaur-gaming-m-a-caesars/caesars-entertainment-to-buy-casino-operator-centaur-for-1-7-billion-idINKBN1DG337'|'2017-11-16T18:34:00.000+02:00'
'd5a0133c40f5c61e8f52a5376762abc0dde64974'|'WPP - Prepared to boost ADK stake to 33 percent if Bain''s TOB fails'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:55 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago WPP - Prepared to boost ADK stake to 33 percent if Bain''s TOB fails Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP ( WPP.L ) said it would be prepared to raise its stake in Japanese partner Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK) ( 9747.T ) to 33 percent from 25 percent if a disputed tender offer for the company by Bain Capital failed. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bain Capital is displayed on the screen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo ADK is seeking to end a two-decade-old business alliance with WPP, asking the world’s largest advertising group to sell its shares to Bain Capital. But WPP and other large shareholders, including London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management Company, have held out for a higher offer from Bain. WPP this month took legal action against ADK, seeking arbitration and a preliminary injunction to uphold its stance that ADK’s planned termination of their business alliance was invalid. In a statement dated Nov. 15, UK-based WPP said it had been approached by other shareholders as well as ADK’s management asking it to clarify its commitment to ADK in the event the tender offer failed. “With the approval of the board and other shareowners we would also be prepared, as requested by some shareowners, to increase our shareholding in ADK to 33 percent,” WPP said. In addition, WPP said, it would “welcome the opportunity to engage constructively” with ADK’s board to make sure the company was capable of increasing its value for the benefit of long-term shareholders. ADK said it had not received WPP’s statement and declined to comment. ADK’s shares were up 1.2 percent at 3,475 yen (23.36 pounds) in morning trade on Thursday, slightly outperforming the broader Tokyo market. Bain Capital is seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent in ADK and has offered to buy shares for 3,660 yen a piece. Last week, it extended the period for the tender offer by about a week to Nov. 21 to give shareholders more time to consider the offer, given WPP’s legal action. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/wpp-prepared-to-boost-adk-stake-to-33-percent-if-bains-tob-fails-idUKKBN1DG0AH'|'2017-11-16T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'40bdbfc3282efcaef74301237ff00225a1a6d475'|'World Bank''s US$2bn 10-year is spot on'|'LONDON, Nov 16 (IFR) - The World Bank capitalised on a small rise in US Treasury yields to bring a US$2bn 10-year, taking advantage of one of the last windows for the year ahead of the expected Fed hike next month.The 10-year part of the US dollar market has been treacherous in 2017 and not always easy to access, with some issuers completely bypassing the tenor altogether.“You can count on one hand the amount of traditional SSA issues in the 10-year and there have been almost none in the seven-year that came to market this year,” said a banker away, adding that the timing was spot on and the pricing at the right level.The depth of demand for this maturity tends to be in the US$1bn-$1.5bn range, as evidenced by ADB’s US$1.5bn 2.5% Nov 2027 10-year Global three weeks ago.The World Bank was able to capture a slight rise in the 10-year US Treasury yield, which jumped from 2.33% on November 9 to 2.38% on 14 November. The US$2.4bn book allowed leads to tighten pricing by 1bp to swaps plus 21bp, offering a yield of 2.57%.While another banker away from the deal said he had “expected a more eye-catching figure” when orders came in, a third banker away noted that getting US$2.4bn in orders was at the upper end of 10-year books this year.Andrea Dore, head of funding at the World Bank, pointed out that the World Bank’s fiscal year starts at July 1, so that meant it had flexibility.“We weren’t trying to get US$2bn, but it’s great to have that – it isn’t the end of the fiscal year for us,” she said.TIGHT PRICING Bankers said the World Bank had started off at a tight pricing level, which would explain why the deal only moved by 1bp.“It was a risky trade; we had so many things lined up at the same time. On an absolute level versus Treasuries or swap spreads, it’s the tightest for an issuer in this sector,” said a lead.The banker estimated the new issue premium at 1bp, and noted that just over half of allocations went to central banks and nearly a quarter to asset managers, and nearly another quarter to corporates and financial institutions.Pricing is important, as the World Bank passes on the costs to its borrowers, but it tries to do so in a sustainable manner, said Dore.“You wouldn’t see us doing a deal that’s callously priced because we do have to come back to the market,” she said.“We’ve done three-years during the summer and a five-year at the start of the calendar year. We will be back in the dollar market, looking at other parts of the curve.”The World Bank has funding needs of US$50bn-$55bn a year.Since the start of its fiscal year in July, the issuer has printed two US dollar benchmarks and has done over 200 private placements across 22 currencies.“We’re on target to meet our funding needs,” said Dore.“We never say that we’re done in the market. In terms of windows for massive benchmarks, as it gets closer to the holidays, you lose some investors. But we’ve done trades even in the summer, and it’s similar in December.” (Reporting by Melissa Song Loong; editing by Helene Durand, Philip Wright) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/world-banks-us2bn-10-year-is-spot-on/world-banks-us2bn-10-year-is-spot-on-idINL8N1NM68D'|'2017-11-16T14:24:00.000+02:00'
'dbd47cb65e2c31f598063f292abc06563d2dc00d'|'Exclusive: Prescient messages about Indian companies circulate in WhatsApp groups'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Three days before Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd announced quarterly results this summer, a message circulated on a private WhatsApp group saying the Indian drugmaker would not post good numbers.FILE PHOTO: The WhatsApp messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo Dr. Reddy’s was going to report a loss, according to the message on the “Market Chatter” group, which was posted on July 24 from a mobile phone number that Reuters traced back to Nishant Vass, an auto analyst at ICICI Securities, a leading Indian brokerage. The WhatsApp group had 45 members, mostly traders.The loss would have been a surprise to many analysts, as consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters at the time showed expectations of a profit of 3 billion rupees.The message proved prescient: On July 27, Dr. Reddy’s reported a loss of 587 million rupees (9.05 million dollars) - a result its chief executive said was “below expectations”, sending shares down as much as 4.4 percent.The post that circulated in the WhatsApp group three days earlier had predicted a loss of more than 500 million rupees.A person who identified himself as Vass returned a call from Reuters using the telephone number from which the Dr. Reddy’s numbers had been posted on the WhatsApp group. He denied writing or sharing posts in the group, adding later in a separate WhatsApp message from the same number that it was “totally baseless” that he had done so.Reuters has documented at least 12 cases of prescient messages about major Indian companies, including Dr. Reddy‘s, being posted in private WhatsApp groups.Two of the messages appeared in the transcripts of six groups reviewed by Reuters, including the “Market Chatter” group where the Dr. Reddy’s numbers appeared. The others were shared on condition of anonymity by two other members of other WhatsApp groups.The posts with prescient numbers in the WhatsApp groups were circulated hours or days before official company statements.The messages shared could involve lucky guesses or astute forecasts based on publicly available information, and not all metrics shared among the 12 cases were exactly the same as reported.Reuters could not determine where the numbers posted on the WhatsApp groups originated or whether any of the market participants who received the messages had traded on the basis of the numbers they had seen.According to two lawyers who were formerly senior officials at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country’s capital markets regulator, if any numbers being posted on WhatsApp groups were determined by regulators to be “unpublished price-sensitive information”, the people circulating them would be breaking the law.“The mere sharing of information that could be unpublished insider information is outlawed, even if you don’t misuse the information to trade on it,” said Sandeep Parekh, a lawyer with Finsec Law Advisors who used to head SEBI’s enforcement division.SEBI did not respond to requests for comment.India significantly toughened insider trading rules in early 2015, expanding what constitutes “unpublished price-sensitive information” to include “any information” that is not “generally available” and that could have a market impact.The law also expanded the scope of who constitutes an “insider” to include “anyone in possession of or having access to unpublished price-sensitive information” regardless of how they came “in possession of or had access to such information”.“You don’t need to have gotten inside information from a company. You could get it from anywhere,” said Vaneesa Agrawal, a partner with Suvan Law Advisors who formerly worked in SEBI’s legal department. “As soon as you have information that could be insider information you are an insider, and you are not supposed to either pass it on or trade on it.”FILE PHOTO: The WhatsApp app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Circulating “unpublished price-sensitive information” can result in penalties of up to 250 million rupees and a jail term of up to 10 years. The monetary amount can be higher if it can be proven that an individual traded on such information.ICICI Securities said in a statement that it had “zero tolerance towards any dissemination of unpublished price sensitive information and has an appropriate framework to safeguard confidentiality of information.”Dr. Reddy’s said it was “not aware of any information related to its financial results being circulated externally ahead of statutory disclosures that are made officially by the company.”MESSAGING THROUGH WHATSAPP The messages about the 12 companies with prescient information obtained by Reuters involved mostly what were characterized as being upcoming quarterly results, including specific metrics such as net profits, revenues and operating margins.FILE PHOTO: An illustration photo shows the Whatsapp application logo on a mobile phone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 2, 2016. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo They also included messages about upcoming bonus share issues or revenue guidance.Seven of the companies are part of the benchmark NSE index: Dr. Reddy‘s, the drug maker Cipla Ltd, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, the IT services company Wipro, and Bajaj Finance.The other five were Mahindra Holidays and Resorts, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd, the IT services providers Mindtree Ltd and Mastek Ltd, and India Glycols, a petrochemicals company.Wipro, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Mastek, Crompton Greaves, Cipla and Mahindra Holidays said they were not aware messages referring to their upcoming results or announcements had circulated in WhatsApp, and that the companies adhered to strict standards of guarding sensitive company information.Axis Bank, Tata Steel, India Glycols, Mindtree did not reply to requests for comment.WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, responded to a request for comment by pointing to its terms of service, which state users can use the platform only for “legal, authorized, and acceptable purposes”.HEARD ON THE STREET Many of the postings in the WhatsApp groups are referred to as “HOS”, for “Heard on the Street”.In one typical post on July 25, Fanil Motiwalla, a contractor for a small brokerage, Arcadia Share & Stock Brokers, posted a set of numbers for Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private lender. Motiwalla works as a sub-broker, who are typically hired as contractors by securities firms in India to recruit customers.“This HOS is going around for Axis,” Motiwalla said when posting the numbers, which included key metrics such as gross non-performing assets and net interest margins. Later that day, Axis Bank reported results that closely matched the final numbers in Motiwalla’s message. Arcadia said it had policies in place to prevent employees from passing on “illegal information”.Motiwalla said he just reposted a message that had already been circulating in the market and he did not consider it inside information. “How do I know if this is coming from inside information? This could come from many sources,” he said. “This information comes from different groups, and we just post it.”Arcadia said every sub-broker it hired was given a copy of SEBI’s rules, adding, “whatever the alleged message sent by him is not sourced from Arcadia,” referring to Motiwalla.Reporting by Rafael Nam; Euan Rocha; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Philip McClellan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-india-whatsapp/exclusive-prescient-messages-about-indian-companies-circulate-in-whatsapp-groups-idINKBN1DG0IV'|'2017-11-16T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'd801f7c8896daa85057a41c51c3bac425836a868'|'Australia''s Santos says not currently in takeover talks'|'(Reuters) - Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd said on Wednesday it was not currently in discussions with U.S. investment vehicle Harbour Energy following a media report of takeover talks.Santos, however, confirmed it had received a takeover proposal from Harbour in August with an indicative price of A$4.55 per Santos share. The board rejected the bid as the price was “inadequate” and the sources of funds were uncertain, the company said.Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-santos-m-a-talks/australias-santos-says-not-currently-in-takeover-talks-idINKBN1DG03F'|'2017-11-15T21:48:00.000+02:00'
'97f9f6dada7f7ccda387b6e71a256c104a7e9ad0'|'MIDEAST - Factors to watch - November 16'|'DUBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Thursday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares cautious as mood turns skittish* MIDEAST STOCKS-Major markets sag, Dubai’s DSI surges after loss* MIDEAST DEBT-Investors re-price political risk in Middle East bond market* Oil prices weighed down by rising US supplies, but OPEC cuts prevent falls* PRECIOUS-Gold steady as dollar gains amid U.S. rate hike expectations* Middle East Crude-More Jan cargoes trade at premiums* U.N. to vote on rival U.S., Russia bids to renew Syria inquiry* Lebanon accuses Saudi Arabia of holding its PM hostage* UK’s Johnson vows no stone unturned to free aid worker jailed in Iran* Syrian Kurdish leaders back longer U.S role in Syria* Abraaj to complete at least one Turkey acquisition in H1 2018, partner says* Collapsed state housing in Iranian quake shows corruption - Rouhani* EMERGING MARKETS-Turkish lira near record lows, emerging stocks at two-week low* Turkey’s Sabanci says to float Enerjisa unit in IPO next year* Turkish unemployment dips to 10.6 percent in July-September -stats instituteEGYPT * Egypt’s GASC says seeks wheat for Jan. 1-10 shipment* Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leader loses appeal against life sentence* Court fungus ruling casts shadow over Egypt grain imports* Egypt’s unemployment rate falls to 11.9 pct in Q3 2017 -CAPMAS* AerCap near deals to supply Airbus and Boeing jets to EgyptAir -sources* Egypt to pay $750 mln in arrears to int‘l oil firms by end-Dec - ministerSAUDI ARABIA * SoftBank plans to invest up to $25 bln in Saudi Arabia - Bbg* Saudi Arabia is said to freeze trading accounts as part of probe - Bloomberg* Banque Saudi Fransi says dismisses CEO in coordination with regulators* Saudi’s CMA exempts listed companies from disclosing Q4 resultsUNITED ARAB EMIRATES * UAE armed forces to buy five transport aircraft from Spain - statement* Flydubai orders 175 Boeing jets, purchasing options for 50 more* PetroChina to expand oil, gas cooperation with ADNOCBAHRAIN * Bahrain says deadly bus attack engineered by Iran (Compiled by Dubai newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-factors/mideast-factors-to-watch-november-16-idINL8N1NM03Q'|'2017-11-15T23:23:00.000+02:00'
'f7a892c812cd9c67153407a07306d2adc5867e5c'|'Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing: source'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:38 PM / in 2 hours Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing: source Greg Roumeliotis 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is in talks again to buy Time Inc ( TIME.N ) in a potential deal backed by billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO -- Businessman David Koch arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2015 celebrating the opening of "China: Through the Looking Glass," in Manhattan, New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The Koch brothers have agreed to support Meredith’s offer by investing around $600 million, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Spokesmen for Koch Industries, Meredith and Time declined to comment. Time was up over 25 percent in afternoon trading at $15.93, while Meredith was up over 9 percent at $59.45. The New York Times was the first to report the potential deal Wednesday evening. Deal talks between Time, the publisher of Time and People magazines, and Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, had collapsed in April. Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/meredith-approaches-time-again-with-koch-brothers-backing-source-idUSKBN1DG2T7'|'2017-11-16T21:37:00.000+02:00'
'd36c870d6ca4acef03c0b1859f54dc980a19203c'|'Ex-Trump lawyer to defend AT&T-Time Warner merger'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:44 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Ex-Trump lawyer to defend AT&T-Time Warner merger Diane Bartz 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) said it had hired media lawyer Daniel Petrocelli, whose clients have included U.S. President Donald Trump, to defend its acquisition of media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) if the government sues to block the deal. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Petrocelli, a partner at O‘Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, will be lead trial counsel for both companies if the case ends up before a judge, a spokesman for AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless company, said on Thursday. Petrocelli has represented Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) and Time Warner in the past. Last year he defended Trump, then a presidential candidate, against fraud lawsuits involving real estate seminars known as Trump University. Shares of AT&T were up 1.2 percent at $34.26 in midday trading, while Time Warner rose 0.4 percent to $87.75. A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Justice Department is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit as soon as this week to block the $85.4 billion AT&T deal. The department has approached 18 state attorneys general to try to win their support for a lawsuit, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. As of Thursday, there were no indications that any states had signed on to a complaint, according to a person familiar with the matter. AT&T, which is also a major pay-TV provider, and Time Warner have struggled to keep viewers who have flocked to online services like Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Prime Video. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner so it can bundle mobile service with video entertainment and take online advertising from Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ). Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Paul Simao and Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-timewarner-m-a-at-t-lawyer/att-hires-ex-trump-lawyer-to-defend-possible-time-warner-deal-lawsuit-idUKKBN1DG2F6'|'2017-11-16T19:57:00.000+02:00'
'ceceda3b43e5557f8f77968fe920f76f8d4b5028'|'Meredith, Time Inc restart deal talks with Koch brothers'' support: NYT'|'(Reuters) - Time Inc is in talks with Meredith Corp again to sell itself in a potential deal backed by billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch, the New York Times reported.Businessman David Koch arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2015 celebrating the opening of "China: Through the Looking Glass," in Manhattan, New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The new round of negotiations, helped by the surprise entry of the Kochs, could lead to a quick deal, the paper said.The Koch brothers have tentatively agreed to support Meredith''s offer by investing more than $500 million, the paper said, citing people involved in the matter. nyti.ms/2jtX3LGThe companies and Koch brothers were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.Deal talks between Time, the publisher of Time and People magazines, and Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, had collapsed in April.Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/meredith-time-inc-restart-deal-talks-with-koch-brothers-support-nyt-idINKBN1DG0D5'|'2017-11-16T01:18:00.000+02:00'
'8bec7c2857f9e68ff9e7f85d171ef78abf622c8f'|'UPDATE 2-Asda''s stalling sales growth shows new boss'' challenge'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Asda''s stalling sales growth shows new boss'' challenge Reuters Staff * Third quarter underlying sales rise 1.1 pct * Growth was 1.8 pct in previous quarter * New CEO to start in January * Shares in rivals rise (Adds detail, Walmart quotes) By James Davey LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Sales growth at Asda, the British supermarket arm of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, slowed in its latest quarter, showing the tough task facing its new boss to rev-up its recovery in a cut-throat market. Last month, Asda said Chief Executive Sean Clarke, a Walmart veteran of 21 years, would step down in January after just 18 months in the job and be replaced by head of operations Roger Burnley, a former Sainsbury’s executive. Asda and its major rivals -- market leader Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons -- are all grappling with the rapid growth of German discounters Aldi and Lidl. They are also having to cope with more expensive food imports due to a weaker pound since Britain voted to leave the European Union, while consumer spending is under pressure from rising inflation, subdued wage growth and economic uncertainty. Of Britain’s major players analysts reckon Asda was hurt the most by the rise of the discounters as its traditional price advantage was eroded. Walmart said in February it was too slow in starting the repositioning of Asda and had not focused enough on using its leverage as a parent so that its British arm could be more aggressive on price cuts. Asda’s like-for-like sales rose 1.1 percent in the three months to Sept. 30, its fiscal third quarter -- a second straight quarter of underlying sales growth after three years of sales falls but below the previous quarter’s growth of 1.8 percent, which was boosted by Easter trading. Asda’s gross profit rate declined in the quarter. MORE WORK TO DO “The improvements in store experience and price investments are increasing store basket sizes,” said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon. Basket size increased 2.5 percent but customer traffic was down 1.4 percent. Brett Biggs, Walmart’s finance chief, said the parent was pleased with Asda’s performance but said “we know we have more work to do.” Asda’s comparative numbers were extremely weak - in the same quarter last year like-for-like sales slumped 5.8 percent. Also Asda would have benefited from food price inflation across the industry - running at 3.4 percent according to the latest industry data. That data, published on Tuesday, also showed Asda recorded the lowest rate of sales growth of the big four in the 12 weeks to Nov.5. Shares in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons were up 0.3, 1.1 and 1.6 percent respectively. Last week, Marks & Spencer said its food business faced “stronger headwinds” and would slow openings of its convenience stores, while Sainsbury’s said shoppers were currently “very value conscious”. On Thursday, official data showed British retail sales volumes fell 0.3 percent year-on-year in October -- the biggest decline since March 2013. Clarke and Burnley have focused their turnaround efforts on re-establishing Asda’s competitiveness by sharpening pricing in key areas such as fresh meat and vegetables, improving the quality and availability of product ranges and making its stores more attractive. Like rivals they are attacking costs. In September Asda cut 300 head office jobs. “The market environment will continue to be challenging into next year but we’re well placed with clear plans,” Clarke said. Separately on Thursday Walmart reported better-than-expected quarterly sales. (Editing by Kate Holton and Jane Merriman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/asda-outlook/update-1-sales-growth-at-walmarts-asda-slows-in-latest-quarter-idUSL8N1NM48N'|'2017-11-16T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'0bd47448895f3cbadaef2e0478cc79c0546ffd10'|'Televisa, Globo paid FIFA bribes for 2026/2030 World Cup rights -trial witness'|'NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A prosecution witness in the corruption trial of three former soccer officials testified on Wednesday that Mexico’s Grupo Televisa and Brazil’s Globo took part in a $15 million bribe to a FIFA executive to secure media rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cup tournaments.Alejandro Burzaco, the former head of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias, testified for a second day in a U.S. court, adding details to Tuesday’s testimony that Televisa, Globo and Fox Sports had been involved in bribery.In the first trial to be heard in a U.S. investigation of bribery surrounding FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, Burzaco told jurors in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday that Torneos, Televisa and Globo paid the bribe to Julio Humberto Grondona, a FIFA executive who died in 2014.Burzaco said Torneos and Fox Sports, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, were partners in a sports marketing venture, T&T Sports Marketing Ltd.Fox Sports spokeswoman Terri Hines said Tuesday that the T&T partnership was with a Fox Sports affiliate, Fox Pan American Sports, that was majority-owned by a private equity firm, and that Fox Sports had “no operational control” over T&T.“Any suggestion that Fox Sports knew of or approved of any bribes is emphatically false,” she said.Globo said on Tuesday that it “does not practice nor tolerate the payment of bribes,” and would cooperate with U.S. authorities. It could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.Televisa declined to comment on Tuesday, and could not immediately be reached Wednesday.The three media companies have not been charged in the U.S. case.Burzaco’s testimony has described bribes to officials in exchange for media rights throughout international soccer, including regular payments amounting to tens of millions of dollars for rights to the Copa America and Copa Libertadores tournaments.Jorge Delhon, an Argentine lawyer who formerly worked for the government-run soccer television program Futbol Para Todos (Soccer for All), committed suicide late Tuesday, hours after Burzaco testified that he took bribes, Argentine police said.The three former officials on trial in Brooklyn are Juan Ángel Napout, former president of the South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL and Paraguay’s soccer federation; Manuel Burga, former president of Peru’s soccer federation; and José Maria Marin, former president of Brazil’s soccer federation.Burzaco has testified that he was involved in bribe payments to all three. In opening statements Monday, their lawyers denied that they took bribes. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/soccer-fifa/televisa-globo-paid-fifa-bribes-for-2026-2030-world-cup-rights-trial-witness-idUSL1N1NL1LU'|'2017-11-16T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'77cf223be36b0b4fbea8bf350664bdfbbbe232ae'|'Volkswagen to invest $27 billion in core brand until 2022'|'Reuters TV United States November 18, 2017 / 12:11 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Volkswagen to invest $27 billion in core brand until 2022 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) will invest 22.8 billion euros ($26.9 billion) in its main car brand over the next five years, it said on Saturday, a day after it announced a spending program aimed at bolstering its position as a maker of electric cars. FILE PHOTO - Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Most of that sum, around 14 billion euros, will be spent in Germany, Volkswagen said, adding that one of the key measures included a 1 billion euro injection to transform the carmaker’s Zwickau plant into a pure e-mobility facility. “The investment package which has now been adopted will give a decisive boost to the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand,” Herbert Diess, Chief Executive of the Volkswagen brand and a VW management board member, said. Analysts see reviving the VW brand, which has long suffered from high staff and development costs, as crucial to the group’s ability to recover from a diesel emissions scandal that has gripped the carmaker. [nL8N1N51ST] The investments unveiled on Saturday are part of Volkswagen’s 72 billion euro spending plan for the 2018-2022 period that was announced on Friday. [nL8N1NN3IV] ($1 = 0.8480 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-investment/volkswagen-to-invest-27-billion-in-core-brand-until-2022-idUKKBN1DI0CB'|'2017-11-18T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'63ad7f3dfce413d50703ab6519f3e5e2f924c1c1'|'China''s home price growth picks up in October'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s new home prices rose at a slightly faster pace in October after gains had held steady the previous month, as prices remained resilient in the face of falling sales and a tighter liquidity environment.People look at miniature models of new apartments at a property sale centre in Yichang, Hubei province, November 21, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer/Files China’s housing market has seen a near two-year boom, giving the economy a major boost but stirring fears of a property bubble, with the government taking strong measures to curtail purchases.Authorities have been particularly focused on curbing speculative lending in the housing market and have continued a broad effort to defuse financial risks from a rapid build-up in debt in the economy.Average new home prices rose 0.3 percent month-on-month in October, compared with a 0.2 percent gain in September, according to Reuters calculations from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data out on Saturday.The number of cities surveyed that recorded monthly increases in prices increased in October, indicating broadening strength in markets nationwide.New home prices rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in October, down from September’s 6.3 percent increase as rapid increases subside in the face of government efforts to engineer a soft landing in the housing market.Data on Monday showed household loans, mostly for property purchases, fell to 450.1 billion yuan in October from 734.9 billion yuan in September.While monthly price rises peaked in September 2016 at 2.1 percent nationwide, they have softened only slowly, regaining momentum as buyers shrugged off each new measures to curb speculation.Small fishermen''s homes are seen in Daya Bay district next to new buildings under development in Huizhou in China''s Guangdong province, August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Clare Jim/Files Prices for new private homes in top-tier cities fell 0.1 percent in October, narrowing from a 0.2 percent decline in September, the NBS said in a note accompanying the data.In the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, prices fell 0.1 percent after being flat in September. They fell 3.3 percent from a year earlier.Property values rose 0.2 percent on-month in Shanghai after remaining unchanged in September.As mega-cities like Beijing impose increasingly stringent measures, speculators have moved to smaller centres this year where authorities offer cheap credit and impose few restrictions in the hope of clearing a glut of unsold homes.Property prices in tier-3 cities rose 0.3 percent from a 0.2 percent increase in September, the NBS said in the note.While market watchers do not anticipate significant price declines or a crash, weakness in property and construction is starting to drag on broader economic growth.Gross domestic product growth eased to 6.8 percent last quarter from 6.9 percent in the first half, with a marked deceleration in the property sector.Data on Tuesday showed property sales in October fell at the fastest rate in more than 2-1/2 years and housing starts slowed sharply, reinforcing views that China’s robust growth is starting to cool.The majority of the 70 cities surveyed by the NBS still reported a monthly price increase for new homes. Fifty reported higher prices in October from 44 in September.Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-homeprices/chinas-home-price-growth-picks-up-in-october-idINKBN1DI03D'|'2017-11-18T05:06:00.000+02:00'
'ecced8bb46d92f00ce25adda229246566ece5f9f'|'LPC: Thoma Bravo lines up US$375m of loans for ABC Financial buyout'|'NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - US health club software and payment processor ABC Financial Services’ leveraged buyout by private equity firm Thoma Bravo will be backed by US$375m of loans, according to three sources familiar with the matter.The financing is structured as a US$260m term loan with a first priority claim and a US$115m term loan with a second priority claim, the sources said.The loans will be provided by Jefferies, Macquarie Capital and Antares Capital, according to a press release.Thoma Bravo, Jefferies, Macquarie and Antares declined to comment. The company did not respond to requests for comment.The new loans will put the company’s net debt-to-Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, at 4.6 times through the senior tranche and 6.8 times through the junior tranche, based on US$54m of last 12 months’ Ebitda at September 30 and US$10m of balance sheet cash at close.While in excess of the six times leverage cap advanced by regulators including the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2013, the institutions providing financing for ABC Financial are not subject to the guidance and can espouse looser underwriting standards.Leverage over six times on software buyouts isn’t unusual, as the industry often generates strong enough cash flows to repay a minimum of 50% of total debt within the five- to seven-year window stipulated by regulators.The buyout, announced on November 8, is expected to close by the end of the year. (Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Michelle Sierra and Lynn Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/abc-financial-lbo-financing/lpc-thoma-bravo-lines-up-us375m-of-loans-for-abc-financial-buyout-idINL1N1NN17L'|'2017-11-17T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'492ab28cf69eb16614b1f01986f326d36d681b12'|'Exclusive: Germany''s top banks step up efforts to offload toxic shipping debt'|'LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Top national lenders Deutsche Bank <DBK Gn.DE> and Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) are stepping up efforts to offload distressed shipping loans, finance sources said, as the German banking system grapples with $100 billion in toxic debt from the sector.FILE PHOTO - Banners of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are pictured in front of a trader at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach While the shipping sector is showing signs of recovery after a near-decade long downturn, it is still struggling with an excess of ships and sluggish growth in global trade, which has led to some shipping companies going to the wall.German banks, once global leaders in ship financing, have written off billions of euros in loans to shipping companies, while other European lenders - facing capital pressure from regulators - have quit the business.Two finance sources with knowledge of the matter said Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship lender, is looking to ringfence at least $250 million of distressed shipping loans and package them in a unit within the group, with a view to selling the debt going forward.“The idea is to package them together in one part of the bank - given how many units there are in Deutsche - and then look to sell them off at a discount. This appears to be a new approach by them,” one of the sources said.It was unclear how long the process would take, but the source said further tranches of loans could also be transferred.A third finance source said Deutsche had been looking at warehousing distressed shipping loans for some time.The bank declined to comment.In its quarterly results last month, Deutsche said its loan exposure to the shipping sector was approximately 5 billion euros ($5.90 billion). “A high proportion of the portfolio is sub investment-grade rated in reflection of the prolonged challenging market conditions over recent years,” it said.In July 2016, sources told Reuters that Deutsche Bank was looking to sell at least $1 billion of shipping loans.However, Deutsche’s 2016 annual report showed its loan exposure to shipping was still around 5 billion euros - indicating little movement to date.German banks are estimated by shipping finance sources to be holding at least $100 billion in distressed shipping loans and shipping finance sources say much of this debt is unlikely to be recouped in full, meaning heavy losses on investments.Banks in Germany were particularly exposed to container shipping, a market that has been weak for years.In a separate move two finance sources said Commerzbank, Germany’s second biggest bank, had in recent weeks sold over $300 million of shipping loans to Germany’s Berenberg Bank and investment fund Cross Ocean Partners.Berenberg told Reuters it had purchased “middle three-digit shipping loans from Commerzbank in conjunction with a U.S. private equity/debt fund”, without providing further details.Commerzbank declined to comment, while Cross Ocean did not respond to requests for comment.Commerzbank said this month it had reduced its shipping portfolio by more than 30 percent - or 1.5 billion euros - in the first nine months of this year to 3.3 billion euros, and the bank was on track for a year-end target of around 3 billion euros.It added that it was considering running down its shipping portfolio “even faster than planned”.“The ship finance rundown will be almost completely finalised well before the original 2020 target,” Commerzbank’s Chief Financial Officer Stephan Engels told a November earnings call.This week U.S. buyout fund Cerberus [CBS.UL] acquired a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank, becoming one of the bank’s biggest shareholders.Cerberus has also built a 5 percent stake in Commerzbank - adding to further speculation of a merger between Germany’s top lenders.Sources told Reuters in September that Germany’s DZ Bank [DETGNY.UL] is looking for a quick sale of its shipping finance business DVB after its transport division booked provisions for bad loans of 445 million euros in the first half.($1 = 0.8477 euros)Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-banks-germany-exclusive/exclusive-germanys-top-banks-step-up-efforts-to-offload-toxic-shipping-debt-idUSKBN1DH1JF'|'2017-11-17T14:51:00.000+02:00'
'0c999383d35b2c0065e93abd0c2d8bac2d91cf90'|'Japan''s transport ministry orders Kobe Steel to improve plant management'|'Reuters TV United States  28 AM / a few seconds ago Japan''s transport ministry orders Kobe Steel to improve plant management Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s transport ministry said on Friday it has ordered scandal-hit Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) to improve management at one of its plants, as it struggles to restore confidence in its manufacturing following revelations of data falsification. Kobe Steel''s logo is seen through a fence at a facility of Kakogawa Works in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Measures taken to prevent a recurrence of wrongdoing at Kobe Steel’s Daian plant in central Japan were inadequate, the transport ministry said in a statement, pointing to a lack of concrete steps in areas like the alleviation of pressure from head office and the training of inspection staff. “We will work quickly to plan and implement the measures as required by the transport ministry,” a Kobe Steel spokeswoman said. The ministry inspected the Daian plant last month because of its role in supplying components for the domestically built Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) passenger aircraft under development by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7011.T ). No safety issues were found during that inspection, with Kobe Steel saying on Friday in its latest update that more than 90 percent of affected customers had found no immediate safety issues. On Wednesday, Kobe Steel’s Hatano plant, one of its main copper plants, was stripped of its industrial quality certifications after an investigation into its quality control. Kobe Steel has said that a lack of quality controls and a focus on profits was behind widespread data tampering that has impacted more than 500 companies and shaken up the supply chains of car and plane makers around the world. Reporting by Sam Nussey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal/japans-transport-ministry-orders-kobe-steel-to-improve-plant-management-idUKKBN1DH16A'|'2017-11-17T12:24:00.000+02:00'
'37aeb6c8da3dd15c64810130c4e0be0239300dcb'|'U.S. soybeans escape yield losses after signs of chemical damage -BASF'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - A weed killer blamed for damaging millions of acres of U.S. crops this summer did not reduce yields for most of the soybeans checked by BASF SE, which makes a version of the herbicide, the company said on Friday.A truck drives past a warehouse of German chemical company BASF in Ludwigshafen, April 23, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski BASF, the world’s third-largest maker of crop chemicals, investigated 787 complaints involving soybeans that showed signs of damage linked to sprayings of the herbicide that contains a chemical known as dicamba, according to the company.In most of those cases, there was no impact on yields, BASF said. The company said it did not have specific yield data.“In a few isolated cases, yield may have been affected,” BASF said.Farmers, government regulators and insurance companies have been waiting to assess yields of crops affected by dicamba herbicides since signs of damage linked to the chemical began appearing during the summer.The United States has faced a weed-killer crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based products, which drifted away from where they were applied on to nearby fields that were not intended to be sprayed.Farmers and weed scientists say the herbicides vaporize and can hurt the height and leaves of soybean plants that cannot tolerate dicamba.BASF and Monsanto Co, which make competing dicamba-based herbicides, say the products are safe when properly applied.Nationwide, 3.6 million acres of soybeans suffered harm from dicamba, and states launched 2,708 investigations into dicamba-related crop damage, according to data compiled by the University of Missouri.Missouri farmer Milas Mainord said his soybeans did not suffer yield losses after being affected by dicamba sprayed by a neighbor.In Arkansas, farmer Reed Storey said he believes dicamba damage caused yields to decline 5 to 10 bushels per acre, or about 15 percent, on some of the soybeans he grew.“It always upsets me when I don’t reach my full yield potential,” he said.Farmers and weed specialists said they remained worried about damage to gardens and trees located near farms that sprayed dicamba during the summer.Weed killers also should not cause signs of damage on fields of crops after drifting away from where they were sprayed, said Bob Hartzler, weed specialist for Iowa State University.“Even if it doesn’t affect the yield, it’s still not acceptable,” he said.Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-basf-se/u-s-soybeans-escape-yield-losses-after-signs-of-chemical-damage-basf-idUSKBN1DH1QT'|'2017-11-17T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'7c149e8ff25653cbf22a6ef339c62dc6fbce71d6'|'Major GoCompare investor touts for higher offer from Zoopla-owner ZPG'|'November 16, 2017 / 5:07 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Major GoCompare investor touts for higher offer from Zoopla-owner ZPG Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A top five shareholder in GoCompare said the British price comparison company should respond “positively” if a sweetened offer by Zoopla-owner ZPG were made in the region of 520 million pounds. FTSE 250-listed ZPG ( ZPG.L ) made an unsolicited 110 pence-per-share proposal in stock-and-cash on Nov. 8, valuing GoCompare at 460 million pounds. GoCompare rejected the offer, saying it undervalued the business. The GoCompare shareholder, who declined to be identified, told Reuters on Thursday that a deal with rival ZPG “will provide good synergies not available to either company on a standalone basis”. The shareholder said that an offer valuing GoCompare at about 125 pence per share should receive an encouraging reaction from the company’s board. ZPG made an initial approach in May that was for an all-stock deal also worth 110 pence per share. “The board of GoCo should react positively to a primarily paper offer in the region of 125 pence”, the shareholder said, adding that this price represented “a clear premium” to the level at which GoCompare chairman Peter Wood recently sold stock and also reflected “a fair change of control valuation”. Furthermore, offering mainly shares would allow GoCompare investors to “benefit from a rising Zoopla share price post the deal closing”, the shareholder added. ZPG, which already owns price comparison businesses Money.co.uk and uSwitch as well as the Zoopla property portal, is seeking to add GoCompare, a smaller rival that focuses mainly on insurance products which was demerged from Esure last year. ZPG’s attempt to expand its price comparison operations comes as the websites have grown in popularity in Britain as consumers increasingly shop around for the best deals. Competing websites are run by Moneysupermarket.com Group and BGL, which owns Comparethemarket.com. Last month, GoCompare chairman Wood sold 21.3m shares in the company at 100 pence apiece, although he remains its biggest investor with a stake of around 25 percent. He this week described ZPG’s 110 pence proposal as “highly opportunistic”. GoCompare stock was down 1 percent at 103.5 pence at 1550 GMT in London. The company declined to comment on the shareholder’s remarks. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gocompare-com-m-a-zpg/major-gocompare-investor-touts-for-higher-offer-from-zoopla-owner-zpg-idUKKBN1DG2HD'|'2017-11-16T19:06:00.000+02:00'
'8811741849675799ee9d734bc52233084cb81e37'|'Tesla to unveil electric big-rig truck in midst of Model 3 factory ''hell'''|'November 16, 2017 / 12:07 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago Tesla to unveil electric big-rig truck in midst of Model 3 factory ''hell'' Alexandria Sage 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) on Thursday will unveil a prototype electric big-rig truck, which may be able to drive itself, throwing the company into a new market even as it struggles to roll out an affordable sedan central to the company’s future. Chief Executive Elon Musk has described electric trucks as Tesla’s next effort to move the economy away from fossil fuels through projects including electric cars, solar roofs and power storage. Some analysts fear the truck, named Tesla Semi, will be an expensive distraction for Tesla, which is burning cash, has never posted an annual profit, and is in self-described “manufacturing hell” starting up production of the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Still, Tesla shares rose on Thursday. The young market for electric cargo trucks is mostly focused on medium duty, not the heavy big rig market Tesla is after. The power capacity, weight and cost of batteries all limit a truck’s ability, analysts say. Tesla arrives in a much more crowded field than when it developed electric cars. Manufacturers such as Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ), Navistar International Corp ( NAV.N ) and Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) are joining a host of start-ups racing to overcome the challenges of substituting batteries for diesel engines as regulators crack down on carbon dioxide and soot pollution. Reuters in August reported Tesla was working on self-driving technology for the truck. Several Silicon Valley companies see long-haul trucking as a prime early self-driving technology market, citing relatively consistent speeds, scarcity of cross-traffic on interstate highways and benefits of allowing drivers to rest while traveling. The truck would have a working range of 200 to 300 miles (320 to 480 km), at the low end of what is considered “long-haul” trucking, Reuters reported. Diesel trucks are capable of traveling up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on a single tank of fuel. A Tesla car showroom is seen in west London, Britain, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Musk, who has pushed back the debut twice, said this week the truck would "blow your mind clear out of your skull" when it was introduced in a webcast at www.tesla.com on Thursday at 8 p.m. PST (0400 GMT Friday). “Semi specs are better than anything I’ve seen reported so far. Semi eng/design team work is aces, but other needs are greater right now,” Musk tweeted in October, announcing the second delay. “It can transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte,” he added on Wednesday, posting a picture of a backlit, shadowed Semi with trapezoidal blue headlights. He has forecast large-scale production within a couple of years. Tesla would need to invest substantially to create a factory for those trucks. The company is currently spending about $1 billion per quarter, largely to set up the Model 3 factory, and is contemplating a factory in China to build cars. Charging and maintaining electric trucks that crisscross the country could be expensive and complex. A Tesla truck with a range of 300 to 450 miles would be able to address less than half of the total semi-truck market, estimated Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi in a note on Monday. “It is somewhat unclear why the company needs another major initiative ... on its already full plate,” wrote Sacconaghi. Shares of Tesla, which have risen 48 percent this year to make the company the No. 2 U.S. automaker by market value, were up 1.7 percent to $316.66 in midday trade in New York. Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Peter Henderson, Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-truck/tesla-to-unveil-electric-big-rig-truck-in-midst-of-model-3-factory-hell-idUKKBN1DG1LW'|'2017-11-16T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'a6080ac5dfc86308dab6db92cbf4c832200a612a'|'Shell''s long-standing head of crude trading steps down - memo'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:26 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Shell''s Muller quits as world''s biggest crude oil trader Ron Bousso , Dmitry Zhdannikov 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The world’s most powerful crude oil trader, Royal Dutch Shell’s ( RDSa.L ) head of oil trading Mike Muller, has stepped down after 29 years with the company, an internal announcement reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed. Staff members work at the booth of Royal Dutch Shell at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Muller, whose desk trades more oil than any rival, has relinquished his role with immediate effect and will leave at the end of the year “to pursue interests outside of Shell”. His departure follows the appointment of Andrew Smith as Shell’s new head of supply and trading earlier this year. Mark Quartermain, currently head of refined products trading, has been appointed Vice President Trading and Supply Crude with effect from Dec. 1. Under Muller, a Cambridge university graduate, Shell expanded trading aggressively, handling as much as 8 million barrels per day and often taking large position in core markets such as the North Sea, home to benchmark crude Brent. Smith recently said trading was Shell’s “nerve centre” as it shifts millions of barrels of crude and refined products from fields to its refineries and consumers. Though Shell does not disclose separately its revenue from supply trading, they often help offset declines in crude oil production when oil prices slump, as has been the case over the past three years, by making profits from price volatility and supply disruptions. Shell, the world’s second largest publicly-traded oil company, traded more oil than any of its top rivals such as BP ( BP.L ) or trading houses Vitol[VITOLV.UL] or Glencore( GLEN.L ). Shell also helped Mexico hedge its oil output for 2017 and in 2018 become the first oil major to join the programme, which has usually been dominated by big Wall Street banks. Muller’s replacement Quartermain has been responsible for driving the integration between trading, supply and commercial fuels since 2014, when Shell launched a reform of its downstream business which involved bringing trading closer to serving the wider company rather than pursuing its own profits. Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-moves/shells-long-standing-head-of-crude-trading-steps-down-memo-idUKKBN1DH1ZQ'|'2017-11-17T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'228890e276d7e54c58c926ffb54b6bd155efdc10'|'Hedge fund bet on Glencore backfires with $100 million loss'|' 22 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Hedge fund bet on Glencore backfires with $100 million loss Maiya Keidan , Barbara Lewis 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London hedge fund giant Lansdowne Partners lost $100 million (£75.7 million) from a long-term bet against Glencore ( GLEN.L ) this year after the spectacular recovery of the miner took some by surprise.   commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo For Lansdowne, that bet had generated returns in 2014 and 2015, when Glencore more than other major miners was dragged down by falling commodity prices and concerns about its level of debt. But so far this year, Glencore’s shares have risen 29 percent, from 278 to 354 pence, making it the top-performing global miner. Filings with British regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) showed Lansdowne was borrowing more than 0.5 percent of the stock on the expectation the price would fall - a tactic called “shorting” - between July 2014 and August 2017. During 2017, Lansdowne’s shorts in Glencore cost it 76.23 million pounds, Thomson Reuters Eikon data showed. A spokesman at Lansdowne   why the hedge fund continued to hold a short throughout 2016 and 2017, during which time investors regained faith in Glencore from its decisive action in late 2015 to restructure its debt and the sale of some assets. “A lot of people were really against Glencore (in 2014/2015),” said David Neuhauser, founder and managing director at Livermore Partners, which invested $2.6 million in the stock in September 2015 when the shares fell to 70 pence each and generated returns of $3.12 million to date. “People were extremely bearish and extremely confident that they had been right on the way down.” FILE PHOTO - UK hedge fund Lansdowne Partners Chairman Stuart Roden poses for a photograph before the Sohn Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel October 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner Back in 2015, large hedge funds Viking Global Investors, Passport Capital and Discovery Capital had joined in the short, riding a 2015 fall in Glencore’s value from 278.9 pence a share to 89.8 pence per share. All had largely bailed out of the trade by July 2016, FCA data showed, avoiding a 68.1 percent bounce back in Glencore stock that year. That left Lansdowne the only fund with a short position above a 0.5 percent disclosure threshold in 2017. Spokespeople at Viking, Passport and Discovery declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Total short positions in Glencore stock in 2017 remained far below 2016 levels, data from industry tracker FIS’ Astec Analytics showed, with just 2 percent of the stock available to be lent on loan at Nov. 15, from a high of 20 percent in 2016. But Glencore’s debt is still high relative to some peers and the company has a history of making debt-fuelled acquisitions. It is also the world’s biggest shipper of seaborne thermal coal, which many countries are trying to replace with greener fuels for electricity generation, and has a major presence in countries with a high degree of political risk. A majority of analysts rate Glencore a buy, but analysts at Liberum boutique investment bank have downgraded the stock to sell from hold. They still rate it the “top pick in the majors” as it has minimal exposure to iron ore and coking coal, vulnerable to the knock-on effects of an oversupplied steel sector. In a note announcing the downgrade, Liberum cited “the increasing risk of negative earnings momentum in the months ahead on falling copper and coal prices”. Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hedgefunds-glencore/hedge-fund-bet-on-glencore-backfires-with-100-million-loss-idUKKBN1DH1ZA'|'2017-11-17T17:21:00.000+02:00'
'ae58b8ef01f7617ba13cf42541dee37d62e8fb98'|'Fork talk lifts bitcoin to all-time high near $8,000'|'November 17, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Fork talk lifts bitcoin to all-time high near $8,000 Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit an all-time high just below $8,000 on Friday, on talk that a software upgrade whose suspension sent the cryptocurrency into a tailspin at the end of last week was, after all, going ahead within hours. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Talk that the upgrade - which could split or “fork” bitcoin into two versions - would go ahead was driven by a statement on the website of Coinbase, the world’s largest bitcoin company with operations in 32 countries. “The Bitcoin Segwit2x fork is expected to occur in the next six hours,” it said in a statement published at 1004 GMT. If a bitcoin clone were created, any holders would also in theory instantly become owners of the new spin-off. Bitcoin, generally highly volatile, has been on a particularly wild ride, sliding at the end of last week to as low as $5,555 after plans for Segwit2x were suspended, before bouncing more than 40 percent since Sunday. It reached as high as $7,997 in early Asian trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, before easing back a touch to trade broadly flat by 1115 GMT at $7,863. Market-watchers said speculation about the fork was driving bitcoin higher. If it went ahead as expected, holders of the cryptocurrency would be able to sell the spin-off at a profit if the market were to assign it any value. But in a post on the Medium blogging platform, the company’s communications director David Farmer said Coinbase did not expect the fork to successfully split bitcoin in two, as it lacked the necessary support from the network to do so. “Whenever people hear ‘fork’ nowadays the price jumps, as people hope to get the free dividend,” said Charles Hayter, founder of cryptocurrency data analysis site Cryptocompare. “There is also a resulting spike in demand for people entering bitcoin” from other cryptocurrencies. Farmer said the company was actively monitoring the situation and that all funds stored in Coinbase wallets remained safe. All bitcoin buying and selling would be suspended on Coinbase in the hour prior to the fork, which is expected between 1400 and 1600 GMT. Bitcoin is on track for its best week since July. For the year, it is up more than 700 percent. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/fork-talk-lifts-bitcoin-to-all-time-high-near-8000-idUKKBN1DH1F4'|'2017-11-17T14:26:00.000+02:00'
'c51f0a02b0c4e58964629dd3cff1f5d65b872a52'|'VW to spend over 34 billion euro on electric and self-driving cars'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:18 PM / Updated an hour ago Volkswagen accelerates push into electric cars with $40 billion spending plan Andreas Cremer , Jan Schwartz 5 Min Read WOLFSBURG/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) approved a 34 billion euro ($40 bln) spending plan on Friday that accelerates its efforts to become a global leader in electric cars. A Volkswagen Golf GTE is being charged during a workshop prior to Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The world’s largest carmaker by unit sales will spend the money on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022, it said after a meeting of its supervisory board. “With the planning round now approved, we are laying the foundation for making Volkswagen the world’s No. 1 player in electric mobility by 2025,” Chief Executive Matthias Mueller told a press conference. The carmaker’s projected spending is significantly bigger than its pledge two months ago that it would invest more than 20 billion euros on electric and self-driving cars through 2030. Electric and autonomous vehicles are widely seen as the keystones of future transport, but pioneers such as Tesla Inc and other manufacturers are still working out how to make money on them as poor charging infrastructure, high battery costs and electric vehicles’ still limited driving range weigh on customer demand. Until it admitted two years ago to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen had been slow to embrace electric cars and self-driving technology. But the emissions fraud, and new Chinese quotas for electric cars, prompted a strategic shift to zero-emission and self-driving technology, and Volkswagen now has one of the most ambitious targets in the industry. It has pledged to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030. The group said its total investments in electric vehicles capacity and projects will amount to about 72 billion euros by 2022, confirming an earlier Reuters story. To fund greater spending on electric vehicles, it will draw on cost savings in all areas of operations, including vehicle development, administration and manufacturing, as well as strong cash reserves. Its net liquidity still stood at around 24 billion euros after nine months even though about 17 billion euros of funds have been paid out to cover costs for its dieselgate scandal. VW’s core autos division has made cost savings of about 1.9 billion euros since the start of this year, nearly meeting budgeted cost cuts for the full year. Mueller said VW will maintain spending discipline in order to shoulder the increased investments in new technologies while it grapples with billions of dollars of costs for its emissions scandal. COST CONTROL The carmaker aims to cut overall spending on factories, equipment and technology to 6 percent of automotive sales by 2020 from 6.9 percent last year, counting on growing revenue and deliveries in coming years. Wolfsburg-based VW wants to increase the share of electrified vehicles to 3 million cars, or a quarter of group deliveries, by 2025. The forecast assumes that group auto sales will keep growing to reach about 12 million a year by the middle of next decade from 10.3 million last year. “Investors should welcome a commitment towards more contemporary investment discipline,” said Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst who has an “outperform” rating on VW shares. “So far this year, VW has made good progress, lowering both capex and cash R&D costs.” Works council chief Bernd Osterloh said spending targets approved on Friday would strengthen VW’s 10 German factories, noting that 3 billion euros alone will be invested at the base plant in Wolfsburg, including to prepare for the launch of the next-generation Golf hatchback. Investments of more than 1 billion euros will be assigned to a plant in Zwickau, eastern Germany to ramp up electric-car production at the site, which in future will only make zero-emission vehicles, VW said. Output of the combustion-engine Golf hatchback as well as the Golf and Passat station wagons will be shifted from Zwickau to the underutilized factories at Wolfsburg and Emden, VW said, confirming a Reuters story. “It was long and hard bargaining to safeguard the interests of the employees but I think we can live well with the compromise,” Osterloh said. ($1 = 0.8481 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-investment-electric/volkswagen-to-spend-more-than-40-billion-on-electric-cars-autonomous-driving-idUKKBN1DH1M8'|'2017-11-17T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'77c2b0195003b92d19e530f6d6793ee993e5dc34'|'Toyota to consider selling locally-developed EVs in China'|'GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor ( 7203.T ) said it would consider selling locally designed and manufactured all-electric vehicle models in China, as it looks to expand its EV lineup and comply with Beijing’s upcoming new-energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales quotas.FILE PHOTO: Toyota logos are seen at City Toyota in Daly City, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid cars that come into effect from 2019. It has an ambitious target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has signaled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol-engine cars.This seismic shift towards NEVs has prompted a flurry of electric car deals and new launches as manufacturers worldwide race for a share of the world’s largest auto market.“To respond to expanding demand for EVs, more widely and more comprehensively, we have begun considering the possibility of having our China joint-venture partners provide us with EVs,” Hiroji Onishi, Toyota’s head of China operations, said at a press briefing at the Guangzhou auto show on Friday.Foreign car manufacturers are allowed to operate in China by forming joint ventures with Chinese partners. Toyota’s joint venture partners in the country are China FAW Group Corp [SASACJ.UL] and Guangzhou Automobile Group.Apart from the all-electric battery car models developed by its local joint ventures, Toyota also plans to launch an EV model, designed in Japan, in China in 2020.But the EV engineered in Japan would have to be produced in China to qualify for NEV credits, but it was not immediately clear whether Toyota planned to locally manufacture the EV.When China’s green car quotas take effect in 2019, automakers will need to accumulate credits by producing and selling enough NEVs to hit a threshold equivalent to 10 percent of annual sales. That level would rise to 12 percent for 2020.Toyota said it was also studying the feasibility of selling hydrogen fuel-cell commercial vehicles in China.It began testing hydrogen fuel-cell cars in China in late October as part of a study to determine the feasibility of selling its Mirai hydrogen electric passenger car in China.“We plan to continue to study fuel-cell cars’ feasibility in China and have decided expand its scope to include fuel-cell buses,” Onishi said.Reporting By Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-toyota/toyota-to-consider-selling-locally-developed-evs-in-china-idUSKBN1DH073'|'2017-11-17T03:59:00.000+02:00'
'9c2271c556d2b84a65f6d3cbd3da78a87131e5ce'|'Brexit deters some international staff from London tech firms - survey'|'November 16, 2017 / 6:13 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Brexit deters some international staff from London tech firms - survey Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - One in three tech companies in London have seen talks with potential international hires fall through due to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, according to a survey from industry body Tech London Advocates. As a result nearly two-thirds of London’s tech entrepreneurs believe Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has already damaged the international reputation of the city’s tech sector, although they still said it was the best place for start ups. Britain’s digital sector has been vocal in its concern that Brexit, and in particular ending free movement of labour, could threaten London’s status as the leading European destination for tech start-ups and investment by major internet groups. Companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon and Snapchat have announced plans to expand in London since the Brexit vote, but have said they need to be able to attract the best people. Tech London Advocates, a private sector network of 5,400 tech founders in Britain, said one in three companies had struggled to secure an international hire which they attributed to Brexit, according to a survey of 113 of its members. But 60 percent said they still believed London was the best place to start a tech company. “Entrepreneurs are defined by their ability to turn challenges into opportunities and the sentiment across London’s tech sector is increasingly one of determination, conviction and ambition,” said Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates. “Slowing down access to European talent will make growing a tech company harder, but London is focussed on strengthening its relationship with tech hubs across Europe and around the world that are already fuelling our investment pipeline.” Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday that Britain would double the number of visas available to exceptional workers in areas like tech and science to 2,000 to help keep the country ahead after Brexit. Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-tech/brexit-deters-some-international-staff-from-london-tech-firms-survey-idINKBN1DG0J7'|'2017-11-16T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'c6767056c3f72ded4291d976b6757497cf25a158'|'Amex launches blockchain-based business payments using Ripple'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:10 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Amex launches blockchain-based business payments using Ripple Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - American Express ( AXP.N ) has introduced instant blockchain-based payments using Ripple, a fintech start-up, for U.S. corporate customers sending funds to UK-based businesses that bank with Santander UK STN.SN, the companies said on Thursday. The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company American Express (AXP) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson American Express said its FX International Payments (FXIP) business had partnered with Ripple to provide real-time, trackable non-card payments from the United States to Britain. Customers are already using the service, the companies said, and it would be extended in the future. This marks one of the first major uses of blockchain, a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet that is best known as the system underpinning bitcoin. Financial firms hope the nascent technology can reduce the cost and complexity of burdensome processes such as securities settlement and international payments, but many say widespread use of the technology is still several years away. ”American Express has a long history of integrating new technologies...,” said American Express’s chief information officer Marc Gordon, in a statement. “This collaboration with Ripple and Santander represents the next step forward on our blockchain journey, evolving the way we move money around the world.” San Francisco-based Ripple, whose main focus is blockchain-based cross-border payments, works with many big banks and is backed by firms including Standard Chartered Plc ( STAN.L ), Accenture Plc (ACN.N) and SBI Holdings. The company is in a legal battle with rival blockchain startup R3 Holdco LLC over an options contract to purchase Ripple’s digital currency XRP. XRP has increased in value by more than 30 times as other cryptocurrencies have also soared. “Transfers that used to take days will be completed in real time, allowing money to move as fast as business today,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a statement. (This version of the story corrects 7th paragraph to show Ripple HQ is in San Francisco, not New York) Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-amex-ripple/amex-launches-blockchain-based-business-payments-using-ripple-idUSKBN1DG1SX'|'2017-11-16T15:09:00.000+02:00'
'd509a43d97ef11c08d67fd979e6e385ee36c14a9'|'Google buys plot near Apple''s planned Danish data centre'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:53 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Google buys plot near Apple''s planned Danish data center Reuters Staff 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google said it has bought a plot of land in southern Denmark adjacent to a planned Apple Inc data center to make sure it has the option of building one there too. The Google app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Apple said in July it would spend around $950 million to build a center with a planned opening in 2019. If Google follows suit it would make the area one of the world’s largest data center hubs, the local municipality Aabenraa said. “This is great news,” Denmark’s energy minister Lars Christian Lilleholt told Reuters on Friday. “It signals that Google has plans in Denmark, and I think it’s because we have some of Europe’s lowest power prices for companies, some of the greenest energy, and a high security of supply,” he said in a telephone interview. Facebook in January announced plans to build a data center in Odense in central Denmark, its third outside of the United States. Besides its new 131 hectare (324 acres) plot in Aabenraa Google also owns a 73 plot in Fredericia, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Aabenraa. Google has no plans for the lots yet, but wanted to secure the possibility to expand its data centers in Europe if required, a spokeswoman told Reuters. ($1 = 6.3073 Danish crowns)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-denmark/google-buys-plot-near-apples-planned-danish-data-center-idUKKBN1DH22C'|'2017-11-17T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'ff8a108fff5f68d3558061467b54c92b75db3043'|'Europe''s drug industry waits for white smoke in Brussels'|' 38 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Europe''s drug industry waits for white smoke in Brussels Gabriela Baczynska , Alastair Macdonald 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - It may be a cross between the Eurovision Song Contest, a papal conclave and a social club raffle but a ballot among EU ministers on Monday could hurt Europe’s pharmaceutical industry and the health of millions. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is seen in London, Britain April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo It will fix the new home of the European Medicines Agency, which must leave London by 2019 when Britain leaves the European Union; most of its 900 staff may refuse to move to many of the 19 cities in the running, the EMA warns. Replacing them would delay drug approvals and patient safety checks. Yet the result, diplomats agree, is utterly unpredictable; months of horse-trading on issues unrelated to healthcare will end up in hours of haggling between secret ballots in Brussels on Monday night. It could even come down to drawing lots. “Nobody really knows what is going to happen,” one diplomat said. “They will be locked there for hours ... You can try to secure some backing but it’s a secret ballot and you have no way of checking whether what you agreed was honoured.” The fate of the 160-strong, London-based European Banking Authority (EBA) will also be decided at the meeting of EU affairs ministers from the other 27 member states meet. But it is the promise of spin-off jobs and travel billions for the city that the EMA will transform into a hub for Europe’s medical industry which is firing up intense national bidding rivalries. The extent of the field is, in the memory of EU officials, probably unprecedented. Early talk of the EU executive winnowing down a short list on the basis of “objective” criteria went unheeded as governments have waded in for a share of the spoils. Milan, Amsterdam and Barcelona campaigned hard. But there is a push from eastern states, whose tardy membership means they host fewer offices. Slovak capital Bratislava is a contender even though an EMA survey of its staff found most of them might quit if posted to the bloc’s poor eastern regions. MULTIPLE BALLOTS A first ballot, to start from about 4 p.m.(1500 GMT), will see ministers rank their top three choices. Unless a majority makes the same first choice there will be a second vote among the top picks then a third-round runoff. If it is still tied, the Estonian meeting chairman will simply draw lots. The six countries not bidding for either agency have been courted assiduously and may seek favours elsewhere. Luxembourg and the Czech Republic are not bidding for the EMA but want others’ votes in their bids for the EBA. Whoever wins the EMA must then drop out of the running for the Banking Authority. Giving an example of how the EU’s interlinked matrix of decision-making affects such votes, several diplomats said Slovakia might trade any disappointment at not getting the EMA into support for its finance minister taking the chair of the Eurogroup, which runs policy for the single currency area. Senior officials liken the process to Europe’s annual TV music schlock-fest, when the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is often determined by viewers phoning in votes for acts from like-minded neighbouring states and historic allies. British bookmaker Ladbrokes has Milan the 2-1 favourite to secure the EMA, with Bratislava on 3-1 and Amsterdam 7-1. For the EBA, Frankfurt leads at 6-4 followed by Vienna and Dublin. In Brussels, however, seasoned diplomats hesitate to quote odds: “The most likely result is one that will be perverse,” said one, recalling previous upsets behind closed doors. Another referred to closeted cardinals electing popes at the Vatican: “In the end,” he said, “We will get the white smoke.” (The story was refiled to delete a repeated sentence) Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-agencies/europes-drug-industry-waits-for-white-smoke-in-brussels-idUKKBN1DH1V6'|'2017-11-17T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'2c583774b33415925efb7357c6a2a6f4b75496b4'|'Tesla''s unfettered ambition to strain finances but investors unfazed'|'(Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares rose on Friday as analysts questioned how soon Chief Executive Elon Musk will have to ask creditors and shareholders for more capital to fund development of an electric semi truck, a new roadster and accelerated production of a high-volume electric sedan. The Tesla Roadster 2. Tesla/via REUTERS Musk unveiled one flashy strategy for generating cash during the launch event Thursday for the Semi truck, surprising the audience with a prototype of a new generation of the Tesla Roadster. Musk promised the Roadster will be the fastest production car available. The first 1,000 cars will cost $250,000 each, paid in full upfront, with later models starting at $200,000. Those deposits would put $250 million into Tesla’s cash drawer today for a car that is likely to go into production in 2020. Musk did not offer details about how Tesla would generate additional funds to deliver the semi truck and the roadster, and overcome production problems that have hobbled production of the company’s high-volume sedan, the Model 3. Tesla spent $1.1 billion on its auto business in the third quarter, and expects expenses of $1 billion in the current one. It had about $3.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30. At the current cash-burn rate, it would likely be down to about $1 billion in cash by the end of the first quarter. “In essence, all last night’s event did was add to Elon Musk’s shopping list of things he needs to spend money on at a time when the company is having difficulty making its base vehicle (Model 3),” said Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne. The Tesla Semi. Tesla/via REUTERS Despite such concerns, Tesla shares rose as much as 2 percent in early New York trading, and were up about 1.6 percent at mid-day. Shares in heavy truck diesel engine maker Cummins Inc fell 4 percent, while shares in incumbent Class-8 truck makers Paccar Inc and Navistar International Corp also fell. Tesla this month pushed back its target for volume production on the Model 3 sedan - widely seen as crucial to the company’s long-term future - by about three months to fix production bottlenecks. Osborne said Tesla’s cumulative capex announcements now exceed $15 billion to $20 billion over the next few years. Some analysts fear the trucks will be an expensive distraction for the company, which has never posted an annual profit and is in self-described “manufacturing hell” related to the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois estimated that Tesla would need to raise $2.5 billion to $3 billion to keep production running smoothly. “Longer term, we continue to think the capital intensity of the business model will keep returns below best-in-class auto(makers),” Houchois said in a research note. Tesla’s last debt sale in August was well-received in a hot bond market, allowing the company to increase the offering to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion. But the bond has underperformed in the secondary market, suggesting it could be more challenging for Tesla to tap the high-yield debt market again so soon. While shares in the company are up more than 40 percent this year, they have fallen 20 percent from record highs in mid-September. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-truck-research/teslas-unfettered-ambition-to-strain-finances-but-investors-unfazed-idUSKBN1DH1M4'|'2017-11-17T15:14:00.000+02:00'
'27eb15ffbe32bfc8e38e15e9e9661d5e56ac070c'|'Analysts flee Wall Street with gallows humour as research changes loom'|'November 17, 2017 / 11:08 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Analysts flee Wall Street with gallows humor as research changes loom Olivia Oran 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Having covered financial stocks at big and small banks for more than two decades, David Hilder was accustomed to the ebb and flow of Wall Street job cuts and hiring sprees. A souvenir license plate is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly But he threw in the towel as an analyst last year after deciding customers simply will not pay what it costs to produce research in the years ahead, especially after a regulation called MiFID II upended the pricing model. “It certainly seemed that the difficulty of being paid for research was going to increase, not decrease,” said Hilder, who is now trying to reinvent himself as an investment banker. Many share Hilder’s grim outlook. Reuters spoke to dozens of current and former analysts who moved to independent research shops or investment firms, joined companies in industries they covered, or have launched new careers or are considering doing so, after nearly a decade of cost-cutting that is likely to accelerate under MiFID. Major global investment banks have slashed their equity research budgets by more than half, from a peak of $8.2 billion in 2008 to $3.4 billion in 2017, according to Frost Consulting. The top 10 banks are expected to cut those budgets by another 30 percent in the near term, due largely to MiFID, McKinsey projects. The rule handed down by European regulators, aimed at boosting transparency on costs, is changing the way brokerages can charge for research. Instead of offering free reports and advice in exchange for some minimum amount of trading business, as they do now, brokerages will have to charge separately for research products and services. Although U.S. regulators are not immediately forcing firms here to comply, many banks are implementing changes globally. Pricing models rolled out recently by Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) charge thousands of dollars an hour for meetings or phone calls, and tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for basic research. The change has put renewed pressure on senior analysts, who typically earn anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million a year, to prove their worth. The heads of research at two Wall Street banks told Reuters they measure productivity by logging analysts’ phone calls, emails and meetings, then gauge how much customers actually value their advice with methods like tracking how many messages they open. That helps bosses decide who should be cut and who the real stars are, industry sources said. Management teams worry that top analysts and young up-and-comers they want to keep will follow colleagues out the door. “In some areas you are seeing money being thrown at talented analysts ... to make sure they stay through the MiFID implementation period,” said Erick Davis, chief executive officer of Autonomous Research, a boutique shop not attached to a brokerage. But ultimately, he said, “the asset management world doesn’t need 30 analysts covering a stock.” PHONE CALL HAGGLING The dynamic has created a morbid atmosphere in research divisions, where analysts said it feels like the “Sword of Damocles” is hanging over their heads. On earnings calls in October, analysts asked bank chief executives how the research model would change, effectively checking in on their own jobs. Evercore ISI analyst Glenn Schorr recently titled a research note “Writing My Obituary,” with a follow-up called “Stay of (my) Execution.” “For the last few years, it’s been all about morgue humor like ‘flat is the new up’ and ‘no bonus, but at least you get to keep your job,''” said one former analyst who recently left a large bank but would not be quoted by name to avoid upsetting former or future employers. “Contrast that with Silicon Valley,” he continued. “It’s not even the money; it’s the optimism that I envy. Those guys are building a brighter future and this just feels like death.” Some have decided to launch career makeovers. Sean McGowan spent 25 years covering consumer stocks at small and mid-size brokers before losing his job early last year amid broad cost-cutting. After considering analyst roles at other banks, he took a job at an investor relations firm. “The more I started to do research on the impact of MiFID and what was likely to happen to the industry, the more I realized that going back to that world would be like swimming upstream,” said McGowan. “A lot of the jobs on the sell-side are going to disappear and inevitably some of the more enjoyable parts will be peeled back. I don’t want to haggle someone about the price of a phone call.” Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-banks-research/analysts-flee-wall-street-with-gallows-humor-as-research-changes-loom-idUKKBN1DH18B'|'2017-11-17T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'2c3f42b4340667b2eb5fa0d1d3ceb7b4171b1c4b'|'Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward'|'November 18, 2017 / 2:41 PM / in 7 hours Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said on Saturday that it was recalling about 900,000 minivans because second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched after being adjusted. Honda Motor''s logo is seen on Civic sedan car at its showroom in Tokyo, Japan October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The Japanese automaker said the recall covered 2011-2017 Honda Odyssey minivans, all but 2,000 of which are in North America, and that it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue. Honda said it was working on a recall fix to help ensure proper latching and, in the interim, had posted a detailed instruction sheet on how to ensure seats are properly latched. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/honda-recall/honda-recalling-900000-minivans-because-seats-may-tip-forward-idINKBN1DI0HT'|'2017-11-18T16:38:00.000+02:00'
'6d05bb684bc25659122caa852fe2ef1193dfe7a7'|'RPT-Spotify buys online recording studio Soundtrap'|'(Repeats to additional subscribers)STOCKHOLM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify has bought online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap, it said on Friday, declining to give financial details of the deal.Stockholm-based Soundtrap allows its subscribers to have an online music studio and create music together with other people in real time, its website says.“Soundtrap’s rapidly growing business is highly aligned with Spotify’s vision of democratising the music ecosystem,” Spotify said in a statement.Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators towards the end of this year to list in the first or second quarter next year, sources said in September.Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/spotify-soundtrap/rpt-spotify-buys-online-recording-studio-soundtrap-idINL8N1NN41Q'|'2017-11-17T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'c26dd790f0445e53c59b42d336ecb5074623d6be'|'U.S. tax plan could cause sugar high, then economic slump'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:40 PM / a few seconds ago U.S. tax plan could cause sugar high, then economic slump Megan Davies , Jennifer Ablan 6 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Slashing taxes may give the U.S. economy a temporary boost but the “sugar rush” may cause deeper problems ahead, investors at the Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit in New York said. An aide adjusts a sign prior to a news conference announcing the passage of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein U.S. equities have rallied this year, partly on hopes that promises by President Donald Trump to cut taxes will come to fruition. But while investors at the summit thought a cut would continue to boost equities and help corporations, some questioned whether the timing was right and worried about the impact on the country’s deficit. “I worry about a sugar rush which you crash harder from,” said Gregory Peters, a managing director and senior investment officer at PGIM Fixed Income. “I don’t know if it’s necessary at this point.” Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate earlier this month unveiled dueling proposals to slash corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent. The House passed its version on Thursday, and a Senate committee voted to send its version to the full Senate, which will take it up after the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. Peters said the United States is at a “point in the cycle where fiscally you’re supposed to get your house in order,” adding that if it deteriorates fiscally “your fiscal impulse when you need it the most isn’t available.” The U.S. economy has been showing steady but underwhelming annual growth since the last recession in 2007-2009 while the S&P 500 Index .SPX has risen around 15 percent. While investors typically are not forecasting a near-term recession they see a risk from expanded stock market valuations which could cause a correction and have a ripple effect on the economy. While on the campaign trail in 2016, Trump forecast a “very massive recession” in the United States. Joachim Fels, global economic advisor and a managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), said a recession could be hastened if Congress implemented tax cuts that overstimulate the economy, and used up bullets that lawmakers could use to fight the next downturn. He said it could “pave the way for a short boom now ... but possibly a recession in 2019 or 2020.” “I don’t think we need a tax cut at this stage,” said Fels. “A tax cut at this stage is raising the risk of overstimulating the economy.” Both measures would add $1.5 trillion over 10 years to the annual budget deficit and the $20 trillion national debt, according to congressional tax analysts. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Thursday a new tax code would be “rocket fuel” for the economy. BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ) Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said his worry is the potential for a long-term problem from the foreign funding of U.S. debt. China was the largest non-U.S. holder of Treasuries while Japan was the second-largest in August, according to the latest data from the Treasury Department. “These nations (China and Japan) are going to be moving from a saving society to a consuming society as people age,” said Fink. “My fear is the dependency of foreign ownership of our debt should be an alarming issue. Demographics will kick into these other countries.” A tax cut as planned could also be bad for consumer spending, Avenue Capital Group co-founder Marc Lasry forecast. “For corporations it is (good), but I actually think it’s negative for the consumer,” Lasry said, because some people would see tax bills rise. While Republicans insist their goal is to help the middle class, Democrats have pointed to the loss of popular deductions as proof the legislation was an assault on those taxpayers. The Senate plan would also guarantee permanent tax cuts for corporations but only temporarily lower tax bills for individuals and small businesses. Still, there remains skepticism that a plan will advance. The efforts have been complicated by the proposals differing on several key fronts, raising the question on how realistic it will be to reconcile the House and Senate versions of tax reform. IMMEDIATE BOOST An analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers concluded lower corporate taxes would motivate companies to invest in new machines and hire more skilled workers. However, a number of U.S. corporations are saying they would use a tax reform windfall to buy back shares, retire debt and other shareholder-friendly moves. ”In general it should be helpful to us,“ Joel Greenblatt, a hedge fund and mutual fund manager at Gotham Asset Management in New York. The companies we like ... pay lots of taxes and if they pay less that’s good.” Avenue Capital Group’s Lasry forecast that the market would likely pull back if tax reform failed to materialize. The Senate plan produced late on Tuesday would guarantee permanent tax cuts for corporations but only temporarily lower tax bills for individuals and small businesses. Overall, Mario Gabelli, chief executive officer of GAMCO Investors Inc, said he anticipates a wave of merger and acquisition activity in all industries as details of the U.S. tax plan become clearer. “You will have global lovemaking at an accelerated rate,” he said. “Companies are ready to grow. ... They just need to have what the rules of engagement are.” Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits For other news from Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit, click here Additional reporting by Jon Stempel; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-investment-summit-tax/u-s-tax-plan-could-cause-sugar-high-then-economic-slump-idINKBN1DH211'|'2017-11-17T17:32:00.000+02:00'
'a9be913f4b1085eb73c46ffe822165a82849dd38'|'No date set yet for Keystone pipeline restart - TransCanada spokesman'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:06 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago No date set yet for Keystone pipeline restart - TransCanada spokesman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 17 (Reuters) - No date has been set yet for a restart of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone pipeline, which was shut down on Thursday after a 5,000-barrel crude oil leak in South Dakota, a company spokesman said on Friday. “We regret the impact this has caused customers and we are working to resolve this incident as quickly and safely as possible,” spokesman Terry Cunha added. (Reporting by Nia Williams Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/transcanada-keystone-spill-restart/no-date-set-yet-for-keystone-pipeline-restart-transcanada-spokesman-idUSL1N1NN1H9'|'2017-11-17T21:02:00.000+02:00'
'41df46eeb9187c95ce1b44568d3e1799e9ce419e'|'Exclusive - Mattel snubs Hasbro''s latest acquisition approach - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 9:42 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Exclusive - Mattel snubs Hasbro''s latest acquisition approach - sources Greg Roumeliotis 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Mattel Inc ( MAT.O ) has rebuffed Hasbro Inc’s ( HAS.O ) latest takeover approach, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, casting uncertainty over the potential combination of the world’s two largest toy companies. FILE PHOTO: Mattel''s Wonder Woman doll is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S. on February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Mattel’s rebuttal indicates that Margaret Georgiadis, who took over as the company’s chief executive in February, is seeking to drive a hard bargain in negotiations with Hasbro, even though Mattel’s stock has significantly underperformed that of Hasbro in the last year. Mattel has informed Hasbro its proposal undervalues the company and does not take sufficiently into account the potential for regulators to reject the deal based on antitrust concerns, the sources said. The terms Hasbro has proposed could not be learnt, and it is not clear whether negotiations between the two companies will continue. The companies have engaged in multiple rounds of deal talks over the last two decades. The three sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Hasbro did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Mattel declined to comment. A combination of the two companies would create a toy powerhouse, uniting Hasbro’s My Little Pony, Monopoly and Nerf brands with Mattel’s Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels toys. It would give Hasbro more pricing power to negotiate with entertainment studios over TV and movie franchises. Hasbro and Mattel have had talks several times over the years, including in 1996 and again sometime in late 2015. FILE PHOTO: The Mattel company logo is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Hasbro’s more recent outreach to Mattel was from a position of strength. Before the Wall Street Journal reported Hasbro’s approach last week, Mattel shares were down 47 percent year-to-date, while Hasbro shares were up 18 percent. Mattel has a market capitalisation of $6.3 billion, while Hasbro has a market capitalisation of $11.8 billion. The September bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us, the biggest U.S. toy retailer, highlighted the struggles facing the sector, including online competition and children’s shifting preference for electronics over traditional toys. Mattel has pointed to that bankruptcy as a reason for weak sales. In June, Georgiadis outlined a new strategy for the company that called for expanding its brands and accelerating growth in emerging markets. Two weeks ago, the El Segundo, California-based company suspended its dividend and it would miss its full-year revenue forecast. Hasbro, which is trying to diversify its revenue stream, also sought to buy U.S. movie studio and entertainment company Lions Gate Entertainment Corp ( LGFa.N ) this year, but those talks ended without a deal, Reuters reported in August. That deal would have given Hasbro a direct pipeline into Hollywood, with more movies and TV shows tied to its toy brands. In 2014, Hasbro held merger discussions with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, the studio behind “Shrek,” but DreamWorks was subsequently bought by Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ). Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mattel-m-a-hasbro-exclusive/exclusive-mattel-snubs-hasbros-latest-acquisition-approach-sources-idINKBN1DF334'|'2017-11-15T23:39:00.000+02:00'
'141467d136a2c4ffeffbcad350acb63deaebc513'|'How bots are helping businesses to engage with customers - Connected for growth'|'After enduring the heartache of splitting from her long-time beau, Kermit the Frog, in 2015, Miss Piggy was never going to retire solemnly into the shadows.Instead, the self-proclaimed diva soon found herself in Disney’s employ, dishing out lively dating advice – with the odd word of French thrown in for good measure – on Facebook Messenger.The marketing campaign, launched in 2016, was an enormously successful – and entertaining – example of Messenger’s potential, via a bot in this case, to boost brand engagement.Disney is not the only the household name attempting to harness Messenger to its advantage. Last April also saw CNN launch a bot, in a bid to capitalise on a strong existing Facebook presence (over 21.5 million people worldwide) and offer a more personalised news service.With the New York Times and Fox News having also availed themselves of Messenger bots, the swing towards off-platform journalism is gaining more momentum than ever before.Messenger and SMEs But Messenger isn’t the sole preserve of larger brands. SMEs and entrepreneurs have also latched on to its potential to better connect with customers.Kate Beavis, from Cranfield, Bedfordshire, is the founder of Magpie Wedding , which runs wedding fairs across the country. She credits Messenger with helping her to grow her customer base to 24,000 followers on Facebook.“It’s become an entry point for potential exhibitors,” she explains. “More and more people are finding me through Messenger.“It’s easier to send a message and to then continue a conversation, rather than email, because customers then have to go and find your email address or phone up, which takes that little bit longer.”Beavis, who also works as a vintage design consultant, cites the example of a client who recently came off Messenger. From being able to communicate within a matter of seconds, she had to revert to sending emails to the customer – a frustrating undertaking, especially when time is of the essence.“It was an absolute nightmare,” she says. “I couldn’t get hold of her, and I couldn’t phone either, because she was busy. I needed an instant response, but her response time was around 24 hours.“If she had been on Messenger, my message would have been sent through to her phone as a notification.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest A strong social media presence coupled with Messenger - and bots - offers an easy way for customers to contact brands, using a medium they’re familiar with. Photograph: Facebook Business A business driver Helen Rehm, managing director of HER Accountants in Liverpool, agrees that Messenger’s relative simplicity and informality has helped drive business since she started using it in April 2016.In allowing clients to get in contact through “a medium they are already used to using socially”, her firm is putting paid to the starched-collar reputation once attributed to the profession.“I know from speaking to our clients that some of them find the old-fashioned approaches to accountancy quite daunting,” says Rehm. “Having to visit an office or make a formal phonecall – some of them find that a bit overwhelming at times.”Since launching the website for her own luxury shoe company, Shoes by Shaherazad , in April 2016, Shaz Umbreen has seen her business grow to the point that she ran out of stock this July.Umbreen, who is based in Birmingham, believes that her growing list of clients and use of Messenger is no coincidence.“I sell online only, so Messenger has been really important,” she says. “Sometimes, people go on your Facebook page, but they don’t always know the best and easiest ways of buying stuff online. With Messenger, they can send over their queries. I think they prefer that to ringing up on the landline.”London property tech startup Hubble – which helps small and medium-sized businesses rent office space without the use of a broker – uses live chat software that directs Messenger messages through to its support team. According to Adam Maskell, Hubble’s head of customer success, lead generation has increased by 100% since it started using the platform at the end of last year.“It provides an opportunity for our customers, who are often on the go, to reach out to us from a place that is convenient for them,” he says. “They can tell us what they’re looking for in a quick, informal setting. This is evidenced in our 100% response rate, and two-minute response time.”As for bots, some argue they are not a priority for smaller businesses, which take pride in differentiating themselves from bigger brands through personal interaction (none of the examples mentioned above currently use artificial intelligence).Automated interaction Some smaller firms, however, are becoming less averse to the idea of dealing with customer enquiries through a mix of human contact and automation.Amsterdam-based startup Holiday Sitters , which matches expats, tourists, and business travellers with babysitters who speak their own language, is in the process of doing just that.The group expects its expansion into most major European cities over the next two years to generate more customer traffic – which could require a more bilateral approach.“At the moment, we can deal with the volume of customer service enquiries manually, with personal interaction, but we are working on a fully automated chatbot using the Facebook platform,” says co-founder Ela Slutski.“We’ll always offer a route to talk to a customer service agent directly. The bot will be most suited to providing general information and entertainment.”Topics connected for growth advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/connected-for-growth/2017/nov/02/how-bots-are-helping-businesses-to-engage-with-customers'|'2017-11-02T23:30:00.000+02:00'
'b36fcd031d0db680a7421fb2c9ded00632d8c87a'|'Prudential seeks larger slice of life in China as Asia drives profit'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 4:52 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Prudential seeks larger slice of life in China as Asia drives profit Noor Zainab Hussain , Carolyn Cohn , Simon Jessop 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Prudential ( PRU.L ) expects its Asian business to double in size every five to seven years, the British life insurer said after reporting the region drove a 17 percent rise in new business profit during the first nine months of 2017. A man walks past a Prudential sign outside offices in the City of London March 27, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor Britain’s largest insurer, which traditionally saw its revenue fairly equally split between Asia, the United States and Britain, has pushed ahead with Asian growth in recent years. Asia was “in some ways, ours to lose”, Chief Executive Mike Wells told investors on Thursday after Prudential said that new business profit in the region rose 15 percent to 1.61 billion pounds, helped by higher sales and rising interest rates. Group new business profit of 2.47 billion pounds ($3.25 billion) was driven by higher sales and favorable economics, Prudential said in a statement published ahead of an investor day. Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes flagged Prudential as a ‘buy’ in a note to clients and its shares were up 1.1 percent at 1406 GMT, outperforming the FTSE 100 index. Seven countries clocked double-digit growth in Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore and China, which said last week it would ease foreign ownership curbs in the financial sector, with the limit on insurance companies due to be raised to 51 percent after three years, and fully removed after five. Asia Chief Executive Nic Nicandrou said Prudential would like to have a bigger share of its life insurance business in China, where it has a 50:50 joint venture with CITIC Group. “I see no reason why China can’t be bigger than Hong Kong,” he said, adding that Pru’s existing presence gave it an advantage even as China opens up to other foreign players. “The biggest opportunity for us is growing into that footprint,” he said. Market gains helped Eastspring, the firm’s Asian asset management business, deliver year-to-date external net inflows of 2.8 billion pounds, and Prudential said it was also looking to China to help drive future growth. Guy Strapp, chief executive of Eastspring Investments, told investors the unit was in the process of setting up a wholly-owned unit in China to manage non-retail funds, to add to a joint venture with CITIC that manages retail funds. Strapp said Eastspring was recruiting to establish an onshore investment team in China, the world’s second-biggest economy and which is expected to account for 49 percent of Asia’s total fund under management by 2020. The plans to expand in China come as Prudential and rivals such as AXA ( AXAF.PA ) back out of some markets, including Vietnam where the British firm is selling consumer finance to focus on insurance. NO DECISION ON LEGACY BOOK While analysts were hoping for an update on a mooted sale of Prudential’s legacy book of UK annuity business, Wells said no decision had yet been reached, but should the insurer sell some or all of it, excess capital would be returned to shareholders. Prudential is shifting its focus away from traditional life insurance products with hefty capital charges such as annuities, which pay a fixed income for life. It merged its UK fund and life insurance businesses earlier this year. It is planning to sell a 10 billion pound book of closed annuity business in the first instance, according to media reports, but the shift would be slow, John Foley, chief executive of the UK business, said. “Getting to capital-light, capital-efficient might take a little while,” Foley added. ($1 = 0.7593 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-prudential-outlook/prudentials-nine-month-new-business-profit-rises-idUKKBN1DG0EW'|'2017-11-16T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'e8e57d8468360a24d681f6fef1d41db724ed906d'|'Hammond will not switch index for BOE''s inflation target - Bloomberg'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:54 PM / Updated an hour ago Hammond will not switch index for BOE''s inflation target - Bloomberg Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Chancellor Philip Hammond does not plan to announce a change in the index that that the Bank of England uses to calculate its inflation target when he reveals the budget next week, Bloomberg reported. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May and Finance Minister Philip Hammond host an industry roundtable with leading figures from the tech sector at 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville There has been speculation that the government might switch the central bank target from Consumer Price Inflation, or CPI, to an index that adjusts for housing costs, known as CPIH, after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) changed its preferred price measure to CPIH this year. But no such move by the Treasury is imminent, Bloomberg reported, citing two officials familiar with the matter. bloom.bg/2hCYt5X The ONS had put its stamp of approval on CPIH, the gauge of inflation preferred by official statisticians, following improvements to address quality concerns earlier this year. The Treasury said it does not comment on budget speculation. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economic-inflation/hammond-will-not-switch-index-for-boes-inflation-target-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DG2VC'|'2017-11-16T21:54:00.000+02:00'
'db070027bf75717c3286aa3102b5141b4bb74eca'|'BBC looking at 500 million pound bid for UKTV: Telegraph'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:13 PM / in 2 hours BBC looking at 500 million pound bid for UKTV: Telegraph Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - The BBC’s commercial arm is considering a 500-million-pound ($658.55 million) bid for full control of broadcaster UKTV, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing sources. FILE PHOTO: A man enters BBC New Broadcasting House in London November 11, 2012. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor BBC Worldwide is in talks with advisers about borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds from private investors to buy out the half of UKTV it does not already own, the newspaper added. bit.ly/2jv77nC “This is speculation, and it is incorrect to suggest the BBC has made any judgements based on a deal that isn’t even complete. Should that happen, we would look forward to discussing the continued success of UKTV with Discovery,” a BBC spokesperson said in an email to Reuters. UKTV, whose channels include Dave and Gold, is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and U.S. broadcaster Scripps Networks Interactive ( SNI.O ). Discovery Communications Inc ( DISCA.O ) had announced earlier this year that it is acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive Inc for $11.9 billion. UKTV and Scripps were not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uktv-m-a-bbc/bbc-looking-at-500-million-pound-bid-for-uktv-telegraph-idINKBN1DF35U'|'2017-11-15T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'1c635c8e5cd1263f6d64cacb152153a37e2b264a'|'EU, U.S. close to deal on stock exchanges before MIFID II deadline'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:37 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago EU, U.S. close to deal on stock exchanges before MIFID II deadline Francesco Guarascio , Huw Jones 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has adopted decisions to grant equivalence status to trading venues in the United States and Switzerland, draft documents seen by Reuters said. The moves, if confirmed, would solve one of the major concerns for investors before new MIFID II markets rules apply in January. The EU’s revamped Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, known as MIFID II, comes into force on Jan 3. Without an equivalence decision, EU investors in U.S. and Swiss equities would not be able to access more liquid American and Swiss stock exchanges. Draft documents submitted to EU states for their approval, and seen by Reuters, say the Commission recognized the equivalence of 23 stock exchanges in the United States, including the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, and of the Swiss trading venues SIX Swiss Exchange and BX Swiss. It also recognized that 83 U.S. alternative trading venues, mostly run by banks, were considered equivalent to EU-regulated exchanges. EU states will have to back the decision by Nov. 22, a move considered a formality by EU officials. In a letter to EU states, the commission said the equivalence decisions on the U.S. and Swiss trading venues should be treated “as a matter of priority”. Under equivalence decisions, the EU recognizes that rules of foreign jurisdictions have the same objectives as EU provisions, granting access to EU markets to foreign operators and vice-versa. Equivalence decisions are subject to regular scrutiny and may be revoked if foreign jurisdictions’ rules change in ways that make them incompatible with EU rules. A senior Commission official told Reuters the EU had reached an informal deal with the U.S. regulator on the mutual recognition of domestic rules on trading venues, and the final agreement was “almost certain” and imminent. “An informal agreement has been reached between the European Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under which the objectives of MIFID 2 and American rules on trading venues are recognized as equivalent,” the official said. Additional arrangements have to be signed to ensure exchange of information and proper supervision of the entities that are deemed equivalent. The official declined to comment on the possible decision on the Swiss trading venues. Writing by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-mifid-usa-swiss/eu-moves-to-recognize-equivalence-of-u-s-swiss-stock-exchanges-before-mifid-2-idUKKBN1DG1CY'|'2017-11-16T13:41:00.000+02:00'
'69cbe25266ce6a96d72e6d7fa9a146cba95a8052'|'Premier Oil says key project to start on time, debt to fall'|' 32 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Premier Oil says key project to start on time, debt to fall Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Premier Oil ( PMO.L ) expects its $2.8 billion debt (2.12 billion pounds) pile to start falling, with its flagship Catcher oilfield in the North Sea set to begin production on time in December, it said on Thursday. The company also cut its 2017 capital expenditure plan for the third time, and said debt reduction would accelerate through 2018 as its investment commitments fall. The start-up of Catcher is key to increasing Premier’s revenue to pay down net debt, which rose to $2.8 billion at the end of September from $2.7 billion at the end of June. Premier’s equity market value is 367 million pounds. “As long as we’re outperforming operationally, I‘m happy, everybody’s happy, the banks are happy,” Chief Executive Tony Durrant said in a statement. Premier also said it expected to be cash flow positive in the fourth quarter and for the whole of 2017, with higher production and oil prices offsetting spending at Catcher. The London-listed company cut its development, exploration and abandonment expenditure for 2017 to $300-$310 million. It had originally planned to spend $390 million before cutting to $350 million in May and again to $325 million in July. Premier also maintained its full-year production guidance at 75,000-80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and its operating costs forecast of about $16 per barrel. Its production has averaged 76,600 boepd so far this year, up 11 percent on the same period last year, it said. At 0820 GMT, Premier shares were down 1.8 percent at 68.33 pence. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-premier-oil-results/premier-oil-says-key-project-to-start-on-time-debt-to-fall-idUKKBN1DG0XP'|'2017-11-16T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'1dbba1ee228ec371042e83230a51c5900e38a394'|'UPDATE 2-Prudential''s new-business profit surges on Asia growth'|'(Makes clear CEO Quote: was from investor day not statement)* New-business profit jumps 17 pct to 2.47 bln stg* Asia new-business profit jumps 15 pct to 1.61 bln stg* Seven Asian countries show double-digit growth* Shares up 0.8 pct in flat FTSE 100* Share performance vs peers: bit.ly/2zJnEdzBy Noor Zainab Hussain, Carolyn Cohn and Simon JessopNov 16 (Reuters) - Prudential expects its Asian business to double in size every five to seven years, the British life insurer said after reporting the region drove a 17 percent rise in new business profit during the first nine months of 2017.New business profit of 2.47 billion pounds ($3.25 billion) was driven by higher sales and favourable economics, Prudential said ahead of an investor day on Thursday.Asia was “in some ways, ours to lose”, Prudential Chief Executive Mike Wells told investors after reporting new business profit in the region rose 15 percent to 1.61 billion pounds, helped by higher sales and rising interest rates.Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes flagged Prudential as a ‘buy’ in a note to clients following the results and its shares were up 0.8 percent at 1119 GMT, outperforming a flat index.Seven countries clocked double-digit growth in Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore and China, which said last week it would ease foreign ownership curbs in the financial sector, with the limit on insurance companies due to be raised to 51 percent after three years, and fully removed after five.Asia Chief Executive Nic Nicandrou told Prudential’s investors it would like to have a bigger share of its life insurance business in China, where it has a 50:50 joint venture with financial conglomerate CITIC Group.Market gains helped Eastspring, the firm’s Asian asset management business, deliver year-to-date external net inflows of 2.8 billion pounds, and Prudential said it was also looking to China to help drive future growth.Guy Strapp, chief executive of Eastspring Investments, told investors the unit was in the process of setting up a wholly-owned unit in China to manage non-retail funds, to add to a joint venture with CITIC that manages retail funds.Strapp said Eastspring was recruiting to establish an onshore investment team in China, the world’s second-biggest economy and which is expected to account for 49 percent of Asia’s total fund under management by 2020.The plans to expand in China come as Prudential and rivals such as AXA back out of some markets, including Vietnam where the British firm is selling consumer finance to focus on insurance.NO DECISION ON LEGACY BOOK While analysts were hoping for an update on a mooted sale of Prudential’s legacy book of UK annuity business, Wells said no decision had yet been reached, but should the insurer sell some or all of it, excess capital would be returned to shareholders.Across the group, gross annual premium equivalent (APE) sales, which include regular premium sales plus one-tenth of single premium insurance sales, rose to 5.17 billion pounds, from 4.47 billion pounds a year earlier.In the UK, new business profit rose 31 percent to 234 million pounds in the insurer’s recently merged insurance and fund management unit, helped by strong demand to invest in the group’s asset management products.M&G Prudential delivered external asset management net inflows of 9.9 billion pounds in the first nine months, with total assets under management rising to 336.5 billion pounds.In the United States, where Prudential operates through its Jackson division, new-business profit rose 28 percent on an actual exchange rate basis to 619 million pounds, driven by higher interest rates. ($1 = 0.7593 pounds)Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; editing by Gopakumar Warrier/Amrutha Gayathri/Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/prudential-outlook/update-1-prudentials-9-month-new-business-profit-rises-idINL3N1NM1VM'|'2017-11-16T02:13:00.000+02:00'
'5a00b88d3ddbcfdc89ffdd17a640b9cc6ee42f8e'|'Volkswagen to spend more than $40 billion on electric cars, autonomous driving'|'WOLFSBURG/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) approved a 34 billion euro ($40 bln) spending plan on Friday that accelerates its efforts to become a global leader in electric cars. The world’s largest carmaker by unit sales will spend the money on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022, it said after a meeting of its supervisory board. “With the planning round now approved, we are laying the foundation for making Volkswagen the world’s No. 1 player in electric mobility by 2025,” Chief Executive Matthias Mueller told a press conference. The carmaker’s projected spending is significantly bigger than its pledge two months ago that it would invest more than 20 billion euros on electric and self-driving cars through 2030. Electric and autonomous vehicles are widely seen as the keystones of future transport, but pioneers such as Tesla Inc and other manufacturers are still working out how to make money on them as poor charging infrastructure, high battery costs and electric vehicles’ still limited driving range weigh on customer demand. Until it admitted two years ago to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen had been slow to embrace electric cars and self-driving technology. But the emissions fraud, and new Chinese quotas for electric cars, prompted a strategic shift to zero-emission and self-driving technology, and Volkswagen now has one of the most ambitious targets in the industry. It has pledged to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030. The group said its total investments in electric vehicles capacity and projects will amount to about 72 billion euros by 2022, confirming an earlier Reuters story. To fund greater spending on electric vehicles, it will draw on cost savings in all areas of operations, including vehicle development, administration and manufacturing, as well as strong cash reserves. Its net liquidity still stood at around 24 billion euros after nine months even though about 17 billion euros of funds have been paid out to cover costs for its dieselgate scandal. VW’s core autos division has made cost savings of about 1.9 billion euros since the start of this year, nearly meeting budgeted cost cuts for the full year. A Volkswagen Golf GTE is being charged during a workshop prior to Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Mueller said VW will maintain spending discipline in order to shoulder the increased investments in new technologies while it grapples with billions of dollars of costs for its emissions scandal. COST CONTROL The carmaker aims to cut overall spending on factories, equipment and technology to 6 percent of automotive sales by 2020 from 6.9 percent last year, counting on growing revenue and deliveries in coming years. Wolfsburg-based VW wants to increase the share of electrified vehicles to 3 million cars, or a quarter of group deliveries, by 2025. The forecast assumes that group auto sales will keep growing to reach about 12 million a year by the middle of next decade from 10.3 million last year. “Investors should welcome a commitment towards more contemporary investment discipline,” said Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst who has an “outperform” rating on VW shares. “So far this year, VW has made good progress, lowering both capex and cash R&D costs.” Works council chief Bernd Osterloh said spending targets approved on Friday would strengthen VW’s 10 German factories, noting that 3 billion euros alone will be invested at the base plant in Wolfsburg, including to prepare for the launch of the next-generation Golf hatchback. Investments of more than 1 billion euros will be assigned to a plant in Zwickau, eastern Germany to ramp up electric-car production at the site, which in future will only make zero-emission vehicles, VW said. Output of the combustion-engine Golf hatchback as well as the Golf and Passat station wagons will be shifted from Zwickau to the underutilized factories at Wolfsburg and Emden, VW said, confirming a Reuters story. “It was long and hard bargaining to safeguard the interests of the employees but I think we can live well with the compromise,” Osterloh said.($1 = 0.8481 euros) Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-investment-electric/volkswagen-to-spend-more-than-40-billion-on-electric-cars-autonomous-driving-idUSKBN1DH1M8'|'2017-11-17T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'66c6802c38f8c40e32b1c7953325965ab7f09e38'|'Buyers circle suddenly attractive U.S. media companies'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:01 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Buyers circle suddenly attractive U.S. media companies 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All of a sudden, it seems, everybody wants to own a U.S. media company. The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson In the last few weeks, several of the world’s biggest telecommunications and media companies have started circling Twenty First Century Fox Inc with an eye to buying a significant piece of Rupert Murdoch’s global media and entertainment empire. Potential suitors include Comcast Corp, Verizon Communications Inc and Walt Disney Co. Meanwhile, Meredith Corp is considering a bid for Time Inc and Discovery Communications Inc is acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. Viacom Inc shares rose 10 percent on Friday, suggesting it may also be a takeover target. The sudden surge in merger and acquisition activity in media looks to be powered by relatively low asset prices, cheap financing and the prospect of tax cuts. There are also longer-term forces at work: traditional media companies are struggling with more customers canceling pricy cable contracts while Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc are spending billions of dollars on making shows and movies. More viewers now stream programming on smartphones or other devices, diverting the flow of advertising dollars away from traditional media companies. “This is an industry that is going through incredible disruption. You can look at what Netflix is doing and how they’re building subscribers,” said AT&T Inc Chief Executive Randall Stephenson at a conference last week. “Everybody’s reimagining and rethinking their business models,” said Stephenson, head of the wireless carrier which is itself in the process of buying media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc for $85.4 billion. If that deal overcomes U.S. antitrust objections and other transactions go ahead, it will make Comcast, the U.S. No. 1 cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, look “relatively tiny in a landscape dominated by tech giants,” said BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FILE PHOTO: A woman exits the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S. on April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The House of Representatives took a major step on Thursday toward the biggest U.S. tax-code overhaul since the 1980s. If corporate tax cuts become law, there may be a wave of merger and acquisition activity across all industries, media investor Mario Gabelli told Reuters earlier this week. “You will have global lovemaking at an accelerated rate,” he said. “Companies are ready to grow... They just need to have what the rules of engagement are.” At the same time, the debt financing markets have remained wide open for major transformational deals this year, though recent skirmishes in the junk-bond market have served as a reminder this may not last for long. Slideshow (3 Images) U.S. fund investors walloped high-yield funds with their biggest week of withdrawals since March, Lipper data showed on Thursday. Still, most mega-deals look possible, especially if the combined company’s debt remains investment grade. Banks have been eager this month to open their wallets for what could be the biggest syndicated loan financing ever for an investment-grade acquisition, backing chipmaker Broadcom Ltd’s unsolicited $103 billion bid to buy Qualcomm Inc. Assets that could be on the block look cheap. Shares of media companies have long traded at a discount to the wider market. Fox, for example, trades at around 13.9 times estimated earnings per share for the next year, in line with the wider media sector at 13.6. The broader S&P 500, meanwhile, trades at 18 times next year’s earnings. Media firms’ generally high debt loads and the threat posed by technology companies elbowing their way into new markets have compressed those multiples. Weak earnings have contributed to that. Fox’s profit per share is down about 50 percent from 2013, while Viacom’s is up only slightly. CBS’s net income has shrunk about 33 percent in that time, but earnings per share have risen thanks to stock buybacks. The outcome of AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner is being keenly watched by potential acquirers. U.S. President Donald Trump is a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN and he vowed to block the deal when he was on the campaign trail last year. The Justice Department is expected to sue AT&T to block the deal, but the wireless carrier has vowed to fight in court. “Everyone will seek consolidation partners if AT&T succeeds,” said Gene Kimmelman, a veteran of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and now president of the advocacy group Public Knowledge. Reporting by Liana Baker, Anna Driver, Jessica Toonkel, Anjali Athavaley, Diane Bartz, Greg Roumeliotis and Dan Burns; Writing by Chris Sanders; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-comcast-analysis/buyers-circle-suddenly-attractive-u-s-media-companies-idUSKBN1DH2NI'|'2017-11-17T23:01:00.000+02:00'
'1a7adfe3883f480cf64c7bff16e58e98c026c75f'|'Global banks flag concerns over U.S. Senate tax proposal'|'November 18, 2017 / 12:30 AM / Updated 17 hours ago Global banks flag concerns over U.S. Senate tax proposal Michelle Price , Pete Schroeder 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global banks raised concerns on Friday over a provision in the U.S. Senate tax bill aimed at cracking down on tax avoidance by multinational corporations that they said could hurt the banking industry. Copies of tax legislation are seen during a markup on the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Banks initially looked to be one of the major winners of Republican lawmakers’ efforts to overhaul the U.S. tax code, and publicly they have been very supportive. But two bank trade groups noted in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee that a provision to fight tax dodging by multinationals could ratchet up the cost of providing risk management services to Main Street companies, causing market disruption. The letter, seen by Reuters, was sent by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, whose members include the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc and JPMorganN>. The provision that has banks worried is aimed at stamping out tactics employed by multinational corporations to reduce U.S. tax obligations by shifting money earned in the United States to less heavily-taxed overseas affiliates. Reversing this so-called “base erosion” among U.S. taxpaying companies has been a top priority for Republican lawmakers. The current Senate bill aims to do this by imposing a tax of up to 10 percent on payments made by a U.S. company to its related foreign company, if the payment exceeds certain threshold. The provision would penalize transactions global banks make between their affiliate entities in order to provide everyday services to clients, in particular risk management products such as swaps that hedge rate rises or currency swings. These deals typically require global banks to pass trades and payments between their U.S. and overseas entities to manage the currency and interest rate risk they incur when facilitating the client trade. Under the current version of the bill, these intra-group transactions could be taxed at 10 percent, even though the entire trade may result in little or no U.S. tax liability. That could make such deals uneconomical and even potentially upend the global derivatives market. “This provision could discourage Main Street businesses from engaging in risk-reducing best practices, thereby increasing their business risks and driving up costs of consumer goods and services,” the trade groups wrote in their letter. The Senate Finance Committee approved the bill containing the provision late Thursday, and will send it on to the full Senate for a vote in the coming weeks. The U.S. House of Representatives approved its version of tax legislation the same day, potentially setting the stage for the two to hammer out a compromise bill as soon as December. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, the finance committee chairman, and Ron Wyden, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-banks/global-banks-flag-concerns-over-u-s-senate-tax-proposal-idUKKBN1DI00P'|'2017-11-18T02:29:00.000+02:00'
'14e0be3708beb585236bc3ebf990d3534d90cbc0'|'AIRSHOW-Kazakh airline SCAT orders six Boeing jets'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA.N ) signed a deal at the Dubai Airshow on Thursday to sell six Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger jets to SCAT Airlines of Kazakhstan, a person close to the discussions said.Boeing Co''s logo is seen above the front doors of its largest jetliner factory in Everett, Washington, U.S. January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott The deal, involving a firm order for the six aircraft worth $600 million at list prices, was expected to be announced later on Thursday.The airline, based in the South Kazakhstan city of Shymkent, also secured purchase rights for a further five 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the person said.Reporting by Tim Hepher '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airline/kazakh-airline-scat-orders-six-boeing-jets-idUSKBN1DG1BM'|'2017-11-16T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'd7d0305bbad0466403534f41fc0e0c0fc83296e1'|'Plane deals help Emirates, flydubai bridge fleet gap'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 4:18 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Plane deals help Emirates, flydubai bridge fleet gap Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates [EMIRA.UL] and flydubai have laid the groundwork for the next phase of Dubai’s aviation project with orders for $40 billion of jets that will narrow a gap between regional and global networks connecting travelers from Sarajevo to Sydney. Flydubai and Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum shakes hands with Boeing Commercial Airplanes President & Chief Executive Kevin McAllister during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar The two government-of-Dubai-owned airlines have largely pursued separate strategies until recently being steered towards closer commercial ties by their sole shareholder. “I would say the first step that we took is paying off. As of the first week we could see the progress and how positive it is,” Emirates and flydubai chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum told Reuters in an interview. “I expect that this will grow and give the opportunity for both airlines to benefit from each others’ connections.” Emirates and flydubai said in July they would forge closer commercial ties and that both would benefit from a combined fleet of 380 jets flying to as many as 240 destinations by 2022. [nL8N1K8117] This week, the Middle East’s largest airline and its medium-haul cousin announced Dubai Airshow deals for over 200 jets, giving each carrier the capacity to pursue its own growth over the next decade but also potentially bridging a size gap between their fleets. Emirates placed a preliminary order for 40 Boeing 787-10s, designed to carry 280-230 passengers, and flydubai signed up for 175 more Boeing 737 MAX including over 50 of a new 200-seat-plus model. [nL8N1NI07Z] [nL8N1NL4JY] “When people said Emirates don’t have small aircraft, now they have smaller aircraft, and ... flydubai have the big aircraft too,” Sheikh Ahmed said of their co-operation pact. The 787s will be the smallest jets in Emirates’ all wide-body long-haul fleet, currently split between the Boeing 777 mini-jumbo and the Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner.The new order extends a spectrum of options as Emirates aims to adjust capacity to each route and to take advantage of its commercial power as one of the world’s major super-connectors. That could build on July’s initial agreement to add dozens of code shares and start joint network planning. However, Sheikh Ahmed stressed the airlines would remain independently managed even as they develop parallel strategies. Asked if they could merge under the same group, he told Reuters, “No, no, no, we will always keep them at arm’s length.” How far the relationship will go has not been laid out publicly, but may include swapping routes to maximize profit. “We will always do what is best for Dubai, and best for both airlines,” flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al-Ghaith told Reuters separately. BRAND CONVERGENCE The growing alliance is the latest development in Dubai’s aviation project which began more than 30 years ago, linking east-to-west passenger traffic through what is now the world’s busiest airport for international passengers. Less clear is to what extent the identities of the two airlines - with Emirates’ brand built on luxury and frills that include onboard showers in the A380, and flydubai’s reputation built on discount tickets - will converge. Emirates unveiled new economy-class seats on Sunday that feature a blue color scheme similar to flydubai‘s. Management said it was a coincidence. “I don’t think passengers care so much about what is outside (the aircraft); it is inside where you show your brand,” Sheikh Ahmed said. Flydubai has pivoted from the low-cost airline it launched as eight years ago, and at the Dubai Airshow showed off its own new cabins which have fully lie-flat business class seats. “It is closer now to the product of Emirates,” Sheikh Ahmed said. Emirates insists its flagship remains the A380, despite uncertainty over the superjumbo’s future following the collapse of a deal to buy more of the double-decker jets this week. It usually carries about 500 people but is certified for up to 868. Asked if flydubai could eventually make use of the A380, whose early models are due to start leaving the Emirates fleet from 2022, Sheikh Ahmed said, “Why not? If it can be done, (if) we have the aircraft and they can be used, yes.” Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-airlines-flydubai/plane-deals-help-emirates-flydubai-bridge-fleet-gap-idUKKBN1DG2C2'|'2017-11-16T18:12:00.000+02:00'
'050f5fedf4c5036e763219e2e86b0b6d8ddfb22a'|'Volkswagen Group earmarking 10 billion euros to develop, build China electric cars'|'Reuters TV United States  26 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Volkswagen Group earmarking $11.8 billion to develop, build China electric cars   GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Volkswagen Group plans to spend 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) by 2025 to develop and manufacture so-called new-energy vehicles (NEVs), the group’s China chief Jochem Heizmann told Reuters on Thursday. Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon China has set stringent production quotas for NEVs which automakers must meet by 2019, a move that is prompting a flurry of electric car deals and new launches of battery electric and plug-in hybrid models as automakers in China race to ensure they do not fall short. Volkswagen Group includes Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) and Audi AG ( NSUG.DE ). Heizmann said Volkswagen Group is confident that its group companies and their local China joint venture partners are going to be able to generate enough NEV sales volume to account for NEV quotas by 2019 and will not need to buy credits. Reporting by Clare Jim and Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-volkswagen/volkswagen-group-earmarking-11-8-billion-to-develop-build-china-electric-cars-idUKKBN1DG0DX'|'2017-11-16T06:15:00.000+02:00'
'bae98c21c3cd5bc2ea70a866b5fe02e6254b65c1'|'RPT-Pro-trade U.S. Republicans get nervous that NAFTA talks could fail'|'(Repeats with no changes)By David LawderMEXICO CITY, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Pro-trade Republicans in the U.S. Congress are growing worried that U.S. President Donald Trump may try to quit the NAFTA free trade deal entirely rather than negotiate a compromise that preserves its core benefits.As a fifth round of talks to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement kicked off in Mexico on Friday, several Republicans interviewed by Reuters expressed concerns that tough U.S. demands, including a five-year sunset clause and a U.S.-specific content rule, will sink the talks and lead to the deal’s collapse.Business groups have warned of dire economic consequences, including millions of jobs lost as Mexican and Canadian tariffs snap back to their early 1990s levels.“I think the administration is playing a pretty dangerous game with this sunset provision,” said Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from eastern Pennsylvania.He said putting NAFTA under threat of extinction every five years would make it difficult for companies in his district, ranging from chocolate giant Hershey Co to small family owned manufacturing firms, to invest in supply chains and manage global operations.Hershey operates candy plants in Monterrey and Guadalajara, Mexico.Some 74 House of Representatives members signed a letter this week opposing U.S. proposals on automotive rules of origin, which would require 50 percent U.S. content in NAFTA-built vehicles and 85 percent regional content.They warned that this would “eliminate the competitive advantages” that NAFTA brings to U.S. automakers or lead to a collapse of the trade pact.Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican who has long been a supporter of free trade deals, said he disagreed with the Trump approach of “trying to beat someone” in the NAFTA talks. Texas is the largest U.S. exporting state with nearly half of its $231 billion in exports last year headed to Mexico and Canada, according to Commerce Department data.“We need to offer Mexico a fair deal. If we want them to take our cattle, we need to take their avocados,” Sessions said.Still, congressional apprehension about Trump’s stance is far from unanimous. The signers were largely Republicans, with no Democrats from auto-intensive states such as Michigan and Ohio signing.DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT Some pro-labor Democrats have actually expressed support for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s tough approach.“Some of those demands are in tune,” said Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee. “We don’t want to blow it up, Republicans don’t want to blow it up. But we want substantial changes in the labor, the environmental, the currency, on how you come to an agreement when there’s a dispute, and on problems of origin.”Farm state Republicans are especially concerned that a collapse of NAFTA would lead to the loss of crucial export markets in Mexico and Canada for corn, beef and other products.Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said Lighthizer in a recent meeting agreed that a withdrawal from NAFTA would be hard on U.S. agriculture, which has largely benefited from the trade pact. U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico quintupled to about $41 billion in 2016 from about $9 billion in 1993, the year before NAFTA went into effect, according to U.S. Commerce Department data.Grassley said, however, that Lighthizer’s approach was “taking everybody to the brink on these talks.”Other Republicans are taking a wait and see approach to the talks.Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma said he was willing to give Trump “the benefit of the doubt” on NAFTA talks, adding that farmers and ranchers in his rural district were strong Trump supporters in the 2016 election.“The president’s a practical fellow. When push comes to shove, he understands the base,” Lucas said. (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trade-nafta-congress/rpt-pro-trade-u-s-republicans-get-nervous-that-nafta-talks-could-fail-idINL1N1NO00U'|'2017-11-18T10:01:00.000+02:00'
'03f19e9eacd17a6545ffaa0fcaf33106cf508d22'|'Broadcom completes Brocade acquisition'|'November 17, 2017 / 2:25 PM / in 29 minutes Broadcom closes $5.5 billion Brocade deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Broadcom Ltd said on Friday it closed its acquisition of network gear maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc, giving it a larger share of the data center products market. A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Broadcom, which made a $103 billion unsolicited bid for smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc earlier this month that was rejected, agreed to buy Brocade in November of last year. It won U.S. antitrust approval for the deal in July. But in October, Brocade and Broadcom Limited withdrew and re-filed their joint voluntary notice to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to allow more time for review and discuss the proposed acquisition. ( mwne.ws/2mBhXcQ ) Soon after that Broadcom Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan met U.S. President Donald Trump and said the chipmaker will redomicile to the United States from Singapore. Broadcom shares were down 0.8 percent at $269.78 in early trade. Singapore-based Broadcom, formerly Avago Technologies, is trying to become the dominant chip supplier. It is known for its connectivity chips used in products ranging from mobiles to servers. California-based Brocade makes networking switches, software and storage products. With this deal, Broadcom will grab more data center products market share by using Brocade’s fiber channel switches that speed up data transfer between servers and storage devices. It will also help the chipmaker dig deeper into the connected devices and cars market. Brocade’s common stock will stop trading on Nasdaq and the firm will operate as a unit of Broadcom, the company said in a statement. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-brocade-commns-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-completes-brocade-acquisition-idINKBN1DH1T9'|'2017-11-17T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'8041e866a7405deb3273aadb1321fff1b37dca71'|'Some EU countries want Brexit talks to move to trade - Davis'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:34 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Some EU countries want Brexit talks to move to trade - Davis Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Some European countries want the Brexit talks to move on to focus on trade and, although Germany and France are key to allowing that progress, it is a decision for the whole of the bloc, Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis said on Friday. David Davis, Britain''s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, arrives in Downing Street, London, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The European Union has said sufficient progress needs to be made on the divorce terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union before the two sides can open talks on the future relationship. “Of course they are saying that (more money is needed before progress) but the other thing that is also clear is that many of them do want to move on. It’s very important to them,” Davis told BBC radio. “Countries like Denmark, countries like Holland, countries like Italy and Spain, countries like Poland can see the big, big benefits in the future deal that we are talking about,” he said. “Germany and France... are the most powerful players on the continent of Europe. Of course they are. What they believe is very influential, sometimes decisively so. But it’s a whole of Europe decision.” Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/some-eu-countries-want-brexit-talks-to-move-to-trade-davis-idUKKBN1DH0VW'|'2017-11-17T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'f5f1ff5b8aa101305e76b512d0a518fbe43e8312'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Invepar SA, America Movil, BNP Paribas, Santander, Spotify and Toyota Motor Corp)Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1500 GMT on Friday:** Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp have agreed to cooperate in selling electric vehicles in India from around 2020, they said, aiming to give each other a leg up in emerging markets and low-emission technology.** Music-streaming company Spotify has bought online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap, it said, declining to give financial details of the deal.** Spanish bank Santander has entered exclusive talks to buy the bulk of Deutsche Bank’s business in Poland in a bid to strengthen its position in the highly competitive market, two sources familiar with the matter said.** BNP Paribas Chairman Jean Lemierre damped down speculation that France’s biggest bank is interested in a tie-up with Germany’s Commerzbank.** America Movil <AMXL.MX has seen has seen interest from potential buyers for its 21.4 percent stake in Dutch telecoms group KPN and may consider selling, the CFO of the Mexican telecoms company said.** Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co PJSC has made a binding offer for a majority stake in Brazilian infrastructure company Invepar SA involving injecting capital and buying shares held by pension funds, Invepar said in a securities filing.** China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co Ltd, struggling under billions of dollars worth of debt, is preparing for provisional liquidation in a legal escalation of one of the most spectacular collapses of a Hong Kong-listed firm in recent years.** An Australian tribunal once again cleared horse-race betting giant Tabcorp Holdings Ltd’s proposed $4.7 billion takeover of lottery owner Tatts Group Ltd, dismissing concerns raised by the country’s default M&A regulator.** Toyota Motor said it would consider selling locally designed and manufactured all-electric vehicle models in China, as it looks to expand its EV lineup and comply with Beijing’s upcoming new-energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales quotas.** Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc have both expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s assets, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters.** China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co Ltd said it looked to buy a total of 14 new Airbus A320neo aircraft from Go Airlines (India) Ltd for an aggregate list price of $1.52 billion, and lease each aircraft back to the airline upon delivery.** German gas supplier VNG is in talks to sell a majority stake in its Norwegian Norge oil and gas business, which could fetch up to $500 million, three banking sources said.** Toshiba Corp said it had not entered into talks with any company to sell its personal computer business, denying media reports that it was in negotiations to sell the unit to Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc.** Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp said it would buy privately owned U.S. casino and horse racing company Centaur Holdings LLC for $1.7 billion in cash to expand in Indiana.** Bpost, Belgium’s national postal deliverer, said it had finalised the purchase of U.S.-based e-commerce service provider Radial.** Barnes & Noble Inc said a deal proposed by an activist investor to take the bookstore chain private was not “bona fide” as its chairman and founder, Leonard Riggio, would not participate and raising the required funds was highly unlikely. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdasin Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NN3E1'|'2017-11-17T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'99a690dea80d0d0e669715d24110c22d324b969d'|'Jaguar Land Rover tests first driverless vehicle on public roads'|' 33 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Jaguar Land Rover tests first driverless vehicle on public roads Costas Pitas 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest automaker, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), has tested its first driverless car on public roads, it said on Friday, as carmakers race against each other and tech firms to tap into new technologies. Signs are seen outside the Jaguar Land Rover plant at Halewood in Liverpool, northern England, September 12 , 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble Last October, a pod heavily adapted from a compact Renault car was the first autonomous car to take to Britain’s streets as part of government-backed trials aimed at seeing more widespread use of such vehicles by 2020. Politicians are trying to make it as easy as possible to test new driving technologies in Britain, seeking to build an industry to serve a worldwide market expected to be worth around 900 billion pounds ($1.2 trillion) by 2025. An Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill is currently being debated in parliament to set out how new technologies will operate in Britain. JLR hopes the testing will allow it to understand more about how self-driving vehicles interact with other cars and road infrastructure such as traffic lights and how models can replicate human behavior whilst driving. “By using inputs from multiple sensors, and finding intelligent ways to process this data, we are gaining accurate technical insight to pioneer the automotive application of these technologies,” said Nick Rogers, the firm’s Executive Director for Product Engineering. The testing is taking place in the central English city of Coventry, the historic heart of the British car industry, where JLR is headquartered. Trials will continue into next year. Major automakers are seeking to head off the challenge not just from each other but also from technology firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, which is also developing autonomous vehicles. Waymo said earlier this month that it will launch a ride-hailing service with no human behind the steering wheel and has been testing the fully self-driving cars on public roads in the U.S. state of Arizona. ($1 = 0.7548 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-jaguarlandrover-driverless/jaguar-land-rover-tests-first-driverless-vehicle-on-public-roads-idUKKBN1DH16N'|'2017-11-17T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'91b2b3a83fb89b9169d10fe7eb222d1736ec1a8b'|'UK growth to lag peers; next rate hike a year away at least - Reuters poll'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:35 AM / Updated an hour ago UK growth to lag peers; next rate hike a year away at least - Reuters poll Jonathan Cable 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British economic growth will remain tepid over the coming few years, lagging well behind its peers, and could even be worse than economists polled by Reuters currently predict, as most say risks to their forecasts are to the downside. FILE PHOTO - Two shoppers sit with their bags on Oxford Street in London, Britain, September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde These findings are in stark contrast to a Reuters poll also taken Nov. 13-16 on the euro zone, which found economists at their most optimistic about economic performance on the Continent since the financial crisis. Rather than sinking into a predicted mild recession following its shock June 2016 decision to leave the European Union, Britain was for a while one of the best-performing developed economies. But this year it has quickly fallen behind to be the laggard. Spending by consumers, who drove a large part of that early growth, is now being squeezed by price rises far outpacing wage increases. “While we expect price pressures to ease in the new year, UK households will continue to see their spending power decrease for some time as wage growth remains lacklustre,” wrote Kay Daniel Neufeld, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a consultancy. Median forecasts in the poll of nearly 80 economists, taken this week, was for the British economy to expand just 0.3-0.4 percent per quarter through to June 2018, with growth of 1.5 percent this year and 1.3 percent the next. That is significantly slower than annual growth rates of 2.2 and 1.9 percent predicted for the euro zone economy, which over the past decade has tended to underperform Britain. While the poll found only a median 20 percent chance of a UK recession in the coming year, 60 percent of economists who answered an extra question said the risk to their forecasts was to the downside. “Risks to our main scenario for UK growth in 2018 are weighted somewhat to the downside due in large part to the risk of adverse political shocks, particularly around the Brexit negotiations,” noted John Hawksworth, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Britain is scheduled to leave the EU by the end of March 2019 when two years of negotiations over the divorce settlement and future relationship come to a close. So far, those negotiations have been far from fruitful. A Reuters poll last month said the most likely eventual outcome would be an EU-UK free trade agreement, but it also found the chance of a disorderly Brexit - where no deal was agreed - had crept higher to 30 percent. FILE PHOTO - Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London, August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville “We see Brexit as the main driver of the economic outlook, and given the uncertainty about how the talks will play out, a wide range of potential outcomes for the economy,” Morgan Stanley economists wrote to clients. Similarly, foreign exchange strategists in a recent Reuters poll said progress in the divorce talks would give the biggest boost to sterling in the coming year. UNCERTAINTY OVER ANOTHER RATE HIKE FILE PHOTO - New residential homes are seen at a housing estate in Aylesbury, Britain, February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh British inflation soared after sterling plummeted in the aftermath of the Brexit vote - it registered 3.0 percent in October. But it is likely to drift lower in coming years. The poll predicted average consumer prices rising an average 2.7 percent this year, 2.5 percent next and 2.2 percent in 2019 - all above the central bank’s 2 percent target. A plurality of economists said forecast risks were skewed to the upside. Inflation unexpectedly held steady last month, wrong-footing the Bank of England and raising fresh questions about the wisdom of its first rate rise in a decade earlier this month and just how fast the central bank will follow up with another. The latest Reuters poll predicts the next increase, of another 25 basis points, not to come until towards the end of next year. But that call was on a knife’s edge, with 28 of 55 respondents going for a hike by year-end and 27 saying no change. “We still think the Committee - or a majority of its members - are minded to raise rates again. Whether the economy retains enough momentum into 2018 to allow them to do so is another question,” wrote Elizabeth Martins at HSBC. Bank Governor Mark Carney has warned Brexit will make the economy even more inflation-prone and aggravate Britain’s weak productivity growth. The Office for Budget Responsibility, established by the UK government to provide independent economic predictions, will publish its latest forecasts for productivity on Wednesday, the day Finance Minister Philip Hammond presents his budget. Twenty-two of the 27 economists who answered an extra question said those revised forecasts would be missed. Four said the OBR would be accurate and one said productivity would exceed the forecasts. Polling by Vivek Mishra and Manjul Paul; Editing by Ross Finley'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-poll/uk-growth-to-lag-peers-next-rate-hike-a-year-away-at-least-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1DH0H5'|'2017-11-17T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'f2d71d81aeece3e7f63079dcb8ad969f2c7ef840'|'House prices aren’t the issue – land prices are'|'Saturday 18 November 2017 07.00 GMT Last modified on Saturday 18 November 2017 13.59 GMT W hile reporting on the recent court case where controversial landlord Fergus Wilson defended (but lost) his right to refuse to let to Indians and Pakistanis , I learned something about how he’s now making money. He is now far from being Britain’s biggest buy-to-let landlord. He’s down to 350 homes, from a peak of 1,000. And what’s he doing with the cash made from sales? Buying agricultural land close to Kent’s biggest towns. One plot he bought for £45,000 is now worth, he boasted, £3m with development permission. And therein lies the reason why we have a housing crisis. As long ago as 1909, Winston Churchill, then promoting Lloyd George’s “people’s budget” and its controversial measures to tax land, told an audience in Edinburgh that the landowner “sits still and does nothing” while reaping vast gains from land improvements by the municipality, such as roads, railways, power from generators and water from reservoirs far away. “Every one of those improvements is effected by the labour and the cost of other people … To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is sensibly enhanced … he contributes nothing even to the process from which his own enrichment is derived.” Landowners pocketed £9bn in profit from land they sold for new housing in 2014-15 When Britain’s post-war housebuilding boom began, it was based on cheap land. As a timely new book, The Land Question by Daniel Bentley of thinktank Civitas , sets out, the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act under Clement Attlee’s government allowed local authorities to acquire land for development at “existing use value”. There was no premium because it was earmarked for development. The New Towns Act 1946 was similar, giving public corporation powers to compulsorily purchase land at current-use value. The unserviced land cost component for homes in Harlow and Milton Keynes was just 1% of housing costs at the time. Today, the price of land can easily be half the cost of buying a home: £439,999 is the cost of land with planning permission for one terraced home in a less salubrious part of London such as Peckham. What happened? Landowners rebelled and Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government introduced the 1961 Land Compensation Act. Henceforth, landowners were to be paid the value of the land, including any “hope value”, when developed. Today a hectare of land is worth 100 times more when used for housing rather than farming. Yet when a bureaucratic pen grants permission, all the value goes to the landowner, not the public. Bentley says landowners pocketed £9bn in profit from land they sold for new housing in 2014-15. For each new home built that year, £60,000 went as profit to the landowner. Major infrastructure projects such as Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo tube line extension are estimated to cost the public purse £36bn. Landowners, meanwhile, will pocket £87bn from increased land values nearby. In the Netherlands, the only sizeable country in Europe more densely populated than England, the Expropriation Act allows local authorities to buy land at current-use value. They prepare it for development, use part for social housing and sell the rest for commercial use, often at a large profit. Think of it. Councils take all the financial uplift from planning permission, using potentially huge profits from land sales to build social housing almost at no cost to the public purse. Developers focus on making profits from building high-quality homes, not from hoarding plots. Land speculation is killed off almost overnight. Instead, the chancellor will tell us in this week’s budget that the solution is billions more for help to buy. All that does is raise property prices and landowner profits. If only Philip Hammond could be more like Churchill. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/nov/18/house-prices-land-prices-cheaper-homes'|'2017-11-18T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'c360350dbd514d0fad03e558d80bf0863f3aa297'|'U.S. to account for most world oil output growth over 10 years - IEA'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:44 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago U.S. to account for most world oil output growth over 10 years - IEA Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The United States is expected to account for more than 80 percent of global oil production growth in the next 10 years and it will produce 30 percent more gas than Russia by that time, he International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A mooring station for oil tankers can be seen at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal in Valdez, Alaska on August 8, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo “This has implications on the oil markets, prices, trade flows, investment trends and the geopolitics of energy,” IEA head Fatih Birol said at a U.N. climate conference in Bonn. He said the United States, whose upstream energy industry has seen a resurgence with the development of fracking technology, would become the “undisputed leader of oil and gas production worldwide.” On the broader market, he said the IEA expected oil markets to rebalance in 2018 if oil demand remained “more or less” as robust as it was now and if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies extended output cuts. OPEC and other producers are expected to extend production cuts beyond a March deadline in a bid to cut oversupply. The Paris-based IEA cut its oil demand forecast in its latest monthly report by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) for this year and next, to an estimated 1.5 million bpd and 1.3 million bpd, respectively. [IEA/M] It also said oil inventories in the developed world fell by 40 million barrels in September, dropping below 3.0 billion barrels for the first time in two years. According to OPEC’s own numbers, inventories were 154 million barrels above the five-year average in September. OPEC states have said they want to reduce stocks to their five-year average. Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Mark Potter and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-iea-birol/u-s-to-become-oil-and-gas-world-leader-in-long-term-iea-idUKKBN1DG1WY'|'2017-11-16T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'18a1c359410b154b2e2bfc134806c52235997983'|'Dollar on back foot as tax deal doubts weigh, Aussie looks to jobs data'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar was on the defensive on Thursday as doubts on the prospects of U.S. tax reforms offset an uptick in underlying U.S. inflation while the Australian dollar hovered near four-month lows ahead of key local jobs data.FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The dollar index .DXY fell to as low as 93.402 on Wednesday, its weakest in almost four weeks, and last stood at 93.851 for a 0.6 percent loss so far this week.A Senate Republican tax plan drew fire from two Republican lawmakers on Wednesday in a possible sign of trouble for the sweeping measure, given the party can afford to lose no more than two votes from their ranks.“For the moment, the U.S. tax cuts will be the main theme of the markets. I would expect negotiation to drag on beyond the year-end but by the first quarter of next year, there will be a deal,” said Yukio Ishizuki, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.Signs of a set back in the U.S. tax reform plans, which have been a primary driver of the dollar recovery since September, were enough to offset a boost to the currency from U.S. consumer inflation and retail sales data.Annual core inflation accelerated to 1.8 percent in October after having stayed at 1.7 percent USCPFY=ECI in the preceding five months. Retail sales increased 0.2 percent.Both beat market expectations slightly and further firmed up the case for a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve. But beyond this year, U.S. interest rate futures were pricing in a slightly smaller chance of a rate hike early in 2018 than before Wednesday’s data.On top of that, the fall in U.S. share prices and junk bonds in recent days also made investors cautious.As the dollar faced head winds, the euro traded at $1.1774 EUR= , after having risen to as high as $1.1862 on Wednesday, its best level in over one month.The dollar dipped to 112.47 yen on Wednesday and fetched 112.87 yen JPY= in early Asian trade.The Australian dollar hit a four-month low of $0.7574 the previous day on surprisingly weak reading on wages. It was last at $0.7587 AUD=D4 .The upcoming local jobs data due at 0030 GMT is the next biggest test for the currency.Against the yen, the Aussie hit a three-month low of 85.56 yen AUDJPY=R, having posted its largest daily loss since mid-August.Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-forex/dollar-on-back-foot-as-tax-deal-doubts-weigh-aussie-looks-to-jobs-data-idINKBN1DG02J'|'2017-11-15T21:37:00.000+02:00'
'3a6df50fae247f65262e6f9e412cf555f7a92b58'|'Virgin Money revives push into Britain''s small business banking market'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:25 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago Virgin Money shares fall 5 percent on revised mortgage guidance Emma Rumney , Lawrence White 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Virgin Money ( VM.L ) shares fell 5 percent on Thursday as the bank said its share of the mortgage market would be at the low end of its previously predicted range and that its net interest margin would also shrink. FILE PHOTO - Signage is see outside a branch of Virgin Money in Manchester, Britain September 21, 2017. Picture taken September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble One of the largest of a new breed of ‘challenger’ banks that launched in Britain after the 2008 financial crisis, Virgin Money has walked a difficult line between pushing for loan growth and maintaining profitability. The lender said its net interest margin, a key profitability metric that measures the gap between what it pays depositors and charges borrowers, would shrink to between 1.65 and 1.7 percent in 2018 due to lower rates on new mortgages. Virgin Money shares fell as much as 5 percent before recovering some ground. They were down 3.2 percent by 0825 GMT. The bank said it remained largely on track to hit its full-year targets, but said its share of gross mortgage lending was likely to be at the lower end of its previously guided range of 3 to 3.5 percent in 2018. Virgin Money also revived plans to enter the small to medium-sized business (SME) banking market, one year after shelving them due to an uncertain outlook for Britain’s economy following its vote to leave the European Union. Virgin Money said it would now open an SME banking business in January 2018. The bank said it is targeting 5 billion pounds worth of SME deposits within five years. Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the bank’s chief executive, said the move would help transform Virgin Money’s market presence. “This will... lay the foundations for potential broader future development in this attractive, but poorly served market,” she said. Although the British economy has showed some signs of a slowing down in recent months, it has so far largely resisted the dire predictions made before and after the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. Virgin Money said the economy remained supportive, with low unemployment, a resilient housing market and, in its experience, robust consumer demand and stable customer behaviour. Virgin Money also laid out plans for its “digital bank” - a platform due to start a trial in the second half of 2018 and launch fully the following year. The bank said it hoped the new digital current account would get 5 billion pounds of customer deposits within five years. Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-virginmoney-smebanking/virgin-money-revives-push-into-britains-small-business-banking-market-idUKKBN1DG0Q0'|'2017-11-16T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'69c96b73c3d2cfc2685f5d936df632cddb691dd4'|'Indian firms make the best of coerced do-goodery - Donate, or else'|'CHARITY begins at home—or, if you are an Indian boss, in the boardroom. Since 2014 firms there by law must spend 2% of profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR), loosely defined as doing good in the community. After some griping, businesses are trying to make the best of their obligation, while keeping politicians happy by funding their pet projects.The idea of compulsory charity had a mixed reception. Ratan Tata, who heads the charitable trusts that own much of Tata Group, India’s biggest conglomerate, was among those likening it to another tax on business. In fact, the law is more a nudge than an edict. Only large companies—those with domestic profits consistently over 50m rupees (about $780,000), or 5bn rupees in net assets, or turnover over 10bn rupees—are affected, and they can opt to give nothing, as long as they explain why.Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.  34   In practice, most comply, at least in part. A study of listed firms by CRISIL, a credit-rating agency, found that over 1,100 firms had spent 83bn rupees on good causes in the 2015-16 financial year, up by 22% on the previous year. That is roughly the budget of a small government department, though tiny compared with the annual $12bn that American firms spend on CSR.As they sought to adapt to the measure, some Indian businesses discharged their obligation simply by writing a cheque to a local school or hospital. But that misses the point of the exercise, which is partly to encourage companies to innovate in how social programmes might be delivered, says Amit Tandon of IiAS, an adviser on corporate governance. Many hoped that private-sector rigour might thereby seep into government thinking.A popular approach has been to use philanthropy to help the business. Banks and insurance companies fund financial-literacy campaigns, for example, perhaps in the hope of shaping the habits of future customers. Ashok Leyland, a truckmaker, provides driving lessons, helping to fill a shortage of truckers. Godrej, a consumer group, offers three-month training courses for beauticians around the country.Other companies are trying to sidle up to the authorities through CSR programmes. Half a dozen firms fund cow shelters, a cause dear to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Narendra Modi, the prime minister. Although direct contributions to politicians are banned, trusts and charities affiliated with them are grateful recipients of corporate generosity. Some government programmes can also be funded directly; firms have donated, for example, to one that cleans up the river Ganges, which meanders through the constituency of Mr Modi.State-owned companies, which cough up roughly a third of all CSR money, appear particularly susceptible to funding projects with a political flavour. According to Mint , a newspaper, four publicly owned oil groups have offered 1.2bn rupees to fund the “Statue of Unity”, a 182-metre-high monument to Sardar Patel, an independence hero, which will cost a whopping $460m (and happens to be in Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat).Fans of the law nonetheless think it will inspire companies to behave in a more enlightened way. “It has moved the conversation about CSR from the backroom to the boardroom,” says Richa Bajpai of Goodera, which helps firms to devise and monitor projects. Shareholders can only hope the largesse they are ultimately paying for will bring them dividends, too.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Donate, or else" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731417-some-funds-are-going-projects-closely-connected-politicians-indian-firms-make-best?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-16T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'6915d0984e290d07f98e8c309cb941339da67006'|'Swiss regulator finds JPMorgan broke money-laundering rules'|'November 17, 2017 / 2:25 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Swiss regulator finds JPMorgan broke money-laundering rules Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss financial markets authority FINMA has found that the Swiss subsidiary of U.S. investment bank JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) broke anti-money laundering rules, a Swiss court document showed. FILE PHOTO: A man walks into the JP Morgan headquarters at Canary Wharf in London May 11, 2012. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo FINMA ruled on June 30 that JPMorgan Switzerland had “seriously infringed” regulatory oversight provisions, according to a ruling issued by the Federal Administrative Court on Nov. 8 and published on Thursday. The case involved a “violation of obligations of diligence on questions of money-laundering,” the court document said. The court had been examining whether FINMA’s previously undisclosed decision on JPMorgan could be made public, in a case first reported by the Handelszeitung paper. Both FINMA and JPMorgan declined to comment on FINMA’s ruling and it was unclear what action, if any, the regulator had taken against JPMorgan. FINMA is not authorised to levy fines, but may confiscate unlawfully realised gains, impose professional limitations on bankers or require an organisation to make changes to prevent similar breaches recurring. In severe cases, it may revoke an institution’s banking license. “There is nothing more important to us than the safety and soundness of the global monetary system,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said in a statement. “In support of that, we have made and continue to make significant enhancements to the firm’s AML (anti-money laundering) programme to ensure we are meeting regulatory expectations. Because this FINMA resolution from June 2017 is not public, we cannot provide further details.” Reporting by Oliver Hirt and Silke Koltrowitz in Zurich and David Henry in New York, Writing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-jpmorgan-swiss/swiss-regulator-finds-jpmorgan-broke-money-laundering-rules-idUKKBN1DH1TN'|'2017-11-17T16:25:00.000+02:00'
'a25eb9906e2c987b5f8530458d1229453aee0705'|'Flat tyre? China bike sharing boom shows signs of strain'|'November 17, 2017 / 11:38 AM / in 15 minutes Flat tire? China bike sharing boom shows signs of strain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s bike sharing bubble is showing signs of strain, after the country’s third largest firm said it was going under. FILE PHOTO: A man looks for a shared bike to ride outside an office building, in Beijing, China April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The country has seen a wave of iconic, brightly colored shared bicycles hits its city streets over the last year, helping revolutionize urban travel, but also drawing some public ire over mountains of bike clogging up sidewalks. The chief executive of Bluegogo said in a public letter posted online he had “made mistakes” and the firm was winding up. He apologized to investors, partners and 20 million registered users of the company’s 600,000 bikes. “We fought until the very last and I believe we can all leave with pride and our heads held high,” Li Gang wrote, adding he had endured months of sleepless nights. He said financing in the market had become a “bubble”. China’s bike sharing craze has been driven by huge investments, especially into the two market leaders Mobike and Ofo, which have raised billions of dollars from tech giants like Tencent Holdings ( 0700.HK ) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ). The two brands - often seen as China’s “Uber for bikes” - have deployed millions of bicycles around the country, and pushed overseas into markets in the United States and Europe. The trend hasn’t been without its opponents. Regulators have tightened rules around shared bikes and raised concerns too many bikes were hitting the streets. Some cities have put bans on shared bikes, citing safety concerns. Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bikesharing/flat-tire-china-bike-sharing-boom-shows-signs-of-strain-idUSKBN1DH19Z'|'2017-11-17T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'9f3b50e40cd1977595140cf12a2af5e65b5b8bbd'|'China''s central bank tightens guidelines on asset management products'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:54 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago China sets sweeping new rules to regulate $15 trillion asset management products Shu Zhang , Ryan Woo 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central bank on Friday issued sweeping guidelines to tighten rules on asset management business, the latest step by Beijing to fend off systemic risks in the country’s rampantly growing shadow banking sector. FILE PHOTO: A Chinese national flag flutters outside the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, in Beijing, China April 3, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo The guidelines unified rules covering asset management products issued by banks, trust firms, insurance asset management companies, securities firms, funds and futures companies, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a joint statement with the banking, insurance, securities and foreign exchange regulators. At the end of 2016, the collective outstanding volume of their asset management business was 102 trillion yuan ($15.38 trillion), including 29 trillion yuan of bank wealth management products and 17.5 trillion yuan in trust products, according to the PBOC. The new rules aim to close loopholes that allow regulatory arbitrage, reduce leverage levels to curb asset price bubbles and rein in shadow banking activity. The new rules will set leverage limits for asset management products. They will cap the total assets to net assets ratio at 140 percent for open mutual funds and 200 percent for private funds. Investors will be prohibited from pledging their shares in asset management products as collateral to obtain financing, a practice that would increase leverage. The central bank also said financial institutions must break the practice of providing investors with implicit guarantees against investment losses. Financial institutions will also be forbidden from creating a “capital pool” to manage funds raised through asset management products. The practice allows banks to roll over the products constantly. The investment losses will be implicitly covered by the new product issuance. The draft guidelines are the latest and most comprehensive set of rules proposed by financial regulators to fend off shadow banking risks that could spread across different asset classes. “Clearly this is a critical turning point of the financial regulations”, said Zhou Hao, a Singapore-based analyst at Commerzbank. “Over the past few years, while the financial risks were rising, the overall regulations were actually behind the curve.” PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan has warned that China’s financial system is becoming increasingly vulnerable due to high leverage and accumulating “hidden, complex, sudden, contagious and hazardous” latent risks. Financial institutions will not be allowed to use asset management products to invest in commercial banks’ credit assets or provide “channel service” for other institutions to bypass regulations, according to the statement. Also, financial institutions will be required to provision 10 percent of their management fee income from asset management products as risk reserves. “The coordinated and unified regulatory requirements on financial institutions’ asset management products will reduce the scope for regulatory arbitrage and the economic incentives behind shadow banking practices,” said David Yin, a senior analyst at Moody‘s. Earlier this year, China set up a top-level committee under the State Council to safeguard financial stability, with the central bank playing a leading role. Non-financial institutions will be prohibited from issuing or selling asset management products. And highly-indebted companies will not be allowed to invest in such products. The transition period for the new regulations lasts until June 30, 2019, the statement said. “The new requirements will push asset management business to go back to its essence and prevent risks to transfer cross-sector and cross-markets,” said Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. ($1 = 6.6323 yuan) Reporting by Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Additional Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Nick Macfie'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-regulations/chinas-central-bank-tightens-guidelines-on-asset-management-products-idUKKBN1DH13D'|'2017-11-17T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'0d6de59546208925f64241bee0ede5e34e8345a4'|'Debt-laden Carillion warns on profit, covenant'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:35 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Carillion shares plunge after third profit warning Noor Zainab Hussain 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Carillion’s ( CLLN.L ) shares tumbled 34 percent after the British construction company issued its third profit warning in five months and said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and would need fresh capital. FILE PHOTO: A Carillion sign can be seen on a van in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Carillion is fighting for its survival after costly contract delays and a downturn in new business at the company, which handles major infrastructure projects for the British and other governments. Its CEO quit in July. His temporary replacement has been trying to free up cash through asset sales and cost cuts to keep its operations afloat and pave the way for a debt restructuring. On Friday the company said those efforts were taking longer than expected. The firm could end up being controlled by creditors, with one analyst predicting a debt for equity swap. Carillion said it needed some form of recapitalisation which could involve a restructuring of the balance sheet in the first quarter of next year and “a further announcement will be made in due course”. Shares in Wolverhampton-based Carillion, which also helps maintain Britain’s roads, schools and hospitals, slumped as much as 60 percent. They were still down 38 percent at 25.5 pence at 1537 GMT. “It doesn’t make a difference how many hundreds of millions or billions of pounds of contracts you’ve lined up over the years. It’s a short-term focus for Carillion and what they desperately need is money in the door,” said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets. The firm, which has called in financial advisers and KPMG to go over its books, won new work from the British government since the first profit warning in July, including a 1.4 billion pound contract to help build Britain’s planned high-speed rail link HS2. The government said on Friday it had been kept informed of Carillion’s turnaround efforts and backed its discussions with stakeholders. The company may have to speed up asset sales by cutting the price and could end up selling machinery or pulling back from work they had previously agreed to carry out, analysts said. The prospects for shareholders to staunch losses appeared bleak. Peel Hunt analysts suspended estimates for Carillion and said they saw little value currently for equity holders. Liberum said it expected a debt-for-equity swap and said Carillion’s financial liabilities were more than 500 million pounds higher than the company’s enterprise value. “SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES REMAIN” Carillion’s shares have lost 87 percent of their value since the July profit warning. Its troubles have been compounded by its debt burden, pension obligations and delays in collecting cash from clients. It said it would defer the test date for meeting its financial covenants with lenders until April 30 next year and was talking to stakeholders. After the financial crisis, British construction companies bid for long-running, fixed-price contracts to keep work coming in. This left them exposed whenever the projects faced delays or bigger than expected costs. The industry is also suffering delays in UK public spending decisions after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Part of Carillion’s business is in the Middle East, where winning new contracts became harder with lower oil prices. Carillion’s projects include high-profile redevelopment work on London’s Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield Stadium and Toronto’s Union Station. The firm blamed the latest profit warning on delays in selling some public–private partnerships, a slippage in the start date of a “significant” project in the Middle East and lower-than-expected profit margin improvements at a small number of UK Support Services contracts. “Whilst we continue to target cash collections, reduce costs, execute disposals and focus on delivering for our customers, it is clear that significant challenges remain and more needs to be done to reduce net debt and rebuild the balance sheet,” Interim CEO Keith Cochrane said. In October, it agreed to new credit facilities and deferrals on some debt repayments. A month earlier it had said it would be in compliance with its financial covenants. On Friday it raised its expected 2017 average net borrowing to 875 million to 925 million pounds from the 825 million to 850 million pound range it gave in September and said this, coupled with its latest forecasts, would mean a covenant breach. Analysts estimated Carillion’s debts including provisions, pensions and accounts payable at about 1.5 billion pounds. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carillion-outlook/debt-laden-carillion-warns-on-profit-covenant-idUKKBN1DH0QZ'|'2017-11-17T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'cbdab33d6a654133c34ce1f200262531e37f9ea2'|'ProSieben attracts bids for stake in digital ops: sources'|'FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 ( PSMGn.DE ) has attracted bids from private equity firms for a stake in an ecommerce portfolio as it seeks cash to finance the shift away from its television advertising business and create a more broadly based digital powerhouse, sources close to the matter said.FILE PHOTO - The logo of Germany''s biggest commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is pictured at their headquarters in Unterfoehring, near Munich February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle General Atlantic and EQT handed in offers for a 30-40 percent stake in the business, which includes energy price comparison portal Verivox, online dating service Parship and online perfume retailer Flaconi, among others, they added.The bids value the whole business at more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) or around 10 times the asset’s core earnings of 130 million euros, they said, adding that JP Morgan is acting as sellside advisor.ProSieben, JP Morgan and the bidders declined to comment.($1 = 0.8481 euros)Additional reporting by Alexander Hübner; Editing by Ludwig Burger '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-prosieben-media-divestiture/prosieben-attracts-bids-for-stake-in-digital-ops-sources-idINKBN1DG1GT'|'2017-11-16T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'c0be10a15f7307325c8b888d258d7fc96d3ea2e8'|'Italian bank Monte dei Paschi sets aside $671 million for civil lawsuits'|'November 18, 2017 / 5:01 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Italian bank Monte dei Paschi sets aside $671 million for civil lawsuits Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Ailing Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Saturday it had set aside 569.4 million euros (508.28 million pounds)to pay for civil lawsuits as of end-September, after a group of bondholders this week challenged its state rescue. FILE PHOTO - The entrance of Monte Dei Paschi di Siena is seen in San Gusme near Siena, Italy, September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini The bank said in a bourse filing it could not rule out that the investors would be granted the right to go back to receiving interest payments on a 2008 floating-rate debt sale known as FRESH. Rome committed 5.4 billion euros in July to rescue Monte dei Paschi, Italy’s fourth-largest bank, to prevent a wider crisis, cancelling the investments of some of its bondholders. As of Sept. 30, overall claims from civil lawsuits lodged by investors amounted to 4.42 billion euros, Monte dei Paschi said in the filing. The bank also warned that it was running below targets in terms of net fees and lending and that low demand for credit might prevent it meetings its 2017 financial goals. Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Valentina Za'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-monte-dei-paschi/italian-bank-monte-dei-paschi-sets-aside-671-million-for-civil-lawsuits-idUKKBN1DI0N0'|'2017-11-18T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'f1199019dbccb06addc38a1757c3c126a571bb14'|'British Columbia hires BOC, HSBC for Panda bonds'|'HONG KONG, Nov 17 (IFR) - The Province of British Columbia has mandated Bank of China and HSBC for its second Panda bond offering.The renminbi bonds will be offered to both onshore and offshore institutional investors in China’s interbank bond market, subject to market conditions.The Canadian province in January last year issued 3 billion yuan ($453 million) three-year debut Panda bonds at a yield of 2.95 percent. (Reporting by Carol Chan; Editing by Vincent Baby and Daniel Stanton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/british-columbia-debt-bonds/british-columbia-hires-boc-hsbc-for-panda-bonds-idINL3N1NN1IW'|'2017-11-16T23:24:00.000+02:00'
'853ae3b22bfb17f5a48e48673fd0c157b760ca8f'|'METALS-Nickel gains capped by caution over high inventories'|'November 17, 2017 / 11:56 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago METALS-Nickel gains capped by caution over high inventories Reuters Staff * Copper and nickel both up but register weekly decline (Adds closing prices, adds VW spending plan) By Zandi Shabalala LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Nickel and copper led the base metals complex higher on Friday, supported by a softer dollar, though both metals ended the week lower. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange closed 0.6 percent up at $6,777 a tonne but was off by half a percent on the week. Nickel added 1.8 percent to $11,5720, but ended the week with a 4.4 percent decline. Nickel, mainly used in stainless steel, rallied to a two-year high this month on its expected use in electric vehicles, but prices have since pulled back because of high inventories. ING commodities strategist Warren Patterson said the base metals complex was undergoing a price correction, with help from Friday’s weaker dollar. “The nickel market got a bit ahead of itself, rallying as much as it did, given that we still have a lot of inventory to draw down before it becomes an overly bullish story,” he added. INVENTORIES: On-warrant inventories of copper MCUSTX-TOTAL -- those not earmarked for delivery -- fell by 6,925 tonnes to 148,250 after fresh cancellations. On-warrant nickel stocks fell by 7,302 tonnes to 246,504 tonnes. That helped prices on the day, but they are still flat on the year. EV DEMAND: Wood Mackenzie analysts estimate nickel demand in electric vehicle (EV) batteries will rise to about 220,000 tonnes in 2025 from about 40,000 tonnes last year. DEMAND: Volkswagen will spend 34 billion euros ($40 billion) on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022, it said on Friday. DOLLAR: The dollar index slipped to a four-week low after the Wall Street Journal reported that investigators looking at possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election had subpoenaed President Donald Trump’s election campaign for documents. COPPER TECHNICALS: The next major support for copper is $6,675 a tonne with resistance into $6,850, Marex Spectron said in a note. COPPER: A fire broke out at the main port used by copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc in Papua, Indonesia, on Thursday night, the company said, adding that the incident would not affect shipments. Villagers near the Freeport mine were evacuated after a string of shootings. BHP BILLITON: The world’s biggest mining company BHP Billiton is seeking a buyer for its nickel business in Australia, it said on Thursday. ALUMINIUM: Aluminium ended the session and the week barely changed at $2,103 a tonne, having shed almost 4 percent last week. Expected capacity cuts in China and falling inventories in LME-approved warehouses have helped to push up aluminium prices by 24 percent this year. PRICES: Lead closed 1.2 percent up at $2,432 a tonne, tin rose 0.6 percent to $19,475 and zinc finished with a 1.1 percent gain at $3,179. Additional reporting by James Regan IN SYDNEY; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-nickel-gains-capped-by-caution-over-high-inventories-idUSL3N1NN30B'|'2017-11-17T13:54:00.000+02:00'
'b50e57b8a50b290956ba8c7644f54a3c3638a25d'|'Bondholders sue Italy bank Monte dei Paschi over rescue action'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:17 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Bondholders sue Italian bank Monte dei Paschi over rescue action Francesca Landini 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - A group of bondholders challenged Italy’s rescue of ailing bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ), suing the lender over the cancellation of their investments and calling for the bonds to be reinstated. FILE PHOTO - The entrance of Monte Dei Paschi di Siena is seen in San Gusme near Siena, Italy, September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini A representative of holders of the floating-rate bonds, a series maturing in 2099 and known as FRESH, said in a statement on Friday a law suit had been filed at a Luxembourg court, seeking 1 billion euros (£890 million) in damages. “While the bondholders remain open for discussions, they cannot stand by and allow for arbitrary decisions, made with no fundamental legal basis, to compromise their rights as bondholders and to undermine future confidence in the Italian and European banking sector,” the group said in a statement. Some of the bank’s debts have been cancelled as part of a rescue that was led by the government and approved by the European Union. The bondholder group said the FRESH bonds, issued through a third party and convertible into the bank’s shares, had been cancelled as part of that rescue. Monte dei Paschi was not immediately available for comment. Under EU rules designed to protect taxpayers, state bailouts of banks are only allowed on the condition that investors first bear some losses, especially those who purchased shares or riskier forms of debt such as convertible or unsecured bonds. In July, the Italian government committed 5.4 billion euros to rescue Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank and Italy’s fourth-largest lender, to prevent a wider banking crisis. Banking analyst Vincenzo Longo, of brokerage IG, said the legal action could create some uncertainty but was unlikely to present a major obstacle to Monte dei Paschi’s recovery. Monte dei Paschi shares fell initially but recovered to stand 4.3 percent higher in morning trade on Friday. The Italian bank sector index .FTIT8300 was down 0.75 percent. “I don’t see it as a major concern because the bank has already passed through many difficulties,” Longo said. The Italian banking focus has turned to Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) which said on Thursday it had failed to secure underwriters for a 560-million-euro share issue, a key European Central Bank demand for the lender to safeguard its future. Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-monte-dei-paschi-suit/bondholders-sue-italy-bank-monte-dei-paschi-over-rescue-action-idUKKBN1DH0UI'|'2017-11-17T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'0b4de802c0dca42b2a5a1f6805ef53a30a8daad5'|'Toshiba says not considering separate investment in chip unit by Bain group member'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:03 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Toshiba says not in talks to with any company over PC unit sale Reuters Staff 3   Toshiba Corp said on Friday it had not entered into talks with any company to sell its personal computer business, denying media reports that it was in negotiations to sell the unit to Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen outside an electronics retail store in Tokyo, Japan, January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo China’s Lenovo Group Ltd has also expressed interest in the PC unit, the Nikkei business daily reported. Cash-strapped Toshiba has previously said it is looking to sell the PC business, a small part of the industrial conglomerate, as it races to bolster its balance sheet by the end of March to avoid a possible delisting. Representatives for Asustek and Lenovo could not immediately be reached for comment. The PC business accounted for just 3.5 percent of Toshiba’s net revenue in April-September of 84.1 billion yen ($747 million). Hit by liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, Toshiba has been plunged into financial crisis and agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. But a highly competitive and contentious auction process led to delays in deciding on the buyer and has meant that Toshiba may not obtain the necessary anti-trust clearance by the end of the financial year in March. Without funds from the sale, it is likely to end the year in negative net worth for a second year in a row, putting pressure on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist it. To avoid that possibility, Toshiba is looking at raising about 600 billion yen (4.03 billion pounds) by offering new shares in a third-party allotment - and hopes to finalise the capital injection by the end of the year to allow for shareholder approval, a source briefed on the matter said this month. Separately, the Yomiuri newspaper reported that Toshiba was considering a capital increase for Toshiba Memory, with the investment coming from a member of the Bain-led group. Responding to the Yomiuri report, Toshiba said it was not considering accepting any separate investment in its memory chip unit by a member of the Bain Capital-led consortium. Toshiba repeated on Friday its stance that it was aiming to close the chip unit deal by the end of March. It said earlier this week that it would sell its television unit to China’s Hisense Group for 12.9 billion yen ($115 million). Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Thomas Wilson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-financing/toshiba-says-not-considering-separate-investment-in-chip-unit-by-bain-group-member-idUKKBN1DH03P'|'2017-11-17T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'3dc506a66b9f4186d435e4dbe592de47d5b56da2'|'German economy to grow much stronger than expected in 2017 - Ifo'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:44 PM / Updated an hour ago German economy to grow much stronger than expected in 2017: Ifo Michael Nienaber 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The German economy will grow much more strongly than expected in 2017, expanding at its fastest rate in six years, the Ifo institute said on Friday, adding that the broad-based upswing would extend into next year. A long-exposure picture shows a container ship, at a loading terminal, in the harbour of Hamburg, Germany April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer Europe’s biggest economy is in the middle of a consumer-led upturn, helped by record-high employment, moderate inflation and ultra-low borrowing costs. Exports and company investments in equipment have kicked in as additional growth drivers in the past months. Tax revenues and the state’s budget surplus are growing, which should improve Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chances of successfully concluding tricky negotiations on a three-way coalition agreement in coming days. Ifo raised its 2017 growth forecast to 2.3 percent from 1.9 percent, its economist Timo Wollmershaeuser said, confirming a pre-release of a report by Der Spiegel magazine to be published on Saturday. This would be the strongest growth rate since the 3.7 percent registered in 2011, when massive state spending followed the financial crisis and the global economic downturn. The new Ifo estimate translates into a calendar-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of around 2.6 percent, Wollmershaeuser told Reuters, adding that he expected the strong upswing to carry on into 2018. His comments followed data on Tuesday that showed a better-than-expected quarter-on-quarter expansion of 0.8 percent between July and September. The government said last month it expected the economy to grow 2.0 percent in 2017 and 1.9 percent in 2018, unadjusted for calendar effects. Merkel’s conservatives are struggling to forge a coalition government with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the left-leaning Greens, an alliance untested at national level. Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Andrea Shalal and John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-ifo/german-economy-to-grow-much-stronger-than-expected-in-2017-ifo-idUKKBN1DH2BH'|'2017-11-17T19:36:00.000+02:00'
'c7e597645498ec9b0b65e739cbcc078bbeb2efae'|'RPT-AIRSHOW-Record Airbus order as Franke ups bet on budget airlines'|'(Repeats NOV 15 story to add link to graphic)* Preliminary wholesale deal worth $50 bln at list prices* A320neo-family planes for Frontier, Volaris, JetSMART, Wizz Air* Boeing in $27 bln deal with flydubai* Boeing vs Airbus: tmsnrt.rs/2ktNsm1By Tim Hepher and Alexander CornwellDUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Airbus hailed its biggest ever airliner deal on Wednesday with an umbrella agreement to sell 430 planes worth up to $50 billion to U.S. budget airlines investor Bill Franke.The preliminary deal for A320neo-family narrowbody jets was signed at the Dubai Airshow and offers a major boost to Airbus, which has lagged arch-rival Boeing in orders this year.It also ensures veteran sales chief John Leahy retires on a high in the coming months.Boeing immediately hit back with a provisional agreement to sell 175 planes to budget airline flydubai. Including options to buy a further 50 planes, that deal could be worth $27 billion at list prices.The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is billed as the industry’s largest by number of aircraft.For Airbus, the $49.5 billion list price value is seen as a record, though it is eclipsed by a $76 billion Emirates deal with Boeing in 2013.“I think we could buy several countries’ GDP with it,” said Franke, a gentlemanly but hard-nosed negotiator who is said to have won unusually steep discounts to advertised prices.“Hopefully I can do better than that,” he added.The package technically covers four separate agreements jointly negotiated through Franke as a common investor, and Airbus billed the deal only as a record “announcement”.Franke did not take part in a signing by airline chiefs.A person close to the talks said that such “wholesale” aircraft deals could become more common as more private equity and new sources of funding come into the airline business.‘HERDING CATS’Indigo plans to supply the narrowbody jets to four airlines in which it has stakes: U.S. carrier Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris, Chilean JetSMART and Hungary’s Wizz Air.Ultra-low-cost carriers such as these have rewritten the industry rule book by combining bargain fares with optional services and upgrades for passengers prepared to pay extra.Franke went to Airbus several months ago with a proposal to pool the needs of his airlines, setting in train a complex negotiation that one observer described as “herding cats”.Airbus, shares of which rose by 2.4 percent on Wednesday, said it expects to finalise the transaction directly with the airlines in the coming weeks as it tries to close a 250-plane deficit in its order race with Boeing. Franke described this as an aggressive but achievable target.For now, the headline total of almost 700 jets covered by air show announcements fails to change the order battle as barely 30 of the deals so far represent finalised contracts.The framework deal, along with flydubai’s deal for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets, underscores how airlines are taking advantage of slowing global demand to negotiate competitive deals to add to their fleets.SWAN SONG The Franke deal also marks a dramatic swan song for Airbus sales chief Leahy, who is due to retire in the coming months from a role he has held since 1994. The 67-year-old has overseen the sale of jets worth $1.7 trillion at list prices and helped to lift Airbus’s market share from a mere 18 percent to stand roughly at par with Boeing. The two rivals account for the vast majority of the market.This year, however, Airbus’s share of the order tally had dropped to 35 percent before the Dubai show, with a rejuvenated Boeing management having made advances in Singapore and elsewhere.The blockbuster finale to the main part of the Nov. 12-16 show lifted a despondent mood that had settled over the Airbus chalet when a deal for A380 superjumbos collapsed on day one.“I think both sides will take stock and see if something can be agreed later this year,” an industry source told Reuters.Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Mark Potter and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airshow/rpt-airshow-record-airbus-order-as-franke-ups-bet-on-budget-airlines-idINL8N1NM20B'|'2017-11-16T05:28:00.000+02:00'
'04421b7218134d818f50991f237a30a82d120db4'|'Viacom beats revenue estimates on film unit strength'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Viacom beats revenue estimates on film unit strength Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Viacom Inc ( VIAB.O ), the owner of MTV and Paramount, reported better-than expected quarterly revenue on Thursday, as higher revenue in its film unit offset declines in fees the company collects from cable TV operators and online distributors. FILE PHOTO: A woman exits the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S. on April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The company’s shares were up 2 percent in premarket trading. Revenue from Viacom’s film unit, which includes theater and licensing revenues, increased 2 percent to $789 million from a year earlier. However, domestic affiliate revenue fell 3 percent to $948 million in the quarter. Analysts had expected a 1.8 percent fall, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Net profit attributable to Viacom rose to $674 million, or $1.67 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept.30 from $254 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier. The quarter included a $127 million gain from an asset sale. Total revenue rose 2.9 percent to $3.32 billion. Excluding items, the company earned 77 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 86 cents per share and revenue of $3.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-viacom-results/viacom-reports-2-9-percent-rise-in-revenue-idUKKBN1DG1MO'|'2017-11-16T14:29:00.000+02:00'
'9b73f663ceec48b043e101b7a279e82234ffc1b9'|'Siemens says to cut about 6,900 jobs'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:04 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Siemens to cut 6,900 jobs to tackle flailing turbines business Georgina Prodhan , Christoph Steitz 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) will cut about 6,900 jobs, or close to 2 percent of its global workforce, mainly at its power and gas division, which has been hit by the rapid growth of renewables. The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder Most of the cuts, about 6,100, will be made before 2020 at Siemens’s Power and Gas division, which once thrived on supplying large gas turbines for electricity generation but has been overtaken by the global surge in solar and wind capacity. “The power generation industry is experiencing disruption of unprecedented scope and speed,” Siemens management board member Lisa Davis said. “With their innovative strength and rapidly expanding generation capacity, renewables are putting other forms of power generation under increasing pressure,” she added. Siemens’ Process Industries and Drives division, which makes large mechanical drives for oil and gas extraction and turbines, will also be hit, Siemens said, not ruling out forced layoffs as part of the plan. Aside from loss-making wind power venture Siemens Gamesa ( SGREN.MC ), Process Industries and Drives was Siemens’s least profitable business last quarter, with a profit margin of just 2.9 percent. Siemens said roughly half of the job cuts would be made in Germany, a move likely to be unpopular with politicians currently trying to form a government. It did not specify the costs of the layoffs. IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union, lashed out at management, accusing Siemens of having been to late in responding to the crisis in conventional power generation and demanding no forced redundancies be implemented. “Job cuts of this magnitude are totally unacceptable given the company is in an outstanding overall position,” said IG Metall board member Juergen Kerner, who also sits on Siemens’s supervisory board. “BURNING TO THE GROUND” In contrast to arch-rival General Electric ( GE.N ), Siemens was able to shield itself from a sharp downturn in demand for large turbines thanks to an 8 billion-euro (£7.1 billion) order for power generation in Egypt - the largest in its history - which has kept its German factories humming for the past two years. As that order has now been fulfilled, both groups find themselves staring into a future of vast overcapacity, where supply outstrips demand by a ratio of three to one, and prices have dropped 30 percent since 2014. Demand for powerplant sized gas turbines has tumbled and is expected to bottom out at 110 turbines a year, compared with total global manufacturing capacity of around 400 turbines, Siemens said. “The market is burning to the ground,” Siemens board member Janina Kugel who is in charge of group human resources, told journalists in a call following the announcement. General Electric on Monday announced a halving of both its dividend and its 2018 earnings outlook, largely due to its flailing turbines business, which it acknowledged it had mismanaged as it underestimated the scale of the problem. It was only the third time in the group’s 125-year history that GE had lowered its dividend, with previous cuts during the Great Depression of the 1930s and last decade’s financial crisis. GE is also selling large parts of its empire to focus on power, aviation and healthcare. Siemens employs about 16,000 people in power generation in Germany, roughly a third of its global workforce in that business, including service. Editing by Jane Merriman and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-siemens-power-restructuring/siemens-says-to-cut-about-6900-jobs-idUKKBN1DG25D'|'2017-11-16T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'f15d5cceafa436104ebff333f512c15bc47d5075'|'Canada''s Obsidian Energy settles fraud charges with U.S. regulator'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas producer Obsidian Energy, the company formerly known as Penn West Petroleum Ltd, announced on Wednesday a $8.5 million settlement with U.S. financial regulators over civil accounting fraud charges filed in June.Calgary-based Obsidian Energy said it had agreed to pay the financial penalty without admitting or denying any of the factual allegations in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint.Earlier this year, the SEC alleged the company had artificially reduced its operating costs by as much as 20 percent and improved metrics for oil extraction efficiency by moving hundreds of millions of dollars from operating expense accounts to capital expenditure accounts.The company issued a statement at the time saying the lawsuit was based on historic accounting practices that were discovered and reported to the SEC in July 2014.“Our settlement resolves this legacy Penn West issue, and we are focused on looking forward as a new company,” David French, chief executive of Obsidian Energy said on Wednesday.Penn West was one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers at the time of the alleged offences, producing around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has since downsized by selling most of its assets and now produces 31,000 boepd, primarily in Alberta’s Cardium, Peace River and Viking plays.Obsidian Energy shares were last up 4 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$1.54.“We view the settlement positively, given the very limited financial impact,” GMP FirstEnergy analyst Darren Engels said in a research note. “The settlement with the SEC enables the company to move forward away from the historical issue and remain focused on operations.”Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Alistair Bell '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-obsidian-energy-sec-settlement/canadas-obsidian-energy-settles-fraud-charges-with-u-s-regulator-idINKBN1DF2ZZ'|'2017-11-15T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'41cf4e5a05e4ba43720fa7a05049d6db60988a5d'|'Wal-Mart''s third-quarter comparable sales beat estimates'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Wal-Mart shares jump on strong U.S. sales growth Nandita Bose 4 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported better-than-expected U.S. comparable sales on Thursday, as customers stocked up on food and other supplies ahead of hurricanes and online purchases soared, sending its shares up more than 8.5 percent. The third quarter marked Wal-Mart’s strongest U.S. sales growth since 2009 despite sluggish demand and competition from Amazon.com Inc that has hurt brick-and-mortar rivals. The retailer has notched more than three straight years of overall comparable sales growth. “Momentum in the business is really strong,” Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said on an earnings conference call. Hurricane-related sales contributed 30 to 50 basis points to overall comparable sales, the world’s largest retailer said, as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma spurred demand for food and grocery items as well as building materials. “Food delivered its strongest quarterly performance in six years,” Wal-Mart U.S. Chief Executive Greg Foran said. Wal-Mart has invested in its online business, cut prices and improved its in-store shopping experience by raising worker wages and making stores cleaner and more efficient. These investments weighed on operating margins and profit, however, which both fell compared to the year-ago quarter. Online sales soared 50 percent, exceeding growth at other big retailers but coming in below the previous quarter’s 60 percent surge. Those sales added 80 basis points to the quarter’s comparable sales gain, boosted by walmart.com, the retailer’s online grocery delivery service and the acquisition of e-commerce startup Jet.com last year. “Wal-Mart’s online performance continues to validate its substantial investments in this critical channel,” said Moody’s retail analyst Charlie O‘Shea. FILE PHOTO: A general view shows a Wal-Mart store in Monterrey, Mexico, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo Wal-Mart forecast strong performance in the key holiday quarter and raised its full-year profit forecast. It now expects earnings per share of $4.38 to $4.46 for the fiscal year versus $4.30 to $4.40 previously. Rival Target Corp has also slashed prices and invested in its website and delivery, but has been less successful at translating that into sales and profit growth. Its holiday-quarter profit forecast fell short of analysts’ expectations on Wednesday, sending shares down 10 percent. The holiday shopping season can account for as much as 40 percent of a retailers’ annual sales. Wal-Mart has said it will double down on incentives and has tripled its online selections. FILE PHOTO - A family shops at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. on June 4, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo To compete with Amazon, Wal-Mart will offer free two-day shipping on more than two million products when the order exceeds $35 and discounts for online orders picked up at stores. Excluding special items, earnings per share were $1 in the quarter ended Oct. 31, exceeding the average analyst estimate of 97 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Operating income fell 6.9 percent, while operating margins slipped to 3.9 percent from 4.4 percent the same period a year earlier. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 2.7 percent, excluding fuel price fluctuations, topping expectations for a rise of 1.7 percent, according to Consensus Metrix. Net income dropped to $1.75 billion from $3.03 billion a year earlier due to a charge related to retiring higher-rate debt and exiting properties in international markets. Wal-Mart said it was close to settling a years-long foreign-bribery probe and recorded a $283 million accrual charge related to a settlement. Shares of Wal-Mart were last up 8.4 percent at $97.38. They have risen more than 30 percent so far this year. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/walmart-results/wal-marts-third-quarter-comparable-sales-beat-estimates-idINKBN1DG1NJ'|'2017-11-16T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'de9781bdb9aef7d39dd504b87100a1a75107738e'|'Vivendi posts higher Q3 earnings and keeps financial outlook'|'PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Acquisitive French media conglomerate Vivendi reported higher third-quarter earnings and kept its 2017 outlook for an increase in sales and profit over the year.FILE PHOTO: The Vivendi logo at the company''s headquarters in Paris, France, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Vivendi’s third-quarter EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) rose 5.7 percent from a year ago to 293 million euros ($345 million), while its revenue increased by 19.3 percent to 3.18 billion euros.That fell short of a consensus of analysts polled by Inquiry Financial for Reuters who had expected EBITA of 324 million euros.The group also said it would not launch a takeover bid in the next six months for French video games group Ubisoft, in which it has a 26 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data.Vivendi, chaired by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, has built up stakes in companies such as Telecom Italia, MediaSet and Ubisoft and it bought advertiser Havas this year.Vivendi kept its 2017 outlook for revenue to increase more than 5 percent and for a rise of around 25 percent in its EBITA, prior to its integration of the Havas business.($1 = 0.8495 euros)Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by David Evans and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/vivendi-results/vivendi-posts-higher-q3-earnings-and-keeps-financial-outlook-idINKBN1DG2JQ'|'2017-11-16T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'2502e1073089d2b33176946441cbed6a212a8c4b'|'German union tells Ryanair pilots industrial action is likely'|'November 17, 2017 / 2:14 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago German union tells Ryanair pilots industrial action is likely Conor Humphries 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - A German pilots’ union has told its members that industrial action against Irish carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) is likely to be needed to force management to overhaul the way it negotiates with its staff. FILE PHOTO: Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Ryanair does not recognise trade unions and instead negotiates with pilots via an internal collective bargaining system it says is recognised by Irish law. Pilot unions say the current system does not allow for genuine negotiations and should be replaced with a pan-European system that allows them to properly represent pilots. Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, which says over half of the Ryanair pilots working from bases in Germany are members, said in a memo to pilots seen by Reuters that it hoped it would not be necessary to hold strike action but “realistically it probably will be, first to begin negotiations and later if the negotiation stalls.” Asked about the memo, Ryanair said in an emailed statement that “these German union claims are without foundation.” “Ryanair and its pilots are continuing to use its collective bargaining procedures while German pilot unions waste their time issuing press releases,” it added. Ryanair says it offers better pay and conditions than rivals. The union has set up a company council made up of Ryanair pilots and one lawyer, which it said was a necessary step before a strike can legally be called. It said it has asked Ryanair to start talks with the union on a new labour agreement and that Ryanair had refused. A pan-European pilots group, the European Employee Representative Council (EERC), which has been set up in recent months by Ryanair pilots coordinating using social media, said in a statement to pilots on its website that industrial action “may be necessary.” The EERC group was formed the after Ryanair announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights in September due to a shortage of standby pilots to ensure the smooth operation of its fleet of 400 planes. Ryanair says it will not negotiate with the EERC which it has described as a front for “competitor pilot unions.” But several serving pilots and pilot unions say it has the support of a significant number of Ryanair’s approximately 4,200 pilots. The EERC statement called on Ryanair pilots across Europe to join unions, which would need to form national company councils as a legal requirement for industrial action. Portuguese pilot trade union SPAC has also announced the formation of a company council, naming five serving Ryanair pilots as members in a letter to Ryanair management seen by Reuters. Other unions are considering the step, with a spokesman for British pilot union BALPA saying such a move was “being actively discussed among UK pilots.” BALPA said a survey of its Ryanair pilot members found that 88 percent would be willing to take industrial action, but declined to say how many pilots had been questioned. Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/german-union-tells-ryanair-pilots-industrial-action-is-likely-idUKKBN1DH1SH'|'2017-11-17T16:14:00.000+02:00'
'34ab021424305a10ce163acef207558059f24246'|'Santander in exclusive talks to buy Deutsche''s Polish assets: sources'|'WARSAW/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Spanish bank Santander ( SAN.MC ) has entered exclusive talks to buy the bulk of Deutsche Bank’s ( DBKGn.DE ) business in Poland in a bid to strengthen its position in the highly competitive market, two sources familiar with the matter said.A Santander logo is seen in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes The two banks are planning to sign a deal before the end of the year, ideally before Christmas, the sources said.Deutsche Bank and Santander declined to comment.The move follows a string of bank merger and acquisition deals in Poland driven by tough competition, low interest rates and efforts by the country’s eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party to curb what it sees as excessive foreign ownership.In June, Polish state-controlled insurer PZU PZU.WA and investment fund PFR bought a 33 percent stake in UniCredit’s Pekao PEO.WA, Poland’s second-biggest bank.That transaction left Santander’s BZ WBK, the country’s third-biggest bank, as the largest Polish lender not controlled by the state. Poland accounted for 3 percent of Santander’s underlying third-quarter profit.“BZ WBK has exclusivity (in talks with Deutsche Bank),” one source said, adding that final discussions between Santander and its adviser JP Morgan with Deutsche Bank were now focused mainly on the price.A source close to the Polish financial sector regulator KNF said the country would readily accept Western investors but would shun buyers from regions such as Russia, the Middle East or private equity buyers.He said Chinese firms were generally welcome to operate in Poland with their own banking licenses but were seen as less suitable buyers for its banks.Deutsche is selling parts of its Polish operations to free up capital as part of a deep overhaul of its operations, which has seen it close or sell business in many parts of the world as it seeks to focus on its core investment and retail banking as well as asset management activities.The activities it is divesting comprise private banking activities, operations catering to small and medium-sized enterprises, and a local currency credit portfolio. The bank’s corporate business and foreign currency loan portfolio are not up for sale.Earlier this year, people close to the matter said that Deutsche Bank Polska, Poland’s 12th-biggest lender by balance sheet, could be valued at about $450 million in a potential deal. In the auction for Deutsche Bank’s Polish assets, Santander beat Commerzbank’s Polish mBank MBK.WA and Millennium bcp’s Bank Millennium MILP.WA.Additional reporting by Paul Day, Jesus Aguado Gonzalez and Angus Berwick in Madrid; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-m-a-banco-santander/santander-in-exclusive-talks-to-buy-deutsches-polish-assets-sources-idINKBN1DH1KU'|'2017-11-17T10:05:00.000+02:00'
'5c741aabe3a1c1e7fb21fdc681710f953fd0c1f5'|'Vivendi''s music unit UMG has a value of more than $40 billion, CEO says'|'November 17, 2017 / 12:33 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Vivendi''s music unit UMG has a value of more than $40 billion, CEO says Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BARCELONA (Reuters) - Vivendi ( VIV.PA ) deems that its music unit has a value of more than $40 billion (£30.3 billion), driven by the success of music streaming platforms such as Spotify, chief executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The Vivendi logo at the company''s headquarters in Paris, France, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Asked about UMG’s valuation at the Morgan Stanley annual conference on Tech, Media and Telcoms, Puyfontaine said that he saw an estimate this week that valued the division at $40 billion. “I wouldn’t put a number but I think that number is higher than the highest one that is currently expressed by the markets,” Puyfontaine said. When asked if he thought UMG was worth more than $40 billion, he said “yes”. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain, Editing by Sarah White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tmt-conference-vivendi/vivendis-music-unit-umg-has-a-value-of-more-than-40-billion-ceo-says-idUKKBN1DH1H7'|'2017-11-17T14:33:00.000+02:00'
'2ec7ca343bd975b8d528d990321ceaa5856ec2a3'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'November 17, 2017 / 4:06 PM / Updated an hour ago Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Reuters Staff 9   Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a visit to a housing estate in North London, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leon Neal/Pool 1/SHOW MAY THE MONEY It could be another busy week for sterling traders. Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his annual budget on Wednesday, and to say he goes into his annual set piece on a weak footing would be an understatement. Politically, the government is weak. Its parliamentary majority is razor thin and Prime Minister Theresa May’s authority has been undermined by a series of gaffes and cabinet resignations. There’s also been an alarming lack of progress on Brexit negotiations -- so much so that Ireland’s prime minister, referring to a lack of clarity over the future status of the Irish-UK border issue, said: “Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they have thought all this through.” On the economy and public finances, Hammond is constrained too. Expectations of slower growth in coming years due to Brexit would hit tax revenues, productivity growth is chronically weak and real earnings are falling thanks to above-target inflation. There remains little appetite in the Conservative Party ranks to do what the opposition Labour Party has pledged and open the public purse for investment. As ever, if there are any surprises - positive or negative - market reaction will be most visible in sterling. The pound is holding up, but volatility is rising.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1DH236'|'2017-11-17T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'3ec7d6b1e5706c880c2cf9bcd83c20f7178ac6d6'|'Shiekh Shoes owner says retailer seeks financing to avoid bankruptcy'|'November 18, 2017 / 1:42 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Shiekh Shoes owner says retailer seeks financing to avoid bankruptcy Jessica DiNapoli 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. sneaker seller Shiekh Shoes LLC is searching for financing to avoid bankruptcy, its owner Shiekh Ellahi said on Friday, as increasing online competition has caused major upheaval for brick-and-mortar retail chains. “We are struggling because of the situation with the banks and suppliers,” said Ellahi, who in 1991 founded the shoewear retailer that caters to so-called “sneakerheads” who collect funky and rare sneakers. Shiekh Shoes, which also sells streetwear apparel, has about 120 stores across 10 states stretching from California to Tennessee. If Shiekh Shoes’ attempts to find financing fail and the company files for bankruptcy, it would allow the retailer to exit its unprofitable leases, Shiekh said. Shiekh Shoes is talking to four to five banks about funding to avoid filing for bankruptcy, he said, adding that he is not in default with any creditors or landlords. Shiekh Shoes renovated stores to meet demands from suppliers, who want their premium shoes displayed only in new, high-end environments, Shiekh said. Shiekh Shoes sells sneakers from Nike Inc, Puma SE and Adidas AG , among others. Shiekh said he has remodeled at least 30 stores over the last three years, and must do similar work on the rest of the retail footprint. He also hopes to be able to secure breaks on rent payments outside of bankruptcy. The company has retained legal counsel to help work on a bankruptcy filing in case efforts to avoid it do not pan out. Shiekh said the outcome of his attempts will be apparent later this month. Shiekh Shoes acquired streetwear e-commerce site Karmaloop last year. Karmaloop filed for bankruptcy in 2015, and had been eyed as an acquisition by hip-hop artists and producers Kanye West and Damon Dash. Shiekh Shoes secured a $20 million commitment from Alabama bank AloStar Bank of Commerce earlier this year. More than a dozen retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year, with many using the process to exit unprofitable leases. Discount shoe retailer Payless Holdings LLC and comfort shoewear company Aerosoles both filed for bankruptcy this year. Payless emerged this summer after closing roughly 700 mall-based stores. It still has about 3,200. (Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/shiekhshoes-financing/shiekh-shoes-owner-says-retailer-seeks-financing-to-avoid-bankruptcy-idUSL1N1NN1OD'|'2017-11-18T03:42:00.000+02:00'
'e5b7c40e310fd8250072e6e200dc4a446d1955a4'|'UPDATE 2-SouthGobi Resources says CEO arrested in China'|'(Reuters) - Coal miner SouthGobi Resources Ltd said on Friday Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aminbuhe was arrested on Oct. 11 and detained at the Rizhao City Detention Center in China as a suspect in a fraudulent loan case.SouthGobi’s board has formed a special committee to investigate the charges against Aminbuhe, it said.Earlier this week, the company said Aminbuhe was on leave and appointed Bing Wang as interim CEO.A person who answered the phone at the Rizhao detention center when Reuters called on Saturday would not comment on Aminbuhe’s detention.Aminbuhe joined SouthGobi as non-executive director in August 2015 and became the CEO a month later.Before joining SouthGobi, Aminbuhe was a director at National United Resources Holding Ltd.Vancouver-based SouthGobi, whose primary market is China, operates its flagship coal mine in Mongolia.Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Elias Glenn in Beijing; Editing by Maju Samuel and Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southgobi-ceo/southgobi-resources-says-ceo-arrested-in-china-idUSKBN1DI0A4'|'2017-11-18T11:08:00.000+02:00'
'94c8b8d7b853b3b74d3ba58c1804a2843e8efc3a'|'Volkswagen board discusses 70 billion euro spending plan: source'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) supervisory board is discussing a five-year spending plan totaling more than 70 billion euros ($82.5 billion) to transform the group into a leader in electric cars, a person familiar with the talks told Reuters. A Volkswagen Golf GTE is being charged during a workshop prior to Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The board is expected to sign off on the capital and development spending targets on Friday, the person said. The investments will likely be made in the 2018-2022 period, said another person briefed on the discussions. Volkswagen, which is struggling to cut jobs and spending at the core autos division and turn the page on its “dieselgate” scandal, declined to comment on the size of the planned budget. The world’s largest automaker has said it will invest more than 20 billion euros in electric mobility by 2030, including costs to develop more than 80 new electrified models by 2025 and upgrade factories. At the previous budget round a year ago, VW pledged to cut overall spending on factories, equipment and technology to 6 percent of automotive sales by 2020 from 6.9 percent in 2015. Until it admitted two years ago to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, VW had been slow to embrace electric cars and self-driving technology. But the emissions fraud has prompted a strategic shift to zero-emission and self-driving technology with VW now pledging to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030. The billions of dollars of costs VW is facing for its emissions trickery and the electric-car offensive has revived tensions at the heart of the VW group between profits and jobs, and between central control and autonomy for its 12 brands. Company sources told Reuters last month that VW managers and unions were seeking to curb competition from lower-cost stablemate Skoda, move some of its production to Germany and make the Czech brand pay more for shared technology. Executives and labor leaders have also been haggling over decisions on where to build electric cars and pool related resources, complicated by the influence of Lower Saxony, VW’s home state and No. 2 shareholder where six of the carmaker’s 10 German plants are located. VW said on Thursday it plans to spend 10 billion euros by 2025 to develop and produce all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in China to comply with tightening pollution rules in its largest market. Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-investment/volkswagen-board-discusses-70-billion-euro-spending-plan-source-idUSKBN1DH0XA'|'2017-11-17T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'733374030c78c4f1bfd8d11871c9c9c120442861'|'Mubadala makes binding offer for majority stake in Brazil''s Invepar'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co PJSC has made a binding offer for a majority stake in Brazilian infrastructure company Invepar SA involving injecting capital and buying shares held by pension funds, Invepar said in a securities filing on Friday.The transaction, which would give Mubadala a 50.1 percent stake if completed, would involve buying shares from the Petros, Funcef and Previ pension funds and the conversion of preferred Invepar shares into common shares.Reuters first reported on Mubadala’s talks to buy an Invepar stake in February. (Reporting by Brad Haynes; editing by Jason Neely) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/invepar-ma-mubadala/mubadala-makes-binding-offer-for-majority-stake-in-brazils-invepar-idUSE5N1M800F'|'2017-11-17T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'ecd436e6860f8e8fa34745e7b00850178bebdb9d'|'BNP damps down Commerzbank tie-up talk, says just friends'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) Chairman Jean Lemierre on Friday damped down speculation that France’s biggest bank is interested in a tie-up with Germany’s Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ).Jean Lemierre, Chairman of BNP Paribas speaks during the 27th European Banking Congress at the Old Opera house in Frankfurt, Germany November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski “We are good friends. But we are friends. Competitors. And we like it,” Lemierre said at a banking conference in response to a question.“No more, no rumor, no comment,” he said, while seated next to Commerzbank Chief Executive Martin Zielke.Several people close to the matter said last month that Commerzbank was working with two investment banks to be prepared in case of a takeover bid from a European rival.The German government, which still holds a 15.6 percent stake in Commerzbank, has denied a report it favored a merger of the lender with BNP Paribas.Separately, Italy’s UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) has recently told Berlin it is interested in eventually merging with Commerzbank, according to people close to the matter.The investment of U.S. buyout fund Cerberus [CBS.UL] in both Commerzbank and peer Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) has added fuel to speculation that a merger between the two may be on the cards eventually.Lemierre and Zielke were speaking at a conference of elite bankers that also included Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.A moderator conducted a spot survey of the audience on factors holding back banking mergers and acquisitions in Europe.Nearly 31 percent, responding via a digital device, said “incompatible financial cultures” were the cause, while 23 percent said “legal fragmentation.” Other factors included supervisory obstacles, banks’ balance sheets and capital.Lemierre, responding to the survey, said the most important hurdle to consolidation was missing in the survey: “The business case,” he said. “We are business people.”Cryan, whose bank this week saw Cerberus build up a stake of 3 percent and spark talk of banking mergers, said Europe could benefit from a few big banks that could compete with U.S. and Chinese rivals.“The U.S. and China have very, very large banks which have the heft to invest globally, extend their reach, and withstand relatively long periods of low returns,” Cryan said.“Europe would be well served by having a handful of institutions which could compete on the global stage.”Editing by Adrian Croft and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bnp-commerzbank-consolidation/bnp-chairman-says-no-rumor-no-comment-on-possible-commerzbank-tie-up-idUSKBN1DH18N'|'2017-11-17T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'68579cadee8a595e117a07be23601316a18fe32a'|'BNP chairman says ''no rumour, no comment'' on possible Commerzbank tie-up'|' 34 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago BNP chairman says ''no rumour, no comment'' on possible Commerzbank tie-up Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Jean Lemierre, chairman of the board of BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) dampened speculation that France’s biggest bank is interested in a tie-up with Germany’s Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ). Jean Lemierre, Chairman of BNP Paribas, attends the Paris Europlace International Financial Forum in Paris, France, July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “We are good friends. But we are friends. Competitors. And we like it,” Lemierre said on Friday at a banking conference in response to a question. “No more, no rumour, no comment,” he said, while seated next to Commerzbank CEO Martin Zielke. Several people close to the matter said last month that Commerzbank is working with two investment banks to be prepared in case of a takeover bid from a European rival. The German government, which still holds a 15.6 percent stake, has denied a report that it favoured a merger of Commerzbank with France’s BNP Paribas. Separately, Italy’s UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) has recently told Berlin it is interested in eventually merging with Commerzbank, according to people close to the matter. The investment of U.S. buyout fund Cerberus in both Commerzbank and peer Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) has added fuel to speculation that a merger between the two may be on the cards eventually. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bnp-commerzbank-consolidation/bnp-chairman-says-no-rumour-no-comment-on-possible-commerzbank-tie-up-idUKKBN1DH16T'|'2017-11-17T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'0c075814e7a166c4cf3860aec2691c15e392e09d'|'Jetmakers end Dubai rollercoaster with big orders pending'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 9:22 PM / a few seconds ago Jetmakers end Dubai rollercoaster with big orders pending Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - It started with a deal that never was and ended with the mother of all air show announcements - this week’s Dubai Airshow saw little in the way of firm new business, but reminded observers the rivalry between two global giants is as fierce as ever. FILE PHOTO: Emirates Airlines aircraft are seen at Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Ashraf Mohammad/File Photo As stragglers placed a handful of orders, delegates said the show would be remembered for the collapse of an anticipated Airbus deal to sell A380 superjumbos to Emirates and hunger for smaller jets including a record deal for 430 Airbus A320s. A Boeing 787 deal with Emirates also shook up the battle for widebody orders. All that barely moved the needle in this year’s order race, where Boeing leads, as most deals are not final. But the two rivals left Dubai with over 700 provisional orders for the bread-and-butter, narrowbody models on which their futures mainly depend. “It’s the aviation equivalent of pile it high and sell it cheap,” said Rob Morris, global consultancy head at Ascend Flightglobal. “This is where they generate their cash.” Boeing notched up 33 firm orders and Airbus disclosed an order for 45 jets to China’s CDB Leasing. If all 674 preliminary air show deals turn into solid business, Airbus’ 35 percent share of the market it shares with Boeing will rise to 48 percent. But both seemingly have enough business in hand to make it a tense end-year countdown. “It’s nothing new to see very large orders. However, the devil is in the detail,” said Aengus Kelly, chief executive of AerCap ( AER.N ), the world’s largest leasing company. “How many of them will be firm and when will the delivery dates actually occur? Some of them could be a decade away,” he added after signing a series of deals with Egyptair. VOLUME GAME On Wednesday, U.S. investor Bill Franke pulled together a cohort of airlines in which he has stakes to announce a preliminary wholesale deal for 430 Airbus jets, achieving what one awed financier called a “masterstroke” of low prices. Boeing bagged an Emirates order for 175 of its 737s. Visitors tour an Airbus A380 of Emirates during the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar That worries some analysts who say planemakers are waging a futile battle, having already sold out for the next 8 years. Several noted it was the last show before retirement for Airbus sales boss John Leahy, fighting to get back on even terms with Boeing after a bruising start to the event. “Maybe it was John Leahy’s last hurrah to get one last deal out there; but what a way to go out,” Morris said. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders, who left Dubai without an A380 order after taking ultimate control of Airbus sales this year, is also keen for good news after his position was weakened by negative press over his handling of Airbus compliance probes. Fligt attendants look on as visitors tour an Airbus A380 of Emirates during the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar Others said Airbus had merely demonstrated the pricing power of planemakers for their best-selling models and underpinned its production plans in a part of the business where the number of jets being produced is critical. Without such volume, planemakers often struggle to recover their high fixed costs, despite other cost-saving plans. Dubai saw an unexpectedly lively chapter of this contest, carried out under the shadow of Gulf tensions and political turmoil in Saudi Arabia which thinned visible attendance. Unlike the Gulf kingdom, which some analysts say has resumed a “swing producer” role to underpin oil prices by tightening production, insiders say Boeing has determined it will not be the one to absorb aircraft market shocks in any future downturn. It lost significant share to Airbus by cutting production after 9/11, just as Airbus was growing rapidly. It lost ground again in 2010 when Airbus launched a revised model that sparked huge orders, forcing Boeing to follow suit. Now, a new Boeing management is ahead of Airbus on orders since the start of the year, and neither company is ready to back down on record production plans. Though the industry anticipates growth in demand, analysts say that could cause disruption for others. “When demand goes down as it inevitably will, ... something else must give on the supply side. Either more planes retire earlier or more get stored or airlines reduce utilisation, or probably a mix of all three,” Morris said. Reporting by Tim Hepher, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow/jetmakers-end-dubai-rollercoaster-with-big-orders-pending-idUKKBN1DG30N'|'2017-11-16T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'cd7e6cc110127211e973aee8d461c4833149050d'|'Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says many wish for a ''confirming vote'' on Brexit'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:33 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Goldman CEO Blankfein calls for second vote on Brexit Anjuli Davies , Andrew MacAskill 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said on Thursday that many people want Britain to have a “confirming vote” on whether to leave the European Union. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Here in UK, lots of hand-wringing from CEOs over #Brexit,” Blankfein wrote on Twitter while in London for a client event. “Better sense of the tough and risky road ahead. Reluctant to say, but many wish for a confirming vote on a decision so monumental and irreversible. So much at stake, why not make sure consensus still there?” It was not immediately clear what he meant by a confirming vote. A Goldman Sachs spokesman in London declined to comment or elaborate further. A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said there would be no second referendum. Ever since the vote, opponents of Britain’s exit - from French President Emmanuel Macron, to former British prime minister Tony Blair and billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind and avoid what they say will be disastrous consequences for the British economy. “Clearly the Goldman CEO only believes in democracy when it goes along with the views of a few CEOs. His comments show how out of touch he is with the concerns of ordinary people,” said Richard Tice, co-chair of the Leave Means Leave campaign group, which is pushing for a so-called hard Brexit. Blankfein, a relative newcomer to Twitter, sparked a wave of speculation last month when he tweeted that he was planning to spend a lot more time in Frankfurt. Goldman Sachs donated a six-figure sum to the campaign to keep Britain inside the European Union in 2016. Britain is currently home to most of the Wall Street bank’s European operations, where it has around 6,000 employees. But the firm needs to ensure it will still be able to serve clients in the EU once Britain leaves the bloc and may have limited access to the EU’s single market. Goldman has agreed to lease office space at a new building in Frankfurt, giving it space for up to 1,000 staff. The Wall Street bank is also building a 1.1 million square-foot office in London with initial occupancy slated for 2019, and Blankfein has also tweeted that he still expects to fill these new European headquarters. In a tour of European cities in the past few months, Blankfein also praised France while in Paris for its strong government and good food. [L8N1NK8BH] Reporting By Anjuli Davies and Andrew MacAskill, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jon Boyle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-ceo-blankfein-says-many-wish-for-a-confirming-vote-on-brexit-idINKBN1DG27T'|'2017-11-16T17:32:00.000+02:00'
'5090e2bd68f2c6f0fc5d08cc4f95d4f56ef64929'|'Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing: source'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:39 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Meredith approaches Time again with Koch brothers backing: source Greg Roumeliotis 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is in talks again to buy Time Inc ( TIME.N ) in a potential deal backed by billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO -- Businessman David Koch arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2015 celebrating the opening of "China: Through the Looking Glass," in Manhattan, New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The Koch brothers have agreed to support Meredith’s offer by investing around $600 million, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Spokesmen for Koch Industries, Meredith and Time declined to comment. Time was up over 25 percent in afternoon trading at $15.93, while Meredith was up over 9 percent at $59.45. The New York Times was the first to report the potential deal Wednesday evening. Deal talks between Time, the publisher of Time and People magazines, and Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, had collapsed in April. Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/meredith-approaches-time-again-with-koch-brothers-backing-source-idINKBN1DG2T7'|'2017-11-16T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'7d4e7a86ee9ab1c6f63165cd270924fedbbac19b'|'Belgium''s Bpost finalizes purchase of U.S. e-commerce firm Radial'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Bpost ( BPOST.BR ), Belgium’s national postal deliverer, said on Thursday it had finalised the purchase of U.S.-based e-commerce service provider Radial [EBAYG.UL].Bpost said it had received all the necessary approvals from competition authorities and that the acquisition would also bring know-how in e-commerce services, including payment, tax and fraud protection and custom care for brands and retailers.“In finalizing this acquisition, Bpost takes a great leap forward in becoming a leading player in the e-commerce logistics business in the Benelux, Europe, North America and throughout the world,” the company said in a statement.Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar, editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-radialcommerce-m-a-bpost/belgiums-bpost-finalizes-purchase-of-u-s-e-commerce-firm-radial-idINKBN1DG315'|'2017-11-16T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'b4673793000627d2b54ac73607132f359a9a4332'|'MOVES-Standard Chartered, Legal & General Group'|' 57 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago MOVES-Standard Chartered, Legal & General Group Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 16 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Thursday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. STANDARD CHARTERED Aurelia Bes has joined as director in the bank’s debt capital markets team, focusing on FIG and corporate clients in Turkey, according to an internal memo seen by IFR. LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC The UK asset manager appointed Kerrigan Procter as chief executive of its capital division. Chris Knight and Laura Mason have also been promoted to chief executives of LGR Retail and LGR Institutional, respectively, the firm said. Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-standard-chartered-legal-general-group-idUSL3N1NM4IF'|'2017-11-16T15:55:00.000+02:00'
'29ebc00214e4b11f512672e9c7000a99eddbb050'|'Banking body head warns about impact of BOJ negative rate policy'|' 42   Banking body head warns about impact of Bank of Japan''s negative rate policy Taiga Uranaka 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Japan’s banking industry said on Thursday the Bank of Japan’s massive monetary easing could cause disruption for the country’s financial system if it remains in place too long. FILE PHOTO - Nobuyuki Hirano, president and group chief executive officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, speaks during a news conference at the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, November 13, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino Nobuyuki Hirano, chairman of Japanese Bankers Association, told a monthly news conference that he has a “positive view” on the central bank’s negative interest rate policy “as a means to improve the Japanese economy.” “But it is not desirable that (the policy) has become chronic,” he said. In a speech in Zurich earlier this week, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda mentioned the “reversal rate”, which refers to the possibility of reversing the effects of monetary easing if a central bank lowers interest rate lowers too far. This could happen as a result of financial institutions’ lending income getting squeezed and their intermediation function, or role as money middlemen between borrowers and depositors, is impaired, Kuroda said. Kuroda said such function is not impaired at present and the central bank will continue to pay attention to this risk. Referring to Kuroda’s speech, Hirano, who is also president of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group ( 8306.T ), said he “won’t be surprised if such risk emerges in the near future.” Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-banking/banking-body-head-warns-about-impact-of-bank-of-japans-negative-rate-policy-idUKKBN1DG1D3'|'2017-11-16T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'cf81d8bbd27022f393a8798f95a2cee11f7e379e'|'Hong Kong IPO surge challenges New York in battle for China listings'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:16 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Hong Kong IPO surge challenges New York in battle for China listings Jennifer Hughes , Julie Zhu 7 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - It’s not often Hong Kong can boast hotter initial public offerings than New York, but some recent deals and a potential pipeline of big Chinese tech floats suggest a shift in the balance between the two fundraising rivals. FILE PHOTO: A company logo of China Literature is displayed during a news conference on its IPO in Hong Kong, China October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo While New York is set to top the IPO league this year, it’s Hong Kong which is seeing the biggest pre-sale demand and first-day pops for new tech listings. So far this year, the New York Stock Exchange has hosted listings worth $27.9 billion (£21.1 billion), more than double Hong Kong’s $12.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. But last week’s Hong Kong float of China Literature ( 0772.HK ), the Kindle-like e-publishing arm of Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ), jumped 86 percent on its debut, making it the most successful first-day listing of any large company this year - far outpacing a 44 percent gain by Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ), the U.S. social media platform. Big first-day gains have become a rarity in Hong Kong where a stream of Chinese state-backed IPOs failed to attract much interest, leaving mainland groups - which bankers dub “friends and family” - to take up most of the shares. This week, Razer Inc ( 1337.HK ), backed by Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) and billionaire Li Ka-shing, gained 18 percent on its Hong Kong debut, and Yixin ( 2858.HK ), China’s largest online car retailing platform, ended its Thursday debut up 6 percent. While modest, those first-day gains stand out in Hong Kong where half the big deals in the past six years have ended flat or lower. In New York, 80 percent of IPOs saw a first-day pop. Retail investors in Hong Kong have helped spur the gains, bidding for 625 times the shares initially on offer to them in China Literature’s deal and 560 times for Yixin’s new shares. Fund managers, too, sought many times the shares on offer in both. Bankers predict that sharp rise in interest can continue - especially for technology firms heading to market. “Now you’ve had some deals go well, investor interest in Hong Kong IPOs has returned,” said David Binnion, Goldman Sachs’ head of equity capital markets distribution and risk for Asia excluding Japan. “There’s a backlog of Chinese tech deals – notably fintech – and a growing number will look to list in Hong Kong.” TECH DRAW The shift in sentiment comes as bankers eye a string of potential blockbuster Chinese tech IPOs in the next 18 months - of greater value than the most likely U.S. listings. They include Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion. Top of the list is Alibaba’s ( BABA.N ) payments affiliate Ant Financial, which was valued at $60 billion in a funding round last year. “Hong Kong is definitely going to attract more tech firms from China,” said Jin Zhong, co-head of TMT at investment bank CICC. “The successes ... this year have given them confidence that Hong Kong is a good choice.” Meituan-Dianping, Lufax and Ant Financial have not commented publicly on their listing plans. The decision each must make over where to list comes as the advantages between New York and Hong Kong become less clear-cut. Typically, New York has offered higher valuations, a deeper pool of tech-savvy investors, a more flexible listing system that includes dual-class shares, and the prestige of being the world’s biggest market. For its part, Hong Kong boasts familiarity with China, an army of retail investors hungry for ‘shoot-for-the-stars’ stocks, and a convenient time-zone for Asian executives. Also, the Stock Connect schemes linking trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen with Hong Kong can build added Chinese interest once shares have listed. The links don’t yet allow IPO investments. John Hall, co-head of investment banking for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan, says the valuation argument has become less of an issue. “All deals are global now in terms of investor base, especially for Chinese deals which often attract investors from both the United States as well as Asia.” SECOND-CLASS? One clear difference is New York’s acceptance of dual-class shares. Just days after China Literature’s Hong Kong debut, Sogou Inc ( SOGO.N ), China’s number-two Internet search engine, raised $585 million in a New York IPO, involving dual-class shares. “Maybe in the future, Hong Kong becomes more attractive,” said Charles Zhang, CEO at Sohu.com ( SOHU.O ), Tencent’s partner in Sogou, who talked also of U.S. investors’ maturity and sophistication. “You can also list in the United States with a dual-class of shares, which was important for us.” Hong Kong is, however, poised to consider dropping its strict one-share-one-vote principle in an effort to better compete with New York for Chinese listings. Du Yilong, managing partner in law firm Latham & Watkins’ Beijing office, says that could encourage Chinese tech groups to reconsider Hong Kong. “With regulators’ encouragement and Chinese capital flowing into the city via Stock Connects, the market will gradually increase its attractiveness to Chinese tech firms and establish itself. It will be a virtuous circle,” he said. Would-be U.S. listings may also have been discouraged by how some recent floats performed there. Best Inc BSTI.N, a logistics group backed by Alibaba, had to halve the amount it sought in September, raising $450 million, following tepid demand, and rival ZTO Express Inc ( ZTO.N ), which raised $1.4 billion in New York a year earlier, fell 15 percent on its debut and has since lagged its offer price. U.S. investors can also see the attractions of Hong Kong for Chinese groups. “You look at the entrepreneurial environment in China, there are emerging companies that need to go public,” said Michael Underhill, founder and chief investment officer of Capital Innovations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “Would it be suitable for them to go public on a New York exchange? Maybe, but it’s easier for them to do it in Hong Kong.” Reporting by Jennifer Hughes and Julie Zhu in HONG KONG, with additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Gregory Roumeliotis in NEW YORK; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asia-ipo-analysis/hong-kong-ipo-surge-challenges-new-york-in-battle-for-china-listings-idUKKBN1DG26A'|'2017-11-16T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'39d8dbc3324f049e600d6d097c12fcdef6bb6c24'|'Volkswagen Group earmarking $11.8 billion to develop, build China electric cars'|'GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Volkswagen Group said on Thursday it plans to spend 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) by 2025 to develop and manufacture all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles as it seeks to comply with upcoming stringent rules in China.The group, which includes Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) and Audi AG ( NSUG.DE ), intends to launch 15 of the so-called new energy vehicles (NEV) models over the next two to three years, and an additional 25 after 2025, China chief Jochem Heizmann told Reuters on Thursday.China’s NEV production and sales quotas, which must be met by 2019, have prompted a flurry of electric car deals and new launches as automakers in China race to ensure they do not fall short. Automakers that do fall short will be required to buy credits.Volkswagen currently has around 10 NEVs already on the market in China, although all are imported models with limited sales volumes, according to a company spokeswoman.Heizmann, speaking ahead of the Guangzhou auto show, added that the group is aiming to sell 400,000 new energy vehicles per year in China by 2020 and 1.5 million per year by 2025. NEVs refer to all-electric battery cars and heavily electrified plug-in hybrids.Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Heizmann said some of those models will have a 400-600km driving range on a single full charge. By comparison, Tesla’s ( TSLA.O ) model S has a range of 490km and as much as 632km depending on battery capacity, according to the company.The Volkswagen Group is also confident that its group companies and their local China joint venture partners will be able to generate enough NEV sales volume to account for NEV quotas by 2019, Heizmann said, adding that there will be no need to buy credits.“We need high volumes of new energy vehicles... we are working on full speed on that.”Last week, General Motors Co’s China chief Matt Tsien told reporters GM’s China joint ventures will be able to generate enough NEV sales volume to account for NEV quotas by 2019 and without the need to buy credits.Tsien said both GM ( GM.N ) and its China joint-venture partners “are working to at least meet, if not exceed, those credit mandate requirements.”The Guangzhou auto show starts on Friday.Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom.; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-volkswagen/volkswagen-group-earmarking-11-8-billion-to-develop-build-china-electric-cars-idUSKBN1DG0DX'|'2017-11-16T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'fe4fc22151855e6000828acd6d34cb79372e67ae'|'Oil prices weighed down by rising U.S. supplies, but OPEC cuts prevent falls'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:20 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil slips, as U.S. supply threatens to undermine OPEC cuts David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Thursday as rising U.S. production and inventories threatened to undermine a rally sparked by tightening world supply as a consequence of OPEC’s curbs on output. Oil pumpjacks are seen near Aneth, Utah, U.S., October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 43 cents a barrel at $61.44 as of 12:17 p.m. EST (1717 GMT). If Brent ends lower, it would mark a fifth consecutive day of declines. U.S. light crude CLc1 fell 16 cents to $55.17 a barrel, putting it on track for a fourth straight day of declines. Oil prices have slipped from the two-year highs hit last week by both crude benchmarks on signs that U.S. supply is rising and could potentially undermine OPEC’s efforts to tighten the market. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed domestic crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA rising for a second week in a row, building by 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 10 to 459 million barrels. Stockpiles of gasoline also surprisingly rose. The United States is expected to account for more than 80 percent of the growth in world crude supply in the next decade, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, and weekly data shows ongoing boosts in production. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has hit a record of 9.65 million barrels per day, meaning output has risen by almost 15 percent since its mid-2016 low. By contrast, RBC commodity strategist Michael Tran noted on Thursday that most of the rest of the world’s inventories are in line with historic averages. “It is no coincidence that the recent price rally has occurred concurrently with several weeks of record setting surges in exports,” he wrote. Expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree to extend their supply-cut pact with other major world producers in Vienna on Nov. 30 has offset some of the recent pressure on prices. OPEC and non-OPEC exporters including Russia agreed a year ago to cut crude output by 1.8 million bpd between January this year and March 2018 to bolster prices. Oil ministers have signaled that they are likely to extend the agreement, possibly until the end of next year. “It is widely believed that OPEC and non-OPEC nations will roll over their production until (end) 2018,” said PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga. “If they don‘t, or if the period will be shorter than nine months, I think we will see even lower prices. Brent would break back below $60 a barrel.” Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-weighed-down-by-rising-u-s-supplies-but-opec-cuts-prevent-falls-idUSKBN1DG055'|'2017-11-16T03:20:00.000+02:00'
'c36ec83f51eae0d0edefdb561635a7edfd4f7227'|'Carlyle seeks to raise $1 billion for new energy fund - sources'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:44 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Carlyle seeks to raise $1 billion for new energy fund - sources Ron Bousso 3   Carlyle Group, the world’s largest private equity firm, is raising up to $1 billion (£759.7 million) for a new fund to invest in oil and gas outside the United States as a stronger outlook for oil prices rekindles investor appetite, banking sources said. FILE PHOTO: A general view of the lobby outside of the Carlyle Group offices in Washington, U.S. May 3, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The new vehicle comes after Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), the group’s overseas energy investment fund set up in 2013, nearly exhausted its $2.5 billion warchest following a number of high-profile deals. CIEP managing directors Bob Maguire and Marcel van Poecke met investors during a roadshow in the United States in recent weeks to raise interest in the new fund, several banking sources told Reuters. The new fund will be used to create a New York-listed special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that focuses on investment in oil and gas exploration and production outside the United States. The fund will be called Regalwood Global Energy Ltd, according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from Oct. 2. It is expected to be launched next year, the sources said. A Carlyle spokeswoman declined to comment. According to the filing, the initial public offering will seek to raise $345 million while CIEP will put an additional $250 million into the fund in a private placement. The final size of the fund could be increased to up to $1 billion, depending on investor interest, the sources said. Investment banks Citi and JPMorgan are advising on the process, according to the filing. CIEP has been one of the most active private equity funds in recent years amid a downturn in the energy sector, backing companies in Europe, Africa and Asia. Those include Neptune, a joint venture with CVC Partners that in May acquired Engie’s international exploration and production portfolio for $3.9 billion; and Assala Energy, which in March acquired Royal Dutch Shell’s Gabon operations for $587 million. A recovery in oil prices - up around 40 percent since June - has bolstered confidence in the energy industry. “There is definitely an upswing in appetite for oil and gas acquisitions as evidenced by our recent capital confidence barometer survey,” Andy Brogan, global oil and gas transaction leader at consultancy EY, told Reuters. “Much of this is down to the (oil) pricing outlook and the confidence that comes with it.” According to the EY survey published on Wednesday, 69 percent of oil and gas executives indicated they intend to pursue acquisitions, a record high for the poll. Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carlyle-energy/exclusive-carlyle-seeks-to-raise-1-billion-for-new-energy-fund-sources-idUKKBN1DF1ME'|'2017-11-16T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'42e69f1c9208b77e2e674fc943cdbce4158b299a'|'Goldman wins dismissal of lawsuit in U.S. over Malaysia ties'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has won the dismissal of a $510 million lawsuit in New York brought by a private equity firm that accused the Wall Street bank of shortchanging it in a merger to “curry favor” with Malaysia’s prime minister.FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of the Sydney offices of Goldman Sachs in Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo In a decision made public on Friday, Justice O. Peter Sherwood of a state court in Manhattan said the lawsuit by Primus Pacific Partners LP “had no substantial nexus with New York,” and should be heard in another forum.Primus had sought damages from Goldman and former star banker Tim Leissner, accusing them of providing bad merger advice in 2010 to Goldman client EON Capital, in which Primus held a 20 percent stake.The plaintiff said the advice reflected alleged Goldman conflicts of interest with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.A lawyer for Primus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment.Primus sued in July 2016, a week after the U.S. government moved to seize $1 billion of assets bought with money it said people close to Najib stole from 1MDB, including some money from bond offerings arranged by Goldman.The 1MDB fund, whose full name is 1Malaysia Development Berhad, has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar scandal and money-laundering probes in at least six countries. Najib has denied wrongdoingPrimus had accused Goldman of advising EON to sell itself to Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank Bhd ( HLBB.KL ) at a lower price that it could have fetched.It said Goldman did this to “curry favor” with Najib, who had one brother on Hong Leong’s board, and another who worked for a firm advising Hong Leong on its bid.The lawsuit sought at least $170 million in damages, representing Primus’ alleged losses from the underpricing of EON, plus at least $340 million in punitive damages.But in his decision dated Nov. 9, Sherwood said Malaysia had a “greater interest than New York” in transactions involving sales of its banks, and had already heard a case filed by Primus over the EON sale.He also said all of the alleged wrongs stemmed from conduct in Malaysia, and most witnesses were located outside the United States.Najib, his brothers, and 1MDB were not named as defendants.Primus said it learned of Goldman’s alleged fraud in March 2016, after media began detailing Leissner’s alleged dealings with Najib and his eventual dismissal by Goldman.The case is Primus Pacific Partners I LP v Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 653885/2016.Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-primus/goldman-wins-dismissal-of-lawsuit-in-u-s-over-malaysia-ties-idUSKBN1DH2Q4'|'2017-11-17T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'766c2115fba0b6287c51364b4938db101ac9f3ea'|'BRIEF-Goldman wins dismissal of Primus Pacific lawsuit'|'Nov 17 (Reuters) - Goldman sachs wins dismissal of lawsuit in u.s. By primus pacific partners over bank’s ties to malaysia prime minister -- court ruling New york state judge says lawsuit did not belong in his court, and should be heard in another forum Judge says all of the alleged wrongs stem from conduct in malaysia, and most witnesses and documents are also outside the united states Primus had claimed that goldman shortchanged it in connection with a merger transaction to curry favor with malaysia prime minister '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/goldman-brief/brief-goldman-wins-dismissal-of-primus-pacific-lawsuit-idINL1N1NN1XQ'|'2017-11-17T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'be6aa3b76e258869a0335c42844e5a8163732596'|'Saudi crackdown will not hit investments - energy minister Falih'|'November 16, 2017 / 9:53 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Saudi crackdown will not hit investments - energy minister Falih Ahmad Ghaddar , Dmitry Zhdannikov 3 Min Read BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s corruption investigations are linked to a just few individuals and will not hinder investments in the kingdom, its energy minister said on Thursday. Saudi Oil Minister, Khalid al-Falih, arrives to the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser Khalid al Falih said the crackdown was way overdue and would also not have any impact on plans to float shares in oil giant Saudi Aramco. “Everybody understands that this is a limited, domestic affair that the government is simply cleaning house,” he said on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference in Bonn, Germany. Saudi Arabia’s future king has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal who is one of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen. The move by Prince Mohammed bin Salman against Saudi’s political and business elite also targeted the head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was detained and replaced as minister of the powerful National Guard by Prince Khaled bin Ayyaf. The energy minister said many foreign investors who had been have been doing business in Saudi Arabia for decades “will tell you that they have not seen corruption in their interactions with the Saudi government or with the Saudi entities”. “It (the crackdown) has no impact on foreign direct investment. It has no impact whatsoever on the kingdom’s openness, capital flows and our wide open investment environment,” he added. Saudi Arabia’s plan to float around 5 percent of Aramco in an initial public offering (IPO) is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, a wide-ranging reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil. Falih said a decision is yet to be made on where the listing would be made. On the upcoming meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna at the end of the month to decide the fate of a global oil production cut, Falih said an extension beyond the March 2018 expiry was needed to rebalance the oil market. OPEC and ten other oil producers led by Russia agreed last year to curb production by some 1.8 million barrels per day to get rid of an oversupply in the market. Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-arrests-minister/saudi-crackdown-will-not-hit-investments-energy-minister-falih-idUKKBN1DG340'|'2017-11-16T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'1faee0d0b66b829a9f8775073f0ba03602e6d74d'|'BRIEF-Advantage Insurance Inc files for IPO of up to $150 mln'|'Nov 16 (Reuters) -* Advantage Insurance Inc files for IPO of up to $150 million – SEC filing* Advantage Insurance Inc says it intends to apply to have its shares listed on NYSE under the symbol “AVI”* Advantage Insurance Inc - Proposed IPO price is an estimate solely for calculating SEC registration fee Source text: ( bit.ly/2yPzaAR ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-advantage-insurance-inc-files-for/brief-advantage-insurance-inc-files-for-ipo-of-up-to-150-mln-idINEMN2OL71O'|'2017-11-16T19:44:00.000+02:00'
'ed5cbb614fec261e6870e90500d55a4ed234f417'|'Bid for Santos puts spotlight on Papua New Guinea''s juicy LNG assets'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:48 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Bid for Santos puts spotlight on Papua New Guinea''s juicy LNG assets Reuters Staff * Harbour Energy may bid $8 billion for Australia’s Santos * Santos holds a stake in lucrative Papua New Guinea LNG * ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG running at 25 pct above capacity * Exxon, Total and partners plan to double PNG LNG output By Sonali Paul and Henning Gloystein MELBOURNE/SINGAPORE, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Takeover interest in Australia’s Santos, a company that not long ago was drowning in debt, shines a spotlight on a burgeoning hotspot for oil and gas producers: Papua New Guinea. The South Pacific nation, one of the world’s least explored countries but known for corruption and violence, has become a key source of growth for two of the world’s biggest energy companies - ExxonMobil Corp and Total SA - looking to expand their liquefied natural gas (LNG) businesses. With oil and gas LNG-AS prices recovering this year and LNG demand especially in China skyrocketing, investors are scouring the globe for juicy investments, and Papua New Guinea has landed on their radar. Now private equity wants to get in on the game, with U.S.-based Harbour Energy eyeing a bid for Santos Ltd, Australia’s no.2 independent gas producer, which has a 13.5 percent stake in ExxonMobil’s Papua New Guinea LNG project (PNG LNG). “As an acquisition, the prize jewels in Santos are its stakes in PNG LNG,” said Saul Kavonic of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Investors are attracted by Papua New Guinea’s high-yielding gas fields, with the gas rich in liquids that generate extra revenue, and easily exported to North Asia’s booming markets as LNG on tankers. Costs are low, a key to grabbing the next leg of growth in the LNG market, as plants in Australia and the United States flood the market with new supply. Santos is not the only company to have caught the attention of investors because of its Papua New Guinea assets. Oil Search limited, ExxonMobil’s partner in PNG, fended off an $8 billion approach from Australia’s biggest energy company, Woodside Petroleum, two years ago, around the same time Santos rebuffed a bid from a fund backed by the royal families of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates. ExxonMobil sealed its dominance in the country by taking over InterOil, another PNG player, for $2 billion earlier this year after trumping a bid from Total and Oil Search. Regrouping after Santos spurned an A$9.5 billion ($7.2 billion) approach, Harbour Energy may have to pay more than A$11 billion to snare its target in what would be one of the biggest oil and gas deals since Royal Dutch Shell took over BG Group to become the world’s biggest listed LNG producer. Santos was in deep trouble just a few years ago, struggling with high debt and low oil and gas prices. But asset sales, debt reduction and cost-cutting have led it back to health. Some analysts now say a bid even at A$11 billion would be too low, in part due to its production costs, to which Papua New Guinea contributes. “The company has been a turnaround story. By selling down poorly performing assets and driving efficiencies, management has brought down breakeven production costs an incredible 32 percent to $32 per barrel,” said Cai Lewis, senior adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers. Current Brent crude oil prices are above $60 per barrel. Based on that, Lewis said an A$11 billion offer would be “too cheap”. UNUSUAL PROJECT Papua New Guinea is an unusual investment destination. The country to the north of Australia is one of Asia’s poorest, remote, troubled by corruption and sporadic violence. “The rate of crime in Papua New Guinea is among the highest in the world,” the U.S. State Department said in its 2017 crime and safety report, warning of “violent crime, including gang rape, carjacking, home invasions, kidnappings, and armed robberies.” Also, much of the country is jungle-covered mountain, making access difficult. Yet all this has not scared off investment into its gas resources. Exxon was the first to make a foray, committing in 2009 to develop a $19 billion LNG export facility. The project’s remoteness required Exxon to charter huge Russian transport planes to fly in equipment, including gas turbines, to jungle airstrips. Despite the challenges, ExxonMobil stunned markets by completing the project in 2014 ahead of schedule, and ramping up output at the plant, designed to produce 6.9 million tonnes a year, as high as 25 percent above nameplate capacity. Enjoying low production costs and LNG prices that have jumped by 70 percent this year to almost $10 per million British thermal units, ExxonMobil plans to double output from PNG LNG by the mid-2020s by using gas from fields that it owns with partners Total, Oil Search and Santos. They all agree it would be smarter and cheaper to expand PNG LNG than build a competing LNG plant. “We have got to be the most cost-competitive out there... in order to attract that demand growth,” ExxonMobil’s head of investor relations, Jeff Woodbury, said in September. PNG LNG stands in stark contrast to Australia’s more expensive mega-projects, which have started up over the past two years after blowing budgets and schedules, and in some cases struggling to produce at capacity. Santos’s $18.5 billion Gladstone LNG project on Australia’s east coast opened in 2015 at 15 percent over budget and does not have enough gas to fill the plant, now slated to reach only 75 percent capacity by 2019. ($1 = 1.3184 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/santos-lng-papua/bid-for-santos-puts-spotlight-on-papua-new-guineas-juicy-lng-assets-idUSL3N1NM2G8'|'2017-11-17T07:47:00.000+02:00'
'fef4102afa39fdf5843546883dc4e56b1f83ff02'|'Daimler to invest 5 billion yuan in China for electric car, battery production - executive'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:43 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Daimler to invest 5 billion yuan in China for electric car, battery production - executive Reuters Staff 3 Min Read GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Germany’s Daimler AG plans to invest 5 billion yuan (£568.7 million) in China, jointly with its Chinese joint-venture partner, for capacity to produce electric cars and the batteries that power them - part of an effort to help its China operations comply with the country’s green car production and sales quotas. Security guards stand in front of Mercedes Benz booth at Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Hubertus Troska, head of Daimler’s greater China operations, told reporters that the investment was part of Daimler’s previously announced 10 billion euros (£8.9 billion) global green car initiative. Troska, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Guangzhou auto show, said Daimler which operates Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands in China, and its partner BAIC Motor Corp Ltd plan to make the investment to localise production of battery electric vehicles (EV) in China. The investment will also go toward producing EV battery packs using locally produced battery cells. “If there’s one country in the world (that could) grow demand for electrics, that’s China because no other countries have so many big cities,” Troska told reporters. Though official purchase incentives for battery electric cars are being phased out over the next few years, “there is a strong incentive (for Chinese consumers) to go for electrics,” Troska said. That is in part because of the Chinese government’s commitment to build sufficient charging infrastructure, Troska said. Daimler said on Friday the company and BAIC aim to produce locally in China battery-powered electric vehicles under the EQ brand by 2019. The first EQ vehicle Daimler and BAIC plan to launch in China will be the EQC, a battery-powered crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV). Globally, Daimler plans to invest 10 billion Euros in the expansion of its electric fleet over the next few years. By 2022, Mercedes-Benz’s offerings will be “electrified,” a spokeswoman said, meaning customers will be offered an electrified alternative in every Mercedes model. China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid cars that come into effect from 2019. It has a target of 2 million so-called new-energy vehicle (NEV) sales by 2020 and has signalled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol-engine cars. This seismic shift towards NEVs has prompted a flurry of electric car deals and new launches, as manufacturers worldwide race for a share of the world’s largest auto market. Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ), for example, said on Thursday the group plans to spend 10 billion euros by 2025 to develop and manufacture all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles as it seeks to comply with upcoming stringent rules in China. Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autoshow-guangzhou-daimler/daimler-to-invest-5-billion-yuan-in-china-for-electric-car-battery-production-executive-idUKKBN1DH0HO'|'2017-11-17T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'a2aac5281d9f8b566975cfeac9361bebd843b9ab'|'Exclusive - Qualcomm set to win conditional Japanese antitrust okay for NXP deal: source'|'November 18, 2017 / 6:25 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Exclusive - Qualcomm set to win conditional Japanese antitrust okay for NXP deal: source Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm is set to win “imminent” Japanese antitrust clearance for its $38-billion bid for NXP Semiconductors and gain Europe’s approval by the end of the year with slight tweaks to its concessions, a person familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Winning the green light from both competition authorities would take Qualcomm a major step forward to closing the deal and reinforce its fight against an unsolicited $103-billion takeover bid from Broadcom. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) “is expected to clear Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP imminently,” the source said. “The European Commission is expected to follow soon.” The JFTC did not respond to emailed requests for comments sent during out of office hours. The EU competition enforcer, which has set a March 15 deadline to rule on the deal, declined to comment while Qualcomm was not available for comment. Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple, wants to become the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market via the NXP purchase, the biggest-ever in the semiconductor industry. FILE PHOTO - A man works on a tent for NXP Semiconductors in preparation for the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on January 4, 2015. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo To address competition concerns, the company has agreed not to purchase NXP’s standard essential patents and not to take legal action against third parties related to NXP’s near field communication (NFC) patents except for defensive purposes. It also offered an interoperability pledge which will allow rival products to function with NXP’s products. NXP co-invented NFC chips which enable mobile phones to be used to pay for goods and store and exchange data. Qualcomm will make incremental changes to concessions offered to the EU authority last month, the person said. A similar proposal was also proposed to the JFTC. Broadcom made its move last week in an effort to become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. Qualcomm has dismissed the offer, saying it undervalues the company. Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP together would have control over modems, Wi-Fi, GPS and near-field communications chips, a strong position that could concern customers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd because of the bargaining power such a combined company could have to raise prices. However, a combined company would also likely have a lower cost base and the flexibility to cut prices. Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nxp-m-a-qualcomm-antitrust-eclsuive/exclusive-qualcomm-set-to-win-conditional-japanese-antitrust-okay-for-nxp-deal-source-idUKKBN1DI0PU'|'2017-11-18T20:25:00.000+02:00'
'898a159de0ce05ee50289fb0a25856c3e1f7d623'|'Raytheon gets OK for $10.5 billion Patriot sale to Poland - Pentagon'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:24 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Raytheon gets OK for $10.5 billion Patriot sale to Poland: Pentagon Mike Stone 2 Min Read (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department approved a possible $10.5 billion sale of Raytheon Co’s ( RTN.N ) Patriot missile defense system to Poland, the Pentagon said on Friday. Logo of the U.S. defense company Raytheon is pictured at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel NATO member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and in response to Moscow’s renewed military and political assertiveness in the region. Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said in March that Poland expected to sign a deal with Raytheon to buy the Patriot missile defense system by the end of the year. Patriot missile defense interceptors are designed to detect, track and engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and short-range or tactical ballistic missiles. The proposed sale, includes 208 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, 16 M903 launching stations, four AN/MPQ-65 radars, four control stations, spares, software and associated equipment. In addition, Poland is authorized to buy U.S. government and contractor technical, engineering, and logistics support services as well as range and test programs for a total estimated potential program cost of up to $10.5 billion. The Pentagon said the sale will take place in two phases. The contract still requires approval from the U.S. Congress, because it involves a purchase of advanced military technology for which special permission must be obtained. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said it had delivered notification to Congress on Tuesday. U.S. lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, but that rarely happens. In addition to Raytheon, the prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) and Northrop Grumman ( NOC.N ). Reporting by Mike Stone; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-raytheon-poland-patriot/raytheon-gets-ok-for-10-5-billion-patriot-sale-to-poland-pentagon-idUKKBN1DH2KQ'|'2017-11-17T22:43:00.000+02:00'
'ccec9b833073378640c7f63b05859d2650755fe2'|'German watchdog drops inquiry into HNA, Qatar over Deutsche Bank - source'|' 29 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago German watchdog drops inquiry into HNA, Qatar over Deutsche Bank - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s financial watchdog will take no action after ending an investigation into whether China’s HNA and Qatar’s royal family were working together on their investments in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), a person familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO : Logos of Deutsche Bank AG are seen in Tokyo July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo BaFin had been looking into whether the two largest investors in Germany’s largest bank, which each own stakes of just under 10 percent, were “acting in concert”, which would have violated securities laws, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. HNA, which has been on a global acquisition spree in past years, began building its Deutsche stake this year in multiple steps, saying the bank’s shares were “substantially undervalued and are an attractive investment”, according to an SEC filing. Qatar’s royal family built up its stake first in 2014 during a capital increase. Both Qatar and HNA have been granted a seat on the Deutsche Bank board. Deutsche Bank and HNA declined to comment, while representatives for Qatar were not immediately available to comment on the development, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg News. This week Cerberus, the U.S. buyout fund, emerged as Deutsche Bank’s fourth largest shareholder behind HNA, Qatar and money manager BlackRock ( BLK.N ), with a 3 percent stake. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-shareholders/german-watchdog-drops-inquiry-into-hna-qatar-over-deutsche-bank-source-idUKKBN1DH2HU'|'2017-11-17T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'4d8b3b9cd1d2296a9c4658350117bda69654b3bc'|'T-Mobile US to propose significant share buyback - CFO'|'BARCELONA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. No.3 carrier T-Mobile US will propose a “significant” share buyback that could start in December, finance chief Braxton Carter said on Thursday, a sign of confidence after the collapse of its merger with Sprint Corp.Carter, speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference in Barcelona, said the buyback proposal would be put to the board in about two weeks. He said Deutsche Telekom, which owns around 64 percent in T-Mobile, would not tender shares and may even buy stock itself.The shares would be held in treasury and deployed as acquisition currency for future M&A deals, Carter also said, highlighting interest in acquisitions in the so-called Internet of Things or of regional players. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Ludwig Burger) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tmt-conference-t-mobile-us-buyback/t-mobile-us-to-propose-significant-share-buyback-cfo-idINL8N1NM2TP'|'2017-11-16T07:33:00.000+02:00'
'cf61892b2f8fa20030757df80eb26840bf136764'|'Oil stable as OPEC cuts counter rising U.S. supplies'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:20 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Oil edges up as expected extension of OPEC cuts counters rising US supplies Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets edged up on Thursday as expectations that OPEC will extend production cuts at a meeting at the end of this month outweighed rising U.S. crude production and inventories. FILE PHOTO: A worker stands in front of pump jacks at the Ashalchinskoye oil field owned by Russia''s oil producer Tatneft near Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.06 per barrel at 0742 GMT, up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $55.39 a barrel, 6 cents up from their last settlement. “Oil shrugged off an unexpected rise in the U.S. crude inventory data ... Both contracts eked out small gains,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. Traders said this was due to efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to withhold oil production to tighten the market and prop up prices. The deal is due to expire in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss policy, and it is expected to agree an extension of the cuts. “OPEC, led by Saudi ... will look to support the market, especially until the sale of Aramco is complete. If sanctions against Iran are executed, it will drive the price significantly higher,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers in Sydney. (GRAPHIC: U.S. oil production, storage, reut.rs/2zCLx75 ) Despite Thursday’s gains, Brent and WTI have lost around 4 percent in value since hitting 2015 highs last week, pulled down in part by rising crude availability in the United States. U.S. crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA rose for a second week in a row, building by 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 10 to 459 million barrels, the government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. That compared to analyst expectations in a Reuters poll for a decrease of 2.2 million barrels. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA hit a record of 9.65 million barrels per day (bpd), meaning output has risen by almost 15 percent since their most recent low in mid-2016. (GRAPHIC: Global crude oil supply and demand balance, reut.rs/2zCLx75 ) Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-weighed-down-by-rising-u-s-supplies-but-opec-cuts-prevent-falls-idUKKBN1DG057'|'2017-11-16T06:46:00.000+02:00'
'3a3a530fd8754f0159ca655250c5b19400c25a35'|'GM''s Cadillac expects China sales to jump 60 percent in 2017'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:30 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago GM''s Cadillac expects China sales to jump 60 percent in 2017 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - General Motors’ ( GM.N ) Cadillac luxury brand expects its China sales to surge 60 percent in 2017, faster than it had projected at the start of the year, on strong demand from younger buyers, the brand’s country chief said. FILE PHOTO - The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo The GM premium brand, which saw a sharp spike in sales after it opened its first dedicated factory in the country last year, had said in January that China sales would continue growing at a double-digit rate but at a slower pace than the roughly 50-percent growth it posted in 2016. Cadillac, relatively late to introduce local production in the world’s biggest auto market, is among a second wave of luxury car brands in China that seek to take market share from established brands such as BMW ( BMWG.DE ), Daimler’s ( DAIGn.DE ) Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) Audi. In order to sustain the momentum in Cadillac sales in China, the brand plans to double the number of retail stores over the next five years to more than 300, from the current 180. “A lot of younger people in China are looking for something different to stand out of the crowd. We have a very young target audience. That is a significant difference to the other countries in the world,” Cadillac’s China chief, Andreas Schaaf, told Reuters in an interview on Friday. The average age of Cadillac buyers in China is 33 years, compared to 50 years in Europe and the United States combined, Schaaf said. Reporting By Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autoshow-guangzhou-gm-cadillac/gms-cadillac-expects-china-sales-to-jump-60-percent-in-2017-idUKKBN1DH0QX'|'2017-11-17T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'39e461259d8edd0f34584c27a1ae8a70c7423f60'|'Raytheon gets OK for $10.5 billion Patriot sale to Poland - Pentagon'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:30 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Raytheon gets OK for $10.5 billion Patriot sale to Poland - Pentagon Mike Stone 2 Min Read (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department approved a possible $10.5 billion (£7.95 billion) sale of Raytheon Co’s ( RTN.N ) Patriot missile defence system to Poland, the Pentagon said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: People pass the U.S. defense company Raytheon stand at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo NATO member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and in response to Moscow’s renewed military and political assertiveness in the region. Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said in March that Poland expected to sign a deal with Raytheon to buy the Patriot missile defence system by the end of the year. Patriot missile defence interceptors are designed to detect, track and engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and short-range or tactical ballistic missiles. The proposed sale, includes 208 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, 16 M903 launching stations, four AN/MPQ-65 radars, four control stations, spares, software and associated equipment. In addition, Poland is authorized to buy U.S. government and contractor technical, engineering, and logistics support services as well as range and test programs for a total estimated potential programme cost of up to $10.5 billion. The Pentagon said the sale will take place in two phases. The contract still requires approval from the U.S. Congress, because it involves a purchase of advanced military technology for which special permission must be obtained. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said it had delivered notification to Congress on Tuesday. U.S. lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, but that rarely happens. In addition to Raytheon, the prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) and Northrop Grumman ( NOC.N ). Reporting by Mike Stone; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-raytheon-poland-patriot/raytheon-gets-ok-for-10-5-billion-patriot-sale-to-poland-pentagon-idUKKBN1DH2LC'|'2017-11-17T22:43:00.000+02:00'
'ec9f47ab5a2b8de044b4f5d1f43794b34c0a4429'|'Oil giants unlikely to share coal''s fate, for now'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:09 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Oil giants unlikely to share coal''s fate, for now Ron Bousso , Simon Jessop , Susanna Twidale 6   The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s proposal to ditch its oil and gas shares, though hugely symbolic in the battle against climate change, is unlikely to cause a rush to the exit by major investors in the sector in the short term. FILE PHOTO: Power-generating windmill turbines are seen at the Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm near Amsterdam, Netherlands September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo The move by the $1 trillion (£757.9 billion) fund, the world’s largest, rattled stock markets, exposing what is seen as one of the biggest threats to companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and BP as the world shifts towards renewable energy such as wind and solar. But in the meantime, expectations of growing global demand for oil and gas for decades to come mean reliance on these companies is likely to continue. And although the Norwegian initiative will encourage those seeking to hasten the move to a low-carbon economy, the degree to which other investors can follow the fund’s example, at least in the short term, is less clear. The European oil and gas index .SXEP fell on Friday to its lowest since late September, extending declines following the Norwegian fund’s announcement. For some, it was seen as an opening shot in the decline of the 150-year-old sector in the battle to slow global warming and reduce carbon emissions, reminiscent of the demise of coal. “The investor exit from oil and gas as a fuel source will be slower than coal, but the emissions reduction maths is clear and so this inevitable transition has started,” said Nathan Fabian, director of policy at Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a United Nations-backed group that represents asset managers with holdings of over $60 trillion. But other investors do not draw the same parallels. “I do not see this as the start of a broader trend among major investors,” said Rohan Murphy, energy analyst at Allianz, which holds shares in several oil majors. “Coal is a more obvious SRI (sustainable responsible investment) sell compared to oil and gas – coal is dirtier.” “Gas, which is a big part of all the big oil businesses today, is the answer for the medium-term energy transition to gas from coal for power generation,” Murphy said. Petroleum companies see natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal for power generation in the effort to wean the world off fossil fuels by the end of the century. “Many wish for a quick and revolutionary role reversal between the oil and gas industry, and the renewable and new electric industry. But undue haste and an overly ideological approach could bring great economic and social damage,” Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in a speech last month. Also, demand for oil in transportation and plastics is not expected to decline significantly until 2050, according to many forecasts. The Norwegian announcement came as more than 195 nations met in Bonn, Germany, to decide how to comply with climate targets agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit a rise in global temperatures. SCALE But beyond our dependence on oil and gas, the size of the world’s top oil companies would make mass divestment a huge challenge. The top five publicly traded companies - Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total - together have a market value of over $1 trillion. Coal companies, on the other hand, have always been smaller. For now, there is no viable alternative to oil and gas to meet the world’s demand, several investors said. “My guess is that after the initial market adjustment ... the move may not damage the sector’s long-term performance significantly,” said Kevin Gardiner, global investment strategist at Rothschild Wealth Management. The Norwegian wealth fund’s move, echoing Saudi Arabia’s plan to list part of its national oil company, was aimed at making Norway less exposed to volatile oil prices and less reliant on revenue from fossil fuels. If approved, it would most likely take years for the Norwegian fund to unwind its large investments in the sector and find new homes for the money. And while there is also growing demand from retail investors to invest in ‘responsible’ or ‘sustainable’ funds, oil and gas companies are not commonly excluded and any change here would be gradual. Dropping oil and gas companies would also mean missing out on a rich source of dividend income, a prized asset at a time of low bond yields. Three – Shell, Exxon and Gazprom - were among the top-10 dividend payers globally in the third quarter. In absolute terms, the number of oil and gas companies in leading stock indices varies, with 14 in the STOXX 600 index of leading European companies, or 2.3 percent; and 26 in the S&P 500 .SPX , or 5.2 percent. The size of some of the largest can have a disproportionate impact on returns relative to their index peers. While there are just two companies in Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index, for example, they make up 14 percent of the index’s value. While the Norwegian fund has long been a trend-setter for issues around socially responsible investing, particularly in Scandinavia, the reason for this decision is relatively unique. Its desire to make treasury receipts less dependent on the oil price is not a challenge faced by most pension funds, which make up a large slice of the money invested globally. Any decision to ditch oil and gas would arguably leave them less diversified, not more, said investors, although charitable endowments may have more flexibility to do so. Additional reporting by Helen Reid in London, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-divestment-analysis/oil-giants-unlikely-to-share-coals-fate-for-now-idUKKBN1DH1Y2'|'2017-11-17T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'b94ffed3f8031418b2ea4993e8eb24e2bafb18b3'|'Japan''s transport ministry orders Kobe Steel to improve plant management'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s transport ministry said on Friday it has ordered scandal-hit Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) to improve management at one of its plants, as it struggles to restore confidence in its manufacturing following revelations of data falsification.Kobe Steel''s logo is seen through a fence at a facility of Kakogawa Works in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Measures taken to prevent a recurrence of wrongdoing at Kobe Steel’s Daian plant in central Japan were inadequate, the transport ministry said in a statement, pointing to a lack of concrete steps in areas like the alleviation of pressure from head office and the training of inspection staff.“We will work quickly to plan and implement the measures as required by the transport ministry,” a Kobe Steel spokeswoman said.The ministry inspected the Daian plant last month because of its role in supplying components for the domestically built Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) passenger aircraft under development by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7011.T ).No safety issues were found during that inspection, with Kobe Steel saying on Friday that it assesses 90 percent of affected customers have no safety issues.On Wednesday, Kobe Steel’s Hatano plant, one of its main copper plants, was stripped of its industrial quality certifications after an investigation into its quality control.Kobe Steel has said that a lack of quality controls and a focus on profits was behind widespread data tampering that has impacted more than 500 companies and shaken up the supply chains of car and plane makers around the world.(This version of the story was refiled to amend paragraph 5 to show number of affected customers assessed to have no safety issues is Kobe Steel’s assessment)Reporting by Sam Nussey '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal/japans-transport-ministry-orders-kobe-steel-to-improve-plant-management-idUSKBN1DH16A'|'2017-11-17T12:26:00.000+02:00'
'6f7c990bad6a0a4797dc78254e829118637c1819'|'Bid for Santos puts spotlight on Papua New Guinea''s juicy LNG assets'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:55 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago Bid for Santos puts spotlight on Papua New Guinea''s juicy LNG assets Sonali Paul , Henning Gloystein 6 Min Read MELBOURNE/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Takeover interest in Australia’s Santos ( STO.AX ), a company that not long ago was drowning in debt, shines a spotlight on a burgeoning hotspot for oil and gas producers: Papua New Guinea. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd is pictured in Sydney February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo The South Pacific nation, one of the world’s least explored countries but known for corruption and violence, has become a key source of growth for two of the world’s biggest energy companies - ExxonMobil Corp ( XOM.N ) and Total SA ( TOTF.PA ) - looking to expand their liquefied natural gas (LNG) businesses. With oil LCOc1 and gas LNG-AS prices recovering this year and LNG demand especially in China skyrocketing, investors are scouring the globe for juicy investments, and Papua New Guinea has landed on their radar. Now private equity wants to get in on the game, with U.S.-based Harbour Energy eyeing a bid for Santos Ltd ( STO.AX ), Australia’s no.2 independent gas producer, which has a 13.5 percent stake in ExxonMobil’s Papua New Guinea LNG project (PNG LNG). “As an acquisition, the prize jewels in Santos are its stakes in PNG LNG,” said Saul Kavonic of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Investors are attracted by Papua New Guinea’s high-yielding gas fields, with the gas rich in liquids that generate extra revenue, and easily exported to North Asia’s booming markets as LNG on tankers. Costs are low, a key to grabbing the next leg of growth in the LNG market, as plants in Australia and the United States flood the market with new supply. Santos is not the only company to have caught the attention of investors because of its Papua New Guinea assets. Oil Search ( OSH.AX ) limited, ExxonMobil’s partner in PNG, fended off an $8 billion approach from Australia’s biggest energy company, Woodside Petroleum ( WPL.AX ), two years ago, around the same time Santos rebuffed a bid from a fund backed by the royal families of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates. ExxonMobil sealed its dominance in the country by taking over InterOil, another PNG player, for $2 billion (1.51 billion pounds) earlier this year after trumping a bid from Total and Oil Search. Regrouping after Santos spurned an A$9.5 billion (5.44 billion pounds) approach, Harbour Energy may have to pay more than A$11 billion to snare its target in what would be one of the biggest oil and gas deals since Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) took over BG Group to become the world’s biggest listed LNG producer. Santos was in deep trouble just a few years ago, struggling with high debt and low oil and gas prices. But asset sales, debt reduction and cost-cutting have led it back to health. Some analysts now say a bid even at A$11 billion would be too low, in part due to its production costs, to which Papua New Guinea contributes. “The company has been a turnaround story. By selling down poorly performing assets and driving efficiencies, management has brought down breakeven production costs an incredible 32 percent to $32 per barrel,” said Cai Lewis, senior adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers. Current Brent crude oil prices are above $60 per barrel. Based on that, Lewis said an A$11 billion offer would be “too cheap”. (For a graphic on Santos shares vs spot LNG, click reut.rs/2zKOh28 ) UNUSUAL PROJECT Papua New Guinea is an unusual investment destination. The country to the north of Australia is one of Asia’s poorest, remote, troubled by corruption and sporadic violence. “The rate of crime in Papua New Guinea is among the highest in the world,” the U.S. State Department said in its 2017 crime and safety report, warning of “violent crime, including gang rape, carjacking, home invasions, kidnappings, and armed robberies.” Also, much of the country is jungle-covered mountain, making access difficult. Yet all this has not scared off investment into its gas resources. Exxon was the first to make a foray, committing in 2009 to develop a $19 billion LNG export facility. The project’s remoteness required Exxon to charter huge Russian transport planes to fly in equipment, including gas turbines, to jungle airstrips. Despite the challenges, ExxonMobil stunned markets by completing the project in 2014 ahead of schedule, and ramping up output at the plant, designed to produce 6.9 million tonnes a year, as high as 25 percent above nameplate capacity. Enjoying low production costs and LNG prices that have jumped by 70 percent this year to almost $10 per million British thermal units, ExxonMobil plans to double output from PNG LNG by the mid-2020s by using gas from fields that it owns with partners Total, Oil Search and Santos. They all agree it would be smarter and cheaper to expand PNG LNG than build a competing LNG plant. “We have got to be the most cost-competitive out there... in order to attract that demand growth,” ExxonMobil’s head of investor relations, Jeff Woodbury, said in September. PNG LNG stands in stark contrast to Australia’s more expensive mega-projects, which have started up over the past two years after blowing budgets and schedules, and in some cases struggling to produce at capacity. Santos’s $18.5 billion Gladstone LNG project on Australia’s east coast opened in 2015 at 15 percent over budget and does not have enough gas to fill the plant, now slated to reach only 75 percent capacity by 2019. (For a graphic on Papua New Guinea population & GDP growth, click reut.rs/2zJvXGY ) Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-santos-lng-papua/bid-for-santos-puts-spotlight-on-papua-new-guineas-juicy-lng-assets-idUKKBN1DH0IG'|'2017-11-17T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'1ef64135d667e505952a55c84aa08024027c4d72'|'Saudi energy minister: too early to make assessment on oil output cut'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:43 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Saudi energy minister: market to remain oversupplied by March 2018 Ahmad Ghaddar 3 Min Read BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The world will still have a surplus of oil by end-March next year, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Thursday, signalling a willingness to extend output cuts when OPEC meets at the end of November on whether to extend caps well into 2018. Saudi Oil Minister, Khalid al-Falih, arrives at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Khalid al-Falih also said he did not want oil prices to rise too fast and too soon to shock consumers, adding that the exit from production cuts would be gradual to make sure a smooth market reaction. “We need to recognise that by the end of March we’re not going to be at the level we want to be which is the five-year average, that means an extension of some sort,” he said, referring to inventory levels in the developed world. “We have gone over 50 percent in reducing excess inventories but that means we still have some excessive inventories that we need to drain,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany. “We don’t want any spikes in price that shock the market. We don’t want any price movements that are unhealthy for demand. We don’t think we’ve seen any of that yet but that’s a potential especially if God forbid we have disruptions in any major country. We’re hopeful none of this will happen.” Falih said it was too early to make an assessment on a possible extension to OPEC’s global oil output cuts now, but said Saudi Arabia favours making an extension decision at the next OPEC meeting at the end of the month. “The November 30 meeting will be an important milestone to announce the way forward. My preference is to give clarity to the market and announce on November 30 what we’re going to do.” He said Riyadh was in extensive consultations with all colleagues around the world within and outside OPEC. Asked whether Russia was committed, Falih said: “I have had extensive consultations with my Russian colleagues and I will have some more in the next two weeks, but I know one thing is that the Russians are committed to working with Saudi Arabia and with the rest of the 24 countries that have come together last year.” He said OPEC will have a better picture closer to the meeting on market fundamentals that will help in making the decision. “We are waiting for October data to be fully developed and shared with the [OPEC] technical team,” Falih said. ”We’re also waiting for better projections of the fourth and first quarter which are typically lower demand and we will have picture of supply from sources that are not part of the deal. That will give us better predictions on when markets will balance as well as finishing the consultation.” Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-saudi/saudi-energy-minister-too-early-to-make-assessment-on-oil-output-cut-idUKKBN1DG2U9'|'2017-11-16T21:42:00.000+02:00'
'648e53b82dab6202e29f962aa769751b51f07220'|'Comcast, Verizon approached Twenty-First Century Fox to buy some assets -sources'|'(Reuters) - Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc have both expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s assets, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo News of competing interest in some of Murdoch’s assets broke even though the U.S. Justice Department was preparing a lawsuit to block AT&T Inc, the largest pay-TV provider in the United States, from buying Time Warner Inc for $85.4 billion, according to a source. This raised questions about the U.S. government’s willingness to allow large media industry mergers.The Fox assets that buyers have expressed interest in include Fox’s movie and TV production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India, and the European pay TV provider Sky Plc. These units have also been the subject of recent talks between Fox and Walt Disney Co, one of the sources said.Fox shares jumped nearly 8.0 percent in after-hours trading after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news. Shares of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp also rose more than 2.0 percent, a sign investors may see them as potential targets also.Comcast has approached Fox about its interest, and talks are in early stages, the source added, requesting anonymity. There is no guarantee that talks between the companies will result in a deal.Fox, Comcast and Verizon declined comment.After Comcast first bought a stake in NBCUniversal in 2011, buying the Fox assets would give Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, an international distribution footprint through ownership of Sky and Star in India.Comcast has steadily boosted its ownership of content over the years and acquiring Fox’s assets would further position Comcast as a diversified conglomerate to rival Disney, analysts said.The deal would bulk up its NBCUniversal unit, which acquired Dreamworks Animation for $3.8 billion last year, as well as increase its ownership stake in video streaming service Hulu.Verizon is also in the early stages of exploring a deal, one of the sources said. A deal could give the U.S. No. 1 wireless phone carrier ownership of movies and TV shows to stream to its mobile subscribers.Acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for Verizon, which has focused its media deals around advertising technology and internet properties.Verizon spent $4.48 billion acquiring the core business of Yahoo, which it merged with AOL this year to form a venture called Oath. Led by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Oath owns more than 50 brands including HuffPost, TechCrunch and Tumblr.Roger Entner, an analyst of Recon Analytics, said, “It is undeniable that there is a trend of combining content with distribution.”Verizon, which has said it is launching a new streaming service, could have more targeted advertising with a vertically integrated platform, he added.Traditional cable television networks have been struggling with faster-than-expected subscriber erosion in the competition with streaming services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.To increase its scale, Fox tried to buy Time Warner Inc. three years ago and last year announced its intention to buy the rest of Sky beyond the 39 percent it already owns.The moves also come after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to remove key roadblocks to increased consolidation among media companies, potentially unleashing new deals among TV, radio and newspaper owners as they seek to better compete with online media.Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Jessica Toonkel in New York and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengalaru; Editing by Bill Rigby and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-comcast/comcast-approaches-twenty-first-century-fox-for-buying-some-assets-idINKBN1DG34Z'|'2017-11-16T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'c75f0a8d86da6c1f604e91de8c132e8eab41cc85'|'UPDATE 1-Fox shares rise on signs of more takeover interest'|'(Adds more analyst comments; updates shares)Nov 17 (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc shares were up 3 percent in trading on Friday after sources said both Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc were interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations.A week after reports of interest from Walt Disney Co in buying out much of Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. film and television empire, the sources hinted at the prospect of a battle between other media suitors for the assets.Buyers have expressed interest in Fox’s production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India and Sky Plc, sources told Reuters on Thursday.“Either Disney or Comcast would be a good fit, but its always about price and neither has to be a strategic buyer, only opportunistic,” said JBL Advisors analyst Jeffrey Logsdon.Shares of other media companies which could be dragged into a round of consolidation of U.S. film and TV production and distribution were largely unchanged.Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, has steadily boosted its content ownership over the years and buying Fox’s assets would give it an international distribution footprint and strengthen its position against Disney.Traditional media companies have been struggling with subscriber declines as streaming service Netflix has gained traction with younger audiences that shun traditional cable and satellite offerings.Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser remains uncertain as to whether the Murdoch family is seriously entertaining offers.Wieser surmised that all the interest in Fox by other companies probably came after they heard something regarding Disney’s potential interest that was at least enough to take a meeting.“Previously, no-one would have guessed that such a meeting would have ever occurred. That’s enough for other companies to get their bankers working on something to attempt to get a meeting of their own,” he said.Verizon shares were up 1.4 percent, while Comcast and Netflix shares were down about 1 percent.Fox and Disney are partial co-owners of Hulu, a streaming service that offers on-demand and live TV packages. Hulu is also partially owned by Comcast and Time Warner Inc.“I think if Time Warner doesn’t end up being bought by AT&T - it looks like that’s going to get blocked - that would be an interesting combination... Time Warner-Fox or Disney-Fox,” Needham & Co analyst Laura Martin told Reuters.Although acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for wireless carrier Verizon, its interest in Fox assets was likely piqued by rival AT&T&rsquo;s bid for HBO and CNN owner Time Warner, which is awaiting regulatory approval.“(I am) skeptical of a Verizon deal, creative businesses are very tough to manage for an outsider,” Logsdon said.Fox’s other assets include Fox television network, Fox News Channel and Fox Entertainment Group, which owns the popular movies studio 20th Century Fox.Fox shares have gained about 9 percent in value in the last six months. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham, Bernard Orr) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-stocks/update-1-fox-shares-rise-on-signs-of-more-takeover-interest-idINL3N1NN46R'|'2017-11-17T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'fce1a28a07126eb66304001e3b143f1d0e515de4'|'Daimler to invest 5 billion yuan in China for electric car, battery production - executive'|'Reuters TV United States  48 AM / a few seconds ago Daimler to invest $755 million in China for electric car, battery production: executive Reuters Staff 1 Min Read GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Germany’s Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ) plans to invest 5 billion yuan ($755 million) in China for factory capacity to manufacture electric cars and the batteries that power them, part of an effort to help its Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands comply with the country’s green car production and sales quotas. FILE PHOTO: The Daimler AG sign with raindrops is pictured before the company''s annual news conference in Stuttgart, Germany, February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo Hubertus Troska, head of Daimler’s greater China operations, told reporters that the investment was part of Daimler’s previously announced 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) global green car initiative. China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid cars that come into effect from 2019. It has an ambitious target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has signaled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol-engine cars. This seismic shift towards NEVs has prompted a flurry of electric car deals and new launches as manufacturers worldwide race for a share of the world’s largest auto market. Reporting By Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-daimler/daimler-to-invest-755-million-in-china-for-electric-car-battery-production-executive-idUKKBN1DH0HP'|'2017-11-17T07:42:00.000+02:00'
'718f3515946eeb004e50a7cea6866dd133a13cd1'|'Scaling up: meet the UK businesses blazing the export trail - KIA Fleet partner zone'|'Even as they are getting established in their home market, ambitious businesses often look for growth opportunities overseas. Scaling up in a foreign market has its risks, but with sound research and good planning, it can reap huge rewards.Michael Gould, founder of Anaplan , launched his planning software business from his Yorkshire barn in 2006. Today, the company has 18 offices in 13 countries , and is headquartered in California.The decision to take the business global was made at a very early stage, says Gould. “We expanded our R&D operations as soon as possible, to work out of both the UK and New Zealand, giving us 24/7 development on building our platform. For technology companies, particularly software companies, this early expansion is easier, and there’s no need to be restricted by geography.”Top tips for a productive workspace from productive companies Read more Choosing the right market is crucial. For an enterprise software company such as Anaplan, there are some “must-have” markets, notably the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan.Gould says: “For us, it made most sense to start out by focusing primarily on English-speaking regions, investing in others when we were ready to build up a full-strength local team. You need to focus on a small number of regions and do each of them well, rather than spread yourself too thinly. Now, we’ve built up a significant and very successful team in France, who have been operational for several years. But only this year have we taken the decision to expand into Germany”.Arguably the biggest pitfall for any business is running out of cash, so Gould’s advice to business owners seeking early growth overseas is to look carefully at markets that can be entered with minimal outlay, and delay other markets until the business has matured.He also advocates deploying small but highly versatile teams. “You need feet on the ground but they will be walking in many different shoes,” he says. “We set up successful operations in Australia, New Zealand and Benelux with an initial team of just two or three people, taking overlapping roles as country manager, sales lead, pre-sales solution consultants, implementation and support.”Travelwrap Company used multiple online platforms in specific currencies to extend its global reach, with its high-quality cashmere wraps now sold in 22 countries. Founded in 2007 by Niamh Barker, the brand launched in Europe, Australia and Canada in quick succession.“Our initial decisions on prospective regions in which to offer currency-specific websites was based on low-hanging fruit,” says Barker. “We targeted large populations in English-speaking markets with good courier logistics, and tended towards territories where we had existing brand exposure through wholesale, particularly the US, Australia and Europe.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Niamh Barker’s Travelwrap Company expanded quickly into Europe, Australia and North America: ‘We targeted large populations in English-speaking markets.’ The move paid off. Growth of its UK business online has been stable, and its US site has performed exceptionally, with revenue growing 440% in the first year and 107% last year. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing, as Barker explains.“Canada was a difficult market to achieve online conversions from, as the import taxes for specific provinces can vary and are at times prohibitively high,” she says. “We restructured the pricing on the Canadian website, resulting in a slightly lower margin than on other international sites, ran some Canadian digital marketing campaigns, and actively targeted cities and provinces with lower import duties. We are now beginning to see a steady, if slow, growth in Canadian sales.”In some overseas markets the biggest challenge is actually collecting payment. Laws governing currency movement in places such as South Africa and India, for example, can make it difficult to extricate funds from those countries. But that didn’t deter SME growth consultancy Business Doctors from making South Africa its first international market.Launched on Merseyside in 2004 the business has expanded its brand by franchising into 10 countries, including India, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Malta, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Irish Republic. South Africa was chosen first because of the steady number of website enquiries from South African small-business owners looking for business support.Co-founder Matthew Levington says: “South Africa has currency restrictions, as the authorities don’t like to see money being moved out of the country, so it’s tightly controlled. For the UK exporter this makes it very hard to get paid, and your buyer has to jump through a lot of hoops to demonstrate that it is a valid purchase and not a service you can buy in the country.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Different markets have different issues. In China, for example, ‘a local presence and connections are essential’, says Titus Sharpe of MVF Global. Photograph: DuKai photographer/Getty Images For their overseas scale-up plans to succeed in any country, business owners must master the art of building strong relationships with retailers, as Alexander Buckley, CEO of active lifestyle drinks producer Wake Drinks discovered when he was launching his product in east Asia. Having spent time travelling through China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong he had witnessed the appeal British-made premium products had to these markets. What was less obvious was how to make inroads and connect with the right people.“Attending events such as the International Business Festival in Liverpool enables me to meet contacts face-to-face, which is often more productive than spending hours chasing down the right person on the phone,” he says. “Both face-to-face and online connections are valuable for a business looking to export. In-person meetings can provide a depth of understanding of what a client needs and online tools such as LinkedIn are invaluable to keeping these contacts alive, especially when overcoming time-zone and distance barriers.”There are pros and cons to entering all foreign markets, says Titus Sharpe, cofounder of global customer generation business MVF Global , citing the world largest markets as examples.“As the world’s biggest economy, the US presents a vast opportunity,” he says. “Succeeding in the US can potentially give your business a higher valuation, as US investors tend to value businesses higher than European investors. However, there are complex interstate tax and regulatory differences, which can be challenging, particularly in financial markets. The US has a very competitive job market, with big salaries, and it’s very expensive to do consumer marketing there.”China may be the world’s second-biggest economy, and growing fast, but operating effectively from outside its border is difficult. “For example, the ‘Great Firewall of China’ prevents you from sending emails to Chinese customers, so a local presence and connections are essential,” says Sharpe.Australia and New Zealand are good markets to focus on, as they tend to be less competitive than the US, and have a similar cultural ethos to the UK. The downside is that communication is challenging, given the huge time difference.“Europe has a sizable economy that is also growing fast,” says Sharpe. “The cost of doing business across multiple languages can create challenges and lead to complex language matrix structures within companies.”Content on this page is paid for and produced to a brief agreed with Kia Fleet , which also supports the Guardian Small Business Network Accessing Expertise hub. Topics KIA Fleet partner zone advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/kia-fleet-partner-zone/2017/nov/03/scaling-up-meet-the-uk-businesses-blazing-the-export-trail'|'2017-11-03T19:45:00.000+02:00'
'ced6470f6f0170e275584c9eb5dc3e932c5708b6'|'Offshore oil service firms dominate North American energy bankruptcies'|'HOUSTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Offshore oil drilling and service companies, hurt by the energy industry’s shift to lower-cost shale and away from deepwater projects, are dominating the year’s energy bankruptcies in North America, according to law firm Haynes and Boone.There were fewer oilfield service companies seeking protection this year than last but those that did have had larger debts. Through October, 44 oilfield services companies filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Canada owing creditors $24.8 billion, compared with 72 companies and $13.48 billion for all of 2016.Just two offshore companies accounted for 45 percent of the total owed creditors this year, the law firm’s figures show. Deepwater offshore services firm Seadrill Ltd’s September filing was the largest bankruptcy this year with $8 billion in debts, while Ocean Rig UDW Inc filed owing $3.6 billion.On Nov. 12, another offshore driller, Pacific Drilling , filed for bankruptcy protection with $3.2 billion owed to creditors. That filing was not included in the survey.Oil prices have rebounded this year with the U.S. benchmark up 22 percent in the last 52 weeks to about $55 a barrel. That gain has stirred onshore drilling and production but has not been enough to boost the more costly offshore and deepwater drilling.“If you’re going to get $50 a barrel oil you want the cheapest way of getting that barrel and offshore isn’t it,” Ian Peck, chairman of Haynes and Boone’s restructuring practice group, said in an interview.The law firm’s survey of energy bankruptcy filings in the United States and Canada also shows a sharp reduction this year in the number of bankruptcy filings by oil and gas producers and by energy pipeline and storage firms.Twenty North American oil and gas producers have filed bankruptcies so far in 2017 owing creditors $5.6 billion, down from $56.8 billion owed across 70 filings for all of last year.“The noise has died down quite a bit on the producer side,” Peck said.Only four energy processing, transportation and storage companies have filed for bankruptcy through October, with debt totaling $2.71 billion, compared with 13 filings in all of 2016 for a tally of $11 billion. There were no bankruptcy filings by North American gathering, transportation and storage firms since April, the law firm said. (Reporting by Bryan Sims; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-bankruptcy/offshore-oil-service-firms-dominate-north-american-energy-bankruptcies-idINL1N1NM1DO'|'2017-11-16T18:04:00.000+02:00'
'26ad65af30a0968ef502f8ff3f9acf81837f43e8'|'Investors keep nerve while high-yield wobbles'|'NEW YORK, Nov 15 (IFR) - Three high-yield bond deals have been pulled from the market in the space of a week, but investors insist it’s not yet panic time for the asset class.Resolute Energy, NRG Energy and Canyon Consolidated Resources have all yanked deals since Thursday in the face of investor push-back.But rather than sound the alarm, many investors believe this is actually a perfect time to buy, with cash prices falling even for higher-rated bonds.“It’s the first weakness we’ve seen in a while of this magnitude,” Ken Monaghan, co-head of high yield at Amundi Pioneer, told IFR.“But if you look at how high-yield has performed, it’s outpaced many people’s expectations. Some people are booking the gains they’ve generated.”Junk bonds returned an average 7.64% for the year up to October 24, when spreads hit a 2017 low of 338bp over US Treasuries, according to the ICE BAML US high-yield index.Following a roughly 46bp widening since then, returns have slipped back to about 6.3%.But that’s still better than what many on Wall Street had been expecting this year. In January, BAML strategists predicted a full-year return of 4%-5%.HUNKERED DOWN There have been some bumps in the road, of course.Mobile phone giant Sprint, which has more outstanding US junk-rated debt than any other company, has seen its bonds plummet after merger talks with rival T-Mobile were called off.Weak earnings hit the bonds of companies such as Altice, while the debt of other companies with large capital structures, such as Windstream and Frontier, has also fallen sharply.And the dismal outlook for retail has certainly not helped sentiment.“We had a lot of weakness across retail,” said Peter Schwab, a portfolio manager at Pax World.“The (bankruptcy) filing by Toys ‘R’ US happened sooner than people were expecting ... and healthcare has been kind of messy, with some weakness in lower-quality hospital operators.”Some borrowers have been impacted by the general mood.Talen Energy and Navios Maritime Holdings on Tuesday were forced to cough up double-digit yields of 11.25% and 12.113%, respectively, to push their trades over the line.For other issuers, however, market conditions are still very attractive.Homebuilder Lennar, for example, priced a US$300m three-year at 2.95% and a US$900m 10-year at 4.75% on Tuesday - a deal that will finance its merger with CalAtlantic.Another investor described those yields as “shockingly low”, based on his views that Lennar paid too much for CalAtlantic.The recent volatility may result in more outflows from the asset class. More than US$1.8bn of cash has left the asset class in the two weeks ended November 8, according to Lipper data.But many say fundamentals remain strong with low defaults, decent earnings growth in general and a solid economy.“The market is still getting deals done,” said Monaghan.“The fact that new issues are still pricing is a sign of health. People are not jumping off cliffs - they’re just a bit more hunkered down.”TAKING THE PIK There are still plenty of high-yield deals to work through; at least nine deals are in the pipeline and expected to price before Thanksgiving.“The pipeline built before the market tanked,” said John Yovanovic, head of high-yield portfolio management at PineBridge Investments.“They’re now trying to bring these deals as the market is moving around. That is surprising to me, but we’re in the final push of the year for new issues.”On the roster of offerings is an aggressively structured US$1.3bn PIK toggle dividend deal for healthcare services provider MultiPlan, which is owned by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.The deal has come under scrutiny for several reasons, not least because it is such a large dividend - and coming so soon after the buyout of the business in the summer of 2016.“It is exactly the kind of instrument we saw before the last series of bad deals that resulted in defaults and the financial crisis,” another portfolio manager said. (Reporting by Natalie Harrison and Davide Scigliuzzo; Editing by Jack Doran and Marc Carnegie) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/investors-keep-nerve-while-high-yield-wo/investors-keep-nerve-while-high-yield-wobbles-idINL1N1NL1N5'|'2017-11-15T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'07bcea28f2ee10b52255870645a436753f48252f'|'China says EU law on import duties lacks basis under WTO rules'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:27 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU lawmakers clear law to limit cheap Chinese imports Reuters Staff 2 Min Read STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament approved legislation designed to protect EU industries against excessively cheap imports from China. A truck drives past container boxes at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China, February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The new law, which was passed on Wednesday by 554 votes to 48 against, amends regulations on dumping and subsidies by third countries, such as China. It also allows investigators to take into account environmental and labour standards when setting import duties. The law, due to enter force before the end of the year, comes after China demanded it should no longer be treated as a special case from December 2016, which was 15 years after it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). China’s Commerce Ministry criticised the move as causing “serious damage” to the WTO’s anti-dumping legal system, adding that the EU should respect international trade rules. “The new EU anti-dumping investigation method lacks a basis under WTO regulations,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The EU will in future determine that dumping is taking place if prices for export are lower than domestic prices for all members of the WTO. However, it will make exceptions for cases of “significant market distortions”, such as excessive state intervention, an exception expected to cover many Chinese firms. The European Commission is expected to produce a report on China when the law enters force, outlining instances of market distortion. Reporting by Lily Cusack; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Andrew Heavens and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-trade-china/china-says-eu-law-on-import-duties-lacks-basis-under-wto-rules-idUKKBN1DG1B9'|'2017-11-16T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'b5cde6dc9fda3433fa0007d484b1c5bd8a871586'|'RPT-Spotify buys online recording studio Soundtrap'|'(Repeats to additional subscribers)STOCKHOLM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify has bought online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap, it said on Friday, declining to give financial details of the deal.Stockholm-based Soundtrap allows its subscribers to have an online music studio and create music together with other people in real time, its website says.“Soundtrap’s rapidly growing business is highly aligned with Spotify’s vision of democratising the music ecosystem,” Spotify said in a statement.Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators towards the end of this year to list in the first or second quarter next year, sources said in September.Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/spotify-soundtrap/rpt-spotify-buys-online-recording-studio-soundtrap-idUSL8N1NN41Q'|'2017-11-17T22:23:00.000+02:00'
'6623c4f1529e09b48958b931ef8776dfb800e296'|'Volkswagen to invest $27 billion in core brand until 2022'|'November 18, 2017 / 10:38 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Volkswagen to invest $27 billion in core brand until 2022 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) will invest 22.8 billion euros (20.35 billion pounds) in its main car brand over the next five years, it said on Saturday, a day after it announced a spending programme aimed at bolstering its position as a maker of electric cars. FILE PHOTO - Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Most of that sum, around 14 billion euros, will be spent in Germany, Volkswagen said, adding that one of the key measures included a 1 billion euro injection to transform the carmaker’s Zwickau plant into a pure e-mobility facility. “The investment package which has now been adopted will give a decisive boost to the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand,” Herbert Diess, Chief Executive of the Volkswagen brand and a VW management board member, said. Analysts see reviving the VW brand, which has long suffered from high staff and development costs, as crucial to the group’s ability to recover from a diesel emissions scandal that has gripped the carmaker. The investments unveiled on Saturday are part of Volkswagen’s 72 billion euro spending plan for the 2018-2022 period that was announced on Friday. Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-investment/volkswagen-to-invest-27-billion-in-core-brand-until-2022-idUKKBN1DI0BC'|'2017-11-18T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'7d2876a820dfdcc9b1f609b83af6cf9ab75aa2d1'|'U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise; import prices up modestly'|' 42 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise; import prices up modestly Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week in part as a backlog of applications from Puerto Rico continued to be processed, but the underlying trend pointed to tightening labor market conditions. People wait in line to enter the Nassau County Mega Job Fair at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York October 7, 2014. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 249,000 for the week ended Nov. 11, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the second straight weekly increase. The claims backlog in Puerto Rico is being cleared as some of the infrastructure damaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria is restored. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 235,000 in the latest week. A labor department official said while the backlog in Puerto Rico was being processed, claims-taking procedures continued to be severely disrupted in the Virgin Islands. Last week marked the 141st straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 6,500 to 237,750 last week. U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data. FILE PHOTO - A stack of shipping containers are pictured in the Port of Miami in Miami, Florida, U.S., May 19, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo The low level of claims suggests strong job growth despite hurricane-related disruptions in September. Employment gains could, however, slow as companies struggle to find qualified workers, which economists expect will boost sluggish wage growth. The claims report also showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 44,000 to 1.86 million in the week ended Nov. 4, the lowest level since December 1973. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims fell 9,000 to 1.89 million, the lowest reading since January 1974. In another report on Thursday, the Labor Department said import prices gained 0.2 percent last month as an increase in the cost of imported petroleum and capital goods was offset by a decline in food prices. That followed a 0.8 percent jump in September. In the 12 months through October, import prices increased 2.5 percent, slowing after a 2.7 percent rise in September. Last month, prices for imported petroleum increased 1.7 percent after surging 6.3 percent in September. Import prices excluding petroleum edged up 0.1 percent after shooting up 0.4 percent the prior month. Import prices excluding petroleum rose 1.4 percent in the 12 months through October. A weak dollar, which has this year lost 5.4 percent of its value against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners, could keep import prices outside petroleum supported. Imported capital goods prices rose 0.2 percent last month, while the cost of imported food fell 0.2 percent. The report also showed export prices were unchanged in October as the biggest monthly increase in the price of agricultural exports in nearly 1-1/2 years was eclipsed by a drop in nonagricultural prices. Export prices rose 0.7 percent in September. They increased 2.7 percent year-on-year last month after rising 2.8 percent in September. Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-unemployment/u-s-weekly-jobless-claims-unexpectedly-rise-idUKKBN1DG1WA'|'2017-11-16T15:55:00.000+02:00'
'cca62d786bc03b42ec851f9688acf51179d61ee0'|'Synchrony to buy $6.8 billion receivables portfolio from PayPal'|'November 16, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 4 hours ago PayPal to sell U.S. credit assets, raises fourth quarter forecasts Roopal Verma 3 Min Read (Reuters) - PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ) said it would sell its $5.8 billion-worth U.S. credit portfolio to Synchrony Financial ( SYF.N ) and raised its current-quarter revenue and profit forecasts, sending the company’s shares to a record high. The PayPal app logo seen on a mobile phone in this illustration photo October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration PayPal’s shares rose as much as 4.43 percent to $76.68, while those of Synchrony gained about 4.1 percent to $33.86 on Thursday. Synchrony will also buy about $1 billion in participation interests in PayPal receivables held by some investors and a chartered financial institution. “Our expanded relationship with Synchrony Financial will free up cash currently used to fund consumer credit receivables for other uses,” PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman said. Payments processor PayPal has been looking to expand its digital payments services through strategic partnerships, and by launching or acquiring new services, since separating from online marketplace eBay Inc ( EBAY.O ) in 2015. “PayPal for more than a year has been working toward the implementation of an ‘asset-light’ strategy with regard to its exposure to consumer credit,” said BTIG LLC analyst Mark Palmer. The company may benefit the most from the expansion of its earnings multiple following the removal of credit-related volatility risk, he added. The companies said the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018, but did not provide details. PayPal raised its fourth-quarter revenue forecast to between $3.64 billion and $3.70 billion. The company also increased its per share earnings guidance range to 52 cents-59 cents, from 37 cents-39 cents. Synchrony said in a regulatory filing it expected the deal to add to earnings in 2019. Synchrony Bank, a unit of Synchrony Financial, will become the exclusive issuer of the PayPal Credit online consumer financing program in the United States for 10 years when the deal closes. PayPal and Synchrony Bank have partnered to offer PayPal-branded consumer credit cards since 2004. BofA Merrill Lynch is the financial adviser to PayPal, while Morgan Stanley & Co advised Synchrony Financial. Reporting by Roopal Verma, Additional reporting by Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-paypal-hldg-synchrony-fincl/synchrony-to-buy-6-8-billion-receivables-portfolio-from-paypal-idINKBN1DG1U6'|'2017-11-16T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'29eebf44c2e05ed4a3b764e526c1549a38303827'|'Australia''s Santos says not currently in takeover talks'|'(Reuters) - Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd said on Wednesday it was not currently in discussions with U.S. investment vehicle Harbour Energy following a media report of takeover talks.Santos, however, confirmed it had received a takeover proposal from Harbour in August with an indicative price of A$4.55 per Santos share. The board rejected the bid as the price was “inadequate” and the sources of funds were uncertain, the company said.Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-santos-m-a-talks/australias-santos-says-not-currently-in-takeover-talks-idUSKBN1DG03F'|'2017-11-16T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'129f170c772dae4615244dd22c077e2384a8988e'|'Airbnb acquires Accomable to offer home rentals for disabled travelers'|'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Airbnb said on Thursday it acquired London startup Accomable to expand home-renting opportunities for people with disabilities, the latest expansion as Airbnb grows its global travel business.A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Gabrielle Lurie The deal includes adding to the Airbnb website Accomable’s roughly 1,100 house and apartment listings that can accommodate guests with physical disabilities, the companies said. San Francisco-based Airbnb lists more than 4 million houses, apartments, rooms, boats and other accommodations that guests rent directly from the owners, and Airbnb takes a cut of the fee.The companies declined to disclose the price and terms of the deal. The Accomable website, which is similar to Airbnb but only features properties accessible to people with disabilities, will be shut down in the coming months.Airbnb said it hired Accomable’s founders and most of its seven-person staff to build out Airbnb’s wheelchair-accessible housing inventory and provide more complete and accurate information to disabled travelers, who often rely on a hotel emailing pictures of a room to determine whether it is accessible.Airbnb said it will add features so home owners can detail in their listings whether their homes have stairs or an elevator, doorways and bathrooms wide enough to fit a wheelchair and showers with handlebars or a chair.Accomable co-founder Srin Madipalli, 31, started the company two years ago after quitting his job as a corporate lawyer and embarking on a five months of travel around the world. He said he repeatedly found that information about wheelchair accessibility at hotels was inaccurate.“You’d turn up to places and the shower was tiny or there was a step to get in,” he said. “You have to somehow improvise for the night and find a way to not properly use the bathroom. It’s just really humiliating and embarrassing.”Madipalli was born with spinal muscular atrophy, which left him without use of his legs and limited use of his arms.Accomable had lots of interested travelers but not enough cash or staff to build out the inventory, Madipalli said. The site was only able to fulfill about 5 to 10 percent of booking requests. He raised nearly $400,000 from investors.“We see the need every day, which is why we wanted to team up with a bigger player,” Madipalli said.Madipalli said he has never used Airbnb because of the lack of wheelchair-accessible rentals.“But I look forward to trying it out,” he said.Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-airbnb-acquisition/airbnb-acquires-accomable-to-offer-home-rentals-for-disabled-travelers-idINKBN1DG2H5'|'2017-11-16T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'c3e9d4e636bdf16a669bb22a831c471b4ffdad6c'|'Australia''s Reckon sells accounting practice software arm for $136.6 million'|'(Reuters) - Australian accounting software provider Reckon Ltd ( RKN.AX ) said on Thursday it would sell its accounting practice management software business to MYOB Group ( MYO.AX ) for A$180 million ($136.57 million) in an all-cash deal to pay off debt.Reckon said in a statement it intended to use the proceeds from the deal to repay “the majority of its debt” and pay a special dividend to shareholders.Myob in a seperate statement said it would acquire all clients, intellectual property, systems and processes, and take in all employees of the Reckon accounting practice software business, including sales, consulting and support teams.Reckon which has about A$52.6 million in debt as at 2016 intends to use the proceeds from the deal to repay “the majority of its debt” and pay a special dividend to shareholders.MYOB’s acquisition of Reckon is the company’s second buy this year after it bought online payment service provider Paycorp for A$48 million in February .MYOB said it would fund the deal by debt and that it expected the purchase to be earnings per share accretive on an underlying basis immediately.Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru, Editing by William Maclean '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-reckon-deals-myob-group/australias-reckon-sells-accounting-practice-software-arm-for-136-6-million-idINKBN1DF35S'|'2017-11-15T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'542e8230ed4cb9957f25290155644c897bd54c32'|'AT&T reports some U.S. customers unable to make wireless calls'|'(Reuters) - AT&T Inc on Wednesday said that some U.S. customers were not able to make wireless calls but that restarting their cellphones would fix the issue.FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo DownDetector.com, which monitors outages, said customers across the country reported outages, including in Houston, New York and San Francisco.AT&T, which also owns satellite television service DirecTV, told customers on Twitter that it had no estimate when service would be restored and technicians were working to fix the problem.According to DownDetector.com, customers reported more than 6,000 incidents by 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), out of which 44 percent found problems with the internet service, while 31 percent faced issues with the phones.Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-at-t-outages/att-reports-some-u-s-customers-unable-to-make-wireless-calls-idUSKBN1DG03N'|'2017-11-16T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'6a7adce2cabd3a9889751bfe627103a59eca78a6'|'Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward'|'November 18, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) said on Saturday that it was recalling about 900,000 minivans because second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched after being adjusted. FILE PHOTO - The logos of Honda Motor Co. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Japanese automaker said the recall covered 2011-2017 Honda Odyssey minivans, all but 2,000 of which are in North America, and that it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue. Honda said it was working on a recall fix to help ensure proper latching and, in the interim, had posted a detailed instruction sheet on how to ensure seats are properly latched. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-honda-recall/honda-recalling-900000-minivans-because-seats-may-tip-forward-idUKKBN1DI0HV'|'2017-11-18T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'3cb861b8d3cb9c4d6e11a5dcf1d8063c296dbd23'|'Cost of Christmas dinner rises 5% – but there’s good news from Brussels … sprouts - Money - The Guardian'|'Consumer affairs Cost of Christmas dinner rises 5% – but there’s good news from Brussels … sprouts As food prices rise in the wake of Brexit, we count the cost of your festive feast. But you don’t have to be a Scrooge – £20 can still feed six people Merry Christmas! Sprouts are down by as much as a third, but you might have to be parsimonious with the parsnips. Photograph: Alamy Consumer affairs Cost of Christmas dinner rises 5% – but there’s good news from Brussels … sprouts As food prices rise in the wake of Brexit, we count the cost of your festive feast. But you don’t have to be a Scrooge – £20 can still feed six people View more sharing options Rebecca Smithers Saturday 18 November 2017 06.59 GMT T he big supermarkets have raised the cost of Christmas dinner by around 5% this year, according to analysis for Guardian Money, far outstripping the 2.1% rise in average wages in 2017. But while Brexit may be blamed for food price rises, there is good news from Brussels – sprouts are down by as much as a third. You may, however, have to be parsimonious with the parsnips this year. Our analysis, carried out by price comparison site mysupermarket.com, found that the cost of the vegetable at Sainsbury’s is 67% higher than last year. But the data also reveals sharp deviations between the major groups, with Morrisons charging less compared to last year. Brexit and price hikes push up the cost of Christmas for Britons Read more Despite generalised food price inflation, largely brought about by the fall in the value of the pound since Brexit, our survey found that supermarket shoppers can still pick up everything they need for a dinner for six – other than a bottle or two of celebratory fizz or wine – for as little as £25. Note that we’re assuming the family scoffs just 3kg of the turkey, not the whole bird. If you buy a big turkey and use it all on Christmas Day that £25 easily turns into £30. Mysupermarket.com tracked the average price of 10 Christmas essentials, in quantities to serve six, across five major supermarkets (Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose) between 1 and 12 November, as it did last year, allowing a year-on-year comparison. Separately, Money checked Lidl and Aldi, although as they post limited amounts of price data online, precise comparisons are difficult. The items price-checked (with apologies to vegetarians) were: Brussels sprouts, carrots, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, cranberry sauce, mince pies (box of six), parsnips, potatoes, stuffing mix and a whole frozen turkey (per kg). Using the supermarkets’ own data, we checked the average prices of “comparable” products – primarily own-brand items – that could be directly compared, rather than the very cheapest “value” ranges or the pricier “premium” foods. We did not include multi-buys. Why Britain is ditching the weekly shop Read more Compared to 2016, mysupermarket found that this year’s basket of Christmas essentials was 5% more expensive in Asda and Tesco. Sprouts, however, were 30% cheaper in Asda and 21% cheaper in Morrisons, but 25% more expensive in Tesco. Mince pies are static at Asda and Morrisons but have gone up in Sainsbury’s (10%) and Tesco (12%), The most expensive for our basket of goods? It was not Waitrose, but Sainsbury’s, where our basket of goods cost £28.35. Asda was cheapest, at £22.56, while Waitrose was the surprise second cheapeast. Its Christmas pudding was pricier than own-brand ones at Waitrose’s main rivals, but its sprouts were cheaper than Tesco and mince pies cheaper than Sainsbury’s. It also pays to buy certain things in Aldi and Lidl, while perhaps doing most of your big Christmas shop at the traditional big supermarkets. This week Lidl is selling Oakland-branded carrots at 29p a kilo, compared to 50p in Morrisons. Tesco’s cheapest carrots are 45p a kilo. At Aldi sprouts are 49p for 500g, or half the price of Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The turkey will be the single priciest item (apart from the booze). Mysupermarket tested the price per kg for frozen turkeys – the fresh ones won’t be in the shops for a while – and found that Asda was far cheaper at £1.89 per 1kg, compared to £3.20 at Sainsbury’s and £3.53 at Waitrose. The cheapest prosecco is at Asda and Morrisons. They are knocking out bottles of the Italian fizz starting at £5 – surprisingly cheaper than the £5.25 at Aldi and £5.79 at Lidl. Waitrose has the highest entry price at £6.99 and also sells the priciest, at £20.99 a bottle. Below we highlight which prosecco is rated best on taste rather than price. Despite it being 37 shopping days to Christmas, the supermarkets have already turned the tinsel on big time, with mince pies and biscuits, in particular, piled in the aisles. Consumers stocked up on Christmas biscuits in October as shopping for the festive season “well and truly started”, according to Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at market researchers Kantar Worldpanel. “They bought 10.1m packs of traditional Christmas biscuits in October alone,”, he said. “Alcohol sales have ramped up, too, increasing by 5.3% year-on-year as shoppers parted with an extra £142m on their favourite tipples.” But that’s clearly just the tip of the looming festive iceberg. “The British public is only just getting started,” McKevitt went on, “and is expected to shell out a whopping £28.7bn at the grocers in the final 12 weeks of 2017.” We bought 10.1m packs of Christmas biscuits in October … and alcohol sales have ramped up with £142m spent Many retailers make more than half of their sales and profits in the three months before Christmas, and despite the marked shift in shopping habits to “little and often”, and going online for grocery and “ambient” items, the festive fresh-food shop still tends to be a large one, done in person at the supermarket. The average family will spend £821.25 (including food, drink and gifts) – a 1.3% increase on last year and almost double the European average, according to The Centre for Retail Research and Vouchercodes. Food prices generally have been driven down in recent years as all the big supermarkets have had to react to the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl with aggressive price cutting. Despite this, the major players have had little choice but to pass on price rises as the falling value of the pound against the dollar and euro, following the vote to leave the EU, pushes up the cost of imported products and ingredients. And higher prices inevitably push shoppers into the discounters. Last year, Aldi managed to boost its Christmas sales by more than 15%, which it claims was partly due to the popularity of its advertising campaign, featuring the plucky root vegetable Kevin the carrot (who returns to find love with Katie in this year’s version). “The latest Kantar Worldpanel data shows that Aldi customers buy more items when they visit our stores than at any other retailer,” says Julie Ashfield, joint managing director of corporate buying at Aldi. Spar is on sparkling form Christmas is not complete without a bottle of fizz, but this year a humble prosecco from convenience store Spar outshone its rivals to be crowned the best-tasting Italian sparkling wine by an independent panel of experts. Spar Prosecco Valdobbiadene DOCG at £12 scored 78% in a blind taste test. It was awarded the coveted Which? best-buy for prosecco this Christmas. The panel commended its “pleasant balance” and “savoury style”. Also rated highly was Asda’s Fillipo Sansovino Prosecco (£7.98) and Waitrose’s San Leo Prosecco Brut NV Italy (£10.99), both scoring 77%. Aldi’s Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore (£7.99) was the lowest-scoring at 66%. “It just goes to show that you don’t have to be a leading supermarket to achieve a best-buy accolade” says Nikki Stopford, director of research at Which? “You can now enjoy a glass of best-buy Christmas fizz from your local Spar – so get yours while stocks last.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/18/cost-of-christmas-dinner-food-prices-rise'|'2017-11-18T13:59:00.000+02:00'
'88951a92fea792b1e927718b5246b5201f436e70'|'Affinion seeks to sell AD&D unit to cut debt: sources'|'(Reuters) - Affinion Group Holdings Inc, a U.S. provider of loyalty programs and insurance products, is exploring a sale of its accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) business as it seeks to trim its debt pile, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.The move comes after Affinion refinanced most of its $1.8 billion in debt earlier this year, pushing back its maturity from 2018 to 2022. This bought time for Affinion but also created a significant burden in terms of interest payments, according to credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service Inc.The sale process, which is being run by investment bank Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ), has attracted several private equity firms, and could value Affinion’s AD&D business at around $700 million, the sources said.The sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is confidential. Affinion did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.Stamford, Connecticut-based Affinion is trying to find its footing after a debt restructuring in 2015 failed to relieve it from enough of its debt liabilities.Prior to the 2015 restructuring, private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC ( APO.N ) owned much of Affinion. Under the debt reorganization’s terms, the private equity firm gave up control to the company’s creditors.AD&D is part of Affinion’s insurance solutions segment, which covers over 20 million Americans and also includes supplemental coverage for hospital care and life insurance, according to its website.The AD&D unit generates 12-month earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $70 million and $79 million, according to one of the sources.Reporting by David French in New York; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-affinion-divestiture-insurance/affinion-seeks-to-sell-add-unit-to-cut-debt-sources-idINKBN1DH2VM'|'2017-11-17T20:46:00.000+02:00'
'fe58cd0a14a566f0bff37b644e40b33cd57f8c8b'|'Colombia''s Ecopetrol, Spain''s Repsol acquire four blocks in Gulf of Mexico'|'BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol ECO.CN, in partnership with Spain’s Repsol ( REP.MC ), has acquired four new blocks in the Gulf of Mexico for deep water oil exploration, Ecopetrol said on Friday.Ecopetrol’s U.S. subsidiary, Ecopetrol America Inc., and Repsol can explore the blocks for five years at a depth of about 240 meters.The blocks, Garden Banks 77, 78, 121 and 122, are close to platforms and existing infrastructure, allowing for early production if there is a discovery, Ecopetrol said in a statement.The new blocks are part of Ecopetrol’s deep-water focused efforts to increase its reserves and production. The company currently produces more than 12,000 barrels per day in the Gulf of Mexico.Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-oil-ecopetrol/colombias-ecopetrol-spains-repsol-acquire-four-blocks-in-gulf-of-mexico-idUSKBN1DH2C5'|'2017-11-18T01:51:00.000+02:00'
'bc0e6f039a635a755f9c53b0a88e52b22f66580d'|'U.S. rejects Ford petition to delay recall of 3 million vehicles'|' 58 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago U.S. rejects Ford petition to delay recall of 3 million vehicles David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it was rejecting a petition by Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) to delay recall of about 3 million vehicles with potentially defective air bag inflators to conduct additional testing. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Ford Motor Company is seen on vehicles in a parking lot at the Ford assembly plant in Genk October 23, 2012. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo The agency said it did not find the request by the second largest U.S. automaker to defer a recall until additional testing was conducted “reasonable under the circumstances or supported by the testing and data it has collected to date.” Takata inflators can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks. At least 18 deaths and 180 injuries worldwide have been tied to the defect that led Takata Corp ( TKTDQ.PK ) to file for bankruptcy protection in June and prompted at least 19 automakers to issue recalls. NHTSA also rejected a similar petition filed by Mazda Motor Co ( 7261.T ) covering about 6,000 vehicles. Ford did not immediately say if it plans to challenge the agency’s decision. “We will cooperate with the agency, as we always do,” a spokeswoman said. The vehicles in question include the 2007-11 Ford Ranger, 2006-12 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, 2006-11 Mercury Milan, and 2007-10 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. In June, NHTSA said new testing prompted Takata to declare inflators defective in Ford, Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) and Mazda vehicles in some driver-side air bags. Nissan agreed to a recall of 515,000 vehicles in July. NHTSA did agree in 2016 to a request by General Motors Co ( GM.N ) to delay a recall of 2.5 million vehicles with Takata air bag inflators as the Detroit automaker conducts additional testing to determine if the vehicles should have replacement inflators. Separately, a report issued Friday by an independent monitor of the Takata recalls said more than 10 million U.S. vehicles and 18.5 million faulty Takata air bag inflators remain unrepaired in the largest ever auto safety recall. Takata said in June that it has recalled, or expected to recall, about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States. The report said there are 43.1 million Takata airbag inflators under recall in 31.5 million vehicles today, with scheduled expansion to about 65 million inflators by the end of 2018. Of those, 24.6 million inflators in 20 million vehicles have been repaired, the report found. In 2019, another 4.1 million vehicles will be recalled to replace interim repair inflators. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-takata-ford-motor/u-s-rejects-ford-petition-to-delay-recall-of-3-million-vehicles-idUKKBN1DH2JE'|'2017-11-17T21:57:00.000+02:00'
'a27d16d6e2fdecc9aa27626df8e7510fb348e1c1'|'Australia''s Reckon sells accounting practice software arm to Myob for $136.6 million'|'(Reuters) - Australian accounting software provider Reckon Ltd ( RKN.AX ) said on Thursday it would sell its accounting practice management software business to MYOB Group ( MYO.AX ) for A$180 million ($136.57 million) in an all-cash deal to pay off debt.Reckon said in a statement it intended to use the proceeds from the deal to repay “the majority of its debt” and pay a special dividend to shareholders.Myob in a seperate statement said it would acquire all clients, intellectual property, systems and processes, and take in all employees of the Reckon accounting practice software business, including sales, consulting and support teams.Reckon which has about A$52.6 million in debt as at 2016 intends to use the proceeds from the deal to repay “the majority of its debt” and pay a special dividend to shareholders.MYOB’s acquisition of Reckon is the company’s second buy this year after it bought online payment service provider Paycorp for A$48 million in February .MYOB said it would fund the deal by debt and that it expected the purchase to be earnings per share accretive on an underlying basis immediately.Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru, Editing by William Maclean '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-reckon-deals-myob-group/australias-reckon-sells-accounting-practice-software-arm-for-136-6-million-idUSKBN1DF35S'|'2017-11-16T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'1ab84d7376ded658f971cb6598941efd80d72ac9'|'Plane deals help Emirates, flydubai bridge fleet gap'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:19 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Plane deals help Emirates, flydubai bridge fleet gap Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates [EMIRA.UL] and flydubai have laid the groundwork for the next phase of Dubai’s aviation project with orders for $40 billion of jets that will narrow a gap between regional and global networks connecting travelers from Sarajevo to Sydney. Flydubai and Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum shakes hands with Boeing Commercial Airplanes President & Chief Executive Kevin McAllister during a news conference at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar The two government-of-Dubai-owned airlines have largely pursued separate strategies until recently being steered towards closer commercial ties by their sole shareholder. “I would say the first step that we took is paying off. As of the first week we could see the progress and how positive it is,” Emirates and flydubai chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum told Reuters in an interview. “I expect that this will grow and give the opportunity for both airlines to benefit from each others’ connections.” Emirates and flydubai said in July they would forge closer commercial ties and that both would benefit from a combined fleet of 380 jets flying to as many as 240 destinations by 2022. [nL8N1K8117] This week, the Middle East’s largest airline and its medium-haul cousin announced Dubai Airshow deals for over 200 jets, giving each carrier the capacity to pursue its own growth over the next decade but also potentially bridging a size gap between their fleets. Emirates placed a preliminary order for 40 Boeing 787-10s, designed to carry 280-230 passengers, and flydubai signed up for 175 more Boeing 737 MAX including over 50 of a new 200-seat-plus model. [nL8N1NI07Z] [nL8N1NL4JY] “When people said Emirates don’t have small aircraft, now they have smaller aircraft, and ... flydubai have the big aircraft too,” Sheikh Ahmed said of their co-operation pact. The 787s will be the smallest jets in Emirates’ all wide-body long-haul fleet, currently split between the Boeing 777 mini-jumbo and the Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner.The new order extends a spectrum of options as Emirates aims to adjust capacity to each route and to take advantage of its commercial power as one of the world’s major super-connectors. That could build on July’s initial agreement to add dozens of code shares and start joint network planning. However, Sheikh Ahmed stressed the airlines would remain independently managed even as they develop parallel strategies. Asked if they could merge under the same group, he told Reuters, “No, no, no, we will always keep them at arm’s length.” How far the relationship will go has not been laid out publicly, but may include swapping routes to maximize profit. “We will always do what is best for Dubai, and best for both airlines,” flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al-Ghaith told Reuters separately. BRAND CONVERGENCE The growing alliance is the latest development in Dubai’s aviation project which began more than 30 years ago, linking east-to-west passenger traffic through what is now the world’s busiest airport for international passengers. Less clear is to what extent the identities of the two airlines - with Emirates’ brand built on luxury and frills that include onboard showers in the A380, and flydubai’s reputation built on discount tickets - will converge. Emirates unveiled new economy-class seats on Sunday that feature a blue color scheme similar to flydubai‘s. Management said it was a coincidence. “I don’t think passengers care so much about what is outside (the aircraft); it is inside where you show your brand,” Sheikh Ahmed said. Flydubai has pivoted from the low-cost airline it launched as eight years ago, and at the Dubai Airshow showed off its own new cabins which have fully lie-flat business class seats. “It is closer now to the product of Emirates,” Sheikh Ahmed said. Emirates insists its flagship remains the A380, despite uncertainty over the superjumbo’s future following the collapse of a deal to buy more of the double-decker jets this week. It usually carries about 500 people but is certified for up to 868. Asked if flydubai could eventually make use of the A380, whose early models are due to start leaving the Emirates fleet from 2022, Sheikh Ahmed said, “Why not? If it can be done, (if) we have the aircraft and they can be used, yes.” Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-airlines-flydubai/plane-deals-help-emirates-flydubai-bridge-fleet-gap-idUSKBN1DG2C2'|'2017-11-16T18:17:00.000+02:00'
'3669e613b3f33b0be547caca7546394dd22ab255'|'UPDATE 1-South Africa''s Investec profit climbs, helped by wealth unit'|'(Adds details about businesses, background)Nov 15 (Reuters) - Investec Plc said on Thursday operating profit rose 11.8 percent in the six months to Sept. 30, supported by its wealth unit even after the Anglo-South African financial services group flagged political uncertainty in its main market.The South Africa-focused bank, which has a London listing, said its asset management and wealth arm benefited from higher funds under management helped by favourable equity markets and combined net inflows of 3.6 billion pounds ($4.74 billion).The firm’s shares edged up 0.3 percent to 95.52 rand, compared to a 0.6 percent gain for Johannesburg’s benchmark index.The wealth and investment business, which contributed about 13.7 percent to their full-year 2017 profits, improved 14.7 percent to record a profit of 49.5 million pounds in the first half. Investec, which focuses mainly on private banking and asset management, reported operating profit of 314.6 million pounds in the six-month period, up from 281.4 million a year ago.The firm warned in September that business confidence was low and the political environment challenging in South Africa, even though its economy was coming out of recession.Investec said it aimed at common equity tier 1 capital ratio above 10 percent and a total capital adequacy ratio range of 14 to 17 percent in its capital ratios - the percentage of a bank’s capital to risk-weighted assets.Net interest income rose 16 percent to 364.4 million pounds driven by a reduction in the Britain’s cost of lending, the company said in a statement.$1 = 0.7598 pounds Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/investec-results/update-1-south-africas-investec-profit-climbs-helped-by-wealth-unit-idINL8N1NM1IH'|'2017-11-16T06:03:00.000+02:00'
'9d2903392dae7ae4edf628661767348f0868fbaf'|'AT&T continues to believe Time Warner deal will close - CFO'|' 45 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago AT&T continues to believe Time Warner deal will close - CFO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) still thinks its $85.4 billion deal to buy media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) will close, its chief financial officer said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo “As of this time, the timing of the close is uncertain,” CFO John Stephens told an investor conference in Barcelona, adding, “We continue to believe the transaction will close.” Reporting by Anjali Athavaley'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t-cfo/att-continues-to-believe-time-warner-deal-will-close-cfo-idUKKBN1DG2KV'|'2017-11-16T19:45:00.000+02:00'
'6201effa0b6256c48032683a0bcf91aee55fb5a2'|'PSA CEO says failure of Opel recovery plan would be serious for staff, company'|'November 16, 2017 / 5:29 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago PSA CEO says failure of Opel recovery plan would be serious for staff, company Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said a failure of turnaround efforts at Opel would spell “very serious” consequences for workers at the German division and the company as a whole. Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group Carlos Tavares attends a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski PSA has given Opel until 2020 to return to profit as part of a recovery plan aimed at shifting the German brand’s model lineup onto PSA’s architecture, with the French parent pursuing 1.7 billion euros (£1.5 billion) in savings from its acquisition of Opel. “If it doesn’t succeed it will be very serious for the company and of course for the employees,” Tavares said on Thursday at a conference in Berlin. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peugeot-opel-ceo/psa-ceo-says-failure-of-opel-recovery-plan-would-be-serious-for-staff-company-idUKKBN1DG2JA'|'2017-11-16T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'8a036b24b2e52345f1eef79096418992e68f588b'|'Fox lauds WTO and global trade deals, in contrast with Trump'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 8:43 PM / a few seconds ago UK''s Fox lauds WTO and global trade deals, in contrast with Trump Tom Miles 2 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - British Trade Minister Liam Fox extolled the virtues of the World Trade Organization on Thursday, calling its rules “the gold standard” for trade deals, a stance at odds with recent statements by Britain’s ally, U.S. President Donald Trump. Liam Fox, Britain''s Secretary of State for International Trade, arrives in Downing Street, London, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Fox, hosting a reception of business people and ambassadors in Geneva, said that as Britain leaves the European Union, it would use its independent membership of the WTO to champion the cause of international free trade. “And boy, does it need a champion at the present time,” he said. He described the WTO as “the repository of our values, resolutely championing free trade in the face of setbacks and opposition and in some cases an ugly rising tide of protectionism”. “Its existence cannot be taken for granted,” he added. Trump has said the trade body has not treated the United States fairly, and Washington is blocking new appointments of WTO judges, which could halt the WTO’s ability to police global trade protectionism. The highest-ranking American in the WTO, deputy director-general Alan Wolff, said earlier this week that the WTO’s dispute process could become paralyzed in the coming year, with the risk that countries may resort to trade sanctions instead. Fox said the global trading system was “the foundation of our post-war prosperity”. “We have taken, by our efforts, a billion people out of poverty in the last 25 years. So it is not merely an economic mission on which we are embarked, but a moral mission too. And that is a future worth fighting for.” Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-trade-fox/uks-fox-lauds-wto-and-global-trade-deals-in-contrast-with-trump-idUKKBN1DG2YM'|'2017-11-16T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'e8779264be1e586b5f069b844a0de476b0967484'|'Markets should not expect ECB to raise asset buys - Mersch'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:17 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Markets should not expect ECB to beef up bond buys: Mersch Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Investors should not expect the European Central Bank to increase its bond purchases, ECB director Yves Mersch said on Thursday, adding such unconventional stimulus tools will be gradually phased out with the rise of inflation. Flags in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) before a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The ECB last month agreed to halve asset buys from January given solid growth but maintained an option to raise them back again if the outlook for inflation worsened. “Seeing it from today, I do not expect that the market would be right to anticipate a further increase in our asset purchases at the end of our program,” Mersch, a member of the ECB’s Executive Board told CNBC. “As the situation improves, there will be a gradual normalization out of unconventional monetary policy instruments...but this gradual path is not there to disrupt the market,” Mersch added. Inflation has missed the ECB’s target of close to 2 percent for nearly 5 years and will actually decline in the coming months before a slow and gradual rebound. Still, Mersch and fellow Governing Council member Bostjan Jazbec both signaled confidence in the ECB’s projection, which see inflation rising steadily from an early 2018 dip. “Inflation rates are moving in line with the expectations and projections of the European Central Bank,” Jazbec, Slovenia’s central bank governor told Reuters. Growth on the other hand could be faster than expected and the rise in oil prices could temper the coming inflation fall, which is mostly technical in nature, primarily to high year-earlier figures getting knocked from figures. “No-one would be overly surprised if we would again slightly revise upwards our projections for growth,” Mersch said. He added that an inflation drop projected for the end of this year and the beginning of next year would be “less pronounced” as earlier feared. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Additional reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-mersch/markets-should-not-expect-ecb-to-raise-asset-buys-mersch-idUKKBN1DG19A'|'2017-11-16T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'd1067334c655b9d9029d581fd385f8e698cc0af4'|'Banks may be key for insurers to fulfill EU investment needs'|' 40 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Banks may be key for insurers to fulfill EU investment needs Huw Jones , Carolyn Cohn 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Efforts to get insurers to plug Europe’s investment gap by backing riskier assets could be undermined if banks are unwilling to share crucial credit data with them, a European Union insurance regulator said. EU insurance capital rules known as Solvency II are being reviewed to make it easier for insurers to put their financial firepower to work in alternative investments, such as in infrastructure, unlisted equity or loans. These attract insurers struggling during an era of low interest rates as they typically offer higher returns, but are typically illiquid or less liquid, with no deep market, thereby making them difficult to price. This meant much could hinge on whether insurers can develop “partnerships” with banks to tap the credit history data needed for assessing risks, Jean Hilgers, a European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) board member, said. But it is unclear to what extent banks will share commercially sensitive data from their internal models, Hilgers, who is also a director at the National Bank of Belgium, said. “Will this be seen as a possible business line for them, a market to be developed?” Hilgers told Reuters on Thursday. There are also no benchmarks for measuring returns from such investments, and how companies manage risks will have to be “completely revisited”, calling for specialist staff, he said. Insurers would have to have clear “operational limits” for risk, with the board members and senior managers fully understanding the complexity of some investments. Lewis Webber, head of insurance data analytics at the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, told the same conference that it was a “good thing” for the economy that someone holds “illiquid, untradable cash flow producing things”. “Exposures need to be suitable for the liabilities they back. It’s more natural for insurers to hold those kind of assets to back their liabilities than banks, given the differences in business model,” Webber said. EIOPA will make recommendations on changes in February but it will be up to the EU’s European Commission to decide whether to put them into draft legislation. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-insurance-regulator/banks-may-be-key-for-insurers-to-fulfill-eu-investment-needs-idUKKBN1DG2KB'|'2017-11-16T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'd951cc105178ff39432c6526c8667b409429a3be'|'MOVES-UniCredit, Morgan Stanley'|'Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Friday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com.EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR PLC The London-listed business information group appointed Jan Babiak as an independent non-executive director.MORGAN STANLEY Ben Adubi has left Deutsche Bank to join Morgan Stanley’s public sector syndicate team, according to three sources familiar with the matter.Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-unicredit-morgan-stanley-idUSL3N1NN3NR'|'2017-11-17T13:50:00.000+02:00'
'67c6c1480cd04c7ae1910bdb143e41efa599778b'|'Daimler to invest $755 million in China for electric car, battery production: executive'|'GUANGZHOU/BEIJING (Reuters) - Germany’s Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ) plans to invest 5 billion yuan ($755 million) in China, jointly with its Chinese joint-venture partner, for capacity to produce electric cars and the batteries that power them - part of an effort to help its China operations comply with the country’s green car production and sales quotas.FILE PHOTO: The Daimler AG sign with raindrops is pictured before the company''s annual news conference in Stuttgart, Germany, February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo Hubertus Troska, head of Daimler’s greater China operations, told reporters that the investment was part of Daimler’s previously announced 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) global green car initiative.Troska, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Guangzhou auto show, said Daimler which operates Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands in China, and its partner BAIC Motor Corp Ltd ( 1958.HK ) plan to make the investment to localize production of battery electric vehicles (EV) in China.The investment will also go toward producing EV battery packs using locally produced battery cells.“If there’s one country in the world (that could) grow demand for electrics, that’s China because no other countries have so many big cities,” Troska told reporters.Though official purchase incentives for battery electric cars are being phased out over the next few years, “there is a strong incentive (for Chinese consumers) to go for electrics,” Troska said.That is in part because of the Chinese government’s commitment to build sufficient charging infrastructure, Troska said.Daimler said on Friday the company and BAIC aim to produce locally in China battery-powered electric vehicles under the EQ brand by 2019.The first EQ vehicle Daimler and BAIC plan to launch in China will be the EQC, a battery-powered crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV).Globally, Daimler plans to invest 10 billion Euros in the expansion of its electric fleet over the next few years. By 2022, Mercedes-Benz’s offerings will be “electrified,” a spokeswoman said, meaning customers will be offered an electrified alternative in every Mercedes model.China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid cars that come into effect from 2019. It has a target of 2 million so-called new-energy vehicle (NEV) sales by 2020 and has signaled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol-engine cars.This seismic shift towards NEVs has prompted a flurry of electric car deals and new launches, as manufacturers worldwide race for a share of the world’s largest auto market.Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ), for example, said on Thursday the group plans to spend 10 billion euros by 2025 to develop and manufacture all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles as it seeks to comply with upcoming stringent rules in China.Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-daimler/daimler-to-invest-755-million-in-china-for-electric-car-battery-production-executive-idUSKBN1DH0HP'|'2017-11-17T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'0ed07f0035365b3396af7e4674b2bb7701dfa25f'|'London High Court judge rules in favour of creditors in $700 million Dana Gas sukuk case'|'November 17, 2017 / 11:59 AM / Updated an hour ago Judge rules in favour of creditors in Dana Gas Islamic bond case Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - A London High Court judge on Friday ruled in favour of creditors in a case over whether energy company Dana Gas ( DANA.AD ) must repay $700 million (£530.6 million) of Islamic bonds, a copy of the ruling seen by Reuters showed. A view shows UAE''s Dana Gas building in Cairo November 2, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany The case is being closely watched by the global Islamic finance industry because some investors think it could set a precedent for other issuers of Islamic bonds or “sukuk”. Dana has said it does not have to redeem the bonds because it claims changes in the interpretation of Islamic finance over the past few years means the securities are no longer sharia-compliant and have become unlawful in the United Arab Emirates, where Dana Gas is based. Dana could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. The judge said in the ruling that Dana Gas’ challenges to the validity and enforceability of the purchase undertaking of the bond were “unfounded” and declared the purchase undertaking for Dana’s sukuk as valid and enforceable. A source familiar with Dana’s position said the company would appeal the court ruling, and that court proceedings in the UAE to declare the Islamic “mudaraba” structure of the sukuk invalid would continue. The total of Islamic bonds globally is close to $370 billion. Islamic finance follows religious principles which includes bans on speculation and with interest-bearing products deemed off-limits. A trial on the validity of the sukuk started at a London High Court in September but injunctions issued by a court in the UAE emirate of Sharjah have slowed proceedings. Reporting by Andrew Torchia and Davide Barbuscia; writing by Rania El Gamal; editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dana-gas-sukuk/london-high-court-judge-rules-in-favour-of-creditors-in-700-million-dana-gas-sukuk-case-idUKKBN1DH1BY'|'2017-11-17T13:57:00.000+02:00'
'95f952ca370ebce2f311f62787985847d6fdbc6a'|'Meredith, Time Inc restart deal talks with Koch brothers'' support - NYT'|' 17 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Meredith, Time Inc restart deal talks with Koch brothers'' support: NYT   (Reuters) - Time Inc ( TIME.N ) is in talks with Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) again to sell itself in a potential deal backed by billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch, the New York Times reported. Businessman David Koch arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2015 celebrating the opening of "China: Through the Looking Glass," in Manhattan, New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The new round of negotiations, helped by the surprise entry of the Kochs, could lead to a quick deal, the paper said. The Koch brothers have tentatively agreed to support Meredith''s offer by investing more than $500 million, the paper said, citing people involved in the matter. nyti.ms/2jtX3LG The companies and Koch brothers were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. Deal talks between Time, the publisher of Time and People magazines, and Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, had collapsed in April. Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/meredith-time-inc-restart-deal-talks-with-koch-brothers-support-nyt-idUKKBN1DG0D5'|'2017-11-16T06:16:00.000+02:00'
'cd0c5d7cb927d510977c2587d34944fbe124fb8f'|'3i Group posts first-half fall in total return to 655 million pounds'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago 3i Group has no plans to sell Action stake in short term Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London-listed private equity firm 3i Group ( III.L ) said on Thursday it had no plans to dispose of its biggest asset, Dutch discount retailer Action, rebutting market speculation that a sale could be imminent. Bankers have speculated that a sale could take place soon, given that 3i has been invested in Action since 2011 and said last year it had fielded multiple approaches from interested buyers for the jewel in its portfolio. Action represents more than a third of 3i’s private equity portfolio. “There is no plan in the short term, in the next six to 12 months, to enter into a strategic review of the asset,” Chief Executive Simon Borrows said on a call with reporters announcing the group’s interim results. 3i, which is also invested in ferry operator Scandlines, said Action still has the opportunity for significant further growth as it rolls out a rapid store expansion program targeting more than 2,700 stores and 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) in annual turnover. The firm increased its valuation of the Action stake, which analysts say is 44 percent, to more than 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), from 1.7 billion pounds as of March 31. It represents 35 percent of the value of 3i’s private equity portfolio. 3i reported a rise in net asset value per share to 652 pence, from 604 pence as of March 31, 2017. Its share price was up 2.2 percent at 918.5 pence by 0935 GMT compared to a broadly flat FTSE 100 index .FTSE . The group’s total return - the change in the valuation of the portfolio, plus profits on disposals, plus any income from the portfolio and foreign exchange impact, minus the costs of the business - fell to 655 million pounds in the six months to Sept. 30, compared with 1 billion pounds in the same period of 2016. The group attributed the decline to an exceptional previous period when the valuation of Action was bolstered by two approaches and foreign exchange gains from the fall of the pound. 3i, which was founded in 1945 in Britain, said its private equity portfolio’s international investments, particularly in northern Europe and North America, now accounted for around 90 percent of the total by value. ($1 = 0.7602 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-3i-results/3i-group-posts-first-half-fall-in-total-return-to-862-million-idUKKBN1DG0QW'|'2017-11-16T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'662f74c7fb18e0f56761901bedfad55e99e9547b'|'Mexico bristles at U.S. proposal that would benefit AT&T in NAFTA'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:59 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Mexico bristles at U.S. proposal that would benefit AT&T in NAFTA Julia Love , David Lawder 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico shot down a proposal by the United States to include provisions in the North America Free Trade Agreement that would benefit AT&T Inc ( T.N ), Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Wednesday. Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo delivers a speech during the inauguration of the IP Statistics for Decision Makers (IPSDM) Forum in Mexico City, Mexico, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/ Edgard Garrido “AT&T, which is North American, asked its government to reflect its interests in the negotiation,” Guajardo said in an interview on local radio without specifying the details of the U.S. proposal. “You cannot have an agreement... that gives a tailor’s cut, a perfect handiwork, to a specific company.” AT&T and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment. During the last round of talks in Virginia, the United States proposed incorporating Mexico’s landmark telecommunications reform into a NAFTA provision that would apply only to Mexico, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Mexico’s 2013-14 telecommunications reform aimed to break up the dominance of America Movil ( AMXL.MX ), the telecommunications firm owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, which emerged from a state monopoly in the 1990s. Negotiators are still working to make sure the reform is included in the agreement, Guajardo said. “What we said is that we cannot accept a specific annex,” he said. “We can reflect conceptually the commitments that are reflected in the law, which for us is very important to consolidate.” Beckoned by the reform, AT&T entered the Mexican market in 2014, spending $4.4 billion to buy Mexico’s No.3 and No.4 carriers. The AT&T logo is seen on a store in Golden, Colorado United States July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking But the market was plunged into uncertainty in August when the Mexico Supreme Court ruled America Movil should not be barred by law from charging its rivals for calls to its network, weakening a key pillar of the reform. The turmoil has spilled over into NAFTA negotiations, Guajardo said. “What has kept us from closing (he telecoms chapter)is that it was contaminated a little bit by this debate over the zero-rate,” he said. The telecommunications reform, which sharply lowered prices for consumers, is one of Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto’s signature accomplishments. But throughout the negotiations, Mexico has consistently rejected proposals that isolate the nation, trade experts say. “What’s surprising (about the telecommunications proposal) is that there is the principle that we are negotiating as three countries,” said Mexico Senator Gerardo Flores, who was briefed on the proposal. “And suddenly the United States puts on the table a proposal that demands commitments specifically from Mexico, which converts the negotiation into a bilateral negotiation.” Mexico has been enthusiastic about enshrining a 2014 energy reform in NAFTA, but also with the condition that the language applies to all three countries in the pact, said Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “Mexico doesn’t want to be singled out in any way,” he said. “You set a precedent where side deals with individual countries can be made.” Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Christine Murray and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta-telecoms/mexico-bristles-at-u-s-proposal-that-would-benefit-att-in-nafta-idUSKBN1DG0AR'|'2017-11-16T04:51:00.000+02:00'
'9d1625ccf6fc1628d1432806df0a9368e2ffe3eb'|'Georgia''s TBC Bank Q3 profit up 29 pct, buoyed by strong lending'|'Nov 16 (Reuters) - TBC Bank Group Plc, Georgia’s largest retail bank, reported a 29 percent jump in third-quarter underlying net profit, buoyed by robust lending, and maintained its medium-term return-on-equity target.TBC, which became Georgia’s largest bank by loans and deposits after buying JSC Bank Republic from SocGen and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said net interest margin stood at 6.2 percent compared with 8.3 percent a year earlier.Net profit jumped to 88.0 million laris ($32.8 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30.($1 = 2.6850 laris)Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Saangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tbc-bank-group-results/georgias-tbc-bank-q3-profit-up-29-pct-buoyed-by-strong-lending-idINL3N1NM2MR'|'2017-11-16T04:33:00.000+02:00'
'7cb75a1e828df47965c1c49dc50ce2a66f4fbbd5'|'Graphic: Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.1/SHOW MAY THE MONEY It could be another busy week for sterling traders. British finance minister Philip Hammond delivers his annual budget on Wednesday, and to say he goes into his annual set piece on a weak footing would be an understatement.Politically, the government is weak. Its parliamentary majority is razor thin and Prime Minister Theresa May’s authority has been undermined by a series of gaffes and cabinet resignations.There’s also been an alarming lack of progress on Brexit negotiations -- so much so that Ireland’s prime minister, referring to a lack of clarity over the future status of the Irish-UK border issue, said: “Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they have thought all this through.”On the economy and public finances, Hammond is constrained too. Expectations of slower growth in coming years due to Brexit would hit tax revenues, productivity growth is chronically weak and real earnings are falling thanks to above-target inflation.There remains little appetite in the Conservative Party ranks to do what the opposition Labour Party has pledged and open the public purse for investment. As ever, if there are any surprises - positive or negative - market reaction will be most visible in sterling. The pound is holding up, but volatility is rising.UK’s Hammond has limited options to help May with budgetNimble Bank of England will shield UK from Brexit effects-CarneyUPDATE 1-Britain’s shoppers rein in spending, first yearly decline since 20132/SA(Y) IT AIN‘T SOSouth Africa’s dire budget last month and talk of a potentially hefty increase in fiscal spending have raised the stakes for S&P Global’s and Moody’s Nov. 24 credit rating reviews of the junk grade-threatened country.If either cut their local currency debt ratings into junk, the government’s $125 billion stock of rand-denominated debt would no longer be eligible for the world’s big global bond indexes.That would almost certainly trigger another round of selling in South African markets and pile yet more pressure on the government by further driving up borrowing costs that have already soared 13 percent over the last eight months.South Africa’s budget woes raise stakes for Nov. 24 rating reviewsSouth Africa’s economic woes domestic, downgrade risks high -deputy c.bank governorSouth African commission urges more education spending before ratings reviews3/MADE IN JAPAN Japanese trade data in the coming week will be a good gauge of whether the impressive growth streak in the world’s third largest economy can keep going.It grew faster than expected last quarter and is enjoying its longest uninterrupted expansion since an eight-quarter hot spell from April-June 1999 to January-March 2001 at the height of the dotcom boom.The main reason this time, however, is external demand. Things like car and electronics shipments added 0.5 percentage points of the latest 1.4 percent annualised quarterly growth rate, whereas private domestic consumption dropped 0.5 percent from the previous quarter.That doesn’t bode well for the Bank of Japan’s inflation goals, but with the lifespan of Abenomics extended following the country’s recent elections, that goal may have to wait.REUTERS SUMMIT-BOJ should consider selling put options on Japan stocks: Japan Post Bank CIOJapan’s GDP grows for 7 straight quarters, outlook remains solidJapan government analysis sees economy closer to vanquishing deflationJapan wages seen rising 2-2.5 pct in spring, below Abe’s target4/ LUCKY NUMBER 13? Wall Street will take a break for Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday, meaning global trading is likely to lighter than normal.It will also give investors time assess how serious they think the wobble in world stocks over the last couple of week really is.The overwhelming consensus from the world’s biggest investors at the Reuters 2018 summit at least was that one of the longest bull markets in history just keeps on keeping on. A crowded trade maybe? A bubble in the making perchance? But no big crash for now.And though it was a second down week in a row for MSCI’s All Country World Index, Thursday’s bounce has kept it just about positive for the month. Next week could therefore be crucial in determining whether November makes it a record 13 months of unbroken gains.World stocks claw back losses but set for second weekly fallEurope’s longest stocks sell-off of the year abatesAmundi sees “bumpy” 2018 as Fed walks thin ice5/MARGIN DEBT With U.S. stocks still only just off record highs, investors are looking for possible signs of over-exuberance and one indicator in the past has been margin debt.The Bank for International Settlements highlighted in a recent report that equity investors used “record amounts of margin debt to lever up their investments, even though price/earnings ratios indicated that equity valuations may be stretched by historical standards.”However, a look at margin debt as a proportion of the S&P shows a different and broadly more stable picture.What some investors are therefore asking is why isn’t it higher given the extraordinary low market volatility?Low volatility can be favoured by those trading on margin. Every investor’s fear of margin is that the market comes down quickly and you have to sell. That was a big negative in the financial crisis.Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-themes/graphic-take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idINKBN1DH238'|'2017-11-17T18:02:00.000+02:00'
'268656eadd9a77b6215fdac3a8fc9cda2d526c50'|'British stocks fall back as Carillion crashes, Sky soars'|'November 17, 2017 / 10:27 AM / Updated 6 hours ago British stocks fall back as Carillion crashes, Sky soars Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British stocks fell back into the red on Friday, ending a short-lived recovery rally as takeover interest boosted Sky and construction firm Carillion plummeted after warning it would breach debt covenants. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the London Stock Exchange building in the City of London, Britain, January 16 , 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The FTSE 100 .FTSE was set for its second week of losses as a worldwide sell-off took the shine off risky assets, and Thursday''s bounce proved to have little staying power. The index was down 0.3 percent by 0900 GMT, and on track for a 0.9 percent loss on the week, tracking weakness in European markets. Mid-caps .FTMC fell 0.4 percent, also set for a second week of losses. Corporate news drove the most attention-grabbing moves, from Sky on the blue-chip index to Carillion among small-caps. Pay-TV firm Sky ( SKYB.L ) shot up 3.1 percent to the top of the FTSE after sources said Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) and Verizon Communications ( VZ.N ) had expressed interest in acquiring part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) assets. “Comcast’s interest in the 39 percent stake in Sky seems plausible,” said Liberum analysts. “Its NBC Universal has publicly stated its interest in expanding its non-U.S. assets for a number of years and the UK is a key market for many of the U.S. media groups.” The U.S. groups’ interest demonstrates Fox’s stake in Sky is still seen as a valuable asset, Liberum added. Sky shares were set for their best day in nearly five months. Downgrades and disappointing results sent the broad market lower, while materials and mining stocks fell as nickel prices sank on worries over growth in Chinese steel markets. Anglo American ( AAL.L ), Rio Tinto ( RIO.L ) and Glencore ( GLEN.L ) were among the biggest drags on the index. Small-cap construction firm Carillion ( CLLN.L ) collapsed 34 percent after a third profit warning set it up to breach debt covenants at the end of the year. “The Carillion horror show continues,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Shorts who stayed the course, even adding, will be grinning all the way to the bank, having expected already serious corporate and financial troubles to worsen,” said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets. Back on the FTSE 100, Mediclinic ( MDCM.L ) fell for a second day as investors digested the South African private hospital group’s admission it had not yet reached a deal for its much anticipated takeover of Spire Healthcare Group ( SPI.L ). Shire ( SHP.L ) fell 1.5 percent after shooting up 6 percent on Thursday when rival Roche’s haemophilia drug was given a black box warning by the U.S. FDA. A downgrade from HSBC sent United Utilities ( UU.L ) down 3.7 percent, the sharpest large-cap fall. Analysts at the bank said the utility’s earnings would be dented by rising inflation. “We expect earnings to be adversely affected by the current high levels of RPI as it has 53 percent of its total debt index-linked,” they wrote in a note. Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/british-stocks-fall-back-as-carillion-crashes-sky-soars-idUKKBN1DH16C'|'2017-11-17T12:26:00.000+02:00'
'ceeefe01be37d598acad06ab74d023b326dc8bc5'|'Euro zone inflation not greatly impacted by oil price surge: ECB''s Jazbec'|'LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Inflation in the euro zone is moving along the path envisaged by the European Central Bank and the recent rise in oil price does not have a major effect on it, ECB Governing Council member Bostjan Jazbec said on Thursday.A empty price board indicates that no gas is available at a Total petrol station in Vertou, France, May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo “Inflation rates are moving in line with the expectations and projections of the European Central Bank,” the Slovenian central bank governor told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.“The changes of oil price by themselves do not have a major influence unless there is a long-term movement of prices. At this moment they represent just one of the factors that are being used by the ECB in forecasts and projections,” Jazbec added.Reporting by Marja Novak; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecb-policy-jazbec/euro-zone-inflation-not-greatly-impacted-by-oil-price-surge-ecbs-jazbec-idINKBN1DG1EF'|'2017-11-16T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'8dbda93abd8476c08404d6cbefc9776b09723f7d'|'Tezos organizers hit with second lawsuit over cryptocurrency fundraiser'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:58 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Tezos organizers hit with second lawsuit over cryptocurrency fundraiser Anna Irrera , Steve Stecklow 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A second lawsuit was filed this week against the organizers of cybercurrency technology project Tezos, an initiative that raised $232 million to issue a cryptocurrency that does not exist and fund development of a transaction system that has no clear end date. Tezos co-founder and CTO Arthur Breitman and his wife and co-founder Kathleen Breitman respond to questions during the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus The class action lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Florida by Coral Springs-based law firm Silver Miller, alleges that Tezos’ organizers broke U.S. securities laws and defrauded and misled participants in the online fundraiser, according to court documents. Many who put money toward the initial coin offering consider themselves investors, but the funds were raised as non-refundable donations. The lawsuit was filed on Monday and made public on Wednesday. The defendants are Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, the co-founders of the project; their Delaware-based company Dynamic Ledger Solutions Inc, which owns the rights to the transaction system’s code; and the Tezos Foundation, a Swiss entity that was set up to carry out the fundraiser. It is the second lawsuit in less than a month to hit the embattled project that in July raised funds in one of the largest ever initial coin offerings, a popular way for technology startups to collect money by issuing cryptocurrencies. Johann Gevers, president of the Tezos Foundation, declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, and Brian Klein, an attorney for the Breitmans, did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. The lawsuit quotes from a Reuters investigation and reports published in October that revealed details of a backroom battle between the Breitmans and Gevers over control of the project. The dispute has delayed the project. ( reut.rs/2yGk6IT ) The lawsuit alleges that contributors to the fundraiser were not told that it could take more than three years for the Swiss foundation, which holds the funds, to purchase Dynamic Ledger Solutions and the project’s source code. This time frame, revealed by Reuters, was not disclosed to investors despite being “a highly material fact,” the lawsuit alleges. Plaintiffs are asking for a refund as well as damages, according to the lawsuit. It also alleges organizers sold unregistered securities. “As a result of Defendants’ fraud, false representations and violation of federal and state securities laws in connection with the Tezos ICO, Plaintiff and the Class Members state their demand that the Contract be rescinded and canceled,” the lawsuit states. Other law firms have said they are considering litigation. Reporting by Anna Irrera and Steve Stecklow; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-tezos/tezos-organizers-hit-with-second-lawsuit-over-cryptocurrency-fundraiser-idUSKBN1DF37L'|'2017-11-16T00:56:00.000+02:00'
'ddc7783533ef78264f91745e62db93ae57867f41'|'Libya''s NOC opening U.S. purchase office as it pursues Trump support'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:54 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Libya''s NOC opening U.S. purchase office as it pursues Trump support Reuters Staff 3 Min Read HOUSTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Libya’s National Oil Corp plans to open a U.S. procurement office, its first international facility since a 2011 revolt left the country in disarray, to expand suppliers and convince the Trump administration to support its oil sector. Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the state-run energy company, said on Wednesday that NOC and its partners will spend about $20 billion over the next three years to restore output crippled by the nation’s political divides. A Houston office will open to begin building its roster of U.S. equipment and services suppliers, he said. “It is very important to us,” Sanalla said in a telephone interview from Washington. The procurement office “will be fully functional in January,” he added. NOC still faces significant hurdles to replace and repair aging and damaged infrastructure. Production partners including Italy’s ENI, Spain’s Repsol and France’s Total SA are financing expansion through oil-sharing contracts, he said. NOC also can borrow to finance the rebuilding. “We hope to secure new investment. We hope a political solution will be reached,” Sanalla said while on a visit to Washington, where he is holding meetings with U.S. officials. He said he hopes to meet on Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to seek U.S. support for the country’s oil sector. There are still hurdles to the energy effort. The United Nations-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli lacks control in eastern areas, and has yet to enact a law governing petroleum production, though a draft is under way. The OPEC-member country last month produced just under 1 million barrels per day (bpd) and earlier set a target to reach 1.25 million bpd this year, a goal thwarted by port and field blockades. Sanalla declined to say if that production target remains for the near term, calling the issue new investment. “We will be on a good track to achieve that,” he said of expansion agreements. Libya was producing 1.6 million bpd prior to the revolt that killed strongman Muammar Gaddafi six years ago. This year, U.S. oilfield services supplier Schlumberger NV returned to the country after a three-year absence. The service arms of Total, ENI and others are working in the country’s oilfields, he said. The new office “puts America’s world-class equipment manufacturers and oilfield service providers at the center of our procurement strategy,” he said. “Nobody should underestimate what an important strategic choice this is for us.” (Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Matthew Lewis)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/libya-oil-houston/libyas-noc-opening-u-s-purchase-office-as-it-pursues-trump-support-idUSL1N1NL1D8'|'2017-11-16T00:50:00.000+02:00'
'914f6a061b894c9c2e201900ad1af576f79027b7'|'China sets new rules for policy banks to curb risks'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:12 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago China sets new rules for policy banks to curb risks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s banking regulator has set new rules for the country’s three policy banks to help rein in risks amid a broader tightening of controls over the financial sector. A man walks past the lobby of the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) headquarters in Beijing, China June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter The new rules require the three banks to strengthen governance systems and to establish capital restraint mechanisms based on capital adequacy ratios, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in statements late on Wednesday. The three banks, which include the China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China, had not been subject to special regulatory policies since their inception in the 1990s. Beijing is trying to reduce financial risks by containing rising debt in the banking and corporate sectors, as well as looking to defuse housing bubbles for fear they could derail the economy if not handled well. The banking regulator said the new measures, which would come into effect from the start of 2018, were necessary to “strengthen supervision” over the policy banks and prevent the emergence of “systemic financial risks”. The state-run Xinhua news agency cited CBRC official Zhou Minyuan saying current regulations were insufficient and that the broadening scope of the policy banks “posed a challenge to risk control”. The three banks’ total assets stood at 25.12 trillion yuan (2.88 trillion pounds) at the end of September, Xinhua said, while aggregate loans hit 17.41 trillion yuan. Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-policybanks/china-sets-new-rules-for-policy-banks-to-curb-risks-idUKKBN1DG00F'|'2017-11-16T02:11:00.000+02:00'
'a1c3b8ab209168b685a391396dad29d65d1ce9cc'|'Gap''s same-store sales beat estimates - Reuters'|'(Reuters) - Clothing retailer Gap Inc’s ( GPS.N ) quarterly same-store sales beat estimates, as it sold more lower-priced apparel under the Old Navy brand and reined in discounts.FILE PHOTO: A Gap Inc. retail store is shown in La Jolla, California, U.S., May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Overall same-store sales rose 3 percent in the third quarter ended Oct. 28, while analysts were expecting it to rise 1.01 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.The company’s net sales rose to $3.84 billion from $3.80 billion.Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gap-results/gaps-same-store-sales-beat-estimates-idINKBN1DG32X'|'2017-11-16T18:29:00.000+02:00'
'e6cd4c6321834a3bc72b7274377e9e3fb50f8a55'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 16'|'Nov 16 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times*Activist investor TCI Fund Management wants London Stock Exchange Plc board members to be personally liable for any payoff handed to Chief Executive Xavier Rolet unless it is disclosed and approved by shareholders. bit.ly/2hAYwPH*In a letter to Greg Clark, the energy secretary, a group of trade associations, unions and energy storage companies asked the UK government to look at the risk of a supply crunch leading to a price rise because of Britain''s dependence on imported gas and lack of storage capacity. bit.ly/2hCHn83The Guardian* Britain''s trade unions have been warned they face increasing irrelevance without radical reform to attract new members in fast-growing sectors with large numbers of casual employees, such as the hospitality industry, according to a report from thinktank the Fabian Society and the Community union. bit.ly/2jva5bK* Amazon is understood to have snapped up the UK TV rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, in a move likely to cause further speculation that it is a potential competitor in the upcoming Premier League rights auction. bit.ly/2jvf7ozThe Telegraph* BBC is manoeuvring towards a 500 million pounds ($658.55 million) bid for full control of UKTV, the broadcaster behind the Dave and Gold channels, in what would be a major expansion into the advertising and pay-TV markets. bit.ly/2jv77nC*Tensions between Asatsu-DK Inc and its biggest shareholder WPP Plc escalated on Tuesday night, after the UK-listed advertising company said it was prepared to increase its shareholding in Asatsu-DK instead of selling down its stake. bit.ly/2jw3EoJSky News* The number of people in work has fallen by the most in more than two years while wage growth has slipped further behind the cost of living, official figures show. Employment fell by 14,000 to just over 32 million in the three months to September, according to the Office for National Statistics. bit.ly/2jw3JZL* Scotland is set to become the first country in the world to impose a minimum price for alcohol in a bid to improve public health. bit.ly/2jshLLPThe Independent* Brexit is likely to damage the UK''s productivity and could well force a more rapid rise in interest rates, Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Wednesday. ind.pn/2jvgfbN*Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc worries that border checks after Britain leaves the European Union will disrupt its global supply chain and is looking at measures to offset this, a member of its executive leadership said on Wednesday. ind.pn/2jvY8SV ($1 = 0.7592 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-16-idINL3N1NM12T'|'2017-11-15T22:33:00.000+02:00'
'ab2905ac846f418786f6b76a386dffe69c6be04d'|'WPP: Prepared to boost Asatsu-DK stake to 33 percent if Bain''s takeover bid fails'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:53 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Advertiser WPP prepared to up ADK stake if Bain offer fails Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP ( WPP.L ) said it would be prepared to raise its stake in Japanese partner Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK) ( 9747.T ) to 33 percent from 25 percent if a disputed tender offer for the company by U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital failed. ADK is seeking to end a two-decade-old business alliance with WPP, asking the world’s largest advertising group to sell its shares to Bain in a $1.35 billion deal. But WPP and other large shareholders, including London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management Company, have held out for a higher offer from Bain. The latest move by WPP deepens an acrimonious spat over the deal between the long-time alliance partners. A 33 percent stake is just below a key threshold that would allow it to veto board decisions. WPP this month took legal action against ADK, seeking arbitration and a preliminary injunction to uphold its stance that ADK’s planned termination of their business alliance was invalid. In a statement dated Nov. 15, UK-based WPP said it had been approached by other shareholders as well as ADK’s management asking it to clarify its commitment to ADK in the event the tender offer failed. “With the approval of the board and other shareowners we would also be prepared, as requested by some shareowners, to increase our shareholding in ADK to 33 percent,” WPP said. In addition, WPP said, it would “welcome the opportunity to engage constructively” with ADK’s board to make sure the company was capable of increasing its value for the benefit of long-term shareholders. ADK said it had not received WPP’s statement and declined to comment. ADK’s shares were up 1.3 percent at 3,480 yen in morning trade on Thursday, slightly outperforming the broader Tokyo market. Bain Capital is seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent in ADK and has offered to buy shares for 3,660 yen a piece. Last week, it extended the period for the tender offer by about a week to Nov. 21 to give shareholders more time to consider the offer, given WPP’s legal action. Bain has said its offer is full and final. ADK and WPP formed their alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures and cultivate clients. They exchanged equity stakes but the Japanese firm says synergies from the tie-up failed to materialize. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/wpp-prepared-to-boost-asatsu-dk-stake-to-33-percent-if-bains-takeover-bid-fails-idINKBN1DG0A0'|'2017-11-15T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'5ef4337e72270b171e2468ede6c18052a86ce251'|'BHP says hopes to exit U.S. shale business within two years'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:09 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago BHP eyes two-year exit from shale; also selling nickel James Regan 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX ) ( BLT.L ) said on Thursday it hopes to fully divest its troubled U.S. onshore shale business in around two years and is also seeking a buyer for its nickel business in Australia. FILE PHOTO - BHP Billiton Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie is silhouetted against a screen projecting the company''s logo at a round table meeting with journalists in Tokyo, Japan June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The renewed push to unload both sets of assets, which the world’s biggest mining company no longer deems strategic, comes as prices for oil and nickel enjoy a price resurgence. “Nickel West is non-core, shale is non-core,” Mackenzie told reporters following the company’s annual general meeting in Melbourne. Nickel prices CMNI3 are up around 16 percent from January percent this year, while oil LCOc1 has risen about 9 percent. “We do consider we will see reasonable oil prices going forward, which is good for the businesses we retain and also the sales process,” Mackenzie said. BHP entered the shale business at the height of the fracking boom in 2011 and invested billions developing the operations. A subsequent fall in oil prices resulted in pre-tax writedowns of about $13 billion. An exit from the shale business is one of the main demands of activist shareholders led by New York-based Elliott Management, who have pressed for a change of strategy by the global miner. BHP acquired Nickel West in 2005 and several attempts in the past to sell it have failed. The miner allocated $43 million in August to build a processing plant to convert nickel into a powder-like material that could be used to make special batteries for electric vehicles, leading some to believe the division would remain in the company. “We are just finding the right time in the market to offload,” Mackenzie said. In shale, BHP recently sold a small portion of the onshore shale acreage, kicking off plans for a full exit over time. “We really want to get this done in two years, ideally a bit less,” Mackenzie said during the shareholders’ meeting. “What you have to do is build quite a comprehensive data room so that a wide range of people can come and look and kick the tyres before they buy,” he said. Mackenzie made it clear there was little chance BHP would retain any exposure to shale. “At this stage I see no way back,” he said. Reporting by James Regan, additional reporting by Melanie Burton in MELBOURNE; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bhp-agm-shale/bhp-says-hopes-to-exit-u-s-shale-business-within-two-years-idUKKBN1DG082'|'2017-11-16T04:09:00.000+02:00'
'b96e6288ed3f38a2f3a7ddbde88c9edbef004a57'|'Oracle backs tougher foreign investment bills aimed at China'|'November 15, 2017 / 11:17 PM / in 2 hours Oracle backs tougher foreign investment bills aimed at China Diane Bartz 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Software maker Oracle Corp ( ORCL.N ) is backing bipartisan legislation that aims to toughen foreign investment rules amid increasing concern over Chinese efforts to buy U.S. high-tech companies, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - A sign marks a building housing Oracle offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, U.S., June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder The bills, which were introduced last week, would expand the power of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), allowing it to review smaller investments and add new national security factors, such as exposure of Americans’ Social Security numbers, for CFIUS to consider. CFIUS, an inter-agency panel, reviews proposed transactions for national security concerns. CFIUS can recommend that a transaction be prohibited, but only the president can issue an order to stop or suspend a deal. In a letter addressed to three senators who introduced the legislation, Oracle Senior Vice President Kenneth Glueck welcomed the identical bills in the Senate and House of Representatives. “We appreciate the language is narrowly tailored to focus on specific national security concerns, distinguishing between investments that are financially motivated and investments that are strategically motivated, such as improving foreign military capabilities or other strategic objectives,” Glueck wrote in the letter to Republican Senators John Cornyn and Richard Burr and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. The House bill was introduced by Republican Representative Robert Pittenger, also with bipartisan co-sponsors. International Business Machines Corp ( IBM.N ) opposed the bills, arguing that they would bog down an already busy panel with routine transactions. Cornyn has said he hoped for a Senate hearing on the bill before the end of the year and committee action soon after. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-china-oracle/oracle-backs-tougher-foreign-investment-bills-aimed-at-china-idINKBN1DF38Y'|'2017-11-16T01:15:00.000+02:00'
'c37c7e5bd4c93c6da3622a2c2178facfc8274e67'|'EU handling of Greek bailouts only partial success - EU auditors'|'Reuters TV United States  47   EU handling of Greek bailouts only partial success: EU auditors Francesco Guarascio 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s handling of three bailout programs for Greece during the euro zone’s financial crisis had several weaknesses and was only partly successful, European auditors said on Thursday. A piggybank painted in the colours of the Greek flag with a 20 euro banknote in it''s slot, stands in front of letters spelling the word ''GREECE'' in this picture illustration taken in Berlin, Germany June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski EU and international creditors have channeled over 350 billion euros ($412.1 billion) of financial aid to Greece since 2010 to prevent the country’s default and reduce contagion to the rest of the euro zone. To get the funds, Athens had to embark on sweeping structural reforms and unpopular belt-tightening measures. The programs “promoted reform and avoided default by Greece, but the country’s ability to finance itself fully on the financial markets remains a challenge,” the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a report on the Greek bailouts. The ECA is responsible for assessing EU finances. Last year, it said the Commission’s management of the bailouts for Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, Latvia and Romania was “generally weak”. The third Greek program is still ongoing as Athens completes agreed reforms. The 86-billion-euro bailout ends in August, and Greece is by then expected to have fully regained access to market funding. The ECA report, which focused on the work of the European Commission, said the programs “only helped Greece to recover to a limited extent.” The European Central Bank, which together with euro zone states and the International Monetary Fund contributed to the programs, was not assessed because it declined to provide data, questioning the auditors’ mandate to ask for it, ECA said. The auditors found “weaknesses” in the design of the Greek programs. “Some key measures were not sufficiently justified,” the report said. The ECA stressed that a large chunk of the 45 billion euros pumped into the banking system may never be recovered. “For other (measures), the Commission did not comprehensively consider Greece’s implementation capacity in the design process and thus did not adapt the scope and timing accordingly,” it said. In a written reply included in the ECA report, the Commission said that “the design and implementation of crucial reforms took place in the wider context of the prevailing difficult economic situation as well as severe instability in the financial markets.” The Greek bailouts were carried out during the worst financial and economic crisis since the World War Two. The Commission also stressed that the application of the programs was complicated by the political crisis that struck Greece during the bailouts, causing the collapse of governments. The Commission concluded that, despite the complex circumstances, the key objectives of the programs were achieved by averting Greece’s default and ensuring financial stability in the euro zone. ($1 = 0.8493 euros) Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Jan Strupczewski and Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-auditors/eu-handling-of-greek-bailouts-only-partial-success-eu-auditors-idUKKBN1DG1DR'|'2017-11-16T12:36:00.000+02:00'
'b5d7c0348f217a1018a07316326351de04e8825b'|'Safran seeks EU approval for Zodiac Aero deal, decision due by December 21'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French aerospace group Safran ( SAF.PA ) has submitted its proposed $7.7 billion purchase of seats maker Zodiac Aerospace ( ZODC.PA ) to EU antitrust regulators for approval, with a decision due by Dec. 21, the European Commission said on Thursday.The logo of Safran Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The maker of aircraft engines, landing gear and military optronics won Zodiac’s approval for a friendly takeover at the second attempt earlier this year after the latter was weakened by industrial problems.The aerospace industry has seen a wave of consolidation in recent months, including aerospace and industrial company United Technologies Corp ( UTX.N ) announcing a $23 billion plan to buy avionics maker Rockwell Collins Inc ( COL.N ) in September.The EU competition authority can clear the Safran deal with or without concessions in the preliminary review or open a four-month long investigation if it has serious concerns that the deal may harm rivals and consumers.Safran has said the deal would boost its position in making smarter and more connected aircraft.Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-zodiacaerospace-m-a-safran-eu/safran-seeks-eu-approval-for-zodiac-aero-deal-decision-due-by-december-21-idINKBN1DG2EK'|'2017-11-16T13:39:00.000+02:00'
'03847e73e8248fb193503b02a504958cc44495dd'|'Renault, Toyota lead 5.9 percent European car sales gain'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:07 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Renault, Toyota lead 5.9 percent European car sales gain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - European car sales rose 5.9 percent in October, according to industry data published on Thursday, with Renault ( RENA.PA ) and Toyota ( 7203.T ) leading the gains among volume carmakers. New cars are seen in a carpark near Barcelona, Spain, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Albert Gea Registrations advanced to 1.208 million cars in the European Union and European Free Trade Area from 1.17 million a year earlier, Brussels-based industry association ACEA said. The gain takes the European market expansion this year to 3.8 percent. Toyota’s monthly sales jumped 20.5 percent, while France’s Renault posted a 17.6 percent increase in group registrations powered by strong demand for its no-frills Dacia lineup. PSA ( PEUP.PA ) registrations jumped 74 percent after it began reporting sales by the Opel and Vauxhall brands it recently acquired from General Motors ( GM.N ) alongside its own Peugeot, Citroen and DS marques. The combined sales of all five brands rose about 6.7 percent year-on-year. Carmakers reported a sharp UK sales decline in October, contrasting with buoyant demand in France and southern Europe, according to data published earlier this month. Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Bate Felix'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-vehicleregistrations/renault-toyota-lead-5-9-percent-european-car-sales-gain-idUKKBN1DG0NV'|'2017-11-16T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'adea9da9dcadd09304454cc8137819ae3c5a0758'|'Emerson sweetens bid for Rockwell Automation to $29 billion'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:04 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Emerson sweetens bid for Rockwell Automation to $29 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Emerson Electric Co ( EMR.N ) boosted its takeover offer for Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) to about $29 billion (£22 billion), after a previous offer of $27.6 billion was rebuffed last month. FILE PHOTO: Emerson Electric Company Canadian headquarters is shown in Markham February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Cassese/File Photo Emerson, a maker of factory automation equipment, on Thursday offered $225 per share to buy its smaller rival. The proposal comprises $135 per share in cash and $90 per share in Emerson stock. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/emerson-sweetens-bid-for-rockwell-automation-to-29-billion-idUKKBN1DG1LV'|'2017-11-16T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'358009a9c6967128ee71fc27b41161c1359909ff'|'Swiss bank to launch bitcoin futures to allow betting against cryptocurrency'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:27 PM / a few seconds ago Swiss bank to launch bitcoin futures to allow betting against cryptocurrency Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank Vontobel said it will start trading Switzerland’s first two mini futures to short bitcoin on Friday, giving investors a tool to bet against the value of the volatile cryptocurrency or to hedge bitcoin positions. The newly launched logo of Swiss bank Vontobel is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The launch of the two mini futures on the Swiss stock exchange by the country’s second-biggest provider of structured products comes after CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator, said it will launch a futures contract for bitcoin later this year. When the value of bitcoin falls by 10 percent, the value of the more conservative of the two mini futures rises by almost 6 percent while the other gains almost 10 percent, according to the termsheets Vontobel published on Thursday. The value of bitcoin has fluctuated wildly this month, plunging as much as 29 percent last week from its Nov. 8 record high of $7,888 and then recovering more than a third of its value in the last four days. For the year, it is up more than 600 percent – a meteoric rise that has prompted many to warn that bitcoin has become a bubble that could be set to burst. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Mini futures are derivative instruments combining features of futures and options and tradable for considerably less than regular futures contracts. The cryptocurrency remains a “speculative” investment that thrives because of its anonymous nature, BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Monday. It has drawn scepticism from several senior bankers, including JP Morgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who called bitcoin a fraud and said he would fire any traders at his bank who touched bitcoin. However, the CEOs of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley said the cryptocurrency could be worth considering. ($1 = 0.9915 Swiss francs) Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Oliver Hirt; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly in LONDON; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-vontobel-bitcoin/swiss-bank-to-launch-bitcoin-futures-to-allow-betting-against-cryptocurrency-idUKKBN1DG2CX'|'2017-11-16T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'9f218696c931b6150e9487a257a986f5dc600c72'|'Fortum CEO had ''constructive'' meeting with Uniper CEO - WirtschaftsWoche'|'November 16, 2017 / 11:52 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Fortum CEO had ''constructive'' meeting with Uniper CEO: WirtschaftsWoche Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Finnish energy company Fortum’s ( FORTUM.HE ) Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark had a good first meeting with the boss of takeover target Uniper ( UN01.DE ), Klaus Schaefer, he told German magazine WirtschaftsWoche. Fortum CEO Pekka Lundmark listens during an interview at company headquarters in Espoo, Finland, March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Tuomas Forsell Fortum in September agreed to buy E.ON’s ( EONGn.DE ) remaining 46.65 percent stake in peer Uniper for 22 euros per share in early 2018, triggering a 8.05 billion euro ($9.48 billion) bid for the whole group under German takeover rules. Uniper will announce its assessment of the offer next week. It previously said it the offer as hostile, arguing that both companies were not a good strategic fit. “It was a constructive meeting,” WirtschaftsWoche quoted Lundmark as saying, adding the meeting had taken place over the last weekend in Duesseldorf, where Uniper is based. “We can now start a dialogue with Uniper about how to work together in the future.” Uniper confirmed that a first meeting between the two executives had taken place. “We have always said that we are ready to talk once a full offer is on the table,” a spokesman for the group said. ($1 = 0.8493 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum-oyj/fortum-ceo-had-constructive-meeting-with-uniper-ceo-wirtschaftswoche-idUKKBN1DG1KB'|'2017-11-16T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'd53a3e916d537dd780f0eb981ee69409618bf46d'|'UPDATE 1-Recovery rally for European stocks as cyclicals make a comeback'|'* STOXX 600 up 0.4 pct* Financials, autos and tech lead gains* Bouygues jumps after results* Sodexo sinks as margin guidance disappoints* Bernstein sees recent dip as buying opportunity* Broker praise drives Genmab, Wirecard shares up* European benchmarks'' 2017 performance reut.rs/2A1JRV7 (Updates prices, adds Quote: s, detail)By Helen ReidLONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - European shares enjoyed a recovery on Thursday, snapping their longest losing streak since October 2016 as the cyclical sectors which had driven a market-wide sell-off made a comeback.The pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed 0.4 percent, with the cyclicals-heavy DAX up 0.5 percent while Britain’s FTSE 100 and Italy’s top stock index lagged, trading flat.Financial services, autos and technology sectors were among the best-performing, driving the market higher while recovering oil prices also helped support energy stocks.“European equities suffered recently from the stronger euro and some early profit-taking before the end of the year,” said Valentin Bissat, European equity strategist at Mirabaud Asset Management.“After the recent underperformance, we should see cyclicals outperform again in the next few weeks with long-term interest rates rising and a steeper yield curve,” he added.Investors continued to digest a raft of earnings updates, with most of the top movers reacting to results.French telecoms firm Bouygues led gains, up 4.2 percent after raising its profitability goal for the year, buoyed by a robust 37 percent jump in nine-month operating profits.Facilities and catering firm Sodexo however fell 4 percent as traders and analysts expressed disappointment over its margin guidance and annual revenues coming in slightly below consensus forecasts.Swedish appliances maker Electrolux fell 2.9 percent despite saying it expected home appliances markets to grow in 2018.The results were overshadowed by industry data showing home appliance shipments in the United States, a major market for Electrolux, fell 1.3 percent year-on-year in October.Troubled British engineer GKN sank 7.9 percent, the top faller after it announced a further write-off.Broker action was also a driver. Biotech firm Genmab rose 3.6 percent after Bernstein rated it an “outperform”, while Wirecard shares gained 3.2 percent after Berenberg recommended buying into the payments sector.Italian banks Banco BPM and BPER Banca were among the top fallers after Banca Carige failed to clinch a cash call, reigniting fears around bad loans in the sector.European equity strategists at Bernstein said recent risk aversion created a buying opportunity as “robust” earnings outlook continued to provide fundamental support for the market.Overall the MSCI EMU index of euro zone companies is tracking earnings growth of 10.7 percent in dollar terms for the third quarter, with basic materials, financials and technology the main drivers of earnings beats. The broader MSCI Europe index is delivering 10 percent earnings growth.Investors emphasised earnings beats were not all they were looking for, saying companies this quarter had delivered slightly disappointing top line revenue growth.“Earnings are standing up better than revenues this quarter,” said Andrew King, head of European equities strategy at BNP Paribas Investment Partners.“We’d like to see a bit more top line driven profit growth going forward if we’re really to get enthused about the profit recovery,” he added.Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Danilo Masoni and Toby Chopra '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/update-1-recovery-rally-for-european-stocks-as-cyclicals-make-a-comeback-idINL8N1NM21B'|'2017-11-16T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'd983cc25c2493e46e14047a80b81a1f4d39faf6c'|'VW taps Brazil growth with new model to challenge Fiat, GM'|'November 16, 2017 / 6:46 PM / Updated 43 minutes ago VW taps Brazil growth with new model to challenge Fiat, GM Andreas Cremer 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) launched its new Virtus model on Thursday to tap Brazil’s highest-volume segment as part of a recovery plan that analysts said will help it regain ground on rivals General Motors and Fiat in South America’s largest car market. People walk past Volkswagen cars during the Sao Paulo International Motor Show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker The German carmaker said the launch of the new model in Sao Paulo was part of a plan to spend about 1.8 billion euros (1.61 billion pounds) to roll out 20 new models in Brazil by 2020. Returning to profit in markets such as Brazil, the United States and Russia is vital for Volkswagen as it pushes to revive the core VW brand that accounted for more than half the group’s 7.8 million auto sales in the first nine months but only 19 percent of underlying profit. The world’s biggest automaker last week announced 560 million euros of investment in Argentina to build the first sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in Brazil’s neighbour. It hopes the launch of 20 new models in South America by 2020 will restore it to profitability in the region. “We will do everything possible in coming years to win back the leading position of VW” in Brazil, VW brand sales chief Juergen Stackmann said. VW, which slashed about 7,000 jobs in South America in past years and shrunk its dealer network, has said it wants to reduce the average age of the brand’s Brazilian lineup to less than five years by 2020 from eight years in 2015. Brazil was one of the world’s five biggest auto markets until the 2014-16 downturn and remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ), GM ( GM.N ), VW and Ford ( F.N ). Analysts said VW had been slow in the past few years to refresh models in Brazil and set slightly higher prices than mainstream peers which overhauled lineups in the passenger-car heavy Brazilian market more quickly. “It’s not unrealistic to say that VW had not been refreshing things very quickly,” said IHS Markit analyst Stephanie Brinley. Price premiums “are difficult to translate into a (Brazilian) market that doesn’t have capacity for a higher price at all.” To cut costs and be able to lower prices, VW fully developed the Virtus in Brazil, giving proof of its post-dieselgate strategy to cede more power from its Wolfsburg headquarters to regions and brands. VW admitted in September 2015 that it had used illegal software to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, sparking the biggest business crisis in its 80-year history and saddling it with a $30 billion bill. The new four-door Virtus, to be built at Anchieta near Sao Paulo, is one of the first cars to be spawned from a new localised version of the MQB modular platform that underpins most of the VW group’s small and medium front-wheel-drive models. The carmaker said it spent 660 million euros modernising the 60-year-old factory, VW’s first plant outside Germany, where the Virtus and Polo will be assembled. Market research firm IHS expects VW’s new models to help narrow the sales gap with market leaders Chevrolet and Fiat. VW brand sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Brazil may jump 44 percent to 413,776 units by 2023 from an estimated 286,745 next year, IHS said. By comparison, IHS expects sales of Fiat to grow only 26 percent to 475,686 cars while it sees sales of Chevrolet rising 18 percent to 444,744 models. “Brazil may not be the highest-margin market but it’s a huge market with vast potential for VW,” said NordLB analyst Frank Schwope who has a “Buy” rating on the stock. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-brazil/vw-taps-brazil-growth-with-new-model-to-challenge-fiat-gm-idUKKBN1DG2QE'|'2017-11-16T20:46:00.000+02:00'
'7d24a51d035946491fd02735681f441062b7c4fd'|'British lender Close Brothers'' first-quarter boosted by banking unit, market maker'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:45 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago British lender Close Brothers'' first-quarter boosted by banking unit, market maker Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British lender Close Brothers Group ( CBRO.L ) said it had made a good start to its financial year, driven by strength in its banking division and higher trading activity at its market maker Winterflood. The merchant banking group said the loan book at its banking division rose 1.4 percent from end-July to 7 billion pounds in the first quarter ended Oct. 31, driven by growth in property and premium finance. Close Brothers said its asset and motor finance loan books remained broadly flat and analysts have pointed to particularly intense competition within these markets possibly curbing net loan book growth. In August, Close Brothers said its banking business would face challenges due to a “highly competitive” environment, prompting analysts to warn that loan growth would be limited and net interest margin could be pressured. The company, which provides loans, wealth management and securities trading services, said its net interest margin and bad debt ratio were in line with the last financial year. Close Brothers, founded in 1878 as a merchant bank to provide farm mortgages in Iowa, said market maker Winterflood benefited from continued retail investor trading activity. Greater market volatility tends to bolster profits at firms such as Winterflood as investors turn portfolios around more frequently. Total client assets at Close Brothers’ asset management arm rose to 11.7 billion pounds in the quarter from 11.2 billion pounds at the end of July, helped by positive market movements. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-close-brothers-outlook/british-lender-close-brothers-first-quarter-boosted-by-banking-unit-market-maker-idUKKBN1DG0S0'|'2017-11-16T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'098187fd45e30b8b02dd4d9f0ba714de3201199e'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Mexico peso tumbles to eight-month low on NAFTA worries'|'MEXICO CITY, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Mexico''s peso sank to an eight-month low on Wednesday, hurt by concerns that the latest round of talks to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would fail to make much headway in the face of tough U.S. demands. Mexico''s peso was down by as much as 0.9 percent, touching its weakest level since mid-March, before closing 0.31 percent weaker. Lower level negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico started a fifth round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City on Wednesday, but expectations for major advances were low. "Due to the wide distances between the sides, it is improbable that they make very substantial advances in this meeting," said Mario Castro, a strategist at Nomura in New York. "The market had gotten a little too optimistic and it is coming back to reality," he said. In the last round, in October, Washington made several proposals, including minimum U.S. content rules for automobiles, that Canada and Mexico rejected outright and that could derail hopes for an agreement. Other Latin American currencies saw more modest losses after U.S. data showed a surprise rise in retail sales last month as well as an uptick in underlying inflation, cementing expectations for an interest rate hike in December. The region''s biggest market, Brazil, was closed for a local holiday. Higher U.S. interest rates could lure yield-hungry investors out of emerging market assets, which are seen as riskier. Mexico''s stock market was little changed after closing at its lowest since March in the previous session. Mexican stocks have slumped after a weak batch of corporate reports on third quarter earnings. Shares of Mexican low-cost airline Volaris fell about 1.7 percent, paring back losses slightly that took shares to their lowest since late May 2015 after preliminary deal to buy 80 Airbus jets. Latin American stock indexes at 2300 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily pct YTD pct change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1,111.12 -0.64 28.86 MSCI LatAm 2,677.82 -0.47 14.4 Brazil Bovespa 70,826.59 -2.27 17.60 Mexico IPC 47,690.80 -0.38 4.49 Chile IPSA 5,273.77 -0.66 27.04 Chile IGPA 26,588.18 -0.64 28.23 Argentina MerVal 26,312.68 2.74 55.53 Colombia IGBC 10,693.68 0.25 5.58 Venezuela IBC 660.68 -0.17 -97.92 (Reporting by Michael O''Boyle; editing by Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-mexico-peso-tumbles-to-eight-month-low-on-nafta-worries-idUSL1N1NL1XW'|'2017-11-16T01:21:00.000+02:00'
'0bbd445549b823cf848ae71ad014643e0b9858a3'|'BBC looking at 500 million pound bid for UKTV - Telegraph'|'November 15, 2017 / 10:15 PM / Updated 5 hours ago BBC looking at 500 million pound bid for UKTV - Telegraph Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - The BBC’s commercial arm is considering a 500-million-pound bid for full control of broadcaster UKTV, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing sources. A man enters BBC New Broadcasting House in London November 11, 2012. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor BBC Worldwide is in talks with advisers about borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds from private investors to buy out the half of UKTV it does not already own, the newspaper added. bit.ly/2jv77nC “This is speculation, and it is incorrect to suggest the BBC has made any judgements based on a deal that isn’t even complete. Should that happen, we would look forward to discussing the continued success of UKTV with Discovery,” a BBC spokesperson said in an email to Reuters. UKTV, whose channels include Dave and Gold, is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and U.S. broadcaster Scripps Networks Interactive. Discovery Communications Inc had announced earlier this year that it is acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive Inc for $11.9 billion. UKTV and Scripps were not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uktv-m-a-bbc/bbc-looking-at-500-million-pound-bid-for-uktv-telegraph-idUKKBN1DF35K'|'2017-11-16T00:15:00.000+02:00'
'727f396c3dd5ea1ff858035e208c374f00c55493'|'RBI eases rules for short-selling in govt bonds'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:38 PM / Updated 6 hours ago RBI eases rules for short-selling in govt bonds Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday eased the rules for short-selling in government bonds, allowing traders to deliver securities from their own portfolio against short sales in “exceptional situations” of market stress. A man speaks on his mobile phone outside the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters in Mumbai, India October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade Until now, the central bank had not permitted government bond market traders to use securities from their own portfolios for delivery against a short sale, forcing them to borrow in the repo market. “Market participants undertaking ‘notional’ short sale need not compulsorily borrow securities in the repo market,” the RBI said. But it cautioned that securities delivered from traders’ own portfolios must be accounted for appropriately and reflect the transactions as internal borrowing. The RBI said the securities could be delivered from held-to-maturity (HTM), available-for-sale (AFS) and held-for-trading (HFT) portfolios. It also said that all notional short sales must be closed by an outright purchase in the market. Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-cenbank-governmentbonds/rbi-eases-rules-for-short-selling-in-govt-bonds-idINKBN1DG28D'|'2017-11-16T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'8d2425f4aba1077d0330310e01c5e8301d017de1'|'Graduate bank accounts: grown-up finance comes at a price'|'Graduate bank accounts: grown-up finance comes at a price ‘My life as a student account holder was over. No more interest-free overdraft’ Rise of Spain’s Generation Rent sparks investor rush Tuesday, 14 November, 2017 The deeper push into retail banking comes as some of Goldman’s traditional business lines are struggling © Anna Gordon/FT Save to myFT Play audio for this article Pause This is an experimental feature. Give us your feedback. Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback Having racked up tens of thousands of pounds of debt at university, getting your first job is a proud moment. Finally, you are earning some money! But then comes the shock of seeing your payslip eroded by student loan repayments. Not long after, your bank will whip away your final financial comfort blanket — your interest-free student overdraft. Having taken this for granted while studying, the costs of servicing thousands of pounds worth of overdraft debt can come as a nasty shock. Essential stories related to this article This is why millennials hate letting agents Friday, 25 November, 2016 Most banks will start to “transition” you to a graduate account the summer after graduation. You need to be prepared. I know this, because I wasn’t. In my early twenties, a year or so after graduating, I innocently walked into my bank branch to ask for a replacement debit card. I gave an earnest-looking member of staff all my details, sat on a sofa and scrolled through my emails. I was pleasantly bored by the whole experience. But it didn’t stay relaxing for long. The assistant came back. “Are you a student?” I said no. This was met with a weird smile. Before I could resist, I was ushered into an upstairs room by a staff member. Like most busy people, I usually avoid bank branches . I didn’t realise that they employ armies of staff to squeeze profits from low-net worth individuals like me. While I ingested a cup of hot, sweet coffee, the staff member imparted the cold, sour news: my life as a student account holder was over. No more interest-free overdraft. No more free railcard. No more restaurant discounts. The bank would have sent me a letter about this through the post, he said, sensing my shock. Having moved several times since graduating, who knows where that letter ended up? It didn’t matter, he reassured me. All I had to do was sign a bunch of documents and either repay my overdraft in the next two months, or start paying interest on it. “Would you like more coffee?” he asked cheerfully. Transitioning student account holders into full-blown, fee-paying customers is a crucial moment for banks. After three years of small deposits, large outflows, interest-free overdrafts and lost debit cards, it’s payback time. They finally have the chance to make some money from their customers. Those free giveaways are an effective loss leader for the banks. Ask your colleagues in the office whether they are still a customer of the bank they had a student account with. In my experience, a great number of them will say yes . Even the ones in their 50s. If I was more prepared, I would have avoided the bank branch altogether and ordered a new debit card over the phone. That way, I might have been able to string out the free overdraft for a bit longer. One foolhardy friend had the nerve to lie to her bank, and tell them that she hadn’t graduated, even though she had. They didn’t notice for five years. Others took a more pragmatic approach. A former coursemate of mine recently disappeared for almost three weeks without telling anyone where she was going. When she finally showed up it turned out she had taken a second job working shifts in a pub to raise £3,000 to pay off her overdraft before charges were applied. Another, who called the experience “her second graduation,” managed to negotiate an extension with her bank, buying time to pay down more of her debts. Realistically, I should have been more on top of when the overdraft was going to start costing me money. When this happens — and how much you will be charged — is different for every bank. So I have attempted to make things easier for recent graduates by compiling this table of the UK’s main banks, and what they can offer you. Graduate accounts — the high street options Bank When do they switch you? Interest-free overdraft limit Overdraft breach charges (excluding transaction fees) Other benefits Summer after graduating Year 1: Up to £1,500; Year 2: Up to £1,000; Then 19.9% EAR £5 per day (capped at £80 per month or how much you''ve borrowed, whichever is lower) N/A Up to 1 year after graduating; Year 2: Up to £1,000; Then 17.81% EAR Year 1: Up to £2,000 £8 per day (capped at £72 per month) Tastecard or National Express Young Person''s Coach Card Santander Up to £2,000 for the term of the account £5 per day (capped at £95 per month) Access to full range of 1-2-3 World offers Lloyds and Bank of Scotland Summer after graduating Year 1: Up to £2,000 Year 2: Up to £1,500 Year 3: Up to £1,000 1p per day for every £7 over over the interest-free overdraft up to your planned limit N/A Halifax Reward Account (not specifically for graduates): Up to one year after graduation Up to £1,500 (or up to £3,000 if opened prior to August 2017) 1p per day for every £7 over the interest-free overdraft up to your planned limit N/A Upon graduation Year 1: Up to £3,000; Year 2: Up to £2,000; Year 3: Up to £1,000 50p a day for arranged overdraft of up to £2,000; £1 a day for arranged overdraft of more than £2,000. No unarranged overdrafts allowed £7 a month loyalty reward if graduates pay £800 into the account each month, pay two direct debits a month, register for online banking and pay a £3 monthly fee; Cashback with 150 retailers TSB Upon graduation Year 1: Up to £2,000; Year 2: Up to £1,500; Year 3: Up to £1,000 Then 16.77% EAR variable Up to £10 per day (capped at £80 per month) plus a monthly overdraft usage fee of £6 N/A Credit interest on accounts: Natwest offers 3% AER/2.96% gross (variable) on balances from £300 up to a maximum of £2,000; Halifax offers 0.1 per cent. Source: FT Research. Information correct as of 14/11/17. Overdrafts are subject to status and may be repayable on demand The first lesson? Loyalty does not pay. If you see a better deal than the one your bank is offering, then consider switching . Some banks — including Barclays and TSB — will move you to a graduate account as soon as you throw your mortarboard in the air. However, Barclays’ graduate account also offers the most generous interest free overdraft of up to £3,000 for the first year. Most of the other banks will wait until the summer after graduation until switching you to a graduate account. You should be able to secure an interest-free overdraft of between £1,500 to £2,000 for the first year, which is then gradually whittled down. In the third year, most will charge interest and/or a monthly fee. This is where overdrafts can get very expensive if they are not properly managed. The table shows how banks can charge interest ranging from 7.2 per cent to almost 20 per cent on your borrowings. While this may be less expensive than credit card debt, if you go over your agreed overdraft limit, the charges quickly spiral. Again, every bank has a different set of charges. Depending on the bank, going over your limit could cost anywhere between £1 and £10 per day, although charges are generally capped once they add up to more than £72 to £95 per month. Friends have been caught out by overdraft charges as bank letters have been sent to old addresses. One colleague who went abroad after graduating returned to discover that she had accidentally breached her overdraft limit and accumulated £700 in fines. The bank had sent warnings to an old address. Banks will not accept this as an excuse — and it also puts you at risk of identity theft. So either tell your bank your new address, use online banking to request that they send you emails rather than letters, or pay Royal Mail £67 to redirect all of your post for one year. Another really useful service that most banks offer free of charge is a text or email alert when your balance falls below a certain level (set by you). This could be £100 above the point where overdraft charges will kick in, giving you time to reshuffle your finances and avoid being charged. Aliya Ram is the FT’s European Technology Correspondent. , Twitter: @aliya__ram Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don''t copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/71be468e-a28d-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2'|'2017-11-16T13:12:00.000+02:00'
'af87e2b5471642e80271abebdb2598e8e341fde8'|'Services group Sodexo eyes sales growth acceleration, looks for more deals'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 6:22 AM / in a few seconds Services group Sodexo eyes sales growth acceleration, looks for more deals Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French facilities management and vouchers group Sodexo ( EXHO.PA ) said on Thursday that its cost reduction plan was on track, and expressed confidence in its ability to accelerate sales growth in the current fiscal year. The logo of French food services and facilities management group Sodexo is seen at the company headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Sodexo, which is buying for $675 million U.S. company Centerplate - which provides food and hospitality at sports, convention and entertainment venues - said its strong financial structure gave it scope to eye more acquisition targets. Sodexo, the world’s second-biggest catering services company after Compass Group ( CPG.L ), made the forecasts after posting a rise of 1.9 percent in like-for-like revenue to 20.698 billion euros ($24.38 billion) for the fiscal year ended August 31. Sodexo warned in July that full-year revenue growth would be less than initially expected after a weaker third quarter. Sodexo, however, said on Thursday that trends were turning positive again in France and in its division dealing with the energy and resources sectors, although growth remained modest in at its ‘Education and Health Care’ arm in North America. Operating profit before exceptional items rose 8.4 percent to 1.326 billion euros, broadly in line with the group’s guidance for a increase that would come in at the bottom of an initial 8-9 percent range. Sodexo was expected to post revenue of 20.735 billion euros and operating profit of 1.379 billion, according to an Inquiry Financial poll for Reuters. For the current 2017-2018 fiscal year, Sodexo forecast underlying revenue growth of between 2-4 percent, and a flat underlying operating margin at 6.5 percent of sales. It also confirmed its medium-term goals. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sodexo-results/services-group-sodexo-eyes-sales-growth-acceleration-looks-for-more-deals-idUKKBN1DG0K7'|'2017-11-16T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'f133a9c5a37d47b4734d9cac3b068088b981b87d'|'Emerging market inflows stall; flows to Mexico hit six-year low - IIF'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pace of fund flows to emerging markets has stalled in the fourth quarter, data from a bank lobbying institution shows, with fund flows to Mexico slumping to their lowest since 2011 and accounting for just 3.8 percent of investors’ portfolios.Mexican peso banknotes are pictured at a currency exchange shop in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico November 10, 2017. Picture taken November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez The Institute of International Finance on Friday released a survey that found emerging market flow has dampened significantly as investors have pulled back on allocation to the asset class, preferring to invest in U.S. assets as tax overhaul expectations have heightened.For Mexico, IIF said protracted negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement have weighed on sentiment as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn a hard line that investors see as dimming the likelihood of a renewed agreement.Emerging market assets have had inflows of about $14 billion since late September, the group said, noting that “the pace of inflows has slowed and has become more volatile — in line with trends in daily cross-border portfolio flows.”IIF also noted expectations of a December interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve, uncertainty about U.S. tax policies and profit-taking after strong gains this year as having contributed to the slowdown.Investors told Reuters, however, that the slowdown was largely the result of cyclical trends, as emerging market buying regularly slows in the later months of the year.“It’s practiced within our industry to take profits in the fourth quarter,” said Jan Dehn, head of research at Ashmore Investment Management. “That’s very restricted to this quarter.”Dehn expects buying to pick up again once the new year begins in January.Last month the organization reported that foreign investors had cut capital flows to emerging market debt and equities in September for the second straight month, reducing inflows to $14.5 billion.That estimate marked the lowest level of inflows since January’s $13.2 billion reading and was a little more than $1 billion lower than August’s level.Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Editing by Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-flows-iif/emerging-market-inflows-stall-flows-to-mexico-hit-six-year-low-iif-idINKBN1DH27S'|'2017-11-17T18:55:00.000+02:00'
'45888991843c91b2f44f7c43da146b4939a5e376'|'Italy''s Carige signs underwriting accord over new share issue'|'November 18, 2017 / 5:35 AM / a minute ago Italian lender Carige seals backing for vital cash call Valentina Za , Andrea Mandala 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) secured backing from core shareholders and underwriters for a vital 560 million euro ($661 million) cash call needed to stave off the threat of being wound down. Carige’s last-minute failure to sign the underwriting accord had sent tremors across Italy’s banking sector, triggering a recent sell-off in shares of other lenders seen as vulnerable. Carige, saddled with bad loans and accumulated losses, must boost its best-quality capital, which lags the threshold recommended by European Central Bank supervisors, by the end of the year. After losing nearly 3 billion euros since 2013, the bank has warned its business could be at risk if a capital raising plan, including also asset disposals and a debt swap, fails. Carige said on Saturday it planned to launch the new share issue on Nov. 22 offering new shares at 1 euro cent each. The stock has not traded over the past two days and last closed on Wednesday at 0.1473 euros. The offer would run until Dec. 6. The bank said a group of local investors who are its core shareholders had committed to buy new shares so as to own a combined stake equivalent to 29.7 percent of capital. Malacalza Investimenti, the single largest shareholder with a 17.6 percent stake, had previously said there had been misunderstandings with the banks in the guarantee consortium. Carige will offer 60 new shares for each ordinary or savings share already owned to raise up to 498 million euros. Another 60 million euros worth of new shares are reserved for holders of subordinated debt. Global coordinators Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and co-global coordinator Barclays ( BARC.L ) have committed to underwrite the 498 million euro portion of the cash call, after deducting commitments from core shareholders and other allocation accords signed by some institutional investors through broker Equita SIM. Carige said it had also entered exclusive talks with Credito Fondiario to sell 1.2 billion euros in bad loans and its debt servicing business. CONTAGION Failure to carry out the share issue would undermine confidence in the sector just as risks of contagion seemed to have subsided following a string of bailouts. It could also jeopardize efforts by small lenders to tap investors for cash in order to meet regulatory demands to step up bad loan disposals. Carige’s troubles hit in particular smaller rival Creval ( PCVI.MI ), which has just announced plans to raise 700 million euros, or more than five times its market value, in a share issue. Italian banks are saddled with a quarter of Europe’s soured loans, a hangover from a deep recession that ended in 2014, and are struggling to offload them as they can only sell at a loss. Creval shares lost 25 percent on Friday after a 19 percent drop the previous day. Moody’s downgraded its debt ratings, saying it saw significant risks for the bank’s planned share issue. “If the Carige deal falls apart, Creval’s won’t work either,” fund manager Giuseppe Sersale of Anthilia Capital said. Additonal reporting and writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Alexander Smith and Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-carige/italys-carige-signs-underwriting-accord-over-new-share-issue-idUKKBN1DI06A'|'2017-11-18T07:31:00.000+02:00'
'2d0435529a817e54facae729577082cc0c9902ef'|'Exclusive: Vale delays sale of stake in New Caledonia nickel mine - sources'|'November 17, 2017 / 6:45 PM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Vale delays sale of stake in New Caledonia nickel mine - sources Tatiana Bautzer , Nicole Mordant 3 Min Read NEW YORK/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Vale SA ( VALE5.SA ) has decided to postpone the sale of a stake in its New Caledonia nickel mine after the initial bids for the asset came in at the lower end of expectations, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The logo of Vale SA is pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 7, 2017. Picture taken August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The sale may be delayed for up to a year, a setback to efforts by the world’s largest iron ore producer to offload non-core assets. The Rio de Janeiro-based company anticipates a rebound in nickel prices, the sources said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to address the matter publicly. One source said Vale was seeking an investment of $500 million to $1 billion in New Caledonia, which has suffered technical setbacks, a chemical spill and violent protests. The company has recently reduced its debt burden - one of the aims of recent divestment efforts - and new Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman is running a broad strategic review. Vale had been in talks with Chinese battery recycler GEM Co Ltd ( 002340.SZ ) for several months about the stake in the mine, but those talks stalled, the sources said. GEM did not reply to requests for comment. Makers of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles are looking to lock in supplies of cobalt, lithium and nickel, which are key battery ingredients. Vale said it has received bids on the sale process of the stake in the mine. Its adviser on the sale process, Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), did not reply to requests for comment. Common shares in Vale were up 1 percent in Sao Paulo trading on Friday afternoon, extending their rise this year to 33 percent. Overbudget and years late when it finally started up in 2010, the New Caledonia project accumulated nearly $1.3 billion in losses between 2014 and 2016, according to a June presentation to investors. This has also narrowed the field of potential bidders, the second source said. At an investor conference in New York this week, Schvartsman said nickel had brought Vale lower returns than expected and vowed to cut new investments in the business. “We expect nickel to have more demand as it becomes a raw material for car batteries, but prices have not reacted so far,” Schvartsman said. Murilo Ferreira, whom Schvartsman replaced as CEO in May, had decided to divest the New Caledonia nickel mine as part of a $15 billion asset sale plan announced in 2016 to reduce debt. Vale’s net debt shrank 18 percent in the 12 months through September to 21 billion reais ($6.4 billion). It stood at 4.9 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, down from 8.6 times a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in New York and Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Additional reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro, Melanie Burton in Melbourne, Susan Taylor and John Tilak in Toronto and Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-vale-sa-divestiture-exclusive/exclusive-vale-delays-sale-of-stake-in-new-caledonia-nickel-mine-sources-idINKBN1DH2F0'|'2017-11-17T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'be99fddb0c6639c6bf9ddd8c05b1946549252630'|'Nikkei rises to 1-week high but breaks 9-week winning streak'|'November 17, 2017 / 6:41 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Nikkei rises to 1-week high but breaks 9-week winning streak Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to a one-week high on Friday, helped by gains in most sectors while chip-related stocks such as Sumco and Tokyo Electron outperformed. The Nikkei ended 0.2 percent higher to 22,396.80, the highest closing since Nov. 10. However, it fell 1.3 percent for the week, snapping a nine-week winning streak. Semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 1.0 percent and semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer Sumco Corp surged 4.9 percent. Consumer electronics products makers also staged a rally. Sony Corp gained 0.7 percent and Panasonic Corp advanced 0.8 percent. On the other hand, utility stocks and paper shares slipped and were the worst performers on the board. Chubu Electric Power dropped 1.1 percent, Hokuriku Electric Power shed 1.4 percent and Tokyo Gas declined 1.7 percent. Nippon Paper Industries dropped 1.4 percent and Oji Holdings declined 1.2 percent. The broader Topix gained 0.1 percent to 1,763.76. Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-rises-to-1-week-high-but-breaks-9-week-winning-streak-idUSL3N1NN2CP'|'2017-11-17T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'01d314a570241b56ab146d80b86b3adf02956407'|'Markets should not expect ECB to raise asset buys - Mersch'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:11 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Markets should not expect ECB to raise asset buys - Mersch Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Markets would not be right to expect the European Central Bank to increase asset purchases given solid growth and a rising confidence in the rebound of inflation, Executive Board Member Yves Mersch told CNBC on Thursday. Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank presents an oversized newly unveiled 10 euro note at the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, January 13, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski “Seeing it from today, I do not expect that the market would be right to anticipate a further increase in our asset purchases at the end of our programme,” Mersch added. Mersch added that the ECB could increase its growth forecast in December and may also project a more modest drop in inflation for the coming months. “No-one would be overly surprised if we would again slightly revise upwards our projections for growth,” Mersch said adding that the inflation drop, projected for the end of this year and the beginning of next year, would be “less pronounced” as earlier feared. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-mersch/markets-should-not-expect-ecb-to-raise-asset-buys-mersch-idUKKBN1DG191'|'2017-11-16T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'8186430ba832164d8702e270c048aefc4b2ceb67'|'Where health meets eco-consciousness: the gym made from used aerosol cans - Innovative sustainability'|'For many countries, recycling performance remains poor. Last year, household recycling rates in England fell for the first time – but since 2012, there has been little progress, with rates hovering around the 44% mark . Most of Europe and the US aren’t faring much better. In 2014, the average recycling rate across the European Economic Area was 33%. Meanwhile, in the US only about a third of waste was recycled between 2010 and 2014, according to the latest data .“There are different reasons why recycling rates are not really increasing in a good way,” says TerraCycle’s general manager Laure Cucuron. “I think most people feel a bit disconnected from the benefits of recycling.”Research suggests British consumers are still confused about what household waste they can recycle, especially when it comes to packaging such as coffee cups and plastic film. An absence of social pressure could also be a contributory factor. For example, one US study found that less than one in three Americans felt recycling was strongly encouraged within their local community, while a fifth said most people in their community didn’t encourage it. Since 2001, TerraCycle has been working hard to change this. The company is built around the vision of its founder, Tom Szaky, who maintains that almost anything can be recycled – it’s just about finding a solution. TerraCycle targets materials for which no collection systems exist, or which are typically hard to recycle, and repurposes them – through reuse or upcycling, if possible – into new products such as shoes, backpacks and toys.Most of its schemes, which run across 24 countries, are funded by brands such as Right Guard , Febreze and Tassimo , who are keen to demonstrate product stewardship for the consumer goods they sell. By voluntarily engaging in what’s known as extended producer responsibility (EPR), these brands can effect change on a large scale, says Cucuron.“These brands interact with so many consumers, they are part of our daily lives,” she says. “They can act as a good transmitter for positive messaging and create better awareness around recycling.”The eco guide to disposing of litter - Lucy Siegle Read more Community-oriented EPR schemes can be particularly powerful. In 2016 AkzoNobel’s paint reuse scheme with Community RePaint redistributed more than 332,000 litres of paint to individuals, families and communities in need, providing jobs and training opportunities. Earlier this year, a baby clothing redistribution campaign by Mothercare and environmental charity Hubbub enabled parents to give 200,000 high-quality items to families that needed them most. “Our experience indicates that people are more likely to engage with recycling campaigns if there is social benefit, particularly if that benefit is local and tangible,” says Trewin Restorick, CEO of Hubbub.He believes that demonstrating how recycling can deliver social value will directly increase recycling rates. “This can be achieved if people see that the recycled products are benefiting the local community or if funding generated from recycling is reinvested locally,” he adds.Cucuron agrees, and points to TerraCycle’s work with chemical and consumer goods company Henkel as a case in point. Three of Henkel’s brands – Right Guard, Loctite (adhesives) and Fa (personal care products) – are working with TerraCycle to repurpose used packaging in enterprising ways, while engaging hearts and minds in the process.In the UK, over 2,500 used Right Guard deodorant and anti-perspirant aerosol cans have been collected and transformed into an outdoor gym in London’s Queen Elizabeth Park, the 2012 Olympics site.“The Right Guard programme is a concrete example to showcase what we can do with waste in terms of making it into something useful for the community,” says Cucuron. “The gym encourages social interaction between people, which is very positive.”We can do without plastic packaging and supermarkets - Letters Read more The gym claims to be the first in the UK made from recycled materials, but from the start the project was about more than just recycling , says Henkel’s UK beauty care marketing manager, Antonia Kerschbaumer: “We wanted the gym to provide a legacy for a deserving local community; it encourages activity and fitness, and can be accessed for free by everyone.”According to Henkel’s head of sustainability management, Uwe Bergmann, teaming up with TerraCycle offered Right Guard the opportunity to do something with aerosol packaging that wouldn’t have been possible via standard recycling routes.“The project was a good way to engage consumers. By collecting cans, they had the opportunity to increase their understanding of the life cycle of the products they use – backed up by a a strong social purpose with a specific benefit for the community,” he says.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Recycled shampoo and bodywash bottles are being turned into children’s slides in Austria. Photograph: Romrodphoto/Shutterstock / Romrodphoto In Austria, Fa has partnered with TerraCycle and a national pharmacy chain to collect 8,000 empty shampoo and bodywash plastic containers, which have been recycled and used to make a slide for a children’s playground, donated to and installed at an Austrian SOS Children’s Village .In the US, Loctite red adhesive bottles are returned by businesses to TerraCycle where they are thermally treated and turned into park benches, watering cans and paving stones. Historically, it has been difficult to recycle adhesive packaging, due to the residue that remains stuck to the inside of the bottles – but TerraCycle and Loctite worked together to develop a solution that involves cryogenically or thermally treating the bottle and residue to deactivate the adhesive. Bergmann says Loctite is the first adhesives brand to offer this type of recycling solution and is looking to extend this to other product categories, such as super glue.Although the Loctite project is less consumer-facing, it still offers a strong platform for employee engagement on recycling, says Cucuron. She adds that these types of schemes are about showing people they can make a difference with very quick, simple gestures. “It’s a way to make the world of recycling more interesting and appealing for people. Currently that world is quite dark,” she says. “The location of the bin is probably a space where you spend the least amount of time … it’s about changing that perception.”Topics innovative sustainability advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/innovative-sustainability/2017/nov/09/where-health-meets-eco-consciousness-gym-made-from-used-aerosol-cans'|'2017-11-09T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'0508c8b1ada27ef26984e16df2dce1ae9cc8ee68'|'Asia shares gain despite Wall Street weakness, dollar edges higher'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:41 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Global stocks, dollar climb as U.S. House OKs tax overhaul Caroline Valetkevitch 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose and the dollar edged higher against a basket of major currencies on Thursday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of a tax overhaul bill. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Earnings-related gains in Wal-Mart ( WMT.N ) and Cisco ( CSCO.O ) also boosted stocks, and the MSCI index of world stocks .MIWD PUS rose after five consecutive daily losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 chalked up their biggest percentage gains in over two months. The House approved a broad package of tax cuts affecting businesses, individuals and families, moving Republicans and President Donald Trump an important step closer to the biggest tax code overhaul in a generation. The legislative battle now shifts to the Senate, where the Republican majority is much slimmer. Republicans can lose no more than two Senate votes and at least two GOP senators have already spoken against the Senate version of the bill. “The tax plan isn’t a foregone conclusion but it passed the lowest hurdle in the House,” said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. “The even higher hurdle is to have something pass in the Senate. The reconciliation will be the real measure if it happens,” he said. The dollar index .DXY, which hit 93.813 on Wednesday, its lowest since Oct. 20, was also supported by a general improvement in risk appetite across financial markets. The index was last up 0.1 percent. The Dow .DJI rose 187.08 points, or 0.8 percent, to 23,458.36, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 21.02 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,585.64 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 87.08 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,793.29. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.65 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.80 percent. Oil prices extended their losing streak as rising U.S. production and inventories threatened to undermine a rally sparked by tightening world supply as a consequence of OPEC’s curbs on output. U.S. crude CLc1 declined 19 cents to settle at $55.14 a barrel while Brent crude LCOc1 fell 51 cents to settle at $61.36. U.S. Treasury two-year yields hit a nine-year high as risk appetite recovered globally and a batch of neutral to solid economic reports put the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates in 2018. The rise in two-year yields pushed the curve to its flattest in a decade. The yield curve has declined for four straight days. The gap between U.S. 2-year note and U.S. 10-year note yields contracted to 63.2 basis points US2US10=TWEBm the tightest since November 2007. The gap was last at 65.1 basis points. In late trading, the 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR rose to 2.355 percent, from 2.335 percent late on Wednesday. U.S. two-year yields US2YT=RR climbed to a nine-year peak of 1.716 percent, from 1.691 percent on Wednesday. Two-year yields were last at 1.712 percent. Additional reporting by Sinead Carew, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, David Gaffen and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-cautious-as-mood-turns-skittish-idUKKBN1DG02H'|'2017-11-16T09:25:00.000+02:00'
'691fe046014212f640682fd1d0ab189cbcda0083'|'Prudential''s nine-month new-business profit rises'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:45 AM / Updated an hour ago Prudential seeks larger slice of life in China as Asia drives profit Noor Zainab Hussain , Carolyn Cohn , Simon Jessop 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Prudential ( PRU.L ) expects its Asian business to double in size every five to seven years, the British life insurer said after reporting the region drove a 17 percent rise in new business profit during the first nine months of 2017. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past a Prudential sign outside offices in the City of London March 27, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor New business profit of 2.47 billion pounds was driven by higher sales and favourable economics, Prudential said ahead of an investor day on Thursday. Asia was “in some ways, ours to lose”, Prudential Chief Executive Mike Wells told investors after reporting new business profit in the region rose 15 percent to 1.61 billion pounds, helped by higher sales and rising interest rates. Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes flagged Prudential as a ‘buy’ in a note to clients following the results and its shares were up 0.8 percent at 1119 GMT, outperforming a flat index. Seven countries clocked double-digit growth in Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore and China, which said last week it would ease foreign ownership curbs in the financial sector, with the limit on insurance companies due to be raised to 51 percent after three years, and fully removed after five. Asia Chief Executive Nic Nicandrou told Prudential’s investors it would like to have a bigger share of its life insurance business in China, where it has a 50:50 joint venture with financial conglomerate CITIC Group. Market gains helped Eastspring, the firm’s Asian asset management business, deliver year-to-date external net inflows of 2.8 billion pounds, and Prudential said it was also looking to China to help drive future growth. Guy Strapp, chief executive of Eastspring Investments, told investors the unit was in the process of setting up a wholly-owned unit in China to manage non-retail funds, to add to a joint venture with CITIC that manages retail funds. Strapp said Eastspring was recruiting to establish an onshore investment team in China, the world’s second-biggest economy and which is expected to account for 49 percent of Asia’s total fund under management by 2020. The plans to expand in China come as Prudential and rivals such as AXA ( AXAF.PA ) back out of some markets, including Vietnam where the British firm is selling consumer finance to focus on insurance. NO DECISION ON LEGACY BOOK While analysts were hoping for an update on a mooted sale of Prudential’s legacy book of UK annuity business, Wells said no decision had yet been reached, but should the insurer sell some or all of it, excess capital would be returned to shareholders. Across the group, gross annual premium equivalent (APE) sales, which include regular premium sales plus one-tenth of single premium insurance sales, rose to 5.17 billion pounds, from 4.47 billion pounds a year earlier. In the UK, new business profit rose 31 percent to 234 million pounds in the insurer’s recently merged insurance and fund management unit, helped by strong demand to invest in the group’s asset management products. M&G Prudential delivered external asset management net inflows of 9.9 billion pounds in the first nine months, with total   rising to 336.5 billion pounds. In the United States, where Prudential operates through its Jackson division, new-business profit rose 28 percent on an actual exchange rate basis to 619 million pounds, driven by higher interest rates. (The story was not refiled to make clear the CEO quote was from investor day not statement) Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; editing by Gopakumar Warrier/Amrutha Gayathri/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-prudential-outlook/prudentials-nine-month-new-business-profit-rises-idUKKBN1DG0ES'|'2017-11-16T06:45:00.000+02:00'
'4bb2a4ecd043cd66ca34d7f5b0a3a3c96ad9eb16'|'Toutiao, a Chinese news app that’s making headlines - Dancing to its own tune'|'WHEN rumours swirled in August that Baidu, a Chinese online-search giant, was buying Toutiao, the scrappy news-aggregation platform reportedly quipped in response that reports had mistaken the buyer for the seller. The firm is proud with good reason. Toutiao’s growth since its launch in 2012 has been stellar: it says it has already drawn 700m users to the personalised newsfeeds on its smartphone app. Its valuation has shot up, to $22bn in its latest funding round (see chart).Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.  8   Toutiao’s parent company, Bytedance, is definitely a buyer now. This month it snapped up Musical.ly, a lip-syncing video platform that has captivated American teens, for a reported $1bn. It looks like a good match. Musical.ly, based in Shanghai, is the first Chinese firm to build an app that has been so admired in the West; Bytedance, which has developed sophisticated artificial-intelligence (AI) technology to customise Toutiao’s newsfeeds, can provide it with winning algorithms.Those algorithms are developed by an army of data scientists working from a vast former aviation museum in Beijing. Bytedance’s boffins showed off their prowess last year with a Toutiao bot that wrote hundreds of widely read short articles during the Rio Olympics. Bytedance’s code also powers four of the six most viewed short-video platforms in China.News was the perfect place for the startup to build its AI muscle. Toutiao sources its content from 4,000 partner sites, from China’s state-owned media titans to its buzziest blogs. Users’ newsfeeds are constantly updated based on what its machines have learnt about reading preferences, from things like taps, time spent on an article and location (where you spend the lunar new year is probably your hometown, for example). Toutiao claims to have a user figured out within 24 hours.Its 120m daily readers spend an average of 74 minutes a day on the app—more than almost any other big social platform in or outside China, including Facebook and even WeChat, whose devotees use it for an average of 66 minutes. Half of that time is spent watching videos, many self-published through 800,000 accounts run by everyone from Shanghai celebrities to Henan pig-raisers. One is Brother Kun, who posts videos and articles about plant-related things like caring for your bonsai. He has 360,000 followers and earns over 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a month from the platform under a deal in which Toutiao shares advertising revenue with content-creators (paid content is still in its infancy in China).Some scoff at Toutiao’s sometimes tawdry machine-generated mix; a Hong Kong-based analyst says the algorithm seems to cater to “the lowest common denominator”. Yet that its appeal goes far beyond China’s richest metropolises is one of the reasons it is thrilling investors, says Eric Zhang of General Atlantic, an American private-equity firm with a stake in Toutiao. Half of its users are in so-called third-tier cities and below, where most of China’s untapped smartphone potential lies.Some think its rise may be bad news for Baidu, one of the “BAT” tech trio, along with Alibaba and Tencent. Toutiao’s news app uses its algorithms to fine-tune advertisers’ posts to suit readers’ interests, satisfying both. Toutiao reportedly hopes to make as much as 50bn yuan from ads next year. That is only 15bn yuan shy of what Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, earned last year from advertisers.Toutiao’s ascent has already earned it the newest accolade in Chinese internet circles: a place in a fresh tech trinity, “TMD”. Yet among its fellow new kids—Meituan-Dianping, an online services platform for everything from food delivery to cinema bookings, and Didi Chuxing, a ride-hailing firm—it stands alone in having no financial backing from BAT. Most upstarts join forces with BAT to gain access to users, algorithms and deep pockets. Toutiao’s genius, says Bhavtosh Vajpayee of Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, was managing to build up the first two from a business that needed very little capital.That is likely to change as Bytedance seeks new users through other types of entertainment. Before it bagged Musical.ly, it bought stakes in Indian and Indonesian news aggregators, as well as Flipagram, an American rival to Instagram; it was reported this month to have tried to buy Reddit, an American social-discussion site valued at close to $2bn. Having come so far without BAT, investors think Toutiao has a good shot at continuing solo.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Dancing to their own tune" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731416-remarkable-success-smartphone-app-claims-figure-users-out-within-24?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-18T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'7ceea55ec4913cfc87d20b76303136aa25610add'|'Spain''s Gas Natural sells Colombian distribution unit to Brookfield - Reuters'|'MADRID, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Spain’s Gas Natural said late on Friday it had agreed to sell the 59.1 percent stake it owns in its Colombian retail distribution unit to infrastructures fund Brookfield Infrastructure for 482 million euros ($568 million.Brookfield will launch a takeover offer for the remaining 48.9 percent of the firm at the same price, valuing the company at 1 billion euros, including debt, or 7.3 times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.Gas Natural will book a one-off capital gain of 350 million euros on the sale, enabling it to reach its year-end target of a net profit of between 1.3 billion and 1.4 billion euros, it said in a notice to Spain’s stock market regulator.Gas Natural also said it remained committed to having a dialogue with the Colombian authorities that avoids the arbitration procedure for investment protection that it initiated after the Colombian regulator ordered the liquidation of its affiliate Electricaribe citing risks from lack of payment and quality of service.$1 = 0.8480 euros Reporting by Julien Toyer; Editing by Andrew Bolton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gas-natural-colombia/spains-gas-natural-sells-colombian-distribution-unit-to-brookfield-idINL8N1NO07K'|'2017-11-18T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'269afac189ee4c6a6c6b1c7c0da0064d915ab40a'|'Exclusive: Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection Monday to stay listed - sources'|'November 18, 2017 / 7:31 AM / in 14 hours Exclusive: Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection Monday to stay listed - sources Taro Fuse 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp will decide on Monday to raise some $5 billion from overseas investors, allowing the troubled conglomerate to remain a publicly traded company even if the sale of a key business is delayed, two people with direct knowledge of the process said. A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/Files Toshiba, reeling from the bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Co in the wake of an accounting scandal, needs to raise 750 billion yen ($6.7 billion) by the end of March to avoid being kicked off the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The laptops-to-nuclear-reactors company has agreed to sell its prized NAND semiconductor unit for $18 billion, and is planning to sell its TV business and reportedly looking to hive off its personal-computer unit to raise cash. But with the March deadline looming to avoid delisting and the chip sale threatened by antitrust concerns from China and elsewhere, Toshiba’s board will on Monday approve a plan to raise 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering shares to a group of overseas investors, the sources said. In addition, the sources told Reuters, Toshiba will agree to take upfront losses that will allow tax write-offs sufficient to boost its assets back above liabilities for the first time in two years - allowing the firm to remain listed. Toshiba declined to comment on the plan. To plug the huge hole in its balance sheet, Toshiba agreed in late September to sell its Toshiba Memory unit to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. But regulatory reviews globally threaten its ability to close the sale by the March end of the business year, which would put the company in negative net worth for a second year in a row, imperilling its TSE listing. Without any gains from the chip unit sale, Toshiba forecasts it would post negative net worth of 750 billion yen at the end of March. The company could use the proceeds from a share allotment to pay all at once the $5.8 billion in parent-company guarantees on Westinghouse’s much-delayed nuclear projects in the United States, one source said. The current plan is to guarantee payments to two U.S. power utilities over six years. Paying them off in full now would allow Toshiba to book losses that would reduce its tax burden enough to ensure it has the cash to remain listed, the source said. ($1 = 112.6100 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-financing/exclusive-toshiba-set-to-ok-5-billion-injection-monday-to-stay-listed-sources-idINKBN1DI07N'|'2017-11-18T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'8a091c1700f4c9bc9da4d5d3e650c81eea3c844a'|'Manchester United reports 17.3 percent rise in first-quarter revenue'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 12:27 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Rise in broadcasting income lifts Manchester United revenue Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - English soccer club Manchester United ( MANU.N ) posted a 17 percent rise in first-quarter revenue, helped by strong growth in broadcasting income as the team returned to the UEFA Champions League this season after a one-year absence. Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - October 28, 2017 General view before the match Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff Broadcasting revenue for the quarter was 38.1 million pounds ($50.3 million), a 31 percent increase from the previous year. United, whose stars include Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, are top of their group in the lucrative Champions League competition and second in the English Premier League, eight points behind cross-town rivals Manchester City. Controlled by the American Glazer family, United have won the English league a record 20 times and are seeking to regain the title they last won in 2013. United won England’s League Cup last season, as well as Europe’s second-tier Europa League competition, their first silverware under manager Jose Mourinho. The Europa League win secured their qualification for the Champions League after they missed out the previous season. The club’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the three months to Sept. 30 rose 17 percent to 36.6 million pounds ($48.3 million) from 31.2 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue for the period came in at 141 million pounds, compared with 120.2 million pounds a year ago. United, which posted a 33.3 percent rise in matchday revenue after playing two additional home games in the period, stuck to its full-year forecast for revenues of 575-585 million pounds and adjusted EBITDA of 175-185 million. ($1 = 0.7582 pounds) ($1 = 0.7576 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-manchester-utd-results/manchester-united-reports-17-3-percent-rise-in-first-quarter-revenue-idUKKBN1DG1O3'|'2017-11-16T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'c3362ab59c67eaefba33a6c0409538c931545464'|'Oracle backs tougher foreign investment bills aimed at China'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Software maker Oracle Corp ( ORCL.N ) is backing bipartisan legislation that aims to toughen foreign investment rules amid increasing concern over Chinese efforts to buy U.S. high-tech companies, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday.The sign outside Oracle''s offices in Broomfield, Colorado, U.S., March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The bills, which were introduced last week, would expand the power of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), allowing it to review smaller investments and add new national security factors, such as exposure of Americans’ Social Security numbers, for CFIUS to consider.CFIUS, an inter-agency panel, reviews proposed transactions for national security concerns. CFIUS can recommend that a transaction be prohibited, but only the president can issue an order to stop or suspend a deal.In a letter addressed to three senators who introduced the legislation, Oracle Senior Vice President Kenneth Glueck welcomed the identical bills in the Senate and House of Representatives.“We appreciate the language is narrowly tailored to focus on specific national security concerns, distinguishing between investments that are financially motivated and investments that are strategically motivated, such as improving foreign military capabilities or other strategic objectives,” Glueck wrote in the letter to Republican Senators John Cornyn and Richard Burr and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.The House bill was introduced by Republican Representative Robert Pittenger, also with bipartisan co-sponsors.International Business Machines Corp ( IBM.N ) opposed the bills, arguing that they would bog down an already busy panel with routine transactions.Cornyn has said he hoped for a Senate hearing on the bill before the end of the year and committee action soon after.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-oracle/oracle-backs-tougher-foreign-investment-bills-aimed-at-china-idUSKBN1DF368'|'2017-11-16T00:20:00.000+02:00'
'8541e42f71bb19d878d18723c7e28b2f0ce6f9ed'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 16'|'Nov 16 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times*Activist investor TCI Fund Management wants London Stock Exchange Plc board members to be personally liable for any payoff handed to Chief Executive Xavier Rolet unless it is disclosed and approved by shareholders. bit.ly/2hAYwPH*In a letter to Greg Clark, the energy secretary, a group of trade associations, unions and energy storage companies asked the UK government to look at the risk of a supply crunch leading to a price rise because of Britain''s dependence on imported gas and lack of storage capacity. bit.ly/2hCHn83The Guardian* Britain''s trade unions have been warned they face increasing irrelevance without radical reform to attract new members in fast-growing sectors with large numbers of casual employees, such as the hospitality industry, according to a report from thinktank the Fabian Society and the Community union. bit.ly/2jva5bK* Amazon is understood to have snapped up the UK TV rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, in a move likely to cause further speculation that it is a potential competitor in the upcoming Premier League rights auction. bit.ly/2jvf7ozThe Telegraph* BBC is manoeuvring towards a 500 million pounds ($658.55 million) bid for full control of UKTV, the broadcaster behind the Dave and Gold channels, in what would be a major expansion into the advertising and pay-TV markets. bit.ly/2jv77nC*Tensions between Asatsu-DK Inc and its biggest shareholder WPP Plc escalated on Tuesday night, after the UK-listed advertising company said it was prepared to increase its shareholding in Asatsu-DK instead of selling down its stake. bit.ly/2jw3EoJSky News* The number of people in work has fallen by the most in more than two years while wage growth has slipped further behind the cost of living, official figures show. Employment fell by 14,000 to just over 32 million in the three months to September, according to the Office for National Statistics. bit.ly/2jw3JZL* Scotland is set to become the first country in the world to impose a minimum price for alcohol in a bid to improve public health. bit.ly/2jshLLPThe Independent* Brexit is likely to damage the UK''s productivity and could well force a more rapid rise in interest rates, Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Wednesday. ind.pn/2jvgfbN*Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc worries that border checks after Britain leaves the European Union will disrupt its global supply chain and is looking at measures to offset this, a member of its executive leadership said on Wednesday. ind.pn/2jvY8SV ($1 = 0.7592 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-16-idUSL3N1NM12T'|'2017-11-16T03:29:00.000+02:00'
'65b323e33b6ffc36cae4877f19c6c78ef9e9d113'|'Australia jobless rate hits near four-year low, wages still lag'|' 08 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Australia jobless rate hits near four-year low, wages still lag Wayne Cole 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian employment rose for a 13th straight month in October, the longest stretch of gains since the early 1990s, while the jobless rate dipped to its lowest since early 2013. A worker talks on his phone as he pushes a trolley loaded with goods across a main road in a retail shopping area in central Sydney, Australia, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore Thursday’s figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed 3,700 net new jobs were eked out in October. That was short of forecasts of a 17,500 rise, but September was revised up to a solid increase of 26,600. The detail was also upbeat with full-time jobs climbing 24,300, bringing gains for the year to a blistering 298,000. The jobless rate dipped one tenth of a percentage point to 5.4 percent, under forecasts and the lowest since February 2013. Yet while firms might be scooping up workers they are not so keen to pay them more, leaving wage growth near record lows and putting an unwelcome cap on consumer spending and inflation. “Despite strong jobs growth, there is still plenty of slack in the labour market,” said CBA senior economist John Peters. “This slack will need to be substantially reduced before wage pressures crank up,” he added. “In this environment, talk of rate hikes over the next year is unrealistic.” That outlook meant the jobs data had only a limited impact on financial markets, with the local dollar up 0.1 percent at $0.7594 AUD=D4 . Interest rate futures <0#YIB:> are not fully priced for a hike in the 1.5 percent cash rate until early 2019. The scrooge-like pace of wage rises is a major reason the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently forecast core inflation would not reach the floor of its 2 to 3 percent target band until early 2019, a year later than previously hoped. Figures out on Wednesday showed annual wage growth edged up to 2.0 percent in the third quarter, but missed forecasts of 2.2 percent and were only a sliver above inflation at 1.8 percent. And that tiny pick-up owed much to a relatively generous 3.3 percent hike in the minimum wage which was forced on reluctant employers by the government regulator. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-economy-employment/australia-jobless-rate-hits-near-four-year-low-wages-still-lag-idUKKBN1DG04D'|'2017-11-16T03:07:00.000+02:00'
'2fb6dc4af63975eef367df0b3c13a3e260d71b48'|'BRIEF-Casa Systems Inc files for IPO of up to $150 mln'|'Nov 17 (Reuters) -* Casa Systems Inc files for IPO of up to $150 million – SEC filing* Casa Systems Inc says it intends to apply to have its common stock listed on Nasdaq global market under the symbol “CASA”* Casa Systems Inc says Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Raymond James are among underwriters to IPO* Casa Systems Inc - Proposed IPO size is an estimate solely for calculating sec registration fee Source text: ( bit.ly/2jzwPHD ) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-casa-systems-inc-files-for-ipo-of/brief-casa-systems-inc-files-for-ipo-of-up-to-150-mln-idINEMN2UJDU4'|'2017-11-17T19:31:00.000+02:00'
'a83a37d75b469ba4ceb6d3cc1bceb122c21a4f6a'|'Business jets risk U.S. pilot shortage on competition from airlines'|'November 18, 2017 / 12:26 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Business jets risk U.S. pilot shortage on competition from airlines Allison Lampert 5 Min Read MONTREAL (Reuters) - Business jet operators, already offering double digit raises to attract pilots, could face a labour shortfall in North America as they compete with U.S. airlines for talent, executives and analysts said. FILE PHOTO: Pilots talk as they look at the tail of an American Airlines aircraft at Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport February 14, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Stone Competition is intensifying from airlines, which generally offer higher salaries and better benefits and are taking delivery of new aircraft at a fast pace, U.S.-based aviation consultant Rolland Vincent said. Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) left the Dubai Air Show this week with around 700 provisional orders for narrowbody commercial jets, potentially adding to already hefty backlogs. It is expected that the world’s rapidly growing commercial aviation industry will need an additional 255,000 pilots by 2027, according to training specialist CAE Inc ( CAE.TO ). U.S. legacy carriers are recruiting employees to fly new aircraft and replace retiring staff, with American Airlines ( AAL.O ) expected to hire 900 mainline pilots in 2018, up from just over 500 in 2017, said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots’ Association (APA), which represents American Airlines pilots. “It’s really a buyers’ market and the buyer is the pilot now,” Tajer said in a telephone interview on Friday. “If you don’t pay pilots the market rate you’re going to lose them.” By contrast, in Europe corporate jet operators did not lose many pilots this year to commercial aviation because carriers had an adequate supply of pilots after Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) and Britain’s Monarch Airlines ceased operations, said Adam Twidell, chief executive of PrivateFly, a global private jet charter broker. According to the 2017 pilot salary survey from the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), a captain flying a midsized corporate plane like the Bombardier ( BBDb.TO ) Challenger 350 made about $130,000 on average. In 2017, an American Airlines captain flying the B737 or A320 narrowbody earned just over $268,000, according to an APA compensation document. Don Haloburdo, vice president and general manager of flight services for business aircraft management and charter company Jet Aviation, a division of General Dynamics Corp ( GD.N ), said corporate pilots’ salaries rose 20 percent this year on an annual basis. Haloburdo expects the higher salaries to slightly increase operating costs for business jet companies, but that could be absorbed. He does not think they would hurt sales since owners’ largest expense, fuel, is relatively low. Although business jet sales are flat, Haloburdo expects demand for corporate pilots and maintenance technicians to pick up after 2018 as airlines boost recruiting efforts and popular new planes hit the market from Bombardier and Gulfstream, also a division of General Dynamics. “When Bombardier starts delivering the Global 7000 in significant numbers, Gulfstream starts delivering their G500 and G600 in significant numbers, that’s where our industry is going to have a very significant challenge finding qualified crew members,” he said. Most buyers of the Global 7000, which lists for about $73 million, already own corporate jets and have their own pilot crews, Bombardier Business Aircraft President David Coleal said in an interview. But the new jets could attract less well-paid corporate pilots who work on contract and fly smaller aircraft. It can already be difficult for companies without full time crews to schedule last-minute flights, said Warren Peck, president of Phoenix Rising Aviation, an Oklahoma-based maintenance and repair operation specializing in Dassault Aviation SA ( AVMD.PA ) Falcoln jets. A former U.S. military pilot, Peck offers to fly at a discounted rate for his maintenance customers who cannot find a pilot. “A lot of my customers, operators don’t have full-time, in-house pilots,” he said. “For them, it’s very helpful.” Reporting By Allison Lampert'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aviation-pilots-jets/business-jets-risk-u-s-pilot-shortage-on-competition-from-airlines-idUKKBN1DI00F'|'2017-11-18T02:25:00.000+02:00'
'315703c15015d8f41157418b8a2f1bea2a9fe140'|'REFILE-Loblaw''s third-quarter profit more than doubles'|' 45 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago REFILE-Loblaw''s third-quarter profit more than doubles Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Adds dropped word “than” in headline) Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canadian grocery and pharmacy chain Loblaw Cos Ltd on Wednesday said its quarterly profit more than doubled, partly helped by a post-tax gain of C$432 million ($339 million). Net profit attributable to shareholders rose to C$886 million, or C$2.24 per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 7, from C$422 million, or C$1.03 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to C$14.19 billion from C$14.14 billion. $1 = 1.2741 Canadian dollars Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/loblaw-results/loblaws-third-quarter-profit-more-doubles-idUSL3N1NL45E'|'2017-11-15T13:51:00.000+02:00'
'3eb6b5539ac94efe72d02f9e006c4fb964d1a260'|'CEE MARKETS-FX, stocks rebound as Asia stocks rise and euro retreats'|'* Profit-taking after euro rally mostly helps CEE currencies * Budapest leads stock rebound on MOL, upgraded by S&P * Leu remains under pressure from politics, overheating fears * Croatia starts marketing 2030-expiry euro bonds By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Central European currencies and equities mostly firmed on Thursday on relief that the past week''s global stocks sell-off had not continued in Asia overnight, indicating less risk aversion. Regional currencies were also buoyed by profit-taking on euro buying positions built after Tuesday''s upbeat economic output data boosted the euro. The crown and the zloty firmed 0.3 percent against the euro by 0929 GMT. The forint gained 0.1 percent. Equities mostly rebounded after Wednesday''s plunge. Budapest''s index led, rising 1.1 percent, driven by 2.5 percent rise in oil group MOL after Standard & Poor''s upgraded the company''s debt rating to ''BBB-'' from ''BB+''. Warsaw''s bluechip index rebounded from Wednesday''s three-month lows. "This strengthening is simply because the recent sell-off did not continue in Asia," one Budapest-based currency dealer said. "Also the euro had strengthened a lot, and there is a correction now. Markets are calming down... until the next U.S. economic figures." Czech central bank (CNB) Governor Jiri Rusnok was Quote: d on Thursday as saying that the economy was growing faster than potential. The comments underpinned expectations for further CNB rate increases, after two hikes since August. The region''s main economies released robust third-quarter growth figures on Tuesday, with Czech output rising by 5 percent in annual terms. The surge overshadowed concerns over politics in some Central European countries. The European Commission on Wednesday voiced fresh concerns over Poland''s plans to reform its courts. Judicial reform, which critics say threaten the independence of courts, is also a worry in Romania. Such concerns, coupled with endless corruption allegations against ruling party officials and worries the economy may be overheating after it grew by 8.8 percent in the third quarter, have weighed on the leu currency and Romanian government bonds. The leu eased a shade to 4.6336 against the euro, near record lows set after the central bank said last week that it would loosen its grip on the currency. Romanian government bonds took a pause after a surge in yields in the past week to their highest levels since 2014, with shorter maturities rising more. The leu could stay between 4.6 and 4.7 in the next weeks, Nordea analyst Natalia Kornela Setlak said in a note. "However, we do not expect a sharp depreciation of the RON, as the strong economic fundamentals should support the currency to strengthen slightly in the medium-term towards the old, well-known range 4.50-4.60 EUR/RON." The kuna traded slightly off nine-month highs against the euro. Croatia opened books on a 2030-expiry benchmark euro bond on Thursday. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1029 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.560 25.632 +0.28 5.66% 0 0 % Hungary 312.00 312.36 +0.12 -1.02% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2340 4.2469 +0.30 4.01% % Romanian leu 4.6336 4.6318 -0.04% -2.13% Croatian 7.5610 7.5550 -0.08% -0.08% kuna Serbian 118.41 118.48 +0.06 4.17% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1060.7 1052.8 +0.75 +15.1 9 8 % 0% Budapest 39031. 38615. +1.08 +21.9 24 11 % 6% Warsaw 2430.7 2418.9 +0.49 +24.7 1 6 % 8% Bucharest 7704.3 7731.5 -0.35% +8.74 5 4 % Ljubljana 785.99 785.12 +0.11 +9.53 % % Zagreb 1848.4 1847.7 +0.04 -7.34% 1 1 % Belgrade 733.58 733.48 +0.01 +2.26 % % Sofia 668.72 669.04 -0.05% +14.0 3% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.497 0.162 +124b +16bp ps s 5-year 0.956 0.144 +129b +14bp ps s 10-year 1.733 -0.008 +134b -2bps ps Poland 2-year 1.593 -0.008 +234b -1bps ps 5-year 2.625 0.02 +296b +2bps ps 10-year 3.454 0.016 +307b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.98 1.14 1.26 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.09 0.12 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.7625 1.835 1.935 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-fx-stocks-rebound-as-asia-stocks-rise-and-euro-retreats-idINL8N1NM2PR'|'2017-11-16T07:23:00.000+02:00'
'e4d8938bf0154e38c7e96b78c8417dd665eafb60'|'German gas supplier VNG in talks to sell Norwegian energy business: sources'|'LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German gas supplier VNG VNG.UL is in talks to sell a majority stake in its Norwegian Norge oil and gas business, which could fetch up to $500 million, three banking sources said.It becomes the latest European utility company looking to exit offshore assets on the Norwegian continental shelf, which require heavy investment to develop.VNG has hired U.S. investment bank Citi to sell a 51 percent stake in its Norwegian and Danish portfolio. That would include VNG’s interest in the Fenja development – the largest recent North Sea oil discovery, whose estimated total development cost has been put at $1.4 billion, the sources said.VNG is majority-owned by German utility EnBW ( EBKG.DE ), which has a 74.2 percent stake.Companies interested in VNG Norge include oil firm Point Resources, which is majority owned by HitecVision and has just bought ExxonMobil’s ( XOM.N ) fields off Norway; oil and gas company DEA, controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman; and some medium-sized UK exploration and production (E&P) companies, the sources said.VNG Norge and DEA did not respond to a request for comment. Citi declined to comment.“Point Resources has recently finalized a major program for transferring ownership and operatorship of the previous ExxonMobil-operated assets offshore Norway,” Point Resources said in an emailed statement.“We will make significant investments to increase oil recovery and in future development projects, while also considering inorganic investments,” it added.Other European utility companies that have divested offshore Norwegian assets recently include France’s Engie ( ENGIE.PA ), which sold its British and Norwegian North Sea fields, and British utility Centrica ( CNA.L ), which combined its North Sea business with Bayerngas Norge, an unlisted arm of German Stadwerke Muenchen and Bayerngas.Reporting by Ron Bousso, Clara Denina and Arno Schuetze; Additional reporting by Nerijius Adomaitis; Editing by Susan Fenton and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-vng-norge-sale/german-gas-supplier-vng-in-talks-to-sell-norwegian-energy-business-sources-idINKBN1DH0YT'|'2017-11-17T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'c793f5b9629fc64d4a5753446d4a63e22a0e369e'|'Comcast approached Twenty-First Century Fox to buy some assets - source'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:07 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Comcast, Verizon approached Twenty-First Century Fox to buy some assets - sources Anjali Athavaley 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc have both approached Twenty-First Century Fox Inc to express interest in buying Fox assets that were the subject of recent talks between Fox and Walt Disney Co, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. on November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo News of the approaches came the same day the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to end a 42-year-old restriction on ownership of multiple TV stations in a major market, removing a major roadblock to media company mergers. It is unclear whether Fox’s broadcast assets are part of any of the conversations. Fox shares jumped nearly 8 percent in after-hours trading. Shares of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp also rose more than 2 percent, a sign investors may see then as potential targets. Disney was in talks to buy Fox’s movie and TV production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic and international assets such as the Star network in India and European pay TV provider Sky Plc , CNBC reported last week. The assets would give Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States which bought NBCUniversal in 2011, an international distribution footprint. For Verizon, the U.S. No. 1 wireless carrier, it would provide movies and TV shows to stream to its mobile subscribers. Comcast and Verizon declined comment. Fox did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru and Anjali Athavaley in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-comcast/comcast-approaches-twenty-first-century-fox-for-buying-some-assets-idUKKBN1DG356'|'2017-11-17T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'bf25447a5f64b54fbde17aed29339a2a9ff3aaf8'|'UPDATE 1-S&P, MSCI indexes to combine telecom, media stocks into one sector'|'(Adds Quote: s from investor, index companies; byline)By Trevor Hunnicutt and Rodrigo CamposNov 15 (Reuters) - A stock market index revamp could put the FANG stocks under one roof.Shares of companies specializing in telecommunications, media and entertainment will be combined into a single sector in a major overhaul of U.S. indexes, including the benchmark S&P 500, S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc said on Wednesday.The move reflects “an evolution in the way we communicate and access entertainment content and other information,” and the dramatic integration of these industries through a wave of mergers and acquisitions, the index operators said in a joint statement.The new sector schematic will take effect in late September 2018, they said, adding the names of some large companies whose stocks will be impacted by the change will be announced in January.The index providers did not disclose which companies will be moved to the new Communication Services index.But a list of candidates could include the so-called FANG stocks - Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc - along with traditional telecom or media players, such as AT&T Inc and Walt Disney Co.Each of those stocks meets some of the criteria laid out by S&P and MSCI on Wednesday.The move marks the second major change in just over a year in how stocks are grouped. The index operators in 2016 split real estate investment trusts out from the financial services sector.“The technology sector is the largest sector of the market, so you’re scaling that back. This will be the hot sector of the market then - if it’s the type of changes we’re talking about,” said Michael O‘Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.“The market sees these names (like Facebook and Google) as leadership. If you start consolidating the majority of them into one sector, it will get a lot more attention.”Indexes including the S&P 500 are a guide for trillions of dollars of capital worldwide, including index-tracking, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that target specific sectors.“This is a huge deal,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA. “Where a stock ends up and who it’s compared to can impact where money goes within capital markets.” (Reporting by Dan Burns, Trevor Hunnicutt, Rodrigo Campos and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; editing by Sandra Maler, Tom Brown and G Crosse) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-sectors/update-1-sp-msci-indexes-to-combine-telecom-media-stocks-into-one-sector-idUSL1N1NL2AK'|'2017-11-16T01:33:00.000+02:00'
'9721f93af2293b1bcfa3e66c7855b0858b5449a0'|'U.S. to become oil and gas world leader in long term - IEA'|' 52 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago U.S. to become oil and gas world leader in long term: IEA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Bonn (Reuters) - The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol said on Thursday the United States would - in the long term - become the “undisputed leader of oil and gas production worldwide”. A maze of crude oil pipes and valves is pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, U.S. June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Richard Carson Speaking at the U.N. climate conference in Bonn, Germany, he said the agency expected oil markets to rebalance next year if oil demand remained “more or less” as robust as it is today and if OPEC and non-OPEC continued with their oil production cuts. Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oil-iea-birol/u-s-to-become-oil-and-gas-world-leader-in-long-term-iea-idUKKBN1DG1XP'|'2017-11-16T15:43:00.000+02:00'
'0c334838bd1a271e8e6fdfba2e771f360c5e0bbe'|'Hudson''s Bay says no merit in appeal against Rhone investment'|'Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canadian department store operator Hudson’s Bay Co said it saw no merit in activist fund Land and Buildings’ recent appeal against the Toronto Stock Exchange’s conditional approval for a $500 million investment from Rhone Capital.Hudson’s Bay said it had written consent for the equity investment from shareholders representing well over 50 percent of its outstanding common shares.Land and Buildings had filed the appeal with the Ontario Securities Commission, Hudson’s Bay said on Wednesday.Earlier this month, Land and Buildings had urged the company to call for a non-insider vote on Rhone Capital’s investment which would include a share issuance. (Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hudsons-bay-land-and-buildings/hudsons-bay-says-no-merit-in-appeal-against-rhone-investment-idINL3N1NL609'|'2017-11-15T19:58:00.000+02:00'
'cd1dea8f60baa2841e94c9262b253be36cfd1887'|'Volkswagen taps Brazil growth with new model to challenge Fiat, GM'|'November 16, 2017 / 6:02 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Volkswagen taps Brazil growth with new model to challenge Fiat, GM Andreas Cremer 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) launched its new Virtus model on Thursday to tap Brazil’s highest-volume segment as part of a recovery plan that analysts said will help it regain ground on rivals General Motors and Fiat in South America’s largest car market. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The German carmaker said the launch of the new model in Sao Paulo was part of a plan to spend about 1.8 billion euros ($2.12 billion) to roll out 20 new models in Brazil by 2020. Returning to profit in markets such as Brazil, the United States and Russia is vital for Volkswagen as it pushes to revive the core VW brand that accounted for more than half the group’s 7.8 million auto sales in the first nine months but only 19 percent of underlying profit. The world’s biggest automaker last week announced 560 million euros of investment in Argentina to build the first sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in Brazil’s neighbor. It hopes the launch of 20 new models in South America by 2020 will restore it to profitability in the region. “We will do everything possible in coming years to win back the leading position of VW” in Brazil, VW brand sales chief Juergen Stackmann said. VW, which slashed about 7,000 jobs in South America in past years and shrunk its dealer network, has said it wants to reduce the average age of the brand’s Brazilian lineup to less than five years by 2020 from eight years in 2015. Brazil was one of the world’s five biggest auto markets until the 2014-16 downturn and remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ), GM ( GM.N ), VW and Ford ( F.N ). Analysts said VW had been slow in the past few years to refresh models in Brazil and set slightly higher prices than mainstream peers which overhauled lineups in the passenger-car heavy Brazilian market more quickly. “It’s not unrealistic to say that VW had not been refreshing things very quickly,” said IHS Markit analyst Stephanie Brinley. Price premiums “are difficult to translate into a (Brazilian) market that doesn’t have capacity for a higher price at all.” To cut costs and be able to lower prices, VW fully developed the Virtus in Brazil, giving proof of its post-dieselgate strategy to cede more power from its Wolfsburg headquarters to regions and brands. VW admitted in September 2015 that it had used illegal software to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, sparking the biggest business crisis in its 80-year history and saddling it with a $30 billion bill. The new four-door Virtus, to be built at Anchieta near Sao Paulo, is one of the first cars to be spawned from a new localised version of the MQB modular platform that underpins most of the VW group’s small and medium front-wheel-drive models. The carmaker said it spent 660 million euros modernizing the 60-year-old factory, VW’s first plant outside Germany, where the Virtus and Polo will be assembled. Market research firm IHS expects VW’s new models to help narrow the sales gap with market leaders Chevrolet and Fiat. VW brand sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Brazil may jump 44 percent to 413,776 units by 2023 from an estimated 286,745 next year, IHS said. By comparison, IHS expects sales of Fiat to grow only 26 percent to 475,686 cars while it sees sales of Chevrolet rising 18 percent to 444,744 models. “Brazil may not be the highest-margin market but it’s a huge market with vast potential for VW,” said NordLB analyst Frank Schwope who has a “Buy” rating on the stock. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-brazil-investment/vw-to-spend-1-8-billion-euros-on-expanding-brazil-lineup-idUSKBN1DG2M1'|'2017-11-16T20:20:00.000+02:00'
'7ebbfe15b1022357b6d49ddd1b173fce16d0b151'|'Supporters of a rules-based Fed lament an opportunity missed'|'Reuters TV United States November 16, 2017 / 9:13 PM / a few seconds ago Supporters of a rules-based Fed lament an opportunity missed Howard Schneider 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Cato Institute’s annual monetary policy conference on Thursday could have been a celebration of President Donald Trump making good on his 2016 campaign promise to shake the pillars of official Washington, including the Federal Reserve. Flags fly over the Federal Reserve Headquarters on a windy day in Washington, U.S., May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Instead, the event at the libertarian think tank became a eulogy of sorts for the idea that Republican control of the White House and Congress would significantly change how the U.S. central bank operates, and an acknowledgement that the political center is holding firm in some key ways. Given a chance to reshape the central bank with a new Fed chief, Trump this month picked centrist lawyer Jerome Powell, a sitting Fed governor who is expected to continue current monetary policies, and with that the moment for revolution had passed. “It is a bit demoralizing to realize that after delivering the same message for decades - that the world needs a rules-based monetary system - we have made virtually no progress,” Trump economic adviser Judy Shelton said to the crowd gathered in the Cato Institute’s F.A. Hayek auditorium in Washington. “I have not been able to make the case ... I have not convinced lawmakers on the Hill, let alone a sitting president, that it is time for the U.S. to initiate reform.” Among the presenters at the conference, a gathering flavored with due deference to monetarist theoretician Milton Friedman and ample criticism of institutions like the Fed, were Stanford University economist John Taylor and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh. Both men were finalists on Trump’s short list to replace current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Conservatives and libertarians who feel it is dangerous to give central bankers too much leeway in deciding monetary policy had backed the prospect of a Fed led by Taylor, who is best known for the interest rate-setting “Taylor Rule.” There was also some support for Warsh, who has argued that the U.S. central bank’s approach since the 2007-2009 recession and financial crisis has potentially fed financial instability, and that the Fed’s thinking has become intellectually narrow. STATUS QUO Trump’s choice of Powell, a Republican centrist who has worked at Yellen’s side for the last five years, signaled that the Fed’s basic approach of slowly raising rates and trying to avoiding any risky shifts in policy would remain intact. Neither Taylor nor Warsh commented on Trump’s decision. A Powell-led Fed “is Yellen II, a continuation of the same, which is troubling to me,” said David Beckworth, a research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center in Arlington, Virginia. He advocates monetary policy that targets the level of gross domestic product as an alternative to the current strict inflation target, but agreed that type of shift “would need a leader to really cast a vision ... If I had to bet on anything it would be status quo going forward.” Status quo is not what Cato’s monetary policy conference is about. The talk on Thursday was of the asset bubbles the Fed may be feeding, the currency manipulation central banks are seen to be engineering in the name of fighting the last crisis, and the intrusions on liberty feared when unelected central bankers start buying bonds and changing asset prices. The strong U.S. labor market, marked by a 4.1 percent jobless rate that many economists view as close to full employment, didn’t get as much mention. Shelton, an advocate of a gold standard or some rule that fixes relative currency values, said she was surprised Taylor had been passed over for the Fed job, adding that White House officials had been impressed by him during the search. But she also said Powell would do a good job. And she has not given up on more sweeping change, eventually, within the Fed and beyond. “I don’t expect to see invitations going out next week for a new Bretton Woods conference at Mar-a-Lago,” she said, referring to the conference that established post-World War II monetary arrangements and institutions like the International Monetary Fund. “I do think we will see more language out of the Treasury emphasizing the importance of stable exchange rates,” she said. “People are willing to talk about this in a way they have not been before.” Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-rules/supporters-of-a-rules-based-fed-lament-an-opportunity-missed-idUKKBN1DG31G'|'2017-11-16T23:03:00.000+02:00'
'da1344af3fbbc28b4460bd16fd6fec1056042d41'|'Viacom reports 2.9 percent rise in revenue'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Viacom reports 2.9 percent rise in revenue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Viacom Inc ( VIAB.O ), the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount, reported a 2.9 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, as a rise in theatrical revenue offset declines in U.S. affiliate revenue. FILE PHOTO: Security personnel stand outside the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Net profit attributable to Viacom rose to $674 million (£511 million), or $1.67 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept.30 from $254 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose to $3.32 billion from $3.23 billion. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-viacom-results/viacom-reports-2-9-percent-rise-in-revenue-idUKKBN1DG1MU'|'2017-11-16T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'd2af3e092316e804a8f748c3cd33d405252290b7'|'UPDATE 5-Moody''s gives Modi a boost by raising India''s sovereign bond rating'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:07 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Moody''s gives Modi a boost by raising India''s sovereign rating Suvashree Choudhury , Parikshit Mishra 6 Min Read MUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Moody’s Investors Service upgraded India’s sovereign credit rating for the first time in nearly 14 years on Friday, saying continued progress on economic and institutional reforms would boost the country’s growth potential. FILE PHOTO: India''s Prime Minister Narendra Modi participates in the opening session of the 15th ASEAN-India Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017 Reuters/Ezra Acayan/Pool The agency said it was lifting India’s rating to Baa2 from Baa3 and changed its rating outlook to stable from positive as risks to India’s credit profile were broadly balanced. The upgrade, Moody’s first of India since January 2004, moves the rating to the second-lowest investment grade, one notch higher than Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, which have kept India just above “junk” status for a decade and more. The decision by Moody’s is a plaudit for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and the reforms it has pushed through, and comes just weeks after the World Bank moved India up 30 places in its annual ease of doing business rankings. Indian stocks, bonds and the rupee rallied. “It seems like Santa Claus has already opened his bag of goodies,” said Lakshmi Iyer, head of fixed income at Kotak Mutual Fund. “The (ratings) move is overall positive for bonds which were caught in a negative spiral. This is a structural positive which would lead to easing in yields across tenors.” India had lobbied Moody’s hard for an upgrade last year, but failed. The agency cited doubts about the country’s debt levels and fragile banks, and declined to budge despite government criticism of its rating methodology. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters the upgrade was a “belated recognition” of the steps the government has taken to fix India’s $2 trillion economy. Modi’s top colleagues portrayed it as a further victory for the prime minister after U.S.-based research agency Pew released a survey this week that showed nearly nine out of 10 Indians held a favorable opinion of him. OTHER UPGRADES DOUBTED But some economists said the other big rating agencies were unlikely to follow suit soon. Radhika Rao, an economist at DBS, said implementation of reforms, a subdued rural sector and weak investment had slowed growth while rising oil prices have raised risks to the economy. “We don’t think the other two global rating agencies, Fitch and S&P, will follow up in a hurry, based on their cautious rhetoric,” she said, noting their concerns on “weak” state and central government finances. Jaitley said the government will stick to the path of fiscal consolidation. It is targeting a fiscal deficit of 3.2 percent of gross domestic product for the year ending in March 2018, falling to 3 percent in 2018/19. “We will maintain the fiscal discipline,” he said, expressing confidence that existing policies will let India “glide” to a stronger financial position. Moody’s separately raised the ratings of top Indian lender State Bank of India ( SBI.NS ) and HDFC Bank ( HDBK.NS ) as well as state-run energy firms NTPC ( NTPC.NS ), NHPC ( NHPC.NS ) and GAIL India Limited ( GAIL.NS ) and the National Highways Authority of India, potentially lowering their borrowing costs. MARKETS SURGE India''s benchmark 10-year bond yield IN067927G=CC fell to as low as 6.94 percent before ending at 7.05 percent while the rupee INR=D2 ended at 65.02 per dollar, stronger from 65.3250 at Thursday''s close. The main Mumbai stock index .NSEI closed 0.67 percent higher. But debt traders said heavy bond supply and a hawkish inflation outlook meant the rally was unlikely to last beyond a few days. “Who has the guts to continue buying in this market?” said a bond trader at a private bank. [L1N1NN06A] Moody’s said the recently introduced goods and services tax (GST), a landmark reform that turned India’s 29 states into a single customs union for the first time, would boost productivity by removing barriers to inter-state trade. “The upgrade takes into account the potential impact of the recent good and services tax reform to support growth over time,” Marie Diron, associate managing director, sovereign risk group at Moody’s Investors Service, told Reuters. She said Moody’s had also accounted for a higher general government deficit, adding: “We think there is a commitment to fiscal consolidation even if there are some slippages in the short-term.” But some market participants questioned the timing of the upgrade, with one foreign bank dealing describing it as “a little dicey given ... concerns about the government’s fiscal discipline.” Moody’s said it expects India’s real GDP growth to moderate to 6.7 percent in the fiscal year ending in March 2018 from 7.1 percent a year earlier. The agency also raised India’s local currency senior unsecured debt rating to Baa2 from Baa3 and its short-term local currency rating to P-2 from P-3. Moody’s said that while a number of key reforms remain at an early stage, it believes those already implemented will advance the government’s objective of improving the business climate, enhancing productivity and stimulating investment. “Longer term, India’s growth potential is significantly higher than most other Baa-rated sovereigns,” said Moody‘s. Additional reporting by Akshay Lodaya in BENGALURU, Abhirup Roy, Swati Bhat and Euan Rocha in MUMBAI and Manoj Kumar, Aditya Kalra and Neha Dasgupta in NEW DELHI; Writing by Euan Rocha and Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-ratings-moody-s/moodys-gives-modi-a-boost-by-raising-indias-sovereign-bond-rating-idUSKBN1DH0O8'|'2017-11-17T08:54:00.000+02:00'
'ffb059f8ea01a62ae3aa870755440ac9762e9756'|'Italy''s Carige struggling with cash call as ECB deadline looms'|'November 16, 2017 / 7:51 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Italy''s Carige struggling with cash call as ECB deadline looms Stephen Jewkes , Valentina Za 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) said on Thursday it had failed to secure underwriters for a 560 million euro (499.83 million pounds) share issue, which is a key European Central Bank demand for the bank to safeguard its future. The Carige bank logo is seen in Rome, Italy, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini - D1AESZBGKJAA Carige’s difficulty in finding backing for its cash call is a reminder of persistent problems in Italian banking following a deep recession, despite repeated state bailouts of troubled lenders over the past year. Carige’s troubles hit shares in some other Italian banks. Rival Creval ( CRGI.MI ), which has just announced plans to raise 700 million euros - or 4.4 times its market value - via a share issue, closed down 19 percent. Genoa-based Carige said it was now assessing whether its restructuring plan could proceed and if the cash call could be delayed. Several sources said the bank was in contact with European regulators over its next steps. An extraordinary board meeting on Thursday morning was adjourned to the evening and a source close to the matter said Carige CEO Paolo Fiorentino was attempting to widen the underwriting consortium. Top shareholder Malacalza Investimenti said it had sought regulatory approval to raise its stake to 28 percent from 17.6 percent and it would support Carige, despite recent misunderstandings with banks in the consortium. Carige has warned that its business could be at risk if the restructuring plan, which also includes asset disposals and a debt swap, does not go through. Analysts are concerned that failure to launch the rights issue or find a white knight could lead to it being wound down, with the taxpayer or the banking sector picking up the bill. “Given current market conditions, we do not rule out Banca Carige will be put under resolution,” Milan broker Akros said, adding a separation of good and bad assets could ensue with the bank being recapitalised by the state. Investment banks Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays had conditionally agreed to underwrite Carige’s share issue, but Carige said the agreement could not yet be fulfilled. It did not elaborate, but has previously said the deal depended on a number of clauses including positive investor feedback. Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Barclays ( BARC.L ) had no comment. ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME Rome has this year rescued larger rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ) and liquidated two failing regional banks in Veneto, committing up to 23 billion euros of public money. Like these banks, Carige has been hit by bad loans and poor management. It is heavily exposed to the northwest region of Liguria, which suffered badly during a long recession that ended in 2014, and has lost nearly 3 billion euros since 2013. Carige’s shares have lost roughly half of their value over the past year and is now worth less than 140 million euros. This is Carige’s third cash call since 2014, when it was found short of capital in an industry check-up by the ECB which has given the lender until the end of December to boost capital. A source familiar with the matter said Carige had tried and failed to convince Italian insurer Unipol ( UNPI.MI ), which holds its bonds, to take part in the capital increase. Additional reporting by Andrea Mandala, Luca Trogni, Stefano Bernabei, Danilo Masoni; editing by Agnieszka Flak/Jason Neely/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-italy-carige/italys-carige-says-conditions-not-met-to-create-consortium-to-guarantee-cash-call-idUKKBN1DG0SS'|'2017-11-16T20:17:00.000+02:00'
'ab41e2c9da4f39ab045289ba37d985ce8e066bf2'|'Britain wants trade deal with EU ''much closer than Canada''- Davis'|'November 16, 2017 / 8:36 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Britain wants trade deal with EU ''much closer than Canada''- Davis Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain wants its future relationship with the European Union to be based on a free trade agreement more comprehensive than any other the bloc has signed with a third-country partner, Brexit Secretary David Davis said on Thursday. Britain''s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis leaves Downing Street, London, Britain, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville “We will be a third country partner like no other: much closer than Canada, much bigger than Norway and uniquely integrated in everything from energy networks to services,” Davis told a business conference in Berlin. He added: “The key pillar of this will be a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement the scope of which should be beyond any that the European Union has agreed before.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/britain-wants-trade-deal-with-eu-much-closer-than-canada-davis-idUKKBN1DG2XZ'|'2017-11-16T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'a637db1a1bea82fe13b3b5f08a8604ed47d8eb72'|'Chinese fintech Jianpu prices U.S. IPO below range'|'(Reuters) - Shares of Jianpu Technology Inc ( JT.N ) rose as much as 3.8 percent in their U.S. market debut on Thursday, giving the Chinese online financial planning platform a market value of about $3.42 billion.Jianpu’s initial public offering of 22.5 million American depository shares was priced at $8.00 per ADS - below its proposed range of $8.50 to $10.50 - and raised $180 million. The market value of $3.42 billion was calculated based on 412.3 million ordinary shares outstanding. Jianpu’s two ADSs represent five Class A ordinary shares.Beijing-based Jianpu’s shares opened at $8.25 and hit a high of $8.30 on the New York Stock Exchange.The IPO is the latest in a recent flurry of New York listings by Asian companies and follows that of Chinese online micro-credit lender Qudian Inc ( QD.N ), which raised $900 million in the biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese company this year.Jianpu, a unit of Chinese fintech company Rong360 Inc, generates revenue from fees for its recommendation services on loan products and credit card products.Financial products and services are increasingly being made available on online platforms in China as the nation’s rapidly multiplying internet population has created demand for innovative business models.Beijing-based Jianpu''s net loss narrowed to 49.04 million yuan ($7.39 million) in the six months ended June 30, from 104.6 million yuan a year earlier. Its revenue jumped more than two-fold to 393.4 million yuan. ( bit.ly/2ASH2D9 )Venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed China Partners are Jianpu’s major shareholders.Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley were among the top underwriters for the IPO.($1 = 6.64 yuan)Reporting by Roopal Verma and Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-jianpu-tech-ipo/chinese-fintech-jianpu-prices-u-s-ipo-below-range-idINKBN1DG1NF'|'2017-11-16T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'affe15432bf2e7195f50caf4b34e85022288b408'|'UK''s Fenner FY operating profit surges on order uptick'|'November 15, 2017 / 7:30 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK''s Fenner FY operating profit surges on order uptick Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British engineering firm Fenner Plc ( FENR.L ) posted a 59 percent jump in underlying operating profit on Wednesday, boosted by improved order intake and robust growth across its businesses. The company, which makes polymer products and conveyor belts for industrial customers including miners, said operating profit rose to 59.1 million pounds for the year ended Aug. 31 from 37.1 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue rose 14 percent to 655.4 million pounds. Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fenner-results/uks-fenner-fy-operating-profit-surges-on-order-uptick-idUKKBN1DF0TP'|'2017-11-15T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'1cfd7dcbc6b5667b6f656b57cd801fddadba34fe'|'Fox shares jump on signs of more takeover interest'|'Nov 17 (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc shares jumped 8 percent in premarket trading on Friday after sources said both Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc were also interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations.A week after reports of interest from Walt Disney Co in buying out much of Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. film and television empire, the sources hinted at the prospect of a battle between other media suitors for the assets.Buyers have expressed interest in Fox’s production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India and Sky Plc, sources told Reuters on Thursday.“Either Disney or Comcast would be a good fit, but its always about price and neither has to be a strategic buyer, only opportunistic,” said JBL Advisors analyst Jeffrey Logsdon.Shares of other media companies which could be dragged into a round of consolidation of U.S. film and TV production and distribution were largely unchanged.Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, has steadily boosted its content ownership over the years and buying Fox’s assets would give it an international distribution footprint and strengthen its position against Disney.Traditional media companies have been struggling with subscriber declines as streaming service Netflix has gained traction with younger audiences that shun traditional cable and satellite offerings.Netflix and Verizon shares were marginally higher in premarket trade on Friday. Disney and Comcast shares both inched down.Fox and Disney are co-owners of Hulu, a streaming service that offers on-demand and live TV packages. Hulu is also partially owned by Comcast and Time Warner Inc.Although acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for wireless carrier Verizon, its interest in Fox assets was likely piqued by rival AT&T&rsquo;s bid for HBO and CNN owner Time Warner, which is awaiting regulatory approval.“(I am) skeptical of a Verizon deal, creative businesses are very tough to manage for an outsider,” Logsdon said.Fox’s other assets include Fox television network, Fox News Channel and Fox Entertainment Group, which owns the popular movies studio 20th Century Fox.Fox shares have gained about 9 percent in value in the last six months. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-stocks/fox-shares-jump-on-signs-of-more-takeover-interest-idINL3N1NN3T6'|'2017-11-17T10:30:00.000+02:00'
'ad2bd6275023061f8c0258c4e08f66de44d2f7e9'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 17'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:41 AM / Updated an hour ago PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 17 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - With 227 Republican votes, the House passed the most sweeping tax overhaul in three decades on Thursday as U.S. lawmakers seek to enact $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals and deliver the first major legislative achievement of President Donald Trump''s tenure. nyti.ms/2hDqQRs - The cable company Comcast Corp is in preliminary talks to buy entertainment assets owned by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, including a vast overseas television distribution business. nyti.ms/2hxkbof - Tesla Inc has aimed to reinvent the automobile and the way electricity is generated for homes. In a presentation by its chief executive, Elon Musk, Tesla unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck that the company said would prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that now haul goods across the country. nyti.ms/2zJPgzU - The senior American diplomat at the United Nations climate talks in Germany told world leaders on Thursday that the United States would remain engaged in global climate change negotiations even as it planned to exit the Paris agreement "at the earliest opportunity." nyti.ms/2ySE1Bd - The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to allow a single company to own a newspaper and television and radio stations in the same town, reversing a decades-old rule aimed at preventing any individual or company from having too much power over local coverage. nyti.ms/2zN7YpA (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-17-idUSL3N1NN261'|'2017-11-17T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'5d64321d3de75ca29d1e7fa0c09a6d9d43f39047'|'Fox shares jump on signs of more takeover interest'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:43 PM / Updated an hour ago Fox shares jump on signs of more takeover interest Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc shares jumped 8 percent in premarket trading on Friday after sources said both Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc were also interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations. The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson A week after reports of interest from Walt Disney Co in buying out much of Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. film and television empire, the sources hinted at the prospect of a battle between other media suitors for the assets. Buyers have expressed interest in Fox’s production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India and Sky Plc, sources told Reuters on Thursday. “Either Disney or Comcast would be a good fit, but its always about price and neither has to be a strategic buyer, only opportunistic,” said JBL Advisors analyst Jeffrey Logsdon. Shares of other media companies which could be dragged into a round of consolidation of U.S. film and TV production and distribution were largely unchanged. Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, has steadily boosted its content ownership over the years and buying Fox’s assets would give it an international distribution footprint and strengthen its position against Disney. Traditional media companies have been struggling with subscriber declines as streaming service Netflix has gained traction with younger audiences that shun traditional cable and satellite offerings. Netflix and Verizon shares were marginally higher in premarket trade on Friday. Disney and Comcast shares both inched down. Fox and Disney are co-owners of Hulu, a streaming service that offers on-demand and live TV packages. Hulu is also partially owned by Comcast and Time Warner Inc. Although acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for wireless carrier Verizon, its interest in Fox assets was likely piqued by rival AT&T’s bid for HBO and CNN owner Time Warner, which is awaiting regulatory approval. “(I am) skeptical of a Verizon deal, creative businesses are very tough to manage for an outsider,” Logsdon said. Fox’s other assets include Fox television network, Fox News Channel and Fox Entertainment Group, which owns the popular movies studio 20th Century Fox. Fox shares have gained about 9 percent in value in the last six months. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-stocks/fox-shares-jump-on-signs-of-more-takeover-interest-idUKKBN1DH1OC'|'2017-11-17T15:31:00.000+02:00'
'5b691cb0e680e9a978158c463cf2ddd8bfbf5e54'|'Comcast, Verizon approached Twenty-First Century Fox to buy some assets - sources'|'November 16, 2017 / 10:07 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Comcast, Verizon approached Twenty-First Century Fox to buy some assets: sources Anjali Athavaley , Liana B. Baker 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc have both expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s assets, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo News of competing interest in some of Murdoch’s assets broke even though the U.S. Justice Department was preparing a lawsuit to block AT&T Inc, the largest pay-TV provider in the United States, from buying Time Warner Inc for $85.4 billion, according to a source. This raised questions about the U.S. government’s willingness to allow large media industry mergers. The Fox assets that buyers have expressed interest in include Fox’s movie and TV production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India, and the European pay TV provider Sky Plc. These units have also been the subject of recent talks between Fox and Walt Disney Co, one of the sources said. Fox shares jumped nearly 8.0 percent in after-hours trading after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news. Shares of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp also rose more than 2.0 percent, a sign investors may see them as potential targets also. Comcast has approached Fox about its interest, and talks are in early stages, the source added, requesting anonymity. There is no guarantee that talks between the companies will result in a deal. Fox, Comcast and Verizon declined comment. After Comcast first bought a stake in NBCUniversal in 2011, buying the Fox assets would give Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, an international distribution footprint through ownership of Sky and Star in India. Comcast has steadily boosted its ownership of content over the years and acquiring Fox’s assets would further position Comcast as a diversified conglomerate to rival Disney, analysts said. The deal would bulk up its NBCUniversal unit, which acquired Dreamworks Animation for $3.8 billion last year, as well as increase its ownership stake in video streaming service Hulu. Verizon is also in the early stages of exploring a deal, one of the sources said. A deal could give the U.S. No. 1 wireless phone carrier ownership of movies and TV shows to stream to its mobile subscribers. Acquisition of a movie studio and cable channels would be a departure for Verizon, which has focused its media deals around advertising technology and internet properties. Verizon spent $4.48 billion acquiring the core business of Yahoo, which it merged with AOL this year to form a venture called Oath. Led by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Oath owns more than 50 brands including HuffPost, TechCrunch and Tumblr. Roger Entner, an analyst of Recon Analytics, said, “It is undeniable that there is a trend of combining content with distribution.” Verizon, which has said it is launching a new streaming service, could have more targeted advertising with a vertically integrated platform, he added. Traditional cable television networks have been struggling with faster-than-expected subscriber erosion in the competition with streaming services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc. To increase its scale, Fox tried to buy Time Warner Inc. three years ago and last year announced its intention to buy the rest of Sky beyond the 39 percent it already owns. The moves also come after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to remove key roadblocks to increased consolidation among media companies, potentially unleashing new deals among TV, radio and newspaper owners as they seek to better compete with online media. Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington, Jessica Toonkel in New York and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengalaru; Editing by Bill Rigby and Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-comcast/comcast-approaches-twenty-first-century-fox-for-buying-some-assets-idUKKBN1DG34Z'|'2017-11-17T04:16:00.000+02:00'
'0690d8e94e913866415c176c4f4b0a6ad1f98e72'|'Nimble Bank of England will shield UK from Brexit effects - Carney'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:21 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Nimble Bank of England will shield UK from Brexit effects - Carney Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday the central bank would be nimble enough to keep inflation under control whatever the outcome of the country’s negotiations to leave the European Union. The governor of Britain''s Bank of England, Mark Carney, speaks at ''The Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble “It could go either way in terms of affecting the economy and inflation,” Carney said when asked about Brexit during a discussion with students, business people and others in the centre of Liverpool, northwest England. “Whatever happens, we will be nimble enough to move monetary policy to bring inflation back to that target while supporting the economy,” he added. Carney also said the Bank would ensure Britain’s core financial system would not be hurt by the outcome of the Brexit negotiations. Reporting by David Milliken; Writing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-cunliffe/nimble-bank-of-england-will-shield-uk-from-brexit-effects-carney-idUKKBN1DG27A'|'2017-11-16T17:21:00.000+02:00'
'3537cecd67a3ff3298a5f6eb073814d9861d16af'|'AT&T hires ex-Trump lawyer to defend possible Time Warner deal lawsuit'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:44 PM / Updated an hour ago AT&T hires ex-Trump lawyer to defend possible Time Warner deal lawsuit   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T ( T.N ) said on Thursday it had hired prominent media lawyer Daniel Petrocelli to serve as lead trial counsel if the U.S. Justice Department files a lawsuit to block the No. 2 U.S. wireless company’s acquisition of media and entertainment company Time Warner ( TWX.N ). A pedestrian walks past an AT&T store in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Petrocelli, a partner at O‘Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, has represented Walt Disney ( DIS.N ) and Time Warner in the past. Last year, he defended then-presidential candidate Donald Trump against fraud lawsuits related to real estate seminars known as Trump University. The Justice Department is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit as soon as this week to block the $85.4 billion AT&T deal. The department has approached 18 state attorneys general to try to win their support for a lawsuit, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-timewarner-m-a-at-t-lawyer/att-hires-ex-trump-lawyer-to-defend-possible-time-warner-deal-lawsuit-idINKBN1DG2EY'|'2017-11-16T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'8896660464910cc6948f788a7d8789fa4339f940'|'Mark Cuban says tax rates have almost no impact on investment'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:19 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Mark Cuban says tax rates have almost no impact on investment Daniel Trotta 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire entrepreneur and potential presidential candidate Mark Cuban said on Wednesday that a cut in the U.S. corporate tax rate would have little to no effect on his investment decisions. Bills before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives would cut the corporate rate from the current 35 percent to 20 percent. President Donald Trump and other supporters of the tax cut bills say reducing corporate and other taxes would boost the U.S. economy by freeing up capital that would be invested in job-creating industries. But Cuban said the tax rate had zero impact on decisions whether to invest in small businesses, as he does through the reality show “Shark Tank,” and almost no effect on decisions for his own lineup of tech and entertainment companies. “Competition drives what I do in my businesses a whole lot more than tax rates,” Cuban told a Reuters Newsmaker forum entitled “The Trump Budget Debate” and moderated by Reuters Editor-at-Large Harry Evans. “Amazon ( AMZN.O ) is going to affect a whole lot more companies and futures, as will Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) and Facebook ( FB.O ) and Google ( GOOGL.O ) and other big companies, a lot more than a marginal tax rate,” Cuban said. Economists who joined Cuban on the panel also disputed the traditional conservative or supply-side argument behind tax cuts. Businessman Mark Cuban participates in a Reuters Newsmaker panel on ''The Trump Budget Debate'' in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Alan Blinder, a Democrat and former vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, said data going back decades have failed to show a correlation between tax rates and subsequent growth. Mark Zandi, a Democrat and chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said “taxes matter” and that well-constructed tax policy can improve long-term growth but not nearly as much as the assumptions made by the Trump administration. In any case, Zandi said, the House and Senate proposals were “very bad tax policy.” Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born global economist, said technology, demographic shifts such as immigration, and debt have far more impact than do taxes on growth. Slideshow (4 Images) Cuban argued that the best tax cut to spur growth would be employment tax reduction such as the 2-percentage-point payroll tax reduction that former President Barack Obama signed in 2010. Employment taxes are paid both by workers, via withholdings from their wages, and by employers. Cuban, 59, a onetime supporter of Trump who later endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign, has told interviewers since early October that he is considering his own presidential run in 2020. Asked about it by a member of the audience on Wednesday, he responded, ”I don’t know yet. “It’s a serious decision and it’s not one I have to make today,” Cuban said. Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy-cuban/mark-cuban-says-tax-rates-have-almost-no-impact-on-investment-idUKKBN1DG0BL'|'2017-11-16T05:18:00.000+02:00'
'e42d720f38ac7534c05b6a112fabea4846e76b28'|'UPDATE 2-S&P, MSCI to blend telecom, media stocks in one sector'|'(Adds Quote: s from investor, index companies; byline)By Trevor Hunnicutt and Rodrigo CamposNov 15 (Reuters) - A stock market index revamp could put the FANG stocks under one roof.Shares of companies specializing in telecommunications, media and entertainment will be combined into a single sector in a major overhaul of U.S. indexes, including the benchmark S&P 500, S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc said on Wednesday.The move reflects “an evolution in the way we communicate and access entertainment content and other information,” and the dramatic integration of these industries through a wave of mergers and acquisitions, the index operators said in a joint statement.The new sector schematic will take effect in late September 2018, they said, adding the names of some large companies whose stocks will be impacted by the change will be announced in January.The index providers did not disclose which companies will be moved to the new Communication Services index.But a list of candidates could include the so-called FANG stocks - Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc - along with traditional telecom or media players, such as AT&T Inc and Walt Disney Co.Each of those stocks meets some of the criteria laid out by S&P and MSCI on Wednesday.The move marks the second major change in just over a year in how stocks are grouped. The index operators in 2016 split real estate investment trusts out from the financial services sector.“The technology sector is the largest sector of the market, so you’re scaling that back. This will be the hot sector of the market then - if it’s the type of changes we’re talking about,” said Michael O‘Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.“The market sees these names (like Facebook and Google) as leadership. If you start consolidating the majority of them into one sector, it will get a lot more attention.”Indexes including the S&P 500 are a guide for trillions of dollars of capital worldwide, including index-tracking, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that target specific sectors.“This is a huge deal,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA. “Where a stock ends up and who it’s compared to can impact where money goes within capital markets.” (Reporting by Dan Burns, Trevor Hunnicutt, Rodrigo Campos and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; editing by Sandra Maler, Tom Brown and G Crosse) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-sectors/update-1-sp-msci-indexes-to-combine-telecom-media-stocks-into-one-sector-idINL1N1NL2AK'|'2017-11-15T20:38:00.000+02:00'
'644d7f5ff642c993df33fb6de0ab321281bfd670'|'State oil firms betting on natural gas as next big thing'|'November 17, 2017 / 11:04 AM / Updated 7 hours ago State oil firms betting on natural gas as next big thing Promit Mukherjee , Nidhi Verma 4 Min Read MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s state oil refiners are planning an aggressive push into natural gas in coming years to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making the fuel a bigger part of the country’s energy mix. An Indian Oil tanker driver waits outside a fuel depot in Mumbai, India, October 6, 2017. REUTERS/ Danish Siddiqui State-owned oil companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - are planning to raise gas contributions to between 5 and 15 percent of their incomes over the next few years, up from nearly none now, company executives said. This in line with a government target to raise the natural gas portion of India’s primary energy mix to 15 percent by 2030, up from 6.5 percent now, to help meet climate targets and rein in rampant pollution. The increase would come mostly at the expense of coal, which is dirtier than gas and is India’s most-used energy source. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports will cover the greater part of the growth, although the government also hopes to recover untapped domestic reserves off its east coast. “Gas is an important part of our portfolio going forward,” M.K. Surana, chairman of HPCL told Reuters, noting that the government push was expediting the development of gas in India. With China, Pakistan and Bangladesh also increasing gas use, the surge in Asian demand is expected to help eat up a global glut of LNG supplies by 2021-2022. BPCL, another leading Indian refiner, sees natural gas pulling in 5 to 10 percent of its overall revenue in less than a decade, from barely any now, its director of refineries, R. Ramachandran, told Reuters. The state oil companies’ plans involve building LNG import terminals and domestic pipelines, and bidding to set up urban gas networks across potential major demand centres, particularly in the eastern part of the country. India’s natural gas consumption is expected to rise to 70 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2022 and 100 bcm by 2030, according to a government think tank and the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, up from 50 bcm now. India burns just 7 percent of what top user the United States consumes in a year with about a quarter of India’s population. At 100 bcm, India would move into the top 10 of global natural gas consumers at current consumption figures. A Bharat Petroleum oil pump station displays the price of unleaded petrol (0.89$) and Diesel (0.66$) as a pedestrian walks past in New Delhi, India, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/Files BIG PLANS India needs to invest an estimated $100 billion in natural gas infrastructure by 2022, according to Oil Ministry figures, including setting up a gas grid across 228 cities. A major chunk of this investment would come from the state oil companies. HPCL, soon to be taken over by state-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp, is planning to expand its natural gas businesses via joint ventures, including its city gas distribution unit. BPCL said it has also gone after city gas licenses and secured rights to supply gas to households and vehicles in four cities starting 2016/2017. Both BPCL and HPCL - which are also separately looking to set up LNG import terminals - declined to say how much they are investing in their moves towards gas. The biggest challenge preventing more gas use so far has been a lack of infrastructure, mainly gas pipelines and regasification terminals. Still, India is already the world’s fourth-largest importer of LNG, behind Japan, South Korea and China. Last year, India imported about 19 million tonnes of LNG, or 25 bcm, up around 15 percent over the previous year, according to government data. There is “a clear push from the government ... (and) a genuine belief ... they can push the gas economy idea,” said Rahool Panandiker, a partner at Boston Consulting Group. India’s biggest refiner, Indian Oil, told Reuters in October that it aims to generate 15 percent of its revenues from natural gas businesses in five years. The nation’s appetite for gas and the government push to build infrastructure has also pushed Reliance Industries and its partner in India, BP Plc, to relook at their dormant gas marketing business. Reporting by Promit Mukherjee in MUMBAI and Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI; Editing by Henning Gloystein and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-naturalgas/state-oil-firms-betting-on-natural-gas-as-next-big-thing-idINKBN1DH187'|'2017-11-17T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'88fa2d04bf76116a7880a591dab22088c2f39057'|'British Columbia hires BOC, HSBC for Panda bonds'|'HONG KONG, Nov 17 (IFR) - The Province of British Columbia has mandated Bank of China and HSBC for its second Panda bond offering.The renminbi bonds will be offered to both onshore and offshore institutional investors in China’s interbank bond market, subject to market conditions.The Canadian province in January last year issued 3 billion yuan ($453 million) three-year debut Panda bonds at a yield of 2.95 percent. (Reporting by Carol Chan; Editing by Vincent Baby and Daniel Stanton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/british-columbia-debt-bonds/british-columbia-hires-boc-hsbc-for-panda-bonds-idUSL3N1NN1IW'|'2017-11-17T04:24:00.000+02:00'
'f6b12f92aad7bb8418f0ebab9dde045361b3ab17'|'Gulf carriers may be in focus under foreign airline U.S. tax exemption cut'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:17 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Gulf carriers may be in focus under foreign airline U.S. tax exemption cut Alana Wise 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional proposal that would eliminate income tax exemptions for certain airlines could affect major Gulf carriers, potentially worsening an international spat between U.S. airlines and their Middle East rivals. FILE PHOTO: Emirates Airlines aircraft are seen at Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Ashraf Mohammad/File Photo U.S. airlines have been petitioning the federal government for years to intervene in what they see as unfair competition by the three major Gulf carriers. The proposal, tucked deep in the Senate tax-cut plan, calls for airlines headquartered in foreign countries to pay the U.S. incorporate tax rate if: 1) the carrier’s home country does not have an income tax treaty with the United States and 2) the carrier’s country of origin has fewer than two arrivals and departures, per week, operated by major U.S. airlines. Airways, Emirates [EMIRA.UL] and Etihad Airways have for years been accused by U.S. competitors of being illegally subsidized by their governments. The Gulf carriers deny the accusation. They could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. If the proposal passes, it could leave the Gulf carriers more vulnerable because their home countries – the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – do not have income tax treaties with the United States, according to the Internal Revenue Service website. A number of nations could possibly also be affected at a time when perceived discrepancies in U.S. trade agreements are facing a critical eye from U.S. corporations and the federal government. The language in the Senate proposal sets the stage for a crackdown in tax leniency for these and other airlines. This would likely be well-received by American carriers, which have for years petitioned the U.S. government to intervene in the dispute. Under U.S. tax treaties, entities of foreign countries are either exempt or pay a reduced rate on their income, and vice versa for U.S. entities abroad. Reciprocity agreements, however, are less formal deals that fall short of an official accord, according to tax attorney Sam Brotman of Brotman Law. “Reciprocity agreements are usually with countries that are not necessarily 100 percent friendly with the U.S.” Brotman said on Thursday. “We’ll call it a handshake deal.” The bill’s wording stands to ramp up an already tense battle between U.S. airlines and Gulf carriers. The addition was introduced by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia. Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), one of the most vocal critics of Gulf carrier practices, is headquartered in Atlanta. A spokeswoman for Isakson did not mention the Gulf airlines. “This provision supports American jobs by providing a level playing field and mutual fairness in international passenger aviation,” Isakson spokeswoman Marie Gordon said in an email on Thursday. “Foreign airlines should not receive preferential tax treatment if their countries choose not to open their markets to U.S. companies.” Delta declined to comment.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-airlines/gulf-carriers-may-be-in-focus-under-foreign-airline-u-s-tax-exemption-cut-idUKKBN1DH04R'|'2017-11-17T03:15:00.000+02:00'
'0c269c951b0ccbee6b56b1afd96ac1722ee154ba'|'Euro zone current account surplus widens in September'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:06 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Euro zone current account surplus widens in September   A bigger surplus from trade boosted the euro zone’s current account surplus in September, European Central Bank data showed on Friday, countering concerns about the impact of a stronger euro on exporters. FILE PHOTO - The euro sign landmark is seen at the headquarters (R) of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany September 2, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo The currency bloc recorded an adjusted current account surplus of 37.8 billion euros (33.7 billion pounds) in September, up from August’s surplus of 34.5 billion euros, the ECB said in a statement. The adjusted 12-months surplus eased to 3.2 percent of the 19-country currency bloc’s GDP from 3.4 percent a year ago, confirming expectations for a slow but steady decline in the surplus. To read more about the euro zone’s current account:'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-currentaccount-ecb/euro-zone-current-account-surplus-widens-in-september-idUKKBN1DH0YP'|'2017-11-17T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'e40f2e3bea97df10a9fd120afdbbbec3865f9db5'|'Regulators must focus on risks, not specific firms -U.S. TREASURY'|'WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday regulators should refrain from singling out large non-bank financial firms for tougher scrutiny, and focus instead on closely monitoring risks across the whole financial system.The eagerly awaited policy recommendation marks another win for the financial industry, which has been lobbying to change the current process of designating individual firms as “systemically risky,” which they say is opaque and arbitrary. (Editing by Bernadette Baum) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-treasury-regulators/regulators-must-focus-on-risks-not-specific-firms-u-s-treasury-idUSL1N1NN0P9'|'2017-11-17T22:31:00.000+02:00'
'c90465bd37dd6106367337b8ed80ec2218e99e33'|'Australian Competition Tribunal gives nod to Tabcorp''s takeover of Tatts'|'November 17, 2017 / 12:49 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Australia tribunal again clears Tabcorp''s £3.55 billion pounds takeover of Tatts Byron Kaye 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian tribunal once again cleared horse-race betting giant Tabcorp Holdings Ltd’s ( TAH.AX ) proposed $4.7 billion (3.55 billion pounds) takeover of lottery owner Tatts Group Ltd ( TTS.AX ), dismissing concerns raised by the country’s default M&A regulator. The ruling, which drove up shares of both Tabcorp and Tatts, paves the way for a deal that has been mired in uncertainty since the firms announced their plans 13 months ago, their third such attempt after having failed twice since 2006. A Tabcorp-Tatts union would create a gambling powerhouse at a time of rising competition from rivals such as Britain’s William Hill ( WMH.L ) and Ireland’s Paddy Power ( PPB.I ). The ruling also vindicates the companies’ unusual decision to bypass the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after it raised concerns about the deal, and go to the court-affiliated tribunal normally used for advanced disputes. The Australian Competition Tribunal (ACT) had earlier cleared Tabcorp’s proposal to buy Tatts for A$6.15 billion (3.52 billion pounds), but the decision was then appealed by the ACCC - default M&A arbiter. “The tribunal is satisfied that the proposed merger is likely to result in substantial public benefits,” its president, Federal Court judge John Middleton, wrote in his ruling. Shares of Tabcorp rose as much as 5 percent and Tatts gained close to 3 percent when they came out of a trading halt after the ruling on Friday, outstripping the broader Australian market that was up about half a percent. “Tatts welcomes the tribunal’s decision to grant authorisation for a second time,” it said. Tabcorp called the decision “a significant step” and said it would put the deal to a shareholder vote on Nov. 30. The ACCC had sought a review saying it believed the ACT misused certain tests to determine if the deal would hurt competition, and that it had given inappropriate weightings to data about the effects of the takeover. But the ACT ruling dismissed the concerns, saying they were “unlikely to either arise or are not otherwise material”. The ACT added that Tabcorp must make good on a promise to sell a Queensland gaming business to avoid hurting competition. The ACCC said it would consider the tribunal’s reasons for the decision when the tribunal publishes them on Nov. 22. Additional reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tatts-group-m-a-tabcorp/australian-competition-tribunal-gives-nod-to-tabcorps-takeover-of-tatts-idUKKBN1DH037'|'2017-11-17T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'1875507e0cfb012c2fa7eb2777f2c6c9e426abb4'|'Yara buys Vale fertilizer complex in Brazil for $255 million'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Norway’s Yara International ASA ( YAR.OL ), a global producer and distributor of fertilizers, has reached an agreement to buy Vale SA’s ( VALE5.SA ) fertilizer complex in Cubatão, Brazil, for $255 million in cash, the company said on Friday.The deal, which Yara expects to be completed by the second half of next year, will give the Norwegian company the ability to produce in Brazil nitrogen-based fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate, largely used in sugar cane cultivation. Brazil is the world’s largest cane producer and processor.The agreement also marks another step for mining giant Vale, the world’s largest iron ore exporter, in its divestiture program that aims to concentrate investment in its core areas and raise cash to reduce debt.“It is a deal that makes sense for both companies,” Lair Hanzen, head of Yara’s Brazil unit, told reporters in a conference call.Hanzen said the acquisition will allow Yara to double its fertilizer production capacity in Brazil to 3 million tonnes per year.Yara plans to spend $80 million more in the complex in the next three years to upgrade equipment and systems.The Norwegian company has a string of acquisitions in the Brazilian fertilizer sector. Since it entered the country in 2000 buying Adubos Trevo, it has expanded by acquiring Fertibras in 2006, Bunge’s fertilizer unit in 2013 and by agreeing to a joint venture with Galvani in 2014.Hanzen said the latest deal shows the company’s strategy looking at the prospect of ever-higher agricultural production in Brazil and the need to reduce the country’s dependence on fertilizer imports.Brazil currently buys abroad around 70 percent of fertilizer it uses and it is considered one of few places in the world capable to still increase areas for agriculture.Hanzen said the company will continue to look at opportunities in Brazil, but stressed that Yara has its “hands full” after recent acquisitions and new projects such as the Serra do Salitre, in the Minas Gerais state, that should produce 1.2 million tonnes of fertilizers per year.Yara’s acquisition of Vale’s complex in Cubatão is subject to approval from Brazilian regulators. The cash payment to Vale is expected to come after the approval, Yara said.Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Will Dunham '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-vale-sa-divestiture-yara-intl/yara-buys-vale-fertilizer-complex-in-brazil-for-255-million-idINKBN1DH2TN'|'2017-11-17T19:56:00.000+02:00'
'd8cec23f505b8056dc98dbd111126f59c83eb6ce'|'European secondary loan prices succumb to volatility'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:16 PM / Updated 2 hours ago European secondary loan prices succumb to volatility Max Bower 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Average prices tumbled in Europe’s secondary loan market this week, reflecting volatility in the high-yield bond market as investors retreated from the asset class after highly indebted ‘junk’ rated companies reported poor earnings. Europe’s top 40 leveraged loans fell to an average of 100.24, down 30bp from 100.54 the previous week, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data. The broader floating rate note market was also quoted 25bp-50bp lower this week, a London-based loan trader said. “Volatility has returned to the loan market. The street seems to have lightened up on risk,” the loan trader said. Netherlands listed telecom company Altice ( ATCA.AS ) saw the telecom sector leading European leveraged loan prices lower as the US high yield market saw its biggest weekly outflow in more than three years of US$4.4bn in the week to November 15, according to Lipper. Altice’s €300m term loan B fall more than 100bp to an average bid of 98.98 in the week to Thursday, the loan trader said, adding that the telecom sector was down around 50bp on average. Loan pricing is typically less responsive to volatility than bond pricing, given lower trading volumes. A second trader noting that a 50bp move in the secondary loan market was a notable swing. Altice’s recent €500m 10-year bond issue was trading at 93.57 on Friday according to Tradeweb, having priced only last month at 4.75%, as the firm’s shares slumped by more than 10% on Friday. The company announced the loss of about 75,000 broadband customers in France, its biggest market, in its third quarter results in early November, with some lured by heavy promotions on offer at rivals. Concern has subsequently grown around the group and its ability to manage its €50bn debt pile, after chief executive Michel Combes resigned last week. Editing by Tessa Walsh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-secondary-loans/european-secondary-loan-prices-succumb-to-volatility-idUKKBN1DH299'|'2017-11-17T19:15:00.000+02:00'
'3c4399326f7d16453f4e1adf223d52807b9d198a'|'Brazil judge blocks new Oi directors from role in recovery plan'|'RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The Brazilian judge overseeing the debt restructuring of telecommunications firm Oi SA has blocked two recently appointed directors from taking a role in drafting its recovery plan.In a Thursday ruling, Judge Fernando Viana said the two board members who were named to management positions on Nov. 3 were banned from getting involved in talks with creditors to restructure the company’s $20 billion debt. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-judge-blocks-new-oi-directors-from-role-in-recovery-plan-idINN9N1J2008'|'2017-11-17T09:25:00.000+02:00'
'6a54b10ee8ccb88f351437d99b081c0c44792b6c'|'Reuters poll: Major U.S. tax cuts not likely this year - economists'|'BENGALURU (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans are not expected to push major tax cuts through Congress this year, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll, who in any case were skeptical that the legislation would provide a significant boost to the economy. An aide adjusts a sign prior to a news conference announcing the passage of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein While optimism about a tax overhaul has helped push the U.S. stock market up for most of this year, the administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican, is still seeking its first major legislative win after almost a year in office. Skepticism about major tax cuts has been growing over the past two weeks, causing share prices to wobble. The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a package of tax reductions estimated to raise the federal deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion over a decade. The Senate, where the Republican majority is slimmer, will be the focus for debate. Nearly two-thirds of the more than 60 economists who answered an extra question in the Nov. 13-17 poll, which mostly took place before the tax cuts passed the House, said they were not confident the administration would get the legislation passed this year. “We feel that if it does pass next year, it is likely to be less ambitious and more focused on temporary cuts than reform,” Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of macro research at Barclays, wrote in a note. The effect of tax cuts would probably be muted because of a lack of wage growth and a high level of employment, he added. In a Reuters poll last month, a strong majority of economists said the U.S. economy did not need a big fiscal stimulus at this late stage of the business cycle. This month’s poll of more than 100 economists showed most respondents had upgraded their near-term forecasts for the U.S. economy, which they expect to grow just above the roughly 2 percent trend rate over the next two years but with muted inflation. When asked what the economy needs most, the top pick was increased infrastructure spending. Nearly as many said the United States ought to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement - Trump pulled the nation out of negotiations just days after becoming president - as those choosing tax cuts. “It is hard to say with any level of confidence until we see a final plan (for tax cuts) what really are the benefits to the (economic) outlook,” said Sam Bullard, senior economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina. “If we don’t get one, clearly there would be a response (from the financial markets) to a failure to not pass some kind of tax legislation. But if we get it, it would support the ‘glass half full’ levels of sentiment we have seen.” In the meantime, most respondents did not expect the core PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, to reach the central bank’s target until the second quarter of 2019. At last measure, it was no higher than it was just before the Fed first started raising interest rates from zero nearly two years ago. The poll still showed the Fed raising rates by 25 basis points more to 1.25-1.50 percent in December, with two increases next year - less than the three the central bank is projecting. UNLIKELY RECESSION While there are few signs of any economic slowdown in broad economic data, the current cycle is mature. Movements in the U.S. government bond market have grabbed attention in recent weeks as well, suggesting some kind of slowdown may be at hand. Two-year U.S. Treasury yields have hit a nine-year high on expectations for higher interest rates, but a weak inflation outlook has pushed the yield curve to its flattest in a decade. The gap between two-year US2YT=RR and 10-year US10YT=RR yields contracted to just above 63 basis points US2US10=TWEB on Thursday. That was the tightest since November 2007, not long before the last recession took hold. While the current yield curve is not inverted, which is often viewed as a recessionary warning sign, it has flattened by more than 60 basis points in less than a year. Economists polled by Reuters gave only a median 10 percent chance of a U.S. recession over the coming year. The highest probability provided was 40 percent. Wells Fargo’s Bullard said economic data had been strengthening over the past couple of quarters. “That is certainly supportive to sustained moderate U.S. economic expansion,” Bullard said. “But yet financial markets, at least the yield curve, are reflecting something that suggests that maybe there are some signals out there that need to be paid attention to, and clearly not everything is right.” (For other stories from the Reuters global long-term economic outlook polls package) Additional reporting and polling by Shrutee Sarkar and Mumal Rathore; Editing by Ross Finley and Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-poll/reuters-poll-major-u-s-tax-cuts-not-likely-this-year-economists-idUSKBN1DH29H'|'2017-11-17T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'fed0b5f7406248651f72f6156092e7cd9dddbb3a'|'U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise; import prices up modestly'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:43 PM / Updated 3 hours ago U.S. industrial output surges as hurricane-related disruptions fade Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. industrial production recorded its biggest increase in six months in October as the drag from hurricane-related disruptions unwound, but the underlying growth trend in output at the nation’s factories, mines and utility plants remained moderate. Cargo containers are ready for transportation at the Port of Los Angeles October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Bob Riha Jr. Other data on Thursday showed an unexpected rise in new filings for unemployment benefits last week in part because of the processing of a backlog of applications from Puerto Rico. The reports are consistent with an economy growing at a steady clip and tightening labor market conditions, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates next month. “With encouraging fundamentals in place, we expect the slow but steady improvement in the U.S. factory sector to continue in the coming months,” said Tim Quinlan, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Fed said industrial production accelerated 0.9 percent last month with output at factories surging 1.3 percent as operations returned to normalcy after being disrupted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which made landfall in late August and early September. The increase in industrial production was the largest since April and followed a 0.4 percent gain in September. Production was also buoyed by a 2.0 percent jump in output at utility plants. But Hurricane Nate, which struck the Gulf Coast in early October, resulted in a decline in oil and gas drilling and extraction. That led to a 1.3 percent drop in mining output last month. The Fed said excluding the impact of the hurricanes, industrial production rose 0.3 percent in October, with manufacturing output advancing 0.2 percent. Manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of U.S. economic activity, is being supported by a weakening dollar, firming global economy and inventory accumulation by businesses. With the surge in output last month, manufacturing capacity use rose 0.9 percentage point to 76.4 percent, the highest level since May 2008. “The Fed estimates that manufacturing capacity is only growing by 0.7 percent per year, which points to the need to expand capacity at a faster rate should manufacturing output continue to grow at a solid pace,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.The outlook for manufacturing is upbeat, with a measure of factory activity hovering near a 13-1/2-year high. Although a separate report by the Philadelphia Fed on Thursday showed its index of factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region fell to a reading of 22.7 this month from 27.9 in October, manufacturers reported robust demand for their products, rising backlogs and declining inventories. Emily Angelo, looks through job ads at the Pennsylvania Career Link office located in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 11, 2017. Photo taken October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk Factories, however, reported a slowdown in hiring as well as a shorter average workweek this month. A survey on Wednesday from the New York Fed mirrored the findings of the Philadelphia Fed survey. The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher, boosted by strong results from Wal-Mart. The world’s largest retailer said sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 2.7 percent in the third quarter, excluding fuel price fluctuations. LABOR MARKET TIGHTENING In a third report on Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 249,000 for the week ended Nov. 11. It was the second straight weekly increase and partly reflected the clearing of a backlog of claims in Puerto Rico as the infrastructure damaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria is restored. Last week marked the 141st straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. “The data continue to signal enough strength in employment growth to keep the unemployment rate trending down,” said Jim O‘Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 44,000 to 1.86 million in the week ended Nov. 4, the lowest level since December 1973. Tightening labor market conditions and signs that inflation is steadily creeping up make it most likely that the Fed will increase interest rates next month. The U.S. central bank has raised borrowing costs twice this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Another report from the Labor Department showed import prices gained 0.2 percent last month amid increases in the cost of imported petroleum and capital goods. Import prices rose 0.8 percent in September. Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-jobless-claims-unexpectedly-rise-import-prices-up-modestly-idINKBN1DG22V'|'2017-11-16T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'4a3723f1f8ffd9e617fca79f4f3384f2c2be627b'|'Viacom reports 2.9 percent rise in revenue'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:10 PM / in an hour Viacom expects distributor revenue to drop in 2018; shares sink Jessica Toonkel , Arjun Panchadar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Viacom Inc ( VIAB.O ), owner of MTV and Comedy Central, said Thursday it expects lower revenue from cable and satellite companies in 2018, a forecast that sent its shares down almost 10 percent in morning trading. FILE PHOTO: A woman exits the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S. on April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The largest U.S. cable and satellite companies have shed more than a million subscribers so far this year, a situation that has left them less willing to pay for Viacom’s programs. Improving affiliate revenue - the sales Viacom generates from distributors - has been a key focus of Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish since he took the helm late last year. “In the past year, deals representing nearly 50 percent of our subscriber base have been renewed or extended, and we now have no significant renewals until well into 2019,” Bakish said on a call with analysts. The question is whether future deals will also reprice at the same or lower rates, said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. “What is to say that every other distributor won’t reset pricing?” Wieser asked. Shares of Viacom were down 3.9 percent $23.65 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, after earlier tumbling nearly 10 percent. Last month, Viacom reached a deal with Charter Communications ( CHTR.O ) to put eight of its most popular networks in Charter’s cheapest U.S. cable bundle, after Charter had put some channels in its more expensive packages. The new deal with Charter does not take effect until early next year, which is part of the reason for the expected drop in affiliate sales in 2018, Viacom said. Viacom said it expects high single-digit declines in U.S. affiliate sales in the first half of 2018. For the year, it expects affiliate sales to be down in the mid-single digits with positive sales returning in 2019. The New York-based media company said revenue grew 2.9 percent to $3.32 billion, beating analyst estimates, as U.S. advertising sales improved to their strongest since 2014. Revenue from Viacom’s film unit, which includes theater and licensing revenue, grew 2 percent to $789 million from a year earlier. Domestic affiliate revenue fell 3 percent to $948 million in the quarter and domestic ad sales were flat at $936 million. Net profit attributable to Viacom rose to $674 million, or $1.67 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept.30, from $254 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier. The quarter included a $127 million gain from an asset sale. Excluding items, the company earned 77 cents per share. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 86 cents per share and revenue of $3.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-viacom-results/viacom-reports-2-9-percent-rise-in-revenue-idUSKBN1DG1MO'|'2017-11-16T14:09:00.000+02:00'
'18c74210894f95852213982a5e3725e56beca64c'|'AT&T hires ex-Trump lawyer to defend possible Time Warner deal lawsuit'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:42 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago AT&T hires ex-Trump lawyer to defend possible Time Warner deal lawsuit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T ( T.N ) said on Thursday it had hired prominent media lawyer Daniel Petrocelli to serve as lead trial counsel if the U.S. Justice Department files a lawsuit to block the No. 2 U.S. wireless company’s acquisition of media and entertainment company Time Warner ( TWX.N ). A pedestrian walks past an AT&T store in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Petrocelli, a partner at O‘Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, has represented Walt Disney ( DIS.N ) and Time Warner in the past. Last year, he defended then-presidential candidate Donald Trump against fraud lawsuits related to real estate seminars known as Trump University. The Justice Department is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit as soon as this week to block the $85.4 billion AT&T deal. The department has approached 18 state attorneys general to try to win their support for a lawsuit, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-timewarner-m-a-at-t-lawyer/att-hires-ex-trump-lawyer-to-defend-possible-time-warner-deal-lawsuit-idUKKBN1DG2EY'|'2017-11-16T18:43:00.000+02:00'
'2e996b0ada6e66ff60127c1922c2fa629f509738'|'Ackman sells Air Products, Nomad Foods positions, makes strong profit'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman told his hedge fund clients on Wednesday that he liquidated positions in Air Products and Chemicals Inc and Nomad Foods Ltd, investments that earned them a lot of money.William ''Bill'' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid In a letter sent late on Wednesday and seen by Reuters, Ackman said investors in funds run by his Pershing Square Capital Management made a 35 percent gain on Nomad Foods in just over two years.At Air Products and Chemicals Inc. investors earned a 104.7 percent return during Pershing Square’s 4-1/2 year long investment. Before he arrived, Air Products was an industry laggard, Ackman wrote.With new management and a board that worked collaboratively, Air Products is “now the most profitable company in the industrial gas industry,” he said.Ackman noted problems as well including a tumble in Chipotle Mexican Grill’s stock after a food safety issue in July. “We are working with the new Chipotle board and management to assist the company in turning around its operations,” Ackman wrote.In the third quarter, Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings Ltd fund lost 3.7 percent, the letter said.In his letter, Ackman, who often seeks to replace top management in target companies, mentioned Chipotle’s new Chief Restaurant Officer Scott Boatwright and Chief Digital and Information Officer Curt Garner but no one else.He also sought to put a positive light on last week’s lost proxy contest at Automatic Data Processing where he wanted three board seats.He said that management’s commitments to make improvements should pay off for his investors. But he added: “If management fails to deliver, we will be focused on next year’s annual meeting.”Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hedgefunds-ackman/ackman-sells-air-products-nomad-foods-positions-makes-strong-profit-idUSKBN1DG04R'|'2017-11-16T03:12:00.000+02:00'
'a9c7ad3b46b9e72dfbddc53c60aa48dd15944a1b'|'Sales growth at Walmart''s Asda slows in latest quarter'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:34 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Asda''s stalling sales growth shows new boss'' challenge James Davey 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sales growth at Asda, the British supermarket arm of Walmart ( WMT.N ), the world’s largest retailer, slowed in its latest quarter, showing the tough task facing its new boss to rev-up its recovery in a cut-throat market. FILE PHOTO: An ASDA employee walks beneath a company logo outside a store in Manchester, northern England, July 8 , 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Last month, Asda said Chief Executive Sean Clarke, a Walmart veteran of 21 years, would step down in January after just 18 months in the job and be replaced by head of operations Roger Burnley, a former Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ) executive. Asda and its major rivals -- market leader Tesco ( TSCO.L ), Sainsbury’s and Morrisons ( MRW.L ) -- are all grappling with the rapid growth of German discounters Aldi and Lidl. They are also having to cope with more expensive food imports due to a weaker pound since Britain voted to leave the European Union, while consumer spending is under pressure from rising inflation, subdued wage growth and economic uncertainty. Of Britain’s major players analysts reckon Asda was hurt the most by the rise of the discounters as its traditional price advantage was eroded. Walmart said in February it was too slow in starting the repositioning of Asda and had not focused enough on using its leverage as a parent so that its British arm could be more aggressive on price cuts. Asda’s like-for-like sales rose 1.1 percent in the three months to Sept. 30, its fiscal third quarter -- a second straight quarter of underlying sales growth after three years of sales falls but below the previous quarter’s growth of 1.8 percent, which was boosted by Easter trading. Asda’s gross profit rate declined in the quarter. MORE WORK TO DO FILE PHOTO: Shopping bags are displayed at the Asda superstore in High Wycombe, Britain, February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo “The improvements in store experience and price investments are increasing store basket sizes,” said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon. Basket size increased 2.5 percent but customer traffic was down 1.4 percent. Brett Biggs, Walmart’s finance chief, said the parent was pleased with Asda’s performance but said “we know we have more work to do.” Asda’s comparative numbers were extremely weak - in the same quarter last year like-for-like sales slumped 5.8 percent. Also Asda would have benefited from food price inflation across the industry - running at 3.4 percent according to the latest industry data. That data, published on Tuesday, also showed Asda recorded the lowest rate of sales growth of the big four in the 12 weeks to Nov.5. Shares in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons were up 0.3, 1.1 and 1.6 percent respectively. Last week, Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ) said its food business faced “stronger headwinds” and would slow openings of its convenience stores, while Sainsbury’s said shoppers were currently “very value conscious”. On Thursday, official data showed British retail sales volumes fell 0.3 percent year-on-year in October -- the biggest decline since March 2013. Clarke and Burnley have focused their turnaround efforts on re-establishing Asda’s competitiveness by sharpening pricing in key areas such as fresh meat and vegetables, improving the quality and availability of product ranges and making its stores more attractive. Like rivals they are attacking costs. In September Asda cut 300 head office jobs. “The market environment will continue to be challenging into next year but we’re well placed with clear plans,” Clarke said. Separately on Thursday Walmart reported better-than-expected quarterly sales. Editing by Kate Holton and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asda-outlook/sales-growth-at-walmarts-asda-slows-in-latest-quarter-idUKKBN1DG1P1'|'2017-11-16T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'8d4fe2399bdf43a5596ff73500ee9966c24f64b5'|'Recovery rally for European stocks as cyclicals make a comeback'|'November 16, 2017 / 8:38 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Recovery rally for European stocks as cyclicals make a comeback Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares enjoyed a recovery on Thursday, snapping their longest losing streak since October 2016 as the cyclicals sectors which had driven a market-wide sell-off made a comeback. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed 0.4 percent, with the cyclicals-heavy DAX .GDAXI up 0.5 percent while Britain''s FTSE 100 .FTSE and Italy''s top stock index .FTMIB lagged, trading flat. Financial services, basic resources and technology sectors were among the best-performing, driving the market higher while recovering oil prices also helped support energy stocks. Investors continued to digest a raft of earnings updates, with all the top movers reacting to results. French telecoms firm Bouygues ( BOUY.PA ) led gains, up 3.8 percent after raising its profitability goal for the year, buoyed by a robust 37 percent jump in nine-month operating profits. London-listed private equity firm 3i Group ( III.L ) also rose, by 4.2 percent, after results, while shares in postal group Royal Mail ( RMG.L ) climbed after letter revenues fell less than expected. Facilities and catering firm Sodexo ( EXHO.PA ) however fell 4.9 percent as traders expressed disappointment over its margin guidance and annual revenues coming in slightly below consensus forecasts. The company on Wednesday said it was buying U.S. company Centerplate for $675 million, putting more pressure on its results to impress and justify the expenditure. Troubled British engineer GKN ( GKN.L ) sank 5.2 percent, the top faller after it announced a further write-off and ditching CEO designate Kevin Cummings. Overall the MSCI EMU index of euro zone companies is tracking earnings growth of 10.7 percent in dollar terms for the third quarter, with basic materials, financials and technology the main drivers of earnings beats. The broader MSCI Europe index is delivering 10 percent earnings growth. Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Danilo Masoni'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/recovery-rally-for-european-stocks-as-cyclicals-make-a-comeback-idUKKBN1DG0YF'|'2017-11-16T10:38:00.000+02:00'
'efe07e5e6c1ceef8ca164d1ea0ab935545f264ec'|'Advertiser WPP prepared to up ADK stake if Bain offer fails'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:51 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Advertiser WPP prepared to up ADK stake if Bain offer fails Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP ( WPP.L ) said it would be prepared to raise its stake in Japanese partner Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK) ( 9747.T ) to 33 percent from 25 percent if a disputed tender offer for the company by U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital failed. ADK is seeking to end a two-decade-old business alliance with WPP, asking the world’s largest advertising group to sell its shares to Bain in a $1.35 billion deal. But WPP and other large shareholders, including London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management Company, have held out for a higher offer from Bain. The latest move by WPP deepens an acrimonious spat over the deal between the long-time alliance partners. A 33 percent stake is just below a key threshold that would allow it to veto board decisions. WPP this month took legal action against ADK, seeking arbitration and a preliminary injunction to uphold its stance that ADK’s planned termination of their business alliance was invalid. In a statement dated Nov. 15, UK-based WPP said it had been approached by other shareholders as well as ADK’s management asking it to clarify its commitment to ADK in the event the tender offer failed. “With the approval of the board and other shareowners we would also be prepared, as requested by some shareowners, to increase our shareholding in ADK to 33 percent,” WPP said. In addition, WPP said, it would “welcome the opportunity to engage constructively” with ADK’s board to make sure the company was capable of increasing its value for the benefit of long-term shareholders. ADK said it had not received WPP’s statement and declined to comment. ADK’s shares were up 1.3 percent at 3,480 yen in morning trade on Thursday, slightly outperforming the broader Tokyo market. Bain Capital is seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent in ADK and has offered to buy shares for 3,660 yen a piece. Last week, it extended the period for the tender offer by about a week to Nov. 21 to give shareholders more time to consider the offer, given WPP’s legal action. Bain has said its offer is full and final. ADK and WPP formed their alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures and cultivate clients. They exchanged equity stakes but the Japanese firm says synergies from the tie-up failed to materialize. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/wpp-prepared-to-boost-asatsu-dk-stake-to-33-percent-if-bains-takeover-bid-fails-idUKKBN1DG0A0'|'2017-11-16T05:38:00.000+02:00'
'2ffce50d86cc55a21f84a62b6ea84c5896d7c18b'|'Austrian bank BAWAG reports record Q3 pretax profit'|'VIENNA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Austria’s BAWAG, the former trade union bank that was majority-owned by U.S. private equity firm Cerberus until its listing last month, posted its highest ever third-quarter pretax profit on Thursday, driven mainly by higher core revenues.BAWAG said profit before tax rose 7.9 percent to 131.8 million euros ($155.5 million) in the three months through September compared with the same period a year earlier. That brought the nine-month total for this year to 382.4 million euros.The bank repeated its outlook for 2017, including profit before tax of more than 500 million euros.$1 = 0.8478 euros Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bawag-results/austrian-bank-bawag-reports-record-q3-pretax-profit-idINV9N1IZ01M'|'2017-11-16T04:03:00.000+02:00'
'a6c98451ab706c28795d766c4da4d61bfc587910'|'EU watchdog turns up heat on ''closet indexing'' investment funds'|' 16 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago EU watchdog turns up heat on ''closet indexing'' investment funds Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s securities watchdog is turning up the heat on investment funds that charge high fees for picking stocks when in practise they track shares in a market index. The watchdog’s move to scrutinise these funds forms part of efforts by EU policymakers to ensure consumers are treated fairly in terms of the investment fees charged on their savings. Funds that openly track an index charge lower fees than funds which seek to outperform the broader market by using their expertise to select stocks. But some stock-picking funds charge higher fees when they are effectively index trackers. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said it will build up a picture of this so-called “closet indexing” based on data gathered by national regulators from across the bloc. It will also check that national regulators are tackling closet indexing in the same way. “From our perspective, our objective is to ensure that national competent authorities are taking convergent approaches to situations where deficiencies are identified,” ESMA Chair Steven Maijoor told a conference organised by EFAMA, the European funds industry body. In a single market, where the cross-border distribution of funds is widespread, ESMA wants to ensure that investors are treated fairly across all member states, Maijoor said. Thursday’s announcement marks an escalation of ESMA’s work on closet indexing. Last year, it said there might be a small but not insignificant number of funds in the EU that might be closet trackers. ESMA had already rung alarm bells in the funds sector by announcing it will complete a study of fees and past performance of mutual funds by late 2018. So far it has found that on average nearly 30 percent of the gross fund return was eaten up by ongoing fees, one-off charges and inflation. “As a complimentary exercise, however, we intend to carry out more detailed analysis of the performance of active and passive funds,” Maijoor said. The industry is gathering its own data in a bid to fend off policy action. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is further down the road and is due to come up with “remedies” on injecting more transparency into fees. Maijoor said ESMA will benefit from the “significant work” done by the FCA’s market study. The European watchdog will also study performance fees charged by funds so that regulators across the EU are consistent in how they approve performance fee models. Maijoor said ESMA will publish guidance in 2019 on “stress testing” of mutual and alternative investment funds to check if they can withstand severe market shocks. Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-funds-regulator/eu-watchdog-turns-up-heat-on-closet-indexing-investment-funds-idUKKBN1DG1HA'|'2017-11-16T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'a2b11d025be6e7c65875cda0721473eb6c01e416'|'Dwindling British fortunes to be laid bare'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 16 hours ago Dwindling British fortunes to be laid bare Padraic Halpin 4 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - The diverging trajectories of Britain and other major economies is set to be further laid bare in the coming week with London’s budget forecasters poised to cut their growth outlook and data elsewhere likely to remain solid. Britain''s Finance Secretary Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street, London, Britain, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Chancellor Philip Hammond will deliver Britain’s budget for 2018 on Wednesday, likely the last full spending and tax plan before the terms of Brexit are hammered out with the economy set for a difficult year as its EU withdrawal approaches. Under pressure for bold action after a disastrous election in June highlighted voters’ weariness with years of austerity, Hammond has almost no scope for sizeable tax cuts or a big increase in investment, unless he tears up his budget rules aiming to turn the deficit into a surplus by the mid-2020s. Coming hot on the heels of the first increase in UK interest rates for over 10 years, Britain’s budget forecasters have said they will “significantly” cut their outlook for productivity growth, complicating an already delicate task. “The Chancellor is in an unenviable position heading into the budget,” Mark Gregory, chief UK economist at accountancy firm EY, wrote in a note. “Given the major uncertainties facing the economy centred on Brexit, the Chancellor is reportedly concerned that investor confidence in the UK could be seriously damaged if he abandons the fiscal framework adopted only a year ago.” “However if he maintains his fiscal stance, the UK economy will be facing both monetary and fiscal tightening at the same time as growth slows — a potentially unappetising cocktail.” Such a predicament means any ‘giveaways’ in areas such as house-building and public sector pay will have to be balanced by ‘takeaways’, according to economists at Oxford Economics, who predict a fiscally-neutral set of measures. EURO ZONE MOMENTUM While economists polled by Reuters this week predicted that British economic growth will remain tepid over the coming few years, and could even be worse than currently forecast, the euro zone is exhibiting increasingly better fortunes. Polling over the same period suggested the euro zone economy will mark its best year in a decade and maintain solid growth well into 2018, with respondees noting that the risk was that their forecasts might not be optimistic enough. Annual growth forecast to average 2.2 this year and 1.9 percent next year across the 19-member currency bloc compared with UK growth of 1.5 percent in 2017 and 1.3 percent in 2018. Just three years ago, Britain’s economy was growing at an annual rate of 2.9 percent, more than twice that of the euro zone. Top investors attending the Reuters 2018 Global Investment Outlook Summit this week were also enthused by strong European growth and tightening of the Franco-German axis at the heart of the euro zone. That differing momentum is likely to be highlighted the day after Hammond’s budget with the release of flash surveys of private business activity in France, Germany and the euro zone as a whole. The euro zone’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased off slightly to 56.0 from 56.7 in October but remained in line with its third quarter average and new orders rose. “The overall PMI level is likely to remain high, and these projected outcomes would be consistent with Q4 GDP growth of around 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter after 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3,” analysts at Nomura said. PMIs for Japan and the United States follow on Friday. Few expect U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week data or Wednesday’s minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting to halt a third interest rate hike in 2017 next month. “We don’t expect any significant news from the minutes of the November 1 FOMC (Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee) meeting,” RBC Capital Markets economists wrote in a note. “Which is fortunate because most market participants will be busy baking pumpkin pies.” Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy-outlook/dwindling-british-fortunes-to-be-laid-bare-idUKKBN1DH21B'|'2017-11-17T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'6cd7dd7b42b18f198561026ac4053d12e6cfa020'|'Affinion seeks to sell AD&D unit to cut debt: sources'|'(Reuters) - Affinion Group Holdings Inc, a U.S. provider of loyalty programs and insurance products, is exploring a sale of its accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) business as it seeks to trim its debt pile, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.The move comes after Affinion refinanced most of its $1.8 billion in debt earlier this year, pushing back its maturity from 2018 to 2022. This bought time for Affinion but also created a significant burden in terms of interest payments, according to credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service Inc.The sale process, which is being run by investment bank Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ), has attracted several private equity firms, and could value Affinion’s AD&D business at around $700 million, the sources said.The sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is confidential. Affinion did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.Stamford, Connecticut-based Affinion is trying to find its footing after a debt restructuring in 2015 failed to relieve it from enough of its debt liabilities.Prior to the 2015 restructuring, private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC ( APO.N ) owned much of Affinion. Under the debt reorganization’s terms, the private equity firm gave up control to the company’s creditors.AD&D is part of Affinion’s insurance solutions segment, which covers over 20 million Americans and also includes supplemental coverage for hospital care and life insurance, according to its website.The AD&D unit generates 12-month earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $70 million and $79 million, according to one of the sources.Reporting by David French in New York; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-affinion-divestiture-insurance/affinion-seeks-to-sell-add-unit-to-cut-debt-sources-idUSKBN1DH2VM'|'2017-11-18T07:47:00.000+02:00'
'a9acae6266f727e8ffcce256dbb9420a73c66338'|'Volkswagen board discusses 70 billion euro spending plan - source'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:51 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Volkswagen board discusses 70 billion euro spending plan - source   Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) supervisory board is discussing a five-year spending plan totalling more than 70 billion euros (62.5 billion pounds) to further transform the group into a leader in electric cars, a person familiar with the talks told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The board is expected to sign off on the capital and development spending targets on Friday, the person said. The investments will likely be made in the 2018-2022 period, said another person briefed on the discussions. Volkswagen declined to comment on the volume of the planned budget. Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Kathrin Jones and Christoph Steitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-investment/volkswagen-board-discusses-70-billion-euro-spending-plan-source-idUKKBN1DH0XD'|'2017-11-17T10:50:00.000+02:00'
'503b8586fe66eba45403ff6336fe44167f79183c'|'Deliveroo raises nearly $500 million ahead of 200th city launch'|'November 17, 2017 / 4:27 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Deliveroo raises nearly $500 million ahead of 200th city launch Sophie Sassard 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British food delivery company Deliveroo has raised an additional $98 million (£74 million) from private investors, bringing its fundraising to almost $500 million just before launching in its 200th city in Cannes next week. FILE PHOTO: A cyclist rides a bicyle as he delivers food for Deliveroo, an example of the emergence of what is known as the ''gig economy'', in Paris, France, April 7, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The company, known for its green and white kangaroo logo, previously raised $385 million from investors led by T.Rowe price Associates and Fidelity Management and Research. The funding, which values the tech firm at more than $2 billion, will primarily be used to grow its Editions programme of delivery-only kitchens that allow partner restaurants to expand without upfront costs facing traditional restaurants, such as rent and staff. The financing also aims to help the firm, which competes against publicly traded rivals Delivery Hero ( DHER.DE ) and Just Eat ( JE.L ), expand its technology team and grow in new cities and countries, such as Cannes in France where it starts operating on Tuesday. Besides Britain, where it operates in 60 cities and towns, it offers food delivery in eight European countries, Australia, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. Deliveroo said its expansion would benefit the British economy where it would provide more well-paid and flexible work for riders and would help to generate substantial extra revenues for its restaurant partners. Earlier this month, a UK tribunal ruled that its 15,000 couriers were self-employed, confirming its stance against some unions and lawmakers which had criticised the tech firm for not granting its riders employment rights such as the minimum wage. The firm has always maintained that the vast majority of its couriers enjoy flexible working in what is dubbed the “gig economy”. Reporting by Sophie Sassard; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deliveroo-fundraising/deliveroo-raises-nearly-500-million-ahead-of-200th-city-launch-idUKKBN1DH24X'|'2017-11-17T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'c00e22202ce569269c1e995b5d6ff3ec5620bde5'|'HS2 contractor Carillion in fresh profit warning amid debt concerns - Business - The Guardian'|'Carillion , one of the construction companies working on the HS2 London to Birmingham rail line, is racing to refinance its business after issuing its third profit warning in five months and suffering a collapse in share price.Shares in the company, which is at the heart of several major building projects in the UK, were suspended eight times on Friday after the shock update to the City that i t would breach the terms on its existing lending at the end of the year.The shares crashed 60% when the stock market opened on Friday – to their lowest ever levels – and closed down 48% at 21.5p. At this price, about 25p, the shares are barely a tenth of the 240p level seen at the start of 2017 and the value of the company is just £92.5m.Carillion has debts of £1.6bn and analysts expect the company – known for its work on expanding the main stand at Liverpool’s Anfield football ground and its ongoing development of Battersea power station – to have to ask its lenders to swap their debt for shares.The company employs 43,000 staff, two-thirds of them in the UK, and has contracts with the Highways Agency, Network Rail and the Ministry of Defence. It is building hospitals including Merseyside’s Royal Liverpool and also has a support services operation which has maintenance contracts for buildings.The government, one of its major customers, said it was being kept informed. “We remain supportive of their ongoing discussions with their stakeholders and await future updates on their progress,” the Cabinet Office said.Nicholas Hyett, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the situation as an ongoing “horror show”. In July, the company issued a profits warning and announced the departure of the chief executive Richard Howson . In September it stunned the City again with another profits warning.“Some sort of recapitalisation was inevitable, but a possible debt for equity swap, with debt even higher than the group had anticipated, is probably as bad as anyone would have guessed,” Hyett said.The company said the latest warning to the City was caused by delays to its attempts to sell off some of its public private partnership (PPP) deals, a delay to a “significant project” in the Middle East, and a squeeze on profit margins in some of its support services contracts in the UK.Carillion aims to arrange the refinancing before April, when the new chief executive, Andrew Davies, is due to start.The interim chief executive, Keith Cochrane, said “constructive dialogue” was under way with lenders and shareholders. Cochrane has been leading a programme to cut debt, reduce risks and scrutinise the management of each of its hundreds of contracts.“Whilst we continue to target cash collections, reduce costs, executive disposals and focus on delivering for our customers, it is clear that significant remain and more needs to be done to reduce net debt and rebuild the balance sheet.”Union officials called for talks with management and said thousands relied on the company for work through subcontracts and agencies. Bernard McAulay, Unite’s national officer for construction, said members needed a “warts-and-all prognosis of the company’s long-term future”.Talks are already being held about the pension scheme, which has a £587m deficit.Carillion admitted it needed a “recapitalisation” and said that because of delays to its asset disposal programme and payments on contracts its borrowing for 2017 would be between £875m and £925m.Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read moreLast month it secured some new credit facilities and is in talks with its lenders to extend the terms of its debt – relating to the level of money owed to revenue – from the end of December to the end of April.Andrew Hussey, from stockbroker Peel Hunt, said he was suspending his estimates on the company, while Joe Brent, analyst at Liberum, said he believed at least one of the banks owed money by Carillion had already written off part of its debt.“Equity does not normally have much value in these circumstances,” said Brent, adding that he expected a debt for equity swap.When Lloyds Banking Group published its third-quarter results in October it said its bad debt had risen because of a “single large corporate” running into trouble. Lloyds would not comment on whether this referred to Carillion.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Carillion Construction industry news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/17/hs2-carillion-profit-warning-debt-shares'|'2017-11-17T16:23:00.000+02:00'
'b542416325160a6160f0a2ed6442f83721e4d9fd'|'U.S. fund investors snub domestic stocks'|'November 15, 2017 / 8:20 PM / in an hour U.S. fund investors snub domestic stocks Reuters Staff 3 Min Read By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - U.S. investors dashed into funds that buy stocks outside the country at the fastest pace since July, while pulling money out of domestic equities, Investment Company Institute (ICI) data showed on Wednesday. World stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds attracted $6.5 billion during the week ended Nov. 8, the 49th straight week of inflows and the largest haul in 16 weeks, according to the trade group. That compares to $3.7 billion of withdrawals from domestic-focused stock funds. The data covers only funds based in the United States. U.S.-based bond funds attracted $5.4 billion during the week, marking their 46th consecutive week of inflows, ICI said. The data reinforces a theme in markets this year: U.S. stocks have scaled new peaks, yet U.S. fund investors are buying bonds and international stocks in greater amount than equities. The S&P 500 has gained 17 percent so far in 2017, including dividends. It is off about a percentage point from its closing high this month, on Nov. 8. Pimco global economic advisor Joachim Fels said it is wrong to see investors'' moves into bonds this year as defensive. "I don''t view this as an expression of fear," Fels said at Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in New York on Tuesday. "It''s moving to the riskier parts of the fixed-income credit spectrum." The following table shows estimated ICI flows for mutual funds and ETFs (all figures in millions of dollars): 11/8 11/1 10/25 10/18 10/11/2017 Equity 2,839 -1,624 9,999 12,609 3,407 Domestic -3,660 -5,454 5,159 6,968 -1,623 World 6,499 3,830 4,840 5,641 5,030 Hybrid -373 -999 -506 -724 -497 Bond 5,444 7,450 10,854 9,324 9,144 Taxable 4,541 7,224 9,942 8,383 8,671 Municipal 903 226 913 941 473 Commodity -153 -242 98 -428 265 Total 7,757 4,585 20,445 20,781 12,319 (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-mutualfunds-ici/u-s-fund-investors-snub-domestic-stocks-idUSL1N1NL1HX'|'2017-11-15T22:19:00.000+02:00'
'3c19e1a9d1838a09fc986f402f9905c1a4451002'|'Manchester United reports 17.3 percent rise in first-quarter revenue'|'November 16, 2017 / 12:28 PM / in 3 hours Manchester United reports 17.3 percent rise in first-quarter revenue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - English soccer club Manchester United posted a 17.3 percent rise in first-quarter revenue helped by strong growth in both broadcasting and commercial businesses. Britain Football Soccer - Manchester United v West Ham United - EFL Cup Quarter Final - Old Trafford - 30/11/16 General view before the match Action Images via Reuters / Jason Cairnduff Livepic United, whose leading players include Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, are currently top of their group in the lucrative Champions League competition and are second in the 20-team English Premier League. The club’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the three months to Sept 30 rose to 36.6 million pounds ($48.3 million) from 31.2 million pounds a year earlier, reflecting its participation in this season’s Champions League, Europe’s top club tournament. Revenue for the period came in at 141 million pounds, compared with 120.2 million pounds year ago. ($1 = 0.7582 pounds) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/manchester-utd-results/manchester-united-reports-17-3-percent-rise-in-first-quarter-revenue-idINKBN1DG1O5'|'2017-11-16T14:24:00.000+02:00'
'ec57f5c7e91bbaa17b68a83970790b512b7d7bbf'|'Nissan''s Infiniti to start producing new SUV in China next year'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co’s ( 7201.T ) premium brand Infiniti will start producing next year a new crossover sport-utility vehicle in China, its No.2 market after the United States, using existing manufacturing capacity in the northeastern city of Dalian.Nissan signs are seen outside a Nissan auto dealer in Broomfield, Colorado October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The company did not provide more details about the SUV or how much it planned to spend on what would be the third Infiniti vehicle model to be produced in China. But it did say that the new SUV would be produced on the Dalian assembly line with Nissan SUVs X-Trail and QASHQAI.The plan to manufacture in Dalian reinforces Infiniti’s “commitment to this important market”, Lu Yi, head of Infiniti China, said in the statement seen by Reuters. The automaker is expected to announce the move at a planned press briefing at the Guangzhou auto show later on Friday.In a bid to ramp up sales in China, Infiniti began producing in 2014 the Q50 sedan and a long wheel-base version of the same car in the Hubei province city of Xiangyang. Both models are being produced at Xiangyang along with Nissan cars, as well.Infiniti’s China sales through October totaled 37,977 vehicles, up 15 percent from a year ago. Globally, it sold a total of 200,414 vehicles over the period, up 9 percent.Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-guangzhou-nissan-infiniti/nissans-infiniti-to-start-producing-new-suv-in-china-next-year-idUSKBN1DH051'|'2017-11-17T03:20:00.000+02:00'
'b23f05df7b02a0b6f125b3c632f9d46eba2d156f'|'Exclusive - Germany''s top banks step up efforts to offload toxic shipping debt'|'Reuters TV United States November 17, 2017 / 12:53 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Exclusive: Germany''s top banks step up efforts to offload toxic shipping debt Jonathan Saul , Arno Schuetze 5 Min Read LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Top national lenders Deutsche Bank <DBK Gn.DE> and Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ) are stepping up efforts to offload distressed shipping loans, finance sources said, as the German banking system grapples with $100 billion in toxic debt from the sector. FILE PHOTO - Banners of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are pictured in front of a trader at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach While the shipping sector is showing signs of recovery after a near-decade long downturn, it is still struggling with an excess of ships and sluggish growth in global trade, which has led to some shipping companies going to the wall. German banks, once global leaders in ship financing, have written off billions of euros in loans to shipping companies, while other European lenders - facing capital pressure from regulators - have quit the business. Two finance sources with knowledge of the matter said Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship lender, is looking to ringfence at least $250 million of distressed shipping loans and package them in a unit within the group, with a view to selling the debt going forward. “The idea is to package them together in one part of the bank - given how many units there are in Deutsche - and then look to sell them off at a discount. This appears to be a new approach by them,” one of the sources said. It was unclear how long the process would take, but the source said further tranches of loans could also be transferred. A third finance source said Deutsche had been looking at warehousing distressed shipping loans for some time. The bank declined to comment. In its quarterly results last month, Deutsche said its loan exposure to the shipping sector was approximately 5 billion euros ($5.90 billion). “A high proportion of the portfolio is sub investment-grade rated in reflection of the prolonged challenging market conditions over recent years,” it said. In July 2016, sources told Reuters that Deutsche Bank was looking to sell at least $1 billion of shipping loans. However, Deutsche’s 2016 annual report showed its loan exposure to shipping was still around 5 billion euros - indicating little movement to date. German banks are estimated by shipping finance sources to be holding at least $100 billion in distressed shipping loans and shipping finance sources say much of this debt is unlikely to be recouped in full, meaning heavy losses on investments. Banks in Germany were particularly exposed to container shipping, a market that has been weak for years. In a separate move two finance sources said Commerzbank, Germany’s second biggest bank, had in recent weeks sold over $300 million of shipping loans to Germany’s Berenberg Bank and investment fund Cross Ocean Partners. Berenberg told Reuters it had purchased “middle three-digit shipping loans from Commerzbank in conjunction with a U.S. private equity/debt fund”, without providing further details. Commerzbank declined to comment, while Cross Ocean did not respond to requests for comment. Commerzbank said this month it had reduced its shipping portfolio by more than 30 percent - or 1.5 billion euros - in the first nine months of this year to 3.3 billion euros, and the bank was on track for a year-end target of around 3 billion euros. It added that it was considering running down its shipping portfolio “even faster than planned”. “The ship finance rundown will be almost completely finalised well before the original 2020 target,” Commerzbank’s Chief Financial Officer Stephan Engels told a November earnings call. This week U.S. buyout fund Cerberus [CBS.UL] acquired a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank, becoming one of the bank’s biggest shareholders. Cerberus has also built a 5 percent stake in Commerzbank - adding to further speculation of a merger between Germany’s top lenders. Sources told Reuters in September that Germany’s DZ Bank [DETGNY.UL] is looking for a quick sale of its shipping finance business DVB after its transport division booked provisions for bad loans of 445 million euros in the first half. ($1 = 0.8477 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-banks-germany-exclusive/exclusive-germanys-top-banks-step-up-efforts-to-offload-toxic-shipping-debt-idUKKBN1DH1JF'|'2017-11-17T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'3366a76515a14fd152979adecab0da1b29dff5a5'|'''No fireworks'' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress - source'|'November 18, 2017 / 7:20 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago ''No fireworks'' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress: source David Ljunggren , Dave Graham 3 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Negotiators at high stakes talks to update NAFTA have so far kept their tempers but are not making much progress on tough U.S. demands that could sink the 1994 trade pact, a well-placed source said on Saturday. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting in Mexico City for the fifth of seven planned rounds to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from. Time is running short to seal a deal by the deadline of end-March 2018. Officials say next year’s Mexican presidential election means talks after that date will not be possible. The U.S. administration has made a series of demands that the other members say are unacceptable, such as a five-year sunset clause and tightening so-called rules of origin to boost the North American content of autos to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent. “It is very slow moving but there are no fireworks,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks, adding there had “not been much conversation at all” on the more contentious U.S. proposals. Officials have so far discussed other issues such as labor, gender, intellectual property, energy and telecommunications but it is too soon to say whether there will be any breakthroughs during this round, added the source. The talks are due to end next Tuesday. Though the mood in the fifth round has been calmer than the tense scenes seen last month during the fourth round in Arlington, Virginia, the negotiations are now beyond the halfway point of an initial schedule with few clear signs of process. A NAFTA logo is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Mexican officials say they hope chapters on telecommunications and e-commerce will be concluded in the fifth round, but there has been no indication of this yet. Although negotiators are scheduled to discuss rules of origin every day starting Saturday, the source said detailed talks on boosting North American content would not be held before the end of the round. Canada and Mexico say the new rules of origin are unworkable and would damage the highly-integrated auto industry. “I hope the United States understands there are things ... that Mexico won’t accept, and (I hope) the negotiating process becomes more rational,” Moises Kalach, head of the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby, told Reuters late on Friday. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Friday revised its official objectives to conform to demands that it currently has on the negotiating table. The move prompted U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, to remove a “hold” he had put in place to block the confirmation of two Trump administration nominees for deputy USTR positions, a Wyden aide said. Wyden complained the trade office had been keeping members of Congress “in the dark” about its tactics and was not in compliance with U.S. trade negotiating laws. Additional reporting by David Lawder, Adriana Barrera and Noe Torres in Mexico City; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/no-fireworks-at-nafta-talks-but-few-signs-of-progress-source-idUKKBN1DI0QT'|'2017-11-18T21:12:00.000+02:00'
'fdb3349ce28ec618abf2c39c681a661de181835b'|'Allianz well-shielded against takeover attempts: Boersen-Zeitung'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Allianz ( ALVG.DE ), the world’s fourth-largest insurer by market value, is well-protected against potential takeover attempts, its chief financial officer told a German paper.FILE PHOTO: People arrive for the annual shareholders'' meeting of Europe''s biggest insurer Allianz SE, in Munich, Germany May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo “Whoever wanted to buy a company like Allianz with a market value of more than 85 billion euros ($100 billion) would still have to pay a premium, too. We are well-protected due to our size,” Dieter Wemmer told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview.Friday’s closing price of 197.05 euros a share gives Allianz a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros, according to Reuters data.Sources told Reuters in September that China’s Anbang Insurance Group [ANBANG.UL] and HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] both considered buying into Allianz this year as part of plans to become global financial powerhouses.The separate talks, which were at an early stage and did not result in formal bids, were called off due to expected regulatory hurdles in Germany and China and the fact that Allianz showed little interest, the sources added.“I seriously have no idea where this topic came from,” Wemmer told the paper when asked about this.Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-allianz-m-a/allianz-well-shielded-against-takeover-attempts-boersen-zeitung-idINKBN1DI0E5'|'2017-11-18T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'f7bab3fd7540a71e871aef18175a55af6e12bd5c'|'Bankers shifting from London after Brexit may face lower pay'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:28 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Bankers shifting from London after Brexit may face lower pay Lawrence White 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers relocating from London to other European financial hubs following Britain’s exit from the European Union could face lower pay packages, according to an industry survey published on Friday by compensation consultant Emolument. FILE PHOTO - People walk through the financial district of Canary Wharf, London, Britain 28 September 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde The average managing director, one of the more senior ranks in investment banking, earns 478,000 pounds a year in London compared with 312,000 pounds in Paris, 298,000 pounds in Frankfurt and 333,000 pounds in Milan, the survey said. Those figures comprise the average annual salary and bonus combined of 4,475 front-office bankers’ pay packages analysed for the study, Emolument said. Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the UK is denied access to Europe’s single market, according to a Reuters survey of firms in September. Frankfurt was by far the most popular destination for the new roles, the Reuters survey said, with Paris a distant second. London leads the pay market across all ranks of investment banking from the most junior associates up to managing directors, the Emolument study showed. Frankfurt comes second for more junior staff while Paris is second to London in terms of pay for senior executives. Pay is not the only consideration for bankers looking at which of the European financial centres offers the most attractive overall lifestyle. In Frankfurt, 70 percent of bankers interviewed said they had a good work-life balance, Emolument said, as against 61 percent for London and 59 percent for Paris. “As regards moving away from London to other EU capitals, while pay may be lower, pain points such as schooling and generally higher quality of life should compensate bankers transferring to the continent,” Alice Leguay, co-founder at Emolument said. Reporting By Lawrence White. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-pay/bankers-shifting-from-london-after-brexit-may-face-lower-pay-idUKKBN1DH10R'|'2017-11-17T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'e1e4ee4bfa6f5221eb62a4beedb12c56dd63cb15'|'Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine'|'JAKARTA/TIMIKA, Indonesia, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia on Friday began evacuating villages that authorities said had been occupied by armed separatists after a string of shootings near the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport McMoRan Inc in the eastern province of Papua.Two police have been killed and at least 12 people have been wounded by gunfire in the area since mid-August. Police have blamed an “armed criminal group”, but others have said the gunmen were linked to separatist rebels.According to police reports, the armed group occupied the villages of Banti and Kimbely near the mining town of Tembagapura, and had prevented an estimated 1,300 residents from leaving the area, leading to food shortages.Police and military leaders said they have urged the gunmen to surrender, but have also warned that tough measures could follow if their “persuasive” approach fails.Residents were being evacuated to a sports hall in Tembagapura, according to a source at Freeport.Mimika Deputy Regent Yohanes Bassang asked families in Timika to accommodate relatives being evacuated from the villages “to avoid further problems”.Bassang said many of the villagers were from the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi and had come to the area to pan for gold.The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility for the shootings and declared war against the military, police and Freeport, but denied it was holding villagers hostage.According to several residents interviewed by Reuters, military and police officers were preventing them from getting food from Tembagapura, where food aid was delivered in a cargo container on Saturday.“The atmosphere has really heated up,” one resident said, referring to the shootings and concerns over food supplies and safety.Reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA and Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-security/indonesia-evacuates-villagers-after-shootings-near-freeport-mine-idINL3N1NN2FS'|'2017-11-17T05:05:00.000+02:00'
'73810b53605cf85df7f542975bd8e2e1ab9e5978'|'UPDATE 2-UK court finds for Dana Gas creditors in $700 mln Islamic bond case'|'* Case widely watched by global Islamic finance industry* UK judge rejects Dana challenges to purchase undertaking* Dana says will appeal* Bondholders call for negotiated settlement (Adds Dana statement, context)By Davide Barbuscia and Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A London High Court judge has ruled in favour of creditors in a dispute over whether United Arab Emirates energy company Dana Gas must repay $700 million of Islamic bonds.Dana Gas had said it was under no obligation to pay bondholders because of changes in Islamic finance, but Judge George Leggatt ruled that the company’s challenges to the purchase undertaking behind the bonds were “unfounded” and that the agreement was “valid and enforceable”.The case, which Dana said it would continue to fight in Britain and the UAE, is being closely watched by the global Islamic finance industry because some investors think it could set a precedent for other issuers of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, to refuse to redeem the debt at maturity.Dana says it does not have repay its sukuk, which matured last month, because changes in the interpretation of Islamic finance over the past few years mean the instruments are no longer sharia-compliant and have become unlawful in the UAE.That argument is disputed by sukuk holders including global fund manager BlackRock and by Deutsche Bank, which is representing investors.The case was heard in London because the sukuk was written under English law.Dana said on Friday that it would appeal the High Court ruling because some of its shareholders had obtained an injunction in a UAE court that prevented it from participating in the London hearings.The company also said it was looking ahead to a hearing by a UAE court on whether the structure of the sukuk -- a form of investment management partnership known as mudaraba -- was valid. That hearing is scheduled for Dec. 25.“It now turns to the UAE legal proceedings to give finality to the matter,” Dana said.The company denies that its case might set a precedent for the $370 billion global sukuk market, arguing that only a very small number of sukuk issuers now use the mudaraba structure.A committee representing sukuk holders said in a statement on Friday that it hoped the High Court ruling would pave the way for Dana to come to the negotiating table and discuss “possible consensual solutions”.Dana did not address the idea of a negotiated settlement in its statement on Friday. (Editing by David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dana-gas-sukuk/update-1-judge-rules-in-favour-of-creditors-in-dana-gas-islamic-bond-case-idINL8N1NN2ZL'|'2017-11-17T09:50:00.000+02:00'
'bc5aae869b4fa2440c8b1381decac5182a8992cb'|'China''s banking regulator plans to tighten shareholder rules'|'November 16, 2017 / 8:56 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago China''s banking regulator plans to tighten shareholder rules Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - China’s banking regulator on Thursday published draft rules that increase scrutiny over the relationship between commercial lenders and their shareholders, the latest in a slew of measures taken by Beijing to bolster supervision of its financial system. The provisional regulations, which the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) published on its official website, require any investor or investors wishing to hold shareholding of more than 5 percent in a commercial lender for the first time to apply with the regulator. The rules also outline loan concentration restrictions to major shareholders, actual controlling parties, and related parties. Commercial banks are also required to strengthen their examination of shareholder qualifications. In recent months, Chinese regulators have introduced a series of new measures aimed at controlling risk and leverage in the financial system, with everything from lending practices to shadow banking under the microscope. The move to more tightly regulate investment in the banking sector aims to reduce related-party transactions and uncompetitive business practices. The new rules come amid a probe into the M&A deals of China’s more acquisitive conglomerates, which has ensnared Anbang Insurance, a large shareholder of China Minsheng Banking Corp. Earlier this year, CBRC told the country’s banks to conduct “self-inspections” of their use of wealth management products and in other areas where loopholes may have been used to circumvent rules. This week, the banking regulator also issued guidelines on risk controls for lenders, focusing on loans overdue for 90 days or more, and strengthening liquidity risk management. (Reporting By Matthew Miller in Beijing and Engen Tham in Shanghai; Editing by Sam Holmes)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-banks-regulation/chinas-banking-regulator-plans-to-tighten-shareholder-rules-idUSL3N1NM2PH'|'2017-11-16T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'3919c4f0b0a4363f607d36fde239a028231f4662'|'BNP damps down Commerzbank tie-up talk, says just friends'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) Chairman Jean Lemierre on Friday damped down speculation that France’s biggest bank is interested in a tie-up with Germany’s Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ).Jean Lemierre, Chairman of BNP Paribas speaks during the 27th European Banking Congress at the Old Opera house in Frankfurt, Germany November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski “We are good friends. But we are friends. Competitors. And we like it,” Lemierre said at a banking conference in response to a question.“No more, no rumor, no comment,” he said, while seated next to Commerzbank Chief Executive Martin Zielke.Several people close to the matter said last month that Commerzbank was working with two investment banks to be prepared in case of a takeover bid from a European rival.The German government, which still holds a 15.6 percent stake in Commerzbank, has denied a report it favored a merger of the lender with BNP Paribas.Separately, Italy’s UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) has recently told Berlin it is interested in eventually merging with Commerzbank, according to people close to the matter.The investment of U.S. buyout fund Cerberus [CBS.UL] in both Commerzbank and peer Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) has added fuel to speculation that a merger between the two may be on the cards eventually.Lemierre and Zielke were speaking at a conference of elite bankers that also included Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.A moderator conducted a spot survey of the audience on factors holding back banking mergers and acquisitions in Europe.Nearly 31 percent, responding via a digital device, said “incompatible financial cultures” were the cause, while 23 percent said “legal fragmentation.” Other factors included supervisory obstacles, banks’ balance sheets and capital.Lemierre, responding to the survey, said the most important hurdle to consolidation was missing in the survey: “The business case,” he said. “We are business people.”Cryan, whose bank this week saw Cerberus build up a stake of 3 percent and spark talk of banking mergers, said Europe could benefit from a few big banks that could compete with U.S. and Chinese rivals.“The U.S. and China have very, very large banks which have the heft to invest globally, extend their reach, and withstand relatively long periods of low returns,” Cryan said.“Europe would be well served by having a handful of institutions which could compete on the global stage.”Editing by Adrian Croft and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bnp-commerzbank-consolidation/bnp-chairman-says-no-rumor-no-comment-on-possible-commerzbank-tie-up-idINKBN1DH18N'|'2017-11-17T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'0815e60d8b81faa560b7680e3de17533d6b5877a'|'SouthGobi Resources says CEO arrested in China'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:46 PM / in 16 minutes SouthGobi Resources says CEO arrested in China Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 17 (Reuters) - Coal miner SouthGobi Resources Ltd said on Friday its chief executive was arrested on Oct. 11 and detained at the Rizhao City Detention Center in China as a suspect in a fraudulent loan case. SouthGobi’s board has formed a special committee to investigate the charges against the CEO. Earlier this week, the company said the CEO was on leave and appointed Bing Wang as interim CEO. (Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southgobi-ceo/southgobi-resources-says-ceo-arrested-in-china-idUSL3N1NN3YJ'|'2017-11-17T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'f45743f8dd9d4b0e4a5b2cc7475dc2aac82d5069'|'Nikkei rises to more than 2-week high; chip-related stocks outperform'|'(Corrects milestone in headline and lede)TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to a more than one-week high on Friday morning, helped by shares in most sectors while chip-related stocks such as Sumco and Tokyo Electron outperformed.The Nikkei gained 0.8 percent to 22,536.93 in midmorning trade after rising to as high as 22,757.40, the highest since Nov. 9.The index has fallen 0.9 percent so far this week, on track to snap a nine-week winning streak.Semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron soared 3.2 percent and semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer Sumco Corp surged 3.8 percent.Consumer electronics products makers also staged a rally. Sony Corp gained 1.9 percent and Panasonic Corp advanced 1.4 percent.On the other hand, utility stocks slipped and were the worst performer on the board. Chubu Electric Power dropped 0.5 percent, Hokuriku Electric Power shed 1.3 percent and Tokyo Gas declined 0.3 percent.The broader Topix gained 0.6 percent to 1,771.71.Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Sam Holmes '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-rises-to-more-than-2-week-high-chip-related-stocks-outperform-idUSL3N1NN1FT'|'2017-11-17T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'd2c345314fb49b67477f9b2953917a6c6d08850f'|'EU watchdog tightens grip over use of foreign credit ratings'|'November 17, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated 2 hours ago EU watchdog tightens grip over use of foreign credit ratings Huw Jones , Marc Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s markets watchdog has tightened its grip over the use of credit ratings compiled outside the bloc in a taste of what the “Big Three” ratings agencies in London face after Brexit. The Fitch Ratings logo is seen at their offices at Canary Wharf financial district in London,Britain, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause For a credit rating compiled outside the EU to be used for regulatory purposes in the bloc, it must be “endorsed” by a credit rating agency authorized by EU’s European Securities and Markets Authority, or ESMA. More than two thirds of credit ratings that can be used for regulatory purposes in the EU are introduced through the endorsement regime. Nearly all endorsed credit ratings relate to non-EU issuers and financial instruments, it said. The world’s “Big Three” rating agencies, Moody‘s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch have their European bases in London. On Friday, ESMA updated its rules on endorsement that will come into force in January 2019, spelling out how it will be more intrusive in policing the regime to ensure investor protection. The tougher guidelines mean in practice that ESMA can obtain information about the internal workings of ratings agencies based outside the bloc, normally the preserve of local regulators only. “The updated guidelines make clear that ESMA can, and will, exercise its powers to request information from EU credit rating agencies about endorsed credit ratings,” ESMA Chair Steven Maijoor said in a statement. The changes to the rules puts the onus on the EU-based rating agency to “verify” and “demonstrate” that the conduct of the non-EU rating compiler “fulfils requirements that are at least as stringent as the EU requirements”. The watchdog can fine an EU agency that fails to do so. A view shows the Standard & Poor''s building in New York''s financial district February 5, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “When a credit rating is endorsed there must be an objective reason for elaborating the rating outside the EU.” Moody’s and S&P, which together represent 76 percent of the EU ratings market, said they were reviewing the guidelines. Fitch said it would work with ESMA to comply and remain “best placed to serve the needs of market participants from our dual headquarters in London”. DBRS said it would comply with regulations that allow it to work in the EU. A Moody''s sign is displayed on 7 World Trade Center, the company''s corporate headquarters in New York, February 6, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid When Britain leaves the EU in March 2019, these operations will be treated as foreign agencies whose ratings would need to be endorsed by an agency inside the bloc. The big agencies already have operations in several EU states, but may now need to move staff from London to them given tougher conditions for endorsement set out by ESMA on Friday. The watchdog also said the endorsement regime will continue to apply to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and the United States when other revisions to the bloc’s rating agency rules come into force in June 2018. Ratings agencies have questioned the need for tougher endorsement requirements for ratings from non-EU countries whose rules ESMA has already deemed “equivalent” to EU standards. ESMA said the endorsement regime contains additional safeguards to ensure the quality of the rating activities. Critics have told ESMA the new guidelines may lead to “geographical re-alignments” for big agencies, with the extra administrative costs passed on to customers. Editing by Jason Neely/Edmund Blair/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-creditratingagencies/eu-watchdog-tightens-grip-over-use-of-foreign-credit-ratings-idUKKBN1DH1J1'|'2017-11-17T16:26:00.000+02:00'
'870e54a558cb3e057e4ef49598b0c9a3499fc8c5'|'European secondary loan prices succumb to volatility'|'LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Average prices tumbled in Europe’s secondary loan market this week, reflecting volatility in the high-yield bond market as investors retreated from the asset class after highly indebted ‘junk’ rated companies reported poor earnings.Europe’s top 40 leveraged loans fell to an average of 100.24, down 30bp from 100.54 the previous week, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.The broader floating rate note market was also Quote: d 25bp-50bp lower this week, a London-based loan trader said.“Volatility has returned to the loan market. The street seems to have lightened up on risk,” the loan trader said.Netherlands listed telecom company Altice saw the telecom sector leading European leveraged loan prices lower as the US high yield market saw its biggest weekly outflow in more than three years of US$4.4bn in the week to November 15, according to Lipper.Altice’s €300m term loan B fall more than 100bp to an average bid of 98.98 in the week to Thursday, the loan trader said, adding that the telecom sector was down around 50bp on average.Loan pricing is typically less responsive to volatility than bond pricing, given lower trading volumes. A second trader noting that a 50bp move in the secondary loan market was a notable swing.Altice’s recent €500m 10-year bond issue was trading at 93.57 on Friday according to Tradeweb, having priced only last month at 4.75%, as the firm’s shares slumped by more than 10% on Friday.The company announced the loss of about 75,000 broadband customers in France, its biggest market, in its third quarter results in early November, with some lured by heavy promotions on offer at rivals.Concern has subsequently grown around the group and its ability to manage its €50bn debt pile, after chief executive Michel Combes resigned last week. (Editing by Tessa Walsh) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/secondary-loans/european-secondary-loan-prices-succumb-to-volatility-idINL8N1NN50I'|'2017-11-17T14:15:00.000+02:00'
'9df2aa8eda3d455384e6427b66908df92ba1d03b'|'BOJ stimulus exit made hard by Abe''s election win - former policymaker'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:39 AM / in 23 minutes BOJ stimulus exit made hard by Abe''s election win - former policymaker Leika Kihara 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Premier Shinzo Abe’s victory in last month’s election may make it difficult for the Bank of Japan to dial back its radical stimulus next year despite the rising cost of prolonged monetary easing, former BOJ board member Sayuri Shirai said on Friday. Critics, including Shirai, have warned that maintaining ultra-easy policy for too long could hurt, rather than help, the economy by eroding margins on loans and discouraging banks from boosting lending. In Zurich this week, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda referred to an academic study warning that lowering interest rates too far could be counter-productive for the economy. Shirai said the BOJ should start withdrawing stimulus by hiking its yield target and slowing asset purchases next year, given the rising cost and diminishing returns of its policy. “When the economy is in good shape like now, the BOJ needs to normalise monetary policy so it has the tools available to fight the next recession,” Shirai told Reuters. “But the election result has made that difficult,” she said. Raising the BOJ’s 10-year government bond yield target could trigger an unwelcome yen rise by narrowing the interest rate differentials between Japan and the United States, Shirai said. Any sign the BOJ could withdraw stimulus could also trigger an outflow of funds from overseas investors, who piled into Japanese stocks on expectations the central bank will keep its money spigot wide open, she said. “The BOJ probably wants to slow its asset purchases,” Shirai said. “But that may be difficult because the government puts a high priority on keeping stock prices high and the yen weak.” Abe, who came into office in 2012 vowing to eradicate two decades of economic stagnation with his “Abenomics” stimulus policies, won a landslide victory in the Oct. 22 election. That has heightened market expectations Abe will reappoint Kuroda, hand-picked by the premier to help eradicate deflation, when his five-year term ends next April. “There’s a pretty high chance Kuroda will be reappointed,” Shirai said. “The positive effect of the BOJ’s policy is limited, but it would be hard for Kuroda to change it.” Under a new policy framework adopted last year, the BOJ now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year bond yield around zero percent via huge asset purchases. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj/boj-stimulus-exit-made-hard-by-abes-election-win-former-policymaker-idINKBN1DH0WE'|'2017-11-17T10:37:00.000+02:00'
'45b70446da311d793c1906193e1c7004ddc78005'|'Buyers circle suddenly attractive U.S. media companies'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:04 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Buyers circle suddenly attractive U.S. media companies 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All of a sudden, it seems, everybody wants to own a U.S. media company. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. on November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo In the last few weeks, several of the world’s biggest telecommunications and media companies have started circling Twenty First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) with an eye to buying a significant piece of Rupert Murdoch’s global media and entertainment empire. Potential suitors include Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ), Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) and Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). Meanwhile, Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is considering a bid for Time Inc ( TIME.N ) and Discovery Communications Inc ( DISCA.O ) is acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive Inc ( SNI.O ). Viacom Inc ( VIAB.O ) shares rose 10 percent on Friday, suggesting it may also be a takeover target. The sudden surge in merger and acquisition activity in media looks to be powered by relatively low asset prices, cheap financing and the prospect of tax cuts. There are also longer-term forces at work: traditional media companies are struggling with more customers canceling pricy cable contracts while Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) and Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) are spending billions of dollars on making shows and movies. More viewers now stream programming on smartphones or other devices, diverting the flow of advertising dollars away from traditional media companies. “This is an industry that is going through incredible disruption. You can look at what Netflix is doing and how they’re building subscribers,” said AT&T Inc ( T.N ) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson at a conference last week. “Everybody’s reimagining and rethinking their business models,” said Stephenson, head of the wireless carrier which is itself in the process of buying media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) for $85.4 billion. If that deal overcomes U.S. antitrust objections and other transactions go ahead, it will make Comcast, the U.S. No. 1 cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, look “relatively tiny in a landscape dominated by tech giants,” said BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FILE PHOTO: A woman exits the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S. on April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The House of Representatives took a major step on Thursday toward the biggest U.S. tax-code overhaul since the 1980s. If corporate tax cuts become law, there may be a wave of merger and acquisition activity across all industries, media investor Mario Gabelli told Reuters earlier this week. “You will have global lovemaking at an accelerated rate,” he said. “Companies are ready to grow... They just need to have what the rules of engagement are.” At the same time, the debt financing markets have remained wide open for major transformational deals this year, though recent skirmishes in the junk-bond market have served as a reminder this may not last for long. Slideshow (2 Images) U.S. fund investors walloped high-yield funds with their biggest week of withdrawals since March, Lipper data showed on Thursday. Still, most mega-deals look possible, especially if the combined company’s debt remains investment grade. Banks have been eager this month to open their wallets for what could be the biggest syndicated loan financing ever for an investment-grade acquisition, backing chipmaker Broadcom Ltd’s ( AVGO.O ) unsolicited $103 billion bid to buy Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ). Assets that could be on the block look cheap. Shares of media companies have long traded at a discount to the wider market. Fox, for example, trades at around 13.9 times estimated earnings per share for the next year, in line with the wider media sector at 13.6. The broader S&P 500, meanwhile, trades at 18 times next year’s earnings. Media firms’ generally high debt loads and the threat posed by technology companies elbowing their way into new markets have compressed those multiples. Weak earnings have contributed to that. Fox’s profit per share is down about 50 percent from 2013, while Viacom’s is up only slightly. CBS’s net income has shrunk about 33 percent in that time, but earnings per share have risen thanks to stock buybacks. The outcome of AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner is being keenly watched by potential acquirers. U.S. President Donald Trump is a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN and he vowed to block the deal when he was on the campaign trail last year. The Justice Department is expected to sue AT&T to block the deal, but the wireless carrier has vowed to fight in court. “Everyone will seek consolidation partners if AT&T succeeds,” said Gene Kimmelman, a veteran of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and now president of the advocacy group Public Knowledge. Reporting by Liana Baker, Anna Driver, Jessica Toonkel, Anjali Athavaley, Diane Bartz, Greg Roumeliotis and Dan Burns; Writing by Chris Sanders; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-comcast-analysis/buyers-circle-suddenly-attractive-u-s-media-companies-idUKKBN1DH2NI'|'2017-11-17T23:03:00.000+02:00'
'7ff020c11eeaa87b0a21b3db6e349c1b32d70e9f'|'EU watchdog tightens grip over use of foreign credit ratings'|'November 17, 2017 / 10:03 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago EU watchdog tightens grip over use of foreign credit ratings Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s markets watchdog has tightened its grip over the use of credit ratings compiled outside the bloc in a taste of what the “Big Three” ratings agencies in London face after Brexit. A general view of the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs For a credit rating compiled outside the EU to be used for regulatory purposes in the bloc, it must be “endorsed” by a credit rating agency authorised by EU’s European Securities and Markets Authority or ESMA. More than two thirds of credit ratings that can be used for regulatory purposes in the EU are introduced through the endorsement regime. Nearly all endorsed credit ratings relate to non-EU issuers and financial instruments, it said. ESMA on Friday updated its rules on endorsement that will come into force in January 2019, spelling out how it will be more interventionist in policing the regime. “The updated guidelines make clear that ESMA can, and will, exercise its powers to request information from EU credit rating agencies about endorsed credit ratings,” ESMA Chair Steven Maijoor said in a statement. The changes to the rules puts more onus on the EU based rating agency to “demonstrate” that the conduct of the non-EU rater “fulfils requirements that are at least as stringent as the EU requirements”. “ESMA clarifies that it has the power to request periodical information directly from the endorsing EU credit rating agency about an endorsed credit rating and the conduct of the third-country CRA,” the watchdog said. “When a credit rating is endorsed there must be an objective reason for elaborating the rating outside the EU.” The world’s “Big Three” rating agencies, Moody‘s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch have their European bases in London. When Britain leaves the EU in March 2019, these operations will be treated as foreign agencies whose ratings would need to be endorsed by an agency inside the bloc. The big agencies already have operations in several EU states, but may now need to move staff from London to them given the new conditions for endorsement set out by ESMA on Friday. The watchdog also said the endorsement regime will continue to apply to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and the United States when other revisions to the bloc’s rating agency rules come into force in June 2018. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-creditratingagencies/eu-watchdog-tightens-grip-over-use-of-foreign-credit-ratings-idUKKBN1DH14J'|'2017-11-17T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'f4f17556fee4bbf5ce826d175e9b32d901662aeb'|'U.S. to sue to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner: source'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice will sue AT&T Inc ( T.N ) later on Monday to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of   ), a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The legal challenge was expected after AT&T rejected a demand by the Justice Department earlier this month to divest its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting - which contains news network CNN - in order to win antitrust approval. AT&T&rsquo;s chief executive said then that he would defend the deal in court to win approval, and the company criticized the Justice Department’s case on Monday. The lawsuit is ”a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent,” said AT&T lawyer David McAtee, arguing that so-called vertical mergers, between companies that are not direct competitors, are routinely approved. ”We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently,” he said, adding that AT&T is confident a judge will reject the Justice Department’s case. Time Warner’s shares dropped 1.1 percent to close at $87.71, while AT&T shares closed up 0.4 percent at $34.64. The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier struck a deal in October 2016 to buy Time Warner, which also owns the premium channel HBO and movie studio Warner Bros, so it can bundle video entertainment on its mobile service. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo AT&T says that would help it compete with emerging technology companies such as Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ), Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Prime Video and other competitors. The deal instantly became a political lightning rod. Donald Trump, a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN, attacked the merger on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it. A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above the floor   Exchange, shortly after the opening bell   15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The deal is also opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers. Reuters reported earlier this month that the Justice Department believed the merger would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation and could allow AT&T to withhold key content from HBO, CNN or other of its channels from competitors. Last week, the Justice Department had approached 18 state attorneys general asking them to join the challenge of the deal, but as of Monday none had publicly agreed to do so, Reuters reported. During his campaign, Trump said that reporters had covered him unfairly and has continued to attack CNN as president, which he has labeled as “fake news.” He has not commented on the AT&T deal since his inauguration in January. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined to say last week if anyone from the White House had discussed the merger with any Justice Department officials. Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-to-sue-to-stop-att-from-buying-time-warner-source-idUSKBN1DK2HN'|'2017-11-20T22:40:00.000+02:00'
'49ef6a36b05dae8584443aa8c4eb9269ade191b8'|'Oil markets tepid ahead of OPEC meeting at month-end'|'November 20, 2017 / 1:11 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Oil markets tepid ahead of November 30 OPEC meeting Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets were tepid on Monday as traders were reluctant to take on big new positions ahead of an OPEC meeting at the end of the month, when the producer club is expected to decide whether to continue output cuts aimed at propping up prices. FILE PHOTO - A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.56 per barrel at 0439 GMT, down 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.59 a barrel, up 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, from their last settlement. Traders said they were avoiding taking on large new positions due to uncertainty in markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia, has been restraining output since the start of this year in a bid to end a global supply overhang and prop up prices. The deal to curb output is due to expire in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss the outlook for the policy. OPEC is expected to agree an extension of the cut as storage levels remain high despite recent drawdowns, although there are doubts about the willingness of some participants to continue to restrain output. “(The) OPEC meeting remains the key sector catalyst into year-end ... The market expectation is for an extension through 2018, created by OPEC comments early this fall ... (but) there is increased risk that OPEC delays the extension decision,” U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said on Monday in a note to clients. Morgan Stanley said that the question over extended cuts “has shifted to non-OPEC participants’ willingness to extend, primarily Russia”. Despite this, Greg McKenna of futures brokerage AxiTrader said it was “worth noting data showed more longs added by the speculative community”, indicating expectations of rising prices. In the United States, the number of rigs drilling for new oil production remained unchanged in the week to Nov. 17, at 738, data from oil services firm Baker Hughes showed on Friday. (GRAPHIC: U.S. oil rig count, click reut.rs/2zSom8I ) Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-markets-tepid-ahead-of-opec-meeting-at-month-end-idUKKBN1DK034'|'2017-11-20T03:10:00.000+02:00'
'8ef028d67036f86f92c577263c6b219ece3ae6cc'|'Canada, Mexico to question U.S. auto content demands at NAFTA talks'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:04 AM / in 4 hours Canada, Mexico to question U.S. auto content demands at NAFTA talks David Lawder , Sharay Angulo 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Canada and Mexico will not make counterproposals to U.S. demands for tougher NAFTA automotive content rules but instead will question and rebut them on Monday, people familiar with the talks said. The move underlines how little progress negotiators have made in the fifth of seven planned rounds of talks to update the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Sources with knowledge of the talks said on Sunday that they ran the risk of grinding into a stalemate because of Canada and Mexico’s unhappiness about U.S. proposals. The Trump administration last month stunned its NAFTA partners by demanding that half of the content of all North American-built autos be produced in the United States and that the regional vehicle content requirement be sharply increased to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent. Canada will say that would cause serious damage to the United States as well as North American automotive manufacturing, a Canadian source with knowledge of the negotiations said. An official from one NAFTA nation said the United States was frustrated that Canadians had not responded to the main proposals laid down by the Trump administration. In response, the Canadian source said: “We’re not going to provide a counterproposal on something we think is a non-starter.” U.S. President Donald Trump wants to stem the flow of U.S. car making jobs to low-wage Mexico and reverse a $64 billion U.S. trade deficit with its southern neighbor. Hanging over the talks are increasing fears that he will follow through on a promise to pull out of NAFTA and that economic damage would follow. The Canadian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, in part because of concerns about the negotiations. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido In San Antonio, Texas, a senior U.S. official told a Senate panel that the administration wanted to rebalance the large automotive trade deficit with Mexico. Stephen Vaughn, general counsel for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, said since autos produced in North America qualified for duty-free status under NAFTA, “are we making sure that the U.S. is getting enough benefits from that production to justify those privileges?” Canada and Mexico say the content proposal would not work. Flags are pictured during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido “In terms of the automotive sector, the United States´ proposal is insane,” a Mexican auto industry representative with knowledge of the talks said on Sunday. “You cannot counterpropose such madness.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment on Monday. Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, said the proposals would damage North American competitiveness and lead to fewer auto assembly and parts jobs on the continent. Volpe told Reuters that even if some assembly operations return to the United States, moving parts production to Asia and other low-cost areas would more than offset those job gains. Many car manufacturers and parts makers will simply forego NAFTA free-trade benefits and pay the 2.5 percent U.S. tariff on many components, he added. Raising those tariffs would violate commitments the United States has made to the World Trade Organization. His organization’s U.S. counterpart, the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, last month unveiled a study showing that the United States would lose up to 24,000 auto parts manufacturing jobs from higher NAFTA content requirements and up to 50,000 if NAFTA is terminated. The Mexican auto industry representative said the country’s negotiators would probably ask more technical questions about the U.S. automotive content demands during discussions on Monday and Tuesday. Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City and Fergal Smith in Toronto; Writing by David Lawder and David Ljunggren; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/canada-mexico-to-question-u-s-auto-content-demands-at-nafta-talks-idUSKBN1DK0E9'|'2017-11-20T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'0f0d942cb3f2a32063abf4c4eaab204fcb9977bb'|'Avolon agrees to buy 75 Boeing aircraft, may order 20 more'|'November 19, 2017 / 1:26 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Avolon agrees to buy 75 Boeing aircraft, may order 20 more Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese aircraft leasing company Bohai Capital 000415.SZ said on Sunday its Avolon Aerospace Leasing Ltd subsidiary had agreed to buy 55 B737 MAX 8 and 20 B737 MAX 10 aircraft from Boeing ( BA.N ), and may order an additional 20 M737 MAX 8, with a total list value of around $11 billion (8.33 billion pounds). Bohai’s Avolon, part of aviation-to-shipping conglomerate HNA Group, had signed a memorandum of understanding at the Paris Airshow in June for 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and said it was considering Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 models. Bohai Capital said Avolon expected to take delivery of the aircraft between 2021 and 2024. Avolon was sold to Shenzhen-listed Bohai Capital Holding Co in 2015. Bohai Capital and other state-backed firms are expanding in the aircraft financing and leasing business as customer airlines open routes at home and abroad. Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree and Twinnie Siu. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bohai-capital-aircraft/avolon-agrees-to-buy-75-boeing-aircraft-may-order-20-more-idUKKBN1DJ0HE'|'2017-11-19T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'd3064858e6e59974a1ce3957370f7b1fe3a86cf6'|'Ecuador drops plan to request exemption from OPEC cut - oil minister'|'November 16, 2017 / 4:25 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Ecuador drops plan to request exemption from OPEC cut - oil minister Alexandra Valencia 3 Min Read QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador has abandoned for now a plan to ask OPEC for an exemption from its share of the organisation’s oil production cut as crude prices are reacting positively to the group’s measures, the country’s oil minister said on Thursday. Oil field technicians work with a drill at a rig of Ecuador''s state oil company Petroamazonas, in Tiputini, Ecuador October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Tapia Ecuador, one of the smallest producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said last month that it would request an exemption from the joint output cut when the group meets in Vienna later this month. It said then that it could even consider leaving the cartel for two years to avoid reducing its production. “For now we are not going to submit the request. We’ll analyse along with OPEC’s members which alternatives they can offer. To sustain prices, we have to support OPEC’s measures, which are so far succeeding,” minister Carlos Perez said during a press conference. OPEC, Russia and nine other producers plan to meet on Nov. 30 to decide whether to extend a 1.8-million-barrel-per-day (bpd) cut beyond March in an attempt to eradicate a supply glut that has weighed on oil prices. The price of West Texas Intermediate Crude CLc1, a reference for many Latin American grades, has increased 23 percent since mid-June to trade above $55 per barrel. The Andean country is facing a large fiscal deficit due to low oil prices and a devastating earthquake last year, and needs to boost oil production as much as it can to finance rebuilding. Ecuador produced 541,000 bpd last month, according to secondary sources quoted by OPEC in its most recent report. That was above its allocation of 522,000 bpd. Perez said Ecuador’s compliance level was between 60 and 70 percent. Other members, including Venezuela and Qatar, have been producing below their targets in recent months, according to data reported to OPEC, opening opportunities for producers to slightly increase output. Perez also said Ecuador continues negotiating with China’s PetroChina ( 601857.SS ) and Unipec and Thailand’s PTT PCL ( PTT.BK ) to change the terms of oil-for-loan agreements signed by the country. “Today I received letters from PTT and Unipec saying they are willing to solve the issues. We have not yet reached an agreement, but we have opened the door for sitting down to negotiate,” Perez said. In the meantime, commercial relationships with these firms have not been suspended, the minister said, adding that Ecuador is seeking to avoid supply contracts being declared unfulfilled. “The country must be very cautious about that,” Perez said. Perez also said that major repairs at the Esmeraldas refinery’s fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) are scheduled to start in March. Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Alistair Bell and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecuador-opec/ecuador-drops-plan-to-request-exemption-from-opec-cut-oil-minister-idUKKBN1DG2D7'|'2017-11-16T20:22:00.000+02:00'
'098fbb61a6ea7f2d2b994c12669a94cca378cca7'|'Nikkei bounces after six-day losing streak, SoftBank gains'|'TOKYO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on Thursday as buyers stepped back in for bargains following six straight days of losses, with SoftBank gaining after a report that it plans to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia.The Nikkei was up 0.6 percent at 22,176.87. Taking its cue from weakness on Wall Street overnight the index slipped to a 16-day low of 21,972.34 after the opening bell before bouncing back.Of Tokyo’s 33 subindexes, 17 gained. The losing subindexes were led by oil and coal products which declined 1.65 percent amid the recent drop in prices of commodities like crude oil.SoftBank Group Corp rose as much as 2.1 percent after Bloomberg reported that the tech and telecoms firm plans to plough around $15 billion in a new business and industrial city called NEOM and its Vision Fund would invest around $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co.Cosmetics maker Shiseido Co jumped 3 percent to a record high 5,213 yen after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the company to “buy” from “neutral.”The broader Topix added 0.3 percent to 1,748.88.Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-bounces-after-six-day-losing-streak-softbank-gains-idUSL3N1NM17H'|'2017-11-16T03:36:00.000+02:00'
'c0785c5bbd4ef8d860b2c052dbd2caac0d6b3f8b'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 17'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:40 AM / Updated an hour ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 17 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - The House of Representatives passed a bill that would usher in the most far-reaching overhaul of the U.S. tax system in 31 years, a plan that would reduce the corporate tax rate to its lowest point since 1939 and cut individual taxes for most households in 2018. on.wsj.com/2j1JjUr - New suitors are circling Twenty-First Century Fox Inc , affirming that the media empire built by Rupert Murdoch is now in play. Comcast Corp has approached the media company. Verizon Communications Inc and Sony Corp are also kicking the tires. on.wsj.com/2j0i38O - A federal judge declared a mistrial in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, giving the Democrat a political lifeline and preserving his party''s control of the seat for the near future. on.wsj.com/2j1LebB - Meredith Corp has made a takeover bid for storied magazine publisher Time Inc in the range of $17 to $20 a share, according to people familiar with the situation. on.wsj.com/2j0Ht6p - An activist investor in Barnes & Noble Inc has proposed a transaction that would take the bookseller private with the help of current shareholders and a hefty dose of borrowings, an effort that could face formidable obstacles. on.wsj.com/2j0EvP6 - Emerson Electric Co boosted its takeover offer for Rockwell Automation Inc, ratcheting up an effort to bring its reluctant rival to the negotiating table and forge a new giant in industrial automation. on.wsj.com/2j21qd2 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-17-idUSL3N1NN25V'|'2017-11-17T07:38:00.000+02:00'
'caf6808427c7f8204503526660159fe631cb9977'|'Exclusive: Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection on Monday to stay listed - sources'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:19 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Exclusive: Toshiba set to OK $5 billion injection Monday to stay listed-sources Taro Fuse 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) will decide on Monday to raise some $5 billion from overseas investors, allowing the troubled conglomerate to remain a publicly traded company even if the sale of a key business is delayed, two people with direct knowledge of the process said. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo Toshiba, reeling from the bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Co in the wake of an accounting scandal, needs to raise 750 billion yen ($6.7 billion) by the end of March to avoid being kicked off the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The laptops-to-nuclear-reactors company has agreed to sell its prized NAND semiconductor unit for $18 billion, and is planning to sell its TV business and reportedly looking to hive off its personal-computer unit to raise cash. But with the March deadline looming to avoid delisting and the chip sale threatened by antitrust concerns from China and elsewhere, Toshiba’s board will on Monday approve a plan to raise 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) by offering shares to a group of overseas investors, the sources said. In addition, the sources told Reuters, Toshiba will agree to take upfront losses that will allow tax write-offs sufficient to boost its assets back above liabilities for the first time in two years - allowing the firm to remain listed. Toshiba declined to comment on the plan. To plug the huge hole in its balance sheet, Toshiba agreed in late September to sell its Toshiba Memory unit to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. But regulatory reviews globally threaten its ability to close the sale by the March end of the business year, which would put the company in negative net worth for a second year in a row, imperiling its TSE listing. Without any gains from the chip unit sale, Toshiba forecasts it would post negative net worth of 750 billion yen at the end of March. The company could use the proceeds from a share allotment to pay all at once the $5.8 billion in parent-company guarantees on Westinghouse’s much-delayed nuclear projects in the United States, one source said. The current plan is to guarantee payments to two U.S. power utilities over six years. Paying them off in full now would allow Toshiba to book losses that would reduce its tax burden enough to ensure it has the cash to remain listed, the source said. ($1 = 112.6100 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-financing-exclusive/exclusive-toshiba-set-to-ok-5-billion-injection-monday-to-stay-listed-sources-idUSKBN1DH1Z4'|'2017-11-17T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'54afae58e5c7e7455895e4e581ba8c99c09b3d11'|'Tesla''s unfettered ambition to strain finances but investors unfazed'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:16 PM / in 2 hours Tesla''s unfettered ambition to strain finances but investors unfazed Supantha Mukherjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Investors shrugged off any concern over Tesla Inc over-stretching its production and financial resources with the unveiling of new futuristic semi-trucks and a pricey sports car, pushing its shares up almost 4 percent on Friday. The Tesla Roadster 2. Tesla/via REUTERS Chief Executive Elon Musk shocked industry-watchers by launching a $200,000 sports car on Thursday, along with two electric trucks, possibly adding more logistical nightmares even as it wrestles with production issues related to its Model 3 sedan. “In essence, all last night’s event did was add to Elon Musk’s shopping list of things he needs to spend money on at a time when the company is having difficulty making its base vehicle (Model 3),” Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne. The company this month pushed back its target for volume production on the Model 3 by about three months to fix production bottlenecks. Osborne said the company’s cumulative capex announcements now exceed $15 billion to $20 billion over the next few years. Some analysts fear the trucks will be an expensive distraction for Tesla, which is burning cash, has never posted an annual profit, and is in self-described “manufacturing hell” related to the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Tesla’s ambitious plans would need a steady flow of cash, analysts said. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois estimated that Tesla would need to raise $2.5 billion to $3 billion to keep production running smoothly. The Tesla Semi. Tesla/via REUTERS “Longer term, we continue to think the capital intensity of the business model will keep returns below best-in-class auto OEMs,” Houchois said in a research note. Tesla spent $1.1 billion on its auto business in the third quarter and expects expenses of $1 billion in the current one. The company had about $3.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents for the period ended Sept. 30. The company raised $1.8 billion by selling debt in August. Although Tesla has made inroads among luxury car buyers with its Model S sedan and Model X SUV, it is the Model 3 on which the company’s long-term success rests. The Model 3 sedan is expected to go into production in 2018, electric trucks in 2019. Production for the new Roadster sports car, a likely Ferrari rival, will start in 2020. The first 1,000 Roadsters will cost $250,000 each, paid in full upfront, with later models starting at $200,000. Houchois called the plan interesting, noting that it would help Tesla raise $250 million plus the $50,000 deposits on reservations. But the plan to make the trucks is likely to open up new growth areas for Tesla as the global race heats up to overcome the challenges of substituting batteries for diesel engines. The company faces competition from the likes of Daimler AG, Navistar International Corp and Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ), as well as a host of start-ups. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-truck-research/teslas-unfettered-ambition-to-strain-finances-but-investors-unfazed-idINKBN1DH1M4'|'2017-11-17T15:09:00.000+02:00'
'ac1977086270a827672a75b397d51ff174b22e44'|'Tesla''s unfettered ambition to strain finances but investors unfazed'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:09 PM / Updated an hour ago Tesla''s unfettered ambition will drain finances - analysts Supantha Mukherjee 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares rose on Friday as analysts questioned how soon Chief Executive Elon Musk will have to ask creditors and shareholders for more capital to fund development of an electric semi truck, a new roadster and accelerated production of a high-volume electric sedan. Tesla Roadster 2 is shown in this undated handout photo, during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, U.S., November 16, 2017. Tesla/Handout via REUTERS Musk unveiled one flashy strategy for generating cash during the launch event Thursday for the Semi truck, surprising the audience with a prototype of a new generation of the Tesla Roadster. Musk promised the Roadster will be the fastest production car available. The first 1,000 cars will cost $250,000 each, paid in full upfront, with later models starting at $200,000. Those deposits would put $250 million into Tesla’s cash drawer today for a car that is likely to go into production in 2020. Musk did not offer details about how Tesla would generate additional funds to deliver the semi truck and the roadster, and overcome production problems that have hobbled production of the company’s high-volume sedan, the Model 3. Tesla spent $1.1 billion on its auto business in the third quarter, and expects expenses of $1 billion in the current one. It had about $3.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30. At the current cash-burn rate, it would likely be down to about $1 billion in cash by the end of the first quarter. “In essence, all last night’s event did was add to Elon Musk’s shopping list of things he needs to spend money on at a time when the company is having difficulty making its base vehicle (Model 3),” said Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne. The Tesla Semi, the company''s electric big-rig truck is seen in this undated handout image released on November 16, 2017. Tesla/Handout via REUTERS Despite such concerns, Tesla shares rose as much as 2 percent in early New York trading, and were up about 1.6 percent at mid-day. Shares in heavy truck diesel engine maker Cummins Inc fell 4 percent, while shares in incumbent Class-8 truck makers Paccar Inc and Navistar International Corp also fell. Tesla this month pushed back its target for volume production on the Model 3 sedan - widely seen as crucial to the company’s long-term future - by about three months to fix production bottlenecks. Osborne said Tesla’s cumulative capex announcements now exceed $15 billion to $20 billion over the next few years. The Tesla Semi, the company''s electric big-rig truck is seen in this undated handout image released on November 16, 2017. Tesla/Handout via REUTERS Some analysts fear the trucks will be an expensive distraction for the company, which has never posted an annual profit and is in self-described “manufacturing hell” related to the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois estimated that Tesla would need to raise $2.5 billion to $3 billion to keep production running smoothly. “Longer term, we continue to think the capital intensity of the business model will keep returns below best-in-class auto(makers),” Houchois said in a research note. Tesla’s last debt sale in August was well-received in a hot bond market, allowing the company to increase the offering to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion. But the bond has underperformed in the secondary market, suggesting it could be more challenging for Tesla to tap the high-yield debt market again so soon. While shares in the company are up more than 40 percent this year, they have fallen 20 percent from record highs in mid-September. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-truck-research/teslas-unfettered-ambition-to-strain-finances-but-investors-unfazed-idUKKBN1DH1LG'|'2017-11-17T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'13373679da7abd3a8a32e5b710812e9ad66a0d47'|'Confidence in euro zone expansion strong among economists - Reuters poll'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:14 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Confidence in euro zone expansion strong among economists - Reuters poll Mumal Rathore , Shrutee Sarkar 5 Min Read BENGALURU (Reuters) - The euro zone economy will mark its best year in a decade and maintain solid growth well into 2018, according to economists in a Reuters poll who said the risk was that their forecasts might not be optimistic enough. FILE PHOTO - European Union (EU) flags fly in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, December 3, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Inflation, last clocked at 1.4 percent, is expected to stay below the European Central Bank’s target of just under 2 percent until at least the second half of 2019, according to the poll of over 80 economists taken Nov. 13-16. Euro zone economic growth has been surprisingly robust this year, outpacing both the United States and Britain simultaneously for the first time since the 2007-08 financial crisis, and also one of the most synchronous upturns across the euro zone economies. Over 90 percent of 40 economists who answered an extra question said they were confident the current upswing in economies across the 19-nation euro zone would last through the forecast horizon. Only four respondents said they were not. Such a high degree of confidence in above-average performance for the euro zone has never been captured in Reuters polls stretching back since the financial crisis, and indeed has been a rarity ever since the euro was launched in 1999. “If you look at forward-looking indicators...then you actually see that the expansion has momentum, which will continue into 2018, and so that is definitely good news - and it is broad-based,” said Peter Vanden Houte, chief euro zone economist at ING. Sixty percent of respondents also said the risks to their growth forecasts were skewed more to the upside, with 30 percent saying they were balanced and only 10 percent said it could be worse. For inflation, a little over half said the risks to their forecasts were balanced, over 35 percent of the economists said they were skewed more to the upside and less than 10 percent said the risks were inflation would be even weaker. “All stars remain aligned for the euro zone: lower fiscal drag, accommodative monetary policy, decent level for the euro, strong economic confidence,” noted Louis Harreau, economist at CA-CIB, adding that inflation would pick up next year. “The only increasing risk for 2018 is the Italian election, but that should have a limited impact on economic confidence.” The results suggest forecasters appear unfazed by political risks to the euro zone economy, including the negotiations with Britain on its exit from the European Union, set for 2019. The UK economic outlook is looking much less positive. A Reuters poll last month said the most likely eventual outcome of those negotiations would be an EU-UK free trade agreement. But the chances of a disorderly Brexit - where no deal is agreed - crept up to 30 percent. The solid outlook for euro zone growth supports the European Central Bank’s decision last month to begin reducing its quantitative easing programme by half to 30 billion euros per month from January, with purchases through September 2018. But the ECB left the door open for an extension to the monthly asset purchases beyond September next year, in its fight to bring inflation back to its target. That has kept a lid on expectations for further appreciation in the euro - already up over 11 percent in 2017 against the dollar - over the coming year, according to a Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists earlier this month. The latest poll showed the ECB is expected to hold its refinancing rate at zero percent and deposit rate at -0.4 percent through the end of next year. Expansion has picked up speed in the euro zone this year, with the economy growing 0.6 percent in the third quarter on a quarterly basis. It was expected to grow 0.5 percent in the current quarter through to the end of next year and then at 0.4 percent quarterly in each quarter after that for the first half of 2019. Annual growth was forecast to average 2.2 this year, 1.9 percent in 2018 and 1.7 percent in 2019, compared to 2.2 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.6 percent respectively in the previous poll. While the ECB has already spent over 2 trillion euros buying mainly government bonds since March 2015 in an effort to bring inflation back up to target, price pressures still remain weak. Inflation is forecast to average 1.5 percent this year, 1.4 percent next year and 1.6 percent in 2019, similar to predictions made in an October poll. Polling by Indradip Ghosh and Anisha Sheth; Editing by Ross Finley/Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-poll/confidence-in-euro-zone-expansion-strong-among-economists-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1DH0ON'|'2017-11-17T09:14:00.000+02:00'
'008534c36ac34374007705633164ef9e39401cf0'|'Nissan to brief on improper inspection issue at 0730 GMT'|'November 17, 2017 / 3:40 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Nissan blames staff shortage for improper tests, plans more inspectors Reuters Staff 3 Min Read YOKOHAMA (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) on Friday blamed a staff shortage for improper final inspections at its car plants in Japan for over 20 years, and said it would increase the number of trained staff as part of a plan to improve compliance. Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa attends a news conference at the company headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Last month, Nissan issued a recall for 1.2 million vehicles - including all passenger cars produced for sale in Japan over the past three years - after discovering that uncertified inspectors were for decades signing off on vehicle checks required by the transport ministry for cars sold in the country. Nissan said an investigation found that “nonconforming final inspections” were the norm by the 1990s at the plants, and could even have existed since 1979 at its Tochigi plant. The company did not give proper consideration to inspections when cutting staff, it said in a report outlining the findings as well as countermeasures. “Headcount reduction rates allocated to each plant applied uniformly across the whole plant, and special consideration was not given to secure final inspectors,” it said. Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa, flanked by Chief Competitive Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi, attends a news conference at the company headquarters in Yokohama, Japan November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “Therefore, the plants had a shortage or no surplus in the number of final inspectors.” It said it would increase the total number of final inspectors by about 85 by the end of March, an increase of around 20 percent from current levels. Slideshow (5 Images) Nissan expects the recall alone will cost it 25 billion yen ($222.10 million), and last week shaved its full-year operating profit forecast as it braces for the fallout at home. The misconduct does not affect export vehicles, and all required safety checks were performed on the affected cars. But the scandal has tarnished Nissan’s brand at home, and along with a data falsification scandal at compatriot Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), has raised questions about compliance and quality control at Japanese manufacturers. The company said on Friday that it was assigning a new corporate vice president to oversee all plants in Japan, and increasing the number of quality assurance managers as well as managers in charge of final inspections at each plant by one to a total of two each. Domestic rival Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) has also been hit by compliance issues after it also admitted that it had not been following proper inspection issues going back around 30 years. As a result, it plans to recall around 400,000 cars sold in Japan. Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Maki Shiraki; Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nissan-recall/nissan-to-brief-on-improper-inspection-issue-at-0730-gmt-idUKKBN1DH0BH'|'2017-11-17T05:40:00.000+02:00'
'3dcfd302aa4f49a24dba8a2f3009af5824798422'|'Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt John O''Donnell , Tom Sims 7 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The prospect of bankers pouring into Frankfurt from post-Brexit Britain has worried local residents anxious about the effect on an already dire housing shortage but also energised leftist groups looking to advance their anti-capitalist ideology. The skyline with its banking towers is photographed on a sunny autumn afternoon in Frankfurt, Germany, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach At least 10,000 financial jobs are expected to move out of London when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019, a number that could balloon to 75,000 over the longer term. The majority of banks, including Goldman Sachs, say they expect to move to Frankfurt. Frankfurters looking forward to the influx say they hope a free-spending clientele will breathe new life into what is often seen abroad as a dull provincial capital. Other residents are worried about rents and housing stock in the city, given that many in the lower-to-middle income range already have a hard time finding a home, however. Among Germany’s active and well-established leftists, who have described the big banks as “ticking time bombs”, groups like “Blockupy” and the Interventionist Left are plotting strategies for disruption. It’s a reminder that while some of the world’s legendary bankers - the Rothschilds, the Warburgs, even the founder of Goldman Sachs, Marcus Goldman - were born in Germany, so was Karl Marx. “We view the concentration of banks in Frankfurt with concern,” said a Blockupy spokesman who identified himself as Thomas Occupy. “For some members, Goldman Sachs is like a red rag to a bull.” Rents in Frankfurt have risen by up to 37 percent since 2009, according to three private data providers, triple the pace for all of Germany, according to Bundesbank estimates. Frankfurt planning officials estimate the city has a shortfall of 40,000 homes even before the Brexit wave hits. Private developers plan 20 new high-rise buildings within five years but are aiming those at wealthy tenants, with asking prices of 4 million euros for some apartments. By comparison, state-owned ABG Frankfurt Holding, which builds affordable housing, completed just 445 apartment units last year. It plans to build thousands more in the coming years but they will arrive too late to relieve the immediate crunch. “The forecasts were wrong. We had expected the population would stagnate,” said Mark Gellert, a spokesman for the city’s planning division. Instead, it has been growing, adding more than 6,000 people in the first six months of this year. “That’s why we fell behind,” he said. COCKTAIL MENTALITY Proponents of the arrivals, including Thomas Schaefer, finance minister for the state of Hesse that is home to Frankfurt, argue they will boost the economy and tax revenues. Restaurant and club entrepreneur Madjid Djamegari anticipates the newcomers will be more interested than the locals in going out during the week, for example. “The Germans don’t have the after-work cocktail mentality. But people are coming who have different standards, who are willing to pay for service,” said Djamegari, whose latest project is a pop-up bar in a former bank office building. With a population of just 736,000, against London’s 8.8 million, and an average annual pre-tax salary of 43,600 euros ($51,300), Frankfurt may also be affected by the influx in less congenial ways, tenants rights groups fear. Rolf Janssen, head of the Frankfurt tenants’ protection association, said his group receives hundreds of calls each week from people worried about evictions or rising rents. Some are in tears and say they have to save on food and clothes to pay the rent. While German law means it is not possible to easily evict tenants or increase rents sharply, Janssen said, there are loopholes and mistrust between residents and owners has increased in recent years. Callers say some owners abruptly embark on noisy construction work to intimidate tenants to leave in order to renovate and charge new occupants more, he said. “Brexit bankers ... trump ordinary tenants,” he said. Michael Mueller, a far Left Frankfurt official who sits on a planning committee preparing for Brexit, is attempting to prevent the state selling further property for high-rise towers. “I‘m worried Frankfurt will turn into ... a millionaire’s ghetto,” he said. “WE‘RE HALF OF THIS TOWN” The Left Party, which has its roots in east Germany’s communism, took roughly one tenth of the seats in the parliament in the last election on Sept. 24, pledging in its manifesto to renationalise the banks and “break their power”. Far-left groups hope the tenants’ concerns could win them even more support. Blockupy, which staged violent street protests against the European Central Bank when its new offices opened in 2015, and the Interventionist Left, which helped organise protests against the G20, are weighing their next moves. “People are being pushed out of the city centre,” said Interventionist Left activist Felix Wiegand. “On the other hand, you see the SUVs and those people who have taken over the city as it is were their own. The city’s policy of favouring the rich is infuriating people.” Far-left groups said they might hold protests at the opening of one of Frankfurt’s new office towers and tenant action groups are starting a petition for affordable housing. Their campaign poster features a collage of photographs of citizens with the slogan: “We’re half of this town”. Others may be willing to take more drastic steps. “There is an increasing readiness to act and willingness to resort to violence at the left wing extremes in recent years,” said Klaus Schroeder, an expert in left-wing extremism at the Free University of Berlin. “The left believe that they are using violence to achieve a better world and that the banks are the first that have to be eliminated.” At the protest against the ECB, 7,000 protesters took to the streets, setting police cars on fire and blocking roads with burning stacks of tyres. More than 500 were arrested. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship bank, may offer a taste of what its new neighbours in the financial district can expect. Since 1990, on the first Thursday of every month, former priest Gregor Boeckermann has gathered with about a dozen others at the bank’s headquarters to protest against free-wheeling capitalism. They recently planted an apple tree nearby. “I hope the roots will grow up so strong that they will cause it to explode,” Boeckermann said. ($1 = 0.8485 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-germany-protest/prospect-of-post-brexit-boom-sparks-worry-as-well-as-celebration-in-frankfurt-idINKBN1DK1TN'|'2017-11-20T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'9a7302422c10b5399e635cf4f6ba5a63774ea1ca'|'UPDATE 1-Bombardier to price bond offering Monday in sign of sturdy interest'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:48 PM / Updated an hour ago UPDATE 1-Bombardier to price bond offering Monday in sign of sturdy interest Reuters Staff (Adds comment from Moody’s and Fitch rating service) By Davide Scigliuzzo and Allison Lampert Nov 20 (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc is expected to price its new bond offering on Monday, a day ahead of initially planned, in a sign the Canadian plane and train maker is drawing strong interest for its $900 million deal, one of the lead banks said. The company said on Monday it is offering a seven-year bond, with two-thirds of the net proceeds going towards early retirement of notes with a coupon of 4.75 percent maturing in 2019, as it taps debt markets for a second year. Bombardier is now guiding investors toward a yield of 7.5 to 7.75 percent on the new issuance, one of the lead banks said. The remaining amount would give the company “financial flexibility,” a Bombardier spokesman said by email on Monday, without elaborating. The spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the timing of the bond pricing. The planned fund raising comes after Bombardier last month agreed to sell a majority stake in its CSeries jet program to European planemaker Airbus SE, which is expected to cut costs while bolstering the plane’s sales and giving Bombardier a possible way out of a damaging trade dispute with Boeing Co and U.S. regulators. As part of the deal, Bombardier has said it would invest $300 million to set up an Alabama assembly line at an existing Airbus facility for CSeries purchased by American carriers. The fund raising would “increase Bombardier’s cash balances during a period of negative free cash flow,” including about a negative $1 billion in 2017 due to heavy investments in the CSeries which is ramping up production, along with slower than anticipated deliveries of the narrowbody jets, according to a note by Fitch Ratings. Bombardier aims to be cash flow neutral by 2018 and to break even on the CSeries narrowbody jets in 2020. It is the latest instance of Bombardier pushing out the company’s debt maturities past 2020 to bolster liquidity, Jamie Koutsoukis, a senior analyst with Moody’s investor service, said by phone from Toronto. “This is something that they’ve done consistently,” Koutsoukis added. In November 2016, Bombardier raised $1.4 billion by offering senior notes to refinance some of its debt. Bombardier’s existing 7.5 percent bonds, which were issued in 2015, and mature in 2025, slipped around three quarters of a point to 100.85 on Monday to yield around 7.3 percent, according to MarketAxess data. 1 Canadian dollar = $0.7828 Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Davide Scigliuzzo at IFR in New York; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bombardier-offering/update-1-bombardier-to-price-bond-offering-monday-in-sign-of-sturdy-interest-idUSL3N1NQ4E8'|'2017-11-20T20:45:00.000+02:00'
'9703ed059dc8ef1418ae83cb7ae251e47bb0375f'|'Barcelo Hotel plans to buy NH Hotel: Expansión'|'(Reuters) - Grupo Barcelo has made a tentative takeover approach for rival NH Hotel Group ( NHH.MC ) to create the biggest hotel operator in Spain, where tourism is booming.Family-owned Barcelo has proposed taking a 60 percent stake in a combined company and a majority of its board seats in a non-binding offer that values NH at 2.48 billion euros ($3 billion), NH said in a statement on Monday.According to a letter sent to NH and published by the Madrid stock exchange, Barcelo has proposed a reverse takeover by NH, with Barcelo suggesting that NH pay for Barcelo with an issue of new shares at a value of 7.08 euros each, a 27 percent premium to NH’s average share price over the last three months.NH Hotels’ future has been uncertain since representatives of its biggest shareholder, heavily indebted Chinese airline to property conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL], were ejected from its board last year over accusations of a conflict of interest due to HNA’s takeover of a rival hotel group Carlston-Rezidor.A combined NH-Barcelo company would have over 600 hotels and sales of around 3.5 billion euros, although Barcelo said its expression of interest was at this stage, “very preliminary”.NH’s share price was up 11.4 percent at 5.57 euros at 1556 GMT.Tourism accounts directly for around 11 percent of Spain’s economic output with the number of visitors to Spain having grown to a record high as sun-seekers shy away from the Middle East and North Africa due to concerns for their safety.No one at HNA, which owns 29.5 percent of NH and 26 percent of bigger U.S. hotels company Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. ( HLT.N ), was immediately available for comment.HNA is now facing close scrutiny in China over $50 billion worth of acquisitions made over the past two years resulting in an increase in its debt and struck a deal earlier this month to sell and repurchase some NH shares to raise cash for internal financing.Meanwhile NH said on Monday it had recently approved a three-year strategic business plan and this was still in place, focused on boosting its exposure to higher-spending customers and expanding abroad while reducing debt.Analysts said NH could prove a good complementary fit for Barcelo as the latter, which has over 230 hotels, has a stronger presence in the Caribbean, while NH with over 380 hotels, has leading positions in European cities.($1 = 0.8472 euros)Additional reporting by Tomas Cobos and Paul Day in Madrid and Anita Kobylinska in Gdynia; Editing by Louise Heavens, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nh-hoteles-m-a-barcelo/barcelo-hotel-plans-to-buy-nh-hotel-expansin-idINKBN1DK0OJ'|'2017-11-20T04:49:00.000+02:00'
'b36376d74af22283fc7b0223d057d3d332f360c2'|'Electric cars not ready for mass production yet - Toyota chairman to Spiegel'|'November 17, 2017 / 5:14 PM / a few seconds ago Electric cars not ready for mass production yet: Toyota chairman to Spiegel Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Battery-powered cars are not ready for mass production yet, the chairman of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp told a German magazine, adding that he did not see U.S. electric vehicle pioneer Tesla as a role model. Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman of the Board of Directors Takeshi Uchiyamada speaks during an event to mark the launch of the redesigned Prius PHV in Japan, in Tokyo, Japan February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato “Battery-powered cars with a long range are very expensive and it takes a long time to charge them,” Takeshi Uchiyamada was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel. “Such cars do not fit in our program.” Toyota in September established a venture to develop electric vehicle technology with partner Mazda Motor Corp, seeking to catch up with rivals in an increasingly frenetic race to produce more battery-powered cars. Both automakers are somewhat behind their peers, with neither having a fully electric passenger car on the market yet. This contrasts with Tesla, which late on Thursday unveiled an electric heavy duty truck as well as a new roadster. “Tesla is not our enemy and not our role model,” Uchiyamada said. “I think it’s the German manufacturers that rather see Tesla as a competitor.” BMW and Mercedes are betting they can mass produce new electric cars based on conventional vehicles, defying skeptics who say they will need more radical designs to head off the threat from Tesla and other start-up carmakers. Uchiyamada said that Toyota was working on a new type of solid-state battery that is able to store more power and can be recharged much more quickly than current types. “This technology will be a big development step. But that will still take time. We expect mass production in four to five years.” On Friday, Toyota and Suzuki Motor Corp said they had agreed to cooperate in selling electric vehicles in India from around 2020, aiming to give each other a leg up in emerging markets and in low-emission technology. Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-batteries/electric-cars-not-ready-for-mass-production-yet-toyota-chairman-to-spiegel-idUKKBN1DH28U'|'2017-11-17T19:02:00.000+02:00'
'3043b580565556f2ce4f2bb58a5829fd7d4d699b'|'Spotify buys online recording studio Soundtrap'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:54 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Spotify buys online recording studio Soundtrap Reuters Staff 1 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify has bought online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap, it said on Friday, declining to give financial details of the deal. FILE PHOTO: Earphones are seen on top of a smart phone with a Spotify logo on it in this February 20, 2014 photo illustration. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Stockholm-based Soundtrap allows its subscribers to have an online music studio and create music together with other people in real time, its website says. “Soundtrap’s rapidly growing business is highly aligned with Spotify’s vision of democratising the music ecosystem,” Spotify said in a statement. Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators towards the end of this year to list in the first or second quarter next year, sources said in September. Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spotify-soundtrap/spotify-buys-online-recording-studio-soundtrap-idUKKBN1DH1Q6'|'2017-11-17T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'11061d35b29a4a7c21cf91611113db9543c780e3'|'Britain''s Nationwide warns of market share squeeze as profit falls'|'November 17, 2017 / 7:22 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Nationwide warns of market share squeeze as profit falls Lawrence White , Emma Rumney 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Nationwide Building Society ( POB_p.L ) reported a 4 percent fall in half-year profit on Friday, a second consecutive period of decline that it attributed to low interest rates and tough competition in the mortgage market. The lender reported an underlying profit of 588 million pounds for the six months to September 30, down from 615 million a year earlier. Britain’s second-biggest provider of mortgages has been hit in recent years by falling home loans - its main product - and low interest rates, which have squeezed its margins. Nationwide said those pressures were set to continue amid intensifying competition. “We’re prepared for the possibility that intense competition combined with declining consumer confidence may lead to a moderation in gross lending and market share in the second half of the year,” Chief Executive Joe Garner said. Rival lender Virgin Money ( VM.L ) on Thursday also warned its mortgage market share would be lower than previously expected, as low interest rates push banks to offer increasingly attractive offers to home buyers. Nationwide has in recent months pared back its business model to focus on its core offering of mortgages and savings and current accounts, selling or closing other business lines like car insurance and inheritance tax planning. The first-half results followed an 18 percent fall in profits in the first quarter and a 23 percent fall in annual profits last year. Nationwide said its underlying profit however increased, once a 100 million pound one-off gain from asset sales in the corresponding period a year ago was taken into account. editing by Jason Neely and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nationwide-results/nationwide-building-society-reports-4-percent-fall-in-half-year-profit-idUKKBN1DH0Q6'|'2017-11-17T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'b577b94da1cc61291794fc85617cf7bc81f9bbc2'|'European shares weighed down by disappointing updates, downgrades'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:36 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago European shares weighed down by disappointing updates, downgrades Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares steadied on Friday with disappointing company updates and broker downgrades weighing on the broader market, while pay-TV firm Sky rose on speculation of takeover interest. FILE PHOTO - The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Elior ( ELIOR.PA ) fell 18 percent after Europe’s third-largest catering group cut its profit guidance, while media group Vivendi ( VIV.PA ) fell at the open after its third quarter results fell short of analyst expectations. Their declines and weakness among industrial stocks weighed on the STOXX 600 index, which was flat at 385 points by 0824 GMT following a strong rebound in the previous session. Shares in H&M ( HMb.ST ) and Inditex ( ITX.MC ) fell more than 2 percent following broker downgrades. The pan-European benchmark index is down around 0.9 percent so far this week, set for its second weekly loss in a row, as investors have been locking in profits following a strong year. Outside the STOXX, Carillion ( CLLN.L ) wiped out more than half of its stock market value after the UK builder said it would breach its financial covenant and warned on profits for the third time this year. Among the gainers, Sky ( SKYB.L ) rose 2.7 percent after reports that Comcast ( CMCSA.O ) and Verizon ( VZ.N ) had both expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) assets. Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Helen Reid'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-weighed-down-by-disappointing-updates-downgrades-idUKKBN1DH0W8'|'2017-11-17T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'ba0df17fcb05d39d3d0b34e24ab94d1157e41f25'|'China overhauls 17.8 trillion yuan public-private projects as debt fears rise'|'November 17, 2017 / 4:28 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago China overhauls $2.69 trillion public-private projects as debt fears rise Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s finance ministry has ordered an overhaul of its existing public-private partnership (PPP) projects and tightened approval rules for new ones, as Beijing has grown increasingly concerned about rising hidden debt risks from potential abuses of the program. In recent years, the government has tightened controls on new local government debt to help ward off risks following a borrowing binge since the global financial crisis. Instead, Beijing has heavily promoted the PPP model since 2014, which channels private money into public infrastructure projects, to keep capital investment growing while easing the burden on heavily-indebted local governments. The value of China’s 14,220 existing PPP projects totaled 17.8 trillion yuan ($2.69 trillion) by end-September, according to a national database managed by the finance ministry. But the aggressive PPP boom has started to alarm authorities who say some local governments are using public-private partnerships, government investment funds and government procurement services as “disguised channels” for raising debt. All provincial finance bureaus should weed out “unqualified” PPP projects by March 2018, the finance ministry said in a notice posted on its website on Thursday. The criteria for such projects includes failure to conduct return-on-investment evaluation and fiscal stress test, poor project progress and information transparency, exceeding fiscal spending upperlimit, and making illegal debt guarantees. The ministry also tightened rules on approving new PPP projects, specifying that non-public services projects, such as commercial real estate development projects, are ineligible. China has hit the brakes on subway projects in at least three cities, where the PPP model is widely used, and Beijing is asking others to slow their plans, local governments and media have reported, indicating concerns over high debt. Authorities in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot and Baotou cities have scrapped approved PPP projects worth billions of dollars in recent months due to concerns over finances, financial magazine Caixin, citing unnamed sources close to the matter, reported this week. Reporting by Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-ppp/china-overhauls-2-69-trillion-public-private-projects-as-debt-fears-rise-idUKKBN1DH0DE'|'2017-11-17T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'2316abbbe24497a8b6ab25b94ca1a49bd7b49ba4'|'Ancala acquires Apache''s two North Sea gas pipeline assets'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Independent UK-based infrastructure investment fund Ancala Partners has finalised its acquisition of Apache Corp’s interests in two North Sea gas pipeline assets for an undisclosed sum, it said on Monday.Through its North Sea-focused mid-stream oil and gas acquisitions platform, Ancala took Apache’s 30.28 percent stake in the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) System and its 60.58 share of the Beryl Gas Pipeline.The SAGE system comprises a 323-kilometre (200 mile) pipeline and gas processing terminal at St. Fergus near Aberdeen in Scotland, where gas from nine offshore fields is treated.Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ancala-apache-north-sea-gas-infrastru/ancala-acquires-apaches-two-north-sea-gas-pipeline-assets-idINKBN1DK1A2'|'2017-11-20T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'45d974d7829a7f7427d04b942cd4c9e32cfe71df'|'Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt'|' 53 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt John O''Donnell , Tom Sims 7   The prospect of bankers pouring into Frankfurt from post-Brexit Britain has worried local residents anxious about the effect on an already dire housing shortage but also energised leftist groups looking to advance their anti-capitalist ideology. FILE PHOTO: Activists attend a protest training organised by "NoG20 Rhein-Main" in preparation for the upcoming G 20 summit, which will take place on July 7 in Hamburg,   June 10, 2017REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo At least 10,000 financial jobs are expected to move out of London when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019, a number that could balloon to 75,000 over the longer term. The majority of banks, including Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), say they expect to move to Frankfurt. Frankfurters looking forward to the influx say they hope a free-spending clientele will breathe new life into what is often seen abroad as a dull provincial capital. Other residents are worried about rents and housing stock in the city, given that many in the lower-to-middle income range already have a hard time finding a home, however. Among Germany’s active and well-established leftists, who have described the big banks as “ticking time bombs”, groups like “Blockupy” and the Interventionist Left are plotting strategies for disruption. It’s a reminder that while some of the world’s legendary bankers - the Rothschilds, the Warburgs, even the founder of Goldman Sachs, Marcus Goldman - were born in Germany, so was Karl Marx. “We view the concentration of banks in Frankfurt with concern,” said a Blockupy spokesman who identified himself as Thomas Occupy. “For some members, Goldman Sachs is like a red rag to a bull.” Rents in Frankfurt have risen by up to 37 percent since 2009, according to three private data providers, triple the pace for all of Germany, according to Bundesbank estimates. Frankfurt planning officials estimate the city has a shortfall of 40,000 homes even before the Brexit wave hits. Private developers plan 20 new high-rise buildings within five years but are aiming those at wealthy tenants, with asking prices of 4 million euros for some apartments. By comparison, state-owned ABG Frankfurt Holding, which builds affordable housing, completed just 445 apartment units last year. It plans to build thousands more in the coming years but they will arrive too late to relieve the immediate crunch. “The forecasts were wrong. We had expected the population would stagnate,” said Mark Gellert, a spokesman for the city’s planning division. Instead, it has been growing, adding more than 6,000 people in the first six months of this year. “That’s why we fell behind,” he said. COCKTAIL MENTALITY Proponents of the arrivals, including Thomas Schaefer, finance minister for the state of Hesse that is home to Frankfurt, argue they will boost the economy and tax revenues. Restaurant and club entrepreneur Madjid Djamegari anticipates the newcomers will be more interested than the locals in going out during the week, for example. “The Germans don’t have the after-work cocktail mentality. But people are coming who have different standards, who are willing to pay for service,” said Djamegari, whose latest project is a pop-up bar in a former bank office building. With a population of just 736,000, against London’s 8.8 million, and an average annual pre-tax salary of 43,600 euros (£38,726), Frankfurt may also be affected by the influx in less congenial ways, tenants rights groups fear. Rolf Janssen, head of the Frankfurt tenants’ protection association, said his group receives hundreds of calls each week from people worried about evictions or rising rents. Some are in tears and say they have to save on food and clothes to pay the rent. While German law means it is not possible to easily evict tenants or increase rents sharply, Janssen said, there are loopholes and mistrust between residents and owners has increased in recent years. Thomas Occupy, activist in the Blockupy movement stands in front of a huge Euro sign at the former headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB)   on November 10, 2017. Picture taken November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Callers say some owners abruptly embark on noisy construction work to intimidate tenants to leave in order to renovate and charge new occupants more, he said. “Brexit bankers ... trump ordinary tenants,” he said. Michael Mueller, a far Left Frankfurt official who sits on a planning committee preparing for Brexit, is attempting to prevent the state selling further property for high-rise towers. “I‘m worried Frankfurt will turn into ... a millionaire’s ghetto,” he said. “WE‘RE HALF OF THIS TOWN” The Left Party, which has its roots in east Germany’s communism, took roughly one tenth of the seats in the parliament in the last election on Sept. 24, pledging in its manifesto to renationalise the banks and “break their power”. Slideshow (4 Images) Far-left groups hope the tenants’ concerns could win them even more support. Blockupy, which staged violent street protests against the European Central Bank when its new offices opened in 2015, and the Interventionist Left, which helped organise protests against the G20, are weighing their next moves. “People are being pushed out of the city centre,” said Interventionist Left activist Felix Wiegand. “On the other hand, you see the SUVs and those people who have taken over the city as it is were their own. The city’s policy of favouring the rich is infuriating people.” Far-left groups said they might hold protests at the opening of one of Frankfurt’s new office towers and tenant action groups are starting a petition for affordable housing. Their campaign poster features a collage of photographs of citizens with the slogan: “We’re half of this town”. Others may be willing to take more drastic steps. “There is an increasing readiness to act and willingness to resort to violence at the left wing extremes in recent years,” said Klaus Schroeder, an expert in left-wing extremism at the Free University of Berlin. “The left believe that they are using violence to achieve a better world and that the banks are the first that have to be eliminated.” At the protest against the ECB, 7,000 protesters took to the streets, setting police cars on fire and blocking roads with burning stacks of tyres. More than 500 were arrested. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship bank, may offer a taste of what its new neighbours in the financial district can expect. Since 1990, on the first Thursday of every month, former priest Gregor Boeckermann has gathered with about a dozen others at the bank’s headquarters to protest against free-wheeling capitalism. They recently planted an apple tree nearby. “I hope the roots will grow up so strong that they will cause it to explode,” Boeckermann said. Writing by John O''Donnell; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-germany-protest/prospect-of-post-brexit-boom-sparks-worry-as-well-as-celebration-in-frankfurt-idUKKBN1DK1RA'|'2017-11-20T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'6a622ae2ac49729f7f0dad4bf3d831b67efd48b5'|'Oil markets tepid ahead of November 30 OPEC meeting'|'UK households feel the pinch as budget nears UK Queen Elizabeth and husband celebrate 70 years of marriage Mugabe defies demands to quit leadership Reuters TV United States November 20, 2017 / 1:08 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Oil markets tepid ahead of November 30 OPEC meeting Henning Gloystein 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets were tepid on Monday as traders were reluctant to take on big new positions ahead of an OPEC meeting at the end of the month, when the producer club is expected to decide whether to continue output cuts aimed at propping up prices. Men work for Iraqi Drilling Company at Rumaila oilfield in Basra, Iraq, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.60 per barrel at 0348 GMT, down   from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.63 a barrel, up 8   from their last settlement. Traders said they were avoiding taking on large new positions due to uncertainty in markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia, has been restraining output since the start of this year in a bid to end a global supply overhang and buoy prices. The deal to curb output is due to expire in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss the outlook for the policy. OPEC is expected to agree a cut-extension as storage levels remain high despite recent drawdowns, although there are doubts about the willingness of some participants to continue to crimp production. “(The) OPEC meeting remains the key sector catalyst into year-end ... The market expectation is for an extension through 2018, created by OPEC comments early this fall ... (but) there is increased risk that OPEC delays the extension decision,” U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said on Monday in a note to clients. Morgan Stanley said that the question over extended cuts “has shifted to non-OPEC participants’ willingness to extend, primarily Russia”. Despite this, Greg McKenna of futures brokerage AxiTrader said it was “worth noting data showed more longs added by the speculative community”, indicating expectations of rising prices. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-tepid-ahead-of-opec-meeting-at-month-end-idUKKBN1DK02W'|'2017-11-20T06:08:00.000+02:00'
'3d49f9313d0d213d28790ff5ae9c603294be8b05'|'Marvell Technology clinches roughly $6 bln deal to buy Cavium-sources'|'November 20, 2017 / 12:57 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Marvell Technology to buy rival chipmaker Cavium for $6 billion Sonam Rai , Laharee Chatterjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd ( MRVL.O ) said on Monday it would buy smaller rival Cavium Inc ( CAVM.O ) for about $6 billion, as it seeks to expand its wireless connectivity business in a rapidly consolidating semiconductor industry. Marvell Semiconductor President and CEO Matt Murphy. REUTERS/Courtes y Marvell Shares of Marvell were down 0.8 percent to $20.14, while Cavium was up 7 percent at $81.14 in early trading. Chief Executive Matthew Murphy, who took the top job a year ago, has been focusing on Marvell’s networking business to counteract declining demand for its chips used in hard disk drives of personal computers. Murphy last year replaced former CEO Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai - a husband-wife team who co-founded the company - after an audit committee questioned their management style and hedge fund investor Starboard Value LP made a host of demands. Analysts say the new leadership is preparing a number of important new product launches for later this year after refreshing 25 products in 18 months. The deal is Murphy’s first acquisition at the company. “With Marvell facing secular challenges on its core chip business, this acquisition is a smart strategic move which puts the company in a stronger competitive position for the coming years,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives. A buyout of Cavium would give a boost to the networking ambitions of Marvell, which has clients such as network giants Cisco Systems Inc ( CSCO.O ) and Juniper Networks ( JNPR.N ). Marvell and Cavium combined would be able to better compete with bigger rivals Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) and Broadcom ( AVGO.O ), Stifel analyst Kevin Cassidy said. In the last two years, the chip industry has witnessed a series of deals as companies try to gain market share in emerging areas such as automotive technologies and connectivity. The most recent is a bid by Wi-Fi chipmaker Broadcom for rival Qualcomm for a whopping $103 billion in what could be one of the biggest technology deals ever. Marvell’s offer of $84.15 - based on the stock’s close on Friday - represents a premium of 11 percent to San Jose, California-based Cavium’s close, according to a Reuters calculation. Marvell will offer $40 per share in cash and 2.1757 of its shares for each Cavium share. The exchange ratio was based on a purchase price of $80 per share, Marvell’s share price prior to the first media report of the transaction on Nov. 3. The chipmaker plans to fund the deal with a combination of cash on hand from the combined companies and $1.75 billion in debt financing, the company said. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC was the financial adviser to Marvell, while Qatalyst Partners LP and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC were the financial advisers to Cavium. Reporting by Sonam Rai and Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cavium-m-a-marvell-technlgy/marvell-technology-clinches-roughly-6-billion-deal-to-buy-cavium-sources-idUSKBN1DK02S'|'2017-11-20T02:52:00.000+02:00'
'4971ecb0c748598401b8b14d9d991a81ee0e7319'|'Hanover buys Bell Pottinger''s Middle East business'|' 14 PM / a few seconds ago Hanover buys Bell Pottinger''s Middle East business Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Bell Pottinger’s Middle East business has been sold to a subsidiary of London-headquartered public relations firm Hanover Group, the new owner said in a statement on Monday. The value of the acquisition by Hanover Middle East was not disclosed. Bell Pottinger’s British arm collapsed in September after the global public relations agency’s clients deserted it over a racially-charged political campaign it ran in South Africa. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-bellpottinger/hanover-buys-bell-pottingers-middle-east-business-idUKKBN1DK1OD'|'2017-11-20T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'0975efad2fb158ed4ac0c5d0bbf46df034d71d34'|'Morning News Call - India, November 20'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:45 am: Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, IL&FS Transportation Networks MD K. Ramchand, NITI Aayog Advisor Anil Srivastav, Mahindra Electric Mobility CEO Mahesh Babu at Smart Mobility Conference in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Minister of State for Space and Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh, Bharat Electronics CMD M. V. Gowtama, Larsen & Toubro Product and Technology Vice-President Arun Ramachandani at Indian Space Programme in New Delhi. LIVECHAT - ZIMBABWE FOCUS. Independent geo-strategic analyst and Geopolitical Monitor contributor Neil Thompson joins us at 12:30 pm IST to discuss the political fate of Zimbabwe after the country''s military seized power last week saying it was holding President Robert Mugabe and his family safe while targeting "criminals" in the entourage of the man whohas ruled the nation since independence 37 years ago. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Indian bond market euphoria seen short-lived as mood bearish prevails Bond market euphoria over an unexpected India sovereign rating upgrade is expected to fizzle out, as concern over rising inflation, hawkish central bank rhetoric and fiscal discipline resurfaces. • HDFC Life shares buck trend, soar on debut after $1.3 billion IPO HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co''s shares soared by more than a fifth in their trading debut on Friday after a $1.3 billion initial public offering, bucking a trend of tepid market debuts by Indian insurers due to worries over their valuations. • NHPC could bid for Nepal''s $2.5 billion power project pulled from China Indian power company NHPC Ltd could bid for a $2.5 billion hyrdropower project in Nepal, its chairman told Reuters, after Kathmandu cancelled a deal with China Gezhouba Group Corp. • Indian state oil firms betting on natural gas as next big thing India''s state oil refiners are planning an aggressive push into natural gas in coming years to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s goal of making the fuel a bigger part of the country''s energy mix. • SEBI to investigate possible leaks of company earnings The Securities and Exchange Board of India will investigate possible leaks of company earnings in social media chatrooms, its chief Ajay Tyagi said on Friday, following a Reuters report this week that revealed prescient messages being posted in private groups. • L&T wins $1.3 billion construction contract - statement India''s top engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd has secured a contract to build a $1.3 billion Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the company said in a statement, in a big boost for the firm. • India raises import tax on edible oils to highest in a decade India has raised import tax on edible oil to the highest level in more than a decade, the government said in an order, as the world''s biggest importer of edible oils tries to support its farmers. • Aircel delays debt servicing, says ratings agency Indian mobile carrier Aircel Ltd has delayed servicing its debt obligations, a ratings agency said, adding to the woes of the country''s telecoms sector that has been rattled by a price war and high debt levels. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • President Mugabe stuns Zimbabwe by defying pressure to resign President Robert Mugabe stunned Zimbabwe on Sunday by making no mention of resignation in a television address, defying his own ZANU-PF party, which had sacked him hours earlier, and hundreds of thousands of protesters who had already hailed his downfall. • Toshiba shares drop after plan to issue $5.4 billion in new shares Shares of Toshiba Corp fell, a day after the troubled conglomerate said it would raise 600 billion yen from a sale of new shares in a key step that would allow it to stay publicly traded. • Alibaba goes offline with $2.9 billion stake in China''s top grocer Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it would invest HK$22.4 billion for a major stake in China''s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd, part of a wider push into offline retail. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,280.50, trading down 0.2 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to rise in early trade after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped an open market sale of bonds scheduled for this week. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.01 percent-7.06 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open little changed against the dollar, in line with most Asian currencies, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s failed attempt to form a three-way coalition government increased Eurozone political concerns, weighing on euro and lifting the greenback. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street ended the week on a sour note on Friday, with major indexes slipping modestly as investors weighed the fate of the Republicans'' tax overhaul plan. • Asian shares started the week on the back foot, pressured by a retreat on Wall Street amid tax reform uncertainty while the euro skidded after German coalition talks hit an impasse. • The euro hit a two-month low against the yen, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s efforts to form a three-way coalition government failed, raising concerns over political uncertainty in the euro zone''s largest economy. • U.S. Treasury yields edged lower on Friday, in line with weakness on Wall Street and declines in German 10-year bond yields, as the yield curve continued to flatten following strong U.S. housing starts data for October. • Oil markets were tepid as traders were reluctant to take on big new positions ahead of an OPEC meeting at the end of the month, when the producer club is expected to decide whether to continue output cuts aimed at propping up prices. • Gold prices dipped, weighed down by a stronger U.S. dollar, but held close to a one-month high hit in the previous session. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.94/64.97 November 17 $196.43 mln -$97.06 mln 10-yr bond yield - Month-to-date $2.21 bln -$426.47 mln Year-to-date $7.86 bln $25.25 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 65.01 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-20-idINL3N1NQ1H8'|'2017-11-20T00:39:00.000+02:00'
'319fa8668acf0d6449c31b7f3a32c1406122d20c'|'Yellen to leave Fed board once Powell sworn in as central bank chief'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday she will resign her seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors once Jerome Powell is confirmed and sworn in to replace her as head of the U.S. central bank.FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S., March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo In a letter to President Donald Trump, which was released by the Fed, Yellen, 71, also vowed to “do my utmost to ensure a smooth transition” to Powell, who was nominated to succeed her by Trump earlier this month.Powell, also on the seven-member Fed board, must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming his new job. He will have a confirmation hearing next week before the Senate Banking Committee, but no vote on his nomination has been scheduled.It is expected that Powell will be in place when Yellen’s four-year term as Fed chief ends in February.Yellen, credited with putting the economy on a firmer footing and steering monetary policy away from the firefighting mode that followed the 2007-2009 recession and financial crisis, could have stayed on as a Fed governor until 2024.It has been common practise, however, for departing Fed chiefs to also leave the board at the same time as a courtesy to give the successor clear leadership of the group. Board terms run for 14 years.In her letter to Trump, Yellen said she was “gratified by the substantial improvement in the economy since the crisis,” noting that 17 million net jobs had been added during roughly the last eight years. Yellen served as a Fed vice chair before Democratic President Barack Obama nominated her as Fed chief in 2014.The economy “by most metrics, is close to achieving the Federal Reserve’s statutory objectives of maximum employment and price stability,” she wrote to Trump, a Republican.Yellen was the first woman appointed to lead the Fed. Before that role, she was also president of the San Francisco Fed, and head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. She also served a separate term as a Fed governor earlier in the 1990s.Her departure from the Fed board will give Trump, who lauded the economy’s performance under Yellen but said he wanted to name his own Fed chief, that much more room to reshape the central bank by opening up another spot to fill.Should he choose to do so, Trump will be able to appoint five of the board’s seven potential members, filling four open seats alongside his sole board appointment to date of Randal Quarles as vice chair for supervision.Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul SimaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-yellen/yellen-to-leave-fed-board-once-powell-sworn-in-as-central-bank-chief-idINKBN1DK2D5'|'2017-11-20T21:26:00.000+02:00'
'63637e094a8ecb3e0ec76ae3ec81b4062d748abd'|'Ford to invest over 750 million euros in Valencia plant'|'MADRID (Reuters) - U.S. car manufacturer Ford ( F.N ) announced on Friday it would invest more than 750 million euros ($885 million) in its Spanish plant in the eastern region of Valencia to produce the new model of its Kuga SUV.The Ford Motor Company''s emblem is pictured at the company''s factory in Almussafes near Valencia September 5, 2012. REUTERS/Heino Kalis The Valencia plant employs over 8,000 people and, in addition to the Kuga, makes the Mondeo, S-Max and Galaxy cars and two models of van - mostly for export. Kuga represents around half of the production of the Valencia plant.Ford has invested around 3 billion euros in the installations over the past six years, making Valencia one of the two largest assembly operations in Ford’s global manufacturing system, alongside the Chongqing factory in China.“This significant investment underlines Ford’s commitment to Spain as one of its most important manufacturing sites in Europe,” the Detroit-based company said in a statement.The investment in the Spanish plant continues a trend of auto production moving south or east in Europe, where wages tend to be lower.Spain’s car industry, including auto parts manufacturers, employs just under 300,000 people, according to official statistics. It accounts for around 7 percent of the country’s economic output, according to the vehicle manufacturing association Anfac.($1 = 0.8475 euros)Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-spain/ford-to-invest-over-750-million-euros-in-valencia-plant-idUSKBN1DH14G'|'2017-11-17T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'96513c76e32b48082eeee67e83aa158124d71d29'|'Enel shifts focus to mature markets in new plan'|'LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - Europe’s biggest utility Enel will ramp up spending on digital networks to offer smart meters, remote home appliance controls and car charging points, the Italian company said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Italy''s biggest utility Enel is seen at the Rome headquarters, Italy, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo Electricity networks and telecom services are starting to converge as utilities use digital technology to more closely manage power supply and consumption in homes, offices and factories.By remotely controlling the way power is used, they can manage peaks and troughs in demand and sell services that help customers cut their bills. They can also deal better with surges and dips in supply caused by the growing use of wind and solar energy.Enel is building a fibre optic network in Italy to rival former monopoly Telecom Italia ( TLIT.MI ). It is now looking at similar projects for big cities in Latin America, Chief Executive Francesco Starace said on Tuesday.Enel will accelerate investment in smart grids and roll out new services catering to electric vehicles and connected home appliances, company officials said at a presentation.“The unstoppable growth of renewables, digitisation of grids and regulatory change to tackle climate change are driving change from distributed generation to an energy cloud platform,” said Francesco Venturini, head of a new Enel “e-Solutions” division, Enel X.The bet on these new services is driven by necessity as much as by choice. The rise of renewables has hit power prices and ripped up a business model that worked for more than a century - large-scale power stations delivering electricity to networks that invested just enough to cope with peak demand.Utilities long known for delivering reliable investment returns are now breaking up, selling assets and eyeing mergers to cope with shrinking profitability.German utility RWE ( RWEG.DE ) is looking at ways to cut its stake in retail business Innogy since it was spun off, and this could involve a deal with Enel, a banking source told Reuters at the weekend.Starace said acquisitions by Enel would be bolt-on deals mainly in distribution and renewables. He ruled out any interest in Innogy.“Why do we criticize large acquisitions? Because we did it in Europe and it took 10 years to get our money back.”Enel’s heaviest investments in digital and smart grids are yet to happen -- Enel is sinking 5.1 billion euros into its Italian fibre network -- but shareholders are backing Starace for now. Enel shares have outperformed European peers over the past year.Graphic: goo.gl/Fg5pc9INTERNET OF THINGS Enel expects electricity to represent 29 percent of total energy demand by 2040, up from 18 percent today, driven by the electrification of transport and heat production.Much of the 17 billion euros ($20 billion) Enel plans to invest over the next two years in its established markets will go to grids and renewable energy and installing so-called smart meters in homes to take advantage of the “Internet of Things” -- connecting appliances from washing machines to refrigerators to the Internet to improve their performance.“We will invest in mature markets due to the attractiveness of technology in those markets,” Starace said in London, unveiling Enel’s 2018-2020 strategy.The company plans to spend 800 million euros by 2020 to install new services like electric vehicle (EV) charging points, software platforms and public lighting.Enel said it would cut investment in South America, a region it said could face more risks - a shift for a company that has long emphasized emerging markets as key to its future.($1 = 0.8526 euros)Reporting by Stephen Jewkes, editing by Giulia Segreti and Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enel-plan/enel-shifts-focus-to-mature-markets-in-new-plan-idUSKBN1DL0HA'|'2017-11-21T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'b2c7a8c64cc3337b263ea49b0e9e3e2888329de3'|'BRIEF-FINRA fines JPMorgan Securities $1.25 mln for improper employee screening'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago BRIEF-FINRA fines JPMorgan Securities $1.25 mln for improper employee screening Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 21 (Reuters) - Finra says it fines jpmorgan securities $1.25 million for failing to appropriately fingerprint or screen its employees Finra says jpmorgan securiites failed to conduct timely or adequate background checks on about 8,600, or 95 percent, of its non-registered associates from january 2009 to may 2017 Finra says jpmorgan securities failed to properly screen for felony convictions, regulatory disciplinary actions Finra says jpmorgan securities neither admitted nor denied the charges, and was credited for cooperating and addressing the violations'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/finra-jpmorgan/brief-finra-fines-jpmorgan-securities-1-25-mln-for-improper-employee-screening-idUSL1N1NR0YH'|'2017-11-21T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'7bcabd5d0b9d9c3266d355d1985a5d4d50828c0a'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX ticks higher as banks gain, energy stocks weigh'|'November 16, 2017 / 2:45 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX ticks higher as banks gain, energy stocks weigh Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index ticked higher in early trade on Thursday, helped by gains among its biggest banking stocks while energy companies weighed. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 19.84 points, or 0.12 percent, at 15,898.32 shortly after the open. Seven of its 10 main sectors were in positive territory. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-ticks-higher-as-banks-gain-energy-stocks-weigh-idUSL1N1NM12O'|'2017-11-16T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'248d46cb69dabda4076f2717411335b6163f3e7f'|'Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says many wish for a ''confirming vote'' on Brexit'|'November 16, 2017 / 3:17 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Goldman CEO Blankfein calls for second vote on Brexit Anjuli Davies , Andrew MacAskill 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said on Thursday that many people want Britain to have a “confirming vote” on whether to leave the European Union. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Here in UK, lots of hand-wringing from CEOs over #Brexit,” Blankfein wrote on Twitter while in London for a client event. “Better sense of the tough and risky road ahead. Reluctant to say, but many wish for a confirming vote on a decision so monumental and irreversible. So much at stake, why not make sure consensus still there?” It was not immediately clear what he meant by a confirming vote. A Goldman Sachs spokesman in London declined to comment or elaborate further. A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said there would be no second referendum. Ever since the vote, opponents of Britain’s exit - from French President Emmanuel Macron, to former British prime minister Tony Blair and billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind and avoid what they say will be disastrous consequences for the British economy. Anti-Brexit protesters wave EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “Clearly the Goldman CEO only believes in democracy when it goes along with the views of a few CEOs. His comments show how out of touch he is with the concerns of ordinary people,” said Richard Tice, co-chair of the Leave Means Leave campaign group, which is pushing for a so-called hard Brexit. Blankfein, a relative newcomer to Twitter, sparked a wave of speculation last month when he tweeted that he was planning to spend a lot more time in Frankfurt. Goldman Sachs donated a six-figure sum to the campaign to keep Britain inside the European Union in 2016. Britain is currently home to most of the Wall Street bank’s European operations, where it has around 6,000 employees. But the firm needs to ensure it will still be able to serve clients in the EU once Britain leaves the bloc and may have limited access to the EU’s single market. Goldman has agreed to lease office space at a new building in Frankfurt, giving it space for up to 1,000 staff. The Wall Street bank is also building a 1.1 million square-foot office in London with initial occupancy slated for 2019, and Blankfein has also tweeted that he still expects to fill these new European headquarters. In a tour of European cities in the past few months, Blankfein also praised France while in Paris for its strong government and good food. [L8N1NK8BH] Reporting By Anjuli Davies and Andrew MacAskill, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jon Boyle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-ceo-blankfein-says-many-wish-for-a-confirming-vote-on-brexit-idUKKBN1DG26E'|'2017-11-16T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'321b74a7765e5b836980a53d3cf11788ef050d32'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 16)'|'BRUSSELS, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS -- French insurer Axa and Dutch insurer NN Group to acquire joint control of a newly created Spanish joint venture (approved Nov. 15)-- U.S. private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners and HPS Investment Partners to jointly acquire private holding company Ardonagh Group, which owns insurance broker Towergate Insurance Ltd, and Nevada Investment Holdings 2 Ltd (approved Nov. 15)-- Commodities trader Cargill and UK poultry supplier Faccenda Investments to set up a joint venture (approved Nov. 15)NEW LISTINGS NoneEXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES NoneFIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE NOV 17 -- Medical device maker Avantor, which is controlled by private equity firm New Mountain Capital, to acquire laboratory equipment distributor VWR (notified Oct. 11/deadline Nov. 17/withdrawn Oct. 9/refiled Oct. 11)NOV 22 -- Private equity firms CVC and Blackstone to jointly acquire online payuments processing provider Paysafe Group (notified Oct. 16/deadline Nov. 22)NOV 28 -- Dutch pension fund APG and property developer Hines Cherrywood Town Centre Associates LLC to set up a joint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- German car parts maker Continental Automotive and French industrial group Alstom to jointly acquire a minority stake in driverless car technologies company EasyMile (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- Canadian fund manager CDPQ and U.S. conglomerate GE casubsidiary GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to set up a global aircraft financing cajoint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)-- Japanese company Mitsui and Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby to set up a joint venture (notified Oct. 20/deadline Nov. 28/simplified)DEC 1 -- French oil major Total to acquire Danish shipping company Maersk’s oil and gas business(notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)-- Apollo Capital Management to acquire Dutch toy store chain Intertoys Holdings (notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)DEC 4 -- Austrian energy and petrol station company OMV to acquire 40 percent of electric car charging company Smatrics which is owned by hydropower company Verbund and Germany’s Siemens (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)-- Infrastructure fund DIF and French fund manager Caisse des Depots et Consignations to jointly acquire French broadband network operator ADTIM (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)DEC 5 -- German travel services provider Der Touristik Deutschland, which is part of German conglomerate REWE , to acquire Czech tourism company Exim (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)-- China’s COSCO Shipping to acquire Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- French car rental company Europcar to acquire Spanish peer Goldcar (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- Private equity firms Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Pimco to jointly acquire a portfolio of properties in Poland (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)DEC 6 -- Private equity firm EQT to acquire Dutch dental services group Curaeos Holding (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Deutsche Alternative Asset Management, which is an affiliate of Deutsche Bank, and UK insurer Prudential’s subsidiary M&G Alternatives Investment Management to set up a joint venture (notified Dec. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6)DEC 7 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline Dec. 7)DEC 8 -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 11/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)-- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)DEC 12 -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified)-- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12)DEC 13 -- French bank Credit Agricole’s Italian unit Cariparma to acquire at least 95 percent of three Italian savings banks Caricesena, Carim and Carismi (notified Nov. 8/deadline Dec. 13/simplified)DEC 15 -- German energy group Innogy and European Energy Exchange (EEX) to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 10/deadline Dec. 15/simplified)DEC 18 -- German glasswear company Carl Zeiss and Deutsche Telekom to develop smart glasses (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Japanese engineering company Chiyoda Corp which is a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Portugal’s Energias de Portugal, energy company Trustwind, which is a unit of a joint venture between France’s Engie and Marubeni Corp, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, and Spanish energy company Repsol to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Australian investment bank MacQuarie and German storage services provider Oiltanking to acquire joint control of petrochemical storage operator Oiltanking Odfjell terminal Singapore (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)DEC 19 -- German car parts supplier ZF subsidiary Zukunft Venture, German bicycle parts maker Gustav Magenwirth, German brakes maker Brake Force One and vehicle driving systems maker Unicorn Energy to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 14/deadline Dec. 19/simplified)MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5)MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8)MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5)MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions)SUSPENDED -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline suspended from Aug. 17/concessions offered Oct. 5)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idINL8N1NM3NH'|'2017-11-16T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'009c4be2db6eedbb4046f542b2a0c5518f23ce36'|'Europe''s bad debt pile impedes joint deposit insurance - ECB''s Weidmann'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Europe''s bad debt pile impedes joint deposit insurance - ECB''s Weidmann Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank rate-setter Jens Weidmann defended a plan to force banks to build more provisions on non-performing loans, saying the high level of such loans was impeding the creation of a bloc-wide deposit insurance scheme. Deutsche Bundesbank (German Federal Bank) President Jens Weidmann attends the ‘G20 Africa Partnership – Investing in a Common Future’ Summit in Berlin, Germany June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt The ECB has recently come under fire over the proposal and its supervisory arm has already backtracked, suggesting a delay in implementation and a refinement of the rules were possible. But Weidmann, also Bundesbank president and touted as a potential successor to Mario Draghi as ECB head, said the plan was sensible since the bad debt pile was preventing an agreement on deposit insurance. “Insurance usually covers future damage, not damage that already exists,” he told a conference in Frankfurt on Friday. “Hence, in order to be eligible for a common deposit insurance, banks in the euro area have to either fully provision for non-performing loans or divest them,” Weidmann said. According to ECB figures, soured debt in the euro zone banking system totalled around 800 billion euros (£714.8 billion) at the halfway point of 2017. While the ECB’s proposal deals with new non-performing loans, the bank also plans to detail in the first quarter a proposal to tackle the existing stock of bad debt. “The proposals that were recently made by the ECB in this regard strike me as a sensible way forward,” Weidmann said. Germany has long resisted a joint deposit insurance scheme for the euro zone, fearing that German taxpayers would be on the hook for irresponsible banking in the bloc’s periphery. HAWKISH A long-time critic of the ECB’s ultra-loose monetary policy, Weidmann also said policymakers should last month have opted for less aggressive stimulus, as growth was better than expected and the economic recovery might be farther along than inflation figures suggested. The ECB last month halved its bond buys, aimed at keeping borrowing costs low, but extended the scheme by 9 months until the end of September while also keeping it open-ended. “We must be attuned to the fact that the economic recovery has progressed further than inflation figures currently suggest,” Weidmann said. “This is why, in my view, a less distinct loosening of monetary policy in the next year and setting a clear end date for net asset purchases would have been justified.” Calling the recovery impressive, Weidmann said growth in Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, may now be stronger than the Bundesbank projected in June. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-weidmann/europes-bad-debt-pile-impedes-joint-deposit-insurance-ecbs-weidmann-idUKKBN1DH1KE'|'2017-11-17T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'c30f3d7d5e5cf93ec9a63bc1c9f2a28f83e85b84'|'Bankers shifting from London after Brexit may face lower pay'|'November 17, 2017 / 9:23 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Bankers shifting from London after Brexit may face lower pay Lawrence White 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers relocating from London to other European financial hubs following Britain’s exit from the European Union could face lower pay packages, according to an industry survey published on Friday by compensation consultant Emolument. City workers sit at their desks in the early hours in the City of London, Britain October 17, 2017. Picture taken October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner The average managing director, one of the more senior ranks in investment banking, earns 478,000 pounds ($632,633.00) a year in London compared with 312,000 pounds in Paris, 298,000 pounds in Frankfurt and 333,000 pounds in Milan, the survey said. Those figures comprise the average annual salary and bonus combined of 4,475 front-office bankers’ pay packages analyzed for the study, Emolument said. Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the UK is denied access to Europe’s single market, according to a Reuters survey of firms in September. Frankfurt was by far the most popular destination for the new roles, the Reuters survey said, with Paris a distant second. Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann talked up the attractions of his city on Friday for bankers considering relocating, praising its security, international schools, transportation, diversity and night life. Feldmann, opening a conference of elite bankers, said: “You can leave your body guards at home.” “You hardly find gated communities because you don’t need them.” “Every kid in our town knows what money is,” he said. “It is not something to be ashamed of, but it is a part of our identity.” London leads the pay market across all ranks of investment banking from the most junior associates up to managing directors, the Emolument study showed. Frankfurt comes second for more junior staff while Paris is second to London in terms of pay for senior executives. Pay is not the only consideration for bankers looking at which of the European financial centers offers the most attractive overall lifestyle. In Frankfurt, 70 percent of bankers interviewed said they had a good work-life balance, Emolument said, as against 61 percent for London and 59 percent for Paris. “As regards moving away from London to other EU capitals, while pay may be lower, pain points such as schooling and generally higher quality of life should compensate bankers transferring to the continent,” Alice Leguay, co-founder at Emolument said. ($1 = 0.7556 pounds) Reporting by Lawrence White, additional reporting by Tom Sims in Frankfurt, editing by Jane Merriman and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-pay/bankers-shifting-from-london-after-brexit-may-face-lower-pay-idUKKBN1DH10M'|'2017-11-17T12:19:00.000+02:00'
'3ed2e9d811967479dfd6ede7e51385714a93ab3f'|'Older people face paying £34,000 a year to go into a care home'|'The cost of being in a UK care home rose at its fastest rate last year and is now an average of £33,904 a year – up almost 10% on the 2016 figure.Ahead of next week’s budget, which may reveal the latest government thinking on the cost of care timebomb, research from Prestige Nursing + Care has revealed the latest costs and a huge disparity in prices around the country.Care home residents in the north-east pay the least – an average of £25,636 a year, which is a 16.3% increase on 2016. At the other end of the spectrum – and country – residents in the east of England, the UK’s most expensive region, are paying an average of £40,820 a year, which is 7.7% higher than the 2016 figure. These findings echo those by the not-for-profit firm Paying for Care, which says you can expect to spend an average of £31,200 a year on residential care, rising to more than £43,700 if nursing care is needed.Facebook Twitter PinterestCare home costs, and who pays, became a political hot potato earlier this year when Theresa May’s pre-election plans for changes to social care, later dubbed the dementia tax, had to be dropped after they were poorly received during the general election campaign.The prime minister had suggested councils would pick up the tab for care costs once a person’s assets fell below £100,000, as opposed to the current level of £23,250 in England. Controversially, family homes would also be included in the means-testing formula for at-home care for the first time. Ministers later rowed back from the proposal.Prestige Nursing’s research shows the increase in care home costs has hugely outpaced the growth in pensioners’ incomes over the past five years. Since 2012 the cost of the average care home has gone up by 23.7% from £27,404 (an increase of £6,500), while the average pension income has risen by 9.9%, an increase in 2016 of £1,314.The east Midlands saw the largest overall increase in the cost of a care home last year, rising 17.7% to £33,956. Research from Saga has previously shown that care home residents typically spend 2.5 years in care – meaning they can expect to part with at least £77,500, usually by selling the family home.Prestige Nursing’s research also compared the cost of receiving care at home as a cheaper alternative. Based on the 12 hours a week of care that at-home patients typically receive, costs can fall to £183 a week, or £9,156 a year, although with the firm offering such services it is beating its own drum.Facebook Twitter PinterestJonathan Bruce, managing director of Prestige Nursing, says: “It is alarming to see care home costs continue to rise so out of sync with pensioners’ incomes. With later-life incomes stagnating, the rising cost of care will eat away at a growing number of families’ finances as they use their assets to meet bills. This reinforces the fact that we are facing a serious and prolonged social care crisis. Spiralling costs mean people must talk about how they will fund care for themselves or their loved ones earlier, and avoid being stung.“The enormity of the challenges means there is a desperate need for a political solution to the crisis. While fixing social care will not be easy, it can be turned around if policymakers set out a concrete plan that takes into account the needs of patients, providers and councils.”Last month, Conservative council leaders warned that county councils could not afford to fund the £308m rise in care home costs if social care plans got the go-ahead.The County Councils Network, which represents the 37 county councils, said raising the threshold would push far more people into state care than local authorities could fund under their current budgets. Colin Noble, Conservative leader of Suffolk council, called on the government to use next week’s budget to inject further cash into the system and help the “black hole” that is social care.Topics Paying for long-term care Family finances Retirement planning Social care Older people Pensions features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/18/older-people-34000-a-year-care-home-residential-care-crisis-provision'|'2017-11-18T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'4c2c81193a7549a97154a4536d0ec7a0978c8ad1'|'METALS-Nickel gains capped by caution over high inventories'|'* LME/SHFe arb: tmsnrt.rs/2oQ5nm2* Copper and nickel both up but register weekly decline (Adds closing prices, adds VW spending plan)By Zandi ShabalalaLONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Nickel and copper led the base metals complex higher on Friday, supported by a softer dollar, though both metals ended the week lower.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange closed 0.6 percent up at $6,777 a tonne but was off by half a percent on the week. Nickel added 1.8 percent to $11,5720, but ended the week with a 4.4 percent decline.Nickel, mainly used in stainless steel, rallied to a two-year high this month on its expected use in electric vehicles, but prices have since pulled back because of high inventories.ING commodities strategist Warren Patterson said the base metals complex was undergoing a price correction, with help from Friday’s weaker dollar.“The nickel market got a bit ahead of itself, rallying as much as it did, given that we still have a lot of inventory to draw down before it becomes an overly bullish story,” he added.INVENTORIES: On-warrant inventories of copper MCUSTX-TOTAL -- those not earmarked for delivery -- fell by 6,925 tonnes to 148,250 after fresh cancellations.On-warrant nickel stocks fell by 7,302 tonnes to 246,504 tonnes. That helped prices on the day, but they are still flat on the year.EV DEMAND: Wood Mackenzie analysts estimate nickel demand in electric vehicle (EV) batteries will rise to about 220,000 tonnes in 2025 from about 40,000 tonnes last year.DEMAND: Volkswagen will spend 34 billion euros ($40 billion) on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022, it said on Friday.DOLLAR: The dollar index slipped to a four-week low after the Wall Street Journal reported that investigators looking at possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election had subpoenaed President Donald Trump’s election campaign for documents.COPPER TECHNICALS: The next major support for copper is $6,675 a tonne with resistance into $6,850, Marex Spectron said in a note.COPPER: A fire broke out at the main port used by copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc in Papua, Indonesia, on Thursday night, the company said, adding that the incident would not affect shipments.Villagers near the Freeport mine were evacuated after a string of shootings.BHP BILLITON: The world’s biggest mining company BHP Billiton is seeking a buyer for its nickel business in Australia, it said on Thursday.ALUMINIUM: Aluminium ended the session and the week barely changed at $2,103 a tonne, having shed almost 4 percent last week.Expected capacity cuts in China and falling inventories in LME-approved warehouses have helped to push up aluminium prices by 24 percent this year.PRICES: Lead closed 1.2 percent up at $2,432 a tonne, tin rose 0.6 percent to $19,475 and zinc finished with a 1.1 percent gain at $3,179.Additional reporting by James Regan IN SYDNEY; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-nickel-gains-capped-by-caution-over-high-inventories-idINL3N1NN30B'|'2017-11-17T08:55:00.000+02:00'
'1a7ea3e7958508314e50d55923fb5bd40139db89'|'Tesla unveils electric big-rig truck in midst of Model 3 factory ''hell'''|'November 16, 2017 / 12:02 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago New $200,000 Tesla Roadster speeds in front of electric big-rig truck Alexandria Sage 6 Min Read HAWTHORNE, Calif. (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) upstaged its own debut of an electric heavy duty truck when a red Roadster pulled out of the big rig’s trailer and Chief Executive Elon Musk said the new $200,000 sports car would be the fastest production car ever. Tesla''s new electric semi truck is unveiled during a presentation in Hawthorn, California, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage The Thursday unveiling of two products, including the unexpected Roadster, drew roars of applause from a selected crowd at an airport hangar near Los Angeles while highlighting the ambitions of the luxury electric car maker, which is piling on projects as it struggles to roll out a more affordable sedan on which the company’s future depends. As the presentation appeared to end, the Tesla Semi opened its trailer, and the Roadster drove out. The sports car is an updated version of Tesla’s first production vehicle. It can seat four and travel 620 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge, a new record for an electric vehicle, Musk said. It can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour (100 km per hour) in 1.9 seconds, which would make it the fastest car in general production. ”You’ll be able to travel from LA to San Francisco, and back, at highway speed without recharging. The point of doing this is to just give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars. Driving a gasoline sports car is going to feel like a steam engine with a side of quiche,” Musk boasted. The first 1,000 cars will cost $250,000 each, paid in full up front, with later models starting at $200,000. Musk did not give a price for the Semi, or say how or where either product would be built, but he said the truck would begin production in 2019 and that the Roadster would be available a year later. PROJECTS AND PRODUCTS MULTIPLY Musk has described electric trucks as Tesla’s next effort to move the economy away from fossil fuels through projects including electric cars, solar roofs and power storage. Some analysts fear the truck will be an expensive distraction for Tesla, which is burning cash, has never posted an annual profit, and is in self-described “manufacturing hell” starting up production of the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. “Elon’s showmanship remains intact, even as his customers’ patience for Model 3 delivery wanes,” Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, said by email. ”The specs on the new semi truck and sports car would put both vehicles at the top of their segments...assuming they can be produced and sold as part of a sustainable business plan. So far that final element has eluded Tesla Motors, which makes it difficult to see these vehicles as more than ‘what if’ concept cars,” he added. Tesla also has to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. The heavy batteries eat into the weight of cargo an electric truck can haul. Tesla CEO Elon Musk shows off the Tesla Semi as he unveils the company''s new electric semi truck during an presentation in Hawthorn, California, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage The truck can go up to 500 miles (800 km) at maximum weight at highway speed, Musk said, without giving the size of the payload. Tesla said the Class 8 vehicle, the heaviest weight classification for trucks, in 30 minutes can recharge the battery enough to go 400 miles. Diesel trucks are capable of travelling up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on a single tank of fuel. Musk said diesel trucks were 20 percent more expensive per mile to operate than his electric truck. The day cab - which is not a sleeper - has a less prominent nose than on a classic truck, and the battery is built into the chassis. Tesla designed the cab for good visibility, with a centre seat flanked by two touch screens. Tesla showed off the semi on a webcast which offered reservations for the truck at $5,000 each, but Musk did not discuss reservation volume. Slideshow (10 Images) Old Dominion Freight Line Inc ( ODFL.O ), the fourth-largest U.S. less-than-truckload carrier, which consolidates smaller freight loads onto a single truck, said it was not signing on. “We met with Tesla and at this time we do not see a fit with their product and our fleet,” Dave Bates, senior vice president of operations, said in an email, without elaborating. Tesla faces a much more crowded field for electric trucks than it did when it introduced its electric cars. Manufacturers such as Daimler AG ( DAIGn.DE ), Navistar International Corp ( NAV.N ) and Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) are joining a host of start-ups racing to overcome the challenges of substituting batteries for diesel engines as regulators crack down on carbon dioxide and soot pollution. Still, manufacturers are mostly focused on medium-duty trucks, not the heavy big rig market Tesla is after. Tesla would need to invest substantially to create a factory for those trucks. The company is currently spending about $1 billion per quarter, largely to set up the Model 3 factory, and is contemplating a factory in China to build cars. Charging and maintaining electric trucks that crisscross the country could be expensive and complex. Shares of Tesla have risen 46 percent this year to make the company the No. 2 U.S. automaker by market value. Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-truck/tesla-to-unveil-electric-big-rig-truck-in-midst-of-model-3-factory-hell-idUKKBN1DG1LK'|'2017-11-17T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'99b4883907dfd5c8de62e4e39aea41bd30aa3af0'|'Cheap ECB cash still key for euro zone economy - Draghi'|'November 17, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago Cheap ECB cash still key for euro zone economy: Draghi Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The euro zone economy remains dependent on cheap credit and the European Central Bank is using the extension of its massive bond buys to push out any expectation for a rise in borrowing costs, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi holds a news conference following the governing council''s interest rate decision at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Draghi said the ECB was becoming increasingly confident that the euro zone’s economic recovery would continue but sluggish growth in wages meant monetary policy needed to remain easy. “A key motor of the recovery remains the very favorable financing conditions facing firms and households, which are in turn heavily contingent on our policy measures,” Draghi said. The ECB is on course to buy 2.55 trillion euros worth of bonds after deciding last month to continue buying bonds until September, or beyond if needed. It also pledged to keep its interest rates at their current, record low levels “well past” the end of its bond buys. Draghi said this pledge made continued bond purchases key for pushing market expectations for the first rate hike further into the future, helping to keep rates low. “Asset purchases matter also for the signals they entail about the path of future policy rates: the so-called ‘signaling effect’,” Draghi told a banking conference. “The signaling effect of asset purchases has therefore naturally increased in prominence relative to the duration effect.” Through its “negative deposit rate” ECB has been charging banks since 2014 for parking idle cash at the central bank, attracting criticism from a sector already complaining about low profits and rising capital demands. But Draghi said ECB research found “little evidence” that its policy was harming banks and any future damage would be offset by its favorable effect on the economy. He also tackled accusations, particularly from Germany, that the ECB’s ultra-easy policy was fuelling a new credit bubble and said the recovery was instead “feeding on itself”. “The recovery ... has not come against the backdrop of re-leveraging in any economic sector,” he said. “We see more signs that growth is ‘feeding on itself’, i.e. spending multipliers and endogenous propagation are again supporting activity,” he added. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Jon Boyle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-draghi/continued-ecb-bond-buys-key-to-pushing-out-rate-hike-draghi-idUKKBN1DH0XV'|'2017-11-17T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'31c667636210c537595c868771cb93851fa64642'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 17'|'Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- With 227 Republican votes, the House passed the most sweeping tax overhaul in three decades on Thursday as U.S. lawmakers seek to enact $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals and deliver the first major legislative achievement of President Donald Trump''s tenure. nyti.ms/2hDqQRs- The cable company Comcast Corp is in preliminary talks to buy entertainment assets owned by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, including a vast overseas television distribution business. nyti.ms/2hxkbof- Tesla Inc has aimed to reinvent the automobile and the way electricity is generated for homes. In a presentation by its chief executive, Elon Musk, Tesla unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck that the company said would prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that now haul goods across the country. nyti.ms/2zJPgzU- The senior American diplomat at the United Nations climate talks in Germany told world leaders on Thursday that the United States would remain engaged in global climate change negotiations even as it planned to exit the Paris agreement "at the earliest opportunity." nyti.ms/2ySE1Bd- The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to allow a single company to own a newspaper and television and radio stations in the same town, reversing a decades-old rule aimed at preventing any individual or company from having too much power over local coverage. nyti.ms/2zN7YpA (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-17-idINL3N1NN261'|'2017-11-17T02:44:00.000+02:00'
'b4c34902779bcb271ebfe68c394d25d2dbe7163f'|'Oil rises over 2 percent, but shows first weekly fall in six'|'November 17, 2017 / 1:58 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Oil rises over 2 percent, but shows first weekly fall in six Catherine Ngai 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rebounded more than 2 percent on Friday after falling for five straight session as a major U.S. crude pipeline was shut and traders anticipated an OPEC deal to extend curbs on production. FILE PHOTO: A worker stands in front of pump jacks at the Ashalchinskoye oil field owned by Russia''s oil producer Tatneft near Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Prices, however, fell for the first week in six, pressured by rising U.S. output data and doubts that Russia would support an extension of the OPEC output cut deal. Prices rebounded after Thursday’s comments by Saudi Arabia’s energy minister signaled a willingness to extend output cuts when OPEC meets on Nov. 30. “Obviously, the comments gave us guarantee that the extension is going to happen and was a driving story overnight,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “Globally, we’re coming against the backdrop of tightness in distillate inventories and strong global refinery demand. Those catalysts will continue to drive us higher.” Brent crude oil LCOc1 rose $1.36, or 2.2 percent, to settle at $62.72 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) CLc1 ended $1.41, or 2.6 percent, at $56.55 a barrel. For the week, Brent was down 1.3 percent and WTI fell 0.3 percent. TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) 590,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Keystone pipeline remained shut after a leak in South Dakota on Thursday. Traders said the shut-in would add to bullish sentiment due to fewer barrels going into Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point of the WTI contract. The WTI prompt spread CLc1-CLc2 narrowed by as much as 7 cents in the day. Meanwhile, money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions this week, with short positions at their lowest level since March. Prices fell this week as fears of oversupply remained after U.S. government data showed oil output C-OUT-T-EIA touching a record 9.65 million bpd last week. The International Energy Agency also said that the United States would account for 80 percent of the global increase in oil production over the next decade. “Market participants are closely watching the rising oil-production profile in the U.S., which will remain the predominant bearish factor,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London. U.S. energy companies kept the oil rig count unchanged this week, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday. Some analysts expect a gradual decline in the fourth quarter. [RIG/U] Signs of rising U.S. output have dampened the impact of output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and several other producers. Earlier this week, Russia’s Rosneft said an exit from the supply curb deal was a serious challenge, though added that it was committed to a deal. Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-set-for-first-weekly-fall-in-six-on-oversupply-worries-idUKKBN1DH06V'|'2017-11-17T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'b03583d7d080036ff9a168a6962e309a1f2d680d'|'Bumper profits, government pressure to drive Asia''s dividend bonanza'|'Reuters TV United States November 19, 2017 / 11:18 PM / a few seconds ago Bumper profits, government pressure to drive Asia''s dividend bonanza Patturaja Murugaboopathy 6 Min Read (Reuters) - Dividend payouts by Asia’s biggest companies are poised for their biggest increase in six years as profits surge and pressure grows on firms to be more generous with their shareholders. Across Asia, dividend payouts in 2017 are expected to grow by 12 percent year-on-year, a Reuters analysis showed, marking the largest increase in payouts since 2011. That corporate generosity, driven to some extent by improving economic growth, is only partly reflected in the share price, analysts say. If, as consensus forecasts show, earnings growth stays strong into next year and 2019, there is plenty of room for Asian stock markets to rally beyond current multi-year highs. “2017 is the year when earnings finally recover after five years of disappointing growth in Asia,” said Frank Benzimra, head of Asia equity strategy at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. “Accordingly, we see dividends rising, in line with earnings growth.” The numbers, compiled from Thomson Reuters earnings data, show technology companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Corp ( 5425.TWO ), Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) and Sony Corp ( 6758.T ) are expecting record profits and higher dividends this year as the launch of new smartphones drives up demand of memory chips and image sensors. Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd ( CIMB.KL ), which announced its second best quarterly earnings in four years in the June quarter, issued an interim dividend of 1.18 billion ringgit ($281.96 million), translating to a dividend payout ratio of 51.6 percent of first-half profits. The analysis covered 1,571 Asian companies each with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion across 12 markets for which Thomson Reuters has available data on dividend estimates. Dividends grew between 0.5 percent and 9 percent between 2012 and 2016. Across the region, corporate profits are climbing owing to higher commodity prices, a revival in global demand for consumer products and an improvement in bank profits as loan growth soars even as funding costs stay low. The markets have priced in some expectations of these bumper returns but analysts expect earnings and therefore dividends growth to stay strong even in 2018 and 2019, said Benzimra. “I don’t think this is really priced into the market,” he said. “If we indeed have this kind of earnings growth, that could lift the market.” MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan index .MIAPJ0000PUS has risen about 30 percent this year and is at its highest since 2007. Grace Tam, a senior market strategist at HSBC Global Asset Management based in Hong Kong, said free cash flows are higher among Asian companies and investors might find themselves surprised by future payouts. Thomson Reuters data on the same set of companies showed their total free cash flows for 2017 are estimated at $374 billion- the highest in at least a decade. NOT FULLY IN THE PRICE Asian shares arguably have more room to grow than developed markets such as the United States, based on forward dividend yields, the ratio of estimated dividend payments over the next 12 months to share price. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand have forward dividend yields in excess of 3 percent, much higher than United States’ 1.9 percent. Asia’s average yield stood at 2.4 percent. Yet, Asia’s price-to-earnings ratios are lower, ranging from South Korea’s 9.6 to China’s 13.5, against the global average of 15.4. The ability of Asian companies to pay dividends has never been in doubt, but their desire to sit on large cash piles has traditionally affected shareholder returns. Asia’s dividend payout ratio stood at 34 percent over the last 12 months, less than Europe’s 45 percent and North America’s 43 percent, despite Asian profit growth exceeding the other two regions. Analysts said Asia’s dividend culture is likely to change, as government pressure on companies grows. China, where the securities regulator has vowed to penalize companies that do not pay cash dividends, is seeing rising payouts. Coal miner Shenhua Energy Co ( 601088.SS ) proposed a special dividend worth 50 billion yuan ($7.53 billion) earlier this year. Japan introduced the corporate governance act in 2015, aimed at protecting shareholder rights and enriching their returns. Since its inception, more companies have started to comply with it. Japan, as well as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, have introduced stewardship codes aimed at institutional investors agitating for better governance and returns on their investment. South Korea is expected to adopt the stewardship code this year and has strong backing from new President Moon Jae-in. Samsung last month said it would double dividends next year to 9.6 trillion won and keep them at that level until 2020, as it responds to investor pressure to share its vast cash reserves. Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; with Additional Reporting by Gaurav Dogra in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asia-markets-dividends/bumper-profits-government-pressure-to-drive-asias-dividend-bonanza-idUKKBN1DJ0W8'|'2017-11-20T01:12:00.000+02:00'
'29ec03b085fb7336cd077a893329630dc6e0ecb4'|'Yellen to leave Fed board once successor Powell sworn in'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:20 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Yellen to leave Fed board once successor Powell sworn in Reuters Staff 3   Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday she will resign her seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors once Jerome Powell is confirmed and sworn in to replace her as head of the U.S. central bank. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S., March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo In a letter to President Donald Trump, which was released by the Fed, Yellen, 71, also vowed to “do my utmost to ensure a smooth transition” to Powell, who was nominated to succeed her by Trump earlier this month. Powell, also on the seven-member Fed board, must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming his new job. He will have a confirmation hearing next week before the Senate Banking Committee, but no vote on his nomination has been scheduled. It is expected that Powell will be in place when Yellen’s four-year term as Fed chief ends in February. Yellen, credited with putting the economy on a firmer footing and steering monetary policy away from the firefighting mode that followed the 2007-2009 recession and financial crisis, could have stayed on as a Fed governor until 2024. It has been common practice, however, for departing Fed chiefs to also leave the board at the same time as a courtesy to give the successor clear leadership of the group. Board terms run for 14 years. In her letter to Trump, Yellen said she was “gratified by the substantial improvement in the economy since the crisis,” noting that 17 million net jobs had been added during roughly the last eight years. Yellen served as a Fed vice chair before Democratic President Barack Obama nominated her as Fed chief in 2014. The economy “by most metrics, is close to achieving the Federal Reserve’s statutory objectives of maximum employment and price stability,” she wrote to Trump, a Republican. Yellen was the first woman appointed to lead the Fed. Before that role, she was also president of the San Francisco Fed, and head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. She also served a separate term as a Fed governor earlier in the 1990s. Her departure from the Fed board will give Trump, who lauded the economy’s performance under Yellen but said he wanted to name his own Fed chief, that much more room to reshape the central bank by opening up another spot to fill. Should he choose to do so, Trump will be able to appoint five of the board’s seven potential members, filling four open seats alongside his sole board appointment to date of Randal Quarles as vice chair for supervision. Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-yellen/yellen-to-leave-fed-board-once-powell-sworn-in-as-central-bank-chief-idUKKBN1DK2CM'|'2017-11-20T22:29:00.000+02:00'
'861c34e7c81e42a2d921a833c80cdb4a0e14271f'|'Bitcoin hits record high after smashing through $8,000 for first time'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit a new record high on Monday after smashing through the $8,000 level for the first time over the weekend, marking an almost 50 percent climb in just eight days. A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The new high came after leading U.S. payments company Square Inc said late last week that it had started allowing select customers to buy and sell bitcoins on its Cash app. Bitcoin traded as high as $8,197.81 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, up over 2 percent on the day and around 48 percent up since dipping to $5,555 on Nov. 12. An eye-watering eightfold increase in the value of the volatile cryptocurrency since the start of the year has led to muliple warnings that the market is in a bubble, and institutional investors are broadly staying away. Retail investors, however, as well as some hedge funds and family offices, are piling into the market. The “market cap” of all cryptocurrencies hit an all-time high of over $242 billion on Monday, according to trade website Coinmarketcap. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-hits-record-high-after-smashing-through-8000-for-first-time-idUSKBN1DK1Q6'|'2017-11-20T16:44:00.000+02:00'
'4a02b30e0502319f9d53ec4806d5b6c7d761a4ad'|'Italian banks face long, uphill road to modernisation'|'Reuters TV United States November 20, 2017 / 4:04 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Italian banks face long, uphill road to modernization Valentina Za 7 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Bailed-out Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank and a bastion of tradition dating back to 1472, has entered the realms of virtual reality. It’s an unlikely sign of the times. The main hall is pictured inside Palazzo delle Colonne at the Intesa San Paolo bank downtown Milan, Italy, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/ Stefano Rellandini After surviving the worst of a bad loans crisis, Italian banks face another daunting mission: modernizing centuries-old businesses and finding new ways to make money. They are looking to catch up with European rivals in digital banking, and are reducing their dependence on lending by selling insurance and other financial products. How this overhaul plays out could shape the sector for years to come, with those who adapt most swiftly sweeping up a larger slice of new business, say bankers and industry experts. Monte dei Paschi’s online arm last week launched virtual reality (VR) branches, accessed via phone app and VR headset, and said 3,500 customers had signed up in the first few hours. But other banks are moving far more aggressively in revamping their businesses. Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit, set a template for lenders in need of restructuring by raising 13 billion euros from shareholders this year. As well as investing 1.6 billion euros in its IT systems, it is re-training 1,500 Italian staff and moving them from administrative jobs to client-facing roles. Mediobanca has meanwhile acquired a “robo-advisory” service, an algorithm that proposes investments to customers of its digital arm who can access it directly. It is also hiring 100 financial consultants a year to reach more than 300 by 2019 to boost assets under management. But modernization will not be easy for an industry that has focused on lending to Italy’s myriad small businesses for centuries. Banks must contend with employees who are resistant to changing roles, rigid labor laws, and a lack of funds to invest in technology. Varying rates of progress among Italy’s 600 lenders are likely to further widen the gap between large players and their smaller peers, which are still grappling with the loans crisis and lack the scale for the necessary investments. Banca Carige, for example, is raising capital to avoid collapse. [nL8N1NN59D] Executives say mergers are inevitable in coming years. “Innovation and digitalization have become a priority for all large lenders which are dedicating people and money to them. The problem is the industry is very fragmented and small banks find it hard to embrace the challenge,” said Roberto Ferrari, Mediobanca’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer. Heavyweight Intesa Sanpaolo, which has led the shift towards fee-earning businesses and has 230 of its 4,800 branches dedicated solely to advisory services, is launching a pilot project which will see some staff having two contracts. They will work part-time as a bank employee with set salary, and for the rest of the time as a consultant with pay based on the number of products they sell. PASTRY AND PIAZZA Changes are necessary for an industry which has shrinking revenues and is not repaying its cost of capital - meaning companies could struggle to raise cash from investors if they run into trouble. Italian banks’ return on equity - a key measure of profitability - was 2.3 percent in the first half of 2017 excluding one-off transactions, less than half the European average and a fraction of their 12.8 percent cost of equity, according to calculations for Reuters by consultancy Oliver Wyman. There is a long road ahead for lenders in Italy, where only about 30 percent of bank customers use online services, against 45 percent in Spain and more than 80 percent in Nordic countries, Oliver Wyman found. At the end of last year, Italy had a bank branch every 2,000 residents, against an EU average of one every 3,800. Italian banks were freed from the threat of a systemic collapse after Rome committed billions of euros of public money to buttress the industry by rescuing Monte dei Paschi and two smaller banks over the summer. But thousand of jobs are yet to be axed in a sector that has already shed 40,000 since 2008. Banks will need to cut 25-30 percent of their 29,000 branches over the next five years, consultancy Accenture estimates, following a 15 percent reduction in 2008-16. The "zodiac" clock is seen inside Palazzo delle Colonne inside Intesa San Paolo bank downtown Milan, Italy, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/ Stefano Rellandini Those branches that survive are being redesigned to appeal to a new generation, and type, of clientele. Under a 500-million-euro renovation push aimed at turning its branches into modern-day piazzas, Intesa is partnering with a pastry chef to host his patisseries from next year and recently launched its first branch with a cafe inside. Meanwhile UniCredit opened its first branch for small corporate clients near La Scala theater in September, with a lounge area where they can hold their own meetings. “As bank branches dwindle the skills of people left in them must change to provide consulting and customer services,” said Alberto Antonietti, head of financial services at Accenture Strategy in Milan. “This is no small cultural revolution for people used to waiting for clients behind a counter who must now go hunting for them. The digital catch-up will happen, transforming people will be the real challenge.” NO CUSHY JOBS Slideshow (10 Images) There has been progress; excluding bailed-out Monte dei Paschi, fees have accounted for 40 percent of revenues at the top four banks this year, up from 31 percent five years ago. But the changes are proving painful for employees. Unions have complained against pressures on staff to sell financial products and have set up a joint committee with Italy’s banking association to monitor the issue. In a survey of bank staff in a Tuscan province, 84 percent of respondents felt uneasy recommending a product to a client in order to hit goals. More than a quarter had used at some point anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs, an academic study by La Sapienza University found this year. “I was deeply struck by how unprepared most employees were to adapt quickly to changes happening in the industry,” said Professor Giuseppe La Torre, one of the study authors. “In everyone’s mind a bank job is a well-paid, cushy job. Our study uncovered a very different reality. These are people in their 50s who started working at least 20 years ago - they have not been trained to adapt well to changes.” Former bank clerk Giuliano Leone, 60, who recently retired from a small bank, said learning the ins and outs of financial products did not necessarily teach people how to sell them. “During training they told us that signing somebody up to an insurance contract took only a few minutes,” he added. “Well, it doesn‘t. It takes hours.” A senior bank executive, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that it was difficult to hire talented people as the skills required broadened. “The cuts discourage those who are after a secure job and those who want a dynamic work environment much prefer a start-up or a big tech company,” he said. “Nobody dreams of working for a bank anymore.” Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-modernisation-in/italian-banks-face-long-uphill-road-to-modernization-idUKKBN1DK1XG'|'2017-11-20T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'377991dabd73b6ac8353fc951cad03576fbab707'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Geopolitics weigh on markets, Abu Dhabi firm on ADNOC IPO plan'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:07 PM / Updated 8 hours ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Geopolitics weigh on markets, Abu Dhabi firm on ADNOC IPO plan Reuters Staff * Saudi at lowest close since graft crackdown announced * UAE’s Dana Gas rebounds after fall on London sukuk ruling * Dubai’s Emaar continues fall on unit’s IPO pricing * Abu Dhabi attracts interest with ADNOC unit’s IPO * Qatar National Bank falls 1.9 percent By Aziz El Yaakoubi DUBAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Most stock markets in the Middle East fell again on Monday, dampened by geopolitics, although Abu Dhabi was supported by plans for an initial public offer of shares by the distribution unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC). Regional tensions have risen in recent weeks between Sunni Muslim monarchy Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Islamist Iran over Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s surprise resignation, and an escalation in Yemen’s conflict. The Saudi and other Arab foreign ministers called at an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday for a united front to counter Iranian interference. Some fund managers think there may be little downside left for Gulf markets now that valuations are no longer high, and believe the geopolitical worries may prove excessive. “Geopolitical tensions are easy to provoke but also easy to ease - markets do not seek solutions to recover, only indications of solutions,” said Talal Samhouri, head of asset management at Amwal LLC in Doha. But investors’ mood in the Gulf on Sunday was generally glum, with the Saudi stock index falling 1.0 percent to its lowest close since the government alarmed the market two weeks ago by announcing a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown. Except for Bank Aljazira, which rose 0.6 percent, all Saudi banks fell with Banque Saudi Fransi losing 2.2 percent and National Commercial Bank, the kingdom biggest lender, falling 1.2 percent. Despite strong oil prices in recent weeks, Saudi petrochemical shares also edged down with Saudi Basic Industries losing 0.8 percent. In Abu Dhabi, the index edged up 0.2 percent after ADNOC outlined plans for the IPO of its distribution unit, which could attract new money to the market. The offer price range is due to be announced on Nov. 26. Dana Gas, which had tumbled 4.2 percent on Sunday after a London court ruled against it in its effort to have $700 million of its outstanding Islamic bonds declared invalid, rebounded 2.9 percent. Dana plans to appeal the decision and is also fighting its case in a United Arab Emirates court. In Dubai, the index edged down 0.2 percent as construction firm Arabtec Holding lost 2.8 percent and Emaar Properties fell 1.2 percent. Emaar has been sliding since late last week, when it priced the IPO of its local real estate development unit in the lower half of an indicative range. Courier firm Aramex climbed 2.0 percent after saying chief executive Hussein Hachem was being replaced with immediate effect by chief financial officer Bashar Obeid. It did not explain the decision; last month, the company had announced Obeid would take early retirement. Qatar sank 0.3 percent as big banks slipped, with Qatar National Bank, the largest lender, falling 1.9 percent. In Egypt, the index lost 0.5 percent as Telecom Egypt Co. tumbled 4.2 percent. HIGHLIGHTS * The index fell 1.0 percent to 6,804 points. DUBAI * The index fell 0.2 percent to 3,417 points. ABU DHABI * The index rose 0.2 percent to 4,289 points. QATAR * The index edged down 0.3 percent to 7,808 points. EGYPT * The index dropped 0.5 percent to 13,681 points. KUWAIT * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 6,258 points. BAHRAIN * The index fell 0.5 percent to 1,266 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-geopolitics-weigh-on-markets-abu-dhabi-firm-on-adnoc-ipo-plan-idUSL8N1NQ3LH'|'2017-11-20T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'2eb698701738ad177c143fd24f0597be6b59e739'|'Marvell Technology clinches roughly $6 billion deal to buy Cavium: sources'|'(Reuters) - Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd ( MRVL.O ) said on Monday it would buy smaller rival Cavium Inc ( CAVM.O ) for about $6 billion, as it seeks to expand its wireless connectivity business in a rapidly consolidating semiconductor industry.Marvell Semiconductor President and CEO Matt Murphy. REUTERS/Courtes y Marvell Shares of Marvell were down 0.8 percent to $20.14, while Cavium was up 7 percent at $81.14 in early trading.Chief Executive Matthew Murphy, who took the top job a year ago, has been focusing on Marvell’s networking business to counteract declining demand for its chips used in hard disk drives of personal computers.Murphy last year replaced former CEO Sehat Sutardja and President Weili Dai - a husband-wife team who co-founded the company - after an audit committee questioned their management style and hedge fund investor Starboard Value LP made a host of demands.Analysts say the new leadership is preparing a number of important new product launches for later this year after refreshing 25 products in 18 months.“With Marvell facing secular challenges on its core chip business, this acquisition is a smart strategic move which puts the company in a stronger competitive position for the coming years,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives.A buyout of Cavium would give a boost to the networking ambitions of Marvell, which has clients such as network giants Cisco Systems Inc ( CSCO.O ) and Juniper Networks ( JNPR.N ).Marvell and Cavium combined would be able to better compete with bigger rivals Intel Corp ( INTC.O ), Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) and Broadcom ( AVGO.O ), Stifel analyst Kevin Cassidy said.In the last two years, the chip industry has witnessed a series of deals as companies try to gain market share in emerging areas such as automotive technologies and connectivity.The most recent is a bid by Wi-Fi chipmaker Broadcom for rival Qualcomm for a whopping $103 billion in what could be one of the biggest technology deals ever.Marvell’s offer of $84.15 - based on the stock’s close on Friday - represents a premium of 11 percent to San Jose, California-based Cavium’s close, according to a Reuters calculation.Marvell will offer $40 per share in cash and 2.1757 of its shares for each Cavium share.The exchange ratio was based on a purchase price of $80 per share, Marvell’s share price prior to the first media report of the transaction on Nov. 3.The chipmaker plans to fund the deal with a combination of cash on hand from the combined companies and $1.75 billion in debt financing, the company said.Goldman Sachs & Co LLC was the financial adviser to Marvell, while Qatalyst Partners LP and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC were the financial advisers to Cavium.Reporting by Sonam Rai and Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cavium-m-a-marvell-technlgy/marvell-technology-clinches-roughly-6-billion-deal-to-buy-cavium-sources-idINKBN1DK02S'|'2017-11-19T21:59:00.000+02:00'
'5b519e61a6133f9fa66024ed910de156029c76e3'|'UK commits billions to "industries of future" to ward off Brexit shocks'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday announced 4 billion pounds ($5.28 billion) of spending on research and development and regional growth strategies, setting out plans to help the economy grow after Brexit.Amid stiff international competition, Britain is looking to carve out a new global role as a leader in “industries of the future” such as artificial intelligence and driverless cars after it exits the European Union in March 2019.Badly damaged by a botched snap election and with Brexit talks running behind schedule, May is looking to stir up some economic optimism to help her fragile minority government through Britain’s most uncertain period since World War Two.On Monday, as part of the run-up to finance minister Philip Hammond’s budget on Wednesday, she announced a 1.7 billion pound fund to help regenerate cities and a 2.3 billion pound boost to research and development spending, due in 2021/22. Further details of the funding were not yet available.“This is a new long-term approach to shaping a stronger and fairer economy for decades to come,” May said in a Times newspaper article.The central challenge of Wednesday’s budget will be to improve Britain’s persistently weak productivity, which lags international rivals and is seen as a major limiting factor on economic growth.FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville /File Photo The new funding is linked to Britain’s “Industrial Strategy” - a push to create more skilled, high-paying jobs that was first announced by May after she took office last year to help fortify Britain’s services-reliant economy against Brexit-related shocks.May has already set a target to increase R&D spending to 2.4 percent of economic output by 2027 - a level in line with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) averages.The funding announced on Monday would take spending to 12.5 billion in 2021/22, building on an existing commitment to raise public research spending to 12 billion by 2020/21.The transport-focused “Transforming Cities Fund” will try to better link up Britain’s cities in search of productivity improvements and foster greater collaboration and innovation.“This will help make sure people across the country have better options to combine different modes of transport - supporting projects which will improve connectivity, reduce congestion and introduce new mobility services and technology,” said business minister Greg Clark, who is leading the Industrial Strategy initiative.After nearly 18 months of policy formulation, Clark will announce the government’s industrial strategy proposals on Nov. 27.($1 = 0.7569 pounds)Reporting by William James; editing by Mark Heinrich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-budget-research/uk-commits-billions-to-industries-of-future-to-ward-off-brexit-shocks-idINKBN1DK0B5'|'2017-11-20T06:48:00.000+02:00'
'4708c749f16e103a1014da20a68b1b10f13326d1'|'What is the purpose of tax reform? - Free exchange'|'IF MAKING America great again is the aim, you could do worse than bring back the economic growth rates of the late 1990s. President Donald Trump’s team reckons that the Republican tax plan making its way through Congress will do just that. “We are creating a model that creates economic growth in this country,” says Gary Cohn, the director of Mr Trump’s National Economic Council. Kevin Hassett, who runs the Council of Economic Advisers, reckons the bill should push growth above 4% per year.Such heights are not beyond the realm of possibility, but if America reaches them tax reform will have little to do with it. That is not because of the specifics of the plan. Rather, it reflects an underappreciated reality: tax reform can accomplish many things, but raising long-run growth is not generally among them.Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.  5   Most assessments of the Republican tax proposals, like most analyses of most tax plans, conclude their effects on growth will be small. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a non-partisan public-policy initiative, projects that GDP in 2027 will be between 0.4% and 0.9% higher as a result of the bill.Nonsense, say the adherents of the supply-side school of thinking. Economic growth can be broken down into changes in the supply of labour and in labour productivity. Supply-siders reckon that lower tax rates on labour income should raise its supply; lower taxes on capital income should, by increasing saving and investment, nurture innovations which will eventually boost productivity.The actual economics, alas, are less straightforward (see table). Tax cuts that boost income from employment raise the cost of time off; this “substitution effect” implies that people should work more when tax rates drop. But there is an offsetting “income effect”: as earnings rise, demand for most amenities, including leisure, also goes up.Although theory suggests cuts to marginal tax rates should favour the substitution effect, the evidence is more ambiguous. In summarising the literature on the subject, the Congressional Research Service, the legislature’s public-policy group, notes that in practice neither labour-force participation nor hours worked move much in response to tax changes. Among high-income men, the effects on labour supply are non-existent.Reported labour income does rise in response to income-tax cuts, thanks mostly to reductions in tax avoidance. That certainly matters; effort spent eluding Uncle Sam represents an economic loss. It is just not large enough to have a detectable effect on long-run growth.The evidence is similarly ambiguous about the effects of tax cuts on income from capital. In practice, savings rates respond little, if at all, to tax changes. American savings rates have fallen over the past 40 years despite a decline in the effective rate of tax on capital income. Domestic savings are not the only source of investable funds; Republicans claim their plan will attract a growth-boosting wave of money from abroad. But such flows tend to occur slowly and incompletely: a blessing, perhaps, for the Trump administration, given the massive trade deficits that would result from a rapid, large-scale influx of capital.Tax reform might affect firms’ investment decisions. But firms’ ability to deduct the cost of new investments from their tax bill mutes the incentivising effects of changes in the corporate-tax rate. And as Larry Summers of Harvard University has pointed out, cuts to corporate tax do not simply reward hungry innovators, but also increase the return on profits earned by behemoths with market power.Given evidence that rising industrial concentration in America is undermining competition, there is good reason to worry that rate cuts will pad the wallets of oligopolists and their shareholders. (Awkwardly, CEOs convened by the Wall Street Journal this week to attend a discussion with Mr Cohn mostly declined to raise their hands when asked whether they would make new capital investments if the Republican tax plan were passed.)All told, a cut in the corporate-tax rate of ten percentage points would raise long-run output by only 0.15%, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service. National income would rise still less, since much of the gain in GDP would flow to foreign investors.As with income taxes, cuts in corporate-tax rates make avoidance less worthwhile; just imagine freeing up the time and talent spent cooking up clever tax-limiting strategies like the “Dutch sandwich” or the “double Irish”. Yet such costs scarcely register in long-run growth figures.A some-zero gameIn other respects, however, changes to tax make a world of difference. They can affect growth a lot in the short run, especially after a recession, when there is spare capacity around waiting to be activated by increased demand. That counts for less at the moment. America has less slack than it did earlier in the recovery, and the Federal Reserve, fearing inflation, might offset the stimulative effect of tax cuts with higher interest rates.The budget implications are much bigger. The implacable resistance to government borrowing displayed by Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, when bigger deficits might have done a lot of good, has crumbled. GOP leaders acknowledge that their bill will increase government debt by $1.5trn, or about 8% of current GDP, over the next ten years.Most striking of all are the distributional consequences. According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Centre, the bill introduced in the House of Representatives will reduce the tax burden of the top 0.1% of earners by an average of $278,000 by 2027, compared with an average cut of $10 for the bottom 20% of earners.The Republican tax plan would eliminate inefficiencies in the tax code. That should help the American economy run a little more smoothly. Yet with this reform, as any, distributional and budgetary consequences are not secondary effects to be subordinated to a broader growth dividend. They are the main event. It is long past time tax debates reflected that.This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "The grow-nothings" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731391-there-are-better-motivations-tax-overhauls-boosting-growth-what?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-18T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'a0b5f105df255c7323b86fda46be24062f7421ac'|'U.S. patent review board becomes conservative target'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 5 hours ago U.S. patent review board becomes conservative target Jan Wolfe 7 Min Read NEW YORK(Reuters) - In August, a dozen inventors gathered around a fire pit outside the headquarters of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and set alight patents they said had been rendered worthless by an overreaching federal government. FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators supporting the organization U.S. Inventors burn patents in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during a protest in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. on August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jan Wolfe/File Photo “It’s time for us to make patents great again,” Michael Caputo, an advisor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told those gathered. US Inventor, the group behind the protest Caputo now represents as a spokesman, is calling for the abolition of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative tribunal run by the patent office that reviews the validity of patents. The rallying cry marks an about-face for some conservatives, who broadly supported the board’s creation in 2011 as a way to rein in trial lawyers and “patent trolls,” who hold patents for the sole purpose of suing big companies for licensing fees. “Things have really flipped when it comes to the conservative perspective on patents,” said Charles Duan, a lawyer with left-leaning consumer group Public Knowledge. Much of the credit goes to activists who have convinced many conservatives that the real problem is not out-of-control litigation but how the tribunal designed to speed up resolving patent disputes favors big business over smaller rivals. The change of positions has been aided by deepening right-wing distrust of tech giants, such as Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc''s Google, which have benefited the most from PTAB while embracing liberal causes like immigration or gay and transgender rights. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2A1LfXV ) The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule sometime next year on whether the tribunal is an unconstitutional intrusion of the executive branch onto matters reserved for the courts and influential conservative groups are already weighing in. The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, Federalist Society, and the American Conservative Union have published articles or submitted briefs arguing that PTAB should be abolished. Most legal experts expect it to survive, though, noting the Supreme Court has largely accepted the powers of executive-branch courts in other areas, such as public employee benefits. The mounting criticism of PTAB could still convince the court’s conservative justices to vote for abolition, said Q. Todd Dickinson, a lawyer with the firm Polsinelli and a former director of the patent office. The advocacy effort by conservative groups could also convince the Trump administration to curb the patent board’s power, Dickinson said. AN ANTI-TROLL WEAPON More than 70 percent of the Republicans in Congress backed the legislation that created PTAB. At the time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the law would “help reduce unnecessary litigation against American businesses.” In February the same business lobbying group criticized PTAB for creating “cost and uncertainty for patent owners.” U.S. Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who holds patents relating to computer interfaces, was not in Congress at the time the board was created, but said conservatives’ initial intent to curb excessive litigation has gradually given way to fears that PTAB is helping the wrong businesses. The board’s creation was pushed by big tech companies, banks and retailers, who complained they were being inundated with “troll” lawsuits. Successfully defending a patent case in federal court often takes years and costs millions of dollars, escalating pressure to settle. PTAB offered a cheaper and faster alternative. The average cost of litigating a PTAB petition to a final decision is about $250,000, according to patent risk management company RPX Corp. There are no juries and limited live witness testimony in PTAB proceedings, and its administrative judges apply a lower standard of proof than would be required in federal court. About 80 percent of the patents that PTAB makes final decisions on are either partially or fully invalidated, according to a report issued in October by the patent office. But the agency also said 56 percent of patents challenged at PTAB are upheld, in part because the court frequently declines requests to review patents. A spokesman for the patent office declined to comment. Inventors say PTAB has made it much harder to get patents licensed by big technology, which now routinely respond to patent infringement claims by initiating PTAB proceedings. “Patents owners who don’t have the wherewithal to withstand serial challenges to the validity of their patents just can’t license them,” said David Pridham, chief executive of Dominion Harbor, a firm that owns and attempts to license former Eastman Kodak Co patents. Paul Morinville, a cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur from Indiana and the founder of US Inventor, said it has become harder for him to get funding for his business based on software patents he holds. Morinville has been speaking to Republican lawmakers and their staffers for the past four years and many conservatives credit his group with raising alarm about the patent tribunal. “They are as close to your iconic garage inventor as you can get, so their stories really resonate,” said James Edwards, a conservative lobbyist focused on patent law. While conservative groups have been most vocal, the debate transcends party lines. Some Republicans, such as Representative Darrell Issa of California, keep supporting the PTAB, while some Democrats have joined Republicans in calls to curb its powers. Many trial lawyers whose case loads have fallen also oppose it. But many liberals have embraced PTAB as a means of eliminating brand-name pharmaceutical patents that keep drug prices high. Generic drug makers and large tech companies are also among the board’s supporters, arguing it has actually increased competition by weeding out low-quality patents. The conservative backlash in part reflects how the right views tech giants like Apple and Google, which thanks to the tribunal have prevailed in hundreds of disputes with patent owners seeking hefty compensation. “Google, Amazon, and Apple and other big tech companies - you look at their power and it is really astounding. And they are generally left-leaning companies,” said Matthew Dowd, a conservative patent lawyer in Washington D.C. who has represented US Inventor. “Those dynamics are definitely playing into the increasing willingness of conservatives to speak up about patents.” Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Anthony Lin and Tomasz Janowski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-patent-ptab/u-s-patent-review-board-becomes-conservative-target-idUSKBN1DK0EB'|'2017-11-20T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'90b37daa20411d3ebc344e1ddb70085d2ce4e78f'|'Former Obama administration official in bid for The Weinstein Co'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:11 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Former Obama administration official in bid for The Weinstein Co Jessica DiNapoli , Liana B. Baker 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Maria Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has submitted an offer to acquire the Weinstein Co, a spokeswoman for the U.S. film and TV studio said on Sunday. Contreras-Sweet has put together a consortium of investors who have offered $275 million for The Weinstein Co, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing details of the bid. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the offer earlier on Sunday without stating its value. The bid comes after the movie studio secured a $20 million cash infusion from the sale of the children’s movie “Paddington 2” last week to Warner Brothers Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). The Weinstein Co’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations. The movie studio, known for hit movies including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” has been trying to find a buyer or rescue financing after more than 50 women claimed that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades. Harvey Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations. Contreras-Sweet’s plans call for a majority-female board at The Weinstein Co should her offer prevail, the source said. The offer includes an approximately $30 million fund for the alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein, the source added. The fund would be set up through a mediation process, according to the source. The spokeswoman for The Weinstein Co did not comment on the details of the offer it received. A spokesman for Contreras-Sweet declined to comment. U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 selected Contreras-Sweet as the head of the SBA, which makes loans to small businesses and helps them get government contracts. She had previously founded ProAmerica Bank, a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles, which focuses on lending to small- and medium-sized Latino businesses. Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has marked its small equity stake in The Weinstein Co down to zero, Reuters reported last week, reflecting the investment bank’s assessment that the value of the company has diminished following Harvey Weinstein’s departure. The proceeds from the “Paddington 2” sale enable The Weinstein Co to continue to operate until January, the source said. Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC ( FIG.N ) was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal earlier this month. More than 20 other potential bidders are analyzing The Weinstein Co’s financial data, the source said. The studio has $375 million in debt, including a $45 million loan from AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, the person said. Much of the debt is backed by the company’s film and TV assets. Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-weinsteincompany-m-a-contrerassweet/former-obama-administration-official-in-bid-for-the-weinstein-co-idUKKBN1DK082'|'2017-11-20T05:10:00.000+02:00'
'56d429fbd7e54ffd3f29218fb3e3bd79945242ff'|'Israel''s Cellcom, Partner in talks to build fiber optic network'|'JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Israel’s largest mobile operator, Cellcom , said on Monday it was in negotiations with rival operator Partner Communications to cooperate in building a nationwide fiber optic network.“The agreement, if concluded and executed, will allow the companies to avoid duplicated future deployment, as well as allow the company to reduce costs while improving its ability to provide quality services,” Cellcom said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.Having their own cross-country fiber optic network would allow the companies to better compete with Bezeq, Israel’s biggest telecom group, which dominates fixed line services.Any deal between Cellcom and Partner would need regulatory approval.“At the same time, the company is exploring other ways to accelerate the deployment of an independent fiber infrastructure,” Cellcom said. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cellcom-israel-partner-comm/israels-cellcom-partner-in-talks-to-build-fiber-optic-network-idINL8N1NQ12L'|'2017-11-20T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'4751d501985440a3f392aa728d8cbc3d8fe01146'|'With little movement, NAFTA talks said to run risk of stalemate'|'November 19, 2017 / 8:28 PM / Updated 2 hours ago With little movement, NAFTA talks said to run risk of stalemate David Ljunggren , David Lawder 3 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to be in danger of grinding toward a stalemate amid complaints of U.S. negotiators’ inflexibility, people familiar with the process said on Sunday. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The United States, Canada and Mexico are holding the fifth of seven planned rounds of talks to modernize NAFTA, which U.S. President Donald Trump blames for job losses and big trade deficits for his country. Time is running short to reach a deal before the March 2018 start of Mexico’s presidential elections, and lack of progress in the current round could put the schedule at risk. “The talks are really not going anywhere,” Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the largest Canadian private-sector union, told reporters after meeting with Canada’s chief negotiator on Sunday. “As long as the United States is taking the position they are, this is a colossal waste of time,” said Dias, who is advising the government and regularly meets the Canadian team. Hanging over the negotiations is the very real threat that Trump could make good on a threat to scrap NAFTA. Canada and Mexico object to a number of demands the U.S. side unveiled during the fourth round last month, including for a five-year sunset clause that would force frequent renegotiation of the trade pact, far more stringent automotive content rules and radical changes to dispute settlement mechanisms. “Our internal view as of this morning is that if any progress is to be made, the United States needs to show some flexibility and a willingness to do a deal,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks. “We are seeing no signs of flexibility now,” added the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. However, a NAFTA country official familiar with the talks said Canada had not yet submitted any counterproposals to the U.S. demands. Dias said the United States was showing some signs of flexibility over its sunset clause proposal after Mexican officials floated a plan for a “rigorous evaluation” of the trade pact, but without an automatic expiration. U.S. negotiating objectives that were updated on Friday appeared to accommodate the Mexican proposal, saying the revised NAFTA should “provide a mechanism for ensuring that the Parties assess the benefits of the Agreement on a periodic basis.” Canada and Mexico are also unhappy about U.S. demands that half the content of North American-built autos come from the United States, coupled with a much higher 85 percent North American content threshold. Officials are due to discuss the issue from Sunday through the end of the fifth round on Tuesday, Flavio Volpe, president of the Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said there was little chance of making substantial progress on autos in Mexico City, as the U.S. demands were still not fully understood. “I don’t expect a heavy negotiation here,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the talks. Additional reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/with-little-movement-nafta-talks-said-to-run-risk-of-stalemate-idUKKBN1DJ0T1'|'2017-11-19T22:18:00.000+02:00'
'43926fb388558a0e9fb357bb71fa1f71307e2b60'|'ProSieben shares rise on M&A hopes after CEO quits'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in ProSiebenSat.1 ( PSMGn.DE ) rose almost 4 percent on Monday on news that its chief executive would quit early after a series of missteps, rekindling hopes the German broadcaster could become an acquisition target.The logo of Germany''s biggest commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is seen on a satellite dish at the headquarters in Unterfoehring, near Munich February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Thomas Ebeling presided over a string of profit warnings and an exodus of senior managers this year and then had to apologise for calling the company’s core audience fat and poor. He will leave in February 2018, the company said on Sunday.Ebeling, 59, was destined to lead the company’s digital efforts as part of plans to shift away from its stagnant broadcasting core business, a source familiar with the plan said.But earlier this year, investors told Reuters they were confused by the company’s digital strategy, especially after Ebeling raised 500 million euros from them in a surprise deal to fund acquisitions but had not yet spent the money.ProSieben shares have been the worst performers among the German blue-chip DAX .GDAXI constituents this year, falling by almost a third. By 1017 GMT on Monday, the stock was up 3.9 percent at 26.27 euros.“ProSieben flags up as an obvious M&A target,” wrote Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker, adding that Comcast’s ( CMCSA.O ) NBCUniversal could be a buyer, having previously signalled interest in international expansion and ProSieben specifically.Comcast was not immediately available to comment while Prosieben declined to comment.“ProSieben’s announcement last night that the current CEO Thomas Ebeling will step down in February 2018 (ahead of his contract end) might additionally trigger such a deal,” he wrote, keeping his “hold” rating on the stock.The company’s general counsel Conrad Albert, who is also a board member for external affairs and industry relations, was appointed deputy CEO.NO OBVIOUS DEAL Several senior bankers familiar with the sector played down the chances of ProSieben being taken over by an American rival in the near future. They also said the U.S. market offered more attractive M&A opportunities at the moment, with Comcast ( CMCSA.O ) looking at some of Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) studios and TV operations.Discovery Communications ( DISCA.O ), another potential consolidator which has made some inroads in Europe after acquiring Eurosport in France and Prosieben’s Nordic TV, is currently busy merging with Scripps Networks ( SNI.O ), one of the bankers said.But over time, if Prosieben manages to separate its digital business, its relative low price could make it attractive to these players again, another banker close to the company said.In Europe, viewers’ preference for local content has also so far hindered cross-border deals. Bankers expect that trend to continue for now, while in Germany, market dominance with domestic rival RTL ( RRTL.DE ) would make it difficult for a tie-up to gain regulatory approval.“Consolidation could eventually happen in Europe but ProSieben first needs to put its house in order,” said one of the bankers, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.ProSieben has spent only a quarter of its 1 billion euro cash pile earmarked for M&A since its 2016 cash call but is looking to raise more money from new investors to develop e-commerce and content production.Ebeling said earlier this month that sector consolidation was a possibility but that ProSieben would not be a buyer and that a merger with a rival was not on the cards.ProSieben has a virtual duopoly with RTL, Germany’s other free-to-air commercial broadcast group, in the German TV advertising market.($1 = 0.8474 euros)Additional reporting by Joern Poltz in Munich and Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-prosieben-media/prosieben-shares-rise-on-ma-hopes-after-ceo-quits-idINKBN1DK13K'|'2017-11-20T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'f3c66efbe6e644ec9f41588c4c159dea96230d62'|'Altice has no plans to sell shares to tackle $58 billion debts'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Altice ( ATCA.AS ) has no plans to raise cash by selling shares, the telecoms and cable group said on Monday, adding it had no problems with any loans and would cut its debts of $58 billion through asset sales.Altice’s shares bounced to regain some ground following the statement, after having fallen 12 percent on Friday. The stock was up 12.4 percent at 9.1O euros by 0945 GMT, although it remains down by nearly 60 percent since the start of 2017.Weak third-quarter results on Nov. 2 prompted Altice’s billionaire founder Patrick Drahi, who holds some 30 percent of its shares, to oust chief executive Michel Combes.Altice has grown in the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, raising its net debt to more than five times its annual core operating profit.Drahi said last week that Altice would shift away from acquisitions towards debt reduction and customer satisfaction, but concerns that Altice may need to raise cash hit its shares.“Altice confirms that it is not in preparation of a cash raising by means of an equity- or equity-linked issuance and has no intention to pursue such action within the group including Altice USA,” it said in a statement.HSBC, which has a “buy” rating on Altice’s U.S. arm ( ATUS.N ), said Altice had no major refinancing due before 2022 and that its debt was relatively well-covered by free cash flow.Some traders had suggested that Altice may face margin calls over its loans, but Altice said it had no margin loan problems, and that it had a strong liquidity position.Altice’s debt was around 49.6 billion euros ($58 billion) by the third quarter, while its stock market value is roughly 10 billion euros.Altice reiterated it had identified non-core assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Francois Godard, European media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis, said that while Altice’s update might reassure bondholders in the short-term, in the longer run the company still needed to improve its underlying performance in France.“Bondholders will be more comfortable once they see that the French operational performance is getting better,” he said.($1 = 0.8524 euros)Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Additional reporting by Marianna Ciabach; Editing by Stephen Coates and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-altice-debt/altice-has-no-plans-to-sell-shares-to-tackle-58-billion-debts-idUSKBN1DK11H'|'2017-11-20T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'14934a56c1e427c41ba3ffe9bf3f2074e58691e1'|'COLUMN-One more sterling risk that may be less that first thought: McGeever'|'(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)By Jamie McGeeverLONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Given the disarray the British government finds itself in right now, there’s not an insignificant chance of the country enduring another general election next year and left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn becoming an unlikely prime minister.It’s a prospect that would see more than a few investors and sterling traders in particular break into a cold sweat. Which is odd, because the gap between many of the government’s and opposition’s economic policies is smaller than you might think.Finance minister Philip Hammond delivers his annual budget on Wednesday, and is under pressure to take steps to counter slowing growth, falling real incomes and weak productivity, all under the cloud of uncertainty that is Brexit.It could be the last budget before the country goes to the polls again, with bookmaker Paddy Power putting the odds of an election next year at 9/4 - or a 30 percent probability on what would be the third election in three years.One of the battle grounds would be the economy and public finances. Yet despite all the rhetoric from both sides, there’s less clear blue water between them than first meets the eye.After the banking collapse and rescue of 10 years ago, then chancellor George Osborne committed the Conservative-led government to years of austerity which he claimed was necessary to get the public finances back to health - a policy only modestly loosened to date by his successor Hammond.After losing the election in 2010, Labour largely accepted Osborne’s line on tighter public finances even if it differed on speed and scope. Only since Corbyn was elected leader and John McDonnell appointed shadow finance minister in 2015 has the party stepped up its opposition to spending cuts and adopted a more traditional Labour approach to taxation and spending.And now it’s the Conservatives, chastened by its unexpectedly poor showing in this year’s election and wary that the country is suffering ‘austerity fatigue’ after seven years of a public sector squeeze, who are softening their position.Conservative politicians who only recently derided Labour’s plans as fantasy and claimed there was no “magic money tree” are now talking of new spending.Local government minister Sajid Javid last month called for a “giant leap” in housebuilding, which sources told British media would require public investment of up to 50 billion pounds ($66 billion).That may be relatively small beer compared to McDonnell’s idea of a newly-created National Investment Bank making up to 250 billion pounds available for investment over 10 years.But even though spending on even that scale would normally be anathema to ‘Tory’ supporters, conservative magazine The Spectator ran an article last month entitled: “If the Tories want to survive they must build more houses”.While Hammond may stop short of throwing huge amounts of cash at housing, new building will be a feature of this week’s budget and he is also under pressure to be more flexible in reducing the so-called ‘structural deficit’ to 2 percent or less by 2020-21 as Brexit headwinds drag on the economy.And the economy is slowing. Some economists are penciling in sub-1 percent growth next year as Brexit hits investment and falling real wages choke consumer spending, all against the backdrop of chronically weak productivity growth.Loosening the government’s purse strings would help cushion these blows. And with interest rates and government bond yields close to their lowest levels in history, there’s rarely been a cheaper time to borrow.YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY More surprising, perhaps, is the government’s U-turn on intervention in the “broken” energy market. Bowing to pressure from a large swathe of her own MPs, May said last month the government will put price caps on “rip off” energy prices.That’s a way short of renationalization of parts of the sector, which Labour proposes along with rail, water and postal services. Yet a Tory government imposing price caps on a ‘free market’ - exactly the Labour proposal it lampooned in the 2015 election - is another unexpected swing toward the policies of its rivals.Public sector pay too is an area where the government once insisted it had no wiggle room. But May and Hammond have already set out plans to scrap the 1 percent freeze on pay rises that’s been in place since 2011.The narrower gap between party positions that at first glance also speaks to another often overstated ‘truism’ of British politics and its interpretation by financial markets.A widely-held view in British politics is that Labour governments hurtle the country toward fiscal ruin with reckless borrowing and spending, while Conservative governments run a tight ship and keep an iron grip over spending.The reality is slightly different though. Since the Second World War, there have been only 12 years in which the government of the day has run a budget surplus - four of them Tory administrations and eight of them Labour.Sterling is less vulnerable to the British government’s budget position than the country’s overall balance of payments. In the words of Bank of England governor Mark Carney, Britain relies on the “kindness of strangers” to balance its books.The current account deficit has narrowed from a record 7.1 percent of GDP in late 2015 to 4.6 percent at the end of June this year. Britain has run a deficit with the rest of the world for almost all of the last 30 years, a shortfall that must be met with capital from abroad.Governments of both stripes have presided over that 30-year deterioration and accompanying slide in sterling. With the BoE tentatively raising interest rates and Brexit casting a huge cloud of uncertainty over the economy, the pound’s near-term fate won’t be decided by a surge in public spending. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever, Editing by William Maclean) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-markets-corbyn/column-one-more-sterling-risk-that-may-be-less-that-first-thought-mcgeever-idINL8N1NM64O'|'2017-11-21T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'0b0733a4c0be5c55429b96fad8935344ff2c1b5c'|'Big spending building materials maker CRH on lookout for more deals'|' 21 AM / a few seconds ago Big spending building materials maker CRH on lookout for more deals Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s CRH ( CRH.I ), the world’s third-largest building materials group by market capitalization, said on Tuesday it has capacity on its balance sheet for more deals, after a spending spree this year. It said it is refocusing on North America and announced it had spent $750 million on cement acquisitions in Florida, making it the largest building materials company in the state. CRH recently secured a deal to buy U.S. cement maker Ash Grove Cement Co ( ASHG.PK ) for $3.5 billion to strengthen its grip in North America, and last week it joined the race for South African cement maker PPC ( PPCJ.J ). The group, which is part funding some of the deals through the sale of its U.S. distribution business for $2.6 billion in cash, also said that it spent 1.34 billion euros ($1.6 billion) on 27 smaller acquisitions in the first nine months of the year. “Our net debt to EBITDA position should be at the 2-times range, well below our long-run average of 2.2 and still leaves us in a position where we have capacity on the balance sheet where we can do deals as they present themselves,” CRH finance director Senan Murphy told an analyst call. Chief Executive Albert Manifold said the recent deals were a “very deliberate attempt” to refocus the group on North America - where it is the biggest maker of concrete products - and in particular faster-growing states like Texas and Florida. He said he would not expect any very significant deals in new markets and the group would not overinvest in developing economies. “We believe, for the moment, that the future of our business is based mainly around the Americas and Europe,” Manifold said. CRH said its EBITDA rose 2 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of the year on an identical rise in sales in Europe and the United States, where some operations were affected by adverse weather and hurricane activity. It expects full year EBITDA in excess of 3.2 billion euros, up from 3.13 billion in the prior year. ($1 = 0.8534 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-crh-m-a/big-spending-building-materials-maker-crh-on-lookout-for-more-deals-idUKKBN1DL10C'|'2017-11-21T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'14ac6800453bd918a50aaf2c8bab15845663dd61'|'Toshiba $5 billion stock issue results in huge dilution but delisting risk removed'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp’s plan to raise some $5.4 billion through a sale of new shares will help it avoid a delisting, but will also see more than 30 overseas investors, including activist funds, own 35 percent of the embattled conglomerate.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen as window cleaners work on the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The move, decided at a board meeting on Sunday, will allow Toshiba to pay off billions of dollars in liabilities at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear power business, Westinghouse. That in turn gives it the funds to return to positive net worth by the end of the financial year in March, as an $18 billion sale of its prized memory chip unit is unlikely to close before then.The issue of 2.28 billion new shares at 262.8 yen per share, a 10 percent discount to Friday’s close, will result in a massive 54 percent dilution in earnings per share.Toshiba’s shares were, however, down just 5 percent in early afternoon trade as the delisting risk was removed and as the capital raising had been expected. The stock was last trading at 277 yen - a level above the sale price.“Toshiba’s fund raising news eliminates the risk of Toshiba being delisted so that part is positive,” said Takatoshi Itoshima, chief portfolio manager at Commons Asset Management.“What’s also positive is that the fund raising will improve the company’s financial health. There is an argument that the company will be left with nothing (without the chip business), but it’s good that the company’s capital will recover.”Third Point LLC, Oasis Management Company and Cerberus Capital Management were among the more than 30 investors which invested through some 60 funds.Singapore-based fund Effissimo Capital Management, established by former colleagues of Japan’s best-known activist investor, Yoshiaki Murakami, will become the largest shareholder in Toshiba with an 11.34 percent stake.Payments for the new investment are due to be completed on Dec. 5.Toshiba also confirmed that it is looking at selling Westinghouse assets.Sources told Reuters in September that Westinghouse is working with investment bank PJT Partners Inc on a sale process.Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Apollo Global Management LLC have teamed up to bid for the business while Cerberus Capital Management LP was in talks with U.S. nuclear power plant component provider BWX Technologies Inc about submitting a joint bid, the sources said at the time.Toshiba had initially planned to use funds from the sale of its chip unit to cover its Westinghouse liabilities, but a highly competitive and contentious auction process led to delays in deciding on the buyer and has meant that Toshiba may not obtain the necessary anti-trust clearance by the end of March.The chip deal still faces legal challenges from its chip joint venture partner Western Digital, which argues no deal can proceed without its consent and has sought an injunction through an international arbitration court.Toshiba is demanding that Western Digital drop the litigation as a condition over a coming round of a joint investment in Toshiba’s new flash-memory chip production line in Yokkaichi, Japan. The two companies held talks in the United States last week for settlements, but have yet to agree on details, sources familiar with the matter said.(This story adds dropped word “than” in first paragraph, clarifies number of investors in paragraph 7.)Additional reporting by Ran Kim and Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-financing/toshiba-shares-drop-after-plan-to-issue-5-4-billion-in-new-shares-idINKBN1DK007'|'2017-11-20T06:51:00.000+02:00'
'43b47ec159ac19bdd562ab9e3ec1613633ced8ad'|'America’s culture wars are spreading to hotels - Taking politics on holiday'|'CHOOSING a hotel for a trip is generally seen as an apolitical decision. In contrast, restaurants and cafes have sometimes taken on an ideological tinge, with conservatives mocking liberals for their latte coffees, and liberals ribbing conservatives for their deep-fried everything and well-done steaks. But for most hotel users, location and good Wi-Fi matter more than the ideology of the owners. In some places that now appears to be changing: a trend turbocharged since the arrival of Donald Trump, an owner of an international hotel brand, in politics.Suddenly the new Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC—on the same street as the White House and Capitol building—became the most politically-charged building in the city, if not the country. Celebrity chefs scrapped their plans to open restaurants there after Mr Trump made incendiary comments about Mexicans. Meanwhile, organisations such as the Kuwaiti embassy felt political pressure to move their events from rival hotels to the Trump building, to curry the new president’s favour.Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.  4   Last week the politics of hospitality got further amplified with the announcement that a new anti-Trump hotel will open its doors in Washington DC. The 209-room Eaton Workshop, set to open next spring just six blocks from the Trump hotel, is branding itself as a progressive haven for the anti-Trump set. The description on its website could be mistaken for a conservative parody of urban liberalism, promising to “set the stage for residing guests, locals and house members to congregate around creativity and consciousness-building.” The hotel will offer an arts programme, a progressive lecture series, and a “radical approach to food and beverage.” The firm plans to add a Hong Kong hotel next year, followed by outposts in San Francisco and Seattle.Catering specifically to a liberal clientele in big cities is probably a savvy business move. Cosmopolitan urbanites tend to have plenty of spare cash to splash out travelling. And conservatives are few in number in these places. Just 4% of voters in Washington, DC, 9% in San Francisco, and 10% in Manhattan in New York voted for Mr Trump. And going against this urban grain is costly in the travel business. When New York taxi drivers boycotted the city’s John F. Kennedy Airport in January to protest against Mr Trump’s ban on travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries, Uber, a ride-hailing app, sensed a business opportunity and dropped its surge pricing so that rides from the airport would be cheaper. But Lyft, a rival app, sensed a different sort of opportunity and announced a $1m donation to the American Civil Liberties Union, an outfit which opposed the ban. That resulted in Uber reportedly losing 200,000 users, while its rival Lyft attracted many of the progressive former Uber users away. Since then its market share has continued to climb steadily in the city and across America.Mr Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC may have also profited from its attraction to conservatives. Before it opened, the Trump Organisation expected it to lose $2m in the first four months of 2017, as it worked to establish its clientele. Instead, in August it revealed a profit of $2m for the same period. Whether it can continue to make money is another question, however. One analysis published today by the Daily Telegraph suggests that the price of a two-night stay in Mr Trump’s Washington hotel will cost 52% less in January 2018 than it did the same month a year before, when his inauguration was held in the city. Yet the hotel does not need to appeal to everyone. It just has to attract enough people to fill its rooms and event spaces. Mr Trump’s 63m voters—plus American and foreign entities seeking to curry favour with his administration—may more than suffice.Next Hotels are finding out what amenities guests really want About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/taking-politics-holiday?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-21T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'6e6300ac3bbb84ca0807028089564f08cafdd858'|'France weighing broader payroll charge cuts - PM'|' 10 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago France weighing broader payroll charge cuts - PM Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - The French government is considering further reductions in payroll taxation, including on relatively high salaries, but will do so only if that does not hit budget deficit-reduction plans, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe delivers a speech at a congress of "La Republique en Marche" (The Republic On The Move or LREM) political party in Lyon, France, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot Over the last few years, France has gradually cut payroll levies which finance health, unemployment and other national insurance schemes and are among the highest in Europe, but has mostly focused the cuts on pay at or around the minimum wage. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, a former conservative, has argued the cuts in such charges should be extended to salaries above 2.5 times the minimum wage to encourage companies to hire more high-skilled workers. “We are ready to continue with payroll charges cuts, including for salaries above 2.5 times the minimum wage,” Philippe said. “But only and only when we will have restored our public accounts situation,” he added. Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Brian Love'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-economy/france-weighing-broader-payroll-charge-cuts-pm-idUKKBN1DK1O7'|'2017-11-20T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'9cc1048cf30a627ce3b8a4c7270b9b5acef370be'|'Asset managers to slash sell-side research after MiFID II, survey shows'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:20 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Asset managers to slash sell-side research after MiFID II, survey shows Helen Reid 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Asset managers will source significantly less research from banks and brokers after MiFID II is implemented, the CFA Institute, a London-based industry body of investment professionals, found in a survey launched on Monday. A wide-ranging regulatory change coming on Jan. 3, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II requires providers and consumers of investment research to account for it separately from execution services for the first time. In effect, producers have to determine a price charged to consumers of research. That has sparked negotiations over the value asset managers assign to different forms of research. The change is intended to remove potential conflicts of interest between asset managers and their customers on the buy side, in which consuming research by banks and brokers - the sell side - could be seen as an inducement to trade with them. Of the asset managers surveyed, 78 percent said the regulation would lead them to consume less research from large investment banks. Only 2 percent planned to get more research from them. Meanwhile, buy-side firms expected to bolster their in-house research capabilities, with 44 percent saying they would source more research in-house. This represents “a significant shift from the sell side to the buy side in terms of where research is procured from,” said Rhodri Preece, head of capital markets policy for EMEA at the CFA Institute. “It might suggest asset managers feel they can control their cost base better by producing more research instead of paying for it,” he said. The survey, conducted at the end of September, covered 330 firms in 28 European countries. SMALLER FIRMS PASS COSTS ON TO CLIENTS The willingness and ability to absorb research costs rather than passing them on to clients was largely determined by size. Larger firms were more likely to absorb research costs, with 67 percent of those with more than 250 billion euros ($295 billion) of assets under management saying the firm would pay. That compares with 42 percent of firms with less than 1 billion euros under management. Some 22 percent of those smaller firms expected clients to pay for research. Only 9 percent of the largest firms were passing on costs to clients. The degree of uncertainty was also greater among the smaller firms. A quarter said they were not sure whether the cost would be absorbed or passed on to clients. SOME RESEARCH TO COST MORE The price of research remains a contentious and nebulous area with less than six weeks to go until the new rules are implemented. Respondents were asked to estimate the annual cost of research for different asset classes in basis points on assets under management rather than absolute figures. For equities, the median expected cost of equity research at 10 basis points - equating to 1 million euros per year for a firm with 1 billion euros under management. The range of responses was wide, from 5 to 20 basis points, probably caused by uncertainty over pricing and the variety of equity investment strategies. The median cost for fixed income, currencies and commodities research was much lower, at 3.5 basis points. That might be caused by a perception in the market that such research is free, because until now it has been bundled into the dealing spread, Preece said. Those assets are also driven by macroeconomics more than equities, leaving fewer opportunities for original, conviction ideas that would command a premium. What asset managers valued most in research also differed depending on their size. The firms with more than 250 billion euros under management attributed 40 percent of the cost of research to analyst access, twice the value smaller firms saw in it. Gary Baker, managing director for EMEA at the CFA Institute, said bigger firms were likely to allocate more of their budget to calls with analysts, but highlighted the uncertainty about how pricing would be determined. “You are trying to bottle and sell conviction,” he said. COSTS RISING Some 69 percent of asset managers focused on fixed income said they expect costs to increase, while just 29 percent of the equities-focused houses saw costs rising. Nearly 50 percent of the latter expected costs to decrease. Preece said fixed income managers may see higher costs because dealing spreads are likely to remain the same and they will have to pay for research on top of that. Asked whether total costs for research and execution services would increase as a result of MiFID II, 49 percent of the smaller firms said they expected costs to increase; 49 percent of the larger firms saw costs decreasing. “That speaks to the perception that perhaps there’s more bargaining power the bigger you are as a firm,” Preece said. “There’s a feeling that the rules are likely to create a competitive disadvantage for smaller asset managers.” In written comments, asset managers mostly disapproved of the regulation. “Increases cost” and “poor outcome for clients or investors” were among the remarks recurring most often. “Not good for small companies or asset managers” was another widespread complaint. “The exact effect won’t be known for some time,” Baker said. “The overall quality of research will improve, but it’s going to take time and it’s going to be painful.” ($1 = 0.8487 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-mifid-research/asset-managers-to-slash-sell-side-research-after-mifid-ii-survey-shows-idUKKBN1DK1SR'|'2017-11-20T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'c107d0a2b5dcf1c7e3c785a2b6abce3b26afd308'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 20'|' 37 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 20 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Nov 20 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 11 points at 7,369.7 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers. * ROLLS-ROYCE: Rolls-Royce is seeking buyers for its diesel parts maker L''Orange, The Times reported on Sunday. * SHELL: The world''s most powerful crude oil trader, Royal Dutch Shell''s head of oil trading Mike Muller, has stepped down after 29 years with the company, an internal announcement reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed. * BRITAIN-AEROSPACE: Britain''s aerospace industry could face 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) a year in extra costs after Brexit if firms exporting components to the European Union face additional checks at the border, industry body ADS Group said on Monday. * BRITAIN-BUDGET: British finance minister Philip Hammond, under pressure to help weakened Prime Minister Theresa May in this week''s budget, promised to speed up house building and said he had some room to help voters despite his squeeze on public finances. * BREXIT: Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday announced 4 billion pounds ($5.28 billion) of spending on research and development and regional growth strategies, setting out plans to help the economy grow after Brexit. * GOLD: Gold prices dipped early on Monday on a stronger U.S. dollar, but remained close to a one-month high hit in the previous session on uncertainty over progress on a potential overhaul of the U.S. tax code. * OIL: Oil markets were tepid on Monday as traders were reluctant to take on big new positions ahead of an OPEC meeting at the end of the month, when the producer club is expected to decide whether to continue output cuts aimed at propping up prices. * The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.1 percent at 7,380.68 points on Friday, as stocks fell back into the red, ending a short-lived recovery, as takeover interest boosted Sky and construction firm Carillion plummeted after warning it would breach debt covenants. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Diploma PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Mitie Group PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release William Hill PLC Trading Statement Release Nex Group Half Year 2018 Earnings Release TT Electronics Trading Announcement TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-20-idUSL3N1NQ258'|'2017-11-20T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'e4dac4f5f3e83d30efa92914c56e12bf05d13d08'|'Don''t try to be clever, ECB tells City banks post Brexit'|'November 20, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Don''t try to be clever, ECB tells City banks post Brexit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - UK-based banks seeking access to the European Union after Brexit should avoid “inventive set-ups” to enter the single market from Britain, a top European Central Bank supervisor said on Monday. The City of London is partly obscured by morning fog, in London, Britain, October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Sabine Lautenschaeger said the ECB had “serious misgivings” about banks setting up a subsidiary in the euro zone only to then operate from a branch in Britain. “We won’t accept more inventive set-ups,” she told an event in Frankfurt. “Some banks seem to be considering the idea of establishing a subsidiary in the euro area, which would then set up a branch in the United Kingdom,” Lautenschlaeger said. “This branch would use the subsidiary’s EU passport to enter the European market from the UK. We have serious misgivings about this,” she said. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-referendum-ecb/dont-try-to-be-clever-ecb-tells-city-banks-post-brexit-idUKKBN1DK1HQ'|'2017-11-20T14:33:00.000+02:00'
'b3faf7e85ccc0e43b46d094ce69cb78f77c20580'|'Rights groups pressure IBM to renounce interest in Trump''s ''extreme vetting'''|'November 16, 2017 / 1:36 PM / Updated 5 hours ago IBM urged to avoid working on ''extreme vetting'' of U.S. immigrants Dustin Volz 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A coalition of rights groups launched an online petition on Thursday urging IBM Corp to declare that it will not develop technology to help the Trump administration carry out a proposal to identify people for visa denial and deportation from the United States. The logo for IBM is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren IBM and several other technology companies and contractors attended a July informational session hosted by immigration enforcement officials that discussed developing technology for vetting immigrants, said Steven Renderos, organizing director at petitioner the Center for Media Justice. President Donald Trump has pledged to harden screening procedures for people looking to enter the country, and also called for “extreme vetting” of certain immigrants to ensure they are contributing to society, saying such steps are necessary to protect national security and curtail illegal immigration. The rights group said the proposals run counter to IBM’s stated goals of protecting so-called “Dreamer” immigrants from deportation. Asked about the petition and whether it planned to work to help vet and deport immigrants, an IBM spokeswoman said the company “would not work on any project that runs counter to our company’s values, including our long-standing opposition to discrimination against anyone on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.” The petition is tied to a broader advocacy campaign, also begun Thursday, that objects to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Extreme Vetting Initiative. In an Oct. 5 email seen by Reuters, Christopher Padilla, IBM’s vice president of government affairs, cited the company’s opposition to discrimination in response to an inquiry about the vetting program from the nonprofit group Open Mic. Padilla said the meeting IBM attended was only informational and it was “premature to speculate” whether the company would pursue business related to the Extreme Vetting Initiative. ICE wants to use machine learning technology and social media monitoring to determine whether an individual is a “positively contributing member of society,” according to documents published on federal contracting websites. More than 50 civil society groups and more than 50 technical experts sent separate letters on Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security saying the vetting program as described was “tailor-made for discrimination” and contending artificial intelligence was unable to provide the information ICE desired. Opponents of Trump’s policies ranging from immigration to trade have been pressuring IBM and other technology companies to avoid working on proposals in these areas from the Republican president’s administration. Shortly after the presidential election last year, for example, several internet firms pledged that they would not help Trump build a data registry to track people based on their religion or assist in mass deportations. IBM is among dozens of technology companies to join a legal briefing opposing Trump’s decision to end the “Dreamer” program that protects from deportation about 900,000 immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children. “While on the one hand they’ve expressed their support for Dreamers, they’re also considering building a platform that would make it easier to deport them,” Renderos said. CREDO, Daily Kos, and Color of Change also organized the petition. Reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington, additional reporting by Salvador Rodriguez in San Francisco, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ibm-immigration/rights-groups-pressure-ibm-to-renounce-interest-in-trumps-extreme-vetting-idUSKBN1DG1VT'|'2017-11-16T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'6700e0c90c4de3460c93f0c474fa64755d8a02ee'|'UPDATE 1-Hudson''s Bay says no merit in appeal against Rhone investment'|'(Adds details on Rhone Capital investment)Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canadian department store operator Hudson’s Bay Co said it saw no merit in activist fund Land and Buildings’ recent appeal against the Toronto Stock Exchange’s conditional approval for a $500 million investment from Rhone Capital.Hudson’s Bay said on Wednesday it had written consent for the equity investment from shareholders representing well over 50 percent of its outstanding common shares.Land and Buildings had filed the appeal with the Ontario Securities Commission, Hudson’s Bay said.Earlier this month, Land and Buildings, headed by activist investor Jonathan Litt, had urged the company to call for a non-insider vote on Rhone Capital’s investment, saying the ones who voted had a “special interest” in the deal.Last month Hudson’s Bay said Rhone Capital would invest the $500 million in the form of eight-year mandatory convertible preferred shares.Land and Buildings, which had a near 5 percent stake in Hudson’s Bay as of July, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hudsons-bay-land-and-buildings/update-1-hudsons-bay-says-no-merit-in-appeal-against-rhone-investment-idUSL3N1NL636'|'2017-11-16T01:18:00.000+02:00'
'3a32f17d007480ff45bd198df981b65c9e1c9a49'|'ADNOC may offer 20 percent stake, raise up to $2.8 billion'|'DUBAI/ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) said on Monday it may sell as much as a 20 percent stake in its fuel distribution unit, potentially raising up to $2.8 billion.FILE PHOTO: Cars are seen an ADNOC petrol station in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Analysts valued the total fuel distribution unit at between $11 billion and $14 billion in reports prepared by banks advising the firm on the planned listing, sources have told Reuters.If ADNOC raises as much as $2.8 billion, it would be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the United Arab Emirates since 2007 when DP World raised nearly $5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.Abu Dhabi is pushing its state companies to list on the bourse, hoping to lure foreign investors with privatizations after a fall in oil prices since mid-2014 depleted its coffers.The companies aim to complete some listings before Saudi Arabia’s IPO of Saudi Aramco in late 2018, part of the kingdom’s wider privatization program, bankers say.State fund Mubadala Investment Co [MUDEV.Ul] said last month it expected a listing in 2018 of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers.Nabil al Rantisi, managing director of brokerage at MenaCorp, said a successful ADNOC IPO “will encourage other entities to float and raise cash for current operations and expansion.”“This is buying into a retailer rather than an industry,” he said of ADNOC’s sale, adding that turning the government entity into a public one “increases the transparency of the company.”ADNOC is offering a minimum 10 percent stake, or 1.25 billion shares, and a maximum 20 percent stake, or 2.5 billion shares, in the IPO of ADNOC Distribution, it said in a filing.A larger float might help ADNOC’s distribution unit become part of the MSCI emerging market index, attracting more foreign fund flows, said one source familiar with the matter.Abu Dhabi’s national oil company last week unveiled details of ADNOC Distribution’s listing, as Gulf states step up plans to privatize energy assets in an era of cheap oil.The offer price range is due to be announced on Nov. 26.The ADNOC unit’s float comes as Saudi Arabia plans to list 5 percent of Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] by the end of next year, which Saudi officials say could raise $100 billion, making it the world’s biggest IPO.Citigroup, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are joint global coordinators for the ADNOC unit’s offer and bookrunners alongside EFG Hermes, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.Reporting by Saeed Azhar, Stanley Carvalho and Hadeel Al Sayegh; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adnoc-ipo/adnoc-may-offer-20-percent-stake-raise-up-to-2-8-billion-idINKBN1DK0HB'|'2017-11-20T03:49:00.000+02:00'
'5ebabbc2ef7e00bd4edbe0fb6d558a5a1ef78d55'|'Don''t wait to see French reforms to strengthen euro zone - ECB''s Villeroy'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:03 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Don''t wait to see French reforms to strengthen euro zone - ECB''s Villeroy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The euro area can ill afford to wait and see if France’s reforms bear fruit before deepening the bloc’s economic integration, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said in an interview published on Monday. FILE PHOTO -- Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo French President Emmanuel Macron is eager to move ahead with his reform agenda at home while also pushing for big steps towards closer euro zone integration. However, some northern European countries like the Netherlands and Germany have been cautious about his grander ideas for a shared euro zone budget or finance minister without first seeing that Macron is making progress at home. “It would be a dangerous bet to wait another two to three years to see all the results,” Villeroy, who is also governor of the Bank of France, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “Then the present opportunity and momentum would have vanished, and we would run the risk of facing a (new) recession without having strengthened the euro area,” Villeroy added. He said the euro zone should focus on how to tap into the bloc’s abundant private savings to better fund investment and savings and also better coordinating national economic policies. After that, Villeroy recommended that the euro zone look into a joint budget for common goods like, defence or dealing with refugees or climate change, and not the sort of transfer union Germany is deeply wary of. Lastly, he recommended a euro area finance minister and parliament, but added: “let us not focus our discussion on institutions, before having made progress on the substance.” Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Michel Rose'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-france-villeroy/dont-wait-to-see-french-reforms-to-strengthen-euro-zone-ecbs-villeroy-idUKKBN1DK2BI'|'2017-11-20T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'1c47b99fa74809eb23bca1c4fe80de72cdc5cd9b'|'EU proposes two-year plan to close gender pay gap'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:55 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago EU proposes two-year plan to close gender pay gap Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed a two-year plan on Monday for closing the gender pay gap after finding little improvement in the past five years. File Photo - European Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Vera Jourova holds a news conference in Brussels, Belgium September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The plan sets out eight recommendations for EU countries to ensure women are treated equally in the workplace. The proposal includes setting minimum sanctions for companies that do not provide equal pay and monitoring the diversity policies of Europe’s largest companies. The Commission intends the measures to be in place by the end of 2019, when the current Commission’s term ends. “We do not see big progress over the last 10 years,” Vera Jourova, the Commission’s gender equality chief, told a news conference. “We are not reducing significantly this gap in spite of many efforts.” The Commission reported women in the EU earn 16.3 percent less per hour on average than their male counterparts, and this figure had not decreased in the past five years. At the same time, a Eurobarometer poll shows that 90 percent of Europeans think it is unacceptable that women are paid less than men for the same work. The Commission is also holding an annual roundtable discussion with EU decision-makers today and tomorrow where they will discuss women’s rights. “Things are moving backwards in many parts of the world,” European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in his opening remarks to a conference dedicated to women’s rights. “Too many people believe we have an equal society, we’ve already reached the goal. This is simply not true.” The proposals will need to be supported by the European Parliament and EU countries. In 2012, the Commission proposed legislation requiring that at least 40 percent of non-executive positions in listed companies be held by women in seven years. The proposal was not passed because it lacked a majority among EU countries. Britain and Germany opposed the quotas. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014 set a target of 40 percent female representation in senior and middle management positions in the Commission by 2019. The Commission reported in March that the figure had risen to almost 35 percent from 29 percent in 2013. Reporting by Lily Cusack; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-women-equality/eu-proposes-two-year-plan-to-close-gender-pay-gap-idUKKBN1DK1WW'|'2017-11-20T17:56:00.000+02:00'
'74c91ec04720921e856b1c376776ac62da22efd8'|'UPDATE 2-U.S. junk bond funds post 4th-biggest week of outflows ever -Lipper'|'(Adds details on mutual funds and ETFs, table) By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. fund investors walloped high-yield funds with their biggest week of withdrawals since March, Lipper data showed on Thursday. The junk bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted $4.4 billion in net withdrawals during the week ended Nov. 15, the fourth-largest weekly outflow on record dating back to 1992. Several concerns weighed on high-yield markets during the week, but the extensive withdrawals signal that investor sentiment after a strong year of performance may have been chief among them. Three high-yield bond deals have also been pulled from the market in the space of a week in the face of investor push-back. The U.S.-listed, $11.6 billion SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF posted negative performance in 14 of the last 19 days. Over the last month it delivered a negative 0.57 percent total return, with price declines cushioned by the plush yield it pays. The ETF posted $947 million in withdrawals during the week, Lipper estimates. Elevated high-yield outflows are somewhat concerning, said Pat Keon, senior analyst for the Lipper research unit of Thomson Reuters, citing what he called the absence of an obvious catalyst. "I wouldn''t expect anything like I saw," he said. Bank of America Corp analysts said in a Nov. 10 note that high-yield volatility has been "driven primarily by a confluence of several meaningful and yet only loosely related events," including the potential for U.S. tax reform to be delayed. DOUR SENTIMENT WEIGHS ON STOCKS, BONDS Investors'' sour temper dragged down sales for bonds overall, despite that category''s resilience this year. Taxable bond fund outflows were $1.9 billion for the week, marking the category''s first withdrawals since July, Lipper said. The funds remain on course for their third-best year of flows on record. Stock fund flows weakened, too, with $240 million in outflows marking the first week of withdrawals in six. Domestic equity outflows more than offset inflows for their counterparts focused abroad, according to Lipper. Within sectors, oil price declines over concerns about growth in U.S. production and inventories hobbled energy firms. Stock funds focused on that sector recorded $302 million in outflows, the most since September. But technology-sector funds, buoyed by strong third-quarter corporate earnings, attracted $965 million in their largest inflows since the same month. Riskier stocks outside the United States retained their appeal. Emerging-markets equity funds raked in a tenth straight week of cash and Japanese stocks snapped up a sixth consecutive week of net inflows. The following is a breakdown of the flows for the week, including mutual funds and ETFs: Sector Flow Chg % Assets Assets Count ($blns) ($blns) All Equity Funds -0.240 -0.00 6,494.732 12,126 Domestic Equities -2.352 -0.05 4,442.491 8,652 Non-Domestic Equities 2.112 0.10 2,052.240 3,474 All Taxable Bond Funds -1.924 -0.07 2,587.602 6,033 All Money Market Funds 2.675 0.10 2,592.988 1,047 All Municipal Bond Funds 0.418 0.10 400.887 1,476 (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Tom Brown and Matthew Lewis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/investment-mutualfunds-lipper/update-1-u-s-junk-bond-funds-post-4th-biggest-week-of-outflows-ever-lipper-idINL1N1NM2KQ'|'2017-11-16T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'f9630cc1c4e79aba11be927d616240b82ecec9ac'|'TransCanada starts excavation work after South Dakota pipeline leak'|'Nov 20 (Reuters) - Canada Corp has started initial excavation work at the site of an oil spill on its Keystone pipeline in South Dakota but has not yet pinpointed where the leak came from, a state official said on Monday.The 590,000 barrel per day Keystone pipeline, which links Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries, was shut down on Thursday after a 5,000 barrel spill.Calgary-based TransCanada is working through the clean-up process, said Brian Walsh, environmental scientist manager for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.“They are digging some smaller excavations to get a sense of where the oil is and have started recovering oil from this area,” Walsh said.TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said it had around 150 people on site working around the clock and the cause of the leak was under investigation.The company has not yet set an expected restart date for Keystone, which is one of Canada’s main crude export pipelines.Canadian heavy crude grades remained under pressure on concerns about crude getting bottlenecked in Alberta. Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for December delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $16.25 per barrel below benchmark U.S. crude, according to Shorcan Energy brokers. (Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Tom Brown) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/transcanada-keystone-spill/transcanada-starts-excavation-work-after-south-dakota-pipeline-leak-idUSL1N1NQ1Y8'|'2017-11-21T01:38:00.000+02:00'
'a6bb0a62ce942a0331c7316c51618f5387c143ad'|'Asia stocks supported by global growth optimism, dollar strong'|'November 21, 2017 / 12:50 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Stocks rally on growth, earnings outlook; bonds slip Herbert Lash 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major world stock markets rose and government bond yields fell on Tuesday as a combination of strong corporate profits, steady global growth and low inflation provide scant alternatives for investors other than equities. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Stocks markets from Asia to Europe to the Americas rose, while the three top gauges of Wall Street performance hit record intraday highs, lifted by technology and healthcare shares. In Asia, the main Hang Seng index .HSI in Hong Kong and China''s H-shares index .HSCE posted their best day in seven weeks, while stocks in Tokyo .N225 also rose. In Europe, Germany''s benchmark DAX index .GDAXI rose more than 1 percent before paring gains, MSCI''s emerging markets index .MSCIEF rose 1.44 percent and its gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.71 percent. “It’s incredible,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. “Certainly sentiment is pretty strong and it’s widespread, both from the business community and consumers. Any economic concerns are pretty much falling by the wayside,” he said. Corporate earnings and strong economic growth have propelled the stock rally while investors shrug off political risk. Wall Street trading volumes were low in a week marked by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and no major earnings or economic data scheduled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 167.23 points, or 0.71 percent, to 23,597.56. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.46 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,599.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 68.56 points, or 1.01 percent, to 6,859.27. In Europe, Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) was among Germany’s top gainers for a second day, closing up 3.0 percent, after the carmaker raised its mid-term outlook on Monday. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 closed up 0.45 percent. Chipmaker Analog Devices Inc’s ( ADI.O ) quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates on growth in its industrial segment and automotive business, which has seen sharp demand for sensor chips from electric and self-driving vehicles. Goldman Sachs raised its earnings estimate for S&P 500 in 2018 and 2019 based on expectations of U.S. corporate tax reform, above-trend global and U.S. growth and slowly rising interest rates from a low base. Investors are not worried about an unwelcome surprise acceleration of U.S. inflation that could rock a Goldilocks scenario where growth supports earnings and central banks are unlikely to act in a heavy-handed fashion, said Larry Hatheway, chief economist at GAM Investment Management in Zurich. “There isn’t right now in an investor’s mind a compelling alternative to holding stocks,” Hatheway said. “We’ve generally seen stable-to-lower bond yields, so underneath it there does seem to be a very strong faith fundamentally that growth is fine, therefore earnings are fine but inflation is not a risk,” he said. The gap between French and German borrowing costs narrowed to its tightest since before the 2010-2012 euro zone debt crisis, as confidence in the bloc’s economic prospects swelled. The spread on 10-year French and German debt FR10YT=TWEB DE10YT=TWEB tightened to 15 basis points, a level last seen in August 2009, well before several sovereign debt crises rocked the single currency bloc and global markets. In the United States the Treasury yield curve flattened to its lowest in a decade as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting, to be released on Wednesday. Low inflation and global demand for yield has supported longer-dated debt. Benchmark 10-year notes US10T=RR were last up 2/32 in price to yield 2.3613 percent. The dollar turned broadly lower, moving in line with declining U.S. 10-year Treasury yields. The dollar index .DXY fell 0.14 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.09 percent to $1.1742. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.19 percent versus the greenback at 112.44 per dollar JPY= . Oil rose, supported by expectations of an extension next week of output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, but prices remained under pressure from signs of higher output in the United States. Brent crude oil LCOc1 rose 35 cents to settle at $62.57 a barrel. U.S. light crude CLc1 added 41 cents to settle at $56.83. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for December delivery settled up $6.40 at $1,281.70 per ounce. Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-supported-by-global-growth-optimism-dollar-strong-idUSKBN1DL03C'|'2017-11-21T02:50:00.000+02:00'
'4c221c59794bcc38008499810126ed20dd77373d'|'Aston Martin''s turnaround plan moves up a gear with Vantage model'|'November 21, 2017 / 12:05 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Aston Martin''s turnaround plan moves up a gear with Vantage model Costas Pitas 3 Min Read GAYDON, England (Reuters) - Luxury British carmaker Aston Martin unveiled its new Vantage model on Tuesday, as it pursues a turnaround plan designed to return it to profitability and set up a possible stock market flotation. The new Aston Martin Vantage car is seen at a media event in Gaydon, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble The central England-based firm, famed for making the sports car driven by fictional secret agent James Bond, is on course this year for its first pretax profit since 2010, spurred by sales of its new DB11 model. With the Vantage, Aston Martin hopes to reach full capacity of 7,000 sports cars at its Gaydon plant in 2019, which would be the most cars it has produced for a decade, underscoring how crucial success of the new model is. “It’s important fiscally because it is the car that really moves us into that positive free cash flow territory, but I think it was also important industrially because you are now talking about a plant that is full,” Chief Executive Andy Palmer told Reuters during an interview at the firm’s headquarters. The sleek two-seater model, which the firm says will stand out from rivals partly due to its simplistic design, will cost just over 120,000 pounds in Britain and $150,000 in the United States. Aston is also building a new factory in Wales, where its first sports utility vehicle, known as the DBX, will roll off the production line from late 2019. But British carmakers are worried Brexit could introduce customs checks and barriers that would slow down production processes and add extra bureaucratic costs. Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin, poses for a photograph next to the company''s new Vantage car in Gaydon, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Palmer, who said his biggest concern was the imposition of non-tariff barriers, said he was banking on a transitional agreement that would apply after March 2019, when Britain is due to formally exit the European Union. “I‘m working with that as a fundamental hypothesis so if there’s not, then I have a problem.” Slideshow (8 Images) “My investment cycle is based on the fact that there is a transition.” As Aston grows, Palmer has said its owners, mainly Kuwaiti and Italian private equity firms, could sell the company to a larger car group, other private equity firms or launch an initial public offering, but that the decision and timing were matters for the shareholders. He said it made sense for them to consider their options before the end of the firm’s current turnaround plan, which is due to complete in 2022. “You want to sell in a period where the plan is partially proven but still got lots of growth potential in front of us,” he said. “Another year of demonstrating what we are doing and then I think beyond that it’s going to depend on what the market’s doing.” Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-astonmartin-vantage/aston-martins-turnaround-plan-moves-up-a-gear-with-vantage-model-idUKKBN1DL1AJ'|'2017-11-21T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'96d9c733b2be38dae92dfccaa7d331218e8a2216'|'Canada, Mexico show more flexibility as key NAFTA round opens'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A key round of talks to update the NAFTA trade pact formally opened on Friday with Canada and Mexico seeking to show more flexibility about addressing hard line U.S. demands that they had previously dismissed as unworkable.FILE PHOTO: Trucks wait in the queue for border customs control to cross into U.S. at the World Trade Bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, November 2, 2016. Picture taken November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trump, who says the North American Free Trade Agreement is a “disaster,” has frequently threatened to ditch the pact unless big changes are made.There is relatively little time left to thrash out a deal under the current schedule. Negotiators met in Mexico City for the fifth of seven planned rounds that are due to wrap up by the end of March to avoid affecting Mexico’s presidential election.“We’re just getting started. There’s a long ways to go. It’s a challenging negotiation,” chief Canadian negotiator Steve Verheul told reporters.Canadian and Mexican officials initially indicated they would simply not discuss contentious U.S. proposals such as a five-year sunset clause, and boosting the North American content of autos to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent.The focus in Mexico City would be on making arguments to the U.S. side as to why their proposals as written would not work, a Canadian government source said.Canada, the source added, was happy to discuss so-called rules of origin governing auto content but insisted the 85 percent figure was impossible.Canadian sources said on Thursday they were open to a Mexican proposal to review NAFTA every five years rather than the U.S. plan to bring in a sunset clause that would automatically terminate the deal if it was not renegotiated.Canada and Mexico both send a large majority of their goods to the United States and prefer the treaty continue rather than deal with the economic disruption caused by a U.S. withdrawal.SENDING A MESSAGE FILE PHOTO - A NAFTA banner is pictured where the second round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada is taking place in Mexico City, Mexico September 1, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso That said, Mexico has stepped up its efforts this year to find alternative markets.Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday to emphasize openness to doing business with nations other than the United States.“At the same time as we carry out this negotiation process, Mexico is expanding its commercial horizons,” Videgaray told a news conference. A senior official in Mexico’s foreign ministry said the remarks were intended to send a message to Washington that “we don’t depend on them.”A Mexican official said the United States needed to make clear what it hoped to achieve with tougher rules of origin, given the difficulty of raising the threshold.Noting that 85 percent North American content was not feasible, the official said Mexico did not want “a rupture” to occur in the talks.However, the official added that the North American auto industry has previously argued in favor of lowering the figure to improve its competitiveness with foreign rivals.Washington also wants NAFTA to set a 50 percent minimum U.S. content requirement for autos, which Canada and Mexico say cannot work.“Once (the Americans) have explained all that, we can see about finding common ground,” the Mexican official said.A schedule for the fifth round seen by Reuters showed rules of origin would be discussed beginning Saturday during the four final days of the talks.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said killing NAFTA meant manufacturing states would lose hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on trade with Canada and Mexico, with automotive-intensive Michigan topping the list with 366,000 jobs “put at risk.”The Peterson Institute for International Economics said on Friday around 187,000 direct export-focused manufacturing jobs would disappear, with the highest concentration in autos.Additional reporting by David Lawder, Daina Beth Solomon and Gabriel Stargardter in Mexico City; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trade-nafta/canada-mexico-show-more-flexibility-as-key-nafta-round-opens-idINKBN1DH2F9'|'2017-11-17T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'a1b0e91a303237e2555914294d483dc1aa42b87e'|'Profits rise but smaller UK manufacturers lukewarm on investment - survey'|'  2:30 PM / a few seconds ago Profits rise but smaller UK manufacturers lukewarm on investment: survey   LONDON (Reuters) - Plans among smaller British manufacturers for investment and hiring remain muted despite rising turnover and profits, an industry survey showed on Monday. The quarterly National Manufacturing Barometer, conducted by business consultancies SWMAS and Economic Growth Solutions, chimed with other surveys showing strong manufacturing activity now, but a cautious approach to the future. Only 40 percent of small- and medium-sized manufacturers said they expect to increase staff numbers in the next six months, down from 42 percent in the previous quarter and the weakest reading since records started in 2013. Even though sales and profits had improved over the previous survey, investment intentions weakened a little in the latest quarter, the survey showed. Forty-three percent of manufacturers said they expected to increase spending on machinery and buildings over the next six months, down from 44 percent in the previous survey and the weakest reading since early 2016. Overall the report fitted with the idea that British manufacturers are in the middle of a temporary “sweet spot”. Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent used that phrase in March to describe a window in which producers could enjoy the benefits of a weaker currency, before the possible downsides of Brexit appear. Monday’s survey showed manufacturers were more likely to try to eke out productivity gains from their existing workforce and equipment rather than investing in new machinery and automation. “Automation is key for us, but the more immediate priority focus should be our people. It’s a quicker win,” said Karen Friendship, managing director of metal fabricator Aldermans, one of the survey respondents. The central challenge of finance minister Philip Hammond’s budget on Wednesday will be to improve Britain’s persistently weak productivity, which lags international rivals and is seen as a major limit to economic growth. The National Manufacturing Barometer surveyed around 280 small- and medium-sized manufacturers in October. Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-manufacturing/profits-rise-but-smaller-uk-manufacturers-lukewarm-on-investment-survey-idUKKBN1DK1OZ'|'2017-11-20T16:25:00.000+02:00'
'7f26b39a1fa8eb64009ad23174a04c7c75193a66'|'How a luxury cat hotel uses Facebook to grow its business - Connected for growth'|'A luxury resort for pampered pets may seem like quite an unusual business model, but there’s a surprisingly large demand for feline spa days and VIP experiences for privileged cats. Rhik Samadder paid the Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel a visit to find out how its founder, Abi Purser, has created such a successful business and how Facebook can help even the most niche businesses grow.Topics connected for growth advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/connected-for-growth/2017/nov/17/how-a-luxury-cat-hotel-uses-facebook-to-grow-its-business'|'2017-11-17T23:22:00.000+02:00'
'9cc0ea5d927535f03591564198d7bd319cb1d93a'|'Hanover buys Bell Pottinger''s Middle East business'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Bell Pottinger’s Middle East business has been sold to a subsidiary of London-headquartered public relations firm Hanover Group, the new owner said in a statement on Monday.The value of the acquisition by Hanover Middle East was not disclosed.Bell Pottinger’s British arm collapsed in September after the global public relations agency’s clients deserted it over a racially-charged political campaign it ran in South Africa.Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-bellpottinger/hanover-buys-bell-pottingers-middle-east-business-idINKBN1DK1OD'|'2017-11-20T11:15:00.000+02:00'
'73385befd11e9f7a71c1b91fd8763668cb714875'|'Frankfurt out of race for EBA, Dublin leads Paris: sources'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dublin and Paris went into a runoff on Monday to host the European Banking Authority after Britain leaves the EU, diplomatic sources said after second round in which Frankfurt was eliminated. European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier arrives at a conference on the "The future of the EU" at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, Belgium November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman One source said Dublin was only one vote short of a 14-country majority. Ireland has, among other arguments, secured something of a sympathy vote from fellow governments who concede that it will be the hardest hit of the 27 by Brexit. Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Alastair Macdonald, Peter Maushagen; Editing by Alastair Macdonald '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-agencies-eba-vote/paris-frankfurt-dublin-race-to-host-banking-body-after-brexit-sources-says-idUSKBN1DK260'|'2017-11-20T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'5e188dc31dbef7328beddf68c8f26f4d09792934'|'U.S. business borrowing for equipment rises 2 pct in Oct - ELFA'|'November 20, 2017 / 8:03 PM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. business borrowing for equipment rises 2 pct in Oct - ELFA Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. companies’ borrowing to spend on capital investment rose 2 percent in October from a year earlier, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) said on Monday, citing increased confidence in the economy. Companies signed up for $8.4 billion in new loans, leases and lines of credit last month, up from $8.2 billion a year earlier. However, borrowing fell 3 percent from September. ”Equipment finance originations continue to grow, albeit slowly, as some sluggish market verticals show signs of rebounding. This trend, coupled with buoyed confidence in overall economic conditions, pave the way for a very healthy end-of-year bump,” ELFA Chief Executive Ralph Petta said. Washington-based ELFA, a trade association that reports economic activity for the $1 trillion equipment finance sector, said credit approvals totaled 74.6 percent in October, up from 74 percent in September. ELFA’s leasing and finance index measures the volume of commercial equipment financed in the United States. It is designed to complement the U.S. Commerce Department’s durable goods orders report, which it typically precedes by a few days. ELFA’s index is based on a survey of 25 members that include Bank of America Corp, BB&T Corp, CIT Group Inc and the financing affiliates or subsidiaries of Caterpillar Inc, Deere & Co, Verizon Communications Inc, Siemens AG, Canon Inc and Volvo AB. The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, ELFA’s non-profit affiliate, said its confidence index for November was 67, up from 63.7 in October. A reading of above 50 indicates a positive outlook. (Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Bernard Orr)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/economy-usa-elfa/u-s-business-borrowing-for-equipment-rises-2-pct-in-oct-elfa-idUSL3N1NQ48N'|'2017-11-20T22:00:00.000+02:00'
'02a504594afdd3086e709010350ba7b23d83856b'|'Gold down on firmer dollar but stays close to one-month peak'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold fell more than 1 percent on Monday, giving up the prior session’s gains on pressure from the rising dollar, expectations for U.S. interest rate hikes and as the market entered a holiday week.FILE PHOTO - A sales person shows a gold ring to customers at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Ahmedabad, India, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo Spot gold XAU= was down 1.4 percent at $1,275.66 an ounce by 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT), off Friday’s peak of $1,297, its strongest since Oct. 16. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled down 1.6 percent at $1,275.30.The U.S. dollar .DXY touched its highest against a basket of major currencies in nearly a week, as the euro EUR= weakened amid political risks linked to German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s failure to form a three-way coalition government. [USD/]Global equities rose as confidence over economic growth around the world helped investors brush off concerns about the collapse of government talks in Germany. [MKTS/GLOB]“This reversal is not terribly surprising because you’ve entered a holiday week and didn’t make much progress in that breakout,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, referring to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and failure to extend the Nov. 17 rally to a one-month high.“The dollar is strengthening ... and the odds of a rate increase are starting to rise. I think we’ve priced in December and you’re starting to price in two or three next year.”The prospect of higher U.S. interest rates when the Federal Reserve meets in December helped the dollar against other major currencies such as the yen JPY= .Goldman Sachs said it expects a tight U.S. labour market and more normal inflation picture will lead the Fed to hike interest rates four times next year.“For gold, there are headwinds in the guise of U.S. interest rate rises, which means higher front-end bond yield curves and an opportunity cost for holding gold,” said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar.Higher rates typically mean sales of short-dated bonds, pushing up yields and make them cheaper for other investors, offering higher returns than gold which earns nothing and costs money to store and insure.Silver XAG= was down 2.3 percent at $16.91 an ounce and platinum XPT= fell 3 percent to $922.30.Palladium XPD= eased 0.5 percent to $988.50 an ounce.Traders said palladium could come under pressure from news that Norilsk Nickel ( GMKN.MM ) is planning to boost purchases of palladium for its fund from Russian central bank reserves to help ease shortages in the market.An executive at Norilsk, the world’s largest palladium producer, told Reuters that purchases in 2017 would rise to as much as 600,000 ounces. This compares with about five tonnes (160,764 ounces) last year.Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter and Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-down-on-firmer-dollar-but-stays-close-to-one-month-peak-idINKBN1DK0BW'|'2017-11-20T07:17:00.000+02:00'
'77cdccccdae8c511d0981e5f623cbf0e4c00fd0f'|'No EU deposit insurance if bad loans not cut - ECB''s Draghi'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:43 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago No EU deposit insurance if bad loans not cut - ECB''s Draghi Francesco Canepa 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - There cannot be a common European insurance scheme for bank deposits if the level of unpaid loans is not reduced, the president of the European Central Bank said on Monday. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi addresses the European Parliament''s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in Brussels, Belgium November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Mario Draghi’s comments mark a rare alignment with Germany’s position on a key issue and also his first attempt at a fightback against Italian criticism of the ECB’s decision to force banks to set aside more money against loans that sour. The creation of a European deposit insurance scheme (EDIS) has long been a key goal of the ECB but has faced opposition from Germany, where the government fears having to foot the bill for banks in countries such as Italy that are burdened with high levels of non-performing loans (NPLs). “The NPL issue and the EDIS are interlinked,” Draghi told the European Parliament’s economic committee. “Risk reduction and risk sharing should go in parallel ... and NPLs are part of this,” he added. Draghi was echoing comments by the head of Germany’s Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, who had defended the ECB’s clampdown on bad loans on Friday and said the high levels of soured credit was an impediment to a common safety net for depositors. Last month the European Commission discarded earlier proposals for full-fledged European insurance of savers if banks fail, leaving the burden largely with individual member states. EU rules guarantee deposits up to 100,000 euros ($118,000), a provision meant to strengthen confidence in the region’s banks after a decade-long crisis that has seen the bailout of several top banks. But existing national schemes to insure depositors are considered insufficient to cope with a major banking crisis. Draghi said a full-fledged deposit insurance scheme had to remain the ultimate goal and that any postponement should be limited in time. “(There) shouldn’t be a vague postponement because EDIS remains a fundamental pillar of the banking union,” Draghi told the European parliamentarians. EDIS was also a point of contention in Germany’s coalition talks, which have collapsed due to disagreements over immigration policy. Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-draghi/no-joint-deposit-insurance-if-bad-loans-not-tackled-ecbs-draghi-idUKKBN1DK1QA'|'2017-11-20T18:12:00.000+02:00'
'5e694f8c19514af4fbc8e97932bd69cfe71c546d'|'Televisa exec shot dead outside Mexico City while riding bike'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Adolfo Lagos, the head of struggling Mexican broadcaster Grupo Televisa’s telecoms unit izzi, was shot dead on Sunday on the outskirts of Mexico City, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement.The attorney general’s office for the State of Mexico, which surrounds the capital, said it was investigating the homicide near the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids. It said Lagos was on a bicycle when he was shot. He died in hospital from his wounds.Press reports said Lagos died after group of men tried to steal his bike. In his Twitter profile photo, Lagos is shown riding a bike. The attorney general’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.“Grupo Televisa profoundly laments the death of izzi Director Adolfo Lagos Espinosa that took place in the State of Mexico. Our condolences to his wife, daughters and family members,” the company wrote on Twitter.izzi offers phone, internet and cable television services.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took to Twitter to offer his condolences, saying that the federal attorney general’s office would help state prosecutors investigate.The death of Lagos, a well-known former banker, is a fresh pain for Televisa, which is struggling with declining ad sales and tough competition from the widespread move to online video.The company’s longtime chief executive will step down next year, the company said last month, and Televisa has also faced U.S. allegations that it was among media companies that paid bribes to secure television rights for soccer matches.The testimony came during the first trial to emerge from the U.S. investigation of bribery surrounding FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Sharay Angulo, Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-televisa-executive/televisa-exec-shot-dead-outside-mexico-city-while-riding-bike-idUSKBN1DK01K'|'2017-11-20T02:24:00.000+02:00'
'b675ba18dc31a3bc1e1293307b816ab2c07181f4'|'Full of beans - coffee grounds to help power London''s buses'|'November 20, 2017 / 4:48 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Full of beans - coffee grounds to help power London''s buses Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Waste coffee grounds will be used to help fuel some of London’s buses, Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and clean technology company bio-bean said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - A bus passes the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo A new biofuel, which contains part coffee oil, is being added to the London bus fuel supply chain where it can be used without the need for modification, the companies said in a statement. Bio-bean and partner Argent Energy have so far produced enough coffee oil to power one bus for a year, if used as a pure-blend for the 20 percent bio component and mixed with mineral diesel to form a B20 fuel, they said. Transport for London has been turning to biofuels to curb carbon emissions, trialling a fuel made with used cooking oil from the catering industry, the transport operator said on its website. Bio-bean said the average Londoner drinks 2.3 cups of coffee a day, producing over 200,000 tonnes of waste a year. It collects waste grounds from high street chains and factories, which are dried and processed to extract coffee oil. “It’s a great example of what can be done when we start to reimagine waste as an untapped resource,” bio-bean founder Arthur Kay said. The coffee fuel technology has been supported by Shell. Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-biofuels-buses/full-of-beans-coffee-grounds-to-help-power-londons-buses-idUKKBN1DK0B7'|'2017-11-20T06:50:00.000+02:00'
'fe9b7f77128b486615a851fba4e12416ab86d99d'|'As many Venezuela bondholders stampede, some joust for advantage'|'Reuters - Venezuela’s efforts to restructure its debt may have triggered an initial stampede for the exits, but some investment funds are maintaining their portfolios or even beefing them up, betting that other investors’ distress could spell opportunity.Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during an event with supporters in Caracas, Venezuela November 15, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS President Nicolas Maduro spooked bondholders this month when he announced plans to restructure some $60 billion in bonds as his socialist government struggles with an economic crisis brought on by years of mismanagement.Yet Maduro also said the country would keep servicing its obligations for now. That has given a modicum of comfort to investors wagering on Venezuela’s junk bonds, some of whom are content to reap the massive yields they offer.Others are actively positioning for large windfall profit similar to what a group of Argentine creditors reaped last year after more than a decade of litigation with Argentina’s government.Senior Venezuelan officials gave no clarification on the government’s strategy in a short and confused meeting with creditors in the Venezuelan capital last week.In the meantime, creditors have been organizing conference calls, holding improvised meetings in Caracas hotels and discussing the creation of groups that could represent bondholders in the event of a default.“There are a lot of different conversations, a lot of lawyers, financial advisers who are trying to solicit that dialogue,” said Diego Ferro, co-chief investment officer at Greylock Capital, which focuses on high-yield and distressed assets.Ferro said that for the past few weeks, he has been buying both bonds issued by Venezuela’s government as well as those sold by its state-owned oil company PDVSA, with a preference for the country’s 2027 bond.Both the 2027 bond and all of those issued by PDVSA share a common characteristic: They lack a clause that can force all bondholders to accept a restructuring pact as long as 75 percent sign off on the deal.The absence of such collective action clauses, or CACS, can allow a small group of investors to hold out for better terms, as famously happened after Argentina defaulted in 2001.Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.ECHOES OF ARGENTINA Distressed fund managers including Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital Management reaped billions of dollars last year when they negotiated a settlement with Argentina’s newly elected government, which was anxious to end more than a decade of legal battles with bondholders.“We’re basically thinking of eventually going into a restructuring not too dissimilar from what Argentina went through in 2001-2005,” said Nicolas Galperin, founder of Onslow Capital Management.Galperin said his firm is looking to buy the bonds for around 20 cents on the dollar and earn pass-through interest with the hope of eventually selling them at a profit through a future restructuring.He said he envisioned it as a two to three-year trade and was employing the strategy on both PDVSA and Venezuela bonds.But an Argentina-like solution is effectively impossible in the short term.Sanctions imposed on Venezuela this year by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump, in response to accusations that Maduro is creating a dictatorship, block U.S. banks from acquiring newly issued Venezuelan debt.Investors would be unable to negotiate a settlement like the one bondholders reached with Argentina because they cannot exchange the bonds they hold for new debt.Sanctions against specific Venezuelan officials bar investors from even sitting at the table with Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Economy Minister Simon Zerpa, two prominent members of Venezuela’s debt negotiation commission.That means long-term investments are clouded by the possibility that sanctions could impede a successful debt restructuring for years, particularly if the opposition continues struggling to make any headway at removing Maduro.Even though Maduro is widely unpopular, the opposition remains divided and in disarray, with its most prominent leaders jailed, exiled or barred from holding public office. Presidential elections are expected next year.Nonetheless, investors continue to be attracted to lucrative short-term returns.A holder of Venezuela’s most-traded bond, the 2027 maturity VENGLB27=RR, would get a 34 annual percent return from interest payments alone.That is 15 times what the same investor would collect on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note.Investors for now appear more interested in collecting those outsized returns than initiating an Argentina-style battle - though many believe Venezuela will eventually halt payments and creditors will sue to pressure the government into a settlement.Bondholders walked away from last week’s meeting in Caracas with a clear message from Vice President El Aissami: Venezuela “has hired the best lawyers.”Venezuela has appointed lawyer David Syed to advise it, working alongside a team at global law firm Dentons, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters news service.Many saw El Aissami’s words as a warning that, despite the increasingly complex financial gymnastics, Caracas is preparing for a battle, and that creditors should do so as well.Additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth, writing by Christian Plumb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-debt-strategy/as-many-venezuela-bondholders-stampede-some-joust-for-advantage-idINKBN1DK1W7'|'2017-11-20T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'077b55400edcf889793890b1b195d2f3ca27b0a5'|'MIDEAST - Factors to watch - November 19'|'DUBAI, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Sunday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * Saudi Arabia swapping assets for freedom of some held in graft purge - sources* UK court finds for Dana Gas creditors in $700 mln Islamic bond case* Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Germany over Gabriel comments* Saudi energy minister: market to remain oversupplied by March 2018* GLOBAL MARKETS- U.S. dollar, Wall St fall with tax overhaul in focus* MIDEAST STOCKS- Apparent state support aids Saudi, Qatar blue chips rebound* Oil rises over 2 pct, but shows first weekly fall in six* PRECIOUS-Gold at one-month top on weak dollar, uncertainty over Trump tax bill* Middle East, US crude oil curbs Indian appetite for African supplies* After Macron meeting, Hariri says will clarify position in Lebanon* Iran says “biased” French stance threatens Middle East stability* Iran has no problem with aircraft deal financing - official* Iran has exported 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Iraq since June- official* Saudi-led coalition threatens Yemen by blocking aid -U.N. report* Soccer--Saudi, UAE, Bahrain to miss Qatar’s Gulf Cup amid riftEGYPT * Egypt’s central bank holds interest rates as expected* Egypt’s El Sewedy Electric looking to expand, build warehouses* Egyptian activists detained by court for protesting Red Sea islands transfer* Egypt-Gaza border opens under PA control for first time in a decadeSAUDI ARABIA * Saudi Arabia to impose 5 pct VAT tax on gasoline from Jan. 1* Saudi Kingdom Holding plans to sell two hotels in Beirut - sources* U.S. monitoring Saudi situation amid post-purge wealth deals* Saudi crackdown will not hit investments - energy minUNITED ARAB EMIRATES * -UK court finds for Dana Gas creditors in $700 mln Islamic bond case* Mubadala makes binding offer for majority stake in Brazil’s Invepar* Gulf carriers may be in focus under foreign airline U.S. tax exemption cut* Jetmakers end Dubai rollercoaster with big orders pendingKUWAIT * German court rules Kuwait airline is allowed to ban IsraelisOMAN * Moody’s concludes review and downgrades Omantel to Baa3; outlook stableQATAR * German watchdog drops inquiry into HNA, Qatar over Deutsche Bank -source* Qatar foreign minister decries ‘reckless leadership’ in regionCompiled by Dubai newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-factors/mideast-factors-to-watch-november-19-idINL3N1NP02L'|'2017-11-19T01:32:00.000+02:00'
'6bea4b886fc11d74dac77ba99a083c33e301ced3'|'UPDATE 1-Avolon firms up deal for 75 Boeing jets, may order 20 more'|'(Adds details, background)HONG KONG/PARIS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Chinese-owned aircraft leasing company Avolon has firmed up an order for 75 Boeing airplanes and may order 20 more, its parent Bohai Capital said on Sunday.The Dublin-based leasing group, founded by Chief Executive Domhnal Slattery, agreed to buy 55 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and 20 of the higher-capacity Boeing 737 MAX 10, Bohai said in a filing.It may order an additional 20 of the main 737 MAX 8 version, it added.Based on published prices, the confirmed part of the deal would be worth $8.7 billion at list values, though analysts say buyers typically get discounts of at least 50 percent for significant orders of such models.Including the possible extra purchase of 20 jets, the total deal would be worth $11 billion at list prices, Bohai said.The announcement broadly confirms a memorandum of understanding signed by Avolon at the Paris Airshow in June for 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Slattery said at the time that Avolon was considering Boeing’s 737 MAX 10.Bohai, part of aviation-to-shipping conglomerate HNA Group, said Avolon expected to take delivery of the aircraft between 2021 and 2024.Avolon was sold to Shenzhen-listed Bohai Capital Holding Co in 2015.Bohai and other state-backed Chinese firms are expanding in the aircraft financing and leasing business as customer airlines open routes at home and abroad.The announcement comes after Airbus and Boeing recently reported orders for a total of around 100 jets from China Development Bank Financial Leasing (CDB Leasing) .Airbus publicised the deal for 45 jets last week during the Dubai Airshow, bolstering a show tally dominated by a record preliminary order for 430 jets but no firm business.However the Airbus order from CDB appeared to correspond to a pre-show announcement by Boeing of an order for 56 jets from the same company, or a net 52 after conversions.Both deals were approved on Nov. 8, company filings show.Airbus declined to comment on the timing of the announcement.Both jet manufacturers have significant further orders from Chinese companies on their books, but names have not yet been disclosed for commercial reasons, industry sources said. (Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree, Twinnie Siu, Tim Hepher. Editing by Jane Merriman and David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bohai-capital-aircraft/update-1-avolon-firms-up-deal-for-75-boeing-jets-may-order-20-more-idINL3N1NP0EK'|'2017-11-19T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'6a671904f24902f7c5392bb0cb9de23a6785f005'|'Soured euro zone bank loans an urgent issue - ECB''s Jazbec'|'November 20, 2017 / 1:00 PM / Updated an hour ago Soured euro zone bank loans an urgent issue - ECB''s Jazbec Reuters Staff 1 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Soured loans sitting on the books of euro zone banks are holding back growth and creating a systemic risk, so a resolution is urgent, European Central Bank Governing Council member Bostjan Jazbec told a conference in Vienna on Monday. Bostjan Jazbec, Slovenia''s central bank governor, speaks during an interview in Ljubljana December 13, 2013. REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic/File photo “I think that there is an urgent need to clean up the banking system of all the NPLs (non-performing loans) that are still in the system,” Jazbec said. The ECB has recently come under fire for a proposal to sharply increase risk provisions on new non-performing loans, with banks on the bloc’s periphery claiming that the new rules would hold back lending and ultimately growth. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi and Francois Murphy; editing by Francois Murphy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-ecb/soured-euro-zone-bank-loans-an-urgent-issue-ecbs-jazbec-idUKKBN1DK1IQ'|'2017-11-20T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'6dedcef2a39870e82a3eb61487882fbf159660c5'|'BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy Senegal assets'|'SYDNEY/DAKAR (Reuters) - Oil exploration company Cairn Energy ( CNE.L ) is in talks with BP to sell a 30 percent stake in its deepwater SNE field offshore Senegal, which could be valued at around $600 million, banking sources and a Senegal oil ministry source said on Monday. “We are aware that BP wants to acquire a stake in Cairn Energy, but they are awaiting validation by the state (of Senegal),” an adviser to Senegal’s oil minister, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone.The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann He had no further details. However, Mamadou Faye, director of Senegal’s state oil firm Petrosen, said no formal request had yet been made by the companies.BP ( BP.L ) and Cairn Energy declined to comment.Oil majors have been increasingly homing in on the waters off Senegal, as well as neighbors Mauritania and Gambia, where they suspect hundreds of millions of barrels lie.A deal would further boost BP’s position in Senegal following a joint venture with Kosmos Energy in December last year, which revealed a major gas discovery in May. BP also has investments in two other offshore fields there.Senegal and Mauritania are two areas BP is targeting over the next decade and it plans to spend billions in the Tortue LNG project which is expected to produce its first gas in 2021.The deepwater SNE project is the first oil development inthe West African nation. Cairn shares the project with Australia’s Woodside ( WPL.AX ) and FAR Ltd ( FAR.AX ). The companies expect to start producing by 2021. Woodside, Australia’s biggest independent oil and gasproducer, bought a 35 percent stake from ConocoPhillips lastyear for up to $430 million, or $2.20 a barrel based on reserves of 561 million barrels at the time, before these were upgraded to nearly 650 million barrels.FAR Ltd has said the project could start producing before 2021, and at a higher rate than flagged before.Oil majors including Total SA and China’s CNOOC Ltd have also been investing in the waters off this part of the West African coast.Additional reporting by Clara Denina and Ron Bousso in London; Writing by Tim Cocks and Clara Denina; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-senegal-bp-cairn-energy/bp-seeks-stake-in-cairn-energy-senegal-assets-idINKBN1DK2E7'|'2017-11-20T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'a3b7c26b7277b1cadc9db48568565412b3271ffe'|'UK increases size of bank lending stimulus plan'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 4 hours ago UK expands lending stimulus plan as banks eye deadline Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will further increase the size of a cheap credit scheme after banks and other lenders sought to make greater use of it before a deadline at the end of February 2018. A man walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Chancellor Philip Hammond said he had authorised a BoE request for a 25 billion-pound increase in the maximum size of the Term Funding Scheme to 140 billion pounds. “As the end of the drawdown period approaches, participants have greater certainty over the likely size of their borrowing allowances earned from positive net lending, and we now expect the final level of drawings to exceed 115 billion pounds,” BoE Governor Mark Carney said in a letter to Hammond. Under the terms of the scheme, banks can borrow from the Bank at a rate close to its benchmark rate, as long as they maintain or expand net lending to businesses and households. The Bank this month increased Bank Rate for the first time in more than 10 years. The TFS was launched in August last year as part of a broad stimulus push by the Bank to help the economy cope with the shock of the Brexit referendum decision to leave the European Union. In August this year, the maximum size of the programme was increased to 115 billion pounds from 100 billion pounds. Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken, William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-lending/uk-increases-size-of-bank-lending-stimulus-plan-idUKKBN1DK1TR'|'2017-11-20T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'332ce6b4e9d10b914ee01e031f18446eaf0c81a3'|'As Venezuela pumps below OPEC target, oil rivals begin filling gap'|'November 20, 2017 / 5:02 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago As Venezuela pumps below OPEC target, oil rivals begin filling gap Marianna Parraga , Rania El Gamal 5 Min Read HOUSTON/DUBAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - As Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector struggles to pump enough crude oil to meet the country’s OPEC output target, rival producers within the exporters group have started to plug the gap, OPEC and industry sources said. The South American country’s oil output hit a 28-year low in October as state-owned oil giant PDVSA struggled to find the funds to drill wells, maintain oilfields and keep pipelines and ports working. Venezuela''s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) per month since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 bpd in 2017 according to numbers reported to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as U.S. sanctions and a lack of capital hobble operations. [For a graphic on Venezuelan and Iraqi oil shipments to the United States and India, click tmsnrt.rs/2A9EKCH ] Some OPEC members expect the fall to accelerate in 2018, reaching at least 300,000 bpd, OPEC sources said. At a recent internal OPEC meeting, Venezuelan officials were asked to give a clearer picture of the country’s declining output. “A lot of questions have been raised by Saudis and others to the Venezuelans to present a real picture on the production status and decline,” one of the sources said. The topic could come up later this month at the group’s next meeting. Saudi Arabia will not raise its output to compensate for this decline as OPEC’s defector leader is focused on reducing global oil stocks, one OPEC source familiar with Saudi oil policy told Reuters this month. But heavy oil from OPEC member Iraq and non-OPEC producers Canada and Brazil are already replacing Venezuelan barrels to key customers the United States and India, according to the sources and Thomson Reuters data. Iraq has increased shipments of crude and condensate to India by 80,000 bpd this year as Venezuelan deliveries fell by 84,000 bpd. The second largest OPEC producer also has exported 201,000 bpd more oil to the United States this year through October as Venezuelan shipments dropped about 90,000 bpd, according to the Reuters data. Venezuela’s weaker output “could be good for market rebalance and we could see price stay at $60 for a slightly longer time,” one OPEC source said. “That doesn’t mean there will be no free riders,” the source added. PLUGGING THE GAP Venezuela pumped 1.863 million bpd in October, undershooting its OPEC target by 109,000 bpd, according to an assessment that OPEC uses to monitor members’ output. Venezuela said it had pumped 1.955 million bpd, still below its output target of 1.972 million bpd. There often are discrepancies between the assessment and official figures reported by the OPEC members. When member countries have suffered supply disruptions in the past, other OPEC members have covered the gap, often without changing official production quotas. Saudi Arabia boosted its output in 2003 to offset Iraq’s falling exports after the U.S. invasion, but the agreement was never formally disclosed. OPEC discussions of Venezuela’s quota is not new. Proposals to change the country’s quota have been raised and batted down several times in OPEC meetings since the South American country’s production started declining in 2012, a Venezuelan government source said. Venezuela has argued in the past, when faced with questions about falling output, that it was working to reverse declines from its sizeable proven oil reserves. But it could be difficult for Venezuelan officials to convince OPEC that an upturn is likely in the near future as the country seeks to restructure $60 billion in debt. Dependent on oil revenues, Venezuela has seen its economy contract sharply in the three years since crude prices collapsed from over $100 a barrel. Reviews of quotas and reallocation of market share can be contentious, and the group may prefer to allow market forces to fill the supply gap left by Venezuela’s decline rather than make an official share revision and reallocation to other members, one senior OPEC source said. A formal change would be opening a “can of worms” that OPEC would not want to do, the source added. OPEC’s oil ministers will meet in Vienna later this month to discuss supply policy. The group is expected to extend beyond March an agreement under which its members and rival producers, including Russia, have reduced joint output by about 1.8 million bpd. “We want a successful meeting on Nov. 30, re-discussing quotas will not be accepted by Venezuela and talking about it at the meeting will just open the door for others to do the same,” the senior OPEC source said. Reporting by Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Simon Webb and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/opec-venezuela-quotas/as-venezuela-pumps-below-opec-target-oil-rivals-begin-filling-gap-idUSL1N1NF1MW'|'2017-11-20T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'ffc283344264b337bf2ed05f0d4b0fd1952a2215'|'LPC-European direct lending at a crossroads'|'Nov 20 (Reuters) - Discipline in the European private debt market is wavering as funds compete to offer the best terms and pricing for borrowers in an environment awash with liquidity.Few funds operating in Europe pre-date the global financial crisis and have only worked through a period of low default rates, so many are unable to demonstrate an investment track record during difficult economic times.“All ships are expected to float in a benign credit environment,” said Anthony Fobel, managing partner of BlueBay’s private debt business, at the SuperInvestor Conference in Amsterdam last week.“Until there is a full turn in the cycle, it is difficult for investors to determine which are the good and bad funds.”Private debt in Europe has flourished from investors searching for yield as interest rates remain at historic lows and banks reduce their lending under increased regulatory pressure, opening up opportunities to provide debt financing to middle market companies.But a market that once generated double-digit returns shortly after the financial crisis is seeing a sharp compression in margins.Unitranche loans, which combine a senior and subordinated piece of debt into a single tranche, were pricing at around 800bp to 850bp a couple of years ago but have dropped to around 700bp to 725bp, according to research from debt advisory firm Marlborough Partners.This is a reflection of the record amount of capital raised by managers from institutional investors. ICG has €5.2bn ready to deploy for its senior debt fund. In March, Alcentra reached a final close of €4.3bn, while BlueBay and Hayfin recorded fundraisings of €3bn-plus this year.Sponsors are taking advantage of the increased competition between funds, with many noting that leverage in middle market loans is reaching 2007 levels and risk is not priced appropriately.“Stretched senior is just a word to justify very low pricing,” said Francois Lacoste, partner at Idinvest.Tara Moore, managing director at Guggenheim Partners, said that the market now was not the same as 2007, pointing to higher enterprise values of middle market companies than during the crash.“A couple of years ago, banks were at two to three times and they have stepped up a gear recently to offer deals at around four to five times. To remain competitive, unitranches are going up, but there is still a huge equity cushion. You’re playing 5.5 times debt against enterprise values of 13-14 times Ebitda,” she said.TERMS AND CONDITIONS Funds are not just competing on the economics of a transaction to win a deal. They are marketing themselves on their ability to deliver decisions on credits to borrowers quickly, and that has had an impact on credit assessments.“We don’t lose deals on terms, but the biggest risk is that the rigor of due diligence is being lost,” said Paul Johnson, partner at EQT Credit. “We’ve lost deals asking one or two too many questions.”Lowering standards on call protection also means funds run the risk of their deals being refinanced later.“Funds should be demanding call protection, as it is crucial to make good money on all the deals which don’t go wrong,” said Paul Shea, managing partner at Beechbrook Capital.“Because when the cycle turns, all your good assets are going to get refinanced. Without protection, that loan at 6% plus one year of fees is only going to make you 1.08 times multiple. And on your bad deals, you’re going to lose money.”Many managers have turned to fund financing in an attempt to meet investor expectations as margins on transactions continue to decrease.Banks have been keen on offering leverage at the fund level, with financing priced at 200bp over Libor in today’s market, down from 300bp a couple of years ago.A recent survey from the Alternative Investment Management Association found that more than half of managers use leverage.But the use of leverage has not translated directly into a further decrease in spreads.Permira Debt Managers offers both levered and unlevered sleeves to investors, but the exposure is to the same pool of assets.David Hirschmann, head of private credit at PDM, said: “We use fund leverage, but it is a question of addressing the yield requirement for our investors.”“But that doesn’t solve the issue of tighter pricing. It has to work for both sleeves, so the deal has to remain attractive from a risk perspective.”LOOKING FORWARD Many managers remain optimistic about the future of the asset class, noting the increasing opportunities outside the UK market, especially in large economies such as France and Germany.“This was the first year that our European offices out-originated the UK office,” said Blair Jacobson, partner at Ares Management.And while the majority of opportunities are still dependent on private equity activity, sponsorless deals are increasing.Even with margin compression in the private debt market, the relative illiquidity premium increases as public assets continue to tighten. And with international political uncertainty continuing into 2018, funds are hoping that investors may move towards assets less immune to the volatility.Patrick Stutz, chief investment officer at Bayshore Capital Advisors, said: “If investors see a bad number in their capex statement, they start making the wrong decisions. Sometimes it is better not to see that price every day and instead be locked up for a couple of years.” (Editing by Christopher Mangham)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/direct-lending-loans/lpc-european-direct-lending-at-a-crossroads-idINL8N1NQ27T'|'2017-11-20T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'961ac88cf2c96e831bf26834ff4c92853703b942'|'U.S. CFPB fines Conduent for bad credit information'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:13 PM / Updated 3 hours ago U.S. CFPB fines Conduent for bad credit information Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday said it had fined Xerox Business Services, LLC, now known as Conduent Business Services, $1.1 million for software errors that led to credit reporting agencies receiving incorrect information about over 1 million people. The settlement comes as the bureau, created after the 2007-09 financial crisis to protect consumers from predatory lending, takes a closer look at the flow of information to and from credit-reporting agencies in the wake of this year’s security breach and hacking of Equifax Inc. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert, editing by G Crosse)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-cfpb-conduent/u-s-cfpb-fines-conduent-for-bad-credit-information-idUSL1N1NQ15M'|'2017-11-20T20:12:00.000+02:00'
'9f740e82b9b60bfe763154dc5a057c65a0aa7c62'|'METALS-China aluminium prices drop sharply amid signs of robust global output'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:34 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago METALS-China aluminium prices drop sharply amid signs of robust global output Reuters Staff (Recasts on aluminium, updates prices) By James Regan SYDNEY, Nov 21 (Reuters) - China aluminium futures fell sharply on Tuesday to their lowest in more than three months, dragged down by signs of robust global production. * ALUMINIUM DROP: The most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 2.45 percent to close at 14,910 yuan ($2,247.14), its weakest since early August. * ALUMINIUM OUTPUT: Global production for October, excluding China, was 2.179 million tonnes, up from 2.1 million tonnes in September, International Aluminium Institute (IAI) data showed on Monday. However, Chinese daily average output fell to 82,100 tonnes in October against 86,900 tonnes in September. * LONDON ALUMINIUM: London Metal Exchange three-month aluminium had eased to $2,079.50 a tonne by 0700 GMT adding to the previous session’s losses. * SHANGHAI NICKEL: ShFE nickel closed 0.83 percent higher. Traders said the metal was finding support from stronger ShFE steel rebar futures, which closed 2.7 percent firmer on expectations that Chinese demand would bounce back sharply when production curbs are lifted after winter. Nickel is chiefly used as an alloy for steel manufacturing. * LME NICKEL: Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was also slightly firmer at $11,677 a tonne, extending modest gains from the previous session. * COPPER SMELTER BACK: Global miner Rio Tinto Plc restarted the smelter at its large Kennecott mine in the United States last Friday after a nearly six-week outage, but force majeure on refined copper has not yet been lifted, a company spokesman said on Monday. * DOLLAR FIRM: The dollar gave back some of its gains in Asian trading on Tuesday, but stuck close to a one-week high against a basket of currencies as German political deadlock continued to pressure the euro. PRICES'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-china-aluminium-prices-drop-sharply-amid-signs-of-robust-global-output-idUSL3N1NR2D3'|'2017-11-21T09:33:00.000+02:00'
'4877e15f26811168933742fb5d2b3a4a2b78d6ea'|'RPT-Tencent turns to WeChat, games and deals for global strategy'|'(Repeats article first published late on Monday. No changes to text.)* Tencent plans e-payment launch in Malaysia next year* Tencent in no hurry to speed up overseas expansion - Lau* Aims to reverse trend, and export Chinese cultureBy Sijia JiangHONG KONG, Nov 20 (Reuters) - China’s biggest social network and gaming firm Tencent Holdings, which last week reported forecast-beating quarterly results, is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, an executive told Reuters.Tencent has made a “breakthrough” in gaining an e-payment license in Malaysia for local transactions, and plans a launch early next year, senior vice president S.Y. Lau said in an interview.The move pits Shenzhen-based Tencent, Asia’s most valuable listed company, against rival Alibaba Group as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China.“Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have 20 million WeChat users, huge potential, and the market is quite warm towards internet products from China,” Lau said.Southeast Asia, home to more than 600 million people and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has been a key battleground for China’s tech titans fighting for deals. Ethnic Chinese make up more than a fifth of Malaysia’s population.WeChat Pay and Alibaba’s Alipay, which dominate China’s digital payment market, have sought to expand their global footprint, although that push has so far been limited to payment services for Chinese outbound tourists. They can scan-and-pay for purchases in 34 countries or regions via Alipay and 13 via WeChat Pay, according to the companies.Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial has joint ventures in seven markets for local digital payments services, which operate independently under the partnerships’ brand names.Alibaba is looking to build a global payment system, while Tencent is more interested in generating traffic for WeChat - two different strategies, some bankers and investors say.WeChat has more users, but Alipay’s aggregate transaction volume is higher, according to JP Morgan’s John Hall, though other investors note that WeChat Pay can also process large transactions if it’s used on e-commerce platforms.GLOBAL EXPANSION One challenge for Tencent, say analysts, is that its success in China cannot be easily exported to other markets.Tencent is “not in a hurry” to speed up its overseas expansion or increase the monetisation rate of its digital assets, Lau said.“We walk our own path at our own pace ... and, to be honest, there is really quite a lot to do in China,” he said.WeChat, which has ballooned from a messaging app to an all-in-one platform with 980 million monthly active users, could be the “killer product” to spearhead expansion abroad, Lau said, as its embedded payment function draws more services.WeChat, with an open platform of mini-programmes, was a key revenue contributor for Tencent in the third quarter. Social and other advertising revenue rose 63 percent, while payment and cloud helped “other business” post a 143 percent jump“Honour of Kings”, Tencent’s top-grossing battle game that led an 84 percent increase in quarterly smartphone gaming revenue, also owes its success to the network help of WeChat, and is expected to find it tougher to crack Western markets, analysts say.Tencent this month delayed the launch of the game’s U.S. edition, “Arena of Valor”, to next year to “further polish additional gameplay and social features”.After games and social media, most of Tencent’s other businesses are in digital content, including Spotify equivalent Tencent Music and YouTube equivalent Tencent Video, which also makes its own dramas.CULTURE CHALLENGE Lau said the ultimate aim was to export culture from China to the rest of the world, rather than the other way round, which he acknowledged was challenging.“What we’re aiming to create is ‘super IPs’ (intellectual property) that leverage our different businesses from upstream to downstream,” Lau said, citing Disneyland and the James Bond movies as successful practices in the West.A big business for Tencent’s recently-listed publishing arm, China Literature, is to sell its popular novels and have them turned into dramas and video games by Tencent’s other business lines.Tencent this month announced a plan involving 10 billion yuan ($1.51 billion) of investment to boost its creative content ecosystem, though it gave no timeframe for the investment.Company president Martin Lau - no relation to S.Y. - said on an earnings call last week that Tencent would keep investing in digital content, especially online video, to draw more time from more paying customers.Overseas acquisitions will remain a key way of enhancing Tencent’s global access and competitiveness, S.Y. Lau said.Independent technology analyst Richard Windsor said Tencent’s 2016 acquisition of Supercell gave it a strong position in gaming,, while the move to buy a stake in social media firm Snapchat is another piece in the jigsaw.“It increasingly looks as if Tencent is embarking on a circumnavigation of the digital life pie in order to build an ecosystem to challenge the Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook dominance of consumer digital services,” he said, noting it’s at a “super early stage” in that process.Tencent will likely seek more overseas acquisitions, Windsor added, which, beyond being expensive, could challenge Tencent in integrating all its digital assets at home and abroad.Tencent has struggled to monetise its dominance over the Chinese digital life, he said, adding that’s why he sees more upside in Tencent’s market valuation, and prefers it to Alibaba.$1 = 6.6267 Chinese yuan renminbi Reporting by Sijia Jiang, with additional reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/tencent-strategy/rpt-tencent-turns-to-wechat-games-and-deals-for-global-strategy-idUSL3N1NQ4C2'|'2017-11-21T01:00:00.000+02:00'
'361a1c50730cddd2b9b908a529ac6527464bdfc4'|'Britain remains hostile to whistleblowers, statistics show'|' 30 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Britain remains hostile to whistleblowers, statistics show Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The number of whistleblowing cases opened by Britain’s markets regulator has dropped by 40 percent since 2014, a sign that those who question corporate integrity face an increasingly hostile environment, a London law firm said on Tuesday. Workers are seen in an office tower in the Canary Wharf financial district at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened 793 whistleblowing cases between January and September 2017, down from 1,360 in 2014, despite tougher rules to protect those who highlight potential wrongdoing, according to a Freedom of Information request by Byrne and Partners. Whistleblowing, which has been high on the public agenda since the 2007-09 financial crisis, has become an increasingly hot topic since British regulators launched a high-profile investigation in April into Barclays ( BARC.L ) Chief Executive Jes Staley’s attempts to unmask one inside his own bank. The Byrne and Partners report comes shortly after another law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, published a survey of more than 2,500 business managers across Germany, France, Hong Kong, Britain and the United States that showed more than half thought concerns about reputation and career prospects would prevent whistleblowing within their organisation. According to that survey, the perceived level of senior management support for whistleblowers since 2014 has dropped to 38 percent from 51 percent in Britain. Michael Potts, managing partner at Byrne and Partners, said although there was now more robust protection for whistleblowers, the statistics showed Britain was nevertheless becoming “increasingly hostile” for those who alerted others to potential wrongdoing. “It’s clear that not enough is in place to make the difference,” he said. Lord Cromwell, a senior British lawmaker, said earlier this month that whistleblowers in the banking industry were still being gagged and risked ending up broke and unemployed. He suggested adopting the American system of financial compensation to protect them from financial hardship if they raise concerns. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, a U.S.-based organisation that offers anti-fraud training, whistleblowers identify almost 40 percent of all detected occupational fraud cases. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-whistleblowing/britain-remains-hostile-to-whistleblowers-statistics-show-idUKKBN1DL1UV'|'2017-11-21T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'a08ba3fdf7b269d111a1aba159e9de6e99414957'|'Brexit gets real for drugmakers as regulator moves to Amsterdam'|'November 21, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Brexit gets real for drugmakers as regulator moves to Amsterdam Ben Hirschler 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Drugmakers are racing to implement Brexit contingency plans to prepare for a jolt to their regulatory system as the European Medicines Agency is uprooted from London to Amsterdam. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is seen in London, Britain, April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Pharmaceutical companies, used to decade-long drug development cycles, and EMA staff face a mountain of paperwork to keep medicine supplies flowing without disruption. Amsterdam maybe the least-worst option for staff retention, with 81 percent of EMA staff surveyed ready to move to the Dutch city, but there is still a real fear of bureaucratic logjams given the upheaval and ultra-tight schedule dictated by Brexit. EU ministers selected Amsterdam from 19 cities as the new home of the EMA and its staff of around 900. It has been based in London since 1995, acting as a one-stop-shop for approving and monitoring the safety of medicines across Europe. It must relocate to Amsterdam by the end of March 2019, when Britain leaves the European Union. Choosing Amsterdam should avoid a mass staff exodus that would have torpedoed European medicines regulation. But while EMA Executive Director Guido Rasi hopes to avoid drug approval delays and said the Dutch city “ticks many of our boxes”, he said on Tuesday there could be no guarantees. Rasi expects the organisation to lose some 200 people, adding that internal survey predictions of 19 percent staff losses were based on “optimistic” assumptions. “If we lose people horizontally across the agency it will probably not cause delays in approvals ... However, if there is a collapse in some specific services that would disrupt things more seriously,” he told reporters at the EMA’s London offices. Maintaining timely approvals for new drugs is crucial for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which have dozens of experimental medicines due to be assessed by the EU regulator in the next couple of years. They include new drugs for cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis from big drugmakers like Novartis ( NOVN.S ), AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) and AbbVie ( ABBV.N ), as well as pioneering gene therapies for inherited diseases from smaller firms. MILLIONS OF DRUG PACKS What is more, the EMA faces extra work processing the market authorisations that companies need to sell prescription drugs in the EU - a task that is set to increase dramatically as firms rush to transfer UK product licences to EU-based entities to comply with post-Brexit rules. FILE PHOTO: Tulips are seen placed in front of the Royal Palace in Dam Square to celebrate the beginning of the tulip season in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, January 16, 2016. REUTERS/Michael Kooren/File Photo “All the companies are working to do all the transfers at the same time, so the regulatory system is going to have a difficult time coping in the 16 months left before Brexit,” Nathalie Moll, director general of European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, told Reuters. More than 2,600 drugs have some stage of manufacture in Britain and 45 million packs of drugs, such as boxes of antidepressants, are supplied from the UK to other European countries each month, while another 37 million flow in the opposite direction. Stringent medicine regulations will also require the retesting of drugs shipped across borders, forcing manufacturers to set up additional testing centres. “Patient safety and supplies of vital medicines are slightly different to whether BMW bumpers are stuck in Harwich port for a week or two longer,” said Steve Bates, CEO of Britain’s BioIndustry Association. FILE PHOTO: Guido Rasi, executive director the European Medicines Agency (EMA), poses for a portrait at his office in London, Britain, January 6, 2012. REUTERS/Finbarr O''Reilly/File Photo He is worried, too, about the mechanics of shipping the EMA across the North Sea and moving it into a new offices in the south of Amsterdam that are not yet built. Amsterdam says EMA staff should be able to start moving in on April 1, 2019 but temporary offices may also be needed while fitting is completed. “I think people are under-estimating the scale of the challenge in moving the agency. The EMA took several years to move a few hundred metres in London. In fact, that took longer than the time we have left between now and Brexit,” Bates said. And the move won’t be cheap. The absence of a break clause on the lease for the current London building will incur a cost of around 400 million euros (£354 million), according EMA deputy head Noel Wathion. Brussels wants the UK to help foot the bill. Global drug companies, including UK-based GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK.L ) and AstraZeneca, have been vocal in calling for a system of continued co-operation between the EMA and Britain’s national drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, after Brexit. The issue is also a major concern for many Japanese drug companies that have made Britain their European base. The British government has said it would like to work closely with the EMA to avoid the cost of taking over the job of regulating all medicines after Brexit. But it will be up to EU governments to decide whether to offer some kind of mutual recognition system once Britain is out of the EU and no longer under the remit of the European Court of Justice, which oversees the EMA. Asked if he expected such future cooperation, Rasi said: “It is completely unknown.” Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-medicines-analysis/brexit-gets-real-for-drugmakers-as-regulator-moves-to-amsterdam-idUKKBN1DL1N7'|'2017-11-21T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'7443ba0e02591c7f57606aa99c085563b9c6f473'|'Tech stocks lead Wall Street higher at open'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Telecoms rise, buoy Wall Street as quiet week kicks off Rodrigo Campos 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with some of the year’s underperforming sectors leading the way, while high-performing tech shares were boosted by a deal in semiconductors. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S. November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid With no major earnings or economic data scheduled this week, trading volumes were thin and expected to get even quieter leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and an early market close on Friday. Verizon ( VZ.N ) boosted the telecom services sector of the S&P 500 with a 2.0 percent advance to $46.34 after a Wells Fargo note highlighted the stock’s valuation and said it is “an attractive yield play.” Telecoms .SPLRCL are down 17 percent this year, compared with a 15 percent advance on the S&P 500. “There’s a bounce in telecoms, which have been the worst group so far this year,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. “There’s always a chance that something disrupts the apple cart, but there’s very little news and a lot of people focussing on the football games and the turkey dinner,” he said, referring to the staples of the Thanksgiving holiday. Small cap stocks rose !RIC {.RUT} is invalid percent, outperforming the large-cap indexes. Cavium ( CAVM.O ) touched a record high of $83.82 after larger rival Marvell ( MRVL.O ) said it would buy the company for about $6 billion. Cavium shares were last up 10.4 percent at $83.74 and Marvell shares rose 6.0 percent to $21.51. The semiconductor index .SOX rose 1.1 percent and touched its highest level since the highs of the Y2K bubble. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 63.75 points, or 0.27 percent, to 23,421.99, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.44 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,581.29 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 3.36 points, or 0.05 percent, to 6,786.15. Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) shares slid after reports the U.S. Justice Department will sue to prevent AT&T ( T.N ) from buying Time Warner. Time Warner dropped 1.1 percent to $87.74. Health stocks .SPXHC were weighed by a 1.8 percent drop in Merck ( MRK.N ) to $54.18 and 0.9 percent fall in Bristol-Myers ( BMY.N ) after Roche ( ROG.S ) announced positive trial results for a competing cancer drug. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 122 new highs and 27 new lows. Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/tech-stocks-lead-wall-street-higher-at-open-idINKBN1DK1PQ'|'2017-11-20T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'45702670c053173350b9afeb34062aeefa4ee535'|'Kenyan shares jump after the Supreme Court upholds repeat election'|'NAIROBI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Kenya’s benchmark NSE-20 share index rose 1.57 percent on Monday after the Supreme Court upheld the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in a repeat election held last month, traders said.The ruling “reduces the political risk. A 90 day delay is something the market could not stomach,” said Aly Khan Satchu, an independent analyst, referring to the period it would have taken to hold another election had the court nullified the result of the poll again. (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Peter Graff) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kenya-election-stocks/kenyan-shares-jump-after-the-supreme-court-upholds-repeat-election-idINL8N1NQ1IN'|'2017-11-20T05:29:00.000+02:00'
'6ccb59d1fa8fc33eb05b27fec579b8e12a929840'|'Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin race to host banking body after Brexit, sources says'|'November 20, 2017 / 5:57 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago EU picks Paris as new host for EBA after Brexit, sources say Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has picked Paris as the new host for its London-based banking authority after Britain leaves the bloc, in a second drawing of lots in just one evening, following three rounds of voting that failed to produce a winner. European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier arrives at a conference on the "The future of the EU" at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, Belgium November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Paris tied with Dublin in the third vote and the Estonian chairman of the meeting then picked the winner according to a pre-agreed procedure. Frankfurt, a leading EU financing center that is home to the European Central Bank, lost out in the race at an earlier stage. Earlier on Monday, a series of EU votes to pick a new site for the European Medicines Agency, also now based in London, also ended in a tie before Amsterdam won in drawing of lots. Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Alastair Macdonald, Peter Maushagen; Editing by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-agencies-eba/paris-frankfurt-dublin-race-to-host-banking-body-after-brexit-sources-says-idUSKBN1DK264'|'2017-11-20T19:56:00.000+02:00'
'4ad0e983769ed132bf5d68427e78fc3df34fef9f'|'RWE''s options to exit Innogy include deal with Enel - sources'|'November 19, 2017 / 1:33 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago RWE''s options to exit Innogy include deal with Enel - sources Andrés González , Arno Schuetze , Stephen Jewkes 3 Min Read MADRID/FRANKFURT/MILAN (Reuters) - German utility RWE ( RWEG.DE ) is looking at ways to cut its 16.8-billion euro (15.00 billion pounds) stake in retail business Innogy ( IGY.DE ), several banking sources told Reuters, adding this could involve a deal with Italy’s Enel ( ENEI.MI ). FILE PHOTO - RWE logo in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen RWE said last week there was no need to sell the 76.8 percent stake, given the steady dividend it gets from Innogy’s networks, renewables and retail businesses that were carved out last year. But RWE is still considering scenarios for how it can sell all or parts of it at some point and has held talks with Enel, Europe’s largest utility by market value, one of the banking sources said. RWE is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) on its strategic options, while Enel’s advisers include JP Morgan ( JPM.N ), the people said. “We have said several times that we are in talks with many participants in the market about many topics. We do not comment on market speculation,” a spokeswoman for RWE said. Innogy, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Endesa and JP Morgan all declined to comment. Asked about Innogy, Enel said it received pitches from investment banks as a matter of routine. “Every time a bank brings us something to look at we receive it. But this does not mean it interests us nor that talks are under way,” a spokeswoman for Enel said. A possible deal with Enel is the latest scenario for Innogy after sources earlier this year said RWE and France’s Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) had studied a share swap under which RWE would trade part or all of its stake in Innogy for a minority stake in Engie. One of the sources said Enel could use its Spanish unit Endesa ( ELE.MC ), whose 5.75 billion euro debt pile is just a fraction of its parent’s 37.94 billion, as a vehicle to buy about a third in Innogy. Under German takeover rules, this would trigger a bid for the whole group. In a second step, RWE could use another third in Innogy to subscribe to a capital increase to be carried out by Enel, the person added. Enel Chief Executive Francesco Starace earlier this month fuelled M&A speculation when he said Enel was “doomed” to do M&A to grow its core distribution business, which is also the key focus area of Innogy. Asked specifically about interest in Innogy, Starace said Enel looked at everything, “but that doesn’t mean we’ll buy”. He previously said he saw big utility deals in Europe as destroying value for shareholders. Additional reporting Dasha Afanasieva and Pamela Barbaglia in London, Tom Kaeckenhoff in Duesseldorf and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-innogy-m-a-enel/rwes-options-to-exit-innogy-include-deal-with-enel-sources-idUKKBN1DJ0HX'|'2017-11-19T15:54:00.000+02:00'
'dd20b95bb67bf07a94b1b11721479589c21b3f3d'|'Yellen to leave Fed board once Powell sworn in as central bank chief'|' 20 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago Yellen to leave Fed board once Powell sworn in as central bank chief Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will leave her seat on the central bank’s Board of Governors once Jerome Powell is confirmed and sworn in to replace her as head of the Fed, the central bank and Yellen announced on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo Yellen’s term as Fed chief ends in February, but she technically could continue serving out a separate appointment as a Fed governor until 2024. Keeping with past practice, Yellen in a letter to President Donald Trump said she would resign when Powell is sworn in, and in the meantime “will do my utmost to ensure a smooth transition.” Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-yellen/yellen-to-leave-fed-board-once-powell-sworn-in-as-central-bank-chief-idUKKBN1DK2CZ'|'2017-11-20T21:19:00.000+02:00'
'4875e0a06839501a8e90b0a41f139612b91ff596'|'REFILE - US STOCKS-Telecoms rise, buoy Wall St as quiet week kicks off'|'November 20, 2017 / 8:48 PM / in 10 minutes REFILE - US STOCKS-Telecoms rise, buoy Wall St as quiet week kicks off Reuters Staff * Chip stocks get boost from Marvell-Cavium deal * Verizon up on broker upgrade, Wal-Mart falls on rating cut * Time Warner falls on reports DOJ to sue over AT&T takeover * Dow up 0.29 pct, S&P 500 up 0.11 pct, Nasdaq up 0.06 pct (Fixes garbled text in paragraph 7) By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with some of the year’s underperforming sectors leading the way, while high-performing tech shares were boosted by a deal in semiconductors. With no major earnings or economic data scheduled this week, trading volumes were thin and expected to get even quieter leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and an early market close on Friday. Verizon boosted the telecom services sector of the S&P 500 with a 2.0 percent advance to $46.34 after a Wells Fargo note highlighted the stock’s valuation and said it is “an attractive yield play.” Telecoms are down 17 percent this year, compared with a 15 percent advance on the S&P 500. “There’s a bounce in telecoms, which have been the worst group so far this year,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. “There’s always a chance that something disrupts the apple cart, but there’s very little news and a lot of people focusing on the football games and the turkey dinner,” he said, referring to the staples of the Thanksgiving holiday. Small cap stocks rose 0.6 percent, outperforming the large-cap indexes. Cavium touched a record high of $83.82 after larger rival Marvell said it would buy the company for about $6 billion. Cavium shares were last up 10.4 percent at $83.74 and Marvell shares rose 6.0 percent to $21.51. The semiconductor index rose 1.1 percent and touched its highest level since the highs of the Y2K bubble. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63.75 points, or 0.27 percent, to 23,421.99, the S&P 500 gained 2.44 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,581.29 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.36 points, or 0.05 percent, to 6,786.15. Time Warner Inc shares slid after reports the U.S. Justice Department will sue to prevent AT&T from buying Time Warner. Time Warner dropped 1.1 percent to $87.74. Health stocks were weighed by a 1.8 percent drop in Merck to $54.18 and 0.9 percent fall in Bristol-Myers after Roche announced positive trial results for a competing cancer drug. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 122 new highs and 27 new lows. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Dan Grebler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-telecoms-rise-buoy-wall-st-as-quiet-week-kicks-off-idUSL1N1NQ1JP'|'2017-11-20T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'7e4eaeade7763b77a2ee404c95a0d52bbcc1e82e'|'Alibaba goes offline with £2.2 billion stake in China''s top grocer'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:03 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Alibaba goes offline with $2.9 billion stake in China''s top grocer Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) said on Monday it would invest HK$22.4 billion ($2.87 billion) for a major stake in China’s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd ( 6808.HK ), part of a wider push into offline retail. FILE PHOTO: An employee is seen behind a glass wall with the logo of Alibaba at the company''s headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. REUTERS/Chance Chan/File Photo As part of an alliance with Auchan Retail S.A. [AUCH.UL] and Ruentex Group, Alibaba would buy the stake from Ruentex while Auchan Retail would boost its stake, the three companies said in a joint statement. The alliance would target opportunities in China’s $500 billion food retail sector, as Alibaba races to build big-data capabilities in the offline retail market where roughly 85 percent of sales are made. “Physical stores serve an indispensable role during the consumer journey, and should be enhanced through data-driven technology and personalized services in the digital economy,” Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said in the statement. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Sun Art, which were suspended on Nov. 13, resumed on Monday and were down 5.3 percent in morning trade, while the benchmark index .HSI was flat. The deal would give French retailer Groupe Auchan SA, China’s Alibaba Group and Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex 36.18 percent, 36.16 percent and 4.67 percent stakes respectively in Sun Art. Alibaba would replace Ruentex as the second-largest shareholder. Alibaba has invested upwards of $9.3 billion in brick-and-mortar stores since 2015. It has launched many un-staffed concept shops in the past year, including grocery and coffee stores. The $474 billion firm is taking more risks to secure offline, rural and overseas buyers as China’s urban e-commerce market shows signs of saturating, including purchasing extensive infrastructure which it had previously avoided. “They’re getting into a territory that’s not their core strength ... for example securing a property, the licenses to sell certain products, paying tax, more labor and so on,” said Bain & Company analyst Weiwen Han. “On one hand they really need to do it, but on the other hand they are facing a lot of challenges that they have never experienced before.” Sun Art is China’s grocery store leader with about 8.2 percent of the market, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel. It operates about 450 hypermarkets across China under the RT-Mart and Auchan banners. It also operates unmanned stores under the Auchan Minute brand. It has been slow to go online, with its platform Feiniu lagging bigger players like China Resources and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ). In a separate statement, Sun Art said Alibaba’s Taobao China Holding Ltd would make a general offer for the company at HK$6.50 apiece. Reporting by Cate Cadell and Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-sun-art-retail/alibaba-to-buy-36-2-percent-sun-art-for-2-9-billion-idUKKBN1DK057'|'2017-11-20T05:08:00.000+02:00'
'8a34353c56d77b591faf5407d095136786204a07'|'Regulators rethink assessing risks at big insurers'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:06 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Regulators rethink assessing risks at big insurers Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A global list of insurers that must comply with tougher rules won’t be updated this year because its compilation could change, the Financial Stability Board said on Tuesday. Reuters reported the rethink earlier this month, marking a big win for insurers following pressure from the U.S. Treasury. The FSB, which coordinates financial rules across the Group of 20 (G20) economies, updates its list of globally systemic insurers each November. The Basel, Switzerland-based FSB said work on developing a different approach to compiling to list by focusing more on an insurer’s activities rather than size or cross-border reach, “may have significant implications for the assessment of systemic risk in the insurance sector”. The FSB will review progress on the activities based approach in November 2018. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/g20-insurance-regulator/regulators-rethink-assessing-risks-at-big-insurers-idINKBN1DL0S6'|'2017-11-21T11:03:00.000+02:00'
'0c6aedb3938ca712906082fea1a75cf8c1cd0b50'|'''I don''t like being a show off,'' says Barbra Streisand'|'November 20, 2017 / 4:52 PM / Updated 4 hours ago ''I don''t like being a show off,'' says Barbra Streisand 3 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand gets no kick out of performing live. Singer Barbra Streisand speaks on stage during the American Theatre Wing''s 70th annual Tony Awards in New York, U.S., June 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Stage fright, feeling “like a show off,” and an aversion to the trappings of fame have limited the double Oscar and 10-time Grammy winner to singing just 100 public concerts since 1963. So, at age 75, Streisand took the opportunity to capture on film the Miami concert from her 2016 U.S. tour for a Netflix special. “Barbra: The Music... The Mem‘ries... The Magic!” is set to be released on Wednesday. “I don’t enjoy getting up on stage and prancing around. I feel like a show off. I don’t like being a show off. I like to be still. I like to sit in my chair and sing quietly to the audience. It’s hard for me to be too theatrical,” Streisand told Reuters. “You put in a lot of time - like three months to prepare a concert, figure out what you are going to sing. It takes me as long as it does to film a movie, so you want to document it for posterity,” she said. In the Netflix special, Streisand sings many of her best-known songs from her 11 No. 1 albums, including classics like “The Way We Were,”“People” and “You Don’t bring Me Flowers,” mixed with film clips and behind the camera footage from movies including “Yentl,” and some of her recording sessions. It also captures some of the “Funny Girl” star’s private moments - doing her own make-up backstage, rehearsing, and nerves. Apart from occasional benefits, Streisand says stage fright kept her from performing live in public for 27 years after she forgot her lyrics at a 1967 concert in New York’s Central Park. Overcoming it was a challenge and was partly behind her series of farewell and comeback concerts in the last 20 years. ”I tried all kinds of things. Then they invented teleprompters, which at least had my lyrics in front of me, so I could look and see what I am doing. “I really envy those who enjoy performing in front of people. I just don‘t, that’s why I love recordings or doing movies,” she said. “When I got more well-known, I really started to dislike stardom itself. I really am only focused on the creative process. That is what intrigues me.” Film also has a way of stopping time, she said, noting that she lost her father when she was a little over a year old. “Maybe because my father died so young - he was 35 - I just believe in capturing moments, I guess.” Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-music-barbra-streisand/i-dont-like-being-a-show-off-says-barbra-streisand-idUSKBN1DK20V'|'2017-11-20T18:41:00.000+02:00'
'8a5ee4524ddd32c5b12a4cb5dbaed57235cc425c'|'Alibaba to buy 36.2 percent Sun Art for $2.9 billion'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:03 AM / in 6 hours Alibaba goes offline with $2.9 billion stake in China''s top grocer Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (This story corrects title of Weiwen Han in paragraph 9 from analyst to managing partner for Greater China.) BEIJING (Reuters) - Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) said on Monday it would invest HK$22.4 billion ($2.87 billion) for a major stake in China’s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd ( 6808.HK ), part of a wider push into offline retail. As part of an alliance with Auchan Retail S.A. [AUCH.UL] and Ruentex Group, Alibaba would buy the stake from Ruentex while Auchan Retail would boost its stake, the three companies said in a joint statement. The alliance would target opportunities in China’s $500 billion food retail sector, as Alibaba races to build big-data capabilities in the offline retail market where roughly 85 percent of sales are made. “Physical stores serve an indispensable role during the consumer journey, and should be enhanced through data-driven technology and personalized services in the digital economy,” Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said in the statement. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Sun Art, which were suspended on Nov. 13, resumed on Monday and were down 5.3 percent in morning trade, while the benchmark index .HSI was flat. The deal would give French retailer Groupe Auchan SA, China’s Alibaba Group and Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex 36.18 percent, 36.16 percent and 4.67 percent stakes respectively in Sun Art. Alibaba would replace Ruentex as the second-largest shareholder. FILE PHOTO: An employee is seen behind a glass wall with the logo of Alibaba at the company''s headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. REUTERS/Chance Chan/File Photo Alibaba has invested upwards of $9.3 billion in brick-and-mortar stores since 2015. It has launched many un-staffed concept shops in the past year, including grocery and coffee stores. The $474 billion firm is taking more risks to secure offline, rural and overseas buyers as China’s urban e-commerce market shows signs of saturating, including purchasing extensive infrastructure which it had previously avoided. “They’re getting into a territory that’s not their core strength ... for example securing a property, the licenses to sell certain products, paying tax, more labor and so on,” said Weiwen Han, managing partner for Greater China at Bain & Company. Slideshow (2 Images) “On one hand they really need to do it, but on the other hand they are facing a lot of challenges that they have never experienced before.” Sun Art is China’s grocery store leader with about 8.2 percent of the market, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel. It operates about 450 hypermarkets across China under the RT-Mart and Auchan banners. It also operates unmanned stores under the Auchan Minute brand. It has been slow to go online, with its platform Feiniu lagging bigger players like China Resources and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ). In a separate statement, Sun Art said Alibaba’s Taobao China Holding Ltd would make a general offer for the company at HK$6.50 apiece. Reporting by Cate Cadell and Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-sun-art-retail/alibaba-to-buy-36-2-percent-sun-art-for-2-9-billion-idUSKBN1DK057'|'2017-11-20T04:03:00.000+02:00'
'e44257bf9908f4f39318916fe81dbd159b64fda8'|'BlackRock plans new active sector ETFs curated by robots'|'Investment > ETFs BlackRock Plans New Active Sector ETFs Curated by Robots The actively managed “iShares Evolved” funds will target major industry groupings: financials, healthcare, media, consumer staples, consumer discretionary and, of course, technology. Trevor Hunnicutt - Nov 20, 2017 NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) is turning to the robots for its next big investment idea. The world’s largest asset manager, which oversees nearly $6 trillion, has hatched plans for a set of exchange-traded funds that would let a computer program choose and classify stocks, according to preliminary filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Related: Yanking Out Your FANGs: Index Industry Switch Could Reorder ETFs The actively managed “iShares Evolved” funds will target major industry groupings: financials, healthcare, media, consumer staples, consumer discretionary and, of course, technology. Investors often rely on sector definitions determined by index companies like S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc (MSCI.N), who control the Global Industry Classification Standard. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is not considered an information technology company, but is listed alongside auto parts sellers and other retailers as a consumer discretionary stock. Tobacco companies are considered a consumer staple. But unlike traditional passive funds that rely on those indexes, BlackRock’s new funds will use advanced data science techniques - such as machine learning - to choose which companies go where. “The classification system allows for a company to be classified into multiple sectors rather than being assigned solely to a single sector, reflecting the multi-dimensional nature of these companies,” BlackRock said in the filings. “Sector constituents are expected to evolve dynamically over time to reflect changing business models.” A BlackRock spokeswoman declined to comment beyond those documents. The company has for years been using data science techniques in its actively managed funds for large and institutional investors, but has been bringing more of those techniques to funds intended for everyday investors. The new funds also mark another move by BlackRock to introduce new products reliant on its own intellectual property rather than through the tracking of a benchmark built by a traditional index provider. In July, BlackRock launched bond ETFs tracking benchmarks built by itself for the first time. The robotic ETFs come as S&P and MSCI both are engineering a massive shakeup of their 11-sector schematic . The shrinking telecommunications sector is being ditched in favor of a gleaming new “Communication Services” sector that is likely to include at least some of the so-called FANG stocks - Facebook Inc (FB.O), Amazon, Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) and Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) - along with traditional telecom or media players, such as AT&T Inc (T.N) and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N). Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackrock-etf/blackrock-plans-new-active-sector-etfs-curated-by-robots-idUSKBN1DK2A2'|'2017-11-20T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'b7ce4d4b70f52c58b78beb0cf17903fd7dbed833'|'UPDATE 1-Volvo Cars to supply Uber with up to 24,000 self-driving cars'|'(Adds Breakingviews link)By Niklas Pollard and Heather SomervilleSTOCKHOLM/SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Uber plans to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, marking the transition of the U.S. firm from an app used to summon a taxi to the owner and operator of a fleet of cars.The non-binding framework deal could offer San Francisco-based Uber a way to overcome setbacks at its autonomous driving division in Silicon Valley’s race to perfect self-driving systems.Combining Volvo’s cars with Uber’s self-driving system builds on their nearly three-year relationship and comes as Uber’s autonomous driving unit has been hit by a lawsuit over trade secrets and the departure of top talent.Automakers, ride-hailing firms and tech startups have been forging loose alliances in an effort to advance self-driving technology and claim a piece of what is expected to be a multi-billion-dollar business.Geely-owned Volvo said in a statement on Monday it would provide Uber with its flagship XC90 SUVs equipped with autonomous technology as part of a non-exclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. A Volvo spokesman said it covered up to 24,000 cars.The self-driving system that would be used in the Volvo cars - which have yet to be built - is under development by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group.Should Uber buy all 24,000 cars, it would be Volvo’s largest order by far and the biggest sale in the autonomous vehicle industry, giving Uber, which is losing more than $600 million a quarter, its first commercial fleet of cars.A new Volvo XC90 typically retails from a starting price of around $50,000.Uber has been testing prototype Volvo cars for more than a year, with safety drivers in the front seat to intervene if the self-driving system fails, in Tempe, Arizona and Pittsburgh. “Our goal was from day one to make investments into a vehicle that could be manufactured at scale,” Jeff Miller, Uber’s head of automotive alliances, said.The cars, in theory, would be available through the Uber app to pick up passengers without a driver.“It only becomes a commercial business when you can remove that vehicle operator from the equation,” Miller said.No financial details were disclosed for the purchase, which would be a massive new investment for Uber and mark a change from Uber’s long-standing business model where contractor drivers buy or lease and maintain their own cars.Miller said a small number of cars would be purchased using equity and others would be bought using debt financing.The deal builds on a $300 million alliance Volvo announced with Uber last year focused on collaborating on the design and financing of cars with self-driving systems, which require different steering and braking features and sensors.“We get support developing this car,” Volvo Cars Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. “It’s also a big commercial deal.”LYFT RIVALRY Volvo, which has been under Chinese ownership since it was bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford in 2010, plans to make the SUVs at its Torslanda plant in western Sweden, and Samuelsson said they would be sold at roughly the same profit margin as Volvo sells through dealers.Uber’s rival Lyft has this year struck a research partnership with Alphabet Inc’s unit Waymo and secured deals with Ford Motor Co and startups Nutonomy and Drive.ai to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet.Volvo’s agreement with Uber and Ford’s with Lyft show the pressure on automakers to avoid becoming obsolete in a world of increased automation, and on ride-services companies to start automating to cut driver costs and turn profits.Volvo is one of Sweden’s biggest manufacturers by revenue, and has forecast a fourth straight year of record sales in 2017.Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Johannes Hellstrom in Stockholm and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; editing by Peter Henderson and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volvocars-uber/update-1-volvo-cars-to-supply-uber-with-up-to-24000-self-driving-cars-idINL8N1NQ5FV'|'2017-11-20T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'8e04e5d26652fe6ecbfab8f6e6748e137601b489'|'BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy Senegal assets'|' 40 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy Senegal assets Sonali Paul , Diadie Ba 3 Min Read SYDNEY/DAKAR (Reuters) - Oil exploration company Cairn Energy ( CNE.L ) is in talks with BP to sell a 30 percent stake in its deepwater SNE field offshore Senegal, which could be valued at around $600 million, banking sources and a Senegal oil ministry source said on Monday. “We are aware that BP wants to acquire a stake in Cairn Energy, but they are awaiting validation by the state (of Senegal),” an adviser to Senegal’s oil minister, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone. The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann He had no further details. However, Mamadou Faye, director of Senegal’s state oil firm Petrosen, said no formal request had yet been made by the companies. BP ( BP.L ) and Cairn Energy declined to comment. Oil majors have been increasingly homing in on the waters off Senegal, as well as neighbors Mauritania and Gambia, where they suspect hundreds of millions of barrels lie. A deal would further boost BP’s position in Senegal following a joint venture with Kosmos Energy in December last year, which revealed a major gas discovery in May. BP also has investments in two other offshore fields there. Senegal and Mauritania are two areas BP is targeting over the next decade and it plans to spend billions in the Tortue LNG project which is expected to produce its first gas in 2021. The deepwater SNE project is the first oil development inthe West African nation. Cairn shares the project with Australia’s Woodside ( WPL.AX ) and FAR Ltd ( FAR.AX ). The companies expect to start producing by 2021. Woodside, Australia’s biggest independent oil and gasproducer, bought a 35 percent stake from ConocoPhillips lastyear for up to $430 million, or $2.20 a barrel based on reserves of 561 million barrels at the time, before these were upgraded to nearly 650 million barrels. FAR Ltd has said the project could start producing before 2021, and at a higher rate than flagged before. Oil majors including Total SA and China’s CNOOC Ltd have also been investing in the waters off this part of the West African coast. Additional reporting by Clara Denina and Ron Bousso in London; Writing by Tim Cocks and Clara Denina; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-senegal-bp-cairn-energy/bp-seeks-stake-in-cairn-energy-senegal-assets-idUKKBN1DK2E7'|'2017-11-20T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'fb32d59e212930e123b6fc2ccb941668aaa90007'|'Australia''s Downer to sell freight rail business to Caterpillar unit for $82 million'|'(Reuters) - Australia’s Downer EDI ( DOW.AX ) said on Tuesday it plans to sell its freight rail business to Caterpillar Inc’s ( CAT.N ) Progress Rail unit for A$109 million ($82.18 million) as the engineering contractor reduces its dependence on the mining sector.Downer is expected to book a non-cash writedown of A$40 million in relation to the divestment, and about 360 people employed by the freight rail business would be transferred to Progress Rail as a part of the deal, it said in a statement.The company said its rail division was on track to meet its underlying full-year earnings target despite divesting the freight business.Downer’s rail arm is also involved in building passenger trains, operations and maintenance.Earlier this year, Downer had announced it would buy cleaner-caterer Spotless Group Holdings ( SPO.AX ) for A$1.27 billion, saying the move would help the company reduce its reliance on the mining sector.Downer has been diversifying away from mining services by buying companies in parallel industries.Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-downer-edi-deals-caterpillar/australias-downer-to-sell-freight-rail-business-to-caterpillar-unit-for-82-million-idINKBN1DL0DX'|'2017-11-21T03:01:00.000+02:00'
'7d9159f02121164a7433548365a92c3bbb55a620'|'Spanish hotels company Barcelo offers to take over NH Hotels'|'(Reuters) - Grupo Barcelo has made a tentative takeover approach for rival NH Hotel Group ( NHH.MC ) to create the biggest hotel operator in Spain, where tourism is booming.Family-owned Barcelo has proposed taking a 60 percent stake in a combined company and a majority of its board seats in a non-binding offer that values NH at 2.48 billion euros ($3 billion), NH said in a statement on Monday.According to a letter sent to NH and published by the Madrid stock exchange, Barcelo has proposed a reverse takeover by NH, with Barcelo suggesting that NH pay for Barcelo with an issue of new shares at a value of 7.08 euros each, a 27 percent premium to NH’s average share price over the last three months.NH Hotels’ future has been uncertain since representatives of its biggest shareholder, heavily indebted Chinese airline to property conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL], were ejected from its board last year over accusations of a conflict of interest due to HNA’s takeover of a rival hotel group Carlston-Rezidor.A combined NH-Barcelo company would have over 600 hotels and sales of around 3.5 billion euros, although Barcelo said its expression of interest was at this stage, “very preliminary”.NH’s share price was up 11.4 percent at 5.57 euros at 1556 GMT.Tourism accounts directly for around 11 percent of Spain’s economic output with the number of visitors to Spain having grown to a record high as sun-seekers shy away from the Middle East and North Africa due to concerns for their safety.No one at HNA, which owns 29.5 percent of NH and 26 percent of bigger U.S. hotels company Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. ( HLT.N ), was immediately available for comment.HNA is now facing close scrutiny in China over $50 billion worth of acquisitions made over the past two years resulting in an increase in its debt and struck a deal earlier this month to sell and repurchase some NH shares to raise cash for internal financing.Meanwhile NH said on Monday it had recently approved a three-year strategic business plan and this was still in place, focused on boosting its exposure to higher-spending customers and expanding abroad while reducing debt.Analysts said NH could prove a good complementary fit for Barcelo as the latter, which has over 230 hotels, has a stronger presence in the Caribbean, while NH with over 380 hotels, has leading positions in European cities.($1 = 0.8472 euros)Additional reporting by Tomas Cobos and Paul Day in Madrid and Anita Kobylinska in Gdynia; Editing by Louise Heavens, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nh-hoteles-m-a-barcelo/barcelo-hotel-plans-to-buy-nh-hotel-expansin-idUSKBN1DK0OJ'|'2017-11-20T15:47:00.000+02:00'
'6396a1f0b6590a4559798894db6a04421e045ab2'|'Japan PM Abe - Government and Bank of Japan to work together to beat deflation'|'November 20, 2017 / 5:00 AM / Updated an hour ago Japan PM Abe - Government and Bank of Japan to work together to beat deflation Reuters Staff 1   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that the government and the central bank would work closely together and take all necessary steps to defeat deflation. Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers his policy speech at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Speaking in parliament, Abe said he hoped the Bank of Japan would continue its bold monetary easing to hit a 2 percent inflation target, adding that he would leave specific monetary policy steps to the central bank. Reporting by Leika Kihara, Chris Gallagher and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-abe/japan-pm-abe-government-and-bank-of-japan-to-work-together-to-beat-deflation-idUKKBN1DK0C9'|'2017-11-20T06:58:00.000+02:00'
'c715a82a814268849ea0cbe43739d8b1b6b92507'|'Ex-divs to take 6.9 points off FTSE 100 on Nov.23'|'LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The following FTSE 100 companies will go ex-dividend on Thursday, after which investors will no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. According to Reuters calculations at current market prices, the effect of the resulting adjustment to prices by market-makers would take 6.89 points off the index. COMPANY (RIC) DIVIDEND STOCK OPTION IMPACT (pence) Carnival 0.45 (USD) 0.24 DCC 40.89 0.14 National Grid 15.49 Yes 2.07 Vodafone Group 4.84 (Euro cents) 4.44 Among FTSE 250 companies going ex-dividend are: COMPANY (RIC) DIVIDEND (pence) 3I Infrastructure 3.925 B&M European Value Retail 2.4 Great Portland Estates 3.2 HICL Infrastructure Company 1.96 Talktalk 2.5 Vedanta Resources 24 (U.S. cents) Worldwide Healthcare Trust 13 Worldwide Healthcare Trust 13 (Reporting by Kit Rees, Editing by Helen Reid) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-exdiv/ex-divs-to-take-6-9-points-off-ftse-100-on-nov-23-idUSL8N1NQ27R'|'2017-11-20T18:12:00.000+02:00'
'0365978f14a33f16eb48f2cf704a2154bea1a9ce'|'EU states resist move on digital tax for tech giants - drafts'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:03 PM / Updated an hour ago EU states resist move on digital tax for tech giants - drafts Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Some European Union members are resisting EU plans to raise the tax bill of tech multinationals, EU draft documents seen by Reuters show, in moves that are likely to cause a public outcry after several disclosures of corporate tax avoidance schemes. EU finance ministers are expected to seal a preliminary deal on EU digital taxes when they meet on Dec. 6, after pressure from large states that accuse firms like Amazon ( AMZN.O ), Google ( GOOGL.O ), Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Facebook ( FB.O ) of slashing their tax bills by rerouting their EU profits to low-tax countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland. France has openly called for an “equalisation tax” on the turnover of digital companies, aimed at levelling up the amount of tax they pay on their earnings compared with other types of companies. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, and the Estonian presidency of the EU have also backed a major tax overhaul. But EU envoys are gradually toning down the scale of the reform, according to documents seen by Reuters. An early draft of the finance ministers’ meeting conclusions, dated Nov. 6, said an equalisation levy “could be considered” as a temporary measure, before a wider tax overhaul. It also said the EU should not rule out adopting tax measures unilaterally if no deal was reached on a global level. But the most recent draft, dated Nov. 20, focuses on stressing the EU’s “preference for a global solution”. Global deals on tax reforms are seen as very difficult to achieve. Critics say that linking EU reforms to global agreements would postpone them indefinitely. Smaller EU countries, like Luxembourg or Malta, have said an EU solo move on corporate tax reform would damage its economy and favour competitors. The new draft has also softened the wording on the equalisation tax. A note of the Estonian presidency included in the text said that “views of delegations remain divided (..) in particular on the reference to an equalisation levy” with some states calling for it to be deleted. Disclosures of tax avoidance schemes by multinationals, like the LuxLeaks, Panama Papers and the most recent Paradise Papers, have increased public pressure for fairer corporate taxation. The EU’s tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici last week likened companies that evade taxes to “vampires” and called for quick action to counter tax avoidance schemes. The early draft of the ministers’ conclusions urged the development of a new method to calculate a corporate tax base so that companies with a “virtual permanent establishment” in a country could be taxed there. Currently corporate taxes are paid where firms have a physical presence, which allows large digital multinationals to book most of their profits in the low-tax countries where they have set up headquarters. The most recent draft said that this change should only be “explored” rather than developed. A note in the text said that some countries favoured a further watering down. Talks among EU countries will continue in coming days and new draft texts are likely to be prepared, EU officials said, before the finance ministers’ meeting in December. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-tax-digital/eu-states-resist-move-on-digital-tax-for-tech-giants-drafts-idUKKBN1DL2FG'|'2017-11-21T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'c27d35af478e13f1783da183ec3a890d2206ee1a'|'Rio Tinto''s U.S. copper smelter restarts, force majeure remains'|'Nov 20 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto restarted the smelter at its large Kennecott mine in the United States last Friday after a nearly six-week outage but force majeure on refined copper has not yet been lifted, a company spokesman said on Monday.There was no timeline for when the force majeure would be lifted, spokesman Kyle Bennett said. A force majeure is usually implemented by companies during unforeseen events when they cannot meet commitments to customers. (Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/rio-tinto-kennecott-restart/rio-tintos-u-s-copper-smelter-restarts-force-majeure-remains-idUSL1N1NQ1TC'|'2017-11-21T00:06:00.000+02:00'
'87c9dd6b788d5d32caef8d40950f68aa69b69e88'|'TCI calls on regulators to intervene in London Stock Exchange CEO spat'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:57 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago TCI asks regulators to appoint new London Stock Exchange chairman Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England and Britain’s markets watchdog should step in to appoint a new chairman at the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ), Christopher Hohn, founder of activist hedge fund TCI said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Hohn has forced the LSE to hold a shareholder meeting to vote on TCI’s resolution to oust LSE Chairman Donald Brydon over the way he handled the departure of CEO Xavier Rolet, planned for next year. Hohn said in a letter to Brydon on Tuesday that it “appears” that Rolet is being “improperly threatened” by the exchange’s board with severe reputational damage unless he immediately steps down as CEO, or confirms he does not want to remain as CEO. Rolet’s silence speaks loud and clear to shareholders that he wants to continue, Hohn said. “It seems to us that the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) both need to immediately intervene to instruct the Board to appoint a new Chairman who should be tasked with solving this corporate governance crisis,” Hohn said in his letter. The letter marks a racheting up in Hohn’s push to oust Brydon by directly calling on regulators to step in. The LSE said it would issue a circular so that all shareholders had the same amount of information at the same time. “As regards regulatory oversight, we have kept regulators abreast of developments throughout,” it said. The Bank of England and the FCA declined to comment. Rolet has transformed LSE Group with a string of deals during his eight years in charge, boosting its market value from about one billion pounds to almost 14 billion pounds, and Hohn hopes he can be persuaded to stay on. Brydon said last week the LSE board would provide “all the information necessary” for shareholders to make an informed decision at the general meeting. But Hohn said on Tuesday that shareholders need “impartial facts” and referred to a Financial Times article at the weekend which said that LSE directors may publish a “dossier” on Rolet. “It would be inappropriate for the Board to undertake a character assassination of Xavier Rolet in the shareholder circular required for the upcoming general meeting,” Hohn said. Rolet’s management style has achieved “incredible results” for shareholders and is not a good reason to sack him, Hohn said. The LSE has yet to set a date for the meeting, which must take place by year end. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Adrian Croft and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-regulator/tci-calls-on-regulators-to-intervene-in-london-stock-exchange-ceo-spat-idUKKBN1DL25I'|'2017-11-21T18:57:00.000+02:00'
'ac79c184707444d4ea7b051c8c0bf4e4602231d5'|'India-based automaker Mahindra wants to sell electric vehicles in U.S.'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd ( MAHM.NS ), one of India’s oldest vehicle manufacturers, is testing autonomous tractors, trucks and cars, while moving closer to bringing electric vehicles to the United States, Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Monday.An employee works inside the Mahindra & Mahindra manufacturing plant in Chakan, India, September 30, 2016. Picture taken September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui The company, which opened a new North American headquarters north of Detroit on Monday, is considering when to begin U.S. sales of the vehicles, Anand Mahindra said in an interview.It is also weighing whether the vehicles should carry the Mahindra brand or those of its affiliates Pininfarina, the famed Italian design house; and Ssangyong Motor Co ( 003620.KS ), a Korean manufacturer of utility and crossover vehicles, he added.Mahindra & Mahindra bought Ssangyong in 2011 and Pininfarina in 2015. The Indian parent is collaborating with both companies on the development of electric vehicles, including premium models for Pininfarina that likely would compete with Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ). Anand Mahindra suggested that Ssangyong and Pininfarina electric vehicles might be sold in both the United States and China.Earlier this year, Autocar India reported that Pininfarina was developing a family of electric vehicles for China’s Hybrid Kinetic Group, as well as its own electric supercar. The magazine also reported that Ssangyong planned to launch an all-electric crossover vehicle in Korea in 2019.In early November, Ssangyong said it had received approval to begin testing of autonomous vehicles in Korea, but did not say when it planned to produce them.Anand Mahindra said his company, one of the world’s largest tractor manufacturers, had been testing self-driving models since it bought a minority stake in Japan’s Mitsubishi Agriculture Machinery in 2015. Mahindra & Mahindra operates several U.S. tractor assembly plants.While work on the self-driving vehicles is still in the early stages, Mahindra & Mahindra has been building electric vehicles in India since the mid-1990s, when it developed a small fleet battery-powered, three-wheeled rickshaws for use in Delhi, the chairman said.Mahindra & Mahindra bought Reva Electric Car Co, a small Bangalore-based manufacturer, in 2010 and transformed it into Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd, which designs and builds compact electric vehicles for the Indian market.In mid-September, the company renewed ties with Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) through a new alliance that envisions sharing of technology, product development and parts sourcing, especially on electric vehicles.The companies had a short-lived joint venture, Mahindra Ford India Ltd, established in 1995. Ford took control of the venture in 1998 and renamed it Ford India.Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-mahindra/india-based-automaker-mahindra-wants-to-sell-electric-vehicles-in-u-s-idUSKBN1DK2LN'|'2017-11-21T00:12:00.000+02:00'
'8163e3f7024254983273fa47dc35b4ccab82bad8'|'Backpackers, students ripped off in Australian jobs - survey'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:46 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Backpackers, students ripped off in Australian jobs - survey Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Backpackers and international students are getting a raw deal in casual jobs in Australia, a survey found, confirming a long-held suspicion that employers were severely under paying workers who account for a 10th of all jobs in the country. FILE PHOTO - A pedestrian walks near a foreign backpacker as he carries his belongings past a bus stop in central Sydney, Australia, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray Most of the workers employed as fruit pickers to dish washers knew they were earning well below Australia’s minimum wage, the online survey of more than 4,000 people in 12 industries showed on Tuesday. The people were on working-holiday or student visas and accounted for 11 percent of Australian jobs, mostly in restaurants and takeaways, petrol stations, car washes, farms, meatpacking, taxi-driving, factories, cleaning and child care. “The study reveals that Australia has a large, silent under-class of migrant workers that are paid well below the minimum wage,” said Bassina Farbenblum, a senior law lecturer at the University of New South Wales, who ran the survey with researchers at the University of Technology Sydney. The survey drew attention to the widespread nature of the problem, in the wake of wage scandals involving 7-Eleven and Caltex Australia ( CTX.AX ) in the past two years, which led the government to step up fines for employers who underpay staff. It also comes amid broader concerns among policy makers about Australia’s tepid wages, with latest figures showing annual pay rates grew at a slow 2 percent in the third quarter. In the minutes of its latest policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia warned of “considerable uncertainty” about how quickly wages growth and inflation might pickup. The survey found that workers from Asian countries, including China, Taiwan and Vietnam, were paid less than workers from North America, Ireland and the UK. “There’s been a common misconception that they’re underpaid because they simply don’t know Australian labour laws, and that’s really not the case at all,” Farbenblum said. Fruit and vegetable pickers were the worst paid. Growers rely on young people on working-holiday visas, who in turn can extend their visas to stay for a second year if they complete three months of work in the rural industry. Around a third of fruit and vegetable pickers were paid A$10 (6 pounds) an hour or less, and one out of seven were paid A$5 an hour or less, which was less than a quarter of the minimum wage for casual jobs at the time. “It’s really incredibly egregious,” Farbenblum told Reuters. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-casualjobs/backpackers-students-ripped-off-in-australian-jobs-survey-idUKKBN1DL0CL'|'2017-11-21T07:46:00.000+02:00'
'0366de375d70f28a3fad992d30755a66ad793f80'|'UPDATE 1-AT&T lawyer says U.S. effort to stop Time Warner deal ''foolish'' -CNBC'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:23 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 2-AT&T lawyer says U.S. effort to stop Time Warner deal ''foolish'' -CNBC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds reassigning of lawsuit to different judge) Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice’s move to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc was “foolish” because the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s trial lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday. The Justice Department on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” AT&T has vowed to defend the deal. "We want to go to court as soon as possible," Petrocelli told CNBC, saying the burden of proof was on the government. cnb.cx/2AjiOVw The case was initially assigned on Tuesday to Judge Christopher Cooper in federal court in Washington but later reassigned to Judge Richard Leon. The case will be closely watched because U.S. President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Time Warner’s CNN, and opposed AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner on the campaign trail last year, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T’s hands. In antitrust circles, the court fight will be closely watched since the Justice Department has not successfully litigated to stop a vertical deal - where the merging companies are not direct competitors - since the 1970s, when it prevented Ford Motor Co from buying assets from spark-plug maker Autolite. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr and Bill Rigby)'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att/update-1-att-lawyer-says-u-s-effort-to-stop-time-warner-deal-foolish-cnbc-idUSL3N1NR4FN'|'2017-11-21T23:23:00.000+02:00'
'111baf85bc15b761494042a877a66c3522700947'|'AO World posts first-half earnings loss after marketing drive'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:29 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago AO World posts first-half earnings loss after marketing drive Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British online retailer AO World ( AO.L ) said the better sales momentum it saw in its second quarter was continuing as it heads towards the Christmas sales period, although increased spending on marketing resulted in a first-half earnings loss. The company, which sells electrical appliances in British and mainland European markets, on Tuesday said revenue in the six months to end-September rose 13.3 percent to 368 million pounds. The group reported an adjusted core earnings loss of 6.3 million pounds, down from a 1.5 million pounds profit last year. “We are broadly on track with our plans for the year as a whole - with the positive impact of improving sales growth through the first half of the year combined with the first half biased phasing of our marketing spend - in spite of the challenging UK market conditions,” said CEO Steve Caunce. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ao-world-results/ao-world-posts-first-half-earnings-loss-after-marketing-drive-idUKKBN1DL0L7'|'2017-11-21T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'6157636b7838cf9b0a11ca84acf0f92a60853945'|'SandRidge investor Fir Tree opposes $746 million bid for Bonanza Creek'|'(Reuters) - Activist investor Fir Tree Partners on Monday opposed SandRidge Energy Inc’s $746-million deal to buy rival Bonanza Creek Energy Inc , saying an acquisition would drain all of the oil and gas producer’s cash.The logo for Bonanza Creek Energy is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “We believe this proposed acquisition represents a complete about face by (SandRidge‘s) management on its post-bankruptcy strategy,” Fir Tree Partners, which owns about 8.3 percent of SandRidge, said in a statement.SandRidge emerged from bankruptcy late last year, while Bonanza did so in April following a recovery in oil prices after a two-year slump.As of Sept. 30, Oklahoma-based SandRidge’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $133.2 million.Shares of SandRidge, which had fallen nearly 22 percent since the beginning of the year, dropped another 15 percent on Wednesday after the deal was announced.Bonanza Creek’s shares closed at $32.07 on Wednesday, well below SandRidge’s offer price of $36 per share, suggesting investors were skeptical the deal would close.Fir Tree also said SandRidge was paying an “unjustified premium” for Bonanza Creek.Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sandridge-firtreepartners/sandridge-investor-fir-tree-opposes-746-million-bid-for-bonanza-creek-idUSKBN1DK1MB'|'2017-11-20T15:54:00.000+02:00'
'937cd232a865059c5e9eedd6bc50b8c6c11c7970'|'CEE MARKETS-Zloty gains limited by collapse of Germany talks ahead of data'|'* Zloty bucks fx easing on German coalition talks collapse * Polish data flow helps zloty, new figures due at 1300 GMT * Forint eases, cbank could loosen screws further on Tues * Romania tenders bonds after several scrapped auctions By Sandor Peto and Bartosz Chmielewski BUDAPEST/WARSAW, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The zloty''s gains were limited on Monday by a collapse of coalition talks in Germany, ahead of a batch of likely strong Polish economic data. Polish corporate wages surged 7.4 percent in annual terms in October according to figures released on Friday, which could strengthen the case of hawks in the Polish central bank (NBP). Warsaw is due to release October industrial output, retail sales and producer price data at 1300 GMT which could nudge the bank towards a rate hike before the last quarter of 2018, which has been projected by most analysts in a Reuters poll. "If it was not for the collapse of German coalition talks, we would expect the zloty to gain today after the Polish industrial output data," BZ WBK analysts said in a note. "In our view, these numbers will be positive, further supporting expectations for rate hikes in Poland and bringing up yields on the shorter end of Polish end curve," they said. They added that the zloty''s room to strengthen further was limited after its firming from levels beyond 4.33 against the euro since late September. The zloty, which has gained 4 percent this year, firmed a shade to 4.236 by 0847 GMT, while Hungary''s forint led Central Europe''s other main currencies lower. The withdrawal of small centre-right party FDP from Germany''s coalition talks caused some unease among investors in the European Union''s emerging economies. "Risks (in European markets) have mildly increased," Erste analysts said in note in Budapest. EU political noise is still a force to be reckoned with, said Simon Quijano-Evans, strategist of Legal & General Investment Management in a note. "CEE members of the EU have the most to lose from any increase in ''core-EU'' nationalism coupled with Brexit implications for the 2021-27 EU budget," he said, referring to a fallout of Britain''s contributions after it quits the EU. The forint eased 0.2 percent against the euro to 312.4. Hungary''s central bank, one of the most dovish monetary authorities in the world, may launch new measures at its meeting on Tuesday to push long-term market interest rates lower. "Such a move could thereby in our view contribute to additional HUF weakening towards 315 against the euro over the coming week," Raiffeisen analyst Wolfgang Ernst said in a note. "Whereas we currently keep our year-end target of EUR/HUF 310, the chances for a slightly weaker HUF could rise with additional liquidity measures ...," he said. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 0947 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.593 25.594 +0.01 5.52% 0 5 % Hungary 312.40 311.84 -0.18% -1.15% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2360 4.2374 +0.03 3.96% % Romanian leu 4.6480 4.6417 -0.14% -2.43% Croatian 7.5630 7.5675 +0.06 -0.10% kuna % Serbian 118.31 118.42 +0.09 4.26% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.6 1054.7 -0.01% +14.4 0 5 3% Budapest 39328. 39279. +0.12 +22.8 83 75 % 9% Warsaw 2436.5 2443.8 -0.30% +25.0 1 3 8% Bucharest 7769.1 7772.1 -0.04% +9.66 4 4 % Ljubljana 789.10 792.06 -0.37% +9.97 % Zagreb 0.00 1853.0 +0.00 -100.0 8 % 0% Belgrade 732.74 735.73 -0.41% +2.14 % Sofia 669.47 668.87 +0.09 +14.1 % 6% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.501 0.136 +122b +14bp ps s 5-year 0.97 0.027 +131b +2bps ps 10-year 1.742 0.012 +137b +1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.592 -0.011 +231b +0bps ps 5-year 2.622 0.001 +296b -1bps ps 10-year 3.424 0.018 +306b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.01 1.17 1.29 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.09 0.14 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.79 1.84 1.94 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-zloty-gains-limited-by-collapse-of-germany-talks-ahead-of-data-idINL8N1NQ20F'|'2017-11-20T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'f2a3c4ecb32753ced2128b84e556e155843127f8'|'Toshiba shares drop after plan to issue $5.4 billion in new shares'|'November 20, 2017 / 12:17 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Toshiba $5 billion stock issue results in huge dilution but delisting risk removed Makiko Yamazaki , Ayai Tomisawa 4   Toshiba Corp’s ( 6502.T ) plan to raise some $5.4 billion (4.1 billion pounds) through a sale of new shares will help it avoid a delisting, but will also see more than 30 overseas investors, including activist funds, own 35 percent of the embattled conglomerate. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen outside an electronics retail store in Tokyo, Japan, January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The move, decided at a board meeting on Sunday, will allow Toshiba to pay off billions of dollars in liabilities at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear power business, Westinghouse. That in turn gives it the funds to return to positive net worth by the end of the financial year in March, as an $18 billion sale of its prized memory chip unit is unlikely to close before then. The issue of 2.28 billion new shares at 262.8 yen per share (1.8 pounds), a 10 percent discount to Friday’s close, will result in a massive 54 percent dilution in earnings per share. Toshiba’s shares were, however, down just 5 percent in early afternoon trade as the delisting risk was removed and as the capital raising had been expected. The stock was last trading at 277 yen - a level above the sale price. “Toshiba’s fund raising news eliminates the risk of Toshiba being delisted so that part is positive,” said Takatoshi Itoshima, chief portfolio manager at Commons Asset Management. “What’s also positive is that the fund raising will improve the company’s financial health. There is an argument that the company will be left with nothing (without the chip business), but it’s good that the company’s capital will recover.” Third Point LLC, Oasis Management Company and Cerberus Capital Management were among the more than 30 investors which invested through some 60 funds. Singapore-based fund Effissimo Capital Management, established by former colleagues of Japan’s best-known activist investor, Yoshiaki Murakami, will become the largest shareholder in Toshiba with an 11.34 percent stake. Payments for the new investment are due to be completed on Dec. 5. Toshiba also confirmed that it is looking at selling Westinghouse assets. Sources told Reuters in September that Westinghouse is working with investment bank PJT Partners Inc ( PJT.N ) on a sale process. Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ) and Apollo Global Management LLC ( APO.N ) have teamed up to bid for the business while Cerberus Capital Management LP was in talks with U.S. nuclear power plant component provider BWX Technologies Inc ( BWXT.N ) about submitting a joint bid, the sources said at the time. Toshiba had initially planned to use funds from the sale of its chip unit to cover its Westinghouse liabilities, but a highly competitive and contentious auction process led to delays in deciding on the buyer and has meant that Toshiba may not obtain the necessary anti-trust clearance by the end of March. The chip deal still faces legal challenges from its chip joint venture partner Western Digital ( WDC.O ), which argues no deal can proceed without its consent and has sought an injunction through an international arbitration court. Toshiba is demanding that Western Digital drop the litigation as a condition over a coming round of a joint investment in Toshiba’s new flash-memory chip production line in Yokkaichi, Japan. The two companies held talks in the United States last week for settlements, but have yet to agree on details, sources familiar with the matter said. (This story has been refiled to add dropped word “than” in first paragraph and clarify the number of investors in paragraph seven) Additional reporting by Ran Kim and Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-financing/toshiba-shares-drop-after-plan-to-issue-5-4-billion-in-new-shares-idUKKBN1DK00B'|'2017-11-20T02:16:00.000+02:00'
'542c192a36558d0002e9690cea2fa13fe1e25464'|'EU drugs agency move to Amsterdam minimises likely staff losses'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Amsterdam’s success in winning the battle to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is relocating from London because of Brexit, was welcomed by drug manufacturers on Monday hoping for the least disruption due to staff losses at the regulator.FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is seen in London, Britain April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Amsterdam was the most popular of 19 potential new homes for the drugs watchdog in a recent survey of staff, with 81 percent of them saying they would be willing to move to the Dutch city.Based in London since 1995, with a staff of around 890, the EMA acts as a one-stop-shop for approving and monitoring the safety of drugs across Europe. It is being uprooted because it must be headquartered in an EU country.EuropaBio, representing Europe’s biotech sector, said it was happy to see Amsterdam selected.“Now that we have more clarity, it is vital that the relocation of the EMA will be carried out in such a way as to minimise as much as possible any disruptions that could negatively affect access to medicines for patients,” said John Brennan, the group’s secretary general.The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s head Mike Thompson said the focus now “should switch to how patient safety and effective public health can be maintained during this complex transition and into the future”.The EMA’s executive director Guido Rasi had warned that access to new medicines and safety checks on existing treatments would be jeopardised if politicians picked a new home for the regulator that was unacceptable to staff.The loss of the EMA is a blow to Britain, which had at one stage hoped to retain the organisation and its hundreds of highly skilled jobs, despite the fact Britain will leave the EU in March 2019.“London’s loss is Amsterdam’s gain,” said Steve Bates, CEO of Britain’s BioIndustry Association.Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-agencies-ema/eu-drugs-agency-move-to-amsterdam-minimises-likely-staff-losses-idUSKBN1DK27Y'|'2017-11-20T20:11:00.000+02:00'
'abe452cb0cf994ee10339fadd33447893323d9c4'|'Centrica to scrap standard tariff to fend off energy price cap'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:19 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Centrica to scrap standard tariff to fend off energy price cap Susanna Twidale , Oleg Vukmanovic 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Centrica ( CNA.L ) is to scrap a higher rate tariff for new customers as part of industry efforts to see off price caps threatened by the government and said it had no plans to follow rivals and spin off its retail energy business. FILE PHOTO - Electricity pylons are seen in London, Britain August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Prime Minister Theresa May said in October she would impose controls to tackle what she called “rip-off energy prices” - home power bills have doubled in Britain over the past decade to an average of about 1,200 pounds a year. The move has piled pressure on Centrica and Britain’s other big energy suppliers, already facing competition from smaller, more nimble rivals able to offer cheaper deals. After years of loosing customers, SSE ( SSE.L ) and Innogy ( IGY.DE ) announced plans to merge and list their British retail units in a separate joint venture. Centrica CEO Iain Conn said his company had no plans to follow suit. “We believe we can have an attractive energy business in the UK,” he said on a conference call on Monday. Centrica, the owner of Britain’s largest energy supplier British Gas, said it would stop offering its standard variable tariff (SVT) - the payment targeted by the government cap. Utilities charge customers SVTs if they do not choose fixed-term deals that are generally cheaper. Regulator Ofgem said SVTs offered by the big six suppliers in August were on average almost 320 pounds per year more expensive than their cheapest deals. Centrica said it would give customers a choice of at least two, three-year tariffs at the end of their contract period as part of an attempt to move all customers off SVT deals, but did not commit to making the new tariffs cheaper. “The default needs to be an unattractive tariff but not a punitive tariff,” Conn said, adding it would need to be higher than other available tariffs to incentivise people to engage in the market and switch deals. Centrica will set up a new 12-month default tariff with no exit fees for customers that do not pick a new contract after their existing one expires. The changes would be introduced by March 31, 2018, it said. Utilities have long said the bigger bills are partly caused by rising government energy policy costs, including renewable energy subsidies. Centrica challenged the government to find a new way of funding policies, such as those to support new renewable power generation, through general taxation and not via bills. “We believe the government should consider a less regressive mechanism to recoup policy costs, to protect those on the lowest incomes,” it said in a statement. Conn said these policy costs add around 200 pounds per year to bills. The supplier also called on the government to phase out SVT deals altogether and prohibit so-called evergreen tariffs without an end-date, arguing that such deals reduce customer engagement. Britain’s other three big six energy suppliers are Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ). Reporting By Susanna Twidale and Oleg Vukmanovic, additional reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-centrica-tariffs/centrica-sets-out-plans-to-reform-uk-energy-market-idUKKBN1DK0L6'|'2017-11-20T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'3b48eca0871fe17f46c1185d85a2ad23ca0428ea'|'Volvo Cars to supply Uber with up to 24,000 self-driving cars'|' 04 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Volvo Cars to supply Uber with up to 24,000 self-driving cars Niklas Pollard , Heather Somerville 4 Min Read STOCKHOLM/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber plans to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, marking the transition of the U.S. firm from an app used to summon a taxi to the owner and operator of a fleet of cars. The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The non-binding framework deal could offer San Francisco-based Uber a way to overcome setbacks at its autonomous driving division in Silicon Valley’s race to perfect self-driving systems. Combining Volvo’s cars with Uber’s self-driving system builds on their nearly three-year relationship and comes as Uber’s autonomous driving unit has been hit by a lawsuit over trade secrets and the departure of top talent. Automakers, ride-hailing firms and tech startups have been forging loose alliances in an effort to advance self-driving technology and claim a piece of what is expected to be a multi-billion-dollar business. Geely-owned Volvo said in a statement on Monday it would provide Uber with its flagship XC90 SUVs equipped with autonomous technology as part of a non-exclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. A Volvo spokesman said it covered up to 24,000 cars. The self-driving system that would be used in the Volvo cars -- which have yet to be built -- is under development by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group. Should Uber buy all 24,000 cars, it would be Volvo’s largest order by far and the biggest sale in the autonomous vehicle industry, giving Uber, which is losing more than $600 million a quarter, its first commercial fleet of cars. A new Volvo XC90 typically retails from a starting price of around $50,000. Uber has been testing prototype Volvo cars for more than a year, with safety drivers in the front seat to intervene if the self-driving system fails, in Tempe, Arizona and Pittsburgh. “Our goal was from day one to make investments into a vehicle that could be manufactured at scale,” Jeff Miller, Uber’s head of automotive alliances, said. The cars, in theory, would be available through the Uber app to pick up passengers without a driver. “It only becomes a commercial business when you can remove that vehicle operator from the equation,” Miller said. No financial details were disclosed for the purchase, which would be a massive new investment for Uber and mark a change from Uber’s long-standing business model where contractor drivers buy or lease and maintain their own cars. Miller said a small number of cars would be purchased using equity and others would be bought using debt financing. The deal builds on a $300 million alliance Volvo announced with Uber last year focused on collaborating on the design and financing of cars with self-driving systems, which require different steering and braking features and sensors. “We get support developing this car,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. “It’s also a big commercial deal.” LYFT RIVALRY Volvo, which has been under Chinese ownership since it was bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford in 2010, plans to make the SUVs at its Torslanda plant in western Sweden, and Samuelsson said they would be sold at roughly the same profit margin as Volvo sells through dealers. Uber’s rival Lyft has this year struck a research partnership with Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) unit Waymo and secured deals with Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) and startups Nutonomy and Drive.ai to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet. Volvo’s agreement with Uber and Ford’s with Lyft show the pressure on automakers to avoid becoming obsolete in a world of increased automation, and on ride-services companies to start automating to cut driver costs and turn profits. Volvo is one of Sweden’s biggest manufacturers by revenue, and has forecast a fourth straight year of record sales in 2017. Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Johannes Hellstrom in Stockholm and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; editing by Peter Henderson and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volvocars-uber/volvo-cars-to-supply-uber-with-up-to-24000-self-driving-cars-idUKKBN1DK1NH'|'2017-11-20T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'400f9fc56de007202c260a089faa8be4c3330eb0'|'SoftBank funding may spur Uber to re-think tough Southeast Asian market'|'SINGAPORE(Reuters) - SoftBank Group’s ( 9984.T ) multi-billion dollar investment in Uber Technologies Inc opens up the possibility of combining it with other ride-hailing assets the Japanese group owns in a consolidation of a rapidly growing business across Asia, industry sources say.FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said on Nov. 12 that a planned deal with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The consortium plans to inject $1 billion to $1.25 billion into Uber, and buy up to 17 percent of existing shares in a secondary transaction.SoftBank has also been a big investor in Uber’s rivals across Asia, including Southeast Asia’s Grab, China’s DiDi Chuxing, and India’s Ola, as it works to achieve founder Masayoshi Son’s vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence and interconnected devices.At the same time, ride-hailing companies have been competing fiercely across Asia to attract both riders and drivers, with discounts and promotions that have driven down profit margins.“SoftBank will play a consolidating role,” said a source close to Singapore-based Grab. “SoftBank as a board director in both companies (Uber and Grab) would fundamentally change the conversation.”The source declined to be named due to sensitivity of the subject.SoftBank and Grab declined to comment for this story.At $68 billion, Uber is the most highly valued venture-backed company in the world. But the lofty valuation has come at the cost of a heavy hit to Uber’s bottom line, which the firm has said was necessary to establish itself in new markets.“Doing a deal and combining the two businesses in Southeast Asia makes a ton of sense,” said the source close to Grab. “He (Uber’s CEO) cuts his losses and gets a stake in the business that is from his perspective more than just ride-sharing,” the source said, referring to Grab’s foray into other markets for digital or cashless payments.Any deal will likely be similar to the one Uber struck with DiDi last year, in which it took a stake in the Chinese company and pulled out its own business, the source said.‘OVER-CAPITALIZED’ MARKETIt’s not clear whether SoftBank has discussed or proposed any deal with Grab with Uber’s directors. The SoftBank investment into Uber has not yet been finalised.Uber declined to comment but pointed to a statement by Uber’s new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi at the New York Times DealBook conference earlier this month, saying the company “is in a very strong competitive position” in every market he has learned about. “To the extent that we have a competitor and we’re spending the same amount on incentives, we tend to gain share because our product, or brand, or services are just better.”But Khosrowshahi acknowledged the challenges Uber faces in Southeast Asia, saying the market is “over-capitalized at this point”.The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay “We’re going in, and we’re leaning forward. But I‘m not optimistic that market is going to be profitable any time soon,” he said.People close to the SoftBank and Uber deal told Reuters many stakeholders would like to give the competition in Southeast Asia more time to play out, given the appeal of cheap labor and a growing middle class with disposable income in the region.However, shutting down Uber’s Southeast Asia operations to cut losses would enable the firm to “print money,” making for a much more palatable IPO, said one Uber investor, who declined to be named. Uber says it plans a stock market listing in 2019.While many tech firms go public without a profit, Uber’s level of loss -- $645 million in the second quarter this year -- could be alarming to some investors.Vinnie Lauria, a founding partner at venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures, which has invested in over 30 firms across Asia, said he, too, thinks Uber will pull out of Southeast Asia.“I can’t say with certainty, but I feel fairly confident that after this (SoftBank-Uber) transaction, we would see Uber sell off their Southeast Asian operations to Grab or (China‘s) DiDi.”Grab was the top-ranked ride-hailing app in combined monthly active users on iPhone and Android phones in the first half of 2017 in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to mobile data analytics firm App Annie.In Indonesia, Go-Jek outranks both Grab and Uber.EXECUTIVE CHURN After folding its China business into DiDi last year, Uber sharpened its focus and resources on India and Southeast Asia, the latter a promising market of nearly 650 million people, many of whom are young and tech-savvy.But Uber has struggled in Asia, having run-ins with some local regulators, including more recently in the Philippines, and seeing a slew of exits by senior executives in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and India.Last week, Uber said its chief of policy for India and South Asia had quit in another blow to the firm’s efforts to improve relationships with governments.Brooks Entwistle, Uber’s recently appointed chief business officer of Asia Pacific, told Reuters he was looking at the long term in Southeast Asia. His priority is to collaborate closely with regulators, fill senior positions and partner with traditional taxi companies, he said.Grab, meanwhile, bolstered by its financing from Softbank and DiDi, has expanded from ride-hailing to other digital payment solutions as it looks to use its platform for financial services such as lending.Additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE, Heather Somerville in SAN FRANCISCO and Sam Nussey in TOKYO; Editing by Bill Tarrant '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-southeast-asia/softbank-funding-may-spur-uber-to-re-think-tough-southeast-asian-market-idUSKBN1DL05I'|'2017-11-21T03:32:00.000+02:00'
'11f2ca8d25c43a1efda6cbfbc88d14828a5e009f'|'CME says bitcoin futures coming this year, but date not set'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - CME Group Inc, the world’s biggest futures exchange, said on Monday it still plans to launch a futures contract for bitcoin this year, but that a notice on its website stating the contract would begin trading on Dec. 11 was posted in error.A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins As bitcoin passed above the $8,000 level for the first time on Monday, cryptocurrency-related websites were abuzz with news of the CME notice that said the CME Bitcoin Futures contract would become effective on Dec. 10, a Sunday, for trading on Dec. 11, pending regulatory review.But the notice was later removed from CME’s website and Laurie Bischel, a spokeswoman for the exchange operator, said the original posting “was due to an error with the website,” without giving further details.CME is vying with rival Cboe Global Markets Inc to launch the first bitcoin-related financial product on a traditional, regulated exchange.Bitcoin is notoriously volatile and has risen in price by almost 50 percent in just the last days, prompting multiple warnings of a bubble.To help rein in some of that volatility, CME will not allow the trading of bitcoin futures at prices 20 percent above or below the settlement price from the previous day, according to the exchange’s website.As of Monday, CME had not yet filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to launch bitcoin futures, a spokeswoman for the company said.Cboe also said it has yet to file with for a bitcoin futures contract with the CFTC, but spokeswoman Hannah Randall said the exchange operator was in active discussions with the regulator.Cboe has said it sees launching a bitcoin futures contract as the first step to launching an exchange-traded fund based on bitcoin prices.CFTC regulations allow designated contract markets such as CME to list products for trading without prior CFTC approval by filing a written self-certification with the regulator, meaning CME stipulates the product complies with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.To self-certify a new product, the exchange must file its submission with the CFTC by the open of business on the business day before a product is to be listed.Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-cme-bitcoin/cme-says-bitcoin-futures-coming-this-year-but-date-not-set-idUSKBN1DK2LT'|'2017-11-21T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'ae4e4c07ef25d717533aa1f9c1330c873fc2453f'|'Battered GE shares lure some buyers but worst may not be over'|'Reuters TV United States November 19, 2017 / 11:12 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Battered GE shares lure some buyers but worst may not be over Lewis Krauskopf 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co shares stabilized after a brutal slide last week sent the stock near six-year lows, but the worst may not be over. FILE PHOTO - The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Some investors still do not see enough value to warrant buying the shares, which have lost some of their luster as a blue-chip investment. They are sorting through massive changes announced by GE’s new Chief Executive John Flannery last Monday: hugely reduced near-term profit-growth prospects, a halved dividend, and a wave of promised divestitures. “In a sense, the stock is trying to find an investor,” said Scott Lawson, vice president of Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, who follows industrial stocks, as the stock was sliding last week. “That investor is not a growth guy, because they are not growing. It’s not a value guy, because they’re not cheap on the value metrics.” The massive decline for the stock - more than 40 percent this year - suggests that it would pique the interest of value players. GE shares fell to $17.90, their lowest closing price since December 2011, after dropping 12.6 percent over Monday and Tuesday, their biggest two-day decline since the financial crisis. The stock edged back up over the rest of the week and closed Friday at $18.21 amid news that Flannery had bought about $1.1 million worth of the stock. But GE shares have not fallen enough for some investors. “What we are looking for is a sufficient margin of safety to reasonable intrinsic value, and at the current stock price, we just don’t think the margin of safety is there,” Michael Kon, portfolio manager with Golub Group in San Mateo, California, said as the stock hovered around $18. Kon said he was looking either for the stock to fall further or for better-than-expected improvement in GE’s power-turbine division before any investment. Investment advisory firm Alan B. Lancz & Associates bought some GE shares last week as the stock dipped into the $17 range, seeing value in the company’s assets, which also include remaining major businesses in jet engines and healthcare, said Alan Lancz, president of the Toledo, Ohio-based firm. But Lancz said he sees GE as an investment with a three- to five-year payoff and acknowledged the stock may fall further before that. “We don’t see any short-term, intermediate-term catalysts but we think that there is value there,” Lancz said. “It’s not high on our list of buys, but it is something that, I think for the long-term, it can be accumulated here.” One question facing investors is how to assess the company against its rivals. Over the past 20 years, GE on average has traded at 19 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. That is well above the average of 15.4 times for rival diversified manufacturers Honeywell International Inc and United Technologies Corp over that time. Following the stock’s slide this year, including fallout from third-quarter financial results last month that Flannery himself called “unacceptable,” GE now trades at a discount to those companies: 16.9 times forward earnings estimates against 17.3 times for United Tech and 19 times for Honeywell. “It is going to take a long time before you can clear the cloud and maybe get GE back to a comparable valuation level with respect to other similar companies,” said Chip Pettengill, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. Pettengill calls GE a “tarnished blue-chip stock.” GE’s earnings power is stronger than the “trough,” or bottom, projected for 2018, said Scott Schermerhorn, chief investment officer at Granite Investment Advisors in Concord, New Hampshire, who sees the shares particularly discounted to other industrial companies based on enterprise value to sales comparisons. His firm has held onto the GE shares purchased earlier this year, and is considering buying more, Schermerhorn said. ”The businesses they have are at least as good as a typical industrial, and therefore we think with proper management you’re going to see earnings accelerate,” Schermerhorn said, while cautioning: “It’s not going to be quick.” Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-stocks-analysis/battered-ge-shares-lure-some-buyers-but-worst-may-not-be-over-idUKKBN1DJ0DZ'|'2017-11-19T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'6fb7ee4ece10275c95a85460e18d0c365feaf6fd'|'Exclusive: U.S. agency to vote to repeal ''net neutrality'' rules - FCC chief'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:20 PM / Updated 2 hours ago FCC chief plans to ditch U.S. ''net neutrality'' rules David Shepardson 7 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission unveiled plans on Tuesday to repeal landmark 2015 rules that prohibited internet service providers from impeding consumer access to web content in a move that promises to recast the digital landscape. Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, testifies before a Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein FCC chief Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump in January, said the commission will vote at a Dec. 14 meeting on his plan to rescind the so-called net neutrality rules championed by Democratic former President Barack Obama that treated internet service providers like public utilities. The rules barred broadband providers from blocking or slowing down access to content or charging consumers more for certain content. They were intended to ensure a free and open internet, give consumers equal access to web content and prevent broadband service providers from favoring their own content. The action marks a victory for big internet service providers such as AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc that opposed the rules and gives them sweeping powers to decide what web content consumers can get and at what price. It represents a setback for Google parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc, which had urged Pai not to rescind the rules. With three Republican and two Democratic commissioners, the move is all but certain to be approved. Trump, a Republican, expressed his opposition to net neutrality in 2014 before the regulations were even implemented, calling it a “power grab” by Obama. Pai said his proposal would prevent state and local governments from creating their own net neutrality rules because internet service is “inherently an interstate service.” The preemption is most likely to handcuff Democratic-governed states and localities that could have considered their own plans to protect consumers’ equal access to internet content. “The FCC will no longer be in the business of micromanaging business models and preemptively prohibiting services and applications and products that could be pro-competitive,” Pai said in an interview, adding that the Obama administration had sought to pick winners and losers and exercised “heavy-handed” regulation of the internet. “We should simply set rules of the road that let companies of all kinds in every sector compete and let consumers decide who wins and loses,” Pai added. Tom Wheeler, who headed the FCC under Obama and advocated for the net neutrality rules, called the planned repeal “a shameful sham and sellout. Even for this FCC and its leadership, this proposal raises hypocrisy to new heights.” AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have said that repealing the rules could lead to billions of dollars in additional broadband investment and eliminate the possibility that a future presidential administration could regulate internet pricing. ‘HEAVY COSTS’ Verizon said it believed the FCC “will reinstate a framework that protects consumers’ access to the open internet, without forcing them to bear the heavy costs from unnecessary regulation.” The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) logo is seen before the FCC Net Neutrality hearing in Washington February 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas The Internet Association, representing major technology firms including Alphabet and Facebook, said Pai’s proposal “represents the end of net neutrality as we know it and defies the will of millions of Americans.” “This proposal undoes nearly two decades of bipartisan agreement on baseline net neutrality principles that protect Americans’ ability to access the entire internet,” it said. Pai’s proposal would require internet service providers to disclose whether they allow blocking or slowing down of consumer web access or permit so-called internet fast lanes to facilitate a practice called paid prioritization of charging for certain content. Such disclosure will make it easier for another agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to act against internet service providers that fail to disclose such conduct to consumers, Pai said. A U.S. appeals court last year upheld the legality of the net neutrality regulations, which were challenged in a lawsuit led by telecommunications industry trade association US Telecom. The group praised Pai’s decision to remove “antiquated, restrictive regulations” to “pave the way for broadband network investment, expansion and upgrades.” The FCC’s repeal is certain to draw a legal challenge from advocates of net neutrality. Nancy Pelosi, the top U.S. House of Representatives Democrat, said the FCC move would hurt consumers and chill competition, saying the agency “has launched an all-out assault on the entrepreneurship, innovation and competition at the heart of the internet.” Republican Senator John Thune said Pai’s plan was an improvement over the Obama rules but that “the only way to create long-term certainty for the internet ecosystem is for Congress to pass a bipartisan law.” The planned repeal represents the latest example of a legacy achievement of Obama being erased since Trump took office in January. Trump has abandoned international trade deals, the landmark Paris climate accord and environmental protections, taken aim at the Iran nuclear accord and closer relations with Cuba, and sought repeal Obama’s signature healthcare law. Pai, who has moved quickly to undo numerous regulatory actions since becoming FCC chairman, is pushing a broad deregulatory agenda. Pai said he had not shared his plans on the rollback with the White House in advance or been directed to undo net neutrality by White House officials. The FCC under Obama regulated internet service providers like public utilities under a section of federal law that gave the agency sweeping oversight over the conduct of these companies. Language in the new proposal would give the FCC significantly less authority to oversee the web. The FCC granted initial approval to Pai’s plan in May, but had left open many key questions including whether to retain any legal requirements limiting internet providers conduct. His plan also would eliminate the “internet conduct standard,” which gave the FCC far-reaching discretion to prohibit internet service provider practices deemed to violate a list of factors and sought to address future discriminatory conduct. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-agency-to-vote-to-repeal-net-neutrality-rules-fcc-chief-idUSKBN1DL21A'|'2017-11-21T18:20:00.000+02:00'
'77a1dce0018b626349846a84ce57e8d03d27b03b'|'EDF reports quality control failings regarding some rods at nuclear reactors'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:14 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago EDF reports quality control failings regarding some rods at nuclear reactors   PARIS (Reuters) - EDF ( EDF.PA ) said on Tuesday it had been informed about shortcomings found in quality controls on a small number of rods installed at its French nuclear sites. Electrical power pylons of high-tension electricity power lines are seen next to the EDF power plant in Bouchain, near Valenciennes, July 29, 2013. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol ) EDF said the discovery was made by nuclear equipment manufacturer Areva on 14 of 2,600,000 rods installed at its reactors across France. “Areva notified the EDF Group of quality control deviations on certain rods used to manufacture fuel assemblies. The supplier is not able to demonstrate that quality control substantiating leak tightness of these rods has been properly performed,” EDF said in a statement. The rods involved are in use at the Golfech 2, Flamanville 1 and Cattenom 3 reactors, while 11 others were not installed. EDF said the findings would have no operational impact. France depends on nuclear power for more than 75 percent of its electricity, and EDF union members have warned of a risk of blackouts this winter due to nuclear reactor outages. Last week, EDF said future nuclear reactor maintenance outages could be longer than expected and that these could weigh on its 2018 core earnings. EDF lowered its 2018 core earnings forecast to a range of 14.6-15.3 billion euros (12.9-13.56 billion pounds) from at least 15.2 billion. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-edf-nuclear/edf-reports-quality-control-failings-regarding-some-rods-at-nuclear-reactors-idUKKBN1DL0OB'|'2017-11-21T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'99f032a72e4df61836f5a89419c8dd8781520e36'|'European shares dip, earnings dent sentiment'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:49 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago European shares dip, earnings dent sentiment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares opened lower on Tuesday as a flow of trading updates and corporate news dented sentiment despite continued faith in the underlying strength of the European economy and a synchronised global expansion. FILE PHOTO - The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The STOXX 600 benchmark was down 0.3 percent by 0820 GMT with most European bourses and sectors trading in negative territory. Germany''s DAX .GDAXI was just 0.2 percent lower after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to minority rule, following the failure of overnight talks on forming a three-way coalition. Aggreko ( AGGK.L ), the world’s largest listed temporary power provider, was the worst performer, losing 9.7 percent after a trading update that got investors worried about 2018 prospects when it said its pipeline was taking longer to convert. Other UK corporates also suffered after publishing their results, such as Melrose ( MRON.L ), down 7.1 percent, Johnson Matthey ( JMAT.L ), which fell 4 percent, as well as Intertek ( ITRK.L ) and Compass ( CPG.L ), which retreated 2.6 percent and 3.3 percent respectively. EasyJet EZL.L was the top performer with a 4.6 percent rise as it said it was benefiting from the collapse of rivals and from problems at Ryanair ( RYA.I ). Reporting by Julien Ponthus, Editing by Kit Rees and Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-dip-earnings-dent-sentiment-idUKKBN1DL0R1'|'2017-11-21T10:48:00.000+02:00'
'e3d160800de877956a1b48fa9607e73cdcf96f63'|'Airbus faces tricky hurdles over stalled A380 Emirates deal'|'November 19, 2017 / 6:08 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Airbus faces tricky hurdles over stalled A380 Emirates deal Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 7 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - A preliminary deal to sell 36 A380s to Emirates blew up in an Airbus hospitality chalet moments before the Gulf carrier was expected to shower $30 billion on the planemaker and its U.S. rival Boeing at the start of last week’s Dubai Airshow. FILE PHOTO - An Airbus A380, the world''s largest jetliner, takes part in flying display, during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Two top Emirates officials broke the news to Airbus CEO Tom Enders and his sales chief John Leahy that the widely expected $16 billion deal would not be signed that day, leaving uncertainty over the future of the world’s largest jetliner. The halt came so swiftly that Airbus PR executives who were already in place for a double-signing ceremony a hundred yards away found themselves awkwardly among the audience as Boeing walked away with the sole Emirates order, worth $15 billion. The unusual stumble in slick air show choreography highlights problems over timing and trust that may even now complicate a deal between Airbus and Emirates, people aware of the matter said. One of the closest and most successful relations in aviation is looking bruised and throws up new complications for Airbus just as it struggles to maintain business as usual at a time when it faces British and French compliance probes. A day after Airbus’s hopes were dashed, airline president Tim Clark publicly delivered a message from Dubai’s government saying it wanted a guarantee from Airbus that it would keep producing the A380 for 10 years, before the state-owned carrier would agree to placing a new order. Enders emailed Clark calling the ultimatum, first reported by Reuters, unhelpful, two people aware of the matter said. Airbus and Emirates declined comment. “There is a worrying breakdown of the relationship between Airbus and Emirates,” said a person familiar with close to the talks. “Airbus was confident of getting a deal,” a Gulf source added. “But Dubai does not want to be taken for granted.” ENGINE HEADACHE Air show delegates said Emirates and Airbus must now resolve problems of visibility if a deal is to be done. Many in the industry say Airbus appears directionless as Leahy is due to retire in January, the guardian of the Emirates relationship, Habib Fekih, did so earlier this year and doubts grow over whether Enders will secure a new CEO mandate in 2019. Meanwhile the probes have badly clogged Airbus decision-making. On the Emirates side, top executive Clark - although full of energy at 67 and dismissing talk of retirement - is likely to hand over the baton at some stage, and it is uncertain how committed other managers are to the A380 flagship. “Nobody knows who is going to be in charge of the other side later, which doesn’t help,” said a person familiar with the matter. The Airbus board will however have to think hard before giving Dubai the guarantee it wants, which would go beyond the scope of a normal contract for specific planes. “It’s not something any company can easily do, especially on something dragging down the bottom line,” the same person said. For Emirates, the problem runs deeper than simply buying an aircraft from Airbus. Airlines deal directly with numerous suppliers, from landing gears to tyres and entertainment systems. Each takes its cue from the planemaker as conductor of a large orchestra. “If you’re the only customer your fear is the manufacturer will lose interest and that becomes a signal to suppliers to make support a lower priority,” a person close to the matter said. “Then you end up unsure who is supporting what.” The biggest question mark hangs over the massive engines. In 2015, Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) won its largest-ever order, worth $9 billion, to displace U.S. consortium Engine Alliance to power a batch of 50 four-engined A380s for Emirates. But to win the deal it gave ambitious fuel-consumption targets and Emirates signalled last week the cards could be shuffled again for the potential new order. “If we ordered more, we might contemplate talking to both sides,” Clark said. But Engine Alliance output ends in 2018. Keeping its assembly lines warm would require a fresh commitment from its parents General Electric ( GE.N ) and Pratt & Whitney ( UTX.N ). “That’s a pretty big ask right now. It all comes down to money,” a person close to the consortium said. GE is involved in a major rethink of strategy and wants to be more selective about investments, while Pratt & Whitney is absorbed with fixing delays on smaller engines. SECOND-HAND MARKET Keeping engine makers on board is all the more challenging because of the lack of an A380 second-hand market. Engine makers make money on spares and services over the working life of an engine which is usually 20-25 years. But in another accident of timing, the first A380 to carry passengers, in 2007, was being mothballed in France just as Airbus was trying to cling on to an Emirates deal at last week’s show, after just 10 years in service with Singapore Airlines. That sets a worrying precedent for suppliers of Emirates, which usually operates planes for 12 years and around 20 of whose A380s may exit the fleet to make way for new purchases. Faced with the possibility that any new A380 engines may have only half their budgeted life, engine makers may charge more for them up-front or more in hourly service contracts. Still, Emirates believes an Airbus guarantee over the life of the programme could break the logjam and generate new orders. “I would think a revitalisation of the line would bring the big players together and say what can we all do to make this work ... including propulsion,” Clark said. Pride may yet work in favour of a deal over the A380, which is Airbus’s only path into business with Emirates for the time being after the airline placed new orders with Boeing. “This (Airbus) management took the decision to launch the A380 so killing it now would make them look foolish,” a senior air show delegate said. “They have got to be able to say that when they left, the A380 was still being built.” Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-airshow-analysis/airbus-faces-tricky-hurdles-over-stalled-a380-emirates-deal-idUKKBN1DJ0QP'|'2017-11-19T20:06:00.000+02:00'
'7ed9a4a7ec54027e438c9c8e2c3e3fd382d2e061'|'Airbus faces tricky hurdles over stalled A380 Emirates deal'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - A preliminary deal to sell 36 A380s to Emirates blew up in an Airbus hospitality chalet moments before the Gulf carrier was expected to shower $30 billion on the planemaker and its U.S. rival Boeing at the start of last week’s Dubai Airshow.An Airbus A380, the world''s largest jetliner, takes part in flying display, during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Two top Emirates officials broke the news to Airbus CEO Tom Enders and his sales chief John Leahy that the widely expected $16 billion deal would not be signed that day, leaving uncertainty over the future of the world’s largest jetliner.The halt came so swiftly that Airbus PR executives who were already in place for a double-signing ceremony a hundred yards away found themselves awkwardly among the audience as Boeing walked away with the sole Emirates order, worth $15 billion.The unusual stumble in slick air show choreography highlights problems over timing and trust that may even now complicate a deal between Airbus and Emirates, people aware of the matter said.One of the closest and most successful relations in aviation is looking bruised and throws up new complications for Airbus just as it struggles to maintain business as usual at a time when it faces British and French compliance probes.A day after Airbus’s hopes were dashed, airline president Tim Clark publicly delivered a message from Dubai’s government saying it wanted a guarantee from Airbus that it would keep producing the A380 for 10 years, before the state-owned carrier would agree to placing a new order.Enders emailed Clark calling the ultimatum, first reported by Reuters, unhelpful, two people aware of the matter said.Airbus and Emirates declined comment.“There is a worrying breakdown of the relationship between Airbus and Emirates,” said a person familiar with the talks.“Airbus was confident of getting a deal,” a Gulf source added. “But Dubai does not want to be taken for granted.”ENGINE HEADACHE Air show delegates said Emirates and Airbus must now resolve problems of visibility if a deal is to be done.Many in the industry say Airbus appears directionless as Leahy is due to retire in January, the guardian of the Emirates relationship, Habib Fekih, did so earlier this year and doubts grow over whether Enders will secure a new CEO mandate in 2019. Meanwhile the probes have badly clogged Airbus decision-making.On the Emirates side, top executive Clark - although full of energy at 67 and dismissing talk of retirement - is likely to hand over the baton at some stage, and it is uncertain how committed other managers are to the A380 flagship.“Nobody knows who is going to be in charge of the other side later, which doesn’t help,” said a person familiar with the matter.The Airbus board will however have to think hard before giving Dubai the guarantee it wants, which would go beyond the scope of a normal contract for specific planes.“It’s not something any company can easily do, especially on something dragging down the bottom line,” the same person said.For Emirates, the problem runs deeper than simply buying an aircraft from Airbus.Airlines deal directly with numerous suppliers, from landing gears to tyres and entertainment systems. Each takes its cue from the planemaker as conductor of a large orchestra.“If you’re the only customer your fear is the manufacturer will lose interest and that becomes a signal to suppliers to make support a lower priority,” a person close to the matter said. “Then you end up unsure who is supporting what.”The biggest question mark hangs over the massive engines.In 2015, Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) won its largest-ever order, worth $9 billion, to displace U.S. consortium Engine Alliance to power a batch of 50 four-engined A380s for Emirates.But to win the deal it gave ambitious fuel-consumption targets and Emirates signalled last week the cards could be shuffled again for the potential new order. “If we ordered more, we might contemplate talking to both sides,” Clark said.But Engine Alliance output ends in 2018. Keeping its assembly lines warm would require a fresh commitment from its parents General Electric ( GE.N ) and Pratt & Whitney ( UTX.N ).“That’s a pretty big ask right now. It all comes down to money,” a person close to the consortium said.GE is involved in a major rethink of strategy and wants to be more selective about investments, while Pratt & Whitney is absorbed with fixing delays on smaller engines.SECOND-HAND MARKET Keeping engine makers on board is all the more challenging because of the lack of an A380 second-hand market.Engine makers make money on spares and services over the working life of an engine which is usually 20-25 years.But in another accident of timing, the first A380 to carry passengers, in 2007, was being mothballed in France just as Airbus was trying to cling on to an Emirates deal at last week’s show, after just 10 years in service with Singapore Airlines.That sets a worrying precedent for suppliers of Emirates, which usually operates planes for 12 years and around 20 of whose A380s may exit the fleet to make way for new purchases.Faced with the possibility that any new A380 engines may have only half their budgeted life, engine makers may charge more for them up-front or more in hourly service contracts.Still, Emirates believes an Airbus guarantee over the life of the programme could break the logjam and generate new orders.“I would think a revitalisation of the line would bring the big players together and say what can we all do to make this work ... including propulsion,” Clark said.Pride may yet work in favour of a deal over the A380, which is Airbus’s only path into business with Emirates for the time being after the airline placed new orders with Boeing.“This (Airbus) management took the decision to launch the A380 so killing it now would make them look foolish,” a senior air show delegate said.“They have got to be able to say that when they left, the A380 was still being built.”(This version of the story removes extraneous words from ninth paragraph)Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Pravin Char '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-analysis/airbus-faces-tricky-hurdles-over-stalled-a380-emirates-deal-idUSKBN1DJ0QI'|'2017-11-19T20:02:00.000+02:00'
'd72e08a6fed2cf8e50a12deb958d49acfec12ca1'|'UPDATE 1-RWE''s options to exit Innogy include deal with Enel-sources'|'* RWE advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch - sources* Enel could use Endesa as vehicle for deal - source* Enel CEO previously said sees big M&A as value destructive (Adds details from sources, context)By Andrés González, Arno Schuetze and Stephen JewkesMADRID/FRANKFURT/MILAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) - German utility RWE is looking at ways to cut its 16.8-billion euro ($19.8 billion) stake in retail business Innogy, several banking sources told Reuters, adding this could involve a deal with Italy’s Enel.RWE said last week there was no need to sell the 76.8 percent stake, given the steady dividend it gets from Innogy’s networks, renewables and retail businesses that were carved out last year.But RWE is still considering scenarios for how it can sell all or parts of it at some point and has held talks with Enel, Europe’s largest utility by market value, one of the banking sources said.RWE is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on its strategic options, while Enel’s advisers include JP Morgan, the people said.“We have said several times that we are in talks with many participants in the market about many topics. We do not comment on market speculation,” a spokeswoman for RWE said.Innogy, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Endesa and JP Morgan all declined to comment.Asked about Innogy, Enel said it received pitches from investment banks as a matter of routine.“Every time a bank brings us something to look at we receive it. But this does not mean it interests us nor that talks are under way,” a spokeswoman for Enel said.A possible deal with Enel is the latest scenario for Innogy after sources earlier this year said RWE and France’s Engie had studied a share swap under which RWE would trade part or all of its stake in Innogy for a minority stake in Engie.One of the sources said Enel could use its Spanish unit Endesa, whose 5.75 billion euro debt pile is just a fraction of its parent’s 37.94 billion, as a vehicle to buy about a third in Innogy.Under German takeover rules, this would trigger a bid for the whole group.In a second step, RWE could use another third in Innogy to subscribe to a capital increase to be carried out by Enel, the person added.Enel Chief Executive Francesco Starace earlier this month fuelled M&A speculation when he said Enel was “doomed” to do M&A to grow its core distribution business, which is also the key focus area of Innogy.Asked specifically about interest in Innogy, Starace said Enel looked at everything, “but that doesn’t mean we’ll buy”. He previously said he saw big utility deals in Europe as destroying value for shareholders.$1 = 0.8480 euros Additional reporting Dasha Afanasieva and Pamela Barbaglia in London, Tom Kaeckenhoff in Duesseldorf and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/innogy-ma-enel/update-1-rwes-options-to-exit-innogy-include-deal-with-enel-sources-idINL8N1NP0F1'|'2017-11-19T10:53:00.000+02:00'
'ea1441df164275f365261ed3f089afabb44ae6e8'|'Deutsche Boerse says about 20 banks join its clearing programme'|' 49 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Deutsche Boerse says about 20 banks join its clearing programme Reuters Staff 1   About 20 banks have signed up to Deutsche Boerse’s ( DB1Gn.DE ) profit-sharing scheme on interest rate swaps at its clearing business, the company said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A guard secures the entrance of Germany''s stock exchange Deutsche Boerse Group   January 14, 2005. REUTERS/Kao Pfaffenbach/File Photo The programme, announced last month, aims to wrest trade from the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) amid the uncertainty over Britain’s departure from the European Union. Deutsche Boerse’s EU-based alternative has signed on banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBVA, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex Clearing business is giving companies until Nov. 20 to sign up early with incentives. The 10 most active programme participants will be eligible for a “significant” share in revenues of interest rate clearing, and have a say in how Eurex is run. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-boerse-markets-clearing/deutsche-boerse-says-about-20-banks-join-its-clearing-programme-idUKKBN1DK1QS'|'2017-11-20T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'b0fff06e4a3b1f2eeff19c99247e78232d3dad12'|'Alibaba to buy 36.2 pct Sun Art for $2.9 bln'|'HONG KONG, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it would buy an aggregate direct and indirect stake of 36.16 percent stake in China’s top hypermarket operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd, for a total HK$22.4 billion ($2.9 billion).As part of a strategic alliance with Auchan Retail S.A. and Ruentex Group, Alibaba would buy the stake from Ruentex while Auchan Retail was also increasing its stake in Sun Art, Alibaba said in a joint statement.The deal would give Auchan Retail, Alibaba Group and Ruentex 36.18 percent, 36.16 percent and 4.67 percent stakes respectively in Sun Art, the companies said in the joint statement.In a separate statement, Sun Art said Alibaba’s Taobao China Holding Ltd would make a general offer for the company at HK$6.50 apiece.Trading in Sun Art shares, which were suspended on Nov. 13, will resume on Monday.$1 = 7.8115 Hong Kong dollars Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alibaba-sun-art-retail/alibaba-to-buy-36-2-pct-sun-art-for-2-9-bln-idUSL3N1NQ02J'|'2017-11-20T02:21:00.000+02:00'
'c1c9c1ecf381aa6f5120bd845ba004e6d0a709c6'|'Death and the discount rate: UK companies weigh pensions tweaks'|' 50 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Death and the discount rate: UK companies weigh pensions tweaks Simon Jessop , Carolyn Cohn 8 Min   Some of Britain’s biggest companies are considering wiping millions or even billions of pounds from their pension deficits by changing a couple of key assumptions, including when staff are expected to die. FILE PHOTO: Pensioners sit on a bench in a park in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Naden/File Photo Retailer Tesco ( TSCO.L ) paved the way last month by slicing more than three billion pounds from the pensions deficit in its accounts, citing data showing slower rises in life expectancy as well as predictions of higher interest rates. “A lot of other companies will be asking to do something similar,” said Martin Hunter, principal at investment consultants Punter Southall. Pension shortfalls are a common problem around the world and in Britain, two-thirds of almost 6,000 company defined benefit, or final salary, schemes are in the red, a drag on some share prices as investors worry about how they will be funded. Improving the assumptions underlying its pension scheme gives a company more freedom to raise dividends or expand, but runs the risk of future problems unless caution is applied. Of 22 UK listed companies contacted by Reuters, some with large deficits and some in surplus but with large liabilities, seven said they could use updated numbers for their next six-monthly accounting or more conservative triennial pension valuations. Those among the seven with large deficits were BT ( BT.L ), TUI ( TUIT.L ), International Consolidated Airlines Group ( ICAG.L ), Barclays ( BARC.L ) and Severn Trent ( SVT.L ). Two companies with large pension liabilities, but with schemes currently in surplus, Aviva ( AV.L ) and RBS ( RBS.L ), also said they may use the new longevity statistics, issued in March, and/or new assumptions for their discount rate, which fixes the money needed now to pay future pensions. Six companies declined to comment and nine did not reply. FROM DEFICIT TO SURPLUS Industry-funded pension lifeboat the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) puts Britain’s collective shortfall at 150 billion pounds ($199.07 billion), a gap that can force listed companies to raise capital or cut dividends, making them less attractive to investors. India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) spent more than a year trying to cut its liabilities to push through a merger of its European steel operations with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ). A large deficit has also hurt debt-laden UK construction and support services firm Carillion ( CLLN.L ) Tesco said its pension fund was realigned to more appropriately reflect expected returns and had no link to its plan to take over wholesaler Booker ( BOK.L ). The degree to which other companies can follow Tesco is not straight forward, though. As well as varying staff demographics, the age of the scheme, its assets and existing discount rate could all stymie the accountants’ plans. Tweaking the number in the six-month review of liabilities in company accounts, closely watched by investors, as Tesco did, is also easier than changing the ‘triennial valuation’, a three-yearly deal with scheme trustees agreeing how much a company must add. While Tesco’s accounting pension scheme deficit is now 2.4 billion pounds, down from 5.5 billion pounds, its triennial deficit, also published last month, has gone up to 3 billion pounds from 2.75 billion pounds, even though the company said that also took changing mortality trends into account. Companies have been forced to pay more into their schemes due to a decade of falling interest rates since the financial crisis, but Britain’s schemes are still only 91 percent funded, the PPF said. Those of the biggest 350 listed firms are in their weakest position since 2009, a PwC report in June said. FILE PHOTO: A road sign warning drivers of elderly people crossing the road is seen in Hale, northern England February 19, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo After the Bank of England raised rates this month, many corporate pensions advisers will be looking to reflect the brighter outlook from rising yields, said Ameet Patel, senior research analyst at Northern Trust Capital Markets. FTSE 100 schemes had a total deficit of 36 billion pounds at end-2016, according to RBC calculations, though rising stock markets have helped their positions since then. If every FTSE 100 company followed Tesco, using updated mortality statistics and increasing the discount rate by 0.3 percentage points, they would enjoy a total accounting surplus of 54 billion pounds, RBC analyst Gordon Aitken said. ROOM FOR MANEUVER Who is in the scheme is key. While there has been a slowdown since 2011 in improvements in life expectancy for people in England and Wales, longevity assumptions have improved for richer men, something their employers need to bear in mind, the regulator said. “Defined benefit schemes have a preponderance of older male members,” said Lesley Titcomb, chief executive of The Pensions Regulator. “If you have a higher proportion of affluent males in your membership, using a general assumption about longevity would not be right.” The regulator and trustees look at the triennial rather than the accounting pensions scheme figure. Trustees may also be cautious about approving a too-big, too-quick change in assumptions in case the trend reverses. “Are you prepared to add the more generous longevity assumptions and be proved wrong in five years?” said pensions consultant and independent trustee John Ralfe, pointing out that longevity assumptions have proved wrong in the past. Douglas Anderson, partner, Club Vita, which assesses longevity statistics, agreed: “We shouldn’t get hung up about the last two years but about how long the trend is going to continue - for the next 30-40 years.” Tesco’s use of estimated long-term corporate bond yields rather than its previous use of longer-dated, lower-yielding government bonds was the biggest help in cutting its deficit. Not all schemes may have previously taken such a conservative approach, however, potentially leaving them less scope to follow suit. While BT’s discount rate is 2.5 percent, other firms with large pension deficits such as BP ( BP.L ) and Shell ( RDSa.L ) use higher rates, of 2.7 percent and 3 percent respectively, RBC said. And with any changes needing auditor or regulatory approval, companies will need to consider them carefully despite the “nudge” from Tesco, said Joe Dabrowski, head of investment and governance at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, which represents pension scheme professionals. ”Although there’s some flexibility, it doesn’t mean you can just stick anything you want in it and magic your deficit away. “Your assumptions will have to be grounded in realistic assumptions... They need to be in the bounds of realism and backed up by some supporting evidence.” ($1 = 0.7570 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-companies-pensions/death-and-the-discount-rate-uk-companies-weigh-pensions-tweaks-idUSKBN1DL0WS'|'2017-11-21T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'd4dbea582b9698d41c82627312feef5efaab39e6'|'NZX boosts efforts to lure listings as software star Xero spurns New Zealand'|'WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand’s stock exchange NZX has set up a specialist team to generate new public offerings and to target overseas businesses as it faces a dearth of listings and the loss of Xero, its star player.Investors were already fretting about the lack of new listings and weak liquidity in the Pacific nation’s exchange, when global accounting software developer Xero ( XRO.NZ ) announced it was abandoning the NZX ( NZX.NZ ) to focus on its existing Australian listing.NZX Chief Executive Mark Petersen described Xero’s move as “disappointing” and acknowledged it gave renewed impetus to the market provider’s strategy, which it launched work on at the start of this year, to focus on luring new companies to its main board.“We absolutely recognize that we need to put a lot of emphasis on deepening the market, making it more liquid,” Petersen told Reuters in a phone interview.NZX set up a team to generate more IPOs from local businesses by promoting the exchange to “influencers” such as accountants and investment bankers who worked with companies.It was also targeting overseas firms operating in New Zealand, particularly in the insurance, travel and industrial sectors, arguing that listing on the NZX reinforced customers’ awareness of the foreign company and enabled local employees to participate in company share schemes.The NZX attracted seven new listings in 2017, and that figure dropped to just one so far in 2017, frustrating brokers and fund managers.“It has been quite a struggle,” said Grant Williamson, director of Christchurch-based broker Hamilton Hindin Greene. “We’d love to have more options on the market to promote to our investors, for more diversification of our portfolios.”LOSS OF A KEY PLAYER Wellington-headquartered Xero said this month that it would quit the NZX in February as it focuses on its Australian listing.The announcement shocked investors and prompted a round of soul-searching as to why one of the country’s biggest commercial success stories had left the local exchange, on which it generated around 3 percent of annual trade.Xero Chief Executive Rod Drury told Reuters that the NZX was not enabling it to attract enough of the growth-focussed global investors that it wanted as it expands in overseas markets, including the United States.“It’s kind of inevitable and healthy that exceptional companies may graduate from a small market if you have global aspirations - that’s a healthy system - but what that means is you’ve got to keep the other companies birthing,” said Drury, who served as the exchange’s director between 2009 and 2013.Xero first listed on the NZX in 2007 and its share price has since grown more than 33-fold.To get on major U.S. investors’ radar, Drury said Xero needed to be included in a higher-profile benchmark index.Funneling all its trading into the ASX ( ASX.AX ) would likely see the firm hit the ASX 200 Index, compiled by Standard & Poors, in the first half of 2018, Drury said.The company’s shares took an initial tumble after the de-listing was announced on Nov. 9, but have since risen 2.5 percent to NZ$33.54 ($22.80).Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nzx-ipo/nzx-boosts-efforts-to-lure-listings-as-software-star-xero-spurns-new-zealand-idINKBN1DL0AO'|'2017-11-21T01:41:00.000+02:00'
'd5b09064a986f9e93a783557745bab425db547d8'|'M&A hopes boost ProSieben after CEO quits'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in ProSiebenSat.1 ( PSMGn.DE ) rose almost 4 percent on Monday on news that its chief executive would quit early after a series of missteps, rekindling hopes the German broadcaster could become an acquisition target.The logo of Germany''s biggest commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is seen on a satellite dish at the headquarters in Unterfoehring, near Munich February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Thomas Ebeling presided over a string of profit warnings and an exodus of senior managers this year and then had to apologise for calling the company’s core audience fat and poor. He will leave in February 2018, the company said on Sunday.Ebeling, 59, was destined to lead the company’s digital efforts as part of plans to shift away from its stagnant broadcasting core business, a source familiar with the plan said.But earlier this year, investors told Reuters they were confused by the company’s digital strategy, especially after Ebeling raised 500 million euros from them in a surprise deal to fund acquisitions but had not yet spent the money.ProSieben shares have been the worst performers among the German blue-chip DAX .GDAXI constituents this year, falling by almost a third. By 1017 GMT on Monday, the stock was up 3.9 percent at 26.27 euros.“ProSieben flags up as an obvious M&A target,” wrote Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker, adding that Comcast’s ( CMCSA.O ) NBCUniversal could be a buyer, having previously signalled interest in international expansion and ProSieben specifically.Comcast was not immediately available to comment while Prosieben declined to comment.“ProSieben’s announcement last night that the current CEO Thomas Ebeling will step down in February 2018 (ahead of his contract end) might additionally trigger such a deal,” he wrote, keeping his “hold” rating on the stock.The company’s general counsel Conrad Albert, who is also a board member for external affairs and industry relations, was appointed deputy CEO.NO OBVIOUS DEAL Several senior bankers familiar with the sector played down the chances of ProSieben being taken over by an American rival in the near future. They also said the U.S. market offered more attractive M&A opportunities at the moment, with Comcast ( CMCSA.O ) looking at some of Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) studios and TV operations.Discovery Communications ( DISCA.O ), another potential consolidator which has made some inroads in Europe after acquiring Eurosport in France and Prosieben’s Nordic TV, is currently busy merging with Scripps Networks ( SNI.O ), one of the bankers said.But over time, if Prosieben manages to separate its digital business, its relative low price could make it attractive to these players again, another banker close to the company said.In Europe, viewers’ preference for local content has also so far hindered cross-border deals. Bankers expect that trend to continue for now, while in Germany, market dominance with domestic rival RTL ( RRTL.DE ) would make it difficult for a tie-up to gain regulatory approval.“Consolidation could eventually happen in Europe but ProSieben first needs to put its house in order,” said one of the bankers, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.ProSieben has spent only a quarter of its 1 billion euro cash pile earmarked for M&A since its 2016 cash call but is looking to raise more money from new investors to develop e-commerce and content production.Ebeling said earlier this month that sector consolidation was a possibility but that ProSieben would not be a buyer and that a merger with a rival was not on the cards.ProSieben has a virtual duopoly with RTL, Germany’s other free-to-air commercial broadcast group, in the German TV advertising market.($1 = 0.8474 euros)Additional reporting by Joern Poltz in Munich and Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-prosieben-media/prosieben-shares-rise-on-ma-hopes-after-ceo-quits-idUSKBN1DK13K'|'2017-11-20T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'93ceaf57196dbf9a1fb15da343e8b408f7301d61'|'VW raises mid-term profit, sales outlook'|'  11:29 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Volkswagen raises mid-term profit, sales outlook   BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) raised its mid-term outlook for group profit and sales on Monday, sustaining investor hopes that the carmaker can further its recovery despite shouldering billions of costs for its electric-car offensive. A man uses phone under a Volkswagen logo at the Shanghai Auto Show, in Shanghai, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The world’s largest automaker by sales announced on Friday more than 34 billion euros ($40.06 billion) of spending on zero-emission cars and digital mobility services by the end of 2022, revising up an investment pledge for more than 20 billion euros made in September. On Monday, VW said rebounding emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia and demand for new VW-badged sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) may together lead group revenue to exceed the 2016 record of 217 billion euros by more than a quarter by 2020. Eight months ago, the carmaker had guided for that benchmark to beat the 2016 result by more than a fifth. Similarly, it said 2020 operating profit (EBIT) could rise by 25 percent or more from the 7.1 billion euros reached in 2016 even as investments in electric cars and enhanced combustion-engine technology keep growing, VW said. That was a slight upward revision from the straight 25-percent gain it had predicted in March. “Cost discipline, productivity improvements and execution of one-time product launches are certainly vital to reach our goals,” finance chief Frank Witter said on a call with analysts. Analysts welcomed the revisions as well as VW’s first-ever publication of a free cash flow target, both as signs of transparency and the carmaker’s financial health. VW expects net cash flow to grow to 10 billion euros or more by 2020 from 4.3 billion last year. “It is increasingly hard for investors to ignore the impressive turnaround of VW,” said Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst who kept his “Outperform” rating on the stock but lifted the target price to 210 euros from 190 euros. VW shares were trading up 4.3 percent at 165.5 euros at 1335 GMT, the biggest gainer in Germany''s benchmark DAX .GDAXI index. Still, analysts have said VW may incur problems with tightening emissions rules in Europe, China and other regions as it pushes to launch more than 45 SUVs which typically consume more fuel than ordinary passenger cars. Earlier this month, the European Union’s executive arm called for a 30-percent cut in the average CO2 emission of carmakers’ fleets by 2030 compared with 2021 levels. If they are found in breach of new rules, carmakers face potential fines in the millions of euros, with penalties set at 95 euros for every gram of CO2 above the limit and for each new vehicle registered in that year. “Achieving compliance with CO2 (carbon dioxide) terms has not become easier, it’s actually quite the opposite,” CFO Witter said. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Jason Neely and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-outlook/volkswagen-raises-2020-sales-outlook-on-emerging-market-growth-suvs-idUKKBN1DK197'|'2017-11-20T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'1dc12828eca4025d496caa4d35f9d4f3427a3bb8'|'Toshiba $5 billion stock issue results in huge dilution but delisting risk removed'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp’s plan to raise some $5.4 billion through a sale of new shares will help it avoid a delisting, but will also see more than 30 overseas investors, including activist funds, own 35 percent of the embattled conglomerate.FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo The move, decided at a board meeting on Sunday, will allow Toshiba to pay off billions of dollars in liabilities at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear power business, Westinghouse. That in turn gives it the funds to return to positive net worth by the end of the financial year in March, as an $18 billion sale of its prized memory chip unit is unlikely to close before then.The issue of 2.28 billion new shares at 262.8 yen per share, a 10 percent discount to Friday’s close, will result in a massive 54 percent dilution in earnings per share.Toshiba’s shares were, however, down just 5 percent in early afternoon trade as the delisting risk was removed and as the capital raising had been expected. The stock was last trading at 277 yen - a level above the sale price.“Toshiba’s fund raising news eliminates the risk of Toshiba being delisted so that part is positive,” said Takatoshi Itoshima, chief portfolio manager at Commons Asset Management.“What’s also positive is that the fund raising will improve the company’s financial health. There is an argument that the company will be left with nothing (without the chip business), but it’s good that the company’s capital will recover.”Third Point LLC, Oasis Management Company and Cerberus Capital Management were among the more than 30 investors which invested through some 60 funds.Singapore-based fund Effissimo Capital Management, established by former colleagues of Japan’s best-known activist investor, Yoshiaki Murakami, will become the largest shareholder in Toshiba with an 11.34 percent stake.Payments for the new investment are due to be completed on Dec. 5.Toshiba also confirmed that it is looking at selling Westinghouse assets.Sources told Reuters in September that Westinghouse is working with investment bank PJT Partners Inc on a sale process.Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Apollo Global Management LLC have teamed up to bid for the business while Cerberus Capital Management LP was in talks with U.S. nuclear power plant component provider BWX Technologies Inc about submitting a joint bid, the sources said at the time.Toshiba had initially planned to use funds from the sale of its chip unit to cover its Westinghouse liabilities, but a highly competitive and contentious auction process led to delays in deciding on the buyer and has meant that Toshiba may not obtain the necessary anti-trust clearance by the end of March.The chip deal still faces legal challenges from its chip joint venture partner Western Digital, which argues no deal can proceed without its consent and has sought an injunction through an international arbitration court.Toshiba is demanding that Western Digital drop the litigation as a condition over a coming round of a joint investment in Toshiba’s new flash-memory chip production line in Yokkaichi, Japan. The two companies held talks in the United States last week for settlements, but have yet to agree on details, sources familiar with the matter said.($1 = 112.0400 yen)Additional reporting by Ran Kim and Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-financing/toshiba-5-billion-stock-issue-results-in-huge-dilution-but-delisting-risk-removed-idINKBN1DK0BN'|'2017-11-20T06:51:00.000+02:00'
'daabad8301f3761d275c76dd8265b283f743770d'|'Amsterdam to host EU drug agency, beats Milan after lots drawn - sources'|'November 20, 2017 / 10:32 AM / a minute ago Amsterdam, Paris win post-Brexit EU agencies in lucky dip thrillers Gabriela Baczynska , Alastair Macdonald 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Amsterdam and Paris won the right to host the two EU agencies that must leave London on Brexit after a dramatic ministerial meeting in Brussels that left both result decided by drawing lots after votes were tied. The European Medicines Authority (EMA), a key player in the continent’s healthcare industry, will go to Amsterdam, which pipped the favourite Milan, and the European Banking Authority (EBA) will go to Paris, winner in the lucky dip over Dublin. “It’s like losing a final on penalties,” Italy’s EU affairs minister Sandro Gozi told reporters, adding that it had left a “bitter taste in the mouth” for an EMA bid that was not behind at any stage. He rejected, however, talk of “betrayal” among any allies who had promised Milan support before the secret ballot. The outcome was welcomed by European pharmaceuticals bodies. The EMA had warned that many of its staff might quit, possibly disrupting healthcare in Europe, if governments had chosen a less attractive host city, notably in the ex-communist east. Steve Bates, CEO of Britain’s BioIndustry Association said: “Businesses now need certainty. The best way to do this is by an early agreement to a transition timeframe and continued close regulatory cooperation. We must now ensure Brexit does not disrupt the safe supply of vital medicines to tens of millions of families in the EU 27 and the UK.” Eastern governments were left empty-handed. Frankfurt, home to the European Central Bank and aiming to be the Union’s primary financial centre after Brexit, suffered a blow when it was badly beaten in the second round of EBA voting. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is seen in London, Britain, April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo In a third round, Paris overhauled Dublin, which had been just one vote short of a second-round majority. With the scores in the runoff tied again by abstention, Paris won when the Estonian minister chairing the meeting again had to draw lots. Eastern governments had emphasised that there are relatively few EU agencies located in the countries which joined the bloc only after the Cold War. But their hopes were dashed. In the EMA voting, Slovakia, whose capital Bratislava was pipped into fourth place in the first round, abstained in protest at the failure of any eastern city to progress. In all, 19 cities had bid for the prestige and economic boost that the arrival of the EMA’s 900 staff and many offices for international pharmaceuticals companies will bring. Estonia’s EU minister Matti Maasikas, who was chairing the voting session, called the contest “a sad reminder of the concrete consequences of Brexit”. Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019. Despite fierce competition, the 27 EU states were keen to avoid any protracted and bruising dispute over the matter as they see preserving unity as essential in facing Brexit, the biggest setback in the post-World War Two history of European integration. “Whatever the outcome, the real winner of today’s vote is EU27. Organised and getting ready for Brexit,” EU summit chair Donald Tusk tweeted ahead of the votes. Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Francesco Guarascio, Peter Maushagen,; Writing by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-agencies/eu-to-choose-post-brexit-homes-for-two-london-based-agencies-idUKKBN1DK14A'|'2017-11-20T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'7afc298698d8bbe9f52faab6144b5a309c94285a'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Chile stocks drop 4 pct after first-round vote'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:19 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago EMERGING MARKETS-Chile stocks drop 4 pct after first-round vote Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Nov 20 (Reuters) - Chile''s peso currency and benchmark IPSA stock index fell on Monday after market-friendly presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera garnered less support than expected in the country''s first round presidential election. Chileans voted for a successor to outgoing center-left President Michelle Bachelet on Sunday. While billionaire former President Pinera will move on to a Dec. 17 runoff against center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier, the race is now seen as tighter than previously forecast. The IPSA stock index was down 4 percent at 5165.28 points as of 12:00 local time (1500 GMT), on track for its sharpest single-session fall since 2011. While the index hit its lowest level since September, it is still up 24 percent this year on rising copper prices and expectations Pinera will win. The peso suffered its sharpest depreciation against the dollar since 2013, slipping 1.97 percent to 637.90 per dollar. Pinera''s underperformance led to expectations of a tight second round, particularly if turnout is high, though Guillier must unite a fractured center-left in order to win. Both candidates would keep in place the top copper exporter''s longstanding free-market model, though Pinera has promised investor-friendly policies to turbocharge growth. Mexico''s stock market as well as stock and currency markets in Brazil and Argentina were closed on Monday due to national holidays. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1500 GMT. Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1137,75 0,11 31,95 MSCI LatAm 2766,76 -0,32 18,20 Chile IPSA 5165,28 -4.00 24,43 Chile IGPA 26101,68 3,83 25,89 Colombia IGBC 10792,55 -0.23 6,80 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Mexico peso 19,022 -0,48 8,30 Chile peso 637,90 -1,97 4,89 Colombia peso 3013,26 -0,53 -0,39 Peru sol 3,244 -.01 3,31 (Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-chile-stocks-drop-4-pct-after-first-round-vote-idUSL1N1NQ0OY'|'2017-11-20T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'dc6883b974fe0c2547fac65858f6a87261bbe9be'|'Britain''s easyJet encouraged by pricing trends as it outlines Air Berlin costs'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:32 AM / in 21 minutes EasyJet boosted by improved pricing trends as McCall bows out Alistair Smout 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - EasyJet ( EZJ.L ) said on Tuesday fare levels in Europe were set to rise this winter after it benefited from the woes of rivals to post record passenger numbers in the last year, prompting its departing CEO to say she was leaving the airline in good shape. FILE PHOTO - An EasyJet aircraft is ready for take off at Cointrin airport in Geneva, Switzerland, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The share price was up nearly 7 percent at 1365 pence by 1138 GMT after Carolyn McCall landed her last set of results before joining British broadcaster ITV ( ITV.L ) as CEO in January. She will be replaced at Europe’s second-biggest budget airline by Johan Lundgren, a former executive at travel group TUI ( TUIT.L ). EasyJet’s strong performance came after a tumultuous few months for the European airline industry, with Monarch, Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) and Alitalia all going into administration this year. EasyJet said that the resulting reduction in market capacity, made worse by a spate of cancellations at bigger rival Ryanair ( RYA.I ), was now helping to support prices. In the final three months of 2017 the company said it now expects revenue per seat growth at constant currencies to increase by a low- to mid-single-digit percentage. “When capacity comes out of the market, it benefits structural winners. We have taken advantage of capacity coming out,” McCall told reporters, adding that she believed the airline’s prospects were bright. “You have to leave when it’s on the up, and I think that it’s very much on the up.” Underlying profits before tax for the year ended Sept. 30 fell by 17 percent to 408 million pounds, within a forecast range of 405-410 million pounds and largely due to a 101 million-pound hit from exchange rate moves. Analysts are now looking to McCall’s successor Lundgren to keep a tight rein on costs when he takes over on Dec. 1, when he must also quickly get to grips with the airline’s planned purchase of parts of Air Berlin. The airline said headline costs per seat were expected to fall by around 2 percent in the current financial year, before taking account of the new Air Berlin business. Unit costs per seat increased in the last financial year by 2.4 percent to 53.52 pounds, mainly as a result of the fall in the value of sterling. It said unit revenues per seat fell 0.4 percent to 58.23 pounds, “reflecting a currency benefit, strong ancillary revenue and increased load factors, alleviating ticket pricing pressures”. Looking ahead, the company said operations at Berlin’s Tegel airport would run a headline loss of around 60 million pounds in 2018, with one-off costs of around 100 million pounds. Much of the costs will come from leasing crewed planes to build up operations over the winter and early summer, with the first flight from Tegel expected to take place in early January. McCall said that the transition to a new CEO would be smooth, even in this busy time for the airline. “There are plates to spin, but they are manageable plates,” she said. “It’s the best time to leave a company. It’s in good hands.” Reporting by Alistair SmoutEditing by Kate Holton and Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-easyjet-results/britains-easyjet-encouraged-by-pricing-trends-as-it-outlines-air-berlin-costs-idUKKBN1DL0LG'|'2017-11-21T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'ea7190d9fb2c257ffb578958494dc10188d80230'|'ISDA panel to reconvene on Venezuela CDS auctions'|'NEW YORK, Nov 20 (IFR) - An industry committee said on Monday it will reconvene next week to discuss terms of two auctions that will determine the payout on some US$1.5bn of CDS contracts tied to Venezuela’s bonds.The 15-member committee, organized by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), declared Venezuela and state-owned oil company PDVSA in default on Thursday after the country failed to make timely payments on some of its bonds.That decision will trigger payouts to holders of Venezuela’s and PDVSA’s credit default swaps - derivative contracts investors use to hedge their risks.The committee now needs to come up with a list of bonds that will be delivered into the auctions - one for Venezuela and one for PDVSA.It will hold its next conference call on the issue on November 27, it said in a statement posted on ISDA’s website on Monday.The auction process will determine how much the bonds are worth and, in turn, the cash compensation buyers of CDS protection will receive.The face value of net CDS contracts outstanding on Venezuela’s sovereign bonds is around US$1.3bn, according to data from clearing house Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.On PDVSA, net CDS contracts outstanding total a smaller US$250m. (Reporting by Davide Scigliuzzo; Editing by Marc Carnegie) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/isda-panel-to-reconvene-on-venezuela-cds/isda-panel-to-reconvene-on-venezuela-cds-auctions-idINL1N1NQ1VG'|'2017-11-20T20:01:00.000+02:00'
'73963f917e70ae6f8b7189b36846f2b2da9cf40d'|'Alibaba to buy 36.2 percent Sun Art for $2.9 billion'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:04 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Alibaba goes offline with $2.9 billion stake in China''s top grocer Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (This story corrects title of Weiwen Han in paragraph 9 from analyst to managing partner for Greater China.) BEIJING (Reuters) - Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) said on Monday it would invest HK$22.4 billion ($2.87 billion) for a major stake in China’s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd ( 6808.HK ), part of a wider push into offline retail. As part of an alliance with Auchan Retail S.A. [AUCH.UL] and Ruentex Group, Alibaba would buy the stake from Ruentex while Auchan Retail would boost its stake, the three companies said in a joint statement. The alliance would target opportunities in China’s $500 billion food retail sector, as Alibaba races to build big-data capabilities in the offline retail market where roughly 85 percent of sales are made. “Physical stores serve an indispensable role during the consumer journey, and should be enhanced through data-driven technology and personalized services in the digital economy,” Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said in the statement. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Sun Art, which were suspended on Nov. 13, resumed on Monday and were down 5.3 percent in morning trade, while the benchmark index .HSI was flat. The deal would give French retailer Groupe Auchan SA, China’s Alibaba Group and Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex 36.18 percent, 36.16 percent and 4.67 percent stakes respectively in Sun Art. Alibaba would replace Ruentex as the second-largest shareholder. FILE PHOTO: An employee is seen behind a glass wall with the logo of Alibaba at the company''s headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. REUTERS/Chance Chan/File Photo Alibaba has invested upwards of $9.3 billion in brick-and-mortar stores since 2015. It has launched many un-staffed concept shops in the past year, including grocery and coffee stores. The $474 billion firm is taking more risks to secure offline, rural and overseas buyers as China’s urban e-commerce market shows signs of saturating, including purchasing extensive infrastructure which it had previously avoided. “They’re getting into a territory that’s not their core strength ... for example securing a property, the licenses to sell certain products, paying tax, more labor and so on,” said Weiwen Han, managing partner for Greater China at Bain & Company. Slideshow (2 Images) “On one hand they really need to do it, but on the other hand they are facing a lot of challenges that they have never experienced before.” Sun Art is China’s grocery store leader with about 8.2 percent of the market, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel. It operates about 450 hypermarkets across China under the RT-Mart and Auchan banners. It also operates unmanned stores under the Auchan Minute brand. It has been slow to go online, with its platform Feiniu lagging bigger players like China Resources and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ). In a separate statement, Sun Art said Alibaba’s Taobao China Holding Ltd would make a general offer for the company at HK$6.50 apiece. Reporting by Cate Cadell and Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-sun-art-retail/alibaba-to-buy-36-2-percent-sun-art-for-2-9-billion-idINKBN1DK057'|'2017-11-19T23:04:00.000+02:00'
'4d3b02c59afc78029118fda42a90f247391f0c24'|'Indian soyoil, crude palm oil jump 4 percent on import duty hike'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian soyoil and crude palm oil futures jumped by the daily maximum limit of 4 percent on Monday after the government raised import tax on edible oils, traders said.Indian farmers spray insecticides on their soybean crop in Kurana village, on the outskirts of Bhopal August 18, 2004. REUTERS/Raj Patidar/Files India has raised import tax on edible oil to the highest level in more than a decade, the government said in an order, as the world’s biggest importer of edible oils aims to support its farmers.Soyoil futures were up 4 percent at 726.35 rupees ($11.16) per 10 kg at 0504 GMT, while crude palm oil futures were trading at 576.50 rupees per 10 kg, also up 4 percent.Soybean futures jumped nearly 3 percent in early trade on Monday, while rapeseed futures were up 2 percent.($1 = 65.0925 Indian rupees)Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-vegoils-prices/indian-soyoil-crude-palm-oil-jump-4-percent-on-import-duty-hike-idINKBN1DK0CU'|'2017-11-20T07:18:00.000+02:00'
'7589957a862ecccfc459f124340046faef53a25e'|'''No fireworks'' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress'|'November 18, 2017 / 7:13 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago ''No fireworks'' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress David Ljunggren , Anthony Esposito 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Negotiations in Mexico to update NAFTA have not made much progress on tough U.S. demands that could sink the 1994 trade pact but the current round of talks are progressing with civility, a well-placed source said on Saturday. A NAFTA logo is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting in Mexico City for the fifth of seven planned rounds to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from. Time is running short to seal a deal by the deadline of end-March 2018. Officials say next year’s Mexican presidential election means talks after that date will not be possible. The U.S. administration has made a series of demands that the other members say are unacceptable, such as a five-year “sunset” clause and tightening so-called rules of origin to boost the North American content of autos. “It is very slow moving but there are no fireworks,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks, adding there had “not been much conversation at all” on the more contentious U.S. proposals. Within hours of the latest round of talks formally starting on Friday, Canada was complaining about inflexibility by the United States. Officials have so far discussed other issues such as labour, gender, intellectual property, energy and telecommunications but it is too soon to say whether there will be any breakthroughs this round, added the source. “The atmosphere is fine, we are working well,” chief Mexican negotiator Ken Smith told reporters. An official from one of the three nations told Reuters that the spirit behind the scenes was generally pleasant. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Though the mood is calmer than the tense scenes last month during the fourth round in Arlington, Virginia, the negotiations are now beyond the halfway point of an initial schedule with few clear signs of process. Mexican officials hope chapters on telecommunications and e-commerce will be concluded by the end of business on Tuesday, but there has been no indication of this yet. Although negotiators are scheduled to discuss rules of origin every day starting Saturday, the source said detailed talks on boosting North American content would not be held before the end of the round on Tuesday. Canada and Mexico say the new rules of origin are unworkable and would damage the highly-integrated auto industry. “I hope the United States understands there are things ... that Mexico won’t accept, and (I hope) the negotiating process becomes more rational,” Moises Kalach, head of the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby, told Reuters. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Friday revised its official objectives to conform to its current demands. The move prompted U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, to remove a “hold” he had put in place to block the confirmation of two Trump administration nominees for deputy USTR positions, a Wyden aide said. Wyden had complained the trade office was keeping members of Congress “in the dark”. Additional reporting by David Lawder, Dave Graham, Adriana Barrera and Noe Torres in Mexico City; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Alistair Bell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-nafta/no-fireworks-at-nafta-talks-but-few-signs-of-progress-source-idUKKBN1DI0QP'|'2017-11-19T01:11:00.000+02:00'
'5a87dde8b19579f8743112873b6cd0694e99aaf7'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'November 20, 2017 / 11:12 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds Marvell Technology, Auchan, SandRidge Energy and Apache Corp; Updates Grupo Barcelo) Nov 20 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1430 GMT on Monday: ** Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd said it would buy smaller rival Cavium Inc in a $6 billion deal, as it seeks to expand its wireless connectivity business in a fast consolidating semiconductor industry. ** French retailer Auchan said it had not been approached by e-commerce giant Amazon about deals or partnerships in Europe, with speculation still rife that Amazon may be eyeing European transactions. ** Activist investor Fir Tree Partners opposed SandRidge Energy Inc’s $746-million deal to buy rival Bonanza Creek Energy Inc, saying an acquisition would drain all of the oil and gas producer’s cash. ** South African private hospital group Mediclinic, does not intend to make another offer for Spire Healthcare, the firm said after the British company rejected an earlier bid. ** Grupo Barcelo has made a tentative takeover approach for rival NH Hotel Group to create the biggest hotel operator in Spain, where tourism is booming, with over 600 hotels worldwide. ** Shares in German utility RWE rallied on renewed investor hopes for a deal for its Innogy unit as well as on expectations of a less stringent climate policy following the failure of coalition talks in Germany. ** Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) said it may sell as much as a 20 percent stake in its fuel distribution unit, potentially raising up to $2.8 billion. ** Independent UK-based infrastructure investment fund Ancala Partners has finalized its acquisition of Apache Corp’s interests in two North Sea gas pipeline assets for an undisclosed sum, it said. (Compiled by Divya Grover in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1NQ3PS'|'2017-11-20T16:48:00.000+02:00'
'125857ad4b47492714e8e4a5f32e4cc1913b9181'|'U.S. patent review board becomes conservative target'|'NEW YORK(Reuters) - In August, a dozen inventors gathered around a fire pit outside the headquarters of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and set alight patents they said had been rendered worthless by an overreaching federal government.“It’s time for us to make patents great again,” Michael Caputo, an advisor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told those gathered. US Inventor, the group behind the protest Caputo now represents as a spokesman, is calling for the abolition of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative tribunal run by the patent office that reviews the validity of patents.The rallying cry marks an about-face for some conservatives, who broadly supported the board’s creation in 2011 as a way to rein in trial lawyers and “patent trolls,” who hold patents for the sole purpose of suing big companies for licensing fees.“Things have really flipped when it comes to the conservative perspective on patents,” said Charles Duan, a lawyer with left-leaning consumer group Public Knowledge.Much of the credit goes to activists who have convinced many conservatives that the real problem is not out-of-control litigation but how the tribunal designed to speed up resolving patent disputes favors big business over smaller rivals.The change of positions has been aided by deepening right-wing distrust of tech giants, such as Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc''s Google, which have benefited the most from PTAB while embracing liberal causes like immigration or gay and transgender rights. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2A1LfXV )The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule sometime next year on whether the tribunal is an unconstitutional intrusion of the executive branch onto matters reserved for the courts and influential conservative groups are already weighing in.The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, Federalist Society, and the American Conservative Union have published articles or submitted briefs arguing that PTAB should be abolished.Most legal experts expect it to survive, though, noting the Supreme Court has largely accepted the powers of executive-branch courts in other areas, such as public employee benefits. The mounting criticism of PTAB could still convince the court’s conservative justices to vote for abolition, said Q. Todd Dickinson, a lawyer with the firm Polsinelli and a former director of the patent office.The advocacy effort by conservative groups could also convince the Trump administration to curb the patent board’s power, Dickinson said.AN ANTI-TROLL WEAPON More than 70 percent of the Republicans in Congress backed the legislation that created PTAB. At the time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the law would “help reduce unnecessary litigation against American businesses.”In February the same business lobbying group criticized PTAB for creating “cost and uncertainty for patent owners.”U.S. Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who holds patents relating to computer interfaces, was not in Congress at the time the board was created, but said conservatives’ initial intent to curb excessive litigation has gradually given way to fears that PTAB is helping the wrong businesses.The board’s creation was pushed by big tech companies, banks and retailers, who complained they were being inundated with “troll” lawsuits.Successfully defending a patent case in federal court often takes years and costs millions of dollars, escalating pressure to settle. PTAB offered a cheaper and faster alternative. The average cost of litigating a PTAB petition to a final decision is about $250,000, according to patent risk management company RPX Corp.There are no juries and limited live witness testimony in PTAB proceedings, and its administrative judges apply a lower standard of proof than would be required in federal court.About 80 percent of the patents that PTAB makes final decisions on are either partially or fully invalidated, according to a report issued in October by the patent office. But the agency also said 56 percent of patents challenged at PTAB are upheld, in part because the court frequently declines requests to review patents.A spokesman for the patent office declined to comment.Inventors say PTAB has made it much harder to get patents licensed by big technology, which now routinely respond to patent infringement claims by initiating PTAB proceedings.“Patents owners who don’t have the wherewithal to withstand serial challenges to the validity of their patents just can’t license them,” said David Pridham, chief executive of Dominion Harbor, a firm that owns and attempts to license former Eastman Kodak Co patents.Paul Morinville, a cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur from Indiana and the founder of US Inventor, said it has become harder for him to get funding for his business based on software patents he holds.Morinville has been speaking to Republican lawmakers and their staffers for the past four years and many conservatives credit his group with raising alarm about the patent tribunal.“They are as close to your iconic garage inventor as you can get, so their stories really resonate,” said James Edwards, a conservative lobbyist focused on patent law.While conservative groups have been most vocal, the debate transcends party lines. Some Republicans, such as Representative Darrell Issa of California, keep supporting the PTAB, while some Democrats have joined Republicans in calls to curb its powers.Many trial lawyers whose case loads have fallen also oppose it.But many liberals have embraced PTAB as a means of eliminating brand-name pharmaceutical patents that keep drug prices high.[L2N1M81Z0]Generic drug makers and large tech companies are also among the board’s supporters, arguing it has actually increased competition by weeding out low-quality patents.The conservative backlash in part reflects how the right views tech giants like Apple and Google, which thanks to the tribunal have prevailed in hundreds of disputes with patent owners seeking hefty compensation.“Google, Amazon, and Apple and other big tech companies - you look at their power and it is really astounding. And they are generally left-leaning companies,” said Matthew Dowd, a conservative patent lawyer in Washington D.C. who has represented US Inventor. “Those dynamics are definitely playing into the increasing willingness of conservatives to speak up about patents.”Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Anthony Lin and Tomasz Janowski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-patent-ptab/u-s-patent-review-board-becomes-conservative-target-idINKBN1DK1VF'|'2017-11-20T17:37:00.000+02:00'
'322d5ee2dd9187e8ca8d2eb28f099c460c4213ef'|'SEBI asks for trading data as it probes WhatsApp messages: source'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - India''s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked for trading data on companies mentioned in a Reuters story last week about prescient messages on company earnings in social media chatrooms , a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.The logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is seen on the facade of its headquarters building in Mumbai, India March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade The Reuters investigation documented at least 12 cases of prescient messages about major Indian companies being posted in WhatsApp groups limited largely to traders and market insiders.“The regulator has asked the exchange to track the trading data for the companies mentioned in the Reuters report before and after their results were made public,” said an official at one of the bourses, who asked not to be identified, as he is not authorised to publicly discuss the matter.Earlier on Tuesday, Indian newspaper Economic Times, citing an unnamed official, reported that the regulator has asked the exchanges for this data.SEBI, the National Stock Exchange and rival bourse BSE Ltd all did not respond to requests for comment.Ajay Tyagi, chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), speaks during the inauguration of the NSE''s International Exchange at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar, India June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Amit Dave Ajay Tyagi, chairman of SEBI, told Reuters last week that the regulator will investigate the matter.The messages about the 12 companies with prescient information obtained by Reuters involved mostly what were characterised as being upcoming quarterly results, including specific metrics such as net profits, revenues and operating margins.They also included messages about upcoming bonus share issues or revenue guidance.Seven of the companies are part of the benchmark NSE index: Dr. Reddy‘s, the drug maker Cipla, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, IT services firm Wipro and Bajaj Finance.The other five were Mahindra Holidays and Resorts, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd, IT services providers Mindtree Ltd and Mastek Ltd, and India Glycols, a petrochemicals company.India beefed up insider trading rules in early 2015, and it expanded what material constitutes “unpublished price-sensitive information” to include “any information” that is not “generally available” and that could have a market impact.Editing by Euan Rocha and Jacqueline WongMORE ON REUTERSIndians face higher power bills as government mulls passing on green costsIndia asks state oil companies to boost gas supply to petcoke ban-hit statesRussia finds 1,000-times normal level of radioactive isotope after nuclear accident claims '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-whatsapp-probe/sebi-asks-for-trading-data-as-it-probes-whatsapp-messages-source-idINKBN1DL168'|'2017-11-21T13:22:00.000+02:00'
'c25be11e65709694e419e5707a0838c581a2b747'|'UPDATE 1-Rio Tinto''s U.S. copper smelter restarts, force majeure remains'|'(Adds background on smelter closure, company spokesman’s comments)Nov 20 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto Plc restarted the smelter at its large Kennecott mine in the United States last Friday after a nearly six-week outage but force majeure on refined copper has not yet been lifted, a company spokesman said on Monday.There was no timeline for when the force majeure would be lifted, spokesman Kyle Bennett said. A force majeure is usually implemented by companies during unforeseen events when they cannot meet commitments to customers.Rio Tinto halted production of refined copper at its smelter at the Utah-based mine on Oct. 8 after a worker was exposed to sulfur dioxide gases at the plant while removing debris from a boiler. The worker died two days later.Mining and milling operations had continued while the smelter was down, with ore being stockpiled for later processing, Bennett said.“Everything’s running normally,” Bennett said via telephone, adding that the company had put in place a number of additional controls and offered more training after the incident.Rio Tinto Kennecott comprises nearly 20 percent of U.S. copper production. The unit produced 156,500 tonnes of refined copper in 2016, about 63 percent of group output. (Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Sandra Maler and Matthew Lewis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/rio-tinto-kennecott-restart/update-1-rio-tintos-u-s-copper-smelter-restarts-force-majeure-remains-idUSL1N1NQ1TY'|'2017-11-21T00:20:00.000+02:00'
'8f393358dee64f57f01b1a928a3d364b23b02539'|'Morning News Call - India, November 21'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 11:30 am: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to address media on “Bullet Train & Modernization of Indian Economy” in New Delhi. 01:30 pm: ESAF Small Finance Bank to discuss key strategic initiatives and outlook in Mumbai. 01:45 pm: Farm Minister Radha Mohan Singh at World Fisheries Day in New Delhi. LIVECHAT - FX MARKETS We take a look at the FX markets with Eddie Tofpik, head of foreign exchange, ADMISI at 3:30 pm IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Mahindra wants to sell electric vehicles in U.S. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, one of India''s oldest vehicle manufacturers, is testing autonomous tractors, trucks and cars, while moving closer to bringing electric vehicles to the United States, Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Monday. • India''s biggest tax hike in a decade may cut palm oil imports India''s palm oil imports are likely to drop until the end of the year after the world''s largest edible oils buyer raised import taxes to the highest in more than a decade, importers and dealers said. • MRPL seeks 1 mln barrels of high-sulphur U.S. Oil India''s state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has floated its first tender to buy high-sulphur crude oil from the United States, a tender document showed on Monday. • Indian bond yields fall after cenbank cancels open market sale of debt Indian bond yields fell for the second straight day on Monday as traders took comfort from the central bank''s unexpected decision to cancel a scheduled sale of bonds via open market operation (OMO) post market hours on Friday. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • S.Korea, Japan say listing N.Korea as terror sponsor will pressure Pyongyang to denuclearise South Korea and Japan on Tuesday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it would ramp up pressure on Pyongyang to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. • White House asks U.S. Supreme Court to allow full travel ban The White House asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to allow President Donald Trump''s latest travel ban to take full effect after an appeals court in California ruled last week that only parts of it could be enacted. • Zimbabwe''s Mugabe faces impeachment after military takeover Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faces the start of impeachment proceedings on Tuesday that could see him ousted within the week, against the backdrop of a military takeover dubbed "Operation Restore Legacy".X LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,329.50, trading up 0.2 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to edge higher in early trade, as investors may continue buying notes after the country’s central bank withdrew an open market sale scheduled for this week. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 6.86 percent - 6.92 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open slightly lower against the dollar, as U.S. Treasury yields rose ahead of the Federal Reserve’s minutes due tomorrow, while weakness in euro was underpinned by the ongoing German political uncertainty, lifting demand for the greenback. GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with Verizon boosting the telecoms sector after the stock got an upgrade, while a deal in semiconductors lifted high-performing tech shares. • Asian stocks edged higher as investors took heart from further evidence of strength in the global economy, while the dollar hovered near a one-week high against its peers thanks to higher U.S. yields and a floundering euro. • The dollar gave back some of its gains in Asian trading but remained not far from a one-week high against a basket of currencies as German political uncertainty continued to pressure the euro. • U.S. Treasury yields rose on Monday as investors awaited minutes on Wednesday from the Fed’s last meeting, with no major economic releases due this week and trading expected to be subdued before the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. • Oil prices were little changed as expectations of an extended OPEC-led production cut were cancelled out by rising output in the United States. • Gold prices crept up after falling more than 1 percent in the previous session, with U.S. President Donald Trump''s move to put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism burnishing the metal''s safe-haven appeal. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.96/64.99 November 20 -$55.15 mln $157.73 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.05pct Month-to-date $2.44 bln -$268.74 mln Year-to-date $8.08 bln $25.68 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 65.0950 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Nachiket Tekawade in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-21-idINL3N1NR1QK'|'2017-11-21T00:31:00.000+02:00'
'746f3c4a6141c3bfa3adbf7e92da90f38102f051'|'What''s your beef? Europe, Latin American trade talks falter'|' 17 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago What''s your beef? Europe, Latin American trade talks falter Philip Blenkinsop 6 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A battle over beef between the European Union and Argentina and Brazil could push trade talks beyond a year-end deadline and lead to further years of delay. Farmer Philip Maguire''s Hereford and Aberdeen Angus cattle eat silage on his farm in Stepaside, Ireland November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne On-off trade talks between the EU and the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have spanned 17 years. But it is not clear the end-2017 deadline for a deal to set out how each market will open to the other - from EU cars and machinery to South American farm products - will be met. Talks were suspended once before in 2004 and officials say missing the current window of political opportunity could lead to more delays. The latest round of talks on Nov 6-10 between negotiators in Brasilia did not even address market access, the key part of any trade deal. Beef is the main sticking point. Mercosur countries want their farmers to sell more of their beef in Europe to compensate for a rise in industrial imports. EU farming nations such as Ireland and France are worried their farmers will lose out. Both sides say they would like a deal signed during a World Trade Organization meeting in Buenos Aires on Dec 10-13. “We are not shadow-boxing or shuffling our feet. We want this agreement,” European Commission vice president Jyrki Katainen said last Monday after visiting Argentinian and Brazilian presidents during the talks the previous week. A Mercosur official said there was a 50 percent chance of meeting the deadline. But he also said: “There are still many threats that can derail the negotiations... It’s not only a question of substance but also a question of timing.” Brazil holds presidential and general elections in October 2018 and failure to do the deal before campaigning gets underway could make it harder to conclude. A trans-Pacific trade alliance was scrapped after it became part of the political debate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. “There’s still work to be done... There is a window of opportunity which doesn’t go far beyond New Year,” EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said after EU trade ministers met in Brussels earlier this month. For the EU, the reduction in import duties could produce its most lucrative trade deal to date. It could also highlight the EU’s commitment to multilateral partnerships compared to the more protectionist stance of U.S. President Donald Trump. But there are also concerns that if the deal is not done now, Mercosur negotiations could get pushed to one side to make way for EU trade talks with Britain before its leaves the bloc. UNACCEPTABLE OFFER Mercosur officials say potential beef imports represent about half of the export gains they sees from any deal and say the current EU offer is unacceptable. They are unhappy that Europe has gradually reduced the proposed amount of beef it would accept from Mercosur - from 100,000 tonnes per year in 2004 to 78,000 tonnes in 2016 to 70,000 tonnes in 2017. Brazil’s chief negotiator, Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho, said in October the European offer was far from what Mercosur members were expecting and would make the goal of reaching a deal by December more difficult. Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle belonging to farmer Philip Maguire are seen in Enniskerry, Ireland November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Mercosur countries are waiting for the EU to improve on the latest beef offer. Meanwhile, France, Ireland and a number of other beef-producing countries have said that offer was already too high. French Trade Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said negotiators should take their time to get the right deal. “The message is clear. Yes, we want an agreement, but... if we need a few more weeks or months, it’s not a drama. We’ve been talking for 15 years,” Lemoyne said. France wants the EU to recognise that the market has evolved since talks began. Lemoyne said France’s views were shared by others including Belgium, Romania and Slovenia. He said Europe must first determine the total potential size of beef imports including deals that could be struck with other countries. Trade talks with Mexico are underway and are due to start with Australia, both beef exporters. Slideshow (2 Images) “We need to know what is the maximum we can go to in total. Afterwards we can give up to this or that partner relative to what we get back,” Lemoyne said. A diplomat from a different EU country said he could not see the offer to Mercosur on beef being increased. “I think everything would explode,” the diplomat said. BREXIT COMPLICATION Europe’s beef industry says it is already facing a squeeze as consumers shift from red meat. Consumption has fallen 10 percent in the past decade and is seen 16 percent lower than 2007 levels in 2026, according to a European Commission report. Angus Woods, the Irish Farmers Association’s national livestock chairman and a farmer with 60 beef cattle, said the EU market was broadly balanced now, with imports and exports roughly equal. However, Britain’s exit from the EU could wreck that balance if were to impose import duties on EU beef or if it struck its own deals for cheaper meat from elsewhere. The EU would then have a 16 percent surplus of beef. This would be particularly tough for Ireland as half of its beef exports to go Britain. “On top of that you would have the Mercosur deal. Even with the UK in (the EU) there isn’t room for those kind of volumes,” Woods said. Woods also said that South American beef does not meet EU standards, which include a system to track meat right back to the birth of the cow and rules on transporting live animals. A spokesman for Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture said its meat-tracking system is up to EU standards. He said the national beef-tracking system SISBOV is mandatory for producers who export to the EU and the data base follows each cow for the minimum period required by the EU. If there is a deal, it may fall short of the ambitions both sides had when talks began. “We don’t get everything we want, they don’t get everything they want, but hopefully together we get a deal which improves our export opportunities and gives our consumers more choice,” Katainen said. Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle and Roberto Samora in Brasilia; Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-trade-beef/whats-your-beef-europe-latin-american-trade-talks-falter-idINKBN1DL0T8'|'2017-11-21T11:13:00.000+02:00'
'38482ed12fd8d43ffa13ec18d6a5c176d2e9fa4d'|'Cerberus, others seen interested in Creval''s turnaround plan: source'|'MILAN (Reuters) - U.S. fund Cerberus Capital Management is among potential investors interested in Italian bank Creval’s turnaround plan but it is too early to say whether it will also commit to buying into the lender’s planned share issue, a source close to the matter said.The mid-sized Italian lender said earlier this month it would sell new shares for up to 700 million euros in early 2018 to fund a balance-sheet clean up under its new business plan.“There has been an expression of interest from Cerberus and other investors for Creval’s plan. Since the share issue will only be launched in February, it’s difficult to have any commitments now,” the source said.“(But) there is interest from investors and also from banks willing to join the underwriting consortium.”Il Messaggero daily said on Tuesday that Cerberus was planning to buy into the cash call for around 100 million euros. Cerberus could not immediately be reached for comment.A second source added that an ongoing roadshow, held in London, Paris and the United States, to promote the restructuring plan had met with interest.Creval’s share were up 15 percent on Tuesday, helped by reports of investor interest but also lifted by optimism about a 560 million euro share issue at rival Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) which is expected to kick off on Wednesday.Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Andrea Mandala, writing by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Silvia Aloisi '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-creval/cerberus-others-seen-interested-in-crevals-turnaround-plan-source-idINKBN1DL1DA'|'2017-11-21T09:37:00.000+02:00'
'a118100f81c573e87f52e3d946d561a26b0c28df'|'Exclusive: Agribusiness firms discouraged by Saudi mills sale terms'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - An unwieldy sale process and onerous ownership rules are discouraging some potential investors from bidding for Saudi Arabia’s state-owned grain mills, sources close to the firms say, in a potential snag for the kingdom’s economic reforms.FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to modernize Saudi Arabia and reduce its dependence on oil. The kingdom is selling assets worth about $300 billion to fund the plan and potential foreign investors and bankers are watching the sales closely.The grain mills on sale come under the kingdom’s monopoly state grain buyer the Saudi Grains Organisation (SAGO), one of the world’s largest wheat and barley buyers.Archer Daniels Midland Company ( ADM.N ) and Bunge Limited ( BG.N ) - two of the world’s four biggest agribusiness firms - are among several international companies that have previously expressed interest in bidding for SAGO’s assets.But one agribusiness giant which previously expressed an interest is now hesitating following the publication last week of preliminary sale guidelines which stipulate that the mills must remain majority Saudi-owned.“If that is the deal, then the answer will clearly be a ‘no’,” a source close to one of the large agribusiness firms potentially interested in bidding told Reuters.ADM and Bunge declined comment.The document with the guidelines, described as indicative criteria for investors, was posted on SAGO’s website.Another Middle East-based grain trader said after reading the document: “It can’t really be a whole-hearted privatization if the Saudi partner remains in control.”Prospective foreign bidders were made aware from the start of the process by bank HSBC ( HSBA.L ), SAGO’s financial adviser for the sale, that they would require Saudi involvement to bid.As a result, ADM partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Almarai ( 2280.SE ), while Bunge teamed up with Arasco, Reuters reported this year.Italian wheat supplier Casillo Group and a partnership of Turkey’s TAV, a construction and airports conglomerate, and Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Holding Group, a local real estate business, were also interested, Reuters previously reported.But the source close to one of the large agribusinesses said the company had understood there would be room for negotiation on the level of Saudi ownership.HSBC declined to comment on the sale process and whether the majority ownership rule was flexible.An adviser to a consortium potentially interested in SAGO said the document suggested there was less room for negotiation than previously understood, even though it had been clear from the start the kingdom wanted to retain control of food security.The document was designed to elicit market feedback as part of a consultative approach to the privatization, a source close to the sale process said.IMPORT DEPENDENT Large grain market players’ interest in SAGO’s mills comes as Saudi Arabia grows increasingly dependent on grain imports. The kingdom has become a major importer of wheat and barley since abandoning plans in 2008 to become self-sufficient - as farming in the desert was draining scarce water supplies.SAGO imports Saudi Arabia’s entire wheat supply of about 3.5 million tonnes a year. It has said that demand for wheat is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3.2 percent to reach 4.5 million tonnes by 2025, largely due to population growth.Despite the opportunities for growth, some of the initial enthusiasm in the SAGO sale has cooled over concerns about the majority Saudi ownership rule, as well as other aspects of the sale structure.SAGO has previously said it would sell its milling operations by placing them in four specially formed corporate entities, while retaining other functions. The entities would each hold grain silos, feed factories and flour mills.Two of the sources close to potential bidders said a final decision on the process was still to be made, but they believed SAGO was leaning towards a sale of the entities one by one, rather than together, and this did not sit well with investors.“The rules of engagement are still not clear. Will they make it all one sale or will they divide it in phases? We don’t know yet,” one of those sources said.After HSBC asked for feedback from potential bidders on the sequential sale, at least three groups voiced opposition to the plan, according to an adviser to one potential bidder.The two sources close to potential bidders said the first sale would probably set a level of pricing for the other three, which could be unfair on those bidding further down the line.No price indications for the milling operations have been given and investors say it is hard to put a precise figure on the value of the assets as SAGO has never been run for profit.The source close to the sale process said sequential sales would make the bidding process more competitive, benefiting the kingdom.‘PAINFULLY SLOW’Investors were also seeking clarity on how long grain subsidies would remain in place and details on non-compete clauses, one of the sources close to a potential bidder said, adding that both needed to be clarified in the sale rules.HSBC has not publicly disclosed a timetable for the privatization. The source close to the sale process said the schedule for the sale would be disclosed at the “right stage”.But potential investors said the process had been painfully slow so far. One said that even though no deadline had been set, they had expected the request for qualifications, which kick-starts the process, to have started earlier.In a statement to Reuters, SAGO said it was continuing its efforts to be “on track without jeopardizing the quality of preparation and readiness” for the privatization, adding that the document with the indicative criteria for investors had been released earlier than originally planned.SAGO did not comment on the proposed sale terms.In addition to the big names, some regional investors have also expressed an interest in the sale.Dubai-based Al Ghurair, and a partnership between Abu Dhabi-based Agthia Group AGTH.AD and local conglomerate Olayan Group are among others eyeing the privatization, sources told Reuters, although SAGO is said to be more interested in large global firms that have more experience and market clout.Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai; editing by Michael Georgy and David Clarke '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-privatisation-sago-exclusive/exclusive-agribusiness-firms-discouraged-by-saudi-mills-sale-terms-idINKBN1DL1S5'|'2017-11-21T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'61e0675e023bb54c8985470777eff6869be95381'|'Rio Tinto, China''s private equity prepare to bid for lithium producer SQM'|'LONDON/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Rio Tinto <RIO.AX. ( RIO.L ), Canada’s Wealth Minerals and Chinese private equity firm GSR Capital are considering a bid for a stake in Chilean lithium producer SQM (Sociedad Quimica Y Minera) ( SQMa.SN ), banking sources told Reuters.An aerial view shows the brine pools and processing areas of the Soquimich (SQM) lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat, the world''s second largest salt flat and the largest lithium deposit currently in production, with over a quarter of the world''s known reserves, in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, January 10, 2013. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado Canada’s Potash Corp of Saskatchewan ( POT.N ) ( POT.TO ) must divest its 32 percent stake in the Chilean company as part of its merger with rival Agrium Inc ( AGU.TO ).Given SQM’s market capitalization of around $15 billion, according to Reuters data, this would give a value to the stake of $4.8 billion.Potash Corp declined to comment and GSR Capital and Wealth Minerals were not immediately available to comment.Rio Tinto, which sources said is using Credit Suisse to advise on the deal, declined to comment.SQM said it has received significant interest from potential aquirers as demand rises for lithium, essential for batteries used in electric vehicles.Beijing is promoting electric vehicles to combat air pollution and help domestic carmakers leapfrog the combustion engine to build global auto brands, making battery and lithium producers attractive assets for Chinese firms.GSR Capital agreed to buy Nissan’s electric vehicle battery business in May.Rio Tinto has a potentially huge lithium project in Serbia, but that is not expected to start producing before 2023.Industry sources say the mining major is keen to develop its understanding of the lithium market by, for instance, acquiring stakes in producers.But the size of the SQM stake would not provide operational control, which some analysts said undermined the logic of any deal for Rio Tinto.SQM is being advised by Goldman Sachs and BAML in New York.Reporting by Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis in London and Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; additional reporting by Rod Nickel and Kane Wu; Editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sqm-m-a-rio-tinto-plc/rio-tinto-chinas-private-equity-prepare-to-bid-for-lithium-producer-sqm-idINKBN1DL17H'|'2017-11-21T08:32:00.000+02:00'
'06e1c02f1c4d5d6335c48c26cf116f148184db34'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 12-day high on broad rally led by banks, resource stocks'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:14 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits 12-day high on broad rally led by banks, resource stocks Reuters Staff * TSX up 81.48 points, or 0.51 percent, to 16,085.88 * Nine of the TSX’s 10 main groups were higher TORONTO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose to a 12-day high on Tuesday, boosted by financial stocks, miners and energy companies including TransCanada Corp, which added to gains after winning a key approval for its Keystone XL pipeline on Monday. * At 10:07 a.m. ET (1507 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 81.48 points, or 0.51 percent, to 16,085.88. That was its highest level since Nov. 9. * The energy group climbed 0.4 percent and the financials group gained 0.2 percent, while the materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.8 percent. * Advancing issues were outnumbering decliners by 195-44, for a 4.43-to-1 ratio on the upside. Nine of its 10 main sectors rose, with healthcare the only declining group. * Industrials rose 0.3 percent, with Bombardier Inc up 2.0 percent at C$3.13 in heavy volume after the plane and train maker completed a debt offering and JP Morgan raised its rating on the company to “overweight.” * The largest percentage gainer was First Quantum Minerals Ltd which rose 3.8 percent as base metal prices pushed higher. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Bill Trott)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-hits-12-day-high-on-broad-rally-led-by-banks-resource-stocks-idUSL1N1NR0WX'|'2017-11-21T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'3218d01a6426b1aca5d4c709746fb0c49ec403da'|'ONGC buys 15 percent stake in Namibia offshore block from Tullow'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:21 AM / Updated 7 hours ago ONGC buys 15 percent stake in Namibia offshore block from Tullow Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of the country’s top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp ( ONGC.NS ), said on Tuesday it had acquired a 15 percent stake in Namibia’s offshore Block 2012A from Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ). FILE PHOTO: A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo OVL executed the deal through its subsidiary ONGC Videsh Vankorneft Pte Ltd, it said in a statement. Tullow Namibia Ltd had a 25 percent stake in the block in Namibia’s Petroleum Exploration License area (PEL)0030. Eco Oil and Gas Namibia (Pty) Ltd, with a 32.5 percent stake, is the operator of the block. ONGC Videsh last month bought a 30 percent stake in PEL 0037 from Tullow Oil. Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-ongc-namibia/ongc-buys-15-percent-stake-in-namibia-offshore-block-from-tullow-idINKBN1DL0U6'|'2017-11-21T11:18:00.000+02:00'
'cfa7b8234fd03b43bbf95205bc1184e85e53fad3'|'BRIEF-Greenlight Capital reports share stake in Brighthouse Financial Inc'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - Greenlight Capital Inc* Greenlight Capital Inc reports share stake of about 6.8 mln shares in Brighthouse Financial Inc as of Sept 30, 2017 - SEC filing* Greenlight Capital Inc disclosed its share stake in Brighthouse Financial Inc in an amended 13F filing with the U.S. SEC Source text: ( bit.ly/2zVYtVK ) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-greenlight-capital-reports-share-s/brief-greenlight-capital-reports-share-stake-in-brighthouse-financial-inc-idUSFWN1NR0VG'|'2017-11-21T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'2168cfe04c51a69b6f65bb76347bdd2a0b5fbbf8'|'U.S. Justice Department says AT&T would make rivals pay more for content'|'WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Justice Department filed a lawsuit to stop AT&T, which owns DirecTV, from also buying Time Warner, at least partially because of concerns that AT&T would use Time Warner’s films and movies to force rival pay TV companies to pay more for content.It also said that AT&T would use Time Warner content to slow the industry’s transition to online video and other innovative distribution models.In its lawsuit, the Justice Department cited AT&T and DirecTV documents saying that, if AT&T closes the Time Warner deal, the merged firm can “operate (its) pay-TV business as a ‘cash cow’ while slowly pivoting to new models.” (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att-rivals/u-s-justice-department-says-att-would-make-rivals-pay-more-for-content-idUSL1N1NQ1SZ'|'2017-11-21T00:25:00.000+02:00'
'10fa420034fb4fe5a6920b25b44f314508ec9b7c'|'Law likely on AT&T''s side in Time Warner battle: analysts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:10 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Republican-appointed judge to hear AT&T lawsuit, Time Warner shares rise Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A Republican-appointed judge with extensive antitrust experience was selected on Tuesday to preside over the U.S. government’s lawsuit to block AT&T Inc’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc, sending Time Warner shares higher as investors bet the judge would be more likely to allow the deal to proceed. Judge Richard Leon, a senior judge on the District of Columbia District Court, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, was assigned to the case after it was initially allotted to Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama administration appointee. Judges for antitrust cases are selected randomly. No explanation was given as to why the case was reassigned. Republican-appointed judges are generally, but not always, more business-friendly than those appointed by Democrats. Shares of Time Warner added to gains after Leon’s selection, and were trading up 2.5 percent at $89.86 at midday, signaling that investors believe the deal has a better chance of being approved. The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo AT&T has vowed to defend the $85.4 billion deal. The Department of Justice’s move to block it was “foolish” because the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s trial lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo “We want to go to court as soon as possible,” Petrocelli told CNBC, saying the burden of proof was on the government. AT&T will ask the court for an expedited trial next week, a source familiar with case said. The Justice Department has not successfully litigated to stop a vertical deal - where the merging companies are not direct competitors, as is the case with AT&T and Time Warner - since the 1970s, when it prevented Ford Motor Co from buying assets from spark-plug maker Autolite. The case will be closely watched because U.S. President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Time Warner’s CNN, and opposed AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner on the campaign trail last year, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T’s hands. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; and Diane Bartz and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/law-likely-on-atts-side-in-time-warner-battle-analysts-idUSKBN1DL1GL'|'2017-11-21T15:11:00.000+02:00'
'f47ba5bf412e055e742677620745ffc75056cc53'|'Bain Capital says WPP agrees to sell stake in Japan''s Asatsu-DK'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:50 AM / in 7 minutes WPP accepts Bain''s offer for Japan''s ADK, says Bain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bain Capital LLC on Tuesday said its $1.35 billion (£1 billion) offer for Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK) ( 9747.T ) had been accepted by the Japanese company’s 25 percent shareholder WPP ( WPP.L ), after the parties floated the idea of WPP reinvesting at a later date. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bain Capital is displayed on the screen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Led by the high-profile businessman Martin Sorrell, WPP clashed with the U.S. private equity firm Bain last month when it sought to buy Japan’s third-largest advertising agency, which partners with WPP. WPP said the offer undervalued the firm. Bain said on Tuesday WPP had now agreed to sell its ADK shares for 3,660 yen (£24.5) each, the same price it rejected last month. WPP and Bain would now discuss the possibility of WPP holding about 25 percent of an entity that would own ADK, the Japanese agency said in a statement on Tuesday. ADK shares jumped more than 5 percent to 3,660 yen in Tokyo on Tuesday after initial reports of the deal, as investors bet on a successful offer by Bain for at least 50.1 percent. The U.S. private equity fund said it had extended the offer to Dec. 6. Bain’s initial offer came after Japan’s ADK asked it to buy WPP’s stake to end a two-decade business alliance which ADK said failed to produce synergy. WPP sought a higher price and filed for arbitration, seeking a declaration that ADK’s plan to terminate the alliance was invalid and that ADK had no right to request or require WPP to sell its shares. WPP would end arbitration and injunction proceedings if the tender offer succeeds, Bain said in its statement. Other ADK shareholders such as London-based fund manager Silchester International Investors LLP and Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Co Ltd have also previously said Bain’s offer was too low. Oasis declined to comment. Silchester could not be reached for comment. Reporting by Junko Fujita in TOKYO and Kate Holton in LONDON; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/bain-capital-says-wpp-agrees-to-sell-stake-in-japans-asatsu-dk-idUKKBN1DL097'|'2017-11-21T05:50:00.000+02:00'
'31905213950b698207dced89b322f932a4d513fd'|'Russian watchdog would consider retaliatory measures against Google -Ifax'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:28 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Russian watchdog would consider retaliatory measures against Google -Ifax Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Russia’s communication watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Tuesday it would consider retaliatory measures against Alphabet Inc’s Google over any action it takes in respect of Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, Interfax news agency reported. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Writing by Maria Kiselyova, editing by David Evans)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-usa-media-restrictions-google/russian-watchdog-would-consider-retaliatory-measures-against-google-ifax-idUSR4N1NQ01I'|'2017-11-21T17:27:00.000+02:00'
'ffb975daf4f6940dcf329e805e2d9c3cc137abb6'|'Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity Clare Jim 5 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese developers such as China Vanke ( 2202.HK ) and Country Garden ( 2007.HK ) are increasingly turning to the securitization market as an alternative fund-raising channel as the onshore bond market remains mostly inaccessible. Property companies are in particular stepping up the securitization of receivables from property sales, providing them with funds to develop other projects. The securities took off when Chinese regulators made it harder for developers to sell onshore corporate bonds late last year in a bid to help cool an overheating real estate market. The issuing of such products more than tripled in the first seven months of this year from a year ago, according to data by China Securities Research. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment. More than 11 Chinese developers have issued or announced plans this year to issue securities backed by sales receivables, including China Vanke ( 2.SZ ), Greentown China ( 3900.HK ), and the state-owned Beijing Capital Land ( 2868.HK ), up from around six last year. Developers typically record revenue in their books 12-24 months after contracted sales, when they actually transfer the property ownership to the buyers and pocket the proceeds. The asset-backed securities allow them to cash in on those receivables early. “Chinese policies often change. If you rely on a simple channel, once policy changes, it will affect our cashflow so we have to explore other channels,” said an official of Greentown, which issued 1.6 billion yuan worth of the securities this month, referring to the crackdown on debt. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Beijing Capital said that the securities provided a cheaper financing option for the company. Vanke said it considered the securities to be low cost and low risk. Rates of the securities issued in the last two years were around 5 to 7 percent, slightly higher than onshore corporate bonds. The securities usually have short maturities of 2 to 4 years, and range in size from 1 to 5 billion yuan. The securities are listed in stock exchanges and traded among banks and institutional investors. Joe Zhou, head of research at JLL East China, said securitization by developers reflected strong property sales and China’s macroeconomic environment, as well as official pressure to reduce debt. “Many developers have the incentive to lower leverage,” he said. As China pushes to reduce excessive debt in the economy, the country’s fledgling securitization markets have seen a surge of activity, with cash-starved banks, local governments and private companies converting assets into cash. Most developers consolidate asset-backed securities on their balance sheets as debt, because the mortgage receivables are used as collateral. However, the securities are still seen by ratings agencies as meaningful deleveraging. “From a rating agency’s perspective, we do not only look at whether the balance sheet is shrunk, but whether the payment obligation also decreases,” said Aaron Lei, senior director of structured finance ratings at S&P. “ABS payment obligations will not recourse back to the initial originator, which means the interest payment comes from the spinned-off assets, and not from the issuer,” he said, referring to asset-backed securities. Analysts say that, for the moment, the risks involved with the securities are low, given their relatively high quality and low total issuance. Of China’s trillion yuan ($147.1 billion) overall asset-backed securities market, property companies issued around 40 billion yuan of products in 2016. More than 70 percent of the issuance was backed by receivables from property sales, according to China Securities Research. The confidence also lies in government regulations to keep downpayment requirements at about 30 percent, and even higher for first-home purchases. “Traditionally, China’s mortgage risk is low,” said S&P’s Lei, because borrowers were personal liable for their debts. That “makes home buyers less inclined for a mortgage to default because they still bear the liability after they default,” he said. However, in the case of a downturn in the property market, mortgage default risks could increase, analysts said. And as the asset-backed securities market grows quickly, some lower-quality issuers could join the market. “Now that regulation is strict, defaults won’t happen,” said JLL’s Zhou, citing the high quality of assets and products in general. “But in the future, if some assets are problematic and issuers still package them for financing, then defaults could happen.” Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-property-securitisation/chinese-developers-turn-to-mortgage-balance-abs-for-liquidity-idUSKBN1DL0FG'|'2017-11-21T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'ebc2e3c4e2b4e03fa14c785f84e0a994ecce6c5e'|'Hong Kong tribunal fines HSBC private bank HK$400 million for Lehman-linked products'|'Reuters TV United States November 21, 2017 / 12:31 PM / a few seconds ago Hong Kong tribunal fines HSBC private bank $51 million for Lehman-linked products Reuters Staff 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong tribunal on Tuesday imposed a fine of HK$400 million ($51 million) on the private banking unit of HSBC ( HSBA.L ) in a case related to the sale of Lehman Brothers-linked structured financial products between 2003 and 2008. HSBC headquarters is seen at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had originally imposed a penalty of HK$605 million in 2015 on the bank for its failure to meet “principles-based regulatory standards” at that time, which was later appealed by HSBC. The securities regulator had started its investigation into the issue after some HSBC private banking clients’ complained of losses arising from investments in structured financial products of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) said that HSBC’s private banking unit was “culpable of material systemic failings in its marketing and sale of derivative products” in that period. The tribunal also said the HSBC private banking unit’s registration for Type 4 regulated activity, which relates to advising on securities, would be suspended for a period of one year beginning Tuesday. It also “partially suspended” its registration for dealing in securities for a period of one year, according to a copy of the order seen by Reuters. HSBC said the suspension of licenses would not affect its current private banking operations in Hong Kong, as the business no longer operates under the sanctioned entity and the “legal transfer” to the existing division was completed in 2013. “HSBC Private Banking has stringent processes and controls ... and has enhanced its investment advisory model to further align investments to client needs and to deepen clients’ understanding of the nature and risks of the products,” it said. On the financial penalty, the bank said the tribunal would hear submissions from the Hong Kong securities regulator and HSBC. SFC’s Chief Executive Ashley Alder said in a statement: “The message should be clear - our standards are designed to protect all investors including clients of retail or private banks.” “When breaches of these standards occur, the SFC will take action to enforce them and strive to achieve outcomes that are in the interest of the investing public.” ($1 = 7.8125 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-hongkong-fine/hong-kong-tribunal-fines-hsbc-private-bank-51-million-for-lehman-linked-products-idUKKBN1DL1CA'|'2017-11-21T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'f1ff651b81785953a6be7bb8a48546c6cea1f994'|'U.S. homes sales accelerate; supply still a constraint'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:06 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago U.S. homes sales accelerate; supply still a constraint Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales increased more than expected in October as hurricane-related disruptions eased, but a chronic shortage of houses which is pushing prices beyond the reach of some first-time buyers remains an obstacle. FILE PHOTO - A U.S. flag decorates a for-sale sign at a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, August 21, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that existing home sales rose 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million units last month. The NAR said sales in Houston and Jacksonville, regions which bore the brunt of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, had rebounded. Sales in South Florida, however, remained weak last month. The Realtors group said it expected activity in the areas affected by the storms to fully recover by the end of the year. “While this summer’s storms undoubtedly took some steam out of the housing market, the greater problem remains the general lack of inventory,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “People simply are not moving as much as they used to.” Existing home sales make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales. They fell 0.9 percent on a year-on-year basis in October and remained well below a 10-year-high 5.70 million-unit pace touched in March. Economists had forecast home sales rising 0.7 percent from September to a 5.42 million-unit rate last month. October marked two straight months of increases. There are concerns that an effort by Republicans in the U.S. Congress to overhaul the tax code could undermine the housing market. Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed allowing interest payment deductions on mortgage debt only up to $500,000, and only on a primary residence. Their colleagues in the Senate want to keep the existing limit at $1 million but eliminate the deduction of interest on home-equity loans. “We just hope the tax cut plans are not too radical and end up scaring the consumer and make the purchase of a new home even less affordable after taxes,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. The PHLX housing index .HGX was trading higher in line with a broadly firmer stock market. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies while prices for U.S. Treasuries rose. LIMITED BUYING OPTIONS The South, which accounts for almost half of the existing homes sales market, recorded a 1.9 percent increase in sales last month. There were also gains in sales in the Northeast, Midwest and West regions. Home sales remain constrained by an acute shortage of properties, which is exerting upward pressure on house prices, and sidelining some first-time buyers, who accounted for 32 percent of transactions last month. Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market. The number of previously owned homes on the market fell 3.2 percent to 1.80 million units in October, a seven-month low. Supply was down 10.4 percent from a year ago. Housing inventory has dropped for 29 straight months on a year-on-year basis. At October’s sales pace, it would take 3.9 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 4.2 months in September. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. As a result, the median house price increased 5.5 percent from a year ago to $247,000 in October. That was the 68th consecutive month of year-on-year price gains. In contrast, annual wage growth has struggled to break above 2.9 percent since the 2007/09 recession ended. “Roughly half of what’s available to buy is priced in the upper one-third of home values, leaving scant options for those aging millennials and young families trying to get their foot in the door,” said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow. Builders have failed to plug the inventory gap, citing land and labor shortages, as well as expensive raw materials. A report last week showed housing starts surged 13.7 percent to a 1.290 million-unit pace in October. Housing completions increased 12.6 percent to a rate of 1.232 million units last month, the highest level since February 2008. Realtors estimate that housing starts and completions need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units to bridge the inventory shortfall. Homes sold in October typically stayed on the market for 34 days, down from 41 days a year ago. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-housing/u-s-existing-home-sales-increase-more-than-expected-idUKKBN1DL1RZ'|'2017-11-21T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'1d1efad1d342f8c1271ddf9a94b538348ce79c39'|'UK bond dealers see small cut in 2017/18 borrowing, darker outlook ahead - Reuters poll'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:16 AM / Updated 5 hours ago UK bond dealers see small cut in 2017/18 borrowing, darker outlook ahead - Reuters poll David Milliken 4   British government bond dealers expect little change to the country’s gilt issuance plans this year or next after finance minister Philip Hammond sets out his budget plans on Wednesday, despite lower-than-expected public borrowing so far this year. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond arrives at BBC Broadcasting House to attend a recording of "The Andrew Marr Show" in London, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Public sector net borrowing for the 12 months to the end of March 2018 is expected to fall to 51.4 billion pounds from the 58.3 billion pounds forecast in March by the government’s budget watchdog, according to a Reuters poll of 14 of the 16 wholesale primary dealers known as gilt-edged market makers (GEMMs). But GEMMs - the only financial institutions authorised to buy newly issued bonds direct from the British government - expect issuance to be reduced by just 800 million pounds on a median basis from the 114.2 billion pounds set out in April. This 113.4 billion pounds would still be the lowest annual issuance since the eve of the financial crisis in 2007-08. Hammond is under pressure from Conservative colleagues to boost the party’s fortunes after it lost its majority in a botched June election, at a time when growth is slowing and household finances are squeezed following a jump in inflation since June 2016’s Brexit vote. However, financial markets expect Hammond to balance any extra spending with money raised elsewhere, and see him sticking to a long-term goal to eliminate the budget deficit by the middle of the next decade. “Given the domestic political backdrop and the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit negotiations we think there is very little appetite for the Chancellor to ... shift to a more expansionary fiscal stance, which would potentially undermine financial market credibility,” said Francis Diamond, a gilt strategist at J.P. Morgan. Any positive impact on gilt prices of lower issuance this year would probably be cancelled out by a deterioration of Britain’s longer-term fiscal outlook, he said. Weaker growth and gloomier assumptions about Britain’s economic productivity as it prepares to leave the European Union were likely to lead the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility to price in an extra 28 billion ponds in cumulative borrowing by 2021/22, he added. Britain’s reduced public borrowing needs for the current financial year would be mostly accommodated by further reducing the stock of short-dated Treasury bills, according to the poll. GEMMs on average predicted a 13.85 billion pound net reduction in T-bills, compared with the 9.5 billion pound reduction planned in April by the UK Debt Management Office. Public sector net borrowing is predicted to fall to 43.0 billion pounds in the 2018/19 financial year, according to the poll, slightly less of a decline than the drop to 40.8 billion forecast by the OBR in March. GEMMs did not expect the DMO to change its guidance of gross financing needs of 129 billion pounds for the next financial year, which includes money raised direct from the public as well as new and refinanced gilt borrowing. “A lower 2017 funding requirement and a cut to the gilt issuance remit could trigger some modest outperformance of gilts,” UBS strategist John Wraith said. “However, significantly higher numbers for future years will add to mounting market concerns over the UK’s economic prospects over the coming years, as the perilous exit from the EU is navigated.” Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget/uk-bond-dealers-see-small-cut-in-2017-18-borrowing-darker-outlook-ahead-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1DL0J3'|'2017-11-21T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'525042fccc395426799a334f6f80cff1686ca60f'|'Oil bull Andy Hall to participate in OPEC shale workshop-sources'|' 09 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Oil bull Andy Hall to participate in OPEC shale workshop-sources Alex Lawler , Rania El Gamal 2   Prominent commodities fund manager Andy Hall will participate in an OPEC shale oil workshop, three OPEC sources said, as the exporter group seeks a wider range of views on the market outlook before a key meeting to set policy. Hall is among the speakers scheduled to attend the workshop at OPEC’s Vienna headquarters on Wednesday, which will gather a number of OPEC officials including Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo, the sources said. “He will participate in our workshop tomorrow,” one of the sources said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and nine other producers, are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until next March in an attempt to eradicate a supply glut. The cut has helped oil prices LCOc1 rise this year to almost $65 (£49) a barrel, the highest since 2015, after falling from above $100 in mid-2014 to a 12-year low near $27 in early 2016, pressured by excess supply from shale producers and OPEC. OPEC, the sources said, is keen to hear the views of Hall, who is famous for being an oil bull, on the outlook. British-born Hall has traded oil for more than three decades and once earned a $100 million bonus from Citigroup ( C.N ). Hall was reported in August to have closed his main hedge fund after losses. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. OPEC and its allies meet on Nov. 30 and are widely expected to extend their deal to cut production, which ends in March 2018, further into next year. Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-oil/oil-bull-andy-hall-to-participate-in-opec-shale-workshop-sources-idUKKBN1DL1M1'|'2017-11-21T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'eb65b000b3f32157cff2bd212ef13b77df69a7bf'|'UPDATE 1-AT&T lawyer says U.S. effort to stop Time Warner deal ''foolish'' -CNBC'|'(Adds judge assigned to the case; background on case)Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice’s move to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc was “foolish” because the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s trial lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday.The Justice Department on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.”AT&T has vowed to defend the deal."We want to go to court as soon as possible," Petrocelli told CNBC, saying the burden of proof was on the government. cnb.cx/2AjiOVwThe case was assigned on Tuesday to Judge Christopher Cooper in federal court in Washington. Cooper was nominated by former President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2014, according to his biography on the court website. He is a veteran of the Justice Department who has worked for at least two major law firms.The case will be closely watched because U.S. President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Time Warner’s CNN, and opposed AT&T&rsquo;s purchase of Time Warner on the campaign trail last year, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T&rsquo;s hands.In antitrust circles, the court fight will be closely watched since the Justice Department has not successfully litigated to stop a vertical deal - where the merging companies are not direct competitors - since the 1970s, when it prevented Ford Motor Co from buying assets from spark-plug maker Autolite. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr and Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att/update-1-att-lawyer-says-u-s-effort-to-stop-time-warner-deal-foolish-cnbc-idINL3N1NR4FN'|'2017-11-21T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'7769cbf9be2402941a1abb72936df47ff4222f8b'|'Japan Tobacco to actively pursue M&A opportunities: CEO designate'|'TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - Japan Tobacco Inc ( 2914.T ) sparked takeover speculation on Tuesday by naming a new chief executive who wants the world’s third-largest international tobacco maker to do more overseas acquisitions to offset falling cigarette sales at home.Shares in British tobacco company Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ), long seen as a likely target, rose as much as 4 percent after Masamichi Terabatake, the CEO-designate, told reporters: “If there are good deals, we would like to actively pursue them”.Terabatake, who has a background in deal-making, said after his promotion was announced that he was willing to take risks, adding that the scale of acquisitions “does not matter”.Two big issues facing Japan Tobacco are a geographic footprint too concentrated in low-growth markets Japan and Europe and competitive weakness in vaping. Buying Imperial would help both issues, analysts at Jefferies have long argued.Terabatake, who will replace Mitsuomi Koizumi in January, is currently deputy CEO at JT International, the Geneva-based headquarters of the company’s overseas operations, where he has spent more than a decade.The 51-year-old, who worked on Japan Tobacco’s $7.8 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco’s non-US tobacco business in 1999, did not give any details of possible targets but said:“There are still many regions we have not entered. There are many markets left for cigarette business to grow.”Consolidation is widely expected in a global tobacco market that is shrinking as more people quit.British American Tobacco’s ( BATS.L ) July purchase of Reynolds American ignited expectations that a takeover of Imperial or Altria ( MO.N ) could follow, as Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris International ( PM.N ) seek to bolster their position against a newly enlarged rival.Imperial’s shares had fallen 23 percent since April on concerns about its competitive position and lack of a vaping device that heats tobacco without burning it. It was trading at less than 12 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), whereas BAT, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco are at between 15 and 20 times EBITDA.That discount, and Japan Tobacco’s troubles, have some sources seeing a deal as more likely, though huge market overlap, such as in Britain, makes a takeover complicated.Sources have suggested that Japan Tobacco and British American could split up Imperial, but warn that BAT may still be digesting its $49 billion purchase of Reynolds.A spokesman for Imperial, the maker of the Davidoff and Golden Virginia brands, declined to comment“VAPOUR WAR JUST BEGUN”Japan Tobacco’s domestic cigarette sales have been hurt by more smokers quitting than expected and the popularity of heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco vaping devices.It has forecast 92 billion cigarette sales in Japan for 2017, down 13.4 percent from a year ago. That would be 1 billion less than what it had projected in August and 4 billion below an estimate given at the start of year.Despite commanding more than 60 percent of Japan’s cigarette market, the former state monopoly has ceded some of its home turf to Philip Morris, which launched its IQOS HNB product in Japan in 2014 and expanded nationwide in April last year.Japan Tobacco rolled out its Ploom Tech smokeless tobacco product in central Tokyo in July after production delays.Terabatake said it was still too early for any company to solidify its lead in this category.“(The) tobacco vapour war has just begun,” he said.Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in LONDON; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tobacco-management/japan-tobacco-to-actively-pursue-ma-opportunities-ceo-designate-idINKBN1DL14M'|'2017-11-21T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'46b7d1504617e99b6c2663b423273ab59a417202'|'Uber hit with $8.9 million fine in Colorado over unqualified drivers'|'(Reuters) - Colorado regulators on Monday fined Uber $8.9 million, saying the ride-services company allowed 57 people to drive for it although they lacked valid driver’s licenses or had committed other offences that would have disqualified them.FILE PHOTO: The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo The Colorado Public Utilities Commission said its probe found violations that included 12 drivers with felony convictions, 17 drivers with major moving-vehicle violations and three drivers with a type of driver’s license required after recent drunk-driving convictions.“We have determined that Uber had background check information that should have disqualified these drivers under the law, but they were allowed to drive anyway,” Doug Dean, the commission’s director, said in a statement.Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said in a statement it recently discovered an error in its background check process in Colorado and began working to correct the issue.“This error affected a small number of drivers and we immediately took corrective action,” it said.Uber has had a difficult year in the face of a federal probe into whether it broke bribery laws, allegations of sexual harassment, and other issues that led the company to bring in a new chief executive and take steps to improve its corporate culture.Uber has about 600,000 drivers across the United States.Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-colorado/uber-hit-with-8-9-million-fine-in-colorado-over-unqualified-drivers-idINKBN1DK2MQ'|'2017-11-21T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'a0a3e421a86bbcb898502d4e066f80a68d392301'|'Moody''s upgrade boosts already growing confidence in Indian debt'|'SINGAPORE/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s sovereign rating upgrade by Moody’s is a shot in the arm for Indian companies looking to raise funds in offshore bond markets.FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Driven by more attractive rates and relatively strong economic fundamentals among emerging markets, offshore dollar borrowing by Indian companies has already risen 32 percent from the start of 2017 to $8.81 billion, according to Reuters data.The rating agency’s decision on Friday to raise India’s credit assessment for the first time in nearly 14 years to a notch higher than its rivals was perfect timing for billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which announced plans to raise $800 million offshore just days before.The upgrade to Baa2 from Baa3 lifted Indian stocks, bonds and currency and helped Reliance price its notes at 130 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries on Tuesday, the tightest ever spread for an Indian issue.Other companies are assessing if the narrowing in Indian bonds yields over U.S. Treasuries will last with a view to raising fresh funds, say bankers and corporate finance heads.Markets have received the upgrade well, said Jujhar Singh, managing director and head of capital markets, South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.“This should give further confidence to Indian corporates to raise dollar funds through the international bond markets at the tightest ever spread in the last 10 years,” he said.Foreign investment in India’s domestic corporate debt has reached its ceiling under central bank-mandated limits, forcing those investors who want exposure to India to buy offshore. This had helped tighten spreads even before the upgrade.State Bank of India 2024 bonds have come in to 120 bps over U.S. Treasuries from 126 bps over just before the Moody’s upgrade and 147 bps over in early 2017.Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director of India’s JSW Group, a steel-to-energy company, said the ratings upgrade could help JSW potentially save over $1 million annually on its borrowings.Mahindra Group, which operates multiple businesses from autos to information technology, might tap offshore markets too, said finance head V.S. Parthasarathy, adding “a small one step upgrade by Moody’s is a big step up for India’s confidence.”ATTRACTIVE PRICING Companies, including quasi-sovereign issuers that had already begun work on raising funds offshore, such as Indian Railways Finance Corp and Power Finance Corp, are now speeding up the process, bankers said.State-controlled Hindustan Petroleum, might explore raising funds offshore next year, Chairman M.K. Surana said.“Some institutional investors who are required to invest in investment-grade bonds might not have been willing to buy India dollar bonds in the past as the Baa3 credit rating did not give them psychological comfort margin in case of a downgrade,” said Ken Hu, a senior investment officer at Invesco.The prior Baa3 rating was the lowest investment-grade level.Lower-rated issuers could also benefit with some bankers estimating their borrowing costs could fall as much as 15 basis points in offshore dollar markets.Still, Moody’s upgrade may not be enough to please all debt investors.“India’s a good credit to have on the books for foreign investors,” said a senior investment banker, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to media. “However, much bigger traction among investors will happen only if at least one more rating agency upgrades India.”Reporting by Suvashree Choudhury and Krishna Merchant of IFR: Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma, Krishna Das and Neha Dasgupta in New Delhi, and Euan Rocha in Mumbai: writing by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Neil Fullick '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-ratings-companies/moodys-upgrade-boosts-already-growing-confidence-in-indian-debt-idINKBN1DL1QR'|'2017-11-21T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'a5e4aafa14c30d94a2e03e1ec7fd6d740b3c2d98'|'European shares dip, earnings dent sentiment'|'(ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - European shares opened lower on Tuesday as a flow of trading updates and corporate news dented sentiment despite continued faith in the underlying strength of the European economy and a synchronised global expansion.The STOXX 600 benchmark was down 0.3 percent by 0820 GMT with most European bourses and sectors trading in negative territory.Germany’s DAX was just 0.2 percent lower after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to minority rule, following the failure of overnight talks on forming a three-way coalition.Aggreko, the world’s largest listed temporary power provider, was the worst performer, losing 9.7 percent after a trading update that got investors worried about 2018 prospects when it said its pipeline was taking longer to convert.Other UK corporates also suffered after publishing their results, such as Melrose, down 7.1 percent, Johnson Matthey, which fell 4 percent, as well as Intertek and Compass, which retreated 2.6 percent and 3.3 percent respectively.EasyJet was the top performer with a 4.6 percent rise as it said it was benefiting from the collapse of rivals and from problems at Ryanair. (Reporting by Julien Ponthus, Editing by Kit Rees and Georgina Prodhan) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-dip-earnings-dent-sentiment-idINL8N1NR1JU'|'2017-11-21T05:41:00.000+02:00'
'8cec291b6c8ad91bfed2961a003852cea634b1e0'|'AT&T ready for trial on Justice Dept lawsuit -lead counsel'|'NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc is prepared to go to trial as soon as possible, ideally within 60 days, after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the company to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc, the lead trial counsel representing the company said on Monday.“We are going to ask the court for the earliest possible date,” Daniel Petrocelli, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers, told reporters at a news conference in New York. (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att-lawyer/att-ready-for-trial-on-justice-dept-lawsuit-lead-counsel-idUSL1N1NQ1VZ'|'2017-11-21T01:21:00.000+02:00'
'd1e3cbab4dd7d8ec0cbb8b233119b22290076627'|'Hong Kong tribunal fines HSBC private bank $51 million for Lehman-linked products'|'November 21, 2017 / 12:31 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Hong Kong tribunal fines HSBC private bank $51 million for Lehman-linked products Sumeet Chatterjee 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong tribunal on Tuesday imposed a record fine of HK$400 million ($51 million) on the private banking unit of HSBC ( HSBA.L ) in a case related to the sale of Lehman Brothers-linked structured financial products between 2003 and 2008. HSBC headquarters is seen at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had originally imposed a penalty of HK$605 million in 2015 on the bank for its failure to meet “principles-based regulatory standards” at that time, which was later appealed by HSBC. The securities regulator had started its investigation into the issue after some HSBC private banking clients’ complained of losses arising from investments in structured financial products of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The SFC said on Tuesday the $51-million fine was the highest ever imposed on a financial institution in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) said in its order that HSBC’s private banking unit was “culpable of material systemic failings in its marketing and sale of derivative products” in that period. The tribunal also said the HSBC private banking unit’s registration for Type 4 regulated activity, which relates to advising on securities, would be suspended for a period of one year beginning Tuesday. It also “partially suspended” its registration for dealing in securities for a period of one year, according to a copy of the order seen by Reuters. HSBC said the suspension of licenses would not affect its current private banking operations in Hong Kong, as the business no longer operates under the sanctioned entity and the “legal transfer” to the existing division was completed in 2013. “HSBC Private Banking has stringent processes and controls ... and has enhanced its investment advisory model to further align investments to client needs and to deepen clients’ understanding of the nature and risks of the products,” it said. On the financial penalty, the bank said the tribunal would hear submissions from the Hong Kong securities regulator and HSBC. SFC’s Chief Executive Ashley Alder said in a statement: “The message should be clear - our standards are designed to protect all investors including clients of retail or private banks.” “When breaches of these standards occur, the SFC will take action to enforce them and strive to achieve outcomes that are in the interest of the investing public.” ($1 = 7.8125 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-hongkong-fine/hong-kong-tribunal-fines-hsbc-private-bank-51-million-for-lehman-linked-products-idUSKBN1DL1CA'|'2017-11-21T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'252fe5922e19ed4a44947baf177a246c8e60965d'|'UPDATE 2-Libya''s Waha Oil Co pumping 260,000 bpd, plans hampered by funding shortfall'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:34 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Libya''s Waha Oil Co pumping 260,000 bpd, plans hampered by funding shortfall Reuters Staff (Adds details) By Aidan Lewis TUNIS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Libya’s Waha Oil Co is producing about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd), up more than 100,000 bpd from the company’s output levels this summer, but further gains are complicated by a lack of investment, its chairman said on Tuesday. Ahmed Ammar said Waha was aiming to increase output to 375,000 bpd by the end of next year but was facing major funding shortfalls and challenges in maintaining damaged infrastructure. Waha is a subsidiary of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and operates as a joint venture with Hess Corp, Marathon Oil Corp and ConocoPhillips. Its oil is exported through Es Sider terminal, which reopened late last year after an armed group that was blockading the port was forced out. Waha’s gains have helped raise Libya’s national oil output to around one million bpd, about four times higher than the OPEC member’s production in mid-2016. It remains well below the 1.6 million bpd Libya was producing before a 2011 uprising, and vulnerable to continuing political and economic turmoil. Plans to increase Waha’s production to as high as 600,000 bpd over the next five years, partly through major new projects at the NC-98 and Jalo North fields, have been postponed because of a lack of funding, Ammar told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Tunis. But he said some gains could be made by developing drilling in fields that are already in production and replacing pumps that were damaged after long output stoppages. “Some of the production will come from existing wells. We need to work them over,” Ammar said. Some of Waha’s fields and facilities have been badly damaged in militant attacks, fighting and looting. At Es Sider, 12 out of 19 storage tanks remain out of use. Ammar said this was not hampering exports, but would become a constraint if the company raised its production towards 400,000 bpd. Waha hopes to rebuild two of the storage tanks next year, adding storage capacity of one million barrels, but Ammar said approval for the project from Libya’s Audit Bureau was still pending. Waha has also suffered repeated leaks in its pipeline network, which was damaged by highly corrosive water. In one pipeline there were 57 leaks in a single month, Ammar said. The company has been patching up or clamping pipes but needs to replace or upgrade sections of its network, which is much more expensive. “Our major issue now at Waha in the existing facilities is the pipelines,” Ammar said. “They require a lot of funding.” (editing by David Evans and Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/libya-oil/update-2-libyas-waha-oil-co-pumping-260000-bpd-plans-hampered-by-funding-shortfall-idUSL8N1NR607'|'2017-11-21T22:34:00.000+02:00'
'dc0806c5bae62d9f818092d34c5b59d20302d492'|'Tencent''s stellar share rally sees it surpass Facebook in market value'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ) has racked up some impressive gains this week - becoming the first Chinese firm to be worth more than $500 billion and surpassing Facebook ( FB.O ) to be the world’s fifth-most valuable company. Earnings for China’s biggest social network and gaming firm have surged on the popularity of its smartphone games led by titles such as Honour of Kings - a fantasy role-playing game, which has as many active players as the population of Germany. Also driving earnings has been its messaging-to-payment superapp WeChat which has amassed 980 million monthly active users, with 38 billion messages sent daily, while its Youtube equivalent, Tencent Video, has become the video streaming service with the largest paying subscriber base in China. That success has helped Tencent''s stock more than double this year, making it Asia''s most valuable company worth $522 billion on Tuesday and easily outpacing a 36 percent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI . That beat Facebook’s market value on Monday of $519 billion. Only Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) with a market capitalisation of about $873 billion followed by Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ), Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) are worth more. Led by Chinese billionaire Pony Ma, Tencent this month reported a better-than-expected 69 percent rise in third-quarter net profit. FILE PHOTO: Visitors use their smartphones underneath the logo of Tencent at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing May 6, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo “Tencent’s high growth, as demonstrated by its quarterly results, has supported the rally in its shares,” said Steven Leung, a sales director at UOB Kay Hian. “Since the company has been able to deliver with its earnings, the stock is still worth holding onto despite its current high level.” Slideshow (2 Images) In addition to robust earnings, Tencent has also burnished its lustre after some units and affiliates have made some eye-catching market debuts. An executive recently also told Reuters the company is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, pitting it against Alibaba ( BABA.N ) as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China. Among the 39 analysts who cover Tencent, the average rating on its shares is a “buy”, with their average target price at HK$433.60. The stock closed at HK$430 on Tuesday. After Tencent, rival Alibaba Group ranks second among Asian firms with a market value of $481.5 billion, while South Korea’s Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) is No. 3 at $364 billion. ($1 = 7.8127 Hong Kong dollars) Additional reporting by Patturaja Murugaboopathy and Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tencent-marketcap/tencents-stellar-share-rally-sees-it-surpass-facebook-in-market-value-idUSKBN1DL0ZG'|'2017-11-21T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'62065758c8b3fe56d5fbe96bce8832a5fca58e93'|'Avolon agrees to buy 75 Boeing aircraft, may order 20 more'|'November 19, 2017 / 1:12 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Avolon agrees to buy 75 Boeing aircraft, may order 20 more Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Chinese aircraft leasing company Bohai Capital said on Sunday its Avolon Aerospace Leasing Ltd subsidiary had agreed to buy 55 B737 MAX 8 and 20 B737 MAX 10 aircraft from Boeing, and may order an additional 20 M737 MAX 8, with a total list value of around $11 billion. Bohai’s Avolon, part of aviation-to-shipping conglomerate HNA Group, had signed a memorandum of understanding at the Paris Airshow in June for 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and said it was considering Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 models. Bohai Capital said Avolon expected to take delivery of the aircraft between 2021 and 2024. Avolon was sold to Shenzhen-listed Bohai Capital Holding Co in 2015. Bohai Capital and other state-backed firms are expanding in the aircraft financing and leasing business as customer airlines open routes at home and abroad. Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree and Twinnie Siu. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bohai-capital-aircraft/avolon-agrees-to-buy-75-boeing-aircraft-may-order-20-more-idUSL3N1NP0C3'|'2017-11-19T15:11:00.000+02:00'
'7d03888068348912911f3b4d7192d0a144aa19b4'|'UK''s Babcock posts solid first half, confident of outlook despite uncertainty'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:38 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK''s Babcock posts solid first half, confident of outlook   EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Engineering outsourcer Babcock ( BAB.L ) said its first-half underlying profit before tax climbed 4.9 percent, as expected, and expressed confidence in the outlook due to a strong performance from the marine division. Its underlying revenue grew by 5.9 percent to 2.64 billion pounds, underlying profit before tax grew to 239.5 million pounds. Babcock said 92 percent of budgeted revenue was now in place for the full year ending in March 2018, underpinning its confidence in the outlook. It expects a slight improvement in overall group margin during the second half, it said, without specifying further. The British group provides specialist design, production, maintenance and training services for the defence and engineering industry, and three quarters of its revenues come from the United Kingdom. “Our focus on technology-intensive critical services where barriers to entry are high has consistently enabled us to generate sustainable growth regardless of any decline in spending on original equipment,” Chief Executive Archie Bethel said. “I expect this to remain a key element of differentiation for Babcock in the coming months and years.” Babcock shares are down almost 20 percent in the past six months versus a 1.4 percent decline in the overall FTSE 100 index .FTSE . It has been hit by political uncertainty over Brexit and a spillover of poor sentiment from its peers who specialise in administrative outsourcing and have suffered from slower private and public decision-making following the Brexit vote. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-babcock-results/uks-babcock-posts-solid-first-half-confident-of-outlook-despite-uncertainty-idUKKBN1DL0LZ'|'2017-11-21T09:38:00.000+02:00'
'43b5a11ac0c5d5a0939b4947a8a20d7815a3a54b'|'UPDATE 1-Debt-ridden Altice says not preparing equity-linked cash raising, no margin loan problems'|'* Not preparing any equity or equity-linked issuance* No margin loans problems* Reiterates asset sales plans to cut debt* Eyes possible asset sales as early as H1 2018* Shares down around 60 pct since start of 2017PARIS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Debt-ridden telecoms and cable group Altice said on Monday it was not preparing to raise cash by means of any equity issue, adding it had no margin loans problems and was working on an asset sale programme to cut its debt.Altice’s shares have slumped since it reported weak third-quarter results on Nov. 2, which prompted the company’s billionaire founder, Patrick Drahi, to oust chief executive Michel Combes.Altice has grown massively in the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, which have raised the weight of its net debt to more than five times its annual core operating profit.The stock, down around 60 percent since the start of 2017, fell to its lowest level since April 2014 last week. That has raised concerns that Altice may need to raise cash, but Altice denied this was the case.“Altice confirms that it is not in preparation of a cash raising by means of an equity- or equity-linked issuance and has no intention to pursue such action within the group including Altice USA,” the company said in a statement.The company also said it had no margin loan problems, and that it had a strong liquidity position. Altice’s debt stood at around 49.6 billion euros ($58.2 billion) by the third quarter, while its stock market value is roughly 10 billion euros.“Altice confirms that the Altice Corporate Financing facility with relationship banks at group level is guaranteed by Altice and does not have maintenance covenants or share price triggers,” it said.“Altice confirms that it has no margin loan exposure with respect to its ownership in Altice USA,” it added.Last week, Drahi said Altice would shift its focus away from acquisitions and over towards debt reduction and customer satisfaction after its weak third-quarter results.Altice reiterated it had identified non-core assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that it had started processes for possible sales as early as the first half of 2018.$1 = 0.8524 euros Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/altice-debt/update-1-debt-ridden-altice-says-not-preparing-equity-linked-cash-raising-no-margin-loan-problems-idUSL8N1NQ0C9'|'2017-11-20T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'daf70485affe69441ead99e412b03a49f52eb8c0'|'Easy ECB policy needed to boost wages - Draghi'|' 50 PM / a few seconds ago Easy ECB policy needed to boost wages: Draghi Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The euro zone’s recovery is firm but the European Central Bank needs to keep the money taps open to help boost salaries, the ECB’s President Mario Draghi said on Monday. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi speaks during the 27th European Banking Congress at the Old Opera house in Frankfurt, Germany November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski “The improvements in labor markets that we have observed still need time to translate into more dynamic wage growth,” Draghi told the European Parliament. “The re-calibration of our policies for the period beyond the end of this year is meant to preserve the degree of monetary stimulus that is still necessary to secure a sustained return of inflation.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-wages/easy-ecb-policy-needed-to-boost-wages-draghi-idUKKBN1DK1PY'|'2017-11-20T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'858f030d09c55e7312d59dc464b06e54316ec99e'|'Japan Tobacco''s new CEO lights up Imperial with M&A talk'|'TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - Japan Tobacco Inc ( 2914.T ) sparked takeover speculation on Tuesday by naming a new chief executive who wants the world’s third-largest international tobacco maker to do more overseas acquisitions to offset falling cigarette sales at home.Shares in British tobacco company Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ), long seen as a likely target, rose as much as 4 percent after Masamichi Terabatake, the CEO-designate, told reporters: “If there are good deals, we would like to actively pursue them”.Terabatake, who has a background in deal-making, said after his promotion was announced that he was willing to take risks, adding that the scale of acquisitions “does not matter”.Two big issues facing Japan Tobacco are a geographic footprint too concentrated in low-growth markets Japan and Europe and competitive weakness in vaping. Buying Imperial would help both issues, analysts at Jefferies have long argued.Terabatake, who will replace Mitsuomi Koizumi in January, is currently deputy CEO at JT International, the Geneva-based headquarters of the company’s overseas operations, where he has spent more than a decade.The 51-year-old, who worked on Japan Tobacco’s $7.8 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco’s non-US tobacco business in 1999, did not give any details of possible targets but said:“There are still many regions we have not entered. There are many markets left for cigarette business to grow.”Consolidation is widely expected in a global tobacco market that is shrinking as more people quit.British American Tobacco’s ( BATS.L ) July purchase of Reynolds American ignited expectations that a takeover of Imperial or Altria ( MO.N ) could follow, as Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris International ( PM.N ) seek to bolster their position against a newly enlarged rival.Imperial’s shares had fallen 23 percent since April on concerns about its competitive position and lack of a vaping device that heats tobacco without burning it. It was trading at less than 12 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), whereas BAT, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco are at between 15 and 20 times EBITDA.That discount, and Japan Tobacco’s troubles, have some sources seeing a deal as more likely, though huge market overlap, such as in Britain, makes a takeover complicated.Sources have suggested that Japan Tobacco and British American could split up Imperial, but warn that BAT may still be digesting its $49 billion purchase of Reynolds.A spokesman for Imperial, the maker of the Davidoff and Golden Virginia brands, declined to comment“VAPOUR WAR JUST BEGUN”Japan Tobacco’s domestic cigarette sales have been hurt by more smokers quitting than expected and the popularity of heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco vaping devices.It has forecast 92 billion cigarette sales in Japan for 2017, down 13.4 percent from a year ago. That would be 1 billion less than what it had projected in August and 4 billion below an estimate given at the start of year.Despite commanding more than 60 percent of Japan’s cigarette market, the former state monopoly has ceded some of its home turf to Philip Morris, which launched its IQOS HNB product in Japan in 2014 and expanded nationwide in April last year.Japan Tobacco rolled out its Ploom Tech smokeless tobacco product in central Tokyo in July after production delays.Terabatake said it was still too early for any company to solidify its lead in this category.“(The) tobacco vapour war has just begun,” he said.Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in LONDON; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tobacco-management/japan-tobacco-to-actively-pursue-ma-opportunities-ceo-designate-idUSKBN1DL14M'|'2017-11-21T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'cd72531d09b2e2d610fce50b68fc0f67d809f0d0'|'FRC urged to impose tougher penalties on ''Big Four'''|'November 21, 2017 / 4:08 PM / in 32 minutes FRC urged to impose tougher penalties on ''Big Four'' Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Misdeeds by the world’s “Big Four” accounting firms should be punished with much bigger fines, Britain’s accounting watchdog was advised in a report released on Tuesday. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville “Fines greater than those that have heretofore been imposed may be appropriate in really serious cases,” former judge Christopher Clarke said in the study published by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The Big Four check the books of nearly all big, listed companies and the FRC has faced criticism for not going harder on them, given they are richer than many of their clients. PwC, one of the big four, was hit with a record 5.1 million pound misconduct fine in August for the way it audited collapsed accounting firm RMS Tenon. A much heftier fine could be justified in cases of seriously poor audit work by a “Big Four” accounting firm, a reference to PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte, the report said. “If one of the Big 4 firms was guilty of seriously bad incompetence, in respect of the audit of a major public company... a financial penalty of ten million pounds or more before any discount could be appropriate,” the report said. This would still be a fraction of what other regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority have imposed on banks for trying to rig interest rate benchmarks. The FRC has faced repeated criticism for being too slow and too easy on the Big Four, with some of the high profile cases opened against then closed without any action taken, even when other agencies have issued fines. When the FRC brings a case, it argues the fine that should be imposed before an independent tribunal. The report said tribunals should not consider previous record fines as a benchmark for future penalties. The report also recommends offering discounts of up to 35 percent on fines for a bit longer in the legal process to encourage more early settlements. Accountants that have been found to be dishonest should be banned from a professional accounting body for at least 10 years, it said, longer than many of the bans imposed so far. The FRC said it will now decide which recommendations to adopt to ensure that sanctions imposed continue to be fair, effective and in the public interest. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-accounts-regulator/frc-urged-to-impose-tougher-penalties-on-big-four-idUKKBN1DL1ZS'|'2017-11-21T18:08:00.000+02:00'
'2a5e224b245e1202c5f50c610d89167d71a1c81f'|'EQT buys stake in Sweden''s Epidemic Sound'|'STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Private equity firm EQT is buying a stake of about 40 percent in music company Epidemic Sound, it said on Tuesday without disclosing further financial details of the deal.Epidemic Sound, which buys music from composers and licenses it to TV channels, YouTube productions and Facebook video creators, was valued at around 400 million crowns ($47 million) in a transaction earlier this year, according to Swedish tech news outlet Breakit.EQT added that venture capital firm and Spotify backer Creandum was increasing its ownership to 20 percent in connection with the deal, while Epidemic founders and employees will own 40 percent.Epidemic Sound said the deal will help it expand into more countries, collaborate with more musicians and increase its repertoire of soundtracks. A spokeswoman declined to comment on current valuation or sales at the company, which was founded in 2009.Industrial holding company Investor AB ( INVEb.ST ) is a big investor in EQT’s funds.($1 = 8.4899 Swedish crowns)Reporting by Helena Soderpalm; editing by Niklas Pollard '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eqt-epidemic/eqt-buys-stake-in-swedens-epidemic-sound-idINKBN1DL0YO'|'2017-11-21T07:06:00.000+02:00'
'0353744817b9eb5f5acd4783c6be9243a70fe040'|'Brazil police make arrests in investigation of Petrobras subsidiary'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:56 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Brazil police make arrests in investigation of Petrobras subsidiary Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Brazilian police said on Tuesday they were taking five people into custody as part of the nation’s ‘Cash Wash’ corruption investigation, this time looking into suspected illegal payments at a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras). Police said they were executing eight search warrants in an investigation into an alleged scheme involving illegal payments by a contractor to an employee of Petrobras subsidiary Transpetro. (Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; writing by Gram Slattery; editing by Jason Neely)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/petrobras-corruption/brazil-police-make-arrests-in-investigation-of-petrobras-subsidiary-idUSE6N1G505C'|'2017-11-21T11:55:00.000+02:00'
'04f41d6f0f810fc6298489091ba8cd4914511039'|'As Venezuela pumps below OPEC target, oil rivals begin filling gap'|'November 20, 2017 / 8:49 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago As Venezuela pumps below OPEC target, oil rivals begin filling gap Marianna Parraga , Rania El Gamal 5 Min Read HOUSTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - As Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector struggles to pump enough crude oil to meet the country’s OPEC output target, rival producers have started to plug the gap, according to OPEC and industry sources and U.S. government data. FILE PHOTO: OPEC President Saudi Arabia''s Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih talks to journalists before the beginning of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria, on May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo The South American country’s oil output hit a 28-year low in October as state-owned oil giant PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] struggled to find the funds to drill wells, maintain oilfields and keep pipelines and ports working. Venezuela''s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) per month since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 bpd in 2017, according to numbers reported to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as U.S. sanctions and a lack of capital hobble operations. [For a graphic on Venezuelan and Iraqi oil shipments to the United States and India, click tmsnrt.rs/2A9EKCH ] Some OPEC members expect the fall to accelerate in 2018, reaching at least 300,000 bpd, OPEC sources said. At a recent internal OPEC meeting, Venezuelan officials were asked to give a clearer picture of the country’s declining output. “A lot of questions have been raised by Saudis and others to the Venezuelans to present a real picture on the production status and decline,” one of the sources said. The topic could come up later this month at the group’s next meeting. Saudi Arabia will not raise its output to compensate for this decline as OPEC’s defector leader is focused on reducing global oil stocks, one OPEC source familiar with Saudi oil policy told Reuters this month. But heavy oil from OPEC member Iraq and non-OPEC producers Canada and Brazil are already replacing Venezuelan barrels to key customers the United States and India, according to the sources and Thomson Reuters data. The Iraq shipments remain within OPEC targets. Iraq has increased shipments of crude and condensate to India by 80,000 bpd this year as Venezuelan deliveries fell by 84,000 bpd. The second largest OPEC producer also has exported 201,000 bpd more oil to the United States this year through October as Venezuelan shipments dropped about 90,000 bpd, according to the Reuters data. Venezuela’s weaker output “could be good for market rebalance and we could see price stay at $60 for a slightly longer time,” one OPEC source said. “That doesn’t mean there will be no free riders,” the source added. PLUGGING THE GAP FILE PHOTO: Iraq''s Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi talks to journalists during a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria, on November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Venezuela pumped 1.863 million bpd in October, undershooting its OPEC target by 109,000 bpd, according to an assessment that OPEC uses to monitor members’ output. Venezuela said it had pumped 1.955 million bpd, still below its output target of 1.972 million bpd. There often are discrepancies between the assessment and official figures reported by the OPEC members. When member countries have suffered supply disruptions in the past, other OPEC members have covered the gap, often without changing official production quotas. Saudi Arabia boosted its output in 2003 to offset Iraq’s falling exports after the U.S. invasion, but the agreement was never formally disclosed. OPEC discussions of Venezuela’s quota is not new. Proposals to change the country’s quota have been raised and batted down several times in OPEC meetings since the South American country’s production started declining in 2012, a Venezuelan government source said. Venezuela has argued in the past, when faced with questions about falling output, that it was working to reverse declines from its sizeable proven oil reserves. But it could be difficult for Venezuelan officials to convince OPEC that an upturn is likely in the near future as the country seeks to restructure $60 billion in debt. Dependent on oil revenues, Venezuela has seen its economy contract sharply in the three years since crude prices collapsed from over $100 a barrel. Reviews of quotas and reallocation of market share can be contentious, and the group may prefer to allow market forces to fill the supply gap left by Venezuela’s decline rather than make an official share revision and reallocation to other members, one senior OPEC source said. A formal change would be opening a “can of worms” that OPEC would not want to do, the source added. OPEC’s oil ministers will meet in Vienna later this month to discuss supply policy. The group is expected to extend beyond March an agreement under which its members and rival producers, including Russia, have reduced joint output by about 1.8 million bpd. “We want a successful meeting on Nov. 30, re-discussing quotas will not be accepted by Venezuela and talking about it at the meeting will just open the door for others to do the same,” the senior OPEC source said. As Venezuela oil shipments to India, United States drop, Iraq steps up - tmsnrt.rs/2A9EKCH Editing by Simon Webb, Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-venezuela-quotas/as-venezuela-pumps-below-opec-target-oil-rivals-begin-filling-gap-idUKKBN1DK0UH'|'2017-11-20T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'c673fa8d682456982585ea5b592b2ab7780c895e'|'Exclusive: Saudi prince detention holds up loan to investment firm - sources'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Kingdom Holding’s plan to borrow money to fund new investments has stalled because owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been detained in Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption crackdown, according to four banking sources familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO - Saudi billionaire Prince AlWaleed bin Talal looks on during a news briefing in Manama, May 8, 2012. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Kingdom 4280.SE had approached banks to obtain the loan, but the financing plan has been held up because the lenders are worried about potential repercussions if they lend to the prince’s company, the sources said.One of the sources, who was approached for the loan, said it would have been worth roughly 5 billion riyals ($1.3 billion).A financing hold-up for Kingdom - a leading Saudi investment firm with stakes in prime real estate including New York’s Plaza Hotel and London’s Savoy Hotel - would suggest the crackdown this month is slowing new Saudi business activity.Asked for comment, Kingdom’s Chief Financial Officer Mohammed Fahmy said his company had not asked any bank for a formal loan commitment. He said that terms of any financing deal were never finalised.More than 200 people were questioned and dozens of princes, officials and top businessmen detained in the anti-corruption purge. Over 2,000 bank accounts have been frozen by investigators, commercial bankers told Reuters.The Riyadh government has said the economy will not suffer because investigators are targeting only individuals, not their companies, which can continue to operate as normal.In a statement issued soon after Prince Alwaleed was detained two weeks ago, Kingdom also said it was continuing to operate normally, and that it had the support of the government.But a loan hold-up would suggest some damage to the economy may be inevitable as banks, uncertain of the fate of majority owners of companies and unsure how far the crackdown will extend, become reluctant to extend new financing.PRINCE ALLEGATIONS Kingdom completed the acquisition of a 16.2 percent stake in local lender Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) 1050.SE in September, buying about half of France’s Credit Agricole stake in BSF for 5.76 billion riyals.The company approached banks to obtain a loan that would have been secured by its BSF stake, as the company wanted to leverage the newly acquired shares in order to make new investments, according to the sources.Kingdom’s share price has plunged 19 percent in the past two weeks, erasing about $1.9 billion of market value. The allegations against Prince Alwaleed, who owns 95 percent of Kingdom, include money laundering, bribery and extorting officials, a Saudi official has previously told Reuters.The allegations could not be independently verified.One of the four sources, a senior banker at a Saudi financial institution, said the loan deal would not go ahead until the situation facing the prince was resolved.Eight Saudi and international bankers, including the four sources, said in addition to the Kingdom loan, a range of other transactions involving clients who are directly or indirectly involved in the detentions had also been put on hold.Banks have not reached the point of recalling existing loans, but they have increased the level of scrutiny for some new financing, the bankers said.In a report last week, debt rating agency Moody’s said a prolonged freeze of bank accounts in Saudi Arabia could damage corporate credit quality in the kingdom because large depositors were often large borrowers and business owners.“Saudi Arabia’s corporate sector remains dominated by unlisted family-owned businesses with uneven governance and disclosures and frequent intermingling of individual and corporate activities, which ultimately could expose corporates to these individuals’ frozen accounts,” Moody’s said.Additional reporting by Katie Paul in Riyadh; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Pravin Char '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arrests-kingdom-holding-exclusi/exclusive-saudi-prince-detention-holds-up-loan-to-investment-firm-sources-idUSKBN1DK1W6'|'2017-11-20T17:43:00.000+02:00'
'c9e07a0c4e0479c5ad00c9a54dec23280d362574'|'PRECIOUS-Gold slips on stronger dollar, but holds near one-month high'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:57 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago PRECIOUS-Gold falls on pressure from stronger dollar, rate hikes in focus Reuters Staff 4 Min Read * German politics boost dollar against euro * Prospect of higher U.S. rates creates headwind for gold * Norilsk to boost palladium purchases from central bank (Recasts, updates prices; adds background, datelines, second byline) By Marcy Nicholson and Pratima Desai NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Gold fell more than 1 percent on Monday, giving up the prior session''s gains on pressure from the rising dollar, expectations for U.S. interest rate hikes and as the market entered a holiday week. Spot gold was down 1.4 percent at $1,275.66 an ounce by 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT), off Friday''s peak of $1,297, its strongest since Oct. 16. U.S. gold futures settled down 1.6 percent at $1,275.30. The U.S. dollar touched its highest against a basket of major currencies in nearly a week, as the euro weakened amid political risks linked to German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s failure to form a three-way coalition government. Global equities rose as confidence over economic growth around the world helped investors brush off concerns about the collapse of government talks in Germany. "This reversal is not terribly surprising because you''ve entered a holiday week and didn''t make much progress in that breakout," said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, referring to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and failure to extend the Nov. 17 rally to a one-month high. "The dollar is strengthening ... and the odds of a rate increase are starting to rise. I think we''ve priced in December and you''re starting to price in two or three next year." The prospect of higher U.S. interest rates when the Federal Reserve meets in December helped the dollar against other major currencies such as the yen . Goldman Sachs said it expects a tight U.S. labor market and more normal inflation picture will lead the Fed to hike interest rates four times next year. "For gold, there are headwinds in the guise of U.S. interest rate rises, which means higher front-end bond yield curves and an opportunity cost for holding gold," said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar. Higher rates typically mean sales of short-dated bonds, pushing up yields and make them cheaper for other investors, offering higher returns than gold which earns nothing and costs money to store and insure. Silver was down 2.3 percent at $16.91 an ounce and platinum fell 3 percent to $922.30. Palladium eased 0.5 percent to $988.50 an ounce. Traders said palladium could come under pressure from news that Norilsk Nickel is planning to boost purchases of palladium for its fund from Russian central bank reserves to help ease shortages in the market. An executive at Norilsk, the world''s largest palladium producer, told Reuters that purchases in 2017 would rise to as much as 600,000 ounces. This compares with about five tonnes (160,764 ounces) last year. (Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter and Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-precious/precious-gold-slips-on-stronger-dollar-but-holds-near-one-month-high-idUSL8N1NQ4H7'|'2017-11-20T16:57:00.000+02:00'
'eacb08df69573c325138a42dea4944514fa432ba'|'Higher oil prices help Wall Street nullify tech retreat'|'(Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes were flat in morning trading on Wednesday, but holding at record levels, as a retreat in technology stocks was offset by a jump in U.S. crude prices.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting is due later in the day and will be scrutinized for the central bank’s thinking on inflation for more clarity on what it might do under a new chair next year.A final quarter-point rise under current Chair Janet Yellen next month is almost fully baked in to short-term interest rates, underlining the Fed’s continuing optimism about the economy.But the pace of rises is also slow enough not to scare stock investors who have thrived on a decade of cheap money.Trading volumes were thin ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and an early close on Friday. The CBOE Volatility index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, was down for the fifth session in a row and at two-week lows.“On this eve of Thanksgiving, the market is attempting to maintain an upward bias with oil prices and the macro news leading the way,” Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial, wrote in a note.At 9:40 a.m. ET (1440 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 6.89 points, or 0.03 percent, at 23,583.94, the S&P 500 was up 0.1 points, or 0.01 percent, at 2,599.13 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.99 points, or 0.01 percent, at 6,863.46.All of Wall Street’s main indexes closed at record levels on Tuesday, led by technology stocks, by far the best performing sector of the market this year.After two days of gains, the sector dipped 0.32 percent, making them the biggest decliner among the 11 major S&P sectors.The biggest drop was a 7.2 percent decline in Hewlett Packard Enterprise after Chief Executive Meg Whitman said she would leave in February six years into the job.That was followed by HP Inc, comprising the computer and printer business that Whitman carved out of the old Hewlett Packard, which fell 5.7 percent after reporting an unimpressive profit.The energy index rose 0.62 percent. U.S. light crude jumped nearly 2 percent to their highest since July 2015 as a major pipeline cut Canadian deliveries to the United States, where inventories are already said to be falling.One other gainer was tractor maker Deere & Co, which rose about 3.27 percent after reporting upbeat quarterly earnings and issuing a strong profit forecast for the year.The Fed’s Open Market Committee releases minutes of its October policy meeting at 2:00 p.m. ETAdvancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,658 to 852. On the Nasdaq, 1,481 issues rose and 871 fell.Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/tech-stocks-help-nasdaq-eke-out-record-high-idINKBN1DM1V1'|'2017-11-22T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'e44a57a86f2581c4a3e64e84f7de0c5d931d2bee'|'With little movement, NAFTA talks said to run risk of stalemate'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to be in danger of grinding toward a stalemate amid complaints of U.S. negotiators’ inflexibility, people familiar with the process said on Sunday.A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The United States, Canada and Mexico are holding the fifth of seven planned rounds of talks to modernize NAFTA, which U.S. President Donald Trump blames for job losses and big trade deficits for his country.Time is running short to reach a deal before the March 2018 start of Mexico’s presidential elections, and lack of progress in the current round could put the schedule at risk.“The talks are really not going anywhere,” Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the largest Canadian private-sector union, told reporters after meeting with Canada’s chief negotiator on Sunday.“As long as the United States is taking the position they are, this is a colossal waste of time,” said Dias, who is advising the government and regularly meets the Canadian team.Hanging over the negotiations is the very real threat that Trump could make good on a threat to scrap NAFTA.Canada and Mexico object to a number of demands the U.S. side unveiled during the fourth round last month, including for a five-year sunset clause that would force frequent renegotiation of the trade pact, far more stringent automotive content rules and radical changes to dispute settlement mechanisms.“Our internal view as of this morning is that if any progress is to be made, the United States needs to show some flexibility and a willingness to do a deal,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks.“We are seeing no signs of flexibility now,” added the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.However, a NAFTA country official familiar with the talks said Canada had not yet submitted any counterproposals to the U.S. demands.Dias said the United States was showing some signs of flexibility over its sunset clause proposal after Mexican officials floated a plan for a “rigorous evaluation” of the trade pact, but without an automatic expiration.U.S. negotiating objectives that were updated on Friday appeared to accommodate the Mexican proposal, saying the revised NAFTA should “provide a mechanism for ensuring that the Parties assess the benefits of the Agreement on a periodic basis.”Canada and Mexico are also unhappy about U.S. demands that half the content of North American-built autos come from the United States, coupled with a much higher 85 percent North American content threshold. Officials are due to discuss the issue from Sunday through the end of the fifth round on Tuesday,Flavio Volpe, president of the Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said there was little chance of making substantial progress on autos in Mexico City, as the U.S. demands were still not fully understood.“I don’t expect a heavy negotiation here,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the talks.Additional reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/with-little-movement-nafta-talks-said-to-run-risk-of-stalemate-idUSKBN1DJ0T1'|'2017-11-20T04:24:00.000+02:00'
'fd89ef22212e6d0450b25a9de485ea95dae74fe8'|'UPDATE 2-FCC head proposes review of U.S. TV station ownership cap'|'(Adds reaction from Democratic commissioner, advocacy group; details on company support)By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday asked the agency to review rules capping television station ownership, a move that could speed consolidation in the industry.FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, asked the four other members of the commission to vote to kick off a process to decide if the nation-wide cap, set at 39 percent of television-owning households, should be eliminated or raised, the agency said.Big media firms like Tegna Inc, CBS Corp, Nexstar Media Group Inc and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc have pushed for the change that would allow them to expand.In an earnings call in February, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said “we would strategically want to buy some more stations” if the cap were lifted.In his notice, Pai, a Republican, said he wants to “seek public input on whether to modify, retain, or eliminate the 39 percent national cap.”He said “a comprehensive review of the rule is warranted in light of considerable marketplace changes, such as technological developments and increased video programming options for consumers, since the cap was last modified in 2004” by U.S. Congress.There is debate about whether the FCC has the legal authority to set the cap, designed to ensure that one company does not acquire an overwhelming ownership of the broadcast market, above the current 39 percent.Craig Aaron, president and CEO of consumer advocacy group Free Press, said Pai has “teed up for elimination the last remaining firewall against completely unchecked media consolidation ... The result will be one or two dominant broadcasters in every market.”In April, the FCC voted 2-1 to reverse a 2016 decision limiting the number of television stations some broadcasters could buy.Under rules adopted in 1985, stations with weaker over-the-air signals could be partially counted against a company’s ownership cap.But the FCC under Democratic former President Barack Obama said last year that the rules were outdated after a 2009 conversion to digital broadcasting, which eliminated differences in station signal strength. It revoked the rules in September 2016.FCC Democratic Commissioner Jessical Rosenworcel said that Congress has made clear the FCC cannot go above the current cap. “This proposal is a giveaway to the largest station group at the expense of diversity, localism, and competition,” she said.Pai said the FCC will reconsider the agency’s April decision as part of a comprehensive review.Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, the largest U.S. television broadcast group, announced plans in May to acquire Tribune Media Co in a $3.9 billion deal extending its reach to 72 percent of U.S. households.Sinclair would have to divest some stations as part of that acquisition under current rules. It hopes FCC rule changes will allow it to avoid such sales. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Paul Simao and Meredith Mazzilli) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-broadcasters/update-1-fcc-head-proposes-review-of-u-s-tv-station-ownership-cap-idINL1N1NR19R'|'2017-11-21T15:27:00.000+02:00'
'eaefb56ac89ace91cf8da9f7b38e4205d4a7f88a'|'Exclusive: Saudi sale of grain mills hits obstacles'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - An unwieldy sale process and onerous ownership rules are discouraging some potential investors from bidding for Saudi Arabia’s state-owned grain mills, sources close to the firms say, in a potential snag for the kingdom’s economic reforms.FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to modernize Saudi Arabia and reduce its dependence on oil. The kingdom is selling assets worth about $300 billion to fund the plan and potential foreign investors and bankers are watching the sales closely.The grain mills on sale come under the kingdom’s monopoly state grain buyer the Saudi Grains Organisation (SAGO), one of the world’s largest wheat and barley buyers.Archer Daniels Midland Company ( ADM.N ) and Bunge Limited ( BG.N ) - two of the world’s four biggest agribusiness firms - are among several international companies that have previously expressed interest in bidding for SAGO’s assets.But one agribusiness giant which previously expressed an interest is now hesitating following the publication last week of preliminary sale guidelines which stipulate that the mills must remain majority Saudi-owned.“If that is the deal, then the answer will clearly be a ‘no’,” a source close to one of the large agribusiness firms potentially interested in bidding told Reuters.ADM and Bunge declined comment.The document with the guidelines, described as indicative criteria for investors, was posted on SAGO’s website.Another Middle East-based grain trader said after reading the document: “It can’t really be a whole-hearted privatization if the Saudi partner remains in control.”Prospective foreign bidders were made aware from the start of the process by bank HSBC ( HSBA.L ), SAGO’s financial adviser for the sale, that they would require Saudi involvement to bid.As a result, ADM partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Almarai 2280.SE, while Bunge teamed up with Arasco, Reuters reported this year.Italian wheat supplier Casillo Group and a partnership of Turkey’s TAV, a construction and airports conglomerate, and Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Holding Group, a local real estate business, were also interested, Reuters previously reported.But the source close to one of the large agribusinesses said the company had understood there would be room for negotiation on the level of Saudi ownership.HSBC declined to comment on the sale process and whether the majority ownership rule was flexible.An adviser to a consortium potentially interested in SAGO said the document suggested there was less room for negotiation than previously understood, even though it had been clear from the start the kingdom wanted to retain control of food security.The document was designed to elicit market feedback as part of a consultative approach to the privatization, a source close to the sale process said.IMPORT DEPENDENT Large grain market players’ interest in SAGO’s mills comes as Saudi Arabia grows increasingly dependent on grain imports. The kingdom has become a major importer of wheat and barley since abandoning plans in 2008 to become self-sufficient - as farming in the desert was draining scarce water supplies.SAGO imports Saudi Arabia’s entire wheat supply of about 3.5 million tonnes a year. It has said that demand for wheat is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3.2 percent to reach 4.5 million tonnes by 2025, largely due to population growth.Despite the opportunities for growth, some of the initial enthusiasm in the SAGO sale has cooled over concerns about the majority Saudi ownership rule, as well as other aspects of the sale structure.SAGO has previously said it would sell its milling operations by placing them in four specially formed corporate entities, while retaining other functions. The entities would each hold grain silos, feed factories and flour mills.Two of the sources close to potential bidders said a final decision on the process was still to be made, but they believed SAGO was leaning towards a sale of the entities one by one, rather than together, and this did not sit well with investors.“The rules of engagement are still not clear. Will they make it all one sale or will they divide it in phases? We don’t know yet,” one of those sources said.After HSBC asked for feedback from potential bidders on the sequential sale, at least three groups voiced opposition to the plan, according to an adviser to one potential bidder.The two sources close to potential bidders said the first sale would probably set a level of pricing for the other three, which could be unfair on those bidding further down the line.No price indications for the milling operations have been given and investors say it is hard to put a precise figure on the value of the assets as SAGO has never been run for profit.The source close to the sale process said sequential sales would make the bidding process more competitive, benefiting the kingdom.‘PAINFULLY SLOW’Investors were also seeking clarity on how long grain subsidies would remain in place and details on non-compete clauses, one of the sources close to a potential bidder said, adding that both needed to be clarified in the sale rules.HSBC has not publicly disclosed a timetable for the privatization. The source close to the sale process said the schedule for the sale would be disclosed at the “right stage”.But potential investors said the process had been painfully slow so far. One said that even though no deadline had been set, they had expected the request for qualifications, which kick-starts the process, to have started earlier.In a statement to Reuters, SAGO said it was continuing its efforts to be “on track without jeopardizing the quality of preparation and readiness” for the privatization, adding that the document with the indicative criteria for investors had been released earlier than originally planned.SAGO did not comment on the proposed sale terms.In addition to the big names, some regional investors have also expressed an interest in the sale.Dubai-based Al Ghurair, and a partnership between Abu Dhabi-based Agthia Group AGTH.AD and local conglomerate Olayan Group are among others eyeing the privatization, sources told Reuters, although SAGO is said to be more interested in large global firms that have more experience and market clout.Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai; editing by Michael Georgy and David Clarke '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-privatisation-sago-exclusive/exclusive-agribusiness-firms-discouraged-by-saudi-mills-sale-terms-idUSKBN1DL1S5'|'2017-11-21T17:08:00.000+02:00'
'351f5c31e56b4955adde8a64bf1f3a85e317c15d'|'Lufthansa''s Eurowings sees prices as stable, not rising'|'November 21, 2017 / 2:36 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Lufthansa''s Eurowings sees prices as stable, not rising Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) budget brand Eurowings sees ticket prices as stable, rather than rising, over the next year, the unit’s managing director said on Tuesday. The logo of Lufthansa''s low-cost brand Eurowings is seen at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany, November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo “I expect stable prices at best, not rising,” Oliver Wagner said at an aviation conference in Frankfurt. British budget carrier easyJet ( EZJ.L ) said earlier on Tuesday that it expected prices to rise slightly over the winter months, thanks to the failures of rivals such as Monarch and Air Berlin that have reduced capacity in the market. Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-eurowings/lufthansas-eurowings-sees-prices-as-stable-not-rising-idUKKBN1DL1P2'|'2017-11-21T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'fcf28d1c17353c711ad78bbde56e8406561ee564'|'Total will lose entire investment if it pulls out of South Pars -Iran oil minister'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:16 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Total will lose entire investment if it pulls out of South Pars -Iran oil minister Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIRUT, Nov 21 (Reuters) - France’s Total will lose all of its investment if it pulls out of a deal with Iran to develop South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, the Iranian oil minister said on Tuesday. “If Total, without the enforcement of Security Council sanctions, announces that it has the intention to leave the contract, no capital will be returned to this company and no sum will be transferred to the company,” oil minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying by SHANA, the news site of the Iranian oil ministry. Total signed a deal with Tehran in July to develop phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars field, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions. However, Total’s Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said last week that the oil major would have to review its Iran gas project if the United States decided to impose unilateral sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, given Total’s assets in the U.S. market. The U.S. Congress is due to decide within about a month whether to reinstate sanctions on Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to formally certify that Tehran was complying with its nuclear deal. Zanganeh said Total has pledged 56 million euros ($66 million) for the South Pars project and work is progressing as specified in the contract. Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC with 30 percent, and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent. Separately, the managing director of the Iranian Gas Transmission Company, Saeed Tavakoli, said on Tuesday that Iran exported 5.4 billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey between March and September. In the previous Iranian year, which began in March 2016 and ended in March 2017, Iran exported eight billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey, SHANA quoted Tavakoli as saying. On average, Iran exports 30 million cubic metres of gas a day to Turkey, Tavakoli said, according to SHANA. ($1 = 0.8520 euros) (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/iran-gas-south-pars/total-will-lose-entire-investment-if-it-pulls-out-of-south-pars-iran-oil-minister-idUSL8N1NR4PM'|'2017-11-21T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'f41aad60234d0c50eb5e84be1db92b52c3c76cbf'|'Danone backs bottled Hawaiian ocean water brand Kona Deep'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Evian and Volvic owner Danone has put money into a Hawaiian bottled water from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, showing the depths multinationals will now go to in the quest to stand out.The logo of French food group Danone is seen during a news conference to present the company''s 2015 annual results in Paris, France, February 23, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau The investment in Kona Deep, for an undisclosed sum, is the fifth in a year for Danone Manifesto Ventures, a fund the French food giant set up last year to invest in entrepreneurial companies, which are eating away at the dominance of big brands.Kona Deep sources its water from a deep ocean current off the coast of Hawaii. The two-year-old company says its water has a unique blend of naturally occurring electrolytes and minerals that make it extra-hydrating.Danone ( DANO.PA ), the world’s No. 3 bottled water company, is one of nine food giants to set up such a fund recently.A case of 12 1-litre bottles of Kona Deep can be found online for $33, nearly triple the price of a case of Evian.After being pumped through a pipe that reaches 3,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, Kona Deep desalinates the water using reverse osmosis, and bottles it.Danone did not give details about the environmental impact of the process, but said on Tuesday ocean water was a renewable source and that Kona Deep sources it in a “responsible and sustainable manner.”Kona Deep can benefit from Danone’s experience with eco-friendly packaging and community management, it added.Danone is taking a minority stake as part of Kona Deep’s $5.5 million capital raising effort, which also includes private equity firm Grand Crossing Capital and local Hawaiian investors.The brand has recently expanded from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland and plans to use the funds to expand distribution and production capacity.($1 = 0.8520 euros)Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Martinne Geller and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-danone-investment/danone-backs-bottled-hawaiian-ocean-water-brand-kona-deep-idUSKBN1DL28K'|'2017-11-21T19:29:00.000+02:00'
'9578305e0d9433e1510e02c36c074a1897487489'|'German automakers set for record output expect further growth in 2018 - VDA'|'Reuters TV United States November 21, 2017 / 1:41 PM / a few seconds ago German automakers set for record output expect further growth in 2018: VDA Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German automakers, on course for record production this year, expect further output growth in 2018 powered by strong demand in Asia, the VDA carmakers’ lobby said. FILE PHOTO: Employees of German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz make final adjustments at the end of the Mercedes A class (A-Klasse) production line at the factory in Rastatt, Germany, January 22, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Producers including Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and BMW ( BMWG.DE ) may increase output “significantly” this year from 2016 levels to between 5.6-5.7 million units in Germany and about 10.8 million in the rest of the world, VDA President Matthias Wissmann said. “The automotive sector is and will remain a growth market,” Wissmann told an industry conference on Tuesday, citing momentum in China and India. “Current projections indicate that 2018 will also be a stable year,” he said, without being more specific. Separately, Wissmann said he expects demand in Germany for electric cars to show “a further significant gain” over the next three years as German carmakers plan to more than triple their offerings of purely battery-powered vehicles and plug-in hybrids to nearly 100 models from about 30 at present. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-autos/german-automakers-set-for-record-output-expect-further-growth-in-2018-vda-idUKKBN1DL1IV'|'2017-11-21T15:28:00.000+02:00'
'feb7d65e25caaf830025aed6b4d4e84cba2cb635'|'British and Dutch gas trading platforms to be connected from January'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:34 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago British and Dutch gas trading platforms to be connected from January Lefteris Karagiannopoulos 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Dutch Gasunie Transport Services (GTS) and BBL Company (BBLC) will integrate their transport systems by January next year, creating a direct connection between Dutch and British gas trading hubs, BBLC said on Tuesday. The so-called Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) and the British National Balancing Point (NBP) are Europe’s two largest gas-trading platforms. The integration of the transport systems will allow the BBL gas interconnector pipeline between Britain and the Netherlands to become part of the TTF market area, BBLC said in a statement. Gas flows will remain unchanged, said GTS spokesman Gerben van Dijk. “The flows will be still from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. It’s just that there will be only one booking point, making the system quicker and easier,” he said. The two companies will have a joint entry and exit system but can continue to operate as independent transmission system operators. “The integration may contribute to a further expansion of TTF as the most liquid gas trading platform in Europe ... resulting in yearly cost savings for (gas) shippers,” said Bart Jan Hoevers, managing director of GTS. BBLC managing director Luuk Feenstra added: “Improved arbitrage opportunities should also lead to fewer price differences and fluctuations between the two trading places.” Reducing the interconnection points from two to one will entail IT work costing 1.1 million euros (£975,052), which GTS and BBLC will cover jointly, the GTS spokesman said. Editing by Louise Heavens and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-netherlands-gas/britains-nbp-and-dutch-ttf-to-be-directly-connected-from-january-idUKKBN1DL0VO'|'2017-11-21T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'09a97c6cb88197bca58bc7be4826ae057c228e38'|'U.S. FDA approves first two-drug HIV regimen'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:13 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago U.S. FDA approves first two-drug HIV regimen Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved the first two-drug regimen to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, aimed at easing the side effects for long-term patients who are on the standard treatment involving three or more drugs. The treatment, called Juluca, is a fixed-dose tablet that combines two previously approved drugs, dolutegravir and rilpivirine, and is available to patients who have been on a stable regimen for at least six months. Juluca belongs to GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s majority-owned ViiV Healthcare, in which Pfizer and Shionogi also have small stakes. ViiV’s dolutegravir is part of GSK’s traditional triple-therapy used to control the AIDS virus. The approval puts GSK ahead of rival Gilead Sciences in the race to market with two-drug combinations for HIV treatments, although uptake could be slow because rilpivirine has the downside that it must be taken with a meal at the same time every day. The FDA has a February deadline to decide on Gilead’s competing combination. GSK is also working on a second two-drug combination that will replace rilpivirine with a common off-patent drug called 3TC that could reach the market in the second half of 2019 if clinical trials are successful. Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gsk-fda/u-s-fda-approves-first-two-drug-hiv-regimen-idUSKBN1DL2L1'|'2017-11-21T22:09:00.000+02:00'
'ccc8fb81a499be227227e1c61c7f6b66ecae35b1'|'Auchan/Alibaba deal turns up heat on Carrefour in China'|'* Carrefour risks falling further behind in China - analysts* May have to exit or sell assets in China - analysts* Carrefour due to unveil new strategy Jan. 23By Dominique VidalonPARIS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - A partnership between French retailer Auchan and internet giant Alibaba risks pushing Carrefour further behind in China and could persuade its new boss to sell out of the country.Alexandre Bompard took the helm at Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart, in July and on Jan. 23 will unveil his turnaround plan for the French company, which issued a profit warning in August.Bompard has to decide whether to stay or go in China, where Carrefour has spent years trying to fix a business whose sales still fell 5.4 percent in the third quarter amid fierce competition from local players and a buoyant online market.Asked whether he had made a decision on China, the CEO told Reuters on the sidelines of an investment conference in Paris on Tuesday: “I will speak about it very soon.” Asked if this would be in the January presentation, he said: “Yes.”“Until now, the only Western retailers to have successfully established themselves in this country have done so via partnerships with local retailers, like Auchan with Sun Art Retail,” Bryan Garnier analysts said in a research note.“A combination of offline and online is also an option, as seen with the recent agreements between Wal-Mart and JD.com ... and Auchan and Alibaba ... Failing the rapid conclusion of such a partnership, a decision could be taken at Carrefour to sell assets in China,” they added.On Monday, Alibaba announced a HK$22.4 billion ($2.9 billion) investment in a stake in Sun Art, China’s top hypermarket operator, in which Auchan also has the biggest stake.Carrefour has been trying to reposition in China, where it makes 5 percent of group sales, having been too focused on large hypermarkets there. It has been expanding into e-commerce and convenience stores and opening logistics centres to cut costs.Former CEO Georges Plassat repeatedly said Carrefour would stay in China and did not rule out a deal with a local partner, although nothing materialised.RIVALS HAVE CHANGED TACTICS Meanwhile, rivals have taken action.In 2013, Britain’s Tesco gave up on cracking China alone, folding its unprofitable business there into a state run company as a minority partner.In 2016, Wal-Mart sold its Chinese online grocery store in return for a stake in JD.com, China’s No. 2 e-commerce firm,Auchan’s partnership with Alibaba risks further relegating Carrefour to the sidelines in China, analysts said.“Sun Art is the largest grocery retailer in China and often considered as the one with the best operations and the best integration within the local culture,” said Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne.“After a deal with Sun Art, there seems to be little incremental value in doing a deal with Carrefour for Alibaba. Potentially there is JD.com but they already have a deal with Wal-Mart,” he added. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/carrefour-china/auchan-alibaba-deal-turns-up-heat-on-carrefour-in-china-idINL8N1NR2CR'|'2017-11-21T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'7ec668dbfb87bfb04a502083c9af81705d97add0'|'Total will lose entire investment if it pulls out of South Pars -Iran oil minister'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:22 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Total will lose entire investment if it pulls out of South Pars -Iran oil minister Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIRUT (Reuters) - France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) will lose all of its investment if it pulls out of a deal with Iran to develop South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, the Iranian oil minister said on Tuesday. A view shows the logo of Total French oil giant tower headquarters in the financial and business district of La Defense, west of Paris, France November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “If Total, without the enforcement of Security Council sanctions, announces that it has the intention to leave the contract, no capital will be returned to this company and no sum will be transferred to the company,” oil minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying by SHANA, the news site of the Iranian oil ministry. Total signed a deal with Tehran in July to develop phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars field, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions. However, Total’s Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said last week that the oil major would have to review its Iran gas project if the United States decided to impose unilateral sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, given Total’s assets in the U.S. market. The U.S. Congress is due to decide within about a month whether to reinstate sanctions on Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to formally certify that Tehran was complying with its nuclear deal. Zanganeh said Total has pledged 56 million euros (£49.6 million) for the South Pars project and work is progressing as specified in the contract. Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC with 30 percent, and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent. Separately, the managing director of the Iranian Gas Transmission Company, Saeed Tavakoli, said on Tuesday that Iran exported 5.4 billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey between March and September. In the previous Iranian year, which began in March 2016 and ended in March 2017, Iran exported eight billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey, SHANA quoted Tavakoli as saying. On average, Iran exports 30 million cubic metres of gas a day to Turkey, Tavakoli said, according to SHANA. Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-gas-south-pars/total-will-lose-entire-investment-if-it-pulls-out-of-south-pars-iran-oil-minister-idUKKBN1DL1TZ'|'2017-11-21T17:21:00.000+02:00'
'3fd7d7a97b5a53963dbc15febc862b58788ee9c2'|'Column: India rushing to join natural gas boom risks eventual LNG shortage - Russell'|'LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - India is planning to join the Asian rush to boost the use of natural gas over coal, a further sign that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market will tighten faster than previously expected.An engineer of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) works inside the Kalol oil field in Gujarat September 12, 2009. REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files India’s state oil refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum aim to raise the contribution of natural gas to between 5 percent and 15 percent of their incomes over the coming years, up from virtually zero currently.This is part of the government’s target to boost the natural gas portion of India’s primary energy mix to 15 percent by 2030, up from 6.5 percent now.Increasing the use of natural gas will mainly come at the expense of coal, a move aimed at meeting climate targets and lowering emissions, something that has become more pressing since New Delhi’s air pollution is now worse than Beijing‘s.In practical terms what this means is that the state oil companies will be spending billions of dollars to build new LNG import terminals and associated gas pipelines.This will serve to boost India’s natural gas consumption from around 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) currently to around 70 bcm by 2022 and 100 bcm by 2030, according to figures from a government think tank and the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.Most of this additional natural gas demand is going to have to be met by imports, given the limitations of expanding domestic output.India imported around 19.7 million tonnes of LNG in 2016, equivalent to about 26.8 bcm, according to vessel-tracking data in Thomson Reuters Eikon, making the South Asian nation the fourth-largest importer of the super-chilled fuel.In the first 10 months of this year, India’s LNG imports came to 16.4 million tonnes, putting it on track to at least match last year’s figure.EMERGING SUPPLY-DEMAND GAP The steady import performance this year contrasts with the expected surge in demand in a few years time, and it’s this gap that presents a potential dilemma for the Asian LNG market.Assuming India does actually build its LNG import infrastructure at the pace suggested by the government and the state oil companies, it’s likely that it will be ramping up its natural gas demand at the same time as several other countries in Asia.China is already increasing its LNG imports as it tries to reduce the amount of coal in its energy mix, and this is a trend likely to accelerate in coming years.China imported 28.8 million tonnes of LNG in the first 10 months of the year, according to the vessel-tracking data, 45 percent more than the 19.8 million tonnes China bought in the same period in 2016.But it’s not just China, with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines all building new LNG import infrastructure.Add to this the planned imports by traditionally exporting countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia and it becomes clearer that LNG markets are likely to tighten substantially, and in a relatively short time frame around 2021-23.The problem is that final investment decisions (FIDs) on new LNG plants have fizzled in the past two years, having run at about 10 million to 20 million tonnes per annum for more than a decade previously.“They have now dried up to 6 million tonnes in 2016 and a questionable 3 million in 2017,” Fereidun Fesharaki, the chairman of consultants FGE, said in a research note received on Nov. 15. “No one is certain whether there will be any FIDs in 2018.”FGE forecasts that a 20 million tonne surplus of LNG in 2020 will turn to a 50 million tonne deficit by 2025.That’s a dramatic swing, which if realised will sharply alter the pricing dynamics of LNG.If LNG prices do rise sharply, it may cut demand for the fuel and make cheaper coal seem attractive enough to outweigh its pollution penalty.But it also means that LNG project developers may be too late to catch the next boom in demand, given it takes several years to build a greenfield export plant once FID is taken.Editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/column-russell-lng-india/column-india-rushing-to-join-natural-gas-boom-risks-eventual-lng-shortage-russell-idINKBN1DL0CD'|'2017-11-21T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'f3c76bff78da26c256ceab024a77ef9f57d2682e'|'Accounting watchdog urged to impose tougher penalties on ''Big Four'''|'November 21, 2017 / 4:11 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago Accounting watchdog urged to impose tougher penalties on ''Big Four'' Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Misdeeds by the world’s “Big Four” accounting firms should be punished with much bigger fines, Britain’s accounting watchdog was advised in a report released on Tuesday. “Fines greater than those that have heretofore been imposed may be appropriate in really serious cases,” former judge Christopher Clarke said in the study published by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The Big Four check the books of nearly all big, listed companies and the FRC has faced criticism for not going harder on them, given they are richer than many of their clients. PwC, one of the big four, was hit with a record 5.1 million pound ($6.8 million) misconduct fine in August for the way it audited collapsed accounting firm RMS Tenon. A much heftier fine could be justified in cases of seriously poor audit work by a “Big Four” accounting firm, a reference to PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte, the report said. “If one of the Big 4 firms was guilty of seriously bad incompetence, in respect of the audit of a major public company... a financial penalty of ten million pounds or more before any discount could be appropriate,” the report said. This would still be a fraction of what other regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority have imposed on banks for trying to rig interest rate benchmarks. The ICAEW, a professional body for accountants, said there is a very real danger that the urge to exact retribution leads to fines so large that they harm the marketplace. “Fines that are too demanding substantially change the risk profile of an accounting firm, and the insurability of its trading,” Duncan Wiggetts, ICAEW executive director for professional standards, said. “This raises the possibility of a larger audit firm choosing to exit what is already a narrow market if the risk becomes too high,” Wiggetts said. But Hannah Laming, a lawyer at Peters & Peters, said bigger fines and a lower threshold for demonstrating misconduct will give the FRC greater credibility. KPMG said it was important to take time to consider the recommendations more fully. The FRC has faced repeated criticism for being too slow and too easy on the Big Four, with some of the high profile cases opened against then closed without any action taken, even when other agencies have issued fines. When the FRC brings a case, it argues the fine that should be imposed before an independent tribunal. The report said tribunals should not consider previous record fines as a benchmark for future penalties. The report also recommends offering discounts of up to 35 percent on fines for a bit longer in the legal process to encourage more early settlements. Accountants that have been found to be dishonest should be banned from a professional accounting body for at least 10 years, it said, longer than many of the bans imposed so far. The FRC said it will now decide which recommendations to adopt to ensure that sanctions imposed continue to be fair, effective and in the public interest. ($1 = 0.7552 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-accounts-regulator/accounting-watchdog-urged-to-impose-tougher-penalties-on-big-four-idUKKBN1DL1ZU'|'2017-11-21T19:23:00.000+02:00'
'b44cccc0d13d4eec84c8330788cd1203bd4f9987'|'German automakers set for record output expect further growth in 2018: VDA'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - German automakers, on course for record production this year, expect further output growth in 2018 powered by strong demand in Asia, the VDA carmakers’ lobby said.FILE PHOTO: Employees of German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz make final adjustments at the end of the Mercedes A class (A-Klasse) production line at the factory in Rastatt, Germany, January 22, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Producers including Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and BMW ( BMWG.DE ) may increase output “significantly” this year from 2016 levels to between 5.6-5.7 million units in Germany and about 10.8 million in the rest of the world, VDA President Matthias Wissmann said.“The automotive sector is and will remain a growth market,” Wissmann told an industry conference on Tuesday, citing momentum in China and India.“Current projections indicate that 2018 will also be a stable year,” he said, without being more specific.Separately, Wissmann said he expects demand in Germany for electric cars to show “a further significant gain” over the next three years as German carmakers plan to more than triple their offerings of purely battery-powered vehicles and plug-in hybrids to nearly 100 models from about 30 at present.Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-autos/german-automakers-set-for-record-output-expect-further-growth-in-2018-vda-idUSKBN1DL1IV'|'2017-11-21T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'5278178874b8d9ffbee167aa06d9b878ccd823bd'|'AT&T lawyer calls DoJ move to block Time Warner deal ''foolish'' - CNBC'|'November 21, 2017 / 2:43 PM / in an hour AT&T lawyer calls DoJ move to block Time Warner deal ''foolish'' - CNBC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - The United States Justice Department’s argument to block AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) $85.4 billion (£64.4 billion) acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) was “foolish” as the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The Justice Department on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the telecom carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” "We want to go to court as soon as possible," Petrocelli told CNBC, adding the burden of proof is on the government. cnb.cx/2AjiOVw Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-lawyer-calls-doj-move-to-block-time-warner-deal-foolish-cnbc-idUKKBN1DL1PZ'|'2017-11-21T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'd8ddd8825aac76312494115c51d3f215e72450f6'|'FCC to reconsider U.S. television station ownership cap: source'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:15 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago FCC head proposes review of U.S. TV station ownership cap David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday asked the agency to review rules capping television station ownership, a move that could speed consolidation in the industry. FILE PHOTO - Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing room is seen in Washington February 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, asked the four other members of the commission to vote to kick off a process to decide if the nation-wide cap, set at 39 percent of television-owning households, should be eliminated or raised, the agency said. Big media firms like Tegna Inc, CBS Corp, Nexstar Media Group Inc and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc have pushed for the change that would allow them to expand. In an earnings call in February, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said “we would strategically want to buy some more stations” if the cap were lifted. In his notice, Pai, a Republican, said he wants to “seek public input on whether to modify, retain, or eliminate the 39 percent national cap.” He said “a comprehensive review of the rule is warranted in light of considerable marketplace changes, such as technological developments and increased video programming options for consumers, since the cap was last modified in 2004” by U.S. Congress. There is debate about whether the FCC has the legal authority to set the cap, designed to ensure that one company does not acquire an overwhelming ownership of the broadcast market, above the current 39 percent. Craig Aaron, president and CEO of consumer advocacy group Free Press, said Pai has “teed up for elimination the last remaining firewall against completely unchecked media consolidation ... The result will be one or two dominant broadcasters in every market.” In April, the FCC voted 2-1 to reverse a 2016 decision limiting the number of television stations some broadcasters could buy. Under rules adopted in 1985, stations with weaker over-the-air signals could be partially counted against a company’s ownership cap. But the FCC under Democratic former President Barack Obama said last year that the rules were outdated after a 2009 conversion to digital broadcasting, which eliminated differences in station signal strength. It revoked the rules in September 2016. FCC Democratic Commissioner Jessical Rosenworcel said that Congress has made clear the FCC cannot go above the current cap. “This proposal is a giveaway to the largest station group at the expense of diversity, localism, and competition,” she said. Pai said the FCC will reconsider the agency’s April decision as part of a comprehensive review. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, the largest U.S. television broadcast group, announced plans in May to acquire Tribune Media Co in a $3.9 billion deal extending its reach to 72 percent of U.S. households. Sinclair would have to divest some stations as part of that acquisition under current rules. It hopes FCC rule changes will allow it to avoid such sales. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Paul Simao and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-broadcasters/fcc-to-reconsider-u-s-television-station-ownership-cap-source-idUSKBN1DL271'|'2017-11-21T19:15:00.000+02:00'
'872b4d309eafca26bf86793853aa9896f2cc06ef'|'Ethiopia bets on clothes to fashion industrial future'|'Reuters TV United States  46 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Ethiopia bets on clothes to fashion industrial future Aaron Maasho 8 Min Read KOMBOLCHA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Checkered shirts for American chain Gap. Slate leggings for Swedish store H&M. Twill shorts for Germany’s Tchibo. They are among a growing list of clothes being stitched together for big brands in Ethiopia. Workers sew clothes inside the Indochine Apparel PLC textile factory in Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri As labor, raw material and tax costs rise in China - the world’s dominant textiles producer - the Horn of Africa country is scrambling to offer a cheaper alternative, and go up against established low-cost garment makers like Bangladesh and Vietnam. It is still early days, and most of the clothing companies to source production in Ethiopia are testing the waters with small volumes. But the government is working hard to attract their business with tax breaks, subsidies and cheap loans. The landlocked nation is also about to open the final stretch of a 700 km (450-mile) electric railway to Djibouti’s coast. This is part of a drive to turn a nation that is among the poorest in Africa into a manufacturing center that is no longer held hostage to fickle weather patterns which periodically devastate the agrarian economy and leave its people hungry. There has been some progress; foreign investment in the textile industry has risen from 4.5 billion birr ($166.5 million) in 2013/14 to 36.8 billion in 2016/17, the Ethiopian Investment Commission, a government agency, told Reuters. “This is a huge success,” Arkebe Oqubay, a prime ministerial adviser directing the industrialization drive, said during the inauguration of an industry park in the northern Ethiopian town of Kombolcha this summer. “The challenge now is to bring the world’s biggest companies into the country.” Some have already arrived, most of them sourcing some production locally, like Gap and H&M, but a few building factories themselves. Those to set up factories this year include U.S. fashion giant PVH, whose brands include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; Dubai-based Velocity Apparelz Companies, which supplies Levi‘s, Zara and Under Armour; and China‘s Jiangsu Sunshine Group, whose customers include Giorgio Armani and Hugo Boss. French retailer Decathlon and over 150 companies from China and India will begin sourcing production from Ethiopia soon, said the investment commission. However, while Ethiopia is moving faster than its continental rivals, there is a long road ahead. Logistical, bureaucratic and cotton-quality problems are threatening its ambitions and there are no guarantees it will ever be able to compete with the big global players. The gulf in textiles exports is huge; Ethiopia’s totalled about $115 million in 2015, against Vietnam’s $27 billion, Bangladesh’s $28 billion and China’s $273 billion, according to the World Bank’s latest figures. Ethiopia’s fledgling sector can ill afford the kind of working conditions scandals that have dogged the low-cost garment industry elsewhere, and officials said they were sending representatives to Asia to learn best practices. ROUTE TO RED SEA Ethiopia’s road link with the port in Djibouti is outdated and congested in many parts and, together with the limited capacity and dense bureaucracy of its customs service, slows companies’ supply chains. This is undermining the benefits of being closer to European markets than most of its Asian rivals. It takes up to 44 days from the time a clothing consignment leaves the factory to when it reaches buyers in Europe, compared to an average 28 days in Bangladesh and 21 days in China, according to a report from the Ethiopian Textile Development Institute compiled for investors this year. This drives up costs. It costs up to $1,870 to export a 40-foot container, compared with $1,290 in Bangladesh and $679 in Vietnam, according to an internal report compiled by a major European clothes retailer and seen by Reuters. However officials say the $4 billion electric railway between Addis Ababa and the Red Sea, to be inaugurated in the coming weeks, will reduce the transit time to the Port of Djibouti from 2-3 days to eight hours. Workers arrange pieces of fabric inside the Indochine Apparel PLC textile factory in Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri Bill McRaith, PVH’s chief supply chain officer based in New York, told Reuters his company saw sub-Saharan Africa as a promising new manufacturing frontier at a time of rising costs and labor shortages in established countries. PVH arrived in Ethiopia this summer and is building a factory in Hawassa, south of Addis Ababa - an investment which McRaith said was based on a long-term expectation that Ethiopia would become one of the most competitive locations in the world to make apparel for the West. He said PVH aimed to produce $100 million worth of clothes a year at the factory to be exported. “Basics operating costs are very attractive but offset by transportation,” said McRaith. “The transportation infrastructure, skills training, banking sector ... will all have to be improved,” he added. “But the Ethiopian government is further ahead on this than many other countries.” QUALITY CONTROL Cotton quality and pricing also present a big obstacle to Ethiopia’s aspirations - one that is blunting its competitiveness and deterring foreign investment. Slideshow (12 Images) While it has an estimated 2.6 million hectares suitable for cotton cultivation, only 130,000 has so far been used, and textile company owners say output from them is 10 times more expensive to purchase than the average international price. They are also often substandard for exports owing to contamination and poor processing, resulting in poor fabric. While the government has sought to entice investors into its cotton farming industry, this has been complicated by ineffective land management and complex property rights. Velocity Apparelz Companies started production six months ago at a $50 million factory in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia. It produces 1.5 million pieces of clothing a month but aims to double that within two years, said Erica van Schaik, executive assistant to the executive chairman of Velocity. However domestic fabric quality problems mean the company has to import their denim, van Schaik said. Good local material could reduce Velocity’s costs by up to half, freeing up cash that could be invested in Ethiopian production. It would also cut the company’s lead time - from the beginning of production to arrival in shops - from 110 to 90 days, she said. “That would be like a day-and-night kind of difference. A game-changer.” Investors face other challenges too: foreign currency shortages complicate trade, in addition to ever-changing regulations. The limitations of the financial system mean many foreign-owned textile firms use offshore banks to conduct their trade, depriving Ethiopia of vital hard currency. With workers’ conditions and safety a big concern for investors, the Ethiopian Textile Development Institute said its leadership was traveling to India - another leading global garment producer - for training on best practices. “The industry in this country is very young - we are taking our very first steps and so everything will not go seamlessly,” said communications chief Banteyihun Gessesse. “Countries such as India have vast experience in the field.” Whether Ethiopia can overcome these hurdles remains to be seen. In Africa itself, it faces competition in textiles manufacturing from the likes of Kenya, Mauritius and Madagascar, but has moved more aggressively to attract business. The government will spend $1 billion building 15 industrial parks by 2020. Two opened in July, another two will be completed this year. The state bank, meanwhile, provides up to 60 percent of factory expansion costs for companies that sell 70 percent of their products overseas, as well as a 10-year tax exemption and low-interest loans. Ethiopia can also offer companies lower power costs than most of its continental rivals, thanks to its hydroelectric dams. Electricity costs $0.06 per kilowatt-hour in Ethiopia, compared with $0.24 in Kenya, for example. Editing by Katharine Houreld and Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-textiles/ethiopia-bets-on-clothes-to-fashion-industrial-future-idUKKBN1DL1VU'|'2017-11-21T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'133986877768bda32ee08578191eb1fc31544432'|'Japan eyes extra budget of more than 2 trillion yen - media'|'Reuters TV United States November 21, 2017 / 1:11 PM / a few seconds ago Japan eyes extra budget of more than $18 billion: media Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s government and ruling coalition are putting the final touches to an extra budget of 2 trillion to 2.5 trillion yen ($18 billion to $22 billion) for the current fiscal year to March 2018, Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday. A Japan Yen note is seen in this illustration photo taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration The government and the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party are considering issuing 700 billion yen in construction bonds to help finance the budget, it said, without citing sources. Following October’s big election win, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet has made plans to beef up childcare support, boost productivity at small and medium-sized companies, and strengthen competitiveness of the farm, fishery and forestry industries. Kyodo said a surplus from the previous fiscal year’s budget would also be used to finance the extra budget, but no issuance of deficit-covering bonds was planned. ($1=112.5900 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy/japan-eyes-extra-budget-of-more-than-18-billion-media-idUKKBN1DL1GF'|'2017-11-21T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'925026040873d695303ee4c222282e6b3c09f6c0'|'BP to sell stakes in Bruce asset fields in North Sea'|'(Reuters) - BP said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell stakes in three fields in its Bruce assets in the North Sea to Serica Energy plc.FILE PHOTO: The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The company said it expects to receive around 300 million pounds ($398 million), with a majority of it in the next four years.Serica said it would buy a 36 percent interest in Bruce, 34.83 percent in Keith and 50 percent in Rhum. BP will retain a 1 percent stake in Bruce.BP currently operates the Bruce assets, which comprise the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields and related infrastructure assets.Serica said it would pay BP an upfront payment of £12.8 million, a share of cash flows over the next four years, a consideration equivalent to 30 percent of BP’s post-tax decommissioning costs and several contingent payments dependent on future asset performance and product prices.“We remain committed to the North Sea and continue to invest. We expect our production there to double to around 200,000 barrels equivalent a day by 2020 through new projects like Quad 204 and Clair Ridge,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s upstream chief executive.The company has invested heavily in the North Sea in recent years, bringing its Quad 204 project - a multi-billion-pound redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, west of the Shetland Islands - into production earlier this year.BP is also is on track to produce first oil from the second phase of the Clair field in 2018.The company denied a July media report which said that BP was thinking of putting its entire North Sea business up for sale.Serica said that it expects the deal to boost net production by seven fold to over 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which over 85 percent is gas.It expects the deal to add to cash flow and value immediately after closing. It has an effective date of January 1 and completion is expected in mid-2018, Serica said.Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bp-divestiture/bp-to-sell-stakes-in-bruce-asset-fields-in-north-sea-idINKBN1DL0OV'|'2017-11-21T05:21:00.000+02:00'
'b650432e7b0dc396539171abc823bba5190267ab'|'Vietnamese brewer Sabeco to conduct stake sale roadshows in Singapore, London'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:15 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Vietnamese brewer Sabeco to conduct stake sale roadshows in Singapore, London Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HANOI (Reuters) - Sabeco SAB.HM, Vietnam’s biggest beer firm, will hold roadshows in Singapore and London on the government’s plan to sell a stake, the country’s trade ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Sabeco''s Saigon beers are display for sale in a market in Hanoi, Vietnam April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The government owns 89.6 percent in Sabeco, formally known as the Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, and wants to fully divest from the company. The Singapore roadshow will be held on Friday while the London one will be held on Nov. 27. The trade ministry did not say how much the government would sell in the upcoming stake sale. It has previously stated that it aims to complete a sale in December. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-sale/vietnamese-brewer-sabeco-to-conduct-stake-sale-roadshows-in-singapore-london-idUKKBN1DL0A0'|'2017-11-21T06:11:00.000+02:00'
'4bb0ce8fab73dd305640453be7dab57b364ec150'|'Saudi Aramco shuts Jeddah refinery indefinitely - sources'|'November 19, 2017 / 4:15 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Saudi Aramco shuts Jeddah refinery indefinitely - sources Reem Shamseddine 2 Min Read KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - State oil giant Saudi Aramco has shut down its 90,000 barrel per day crude oil refinery in Jeddah indefinitely, industry sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Aramco had for years been considering whether to shut the refinery because of age and environmental concerns. The facility, which started operating in 1967, served much of the country’s western region and its closure will increase demand at other Saudi facilities. It produced liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel, asphalt and jet fuel, and exported naphtha. One source said the facility would be mothballed. Saudi Aramco did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The shutdown is not expected to cause a shortage of oil products in Saudi Arabia as Aramco will meet demand from other refineries, industry sources said. In 2014 it brought online two refineries which added 800,000 bpd of refining capacity, in Yanbu on the west coast and Jubail in the east. On the west coast, Aramco is expected to complete the first major unit of a new, 400,000 bpd refinery in Jizan province by the end of this year. The Jeddah refinery is next to, and supplies feedstock and power to, a base oil refinery run by Luberef, a joint venture between Aramco and Jadwa Industrial Investment Group. The closure of the Jeddah refinery will not affect Luberef’s production of GI base oil and supply to customers will continue, because Luberef is expanding its GI facilities at Yanbu, the chief executive of Luberef told Reuters in June. Editing by Andrew Torchia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-refinery-operations-saudi-aramco/saudi-aramco-shuts-jeddah-refinery-indefinitely-sources-idUKKBN1DJ0NK'|'2017-11-19T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'ad9aa8280aa9a90089d5ef3e69956e38c9517f8c'|'What''s your beef? Europe, Latin American trade talks falter'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:09 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago What''s your beef? Europe, Latin American trade talks falter Philip Blenkinsop 6 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A battle over beef between the European Union and Argentina and Brazil could push trade talks beyond a year-end deadline and lead to further years of delay. Hereford cattle belonging to farmer Philip Maguire are seen in Enniskerry, Ireland November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne On-off trade talks between the EU and the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have spanned 17 years. But it is not clear the end-2017 deadline for a deal to set out how each market will open to the other - from EU cars and machinery to South American farm products - will be met. Talks were suspended once before in 2004 and officials say missing the current window of political opportunity could lead to more delays. The latest round of talks on Nov 6-10 between negotiators in Brasilia did not even address market access, the key part of any trade deal. Beef is the main sticking point. Mercosur countries want their farmers to sell more of their beef in Europe to compensate for a rise in industrial imports. EU farming nations such as Ireland and France are worried their farmers will lose out. Both sides say they would like a deal signed during a World Trade Organization meeting in Buenos Aires on Dec 10-13. “We are not shadow-boxing or shuffling our feet. We want this agreement,” European Commission vice president Jyrki Katainen said last Monday after visiting Argentinian and Brazilian presidents during the talks the previous week. A Mercosur official said there was a 50 percent chance of meeting the deadline. But he also said: “There are still many threats that can derail the negotiations... It’s not only a question of substance but also a question of timing.” Brazil holds presidential and general elections in October 2018 and failure to do the deal before campaigning gets underway could make it harder to conclude. A trans-Pacific trade alliance was scrapped after it became part of the political debate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. “There’s still work to be done... There is a window of opportunity which doesn’t go far beyond New Year,” EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said after EU trade ministers met in Brussels earlier this month. For the EU, the reduction in import duties could produce its most lucrative trade deal to date. It could also highlight the EU’s commitment to multilateral partnerships compared to the more protectionist stance of U.S. President Donald Trump. But there are also concerns that if the deal is not done now, Mercosur negotiations could get pushed to one side to make way for EU trade talks with Britain before its leaves the bloc. UNACCEPTABLE OFFER Mercosur officials say potential beef imports represent about half of the export gains they sees from any deal and say the current EU offer is unacceptable. They are unhappy that Europe has gradually reduced the proposed amount of beef it would accept from Mercosur - from 100,000 tonnes per year in 2004 to 78,000 tonnes in 2016 to 70,000 tonnes in 2017. Brazil’s chief negotiator, Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho, said in October the European offer was far from what Mercosur members were expecting and would make the goal of reaching a deal by December more difficult. Farmer Philip Maguire walks through a field containing his Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle in Enniskerry, Ireland November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Mercosur countries are waiting for the EU to improve on the latest beef offer. Meanwhile, France, Ireland and a number of other beef-producing countries have said that offer was already too high. French Trade Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said negotiators should take their time to get the right deal. “The message is clear. Yes, we want an agreement, but... if we need a few more weeks or months, it’s not a drama. We’ve been talking for 15 years,” Lemoyne said. France wants the EU to recognise that the market has evolved since talks began. Lemoyne said France’s views were shared by others including Belgium, Romania and Slovenia. He said Europe must first determine the total potential size of beef imports including deals that could be struck with other countries. Trade talks with Mexico are underway and are due to start with Australia, both beef exporters. Slideshow (17 Images) “We need to know what is the maximum we can go to in total. Afterwards we can give up to this or that partner relative to what we get back,” Lemoyne said. A diplomat from a different EU country said he could not see the offer to Mercosur on beef being increased. “I think everything would explode,” the diplomat said. BREXIT COMPLICATION Europe’s beef industry says it is already facing a squeeze as consumers shift from red meat. Consumption has fallen 10 percent in the past decade and is seen 16 percent lower than 2007 levels in 2026, according to a European Commission report. Angus Woods, the Irish Farmers Association’s national livestock chairman and a farmer with 60 beef cattle, said the EU market was broadly balanced now, with imports and exports roughly equal. However, Britain’s exit from the EU could wreck that balance if were to impose import duties on EU beef or if it struck its own deals for cheaper meat from elsewhere. The EU would then have a 16 percent surplus of beef. This would be particularly tough for Ireland as half of its beef exports to go Britain. “On top of that you would have the Mercosur deal. Even with the UK in (the EU) there isn’t room for those kind of volumes,” Woods said. Woods also said that South American beef does not meet EU standards, which include a system to track meat right back to the birth of the cow and rules on transporting live animals. A spokesman for Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture said its meat-tracking system is up to EU standards. He said the national beef-tracking system SISBOV is mandatory for producers who export to the EU and the data base follows each cow for the minimum period required by the EU. If there is a deal, it may fall short of the ambitions both sides had when talks began. “We don’t get everything we want, they don’t get everything they want, but hopefully together we get a deal which improves our export opportunities and gives our consumers more choice,” Katainen said. Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle and Roberto Samora in Brasilia; Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-trade-beef/whats-your-beef-europe-latin-american-trade-talks-falter-idUKKBN1DL0J8'|'2017-11-21T09:08:00.000+02:00'
'fe82d63d9023f71aa1bfa66862e48a5f7cdff166'|'Future Group plans expansion using Google, Facebook tech'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - Indian fashion and retail conglomerate Future Group said on Tuesday it plans to open 10,000 member-only stores by 2022, utilizing the technology and data of Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc.Google will help Future Group to identify locations, while Facebook will help determine customer demographics as well as social engagement, Chief Executive Officer Kishore Biyani told reporters in Mumbai.Future Group said it aims to attract 2,000 customers to each of the stores, Biyani added.Deloitte will act as the group’s consulting partner.Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in Mumbai and Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/futuregroup-tech-stores/future-group-plans-expansion-using-google-facebook-tech-idINL3N1NR46C'|'2017-11-21T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'3641c0fa9fd963ad541b68c947d737f038addcb9'|'Mellanox says welcomes shareholders'' input after Starboard stake purchase'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli chip maker Mellanox Technologies saw its shares surge on the Nasdaq on Tuesday after activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP bought a 10.7 percent stake to influence strategy.The logo of Mellanox Technologies is seen at the company''s headquarters in Yokneam, in northern Israel July 26, 2016. Picture taken July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Starboard became the biggest shareholder in Mellanox after disclosing its stake purchase - valued at around $300 million - and said the chipmaker could improve its financial performance.“Tremendous value can be created through operational improvements or other strategic alternatives,” Starboard said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Monday.There was a “growing disparity” between the chipmaker’s margins, growth and stock price performance compared to its peer group, Starboard said.In particular, Starboard is concerned that Mellanox, which makes computer networking products using InfiniBand and Ethernet technology, rejected a potential merger with rival Marvell Technology. Starboard, in its filing, said Marvell had expressed interest in discussing a “potential strategic transaction” but Mellanox declined to enter into talks.Peter Feld, a principal of Starboard Value, is a director of Marvell, which said on Monday it was buying smaller rival Cavium for about $6 billion.Mellanox’s shares opened 14 percent higher and were still up 11 percent at $56.65 by 1552 GMT. They had risen 25 percent this year through Monday, underperforming Marvell’s 56 percent rally and a 48 percent increase in the Philadelphia Semiconductor index.According to a source close to the deal, Starboard has been involved in the semiconductor sector for a decade, investing in dozens of chip companies where it led improvements.The source noted that Starboard - which believes Mellanox is spending too much on research and development and other corporate expenses to try to boost revenue, sacrificing margins compared with peers - must stop disappointing investors.“They need to improve financial performance or sell the company. Either way it is to see the stock price go up significantly,” the source said, noting there was a “long list of potential buyers” for Mellanox.Mellanox, which was founded in 1999 and has a market value of nearly $3 billion, said in a statement on Tuesday that it “welcomes the input and investment” from all its shareholders.“In line with our commitment to drive enhanced shareholder value, the Mellanox board of directors and management team continually review our operational and strategic priorities and are committed to acting in the best interests of our shareholders,” it said.The chipmaker beat third-quarter results expectations last month but disappointed analysts with its fourth-quarter revenue outlook.Barclays analyst Joseph Wolf, who downgraded Mellanox to “underweight” after its earnings report, said that while there is room for Mellanox to cut expenses, its growth stems from accelerating revenue during product transitions.“Influencing change in this company is possible but could take time,” Wolf said.Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mellanox-starboard/mellanox-says-welcomes-shareholders-input-after-starboard-stake-purchase-idINKBN1DL181'|'2017-11-21T08:37:00.000+02:00'
'0e05cce4712b01e336b041d1ab49045c5cc3a40b'|'U.S. existing home sales increase more than expected'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales increased more than expected in October as hurricane-related disruptions eased, but a chronic shortage of houses which is pushing prices beyond the reach of some first-time buyers remains an obstacle.A U.S. flag decorates a for-sale sign at a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, August 21, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that existing home sales rose 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million units last month. The NAR said sales in Houston and Jacksonville, regions which bore the brunt of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, had rebounded.Sales in South Florida, however, remained weak last month.The Realtors group said it expected activity in the areas affected by the storms to fully recover by the end of the year.“While this summer’s storms undoubtedly took some steam out of the housing market, the greater problem remains the general lack of inventory,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “People simply are not moving as much as they used to.”Existing home sales make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales. They fell 0.9 percent on a year-on-year basis in October and remained well below a 10-year-high 5.70 million-unit pace touched in March. Economists had forecast home sales rising 0.7 percent from September to a 5.42 million-unit rate last month.October marked two straight months of increases. There are concerns that an effort by Republicans in the U.S. Congress to overhaul the tax code could undermine the housing market.Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed allowing interest payment deductions on mortgage debt only up to $500,000, and only on a primary residence. Their colleagues in the Senate want to keep the existing limit at $1 million but eliminate the deduction of interest on home-equity loans.“We just hope the tax cut plans are not too radical and end up scaring the consumer and make the purchase of a new home even less affordable after taxes,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.The PHLX housing index .HGX was trading higher in line with a broadly firmer stock market. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies while prices for U.S. Treasuries rose.LIMITED BUYING OPTIONS The South, which accounts for almost half of the existing homes sales market, recorded a 1.9 percent increase in sales last month. There were also gains in sales in the Northeast, Midwest and West regions.Home sales remain constrained by an acute shortage of properties, which is exerting upward pressure on house prices, and sidelining some first-time buyers, who accounted for 32 percent of transactions last month.Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market.The number of previously owned homes on the market fell 3.2 percent to 1.80 million units in October, a seven-month low. Supply was down 10.4 percent from a year ago. Housing inventory has dropped for 29 straight months on a year-on-year basis.At October’s sales pace, it would take 3.9 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 4.2 months in September. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand.As a result, the median house price increased 5.5 percent from a year ago to $247,000 in October. That was the 68th consecutive month of year-on-year price gains. In contrast, annual wage growth has struggled to break above 2.9 percent since the 2007/09 recession ended.“Roughly half of what’s available to buy is priced in the upper one-third of home values, leaving scant options for those aging millennials and young families trying to get their foot in the door,” said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow.Builders have failed to plug the inventory gap, citing land and labour shortages, as well as expensive raw materials.A report last week showed housing starts surged 13.7 percent to a 1.290 million-unit pace in October. Housing completions increased 12.6 percent to a rate of 1.232 million units last month, the highest level since February 2008.Realtors estimate that housing starts and completions need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units to bridge the inventory shortfall. Homes sold in October typically stayed on the market for 34 days, down from 41 days a year ago.Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy-housing/u-s-existing-home-sales-increase-more-than-expected-idINKBN1DL1RX'|'2017-11-21T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'3ab56a4ccba0ea3f0d4301706af67c8a71923e76'|'Honda China JVs to recall 254,650 vehicles starting in January'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co’s joint-venture companies in China will recall a total of 254,650 Honda-brand vehicles starting on Jan. 8, 2018, the Japanese automaker said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: The logos of Honda Motor Co. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The recall is to repair faulty rear-view mirrors on the doors of Honda car models sold in China, including the Elysion and the Spirior, produced between 2013 and earlier this year, the company said. No accidents have been reported, Honda said.Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-honda/honda-china-jvs-to-recall-254650-vehicles-starting-in-january-idUSKBN1DL0CP'|'2017-11-21T07:46:00.000+02:00'
'27f5923c55f78f917150602c986940a1051fb6df'|'Wall Street set to rise as retail earnings stream in'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped and indexes hit record highs on Tuesday, led by gains in this year’s top-performing technology sector.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P technology index .SPLRCT rose 1.1 percent, helped by Apple ( AAPL.O ). The index has risen 38.5 percent this year, by far more than any other sector. The S&P 500 is up 16.1 percent for the year so far.Healthcare shares were boosted by bullish results from medical device maker Medtronic ( MDT.N ), whose shares rose 5.2 percent after the company reported better-than-expected results and backed its full-year forecast.With the third-quarter earnings season winding down and no major economic data in sight, trading activity is expected to slow ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.“Tech has been by far and away the leader, and that continues to be the case both domestically and internationally,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 167.86 points, or 0.72 percent, to 23,598.19, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.49 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,599.63 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 68.58 points, or 1.01 percent, to 6,859.29.Shares of Urban Outfitters ( URBN.O ) gained 3.8 percent while Hormel Foods ( HRL.N ) was up 3.1 percent. Both reported quarterly results.Signet Jewelers ( SIG.N ) tanked 30 percent after reporting a surprise quarterly loss, pulling down Tiffany ( TIF.N ) 0.5 percent.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.10-to-1 ratio favored advancers.Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-rise-as-retail-earnings-stream-in-idINKBN1DL1LD'|'2017-11-21T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'ee2855a7d2b2f43c88315fe877e1d0b024b4b88e'|'Airbus faces tricky hurdles over stalled A380 Emirates deal'|'Reuters TV United States November 19, 2017 / 6:03 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Airbus faces tricky hurdles over stalled A380 Emirates deal Tim Hepher , Alexander Cornwell 7 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - A preliminary deal to sell 36 A380s to Emirates blew up in an Airbus hospitality chalet moments before the Gulf carrier was expected to shower $30 billion on the planemaker and its U.S. rival Boeing at the start of last week’s Dubai Airshow. An Airbus A380, the world''s largest jetliner, takes part in flying display, during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Two top Emirates officials broke the news to Airbus CEO Tom Enders and his sales chief John Leahy that the widely expected $16 billion deal would not be signed that day, leaving uncertainty over the future of the world’s largest jetliner. The halt came so swiftly that Airbus PR executives who were already in place for a double-signing ceremony a hundred yards away found themselves awkwardly among the audience as Boeing walked away with the sole Emirates order, worth $15 billion. The unusual stumble in slick air show choreography highlights problems over timing and trust that may even now complicate a deal between Airbus and Emirates, people aware of the matter said. One of the closest and most successful relations in aviation is looking bruised and throws up new complications for Airbus just as it struggles to maintain business as usual at a time when it faces British and French compliance probes. A day after Airbus’s hopes were dashed, airline president Tim Clark publicly delivered a message from Dubai’s government saying it wanted a guarantee from Airbus that it would keep producing the A380 for 10 years, before the state-owned carrier would agree to placing a new order. Enders emailed Clark calling the ultimatum, first reported by Reuters, unhelpful, two people aware of the matter said. Airbus and Emirates declined comment. “There is a worrying breakdown of the relationship between Airbus and Emirates,” said a person familiar with the talks. “Airbus was confident of getting a deal,” a Gulf source added. “But Dubai does not want to be taken for granted.” ENGINE HEADACHE Air show delegates said Emirates and Airbus must now resolve problems of visibility if a deal is to be done. Many in the industry say Airbus appears directionless as Leahy is due to retire in January, the guardian of the Emirates relationship, Habib Fekih, did so earlier this year and doubts grow over whether Enders will secure a new CEO mandate in 2019. Meanwhile the probes have badly clogged Airbus decision-making. On the Emirates side, top executive Clark - although full of energy at 67 and dismissing talk of retirement - is likely to hand over the baton at some stage, and it is uncertain how committed other managers are to the A380 flagship. “Nobody knows who is going to be in charge of the other side later, which doesn’t help,” said a person familiar with the matter. The Airbus board will however have to think hard before giving Dubai the guarantee it wants, which would go beyond the scope of a normal contract for specific planes. “It’s not something any company can easily do, especially on something dragging down the bottom line,” the same person said. For Emirates, the problem runs deeper than simply buying an aircraft from Airbus. Airlines deal directly with numerous suppliers, from landing gears to tyres and entertainment systems. Each takes its cue from the planemaker as conductor of a large orchestra. “If you’re the only customer your fear is the manufacturer will lose interest and that becomes a signal to suppliers to make support a lower priority,” a person close to the matter said. “Then you end up unsure who is supporting what.” The biggest question mark hangs over the massive engines. In 2015, Britain’s Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) won its largest-ever order, worth $9 billion, to displace U.S. consortium Engine Alliance to power a batch of 50 four-engined A380s for Emirates. But to win the deal it gave ambitious fuel-consumption targets and Emirates signalled last week the cards could be shuffled again for the potential new order. “If we ordered more, we might contemplate talking to both sides,” Clark said. But Engine Alliance output ends in 2018. Keeping its assembly lines warm would require a fresh commitment from its parents General Electric ( GE.N ) and Pratt & Whitney ( UTX.N ). “That’s a pretty big ask right now. It all comes down to money,” a person close to the consortium said. GE is involved in a major rethink of strategy and wants to be more selective about investments, while Pratt & Whitney is absorbed with fixing delays on smaller engines. SECOND-HAND MARKET Keeping engine makers on board is all the more challenging because of the lack of an A380 second-hand market. Engine makers make money on spares and services over the working life of an engine which is usually 20-25 years. But in another accident of timing, the first A380 to carry passengers, in 2007, was being mothballed in France just as Airbus was trying to cling on to an Emirates deal at last week’s show, after just 10 years in service with Singapore Airlines. That sets a worrying precedent for suppliers of Emirates, which usually operates planes for 12 years and around 20 of whose A380s may exit the fleet to make way for new purchases. Faced with the possibility that any new A380 engines may have only half their budgeted life, engine makers may charge more for them up-front or more in hourly service contracts. Still, Emirates believes an Airbus guarantee over the life of the programme could break the logjam and generate new orders. “I would think a revitalisation of the line would bring the big players together and say what can we all do to make this work ... including propulsion,” Clark said. Pride may yet work in favour of a deal over the A380, which is Airbus’s only path into business with Emirates for the time being after the airline placed new orders with Boeing. “This (Airbus) management took the decision to launch the A380 so killing it now would make them look foolish,” a senior air show delegate said. “They have got to be able to say that when they left, the A380 was still being built.” (This version of the story removes extraneous words from ninth paragraph) Reporting by Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airshow-analysis/airbus-faces-tricky-hurdles-over-stalled-a380-emirates-deal-idUKKBN1DJ0QI'|'2017-11-19T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'9c2ca4ace01d487c29711c95ab05da3095f46d74'|'ISDA panel to reconvene on Venezuela CDS auctions'|'NEW YORK, Nov 20 (IFR) - An industry committee said on Monday it will reconvene next week to discuss terms of two auctions that will determine the payout on some US$1.5bn of CDS contracts tied to Venezuela’s bonds.The 15-member committee, organized by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), declared Venezuela and state-owned oil company PDVSA in default on Thursday after the country failed to make timely payments on some of its bonds.That decision will trigger payouts to holders of Venezuela’s and PDVSA’s credit default swaps - derivative contracts investors use to hedge their risks.The committee now needs to come up with a list of bonds that will be delivered into the auctions - one for Venezuela and one for PDVSA.It will hold its next conference call on the issue on November 27, it said in a statement posted on ISDA’s website on Monday.The auction process will determine how much the bonds are worth and, in turn, the cash compensation buyers of CDS protection will receive.The face value of net CDS contracts outstanding on Venezuela’s sovereign bonds is around US$1.3bn, according to data from clearing house Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.On PDVSA, net CDS contracts outstanding total a smaller US$250m. (Reporting by Davide Scigliuzzo; Editing by Marc Carnegie) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/isda-panel-to-reconvene-on-venezuela-cds/isda-panel-to-reconvene-on-venezuela-cds-auctions-idUSL1N1NQ1VG'|'2017-11-21T01:00:00.000+02:00'
'c992aea07bf388f3cf3a726d9f08cfc5ac978317'|'UK petrochemical firm Ineos buys stakes in Shetland gas operation'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:55 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago UK petrochemical firm Ineos buys stakes in Shetland gas operation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - British petrochemicals firm Ineos has agreed to buy a majority stake in two exploration licences for gas in Scotland’s West of Shetland field which contain the Lyon prospect, furthering its plans to move into oil and gas exploration. New Ineos offices are seen at Grangemouth where shale gas from U.S. shale was delivered for the first time today, Scotland, Britain September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Ineos said initial survey work showed extensive gas reserves in the cluster of between 3 to 5 trillion cubic feet of gas -- matching major gas fields such as Elgin Franklin, Britannia and Laggan Tormore. Ineos now has positions in the four fields in the Lyon cluster -- Lyon, Tobermory, Bunnehaven and Cragganmore. “If successful it could be large enough to form a new gas-hub development similar to the Laggan-Tormore fields, which have been developed with sub-sea infrastructure and pipelines to the Shetland Gas Plant,” Ineos said in a statement. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-energy-ineos/uk-petrochemical-firm-ineos-buys-stakes-in-shetland-gas-operation-idUKKBN1DL19P'|'2017-11-21T13:54:00.000+02:00'
'52e891f670bd18bb63f29b6d29c8fffd3bb77b6a'|'Ireland promises progress in Apple tax recovery in coming weeks'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:37 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Ireland promises progress in Apple tax recovery in coming weeks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland expects to make progress in recovering up to 13 billion euros (£11.5 billion) in disputed taxes from Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) in the coming weeks, its prime minister said on Tuesday, following EU criticism that Dublin was moving too slowly. A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed Irish flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo The European Commission ruled in August 2016 that Apple had received unfair tax incentives from Ireland and said last month it was taking Dublin to the European Court of Justice over its delays in recovering the money. Both Apple and Dublin are appealing the original ruling, saying the iPhone maker’s tax treatment was in line with Irish and European Union law. “We’ve indicated to them (Apple) that we want the escrow account established and we want funds to be paid into the escrow account without further delay,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told parliament. “We do not want to be in the situation where the Irish government has to take Apple to court because the European Commission is taking the Irish government to court. I think that message is understood and I’d anticipate progress in the coming weeks.” The Commission said last month the deadline for Ireland to implement its decision had been Jan. 3 this year and that, until the aid was recovered, the company continued to benefit from an illegal advantage. Ireland, which described the Commission’s move to take it to court as “extremely regrettable,” said it had been in constant contact with the Commission and Apple for more than a year and was close to setting up an escrow account to hold the funds. Ireland’s Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe also said at the time that, in addition to work on the escrow account, the government was in “commercially sensitive” talks with Apple about the exact terms of the transfer. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Evans and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-apple-tax/ireland-does-not-want-take-apple-to-court-over-tax-recovery-pm-says-idUKKBN1DL23C'|'2017-11-21T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'52ce8dda5e308352a477b6d6bd5d9a0fbfd5dcd0'|'With little movement, NAFTA talks said to run risk of stalemate'|'November 19, 2017 / 8:18 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago With little movement, NAFTA talks said to run risk of stalemate David Ljunggren , David Lawder 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to be in danger of grinding to a stalemate amid complaints of U.S. negotiators’ inflexibility, people familiar with the process said on Sunday. A NAFTA logo is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The United States, Canada and Mexico are holding the fifth of seven planned rounds of talks to modernize NAFTA, which U.S. President Donald Trump blames for job losses and big trade deficits for his country. Time is running short to reach a deal before the March 2018 start of Mexico’s presidential elections, and lack of progress in the current round could put the schedule at risk. “The talks are really not going anywhere,” Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the largest Canadian private-sector union, told reporters after meeting with Canada’s chief negotiator on Sunday. “As long as the United States is taking the position they are, this is a colossal waste of time,” said Dias, who is advising the government and regularly meets the Canadian team. Hanging over the negotiations is the very real threat that Trump could make good on a threat to scrap NAFTA. Canada and Mexico object to a number of demands the U.S. side unveiled during the fourth round last month, including for a five-year sunset clause that would force frequent renegotiation of the trade pact, far more stringent automotive content rules and radical changes to dispute settlement mechanisms. “Our internal view as of this morning is that if any progress is to be made, the United States needs to show some flexibility and a willingness to do a deal,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks. “We are seeing no signs of flexibility now,” added the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. U.S. officials declined to comment. Dias said the United States was showing some signs of flexibility over its sunset clause proposal after Mexican officials floated a plan for a “rigorous evaluation” of the trade pact but without an automatic expiration. U.S. negotiating objectives that were updated on Friday appeared to accommodate the Mexican proposal, saying the revised NAFTA should “provide a mechanism for ensuring that the Parties assess the benefits of the Agreement on a periodic basis.” Canada and Mexico are also unhappy about U.S. demands that half the content of North American-built autos come from the United States, coupled with a much higher 85 percent North American content threshold. Officials are due to discuss the issue from Sunday through the end of the fifth round on Tuesday, A source close to the negotiations said the Mexicans had no intention of making a counter offer on autos content because “there is a structural problem ... in the way the subject is being addressed.” Mexico, the source added, felt the U.S. demand was not viable. Flavio Volpe, president of the Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said there was little chance of making substantial progress on autos in Mexico City, as the U.S. demands were still not fully understood. “I don’t expect a heavy negotiation here,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the talks. Additional reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-nafta/with-little-movement-nafta-talks-said-to-run-risk-of-stalemate-idUKKBN1DJ0SZ'|'2017-11-19T22:18:00.000+02:00'
'1f5968fc1840cc72b7eafdfb9f5adcbfa84a1db8'|'CME to list WTI-Dubai crude futures as US-Asia oil trade flow grows'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:55 AM / in a minute CME to list WTI-Dubai crude futures as US-Asia oil trade flow grows Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - CME Group Inc said it will list a new futures contract that prices the spread between West Texas Intermediate and Middle East benchmark Dubai as the flow of U.S. crude to Asia rises. The January WTI-Dubai crude oil futures contract could start trading on Dec. 18 pending all relevant Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulatory review periods, CME said in a notice on its website late on Monday. Each contract will represent 1,000 barrels. Asian refiners see U.S. crude as an alternative to their regular sour supply from the Middle East especially as OPEC producers such as Saudi Arabia reduced allocation to their customers in Asia, said Nicolas Dupuis, senior director of energy products at CME Group. “The WTI-Dubai spread we are launching provides an instrument to lock the differential between WTI and Dubai,” he said. Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Richard Pullin and Manolo Serapio Jr.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-asia-oil/cme-to-list-wti-dubai-crude-futures-as-u-s-asia-oil-trade-flow-grows-idUSKBN1DL0HK'|'2017-11-21T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'b38db67551f80612c486241cebabc9f32089a57b'|'Battered Turkish markets separated from successes of emerging herd'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:18 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Battered Turkish markets separated from successes of emerging herd Reuters Staff 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - In a year when most emerging markets have enjoyed stellar gains, Turkey has been an outlier, pummelled by double-digit inflation, political concerns and the central bank’s perceived inability to pursue independent monetary policy. FILE PHOTO: Turkish Lira banknotes are seen in this October 10, 2017 picture illustration. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/Illustration/File Photo Here are five graphics that illustrate how Turkish assets have been separated from the pack and why the underlying economic picture and the country’s large current account deficit exaggerate any hesitation in foreign investment inflows: 1) WHERE‘S THE BOTTOM? Turkey''s lira has hit a record low of 3.9780 against the dollar on Tuesday, edging close to the psychologically important 4 per dollar threshold. It has now weakened more than 15 percent against the U.S. dollar and the euro since mid-year and also underperformed emerging market peers - weakening nearly 10 percent ZARTRY=R this year against South Africa''s rand ZAR= , itself struggling with its own political and economic woes. Turkish stocks are up 20 percent this year in dollar terms but lag the 32 percent gains on broader emerging markets .MSCIEF. The Istanbul bank index .XBANK has lost 10 percent this month while local 10-year bond yields are at record highs around 13.5 percent Turkish Assets - reut.rs/2AiePc1 2) UP OR DOWN? The central bank faces the unenviable task of trying to balance double-digit inflation against President Tayyip Erdogan’s persistent demand for lower interest rates. By driving up the cost of energy and other imports, lira weakness has fuelled inflation which stood near a nine-year high of 11.9 percent. The country suffered from spiralling inflation as recently as the turn of the century, prompting the International Monetary Fund to step in with an emergency rescue package. Turkey CPI past 20 years - reut.rs/2AjeQfG The central bank has responded to the latest lira rout by raising the weighted average cost of funding, but with limited effect. As a result, Turkish real, or inflation-adjusted bond yields, are well below those in other emerging markets. For a country with memories of raging inflation as high as 90 percent as recently as the late 1990s, the fear is that structurally high inflation expectations get re-embedded in the system. “The price always of the (central bank) being behind the curve is persistently high inflation, and lower growth than should have been the case, if the central bank had been allowed to do its job like a normal central bank,” said Tim Ash at Bluebay Asset Management. Turkey Consumer Prices and O/N Lending Rates - reut.rs/2AkfFFd 3) WHERE‘S THE BALANCE? Turkey relies on external financing for its large current account deficit. Data shows that the deficit for the first nine months of 2017 totalled $31.1 billion (£23.5 billion) - a 27 percent jump from a year ago. Here too it has lagged other emerging markets, which have for the most part repaired excessive external payments gaps. “Turkey has a high susceptibility to event risk mainly driven by domestic political risks and the country’s large external financing needs due to wide current account deficits and sizeable external or foreign currency refinancing requirements,” said Kristin Lindow at Moody’s Investors Service on Friday. Fragile Five - reut.rs/2xyQZaU Turkey Current Account Balance - reut.rs/2zTm35w Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Graphics by Marc Jones, Ritvik Carvalho abd Fathom Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-turkey-lira-markets/battered-turkish-markets-separated-from-successes-of-emerging-herd-idUKKBN1DL26X'|'2017-11-21T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'68ff2790b7fdb0f757836a4d5dcd68baf17b3036'|'Oil steady as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC cuts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:57 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Oil rises, but capped as caution sets in ahead of OPEC meeting Polina Ivanova 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose on Tuesday, supported by expectations of an extension next week to OPEC output cuts, but prices remained under pressure from signs of higher output in the United States. A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 17 cents at $62.39 a barrel at 1452 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was at $56.72, up 30 cents. Analysts said Brent was expected to fluctuate in a narrow range, from $61 to $63, as the market awaited the outcome of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting on Nov. 30. OPEC, together with a number of non-OPEC producers led by Russia, has been restraining output this year in an effort to end a global supply overhang and prop up prices. At its meeting next week, the group is widely expected to extend the deal beyond its March 2018 expiry date. “The market is just waiting for confirmation that OPEC wants to move on with the extension,” said Ole Hansen, senior manager at Saxo Bank. But doubts about the willingness of some participants including Russia to keep restricting production have led traders to take a more cautious approach and weighed on prices. “Against the positive news we have some comments from Russia which could indicate that they at this stage prefer to wait and see,” Hansen said. “And obviously a deal in order to be successful needs to have everyone on board.” Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday that the country’s oil producers had met with the energy ministry to discuss a six-month extension, as opposed to the nine months originally floated by President Vladimir Putin. But the biggest headache for OPEC has been a rise in U.S. drilling activity, led by shale oil producers. Energy consultancy Westwood Global Energy Group said U.S. output would climb even faster than implied by the rising rig count, which has jumped from 316 rigs in mid-2016 to 738 last week, as producers become more productive per well. “Westwood Global Energy forecasts an 18 percent increase in active rigs in 2018, but more rapid demand growth in certain service areas as operators focus on efficiency and delivering more for less,” the consultancy said. FGE, another consultancy, also warned that though supply disruptions could lead to spikes in the oil price next year, the market could slump again towards 2019 if U.S. production continued to soar. “We see another big rush with (U.S.) production growth of some 1-1.5 million bpd (barrels per day) in 2018 and 2019,” FGE said. Reflecting rising U.S. oil exports to Asia, U.S. commodity exchange CME Group ( CME.O ) said it would list a new futures contract that prices the spread between U.S. WTI futures and Middle East benchmark Dubai, starting Dec. 18. Additional reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-steady-as-rising-u-s-output-undermines-opec-cuts-idUSKBN1DL060'|'2017-11-21T03:55:00.000+02:00'
'722fe9d9ba5cd47e60a773f611f11f40e222d866'|'Is Alexa to blame for a costly doll’s house being sent to me by mistake? - Money'|'I received a Melissa and Doug Victorian Doll’s House – original price £120, now reduced to £89 – from Amazon which I did not order. The address is my own and it was delivered by DPD, but there was no packing note in the box. I contacted Amazon but hit a brick wall. Firstly, it is not shown on my orders and, up to this point, there hasn’t been a charge. Secondly, Amazon says it doesn’t know who sent it as it was a logistics company who delivered for a merchant from Amazon Marketplace. Thirdly, it claims not to know who the retailer was that used the delivery service. Amazon says to keep the item, but my main concern is why my account address was used and the failure to say who placed the order. I have read reports about cases of doll’s house orders being activated by an “Alexa” voice request (although this is mainly in the US). AN, Helston, Cornwall This was a bizarre case which left even Amazon scratching its head. We forwarded Amazon your photograph of the box with the label and barcode, but even that could not help get to the bottom of it. It is investigating, but in the meantime has reassured you that your account and personal details have not been compromised. We assume that somewhere in your part of the country there must be a disappointed shopper whose doll’s house has not been delivered. Get in touch if it’s you.Your letter raises an interesting question about consumer law around receiving items you haven’t requested. Such items are called “unsolicited goods” and you are within your rights to keep them, as detailed in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. If you subsequently receive a demand for payment, ignore it – it is a criminal offenceWe welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/nov/19/alexa-sent-mistake-amazon-order'|'2017-11-19T13:59:00.000+02:00'
'8b14f8f72c2895901db5e22233fe84b5b491bede'|'Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt'|'November 20, 2017 / 2:59 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Prospect of post-Brexit boom sparks worry as well as celebration in Frankfurt John O''Donnell , Tom Sims 7 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The prospect of bankers pouring into Frankfurt from post-Brexit Britain has worried local residents anxious about the effect on an already dire housing shortage but also energized leftist groups looking to advance their anti-capitalist ideology. FILE PHOTO: Activists attend a protest training organised by "NoG20 Rhein-Main" in preparation for the upcoming G 20 summit, which will take place on July 7 in Hamburg, in Frankfurt, Germany June 10, 2017. Picture taken June 10, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo At least 10,000 financial jobs are expected to move out of London when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019, a number that could balloon to 75,000 over the longer term. The majority of banks, including Goldman Sachs, say they expect to move to Frankfurt. Frankfurters looking forward to the influx say they hope a free-spending clientele will breathe new life into what is often seen abroad as a dull provincial capital. Other residents are worried about rents and housing stock in the city, given that many in the lower-to-middle income range already have a hard time finding a home, however. Among Germany’s active and well-established leftists, who have described the big banks as “ticking time bombs”, groups like “Blockupy” and the Interventionist Left are plotting strategies for disruption. It’s a reminder that while some of the world’s legendary bankers - the Rothschilds, the Warburgs, even the founder of Goldman Sachs, Marcus Goldman - were born in Germany, so was Karl Marx. “We view the concentration of banks in Frankfurt with concern,” said a Blockupy spokesman who identified himself as Thomas Occupy. “For some members, Goldman Sachs is like a red rag to a bull.” Rents in Frankfurt have risen by up to 37 percent since 2009, according to three private data providers, triple the pace for all of Germany, according to Bundesbank estimates. Frankfurt planning officials estimate the city has a shortfall of 40,000 homes even before the Brexit wave hits. Private developers plan 20 new high-rise buildings within five years but are aiming those at wealthy tenants, with asking prices of 4 million euros for some apartments. By comparison, state-owned ABG Frankfurt Holding, which builds affordable housing, completed just 445 apartment units last year. It plans to build thousands more in the coming years but they will arrive too late to relieve the immediate crunch. “The forecasts were wrong. We had expected the population would stagnate,” said Mark Gellert, a spokesman for the city’s planning division. Instead, it has been growing, adding more than 6,000 people in the first six months of this year. “That’s why we fell behind,” he said. COCKTAIL MENTALITY Proponents of the arrivals, including Thomas Schaefer, finance minister for the state of Hesse that is home to Frankfurt, argue they will boost the economy and tax revenues. Restaurant and club entrepreneur Madjid Djamegari anticipates the newcomers will be more interested than the locals in going out during the week, for example. “The Germans don’t have the after-work cocktail mentality. But people are coming who have different standards, who are willing to pay for service,” said Djamegari, whose latest project is a pop-up bar in a former bank office building. With a population of just 736,000, against London’s 8.8 million, and an average annual pre-tax salary of 43,600 euros ($51,300), Frankfurt may also be affected by the influx in less congenial ways, tenants rights groups fear. Rolf Janssen, head of the Frankfurt tenants’ protection association, said his group receives hundreds of calls each week from people worried about evictions or rising rents. Some are in tears and say they have to save on food and clothes to pay the rent. While German law means it is not possible to easily evict tenants or increase rents sharply, Janssen said, there are loopholes and mistrust between residents and owners has increased in recent years. Thomas Occupy, activist in the Blockupy movement stands in front of a huge Euro sign at the former headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany on November 10, 2017. Picture taken November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Callers say some owners abruptly embark on noisy construction work to intimidate tenants to leave in order to renovate and charge new occupants more, he said. “Brexit bankers ... trump ordinary tenants,” he said. Michael Mueller, a far Left Frankfurt official who sits on a planning committee preparing for Brexit, is attempting to prevent the state selling further property for high-rise towers. “I‘m worried Frankfurt will turn into ... a millionaire’s ghetto,” he said. “WE‘RE HALF OF THIS TOWN” The Left Party, which has its roots in east Germany’s communism, took roughly one tenth of the seats in the parliament in the last election on Sept. 24, pledging in its manifesto to renationalise the banks and “break their power”. Far-left groups hope the tenants’ concerns could win them even more support. Slideshow (2 Images) Blockupy, which staged violent street protests against the European Central Bank when its new offices opened in 2015, and the Interventionist Left, which helped organize protests against the G20, are weighing their next moves. “People are being pushed out of the city center,” said Interventionist Left activist Felix Wiegand. “On the other hand, you see the SUVs and those people who have taken over the city as it is were their own. The city’s policy of favoring the rich is infuriating people.” Far-left groups said they might hold protests at the opening of one of Frankfurt’s new office towers and tenant action groups are starting a petition for affordable housing. Their campaign poster features a collage of photographs of citizens with the slogan: “We’re half of this town”. Others may be willing to take more drastic steps. “There is an increasing readiness to act and willingness to resort to violence at the left wing extremes in recent years,” said Klaus Schroeder, an expert in left-wing extremism at the Free University of Berlin. “The left believe that they are using violence to achieve a better world and that the banks are the first that have to be eliminated.” At the protest against the ECB, 7,000 protesters took to the streets, setting police cars on fire and blocking roads with burning stacks of tires. More than 500 were arrested. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship bank, may offer a taste of what its new neighbors in the financial district can expect. Since 1990, on the first Thursday of every month, former priest Gregor Boeckermann has gathered with about a dozen others at the bank’s headquarters to protest against free-wheeling capitalism. They recently planted an apple tree nearby. “I hope the roots will grow up so strong that they will cause it to explode,” Boeckermann said. ($1 = 0.8485 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-germany-protest/prospect-of-post-brexit-boom-sparks-worry-as-well-as-celebration-in-frankfurt-idUSKBN1DK1RC'|'2017-11-20T16:48:00.000+02:00'
'e6dfd167d0d0ec49ae3969101f686589162c02a6'|'Russia''s Rosneft says clinches oil supply deal with China''s CEFC'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:14 AM / in 13 hours Russia''s Rosneft confirms oil supply deal with China''s CEFC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rosneft had signed an oil supply deal with CEFC China Energy Company Ltd, Russia’s largest oil producer said in a regulatory filing on Monday, confirming a Reuters report last week. FILE PHOTO: The shadow of a worker is seen next to a logo of Russia''s Rosneft oil company at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Access to Russian crude could help China, the world’s top crude importer, in its ambition to create a globally integrated oil supply chain. As well as extending Russia’s lead over Saudi Arabia as China’s top oil supplier, the deal will make CEFC, a hitherto little-known fuel trader, a top-10 global oil merchant. It will also make CEFC a dominant player in the ESPO crude market and may enable it to challenge dominant Western oil traders such as Vitol [VITOLV.UL] and Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL]. CEFC agreed in September to buy a 14.2 percent stake in Rosneft in a deal valued at more than $9 billion. FILE PHOTO: A CEFC logo is seen at CEFC China Energy''s Shanghai headquarter in Shanghai, China September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Aizhu Chen/File Photo Rosneft said it would supply up to 60.8 million tonnes of oil over the five years starting from January 1, 2018. The price of the oil deliveries will be based on a formula which is pegged to prices on the global market. CEFC expects to receive 8 to 10 million tonnes of ESPO crude from Russia’s Far East next year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week. The source, who declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to media, said the rest of the supply would be Urals grade and a smaller amount of Sokol crude. Another source close to CEFC said the company would receive two cargoes with Russian crude per month in the first quarter. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Vladimir Soldatkin; additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by Dmitry Solovyov and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-china-oil/russias-rosneft-says-clinches-oil-supply-deal-with-chinas-cefc-idUSKBN1DK0JZ'|'2017-11-20T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'be18515bd50cfb4a9e3b4e9e1410b2b13acdf91b'|'Retailer Auchan says it has not been approached by Amazon in Europe'|'November 20, 2017 / 12:55 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Retailer Auchan says it has not been approached by Amazon in Europe Dominique Vidalon 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French retailer Auchan [AUCH.UL] said on Monday it had not been approached by E-commerce giant Amazon ( AMZN.O ) about deals or partnerships in Europe, with speculation still rife that Amazon may be eyeing European transactions. The logo of French retailer Auchan is pictured at company''s hypermarket in Moscow, Russia, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Auchan Retail head Wilhelm Hubner also told journalists that co-operation between Auchan and online giant Alibaba ( BABA.N ) would focus on China for now, after Alibaba announced a deal with Auchan in China. Amazon’s $13.7 billion takeover of U.S. retail chain Whole Foods Market this year sparked speculation that it might be examining further tie-ups in Europe, possibly involving logistics partnerships with French supermarket operators. “No. We have not been approached by Amazon on Europe or on any country. I consider that Amazon has a very industrial approach of commerce, not a very humanized one. This is not our vision and so we could not have started discussions,” said Hubner, regarding the speculation concerning Amazon. Hubner was speaking after Alibaba announced a HK$22.4 billion ($2.9 billion) investment for a major stake in China’s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd ( 6808.HK ), as part of a wider push into offline retail. A view of the new Amazon logistic center with the company''s logo in Dortmund, Germany November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen As part of an alliance with Sun Art’s top shareholders Auchan Retail and Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex Group, Alibaba would buy the stake from Ruentex while Auchan Retail would boost its own stake. “This partnership is for China and the priority is to make it a success. The future will tell if there will be other partnerships (with Alibaba) in other countries,” said Hubner. Hubner, however, added Alibaba was keen on sourcing French, Italian and Spanish products through Auchan for its digital platforms and for the Chinese market. Auchan has been present in China since 1998. The country is its second-largest market, making around 30 percent of Auchan Retail’s annual sales of 52 billion euros ($61 billion). Last month, French supermarket operator Leclerc said it had been approached by Amazon over a possible logistics partnership, while there has been speculation Amazon may eye deals with rivals Casino ( CASP.PA ) and Carrefour ( CARR.PA ). ($1 = 0.8487 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-sun-art-retail-auchan/retailer-auchan-says-it-has-not-been-approached-by-amazon-in-europe-idINKBN1DK1I4'|'2017-11-20T09:55:00.000+02:00'
'5102c6a300f549f19e762249e215174500d84b01'|'RPT-From Las Vegas to Washington D.C., lobbyists swarm U.S. Congress on tax bill'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:03 PM / in 12 minutes RPT-From Las Vegas to Washington D.C., lobbyists swarm U.S. Congress on tax bill Reuters Staff (Repeating without changes for wider distribution) By Patrick Rucker and David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Recreational vehicle retailers from across the country were sipping morning coffee at a convention in Las Vegas earlier this month when word whipped through the hotel’s “dealers’ lounge” that the U.S. Congress was considering tax law changes threatening their businesses. Republicans in the House of Representatives wanted to jettison a part of the tax code that lets dealers of RVs, cars, boats, even farm and construction machinery, write off all the interest expense of keeping inventories of vehicles on their sales lots. The RV dealers jumped on the phones to their representatives in Washington, adding to a wave of calls made by members of the powerful National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) as well as lobbyists for boat dealers and farm machinery dealers. “It’s an eyedropper approach,” said Phil Ingrassia, head of the RV dealers’ trade group who marshaled their effort from the Bally’s Hotel. “Just get heard.” By the end of the day, the crisis had passed, at least temporarily. The House had backed away from repealing the tax deduction for what dealers call floor-plan interest expense, or the financing costs they incur for vehicles on their lots, but they must still convince the Senate. NADA, which represents more than 16,000 dealers nationwide, plans to send a letter on Monday to Senate Republican leaders, saying the group will not support a tax bill lacking the House language. “The Senate business interest provision unfairly puts small businesses with high cost inventory at serious risk of paying higher taxes even when a business does not show a profit. NADA respectfully urges the Senate to include the language of H.R. 1, so that floor plan interest remains fully deductibility,” said the letter from NADA President Peter Welch reviewed by Reuters. Senate Republicans want to put broad limits on business interest deductibility, including dealer floor plan interest. Auto lobbyists did not convince the Senate Finance Committee to change the proposal before the panel approved it late Thursday, sending it on to the full Senate for consideration. As Congress and President Donald Trump push ahead on what could be the largest tax overhaul since the 1980s, the crush of lobbyists descending on Washington, D.C., is a reminder that no legislation sweeps across American interests quite like a tax bill. Floor plan interest deductibility has been part of the tax code since 1918. The deduction costs the U.S. Treasury about $300 million a decade which is not much relative to the $4 trillion annual federal budget, but Republicans are looking at every source of new federal revenues they can find to offset the costs of deep cuts they want to make in corporate tax rates. Republicans also have raised questions about why interest costs paid by businesses in many forms is tax deductible at all, given it may encourage over-leveraging by business, and given corporations are not permitted a tax deduction for the costs of raising equity capital. For lawmakers, such questions have to be weighed against aggressive lobbying exerted by groups defending their interests, such as the NADA, whose members employ over 1.1 million people selling cars from all major automakers, including General Motors Co, Volkswagen and Toyota. Dealers argue that they have no choice but to pay significant interest costs to finance new vehicle inventory and would face higher costs if the provision is not changed. FOREIGN AUTOMAKERS Beyond the floor plan issue, the Electric Drive Transportation Association wants Congress to preserve a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. A group of retired military leaders, including a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a former Navy secretary, sent a letter to Congress last week reviewed by Reuters urging lawmakers to keep the credit, but reform it. They suggest ending the credit in 2023, but lifting the existing 200,000 vehicle cap, a move that could help automakers like Tesla Inc and General Motors. Foreign automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co are focused on a proposal that could increase taxes for foreign automakers that pay royalties, interest or other payments to their parent companies abroad. The National Association of Home Builders wants a homeowners tax credit in the bill, especially if homeowners are only allowed to deduct the first $500,000 of their mortgage interest, as the House proposes. The association last week brought 100 builders from nationwide to fan out across Capitol Hill. (Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Damon Darlin and Kevin Drawbaugh)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-lobbying/rpt-from-las-vegas-to-washington-d-c-lobbyists-swarm-u-s-congress-on-tax-bill-idUSL1N1NQ15C'|'2017-11-20T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'd44741c6bb77a4fbae7920218eeaa4ef8d3e3ce8'|'Morning News Call - India, November 20'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:45 am: Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, IL&FS Transportation Networks MD K. Ramchand, NITI Aayog Advisor Anil Srivastav, Mahindra Electric Mobility CEO Mahesh Babu at Smart Mobility Conference in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Minister of State for Space and Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh, Bharat Electronics CMD M. V. Gowtama, Larsen & Toubro Product and Technology Vice-President Arun Ramachandani at Indian Space Programme in New Delhi. LIVECHAT - ZIMBABWE FOCUS. Independent geo-strategic analyst and Geopolitical Monitor contributor Neil Thompson joins us at 12:30 pm IST to discuss the political fate of Zimbabwe after the country''s military seized power last week saying it was holding President Robert Mugabe and his family safe while targeting "criminals" in the entourage of the man whohas ruled the nation since independence 37 years ago. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Indian bond market euphoria seen short-lived as mood bearish prevails Bond market euphoria over an unexpected India sovereign rating upgrade is expected to fizzle out, as concern over rising inflation, hawkish central bank rhetoric and fiscal discipline resurfaces. • HDFC Life shares buck trend, soar on debut after $1.3 billion IPO HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co''s shares soared by more than a fifth in their trading debut on Friday after a $1.3 billion initial public offering, bucking a trend of tepid market debuts by Indian insurers due to worries over their valuations. • NHPC could bid for Nepal''s $2.5 billion power project pulled from China Indian power company NHPC Ltd could bid for a $2.5 billion hyrdropower project in Nepal, its chairman told Reuters, after Kathmandu cancelled a deal with China Gezhouba Group Corp. • Indian state oil firms betting on natural gas as next big thing India''s state oil refiners are planning an aggressive push into natural gas in coming years to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s goal of making the fuel a bigger part of the country''s energy mix. • SEBI to investigate possible leaks of company earnings The Securities and Exchange Board of India will investigate possible leaks of company earnings in social media chatrooms, its chief Ajay Tyagi said on Friday, following a Reuters report this week that revealed prescient messages being posted in private groups. • L&T wins $1.3 billion construction contract - statement India''s top engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd has secured a contract to build a $1.3 billion Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the company said in a statement, in a big boost for the firm. • India raises import tax on edible oils to highest in a decade India has raised import tax on edible oil to the highest level in more than a decade, the government said in an order, as the world''s biggest importer of edible oils tries to support its farmers. • Aircel delays debt servicing, says ratings agency Indian mobile carrier Aircel Ltd has delayed servicing its debt obligations, a ratings agency said, adding to the woes of the country''s telecoms sector that has been rattled by a price war and high debt levels. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • President Mugabe stuns Zimbabwe by defying pressure to resign President Robert Mugabe stunned Zimbabwe on Sunday by making no mention of resignation in a television address, defying his own ZANU-PF party, which had sacked him hours earlier, and hundreds of thousands of protesters who had already hailed his downfall. • Toshiba shares drop after plan to issue $5.4 billion in new shares Shares of Toshiba Corp fell, a day after the troubled conglomerate said it would raise 600 billion yen from a sale of new shares in a key step that would allow it to stay publicly traded. • Alibaba goes offline with $2.9 billion stake in China''s top grocer Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it would invest HK$22.4 billion for a major stake in China''s top hypermart operator, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd, part of a wider push into offline retail. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,280.50, trading down 0.2 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to rise in early trade after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped an open market sale of bonds scheduled for this week. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.01 percent-7.06 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open little changed against the dollar, in line with most Asian currencies, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s failed attempt to form a three-way coalition government increased Eurozone political concerns, weighing on euro and lifting the greenback. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street ended the week on a sour note on Friday, with major indexes slipping modestly as investors weighed the fate of the Republicans'' tax overhaul plan. • Asian shares started the week on the back foot, pressured by a retreat on Wall Street amid tax reform uncertainty while the euro skidded after German coalition talks hit an impasse. • The euro hit a two-month low against the yen, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s efforts to form a three-way coalition government failed, raising concerns over political uncertainty in the euro zone''s largest economy. • U.S. Treasury yields edged lower on Friday, in line with weakness on Wall Street and declines in German 10-year bond yields, as the yield curve continued to flatten following strong U.S. housing starts data for October. • Oil markets were tepid as traders were reluctant to take on big new positions ahead of an OPEC meeting at the end of the month, when the producer club is expected to decide whether to continue output cuts aimed at propping up prices. • Gold prices dipped, weighed down by a stronger U.S. dollar, but held close to a one-month high hit in the previous session. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.94/64.97 November 17 $196.43 mln -$97.06 mln 10-yr bond yield - Month-to-date $2.21 bln -$426.47 mln Year-to-date $7.86 bln $25.25 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 65.01 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-20-idUSL3N1NQ1H8'|'2017-11-20T05:34:00.000+02:00'
'30d8741310fa70794520c44e05a727050f2a92a4'|'Tyson puts Kansas plant on hold, to build facility in Tennessee'|'Nov 20 (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc said it was putting on hold plans to build a chicken production plant in Kansas following opposition from local residents and the No. 1 U.S. meat processor said it would build a new $300 million facility in Tennessee.The company will continue to consider potential sites in Kansas for additional expansion of its poultry business, spokesman Worth Sparkman told Reuters in an email on Monday.The proposed $320 million plant in Tonganoxie, Kansas was expected to create about 1,600 jobs.Tyson has been looking to build a new slaughterhouse as demand for chicken continues to boom and Chief Executive Tom Hayes had said in November the company was considering new sites for the project.Tyson said the plant in Gibson County, Tennessee would create more than 1,500 local jobs once it begins operations in late 2019. (Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tyson-foods-plant-tennessee/tyson-puts-kansas-plant-on-hold-to-build-facility-in-tennessee-idINL3N1NQ4LY'|'2017-11-20T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'1cc11635328387b9082e21ebe3e8772837ac20f8'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 21'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Marvell Technology Group Ltd, which has its headquarters in Bermuda, is buying Cavium Inc based in San Jose, California. The resulting company will produce chips used in hard disk controllers, data processors and network channels. The companies expect to save as much as $175 million within 18 months of closing the deal. nyti.ms/2hHPb58- The New York Times said it was suspending Glenn Thrush, one of its most prominent reporters, after he was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior. nyti.ms/2jcN2hV- The Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc ''s$85.4 billion bid for Time Warner Inc on Monday, setting up a showdown over the first blockbuster acquisition to be considered by the Trump administration and drawing limits on corporate power in the fast-evolving media landscape. nyti.ms/2AhzXin- The Mumbai-based Mahindra Group, said it would begin producing off-road recreational and work vehicles at the plant, in Auburn Hills, early next year. It indicated that this might be just a first step in its ambitions for the American market. nyti.ms/2hGLfRTCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-21-idINL3N1NR29N'|'2017-11-21T03:21:00.000+02:00'
'6742f13bf81476cef70f21d01c63d2fc12d17681'|'Japan Tobacco to actively pursue M&A opportunities - CEO designate'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:11 AM / in 26 minutes Japan Tobacco to actively pursue M&A opportunities - CEO designate Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Tobacco Inc ( 2914.T ) will seek acquisition opportunities overseas, said Masamichi Terabatake who is slated to become its CEO in January, to secure growth as the rise of vaping rivals snuffs out the company’s cigarette sales at home. FILE PHOTO: Japan Tobacco Inc (JT) headquarters building is seen in Tokyo, Japan, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo “If there are good deals, we would like to actively pursue them, even by taking risks. The scale does not matter,” Terabatake told reporters on Tuesday, after his promotion to the CEO position was announced. Shares of Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ), which many see as a potential acquisition target for Japan Tobacco, rose 3.4 percent following Terabatake’s comments. “We would argue a bid for Imperial becomes more feasible under the new leadership with the new CEO saying JT is actively seeking M&A opportunities ‘regardless of size’,” Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett wrote in a note to clients. Officials at Imperial, the maker of the Davidoff and Golden Virginia brands, declined to comment. Terabatake did not give any details on M&A targets. The 51-year-old executive, who will replace Mitsuomi Koizumi as CEO, is currently deputy CEO at JT International, a Geneva-based company that is headquarters for Japan Tobacco’s overseas operations. Terabatake has spent more than a decade in the company’s international tobacco business. As a young official, he worked on Japan Tobacco’s $7.8 billion acquisition of the non-U.S. tobacco business of RJR Nabisco Inc in 1999. “There are still many regions we have not entered. There are many markets left for cigarette business to grow,” he said. At home, the company’s cigarette sales have been hit with more smokers quitting than expected and the negative impact of heat-not-burn (HNB) cigarette alternatives. It has forecast 92 billion cigarette sales in Japan for 2017, down 13.4 percent from a year ago. That would be 1 billion less than what it had projected in August and 4 billion below an estimate given at the start of year. Despite commanding over 60 percent of Japan’s cigarette market, the former state monopoly has been caught on the wrong side of the rising HNB popularity and has lagged in its own backyard versus global rival Philip Morris International ( PM.N ). Quick to see that the number of smokers was shrinking in an era of increasing health awareness, Philip Morris started selling its IQOS HNB product, a tobacco vaping device, in Japan in 2014 and expanded nationwide in April last year. But Japan Tobacco rolled out its Ploom Tech battery-powered smokeless tobacco product in central Tokyo only in July this year after production delays. Terabatake said it was still too early for any company to solidify its lead in this category. “Tobacco vapour war has just begun,” he said. Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in LONDON; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-tobacco-management/japan-tobacco-to-actively-pursue-ma-opportunities-ceo-designate-idUKKBN1DL15K'|'2017-11-21T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'55b7e58f3d14716b111efd52be156da0783361d6'|'Planemaker Embraer ends Brazil furlough program early'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:54 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Planemaker Embraer ends Brazil furlough program early Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Embraer SA , the world’s third-largest commercial planemaker, is ending a furlough program next month at its factory in Sao Jose dos Campos, putting more hands on the assembly line as it ramps up output of next-generation E-Jets. A local metalworkers union said in an emailed statement that the shortened furlough program has only affected the contracts of 350 employees since it was signed in December 2016. The furlough, which had already been pared back to 1,080 employees from the 2,000 announced in November 2016, was originally scheduled to end in December 2018, cutting labor costs as Embraer transitions to a re-engined family of passenger jets. Embraer confirmed in a written statement that it had advised the union of the early end to the furloughs at its headquarters in the state of Sao Paulo. (Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Brad Haynes; Editing by Bernadette Baum)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/embraer-labor/planemaker-embraer-ends-brazil-furlough-program-early-idUSL1N1NR1N5'|'2017-11-21T21:50:00.000+02:00'
'0983b65ee541b0c1fafd247484043143975aecd6'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 21'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Nebraska has approved an alternative route for TransCanada Corp''s $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, a ruling that removes a key hurdle in the decade long-quest to link Alberta''s oil sands to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast. tgam.ca/2jKARgh** Three Glencore Plc executives have resigned from the board of its Toronto-listed subsidiary Katanga Mining Ltd after an internal review found "material weaknesses" in its financial reporting controls, amid a regulatory probe by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). tgam.ca/2hQSx9G** The plan by General Motors Co to perform final assembly of full-sized pickup trucks in Oshawa, Ontario, will lead to production of about 60,000 vehicles at the assembly plant in that city, the auto maker has confirmed. tgam.ca/2jJDkreNATIONAL POST ** The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a consumer rights group, argues consumers could face prolonged bill shock if the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission gives wireless carriers extra time to implement protections on how customers are billed for international roaming and data usage. bit.ly/2hOtljW** Alberta-based Aurora Cannabis Inc announced its intention to launch a takeover bid for Saskatchewan-based CanniMed Therapeutics Inc, another medical marijuana producer. bit.ly/2hQ4NXK (Reporting by Martina Dcouto) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-nov-21-idINL3N1NR3NX'|'2017-11-21T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'7299f9a70239bb62f8d6ee40621c5bea79e453e4'|'NAFTA nations lock horns on U.S. auto demands as fifth round ends'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:16 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago NAFTA round wrapping up, ''significant differences'' remain David Lawder , Anthony Esposito 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States, Mexico and Canada were wrapping up a fifth round of talks to update NAFTA on Tuesday with major differences yet to be resolved, casting doubt on whether a deal could be reached by the end of March 2018 as planned. Flags are pictured during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement underpins much of the more than $1 trillion in annual trilateral trade, and Washington’s repeated threats to walk away from the pact unless it is reworked in the United States’ favor have spooked markets. Canada and Mexico object to a series of contentious demands the United States unveiled during the fourth round last month and the three nations made little progress in Mexico City. “Significant differences remain on some key areas ... these are proposals we simply cannot agree to,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Ottawa. Tuesday is the seventh day negotiators have met during this Mexico round, with only two planned rounds of talks left. Mexico and Canada firmly pushed back against a U.S. demand to raise the minimum threshold to 85 percent NAFTA origin components from 62.5 percent, as well as insist that half the content was from the United States. The proposal is a central plank of U.S. President Donald Trump’s America First strategy to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States, though it faces stiff resistance from the auto industry, which questions its viability. Mexican and Canadian officials said they wanted the United States to explain how the auto plan could prosper in view of the skepticism, and have repeatedly indicated they had no intention of responding to the scheme. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido “Where is the merit in making a counterproposal to a demand that would take us backwards?” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks. Officials hope to make announcements that can inject some momentum into a negotiating process that more pessimistic observers fear is running out of energy. Mexico formally proposed that the NAFTA trade deal allow for a structured review of the accord every five years, instead of terminating the deal automatically if it is not renegotiated, as the United States has demanded, three Mexican officials said. Mexican officials initially expressed hope that some chapters could finally be closed, such as telecoms and e-commerce. But chief Mexican negotiator Ken Smith told reporters that none would wrap up this round. The current round has been less confrontational than the negative tone of the October talks in Washington, said Caroline Freund, a trade expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “With U.S. tax reform front and center, the U.S. government really didn’t want to make this a big round, and (wanted) to let the technocrats get on and do the negotiating on the less controversial bits,” Freund said. Expectations for any major advances in the fifth round were scaled back when the three sides announced that the ministers in charge of the NAFTA trade portfolio would not attend. The three countries have agreed to continue negotiating through the end of March, when the campaign for the 2018 Mexican presidential election gets underway. In a commentary issued on Tuesday, the credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings said the three countries’ domestic political considerations would make it hard to reach a deal. Reporting by David Lawder and Anthony Esposito; additional reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Andrew Hay and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/nafta-nations-lock-horns-on-u-s-auto-demands-as-fifth-round-ends-idUSKBN1DL0FL'|'2017-11-21T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'c40ef0095b7baa8eb09417971aa81a87b922d4dd'|'Airbus A350-1000 jetliner granted safety certification by U.S., EU watchdogs'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said on Tuesday the largest member of its A350 long-range jetliner family, the A350-1000, had received safety certification from European and U.S. regulators. An Airbus A350-1000 is taking part in a flying display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The decision paves the way for the 369-seat jetliner to be delivered to its first customer, Qatar Airways, before the end of the year, it said. Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Tim Hepher '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-certification/airbus-a350-1000-jetliner-granted-safety-certification-by-u-s-eu-watchdogs-idUSKBN1DL1SO'|'2017-11-21T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'934a6374d7aff60e73059c3a11e901e909d155df'|'Broadcom eyes big changes for Qualcomm''s patent practices'|'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As part of its $103 billion bid to buy Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Ltd has hinted that it would make big changes to Qualcomm’s patent licensing business, a major cash-cow for the company but a source of bitter conflict with regulators and key customers including Apple Inc.FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo But Broadcom has given few details about how it would go about revising Qualcomm’s practices. Qualcomm has so far rejected Broadcom’s takeover offer, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles.Patent licenses accounted for some $5.1 billion in pre-tax profits for Qualcomm in its fiscal 2017, compared with $2.7 billion in pre-tax profits for its chip business that brings in two and a half times more revenue. Thus, Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan would need to carefully pair any changes to the program with cost cuts elsewhere, with Qualcomm’s annual $5.5 billion research and development budget seen as a prime target by analysts.If Broadcom is successful in buying Qualcomm, a source familiar with the matter said that Broadcom would try to maintain the economics of the licensing business by adjusting the pricing structure between the licensing and chip selling businesses. It would also attempt to renegotiate contracts with major customers, the source said.Broadcom is eager to appease big customers like Apple, whose support is needed to overcome antitrust hurdles. While customers often look askance at consolidation among their suppliers, Broadcom has said it offers a possible solution to a conflict that has led to a regulatory crackdown, lawsuits with Apple and also has prompted others to cease paying licensing fees.At the center of the conflict is Qualcomm’s practice of requiring mobile phone makers to pay a license fee on its intellectual property in addition to what they pay for its chips. Qualcomm invented a number of foundational technologies for mobile communications.In legal complaints, Apple has called Qualcomm’s approach “double dipping.” Qualcomm has repeatedly rejected the notion that its patent practices are anticompetitive and maintains that its chip business and patent business are run separately.A Broadcom spokeswoman told Reuters in early November that it believes that regulators around the world will “welcome this deal as a solution to the double-dipping issue.” Tan said in an interview earlier this month that he believes Broadcom “can be very constructive in resolving these issues and resetting relationships. We would not have embarked on this offer if we were not confident that our common key customers would not embrace it.” Broadcom declined to comment further.Analysts said there are three possibilities for Broadcom to resolve Qualcomm’s licensing issues: sell or spin off the licensing unit, shift to a model that charges a flat fee, and simply charge more for chips, using the patents as leverage.The simplest option for Broadcom would be to spin off Qualcomm’s licensing division to financial buyers or Qualcomm shareholders, but its valuation would be hard to gauge. Revenue from the unit has declined from $7.9 billion in 2015 to $6.4 billion in Qualcomm’s fiscal 2017, largely thanks to Apple’s and another customer’s suspension of payments.If the licensing unit remains within Qualcomm, one possibility is that Qualcomm would ditch its unpopular practice of charging a percentage of the selling price of a phone in favor of a flat per-device fee, Cowen and Co analyst Karl Ackerman said in a research note.The most likely course of action, according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, is for Broadcom to end the practice of asking handset makers to pay licensing fees and instead to ask them to pay a little more for chips. At the same time, Broadcom would lock in long-term supply agreements, using Qualcomm’s patent portfolio as leverage, Rasgon said.But such a move could result in lower overall prices for customers like Apple. Rasgon estimates that Apple pays about $15 for Qualcomm’s chips and another $10 per device in licensing fees, for a total of about $25 per phone. Broadcom could simply charge between $18 and $20 for the chips.“It’s a completely different model of how to run Qualcomm,” Rasgon said. “(Broadcom’s CEO Tan) is essentially saying, ‘You guys are wrong - the licensing revenue is never coming back,''” he said.Apple declined to comment. But the company has shown that it is willing to settle its patent disputes for the right price, often with an upfront payment and then ongoing royalties. Earlier this year, Apple settled with Nokia Oyj, handing over a $2 billion upfront cash payment and undisclosed ongoing payments over several years.Rasgon estimates that one way or another Qualcomm will lose about $2.5 billion per year in royalty revenues from Apple.(This version of the story was refiled to change “chip customers” to “handset makers” in paragraph 12 to clarify which customers are being referred to)Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-broadcom-qualcomm-licensing/broadcom-eyes-big-changes-for-qualcomms-patent-practices-idUSKBN1DL0EI'|'2017-11-21T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'0835fcc5ee6c84e9a72d298e29e926f010f897ac'|'Australia''s carsales.com to take control of South Korean JV for $184 million'|'(Reuters) - Carsales.com Ltd ( CAR.AX ) said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with SK Holdings Co Ltd ( 034730.KS ) to buy the remaining 50.1 percent stake in South Korean joint venture Encar.com for about A$244 million ($184.49 million), before adjusting for working capital.The deal was expected to be signed next month and completed in January, it added.Australia-based carsales.com had bought a 49.9 percent stake in Encar.com in April 2014.The online auto classifieds company’s existing stake in the joint venture would be revalued for accounting purposes, creating a one-off non-cash gain of about A$100 million.“This acquisition is a significant milestone in carsales’ long-term strategy to be the global leader in online auto classifieds,” Chief Executive Cameron McIntyre said.The company anticipated the deal to be neutral to adjusted earnings in fiscal 2018 and accretive in fiscal 2019 and beyond.Shares of carsales.com fell as much as 1.8 percent in early trade, posting their biggest intra-day drop since September.Reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-encar-com-m-a-carsales-com/australias-carsales-com-to-take-control-of-south-korean-jv-for-184-million-idINKBN1DJ0X2'|'2017-11-19T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'aa7ee36739bc724922e9219b677fd9d438da0979'|'Iridium says last call from its device on missing Argentine submarine was Wednesday'|'BUENOS AIRES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. satellite communications company Iridium Communications Inc said on Sunday the last call from its device aboard a missing Argentine submarine was made at 1136 GMT on Wednesday, the day the vessel vanished.Argentina’s Defense Ministry has said seven failed satellite calls on Saturday may have been from the submarine. In a statement to Reuters, Iridium referred to those reports and said no calls from the vessel were made on its network on Saturday but that there may be equipment from another satellite communications company aboard the submarine. (Reporting by Mitra Taj, Maximiliano Rizzi and Luc Cohen; Editing by Peter Cooney) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/argentina-submarine-iridium-commun/iridium-says-last-call-from-its-device-on-missing-argentine-submarine-was-wednesday-idINL1N1NP0MA'|'2017-11-19T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'7c4744840e0fd11302f0d49b24aff454082bbf31'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 20'|'Nov 20 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HeadlinesMPs propose law to crackdown on ''gig economy'' loopholes on.ft.com/2j8mz56Greece probes central bank head over alleged leak on.ft.com/2j7oFChWeWork targets Brexit-wary banks with City office space on.ft.com/2j73PTJBanks prepare to settle with Brussels over forex cartel probe on.ft.com/2j6HvJSOverviewMPs will present draft legislation on Monday intended to end exploitation and close employment loopholes in the underbelly of Britain’s labour market.Greece’s central bank governor is under investigation by an anti-corruption prosecutor over the alleged leaking of an auditor’s report on Piraeus Bank SA, a troubled Greek lender accused of violating capital controls imposed at the height of the country’s financial crisis.Co-working start-up WeWork is ramping up efforts to sell office space to global banks as the uncertainties of Brexit weigh on institutions’ property plans.Eight of the world’s largest banks are set to discuss financial settlements with the European Commission, drawing a line under a four-year probe into allegations they formed a cartel to rig the global foreign exchange market. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-20-idUSL3N1NQ07U'|'2017-11-20T02:56:00.000+02:00'
'8db1da8eb3c95b2afb9da605ab312bd18e9aec66'|'Insurer Sompo unit to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:08 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Insurer Sompo unit to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Sompo International Holdings, a Bermuda-based unit of Japanese insurer Sompo, is to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The new entity, SI Insurance (Europe), will offer insurance and reinsurance, Sompo said in a statement late on Monday. “SI has been formulating a strategy to address issues relating to (Britain‘s) decision to leave the European Union, in particular the potential loss of EU passporting rights,” the firm said, adding that regulatory approval for the Luxembourg firm was expected in the second quarter of 2018. Luxembourg and Dublin have been the most successful European cities in the race to attract insurers worried about the loss of access to Britain’s single market as a result of Brexit. Other insurers choosing Luxembourg for their EU hubs include AIG and Tokio Marine. Ship insurers North Club and Standard Club said this week they were choosing Dublin for their subsidiaries. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-sompo/insurer-sompo-unit-to-set-up-eu-subsidiary-in-luxembourg-idUSL8N1NR4ZA'|'2017-11-21T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'2a4bef356e06a467d759e20a8e0cc712f688503e'|'UK ship insurer Standard Club to set up Dublin subsidiary due to Brexit'|'November 21, 2017 / 10:44 AM / in 9 minutes UK ship insurer Standard Club takes Dublin route in response to Brexit Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British ship insurer Standard Club is setting up a new European Union subsidiary in Dublin in case Britain loses access to the single market after Brexit, becoming the second of these specialised providers to opt for Ireland. North P&I Club, another UK regulated ship insurer, has also chosen the Irish capital for its EU subsidiary, it said on Monday. Britain dominates the global marine insurance market and losing access to specialist Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs such as Standard and North could weaken other parts of the country’s multi-billion pound shipping services sector. “We have concluded that Dublin offers the best location to serve European members post-Brexit,” Standard Club’s chief executive Jeremy Grose said in a statement on Tuesday. Insurers are making contingency plans after Britain’s vote to leave the EU means they risk losing “passporting” rights that allow UK financial services firms to trade in Europe without the need for locally part of Hanover Insurance Group ( THG.N ) and Beazley BEZG.L. “The tax, regulatory and legal regimes are similar to the UK, which means that the transition will be easier to manage than some of the other competing locations,” Standard Club’s Grose said. “We will seek regulatory approval and progress our plans to establish a presence in Dublin during 2018.” A North spokesman said on Monday that it had 371 staff globally and the initial headcount could be around six or seven, subject to change. There are 13 major global P&I clubs, of which six are regulated in Britain and are estimated to account for over half the total market share of an industry that insures about 90 percent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage. Many of these clubs - owned by shipping companies - have been an integral part of the City of London for nearly two centuries, insuring ocean going ships against pollution and injury claims, typically the biggest costs when a vessel sinks. Hull and machinery cover, which protects vessels against physical damage, is provided separately by other marine insurers. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Jonathan Saul; Editing by Louise Heavens and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-insurance-shipping/uk-ship-insurer-standard-club-to-set-up-dublin-subsidiary-due-to-brexit-idUKKBN1DL13G'|'2017-11-21T12:44:00.000+02:00'
'a177666960bf78a284c63be1a2a740b9b2cb1ee1'|'Dollar near highs as German political impasse pressures euro'|'November 21, 2017 / 12:50 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Dollar near highs as German political impasse pressures euro Lisa Twaronite 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar gave back some of its gains in Asian trading on Tuesday but stuck close to a one-week high against a basket of currencies as a German political deadlock continued to pressure the euro. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar and Euro notes are seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rival currencies, dipped 0.1 percent to 94.029 .DXY, but was still within sight of its overnight peak of 94.104, its highest since Nov. 14. The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.1739 EUR= , nursing losses after dropping to $1.1722 in the previous session after German coalition government talks collapsed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose conservative bloc lost seats in September’s election, said she would inform the German president that she could not form a coalition, after the pro-business Free Democrats withdrew from negotiations. Merkel said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority, but Germany’s president told the parties they owed it to voters to try to form a government. “It was primarily a euro weakness story, based on the failure to form a coalition government in Germany,” said Bill Northey, chief investment officer at the private client group of U.S. Bank in Helena, Montana. “Stepping back from the daily activities, the big mountain that we’re still looking to traverse is still tax reform -- what form, and on what timeline,” Northey said. U.S. Republicans are not expected to push major tax cuts through Congress this year, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll, who were also sceptical that tax reform would provide a significant boost to the economy. Trading was expected to be relatively thin this week ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, which is also a national holiday in Japan. The calendar is relatively sparse ahead of the holiday, with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen scheduled to give a speech later on Tuesday. Minutes from the Fed’s November meeting will be released on Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar was slightly lower on the day at 112.59 JPY= , holding above its overnight low of 111.89 yen, which was its lowest since mid-October. The euro was steady on the day against the yen at 132.15 yen EURJPY=, after skidding as low as 131.16 on Monday, its lowest since Sept. 15. “Ahead of this week’s holidays, it would not have been unusual for the dollar to have fallen on position adjustments as investors pared their dollar-long positions, in case there was some dollar-negative news while they were away,” said Kumiko Ishikawa, FX analyst at Sony Financial Holdings in Tokyo. “But due largely to the euro’s moves, the dollar is holding up,” she said. The Australian dollar was down 0.2 percent at $0.7536 AUD=D4 , after falling as low as $0.7529 earlier, its deepest nadir since mid-June. Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Nov. 7 policy meeting showed it harboured “considerable uncertainty” about how quickly wages growth and inflation might pick up. After that meeting, the RBA trimmed its forecasts for core inflation to below its long-term 2-3 percent target band for another two years. Bitcoin slipped nearly 4 percent on Tuesday after notching a fresh record high of $8,253 BTC=BTSP . Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Eric Meijer and Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-forex/dollar-stands-tall-as-german-political-deadlock-pressures-euro-idUKKBN1DL032'|'2017-11-21T08:43:00.000+02:00'
'7a944b3c64cc0bf5629f0b80cfcde9ccea7cbc0f'|'Paris watchdog win bolsters its fight for Brexit banks'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Paris watchdog win bolsters its fight for Brexit banks Maya Nikolaeva , Huw Jones 5 Min Read PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - The surprise decision to move the European Banking Authority to Paris will boost its chances of attracting London banks after Brexit, French officials said on Tuesday. A general view shows the aerial subway and the city rooftops in Paris February 24, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Paris won over Dublin in a lucky dip after a voting run-off produced a tied result on Monday evening. Frankfurt, seen by many as favourite, did not even make it to the final two in the battle to replace London as home to the organisation that sets banking rules across the bloc and employs 185 people. Frankfurt and Paris are at the forefront of the race among European cities to attract London businesses that need an EU hub to continue serving customers in the bloc after Britain leaves in March 2019. Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) has said it will make Paris and Frankfurt its European hubs after Brexit. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the decision to put the EBA in Paris sent exactly the sort of signal that big banks such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) were waiting for. “It’s a very strong signal, firstly that financial stability will be decided in Paris,” Le Maire said on the sidelines of an innovation conference at the Finance Ministry. “The second signal, which I think is excellent news for Paris, is that Paris will become one of the big European financial centres, if not the biggest. It’s also a signal to big international institutions.” Le Maire said the government still had to take several important decisions, notably on labour costs, but that he expected many big banks to come to Paris. Bagging the EBA marks an unexpected win for the French capital, given that its bid was among the least generous financially. It is also unusual because it puts two such regulators in one location, joining the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and prompting some officials to speculate that they could cooperate more closely to exert greater influence. “Personally, I‘m very happy with this decision. Paris was top of my list,” said EBA spokeswoman Franca Rosa Congiu. Though the EBA employs only 185 staff, it plays a core role in turning EU banking law into rules for supervisors to enforce. It also runs the biannual stress test of leading EU lenders. GERMAN SETBACK While Paris revels in its victory, Germany was left licking its wounds after a setback to both the country and its Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The German Premier had called for the watchdog to be based in Frankfurt, which is already home to the European Central Bank (ECB). “We would have preferred a different decision because we believe that Frankfurt, all things considered, best meets the criteria stipulated,” said Lutz Raettig, president of the lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance. Gerhard Hofmann, a member of the board of the National Association of German Cooperative Banks, said the EU was missing out on an opportunity to move the EBA close to the ECB. “In light of the fact that there is great overlap in the mandates of both institutions, as well as the significance of Frankfurt as a banking and financial capital in Europe, Frankfurt was well positioned,” Hofmann said. But Volker Bouffier, prime minister of Frankfurt’s home state of Hesse, said the city would remain “the most significant financial capital on the European continent” regardless. “A host of banks have already announced their intentions to base themselves in Frankfurt or expand there,” he said. “We are sure that we will continue to be successful on that front.” Nonetheless, the win is a considerable boost for France. “We thought that we had lost the battle against Frankfurt, but this big win establishes an equilibrium between the two,” one French banker said. Former Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said in France’s bid that the banking agency and market watchdog ESMA would be able to work together more closely. “There is a good reason for satisfaction that it will allow synergies with ESMA. There are clearly some points of convergence,” another French banking source said. ESMA, which employs 270 permanent and temporary staff, must review its offices by 2019 when its lease runs out. Setting up alongside the EBA could allow both to save on back-office services and foster a closer relationship. Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris and Tom Sims in Frankfurt; Editing by John O''Donnell and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-banks-regulator-analysis/paris-watchdog-win-bolsters-its-fight-for-brexit-banks-idUKKBN1DL1YM'|'2017-11-21T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'f651960d99aa90baa75427d117d3a4818c81a9f7'|'RPT-INSIGHT-Italian banks face long, uphill road to modernisation'|'(Repeats story published on Monday)* Past peak of bad loan crisis, Italian banks face new mission* Looking to catch up on digital, reduce reliance on lending* How overhaul plays out will shape sector for years to come* Ageing workforce, labour laws among obstacles to changeBy Valentina ZaMILAN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Bailed-out Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank and a bastion of tradition dating back to 1472, has entered the realms of virtual reality. It’s an unlikely sign of the times.After surviving the worst of a bad loans crisis, Italian banks face another daunting mission: modernising centuries-old businesses and finding new ways to make money.They are looking to catch up with European rivals in digital banking, and are reducing their dependence on lending by selling insurance and other financial products.How this overhaul plays out could shape the sector for years to come, with those who adapt most swiftly sweeping up a larger slice of new business, say bankers and industry experts.Monte dei Paschi’s online arm last week launched virtual reality (VR) branches, accessed via phone app and VR headset, and said 3,500 customers had signed up in the first few hours. But other banks are moving far more aggressively in revamping their businesses.Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit, set a template for lenders in need of restructuring by raising 13 billion euros from shareholders this year. As well as investing 1.6 billion euros in its IT systems, it is re-training 1,500 Italian staff and moving them from administrative jobs to client-facing roles.Mediobanca has meanwhile acquired a “robo-advisory” service, an algorithm that proposes investments to customers of its digital arm who can access it directly. It is also hiring 100 financial consultants a year to reach more than 300 by 2019 to boost assets under management.But modernisation will not be easy for an industry that has focused on lending to Italy’s myriad small businesses for centuries. Banks must contend with employees who are resistant to changing roles, rigid labour laws, and a lack of funds to invest in technology.Varying rates of progress among Italy’s 600 lenders are likely to further widen the gap between large players and their smaller peers, which are still grappling with the loans crisis and lack the scale for the necessary investments. Banca Carige, for example, is raising capital to avoid collapse.Executives say mergers are inevitable in coming years.“Innovation and digitalisation have become a priority for all large lenders which are dedicating people and money to them. The problem is the industry is very fragmented and small banks find it hard to embrace the challenge,” said Roberto Ferrari, Mediobanca’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer.Heavyweight Intesa Sanpaolo, which has led the shift towards fee-earning businesses and has 230 of its 4,800 branches dedicated solely to advisory services, is launching a pilot project which will see some staff having two contracts. They will work part-time as a bank employee with set salary, and for the rest of the time as a consultant with pay based on the number of products they sell.PASTRY AND PIAZZA Changes are necessary for an industry which has shrinking revenues and is not repaying its cost of capital - meaning companies could struggle to raise cash from investors if they run into trouble.Italian banks’ return on equity - a key measure of profitability - was 2.3 percent in the first half of 2017 excluding one-off transactions, less than half the European average and a fraction of their 12.8 percent cost of equity, according to calculations for Reuters by consultancy Oliver Wyman.There is a long road ahead for lenders in Italy, where only about 30 percent of bank customers use online services, against 45 percent in Spain and more than 80 percent in Nordic countries, Oliver Wyman found. At the end of last year, Italy had a bank branch every 2,000 residents, against an EU average of one every 3,800.Italian banks were freed from the threat of a systemic collapse after Rome committed billions of euros of public money to buttress the industry by rescuing Monte dei Paschi and two smaller banks over the summer.But thousand of jobs are yet to be axed in a sector that has already shed 40,000 since 2008. Banks will need to cut 25-30 percent of their 29,000 branches over the next five years, consultancy Accenture estimates, following a 15 percent reduction in 2008-16.Those branches that survive are being redesigned to appeal to a new generation, and type, of clientele.Under a 500-million-euro renovation push aimed at turning its branches into modern-day piazzas, Intesa is partnering with a pastry chef to host his patisseries from next year and recently launched its first branch with a cafe inside.Meanwhile UniCredit opened its first branch for small corporate clients near La Scala theatre in September, with a lounge area where they can hold their own meetings.“As bank branches dwindle the skills of people left in them must change to provide consulting and customer services,” said Alberto Antonietti, head of financial services at Accenture Strategy in Milan.“This is no small cultural revolution for people used to waiting for clients behind a counter who must now go hunting for them. The digital catch-up will happen, transforming people will be the real challenge.”NO CUSHY JOBS There has been progress; excluding bailed-out Monte dei Paschi, fees have accounted for 40 percent of revenues at the top four banks this year, up from 31 percent five years ago.But the changes are proving painful for employees.Unions have complained against pressures on staff to sell financial products and have set up a joint committee with Italy’s banking association to monitor the issue.In a survey of bank staff in a Tuscan province, 84 percent of respondents felt uneasy recommending a product to a client in order to hit goals. More than a quarter had used at some point anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs, an academic study by La Sapienza University found this year.“I was deeply struck by how unprepared most employees were to adapt quickly to changes happening in the industry,” said Professor Giuseppe La Torre, one of the study authors.“In everyone’s mind a bank job is a well-paid, cushy job. Our study uncovered a very different reality. These are people in their 50s who started working at least 20 years ago - they have not been trained to adapt well to changes.”Former bank clerk Giuliano Leone, 60, who recently retired from a small bank, said learning the ins and outs of financial products did not necessarily teach people how to sell them.“During training they told us that signing somebody up to an insurance contract took only a few minutes,” he added.“Well, it doesn‘t. It takes hours.”A senior bank executive, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that it was difficult to hire talented people as the skills required broadened.“The cuts discourage those who are after a secure job and those who want a dynamic work environment much prefer a start-up or a big tech company,” he said.“Nobody dreams of working for a bank anymore.” (Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Pravin Char) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-banks-italy-modernisation/rpt-insight-italian-banks-face-long-uphill-road-to-modernisation-idINL8N1NQ4UJ'|'2017-11-21T04:01:00.000+02:00'
'fde3d21f2a72e48b59fc03e95811db565385a76d'|'BRIEF-Bharti Airtel adds 3.1 mln subscribers in Oct - industry body - Reuters'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - Cellular Operators Association of India:* Bharti Airtel Ltd adds 3.1 million subscribers in October - industry body* Vodafone India unit adds 879,413 subscribers in October- industry body* Idea Cellular Ltd adds 713,408 subscribers in October- industry body* Aircel loses 497,264 mobile subscribers in October- industry body* Telenor India unit loses 1.1 million subscribers in October - industry body '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-bharti-airtel-adds-31-mln-subscrib/brief-bharti-airtel-adds-3-1-mln-subscribers-in-oct-industry-body-idINB8N1N000R'|'2017-11-21T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'3f1f1696c86cbf6e605517c7cfc15632fb467396'|'Automaker Mahindra wants to sell electric vehicles in U.S.'|'November 20, 2017 / 10:16 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Automaker Mahindra wants to sell electric vehicles in U.S. Paul Lienert 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd ( MAHM.NS ), one of India’s oldest vehicle manufacturers, is testing autonomous tractors, trucks and cars, while moving closer to bringing electric vehicles to the United States, Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Mahindra and Mahindra is seen on a car at a showroom in Mumbai, India, August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo The company, which opened a new North American headquarters north of Detroit on Monday, is considering when to begin U.S. sales of the vehicles, Anand Mahindra said in an interview. It is also weighing whether the vehicles should carry the Mahindra brand or those of its affiliates Pininfarina, the famed Italian design house; and Ssangyong Motor Co ( 003620.KS ), a Korean manufacturer of utility and crossover vehicles, he added. Mahindra & Mahindra bought Ssangyong in 2011 and Pininfarina in 2015. The Indian parent is collaborating with both companies on the development of electric vehicles, including premium models for Pininfarina that likely would compete with Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ). Anand Mahindra suggested that Ssangyong and Pininfarina electric vehicles might be sold in both the United States and China. Earlier this year, Autocar India reported that Pininfarina was developing a family of electric vehicles for China’s Hybrid Kinetic Group, as well as its own electric supercar. The magazine also reported that Ssangyong planned to launch an all-electric crossover vehicle in Korea in 2019. FILE PHOTO - Anand Mahindra, Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra Group, Business Representative, delivers his remarks during the Paris Agreement on climate change held at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar In early November, Ssangyong said it had received approval to begin testing of autonomous vehicles in Korea, but did not say when it planned to produce them. Anand Mahindra said his company, one of the world’s largest tractor manufacturers, had been testing self-driving models since it bought a minority stake in Japan’s Mitsubishi Agriculture Machinery in 2015. Mahindra & Mahindra operates several U.S. tractor assembly plants. While work on the self-driving vehicles is still in the early stages, Mahindra & Mahindra has been building electric vehicles in India since the mid-1990s, when it developed a small fleet battery-powered, three-wheeled rickshaws for use in Delhi, the chairman said. Mahindra & Mahindra bought Reva Electric Car Co, a small Bangalore-based manufacturer, in 2010 and transformed it into Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd, which designs and builds compact electric vehicles for the Indian market. In mid-September, the company renewed ties with Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) through a new alliance that envisions sharing of technology, product development and parts sourcing, especially on electric vehicles. The companies had a short-lived joint venture, Mahindra Ford India Ltd, established in 1995. Ford took control of the venture in 1998 and renamed it Ford India. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/autos-mahindra/automaker-mahindra-wants-to-sell-electric-vehicles-in-u-s-idINKBN1DK2LR'|'2017-11-21T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'b055df9dad667a6941d52396cc06274c2659a072'|'Law likely on AT&T''s side in Time Warner battle - analysts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:04 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Law likely on AT&T''s side in Time Warner battle - analysts Supantha Mukherjee 4 Min Read (Reuters) - AT&T Inc is likely to emerge victorious from a legal fight with the United States Department of Justice over its $85.4 billion (£64.5 billion) acquisition of Time Warner Inc, analysts said in a series of research notes on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. on October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The Justice Department confirmed earlier hints on Monday by launching a suit against AT&T, arguing that the telecom carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” AT&T’s shares were down just 0.5 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday. Time Warner’s shares were untraded. They closed on Monday some 18 percent below the implied value of AT&T’s $107.50 per share cash and stock offer, suggesting that investors have doubts about the company’s ability to close the deal. “We are surprised at the lawsuit as there are decades of clear legal precedent on how these deals are handled,” Oppenheimer analysts wrote in a client note. “We see a 75 percent chance AT&T wins at trial and the onus is on the DOJ to prove potential harm.” The United States’ second largest wireless carrier offered to buy Time Warner in October last year to gain control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, and film studio Warner Bros as well as a number of other coveted media assets. AT&T has rejected DoJ demands that it sell DirecTV or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting - which includes news network CNN - in order to win antitrust approval. The company, which expects to use Time Warner’s movies to fight off streaming companies Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video, said the lawsuit was “a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent”. FILE PHOTO: A Time Warner logo is seen at a Time Warner store in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo Analysts from another brokerage, Evercore, also backed the company’s chances in the fight. “Based on our assessment of both the DoJ brief and the AT&T arguments, we believe that the law is likely on AT&T’s side,” they said in a note. AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner comes under the heading of vertical mergers - a deal between two companies that do not compete directly but operate on different steps in a supply chain. “The last time the DoJ challenged a vertical case was in the Carter years; it was last successful under Nixon,” Nomura Instinet analyst Jeffrey Kvaal wrote in a note. Aside from the Trump administration, the deal is also opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks. The battle is Chief Executive Randall Stephenson’s second major run-in with the Justice Department after AT&T abandoned its $39-billion bid to buy T-Mobile USA in 2011 in the face of opposition from Obama administration regulators. AT&T had planned to fight the government’s decision in court at that time, but later dropped the deal and swallowed billions in costs. This time around AT&T seems to be more convinced of its case. The company says it plans to ask the Washington court dealing with the case for the earliest possible hearing, hopefully within 60 days, as the current merger agreement expires on April 22, 2018. “AT&T made it clear that they are ‘in this to win’ and don’t intend to cut their losses by walking away,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/law-likely-on-atts-side-in-time-warner-battle-analysts-idUKKBN1DL1FX'|'2017-11-21T15:04:00.000+02:00'
'f206d6c4f6b9082b7cf1269e6feb8b0e88af5b72'|'Barnier warns City of London to scale down Brexit hopes'|'Barnier warns City of London to scale down Brexit hopes EU chief negotiator takes aim at Davis speech in rejecting preferential access Read next Mehreen Khan in Brussels and Alex Barker in London Listen to this article Play audio for this article Pause This is an experimental feature. Give us your feedback. Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback The EU has warned Britain to lower its expectations of market access for the City of London after Brexit , delivering a blow to the UK’s hopes of a trade deal that maintains current flows of capital, staff and services. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, suggested that after Brexit the country would have no preferential access for financial services other than patchy “equivalence” arrangements, such as those with the US or Singapore. “On financial services, UK voices suggest that Brexit does not mean Brexit,” he said. ”Brexit means Brexit, everywhere.” This was a veiled reference to a speech l ast week by David Davis, the UK’s Brexit secretary, that set out the goal of durable” co-operation with the EU to protect the City . Essential stories related to this article David Davis must realise Europe will favour itself over economics Friday, 17 November, 2017 Mr Barnier’s speech was one of the most detailed statements on how to date the union sees future developments in trade in financial services with Britain. “They say there would be no changes in market access for UK-established firms. They say joint UK-EU rules would be decided in a new ‘symmetrical process’ between the EU and the UK, and outside of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice,” he said in further allusions to Mr Davis’s speech. “This would contradict the [EU negotiating guidelines].” The comments by Mr Barnier, a former EU commissioner responsible for financial services, come as the City and the UK government coalesce around a model of “mutual equivalence” for financial services after Brexit. This model, which would take effect after a transition period of about two years, would allow for divergence in rulemaking, but within a structure that would preserve regulatory standards so that the flow of trade can continue. But Mr Barnier argued such a goal would be unrealistic, since it would allow Britain to replicate the benefits of the single market while allowing the country to set different rules outside the jurisdiction of European courts. “The legal consequence of Brexit is that UK financial service providers lose their EU passport,” he said, referring to the ability of financial groups to sell products throughout the bloc from a base within the single market. Instead, he suggested the UK would have to rely on the current equivalence rules, in which the bloc deems that third country rules for specific activities are equivalent to EU regulations — a designation the European Commission can withdraw. Mr Barnier added this would be in areas “where EU legislation foresees equivalence”, suggesting there would be no special arrangements to broaden such decisions to cover a broader range of financial services. Mr Davis’s speech last week argued that the EU benefited from the concentration of financial services in London and would pay a cost for fragmentation. But, echoing concerns among officials in France and Germany, Mr Barnier argued there would be a risk to Europe’s financial stability if the continent’s main financial centre was outside the EU’s regulatory orbit. While co-operation would be possible at international level, Mr Barnier said this could never amount to the type of access enjoyed by Britain under the single market. “Let’s not have a short memory!” he said, referring to the financial crisis. “We will not compromise on financial stability — we will never compromise on financial stability — in the EU and in the eurozone.” His assessment came in a speech to the Centre for European Reform that highlighted the hurdles remaining if Britain is to achieve “sufficient progress” in divorce negotiations by a crucial December summit. Mr Barnier stressed it was for Britain to “come forward with proposals” that would ensure there was no hard border on the island of Ireland, including through commitments to avoid regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and the Republic if necessary. Michael Roth, Germany’s minister for state, said the EU27 was still waiting for Britain to “get their skates on”. “We are interested in starting the second phase of negotiations. But right now I see no chance that we can really send a signal at the European Council in December that these negotiations can start”, Mr Roth said in Brussels on Monday. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page '|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/1e80a838-ce19-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6'|'2017-11-20T21:16:00.000+02:00'
'fafea4455215339e0ae69b2c1fa19aadbf2f7d67'|'Analysis: Bumper profits, government pressure to drive Asia''s dividend bonanza'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:59 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Analysis: Bumper profits, government pressure to drive Asia''s dividend bonanza Patturaja Murugaboopathy 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Dividend payouts by Asia’s biggest companies are poised for their biggest increase in six years as profits surge and pressure grows on firms to be more generous with their shareholders. A Chinese yuan currency sign is illustrated inside a bank in Hong Kong March 25, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files Across Asia, dividend payouts in 2017 are expected to grow by 12 percent year-on-year, a Reuters analysis showed, marking the largest increase in payouts since 2011. That corporate generosity, driven to some extent by improving economic growth, is only partly reflected in the share price, analysts say. If, as consensus forecasts show, earnings growth stays strong into next year and 2019, there is plenty of room for Asian stock markets to rally beyond current multi-year highs. “2017 is the year when earnings finally recover after five years of disappointing growth in Asia,” said Frank Benzimra, head of Asia equity strategy at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. “Accordingly, we see dividends rising, in line with earnings growth.” The numbers, compiled from Thomson Reuters earnings data, show technology companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Corp are expecting record profits and higher dividends this year as the launch of new smartphones drives up demand of memory chips and image sensors. Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, which announced its second best quarterly earnings in four years in the June quarter, issued an interim dividend of 1.18 billion ringgit ($281.96 million), translating to a dividend payout ratio of 51.6 percent of first-half profits. The analysis covered 1,571 Asian companies each with a market capitalisation of at least $1 billion across 12 markets for which Thomson Reuters has available data on dividend estimates. Dividends grew between 0.5 percent and 9 percent between 2012 and 2016. Across the region, corporate profits are climbing owing to higher commodity prices, a revival in global demand for consumer products and an improvement in bank profits as loan growth soars even as funding costs stay low. The markets have priced in some expectations of these bumper returns but analysts expect earnings and therefore dividends growth to stay strong even in 2018 and 2019, said Benzimra. “I don’t think this is really priced into the market,” he said. “If we indeed have this kind of earnings growth, that could lift the market.” MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan index has risen about 30 percent this year and is at its highest since 2007. Grace Tam, a senior market strategist at HSBC Global Asset Management based in Hong Kong, said free cash flows are higher among Asian companies and investors might find themselves surprised by future payouts. Thomson Reuters data on the same set of companies showed their total free cash flows for 2017 are estimated at $374 billion- the highest in at least a decade. NOT FULLY IN THE PRICE Asian shares arguably have more room to grow than developed markets such as the United States, based on forward dividend yields, the ratio of estimated dividend payments over the next 12 months to share price. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand have forward dividend yields in excess of 3 percent, much higher than United States’ 1.9 percent. Asia’s average yield stood at 2.4 percent. Yet, Asia’s price-to-earnings ratios are lower, ranging from South Korea’s 9.6 to China’s 13.5, against the global average of 15.4. The ability of Asian companies to pay dividends has never been in doubt, but their desire to sit on large cash piles has traditionally affected shareholder returns. Asia’s dividend payout ratio stood at 34 percent over the last 12 months, less than Europe’s 45 percent and North America’s 43 percent, despite Asian profit growth exceeding the other two regions. Analysts said Asia’s dividend culture is likely to change, as government pressure on companies grows. China, where the securities regulator has vowed to penalise companies that do not pay cash dividends, is seeing rising payouts. Coal miner Shenhua Energy Co proposed a special dividend worth 50 billion yuan ($7.53 billion) earlier this year. Japan introduced the corporate governance act in 2015, aimed at protecting shareholder rights and enriching their returns. Since its inception, more companies have started to comply with it. Japan, as well as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, have introduced stewardship codes aimed at institutional investors agitating for better governance and returns on their investment. South Korea is expected to adopt the stewardship code this year and has strong backing from new President Moon Jae-in. Samsung last month said it would double dividends next year to 9.6 trillion won and keep them at that level until 2020, as it responds to investor pressure to share its vast cash reserves. ($1 = 4.1850 ringgit) Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; with Additional Reporting by Gaurav Dogra in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-markets-dividends/analysis-bumper-profits-government-pressure-to-drive-asias-dividend-bonanza-idINKBN1DK09V'|'2017-11-20T05:59:00.000+02:00'
'65947f6ddc9cbe714bfbdf1d91126b14df898cdc'|'EU''s preference is ambitious trade deal with UK - EU''s Barnier'|'November 20, 2017 / 11:27 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU''s preference is ambitious trade deal with UK - EU''s Barnier Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union wants to negotiate an ambitious trading partnership with Britain after Brexit, but will only do so once divorce issues are settled and on the basis of fair competition, including on tax, food safety and environment standards. “If we manage to negotiate an orderly withdrawal, to fully respect the integrity of the single market and establish a level playing field, there is every reason for our future partnership to be ambitious. This is our preferred option,” Michel Barnier told a conference in Brussels on Monday. “This is why we have started internal preparations with member states to be ready to talk about the future as soon as we have agreed how to settle the past. The EU will be ready to offer its most ambitious FTA (free trade agreement) approach.” Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier/eus-preference-is-ambitious-trade-deal-with-uk-eus-barnier-idUKKBN1DK19J'|'2017-11-20T14:22:00.000+02:00'
'38b0744bcac272527559ab078811222fa8e4e960'|'FINRA fines JPMorgan $1.25 million for failures in employee background checks'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:11 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago FINRA fines JPMorgan $1.25 million for failures in employee background checks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said on Tuesday it fined JPMorgan Chase & Co’s ( JPM.N ) securities division $1.25 million (£945,110) for failing to conduct adequate background checks on 8,600 employees, including four people whose criminal convictions automatically disqualified them from working there. FILE PHOTO: People pass the JP Morgan Chase & Co. Corporate headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Of the four individuals that FINRA found who were subject to “statutory disqualification” because of some criminal history, it said that one worked at JPMorgan for 10 years and another for eight years. Securities rules require banks to seek regulatory approval to employ anyone convicted of certain criminal offenses. The regulator did not disclose the crimes to which the convictions were related. None of the 8,600 were brokers, but all were employees, such as sales associates, subject to monitoring by FINRA, a non-governmental body that regulates the securities industry. FINRA found that the 8,600 people were not screened thoroughly enough or not screened before or shortly after joining the bank. The regulator also found that of that number, around 2,000 were not, as required, fingerprinted within a reasonable time frame. JPMorgan Securities has around 35,000 associated employees total. The inadequate background checks happened between January 2009 and May 2017, FINRA said. “We self-reported this matter and are pleased it’s now behind us,” JPMorgan spokeswoman Jessica Francisco wrote by email. As part of the settlement agreement, JPMorgan did not admit or deny the charges. Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-jpmorgan-finra-fine/finra-fines-jpmorgan-1-25-million-for-failures-in-employee-background-checks-idUKKBN1DL26P'|'2017-11-21T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'1fdf81a2f719b920eea62ba6c92b4cac5600dc30'|'Asia stocks supported by global growth optimism, dollar strong'|'November 21, 2017 / 12:51 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Global stocks rally on growth, earnings outlook; bonds slip Herbert Lash 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major world stock markets rose and government bond yields fell on Tuesday as a combination of strong corporate profits, steady global growth and low inflation provide scant alternatives for investors other than equities. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Stocks markets from Asia to Europe to the Americas rose, while the three top gauges of Wall Street performance hit record intraday highs, lifted by technology and healthcare shares. In Asia, the main Hang Seng index .HSI in Hong Kong and China''s H-shares index .HSCE posted their best day in seven weeks, while stocks in Tokyo .N225 also rose. In Europe, Germany''s benchmark DAX index .GDAXI rose more than 1 percent before paring gains, MSCI''s emerging markets index .MSCIEF rose 1.44 percent and its gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.71 percent. “It’s incredible,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. “Certainly sentiment is pretty strong and it’s widespread, both from the business community and consumers. Any economic concerns are pretty much falling by the wayside,” he said. Corporate earnings and strong economic growth have propelled the stock rally while investors shrug off political risk. Wall Street trading volumes were low in a week marked by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and no major earnings or economic data scheduled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 167.23 points, or 0.71 percent, to 23,597.56. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.46 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,599.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 68.56 points, or 1.01 percent, to 6,859.27. In Europe, Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) was among Germany’s top gainers for a second day, closing up 3.0 percent, after the carmaker raised its mid-term outlook on Monday. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 closed up 0.45 percent. Chipmaker Analog Devices Inc’s ( ADI.O ) quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates on growth in its industrial segment and automotive business, which has seen sharp demand for sensor chips from electric and self-driving vehicles. Goldman Sachs raised its earnings estimate for S&P 500 in 2018 and 2019 based on expectations of U.S. corporate tax reform, above-trend global and U.S. growth and slowly rising interest rates from a low base. Investors are not worried about an unwelcome surprise acceleration of U.S. inflation that could rock a Goldilocks scenario where growth supports earnings and central banks are unlikely to act in a heavy-handed fashion, said Larry Hatheway, chief economist at GAM Investment Management in Zurich. “There isn’t right now in an investor’s mind a compelling alternative to holding stocks,” Hatheway said. “We’ve generally seen stable-to-lower bond yields, so underneath it there does seem to be a very strong faith fundamentally that growth is fine, therefore earnings are fine but inflation is not a risk,” he said. The gap between French and German borrowing costs narrowed to its tightest since before the 2010-2012 euro zone debt crisis, as confidence in the bloc’s economic prospects swelled. The spread on 10-year French and German debt FR10YT=TWEB DE10YT=TWEB tightened to 15 basis points, a level last seen in August 2009, well before several sovereign debt crises rocked the single currency bloc and global markets. In the United States the Treasury yield curve flattened to its lowest in a decade as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting, to be released on Wednesday. Low inflation and global demand for yield has supported longer-dated debt. Benchmark 10-year notes US10T=RR were last up 2/32 in price to yield 2.3613 percent. The dollar turned broadly lower, moving in line with declining U.S. 10-year Treasury yields. The dollar index .DXY fell 0.14 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.09 percent to $1.1742. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.19 percent versus the greenback at 112.44 per dollar JPY= . Oil rose, supported by expectations of an extension next week of output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, but prices remained under pressure from signs of higher output in the United States. Brent crude oil LCOc1 rose 35 cents to settle at $62.57 a barrel. U.S. light crude CLc1 added 41 cents to settle at $56.83. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for December delivery settled up $6.40 at $1,281.70 per ounce. Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-stocks-supported-by-global-growth-optimism-dollar-strong-idUKKBN1DL03E'|'2017-11-21T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'45c774872e4bb8fd04560599c3abfdfd6a4ca1a8'|'Honda China JVs to recall 254,650 vehicles starting in January'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:50 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Honda China JVs to recall 254,650 vehicles starting in January Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co’s joint-venture companies in China will recall a total of 254,650 Honda-brand vehicles starting on Jan. 8, 2018, the Japanese automaker said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - The logos of Honda Motor Co. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The recall is to repair faulty rear-view mirrors on the doors of Honda car models sold in China, including the Elysion and the Spirior, produced between 2013 and earlier this year, the company said. No accidents have been reported, Honda said. Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-autos-honda/honda-china-jvs-to-recall-254650-vehicles-starting-in-january-idUKKBN1DL0CY'|'2017-11-21T07:49:00.000+02:00'
'e4915a7ac65a8fdfc40237de48d95b2a88ce1634'|'AmerisourceBergen to buy drug wholesaler H.D. Smith for $815 mln'|'(Reuters) - AmerisourceBergen Corp ( ABC.N ) said on Monday it would buy privately held U.S. drug wholesaler H. D. Smith for $815 million in cash.AmerisourceBergen, which plans to fund the deal through long-term debt issuance, expects the transaction to slightly add to its adjusted earnings per share in the current fiscal year.The drug distributor now expects revenue growth to be in the range of 8 percent to 11 percent in fiscal 2018, compared with its previous forecast of 7 percent to 9 percent.The company expects the deal to close by early 2018.Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-h-d-smith-m-a-amerisourcebergn/amerisourcebergen-to-buy-drug-wholesaler-h-d-smith-for-815-mln-idINKBN1DK2MY'|'2017-11-20T19:46:00.000+02:00'
'549c4445e481f8fe0e89556f6aa1bb44d343d48c'|'Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:16 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity Clare Jim 5 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese developers such as China Vanke ( 2202.HK ) and Country Garden ( 2007.HK ) are increasingly turning to the securitization market as an alternative fund-raising channel as the onshore bond market remains mostly inaccessible. FILE PHOTO: Sign of Vanke is seen at a gate of a construction site in Shanghai, China, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Property companies are in particular stepping up the securitization of receivables from property sales, providing them with funds to develop other projects. The securities took off when Chinese regulators made it harder for developers to sell onshore corporate bonds late last year in a bid to help cool an overheating real estate market. The issuing of such products more than tripled in the first seven months of this year from a year ago, according to data by China Securities Research. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment. More than 11 Chinese developers have issued or announced plans this year to issue securities backed by sales receivables, including China Vanke 2.SZ, Greentown China ( 3900.HK ), and the state-owned Beijing Capital Land ( 2868.HK ), up from around six last year. Developers typically record revenue in their books 12-24 months after contracted sales, when they actually transfer the property ownership to the buyers and pocket the proceeds. The asset-backed securities allow them to cash in on those receivables early. “Chinese policies often change. If you rely on a simple channel, once policy changes, it will affect our cashflow so we have to explore other channels,” said an official of Greentown, which issued 1.6 billion yuan worth of the securities this month, referring to the crackdown on debt. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Beijing Capital said that the securities provided a cheaper financing option for the company. Vanke said it considered the securities to be low cost and low risk. Rates of the securities issued in the last two years were around 5 to 7 percent, slightly higher than onshore corporate bonds. The securities usually have short maturities of 2 to 4 years, and range in size from 1 to 5 billion yuan. The securities are listed in stock exchanges and traded among banks and institutional investors. Joe Zhou, head of research at JLL East China, said securitization by developers reflected strong property sales and China’s macroeconomic environment, as well as official pressure to reduce debt. “Many developers have the incentive to lower leverage,” he said. FILE PHOTO: A new residential quarter of the Country Garden is seen in Shanghai, China, February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo As China pushes to reduce excessive debt in the economy, the country’s fledgling securitization markets have seen a surge of activity, with cash-starved banks, local governments and private companies converting assets into cash. Most developers consolidate asset-backed securities on their balance sheets as debt, because the mortgage receivables are used as collateral. However, the securities are still seen by ratings agencies as meaningful deleveraging. “From a rating agency’s perspective, we do not only look at whether the balance sheet is shrunk, but whether the payment obligation also decreases,” said Aaron Lei, senior director of structured finance ratings at S&P. “ABS payment obligations will not recourse back to the initial originator, which means the interest payment comes from the spinned-off assets, and not from the issuer,” he said, referring to asset-backed securities. Analysts say that, for the moment, the risks involved with the securities are low, given their relatively high quality and low total issuance. Of China’s trillion yuan ($147.1 billion) overall asset-backed securities market, property companies issued around 40 billion yuan of products in 2016. More than 70 percent of the issuance was backed by receivables from property sales, according to China Securities Research. The confidence also lies in government regulations to keep downpayment requirements at about 30 percent, and even higher for first-home purchases. “Traditionally, China’s mortgage risk is low,” said S&P’s Lei, because borrowers were personal liable for their debts. That “makes home buyers less inclined for a mortgage to default because they still bear the liability after they default,” he said. However, in the case of a downturn in the property market, mortgage default risks could increase, analysts said. And as the asset-backed securities market grows quickly, some lower-quality issuers could join the market. “Now that regulation is strict, defaults won’t happen,” said JLL’s Zhou, citing the high quality of assets and products in general. “But in the future, if some assets are problematic and issuers still package them for financing, then defaults could happen.” Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-property-securitisation/chinese-developers-turn-to-mortgage-balance-abs-for-liquidity-idUKKBN1DL0FG'|'2017-11-21T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'5ed57f710de785d09379657be2d284fe25b40f15'|'Fluor''s work on Puerto Rico power project halted over safety issue'|'(Reuters) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday it temporarily halted Fluor Corp’s work under its Puerto Rico power restoration contract over safety concerns and expects the work to resume on Tuesday.The work was halted after Fluor workers discovered previously installed grounding wires had been removed, a spokesman for the Army Corps said in an email. Fluor brought the information to the Army Corps and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the spokesman wrote.The issues “have been addressed” and Fluor can restart work on Tuesday, the spokesman added.Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-power-fluor/fluors-work-on-puerto-rico-power-project-halted-over-safety-issue-idUSKBN1DK2PO'|'2017-11-21T01:49:00.000+02:00'
'f5fd98490142a1a738b0af0ad722105b7ee8c0c4'|'Insurer Sompo unit to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg'|' 10 PM / in 7 minutes Insurer Sompo unit to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sompo International Holdings, a Bermuda-based unit of Japanese insurer Sompo ( 8630.T ), is to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The new entity, SI Insurance (Europe), will offer insurance and reinsurance, Sompo said in a statement late on Monday. “SI has been formulating a strategy to address issues relating to (Britain‘s) decision to leave the European Union, in particular the potential loss of EU passporting rights,” the firm said, adding that regulatory approval for the Luxembourg firm was expected in the second quarter of 2018. Luxembourg and Dublin have been the most successful European cities in the race to attract insurers worried about the loss of access to Britain’s single market as a result of Brexit. Other insurers choosing Luxembourg for their EU hubs include AIG ( AIG.N ) and Tokio Marine ( 8766.T ). Ship insurers North Club and Standard Club said this week they were choosing Dublin for their subsidiaries. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-sompo/insurer-sompo-unit-to-set-up-eu-subsidiary-in-luxembourg-idUKKBN1DL1SR'|'2017-11-21T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'00696105b25f50f335ab75fa0b6804435964c6f3'|'U.S. consumer agency hits Citi with $6.5 mln in fines over education lending'|' 38 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago U.S. consumer agency hits Citi with $6.5 million in fines over education lending Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON   Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday it had ordered Citibank to pay $6.5 million for alleged student loan servicing failures it said had harmed borrowers. FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the Citibank corporate headquarters in New York, New York, U.S. May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo The agency said it ordered Citibank to end the illegal loan practices and pay $3.75 million in redress to consumers and a $2.75 million civil penalty. Reporting by Tim AhmannEditing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-citigroup-education/u-s-consumer-agency-hits-citi-with-6-5-million-in-fines-over-education-lending-idUSKBN1DL2MM'|'2017-11-21T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'a7327f8925b3c2d1b1987e91436401d680a3fbf9'|'Top Glencore executive quits Katanga board after accounting lapse'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:56 AM / Updated an hour ago Top Glencore executive quits Katanga board after accounting lapse Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Three Glencore Plc ( GLEN.L ) executives, including the head of its copper group, have stepped down from the board of subsidiary Katanga Mining Ltd ( KAT.TO ) after an internal review identified weaknesses in its financial reporting controls, Katanga said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Katanga, which operates cobalt and copper mines in Democratic Republic of Congo, said Aristotelis Mistakidis, Liam Gallagher and Tim Henderson had tendered their resignations, effective immediately. As head of the copper group, one of six groups in Glencore’s metals and minerals unit, Mistakidis is one of Glencore’s most senior executives. Katanga the three men had cooperated fully with the review. They will be replaced by three other Glencore executives, including Chief Financial Officer Steven Kalmin. Glencore owns 86 percent of Katanga. Katanga’s shares, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, fell as much as 8 percent in early trade but by midday had recovered to trade flat at C$1.26. Glencore’s shares fell more than a percent in early trade in London, but recovered later to trade 1.6 percent higher. A statement from Katanga said the review found it had over-stated copper production by 6,650 tonnes, which was provisionally invoiced to Glencore for $41.9 million. Glencore’s statement said there was no material impact on its consolidated income or cash flow, but it would be taking steps to strengthen procedures and ensure “the weaknesses identified in the review are addressed and do not re-occur”. Katanga had said in August it would restate some past financial statements to correct inaccuracies in its recorded copper production during 2014 and 2015. Katanga has previously disclosed that it is being investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). The commission is reviewing whether the company’s previously filed financial statements “contain statements that are misleading in a material respect”. The OSC is also investigating whether Katanga’s corporate governance practices are adequate and the “related conduct” of certain unnamed company directors and officers, Katanga said. Scrutiny has increased on Democratic Republic of Congo following a series of investigations by non-governmental organisations and the release of the Paradise Papers - a trove of documents about offshore investments, which named Glencore. Glencore has denied any wrong-doing. The country’s importance has at the same time increased because it is home to almost 60 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt, a mineral expected to be in strong demand for batteries for electric vehicles. In addition to Kalmin, the new appointments to Katanga’s board are Mike Ciricillo, responsible for Glencore’s copper smelting and refining, and Tony Moser from Glencore’s finance department. Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru, Barbara Lewis in London and Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Jason Neely, Edmund Blair and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-katanga-mng/glencore-appoints-cfo-to-katangas-board-after-review-idUKKBN1DK0PK'|'2017-11-20T19:42:00.000+02:00'
'7681bdedeb9bcb8fb1fb8b27cb7291b334fa4c35'|'AT&T lawyer calls DoJ move to block Time Warner deal foolish - CNBC'|'Nov 21 (Reuters) - The United States Justice Department’s argument to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc was “foolish” as the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday.The Justice Department on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the telecom carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.”"We want to go to court as soon as possible," Petrocelli told CNBC, adding the burden of proof is on the government. cnb.cx/2AjiOVw (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att/att-lawyer-calls-doj-move-to-block-time-warner-deal-foolish-cnbc-idINL3N1NR4EZ'|'2017-11-21T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'59b022fe484c66d2174a57d4cc0752d41e68a242'|'Big spending building materials maker CRH on lookout for more deals'|'DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s CRH ( CRH.I ), the world’s third-largest building materials group by market capitalization, said on Tuesday it has capacity on its balance sheet for more deals, after a spending spree this year.It said it is refocusing on North America and announced it had spent $750 million on cement acquisitions in Florida, making it the largest building materials company in the state.CRH recently secured a deal to buy U.S. cement maker Ash Grove Cement Co ( ASHG.PK ) for $3.5 billion to strengthen its grip in North America, and last week it joined the race for South African cement maker PPC ( PPCJ.J ).The group, which is part funding some of the deals through the sale of its U.S. distribution business for $2.6 billion in cash, also said that it spent 1.34 billion euros ($1.6 billion) on 27 smaller acquisitions in the first nine months of the year.“Our net debt to EBITDA position should be at the 2-times range, well below our long-run average of 2.2 and still leaves us in a position where we have capacity on the balance sheet where we can do deals as they present themselves,” CRH finance director Senan Murphy told an analyst call.Chief Executive Albert Manifold said the recent deals were a “very deliberate attempt” to refocus the group on North America - where it is the biggest maker of concrete products - and in particular faster-growing states like Texas and Florida.He said he would not expect any very significant deals in new markets and the group would not overinvest in developing economies.“We believe, for the moment, that the future of our business is based mainly around the Americas and Europe,” Manifold said.CRH said its EBITDA rose 2 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of the year on an identical rise in sales in Europe and the United States, where some operations were affected by adverse weather and hurricane activity.It expects full year EBITDA in excess of 3.2 billion euros, up from 3.13 billion in the prior year.($1 = 0.8534 euros)Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-crh-m-a/big-spending-building-materials-maker-crh-on-lookout-for-more-deals-idINKBN1DL10C'|'2017-11-21T07:21:00.000+02:00'
'ab765cdf27fac9f8bd3ce94cad7e00f70ff5fe1b'|'AmerisourceBergen to buy drug wholesaler H.D. Smith for $815 mln'|'(Reuters) - AmerisourceBergen Corp ( ABC.N ) said on Monday it would buy privately held U.S. drug wholesaler H. D. Smith for $815 million in cash.AmerisourceBergen, which plans to fund the deal through long-term debt issuance, expects the transaction to slightly add to its adjusted earnings per share in the current fiscal year.The drug distributor now expects revenue growth to be in the range of 8 percent to 11 percent in fiscal 2018, compared with its previous forecast of 7 percent to 9 percent.The company expects the deal to close by early 2018.Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h-d-smith-m-a-amerisourcebergn/amerisourcebergen-to-buy-drug-wholesaler-h-d-smith-for-815-mln-idUSKBN1DK2MY'|'2017-11-21T00:38:00.000+02:00'
'17fae0b34275bff2a144c62cfebfb02866e48ba8'|'Oil prices steady as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC cuts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:55 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Oil prices steady as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC cuts Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as the impact from expectations of an extended OPEC-led production cut was cancelled out by rising output in the United States. A gas pump is seen hanging from the ceiling at a petrol station in Seoul June 27, 2011. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.20 per barrel at 0301 GMT, 8 cents above their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.50 a barrel, also up 8 cent from their last settlement. Traders said they were avoiding taking on large new positions due to uncertainty in markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia, has been restraining output since the start of this year in a bid to end a global supply overhang and buoy prices. The deal to curb output is due to expire in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss the outlook for the policy. OPEC is expected to agree to extend cuts as storage levels remain high despite recent drawdowns, although there are doubts about the willingness of some participants to continue to restrict their production. “If the OPEC/non-OPEC cuts continue, the stocks surplus will reduce to just some 50 million barrels above the 5-year average in 3Q 2018 (down from 140 million barrels above that average now) and prices will hit $65-70 per barrel,” energy consultancy FGE said on Tuesday. Outside the group of producers voluntarily withholding output, the biggest headaches for OPEC has been rising U.S. drilling activity, led by shale oil producers. Energy consultancy Westwood Global Energy Group said U.S. output would climb even faster than implied by the rising rig count, which has jumped from 316 rigs in mid-2016 to 738 last week, as producers get more productive per well. “Westwood Global Energy forecasts an 18 percent increase in active rigs in 2018, but more rapid demand growth in certain service areas as operators focus on efficiency and delivering more for less,” the consultancy said. For 2018, FGE warned potential supply disruptions during an already tighter market could trigger oil price spikes, but it added that the market could slump again towards 2019 as U.S. output continues to soar and OPEC and its allies at some point will stop withholding output. “We see another big rush with (U.S.) production growth of some 1-1.5 million bpd in 2018 and 2019,” FGE said. It added that OPEC also “has some 1.5 million bpd of spare capacity (while) Russia and Kazakhstan could also add another 500,000 bpd”. Additional reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-steady-as-rising-u-s-output-undermines-opec-cuts-idUKKBN1DL062'|'2017-11-21T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'c6420f143e40f40032079954605533af8ffcee2c'|'Technical problems delay flights at Amsterdam Schiphol airport'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:47 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Technical problems delay flights at Amsterdam Schiphol airport Reuters Staff 1 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Technical problems at Amsterdam Schiphol airport delayed dozens of flights to one of Europe’s busiest airports on Tuesday, the national air traffic controller said. FILE PHOTO - Aerial view of Schiphol airport near Amsterdam April 9, 2014. REUTERS/Yves Herman A spokeswoman of the Air Traffic Control could not give details of the problems or say how long it would take to resolve them. Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-netherlands-airport/technical-problems-delay-flights-at-amsterdam-schiphol-airport-idUKKBN1DL190'|'2017-11-21T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'42dc1097a1bc3f3ba4feda9de7c60e76c3b18b9f'|'BRIEF-Maersk Drilling enters into alliance agreement with Aker BP'|' 23 AM / in an hour BRIEF-Maersk Drilling enters into alliance agreement with Aker BP Reuters Staff * MAERSK DRILLING HAS ENTERED INTO A JACK-UP ALLIANCE AGREEMENT WITH AKER BP * THE ALLIANCE IS FOUNDED ON A TRIPARTITE COLLABORATION MODEL THAT ALSO INCLUDES SERVICE PROVIDER HALLIBURTON * THE ALLIANCE AIMS AT LOWERING THE COST PER BARREL FOR AKER BP AND INCREASING PROFITABILITY FOR THE ALLIANCE PARTNERS. * THE FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT IS FIVE YEARS FIRM WITH THE OPTION TO EXTEND FOR A FURTHER FIVE YEARS FURTHER COMPANY COVERAGE: (Copenhagen newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-maersk-drilling-enters-into-allian/brief-maersk-drilling-enters-into-alliance-agreement-with-aker-bp-idUSC7N1L901F'|'2017-11-21T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'f6c376b35bc0022eed99e91839c0697c2c85ec7e'|'Lebanon: Banking & Finance'|'Close Lebanon: Banking & Finance Political tensions raise the stakes for Lebanon’s banking sector, which is fundamental to the country’s economic stability Riad Salamé explains how the country’s economy can survive the latest political crisis Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 Banking system relies on remittances sent back by the diaspora Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 Lenders’ continuing ability to attract deposits has been the cornerstone of financial and social stability in the country Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 Policymakers hope the industry can help reverse the country’s brain drain Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 But the legacy of Lebanon’s own civil war may thwart participation Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 Buyers had already expected prices to drop, before the latest political instability Tuesday, 21 November, 2017 People are becoming more confident taking out personal loans Tuesday, 21 November, 2017'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/308174b2-cdb1-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6'|'2017-11-21T05:01:00.000+02:00'
'f87ef5bdf8e7c80bcfaa9ca460fedbc5964f1fa2'|'Exclusive - U.S. agency to vote to repeal ''net neutrality'' rules: FCC chief'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:21 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive: U.S. agency to vote to repeal ''net neutrality'' rules - FCC chief David Shepardson 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday unveiled plans to repeal a landmark 2015 order that barred internet service providers from blocking or slowing down consumer access to web content, and said the regulator will prevent states and cities from adopting similar protections. Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, testifies before a Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein FCC chief Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump in January, said the commission will vote at a Dec. 14 meeting on rescinding the so-called net neutrality rules championed by Democratic former President Barack Obama that treated internet service providers like public utilities. With three Republican and two Democratic commissioners, the move is all but certain to be approved. Trump, a Republican, expressed his opposition to net neutrality in 2014 before the regulations were even implemented, calling it a “power grab” by Obama. “The FCC will no longer be in the business of micromanaging business models and preemptively prohibiting services and applications and products that could be pro-competitive,” Pai said in an interview, adding that the Obama administration had sought to pick winners and losers and exercised “heavy-handed” regulation of the internet. “We should simply set rules of the road that let companies of all kinds in every sector compete and let consumers decide who wins and loses,” Pai added. The net neutrality rules, aimed at giving consumers equal access to web content, also forbade broadband providers from charging consumers more for certain content, a practice called “paid prioritization.” Pai said state and local governments “need to be preempted” from imposing their own net neutrality rules because broadband internet service is “inherently an interstate service.” The preemption is most likely to handcuff Democratic-governed states and localities that could have considered their own plans to protect consumers’ equal access to internet content. The FCC’s planned action represents a victory for internet service providers including AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc, which had urged the FCC to revoke the rules. The companies have said that repealing the could lead to billions of dollars in additional broadband investment and eliminate the possibility that a future presidential administration could regulate internet pricing. In July, a group representing major technology firms including Google parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc had urged Pai to drop plans to rescind the rules. At the December meeting, the FCC will vote on Pai’s proposal to require internet service providers to disclose whether they allow blocking or slowing down of consumer web access or permit so-called internet fast lanes to facilitate paid prioritization. Such disclosure will make it easier for another agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to act against internet service providers that fail to disclose such conduct to consumers, Pai said. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) logo is seen before the FCC Net Neutrality hearing in Washington February 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas The FCC under Obama regulated internet service providers like public utilities under a section of federal law that gave the agency sweeping oversight over the conduct of these companies. A federal appeals court last year upheld the legality of the net neutrality regulations, which were challenged in a lawsuit led by a telecommunications industry trade association. ‘GONE FOR GOOD’ The FCC’s repeal is certain to draw a legal challenge from advocates of net neutrality. Many Democrats and some internet firms argue that without the rules, internet providers will threaten the openness of the internet. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter, “The internet is the public square of the 21st century. Unless we all speak out against the @FCC’s efforts to gut #netneutrality, the free and open internet we know today could be gone for good.” The planned repeal represents the latest example of a legacy achievement of Obama being erased since Trump, a businessman-turned-politician, took office in January. Trump has abandoned international trade deals, the landmark Paris climate accord and environmental protections, taken aim at the Iran nuclear accord and closer relations with Cuba, and sought repeal Obama’s signature healthcare law. The new order will reclassify internet providers as “information services” rather than a “telecommunication service,” which means the FCC has significantly less authority to oversee the web. The FCC granted initial approval to Pai’s plan in May, but had left open many key questions including whether to retain any legal requirements limiting internet providers conduct. Pai, who has moved quickly to undo numerous regulatory actions since taking over as chairman, is mounting a broad deregulatory agenda and has pledged to take a “weed whacker” to unneeded regulations. Pai said he had not shared his plans on the rollback with the White House in advance or been directed to undo the order by White House officials. Pai said the FCC is adopting a “market-based deregulatory approach.” The FCC also will vote to eliminate the “internet conduct standard,” which gives the FCC far-reaching discretion to prohibit any internet service provider practice that it believes violates a long list of factors and sought to address future discriminatory conduct. Pai said his goal is to use a “light-touch market-based” regulatory approach, arguing the internet operated well before the rules were adopted in 2015. The internet “is the greatest free market innovation in history,” Pai said, adding that government regulations could hinder that. Reporting by David Shepardson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-agency-to-vote-to-repeal-net-neutrality-rules-fcc-chief-idUKKBN1DL21A'|'2017-11-21T18:18:00.000+02:00'
'9b91cd074d6e4fe52bffe0a352332852a25b9a1f'|'U.S. sues to block AT&T purchase of Time Warner - source'|'November 20, 2017 / 8:45 PM / a minute ago U.S. sues to block AT&T purchase of Time Warner: source Diane Bartz , David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice will sue AT&T Inc ( T.N ) later on Monday to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The legal challenge was expected after AT&T rejected a demand by the Justice Department earlier this month to divest its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting - which contains news network CNN - in order to win antitrust approval. AT&T’s chief executive said then that he would defend the deal in court to win approval, and the company criticized the Justice Department’s case on Monday. The lawsuit is ”a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent,” said AT&T lawyer David McAtee, arguing that so-called vertical mergers, between companies that are not direct competitors, are routinely approved. ”We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently,” he said, adding that AT&T is confident a judge will reject the Justice Department’s case. Time Warner’s shares dropped 1.1 percent to close at $87.71, while AT&T shares closed up 0.4 percent at $34.64. The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier struck a deal in October 2016 to buy Time Warner, which also owns the premium channel HBO and movie studio Warner Bros, so it can bundle video entertainment on its mobile service. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo AT&T says that would help it compete with emerging technology companies such as Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ), Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Prime Video and other competitors. The deal instantly became a political lightning rod. Donald Trump, a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN, attacked the merger on the campaign trail last year, vowing that as president his Justice Department would block it. A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above   Exchange, shortly after the opening bell   15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The deal is also opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers. Reuters reported earlier this month that the Justice Department believed the merger would raise costs for rival entertainment distributors and stifle innovation and could allow AT&T to withhold key content from HBO, CNN or other of its channels from competitors. Last week, the Justice Department had approached 18 state attorneys general asking them to join the challenge of the deal, but as of Monday none had publicly agreed to do so, Reuters reported. During his campaign, Trump said that reporters had covered him unfairly and has continued to attack CNN as president, which he has labeled as “fake news.” He has not commented on the AT&T deal since his inauguration in January. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined to say last week if anyone from the White House had discussed the merger with any Justice Department officials. Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-to-sue-to-stop-att-from-buying-time-warner-source-idUKKBN1DK2HN'|'2017-11-20T23:40:00.000+02:00'
'a78ebf6ed12d5e6f7464111a0fffca1a6420d166'|'IBM could be set for gains after long slump - Barron''s'|'November 19, 2017 / 9:32 PM / Updated 2 hours ago IBM could be set for gains after long slump - Barron''s Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp ( IBM.N ) could be the next blue-chip company with a rising valuation, according to a report in financial publication Barron‘s. FILE PHOTO - The logo for IBM is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Some analysts expect IBM to return to growth this quarter, Barron’s said in its Nov. 20 edition. IBM reported higher quarterly revenue from social, mobile, analytics, cloud and security technology last month, and a long decline in gross profit has slowed already, Barron’s said. Shares are trading at about 11 times this year''s earnings forecast, well below that of the S&P 500 .SPX , Barron''s said. Investors could get their first clear sign that IBM is turning the corner in January, when the company will probably give its 2018 outlook, the publication said. Even with just some upbeat news, investors could make 30 percent or more over the next year, Barron’s said. IBM’s shares shot up 8.9 percent on Oct. 18, the day after the company reported quarterly results, but have since given back most of those gains. The stock closed on Friday at $148.97 and is down 10.3 percent for the year to date. Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ibm-barrons/ibm-could-be-set-for-gains-after-long-slump-barrons-idUKKBN1DJ0U6'|'2017-11-19T23:32:00.000+02:00'
'944051e897b7e5ad792363280b30def7987d0b36'|'Standard Chartered targets 5-7 percent growth in investment bank'|'November 21, 2017 / 10:30 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago StanChart targets 5-7 percent growth in investment bank Lawrence White , Emma Rumney 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) is aiming to boost revenue growth at its investment bank by a compound annual rate of 5 to 7 percent in the medium term, the head of that business said on Tuesday, while trying to keep risk down and avoid past mistakes. FILE PHOTO: People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo The Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank will boost income after two years of restructuring, Simon Cooper, chief executive of corporate and institutional banking at StanChart told investors at a conference. He said this would come from cross-selling to more clients in those markets, as well as by taking advantage of intra-regional trade initiatives. Investors are hoping StanChart can return to revenue growth again after a two-year restructuring under chief executive and former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters who has cut more than 15,000 jobs and axed business lines such as Asian equities. Winters hired Cooper from rival HSBC ( HSBA.L ) in April 2016 to improve performance at StanChart’s corporate and institutional banking division, which provides finance, transaction services and other products to companies and financial firms. The division makes up 45 percent of group revenues. Cooper told Reuters the investment bank had a number of ways to keep risk within desired parameters, including broadening the factors advisers take into account when considering whether to grant loans and in terms of oversight of overall risks in its loan book. “It’s a different mindset,” he said. After coming through the financial crisis relatively unscathed, StanChart ran into trouble when global commodity prices crashed and bad debts started to rise on its books. One $1 billion (£755.6 million) loan to Indonesian mining tycoon Samin Tan’s coal firm, Borneo Lumbung Energi & Metal Tbk - the single largest underwritten loan by any bank in Asia in 2011 - was characteristic of the bank’s heavy lending to individual borrowers. Cooper said the bank had cut $1.6 billion worth of annual revenue by removing sub-scale and unprofitable businesses, and that the focus is now on restoring growth. He also said the bank was likely to steer clear of equities - a business line it largely closed in 2015. “Never say never, but I can’t foresee a time that we would go back in,” he said. “That’s not to say we’re not going to look at structured equities within financial markets, but that’s a very different business.” Some analysts remain sceptical that the bank can increase profits in the long term at the same level as in the past. In a note, brokerage firm KBW said the market’s doubts were likely to persist until there were signs the anticipated revenue growth were appearing at a group level. KBW has a “market perform” rating on Standard Chartered. StanChart shares fell 5 percent on Nov.1 after it reported higher expenses and flat revenue for the third quarter. The shares were down 0.7 percent on Tuesday after its presentation to investors, underperforming a flat STOXX European banks index .SX7P, but recovered slightly later in the day and were down 0.16 percent at 1710 GMT. Editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stanchart-strategy/standard-chartered-targets-5-7-percent-growth-in-investment-bank-idUKKBN1DL11T'|'2017-11-21T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'58305de9d999ae69e72b3a0dc546bc7ed6c0e2d5'|'BHP, Vale get extension to settle $48 billion Samarco claim'|'Reuters TV United States November 20, 2017 / 11:30 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago BHP, Vale get extension to settle $48 billion Samarco claim Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd ( BHP.AX ) and Vale SA ( VALE5.SA ) have secured a 150-day extension from a Brazilian court to negotiate a settlement of a $48 billion claim stemming from the Samarco mine disaster in 2015, BHP said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A cupboard is pictured in debris in Bento Rodrigues district, which was covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, in Mariana, Brazil, November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes/File Photo The settlement date, which had been set for Nov. 16, has been extended to April 20, 2018. Nineteen people died and nearby towns were inundated with flood waters after a dam designed to hold back mine waste burst on Nov. 5, 2015, causing Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster. BHP and Vale also entered into an amendment agreement that brings the Brazilian prosecutors into the preliminary agreement regarding the settlement of the mine disaster claims, BHP said. The amendment agreement is subject to approval by the Brazilian court, BHP added. BHP shares rose 0.2 percent in early trade, in line with the benchmark index . Reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bhp-billiton-ltd-samarco/bhp-vale-get-extension-to-settle-48-billion-samarco-claim-idUKKBN1DK2OM'|'2017-11-21T01:58:00.000+02:00'
'3570563090766a587ed63fc26a086df4fe0db8f3'|'Bank of England rate-setters air differences over rate hike'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:04 AM / Updated an hour ago Bank of England rate-setters air differences over rate hike Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England rate-setters spelled out their differences on Tuesday over the central bank’s first rate hike in a decade, as they focussed on the challenge of deciding when low unemployment was about to push up inflation. The Bank of England is seen through the columns of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Four of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members spoke to MPs, nearly three weeks after the MPC voted 7-2 to raise rates to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent. Many economists outside the BoE thought the decision was premature, given Britain’s still weak pay growth and uncertainties about Brexit which are weighing on the economy. Gertjan Vlieghe, an external MPC member, said he switched his vote to support the rate because of signs that employers were finding it harder to recruit staff and that employees were more confident about changing jobs for higher pay. He also said measures of underemployment were falling. “It is early days, but I do think there is some evidence that this process ... has now begun,” Vlieghe said. “If you wait until all the signs are lined up to support the decision then you will almost always be too late.” Another MPC member who voted for the rate hike, Michael Saunders, said he thought the unemployment rate could fall only a little bit further before it started to push up inflation. “I consider it quite possible that the equilibrium jobless rate is slightly below our 4.5 percent estimate, but probably only slightly,” Saunders said. Jon Cunliffe, a BoE deputy governor who was one of the two MPC members who voted against a rate hike, said he shared the “overall framework” of the MPC’s views on the economy but said members had different tolerances for above-target inflation. He pointed to low domestic inflation pressures, the absence of signs that the weak pound was feeding through into wage growth - so-called second round effects - and inflation expectations around their historical averages. “(These) make it possible to wait before tightening policy until there is clear evidence that pay growth is responding to the level of unemployment in line with our forecast,” Cunliffe said. Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/bank-of-england-rate-setters-air-differences-over-rate-hike-idUKKBN1DL152'|'2017-11-21T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'cc606e212ef0a17e7ece761c8fb4c22482ceafe8'|'French shoppers to spend more online this Xmas compared to 2016'|' 03 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago French shoppers to spend more online this Xmas compared to 2016   PARIS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - French shoppers plan on average to spend more on online sales this Christmas compared to a year ago, the country’s Commerce Federation (Fevad) said on Tuesday, marking the latest sign of a gradual improvement in the economy. The French economy expanded at its fastest pace since 2011 in the third quarter, boosted by an acceleration in consumer spending. Shoppers are expected to spend an average of 203 euros ($239) per person online for Christmas presents, up 4 percent from a year ago, the Fevad body said in a statement. Online Christmas retail sales are expected to reach 15.8 billion euros, a year-on-year rise of 13 percent, as more people in France turn to the Internet for their shopping habits. This would lift total online retail sales in France to more than 80 billion euros in full-year 2017, giving a year-on-year rise of around 14 percent. France is ranked as the fifth biggest E-commerce market worldwide. In 2016, E-commerce represented 8 percent of French retail sales. $1 = 0.8508 euros Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/france-retail-internet/french-shoppers-to-spend-more-online-this-xmas-compared-to-2016-idUSL8N1NQ5A6'|'2017-11-21T11:00:00.000+02:00'
'c4673f27c2e5c8f338170b76ac0f982af70dcb34'|'Exclusive: Philippines'' PT&T seeks Chinese help to build telecoms business'|'MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp ( PTT.PS ) will partner with Chinese companies to challenge the nation’s two dominant telecoms groups, its chairman said on Tuesday, a move which could be a game changer in the local market.For sale sim cards are laid out at a loading station for call and text message credits for local telecommunications companies at a store along a sidewalk in Metro Manila, Philippines November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Salvador Zamora said PT&T is talking to eight companies about forming strategic partnerships and it is set to sign a deal with one before the end of the year as part of plans to turn a niche player into a domestic force.Zamora bought into the little-known, debt-ridden firm for just 264.9 million pesos ($5.2 million) in August to get a share of a $5.3 billion telecoms sector which for years have been dominated by PLDT ( TEL.PS ) and Globe ( GLO.PS ).“We will not just be content to be the third telco. We want to be second, and then perhaps even first, if we are able to satisfy our customers,” Zamora told Reuters in an interview.Zamora’s confirmation of PT&T&rsquo;s engagement with Chinese firms comes after President Rodrigo Duterte offered China the “privilege” of being his country’s third telecoms operator, following through on a threat he made last year to Globe and PLDT to shape up, or face competition.Zamora, whose business interests include mining, real estate and energy, described Duterte’s move as a “Godsend”, adding that Chinese companies could not operate alone in the Philippines and would need to partner with a local firm.The constitution’s 40 percent cap on foreign ownership of domestic telecoms companies has kept interest from multinational firms at bay in the market of over 100 million people.PT&T is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange and provides broadband services to a thousand customers in Manila and adjacent provinces. Trade in its shares was voluntarily suspended back in 2004, but Zamora said the firm was working towards resuming dealings.ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT PT&T is looking for strategic partners to expand its broadband and launch cellphone operations in the next few years, which would end a Philippine duopoly that critics say has stifled competition and resulted in poor quality services and patchy voice and data.Last year, PLDT and Globe joined forces to buy a prized mobile spectrum for $1.5 billion from a potential rival, San Miguel Corp, strengthening their grip on the local telecoms market.An advertisment at a loading station for call and text message credits for local telecommunications companies hangs at a store along a sidewalk in Metro Manila, Philippines November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Both companies have said they welcome competition and are making upgrades to improve data and voice services, ranked among the Asia-Pacific’s slowest and most intermittent.“PT&T&rsquo;s rejuvenation...will certainly benefit from a partner that can bring in both capital, as well as technology and operational know-how,” said Winthrop Yu, chairman of Internet Society Philippines, an industry body.“As we like to say ‘the more the merrier’ and ‘better sooner than later.”Zamora said PT&T expects to sign a deal by Dec. 15 with ZhongXing TianTong Technology Co Ltd to offer broadband services, and wants foreign partners to provide expertise, infrastructure and capital for internet expansion and new cellular services.It is also talking with China Telecom ( 0728.HK ) and Datang Telecom ( 600198.SS ), PT&T officials said. Those companies did not immediately respond to request for comment.“The Zamoras are adept at getting into partnerships with foreign companies in their other business ventures. This should give them an advantage, given their track record,” said Mary Grace Santos, lead convenor of the Better Broadband Alliance.PT&T has existing licenses for broadband and cellular businesses, which makes it easy for the company to roll out these services.Duterte’s administration is seeking to set up a national broadband network and is eager to boost internet penetration and bandwidth in a country known for having some of the slowest speeds in the Asia-Pacific.“The market is so vast here. It seems the competitors, the duopoly, they are not at all customer-oriented,” Zamora said.“Even the president complains about them. Everybody complains about them but still they continue their poor service.”($1 = 50.6360 Philippine pesos)Additional reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA and Sijia Jiang in HONG KONG; Editing by Martin Petty/Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-telecoms-exclusive/exclusive-philippines-ptt-seeks-partners-for-broadband-cell-services-talks-to-chinese-firms-idINKBN1DL1A1'|'2017-11-21T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'646ab88f7fbc7600f6a3540adac8c0535b4dad2e'|'21st Century Fox in $90 million settlement tied to sexual harassment scandal'|'November 20, 2017 / 11:02 PM / Updated 7 hours ago 21st Century Fox in $90 million settlement tied to sexual harassment scandal Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has reached a $90 million (£67.98 million) settlement of shareholder claims arising from the sexual harassment scandal at its Fox News Channel, which cost the jobs of longtime news chief Roger Ailes and anchor Bill O‘Reilly. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The settlement, which requires a judge’s approval, resolves what are known as “derivative” claims against Fox officers and directors, including: Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who are Fox’s executive chairmen; James Murdoch, another son and its chief executive, and Ailes’ estate. The defendants did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement filed with the Delaware Chancery Court. Monday’s settlement calls for insurers of Fox officers, Fox directors and Ailes’ estate to pay the $90 million to the New York-based company for the benefit of shareholders. Fox will enhance governance and said it created the Fox News Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council to ensure a proper workplace environment, bolster training and further the recruitment and advancement of women and minorities. The council has four independent members, including former federal judge Barbara Jones. In a typical derivative case, shareholders sue in the name of a company to remedy wrongs inflicted by an alleged lack of oversight by a company’s officers and directors. Ailes’ estate disputed many of the allegations in the settlement, which was reached before a complaint was formally filed, court records show. “The Workplace Council gives our management team access to a braintrust of experts with deep and diverse experiences in workplace issues,” Jack Abernethy, co-president of Fox News Channel, said in a statement. “We look forward to benefiting from their collective guidance.” Shareholders were led by the City of Monroe Employees’ Retirement System in Michigan. Their lawyer, Max Berger, said in a statement the accord would provide “meaningful benefits” for shareholders and Fox News employees. The accord is not the first big derivative settlement involving a Murdoch-led company. In 2013, former Fox parent News Corp reached a $139 million settlement of derivative claims that its board turned a blind eye to phone hacking at its London tabloids. Two years later, the Delaware court approved a $275 million settlement involving “Call of Duty” videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc over a stock sale by Vivendi SA. The scandal at Fox began in July 2016 when former anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit accusing Ailes of harassment. O‘Reilly lost his job in April after being accused of harassment, and has denied wrongdoing. Ailes died the next month. Fox faces other private civil litigation tied to the scandal. The case is City of Monroe Employees’ Retirement System v Murdoch et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 2017-0833. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-settlement/21st-century-fox-in-90-million-settlement-tied-to-sexual-harassment-scandal-idUKKBN1DK2NK'|'2017-11-21T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'c5c6beb9bc0873716745febfbfd1abe51d9b8c6b'|'Aggreko''s shares plunge as orders slump'|'November 21, 2017 / 7:40 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Aggreko''s shares plunge as orders slump Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Shares of Aggreko ( AGGK.L ), the world’s largest temporary power provider, slumped more than 11 percent on Tuesday after the company said orders at its unit that installs and operates power plants fell by more than a third. New orders in the power solutions utility business fell 35.6 percent to 666 megawatts (MW) this year, while revenue at the unit dropped 15 percent in the third quarter. The company said half of its 148 MW contract in Japan was terminated early, and it expects the rest of the capacity will be discontinued in the first quarter of next year. In Argentina, it expects 214 MW of contracted volume to be terminated by the end of this year. A customer in Zimbabwe has also cut its order to 120 MW from 200 MW. “The prospect pipeline continues to be healthy, however it is still taking longer to convert than last year,” Aggreko said. RBC Capital Market analyst Andrew Gibb said he expects 2018 consensus forecasts to fall by 5-10 percent, given a weak order intake and further off-hires. Peel Hunt cut its December 2017 profit-before-tax guidance by 4.8 percent and December 2018 profit by 8.9 percent on expected off-hires. Aggreko reiterated its full-year outlook. It had issued a profit warning in March saying that its full-year results would be hit due to discounts in Argentina. The company’s results were also hurt by discounts in Argentina that largely offset gains from hurricane-related demand in southern United States, leading total revenue to rise just 1 percent. Aggreko shares were down about 9.5 percent at 878 pence at 1156 GMT. (This story corrects to remove reference to political tensions, paragraph four) Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aggreko-results/aggreko-quarterly-revenue-up-slightly-idUKKBN1DL0MA'|'2017-11-21T20:10:00.000+02:00'
'92250525eb7c5d052670b950e60f1713bb5f9f7a'|'Fed''s Williams joke shows how a novel policy could work, or fail'|'November 18, 2017 / 10:07 PM / Updated an hour ago Fed''s Williams joke shows how a novel policy could work, or fail Ann Saphir 3 Min Read BERKELEY, Calif. (Reuters) - Economists presenting at a conference earlier this week blew through the organizers’ four-slides-per-speaker limit, and the host, San Francisco Fed President John Williams, vowed to take action. FILE PHOTO: San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams speaks to Reuters in San Francisco, California, U.S. on September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo “I am going to try, over the rest of my time at the Fed, to undo that damage by not showing any slides,” he said on Saturday at a separate conference at the University of California, Berkeley. His joke elicited chuckles from the audience of scholars who had suffered through an immense number of equation-packed slides at the San Francisco Fed’s just-concluded conference. By paying for that excess with a promise not to show any slides himself, Williams said, he hoped to ultimately bring the total number back in line with the original limit. The approach neatly illustrates the logic behind a bold and nearly untried monetary policy idea that Williams has lately embraced. The idea, known as price-level targeting, calls for a central bank to make up for bouts of low inflation by encouraging high inflation later on. It differs from the Fed’s current approach of targeting inflation at 2 percent while taking a position of “let bygones be bygones” to past periods when it is above or below that level. Williams, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke have in recent months championed price-level targeting as a way to give central banks more scope to combat a severe downturn when merely cutting interest rates is not enough. If people believe the central bank will stick to this policy, they will try to spend what they can during a downturn, before their money’s value is eroded by future inflation. That spending will itself pull the economy from recession faster, shortening any future period of high inflation induced by the central bank. If such a policy were put in place now, the Fed would need to allow inflation to run at 3 percent, about twice as high as it is today, for about the next five years. But the idea that the Fed would subject Americans to such a paycheck-draining policy strains belief, critics say. “I find that quite implausible,” former Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said earlier this week. One economist at the Saturday conference said: “We’d probably bail on the policy halfway through.” Williams completed his 15-minute talk there without showing a single slide. It remains to be seen whether he will stick to his policy in the 10 years before he reaches the Fed’s mandatory retirement age. Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-williams/feds-williams-joke-shows-how-a-novel-policy-could-work-or-fail-idUKKBN1DI0SZ'|'2017-11-19T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'0430687a9386e05bac14fe30e7832cb0bfddb564'|'SandRidge investor Fir Tree opposes $746 million bid for Bonanza Creek'|'(Reuters) - Activist investor Fir Tree Partners on Monday opposed SandRidge Energy Inc’s $746-million deal to buy rival Bonanza Creek Energy Inc , saying an acquisition would drain all of the oil and gas producer’s cash.The logo for Bonanza Creek Energy is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “We believe this proposed acquisition represents a complete about face by (SandRidge‘s) management on its post-bankruptcy strategy,” Fir Tree Partners, which owns about 8.3 percent of SandRidge, said in a statement.SandRidge emerged from bankruptcy late last year, while Bonanza did so in April following a recovery in oil prices after a two-year slump.As of Sept. 30, Oklahoma-based SandRidge’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $133.2 million.Shares of SandRidge, which had fallen nearly 22 percent since the beginning of the year, dropped another 15 percent on Wednesday after the deal was announced.Bonanza Creek’s shares closed at $32.07 on Wednesday, well below SandRidge’s offer price of $36 per share, suggesting investors were skeptical the deal would close.Fir Tree also said SandRidge was paying an “unjustified premium” for Bonanza Creek.Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sandridge-firtreepartners/sandridge-investor-fir-tree-opposes-746-million-bid-for-bonanza-creek-idINKBN1DK1MB'|'2017-11-20T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'32cefef0722734aa9da73370d25d3553b47d098e'|'Former Obama administration official in bid for The Weinstein Co'|'(Reuters) - Maria Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has submitted an offer to acquire the Weinstein Co, a spokeswoman for the U.S. film and TV studio said on Sunday.FILE PHOTO: Maria Contreras-Sweet listens to remarks during her ceremonial swearing-in as Administrator of the Small Business Administration at the White House in Washington April 7, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Contreras-Sweet has put together a consortium of investors who have offered $275 million for The Weinstein Co, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing details of the bid. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the offer earlier on Sunday without stating its value.The bid comes after the movie studio secured a $20 million cash infusion from the sale of the children’s movie “Paddington 2” last week to Warner Brothers Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). The Weinstein Co’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations.The movie studio, known for hit movies including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” has been trying to find a buyer or rescue financing after more than 50 women claimed that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades.Harvey Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.Contreras-Sweet’s plans call for a majority-female board at The Weinstein Co should her offer prevail, the source said. The offer includes an approximately $30 million fund for the alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein, the source added. The fund would be set up through a mediation process, according to the source.The spokeswoman for The Weinstein Co did not comment on the details of the offer it received. A spokesman for Contreras-Sweet declined to comment.U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 selected Contreras-Sweet as the head of the SBA, which makes loans to small businesses and helps them get government contracts. She had previously founded ProAmerica Bank, a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles, which focuses on lending to small- and medium-sized Latino businesses.Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has marked its small equity stake in The Weinstein Co down to zero, Reuters reported last week, reflecting the investment bank’s assessment that the value of the company has diminished following Harvey Weinstein’s departure.The proceeds from the “Paddington 2” sale enable The Weinstein Co to continue to operate until January, the source said. Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC ( FIG.N ) was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal earlier this month.More than 20 other potential bidders are analyzing The Weinstein Co’s financial data, the source said. The studio has $375 million in debt, including a $45 million loan from AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, the person said. Much of the debt is backed by the company’s film and TV assets.Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weinsteincompany-m-a-contrerassweet/former-obama-administration-official-in-bid-for-the-weinstein-co-idUSKBN1DK07O'|'2017-11-20T05:02:00.000+02:00'
'c0a1dc6e4e9243527cf599092443d8c415f14532'|'China''s Zhongtian Financial says to buy up to $4.7 billion stake in Huaxia Life'|'SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Zhongtian Financial Group Co ( 000540.SZ ), which has businesses in the real estate and finance sectors, said it planned to buy up to 25 percent of Huaxia Life Insurance for as much as 31.0 billion yuan ($4.7 billion).Under framework agreements, Zhongtian will buy a stake of between 21 percent and 25 percent from two shareholders in cash, the Guiyang-based firm said in a filing late on Monday.Zhongtian, which started out as a real estate developer in Guizhou province, has been actively expanding in the financial sector in recent years, with insurance and securities its top priorities. The Shenzhen-listed firm has a market value of 34.6 billion yuan, based on its last traded price in August.“Zhongtian Financial’s total market value is just over 30 billion yuan, and they are considering paying over 30 billion yuan for this equity acquisition - that’s such a bold move,” said an M&A banker at a major Chinese lender.Huaxia Life Insurance is part of conglomerate Tomorrow Holdings controlled by Chinese-born billionaire Xiao Jianhua. The size of Tomorrow’s stake in the life insurer is unclear.Earlier this year, sources told Reuters that Tomorrow was planning to pare back its sprawling asset portfolio that included its stake in the unlisted Huaxia.Zhongtian’s bid for a Huaxia stake gives the life insurer an overall valuation of 124 billion yuan.The filing by Zhongtian, which also has interests in urban infrastructure and tourism projects, said the transaction would constitute a “major reorganization of assets”, adding that the specifics would be based on further due diligence and auditing.Zhongtian said it would buy the stakes from Beijing Qianxi Shihao Electron Technology Co Ltd and Beijing Zhongsheng Century Technology Co Ltd, current holders of 20 percent and 13.41 percent stakes in Huaxia Life, respectively.Zhongtian holds a 94.92 percent stake in ZTF Securities and a 36.36 percent in Zhongrong Life Insurance.In July, Zhongtian said it planned to issue up to 8.0 billion yuan in commercial paper. A unit of the company and Zhongtian also planned to sell asset-backed securities worth up to 2.66 billion yuan.Shares of Zhongtian on the Shenzhen bourse have been suspended. They last traded at 7.350 yuan in August, up about 4 percent since the start of the year.Reporting by John Ruwitch and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting be Engen Tham in SHANGHAI; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-zhongtian-fincl-huaxia/chinas-zhongtian-financial-says-to-buy-up-to-4-7-billion-stake-in-huaxia-life-idINKBN1DL052'|'2017-11-20T22:26:00.000+02:00'
'd524032a7911f204dd5676378623b86bdfaa8b7c'|'Tencent''s stellar share rally sees it surpass Facebook in market value'|'November 21, 2017 / 10:06 AM / Updated an hour ago Tencent''s stellar share rally sees it surpass Facebook in market value Donny Kwok 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ) has racked up some impressive gains this week - becoming the first Chinese firm to be worth more than $500 billion (£377.7 billion) and surpassing Facebook ( FB.O ) to be the world’s fifth-most valuable company. Earnings for China’s biggest social network and gaming firm have surged on the popularity of its smartphone games led by titles such as Honour of Kings - a fantasy role-playing game, which has as many active players as the population of Germany. Also driving earnings has been its messaging-to-payment superapp WeChat which has amassed 980 million monthly active users, with 38 billion messages sent daily, while its Youtube equivalent, Tencent Video, has become the video streaming service with the largest paying subscriber base in China. That success has helped Tencent''s stock more than double this year, making it Asia''s most valuable company worth $522 billion (£394.3 billion) on Tuesday and easily outpacing a 36 percent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI . That beat Facebook’s market value on Monday of $519 billion. Only Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) with a market capitalisation of about $873 billion followed by Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ), Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) are worth more. Led by Chinese billionaire Pony Ma, Tencent this month reported a better-than-expected 69 percent rise in third-quarter net profit. FILE PHOTO: Visitors use their smartphones underneath the logo of Tencent at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing May 6, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo “Tencent’s high growth, as demonstrated by its quarterly results, has supported the rally in its shares,” said Steven Leung, a sales director at UOB Kay Hian. “Since the company has been able to deliver with its earnings, the stock is still worth holding onto despite its current high level.” In addition to robust earnings, Tencent has also burnished its lustre after some units and affiliates have made some eye-catching market debuts. An executive recently also told Reuters the company is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, pitting it against Alibaba ( BABA.N ) as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China. Among the 39 analysts who cover Tencent, the average rating on its shares is a “buy”, with their average target price at HK$433.60. The stock closed at HK$430 on Tuesday. After Tencent, rival Alibaba Group ranks second among Asian firms with a market value of $481.5 billion, while South Korea’s Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) is No. 3 at $364 billion. Additional reporting by Patturaja Murugaboopathy and Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tencent-marketcap/tencents-stellar-share-rally-sees-it-surpass-facebook-in-market-value-idUKKBN1DL0YK'|'2017-11-21T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'20fd4047279e02f73adec102615e5a367fe9dba4'|'SoftBank funding may spur Uber to re-think tough Southeast Asian market'|' 35 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago SoftBank funding may spur Uber to re-think tough Southeast Asian market Aradhana Aravindan , Miyoung Kim 6 Min Read SINGAPORE(Reuters) - SoftBank Group’s ( 9984.T ) multi-billion dollar investment in Uber Technologies Inc opens up the possibility of combining it with other ride-hailing assets the Japanese group owns in a consolidation of a rapidly growing business across Asia, industry sources say. FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said on Nov. 12 that a planned deal with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The consortium plans to inject $1 billion to $1.25 billion into Uber, and buy up to 17 percent of existing shares in a secondary transaction. SoftBank has also been a big investor in Uber’s rivals across Asia, including Southeast Asia’s Grab, China’s DiDi Chuxing, and India’s Ola, as it works to achieve founder Masayoshi Son’s vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence and interconnected devices. At the same time, ride-hailing companies have been competing fiercely across Asia to attract both riders and drivers, with discounts and promotions that have driven down profit margins. “SoftBank will play a consolidating role,” said a source close to Singapore-based Grab. “SoftBank as a board director in both companies (Uber and Grab) would fundamentally change the conversation.” The source declined to be named due to sensitivity of the subject. SoftBank and Grab declined to comment for this story. At $68 billion, Uber is the most highly valued venture-backed company in the world. But the lofty valuation has come at the cost of a heavy hit to Uber’s bottom line, which the firm has said was necessary to establish itself in new markets. “Doing a deal and combining the two businesses in Southeast Asia makes a ton of sense,” said the source close to Grab. “He (Uber’s CEO) cuts his losses and gets a stake in the business that is from his perspective more than just ride-sharing,” the source said, referring to Grab’s foray into other markets for digital or cashless payments. Any deal will likely be similar to the one Uber struck with DiDi last year, in which it took a stake in the Chinese company and pulled out its own business, the source said. ‘OVER-CAPITALIZED’ MARKET It’s not clear whether SoftBank has discussed or proposed any deal with Grab with Uber’s directors. The SoftBank investment into Uber has not yet been finalised. Uber declined to comment but pointed to a statement by Uber’s new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi at the New York Times DealBook conference earlier this month, saying the company “is in a very strong competitive position” in every market he has learned about. “To the extent that we have a competitor and we’re spending the same amount on incentives, we tend to gain share because our product, or brand, or services are just better.” But Khosrowshahi acknowledged the challenges Uber faces in Southeast Asia, saying the market is “over-capitalized at this point”. “We’re going in, and we’re leaning forward. But I‘m not optimistic that market is going to be profitable any time soon,” he said. People close to the SoftBank and Uber deal told Reuters many stakeholders would like to give the competition in Southeast Asia more time to play out, given the appeal of cheap labor and a growing middle class with disposable income in the region. However, shutting down Uber’s Southeast Asia operations to cut losses would enable the firm to “print money,” making for a much more palatable IPO, said one Uber investor, who declined to be named. Uber says it plans a stock market listing in 2019. While many tech firms go public without a profit, Uber’s level of loss -- $645 million in the second quarter this year -- could be alarming to some investors. Vinnie Lauria, a founding partner at venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures, which has invested in over 30 firms across Asia, said he, too, thinks Uber will pull out of Southeast Asia. “I can’t say with certainty, but I feel fairly confident that after this (SoftBank-Uber) transaction, we would see Uber sell off their Southeast Asian operations to Grab or (China‘s) DiDi.” Grab was the top-ranked ride-hailing app in combined monthly active users on iPhone and Android phones in the first half of 2017 in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to mobile data analytics firm App Annie. In Indonesia, Go-Jek outranks both Grab and Uber. EXECUTIVE CHURN After folding its China business into DiDi last year, Uber sharpened its focus and resources on India and Southeast Asia, the latter a promising market of nearly 650 million people, many of whom are young and tech-savvy. But Uber has struggled in Asia, having run-ins with some local regulators, including more recently in the Philippines, and seeing a slew of exits by senior executives in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and India. Last week, Uber said its chief of policy for India and South Asia had quit in another blow to the firm’s efforts to improve relationships with governments. Brooks Entwistle, Uber’s recently appointed chief business officer of Asia Pacific, told Reuters he was looking at the long term in Southeast Asia. His priority is to collaborate closely with regulators, fill senior positions and partner with traditional taxi companies, he said. Grab, meanwhile, bolstered by its financing from Softbank and DiDi, has expanded from ride-hailing to other digital payment solutions as it looks to use its platform for financial services such as lending. Additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE, Heather Somerville in SAN FRANCISCO and Sam Nussey in TOKYO; Editing by Bill Tarrant'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-southeast-asia/softbank-funding-may-spur-uber-to-re-think-tough-southeast-asian-market-idUKKBN1DL05I'|'2017-11-21T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'24db4a1059446f72ebc9855aaa590da1b7b7fd07'|'U.S. State Dept. studying Keystone XL route for ''permitting impacts'' -official'|'WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department is looking into whether Nebraska’s approval of an “alternative” route for TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline through the state will require additional federal permitting, a spokesperson said.“We have heard about a possible modified route, and we are in the process of gaining more precise information in order to determine if there will be any permitting impacts as a result of those changes,” the spokesperson said, asking not to be named. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Hay) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-pipeline-keystone-state/u-s-state-dept-studying-keystone-xl-route-for-permitting-impacts-official-idUSL1N1NQ1TU'|'2017-11-21T00:18:00.000+02:00'
'8c267782ec959c960476508bb596bc9dffdfdf97'|'Uniper rejects Fortum bid, says offer price too low'|'FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German energy group Uniper ( UN01.DE ) rejected an 8.05 billion euro ($9.5 billion) takeover bid from Finland’s Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) on Tuesday but will hold talks as it seeks a higher offer and more commitments to the company’s future.Uniper remains opposed to the deal, claiming Fortum’s bid undervalues the company, and fears the state-controlled Finnish group might chose to break it up should its bid succeed this time after a failed attempt over the summer.However, Uniper is at loggerheads with its main shareholder E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) which has struck a preliminary agreement to sell the 46.65 percent stake it retained after a spin-off last year.Uniper sees the 22 euro per share bid as too low and argues it does not include a control premium, which would suggest an offer of more than 27 euros per share based on past cash transactions in Europe.“Fortum’s offer is unacceptable as it does not reflect Uniper’s true value,” Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer said, also pointing to the group’s current share price of 23.8 euros apiece.They traded at only 10.015 euros when first spun off from E.ON in Sept. 2016 and were still below 18 euros when reports of a Fortum bid first emerged at the end of May.Schaefer did say that talks with Fortum would continue in hopes of extracting more commitments for Uniper’s future, adding he would meet Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark this month to work out the group’s future relationship.“I will not close my eyes to reality,” Schaefer added.Fortum, keen on Uniper’s hydro plants in Sweden and its gas and lignite stations in Russia, has repeatedly said it does not plan a far-reaching restructuring of Uniper.Fortum is focused on carbon-free power generation, mainly in the Nordic region and Russia, and has been looking for a deal since selling its power distribution grids for 9.3 billion euros in 2014 and 2015.It confirmed on Tuesday it will not raise its bid which must extend to the whole of Uniper under German takeover rules.“This might limit some shareholders’ willingness to sell. But Fortum will receive the 47 percent stake (from E.ON), with very high probability, so I don’t see it having a major effect,” Inderes Equity Research analyst Petri Gostowski said.“Fortum would have majority at the general meeting, so basically they are calling the shots... this is what Uniper’s reluctance is based on.”A spokeswoman for E.ON confirmed the group still saw Fortum’s offer as highly attractive, adding it would make a final decision about whether to tender its stake to Fortum in January.If it does not do so by Jan. 11, E.ON faces a compensation fee of up to 1.5 billion euros, which effectively rules out that scenario unless Uniper shares rise significantly from today’s levels, in which case E.ON might reconsider.($1 = 0.8517 euros)Additional reporting by Tuomas Forsell in Helsinki; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum-oyj/uniper-rejects-fortum-bid-says-offer-price-too-low-idINKBN1DL0LQ'|'2017-11-21T04:36:00.000+02:00'
'0e9725ec39f613b077f7fe1463e63ae5a945edde'|'WPP agrees to sell stake in Japan''s Asatsu-DK to Bain'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:50 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago WPP agrees to sell stake in Japan''s Asatsu-DK to Bain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Advertising giant WPP PLC ( WPP.L ) on Tuesday said it has agreed to sell its stake in Japanese partner Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK) ( 9747.T ) to Bain Capital LLC for 3,660 yen ($32.53) a share, heralding the end of a row over the $1.35 billion buyout offer. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bain Capital is displayed on the screen during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo ADK had sought to end a two-decade-old business alliance with WPP, asking it to sell its shares to the U.S. private equity firm. WPP and other large shareholders had sought a higher offer, but the agreed price was unchanged from the initial offer. ADK shares jumped more 5 percent to 3,660 yen in Tuesday afternoon trade, as investors bet on the likelihood of Bain’s takeover bid succeeding. Apart from WPP, London-based fund manager Silchester International Investors LLP and Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Co Ltd had also said Bain’s offer was too low. WPP did not comment on why it had changed its mind, whereas an ADK spokeswoman declined to comment. Neither Silchester nor Oasis could be reached for comment on Tuesday. WPP and Asatsu-DK formed an alliance in 1998 to set up joint ventures and cultivate clients together, exchanging equity stakes. But the Japanese firm has said synergies from the tie-up failed to materialize. Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a-wpp/bain-capital-says-wpp-agrees-to-sell-stake-in-japans-asatsu-dk-idUKKBN1DL095'|'2017-11-21T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'4e777726c4dbd619777db1679683c7bdabde6180'|'EU agrees to end country-specific limits for online retailers'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:46 PM / in 15 minutes EU agrees to end country-specific limits for online retailers Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has agreed a plan obliging online retailers operating in the bloc to make electrical goods, concert tickets or car rental available to all EU consumers regardless of where they live. Putting an end to “geoblocking”, whereby consumers in one EU country cannot buy a good or service sold online in another, has been a priority for the EU as it tries to create a digital single market with 24 legislative proposals. The agreement late on Monday between the European Parliament, the EU’s 28 member states and the Commission will allow EU consumers to buy products and services online from any EU country. The agreement applies to e-commerce sites including Amazon and eBay. Companies will no longer be able to re-direct consumers to a country-specific website without their consent. However, consumers will still have to organize how to pick up a product if the company does not offer cross-border delivery. Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip, responsible for the digital single market, said the proposal would put an end to unjustified discrimination for online shoppers. “With the new rules, Europeans will be able to choose which website they want to buy from, without being blocked or re-routed. This will be a reality by Christmas next year,” Ansip said in a statement. The proposal does not extend to copyright-protected content, which includes music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple’s iTunes, electronic books, television series and movies. The Parliament had hoped to include these services, but music industries successfully argued this could lead to price increases in countries where such services are cheaper. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) argued that, by not including copyright-protected materials, consumer choice would be limited for people living or studying abroad. “It is especially frustrating for consumers who belong to a linguistic minority and would like to watch series or films in their own language,” Monique Goyens, the director general of BEUC, said in a statement. The European Parliament and member states are expected to approve the new legislation early next year. It is seen entering force by the end of 2018. Reporting by Lily Cusack; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-digital-geoblocking/eu-agrees-to-end-country-specific-limits-for-online-retailers-idUKKBN1DL248'|'2017-11-21T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'c923591ac2b3669cf256494042bbe67e8f0ac2fc'|'Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:11 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Chinese developers turn to mortgage balance-ABS for liquidity Clare Jim 5 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese developers such as China Vanke and Country Garden are increasingly turning to the securitisation market as an alternative fund-raising channel as the onshore bond market remains mostly inaccessible. FILE PHOTO: A new residential quarter of the Country Garden is seen in Shanghai, China, February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Property companies are in particular stepping up the securitisation of receivables from property sales, providing them with funds to develop other projects. The securities took off when Chinese regulators made it harder for developers to sell onshore corporate bonds late last year in a bid to help cool an overheating real estate market. The issuing of such products more than tripled in the first seven months of this year from a year ago, according to data by China Securities Research. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment. More than 11 Chinese developers have issued or announced plans this year to issue securities backed by sales receivables, including China Vanke, Greentown China, and the state-owned Beijing Capital Land, up from around six last year. Developers typically record revenue in their books 12-24 months after contracted sales, when they actually transfer the property ownership to the buyers and pocket the proceeds. The asset-backed securities allow them to cash in on those receivables early. “Chinese policies often change. If you rely on a simple channel, once policy changes, it will affect our cashflow so we have to explore other channels,” said an official of Greentown, which issued 1.6 billion yuan worth of the securities this month, referring to the crackdown on debt. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Beijing Capital said that the securities provided a cheaper financing option for the company. Vanke said it considered the securities to be low cost and low risk. Rates of the securities issued in the last two years were around 5 to 7 percent, slightly higher than onshore corporate bonds. The securities usually have short maturities of 2 to 4 years, and range in size from 1 to 5 billion yuan. The securities are listed in stock exchanges and traded among banks and institutional investors. Joe Zhou, head of research at JLL East China, said securitisations by developers reflected strong property sales and China’s macroeconomic environment, as well as official pressure to reduce debt. “Many developers have the incentive to lower leverage,” he said. As China pushes to reduce excessive debt in the economy, the country’s fledgling securitisation markets have seen a surge of activity, with cash-starved banks, local governments and private companies converting assets into cash. Most developers consolidate asset-backed securities on their balance sheets as debt, because the mortgage receivables are used as collateral. However, the securities are still seen by ratings agencies as meaningful deleveraging. “From a rating agency’s perspective, we do not only look at whether the balance sheet is shrunk, but whether the payment obligation also decreases,” said Aaron Lei, senior director of structured finance ratings at S&P. “ABS payment obligations will not recourse back to the initial originator, which means the interest payment comes from the spinned-off assets, and not from the issuer,” he said, referring to asset-backed securities. Analysts say that, for the moment, the risks involved with the securities are low, given their relatively high quality and low total issuance. Of China’s trillion yuan ($147.1 billion) overall asset-backed securities market, property companies issued around 40 billion yuan of products in 2016. More than 70 percent of the issuance was backed by receivables from property sales, according to China Securities Research. The confidence also lies in government regulations to keep downpayment requirements at about 30 percent, and even higher for first-home purchases. “Traditionally, China’s mortgage risk is low,” said S&P’s Lei, because borrowers were personal liable for their debts. That “makes home buyers less inclined for a mortgage to default because they still bear the liability after they default,” he said. However, in the case of a downturn in the property market, mortgage default risks could increase, analysts said. And as the asset-backed securities market grows quickly, some lower-quality issuers could join the market. “Now that regulation is strict, defaults won’t happen,” said JLL’s Zhou, citing the high quality of assets and products in general. “But in the future, if some assets are problematic and issuers still package them for financing, then defaults could happen.” Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-property-securitisation/chinese-developers-turn-to-mortgage-balance-abs-for-liquidity-idINKBN1DL0SY'|'2017-11-21T11:10:00.000+02:00'
'f042403a22a3374199ff8a9628cb235e87dc6fd6'|'Is the NHS being taken for a ride on drug prices? We need to know - Nils Pratley - Business - The Guardian'|'T he Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has discovered a rich seam for inquiries – pharmaceutical companies allegedly gouging the National Health Service.Pfizer, together with a small UK company called Flynn Pharma, was fined £90m last December for “excessive and unfair” pricing of an anti-epilepsy drug. GlaxoSmithKline and two small firms were later hit for £45m for conspiring to delay competition on an antidepressant. Now comes an accusation that the Canadian firm Concordia Healthcare abused its dominant position to overcharge the NHS on a thyroid treatment. The price of the drug rose by almost 6,000% while production costs remained “broadly stable,” says the CMA .The Concordia case is similar to the Pfizer one in that the price hikes followed the de-branding of a medicine. De-branding takes a drug into an unregulated pricing regime where competition from generic manufacturers is supposed to act as a brake on prices. In practice, competition doesn’t always arrive – thus a pack of Concordia’s liothyronine tablets rose from £4.46 before de-branding in 2007 to £258 by July this year.Drug firm Concordia overcharged NHS with 6,000% price rise, says watchdog Read more The government has tried to address the problem by creating powers to control prices of generic medicines. But the open question is how severely the system has been abused. The CMA says its investigators are pursuing another seven cases involving several companies, which may suggest a pricing loophole has been quietly exploited for years.The CMA is doing its bit, but there is a strong case for a wider investigation that looks beyond the narrow application of competition and consumer-protection laws. As it is, NHS England’s response felt limp – the CMA’s action “sends an important enforcement signal … that taxpayers and the NHS will not tolerate market abuses,” it said.Well, yes, signals are important. But taxpayers and patients also want to know if the NHS has been taken for a ride on generics, whether officials are wiser to pricing games and whether the new law is up to the job. There is scope for a parliamentary inquiry. And, since the companies all shout about their ethical codes of conduct, they would surely be happy to be questioned in detail about how they deal with the NHS.McCall will face more turbulence at ITV than easyJet Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet, won’t regret her decision to quit to become ITV’s boss in the new year. She’s had seven mostly successful years at the airline and few executives get to lead two FTSE 100 household names. All the same, the medium-term job looks easier at the firm she’s leaving than the one she’s joining.EasyJet’s full-year profits were knocked, as they were bound to be, by a £101m hit from the fall of sterling. But £408m, down from £494m, was a decent result. The European short-haul airline market was going through one its regular bouts of over-expansion and ticket prices fell. The position is now reversing – and quickly. Monarch and Air Berlin have gone bust, Alitalia is on its knees and Ryanair has cancelled a few winter flights while it hunts for pilots. Fares will rise for the first time in almost two years.Air Berlin’s downfall has also allowed easyJet to bag 25 A320s plus landing slots in Tegel airport in Berlin on the cheap. The reorganisation costs are more severe – £60m of losses in year one plus £100m in one-off costs – but enhancement to earnings is promised in year two. In time, it’s possible that a similar attractive slice could be carved out of Alitalia. In short, the competitive landscape looks clearer than it has done in ages. McCall always boasted that easyJet is a “structural winner” – it rings true.It’s harder to say the same about ITV on current form. The broadcaster has a near-monopoly on free-to-air commercial TV advertising slots in the UK – a useful structural advantage – but it is completing a second year of falling advertising revenues and the spectre of Netflix looms. ITV, even after a 25% fall in its share price this year, is still the bigger company in stock market terms – £6bn versus easyJet’s £5bn – but McCall will have done well if there’s still a £1bn gap seven years from now.Did TCI go too far in its feud over Rolet? The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), the hedge fund seeking to oust Donald Brydon as chairman of the London Stock Exchange , should be careful not to overplay its hand. It asked a fair question – why is LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet leaving? And it called an meeting of shareholders to vote on Brydon’s survival, as is its right as a 5% shareholder.But to accuse the LSE of threatening a character assassination of Rolet is bizarre. TCI called the meeting and the company has to issue a circular to shareholders. Brydon & co should have spoken up at the outset, of course, but they’re still allowed to give their side of the story.Topics Pfizer Nils Pratley on finance Pharmaceuticals industry easyJet Airline industry London Stock Exchange Financial sector comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2017/nov/21/nhs-drug-prices-pharmaceutical-firms'|'2017-11-22T01:53:00.000+02:00'
'f7de72c32aa4d34d5a1a2689202f82380ddc66c8'|'Exclusive: Nippon offer prompted Axalta to end Akzo Nobel merger talks -source'|'(Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd ( 4612.T ) made an all-cash offer on Tuesday to acquire Axalta Coating Systems Ltd ( AXTA.N ), a source familiar with the matter said, prompting Axalta to end merger talks with Akzo Nobel NV ( AKZO.AS ).Nippon’s offer came at a premium to where Axalta shares ended trading on Monday, the source said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.Nippon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Akzo Nobel and Axalta declined to comment.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axalta-m-a-nipponpaint-exclusive/exclusive-nippon-offer-prompted-axalta-to-end-akzo-nobel-merger-talks-source-idINKBN1DL2SH'|'2017-11-21T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'167fcb8f446d7d386f6e9bac2ccf5cc5de434134'|'Oil prices firm on expected OPEC cut extension'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Oil extended gains on Wednesday, with U.S. crude hitting $58 a barrel for the first time since July 2015 as a major pipeline cut Canadian crude flows to the United States, where inventories are expected to have fallen further.FILE PHOTO: The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery owned by The Carlyle Group is seen at sunset in Philadelphia March 26, 2014. Picture taken March 26, 2014. REUTERS/David M. Parrott/File Photo The Keystone pipeline will cut deliveries by 85 percent or more through the end of November, sources said. A report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a big drop in U.S. crude stocks, ahead of Wednesday’s official inventory data.“There is a shortage of crude oil into the United States. Hence the rally in the prices,” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said.U.S. crude rose to $58.05 a barrel, the highest since July 2015, before easing to $57.78, up 95 cents, by 1216 GMT. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 57 cents at $63.14.Keystone, which carries 590,000 barrels per day of crude from Alberta’s oil sands to markets in the United States, was shut last week after a 5,000-barrel spill in South Dakota.This adds to a picture of tighter U.S. supplies. The API said on Tuesday that crude stocks dropped by 6.4 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, far above analysts’ expectations.The latest official U.S. production and inventory data is due on Wednesday at 1530 GMT.“If we see the U.S. Energy Information Administration ... confirming the big draw in crude oil stocks reported by the API last night, I think we will see the market going higher,” Varga said.Oil has also been supported by an effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to end a global supply overhang by restraining output.The deal to curb production expires in March, but is widely expected to be extended at a Nov. 30 meeting.“There is growing consensus that OPEC will extend their production cut deal at the end of the month. This confidence along with the current geopolitical environment has kept ICE Brent trading firmly above $60 per barrel,” Dutch bank ING said.“However, an outcome at the OPEC meeting which falls short of market expectations, will likely lead to a selloff, and given the large speculative long in Brent, this could be fairly severe,” it added.Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Alex Lawler in London, Editing by Dale Hudson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-prices-firm-on-expected-opec-cut-extension-idINKBN1DM053'|'2017-11-22T03:26:00.000+02:00'
'4c1021c7bb8aaa17f5258296714efe3d450b4b59'|'UPDATE 1-Volvo Cars to supply Uber with up to 24,000 self-driving cars'|'November 20, 2017 / 5:38 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Volvo Cars to supply Uber with up to 24,000 self-driving cars Reuters Staff (Adds Breakingviews link) By Niklas Pollard and Heather Somerville STOCKHOLM/SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Uber plans to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, marking the transition of the U.S. firm from an app used to summon a taxi to the owner and operator of a fleet of cars. The non-binding framework deal could offer San Francisco-based Uber a way to overcome setbacks at its autonomous driving division in Silicon Valley’s race to perfect self-driving systems. Combining Volvo’s cars with Uber’s self-driving system builds on their nearly three-year relationship and comes as Uber’s autonomous driving unit has been hit by a lawsuit over trade secrets and the departure of top talent. Automakers, ride-hailing firms and tech startups have been forging loose alliances in an effort to advance self-driving technology and claim a piece of what is expected to be a multi-billion-dollar business. Geely-owned Volvo said in a statement on Monday it would provide Uber with its flagship XC90 SUVs equipped with autonomous technology as part of a non-exclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. A Volvo spokesman said it covered up to 24,000 cars. The self-driving system that would be used in the Volvo cars - which have yet to be built - is under development by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group. Should Uber buy all 24,000 cars, it would be Volvo’s largest order by far and the biggest sale in the autonomous vehicle industry, giving Uber, which is losing more than $600 million a quarter, its first commercial fleet of cars. A new Volvo XC90 typically retails from a starting price of around $50,000. Uber has been testing prototype Volvo cars for more than a year, with safety drivers in the front seat to intervene if the self-driving system fails, in Tempe, Arizona and Pittsburgh. “Our goal was from day one to make investments into a vehicle that could be manufactured at scale,” Jeff Miller, Uber’s head of automotive alliances, said. The cars, in theory, would be available through the Uber app to pick up passengers without a driver. “It only becomes a commercial business when you can remove that vehicle operator from the equation,” Miller said. No financial details were disclosed for the purchase, which would be a massive new investment for Uber and mark a change from Uber’s long-standing business model where contractor drivers buy or lease and maintain their own cars. Miller said a small number of cars would be purchased using equity and others would be bought using debt financing. The deal builds on a $300 million alliance Volvo announced with Uber last year focused on collaborating on the design and financing of cars with self-driving systems, which require different steering and braking features and sensors. “We get support developing this car,” Volvo Cars Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. “It’s also a big commercial deal.” LYFT RIVALRY Volvo, which has been under Chinese ownership since it was bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford in 2010, plans to make the SUVs at its Torslanda plant in western Sweden, and Samuelsson said they would be sold at roughly the same profit margin as Volvo sells through dealers. Uber’s rival Lyft has this year struck a research partnership with Alphabet Inc’s unit Waymo and secured deals with Ford Motor Co and startups Nutonomy and Drive.ai to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet. Volvo’s agreement with Uber and Ford’s with Lyft show the pressure on automakers to avoid becoming obsolete in a world of increased automation, and on ride-services companies to start automating to cut driver costs and turn profits. Volvo is one of Sweden’s biggest manufacturers by revenue, and has forecast a fourth straight year of record sales in 2017. Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Johannes Hellstrom in Stockholm and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; editing by Peter Henderson and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/volvocars-uber/update-1-volvo-cars-to-supply-uber-with-up-to-24000-self-driving-cars-idUSL8N1NQ5FV'|'2017-11-20T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'54b530f11d59a1b2786df8b7a0d8535d5b59bff2'|'UK households feel the pinch as budget nears, Christmas sales seen down'|'November 20, 2017 / 1:05 AM / Updated 6 hours ago UK households feel the pinch as budget nears, Christmas sales seen down William Schomberg 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British households felt more of a squeeze on their finances this month, a survey by data firm IHS Markit showed on Monday, and credit card firm Visa predicted spending over the Christmas holidays would fall in real terms for the first time since 2012. FILE PHOTO - A bus passes the Oxford Street Christmas lights, in London, Britain November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner The reports underscored the pressure on finance minister Philip Hammond to come up with measures in this week’s budget to help voters cope with the rise in inflation and slow growth in their wages. The IHS Markit Household Finance Index for November fell to 43.4, reversing some of October’s improvement to 43.8. Respondents were their most pessimistic about the outlook for their finances since June. “November’s survey signalled a further worsening of the UK household budget squeeze,” Sam Teague, an IHS Markit economist, said in a statement. Hammond has been urged by some members of his Conservative Party to use his budget to help households, despite the still fragile state of Britain’s public finances. The IHS Markit survey found the pace of spending growth by households slowed in November, possibly reflecting banks reining in their credit as well as the fall in spending power. The Bank of England has pressed banks to make sure they are not taking big risks with their lending to consumers. Households perceived the fastest fall in unsecured credit availability since June 2015, IHS Markit said. The survey was based on a poll of 1,500 Britons between Nov. 8 and Nov. 12. Separately, Visa said its research predicted a 0.1 percent fall in spending after adjusting for inflation during the Christmas holidays, the first annual fall since 2012, and a contrast from last year’s increase of nearly 3 percent. Visa said it expected no change in spending in 2017 as a whole, the weakest performance since 2013. Separately on Monday, a report by university academics said the impact of inflation due to last year’s Brexit vote was costing the average worker 448 pounds a year, equivalent to almost one week’s wages when adjusted for rising prices. “Ahead of Wednesday’s budget statement from the chancellor, our findings show that the Leave vote has led to a sharp increase in inflation,” Holger Breinlich, an economics professor of the University of Nottingham, a co-author of the report, said. “At a time of growing disenchantment with austerity, this is clearly unwelcome news for living standards across the UK.” Editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/uk-households-feel-the-pinch-as-budget-nears-christmas-sales-seen-down-idUKKBN1DK02Y'|'2017-11-20T03:05:00.000+02:00'
'c7544a6ee5fda99aef101229007debfcbdb169e9'|'As Venezuela pumps below OPEC target, oil rivals begin filling gap'|'HOUSTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - As Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector struggles to pump enough crude oil to meet the country’s OPEC output target, rival producers within the exporters group have started to plug the gap, OPEC and industry sources said.Pedestrians walk next to a gas station of Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello The South American country’s oil output hit a 28-year low in October as state-owned oil giant PDVSA struggled to find the funds to drill wells, maintain oilfields and keep pipelines and ports working.Venezuela''s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) per month since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 bpd in 2017 according to numbers reported to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as U.S. sanctions and a lack of capital hobble operations. [For a graphic on Venezuelan and Iraqi oil shipments to the United States and India, click tmsnrt.rs/2A9EKCH ]Some OPEC members expect the fall to accelerate in 2018, reaching at least 300,000 bpd, OPEC sources said. At a recent internal OPEC meeting, Venezuelan officials were asked to give a clearer picture of the country’s declining output.“A lot of questions have been raised by Saudis and others to the Venezuelans to present a real picture on the production status and decline,” one of the sources said. The topic could come up later this month at the group’s next meeting.Saudi Arabia will not raise its output to compensate for this decline as OPEC’s de facto leader is focused on reducing global oil stocks, one OPEC source familiar with Saudi oil policy told Reuters this month.But heavy oil from OPEC member Iraq and non-OPEC producers Canada and Brazil are already replacing Venezuelan barrels to key customers the United States and India, according to the sources and Thomson Reuters data.Iraq has increased shipments of crude and condensate to India by 80,000 bpd this year as Venezuelan deliveries fell by 84,000 bpd. The second largest OPEC producer also has exported 201,000 bpd more oil to the United States this year through October as Venezuelan shipments dropped about 90,000 bpd, according to the Reuters data.Venezuela’s weaker output “could be good for market rebalance and we could see price stay at $60 for a slightly longer time,” one OPEC source said. “That doesn’t mean there will be no free riders,” the source added.PLUGGING THE GAP Venezuela pumped 1.863 million bpd in October, undershooting its OPEC target by 109,000 bpd, according to an assessment that OPEC uses to monitor members’ output. Venezuela said it had pumped 1.955 million bpd, still below its output target of 1.972 million bpd.There often are discrepancies between the assessment and official figures reported by the OPEC members.When member countries have suffered supply disruptions in the past, other OPEC members have covered the gap, often without changing official production quotas.Saudi Arabia boosted its output in 2003 to offset Iraq’s falling exports after the U.S. invasion, but the agreement was never formally disclosed.OPEC discussions of Venezuela’s quota is not new. Proposals to change the country’s quota have been raised and batted down several times in OPEC meetings since the South American country’s production started declining in 2012, a Venezuelan government source said.Venezuela has argued in the past, when faced with questions about falling output, that it was working to reverse declines from its sizeable proven oil reserves.But it could be difficult for Venezuelan officials to convince OPEC that an upturn is likely in the near future as the country seeks to restructure $60 billion in debt. Dependent on oil revenues, Venezuela has seen its economy contract sharply in the three years since crude prices collapsed from over $100 a barrel.Reviews of quotas and reallocation of market share can be contentious, and the group may prefer to allow market forces to fill the supply gap left by Venezuela’s decline rather than make an official share revision and reallocation to other members, one senior OPEC source said. A formal change would be opening a “can of worms” that OPEC would not want to do, the source added.OPEC’s oil ministers will meet in Vienna later this month to discuss supply policy. The group is expected to extend beyond March an agreement under which its members and rival producers, including Russia, have reduced joint output by about 1.8 million bpd.“We want a successful meeting on Nov. 30, re-discussing quotas will not be accepted by Venezuela and talking about it at the meeting will just open the door for others to do the same,” the senior OPEC source said.Reporting by Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Simon Webb and Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/opec-venezuela-quotas/as-venezuela-pumps-below-opec-target-oil-rivals-begin-filling-gap-idINKBN1DK1UD'|'2017-11-20T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'5aab4891cd28767b41088c2cbb516bbaa09ae26b'|'Former Obama administration official in bid for The Weinstein Co'|'(Reuters) - Maria Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has submitted an offer to acquire the Weinstein Co, a spokeswoman for the U.S. film and TV studio said on Sunday.FILE PHOTO: Maria Contreras-Sweet listens to remarks during her ceremonial swearing-in as Administrator of the Small Business Administration at the White House in Washington April 7, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Contreras-Sweet has put together a consortium of investors who have offered $275 million for The Weinstein Co, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing details of the bid. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the offer earlier on Sunday without stating its value.The bid comes after the movie studio secured a $20 million cash infusion from the sale of the children’s movie “Paddington 2” last week to Warner Brothers Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). The Weinstein Co’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations.The movie studio, known for hit movies including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” has been trying to find a buyer or rescue financing after more than 50 women claimed that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades.Harvey Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.Contreras-Sweet’s plans call for a majority-female board at The Weinstein Co should her offer prevail, the source said. The offer includes an approximately $30 million fund for the alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein, the source added. The fund would be set up through a mediation process, according to the source.The spokeswoman for The Weinstein Co did not comment on the details of the offer it received. A spokesman for Contreras-Sweet declined to comment.U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 selected Contreras-Sweet as the head of the SBA, which makes loans to small businesses and helps them get government contracts. She had previously founded ProAmerica Bank, a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles, which focuses on lending to small- and medium-sized Latino businesses.Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) has marked its small equity stake in The Weinstein Co down to zero, Reuters reported last week, reflecting the investment bank’s assessment that the value of the company has diminished following Harvey Weinstein’s departure.The proceeds from the “Paddington 2” sale enable The Weinstein Co to continue to operate until January, the source said. Investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC ( FIG.N ) was considering lending to the film and TV studio, but those talks ended without a deal earlier this month.More than 20 other potential bidders are analyzing The Weinstein Co’s financial data, the source said. The studio has $375 million in debt, including a $45 million loan from AI International Holdings Limited, an affiliate of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s industrial group Access Industries, the person said. Much of the debt is backed by the company’s film and TV assets.Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-weinsteincompany-m-a-contrerassweet/former-obama-administration-official-in-bid-for-the-weinstein-co-idINKBN1DK07O'|'2017-11-20T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'ff36bd644921ed4b0092cd38dcea6d4bdf136faf'|'UK factories enjoy best month for new orders since 1988 - CBI'|' 08 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK factories enjoy best month for new orders since 1988 - CBI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, (Reuters) - - British factories enjoyed the biggest deluge of new orders in nearly three decades this month, an industry survey showed, adding to signs that the post-Brexit vote fall in the value of sterling is helping manufacturers. A worker inspects a component on the fuel inlet production facility at Futaba Industrial in Foston, central England January 21, 2014. REUTERS/Darren Staples The Confederation of British Industry’s industrial order book balance surged in November to +17 from -2 in October, marking its highest level since August 1988. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of +3. The survey’s gauge of export orders also rocketed, hitting its highest level since June 1995. The Bank of England hopes that exports by British manufacturers can partially offset lower spending by consumers at home who have been pinched by a rise in inflation following last year’s fall in the value of the pound. As well as weaker sterling, a rebound in growth in the euro zone and beyond has helped British factories. “UK manufacturers are once more performing strongly as global growth and the lower level of sterling continue to support demand. Output growth has picked up again, and export order books match the highest in more than 20 years,” said Anna Leach, the CBIs’ head of economic intelligence. “Nonetheless, uncertainty continues to hold back investment and cost pressures remain strong.” Despite the strong reading for November, the CBI’s gauge of factory output expectations for the next three months cooled to its lowest since October 2016. Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-factories/uk-factories-enjoy-best-month-for-new-orders-since-1988-cbi-idUKKBN1DL158'|'2017-11-21T13:12:00.000+02:00'
'90396569a7d93c8fe0fa382d95f30334bde2a1d2'|'SSP Group sees lower like-for-like revenue growth in FY 2018'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:27 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago SSP beats profit estimates, boosts dividend Sanjeeban Sarkar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - SSP Group ( SSPG.L ), an operator of restaurants and bars in airports and railway stations, reported a better-than-expected profit, raised its dividend and unveiled a 100 million pound special payout for shareholders, sending its shares up as much as 8 percent. The latest full-year results were driven by increased air travel that more than offset weakness in sales at rail stations. The rail business has been hurt due to recent attacks, rail workers’ strikes and disruptions due to station redevelopments in London, the company said. Like-for-like sales increased 3.1 percent in the year ended Sept. 30, while underlying profit jumped 27 percent to 162.9 million pounds. Revenue rose 11.7 percent to 2.38 billion pounds, excluding the effects of currency change. Liberum analyst Anna Barnfather said SSP’s results were 3-4 percent ahead of her expectations. “At 29x PE for a food services business, SSP needed a positive surprise. A 3% FY17 beat and £100m special dividend qualifies as that,” Numis analyst Mark Irvine-Fortescue said. “A very strong update today, the only caveat being that ”beat and raise“ expectations are escalating,” the analyst said. SSP, however, said it expects revenue growth to slow to 2-3 percent in its 2018 financial year, citing economic and geopolitical uncertainties. The company, which has tie-ups with celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Olivier, hiked its capital expenditure by about 20 percent to 115 million pounds in 2017. SSP would look to win contracts in North America and continental Europe, while continuing to invest in Asia, CEO Kate Swann told Reuters in a call. She added that the lower revenue guidance was the company being cautious with its estimates at the beginning of the year. The special dividend, if approved by shareholders, would be paid out in spring, she said. Barclays analysts estimated revenue growth of 2.5 percent for full year 2018, retained their “overweight” rating on the stock and raised price target by 4 percent to 650 pence. SSP declared a final dividend of 4.9 pence per share, up from 2.9 pence per share a year earlier. The company''s shares were up 39 pence at 646 pence at 0952 GMT, providing the biggest boost to the FTSE Mid Cap .FTMC index. Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ssp-outlook/ssp-group-sees-lower-like-for-like-revenue-growth-in-fy-2018-idUKKBN1DM0L9'|'2017-11-22T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'c247b05d44715e6bfb4d347e10dc0b6c9802a5d1'|'Tesla cranks up big battery in Australia'|'Reuters TV United States November 23, 2017 / 3:15 AM / in an hour Tesla cranks up big battery in Australia Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) has completed construction of the world’s largest lithium ion battery in Australia, putting it on track to meet a 100-day deadline for switching the battery packs on, the South Australian government said on Thursday. Tesla Powerpacks at Neoen wind farm in Hornsdale, South Australia September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Sonali Paul Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129 megawatt hour battery for South Australia, the country’s most wind power-dependent state, with a vow from Chief Executive Elon Musk to install it within 100 days of signing a grid connection agreement or give it to the state for free. When the grid connection deal was signed on Sept 29, Tesla was already half way through installing the battery packs. The Tesla Powerpacks have now been fully installed at a wind farm run by France’s Neoen, and testing is set to begin to provide grid security services in South Australia. “While others are just talking, we are delivering our energy plan, making South Australia more self-sufficient, and providing back up power and more affordable energy for South Australians this summer,” state Premier Jay Weatherill said in a statement. The state has yet to say how much it would pay for the battery, which is part of a A$510 million ($390 million) plan that includes diesel-fired generators to help keep the lights on following a string of blackouts over the past 18 months. Australia’s energy market operator has warned that power supply will be tight this summer, particularly in South Australia and neighboring Victoria, where one of the market’s biggest coal-fired power plants was shut in March. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-australia-power-tesla/tesla-cranks-up-big-battery-in-australia-idUKKBN1DN0B4'|'2017-11-23T06:19:00.000+02:00'
'fa2694789c9ce2ca25b73fd110b51ca4a3563a97'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Emerging stocks rally for 4th week, S.Africa markets jittery'|'LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks overcame their China-fuelled jitters on Friday and were set to extended their rally for a fourth straight week, while South African assets weakened amid nervousness over a possible ratings downgrade.MSCI’s emerging market benchmark edged higher on the day, with gains of around 1.6 percent since Monday and Asia’s ex-Japan index hovered near 10-year peaks as Hong Kong bucked continued softness in the mainland shares to gain 0.6 percent.Chinese mainland stocks traded flat after dropping nearly 3 percent - their steepest fall in 18 months - on Thursday, roiled by the government pledging fresh steps to reduce financial risks and a rout in the bond market.Yet it was South Africa that held the attention of investors preparing for the latest verdict of ratings agencies Moody’s and S&P Global that could see local government bonds downgraded to junk.The rand weakened 0.3 percent against the dollar, though it was on track for a small weekly gain. Benchmark local bond yields edged lower but stayed near 20-month highs of more than 9.5 percent.A cut by both agencies would see South Africa’s $125 billion debt market lose its place in key bond indexes and in turn force index-tracking and rating-constrained funds to sell more than $10 billion in debt, analysts have predicted.Paul Greer, senior debt trader at Fidelity International predicted that active investors and local banks could use a selloff to add to their holdings.“If you look at the rand from the real perspective it looks appealing, but we are neutral because the uncertainty around the event is so high its trickier to take a large position,” said Greer.“If we get a double downgrade, we will see significant pressure on Monday and I think that will offer a buying opportunity and investors will start to look at the metrics - the high real yields and the steepness of the curve.”Despite a softer dollar, currencies elsewhere fared little better. Turkey’s lira weakened 0.5 percent on the day and looked poised for a 1.6 percent fall on the week.Turkish assets have come under renewed pressure in recent days, pummelled by concerns over the central bank coming under renewed political pressure to cut rates despite the slide in the lira and double-digit inflation.Meanwhile Russia’s rouble eked out small gains, cushioned by steady oil prices.The rouble is also on track to gain 1.6 percent on the week - its best such performance since early October.For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see)Reporting by Karin Strohecker, additional reporting by Sujata Rao, graphic by Claire Milhench '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-emerging-stocks-rally-for-4th-week-s-africa-markets-jittery-idUSL8N1NU1HU'|'2017-11-24T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'fd09d3fe55c7e4603b8e0c765684b5088088bc0e'|'UPDATE 1-What political crisis? German business morale hits record high'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:25 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago UPDATE 1-What political crisis? German business morale hits record high Reuters Staff * Rising expectations drive morale to record high * Most survey responses came before coalition talks failed * But Ifo chief still says: “economy is on track for a boom” * Filled order books support strong outlook * SPD readiness to talk could unlock political impasse (Recasts with detail, background) By Paul Carrel BERLIN, Nov 24 (Reuters) - German business confidence hit a record high in November putting Europe’s largest economy on track for a boom, the Ifo economic institute said on Friday, allaying some concerns about political instability over forming a new government. Ifo said 90 percent of responses to its monthly survey of some 7,000 firms came before the collapse late on Sunday of talks on forming a three-way coalition. But the Nov 6 to Nov 23 survey period did come as questions were being raised about what kind of government would come. The institute’s chief delivered an upbeat outlook. “The German economy is on track for a boom,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement, forecasting economic growth of 0.7 percent in the final quarter of this year after 0.8 percent in the July-September period. The Munich-based institute said its business climate index rose to 117.5 from an upwardly revised reading of 116.8 in October. This was higher than a Reuters consensus forecast for a value of 116.6. A business expectations reading surged to 111.0 from 109.2. The business confidence reading caps a positive batch of German economic data this week. On Thursday, official data showed exports and rising business investments were the main drivers of growth in the third quarter, signalling that the robust upswing will extend well into next year. Markit’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, released on the same day, also showed an economy firing on all cylinders as factories churned out goods at the fastest pace in nearly seven years in November. UNCERTAINTY Overshadowing the strong numbers is political uncertainty after conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to form a coalition government with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the ecologist Greens. But easing that somewhat, a senior member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) said early on Friday they are ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking political deadlock. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is trying to broker a deal, is keenly aware the source of Germany’s international clout is its economic power and that businesses want a stable coalition soon to end the uncertainty and avoid another poll. Steinmeier met SPD leader Martin Schulz for talks on Thursday and will meet parliamentary party leaders next week as he pushes political leaders to forge a deal and avoid new elections. “Looking ahead, filled order books and low inventories should keep the manufacturing sector an important growth engine,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski. “However, the fiscal stimulus which we had previously expected, will now clearly be delayed – though not aborted - due to the political impasse in Berlin,” he added. In a sign of the economy’s robust health, engineering group Thyssenkrupp on Thursday reported its highest annual order intake in five years. Reporting by Paul Carrel   Joseph Nasr Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-economy-ifo/update-1-what-political-crisis-german-business-morale-hits-record-high-idUSL8N1NU1NR'|'2017-11-24T18:25:00.000+02:00'
'fab87684cc15c706a3a5264e0af6a79e298ae80c'|'Beijing police probe nursery over abuse allegations'|'SHANGHAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Police in Beijing are investigating claims of child abuse at a kindergarten operated by RYB Education Inc, a Chinese pre-school operator that listed in New York in September.The official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that police were investigating allegations some teachers had abused infants at the school after parents raised concerns to police after finding unexplained needle marks on their children’s skin.RYB did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Friday. The firm says on its website that it operates a network of over 1,300 directly owned and franchised play-and-learn centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in around 300 cities and towns around China.A news report on China Central Television (CCTV) on Friday morning showed video of police and angry parents outside the school in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. Xinhua said some teachers had been suspended.The RYB investigation comes after another kindergarten in Shanghai linked to giant online travel agent Ctrip.com sparked public anger earlier this month when videos emerged of teachers physically abusing and force-feeding infants.Chinese education providers have been attracting major investment, while others have been looking for global listings, latching onto fast-rising demand from Chinese parents for high-end education services for their kids.Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Wang Jing; Editing by Michael Perry '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ryb-education-china/beijing-police-probe-nursery-over-abuse-allegations-idINL3N1NU026'|'2017-11-23T21:27:00.000+02:00'
'f8d419a49cccf69672395596daa4eb4862c38495'|'BASF shares up on report over talks to merge oil and gas unit'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BASF said it was in talks to combine its oil and gas unit Wintershall [WINT.UL] with DEA [RWEDE.UL], the energy group owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, as the German group expands its core plastics and chemicals operations.Flags of the German chemical company BASF are pictured in Monheim, Germany April 20, 2012. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo “BASF would hold the majority of the shares in the joint enterprise. An initial public offering (IPO) of the joint enterprise would be an option in the medium term,” BASF said in a statement.Fridman’s LetterOne Group outbid BASF in 2014 to acquire DEA from German utility RWE, in a move to diversify his energy interests outside Russia.DEA later put out a statement confirming the talks between LetterOne and BASF regarding a potential merger of their respective oil and gas activities. Both sides said there was no assurance that a deal would be signed.In May, Kurt Bock, BASF chief executive, said profit contributions from its oil and gas unit were diminishing further amid weak oil prices. As a result, the group would focus on boosting profitability at its chemicals and crop protection businesses.The oil and gas division, also known as Wintershall, accounts for about 8 percent of group operating profit so far this year and in 2016, down from more than 20 percent in 2015.That reflected a slump in the oil price and turmoil in Libya, one of Wintershall’s key sources of oil, following the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Other important exploration and production sites are in Norway and Russia.Patrick Lambert at brokerage Raymond James, who values Wintershall at about 10-12 billion euros ($11.9-$14.3 billion), said the talks were a move in the right direction for BASF.“BASF’s exposure to oil and gas has failed to deliver the expected hedge for its chemicals portfolio, and has led to increased volatility in terms of its cash flow generation,” he said.Adjusted operating earnings at the Wintershall oil and gas business was 533 million euros in the first nine months of the year.BASF, whose products include catalytic converters, vitamins and foam chemicals, has been on an acquisition spree during the past two years.It paid 5.9 billion euros in October to buy seed and herbicide businesses from Bayer. It also bought Solvay’s nylon business for 1.6 billion euros. In 2016, it bought Albemarle Corp’s surface-treatment unit Chemetall for $3.2 billion.Shares in BASF closed 2.9 percent higher, while the STOXX Europe 600 Chemicals index ended up 0.3 percent. DEA became a growth platform for Fridman and his partners after they and partners BP sold Russian oil venture TNK-BP for $55 billion in 2013 to state-controlled oil major Rosneft .DEA’s expansion in Britain and the United States has been hampered by Western sanctions on Russia in the row over Ukraine although Fridman and his partners are not on the sanctions list.($1 = 0.8396 euros)Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-dea-m-a-basf-se/basf-shares-up-on-report-over-talks-to-merge-oil-and-gas-unit-idINKBN1DO1FE'|'2017-11-24T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'05e3f7b0d78867c4ecb1d36df57c6f905878581b'|'UK consumer confidence slumps to post-Brexit vote low - YouGov/Cebr'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:12 AM / in 9 hours UK consumer confidence slumps to post-Brexit vote low: YouGov/Cebr Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British households are their least confident since immediately after last year’s Brexit vote, partly because of this month’s interest rate hike and further signs of a slowdown in the housing market, a survey showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A shopper checks her shopping list in a supermarket in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo A consumer confidence index produced by polling firm YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a consultancy, sank to 106.6 in November, down sharply from 109.3 in October. It was the first fall since June although it remained above the 100 level above which consumers are considered to be feeling confident. All eight of the index’s underlying measures weakened and a score for household finances over the past 30 days sank to its lowest level since January 2014. Christian Jaccarini, an economist at Cebr, linked the fall to factors including the first interest rate hike by the Bank of England in over a decade and a slowdown in the housing market. “With these economic headwinds set to persist, and the OBR forecasting weaker growth, households are understandably worried,” Jaccarini said, referring to a sharp cut to Britain’s economic growth outlook by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s fiscal watchdog, on Wednesday. British finance minister Philip Hammond announced measures to help the housing market in his budget statement also on Wednesday. The survey was conducted between Nov. 1 and Nov. 21 and was based on responses from 5,673 people. Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy/uk-consumer-confidence-slumps-to-post-brexit-vote-low-yougov-cebr-idUKKBN1DO00N'|'2017-11-24T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'e3458ed20f35068b84276c6b02bc82eb67c0af19'|'Thyssenkrupp workers increase pressure in Tata Steel JV talks'|'November 21, 2017 / 3:15 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Thyssenkrupp workers increase pressure in Tata Steel JV talks Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Labour representatives have piled pressure on Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) in talks over the group’s planned European steel joint venture with India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ), saying they remained concerned over jobs and plants. FILE PHOTO: A man wears a helmet with glasses attached during a Thyssenkrupp steel workers protest rally in Bochum, Germany, September 22, 2017, against the planned combination of the group''s European steel operations with those of Tata Steel. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in September announced plans for a joint venture that would create Europe’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ). The merger will also result in up to 4,000 job cuts, although workers fear that more will come. Earlier this month, IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union called on management to provide guarantees for jobs, plants and future investments and has requested an independent review over whether the joint venture will be able to survive on its own. It also demands the right of workers to participate in management of the venture, to be headquartered in the Netherlands. To appease workers a group of board members and labour representatives was set up shortly after the announcement, but labour leaders said that regular meetings of that group had so far failed to ease their concerns. “My impression is that this won’t fly. In its current form we cannot agree to a joint venture,” Detlef Wetzel, deputy supervisory board chairman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, said. “We expect a longer time frame for job security for employees,” Wetzel said. Labour representatives hold half of the 20 seats on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, and while a deal can still be pushed through without their consent, their approval could significantly smooth the transaction. Thyssenkrupp declined to comment and referred to recent comments from board member Oliver Burkhard, who earlier this month said the group took demands by worker representatives very seriously, calling them an important step. Thyssenkrupp is scheduled to report its full-year results on Thursday, Nov. 23, with fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest (EBIT) seen at 511 million euros (£452.4 million), up 28 percent. IG Metall, Germany’s largest union, is calling for job, plant and investment guarantees. Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger hopes to reach an agreement in early 2018. “We won’t let ourselves be put under pressure. We will negotiate as long as it is necessary,” said Markus Grolms, trade union secretary at IG Metall and vice chairman of Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board. He said an agreement in January was unlikely, adding management would have to make huge concessions to achieve this. “If necessary, we are prepared to run this aground. Management needs to finally understand this. But it’s also in their hands to prevent this.” Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers/thyssenkrupp-workers-increase-pressure-in-tata-steel-jv-talks-idUKKBN1DL1TA'|'2017-11-21T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'0f35e0061de6816bbf72c58992afde1541228036'|'Airbus A350-1000 jetliner granted safety certification by U.S., EU watchdogs'|'Reuters TV United States  11 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Airbus A350-1000 jetliner granted safety certification by U.S., EU watchdogs Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said on Tuesday the largest member of its A350 long-range jetliner family, the A350-1000, had received safety certification from European and U.S. regulators. An Airbus A350-1000 is taking part in a flying display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The decision paves the way for the 369-seat jetliner to be delivered to its first customer, Qatar Airways, before the end of the year, it said. Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Tim Hepher'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-certification/airbus-a350-1000-jetliner-granted-safety-certification-by-u-s-eu-watchdogs-idUKKBN1DL1SO'|'2017-11-21T16:59:00.000+02:00'
'313020a2c410ae6766f52b09d550aa625f8de402'|'US STOCKS-Tech stocks lift Wall Street to record high'|'* Oil prices steady ahead of OPEC meeting* Dollar Tree, Urban Outfitters rise after earnings* Medtronic gains on upbeat results* Indexes up: Dow 0.7 pct, S&P 0.66 pct, Nasdaq 0.95 pct (Changes comment, updates prices)By Sruthi ShankarNov 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street indexes hit record levels on Tuesday, with technology stocks rising for a second straight day and healthcare shares getting a boost from Medtronic’s results.With the third-quarter earnings season winding down and no major economic data in sight, trading activity is expected to slow ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.Also helping the market was a rise in oil prices ahead of next week’s OPEC meeting where major crude exporters are expected to extend production cuts.“It is a return of momentum for the market, with some of positive earnings and recommendations as catalysts,” said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank’s Private Client Reserve unit.The S&P technology index climbed more than 1 percent in the session. It has risen 38 percent this year, far outperforming the broader S&P 500 index and other major sectors.“They have been in a leadership position and have produced remarkable earnings growth,” Wiegand said.At 10:54 a.m. ET (1454 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 165.03 points, or 0.7 percent, at 23,595.36.The S&P 500 was up 17.13 points, or 0.66 percent, at 2,599.27 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 64.70 points, or 0.95 percent, at 6,855.41.Apple’s shares were up nearly 2 percent, boosting all three major indexes.Medtronic rose 5.3 percent, making it the top gainer on the S&P 500, after the medical device maker reported better-than-expected results and backed its forecast.Hormel Foods rose 5.5 percent, while Urban Outfitters gained 4.7 percent after reporting quarterly results.Lowe’s dipped marginally even as the home improvement chain reported strong sales and profit on higher demand after recent hurricanes.Signet Jewelers tanked 27 percent after reporting a surprise quarterly loss, pulling down Tiffany by more than 1 percent.Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,104 to 640. On the Nasdaq, 2,028 issues rose and 741 fell. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D‘Souza and Anil D‘Silva) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-tech-stocks-lift-wall-street-to-record-high-idINL3N1NR4JC'|'2017-11-21T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'9545c1e2a9989a5316144b939fa7ab0fbea7af9d'|'Witness in U.S. FIFA trial describes off-books payments to soccer officials'|' 53 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Witness in U.S. FIFA trial describes off-books payments to soccer officials Mica Rosenberg , Brendan Pierson 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A government witness in the U.S. corruption trial related to soccer’s world-governing body FIFA testified on Monday about millions of dollars paid to former soccer officials in exchange for broadcasting and sponsorship rights for international tournaments, all logged in a secret spreadsheet. The witness, Santiago Pena, said he was a financial manager at the Argentina-headquartered sports marketing firm Full Play from 2009 to 2015 and kept an Excel file which he presented in court. It detailed payments made to what he said were eight soccer officials from the South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL Each of the officials was given a code name in the spreadsheet of different car brands, Pena testified in Brooklyn federal court. “Honda” was Juan Angel Napout, former president of Paraguay’s soccer federation, and “Fiat” was Manuel Burga, former president of Peru’s soccer federation, Pena said. The two men are among the defendants in the trial, along with Jose Maria Marin, former president of Brazil’s soccer federation. All three have pleaded not guilty. Pena said the payments were kept off the books of the company and were paid out over time, to “get influence and get loyalty from the presidents.” The payments included cash, wire transfers and, in the case of Napout, Paul McCartney tickets and a rental house in Uruguay worth tens of thousands of dollars, Pena said. They also included a commitment of $750,000 to former president of the Venezuelan soccer federation Rafael Esquivel, code-named “Benz,” for “Q2022.” Pena said that stood for the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar, but that he did not know the purpose of those payments. Esquivel has pleaded guilty to U.S. corruption charges. He said he was instructed about the amounts and details of the payments by his bosses - the owners of Full Play, Argentine nationals Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano. The two are among the 42 people and entities charged by the United States in the probe. In the afternoon, under cross-examination by Napout’s lawyer, Silvia Pinera, Pena said he had no direct knowledge of any payments to Napout and never spoke to him directly about bribe payments. Pinera’s cross-examination is expected to continue on Tuesday, followed by cross-examination by Burga’s and Marin’s lawyers. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/soccer-fifa/witness-in-u-s-fifa-trial-describes-off-books-payments-to-soccer-officials-idUSL1N1NQ0MT'|'2017-11-21T01:50:00.000+02:00'
'add0403c684dc4c5b8a5adbcc3e966f09483b23a'|'Broadcom eyes big changes for Qualcomm''s patent practices'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:31 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Broadcom eyes big changes for Qualcomm''s patent practices Stephen Nellis , Liana B. Baker 5 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As part of its $103 billion bid to buy Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Ltd has hinted that it would make big changes to Qualcomm’s patent licensing business, a major cash-cow for the company but a source of bitter conflict with regulators and key customers including Apple Inc. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo But Broadcom has given few details about how it would go about revising Qualcomm’s practices. Qualcomm has so far rejected Broadcom’s takeover offer, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles. Patent licenses accounted for some $5.1 billion in pre-tax profits for Qualcomm in its fiscal 2017, compared with $2.7 billion in pre-tax profits for its chip business that brings in two and a half times more revenue. Thus, Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan would need to carefully pair any changes to the program with cost cuts elsewhere, with Qualcomm’s annual $5.5 billion research and development budget seen as a prime target by analysts. If Broadcom is successful in buying Qualcomm, a source familiar with the matter said that Broadcom would try to maintain the economics of the licensing business by adjusting the pricing structure between the licensing and chip selling businesses. It would also attempt to renegotiate contracts with major customers, the source said. Broadcom is eager to appease big customers like Apple, whose support is needed to overcome antitrust hurdles. While customers often look askance at consolidation among their suppliers, Broadcom has said it offers a possible solution to a conflict that has led to a regulatory crackdown, lawsuits with Apple and also has prompted others to cease paying licensing fees. At the center of the conflict is Qualcomm’s practice of requiring mobile phone makers to pay a license fee on its intellectual property in addition to what they pay for its chips. Qualcomm invented a number of foundational technologies for mobile communications. In legal complaints, Apple has called Qualcomm’s approach “double dipping.” Qualcomm has repeatedly rejected the notion that its patent practices are anticompetitive and maintains that its chip business and patent business are run separately. A Broadcom spokeswoman told Reuters in early November that it believes that regulators around the world will “welcome this deal as a solution to the double-dipping issue.” Tan said in an interview earlier this month that he believes Broadcom “can be very constructive in resolving these issues and resetting relationships. We would not have embarked on this offer if we were not confident that our common key customers would not embrace it.” Broadcom declined to comment further. Analysts said there are three possibilities for Broadcom to resolve Qualcomm’s licensing issues: sell or spin off the licensing unit, shift to a model that charges a flat fee, and simply charge more for chips, using the patents as leverage. The simplest option for Broadcom would be to spin off Qualcomm’s licensing division to financial buyers or Qualcomm shareholders, but its valuation would be hard to gauge. Revenue from the unit has declined from $7.9 billion in 2015 to $6.4 billion in Qualcomm’s fiscal 2017, largely thanks to Apple’s and another customer’s suspension of payments. If the licensing unit remains within Qualcomm, one possibility is that Qualcomm would ditch its unpopular practice of charging a percentage of the selling price of a phone in favor of a flat per-device fee, Cowen and Co analyst Karl Ackerman said in a research note. The most likely course of action, according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, is for Broadcom to end the practice of asking chip customers to pay licensing fees and instead to ask them to pay a little more for chips. At the same time, Broadcom would lock in long-term supply agreements, using Qualcomm’s patent portfolio as leverage, Rasgon said. But such a move could result in lower overall prices for customers like Apple. Rasgon estimates that Apple pays about $15 for Qualcomm’s chips and another $10 per device in licensing fees, for a total of about $25 per phone. Broadcom could simply charge between $18 and $20 for the chips. “It’s a completely different model of how to run Qualcomm,” Rasgon said. “(Broadcom’s CEO Tan) is essentially saying, ‘You guys are wrong - the licensing revenue is never coming back,''” he said. Apple declined to comment. But the company has shown that it is willing to settle its patent disputes for the right price, often with an upfront payment and then ongoing royalties. Earlier this year, Apple settled with Nokia Oyj, handing over a $2 billion upfront cash payment and undisclosed ongoing payments over several years. Rasgon estimates that one way or another Qualcomm will lose about $2.5 billion per year in royalty revenues from Apple. Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-broadcom-qualcomm-licensing/broadcom-eyes-big-changes-for-qualcomms-patent-practices-idINKBN1DL0EI'|'2017-11-21T05:31:00.000+02:00'
'1f97f30b0ff570b1c2939af95026d3e5ff354ba4'|'French shoppers to spend more online this Xmas compared to 2016'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:16 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago French shoppers to spend more online this Xmas compared to 2016   PARIS (Reuters) - French shoppers plan on average to spend more on online sales this Christmas compared to a year ago, the country’s Commerce Federation (Fevad) said on Tuesday, marking the latest sign of a gradual improvement in the economy. FILE PHOTO - Christmas holiday lights hang from trees to illuminate the rue Royale in front of the Place de la Concorde, the Luxor Obelisk and the Dome des Invalides as part of illuminations for the Christmas holiday season in Paris, France, December 22, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau The French economy expanded at its fastest pace since 2011 in the third quarter, boosted by an acceleration in consumer spending. Shoppers are expected to spend an average of 203 euros (180 pounds) per person online for Christmas presents, up 4 percent from a year ago, the Fevad body said in a statement. Online Christmas retail sales are expected to reach 15.8 billion euros, a year-on-year rise of 13 percent, as more people in France turn to the Internet for their shopping habits. This would lift total online retail sales in France to more than 80 billion euros in full-year 2017, giving a year-on-year rise of around 14 percent. France is ranked as the fifth biggest E-commerce market worldwide. In 2016, E-commerce represented 8 percent of French retail sales. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-retail-internet/french-shoppers-to-spend-more-online-this-xmas-compared-to-2016-idUKKBN1DL0SW'|'2017-11-21T11:16:00.000+02:00'
'fa1b4a5c648948bea1a0286ba349ac57d8b15c91'|'French finance minister rejects ''doom-mongering'' over Altice debt'|'November 19, 2017 / 11:06 AM / Updated 8 hours ago French finance minister rejects ''doom-mongering'' over Altice debt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Sunday rejected “doom-mongering” over the debt level of telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ), but said he would closely monitor any risks to employment. FILE PHOTO - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire attends the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Shares of the Amsterdam-based holding company have fallen more than 40 percent since it reported disappointing third-quarter results on Nov. 2, and its president Patrick Drahi has said he is shifting focus from acquisitions to reducing Altice’s 50 billion euro (44.63 billion pounds) net debt. “We should not yield to the current doom-mongering about his debt model, but I will be vigilant about the employment issue as there are more than 10,000 jobs on the line,” Le Maire said on CNEWS television. He added it was “a good thing” Drahi would focus on industrial strategy rather than new acquisitions that would increase Altice’s debt. “The maturity of Altice’s debt is six years, so he has time,” Le Maire said. Altice has grown massively in both the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, which have raised the weight of its net debt to more than five times annual core operating profit. Altice shares are down 63 percent over the past six months. Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-altice-debt-minister/french-finance-minister-rejects-doom-mongering-over-altice-debt-idUKKBN1DJ0DL'|'2017-11-19T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'1296bf6362db274ec6e394c3c48b56ee6ed2d099'|'Peter Thiel may look to buy Gawker.com: BuzzFeed'|'(Reuters) - Venture capitalist Peter Thiel may be looking to buy online news site Gawker.com, BuzzFeed said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo Thiel''s lawyers have objected to the currently ongoing sale process of Gawker.com, saying that he has been prohibited unreasonably from bidding for the website''s assets, the internet media company reported, citing a federal bankruptcy court filing. ( bzfd.it/2zYuQmk )Thiel, who is Facebook Inc’s first major investor and a co-founder of payment service PayPal, is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of Gawker. The site published an article in 2007 about Thiel’s homosexuality.He may buy the defunct website to stop any legal threats against him or to remove content, BuzzFeed reported.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gawker-com-m-a-thiel/peter-thiel-may-look-to-buy-gawker-com-buzzfeed-idUSKBN1DM2VE'|'2017-11-23T00:31:00.000+02:00'
'64c10ab1a1c71dc7cc9aa115dce5e3d8a350f140'|'Sasol pulls plug on $13-$15 bln US GTL project, to divest from Canadian shale'|'* Sasol walks away from GTL projects* Louisiana project would have cost $13 to $15 bln* $11 billion chemical project forges ahead* Company plans to divest from Canadian shale assetsBy Ed StoddardJOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - South African petrol-chemicals group Sasol has pulled the plug on all of its gas-to-liquids (GTL) greenfields projects including a U.S. one in Louisiana that carried a $13 billion to $15 billion price tag, the company said on Thursday.Walking away from the project, which would have been the biggest investment abroad by a South African company, underscores the headwinds the industry is facing in a volatile market with generally depressed prices.“While our current GTL assets are generating good returns and cash flows, the value proposition for Sasol to build new GTL projects is uneconomic against a volatile external environment and structural shift to a low oil price environment,” the company said in a statement.The company had previously delayed its final investment decision on the project because of low oil and gas prices.Sasol will also divest from its Canadian shale gas assets which hit its 2016 earnings with a 9.9 billion rand ($715 million) impairment.“There will likely be further write-downs on it,” Bongani Nqwababa, Sasol joint CEO and president, told Reuters. He cited prices and accounting requirements related to the pending sale as the main reasons.But the company is forging ahead with its Louisiana ethane cracker project, which is now estimated to cost $11.13 billion to complete and will be the biggest foreign investment by a South African group. It is now 79 percent complete.The plant will take ethane, a component of natural gas, and turn it into ethylene, used in the manufacture of plastic products.Sasol said it had completed reviews on more that half of its global assets and they “have confirmed that the majority of the company’s assets will be retained.”The company, which pioneered the conversion of coal to fuel when South Africa was subject to sanctions under apartheid, also said it saw no need to boost its crude oil refining capacity, which currently stands at 270,000 barrels per day in South Africa.On the dividend front, the company is aiming to boost its payout ratio to 40 percent of earnings per share by 2022 from 36 percent currently, and then to progressively lift it to 45 percent.$1 = 13.8630 rand Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sasol-strategy/sasol-pulls-plug-on-13-15-bln-us-gtl-project-to-divest-from-canadian-shale-idINL8N1NS5WI'|'2017-11-23T03:11:00.000+02:00'
'1d5ab9c785e2ada0886dc3a4a9d263882dbc1844'|'Bank of England rate-setters differ over chance of wage pick-up'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:06 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Bank of England rate-setters differ over chance of wage pick-up David Milliken , Andy Bruce 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England rate-setters spelled out their differences on Tuesday over the central bank’s first interest rate hike in a decade, as they focused on how to determine when low unemployment was about to push up inflation. People walk past the Bank of England in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Four of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members spoke to lawmakers, nearly three weeks after the committee voted 7-2 to raise the main rate to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent. Many economists outside the BoE thought the decision was premature given Britain’s still-weak pay growth and uncertainties about Brexit which are weighing on the economy, despite robust global growth which has led the United States and the euro zone to start to tighten monetary policy. Gertjan Vlieghe, an external MPC member, said he switched his vote to support the rate hike due to signs that employers were finding it harder to recruit staff and that employees were more confident about changing jobs for higher pay. He also said measures of underemployment were falling. “It is early days, but I do think there is some evidence that this process ... has now begun,” Vlieghe said told a parliamentary committee that monitors the BoE. “If you wait until all the signs are lined up to support the decision then you will almost always be too late.” Another MPC member who voted for the rate hike, Michael Saunders, said he thought the unemployment rate could fall only a little bit further before it started to push up inflation. “I consider it quite possible that the equilibrium jobless rate is slightly below our 4.5 percent estimate, but probably only slightly,” Saunders said. Jon Cunliffe, a BoE deputy governor who was one of the two MPC members who voted against a rate hike, said he shared the “overall framework” of the MPC’s views on the economy. But he pointed to low domestic inflation pressures, the absence of signs that the weak pound was feeding through into wage growth - so-called second round effects - and inflation expectations around their historical averages. “(These) make it possible to wait before tightening policy until there is clear evidence that pay growth is responding to the level of unemployment in line with our forecast,” Cunliffe said. The officials also said investment growth was weaker than they would have hoped, given the strong global economy, advanced stage of the business cycle and cheap cost of credit. This probably reflected Brexit uncertainties, as well as businesses’ failure to lower the minimum return they expected from projects despite the sharp fall in financing costs compared with before the financial crisis, they said. Vlieghe and Cunliffe said the central bank was not going to jump to any conclusions about Brexit - even if talks proved slow - and would stick with their assumption of a smooth departure in 2019 unless business and consumer surveys suggested otherwise. Saunders added that rapid growth in unsecured consumer borrowing and personal insolvencies was “a little bit of a concern” but said another arm of the BoE was taking steps to avoid a repeat of the conditions before the 2008 crisis. Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-boe/bank-of-england-rate-setters-air-differences-over-rate-hike-idUKKBN1DL150'|'2017-11-21T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'8a848dbd5bb146cdf16d292707e65c09611b1224'|'BP to sell stakes in Bruce fields in North Sea'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:26 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago BP to sell stakes in Bruce fields in North Sea Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - BP said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell stakes in three fields in its Bruce assets in the North Sea to Serica Energy plc. FILE PHOTO: The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The company said it expects to receive around 300 million pounds ($398 million), with a majority of it in the next four years. Serica said it would buy a 36 percent interest in Bruce, 34.83 percent in Keith and 50 percent in Rhum. BP will retain a 1 percent stake in Bruce. BP currently operates the Bruce assets, which comprise the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields and related infrastructure assets. Serica said it would pay BP an upfront payment of £12.8 million, a share of cash flows over the next four years, a consideration equivalent to 30 percent of BP’s post-tax decommissioning costs and several contingent payments dependent on future asset performance and product prices. “We remain committed to the North Sea and continue to invest. We expect our production there to double to around 200,000 barrels equivalent a day by 2020 through new projects like Quad 204 and Clair Ridge,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s upstream chief executive. The company has invested heavily in the North Sea in recent years, bringing its Quad 204 project - a multi-billion-pound redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, west of the Shetland Islands - into production earlier this year. BP is also is on track to produce first oil from the second phase of the Clair field in 2018. The company denied a July media report which said that BP was thinking of putting its entire North Sea business up for sale. Serica said that it expects the deal to boost net production by seven fold to over 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which over 85 percent is gas. It expects the deal to add to cash flow and value immediately after closing. It has an effective date of January 1 and completion is expected in mid-2018, Serica said. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bp-divestiture/bp-to-sell-stakes-in-bruce-asset-fields-in-north-sea-idUKKBN1DL0OV'|'2017-11-21T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'1735a8bc386eba3104367c5a1d3ef7c2a4193afe'|'Asia stocks falter as weakness in China markets dim mood'|'November 20, 2017 / 12:54 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Global stocks gain on global growth outlook, euro falls Herbert Lash 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equities markets advanced on Monday as confidence over economic growth around the world helped investors brush off concerns about the collapse of government coalition talks in Germany, which sent the euro lower against the U.S. dollar. Traders work on   Exchange (NYSE)   20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid In the latest indication of global growth, the central bank in Germany said the German economy is expanding into the end of the year on strong industrial activity and firms are struggling to find workers to satisfy orders. Adding to the growth story, the Conference Board’s leading economic index for the United States rose 1.2 percent in October, or double the rate economists polled by Reuters had expected. Investors shrugged off the political impasse in Germany while the U.S. leading economic indicators provided further evidence of fairly strong economic data and an economy that is still gaining traction, said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. A tug of war among investors over how to view tax reform efforts in the U.S. Congress has left the market without a strong leaning, he said. “It doesn’t seem the market can get any direction. As a result, it’s two steps forwards, one step back,” Arone said. The DAX benchmark for German stocks .GDAXI closed up 0.50 percent, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 of leading regional stocks rose 0.63 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.05 percent. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 72.09 points, or 0.31 percent, to 23,430.33. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.29 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,582.14 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 7.92 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,790.71. The dollar touched its highest against a basket of major currencies in nearly a week as the euro weakened after German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to form a three-way coalition and said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority. The breakdown of talks between Merkel’s conservative bloc, the liberal, pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens raises the prospect of new elections and clouds her future after 12 years in power. The news revived “a key risk factor” for the European single currency, said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington. “With the euro losing favour, given the messy can of worms that has been tipped over in Europe, that’s helping the U.S. dollar weather its own political uncertainties,” he said. The dollar index .DXY rose to 94.074, its highest since Nov. 14. The euro EUR= fell to $1.1720 in overnight trading following news of failed coalition talks. It fell dramatically against the Japanese yen to 131.16 yen EURJPY=, its weakest since Sept. 15. The yen JPY= weakened 0.48 percent versus the greenback at 112.61 per dollar. Oil prices slipped, extending recent weakness ahead of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries next week, while the dollar’s rally negatively affected commodities. Brent LCOcv1 dropped 0.80 percent to settle at $62.22 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.81 percent to settle at $56.09 a barrel. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled down 1.6 percent at $1,275.30. Benchmark copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.77 percent to $6,829.50 per tonne. U.S. Treasury yields rose as investors awaited minutes on Wednesday from the Fed’s last meeting. The U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged when it concluded its two-day meeting on Nov. 1 and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labour market while playing down the impact of recent hurricanes. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell 3/32 in price to yield 2.3648 percent. Germany’s 10-year bond yield dipped to its lowest level in around 1-1/2 weeks after the coalition talks failed. The yield fell around 1.5 basis points to about 0.35 percent DE10YT=RR, its lowest level since Nov. 9. Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-subdued-after-wall-street-retreats-euro-slips-idUKKBN1DK02K'|'2017-11-20T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'1a5e850e84abccf2f5a3179efc05765c7e8b78ec'|'European markets jarred by German coalition collapse'|'November 20, 2017 / 9:50 AM / Updated 4 hours ago European markets jarred by German coalition collapse Abhinav Ramnarayan 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks slipped and safe haven government bonds were in demand early on Monday as the collapse of coalition talks in Germany served as a reminder of political risk that still runs as an undercurrent in Europe. FILE PHOTO: A trader walks past the German DAX Index board on the trading floor at the Frankfurt stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday her efforts to form a three-way coalition government had failed, thrusting Germany into a political crisis and pushing Europe’s largest economy closer to a possible new election. German stocks led the move downward, with the country’s main index down by over 0.2 percent, pulling the main pan-European broader Euro STOXX 600 index lower by a similar amount. Investors instead preferred safe haven government bonds: the yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond, the benchmark for the bloc, edged lower to a 1-1/2 week low of 0.35 percent at one stage. “The collapse of the talks was a surprise and there is little clarity on how things will unfold from here. It adds to uncertainty which is weighing on risk sentiment in world markets,” said Rainer Guntermann, rates strategist at Commerzbank. Other analysts said however, that the overall sentiment towards the euro zone remains positive, reflected in the resilience of the euro on Monday. “The eurozone political story is an outlier at the moment in the G10 currency trading space. The German political news over the weekend is not a game changer in our view,” said Viraj Patel, a currency strategist at ING in London. “The broader story still remains of a recovering eurozone with improving fundamentals.” And so the euro, which had dipped to as low as $1.1722 at one stage, was back up on the day by 0900 GMT, resuming a more than 2 percent recovery against the dollar over the past two weeks. Against the yen, the single currency dipped as much as 0.8 percent in Asian trading to a two-month low of 131.16 yen. But it was flat in London trade at 131.97 yen, down just 0.2 percent on the day. In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off its session lows to be slightly down, as volatile Chinese shares reversed earlier sharp losses. Japan’s Nikkei stock average finished down 0.6 percent. “It’s year-end season, so people have more incentive to take profits,” said Kyoya Okazawa, Hong Kong-based head of institutional clients, APAC at BNP Paribas Securities. This after Wall Street had ended last week on a sour note with major indexes slipping as investors weighed the fate of the Republicans’ tax overhaul plan. The dollar edged lower against a basket of major currencies on Monday, and was close to one-month lows hit last week. Crude oil futures were mixed. Brent crude oil LCOc1 dipped 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $62.51 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 added 9 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $56.64 a barrel. Oil rebounded more than 2 percent on Friday after falling for five straight session as a major U.S. crude pipeline was shut and traders anticipated an OPEC deal to extend curbs on production. But crude prices still fell for the first week in six, pressured by rising U.S. output data and doubts that Russia would support an extension of the OPEC output cut deal. Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan, Additional reporting by Lisa Twaronite in TOKYO and Dhara Ranasinghe and Saikat Chatterjee in LONDON; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/european-markets-jarred-by-german-coalition-collapse-idINKBN1DK10X'|'2017-11-20T06:50:00.000+02:00'
'aa5c25cfd628398edfd166847fbeba229f913ad3'|'US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Verizon, chipmakers buoy Wall Street'|'November 20, 2017 / 9:08 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Verizon, chipmakers buoy Wall Street Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday with Verizon lifting the telecoms sector after the stock got an upgrade, while a deal in semiconductors boosted high-performing tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.09 points, or 0.31 percent, to 23,430.33, the S&P 500 gained 3.29 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,582.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 7.92 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,790.71. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-snapshot-verizon-chipmakers-buoy-wall-street-idUSZXN0R5W2I'|'2017-11-20T23:05:00.000+02:00'
'262e7e541b816ee16070af62efd76d6273ad2f39'|'Statoil plants flag in Big Oil''s race for ''cleaner'' crude'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:07 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Statoil plants flag in Big Oil''s race for ''cleaner'' crude Nerijus Adomaitis , Ron Bousso 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - There’s oil and then there’s oil, says Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ), which is pitched in a race to develop the cleanest crude as countries wean themselves off fossil fuels. FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Statoil is seen during a company results presentation in London, Britain February 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo While the world will need oil and gas for decades to come, Statoil’s Chief Executive Eldar Saetre expects that many oil deposits will never be tapped as increasingly discerning consumers will demand only the lowest-polluting crude. “A lot of fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground, coal obviously ... but you will also see oil and gas being left in the ground, that is natural,” Saetre told Reuters in an interview in London. “At Statoil we are not pursuing certain types of resources, we are not exploring for heavy oil or investing in oil sands. It is really about accessing the most carbon-efficient barrels.” Around 70 percent of the world’s discovered oil resources is heavy oil and bitumen, both highly viscous crudes that are more complex and energy-intensive to extract and process than lighter crude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The comments from a senior oil executive may raise alarm bells for oil-rich countries such as Venezuela and Canada that mostly produce heavy oil. The retreat from energy-intensive oil production in Canada and elsewhere is already taking place. Statoil sold its entire Canadian oil sands business late last year to Athabasca Oil Corp ( ATH.TO ), and Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) and Marathon Oil ( MRO.N ) have all scaled back their operations in the country. Statoil is now exploring for new resources offshore Norway and Brazil where oil is lighter and abundant. “The world needs to develop more efficient barrels... Competitiveness to me is carbon competitiveness and cost competitiveness,” Saetre said. Shell, Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ) and France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) have also invested billions in recent years in Brazil’s oil wealth, and companies are vying to discover and develop resources in other light-oil provinces such as the North Sea as well as shale basins in the United States. Growing pressure from investors on oil companies to reduce their carbon emissions, is propelling the trend - highlighted last week when Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund announced plans to cut investments in oil and gas companies. “Investment sentiment towards carbon is starting to harden and it does need to be part of the decision making,” said Tom Ellacott, senior analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. “There is an economic perspective as well with the risk of future carbon taxes which you are more likely to be impacted by if you have a carbon-intensive portfolio,” Ellacott said. Saertre was speaking to Reuters before the announcement by Norway’s sovereign fund, which is not allowed to invest in Norwegian-listed companies including Statoil. AMBITIOUS TARGETS The world’s leading offshore oil and gas operator, Statoil is at the forefront of the sector’s drive to reduce carbon emissions and play a role in the transition to renewable energy such as wind and solar. The Stavanger-based company and its peers including Shell, BP ( BP.L ) and Exxon are also betting on natural gas to displace more polluting coal to produce electricity. Saetre, 61, has led Statoil since October 2014, setting the most ambitious targets among the world’s top oil companies to invest 15-20 percent of its capital expenditure on clean energy by 2030. Still, it will continue to focus primarily on oil and gas production for decades to meet demand, Saetre said. The company is developing one of the world’s largest oil discoveries in decades, the Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway which is expected to begin production by the end of 2019. Statoil has also invested in shale, but Saetre said it had no plans to increase its production in U.S. shale formations, which stood at around 225,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The resurgence of unconventional shale production in the United State since the start of the decade was a key factor behind the sharp drop in oil prices since 2014. Its vast potential resources and production flexibility are expected to limit any gains in oil prices as global supplies return to normal levels. Saetre, however, said that bottlenecks in the U.S. shale supply chain, such as a shortage in crews and rigs, as well as funding issues could impede growth in production. “I would have expected to see more response from the shale at a price of $55-60 a barrel than we have seen,” he said. Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-statoil-oil/statoil-plants-flag-in-big-oils-race-for-cleaner-crude-idUKKBN1DL1FR'|'2017-11-21T15:06:00.000+02:00'
'c099deb2dff1746937e3f3d57206d290a3c8da79'|'UPDATE 1-Euro zone shares get PMI boost, Centrica sinks'|'* STOXX 600 down 0.2 pct* Euro zone stocks, blue-chips rise on strong PMIs* Altice jumps on asset sale report* Telecom Italia rises on speculation of network spin-off (ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon, see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)By Helen ReidLONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - European shares dipped on Thursday, tracking more timid Wall Street trading as volumes thinned out for the Thanksgiving holiday, while euro zone stocks drove higher, boosted by strong business growth figures for the bloc.The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.2 percent, while euro zone blue chips erased early losses to trade up 0.2 percent after business surveys for the bloc cemented optimism on the economy.Euro zone businesses boomed into the year end as November composite, services and manufacturing PMIs beat all forecasts in Reuters polls.“This supports our view that the economy is in a very healthy condition,” said Britta Weidenbach, head of European equities at Deutsche Asset Management.Societe Generale strategists however warned “the eurozone recovery is now a well-known story”, and were less enthusiastic about the potential for equities in the new year, adding that a heavy political agenda in Europe could affect markets.British stocks lagged peers, down 0.3 percent, as energy firm Centrica plummeted after results.Centrica dropped 16.4 percent, set for its biggest daily drop ever, after it lost 823,000 or about 6 percent of its energy customers in four months and full-year earnings missed market estimates.“The question now is whether this weakness will persist in to 2018, and the longer-term potential impact on the dividend,” said Morgan Stanley analysts.Leading European gainers was Altice, jumping 4.7 percent after a report the debt-ridden French telecoms and cable group was looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic.Its shares are still down nearly 60 percent from the start of the year as funds sold out of the company’s U.S. unit.“The shares have de-rated but we remain neutral given our continued concerns about the long-term impact from Altice’s strategy,” said Credit Suisse analysts, adding the company’s strategy shift and asset sales could however be an upside risk.Thyssenkrupp reversed early losses to trade up 1 percent after demand for elevators helped boost its orders to a five-year high.Telecom Italia shares rose 4.7 percent on speculation about a possible spin-off of its telephone network, and after the firm said it would work with Rome under special “golden powers” to protect it as a strategic asset.“Ongoing discussions with Rome aimed at easing tensions are welcome,” said Mediobanca analysts in a note, adding: “Network separation with disposal of minority stake would be a value creative option.”As the earnings season drew near its close, MSCI Europe earnings growth was tracking 10.1 percent in dollar terms while companies in the MSCI EMU enjoyed 11.1 percent earnings growth.“The Q3 results season was exactly in line with our expectations, definitely supporting the view that the European equity market will show double-digit earnings growth this year in euro terms,” said Weidenbach.“This is really the turnaround that we were awaiting – beforehand we had not seen earnings growth over five years.”Analysts have been revising down earnings estimates for European companies this quarter. Deutsche’s Weidenbach put this down to the strengthening euro denting expectations for earnings from foreign-exposed companies especially in healthcare and consumer staples.Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by William Maclean '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/update-1-euro-zone-shares-get-pmi-boost-centrica-sinks-idINL8N1NT1RD'|'2017-11-23T07:26:00.000+02:00'
'73505c68ac6bc21f24cea06be12b3f253dbfdb67'|'Brazil pushes back decision on Bayer-Monsanto tie-up'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian antitrust agency Cade on Wednesday extended its deadline to review the takeover of Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) by Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) by 90 days to late March, potentially spoiling plans to wrap up the $66 billion tie-up by the end of the year.The Brazilian national flag is seen next to Bayer''s flag in front of Bayer headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker A spokesman said Cade had approved the extension at a session on Wednesday.Bayer and Monsanto declined to comment on the decision.The proposed takeover, announced in September 2016, would create the world’s largest pesticides and seeds company. Brazil is Monsanto’s biggest market outside of the United States.In February, Bayer said it was aiming to get regulatory clearances and close the transaction before the end of 2017.The extension of Cade’s review could push a decision to March 20. A ruling had initially been expected in late December.Under Brazilian law, Cade has as many as 330 days to make a final decision on any merger. Its review of the Bayer-Monsanto deal started on April 24.Last month, a technical division of Cade said the deal could be detrimental to competition and urged conditions for Brazil to approve the tie-up.The European Commission has also pushed back the deadline for its antitrust review of the deal and now expects to make a decision by March 5.Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-antitrust/brazil-pushes-back-decision-on-bayer-monsanto-tie-up-idINKBN1DM2VG'|'2017-11-22T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'ea110383d9cbbafc86bf351403199659a9829dad'|'Mitchells & Butlers full-year like-for-like sales rise'|' 28 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Mitchells & Butlers pulls interim dividend, shares tumble Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British pub operator Mitchells & Butlers ( MAB.L ) posted a smaller full-year profit due to higher costs and said it would not pay an interim dividend in 2018, sending its shares down more than 12 percent in morning trade. The company, which runs the Nicholson’s and All Bar One pub chains, said   fell 3.1 percent in the year ended Sept. 30. However, like-for-like sales grew 1.8 percent in the period, compared with a 0.8 percent drop the previous year. Like other operators in the sector, Mitchells & Butlers has been battling increased costs, most notably from wage inflation, property costs and exchange rate movements. Earlier this month, rival pub group JD Witherspoon ( JDW.L ) warned about the impact of higher input costs, as the sterling took a hit after the Brexit vote in 2016. The move to cancel dividend raised concerns about the company’s cash-flow and growth prospects, Liberum analysts said. However, Morgan Stanley analysts said the decision to pay the final dividend suggested that there were no immediate issues, and that the company was concerned about the long-term outlook. Shares of the company were trading at 232 pence at 0903 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, on course for their worst session since late-June 2016. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mitchells-butler-results/mitchells-butlers-full-year-like-for-like-sales-rise-idUKKBN1DN0LV'|'2017-11-23T09:27:00.000+02:00'
'926686a983af1ccc6c7b2997533338a8ff3e13c4'|'Uber''s messy data breach collides with launch of SoftBank deal'|'November 22, 2017 / 6:29 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Uber''s messy data breach collides with launch of SoftBank deal Jim Finkle , Heather Somerville 6 Min Read TORONTO/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A newspaper advertisement for an Uber Technologies Inc stock sale was juxtaposed on Wednesday with a report that the ride-service provider had covered up a data hack - something of a metaphor for Uber, a company with boundless investor interest, but whose penchant for rule-breaking has led to a series of scandals. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo The stock sale advertised in the New York Times will enable Uber [UBER.UL] investors to sell their shares to Japanese investor SoftBank, a critical deal for the company whose problems included building software to spy on competitors and to evade regulators and being investigated in Asia for paying bribes. Uber on Tuesday said that it had paid hackers $100,000 to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and drivers that was stolen from the company - and decided under the previous CEO Travis Kalanick not to report the matter to victims or authorities. Uber was first hacked in October 2016 and discovered the data breach the following month. Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the helm in August with the mission of turning around the company and overhauling its culture, acknowledged in a blog that Uber had erred in its handling of the breach. (ubr.to/2AmxlQt) The timing of the disclosure could hardly have been worse. The company is trying to complete a deal with SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) in which the Japanese firm would invest as much as $10 billion for at least 14 percent of the company, mostly by buying out existing shareholders. SoftBank is advertising to find shareholders who want to sell. Uber last month announced a preliminary deal for the SoftBank investment. One question is whether SoftBank will now try to alter the price of the deal. One source familiar with the matter said SoftBank is planning to stick to its agreement to invest in Uber but may seek better terms. SoftBank has not yet made a final decision on whether to renegotiate, the source said. Another question is the future of Kalanick, the co-founder who led Uber to becoming a global powerhouse but did so with aggressive and controversial tactics. He was forced out by investors in June who feared his leadership style would damage the company, although he stayed on the board and remains a significant shareholder. A bitter battle among investors over how to resolve Uber’s problems led to a lawsuit by early investor Benchmark, which sought to oust Kalanick from any role. But a settlement was reached earlier this month to pave the way for the SoftBank deal, with Kalanick retaining his board seat and other rights. Kalanick was made aware of the hack last November and was aware of the $100,000 payment, according to a person close to the matter. Kalanick has declined to comment. Uber did not respond to questions from Reuters on Wednesday. MULTIPLE INVESTIGATIONS, LAWSUITS The scope of the repercussions Uber will face for the October 2016 data breach began to take shape Wednesday with governments around the world opening investigations. Authorities in Britain, Australia and the Philippines said they would investigate Uber’s response to the data breach. London’s transport regulator, which has been in discussions with Uber after stripping it of its license to operate, said it was pressing Uber for details. Canada’s privacy watchdog said that it had asked Uber for details on the breach, though it had not launched a formal investigation. Attorneys general offices in at least six U.S. states along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have announced they are looking into the matter. Some states are likely to go after Uber for breaking laws on data breach notification within a reasonable period of time. At least two class action lawsuits have been filed against the company in the United States for failing to disclose the data breaches and causing potential harm to consumers. Uber said that it has been in touch with the FTC and several states to discuss a hack and pledged to cooperate. Legal experts said the company is likely to face limited financial fallout from data-breach lawsuits. Uber might succeed in squelching them outright because its agreements with both customers and drivers call for mandatory arbitration of disputes. Uber fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, Craig Clark, over their role in handling the hack. The board of directors had commissioned an investigation into Sullivan and his team, which is how the breach was discovered. The board committee concluded that neither Kalanick nor Salle Yoo, who was general counsel at the time, had been consulted in the company’s response to the breach, according to a second person familiar with the matter. It is unclear what the board of directors knew, if anything. Multiple board members did not respond to requests for comment. “The scope of this breach is something the Uber board should have been briefed about and consulted on at the very least,” said Cynthia Clark, an associate professor of management at Bentley University. “It’s a monitoring issue and one of strategy and reputation.” Clark said that these sorts of risks could affect Uber’s IPO, which the board has agreed will take place in 2019. The company has begun overhauling its security practices with help from Matt Olsen, former general counsel of the U.S. National Security Agency and director of the National Counterterrorism Center, CEO Khosrwoshahi said. Uber in August settled with the FTC after the regulator found the company failed to protect the personal information of passengers and drivers, an agreement that requires 20 years of regular auditing of Uber’s data. After this week’s disclosures, Uber can expect “more audits and more people inside of the company” from regulators, said cyber security attorney Steven Rubin. Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington, Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Alastair Sharp in Toronto.; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-cyberattack/uber-breach-cover-up-trigger-government-probes-around-the-globe-idUKKBN1DM2F9'|'2017-11-23T04:59:00.000+02:00'
'8d142d2bbe8939239fb7c2b488845fdf726b31c3'|'Israel''s Bank Hapoalim to provision $80 mln in Q3 for U.S. tax case'|'  Israel''s Bank Hapoalim to provision $80 mln in Q3 for U.S. tax case Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TEL AVIV, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank, said on Thursday it will provision an additional $80 million in the third quarter to cover a possible future settlement in a U.S. tax evasion investigation. This would bring the total amount Hapoalim has provisioned for the tax investigation to $268.5 million, it said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The bank said it could not estimate the amount it might eventually have to pay. “It is possible that the amounts the bank will pay in reaching a settlement with U.S. authorities, if one is reached, will be significantly higher than the provision,” the bank said. (Reporting by Tova Cohen, Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bank-hapoalim-probe-provision/israels-bank-hapoalim-to-provision-80-mln-in-q3-for-u-s-tax-case-idUSL1N1NT0CD'|'2017-11-23T10:11:00.000+02:00'
'db4223f668133dfee386d0360745d6d778a2cac8'|'U.S. oil prices near 2-year high on pipeline shutdown, falling inventories'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - U.S. crude hit a two-year high in thin trade on Thursday as the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada and a draw on fuel inventories pointed to a tightening market, despite rising output from U.S. producers.A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 54 cents at $58.56 per barrel by 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), close to a two-year peak of $58.58 touched earlier in the session.Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $63.55 per barrel, 23 cents above its previous close.Trading volumes were thin because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.The shutdown on TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline following a spill last week has helped drive oil prices higher because of expectations it will reduce crude stocks in the U.S. storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma.“Inventories should drain sharply in the next few weeks given the uncertain timeline for a restart of the Keystone pipeline, a major artery for Canadian heavy oil barrels into the heart of the Cushing hub,” said Martin King, a GMP FirstEnergy analyst in Calgary.Prices also found support from a drawdown in commercial fuel inventories in the United States.U.S. stocks C-STK-T-EIA fell 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, and have dropped 15 percent from record highs in March to below 2016 levels.The market shrugged off data showing U.S. output C-OUT-T-EIA has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd, helping turn the United States from the world’s biggest importer to a major exporter.Climbing U.S. output threatens efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and some other non-OPEC producers to reduce global supplies by limiting their production.“Whatever OPEC will be discussing and ... agreeing upon can be made redundant by the actions of U.S. suppliers, which are likely to hike up production in a similar order,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank.He said another rise of 800,000 to 1 million bpd in U.S. output in 2018 would mean “attempts by OPEC to tighten the market may not be successful.”OPEC meets on Nov. 30 to discuss policy, with Saudi Arabia lobbying for extending cuts that are due to expire in March.Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Polina Ivanova in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-near-two-year-high-on-pipeline-shutdown-falling-inventories-idUSKBN1DN08G'|'2017-11-23T03:53:00.000+02:00'
'12be7a0bf94651fbe1e586c48fdc2a554cf07200'|'Exclusive: DaVita explores sale of physician network business -sources'|'(Reuters) - DaVita Inc ( DVA.N ), the largest U.S. provider of kidney care services, is exploring a sale of its physician network business, DaVita Medical Group, that could value the unit at up to $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The deliberations are still in their preliminary stages, and DaVita may decide not to go through with a sale, the sources said on Wednesday, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.DaVita Medical Group could attract interest from a variety of bidders, including private equity firms and health insurers, the people said.DaVita did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) on the potential sale, the sources added. Goldman declined comment.DaVita Medical Group has been a significant drag on its parent company’s performance in recent quarters. DaVita has attributed the decline to delayed payments from federal healthcare program Medicare Advantage, and a recent uptick in the costs of treating some of their patients.“We recognize that the business is not achieving our capital return expectations nor is it contributing to [operating income] growth,” Davita Chief Financial Officer Joel Ackerman said on an earnings call this month.In its most recent quarter, DaVita Medical Group reported an adjusted operating loss of $5 million.To boost profits and hold down costs, DaVita recently announced it was slashing 350 non-clinical positions at Davita Medical Group, which it said could produce annual savings of around $40 million in 2018.The company also said that it is “pursuing strategic alternatives for underperforming assets across our businesses and across markets.”The outsourced physician services sector as a whole has been under pressure in recent months, with major players, including DaVita Medical Group, Mednax Inc ( MD.N ) and Envision Healthcare Corp ( EVHC.N ), all struggling to adjust to changes in how healthcare providers are reimbursed.Federal reimbursement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, for example, have been increasingly trying to shift to a so-called “value based” payment model, where in some cases fixed payments are given to providers, who are then incentivized to control costs.Envision announced plans to explore strategic alternatives in November. It had earlier attracted investments from activist hedge funds Starboard Value and Corvex Management.Last week, Elliott Management, another activist hedge fund, announced a 7 percent stake in Mednax and said it should explore a potential sale. It joined activist Blue Harbor Group, which had previously bought into the stock.Reporting by Carl O''Donnell in New York; Editing by Bill Rigby and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-davita-m-a-davita-medical-group-exclu/exclusive-davita-explores-sale-of-physician-network-business-sources-idINKBN1DM2PB'|'2017-11-22T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'aab892edd018cfe8a655669ba32aae0d0e0120a9'|'SoftBank funding may spur Uber to re-think tough Southeast Asian market'|'SINGAPORE(Reuters) - SoftBank Group’s ( 9984.T ) multi-billion dollar investment in Uber Technologies Inc opens up the possibility of combining it with other ride-hailing assets the Japanese group owns in a consolidation of a rapidly growing business across Asia, industry sources say.FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said on Nov. 12 that a planned deal with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The consortium plans to inject $1 billion to $1.25 billion into Uber, and buy up to 17 percent of existing shares in a secondary transaction.SoftBank has also been a big investor in Uber’s rivals across Asia, including Southeast Asia’s Grab, China’s DiDi Chuxing, and India’s Ola, as it works to achieve founder Masayoshi Son’s vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence and interconnected devices.At the same time, ride-hailing companies have been competing fiercely across Asia to attract both riders and drivers, with discounts and promotions that have driven down profit margins.“SoftBank will play a consolidating role,” said a source close to Singapore-based Grab. “SoftBank as a board director in both companies (Uber and Grab) would fundamentally change the conversation.”The source declined to be named due to sensitivity of the subject.SoftBank and Grab declined to comment for this story.At $68 billion, Uber is the most highly valued venture-backed company in the world. But the lofty valuation has come at the cost of a heavy hit to Uber’s bottom line, which the firm has said was necessary to establish itself in new markets.“Doing a deal and combining the two businesses in Southeast Asia makes a ton of sense,” said the source close to Grab. “He (Uber’s CEO) cuts his losses and gets a stake in the business that is from his perspective more than just ride-sharing,” the source said, referring to Grab’s foray into other markets for digital or cashless payments.Any deal will likely be similar to the one Uber struck with DiDi last year, in which it took a stake in the Chinese company and pulled out its own business, the source said.‘OVER-CAPITALIZED’ MARKETIt’s not clear whether SoftBank has discussed or proposed any deal with Grab with Uber’s directors. The SoftBank investment into Uber has not yet been finalised.Uber declined to comment but pointed to a statement by Uber’s new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi at the New York Times DealBook conference earlier this month, saying the company “is in a very strong competitive position” in every market he has learned about. “To the extent that we have a competitor and we’re spending the same amount on incentives, we tend to gain share because our product, or brand, or services are just better.”But Khosrowshahi acknowledged the challenges Uber faces in Southeast Asia, saying the market is “over-capitalized at this point”.The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay “We’re going in, and we’re leaning forward. But I‘m not optimistic that market is going to be profitable any time soon,” he said.People close to the SoftBank and Uber deal told Reuters many stakeholders would like to give the competition in Southeast Asia more time to play out, given the appeal of cheap labor and a growing middle class with disposable income in the region.However, shutting down Uber’s Southeast Asia operations to cut losses would enable the firm to “print money,” making for a much more palatable IPO, said one Uber investor, who declined to be named. Uber says it plans a stock market listing in 2019.While many tech firms go public without a profit, Uber’s level of loss -- $645 million in the second quarter this year -- could be alarming to some investors.Vinnie Lauria, a founding partner at venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures, which has invested in over 30 firms across Asia, said he, too, thinks Uber will pull out of Southeast Asia.“I can’t say with certainty, but I feel fairly confident that after this (SoftBank-Uber) transaction, we would see Uber sell off their Southeast Asian operations to Grab or (China‘s) DiDi.”Grab was the top-ranked ride-hailing app in combined monthly active users on iPhone and Android phones in the first half of 2017 in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to mobile data analytics firm App Annie.In Indonesia, Go-Jek outranks both Grab and Uber.EXECUTIVE CHURN After folding its China business into DiDi last year, Uber sharpened its focus and resources on India and Southeast Asia, the latter a promising market of nearly 650 million people, many of whom are young and tech-savvy.But Uber has struggled in Asia, having run-ins with some local regulators, including more recently in the Philippines, and seeing a slew of exits by senior executives in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and India.Last week, Uber said its chief of policy for India and South Asia had quit in another blow to the firm’s efforts to improve relationships with governments.Brooks Entwistle, Uber’s recently appointed chief business officer of Asia Pacific, told Reuters he was looking at the long term in Southeast Asia. His priority is to collaborate closely with regulators, fill senior positions and partner with traditional taxi companies, he said.Grab, meanwhile, bolstered by its financing from Softbank and DiDi, has expanded from ride-hailing to other digital payment solutions as it looks to use its platform for financial services such as lending.Additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE, Heather Somerville in SAN FRANCISCO and Sam Nussey in TOKYO; Editing by Bill Tarrant '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uber-southeast-asia/softbank-funding-may-spur-uber-to-re-think-tough-southeast-asian-market-idINKBN1DL05I'|'2017-11-21T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'72233701e814c34d9dd8b03794c1efd7cc5e6095'|'Honda to use Facebook to find owners with defective Takata airbags'|'November 20, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Honda to use Facebook to find owners with defective Takata airbags Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd ( 7267.T ) said on Monday it will use Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) custom audiences tool to find car owners with defective Takata airbags. A recalled Takata airbag inflator removed it from a Honda Pilot is shown at the AutoNation Honda dealership service department in Miami, Florida, United States on June 25, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo The tool, which allows advertisers to reach a specified list of users, will match encrypted email addresses associated with recalled vehicle identification numbers to Facebook users. Japan’s Takata Corp’s ( TKTDQ.PK ) air bag inflators have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles. Honda, whose vehicles account for 17 of the 18 deaths worldwide, has been by far the most aggressive in reaching out to affected customers. A report issued on Friday by an independent monitor of the Takata recalls said more than 10 million U.S. vehicles and 18.5 million faulty Takata air bag inflators remain unrepaired in the largest ever auto recall. Automakers have recalled or expect to recall by 2019 about 125 million vehicles worldwide to replace air bag inflators, including more than 60 million in the United States. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-honda-takata/honda-to-use-facebook-to-find-owners-with-defective-takata-airbags-idUKKBN1DK1KB'|'2017-11-20T15:43:00.000+02:00'
'94f0fc778c4b449bf8ae9d44418d2457f92b1153'|'Malaysia, Indonesia say EU palm resolution will affect millions'|' 51 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Malaysia, Indonesia say EU palm resolution will affect millions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Millions of people running small-time oil palm plantations will suffer if the European Parliament goes ahead with “unfair” measures that could curb palm oil use, the world’s two largest palm oil producers said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A worker collects palm oil fruit inside a palm oil factory in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia February 18, 2014. REUTERS/Samsul Said/File Photo In April, the European Parliament backed a call for greater vetting of palm and other vegetable oils used in biofuels to prevent the European Union’s renewable transport targets for post-2020 leading to deforestation. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the resolution by the European Parliament singles out palm oil, even as the production of other vegetable oils has “shown to contribute to the deforestation”. They said restricting market access for palm oil would also work against the United Nations’ goal of eradicating poverty and raising income levels. “Any discriminatory measures arising from the Resolution will not only be seen as unfair practices to trade but will also affect the livelihood of millions of palm smallholders in Indonesia and Malaysia,” the two leaders said in a joint statement. This is the first time top leaders from both the countries have weighed in on the issue. Najib and Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, had met in the Malaysian state of Kuching for the 12th annual consultation between both countries. The European Parliament’s resolution calls for a single Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) scheme for Europe-bound palm and other vegetable oil exports to ensure they are produced in an environmentally sustainable way. EU lawmakers said the move was a bid for a wider discussion on the issues after environmental groups such as Greenpeace warned of harmful impact on climate mitigation and biodiversity. While the report is not binding, EU lawmakers are now reviewing and proposing amendments to EU draft targets on biofuels, which will then go before the European Commission and member states. Reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indonesia-malaysia-palmoil/malaysia-indonesia-say-eu-palm-resolution-will-affect-millions-idUKKBN1DM0ZD'|'2017-11-22T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'bb2313c7d8e2a16de6c6d0ad10187de6eddace4c'|'ECB hopes to go into policy hibernation, sources say'|'November 22, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago ECB hopes to go into policy hibernation, sources say Balazs Koranyi 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will reaffirm its policy stance at its December meeting, and rate-setters hope to put off debate on new moves until well into next year, five sources with direct knowledge of the discussion told Reuters. Flags in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) before a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach After buying 2.2 trillion euros ($2.59 trillion) worth of bonds since March 2015, the ECB decided in October to cut monthly purchases in half, reflecting the euro zone’s best economic performance in a decade. But it also extended the scheme by nine months, since inflation is still barely rising. The complex set of decisions pushed out any prospect of a rate increase until 2019, and the sources said they were pleased that investors saw the move as prolonging cheap money rather than tightening policy. “The first rate hike is now priced in for late 2019, and I‘m comfortable with that,” one of the sources said. “The October decision was taken very well by markets.” Although ECB President Mario Draghi has said that some decisions may be left for December, the sources expected the year’s last meeting to be uneventful. “We’ll take stock and reaffirm that the October decision was the correct one,” a second source said. “We’ll get new forecasts, and they may be a touch higher, so that’s good, too. And we’ll have a discussion about the composition (of future asset buys). That’s about it.” The discussion on composition will be about the proportion of public and private-sector debt it buys. Policymakers are likely to agree on broad principles, but the ECB will have a fair amount of discretion in the exact distribution of purchases, several sources said. The ECB declined to comment. Although the ECB kept the door open to further extensions of the asset purchases, the sources said that there was a common understanding that bond buying would be phased out by the end of 2018 if the economy and inflation develop as now forecast. “That’s not a commitment, though. If there are shocks, we will respond,” a third source said. “We are not pre-committing so our options are open.” Before any decision to exit bond buys, the ECB will have to prepare markets, through changes in its language and possibly a tweak to its guidance, which now stipulates that purchases may be increased in size or duration. Yet the sources said that any substantial discussion about changes in the stance would be put off for months, with the ECB preferring to go into hibernation as long as the economy develops as expected. “We of course always discuss policy, but I don’t expect a substantial discussion before March or possibly mid-year,” a fourth source said. “It’s now scheduled to go until the end of September and we’ll make the next decision relatively close to that.” The sources added that no decision has been made regarding any of the future meetings and that there has been no formal discussion about the bank’s next step. ($1 = 0.8511 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy/ecb-hopes-to-go-into-policy-hibernation-sources-say-idUKKBN1DM1H7'|'2017-11-22T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'0396f32f4d69766f9d718732693d7d90eb0507f0'|'Law likely on AT&T''s side in Time Warner battle - analysts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:11 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Republican-appointed judge to hear AT&T lawsuit, Time Warner shares rise Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A Republican-appointed judge with extensive antitrust experience was selected on Tuesday to preside over the U.S. government’s lawsuit to block AT&T Inc’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc, sending Time Warner shares higher as investors bet the judge would be more likely to allow the deal to proceed. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Judge Richard Leon, a senior judge on the District of Columbia District Court, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, was assigned to the case after it was initially allotted to Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama administration appointee. Judges for antitrust cases are selected randomly. No explanation was given as to why the case was reassigned. Republican-appointed judges are generally, but not always, more business-friendly than those appointed by Democrats. Shares of Time Warner added to gains after Leon’s selection, and were trading up 2.5 percent at $89.86 at midday, signaling that investors believe the deal has a better chance of being approved. The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued AT&T arguing that the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.” FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo AT&T has vowed to defend the $85.4 billion deal. The Department of Justice’s move to block it was “foolish” because the deal posed no threat to consumers, the wireless carrier’s trial lawyer Dan Petrocelli told CNBC on Tuesday. “We want to go to court as soon as possible,” Petrocelli told CNBC, saying the burden of proof was on the government. AT&T will ask the court for an expedited trial next week, a source familiar with case said. The Justice Department has not successfully litigated to stop a vertical deal - where the merging companies are not direct competitors, as is the case with AT&T and Time Warner - since the 1970s, when it prevented Ford Motor Co from buying assets from spark-plug maker Autolite. The case will be closely watched because U.S. President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Time Warner’s CNN, and opposed AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner on the campaign trail last year, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T’s hands. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; and Diane Bartz and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/law-likely-on-atts-side-in-time-warner-battle-analysts-idUKKBN1DL1GL'|'2017-11-21T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'17cd3fb605076a618d27063ab54160c42ded366e'|'BHP, Vale get extension to settle $48 billion Samarco claim'|'(Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd ( BHP.AX ) and Vale SA ( VALE5.SA ) have secured a 150-day extension from a Brazilian court to negotiate a settlement of a $48 billion claim stemming from the Samarco mine disaster in 2015, BHP said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: A cupboard is pictured in debris in Bento Rodrigues district, which was covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, in Mariana, Brazil, November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes/File Photo The settlement date, which had been set for Nov. 16, has been extended to April 20, 2018.Nineteen people died and nearby towns were inundated with flood waters after a dam designed to hold back mine waste burst on Nov. 5, 2015, causing Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster.BHP and Vale also entered into an amendment agreement that brings the Brazilian prosecutors into the preliminary agreement regarding the settlement of the mine disaster claims, BHP said.The amendment agreement is subject to approval by the Brazilian court, BHP added.BHP shares rose 0.2 percent in early trade, in line with the benchmark index .Reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bhp-billiton-ltd-samarco/bhp-vale-get-extension-to-settle-48-billion-samarco-claim-idUSKBN1DK2OM'|'2017-11-21T01:28:00.000+02:00'
'e41e1a5be40d5b7640cb172c3841f9fa45115b48'|'Gold prices rise, North Korea tensions support'|'(Reuters) - Gold prices crept up on Tuesday ahead of the release the next day of minutes of the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, which could offer clues on the pace of potential interest rate hikes by the central bank.A jeweler places a stone on a gold bracelet at a jewelry workshop in Peshawar, Pakistan July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz/Files Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,279.21 per ounce by 0553 GMT. The metal fell about 1.4 percent on Monday in its biggest one-day percentage drop since Sept. 11.U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 0.3 percent to $1,279.20.“Given the fact that the December rate hike is almost a done deal, market watchers will look more closely at what is the Fed rhetoric for post-December,” said OCBC analyst Barnabas Gan.Higher interest rates tend to boost the dollar and push bond yields up, putting pressure on gold prices by increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday she would resign her seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors once Jerome Powell is confirmed and sworn in to replace her as head of the U.S. central bank.“The fact that Yellen has now confirmed (she will be leaving) is adding a little bit of volatility as traders adjust their positions while they make sense of the implications of the incoming new Fed chairman Jerome Powell in terms of interest rate direction,” said Loh Mun Chun, director, private wealth at GoldSilver Central in Singapore.Traders were also keeping an eye on safe-haven demand for gold after U.S. President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday.“It is very hard to predict as to what Trump is going to do ... We are waiting to see how North Korea reacts and whether it escalates global tensions,” OCBC’s Gan said.Spot gold may break support at $1,274 per ounce, and fall towards the Oct. 6 low of $1,260.16, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.In other markets, the dollar gave back some of its gains in Asian trading but remained within sight of a one-week high against a basket of currencies as German political uncertainty continued to pressure the euro.With the U.S. dollar weakening slightly after its overnight rally, gold maintained its inverse relationship and drifted higher, said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst with OANDA.Silver rose 0.2 percent to $16.95 an ounce and platinum was up 0.5 percent at $928.50. Palladium gained 0.3 percent to $991.50 an ounce.On Monday, silver fell 2.3 percent, its biggest one-day percentage fall since Sept. 26, while platinum lost nearly 3 percent, marking its worst day since early May.Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford and Vyas Mohan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-prices-rise-north-korea-tensions-support-idINKBN1DL04L'|'2017-11-20T22:26:00.000+02:00'
'6bcaddb55379c33f65deb73e83f77925042829d2'|'Toshiba to raise $5.3 billion from new shares to avoid delisting risk'|'November 19, 2017 / 10:53 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Toshiba to raise $5.3 billion from new shares to avoid delisting risk Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) said it would raise 600 billion yen (4.05 billion pounds) from a sale of new shares, a key step that would allow the troubled conglomerate to remain a publicly traded company even if the sale of its chip unit is delayed. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo Toshiba’s board met on Sunday and approved a plan to raise 600 billion yen by offering new shares to 60 overseas investors who have signed up to the deal, the company said. Toshiba needs to raise 750 billion yen by the end of March to plug a balance sheet hole left by its bankrupt U.S. nuclear power business, or it will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company said it would use proceeds from the share sale to pay off liabilities related to the bankrupt unit and book losses that will allow tax write-offs sufficient to boost its assets back above liabilities. The share sale, together with the tax write-offs, will boost its balance sheet by at least 840 billion yen in total, the company said. Toshiba will issue the new shares at 262.8 yen per share, a discount to Friday’s closing price of 292 yen. Payments from investors for the new shares will be completed on Dec. 5. Singapore-based fund Effissimo, established by former colleagues of Japan’s most famous activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami, will become the largest shareholder in Toshiba with an 11.34 percent stake. Toshiba agreed in September to sell its prized chip unit to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. But potentially lengthy regulatory reviews mean the deal may not close before the end of March. Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-financing/toshiba-plans-to-raise-5-3-billion-to-avoid-delisting-risk-idUKKBN1DJ0C9'|'2017-11-19T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'59215310d009de7ea2cf7e7229c2b5d7685a0976'|'Adidas ''would have problem'' with FIFA if it has broken law - Bild am Sonntag'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Adidas, a long-standing sponsor of FIFA, “would have a problem” with the global soccer body if it was found to have broken the law by a U.S. investigation into bribery, the company’s chief executive told a German paper.“We expect from our partners that they abide by the laws. If a partner is convicted we have a problem with that. We then have to solve that,” Kasper Rorsted told Bild am Sonntag, without elaborating.Along with companies including Coca-Cola, Gazprom and Visa, Adidas is one of FIFA’s top partners that contribute every four years to support the World Cup. Adidas’s current contract with FIFA runs until 2030.Zurich-based FIFA has been trying to overhaul its operations in the wake of the worst crisis in its history, sparked in 2015 by the indictment in the United States of several dozen soccer officials on corruption-related charges.FIFA president Gianni Infantino was elected in February 2016 to rebuild FIFA after it became embroiled in the scandal.A prosecution witness last week testified that Mexico’s Grupo Televisa and Brazil’s Globo took part in a $15 million bribe to a FIFA executive to secure media rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cup tournaments. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/adidas-fifa/adidas-would-have-problem-with-fifa-if-it-has-broken-law-bild-am-sonntag-idINL8N1NP05Y'|'2017-11-19T07:38:00.000+02:00'
'50c704411421fb3873d7e14ebd10436e7b69814c'|'UPDATE 1-EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 24)'|'(Updates with new listings)BRUSSELS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS -- Private equity firms Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Pimco to jointly acquire a portfolio of properties in Poland (approved Nov. 23)NEW LISTINGS -- WME Entertainment Parent, which is controlled by private equity firm Silver Lake Group, and Perform Group Ltd, which is a unit of Access Industries Ltd, to set up a joint venture in South America (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- French energy company Engie to acquire indirect sole control of British energy trader IPM Energy Trading and UK natural gas shipping services provider International Power Fuel Co (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- Fund management firm Varde to acquire French vehicle leasing firm Fraikin (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- Japanese electronics parts maker Kyocera to acquire Japanese diecasting maker Ryobi’s power tool business (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES NoneFIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE DEC 1 -- French oil major Total to acquire Danish shipping company Maersk’s oil and gas business(notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)DEC 4 -- Austrian energy and petrol station company OMV to acquire 40 percent of electric car charging company Smatrics which is owned by hydropower company Verbund and Germany’s Siemens (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)-- Infrastructure fund DIF and French fund manager Caisse des Depots et Consignations to jointly acquire French broadband network operator ADTIM (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)DEC 5 -- German travel services provider Der Touristik Deutschland, which is part of German conglomerate REWE , to acquire Czech tourism company Exim (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)-- China’s COSCO Shipping to acquire Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- French car rental company Europcar to acquire Spanish peer Goldcar (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)DEC 6 -- Private equity firm EQT to acquire Dutch dental services group Curaeos Holding (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Deutsche Alternative Asset Management, which is an affiliate of Deutsche Bank, and UK insurer Prudential’s subsidiary M&G Alternatives Investment Management to set up a joint venture (notified Dec. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6)DEC 7 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline Dec. 7)DEC 8 -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 11/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)-- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)DEC 12 -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified)-- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12)DEC 13 -- French bank Credit Agricole’s Italian unit Cariparma to acquire at least 95 percent of three Italian savings banks Caricesena, Carim and Carismi (notified Nov. 8/deadline Dec. 13/simplified)DEC 15 -- German energy group Innogy and European Energy Exchange (EEX) to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 10/deadline Dec. 15/simplified)DEC 18 -- French property developer Fonciere des Regions and Marriott International to acquire joint control of Le Meridien Hotel in Nice (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- German glasswear company Carl Zeiss and Deutsche Telekom to develop smart glasses (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Japanese engineering company Chiyoda Corp which is a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Portugal’s Energias de Portugal, energy company Trustwind, which is a unit of a joint venture between France’s Engie and Marubeni Corp, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, and Spanish energy company Repsol to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Australian investment bank MacQuarie and German storage services provider Oiltanking to acquire joint control of petrochemical storage operator Oiltanking Odfjell terminal Singapore (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)DEC 19 -- German car parts supplier ZF subsidiary Zukunft Venture, German bicycle parts maker Gustav Magenwirth, German brakes maker Brake Force One and vehicle driving systems maker Unicorn Energy to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 14/deadline Dec. 19/simplified)DEC 20 -- South African chemicals company Tronox to acquire the titanium dioxide business of Cristal, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20)-- France’s Engie, Omnes Capital and Predica Prevoyance to jointly acquire several wind farms (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20/simplified)DEC 21 -- French aerospace group Safran to acquire French seats maker Zodiac Aerospace (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)-- French bank Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to jointly acquire French property developer Powerhouse France (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21/simplified)-- Private equity firm CVC to acquire Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ women’s health business (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)DEC 22 -- Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s container terminal operator Hutchison Ports Netherlands B.V. and Dutch stevedoring services provider TMA Holding to acquire joint control of Dutch logistics company TMA Logistics (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firms CVC and Providence to acquire joint control of security services provider Skybox (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private eqyity firm BC Partners to acquire German ceramics maker CeramTec Holding GmbH (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Portuguese bank Banco Popular’s real estate business (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- French petroleum product storage and distribution group Rubis Group and Phillips 66 to acquire joint control of Zeller & Cie (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22)-- German investment group Porsche Digital GmbH, which is a subsidiary of German carmaker Volkswagen, and German publisher Axel Springer to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)JAN 4 -- Private equity firm EQT Fund Management to acquire German energy company G+E Getec Holding (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)-- Spanish energy company Companía Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), which is controlled by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co, to acquire control of Spanish gas company CEPSA Gas Comercializadora (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)JAN 5 -- U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s chip unit (notified Nov. 22/deadline Jan. 5/simplified)MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5)MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8)MARCH 15 -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline March 15)MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5)MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/update-1-eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idINL8N1NU4G7'|'2017-11-24T14:58:00.000+02:00'
'97d2c1ba0243fa4b421d05ce5f0f418c4e6aab85'|'MOVES-Insurer Neon names Richard Heppell CFO'|'Nov 24 (Reuters) - Neon Underwriting Ltd, an insurer operating in the specialist Lloyd’s market, appointed MS Amlin’s former Chief Financial Officer Richard Heppell as CFO, effective Nov. 20.Heppell, who has 30 years of experience in the finance sector, left MS Amlin at the end of September, after serving the insurer for 18 years.Neon is a member of the Great American Insurance Group, whose members are subsidiaries of the American Financial Group Inc. (Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/neon-moves-richard-heppell/moves-insurer-neon-names-richard-heppell-cfo-idINL3N1NU3DU'|'2017-11-24T07:33:00.000+02:00'
'd114e03bfaa184ddea1d531baeab7d76f62f9752'|'Petrobras files distribution unit IPO documents with regulator'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian state-controlled company Petróleo Brasileiro SA will seek a valuation of up to 22 billion reais ($6.8 billion) for its fuel distribution unit in what is expected to be the country’s biggest initial public offering of the year.Tanks of Brazil''s state-run Petrobras oil company are seen in Brasilia, Brazil, August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino Petrobras, as the company is known, will offer a 25 percent stake in its BR Distribuidora SA unit in an IPO set to price on Dec. 13, according to a regulatory filing.The offering could grow to a 33.75 percent stake in the distribution unit if the company sells all additional and supplementary allotments.At the high end of a suggested price range of 15 reais to 19 reais per share, Petrobras would fetch as much as 7.5 billion reais with the offering, a key part of its plan to sell assets and reduce the biggest debt load among major oil companies.The local investment banking unit of Citigroup Inc will act as lead underwriter. Bank of America Corp, Banco do Brasil SA, Banco Bradesco SA, Banco Itaú BBA SA, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and Santander Brasil SA will also underwrite the transaction.The long-awaited BR Distribuidora IPO would cap a revival in equity listings in Latin America’s largest economy, where the benchmark stock index hit a record high last month.Renewed demand for emerging market assets, investor confidence in President Michel Temer’s efforts to balance the budget and a nascent economic recovery have fostered demand for Brazilian assets following the deepest recession in a century.The BR Distribuidora IPO is one of several expected to close in the final weeks of 2017 as companies rush to avoid expected market volatility ahead of a wide-open presidential campaign next year.In August, Petrobras injected 6.3 billion reais of fresh capital into BR Distribuidora in a bid to clean up its balance sheet and attract investors. The move solved a long-standing dispute with state-controlled power utility Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras SA, which had been the biggest hurdle for an IPO.Last month, Petrobras announced that BR Distribuidora swung to a profit of 620 million reais in the first nine months of the year, compared to a loss of 367 million reais in the same period of 2016.($1 = 3.26 reais)Reporting by Bruno Federowski and Luciano Costa; Writing by Bruno Federowski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-petrobras-ipo/petrobras-files-distribution-unit-ipo-documents-with-regulator-idINKBN1DM16T'|'2017-11-22T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'2b7d980774bd4ab01fce11c04f23b2265769c865'|'JP Morgan sees 7-8 percent gain for EM debt in 2018, but road could be bumpy'|'November 22, 2017 / 5:17 PM / in an hour JP Morgan sees 7-8 percent gain for EM debt in 2018, but road could be bumpy Marc Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The prospect of another year of solid global growth should see emerging market debt make 7-8 percent in 2018, U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan said on Wednesday, although it could be a bumpy first few months. A J.P. Morgan building is seen at Canary Wharf in London, Britain May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Laying out their top ten themes for emerging markets, the bank said a packed calendar of elections including in Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and Pakistan could also enliven markets, while EM bond investors would see hard-currency debt in circulation top $1 trillion for the first time. A rise in pan-EM growth to 4.8 percent, or 3.6 percent excluding China, and inflation only just creeping above 3 percent should keep the recent rally firmly intact however. “For EM credit, we see 7 percent returns for sovereigns and 6 percent for EM corporates coming from carry and around 50 basis points of spread tightening in both to counteract the impact of rising U.S. rates,” J.P. Morgan’s analysts said. “We see EM FX as likely to go through a few periods of rally and sell-off versus the dollar, as the improved EM fundamental picture is buffeted.” A number of milestones should also grab attention. Cheap borrowing costs are expected to see EM sovereign hard currency issuance of $136 billion (£102.3 billion) which will push the total outstanding debt stock above the $1 trillion mark. And though overall inflows into EM debt may ease to around $80 billion from this year’s record $110 billion, demand for assets including Chinese bonds is expected to see ‘local’ currency inflows top ‘hard’ currency inflows for the first time. “We will be looking to buy dips in EM local markets and expect a grind tighter in EM hard currency spreads.” EM local bond net issuance meanwhile is forecast to increase by 4 percent year-on-year and EM corporates gross issuance is expected to total $442 billion, matching the record pace of 2017. By country, J.P. Morgan’s analysts said they were cutting their Mexico recommendation to medium weight (MW) from overweight (OW) and rotating into Egypt. They kept modest OWs in Europe and Africa, including OW Ukraine and Kazakhstan versus underweight (UW) Romania and South Africa, and OW Ivory Coast versus UW Gabon. In Latin America, it was OW Argentina, Brazil and Pemex versus Peru and Bolivia, whereas it was UW EM Asia through Pakistan and Petronas. “Within EM corporates, we are OW Latin America, Neutral Asia and EM Europe against UW in the Middle East. Latin America has the greatest scope for fundamental improvement and highest yields among the regions,” they added. Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emerging-2018-jpmorgan/jp-morgan-sees-7-8-percent-gain-for-em-debt-in-2018-but-road-could-be-bumpy-idUKKBN1DM2AO'|'2017-11-22T19:16:00.000+02:00'
'a0cc1cc4bca21faf484a072f6d2e57c35b7d94a8'|'Exclusive - Iraq looks to Kuwait gas pipeline to pay off reparations'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 39 minutes ago Exclusive: Iraq looks to Kuwait gas pipeline to pay off reparations Rania El Gamal , Osamu Tsukimori , Dmitry Zhdannikov 6 Min Read DUBAI/TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq has hired Japan’s Toyo Engineering ( 6330.T ) to help build a gas pipeline to Kuwait and a related petrochemical plant as Baghdad looks to reduce flaring and finish paying reparations owed for its 1990 invasion of its neighbor. FILE PHOTO: A worker walks at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo The project, details of which have not been reported before, would allow Kuwait to diversify its gas imports in the wake a political crisis between Gulf states and major supplier Qatar. It would also deal a blow to Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), which aimed to be the dominant gas player in Iraq before relations with Baghdad soured following Shell’s exit from large oil projects. “Iraq needs to urgently reduce gas flaring as it trails behind all targets it has promised the World Bank,” said a senior industry source working on the project but not allowed to discuss it publicly. “The Kuwaiti gas project is a quick fix and an easy way to monetize gas resources.” The World Bank, which has repeatedly made reducing gas flaring a condition of lending to Baghdad, did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Toyo is proposing to construct a gas pipeline and start deliveries after 2019, industry sources said. Toyo’s chief financial officer, Kensuke Waki, told Reuters that talks about a pipeline and a petrochemical plant were ongoing but a final investment decision had not yet been made. Kuwait is very keen on the project and has offered a sovereign guarantee for up to 80 percent of the costs, industry sources said. No total cost has been announced. Kuwait’s oil ministry did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Oil minister Issam Al-Marzouq said last month that talks between Kuwait and Iraq were focused on a proposal to use gas to help pay Baghdad’s final $4.6 billion in war compensation payments. Iraqi oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said talks were focusing on price and confirmed that supplies could be used to help pay off reparations. DIFFERENCES OVER PRICE, PLANT Industry sources told Reuters the talks have faltered over price, however. They said Kuwait is pushing for a price of less than $3 per mbtu (million British thermal unit), in line with U.S. Henry Hub prices. But that is less than half what Iraq pays in the north when importing gas from neighboring Iran. “The price of gas remains the key sticking point for now,” one of the sources said. He also said both Iraq and Kuwait were pushing to have the petrochemical plant built on their territory to further capitalize on gas deliveries. Discussions with Iraq are ongoing, a senior Kuwaiti oil industry source with knowledge of the project said, adding that it was not yet clear if gas would come from West Qurna 2 operated by Russia’s Lukoil ( LKOH.MM ) or from Rumaila, operated by BP ( BP.L ). Iraq used to supply Kuwait with gas from Rumaila. Volumes reached as much as 400 mcf per day but stopped shortly after the 1990 invasion. More than a million claimants in Kuwait have been paid as part of Baghdad’s $52.4 billion reparations bill for the invasion. But Iraq, hurt by the 2014 fall in oil prices and its war with Islamic State militants, requested a delay on the last and largest tranche, which is due this year. CHALLENGE TO SHELL Kuwait, although one of OPEC’s leading oil producers, has struggled to meet growing domestic gas demand. The shortfall has been estimated at 500 million cubic feet per day and is being covered mainly by LNG imports, including from Qatar. A decade ago Kuwait tried to build a pipeline from Qatar, but the move was blocked by Saudi Arabia. With relations between Riyadh and Doha worsening this year, Kuwait is looking to diversify its gas imports. Last year, Kuwait said it would be ready to buy up to 200 mcf/day of gas from Baghdad. Iraqi oil ministry spokesman Jihad said volumes could start at 50 mcf/d rising gradually to 200 mcf/d. Iraq’s gas reserves of 3.7 trillion cubic meters rank as 12th largest in the world but represent only a tenth of those of Iran, the world’s largest. It extracts large quantities of gas together with oil, however, and that gas is currently being flared. Iraq’s gas development plans have long focused on the Basra gas company, a $17 billion, 25-year project in which Iraq has 51 percent, Shell owns 44 percent and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp ( 8058.T ) 5 percent. The project was designed to aggregate gas from fields in the south including West Qurna 1 operated by Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ), Zubair operated by Italy’s ENI ( ENI.MI ) and BP’s Rumaila. “Shell’s main aim was always to develop an LNG terminal and ultimately a petchem complex in Iraq,” said a Shell insider who worked on the gas project. With Iraq refusing to agree on a gas price with Shell, the project has hit a major impasse, industry sources said. Talks have also been complicated by Shell pulling out of the Majnoon oil fields earlier this year. “Iraq is furious at Shell and prospects don’t look that great for the Basra gas company,” one Iraqi industry source said. Asked about the negotiations, both Shell and the Iraqi oil ministry said discussions were ongoing and both sides remained committed to the project. Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick and Ahmed Rasheed; writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-kuwait-gas-exclusive/exclusive-iraq-looks-to-kuwait-gas-pipeline-to-pay-off-reparations-idUKKBN1DM1LU'|'2017-11-22T15:27:00.000+02:00'
'5a4cca62264b129647f157ee19628acd5faded9b'|'Fiat Chrysler to recall 1,200 SUVs in India for airbag replacement'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ) will recall 1,200 Jeep Compass sports utility vehicles (SUVs) sold in India, for “replacement of the front passenger air bag,” FCA India said in a statement on Thursday.A screen displays the ticker information for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV at the post where it''s traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The recalls are part of a bigger recall by the company. The carmaker on Wednesday recalled 7,000 U.S.-market SUVs and 1,000 vehicles sold in Canada and Mexico for the same reason.During the airbag module assembly process, “loose fasteners may have inadvertently found their way undetected into a small number of modules,” Fiat said in an emailed statement.No injuries, accidents, warranty claims or complaints have been reported, the company said.Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-india-recall/fiat-chrysler-to-recall-1200-suvs-in-india-for-airbag-replacement-idUSKBN1DN1VX'|'2017-11-23T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'718e3ca7c51a9b8c10710471f460621914b5e014'|'Peugeot-owner to use Opel site to assemble engines'|'Reuters TV United States November 23, 2017 / 8:46 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Peugeot-owner to use Opel site to assemble engines Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot-owner PSA ( PEUP.PA ) will use an existing Opel site in eastern Europe to assemble 200,000 petrol engines instead of building new capacity on its own site in Slovakia as initially planned, Les Echos newspapers said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Opel is seen during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Contacted by Reuters, a spokesman for PSA confirmed the engines will be assembled at the Opel site and said this was in line with the carmakers’ merger plans. The French carmaker agreed to buy Germany’s Opel from General Motors ( GM.N ) in a March deal that valued the business at 2.2 billion euros. Reporting by Michel Rose and Dominique Rodriguez; editing by John Irish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-psa-opel/peugeot-owner-to-use-opel-site-to-assemble-engines-idUKKBN1DN256'|'2017-11-23T22:43:00.000+02:00'
'611864dc5da0cdc4907ce47ce47d9b52d40c6b29'|'Thyssenkrupp profit beats forecast on steel, materials'|'November 23, 2017 / 6:06 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago ThyssenKrupp lifted by record orders as shifts from steel Christoph Steitz , Tom Käckenhoff 3 Min Read ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Demand for next-generation lifts and car components enabled Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) to report its highest annual order intake in five years as the German firm slowly exits steelmaking. FILE PHOTO: An elevator exchanger is pictured inside Thyssenkrupp''s elevator test tower in Rottweil, Germany, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo Thyssenkrupp is in the middle of a major shift under Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger towards technology and away from the more volatile steel industry, its traditional mainstay. It has sold its money-losing Brazilian steel mill CSA Cia Siderúrgica do Atlántico SA to Ternium SA ( TX.N ) and struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) in 2018. “The structural problems in the European steel industry have not gone away. We still have significant overcapacities also on the European flat steel market,” Hiesinger said on Thursday. But labour representatives are demanding job protection for workers and say Thyssenkrupp is shirking responsibility for a business whose roots go back more than 200 years. Hiesinger said he remained confident an agreement with workers can be found as thousands were expected to stage demonstrations at Thyssenkrupp’s tin plate production site in Andernach, calling for job and plant guarantees. “All conceivable alternatives would involve far greater job cuts,” Hiesinger said, referring to 2,000 job losses that were already announced along with the joint venture in September. CATCHING A LIFT While slowly reducing its dependency on steel, Thyssenkrupp is staking its future on its elevators unit, its most profitable, as well as demand from the automotive sector, its biggest customer group accounting for about a quarter of sales. ThyssenKrupp’s order intake rose 18 percent to 44.29 billion euros ($52 billion) in the financial year to Sept. 30 while adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 1.91 billion euros, beating the 1.73 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. Operating profit at its elevators unit, which mostly caters to clients in the United States and Europe with its internet-connected elevators, rose 7 percent to 922 million euros, making it the group’s single biggest profit contributor. At its components technology unit, which supplies parts to nine out of 10 premium cars, including all models of electric car maker Tesla ( TSLA.O ), operating profit grew 12 percent to 377 million euros. Shares in the group turned positive after sharp early falls, and were trading up 1.3 percent by 0940 GMT in a volatile session. “The numbers came out better than feared, although the outlook could disappoint people a bit,” said one trader. Thyssenkrupp, which recommended an unchanged dividend of 0.15 euros per share, said it expects adjusted EBIT this year of 1.8-2.0 billion euros while analysts on average expect 2.03 billion euros. Editing by Douglas Busvine/Jason Neely/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-results/thyssenkrupp-profit-beats-forecast-on-steel-materials-idUKKBN1DN0GM'|'2017-11-23T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'a2b2a975f0514e7e5ebf883fa4c37f2ac3ba8323'|'UPDATE 1-CVC gauges interest from Chinese suitors for components maker Linxens -sources'|'(Adds Linxens declines to comment)By Kane WuHONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Buyout group CVC is gauging the interest from prospective Chinese suitors for Linxens, the French smart-card components maker that it bought two years ago for 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), people close to the matter said.Linxens management recently made presentations to interested parties in China to test their appetite, they said. An adviser is helping the company reach out to the prospective China suitors but there is no formal mandate or sale process at the moment, according to the people.The French company, which manufactures components that make credit cards, ID cards or health cards machine-readable, could be valued at 2.5 billion euros in an eventual sale, one of them said.“Linxens is constantly approached by local (Chinese) state-backed investors offering joint ventures and other partnerships to access Linxens’ technology,” another person familiar with the company said, adding that so far it had turned everyone down for fear of giving away its technology.CVC and Linxens declined to comment. The people could not be named as the information was confidential.SECURITY CONCERNS Linxens is tapping Chinese interest at a time when China’s pursuit of advanced chip and semiconductor assets has suffered pushback from U.S. regulators on national security concerns.President Donald Trump barred China-backed buyout fund Canyon Bridge from acquiring U.S. chip maker Lattice Semiconductor in September and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) last year blocked Fujian Grand Chip’s planned takeover of German chip equipment maker Aixtron.In the wake of those incidents, European assets have become increasingly attractive for Chinese investors, who, despite recent tightening, view Europe’s regulatory environment as more lenient, one of the people said.Earlier this month, Canyon Bridge received a London court’s approval for its 550 million pound ($732 million)takeover of British chip designer Imagination Technologies.Linxens, which does not have a U.S. presence, according to its website, makes so called connectors that are crucial for the communication between a smart card and an electronic reader. It also makes antennas and inlays for applications such as contactless payment, transport and access.If CVC decided to go ahead with an auction of Linxens, the buyout group is expected to also market Linxens to peers such as Hon Hai Precision Instruments and Amphenol Corp , people familiar with the industry said.The company, headquartered close to Paris, has 535 million euros in annual sales and employs 3,500 staff at 9 production sites around the world. It also has offices in China, Singapore and Thailand. ($1 = 0.8449 euros) ($1 = 0.7518 pounds) (Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Sophie Sassard; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/linxens-ma-china/update-1-cvc-gauges-interest-from-chinese-suitors-for-components-maker-linxens-sources-idINL3N1NT3K2'|'2017-11-23T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'1379df2355b5ccf8277c44dabbba20d0d561ded7'|'Exclusive: Small Puerto Rican bank halts Venezuela correspondent services - source'|'CARACAS (Reuters) - A small Puerto Rican bank that had been helping Venezuela carry out international trade operations has halted those services because of concerns about the reputational risks of doing so, a finance industry source with knowledge of the situation has told Reuters.A woman counts Venezuelan bolivar notes at a vegetable street market in Caracas, Venezuela November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last year tapped San Juan-based Italbank, a little-known institution, to serve as a financial intermediary for food and medicine imports, after global bank Citigroup Inc ( C.N ) halted certain services and closed an account with Venezuela’s central bank.Italbank will no longer provide the service known as correspondent banking, the source said, citing several rounds of U.S. sanctions that have further deepened Venezuela’s economic crisis and its struggles to pay its foreign debt.“Venezuela is in the eye of the storm and ... the reputational risk is too high,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.Italbank’s decision will not affect the payment on the country’s distressed bonds, several of which are already in default because of payment delays, since Italbank was not involved in such operations. But it may make it more difficult for Venezuela to import basic goods.Italbank, run by Venezuelan entrepreneur Carlos Dorado, declined to comment. Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The bank, which operates under an offshore banking licence in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, opened in 2008 and says on its website it is focussed on the Latin American market. It has a single office in San Juan and largely carries out operations online or by telephone.U.S. President Donald Trump this year prohibited U.S. banks from buying newly issued Venezuelan debt and barred citizens from meeting with a group of top government officials accused of involvement in human rights abuses and drug trafficking.Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Nov. 13 during a creditors meeting in Caracas that Venezuela had been unable to make $39 million in foreign purchases because the funds had been returned by banks, according to a report by Torino Capital, which had representatives in the meeting.It was not immediately evident if Italbank had been involved in those operations. And it is not clear what other institutions, if any, are providing correspondent services to Venezuela.Venezuela had been relying earlier this year on Florida-based Eastern National Bank, which is partly owned by Venezuelan bank regulator Sudeban, for correspondent banking services, Dorado and a Venezuelan government source said in March.Eastern National Bank did not respond to questions left via voice mail as to whether it was providing such services.Venezuela’s relationship with global banks has further been strained by a 15-year-old currency control system that requires businesses to acquire dollars through the government rather than private banks.Maduro this month said the country would restructure its foreign debt but also vowed to continue paying down its bonds.Even though Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] have this month made numerous late bond payments, bondholders have not yet taken action because the securities offer enormous returns and because government officials have promised to continue to pay.Additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Caracas and Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City, Editing by Steve Orlofsky '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-debt-bank-exclusive/exclusive-small-puerto-rican-bank-halts-venezuela-correspondent-services-source-idINKBN1DM2UW'|'2017-11-23T00:24:00.000+02:00'
'b80870f0de78831f501ba4b1ba6141ddd7c57347'|'May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:18 AM / in 10 minutes May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May repeated her wish on Friday to make a joint move with the European Union to open negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Pool/File Photo Speaking to reporters on arrival at a Brussels summit with ex-Soviet states, she said she would talk to EU summit chair Donald Tusk later in the day about “positive negotiations we’re having, looking ahead to the future deep and special partnership that I want with the European Union”. “What I‘m clear about is that we must step forward together,” she added. “This is for both the UK and for the European Union to move on to the next stage.” The EU wants May to improve her financial and other offers before opening trade talks. May has said she wants guarantees of trade talks before making a new offer. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-may-together/may-wants-eu-uk-to-move-together-to-brexit-trade-talks-idUSKBN1DO0PJ'|'2017-11-24T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'afa0c1e0238bc0bae0288f7f145c0d2c1de88fca'|'EU regulators to give large banks four years to raise capital buffers - source'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:32 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago EU regulators to give large banks four years to raise capital buffers - source Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators have decided to give large euro zone banks up to four years to raise capital buffers, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, setting for the first time binding requirements that some lenders might find difficult to meet. Under new rules meant to reduce taxpayers’ costs in a banking crisis, euro zone banks will have to issue a sufficient amount of debt that would be written down, or bailed-in, to absorb losses if they fail. These buffers had so far not been specified, giving banks more time to cover the new financing needs, which have been estimated between 186 billion and 276 billion euros (164.8 and 244.6 billion pounds) - a daring task for a sector hit by a drop in confidence after hundreds of billions of euros were spent by governments to bail out lenders during the 2009-2013 euro zone crisis. But EU regulators have now imposed binding targets for “35-40 large banks”, a source familiar with the proceedings said, without naming the lenders concerned by the decision. This is like to force banks to pay higher interest rates on their debt. Finding creditors will also not be easy as small investors got their bond savings burnt in recent rescues of banks in Italy or Portugal. The write-down of bonds of Banca dell‘Etruria, a regional lender in central Italy, led in 2015 to the suicide of a pensioner who lost his retirement money in the banking rescue. The Single Resolution Board, the EU body in charge of disposing of failing banks and of setting capital buffers, has 142 banks under its remit, but smaller banks will be subject to binding targets at a later stage, the source said. The bloc’s biggest banks, considered systemic at global level, like Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Unicredit, are already required to meet capital buffer targets by 2019 under international rules. The 35-40 second-tier banks concerned by the SRB decision will have up to four years to meet their targets, the source said, pointing out that the transition and the targets were set bank-by-bank. “Some banks have already achieved their target, others may need only two years, and others have been given the full four years,” the source said. The SRB will publish its decision on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the SRB declined to give details on the decision, that could be subject to last-minute changes. A banking official said that some banks may need more than four years to raise the needed capital. The regulator also decided to set qualitative targets, obliging banks to hold at least 12 percent of “subordinated debt” which is easier to write down than senior debt. Banks had hoped regulators stayed clear of this additional target, which could further increase their funding costs. Subordinated debt is more expensive for banks as buyers are subject to higher risks. The target is however lower than what recommended by the European Banking Authority, the EU sector’s watchdog, who called for a 13.5 percent target for large banks. It is also lower than the target set by the SRB for globally systemic banks in the euro zone which have to hold at least 13.5 percent of subordinated debt. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-capital/eu-regulators-to-give-large-banks-four-years-to-raise-capital-buffers-source-idUKKBN1DL0VA'|'2017-11-21T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'c7862aa10fb51bd695564d43a6fdec3ac31b44a4'|'J&J multiple myeloma drug succeeds in first-line combination study'|'(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster multiple myeloma drug Darzalex when added to a standard therapy regimen reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50 percent compared with standard therapy alone in patients not previously treated for the blood cancer, according to data released on Tuesday.The data could lead to expanded approvals of the Darzalex combination as an initial, or first-line, therapy for multiple myeloma, providing a larger sales opportunity for the medicine, one of J&J&rsquo;s most important growth drivers.Darzalex, a biotech drug known chemically as daratumumab, is already approved in combination with other medicines or alone in patients who had received one or more prior treatment regimens.The drug had third-quarter sales of $317 million, with annual sales forecast to reach about $5 billion by 2021, according to Thomson Reuters data.J&J has applied for expanded U.S and European approvals for the Darzalex combination to treat newly diagnosed patients, Genmab, which licensed the drug to J&J, said on Tuesday.In the first-line study, 706 patients deemed not eligible for bone marrow transplants received either Darzalex with Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Velcade, the chemotherapy melphalan and the steroid prednisone or the combination without Darzalex.The trial was primarily conducted in Europe using the standard first-line regimen there. Celgene Corp’s Revlimid is typically part of the standard U.S. regimen.The median time until disease worsening, known as progression-free survival (PFS), was 18.1 months for the standard regimen, while fewer than half in the Darzalex group had experienced disease progression after two years of treatment, according to a summary of data to be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in Atlanta next month.The superior PFS with Darzalex was driven by more patients achieving greater responses, including a significantly higher number of complete responses, researchers concluded.The overall response rate was 90.9 percent for the Darzalex group versus 73.9 percent for the control group.Complete responses, meaning no detectable cancer in the blood or bone marrow, were reported in 42.6 percent of Darzalex patients versus 24.4 percent for the standard regimen.Overall survival data was not yet available.About 71 percent of Darzalex patients had what was deemed a very good partial response versus 49.7 percent for the other regimen.There was a higher rate of serious infections in the Darzalex group - 23.1 percent vs 14.7 percent.ASH President Dr. Kenneth Anderson called the results “impressive,” but added they were likely to be viewed as more significant outside the United States.J&J shares were up 0.5 percent at $138.60.Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Andrew Hay and Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-johnson-johnson-myeloma/jj-multiple-myeloma-drug-succeeds-in-first-line-combination-study-idINKBN1DL1MT'|'2017-11-21T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'c39124f2c2067e6e7f6f57793dda635519331af0'|'China''s Zhongtian Financial says to buy up to £3.53 billion stake in Huaxia Life'|' 25 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago China''s Zhongtian Financial says to buy up to $4.7 billion stake in Huaxia Life Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Zhongtian Financial Group Co Ltd ( 000540.SZ ) said it planned to buy up to 25 percent of Huaxia Life Insurance for as much as 31.0 billion yuan ($4.7 billion). Under framework agreements, Zhongtian Financial will purchase a stake of between 21-25 percent from two shareholders, paying in cash, it said in a filing late on Monday. The filing said the transaction would constitute a “major reorganisation of assets”, adding that the specifics would be based on further due diligence and auditing. Zhongtian Financial said it would buy the stakes from Beijing Qianxi Shihao Electron Technology Co Ltd and Beijing Zhongsheng Century Technology Co Ltd, current holders of 20 percent and 13.41 percent stakes in Huaxia Life. ($1 = 6.6300 Chinese yuan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-zhongtian-fincl-huaxia/chinas-zhongtian-financial-says-to-buy-up-to-4-7-billion-stake-in-huaxia-life-idUKKBN1DL052'|'2017-11-21T03:25:00.000+02:00'
'b66d96251b1a69f3eee561ce0af2af2b2f4794dd'|'Oil steady as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC cuts'|'November 21, 2017 / 1:55 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Oil steady as rising U.S. output undermines OPEC cuts Henning Gloystein 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as expectations of an extended OPEC-led production cut were canceled out by rising output in the United States. A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.25 per barrel at 0142 GMT, 3 cents above their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.43 a barrel, up 1 cent from their last settlement. Traders said they were avoiding taking on large new positions due to uncertainty in markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia, has been restraining output since the start of this year in a bid to end a global supply overhang and buoy prices. The deal to curb output is due to expire in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss the outlook for the policy. OPEC is expected to agree to extend cuts as storage levels remain high despite recent drawdowns, although there are doubts about the willingness of some participants to continue to crimp production. Outside the group of producers voluntarily withholding output, the biggest headaches for OPEC has been rising U.S. drilling activity, lead by shale oil producers. Energy consultancy Westwood Global Energy Group said U.S. output would rise even faster than the rising rig count - which has jumped from 316 rigs in mid-2016 to 738 last week - implies, as producers get more productive per well. “Westwood Global Energy forecasts an 18 percent increase in active rigs in 2018 but more rapid demand growth in certain service areas as operators focus on efficiency and delivering more for less,” the consultancy said. Additional reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-steady-as-rising-u-s-output-undermines-opec-cuts-idUKKBN1DL060'|'2017-11-21T03:54:00.000+02:00'
'1f2ef2bae92af4da9a9e417e909b1a1afe8975a6'|'BP to sell stakes in Bruce asset fields in North Sea'|'November 21, 2017 / 8:23 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago BP to sell stakes in Bruce asset fields in North Sea Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - BP ( BP.L ) said on Tuesday it agreed to sell stakes in three fields in its Bruce assets in the North Sea to Serica Energy plc ( SQZ.L ). FILE PHOTO - The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The company said it expects to receive around 300 million pounds, with a majority of it in the next four years. BP currently operates the Bruce assets, which comprise the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields and related infrastructure assets. Serica said it would buy a 36 percent interest in Bruce, 34.83 percent in Keith and 50 percent in Rhum. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bp-divestiture/bp-to-sell-stakes-in-bruce-asset-fields-in-north-sea-idUKKBN1DL0P3'|'2017-11-21T10:22:00.000+02:00'
'cb53645486d2e8b6ae5e93220d26c11b1db78a2a'|'Ireland does not want take Apple to court over tax recovery, PM says'|'November 21, 2017 / 4:41 PM / in 4 hours Ireland promises progress in Apple tax recovery in coming weeks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland expects to make progress in recovering up to 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in disputed taxes from Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) in the coming weeks, its prime minister said on Tuesday, following EU criticism that Dublin was moving too slowly. A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed Irish flag in this illustration taken September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo The European Commission ruled in August 2016 that Apple had received unfair tax incentives from Ireland and said last month it was taking Dublin to the European Court of Justice over its delays in recovering the money. Both Apple and Dublin are appealing the original ruling, saying the iPhone maker’s tax treatment was in line with Irish and European Union law. “We’ve indicated to them (Apple) that we want the escrow account established and we want funds to be paid into the escrow account without further delay,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told parliament. “We do not want to be in the situation where the Irish government has to take Apple to court because the European Commission is taking the Irish government to court. I think that message is understood and I’d anticipate progress in the coming weeks.” The Commission said last month the deadline for Ireland to implement its decision had been Jan. 3 this year and that, until the aid was recovered, the company continued to benefit from an illegal advantage. Ireland, which described the Commission’s move to take it to court as “extremely regrettable,” said it had been in constant contact with the Commission and Apple for more than a year and was close to setting up an escrow account to hold the funds. Ireland’s Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe also said at the time that, in addition to work on the escrow account, the government was in “commercially sensitive” talks with Apple about the exact terms of the transfer. ($1 = 0.8516 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-tax/ireland-does-not-want-take-apple-to-court-over-tax-recovery-pm-says-idUSKBN1DL23Z'|'2017-11-21T18:46:00.000+02:00'
'bd447df9544e59dd95bff669392461b682b01b93'|'Tesla cranks up big battery in Australia'|'November 23, 2017 / 3:11 AM / in 14 hours Tesla cranks up big battery in Australia Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) has completed construction of the world’s largest lithium ion battery in Australia, putting it on track to meet a 100-day deadline for switching the battery packs on, the South Australian government said on Thursday. Tesla Powerpacks are seen in Hornsdale, Australia September 29, 2017. Picture taken September 29, 2017. Tesla/Handout via REUTERS Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129 megawatt hour battery for South Australia, the country’s most wind power-dependent state, with a vow from Chief Executive Elon Musk to install it within 100 days of signing a grid connection agreement or give it to the state for free. When the grid connection deal was signed on Sept 29, Tesla was already half way through installing the battery packs. The Tesla Powerpacks have now been fully installed at a wind farm run by France’s Neoen, and testing is set to begin to provide grid security services in South Australia. “While others are just talking, we are delivering our energy plan, making South Australia more self-sufficient, and providing back up power and more affordable energy for South Australians this summer,” state Premier Jay Weatherill said in a statement. The state has yet to say how much it would pay for the battery, which is part of a A$510 million ($390 million) plan that includes diesel-fired generators to help keep the lights on following a string of blackouts over the past 18 months. Australia’s energy market operator has warned that power supply will be tight this summer, particularly in South Australia and neighboring Victoria, where one of the market’s biggest coal-fired power plants was shut in March. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-power-tesla/tesla-cranks-up-big-battery-in-australia-idUSKBN1DN0B4'|'2017-11-23T05:10:00.000+02:00'
'fdaffdd60fe06c1f9f5d109f6d8470993472a6ea'|'Broadcom considering sweetened Qualcomm bid - sources'|'November 22, 2017 / 8:29 PM / Updated an hour ago Broadcom considering sweetened Qualcomm bid - sources Greg Roumeliotis , Liana B. Baker 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) is considering raising its offer to buy rival Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) by offering more of its own stock, following consultation with several of Qualcomm’s top shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo While the timing of the new offer is uncertain, Broadcom’s bid preparations indicate that it is planning to apply pressure on Qualcomm to engage in negotiations by offering more to its shareholders, in addition to threatening to replace its board of directors. Broadcom’s Chief Executive Hock Tan has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle and sources have previously said the company is preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. Qualcomm shareholders that want the company to engage in deal talks with Broadcom will be able to vote for that slate at a March 6 shareholder meeting. Broadcom has offered to pay $103 billion (£77.41 billion) for Qualcomm, made up of $60 per share in cash and $10 per share of its own stock. Raising the offer by adding more of its shares would avoid Broadcom having to raise more debt and further pressure its credit rating, the sources said. Qualcomm’s shareholders have indicated to Broadcom they expect at least $80 per share in order for Qualcomm to be sold, the sources said. Broadcom’s board has not yet decided on the level of any new offer, the sources added. Broadcom has made several requests for a meeting with Qualcomm since it unveiled its offer on Nov. 6, the sources said. However, Qualcomm has so far rejected these meeting requests, the sources added. Broadcom had not approached Qualcomm in the weeks prior to announcing its offer, according to the sources. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom declined to comment. Qualcomm shares jumped after the news of the possible sweetened offer and were up more than 2 percent at $68.05 in late afternoon trading. Broadcom shares were down 0.3 percent at $275.82. Qualcomm invented a number of technologies underlying mobile communications and also sells chips used in cellphones and other devices. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not need to decide to raise its offer for NXP until that deal receives antitrust clearance from all the regulators reviewing the deal around the world. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-considering-sweetened-qualcomm-bid-sources-idUKKBN1DM2O3'|'2017-11-22T22:45:00.000+02:00'
'76021cae78fac9b05e72c7e3ea9d87db743ed2ba'|'Braskem CEO sees strong 2018 demand, possible currency boost'|'November 23, 2017 / 1:54 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Braskem CEO sees strong 2018 demand, possible currency boost Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Braskem SA, Latin America’s largest petrochemical producer, has positive expectations for sales volumes in 2018, when a weaker Brazilian currency may boost earnings, Chief Executive Fernando Musa said on Thursday. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are likely to decline slightly in Brazil but will probably remain stable in the United States, Europe and Mexico, he said. Musa forecast operations in Mexico will be using 90 percent of capacity by year-end and exporting up to 15 percent of output in the short term. (Reporting by Gabiela Mello)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/braskem-outlook/braskem-ceo-sees-strong-2018-demand-possible-currency-boost-idUSE6N1L0020'|'2017-11-23T15:49:00.000+02:00'
'8cf17a4c786be381cf0cee773d8152d0a389bff5'|'CEE MARKETS-Debt sales draw robust demand, Hungarian yields set record lows'|'* Demand heavy at auctions in Budapest, Prague, Warsaw * Long-term Hungarian bonds trade at record low yields * Central bank measures to curb yields weigh on forint (Recasts with debt auctions.) By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Hungarian long-term government bonds traded at record low yields on Thursday after their first auction since the central bank announced measures to push yields lower. Debt auctions in Prague and Warsaw also drew robust demand. Hungary sold 3-, 5- and 10-year bonds worth 99 billion forints at its own auctions, 80 percent more than planned . The longer bonds were sold at record low yields, and secondary market trading settled at the same levels after the primary sale: the 5-year benchmark at 1.04 percent and the 10-year paper at 2.04 percent. The sale came two days after Hungary''s central bank, one of the most dovish in the world, announced that it would launch a big interest rate swap programme from January to push long-term yield lower, and also a mortgage note buying scheme. The comments helped drive Hungarian bond yields down after a steep decline since March. Some market participants expect the NBH''s loose policy to weaken the forint to one-year lows past 315 against the euro later this year. The strong bond sale helped the currency reverse an early weakening. At 1421 GMT, it traded at 312.62, a touch firmer from Wednesday. Polish bond yields, which are well above Hungarian levels also fell, after an auction in Warsaw. Following the auction, Polish 10-year debt traded at a yield of 3.33 percent, down 7 basis points. Analysts said demand got a boost from Wednesday''s Federal Reserve minutes, which suggested that U.S. interest rates may rise more slowly than expected. Demand at an auction of Czech 19-week Treasury bills also jumped, driven by banks trying to keep cash off their books at the end of the year, to reduce a charge they have to pay to a national resolution fund. The crown extended the gains reached in the past weeks as expectations grew that the Czech central bank would further raise interest rates. The currency set a 4 1/2-year high against the euro, trading at 25.431, up 0.2 percent. The leu eased, hovering near record lows. The Romanian government rejected all bids at a one-year Treasury bill auctions. Surging yields have caused several auctions to fail since October, along with a decline by leu amid corruption scandals and a rise in inflation. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1521 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.431 25.487 +0.22 6.20% 0 5 % Hungary 312.62 312.75 +0.04 -1.22% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2102 4.2051 -0.12% 4.60% Romanian leu 4.6530 4.6515 -0.03% -2.54% Croatian 7.5730 7.5775 +0.06 -0.24% kuna % Serbian 119.35 119.19 -0.13% 3.35% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1045.2 1046.6 -0.13% +13.4 6 1 2% Budapest 39965. 40131. -0.41% +24.8 27 37 8% Warsaw 2512.9 2489.5 +0.94 +29.0 2 0 % 1% Bucharest 7784.1 7772.9 +0.14 +9.87 9 6 % % Ljubljana 781.69 786.11 -0.56% +8.93 % Zagreb 1860.3 1857.6 +0.14 -6.74% 0 5 % Belgrade 736.19 731.78 +0.60 +2.62 % % Sofia 667.71 669.38 -0.25% +13.8 6% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.473 0.093 +116b +8bps ps 5-year 1.024 0.141 +135b +14bp ps s 10-year 1.757 -0.025 +141b -2bps ps Poland 2-year 1.551 -0.004 +224b -1bps ps 5-year 2.565 -0.038 +289b -4bps ps 10-year 3.34 -0.049 +299b -5bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.03 1.21 1.34 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.785 1.83 1.92 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-debt-sales-draw-robust-demand-hungarian-yields-set-record-lows-idINL8N1NT3RP'|'2017-11-23T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'ad0700bea0fc607983ffae10cc1d036bf87cf1fc'|'UPDATE 1-Zimbabwe bourse loses $6 billion, index falls 40 percent after military takeover'|'(Adds analyst, details)HARARE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s stock market has shed $6 billion while its main index has slumped 40 percent since last Wednesday when the military seized power leading to the fall of Robert Mugabe, stock exchange data showed on Thursday.The main industrial index was at 315.12 points compared with 527.27 points on Wednesday last week when the military announced its takeover and put former president Mugabe under house arrest. On Thursday the index fell 4.4 percent.The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange had been on a rapid rise in the last two months, driven by investors seeking a safe haven for their investment amid fears of a return to hyperinflation in an economy suffering acute shortages of foreign exchange.But analysts said the market had entered a period of correction on investor optimism of a change in economic policy in a post-Mugabe era.Market capitalisation was $9 billion, down from $15 billion last week, bourse data showed.On the currency front, black market rates for buying cash dollars softened further on Thursday.Buying $100 using electronic transfer cost $150, down from $180 last week. Some black market traders said they were not buying dollars at all, anticipating further softening of rates.Zimbabwe adopted the U.S. dollar in 2009, along with Britain’s pound and the South African rand, to tame inflation that topped out at 500 billion percent.“The market is adjusting back to reality,” an analyst at a Harare-based asset management company said.“The gains that we had seen were being fuelled by an outlook of a return to hyperinflation, continued isolation of Zimbabwe by international lenders as well as well as a depressed economic outlook.”An analyst at a local stockbrocking firm said Mnangagwa had hit the right notes with his speech on Wednesday.Mnangagwa said he wanted to grow the economy, create jobs and for Zimbabwe to re-engage the international community as the country has faced isolation since 1999 when it defaulted on its debt with the International Monetary Fund.Most of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people remain poor and face currency shortages and sky-high unemployment, something Mnangagwa promised to address. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/zimbabwe-politics-stocks/update-1-zimbabwe-bourse-loses-6-billion-index-falls-40-percent-after-military-takeover-idUSL8N1NT4FS'|'2017-11-23T18:30:00.000+02:00'
'4db6e864de126838ca69684b58386e2140f921bb'|'Exclusive - Qualcomm set to win conditional Japanese antitrust okay for NXP deal: source'|'November 18, 2017 / 6:25 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Exclusive: Qualcomm set to win conditional Japanese antitrust okay for NXP deal - source Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) is set to win “imminent” Japanese antitrust clearance for its $38-billion bid for NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI.O ) and gain Europe’s approval by the end of the year with slight tweaks to its concessions, a person familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Winning the green light from both competition authorities would take Qualcomm a major step forward to closing the deal and reinforce its fight against an unsolicited $103-billion takeover bid from Broadcom. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) “is expected to clear Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP imminently,” the source said. “The European Commission is expected to follow soon.” The JFTC did not respond to emailed requests for comments sent during out of office hours. The EU competition enforcer, which has set a March 15 deadline to rule on the deal, declined to comment while Qualcomm was not available for comment. Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple ( AAPL.O ), wants to become the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market via the NXP purchase, the biggest-ever in the semiconductor industry. To address competition concerns, the company has agreed not to purchase NXP’s standard essential patents and not to take legal action against third parties related to NXP’s near field communication (NFC) patents except for defensive purposes. It also offered an interoperability pledge which will allow rival products to function with NXP’s products. NXP co-invented NFC chips which enable mobile phones to be used to pay for goods and store and exchange data. Qualcomm will make incremental changes to concessions offered to the EU authority last month, the person said. A similar proposal was also proposed to the JFTC. Broadcom made its move last week in an effort to become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. Qualcomm has dismissed the offer, saying it undervalues the company. Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP together would have control over modems, Wi-Fi, GPS and near-field communications chips, a strong position that could concern customers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) because of the bargaining power such a combined company could have to raise prices. However, a combined company would also likely have a lower cost base and the flexibility to cut prices. Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nxp-m-a-qualcomm-antitrust/exclusive-qualcomm-set-to-win-conditional-japanese-antitrust-okay-for-nxp-deal-source-idUKKBN1DI0PQ'|'2017-11-18T20:25:00.000+02:00'
'09939710483513c804f1099491526c966ba4e440'|'Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward'|'Reuters TV United States November 18, 2017 / 3:00 PM / Updated 10 hours ago Honda recalling 900,000 minivans because seats may tip forward Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) said on Saturday that it was recalling about 900,000 minivans because second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched after being adjusted. Honda Motor''s logo is seen on Civic sedan car at its showroom in Tokyo, Japan October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The Japanese automaker said the recall covered 2011-2017 Honda Odyssey minivans, all but 2,000 of which are in North America, and that it had 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue. Honda said it was working on a recall fix to help ensure proper latching and, in the interim, had posted a detailed instruction sheet on how to ensure seats are properly latched. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-honda-recall/honda-recalling-900000-minivans-because-seats-may-tip-forward-idUKKBN1DI0I6'|'2017-11-18T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'f704eb7a7e08e98c054d91b831a30631751de535'|'Natixis ups dividend payout target in new three-year plan'|'PARIS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - France’s fourth-biggest listed bank Natixis aims to grow revenue by five percent annually over the next three years and to return more than 60 percent of earnings to investors, it said on Sunday ahead of an investor day.Natixis, majority-owned by retail banking group BPCE, said it would have up to four billion euros in capital available for distribution of dividends over 2018-2020, one billion of which could be spent on acquisitions.The bank had a minimum dividend payout ratio of 50 percent in its previous three-year plan. (Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by GV De Clercq) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/natixis-strategy/natixis-ups-dividend-payout-target-in-new-three-year-plan-idINP6N1G801X'|'2017-11-19T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'a57210508a27e8c54d8baa7993af1d4d557eb9f9'|'Altice seeks up to 3 billion euros for Dominican Republic business: sources'|'LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) hopes to raise as much as 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from the sale of its Dominican Republic business as it seeks to reduce debt and improve its performance, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday.Altice’s share price has halved since it reported disappointing quarterly results in France earlier this month amid a fiercely competitive market. The group is carrying a hefty 50 billion-euro ($59 billion) debt.Patrick Drahi, the founder and majority owner of Altice fired chief executive Michel Combes and pledged last week the group would shift away from acquisitions towards reducing debt.This week, Altice said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Altice’s Dominican Republic telecoms business generated 718 million euros in revenue last year, or 3 percent of the group’s total. The price tag represents a multiple of seven to eight times the adjusted annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the sources said.The group’s shares rose after the Financial Times reported a potential sale of the asset earlier on Thursday. They closed up 3.85 percent at 7.85 euros.TOWERS SALE Amsterdam-based Altice denied rumors last week that the group might sell shares to raise cash.Instead, sales of non-core assets in Europe, such as some of its telecoms towers, could yield up to 4 billion euros, a senior banker familiar with the situation said at the time.The banker also said that management had yet to decide whether to sell towers country by country or bundle them into a company and float it while retaining a majority stake.The sale of the Dominican Republic business alone might not be sufficient to alleviate concerns raised by credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings, which changed its outlook on Altice’s debt to negative from stable on Thursday.Altice was given a B+ long-term credit rating by S&P, which is four notches below investment grade.“The negative outlook reflects various execution risks that could prevent the group from sustaining its market positions in the core French market, reducing debt, and restoring market confidence,” S&P said in a statement.“We could lower the rating by one notch in the next year if management fails to restore sounder operations in France, such as achieving better customer retention and reducing turnover in senior management, or if it fails to trim absolute debt (...),” it added.($1 = 0.8445 euros)Additional reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-altice-m-a/altice-seeks-up-to-3-billion-euros-for-dominican-republic-business-sources-idINKBN1DN1WB'|'2017-11-23T14:17:00.000+02:00'
'3b378d2c59c77540da4ebfd9aead344a2a7d659f'|'CORRECTED-COLUMN-Data breach class actions are the least of Uber’s problems: Frankel'|'(In 11th paragraph, changes attribution to a single attorney, McNamara, instead of to two attorneys.)By Alison FrankelNEW YORK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - On Tuesday, Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, disclosed that in late 2016, hackers got hold of personal data belonging to 57 million Uber drivers and riders. Uber did not report the incident to riders or drivers when it occurred, Khosrowshahi said. As Reuters reported Wednesday, the company paid the hackers $100,000 in exchange for their assurances the stolen data would be destroyed.“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Khosrowshahi said in his blog post about the breach.Those are the sort of words that set class action plaintiffs’ lawyers’ hearts racing. Predictably, within hours of Uber’s announcement, Uber was hit with a class action claiming its drivers and passengers are at risk of fraud and identity theft as a result of the company’s negligence. The suit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles by the Wilshire Law Firm, which bills itself as a specialist in personal injury litigation.Uber will undoubtedly reap ill consequences from its admitted mishandling of the 2016 hack. Regulators around the world are already investigating whether the company violated consumer protection laws that, in many instances, require disclosure of data breaches. Drivers and riders may decide to bail on the embattled company if they don’t trust Uber to keep their personal information secure.But however bad the optics of the breach and Uber’s initial response to it, the company probably does not face crippling exposure in a data breach class action, according to two prominent data breach plaintiffs’ lawyers I interviewed on Wednesday.ARBITRATION CLAUSE TO THE RESCUE In part, that’s because Uber may be able to squelch cases at the outset because of a clause in its contracts with drivers and riders. But it’s also because of the way data breach victims have obtained damages in litigation against companies that have been hacked.“The way data breach class actions are framed right now, conduct doesn’t matter terribly much,” said plaintiffs’ lawyer Jay Edelson.The first obstacle for Uber drivers and riders, according to Edelson and another data breach class action lawyer Douglas McNamara, will be the company’s arbitration clause in its contracts with drivers and passengers. As the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals discussed last summer in a ruling in an antitrust class action against Uber, the company requires riders to agree to waive their right to go to court in order to sign up for the ride-sharing app. The company also asks drivers to agree to arbitrate any claims against the company, although it allows drivers not to opt not to accept the class action waiver.The credit services company Equifax faced a barrage of criticism over a mandatory arbitration clause in its offer of credit monitoring to consumers affected by breach of its data security system. Like Uber, Equifax failed immediately to disclose that personal information had been exposed to hackers. After it announced the breach, the company offered free credit monitoring to U.S. consumers worried about identity theft - but the offer’s terms of service appeared to require consumers to forfeit the right to go to court. Equifax later said it would not invoke the arbitration clause to kill off data breach class actions against it.Uber does face some risk if it attempts to evade litigation by citing its arbitration clauses, said Edelson: State and federal regulators in the U.S. may be more likely to take action if consumers cannot sue on their own. Edelson said he believes Equifax’s arbitration provision helped prompt government entities including Chicago and Massachusetts to sue the company, even though Equifax said the clause would not foreclose consumer suits.The Equifax breach provides a useful comparison to explain Uber’s exposure. Edelson told me that based on early accounts, Uber did a worse job than Equifax in protecting personal information and responding once hackers accessed it. But those factors, he said, don’t determine a defendant’s potential liability to victims of the breach.Damages in data breach class actions are instead driven by the kind of personal information that was stolen and the ensuing risk to victims of identity theft, said McNamara.When the health insurer Anthem was hacked, for instance, the breach exposed names, addresses, social security numbers, health records and even financial information – everything an identity thief might need. In that case, Anthem agreed to a settlement plaintiffs’ lawyers valued at $119 million.By contrast, hackers who breached security at Home Depot and Target accessed only names, addresses and credit card data. Tens of millions of consumers were exposed in the breaches, but their damages were minimal. The consumer data breach class action against Home Depot settled for $13 million. The private consumer case against Target settled for $10 million.According to Uber, hackers obtained limited information about its customers – just their names, email addresses and cellphone numbers. The company also said that its forensic experts “have not seen any indication” that more sensitive data like credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers or even riders’ birthdays were exposed. Uber also said it has not seen evidence that its customers’ data has been misused.So it will be difficult for class action lawyers to argue Uber riders are at such increased risk of identity theft that they’re due compensation. Uber, meanwhile, can argue that passengers don’t meet threshold requirements to sue in federal court because they can’t show they were or are even likely to be harmed by the breach.BENEFICIAL DELAY Uber’s class action defense, weirdly enough, could end up benefiting from the delay in reporting the hack. Data breach defendants often argue that plaintiffs can’t trace misuse of their personal information back to any particular breach in data security. This year’s Equifax hack exposed data on more than 150 million people. Inevitably, a lot of those people are also Uber riders. Uber’s lawyers can try to shift blame to Equifax (or other companies that experienced 2017 data breaches) for misuse of information.State laws mandating disclosure of data breaches aren’t a viable alternative for class action plaintiffs, according to McNamara. Unlike many federal consumer protection statutes, which allow private plaintiffs to bring class actions aggregating per-violation penalties, most of the state laws do not include monetary penalties. Without such statutory damages, McNamara said, state disclosure laws are toothless.In the long run, as I’ve written, class actions – at least under prevailing damages theories - may simply not be the optimal way to redress data breaches. “Class actions have failed in the data breach context,” Edelson said. “Uber may end up with more exposure on the government end.”Reporting by Alison FrankelEditing by Alessandra Rafferty '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-cyberattack-frankel/column-data-breach-class-actions-are-the-least-of-ubers-problems-frankel-idINL1N1NS1YC'|'2017-11-22T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'd2f96cc80923d8061f5773d937dd8ee271471d7d'|'Comparethemarket.com owner BGL scraps London listing plans in favour of stake sale'|' 23 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Comparethemarket.com owner BGL scraps London listing plans in favour of stake sale Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - BGL Group [IPO-BGL.L], owner of Comparethemarket.com, said on Thursday it would sell a 30 percent stake for about 675 million pounds ($899 million) to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) instead of listing its shares in London. BHL, the owner of BGL Group, will retain a majority shareholding in the business and the deal is expected to be completed by the end of April, it said. “During the course of our IPO preparations, our shareholder BHL received a number of approaches from different kinds of investors... A competitive process followed and our view was that CPPIB was the best partner for BGL,” the chairman of BGL Group, Peter Winslow, said. The announcement is another blow to the London Stock Exchange after earlier this month telecoms masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, Britain’s biggest debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled deals. The announcement of the float plans had driven hopes of a revival of the market for initial public offerings (IPO) in Britain, a market that has been muted since Britons voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group ( BAKK.L ), this month pulled but then resurrected its market debut plan. Up until November, British IPOs have this year raised $5.2 billion, a 13 percent drop on the same period a year ago. BGL Group distributes insurance and household financial services to 8.5 million customers and runs price comparison websites Comparethemarket.com in Britain and LesFurets.com in France. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bgl-group-ipo/comparethemarket-com-owner-bgl-scraps-london-listing-plans-in-favour-of-stake-sale-idUKKBN1DN181'|'2017-11-23T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'f6143158c1fffcd7c4827d1cf0f0b18aff217400'|'Chile lithium miner SQM says legal dispute could linger through 2018'|'November 23, 2017 / 5:14 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Chile lithium miner SQM says legal dispute could linger through 2018 Felipe Iturrieta , Dave Sherwood 2 Min Read SANTIAGO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Chilean lithium and fertilizer producer Sociedad Quimica Y Minera (SQM) said on Thursday its ongoing legal dispute with Chilean authorities over royalty payments may not be resolved until the end of 2018. Talks to resolve the arbitration between SQM and Chilean government development agency Corfo ended at an impasse in October, leaving the fate of the company’s lease in the Salar de Atacama, home to some of the world’s most productive lithium deposits, in question. Chief Executive Patricio de Solminihac told analysts on a conference call following the company’s third quarter results that SQM remained open to negotiations. “If we don’t find the solution, the arbitration will continue and we will have a resolution from the arbitrator. But that could take all next year,” he said. Corfo has alleged that SQM failed to meet contractual obligations in its lease agreement with the government. SQM, one of the world’s top lithium producers, says it has fully complied. The unresolved dispute has weighed on SQM’s shares . However, Canada’s Potash Corporation said it has received significant interest from potential buyers of its 32 percent stake in SQM, as demand rises for lithium, essential for batteries used in electric vehicles. Potash has to sell the stake for regulatory reasons, ahead of a merger with Agrium. On Tuesday, banking sources told Reuters that Rio Tinto , Canada’s Wealth Minerals and Chinese private equity firm GSR Capital were considering bidding for an SQM stake. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Felipe Iturrieta, Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sqm-arbitration/chile-lithium-miner-sqm-says-legal-dispute-could-linger-through-2018-idUSL1N1NT103'|'2017-11-23T19:12:00.000+02:00'
'33acdec7d789be5b9bbefe2e92625ff0ac5f7965'|'Britain to sell 15 billion pounds of RBS shares over five years'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:38 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago UK''s 15-billion-pound RBS sale to boost government coffers Lawrence White , Andrew MacAskill 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will reprivatise bailed-out lender Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) by selling 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) of shares, according to budget documents released on Wednesday, in a boost to finance minister Philip Hammond’s coffers. A worker cleans the glass exterior next to the logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank at a building in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi The government will begin the delayed share sale by selling 3 billion pounds of shares in RBS before the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year and the shares will be sold over five years. The British government pumped 45.5 billion pounds into RBS in the depths of the financial crisis, and efforts since then to recoup the money have been stymied by the bank’s plunging share price, regulatory probes in the United States and Brexit. At the current share price of 270 pence, little more than half the 502 pence the government paid for them, the Treasury stands to lose billions of pounds on the sale. RBS has reported losses of more than 58 billion pounds since 2008 but last month reported a forecast-beating operating profit in the third quarter that lifted its shares. Peter Hahn, professor of banking at the London Institute of Banking and Finance, said the government had decided to start selling its stake because RBS is close to resolving its problems and the government has accepted it is unlikely to get all its money back. “The government bought the shares almost 10 years ago, RBS is a very different bank today, so there is no way it can recoup the money it spent bailing it out,” he said. “This is a realisation from the government it is time to move on.” The sale would represent around two thirds of the government’s 71 percent stake in RBS at current market prices. A spokeswoman for RBS said the bank welcomed the government’s recognition of the bank’s progress. Britain’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the government’s expected losses from rescuing failed banks during the 2007-2009 financial crisis narrowed to 21.8 billion pounds from 23.5 billion pounds in March. The OBR said the government now faces a 26.2 billion pound loss on its stake in RBS, down from a previous forecast of 29.2 billion in March, after a recovery in the value of the bank’s shares. Nevertheless, the proceeds from the share sale will come as a boon to Hammond, who on Wednesday delivered a gloomy budget statement to parliament warning of lower tax revenues. The share sale will help achieve a fall in public sector net debt as a share of GDP. A government plan to sell part of its RBS stake was scrapped last year in the wake of the Brexit vote. Earlier this year, RBS resolved one of the two major obstacles preventing the government selling its stake in the lender. European Union regulators freed RBS from an obligation to sell more than 300 branches, bringing to an end the bank’s seven-year struggle to meet conditions for its bailout. Instead, the regulators accepted a plan for RBS to set up a fund to increase competition in the small-business market. That left as the remaining major legal obstacle a claim by the U.S. Justice Department that the bank, like many of its peers, mis-sold toxic mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan has said he expects to settle the case this year, although formal talks have not started. McEwan and bank investors alike see resolving the case, which analysts have estimated could lead to a fine of as much as $12 billion, as a prerequisite for the bank being able to exit government ownership. RBS shares fell by 1.25 percent by 1630 GMT, against a 0.4 percent rise in the STOXX European banks index .SX7P. The government also said on Wednesday it expects to sell off the last remaining assets of the failed lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley by 2021. ($1 = 0.7540 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-budget-rbs/britain-to-sell-15-billion-pounds-of-rbs-shares-over-five-years-idUSKBN1DM1U8'|'2017-11-22T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'32250cb8a96e9d48cc2e02e7e1d0f8730b734b3d'|'U.S. pipeline regulator to remain on site of spill until restart'|'NEW YORK/CALGARY (Reuters) - The clean-up of an oil spill from TransCanada Corp’s Keystone pipeline may last several weeks, South Dakota’s environmental regulator said on Wednesday, but it is still unclear when the key artery will restart. An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S., in this photo provided November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dronebase Last week, the Keystone system linking Alberta’s oil sands with U.S. refineries spilled 5,000 barrels in rural northeastern South Dakota, four days before neighboring Nebraska voted to remove a big regulatory obstacle for the company’s Keystone XL project. “We expect it to take several weeks. Our focus is making sure they do that clean-up in accordance with our regulations,” said Brian Walsh, environmental scientist manager for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. TransCanda has so far recovered 571 barrels of oil, a spokesman said. “Repair plans will be confirmed once we are able to safely expose the impacted section of pipe,” he said, adding that the company is working with the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on a return to service date for the 590,000 barrel per day pipeline. Refiner Phillips 66, which sources some of its crude from the line, told staff that the pipeline could be shut for as long as four weeks after preliminary indications, according to Energy News Today. U.S. crude prices remained near a two-year high at $58 after sources said the Keystone pipeline will cut deliveries by 85 percent or more through the end of November. That would effectively reduce shipments by around 7 million barrels of crude, traders say. The U.S. imports more than 3 million barrels of oil a day from Canada, more than any other country. U.S. pipeline regulatory officials said on Wednesday they will remain at the site until the pipeline is restarted and a PHMSA spokesman said its personnel will monitor the excavation and packaging of the damaged pipe section for testing. Reporting by Catherine Ngai in New York and Nia Williams in Calgary, additional reporting by Ethan Lou; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-keystone/u-s-pipeline-regulator-to-remain-on-site-of-spill-until-restart-idUSKBN1DM242'|'2017-11-22T18:02:00.000+02:00'
'1addaf6e849c4f9e778080184dad8227a4fe1dc4'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 22'|'Nov 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- United States officials are charging an Iranian hacker in the theft of 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO in May, an attack that tormented network executives and included the release of several unaired programs and scripts. nyti.ms/2hJFJ0M- Skype, one of the last foreign-run tools for online communication in China, appears to be in trouble with the authorities in the country. It is unavailable on a number of sites where apps are downloaded in China, including Apple Inc''s app store in the country. nyti.ms/2za1oXo- An alternative virtual currency that is owned and operated by the same people as Bitfinex, known as Tether, announced on Tuesday that it had been hacked and lost around $30 million worth of digital tokens. nyti.ms/2mRPyiP- Twenty-First century Fox Inc''s Fox News network announced on Tuesday that another hard-line conservative is set to join its ranks: Mark Levin, one of the country''s most prominent right-wing radio hosts, will host a weekly Sunday show starting in February. nyti.ms/2zYSe35- One of the Walt Disney Co''s most important executives, the Pixar co-founder John Lasseter, said Tuesday that he would take "a six-month sabbatical" after unspecified "missteps" that made some staffers feel "disrespected or uncomfortable." nyti.ms/2A1UfJR- Two female-led investor groups are lining up to save the Weinstein Company, which has been straining to avoid bankruptcy since dozens of allegations of sexual harassment and rape were made against co-owner Harvey Weinstein. nyti.ms/2zrBulW (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-22-idINL3N1NS271'|'2017-11-22T02:53:00.000+02:00'
'85fc72c0ca6a6484f7b450932a75969c6841947c'|'Uber breach, cover up trigger government probes around the globe'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Governments around the globe launched investigations into Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] after the company disclosed it had covered up a breach that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo Authorities in Britain and the United States, two top Uber markets, as well as Australia and the Philippines said on Wednesday they would investigate the company’s response to the data breach. Some U.S. lawmakers called for Congressional hearings and implored the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the matter. Uber said on Wednesday that it has been in touch with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several states to discuss a hack last year that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. “We’ve been in touch with several state Attorney General Offices and the FTC to discuss this issue, and we stand ready to cooperate with them going forward,” an Uber spokesperson said in a emailed statement. Uber said on Tuesday that in late 2016 it had paid hackers $100,000 to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and driver stolen from the company and decided not to report the matter to victims or authorities. The company''s chief executive had acknowledged in a Tuesday blog that the company had erred in handling the breach. ( ubr.to/2AmxlQt ) The money-losing ride-hailing service is known for the tough stance it has taken against regulators as it seeks to aggressively expand and compete with existing taxi services. Attorneys general in at least four U.S. states, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, said they had launched investigations into the breach. “We have serious concerns about the reported conduct,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal took to Twitter to call for the FTC to investigate Uber, describing the company’s behavior as “inexplicable” and asking for the FTC to impose “significant penalties.” The FTC, which investigates companies accused of being sloppy with consumer data, said it was looking into the matter, but declined to say if it had launched a formal investigation. “We are aware of press reports describing a breach in late 2016 at Uber and Uber officials’ actions after that breach. We are closely evaluating the serious issues raised,” an FTC spokesman said. U.S. Representative Frank Pallone called for a Congressional hearing. “If Uber did indeed secretly pay-off the hackers to keep the breach quiet, then a possible cover up of the incident is problematic and must be investigated,” Pallone said in a statement. Britain’s data protection authority said it would work with agencies in the United Kingdom and overseas to investigate the matter. “If UK citizens were affected, then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed,” James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement. British law carries a maximum penalty of 500,000 pounds ($662,000) for failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies,” Dipple-Johnstone said. The stolen information included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, according to a blog post by Uber’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in August. Uber said it fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, Craig Clark, this week over their role in the incident. Sullivan, formerly the top security official at Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and a federal prosecutor, served as both security chief and deputy general counsel for Uber. Sullivan declined comment. Clark could not be reached for comment. Kalanick, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The former CEO remains on the Uber board of directors, and Khosrowshahi has said he consults with him regularly. A stream of executives have left Uber in recent months amid controversies involving sexual harassment, data privacy and business practices in Asia. The board removed Kalanick as CEO in June. London’s transport regulator recently pulled Uber’s operating license, saying the company failed to deal with public safety and security issues. Uber is appealing the decision. The agency said on Wednesday it was seeking more information about the breach. “We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place for the personal data of drivers and customers in London,” a Transport for London spokesman said. Uber said earlier this month it had struck an agreement to allow Japan’s SoftBank Group ( 9984.T ) to invest up to $10 billion, most of it by buying shares from existing investors. The final price has yet to be decided, and SoftBank could back out if not enough Uber investors are willing to sell at the right price. Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-cyberattack/uber-breach-cover-up-trigger-government-probes-around-the-globe-idUSKBN1DM2F9'|'2017-11-22T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'4b223afb2bd67155489e938a884e3a8e0259503e'|'Britain to sell 15 billion pounds of RBS shares over five years'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:37 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Britain to sell 15 billion pounds of RBS shares over five years Reuters Staff 1   Britain’s government will begin the reprivatisation of bailed-out lender Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) by selling 3 billion pounds worth of shares before the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year, according to an official report released on Wednesday. A customer uses an ATM at a branch of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The share sale will eventually total 15 billion pounds worth, spread evenly over 5 years, the independent Office   said in the report. The report also said expected losses from rescuing failed banks during the 2007-2009 financial crisis narrowed to 21.8 billion pounds, from 23.5 billion pounds in March. The government said it now faces a 26.2 billion pound loss on its stake in RBS, down from a   29.2 billion in March, after a recovery in the value of the bank’s shares. Reporting by Lawrence White and Andrew MacAskill, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget-rbs/britain-to-sell-15-billion-pounds-of-rbs-shares-over-five-years-idUKKBN1DM1UA'|'2017-11-22T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'502f46fd8488c0debde6cbae02d66f9d004418f3'|'Apple says illegal student labour discovered at iPhone X plant'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:19 PM / Updated an hour ago Apple says illegal student labor discovered at iPhone X plant Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Smartphone maker Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and its biggest manufacturing partner on Wednesday said that a small number of students were discovered working overtime in its Chinese factory, violating local labor laws. FILE PHOTO: An iPhone X is seen on a large video screen in the new Apple Visitor Center in Cupertino, California, U.S., November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo The students worked voluntarily in the factory for more than 11 hours a day as part of a school internship program at a plant run by Hon Hai Precision Co Ltd ( 2317.TW ), also known as Foxconn, the manufacturer confirmed. “We discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China. We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime,” Apple said in a statement. Apple and Foxconn have been accused of poor labor practices in the past, but the U.S. technology giant has been trying to get a grip of such issues, releasing annual reviews of the iPhone supply chain. The violations announced this week come as the company is stretching to meet demand for its new iPhone X, which began shipping this month. FILE PHOTO: A customer looks at her Apple iPhone X at an Apple store in New York, U.S., November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo An earlier report by the Financial Times cited six students who worked overtime at the plant as saying the program was required for them to graduate. The FT report said the students, aged between 17-19, were being forced by their school to participate in the internship. “Our policies do not allow interns to work more than 40 hours per week on program-related assignments. Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where portions of our campuses have not adhered to this policy,” Foxconn said in a statement, adding that the interns accounted for a small part of the workforce. Apple’s statement said that the company had sent staff to the site to address the violations. Labor rights groups have previously criticized Apple and Foxconn for excessive overtime, hiring underage workers and failing to provide health insurance. Since 2012 Apple says it has reduced the number of underage workers in its extended supply chain, which includes locations where rare earth minerals are mined for use in the smartphones. Reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Taipei; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-foxconn-labour/apple-says-illegal-student-labor-discovered-at-iphone-x-plant-idUKKBN1DM1LA'|'2017-11-22T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'60f30c0f4145f5b4aa3422b790cf971a039b1dd8'|'Aker ASA won''t rush sale of oil services: CEO'|'OSLO (Reuters) - Aker ASA ( AKER.OL ), the investment vehicle of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, is not in a hurry to sell more assets in the oil services industry, it said on Thursday.Aker’s Akastor ( AKAS.OL ) unit recently agreed to sell 50 percent of its shares in AKOFS Offshore to Japan’s Mitsui ( 8041.T ) in return for an initial cash payment of $142 million.“It’s public knowledge that Aker has been exploring strategic options for our oil service businesses beyond the said divestments already announced by Akastor,” Chief Executive Oeyvind Eriksen wrote in Aker’s third-quarter earnings report.“Rather than rushing a transaction, we will spend the time and effort required to conclude that process in the best interest of all stakeholders,” he added.Aker is the top owner of a string of oil services companies, in addition to independent oil firm Aker BP ( AKERBP.OL ).“Both Aker Solutions ( AKSOL.OL ), Akastor and Kværner ( KVAER.OL ) have unique capabilities and customer relationships. We probably appreciate this even more today as we also observe our oil service business from the Aker BP customer perspective,” Eriksen wrote.“They all play a crucial role in our efforts to reduce the cost per barrel even more. From a shareholder value perspective that is even more important than an opportunistic short term gain from an exit.”Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aker-m-a/aker-asa-wont-rush-sale-of-oil-services-ceo-idINKBN1DN0JC'|'2017-11-23T04:06:00.000+02:00'
'4654ade2d6d82a52dbec739481a74cbd82ac3c69'|'British housebuilders hit by land-banking review'|'November 22, 2017 / 3:41 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago British housebuilders hit by land-banking review Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in British housebuilders tumbled on Wednesday after the government said it would reclaim land that was not developed quickly enough, potentially hitting future profits. Workers carry scaffolding on a construction site in Chester, northern England March 20, 2013. REUTERS/Phil Noble Britain’s biggest housebuilders, which include Berkeley ( BKGH.L ), Barratt ( BDEV.L ), Persimmon ( PSN.L ) and Taylor Wimpey ( TW.L ), have been accused in the past of sitting on land to restrict the number of properties they build to drive up house prices. Chancellor Philip Hammond set out a raft of measures in his annual budget to boost the housing market on Wednesday, including a review of the gap between the number of planning permissions granted and the housing developments that begin. “(It) will deliver an interim report in time for the Spring Statement next year,” Hammond told parliament. “And if it finds that vitally needed land is being withheld from the market for commercial, rather than technical, reasons we will intervene ... using direct intervention compulsory purchase powers as necessary.” Shares in the four big builders fell between 1 and 3 percent in afternoon trading, the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index. “If you are suddenly getting a flood of properties or land banks being used in the short term, the market might think it could depress prices,” said Paul Mumford, UK fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management. Housebuilders deny sitting on land, and analysts at Jefferies said that previous reviews had found so-called land-banking to be a myth. “We suspect that this one will too; we suspect that will be confirmed in the Spring statement in 2018.” The Spring statement is normally delivered in March. Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget-land/british-housebuilders-hit-by-land-banking-review-idUKKBN1DM20W'|'2017-11-22T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'3daa81d4a8f059a7e5525a10507a42ebb0b62755'|'Exclusive: Greece to overshoot budget surplus targets in 2017, 2018 - government official'|'ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece expects to overshoot its budget surplus targets for a third consecutive year in 2018, a senior government official said on Monday, an outcome that could help ease the austerity burden imposed on a recession-weary population.In a final budget draft due to be submitted to parliament on Tuesday, Greek authorities will outline projections of a primary surplus - the fiscal surplus excluding debt repayments - of between 2.4 and 2.5 percent this year, and of more than 3.7 percent next year, the official told Reuters.The figures mark an upward revision. A draft budget submitted on Oct. 2 had put the surplus at 2.2 percent for 2017 and 3.57 for 2018.A strong fiscal surplus could allow the government - facing public fatigue with pension cuts and tax hikes - to redirect funds to vulnerable sections of the population hit hardest.“It makes more room for targeted social and tax policy interventions,” said Nikos Magginas, an economist at National Bank.The overall narrative for Greece was still challenging when taken into context, said Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities.“While positive, it cannot on its own give a positive push to markets. The landscape is not favourable to investors or businesses and banks still have their problems,” Zamanis said.Businesses are heavily taxed, while banks are heaving under a mountain of non-performing loans.NASCENT GROWTH Authorities are also now expecting a 1.6 percent expansion in output this year, down from a previous forecast of 1.8 percent, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.The Greek economy is expected to expand by 2.5 percent in 2018, the official added, up from a 2.4 percent forecast.The revision, the official said, was “in line with European Commission expectations”.Greece has been in almost continuous recession since 2008, barring a brief sliver of growth recorded in 2014, and forced by three successive bailouts to carry out reforms that have included deep spending cuts and tax hikes. Its economy has shrunk by a quarter since the onset of the recession.However, over the past year it has seen nascent growth from a resurgence in tourism and a pick-up in domestic demand.Tourism revenues spiked 10.3 percent for the first nine months of this year to 12.99 billion euros compared to a year ago, data from the Bank of Greece showed on Monday.Greece’s third financial bailout, worth up to 86 billion euros and brokered in mid-2015, is expected to expire in August 2018. At that point, Greece expects to be able to finance itself in financial markets, though some bailout cash will be put aside and remain in the bank.“The final draft of the budget forecasts a cash buffer exceeding 15 billion euros for the post-programme period. That will be derived mainly from creditors’ financing, but also from revenues from new (bond) issues in 2018,” the official said.Parliament is expected to vote on the draft budget in December.Additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones and Janet Lawrence '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-greece-budget/exclusive-greece-to-overshoot-budget-surplus-targets-in-2017-2018-government-official-idINKBN1DK1V3'|'2017-11-20T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'457277695f9c4a1f805507413cd15888888f8af1'|'UPDATE 1-Indian cabinet approves amendments to insolvency and bankruptcy code'|'(Changes sourcing to finance minister, adds details)NEW DELHI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the finance minister said, changes that are designed to prevent wilful defaulters from bidding for stressed assets.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced approval for the amendments following a cabinet meeting but did not provide details. Local media has widely reported that the amendments will stop wilful defaulters from buying stressed assets that they previously owned.The government is striving to cut a record $147 billion of soured loans accumulated in the banking sector by making it easier to force companies into insolvency.Under Indian law, wilful defaulters are classified as firms or individuals who own large businesses and deliberately avoid repayments.The finance ministry has already asked banks to ensure that wilful defaulters are prevented from buying back assets. (Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Malini Menon and Jacqueline Wong) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-bankruptcy/update-1-indian-cabinet-approves-amendments-to-insolvency-and-bankruptcy-code-idINL3N1NS38G'|'2017-11-22T07:29:00.000+02:00'
'b5ebb57fedc2860327ba7917b966ccc59d5c927c'|'HP Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman steps down'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:23 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Meg Whitman stepping down as HP Enterprise CEO Pushkala Aripaka , Salvador Rodriguez 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Meg Whitman on Tuesday announced that she will step down as chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co ( HPE.N ), ending a 6-year tenure that included overseeing one of the biggest corporate breakups in history. Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman is seen following an interview on CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Shares of HPE fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading. Hewlett Packard Enterprises, known for its computer servers, is still adjusting to a new landscape in which corporate customers are placing more of their digital operations in the cloud and moving away from purchasing their own equipment. Whitman, one of the most powerful women in U.S. business and a former candidate for California governor, split Hewlett Packard Co into HPE and PC-and-printer business HP Inc ( HPQ.N ) in 2015 as part of a plan to turn around the large corporation. She aggressively shed assets and cut tens of thousand of jobs as HPE sharpened its focus on server and networking businesses. Taking over for Whitman in February will be Antonio Neri, a relatively unknown HP executive who has been with the company for nearly a quarter century and currently serves as HPE’s president. Neri is a trained computer engineer and has worked in every one of HPE’s businesses, Whitman said during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. Neri did not speak on the call. “We have a much smaller, much nimbler, much more focused company,” Whitman said during the call after Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said the move felt abrupt. “I think it is absolutely the right time for Antonio and a new generation of leaders to take the reins.” Neri will join HPE’s board of directors and Whitman will remain on the board as well. Whitman’s retooling of HPE included September’s spin off of HPE’s enterprise services and software business to British software company MicroFocus International Plc ( MCRO.L ) and acquired companies, including Aruba and Nimble Storage. This month, HPE announced it is selling its Palo Alto, California, headquarters, which the company has held for six decades. Shares of HPE have risen nearly 47 percent since the split up, outpacing the 27.8 percent rise in the S&P 500 index .SPX during the same period. Whitman is leaving just as it is time for an executive with technical prowess to come in and retool the company’s offerings, said Ilya Kundozerov, equity analyst with Morningstar. ”HPE is more focused and more agile than ever before,“ Kundozerov said. ”A CEO with tech background can help HPE to improve its innovative edge.” Whitman, who previously headed eBay Inc ( EBAY.O ), was reported to have been a leading candidate for chief executive job at Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] before it was given to Dara Khosrowshahi. An undated handout photo of Antonio Neri. REUTERS/Hewlett Packard Enterprise/Handout Whitman ran unsuccessfully for California governor in 2010, and she has served on the presidential campaigns of Republican former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. She endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She stepped down from the board of HP Inc in July and joined the board of Dropbox in September. Whitman said on Tuesday’s earnings call that she is “going to take a little downtime, but there’s no chance I’m going to a competitor.” She told Reuters that she is not preparing another run for public office. ”I stay active in politics by contributing to candidates from both sides of the aisle who I agree with on core issues, but aside from that, I have no plans to get involved directly,” Whitman said in a statement. Although Whitman is one of the most prominent executives in Silicon Valley, with a career that spans startups and older businesses, she is not a household name in California, despite her run for governor, said Elliott Suthers, senior vice president with Grayling public communications and communications and media adviser for the McCain/Palin 2008 presidential campaign. ”To run against a relatively popular incumbent like [Sen. Dianne Feinstein] she’d need to spend record amounts to get within striking distance,” Suthers said. “Outside of Silicon Valley, she’s still a largely unknown quantity. Voters have a pretty short memory and her positions have undoubtedly shifted since 2010.” Separately, the company reported net income of $524 million, or 32 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with $302 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, it reported earnings of 31 cents per share. Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $7.66 billion. Analysts were expecting fourth-quarter profit of 28 cents per share on revenue of $7.78 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez in San Francisco and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva, Peter Henderson and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hpe-results/hp-enterprise-ceo-meg-whitman-steps-down-idUSKBN1DL2PO'|'2017-11-21T23:22:00.000+02:00'
'4d2054ba6df50cfce3c8d856b5c8b64f463ee554'|'German regulator checks up on air fares following Air Berlin''s collapse'|'November 24, 2017 / 1:57 PM / in 5 minutes German regulator checks up on air fares following Air Berlin''s collapse Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - The German cartel office has asked national airline Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) for information on ticket prices after receiving complaints over rising fares following the collapse of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), Germany’s second largest carrier. FILE PHOTO: A Lufthansa airliner taxis next to an Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo Air Berlin ceased operations last month after filing for insolvency in August. Lufthansa plans to take on around 80 planes from its collapsed rival, although it is awaiting approval for the deal from the EU’s competition regulator. “We have asked Lufthansa to provide information on pricing,” cartel office president Andreas Mundt said, adding that the watchdog would examine the information and then decide whether to start an investigation. Lufthansa said it was cooperating fully with the cartel office and had not changed its pricing structures, which comprise up to 26 different fares per flight. “We have not altered our pricing. The insolvency of Air Berlin has led to a capacity bottleneck and therefore the cheapest tickets are being sold sooner,” a spokesman for the carrier said. Aviation industry expert Gerd Pontius said at a conference this week that prices were up to 30 percent higher on average on some routes. Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr last week told German daily Bild that the collapse of Air Berlin meant 60,000 fewer seats were available each day but the situation should improve from January. Lufthansa and European budget airline easyJet ( EZJ.L ) hope to have approvals next month for their separate deals to buy parts of Air Berlin. Air Berlin, Monarch and Alitalia all entered administration this year, while a sharp cutback in Ryanair’s ( RYA.I ) schedule due to staffing problems has also reduced the amount of seats available this winter in Europe. That resulting reduction in seat supply is helping to support prices this winter, with carriers such as easyJet, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA ) all reporting improving revenue trends during quarterly results recently. German airports association ADV on Thursday said the collapse of Air Berlin was particularly noticeable in domestic traffic, with passengers numbers dropping 3.2 percent in October on inner-German routes. Lufthansa said this week it will extend the use of a Boeing ( BA.N ) 747 jumbo jet on some flights between Frankfurt and Berlin into December to offer more capacity on the busy route, even though it is not normally economically viable to use such a big plane on such a short route. Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Ilona WissenbachAdditional reporting by Victoria BryanEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-lufthansa-prices/german-regulator-checks-up-on-air-fares-following-air-berlins-collapse-idUKKBN1DO1OG'|'2017-11-24T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'180671216de04581e491960105735ce43e127180'|'Clariant plans strategic update in 2018 amid shareholder pressure'|'November 24, 2017 / 5:59 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Clariant snubs review demand as showdown with White Tale looms John Miller 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Clariant ( CLN.S ) on Friday rejected its largest shareholder White Tale’s demand for an independent strategic review and three board seats, setting up a showdown with the activist investor which blocked its $20 billion merger with Huntsman ( HUN.N ). FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Clariant instead offered just one potential seat on the Swiss specialty chemicals maker’s board to White Tale, which includes hedge fund manager Keith Meister and New York City-based investor 40 North. It owns more than 20 percent of the Swiss company. Clariant Chief Executive Officer Hariolf Kottmann said it would update its strategy early next year but dismissed White Tale’s demands to bring in outsiders to conduct the process, saying they were “unanimously rejected” by the board of the Muttenz, Switzerland-based company on grounds they were solely aimed at a break-up. “The process they are insisting on is nothing else than looking for bidders for all of our individual businesses with the ultimate consequence of breaking up the company and selling the assets,” Kottmann told reporters on a call. “This is not what the existing board of directors and the existing management of the company will do.” Clariant announced plans on Friday for a strategic update in 2018 that would include “defining further actions such as M&A activities, short-term portfolio management options, potential returns to shareholders, a thorough review of the cost base and the pursuit of additional growth opportunities.” A spokesman for White Tale declined to comment on Clariant’s move, but the investor whose principals include 40 North’s David Winter and David Millstone has previously said it would seek to call an extraordinary shareholders meeting, if its demands were not met. BOARD SEAT Kottmann said Clariant’s offer of a single board seat for White Tale remains a point of negotiation. The Bavarian families who became 14 percent Clariant shareholders when the company bought Germany’s Sued Chemie in 2012 have two board seats because they committed their entire holdings to Clariant and agreed to lock them up for a longer period, Kottmann said when asked why White Tale was not offered representation commensurate with its holding. “You can’t compare the two cases,” Kottmann said, adding the Bavarian families support Clariant’s course of action. He declined to speculate on whether he had sufficient support from other investors, should White Tale call a special shareholder meeting seeking to replace management and the existing Clariant board. “In our last road show, in the last three weeks, we met around 60 percent of our institutional shareholders. In the discussions with them, we got support for what we presented to them,” Kottmann said. “How our shareholders will vote in an extraordinary general meeting, I don’t know. We will see.” Clariant abandoned its merger with Huntsman after White Tale continued to boost its stake, making it increasingly unlikely that the Swiss company would achieve a two-thirds majority necessary among its investors to approve the combination. Reporting by John Miller and Oliver Hirt; Editing by John Revill and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-clariant-strategy/clariant-plans-strategic-update-in-2018-amid-shareholder-pressure-idUSKBN1DO0EF'|'2017-11-24T07:58:00.000+02:00'
'85c0ff3f2317ab18d4139db0365ab5521056e5df'|'Uber seeks to appeal UK workers'' rights decision at Supreme Court'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Uber submitted a request to appeal to the Supreme Court a decision by a British tribunal which said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, the taxi app said on Friday.A photo illustration shows the Uber app logo displayed on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph in central London September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Last year, two drivers successfully argued at a British employment tribunal that Uber exerted significant control over them to provide an on-demand taxi service and should grant them workers’ rights such as holiday entitlement and rest breaks.Uber appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which ruled against it earlier this month.“We have this afternoon requested permission to appeal directly to the Supreme Court in order that this case can be resolved sooner rather than later,” said a spokesman.Uber says its drivers enjoy the flexibility of their work and are self-employed, entitling them in British law to only basic entitlements such as health and safety.Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/uber-seeks-to-appeal-uk-workers-rights-decision-at-supreme-court-idUSKBN1DO1TP'|'2017-11-24T17:09:00.000+02:00'
'327fed593e1600d73f6691357e1b12c9b9cf9cb6'|'Brazil''s review of Bayer''s Monsanto takeover may take be extended'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade could extend by as up to 90 days its analysis of the takeover of seeds company Monsanto Co. by Bayer AG, according to a regulatory filing posted on the watchdog’s website on Wednesday.The analysis extension will be discussed at a session of Cade’s tribunal later in the day, a Cade spokesperson told Reuters, as this is a requirement for the extension to take effect. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monsanto-ma-bayer-antitrust/brazils-review-of-bayers-monsanto-takeover-may-take-be-extended-idINE6N1JV02R'|'2017-11-22T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'607e1acf0ba45c70dd132c8eff760045b01068a1'|'UK watchdog says Hammond''s budget is "significant giveaway"'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:03 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK watchdog says Hammond''s budget is "significant giveaway" Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Britain’s official budget watchdog said finance minister Philip Hammond’s spending plans for the next two years represent a “significant giveaway” and that debt will only be cut through share sales and statistical reclassification. “Faced with a weaker outlook for the economy and the public finances, and growing pressures on public services following years of cuts, the Government has chosen to deliver a significant near-term fiscal giveaway,” the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said. Hammond’s budget choices would boost borrowing by 2.7 billion pounds ($3.58 billion) next year and by 9.2 billion pounds in the 2019-20 tax year, equivalent to 0.4 percent of gross domestic product, the OBR said. Fractional falls in public sector net debt as a share of GDP were achieved mostly through sales of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and reclassifying some public-housing providers as private-sector bodies. “If the sector faced serious financial difficulties in the future, it seems equally likely that the Government of the day would choose to stand behind it whatever its statistical classification,” the OBR said. (Reporting by David Milliken and Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-budget-obr/uk-watchdog-says-hammonds-budget-is-significant-giveaway-idUSL9N1MV003'|'2017-11-22T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'a5efc2fd2b80110fd28dca29e2826400aa724701'|'Fed close to goals, sees dual risks as it hikes rates - Yellen'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:49 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago ''Very uncertain'' Yellen still predicts U.S. inflation rebound Jonathan Spicer , Stephanie Kelly 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen stuck by her prediction that U.S. inflation will soon rebound but offered on Tuesday an unusually strong caveat: she is “very uncertain” about this and is open to the possibility that prices could remain low for years to come. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo A day after announcing her retirement from the U.S. central bank, planned for early February, Yellen said the Fed is nonetheless reasonably close to its goals and should continue to gradually raise interest rates to keep both inflation and unemployment from drifting too low. Yellen, one of the most powerful figures in world finance who also weighed in on the challenges women face in economics, said she does not believe that inflation expectations have drifted down too much despite five years of below-target U.S. price readings. Inflation should rebound over the next year or two, she said, adding: “I will say I am very uncertain about this. My colleagues and I are not certain that it is transitory, and we are monitoring inflation very closely.” A key lesson of her four-year tenure atop the Fed was to keep an open mind and not assume “you have a monopoly on truth,” Yellen told students and professors at NYU Stern School of Business. “It may be that there is something more endemic going on or long-lasting here that we need to pay attention to.” The Fed’s top policymakers have repeated their belief that inflation would rebound even while their preferred price measure has slipped to 1.3 percent, below a 2-percent target. Unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent while overall economic growth is running strong at 3 percent, prompting high expectations for a rate hike next month despite the price weakness. Yellen noted that while undershooting the inflation target for too long “can be quite dangerous,” the Fed must also avoid driving unemployment “way below” sustainable levels. “We don’t want a boom-bust policy,” she said. The first woman to lead the Fed, Yellen is credited with putting the economy on a firmer footing and steering monetary policy away from the fire-fighting mode that followed the 2007-2009 recession and financial crisis. Yet she was overlooked when U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month nominated Jerome Powell, a Fed governor, to become Fed chair in February - a decision that broke with tradition of chairs serving at least two terms. On Monday Yellen said she would resign her seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors once Powell is confirmed and sworn in. Yellen has pushed to improve recruiting and promotion of women and minorities at the Fed. Of the roughly 135 regional presidents in the Fed’s history, all but six have been men and all but three have been white. Asked about gender disparity in economics, Yellen stressed the importance for young people to have mentors who are “watching out for them... Especially for women in a field that has very few women.” The proportion of women among new economics PhDs has flatlined over the last decade, and has dropped among associate professors, while only 13 percent of professors are women in PhD-granting departments, according to the American Economic Association. Women tend to be less well-integrated in more casual, male social networks, making opportunities such as co-authoring research less accessible, Yellen said. “The way in which women are somewhat disadvantaged is that it’s often during social interactions that those conversations take place.” Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-yellen/fed-close-to-goals-sees-dual-risks-as-it-hikes-rates-yellen-idUKKBN1DL2ZM'|'2017-11-22T01:48:00.000+02:00'
'238886dc8007ac59824d3121f578d7ea17debd9b'|'Regulators rethink assessing risks at big insurers'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:06 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Regulators rethink assessing risks at big insurers Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A global list of insurers that must comply with tougher rules won’t be updated this year because its compilation could change, the Financial Stability Board said on Tuesday. Reuters reported the rethink earlier this month, marking a big win for insurers following pressure from the U.S. Treasury. The FSB, which coordinates financial rules across the Group of 20 (G20) economies, updates its list of globally systemic insurers each November. The Basel, Switzerland-based FSB said work on developing a different approach to compiling to list by focusing more on an insurer’s activities rather than size or cross-border reach, “may have significant implications for the assessment of systemic risk in the insurance sector”. The FSB will review progress on the activities based approach in November 2018. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-g20-insurance-regulator/regulators-rethink-assessing-risks-at-big-insurers-idUKKBN1DL0S4'|'2017-11-21T11:05:00.000+02:00'
'cb3aba907604d684ed9cd94286bd4093f3ac3276'|'Italy''s Carige warns of insufficient working capital in prospectus'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:55 AM / in 13 minutes Italy''s Carige warns of insufficient working capital in prospectus Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) warned that its working capital is not sufficient to satisfy its own needs for the next 12 months, the lender said in he prospectus for its imminent capital increase. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Carige bank is seen in Rome, Italy, April 9 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi Carige also said it had not yet received the final SREP assessment by the European Central Bank, adding it could not rule out a request by the authority for additional capital strengthening measures. The bank secured backing from core shareholders and underwriters for a vital 560 million euro cash call in a last-minute agreement signed on Friday. The cash call starts on Wednesday and ends on Dec. 6. Reporting by Francesca Landini and Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-italy-carige/italys-carige-warns-of-insufficient-working-capital-in-prospectus-idUKKBN1DM0NW'|'2017-11-22T09:54:00.000+02:00'
'74e1d6c6c9cafe900b6b2a9dece9c22e2a5979ef'|'Brazil pushes back decision on Bayer-Monsanto tie-up'|'November 22, 2017 / 10:40 PM / a few seconds ago Brazil pushes back decision on Bayer-Monsanto tie-up Ana Mano 2 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian antitrust agency Cade on Wednesday extended its deadline to review the takeover of Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) by Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) by 90 days to late March, potentially spoiling plans to wrap up the $66 billion tie-up by the end of the year. The Brazilian national flag is seen next to Bayer''s flag in front of Bayer headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker A spokesman said Cade had approved the extension at a session on Wednesday. Bayer and Monsanto declined to comment on the decision. The proposed takeover, announced in September 2016, would create the world’s largest pesticides and seeds company. Brazil is Monsanto’s biggest market outside of the United States. In February, Bayer said it was aiming to get regulatory clearances and close the transaction before the end of 2017. The extension of Cade’s review could push a decision to March 20. A ruling had initially been expected in late December. Under Brazilian law, Cade has as many as 330 days to make a final decision on any merger. Its review of the Bayer-Monsanto deal started on April 24. Last month, a technical division of Cade said the deal could be detrimental to competition and urged conditions for Brazil to approve the tie-up. The European Commission has also pushed back the deadline for its antitrust review of the deal and now expects to make a decision by March 5. Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-antitrust/brazil-pushes-back-decision-on-bayer-monsanto-tie-up-idUKKBN1DM2VG'|'2017-11-23T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'793dba2badb8f0f9b28028c6e3b8acd3adda3ba9'|'Russia says Google down-ranking Sputnik, RT would be censorship'|'November 23, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Russia says Google down-ranking Sputnik, RT would be censorship Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that moves by Alphabet Inc’s Google to place articles from Russian news outlets Sputnik and Russia Today lower in search results would amount to censorship. Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, speaking on stage at an international forum last Saturday, responded to a question about Sputnik articles appearing on Google by saying the company was working to give less prominence to “those kinds of websites” as opposed to delisting them. Speaking at a news briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday Google was acting under strong political pressure from the U.S. authorities. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alphabet-russia/russia-says-google-down-ranking-sputnik-rt-would-be-censorship-idUSR4N1NR006'|'2017-11-23T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'ed28c9d93dfa19c2b67980ade884a7cb298518be'|'Nykredit owner decides to sell stake, drop IPO plan'|'COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The main owner of Nykredit [IPO-NYKRD.CO], Denmark’s largest mortgage lender, has decided to go ahead with the sale of a 10.9 percent stake to five pension funds, putting an end to plans to publicly list the company.At a meeting on Thursday, Forenet Kredit’s 104-member Committee of Representatives approved the 7.5 billion Danish crown ($1.2 billion) deal, which its board presented two weeks ago.“With this sale Nykredit gets access to more capital, and that has been crucial for Forenet Kredit in the negotiations,” Forenet Kredit’s chief executive Louise Mogensen said in a statement.“It’s important for us as owners that we are able to step in, if Nykredit should need capital,” Mogensen said.Forenet Kredit, which is owned by Nykredit’s customers, will own 78.9 percent of the company once the deal is completed, while the pension funds - PFA Pension, PensionDanmark, PKA, AP Pension and MP Pension - will own 16.9 percent.Nykredit said in September it had chosen JPMorgan ( JPM.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and Danske Bank ( DANSKE.CO ) as joint global coordinators for an initial public offering (IPO).Forenet Kredit’s board estimated an IPO would have cost up to around 400 million crowns for financial advisers, lawyers, auditors and other expenses, whereas the stake sale would only cost around 70 million crowns.Nykredit said almost two years ago it was preparing an IPO to meet expected higher capital requirements from, among other things, so-called Basel IV regulations.Forenet Kredit said in recent documents the Danish regulator had assessed that Nykredit’s capital requirements would only be slightly higher under the deal with the pension funds than it would have been as a listed company.($1 = 6.2855 Danish crowns)Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Susan Fenton and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nykredit-holding-equity/nykredit-owner-decides-to-sell-stake-drop-ipo-plan-idINKBN1DN1WD'|'2017-11-23T14:17:00.000+02:00'
'22c5a3417c2fb67918265a9fefef2d2799efe148'|'Troubled Altice looks to offload Dominican republic unit - FT'|'Nov 22 (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice NV is looking to sell its telecom network in the Dominican Republic, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.The sale is a part of Altice''s plan to dispose non-core assets to reduce leverage and improve finances, the paper said. ( on.ft.com/2A4zm0s )The sale process of the unit - Altice Dominican Republic - is still in early stages and plans could change, FT added.Altice could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours.The company has grown in the United States and Europe through debt-fuelled acquisitions, raising its net debt to more than five times its annual core operating profit.Altice reiterated earlier this month that it had identified non-core assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018. (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/altice-divestiture/troubled-altice-looks-to-offload-dominican-republic-unit-ft-idINL3N1NT1PC'|'2017-11-23T02:26:00.000+02:00'
'9af26de48089e688c694e00e6759dbf066e224a7'|'UK targets tech giants over tax avoidance and VAT fraud'|'November 22, 2017 / 4:39 PM / Updated 7 hours ago UK targets tech giants over tax avoidance and VAT fraud Tom Bergin 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced measures on Wednesday to tackle tax avoidance by tech giants and to hold online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.com accountable for tax evasion via their platforms. Britain''s Finance Secretary Philip Hammond leaves Downing Street on his way to deliver his budget statement to parliament, London, Britain, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Chancellor Philip Hammond said some multinationals were avoiding tax on profits generated from selling to UK customers by using inter-group royalty payments to shift those profits into affiliates in low-tax jurisdictions. Britain would impose a withholding tax on such payments that could raise around 200 million pounds a year, he said. Hammond said he was targeting “digital businesses” but the description of the measure in his budget statement suggested they could cover all companies. A 2012 Reuters investigation showed how inter-group royalties had helped fast food groups including McDonalds and Burger King reduce their tax bills. ( reut.rs/2zqTfSj ) McDonalds ( MCD.N ) and Burger King, an arm of Canada-listed Restaurant Brands International Inc ( QSR.TO ) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would be affected. Hammond also said he would hold online marketplaces responsible for paying value-added-tax - a form of sales tax - when sellers on the platforms do not collect and pay the tax. Up to 1 billion pounds may be lost each year due to such tax evasion by sellers on eBay and Amazon alone, according to an April report by the National Audit Office. Dominic Stuttaford, European head of tax for law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, said the law needed to be updated to tackle such problems but that the actual impact would be unclear until more details were published. The new VAT measure is expected to raise around 30 million pounds a year. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment and eBay declined comment. Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britaintax-tech/uk-targets-tech-giants-over-tax-avoidance-and-vat-fraud-idUKKBN1DM285'|'2017-11-22T19:36:00.000+02:00'
'f5271288603807c842384c744c0b93fcf3a76c61'|'For the UK economy, this budget is its Suez moment - Business'|'T he 1956 Suez crisis was the moment Britain had to wake up to the fact that it was no longer the force it once was. The November 2017 budget was its economic equivalent.Forget the extra money to paper over the cracks in the NHS. Leave to one side the willingness to throw money at sorting out universal credit . The real story was not the latest attempt to boost home ownership but the news from the Office for Budget Responsibility on the state of the economy. This was little short of calamitous.For the past 100 years and more the UK has gradually got a bit better at doing things. New machines have been introduced. Workers have become more skilled. More has been produced with less effort and as a result living standards have risen steadily.Until the financial crisis, this improvement in productivity averaged 2% a year, with periods of stronger growth in the 1950s and 1960s balancing out the bad times, such as the 1920s and early 1930s.The OBR, the government’s independent forecasting body, says this long-term trend has been broken. Britain can no longer expect productivity growth of around 2% a year; instead it will have to make do with around 1% a year. Before the financial crisis, the UK was at or near the top of the G7 league table; now it is at the bottom . Inevitable consequences flow from this. Slower growth means individuals and companies pay less tax. Unless public spending is cut, that means the government has to borrow more.Q&A What is the Office for Budget Responsibility? Show HideThe Office for Budget Responsibility is the government’s independent forecaster, which gives its verdict on the outlook for growth and the public finances twice a year.The forecasts are published to coincide with the chancellor’s two big set pieces of the year – the autumn budget and the spring statement – and takes into account the impact of any tax and spending measures announced in those statements.The OBR also uses its public finances forecasts to judge the Treasury’s performance against the chancellor’s fiscal targets, stating whether or not it has a greater than 50% chance of hitting the targets under current policy.It was established in 2010 by the then chancellor George Osborne with the aim of improving the credibility of the government’s official forecasts for growth. The forecasts were previously produced by the Treasury itself and often criticised for being unrealistic.The OBR is led by three members of the budget responsibility committee, including chairman Robert Chote, a former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, with support from the OBR’s permanent staff of 27 civil servants.Was this helpful?Thank you for your feedback. It is now more than 10 years since the start of the financial crisis and the OBR’s gloomy outlook marks the moment when Britain has to stop kidding itself. Growth is not going to return to its pre-crash levels. The 21% gap between output per hour now and where it would have been had it remained on its pre-2007 path is never going to be closed. Britain is substantially and permanently poorer.According to Philip Hammond , there is nothing to worry about. Britain is alive with innovation and is at the cutting edge of the coming fourth industrial revolution. Churchillian rhetoric of the “blood, sweat and tears” type is not really Hammond’s style, even though on this occasion it would have been merited because the economy is now going to be £49bn smaller at the end of the current parliament than previously envisaged. The chancellor’s message, rather, was to keep calm and carry on.The best that can be said for Hammond is that he didn’t make a bad situation worse. He could have responded to the OBR’s gloomier forecasts by hunkering down, by imposing fresh public spending cuts or raising taxes. Instead, he has done the opposite. He has decided to increase spending and borrowing to see the economy through what is expected to be a rocky period when the UK leaves the EU in 2019. In its own modest way, the budget adhered to Keynesian principles. There will be an extra £2.7bn of borrowing in 2018-19 and a rather more substantial £9.2bn in 2019-20, when Britain will be leaving the EU.It certainly makes sense for the government to be leaning against the wind at a time when the private sector is inevitably going to be wary of investing, especially since the chancellor can do so by once again pushing back the date by which Britain’s public finances will be back in the black. In the dim and distant days of 2010, George Osborne promised he could get on top of the UK’s budget deficit in one five-year parliamentary term. That soon became two parliaments and now, it would appear, the earliest date for budget balance will be the middle of the next decade. Osborne’s notion that he could cut the economy back to growth has been tested to destruction over the past seven years . Britain has ended up with slower growth, weaker productivity, stubbornly high borrowing, a doubling of debt and growth that is still over-dependent on personal debt.The good news is that Hammond has effectively called time on the age of austerity. The bad news is that his drip-feed of new money is not nearly enough to compensate for previously announced Whitehall spending cuts, the benefits freeze and the fall in real incomes caused by the cost of living running ahead of inflation.Listening to Hammond, the impression was of a real giveaway budget of the sort that Nigel Lawson delivered in 1988. He hit most of the politically sensitive targets by providing emergency help for the NHS , freezing fuel duties, addressing the universal credit debacle and abolishing stamp duty for first-time home buyers.With the exception of the stamp duty change, which will only push up house prices and place them further out of the reach of young people, there were reasons to welcome most of what Hammond announced. Business liked the help he announced on business rates and, given that the budget was all about preparing Britain for technological change, the increased generosity of the research and development tax credit made sense.But the money has been spread thin as a closer investigation of the Treasury’s red book – which costs the various budget measures – makes clear. The NHS has not received as much as it needs to meet ever-increasing demand; nor was the extra investment in housing nearly as generous as it sounded. The £300m for universal credit next year is tiny when set in the context of a £2tn economy.Hammond thinks his supply side measures will help to revive productivity growth. There are some analysts who think the OBR is being too negative and that there are already signs that productivity is picking up.The alternative view is that Britain has had one recession a decade since the 1970s and sooner or later will have another serious downturn. It is about to go through the Brexit process with the economy in poor shape. From that perspective, this budget needed to put Britain on a war footing in order to win what will inevitably be a long battle to raise productivity. And it didn’t.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Office for Budget Responsibility Economic growth (GDP) Budget 2017 (November) Economic policy Economics Government borrowing comment'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/22/for-the-uk-economy-this-budget-is-its-suez-moment'|'2017-11-22T21:13:00.000+02:00'
'33274d2547c7b5c5809510e0e5d88f470c89f4ce'|'Gaming company Cirsa hires Lazard to explore IPO options: source'|'MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish gaming hall operator Cirsa has hired investment bank Lazard to explore a possible market listing, a company source said on Wednesday.The company source, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information, could not confirm if Cirsa was considering other options such as a stake sale.“The situation is in a preliminary phase, and the analysis is centered on different options to seek a market listing,” the source said.Lazard could not be immediately contacted for comment. Cirsa declined to comment on the record.Cirsa operates bingo halls, casinos and slot machines in more than 70 countries and booked operating income of 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in 2015, according to its website.Reporting By Rodrigo De Miguel, Writing by Sonya Dowsett, Editing by Julien Toyer '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cirsa-ipo/gaming-company-cirsa-hires-lazard-to-explore-ipo-options-source-idINKBN1DM0RK'|'2017-11-22T05:34:00.000+02:00'
'2a459ec25a653d1cc77d185c4c4ab56d1daa8182'|'Alimentation Couche Tard wins conditional FTC approval for acquiring Jet-Pep'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retail fuel station and convenience store operator Alimentation Couche Tard Inc has agreed to divest three fuel stations in Alabama to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its proposed acquisition of Jet-Pep Inc would violate federal antitrust law, the U.S. regulator said on WednesdayReporting by Mohammad ZarghamEditing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-jetpep-m-a-alimentationcouche-tard-ft/alimentation-couche-tard-wins-conditional-ftc-approval-for-acquiring-jet-pep-idINKBN1DM27X'|'2017-11-22T13:40:00.000+02:00'
'd5f87a1b6b038a7b268737e6420102d2a3f482d7'|'Aston Martin on track for first pre-tax profit since 2010'|'November 22, 2017 / 4:01 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago Aston Martin on track for first pre-tax profit since 2010 Costas Pitas 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Martin is on course to post its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 as strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car boosts its performance. A company logo is seen on the new Aston Martin Vantage car at a media event in Gaydon, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Pre-tax profit reached 22 million pounds in the first nine months of 2017, reversing a loss of 124 million pounds in the same period in 2016, it said on Wednesday. “Our strong financial performance and continued profitability reflects the growing appeal of our high-performance sports cars, with the new DB11 Volante and a new Vantage expected to stimulate further demand in the coming year,” Chief Executive Andy Palmer said. Asked on Monday whether the firm would be in the black this year, Palmer told Reuters: “It’s our intention to be.” Aston Martin, which is mainly owned by Kuwaiti and Italian private equity firms, last posted a profit in 2010. Its losses then grew, partly due to lack of new models, a high-profile recall and an extended period without a chief executive. Since Palmer’s appointment in 2014, the firm has pursued a turnaround plan designed to boost its model line-up, quadruple volumes and produce its first SUV at a new plant in Wales, setting up a possible stock market flotation. Volumes rose 65 percent to 3,330 cars in the first nine months of the year, prompting the firm to raise its full-year guidance to expect core earnings of at least 180 million pounds on revenue of over 840 million pounds. Third-quarter profit stood at 0.8 million pounds, reflecting a quieter period across the car sector when demand falls as people take holidays and some customers prefer to wait until after the vacation period to have their cars delivered. On Tuesday, the firm launched its new Vantage model, which will take its output to 7,000 sports cars in 2019, its highest level in a decade. Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-astonmartin-results/aston-martin-on-track-for-first-pre-tax-profit-since-2010-idUKKBN1DM23U'|'2017-11-22T18:01:00.000+02:00'
'b8a14b600910a3b5a295439544b44b1d27899f97'|'UK lender Paragon''s FY profit rises'|'November 23, 2017 / 7:16 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Lender Paragon looks to professional landlords for buy-to-let growth Noor Zainab Hussain 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Paragon Banking Group ( PARA.L ) said its focus on professional landlords helped to drive a surge in its buy-to-let business even as tax and regulatory changes made the property market tougher for smaller investors. Focused on mortgage and business finance, Paragon said 71 percent of applications in its core buy-to-let business were from professionals as of the end of September, rather than people renting out one or two properties. Traditionally 90 percent of Britain’s buy-to-let market has been owned by amateur investors. However a string of tax and regulatory changes announced last year has made the sector less attractive to such “dinner party” landlords, allowing larger institutions to grab market share. “These changes disrupted the level of market activity during the year, dampening demand in the sector at an aggregate level. Against this backdrop the group’s performance has been strong,” Paragon said. Overall lending in the wider buy-to-let market has reduced from about 40 billion pounds ($53.2 billion) to about 35 billion pounds this year, CEO Nigel Terrington told Reuters. “While the wider market is weaker, our market share is stronger... in the areas that produce the better customers, who are able to deliver enhanced margins and stronger relationships,” Terrington said. BUY-TO-LET MODEL Founded in 1985 and based in Solihull in central England, Paragon has a 5 percent share of Britain’s buy-to-let market. Buy-to-let investors buy residential property, typically with a mortgage, with the aim of renting it out. House prices have been outpacing a rise in wages for Britons, leading people to rent more, making buy-to-let an attractive investment. Paragon’s pipeline of buy-to-let loans in process at the end of September was 604.2 million pounds ($804 million), 88.2 percent higher than a year earlier and completions rose 20.6 percent to 1.39 billion pounds. The buy-to-let market is facing stricter regulations and the most recent regulatory changes require lenders to collect and analyse more information about a landlord’s property portfolio. “Notably, Paragon flags that it sees the professionalisation of the BTL market as conducive to market share build – a point that OneSavings ( OSBO.L ) has been making strongly too,” Goodbody analyst John Cronin, said. Shares in Paragon were up 2.1 percent at 470.7 pence at 1020 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, outperforming Europe’s banking sector .SX7P. Paragon reported a slim 1.1 percent rise in pretax profit rose to 144.8 million pounds for the year ended Sept. 30. Profit was impacted by costs related to a Tier-II capital bond and its reorganisation. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-paragon-banking-results/uk-lender-paragons-fy-profit-rises-idUKKBN1DN0KG'|'2017-11-23T09:16:00.000+02:00'
'a790643b790e59b891ec50ed674dd1772d55eed9'|'CEE MARKETS-Polish bank stocks retreat on new dividend rules'|'* Warsaw bank stocks ease as Poland regulates dividends * Romanian PM slams central bank for letting leu weaken * Leu drifts off record lows for now, pressure may return (Recasts with new rules on bank dividends from regulator) By Sandor Peto and Bartosz Chmielewski BUDAPEST/WARSAW, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Polish bank stocks retreated on Friday from 2-1/2 year highs after KNF, the country''s financial market regulator set new leverage rules which may limit bank''s dividend payments. The index of listed bank stocks in Warsaw dropped 0.8 percent by 1511 GMT. The bourse''s blue-chip index fell even more, one percent, underperforming regional peers, as Poland''s heavy-weight PKN Orlen, a volatile stock, led a fall of oil company shares in the region, shedding 2.6 percent. The shares of Poland''s biggest commercial bank PKO BP eased half a percent. The bank said that it may pay out up to 25 percent of its 2017 net profit as dividend, taking into account KNF''s new rules. "The real reaction (in bank share prices) should be expected early next week, because banking analysts are still working intensively on the new rules'' interpretation," said BZ WBK broker Slawomir Kozlarek. Elsewhere in Central Europe, the shares of Romania''s second-biggest bank, Banca Transylvania rose by almost 1 percent after it said it had reached an agreement with Greece''s Eurobank to buy its Romanian unit Bancpost. Regional stocks, after directionless trade this month, were mixed, just like currencies. The leu rebounded from an initial easing, trading at 4.6415 against the euro, drifting off record lows set earlier this week at 4.6585. For now it ignored a new clash between the government and the central bank (NBR). Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose criticised the bank for not intervening to stop the currency''s slide. It weakened in the past weeks due to concern over budget spending, a ballooning trade deficit, rising inflation, corruption cases and a controversial judiciary reform. It also got hit by a shift in the NBR''s policy focus to market interest rates from the currency exchange rate which it had kept in relatively narrow ranges for years. Just two months ago, premier Tudose criticised the NBR for a rise in interbank interest rates amid a liquidity squeeze. The leu''s weakness was a result of the shift in focus in the NBR''s policies on keeping market interest rates close to its benchmark rate, intended to control inflation more effectively. "It is hard to foresee the interest rate path in that overheated economy. It is not unsustainability, but the risks are priced in the form of risk premia," one Budapest-based trader said. One Bucharest-based dealer said Tudose''s criticism was not surprising, adding that the leu was not expected to weaken past 4.7 against the euro before Christmas, but may reach new record lows. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1611 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.450 25.423 -0.10% 6.12% 0 5 Hungary 311.71 312.37 +0.21 -0.93% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2103 4.2055 -0.11% 4.60% Romanian leu 4.6415 4.6526 +0.24 -2.29% % Croatian 7.5610 7.5645 +0.05 -0.08% kuna % Serbian 119.40 119.39 -0.01% 3.31% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1054.5 1046.0 +0.81 +14.4 1 3 % 2% Budapest 39795. 39962. -0.42% +24.3 58 72 5% Warsaw 2479.1 2503.9 -0.99% +27.2 3 3 7% Bucharest 7784.9 7778.6 +0.08 +9.88 6 9 % % Ljubljana 782.95 781.69 +0.16 +9.11 % % Zagreb 1859.9 1865.6 -0.30% -6.76% 2 0 Belgrade 739.41 736.19 +0.44 +3.07 % % Sofia 667.37 667.91 -0.08% +13.8 0% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.394 0.071 +109b +8bps ps 5-year 0.987 0.035 +131b +3bps ps 10-year 1.77 0.012 +141b -1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.541 0.007 +224b +1bps ps 5-year 2.545 0.019 +287b +1bps ps 10-year 3.338 0.022 +297b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.03 1.21 1.34 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.09 0.13 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.79 1.82 1.92 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-polish-bank-stocks-retreat-on-new-dividend-rules-idINL8N1NU3UB'|'2017-11-24T12:48:00.000+02:00'
'ec19b19531d8257df9892c8c78a426e3df883b79'|'US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Tech stocks help Nasdaq eke out record high'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:37 PM / in 3 hours US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Tech stocks help Nasdaq eke out record high Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes opened little changed on Wednesday, but the Nasdaq eked out enough gains to hit another record high as technology stocks continued to power the markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.3 points, or 0.01 percent, to 23,594.13. The S&P 500 gained 0.79 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,599.82. The Nasdaq Composite added 7.83 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,870.31. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D‘Souza)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-snapshot-tech-stocks-help-nasdaq-eke-out-record-high-idUSL3N1NS45H'|'2017-11-22T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'6077dd88fc2c0359b76a85bf7f0e938c927fcb35'|'Bunge widens exec takeover payout scheme after Glencore approach'|'November 22, 2017 / 6:03 PM / a minute ago Bunge widens executive takeover payout scheme after Glencore approach Tom Polansek 3 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grain merchant Bunge Ltd ( BG.N ) has sweetened compensation packages for top executives in the case of a takeover, according to the company’s regulatory filings, around six months after rebuffing an approach by commodity trading giant Glencore PLC ( GLEN.L ). Bunge and its rivals have seen profits fall as several years of oversupply in global grains markets have cut the trading margins that merchants can make for buying and selling corn, soy and wheat. Bunge has said conditions in the sector could trigger consolidation. Glencore and Bunge struck an agreement that temporarily prevents Glencore from making a hostile bid, after Bunge rebuffed Glencore’s approach in May, according to news media reports. Bunge has expanded to five from one the number of executives eligible for cash compensation if they lose their jobs without cause within two years of a takeover, regulatory documents filed this month show. The packages amount to two years of salary and bonus and provisions for earlier payouts of outstanding equity awards, the documents show. Previously, Chief Executive Soren Schroder was the only named officer in line for certain compensation if he was terminated without cause following a change of control at the company, according to filings. The changes help retain executives and put Bunge in line with other firms, the company said in the filing. Bunge will make public the estimated value of the packages in its 2018 proxy statement, spokeswoman Susan Burns said. Schroder would receive at least $24 million under his deal, according to company calculations in filings. Chief Financial Officer Thom Boehlert became eligible for payouts under the changes, Burns said. Other executives covered in the agreements are Brian Thomsen, managing director of Bunge’s agribusiness unit; Gordon Hardie, managing director of Bunge’s food and ingredients business; and Raul Padilla, chief executive of Bunge’s business in Brazil, she said. In January, Padilla will take up the newly created position of president of South American operations, as part of a restructuring plan that aims to reduce Bunge’s overhead costs by $250 million by the end of 2019. Bunge’s new agreements could discourage executives from trying to derail an acquisition over concerns it would cause them to lose their jobs, said Charles Elson, a University of Delaware finance professor. The change would indicate the company is preparing itself for any future bid, he added. The new agreements also encourage executives to stay despite uncertainty about a takeover, said James Seward, associate professor of finance at Syracuse University. Editing by Simon Webb and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bunge-m-a-benefits/bunge-widens-executive-takeover-payout-scheme-after-glencore-approach-idUSKBN1DM2DV'|'2017-11-22T19:53:00.000+02:00'
'a35f5cf0b86c3c9782077a2155de95d0370dc684'|'Pakistan court orders Hafiz Saeed to be freed from house arrest - Reuters'|'LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the release from house arrest of Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, who accused by India of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed, a prosecutor said.Hafiz Saeed is showered with flower petals as he walks to court before a Pakistani court ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza Saeed was put under house arrest in January after years of living freely in Pakistan, one of the sore points in its fraying relationship with the United States. His freedom had also infuriated Pakistan’s arch-foe, India.The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province had asked for a 60-day extension to Saeed’s detention but the request was turned down by the court, prosecutor Sattar Sahil told Reuters.“His previous detention for 30 days is over, which means he would be released tomorrow,” said Sahil.Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks when 10 gunmen attacked targets in India’s largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a train station in a rampage that lasted several days.The violence brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.The United States had offered a $10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed, who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).Hafiz Saeed (C) reacts to supporters as he walks out of court after a Pakistani court ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza Members say the Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a charity but the United States says it is a front for the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.“The review board of the Lahore High Court asked the Punjab government to produce evidence against Hafiz Saeed for keeping him detained but the government failed,” Saeed’s lawyer A. K. Dogar told Reuters.Slideshow (2 Images) “The court today said that there is nothing against Saeed, therefore he should be released,” he added.A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.India accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attacks through the LeT, which Saeed founded in the 1990s.Pakistan has denied any state involvement in the attack. It placed the LeT on a list of banned organizations in 2002.“The leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Saeed’s (may God protect him) internment is over,” Nadeem Awan, a media manager for JuD, wrote on Facebook after the court order.Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes. Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-militants-india-mumbai-attack/pakistan-court-orders-hafiz-saeed-to-be-freed-from-house-arrest-idINKBN1DM13V'|'2017-11-22T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'2363fdb446b2beffbc49fee74964e1e9b539f3d9'|'What is the purpose of tax reform? - Free exchange'|'IF MAKING America great again is the aim, you could do worse than bring back the economic growth rates of the late 1990s. President Donald Trump’s team reckons that the Republican tax plan making its way through Congress will do just that. “We are creating a model that creates economic growth in this country,” says Gary Cohn, the director of Mr Trump’s National Economic Council. Kevin Hassett, who runs the Council of Economic Advisers, reckons the bill should push growth above 4% per year.Such heights are not beyond the realm of possibility, but if America reaches them tax reform will have little to do with it. That is not because of the specifics of the plan. Rather, it reflects an underappreciated reality: tax reform can accomplish many things, but raising long-run growth is not generally among them.Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.  Most assessments of the Republican tax proposals, like most analyses of most tax plans, conclude their effects on growth will be small. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a non-partisan public-policy initiative, projects that GDP in 2027 will be between 0.4% and 0.9% higher as a result of the bill.Nonsense, say the adherents of the supply-side school of thinking. Economic growth can be broken down into changes in the supply of labour and in labour productivity. Supply-siders reckon that lower tax rates on labour income should raise its supply; lower taxes on capital income should, by increasing saving and investment, nurture innovations which will eventually boost productivity.The actual economics, alas, are less straightforward (see table). Tax cuts that boost income from employment raise the cost of time off; this “substitution effect” implies that people should work more when tax rates drop. But there is an offsetting “income effect”: as earnings rise, demand for most amenities, including leisure, also goes up.Although theory suggests cuts to marginal tax rates should favour the substitution effect, the evidence is more ambiguous. In summarising the literature on the subject, the Congressional Research Service, the legislature’s public-policy group, notes that in practice neither labour-force participation nor hours worked move much in response to tax changes. Among high-income men, the effects on labour supply are non-existent.Reported labour income does rise in response to income-tax cuts, thanks mostly to reductions in tax avoidance. That certainly matters; effort spent eluding Uncle Sam represents an economic loss. It is just not large enough to have a detectable effect on long-run growth.The evidence is similarly ambiguous about the effects of tax cuts on income from capital. In practice, savings rates respond little, if at all, to tax changes. American savings rates have fallen over the past 40 years despite a decline in the effective rate of tax on capital income. Domestic savings are not the only source of investable funds; Republicans claim their plan will attract a growth-boosting wave of money from abroad. But such flows tend to occur slowly and incompletely: a blessing, perhaps, for the Trump administration, given the massive trade deficits that would result from a rapid, large-scale influx of capital.Tax reform might affect firms’ investment decisions. But firms’ ability to deduct the cost of new investments from their tax bill mutes the incentivising effects of changes in the corporate-tax rate. And as Larry Summers of Harvard University has pointed out, cuts to corporate tax do not simply reward hungry innovators, but also increase the return on profits earned by behemoths with market power.Given evidence that rising industrial concentration in America is undermining competition, there is good reason to worry that rate cuts will pad the wallets of oligopolists and their shareholders. (Awkwardly, CEOs convened by the Wall Street Journal this week to attend a discussion with Mr Cohn mostly declined to raise their hands when asked whether they would make new capital investments if the Republican tax plan were passed.)All told, a cut in the corporate-tax rate of ten percentage points would raise long-run output by only 0.15%, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service. National income would rise still less, since much of the gain in GDP would flow to foreign investors.As with income taxes, cuts in corporate-tax rates make avoidance less worthwhile; just imagine freeing up the time and talent spent cooking up clever tax-limiting strategies like the “Dutch sandwich” or the “double Irish”. Yet such costs scarcely register in long-run growth figures.A some-zero gameIn other respects, however, changes to tax make a world of difference. They can affect growth a lot in the short run, especially after a recession, when there is spare capacity around waiting to be activated by increased demand. That counts for less at the moment. America has less slack than it did earlier in the recovery, and the Federal Reserve, fearing inflation, might offset the stimulative effect of tax cuts with higher interest rates.The budget implications are much bigger. The implacable resistance to government borrowing displayed by Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, when bigger deficits might have done a lot of good, has crumbled. GOP leaders acknowledge that their bill will increase government debt by $1.5trn, or about 8% of current GDP, over the next ten years.Most striking of all are the distributional consequences. According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Centre, the bill introduced in the House of Representatives will reduce the tax burden of the top 0.1% of earners by an average of $278,000 by 2027, compared with an average cut of $10 for the bottom 20% of earners.The Republican tax plan would eliminate inefficiencies in the tax code. That should help the American economy run a little more smoothly. Yet with this reform, as any, distributional and budgetary consequences are not secondary effects to be subordinated to a broader growth dividend. They are the main event. It is long past time tax debates reflected that.This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "The grow-nothings" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731391-there-are-better-motivations-tax-overhauls-boosting-growth-what?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-18T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'b36294b417ef8a514b6ccf7d4c00ab89dd3f69b6'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX flat as resource share gains offset by bank falls'|'(Updates prices to close)* TSX ends up 0.72 point at 16,074.30* Six of the index’s 10 main groups decline* Energy group gains 0.3 percent, materials sector up 0.5 percentTORONTO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index ended flat on Thursday, with materials and energy shares up with higher oil and base metals prices, while financial stocks weighed as retail sales data reinforced expectations the Bank of Canada is on hold until next year.* The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended the session up 0.72 point at 16,074.30.* Six of its 10 main sectors closed in the red, with gains focused in the resource sectors as prices for oil and most base metals rose with a weaker U.S. dollar.* The energy group added 0.3 percent as U.S crude oil hit a two-year high, with pipeline operator Enbridge Inc adding 1.1 percent to C$47.53.* The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.5 percent as copper prices rose for a fifth day.* The financials group slipped 0.2 percent.* Canadian retail sales rose far less than expected in September as higher gasoline prices were offset by a decline in purchases of vehicles and clothing, pointing to cooler economic growth that could keep the Bank of Canada cautious about raising interest rates further after hiking in July and September for the first time in seven years.* Volumes were low with U.S. markets closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, with 51.5 million shares changing hands compared with 132.69 million shares on Thursday. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Fergal Smith; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-flat-as-resource-share-gains-offset-by-bank-falls-idINL1N1NT1EE'|'2017-11-23T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'2a6fbd87ad3714db21eba09e18a9161d8f68ece8'|'UPDATE 1-Natixis ups dividend payout target in new three-year plan - Reuters'|'* Natixis aims to grow revenue by 5 pct per year* Targets 60 pct minimum dividend payout per year* To take part in asset management industry consolidation (Update with details, CEO comment)PARIS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - France’s fourth-biggest listed bank Natixis aims to grow revenue by five percent annually over the next three years and to return more than 60 percent of its earnings to investors, it said on Sunday ahead of an investor day.Natixis - which had a minimum dividend payout ratio of 50 percent in its previous three-year plan - bets on insurance, asset management and payments in a search for higher returns and plans to focus its investment banking activities on industries including energy and natural resources, aviation, infrastructure and real estate.Natixis said it would have up to four billion euros to pay out dividends over 2018-2020 and said that one billion euros of that amount could be spent on acquisitions, compared to 1.5 billion euros under the previous plan.Natixis said it would actively participate in asset management industry consolidation trends in a disciplined manner, while the bank seeks to grow assets under management to 1 trillion euros from 813 billion it had at the end of September.Over the past years, Natixis - which is majority-owned by retail banking group BPCE - has slashed its balance sheet and focused more on earning fees from stock and debt issuance than from risky trading.Its parent BPCE has worked on boosting cross-selling with the investment bank, putting it in control of the group’s insurance and payment businesses.Natixis shares are up 22 percent this year, outperforming French sector peers.Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard; Editing by GV De Clercq '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/natixis-strategy/update-1-natixis-ups-dividend-payout-target-in-new-three-year-plan-idINL8N1NP0LZ'|'2017-11-19T15:08:00.000+02:00'
'5107181c5a2772b91f5786bff4ffa477cd6b732d'|'Brazil''s CCR considers bids for airports, roads in US, Latin America'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazilian toll road operator CCR SA is considering bidding for operating licenses for airports, toll roads and subways in the U.S. and Latin America, company executives told investors on Wednesday.In a meeting with investors in Sao Paulo, Chief Financial Officer Arthur Piotto Filho said the company may spend up to 7 billion reais ($2 billion) in operating licenses, acquisitions and new investments.Jose Braz, head of CCR’s toll road division, said the company plans to bid for operating rights in Chile and Argentina toll roads next year. CCR currently operates highways only in Brazil. The company also aims to participate in subway operating rights auctions in Lima, Bogotá and Buenos Aires, director Leo Viana said.Ricardo Bisordi, head of the airport division, told investors that CCR plans to look for opportunities in operating rights in the U.S.The company is looking for opportunities to deploy capital raised in February through its $1.3 billion share offering. Since then, CCR has acquired a stake in a subway line in Sao Paulo and stakes in toll roads in the state of Rio de Janeiro. ($1 = 3.2334 reais) (Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ccr-sa-investment/brazils-ccr-considers-bids-for-airports-roads-in-us-latin-america-idINL1N1NS1CG'|'2017-11-22T17:20:00.000+02:00'
'399de0e65d270195d10e92dd66a16cac838ba78f'|'RPT-GRAPHICS-Battered Turkish markets separated from successes of emerging herd'|'(Repeats without change to text)LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - In a year when most emerging markets have enjoyed stellar gains, Turkey has been an outlier, pummelled by double-digit inflation, political concerns and the central bank’s perceived inability to pursue independent monetary policy.Here are five graphics that illustrate how Turkish assets have been separated from the pack and why the underlying economic picture and the country’s large current account deficit exaggerate any hesitation in foreign investment inflows:1) WHERE‘S THE BOTTOM?Turkey’s lira has hit a record low of 3.9780 against the dollar on Tuesday, edging close to the psychologically important 4 per dollar threshold. It has now weakened more than 15 percent percent against the U.S. dollar and the euro since mid-year and also underperformed emerging market peers - weakening nearly 10 percent this year against South Africa’s rand, itself struggling with its own political and economic woes.Turkish stocks are up 20 percent this year in dollar terms but lag the 32 percent gains on broader emerging markets . The Istanbul bank index has lost 10 percent this month while local 10-year bond yields are at record highs around 13.5 percent2) UP OR DOWN? The central bank faces the unenviable task of trying to balance double-digit inflation against President Tayyip Erdogan’s persistent demand for lower interest rates. By driving up the cost of energy and other imports, lira weakness has fuelled inflation which stood near a nine-year high of 11.9 percent.The country suffered from spiralling inflation as recently as the turn of the century, prompting the International Monetary Fund to step in with an emergency rescue package.The central bank has responded to the latest lira rout by raising the weighted average cost of funding, but with limited effect. As a result, Turkish real, or inflation-adjusted bond yields, are well below those in other emerging markets. For a country with memories of raging inflation as high as 90 percent as recently as the late 1990s, the fear is that structurally high inflation expectations get re-embedded in the system.“The price always of the (central bank) being behind the curve is persistently high inflation, and lower growth than should have been the case, if the central bank had been allowed to do its job like a normal central bank,” said Tim Ash at Bluebay Asset Management.3) WHERE‘S THE BALANCE?Turkey relies on external financing for its large current account deficit. Data shows that the deficit for the first nine months of 2017 totalled $31.1 billion - a 27 percent jump from a year ago.Here too it has lagged other emerging markets, which have for the most part repaired excessive external payments gaps.“Turkey has a high susceptibility to event risk mainly driven by domestic political risks and the country’s large external financing needs due to wide current account deficits and sizeable external or foreign currency refinancing requirements,” said Kristin Lindow at Moody’s Investors Service on Friday.Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Graphics by Marc Jones, Ritvik Carvalho abd Fathom Editing by Jeremy Gaunt '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/turkey-lira-markets/rpt-graphics-battered-turkish-markets-separated-from-successes-of-emerging-herd-idINL8N1NS1V4'|'2017-11-22T05:54:00.000+02:00'
'0270969473d4d44650acc1bd425251dfcf74e2ec'|'EU insurance watchdog calls for harmonised guarantee schemes'|'Reuters TV United States November 22, 2017 / 10:44 AM / in a few seconds EU insurance watchdog calls for harmonized guarantee schemes Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Union’s insurance watchdog on Wednesday called for harmonized insurance guarantee schemes, saying that they can contribute to protecting policyholders and beneficiaries. Guarantees provide protection to consumers when insurers are unable to fulfill their commitments. Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Authority (EIOPA), said that current guarantees in the bloc differ “substantially” in financing, functions, mandate and coverage. “This fragmentation creates particular problems in the presence of failures involving cross-border business,” Bernardino told a conference of insurance regulators. He said that the insurance watchdog was beginning to study the topic and would issue a policy paper for discussion in 2018. Earlier this year, EIOPA called for a harmonized scheme to deal with failing insurers, an effort Bernardino underscored on Wednesday. “European action is required,” Bernardino said. The EIOPA chief also addressed Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, urging companies to prepare for a “cliff edge” Brexit scenario. “I believe that it is now more than crucial that all insurance groups properly assess the risks of a ‘cliff edge’ scenario to their business and consider all possible solutions to mitigate them under the available regulatory framework,” he said. Reporting by Tom Sims; editing by Maria Sheahan and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-insurance/eu-insurance-watchdog-calls-for-harmonized-guarantee-schemes-idUKKBN1DM0XV'|'2017-11-22T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'814a0263f66de0c695296af429407b3f28b76c43'|'Rockwell Automation rebuffs Emerson''s latest bid'|'(Reuters) - Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) rejected Emerson Electric Co’s ( EMR.N ) sweetened $29 billion takeover offer on Wednesday, in its strongest rebuttal to date of the proposed combination of two of the world’s largest factory equipment makers.FILE PHOTO: Emerson Electric Company Canadian headquarters is shown in Markham, Ontario, Canada, February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Cassese/File Photo Rockwell has resisted Emerson’s overtures not just because of disagreements over price, but also because it has argued that the combined company’s industrial customers would be worse off because its products would no longer be available on a single platform and in one software environment.A combination with Emerson would “dampen, not enhance, the ability to grow in the evolving industrial automation and information market,” Rockwell Chief Executive Blake Moret wrote in a letter to Emerson CEO David Farr published on Wednesday.Investors reacted by largely dismissing the likelihood of a tie up between the companies in the short term. Rockwell shares traded down 1.3 percent to $190.57, far below Emerson’s $225 cash-and-share bid and close to the level they were trading before Emerson’s acquisition interest became public last month.Emerson shares rose 2.5 percent to $61.87, as investor concerns that the company would proceed with an expensive deal that would overstretch its finances eased.“We believe it is unlikely there will be follow-up offer from Emerson,” Wells Fargo Securities LLC analysts wrote in a note.Rockwell is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to make automobiles, household appliances and computer systems.Emerson’s strength is in process automation, which helps power plants and factories in sectors including mining and cement operate more efficiently.Rockwell caters to its discrete automation customers using a programmable logic controller platform it calls Logix. It has been seeking to expand this control platform to process automation and cater to so-called hybrid customers using a combination of process and discrete automation.Emerson uses a distributed control system platform for its process and hybrid automation customers called DeltaV. Should it acquire Rockwell, it plans to offer its Logix platform to customers alongside DeltaV.Rockwell has argued that this approach could disrupt the business of some of its customers who want a single platform, and even cost it revenue. This is despite it previously having tried to challenge Emerson’s DeltaV by developing a similar distributed control system platform called PlantPAx, which never captured significant market share.Rockwell has been gradually making progress in increasing its footprint in process automation, thanks partly to acquisitions, including of MAVERICK Technologies last year.In his letter to Farr, Moret challenged Emerson’s assumption of $400 million of run-rate synergies in a deal. A full one-third of these synergies are assumed to be revenue synergies, which are notoriously difficult to achieve, while the cost and revenue synergies are uncertain at best, Moret wrote.Earlier this month, Emerson outlined a plan for a combined “Emerson Rockwell” that will maintain a significant presence in Milwaukee and become an “automation center of excellence.”Under Emerson’s latest proposal, Rockwell shareholders would own 40 percent of the combined company. Emerson could try to alleviate concerns about Rockwell shareholders’ exposure to the combined company by adding more cash to its offer and reducing its stock element.However, Moody’s Investors Service said last week that Emerson’s current proposal would saddle the combined company with $25 billion in debt, giving it little leeway to raise its offer much further.Moody’s has also estimated Emerson’s latest offer values Rockwell at a hefty 23 times multiple of Rockwell’s earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization reported for the last 12 months ending Sept. 30, almost double where many of its peers are trading.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/rockwell-automation-rebuffs-sweetened-emerson-bid-idINKBN1DM1EY'|'2017-11-22T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'b45a3809c3717cff8b41ee9e4cfc8ad74513a8d5'|'UK service sector''s profitability drops to lowest since 2013'|'November 22, 2017 / 10:39 AM / in 6 hours UK service sector''s profitability drops to lowest since 2013 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Companies in Britain’s dominant services sector reported the weakest returns on capital in three-and-a-half years during the second quarter of 2017, while profitability in the smaller manufacturing sector held at a 22-year high. Fish traders move fish at a market in Newlyn, Britain August 10, 2017. Picture taken August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The Office for National Statistics said that rates of return among services businesses dropped to the lowest since late 2013 at 16.5 percent in the three months to June, down from 18.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017. “Services companies expanded their use of capital and experienced a fall in the level of profits. This occurred despite an increase in the volume of output in the services industries,” the ONS said. Britain’s economy grew at the weakest rate since 2012 in the first six months of 2017, with consumer spending in particular hurt by a jump in inflation following last year’s Brexit vote. Export-focused manufacturers, however, have benefited from a fall in the pound. Returns in the manufacturing sector held at 15.3 percent, unchanged from the first quarter of 2017 and the highest since comparable records began in 1997. Returns for North Sea oil and gas companies slipped to 3.2 percent in the second quarter from 4.2 percent, after averaging 2.4 percent in 2016, the lowest since records began. “This reflects falling oil and gas prices, which were only partly offset by increased quarter-on-quarter production,” the ONS said. Overall profitability in businesses across the economy averaged 12.6 percent, close to its long-run trend. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-profits/uk-service-sectors-profitability-drops-to-lowest-since-2013-idUKKBN1DM13R'|'2017-11-22T12:38:00.000+02:00'
'ce189eb69782b6b9699367e5564a9f692b2aec39'|'UK''s United Utilities reports 10 percent rise in profit'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:14 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago UK''s United Utilities reports 10 percent rise in profit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British water utility United Utilities Group Plc ( UU.L ) on Wednesday reported a 10 percent rise in profit for the first half of the year, helped by regulatory changes in how utilities charge customers as well as property sales and lower costs. United Utilities, which supplies and treats water in north-western UK, said underlying operating profit rose to 344 million pounds ($456 million) from 312.5 million pounds a year earlier. The company said revenue rose 2.7 percent to 876 million pounds in the six months ending Sept. 30. United Utilities said total regulatory capital investment was 394 million pounds in the first half of the year, and it remained on track to spent 800 million pounds for the full year. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unitedutilities-results/uks-united-utilities-reports-10-percent-rise-in-profit-idUKKBN1DM0K5'|'2017-11-22T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'4eec1e8b892ce0fa28f8ead5eef87fd1ee9b5ebb'|'British developer Countryside flags strong trading in property sector'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:23 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Countryside sees strong trading in housing market Noor Zainab Hussain 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Countryside Properties ( CSPC.L ) said trading in Britain’s housing market was robust, as partnerships with local authorities and a focus on London’s outer boroughs helped the property developer shrug off sector-wide concerns. Countryside, which regenerates public land and builds houses on its own plots, also said it was seeing strong customer demand, favourable mortgage lending conditions and “good political support”. The developer’s comments are in sharp contrast to those from peers Crest Nicholson ( CRST.L ), Barratt Developments Plc ( BDEV.L ) and Persimmon ( PSN.L ), which have flagged Brexit-related barriers to new house construction and reported weak new home sales. With concerns over Brexit weighing, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has said house prices in Britain are no longer rising. In London, they are falling at the fastest pace since 2009, it added. Trading was also aided by low interest rates and increased demand from first-time buyers due to the government’s Help to Buy scheme, Countrywide CEO Ian Sutcliffe told Reuters. “Our partnerships business is significantly different to everybody else and hence our different tone to everybody else,” Sutcliffe said. “The principal difference ... is we’re working in conjunction with local authorities and housing associations to deliver a mixed tenure of properties.” He said Countryside, which mainly operates outside central London, had not seen an impact on its production from Brexit. The partnership business, which regenerates public sector brownfields and local authority estates, has insulated the company from a slowdown in the private for-sale market. “It is a low capital model, but a really strong model for working with local authorities to grow,” Sutcliffe added. Home completions in the partnership business jumped 17 percent to 2,192 units in the year, accounting for two-thirds of completions. Total completions were up 28 percent at 3,389 units for the year ended Sept. 30, while its private forward order book jumped 8 percent to 242.4 million pounds. “Countryside’s key differentiation remains its Partnerships business, which offers a highly attractive risk/return profile,” said Barclays analysts, who have an “Equal Weight” rating on the stock. “Ahead of today’s much anticipated Autumn Budget, the company appears well placed to benefit from a focus on affordable housing and/or the private rental sector,” the analysts said. Chancellor Philip Hammond will use the budget later in the day to announce plans to build 300,000 homes every year, according to the Sunday Times and the BBC. bit.ly/2AVfdJx “We’ll have to see what comes out in the announcement this afternoon, but it’s nice to see it at the top of the government’s agenda,” Sutcliffe said. Countryside’s shares were up 1.4 percent at 344 pence at 1022 GMT. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-countryside-results/british-developer-countryside-flags-strong-trading-in-property-sector-idUKKBN1DM0KM'|'2017-11-22T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'de7b59ce7e0f4a300c10632be29a6c6a3aa0340f'|'World stocks ride tech boom, bat aside politics to scale new high'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gauge of global equity performance scaled fresh record highs on Wednesday, propelled by bullish growth and company earnings outlooks, while crude oil prices rose to more than two-year highs.The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/Files Asia again led global stock markets higher as Hong Kong''s main Hang Seng index .HSI closed above 30,000 for the first time in a decade. China''s H-shares index .HSCE and Japan''s Nikkei share average .N225 also rose.Shares in Europe were mixed, with Britain''s main index .FTSE rising fractionally as Germany''s benchmark DAX .GDAXI index and other indexes fell. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading regional shares .FTEU3 closed down 0.25 percent.But MSCI’s all-country world index .MIWD PUS of stock performance in 47 countries rose 0.33 percent as it set a new all-time high driven by investor enthusiasm for tech stocks.Amazon.com ( AMZN.O ), Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Verizon ( VZ.N ) pushed the global benchmark higher.Emerging markets also rose, with MSCI’s main equity benchmark climbing 0.67 percent to set a fresh six-year high .MSCIEF.Wall Street traded flat to slightly lower as trading volumes were subdued before Thursday’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 52.67 points, or 0.22 percent, to 23,538.16. The S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.44 point, or 0.02 percent, to 2,598.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 10.36 points, or 0.15 percent, to 6,872.84.The S&P technology index .SPLRCT fell 0.31 percent after two days of gains, pulled lower by an 6.91-percent drop in Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE.N ) after Meg Whitman said she would leave as chief executive in February.The decision by Whitman, a high-profile U.S. executive, took Wall Street by surprise but the tech-heavy Nasdaq still edged higher.The U.S. equity market is poised for “smooth sailing” through year-end even as the ebullient mood on Wall Street signals trouble later in 2018, said Doug Ramsey, chief investment officer at The Leuthold Group LLC in Minneapolis.However, the broad equity advance, with few lagging sectors, suggests the bull market still has room to run, Ramsey said.“The odds that we’ll be at higher highs three to four months from now are very high, though it doesn’t rule some short-term setback,” he said. “I have never seen a major bull market top that looks like anything where we stand today, even compared to 1987.”Oil retreated slightly from a more than two-year high after U.S. crude stockpiles fell less than an industry group had suggested on Tuesday.Still, U.S. crude prices remained elevated near $58 a barrel after sources familiar with the matter said the Keystone pipeline will cut deliveries by 85 percent or more through the end of November.U.S. crude CLcv1 rose $1.19 percent to settle at $58.02 a barrel. Brent LCOcv1 settled up 75 cents at $63.32.The dollar fell, touching its lowest in more than a month against the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, after the release of weaker-than-expected U.S. data and inflation expectations.New orders for U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly fell in October after three straight months of strong gains and a measure of goods orders that strips out volatile components had its biggest drop since September 2016.The dollar fell to 111.62 yen JPY= , its lowest since Sept. 26. Against the Swiss franc CHF= , the dollar fell to its lowest since Oct. 20, hitting 0.9827 franc.The euro EUR= rose to a session high against the dollar of $1.1796.The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment report showed a decline in expectations for long-term inflation.U.S. Treasury prices gained after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting affirmed market expectations that the U.S. central bank will hike interest rates in December.However, some voting policymakers expressed concern over the inflation outlook, according to the minutes. These policymakers said they would be looking at upcoming economic data before deciding the timing of future rate rises.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 10/32 in price to yield 2.3240 percent.U.S. gold futures for December delivery GCcv1 settled up $10.50 an ounce at $1,292.20 per ounce.Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Nick Zieminski and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/world-stocks-ride-tech-boom-bat-aside-politics-to-scale-new-high-idINKBN1DM11N'|'2017-11-22T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'3c1e086b7cbaed1c3f53760547bf054df92dd7ff'|'UK''s Euromoney sells stake in Dealogic'|'(Reuters) - Euromoney Institutional Investor, the publisher of the Euromoney magazine, said on Wednesday it would sell its stake in Dealogic, a provider of financial content, to Ion Investment Group for about $135 million.The company also reported a 4 percent rise in annual profit on Wednesday.Adjusted profit before tax for the year ended Sept. 30 stood at 106.5 million pounds ($141.18 million), above the 102.5 million pounds reported for the same period a year earlier.The company, which is 49.1 percent-owned by Daily Mail & General Trust Plc, raised its final dividend by 33 percent to 21.8 pence.Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-euromoney-instnl-res/uks-euromoney-sells-stake-in-dealogic-idINKBN1DM0LH'|'2017-11-22T04:29:00.000+02:00'
'8503c8042f490e43e6bfa0a40794bb8262a11b1a'|'Gaming company Cirsa hires Lazard to explore IPO options: source'|'MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish gaming hall operator Cirsa has hired investment bank Lazard to explore a possible market listing, a company source said on Wednesday.The company source, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information, could not confirm if Cirsa was considering other options such as a stake sale.“The situation is in a preliminary phase, and the analysis is centered on different options to seek a market listing,” the source said.Lazard could not be immediately contacted for comment. Cirsa declined to comment on the record.Cirsa operates bingo halls, casinos and slot machines in more than 70 countries and booked operating income of 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in 2015, according to its website.Reporting By Rodrigo De Miguel, Writing by Sonya Dowsett, Editing by Julien Toyer '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cirsa-ipo/gaming-company-cirsa-hires-lazard-to-explore-ipo-options-source-idUSKBN1DM0RK'|'2017-11-22T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'165e725becaefdf6a2ffb0d86122905804d5d719'|'Column - Even sticking to cautious rate path, Fed is on thin ice: McGeever'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Economic growth and corporate earnings look solid, unemployment is the lowest in decades and there’s no inflation to speak of, so the U.S. economy and world markets can take two or three more U.S. rate hikes in their stride, right?Maybe not.Household debt in the United States has never been higher, lifted by record levels of auto and student loans, and financial markets - Wall Street, world stocks, high yield “junk” bonds - are stretched, in some cases like never before.It may not take much more tightening for them to snap.The first cracks in this year’s world market rally started to appear earlier this month. A selloff in high-yield bonds spilled over into Wall Street and other bourses, volatility spiked and the U.S. yield curve compressed further to its flattest in over a decade.Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global junk bond index fell two weeks in a row, a downturn not seen for a year. According to the U.S. bank, investors pulled $6.8 billion out of high-yield funds in the week to Nov. 14, the third biggest redemption on record.It’s worth remembering just how low “high-yield” bond yields actually are. They recently fell below 5 percent on a global basis and almost dipped below 2 percent on a European basis. That meant sub-investment grade corporate bonds in Europe yielded less than U.S. government debt.You can see how vulnerable these markets are to higher interest rates, even though the Fed is doing all it can to ensure its current tightening cycle is the most telegraphed and gradual in history.The problem is, the Fed doesn’t know where the neutral rate of interest is. That’s the level of interest rate where the economy is growing at trend, below which may encourage reckless investment and borrowing but above which may tip businesses, households and growth over the edge.The Fed sees the neutral rate around 2.75-2.80 percent. That’s down from 3 percent in June and effectively 100 basis points below its projection in early 2015. There’s no guarantee it won’t go lower still.The Fed has raised rates by 25 basis points four times since December 2015 and by its own reckoning will continue prodding the economy and markets with further gradual increases over the next couple of years.Pascal Blanque, who oversees 1.4 trillion euros ($1.65 trillion) at Amundi, one of Europe’s largest asset managers, argues that the Fed faces an asymmetric risk of overestimating the neutral interest rate.“They’re walking on thin ice,” says Blanque, warning of frailties in the U.S. economy that lie just below the apparently solid “cyclical surface”.A study published by the New York Fed last week highlighted some of these potential weaknesses. Total U.S. household debt rose $116 billion to a peak of $12.96 trillion in the third quarter. That’s $280 billion above the previous record set - ominously, perhaps - in the third quarter of 2008.Mortgage debt is lower today than it was in 2008, but auto loan and credit card debt is higher. Default rates in these two segments are rising, the report found.Johnna Montgomerie, a senior lecturer in economics at Goldsmiths, University of London, says the Fed is attempting the same “plate spinning act” it tried in 2004-06 - hoping household debt can continue rising enough to fuel wider economic growth as interest rates gradually move higher.But like last time, it’s an act that’s doomed to fail. Households have become as dependent on debt to sustain living standards as policymakers have become reliant on household debt to sustain economic growth.“Neither is sustainable,” Montgomerie says, arguing that it will be almost impossible to reduce household debt without causing a recession. “The only way to keep the economy growing is through more debt, and the very thing stifling growth is debt repayment. It’s a debt trap.”Certainly, the bond market is showing no faith in the Fed’s ability to pull this trick off. The yield curve is its flattest in a decade, suggesting the economy’s remarkable expansion of the last eight years is about to lose steam or worse. It is just basis points away from inverting, the classic (and uncannily accurate) sign that recession is looming.The speed of flattening recently has been remarkable, having compressed 20 basis points since the start of November. At that rate, it will invert in January and the Fed might well find out how thin the ice it’s skating on really is.Reporting by Jamie McGeever; editing by John Stonestreet '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-higher-rates/column-even-sticking-to-cautious-rate-path-fed-is-on-thin-ice-mcgeever-idINKBN1DM1NV'|'2017-11-22T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'0fd4adc452235ce43f8a6465f17a1798a0440d40'|'Indian navy the odd man out in Asia''s Quad alliance'|'November 22, 2017 / 9:09 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Indian navy the odd man out in Asia''s ''Quad'' alliance Sanjeev Miglani 7 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Trump administration is pushing security ties between the United States, India, Japan and Australia, but the revival of the Asian “Quad” must overcome lingering mistrust in New Delhi towards its allies that hampers genuine military cooperation. FILE PHOTO: An E-2D Hawkeye plane approaches to the U.S. aircraft carrier John C. Stennis during joint military exercise called Malabar, with the United States, Japan and India participating, off Japan''s southernmost island of Okinawa, Japan June 15, 2016. REUTERS/Nobuhiro Kubo/File Photo Joint naval drills have been at the heart of a relationship that analysts widely see as a move to counterbalance China’s rising power by binding the region’s leading democracies more closely together. But while the navies of the United States, Japan and Australia can easily operate together - based on common U.S.-designed combat systems and data links - India is the outlier. Not only are most of its ships and warplanes Russian-made, its government and military remain deeply reluctant to share data and open up sensitive military communications systems. The United States has carried out more naval exercises with India than any other nation. But naval sources and experts say these are more about “cultural familiarisation” than drills for joint combat. Because India will not sign an agreement on sharing data, naval exercises are conducted through voice and text commands with rudimentary SMS-style data exchange, Indian and Japanese military sources said. “Think of it as directing your friend to your house in the 1980s. Your left may be his right, neither of you have situational awareness,” said Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a senior fellow at New Delhi’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies who has tracked the military exercises. “What the Americans want is 2017 - drop a pin on Google maps and hit share. You know where your friend is and he knows where your house is and how to get to it.” The Indian defence ministry did not respond to a request for a comment. ANNUAL DRILLS The so-called Quad to discuss and cooperate on security emerged briefly as an initiative a decade ago - much to the annoyance of China - and was revived recently, with an officials-level meeting this month on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Manila. The Trump administration has talked up cooperation with India as part of efforts for a “free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific”. Describing the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a “single strategic arena”, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described India and the United States as regional “bookends”. “In concrete terms, it will lead to great co-ordination between the Indian, Japanese and American militaries including maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious warfare, and humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and search and rescue,” he said. To be sure, India and the United States have steadily been bringing more powerful ships into their annual “Malabar” drills that have been expanded to include Japan in recent years. This year the USS Nimitz carrier group was deployed for the manoeuvres off India’s eastern coast, along with an aircraft carrier from India and a helicopter carrier from Japan. FILE PHOTO: F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and E-2D Hawkeye plane are seen on the U.S. aircraft carrier John C. Stennis during joint military exercise called Malabar, with the United States, Japan and India participating, off Japan''s southernmost island of Okinawa, Japan June 15, 2016. REUTERS/Nobuhiro Kubo/File Photo But a Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces official said when Japan conducts drills with the Indian navy, communication is done mostly through voice transmission. There is no satellite link that would allow the two navies to access information and share monitor displays in on-board command centres. Communication is usually the most difficult aspect of any joint drill, he said. BUILDING BLOCKS The exercises are meant to lay the ground for joint patrols that the U.S. eventually wants to conduct with India and its allies across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said better interoperability was a goal of the exercises and noted that India’s enhanced role as a major U.S. defence partner would help boost the relationship. “The designation of India as a major defence partner is significant and is intended to elevate defence trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of our closest allies and partners,” he said. “As this relationship matures so will the level of interoperability.” Last year, India signed a military logistics pact with the United States after a decade of wrangling, but two other agreements are stuck. The United States says the Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) would allow it to supply India with encrypted communications equipment and systems. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement is the other pact that would set a framework through which the United States could share sensitive data to aid targeting and navigation with India. India is concerned that agreeing to the CISMOA would open up its military communications to the United States, and even allow it to listen in on operations where Indian and U.S. interests may not coincide - such as against arch-rival Pakistan, military officials in New Delhi say. RADARS TURNED OFF Captain Gurpreet Khurana, executive director at the government-funded National Maritime Foundation, said India’s underlying concern was having its autonomy constrained by binding its military into U.S. codes and operating procedures. Once, the Americans proposed a portable “suitcase” communications system called the CENTRIXS which could transmit full situational awareness data to Indian ships while the two navies practised together. India refused to allow it to be plugged in for the duration of the exercise, citing operational security, according to an Indian source briefed on the planning of the exercises. Even the joint air exercises that the two countries are conducting as a follow-on to Malabar are severely restricted, the source said. India sends its Russian-acquired Sukhoi jets to the drills, but their radars and jammers are turned off. David Shear, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia under President Barack Obama, said U.S. forces, particularly the Navy, were well aware of the interoperability constraints to interacting with India. “They understand what the obstacles are and that this is going to be a long-term project,” he said. Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON and Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Editing by Alex Richardson'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-usa-quad/indian-navy-the-odd-man-out-in-asias-quad-alliance-idINKBN1DM0U7'|'2017-11-22T06:09:00.000+02:00'
'e8807c854196495668407ef345089dabd2ad7107'|'German stocks - Factors to watch on November 22'|'BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The following are some of the factors that may move German stocks on Wednesday:ECB The man in charge of the European Central Bank’s money-printing programme expects the ECB to drop by next September its pledge to continue buying bonds until inflation heads towards its target, he told a German newspaper.GERMAN POLITICS Half of Germans are in favour of calling a new election after Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to reach a deal to form a new coalition with two other parties, while a fifth back forming a minority government, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.GERMAN BANKS Seventy-seven German banks have set aside a total of 535 million euros ($628.20 million) to settle possible fines or back taxes over tax-avoidance scheme dubbed ‘dividend stripping’ or ‘cum cum’ trades, according to an answer from the Finance Ministry and regulator BaFin.MUNICH RE Munich Re’s primary insurer Ergo and IBM are in talks to set up a joint venture that could manage run-off life insurance portfolios for rivals, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Wednesday, citing no sources.CTS EVENTIM Q3 results due.UNIPER The group will cut around 2,000 of its 14,700 jobs by the end of 2018, its finance chief Christopher Delbrueck told daily Rheinische Post in an interview.TELE COLUMBUS Q3 results due.TLG IMMOBILIEN EGM due to vote on domination agreement with WCM.ROBERT BOSCH China’s Weichai Power announced it had agreed to cooperate with Bosch on the development of fuel cell technology and digital manufacturing.ANALYSTS’ VIEWSAXEL SPRINGER - Barclays cuts to “equal weight” from “overweight”OVERSEAS STOCK MARKETS Dow Jones +0.7 pct, S&P 500 +0.7 pct, Nasdaq +1.1 pct at close.Nikkei +0.5 pct, Shanghai stocks unchanged.Time: 6.12 GMT.GERMAN ECONOMIC DATA No economic data scheduled.EUROPEAN FACTORS TO WATCH DIARIES REUTERS TOP NEWS ($1 = 0.8516 euros) (Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Maria Sheahan) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-stocks-factors/german-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-november-22-idINL8N1NR1O5'|'2017-11-22T03:14:00.000+02:00'
'b9b94776b2835716ee3865f0a5dfc9fb64a9ab15'|'Swiss banks need to meet minimum leverage ratio of 3 pct'|'November 22, 2017 / 12:21 PM / in 5 minutes Swiss banks need to meet minimum leverage ratio of 3 percent Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - All Swiss banks will have to maintain a leverage ratio of at least 3 percent from next year under new rules for smaller lenders adopted by the government on Wednesday to help safeguard the banking system’s stability. A longtime exposure shows the buildings of Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich, Switzerland November 20, 2017. Picture taken with long exposure. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “A minimum core capital (Tier 1) to total exposure ratio of 3 percent is required of a bank. Like previously, systemically important banks must meet more stringent requirements. The prescribed rate can be as much as 10 percent for them,” the government said after a cabinet meeting. The regulations are in line with draft proposals unveiled in April by the finance ministry. Regulators around the world have been working on rules to strengthen banks following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The leverage ratio measures banks’ core capital as a percentage of total assets without adjusting them for risk weightings. It helps to ensure banks have enough capital to support their lending. The government also adopted rules that limit concentrations of risks at banks as of 2019. “Risk concentrations will be measured only according to core capital (Tier 1), as supplementary capital (Tier 2) will generally not be taken into account. Moreover, banks will be allowed only very restricted use of models for determining their risk concentrations, as modelling errors have a major impact when calculating these risks,” it said. The two biggest Swiss banks, UBS ( UBSG.S ) and Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), are on track to meet updated too-big-to-fail rules but more progress is needed in preparing plans for a potential insolvency, the central bank said in June. Switzerland has already settled on its too-big-to-fail rules, which included a headline requirement for UBS and Credit Suisse to hold core capital worth 5 percent of total assets. At least 3.5 percent of the leverage ratio is to be made up of high-quality common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital. In a separate step on Wednesday, the cabinet amended the ordinance on liquidity of banks to ease terms of the liquidity coverage ratio from January 2018, especially for smaller financial institutions. It postponed introducing a net stable funding ratio (NSFR) for banks, which was originally planned for January 2018, given delays elsewhere in implementing the measure. The government will look anew at the measure at the end of 2018, it said. Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-banks/swiss-banks-need-to-meet-minimum-leverage-ratio-of-3-pct-idUKKBN1DM1ES'|'2017-11-22T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'80a3d22c68201285148fb98ae94c04956eb6f032'|'EU fines five car airbag, seatbelt suppliers over cartel'|'Reuters TV United States  14 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago EU fines five car airbag, seatbelt suppliers over cartel Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators fined five car safety equipment makers a total of 34 million euros ($40.0 million) on Wednesday for taking part in cartels to fix prices for seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels to Japanese carmakers. FILE PHOTO: A woman stands next to a logo of Takata Corp at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the European Union, said it had identified that four separate cartels in which suppliers to Toyota ( 7203.T ), Suzuki ( 7269.T ) and Honda ( 7267.T ) coordinated over prices and markets and exchanged sensitive information between 2004 and 2010. Tokai Rika ( 6995.T ) was fined 1.8 million euros, Takata ( TKTDQ.PK ) 12.7 million euros, Autoliv ( ALV.N ) 8.1 million euros, Toyoda Gosei ( 7282.T ) 11.3 million euros and Marutaka 156,000 euros. ($1 = 0.8508 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-autos-pricefixing/eu-fines-five-car-airbag-seatbelt-suppliers-over-cartel-idUKKBN1DM18E'|'2017-11-22T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'c7c86dbdf55136f041fcc1289991a4b7795cfbc8'|'TransCanada ''cautiously optimistic'' after Nebraska decision - Alberta premier'|'CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 22 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp is “cautiously optimistic” about the chances of its Keystone XL pipeline after the state of Nebraska denied the company’s preferred route, the leader of the oil producing province of Alberta said on Wednesday.Premier Rachel Notley’s comments were the first indications of the company’s stance on the announcement on Monday from the Nebraska Public Service Commission. TransCanada has so far said only that it will evaluate the decision.Reporting by Ethan Lou Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-transcanada-nebraska/transcanada-cautiously-optimistic-after-nebraska-decision-alberta-premier-idUSL1N1NS14V'|'2017-11-23T00:33:00.000+02:00'
'd81b65b040d739deab779645571a7a3277b1ca0c'|'Senior HSBC investment banker Westerman leaves after two years'|' 21 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Senior HSBC investment banker Westerman leaves after two years Lawrence White 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - One of HSBC’s ( HSBA.L ) most senior investment bankers, Matthew Westerman, is leaving the firm immediately, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Westerman, co-head of global banking at HSBC, joined the lender just under two years ago from Goldman Sachs with a mandate to shake up the division and improve performance. A rare external hire for such a senior role at HSBC, Westerman made sweeping changes after his arrival in February 2016 including cutting dozens of senior bankers and cracking down on staff who did not spend enough time meeting clients. British-born Westerman, seen at one time by some inside the HSBC as a future candidate to run the whole bank, ruffled feathers internally with the number of job cuts he made, sources at HSBC said last year. Westerman was hired directly by HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver and was familiar with the European bank from his time covering it as a senior investment banker at Goldman Sachs. No reason was given in the HSBC memo for his departure less than two years into the role. “He and Robin Phillips have together driven improved financial and market share performance and reinvigorated our approach to collaboration in Global Banking and Markets,” the head of that division, Samir Assaf, said in the memo. Westerman’s co-head Robin Phillips will manage the global banking unit following his departure, the memo said. An HSBC spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo. Editing by Jason Neely, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-moves-hsbc-westerman/senior-hsbc-investment-banker-westerman-leaves-after-two-years-idUKKBN1DN17K'|'2017-11-23T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'235d8b9efa00f2ba52b04d46b77204614a18d7bc'|'Brexit putting Europe''s UK friendship to the test - ECB''s Villeroy'|' 15 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Brexit putting Europe''s UK friendship to the test - ECB''s Villeroy Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Top European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said Britain’s divorce with the European Union was putting strain on its friendship with the bloc, and that deregulation would put global financial systems on course towards another crisis. FILE PHOTO -- Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo With the outcome of Brexit negotiations difficult to predict, Villeroy emphasised both parties had to work together to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome. “We are indeed going through a difficult period which puts the friendship between our countries to the test,”Villeroy, who is also governor of the Bank of France, said in London at an event by the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain. The structure of the European financial system will have to evolve as a result of Brexit, he said in a prepared speech, also emphasising that all banks and companies should prepare to avoid any potential cliff-edge risk. British banks should not get passporting rights to operate in Europe if they do not accept single market rules, and euro clearing activities for “super systemic” institutions must be located in the currency bloc, Villeroy said. Paris has “obvious advantages” as a financial centre, he added, saying he was “proud and happy” the French capital had on Monday won the right to host the European Banking Authority after it vacates London. ECB PRESIDENCY “NOT A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION” The euro area recovery is robust and broad-based across countries and sectors, Villeroy added, saying the ECB’s accommodative monetary policy has helped spur growth. Euro zone forward-looking economic sentiment data beat all forecasts on Thursday, cementing a more optimistic outlook for businesses in the bloc. The ECB has not yet reached its inflation goal, and it must maintain an ample degree of stimulus, he said, adding however that inflation was at a much better level than 18 months ago. In a Q&A after his speech, the central banker sidestepped a question on his potential ambition to take over the ECB presidency from Mario Draghi in 2019. “This is not a topic of discussion,” Villeroy said. Turning to the French economy, the central banker said President Macron’s push to reform the labour market and reduce taxes would have a “significant” impact on growth and employment. The most pronounced risks to the global economy came from shifts towards “unilateral deregulation” and protectionism, in particular from the U.S. since the election of President Trump, Villeroy said. “Unilateral deregulation would be nothing less than a lose-lose scenario with serious consequences for the stability of the global financial system - we would be paving the way for the next financial crisis,” he said. In a separate speech on Wednesday, Villeroy had said tougher financial regulation should not, however, hinder potential cross-border bank mergers in Europe, over which speculation has been swirling in recent weeks. Minutes from the ECB’s meeting last month, also published on Thursday, showed policymakers broadly agreed on extending its asset purchase scheme but that a decision to keep the bond buys open-ended generated fiercer debate. Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Marc Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-villeroy/brexit-putting-europes-uk-friendship-to-the-test-ecbs-villeroy-idUSKBN1DN1J1'|'2017-11-23T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'c9f60a018c7de46faa435c134749e84f4bfa6f30'|'Uber breach, cover up trigger government probes around the globe'|' 27 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Uber breach, cover up trigger government probes around the globe Jim Finkle , Heather Somerville 5 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Governments around the globe launched investigations into Uber Technologies Inc after the company disclosed it had covered up a breach   Authorities in Britain and the United States, two top Uber markets, as well as Australia and the Philippines said on Wednesday they would investigate the company’s response to the data breach. Some U.S. lawmakers called for Congressional hearings and implored the Federal   to look into the matter. Uber said on Tuesday that in late 2016 it had paid hackers $100,000 to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and driver stolen from the company and decided not to report the matter to victims or authorities. Uber representatives could not be reached on Wednesday to comment on the response from authorities. The company''s chief executive had acknowledged in a Tuesday blog that the company had erred in handling the breach. ( ubr.to/2AmxlQt ) The money-losing ride-hailing service is known for the tough stance it has taken against regulators as it seeks to aggressively expand and compete with existing taxi services. Attorneys general in at least four U.S. states, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, said they had launched investigations into the breach. “We have serious concerns about the reported conduct,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal took to Twitter to call for the FTC to investigate Uber, describing the company’s behavior as “inexplicable” and asking for the FTC to impose “significant penalties.” The FTC, which investigates companies accused of being sloppy with consumer data, said it was looking into the matter, but declined to say if it had launched a formal investigation. “We are aware of press reports describing a breach in late 2016 at Uber and Uber officials’ actions after that breach. We are closely evaluating the serious issues raised,” an FTC spokesman said. U.S. Representative Frank Pallone called for a Congressional hearing. “If Uber did indeed secretly pay-off the hackers to keep the breach quiet, then a possible cover up of the incident is problematic and must be investigated,” Pallone said in a statement. Britain’s data protection authority said it would work with agencies in the United Kingdom and overseas to investigate the matter. “If UK citizens were affected, then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed,” James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement. British law carries a maximum penalty of 500,000 pounds ($662,000) for failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies,” Dipple-Johnstone said. The stolen information included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, according to a blog post by Uber’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in August. Uber said it fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, Craig Clark, this week over their role in the incident. Sullivan, formerly the top security official at Facebook Inc and a federal prosecutor, served as both security chief and deputy general counsel for Uber. Sullivan declined comment. Clark could not be reached for comment. Kalanick, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The former CEO remains on the Uber board of directors, and Khosrowshahi has said he consults with him regularly. A stream of executives have left Uber in recent months amid controversies involving sexual harassment, data privacy and business practices in Asia. The board removed Kalanick as CEO in June. London’s transport regulator recently pulled Uber’s operating license, saying the company failed to deal with public safety and security issues. Uber is appealing the decision. The agency said on Wednesday it was seeking more information about the breach. “We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place for the personal data of drivers and customers in London,” a Transport for London spokesman said. Uber said earlier this month it had struck an agreement to allow Japan’s SoftBank Group to invest up to $10 billion, most of it by buying shares from existing investors. The final price has yet to be decided, and SoftBank could back out if not enough Uber investors are willing to sell at the right price. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-cyberattack/uber-breach-cover-up-trigger-government-probes-around-the-globe-idUSL1N1NS189'|'2017-11-22T20:24:00.000+02:00'
'ad92d464216dedc2192e302f18020d9f9b9df8bd'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 22'|' 22 AM / in 8 minutes PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 22 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** An investigation of "abuse of dominance" allegations against Loblaw Cos Ltd that stretched almost four years has been dropped by the Competition Bureau because of insufficient evidence. tgam.ca/2jKSE6Z ** Independent investment bank GMP Capital Inc announced on Monday that Doug Bell, vice chairman of investment banking, is leaving to start his own business. tgam.ca/2jN4QUW ** Royal Bank of Canada has officially joined the ranks of global banks deemed too big to fail. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body based in Basel, Switzerland, has added RBC to the list of 30 global systemically important banks, which must set aside larger capital buffers and face more onerous oversight. tgam.ca/2jM06is NATIONAL POST ** The fifth round of NAFTA negotiations wrapped up in Mexico City on Tuesday with little progress on major contentious issues, including auto rules of origin, raising the question of whether the U.S., Mexico and Canada can reach an agreement by the March 2018 deadline - if at all — as the U.S. stands by its demands. bit.ly/2jKW4ql ** The Canada Revenue Agency blocked more than half of the calls it received from Canadian taxpayers in order to obscure the performance results of its customer services division, and also accidentally provided incorrect information to a high number of callers, according to a report released by the Auditor General of Canada. bit.ly/2jLSjkI Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-nov-22-idUSL3N1NS3LW'|'2017-11-22T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'6ce84f6c6faa56cfa653d0251f8382f0a683e58f'|'EU Commission says six euro zone countries risk breaking budget rules in 2018'|'November 22, 2017 / 11:23 AM / Updated an hour ago Six euro zone states risk EU budget rule breach in 2018 Jan Strupczewski 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The national budgets of six euro zone countries may break EU deficit rules next year, the European Commission said on Wednesday, issuing what has become a frequent plea for governments to stay within the limits. An European Union (EU) flag is seen blowing in the wind in front of the city''s regional state administration headquarters in central Kiev, Ukraine, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko The regulations, set out under the bloc’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), say that EU countries should have nominal budget deficits below 3 percent of economic output and public debt below 60 percent. For 2018, the draft assumptions of Belgium, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and France posed a risk of not cutting the structural budget gap -- which strips out business cycle swings and one-offs -- fast enough, the EU’s executive said. “We ask (them)....to take the necessary measures... to ensure that the 2018 budget will be compliant,” Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference. Since the Pact was introduced in 1997, not a year has gone by without at least one EU country’s public finances overshooting one or other target. Euro zone finance ministers complain that the rules have become too complex and their application by the Commission has not been consistent, and the two sides are exploring ways to make the framework simpler. The Commission has the power to impose fines and other penalties for non-compliance, though France was never penalised despite running an excessive deficit for a decade, while Spain, Portugal and Italy have been shown what some budget-setters in other states considered excessive leniency. The Commission said on Wednesday that France, Belgium and Italy were also not reducing debt at the pace required by EU rules, singling out Italy’s debt of 130 percent of GDP, the second highest in the EU after Greece, as of particular concern. It is to review Italy’s debt cutting plans in spring 2018. POLITICALLY SENSITIVE Italy faces national elections by May next year, making any fiscal tightening politically sensitive. The anti-establishment Five Star movement is well placed to win the ballot with promises to clean up politics and guarantee a minimum income for all. “The fiscal adjustment... for 2018 is not adequate in light of the sustainability challenges that Italy faces,” the Commission said, urging authorities to use windfall gains to reduce debt. Italian Treasury sources said they were confident that the dispute with the Commission could be resolved without the need to resort to further measures. France may bring its deficit below 3 percent this year, but could break the rules again next year by not cutting its structural deficit enough in 2018, it said. The rules use the structural deficit in some cases because it gives a better picture of what the government is really doing, not masked by seasonal rises or falls of tax revenue or unemployment benefits. But it is an artificial measure that has to be calculated on the basis of other computed indicators. The Commission analysed the draft budget plans of all euro zone states except Greece, which is under a bailout programme. It said Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Finland the Netherlands, Estonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia were either fully or broadly compliant. The Commission recommended a broadly neutral fiscal stance for the euro zone as a whole. “This should contribute to supporting investment and improving the quality and composition of public finances,” it said. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-budgets/eu-commission-says-six-euro-zone-countries-risk-breaking-budget-rules-in-2018-idUKKBN1DM19I'|'2017-11-22T13:23:00.000+02:00'
'ed523c3e6bed981aa8e0961e61efb11f7dcc6451'|'A BP North Sea field to test U.S. policy on Iran'|'November 24, 2017 / 2:31 PM / Updated 7 hours ago A BP North Sea field to test U.S. policy on Iran Ron Bousso 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A small gas field on the edge of the British North Sea could become a litmus test for U.S. policy towards Iran. FILE PHOTO: BP''s North Sea Headquarters is seen in Aberdeen, Scotland January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo London-based BP ( BP.L ) this week agreed to sell to North Sea producer Serica Energy ( SQZ.L ) three fields in the ageing offshore basin, including the Rhum field which is co-owned by a subsidiary of Iran’s national oil company. For Serica, the $400 million (£299.6 million) deal will increase its production sevenfold. It nevertheless hinges on the British company receiving a licence from U.S. sanctions enforcement authorities at a time when President Donald Trump is flexing his muscles against Tehran. For BP and its American Chief Executive Bob Dudley, selling Rhum, which BP discovered in the 1970s, removes a potential source of friction as it mends its ties with the U.S. government following the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Rhum was shut down for most of the first half of the decade due to western sanctions on Tehran before resuming normal operations in 2016 following a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the world’s top powers. Because of the Iranian involvement, BP needs a licence from the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions enforcement arm - the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) - allowing U.S. nationals and companies to take part in the field’s operations. The licence was renewed in September, a month before Trump sought to reverse the U.S. position on the nuclear deal with Iran. Serica will apply for its own licence in the coming months, Tony Craven Walker, Serica’s Executive Chairman, told Reuters. “Getting an OFAC licence for Serica to assume operatorship of Rhum is part of the conditions of the transaction with BP,” Walker said. OFAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. BP, founded more than a century ago as the Anglo-Persian oil company, will lobby the British government to lend its support in requesting the U.S. administration to grant the licence to Serica, according to a source at BP. Though not a prerequisite to operate the field, the licence is needed as a back-up in case of an emergency that requires U.S. equipment and companies, Walker said. FILE PHOTO: BP''s Chief Executive Bob Dudley speaks to the media after year-end results were announced at the energy company''s headquarters in London, Britain, February 1, 2011. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo “Given the nature of the operations and our intentions to meet the same obligations as BP we don’t foresee any reason for the licence not to be granted,” Walker said. France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ), which recently opened an office in Washington, is also closely monitoring the U.S. position on Iran which could decide the fate of its plans to develop a huge offshore gas field in Iran. SNAP-BACK Things could change quickly after Trump’s decision in October not to certify that Tehran is complying with the nuclear deal. The ball now lies in the court of the U.S. Congress, which will decide next month whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the agreement. “A snap-back of U.S sanctions is a risk,” Walker said. “But it does not necessarily impact our operations in Rhum unless the European Union and UK also implement a snap-back and there is no indication that this is likely to occur.” Serica board member Jeffrey Harris, a U.S. citizen, stepped down in order to guarantee it does not violate U.S. sanctions still in place that ban Americans from dealing with Iran. Serica hopes to complete the acquisition of the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields from BP by mid-2018. The deal will increase its production to around 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which around 85 percent is gas. Serica and its partner, Iranian Oil Company, plan to renew drilling of a third well at the Rhum field next year, Walker said. After being forced to shut down in 2010 when Western nations imposed sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, Rhum resumed production in 2013 when Britain agreed to set up a temporary management scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran would be held until sanctions were lifted. Following the removal of European Union and United Nations sanctions on Iran in January 2016, the temporary management scheme ceased but BP still obtained an OFAC licence. Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-iran-bp/a-bp-north-sea-field-to-test-u-s-policy-on-iran-idUKKBN1DO1QN'|'2017-11-24T16:35:00.000+02:00'
'2b08a591214b1f5d79a88d88ff24b16f942dac3b'|'Chile''s Codelco copper output dips slightly'|'SANTIAGO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Chilean state copper company Codelco said on Thursday it produced slightly less copper between January and September of 2017 than it did in the same period a year ago, but made a healthy profit as prices for the metal improved.Codelco chief executive Nelson Pizarro said the company produced 1.24 million tonnes of copper in the January-to-September period, a 3 percent decline from the same period last year. It posted more than $1.6 billion in pretax profit, Pizarro said.Reporting by Fabian Cambero, writing by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/codelco-results/chiles-codelco-copper-output-dips-slightly-idINC0N1MY00J'|'2017-11-23T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'76695b305a89f1a639151a01cefbb7163759fe45'|'Peugeot-owner to use Opel site to assemble engines - Les Echos'|' 44 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Peugeot-owner to use Opel site to assemble engines - Les Echos Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot-owner PSA ( PEUP.PA ) will use an existing Opel site in eastern Europe to assemble 200,000 petrol engines instead of building new capacity on its own site in Slovakia as initially planned, Les Echos newspapers said on Thursday. A spokesman for PSA   whether the engines would be assembled at an Opel site, although he said that eventually all brands within the Peugeot group would be built on common platforms. He added that the Slovakia gasoline engine module project was being abandoned to provide additional capacity to produce more on the future common modular platform (CMP), which will enable the assembly of electric, gasoline and diesel vehicles. The French carmaker agreed to buy Germany’s Opel from General Motors ( GM.N ) in a March deal that valued the business at 2.2 billion euros (£1.96 billion). (This story corrects spokesman comments) Reporting by Michel Rose and Dominique Rodriguez; editing by John Irish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-psa-opel/peugeot-owner-to-use-opel-site-to-assemble-engines-idUKKBN1DN258'|'2017-11-23T23:27:00.000+02:00'
'faba2f7b84826f028b66c23f5cc27a84999c1658'|'Cemig hires broker to sell $218 mln worth of units in Taesa'|'November 22, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Cemig hires broker to sell $218 mln worth of units in Taesa Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazil’s electric utility Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais said on Wednesday it hired broker Itaú Corretora de Valores to sell 34 million units issued by power transmission company Transmissora Aliança de Energia Elétrica SA (Taesa), according to a securities filing. Cemig said the auction of the units of Taesa, as the company is known, would take place next Friday at the São Paulo Stock Exchange. The units being sold are not part of the Taesa’s shareholders’ agreement, it added. Based on the closing price of Taesa’s units, the sale would be worth 702.1 million reais ($218 million). ($1 = 3.2242 reais) (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Richard Chang)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cemig-taesa-units-sale/cemig-hires-broker-to-sell-218-mln-worth-of-units-in-taesa-idUSL1N1NS21K'|'2017-11-23T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'04ac176a8fce6eb6efaa323e776b5d10dc8baf19'|'Severn Trent doubles incentives estimate, posts rise in profit'|' 34 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Severn Trent doubles incentives estimate, posts rise in profit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British water utility Severn Trent Plc ( SVT.L ) reported a 4.4 percent rise in half-year profit, and more than doubled the incentives it expects to get from water industry regulator Ofwat. FILE PHOTO - A Severn Trent sign hangs on a gate at Cropston Reservoir in Cropston, central England, May 15, 2013. Severn Trent rejected a preliminary takeover offer from a consortium including Borealis infrastructure and the Kuwait Investment Office, saying the offer undervalued the British water company. REUTERS/Darren Staples Severn Trent said it now expects to earn at least 50 million pounds in outcome delivery incentives, compared with its previous forecast of about 23 million pounds. Water companies are rewarded when they meet or exceed targets, and are penalised if they fail to meet them. These targets include timely project completions and better customer services. Severn Trent, which supplies water across the UK’s Midlands, said underlying profit before interest and tax rose to 287.8 million pounds from 275.7 million pounds, a year earlier. The company said turnover rose 3.7 percent to 850.4 million pounds in the six months ended Sept. 30, helped by higher prices, cost savings and its acquisition of water company Dee Valley Water. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-severn-trent-results/severn-trent-doubles-incentives-estimate-posts-rise-in-profit-idUKKBN1DN0M7'|'2017-11-23T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'cc17a4cb08c1a1ad36ead57ebe106d879bf04d5c'|'Miner SouthGobi says in talks with CIC on interest repayment'|'November 23, 2017 / 1:53 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Miner SouthGobi says in talks with CIC on interest repayment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Vancouver-based coal miner SouthGobi Resources Ltd said on Thursday it had not paid any interest on a convertible debenture to China Investment Corporation (CIC) and was in talks with CIC regarding a repayment plan. The news comes nearly a week after SouthGobi said its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aminbuhe was arrested on Oct. 11 and detained in China as a suspect in a fraudulent loan case. It was not immediately clear if that loan was the one related to CIC. “While the company believes that an agreement will be reached, there is no assurance that an agreement will be concluded on terms favourable to the company or at all,” the firm said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse. “In such event, the value of the company’s common shares could be materially and negatively affected,” it added. The total cash interest payments and associated fees, which were due and payable to CIC on Nov. 19, amounted to $17.8 million. The company is also obliged to issue $4 million worth of payment-in-kind interest shares to CIC the same day. Hong Kong shares of SouthGobi slid 1.5 percent in early trade, lagging a 0.1 percent gain in the benchmark index. (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Kim Coghill)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southgobi-debenture/miner-southgobi-says-in-talks-with-cic-on-interest-repayment-idUSL3N1NT14V'|'2017-11-23T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'a00c87b8ca7a1281c9f4cba5510dfb95fa71189f'|'China''s CEFC, Penta team up for Time Warner''s Central European Media - sources'|'November 22, 2017 / 9:12 AM / Updated 2 hours ago China''s CEFC, Penta team up for Time Warner''s Central European Media - sources Jan Lopatka , Pamela Barbaglia 3 Min Read PRAGUE/LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese energy and investment group CEFC has teamed up with Czech-Slovak financial group Penta Investments to buy Time Warner’s TVX.N Central European Media Enterprises ( CETV.O ), three sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: A CEFC logo is seen at CEFC China Energy''s Shanghai headquarter in Shanghai, China September 14, 2016. Picture taken September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Aizhu Chen/File Photo One of the sources said privately-held CEFC is leading the consortium and is expected to provide the bulk of the financing for the deal which is worth about 500 million euros (£443.7 million). The company’s market capitalisation is $623 million (£470.1 million). CME operates in six central and eastern European markets, with the Czech Republic and Romania being its biggest profit drivers. Time Warner has a 46.5 percent voting share in CME but on a fully diluted basis, the U.S. group has a 75 percent interest in CME, based on warrants exercisable until May 2018. A potential sale has come into the picture after AT&T ( T.N ) agreed to take over Time Warner, agreed in October last year. Penta declined to comment. It has already invested in print and online media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A spokeswoman for CEFC, which has previously bought a Prague office building from Penta and has several other Czech assets, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. CEFC had briefly held a stake in another Czech publisher and TV broadcaster, Empresa Media. A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment. But CEFC, a rapidly growing oil and finance conglomerate with assets across the world, may face a challenge to get the deal done following Beijing’s recent clampdown on capital outflows in sectors such as media. Czech media have said PPF, the investment group of Czech businessman Petr Kellner, was also looking at the deal. PPF owns a majority stake in telecoms firm O2 Czech Republic ( SPTT.PR ) which supplies TV content. PPF declined to comment. The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T on Nov. 20 to block the $85.4 billion deal, saying it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers. CME has also been hit by Croatian regulators who have blocked the sale of the firm’s Croatian assets. CME has reported rising earnings this year, but still has a $1 billion debt pile that had forced it to seek a financial lifeline from Time Warner in 2013. Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong, Pamela Barbaglia in London, Jan Lopatka and Robert Muller in Prague, Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-central-euro-m-a/chinas-cefc-penta-team-up-for-time-warners-central-european-media-sources-idUKKBN1DM0VE'|'2017-11-22T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'0fa31e05b2b4b6730a0f092aa51df55fc270da38'|'EU fines five car airbag, seatbelt suppliers over cartel'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators fined five car safety equipment makers a total of 34 million euros ($40.0 million) on Wednesday for taking part in cartels to fix prices for seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels to Japanese carmakers.FILE PHOTO: A woman stands next to a logo of Takata Corp at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the European Union, said it had identified that four separate cartels in which suppliers to Toyota ( 7203.T ), Suzuki ( 7269.T ) and Honda ( 7267.T ) coordinated over prices and markets and exchanged sensitive information between 2004 and 2010.Tokai Rika ( 6995.T ) was fined 1.8 million euros, Takata ( TKTDQ.PK ) 12.7 million euros, Autoliv ( ALV.N ) 8.1 million euros, Toyoda Gosei ( 7282.T ) 11.3 million euros and Marutaka 156,000 euros.($1 = 0.8508 euros)Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-autos-pricefixing/eu-fines-five-car-airbag-seatbelt-suppliers-over-cartel-idUSKBN1DM18E'|'2017-11-22T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'd094f63283f29bbdc0007f8e3c4190a9d61a7b26'|'Japan''s JFE to bid for Bhushan Steel with India''s JSW as partner -sources'|' 23 PM / Updated an hour ago Japan''s JFE to bid for Bhushan Steel with India''s JSW as partner -sources Promit Mukherjee , Yuka Obayashi 3 Min Read MUMBAI/TOKYO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Japan’s JFE Holdings Inc and India’s JSW Steel Ltd are lining up a joint bid with a private equity firm for the assets of India’s insolvent Bhushan Steel Ltd, two industry sources familiar with the matter said. Under the plans, JFE would set up a special purpose vehicle with the two partners to manage the assets. JFE would hold a majority stake in the vehicle, while JSW Steel would operate Bhushan Steel’s plants, said the sources who did not want to be named as the details are not public. JFE already owns a 15 percent stake in JSW. The bid, if successful, will give JFE a bigger foothold in the fast-growing Indian market where it has had a presence since 2010 in partnership with JSW Steel. It will also help JSW Steel expand in northern and eastern India without overstretching its balance sheet. With unpaid debt of nearly 450 billion rupees ($6.9 billion), Bhushan Steel was pushed into bankruptcy proceedings a few months ago after India’s central bank steered 12 of the country’s biggest loan defaulters to insolvency proceedings. The final bids for Bhushan Steel are due in late December. JSW Joint Managing Director and Group CFO Seshagiri Rao would neither confirm nor deny the planned acquisition vehicle with JFE as the majority partner, but told Reuters: “It is not necessary that everything has to be built on the balance sheet of JSW.” Rao said JSW Steel was interested in five steelmakers that were in bankruptcy proceedings, including Bhushan Steel, but had not taken a final decision on whether to bid for all of them. He also said JSW was examining several models for possible bids. JSW Steel would look to create a structure that does not increase its debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) ratio beyond 3.75 and its debt-equity ratio beyond 1.75, Rao said. In response to a query from Reuters, a JFE spokesman said the Japanese group was considering all possible business opportunities as part of an agreement with JSW. “But there is no concrete deal that has been firmed up,” the spokesman said. Bhushan Steel has an annual steelmaking capacity of 5.6 million tonnes, and is one of the biggest producers of cold-rolled steel products used to make cars and consumer durables such as refrigerators and washing machines. ($1 = 64.9100 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bhushan-steel-ma-jfe-holdings-jsw-steel/japans-jfe-to-bid-for-bhushan-steel-with-indias-jsw-as-partner-sources-idUSL3N1NS39C'|'2017-11-22T21:23:00.000+02:00'
'1b0b68f3020912b6aa9c4b47b0b8028bc56c8571'|'Missing Chinese billionaire''s Huazi ditches plan for Huaxia Life stake'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Baotou Huazi Industry Co ( 600191.SS ) said it had ditched a plan to acquire a controlling stake in Huaxia Life Insurance, sending the shares of the edible sugar product manufacturer down by 8 percent in Shanghai.Baotou Huazi, controlled by missing billionaire Xiao Jianhua’s Tomorrow Holding, said late Tuesday that the plan was off because of changes in China’s securities market, financing environment and regulatory policies. It did not elaborate.A day earlier, a Shenzhen-listed real estate developer, Zhongtian Financial Group Co 000540.SZ, said it planned to acquire a stake of between 21 percent and 25 percent in Huaxia for as much as 31 billion yuan ($4.7 billion).Tomorrow already has a stake in Huaxia, though the size of the holding is unclear. It is also unclear if Tomorrow is a direct or indirect stakeholder. Baotou Huazi’s stake investment would have increased Tomorrow’s share in Huaxia indirectly.Baotou Huazi, which also produces electronic components, said in September 2015 that it had planned to acquire up to 51 percent of unlisted Huaxia for 31.7 billion yuan.In July, sources told Reuters that Tomorrow was planning to pare back its sprawling asset portfolio.That coincided with speculation that Xiao had been caught up in the government’s crackdown on corruption. The tycoon has been missing since January.Baotou Huazi’s withdrawal of its interest in Huaxia comes a week after the banking regulator published draft rules that would increase government scrutiny over the ties between banks and their shareholders.The rules were the latest in a slew of measures taken by Beijing to curb potential risks to China’s financial system.Beijing has been probing the M&A deals of China’s more acquisitive conglomerates, which has ensnared Anbang Insurance [ANBANG.UL], a large shareholder of China Minsheng Banking Corp ( 600016.SS ).Shares in Baotou Huazi last traded at 9.220 yuan in Shanghai on Wednesday, down 7.98 percent.Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hzsy-deals/missing-chinese-billionaires-huazi-ditches-plan-for-huaxia-life-stake-idINKBN1DM0DK'|'2017-11-22T02:18:00.000+02:00'
'fd196ff6908a432e6f837b78b8e5f617cad63dd3'|'MIDEAST - Factors to watch - November 22'|'DUBAI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally on boost from strong global growth, earnings* MIDEAST STOCKS-Markets stay weak, ADNOC plans boost Abu Dhabi* Oil prices firm on expected OPEC cut extension, U.S. crude stock draw* Middle East Crude-Benchmarks slip to lowest this month* PRECIOUS-Gold prices nudge up ahead of Fed meeting minutes* Gas exporting countries see no glut, say market needs competition -GECF head* Russia’s Putin hosts Assad in fresh drive for Syria peace deal* Total risks entire Iran investment if it pulls out of project - Iran minister* Iraq to resume payments of Gulf War reparations to Kuwait - UN* Iraq to declare final victory over Islamic State after desert campaign* Iran’s Rouhani urges France to remain “realistic, impartial” in Middle East* Hariri back in Lebanon for first time since quitting as PM* Lebanon army chief warns of Israel threat amid political crisis* Russia’s Putin hosts Assad in fresh drive for Syria peace deal* U.S. wants PLO’s Washington office to stay open -State Dept.* As energy revenue falls, Algeria struggles to cut import bill* Enel’s long-term gas supply deals with Algeria start expiring-CEO* Members of Libyan parliament signal backing for U.N. transition proposals* Libya’s Waha Oil Co pumping 260,000 bpd, plans hampered by funding shortfall* Yemen Houthis say Sanaa airport repaired, ready to receive flights-agencyEGYPT * EgyptAir to swing to a profit this year -chairmanSAUDI ARABIA * TABLE-Saudi October consumer prices fall for 10th month, food down sharply* EXCLUSIVE-Agribusiness firms discouraged by Saudi mills sale terms* EXCLUSIVE-Westinghouse discussing group bid for Saudi nuclear tender - sources* INTERVIEW-Saudia targets earlier return to profit, possible wide-body jet order* Credit Suisse says no contact with any Saudi sovereign wealth funds* U.S. warns citizens against risks of travel to Saudi Arabia [nL8N1NR69JUNITED ARAB EMIRATES * Noor Bank to move away from unsecured small business lending- CEOQATAR * Qatar stock exchange CEO says shock of Arab boycott has passed* Qatar Insurance renews Abu Dhabi licence, two months after saying it would close branchKUWAIT * Aston Martin’s turnaround plan moves up a gear with Vantage modelOMAN * TABLE-Oman budget deficit shrinks 32 pct in first nine months (Compiled by Dubai newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-factors/mideast-factors-to-watch-november-22-idUSL8N1NR5NL'|'2017-11-22T06:04:00.000+02:00'
'17590df3bd62a7dff78004df81fbde65f9ce7843'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 22'|'Nov 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HeadlinesThe UK made ''grave strategic errors'' in Hinkley Point nuclear project on.ft.com/2jdHTWUAkzo Nobel and U.S. rival Axalta abandon merger talks on.ft.com/2je1RkhLasseter takes leave from Disney after admitting ''mis-steps'' on.ft.com/2jf0NgdOverviewBritish MPs have urged the UK government to rethink the economic case for new nuclear power stations after making “grave strategic errors” in the Hinkley Point project.Akzo Nobel NV , the Dutch paintmaker, and its U.S. rival Axalta Coating Systems Ltd have terminated talks over a multibillion dollar merger after failing to reach agreement.John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, is taking a leave of absence from Walt Disney Co following allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward employees.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom Editing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-22-idINL3N1NS08F'|'2017-11-21T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'8f6b969e57abe417004e75a3ded0c3917867ba4b'|'Akzo Nobel merger talks with Axalta fail'|'NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd made an all-cash offer on Tuesday to acquire U.S. coatings company Axalta Coating Systems Ltd, two people familiar with the matter said, ending merger talks between Axalta and Dutch peer Akzo Nobel.Nippon Paint confirmed it has made “a proposal” to Axalta but declined to give details, adding there is no assurance the two will reach any agreement.Axalta and Akzo Nobel said earlier on Tuesday they had ended negotiations about a “merger of equals” because they were unable to reach terms.Axalta, whose largest shareholder is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said it continued to pursue other “value-creating alternatives” although it did not disclose Nippon Paint’s role, if any, in the termination of the discussions.Nippon Paint, Japan’s biggest paint supplier and 39 percent owned by Singapore-based investment company Wuthelam Holdings Ltd, made the all-cash offer at a premium to where Axalta shares ended on Monday at $33.54, one of the sources said. The offer was credible enough for Axalta to end negotiations with Akzo Nobel, the source added.It was not clear how far the negotiations with Nippon Paint would progress, and Axalta could also choose to engage in deal talks with other interested parties, the second source said.Axalta has a market capitalization of $8.2 billion while Nippon Paint has a market capitalization of 1.2 trillion yen ($10.7 billion).Nippon Paint shares fell 4.5 percent on Wednesday morning before trade was suspended in the wake of the Reuters report. The Osaka-based company has previously expressed a desire to expand in the United States and Europe to become a “global paint major”.Axalta shares reversed losses in extended trading hours in New York after Reuters reported on Nippon’s offer, to trade up 3.3 percent at $35.01.Nippon Paint Holdings'' signboards are pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon For Akzo Nobel, the breakdown in the talks with Axalta marks the end of a difficult year in which it rejected a 26 billion euro ($30.5 billion) takeover offer from PPG Industries Inc, in favor of a standalone plan.Based on Dutch takeover rules, PPG could return with a new offer as early as next month. However, PPG CEO Michael McGarry has indicated his company is no longer interested after Akzo Nobel spurned three offers in March and April.Akzo said in a statement it would now continue to pursue that strategy of selling or seeking a stock market listing for its specialty chemicals division, which has an estimated value of up to 10 billion euros.A woman walks past a Nippon Paint Holdings signboard at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Akzo Nobel promised to return the “vast majority of proceeds to shareholders”.The failure of the talks comes days before Akzo Nobel’s shareholders are to meet on Nov. 30 to approve the demerger of its specialty chemicals arms.Since PPG walked away in June, former Akzo Nobel CEO Ton Buechner and former CFO Maëlys Castella have resigned, citing health reasons, while Chairman Antony Burgmans is due to retire in April.Akzo Nobel’s new CEO, Thierry Vanlancker, said in a statement on Tuesday the company remained focused on the strategy developed under Buechner and Burgmans.For Nippon Paint, an Axalta deal would help it crack open the U.S. market and boost earnings from automotive coatings, SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Shinobu Takeuchi wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.“However, we would focus on how the firm plans to execute an all-cash buyout, which would demand considerable capital,” the Tokyo-based analyst said.In March, Nippon Paint acquired U.S. paint company Dunn-Edwards Corp for $608 million.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka in Tokyo; Editing by Clive McKeef and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axalta-akzonobel/akzo-nobel-merger-talks-with-axalta-fail-idINKBN1DL2QH'|'2017-11-21T18:43:00.000+02:00'
'6ad8c954da358157f9ce6be3b2fd632cab85c0ed'|'Disney animation executive Lasseter takes leave after ''missteps'' - memo'|'(Reuters) - Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) executive John Lasseter, who heads animation at both Disney and Pixar, told company staff on Tuesday he was taking a six-month leave of absence following what he called “missteps” including unwanted hugs that made employees uncomfortable, according to a memo seen by Reuters.FILE PHOTO: John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, speaks during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. on January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “It’s never easy to face your missteps, but it’s the only way to learn from them,” Lasseter said in the memo, in which he apologised to employees who felt “disrespected or uncomfortable.”“I especially want to apologise to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form,” he added. “No matter how benign my intent, everyone has the right to set their own boundaries and have them respected.”A pioneer in computer animation, Lasseter has been the driving creative force behind Disney’s success in animated films over the past decade. He is an Oscar winner and chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios.Disney said in a statement that it appreciated Lasseter’s “candor and sincere apology” and supported his leave of absence.“We are committed to maintaining an environment in which all employees are respected and empowered to do their best work,” the company said.Lasseter is the latest Hollywood figure to be accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women since producer Harvey Weinstein was fired from his company in October after allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Weinstein has denied allegations of non-consensual sex.News of Lasseter’s decision to take a leave of absence was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The industry publication also published a story on Tuesday that said some women at Disney had been made uncomfortable by physical contact initiated by Lasseter.Disney did not respond to a request for comment on allegations reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Lasseter did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.Lasseter, 60, joined the company in 2006 when Disney bought Pixar Animation Studios and named him chief creative officer of Disney Animation Studios. He has produced a number of commercially successful films and been praised as a modern-day Walt Disney.Part of Pixar’s founding team in 1996, Lasseter has overseen 11 movies that have won the Academy Award for best animated feature, including “Up,” “Finding Nemo” and “Frozen.”Disney animation and Pixar films have sold roughly $14 billion worth of tickets worldwide since Lasseter joined Disney, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the Box Office Mojo website.Lasseter directed the 1995 hit “Toy Story,” the first feature-length computer-animated film, which earned him an Oscar for special achievement, and has been credited with leading a resurgence of Disney Animation. The studio was revitalised with the 2013 musical “Frozen” and 2016 Oscar winner “Zootopia.”In addition, Lasseter has served as principal creative adviser to Walt Disney Imagineering, the division that develops theme park attractions. He was instrumental in the design of Cars Land, the centerpiece of a 2012 redesign of Disney’s California Adventure park.Disney shares closed up 25 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $103 a share on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/walt-disney-animation-lasseter/disney-animation-executive-lasseter-takes-leave-after-missteps-memo-idINKBN1DL2OO'|'2017-11-21T23:02:00.000+02:00'
'a602698f435184408488b0c145af4f9059646928'|'Bolivia says signs $1.6 billion in gas deals with Repsol, Petrobras'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:15 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Bolivia says signs $1.6 billion in gas deals with Repsol, Petrobras Marianna Parraga 2 Min Read SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia’s government on Tuesday signed natural gas development deals with Spain’s Repsol( REP.MC ), Brazil’s Petrobras, and Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) that are expected to bring nearly $1.6 billion (£1.21 billion) in investment into the sector and boost output, President Evo Morales said at an industry summit. FILE PHOTO: Repsol flags are seen at a conference hall during the company''s annual shareholders meeting in Madrid, Spain, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo The deals cover blocks in the Iniguazu, San Telmo and Astillero gas fields. Repsol would lead the Iniguazu consortium with Royal Dutch Shell a minority partner, while Petrobras would lead the other two, he said. Bolvia’s state-run YPFB would be partner in all of the projects. “We are very confident and we have hope,” said Morales, at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). “We are committed to secure transparent contracts.” He said the projects could add about 21 million cubic feet per day, with early production coming on line as early as 2020 or 2021. Antonio Brufau, Repsol’s CEO, said he expected the Iniguazu project to go well: “As there is existing infrastructure (near Iniguazu), if the exploration phase succeeds, we will be able to supply gas to the market very fast,” he said. Morales said he expected that project alone to bring in $900 million in investments. Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bolivia-gas-summit-deals/bolivia-says-signs-1-6-billion-in-gas-deals-with-repsol-petrobras-idUKKBN1DL2X4'|'2017-11-22T01:18:00.000+02:00'
'f8ea3dc71f251c0b2eba13c63f81ba4300d594b6'|'Bunge widens executive takeover payout scheme after Glencore approach'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grain merchant Bunge Ltd ( BG.N ) has sweetened compensation packages for top executives in the case of a takeover, according to the company’s regulatory filings, around six months after rebuffing an approach by commodity trading giant Glencore PLC ( GLEN.L ).Bunge and its rivals have seen profits fall as several years of oversupply in global grains markets have cut the trading margins that merchants can make for buying and selling corn, soy and wheat. Bunge has said conditions in the sector could trigger consolidation.Glencore and Bunge struck an agreement that temporarily prevents Glencore from making a hostile bid, after Bunge rebuffed Glencore’s approach in May, according to news media reports.Bunge has expanded to five from one the number of executives eligible for cash compensation if they lose their jobs without cause within two years of a takeover, regulatory documents filed this month show.The packages amount to two years of salary and bonus and provisions for earlier payouts of outstanding equity awards, the documents show.Previously, Chief Executive Soren Schroder was the only named officer in line for certain compensation if he was terminated without cause following a change of control at the company, according to filings.The changes help retain executives and put Bunge in line with other firms, the company said in the filing. Bunge will make public the estimated value of the packages in its 2018 proxy statement, spokeswoman Susan Burns said.Schroder would receive at least $24 million under his deal, according to company calculations in filings.Chief Financial Officer Thom Boehlert became eligible for payouts under the changes, Burns said. Other executives covered in the agreements are Brian Thomsen, managing director of Bunge’s agribusiness unit; Gordon Hardie, managing director of Bunge’s food and ingredients business; and Raul Padilla, chief executive of Bunge’s business in Brazil, she said.In January, Padilla will take up the newly created position of president of South American operations, as part of a restructuring plan that aims to reduce Bunge’s overhead costs by $250 million by the end of 2019.Bunge’s new agreements could discourage executives from trying to derail an acquisition over concerns it would cause them to lose their jobs, said Charles Elson, a University of Delaware finance professor.The change would indicate the company is preparing itself for any future bid, he added.The new agreements also encourage executives to stay despite uncertainty about a takeover, said James Seward, associate professor of finance at Syracuse University.Editing by Simon Webb and Jonathan Oatis '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bunge-m-a-benefits/bunge-widens-executive-takeover-payout-scheme-after-glencore-approach-idINKBN1DM2DV'|'2017-11-22T15:05:00.000+02:00'
'830eb974142260ffa6e7263e05da2e534e19d098'|'Brexit putting Europe''s UK friendship to the test - ECB''s Villeroy'|'November 23, 2017 / 2:12 PM / in 6 hours Brexit putting Europe''s UK friendship to the test - ECB''s Villeroy Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Top European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said Britain’s divorce with the European Union was putting strain on its friendship with the bloc, and that deregulation would put global financial systems on course towards another crisis. FILE PHOTO -- Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo With the outcome of Brexit negotiations difficult to predict, Villeroy emphasised both parties had to work together to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome. “We are indeed going through a difficult period which puts the friendship between our countries to the test,” Villeroy, who is also governor of the Bank of France, said in London at an event by the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain. The structure of the European financial system will have to evolve as a result of Brexit, he said in a prepared speech, also emphasising that all banks and companies should prepare to avoid any potential cliff-edge risk. British banks should not get passporting rights to operate in Europe if they do not accept single market rules, and euro clearing activities for “super systemic” institutions must be located in the currency bloc, Villeroy said. Paris has “obvious advantages” as a financial centre, he added, saying he was “proud and happy” the French capital had on Monday won the right to host the European Banking Authority after it vacates London. ECB PRESIDENCY “NOT A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION” The euro area recovery is robust and broad-based across countries and sectors, Villeroy added, saying the ECB’s accommodative monetary policy has helped spur growth. Euro zone forward-looking economic sentiment data beat all forecasts on Thursday, cementing a more optimistic outlook for businesses in the bloc. The ECB has not yet reached its inflation goal, and it must maintain an ample degree of stimulus, he said, adding however that inflation was at a much better level than 18 months ago. In a Q&A after his speech, the central banker sidestepped a question on his potential ambition to take over the ECB presidency from Mario Draghi in 2019. “This is not a topic of discussion,” Villeroy said. Turning to the French economy, the central banker said President Macron’s push to reform the labour market and reduce taxes would have a “significant” impact on growth and employment. The most pronounced risks to the global economy came from shifts towards “unilateral deregulation” and protectionism, in particular from the U.S. since the election of President Trump, Villeroy said. “Unilateral deregulation would be nothing less than a lose-lose scenario with serious consequences for the stability of the global financial system - we would be paving the way for the next financial crisis,” he said. In a separate speech on Wednesday, Villeroy had said tougher financial regulation should not, however, hinder potential cross-border bank mergers in Europe, over which speculation has been swirling in recent weeks. Minutes from the ECB’s meeting last month, also published on Thursday, showed policymakers broadly agreed on extending its asset purchase scheme but that a decision to keep the bond buys open-ended generated fiercer debate. Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Marc Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-villeroy/brexit-putting-europes-uk-friendship-to-the-test-ecbs-villeroy-idUKKBN1DN1J1'|'2017-11-23T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'7180720d3eaad33deb68e0c0378d1732e6ba1926'|'Altice lifted by report of Dominican Republic business sale'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) ( ATUS.N ), which is trying to cut debts of around 50 billion euros ($59 billion), is looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic, the Financial Times reported.Altice shares rose 6 percent to 8.02 euros at 0824 GMT following the report on Thursday, although the stock remains down by nearly 60 percent since the start of 2017.A spokesman for Altice declined to comment on the FT report, which said the sale of Altice Dominican Republic is still at an early stage and plans could change.Altice’s billionaire founder and majority shareholder Patrick Drahi has pledged to sell assets to cut Altice’s debts.This week, Altice reiterated it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Weak third-quarter results this month prompted Drahi, whose media empire includes telecoms company SFR, newspaper Liberation and BFM TV, to oust chief executive Michel Combes.Altice’s woes have led to hedge funds selling shares in Altice’s U.S. unit, although ABN AMRO analysts put a “buy” rating on Altice, saying debt worries might be overdone.“35 billion euros of 48 billion euros of net debt have been refinanced in the last year, and we see neither a breach of covenant nor a share issue looming,” ABN AMRO analysts said.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-altice-divestiture/altice-lifted-by-report-of-dominican-republic-business-sale-idINKBN1DN0PJ'|'2017-11-23T05:31:00.000+02:00'
'6b42bfc559f24f07a508ba2a71c949fe377935a8'|'EMERGING MARKETS-China tumble pushes emerging stocks lower, lira firms'|'LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - A tumble in Chinese and Hong Kong shares after recent surges pushed emerging equities lower on Thursday, though Turkey’s lira firmed for a second day against the weak dollar, helped partly by comments from an adviser to the Turkish president.Emerging currencies have broadly benefited from the weaker dollar, which has been on the backfoot since U.S. Federal Reserve minutes suggested a dovish path ahead given weak inflation.The lira, which hit record lows this week, firmed for the second day, lifted by the dollar as well as comments from an adviser to President Tayyip Erdogan, who told Reuters interest rates could be raised at any time and suggested Erdogan would respect central bank independence.The South African rand - the other emerging markets weak link - pulled back half a percent before a central bank meeting. It had firmed to one-month highs on Wednesday.The bank will likely hold interest rates but markets expect rate rises to resume next year, given that potential ratings downgrades to junk for local debt - possibly as soon as Friday - will fuel investment outflows.ING Bank analysts said the ratings decisions remained key for the currency, which they predicted would test 15 per dollar, down from current levels around 13.9, in event of downgrade.“Expect the (central bank) to sound conservative, fearful of a rand collapse and being drawn into another FX sell-off, inflation and tightening cycle as has been seen in Turkey over recent years,” the analysts told clients.On emerging stock markets, which have hit six-year highs recently, there were some reversals, led mainly by Asia, where Hong Kong shares fell one percent from decade-highs, as a sudden selloff in mainland China fed through.MSCI’s emerging equity index fell 0.25 percentChinese onshore markets fell 3 percent for their biggest one-day loss in 18 months, hit by worries about a bond market selloff triggered by authorities’ efforts to reduce financial sector risks.The yield on Chinese 10-year Treasury bonds touched a three-year high of 4.03 percent, having risen almost 40 basis points since the end of September while corporate bond yields also rose.”Three-month SHIBOR“ is on the rise for the 33rd day in a row, obviously adding pressure on liquidity and headwinds to equities,” said Karine Hirn, partner at investment firm East Capital in Hong Kong, referring to the Shanghai Interbank offered rate, which is at the highest since June.She said there was also an element of profit-taking following recent strong gains. The onshore market is up around 25 percent since the start of 2017.The yuan rose to the highest in three weeks after a stronger official fixing.For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2e7eoml For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2017, see tmsnrt.rs/2dZbdP5For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, seeFor TURKISH market report, seeFor RUSSIAN market report, see) (Reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Gareth Jones) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/emerging-markets-china-tumble-pushes-emerging-stocks-lower-lira-firms-idUSL8N1NT2AM'|'2017-11-23T12:07:00.000+02:00'
'10a4bcf9628a2525eaa86143c56eb9159dac1844'|'Majestic Wine first-half adjusted profit soars'|' 09 AM / in 22 minutes Majestic Wine first-half adjusted profit soars   (Reuters) - Britain’s Majestic Wine Plc ( WINEW.L ) said its half-year adjusted pretax profit rose to 6.8 million pounds as its Naked Wines unit registered a profit in all three geographies. The Naked Wines business, which funds independent winemakers to make exclusive wines at preferential price, posted adjusted earnings before interest and tax of 4.72 million pounds compared with a loss 2.78 million pounds, a year ago. Total adjusted pretax profit rose to 6.8 million pounds for the 26 weeks ended Oct. 2, from 51,000 pounds a year ago. Revenue rose 5.7 percent to 217.4 million pounds. Majestic Wines, which has 210 wine warehouses across Britain as well as two branches in France, said it expected full-year results to be in line with current expectations and added that it would look to boost sales in the medium term through higher investment in new customer acquisition. Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-majestic-wine-results/majestic-wine-first-half-adjusted-profit-soars-idUKKBN1DN0JM'|'2017-11-23T09:09:00.000+02:00'
'3a54b4b95247928b690e5fba784570baaae6bce4'|'Chinese police detain seven in multi-billion underground currency scheme'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Police in southern China have detained seven people in connection with an underground banking scheme involving more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), the state news agency Xinhua reported.From a suspicious bank account in Shaoguan, a city in Guangdong province, the investigation snowballed to involve a suspected 10,000 people and 148 accounts across more than 20 provinces, Xinhua reported.The suspects allegedly profited from changes in the exchange rates for yuan and Hong Kong dollars, it said without giving details.The yuan, or renminbi, is not fully convertible and the government limits the amount of foreign currency to which individuals and businesses in China have access, which has given rise to networks of underground money changers and banks.Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-banks-underground/chinese-police-detain-seven-in-multi-billion-underground-currency-scheme-idINKBN1DN06G'|'2017-11-23T02:57:00.000+02:00'
'f173bf1e16d11398f75b1b2df374fb1f42d94111'|'UPDATE 2-Altice lifted by report of Dominican Republic business sale'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) ( ATUS.N ), which is trying to cut debts of around 50 billion euros ($59 billion), is looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic, the Financial Times reported.Altice shares rose 6 percent to 8.02 euros at 0824 GMT following the report on Thursday, although the stock remains down by nearly 60 percent since the start of 2017.A spokesman for Altice declined to comment on the FT report, which said the sale of Altice Dominican Republic is still at an early stage and plans could change.Altice’s billionaire founder and majority shareholder Patrick Drahi has pledged to sell assets to cut Altice’s debts.This week, Altice reiterated it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Weak third-quarter results this month prompted Drahi, whose media empire includes telecoms company SFR, newspaper Liberation and BFM TV, to oust chief executive Michel Combes.Altice’s woes have led to hedge funds selling shares in Altice’s U.S. unit, although ABN AMRO analysts put a “buy” rating on Altice, saying debt worries might be overdone.“35 billion euros of 48 billion euros of net debt have been refinanced in the last year, and we see neither a breach of covenant nor a share issue looming,” ABN AMRO analysts said.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-altice-divestiture/altice-lifted-by-report-of-dominican-republic-business-sale-idUSKBN1DN0PJ'|'2017-11-23T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'92a92a9623d4653be8bc650f50f6cff01dc9013b'|'Workers at Amazon''s main Italian site to hold first strike on Black Friday'|'November 23, 2017 / 1:25 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Workers at Amazon''s main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Workers at Amazon’s main distribution hub in Italy are planning their first ever strike for Friday, trade unions said, while they are also striking at six warehouses in Germany, threatening to disrupt one of the year’s busiest shopping days. A view of the new Amazon logistic center with the company''s logo in Dortmund, Germany November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen Like the rest of Europe, Italians in recent years have embraced the U.S. tradition of Black Friday, a day of heavy discounting by retailers on the day after Thanksgiving. Unions said in a statement more than 500 Amazon workers at the Piacenza site in northern Italy had agreed to strike following a failure to negotiate bonuses with the company. Workers have also decided not to do any overtime until Dec. 31, covering the peak season for the online retailer which hires temporary workers during this period. Amazon employs around 1,600 people on a permanent basis at the Piacenza site, the first it built in the country after launching its Italian website in 2010. The Verdi trade union in Germany said Amazon employees would also strike on Friday at six distribution centers in the country as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. “The world’s biggest online retailer wants to achieve record sales on this day, but employees have to produce record performance not only on this day so that everything runs how Amazon wants it,” said Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger. Amazon in Italy said in a statement it remained focused on trying to guarantee scheduled deliveries for its customers on Black Friday and in the following days. The company said salaries paid to its workers were among the highest in the logistic sector and that it also provided some benefits such as private medical insurance or money to pay for training programs. E-commerce is growing fast in Italy where online sales account only for 10 percent of overall retail sales, according to consultancy EY, half the European average. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-italy-strike/workers-at-amazons-main-italian-site-to-hold-first-strike-on-black-friday-idUKKBN1DN1DS'|'2017-11-23T15:07:00.000+02:00'
'7a70679725be2a59d61a380178af9800387e1707'|'UK targets tech giants over tax avoidance and VAT fraud'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced measures on Wednesday to tackle tax avoidance by tech giants and to hold online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.com accountable for tax evasion via their platforms.Finance minister Philip Hammond said some multinationals were avoiding tax on profits generated from selling to UK customers by using inter-group royalty payments to shift those profits into affiliates in low-tax jurisdictions.Britain would impose a withholding tax on such payments that could raise around 200 million pounds a year, he said.Hammond said he was targeting “digital businesses” but the description of the measure in his budget statement suggested they could cover all companies.A 2012 Reuters investigation showed how inter-group royalties had helped fast food groups including McDonalds and Burger King reduce their tax bills. ( reut.rs/2zqTfSj )McDonalds ( MCD.N ) and Burger King, an arm of Canada-listed Restaurant Brands International Inc ( QSR.TO ) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would be affected.Hammond also said he would hold online marketplaces responsible for paying value-added-tax - a form of sales tax - when sellers on the platforms do not collect and pay the tax.Up to 1 billion pounds may be lost each year due to such tax evasion by sellers on eBay and Amazon alone, according to an April report by the National Audit Office.Dominic Stuttaford, European head of tax for law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, said the law needed to be updated to tackle such problems but that the actual impact would be unclear until more details were published.The new VAT measure is expected to raise around 30 million pounds a year.Amazon did not respond to a request for comment and eBay declined comment.Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Andrew Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britaintax-tech/uk-targets-tech-giants-over-tax-avoidance-and-vat-fraud-idUSKBN1DM28W'|'2017-11-23T00:48:00.000+02:00'
'f716ff7e49f29ca9fb0f1889b0b858621964b36c'|'Uniper to cut 2,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive - paper'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:03 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Uniper to cut 2,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive - paper Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy group Uniper ( UN01.DE ) is cutting a total of around 2,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, by the end of next year as part of a cost-cutting programme it announced a year ago, its finance chief told daily Rheinische Post. Uniper, the power plant and energy trading unit spun off by German utility E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), said last year it planned to save 400 million euros (£355 million) by the end of 2018 by cutting jobs and spending as it fights a crisis at its generation business. The company had not said so far how many jobs would go. Uniper has agreed with labour bosses on cuts via natural attrition, partial retirement and severance packages, finance chief Christopher Delbrueck told the Rheinische Post. More than a third of the jobs being eliminated are those of workers who remained at E.ON in the spin-off, who worked at shut-down power plants or at units being divested, Delbrueck said. “The remaining 1,250 jobs fall into efficiency programme Voyager. The lion’s share of those jobs has already been eliminated, the remaining ones are to follow by the end of 2018,” Delbrueck was quoted as saying by the paper. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uniper-costs/uniper-to-cut-2000-jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-paper-idUKKBN1DM0IM'|'2017-11-22T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'0eae92d1b8d4d08a73b892092fa0d857e7afae3f'|'Euro zone bank costs likely to rise as regulators set new capital targets'|'November 22, 2017 / 3:54 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Euro zone bank costs likely to rise as regulators set new capital targets Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone regulators said on Wednesday they will impose binding targets on most of the bloc’s largest banks forcing them to raise their capital buffers within a maximum of four years, a move that could increase lenders’ funding costs. To meet their targets, banks will also have to issue a minimum amount of debt that is easy to write down, while debt issued under British law might need to be replaced after Brexit with fresh capital - both conditions that are expected to further raise banking costs. The Single Resolution Board, the EU body that decides banks’ capital buffers, known as MREL, said it will set for the first time “binding targets for the majority of the largest and most complex banking groups” in the euro zone. The targets will need to be met in four years at the latest, it added, confirming what Reuters reported on Tuesday. Under new rules meant to reduce taxpayers’ costs in a banking crisis, euro zone banks have been advised since last year to issue a sufficient amount of debt that would be written down to absorb losses if they fail. Now for some lenders, those recommendations will become binding. The SRB, which has the power of disposing of failing banks, did not disclose the names nor the number of the lenders that will be subject to the binding requirements, but a person familiar with the work of the institution told Reuters the decision concerned 35-40 banks. The actual amount of additional capital to be set aside will be decided for each involved bank in the coming weeks and months, officials said. But the SRB estimated a shortfall of 117 billion euros ($137 billion) for a sample of 76 banks. Last year it said the shortfall was of 112 billion euros, although for a different sample. The European Banking Authority put that number at between 186 and 276 billion euros for 133 banks and warned of the market’s capacity to absorb this huge amount of debt. This wave of new issuances is likely to force banks to pay higher interest rates on their debt. Finding creditors may also not be easy as small investors got their bond savings burnt in recent rescues of banks in Italy or Portugal. The write-down of bonds of Banca dell‘Etruria, a regional lender in central Italy, led in 2015 to the suicide of a pensioner who lost his retirement money in the banking rescue. A bank official said that some lenders will need more time than four years to raise the required capital. A second banking official played down the impact of the measure, saying it was widely expected. BREXIT WOES Smaller banks under the SRB remit, which has under its watch a total of 142 institutions, will be for now exempted from binding capital targets. The largest, globally systemic banks like Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas, are already required to meet buffer targets by 2019. Among the banks that will be first required to meet binding targets, some have already reached them, the person familiar with the SRB told Reuters. Others will be given less than four years, and only those with larger shortfalls will need the full transition period. Funding costs for those banks are expected to raise also because of the type of debt they will be required to issue. At least 12 percent of this capital should be easy to write down, the SRB said, a provision which is likely to attract higher interest rates as risks for investors grow. Another possibly major headache could come from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, as bank debt issued under British law may no longer be compliant with buffer rules after Brexit. “The SRB policy will exclude liabilities governed by the laws of third countries unless the bank is able to demonstrate that their write-down or bail-in would be effective,” the SRB said. In the absence of a consensual Brexit deal, euro zone banks may find that their long-term debt booked in Britain is no longer eligible for bank rescues, forcing them to issue more debt to meet the targets. ($1 = 0.8513 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-capital/euro-zone-regulators-to-set-new-binding-capital-targets-for-banks-idUKKBN1DM228'|'2017-11-22T17:52:00.000+02:00'
'5fdd69a56214f7cf65344146363aa38b7353b3db'|'Central and eastern Europe snared in ''middle-income'' trap - EBRD'|' 10 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Central and eastern Europe snared in ''middle-income'' trap - EBRD Marc Jones 3   Central and eastern European countries have become stuck in a “middle-income trap” and need new growth strategies and infrastructure to kick off again, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A man walks near the Central Bank headquarters in central Moscow, Russia January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo The development bank’s latest report flags the plateau which eastern and central European countries are perceived to have reached more than quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War and Soviet central economic planning. Former-communist economies are also still producing too much pollution and although there appears to be a renewed appetite for reform in the bloc, some including Poland and Ukraine have stalled in areas like privatisation, it said. “Many of those countries have now reached middle-income status and have to overcome the problem of the ‘middle-income trap’,” EBRD Chief Economist Sergei Guriev said. The trap is common phenomenon for developing countries. Growth slows as technological advances in the economy become more incremental and rising wages erode the competitive advantages of cheap labour. Guriev called for new economic models, focussing on improving productivity of individual firms, expanding infrastructure and green growth. “There is no silver bullet – no one-size-fits-all solution,” he said, with the report also highlighting there was often resistance from individuals and groups with entrenched vested interests in maintaining the status quo. BROADER REGION Across the EBRD region meanwhile, which now spans 38 countries from Morocco to Mongolia, the bank estimated that 1.9 trillion euros (£1.69 trillion) needed to be spent on improving infrastructure over the next five years. It pointed to the example of Turkey, where upgrading the country’s large road network had a major positive impact on domestic trade among its provinces. A revamped points system in the report for how countries are faring with reforms showed differing pictures. “The appetite for reform seems to have returned to the region,” Guriev said flagging Uzbekistan - which recently returned to the EBRD fold after a decade-long standoff - and Egypt, both floating their previously-pegged currencies. Greece, Slovenia and Kazakhstan have made progress with privatisations while Tunisia and Jordan, Albania and Belarus and Serbia were all singled out for progress in other areas. Ukraine’s privatisation programme however has largely stalled with its largest bank, Privatbank, now nationalised. Poland, where state control over the economy remains significant, has also called a halt to its privatisation programme. Reporting by Marc Jones Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-easteurope-economy-ebrd/central-and-eastern-europe-snared-in-middle-income-trap-ebrd-idUKKBN1DM00R'|'2017-11-22T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'bb777ec60a5061baf3b8cdbbafc7ce035ada9665'|'U.S. core capital goods fall; business spending momentum strong'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:04 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago U.S. core capital goods fall; business spending momentum strong Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly fell in October after three straight months of hefty gains, but a sustained increase in shipments pointed to robust business investment and economic momentum as the year winds down. U.S. made plywood is shown for sale in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The economy’s prospects were bolstered by other data on Wednesday showing a decline in the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits. Strong business investment and tightening labour market conditions will likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates next month. The Commerce Department said orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, declined 0.5 percent last month. That was the biggest drop since September 2016 and followed an upwardly revised 2.1 percent increase in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders of these so-called core capital goods increasing 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 1.7 percent jump in September. Core capital goods orders rose 4.4 percent on a year-on-year basis. Shipments of core capital goods advanced 0.4 percent last month after accelerating by 1.2 percent in September. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement. Core capital goods shipments have been increasing since February, in part fuelled by expectations that President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress will push through hefty corporate tax cuts. Republicans in the House of Representatives last week approved a broad package of tax cuts, including an immediate reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Their colleagues in the Senate are advancing their own tax bill, which would also lower corporate taxes by the same rate but delay the reduction by one year. Prices of U.S. Treasuries rose slightly after the data while the dollar .DXY fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. stock index futures were trading higher. TIGHTENING LABOUR MARKET Business spending on equipment has buoyed economic growth for the past four quarters and is expected to make a solid contribution to GDP in the October-December period. The economy grew at a 3.0 percent annualised rate in the third quarter. Strong business spending on equipment is helping to boost manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. Last month, there were increases in orders for machinery, electrical equipment, appliances and components, primary metals and computers and electronic products. Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft meant to last three years or more, fell 1.2 percent last month as demand for transportation equipment tumbled 4.3 percent. Durable goods orders increased 2.2 percent in September. In a separate report on Wednesday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 18, reversing the prior week’s increase. Claims had risen in recent weeks as a backlog of applications from Puerto Rico was processed following repairs to infrastructure damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. A Labor Department official said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands. Last week marked the 142nd straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. The labour market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labour market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 1,250 to 239,750 last week. The claims data covered the survey period for the nonfarm payrolls component of November’s employment report. The four-week average of claims fell 8,750 between the October and November survey weeks, suggesting steady job growth this month. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are not included in the nonfarm payrolls report. The economy created 261,000 jobs in October, a large chunk of which reflected a recovery after workers in Texas and Florida were temporarily displaced by the hurricanes. Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 18,000 in September. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-core-capital-goods-fall-business-spending-momentum-strong-idUKKBN1DM1R0'|'2017-11-22T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'135b492476a23a0f6e28b78792e11430c61e5cf7'|'UPDATE 1-Norway''s minority government wins backing for 2018 fiscal budget'|'(Updates with confirmation, detail on dropped ‘Tesla tax’)OSLO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Norway’s right-wing minority government reached a deal on Wednesday with two centrist parties for a 2018 budget, securing the plan’s passage in parliament, the parties said.The government of Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Progress Party Finance Minister Siv Jensen relies on compromises with the opposition Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party to win backing for its policies.“We are glad that we have reached an agreement on a budget that focuses on jobs,” said Nikolai Astrup, the lead negotiator for the Conservatives, flanked by the negotiators for the other three parties.The four parties scrapped a budget proposal to trim lavish tax breaks for Tesla and other electric cars, which have given the Nordic country the world’s highest rate of battery-vehicle ownership.The Christian Democrats and the Liberals are environmentally minded and the proposal, dubbed the “Tesla tax” in the Norwegian media, had stirred controversy after it was proposed.The proposal in the draft budget would have mainly affected large cars weighing more than two tonnes, and was intended to scale back the favourable treatment of luxury models such as Tesla’s Model X sport utility vehicle.Norwegian media had estimated it could have pushed up the price of a Tesla Model X by 70,000 Norwegian crowns ($8,557.98).$1 = 8.1795 Norwegian crowns Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/norway-budget/update-1-norways-minority-government-wins-backing-for-2018-fiscal-budget-idINL8N1NS5XT'|'2017-11-22T15:55:00.000+02:00'
'9b79f262298927f8d098a744514579cf0e054dcd'|'WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET'|'November 22, 2017 / 6:02 AM / in 31 minutes WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET Reuters Staff Editor: Clarence Fernandez + 65 6870 3861 Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775 Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595 (All times GMT/ET) TOP STORIES Russia’s Putin hosts Assad in fresh drive for Syria peace deal MOSCOW/BEIRUT - Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for three hours of talks to lay the groundwork for a new push by Moscow to end Syria’s conflict now that Islamic State’s territory is overrun. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA (WRAPUP 3, TV, PIX), moved, by Katya Golubkova and Tom Perry, 975 words) Zimbabwe’s Mugabe resigns, ending four decades of rule HARARE - Robert Mugabe resigns as Zimbabwe’s president a week after the army and his former political allies moved to end four decades of rule by a man once feted as an independence hero who became feared as a despot. (ZIMBABWE-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 9, TV, PIX, GRAPHIC), moved, by MacDonald Dzirutwe, 904 words) U.S. diplomats accuse Tillerson of breaking child soldiers law WASHINGTON - A group of about a dozen U.S. State Department officials have taken the unusual step of formally accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of violating a federal law designed to stop foreign militaries from enlisting child soldiers, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters. (USA-TILLERSON/CHILDSOLDIERS (UPDATE 2, PIX), moved, by Jason Szep and Matt Spetalnick, 1,310 words) German political grandees press parties to compromise for stability BERLIN - Two veteran allies of Chancellor Angela Merkel appeal to Germany’s parties to strike a compromise and form a stable government that could drag Europe’s biggest economy out of a political impasse. (GERMANY-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Madeline Chambers and Michael Nienaber, 696 words) + See also: - GERMANY-POLITICS/STEINMEIER (PIX), moved, by Andrea Shalal, 575 words - GERMANY-POLITICS/EUROPE (ANALYSIS, UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, by Noah Barkin, 851 words ASIA N. Korea defector regains consciousness, video shows getaway under fire SEOUL - North Korean border guards were only steps behind a fellow soldier when they opened fire and one briefly crossed the border pursuing the wounded defector as he dashed to South Korea, a video released by the U.N. Command in Seoul shows. (NORTHKOREA-SOUTHKOREA/DEFECTION (UPDATE 4, TV, PIX, GRAPHICS), moved, by Haejin Choi and Josh Smith, 889 words) + See also: - NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/USA (UPDATE 4), moved, by Joel Schectman and David Brunnstrom, 535 words Ninth Australian lawmaker quits as citizenship crisis widens SYDNEY - A ninth Australian lawmaker quits parliament after discovering she is a dual national, the latest casualty in a widening constitutional crisis that has already cost the government its majority. (AUSTRALIA-POLITICS/ (TV, PIX), moved, 372 words) EUROPE UK government averts Brexit rebellion, giving ground on EU rights plan LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government averts a rebellion in parliament over plans to ditch the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, promising to review its approach and make changes if needed. (BRITAIN-EU/BILL (UPDATE 1), moved, by William James, 490 words) + See also: - BRITAIN-EU/ (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, by Elizabeth Piper and Gabriela Baczynska, 764 words MIDDLE EAST Hariri back in Lebanon for first time since quitting as PM BEIRUT - Saad al-Hariri returns to Beirut for the first time since he resigned as prime minister in a statement delivered from Saudi Arabia that plunged Lebanon into crisis. (LEBANON-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 3), by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam, 675 words) + See also: - LEBANON-SECURITY/ARMY (UPDATE 3, TV, PIX), moved, 521 words - LEBANON-CRISIS/EGYPT (UPDATE 2, TV, PIX), moved, by Ali Abdelaty, 342 words - LEBANON-POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE (PIX, TV), moved, 720 words Iraq to declare final victory over Islamic State after desert campaign BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says Islamic State has been defeated from a military perspective but he will only declare final victory after IS militants are routed in the desert. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-ABADI (UPDATE 2, TV), moved, by Ahmed Rasheed, 411 words) + See also: - MIDEAST-CRISIS/ROUHANI-ISLAMIC STATE (UPDATE 3), moved, by Babak Dehghanpisheh, 744 words - MIDEAST CRISIS/IRAQ-ATTACKS (UPDATE 3), moved, by Mustafa Mahmoud, 163 words AFRICA Suicide bomber kills 50 in Nigeria in mosque attack YOLA - A suicide bomber kills at least 50 people in northeastern Nigeria in an attack on a mosque which bore the hallmarks of a faction of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (NIGERIA-SECURITY/ (UPDATE 4, TV, PIX), moved, by Percy Dabang and Ardo Hazzad, 436 words) UNITED STATES Trump defends Senate candidate Moore despite misconduct allegations WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump defends embattled U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, saying the Alabama Republican had denied allegations of sexual misconduct and emphasizing that he did not want Moore’s Democratic opponent to win. (USA-TRUMP/MOORE (UPDATE 3), moved, by Jeff Mason, 684 words) Uber paid hackers to cover up massive data breach Uber Technologies Inc paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed the personal information of about 57 million accounts of the ride-service provider, the company says. (UBER-CYBERATTACK/ (UPDATE 5, TV, PIX), moved, by Jim Finkle and Heather Somerville, 789 words) AMERICAS NAFTA talks hit wall as Mexico, Canada push back on U.S. demands MEXICO CITY - The United States, Mexico and Canada fail to resolve any major differences in a fifth round of talks to rework the NAFTA trade deal, drawing a swift complaint from the Trump administration that the lack of progress could doom the process. (TRADE-NAFTA/ (UPDATE 4, PIX, TV), moved, by Anthony Esposito and Adriana Barrera, 828 words) + See also:'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et-idUSL3N1NS246'|'2017-11-22T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'437caf54cbf39ca36d27e5994570d521f64624ad'|'''I want good jobs,'' said Phil. Almost anything would be better than his - John Crace - UK news'|'F reewheelin’ Phil had always enjoyed his morning ritual. After straightening his tie and smoothing down his hair, he’d head to the mirror to blow kisses to himself and whisper: “Looking good, Big Boy.” Only on this day of all days his reflection hadn’t bothered to show up. Freewheelin’ Phil had never felt more alone.It wasn’t meant to be this way. For a while after the election there had been a sense of release. He’d expected to be out of a job but the prime minister’s failure had given him a reprieve. But now, as he prepared to deliver his budget, the walls were closing in again. The Brexiters were willing him to fail and the remainers no longer much cared whether he stayed or went. The Tories were in meltdown and he was the designated fall guy. It wouldn’t matter if he did or didn’t spend the money he didn’t have. He was screwed either way.Hammond boosts housing and NHS spending as growth forecasts are slashed Read more As he sat morosely in the Commons waiting for prime minister’s questions to end, the chancellor came to a decision. If this was to be his last budget, he might as well go down with a fight. And a laugh. First in his sights were the Brexit mob. They’d demanded more money, he’d give it to them. He had no idea where the £3bn to pay for them making such a mess of leaving the EU was going to come from, but that was no longer his problem. Give them enough rope.Next in line was Theresa May. “I’m going to stick to water,” he said, “but I believe the prime minister has some cough pastels in her pocket.” Great. Remind everyone of her conference speech nightmare. Theresa fumbled inside her pocket and passed him a packet. Fentanyl. Why not? An accidental overdose wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. Though better not take them all. The Maybot would be needing some herself sooner or later. The £500m he was planning to spend on artificial intelligence wouldn’t come close to making her appear either competent or human. The four pot plants displayed more signs of sentient life than her.“Now we come to the bit with the long economicky words,” he said. Take that, Govey. The opportunist little shit had been eyeing up his job for weeks now. No matter that anyone who had ever met him knew he was so hopeless with numbers he couldn’t be trusted to buy a pint of milk and come back with the right change. Freewheelin’ Phil allowed himself a few moments to savour the thought of Mikey delivering his first budget this time next year before getting on to the real black comedy. The economy wasn’t just struggling. It was a total disaster. The Office for Budget Responsibility was predicting the worst growth figures in living memory. He turned round to look at the prime minister and shrugged. Deal with that. What more proof did she need that Brexit had done for Britain? “I want good jobs,” he said. But failing that, rubbish ones would do. Come to think of it, almost anything would be better than the one he had.Time for an in-joke. More money for maths. Particularly on subtraction lessons. Schools and the NHS could do with a few more people capable of working out that the extra cash he was handing out to them wasn’t nearly enough and they would have to make yet more cuts.Which reminded him. “I’m giving the NHS an extra £350m to see it through the winter,” he said, directing his gaze at Boris Johnson. Not £300m. Not £400m. But £350m. The exact sum the fantasist had promised the NHS would be getting each week. People couldn’t fail to make the connection. Far from creating a cash bonanza, Brexit was bleeding the country dry.Now Freewheelin’ Phil was nearly home and dry. Just time for a few crowdpleasers. Cut stamp duty. Who cared if it put house prices up and benefited the seller rather than buyer? It was a good soundbite and would play well with all the Tory backbenchers who were too stupid to know the difference. Let them eat houses. The punters were crying out for more houses, so he’d give them more houses. Or at least he’d say he would. By the time everyone worked out he’d already promised to build most of the houses he’d just promised to build and that the £44bn didn’t really exist, he’d be long gone.“We choose the future. We choose to run towards changes,” he concluded. That part at least was true. He had chosen the future. He had run towards changes. Towards a cabinet reshuffle. He’d had a crap hand and played it the best he could, but he knew it was only a matter of time before his budget unravelled. Freewheelin’ Phil would be lucky to survive till Christmas.Choose life. Choose a career. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin can openers. Choose your future. Choose life. But why would he want to do a thing like that?John Crace’s new book, I, Maybot, is published by Guardian Faber. To order a copy for £ 6.99, saving £3 on RRP, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders minimum p&p of £1.99. Topics Budget 2017 (November) The politics sketch Philip Hammond Conservatives comment'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/22/freewheelin-phil-decides-to-go-down-with-a-fight-and-a-laugh'|'2017-11-22T20:57:00.000+02:00'
'ebc43b6581310b380337dc0119de3ab25f7ae318'|'BP, Eni interested in developing Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield - Iraqi oil officials'|'November 20, 2017 / 7:08 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago BP, Eni interested in developing Iraq''s Majnoon oilfield - Iraqi oil officials Ahmed Rasheed 2 Min Read BAGHDAD (Reuters) - BP ( BP.L ) and Eni ( ENI.MI ) are among companies that have expressed an interest in developing the giant Majnoon oilfield which Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) plans to leave next year, Iraqi oil officials said on Monday. A worker walks through the Majnoon oilfield in Basra, 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Baghdad, October 6, 2013. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani Shell has agreed to exit the Majnoon field in southern Iraq and hand over its operation to the state-run Basra Oil Co. by the end of June 2018, according to two Iraqi oil officials. “BP and Italy’s Eni have approached the oil ministry last month to show interest in developing Majnoon after Shell exits the field,” an oil official close to Majnoon operations said. BP and Eni were not immediately available to comment. Two other oil officials confirmed BP and Eni’s interest in Majnoon and said the oil ministry had not yet started talks with either company. BP is developing Rumaila, Iraq’s biggest oilfield, in the south. The field currently produces around 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd). Eni operates the 4-billion-barrel Zubair oilfield in the south, which currently produces around 430,000 bpd. Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Oct. 9 that Chevron and Total were among the companies that had expressed an interest in developing Majnoon. Iraq is developing the Majnoon field itself until it can find a foreign partner. “The oil minister Luaibi will directly supervise the operations in Majnoon after Shell leaves to make sure operations will not be disrupted,” said another Iraqi oil official. Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iraq-oil-majnoon/bp-eni-interested-in-developing-iraqs-majnoon-oilfield-iraqi-oil-officials-idUKKBN1DK2C1'|'2017-11-20T21:08:00.000+02:00'
'14bc8a248ac0e8af4f18c7e2ab0df0cc567544e3'|'Exclusive - Saudi prince detention holds up loan to investment firm: sources'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:42 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Exclusive - Saudi prince detention holds up loan to investment firm: sources Davide Barbuscia , Tom Arnold 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Kingdom Holding’s plan to borrow money to fund new investments has stalled because owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been detained in Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption crackdown, according to four banking sources familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO - Saudi billionaire Prince AlWaleed bin Talal looks on during a news briefing in Manama, May 8, 2012. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Kingdom ( 4280.SE ) had approached banks to obtain the loan, but the financing plan has been held up because the lenders are worried about potential repercussions if they lend to the prince’s company, the sources said. One of the sources, who was approached for the loan, said it would have been worth roughly 5 billion riyals (£1 billion). A financing hold-up for Kingdom - a leading Saudi investment firm with stakes in prime real estate including New York’s Plaza Hotel and London’s Savoy Hotel - would suggest the crackdown this month is slowing new Saudi business activity. Asked for comment, Kingdom’s Chief Financial Officer Mohammed Fahmy said his company had not asked any bank for a formal loan commitment. He said that terms of any financing deal were never finalised. More than 200 people were questioned and dozens of princes, officials and top businessmen detained in the anti-corruption purge. Over 2,000 bank accounts have been frozen by investigators, commercial bankers told Reuters. The Riyadh government has said the economy will not suffer because investigators are targeting only individuals, not their companies, which can continue to operate as normal. In a statement issued soon after Prince Alwaleed was detained two weeks ago, Kingdom also said it was continuing to operate normally, and that it had the support of the government. But a loan hold-up would suggest some damage to the economy may be inevitable as banks, uncertain of the fate of majority owners of companies and unsure how far the crackdown will extend, become reluctant to extend new financing. FILE PHOTO - Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal leaves the High Court in London July 2, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo PRINCE ALLEGATIONS Kingdom completed the acquisition of a 16.2 percent stake in local lender Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) ( 1050.SE ) in September, buying about half of France’s Credit Agricole stake in BSF for 5.76 billion riyals. The company approached banks to obtain a loan that would have been secured by its BSF stake, as the company wanted to leverage the newly acquired shares in order to make new investments, according to the sources. Kingdom’s share price has plunged 19 percent in the past two weeks, erasing about $1.9 billion of market value. The allegations against Prince Alwaleed, who owns 95 percent of Kingdom, include money laundering, bribery and extorting officials, a Saudi official has previously told Reuters. The allegations could not be independently verified. One of the four sources, a senior banker at a Saudi financial institution, said the loan deal would not go ahead until the situation facing the prince was resolved. Eight Saudi and international bankers, including the four sources, said in addition to the Kingdom loan, a range of other transactions involving clients who are directly or indirectly involved in the detentions had also been put on hold. Banks have not reached the point of recalling existing loans, but they have increased the level of scrutiny for some new financing, the bankers said. In a report last week, debt rating agency Moody’s said a prolonged freeze of bank accounts in Saudi Arabia could damage corporate credit quality in the kingdom because large depositors were often large borrowers and business owners. “Saudi Arabia’s corporate sector remains dominated by unlisted family-owned businesses with uneven governance and disclosures and frequent intermingling of individual and corporate activities, which ultimately could expose corporates to these individuals’ frozen accounts,” Moody’s said. Additional reporting by Katie Paul in Riyadh; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-arrests-kingdom-holding/exclusive-saudi-prince-detention-holds-up-loan-to-investment-firm-sources-idUKKBN1DK1W5'|'2017-11-20T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'6cf9fb7992e3e24bf444598e0891984e6521e756'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Politics weigh on Chilean, Brazilian equities'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Equities markets across Latin America fell on Thursday amid light Thanksgiving trading, led by the blue-chip IPSA index in Chile, where investors are still jittery over a weak performance by conservatives in elections over the weekend. On Thursday, leftist Chilean presidential candidate Alejandro Guillier - who is competing in a tight runoff after coming in second in first-round elections on Sunday - said he was open to eliminating Chile''s quasi-private pension fund system in favor of a state-run model. Additionally, workers at BHP Billiton Ltd''s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world''s biggest, walked off the job temporarily, spooking investors in the mining-dependent country. The IPSA was off 1.27 percent in midafternoon trading. Brazil''s Bovespa was down 0.72 percent as President Michel Temer continues to face difficulties pushing through a pension reform seen as key to shoring up the nation''s fiscal health. On Wednesday night, the congressman in charge of drafting the reform presented a new version in an event at Temer''s official residence. However, attendance was poorer that expected, which some analysts interpreted as a sign of relatively weak support for the measure. Among the poorly performing major constituents of the index was steelmaker Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA , which was off 1.2 percent. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1601 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1152.44 -0.37 34.14 MSCI LatAm 2811.31 -0.14 20.27 Brazil Bovespa 73979.88 -0.72 22.83 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48219.39 0.05 5.64 Chile IPSA 5063.67 -1.27 21.98 Chile IGPA 25504.43 -1.19 23.01 Argentina MerVal 27092.33 -0.86 60.14 Colombia IGBC 10868.33 -0.09 7.31 Venezuela IBC 698.32 0.25 -97.80 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2333 0.02 0.49 Mexico peso 18.6030 0.22 11.51 Chile peso 635 -0.28 5.62 Colombia peso 2975.32 -0.08 0.88 Peru sol 3.236 0.00 5.50 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.4000 0.23 -8.76 Argentina peso (parallel) 18.1 0.22 -7.07 (Reporting by Gram Slattery Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-politics-weigh-on-chilean-brazilian-equities-idUSL1N1NT0Z1'|'2017-11-23T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'c27b08093eff77433b1f283fd5c35cd2a2c199cb'|'EU to unveil priority energy projects to improve grid, prepare for Brexit'|'November 23, 2017 / 3:59 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago EU to unveil priority energy projects to improve grid, prepare for Brexit Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will publish a list of priority energy infrastructure projects on Friday with an emphasis on improving power supplies, better integrating renewable sources and helping Ireland cope with Brexit. FILE PHOTO: Workers paint an electricity pylon near Lymm, northern England, Britain, February 18, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The list, seen by Reuters, comprises 173 projects that will be entitled to accelerated planning permission as well as EU funding. It includes twice as many electricity as gas projects, an EU source said. It is part of the European Commission’s drive to improve power and gas connections across the EU’s 28 member states by better distributing available supplies, bringing down prices and trying to minimise disruptions. The list reflects concerns over dependence on Russia, which supplies about a third of the EU’s oil and gas, and how to make the best use of the greater share of power coming from wind and solar energy. It also aims to address Ireland’s worries about its security of supply after Britain quits the EU in March 2019, leaving Ireland with no electricity links to the bloc. “Only a fully interconnected market will improve Europe’s security of supply and give consumers more choice,” Europe’s climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told Reuters. “As highways do not stop at national borders, neither should pipes and cables.” Among the projects is a planned subsea cable linking Ireland to France, known as the Celtic Interconnector, to be built by 2025 by French electricity grid operator RTE and Ireland’s EirGrid. To address grid bottlenecks in Germany that have overflowed into neighbouring member states, the EU is also promoting the Sudlink between the north and south of the bloc’s biggest economy. Also listed is a new subsea cable called the COBRAcable - for COpenhagen BRussels Amsterdam - to help spread wind energy generated in Denmark. That has received investment from Dutch power grid operator TenneT and Danish counterpart Energinet.dk. A new electricity link through the Bay of Biscay to nearly double the interconnection capacity between Spain and France is seen as another way of encouraging investment in renewables. For gas, the EU has spotlighted a new gas pipeline between the two countries, the Midi-Catalonia (Midcat) interconnector. For the first time, the list includes four cross-border projects to develop infrastructure for carbon capture and storage facilities that aim to help energy-intensive industries reduce their impact on global warming, the source said. Many of the projects - also called projects of common interest because they benefit more than one member state - are in central and southeastern Europe, where dependency on Russian energy exports is most marked. In addition to gas links, the EU is pushing to reach a deal to decouple the three Baltic states’ electricity grids from Russia. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Additional reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-energy/eu-to-unveil-priority-energy-projects-to-improve-grid-prepare-for-brexit-idUKKBN1DN1QM'|'2017-11-23T17:58:00.000+02:00'
'252ebcb0f2eb9010b795e23e37ee999075ff0c19'|'MOVES-HSBC investment banker Westerman leaves'|'LONDON, Nov 23 (IFR) - Matthew Westerman, HSBC’s co-head of global banking, is leaving the British bank, less than two years after his high-profile arrival from Goldman Sachs.HSBC did not give any reason for his departure in an internal memo from Samir Assaf, chief executive of HSBC’s global banking and markets and seen by IFR.Assaf said Westerman had made a “significant contribution” to re-shaping the global banking business alongside his co-head Robin Phillips.They had “together driven improved financial and market share performance and reinvigorated our approach to collaboration in global banking and markets, as well as across commercial banking,” the memo said.Phillips will assume day-to-day management of the business after a period of transition, the memo said. (Reporting by Steve Slater) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/moves-hsbc-investment-banker-westerman-l/moves-hsbc-investment-banker-westerman-leaves-idINL8N1NT2WM'|'2017-11-23T08:51:00.000+02:00'
'88b78fa28cc66ece4ed4b843444dcacefe764633'|'UPDATE 1-Chile''s Codelco copper output dips but company posts profit'|'November 23, 2017 / 8:59 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Chile''s   but company posts profit Reuters Staff (Adds quotes from Pizarro, details from earnings report) By Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO,   from January to September 2017   ago but rebounded from a year-earlier loss   Chief Executive   He added the company   profit for the first nine months of 2017 versus an $18 million pretax loss in the year-earlier period. Direct cash costs through September rose to $1.32 per pound of copper from $1.27 in 2016 as declining ore grades - a problem in Chile for years - continued to take their toll. Codelco, which transfers all its profits to the state and relies on capitalization and some debt issuance to fund its operations, is emerging from a prolonged rough patch after a collapse in copper prices in 2016 ate into earnings and scuttled near-term investment plans. The price of copper has risen dramatically in recent months on strong Chinese demand and supply disruptions, among other issues. Codelco, like other copper miners, is reinstating projects that were earlier put on ice. {nL1N1KX15S} At a news conference announcing the results, Pizarro said the state miner was in a strong position for 2018 following the refinancing of billions of dollars in debt earlier this year. “Today, we are comfortable as we look forward to the coming year, knowing that it will not be necessary to tap debt markets,” Pizarro said. Codelco, which ships about two-thirds of its copper to Asia, was the world’s top copper producer based on its annual output to June 2017, according to rating agency Moody‘s. The company says it plans to invest $4 billion annually to revamp its aging mines, expand abroad and keep output flowing. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien and Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/codelco-results/update-1-chiles-codelco-copper-output-dips-but-company-posts-profit-idUSL1N1NT17T'|'2017-11-23T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'f8c2c86680ba5be522bfc2563633e64ede8a9b40'|'M7 Multi-Let pursues private funding, scraps London IPO plan'|' 33 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago M7 Multi-Let pursues private funding, scraps London IPO plan Ben Martin , Noor Zainab Hussain 2   M7 Multi-Let REIT, a newly-established firm set up to invest in industrial and office property, has become the latest business to scrap plans to float in London after it pulled a listing that would have raised as much as 300 million pounds. M7, which announced its intention to float as a real estate investment trust (REIT) last month, said a number of investors had instead expressed an interest in providing funding privately to support its property expansion. “This, combined with the current market conditions and the volume of recent issuances focusing on UK real estate, led the board to conclude that the initial portfolio and pipeline would be better funded privately over the near to medium term,” said Richard Croft, the chief executive of M7 Real Estate. M7 said on Oct. 10 that it had agreed to buy 93 property assets for 119.8 million pounds – its so-called initial portfolio - and that it had also identified a pipeline of potential acquisitions valued at more than 400 million pounds. Its decision to call off the listing to finance those deals marks another setback for the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit in recent weeks after Comparethemarket.com-owner BGL Group ( IPO-BGL.L ), broadcasting masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled floats. The move will also increase attention on motor insurer Sabre, which is pursuing a London float after announcing its listing plans this month. A source familiar with the matter said on Nov.13 that the company was looking for a 600 million-pound valuation from the initial public offering but it could fall short of that target. Sabre this week set the price range for its shares at 220 pence to 240 pence, which would give it a market capitalisation of between 550 million pounds and 600 million pounds. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Ben Martin in London; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-m7-multi-let-ipo/m7-multi-let-pursues-private-funding-scraps-london-ipo-plan-idUKKBN1DO1R0'|'2017-11-24T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'664884dc7298b8bedd77194c644907bf9ea4bbb2'|'Lithuania''s Maxima plans to buy Poland''s Emperia for around $338 million'|'WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish retail group Emperia EMP.WA said Lithuania’s Maxima Grupe will announce a tender on Friday to buy all of Emperia’s shares for at least 100 zlotys each, valuing the potential deal at around 1.2 billion zlotys ($337.96 million).The investment agreement was signed on Thursday, Emperia said.Shares in Emperia stood at 93.87 zlotys each at market close on Thursday and were up 44.4 percent since the start of the year. Earlier this month, Emperia said it started talks with Maxima Grupe as a potential strategic investor.Maxima Grupe controls retail chains in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Poland. Emperia, which was founded in 1990, owns the Stokrotka retail chain in Poland.Emperia also said two of its shareholders, who are mainly investment funds and private pension funds, Altus 29 FIZ and Ipopema 72 FIZAN, agreed to sell their shares in Emperia to Maxima, representing 21 percent of the company’s capital.Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emperia-tender/lithuanias-maxima-plans-to-buy-polands-emperia-for-around-338-million-idUSKBN1DO0IX'|'2017-11-24T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'222fa4b3f2cf9b06445fd6e8a65da7922f512b90'|'UK''s huge current account deficit set to stay larger for longer'|'November 24, 2017 / 3:34 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK''s huge current account deficit set to stay larger for longer David Milliken 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s current account deficit, the largest of the world’s major economies, is no longer on course to narrow significantly over the next five years, putting sterling at risk of a further big fall, according to government experts. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Finance Secretary Philip Hammond leaves Downing Street on his way to deliver his budget statement to parliament, London, Britain, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned last year that Britain’s dependence on around 100 billion pounds a year of foreign financing left it reliant “on the kindness of strangers”. That risk seemed to diminish when sterling fell more than 10 percent after the Brexit vote in 2016. While the decision to leave the European Union raised big questions about Britain’s economy, the weaker pound led many economists, including the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility, to predict the current account gap would narrow sharply. The fall in sterling would reduce the imbalance between returns on British investments held abroad and those held in Britain by foreign investors, a big contributor to the deficit, they said. This week, the budget office changed its mind. In its twice-yearly forecast of the public finances, the OBR predicted the current account deficit would total 101 billion pounds in 2021, or 4.4 percent of GDP, rather than fall to 47 billion pounds or 2.0 percent of GDP as it thought in March. This year, the deficit is expected to be about 4.6 percent of GDP, having hit a record 5.9 percent in 2016, when the only European countries with a bigger deficit than Britain’s were Albania and Montenegro, according to World Bank data. The OBR told chancellor Philip Hammond that Britain needed to guard against losing foreign investors’ confidence, for example through a “disorderly” Brexit process. “That could lead to a sharp fall in sterling, bringing about a more abrupt demand-led narrowing of the current account deficit and a subsequent spike in inflation,” it said. The finance ministry’s acting chief economic advisor, Richard Hughes, said overseas investors had long supported Britain. “We’ve managed to sustain a fairly large current account deficit in the UK for many years, indeed in some cases for decades,” he told an audience of economists on Thursday. Britain still had profitable overseas investments, and its government debt enjoyed strong foreign demand, he added. Robert Stheeman, chief executive of the UK Debt Management Office, said on Wednesday that demand for government debt had held up “remarkably well” since the Brexit vote. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Finance Secretary Philip Hammond leaves Downing Street on his way to deliver his budget statement to parliament, London, Britain, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo CURRENCY CRISES Countries which suffer balance of payments crises are typically emerging market economies that issue foreign-currency debt, or are in fixed exchange rate regimes, as Britain was when it ran into trouble in the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Nonetheless, David Page, an economist at AXA Investment Managers, said the OBR forecast left no room for complacency. “That’s a very elevated level for a long period of time,” he said. “There is a significant downside risk to sterling.” FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers are stacked on a cargo ship in the dock at the ABP port in Southampton, Britain August 16, 2017. Picture taken August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo He expected Britain’s departure from the EU to ultimately create barriers to British exports and curb foreign investment. The new OBR forecast is due to gloomier assumptions about Britain’s future net investment income -- the difference between returns on British investments abroad, and the dividends and interest paid to foreign investors in British companies and government debt. Historically, Britain ran a surplus on net investment income. But this went into reverse during the global financial crisis and the gap has widened rather than return to trend, in part because British interest rates have been higher than those in the euro zone. Economists had expected that a stronger euro zone economy would help rebalance this deficit but the OBR said it was not enough. Bigger-than-thought interest payments to foreign holders of British corporate debt were also a factor, it added. Furthermore, the OBR’s new forecast for a productivity slowdown across the whole economy will hamper exports, something that last year’s fall in the pound will not fully offset. One thing that has not changed is the OBR’s assumptions about Brexit, both in terms of its impact on trade and on Britain’s budget contributions to the EU. Sam Hill, an economist at RBC Capital Markets, said a big current account deficit did not automatically put further pressure on sterling. But it did raise the risk of a slide if something went wrong. “Markets don’t necessarily care too much about current account deficits all the time, but when they choose to ... it is pretty much the only thing they care about,” he said.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget-currentaccount/uks-huge-current-account-deficit-set-to-stay-larger-for-longer-idUKKBN1DO1VV'|'2017-11-24T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'0e976c74546895c635edc727ce3280a4f36d6be1'|'CBS, Dish agree carriage terms; blackout ends'|'November 24, 2017 / 5:19 AM / Updated 9 hours ago CBS, Dish agree carriage terms; blackout ends Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - CBS Corp ( CBS.N ) and Dish Network Corp ( DISH.O ) resolved a dispute over the fees the satellite TV provider pays to the broadcaster, ending a three-day blackout that affected customers across 26 states. FILE PHOTO: The CBS "eye" and logo are seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th St. in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo CBS said late Thursday it reached a multi-year agreement with Dish for carrying its local stations as well as three cable channels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement comes just ahead of the Southeastern Conference football coverage over the weekend. The blackout had prevented nearly 3 million Dish subscribers from watching the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers play the Dallas Cowboys on the Thanksgiving holiday. The CBS channels are being restored, Dish said in a separate statement. CBS content was pulled off Dish networks on Tuesday over a dispute that revolved around how much Dish would pay for 28 local CBS channels as well as three cable channels: Smithsonian Channel, Pop and CBS Sports Network. Negotiations between content distributors and programmers have become increasingly fraught as more viewers opt to watch their favorite shows online. CBS went dark for about 12 hours during a similar carriage dispute with Dish in 2014. Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cbs-corp-dish-network/cbs-dish-agree-carriage-terms-blackout-ends-idUSKBN1DO0CQ'|'2017-11-24T07:15:00.000+02:00'
'59fece4417fd63ddb228a042e4c43fb9313ae652'|'Trump Organization in buyout deal on struggling NYC tower - report'|'(Reuters) - The Trump Organization has reached a deal that lets it walk away from a 46-story New York skyscraper with a hotel and condominiums that has had trouble attracting business, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.The Trump SoHo hotel is seen in Manhattan, New York, U.S. April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton The decision to reach a buyout deal on the Trump SoHo property was made by Eric and Donald Trump, Jr., sons of President Donald Trump, along with a small group of senior executives, the newspaper reported, citing company officials.The Trump Organization did not respond to a request to comment. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.The property opened about 11 years ago and was promoted on the reality show “The Apprentice,” which featured Donald Trump.In 2010, Trump and the promoters of his Trump SoHo hotel-condominiums were sued by buyers who accused them of fraudulently touting out-sized sales figures to inflate the project’s financial health.He and his co-defendants settled the case in November 2011, agreeing to refund 90 percent of $3.16 million in deposits, while admitting no wrongdoing, the newspaper said.Under the exit deal, the Trump Organization will end its contract with the building’s owner, the CIM Group, an investment firm in California that focuses primarily on real estate, the newspaper reported.CIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trump-property/trump-organization-in-buyout-deal-on-struggling-nyc-tower-report-idINKBN1DM2VA'|'2017-11-23T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'694dfe93e04f5f37aaa4379c913d4ec21566131c'|'Altice seeks up to 3 bln euros for Dominican Republic business-sources'|'LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) hopes to raise as much as 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from the sale of its Dominican Republic business as it seeks to reduce debt and improve its performance, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday.Altice’s share price has halved since it reported disappointing quarterly results in France earlier this month amid a fiercely competitive market. The group is carrying a hefty 50 billion-euro ($59 billion) debt.Patrick Drahi, the founder and majority owner of Altice fired chief executive Michel Combes and pledged last week the group would shift away from acquisitions towards reducing debt.This week, Altice said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Altice’s Dominican Republic telecoms business generated 718 million euros in revenue last year, or 3 percent of the group’s total. The price tag represents a multiple of seven to eight times the adjusted annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the sources said.The group’s shares rose after the Financial Times reported a potential sale of the asset earlier on Thursday. They closed up 3.85 percent at 7.85 euros.TOWERS SALE Amsterdam-based Altice denied rumors last week that the group might sell shares to raise cash.Instead, sales of non-core assets in Europe, such as some of its telecoms towers, could yield up to 4 billion euros, a senior banker familiar with the situation said at the time.The banker also said that management had yet to decide whether to sell towers country by country or bundle them into a company and float it while retaining a majority stake.The sale of the Dominican Republic business alone might not be sufficient to alleviate concerns raised by credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings, which changed its outlook on Altice’s debt to negative from stable on Thursday.Altice was given a B+ long-term credit rating by S&P, which is four notches below investment grade.“The negative outlook reflects various execution risks that could prevent the group from sustaining its market positions in the core French market, reducing debt, and restoring market confidence,” S&P said in a statement.“We could lower the rating by one notch in the next year if management fails to restore sounder operations in France, such as achieving better customer retention and reducing turnover in senior management, or if it fails to trim absolute debt (...),” it added.($1 = 0.8445 euros)Additional reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-altice-m-a/altice-seeks-up-to-3-billion-euros-for-dominican-republic-business-sources-idUSKBN1DN1WB'|'2017-11-23T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'42426bf76147570df2c4451940d6737f5c3814af'|'WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET'|'(Corrects time in headline)Editor: Clarence Fernandez + 65 6870 3861Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595(All times GMT/ET)TOP STORIES “The people have spoken,” says Zimbabwe’s new leaderHARARE - Zimbabwe’s new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa tells a cheering crowd in Harare that the country is entering a new stage of democracy following Robert Mugabe’s removal as president after nearly four decades in power. (ZIMBABWE-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 6, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by MacDonald Dzirutwe, 805 words)Ex-Bosnian Serb commander Mladic convicted of genocide, gets life in prisonTHE HAGUE - A U.N. tribunal convicts former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic of genocide and crimes against humanity for orchestrating massacres and ethnic cleansing during Bosnia’s war and sentences him to life in prison. (WARCRIMES-MLADIC/ (UPDATE 6, PIX, TV), moved, by Toby Sterling, Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch, 1,258 words)+ See also:- WARCRIMES-MLADIC/SREBRENICA (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moved, by Maja Zuvela, 663 wordsLebanon’s Prime Minister Hariri shelves resignation, easing crisisBEIRUT - Lebanon’s Saad al-Hariri shelves his decision to resign as prime minister at the request of President Michel Aoun, easing a crisis that had deepened tensions in the Middle East. (LEBANON-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 6, PIX, TV), moved, by Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam, 839 words)Uber breach, cover-up trigger government probes around the globeTORONTO - Governments around the globe launch investigations into Uber Technologies Inc after the company disclosed it had covered up a breach that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. (UBER-CYBERATTACK/ (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moved, by Jim Finkle and Heather Somerville, 818 words)ASIA PNG police order protesting asylum seekers out of Australian-run campSYDNEY - Papua New Guinea police seal off an officially shuttered Australian-run detention camp and order asylum seekers occupying it to leave as they confiscated food and water the men had stockpiled, asylum seekers say. (AUSTRALIA-ASYLUM/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett, 551 words)India pares back planned funding for crucial public health schemeNEW DELHI - India approves a three-year budget for its flagship public health programme almost a fifth lower than the health ministry estimated, according to sources and previously unreported government documents reviewed by Reuters. (INDIA-HEALTH/ (EXCLUSIVE, PIX), moved, by Aditya Kalra and Tommy Wilkes, 786 words)Australia urges strong, sustained U.S. engagement in Asia, warns on ChinaSYDNEY - Australia calls on the United States to build a strong presence in Asia and bolster ties with “like-minded” partners while warning against China’s rising influence. (AUSTRALIA-DEFENCE/ (TV), moved, by Swati Pandey, 512 words)Myanmar, Bangladesh to sign deal on Rohingya return amid concerns over army roleNAYPYITAW - Myanmar and Bangladesh officials will ink a deal guiding the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled violence in the former Burma, a Myanmar government spokesman says, amid concerns of a divide between civilian and military officials on repatriation. (MYANMAR-ROHINGYA/ (PIX, TV), moving shortly, by Yimou Lee and Thu Thu Aung, 552 words)+ See also:- CHINA-MYANMAR/DEFENCE (UPDATE 1), moved, 484 words- MYANMAR-ROHINGYA/USA (UPDATE 5), moved, by Arshad Mohammed and David Brunnstrom, 760 words- POPE-ASIA/MYANMAR-ROHINGYA (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Philip Pullella, 352 wordsCambodian opposition’s parliament seats reallocated after banPHNOM PENH - Parliamentary seats held by Cambodia’s recently banned opposition party are reallocated to smaller parties that had failed to win any seats in the last election, the National Election Committee says. (CAMBODIA-POLITICS/ (moved), by Prak Chan Thul, 326 words)EUROPE Italy’s Berlusconi takes fight against ban from office to European courtSTRASBOURG - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi argue at the European Court of Human Rights against his ban from holding public office, hoping for a green light that will allow him to run for prime minister at Italy’s election early next year. (ITALY-POLITICS/BERLUSCONI (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, by Gilbert Reilhac, 550 words)MIDDLE EAST Saudi-led coalition to reopen Yemen’s Hodeidah port, Sanaa airport for aidDUBAI - The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen says it will allow humanitarian aid access through Yemen’s port of Hodeidah and United Nations flights to the capital Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country. (YEMEN-SECURITY/AID (UPDATE 1), moved, 435 words)+ See also:- SAUDI-USA/, moved, by Yara Bayoumy and Warren Strobel, 751 wordsPutin wins backing from Iran, Turkey for new Syria peace pushSOCHI - Russia’s Vladimir Putin wins the backing of Turkey and Iran to host a Syrian peace congress, taking the central role in a major diplomatic push to finally end a civil war all but won by Moscow’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA (WRAPUP 2, TV, PIX), moved, by Denis Pinchuk and Stephen Kalin, 897 words)+ See also:- MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-HUNGER, moved, by Tom Miles, 381 wordsPalestinian factions agree to hold general election by end-2018GAZA/CAIRO - Palestinian factions, including rival groups Hamas and Fatah, have agreed to hold a general election by the end of 2018, a joint statement by several groups says following talks in Cairo. (PALESTINIANS-TALKS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Nadine Awadalla, 347 words)UNITED STATES Facebook to let users see if they ‘liked’ Russian accountsSAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc says it will build a web page to allow users to see which Russian propaganda accounts they have liked or followed, after U.S. lawmakers demanded that the social network be more open about the reach of the accounts. (USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA-FACEBOOK, moved, by David Ingram, 399 words)AMERICAS Search for missing Argentine submarine reaches ‘critical phase’MAR DEL PLATA/BUENOS AIRES - The search for an Argentine navy submarine missing in the South Atlantic for one week has reached a “critical phase” as the 44 crew on board could be running low on oxygen, a navy spokesman says. (ARGENTINA-SUBMARINE/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, by Walter Bianchi and Nicolás Misculin, 700 words)+ See also:- ARGENTINA-SUBMARINE/POLITICS, moved, by Luc Cohen, 695 words- ARGENTINA-SUBMARINE/FACTBOX (FACTBOX), moved, 505 words '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et-idUSL3N1NT1P9'|'2017-11-23T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'06423e0ae2961a036aacafbef7cc4eea63bbdb69'|'Singapore third-quarter GDP growth blows past forecasts as manufacturing jumps'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s economy grew at its quickest pace in nearly four years in the third quarter, thanks to a boom in manufacturing that some analysts say will encourage tighter monetary policy next year.Office workers walk to the train station during evening rush hour in the financial district of Singapore March 9, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Files Thursday’s revised official numbers beat the market’s already buoyant expectations, and prompted the government to upgrade its full year 2017 growth estimate to 3.0 to 3.5 percent on the back of improved global demand.Gross domestic product expanded by 5.2 percent in July-September from a year earlier versus economists’ forecast of 5.0 percent growth, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a statement. An initial estimate showed growth of 4.6 percent.It marked the strongest year-on-year growth since the fourth quarter of 2013 and firmed some economists’ expectations for monetary tightening as soon as the central bank’s next meeting in April.“Singapore’s strong growth recovery reflects regional trends of trade-exposed countries...capitalizing on the rise of global demand to boost growth,” said Trinh Nguyen, senior economist for Natixis in Hong Kong.Nguyen expects the robust growth will probably allow the Monetary Authority of Singapore to tighten its exchange-rate based policy in April.Indeed, at its October review, MAS changed a reference to maintaining current settings for an extended period in a sign it could tighten next year.On an annualised and seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew 8.8 percent from the previous quarter, beating an initial estimate of 6.3 percent and economists’ forecasts of a revision up to 7.4 percent.Not everyone was convinced about a tightening next year and the deputy managing director at the MAS, Jacqueline Loh, gave little away when asked about the implications for policy from Thursday’s data.“The forecast for core and headline CPI are unchanged. Accordingly, the monetary policy stance announced in October remains appropriate,” she said.Data due at 0500 GMT is expected to show the MAS’ core inflation measure holding steady at 1.5 percent in October.UNEVEN GROWTH? The MTI revised up its GDP growth forecast for the whole of 2017 to 3.0 to 3.5 percent, from the previous projection of 2.0 to 3.0 percent gains. Growth in 2018 is expected to be 1.5 to 3.5 percent, the MTI said.The data showed the lift to growth came from a broad expansion in manufacturing activity, up a sharp 34.6 percent on the quarter, compared to 4.0 percent growth in the second quarter.Singapore and other trade-reliant economies in Asia have enjoyed a boost this year from an improvement in global demand, particularly for electronics products and components such as semiconductors.Annual third-quarter growth for other Southeast Asian peers including Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia beat expectations.Loh Khum Yean, MTI Permanent Secretary told reporters there “remains unevenness between sectors and within sectors,” adding that the construction sector and segments within the manufacturing sector such as transport engineering remain weak.Nomura’s Brian Tan took a cautious view about the economic and monetary policy outlooks.“The headline GDP numbers will be lifted up by electronics manufacturing but the real question is what about the rest of the economy?,” said Tan.“If that doesn’t improve sufficiently by the time we get into next year then it’s very difficult to see them (MAS) tightening policy just yet.”Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Fathin Ungku; Additional reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/singapore-economy-gdp/singapore-third-quarter-gdp-growth-blows-past-forecasts-as-manufacturing-jumps-idINKBN1DN0AK'|'2017-11-23T04:54:00.000+02:00'
'4640b3da2763fd742ba08d0d6be9b8ca61a5e8ba'|'''Stealth hedging'' shows investors not so complacent'|'November 24, 2017 / 3:06 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago ''Stealth hedging'' shows investors not so complacent Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the U.S. stock market at a record high and daily stock gyrations near multi-decade lows, some investors have raised concerns about the lack of fear in the market, but U.S. equity options market data suggests investors are far from complacent. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Positioning in options on S&P 500 index .SPX and CBOE Volatility Index .VIX shows investors have been gradually adding to hedges over the last few months. “We didn’t see it on our desk and no one seems to care much about hedging but somehow it’s happening,” said Jim Strugger, derivatives strategist MKM Partners in New York. “It’s sort of under the surface, more like stealth hedging,” he said. The S&P 500 index .SPX has climbed 16 percent this year and is on pace for its eighth straight month of gains, the longest such streak since just before the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, better known as the VIX and the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term stock market volatility, closed at a record low earlier this month. Some investors warn that heightened reliance on strategies that profit from continued calm in stocks, and months of frustration over hedges that have gone to waste while the market powered on, have left the market extremely vulnerable to a shock. Boom-time complacency should top the worry list for investors, according to participants in the recent Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit in New York. The options market, however, suggests that investors are not as vulnerable to a sell-off in stocks as the anaemic level of the VIX would suggest, analysts said. For instance, for the S&P 500 index options, there are 2.1 puts open for each open call contract, close to the most defensive this measure has been over the last five years, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert data. An index call option gives the holder the right to buy the value of an underlying index at a fixed level in the future. A put conveys the opposite right and is usually used to protect against declines in the index. While some of put activity may be due to investors selling puts to generate income, brisk put volume suggests renewed interest in protective positions, analysts said. “More often than not, even in the world we live in where volatility is so attractive to sell, you can make a fair assumption that people are buying options,” said MKM’s Strugger. VIX options also show similarly elevated positioning in out-of-the-money VIX calls - contracts that are not profitable yet would reap gains if volatility spikes. “When open interest on VIX out-of-the-money calls is really high, I would tend to think that the market is more aggressively hedged,” said Aashish Vyas, director of portfolio strategy at Durango, Colorado-based Swan Global Investments. “To me, that matters more than the absolute level of the VIX,” he said. S&P 500 Index & VIX Options Open Interest - reut.rs/2AowYEU Positioning in options on SPDR S&P 500 ( SPY.P ), iShares Russell 2000 ( IWM ), the PowerShares QQQ Trust ( QQQ.P ) also show healthy defensive positioning. While the data does not suggest that the market is gearing up for an immediate crash, as would be suggested if the VIX were to shoot up, it does imply that investors would not be taken by surprise if volatility starts to trend up in coming months. “I don’t think the market is complacent,” said Joe Tigay, chief trading officer at Equity Armor Investments in Chicago. “People have downside protection,” he said. A recent blog post by New York Federal Reserve researchers showed that even as the overall level of volatility priced into options of varying tenure has dropped, investors are still pricing in a lot more volatility in longer dated options than in near-term contracts. That is a departure from the pre-crisis period when investors demanded relatively similar returns for taking on one-year and one-month volatility risk, essentially betting that the state of calm would persist into the future, the researchers said. They added that the shift in the pricing of risk, despite the low level of the VIX, showed that investors may not be so complacent after all. ( nyfed.org/2zLCYEL ) Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-stocks-weekahead/stealth-hedging-shows-investors-not-so-complacent-idUKKBN1DO1TE'|'2017-11-24T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'6ec6df5f428ce9307c5bac4f9705089debe9d314'|'EU insurance watchdog calls for harmonized schemes for failures, guarantees'|'November 22, 2017 / 9:38 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago EU insurance watchdog calls for harmonized schemes for failures, guarantees Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Union’s insurance watchdog on Wednesday called for harmonized schemes to deal with the possible failure of insurance groups and national insurance guarantees. “European action is required,” Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Authority (EIOPA), said. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-insurance/eu-insurance-watchdog-calls-for-harmonized-schemes-for-failures-guarantees-idUKKBN1DM0Y2'|'2017-11-22T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'aa0ede930a6c77e7cc6a7ce94dd90f0aa790fc69'|'Regulators edge closer to deal on global bank capital rules'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:47 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Regulators edge closer to deal on global bank capital rules Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The oversight body for global banking regulators said on Friday it will hold a news conference on December 7, in the clearest sign yet that a deal on completing post-financial crisis capital rules is finally on the cards. France has been a key holdout for completing the Basel III rules, and people familiar with the negotiations have said the oversight body would not meet unless a deal has been informally agreed. The oversight body, known as the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), is chaired by Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank. The news conference will be held at 1600 GMT on December 7 at the ECB in Frankfurt. GHOS called a meeting in January but was forced to postpone it after it became clear a deal could not be reached. It would not call a meeting next month if it risked a repeat embarrassment. The rules have been drafted by the Basel Committee of banking supervisors from the world’s main financial centers. The committee’s secretary general William Coen said last month that members were in the “last few meters of a marathon, with the finish line in sight”. “It’s fairly clear what the result will be,” Coen said. Banks have warned against bumping up capital requirements further, but also want completion of the rules so they can move on from the crisis. Germany’s representative in the negotiations, Andreas Dombret, said last week that the Bundesbank and German regulator BaFin back the latest compromise, albeit reluctantly. This left France isolated and under more pressure. Basel III is the world’s regulatory response to how undercapitalised banks had to be bailed out by taxpayers during the financial crisis. Much of the accord is already being applied and Basel has been trying for over a year to put final elements in place. The compromise on these elements sets a “floor” on how much capital banks must hold, even for those who use their own internal models for calculating buffers. Basel is expected to soften the impact with a long phase in, meaning it will not be binding until around the middle of the next decade. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by John O''Donnell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-basel-banks-regulations/regulators-to-hold-news-conference-on-basel-bank-rules-idUKKBN1DO1HS'|'2017-11-24T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'098ccb185234548dc25277127bea078672e93b37'|'EU banks have cut exposure to Britain since Brexit vote'|'November 24, 2017 / 5:06 PM / Updated 4 hours ago EU banks have cut exposure to Britain since Brexit vote Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Banks on mainland Europe have cut their exposures to Britain since the Brexit vote last year and are concerned about the legality of cross-border deals once the UK leaves, the European Union’s banking watchdog said on Friday. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The European Banking Authority (EBA) said banks in the EU’s 27 member countries have cut exposures in terms of assets from just over 1.9 trillion euros (£1.7 trillion) in June 2016 when the referendum took place, to just under 1.6 trillion euros by June 2017. Liabilities fell from just under 1.7 trillion euros to just over 1.3 trillion euros over the same period. The drop mainly reflects a sharp pullback in derivative deals, which could become a worry for London which competes with New York in this global sector. EBA said in a regular risk assessment report that banks are worried about a “cliff-edge” if Britain, the bloc’s most important financial market, leaves the EU without an agreement on trading terms. “The Brexit negotiations continue to be a source of political risk for the EU financial market as a cliff-edge scenario could lead to substantial disturbances for the European banking sector,” EBA said. In one of the starkest warnings yet from a European regulator, it said a major worry for banks is continuity of financial contracts or ability to fulfil obligations that have been entered into once Britain is no longer part of the EU legal system. Consumers and companies in the EU27 could face cancellation, amendment or renegotiation of contracts, loss of protection, disruption and financial losses, EBA said. “It is important that banks and their counterparties, as well as consumers and public authorities, consider appropriate mitigating actions and contingency plans to address these concerns,” it said. Britain hopes for a breakthrough in EU divorce talks next month that will lead to transition arrangements and an outline of new trading terms to avoid a cliff edge, which would help to dispel doubts about derivatives and other financial contracts. Banks in the EU27 may also not be able to clear derivatives transactions in London, leaving companies and households unable to access wholesale and retail financial services in Britain. Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) has already launched a push to lure clearing to Frankfurt from London. “A disruption of financial flows ... coupled with diminishing confidence of market participants, could lead to the drying up of market liquidity ... affecting financial stability in the EU banking system,” EBA said. The EBA report backs arguments made by the City of London financial district and others that mainland Europe has as much to lose as Britain from failure to at least agree on a transitional deal. The watchdog also said that the EU’s banks are still improving their resilience to shocks and whittling away at their 893 billion euro mountain of bad loans. While profitability has improved, the average return on equity is 7 percent, its highest level since 2014, but still typically below the cost of capital, EBA said. It remains unclear if poor profitability is due to current market conditions or the sector’s structure. Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks-regulator/eu-banks-have-cut-exposure-to-britain-since-brexit-vote-idUKKBN1DO248'|'2017-11-24T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'a919078a966abaebb47491d69b8e63e9218b5902'|'European shares set to snap two-week losing streak as consumer stocks buoyant'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:27 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago European shares set to snap two-week losing streak as consumer stocks buoyant Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares edged higher in early deals on Friday, underpinned by gains among heavyweight consumer goods firms as the pan-European STOXX 600 index was set to snap a two-week losing streak. FILE PHOTO: A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The STOXX 600 index was 0.1 percent higher, while Germany''s DAX .GDAXI advanced 0.2 percent. The growing prospect of a grand coalition in Germany also boosted sentiment around the region’s equities, as the DAX has been stuck around the 13,000-point level for the past two weeks. Germany’s Social Democrats said that they were ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking the political deadlock. Though corporate news was sparse, shares in consumer staples firms were in focus after China said that it would cut import tariffs on some consumer products. Shares in Danone ( DANO.PA ) rose 1.2 percent, as did shares in Diageo ( DGE.L ). Europe’s food and beverages index .SX3P was the standout sectoral gainer, up 0.5 percent. Provident Financial ( PFG.L ) was among the biggest fallers, down 1.3 percent after the subprime lender said that its Executive Chairman Manjit Wolstenholme died on Thursday. Wolstenholme had been appointed to the position in August, with the aim of turning around the troubled lender. Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-set-to-snap-two-week-losing-streak-as-consumer-stocks-buoyant-idUKKBN1DO0Q1'|'2017-11-24T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'4ba537e57b8b46232f47cc15e88aaf7dbac4c360'|'Black Friday violence in Missouri, Alabama; sales draw early shoppers'|'CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stores offered deep discounts, entertainment and free gifts to draw bargain hunters on Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but some shoppers said they were just eyeing goods, reserving their cash for online purchases. A sharp rise in online sales made the overall picture more positive for traditional retailers expanding beyond brick-and-mortar, sending their shares higher. Stores had also carefully managed inventory, hoping to ward off any post-holiday liquidation that would weigh on profits. There was little of the over-the-top frenzy that had been a hallmark of Black Friday in years past, and some stores appeared to be getting creative with gimmicks beyond heavy discounts. But signs pointing to muted in-store sales - fewer cars in mall parking lots, shoppers leaving with no purchases - do not portend a weak holiday season as U.S. consumers are expected to spend more overall, analysts and industry executives said. Black Friday sales were off to a strong start online, at $640 million of 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), according to Adobe Analytics, up 18.4 percent from a year ago. On Thanksgiving Day, U.S. shoppers spent more than $2.87 billion online. Some stores and websites struggle to keep up. Some sites experienced brief outages, including Lowe‘s, H&M and the Gap, according to website performance monitors. And Macy’s Inc customers in states including Texas, Arizona and Illinois took to social media to complain about the retailer’s credit card processing system. The company said payment processing was taking longer than usual in its stores and it was working to fix the problem. The hiccups dragged Macy’s shares 0.6 lower in extended trading. They had ended the regular session up 2.1 percent, boosted by comments from Chief Executive Jeff Gennette, who told CNBC Macy’s was better off this year than last, had robust online demand and was in a good place for holiday promotions. Adobe forecast online Black Friday sales of $5 billion, which would be a record high. Online retailers will rake in an additional $6.6 billion on Cyber Monday, Adobe said. Adobe measures 80 percent of online transactions at the largest 100 U.S. web retailers. Macy’s and J.C. Penney Co Inc had ordered and managed inventory better this time, according to Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resources Group, a consultancy with seven researchers out in the field. “The turnout this morning has been relatively slow but it is still the best we have seen in three years. We expect it to pick up as the day progresses,” Flickinger said, citing improving consumer confidence, a strong job market and healthy housing prices. Some shoppers were lured by the promise of spectacle, while others felt the pull of nostalgia. “It’s like a hangout, it’s an experience,” said Jonathan Lin, 17. “All my friends are back from college and we got together.” ”There’s something nostalgic about being at the stores this early,” Jennifer Stasiak said at Chicago’s popular Oakbrook Center. Miguel Flores, 43, an overnight security guard, visited a Target in Manhattan after his shift ended. “I mostly shop online but decided to drop in because I haven’t been to a store in a long time,” Flores said. J.C. Penney climbed 0.6 percent and Wal-Mart Stores Inc edged higher. Amazon.com Inc closed up 2.6 percent at a record high. Target Corp did not fare as well, with analysts noting that it closed its stores for several hours overnight while many rivals kept their doors open. Its shares fell 2.8 percent. A Black Friday sale sign is displayed outside a makeup store at Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City, New York, U.S., November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE The period between the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas can make or a break a retailer, accounting for as much as 40 percent of annual revenue. More people picked up deals online and the traditional Black Friday rush was split by stores opening the night before. Godiva gave out free chocolates, while Sephora offered face masks and perfumes. Dancers entertained Bergdorf Goodman shoppers, according to the New York Post. The deepest Black Friday discounts included more than $200 off some Best Buy TVs, all bras across Victoria’s Secret Pink stores for $25, half-price video games at Target, and $50 off PlayStation 4 Pro gaming consoles at Wal-Mart. In Pearland, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Derrell Felix, 56, had her eye on a Sharp 50-inch LED flat screen TV for $179, down from its original price of $499. Slideshow (8 Images) “I know they only have 20 of them in there so I’m hoping they have some left by the time I get in,” she said. There were some signs of the chaos for which Black Friday is traditionally known. A false report of gunfire caused shoppers to evacuate the Westland Mall in Hialeah, Florida. Stores reopened less than an hour later, Silvio Pera, a mall security supervisor told Reuters by phone. The Riverchase Galleria outside Birmingham, Alabama, said police broke up a fight on Thursday night between two women who might have been trying to get the same sale item in a store. The mall shut about 15 minutes early. A continued switch to online shopping, led by Amazon, has forced chains such as Toys R Us, apparel retailers True Religion, the Limited, Rue 21 and off-price retailer Payless Shoe Source to file for bankruptcy this year. Despite the explosive online growth, traditional retailers still earn the bulk of their revenue from in-store buys. Shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores can also be easier to tempt with impulse or add-on purchases than online browsers. THURSDAY NIGHT, CYBER MONDAY Amazon began touting its sales for Cyber Monday on Friday and said shoppers using its digital assistant Alexa could score deals on Sunday. Wal-Mart, Target, Macy‘s, J.C. Penney and others opened stores on Thursday evening and most have been offering extended deals online. Some started offering in-store deals earlier this week. Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, was crowded but not chaotic. Shoppers came for deals with nothing specific in mind. Many enjoyed the experience of trying on clothes rather than shopping online. A Macy’s employee at the mall said it was less busy on Friday because the store had been open, and packed, on Thursday. “They’re all online,” said Sarah Jones, 42, an employee at Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island. “I’ve worked in retail my whole life, trust me.” Reporting by Nandita Bose in New York and Richa Naidu in Chicago, additional reporting by Stephanie Brumsey in New York, Renita Young and Jenna Zucker in New Jersey, Nate Raymond in Boston and Bryan Sims in Houston; Writing by Nick Zieminski; Editing by Bill Rigby, Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/black-friday-deals-lure-some-early-u-s-shoppers-many-buy-online-idUSKBN1DO1GY'|'2017-11-24T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'144d77d7ebcd683fd29e8dec9611768c1ee32b99'|'UPDATE 1-Germany''s bond yield curve flattest in more than two months'|'* Germany 30-year Bund yields hit lowest since September* Traders cite strong demand from pension funds* Gap between 30/2-year yield tightest since Sept* Germany sells 30-year debt* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates prices)By Dhara RanasingheLONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The yield curve in Germany, the euro zone’s benchmark government bond issuer, flattened to its lowest level in more than two months on Wednesday, catching up with the pronounced flattening of the U.S. Treasury yield curve over recent sessions.Most high-grade bond yields in the euro zone were unchanged to a touch higher with the exception of Germany’s longest-dated bonds, which stood out as an outperformer.Germany’s 30-year bond yield fell 3 basis points at one stage to its lowest level since early September at 1.108 percent, before settling at 1.13 percent.That pushed the gap over 2-year bond yields briefly to around 182 bps, the lowest since early September, before steadying at around 185 bps.The move follows a flattening in the U.S. Treasury yield curve to its lowest in a decade as investors price in the expectation of higher U.S. interest rates over the short term, but low inflation over the long term.The dynamics driving European and U.S. bond markets differ because of the varying degrees of monetary accommodation.After the European Central Bank extended its asset purchase programme last month and pledged to keep rates at record lows for some time, analysts said, long-term yields were falling faster as investors hunted for returns.They add that strong seasonal demand for long-dated debt from pension funds helps explain the sharp fall in 30-year bond yields this week.“Just a couple of big flows can have a big impact at the moment and there was some evidence yesterday of some insurers buying long-end paper,” said Martin Van Vliet, senior rates strategist at ING.“So, we’ve had some real money accounts buying and front-loading of ECB bond-buying before December and these two things are driving a flatter yield curve.”Thirty-year German bond yields are down around 6 bps this week, according to Reuters data. In contrast, 2, 5- year bond yields have risen marginally and 10-year yields are down just a basis point on the week so far.In the U.S., 30-year bond yields have also seen sharp falls this month, a move analysts say could also be explained by pension fund demand.“30-year bonds have done relatively well versus the rest of the curve,” said Credit Agricole rates strategist Orlando Green. “There is not too much supply coming up in the euro zone, so there is a yield-hunting dynamic in play.”Germany sold 839 million euros of 30-year bonds on Wednesday, while Italy said it bought back bonds for a total of 5.5 billion euros.Lower-rated Italian and Spanish government bonds also outperformed, their 10-year yields dropping 2-3 bps on the day.For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarketsReporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/update-1-germanys-bond-yield-curve-flattest-in-more-than-two-months-idINL8N1NS1RV'|'2017-11-22T05:49:00.000+02:00'
'1098276dd13f4148c6d570afc4188fce39d0fc53'|'Uber says it will cooperate with data breach probes'|' 33 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Uber says it will cooperate with data breach probes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc said on Wednesday that it has been in touch with the U.S. Federal   and several states to discuss a hack last year   “We’ve been in touch with several state Attorney General Offices and the FTC to discuss this issue, and we stand ready to cooperate with them going forward,” an Uber spokesperson said in a emailed statement. (Reporting by Diane Bartz;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-cyberattack-cooperate/uber-says-it-will-cooperate-with-data-breach-probes-idUSL1N1NS1FY'|'2017-11-22T20:32:00.000+02:00'
'7f8e2cdd4c905c1368bb88b2ed6fb17bf1b50da5'|'Airbus CEO questioned in Kazakh deal investigation: reports'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French anti-corruption investigators questioned Airbus ( AIR.PA ) Chief Executive Tom Enders and three other company executives as witnesses in an investigation centered on the sale of satellites to Kazakhstan in 2010, according to media reports on Thursday.Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders speaks during a news conference on the aerospace group''s annual results, in London, Britain February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Enders was interviewed in early October by anti-corruption investigators in Nanterre, close to Paris, as was Chairman Denis Ranque, Mediapart, France Inter and Der Spiegel reported.Authorities are probing an alleged suspect payment linked to the satellite deal, Mediapart reported, adding that Enders and the other executives were not alleged to have any role in it.“We have no comment to make other than that we are fully co-operating with authorities,” a spokesman for Airbus said.Enders is grappling with scrutiny over Airbus’s sales practices after the company uncovered inaccuracies in its filings to U.S. regulators over arms technology sales. That came on top of existing bribery investigations in France and Britain over the use of middlemen in jetliner sales. [nL8N1N60W2]France and Germany each hold 11 percent of Airbus.France’s finance minister said recently that Enders had the confidence of Airbus’s board, while the German government has also rebuffed speculation about Enders’s future.Reporting by Sarah White and Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-ceo-kazakhstan/airbus-ceo-questioned-in-kazakh-deal-investigation-reports-idUSKBN1DN1ID'|'2017-11-23T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'f552b5a5f5cdbf705ebdb1f6df208f08d151c27e'|'Spotlight on RBS in Bank of England stress test'|'Reuters TV United States November 24, 2017 / 12:32 PM / in 2 hours Spotlight on RBS in Bank of England stress test Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will publish stress test results for seven of Britain’s major banks on Tuesday, which will put the spotlight on Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) now the government has revived plans to sell its majority stake. The logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank is seen reflected in the windows of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville RBS failed the stress test a year ago and had to cut costs and sell assets worth 2 billion pounds ($2.66 billion) to plug a capital shortfall. “As in prior years, RBS will be on the watch list,” said Rob Smith, a partner at consultants KPMG. “Whilst we think they will fare better than in the 2016 exercise, it is likely to be a close call. However, it should be noted the positive effect of the improved capital position over 2017 is not reflected in the results,” Smith said. The BoE has said it will consider any steps banks have taken to strengthen their capital positions since the end of 2016 before deciding on any actions they must take. The tests aim to show if banks have strong enough balance sheets to withstand an economic crisis. RBS, along with Barclays ( BARC.L ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Lloyds ( LLOY.L ), Santander UK ( SAN.MC ), Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) and the Nationwide building society must show they would still hold enough capital to avoid a bailout after undergoing theoretical market shocks spanning five years. The shocks include a big drop in the pound and growth, and sharp rises in unemployment and loan defaults. All have a bespoke basic hurdle to pass, but RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered must also leap a higher “systemic” hurdle because they are bigger banks. The banks hold a lot more capital than they did before the financial crisis, but analysts said the test results could still affect their ability to pay dividends given the uncertainties banks face, not least Britain leaving the European Union in 2019. RBS was rescued in the financial crisis with a 45.5 billion pound taxpayer bailout, leaving the government with stake of around 71 percent. Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday the government would reprivatise RBS by selling 15 billion pounds of shares before the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year. Last year’s Brexit vote forced the government to shelve original plans for a sale. RBC Capital Markets analysts said they did not expect RBS to fail. “We do not expect RBS to fail again this year given the progress on clean up at the bank.” They said Barclays might face a bumpy ride in the tests due to higher hurdle rates and higher assumed consumer finance losses. Markets will also be looking at how much detail the BoE releases from its first, parallel “exploratory scenario” test that spans seven years. This assesses how the banks’ business models would cope with a prolonged downturn. There is no pass or fail, but it will help the BoE check whether profits are “sustainable”. KPMG’s Smith said markets also want to know if next year’s test will include the potential for a hard Brexit, or Britain crashing out of the European Union in 2019 without trading arrangements with the bloc. The test results will be published at 0700 GMT on Tuesday, followed by a press conference with BoE Governor Mark Carney. ($1 = 0.7513 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-boe-banks-royal-bank-scot/spotlight-on-rbs-in-bank-of-england-stress-test-idUKKBN1DO1G2'|'2017-11-24T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'b3afecd596fe527d2ff079e2e88dfcc346b5c9fb'|'Alcoa Canada, union resume aluminum smelter contract talks'|'November 23, 2017 / 10:49 PM / in 22 minutes Alcoa Canada, union resume aluminum smelter contract talks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Alcoa Corp and the United Steelworkers have agreed to resume contract talks with a government-appointed conciliator, the union said on Thursday, averting a potential strike at the Becancour, Quebec aluminum smelter. The collective agreement for 1,030 unionized workers expired late Wednesday night, putting workers in a legal strike position. A majority of workers had earlier voted to reject the company’s contract offer and give their union a strike mandate. The contract included a two-tier pension plan that is less favorable to new workers and demanded concessions on seniority rights, the union said. Becancour produces 430,000 metric tonnes of aluminum annually, Alcoa said. Combined with the company’s Deschambault and Baie-Comeau smelters in Quebec, total annual production capacity is nearly 1 million metric tonnes of ingots, plates and billets, Alcoa said. Alcoa owns 74.95 percent of Becancour with Rio Tinto Alcan holding 25.05 percent. (Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Susan Thomas)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alcoa-corp-smelter-canada/alcoa-canada-union-resume-aluminum-smelter-contract-talks-idUSL1N1NT1H3'|'2017-11-24T00:46:00.000+02:00'
'655bcc1dec851155a91e751e0134e44153304772'|'U.S. November auto sales to benefit from Black Friday deals: Edmunds'|'(Reuters) - U.S. auto sales will show a 3.5 percent rise in November from a year earlier with retailers stretching out Black Friday deals for the full month, industry consultant and car shopping website Edmunds said on Wednesday. Cars are shown for sale with financing at a car lot in National City, California, U.S., June 30, 2017. Picture taken June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Edmunds estimated that November U.S. sales would be 1.4 million new cars and trucks, for a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 17.8 million. “It also doesn’t hurt that automakers are starting to really sweeten the deals to clear out lingering 2017s and end this year on a high note,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of industry analysis, in a statement. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos/u-s-november-auto-sales-to-benefit-from-black-friday-deals-edmunds-idUSKBN1DM20M'|'2017-11-22T17:38:00.000+02:00'
'2cd30ef3322ca968d07e6e3276042a3170139f10'|'Britain to hike levy on most polluting diesel cars'|' 29 PM / a few seconds ago Britain to hike levy on most polluting diesel cars Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will increase the amount of taxation paid by those driving diesel cars that do not meet more stringent emissions standards, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday. Britain''s Finance Secretary Philip Hammond leaves Downing Street on his way to deliver his budget statement to parliament, London, Britain, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is paid by British drivers with one rate applying in the first year dependent on emissions levels and a flat rate taking effect from the second year onwards. “From April 2018, the first-year VED rate for diesel cars that don’t meet the latest standards will go up by one band,” Hammond said on Wednesday in his annual budget statement. He said the money would fund a 220-million pound Clean Air Fund to support local plans to improve air quality. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-budget-diesel/britain-to-hike-levy-on-most-polluting-diesel-cars-idUKKBN1DM1LX'|'2017-11-22T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'e097cfbab4f68d33c8da02e4030f8701c02d5288'|'China central bank governor says to strengthen policy coordination nationwide - state media'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:19 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago China central bank governor says to strengthen policy coordination nationwide - state media Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank governor said the nation will strengthen policy coordination between central and local financial regulators, the official People’s Daily reported on Wednesday. China''s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan speaks during a session on the second day of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter The paper published a commentary by Zhou Xiaochuan saying that markets should play a decisive role in financial resources allocation. Reporting by John Ruwitch; Writing by Engen Tham; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-finance-regulation/china-central-bank-governor-says-to-strengthen-policy-coordination-nationwide-state-media-idUKKBN1DM04F'|'2017-11-22T03:18:00.000+02:00'
'3a034b68116d8ccfc13f78a6b9ead4ef19ee3c5c'|'Airbus CEO questioned in Kazakh deal investigation - reports'|'* Airbus: fully co-operating with authorities* Airbus: no further comment to make on matterPARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - French anti-corruption investigators questioned Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders and three other company executives as witnesses in an investigation centred on the sale of satellites to Kazakhstan in 2010, according to media reports on Thursday.Enders was interviewed in early October by anti-corruption investigators in Nanterre, close to Paris, as was Chairman Denis Ranque, Mediapart, France Inter and Der Spiegel reported.Authorities are probing an alleged suspect payment linked to the satellite deal, Mediapart reported, adding that Enders and the other executives were not alleged to have any role in it.“We have no comment to make other than that we are fully co-operating with authorities,” a spokesman for Airbus said.Enders is grappling with scrutiny over Airbus’s sales practices after the company uncovered inaccuracies in its filings to U.S. regulators over arms technology sales. That came on top of existing bribery investigations in France and Britain over the use of middlemen in jetliner sales.France and Germany each hold 11 percent of Airbus.France’s finance minister said recently that Enders had the confidence of Airbus’s board, while the German government has also rebuffed speculation about Enders’s future. (Reporting by Sarah White and Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Adrian Croft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/airbus-ceo-kazakhstan/airbus-ceo-questioned-in-kazakh-deal-investigation-reports-idINL8N1NT3I0'|'2017-11-23T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'f79e51be57633b2513a7e5a28e46e8cc0552cae4'|'European shares slip on Thanksgiving Thursday, Centrica crashes'|'LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - European shares tumbled on Thursday, tracking more timid Wall Street trading as volumes thinned out for the Thanksgiving holiday, with British stocks leading losses as energy firm Centrica plummeted after results.The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.3 percent while euro zone stocks dipped 0.2 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 sank 0.5 percent, weighed down by utilities Centrica and National Grid.Badly-received results from Thyssenkrupp helped drive Germany’s DAX down 0.4 percent.Centrica crashed 16.4 percent in early deals, set for its biggest daily drop ever, after it lost 823,000 or about 6 percent of its energy customers in four months and full-year earnings missed market estimates.Leading European gainers was Altice, jumping 6.4 percent, after a report the debt-ridden French telecoms and cable group was looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic.Its shares are still down nearly 60 percent from the start of the year as funds sold out of the company’s U.S. unit.Euro zone November PMI business surveys were expected at 1000 GMT to give a read on the strength of the bloc’s economy.Credit Suisse strategists predicted the indicators would remain “well within the expansion territory”, supporting their belief cyclical strength is here to stay and will continue to underpin equities into next year.Societe Generale strategists however warned “the eurozone recovery is now a well-known story”, and were less enthusiastic about the potential for equities in the new year, adding that a heavy political agenda in Europe could affect markets.As the earnings season drew near its close, MSCI Europe earnings growth was tracking 10.1 percent in dollar terms while eurozone companies in the MSCI EMU enjoyed 11.1 percent earnings growth.Analysts have been revising down earnings estimates for European companies this quarter as results slightly undershot expectations.Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Georgina Prodhan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-slip-on-thanksgiving-thursday-centrica-crashes-idUSL8N1NT193'|'2017-11-23T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'884c10b2a8df966495ee17f87355f834c408632e'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 23)'|'BRUSSELS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS -- Apollo Capital Management to acquire Dutch toy store chain Intertoys Holdings (approved Nov. 22)-- Private equity firms CVC and Blackstone to jointly acquire online payuments processing provider Paysafe Group (approved Nov. 21)-- German car parts maker Continental Automotive and French industrial group Alstom to jointly acquire a minority stake in driverless car technologies company EasyMile (approved Nov. 21)-- Canadian fund manager CDPQ and U.S. conglomerate GE casubsidiary GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to set up a global aircraft financing joint venture (approved Nov. 19)-- Medical device maker Avantor, which is controlled by private equity firm New Mountain Capital, to acquire laboratory equipment distributor VWR (approved Nov. 17)-- Dutch pension fund APG and property developer Hines Cherrywood Town Centre Associates LLC to set up a joint venture (approved Nov. 17)-- Japanese company Mitsui and Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby to set up a joint venture (approved Nov. 16)NEW LISTINGS -- U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s chip unit (notified Nov. 22/deadline Jan. 5/simplified)-- Private equity firm EQT Fund Management to acquire German energy company G+E Getec Holding (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)-- Spanish energy company Companía Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), which is controlled by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co, to acquire control of Spanish gas company CEPSA Gas Comercializadora (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)-- Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s container terminal operator Hutchison Ports Netherlands B.V. and Dutch stevedoring services provider TMA Holding to acquire joint control of Dutch logistics company TMA Logistics (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firms CVC and Providence to acquire joint control of security services provider Skybox (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private eqyity firm BC Partners to acquire German ceramics maker CeramTec Holding GmbH (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Portuguese bank Banco Popular’s real estate business (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- French petroleum product storage and distribution group Rubis Group and Phillips 66 to acquire joint control of Zeller & Cie (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22)-- German investment group Porsche Digital GmbH, which is a subsidiary of German carmaker Volkswagen, and German publisher Axel Springer to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- French aerospace group Safran to acquire French seats maker Zodiac Aerospace (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)-- French bank Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to jointly acquire French property developer Powerhouse France (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21/simplified)-- Private equity firm CVC to acquire Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ women’s health business (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)-- South African chemicals company Tronox to acquire the titanium dioxide business of Cristal, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20)-- France’s Engie, Omnes Capital and Predica Prevoyance to jointly acquire several wind farms (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20/simplified)-- French property developer Fonciere des Regions and Marriott International to acquire joint control of Le Meridien Hotel in Nice (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline March 15)FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE DEC 1 -- French oil major Total to acquire Danish shipping company Maersk’s oil and gas business(notified Oct. 25/deadline Dec. 1/simplified)DEC 4 -- Austrian energy and petrol station company OMV to acquire 40 percent of electric car charging company Smatrics which is owned by hydropower company Verbund and Germany’s Siemens (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)-- Infrastructure fund DIF and French fund manager Caisse des Depots et Consignations to jointly acquire French broadband network operator ADTIM (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified)DEC 5 -- German travel services provider Der Touristik Deutschland, which is part of German conglomerate REWE , to acquire Czech tourism company Exim (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)-- China’s COSCO Shipping to acquire Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- French car rental company Europcar to acquire Spanish peer Goldcar (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5)-- Private equity firms Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Pimco to jointly acquire a portfolio of properties in Poland (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5/simplified)DEC 6 -- Private equity firm EQT to acquire Dutch dental services group Curaeos Holding (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Deutsche Alternative Asset Management, which is an affiliate of Deutsche Bank, and UK insurer Prudential’s subsidiary M&G Alternatives Investment Management to set up a joint venture (notified Dec. 30/deadline Dec. 6/simplified)-- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6)DEC 7 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline Dec. 7)DEC 8 -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 11/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)-- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)DEC 12 -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified)-- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12)DEC 13 -- French bank Credit Agricole’s Italian unit Cariparma to acquire at least 95 percent of three Italian savings banks Caricesena, Carim and Carismi (notified Nov. 8/deadline Dec. 13/simplified)DEC 15 -- German energy group Innogy and European Energy Exchange (EEX) to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 10/deadline Dec. 15/simplified)DEC 18 -- German glasswear company Carl Zeiss and Deutsche Telekom to develop smart glasses (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Japanese engineering company Chiyoda Corp which is a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Portugal’s Energias de Portugal, energy company Trustwind, which is a unit of a joint venture between France’s Engie and Marubeni Corp, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, and Spanish energy company Repsol to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)-- Australian investment bank MacQuarie and German storage services provider Oiltanking to acquire joint control of petrochemical storage operator Oiltanking Odfjell terminal Singapore (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)DEC 19 -- German car parts supplier ZF subsidiary Zukunft Venture, German bicycle parts maker Gustav Magenwirth, German brakes maker Brake Force One and vehicle driving systems maker Unicorn Energy to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 14/deadline Dec. 19/simplified)MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5)MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8)MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5)MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idUSL8N1NT4OX'|'2017-11-23T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'd8292f5b4887d0b6369e6e70843f3d1bfbb1366e'|'Unilever drafts in search firm to look for new CEO - Sky News'|' 43 PM / Updated an hour ago Unilever drafts in search firm to look for new CEO - Sky News Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Consumer goods maker Unilever NV ( UNc.AS ) ( ULVR.L ) has begun working with executive search firm Egon Zehnder International to help to identify a successor to Chief Executive officer Paul Polman, Sky News reported on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, delivers a speech during the Concordia Summit in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon No date has been set for Polman''s retirement, but he is expected to step down in about 18 months, Sky News said, citing people close to the matter. ( bit.ly/2jiHKBy ) Unilever and Egon Zehnder   the report. Unilever, whose products range from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, currently has a dual structure, with headquarters, boards of directors and stock listings in both Britain and the Netherlands. This is under review in the wake of a rebuffed $143 billion (£107.49 billion) takeover bid from Kraft Heinz Co ( KHC.O ) in February, and the company expects to say by the end of the year whether it will combine into one. Possible internal candidates from the company to succeed Polman could include finance director Graeme Pitkethly, although an extensive international search is likely to be carried out, Sky News said. Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-nv-ceo/unilever-drafts-in-search-firm-to-look-for-new-ceo-sky-news-idUKKBN1DN252'|'2017-11-23T22:42:00.000+02:00'
'4869e538f46150e167d2dcbe73474a3865a199ab'|'P&G reviewing board seat recount; Trian calls it waste of time'|'(Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co ( PG.N ) is still reviewing a tally of shareholder votes cast at its annual meeting more than a month ago, after a fierce proxy contest narrowly handed activist investor Nelson Peltz a board seat. FILE PHOTO - Nelson Peltz founding partner of Trian Fund Management LP. speak at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake The consumer products company said on Wednesday it has not yet decided to launch a formal challenge to the results, which are still preliminary, but is reviewing a count performed by IVS Associates Inc to make sure it is accurate. In response, Peltz’s firm, Trian Fund Management, said it was disappointed that P&G continues to question the outcome, which handed him a victory with a margin of just 0.0016 percent of shares outstanding. “Regardless of how they voted, P&G shareholders should be concerned that P&G has opted to waste further time and shareholder money contesting the official tabulation of the independent Inspector,” Trian said in a statement. Trian asked P&G to reconsider its decision to review and immediately give Peltz a seat on the company’s board. Peltz launched his war against P&G management in July, criticizing the company’s lagging stock price and railing against its “suffocating bureaucracy.” From then through Tuesday’s close, P&G shares have risen 1.9 percent. Immediately after its annual meeting in mid-October, P&G said it had beat Peltz by a slim margin, but IVS’s tally, released a week ago, showed otherwise. P&G, whose brands include Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers disposable diapers, said it was pushing to get a final certified report from the Independent Inspector of Elections as quickly as possible. Typically during such reviews, lawyers from both sides vet the counting process performed by an independent third-party. If the outcome does not go its way, P&G can launch a formal challenge, though it did not say whether it plans to do so. Additional reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Bernard Orr and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-procter-gamble-trian/pg-reviewing-board-seat-recount-trian-calls-it-waste-of-time-idUSKBN1DM1W0'|'2017-11-22T16:59:00.000+02:00'
'923e8eccc985c0e347562ecd5d59ace155340a34'|'Altice seeks up to 3 billion euros for Dominican Republic business - sources'|'November 23, 2017 / 5:14 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Altice seeks up to 3 billion euros for Dominican Republic business - sources Sophie Sassard , Mathieu Rosemain 3 Min Read LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice ( ATCA.AS ) hopes to raise as much as 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from the sale of its Dominican Republic business as it seeks to reduce debt and improve its performance, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday. Altice’s share price has halved since it reported disappointing quarterly results in France earlier this month amid a fiercely competitive market. The group is carrying a hefty 50 billion-euro ($59 billion) debt. Patrick Drahi, the founder and majority owner of Altice fired chief executive Michel Combes and pledged last week the group would shift away from acquisitions towards reducing debt. This week, Altice said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018. Altice’s Dominican Republic telecoms business generated 718 million euros in revenue last year, or 3 percent of the group’s total. The price tag represents a multiple of seven to eight times the adjusted annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), the sources said. The group’s shares rose after the Financial Times reported a potential sale of the asset earlier on Thursday. They closed up 3.85 percent at 7.85 euros. TOWERS SALE Amsterdam-based Altice denied rumours last week that the group might sell shares to raise cash. Instead, sales of non-core assets in Europe, such as some of its telecoms towers, could yield up to 4 billion euros, a senior banker familiar with the situation said at the time. The banker also said that management had yet to decide whether to sell towers country by country or bundle them into a company and float it while retaining a majority stake. The sale of the Dominican Republic business alone might not be sufficient to alleviate concerns raised by credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings, which changed its outlook on Altice’s debt to negative from stable on Thursday. Altice was given a B+ long-term credit rating by S&P, which is four notches below investment grade. “The negative outlook reflects various execution risks that could prevent the group from sustaining its market positions in the core French market, reducing debt, and restoring market confidence,” S&P said in a statement. “We could lower the rating by one notch in the next year if management fails to restore sounder operations in France, such as achieving better customer retention and reducing turnover in senior management, or if it fails to trim absolute debt (...),” it added. Additional reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-altice-m-a/altice-seeks-up-to-3-billion-euros-for-dominican-republic-business-sources-idUKKBN1DN1W3'|'2017-11-23T19:14:00.000+02:00'
'278e0164866b2c437210cbdfe392b63f9cdaed49'|'Cathay Pacific''s pilots plan levy as buffer against action by airline'|'November 23, 2017 / 5:44 AM / in 7 hours Cathay Pacific''s pilots plan levy as buffer against action by airline Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd’s ( 0293.HK ) pilots will vote on whether to raise funds as a buffer against any actions the loss-making Hong Kong airline takes against them such as unilateral benefit changes or job losses, according to the pilot’s union. FILE PHOTO: Pilots look out from the cockpit of a Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350 as the airlines hold a ceremony to mark the first of their 48 Airbus A350 arriving at Hong Kong Airport, Hong Kong, China May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Cathay has warned its pilots about intended cuts to their housing allowances and retirement benefits as it attempts to return to profitability after reporting the worst half-year loss in at least 20 years. The Hong Kong Pilot Aircrew Officers’ Association (HKAOA), in a notice of a meeting issued to members on Thursday and viewed by Reuters, said it proposing a levy of up to HK$500 ($64) a month that each pilot will pay, depending on rank. Cathay has 3,300 pilots globally, two-thirds of whom are members of unions. The HKAOA notice said the levy is meant to prepare members in the case of “industrial escalation”, which is described as action taken by the company. It also aims to provide financial support for any member demoted or dismissed by the airline for carrying out “reasonable action on behalf of the union”. The union and management have been unable to agree on new package terms after four months of talks, according to the union, which said it was concerned the airline would seek to resolve the impasse by unilateral means. “The pilots are concerned about the attacks on their living conditions in Hong Kong,” HKAOA General Secretary Chris Beebe told Reuters by phone. He said the pilots were willing to make some concessions given the company’s weak financial state, but they wanted assurances those would be recoverable once the company’s finances improved. The union’s vote is expected to be held in December with the results out by Dec. 29 at the latest, the day the pilots’ current housing package is due to expire. Cathay said it had been working hard to come to an agreement with the pilots and would continue efforts to reach an agreeable outcome. “We rely on the professionalism of our pilots to maintain the integrity of our operation,” the airline said in a statement. Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cathay-pacific-pilots/cathay-pacifics-pilots-plan-levy-as-buffer-against-action-by-airline-idUSKBN1DN0FC'|'2017-11-23T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'46a16eaffed575338e1a34a276b0d40f65b6b1c7'|'U.S. oil prices ease from two-year highs on oversupply worries'|'November 23, 2017 / 2:00 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Oil prices ease on rising output from U.S. producers Polina Ivanova 3   Oil slipped on Thursday on concerns that rising U.S. output would hamper OPEC’s attempts to tighten supplies, outweighing worries about the shutdown of a major U.S. pipeline. A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude LCOc1 traded at $62.92 per barrel at 1216 GMT, or 40 cents below its last close. U.S. light crude CLc1 was down 16 cents on the day at $57.86, easing back from a two-year high of $58.15 hit on Wednesday following news that TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) Keystone pipeline was shut due to an oil spill. The pipeline carries 590,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Canada to the United States. It is expected to stay shut for several weeks. The boost to prices was short-lived as rising output in the United States has renewed concerns about global oversupply. U.S. output C-OUT-T-EIA has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd, helping turn the United States from the world’s biggest importer to a major exporter. “The U.S. will, without question of doubt, be the biggest oil producer in the world in the next five years. They are producing... at half the cost than they were just two years ago,” said Matt Stanley, fuel broker at Freight Investor Services in Dubai. Climbing U.S. output threatens efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and some other non-OPEC producers to reduce global supplies by limiting their production. “Whatever OPEC will be discussing and ... agreeing upon can be made redundant by the actions of U.S. suppliers, which are likely to hike up production in a similar order,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank. He said another rise of 800,000 to 1 million bpd in U.S. output in 2018 would mean “attempts by OPEC to tighten the market may not be successful.” OPEC meets on Nov. 30 to discuss policy, with Saudi Arabia lobbying for extending cuts that are due to expire in March. Nevertheless, prices continue to find some support from a drawdown in commercial fuel inventories in the United States. U.S. stocks C-STK-T-EIA fell 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, to 457.14 million barrels. Stocks have dropped 15 percent from record highs in March to below 2016 levels. “Lower supplies into the U.S. from the north and robust exports from the south are likely to support a further reduction in U.S. inventories,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-near-two-year-high-on-pipeline-shutdown-falling-inventories-idUKKBN1DN08G'|'2017-11-23T12:25:00.000+02:00'
'ca4570af12416f4a2b6aa81f9c5f6be4e6155fc0'|'China central bank governor says policy coordination to be strengthened nationwide - state media'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:13 AM / in a few seconds China central bank governor says to strengthen policy coordination nationwide: state media Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank governor said the nation will strengthen policy coordination between central and local financial regulators, the official People’s Daily reported on Wednesday. China''s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan speaks during a session on the second day of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter The paper published a commentary by Zhou Xiaochuan saying that markets should play a decisive role in financial resources allocation. The commentary first appeared on the official website of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Nov 4. Reporting by John Ruwitch; Writing by Engen Tham; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-finance-regulation/china-central-bank-governor-says-to-strengthen-policy-coordination-nationwide-state-media-idUKKBN1DM07M'|'2017-11-22T03:59:00.000+02:00'
'b53c7c89d1415cf327df72914803063222be5531'|'U.S. core capital goods fall; business spending momentum strong'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly fell in October after three straight months of hefty gains, but a sustained increase in shipments pointed to robust business investment and economic momentum as the year winds down.The economy’s prospects were bolstered by other data on Wednesday showing a decline in the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits. Strong business investment and tightening labor market conditions will likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates next month.The Commerce Department said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, declined 0.5 percent last month. That was the biggest drop since September 2016 and followed an upwardly revised 2.1 percent increase in September.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders of these so-called core capital goods increasing 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 1.7 percent jump in September. Core capital goods orders rose 4.4 percent on a year-on-year basis.Shipments of core capital goods advanced 0.4 percent last month after accelerating by 1.2 percent in September. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement.Core capital goods shipments have been increasing since February, in part fueled by expectations that President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress will push through hefty corporate tax cuts.Republicans in the House of Representatives last week approved a broad package of tax cuts, including an immediate reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Their colleagues in the Senate are advancing their own tax bill, which would also lower corporate taxes by the same rate but delay the reduction by one year.Prices of U.S. Treasuries rose slightly after the data while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. stock index futures were trading higher.TIGHTENING LABOR MARKET Business spending on equipment has buoyed economic growth for the past four quarters and is expected to make a solid contribution to GDP in the October-December period. The economy grew at a 3.0 percent annualized rate in the third quarter.Strong business spending on equipment is helping to boost manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. Last month, there were increases in orders for machinery, electrical equipment, appliances and components, primary metals and computers and electronic products.Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft meant to last three years or more, fell 1.2 percent last month as demand for transportation equipment tumbled 4.3 percent. Durable goods orders increased 2.2 percent in September.In a separate report on Wednesday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 18, reversing the prior week’s increase.Claims had risen in recent weeks as a backlog of applications from Puerto Rico was processed following repairs to infrastructure damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. A Labor Department official said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands.Last week marked the 142nd straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 1,250 to 239,750 last week.The claims data covered the survey period for the nonfarm payrolls component of November’s employment report. The four-week average of claims fell 8,750 between the October and November survey weeks, suggesting steady job growth this month.Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are not included in the nonfarm payrolls report.The economy created 261,000 jobs in October, a large chunk of which reflected a recovery after workers in Texas and Florida were temporarily displaced by the hurricanes. Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 18,000 in September.Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-core-capital-goods-fall-business-spending-momentum-strong-idINKBN1DM1RW'|'2017-11-22T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'b399c475001ecf97d53cbeb2e089465dff76f389'|'Whitman''s surprise exit stumps Wall Street, shares fall'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Whitman''s surprise exit stumps Wall Street, shares fall Supantha Mukherjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co ( HPE.N ) were down 6 percent in pre-market trading on Wednesday after Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman’s decision to step down from the role took investors by surprise. FILE PHOTO: Meg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo Whitman, one the most high-profile executives in the United States, said on Tuesday she would quit as CEO in February and hand over the reins to company veteran Antonio Neri. After reports surfaced that she was being considered for the top job at Uber, Whitman reinforced her dedication to the role in July by saying that she was fully committed to HPE and planned to remain CEO. "We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber''s CEO will not be Meg Whitman," she had tweeted. ( bit.ly/2jesxl9 ) But her move caught analysts off guard. HPE is in the middle of a restructuring to cut costs, invest in research and focus on high-margin businesses. Its mainstay server business has been struggling as customers increasingly buy non-branded, assembled servers that are much cheaper. “We are surprised by the timing of the CEO transition given commentary at the recent analyst day that seemed to imply a CEO transition was not in the offing,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long said in a research note. Long, however, added that Neri’s experience running the company’s Enterprise Group made him a strong fit for the CEO role. The restructuring, which was announced last month and called HPE Next, was supposed to be led by Neri - a computer engineer who has spent more than two decades with the company and is HPE’s current president. Neri’s appointment is not a surprise given his increased visibility in recent months, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote in a research note. Neri began his career in HP as a customer service engineer in the EMEA call center. He previously led HP’s technology services business and then its server and networking businesses, before taking over the whole Enterprise Group in 2015. Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz and Morgan Stanley’s Huberty expect Neri to shift gears and aggressively develop technology in-house, rather than focus on mergers. Since its split from Hewlett-Packard in late 2105, HPE has spent billions buying companies providing cloud software and data storage to better position itself to serve customers who are moving their operations to the cloud. HPE''s shares have risen 5 percent this year, compared with a 16 percent gain in the S&P 500 index .SPX . Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Sonam Rai; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hpe-ceo-stocks/whitmans-surprise-exit-stumps-wall-street-shares-fall-idUKKBN1DM1S4'|'2017-11-22T16:14:00.000+02:00'
'52a3c484106042a6ce56074f852b50c8d6f2ebfb'|'Gold mining firms set aside 5 billion rand for South Africa silicosis law suit'|'November 22, 2017 / 3:34 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Gold mining firms set aside $360 million for South Africa silicosis law suit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Six gold mining firms, including Anglo American, have made a 5 billion rand ($361 million) provision to settle a class action law suit with thousands of miners who contracted fatal lung diseases while working in South African mines, an industry document said on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, lawyers acting for miners who contracted silicosis and TB said settlement talks with implicated gold companies for an out-of-court deal could be reached by December. Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Joe Brock'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-silicosis-provision/gold-mining-firms-set-aside-360-million-for-south-africa-silicosis-law-suit-idUKKBN1DM1ZV'|'2017-11-22T17:30:00.000+02:00'
'8d735267a0de5c38712ba02146434ec679d32870'|'UPDATE 1-Board of South Africa''s PPC rejects Fairfax offer, AfriSam merger'|'* PPC board says Fairfax offer not fair and reasonable* Talks with CRH and LafargeHolcim continue* PPC shares up more than 2 pct (Adds details, share price, background)By Nqobile DludlaJOHANNESBURG, Nov 22 (Reuters) - South African cement producer PPC’s board on Wednesday turned its back on a takeover attempt by AfriSam, backed by Canadian firm Fairfax Africa Investments, but PCC said it was still talking to Ireland’s CRH and Swiss group LafargeHolcim.PPC has been a takeover target on-and-off for several years, with local-based AfriSam, Nigeria’s Dangote Cement Irish building materials firm CRH and Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim all interested in it.But in a move anticipated by analysts, PPC’s independent board said it had advised Fairfax that it will not be recommending the Canadian company’s partial offer to shareholders and that it will not convene a general meeting to approve the proposed merger by AfriSam.“The Independent Expert ... is of the opinion that the partial offer, both in the context of the proposed merger as well as on a stand-alone basis, is not fair and reasonable,” PPC said in a statement.Fairfax offered to buy 22 percent of PPC in September for 5.75 rand per share, or 2 billion rand ($144 million), on condition that it was approved by shareholders in order to allow AfriSam’s merger plan.PPC, which has operations in six countries across Africa, said the board took into account the cement producer’s own valuation work, forecasts and recent financial and business performance as well as feedback from shareholders.Shares in PPC, which has a market capitalisation of 10.29 billion rand and had net debt of 4.7 billion rand at the end of March, were up 2.47 percent to 6.63 rand by 1248 GMT.It said it will continue its engagements with CRH and LafargeHolcim. ($1 = 13.9172 rand) (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Mark Potter and Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ppc-ma-afrisam-fairfax-africa/update-1-board-of-south-africas-ppc-rejects-fairfax-offer-afrisam-merger-idINL8N1NS3EC'|'2017-11-22T10:19:00.000+02:00'
'b8f952ef69977ab20c0ee5127ca34ff9742a35f2'|'French jobless total edges higher in October despite job creation'|'November 24, 2017 / 5:03 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago French jobless total edges higher in October despite job creation Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s jobless total rose slightly in October, partially reversing a record drop the previous month as a labour market recovery makes choppy progress, Labour Ministry data showed on Friday. People walk past a Pole Emploi office (National Agency for Employment) in Paris October 24, 2013. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann The number of people registered as out of work in mainland France rose by 8,000 last month to 3,483,600, up 0.2 percent both over one month and one year, the ministry said. A gradual improvement in the French economy and faster job creation has so far only translated into a gradual decrease in the number of jobseekers since a peak in October 2015. The improvement is the private sector is also partially masked by an increase in jobless numbers due to the end of a hiring premium for small firms and a reduction in the number of government-subsidised job contracts. Graphic: reut.rs/2A41e7P Economist say that can at least in part explain why official data last week showed that the jobless rate rose to 9.7 percent in the third quarter, from 9.5 percent in the previous three months despite surging business confidence. President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May on pro-business reform platform, has pledged to bring the jobless rate down to 7 percent by the end of his mandate in 2022. Macron’s first big reform was an overhaul of the labour code in September, designed to give companies more freedom to hire and fire in line with their needs, which firms say was long overdue. Though it is still early to gauge the impact of the reform, the number of new jobs registrations with the ACOSS social security fund ticked up in October to a record 686,367, up 0.1 percent over one month and 8.0 percent over one year. A survey by IHS Markit published this week also showed French companies added staff at the fastest pace since 2001 in November. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Michel Rose'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-economy-unemployment/french-jobless-total-edges-higher-in-october-despite-job-creation-idUKKBN1DO23W'|'2017-11-24T19:02:00.000+02:00'
'a43e251d53029cb9666885d5694595a0ec43044f'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Region rises as IPO plan boosts Egypt, Emaar Properties up in Dubai'|'November 23, 2017 / 2:54 PM / in an hour MIDEAST STOCKS-Region rises as IPO plan boosts Egypt, Emaar Properties up in Dubai Reuters Staff * Underwriter announces Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical IPO plan * String of IPOs could attract foreign investors * Volume in Dubai’s Emaar Development shrinks sharply * Qatar the only major market to fall By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Almost all Middle East stock markets rose on Thursday as a plan for an initial public offering (IPO) boosted Egypt while blue-chip Emaar Properties continued to recover in Dubai. Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industry, one of Egypt’s largest drug distributors, plans to raise as much as 1.6 billion Egyptian pounds ($90.7 million) by offering nearly 40 percent of its shares in December, an official at underwriter Beltone Financial said. The regulator has approved the company’s prospectus, the official said. The offer is expected to kick off a series of about half a dozen Egyptian IPOs by the end of next year, which could increase trading volumes and attract foreign investment. The Egyptian index rose 1.9 percent, with real estate developer Palm Hills up 4 percent. El Sewedy Electric jumped 10 percent to a record high of 130.50 pounds in heavy trade after Naeem Research, increasing its earnings forecasts for the company, raised its target price to 130.1 pounds from 77.2 pounds. GB Auto also gained 10 percent. In Dubai, the index climbed 0.5 percent as Emaar Properties added 0.8 percent to 7.86 dirhams, extending a recovery from technical support at 7.60 dirhams. The stock had slipped ahead of Wednesday’s listing of Emaar Development because of concern over the market debut. However, Emaar Development closed at 5.77 dirhams on Wednesday, only moderately lower than its IPO price of 6.03 dirhams. On Thursday it edged down to 5.75 dirhams. Trading volume shrank to 9.6 million shares from Wednesday’s 48.4 million, suggesting demand to exit the stock was not high. Another beaten-down Dubai stock, amusement park operator DXB Entertainments, rebounded 4.7 percent from near record lows in heavy trade. Saudi Arabia’s index gained 0.8 percent as real estate developer Dar Al Arkan, the most heavily traded stock, added 3.6 percent. Home appliance retailer Shaker climbed by 4.7 percent. Qatar was the only major market to fall, with the index losing 0.7 percent. International equity index compiler MSCI said on Wednesday that it might shift to using offshore foreign exchange rates to value Qatar’s equities market because sanctions against Doha had made it more difficult for foreign investors to obtain riyals onshore. The Qatari riyal is significantly weaker offshore than onshore so if it goes ahead, the shift could lead to changes in the weighting of Qatari stocks in MSCI’s emerging market index. Qatar National Bank lost 1.8 percent, though Mesaieed Petrochemical jumped by 6.7 percent. In an effort to reassure foreign investors, Qatar’s central bank issued a statement after the market close to say it is committed to meeting all of their currency requirements at official exchange rates. HIGHLIGHTS * The index rose 0.8 percent to 6,878 points. DUBAI * The index gained 0.5 percent to 3,461 points. ABU DHABI * The index added 0.3 percent to 4,287 points. QATAR * The index dropped 0.7 percent to 7,742 points. EGYPT * The index surged 1.9 percent to 14,106 points. KUWAIT * The index edged up 0.2 percent to 6,239 points. BAHRAIN * The index rose 0.6 percent to 1,277 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-region-rises-as-ipo-plan-boosts-egypt-emaar-properties-up-in-dubai-idUSL8N1NT3YU'|'2017-11-23T16:51:00.000+02:00'
'c3a5f9c63b70c61f453144bb96f548768f06267d'|'Candidate list for Eurogroup head to be published on Dec 1'|'Reuters TV United States November 23, 2017 / 5:31 PM / a few seconds ago Candidate list for Eurogroup head to be published on Dec 1 Jan Strupczewski 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, will announce on Dec. 1 the names of those who applied to succeed him, but there are still no clear front-runners for the election that will happen three days later. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem rings the bell as he chairs an euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal Most ministers would like Dijsselbloem, a 51-year-old straight-talking Dutchman, to stay on beyond the end of his second term on Jan. 13, after five years that have won him praise for competence, negotiating skills and balance. But since losing his job as finance minister after Dutch elections this year, he is no longer eligible. “As for Dijsselbloem staying in his post -- this would be very difficult from a legal point of view,” one EU official said. “If ever considered seriously, it has now been discarded.” The group of European Socialist parties says the post should go, once again, to someone from the center-left, with the top candidates Italy’s Pier Carlo Padoan, Portugal’s Mario Centeno and Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir. Officials said EU Socialists would back Padoan, although his candidacy is weakened by the fact he too may lose his ministerial job after Italian elections early next year and because his country has long been at odds with the EU over fiscal policy and has the second biggest public debt in Europe. Italians also already occupy several top EU jobs, Mario Draghi as head of the European Central Bank, Antonio Tajani leading the European Parliament and Federica Mogherini as the EU’s foreign policy chief. Centeno is seen as competent, but a lightweight contributor to Eurogroup discussions and more an academic than a leader. Kazimir has declared he is interested and has been running a tight fiscal ship, but some say he did not use Slovakia’s EU presidency last year to show leadership and others note his English could improve. CENTER-RIGHT AND LIBERALS Other political groups have been sounding out support for their candidates, although the Socialists insist the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) already holds the vast majority of top EU posts. The EPP has said it would back Austria’s Joerg Schelling, providing he remains finance minister in a new government being formed. “If he stays, I would say that he has the best chances of becoming the Eurogroup chair since the EPP has a relative majority in the Eurogroup,” a second euro zone official said. Latvia’s finance minister, the 36-year-old chess champion and woman grandmaster Dana Reizniece-Ozola, might make a bid, although the extent of support for her is not clear. Belgian finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt has also been sounded out to see if he would run, officials said. Among ministers associated with the liberals, Luxembourg’s Pierre Gramegna has said he could run if he got enough support, although some officials said he was handicapped by his views on EU cooperation on tax matters and some “essential” countries would not back him. France’s Bruno Le Maire appeared to be keen on the job in September and October, but in recent weeks said he had enough work already without EU responsibilities. Each minister has one vote and a ballot cast by the EU’s smallest member Malta counts as much as Germany‘s. Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Paris; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-eurogroup-chairman/candidate-list-for-eurogroup-head-to-be-published-on-dec-1-idUKKBN1DN1XA'|'2017-11-23T19:26:00.000+02:00'
'd56f6f670516fbc97f535879077d04e657de128a'|'Saudis push for nine-month extension of OPEC-led oil cut - sources'|'November 22, 2017 / 12:51 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Saudis push for nine-month extension of OPEC-led oil cut - sources Rania El Gamal , Alex Lawler 4 Min Read DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is lobbying oil ministers to agree next week on a nine-month extension to OPEC-led supply cuts, sources familiar with the matter said, as Riyadh seeks to ensure a price-sapping glut is eradicated. Pump jacks are seen at the Ashalchinskoye oil field owned by Russia''s oil producer Tatneft near Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, non-member Russia and nine other producers are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018, and will discuss extending the deal at a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. Oil LCOc1 prices have risen to almost $65 a barrel, the highest since 2015, supported by lower inventories. However, OPEC is wary prices could fall again since excess supply persists, while a flare-up in Middle Eastern political tensions has also played a part in the rally. “The Saudis are lobbying to have a decision in November for nine months,” said a senior oil industry source with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified. Indications of support for a nine-month extension have come from the very top in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, and Russia, the largest non-OPEC producer involved in the agreement. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman signalled he was supportive of extending the agreement further into 2018, following remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 4 that the deal could be stretched to the end of next year. “The Saudi and Russian leaders have indicated it’s on the cards,” an OPEC source said, referring to the chances of a nine-month extension. “Why would I disagree with them?” OTHER OPTIONS To be sure, the OPEC-led group is also weighing other options. Reuters reported last month, citing OPEC sources, that the producers were leaning towards extending for nine months but could postpone a decision until early next year, given the recent rise in prices. Despite Putin’s comments on a nine-month extension, Russia has been reluctant to give a position publicly. Oil producers and the energy ministry have discussed a six-month prolongation, TASS news agency reported. Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that Russia would determine its position later in November. While there is a chance that a shorter timeframe of six or even three months could be agreed, and that producers may defer a decision, OPEC sources consider this less likely. “There is a 90 percent chance it will be announced in November,” a second OPEC source said. “Yes, for nine months.” Two other OPEC sources also said nine months was the most likely period. The supply pact is aimed at reducing oil stocks in industrialised countries to their five-year average, and the latest figures suggest OPEC is more than halfway there. A fifth OPEC source said a nine-month extension was likely, since part of the recent price rally was driven by factors such as the anti-corruption crackdown in Saudi Arabia and Lebanese tensions, rather than a further tightening of supply. “If the price hike stemming from recent geopolitical developments in the Middle East eases, the likelihood of an extension of the existing agreement for a longer period will increase,” the source said. Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-oil/saudis-push-for-nine-month-extension-of-opec-led-oil-cut-sources-idUKKBN1DM1IC'|'2017-11-22T14:56:00.000+02:00'
'58e5c4bf91b31688fbd0b1fcf02a0b7d9cc3ab9e'|'China''s CEFC, Penta team up for Time Warner''s Central European Media: sources'|'PRAGUE/LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese energy and investment group CEFC has teamed up with Czech-Slovak financial group Penta Investments to try and buy Time Warner’s TVX.N Central European Media Enterprises ( CETV.O ), three sources familiar with the matter said.One of the sources said privately-held CEFC is leading the consortium and is expected to provide the bulk of the financing for any deal to acquire CME, which could be worth about 500 million euros ($590 million). CME has over $1 billion in debt and a market capitalization of $623 million at Tuesday’s close.The Nasdaq-listed television broadcaster and production company operates in six central and eastern European markets, with the Czech Republic and Romania being its biggest profit drivers.Time Warner has a 46.5 percent voting share in CME but on a fully diluted basis the U.S. group has a 75 percent interest in CME, based on warrants exercisable until May 2018.A potential sale has come into prospect since AT&T ( T.N ) agreed to take over Time Warner, agreed in October last year. Several bidders could be interested, including international players, another source said familiar with the matter said.Penta declined to comment. It has already invested in print and online media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.A spokeswoman for CEFC, which has previously bought a Prague office building from Penta and has a range of other Czech investments, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. CEFC had briefly held a stake in another Czech publisher and TV broadcaster, Empresa Media.A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment.But CEFC, a rapidly growing oil and finance conglomerate with assets across the world, may face a challenge to get the deal done following Beijing’s recent clampdown on capital outflows in sectors such as media.LOCAL INTEREST CME shares climbed over 7 percent in Prague on Wednesday and traded up 5.8 percent at 99 crowns at midday.CME has long attracted Czech financial groups’ interest. A fifth source said PPF, the investment group of Czech businessman Petr Kellner, was also looking at potentially buying CME, something Czech media also reported recently.PPF had owned CME’s Czech TV station Nova for two years before selling it in 2004. It owns a majority stake in telecoms firm O2 Czech Republic ( SPTT.PR ) which supplies TV content. PPF declined to comment.Suitors may submit offers around mid-December, according to one of the sources.Any potential CME sale could still hit snags. The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T on Nov. 20 to block its $85.4 billion deal with Time Warner, saying it could raise media content prices for rival pay-TV companies.CME has also been hit by Croatian regulators who have blocked the sale of its Croatian business, which is amongst the assets it had earmarked for sale to help pay down debt.CME has reported rising earnings this year but is still burdened by debt. It posted a 30 percent rise in its core operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) in the third quarter, and expects full-year core profit up as much as 17 percent which would put it $165 million.An acquisition by a Czech company would mark another step in the departure of foreign firms that had dominated the country’s media market for most of its post-Communist history.Ringier, as well as several German publishers and Sweden’s MTG ( MTGb.ST ), have all sold out to local business or financial groups in recent years.($1 = 0.8498 euros)Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong, Pamela Barbaglia in London, Jan Lopatka, Jason Hovet and Robert Muller in Prague, Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Louise Heavens, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-central-euro-m-a/chinas-cefc-penta-team-up-for-time-warners-central-european-media-sources-idINKBN1DM0VC'|'2017-11-22T06:14:00.000+02:00'
'3faa4242fa739b2462024d54f0e609e059a67b1f'|'Britain to sell 15 billion pounds of RBS shares over five years'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will reprivatise bailed-out lender Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) by selling 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) of shares, according to budget documents released on Wednesday, in a boost to finance minister Philip Hammond’s coffers.A worker cleans the glass exterior next to the logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank at a building in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi The government will begin the delayed share sale by selling 3 billion pounds of shares in RBS before the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year and the shares will be sold over five years.The British government pumped 45.5 billion pounds into RBS in the depths of the financial crisis, and efforts since then to recoup the money have been stymied by the bank’s plunging share price, regulatory probes in the United States and Brexit.At the current share price of 270 pence, little more than half the 502 pence the government paid for them, the Treasury stands to lose billions of pounds on the sale.RBS has reported losses of more than 58 billion pounds since 2008 but last month reported a forecast-beating operating profit in the third quarter that lifted its shares.Peter Hahn, professor of banking at the London Institute of Banking and Finance, said the government had decided to start selling its stake because RBS is close to resolving its problems and the government has accepted it is unlikely to get all its money back.“The government bought the shares almost 10 years ago, RBS is a very different bank today, so there is no way it can recoup the money it spent bailing it out,” he said. “This is a realisation from the government it is time to move on.”The sale would represent around two thirds of the government’s 71 percent stake in RBS at current market prices.A spokeswoman for RBS said the bank welcomed the government’s recognition of the bank’s progress.Britain’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the government’s expected losses from rescuing failed banks during the 2007-2009 financial crisis narrowed to 21.8 billion pounds from 23.5 billion pounds in March.The OBR said the government now faces a 26.2 billion pound loss on its stake in RBS, down from a previous forecast of 29.2 billion in March, after a recovery in the value of the bank’s shares.Nevertheless, the proceeds from the share sale will come as a boon to Hammond, who on Wednesday delivered a gloomy budget statement to parliament warning of lower tax revenues. The share sale will help achieve a fall in public sector net debt as a share of GDP.A government plan to sell part of its RBS stake was scrapped last year in the wake of the Brexit vote.Earlier this year, RBS resolved one of the two major obstacles preventing the government selling its stake in the lender.European Union regulators freed RBS from an obligation to sell more than 300 branches, bringing to an end the bank’s seven-year struggle to meet conditions for its bailout.Instead, the regulators accepted a plan for RBS to set up a fund to increase competition in the small-business market.That left as the remaining major legal obstacle a claim by the U.S. Justice Department that the bank, like many of its peers, mis-sold toxic mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis.RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan has said he expects to settle the case this year, although formal talks have not started.McEwan and bank investors alike see resolving the case, which analysts have estimated could lead to a fine of as much as $12 billion, as a prerequisite for the bank being able to exit government ownership.RBS shares fell by 1.25 percent by 1630 GMT, against a 0.4 percent rise in the STOXX European banks index .SX7P.The government also said on Wednesday it expects to sell off the last remaining assets of the failed lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley by 2021.($1 = 0.7540 pounds)editing by Louise Heavens and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-britain-budget-rbs/britain-to-sell-15-billion-pounds-of-rbs-shares-over-five-years-idINKBN1DM1U8'|'2017-11-22T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'08dd31505ba072d1fc9808aae643cf3c297ff5b6'|'Philippine leader gives order to start easing foreign business restrictions'|'November 23, 2017 / 10:25 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Philippine leader gives order to start easing foreign business restrictions Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has instructed government agencies to scrap or start easing barriers that foreigners face in multiple business and employment sectors, part of moves to liberalise an economy long criticised as restrictive. Philippines'' President Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Pasay, metro Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao The directive, made public on Thursday, said the aim was to pursue stronger economic growth, create fairness and to enable partnerships to develop. Duterte’s directive ordered government agencies to “take immediate steps to lift or ease restrictions on foreign participation”, including those that will require new legislation. The directive specified eight areas or activities where changes will be made, including construction and repairs for government-funded projects, private recruitment for both domestic and overseas employment, teaching at higher education levels, as well as processing and “trading except retailing” of rice and corn. Some of the eight are broad and open to interpretation, such as retail trade enterprises, domestic market enterprises and public services other than those recognised as utilities. There remains some debate in the Philippines about what is considered a utility. The directive, dated Nov. 21, also called for openness in “particular professions where allowing foreign participation will redound to public benefit”. For several years, the Philippines has been posting some of Asia’s fastest rates of growth> Its third-quarter expansion of 6.9 percent from a year earlier beat forecasts. The government is targeting annual growth this year of 6.5-7.5 percent, propped up by higher state spending and stronger exports and agriculture output. But investors have lamented the obstacles to foreign firms, many because of archaic laws that limit foreign participation, some of which require time-consuming legislative amendments. Foreign direct investment into the Philippines is dwarfed by that of rivals such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, something the government is eager to change by slashing red tape and launching an ambitious, six-year, $180-billion, “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure splurge, which would modernise airports, roads, railways and ports. Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-philippines-economy-restrictions/philippine-leader-gives-order-to-start-easing-foreign-business-restrictions-idUKKBN1DN0WU'|'2017-11-23T12:24:00.000+02:00'
'61db8ed3f3bf4e69cfb974947f5c139f8a91b7f0'|'Shipping tycoon Fredriksen raises stake in debt collector Axactor, shares rise'|'OSLO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Shipping and seafood billionaire John Fredriksen consolidated his position as the top shareholder in debt collector Axactor by buying more stock in the firm on Thursday, lifting the firm’s share price.Through his family firm Geveran Trading, Fredriksen acquired 22.9 million shares in Axactor at a price of 2.65 crowns per share. Following the deal, Geveran will own 11.47 percent of the stock and remain the company’s top shareholder, up from 9.96 percent.Fredriksen’s business empire range from transporting oil with Frontline, dry bulk with Golden Ocean to salmon farming with Marine Harvest, among other interests.Shares in Axactor jumped on the news as much as much as six percent before retreating somewhat and closed up 2.6 percent at 2.75 crowns on the Oslo bourse.In addition to its shareholding, Geveran also holds warrants equal to 130 million shares exchangeable at 3.25 crowns per share until October 24 in 2019. If these were exercised, Geveran would own 20.04 percent of Axactor. (Reporting By Ole Petter Skonnord, editing by Gwladys Fouche) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/norway-axactor-fredriksen/shipping-tycoon-fredriksen-raises-stake-in-debt-collector-axactor-shares-rise-idINL8N1NT48F'|'2017-11-23T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'00216f10e629fd20cf0279ff14899af5b5d57fd3'|'German stocks - Factors to watch on November 23'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The following are some of the factors that may move German stocks on Thursday:BAYER Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade could extend by as up to 90 days its analysis of the takeover of seeds company Monsanto Co. by Bayer, according to a regulatory filing posted on the watchdog’s website on Wednesday.SAP Europe’s largest technology company, which last month said its South African sales commissions were being probed by U.S. regulators, has launched an investigation into its business practices in the Gulf region, it said on Wednesday.SIEMENS The chairman of the IG Metall labor Union said he didn’t want to merely accpet plant closures at Siemens and “would make considerable noise”, though he stopped short of calling for strikes, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday.THYSSENKRUPP German engineering and steel group Thyssenkrupp reported a 30-percent rise in full-year operating profit, helped by a strong performance at its steel and materials distribution units.TALANX Capital Markets Day due.DEUTSCHE BETEILIGUNGS AG Q4 results due.KWS SAAT Q1 results due.ANALYSTS’ VIEWSMunich Re - SocGen raises to buy from hold, ups target price to EUR 215 from EUR 180Salzgitter AG - Deutsche Bank cuts to hold from buyUnited Internet AG - Deutsche Bank raises price target to 65 euros from 64 euros; rating buyOVERSEAS STOCK MARKETS Dow Jones -0.3 pct, S&P 500 -0.1 pct, Nasdaq +0.1 pct at close.Japanese markets closed, Shanghai stocks -1.2 pct.Time: 6.16 GMT.GERMAN ECONOMIC DATA German detailed Q3 GDP due at 0700 GMT. Seen +0.8 pct q/q, +2.6 pct y/y.German November Markit flash PMI due at 0830 GMT. Manufacturing PMI seen at 60.4 points vs 60.6, Services PMI at 55.0 vs 54.7, Composite at 56.7 vs 56.6.EUROPEAN FACTORS TO WATCH DIARIES REUTERS TOP NEWS ($1 = 0.8506 euros) (Reporting by Tom Sims and Douglas Busvine) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-stocks-factors/german-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-november-23-idINL8N1NS189'|'2017-11-23T03:21:00.000+02:00'
'730ee1262ed970701d9bd9b504ac567c08ec1888'|'European shares slip on Thanksgiving Thursday, Centrica crashes'|'November 23, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago European shares slip on Thanksgiving Thursday, Centrica crashes Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares tumbled on Thursday, tracking more timid Wall Street trading as volumes thinned out for the Thanksgiving holiday, with British stocks leading losses as energy firm Centrica plummeted after results. Traders work at their desks at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.3 percent while euro zone stocks .STOXXE dipped 0.2 percent. Britain''s FTSE 100 .FTSE sank 0.5 percent, weighed down by utilities Centrica ( CNA.L ) and National Grid ( NG.L ). Badly-received results from Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) helped drive Germany’s DAX down 0.4 percent. Centrica crashed 16.4 percent in early deals, set for its biggest daily drop ever, after it lost 823,000 or about 6 percent of its energy customers in four months and full-year earnings missed market estimates. Leading European gainers was Altice ( ATCA.AS ), jumping 6.4 percent, after a report the debt-ridden French telecoms and cable group was looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic. Its shares are still down nearly 60 percent from the start of the year as funds sold out of the company’s U.S. unit. Euro zone November PMI business surveys were expected at 1000 GMT to give a read on the strength of the bloc’s economy. Credit Suisse strategists predicted the indicators would remain “well within the expansion territory”, supporting their belief cyclical strength is here to stay and will continue to underpin equities into next year. Societe Generale strategists however warned “the eurozone recovery is now a well-known story”, and were less enthusiastic about the potential for equities in the new year, adding that a heavy political agenda in Europe could affect markets. As the earnings season drew near its close, MSCI Europe earnings growth was tracking 10.1 percent in dollar terms while eurozone companies in the MSCI EMU enjoyed 11.1 percent earnings growth. Analysts have been revising down earnings estimates for European companies this quarter as results slightly undershot expectations. Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-slip-on-thanksgiving-thursday-centrica-crashes-idUKKBN1DN0Q3'|'2017-11-23T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'b24fcff04e36e299cb25c5976ad985e9206806c9'|'Sasol pulls plug on $13-$15 bln US GTL project, to divest from Canadian shale'|' 13 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Sasol pulls plug on $13-$15 bln US GTL project, to divest from Canadian shale Reuters Staff * Sasol walks away from GTL projects * Louisiana project would have cost $13 to $15 bln * $11 billion chemical project forges ahead * Company plans to divest from Canadian shale assets By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - South African petrol-chemicals group Sasol has pulled the plug on all of its gas-to-liquids (GTL) greenfields projects including a U.S. one in Louisiana that carried a $13 billion to $15 billion price tag, the company said on Thursday. Walking away from the project, which would have been the biggest investment abroad by a South African company, underscores the headwinds the industry is facing in a volatile market with generally depressed prices. “While our current GTL assets are generating good returns and cash flows, the value proposition for Sasol to build new GTL projects is uneconomic against a volatile external environment and structural shift to a low oil price environment,” the company said in a statement. The company had previously delayed its final investment decision on the project because of low oil and gas prices. Sasol will also divest from its Canadian shale gas assets which hit its 2016 earnings with a 9.9 billion rand ($715 million) impairment. “There will likely be further write-downs on it,” Bongani Nqwababa, Sasol joint CEO and president, told Reuters. He cited prices and accounting requirements related to the pending sale as the main reasons. But the company is forging ahead with its Louisiana ethane cracker project, which is now estimated to cost $11.13 billion to complete and will be the biggest foreign investment by a South African group. It is now 79 percent complete. The plant will take ethane, a component of natural gas, and turn it into ethylene, used in the manufacture of plastic products. Sasol said it had completed reviews on more that half of its global assets and they “have confirmed that the majority of the company’s assets will be retained.” The company, which pioneered the conversion of coal to fuel when South Africa was subject to sanctions under apartheid, also said it saw no need to boost its crude oil refining capacity, which currently stands at 270,000 barrels per day in South Africa. On the dividend front, the company is aiming to boost its payout ratio to 40 percent of earnings per share by 2022 from 36 percent currently, and then to progressively lift it to 45 percent. $1 = 13.8630 rand Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sasol-strategy/sasol-pulls-plug-on-13-15-bln-us-gtl-project-to-divest-from-canadian-shale-idUSL8N1NS5WI'|'2017-11-23T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'0d3b048aec0be7b3cabdccafa450d4fafedeeb83'|'Amazon starts Australian trial after months of hype'|' 10 AM / a few seconds ago Amazon starts Australian trial after months of hype Byron Kaye 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) Australian arm began an order-taking trial on Thursday, giving life to the hype which has preceded its arrival in the world’s No. 12 economy and weighed on the shares of the brick-and-mortar retail sector. FILE PHOTO: A web page featuring Amazon''s Australian URL is pictured in this photo illustration in a Sydney office, Australia, April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed/Illustration Photo/File Photo The trial kicked off at 3 p.m. (0400 GMT) with the Amazon Australia website’s search box filling in product names automatically. A representative for Amazon, which has never given a start date for Australia, declined to comment. “It’s obviously working because auto-population is there,” said Liz Cassidy, founder of Amazon-registered beauty products retailer Third Sigma. Cassidy, who already sells product overseas via Amazon, said she had made no Australian sales in the first hour, but noted that the trial involved a limited number of shoppers. Australia has long had Amazon-registered sellers but they have been limited to sending goods offshore as Amazon had no warehouse in the country. Until now, Australians have had to wait long periods and pay sizable shipping costs for deliveries. While online vendors are excited about the opportunities, Australia’s more traditional shopkeepers have faced pressure to convince investors they can compete against the U.S. giant since it confirmed its plans for Australia in April. Shares of Harvey Norman, Australia’s biggest electronics retailer, are down 9 percent since April 17, the day before Amazon said it was coming to Australia. Shares of Australia’s biggest department store chain Myer Holdings Ltd ( MYR.AX ) are down 39 percent. “It’s not as if the majority of retailers in Australia are making a fortune and growing their businesses,” said Gerry Harvey, executive chairman of Harvey Norman. “If you’re in clothes and shoes and handbags, you can’t take a lot more pressure.” Amazon set up its warehouse in Australia’s second-biggest city of Melbourne, on the east coast where four-fifths of the country’s 24 million people live. Shoppers will watch delivery times closely with Christmas just around the corner. “It will be really interesting to see whether it lives up to the hype,” said Tim McKinnon, the Australian managing director for eBay Inc ( EBAY.O ), an Amazon competitor. Some shoppers took to social media to voice frustration that the Amazon Australia website had not begun taking orders publicly. Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-australia/amazon-starts-australian-trial-after-months-of-hype-idUKKBN1DN0JK'|'2017-11-23T08:58:00.000+02:00'
'38ef12d9f214411981a1e07754be38cf15284407'|'EY says cooperating with authorities in Italy probe'|'November 23, 2017 / 6:44 PM / in 11 minutes EY says cooperating with authorities in Italy probe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Accounting firm EY said on Thursday it was cooperating with Milan magistrates in an investigation into whether one of its former employees in Italy had sold it confidential government information. “On Nov. 21 we became aware of the investigation targeting EY in Italy. We are examining it carefully and seriously and we are fully cooperating with the judiciary,” EY said in a statement, adding it was not in a position to comment further. Italian magistrates suspect that Susanna Masi, a Treasury official and former EY employee, was paid some 220,000 euros (£195,913.74) between 2013-2015 in return for sensitive material, judicial sources involved in the case said on Wednesday. The sources said the confidential material included information on planned tax reforms which could have given EY -- previously known as Ernst & Young -- an unfair advantage over its rivals. Masi’s lawyer, Giorgio Perroni, has denied any wrongdoing by his client. Reporting by Silvia Aloisi Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-investigation-ernst-young/ey-says-cooperating-with-authorities-in-italy-probe-idUKKBN1DN21L'|'2017-11-23T20:43:00.000+02:00'
'7aa96e5e8c85704caacb57c49be8eb42c1b35f5d'|'Saudi Arabia agrees to buy $7 billion in precision munitions from U.S. firms -sources'|'(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy about $7 billion worth of precision guided munitions from U.S. defense contractors, sources familiar with the matter said, a deal that some lawmakers may object to over American weapons having contributed to civilian deaths in the Saudi campaign in Yemen.Logo of the U.S. defense company Raytheon is pictured at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Raytheon Co ( RTN.N ) and Boeing Co ( BA.N ) are the companies selected, the sources said, in a deal that was part of a $110 billion weapons agreement that coincided with President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May.Both companies declined comment on the weapons sale.Arms sales to the kingdom and other Gulf Cooperation Council member states have become increasingly contentious in the U.S. Congress, which must approve such sales.The U.S. State Department has yet to formally notify Congress of the precision guided munitions deal.“We do not comment to confirm or deny sales until they are formally notified to Congress,” a State Department official said, adding the U.S. government will take into account factors “including regional balance and human rights as well as the impact on the U.S. defense industrial base.”The Yemen civil war pits Iran-allied Houthi rebels against the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Nearly 4,800 civilians have been killed since March 2015, the United Nations said in March.Saudi Arabia has either denied attacks or cited the presence of fighters in the targeted areas and has said it has tried to reduce civilian casualties.Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington, Prince Khalid bin Salman declined to comment on the specific sale, but said in a statement his country will follow through on the agreements signed during Trump’s visit.He said that while the kingdom has always chosen the United States for weapons purchases, “... Saudi Arabia’s market selection remains a choice and is committed to defending its security.”Trump, a Republican who views weapons sales as a way to create jobs in the United States, has announced billions of dollars in arms sales since taking office in January.A U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the agreement is designed to cover a 10-year period and it could be years before actual transfers of weapons take place.The agreement could be held up in Congress, where Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in June that he would block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the GCC, over a dispute with Qatar, another U.S. ally in the Gulf.In November 2016, the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, halted the sale of $1.29 billion worth of precision guided weapons because of concerns about the extent of civilian casualties in Yemen.That sale process started in 2015 and included more than 8,000 Laser Guided Bombs for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The package also included more than 10,000 general purpose bombs, and more than 5,000 tail kits used to inexpensively convert “dumb” bombs into laser or GPS-guided weapons.U.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. The coalition had briefly banned naval, air and land transportation to Yemen following a missile fired by the Houthis that was shot down over the Saudi capital Riyadh.The Senate in June voted 53 to 47 to narrowly defeat legislation that sought to block portions of the 2015 package.David Des Roches, a senior military fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies in Washington was aware of the deal but said the Saudis “are one errant strike away from moving five or six senators over to the other side.”Denying Saudi Arabia precision guided munitions was unlikely to change their behavior, he said.“Saudi Arabia has shown they will fight in Yemen and they’re going to keep on fighting in Yemen regardless of what we think,” Des Roches said.Reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Mike Stone; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-raytheon-saudi-munitions/saudi-arabia-agrees-to-buy-7-billion-in-precision-munitions-from-u-s-firms-sources-idUSKBN1DM2XC'|'2017-11-23T01:08:00.000+02:00'
'15c1ef633bed39e2ce594277723833febf738f3b'|'Exclusive: India pares back planned funding for crucial public health scheme'|'November 23, 2017 / 4:15 AM / Updated 14 hours ago Exclusive: India pares back planned funding for crucial public health scheme Aditya Kalra , Tommy Wilkes 6 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has approved a three-year budget for its flagship public health programme almost 20 percent lower than what the health ministry said was needed, according to sources and previously unreported government documents reviewed by Reuters. An ambulance arrives as people stand at the entrance of the emergency department of a government-run hospital in New Delhi, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Saumya Khandelwal The federal finance ministry in August renewed the National Health Mission with $20 billion of funding between 2017-20, against the health ministry’s estimated requirement of $25 billion, the documents showed. Officials familiar with the plan said the finance ministry reduced planned funding because of other spending priorities and because of state governments’ poor track record of spending the health budgets they’ve been allotted in the past. The finance and health ministries did not respond to several requests for comment. The National Health Mission is one of the world’s largest health programmes and forms the backbone of public services in India. It provides everything from free drugs to immunization services to millions of rural poor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has hiked federal funding for the overall health budget this year as part of a plan to improve care and meet a 2025 goal of raising health expenditure to 2.5 percent of GDP from the current 1.15 percent. The National Health Mission typically accounts for about half of the federal health budget and officials said the lower spending approval would make achieving the government’s 2025 target more difficult. NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES After focusing on maternal and child health for years, the programme had planned to broaden its priorities to tackle the rising threat of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Faced with the lower funding, the health ministry has reduced its three-year allocation to tackle NCDs such as cancer and diabetes to $1.4 billion, close to half of the estimated need of $2.4 billion, the documents showed. The Lancet, a British medical journal, last week said NCDs caused a disease burden in India “like never before”. More than 60 percent of deaths in the country during 2016 were due to non-communicable diseases, up from about 38 percent in 1990, according to the publication. While funding for such diseases up to 2020 will be higher than in recent years, the lower-than-planned approved funding will slow government efforts to tackle these diseases, two government officials said. “The cutbacks in NCDs (spending) are dangerous ... this can potentially stall the NCD screening and management plan,” said Oommen C. Kurian, a health researcher at the New Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation. India this year introduced free NCD screening for patients in 100 districts, with plans to eventually cover the country. Patients and their attendants wait outside the Out Patient Department (OPD) at a government-run hospital in New Delhi, India, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Saumya Khandelwal Beyond non-communicable diseases, spending on strengthening the health system - such as improving district hospitals and patient transport services - will be an estimated $4.3 billion between 2017-20, a third lower than the ministry’s request. Planned funding for immunization will be $2.9 billion versus $3.2 billion requested. The spending breakdown for different schemes will be finalised once the health ministry is allocated funding in India’s annual budget. HEALTH VS OTHER PRIORITIES Modi’s government has taken steps to improve public healthcare including a 27 percent budget hike this year to $7 billion, accompanied by cuts to prices of critical medical devices and drugs. Shamika Ravi, a health expert at Brookings India, said Modi’s government was also pursuing “fundamental structural reforms” to improve healthcare, such as the ranking of district hospitals and empowering state medical officers. “There is a lot of background work happening,” said Ravi, who is also on Modi’s economic advisory council. However, critics say more needs to be done to address the underfunded and overburdened public health system. Some 900,000 children in India died before turning five in 2016, the highest in the world, The Lancet estimates. In March, health officials faced criticism from other government departments for the National Health Mission''s inefficiencies and were asked to rework the renewal proposal for 2017-20 after they drew up spending estimates of $33 billion. (For story click here ) The health ministry revised the cost to nearly $25 billion, but the finance ministry reduced estimates by another $5 billion while approving the plan, the documents showed. The estimates were pared back because Modi’s government has other priorities and because the finance ministry wants to control spending as it seeks to balance fiscal deficit targets while boosting growth, several government officials aware of the process said. “It’s about political priorities - you have programmes on roads, on infrastructure, on ports,” said one of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The government is also concerned states do not have the governance capacity to spend large health budgets efficiently, officials said. A shortage of workers, bureaucratic bungling and slow procurement processes have plagued the states’ health systems. More than $1.4 billion in health budgets was unspent by states by 2015-16, India’s federal auditor said earlier this year. Editing by Tom Lasseter and Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-national-health-mission-funding/exclusive-india-pares-back-planned-funding-for-crucial-public-health-scheme-idINKBN1DN0CO'|'2017-11-23T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'525d6d8ffc16d60e901662dcf37e28fc359bd0b7'|'Zimbabwe bourse loses $6 billion, index falls 40 percent after military takeover'|'HARARE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s stock market has shed $6 billion while its main index has slumped 40 percent since last Wednesday when the military seized power leading to the fall of Robert Mugabe, data from the local exchange showed on Thursday.The main industrial index was at 315.12 points compared with 527.27 points on Wednesday last week when the military announced its takeover and put former president Mugabe under house arrest. On Thursday the index fell 4.4 percent. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/zimbabwe-politics-stocks/zimbabwe-bourse-loses-6-billion-index-falls-40-percent-after-military-takeover-idUSJ8N1L3004'|'2017-11-23T18:12:00.000+02:00'
'9250b2d6e4777057f7f2b3f1b40149ad4a559842'|'May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:21 AM / a few seconds ago May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May repeated her wish on Friday to make a joint move with the European Union to open negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal. FILE PHOTO - Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May addresses a news conference during an European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Speaking to reporters on arrival at a Brussels summit with ex-Soviet states, she said she would talk to EU summit chair Donald Tusk later in the day about “positive negotiations we’re having, looking ahead to the future deep and special partnership that I want with the European Union”. “What I‘m clear about is that we must step forward together,” she added. “This is for both the UK and for the European Union to move on to the next stage.” The EU wants May to improve her financial and other offers before opening trade talks. May has said she wants guarantees of trade talks before making a new offer. Reporting by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-may-together/may-wants-eu-uk-to-move-together-to-brexit-trade-talks-idUSKBN1DO0PP'|'2017-11-24T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'321d96f3d6d0e55d8a1cdffeeaab9e069cd1331b'|'Europe''s retailers chase sales boost with Black Friday offers'|'November 24, 2017 / 9:40 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Europe''s retailers tempt shoppers with Black Friday deals James Davey 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Retailers across Europe chased shoppers on “Black Friday” in a test of consumer demand, particularly in Britain, where the spending spree imported from the U.S. looked set to outdo last year. After last month suffering their biggest decline in sales volumes for four-and-a-half years, British retailers are pinning their hopes on discounts to get shoppers squeezed by inflation and subdued wage growth spending again. In Britain, the annual promotional event, traditionally focused on electrical goods, has been mainly played out online since 2014, when in-store sales were marred by scuffles. The jury remains out on whether retailers make money by cutting prices in an event that was imported to Britain from the United States by online retailer Amazon in 2010. By 3 p.m., Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of UK debit and credit card transactions, had seen an 8 percent increase in spending compared to last year, and a 32 percent increase in transactions. “Consumers may be opting to buy more goods at a lower price rather than investing in a handful of higher-value items,” said Barclaycard’s Paulette Rowe. Department store John Lewis [JLP.UL] said its busiest shopping hour had been 9-10 a.m., with an average 705 items ordered per minute. “It will be our busiest trading day of the year,” John Rogers, chief executive of electricals-to-toys retailer Argos, owned by Britain’s second biggest retailer Sainsbury‘s, told Reuters. The research firm GlobalData forecasts that UK spending in the period Nov. 20 to 27 - will be up 3.8 percent from last year at 10.1 billion pounds. PROFITABLE OR DAMAGING? Black Friday’s advocates say carefully planned promotions with global suppliers boost sales while still maintaining margins. Critics say the discounts drag forward sales that retailers would otherwise have made at full price at Christmas, and can dampen business in subsequent weeks. Pedestrians walk past a sign in a store window on Oxford Street on ''Black Friday'' in London, Britain November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Seb James, CEO of Dixons Carphone, told BBC radio that his company gained market share from Black Friday. As last year, retailers including Britain’s biggest, Tesco, and Amazon are stretching their promotions over up to two weeks, hoping to smooth out demand and reduce pressure on supply and distribution networks. Clothing retailer Next joined Black Friday for the first time with price cuts of up to 70 percent. A spokesman for the firm said it was an experiment to see what effect offering discounts on the previous season’s stock, normally sold in the Boxing Day sale, would have on full-price sales. “Categorically we have not got a stock problem,” said the spokesman. Shares in Next fell up to 1.7 percent. Slideshow (3 Images) CONTINENTAL IMPACT Black Friday, the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, was so named because spending would surge and often push retailers into the black for the year. Its impact is also being felt across Europe. In Germany, sales promotions on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Nov. 27) are expected to add around 1.7 billion euros (£1.5 billion) to retailers’ revenues, roughly on a par with 2016, a survey by trade body HDE found. About 8 million French consumers are expected to shop from Friday to Monday, yielding expected revenue of 945 million euros, according to a study by Kantar TNS for the U.S e-commerce firm eBay. In Denmark, supermarket chains Bilka and Fotex said their websites had been taken down by cyber attacks at the launch of their Black Friday campaigns. The sales promotion has also been growing in Italy, where all major retail chains were advertising discounts. The department store La Rinascente was opening until midnight on Friday and advertising discounts of up to 50 percent. But Black Friday has had a slow pick-up amongst Spaniards, who traditionally exchange presents on Epiphany (Jan. 6). Just 22 percent intended to make a purchase on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, according to a survey by Metroscopia for the newspaper El Pais. It was more subdued in Greece, where the economy contracted by more than a quarter between 2008 and 2016. “People don’t have money to spend,” said 32-year-old Athens shopper George Christopoulos. Additional reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt, Matthias Blamont in Paris, Valentina Za in Milan, Sonya Dowsett in Madrid, Lefteris Papadimas in Athens and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; editing by Alexander Smith and Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-retail-black-friday/europes-retailers-chase-sales-boost-with-black-friday-offers-idUKKBN1DO0X9'|'2017-11-24T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'535cb5eb1afb0aca3af676f1eeb4266f794f33a3'|'Insurer Aviva India turns to state-run banks on recapitalisation plan boost'|' 37 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Insurer Aviva India turns to state-run banks on recapitalisation plan boost Abhirup Roy , Devidutta Tripathy 3 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Aviva Plc’s ( AV.L ) India life insurance joint venture is raising its exposure to the country’s state-run banks as it bets the government’s $32 billion (24.1 billion pounds) plan to rescue lenders burdened with record bad loans will boost their prospects. FILE PHOTO - Pedestrians walk past an Aviva logo outside the company''s head office in the city of London March 5, 2009. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/File Photo The insurer also likes metals stocks and consumption-driven sectors, especially those that target rural consumers, but would avoid the non-bank finance companies, Prashant Sharma, chief investment officer at Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd, told Reuters. The 21 public-sector undertaking (PSU) banks, which are majority owned by the government and likely beneficiaries of the recapitalisation, account for more than two-thirds of India’s banking assets. They also have bulk of the country’s record $147 billion soured loans. The banks are less profitable compared with their nimbler private sector rivals and were largely not favoured by investors until the recapitalisation plan was announced. The recapitalisation triggered a rally in the state-run bank stocks, although that has since cooled as investors await clarity on the impact of the fund injections, much of which will be via recapitalisation bonds. “Some of the money has actually come out of the more expensive private banks to some of the PSU banks, the larger PSU banks which, after the recapitalisation, would be quite healthy,” said Sharma, who oversees management of about $1.5 billion of Aviva India’s assets in debt and equity. “I think the recapitalisation provides them with the necessary fuel to start growing again.” Sharma said he still liked private sector banks, but their expensive valuations meant he had to be selective. The insurer is “significantly underweight” on non-bank finance companies (NBFCs) due to “rich” valuations and because the tailwinds that helped grow the financiers in the past years may be “coming to an end”, Sharma said. Other sectors on the insurer’s radar were commodities and oil and gas. Given its cyclical nature, it would be difficult to have a long-term position on the metals sector, Sharma said, although it looked attractive on a one-year to 1-1/2-year view. “Thanks to China supply (side) reforms, commodity prices globally have bounced back from very low levels and with this kind of commodity price level, Indian metal companies are likely to do well for the next couple of years at least,” he said, adding oil and gas was another sector the insurer was positive on. Having hit a string of record highs this year, Indian stocks may be due for some correction, but that would be “healthy” and corporate earnings should start recovering now, Sharma said. India''s broader NSE index .NSEI is up around 27 percent so far this year. Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aviva-gb-india-investment/insurer-aviva-india-turns-to-state-run-banks-on-recapitalisation-plan-boost-idUKKBN1DN0MD'|'2017-11-23T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'4ad5dc47a51ccb632614968768dd987db7de0a73'|'Lyft raises another $500 million in additional round of funding'|'(Reuters) - Uber rival Lyft Inc is raising an additional $500 million in funding, according to a U.S. share authorization document filed in Delaware news website Axios said. ( bit.ly/2BhebbU )The additional funding round, led by Alphabet Inc’s CapitalG, is an extension of the $1 billion round announced in October.Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin, confirming the funding round, in an e-mailed statement said, “Increasing the potential for this round will allow us to further accelerate our commitment to serving passengers and drivers.”In October Lyft had said that the previous round of funding boosted its valuation to $11 billion from $7.5 billion. The fresh funding would raise its valuation to $11.5 billion.Reporting by Sangameswaran S in BengaluruEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-ipo-investors/lyft-raises-another-500-million-in-additional-round-of-funding-idUSKBN1DN112'|'2017-11-23T19:06:00.000+02:00'
'e29810f1dde5a75ef92f099af073fa473dba623b'|'Gold inches down amid Fed inflation concerns'|'(Reuters) - Gold prices nudged lower on Thursday, with investors taking profits after gains of nearly 1 percent in the previous session on weaker U.S. economic data and concerns among some Federal Reserve policymakers over lower inflation.FILE PHOTO - A sales person shows a gold ring to customers at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Ahmedabad, India, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo Many Fed policymakers expect that interest rates will have to be raised in the “near term”, the minutes of the U.S. central bank’s last policy meeting showed on Wednesday.However, some members expressed concern over the inflation outlook and emphasized they would be looking at upcoming economic data before deciding the timing of future rate rises.Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,289.88 per ounce by 0741 GMT.U.S. gold futures for December delivery edged down 0.2 percent to $1,289.70.“There appears to be a bit of profit taking ... With the impending rate hike from the Fed next month, maybe (investors think) gold prices have gone a bit too high and will come down in the aftermath of the rate hike,” said John Sharma, an economist with National Australia Bank.“The Fed has some inflation concerns and we don’t know how it’s going to be in the medium term. There is lot of uncertainty everywhere and you can see it in gold’s (rangebound) movement.”Earlier in the week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen stuck by her prediction that U.S. inflation will soon rebound but offered an unusually strong caveat: she is “very uncertain” about this and is open to the possibility that prices could remain low for years to come.“Although the minutes seemed to tick a December hike as a done deal, traders took fright at their more ‘data-driven’ neutral stance into 2018,” said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst with OANDA.“Gold was one of the chief beneficiaries of the ensuing general dollar sell-off (on Wednesday) as the U.S. heads into its Thanksgiving break ... We would expect trading over the coming two days to be muted with the U.S. away.”U.S. markets are closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, while Japan also has a public holiday.Spot gold may test a support at $1,283 per ounce as it failed to break resistance at $1,297, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.In currencies, the dollar touched a two-month low against the yen and hit a one-month trough against a basket of six major currencies on Thursday.Meanwhile, silver was down 0.4 percent at $17.088 an ounce, platinum fell 0.6 percent to $932.50 an ounce, while palladium was down 0.1 percent at $1,002.05 an ounce.Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-inches-down-amid-fed-inflation-concerns-idINKBN1DN07M'|'2017-11-23T03:28:00.000+02:00'
'861242914114f629b2f18bf36895dda5aaf88ba7'|'No deal imminent in Vivendi pay-TV dispute: Mediaset CFO to - Reuters'|'MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - Hopes for a settlement in a legal dispute between Mediaset ( MS.MI ) and France’s Vivendi ( VIV.PA ) over a soured pay-TV deal drove shares in the Italian broadcaster as much as 7.5 percent higher on Friday.The Vivendi logo is pictured at the main entrance of the entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate headquarters in Paris, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The two companies have been at loggerheads since last year after Vivendi backtracked on a deal to buy Mediaset Premium, the pay-TV business of a group controlled by the family of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.Sources close to the matter have said the two sides are in talks over a possible deal, with Vivendi hoping to reach an agreement before a Dec. 19 court hearing in Milan on the case.Mediaset is seeking up to 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in damages from Vivendi.On Friday, two sources close to the matter told Reuters reaching an accord was only a matter of days. However, a Mediaset executive said that while lawyers were working on a possible solution, no deal was imminent.Italian daily Il Messaggero said on Friday that Vivendi would pay Mediaset cash compensation of around 700 million euros to settle the dispute.It said a possible deal would also involve a recently created joint venture between phone group Telecom Italia (TIM) ( TLIT.MI ) and Vivendi’s pay-TV canal Plus. Vivendi is TIM’s top investor.According to the paper, the joint venture would pay Mediaset 600 million euros over six years for content ranging from video to sport, thus guaranteeing the Premium unit steady revenues.Hopes a settlement could be reached pushed Mediaset shares up 4.8 percent to 3.224 euros by 1455 GMT, after they earlier hit a 6-1/2 weeks high of 3.308 euros.One of the sources said the deal being discussed was “more complex” than what was reported by the Italian press and that the figures mentioned were too high. The source declined to give more details.A source close to TIM said the group was in negotiations with Mediaset about current and future agreements on content, but added the talks had nothing to do with the litigation between Mediaset and Vivendi.Mediaset’s Chief Financial Officer Marco Giordani dampened expectations of an imminent accord.“There is nothing yet and the negotiations are pretty lukewarm,” Giordani told Reuters. “The lawyers are talking but nothing has arrived at board level yet.”He said he did not know whether a deal could be struck by the Dec. 19 hearing.Vivendi walked out of the deal to buy Premium in July last year, calling its business plan unrealistic. The rift with Mediaset deepened when the French group built up a 29 percent stake in the broadcaster last December to become the second largest shareholder after Berlusconi’s family.The French company has repeatedly said the move was not hostile but a sign of long-term interest. ($1 = 0.8394 euros)Additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo in MILAN and Sophie Sassard in LONDON, writing by Agnieszka FlakOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mediaset-vivendi/no-deal-imminent-in-vivendi-pay-tv-dispute-mediaset-cfo-to-reuters-idINKBN1DO19W'|'2017-11-24T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'b6c52500c1708cab55104b55f18d2871213783aa'|'UK targets tech giants over tax avoidance and VAT fraud'|'November 22, 2017 / 4:49 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago UK targets tech giants over tax avoidance and VAT fraud Tom Bergin 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced measures on Wednesday to tackle tax avoidance by tech giants and to hold online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.com accountable for tax evasion via their platforms. Finance minister Philip Hammond said some multinationals were avoiding tax on profits generated from selling to UK customers by using inter-group royalty payments to shift those profits into affiliates in low-tax jurisdictions. Britain would impose a withholding tax on such payments that could raise around 200 million pounds a year, he said. Hammond said he was targeting “digital businesses” but the description of the measure in his budget statement suggested they could cover all companies. A 2012 Reuters investigation showed how inter-group royalties had helped fast food groups including McDonalds and Burger King reduce their tax bills. ( reut.rs/2zqTfSj ) McDonalds ( MCD.N ) and Burger King, an arm of Canada-listed Restaurant Brands International Inc ( QSR.TO ) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would be affected. Hammond also said he would hold online marketplaces responsible for paying value-added-tax - a form of sales tax - when sellers on the platforms do not collect and pay the tax. Up to 1 billion pounds may be lost each year due to such tax evasion by sellers on eBay and Amazon alone, according to an April report by the National Audit Office. Dominic Stuttaford, European head of tax for law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, said the law needed to be updated to tackle such problems but that the actual impact would be unclear until more details were published. The new VAT measure is expected to raise around 30 million pounds a year. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment and eBay declined comment. Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britaintax-tech/uk-targets-tech-giants-over-tax-avoidance-and-vat-fraud-idUKKBN1DM28W'|'2017-11-22T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'209731435a8612e4c6eb24eadf9fe76b4ea3dff3'|'Peter Thiel sells most of remaining Facebook stake'|' 23 PM / in 37 minutes Peter Thiel sells most of remaining Facebook stake Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 22 (Reuters) - Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Facebook Inc’s first institutional investor, has sold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the social network, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Thiel, who is a member of Facebook''s board, now owns 59,913 Class A shares in the company after selling 160,805 shares for about $29 million. bit.ly/2zd34za Thiel sold roughly 20 million of his 26 million Facebook shares for $400 million following its stock market listing in 2012. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-stake/peter-thiel-sells-most-of-remaining-facebook-stake-idUSL3N1NS4IF'|'2017-11-22T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'9d2f174f0567f460eb384965f0871183c2ed4e91'|'Failed airline Monarch wins court appeal to keep rights over airport slots - administrator'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:26 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago In boost to creditors, failed airline Monarch wins appeal over UK airport slots Alistair Smout 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Collapsed airline Monarch [MONA.UL] has won an appeal against a court decision that had stripped it of rights over valuable airport slots, in a boost to administrators who are hoping to recover money for creditors. FILE PHOTO: Monarch airplanes are seen parked on the runway at Newquay airport, Newquay, Britain, October 26, 2017, REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Administrators at KPMG hope to raise capital by transferring the slots at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports to other airlines. “We are delighted with the ruling,” said Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator. “We will now progress the slot exchange transactions we have underway, whose buyers will be announced at completion.” Monarch collapsed suddenly at the start of October, immediately ceasing operations, forcing the repatriation of over 100,000 customers by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The High Court’s initial ruling on Nov. 8 said that as the airline had no planes and retains just three trained pilots, who currently hold management positions, the Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) - an independent slot co-ordination company - had no duty to assign it slots for summer 2018. The CAA subsequently revoked Monarch’s operating licence. However, the Court of Appeal ruling found that despite this, Monarch was still an air carrier when slots fell to be allocated last month and in fact remains one. “It may be a failed air transport undertaking but that need not stop it being an air transport undertaking,” judge Guy Newey said in the ruling. ACL said it would not appeal, but was concerned about the implications of the ruling. “The fact that a defunct airline is able to obtain and trade slots, sets a worrying precedent for the future and one which will give cause for concern to airlines and airports,” it said in a statement. Monarch estimates its slots could be worth around 60 million pounds. While the appeal only applies to Gatwick and Luton, these slots are the airline’s most sought-after assets. EasyJet ( EZJ.L ), IAG ( ICAG.L ), Wizz ( WIZZ.L ) and Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) have all expressed interest in the slots at the London airports. The High Court ruling that Manchester and Birmingham slots should be returned immediately to the slot pool to be re-assigned by the ACL was unaffected by Wednesday’s appeal. EasyJet’s CFO Andrew Findlay told reporters not to “believe everything you read” about the reported value of the slots, saying that 60 million pounds was a “high-end” number. “Any costs associated with Monarch slots will not be material,” chief executive Carolyn McCall said after results on Tuesday. Editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-airlines-licence/failed-airline-monarch-wins-court-appeal-to-keep-rights-over-airport-slots-administrator-idUKKBN1DM1TM'|'2017-11-22T16:25:00.000+02:00'
'2b4563e98dea4a7ae5edbd13730008dbdaddcccb'|'FTSE sluggish after Centrica dives'|'November 23, 2017 / 10:14 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago FTSE sluggish after Centrica dives Kit Rees 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A fall in Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) shares weighed on British stocks on Thursday, but a rebound in housebuilders and a weak pound provided enough support to recoup most of the morning’s losses. People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File photo Britain''s blue chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index closed down 0.02 percent at 7417.24 points. Centrica ( CNA.L ) was by far the biggest faller, down 15.5 percent - its biggest one-day loss since listing in 1997, after the utility gave a disappointing trading update. Centrica said it had lost 823,000 energy supply customers in four months. “2017 is on track to be another tough year for Centrica,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note. Jefferies analysts flagged weakness in Centrica’s North America and UK business. Shares in utility peers National Grid ( NG.L ) and SSE ( SSE.L ) also declined 2.8 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Babcock ( BAB.L ) was the second-weakest performer of the FTSE, retreating in the wake of brokers cutting their target prices after the engineering outsourcing group published its results on Tuesday. Housebuilders recouped some of the previous session’s losses, with Berkeley Group ( BKGH.L ), Barratt Developments ( BDEV.L ) and Taylor Wimpey ( TW.L ) all rising close to 1.9 percent. The sector was hit after UK finance minister Philip Hammond said in his Budget on Wednesday that the government would reclaim land that was not developed quickly enough. “We’re keeping our eye on the housebuilders,” John Moore, trader at Berkeley Capital, said. “We had quite a bearish budget for the housebuilders and we think they’re just generally overpriced as it is,” Moore added. Sage Group ( SGE.L ) was the FTSE’s biggest gainer, up 2.7 percent after several brokers upped their price targets for the stock. British water utility Severn Trent Plc ( SVT.L ) rose 0.6 percent after it reported a 4.4 percent rise in half-year profit. Among mid caps, pub operator Mitchells & Butlers ( MAB.L ) closed about 7 percent down after reporting its full year earnings. The company’s full year profit slid due to higher costs, and said that it would not pay an interim dividend in 2018. Additional reporting by Julien Ponthus; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-sluggish-after-centrica-dives-idUKKBN1DN0X8'|'2017-11-23T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'ddb4a6bbef06e624b849f87f02db126f1cff9ba3'|'Unilever drafts in search firm to look for new CEO: Sky News'|'(Reuters) - Consumer goods maker Unilever NV ( UNc.AS ) ( ULVR.L ) has begun working with executive search firm Egon Zehnder International to help to identify a successor to Chief Executive officer Paul Polman, Sky News reported on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo No date has been set for Polman''s retirement, but he is expected to step down in about 18 months, Sky News said, citing people close to the matter. ( bit.ly/2jiHKBy )Unilever and Egon Zehnder declined to comment on the report.Unilever, whose products range from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, currently has a dual structure, with headquarters, boards of directors and stock listings in both Britain and the Netherlands.This is under review in the wake of a rebuffed $143 billion takeover bid from Kraft Heinz Co ( KHC.O ) in February, and the company expects to say by the end of the year whether it will combine into one.Possible internal candidates from the company to succeed Polman could include finance director Graeme Pitkethly, although an extensive international search is likely to be carried out, Sky News said.Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-nv-ceo/unilever-drafts-in-search-firm-to-look-for-new-ceo-sky-news-idUSKBN1DN250'|'2017-11-23T22:40:00.000+02:00'
'3d654233f675c9cdefdcbde3ea399eacfe341cc9'|'Sweden''s Fingerprint Cards plays down takeover approach'|'STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s Fingerprint Cards (FPC) ( FINGb.ST ), whose ID technology is used in smartphones, said on Thursday it had been approached about a possible bid for the company, but added that it viewed the chances of a deal as low.It issued its statement after Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri reported that China’s Beijing Watertek 300324.SZ was preparing to bid for the company.Shares in the Swedish company jumped as much as 37 percent in early trade on Thursday after the report, but fell back after FPC’s comment to trade 9 percent higher at 18.43 crowns by 1054 GMT.The company makes fingerprint sensors for smartphones for customers including top Chinese smartphone makers - Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo and Oppo – and Google Pixel, among others.Fingerprint said a bid was unlikely to materialize but it had been required under stock exchange rules to make a statement to protect against insider trading.“Since the overall assessment is that the probability for the offer plans being realized is low, the company does not consider that the information constitutes insider information.” Fingerprint said in its statement. It did not elaborate on why it viewed an offer as unlikely and a company spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.Dagens Industri’s report said a letter from Beijing Watertek had been delivered to FPC Chairman Jan Wareby and CEO Christian Fredrikson this week, citing a source close to the Chinese company.An investor relations officer at Beijing Watertek said she was not aware of any bid for Fingerprint Cards.FPC does not supply the world’s biggest smartphone makers Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ).The company saw a spectacular stock price rally in 2015 but its shares have since tumbled as competition has increased. The market expects the company to move beyond fingerprint technology to other forms of user authentication such as Apple’s FaceID.FPC’s share price had fallen more than 70 percent this year by Wednesday to levels last seen in 2015.Reporting by Helena Soderpalm, Olof Swahnberg and Johannes Hellstrom; Editing by Niklas Pollard/Tom Pfeiffer/Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fpc-m-a-watertek/swedens-fingerprint-cards-plays-down-takeover-approach-idINKBN1DN153'|'2017-11-23T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'32c0ce108eb57da06519fd8f1b72c8cc89058481'|'ExxonMobil stops non-essential work in PNG highlands due to unrest'|'MELBOURNE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - ExxonMobil has evacuated non-essential staff in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, it said on Thursday, due to unrest in the area, but said operations are continuing at its PNG LNG liquefied natural gas project.“Due to recent community tension in the Highlands (Hides, Angore, Komo), ExxonMobil PNG has suspended non-essential work,” the company said in a statement emailed to Reuters. It declined to specify the nature of “non-essential” work.It said its gas conditioning plant at Hides, which processes gas before it is sent via a 760-kilometre (472-mile) pipeline to the PNG LNG export plant at Port Moresby, is continuing to operate.“ExxonMobil PNG continues to monitor the situation in Hela Province. The safety and security of our employees, contractors and the local community is a top priority,” the company said, adding that non-essential staff have been moved out of the area.Violence has escalated in the highlands, where gas is produced for the LNG project, due to anger among locals over the nation’s election process earlier this year and disputes over royalties from the PNG LNG project, an observer said.“In fact the situation is so bad that I am unable to travel to my field site,” Michael Main, an Australian doctoral student who has regularly been in and out of the highlands for his research, told Reuters.Main said one of ExxonMobil’s camps in the highlands had been attacked and an ex-patriate security staff member had been kidnapped and released earlier this week. Radio New Zealand also reported the kidnapping on Thursday. ExxonMobil declined to comment.“For safety and security reasons, we do not discuss details of our personnel or operations,” ExxonMobil said.Oil Search Ltd, which operates oil and gas fields in the area and is a partner in PNG LNG, said there has been no impact on its operations and its staff are working as normal.Reporting by Sonali Paul; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/exxon-mobil-papua-lng/exxonmobil-stops-non-essential-work-in-png-highlands-due-to-unrest-idINL3N1NS56W'|'2017-11-22T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'1d11aece5a04fb429f2761c9c008677667429e22'|'Sasol pulls plug on $13-$15 billion U.S. GTL project, to divest from Canadian shale'|'November 23, 2017 / 6:30 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Sasol dumps $13-$15 billion U.S. project, to exit Canadian shale Ed Stoddard 3 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Sasol is pulling out of all of its gas-to-liquids (GTL) greenfield projects including one in Louisiana project expected to cost $13 billion to $15 billion, the company said on Thursday. Walking away from the project, which would have been the biggest investment abroad by a South African company, underscores the headwinds the industry is facing in a volatile market with generally depressed prices. “While our current GTL assets are generating good returns and cash flows, the value proposition for Sasol to build new GTL projects is uneconomic against a volatile external environment and a structural shift to a low oil price environment,” the company said in a statement. The company had previously delayed its final investment decision on the project because of low oil and gas prices. Sasol will also divest from its Canadian shale gas assets on which it took a 9.9 billion rand ($715 million) impairment on its 2016 earnings. “There will likely be further write-downs on it,” Bongani Nqwababa, Sasol joint CEO and president, told Reuters. He cited prices and accounting requirements related to the pending sale as the main reasons. But the company is forging ahead with its Louisiana ethane cracker project, which is now estimated to cost $11.13 billion to complete and will be the biggest foreign investment by a South African company. It is now 79 percent complete. The plant will take ethane, a component of natural gas, and turn it into ethylene, used in the manufacture of plastic products. Sasol said it had completed reviews on more that half of its global assets and they “have confirmed that the majority of the company’s assets will be retained”. The company, which pioneered the conversion of coal to fuel when South Africa was subject to sanctions under apartheid, also said it saw no need to boost its crude oil refining capacity, which currently stands at 270,000 barrels per day in South Africa. Sasol also said it had increased its revolving credit facility to $3.9 billion from $1.5 billion and extended its maturity to five years. The syndication closed oversubscribed with 17 banks committing to the transaction which allowed the company to increase the facility from its target size of $3.0 billion.# The company said it aims to raise its dividend payout ratio to 40 percent of earnings per share by 2022 from 36 percent currently, and later to 45 percent. ($1 = 13.8630 rand)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sasol-strategy/sasol-pulls-plug-on-13-15-billion-u-s-gtl-project-to-divest-from-canadian-shale-idUSKBN1DN0HJ'|'2017-11-23T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'4ec973fc60775a0ef890b412ce6d97b5244a0db4'|'Exclusive - Nippon offer prompted Axalta to end Akzo Nobel merger talks: source'|'November 21, 2017 / 10:12 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exclusive: Nippon offer prompted Axalta to end Akzo Nobel merger talks -source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd ( 4612.T ) made an all-cash offer on Tuesday to acquire Axalta Coating Systems Ltd ( AXTA.N ), a source familiar with the matter said, prompting Axalta to end merger talks with Akzo Nobel NV ( AKZO.AS ). Nippon’s offer came at a premium to where Axalta shares ended trading on Monday, the source said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Nippon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Akzo Nobel and Axalta declined to comment. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-axalta-m-a-nipponpaint-exclusive/exclusive-nippon-offer-prompted-axalta-to-end-akzo-nobel-merger-talks-source-idUKKBN1DL2SH'|'2017-11-22T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'11fa08620c7f2bfc0946d9b5f84128ee2902b9fe'|'UK public inflation expectations drop in November - Citi/YouGov'|'November 22, 2017 / 5:56 PM / in 22 minutes UK public inflation expectations drop in November - Citi/YouGov Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The British public’s expectations for inflation over the next 12 months dropped to 2.6 percent this month from October’s four-year high of 2.8 percent, a monthly survey by polling company YouGov showed on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A shopper checks her shopping list in a supermarket in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The poll, conducted for U.S. bank Citi, showed that longer-term inflation expectations for the next five to 10 years remained unchanged at 3.2 percent after the BoE raised interest rates for the first time in a decade on Nov. 2. This was in line with their long-run average, but still the joint-highest since 2014. “Long-term inflation expectations ... may suggest that monetary stimulus can be reduced further, but peaking short-term inflation expectations do not suggest urgency,” Citi economists Christian Schulz and Ann O‘Kelly wrote in a note to clients. YouGov polled 2,038 adults on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21. Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-inflation/uk-public-inflation-expectations-drop-in-november-citi-yougov-idUKKBN1DM2DB'|'2017-11-22T19:55:00.000+02:00'
'52378d21c2600861d0e34d0442f1709849b028aa'|'WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET'|'November 24, 2017 / 6:04 AM / in 7 minutes WORLD NEWS SCHEDULE AT 0600 GMT/1 AM ET Reuters Staff Editor: Clarence Fernandez + 65 6870 3861 Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775 Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595 (All times GMT/ET) TOP STORIES Mnangagwa the “Crocodile” to be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president HARARE - Emmerson Mnangagwa will cap a stunning political comeback when he is sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president on Friday, bringing the final curtain down on the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe. (ZIMBABWE-POLITICS/ (PIX, TV, GRAPHICS), moved, by MacDonald Dzirutwe, 520 words) Possible explosion detected near Argentine sub’s last-known location MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - The Argentine navy raises the possibility that a submarine missing in the South Atlantic suffered an explosion, heightening concerns over the fate of the 44 crew on the eighth day of an international search. (ARGENTINA-SUBMARINE/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, by Walter Bianchi, 608 words) Irish government on verge of collapse ahead of EU Brexit summit DUBLIN - The Irish government is on the verge of collapse after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation says it will seek to remove the deputy prime minister in a breach of their cooperation pact. (IRELAND-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin, 477 words) PNG police evict remaining asylum-seekers from Australian-run camp SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea police clear the remaining asylum-seekers from a shuttered Australian-run detention complex, ending a three-week protest that started with about 600 people surviving on rain water and smuggled food and supplies. (AUSTRALIA-ASYLUM/ (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, by Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett, 413 words) ASIA With scant detail, rights watchers slam Rohingya return deal YANGON - Human rights groups raise concerns after Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to repatriate hundreds of thousands who have fled to Bangladesh but offered scant details to ensure a safe return of the Rohingya Muslims. (MYANMAR-ROHINGYA/, moved, by Yimou Lee, 560 words) N.Korea sacks soldiers, South awards medals after defector’s border dash SEOUL - North Korea reportedly replaces guards and fortifies a section of its border with South Korea where a North Korean soldier staged a daring defection last week, while South Korean and U.S. soldiers have been decorated for their role in his rescue. (NORTHKOREA-SOUTHKOREA/DEFECTION-JSA (PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by James Pearson and Christine Kim, 544 words) Pope faces diplomatic dilemma in Myanmar visit VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis visits Myanmar next week, a delicate trip for the head of the Roman Catholic church to a majority Buddhist country accused by Washington of the “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya people. (POPE-ASIA/MYANMAR (PICTURES, TV), moved, by Philip Pullella, 722 words) China probes latest case of alleged childcare abuse BEIJING - Police in China investigate claims of sexual molestation and needlemarks on children at a Beijing kindergarten run by pre-school operator RYB Education Inc, the latest case in a booming childcare industry to spark outrage. (RYB EDUCATION-CHINA/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Philip Wen, 526 words) Philippines’ Duterte ditches peace process with Maoist rebels MANILA - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte terminates on-again, off-again peace talks with Maoist-led rebels as hostilities have continued despite the negotiations, the president’s spokesman says. (PHILIPPINES-REBELS/, moved, 217 words) Pakistan frees from house arrest Islamist blamed for 2008 attacks in India’s Mumbai ISLAMABAD - Pakistan releases from house arrest Islamist Hafiz Saeed, seen as the mastermind of a 2008 militant assault in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai that killed 166 people, his religious charity says. (PAKISTAN-MILITANTS/INDIA (UPDATE 1), moved, 200 words) MIDDLE EAST Top Russian general says Moscow likely to cut back troops in Syria SOCHI, Russia - Russia is likely to reduce the size of its military force in Syria, the chief of the general staff of its armed forces says. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-RUSSIA-MILITARY (UPDATE 2), moved, 248 words) + See also: - MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAN-GUARDS (UPDATE 2), moved, by Parisa Hafezi, 495 words - MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-OPPOSITION (UPDATE 3), moved, by Steven Kalin and Suleiman al-Khalidi, 600 words - MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-ISLAMICSTATE (UPDATE 2, TV), moved, by Ahmed Rasheed, 466 words Lebanon’s PM Hariri shelves resignation, easing crisis BEIRUT - Lebanon’s Saad al-Hariri shelves his decision to resign as prime minister at the request of President Michel Aoun, easing a crisis that deepened tension in the Middle East. (LEBANON-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 6, PIX, TV), moved, by Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam, 839 words) EUROPE Merkel ally urges Social Democrats to consider new German “grand coalition” BERLIN - Germany’s Social Democrats should reconsider their opposition to joining a new “grand coalition” with Angela Merkel’s conservatives because Europe needs a stable government in Berlin, a senior ally of the chancellor says. (GERMANY-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURES, TV), by Michael Nienaber, 645 words) + See also: - GERMANY-POLITICS/MERKEL (ANALYSIS, TV, PICTURES), by Paul Carrel, 828 words Waiting for May, Brussels eyes December Brexit deal BRUSSELS - When Theresa May visits Brussels, EU negotiators will be listening intently for signs the British prime minister is preparing to risk a domestic backlash and raise her offer to secure a Brexit deal in December. (BRITAIN-EU/ (UPDATE 1, PICTURES), moved, by Alastair Macdonald and Jan Strupczewski, 816 words) - BRITAIN-BUDGET/ (UPDATE 1, PICTURES), moved, by Andy Bruce, 563 words UNITED STATES Flynn’s lawyers end communication with Trump team, signaling cooperation with Mueller -NYT WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, have told the president’s legal team they can no longer discuss a probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, the New York Times says. (USA-TRUMP/RUSSIA (UPDATE 3), moved, 400 words) AMERICAS Venezuela’s Maduro keep eye on prize: 2018 presidential vote CARACAS - Just months ago, with crowds of protesters baying on the streets for resignation of “dictator”, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked like a goner. Yet the unpopular socialist leader has not only survived, he is ending the year on a political high and is even a front-runner for the 2018 presidential election. (VENEZUELA-POLITICS/MADURO (ANALYSIS, PIX, TV), expect by 0600 GMT/11 PM ET, by Andrew Cawthorne, 900 words) + See also:'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et/world-news-schedule-at-0600-gmt-1-am-et-idUSL3N1NU1Z1'|'2017-11-24T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'f8799c5e8674b6808b62d0c324b2d889f38646c9'|'Pemex stake in Nobilis-Maximino deep water tie-up to be cut'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The stake held by Mexican state oil firm Pemex in the potentially lucrative Nobilis-Maximino deep water tie-up near the U.S. maritime border will be cut from 49 percent to 40 percent, an official at the company said on Thursday.Mexico’s oil regulator said it expects the first commercial barrels from Nobilis-Maximino to come by 2024, with peak output of 174,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and 265 million cubic feet of natural gas per day coming online in 2026.Cesar Fernandez, a legal official at Pemex, announced the change at meeting of Mexico’s CNH oil regulator.Mexico expects to announce the partner for Pemex on the deep water area early next year.Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Editing by Dave Graham '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-oil/pemex-stake-in-nobilis-maximino-deep-water-tie-up-to-be-cut-idINKBN1DN2AU'|'2017-11-23T20:57:00.000+02:00'
'9b03585a54d73584914527a61efcada90149969e'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Politics weigh on Chile, Brazil stocks, inflation in Mexico'|'(Updates with final prices, details from Mexico) SAO PAULO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Equities markets across Latin America fell on Thursday amid light Thanksgiving trading, led by the blue-chip IPSA index in Chile, where investors are still jittery over a weak performance by conservatives in elections over the weekend. On Thursday leftist Chilean presidential candidate Alejandro Guillier, competing in a run-off after coming second in a first round on Sunday, said he was open to eliminating Chile''s quasi-private pension fund system for a state-run model. Additionally, workers at BHP Billiton Ltd''s major Escondida copper mine in Chile walked off the job temporarily, spooking investors in the mining-dependent country. The IPSA closed down 1.84 percent. In Mexico, the S&P/BVM IPC index slipped by 0.13 percent after data showed a surprise acceleration in inflation in early November, complicating the central bank''s hopes of dampening price pressures before the end of 2017. Shares in miner Grupo Mexico put downward pressure on the stock index, slipping 2.08 percent. Brazil''s Bovespa dipped 0.04 percent as President Michel Temer continues to face difficulties pushing through a pension reform seen as key to shoring up fiscal health. On Wednesday night, the congressman in charge of drafting the reform presented a new version in an event at Temer''s official residence. However, attendance was poorer that expected, which some analysts interpreted as a sign of relatively weak support for the measure. Among the poorly performing major constituents of the index was steelmaker Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA , whose shares fell by 1.28 percent. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2330 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1152.40 -0.37 33.65 MSCI LatAm 2820.30 0.18 20.49 Brazil Bovespa 74486.576 -0.04 23.68 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48136.24 -0.13 5.46 Chile IPSA 5034.33 -1.84 21.27 Chile IGPA 25361.77 -1.74 22.32 Argentina MerVal 27293.31 -0.13 61.33 Colombia IGBC 10862.65 -0.14 7.25 Venezuela IBC 704.63 1.16 -97.78 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2226 0.38 0.83 Mexico peso 18.61 0.18 11.47 Chile peso 635 -0.22 5.65 Colombia peso 2976.75 -0.13 0.83 Peru sol 3.237 -0.03 5.47 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.38 0.17 -8.66 Argentina peso (parallel) 18.05 0.22 -6.81 (Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-politics-weigh-on-chile-brazil-stocks-inflation-in-mexico-idINL1N1NT1FD'|'2017-11-23T21:07:00.000+02:00'
'e2bee7c3be4651d3ea48472b7aa08dab2e6dfe61'|'UPDATE 1-Belarus cuts red tape to boost business climate'|'(Releads on Lukashenko decree, adds Quote: , background)By Andrei MakhovskyKIEV, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Belarus gave a twin boost to the private sector on Thursday as President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree to reduce red tape for businesses and parliament passed a draft law cutting the number of corporate fines and other penalties.As financial aid from Soviet-era overlord Russia declines and after protests about unemployment and low living standards, strongman Lukashenko is rolling out a series of business-friendly measures to foster private sector growth.The new decree means would-be business owners do not need to seek permission to launch a commercial operation but must only notify the authorities.“The decree is designed to give the necessary impetus to the development of entrepreneurial initiatives, to stimulate the business activity of citizens, and to improve the country’s investment climate in general,” Lukashenko’s press service said in a statement.The directive also simplifies regulations governing company operations, including safety and sanitary requirements.Earlier on Thursday parliament passed a bill at the first reading allowing firms who fall foul of regulations to be warned rather than fined in the first instance. It also virtually eliminates the state’s ability to confiscate companies’ property.At present, companies complain their goods shipments can be seized for trivial reasons such as small errors in paperwork.“Practice shows that the penalties for a number of regulations are disproportionate,” said Vadim Ipatov, director of the National Centre for Legislation and the bill’s sponsor.“These are the very regulations that raised most concerns for the business community.”The law will enter into force after it is approved by the parliament at the second reading.Street protests earlier this year against a “parasite tax” levied on the unemployed to compensate the state for lost taxes, were the biggest anti-government protests for years.Lukashenko has increased support for private companies to help boost growth and potentially avert more unrest but has not reformed state firms that dominate the economy.Wedged between Russia and the European Union, Belarus was long reliant on money from Moscow but that help has diminished as Russia faced its own economic problems.The Belarussian economy was in recession in 2015 and 2016, pushing up unemployment and hurting earnings and fuelling public discontent with Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.Another decree he has signed makes it easier to start a small business such as a hair salon or a bakery. He has also tightened regulations for the inspection of companies and made it illegal to halt a company’s operations without a court order.Further decrees in the works will cut the number of licences firms need and put a moratorium on the introduction of any new taxes or increase of current taxes until 2020. (Editing by Matthias Williams and Catherine Evans)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/belarus-business/update-1-belarus-cuts-red-tape-to-boost-business-climate-idINL8N1NT3I3'|'2017-11-23T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'5bfee0aeaef8129676574b2315c34ec2ea611fee'|'U.S. oil prices near 2-year high on pipeline shutdown, falling inventories'|'November 23, 2017 / 2:03 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. oil hits two-year high on pipeline outage, lower inventories Nia Williams 3 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - U.S. crude hit a two-year high in thin trade on Thursday as the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada and a draw on fuel inventories pointed to a tightening market, despite rising output from U.S. producers. A gas pump is seen hanging from the ceiling at a petrol station in Seoul June 27, 2011. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak/File Photo West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 54 cents at $58.56 per barrel by 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), close to a two-year peak of $58.58 touched earlier in the session. Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $63.55 per barrel, 23 cents above its previous close. Trading volumes were thin because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The shutdown on TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline following a spill last week has helped drive oil prices higher because of expectations it will reduce crude stocks in the U.S. storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma. “Inventories should drain sharply in the next few weeks given the uncertain timeline for a restart of the Keystone pipeline, a major artery for Canadian heavy oil barrels into the heart of the Cushing hub,” said Martin King, a GMP FirstEnergy analyst in Calgary. Prices also found support from a drawdown in commercial fuel inventories in the United States. U.S. stocks C-STK-T-EIA fell 1.9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, and have dropped 15 percent from record highs in March to below 2016 levels. The market shrugged off data showing U.S. output C-OUT-T-EIA has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd, helping turn the United States from the world’s biggest importer to a major exporter. Climbing U.S. output threatens efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and some other non-OPEC producers to reduce global supplies by limiting their production. “Whatever OPEC will be discussing and ... agreeing upon can be made redundant by the actions of U.S. suppliers, which are likely to hike up production in a similar order,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank. He said another rise of 800,000 to 1 million bpd in U.S. output in 2018 would mean “attempts by OPEC to tighten the market may not be successful.” OPEC meets on Nov. 30 to discuss policy, with Saudi Arabia lobbying for extending cuts that are due to expire in March. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Polina Ivanova in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-near-2-year-high-on-pipeline-shutdown-falling-inventories-idUKKBN1DN08O'|'2017-11-23T04:02:00.000+02:00'
'5fca7f6af6faee5d2398752132099bb38908f993'|'Euro zone regulators to set new binding capital targets for banks'|'November 22, 2017 / 3:42 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Euro zone regulators to set new binding capital targets for banks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone regulators said on Wednesday they will impose binding targets on most of the bloc’s largest banks forcing them to raise their capital buffers within a maximum of four years. The Single Resolution Board said it will set for the first time “binding targets for the majority of the largest and most complex banking groups” in the euro zone. It did not name the banks that will be subject to the binding requirements, but estimated the shortfall at 117 billion euros (£103.8 billion) for a sample of 76 banks. It also said that debt issued under the law of non-EU countries may not be considered as a capital buffer, a move that could invalidate loss-absorbing debt issued by euro zone banks under British law after Brexit. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-capital/euro-zone-regulators-to-set-new-binding-capital-targets-for-banks-idUKKBN1DM214'|'2017-11-22T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'3d282920656430cc4cb449dab2cdcb3f95e22a31'|'Whitman''s surprise exit at HPE stumps Wall Street, shares fall'|'November 22, 2017 / 2:15 PM / Updated an hour ago Whitman''s surprise exit at HPE stumps Wall Street, shares fall Supantha Mukherjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co ( HPE.N ) were down 6 percent in pre-market trading on Wednesday after Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman’s decision to step down from the role took investors by surprise. FILE PHOTO: Meg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo Whitman, one the most high-profile executives in the United States, said on Tuesday she would quit as CEO in February and hand over the reins to company veteran Antonio Neri. After reports surfaced that she was being considered for the top job at Uber, Whitman reinforced her dedication to the role in July by saying that she was fully committed to HPE and planned to remain CEO. "We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber''s CEO will not be Meg Whitman," she had tweeted. ( bit.ly/2jesxl9 ) But her move caught analysts off guard. HPE is in the middle of a restructuring to cut costs, invest in research and focus on high-margin businesses. Its mainstay server business has been struggling as customers increasingly buy non-branded, assembled servers that are much cheaper. “We are surprised by the timing of the CEO transition given commentary at the recent analyst day that seemed to imply a CEO transition was not in the offing,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long said in a research note. Long, however, added that Neri’s experience running the company’s Enterprise Group made him a strong fit for the CEO role. FILE PHOTO: Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman reacts following an interview on CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The restructuring, which was announced last month and called HPE Next, was supposed to be led by Neri - a computer engineer who has spent more than two decades with the company and is HPE’s current president. Neri’s appointment is not a surprise given his increased visibility in recent months, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote in a research note. Neri began his career in HP as a customer service engineer in the EMEA call centre. He previously led HP’s technology services business and then its server and networking businesses, before taking over the whole Enterprise Group in 2015. Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz and Morgan Stanley’s Huberty expect Neri to shift gears and aggressively develop technology in-house, rather than focus on mergers. Since its split from Hewlett-Packard in late 2015, HPE has spent billions buying companies providing cloud software and data storage to better position itself to serve customers who are moving their operations to the cloud. HPE''s shares have risen 5 percent this year, compared with a 16 percent gain in the S&P 500 index .SPX . (The story was refiled to fix a typo 2105 to 2015 in penultimate paragraph) Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Sonam Rai; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hpe-ceo-stocks/whitmans-surprise-exit-stumps-wall-street-shares-fall-idUKKBN1DM1S6'|'2017-11-22T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'a963d6e2821aaad6b346d036cec650b0be31f88e'|'Provident Financial says Executive Chairman Manjit Wolstenholme dead'|'November 24, 2017 / 7:35 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Provident Financial chairman Manjit Wolstenholme dies suddenly Noor Zainab Hussain , Maiya Keidan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Former investment banker Manjit Wolstenholme, who took over the running of troubled British doorstep lender Provident Financial ( PFG.L ) three months ago, has died suddenly at the age of 53. Wolstenholme, who joined Provident’s board in 2007, became executive chairman of the subprime lender in August after Peter Crook, who was its CEO for more than 10 years, stepped down. Provident’s Senior Independent Director Malcolm Le May will take over as interim executive chairman, it said in a statement on Friday announcing Wolstenholme’s death. “We are deeply shocked and saddened. Manjit was known and respected for her achievements,” Le May said. Wolstenholme had a long career as a banker in the City of London where she became co-head of investment banking at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and then a partner at boutique advisory firm Gleacher Shacklock. She had stepped down as senior independent director at British financial spreadbetting firm CMC Markets Plc ( CMCX.L ) in July for personal reasons and at the time of her death, she held three other roles aside from her job at Provident. A spokesman for Provident declined to comment on the circumstances of Wolstenholme’s death on Thursday. A reluctance among high street banks to lend to risky borrowers since the financial crisis has made more Britons look to lenders charging higher interest rates like Provident. The company has been trying to reorganise a door-to-door lending business that relies on self-employed agents offering high-interest loans, against a backdrop of broader public and political criticism of the high-interest lending sector. It has also had to contend with lost income resulting from a Financial Conduct Authority investigation. Wolstenholme replaced the managing director of Provident’s home credit business two days after her own appointment, dismissing suggestions it could be sold, and by October had set out a recovery plan for the unit. Provident’s shares were slightly lower on Friday at 902 pence per share. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-provident-fin-chairman-death/provident-financial-says-executive-chairman-manjit-wolstenholme-dead-idUKKBN1DO0MS'|'2017-11-24T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'dbce3943676adeb1b41537ed8e9246ab5894db14'|'Peter Thiel may look to buy Gawker.com: BuzzFeed'|'(Reuters) - Venture capitalist Peter Thiel may be looking to buy online news site Gawker.com, BuzzFeed said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo Thiel''s lawyers have objected to the currently ongoing sale process of Gawker.com, saying that he has been prohibited unreasonably from bidding for the website''s assets, the internet media company reported, citing a federal bankruptcy court filing. ( bzfd.it/2zYuQmk )Thiel, who is Facebook Inc’s first major investor and a co-founder of payment service PayPal, is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of Gawker. The site published an article in 2007 about Thiel’s homosexuality.He may buy the defunct website to stop any legal threats against him or to remove content, BuzzFeed reported.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gawker-com-m-a-thiel/peter-thiel-may-look-to-buy-gawker-com-buzzfeed-idINKBN1DM2VE'|'2017-11-22T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'36ea3ffefba3bf3157e18d395caabe7f22f5ea60'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 23'|'November 23, 2017 / 12:58 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 23 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 23 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Headlines Monarch''s administrators win airport slots battle on.ft.com/2jhHh2v Aston Martin posts first year of profit for a decade on.ft.com/2jfY7yO Uber faces investigations by regulators over massive data breach on.ft.com/2jgwvcQ Overview Monarch’s administrators have won their legal battle over rights to the airline’s most valuable assets, allowing them to raise capital by selling their take-off and landing slots at London Gatwick and Luton. Aston Martin has reported four consecutive quarters of profitability for the first time since it was sold by Ford in 2008, paving the way for a potential stock market listing in 2019. The regulatory fallout for Uber Technologies Inc after it failed to disclose a massive data breach began to emerge on Wednesday, as regulators in the UK, United States and Italy said they were opening investigations, presenting the latest challenge for the company as it tries to move on from a string of crises. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-23-idUSL3N1NT04Q'|'2017-11-23T02:54:00.000+02:00'
'05504e9e28f539500f4a31edacdf2e1b74eb0a84'|'Saudi Arabia agrees to buy $7 billion in precision munitions from U.S. firms - sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 22, 2017 / 11:09 PM / Updated an hour ago Saudi Arabia agrees to buy $7 billion in precision munitions from U.S. firms: sources Yara Bayoumy , Mike Stone 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy about $7 billion worth of precision guided munitions from U.S. defense contractors, sources familiar with the matter said, a deal that some lawmakers may object to over American weapons having contributed to civilian deaths in the Saudi campaign in Yemen. Logo of the U.S. defense company Raytheon is pictured at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Raytheon Co ( RTN.N ) and Boeing Co ( BA.N ) are the companies selected, the sources said, in a deal that was part of a $110 billion weapons agreement that coincided with President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May. Both companies declined comment on the weapons sale. Arms sales to the kingdom and other Gulf Cooperation Council member states have become increasingly contentious in the U.S. Congress, which must approve such sales. The U.S. State Department has yet to formally notify Congress of the precision guided munitions deal. “We do not comment to confirm or deny sales until they are formally notified to Congress,” a State Department official said, adding the U.S. government will take into account factors “including regional balance and human rights as well as the impact on the U.S. defense industrial base.” The Yemen civil war pits Iran-allied Houthi rebels against the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Nearly 4,800 civilians have been killed since March 2015, the United Nations said in March. Saudi Arabia has either denied attacks or cited the presence of fighters in the targeted areas and has said it has tried to reduce civilian casualties. Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington, Prince Khalid bin Salman declined to comment on the specific sale, but said in a statement his country will follow through on the agreements signed during Trump’s visit. He said that while the kingdom has always chosen the United States for weapons purchases, “... Saudi Arabia’s market selection remains a choice and is committed to defending its security.” Trump, a Republican who views weapons sales as a way to create jobs in the United States, has announced billions of dollars in arms sales since taking office in January. A U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the agreement is designed to cover a 10-year period and it could be years before actual transfers of weapons take place. The agreement could be held up in Congress, where Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in June that he would block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the GCC, over a dispute with Qatar, another U.S. ally in the Gulf. In November 2016, the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, halted the sale of $1.29 billion worth of precision guided weapons because of concerns about the extent of civilian casualties in Yemen. That sale process started in 2015 and included more than 8,000 Laser Guided Bombs for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The package also included more than 10,000 general purpose bombs, and more than 5,000 tail kits used to inexpensively convert “dumb” bombs into laser or GPS-guided weapons. U.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. The coalition had briefly banned naval, air and land transportation to Yemen following a missile fired by the Houthis that was shot down over the Saudi capital Riyadh. The Senate in June voted 53 to 47 to narrowly defeat legislation that sought to block portions of the 2015 package. David Des Roches, a senior military fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies in Washington was aware of the deal but said the Saudis “are one errant strike away from moving five or six senators over to the other side.” Denying Saudi Arabia precision guided munitions was unlikely to change their behavior, he said. “Saudi Arabia has shown they will fight in Yemen and they’re going to keep on fighting in Yemen regardless of what we think,” Des Roches said. Reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Mike Stone; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-raytheon-saudi-munitions/saudi-arabia-agrees-to-buy-7-billion-in-precision-munitions-from-u-s-firms-sources-idUKKBN1DM2XC'|'2017-11-23T01:16:00.000+02:00'
'3566bf3171fa89fd766a9a44b0e25a5ed7236202'|'Ophir seeks alternative to Chinese financing for African LNG project'|'November 23, 2017 / 6:27 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Ophir seeks alternative to Chinese financing for African LNG project Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Ophir Energy ( OPHR.L ) has postponed its final investment decision on a proposed $2 billion (£1.50 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Equatorial Guinea until early 2018 to explore alternatives to Chinese financing, the company said on Thursday. Fortuna FLNG would be Africa’s first deepwater floating LNG (FLNG) plant, moored above a block containing recoverable gas reserves of 3.7 trillion cubic feet, 150km (93 miles) off the coast of capital city Malabo. FLNG is attractive to resource-rich but debt-burdened African countries. Projects can sail into place, drop anchor and begin exporting for much less than the cost of onshore plants, the price of which quadrupled in the 10 years to 2013. The Fortuna project -- in which Ophir is partnered with shipping company Golar LNG ( GLNG.O ) and oil services group Schlumberger ( SLB.N ) -- is forecast to produce 2.2 million tonnes of LNG a year. An expected start date of mid-2019 was based on it winning approval earlier this year. In a competitive tender, trader Gunvor [GGL.UL] edged out Vitol [VITOLV.UL] and oil major Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) to buy up to 100 percent of the plant’s output for 10 years after pledging to help state-run Sonagas to finance a 30 percent stake in the project. Ophir said in a statement that persistent hold-ups on loan deals from Chinese banks had forced it to seek alterative sources of funding. It said these are now at an advanced stage, without giving further detail. Three Chinese banks had planned to provide $1.2 billion in loans for the project, one of which was China State Shipbuilding Corp, industry sources have said. Ophir expects to finalise financing arrangements by mid-December. For its part, China plans to pour almost $7 billion into floating LNG projects in Africa, including Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Congo and Cameroon. Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ophir-energy-fortuna-flng-china/ophir-seeks-alternative-to-chinese-financing-for-african-lng-project-idUKKBN1DN20R'|'2017-11-23T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'88a96a217a6e8d87c86b116a97517abbf47a57da'|'Russian minister says OPEC oil deal hurting domestic economy'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:01 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Russian minister says OPEC oil deal hurting domestic economy Darya Korsunskaya , Vladimir Soldatkin 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s economic growth in October was negatively affected by a global deal between members of OPEC and Russia to curb crude oil production, Russia’s economy minister said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin speaks during an interview at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit in Moscow, Russia September 19, 2017. Picture taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor Maxim Oreshkin’s comments are the first by a senior Russian official giving a negative assessment of the deal, in which Russia joined OPEC and others in cutting output from January by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to end a supply glut. The minister was speaking a week before Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet in Vienna to discussing an extension of the pact to curb output, possibly to the end of 2018. It is now due to expire on March 31. Under the deal, Russia agreed to cut output by 300,000 bpd from its level in October 2016. “Because of the OPEC deal we have a negative direct impact from oil production, as well as indirect effects related to low investment activity due to production limits,” Oreshkin said. Russia’s oil-dependent economy grew 1.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2017, slowing from 2.5 percent in the second quarter, the best annual rate since the third quarter of 2012, data showed this month. Oreshkin and other officials have said the economy was on track to grow by more than 2 percent after two years of recession. But data on retail sales and other areas have raised questions about the durability of the recovery. Oreshkin told reporters that annual inflation in Russia had slowed to 2.4-2.5 percent, adding that the ministry retained its full-year inflation forecast of up to 2.8 percent. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday Russia would determine its position on a extending the oil pact later in November. OPEC meets in Vienna on Nov. 30. Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia has been lobbying oil ministers to agree to a nine-month extension at next week’s meeting, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Brent crude futures LCOc1 have climbed above $60 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 thanks to the oil pact, helping Russia’s economy which depends heavily on oil and gas revenues. But, if oil stays in the $60-$65 range or higher, Russia would be unlikely to support a deal extension for fear the spike would be followed by a damaging fall, said Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Moscow-based Macro-Advisory strategy firm. “Moscow has had to deal with the economic and social consequences of two recent oil price collapses, in 2008-09 and from 2014,” he said in a note this week. “The damage from a third collapse would likely greatly outweigh the financial gains to be made from higher oil in the meantime,” he wrote. Reporting by Darya Korsunksaya and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-economy-opec/russian-minister-says-opec-oil-deal-hurting-domestic-economy-idUKKBN1DN10Q'|'2017-11-23T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'eac14494cfceab85610416c423be5818d2089a32'|'Brazil''s review of Bayer''s Monsanto takeover may be extended'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:52 PM / Updated an hour ago Brazil''s review of Bayer''s Monsanto takeover may be extended Ana Mano 2 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade could extend by as much as 90 days its analysis of the proposed takeover of seeds company Monsanto Co. by Bayer AG, according to a regulatory filing posted on the watchdog’s website on Wednesday. The logo of Bayer AG is pictured at the Bayer Healthcare subgroup production plant in Wuppertal, Germany February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo - D1BETRUMXCAA This could in turn push back until late March a ruling from the agency. The analysis extension will be discussed at a session of Cade’s tribunal later in the day, a Cade spokesperson told Reuters, as this is a requirement for prolonging the review. The $66 billion (£49.55 billion) Bayer-Monsanto transaction, announced in September 2016, would create the world’s largest integrated pesticides and seeds company. In February, as Bayer disclosed financial results, it said the company remained confident it could obtain the regulatory clearances and close the transaction before the end of 2017. An extension of Cade’s in-depth review may push a decision to March 20. A ruling was initially expected in late December. Under Brazilian law, Cade has a maximum of 330 days to make a final decision on any merger. Its review of the Bayer-Monsanto deal started on April 24. Last month, a unit of Cade said Bayer’s proposed takeover of Monsanto Co. could be detrimental to competition and urged conditions for Brazilian approval of the tie-up. Brazil is Monsanto’s biggest market outside of the United States. Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Frances Kerry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monsanto-m-a-bayer-antitrust/brazils-review-of-bayers-monsanto-takeover-may-be-extended-idUKKBN1DM2LP'|'2017-11-22T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'ffc37246f5924ab5e13a2155bdf7e7392aeef80f'|'Chinese police detain seven in multi-billion underground currency scheme'|' 19 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Chinese police detain seven in multi-billion underground currency scheme Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Police in southern China have detained seven people in connection with an underground banking scheme involving more than 20 billion yuan (£2.27 billion), the state news agency Xinhua reported. From a suspicious bank account in Shaoguan, a city in Guangdong province, the investigation snowballed to involve a suspected 10,000 people and 148 accounts across more than 20 provinces, Xinhua reported. The suspects allegedly profited from changes in the exchange rates for yuan and Hong Kong dollars, it said without giving details. The yuan, or renminbi, is not fully convertible and the government limits the amount of foreign currency to which individuals and businesses in China have access, which has given rise to networks of underground money changers and banks. Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-banks-underground/chinese-police-detain-seven-in-multi-billion-underground-currency-scheme-idUKKBN1DN01I'|'2017-11-23T02:18:00.000+02:00'
'f91e64ffbe311e742325dabac3b0ca232ce3bf3e'|'Households prop up UK growth again, firms more cautious'|'November 23, 2017 / 10:41 AM / Updated an hour ago Households drive UK growth again in third quarter, businesses more wary William Schomberg , Alistair Smout 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy again relied heavily on spending by squeezed households for growth in the three months to September, as businesses invested only cautiously while they await clarity on Brexit, official data showed. Houses are seen in London, Britain January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth The fragile picture of the economy echoed the sharply weaker outlook announced on Wednesday by Britain’s budget watchdog, which prompted finance minister Philip Hammond to say he would spend more over the next two years. The Office for National Statistics said overall economic growth sped up moderately in the July-September period to 0.4 percent from 0.3 percent in the second quarter, confirming a preliminary reading. But Britain is lagging other big advanced economies, largely due to the impact of last year’s decision to leave the European Union, which has pushed up inflation and left many companies unwilling to commit to new investment while London and Brussels remain at loggerheads over their future ties. The economy grew by an annual 1.5 percent in the third quarter, the joint weakest growth in more than five years. Growth was driven by spending by households which rose at its fastest pace in a year, helped by a recovery in car sales which had been weak in the second quarter after a tax increase. Separate data published on Thursday showed British shop sales rebounded in November after a sharp fall last month, although the number of retailers reporting rising prices hit their highest level since 1991. BUSINESS INVESTMENT WARNING Allan Monks, an economist at JP Morgan, said he thought the pickup in spending by consumers over the summer would prove temporary, given the still-weak income picture for households and a rise in oil prices that will hit their budgets. Howard Archer, an economist at forecasters EY Item Club, said the squeeze on consumers should ease in 2018 when inflation is expected to fall back, but that uncertainties about Brexit were likely to weigh further on business investment. Businesses upped their investment by 0.2 percent in the three months to September, the weakest pace so far this year. Yael Selfin, an economist with KPMG, said a fall in investment in information technology and other machinery and equipment did not bode well for a recovery in productivity, the Achilles heel of Britain’s economy and the biggest factor behind Wednesday’s grim growth outlook. “It will be particularly important to watch the performance of business investment in coming months, not just as a sign of business confidence in the direction the UK is taking, but also as an indication of whether productivity and future UK growth potential are likely to pick up,” she said. In another sign of how reliant Britain’s economy remains on its consumers, the ONS said the country’s trade deficit weighed heavily on growth in the third quarter, despite the pound’s fall which some Brexit supporters have said should help exporters. The Bank of England, which raised interest rates for the first time in a decade earlier this month, hopes stronger growth among manufacturers will bolster the economy as it faces the challenge of Brexit. Additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy/households-prop-up-uk-growth-again-firms-more-cautious-idUKKBN1DN0YP'|'2017-11-23T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'3d05ad9a162348103db5c3eb038deb26891945ad'|'Saudi Arabia agrees to buy $7 billion in precision munitions from U.S. firms - sources'|'(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy about $7 billion worth of precision guided munitions from U.S. defense contractors, sources familiar with the matter said, a deal that some lawmakers may object to over American weapons having contributed to civilian deaths in the Saudi campaign in Yemen.Logo of the U.S. defense company Raytheon is pictured at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Raytheon Co ( RTN.N ) and Boeing Co ( BA.N ) are the companies selected, the sources said, in a deal that was part of a $110 billion weapons agreement that coincided with President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May.Both companies declined comment on the weapons sale.Arms sales to the kingdom and other Gulf Cooperation Council member states have become increasingly contentious in the U.S. Congress, which must approve such sales.The U.S. State Department has yet to formally notify Congress of the precision guided munitions deal.“We do not comment to confirm or deny sales until they are formally notified to Congress,” a State Department official said, adding the U.S. government will take into account factors “including regional balance and human rights as well as the impact on the U.S. defense industrial base.”The Yemen civil war pits Iran-allied Houthi rebels against the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Nearly 4,800 civilians have been killed since March 2015, the United Nations said in March.Saudi Arabia has either denied attacks or cited the presence of fighters in the targeted areas and has said it has tried to reduce civilian casualties.Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington, Prince Khalid bin Salman declined to comment on the specific sale, but said in a statement his country will follow through on the agreements signed during Trump’s visit.He said that while the kingdom has always chosen the United States for weapons purchases, “... Saudi Arabia’s market selection remains a choice and is committed to defending its security.”Trump, a Republican who views weapons sales as a way to create jobs in the United States, has announced billions of dollars in arms sales since taking office in January.A U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the agreement is designed to cover a 10-year period and it could be years before actual transfers of weapons take place.The agreement could be held up in Congress, where Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in June that he would block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the and other members of the GCC, over a dispute with Qatar, another U.S. ally in the Gulf.In November 2016, the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, halted the sale of $1.29 billion worth of precision guided weapons because of concerns about the extent of civilian casualties in Yemen.That sale process started in 2015 and included more than 8,000 Laser Guided Bombs for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The package also included more than 10,000 general purpose bombs, and more than 5,000 tail kits used to inexpensively convert “dumb” bombs into laser or GPS-guided weapons.U.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. The coalition had briefly banned naval, air and land transportation to Yemen following a missile fired by the Houthis that was shot down over the Saudi capital Riyadh.The Senate in June voted 53 to 47 to narrowly defeat legislation that sought to block portions of the 2015 package.David Des Roches, a senior military fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies in Washington was aware of the deal but said the Saudis “are one errant strike away from moving five or six senators over to the other side.”Denying Saudi Arabia precision guided munitions was unlikely to change their behaviour, he said.“Saudi Arabia has shown they will fight in Yemen and they’re going to keep on fighting in Yemen regardless of what we think,” Des Roches said.Reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Mike Stone; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/raytheon-saudi-munitions/saudi-arabia-agrees-to-buy-7-billion-in-precision-munitions-from-u-s-firms-sources-idINKBN1DM2XG'|'2017-11-23T01:11:00.000+02:00'
'3f73edcdf7f0155f520dd40f91cc7d00fda3002a'|'Morning News Call - India, November 23'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 09:30 am: UltraTech Cement Joint Executive President Rajesh Srivastava, Indian Oil General Manager (HRD) Shailesh Tiwari at FICCI’s annual HR conference in New Delhi. 10:00 am: Junior Law Minister P.P. Chaudhary at “Paradigm Shift in Valuation” workshop in New Delhi. 10:00 am: Edelweiss Group Chairman Rashesh Shah, HDFC Executive Director V. S. Rangan, PNB Housing Finance MD Sanjaya Gupta and other NBFC heads at CRISIL Ratings’ seminar on NBFCs in Mumbai. 11:30 am: EPFO board meet in New Delhi. 12:00 pm: Talwalkar Better Value Fitness CEO Prashant Talwalkar to announce partnership with corporate life coach Mickey Mehta in Mumbai. 02:00 pm: State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar at announcement of bank’s digital innovation in Mumbai. 03:30 pm: CRISIL Ratings media teleconference on NBFCs in Mumbai.x TRADING INDIA FORUM - THE FUTURE OF INDIAN BANKING The Indian banking scene is in the throes of changes that will be felt for years to come. With online, digital and wallets bringing more players into the fray and the government''s recapitalization plan for PSU banks up and running, a variety of interesting scenarios have cropped up. Do customers win with lending moving to small but niche players? Will marrying a good bank with a bad bank result in a good bank? Trading India invites you to our Banking Day event to discuss these questions and the future of Indian banking. To join the conversation with H.R.Khan, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, at 12:00 pm IST; Renu Satti, CEO, PAYTM payments bank, at 2:30 pm IST and C.Venkat Nageswar, Deputy Managing Director, Global Markets, State Bank of India, at 4:00 pm IST, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Cabinet approves amendments to insolvency and bankruptcy code India''s cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the finance minister said, changes that are designed to prevent wilful defaulters from bidding for stressed assets. • Indian Oil Corp studies renewed Venezuelan crude purchases Indian Oil Corp is considering buying Venezuelan crude for the first time in at least six years, in a move that could help the crisis-struck South American nation settle unpaid bills with another state-owned Indian energy firm. • India''s top court upholds ban on petroleum coke in New Delhi area India''s top court on Wednesday upheld the ban on use of petroleum coke in and around New Delhi as the country battles to clean the air in its capital, one of the world''s most polluted cities. • India''s annual diesel consumption to rise by two-thirds by 2030 India''s annual diesel consumption could rise to 150 billion litres by 2030 from 90 billion litres now, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. • Japan''s JFE to bid for Bhushan Steel with India''s JSW as partner -sources Japan''s India''s India''s GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Uber''s messy data breach collides with launch of SoftBank deal A newspaper advertisement for an Uber Technologies Inc stock sale was juxtaposed on Wednesday with a report that the ride-service provider had covered up a data hack - something of a metaphor for Uber, a company with boundless investor interest, but whose penchant for rule-breaking has led to a series of scandals. • Chinese firms scrap plans for micro loan business amid crackdown on ''blind borrowing'' A Chinese menswear firm and a leading maker of POS terminals said late on Wednesday they had given up plans to set up micro-loan units, one day after policymakers took steps to tighten supervision of the lightly regulated sector. • Fed policymakers say rate increase likely warranted soon -minutes Many Federal Reserve policymakers expect that interest rates will have to be raised in the "near term," according to the minutes of the U.S. central bank''s last policy meeting released on Wednesday. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,367.50, up 0.14 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to rise in early trade tracking an overnight fall in U.S. Treasury yields.However, higher crude oil prices and lack of fresh cues may lead to some selling, a trader with a primary dealership said. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 6.93 percent -6.98 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open higher against the dollar, on weaker-than-expected U.S. data and after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed policymakers remained cautious about subdued inflation in the world’s largest economy. GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday, with telecom services shares among the biggest movers while the energy sector rose in line with gains in crude oil. • Moves in Asian share markets were minor with Japanese markets closed for a holiday and the United States off for Thanksgiving. • The dollar touched a two-month low against the yen, having tumbled after the minutes of the Federal Reserve''s latest meeting showed some policymakers were concerned about persistently low inflation in a blow to rate hawks. • U.S. Treasury prices gained slightly after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting on Wednesday affirmed market expectations that it will hike rates in December, with trading volumes subdued before Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. • U.S. oil prices remained near two-year highs as the shutdown of the Keystone pipeline and a drawdown in fuel inventories pointed to a tightening market, despite rising output. • Gold prices nudged lower, after gaining nearly one percent in the previous session on weaker U.S. economic data and concerns by some Federal Reserve policymakers about lower inflation. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.85/64.88 November 22 -$67.98 mln -$14.17 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.12 pct Month-to-date $2.36 bln -$89.20 mln Year-to-date $8.01 bln $25.86 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.8700 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Nachiket Tekawade in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-23-idINL3N1NT1HU'|'2017-11-23T00:40:00.000+02:00'
'395198cc0dbd4c0a36b71fddd0644f4899aa9f0b'|'UPDATE 1-UK lender Paragon flags weak demand in buy-to-let business'|'* Paragon says changes drive shift to professional landlords* Strength in buy-to-let offsets modest profit growth* Shares rise more than 2 percent (Adds details, CEO comments)By Noor Zainab HussainNov 23 (Reuters) - Britain’s Paragon Banking Group said its focus on professional landlords helped to drive a surge in its buy-to-let business even as tax and regulatory changes made the property market tougher for smaller investors.Focused on mortgage and business finance, Paragon said 71 percent of applications in its core buy-to-let business were from professionals as of the end of September, rather than people renting out one or two properties.Traditionally 90 percent of Britain’s buy-to-let market has been owned by amateur investors. However a string of tax and regulatory changes announced last year has made the sector less attractive to such “dinner party” landlords, allowing larger institutions to grab market share.“These changes disrupted the level of market activity during the year, dampening demand in the sector at an aggregate level. Against this backdrop the group’s performance has been strong,” Paragon said.Overall lending in the wider buy-to-let market has reduced from about 40 billion pounds ($53.2 billion) to about 35 billion pounds this year, CEO Nigel Terrington told Reuters.“While the wider market is weaker, our market share is stronger... in the areas that produce the better customers, who are able to deliver enhanced margins and stronger relationships,” Terrington said.BUY-TO-LET MODEL Founded in 1985 and based in Solihull in central England, Paragon has a 5 percent share of Britain’s buy-to-let market.Buy-to-let investors buy residential property, typically with a mortgage, with the aim of renting it out. House prices have been outpacing a rise in wages for Britons, leading people to rent more, making buy-to-let an attractive investment.Paragon’s pipeline of buy-to-let loans in process at the end of September was 604.2 million pounds ($804 million), 88.2 percent higher than a year earlier and completions rose 20.6 percent to 1.39 billion pounds.The buy-to-let market is facing stricter regulations and the most recent regulatory changes require lenders to collect and analyse more information about a landlord’s property portfolio.“Notably, Paragon flags that it sees the professionalisation of the BTL market as conducive to market share build – a point that OneSavings has been making strongly too,” Goodbody analyst John Cronin, said.Shares in Paragon were up 2.1 percent at 470.7 pence at 1020 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, outperforming Europe’s banking sector.Paragon reported a slim 1.1 percent rise in pretax profit rose to 144.8 million pounds for the year ended Sept. 30. Profit was impacted by costs related to a Tier-II capital bond and its reorganisation. ($1 = 0.7510 pounds)Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Keith WeirOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/paragon-banking-results/update-1-uk-lender-paragon-flags-weak-demand-in-buy-to-let-business-idINL3N1NT25B'|'2017-11-23T04:51:00.000+02:00'
'bd78f13d9bd23fe1d6918ea60b0a8b332688de6c'|'Despite grim Brexit budget, UK''s Hammond hushes critics for now'|'LONDON (Reuters) - A bleak Brexit budget that slashed growth forecasts but gave young voters a tax break on buying their first property may have placated critics of British Chancellor Philip Hammond, at least for now.Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond presents his budget in the House of Commons, London, November 22, 2017. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS Hammond was under intense pressure from within his Conservative Party to spend money Britain doesn’t have on courting voters, even though he is boxed in by uncertainty over the impact of Britain’s March 2019 exit from the European Union.Despite the sombre outlook for economic growth and government borrowing, Hammond announced on Wednesday some spending steps aimed at winning back voters, in particular abolishing a property tax for most first-time home-buyers.The plans were enough to win over Conservative lawmakers, some of whom who had even been urging Prime Minister Theresa May before the budget to fire Hammond - nicknamed “Spreadsheet Phil” - for his cautious approach to Brexit and the public finances.“It is clear that, thankfully, we are now all singing off the same spreadsheet,” said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen. He had previously suggested May would have to sack Hammond if he deviated from the government’s position on Brexit.The Sun newspaper praised Hammond for putting money in voters’ pockets while the right-wing Daily Mail declared Hammond was “Eeyore no more!”, referring to the glum donkey from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Last month the pro-Brexit paper had described him as treacherous and dismal.“I’ve never been gloomy, I‘m a pragmatist. I take the world as it is,” Hammond told BBC radio on Thursday.May told broadcasters he had done a very good job on the budget, when asked if his job was safe.Other media were sceptical about his chances of silencing his critics. The Financial Times said “‘Box Office’ Phil does enough to survive, for now”.Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond presents his budget in the House of Commons, London, November 22, 2017. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS TROUBLE AHEAD? The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) scythed its projections for economic growth in the coming years in the midst of a dire decade for productivity - the worst since 1812, according to the Resolution Foundation think-tank.The budget forecasters chopped their economic outlook for the next five years, with growth in 2017 cut to 1.5 percent from a previous estimate of 2.0 percent, a contrast with world economic growth of 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund.Slideshow (6 Images) Weak growth means Britain will make glacial progress in fixing its public finances, leaving Hammond boxed in.The Institute for Fiscal Studies said at the current pace, based on current rates of debt reduction, Britain would not cut debt as a share of gross domestic product back down to its level before the 2007-08 financial crisis until the 2060s.After years of criticism that its forecasts were too optimistic, pro-Brexit economists said the OBR was too downbeat.But data on Thursday showed Britain grew at its joint-weakest annual rate since 2012 in the third quarter.The OBR’s outlook has yet to take into account the impact of Brexit, given that the nature of the exit deal is still unclear. Economists polled by Reuters assign a roughly one-in-three chance of a disorderly exit.Compounding matters for Hammond, the squeeze on households looks set to last for years. The OBR forecast virtually no wage growth in inflation-adjusted terms for the next two years.“We will all have to get used to the idea that steadily rising living standards may be a thing of the increasingly distant past,” IFS director Paul Johnson said.Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Schomberg and Richard Balmforth '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget/with-a-grim-brexit-budget-chancellor-hammond-hushes-critics-for-now-idINKBN1DN10W'|'2017-11-23T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'6b704e64174431811b6658a149642c71d8ea6378'|'Chad''s President Deby sacks finance minister - decree'|'November 23, 2017 / 2:54 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Chad''s President Deby sacks finance minister - decree Reuters Staff 1 Min Read N‘DJAMENA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Chad’s President Idriss Deby has sacked Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye, a government decree showed. The decree dated Nov. 21, reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, also dismissed secretary of state in charge of finances and budget Banata Tchalet Sow. It gave no reason for the sackings. Their dismissal came amid a standoff with Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore over more than $1 billion the West African country owes it in oil-backed loans. Reporting By Madjiasra Nako; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/chad-finance/chads-president-deby-sacks-finance-minister-decree-idUSL8N1NT3ZQ'|'2017-11-23T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'29edf91993b86d924ca1adc207495cc581f60c42'|'Sports Direct investors to vote on 11 million pound payment to founder''s brother'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:13 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Sports Direct''s Ashley expects investors to veto paying brother 11 million pounds Alistair Smout 3   Sports Direct’s ( SPD.L ) billionaire founder Mike Ashley expects shareholders to vote against paying his brother 11 million pounds in the latest investor stand-off. FILE PHOTO: Mike Ashley, founder and majority shareholder of sportwear retailer Sports Direct, leads journalists on a factory tour after the company''s AGM, at the company''s headquarters in Shirebrook, Britain, September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo The British retailer run by Ashley said on Friday it would hold a general meeting on Dec. 13 after a report by law firm RPC found his brother John was entitled to the money for his work as an IT expert since Sports Direct floated in 2007. The review, which said John Ashley had not received what he was owed “because of concerns at the time about public relations”, was launched after pressure from shareholder groups. Independent shareholders would vote on the resolution to pay the 11 million pounds, with Mike Ashley and other board members abstaining from the vote, Sports Direct said in a statement. “I fully expect that independent shareholders will vote against this proposal due to the passage of time involved, although in my opinion, technically the money is owed and therefore should be paid,” Mike Ashley, who is Sports Direct’s chief executive and a 61 percent shareholder, said. “It’s important for me to say that if John had owed one pound to Sports Direct, I would have ensured any sum was repaid in full,” he added. Shareholder Royal London Asset Management said that investors hadn’t been given a “plausible reason” why John Ashley was owed money, and would vote against the resolution. “We will not be supporting this vote because we feel it is a consequence of poor governance,” Ashley Hamilton Claxton, Head of Responsible Investment at Royal London Asset Management said. “If appropriate governance measures were in place at Sports Direct in the first place, there would have been a clear and transparent process for paying John Ashley what he was due and there would be no need to review his compensation after the fact.” The latest showdown comes after years of clashes between shareholders and the board. Chairman Keith Hellawell, blamed by investors for a string of management and governance failures, narrowly survived a vote to oust him in September. Paul Lee, head of corporate governance at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said that while a decision had not yet been taken, it was “really difficult to see how it’s in our clients’ interest to support the proposal” to pay John Ashley the money. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Jason Neely/Edmund Blair/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sports-direct-investors/sports-direct-investors-to-vote-on-11-million-pound-payment-to-founders-brother-idUKKBN1DO110'|'2017-11-24T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'9b1d94f1586a00517b72f121b93be382b1af8040'|'Exclusive: AppLovin tweaks Chinese takeover deal after U.S. pushback'|'(Reuters) - AppLovin has tweaked a $1.4 billion agreement to sell itself to Chinese buyout firm Orient Hontai Capital into a debt investment, the U.S. mobile marketing firm said on Tuesday, after the U.S. government pushed back against the original deal.The move illustrates how companies have been looking for ways to get their deals past the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. government panel that scrutinizes transactions for potential national security threats.CFIUS has become more reluctant to approve Chinese deals since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump in January, and U.S. lawmakers have been introducing bills to toughen U.S. foreign investment rules amid growing concern about Chinese efforts to buy U.S. high-tech companies.AppLovin told Reuters in a statement that it had abandoned plans to sell a majority stake in Shanghai-based Orient Hontai Capital. Instead, it said it had accepted an $841 million debt investment from Orient Hontai Capital.It also said Orient Hontai completed a 9.98 percent investment in AppLovin for $140 million in January 2017.The $140 million equity investment implies a valuation for AppLovin of about $1.4 billion, the same price as the deal it struck with Orient Hontai more than a year ago.“This fully restructured agreement permits us to maintain full control of our business while accessing additional liquidity to finance our continued global growth,” AppLovin Chief Executive Adam Foroughi said in the statement.AppLovin and Orient Hontai have notified CFIUS of the new arrangements, but they do not believe the new deal will be scrutinized by CFIUS because it does not give Orient Hontai any control of the company, a source close to the deal said.CFIUS had previously expressed concerns about the security of the company’s data under a foreign owner, according to a separate source familiar with the matter.Orient Hontai Capital is an affiliate of Orient Securities Company Limited ( 600958.SS ), a public listed company in Shanghai. It has invested in gaming companies such as Shanda Games, China Mobile Game Entertainment and FunPlus Games.Orient Hontai could not immediately be reached for comment.Palo Alto, California-based AppLovin’s investors include Maynard Webb, a former tech executive and chairman of Yahoo Inc, and John Burbank, founder of Passport Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund. AppLovin had only raised $4 million in funding before its deal with Orient Hontai Capital.CFIUS has toughened its stance on foreign deals this year and rejected acquisitions such as the sale of Lattice Semiconductor ( LSCC.O ) to a Chinese-backed private equity firm and the sale of mapping company HERE Technologies to a China-backed group of investors led by NavInfo Inc.Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-applovin-m-a-hontaicapital-exclusive/exclusive-applovin-tweaks-chinese-takeover-deal-after-u-s-pushback-idUSKBN1DL2N3'|'2017-11-22T04:43:00.000+02:00'
'a50888761db21fe87cd37aae180acf1e68da286e'|'Regulation should not hinder cross-border bank deals - ECB''s Villeroy'|'November 22, 2017 / 10:23 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Regulation should not hinder cross-border bank deals: ECB''s Villeroy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Tougher financial regulation should not have the adverse effect of hindering cross-border banking deals in Europe, said Bank of France governor and European Central Bank governing council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau. Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Villeroy, who was commenting while addressing an industry event in Paris on Wednesday, did not mention any particular banks or deals by name, but said cross-border European banking tie-ups could bring benefits. “Healthy and solid cross-border consolidation deals would allow banks to better diversify their risks across the whole of the euro zone, and to orient their funds more efficiently towards productive investments,” he said. Recent takeover speculation has centered on Germany’s Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ). Germany has denied a report that it favored a merger of Commerzbank with France’s BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ), while Italy’s UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) recently told Berlin it was interested in eventually merging with Commerzbank, according to people close to the matter. Villeroy also highlighted in his speech that euro zone banks were lagging their U.S. peers in the sense that the top five U.S. banks had a 40 percent share of their market, whereas the top five in Europe had a share of less than 20 percent. Villeroy also welcomed this week’s decision by the European Banking Authority (EBA) to base its new post-Brexit headquarters in Paris, as it would help Paris in its bid to establish itself as Europe’s foremost financial hub. Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou and Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-banks-france/regulation-should-not-hinder-cross-border-bank-deals-ecbs-villeroy-idUKKBN1DM125'|'2017-11-22T12:17:00.000+02:00'
'6d5237b5a5a525c4b4abcfccd87c309b4da9fce5'|'UPDATE 3-ThyssenKrupp lifted by record orders as shifts from steel'|'ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Demand for next-generation lifts and car components enabled Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) to report its highest annual order intake in five years as the German firm slowly exits steelmaking.Thyssenkrupp is in the middle of a major shift under Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger towards technology and away from the more volatile steel industry, its traditional mainstay.It has sold its money-losing Brazilian steel mill CSA Cia Siderúrgica do Atlántico SA to Ternium SA ( TX.N ) and struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) in 2018.“The structural problems in the European steel industry have not gone away. We still have significant overcapacities also on the European flat steel market,” Hiesinger said on Thursday.But labor representatives are demanding job protection for workers and say Thyssenkrupp is shirking responsibility for a business whose roots go back more than 200 years.Hiesinger said he remained confident an agreement with workers can be found as thousands were expected to stage demonstrations at Thyssenkrupp’s tin plate production site in Andernach, calling for job and plant guarantees.“All conceivable alternatives would involve far greater job cuts,” Hiesinger said, referring to 2,000 job losses that were already announced along with the joint venture in September.Shareholder Cevian, which holds around 18 percent of Thyssenkrupp, described the results as concerning, saying management had set a target four years ago to achieve operating margins of 6-7 percent but was only making half that.“The strategy has not yet delivered what was promised” Cevian co-founder Lars Foerberg told German daily Handelsblatt in an interview.He said while the company had found a good solution for the steel division, it needed to look at finding the right structure for its other divisions to become more competitive.A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “There are various options to find the right structure. A joint venture, decentralized company structure, spin-off. The main point is that old-style conglomerates don’t work,” he said.The chief executive of Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) also said earlier this month that he saw no future for old-school conglomerates.CATCHING A LIFTSlideshow (2 Images) While slowly reducing its dependency on steel, Thyssenkrupp is staking its future on its elevators unit, its most profitable, as well as demand from the automotive sector, its biggest customer group accounting for about a quarter of sales.ThyssenKrupp’s order intake rose 18 percent to 44.29 billion euros ($52 billion) in the financial year to Sept. 30 while adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 1.91 billion euros, beating the 1.73 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.Operating profit at its elevators unit, which mostly caters to clients in the United States and Europe with its internet-connected elevators, rose 7 percent to 922 million euros, making it the group’s single biggest profit contributor.At its components technology unit, which supplies parts to nine out of 10 premium cars, including all models of electric car maker Tesla ( TSLA.O ), operating profit grew 12 percent to 377 million euros.Shares in the group turned positive after sharp early falls, and closed up almost 4 percent. “The numbers came out better than feared, although the outlook could disappoint people a bit,” said one trader.Thyssenkrupp, which recommended an unchanged dividend of 0.15 euros per share, said it expects adjusted EBIT this year of 1.8-2.0 billion euros while analysts on average expect 2.03 billion euros.($1 = 0.8462 euros)Editing by Douglas Busvine, Alexander Smith and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-results/thyssenkrupp-lifted-by-record-orders-as-shifts-from-steel-idUSKBN1DN103'|'2017-11-23T12:34:00.000+02:00'
'cd388304f2b3d673eafffa5fc83c221c99b32e04'|'Centrica loses 823,000 energy supply customers in four months'|'November 23, 2017 / 7:29 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Centrica crashes on profit warning as feels North American chill Susanna Twidale 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British Gas owner Centrica ( CNA.L ) shed around a fifth of its market value on Thursday after warning its 2017 earnings would be well below forecasts due to fierce competition for business customers in North America and Britain. Electricity pylons are seen in London, Britain August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall In a surprise trading update, Centrica said its full-year adjusted earnings per share were now forecast to be around 12.5 pence, against forecasts of 15 pence, largely due to its North American and British businesses being hit by competition and warmer than expected weather reducing power and gas demand. Low volatility in the North American gas market had also impacted its profits, Centrica said. The division is now expected to report full year adjusted operating profit of around 80 million pounds, down from 221 million in 2016. “The biggest problem has been in the North American business side which is supplying energy to business customers. It has been hit by a combination of strong competition, pressuring margins and low volatility which means the company hasn’t been able to make as much money from trading,” Roshan Patel, an analyst at Investec, said. Investec’s rating on Centrica is currently under review, Patel said. In the consumer market, Britain’s big energy suppliers are under pressure from smaller rivals offering cheaper deals, and Centrica reported a record loss of 823,000 UK customers in the four months to the end of October as they shifted elsewhere. However, this was unlikely to have a big impact, as the largest portion of theses were so-called collective switch, or block customers. “The block customers are not a big loss because they wouldn’t have been generating much profit,” Investec’s Patel said. Centrica shares fell by more than 22 percent and were down 16 percent to 137 pence at 1214 GMT, putting them on track for their biggest-ever daily loss. “The question now is whether this weakness will persist in to 2018, and the longer term potential impact on the dividend,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said. Chief Executive Iain Conn told investors on a call that more details on the dividend policy would be given at Centrica’s annual results in February. The company said it now expected adjusted operating cashflow of more than 2 billion pounds, down from 2.69 billion pounds last year. British Gas, the country’s largest energy supplier, had around 14 million residential energy supply accounts in 2016 but did not give a new absolute figure in the trading update. COLLECTIVE SHIFT The customer losses included 650,000 customers who were on white-label fixed price and prepayment tariffs or part of a “collective switch”. These involve large numbers of customers who join together to sign up for cheap deals and Conn said Centrica does not have any more of these on its books. A collective switch with British Gas negotiated by Moneysavingexpert.com ran out in October and the consumer group negotiated a collective switch deal with EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ). Of the other losses, 150,000 customers were due to more regular account switching and a result of the company’s 12.5 percent rise in power prices in September, Centrica said. Home power bills have doubled in Britain over the past decade to an average of about 1,200 pounds ($1,600) a year, leading to pressure from the British government. Prime Minister Theresa May said in October she would impose controls to tackle “rip-off” energy prices. Centrica said on Monday it would stop offering its standard variable tariff (SVT) - the payment targeted by the government cap - to new customers from March 31. It also called on the government to phase out SVT deals altogether and prohibit so-called evergreen tariffs without an end-date, arguing that such deals reduce customer engagement. Britain’s other top energy suppliers are Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) and SSE ( SSE.L ) and Germany’s Innogy ( IGY.DE ) which are planning to merge their UK retail businesses. Reporting by Susanna Twidale; additional reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Greg Mahlich and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-centrica-outlook/centrica-loses-823000-energy-supply-customers-in-four-months-idUKKBN1DN0LX'|'2017-11-23T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'bfe4cb1a19ebc5655ac1e29d74b197cf1c75f857'|'Euro zone business roars as Germany leads the pride'|' 10 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Euro zone business roars as Germany leads the pride Jonathan Cable 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone business growth is roaring ahead as the year draws to a close, surveys showed on Thursday, supporting the European Central Bank’s move last month to announce a throttling back of its monetary stimulus. The euro sign in front of the former headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) is photographed with long exposure in Frankfurt, Germany, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Surveys covering both the services and manufacturing industries outshone even the most optimistic forecasters in Reuters polls -- indicating growth is broad-based - with factories having the second-best month in the index’s history. An earlier sister survey from Germany showed Europe’s largest economy shifted into an even higher gear in November as factories churned out goods at the fastest pace in nearly seven years. France’s equivalent confounded economists’ expectations for a slowdown and activity grew at the fastest pace in 6-1/2 years this month as recent labour reforms pushed firms to add staff quicker than at any time since 2001. The currency bloc has emerged as the surprise economic star of 2017, with growth rates outpacing its peers, and future-looking indicators in the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) suggest the upturn still has momentum. IHS Markit’s composite flash PMI for the euro zone jumped to 57.5 this month, its highest since April 2011 and smashing the median forecast in a Reuters poll for no change from a final October reading of 56.0. Anything above 50 indicates growth. “All in all, there are no signs of stopping the euro zone economy at the moment and 2018 is likely to start on a strong footing,” said Bert Colijn at ING. “With continued monetary support and some expected improvements in global growth in 2018, the euro zone economy is set for another year of surprising growth.” December looks like it will be busy, too. A new business index rose to 56.9 from 56.6, a near seven-year high and so IHS Markit said the PMI, if maintained, points to fourth quarter growth of 0.8 percent, outstripping the 0.5 percent predicted in a Reuters poll earlier this month. [ECILT/EU] Britain’s overall economic growth sped up moderately in the third quarter but was only a tepid 0.4 percent, official figures showed on Thursday, as households increased the pace of spending but business investment grew more slowly, suggesting caution among companies ahead of Brexit. In contrast, rising business investments, alongside exports, were the main drivers of growth for the German economy last quarter, data showed on Thursday, signalling the robust upswing will extend well into next year. Accelerating growth in the euro zone, alongside increasing price pressures, will be welcomed by policymakers at the ECB who last month took a step towards weaning the euro zone off loose money. “Today’s data make it easy for the ECB to justify its forced reduction of the bond buying programme in 2018,” said Christoph Weil at Commerzbank. A PMI covering the bloc’s dominant service industry also beat all expectations in a Reuters poll, rising from October’s 55.0 to a six-month high of 56.2 and comfortably above the median forecast for a very modest increase to 55.1. Implying a busy end to the year, service firms built up backlogs of work at the fastest rate since May 2011, with the sub-index up from 52.9 to 53.3, pushing them to increase headcount at the fastest rate in almost 10 years. Manufacturers also had a much better month than anyone polled expected. Their PMI climbed to 60.0 from 58.5, the second-highest reading since the index was first collected in June 1997 and only surpassed in April 2000. An index measuring output, which feeds into the composite PMI, jumped to a near seven-year high of 60.8 from 58.8. With new orders coming in at the fastest rate since April 2011, factories built up backlogs of work and stockpiled raw materials. Yet despite jacking up employment at the fastest rate in the survey’s more than 20-year history, with the subindex rising to 57.9 from 57.3, delivery times grew. “The increasing backlogs of work are a positive indication for investment growth in the months ahead, which suggests that the euro zone economy is likely to continue to fire on all cylinders,” Colijn said. Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-pmi/euro-zone-business-roars-as-germany-leads-the-pride-idUKKBN1DN10J'|'2017-11-23T13:09:00.000+02:00'
'10930afe02c2f770a9562ea0ebb05223febda97e'|'With a grim Brexit budget, Chancellor Hammond hushes critics for now'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:06 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Despite grim Brexit budget, Hammond hushes critics for now Andy Bruce 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A bleak Brexit budget that slashed growth forecasts but gave young voters a tax break on buying their first property may have placated critics of British Chancellor Philip Hammond, at least for now. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond presents his budget in the House of Commons, London, November 22, 2017. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS Hammond was under intense pressure from within his Conservative Party to spend money Britain doesn’t have on courting voters, even though he is boxed in by uncertainty over the impact of Britain’s March 2019 exit from the European Union. Despite the sombre outlook for economic growth and government borrowing, Hammond announced on Wednesday some spending steps aimed at winning back voters, in particular abolishing a property tax for most first-time home-buyers. The plans were enough to win over Conservative lawmakers, some of whom who had even been urging Prime Minister Theresa May before the budget to fire Hammond - nicknamed “Spreadsheet Phil” - for his cautious approach to Brexit and the public finances. “It is clear that, thankfully, we are now all singing off the same spreadsheet,” said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen. He had previously suggested May would have to sack Hammond if he deviated from the government’s position on Brexit. The Sun newspaper praised Hammond for putting money in voters’ pockets while the right-wing Daily Mail declared Hammond was “Eeyore no more!”, referring to the glum donkey from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Last month the pro-Brexit paper had described him as treacherous and dismal. “I’ve never been gloomy, I‘m a pragmatist. I take the world as it is,” Hammond told BBC radio on Thursday. May told broadcasters he had done a very good job on the budget, when asked if his job was safe. Other media were sceptical about his chances of silencing his critics. The Financial Times said “‘Box Office’ Phil does enough to survive, for now”. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond presents his budget in the House of Commons, London, November 22, 2017. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS TROUBLE AHEAD? The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) scythed its projections for economic growth in the coming years in the midst of a dire decade for productivity - the worst since 1812, according to the Resolution Foundation think-tank. The budget forecasters chopped their economic outlook for the next five years, with growth in 2017 cut to 1.5 percent from a previous estimate of 2.0 percent, a contrast with world economic growth of 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund. Slideshow (6 Images) Weak growth means Britain will make glacial progress in fixing its public finances, leaving Hammond boxed in. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said at the current pace, based on current rates of debt reduction, Britain would not cut debt as a share of gross domestic product back down to its level before the 2007-08 financial crisis until the 2060s. After years of criticism that its forecasts were too optimistic, pro-Brexit economists said the OBR was too downbeat. But data on Thursday showed Britain grew at its joint-weakest annual rate since 2012 in the third quarter. The OBR’s outlook has yet to take into account the impact of Brexit, given that the nature of the exit deal is still unclear. Economists polled by Reuters assign a roughly one-in-three chance of a disorderly exit. Compounding matters for Hammond, the squeeze on households looks set to last for years. The OBR forecast virtually no wage growth in inflation-adjusted terms for the next two years. “We will all have to get used to the idea that steadily rising living standards may be a thing of the increasingly distant past,” IFS director Paul Johnson said. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Schomberg and Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-budget/with-a-grim-brexit-budget-chancellor-hammond-hushes-critics-for-now-idUKKBN1DN10W'|'2017-11-23T13:05:00.000+02:00'
'735ef39ce21cfaa90dabdc135d610d66ed74fe17'|'Canada''s peas acreage set to fall as top buyer India imposes tariff'|'WINNIPEG/MUMBAI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - India’s decision to impose a steep tariff on pea imports could jeopardize $1 billion worth of pulse trading with Canada, which may cause farmers there to trim their pea acreage by nearly one-third.Earlier this month, India imposed a 50 percent import tax on peas, as pulse prices fell below their government-set support levels because of record output.The duty is expected to lift domestic pulse prices and spur farmers in India, the world’s biggest buyer of pulses, to boost pulse plantings, reducing import requirements in 2018.Pulses, a cheap source of protein, are a staple part of the Indian diet. Canada is the world’s top pulse crop exporter. The short-term move to lift Indian market prices could impact India’s long-term food security needs, Canada’s International Trade Minister François Champagne said in an interview last week.The tariff on peas and fears that India may impose a similar hike on red lentils could curb spring plantings in Canada of both crops by 30 percent and 35 percent respectively, said Marlene Boersch, a partner at Mercantile Consulting Venture.The seeded area for dry peas in Canada for the 2016/2017 crop year, from August to July, is forecast to be 1.72 million hectares (4.3 million acres), according to data published by the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.Canadian yellow pea prices have slumped since India’s tariff announcement to between C$5.50 ($4.31) and C$6 ($4.70) per bushel from between C$7.50 and C$8, according to LeftField Commodity Research.Canada wants the import duty removed, but New Delhi is committed to doubling Indian farmers’ incomes and reducing imports, a senior official with India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.“Imports are not viable after adding the duty. Shipments will fall significantly in coming months,” said Pravin Dongre, chairman of the India Pulses and Grains Association.Much of the land that Canadian farmers previously planted with peas is likely to be sown this spring with wheat, canola and soybeans, said Chris Beckman, oilseed analyst at Canada’s Agriculture Department.The tariff is unlikely to halt all pea trade with India, but it will sharply reduce imports, said Anurag Tulshan, managing director of Indian crop brokerage Esarco Exim Pvt Ltd, adding that it will remain in place at least until the size of India’s winter harvest is known.AGT Food and Ingredients, Canada’s biggest pulse crop processor and exporter, posted its worst quarter in five years this month due to Indian oversupply, according to Canadian bank BMO. Its stock fell to a more than three-year low two days after India’s tariff announcement. ($1 = 1.2768 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in MUMBAI and Rod Nickel in WINNIPEG; Additional reporting by Euan Rocha in MUMBAI and Rupam Jain in NEW DELHI; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-pulses-canada/canadas-peas-acreage-set-to-fall-as-top-buyer-india-imposes-tariff-idINL1N1NS093'|'2017-11-23T03:46:00.000+02:00'
'f2e57b94e189ede82f6d5d7c07f18ebd162c21d1'|'CMC Markets reports higher first-half profit'|'November 23, 2017 / 7:24 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago CMC Markets first-half profit up 58 percent boosted by high value trading Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - British financial spreadbetting firm CMC Markets Plc ( CMCX.L ) reported a 58 percent jump in first-half profit, allaying some concerns about a sectorwide regulatory clampdown and lower levels of volatility. Shares of CMC rose as much as 8 percent in morning trading. The company, set up by Chief Executive Peter Cruddas as a foreign exchange broker with a 10,000 pound investment in 1989, said pretax profit rose to 29.8 million pounds in the six months ended Sept. 30, from 18.8 million pounds a year earlier. The value of trades was up 29 percent, while volumes increased 15 percent. Revenue per active client rose 22 percent to 1,814 pounds, while the number of active clients fell 2 percent to 46,634. Chairman Simon Waugh will retire from the board on Dec. 31 and will be replaced by James Richards, the company added. CMC said it would pay an interim dividend of 2.98 pence per share, unchanged from the previous year. The company said it remained cautious in its short-term outlook, citing uncertainties around current regulatory reviews and future regulatory changes. CEO Cruddas said the company executives had met with Europe’s regulators as part of an ongoing review of the spreadbetting industry. “What is clear from the consultation process is that the regulators are concerned with the level of client losses, and inadequate appropriateness and on-boarding checks,” Cruddas said. CMC said in June that its customers know the risks they are taking on, as regulators moved to tighten controls on the fast-growing 3.5 billion pound industry. Cruddas said at the time that clients had shown “complete ambivalence” to regulatory issues. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in December joined other European regulators to protect individuals in the spreadbetting industry, where it said most retail investors lose money. The FCA had found evidence of poor conduct across the market over the past six years and that people using the most popular product - known as a contract for difference - lost 2,200 pounds a year on average. CMC stock was trading 6.7 percent higher at 178 pence at 0810 GMT. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cmc-markets-results/cmc-markets-reports-higher-first-half-profit-idUKKBN1DN0LL'|'2017-11-23T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'a3e79fae7a8a1b5770d13f8026ce1ceacf0012e9'|'Poor data make it hard for Italy''s small banks to prepare for IFRS 9-BoI'|' 53 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Poor data make it hard for Italy''s small banks to prepare for IFRS 9-BoI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - A new accounting principle dubbed IFRS 9, which comes into force in January, will pose particular problems for smaller Italian banks which are having trouble preparing because they lack good quality data, the Bank of Italy said on Friday. In its twice-yearly Financial Stability Report, the central bank calculated the IFRS 9 rule will take on average 38 basis points off Italian banks’ best-quality capital. The estimated negative impact on smaller lenders is higher, at an average 47 basis points. Separately on Friday, the European Central Bank calculated an average negative impact of 40 basis points for European banks. The IFRS9 rule forces banks to book charges based on expected, instead of actual, losses. The negative capital impact for Italian banks stems mainly from higher loan writedowns, the Bank of Italy said. Smaller Italian banks lack good-quality data to be able to build the models necessary to calculate the projected losses, it added. Patchy loan data scattered over thousands of paper documents have turned out to be a major issue for Italian banks, making it hard for them to put a price on soured debts and forcing them to offer buyers a bigger discount when selling them. Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gavin Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-banks-ifrs9/poor-data-make-it-hard-for-italys-small-banks-to-prepare-for-ifrs-9-boi-idUKKBN1DO1SA'|'2017-11-24T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'9f51ab1102b7c97dd4f4ec8a11dec3b4ad3092db'|'Global gas oversupply could trigger price ''crisis'' - Russia energy minister'|'November 24, 2017 / 4:28 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Global gas oversupply could trigger price''crisis'' - Russia energy minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Global gas supplies currently exceed demand, a situation that could lead to a “crisis” drop in prices similar to that which occurred in the crude oil market, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Novak made the comments at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) being held in Bolivia. The United States has vastly increased its output of both crude oil and natural gas in recent years as improved drilling technology opened previously inaccessible reserves - a leading reason for a steep drop in petroleum prices. Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Writing by Richard ValdmanisEditing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bolivia-gas-summit-novak/global-gas-oversupply-could-trigger-price-crisis-russia-energy-minister-idINKBN1DO20S'|'2017-11-24T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'c5469e17c88999467b5be9c4046a80dac3830539'|'May calls on EU to move with Britain to open Brexit trade talks'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Ten days to crack Brexit deal, EU tells May Alastair Macdonald , Elizabeth Piper 5 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union handed Prime Minister Theresa May a 10-day “absolute deadline” to improve her Brexit divorce offer or face failure in persuading EU leaders to open trade talks with Britain at a December summit. Without a deal next month, time will be very tight to agree arrangements before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019, adding to pressure on businesses to avoid potential losses and move investments. “We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland,” European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted after meeting May in Brussels for one hour following an EU summit. A deal on the Northern Ireland border became suddenly trickier on Friday as the Dublin government looked set to fall. Tusk said it was still possible the other 27 EU leaders would conclude at a summit on Dec. 14-15 that Britain had made “sufficient progress” toward meeting three key conditions for them to approve the opening of trade talks in the new year. But, added the former Polish premier who chairs the bloc’s summit meetings, that was “still a huge challenge”. EU officials expect the crunch to come when May returns on Monday, Dec. 4, to meet the EU chief executive, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. “Tusk presented the timeline ... with December 4 as the absolute deadline for the UK to make additional efforts, allowing Barnier to be in a position to recommend sufficient progress,” an EU official said. “May agreed to this time frame.” “The UK will need to give credible assurances as to how to avoid a hard border before December 4, as it is still unclear how this can be done,” the official added. A further complication lay in Ireland, where Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who has warned of a veto without big British moves on the border issue, may call a snap election next week over a separate issue. May told reporters after meeting Tusk that the two sides were still making progress toward closing gaps on a financial settlement, rights for expatriates after Brexit and how to avoid a “hard border” that may disrupt the peace in Northern Ireland. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain''s EU Ambassador Tim Sparrow (L) attend the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann But she added: “There are still issues across the various matters that we are negotiating on to be resolved.” She repeated a line she first used in September that Britain would “honor our commitments”. But there was no sign of details that EU counterparts are demanding over payments before they accede to London’s call for talks on a post-Brexit trade pact. On the Irish border, May said: “We and the Irish government continue to talk about solutions for that. We have the same desire. We want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now.” Slideshow (7 Images) IRISH ISSUE For months, the EU’s demand for Britain to pay something like 60 billion euros ($72 billion) has seemed the toughest nut to crack. But EU negotiators have been encouraged by apparent leaks in the British media indicating that May has won backing from Brexit hardliners in her cabinet to offer a large sum. Now, Ireland could be a sticking point. “The Irish issue is very worrying. The chances of sufficient progress in December were only 50-50. Now maybe less,” an official handling Brexit talks from one of the other 27 EU states told Reuters on the sidelines of Friday’s summit. Barnier threw the Union’s weight behind Ireland on Friday, telling Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney there was “strong solidarity for Ireland” and “Irish issues are EU issues”. Coveney, who accused the government’s opponents of being irresponsible in calling a no-confidence motion for Tuesday over an unrelated issue, said Ireland would not agree to opening EU trade talks with Britain if it was unhappy over the border. May’s Northern Irish, pro-Brexit allies, on whom she depends for a slim parliamentary majority, accused Dublin of trying to force Northern Ireland, or the whole of the United Kingdom, to stay in a customs union with the EU, depriving it of the freedom to set its own commercial regulations. EU officials say the best way to avoid a “hard border” is to keep regulations the same - whether just for Northern Ireland or across the UK. Britain has rejected the former because it would divide Northern Ireland from the British mainland. Brexit campaigners say Britain should not have to follow EU rules. Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Robin Emmott; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Robin Emmott; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/may-wants-eu-uk-to-move-together-to-brexit-trade-talks-idUSKBN1DO0PJ'|'2017-11-24T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'b0fe7e86da1b92d9dad949dc53993da1289fc740'|'Nikkei eases as automakers drag, Mitsubishi Materials dives'|'  Nikkei eases as automakers drag, Mitsubishi Materials dives Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Friday morning after exporters such as automakers were sold, while Mitsubishi Materials dived after it said its subsidiaries falsified data. The Nikkei declined 0.4 percent to 22,428.83 in midmorning trade, after markets were closed for a national holiday on Thursday. The index is up 0.2 percent so far this week. Automakers were hit by selling, with Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co dropping 1.3 percent after the dollar dropped to a two-month low of 111.07 yen on Thursday, before edging up 0.1 percent in Asian trade on Friday. Other exporters also weakened, with Panasonic Corp shedding 0.9 percent and TDK Corp declining 2.7 percent. Mitsubishi Materials Corp dived as much as 11 percent after the company said its subsidiaries had falsified product data, the latest in a series of quality assurance scandals involving Japanese manufacturers. That sent the nonferrous metal sector the poorest performer on the board, down 2.0 percent. The broader Topix dropped 0.3 percent to 1,772.69. (reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-eases-as-automakers-drag-mitsubishi-materials-dives-idUSL3N1NU1FL'|'2017-11-24T04:50:00.000+02:00'
'b46f0758bf8a343eb1aea5dacc0c438cdb5f04c9'|'London Metal Exchange outlines waivers to new OTC fee'|' 03 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago London Metal Exchange outlines waivers to new OTC fee Peter Hobson 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange said on Wednesday it had agreed a range of waivers and discounts to assuage its members when it starts to charge a fee on off-exchange, over-the-counter (OTC) contracts that reference its prices. Men walk past the London Metal Exchange (LME) in London, July 22, 2011. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo A consultation with users on the fee will start on Nov. 22 and end on Jan. 12 with a view to beginning charges from April 3, the LME said in a statement. The 140-year-old exchange announced the OTC fee in September alongside cuts for other exchange fees designed to help reverse declining volumes, down 7.7 percent last year. The $1 (75p) per OTC contract charge aims to narrow the cost difference between trading on the LME and over the counter, where volumes grew rapidly after the exchange raised fees by 31 percent on average in 2015. It also seeks to preserve revenue for the LME, which could see its income drop by up to 15 percent or $30 million (£22.6 million) over 12 months if fee cuts in other areas fail to boost volumes. However, some users warn the fees could reduce trading or push business to other venues such as the CME ( CME.O ) or NFEx, a new platform due to launch next year. To address those concerns the LME will narrow the scope of the fee to include roughly only half of an estimated 20 million OTC trades a year, which would earn it about $10 million a year. “We are confident the proposals represent the right steps in bringing greater fairness to the market and compensating the LME for the services it provides to the industry,” Chief Executive Matt Chamberlain said. The fee will apply only to financial firms and won’t be directly payable by physical participants or investment funds. Waivers will include spot trades in the physical market and transactions between firms that are members of the same group. The LME will also discount to 50 U.S. cents carry trades that bridge contracts up to 60 days apart. Traders use carry trades to manage their positions. “We are confident the key commercial concerns have already been identified and addressed by means of the wide range of discounts, waivers and offsets, which will reduce OTC booking fees on specific activities,” Chamberlain said. The largest entity to be affected by the new fee is JPMorgan ( JPM.N ), which market sources say accounts for around a third of the OTC market in base metals and was the loudest voice arguing against the charge. JPMorgan declined to comment. The exemptions and discounts had defused some objections and many LME users expect to benefit more from the trading fee cuts than they lose from the OTC fee, industry sources said. “We will do what we can to manage our overall cost base. But this is going to be written into the LME rulebook and we need to be compliant with that,” a banking source said. The rulebook allows the LME to audit members and ban them from the exchange. It can also stop providing non-members with a price feed. “We will work closely with compliance teams of financial institutions to ensure the detailed rules and exemptions to the new fee are consistent with the nature of the market and the right disclosures are being made,” Chamberlain said. Reporting by Peter HobsonEditing by Pratima Desai and Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lme-fees-otc/london-metal-exchange-outlines-waivers-to-new-otc-fee-idUKKBN1DM16W'|'2017-11-22T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'f36d2b886f1c79742bbd6ea5c7efc7f93f7b6c5f'|'Meg Whitman stepping down as HP Enterprise CEO'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:26 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Meg Whitman stepping down as HP Enterprise CEO Pushkala Aripaka , Salvador Rodriguez 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Meg Whitman on Tuesday announced that she will step down as chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co ( HPE.N ), ending a 6-year tenure that included overseeing one of the biggest corporate breakups in history. Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman is seen following an interview on CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Shares of HPE fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading. Hewlett Packard Enterprises, known for its computer servers, is still adjusting to a new landscape in which corporate customers are placing more of their digital operations in the cloud and moving away from purchasing their own equipment. Whitman, one of the most powerful women in U.S. business and a former candidate for California governor, split Hewlett Packard Co into HPE and PC-and-printer business HP Inc ( HPQ.N ) in 2015 as part of a plan to turn around the large corporation. She aggressively shed assets and cut tens of thousand of jobs as HPE sharpened its focus on server and networking businesses. Taking over for Whitman in February will be Antonio Neri, a relatively unknown HP executive who has been with the company for nearly a quarter century and currently serves as HPE’s president. Neri is a trained computer engineer and has worked in every one of HPE’s businesses, Whitman said during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. Neri did not speak on the call. “We have a much smaller, much nimbler, much more focused company,” Whitman said during the call after Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said the move felt abrupt. “I think it is absolutely the right time for Antonio and a new generation of leaders to take the reins.” Neri will join HPE’s board of directors and Whitman will remain on the board as well. Whitman’s retooling of HPE included September’s spin off of HPE’s enterprise services and software business to British software company MicroFocus International Plc ( MCRO.L ) and acquired companies, including Aruba and Nimble Storage. This month, HPE announced it is selling its Palo Alto, California, headquarters, which the company has held for six decades. Shares of HPE have risen nearly 47 percent since the split up, outpacing the 27.8 percent rise in the S&P 500 index .SPX during the same period. Whitman is leaving just as it is time for an executive with technical prowess to come in and retool the company’s offerings, said Ilya Kundozerov, equity analyst with Morningstar. ”HPE is more focused and more agile than ever before,“ Kundozerov said. ”A CEO with tech background can help HPE to improve its innovative edge.” Whitman, who previously headed eBay Inc ( EBAY.O ), was reported to have been a leading candidate for chief executive job at Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] before it was given to Dara Khosrowshahi. An undated handout photo of Antonio Neri. REUTERS/Hewlett Packard Enterprise/Handout Whitman ran unsuccessfully for California governor in 2010, and she has served on the presidential campaigns of Republican former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. She endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She stepped down from the board of HP Inc in July and joined the board of Dropbox in September. Whitman said on Tuesday’s earnings call that she is “going to take a little downtime, but there’s no chance I’m going to a competitor.” She told Reuters that she is not preparing another run for public office. ”I stay active in politics by contributing to candidates from both sides of the aisle who I agree with on core issues, but aside from that, I have no plans to get involved directly,” Whitman said in a statement. Although Whitman is one of the most prominent executives in Silicon Valley, with a career that spans startups and older businesses, she is not a household name in California, despite her run for governor, said Elliott Suthers, senior vice president with Grayling public communications and communications and media adviser for the McCain/Palin 2008 presidential campaign. ”To run against a relatively popular incumbent like [Sen. Dianne Feinstein] she’d need to spend record amounts to get within striking distance,” Suthers said. “Outside of Silicon Valley, she’s still a largely unknown quantity. Voters have a pretty short memory and her positions have undoubtedly shifted since 2010.” Separately, the company reported net income of $524 million, or 32 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with $302 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, it reported earnings of 31 cents per share. Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $7.66 billion. Analysts were expecting fourth-quarter profit of 28 cents per share on revenue of $7.78 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez in San Francisco and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva, Peter Henderson and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hpe-results/hp-enterprise-ceo-meg-whitman-steps-down-idUKKBN1DL2PO'|'2017-11-22T03:55:00.000+02:00'
'b6ffb2f963ce73efe001e68019e84b5487b91891'|'Rockwell Automation rebuffs Emerson''s latest bid'|'November 22, 2017 / 12:24 PM / Updated an hour ago Rockwell Automation rebuffs Emerson''s latest bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) on Wednesday rejected rival Emerson Electric Co’s ( EMR.N ) sweetened takeover offer, saying the $29 billion bid undervalued the industrial automation company and that a merger would dampen its growth prospects. FILE PHOTO: Emerson Electric Company Canadian headquarters is shown in Markham, Ontario, Canada, February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Cassese/File Photo Milwaukee-based Rockwell said its board of directors was unanimous in concluding that Emerson’s latest offer — about $2 billion higher than a previous proposal — was “not in best interests of the company and its shareowners.” Earlier this month, Emerson outlined a plan for a combined “Emerson Rockwell” that will maintain a significant presence in Milwaukee and become an “automation center of excellence.” Rockwell on Wednesday questioned the strategic rationale for a merger. A combination with Emerson would “dampen, not enhance, the ability to grow in the evolving industrial automation and information market,” Rockwell Chief Executive Blake Moret said. “Bigger is not always better for driving growth and value creation,” Moret added. Rockwell is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to make automobiles, household appliances and computer systems. Emerson’s strength is in process automation, which helps power plants and factories in sectors including mining and cement operate more efficiently. St. Louis-based Emerson’s latest offer values Rockwell at $225 per share, split between $135 in cash and $90 in Emerson shares. Shares of Rockwell fell 1.2 percent to $191 in premarket trading on Wednesday, with Emerson shares were slightly higher. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/rockwell-automation-rebuffs-sweetened-emerson-bid-idUKKBN1DM1EY'|'2017-11-22T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'6c118ec87e1abf7991dc8bff525e15d25128b872'|'Romanian Banca Transilvania agrees deal to buy Greek Eurobank''s Bancpost'|'BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Banca Transilvania ROTLV.BX, Romania’s second-largest bank said on Friday it has reached an agreement with Greece’s Eurobank ( EURBr.AT ) to buy its Romanian subsidiary Bancpost and will sign the contract later in the day.The deal, which will be subject to regulatory approval, will also give Banca Transilvania stakes in ERB Retail Services and ERB Leasing, part of the Romanaian group.Banca Transilvania, which did not disclose financial details of the acquisition, said it will begin integrating Bancpost operations in 2018.The sale is part of a restructuring plan agreed by Greece’s third largest lender with European Union authorities. Greek banks have been divesting assets and foreign subsidiaries to focus on their domestic market under a restructuring drive.Reporting by Luiza Ilie '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-romania-banca-transilvan/romanian-banca-transilvania-agrees-deal-to-buy-greek-eurobanks-bancpost-idUSKBN1DO0J9'|'2017-11-24T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'ba9fdb5e491a42f48a8ddb342c04431615bb59dd'|'Uber seeks to appeal UK workers'' rights decision at Supreme Court'|'November 24, 2017 / 3:12 PM / in 16 minutes Uber seeks to appeal UK workers'' rights decision at Supreme Court   LONDON (Reuters) - Uber submitted a request to appeal to the Supreme Court a decision by a British tribunal which said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, the taxi app said on Friday. A photo illustration shows the Uber app logo displayed on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph in central London September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Last year, two drivers successfully argued at a British employment tribunal that Uber exerted significant control over them to provide an on-demand taxi service and should grant them workers’ rights such as holiday entitlement and rest breaks. Uber appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which ruled against it earlier this month. “We have this afternoon requested permission to appeal directly to the Supreme Court in order that this case can be resolved sooner rather than later,” said a spokesman. Uber says its drivers enjoy the flexibility of their work and are self-employed, entitling them in British law to only basic entitlements such as health and safety. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/uber-seeks-to-appeal-uk-workers-rights-decision-at-supreme-court-idUKKBN1DO1TP'|'2017-11-24T17:07:00.000+02:00'
'731b9f0b84e740cefe558a19988e40c0650db2ae'|'IMF credit to Chad delayed over Glencore oil debt'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago IMF credit to Chad delayed over Glencore oil debt Julia Payne , Madjiasra Nako 4 Min Read LONDON/N‘DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad’s stalled talks with Glencore on restructuring more than $1 billion in debt due to the trading firm has delayed the release of IMF funds for the struggling central African country until at least early next year, sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The International Monetary Fund has said Chad’s external commercial debt, most of which is to Glencore, was unsustainable as it eats up most of the country’s oil revenues. The fund approved just over $300 million in credit for Chad at the end of June. The IMF initially released $48.8 million to Chad but said the release of further funds would depend on progress reports at subsequent meetings. Negotiations are likely to be further delayed after President Idriss Deby sacked his Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye and the deputy. A Chadian government source said a mid-November deadline for Chad to report progress on commercial debt talks to the IMF was missed and IMF funds would not be released until early 2018. “Chad’s case was to be discussed by an IMF council on Nov. 15 but a commercial agreement with Glencore was needed for this to be valid. As this did not occur, the case will be submitted in December for a fund release in January or February,” the source said. A second Chadian government source also said the next disbursement from the IMF had been delayed. The IMF said at the end of June that the “remaining amount will be phased over the duration of the programme, subject to semi-annual reviews.” The programme lasts three years. An IMF spokesman did not respond to requests for comment by phone and email. A spokesman for Glencore declined to comment. Negotiations to amend the loan terms for a second time since the 2014 oil price crash became fraught last month after Chad cut part of the oil Glencore had been due to receive in favour of ExxonMobil, starting from January. A series of meetings in Paris this month ended without a deal. After the meetings, commodities trader and miner Glencore wrote a letter copied to the IMF reiterating its offer. A spokesman for Chad’s state-run oil firm Societe des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT) said the firm was seeking an overall reduction on the interest rate from “about 9 percent to a maximum of 5 percent, including Libor.” Glencore said in its letter it had offered a temporary interest rate reduction to Libor plus 4 percent along with a grace period on principal until the last quarter of 2019, down from 6.75 percent. Two banking sources said that the proposal was still being evaluated by Chad. At the moment, Chad still owes about $1.3 billion from the original $1.45 billion that Glencore and a consortium of lenders loaned the country in 2014 in exchange for crude. SHT used those funds to buy a 25 percent stake in the major oil producing Doba Consortium from Chevron. Despite being one of the world’s poorest nations, its army played a major role in reclaiming territory back from Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group that took over large swathes of Nigeria’s northeast in 2014 including key border towns. Chad continues to help regional security initiatives, including a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali. Additional reporting by Aaron Ross in Dakar; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/glencore-chad-imf/imf-credit-to-chad-delayed-over-glencore-oil-debt-idINKBN1DO1EO'|'2017-11-24T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'89d4670f2be5a6e027b36a99940ed1c19c308bee'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX gets boost from resource shares as oil prices rise'|'(Add details throughout on stocks and sectors)* TSX rises 20.83 points, or 0.13 percent, to 16,094.41* Seven of the index’s 10 main groups advance* Energy group gains 0.3 percent* Materials sector climbs 0.4 percentTORONTO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday, led by materials and energy shares as oil prices rose, while domestic retail sales data reinforced expectations the Bank of Canada is on hold until next year.* At 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 20.83 points, or 0.13 percent, at 16,094.41.* The index moved closer to a record high reached earlier this month at 16,131.79.* The energy group gained 0.3 percent, with pipeline operator Enbridge Inc climbing 0.5 percent to C$47.22.* U.S. crude prices were up 0.4 percent at $58.25 a barrel.* The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.4 percent.* Barrick Gold Corp rose 1.1 percent to C$18.16.* Canadian retail sales rose far less than expected in September as higher gasoline prices were offset by a decline in purchases of vehicles and clothing, pointing to cooler economic growth that could keep the Bank of Canada cautious about raising interest rates further.* The central bank hiked in July and September for the first time in seven years.* Seven of the index’s 10 main groups rose.* The TSX posted six new 52-week highs and one new low.* The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Lundin Mining , which rose 3.0 percent, while the largest decliner was Nexgen Energy Lt, down 4.4 percent.* U.S. markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Reporting by Fergal Smith Editing by Jonathan Oatis)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-gets-boost-from-resource-shares-as-oil-prices-rise-idINL1N1NT0VR'|'2017-11-23T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'5e2829f32dfc65863f44d9176ded6b0f7a42b120'|'Exclusive - Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill hold deal talks with CrownBet'|'November 24, 2017 / 2:27 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Exclusive: Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill hold deal talks with CrownBet Ben Martin , Swati Pandey 4 Min Read LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill have held talks on a deal with Australia’s CrownBet as UK-focused gambling companies seek to expand overseas to offset tougher regulations in Britain. FILE PHOTO: A branded sign is displayed outside a William Hill betting shop in London, Britain July 25, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Dublin-based Paddy Power Betfair, which is listed on London’s FTSE 100 index and runs betting shops in Britain and Ireland, has had discussions with CrownBet, the online gambling firm that is 62 percent-owned by Crown Resorts, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. It comes after rival bookmaker William Hill confirmed on Friday that it was in “very preliminary discussions” with CrownBet about a possible combination with its Australian business. Speculation is growing that UK-focused gambling companies are set to embark on a round of consolidation to offset the threat of stricter regulation and diversify their operations. Last month, the British government outlined proposals to cut the maximum stake on gambling machines in betting shops, a move that would hit an important source of bookmakers’ revenue. Ladbrokes Coral , another British betting shop operator, held unsuccessful deal talks with online rival GVC this year and a spate of dealmaking among British companies is expected once the government makes a decision on gambling machine stakes. AUSTRALIAN MARKET Paddy Power Betfair is already a major player in Australia through its Sportsbet business. William Hill, meanwhile, entered the country four years ago when it bought Sportingbet and tomwaterhouse.com but its operations have since struggled. Earlier this week it posted a 5 percent decline in amounts wagered at its Australian division between June 28 and October 24. Crown Resorts, backed by billionaire James Packer, is Australia’s biggest casino company and, like other gambling companies, faces stiff competition online. Consolidation among Australian gambling firms has been expected ever since lottery owner Tatts Group agreed to a $4.7 billion takeover by horse race betting giant Tabcorp Holding. last year to create a gambling giant. Crown Resorts confirmed in a statement that it was “in discussions concerning its interest in CrownBet” after The Australian newspaper reported that it was holding talks about a deal with William Hill. The Australian company did not return a request for comment made out of business hours about discussions with Paddy Power Betfair. The structure of any deals and the valuations were not known. Britain’s gambling industry has already been transformed by consolidation in recent years as firms scrambled to offset the impact of higher taxes and stricter regulation imposed by the government. Ladbrokes agreed to merge with rival Coral in 2015, while betting exchange operator Betfair combined with Paddy Power and GVC bought Bwin.party. Shares of the Crown Resorts fell 0.6 percent on Friday compared with a flat benchmark index. Paddy Power Betfair shares rose 3.8 percent in London trade while William Hill stock was down 1 percent. Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates Edwina Gibbs and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-crown-resorts-m-a/australias-crown-resorts-says-in-talks-over-its-holding-in-crownbet-idUKKBN1DO05E'|'2017-11-24T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'9b59d4c5411cd223b72df40b1970f4d033230de6'|'Russian competition watchdog gives green light to Yandex-Uber deal'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:27 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Russian competition watchdog gives green light to Yandex-Uber deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s anti-monopoly regulator FAS said on Friday it had approved a deal to merge the Russian ride-sharing businesses of Yandex ( YNDX.O ) and Uber UBER.UL, with certain conditions. FILE PHOTO - A taxi with the logo of Russian online taxi service Yandex Taxi drives past a terminal of the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov In order to resolve competition concerns, the companies must not bar their partners, drivers and passengers from working for or using competitors’ services, FAS said in a statement. Both companies should also fully inform users of the legal entity providing the service, FAS added. Uber and Yandex, often referred to as the “Google of Russia”, announced the deal in July with Yandex as the leading partner. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Jack Stubbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-tech-m-a-yandex-approval/russian-competition-watchdog-gives-green-light-to-yandex-uber-deal-idUKKBN1DO0Q5'|'2017-11-24T10:26:00.000+02:00'
'93c8c0b515f6058963d32985a8af5ea977dab048'|'Comparethemarket.com owner BGL scraps London listing plans in favour of stake sale'|'Nov 23 (Reuters) - BGL Group, owner of Comparethemarket.com, said on Thursday it would sell a 30 percent stake for about 675 million pounds ($899 million) to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) instead of listing its shares in London.BHL, the owner of BGL Group, will retain a majority shareholding in the business and the deal is expected to be completed by the end of April, it said.“During the course of our IPO preparations, our shareholder BHL received a number of approaches from different kinds of investors... A competitive process followed and our view was that CPPIB was the best partner for BGL,” the chairman of BGL Group, Peter Winslow, said.The announcement is another blow to the London Stock Exchange after earlier this month telecoms masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, Britain’s biggest debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled deals.The announcement of the float plans had driven hopes of a revival of the market for initial public offerings (IPO) in Britain, a market that has been muted since Britons voted to leave the European Union in June 2016.Ready meals firm Bakkavor Group, this month pulled but then resurrected its market debut plan.Up until November, British IPOs have this year raised $5.2 billion, a 13 percent drop on the same period a year ago.BGL Group distributes insurance and household financial services to 8.5 million customers and runs price comparison websites Comparethemarket.com in Britain and LesFurets.com in France. ($1 = 0.7510 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bgl-group-ipo/comparethemarket-com-owner-bgl-scraps-london-listing-plans-in-favour-of-stake-sale-idINL3N1NT376'|'2017-11-23T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'c6a3fda087737ba8048b446805f8acb5e9d71e6f'|'UK shop sales rebound in November, but price pressures rampant - CBI'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 8 hours ago UK shop sales rebound in November, but price pressures rampant - CBI Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shop sales rebounded in November after a sharp fall last month, and retail chains became more optimistic about the future despite signs of severe inflation pressure, an industry survey showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A shopper speaks on her mobile phone as she walks along Oxford Street in London, Britain December 3, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The Confederation of British Industry’s monthly retail sales balance rose to +26 from -36 in October, beating the median forecast in a Reuters poll of +5. Retailers also became more confident about the month ahead, with the balance of expected sales hitting a two-year high. Still, quarterly figures from the CBI pointed to an uncertain outlook, with the net balance of retailers reporting rising prices hitting its highest level since 1991. “Ahead of the crucial run up to Christmas, the weaker pound has pushed up prices and retailers are nervous about business conditions and are trimming their workforces,” CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said. Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-retail/uk-shop-sales-rebound-in-november-but-price-pressures-rampant-cbi-idUKKBN1DN128'|'2017-11-23T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'd91e550bad5a69c1a174f7d166928ff705e82c85'|'JP Morgan, eyeing Brexit, rents more space in Frankfurt - source'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - JP Morgan has become the latest big bank to respond to Britain’s looming exit from the European Union by renting extra office space in the German financial capital Frankfurt to accommodate more staff.A J.P. Morgan building is seen at Canary Wharf in London, Britain May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth A source familiar with the matter said on Friday that the U.S. investment bank had rented enough room in the Taunusturm for 200 staff, while it could fit more into its existing offices in the 40-storey skyscraper.The news comes days after CEO Jamie Dimon held face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss Brexit - Britain’s decision to leave the EU that she has pledged will happen by March 2019.Slow progress in negotiations with Brussels has raised fears of a so-called “hard Brexit” that would cause banks running their regional operations out of London to face barriers to doing business on the continent.JP Morgan plans to build hubs in Frankfurt, Dublin and Luxembourg - it already has banking licences in all three. Exactly which functions will be hosted at which location has yet to be decided, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensititivity of the matter.JP Morgan joins an exodus in which competitors like Goldman Sachs - which is expanding in Frankfurt and Paris - are shifting operations to more than one location, a reflection of the sheer scale of London’s financial district and how difficult it would be to replicate operations elsewhere in short order.The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper first reported on JP Morgan’s decision to rent more space in the Taunusturm, saying it would be able to accommodate up to 300 staff in addition to the 450 already based in the 170-metre (560 ft) building.JP Morgan declined to comment on the report.Reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Mark Heinrich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-jpmorgan-germany/jp-morgan-eyeing-brexit-rents-more-space-in-frankfurt-source-idINKBN1DO283'|'2017-11-24T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'4fcb7a18a9430f7f1c961cacf0d7acfa5178bcc9'|'Standard Chartered close to selling real estate principal finance unit to Actis'|'November 22, 2017 / 11:14 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago StanChart close to selling real estate principal finance unit to Actis: sources Aditi Shah , Sumeet Chatterjee 3 Min Read NEW DELHI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) is close to selling its real estate principal finance unit to private equity firm Actis, sources with knowledge of the matter said, following the bank’s decision last year to exit the loss-making business. A logo of Standard Chartered is displayed at its main branch in Hong Kong, China August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip StanChart is also in discussions to sell its private equity unit, which is the other part of the principal finance business, one of the sources said. The real estate principal finance unit has around $700 million in investments, mainly across India, China, South Korea and Southeast Asia, and will be spun off to Actis, including the people managing the investments, two sources told Reuters. The sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. A spokeswoman for Standard Chartered and a spokesman for Actis declined to comment. Divestment of the principal finance business comes as emerging markets-focused StanChart looks to boost its income after two years of restructuring under chief executive and former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters. It has cut more than 15,000 jobs and axed business lines such as Asian equities. The principal finance business has been a drag on the bank’s balance sheet, reporting an operating loss of $217 million in 2016. From 2017, the gains and losses from this business were excluded from the bank’s financial performance, after it announced it was quitting the business last year. It has still been making selective investments this year, however. In March it acquired a site in Insadong, Seoul, in a joint purchase with GS Retail, one of South Korea’s largest retailers. Actis is a UK-based private equity firm that has invested in sectors including consumer, energy, financial services and real estate sectors across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Standard Chartered’s private equity unit has investments worth about $3.5 billion, of which $1.2 billion is from the bank’s own book, the source said, adding that Credit Suisse is advising Standard Chartered on selling the unit. Editing by Euan Rocha and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-stanchart-actis-asia/standard-chartered-close-to-selling-real-estate-principal-finance-unit-to-actis-idUKKBN1DM181'|'2017-11-22T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'888ac7ba99a5764ac66a83ece779f709453979e0'|'Gold prices nudge up ahead of Fed meeting minutes'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected U.S. data pushed the dollar lower before the release of minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting that could hint at the pace of future interest rate rises.FILE PHOTO - A sales person shows a gold ring to customers at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Ahmedabad, India, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo The minutes, to be published at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), come after outgoing Fed Chair Janet Yellen said rates should rise gradually, but warned she was “very uncertain” that inflation would soon rebound, suggesting a cautious approach to rate increases.The dollar .DXY dipped after data showed new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly declined in October. U.S. Treasury bond yields also fell [FRX/] US10YT=RR [US/]Gold is sensitive to rising rates because they tend to boost the dollar, making gold more expensive for holders of other currencies, and push up bond yields, reducing the appeal of non-yielding gold.Spot gold XAU= was up 0.9 percent at $1,292.32 an ounce by 1:38 p.m. EST (1838 GMT), while U.S. gold futures for December delivery GCcv1 settled up $10.50, or 0.8 percent, at $1,292.20 per ounce.Gold has benefited from a flattening in the U.S. Treasury yield curve that has supported the Japanese yen JPY= and pushed the dollar lower, Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.The U.S. yield curve hit the flattest in a decade on Tuesday on expectations that the Fed will raise rates, inflation will remain low, and government will increase debt issuance in short- and intermediate-dated maturities while delaying big increases at longer dates. [US/] US2US10=TWEB“I think we’ll see a steeper curve next year. Firmer core inflation readings in the year ahead should push the 10-year Treasury yield higher,” said Nick Exarhos, senior economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto.Gold has been stuck in a range since early October, because of competing pressure and support sources, traders said.Investors were keen to own gold to hedge against risks including a fall in global stock markets from current record highs, Hansen added, predicting gold would rise to $1,325 by the end of the year. {MKTS/GLOB]However, rising U.S. interest rates through next year were likely to strengthen the dollar and put pressure on gold, said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.On the technical side, gold broke through resistance at the 50-day moving average around $1,286 and the next hurdle was at a Fibonacci level of $1,295.40, analysts at ScotiaMocatta said in a note.Silver XAG= was up 1 percent at $17.11 an ounce.Platinum XPT= was 0.4 percent at $936.60 an ounce and palladium XPD= was up 0.5 percent at $1,003.40 after touching $1,007.20, its highest since Nov. 10.Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-prices-nudge-up-ahead-of-fed-meeting-minutes-idINKBN1DM04T'|'2017-11-22T03:22:00.000+02:00'
'46f0f9d9f99123b6bae5eda97c09cf97494224e5'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Enel, EnBW, Rockwell Automation, Bank of Sharjah and Invest Bank, PPC, JFE Holdings Inc; Updates Central European Media Enterprises)Nov 22 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1430 GMT on Wednesday:** Italian energy company Enel SpA is planning to invest 1.8 billion euros ($2.12 billion) in Brazil before acquisitions over the next three years, with an emphasis on distribution networks, executives told a Brazilian newspaper.** German energy company EnBW is interested in bidding for the construction of offshore wind farms in the Dutch part of the North Sea, regulatory filings in the Netherlands show.** Rockwell Automation Inc rejected rival Emerson Electric Co’s sweetened takeover offer, saying the $29 billion bid undervalued the industrial automation company and that a merger would dampen its growth prospects.** Bank of Sharjah and Invest Bank are in merger talks that could create an institution with about 50.6 billion dirhams ($13.8 billion) of assets, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.** South African cement producer PPC’s board turned its back on a takeover attempt by AfriSam, backed by Canadian firm Fairfax Africa Investments, but PPC said it was still talking to Ireland’s CRH and Swiss group LafargeHolcim.** Japan’s JFE Holdings Inc and India’s JSW Steel Ltd are lining up a joint bid with a private equity firm for the assets of India’s insolvent Bhushan Steel Ltd , two industry sources familiar with the matter said.** Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd made an all-cash offer on Tuesday to acquire U.S. coatings company Axalta Coating Systems Ltd, two people familiar with the matter said, ending merger talks between Axalta and Dutch peer Akzo Nobel .** Chinese energy and investment group CEFC has teamed up with Czech-Slovak financial group Penta Investments to try and buy Time Warner’s Central European Media Enterprises , three sources familiar with the matter said.** China’s Baotou Huazi Industry Co said it had ditched a plan to acquire a controlling stake in Huaxia Life Insurance, sending the shares of the edible sugar product manufacturer down by 8 percent in Shanghai.** Sweden’s Dometic, a maker of appliances for caravans and boats, said it was buying Seastar Solutions in a $875 million deal from affiliates of American Securities LLC, strengthening its position in the marine industry.** Evian and Volvic owner Danone has put money into a Hawaiian bottled water from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, showing the depths multinationals will now go to in the quest to stand out.** Euromoney Institutional Investor, publisher of the Euromoney magazine, said it would sell its stake in Dealogic, a provider of financial content and analytics, to Ion Investment Group for about $135 million.** South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater will exchange some surface gold processing assets and tailings storage facilities (TSF) for a 38 percent stake in DRDGOLD worth 1.3 billion rand ($93.5 million), it said.** U.S. hedge fund Christofferson Robb & Company (CRC) has presented an offer to buy Banca Carige’s consumer credit unit Creditis, a source familiar with the matter said.** German healthcare group Fresenius SE said the planned takeover of Akorn, a U.S. maker of liquid generic drugs, might not be completed before next year as the U.S. antitrust review could take longer than expected.** Lyon Group, a private infrastructure developer, has fielded bids for three of its Australian utility-scale solar power and battery projects, including what would be the world’s largest battery, a spokesman said. (Compiled by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NS3F7'|'2017-11-22T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'2783849d86d735b931fc06f5f58de9c7f1225328'|'Deere profit jumps 79 percent in fourth quarter'|'(Reuters) - U.S. tractor maker Deere & Co ( DE.N ) forecast strong earnings on Wednesday for the coming fiscal year as it reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded analyst expectations amid improving demand for farm machinery.John Deere tractors are seen for sale at a dealer in Longmont, Colorado, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Shares of the Moline, Illinois company known for its trademark green tractors rose 5 percent in premarket trading and were on track to open at a record high.Deere forecast net sales for fiscal 2018 to jump 19 percent - translating to sales of $35.39 billion - and earnings to rise to about $2.6 billion.Analysts on average expect 2018 net sales of $28.06 billion and earnings of $2.3 billion,Deere said equipment net sales in the United States and Canada surged 23 percent in the fourth quarter ended Oct. 29, while sales in other markets jumped 30 percent.“We saw higher overall demand for our products with farm machinery sales in South America making especially strong gains and construction equipment sales rising sharply,” Deere Chief Executive Samuel Allen said in a statement.Net income attributable to the company rose 79 percent to $510.3 million or $1.57 per share in the fourth quarter, while total net sales rose 25.5 percent to $7.09 billion.Analysts had expected fourth-quarter earnings of $1.47 per share and sales of $6.99 billion.This is the fifth straight quarter in which the company beat the Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S consensus analyst estimate.Deere expects higher demand for large equipment to push up sales at its agriculture and turf division in the U.S. and Canada by 5-10 percent in 2018.The company generates 70 percent of sales from agricultural equipment and around 60 percent of sales from the North American farm equipment market.But sales in North America have been held down, with U.S. farmers tightening belts in the face of four years of global oversupply that has pushed down grain prices and farm incomes.With farmers buying equipment again to replenish aging fleet and large agriculture new equipment inventories at near multi-decade lows, some analysts expect any improvement in grain prices to further lift Deere’s sales.Sales in tractors and combines in South America are forecast to be flat to up 5 percent next year.The company’s construction and forestry division reported a 37 percent jump in sales in the latest quarter.Deere expects worldwide sales of construction and forestry equipment to surge 69 percent in 2018, aided by an improving global economy, higher housing starts in the U.S. and increased activity in the oil and gas sector.The acquisition of Germany’s Wirtgen Group is estimated to add about 54 percent to the construction and forestry division’s sales next year.Wirtgen, which manufactures road construction and mineral technology equipment, was bought by Deere this year for $5.2 billion. The deal is expected to close in December.Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deere-results-urgent/deere-profit-jumps-79-percent-in-fourth-quarter-idUSKBN1DM19Z'|'2017-11-22T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'46b28ec510e983707b5c5861c7e424deb2007d7b'|'Thomas Cook sees strong Turkey and Egypt demand after 2017 earnings rise'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:21 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Crowded Spanish holiday market takes toll on Thomas Cook Alistair Smout 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Travel group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) reported lower profit margins in its British business due to tough competition in Spain, sending its shares down more than 10 percent and leaving it reliant on a recovery in Egypt and Turkey to ease the pressure. FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen outside a Thomas Cook shop in central London, November 26, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo Tour operators and airlines have expanded capacity in Spain and other western Mediterranean destinations in response to security concerns in markets such as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. That has prompted a price war among tour operators serving Spain, while allowing hotels to increase prices that Thomas Cook must pay, squeezing margins from both sides. A weaker pound has made the situation more difficult. The company said that while bookings for next summer were at an early stage, better demand for trips to Egypt and Turkey in 2018 should help alleviate some of the margin pressure. “My experience tells me that (the Spanish market) is balancing out,” Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser told reporters on Wednesday. “As soon as Turkey, Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean destinations (have) increased demand, the Spanish hoteliers will see that they will have to adapt their prices to level it out.” Fankhauser said that 42 percent of holidays in summer 2017 were to Spain, but that should go down, with some capacity redirected into Egypt. The stock was down 10.9 percent at 0950 GMT, hitting its lowest level since July, after Thomas Cook said that margins in Britain were lower after four consecutive years of profit growth. Larger rival Tui ( TUIT.L ) was down 2 percent, the top FTSE 100 faller. STRONG START Underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were 330 million pounds in 2016-17, Thomas Cook said, a little ahead of an analyst consensus of 327 million pounds. The group said it was “well positioned” to achieve current market expectations for 2018, given strong early bookings for next summer. One positive element was the performance of the group’s airline business, which improved profits by 24 million pounds in the year, helped by a recovery for German carrier Condor. Fankhauser said that the performance was especially encouraging in a year when Air Berlin, Monarch and Alitalia have all gone into administration, partly as a result of the intense competition in the industry. Analysts at Panmure Gordon said the UK business would be the focus for investors and detracted from the bright spots in its airline business and Europe. “Momentum in Condor and Continental Europe is encouraging, but UK profits and margins are down and commentary is more cautious than we would like to see given the challenging macro backdrop,” analysts at Panmure Gordon said in a note. Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thomas-cook-grp-results/thomas-cook-sees-strong-turkey-and-egypt-demand-after-2017-earnings-rise-idUKKBN1DM0KF'|'2017-11-22T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'5853d1f139218d7e8a231d20f01ced838c7b2b5c'|'UPDATE 1-Debt-ridden Altice looks to sell Dominican Republic network -FT'|'(Adds Altice no comment, details, background)* Altice: no comment to make on FT report* Altice says to sell assets to cut debtPARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable group Altice , whose shares have been hit by concerns over its roughly 50 billion euros ($59.1 billion) debt burden, is looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic, the Financial Times reported.The sale of Altice Dominican Republic is still at an early stage and plans could change, added the FT, citing its own sources.A spokesman for Altice declined to comment on the report.Altice’s billionaire founder and majority shareholder Patrick Drahi has pledged to sell assets to cut down Altice’s debts.This week, Altice reiterated it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.Weak third-quarter results this month prompted Drahi, whose media empire includes telecoms company SFR, newspaper Liberation and BFM TV, to oust chief executive Michel Combes.Altice shares have fallen some 60 percent this year, with hedge funds having sold out of shares in Altice’s U.S. unit, although ABN AMRO analysts put out a “buy” rating on Altice, saying debt worries might be overdone.ABN AMRO Quote: : “35 billion euros of 48 billion euros of net debt have been refinanced in the last year, and we see neither a breach of covenant nor a share issue looming.”$1 = 0.8456 euros Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/altice-divestiture/update-1-debt-ridden-altice-looks-to-sell-dominican-republic-network-ft-idINL8N1NT0YG'|'2017-11-23T04:46:00.000+02:00'
'2e932e95ce8fcf05891f7037b46e47542ec4dd7f'|'China''s Guangzhou R&F to exclude one hotel in agreed deal with Wanda'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties ( 2777.HK ) said on Thursday it will exclude one hotel in the deal with conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, decreasing the number of hotels to be purchased to 76.A sign of Dalian Wanda Group in China glows during an event in Beijing, China March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj The total consideration will now be 18.96 billion yuan ($2.88 billion), compared with 19.2 billion yuan previously.Wanda, which was under capital pressure amid Beijing’s crackdown on showy overseas investment, announced in July it would sell 77 hotels in China to R&F, and a total of 91 percent equity in 13 tourism projects to Sunac China ( 1918.HK ) for 43.8 billion yuan.R&F did not give a reason for the change.“The directors consider that the amendments to the terms of the acquisition as disclosed in this announcement do not constitute any material change to the terms of the Agreement and the First Supplemental Agreement,” the company said in a filing.($1 = 6.5834 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Biju DwarakanathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-r-f-wanda-m-a/chinas-guangzhou-rf-to-exclude-one-hotel-in-agreed-deal-with-wanda-idINKBN1DN0VQ'|'2017-11-23T06:56:00.000+02:00'
'812b12ea8fb0ef66ef32288331a59b0707322d86'|'M7 Multi-Let pursues private funding, scraps London IPO plan'|'Nov 24 (Reuters) - M7 Multi-Let REIT Plc, a newly-established firm set up to invest in industrial and office property, has decided not to pursue plans to raise up to 300 million pounds ($400 million) by listing its shares in London.M7, which planned to list as a real estate investment trust (REIT), said a number of investors had instead expressed an interest in providing funding privately to support its property expansion.“This, combined with the current market conditions and the volume of recent issuances focusing on UK real estate, led the Board to conclude that the Initial Portfolio and Pipeline would be better funded privately over the near to medium term,” M7 Real Estate CEO Richard Croft said.The company had agreed to buy 93 property assets across two UK portfolios for 119.8 million pounds, on condition that its listing was successful.The announcement is another setback to the London Stock Exchange after price comparison company BGL Group ( IPO-BGL.L ), telecoms masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, Britain’s biggest debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled deals. ($1 = 0.7502 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/m7-multi-let-ipo/m7-multi-let-pursues-private-funding-scraps-london-ipo-plan-idINL8N1NU21T'|'2017-11-24T07:48:00.000+02:00'
'acdf9010ae2788debf2df6a2bd35821a9ee5d365'|'Thomas Cook bids for Monarch''s London Gatwick runway slots - sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:53 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Thomas Cook bids for Monarch''s London Gatwick runway slots - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Travel firm Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) has bid for failed rival Monarch Airlines’ [MONA.UL] landing and take-off slots at London Gatwick airport, two sources close to discussions said, after Monarch’s administrator secured rights to sell the slots. A Monarch Airlines passenger aircraft prepares for take off from Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Earlier this week the administrator won an appeal against a previous London High Court ruling that Monarch had lost any rights over the potentially valuable slots since it was no longer capable of operating any flights. The administrator now hopes to recover money for creditors by transferring rights to use the slots at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports. “We’ve expressed an interest,” one source said, confirming that Thomas Cook had bid for slots at Gatwick but not at Luton. Thomas Cook Airlines declined to comment. EasyJet ( EZJ.L ), IAG ( ICAG.L ), Wizz ( WIZZ.L ) and Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) have already expressed their interest in acquiring the slots at the London airports. Monarch estimates its slots could be worth around 60 million pounds, though that is disputed by airlines such as easyJet. On Wednesday Thomas Cook reported that its profits were under pressure from intense competition as European tour operators and airlines chase the shift in demand for holidays from eastern to western Mediterranean destinations such as Spain. However, profits rose at Thomas Cook Airlines, helped by a recovery in its German carrier, Condor. The collapse of Monarch, as well as the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of flights by Ryanair ( RYA.I ), has taken capacity out of the market, which easyJet on Tuesday said was helping to support a rise in air fares this winter. Reporting by Alistair SmoutEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-airlines-licence-thomas-cook/thomas-cook-has-bid-for-monarch-slots-at-london-gatwick-sources-idUKKBN1DO15L'|'2017-11-24T14:29:00.000+02:00'
'35c6da2a20961824b9fae374d20d5198a0ac4f75'|'Taiwan financial regulator says aims to send official to China in Dec'|' 52 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Taiwan financial regulator says aims to send official to China in Dec   TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan’s top financial regulator said it intends to send a high-level official to a private-sector meeting in China in December where financial supervisory issues will be discussed, as Taipei seeks to maintain relations even as political ties have chilled. Wellington Koo, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, told Reuters on Friday in his first foreign media interview since he took up the post in September, that it aims to send an official of “deputy bureau chief or higher” to the meeting, which he said would be organised by the private sector. The last time Chinese and Taiwan financial regulators publicly met was in 2015 at an annual cross-straits meeting. Those meetings have not been held since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, of whom Beijing is deeply suspicious, took office in May 2016. Koo also said Taiwan would look to emulate Singapore’s approach to regulating fundraising using digital tokens and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Reporting by Emily Chan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-taiwan-regulator-china/taiwan-financial-regulator-says-aims-to-send-official-to-china-in-dec-idUKKBN1DO0YI'|'2017-11-24T11:51:00.000+02:00'
'7bcf6267d2abda846492d227bf33e82999d66b9d'|'Canadian regulator denies request to suspend Omega Securities'|'TORONTO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canada’s biggest securities regulator on Thursday ruled that Omega Securities could continue to run two alternative trading systems ahead of a hearing on whether it is operating in breach of Ontario provincial securities law.A three-person panel of the Ontario Securities Commission denied a request from the agency’s enforcement staff that Omega halt trading operations while the OSC reviews the matter.Omega’s Chief Executive Officer Sean Debotte declined to comment on the ruling. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Jim Finkle) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/omega-securities-regulator/canadian-regulator-denies-request-to-suspend-omega-securities-idINL1N1NN0U1'|'2017-11-23T19:52:00.000+02:00'
'c1644a2a5d13a0ed77560dfc49100155c829ecc3'|'Exclusive: China''s SenseTime plans IPO, aims to open R&D center in U.S.'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up SenseTime Group, valued at more than $2 billion, is planning an IPO and aims to open a U.S. research and development center as early as next year, its founder told Reuters.FILE PHOTO: SenseTime surveillance software identifying details about people and vehicles runs as a demonstration at the company''s office in Beijing, China, October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The Hong Kong and Beijing-based deep learning firm founded by Tang Xiaoou, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is a leader among Chinese AI start-ups that are enjoying fast growth amid demand from the government and private sector for their facial recognition technology.SenseTime provides applications for facial recognition, video analysis and other areas including autonomous driving. The three-year-old firm counts China’s Ministry of Public Security and local heavyweights such as China Mobile, HNA Group and Huawei Technologies as its major clients.“We are growing very fast, funding is never an issue. We can get as much as we want. Big-name investors are queuing to get in. So for us, we are not in a hurry to IPO. But at the right time, we definitely will,” said Tang.Hong Kong, the United States and China will be considered for an initial public offering, he added.“We don’t have a fixed timetable. It could be next year or the year after, depending on whether it makes business sense,” he said, adding SenseTime was also seeking a finance chief.Earlier, Reuters reported a latest funding round valued SenseTime at around $2 billion.Tang said the company was valued “above” that and an ongoing funding round would last until the end of 2017. But he would not reveal the amount being raised.SenseTime recently said it had sealed an investment from U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) as part of a strategic partnership to develop AI-enhanced chips.Among its other investors are China’s CDH Investments and Sailing Capital.FILE PHOTO: SenseTime Co-Founder Xu Chiheng demonstrates surveillance software of his company on a laptop at the SenseTime office in Beijing, China, October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo U.S. EXPANSION Tang said SenseTime planned to open a U.S. R&D unit as soon as early next year to work better with partners.He also said SenseTime, whose facial recognition error rate stands at 1/100 million, had won a $100 million deal to develop autonomous driving technology with a partner, which he declined to name. SenseTime has a training database of 2 billion faces and 10 billion images and videos.Several Chinese facial recognition start-ups have attracted large fundraising, helped by a government push to make China a world leader in AI.Guangzhou Cloudwalk Technology has recently received about $379 million in Series B funding, while Beijing-based Face++ last month raised $460 million.Tang said SenseTime, which has a proprietary technology framework called Parrots, similar to Google’s ( GOOGL.O ) Tensor Flow and Facebook’s ( FB.O ) Torch, is ahead of domestic rivals in revenue, client size and business areas.SenseTime is engaged in 14 sectors including medical imaging and high-performance computing, he said.China’s three largest technology firms - Baidu Inc ( BIDU.O ), Alibaba Group ( BABA.N ) and Tencent Holdings ( 0700.HK ) - also have AI labs that are developing facial recognition technology.“Our target is definitely not to create a small company to be acquired, but rather a ‘platform company’ that dominates with original core technology like Google and Facebook,” Tang said.“With Facebook ( FB.O ) we compete in facial recognition; with Google ( GOOGL.O ) it is visual object recognition, sorting 1,000 categories of objects.”Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Stephen Coates and Himani Sarkar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sensetime-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-sensetime-plans-ipo-aims-to-open-rd-center-in-u-s-idINKBN1DN0FY'|'2017-11-23T03:01:00.000+02:00'
'8e311748dcfb4817ee5077ca93719e56b95f5f0c'|'HSBC investment banker Westerman leaves bank'|' 46 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago HSBC investment banker Westerman leaves bank Reuters Staff 1   One of HSBC’s ( HSBA.L ) most senior investment bankers, Matthew Westerman, is leaving the bank immediately, an internal memo seen by Reuters showed on Thursday. HSBC bank is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Westerman, co-head of global banking at HSBC, joined the lender just under two years ago from Goldman Sachs with a mandate to shake up the division and improve performance. Co-head Robin Phillips will manage the global banking unit following his departure, the memo said. An HSBC spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo. Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-moves-hsbc-westerman/hsbc-investment-banker-westerman-leaves-bank-idUKKBN1DN14X'|'2017-11-23T13:53:00.000+02:00'
'5d837ff69c8cb1e5a754b3d302945a2bbbeb9e2b'|'RPT-GRAPHIC-Nickel rally stalls, electric car boost some years away'|'LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A recognition that electric vehicles (EVs) are unlikely to move the nickel demand dial for some years, slowing demand from China’s stainless steel mills and rising supplies have halted a frenzied price rally and are likely to keep weighing on prices.Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange soared by 50 percent from mid-June to a two-year peak of $13,030 a tonne on Nov. 1, based largely on expectations of strong demand to make the rechargeable batteries used to power EVs.Since then the price has eased back to about $12,000.Wood Mackenzie analysts estimate nickel demand in EV batteries will rise to about 220,000 tonnes in 2025 from about 40,000 tonnes last year.Total global demand of about 2 million tonnes this year is forecast to rise to 2.2 million tonnes by 2025.“Over the next few years the battery sector will not be affected by the availability of nickel supply,” said Anton Berlin, head of strategic marketing at Nornickel, one of the world’s largest nickel producers.Berlin told an investors’ presentation this week that Nornickel expects the market to remain “fairly balanced” in the longer term and able to supply all the nickel needed, including that for rechargeable batteries, for the next five years.“We can see that the stockpiles are there, so we can find enough metal to satisfy that demand until 2022.”Stocks of nickel in LME warehouses stand at 382,362 tonnes, of which about 75 percent is bagged briquette, easily crushed into small particles and dissolved in sulphuric acid to make nickel sulphate used in batteries.“Briquette stocks don’t suggest an imminent shortage,” said Jim Lennon, founder of Red Door Research. “Nickel demand in China is weakening after a period of restocking; stainless mills have over produced.”China accounts for about half of global nickel consumption, most of it by stainless steel mills.Analysts said weaker demand from these mills means that China’s demand that nickel pig iron producers in the Shandong province curb output from mid-November to mid-March is unlikely to boost imports.On the supply side, the gradual lifting of a government ban by major producer Indonesia on raw material exports, imposed in early 2014, has seen more nickel ore make its way onto world markets, particularly to China.The latest news of increased supply has come from state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), which is aiming to boost sales of nickel ore by more than 160 percent next year to 11 million tonnes, from an estimated 4.2 million tonnes this year.“Indonesians are going to ramp up their exports. That could mean higher Chinese NPI production,” Lennon said. “We should see more supply coming out of the Philippines as well.”Nickel ore output in the Philippines fell this year because of mine suspensions after a government environmental crackdown.“Some of those mine suspensions will be lifted soon,” one commodity trader said. “There’s been a fair amount of profit-taking on long nickel positions on the LME.”Funds’ net long nickel positions on the LME at 32,952 lots, or nearly 200,000 tonnes, are down from more than 40,000 lots on Nov. 1.Reporting by Pratima Desai and Eric Onstad; editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nickel-prices/rpt-graphic-nickel-rally-stalls-electric-car-boost-some-years-away-idINL8N1NU2JG'|'2017-11-24T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'24dc95f932ced9f98a81e54ed238067466b3a953'|'JP Morgan, eying Brexit, rents more space in Frankfurt - source'|'November 24, 2017 / 6:00 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago JP Morgan, eying Brexit, rents more space in Frankfurt - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) has become the latest big bank to respond to Britain’s looming exit from the European Union by renting extra office space in the German financial capital Frankfurt to accommodate more staff. A sign of JP Morgan Chase Bank is seen in front of their headquarters tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky A source familiar with the matter said on Friday that the U.S. investment bank had rented enough room in the Taunusturm for 200 staff, while it could fit more into its existing offices in the 40-storey skyscraper. The news comes days after CEO Jamie Dimon held face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss Brexit - Britain’s decision to leave the EU that she has pledged will happen by March 2019. Slow progress in negotiations with Brussels has raised fears of a so-called “hard Brexit” that would cause banks running their regional operations out of London to face barriers to doing business on the continent. JP Morgan plans to build hubs in Frankfurt, Dublin and Luxembourg - it already has banking licences in all three. Exactly which functions will be hosted at which location has yet to be decided, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensititivity of the matter. JP Morgan joins an exodus in which competitors like Goldman Sachs - which is expanding in Frankfurt and Paris - are shifting operations to more than one location, a reflection of the sheer scale of London’s financial district and how difficult it would be to replicate operations elsewhere in short order. The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper first reported on JP Morgan’s decision to rent more space in the Taunusturm, saying it would be able to accommodate up to 300 staff in addition to the 450 already based in the 170-metre (560 ft) building. JP Morgan declined to comment on the report. Reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-jpmorgan-germany/jp-morgan-eying-brexit-rents-more-space-in-frankfurt-source-idUKKBN1DO29V'|'2017-11-24T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'2fae1f25aed840d70c1a5bbfe1b6bb7f4e3df931'|'Whether new dawn or another false one, euro zone economy is full of surprises'|'November 22, 2017 / 9:06 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Whether new dawn or another false one, euro zone economy is full of surprises Jeremy Gaunt 6   The surprise economic star of 2017, when it wraps up next month, will have been the euro zone: growth looks set to come in at 2.2 percent compared with a forecast this time last year of just 1.4 percent. FILE PHOTO: A bird flies over Dublin Port at sunrise in Dublin, Ireland November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo Combine this with four years of falling unemployment and inflation well out of the deflation-worry zone, and policymakers and politicians have something to crow about. But is something substantial going on, or this another false dawn for an economy that has managed less than 1.6 percent average annual growth in its 18-year history? A sceptic might say it is all just cyclical, soon to reverse. Or that it is simply the result of 2.2 trillion euros (1.95 trillion pounds) in already-being-rolled-back European Central Bank stimulus forcing a famously sclerotic economy to budge. Both have certainly played a role -- but although there are risks that does not mean the growth impetus is not different from previous upswings or that it will end quickly. The cyclical argument, for example, stems from the euro zone’s proclivity to lag the U.S. economy, tending to start a take-off just as the latter is stalling. Indeed, the current euro zone cycle is four years behind the U.S. one. With some signs the long U.S. economic recovery might be peaking -- recent surveys have been flat to lower, and bonds are giving warning signals -- the sceptic could claim that in typical fashion the euro zone has started just as the Top Gun has finished. But there are differences from, say, 2006 when after four years of lagging growth the euro zone surpassed the United States only to tumble as the financial crisis hurt both countries. One, says Paola Subacchi, a senior fellow at Chatham House, is Europe’s acceptance that growth sometimes needs help. “There is now an understanding -- even in (fiscally hardline) Germany -- that demand needs to be supported,” she said. “Unlike 10 years ago, or even five years ago, there is an understanding that you can’t just sit and wait for growth.” It is not that austerity measures introduced after the financial collapse have been dumped wholesale, rather that some governments are more willing to add spending to the mix -- especially after many voters deserted mainstream parties. Germany, for example, has increased public spending on roads and bridges, faster internet and social housing -- turning state spending into one of the most important growth drivers in the euro zone’s economic powerhouse over the past two years. (For a graphic on Euro zone growth, click reut.rs/2zVJRpi ) MOMENTUM Some structural reforms have been undertaken after years of being called for in vain by central bankers, the International Monetary Fund and others. FILE PHOTO: A sculpture featuring models of German sports car manufacturer Porsche is seen outside the factory museum next to the head quarters of Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo More flexible labour laws -- notably in Spain and Ireland -- have helped prompt growth, notes Florian Hense, European economist at Berenberg bank. “What keeps things going are employment gains,” he said. The argument here for a continuation of growth is that there is plenty of spare capacity in the work force. Although well off its mid-2013 high of 12.1 percent, the euro zone’s unemployment rate is still 8.9 percent -- enough, Hense reckons, for two more years before there is any labour shortage. Attempts are also being made to keep such reform coming. In France, President Emmanuel Macron has already signed decrees to cap payouts on unfair dismissals, while also giving companies greater freedom to hire and fire. The balance for euro zone reformers will be how to achieve their plans against a wave of anti-establishment sentiment among voters angry at being left out of the post-financial crisis recovery. The euro zone’s new growth climate has also been fostered by the ECB’s stimulus, but its withdrawal may not be as damaging as it was in 2011-2012. Sarah Hewin, chief economist for Europe at Standard Bank, says the ECB pulled stimulus too early then and that its balance sheet -- the assets it holds -- was shrinking in 2012-2014, when the euro zone slipped into its second recession. But that was also the height of the euro zone debt crisis, much of which has been patched up. The ECB’s recent decision to halve what it buys has caused little angst because it is moving slowly. Stimulus will continue -- balanced against growth -- and low interest rates are pretty much a euro zone fixture. ROSY So is everything rosy? No. Risks remain, including broad ones like a China-led global slowdown. The latest worry is the prospect of political disruption in Germany given Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to build a coalition government. Add to that possible electoral upheaval in Italy next year and you have the same kind of political uncertainty as at the beginning of 2017, when there were concern about anti-euro zone candidates winning in the Netherlands, France and Germany. But for now, economists appear to see this as just noise, banking on the foundations of euro zone growth to call for just a gentle slowing next year after this year’s surprise. “It would require a major policy upset somewhere around the world (to end this),” Berenberg’s Hense said. Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-analysis/analysis-whether-new-dawn-or-another-false-one-euro-zone-economy-is-full-of-surprises-idUKKBN1DM0U9'|'2017-11-22T11:08:00.000+02:00'
'da0e42c056f67db93c0533f57ad3d929662f3d0e'|'Exclusive - SAP says top Gulf executives out; source says Iran compliance at issue'|'Reuters TV United States November 22, 2017 / 4:44 PM / a few seconds ago Exclusive: SAP says top Gulf executives out; source says Iran compliance at issue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - SAP ( SAPG.DE ) faces fresh questions about its sales practices in emerging markets after executives in charge of its business dealings with Iran have resigned or been put on administrative leave recently, the German business software said on Wednesday. SAP logo at SAP headquarters in Walldorf, Germany, January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Europe’s largest technology company, whose financial controls software is used by the world’s biggest multinationals, told Reuters the company is investigating sales practices in its Gulf States region, which oversees the company’s Iran dealings. A source familiar with the situation said Tayfun Topkoc, SAP’s country manager for the United Arab Emirates, has resigned from the company, while Przemek Oledzki, SAP’s Oman country manager - whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as chief of staff for the UAE, Iran and Oman region - was put on administrative leave. The source said the departures were connected to business dealings in Iran but provided no further details. Reporting by Tom Arnold in Dubai and Eric Auchard in London; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-iran-sap-se-exclusive/exclusive-sap-says-top-gulf-executives-out-source-says-iran-compliance-at-issue-idUKKBN1DM28E'|'2017-11-22T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'9a18739010342b06ea7a7541bc1cc43f9546cf07'|'Oil prices firm on expected OPEC cut extension'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:24 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Oil prices rise on Canadian pipeline disruption to United States Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday as ongoing cuts of piped Canadian crude to the United States added to falling U.S. crude inventories, while expectations of a prolonged OPEC-led production cut also offered support. FILE PHOTO: An oil pump jack pumps oil in a field near Calgary, Alberta, Canada on July 21, 2014. REUTERS/Todd Korol/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.68 a barrel at 0454 GMT, up 85 cents, or 1.5 percent from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.97 per barrel, up 40 cents, or 0.6 percent. Traders said the firm price lift was due to drop in crude supplies from Canada to the United States. TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ) said it will cut deliveries by at least 85 percent on its 590,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Keystone crude pipeline through to the end of November. The pipeline, which links Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries, was shut last week after a 5,000-barrel spill in South Dakota. Traders said there was also some price support from a weekly report on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute which said U.S. crude inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17. The latest official U.S. production and inventory data is due on Wednesday. Outside North America, markets have been supported by an effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to restrain output in a bid to end a global supply overhang. The deal to curb production is due to expire in March, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 in Vienna to discuss the outlook for the policy. “The meeting’s outcome will ultimately determine oil prices’ near-term fate,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA. J.P. Morgan said in its 2018 commodities outlook, released late on Tuesday, that “oil markets in 2018 will be balanced on the back of extended ... production cuts”, but added that without extended cuts, markets would be in surplus. ”We expect Brent to trade at the top of the $40 to $60 per barrel range, with Brent averaging $58 per barrel in 2018,“ the U.S. bank said. ”WTI is expected to average $54.6 per barrel. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-firm-on-expected-opec-cut-extension-idUKKBN1DM04Z'|'2017-11-22T03:24:00.000+02:00'
'c92cbc0200de070accfeddf5750a4326d642cd00'|'Prospect of tougher antitrust regulation worries deal investors'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. antitrust regulator has sent a chilling message to dealmakers with his opposition to AT&T Inc ( T.N ) buying Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ): Companies do not have to be competitors for their merger to hurt competition, and there are no simple fixes to get such deals approved.FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the AT&T purchase could be a negative sign for other so-called “vertical” mergers - where the companies do not compete but one supplies the other - such as pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp’s ( CVS.N ) plan to buy insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ).Investors had thought AT&T&rsquo;s acquisition of Time Warner, if not a slam dunk, would be approved by the Justice Department and its antitrust division chief Makan Delrahim with relatively few asset sales or conditions.Delrahim dashed those hopes on Monday when the Justice Department sued AT&T, arguing that the U.S. No. 2 wireless carrier would use Time Warner’s content to force rival pay-TV companies to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks.”With the case headed to court, traders are upping their bets that similar mergers awaiting approval will not be endorsed by regulators even though it has been decades since the Justice Department last successfully sued to stop a vertical merger.Shares of Time Warner have fallen 10 percent since word first leaked in early November that the Justice Department might challenge the AT&T purchase.Market confidence in the deal closing went from around 80 percent to around 30 percent, according to Samir Kapadia of VogelHood Group, which uses public data to predict future U.S. government actions for investors, industry groups and others.“Investors were shocked and the market responded,” said Kapadia. “Everyone on Wall Street feels like they’re missing something here.”Traders who watch mergers and acquisitions closely had concerns about other deals that had not yet closed, in addition to the proposed CVS acquisition of Aetna.“People see the DoJ (the Justice Department) under Trump as less predictable (than) they thought,” said a trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect business relationships.CLASSIC VERTICAL CVS made an offer to acquire No. 3 U.S. health insurer Aetna for more than $200 per share, or over $66 billion, people familiar with the matter said in late October.German drugmaker Bayer’s ( BAYGn.DE ) plan to buy Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) for $63.5 billion including debt could also be affected by the Justice Department’s revived interest in vertical transactions.FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The focus of the merger review so far has been on the few areas of overlap - like canola seeds - but the main thrust of the merger is to combine Monsanto’s seed business with Bayer’s expertise in crop protection, a classic vertical transaction.Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care’s ( FMEG.DE ) $2 billion deal to acquire a supplier, U.S. dialysis equipment maker NxStage Medical Inc ( NXTM.O ), has also started to struggle in the market.Since doubts about the AT&T-Time Warner deal began to build, NxStage shares have weakened from the price offered by Fresenius Medical. Previously they traded at about a 10.5 percent discount to the $30 a share takeover price; that discount has mushroomed to nearly 14 percent.To be sure, the negative antitrust response to AT&T&rsquo;s purchase of Time Warner may not be a clear indicator of a broader shift in approach. The deal has been unusually politically charged since Donald Trump attacked the deal on the campaign trail last year. As president, he raised his opposition again on Tuesday, saying it was “not a good deal for the country.”CLOSELY MONITORED In antitrust circles, the court fight between the government and AT&T will be closely monitored since the Justice Department has not successfully litigated against a vertical deal since the 1970s.That said, the Justice Department has compiled a winning record in challenging mergers since 2011, when it sued to stop AT&T from buying rival T-Mobile USA.It has stopped at least one vertical merger by threatening to sue, specifically Lam Research Corp’s bid to buy KLA-Tencor Corp, which was abandoned under Justice Department pressure in 2016.It had been widely expected that the AT&T deal would be approved by limiting how it managed content, known as a “behavioral” remedy, rather than asset sales.Delrahim, in a speech at the American Bar Association last week, said that he opposed those sorts of remedies because they smacked of regulation and were ineffective and a drain on government resources.“Behavioral remedies presume that the government should serve as a roving ombudsman of the affairs of business; even if we wanted to do that, we often don’t have the skills or the tools to do so effectively,” he said.Delrahim is not alone in those concerns.“One reason for more concern about vertical deals is that behavioral remedies are falling out of favor because they do not work well,” said Steven Salop, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Carl O''Donnell and Dan Burns in New York; Writing by Chris Sanders; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-regulation/prospect-of-tougher-antitrust-regulation-worries-deal-investors-idINKBN1DL2WG'|'2017-11-21T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'd459e922d6478ec9ae9d9f1b53b04362e9ce3d26'|'Brazilian regulatory body suggests changes to Oi restructuring plan - source'|'BRASILIA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The studies division of Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel has suggested modifications to a restructuring plan proposed by the board of debt-laden carrier Oi SA, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters late on Tuesday.According to the source, who requested anonymity because the matter is private, the division proposed that fees paid to bondholders who agree to inject capital into the carrier only be paid when the capital increase occurs, rather than beforehand.Under the board’s proposed restructuring plan, Reuters earlier reported, creditors that inject capital into the carrier could stand to earn fees of up to 500 million reais ($153 million), some of it upfront.The suggestions of the studies division will now be sent to the board of Anatel, which will deliberate further, the source said, adding Oi will hold a board meeting on Wednesday morning.Earlier in November, the board of Oi, which filed for bankruptcy protection 17 months ago, revealed its official restructuring proposal in a securities filing. However, Anatel demanded the company submit the plan to the regulator for review before filing it with a bankruptcy court.Oi and Anatel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.$1 = 3.26 reais Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Brad Haynes and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazilian-regulatory-body-suggests-changes-to-oi-restructuring-plan-source-idINL1N1NS0HD'|'2017-11-22T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'82b64ef309bd4a2d2ae5d4686fc8197cdbc17850'|'Oil prices firm on expected OPEC cut extension, U.S. crude stock draw'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:27 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Oil prices firm on expected OPEC cut extension, U.S. crude stock draw Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed on Wednesday after a reported fall in U.S. crude inventories and on expectations that an OPEC-led production cut aimed at tightening the market will be extended beyond next March. FILE PHOTO: The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery owned by The Carlyle Group is seen at sunset in Philadelphia March 26, 2014. Picture taken March 26, 2014. REUTERS/David M. Parrott/File Photo Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.07 per barrel at 0257 GMT, up 50 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.74 a barrel, up 92 cents, or 1.6 percent. Traders said markets have been supported by an effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to restrain output in a bid to end a global supply overhang. The deal to curb production is due to expire in March, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 in Vienna to discuss the outlook for the policy. “The meeting’s outcome will ultimately determine oil prices’ near-term fate,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA. J.P. Morgan said in its 2018 commodities outlook, released late on Tuesday, that “oil markets in 2018 will be balanced on the back of extended ... production cuts”, but added that without extended cuts, markets would be in surplus. “We expect Brent to trade at the top of the $40 to $60 per barrel range, with Brent averaging $58 per barrel in 2018,” the U.S. bank said. “WTI is expected to average $54.6 per barrel.” Traders said there was also some price support from a weekly report on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute which said U.S. crude inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17. Despite this, traders said crude markets were being weighed down by rising production in the United States, which has jumped by almost 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.65 million barrels per day. “While an extension of the OPEC deal to limit production may inspire oil bulls short-term, the rising U.S. output is likely to present headwinds, ultimately limiting upside gains,” said Lukman Otunuga, analyst at futures brokerage FXTM. The latest official U.S. production and inventory data is due on Wednesday. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-firm-on-expected-opec-cut-extension-idUKKBN1DM04O'|'2017-11-22T05:25:00.000+02:00'
'acda4f62c4ebcefe70a6c69481eace0a2315e9a9'|'Sechin summoned to court in Ulyukayev''s trial, but his schedule is tight -lawyer'|' 43 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Sechin summoned to court in Ulyukayev''s trial, but his schedule is tight -lawyer Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil major Rosneft has received court summons for its Chief Executive Igor Sechin to appear in court during the trial of ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, the judge read a letter from Sechin’s lawyer on Wednesday. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (C) and Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin (L) inspect production facilities at the Kondinsky group of oil fields in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District - Yugra, Russia November 21, 2017. Sputnik/Alexander Astafyev/Pool via REUTERS Sechin was called to court to testify but has missed the first two court sittings since then. In a letter to the court, his lawyer said Sechin’s schedule would become tighter by the end of this year. Ulyukayev is on trial on charges of extorting a $2 million bribe from Sechin, in exchange for Ulyukayev’s approval of a business deal. Ulyukayev denies the charges. Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Dmitry Solovyov; editing by Polina Devitt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-ulyukayev-sechin/sechin-summoned-to-court-in-ulyukayevs-trial-but-his-schedule-is-tight-lawyer-idUKKBN1DM0N6'|'2017-11-22T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'3be4acc9f86067a872baf81cc6b5b1a9c1340512'|'Hurricane changes the game for Puerto Rico bond investors'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico’s already shattered finances is changing the financial landscape as creditors rethink strategies two months after the storm, with many slashing positions and others settling in for a long wait.Some investors had bet on strong recoveries for the island’s triple tax-exempt bonds after Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy on much of its debt in May. But that has become too long a play for some, with the path to financial solvency decidedly longer since Maria hit on Sept. 20, killing dozens, crippling infrastructure and spurring a population exodus.According to court filings and a person close to the matter, hedge funds Stone Lion LP, Monarch Alternative Capital and Senator Investment Group have each shed between $254 million and $313 million in general obligation bonds.A unit of mutual fund Franklin Templeton has sold about $294 million of general obligation (GO) debt, while hedge fund Varde Partners ditched roughly $136 million in so-called COFINA debt which is backed by Puerto Rico sales tax, the filings show.At the same time, debt prices have plummeted. The benchmark GO bond, trading in default without a yield, changed hands at just under 60 U.S. cents on the dollar before the storm. On Tuesday it sank to an all-time low of 23.5 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. COFINA senior bonds dropped to 39.75 cents from 59.11 cents the day before Maria hit.Puerto Rico was already in crisis when Maria smashed its shores. The bankrupt U.S. territory, whose finances the U.S. Congress placed under federal oversight, owed $120 billion in combined bond and pension debt. It had near-insolvent public health and retirement systems, and was suffering from a shrinking population.Investors bet billions the island’s future could be salvaged through a blend of government reform and debt restructuring, but Maria blew away that calculation, causing tens of billions of dollars in estimated damage. The island’s government is seeking $94.4 billion in federal disaster recovery assistance.The storm sparked a wave of emigration to the U.S. mainland that researchers at the nonprofit Climate Impact Lab say could lower Puerto Rican incomes by 21 percent over the next 15 years.At the island’s current GDP growth rates, such a loss would take 26 years to recover, the researchers Solomon Hsiang and Trevor Houser found in a Sept. 29 report.For investors, a new prevailing strategy is emerging - namely, that patience is a virtue, and delay is the name of the game.“There’s no question the time frame has expanded,” said one creditor-side source. “Why absorb a loss at the weakest point?”STOP OR GO? The island’s federal financial oversight board feels differently, seeking to push a debt restructuring quickly.At a public meeting on Oct. 31, the board directed Puerto Rico’s government to submit by Dec. 22 a revised fiscal turnaround plan, with fresh economic projections, to serve as the basis for restructuring talks.Creditors privately accuse the board of trying to capitalize on the bonds’ low market value at investors’ expense.Some analysts suggest creditors have good reason to be concerned. In an Oct. 31 report, Height Securities analyst Ed Groshans said a revised local budget could eliminate debt service altogether, leaving so-called growth bonds - whose repayment is contingent on future economic growth - as the only option.ADVANTAGE COFINA? One key dispute in Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy is over the priority of the island’s $18 billion in general obligation debt relative to its $17 billion in COFINA bonds.Each class claims an ironclad right to Puerto Rico’s sales tax revenue. With sides locked in litigation, COFINA holders feel they may have an edge in the wake of Maria.Due to the sell-off of GO bonds by some influential holders, an ad hoc negotiating group of GO creditors has seen its once sizeable $3.2 billion stockpile reduced by about a third.That decline could reduce their bargaining power in any future restructuring talks as newer holders of the debt might be more flexible in their positions.“The sell-off of GO debt means new holders are getting in at a very low cost and with presumably lower recovery targets,“ said one COFINA creditor source. ”This will reduce the influence of litigious funds who opt to fight rather than pursue consensual solutions in good faith.”A spokesman for the GO group declined to comment.Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Daniel Bases and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-restructuring/hurricane-changes-the-game-for-puerto-rico-bond-investors-idUSKBN1DL2SN'|'2017-11-22T06:16:00.000+02:00'
'207a97a09cf9eacce7a6a11c91837999e334bee5'|'China regulator to consider letting insurers invest more broadly - Securities Times'|'November 22, 2017 / 1:35 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China regulator to consider letting insurers invest more broadly - Securities Times Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s insurance regulator is considering allowing insurers to allocate their funds to commodities and long-term property rentals, the Securities Times quoted an official as saying on Wednesday. Ren Chunsheng, head of the department supervising fund allocation at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said letting insurers invest their funds elsewhere would help deepened reforms, the report said. The comments come after a months-long crackdown on corruption in the insurance industry which has netted high-ranking officials and seen greater scrutiny on where funds are invested. Ren, who spoke at a conference, said the insurance industry should improve risk management and explore the use of its funds for financial derivatives, hedging and managing risks. He also said authorities have made headway in containing aggressive investment behaviour. During the year, China has tightened rules on acquisitions abroad as part of a broader campaign against what Beijing calls “irrational” investments that has targeted sectors including property, entertainment and sport. Reporting by Engen Tham; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-insurance-regulation/china-regulator-to-consider-letting-insurers-invest-more-broadly-securities-times-idUKKBN1DM062'|'2017-11-22T03:35:00.000+02:00'
'3097c66c8ef699e5f67d17fd504c3fd168a2e1ed'|'Malaysia says working on regulatory framework for crypto currencies'|'November 22, 2017 / 5:24 AM / in an hour Malaysia says working on regulatory framework for crypto currencies Reuters Staff 3 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has begun work on a regulatory structure for digital currencies such as bitcoin, its central bank governor said on Wednesday, aimed at further securing Malaysia against money-laundering and terrorism financing. FILE PHOTO - A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Governor Muhammad Ibrahim told a counter-terrorism financing summit that from next year those converting crypto currencies into conventional currency will be designated as “reporting institutions” under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act. Reporting institutions are required by law to undertake preventive measures to prevent their firms from being used as a conduit for money laundering and terrorism financing activities, according to the central bank. “This is to prevent the abuse of the system for criminal and unlawful activities and ensuring the stability and integrity of the financial system,” Muhammad said. He did not say when the regulations would be finalised. Commenting on terrorism financing in Malaysia, Muhammad said the total number of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) from financial institutions have increased this year. In the first six months of this year, Malaysian authorities received 346 STRs related to terrorism financing which have led to 34 disclosures to law enforcement agencies, compared to 93 reports in 2015, the central bank governor said. Malaysia has arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militant groups. The Southeast Asian country has been on high alert since suicide bombers and gunmen linked to Islamic State launched multiple attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighbouring Indonesia, in January 2016. A grenade attack on a bar on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in June last year wounded eight people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, the first such attacks on Malaysian soil. Meanwhile, Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the country has been sharing intelligence with Indonesia, Malaysia and others in the region for many years. “Any information that we have that is relevant to the security of our friends in the region, we will share. My expectation is that will be reciprocated,” Keenan said at the summit. Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Edting by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-malaysia-cenbank-cryptocurrency/malaysia-says-working-on-regulatory-framework-for-crypto-currencies-idUKKBN1DM0DQ'|'2017-11-22T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'ca5bc31c56cfbb5c26538d4e0b16144346871827'|'CEE MARKETS-Political spat over leu weakens it near record lows'|'* Romanian PM slams central bank for letting leu weaken * Romanian bond yields consolidate, but remain fragile * Zloty and crown drift off highs, forint regains ground By Sandor Peto and Luiza Ilie BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The leu eased to levels near record lows on Friday after Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose criticised the central bank (NBR) for not intervening to stop the currency''s slide. The leu, which traded at 4.655 against the euro at 1108 GMT, set new record lows at 4.6585 earlier this week. It weakened in the past weeks due to concern over budget spending, a ballooning trade deficit, rising inflation, corruption cases and a controversial judiciary reform. It also got hit by a shift in the NBR''s policy focus to market interest rates from the currency exchange rate which it had kept in relatively narrow ranges for years. Romania''s 10-year government bond yield has risen about 180 basis points to 4.62 percent in the past 13 months in the European Union''s fastest-growing economy, which recorded an 8.8 percent year-on-year output rise for the third quarter. Neighbouring Hungary''s corresponding yield has declined about 160 basis points to 2.05 percent. The central bank there is not worried over inflation and is loosening monetary screws. Just two months ago, premier Tudose criticised the NBR for a rise in interbank interest rates amid a liquidity squeeze. The weakening of the leu was a result of the shift in focus in the NBR''s policies on keeping market interest rates close to its benchmark rate, intended to control inflation more effectively. The leu and Romanian bonds stabilised on Friday after their steep weakening, but the friction between the government and the central bank creates "a very unfavourable reputation", one Budapest-based fixed income trader said. "It is hard to foresee the interest rate path in that overheated economy. It is not unsustainability, but the risks are priced in the form of risk premia," the trader added. One Bucharest-based dealer said Tudose''s criticism was not surprising, adding that the leu was not expected to weaken past 4.7 against the euro before Christmas, but may reach new record lows. Other currencies in the region were also consolidating ahead of the weekend. The Czech crown, which reached a 4-and-1/2-year high late on Thursday, shed 0.1 percent, as did the zloty which drifted off Wednesday''s four-month highs. The zloty also moved off Wednesday''s 6-month highs against the forint, which regained some ground after a fall around Tuesday''s meeting, where the Hungarian central bank announced new measure to push long-term interest rates lower. In equities markets, the shares of Romania''s second-biggest bank, Banca Transylvania rose 1.4 percent after it said it had reached an agreement with Greece''s Eurobank to buy its Romanian unit Bancpost. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1208 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.440 25.423 -0.06% 6.16% 0 5 Hungary 312.20 312.37 +0.05 -1.08% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2110 4.2055 -0.13% 4.58% Romanian leu 4.6550 4.6526 -0.05% -2.58% Croatian 7.5610 7.5645 +0.05 -0.08% kuna % Serbian 119.40 119.39 -0.01% 3.31% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1051.7 1046.0 +0.55 +14.1 6 3 % 2% Budapest 39755. 39962. -0.52% +24.2 30 72 2% Warsaw 2491.9 2503.9 -0.48% +27.9 2 3 3% Bucharest 7799.9 7778.6 +0.27 +10.0 1 9 % 9% Ljubljana 781.55 781.69 -0.02% +8.91 % Zagreb 1863.1 1865.6 -0.13% -6.60% 9 0 Belgrade 739.24 736.19 +0.41 +3.05 % % Sofia 667.13 667.91 -0.12% +13.7 6% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.389 0.065 +108b +7bps ps 5-year 0.991 0.039 +131b +3bps ps 10-year 1.769 0.011 +141b -1bps ps Poland 2-year 1.536 0.015 +223b +1bps ps 5-year 2.562 0.033 +288b +2bps ps 10-year 3.344 0.024 +298b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.05 1.23 1.37 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.08 0.09 0.13 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.79 1.8325 1.9125 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-political-spat-over-leu-weakens-it-near-record-lows-idINL8N1NU2DX'|'2017-11-24T08:43:00.000+02:00'
'38f2ee00b910716dd967cd7538fa58e19cf312c6'|'Automakers struggle with the future in Los Angeles'|'Reuters TV United States November 26, 2017 / 1:15 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Automakers struggle with the future in Los Angeles Joseph White 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Car manufacturers’ attempts to square what U.S. consumers want against the clean vehicles regulators and investors demand will be on display in Los Angeles this week at an auto show that has moved away from calling itself just an auto show. FILE PHOTO: People look at a Lexus LF-C2 concept vehicle on display during the model''s world debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California November 19, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni /File Photo Automakers on Monday will begin previewing new models for the media at an event called AutoMobility LA, reflecting an emphasis on digital technology and new ways to get around, such as self-driving cars. On Friday, the Los Angeles Auto Show will open to the public for 10 days, attracting visitors from one of the world’s most affluent and culturally influential metropolitan markets. For now, self-driving cars are not ready for consumers, and sales of the battery-powered vehicles demanded by California regulators remain marginal and money-losing. Profits are generated by gasoline-fueled sport utility vehicles and trucks. Automakers caught between the petroleum past and the digital future will send muddled messages. Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) will try to replace memories of the diesel emissions cheating scandal that tarnished its image with many California customers by promoting its $40 billion wave of electric vehicles. FILE PHOTO: The test vehicle Acura is using to test its autonomous Automated Drive is pictured at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake /File Photo In the next breath, the German automaker will tout its gasoline-fueled Audi A8 large luxury sedan, which can pilot itself under limited circumstances but is out of step with a market where buyers are switching to sport utility vehicles. Rivals overshadowed by electric vehicle pioneer Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) are in a quandary, too. Despite a booming stock market, sales for luxury brands BMW, Daimler AG’s ( DAIGn.DE ) Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp’s ( 7203.T ) Lexus are down for the first 10 months of 2017. BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ) is expected to roll out new versions of its i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. But for those not interested in electrification, the company will use the show to promote a high-performance version of its 5 Series sedan. Tata Motors ( TAMO.NS ) unit Jaguar Land Rover will accompany its new gasoline-powered Range Rover SVAutobiography, billed as the “pinnacle” of a lineup that already has models priced above $100,000, with its first plug-in hybrid Range Rovers. At AutoMobility LA, auto and technology industry executives will debate how ride-sharing, self-driving vehicles and electric cars will shape the future. At the auto show itself, the stars will be gasoline-burning SUVs, such as the Subaru Ascent, a large, three-row SUV from a brand known for compact, all-wheel-drive cars. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ( FCHA.MI ) will unveil a new Jeep Wrangler with styling that still harks back to the trusty vehicles that helped the United States win World War Two. Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-la-preview/automakers-struggle-with-the-future-in-los-angeles-idUKKBN1DQ0HN'|'2017-11-26T15:06:00.000+02:00'
'ad91fe0c6158e867ed2ee85c7a9fba5c2d46c7bb'|'U.S. oil services firm Weatherford hires Morgan Stanley to sell units: sources'|'LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil services firm Weatherford International has appointed advisers including Morgan Stanley to sell units starting in the first quarter of 2018, banking sources told Reuters.Alongside oil producers, companies that drill wells, haul water and provide other services to energy exploration firms have been hit by a slump in oil prices, with benchmark Brent tumbling to about $27 a barrel in 2016 from more than $100 in 2014. It is now trading at more than $60.Weatherford, which carried out a three-month strategic review, said in a third quarter analyst call it would restructure some parts of the business and identify units “which are not critical to our strategy going forward.”It did not specify which businesses, but said it expected to raise about $500 million from these divestitures.Three banking sources said the company was looking to offload the artificial lift business, the wellheads and the drilling tools units and the international pressure pumping assets.Potential bidders for the pressure pumping assets included U.S. firm Superior Energy Services, Canada-based pressure pumper Calfrac and private equity backed energy funds, the sources said.Weatherford did not respond to a request for comment, Superior Energy and Calfrac were not immediately available to comment. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.Weatherford, whose debt amounted at $7.9 billion at the end of the third quarter, had put its land drilling business valued under $1 billion on sale in 2016, but failed to sell it.One source said it would now sell it in parts based on its regional operations.“This process is already underway and the company hopes to monetize some of the rigs before the end of the year,” the source said.A second source said that potential acquirers included firms with operations in the Middle East and North Africa, where Weatherford mostly operates.Weatherford entered a joint venture with the world’s largest oil services firm Schlumberger in March to combine their North American hydraulic fracturing and completion units to rival that of market leader Halliburton.Analysts see more consolidation in the sector, after the acquisition of Baker Hughes by GE’s oil and gas equipment and services operations in July.“The way to grow differentially over the next couple of years is to be proactive with regards to acquisitions,” Tudor Pickering managing director Byron Pope said.Reporting by Clara Denina and David French; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-weatherford-oil-sale/u-s-oil-services-firm-weatherford-hires-morgan-stanley-to-sell-units-sources-idINKBN1DO1EQ'|'2017-11-24T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'8a9c445a6e1cad64561a8a4436ccb75cc0379b73'|'Exports drive UK car output higher in October'|'November 23, 2017 / 12:06 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Exports drive UK car output higher in October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British car production rose by an annual 3.5 percent in October as an increase in demand from abroad outweighed a decline in output for domestic buyers, an industry body said on Thursday. Cars readied for export are parked next to a vehicle storage facility on the dockside at the ABP port in Southampton, Britain August 16, 2017. Picture taken August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Factories churned out 157,056 cars last month, with exports rising 5 percent as domestic demand fell 2.9 percent, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). “It’s encouraging to see positive growth in exports this month and a slight increase in overall output,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes. But he said it remained a concern that domestic sales, on course to fall this year for the first time since 2011, had been hit by weak consumer confidence since the Brexit vote and uncertainty over government plans to cut pollution, affecting output. “It’s important that confidence is restored to the new car market, as sales of the latest cleaner, greener cars not only address air quality concerns but speed up activity on factory lines across the UK,” he said. On Wednesday, Britain said it would hike vehicle excise duty, a levy paid by British drivers, for the most polluting new diesel cars first registered from April next year, in a further blow to the segment. Last year, UK production reached a 17-year high of 1.72 million cars and had been expected to rise strongly again this year on course to beat an all-time record of 1.92 million vehicles by the end of the decade. But on Thursday, the SMMT said output would now only marginally rise to 1.73 million this year, according to an independent report it had commissioned, held back by model changes and falling domestic demand. Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-autos/exports-drive-uk-car-output-higher-in-october-idUKKBN1DN003'|'2017-11-23T02:05:00.000+02:00'
'76726ad4371e62be0ed18f5cb9abed721cd9fb27'|'Dollar dumped, bonds boosted on Fed inflation caution'|'November 23, 2017 / 12:24 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Dollar dumped, bonds buoyant on Fed inflation caution Wayne Cole 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - The dollar was on the defensive Thursday after suffering its worst drubbing in five months while bonds celebrated a comeback on speculation the Federal Reserve might not tighten U.S. policy as aggressively as previously thought. An investor is reflected in a window displaying a board showing stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in Sydney, Australia, July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore Moves in Asian share markets were mostly minor with Japanese markets closed for a holiday and the United States off for Thanksgiving. Spreadbetters pointed to a slightly easier opening for the major European bourses. MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS eked out a fresh 10-year peak with a rise of 0.15 percent, as did Hong Kong''s main index .HSI . The dollar’s rout came after minutes of the Fed’s last meeting showed “many participants” were concerned inflation would stay below the bank’s 2 percent target for longer than expected. That echoed comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen that she was uncertain about the outlook for inflation and led markets to pare back pricing for more hikes next year. While a move in December to between 1.25 and 1.5 percent is still almost fully priced in, Fed fund futures <0#FF:> rallied to show rates at just 1.75 percent by the end of next year. “The US dollar was already staggering into Thanksgiving when the FOMC minutes gave it another shove,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency analyst at Westpac. “The FOMC seems to be increasingly uneasy about ”ongoing softness“ in inflation.” “Investors can be forgiven for wondering why they should buy more U.S. dollars if we are heading into a ”Powell pause“ in the first half of 2018,” he added, referring to newly appointed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. BONDS RALLY BROADLY Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was huddled at 93.184 .DXY, having shed 0.75 percent overnight. The euro was enjoying the view at $1.1834 EUR= after climbing from $1.1731 on Wednesday. The dollar also crumbled to 111.27 yen JPY= , near its lowest since Sept. 20. The overnight move was the largest single-day fall against the yen since May. The Fed’s dovish turn helped break the inexorable sell off in short-term U.S. Treasuries, with yields on the two-year note US2YT=TWEB falling almost five basis points to 1.727 percent. That was the sharpest daily drop since early September. The rally spilled over into Asia, where Australian 10-year bond yields AU10YT=RR fell to their lowest since June and dealers expected European bonds to follow as well. Wall Street had been an oasis of calm in comparison with the Dow .DJI off 0.27 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC added 0.07 percent. Verizon ( VZ.N ) and AT&T ( T.N ) rose 2.0 percent and 1.6 percent respectively on bets they will benefit from the U.S. government’s plan to rescind net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration. Commodities were buoyed by the dive in the dollar, with gold up at $1,290.02 an ounce XAU= having added 0.9 percent overnight. Oil prices paused after hitting their highest in more than two years after the shutdown of one of the largest crude pipelines from Canada cut supply to the United States. [O/R} U.S. crude futures CLc1 eased back 12 cents to $57.90 a barrel, after jumping 2 percent on Wednesday to ground last trod in mid-2015. Brent crude LCOc1 dipped 18 cents to $63.14 a barrel. Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/dollar-dumped-bonds-boosted-on-fed-inflation-caution-idUKKBN1DN02E'|'2017-11-23T02:23:00.000+02:00'
'9f8d305436ac0429bd833f8280defa5e16cb45a8'|'''Macron effect'' turns U.S. business bullish on France - survey'|'November 23, 2017 / 6:31 PM / in 8 minutes ''Macron effect'' turns U.S. business bullish on France - survey Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The election of pro-business centrist President Emmanuel Macron to lead France has caused a sea change in American investors’ view of the country, a survey showed on Thursday, with many planning to expand. French President Emmanuel Macron attends the AMF congress, the annual meeting of French mayors, in Paris, France, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau More than half of U.S. firms in the country are now considering hiring staff in France, the survey found. The survey of 156 top executives of U.S. groups’ French divisions by the American Chamber of Commerce and Bain & Company showed 52 percent were now planning to add more staff in France over the next 2-3 years, compared with only 21 percent a year ago. “The 2017 survey underline the existence of a ‘Macron effect’ and the very positive signal sent to companies by the new French president’s reforms,” Robert Vassoyan, head of AmCham France, and Bain’s Marc-Andre Kamel said in a statement. Since Macron took power in May after five years of Socialist rule, he has enacted decrees overhauling France’s labour rules and passed a budget bill cutting corporate tax and scrapping a wealth tax on all but property assets. Some 72 percent of respondents -- whose companies employ about 70,000 people in France -- said they now had a positive view of the economic context in France, compared with 49 percent in 2016 and 27 percent in 2015. Britain’s quitting the European Union will have a positive impact on the U.S. group’s French units, 38 percent of the executives polled said, while 45 percent said it will have no effect at all and 5 percent said the impact will be negative. However, only 9 percent said their company was considering transferring some activities from Britain to France because of Brexit. Reporting by Michel Rose Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-reforms-usa/macron-effect-turns-u-s-business-bullish-on-france-survey-idUKKBN1DN20X'|'2017-11-23T20:30:00.000+02:00'
'a669ad0a8bd915c3ff2992f16e4baed58764a842'|'New Nissan engine bids to extend life for internal combustion'|'November 24, 2017 / 4:07 PM / a few seconds ago New Nissan engine bids to extend life for internal combustion Norihiko Shirouzu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co, an early mover in the electric vehicle market, will use the Los Angeles auto show next week to send a message about gasoline-fueled engines: They’re not dead yet. A Nissan logo is seen at a car dealership in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 30, 2017. Picture taken May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez Shinichi Kiga, head of Nissan’s gasoline engine project group, told Reuters the Japanese automaker is resolved to keep improving internal combustion technology to prolong its usefulness for decades to come. A new Infiniti QX50 sport utility vehicle to be unveiled at a media event in Los Angeles on Nov. 28 will highlight one technology Kiga plans to use. The QX50 will be the industry’s first use of a variable compression ratio system. The engine has a maximum thermal efficiency of around 40 percent, as much as twice the level of current gasoline engines in the industry, which average around 20 to 30 percent. Thermal efficiency refers to the power an engine generates from a unit of fuel. The Nissan/Infiniti VC Turbo illustrates a challenge for policy makers eager to see the end of the internal combustion engine’s dominance of transportation. While battery costs for electric vehicles are coming down, improvements in internal combustion engine efficiency could push the moment when electric vehicles achieve cost parity without government subsidies further into the future. Advancing the internal combustion engine technology is “one of the most overlooked trends in the industry,” James Chao, Asia-Pacific chief of consultancy IHS Markit Automotive, said. “These advances beg the question. Are EVs the best solution to the issue of vehicle greenhouse emissions?” The newfangled engine, dubbed VC-Turbo for marketing purposes, uses new electronics and software to continually choose an optimal compression ratio for combustion – until now a key factor in the trade-off between power and efficiency in a gasoline-fueled engine. The turbo-charged, 2-liter, four-cylinder VC-Turbo engine averages 30 to 35 percent better fuel economy than the much bigger 3.5-liter V6 engine it replaces, with comparable power and torque. Nissan says the new engine matches a diesel engine in torque – the amount of thrust that helps determine the car’s acceleration. It is a level of performance and efficiency the conventional gasoline engine has so far struggled to achieve. Kiga said the VC Turbo system costs thousands of dollars less than a comparable gasoline-electric hybrid car, although a VC Turbo hybrid could be in the offing. Kiga said his eventual aim is to develop engines for Infiniti and Nissan vehicles that achieve a thermal efficiency of 50 percent. In a race to make gasoline engines more efficient, Toyota has come up with a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder engine – the one that is equipped in the latest Camry car – which the company claims has a maximum thermal efficiency of 40 percent. That’s an industry-leading level Toyota says it has achieved without relying on technologies such as variable compression but through incrementally improving existing technologies. Forecasts for the use of internal combustion engines over the next 10 to 15 years vary widely, but few industry officials or consultants are forecasting the end of the technology by 2030, as some government regulators have suggested. Boston Consulting Group, for example, forecast the share of fully electric vehicles at 14 percent by 2030. Consulting firm IHS Markit forecasts that by 2025 installation of gasoline engines will increase to about 73 percent of light vehicles. Diesel’s share is forecast to drop to about 17 percent. Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Joseph White and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-la-nissan-infiniti/new-nissan-engine-bids-to-extend-life-for-internal-combustion-idUKKBN1DO1YL'|'2017-11-24T17:58:00.000+02:00'
'669ccea04b08396890ce2f6effcd2534bd584861'|'Clariant snubs review demand as showdown with White Tale looms'|'Virtual reality boom brings giant robots to China Sport Stonewall Smith drags Australia back from brink Irish government on verge of collapse ahead of EU summit Reuters TV United States November 24, 2017 / 6:02 AM / Updated an hour ago Clariant snubs review demand as showdown with White Tale looms Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Clariant ( CLN.S ) on Friday rejected its largest shareholder White Tale’s demand for an independent strategic review and three board seats, setting up a showdown with the activist investor that last month blocked its $20 billion merger with Huntsman ( HUN.N ). FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Clariant instead offered just one potential seat on the Swiss specialty chemicals maker’s board to White Tale, which includes hedge fund manager Keith Meister and New York City-based investor 40 North. Clariant said it will update its strategy early next year but said White Tale’s efforts to bring in outsiders to conduct the process were “unanimously rejected” by the Pratteln, Switzerland-based company’s board. “The Board of Directors perceives this process to be merely focused on finding bidders for various businesses with the ultimate consequence of (breaking up) the company and selling the assets,” said Clariant, which earlier on Friday announced plans for a strategic update in 2018. A spokesman for White Tale declined to comment, but the investor has previously said that it would seek to call an extraordinary shareholders meeting if its demands were not met. Reporting by John Miller and Oliver Hirt, editing by John Revill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-clariant-strategy/clariant-plans-strategic-update-in-2018-amid-shareholder-pressure-idUKKBN1DO0EF'|'2017-11-24T10:05:00.000+02:00'
'122b9a9cbd5595eae3b284b37e72f0d6a5956183'|'KKR raises bid price for Hitachi Kokusai, extends tender offer period'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. buyout fund KKR & Co LP has raised its offer price for Japan’s Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc to 3,132 yen a share from 2,900 yen, its second increase, according to a statement issued by Hitachi Kokusai on Friday.FILE PHOTO: A HITACHI company logo is pictured in Munich, southern Germany, April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo KKR also extended the deadline for the tender offer - originally Friday - to Dec. 8.KKR’s 2,900 yen per-share bid to buy the chip-making machinery and communications and video equipment business of Hitachi Ltd was launched in October after its original proposal was put on hold.KKR had agreed to buy Hitachi Kokusai in April in a deal valuing the company at 257 billion yen ($2.3 billion) or 2,503 yen per share. The plan was shelved in August after a third-party committee said the terms of the deal could be disadvantageous to minority shareholders.Shares in Hitachi Kokusai have been trading above the earlier offer price, an indication that investors are putting pressure on KKR to sweeten its bid further.Hitachi Kokusai shares were up 1.37 percent at 3,335 yen at 0420 GMT.KKR had already improved its offer price in October after U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management Corp disclosed its ownership in Hitachi Kokusai.Elliott, known for buying stakes in firms in the middle of takeovers or acquisitions and seeking better deals for shareholders, boosted its stake in Hitachi Kokusai to 8.59 percent last month.Reporting by Junko Fujita; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hitachi-kokusai-m-a/kkr-raises-bid-price-for-hitachi-kokusai-extends-tender-offer-period-idINKBN1DO0AA'|'2017-11-24T01:12:00.000+02:00'
'6eda8a575efa50f72fdfd6e55f52ebafd426aa67'|'Romanian Banca Transilvania agrees deal to buy Greek Eurobank''s Bancpost'|'BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Banca Transilvania ROTLV.BX, Romania’s second-largest bank said on Friday it has reached an agreement with Greece’s Eurobank ( EURBr.AT ) to buy its Romanian subsidiary Bancpost and will sign the contract later in the day.The deal, which will be subject to regulatory approval, will also give Banca Transilvania stakes in ERB Retail Services and ERB Leasing, part of the Romanaian group.Banca Transilvania, which did not disclose financial details of the acquisition, said it will begin integrating Bancpost operations in 2018.The sale is part of a restructuring plan agreed by Greece’s third largest lender with European Union authorities. Greek banks have been divesting assets and foreign subsidiaries to focus on their domestic market under a restructuring drive.Reporting by Luiza Ilie '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-romania-banca-transilvan/romanian-banca-transilvania-agrees-deal-to-buy-greek-eurobanks-bancpost-idINKBN1DO0J9'|'2017-11-24T04:03:00.000+02:00'
'68850df519e7d34c69b6ad12bf5478ea09cbeb5d'|'Greece sees primary surplus at 3.7 percent, growth 2.5 percent in 2018 budget'|'November 21, 2017 / 5:06 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Greece sees primary surplus at 3.82 percent, GDP growth 2.5 percent in 2018 budget Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Tuesday it would post a better-than-targeted primary surplus of 3.82 percent of gross domestic product in 2018 and build on this year’s economic upturn. FILE PHOTO: Paper receipts from withdrawals are seen in a litter box at an Eurobank ATM that was emptied by people withdrawing cash, in Athens, Greece, June 27, 2015. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis/File Photo The final draft of the state 2018 budget submitted to parliament on Tuesday forecast an expansion in output of 2.5 percent next year, compared to a projected 1.6 percent in 2017. Greece’s international lenders have set a lower target of 3.5 percent for next year’s primary surplus, which excludes debt servicing costs. But the government expects the country’s overall debt pile to continue growing. It sees public debt rising to around 179.8 percent of output next year from 178.2 percent this year. Greece, which has received three international bailouts since 2010 to stave off bankruptcy, is the most indebted state in the euro zone. The third bailout expires in August 2018, at which time Greece will be expected to finance itself from markets rather than rely on creditor handouts. Greece has made one foray onto markets this year, and last week announced a swap of some 20 small bond issues for five bigger ones. The budget draft refers to plans for new market issues, but is not specific on timing or size. The budget, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said, ”marked the country’s exit from a long period of macroeconomic adjustment programmes’. Parliament was set to put the draft to vote in a debate scheduled to start on Dec. 18 and end on Dec. 22. Greece is gradually returning to growth on the back of a resurgence in demand after a crippling recession that knocked a quarter off output between 2008 and 2016. Under the country’s third bailout programme, it was targeted to return a small primary surplus from 2016 onwards. It has exceeded those targets, giving Greek authorities some leeway in offering benefits and supporting sections of the population particularly worn down by pension cuts and heavy taxes. Parliament approved a 1.4 billion euro ‘social dividend’ that will be distributed to vulnerable groups this year, the result of the 2017 primary surplus authorities estimated at 2.44 percent of GDP. “A significant overshooting of the targets... has contributed to a restoration of credibility of Greek public finances and created the preconditions on the country returning to international markets in a sustainable manner,” Tsakalotos wrote. However, the overhang has prompted criticism from opposition parties, which say it offers a clear indication that the tax burden on the population is far too high. “Everything, particularly the middle class, was bled dry so this so called ‘merciful’ government could play the benefactor,” Opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during a parliamentary debate late Monday. “That’s how you got the surplus, by pretending to be the Santa Claus of politics in a country where many of our compatriots have forgotten Christmas.” Reporting By Athens newsroom; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-budget/greece-sees-primary-surplus-at-3-7-percent-growth-2-5-percent-in-2018-budget-idUKKBN1DL267'|'2017-11-21T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'58793c58054221f2f4f46f44b5d6586ffd4043b7'|'Bank of England rate-setters differ over chance of wage pick-up'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England rate-setters spelled out their differences on Tuesday over the central bank’s first interest rate hike in a decade, as they focused on how to determine when low unemployment was about to push up inflation.A man wears a bowler hat outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Four of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members spoke to lawmakers, nearly three weeks after the committee voted 7-2 to raise the main rate to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent.Many economists outside the BoE thought the decision was premature given Britain’s still-weak pay growth and uncertainties about Brexit which are weighing on the economy, despite robust global growth which has led the United States and the euro zone to start to tighten monetary policy.Gertjan Vlieghe, an external MPC member, said he switched his vote to support the rate hike due to signs that employers were finding it harder to recruit staff and that employees were more confident about changing jobs for higher pay.He also said measures of underemployment were falling.“It is early days, but I do think there is some evidence that this process ... has now begun,” Vlieghe said told a parliamentary committee that monitors the BoE. “If you wait until all the signs are lined up to support the decision then you will almost always be too late.”Another MPC member who voted for the rate hike, Michael Saunders, said he thought the unemployment rate could fall only a little bit further before it started to push up inflation.“I consider it quite possible that the equilibrium jobless rate is slightly below our 4.5 percent estimate, but probably only slightly,” Saunders said.Jon Cunliffe, a BoE deputy governor who was one of the two MPC members who voted against a rate hike, said he shared the “overall framework” of the MPC’s views on the economy.But he pointed to low domestic inflation pressures, the absence of signs that the weak pound was feeding through into wage growth - so-called second round effects - and inflation expectations around their historical averages.“(These) make it possible to wait before tightening policy until there is clear evidence that pay growth is responding to the level of unemployment in line with our forecast,” Cunliffe said.The officials also said investment growth was weaker than they would have hoped, given the strong global economy, advanced stage of the business cycle and cheap cost of credit.This probably reflected Brexit uncertainties, as well as businesses’ failure to lower the minimum return they expected from projects despite the sharp fall in financing costs compared with before the financial crisis, they said.Vlieghe and Cunliffe said the central bank was not going to jump to any conclusions about Brexit - even if talks proved slow - and would stick with their assumption of a smooth departure in 2019 unless business and consumer surveys suggested otherwise.Saunders added that rapid growth in unsecured consumer borrowing and personal insolvencies was “a little bit of a concern” but said another arm of the BoE was taking steps to avoid a repeat of the conditions before the 2008 crisis.Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe/bank-of-england-rate-setters-differ-over-chance-of-wage-pick-up-idINKBN1DL1OF'|'2017-11-21T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'cf8d639d6e317aa2ed5d8365d472e7bad2bd2c34'|'Regulators rethink assessing risks at big insurers'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:00 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Big insurers welcome regulators'' rethink of sector risks Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators are rethinking how to assess risks in big insurance companies, marking a shift that could make life easier for the industry. The Financial Stability Board said on Tuesday it could take a different approach to assessing risk which would change the way it compiles a list of “systemically” important insurers that must comply with tough rules to cushion them against losses. Reuters reported the rethink earlier this month, marking a victory for insurers following pressure from the U.S. Treasury. The FSB, which coordinates financial rules across the Group of 20 (G20) economies, first created its list of globally systemic insurers in 2013 and updates it each November. The aim of the FSB list is to ensure that big insurers comply with extra requirements such as “higher loss absorbency” and closer scrutiny. But the FSB, based in Basel, Switzerland, said work by insurance regulators to develop an approach focused more on an insurer’s activities rather than its size, “may have significant implications for the assessment of systemic risk in the insurance sector.” The FSB will review progress on this “activities-based approach” in November 2018. Insurers have long argued they should not be treated like banks when it comes to setting capital requirements. U.S. insurer AIG’s ( AIG.N ) $182 billion bailout by American taxpayers in the financial crisis was an exception due to its involvement in risky activities, the industry has said. Five of the nine insurers on the FSB’s 2016 list - Aegon ( AEGN.AS ), Allianz ( ALVG.DE ), Aviva ( AV.L ), Axa ( AXAF.PA ) and Prudential ( PRU.L ), are based in Europe. “Although, it is possible that insurers can develop activities, such as banking type business, which could be systemic, this has always been rare,” Nicolas Jeanmart, head of personal and general insurance at trade body Insurance Europe, said in a statement. “The current list approach, with automatic capital increases for those included, and largely driven by the size, is flawed,” Jeanmart said. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the FSB had taken a “puzzling step”, but it was hopeful the new approach would lead to a more sophisticated way of assessing risks. ABI policy adviser Annalise Vucetich said it was unclear why the FSB won’t go ahead with updating its list given that work on an activities based approach has barely begun. Work on a global capital standard for the big insurers is also taking longer than expected due to disagreements between the United States and Europe. In the meantime, the U.S. Treasury Department has been pushing the FSB to ease up on insurers and asset managers. A group of U.S. regulators have removed AIG from its domestic list of systemically important insurers, raising questions over whether the FSB would keep it on its global list. Global watchdogs like the FSB face the choice of accommodating the United States or risk having the world’s most important capital market pulling back from international rulemaking. The FSB has already had to back down from treating big asset managers like banks and switched to an activities-based approach after pressure, this time from fellow securities regulators. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-insurance-regulator/regulators-rethink-assessing-risks-at-big-insurers-idUSKBN1DL0RY'|'2017-11-21T10:57:00.000+02:00'
'cdad5e0b680322fbf67ae0a3046839d35f9fa00a'|'Exclusive - Agribusiness firms discouraged by Saudi mills sale terms'|' 06 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Exclusive: Saudi sale of grain mills hits obstacles Maha El Dahan , Tom Arnold 7 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - An unwieldy sale process and onerous ownership rules are discouraging some potential investors from bidding for Saudi Arabia’s state-owned grain mills, sources close to the firms say, in a potential snag for the kingdom’s economic reforms. FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to modernize Saudi Arabia and reduce its dependence on oil. The kingdom is selling assets worth about $300 billion to fund the plan and potential foreign investors and bankers are watching the sales closely. The grain mills on sale come under the kingdom’s monopoly state grain buyer the Saudi Grains Organisation (SAGO), one of the world’s largest wheat and barley buyers. Archer Daniels Midland Company ( ADM.N ) and Bunge Limited ( BG.N ) - two of the world’s four biggest agribusiness firms - are among several international companies that have previously expressed interest in bidding for SAGO’s assets. But one agribusiness giant which previously expressed an interest is now hesitating following the publication last week of preliminary sale guidelines which stipulate that the mills must remain majority Saudi-owned. “If that is the deal, then the answer will clearly be a ‘no’,” a source close to one of the large agribusiness firms potentially interested in bidding told Reuters. ADM and Bunge declined comment. The document with the guidelines, described as indicative criteria for investors, was posted on SAGO’s website. Another Middle East-based grain trader said after reading the document: “It can’t really be a whole-hearted privatization if the Saudi partner remains in control.” Prospective foreign bidders were made aware from the start of the process by bank HSBC ( HSBA.L ), SAGO’s financial adviser for the sale, that they would require Saudi involvement to bid. As a result, ADM partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Almarai ( 2280.SE ), while Bunge teamed up with Arasco, Reuters reported this year. Italian wheat supplier Casillo Group and a partnership of Turkey’s TAV, a construction and airports conglomerate, and Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Holding Group, a local real estate business, were also interested, Reuters previously reported. But the source close to one of the large agribusinesses said the company had understood there would be room for negotiation on the level of Saudi ownership. HSBC declined to comment on the sale process and whether the majority ownership rule was flexible. An adviser to a consortium potentially interested in SAGO said the document suggested there was less room for negotiation than previously understood, even though it had been clear from the start the kingdom wanted to retain control of food security. The document was designed to elicit market feedback as part of a consultative approach to the privatization, a source close to the sale process said. IMPORT DEPENDENT Large grain market players’ interest in SAGO’s mills comes as Saudi Arabia grows increasingly dependent on grain imports. The kingdom has become a major importer of wheat and barley since abandoning plans in 2008 to become self-sufficient - as farming in the desert was draining scarce water supplies. SAGO imports Saudi Arabia’s entire wheat supply of about 3.5 million tonnes a year. It has said that demand for wheat is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3.2 percent to reach 4.5 million tonnes by 2025, largely due to population growth. Despite the opportunities for growth, some of the initial enthusiasm in the SAGO sale has cooled over concerns about the majority Saudi ownership rule, as well as other aspects of the sale structure. SAGO has previously said it would sell its milling operations by placing them in four specially formed corporate entities, while retaining other functions. The entities would each hold grain silos, feed factories and flour mills. Two of the sources close to potential bidders said a final decision on the process was still to be made, but they believed SAGO was leaning towards a sale of the entities one by one, rather than together, and this did not sit well with investors. “The rules of engagement are still not clear. Will they make it all one sale or will they divide it in phases? We don’t know yet,” one of those sources said. After HSBC asked for feedback from potential bidders on the sequential sale, at least three groups voiced opposition to the plan, according to an adviser to one potential bidder. The two sources close to potential bidders said the first sale would probably set a level of pricing for the other three, which could be unfair on those bidding further down the line. No price indications for the milling operations have been given and investors say it is hard to put a precise figure on the value of the assets as SAGO has never been run for profit. The source close to the sale process said sequential sales would make the bidding process more competitive, benefiting the kingdom. ‘PAINFULLY SLOW’ Investors were also seeking clarity on how long grain subsidies would remain in place and details on non-compete clauses, one of the sources close to a potential bidder said, adding that both needed to be clarified in the sale rules. HSBC has not publicly disclosed a timetable for the privatization. The source close to the sale process said the schedule for the sale would be disclosed at the “right stage”. But potential investors said the process had been painfully slow so far. One said that even though no deadline had been set, they had expected the request for qualifications, which kick-starts the process, to have started earlier. In a statement to Reuters, SAGO said it was continuing its efforts to be “on track without jeopardizing the quality of preparation and readiness” for the privatization, adding that the document with the indicative criteria for investors had been released earlier than originally planned. SAGO did not comment on the proposed sale terms. In addition to the big names, some regional investors have also expressed an interest in the sale. Dubai-based Al Ghurair, and a partnership between Abu Dhabi-based Agthia Group AGTH.AD and local conglomerate Olayan Group are among others eyeing the privatization, sources told Reuters, although SAGO is said to be more interested in large global firms that have more experience and market clout. Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar in Dubai; editing by Michael Georgy and David Clarke'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-privatisation-sago-exclusive/exclusive-agribusiness-firms-discouraged-by-saudi-mills-sale-terms-idUKKBN1DL1S5'|'2017-11-21T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'7d39af2384f4d2dca18fb905b676ae11263acba7'|'Bank of England''s Tenreyro says markets have understood rate message - Bloomberg'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:10 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Bank of England''s Tenreyro says markets have understood rate message - Bloomberg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Financial markets have understood the Bank of England’s message on future interest rate policy, although the Brexit process risks throwing things off course, new BoE policymaker Silvana Tenreyro said in an interview published on Friday. FILE PHOTO - The Bank of England is seen through the columns of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Tenreyro, who joined the BoE in July, also defended the central bank’s decision to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade on Nov. 2, which many economists thought was too soon. “I didn’t think this was premature and in fact I did waituntil I saw the signs from the surveys that convinced me,” shetold Bloomberg News in an interview. “We know there are some lags in the transmission of monetary policy so you can move too late - you have to make a judgment.” Bloomberg reported that Tenreyro said two more interest rate rises would probably be needed to get inflation back to target. Markets have “understood very well the BoE’s communications”, she was quoted as saying. BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Nov. 2 that in broad-brush terms, the central bank was on the same page as investors who expect two more 25 basis-point rate hikes before the end of 2020. However, Tenreyro said in the interview that the impact of Britain’s departure from the European Union was unclear. “It depends on how households and companies react to the new normal, to the new potential. Shocks can hit the economy one way or the other and we will have to respond to that,” she said. She added that she expected future growth to be “modest” and that it was not certain which way rates would move after Brexit. “People up until recently thought that Brexit meant monetary policy would remain highly accommodative and interest rates would stay low forever,” she said. “But Brexit might present other challenges that require the opposite. It might require an adjustment either way, and it’s not obvious. That’s something to be prepared for.” Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Kate Holton and Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-tenreyro/bank-of-englands-tenreyro-says-markets-have-understood-rate-message-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DO0P7'|'2017-11-24T10:14:00.000+02:00'
'ac7a2b6ae87562de5209cdd4196ab969c56fc6a7'|'Russia ready to support oil output deal as OPEC meeting looms'|'November 24, 2017 / 2:48 PM / Updated an hour ago Russia ready to support oil output deal as OPEC meeting looms Vladimir Soldatkin 4 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it is ready to support extending a deal among oil producers on cutting output, less than a week before OPEC meets in Vienna to discuss policy, although it has yet to say how long it should be for. The Russian flag and the OPEC logo are seen before a news conference in Vienna, Austria, October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia would discuss the details of an extension of the global deal on Nov. 30, but made no mention of how long this should last beyond its March expiry. “We see that 50 percent of oil stockpiles have been removed, the oil price has reached its balance,” Novak told RBC TV. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other major producers have cut their combined output by about 1.8 million barrels per day since January to reduce bloated inventories and boost oil prices. “However, the targets on rebalancing the market have not been reached. Everyone supports the extension, so that the targets are finally reached,” Novak said, adding that “different options are under consideration”. Saudi Arabia has been pushing for an extension for nine months until the end of 2018, a position President Vladimir Putin had suggested in October that Russia backed. Russia, heavily reliant on oil revenues but wary that any sharp rise in prices may be followed by another punishing collapse, has since sent mixed signals about timing. Russia’s TASS news agency reported earlier this week that oil producers and the Russian Energy Ministry had discussed a six-month extension.. Then on Thursday, Russia’s Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said Russian economic growth had been hurt by the deal because it dampened investment - the first clearly negative assessment of the pact by a senior Russian official. Novak’s comments on Friday were made in Bolivia where he is at a Gas Exporting Countries Forum of leading gas producers. The OPEC logo is seen outside their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The Russian minister had met the Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers in Bolivia, as well as an official from the United Arab Emirates, Russian news agencies reported. DOG FIGHT IN PROSPECT One of the stumbling blocks for extending the OPEC-led deal is a boom in U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has jumped by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd. U.S. producers, which scaled back output with the price slump after mid-2014, have ramped up production as oil prices climbed LCOc1. Higher U.S. output undermines the impact of output cuts and erodes market share for others, like Russia. “Make no mistake, expect the dog fight for the global markets once the deal expires,” a source at a Russian oil major said about scenarios once the deal on curbing output expires. A key task of the agreement, lifting prices, has been achieved. Benchmark Brent crude, which tumbled from well above $100 a barrel in 2014 to about $27 in 2016, is back above $60. Russia’s budget is based on an oil price of $40 per barrel, suggesting there is a good cushion against a sudden price slide. Novak said on Friday he expected the oil price to remain between $50 and $60 a barrel this and next year. But Moscow has had to deal with economic and social fallout caused by price falls in 2008-09 and since 2014, said Chris Weafer at Moscow-based Macro-Advisory. “The damage from a third collapse would likely greatly outweigh the financial gains to be made from higher oil in the meantime,” he wrote. Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Additional reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-russia/russia-ready-to-support-oil-output-deal-as-opec-meeting-looms-idUKKBN1DO0FT'|'2017-11-24T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'f14fe9100a012c7abaf9b0b5a4f6c2b3360364d9'|'Chinese airlines court Cathay pilots facing pay squeeze'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:09 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Chinese airlines court Cathay pilots facing pay squeeze Brenda Goh , Jamie Freed 7 Min Read SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chinese airlines are circling disaffected pilots at Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways ( 0293.HK ), offering sky-high salaries to fill a shortage of experienced captains in a rapidly expanding aviation industry. Dave Ross, President and CEO of WASINC International, poses beside a recruitment banner in Hong Kong, China November 20, 2017. Picture taken November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Chinese carriers, including China Southern Airlines ( 600029.SS ), Hainan Airlines ( 600221.SS ) and Juneyao Airlines ( 603885.SS ), will need more than 100,000 new pilots over the next two decades, according to forecasts by planemaker Boeing Co ( BA.N ), as air travel takes off with increased prosperity in the world’s second-largest economy. China trains around 4,700 new pilots a year at home and abroad, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), but the industry’s sharp growth has left it short of captains with several thousand hours flying experience. “Chinese airlines are growing so quickly, and ... it takes a lot of time to become a captain,” said Xu Dandi, head of recruitment at Yu Feng Consulting, whose clients include China Southern and Loong Air. “Pilots hired in Hong Kong have likely passed strict assessments ... and have experience flying in Asia.” Pilot recruitment firms have flocked to Hong Kong hoping to attract established pilots from loss-making Cathay, which has this year axed 600 jobs in its biggest round of staff cuts in almost 20 years. While Cathay is not firing any of its 2,500 Hong Kong-based pilots, it has warned of cuts next month to their housing allowances, which for some veteran captains can be worth up to HK$100,000 (£9621.38) a month. Some Cathay pilots - who are widely regarded as among the industry’s best-qualified and highest-paid - say cuts could price them out of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Many are expatriate Australians, Americans and Britons. “Most expat pilots will have a serious re-think ... if the (housing) allowance is cut too drastically,” said one of nine Cathay captains interviewed by Reuters - none of whom wanted to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Some Chinese airlines are offering tax-free pay packages of up to $314,000 a year, according to job ads. That’s roughly in line with what Cathay captains can earn now, before any allowance cuts. The airline is also looking to reduce pensions and increase productivity. RECRUITMENT DRIVE Chinese airlines use recruitment agencies to scout globally for pilots. Hong Kong was not previously a major target, but has come into focus as Cathay has struggled. Longreach Aviation Resources told Hong Kong media it received inquiries from 200 Cathay pilots before it abruptly cancelled a roadshow last month, citing legal advice. It declined further comment. Another recruiter, Wasinc International, attracted nine Cathay pilots on the first day of a Hong Kong roadshow this week, and Yu Feng Consulting said it plans a similar event based on interest from mainland Chinese airlines. “We watch for airlines that are having difficulties. Cathay has always been very strong and now they’re downgrading their pay a little, a lot of their pilots are worried,” Wasinc CEO Dave Ross said. “(Cathay pilots) have a reputation for being high-quality pilots, so a lot of airlines are interested in them.” Cathay Pacific Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer Greg Hughes said the airline was used to having its pilots courted by rival carriers. “For 30-40 years, people have targeted our pilots and we don’t expect that to let up,” he told Reuters. “People like working for us, and our (staff) turnover rates are low.” FOREIGN CAPTAINS NEEDED As China’s airline sector has ballooned, it’s had to import foreign experience, with the number of foreign pilots flying with Chinese airlines doubling to more than 1,000 between 2010 and last year. In September, the CAAC relaxed some of the industry’s strictest medical requirements - seen as a sign of how serious the pilot shortage is. While Chinese carriers may offer top dollar packages, some foreign pilots who have moved to China warn of trade-offs. Four expatriate pilots told Reuters the downsides include a long hiring process; short, 3-year contracts, with no union protection; gruelling flight rosters handed to pilots at late notice; and a system geared towards penalising pilots for mistakes rather than using these to learn safety lessons. “The money’s definitely good, but people considering the job - if that’s their primary motivation - I don’t think they’ll last long,” said Mike Edelman, an American pilot who has flown for Juneyao Airlines for nearly eight years. “You’ve got to devote a lot more hours to work and ... if you want to last in China you’ve got to be willing to adapt to the culture.” The cultural challenge was acknowledged by one of the Cathay pilots attending the Wasinc recruitment session. “In Hong Kong, you know what’s going on ... but working in China, it’s a foreign country. There are issues like moving money out, financial security and pollution. Those aside, China is now better placed in terms of contracts than 10 years ago.” NO PLACE LIKE HOME China isn’t alone in trying to attract pilots. Airlines in Australia, Europe and North America are again recruiting after several quiet years, and could prove an attractive alternative for some - although the seniority system used by most Western carriers, where new joiners enter on the bottom rank and salary rungs, whatever their prior experience - would likely deter Cathay’s senior captains. Of the nine Cathay captains Reuters spoke to, some named non-Chinese carriers including Vietnam Airlines HVN.HNO and Korean Air Lines Co Ltd ( 003490.KS ) as potential options, while others said they would consider non-flying jobs. Three captains said joining China Southern could be an option as it has bases in countries like Australia, where pilots can return home and fly to and from the carrier’s Guangzhou hub, though the pay would be less than if they moved to China. “The money isn’t everything,” one said. “The attraction of living in their home country, having family away from the pollution and children growing up back home means most are willing to be on less pay.” Reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE, with additional reporting by Venus Wu and Anne Marie Roantree in HONG KONG; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-pilots-cathay-pacific/chinese-airlines-court-cathay-pilots-facing-pay-squeeze-idUKKBN1DN296'|'2017-11-24T01:08:00.000+02:00'
'e224d6ecb66d76551c9cf6c662cf6969c5326767'|'Lithuania''s Maxima plans to buy Poland''s Emperia for around $338 million'|'WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish retail group Emperia EMP.WA said Lithuania’s Maxima Grupe will announce a tender on Friday to buy all of Emperia’s shares for at least 100 zlotys each, valuing the potential deal at around 1.2 billion zlotys ($337.96 million).The investment agreement was signed on Thursday, Emperia said.Shares in Emperia stood at 93.87 zlotys each at market close on Thursday and were up 44.4 percent since the start of the year. Earlier this month, Emperia said it started talks with Maxima Grupe as a potential strategic investor.Maxima Grupe controls retail chains in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Poland. Emperia, which was founded in 1990, owns the Stokrotka retail chain in Poland.Emperia also said two of its shareholders, who are mainly investment funds and private pension funds, Altus 29 FIZ and Ipopema 72 FIZAN, agreed to sell their shares in Emperia to Maxima, representing 21 percent of the company’s capital.Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-emperia-tender/lithuanias-maxima-plans-to-buy-polands-emperia-for-around-338-million-idINKBN1DO0IX'|'2017-11-24T03:58:00.000+02:00'
'e2f9c92564807ab52aeeacb5c0f186db23ffcc70'|'SandRidge shares surge as Icahn opposes Bonanza bid'|'(Reuters) - Shares of SandRidge Energy jumped 14.2 percent on Friday, after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a big stake in the oil and gas producer and said he would oppose its $746 million bid for rival Bonanza Creek Energy.FILE PHOTO: Billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network''s Neil Cavuto show in New York, U.S., February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Bonanza Creek’s shares fell 6.3 percent to $30.13 in early trading. The shares are yet to touch SandRidge’s offer price of $36 since the bid was announced on Nov. 15.Icahn, who on Wednesday revealed a 13.51 percent stake in SandRidge, is the second investor to oppose the proposed buyout.Earlier this week, Fir Tree Partners, which owns about 8.3 percent of SandRidge, had criticized the proposed deal, saying the deal would drain all of the company’s cash.Icahn, whose stake makes him the largest shareholder in SandRidge as per Thomson Reuters data, said on Wednesday he had not spoken with Fir Tree, but agreed with the hedge fund’s reasons for opposing the deal.SandRidge emerged from bankruptcy late last year, while Bonanza did so in April following a recovery in oil prices after a two-year slump.SandRidge is looking to buy Bonanza Creek to expand its presence in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado.Shares of SandRidge pared some of their gains and were up 6.4 percent at $18.61 in morning trading on Friday. The shares are down about 21 percent since the start of the year.Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sandridge-carl-icahn-stocks/sandridge-shares-surge-as-icahn-opposes-bonanza-bid-idINKBN1DO1ZP'|'2017-11-24T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'd6afc2b286eba29b6b643603654ecceb6889d04a'|'NAFTA talks hit wall as Mexico, Canada push back on U.S. demands'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:20 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago NAFTA talks hit wall as Mexico, Canada push back on U.S. demands Anthony Esposito , Adriana Barrera 5 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States, Mexico and Canada failed to resolve any major differences in a fifth round of talks to rework the NAFTA trade deal, drawing a swift complaint from the Trump administration on Tuesday that the lack of progress could doom the process. Flags are pictured during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The three nations have vowed to continue talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through March, but the yawning disagreements on core U.S. demands are piling pressure on negotiators to come up with fixes before Mexico’s 2018 presidential campaign begins in the spring. Mexico and Canada have rejected a U.S. proposal to raise the minimum threshold for autos to 85 percent North American content from 62.5 percent as well as require half of vehicle content to come from the United States. The two have also resisted a range of other U.S. demands, including a plan to scrap a key dispute resolution mechanism and proposed curbs on Mexican and Canadian agriculture. Minutes after the three countries issued a short joint statement underlining advances and vowing to continue work on concluding negotiations “as soon as possible,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer struck a different tone. “While we have made progress on some of our efforts to modernize NAFTA, I remain concerned about the lack of headway,” he said in a statement. “Thus far, we have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement. Absent rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result,” Lighthizer added. Lighthizer and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts stayed away from the talks in Mexico City, where the mood was calmer than in the previous round last month in Washington. Negotiators said advances had been made in agreeing on of the technical detail that forms the bedrock of the accord. But time was running out if they want to reach a deal by the end of March. The negotiating teams are due to meet again in Washington in December before a sixth formal round of negotiations is scheduled for Montreal, Canada from Jan. 23-28. THREATS A U.S. official said wording had been agreed upon for anti-corruption, telecommunications, goods market access, sanitary and food safety measures and technical barriers to trade with spaces left for disputed sections. A NAFTA banner is seen during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido “I think there’s a lot of gelling going on, rather than a lot of closing, so I think there’s a good argument that we are on schedule, that meeting our deadline of an agreement by March is not out of the question,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA unless he can rework it in favor of the United States, arguing that the pact has hollowed out U.S. manufacturing and caused a trade deficit of over $60 billion with Mexico. The U.S. official expressed frustration that Mexico and Canada were not engaging in talks on the auto content proposal and others aimed at “rebalancing” trade in the region. “If you make a proposal and the other side doesn’t respond, what is it you’re doing?,” the official said. The U.S. auto proposal is a central plank of Trump’s America First strategy to boost U.S. manufacturing, but it faces stiff resistance from the auto industry, which worries it will make North American carmakers less competitive and costlier. Mexican and Canadian officials said they wanted the United States to explain how the auto plan could prosper. “Where is the merit in making a counterproposal to a demand that would take us backwards?” said a Canadian source. The U.S. official did note, however, that Mexico had put forward a counterproposal to a U.S. plan to restrict access for Mexican and Canadian firms to U.S. public contract tenders that sought to put U.S. firms in the same situation in Mexico. “I think Mexico is being helpful in using a counterproposal to crystallize their views,” the official said. Mexico also formally proposed that NAFTA allow for a review of the accord every five years, instead of terminating the deal automatically if it is not renegotiated, as the United States has demanded, three Mexican officials said. Taking effect in 1994, NAFTA underpins much of the more than $1 trillion in annual trilateral trade, and Washington’s threats to walk away from the pact have spooked markets. Mexican officials initially expressed hope that chapters such as telecoms and e-commerce could be closed during the round. But chief Mexican negotiator Ken Smith told reporters that none would wrap up this time. Reporting by David Lawder and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Cynthia Osterman; additional reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/nafta-nations-lock-horns-on-u-s-auto-demands-as-fifth-round-ends-idUKKBN1DL0FL'|'2017-11-22T03:01:00.000+02:00'
'41e4043fd987a5ed0f9ac58c4ed916c724d075c3'|'Exclusive: Nippon offer prompted Axalta to end Akzo Nobel merger talks -source'|'(Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd ( 4612.T ) made an all-cash offer on Tuesday to acquire Axalta Coating Systems Ltd ( AXTA.N ), a source familiar with the matter said, prompting Axalta to end merger talks with Akzo Nobel NV ( AKZO.AS ).Nippon’s offer came at a premium to where Axalta shares ended trading on Monday, the source said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.Nippon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Akzo Nobel and Axalta declined to comment.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-axalta-m-a-nipponpaint-exclusive/exclusive-nippon-offer-prompted-axalta-to-end-akzo-nobel-merger-talks-source-idUSKBN1DL2SH'|'2017-11-22T06:11:00.000+02:00'
'c6e673adcb3edd82060b6157010a5d1bbc5c8cc4'|'Hanover buys Bell Pottinger''s Middle East business'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Bell Pottinger’s Middle East business has been sold to a subsidiary of London-headquartered public relations firm Hanover Group, the new owner said in a statement on Monday.The value of the acquisition by Hanover Middle East was not disclosed.Bell Pottinger’s British arm collapsed in September after the global public relations agency’s clients deserted it over a racially-charged political campaign it ran in South Africa.Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-bellpottinger/hanover-buys-bell-pottingers-middle-east-business-idUSKBN1DK1OD'|'2017-11-20T22:14:00.000+02:00'
'62d5631d4c61dd89ceb1924f8cadd7bea00934b0'|'Italy''s Creval says cash call will prep bank for ''unavoidable'' M&A'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Creval’s 700 million euro ($828 million) new share issue will succeed and put the mid-sized Italian bank in tip-top shape for a merger which is “unavoidable”, its director general said.Creval rocked Italian banking shares this month by announcing a larger-than-expected stock issue as it stepped up goals for bad loan reduction.Italian lenders are under pressure by regulators to get rid more quickly of soured debts left behind by a recession. Lengthy recovery procedures in Italy mean sales are the fastest solution, but they burn through precious bank capital.“We were at a fork in the road: we could have proceeded at a slow speed or take the bull by the horns as we did ... to do away with the legacy from 10 years of crisis and restore profitability to a satisfactory level,” Mauro Selvetti told Reuters late on Wednesday.“I‘m very confident on the cash call,” he added. “We don’t want to miss a rendezvous with M&A which we consider unavoidable as markets are pushing in that direction. If and when that happens, we want to be in the best shape possible,” he added.Reporting by Valentina Za and Andrea Mandala, editing by Agnieszka FlakOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-creval/italys-creval-says-cash-call-will-prep-bank-for-unavoidable-ma-idINKBN1DN0TO'|'2017-11-23T06:26:00.000+02:00'
'6df362d1fa7a6c0ac051009872e2df3eb9645aaf'|'EU privacy regulators to discuss Uber hack next week'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union privacy regulators will discuss ride-hailing app Uber’s [UBER.UL] massive data breach cover-up next week and could create a task-force to coordinate investigations.FILE PHOTO: The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Uber faces regulatory scrutiny after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company covered up a data breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.The chair of the group of European data protection authorities - known as the Article 29 Working Party - said on Thursday the data breach would be discussed at its meeting on Nov. 28 and 29.While EU data protection authorities cannot impose joint sanctions, they can set up task-forces to coordinate national investigations.When a new EU data protection law comes into force next May, regulators will have the power to impose much higher fines - up to 4 percent of global turnover - and coordinate more closely.Uber paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret the massive breach.The stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, Khosrowshahi said. Uber declined to say what other countries may be affected.“We cannot but voice our strong concern for the breach suffered by Uber, which was reported belatedly by the U.S. company. We initiated our inquiries and are gathering all the information that can help us assess the scope of the data breach and take the appropriate steps to protect any Italian citizens involved,” said Antonello Soro, President of the Italian Data Protection Authority on Wednesday.The British data protection authority also said the concealment of the breach raised “huge concerns” about Uber’s data policies and ethics.Long known for its combative stance with local taxi regulators, Uber has faced a stream of top-level executive departures over issues from sexual harassment to data privacy to driver working conditions, which led its board to remove Travis Kalanick as CEO in June.Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-cyberattack-eu/eu-privacy-regulators-to-discuss-uber-hack-next-week-idUSKBN1DN1X4'|'2017-11-23T19:18:00.000+02:00'
'032f49a7e3c2855e8ecd88979ce66200a67a2efa'|'China’s debt pile growing fast despite years of efforts to contain it'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:39 AM / Updated 4 hours ago China’s debt pile growing fast despite years of efforts to contain it Gaurav S Dogra 7 Min Read (Reuters) - For years China’s top officials have touted their ambitious policy priority to wean the world’s second-largest economy off high levels of debt, but there is not much to show for it. An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song On the contrary, a Reuters analysis shows the debt pile at Chinese firms has been climbing in that time, with levels at the end of September growing at the fastest pace in four years. The build-up has continued even as policymakers roll out a series of measures to end the explosive growth of debt, including persuading state firms and local governments to prune borrowing and tighter rules and monitoring of banks’ short-term borrowing. By some estimates, China’s overall debt is now as much as three times the size of its economy. Without a comprehensive strategy to tackle the overhang, there is a growing risk China will have a banking crisis or sharply slower growth or both, the International Monetary Fund said last year. China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, made global headlines with a warning last month of the risks of a “Minsky moment”, referring to a sudden collapse in asset prices after long periods of growth, sparked by debt or currency pressures. On the sidelines of a key, twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress in October, Zhou referred to relatively high corporate debt and the fast pace of growth in household lending. While also pledging to fend off such risks, Zhou has acknowledged it will take some time to bring debt down to more manageable lvels. Reuters analysis of 2,146 China listed firms showed their total debt at the end of September jumped 23 percent from a year ago, the highest pace of growth since 2013. The analysis covered three-fifths of the country’s listed firms, but excluded financials, which have seen the brunt of government de-risking and deleveraging efforts so far. The analysis revealed that debt in the real estate sector multiplied the most over last five years, followed by industrials. The share of industrials in the total debt for the companies covered went up by 3 percentage points since the end of 2012, while that for the real estate sector went up by 7 percentage points. As of September, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported a comparatively faster pace of growth in their debt. Total debt at 75 of the CSI Central SOE 100 index .CSI000927 companies, which excludes financials, increased by more than 27 percent from a year ago, the biggest increase in many years. Highlighting the size of the problem and the drag on current and future economic growth, debt servicing costs have gobbled up about a fourth of state-owned firms’ revenues in the last few quarters. The ratio rose to around 27 percent in the second quarter -- the highest in at least five years -- before declining slightly to 24.47 percent in the third quarter due to a jump in revenues. A scrutiny of corporate debt showed that borrowing through the issue of bonds has fallen, however, possibly as the regulatory clampdown has pushed up financing costs. October’s data on aggregate social financing of corporate bonds, released by the central bank, showed aggregate financing of corporate bonds stood at 18.34 trillion yuan (£2.08 trillion) at the end of October after increasing 4.4 percent from a year ago, the lowest growth rate in two years. The gap in funding needs appeared to have been filled by off-balance sheet financing in China’s murky and opaque shadow banking sector. Cumulative total social financing, which also includes shadow banking, stood at 172.2 trillion yuan at the end of October, though the exact size of shadow banking is unknown. Total social financing for the month of October 2017 was 1.04 trillion yuan. China’s deleveraging push appears to have intensified after the 19th Communist Party Congress in late October. In its latest salvo on the shadow banking sector, the central bank on Nov. 17 issued sweeping guidelines to tighten rules on asset management business, which the central bank estimates is a $9 trillion market. While China’s government debt remains contained, at 46.9 percent of GDP as per latest figures from the Bank for International Settlements, top policymakers have recently raised concerns about a sharp build-up in household debt. Outstanding household consumer loans have surged close to 30 percent since the middle of last year and reached 30.2 trillion yuan as of October. Outstanding yuan-denominated property loans amount to 31.1 trillion yuan and individual mortgage loans totals to 21.1 trillion yuan as of the third quarter of 2017, data from the People’s Bank of China showed.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-markets-debt-analysis/chinas-debt-pile-growing-fast-despite-years-of-efforts-to-contain-it-idUKKBN1DO13E'|'2017-11-24T12:38:00.000+02:00'
'bf14c0c3c45f2c1c303aa54266c2e1bb6ba76920'|'Airbus CEO questioned in Kazakh deal investigation - reports'|'November 23, 2017 / 1:49 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Airbus CEO questioned in Kazakh deal investigation - reports Reuters Staff * Airbus: fully co-operating with authorities * Airbus: no further comment to make on matter PARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - French anti-corruption investigators questioned Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders and three other company executives as witnesses in an investigation centred on the sale of satellites to Kazakhstan in 2010, according to media reports on Thursday. Enders was interviewed in early October by anti-corruption investigators in Nanterre, close to Paris, as was Chairman Denis Ranque, Mediapart, France Inter and Der Spiegel reported. Authorities are probing an alleged suspect payment linked to the satellite deal, Mediapart reported, adding that Enders and the other executives were not alleged to have any role in it. “We have no comment to make other than that we are fully co-operating with authorities,” a spokesman for Airbus said. Enders is grappling with scrutiny over Airbus’s sales practices after the company uncovered inaccuracies in its filings to U.S. regulators over arms technology sales. That came on top of existing bribery investigations in France and Britain over the use of middlemen in jetliner sales. France and Germany each hold 11 percent of Airbus. France’s finance minister said recently that Enders had the confidence of Airbus’s board, while the German government has also rebuffed speculation about Enders’s future. (Reporting by Sarah White and Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/airbus-ceo-kazakhstan/airbus-ceo-questioned-in-kazakh-deal-investigation-reports-idUSL8N1NT3I0'|'2017-11-23T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'42fa8f1f081692ec269fcbfeea2cd77f353c06fd'|'European shares slip on Thanksgiving Thursday, Centrica crashes'|'LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - European shares tumbled on Thursday, tracking more timid Wall Street trading as volumes thinned out for the Thanksgiving holiday, with British stocks leading losses as energy firm Centrica plummeted after results.The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.3 percent while euro zone stocks dipped 0.2 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 sank 0.5 percent, weighed down by utilities Centrica and National Grid.Badly-received results from Thyssenkrupp helped drive Germany’s DAX down 0.4 percent.Centrica crashed 16.4 percent in early deals, set for its biggest daily drop ever, after it lost 823,000 or about 6 percent of its energy customers in four months and full-year earnings missed market estimates.Leading European gainers was Altice, jumping 6.4 percent, after a report the debt-ridden French telecoms and cable group was looking to sell its telecoms network in the Dominican Republic.Its shares are still down nearly 60 percent from the start of the year as funds sold out of the company’s U.S. unit.Euro zone November PMI business surveys were expected at 1000 GMT to give a read on the strength of the bloc’s economy.Credit Suisse strategists predicted the indicators would remain “well within the expansion territory”, supporting their belief cyclical strength is here to stay and will continue to underpin equities into next year.Societe Generale strategists however warned “the eurozone recovery is now a well-known story”, and were less enthusiastic about the potential for equities in the new year, adding that a heavy political agenda in Europe could affect markets.As the earnings season drew near its close, MSCI Europe earnings growth was tracking 10.1 percent in dollar terms while eurozone companies in the MSCI EMU enjoyed 11.1 percent earnings growth.Analysts have been revising down earnings estimates for European companies this quarter as results slightly undershot expectations.Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Georgina Prodhan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-slip-on-thanksgiving-thursday-centrica-crashes-idINL8N1NT193'|'2017-11-23T05:41:00.000+02:00'
'465456dccd4b168910af51752d4c389f3b86eef9'|'Mothercare shares hit 14-year low after first-half loss'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:20 AM / in 7 minutes Mothercare shares hit 14-year low after first-half loss Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Shares in Mothercare Plc ( MTC.L ) plunged more than 20 percent to their lowest in 14 years after the British baby goods retailer swung to a first-half loss and warned of weak trading in its international business. FILE PHOTO: Customers leave a Mothercare shop in London October 11, 2008. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The group’s adjusted loss before tax for the 28 weeks to Oct. 7 came in at 0.7 million pound, compared with a profit of 5.9 million pounds ($7.9 million) last year. The results were dragged down by weakness in the company’s international business even as it spends heavily to revive sales at its UK stores amid stiff competition. UK like-for-like sales were up 2.5 percent in the first half, but high expenses at the business resulted in a 9.6 million pound adjusted loss. Total international sales fell 1.7 percent, while profit slumped 28 percent to 14.9 million pounds. The Middle-East region, where Mothercare operates 350 stores, remained a concern for the company as people spent less at its stores. “Middle East is dragging down our overall performance overseas; there is no clear sight as to when things will bottom out in that region,” the retailer said. Mothercare also pointed to weakness in the UK, heading into the crucial holiday shopping period. “Towards the end of the reporting period, and in subsequent weeks, we have seen a softening in the UK market with lower footfall,” Mothercare said. Shares in the 56-year-old retailer were down 16.1 percent at 70 pence at 1111 GMT. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mothercare-results/mothercare-shares-hit-14-year-low-after-first-half-loss-idUKKBN1DN12A'|'2017-11-23T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'da815c57732645bd462e786fd49b0a34cdc9e9c5'|'Gold edges higher as Fed inflation concerns weigh on dollar'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices dipped on Friday as some investors locked in profits at the end of the week, but there are expectations that they could move higher next week.FILE PHOTO - A sales person shows a gold ring to customers at a jewellery showroom during Dhanteras, a Hindu festival associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, in Ahmedabad, India, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File photo Spot gold XAU= was down 0.1 percent at $1,289.81 per ounce by 1455 GMT, with the price down 0.3 percent for the week.U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for December delivery dipped 0.2 percent to $1,289.90.“I think gold will move back towards $1,300 next week or the week after, maybe on the back of dollar weakness,” said Georgette Boele, commodity strategist at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam.“There are still some longs in the market, so there’s more technical momentum as they try to push prices up again to see what happens in the last weeks of the year.”Boele said gold was supported by the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s minutes on Wednesday, regarded as “dovish” and which lowered market expectations slightly of a March rate hike.A December rate hike has already been priced in.“Investor appetite (for gold) is low even after slightly more dovish-than-expected Fed minutes. There just has not been enough to entice investors back into the market in great amounts,” ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said.The Fed’s cautious view of inflation could lead to a longer period of low interest rates which provides a solid platform for gold investment, said Cameron Alexander, an analyst with Thomson Reuters-owned metals consultancy GFMS.Higher interest rates tend to boost the dollar and push bond yields up, putting pressure on gold prices by increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.The buying of physical gold remained thin in major Asian centres this week as higher prices dented demand, though seasonal demand was expected to boost activity in top consumer China next month.Among other precious metals, silver XAG= added 0.3 percent to $17.11 an ounce and platinum XPT= gained 1 percent to $942.30 an ounce.Palladium XPD= dipped 0.9 percent to $1,002.05 an ounce after hitting a two-week high of $1,013.70 in the previous session.“I would be very careful with palladium, especially at these levels with the market long,” Boele said. “The fundamentals are good, but I still think it’s overpriced.”Silver slipped 1.1 percent for the week and is poised for its first weekly decline in three. Platinum lost 0.9 percent, on track for its first weekly fall in four. Palladium climbed 0.9 percent, its first weekly rise in three.Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mahlich/Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-edges-higher-as-fed-inflation-concerns-weigh-on-dollar-idINKBN1DO0CP'|'2017-11-24T02:17:00.000+02:00'
'446012f33d1fd08e4b09e97a1e7bc810467dbb92'|'Indonesia has ''no clear structure'' for Freeport stake purchase yet'|'JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has “no clear structure” yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday.Under a framework agreement announced in August, Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport said it would divest 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), but there has been little progress since then.Freeport, operator of Grasberg, the world’s second-largest copper mine, also agreed to build a second smelter in Indonesia and to invest up to $20 billion in expansions.Fajar Harry Sampurno, the deputy minister for state-owned enterprises, said it was not clear yet what role state pension funds and state-owned banks would play in financing the acquisition, amid ongoing discussions on the matter with the Ministry of Finance and Freeport.Sampurno added that the interests of Rio Tinto, which is a joint-venture partner with Freeport in Grasberg, still needed to be factored into government plans to acquire a 41.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, which would add to the 9.36 percent it already holds.“This needs to be discussed again, whether (Rio’s interest) is converted into shares first, whether Inalum will acquire it first, or what,” he said. It is not yet clear whether the government plans impose on Rio the same majority divestment requirement it imposed on Freeport.State-owned aluminum producer PT Inalum has been appointed by the government to acquire the Freeport stake, and plans to form a holding company under Inalum for that purpose are expected to be carried out this week or early next, Inalum Finance Director Oggy A. Kosasih said during a press conference with Sampurno outlining the formation of the holding company.The company would group together other state-owned mining units including PT Bukit Asam Tbk, PT Timah Tbk and PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam).Under a joint venture formed in 1996, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PT-FI’s Grasberg contract, which entitles them to a 40 percent share of all production after 2022. Rio has held talks with Indonesia about a possible exit to the venture.A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia could not be reached for comment on Friday. A Melbourne-based spokesmen for Rio Tinto declined to comment on the matter.While the plans for Indonesia’s purchase remains unclear, Freeport and the government appear to be closer to reaching an understanding on a valuation method for Grasberg. Indonesia had earlier maintained that the stake should not include the value of unmined reserves while Freeport has said “fair market value” should include the reserves.On an Oct. 25 call discussing Freeport’s earnings, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said the Indonesian government had indicated that fair market value is the right standard “and now we’ve got to negotiate what that fair market value is.”Meanwhile, the security situation at Grasberg remains tense amid several recent shootings. In the latest incident on Friday, a group of six unknown assailants shot at three police officers driving in a vehicle near the mine, though none of them were injured, the local police said.Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini; Additional reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Richard PullinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-freeport-acquisition/indonesia-has-no-clear-structure-for-freeport-stake-purchase-yet-idINKBN1DO0B0'|'2017-11-24T01:32:00.000+02:00'
'ea51217b90e85be9c612f9bd5b61ef5d4188da3a'|'Asian shares off 10-year peak, eyes on China markets'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:49 AM / in an hour Global stocks set fresh record high on business outlook, euro rises Herbert Lash 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major global and U.S. stock indices set fresh all-time highs on Friday, buoyed by a bright business outlook and strong corporate earnings, while the economy’s strength in continental Europe lifted the euro to a two-month high against the dollar. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S. November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Gains in Amazon.com, Facebook and Broadcom lifted the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and MSCI all-country world index to closing record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed higher, but did not set a record. Wall Street closed early, a day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which marks the start of a year-end shopping season that has increasingly gone online. Black Friday sales got off to a strong start online at $640 million of 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), according to Adobe Analytics, up 18.4 percent from a year ago. On Thursday, U.S. shoppers spent more than $2.87 billion online. Earlier in Europe, German business confidence hit a record high in November, a sign the region’s largest economy is on track for a boom, the Ifo economic institute said. The Ifo survey helped allay concerns about the recent failure of forming a new German government and came a day after surveys of Europe’s services and manufacturing industries beat the most optimistic forecasts in Reuters polls. The strong outlook from Europe led the euro to post a third straight week of gains against the dollar, its best run since July. The single currency rose 0.61 percent to $1.l922. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of regional shares closed down 0.12 percent, as strong gains in financials were off-set by heavy losses in health care. However, several major European country indices, including France’s CAC 40, Germany’s DAX and Spain’s IBEX, all advanced. MSCI’s all-country world index of equity markets in 47 countries rose 0.25 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31.81 points, or 0.14 percent, to 23,557.99. The S&P 500 gained 5.34 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,602.42 and the Nasdaq Composite added 21.80 points, or 0.32 percent, to 6,889.16. The S&P 500 so far this year has gained 16 percent, while the Nasdaq is up 28 percent. The dollar index fell to its lowest since Sept. 26 at 92.675 and the Japanese yen weakened 0.31 percent versus the greenback at 111.55 per dollar. The index suffered its worst single-day decline in more than five months on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed some policy makers are concerned about stubbornly weak U.S. inflation. Underlying dynamics point to a weaker dollar medium term, said BMO Capital Markets currency strategist Stephen Gallo, in London. “When you have firm global risk appetite, pretty firm global growth conditions including in the euro zone and firm global commodity prices, there isn’t a lot of – if any – safe-haven demand for dollars,” Gallo said. U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly but stayed within a tight range they have held for the past week-and-a-half as investors focused on the subdued inflation outlook which has helped the yield curve to its flattest levels in a decade. The benchmark 10-year note fell 5/32 in price to yield 2.3401 percent. U.S. light crude hit $58.92 a barrel, a more than two-year high, before easing to settle up 93 cents at $58.95. Brent rose 31 cents to settle at $63.86. U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled down $4.90 at $1,287.30 per ounce. Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Susan Thomas and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-off-10-year-peak-eyes-on-china-markets-idUKKBN1DO01S'|'2017-11-24T02:56:00.000+02:00'
'72fb9a223ebf0ccd3d76f27aa8345a5600f667d2'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 24'|'Nov 24 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Uber Technologies Inc CEO Dara Khosrowshahi learned of the security breach, which company said happened in October 2016 and affected some 57 million accounts, about two weeks after he officially took the helm on Sept. 5 and more than two months elapsed before he notified affected customers and drivers of the incident, people familiar with the matter said. on.wsj.com/2jWwH4X- An enormous battery system built by Tesla Inc, storing electricity from a new wind farm and capable of supplying 30,000 homes for more than an hour, will be powered up over the coming days, the government of South Australia state said Thursday. on.wsj.com/2jUU7HU- Millions of consumers are using their phones to shop instead of lining up at stores this year, accelerating a fundamental change in holiday shopping as more consumers spend online. on.wsj.com/2jVHBbh- The European Commission plans to launch a public consultation in early 2018 on ways to improve how the corporate bond market functions. Since the financial crisis, banks and investors have complained about deteriorating trading conditions in corporate debt markets, making it harder to buy and sell bonds in large sizes. on.wsj.com/2jTSv1jCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-24-idUSL3N1NU23G'|'2017-11-24T07:55:00.000+02:00'
'dfea6547b8ee0af4d4fa65dadcaa7351d1cfff97'|'JGBs slip as BOJ trims superlong bond purchases'|'TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds slipped on Friday and the yield curve steepened following the Bank of Japan’s move to slightly trim its purchases of longer maturities in its regular buying operations.The benchmark 10-year cash JGB yield added half a basis point to 0.025 percent. The 10-year JGB futures contract slipped 0.14 point to 151.01 in the afternoon trade.In the superlong zone, the 20-year yield added one basis point to 0.570 percent, while the 30-year yield was up two basis points at 0.825 percent.The BOJ offered to buy 90 billion yen ($808.55 million) of JGBs maturing in 25 to 40 years, down from 100 billion yen in its previous operation for those maturities.Higher U.S. Treasury yields in Thanksgiving holiday-thinned trading also put some upward pressure on JGB yields.The 10-year Treasury yield drifted up to 2.340 percent from its U.S. close on Wednesday of 2.322 percent.$1 = 111.3100 yen Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-slip-as-boj-trims-superlong-bond-purchases-idINL3N1NU239'|'2017-11-24T02:53:00.000+02:00'
'560e9a25b30f6b48a4bb75be1e0e5f922d1c9096'|'The tumultuous career of Patrick Drahi - French business'|'WHAT does France’s corporate establishment make of the change in fortunes of Patrick Drahi, a telecoms billionaire who achieved brief greatness before crashing to earth? In August he was reported to be planning a $185bn bid for Charter Communications, America’s second-largest cable operator, which is part-owned by John Malone, a famous cable investor. This month the market value of his indebted firm, Altice, collapsed by half, removing much of his personal wealth.Mr Drahi’s empire is centred on his control, since 2014, of SFR, France’s second-largest telecoms operator and a big cable firm. It was not his only acquisition; in recent years the Franco-Israeli dealmaker went on a shopping spree, buying dozens of firms and building a transatlantic telecom-and-media empire. He typically sacked 30% of the acquired firms’ employees and squeezed salaries and other costs. Customer service often tended to worsen. In doing so Altice amassed a debt burden of over €50bn ($59bn), far bigger than the value of the firm itself. That made it vulnerable: investors dumped its shares after poor third-quarter figures at SFR.  Doctors judge female surgeons more harshly when patients die Graphic detail 33 minutes ago The furore over the categorisation of “Get Out” is misjudged Prospero an hour ago As   6 hours ago Doctors   8   12   See all updates Mr Drahi is not entirely untypical in France, even if the extent of his activity is. Other swashbuckling dealmakers exist: Vincent Bolloré, a media investor with wide interests, for example, or Xavier Niel, owner of Iliad, another mobile-phone operator. Just as Mr Niel won political influence as an owner of Le Monde newspaper, Mr Drahi bought Libération , a daily, and other titles. Both men bid for telecom operators in America, though only Mr Drahi succeeded, buying two cable firms for a total of $26.8bn, in 2015 (see timeline).One prominent businessman who is close to Mr Drahi notes that his difficulties elicit mixed views. Suppliers, partners and rivals to SFR relish them. Some conservative figures are happy to see a foreign-born upstart get his comeuppance. But others grudgingly admire his boldness. A decade ago regulators and investors would have stopped him by now, “but now they watch and wait,” says the businessman.Mr Drahi’s mistake was not knowing when to stop. Whereas Mr Niel showed social acumen by investing in education and tech startups, Mr Drahi chased the next big deal. What comes next for him? Altice’s debts were raised on generous terms and need not be repaid for years. SFR, though badly run, will generate cash. That, and perhaps sales of assets, such as its mobile-phone towers, should satisfy creditors.“I imagine two or three years of his struggling, but surviving,” says François Godard of Enders Analysis, a research firm. He might bounce back. A politician draws a broader lesson. Referring to prejudice in France against financiers, he asks whether now, “doesn’t he incarnate the new kind of financial and cosmopolitan capitalism that France wants?”This article appeared in the Business   "Dealmaker on hold" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731671-establishments-tolerance-him-suggests-france-changing-tumultuous-career?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-23T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'056242d0d2df573e0e8e715f1684a877e5fa178e'|'Peugeot-owner to use Opel site to assemble engines'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot-owner PSA ( PEUP.PA ) will use an existing Opel site in eastern Europe to assemble 200,000 petrol engines instead of building new capacity on its own site in Slovakia as initially planned, Les Echos newspapers said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Opel is seen during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo A spokesman for PSA declined to comment on whether the engines would be assembled at an Opel site, although he said that eventually all brands within the Peugeot group would be built on common platforms.He added that the Slovakia gasoline engine module project was being abandoned to provide additional capacity to produce more on the future common modular platform (CMP), which will enable the assembly of electric, gasoline and diesel vehicles.The French carmaker agreed to buy Germany’s Opel from General Motors ( GM.N ) in a March deal that valued the business at 2.2 billion euros.(This version of the story corrects spokesman comments)Reporting by Michel Rose and Dominique Rodriguez; editing by John IrishOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-psa-opel/peugeot-owner-to-use-opel-site-to-assemble-engines-idUSKBN1DN256'|'2017-11-23T22:45:00.000+02:00'
'324072dcc83cfccf4ab2c64a13c0eb4e734d06ca'|'Internship'|'Applications are invited for a Marjorie Deane internship in our New York bureau. The award is designed to provide work experience for a promising journalist or would-be journalist, who will spend three to six months at The Economist writing about economics, business and finance. Applicants are asked to write a covering letter and an article of no more than 500 words, suitable for publication in The Economist . Applications should be sent by December 14th to deaneinternny@economist.com.  About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731431-internship?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-16T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'8f0650a028dc9524b93db6c249ce1c3be21f1b56'|'JGBs mostly steady, super-long yields dip on prospect of reduced issuance'|'TOKYO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds were mostly steady on Wednesday, with the exception of super-long yields which dipped on prospect of Japan reducing the maturity’s issuance amount.The 40-year yield was 1.5 basis points lower at 0.965 percent. The 30-year yield stood unchanged at 0.810 percent after going as low as 0.805 percent.Japan’s government is set to reduce the amount of newly issued 30-year and 40-year JGBs for the next fiscal year starting in April 2018, government sources told Reuters on Tuesday.The finance ministry expects demand for super-long JGBs from investors such as life insurers to wane in the future.The five-year yield and the benchmark 10-year yield were unchanged at minus 0.135 percent and 0.025 percent, respectively.While overnight gains by U.S. Treasuries were positive for JGBs, the impact was neutralised by a rally in Tokyo equities.$1 = 112.2800 yen Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-mostly-steady-super-long-yields-dip-on-prospect-of-reduced-issuance-idINL3N1NS1V7'|'2017-11-22T01:13:00.000+02:00'
'c2810d3e47d2021ec4d8ddb2da0a247c1d1ed0c4'|'Uber breach, cover up trigger government probes around the globe'|'November 22, 2017 / 6:29 PM / in a few seconds Uber breach, cover-up trigger government probes around the globe Jim Finkle , Heather Somerville 6 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Governments around the globe launched investigations into Uber Technologies Inc after the company disclosed it had covered up a breach that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Authorities in Britain and the United States, two top Uber markets, as well as Australia and the Philippines said on Wednesday they would investigate the company’s response to the data breach. Some U.S. lawmakers called for Congressional hearings and implored the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the matter. Uber said on Wednesday that it has been in touch with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several states to discuss a hack last year that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. “We’ve been in touch with several state Attorney General Offices and the FTC to discuss this issue, and we stand ready to cooperate with them going forward,” an Uber spokesperson said in a emailed statement. Uber said on Tuesday that in late 2016 it had paid hackers $100,000 (£75,213.29) to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and driver stolen from the company and decided not to report the matter to victims or authorities. The company''s chief executive had acknowledged in a Tuesday blog that the company had erred in handling the breach. ( ubr.to/2AmxlQt ) The money-losing ride-hailing service is known for the tough stance it has taken against regulators as it seeks to aggressively expand and compete with existing taxi services. Attorneys general in at least four U.S. states, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, said they had launched investigations into the breach. “We have serious concerns about the reported conduct,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal took to Twitter to call for the FTC to investigate Uber, describing the company’s behaviour as “inexplicable” and asking for the FTC to impose “significant penalties.” The FTC, which investigates companies accused of being sloppy with consumer data, said it was looking into the matter, but declined to say if it had launched a formal investigation. “We are aware of press reports describing a breach in late 2016 at Uber and Uber officials’ actions after that breach. We are closely evaluating the serious issues raised,” an FTC spokesman said. U.S. Representative Frank Pallone called for a Congressional hearing. “If Uber did indeed secretly pay-off the hackers to keep the breach quiet, then a possible cover up of the incident is problematic and must be investigated,” Pallone said in a statement. Britain’s data protection authority said it would work with agencies in the United Kingdom and overseas to investigate the matter. “If UK citizens were affected, then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed,” James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement. British law carries a maximum penalty of 500,000 pounds ($662,000) for failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies,” Dipple-Johnstone said. The stolen information included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, according to a blog post by Uber’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in August. Uber said it fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, Craig Clark, this week over their role in the incident. Sullivan, formerly the top security official at Facebook Inc and a federal prosecutor, served as both security chief and deputy general counsel for Uber. Sullivan declined comment. Clark could not be reached for comment. Kalanick, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The former CEO remains on the Uber board of directors, and Khosrowshahi has said he consults with him regularly. A stream of executives have left Uber in recent months amid controversies involving sexual harassment, data privacy and business practices in Asia. The board removed Kalanick as CEO in June. London’s transport regulator recently pulled Uber’s operating license, saying the company failed to deal with public safety and security issues. Uber is appealing the decision. The agency said on Wednesday it was seeking more information about the breach. “We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place for the personal data of drivers and customers in London,” a Transport for London spokesman said. Uber said earlier this month it had struck an agreement to allow Japan’s SoftBank Group to invest up to $10 billion, most of it by buying shares from existing investors. The final price has yet to be decided, and SoftBank could back out if not enough Uber investors are willing to sell at the right price. Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-cyberattack/uber-breach-cover-up-trigger-government-probes-around-the-globe-idUKKBN1DM2FA'|'2017-11-22T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'c1fb2509cef87b535e4da9bde118b18122f2a558'|'Sterling seismograph eerily calm on EU summit'|'November 22, 2017 / 11:34 AM / Updated an hour ago Sterling seismograph eerily calm on EU summit Saikat Chatterjee 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - For a currency that has seen some of its biggest ever one-day moves on the back of Brexit, there is a peculiar calm in sterling hedging prices surrounding December’s critical European Union summit. British Pound Sterling banknotes are seen in a box at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017.REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger For many, the Dec. 13-14 get-together marks a critical juncture in the process of Britain leaving the bloc, with some market analysts seeing it as a potential make-or-break moment for the pound. At stake is whether Prime Minister Theresa May can satisfy other EU leaders that Britain has made enough commitments on issues like a final settlement bill and the Irish border to quickly start trade negotiations next year as the clock ticks down. Otherwise, the risk of economically-damaging ‘no deal’ Brexit rises dramatically. Yet, even with so much at stake, options markets that reflect expected volatility around next month’s event and data on speculative sterling positioning appear largely neutral. In fact, one-month implied volatility in sterling against the U.S. dollar is currently less than its 8.6 percent average of the past 20 years. Traders still think the pound will be more volatile than other major currencies such as the euro and Swiss franc, though, and say the indication of calm is more reflective of the subdued price action of the most recent period, rather than of what could be in store. “Sterling volatility has tended to remain higher even as FX volatility has declined, which suggests markets have a greater capacity to discount negative headlines,” said Timothy Graf, head of macro strategy at State Street Global Markets. Implied volatility for sterling for one month against the dollar GBP3MO= is higher than three-month rates and stands at a chunky 8 percent. Sterling volatility against currencies such as the Japanese yen GBPJPY3MO= and the Australian dollar GBPAUD3MO= is even higher. In comparison, three-month implied volatility for the euro against the dollar stands at a relatively tame 6 percent EUR3MO= while overall stock market volatility is within touching distance of a record low of 9 percent hit this month. One factor making traders wary of translating signals from derivatives into trades in the cash market is that the former have thrown up some conflicting signals in recent weeks. For example, three-month ‘risk reversals’ on sterling GBP3MRR=, which shows the relative pricing of puts and calls on the pound, consistently indicated a bias to further sterling weakness throughout the year even as the pound gained ground against the dollar. It is up 10 percent to date in 2017. “As a result, betting on sterling via the options markets has been a bit of a money losing trade this year,” said a trader at a global macro hedge fund in London. Still, that hasn’t stopped directional bets and the cost of buying sterling puts - options to sell - remain more expensive than calls - options to buy - and show some traders at least are assuming the outcome of the EU summit will be sterling negative. Underlying structural factors for sterling have also worsened markedly in recent months, such as a widening current account deficit, prompting some money managers to call for the British pound to be traded like an emerging market currency at a Reuters Investment Summit last week. GHOSTS OF BREXIT PAST With few if any precedents for an event like Brexit to guide traders through the next month, large investors are harking back to trading patterns leading up to the referendum vote last year. “The problem for investors is there are no historical references to form an expectation on something such as Brexit with a long agenda of negotiations leading up to it,” Pascal Blanque, who oversees 1.4 trillion euros at Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi told the Reuters Global Investment Summit. As a result, some traders are taking recourse in the options markets, although expiries around the summit are less about taking directional bets and more about guarding against spikes in volatility. What’s more, the one-month options that surround the crucial EU summit also capture key central bank policy decisions in both the United States and Britain. “It is very difficult for investors to take a directional view given the mixed messages from politicians on the negotiation progress, therefore long volatility positions such as straddles are a good choice over outright cash bets,” said Jordan Rochester, an FX strategist at Nomura in London. As a result, speculative bets on sterling are broadly flat, unlike before the Brexit vote, while institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are broadly underweight the British currency in their portfolios. With expectations for a major breakthrough in policy talks low, buying so-called “option straddles” which involves simultaneously selling and buying currency derivatives on either side of the summit have gained popularity. A survey by Nomura showed that only 31 percent of its clients expected a Brexit transition deal to be agreed by January 2018, although a majority still think Brexit will go ahead. But unlike the sharp run-up in volatility gauges in May-June last year, implied volatility on sterling remains a fraction of what it was in the final days before the Brexit vote suggesting some market participants are toning down their expectations for next month’s summit. "Unlike the hard binary event Brexit vote last June, this is a summit and so markets are not getting too worried about this," said SSGM''s Graf. Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Mike Dolan and Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-markets-sterling-analysis/sterling-seismograph-eerily-calm-on-eu-summit-idUKKBN1DM1B1'|'2017-11-22T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'eef3eb9ac78108001f006d798a20025dfbc89bdb'|'UK''s Euromoney sells stake in Dealogic'|'November 22, 2017 / 7:30 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Euromoney sells Dealogic stake; reports small rise in annual profit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Euromoney Institutional Investor ( ERM.L ), publisher of the Euromoney magazine, said on Wednesday it would sell its stake in Dealogic, a provider of financial content and analytics, to Ion Investment Group for about $135 million (£102 million). The move is the latest in a string of divestitures by Euromoney this year as it sharpens its focus on offerings such as price discovery and post-trade activities. Acquisitions related to its new focus, including the purchase of price reporting agency RISI this year, helped drive a 4 percent increase in annual profit, Euromoney said. Adjusted profit before tax for the year ended Sept. 30 stood at 106.5 million pounds, above the 102.5 million pounds reported for the same period a year earlier. Euromoney, which is 49.1 percent-owned by Daily Mail & General Trust Plc ( DMGOa.L ), also raised its final dividend by 33 percent to 21.8 pence. Reported revenue rose 6 percent in the year, while underlying revenue, which excludes the effect of currency movements and acquisitions and disposals, fell 1 percent. Earlier in the year, Euromoney sold its Paris-based exhibition business and its stake in World Bulk Wine. Apart from buying RISI, it also acquired stakes in small telecoms such as BroadGroup and Layer123. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-euromoney-instnl-res/uks-euromoney-sells-stake-in-dealogic-idUKKBN1DM0LX'|'2017-11-22T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'408395593d6b7aa91f664cce321a2bd8488a8943'|'Uniper to cut 2,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive: paper'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy group Uniper ( UN01.DE ) is cutting a total of around 2,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, by the end of next year as part of a cost-cutting program it announced a year ago, its finance chief told daily Rheinische Post. FILE PHOTO: The flag of Uniper SE flutters in front of the utility''s firm headquarters previously used by German utility giant E.ON in Duesseldorf, Germany, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo Uniper, the power plant and energy trading unit spun off by German utility E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), said last year it planned to save 400 million euros ($470 million) by the end of 2018 by cutting jobs and spending as it fights a crisis at its generation business. The company had not said so far how many jobs would go. Uniper has agreed with labor bosses on cuts via natural attrition, partial retirement and severance packages, finance chief Christopher Delbrueck told the Rheinische Post. More than a third of the jobs being eliminated are those of workers who remained at E.ON in the spin-off, who worked at shut-down power plants or at units being divested, Delbrueck said. “The remaining 1,250 jobs fall into efficiency program Voyager. The lion’s share of those jobs has already been eliminated, the remaining ones are to follow by the end of 2018,” Delbrueck was quoted as saying by the paper. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-costs/uniper-to-cut-2000-jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-paper-idUSKBN1DM0IG'|'2017-11-22T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'fe7af0aee12106bcc717e41b132f4ec0ed994b96'|'UPDATE 1-Chad''s President Deby sacks finance minister - decree'|'N‘DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad’s President Idriss Deby has sacked Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye, a government decree showed.The decree dated Nov. 21, reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, also dismissed Diguimabye’s deputy, Banata Tchalet Sow. It gave no reason for the sackings.Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, the minister-secretary general of the government in charge of institutional reform, will serve as interim finance minister, the decree said.Diguimbaye and Sow’s dismissal came amid a standoff with Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore over more than $1 billion the West African country owes it in oil-backed loans.Chad is under pressure to restructure its debt to Glencore for a second time after the International Monetary Fund said this year that its external commercial debt was unsustainable.Chad pumps about 130,000 barrels per day of oil but ranks 186th out of 188 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index.Reporting By Madjiasra Nako; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chad-finance/chads-president-deby-sacks-finance-minister-decree-idUSKBN1DN1OA'|'2017-11-23T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'9d99a10ccabb90c709a12ce5b5221781f4e25c35'|'UPDATE 1-Vale says Brazil iron royalty hike could hurt high-cost mines'|'November 23, 2017 / 4:09 PM / in 7 minutes UPDATE 1-Vale says Brazil iron royalty hike could hurt high-cost mines Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds details, share price, additional Vale comment) RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Vale SA , the world’s largest iron ore producer, said on Thursday that a hike in the country’s royalty rates for the mineral could compromise its ability to maintain high-cost mines and would hurt its ability to compete. Congress passed the higher royalties in votes on Wednesday with the bill now moving to President Michel Temer for signature. Vale said in a statement that it hoped Temer would veto some of the changes to the proposal made by Congress. “Congress has made profound changes to the original text, resulting in a model that affects our competitiveness, especially at a time of depressed prices, as well as compromises the maintenance and operation of high-cost mines,” Vale said in a statement. The higher royalties are one of three planks of Temer’s reform proposal for the sector aimed at boosting the economy, even as Vale praised separately the proposed creation of a new mining regulator to speed up approvals. Proponents argue that the new regulator, along with a third proposal to streamline the mining code, offset the impact of higher royalties with greater efficiency. Congress has yet to fully approve those other measures. Vale said that although it was not the right time to increase costs for the domestic industry, Temer’s original proposal for iron ore royalties to rise and fall with market prices was in line with what the company is able to pay. However, Congress amended the bill to eliminate that sliding scale and replace it with a flat 3.5 percent rate, up from the 2 percent rate currently. A provision does allow for lesser profitable mines to apply for a rate as low as 2 percent, with the criteria including scale and ore quality, in a move seen favoring smaller miners over companies like Vale. The miner also said that some parts of the proposal were unconstitutional, adding mining companies could question them in the country’s courts. Vale’s common stock was up 1.2 percent to 35.15 reais in Sao Paulo, amid thin trading on Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. (Reporting by Marta Nogueira and Jake Spring; editing by Diane Craft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-mining-regulation-vale-sa/update-1-vale-says-brazil-iron-royalty-hike-could-hurt-high-cost-mines-idUSL1N1NT0VV'|'2017-11-23T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'f0f9fae9202efd40f738138accd9c6d4631016ea'|'ECB policymakers were split over keeping bond buys open-ended -minutes'|'November 23, 2017 / 12:46 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago ECB split over keeping bond buys open-ended: minutes Balazs Koranyi 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymakers broadly agreed last month on extending their asset purchase scheme but a decision to keep the bond buys open-ended appeared to generate fiercer debate, minutes of the meeting released on Thursday showed. The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are photographed in front of the skyline with its banking towers in Frankfurt, Germany, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Having to reconcile rapid economic growth with anemic inflation, the ECB opted last month to halve its asset purchases while extending them by nine months, hoping that gentler though longer stimulus would still keep growth strong enough to generate inflation. But minutes of the debate at the Oct. 26 policy meeting suggest policymakers were far from unanimous, with some keen to signal a clear end to the ECB’s lavish asset purchases and others arguing for a change in emphasis as a precursor to their eventual end. The euro zone’s central bank already has over 2.2 trillion euros worth of assets on its balance sheet. While the nine-month extension of the scheme at 30 billion euros per month enjoyed broad support, policymakers discussed a range of alternatives, debated an eventual change in the bank’s guidance, and agreed that other components of central bank stimulus should also be highlighted, the minutes showed. “An end date was viewed (by a few) to be well justified in anticipation of further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation on the basis of the better than expected growth momentum, diminishing risks and continued favorable financing conditions for the real economy,” the minutes said. “Some concerns were also expressed that the open-ended nature of the asset purchase program might generate expectations of further extensions.” The dissenters argued that even if markets did not anticipate a clear end date, the reaction would be limited and in any case, the economy was able to handle tighter financing conditions given the solid growth path. In a further sign of diverging views, some policymakers argued that the ECB should stop linking its asset buys to the path of inflation and should instead reference to its overall monetary policy stance. Sources have previously told Reuters that policymakers were in general agreement that barring shocks, the asset buys would end next year. In a possible preparation for this end, policymakers expressed a desire to highlight other parts of ECB support, particularly a sizable balance sheet, low rates and a promise to keep rates low for an extended period, the minutes showed. The debate highlights the split in the Governing Council and suggests that any further extension of the asset purchase scheme would run into opposition, even if inflation will miss the ECB’s target of almost 2 percent for years to come. The ECB’s problem is that while the euro zone economy has expanded for 18 consecutive quarters, its best run in a decade, inflation has undershot the bank’s target for five years, threatening the ECB’s credibility since inflation is its primary mandate. But much of the bank’s policy firepower is already exhausted after 2.2 trillion euros worth of bond buys so the ECB is under pressure to shift to lighter but more protracted stimulus, giving itself even more time to raise inflation. Its biggest puzzle is that while unemployment is falling quickly, wages are not responding, throwing into doubt a long-standing relationship between the two indicators. Other regions, including the United States, are facing a similar dilemma. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy/ecb-policymakers-were-split-over-keeping-bond-buys-open-ended-minutes-idUKKBN1DN19N'|'2017-11-23T14:34:00.000+02:00'
'5ef03eece9c524cb958b58801f26d039d1b56e6f'|'EU privacy regulators to discuss Uber hack next week'|'November 23, 2017 / 5:26 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago EU privacy regulators to discuss Uber hack next week Julia Fioretti 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union privacy regulators will discuss ride-hailing app Uber’s [UBER.UL] massive data breach cover-up next week and could create a task-force to coordinate investigations. FILE PHOTO: The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo Uber faces regulatory scrutiny after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company covered up a data breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. The chair of the group of European data protection authorities - known as the Article 29 Working Party - said on Thursday the data breach would be discussed at its meeting on Nov. 28 and 29. While EU data protection authorities cannot impose joint sanctions, they can set up task-forces to coordinate national investigations. When a new EU data protection law comes into force next May, regulators will have the power to impose much higher fines - up to 4 percent of global turnover - and coordinate more closely. Uber paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret the massive breach. The stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, Khosrowshahi said. Uber declined to say what other countries may be affected. “We cannot but voice our strong concern for the breach suffered by Uber, which was reported belatedly by the U.S. company. We initiated our inquiries and are gathering all the information that can help us assess the scope of the data breach and take the appropriate steps to protect any Italian citizens involved,” said Antonello Soro, President of the Italian Data Protection Authority on Wednesday. The British data protection authority also said the concealment of the breach raised “huge concerns” about Uber’s data policies and ethics. Long known for its combative stance with local taxi regulators, Uber has faced a stream of top-level executive departures over issues from sexual harassment to data privacy to driver working conditions, which led its board to remove Travis Kalanick as CEO in June. Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-cyberattack-eu/eu-privacy-regulators-to-discuss-uber-hack-next-week-idUKKBN1DN1X4'|'2017-11-23T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'6abadf5d514b274a3804ae702c69da788803bc70'|'Mitsubishi Materials shares untraded after saying units falsified product data'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:08 AM / in 3 hours Mitsubishi Materials says over 200 customers could be affected by data falsification Sam Nussey , Yuka Obayashi 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) on Friday said it was racing to determine the impact of falsified data of products shipped to over 200 customers at home and abroad, in the latest quality assurance and compliance scandal involving a Japanese manufacturer. Mitsubishi Materials on Thursday said three subsidiaries manipulated inspection data of parts used in aircraft, automobiles and industrial machinery. Its shares dropped as much as 11 percent the following day, hitting their lowest price since August. The admission follows a spate of compliance failings at Japanese manufacturers including Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) and Subaru Co Ltd ( 9778.T ) which threatens to shatter the country’s reputation as a maker of high-quality products. At a briefing on Friday, Mitsubishi Materials faced questions over its corporate management after admitting data falsification at Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd [MTCBL.UL] was discovered as far back as February, with the subsidiary shipping products with possibly falsified data even after wrongdoing was detected. “Making an announcement without pinning down the problem would have caused further disruption and trouble,” Mitsubishi Cable President Hiroaki Murata told reporters. The data falsification scandal is the second in as many years to hit a member of the Mitsubishi group, Japan’s biggest conglomerate, after Mitsubishi Motors Corp ( 7211.T ) admitted it had falsified mileage readings on some of its vehicles. Mitsubishi Materials said customers in Japan, the United States, China and Taiwan may have received affected products. It said an internal investigation will determine the causes of wrongdoing and scope of the matter. “My responsibility is to bring countermeasures across the whole company based on the results of the investigation,” said Mitsubishi Materials President Akira Takeuchi, in response to questions about whether he would resign over the matter. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko earlier on Friday called the latest scandal “a betrayal of trust in Japanese manufacturing,” pointing to the amount of time Mitsubishi Materials took to reveal the wrongdoing. The company said Mitsubishi Cable distorted data on as much as 20 percent of its rubber sealing products, used in aircraft and cars, for two-and-a-half years from April 2015. Of 229 potentially affected customers, 40 have been informed. Mitsubishi Materials Corp. President Akira Takeuchi attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Another subsidiary, Mitsubishi Shindoh Co Ltd, manipulated data for metal products, used in cars and electronics, as far back as October 2016. Around half of 29 potentially affected customers have been informed. Mitsubishi Materials, said it stopped shipping affected materials from the two units in October. In both cases the company said it had not found any safety or legal problems. A third subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aluminum Co Ltd, also shipped products which did not meet customers’ specifications. The safety of products has been confirmed with the 16 affected customers, the parent said. Slideshow (6 Images) Mitsubishi Materials said it did not know whether there would be any impact on its financial outlook. The company has reported the matter to Japan’s trade, transport and defence ministries, and on Friday said some products supplied to the defence ministry did not meet ministry requirements. Earlier in the day, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said his ministry is working to establish any impact of the wrongdoing but does not currently plan to stop using any equipment. Affected products were used in such equipment as aircraft engines. Mitsubishi Materials does not directly supply parts to Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ), which has not yet identified any suppliers receiving products from the company, an Airbus spokesman said. Other manufacturers such as Boeing Co ( BA.N ), Honda Motor Co Ltd ( 7267.T ), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7011.T ) and Nissan said they were looking into the issue, company spokespeople confirmed. Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) said it does not directly procure any affected parts for domestic production, and is still confirming whether its suppliers do. It said it is also still confirming whether it directly or indirectly procures affected parts for overseas production. Mitsubishi Materials’ disclosure comes after Kobe Steel, Japan’s third-biggest steelmaker, admitted in October that workers had tampered with product specifications, forcing companies around the world to check the safety of their products. Reporting by Sam Nussey and Yuka Obayashi; Additional reporting by Kentaro Hamada, Jamie Freed, Nobuhiro Kubo and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Stephen Coates and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mitsubishi-ma-scandal/mitsubishi-materials-shares-untraded-after-saying-units-falsified-product-data-idUKKBN1DO00F'|'2017-11-24T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'83062e83f0be88bed15b32d71551044bc66307e1'|'Ship insurer UK P&I Club to set up Netherlands subsidiary'|'November 24, 2017 / 9:53 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Ship insurer UK P&I Club sets up Netherlands hub due to Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Specialist ship insurer UK P&I Club plans to set up a subsidiary in the Netherlands as a result of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, it said on Friday. “Although the precise future trading relationship between the UK and the EU remains uncertain, we are putting arrangements in place that will allow the UK Club to continue to provide cover for our members regardless where their ships are registered,” Hugo Wynn-Williams, chief executive of UK P&I Club manager Thomas Miller, said in a statement. A UK P&I spokeswoman declined to say which city had been chosen or to provide any details about whether staff would be moved. There are 13 major global P&I (Protection and Indemnity) clubs, of which six are regulated in Britain and are estimated to account for over half the total market share of an industry that insures about 90 percent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage. P&I clubs North and Standard said this week they would set up subsidiaries in Dublin. Dublin, Luxembourg and Brussels have been most successful so far in wooing insurers setting up EU hubs. But other P&I clubs along with other insurance firms are also considering the Netherlands, sources say. The other three UK-regulated P&I clubs, Britannia, London and Steamship, have not yet announced their plans. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ukp-i/ship-insurer-uk-pi-club-to-set-up-netherlands-subsidiary-idUKKBN1DO0YQ'|'2017-11-24T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'2398e14defb75f596a702d5b28c6b78fb92474ad'|'$10,000 in sight for bitcoin as it rockets to new record high'|'November 27, 2017 / 8:59 AM / Updated 2 hours ago $10,000 in sight for bitcoin as it rockets to new record high Jemima Kelly 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin’s vertiginous ascent showed no signs of abating on Monday, with the cryptocurrency soaring to another record high just a few percent away from $10,000 (£7,493.59) after gaining more than a fifth in value over the past three days alone. Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The digital currency has seen an eye-watering tenfold increase in its value since the start of the year and has more than doubled in value since the beginning of October, lifted by the prospect of crossing over into the financial mainstream, amid a flurry of crypto-hedge fund launches. It surged as much as 4.5 percent on Monday to trade at $9,721 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange , before easing back to around $9,600 by 1155 GMT. Data compiled by Alistair Milne, the Monaco-based manager of the Altana Digital Currency Fund, showed U.S. bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase added 300,000 users between Wednesday and Sunday, during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The total number of Coinbase users globally now stands at 13.3 million. “The Coinbase data is evidence that adoption is not slowing down,” Milne told Reuters. “Breaking $10,000 seems inevitable following the recent price action.” Bitcoin’s price has been helped in recent months by the announcement that the world’s biggest derivatives exchange operator CME Group would start offering bitcoin futures. The company said last week the futures would launch by the end of the year though no precise date had been set. So far, institutional investors have largely stayed away from the market, viewing it as too volatile, too risky and too complex to invest other people’s money into. But some say the launch of the CME futures could lure in more mainstream investors. “Promises of bitcoin futures opening the door to institutional money are supercharging the price,” said Charles Hayter, founder of cryptocurrency data analysis website Cryptocompare. BIGGER THAN WAL-MART The latest price surge brought bitcoin’s “market cap” - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into the system - to more than $163 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. The market cap of all cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, topped $300 billion for the first time, the site said, making their estimated market value greater than that of Wal-Mart. The staggering price increases seen in the crypto-market have led to multiple warnings from central bankers, investment bankers and other investors that it has reached bubble territory. Some say that this could prompt regulators in the West to crack down on the market in a similar fashion to China, where bitcoin exchanges were shut down earlier this year. “Regulators know the rewards of cryptocurrency and blockchain could be huge but (they) have more than one eye on the catastrophic ramifications if good governance, stability and control are not preserved,” said David Futter, a fintech partner at law firm Ashurst, in London. “If the carrot of self-regulation proves insufficient, the regulators will not hesitate to use their stick.” Bitcoin’s biggest rival, ether - sometimes referred to as Ethereum, the name for the project behind it - has seen even more stratospheric gains this year, up more than 6000 percent. It hit an all-time high just below $500 on Monday, with its market cap nearing $50 billion. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-bitcoin/10000-in-sight-for-bitcoin-as-it-rockets-to-new-record-high-idUKKBN1DR0WC'|'2017-11-27T14:36:00.000+02:00'
'9c776cc95fb0fb0747545013b7ac1f7ad72b962c'|'Teva Pharm restructures, shakes up senior management'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said on Monday it was shaking up its leadership and restructuring its organization to address external pressures and internal inefficiencies.A building belonging to generic drug producer Teva is seen in Jerusalem March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/Files The company said it would combine its two separate global groups for generics and specialty medicines into one commercial organization. Former Generic R&D and Specialty R&D organizations will be combined into one global group, as well.It said Chief Scientific Officer Michael Hayden, head of global specialty medicines Rob Koremans and Dipankar Bhattacharjee, head of the global generic medicines group, would retire at the end of the year.Teva said Michael McClellan was appointed as permanent chief financial officer.Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Tova Cohen '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/teva-pharm-ind-management/teva-pharm-restructures-shakes-up-senior-management-idINKBN1DR1P6'|'2017-11-27T16:17:00.000+02:00'
'aab514fa0d96d991720c56de46d064532643d002'|'May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago May wants EU, UK to ''move together'' to Brexit trade talks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May repeated her wish on Friday to make a joint move with the European Union to open negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal. FILE PHOTO - Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May addresses a news conference during an European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Speaking to reporters on arrival at a Brussels summit with ex-Soviet states, she said she would talk to EU summit chair Donald Tusk later in the day about “positive negotiations we’re having, looking ahead to the future deep and special partnership that I want with the European Union”. “What I‘m clear about is that we must step forward together,” she added. “This is for both the UK and for the European Union to move on to the next stage.” The EU wants May to improve her financial and other offers before opening trade talks. May has said she wants guarantees of trade talks before making a new offer. Reporting by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-may-together/may-wants-eu-uk-to-move-together-to-brexit-trade-talks-idUKKBN1DO0PP'|'2017-11-24T10:18:00.000+02:00'
'5818b85343ecf1b1c8be64b33b4f35791b66e82c'|'European shares set to snap 2-week losing streak as consumer stocks buoyant'|'LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - European shares edged higher in early deals on Friday, underpinned by gains among heavyweight consumer goods firms as the pan-European STOXX 600 index was set to snap a two-week losing streak.The STOXX 600 index was 0.1 percent higher, while Germany’s DAX advanced 0.2 percent.The growing prospect of a grand coalition in Germany also boosted sentiment around the region’s equities, as the DAX has been stuck around the 13,000-point level for the past two weeks.Germany’s Social Democrats said that they were ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking the political deadlock.Though corporate news was sparse, shares in consumer staples firms were in focus after China said that it would cut import tariffs on some consumer products. Shares in Danone rose 1.2 percent, as did shares in Diageo.Europe’s food and beverages index was the standout sectoral gainer, up 0.5 percent.Provident Financial was among the biggest fallers, down 1.3 percent after the subprime lender said that its Executive Chairman Manjit Wolstenholme died on Thursday.Wolstenholme had been appointed to the position in August, with the aim of turning around the troubled lender.Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Georgina Prodhan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-set-to-snap-2-week-losing-streak-as-consumer-stocks-buoyant-idUSL8N1NU14L'|'2017-11-24T10:19:00.000+02:00'
'fd150d4c03c54adb162579571a29b2bb63f432b6'|'WH Group woos Chinese eaters with spicy pork, sticky rice sausages'|'November 26, 2017 / 4:00 PM / Updated an hour ago WH Group woos Chinese eaters with spicy pork, sticky rice sausages Dominique Patton 5 Min Read LUOHE/ZHENGZHOU, China, Nov 27 (Reuters) - WH Group , the world’s top pork producer, is adding new varieties of packaged foods to counter slowing Chinese pork demand and woo the expanding middle class of the world’s most populous nation that is embracing a wider diet of meats. Drawing on the expertise of its Smithfield business in the United States, WH’s domestic unit Shuanghui Development is launching products that meet regional flavours and satisfy the demand for snacking and convenience, while also boosting its range of premium fresh chilled meats. The company is also seeking lucrative supply contracts with hotel and fast food chains like McDonald’s and is even tweaking staple products like bacon, executives said. “First, we want to bring in more Western products, and second, we want to develop more industrialised Chinese products,” Chairman and Chief Executive Wan Long told reporters last week at the company headquarters in Luohe, central China. Among the 100 new products WH introduced this year are the spicy meat snack “Chuan Touli,” inspired by the chilli-infused cuisine of the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, and a sausage containing the southern speciality sticky rice. Shuanghui is China’s top pork processor, slaughtering around 15 million pigs a year and commanding a 29 percent share of the processed meat sold in supermarkets, according to Euromonitor, far ahead of the rest. But, China’s slowing economy and more health-conscious consumers have limited Shuanghui’s sales growth. The country’s fresh and processed retail meat market generates an estimated 944.7 billion yuan ($143.14 billion) in sales each year. Sales of Shuanghui’s packaged meats in the first three quarters of 2017 were down 2.2 percent to $2.49 billion versus the same period last year. WH is also adapting to the complexity of selling meat in China, where tastes differ by region and income level. The overhaul comes four years after WH bought Smithfield, the biggest U.S. pork producer, for $4.7 billion, the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. company at that time. Heat-treated meat products that do not need to be refrigerated, like the individually wrapped snack sausages consumed as fast food across China make up the largest chunk of the country’s processed meat sector. Retail sales of these have been in decline since 2014 as consumers seek healthier options, said Cecilia Yang, an analyst at Euromonitor International. RESTRUCTURING WH restructured its China product development team in the second half of 2016, and now has eight regional development centres that run regular consumer surveys. Before, managers at the headquarters devised new products to cater to the mainland’s 32 provinces and regions. WH’s new products face competition from newer market entrants such as New Hope Liuhe and Cofco Meat . Like Shuanghui, Cofco also now offers a cheese-filled sausage inspired by Japanese trends. The chilled meat sector offers greater growth potential, despite its higher cost that limits demand to China’s larger cities and their wealthier consumers. Shuanghui has also turned to Smithfield’s sales network to win contracts with international restaurant and hotel chains who are more experienced at handling chilled meat than wholesalers, said Pan Guanghui, general manager at Zhengzhou Shuanghui Food Limited Co. Boosting sales volumes will also lift the utilisation capacity across Shuanghui’s 18 plants. They currently run at around 70 percent. “We want to reach the scale of Smithfield’s 30 million,” said Wan, referring to number of hogs processed annually. He did not give a time frame for the target to double annual output, but added that no new investment will be needed as the plants currently only operate on a single shift. Achieving that goal will require consolidation among the country’s thousands of local slaughterhouses, which are protected by regional governments. President Xi Jinping’s high-profile focus on food safety, underlined in his 19th Party Congress speech, may fuel further crackdowns on small, outdated slaughterhouses. “This is very favourable for us,” Ma Xiangjie, a Shuanghui vice president who oversees the firm’s slaughtering, told Reuters. ($1 = 6.5998 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Josephine Mason and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-pork-wh-group/wh-group-woos-chinese-eaters-with-spicy-pork-sticky-rice-sausages-idUSL3N1NR2MX'|'2017-11-26T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'c1c47c70778b3a5fc93e3380dc2856afdf4e9a85'|'Exclusive - Meredith nears deal to acquire magazine publisher Time: sources'|'November 26, 2017 / 8:16 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Exclusive - Meredith nears deal to acquire magazine publisher Time: sources Liana B. Baker , Greg Roumeliotis 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. media company Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is nearing a deal to acquire Time Inc ( TIME.N ), the U.S. publisher of Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, for about $2 billion (£1.49 billion), people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The acquisition would be a coup for Meredith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year as well as in 2013. Analysts have said that bulking up on publishing assets could give Meredith the scale required to spin off its broadcasting arm into a standalone company. Meredith, whose bid for Time is backed by an affiliate of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, may announce an agreement as early as this week, the sources said. Koch Industries has been backing Meredith’s bid with $600 million in financing, sources previously told Reuters. It is not clear how much influence the Koch brothers would have over the combined publishing company. The sources, who requested anonymity because the matter is confidential, cautioned that the talks could collapse at the last minute without a deal. Meredith, Time and a representative for Koch Industries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meredith, which publishes Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, has a market capitalization of $2.7 billion. It tried to merge with Richmond, Virginia-based broadcaster Media General in 2015, but Nexstar Media Group Inc ( NXST.O ) ended up acquiring that company for $4.6 billion. Time, which also publishes the eponymous current affairs magazine, has been struggling in an industrywide decline in print media, as circulation shrinks and advertisers shift to digital platforms. Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-m-a-meredith-exclusive/exclusive-meredith-nears-deal-to-acquire-magazine-publisher-time-sources-idUKKBN1DQ0TF'|'2017-11-26T22:54:00.000+02:00'
'26aec20ac890c9b07d977cfef9a822c969d10594'|'Results put pressure on FTSE, easyJet soars'|'November 21, 2017 / 10:09 AM / in 18 minutes Consumer stocks and rosy results boost FTSE as easyJet soars Kit Rees , Helen Reid 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A flurry of company updates and strong consumer stocks helped the FTSE 100 .FTSE climb on Tuesday, with easyJet ( EZJ.L ) rising. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Defence and engineering contractor Babcock ( BAB.L ) fell sharply after its results. The FTSE rose 0.3 percent, its best daily gains in three weeks, ending the day at 7,411.34 points following a weak start, while mid caps .FTMC gained 0.4 percent. British markets tracked gains across the European market, with UK investors showing few signs of nerves ahead of Wednesday’s budget announcement. Budget airline easyJet’s ( EZJ.L ) full-year earnings were well-received, sending its shares soaring more than 5 percent to the top of the FTSE. The airline said it was benefiting from the collapse of rivals and problems at peer Ryanair ( RYA.I ), which have helped its pricing trends. “For full-year 2018, easyJet sees that revenue trends in the first quarter have been encouraging, primarily as a result of some capacity leaving the market,” analysts at Davy said in a note. “After several quarters of declining unit revenue trends, the market will be encouraged by this statement.” Consumer staples drove the strongest gains, with tobacco company Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ) up 3.5 percent as investors bet on a potential bid from Japan Tobacco Inc ( 2914.T ) after the Japanese firm named a new chief executive keen on pursuing more overseas acquisitions. Imperial has long been seen as a likely acquisition target, and the stock had its best day in 14 months after Jefferies analysts said a bid was more feasible under Japan Tobacco’s new leadership. British American Tobacco ( BATS.L ) also rose 1.8 percent. There were some eye-catching falls after results, however. Babcock ( BAB.L ) dropped 6.8 percent as concerns over UK defence spending overshadowed first-half earnings in line with expectations. Compass ( CPG.L ) fell 3.3 percent, touching its lowest level in eight months after releasing its full year earnings, while Intertek ( ITRK.L ) was 3.4 percent lower after issuing a trading statement. Johnson Matthey ( JMAT.L ) declined more than 2 percent after the catalyst maker’s first-half operating profit fell 2 percent due to one-off restructuring charges. And Mediclinic ( MDCM.L ), which has been under pressure due to the disintegration of takeover talks with Spire ( SPI.L ), sank 5.8 percent after Macquarie cut the stock to “underperform”. “There is very little tolerance for mediocre performance at this point in time,” Jonathan Roy, advisory investment manager at Charles Hanover Investments, said. “What we’re starting to see is investors take themselves away from any stocks which aren’t up to scratch in terms of where they think growth is going,” Roy added. Earnings were also the main drivers of mid-cap stocks .FTMC . Shares in Melrose Industries ( MRON.L ) tumbled 4.9 percent after a trading update, while Aggreko ( AGGK.L ) slumped 11.1 percent as its third-quarter results were hit by discounts it made to win a contract in Argentina earlier this year. Facilities management company Mitie ( MTO.L ) also sank 7.4 percent to a six-month low after a new investigation was opened into its financial statements. Shares in SIG ( SHI.L ), a construction materials supplier, were among the biggest gainers, up 6 percent after a trading update. Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/results-put-pressure-on-ftse-easyjet-soars-idUKKBN1DL0Z0'|'2017-11-21T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'8ba4a5cb9ea89cd9127e4577da18b8127089812a'|'Dutch central bank tells trust managers to clean up their act'|'November 21, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Dutch central bank tells trust managers to clean up their act Bart H. Meijer 3 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Trust management firms in the Netherlands must tighten their procedures against money laundering and tax evasion or face higher penalties for wrongdoing, the Dutch central bank said on Tuesday. The Netherlands, with dozens of tax treaties, is a key hub for corporate entities shifting profits to lower tax jurisdictions. But it has come under increased international pressure to crack down on tax evasion. A Dutch parliamentary inquiry in June found that trust managers, who oversee financial assets on behalf of their owners, often ignore international rules and regulations, enabling tax-dodging and other criminal behaviour. “Progress in the trust management sector has been too slow for too long”, central bank director Frank Elderson said at a meeting with reporters. “The bar for trust managers is being raised and they have to act accordingly.” In a response to the parliamentary inquiry, the government earlier this month announced new legislation that gives the central bank more power to act against trust managers. “This will strengthen our supervision”, Elderson said. “But there still are limits to what we can do. The sector needs to improve itself. It’s in the firms own interest to get everyone on the right path.” The trust offices, which have no obligation to share client details with authorities, are seen as a pivotal player in the financial structures used by companies and wealthy individuals to limit their tax bills. The Dutch industry group for trust offices, Holland Quaestor, is trying to get companies to qualify for a certificate of good behaviour, by going beyond existing rules and regulations. But Elderson called progress on that front disappointing. Holland Quaestor did not immediately respond. The central bank estimates there are around 200 trust management organisations in the Netherlands. “The numbers are declining”, Elderson said. “And we expect that to continue, as it gets harder to comply to the rules, especially for small offices.” Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-netherlands-cenbank/dutch-central-bank-tells-trust-managers-to-clean-up-their-act-idUKKBN1DL1OP'|'2017-11-21T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'403dc5b013cc27b96e204b44d6b28ccbf18a1dd9'|'Broadcom eyes big changes for Qualcomm''s patent practices'|'November 21, 2017 / 6:13 AM / Updated an hour ago Broadcom eyes big changes for Qualcomm''s patent practices Stephen Nellis , Liana B. Baker 6 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As part of its $103 billion (77.8 billion pounds) bid to buy Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) has hinted that it would make big changes to Qualcomm’s patent licensing business, a major cash-cow for the company but a source of bitter conflict with regulators and key customers including Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ). FILE PHOTO: Broadcom Limited company logo is pictured on an office building in Rancho Bernardo, California May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo But Broadcom has given few details about how it would go about revising Qualcomm’s practices. Qualcomm has so far rejected Broadcom’s takeover offer, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles. Patent licenses accounted for some $5.1 billion in pre-tax profits for Qualcomm in its fiscal 2017, compared with $2.7 billion in pre-tax profits for its chip business that brings in two and a half times more revenue. Thus, Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan would need to carefully pair any changes to the programme with cost cuts elsewhere, with Qualcomm’s annual $5.5 billion research and development budget seen as a prime target by analysts. If Broadcom is successful in buying Qualcomm, a source familiar with the matter said that Broadcom would try to maintain the economics of the licensing business by adjusting the pricing structure between the licensing and chip selling businesses. It would also attempt to renegotiate contracts with major customers, the source said. Broadcom is eager to appease big customers like Apple, whose support is needed to overcome antitrust hurdles. While customers often look askance at consolidation among their suppliers, Broadcom has said it offers a possible solution to a conflict that has led to a regulatory crackdown, lawsuits with Apple and also has prompted others to cease paying licensing fees. At the centre of the conflict is Qualcomm’s practice of requiring mobile phone makers to pay a licence fee on its intellectual property in addition to what they pay for its chips. Qualcomm invented a number of foundational technologies for mobile communications. In legal complaints, Apple has called Qualcomm’s approach “double dipping.” Qualcomm has repeatedly rejected the notion that its patent practices are anticompetitive and maintains that its chip business and patent business are run separately. A Broadcom spokeswoman told Reuters in early November that it believes that regulators around the world will “welcome this deal as a solution to the double-dipping issue.” Tan said in an interview earlier this month that he believes Broadcom “can be very constructive in resolving these issues and resetting relationships. We would not have embarked on this offer if we were not confident that our common key customers would not embrace it.” Broadcom declined to comment further. FILE PHOTO: One of many Qualcomm buildings is shown in San Diego, California, U.S. on November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Analysts said there are three possibilities for Broadcom to resolve Qualcomm’s licensing issues: sell or spin off the licensing unit, shift to a model that charges a flat fee, and simply charge more for chips, using the patents as leverage. The simplest option for Broadcom would be to spin off Qualcomm’s licensing division to financial buyers or Qualcomm shareholders, but its valuation would be hard to gauge. Revenue from the unit has declined from $7.9 billion in 2015 to $6.4 billion in Qualcomm’s fiscal 2017, largely thanks to Apple’s and another customer’s suspension of payments. If the licensing unit remains within Qualcomm, one possibility is that Qualcomm would ditch its unpopular practice of charging a percentage of the selling price of a phone in favour of a flat per-device fee, Cowen and Co analyst Karl Ackerman said in a research note. The most likely course of action, according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, is for Broadcom to end the practice of asking chip customers to pay licensing fees and instead to ask them to pay a little more for chips. At the same time, Broadcom would lock in long-term supply agreements, using Qualcomm’s patent portfolio as leverage, Rasgon said. But such a move could result in lower overall prices for customers like Apple. Rasgon estimates that Apple pays about $15 for Qualcomm’s chips and another $10 per device in licensing fees, for a total of about $25 per phone. Broadcom could simply charge between $18 and $20 for the chips. “It’s a completely different model of how to run Qualcomm,” Rasgon said. “(Broadcom’s CEO Tan) is essentially saying, ‘You guys are wrong - the licensing revenue is never coming back,''” he said. Apple declined to comment. But the company has shown that it is willing to settle its patent disputes for the right price, often with an upfront payment and then ongoing royalties. Earlier this year, Apple settled with Nokia Oyj ( NOKIA.HE ), handing over a $2 billion upfront cash payment and undisclosed ongoing payments over several years. Rasgon estimates that one way or another Qualcomm will lose about $2.5 billion per year in royalty revenues from Apple. Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-broadcom-qualcomm-licensing-analysis/broadcom-eyes-big-changes-for-qualcomms-patent-practices-idUKKBN1DL0EQ'|'2017-11-21T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'9416e410e8a71b27eb3092a2137ec7fcf4dddacf'|'Deutsche Bank strategist tells investors to avoid bitcoin'|'November 22, 2017 / 4:34 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Deutsche Bank strategist tells investors to avoid bitcoin Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has joined the ranks of those warning about the virtual currency bitcoin as an investment. The head quarters of Germany''s Deutsche Bank are photographed early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “I would simply not recommend this to the everyday investor,” Ulrich Stephan, chief strategist at Germany’s largest lender, said on Wednesday. Stephan said that fluctuations are too great and regulation too scant. He noted that German investors were reluctant to invest in stocks, but were generating hype about bitcoin. Bitcoin smashed through the $8,000 level for the first time over the weekend and traded at $8,216 at 1523 GMT on Wednesday, with many experts saying $10,000 is possible. An eightfold increase in the value of the volatile cryptocurrency this year has led to multiple warnings of a bubble, and institutional investors are broadly staying away. Retail investors, however, as well as some hedge funds and family offices, are piling in despite JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon earlier this year calling bitcoin a “fraud”. Although UBS Chairman Axel Weber urged caution on bitcoin last week, he also said there was potential for the technology underpinning it. “At this point, I‘m very cautious about bitcoin as an entity. I‘m much more optimistic about the underlying technology,” Weber added. Sweden’s central bank is one organization which is investigating the potential for digital currencies. “An e-krona would have the potential to counteract some of the problems that could arise on the payment market in the future when the use of cash is rapidly declining,” the Riksbank said in a report in September. Reporting by Patricia Uhlig and Tom Sims; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-bitcoin/deutsche-bank-strategist-tells-investors-to-avoid-bitcoin-idUKKBN1DM277'|'2017-11-22T18:30:00.000+02:00'
'f2079cc85102cd61edc7e4e5619278324d2bd6f7'|'Akzo Nobel merger talks with Axalta fail'|'November 21, 2017 / 9:36 PM / Updated an hour ago Nippon Paint bids for Axalta, merger talks with Akzo Nobel end Greg Roumeliotis , Toby Sterling 4 Min Read NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd ( 4612.T ) made an all cash offer on Tuesday to acquire U.S. coatings company Axalta Coating Systems Ltd ( AXTA.N ), two people familiar with the matter said, a move which prompted the latter to end merger talks with peer Akzo Nobel ( AKZO.AS ). General view of the outside of AkzoNobel''s new paint factory in Ashington, Britain September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Axalta and Akzo announced earlier on Tuesday they had ended negotiations about a “merger of equals” because they were unable to reach mutually agreeable terms. Axalta, whose largest shareholder is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( BRKa.N ), said it continued to pursue other “value-creating alternatives”, but it did not disclose Nippon’s role in the termination of the discussions with Akzo Nobel. Nippon, Japan’s biggest paint supplier, made the all-cash offer for Axalta at a premium to where Axalta shares ended on Monday at $33.54, one of the sources said. The offer was credible enough for Axalta to end negotiations with Akzo Nobel, the source added. It is not clear how far the negotiations with Nippon will progress though, and Axalta could also choose to engage in deal talks with other interested parties, the second source said. Axalta has a market capitalisation of $8.2 billion (£6.20 billion) while Nippon has a market capitalisation of 1.2 trillion yen (£8.06 billion). Axalta shares reversed losses in extended trading hours in New York after Reuters reported on Nippon’s offer, to trade up 3.3 percent at $35.01. For Akzo Nobel, the breakdown in the talks with Axalta mark the end of a difficult year in which it rejected a 26 billion euro (£23.07 billion) takeover offer from PPG Industries Inc ( PPG.N ), in favour of a standalone plan. Based on Dutch takeover rules, PPG could return with a new offer for Akzo Nobel as early as next month, if it so wishes. However, PPG CEO Michael McGarry has indicated his company is no longer interested in Akzo after its three offers to the company in March and April were spurned. Akzo said in a statement it would now continue to pursue that strategy of selling or seeking a stock market listing for its speciality chemicals division, which makes up a third of group sales and profits and has an estimated value of 8-10 billion euros. Akzo promised to return the “vast majority of proceeds to shareholders”. “We concluded we could not negotiate a transaction on terms that meet our criteria,” said Charles W. Shaver, Axalta’s Chief Executive Officer. “Any transaction we ultimately agree to needs to generate superior long-term value for Axalta shareholders as compared to the continued execution of our strategic plan.” The failure of the talks comes days before Akzo Nobel’s shareholders are to meet on Nov. 30 to approve the demerger of its speciality chemicals arms. Since PPG walked away in June, former Akzo Nobel CEO Ton Buechner and former CFO Maëlys Castella have both resigned, citing health reasons, while Chairman Antony Burgmans is due to retire in April. Akzo Nobel’s new CEO Thierry Vanlancker said in a statement on Tuesday the company’s strategy -- developed under Buechner and Burgmans -- offers “significant value for shareholders and other stakeholders in the short, medium and long term”. “We remain focussed on our strategic options to continue to develop our business and improve profitability in the future,” he said. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Editing by Gareth Jones and Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-axalta-akzonobel/akzo-nobel-merger-talks-with-axalta-fail-idUKKBN1DL2Q6'|'2017-11-22T00:05:00.000+02:00'
'e8b3286f48bf049fbe46c43284c93f1b07355b87'|'Broadcom considering sweetened Qualcomm bid: sources - Reuters'|'(Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd is considering raising its offer to buy rival Qualcomm Inc by offering more of its own stock, following consultation with several of Qualcomm’s top shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter.A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake While the timing of the new offer is uncertain, Broadcom’s bid preparations indicate that it is planning to apply pressure on Qualcomm to engage in negotiations by offering more to its shareholders, in addition to threatening to replace its board of directors.Broadcom’s Chief Executive Hock Tan has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle and sources have previously said the company is preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm’s Dec. 8 nomination deadline. Qualcomm shareholders that want the company to engage in deal talks with Broadcom will be able to vote for that slate at a March 6 shareholder meeting.Broadcom has offered to pay $103 billion for Qualcomm, made up of $60 per share in cash and $10 per share of its own stock. Raising the offer by adding more of its shares would avoid Broadcom having to raise more debt and further pressure its credit rating, the sources said.Qualcomm’s shareholders have indicated to Broadcom they expect at least $80 per share in order for Broadcom to be sold, the sources said. Broadcom’s board has not yet decided on the level of any new offer, the sources added.Broadcom has made several requests for a meeting with Qualcomm since it unveiled its offer on Nov. 6, the sources said. However, Qualcomm has so far rejected these meeting requests, the sources added. Broadcom had not approached Qualcomm in the weeks prior to announcing its offer, according to the sources.The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom declined to comment.Qualcomm invented a number of technologies underlying mobile communications and also sells chips used in cellphones and other devices. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc, and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal.NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not need to decide to raise its offer for NXP until that deal receives antitrust clearance from all the regulators reviewing the deal around the world.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Bill RigbyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-considering-sweetened-qualcomm-bid-sources-idINKBN1DM2NX'|'2017-11-22T17:30:00.000+02:00'
'779d76d1f968eca76b612788e9a5866e2dd1b163'|'BMW to spend $237 million on battery cell centre'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW will bundle its battery cell expertise in a new competence centre, the German luxury carmaker said on Friday, adding it would invest 200 million euros ($237 million) in the site over the next four years.FILE PHOTO: The logo of BMW before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, southern Germany, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo “By producing battery-cell prototypes, we can analyse and fully understand the cell’s value-creation processes. With this build-to-print expertise, we can enable potential suppliers to produce cells to our specifications,” BMW board member Oliver Zipse said in a statement.“The knowledge we gain is very important to us, regardless of whether we produce the battery cells ourselves, or not.”The centre will open in early 2019, BMW said.($1 = 0.8435 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bmw-batteries/bmw-to-spend-237-million-on-battery-cell-centre-idINKBN1DO1BL'|'2017-11-24T08:53:00.000+02:00'
'ddac2472ed83b224d4ae6cd151e08555dc0e2b4a'|'Apollo nears deal to buy Qdoba from Jack in the Box: sources'|'(Reuters) - Private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC ( APO.N ) is nearing a deal to buy Qdoba Mexican Eats from restaurant chain Jack in the Box Inc ( JACK.O ) for more than $300 million, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.The deal would be the culmination of a strategic review that Jack in the Box initiated in May, after stating that the chain was not a good fit with the rest of the company’s dining portfolio.Apollo’s deal for Qdoba could come as early as next week, the sources said, cautioning that negotiations could still end without a deal.Apollo also owns children’s pizza and arcade chain Chuck E. Cheese, which it took private for $1.3 billion in 2014. The New York-based buyout firm does not plan to combine Chuck E. Cheese with Qdoba, the sources said.The sources asked not to be named because the matter is confidential. A spokesman for Apollo declined to comment, while a spokesman for Jack in the Box could not immediately be reached for comment.Jack in the Box shares jumped 3 percent on the news and were up 1 percent at $103.57 in afternoon trading in New York, giving the company a market capitalization of around $3 billion.San Diego-based Jack in the Box acquired Qdoba for $45 million in 2003. The restaurant chain initially enjoyed fast revenue growth but has struggled in recent quarters, reporting only 1.4 percent comparable store sales growth in 2016.“It has become more apparent since then that the overall valuation of the company is being impacted by having two different business models,” Jack in the Box Chief Executive Lenny Comma said in May.Founded in 1951, Jack in the Box is known for its eponymous burger franchise, which operates 2,200 restaurants in 21 states and Guam. Qdoba is its only subsidiary.Activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC disclosed a small stake in Jack in the Box earlier this month.Qdoba has more than 700 restaurants in 47 states and Canada.Dealmaking in the restaurant space has been active in recent months, as struggling food chains have been snapped up by competitors.Higher wages, including a higher minimum wage in many parts of the United States, has also put pressure on restaurant margins.Recent restaurant deals include Darden Restaurants Inc’s acquisition of Cheddars Scratch Kitchen, Restaurant Brands International Inc’s ( QSR.TO ) deal for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and JAB’s purchase of Panera Bread.Reporting by Andrew Berlin and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-jack-in-the-box-m-a-apollo-glo-mgmt/apollo-nears-deal-to-buy-qdoba-from-jack-in-the-box-sources-idINKBN1DM2ES'|'2017-11-22T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'8ac6a621aa6ad809fdde7eca28967f63595085d3'|'Spotlight on RBS in Bank of England stress test'|'LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will publish stress test results for seven of Britain’s major banks on Tuesday, which will put the spotlight on Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) now the government has revived plans to sell its majority stake.The logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank is seen reflected in the windows of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville RBS failed the stress test a year ago and had to cut costs and sell assets worth 2 billion pounds ($2.66 billion) to plug a capital shortfall.“As in prior years, RBS will be on the watch list,” said Rob Smith, a partner at consultants KPMG.“Whilst we think they will fare better than in the 2016 exercise, it is likely to be a close call. However, it should be noted the positive effect of the improved capital position over 2017 is not reflected in the results,” Smith said.The BoE has said it will consider any steps banks have taken to strengthen their capital positions since the end of 2016 before deciding on any actions they must take.The tests aim to show if banks have strong enough balance sheets to withstand an economic crisis.RBS, along with Barclays ( BARC.L ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Lloyds ( LLOY.L ), Santander UK ( SAN.MC ), Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) and the Nationwide building society must show they would still hold enough capital to avoid a bailout after undergoing theoretical market shocks spanning five years.The shocks include a big drop in the pound and growth, and sharp rises in unemployment and loan defaults.All have a bespoke basic hurdle to pass, but RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered must also leap a higher “systemic” hurdle because they are bigger banks.The banks hold a lot more capital than they did before the financial crisis, but analysts said the test results could still affect their ability to pay dividends given the uncertainties banks face, not least Britain leaving the European Union in 2019.RBS was rescued in the financial crisis with a 45.5 billion pound taxpayer bailout, leaving the government with stake of around 71 percent.Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday the government would reprivatise RBS by selling 15 billion pounds of shares before the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year.Last year’s Brexit vote forced the government to shelve original plans for a sale.RBC Capital Markets analysts said they did not expect RBS to fail. “We do not expect RBS to fail again this year given the progress on clean up at the bank.”They said Barclays might face a bumpy ride in the tests due to higher hurdle rates and higher assumed consumer finance losses.Markets will also be looking at how much detail the BoE releases from its first, parallel “exploratory scenario” test that spans seven years.This assesses how the banks’ business models would cope with a prolonged downturn. There is no pass or fail, but it will help the BoE check whether profits are “sustainable”.KPMG’s Smith said markets also want to know if next year’s test will include the potential for a hard Brexit, or Britain crashing out of the European Union in 2019 without trading arrangements with the bloc.The test results will be published at 0700 GMT on Tuesday, followed by a press conference with BoE Governor Mark Carney.($1 = 0.7513 pounds)Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-boe-banks-royal-bank-scot/spotlight-on-rbs-in-bank-of-england-stress-test-idUSKBN1DO1G2'|'2017-11-24T14:29:00.000+02:00'
'12bb5d5edf1495d036420209274f493bb0d62084'|'Tencent turns to WeChat, games and deals for global strategy'|'November 20, 2017 / 3:07 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Tencent turns to WeChat, games and deals for global strategy Sijia Jiang 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s biggest social network and gaming firm Tencent Holdings, which last week reported forecast-beating quarterly results, is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, an executive told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Tencent''s booth is pictured at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2017 in Beijing, China April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Tencent has made a “breakthrough” in gaining an e-payment license in Malaysia for local transactions, and plans a launch early next year, senior vice president S.Y. Lau said in an interview. The move pits Shenzhen-based Tencent, Asia’s most valuable listed company, against rival Alibaba Group as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China. “Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have 20 million WeChat users, huge potential, and the market is quite warm towards internet products from China,” Lau said. Southeast Asia, home to more than 600 million people and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has been a key battleground for China’s tech titans fighting for deals. Ethnic Chinese make up more than a fifth of Malaysia’s population. WeChat Pay and Alibaba’s Alipay, which dominate China’s digital payment market, have sought to expand their global footprint, although that push has so far been limited to payment services for Chinese outbound tourists. They can scan-and-pay for purchases in 34 countries or regions via Alipay and 13 via WeChat Pay, according to the companies. Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial has joint ventures in seven markets for local digital payments services, which operate independently under the partnerships’ brand names. Alibaba is looking to build a global payment system, while Tencent is more interested in generating traffic for WeChat - two different strategies, some bankers and investors say. WeChat has more users, but Alipay’s aggregate transaction volume is higher, according to JP Morgan’s John Hall, though other investors note that WeChat Pay can also process large transactions if it’s used on e-commerce platforms. GLOBAL EXPANSION One challenge for Tencent, say analysts, is that its success in China cannot be easily exported to other markets. Tencent is “not in a hurry” to speed up its overseas expansion or increase the monetization rate of its digital assets, Lau said. “We walk our own path at our own pace ... and, to be honest, there is really quite a lot to do in China,” he said. WeChat, which has ballooned from a messaging app to an all-in-one platform with 980 million monthly active users, could be the “killer product” to spearhead expansion abroad, Lau said, as its embedded payment function draws more services. WeChat, with an open platform of mini-programmes, was a key revenue contributor for Tencent in the third quarter. Social and other advertising revenue rose 63 percent, while payment and cloud helped “other business” post a 143 percent jump FILE PHOTO: The Snapchat messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo “Honour of Kings”, Tencent’s top-grossing battle game that led an 84 percent increase in quarterly smartphone gaming revenue, also owes its success to the network help of WeChat, and is expected to find it tougher to crack Western markets, analysts say. Tencent this month delayed the launch of the game’s U.S. edition, “Arena of Valor”, to next year to “further polish additional gameplay and social features”. After games and social media, most of Tencent’s other businesses are in digital content, including Spotify equivalent Tencent Music and YouTube equivalent Tencent Video, which also makes its own dramas. CULTURE CHALLENGE Lau said the ultimate aim was to export culture from China to the rest of the world, rather than the other way round, which he acknowledged was challenging. “What we’re aiming to create is ‘super IPs’ (intellectual property) that leverage our different businesses from upstream to downstream,” Lau said, citing Disneyland and the James Bond movies as successful practices in the West. A big business for Tencent’s recently-listed publishing arm, China Literature, is to sell its popular novels and have them turned into dramas and video games by Tencent’s other business lines. Tencent this month announced a plan involving 10 billion yuan ($1.51 billion) of investment to boost its creative content ecosystem, though it gave no timeframe for the investment. Company president Martin Lau - no relation to S.Y. - said on an earnings call last week that Tencent would keep investing in digital content, especially online video, to draw more time from more paying customers. Overseas acquisitions will remain a key way of enhancing Tencent’s global access and competitiveness, S.Y. Lau said. Independent technology analyst Richard Windsor said Tencent’s 2016 acquisition of Supercell gave it a strong position in gaming,, while the move to buy a stake in social media firm Snapchat is another piece in the jigsaw. “It increasingly looks as if Tencent is embarking on a circumnavigation of the digital life pie in order to build an ecosystem to challenge the Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook dominance of consumer digital services,” he said, noting it’s at a “super early stage” in that process. Tencent will likely seek more overseas acquisitions, Windsor added, which, beyond being expensive, could challenge Tencent in integrating all its digital assets at home and abroad. Tencent has struggled to monetize its dominance over the Chinese digital life, he said, adding that’s why he sees more upside in Tencent’s market valuation, and prefers it to Alibaba. ($1 = 6.6267 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Sijia Jiang, with additional reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tencent-strategy/tencent-turns-to-wechat-games-and-deals-for-global-strategy-idUSKBN1DK1S1'|'2017-11-20T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'60973d386047e4c964ea9cc740fd82be2452e769'|'Weak pay suggests UK can grow without pushing up inflation - BoE''s Ramsden'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:34 PM / Updated an hour ago Weak pay suggests UK can grow without pushing up inflation - BoE''s Ramsden Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit uncertainty may have made British workers more cautious about their pay demands, which suggests that the economy has more room to grow without pushing up inflation, a top Bank of England official said on Monday. Workers are seen in an office tower in the Canary Wharf financial district at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden, who voted against the decision this month by the BoE to raise interest rates for the first time in 10 years, said he had a “somewhat different” view of the economy to most of his colleagues. While the Monetary Policy Committee overall judged that slack in Britain’s economy was now disappearing, Ramsden said there were signs - such as persistently weak wage growth - that there may be more left to use up. “I attach some weight to the idea that workers have responded to the changing outlook by showing greater flexibility in their wage demands,” Ramsden said in his first speech as a BoE official which was due to be delivered at a Strand Group event at King’s College, London. He added that this would help explain why measures of domestically generated inflation pressure mostly remain muted. “If true it would mean there is a little more room than headline measures of slack suggest for the economy to grow without generating above-target inflation in the medium term,” Ramsden said. Most of the BoE’s policymakers expect the steep fall in Britain’s unemployment rate will soon start to push up wages more strongly. But evidence for a marked pick-up in wage growth remains scant, with households squeezed additionally by the post-Brexit vote rise in inflation. Last week another BoE deputy governor, Ben Broadbent, said the central bank needed to stick with its assumption that lower unemployment will generate faster inflation, describing spare capacity in the economy as “dwindling”. Ramsden - who was the top economic advisor to Britain’s finance ministry before joining the BoE - said on Monday the biggest risk to the outlook for Britain’s economy was uncertainty about its trading relationships after Brexit, as well as the path followed to reach them. BoE Governor Mark Carney has previously described the outcome of Brexit talks as probably the biggest factor driving moves in interest rates from now. Writing by Andy Bruce, editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-ramsden/weak-pay-suggests-uk-can-grow-without-pushing-up-inflation-boes-ramsden-idUKKBN1DK29A'|'2017-11-20T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'3e13add5fd6547a788a44d01dc579bd5926954c9'|'Milan leads Amsterdam, Copenhagen in vote for EU drugs agency'|'November 20, 2017 / 10:29 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Amsterdam, Paris win post-Brexit EU agencies in lucky dip Gabriela Baczynska , Alastair Macdonald 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Amsterdam and Paris won the right to host two EU agencies that must leave London because of Brexit after an extraordinary ministerial meeting in Brussels that left both results decided by drawing lots from a fishbowl. The European Medicines Authority (EMA), a key element in the continent’s healthcare industry, will go to Amsterdam, which tied with favorite Milan; the European Banking Authority (EBA) will go to Paris, winner in the lucky dip over Dublin, which won some sympathy votes due to the pain Brexit is causing Ireland. Among other big losers was Frankfurt, whose rivalry with Paris to displace London as the EU’s main financial center once Britain leaves the bloc in 2019 took a hit when it finished a distant third in the three-way, second-round vote for the EBA, which sets rules for testing the resilience of EU banks. Also licking wounds from a secret ballot that tested friends and rivals in a race for lucrative spoils were the ex-communist countries of eastern Europe, which complain they host few of the EU’s 40-odd agencies due to joining late. Among winners were the EMA and its 900 staff, many of whom had said they might quit if posted to the poorer east, a threat that had raised concern about disruption in drug approvals. It was the abstention of Slovakia, piqued by its capital Bratislava being narrowly knocked out of the EMA voting in the first round, which allowed Amsterdam to pull level with early leader Milan and tie the runoff at 13-13 - a result few had expected given that all 27 member states bar Britain had a vote. Diplomats expressed astonishment that the EBA also went to a tie, obliging Matti Maasikas, the Estonian minister chairing the meeting, to dip his hand in for a second time to pick one of two balls from a fishbowl produced by officials for the day. “It’s like losing a final on penalties,” Italy’s EU affairs minister Sandro Gozi told reporters, adding that it had left a “bitter taste in the mouth” for an EMA bid that was not behind at any stage. He rejected, however, talk of “betrayal” among any allies who had promised Milan support before the secret ballot. PHARMA WELCOME European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier addresses a conference on the "The future of the EU" at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, Belgium November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman The outcome was welcomed by European pharmaceuticals bodies. “Businesses now need certainty,” said Steve Bates, CEO of Britain’s BioIndustry Association. “We must now ensure Brexit does not disrupt the safe supply of vital medicines.” Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra and French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau - who both congratulated their Estonian counterpart on his “lucky” hand - told reporters both agencies would be ready to open their doors in Amsterdam and Paris on Monday, April 1, 2019, following Britain’s formal withdrawal from the European Union at the start at the weekend. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is seen in London, Britain April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo - RC157588BD90 Both dismissed suggestions that the process had been a slap to hopes of healing feelings of disgruntlement with the EU among increasingly nationalistic governments in parts of the east. While “regional balance” had been among criteria that ministers were asked to observe in voting, so too was the ability to maintain the business continuity of agencies which already have about 1,000 employees between them in London. In all, 19 cities had bid for the prestige and economic boost that the arrival of the EMA’s 900 staff and many offices for international pharmaceuticals companies will bring. Despite aggressive backroom dealmaking, the 27 EU states were keen to avoid any protracted and bruising dispute in public, hoping to preserving a sense of unity that has emerged - so far - in negotiations over Brexit with Britain. ”Whatever the outcome,“ EU summit chair Donald Tusk tweeted ahead of the votes, ”the real winner of today’s vote is EU27. “Organised and getting ready for Brexit.” Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Francesco Guarascio and Peter Maushagen in Brussels and Ben Hirschler in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-agencies/eu-to-choose-post-brexit-homes-for-two-london-based-agencies-idUKKBN1DK142'|'2017-11-20T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'59e4370e91f289e3592096e738ccb43b9061c7e7'|'Roche win boosts case for adding chemo to cancer immunotherapy'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Cancer doctors struggling to work out the best way to use modern immunotherapy drugs now have further evidence of the benefits of adding them to chemotherapy, despite earlier scepticism.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is seen outside their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo News that Roche’s immune system-boosting drug Tecentriq delayed lung cancer progression when given alongside chemo and its older drug Avastin validates the approach for the first time in a large Phase III clinical trial.It is a significant milestone for physicians, patients and investors, who are trying to assess the competitive landscape as drugmakers race to develop better ways to fight tumours in previously untreated lung cancer.Lung cancer is by far the biggest oncology market and first-line treatment provides access to the most patients, opening up potential annual sales forecast by some analysts at $20 billion.Roche and Merck & Co have led the way in pioneering so-called “chemo-combo” treatment, while AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers are betting primarily on mixing two immunotherapies. AstraZeneca notably failed to show a similar benefit in a high-profile clinical trial in July.Stefan Zimmermann, an oncologist at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, said the Roche data would help scotch concerns that chemo might hamper the new class of immuno-oncology medicines.“Many experts in the field will be relieved because there has been uncertainty ... I think this will really encourage many of us to use this combination upfront,” he told Reuters.“For now, the only positive data that we have is for chemo combination.”Merck, in fact, already has U.S. approval to add chemo to its immunotherapy drug Keytruda - but this was based on a small trial and the company withdrew a similar European application last month, knocking confidence in its strategy.Since Keytruda, Bristol’s Opdivo, Roche’s Tecentriq and AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi are all rival inhibitors of biological switches known as PD-1 or PD-L1, the market is “largely a zero-sum game”, according to Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson.“Roche’s good fortune means there is less to go around for other companies,” he said.In the case of Merck, the U.S. drugmaker now faces a rival with a different and perhaps superior drug combination. Roche believes adding Avastin in addition to chemo can further help restore anti-cancer immunity.For AstraZeneca and Bristol, the bar has just been raised for two other key clinical trials sponsored by the drugmakers that are expected to report results in 2018.Roche itself will present full results on the ability of its new combination to delay the worsening of lung cancer at a European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Geneva on Dec. 7. Data on whether it also helps patients live longer is expected in the first half of next year.Overall survival is the gold standard in cancer care but proving a treatment extends the time before disease progresses is an important marker on the way.“If there is positive progression-free survival then I think it is very, very likely this will also translate into an overall survival benefit over time,” said Zimmermann.Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/roche-lung-cancer-combination/roche-win-boosts-case-for-adding-chemo-to-cancer-immunotherapy-idINKBN1DK1P8'|'2017-11-20T16:25:00.000+02:00'
'db900cfb47fca9d5883f74609fb8a20795dab163'|'Philippines'' Duterte offers telecoms role to new ally China'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:24 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Philippines'' Duterte offers telecoms role to new ally China Karen Lema 3 Min Read MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered China the “privilege” to be his country’s third telecoms operator, his spokesman said on Monday, turning to a historic rival to break a longstanding duopoly that has frustrated consumers for years. FILE PHOTO - Philippines'' President Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Pasay, metro Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao The Philippines’ data and voice services rank among the Asia-Pacific’s slowest and most intermittent, and Duterte last year warned providers PLDT Inc ( TEL.PS ) and Globe Telecom Inc ( GLO.PS ) to shape up or face new competition. Duterte made the offer last week to visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the latest sign of his pursuit of closer political and economic ties with a country with which the Philippines has a long history of territorial disputes and mistrust. “The good news is consumers can look forward now to better telecommunications, not just in terms of cellular technology but also in terms of internet speed, as well as access,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a media briefing. “The announcement is that telecoms duopoly is about to end.” No specific Chinese company had been lined up, Roque said. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ties with China have warmed under Duterte, who has put aside disputes with Beijing and wants it to play a key role in building and funding urgently needed infrastructure, from highways and ports to railways and power plants. Duterte recognised that China had the money and technology to make a difference in the Philippines, Roque said. “Consider also the proximity and the fact that we want to avail of as much as economic advantage that we could, arising from the renewed friendly ties with China,” he said. PLDT and Globe have been accused of stifling competition and of failing to make necessary upgrades, accusations both have rejected. Last year, they joined forces to buy prized mobile spectrum for $1.5 billion (1.14 billion pounds)- the biggest acquisition in the Philippines in nearly three years - from a potential rival, San Miguel Corp, to kick-start telecom upgrades, widen coverage and boost internet speeds. Critics say services are still lacking, however. This year, content delivery network service provider Akamai Intelligent Platform said the Philippines ranked the lowest in terms of average internet connection speeds among Asia-Pacific countries. Opening up the telecoms sector is complex, however, as the constitution limits foreigners to owning just 40 percent of a domestic telecoms company, a disincentive for foreign firms to invest in a fast-growing market of more than 100 million people. Editing by Martin Petty and Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-philippines-china-telecoms/philippines-duterte-offers-telecoms-role-to-new-ally-china-idUKKBN1DK0FY'|'2017-11-20T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'459cee6f1e06319c2fc83a6279500f10c3c5e64f'|'''Stealth hedging'' shows investors not so complacent'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the U.S. stock market at a record high and daily stock gyrations near multi-decade lows, some investors have raised concerns about the lack of fear in the market, but U.S. equity options market data suggests investors are far from complacent. A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Positioning in options on S&P 500 index .SPX and CBOE Volatility Index .VIX shows investors have been gradually adding to hedges over the last few months. “We didn’t see it on our desk and no one seems to care much about hedging but somehow it’s happening,” said Jim Strugger, derivatives strategist MKM Partners in New York. “It’s sort of under the surface, more like stealth hedging,” he said. The S&P 500 index .SPX has climbed 16 percent this year and is on pace for its eighth straight month of gains, the longest such streak since just before the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, better known as the VIX and the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term stock market volatility, closed at a record low earlier this month. Some investors warn that heightened reliance on strategies that profit from continued calm in stocks, and months of frustration over hedges that have gone to waste while the market powered on, have left the market extremely vulnerable to a shock. Boom-time complacency should top the worry list for investors, according to participants in the recent Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit in New York. The options market, however, suggests that investors are not as vulnerable to a sell-off in stocks as the anemic level of the VIX would suggest, analysts said. For instance, for the S&P 500 index options, there are 2.1 puts open for each open call contract, close to the most defensive this measure has been over the last five years, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert data. An index call option gives the holder the right to buy the value of an underlying index at a fixed level in the future. A put conveys the opposite right and is usually used to protect against declines in the index. While some of put activity may be due to investors selling puts to generate income, brisk put volume suggests renewed interest in protective positions, analysts said. “More often than not, even in the world we live in where volatility is so attractive to sell, you can make a fair assumption that people are buying options,” said MKM’s Strugger. VIX options also show similarly elevated positioning in out-of-the-money VIX calls - contracts that are not profitable yet would reap gains if volatility spikes. “When open interest on VIX out-of-the-money calls is really high, I would tend to think that the market is more aggressively hedged,” said Aashish Vyas, director of portfolio strategy at Durango, Colorado-based Swan Global Investments. “To me, that matters more than the absolute level of the VIX,” he said. (Graphic: S&P 500 Index & VIX Options Open Interest - reut.rs/2AowYEU ) Positioning in options on SPDR S&P 500 ( SPY.P ), iShares Russell 2000 ( IWM ), the PowerShares QQQ Trust ( QQQ.P ) also show healthy defensive positioning. While the data does not suggest that the market is gearing up for an immediate crash, as would be suggested if the VIX were to shoot up, it does imply that investors would not be taken by surprise if volatility starts to trend up in coming months. “I don’t think the market is complacent,” said Joe Tigay, chief trading officer at Equity Armor Investments in Chicago. “People have downside protection,” he said. A recent blog post by New York Federal Reserve researchers showed that even as the overall level of volatility priced into options of varying tenure has dropped, investors are still pricing in a lot more volatility in longer dated options than in near-term contracts. That is a departure from the pre-crisis period when investors demanded relatively similar returns for taking on one-year and one-month volatility risk, essentially betting that the state of calm would persist into the future, the researchers said. They added that the shift in the pricing of risk, despite the low level of the VIX, showed that investors may not be so complacent after all. ( nyfed.org/2zLCYEL ) Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-weekahead/stealth-hedging-shows-investors-not-so-complacent-idUSKBN1DO1TA'|'2017-11-24T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'fec56be60bfbfeeb7f7138b19d92f46a20abcfe1'|'Monsanto says Mexico revokes permit to market GMO soy in seven states'|' Monsanto Co said on Thursday that Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA had revoked its permit to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven states, criticizing the decision as unjustified.FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Monsanto said in a statement that the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. The company said it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology, but did not elaborate.SENASICA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a document saying the permit had been withdrawn due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized.Monsanto rejected that argument, saying in its statement that authorities had not done an analysis of how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.The revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo and follows a 2016 legal suspension of the permit.Reporting by Dave Graham and Noe Torres; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-mexico/monsanto-says-mexico-revokes-permit-to-market-gmo-soy-in-seven-states-idUSKBN1DO0BC'|'2017-11-24T06:42:00.000+02:00'
'917e3a5d9119ed7765e20f4c724e831e3c7fb554'|'With a grim Brexit budget, British finance minister Hammond hushes critics for now'|'November 23, 2017 / 11:11 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Despite grim Brexit budget, UK''s Hammond hushes critics for now Andy Bruce 4   bleak Brexit budget that slashed growth forecasts but gave young voters a tax break on buying their first property may have placated critics of British   Hammond, at least for now. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street to present his budget, London, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Hammond was under intense pressure from within his Conservative Party to spend money Britain doesn’t have on courting voters, even though he is boxed in by uncertainty over the impact of Britain’s March 2019 exit from the European Union. Despite the somber outlook for economic growth and government borrowing, Hammond announced on Wednesday some spending steps aimed at winning back voters, in particular abolishing a property tax for most first-time home-buyers. The plans were enough to win over Conservative lawmakers, some of whom who had even been urging Prime Minister Theresa May before the budget to fire Hammond - nicknamed“Spreadsheet Phil” - for his cautious approach to Brexit and the public finances. “It is clear that, thankfully, we are now all singing off the same spreadsheet,” said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen. He had previously suggested May would have to sack Hammond if he deviated from the government’s position on Brexit. The Sun newspaper praised Hammond for putting money in voters’ pockets while the right-wing Daily Mail declared Hammond was “Eeyore no more!”, referring to the glum donkey from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Last month the pro-Brexit paper had described him as treacherous and dismal. “I’ve never been gloomy, I‘m a pragmatist. I take the world as it is,” Hammond told BBC radio on Thursday. May told broadcasters he had done a very good job on the budget, when asked if his job was safe. Other media were skeptical about his chances of silencing his critics. The Financial Times said “‘Box Office’ Phil does enough to survive, for now”. TROUBLE AHEAD? Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May and Finance Minister Philip Hammond visit Leeds College of Building, Leeds, Britain, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Owen Humphreys/Pool The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) scythed its projections for economic growth in the coming years in the midst of a dire decade for productivity - the worst since 1812, according to the Resolution Foundation think-tank. The budget forecasters chopped their economic outlook for the next five years, with growth in 2017 cut to 1.5 percent from a previous estimate of 2.0 percent, a contrast with world economic growth of 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund. Weak growth means Britain will make glacial progress in fixing its public finances, leaving Hammond boxed in. Slideshow (2 Images) The Institute for Fiscal Studies said at the current pace, based on current rates of debt reduction, Britain would not cut debt as a share of gross domestic product back down to its level before the 2007-08 financial crisis until the 2060s. After years of criticism that its forecasts were too optimistic, pro-Brexit economists said the OBR was too downbeat. But data on Thursday showed Britain grew at its joint-weakest annual rate since 2012 in the third quarter. The OBR’s outlook has yet to take into account the impact of Brexit, given that the nature of the exit deal is still unclear. Economists polled by Reuters assign a roughly one-in-three chance of a disorderly exit. Compounding matters for Hammond, the squeeze on households looks set to last for years. The OBR forecast virtually no wage growth in inflation-adjusted terms for the next two years. “We will all have to get used to the idea that steadily rising living standards may be a thing of the increasingly distant past,” IFS director Paul Johnson said. ($1 = 0.7515 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-budget/with-a-grim-brexit-budget-british-finance-minister-hammond-hushes-critics-for-now-idUKKBN1DN118'|'2017-11-23T13:53:00.000+02:00'
'5bb0fde6f77972dce90f36de16904c4ff9abb7bc'|'Exclusive: Meredith nears deal to acquire magazine publisher Time - sources'|'(Reuters) - U.S. media company Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is nearing a deal to acquire Time Inc ( TIME.N ), the U.S. publisher of Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, for about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.FILE PHOTO: Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp (2nd L) claps after ringing the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange in New York June 9, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri The acquisition would be a coup for Meredith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year and in 2013. Analysts have said that bulking up on publishing assets could give Meredith the scale required to spin off its broadcasting arm into a standalone company.Meredith, whose bid for Time is backed by an affiliate of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, may announce an agreement as early as this week, the sources said.A unit of Koch Industries has been backing Meredith’s bid with $600 million in financing, sources previously told Reuters. It is not clear how much influence the Koch brothers would have over the combined publishing company. Koch Industries, which owns brands such as Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra, is controlled by Charles and David Koch, two of the world’s richest men.The Kochs are known for their conservative views and views on economic freedom. They have previously expressed interest in buying media properties such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune in 2013.The sources, who requested anonymity because the matter is confidential, cautioned that the talks could collapse at the last minute without a deal. Meredith, Time and a representative for Koch Industries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Meredith, which publishes Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle magazines, has a market capitalization of $2.7 billion. It tried to merge with Richmond, Virginia-based broadcaster Media General in 2015, but Nexstar Media Group Inc ( NXST.O ) ended up acquiring that company for $4.6 billion.Time, which also publishes the eponymous current affairs magazine, has been struggling in an industrywide decline in print media, as circulation shrinks and advertisers shift to digital platforms.Time ended trading on Friday at $16.90 per share, giving it a market capitalization of $1.68 billion.Time, led by Chief Executive Rich Battista, has been undergoing a strategic plan that includes revamping its cost structure and focusing on its digital business. It has been exploring a sale of several magazines titles, such as Coastal Living, Sunset and Golf magazine and a majority stake in Essence Magazine as well as Time Inc UK.The assets it had earmarked for a potential sale represented about $488 million in revenue for the year ended June 30, the company has said.In September, it named its former digital editor, Edward Felsenthal, to be the new editor in chief of Time Magazine. It has also expanded into streaming video channels, launching Sports Illustrated TV through Amazon earlier this month.Time said earlier in November that in the third quarter, its total revenue slipped 9.5 percent to $679 million, missing analysts’ estimates of $693.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It marked the sixth straight quarter the company had missed expectations for revenue.Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/exclusive-meredith-nears-deal-to-acquire-magazine-publisher-time-sources-idINKBN1DQ0TH'|'2017-11-26T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'd691d5815b3700a60c0dadd665b90a2916c618d1'|'Brands pull YouTube ads over images of children'|'November 24, 2017 / 1:08 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Brands pull YouTube ads over images of children Eric Auchard 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Cadbury chocolates maker Mondelez ( MDLZ.O ), Lidl, Mars and other consumer goods marketers have pulled advertising from YouTube after The Times newspaper found the video sharing-site was showing clips of scantily clad children alongside the ads of major brands. FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed YouTube icon is seen in front of a displayed YouTube logo in this illustration taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Ilustration/File Photo Comments from hundreds of paedophiles were posted alongside the videos, which appeared to have been uploaded by the children themselves, according to a Times investigation. One clip of a pre-teenage girl in a nightie drew 6.5 million views. The paper said YouTube, a unit of Alphabet subsidiary Google ( GOOGL.O ), had allowed sexualised imagery of children to be easily searchable and not lived up to promises to better monitor and police its services to protect children. In response, a YouTube spokesman said: “There shouldn’t be any ads running on this content and we are working urgently to fix this”. The UK arm of German discount retailer Lidl, Diageo ( DGE.L ),the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, and chocolate makers Mondelez and Mars confirmed they had pulled advertising campaigns from YouTube. “We are shocked and appalled to see that our adverts have appeared alongside such exploitative and inappropriate content,” said Mars in a statement. “We have taken the decision to immediately suspend all our online advertising on YouTube and Google globally... Until we have confidence that appropriate safeguards are in place, we will not advertise on YouTube and Google.” A Lidl UK spokeswoman said it was “completely unacceptable that this content is available to view, and it is, therefore, clear that the strict policies which Google has assured us were in place to tackle offensive content are ineffective”. Diageo said it had begun an urgent investigation and halted all YouTube advertising until it was confident the appropriate safeguards are in place. Computers and printers company HP ( HPQ.N ) blamed the problem on a “content misclassification” by Google and instructed it to suspend all of its advertising globally on YouTube. The Times investigation alleged that YouTube does not do enough to pro-actively check for inappropriate images of children and instead relies on software algorithms, external non-government groups and police forces to flag such content. On Wednesday, YouTube announced a crackdown on sexualised or violent content aimed at "family friendly" sections of YouTube. ( goo.gl/dE343u ) Johanna Wright, YouTube’s vice president of product management, promised tougher application of its user guidelines, removing inappropriate ads targeting families, blocking inappropriate comments on videos featuring minors and providing further guidance for creators of family-friendly content. German sports goods maker Adidas said on Friday it took the issue raised by the Times very seriously and it was working closely with Google on “all necessary steps to avoid any re-occurrences of this situation”. British telecoms company BT ( BT.L ) said it manually tested Google’s brand safety measures 20,000 times to check they work, but it was possible that “a small number of ads slip through and appear next to inappropriate content or content with inappropriate comments”. Those ads are removed immediately and the publishers blacklisted, it said. Britain’s ministry in charge of digital affairs said the government had put in place earlier this year a new code of practice for social media companies requiring them to ensure they offer adequate online safety policies. “The government expects online platforms to have robust processes in place and to act promptly to remove content and user accounts that do not comply with their own policies,” a spokesman for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports said. Reporting by Eric Auchard; Additional reporting by Martinne Geller, Maria Sheahan and Kate Holton; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-youtube-videos/brands-pull-youtube-ads-over-images-of-children-paper-idUKKBN1DO1KJ'|'2017-11-24T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'6eb41f2c38b7829f6c062135867b251d8fbeb947'|'William Hill in talks to merge Australian unit with CrownBet'|'November 24, 2017 / 9:21 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Exclusive - Paddy Power Betfair, William Hill hold deal talks with CrownBet Ben Martin , Swati Pandey 4 Min Read LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Paddy Power Betfair ( PPB.I ) and William Hill ( WMH.L ) have separately held talks about a deal with Australia’s CrownBet as UK-focused gambling companies seek to expand overseas to offset tougher regulations in Britain. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne, Australia, June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo Dublin-based Paddy Power Betfair, which is listed on London''s FTSE 100 index .FTSE and runs betting shops in Britain and Ireland, has had discussions with CrownBet, the online gambling firm that is 62 percent-owned by Crown Resorts ( CWN.AX ), two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. It comes after rival bookmaker William Hill confirmed on Friday that it was in “very preliminary discussions” with CrownBet about a possible combination with its Australian business. Speculation is growing that UK-focused gambling companies are set to embark on a round of consolidation to offset the threat of stricter regulation and diversify their operations. Last month, the British government outlined proposals to cut the maximum stake on gambling machines in betting shops, a move that would hit an important source of bookmakers’ revenue. Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ), another British betting shop operator, held unsuccessful deal talks with online rival GVC ( GVC.L ) this year and a spate of dealmaking among British companies is expected once the government makes a decision on gambling machine stakes. AUSTRALIAN MARKET Paddy Power Betfair is already a major player in Australia through its Sportsbet business. William Hill, meanwhile, entered the country four years ago when it bought Sportingbet and tomwaterhouse.com but its operations have since struggled. Earlier this week it posted a 5 percent decline in amounts wagered at its Australian division between June 28 and October 24. Crown Resorts, backed by billionaire James Packer, is Australia’s biggest casino company and, like other gambling companies, faces stiff competition online. Consolidation among Australian gambling firms has been expected ever since lottery owner Tatts Group ( TTS.AX ) agreed to a $4.7 billion (£3.5 billion) takeover by horse race betting giant Tabcorp Holding ( TAH.AX ). last year to create a gambling giant. Crown Resorts confirmed in a statement that it was “in discussions concerning its interest in CrownBet” after The Australian newspaper reported that it was holding talks about a deal with William Hill. The Australian company did not return a request for comment made out of business hours about discussions with Paddy Power Betfair. The structure of any deals and the valuations were not known. Shares of Crown Resorts fell 0.6 percent on Friday compared with a flat benchmark index . Paddy Power Betfair shares rose 3.2 percent in London trade on news of the talks, making the company the biggest riser in the FTSE 100. FTSE 250 listed William Hill slipped 0.6 percent. Britain’s gambling industry has already been transformed by consolidation in recent years as firms scrambled to offset the impact of higher taxes and stricter regulation imposed by the government. Ladbrokes agreed to merge with rival Coral in 2015, while betting exchange operator Betfair combined with Paddy Power and GVC bought Bwin.party. Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs,l Keith Weir and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-crown-resorts-m-a/william-hill-in-talks-to-merge-australian-unit-with-crownbet-idUKKBN1DO0V6'|'2017-11-24T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'5c22849cd82d7a39dc9574142d30fe9bba6b65dc'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks hover near decade peak, euro reaches 2-mth high'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Declines in chipmaker shares weighed on stocks across the globe on Monday, while U.S. energy shares fell as crude dropped and the dollar slipped against the yen.A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly U.S. chipmaker stocks .SOX fell 1.0 percent after closing at a record high on Friday. A Morgan Stanley note on global technology downgraded Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor and argued it is time for a pause for chipmakers, which have seen stellar performance this year.Tech stocks in Europe .SX8P fell 0.7 percent.“The (stock) market is looking at the rest of the world and seeing it’s a little bit soft, while the early read on holiday sales has been pretty good,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.The Consumer Discretionary sector .SPLRCD was among the top boosts to the S&P, lead by Amazon, as sales data indicated an upbeat consumer during the first weekend of the U.S. holiday shopping season.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 30.43 points, or 0.13 percent, to 23,588.42, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.29 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,602.13 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 8.62 points, or 0.13 percent, to 6,880.54.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.43 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.29 percent.Emerging market stocks lost 0.92 percent. MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.9 percent lower, while Japan''s Nikkei .N225 lost 0.24 percent.Energy stocks fell the most on the S&P 500 .SPNY, down 0.9 percent. The slide tracked a 1.31 percent decline in U.S. crude CLcv1 to $58.18 per barrel while Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.87, up 0.02 percent on the day.FILE PHOTO: A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo The dollar index .DXY rose 0.13 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.26 percent to $1.1899.The Japanese yen strengthened 0.45 percent versus the greenback at 111.04 per dollar.Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3321, down 0.10 percent on the day.Slideshow (2 Images) Treasury yields rose briefly after data showed U.S. new home sales surged to their highest in 10 years and were last little changed on the day.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 3/32 in price to yield 2.3294 percent, from 2.34 percent late on Friday.The gap between U.S. 2-year note and U.S. 10-year note yields US2US10=TWEB contracted to 56.30 basis points, the tightest in over a decade. The gap was last at 58.3 basis points.The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last fell 3/32 in price to yield 2.7654 percent, from 2.761 percent late on Friday.Spot gold XAU= added 0.5 percent to $1,294.83 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.56 percent to $1,294.50 an ounce.Copper CMCU3 lost 1.04 percent to $6,929.00 a tonne.Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-stocks-hover-near-decade-peak-euro-reaches-two-month-high-idUSKBN1DR02R'|'2017-11-27T02:56:00.000+02:00'
'2c2f6681dae270db96be1c11e0cec7e917e14f77'|'Adani hopes for government coal mine loan fade after Australian election'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:18 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Adani hopes for government coal mine loan fade after Australian election Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - India’s Adani Enterprises Ltd faces a likely block on a A$900 million ($684 million) government loan to help build a giant coal mine in Australia, with the left-leaning Labor Party on track for re-election in a state poll. FILE PHOTO: Protesters against the Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises hold a banner outside the venue for the Australian diversified mining contractor Downer EDI Limited''s annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney, Australia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who originally supported Adani’s application for the federally funded loan to build a rail coal haulage line, said three weeks ago her government would veto the concessional loan. The Labor party, which faced a strong challenge to return to power, was leading after three-quarters of votes were counted following Saturday’s poll, according to Australia Broadcasting Corp. The mine’s location 400 kms (250 miles) from a Pacific Ocean shipping terminal means the challenge of financing infrastructure costs has been at the forefront of debate over the project’s economic viability. “The Adani coal mine could be complicated by a position taken by Labor during the campaign to block any financing of related infrastructure,” Australia & New Zealand Bank said in a note on Monday. The loan amounts to only a fraction of the overall A$16.5 billion cost of constructing the Carmichael mine, but was seen as a first step in reaching financial close on a project that has been delayed for years by environmental opposition. Adani was not immediately available for comment. Palaszczuk, who supports Adani and its promise of 10,000 mine and construction jobs, amended her party’s position in the run-up to the election to oppose the taxpayer-funded loan under the A$5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Although the funds would come from the federal government, Queensland state retains the power of veto over applications made for projects inside the state. Adani is also seeking A$2 billion in outside financing to construct the first stage of the mine and was in talks with China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) A number of lenders, including Deutsche Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have publicly said they will not provide funding, given opposition to investment in fossil fuels. “If the loan is blocked, it is a signal to potential investors that Adani’s mega-mine is very, very risky, both politically and economically,” said Maggie Mckeown, a campaigner for the Mackay Conservation Group, which is opposed to the mine. ($1 = 1.3163 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-politics-adani-ent/adani-hopes-for-government-coal-mine-loan-fade-after-australian-election-idINKBN1DR0B2'|'2017-11-27T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'7d95dad639f4531a308726e8d680d3b55680a479'|'EU fires starting gun for banks vs fintech fight over payments'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:45 PM / Updated an hour ago EU fires starting gun for banks vs fintech fight over payments Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Commission approved rules on Monday to increase competition and toughen up security in how people pay for goods and services across the European Union, pitting banks against financial technology firms. Valdis Dombrovskis speaks about the future of the Banking Union in Brussels, Belgium, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The rules flesh out an update to the bloc’s payment services law and are among the most disputed in recent financial regulation, sparking intense lobbying as banks and fintech firms clashed over access to customer data. “These new rules will guide all market players, old and new, to offer better payment services to consumers while ensuring their security,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement. Brussels hopes that by boosting ecommerce it can erase borders in trading to increase growth. The revised law comes into force on Jan. 13, though some of the security elements approved on Monday won’t be binding until September 2019 to give banks and fintech firms time to adjust. The rules will require two security features for online or “bricks-and-mortar” shops, instead of a single password or details on a credit card at present, to help crack down on fraud. Features accepted include a password, “PIN” code, card, mobile phone, iris scan or fingerprint. Exemptions for “contactless” payments over 50 euros would continue. The EU executive has sought to tread a fine line between banks which complain that giving too much access to accounts could weaken security, and fintechs who accuse banks of thwarting competition. “At a time when cybersecurity becomes increasingly important the EU risks introducing a system for online payments that is potentially harmful for bank account holders and the banks that offer these accounts,” the European Banking Federation said in a statement. Account holders must give permission for their data to be accessed by a licensed third party who wants to offer payment services that do away with the need for a credit card, or services that offer an overview of different accounts and balances. In a nod to banks, the rules stop so-called “screen scraping” or a fintech obtaining broad data by using a customer’s security credentials, so that its identity is not revealed to the bank. In a nod to fintechs, banks will have to give access to a third party either by adapting a bank’s online customer interface, or by creating a new, dedicated interface for fintech firms. If a dedicated interface is used, there must be a “fall-back” option if it goes down. EU states and the European Parliament have three months to object to any of the rules. Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-payments-regulations/eu-fires-starting-gun-for-banks-vs-fintech-fight-over-payments-idUKKBN1DR1RO'|'2017-11-27T16:44:00.000+02:00'
'dd40b20f4e7da0b748f85757d3068bb602578a6b'|'Global Markets: Asia stocks slip as China, S.Korea weakness weigh, euro hits 2-mth high'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:48 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Global Markets: Tech troubles knock stocks, bitcoin eyes $10,000 Jemima Kelly 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks edged lower on Monday, led by a broad sell-off in tech stocks that drove a risk-off mood across markets, with the dollar slipping to a ten-week low against the yen. An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Away from the main markets, bitcoin’s vertiginous ascent showed no signs of slowing down, with the cryptocurrency soaring to another record high just a few percent away from $10,000 after gaining more than a fifth in value over the past three days alone. Wall Street looked set to follow European and Asian shares lower. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, edged down 0.1 percent. Tech stocks, down 0.8 pct by 1312 GMT, were among the biggest fallers in Europe, after a downbeat note from Morgan Stanley on global technology downgraded Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor and argued it is “time for a pause” for chipmakers, which have seen stellar performance this year. Strength in tech shares had pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs on Friday, but observers noted that demand for tech-related products such as semiconductors could eventually slacken. “Investors could take this to also question valuations of other tech firms,” a trader in Franfurt said. The broader STOXX 600 European share index was down 0.2 percent, having earlier traded slightly higher on the day. Earlier, Asian stocks retreated from a decade high, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan falling 0.7 percent. The index had risen to its highest since 2007 on Thursday, with equity markets having enjoyed strong support this year thanks to corporate earnings rising on the back of an improving global economy. South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.4 percent as tech shares slumped broadly. Japan’s Nikkei pared earlier gains and fell 0.3 percent with chip makers suffering losses. CHINA WORRIES Shanghai shares also fell, losing 0.9 percent to hit a three-month low, having already been on a shaky footing due to a rout in the domestic bond market and fresh moves to reduce risks in the asset management industry that may bring a sea change for banks. The dollar fell almost half a percent against the yen, a currency that is traditionally sought at times of investor uncertainty, to a 10-week low of 111.01 yen. “The Chinese stock market drop is reminiscent of the selloff that we saw in the summer of 2015, and that is causing some investors to become cautious going into the thin year-end markets,” said ING currency strategist Viraj Patel, in London. Euro zone bond yields nudged down, with southern Europe leading the way thanks to strength in the euro and reduced political uncertainty in the region after Germany moved a step closer to resolving the country’s political impasse. In Germany, the 10-year Bund yield dipped 2 basis points to 0.35 percent. “There is optimism about the formation of a grand coalition in Germany, and economic surprise indices for the bloc are at an all-time high,” said Antoine Bouvet, rates strategist at Mizuho. ”That means there could be more investment in Europe, driving the currency higher, and the corollary to that is for market expectations for ECB policy has to be more dovish. The euro hit a two-month high of $1.19565 in early deals in London, before easing back a touch. Oil prices fell, with U.S. crude easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher output, but losses were limited before an OPEC meeting that is expected to extend output limits. Brent crude oil was down 30 cents at $63.56 a barrel by 1310 GMT. U.S. light crude was 65 cents lower at $58.30. Bitcoin surged almost 5 percent to trade as high as $9,721 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, before easing back to just below $9,500 in volatile trade. The digital currency has seen an eye-watering tenfold increase in its value since the start of the year, and has more than doubled in value since the beginning of October. “Breaking $10,000 seems inevitable following the recent price action,” said Alistair Milne, the Monaco-based manager of the Altana Digital Currency Fund. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo, Danilo Masoni in Milan, and Saikat Chatterjee, Helen Reid, Alasdair Pal and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-asia-stocks-slip-as-china-s-korea-weakness-weigh-euro-hits-2-mth-high-idINKBN1DR06W'|'2017-11-27T04:46:00.000+02:00'
'48c702298ab519a460b75b8fb6433dcf7fc94844'|'UK digital bank Revolut targets 10 million customers by 2020 - CEO'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:11 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago UK digital bank Revolut targets 10 million customers by 2020 - CEO Sophie Sassard 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British digital bank Revolut has signed up a million customers across Europe since its launch in 2015 and is now targeting 10 million by 2020, its chief executive told Reuters. Revolut, based in the Canary Wharf London financial district at the core of the industry it aims to disrupt, is among a clutch of fintech start-ups challenging traditional banks by offering financial services customers can use entirely from their smartphones. The business is adding between 3,000 and 3,500 new users a day, up 50 percent from three months ago, its founder and boss Nikolay Storonsky told Reuters. Those numbers eclipse Berlin-based rival N26, which has told Reuters it was signing up between 1,500 and 2,000 customers a day and aiming for 1.5 million within the next two years. Like N26, Revolut has yet to turn a profit. Storonsky says this is because of its reinvestment in growth, with plans to launch in North America and in Asia early next year, but he did not indicate when he expects the business to become profitable. Revolut has about 600,000 active users a month without the company spending a penny on marketing, Storonsky said. Services that have contributed to Revolut’s increasing popularity include the fee-free international ability to spend money abroad in more than 130 currencies without paying a fee, as well as free international money transfers. The company earns its revenue from commission paid by merchants and from add-ons such as insurance, which is provided by third parties through the app. Next in its sights, Storonsky said, are lucrative activities such as lending and wealth management after applying for a European banking licence, which it hopes to get in the first half of next year. The Revolut banking app has processed more than 42 million transactions to date, totalling $6.1 billion (£4.5 billion), and Storonsky says it has helped users to save more than 120 million pounds in fees. “For every 500 euros people spend, they save 30 euros with us,” he said. Reporting by Sophie Sassard; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-fintech-revolut/uk-digital-bank-revolut-targets-10-million-customers-by-2020-ceo-idUKKBN1DO10S'|'2017-11-24T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'705ebee3ad845b509cb40dffb6f4f18df5c31f41'|'Shipping group CMA CGM powers ahead, founder retires'|'PARIS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Shipping company CMA CGM reported another quarterly rise in sales and profit on Friday, helped by improving freight rates after a prolonged sector downturn that sparked large-scale consolidation.French-based CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping group, posted a third-quarter net profit of $323 million, up from $219 million in the previous quarter and a $268 million loss a year earlier.In addition to the healthier freight rates, the company said it also benefited from participation in a global vessel alliance to boost volumes.The company’s core operating margin rose to 10 percent, which it said was the highest in the sector and surpassed the previous quarter’s 8.9 percent.Sales reached $5.7 billion, up nearly 28 percent from a year earlier, supported by an 11.6 percent increase in volumes and 14.4 percent rise in average revenue per container.For the full year, CMA CGM said it expects its operating performance to show a strong improvement from 2016 but did not give precise targets.CMA CGM, which is based in the southern French port city of Marseille, said the Ocean Alliance -- a vessel-sharing partnership with other lines -- had helped to boost volumes on Asia-U.S. and Asia-Europe routes.The group has also been strengthened by its takeover last year of the Singapore-based APL line and it recently ordered nine new giant ships.CMA CGM announced that its board had appointed Rodolphe Saade as chairman in addition to his chief executive role, completing a handover from his father, Jacques, who founded the family business.Rodolphe Saade became CEO in February after leading negotiations on the APL deal - the biggest acquisition in the company’s history.Jacques Saade, who established the firm in 1978 after leaving Lebanon, his country of birth, will have the honorary title of founder-chairman, the company said.Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cmacgm-results/shipping-group-cma-cgm-powers-ahead-founder-retires-idINL8N1NU4J5'|'2017-11-24T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'74167064e6cc30e5d736c7fbb79c5a83889acce1'|'TransCanada excavates damaged part of leaked pipeline -S. Dakota official'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Keystone crude oil pipeline will restart at reduced pressure on Tuesday, TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ) said, nearly two weeks after closing the line after it leaked 5,000 barrels of crude in rural South Dakota.FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S., in this photo provided November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dronebase/File Photo MANDATORY CREDIT. Calgary-based TransCanada shut down the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline, one of Canada’s main crude export routes linking Alberta’s oil fields to U.S. refineries, on Nov. 16. The company is still cleaning up the spill and investigating the cause.TransCanada said on Monday the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reviewed its repair and restart plans. It said it will start operating the pipeline at reduced pressure, and gradually boost the volume of crude moving through.TransCanada did not specify what the reduced pressure would be or when the pipeline would return to full capacity. PHMSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.“We are communicating plans to our customers and will continue working closely with them as we begin to return to normal operating conditions,” TransCanada said in a statement.In its most recent update, TransCanada said it has so far cleaned up 1,065 barrels of oil.The cleanup “is going as fast as we would hope, they are working 24 hours a day,” said Brian Walsh, environmental scientist manager with the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S., in this photo provided November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dronebase MANDATORY CREDIT. Keystone has leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than the company indicated to regulators in risk assessments before operations began in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.The Keystone outage roiled crude oil prices on both sides of the border as market players anticipated a glut of crude building up in Alberta while inventories fell in the U.S. futures trading hub of Cushing, Oklahoma.The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prompt spread CLc1-CLc2 widened to a session low of negative 10 cents on news of the pipeline returning to service. Traders see the spread as an indicator for supply at Cushing.The discount on Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for December delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, narrowed in thin trade to $17.90 a barrel below U.S. crude, according to Shorcan Energy brokers. On Friday December WCS settled at $21.50 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark.The Keystone spill in South Dakota came days before neighboring Nebraska approved a route for TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL pipeline, but the approved route differed from the company’s preferred path. TransCanada has asked the state to reconsider, according to a filing posted on the Nebraska Public Service Commission website on Monday.A company spokesman said TransCanada is seeking a “clarification” on the Nov. 20 decision, but did not provide further details.On Saturday, landowners opposed to the pipeline responded to TransCanada’s request with their own motion seeking oral arguments on the issue.A PSC spokesperson said the body has 60 days to respond to TransCanada’s motion.Additional reporting by Catherine Ngai in New York, Val Volcovici in Washington and Ethan Lou in Calgary; Editing by David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone/transcanada-excavates-damaged-part-of-leaked-pipeline-south-dakota-official-idUSKBN1DR2DW'|'2017-11-27T20:30:00.000+02:00'
'a6272867a0bea4eeb458c344304c75d6f3913ba3'|'HNA''s offshore unit nears liquidity crunch'|'HONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The short-term debts of HNA Group’s main offshore fundraising arm are close to outstripping its ability to meet them, according to figures provided in documents for the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate’s most recent bond deal, where the unit paid almost 9 percent for a one-year loan.The documents contain figures for the first nine months of 2017, and show that the cash and current assets of HNA Group International Company Limited (HNAI) cover its current liabilities - debts and payments due within a year - with just 8 percent headroom, down from 26 percent at the end of 2016.Current assets include items such as the privately-held group’s inventory and money owed to it. The so-called current, or working capital, ratio - current assets divided by current liabilities - is a common analyst gauge of a company’s liquidity.HNA Group declined to comment.HNA Group’s $50 billion worth of deal-making in the past two years has triggered close examination of its sprawling structure and opaque ownership - and of its use of debt to fund an acquisition spree that has included a stake of almost 10 percent in Deutsche Bank as well as a one-quarter holding in Hilton Hotels.It also plans to take a majority stake in SkyBridge Holdings, the U.S. hedge fund founded by Anthony Scaramucci, U.S. President Donald Trump’s one-time communications director.HNA Group typically raises debt through its acquisitions - funding its aircraft-leasing business with bonds issued by that group, for example - which makes it hard to gauge the overall financial health of the group.HNAI acts as the group’s offshore investment and foreign capital management platform and holds almost $12 billion of group assets, according to the documents. On Thursday it announced the purchase in Australia of Automotive Holdings’ refrigerated logistics business, for 400 million Australian dollars ($304.52 million).However the numbers presented by HNAI in its bond filing show signs of stress. Finance costs rose 50 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from a year ago, according to the document, which showed it has paid HK$1.32 billion ($168.99 million) so far this year. The company’s cash balances fell sharply to HK$1.16 billion from HK$8.57 billion.This month, HNAI accepted a coupon of 8.875 percent on a $300 million one-year bond - a rate one investor advisor described as “scary high”.The same unit also raised short-term funds by pledging part of its stake in the Spanish hotels group NH Hoteles, for a short-term loan to help its internal financing. The stake was worth 21 million euros ($24.82 million).This week, it was revealed that HNA’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, HNA Holding - part-owned by the offshore unit - has also asked its banks to extend a $448 million one-year bridge loan due on Friday.“It is fair to say that liquidity pressure is rising, given that a majority of short-term debt is dependent on bank rollovers,” said one fund manager not authorised to speak with media, who took some comfort in HNA Group’s use of bank loans, which are often easier to refinance than public debt such as bonds.“I would agree this is a highly leveraged company but not a short-term default candidate,” he added. “They also have very liquid assets such as their holding in Deutsche Bank, worth around $4 billion, and that can be converted to cash very easily.”The Deutsche Bank stake is held by the main onshore group, not the offshore unit.In the documents, HNAI listed its key banks and lenders as Guotai Junan Securities, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Securities, Standard Bank, Bank of Communications, the Export-Import Bank of China, Bank of Taiwan, Korea Exchange Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.HNA Group, the main onshore holding company which acted as guarantor for the one-year bonds this month, said it “had established good relationships with over 300 domestic and international financial institutions” and named its largest lenders as China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and China Construction Bank. ($1 = 0.8462 euros) ($1 = 7.8113 Hong Kong dollars) ($1 = 1.3135 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Jennifer Hughes and Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Editing by Philip McClellan) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hna-group-loans/hnas-offshore-unit-nears-liquidity-crunch-idUSL8N1NT02O'|'2017-11-23T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'907b1110436dd6aac1cad5e6efc98be6b3e725b5'|'Canadian regulator denies request to suspend Omega Securities'|'TORONTO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canada’s biggest securities regulator on Thursday ruled that Omega Securities could continue to run two alternative trading systems ahead of a hearing on whether it is operating in breach of Ontario provincial securities law.A three-person panel of the Ontario Securities Commission denied a request from the agency’s enforcement staff that Omega halt trading operations while the OSC reviews the matter.Omega’s Chief Executive Officer Sean Debotte declined to comment on the ruling. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Jim Finkle) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/omega-securities-regulator/canadian-regulator-denies-request-to-suspend-omega-securities-idUSL1N1NN0U1'|'2017-11-24T00:51:00.000+02:00'
'9114c5f67a8d6193f17420d35781172aa51c4335'|'Dollar dumped, bonds boosted on Fed inflation caution'|'SYDNEY (Reuters) - The dollar was on the defensive Thursday after suffering its worst drubbing in five months while bonds celebrated a comeback on speculation the Federal Reserve might not tighten U.S. policy as aggressively as previously thought.A trader at the Frankfurt stock exchange reacts on late afternoon trading results in Frankfurt, Germany, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/Files Moves in Asian share markets were mostly minor with Japanese markets closed for a holiday and the United States off for Thanksgiving. Spreadbetters pointed to a slightly easier opening for the major European bourses.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eked out a fresh 10-year peak with a rise of 0.15 percent, as did Hong Kong’s main index.The dollar’s rout came after minutes of the Fed’s last meeting showed “many participants” were concerned inflation would stay below the bank’s 2 percent target for longer than expected.That echoed comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen that she was uncertain about the outlook for inflation and led markets to pare back pricing for more hikes next year.While a move in December to between 1.25 and 1.5 percent is still almost fully priced in, Fed fund futures rallied to show rates at just 1.75 percent by the end of next year.“The US dollar was already staggering into Thanksgiving when the FOMC minutes gave it another shove,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency analyst at Westpac. “The FOMC seems to be increasingly uneasy about ”ongoing softness“ in inflation.”“Investors can be forgiven for wondering why they should buy more U.S. dollars if we are heading into a ”Powell pause“ in the first half of 2018,” he added, referring to newly appointed Fed Chair Jerome Powell.BONDS RALLY BROADLY Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was huddled at 93.184, having shed 0.75 percent overnight.The euro was enjoying the view at $1.1834 after climbing from $1.1731 on Wednesday. The dollar also crumbled to 111.27 yen, near its lowest since Sept. 20. The overnight move was the largest single-day fall against the yen since May.The Fed’s dovish turn helped break the inexorable sell off in short-term U.S. Treasuries, with yields on the two-year note falling almost five basis points to 1.727 percent. That was the sharpest daily drop since early September.The rally spilled over into Asia, where Australian 10-year bond yields fell to their lowest since June and dealers expected European bonds to follow as well.Wall Street had been an oasis of calm in comparison with the Dow off 0.27 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.07 percent.Verizon and AT&T rose 2.0 percent and 1.6 percent respectively on bets they will benefit from the U.S. government’s plan to rescind net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration.Commodities were buoyed by the dive in the dollar, with gold up at $1,290.02 an ounce having added 0.9 percent overnight.Oil prices paused after hitting their highest in more than two years after the shutdown of one of the largest crude pipelines from Canada cut supply to the United States. [O/R}U.S. crude futures eased back 12 cents to $57.90 a barrel, after jumping 2 percent on Wednesday to ground last trod in mid-2015. Brent crude dipped 18 cents to $63.14 a barrel.Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/dollar-dumped-bonds-boosted-on-fed-inflation-caution-idINKBN1DN06A'|'2017-11-23T02:53:00.000+02:00'
'499eb6f352436f0d0deb3c2b7dcde527dbbc79a9'|'Louis Dreyfus to buy Chinese oilseed firm from Golden Agri'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Global trading house Louis Dreyfus Company is to buy an oilseed crushing and vegetable oil refining business in China from Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources ( GAGR.SI ), extending its presence in the world’s biggest oilseed importing country.A Louis Dreyfus subsidiary is to buy Sinarmas Natural Resources Foodstuff Technology (Tianjin) Co. from a subsidiary of Golden Agri-Resources on the basis of an enterprise value of $111 million, Golden Agri-Resources said in a filing on Monday. The final price is subject to adjustment, the filing said.The business being acquired by Louis Dreyfus owns and operates oilseed crushing and refining facilities in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin.Dreyfus is one of the so-called ABCD group of merchants alongside Archer Daniels Midland ( ADM.N ), Bunge ( BG.N ), Cargill that have long dominated global trade in agricultural commodities.Like its rivals, Dreyfus has been grappling with declining margins linked to high levels of supply and reduced price volatility, leading it to spin off some businesses and focus on core activities including grains and oilseeds.A Louis Dreyfus spokeswoman said the deal reflected the group’s confidence in the Chinese agricultural processing sector, without giving further financial details.The ABCD merchants are facing competition from China’s state-owned COFCO Corp, whose international trading arm is looking to expand direct sourcing from farmers worldwide and reduce its reliance on foreign trading houses.Golden Agri-Resources, which is one of the world’s largest palm-oil plantation owners, said the sale was a strategic decision to sell a non-core oilseed asset.The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.Reporting by Gus Trompiz. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-louisdreyfus-golden-agri-china/louis-dreyfus-to-buy-chinese-oilseed-firm-from-golden-agri-idINKBN1DR2F4'|'2017-11-27T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'69e2efc400786e818f0acc466f8daf06c5566915'|'OPEC sees market rebalancing after June as it mulls oil cut extension'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - Oil markets will rebalance after June 2018 at the earliest, an OPEC working panel concluded last week, OPEC sources said on Monday, signalling the need to extend existing production cuts well into next year.A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/Files The conclusion from OPEC’s national representatives and the group’s secretariat came after a meeting on Thursday and Friday, according to four sources at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.It also came as non-OPEC Russia said it would support extending cuts in tandem with OPEC but gave conflicting signals on the duration of the extension after oil price rallied about $60 per barrel, raising fears that the market could over-tighten and spur another spike in U.S. shale output.OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia has signalled it wanted oil to trade at about $60 per barrel as the kingdom is preparing to list its national oil champion Aramco and is still fighting a large fiscal deficit.Russia also needs high oil prices ahead of the presidential election in March 2018. But officials in Moscow have said they were also worried about an overly strong rouble which would undermine the competitiveness of its economy.“The best scenario would suggest third quarter for the rebalancing of the market,” one of the OPEC sources said.OPEC, Russia and nine other producers are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018, and will discuss extending the deal at a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna.OPEC delegates have said a nine-month extension was the most likely outcome although some delegates and Russia have said a six-month extension was an option.Oil prices have risen to almost $65 a barrel, thehighest since 2015, supported by lower inventories. However,excess supply persists, making some in OPEC wary of renewedprice weakness.The supply pact is aimed at reducing oil stocks inindustrialised countries to their five-year average, and thelatest figures suggest OPEC is more than halfway there.“OPEC needs an extension until the end of 2018 to send the market a message that we are committed,” a second OPEC source said. “OPEC will meet in June again and if the market is tight by then, they can always adjust supply.”Russian officials told OPEC they thought the market needed to be monitored very closely so the agreement could be reviewed if signs of a deficit began to emerge, according to sources familiar with the discussions.The head of Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft, Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and a critic of the deal with OPEC, has said the recent price rally would lend too much support to the rival U.S. shale industry, which does not participate in cuts.U.S. shale producers have started adding more drilling rigs in response to rising oil prices and improving confidence about the outlook for 2018. tmsnrt.rs/2AAaSQ5Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/opec-meeting/opec-sees-market-rebalancing-after-june-as-it-mulls-oil-cut-extension-idINKBN1DR22H'|'2017-11-27T18:43:00.000+02:00'
'a5312f8e077a2b8b88ca02d31eeccd37322dfcff'|'Beijing police detains teacher related to alleged abuse at RYB kindergarten'|'BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The police of Beijing’s Chaoyang district have detained a teacher on suspicion of abuse at a RYB kindergarten, the police said in an statement posted on its official Weibo account.The Chaoyang police have also arrested another person for disrupting social disorder by spreading false information about the alleged kindergarten abuse and causing odious social influence, it said in a separate Weibo posting. (Reporting By Shu Zhang and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-crime/beijing-police-detains-teacher-related-to-alleged-abuse-at-ryb-kindergarten-idINB9N1LU04V'|'2017-11-25T06:49:00.000+02:00'
'1248567cfef526f61c999f1cef544dc3df4bea2b'|'RPT-U.S. online sales surge, shoppers throng stores on Thanksgiving evening'|'  RPT-U.S. online sales surge, shoppers throng stores on Thanksgiving evening Reuters Staff (Repeats to additional subscribers, no change to text) By Richa Naidu and Nandita Bose Nov 23 (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers had splurged more than $1.52 billion online by Thanksgiving evening, and more bargain hunters turned up at stores this year after two weak holiday seasons as retailers opened their doors early on the eve of Black Friday. At the start of the holiday season consumer spending rose 16.8 percent year-over-year until 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) on Thursday, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracked 80 percent of online transactions at the top 100 U.S. retailers. Surging online sales and a shift away from store shopping have thinned the crowds typically seen at stores on Thanksgiving evening and the day after, Black Friday, for the past two years. But a strong labor market, rising home prices and stock markets at record highs have improved shopper appetite this year. Crowds at stores in many locations around the country were reported to be strong, according to analysts and retail consultants monitoring shopper traffic across the U.S. “The turnout is clearly better than the last couple of years,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. “The parking lots are full and the outlet malls are busy.” The retail consultancy has 20 members studying customer traffic in different parts of the country. Moody’s retail analyst Charlie O’ Shea, who was in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, reported healthy traffic at local stores including consumer electronics chain Best Buy, clothing store Old Navy and retailer Kohl’s Corp. “The weather is cooperating and people here are out,” he said. The National Retail Federation is projecting that sales for November and December will rise 3.6 percent to 4 percent this year, versus a 4 percent increase last year. Non-store sales, which include online sales and those from kiosks, are expected to rise 11 percent-15 percent to about $140 billion. In New Jersey, around 50 people lined up a Macy’s at the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall before it opened and around 200 people stood outside the Best Buy store, many to pick up their online orders. “Me and my husband have a bigger place and we need a bigger TV for the living room,” said Jenipher Gomes, who bought a 50-inch Samsung TV at Best Buy for $399.99. Shopper Hammad Farooq said he waited at the store for an hour to shop for laptops and monitors. In Chicago, shoppers appeared to be slightly less enthusiastic to emerge from their turkey slumber and crowds were thin along the city’s popular shopping destination, State Street. “There’s a few more people than normal but I wouldn’t call this crowded at all,” Deloitte auditor Eugenia Liew said as she shopped at discount retailer Target. “I expected a lot more people.” The holiday season spanning November and December is crucial for retailers because it can account for as much as 40 percent of annual sales. Retailers try to attract shoppers with deep discounts. Average discounts ranged between 10 and 16 percent with the best deals online on Thanksgiving evening available for computers, sporting goods, apparel and video games, according to date from Adobe. The number of customers shopping on their smartphones surged, accounting for 46 percent of the traffic on retail websites, while traffic from desktop and laptop computers declined 11 percent and nearly 6 percent respectively, according to the data. Reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago and Nandita Bose in West Hartford, Connecticut; Additional reporting by Jenna Zucker in New Jersey; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-holidayshopping-thanksgiving/rpt-u-s-online-sales-surge-shoppers-throng-stores-on-thanksgiving-evening-idUSL1N1NU02Z'|'2017-11-24T04:52:00.000+02:00'
'626578f35e236e5701cd618700d14a237c7b0234'|'Thomas Cook has bid for Monarch slots at London Gatwick - sources'|'LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Travel firm Thomas Cook has bid for Monarch airport slots at London Gatwick, two sources close to discussions told Reuters, after administrators of the failed airline retained the rights to the slots.“We’ve expressed an interest,” one source said, confirming that they had bid for slots at Gatwick but not at London’s Luton airport. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monarch-airlines-licence-thomas-cook-grp/thomas-cook-has-bid-for-monarch-slots-at-london-gatwick-sources-idINL8N1NU272'|'2017-11-24T07:48:00.000+02:00'
'd9b0218d48d640f85ba12a0ecc54891fed2f018a'|'Beijing police probe nursery over abuse allegations'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:29 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Beijing police probe nursery over abuse allegations Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Police in Beijing are investigating claims of child abuse at a kindergarten operated by RYB Education Inc, a Chinese pre-school operator that listed in New York in September. The official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that police were investigating allegations some teachers had abused infants at the school after parents raised concerns to police after finding unexplained needle marks on their children’s skin. RYB did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Friday. The firm says on its website that it operates a network of over 1,300 directly owned and franchised play-and-learn centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in around 300 cities and towns around China. A news report on China Central Television (CCTV) on Friday morning showed video of police and angry parents outside the school in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. Xinhua said some teachers had been suspended. The RYB investigation comes after another kindergarten in Shanghai linked to giant online travel agent Ctrip.com sparked public anger earlier this month when videos emerged of teachers physically abusing and force-feeding infants. Chinese education providers have been attracting major investment, while others have been looking for global listings, latching onto fast-rising demand from Chinese parents for high-end education services for their kids. Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Wang Jing; Editing by Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ryb-education-china/beijing-police-probe-nursery-over-abuse-allegations-idUSL3N1NU026'|'2017-11-24T02:25:00.000+02:00'
'6fb9675ed5919ad6b62340abe6d4379de6dbcb4b'|'UPDATE 1-M7 Multi-Let pursues private funding, scraps London IPO plan'|'* REIT’s IPO would have raised up to $400 mln* Market conditions a factor in decision to pull IPO* Handful of companies scrapped London IPOs in recent weeks* LSE says IPOs this year still much higher than last 2 years (Adds comment from LSE)By Ben Martin and Noor Zainab HussainLONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - M7 Multi-Let REIT, a new firm set up to invest in industrial and office property, has become the latest business to scrap plans to float in London, pulling a listing that would have raised as much as 300 million pounds ($400 million).M7, which announced its intention to float as a real estate investment trust (REIT) last month, said a number of investors had instead expressed an interest in providing funding privately to support its property expansion.“This, combined with the current market conditions and the volume of recent issuances focusing on UK real estate, led the board to conclude that the initial portfolio and pipeline would be better funded privately over the near to medium term,” said Richard Croft, the chief executive of M7 Real Estate.M7 said on Oct. 10 that it had agreed to buy 93 property assets for 119.8 million pounds – its so-called initial portfolio - and that it had also identified a pipeline of potential acquisitions valued at more than 400 million pounds.Its decision to call off the listing to finance those deals marks another setback for the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit in recent weeks after Comparethemarket.com-owner BGL Group ( IPO-BGL.L ), broadcasting masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled floats.“The exchange has not been affected by recent IPO cancellations. Figures show that 2017 has already vastly exceeded both 2016 and 2015, with money raised increasing by four times and with double the number of IPOs in 2017 compared with 2015,” a spokeswoman for LSE said.“We have also had the largest number of REIT IPOs globally so far this year,” she said.M7’s decision will increase attention on motor insurer Sabre, which is pursuing a London float after announcing its listing plans this month.A source familiar with the matter said on Nov. 13 that the company was looking for a 600 million-pound valuation from the initial public offering but it could fall short of that target.Sabre this week set the price range for its shares at 220 pence to 240 pence, which would give it a market capitalisation of between 550 million pounds and 600 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7502 pounds) (Additional reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Fenton) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/m7-multi-let-ipo/update-1-m7-multi-let-pursues-private-funding-scraps-london-ipo-plan-idINL8N1NU3HD'|'2017-11-24T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'3d2c3c2891fe8c9323f763aadd674d95f552033a'|'BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy Senegal assets - ministry adviser'|'November 20, 2017 / 6:42 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy Senegal assets - ministry adviser Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DAKAR (Reuters) - BP ( BP.L ) is seeking to acquire a stake in Cairn Energy’s ( CNE.L ) offshore Senegal oil assets and is awaiting approval by the state, which is expected soon, an adviser to Senegal’s energy minister said on Monday. The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “We are aware that BP wants to acquire a stake in Cairn Energy, but they are awaiting validation by the state (of Senegal),” the adviser told Reuters by telephone. “It won’t take long,” he added. Reporting by Diadie Ba; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-senegal-bp-cairn-energy/bp-seeks-stake-in-cairn-energy-senegal-assets-ministry-adviser-idUKKBN1DK2AG'|'2017-11-20T20:41:00.000+02:00'
'7828be5d7ab5d73abe714e904df5d75efab1d5a1'|'Sterling seismograph eerily calm on EU summit'|' 33 AM / in 7 minutes Sterling seismograph eerily calm on EU summit Saikat Chatterjee 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - For a currency that has seen some of its biggest ever one-day moves on the back of Brexit, there is a peculiar calm in sterling hedging prices surrounding December’s critical European Union summit. Wads of British Pound Sterling banknotes are stacked in piles at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger For many, the Dec. 13-14 get-together marks a critical juncture in the process of Britain leaving the bloc, with some market analysts seeing it as a potential make-or-break moment for the pound. At stake is whether Prime Minister Theresa May can satisfy other EU leaders that Britain has made enough commitments on issues like a final settlement bill and the Irish border to quickly start trade negotiations next year as the clock ticks down. Otherwise, the risk of economically-damaging ‘no deal’ Brexit rises dramatically. Yet, even with so much at stake, options markets that reflect expected volatility around next month’s event and data on speculative sterling positioning appear largely neutral. In fact, one-month implied volatility in sterling against the U.S. dollar is currently less than its 8.6 percent average of the past 20 years. Traders still think the pound will be more volatile than other major currencies such as the euro and Swiss franc, though, and say the indication of calm is more reflective of the subdued price action of the most recent period, rather than of what could be in store. “Sterling volatility has tended to remain higher even as FX volatility has declined, which suggests markets have a greater capacity to discount negative headlines,” said Timothy Graf, head of macro strategy at State Street Global Markets. Implied volatility for sterling for one month against the dollar GBP3MO= is higher than three-month rates and stands at a chunky 8 percent. Sterling volatility against currencies such as the Japanese yen GBPJPY3MO= and the Australian dollar GBPAUD3MO= is even higher. In comparison, three-month implied volatility for the euro against the dollar stands at a relatively tame 6 percent EUR3MO= while overall stock market volatility is within touching distance of a record low of 9 percent hit this month. One factor making traders wary of translating signals from derivatives into trades in the cash market is that the former have thrown up some conflicting signals in recent weeks. For example, three-month ‘risk reversals’ on sterling GBP3MRR=, which shows the relative pricing of puts and calls on the pound, consistently indicated a bias to further sterling weakness throughout the year even as the pound gained ground against the dollar. It is up 10 percent to date in 2017. “As a result, betting on sterling via the options markets has been a bit of a money losing trade this year,” said a trader at a global macro hedge fund in London. Still, that hasn’t stopped directional bets and the cost of buying sterling puts - options to sell - remain more expensive than calls - options to buy - and show some traders at least are assuming the outcome of the EU summit will be sterling negative. Underlying structural factors for sterling have also worsened markedly in recent months, such as a widening current account deficit, prompting some money managers to call for the British pound to be traded like an emerging market currency at a Reuters Investment Summit last week. Sterling Positions - reut.rs/2zVlp7u GHOSTS OF BREXIT PAST With few if any precedents for an event like Brexit to guide traders through the next month, large investors are harking back to trading patterns leading up to the referendum vote last year. “The problem for investors is there are no historical references to form an expectation on something such as Brexit with a long agenda of negotiations leading up to it,” Pascal Blanque, who oversees 1.4 trillion euros (£1.24 trillion) at Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi told the Reuters Global Investment Summit. As a result, some traders are taking recourse in the options markets, although expiries around the summit are less about taking directional bets and more about guarding against spikes in volatility. What’s more, the one-month options that surround the crucial EU summit also capture key central bank policy decisions in both the United States and Britain. “It is very difficult for investors to take a directional view given the mixed messages from politicians on the negotiation progress, therefore long volatility positions such as straddles are a good choice over outright cash bets,” said Jordan Rochester, an FX strategist at Nomura in London. As a result, speculative bets on sterling are broadly flat, unlike before the Brexit vote, while institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are broadly underweight the British currency in their portfolios. With expectations for a major breakthrough in policy talks low, buying so-called “option straddles” which involves simultaneously selling and buying currency derivatives on either side of the summit have gained popularity. A survey by Nomura showed that only 31 percent of its clients expected a Brexit transition deal to be agreed by January 2018, although a majority still think Brexit will go ahead. But unlike the sharp run-up in volatility gauges in May-June last year, implied volatility on sterling remains a fraction of what it was in the final days before the Brexit vote suggesting some market participants are toning down their expectations for next month’s summit. “Unlike the hard binary event Brexit vote last June, this is a summit and so markets are not getting too worried about this,” said SSGM’s Graf. UK Current Account Deficit and Sterling - reut.rs/2AjL9Ly Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Mike Dolan and Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-markets-sterling-analysis/sterling-seismograph-eerily-calm-on-eu-summit-idUKKBN1DM1AW'|'2017-11-22T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'dee623df0949903b0aef33ac63dd5ca1e83646f5'|'Exclusive: Tussle over Myanmar bank reform puts spotlight on debt pile'|'NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar’s central bank has backed off from a demand that the country’s private banks clear most of their loan books by January, averting a cliff-edge scenario that some bankers warned could have destabilized the financial system.Myanmar’s central bank deputy governor, Soe Thein, told Reuters that three years - instead of the original deadline of six months - would be given to lenders to recover the mostly open-ended “overdraft loans” that make up the bulk of their lending.The compromise ends a lengthy tussle over regulations introduced in July to bring the country’s banks closer to international standards. Reforming the banking sector is a key goal in leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan to complete Myanmar’s democratic transition after decades of isolation under military rule.“They need reasonable time for the transitional period...Sometimes international practice can’t work domestically. We are very aware of and careful about the situation,” said Soe Thein in an interview.“The economy is not in a strong position, so we want the financial sector to be in a stable position. We have to establish an understanding between the banks and the central bank.”The new regulations also include stricter guidelines for bad loans - also known as “non-performing loans” (NPLs) - and an increase in the amount of capital banks are required to set aside to cover losses.The central bank says it fears that the amount of bad debt on private lenders’ books is greater than has so far been declared to the authorities. But officials are also concerned that pushing too quickly on reform could trigger volatility in the financial system.“It’s not easy, we agree, but we have to try,” said Soe Thein, declining to provide an estimate of the scale of the problem because he said it was “dangerous” to try to estimate how much money the banks had lent in loans that are unlikely to be repaid.OVERDRAFT LOANS Officials and bankers say around 70 percent of Myanmar’s more than $9 billion lending pool is in the form of so-called overdraft or evergreen loans - typically made on preferential terms to lure customers and rolled-over indefinitely.The central bank moved in July to end such practices with the new regulations drafted with the help of the International Monetary Fund. The curbs would force the banks to end indefinite roll-overs of the loans, asking them to get the loans repaid for a period of two full weeks on an annual basis.Banks complained they were being given only six months to fix years of junta-era mismanagement and to recover most of their loans amid a sluggish economy.“They (central bank) know what’s going on in our books, but what they are asking for is almost impossible... All the local banks are in a difficult position,” said Pyi Soe Htin, executive director of international banking for Yangon-based Asia Green Development Bank.After at least three rounds of talks since July, Soe Thein told Reuters the central bank would “in the next few days” issue “follow-up instructions”, allowing the overdraft loans to be converted into regular, three-year loans - a compromise that offers breathing space to Myanmar’s 24 private banks.“The payment terms and conditions will be a bit relaxed, so the customers can be a little relaxed on the payment as well as the banks can get more collection from their customers,” said Soe Thein.He did not give details of the terms of those new loans.Some in the fledgling financial sector said that attempting to get so much debt repaid by January could trigger a run on the banks, which are deeply entwined both with one another and with the conglomerates run by businessmen close to the former ruling elite that dominate key sectors from real estate to aviation.“This would create panic and we would have bank runs because our general public is very cautious,” said Kim Chawsu, managing partner at Katalysts Investment Group and former chief financial officer of the parent company of Myanmar’s largest lender, Kanbawza Group.“If one of the banks fails, there will be a domino effect...you need to be careful on how strict you are.”The compromise by the central bank underlines the daunting challenge facing Suu Kyi, whose promise of a modern, reformist government that would end Western sanctions and attract investment is under threat.The Rohingya crisis in the northeast means some aid to Myanmar is being withheld, investors have turned wary and the country faces reinstatement of some of sanctions, making reforms more difficult. [nL4N1M32R6] [nL4N1MH1LX]NON-PERFORMING LOANS Despite having one of the least developed financial sectors in the region, Myanmar’s banking assets have jumped to 55 percent of its GDP in 2016 from 15 percent in 2011, when the junta handed power to a semi-civilian government, according to German state development agency GIZ.But even after widespread political and economic reforms began in 2011, bankers say the banks have continued to lend largely on preferential terms to a small group of well-connected customers.“These cronies, who have a lot of money, set up banks without experience or any knowledge on banking,” said Sein Maung, chairman of Yangon-based First Private Bank, adding banks often lend money to “people in their networks”.The new rules introduced in July, which also included stricter curbs on banks’ exposure to individual borrowers, were an attempt to change lending practices and force lenders to deal with riskier loans in a banking system that has remained poorly regulated.Deputy governor Soe Thein said the central bank still needed to evaluate the real state of the banks and “know the magnitude of the non-performing loans”.He said that, while major banks regularly report a healthy NPL ratio at 5-6 percent of total loans, “that is lower than the real situation”. He did not elaborate.Than Lwin, former deputy central bank governor and senior adviser at Kanbawza Bank, said lenders and the central bank hold a “different definition” of what constitutes an NPL. He said banks evaluate loans based on the borrower’s background and potential ability to repay, whereas the central bank - in line with international practice - judges them on number of days in arrears.As part of Myanmar’s lending reforms, Soe Thein said the central bank was set to raise the maximum lending rate to 16 percent from 13 percent so that banks could generate capital by offering higher risk loans.The central bank was also considering allowing non-collateral loans, Soe Thein said, ending a long-standing restriction that limits loan guarantees mainly to land and buildings. He did not elaborate on the timeframe.With home prices in the commercial hub of Yangon dropping some 20 percent over the past three years, according to property consultancy Colliers, the move could help ease concerns about lenders’ over-exposure to higher-risk property.Soe Thein said the central bank’s forthcoming follow-up directive would allow banks to convert overdraft facilities to loans with terms of three years from July this year, with the exception of those loans already declared by the banks as NPLs.After that, he said, the central bank would request full disclosures on all loans from banks and enter into further, if necessary one-on-one, negotiations on how to clean up their balance sheets, starting with loans above 5 billion kyat ($3.67 million).Some in the industry, however, have warned that if the central bank rows back on its hard line when negotiating with the banks it may jeopardize much-needed reforms.“They can’t afford to delay the implementation because if they do that, they lose full leverage,” said a financial professional involved in lending to local businesses, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. ($1 = 1,364.0000 kyat)Reporting By Yimou Lee and Thu Thu Aung; Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Alex Richardson '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-banking-exclusive/exclusive-tussle-over-myanmar-bank-reform-puts-spotlight-on-debt-pile-idINKBN1DM25W'|'2017-11-22T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'175abd3f0dd15c69e3ffc52c513d67930d7da96d'|'Petrobras files distribution unit IPO documents with regulator'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has filed documents related to an initial public offering of its fuel distribution unit BR Distribuidora SA, it said in a filing on Wednesday.In the filing, Petrobras, as the company is known, said the shares would be priced after gauging interest from potential investors in Brazil and abroad, as is custom. (Reporting by Gram Slattery, editing by Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrobras-ipo/petrobras-files-distribution-unit-ipo-documents-with-regulator-idINE6N1G505H'|'2017-11-22T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'badbca90d70ac43e6450d4b77d850a04e7ee3b80'|'BOJ gives early sign of lift-off with warnings on the costs of easing'|'November 21, 2017 / 11:07 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago BOJ gives early sign of lift-off with warnings on the costs of easing Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is dropping subtle, yet intentional, hints that it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected, through a future hike in its yield target, according to people familiar with the central bank’s thinking. Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda laughs during a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai With inflation still way below its 2 percent target, the BOJ sees no immediate need to withdraw stimulus, and regards weak price growth as its most pressing policy challenge. But bank officials are now more vocal on the rising cost of prolonged easing, such as the hit to bank margins - a sign that their next move would be to roll back stimulus rather than expand it, the people said. The most likely first step - albeit some time away - would be to allow long-term rates to rise more, reflecting improvements in the economy, they said. “The change in tone doesn’t have immediate policy implications, but it’s probably intentional,” one of the people said. “The BOJ wants to make its policy framework more sustainable,” said another. “Allowing longer-term rates to rise more would give banks some breathing space.” The first sign of change came in Nagoya on Nov. 6, when BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda - whose current term ends in April - said he was “mindful” of the risk prolonged easing could hurt banks’ appetite to lend. Days later, board member Yukitoshi Funo said the BOJ must be vigilant to the cost of easing. The most striking warning came from Kuroda last week, when he referred to a “reversal rate” - the level where rate cuts by a central bank hurt, not help, the economy by damaging banks and discouraging lending. “Because the impact of the low interest rate environment on financial institutions’ soundness is cumulative, the BOJ will continue to pay attention to this risk,” Kuroda said in a Nov. 13 speech in Zurich. European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Benoit Coeure referred to the reversal rate in July last year in discussing when further rate cuts could become counter-productive. Five months later, the ECB decided to cut monthly asset purchases from 2017. The BOJ also has a history of dropping early hints of a future policy shift. Roughly a year before adopting its yield curve control (YCC) policy, the BOJ published a research paper analysing the feasibility of the idea. “Reversal rate is a pretty shocking word to come out of the mouth of a BOJ governor. It’s unthinkable the BOJ would insert it in Kuroda’s speech without any policy intention,” said Takahide Kiuchi, who was a BOJ board member until July. The BOJ may allow long-term rates to rise more by shifting its long-term rate target to five-year yields from 10-year yields around the first quarter of next year, Kiuchi said. FILE PHOTO: People walk past the Bank of Japan building under construction in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo “The BOJ could put a positive spin on the move by saying it can more effectively reflate growth by keeping short-term borrowing costs low while allowing longer yields to rise.” NO SURPRISES After three years of heavy asset buying failed to fire up inflation, the BOJ last year shifted to a policy targeting interest rates to free itself from a commitment to buy bonds at a set pace and make its policy framework more sustainable. Under that YCC policy it guides short-term rates at minus 0.1 percent and 10-year bond yields around zero percent. The shift in communication comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve and ECB head for an exit from ultra-loose policy, and suggests the BOJ could follow suit sooner than expected. Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai A majority of economists polled by Reuters before Kuroda’s latest comments expect the BOJ’s next move to be a withdrawal of stimulus - but not until later next year or beyond. If the economy keeps improving, the central bank may consider hiking the yield target as early as April, said veteran BOJ watcher Izuru Kato, chief economist at Totan Research. “The BOJ probably wants to fine-tune YCC with a modest hike in the yield target, and justify the move as aimed at easing the strain on Japan’s banking system,” he said. Indeed, BOJ officials have signalled they do not necessarily need to wait until inflation hits 2 percent to raise the yield target, as long as it keeps printing money aggressively. But stubbornly low inflation and a potential change in governor could discourage the BOJ from any early policy change. “The BOJ would struggle to justify raising the yield target unless inflation exceeds 1 percent,” said Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at SMBC Friend Securities. Core consumer inflation stood at 0.7 percent in September from a year earlier. While the timing of a rate hike remains uncertain, one thing is sure: the BOJ won’t spring a surprise like the time Kuroda deployed his ‘bazooka’ monetary stimulus in 2013. “It’s important the BOJ prepares markets in advance with careful communication,” said a third person familiar with the bank’s thinking. Graphic - BOJ''s battle with deflation: tmsnrt.rs/28KmQnX Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj-analysis/boj-gives-early-sign-of-lift-off-with-warnings-on-the-costs-of-easing-idUKKBN1DL2WE'|'2017-11-22T01:07:00.000+02:00'
'a0ba9cb28e8ecf254b080e3544f2298803f9f9db'|'China cuts import tariffs on food, drugs and apparel'|' 57 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China cuts import tariffs on food, drugs and apparel Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Friday said it will cut import tariffs on consumer products ranging from meats and whisky to deodorant and cashmere clothes, as part of a drive to lower costs and help stimulate consumer spending at home. FILE PHOTO - A boy looks at cargo ships passing along the Pearl River in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Alex Lee/File Photo The move, which takes effect on Dec. 1, will see deep cuts to import tariffs on 187 imported products. High taxes on imports have traditionally pushed up the price of foreign brands in China and caused consumers to spend more overseas. After the cut, tariffs on the consumer products - which include food, health supplements, pharmaceuticals, garments and recreational products - will average 7.7 percent, down from the current 17.3 percent, the Ministry of Finance said on its website. “People’s consumption demands are ever increasing,” the finance ministry said. “(The tax cuts) will benefit the choices available to consumers domestically, and help upgrade the domestic supply system.” In recent years, China has cut import tax rates on products including cosmetics and apparel in a bid to spur domestic spending as Beijing eyes a longer-term shift towards a consumption-driven economy. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-trade-tariffs/china-cuts-import-tariffs-on-food-drugs-and-apparel-idUKKBN1DO0TH'|'2017-11-24T10:56:00.000+02:00'
'8e3ad07e53085a4d05158c21a80ff2e787a27cf3'|'Brazil carrier Oi chief executive offers resignation -sources'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA, Marco Schroeder, has tendered his resignation, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Friday.It was not immediately clear if the offer had been accepted. Oi is two weeks away from a crucial creditor vote on a proposal to restructure 65 billion reais (US$20 billion) of debt in Latin America’s largest-ever bankruptcy proceedings.A spokesperson for Oi could not immediately be reached for comment.$1 = 3.23 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Gram Slattery '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-carrier-oi-chief-executive-offers-resignation-sources-idUSE6N1L0026'|'2017-11-24T21:15:00.000+02:00'
'6e616c4a0459a9040dea1e08e4b08f7728aca278'|'Why this white paper on industrial strategy is good news (mostly) - Michael Jacobs'|'P raise be. A Conservative government has published a comprehensive industrial strategy which explicitly acknowledges that the state has a key role to play in steering and coordinating economic activity. So let’s give credit to Theresa May and Greg Clark for facing down their own backbench (and several frontbench) free marketeers who deny this fundamental principle of successful economic policy. And then let’s hope this white paper finally lays to rest the political and media orthodoxy that the economy grows best when “free enterprise” is left to itself; and that government helps the economy most when it intervenes least.The UK’s economy has been systematically underperforming on almost every key measureThis orthodoxy was never justified by economic theory, which acknowledges that the private sector can systematically underinvest in key fields and regions, and government has a crucial role to underpin and guide it. And over the past decade it has rammed right up against the mounting evidence against it. The UK’s economy has been systematically underperforming on almost every key measure. We have lower investment than nearly all our major competitors. We spend less on research and development (R&D). We have much worse productivity. We have a worse trade balance. We have the most geographically unbalanced economy in Europe. And we are in the middle of the longest period of earnings stagnation for 150 years.If anyone wondered why we need an industrial strategy – and why nearly every other developed country already has one – these are the reasons. And to its credit, the white paper acknowledges this. Its admission that the UK economy has fundamental weaknesses stands in notable contrast to the bullish Brexit boasting of the chancellor in his budget speech last week.So does the white paper adequately respond to these weaknesses? Yes and no.Let’s start with the good things. The white paper provides a simple five-part structure setting out how the government will henceforth seek to coordinate policies in pursuit of higher investment and productivity. These are ideas (R&D and innovation); people (education and skills); infrastructure; business environment (finance, business support, inward investment); and places (regional growth). In each of these areas there are new policies and some new money.At the same time it has accepted that industrial strategy needs a focus on what the economist Mariana Mazzucato calls “missions” and the white paper calls “grand challenges”: major social needs which can give direction to private sector investment and help strengthen UK supply chains. The government has chosen four, mirroring our own proposals at the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice: artificial intelligence and data; clean (ie green and low carbon) growth; mobility (electric and driverless vehicles, etc); and our ageing society (health and social care).So far so good; but there remain some major problems at the heart of the government’s approach.The first is that it doesn’t actually address the key problem on which it is meant to be focused. As the Office for Budget Responsibility pointed out last week, the UK’s single biggest economic problem is our low and stalling productivity. Yet the white paper’s overwhelming focus on supporting our leading innovation sectors will not help.This is because it is not these sectors where productivity is low. On the contrary, these are our success stories; it is in the rest of the economy, the ordinary firms in “everyday sectors” (such as retail, light manufacturing, tourism and hospitality), where productivity is so much lower than in the rest of Europe and where wages, therefore, have stagnated. So it is on these sectors that industrial strategy needs to focus. Here innovation creation (what our leading-edge companies do) does not help; what is needed is the faster adoption of innovation by average businesses. The evidence shows that UK businesses lag behind their competitors even in things as simple as trading online and utilising the skills of their workforces. Yet on this the white paper is mostly silent. It is good that there will be a “sector deal” with the construction sector; and that there is to be a new “sector council” for food and drink. But much more than this is needed if productivity right across the economy is to be raised.Second, while it proposes terrific new spending on advanced technologies, these are still largely in the same sectors (pharmaceuticals and life sciences, automotive, aerospace, AI) which have already been the focus of most support. This is based on the old economic orthodoxy that countries need to focus where they have “comparative advantage”. Unfortunately this is another bit of orthodoxy that’s wrong. In fact, the leading export economies in the world – Germany, Japan, South Korea – are much more diverse in their innovation and exporting bases. Over the coming years, as the industrial strategy is developed, we need to see a concerted effort to diversify the UK’s global-leading “frontier” sectors rather than simply deepen our comparative advantage in existing ones.Third, there’s an elephant in the innovation room which the white paper completely ignores. Most public spending on R&D does not take the form of the grants which the government has announced. It comes through R&D tax credits and “patent box” tax breaks , which together cost around £3.6bn a year. These go largely to big companies, particularly in the pharmaceuticals sector. Yet analysis suggests between 57% and 80% of these are likely to be deadweight, funding activities which would have happened anyway. There is a strong case for shifting the focus of spending away from these tax credits to more direct spending.Life is going to turn very nasty if we can’t solve the growth puzzle - Andrew Rawnsley Read moreLast, the white paper makes a valiant effort to claim that it is focused on supporting investment outside London and the south-east, in a bid to strengthen the economy in the rest of the country. Yet it fails to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence from other countries that this needs much stronger regional institutions. You can’t rebalance the economy from London: you have to devolve power and resources. Yet in England (outside London) we have weak local authorities and local enterprise partnerships and a continuing bias in infrastructure spending towards London and the south-east. It is ironic that in the chapter on geographic rebalancing the case study on infrastructure is … the Milton Keynes-Cambridge-Oxford corridor, another priority south-eastern project.But let’s not carp. This is just the start of the process. There will be more to come – hopefully, under any future government. The key is the welcome recognition that our economy will not succeed unless we are willing to abandon the economic orthodoxy of the past 30 years and give government its proper role. If that can now be accepted, we should all be grateful.• Michael Jacobs is director of the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Commission on Economic JusticeTopics Productivity Opinion Economic policy Economic growth (GDP) Economics Economic recovery Retail industry comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/27/white-paper-industrial-strategy-government-economy'|'2017-11-27T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'6ba2233ec28f9c34d43449b766958eb9a66a6aef'|'Venezuela to bring more military officials into PDVSA - sources'|'CARACAS (Reuters) - A general appointed at the weekend to run Venezuela’s energy sector will name more military officers to senior management posts at state oil company PDVSA as part of a shakeup the government says is aimed at fighting corruption, two company sources told Reuters on Monday.Pedestrians walk next to a gas station of Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello In a surprise move, unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday tapped Major General Manuel Quevedo to lead PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] and the Oil Ministry, giving the already powerful military control of the OPEC nation’s dominant industry.Besides the corruption scandals, Quevedo will have to tackle an attempted debt restructuring, within the context of a deep recession and debilitating U.S. sanctions.Sources in the sector said Quevedo’s appointment could quicken a white-collar exodus from PDVSA and worsen operational problems at a time when production has already tumbled to near 30-year lows of under 2 million barrels per day.About 50 officials at state oil company PDVSA have been arrested since August in what the state prosecutor says is a “crusade” against corruption.Sources within PDVSA and the oil industry said Maduro’s administration was using corruption allegations to sideline rivals and deepen its control of the industry, which accounts for over 90 percent of export revenue.“The order given is to militarize PDVSA in key areas,” said a PDVSA employee, asking to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media.A second source said he was told military officials would take over key production divisions in Venezuela’s east and west.Venezuela’s president, a former bus driver and union leader whose popularity has plummeted during the economic crisis, has gradually handed the military more power in his cabinet and in key sectors such as mining.Unlike his popular predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro does not hail from the military. The opposition says he has been forced to buy the loyalty of the army, historically a power broker in Venezuela, giving them top posts and juicy business contracts while turning a blind eye to corruption.PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an internal company message seen by Reuters called on workers to come to Caracas on Tuesday for Quevedo’s swearing in.“Let’s all go to Caracas to consolidate the deepening of socialism and the total, absolute transformation of PDVSA,” the message read.INCREASING MILITARY SWAY Quevedo, a former housing minister with no known energy experience, is not a heavyweight in Venezuela’s political scene, although two sources close to the military told Reuters he was a Maduro ally.Opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado predicted the appointment would worsen PDVSA’s operations.“They’re getting rid of the old executives, who although socialist and working under catastrophic management, at least knew about oil,” he said. “Now we’re going to have totally inexperienced hands.”Although military appointees had been on the rise within the oil industry too, Quevedo’s appointment is the first time in a decade and a half that a military official has taken the helm of the oil industry.PDVSA so far had been led by chemist Nelson Martinez and the Oil Ministry by engineer Eulogio Del Pino, both of whom rose in the ranks under previous PDVSA president and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez.Later demoted to become Venezuela’s representative at the United Nations in New York, Ramirez recently criticized Maduro for not reforming Venezuela’s flailing economy, in what insiders say is a power struggle between the two rivals.OIL COMPANIES WORRY The opposition has also accused Quevedo of violating human rights during the National Guard’s handling of anti-Maduro protests, in which stone-throwing hooded youths regularly clashed with tear gas-firing soldiers.U.S. Senator Marco Rubio included Quevedo on a 2014 list of Venezuelan officials whom he said should be named in U.S. sanctions, although Quevedo does not appear in the list released by the U.S. Treasury Department.Venezuela’s government denies abuses, saying protesters were in fact part of a U.S.-promoted “armed insurrection” designed to sabotage socialism in Latin America.Quevedo’s appointment has worried foreign oil companies in Venezuela, including U.S. major Chevron and Russian state oil giant Rosneft, according to industry sources.Venezuela is also trying to pull off a complex restructuring of foreign debt, including $60 billion in bonds, about half of which have been issued by PDVSA. Bondholders were invited to Caracas for a meeting with the government two weeks ago, but market sources say there has been no concrete progress or proposals since.PDVSA said on Friday it was making last-minute payments on two bonds close to default, including one backed by shares in U.S.-based Citgo, a Venezuelan-owned refiner and marketer of oil and petrochemical products, due on Monday, and called for “trust” as it seeks to maintain debt service amid the crisis.Quevedo’s position on the debt issue is not publicly known.Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, David Gregorio and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil/venezuela-to-bring-more-military-officials-into-pdvsa-sources-idUSKBN1DR1T2'|'2017-11-27T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'42d43a19b908ca0601948d5027166dc9de9759bf'|'Israeli cybersecurity firm Illusive gets deal with OakNorth bank'|'November 27, 2017 / 1:21 PM / Updated an hour ago Israeli cybersecurity firm Illusive gets deal with OakNorth bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Illusive Networks, an Israeli cyber security firm specializing in “deception technology”, said on Monday it signed a deal to provide its platform to British specialist bank OakNorth. Rishi Khosla, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of OakNorth Bank chats during an interview with Reuters at his office in central London, Britain October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez Financial details were not disclosed. Illusive’s technology lures hackers by blanketing a company’s network with booby-trapped data. Once an intruder uses this deceptive data, the company’s security is alerted and the attacker can be removed from the system. “Almost all of the security solutions and companies out there have taken a reactive approach to security,” Illusive founder and CEO Ofer Israeli said at a recent Reuters cyber summit. “So we built a world and reality where the attacker would need to react to us instead of us reacting to him.” OakNorth last year became the first British bank to fully host its core systems on the cloud. “We liked their (Illusive‘s) approach of exploiting an attacker’s vulnerabilities by looking at the network from an attacker’s perspective rather than trying to anticipate every weakness of an organisation,” OakNorth’s information technology director Rui Silva said. Reporting by Dan Pleck; Editing by Tova Cohen'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tech-cyber-illusive/israeli-cybersecurity-firm-illusive-gets-deal-with-oaknorth-bank-idUKKBN1DR1JJ'|'2017-11-27T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'cf9ba31b0dc54ec902d2572a54d68703787cbdfe'|'ESM chief says Greek aid loan needs may be smaller than previously expected'|'November 26, 2017 / 3:44 PM / Updated 5 hours ago ESM chief says Greek aid loan needs may be smaller than previously expected Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of the euro zone’s European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund has told a German newspaper that Greece was making good progress with its reform drive and it may not need as much credit as previously planned. FILE PHOTO - European Stability Mechanism Managing Director Klaus Regling attends a news conference at the Ministry of Finance in Nicosia, Cyprus November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou Greece has received three international bailouts since 2010, with the third due to end in August 2018. By then, Greece is expected to be able to finance itself from markets. “We are pleased that the amount of the loan for Greece may remain significantly below the ESM programme’s limit of 86 billion euros,” ESM chief Klaus Regling told Handelsblatt in a preview of a story due to appear in the business newspaper’s edition on Monday. Un-used funds could be used to repay loans to other creditors, he said. The issue of debt relief is expected to be part of negotations over Greece’s bailout exit in the coming months but Regling said any debt relief was conditional on Greece fully implementing its reforms and on all euro zone states agreeing. “If the government in Athens continues to work as well, the review of this third programme can be concluded quickly,” he said. Greece is gradually returning to growth after a deep recession and has exceeded targets of returning to a small primary budget surplus from 2016 onwards. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Die Welt and other European newspapers at the weekend that he expected the bailout to end on time, “that this adventure has an end in August 2018”. Reporting by Madeline ChambersEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-germany/esm-chief-says-greek-aid-loan-needs-may-be-smaller-than-previously-expected-idUKKBN1DQ0MD'|'2017-11-26T17:43:00.000+02:00'
'b633199671984c6fe5a16c7a85a1183c6e66a0ed'|'Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week: sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:22 PM / Updated 21 hours ago Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week: sources Paresh Dave , Liana B. Baker 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] plans to move ahead with a deal to bring in Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) as a major investor by disclosing the pricing early next week in formal tender offers to the ride-hailing service’s investors, two people familiar with the plans said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S., February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The start of the tender follows Uber’s disclosure on Tuesday that it covered up a 2016 data breach which compromised data of some 57 million customers and drivers. That revelation prompted governments around the world to launch probes into the breach and Uber’s handling of the matter. The people familiar with the plans did not say how much investors would be offered for the shares, or say if the price had been cut do to the breach or governments’ response to the disclosure. Investors will have 20 business days, or about a month, to respond to emails and letters to be sent early next week, said one of the sources, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss terms before they are public. SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group agreed on Nov. 12 to lead a group that would invest as much as $10 billion in Uber, people familiar with the deal previously told Reuters. They plan to directly invest $1 billion to $1.25 billion in Uber, then buy as much as 17 percent of shares held by existing investors and employees. Selling shareholders must be accredited investors as defined by U.S. regulations and hold at least 10,000 shares of the firm, Uber said in ads published Wednesday in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Uber is valued at $69 billion, the highest of any venture backed company. SoftBank’s $1 billion direct investment in Uber is expected to be at the same valuation. Employees and existing investors will be paid a lower price for their shares in a tender that will likely take weeks to complete, people familiar with the Nov. 12 agreement told Reuters. Purchasers of startup shares through secondary deals service provider SharesPost discount a company’s valuation by as much as 25 percent depending on liquidity options and scarcity, said Rohit Kulkarni, the company’s managing director for private investment research. That would value Uber at about $52 billion. Kulkarni said he expected SoftBank to apply an “incremental discount” because of the data breach. Verizon, he noted, cut its $4.8 billion Yahoo Inc takeover offer 7 percent following disclosure at the time of breaches affecting 1 billion accounts. Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Jim Finkle and Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/uber-to-send-out-tenders-on-softbank-deal-early-next-week-sources-idUSKBN1DO2GZ'|'2017-11-24T22:29:00.000+02:00'
'555c7b3116ff36ce932e4ac59d2e06f6f5f956c9'|'U.S. regulator preparing to sue Santander bank over auto loans -sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:19 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago U.S. regulator preparing to sue Santander bank over auto loans: sources Patrick Rucker 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. consumer watchdog is preparing to sue Santander bank [SOVBAN.UL] alleging that the Spanish bank overcharged borrowers on auto loans, two sources familiar with the plans said on Friday. The logo of Santander bank is pictured at the entrance of the group''s main office in Sao Paulo, Brazil September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker The action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could come as early as Monday, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter. A Santander spokeswoman, Raschelle Burton, on Friday declined to comment. A spokesman for the CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the sources, the lawsuit centers on a financial product, known as ‘guaranteed auto protection’ (GAP), that can shield a car buyer from some of the expense of a serious collision. If a driver’s auto insurance only covers replacement cost, GAP coverage may cover the entire balance of the loan. Consumers often purchase GAP insurance in the dealer showroom and the costs are built into the car loan. Federal and state officials have been looking into whether consumers have been paying for unneeded GAP insurance or have seen their loan rates climb too high when GAP coverage was added. In 2015, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. ( SC.N ) agreed to pay $5.4 million to Massachusetts drivers who state officials said faced unfair loan terms when GAP coverage was included. Last month, Reuters reported that a leading bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was examining how Wells Fargo administered its auto loan business. The bank has said previously that it was trying to help any customers who were wrongly charged for car insurance. Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-santander-auto/u-s-regulator-preparing-to-sue-santander-bank-over-auto-loans-sources-idINKBN1DO2NC'|'2017-11-25T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'd195deafb82de37b6f9b1e1d3cd98c371957e682'|'Centrica boss Iain Conn has had few reasons to be cheerful in 2017 - Business'|'W hen Iain Conn – the vintage-Jaguar-owning boss of Centrica – built a new garage at his home, the planning application reportedly cited the need to protect the smooth old machine from “bird droppings”.That submission probably referred to the car rather than the old charmer himself, but considering the year that Conn has endured, it might be shrewd for him to take personal precautions.Conn’s 2017 began with a £9.5m fine for IT failures at Centrica-owned British Gas, but if he hoped that was the nadir, he grossly underestimated an almost peerless talent for calamity.This year also saw a high court finding that Rolls-Royce had been aware of corruption allegations within the company in 2010, but decided not to notify the Serious Fraud Office (Conn was the senior independent director in 2010 and a director from 2005 to 2014).Then there was the bombshell of an accounting scandal in BT Group’s Italian arm (Conn sits on the telco’s audit committee), plus the catastrophe at Centrica last week, when the group’s shares had their biggest daily fall after British Gas said it had lost almost 6% of its customers in three months .This week, Centrica will pay its interim dividend – with investors openly speculating that those payments may be under threat (again) in the next financial year. Conn may soon need to take cover.RBS could trip in exams over tricky US question The bank of mum and dad is supposedly familiar with saying prayers for their dependants at exam time, so they can achieve independence (and stop needing parental support).Well, after his latest budget last week, chancellor Philip Hammond is in a similar spot, having signalled the start of returning Royal Bank of Scotland to the private sector by selling £15bn of the state’s stake in five years.To do that effectively, though, RBS needs to pass a few exams, including its ability to withstand consumer losses – £30bn across the big lenders – an economic downturn and a collapse in the value of sterling. All will be revealed on Tuesday, when the Bank of England publishes its annual health check on the sector.Yes, it is bank stress test results week, when RBS is being examined – along with Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Santander and Nationwide.Not that anyone is overly bothered about the rest. The only one of interest will be RBS, with some expecting a technical fail as it faces questions on its multimillion-pound settlement with the US justice department over actions during the financial crisis.Black Friday bunkum just doesn’t add up Citizens Advice warns punters to watch out for salespeople who “make promises that sound too good to be true” and “ask you to make a quick decision by saying things like ‘if you don’t act now you’ll miss out’. This puts you under pressure and doesn’t give you time to think.”It’s actually advice to try to stop folk from falling for con artists, although it seems just as appropriate to shoppers trying to navigate the confected late November sales season, including the tiresome Black Friday last week and its equally irritating sibling, Cyber Monday, tomorrow.Any psychologist will tell you that it’s all a neat ruse. “It’s a manipulative plot that’s not new in the shopping industry,” this page is hooked on quoting addiction expert Dr Vera Tarman as saying. “If you want deals, you have to get them in within a certain period of time. It gets the mind going.”Still, what no one ever seems able to explain is why plenty of shoppers seem to understand all the warnings perfectly, but then happily fall for the sales patter anyway. They save £150 on some television they don’t have a spare room to house, and then compound that error by buying a blender they will never take out of the box.But, hey, just think of all the money they’ve saved.Topics Centrica Observer business agenda Utilities Royal Bank of Scotland Banking Black Friday Retail industry comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/26/iain-conn-centrica-energy-british-gas'|'2017-11-26T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'f02e7bf0bbd3d3753850f874ba9e3bc14281674e'|'M7 Multi-Let pursues private funding, scraps London IPO plan'|'LONDON (Reuters) - M7 Multi-Let REIT, a new firm set up to invest in industrial and office property, has become the latest business to scrap plans to float in London, pulling a listing that would have raised as much as 300 million pounds ($400 million).M7, which announced its intention to float as a real estate investment trust (REIT) last month, said a number of investors had instead expressed an interest in providing funding privately to support its property expansion.“This, combined with the current market conditions and the volume of recent issuances focusing on UK real estate, led the board to conclude that the initial portfolio and pipeline would be better funded privately over the near to medium term,” said Richard Croft, the chief executive of M7 Real Estate.M7 said on Oct. 10 that it had agreed to buy 93 property assets for 119.8 million pounds – its so-called initial portfolio - and that it had also identified a pipeline of potential acquisitions valued at more than 400 million pounds.Its decision to call off the listing to finance those deals marks another setback for the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit in recent weeks after Comparethemarket.com-owner BGL Group ( IPO-BGL.L ), broadcasting masts firm Arqiva IPO-ARGL.L, debt collector Cabot Credit Management and business services firm TMF Group all pulled floats.“The exchange has not been affected by recent IPO cancellations. Figures show that 2017 has already vastly exceeded both 2016 and 2015, with money raised increasing by four times and with double the number of IPOs in 2017 compared with 2015,” a spokeswoman for LSE said.“We have also had the largest number of REIT IPOs globally so far this year,” she said.M7’s decision will increase attention on motor insurer Sabre, which is pursuing a London float after announcing its listing plans this month.A source familiar with the matter said on Nov. 13 that the company was looking for a 600 million-pound valuation from the initial public offering but it could fall short of that target.Sabre this week set the price range for its shares at 220 pence to 240 pence, which would give it a market capitalization of between 550 million pounds and 600 million pounds.Additional reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-m7-multi-let-ipo/m7-multi-let-pursues-private-funding-scraps-london-ipo-plan-idINKBN1DO2ID'|'2017-11-24T17:44:00.000+02:00'
'9e9f440ad2ae33c7a003920d6cb0cb04c9ce28e2'|'Liam Fox’s fantasy of tariff-free future may collide with zombie reality - Business'|'B ritain outside the European Union will enjoy much cheaper imports . That’s one of the threads running through arguments for Brexit.Outside the high walls of the EU’s economic fortress, we can scour the Earth for the cheapest stuff on offer, buy it and and bring it home to consume, saving ourselves billions of pounds.This policy fits well with a country that is coming to terms with low productivity growth and with it, only stumbling increases in average wages. Low productivity and low wage rises are with us until at least 2023, according to the Treasury’s economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), in a report accompanying the budget.The Institute for Fiscal Studies, in its role as chief budget watchdog, warned that the OBR analysis showed that average wages would still be well below their 2008 level in the middle of the next decade, when adjusted for inflation.What better solution is there, when earnings are flat, than to ditch the EU’s punitive tariffs and make the monthly salary go further?Trade secretary Liam Fox has talked about the benefits of tariff-free meat from South Africa, wine from New Zealand and chicken from the US. It would cut the price of the weekly shop and mean that wages stretch further.Fox, who has stayed out of the limelight since he was ridiculed for launching a new board of trade with only himself as an official member (though he did emerge this month to defend the benefits post-Brexit of chlorinated chicken imports from the US), believes that Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit has been strangled by the EU and its protectionist tariffs.A lower exchange rate is the spur for growth, but has the knock-on effect of increasing inflation. And that is killing growth at the moment. However, the effects can be mitigated by taking away the tariffs and allowing globally-sourced cheap stuff onto supermarket shelves.Of course, this presumes that British businesses remain strong enough to benefit from their newfound freedom to trade with whoever they want.If Fox had listened to the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane, he would know about the UK’s reliance on a small proportion of highly productive companies and the long tail of largely unproductive “zombie” ones that tick along without making much money or paying their workers much in salary, pension or other benefits.He would have looked at official figures last week showing that Britain has seen a stupendous growth in the number of graduates – from 24% of 21 to 64-year-olds (not in education) in 2002, to 42% in September. Yet, more than one in three (37%) of those who graduated more than five years ago are languishing in non-graduate jobs . Almost half of those who graduated in the last five years are in non-graduate level jobs. This is not only a waste of talent, skill, and potential, it means that Britain is far from ready to compete.And the problem is not just confined to those who succeeded academically. Teenagers looking for a route into the jobs market via apprenticeships have been turned away in their droves since the government brought in its new levy system.The levy acts like a tax on employers who get the money back when they take on an apprentice. But employers report that they simply don’t understand the way the levy works and all the paperwork that goes with it.A 59% fall in those taking up trainee posts since the scheme was launched should shame Greg Clark, the business minister who will on Monday outline his plans for a new industrial strategy. It’s a racing certainty that he will ignore this fact as he lays out his meagre plans for a railway line here and a widened road there.Education is a key element of the UK’s infrastructure. So when just 48,000 people started an apprenticeship in the final three months of the educational year to July 2017, compared with 117,800 in the same period a year before, it is easy to see that he has a mountain to climb.Fox will no doubt argue that his drive for trade deals would increase the demand for skilled staff and that fact – almost on its own – would create the demand and the training needed to generate a skilled labour force.The trouble with this argument is that there are huge time lags between winning new business and being able to meet the customer’s requirements with better trained and managed staff.And as long as the zombie companies have poorly trained managers and under-skilled staff, is it any wonder that the banks are reluctant to lend them more money? Much better to lend it on property.Which brings us back to the budget. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, made sure that property continued to give a better return than investing in the real economy after he cut stamp duty on homes worth less than £300,000 for first-time buyers and promised to support some extra building.The share prices of all the major developers and the big estate agents jumped. Was there any cash to help apprentices earn more than £100 a week or to help employers deal with an apprentice system in crisis? No. But don’t worry. The UK’s economy is like a coiled spring, ready to go.Topics Economics The Observer Productivity Trade policy Brexit Liam Fox Budget 2017 (November) comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/news/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/25/liam-fox-fantasy-tariff-free-future-zombie-uk-reality'|'2017-11-25T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'ef9f83c531726b4d962c79929d492ebedc9c1d8d'|'Linde gets 90 percent shareholder backing for Praxair merger'|'November 24, 2017 / 6:57 PM / in 30 minutes Linde gets 90 percent shareholder backing for Praxair merger Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Industrial gases group Linde ( LING.DE ) said on Friday it had received approval from 90 percent of its shareholders for its planned $80 billion (£60.02 billion) tie-up with Praxair ( PX.N ). Linde Group headquarters is pictured in Munich, Germany August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo If the merger completes, Linde would be in a position to initiate a so-called squeeze-out of minority shareholders under German law, Linde said in an update on the merger as required under stock exchange rules. It said that no decision with respect to such a squeeze-out had yet been taken. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-linde-m-a-praxair/linde-gets-90-percent-shareholder-backing-for-praxair-merger-idUKKBN1DO2DW'|'2017-11-24T20:56:00.000+02:00'
'4b0d82522fc689ca3afea3df7d60d73837bcad24'|'Indonesia has ''no clear structure'' for Freeport stake purchase yet'|'JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has “no clear structure” yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday.Under a framework agreement announced in August, Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport said it would divest 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), but there has been little progress since then.Freeport, operator of Grasberg, the world’s second-largest copper mine, also agreed to build a second smelter in Indonesia and to invest up to $20 billion in expansions.Fajar Harry Sampurno, the deputy minister for state-owned enterprises, said it was not clear yet what role state pension funds and state-owned banks would play in financing the acquisition, amid ongoing discussions on the matter with the Ministry of Finance and Freeport.Sampurno added that the interests of Rio Tinto, which is a joint-venture partner with Freeport in Grasberg, still needed to be factored into government plans to acquire a 41.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, which would add to the 9.36 percent it already holds.“This needs to be discussed again, whether (Rio’s interest) is converted into shares first, whether Inalum will acquire it first, or what,” he said. It is not yet clear whether the government plans impose on Rio the same majority divestment requirement it imposed on Freeport.State-owned aluminum producer PT Inalum has been appointed by the government to acquire the Freeport stake, and plans to form a holding company under Inalum for that purpose are expected to be carried out this week or early next, Inalum Finance Director Oggy A. Kosasih said during a press conference with Sampurno outlining the formation of the holding company.The company would group together other state-owned mining units including PT Bukit Asam Tbk, PT Timah Tbk and PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam).Under a joint venture formed in 1996, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PT-FI’s Grasberg contract, which entitles them to a 40 percent share of all production after 2022. Rio has held talks with Indonesia about a possible exit to the venture.A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia could not be reached for comment on Friday. A Melbourne-based spokesmen for Rio Tinto declined to comment on the matter.While the plans for Indonesia’s purchase remains unclear, Freeport and the government appear to be closer to reaching an understanding on a valuation method for Grasberg. Indonesia had earlier maintained that the stake should not include the value of unmined reserves while Freeport has said “fair market value” should include the reserves.On an Oct. 25 call discussing Freeport’s earnings, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said the Indonesian government had indicated that fair market value is the right standard “and now we’ve got to negotiate what that fair market value is.”Meanwhile, the security situation at Grasberg remains tense amid several recent shootings. In the latest incident on Friday, a group of six unknown assailants shot at three police officers driving in a vehicle near the mine, though none of them were injured, the local police said.Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini; Additional reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-freeport-acquisition/indonesia-has-no-clear-structure-for-freeport-stake-purchase-yet-idUSKBN1DO0B0'|'2017-11-24T06:25:00.000+02:00'
'42469552dc020eaeb567c1dcc94183ffba57e6cc'|'METALS-London nickel skids, metals slip as investors cut risk'|'(Recasts, adds comment, updates details and prices) MELBOURNE, Nov 27 (Reuters) - London nickel led metals lower on Monday, as investors cut their exposure to risky assets as Beijing steps up a crackdown on shadow banking and other riskier forms of financing. China will check local governments'' investment in railway projects, the state planner said on Friday, amid official concerns that breakneck infrastructure spending is racking up too much debt. "Today''s selling is also a likely reaction to the U.S. PMI numbers which fell short on expectations, the Asian stock markets all losing a little ground and the fact that it appears some funds/houses will start shutting their books down by the end of this month," said Kingdom Futures in a report. "The year end could become even more volatile as liquidity further reduces ... we (may) not see the true direction of the market until after the Chinese New Year in mid February." FUNDAMENTALS * London Metal Exchange nickel slid 2.5 percent to $11,730 a tonne, wiping out Friday''s near 1 pct gains. Shanghai nickel fell 1 percent, with the most volatile metal also battered by expectations of rising supply. * LME COPPER: Copper hit $7,024 a tonne, its highest in a month, before reversing to slide 1 percent to $6,934 a tonne by 0708 GMT. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 0.4 percent to 53,900 yuan ($8,170). * The U.S. flash composite PMI for November deteriorated to 54.6 compared to 55.2 in October, data over the weekend showed. * CHINA ECONOMY: China''s industrial firms weathered a broad government crackdown on financial risks as profits continued to surge last month in a stabilising force for the world''s second-biggest economy, which has started to cool slightly in recent months. * STRIKE CHILE: Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Plc''s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world''s largest, ended a 24-hour strike on Friday but could put down their tools again next week over the company''s planned layoffs, the union said. * STRIKE PERU: Workers for the two largest unions at Southern Copper Corp in Peru said on Wednesday they had started an indefinite strike, demanding a fair share of mining profits, while the company said the stoppage had not affected operations. * FREEPORT: Indonesia''s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has "no clear structure" yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday. PRICES 0521 GMT Three month LME copper 6988 Most active ShFE copper 54290 Three month LME aluminium 2121 Most active ShFE aluminium 14985 Three month LME zinc 3210 Most active ShFE zinc 25280 Three month LME lead 2470.5 Most active ShFE lead 18465 Three month LME nickel 11905 Most active ShFE nickel 95600 Three month LME tin 19470 Most active ShFE tin 143100 LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 469.48 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1265.26 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 238.93 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1122.24 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2484.83 ($1 = 6.5975 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-nickel-skids-metals-slip-as-investors-cut-risk-idINL3N1NX1VY'|'2017-11-27T03:24:00.000+02:00'
'aa671115306fb7fda569a59eec4f018a13531b5c'|'First turbine turned on at E.ON''s Rampion offshore wind farm in UK'|'November 27, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago First turbine turned on at E.ON''s Rampion offshore wind farm in UK Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The first turbine has come online at E.ON’s Rampion wind farm off the coast of southeast England, the German utility said on Monday. E.ON headquarters in Essen, Germany, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen The 400 megawatt project is being built off the Sussex coast by E.ON, UK Green Investment Rampion Ltd and Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge. “Over the coming weeks and months the turbines will one-by-one begin to be turned on and generate power as they are brought online. This process will take us into 2018 to complete,” said Matthew Swanwick, Rampion’s project director. The wind farm comprises 116 turbines and when fully operational will provide enough electricity to supply almost 347,000 homes, equivalent to around half the homes in Sussex. Reporting by Nina Chestney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-windfarm-eon/first-turbine-turned-on-at-e-ons-rampion-offshore-wind-farm-in-uk-idUKKBN1DR1X1'|'2017-11-27T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'e8ca5155cd1fc1ce827ae8c4f0418e1cdfc9cff2'|'China''s October industrial profits surge on boost from higher commodities'|'November 27, 2017 / 1:57   China''s October industrial profits surge on boost from higher commodities Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Profits at China’s industrial firms continued to grow at a robust pace last month despite a slight cooling from a sizzling September as companies benefit from strong commodities prices, with mining and heavy industry contributing the biggest gains. FILE PHOTO: Chinese national flags are flying near a steel factory in Wu''an, Hebei province, China, February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo Industrial profits in October rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier to 745.4 billion yuan ($112.94 billion), slowing from a 27.7 percent jump in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. Despite the modest slowdown, October’s growth rate was still the second-highest for a single month this year. The data covers large companies with annual revenue exceeding 20 million yuan from their main businesses. More than half of the increase in profits in October came from mining, iron and steel smelting and processing, chemicals, and oil and natural gas extraction, He Ping of the statistics bureau said in an accompanying statement. He said lower costs helped lift profits, with operating margins rising year-on-year to 6.24 percent. China’s industrial sector has been boosted by a year-long, government-led construction spree, which helped lift demand and prices for building materials, especially over the first half of the year. Prices of industrial commodities have also been resilient despite a tightening in financial markets, as closure of polluting plants and factories have fueled fears of supply shortages in the winter, lifting prices of finished goods including steel and copper products. But factory activity has cooled in the past few months as Beijing extended a crackdown on financial risks, which has increased borrowing costs, while an ongoing government campaign against air pollution has shut many factories and mines. These factors have started to drag on the world’s second-biggest economy, which has defied market expectations with growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by the construction boom and robust exports. Curbs on the property market to fend off speculators are also expected to persist, putting a lid on a range of sectors including construction. In the first 10 months, the firms notched up profits of 6.25 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.3 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 22.8 percent gain in January-September. Mining industry profits soared 405.4 percent from a year earlier in January-October while manufacturing profits were up 20.1 percent. Profits earned by China’s state-owned firms rose 48.7 percent to 1.41 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, picking up from a 47.6 percent increase in January-September. Analysts say higher borrowing costs mean earnings and economic growth will come under more pressure in the year ahead. The weighted average lending rate for non-financial firms, a key indicator reflecting corporate funding costs, rose 9 basis points to 5.76 percent in the third quarter, according to the People’s Bank of China’s latest quarterly monetary implementation report. At the end of October, industrial firms’ liabilities were 6.7 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a 6.7 percent increase at the end of September. Reporting by Zhang Min and Elias Glenn; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-industrial-profits/chinas-industrial-profits-up-25-1-pct-year-on-year-in-oct-growth-slows-from-sept-idUKKBN1DR04B'|'2017-11-27T04:20:00.000+02:00'
'22787946666614b8ac8f30848601b76f88bbc3c4'|'Cedar Realty Trust rejects offer from commercial REIT Wheeler'|'(Reuters) - U.S. shopping center owner Cedar Realty Trust Inc ( CDR.N ) said on Monday it was rejecting an unsolicited offer from Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust ( WHLR.O ) to combine the two companies.Cedar said the offer, which is backed by activist hedge fund Snow Park Capital, was “unrealistic” and cited Wheeler’s poor returns and performance for rejecting it.Wheeler has a market cap of $88.8 million and Cedar’s is $553.4 million, according to Reuters calculations.Cedar said the sizes of the two companies were “incompatible”.Last month, Snow Park Capital sent a letter to Cedar urging the company to explore options, including a potential sale.Wheeler is a self-managed commercial real estate investment company whose major tenants include Kroger Co ( KR.N ) and Dollar Tree Inc ( DLTR.O ).Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Martina D''Couto '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cedar-realty-m-a-wheeler-real-est/cedar-realty-trust-rejects-offer-from-wheeler-reit-idINKBN1DR18R'|'2017-11-27T08:24:00.000+02:00'
'7383413146dd34053271b1e9b940e87914684155'|'Hungary launches rail link tender as CEE-China summit starts'|'November 26, 2017 / 4:12 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Hungary launches rail link tender as CEE-China summit starts Sandor Peto 3 Min Read BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will publish a procurement tender on Monday for a modernised railway link with Serbian capital Belgrade to ship Chinese goods into Western Europe, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto attends an interview with Reuters in Budapest, Hungary September 12, 2017. Picture taken September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo The tender will be published as politicians from China and Central European countries begin a two-day summit in Budapest, with the participation of 16 prime ministers including Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. “We, in this region, have looked at China’s leading role in the new world order as an opportunity rather than a threat,” Szijjarto said in a news conference at Budapest’s main airport ahead of the Chinese Premier’s arrival. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will sign 11 bilateral agreements with China at the summit. Other participating countries and about 1,000 businessmen from the region and China plan to sign dozens of deals, the minister said. The railway link upgrade had been agreed previously and construction of the Hungarian stretch, at an estimated cost of 550 billion forints (1.57 billion pounds), is expected to start in late 2020, with China’s Exim Bank providing 85 percent credit coverage, Szijjarto said. The line could become the main transport route for Chinese goods that arrive by sea at the Greek port of Piraeus and head into other parts of Europe, Szijjarto said. Deals to be signed at the summit include a $500 million credit line from the Exim Bank of China to its Hungarian counterpart to finance lending. China increasingly uses financing to strengthen its presence in the region. Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic is also expected to sign a concession with the China Shandong International Economic and Technical Corporation in Budapest, the region’s transport minister Nedjo Trninic said. The deal would allow the company to charge a road toll on part of a 100 km road it plans to build and fund at an estimated cost of 320 million euros ($382 million) to connect the northwestern town of Banja Luka with the Croatian border. It would be the first road-construction concession for China in the Balkans. The Serb Republic railway company Zeljeznice RS is expected to sign another deal with China Shandong International Economic and Technical Corporation for the reconstruction and modernisation of a railway track alongside the planned road from Banja Luka at a cost of 241 million euros. Additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-hungary-easteurope/hungary-launches-rail-link-tender-as-cee-china-summit-starts-idUKKBN1DQ0NJ'|'2017-11-26T18:13:00.000+02:00'
'2f7e9eda23a41d35e3f5d82556fca8a34869f4a7'|'Exclusive - Meredith nears deal to acquire magazine publisher Time: sources'|'November 26, 2017 / 8:16 PM / in 22 minutes Exclusive: Meredith nears deal to acquire magazine publisher Time - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. media group Meredith Corp ( MDP.N ) is nearing a deal to acquire Time Inc ( TIME.N ), the U.S. publisher of Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, for about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp (2nd L) claps after ringing the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange in New York June 9, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Meredith, whose bid for Time is backed by an affiliate of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, may announce an agreement as early as this week, the sources said. The sources, who requested anonymity because the matter is confidential, cautioned that the talks could collapse at the last minute without a deal. Meredith and Time did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-m-a-meredith/exclusive-meredith-nears-deal-to-acquire-magazine-publisher-time-sources-idUKKBN1DQ0TH'|'2017-11-26T22:19:00.000+02:00'
'840cdf51851846055353d6c25cf2c4503630c486'|'WH Group woos Chinese eaters with spicy pork, sticky rice sausages'|'LUOHE/ZHENGZHOU, China, Nov 27 (Reuters) - WH Group , the world’s top pork producer, is adding new varieties of packaged foods to counter slowing Chinese pork demand and woo the expanding middle class of the world’s most populous nation that is embracing a wider diet of meats.Drawing on the expertise of its Smithfield business in the United States, WH’s domestic unit Shuanghui Development is launching products that meet regional flavours and satisfy the demand for snacking and convenience, while also boosting its range of premium fresh chilled meats.The company is also seeking lucrative supply contracts with hotel and fast food chains like McDonald’s and is even tweaking staple products like bacon, executives said.“First, we want to bring in more Western products, and second, we want to develop more industrialised Chinese products,” Chairman and Chief Executive Wan Long told reporters last week at the company headquarters in Luohe, central China.Among the 100 new products WH introduced this year are the spicy meat snack “Chuan Touli,” inspired by the chilli-infused cuisine of the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, and a sausage containing the southern speciality sticky rice.Shuanghui is China’s top pork processor, slaughtering around 15 million pigs a year and commanding a 29 percent share of the processed meat sold in supermarkets, according to Euromonitor, far ahead of the rest.But, China’s slowing economy and more health-conscious consumers have limited Shuanghui’s sales growth. The country’s fresh and processed retail meat market generates an estimated 944.7 billion yuan ($143.14 billion) in sales each year.Sales of Shuanghui’s packaged meats in the first three quarters of 2017 were down 2.2 percent to $2.49 billion versus the same period last year.WH is also adapting to the complexity of selling meat in China, where tastes differ by region and income level.The overhaul comes four years after WH bought Smithfield, the biggest U.S. pork producer, for $4.7 billion, the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. company at that time.Heat-treated meat products that do not need to be refrigerated, like the individually wrapped snack sausages consumed as fast food across China make up the largest chunk of the country’s processed meat sector.Retail sales of these have been in decline since 2014 as consumers seek healthier options, said Cecilia Yang, an analyst at Euromonitor International.RESTRUCTURING WH restructured its China product development team in the second half of 2016, and now has eight regional development centres that run regular consumer surveys. Before, managers at the headquarters devised new products to cater to the mainland’s 32 provinces and regions.WH’s new products face competition from newer market entrants such as New Hope Liuhe and Cofco Meat . Like Shuanghui, Cofco also now offers a cheese-filled sausage inspired by Japanese trends.The chilled meat sector offers greater growth potential, despite its higher cost that limits demand to China’s larger cities and their wealthier consumers.Shuanghui has also turned to Smithfield’s sales network to win contracts with international restaurant and hotel chains who are more experienced at handling chilled meat than wholesalers, said Pan Guanghui, general manager at Zhengzhou Shuanghui Food Limited Co.Boosting sales volumes will also lift the utilisation capacity across Shuanghui’s 18 plants. They currently run at around 70 percent.“We want to reach the scale of Smithfield’s 30 million,” said Wan, referring to number of hogs processed annually.He did not give a time frame for the target to double annual output, but added that no new investment will be needed as the plants currently only operate on a single shift.Achieving that goal will require consolidation among the country’s thousands of local slaughterhouses, which are protected by regional governments.President Xi Jinping’s high-profile focus on food safety, underlined in his 19th Party Congress speech, may fuel further crackdowns on small, outdated slaughterhouses.“This is very favourable for us,” Ma Xiangjie, a Shuanghui vice president who oversees the firm’s slaughtering, told Reuters. ($1 = 6.5998 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Josephine Mason and Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-pork-wh-group/wh-group-woos-chinese-eaters-with-spicy-pork-sticky-rice-sausages-idINL3N1NR2MX'|'2017-11-26T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'afbbf341d277bfb83cf7d595c578d62b24abd057'|'ADNOC''s distribution unit could raise as much as $2 billion in IPO'|'ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Co’s (ADNOC) unit set an indicative price range for its initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as $2 billion to become the biggest listing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2007.ADNOC Distribution set an indicative price range of between 2.35 dirham ($0.6400) and 2.95 dirhams, it said in a statement on Sunday.ADNOC is selling a minimum of 10 percent, or 1.25 billion shares, and a maximum of 20 percent, or 2.5 billion shares, in the IPO of its unit.At the top of the price range, the deal could be valued at 7.375 billion dirhams ($2.01 billion), assuming it sells a maximum 20 percent.That would make it the biggest IPO in the UAE since 2007 when DP World ( DPW.DI ) raised nearly $5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.The planned listing comes as Abu Dhabi is pushing its state companies to float on the bourse, hoping to lure foreign investors with privatizations after a fall in oil prices since mid-2014 depleted its coffers.The unit’s total market value could be between $8 billion to $10 billion.Analysts had earlier valued the total fuel distribution unit at between $11 billion and $14 billion in reports prepared by banks advising the firm on the planned listing, sources had told Reuters earlier.The company valuation implies a 2018 dividend yield of 6 percent to 7.5 percent and a 2019 dividend yield of 4 percent to 5 percent.ADNOC’s CEO Sultan al-Jaber said in the statement that the IPO’s price range was compelling and it was an attractive dividend prospect. Investors are getting a unique opportunity to invest in the UAE’s number one fuel retail brand, he said.Under his leadership, ADNOC has embarked on a major shake-up plan to privatize its services businesses, venture into oil trading and expand partnerships with strategic investors. .ADNOC Distribution is the leading fuel distributor in the UAE, with a market share of around 67 percent in the country by number of retail fuel service stations.Abu Dhabi’s national oil company earlier this month unveiled details of ADNOC Distribution’s listing, as Gulf states step up plans to privatize energy assets in an era of cheap oil.Saudi Arabia plans to list 5 percent of Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] by the end of next year, which Saudi officials say could raise $100 billion, making it the world’s biggest IPO.Citigroup ( C.N ), First Abu Dhabi Bank FAB.AD, HSBC ( HSBA.L ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) are joint global coordinators for the ADNOC unit’s offer and bookrunners alongside EFG Hermes ( HRHO.CA ), Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ). Rothschild is the sole financial adviser.Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adnoc-ipo/adnocs-distribution-unit-could-raise-as-much-as-2-billion-in-ipo-idINKBN1DQ042'|'2017-11-26T01:57:00.000+02:00'
'b7c3e3ef92fe9c73d8a0e782aaf037c1f067b669'|'Online sales? Maybe one day, says Chanel'|'UK''s huge current account deficit set to stay larger for longer market analysis Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Militants kill more than 230 at mosque in Egypt Reuters TV United States November 24, 2017 / 6:28 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Online sales? Maybe one day, says Chanel Sarah White , Pascale Denis 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s Chanel has no immediate plans for online sales of its coveted outfits or handbags, a senior executive said on Friday, making it one of the fashion world’s last hold-outs as rivals experiment with websites to win over new clients. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a wall with logos of French luxury goods maker Chanel in Nice, France, February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo The label, known for its tweed suits and $4,300-plus quilted leather bags, already sells perfumes online, like its Chanel No 5, as well as eyeglasses and beauty products. But it will draw the line there for the foreseeable future, said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel. “If you give everything to everyone straight away, I think you lose that exclusivity,” Pavlovsky told a Vogue conference in Paris. “I‘m not saying we won’t try it one day, but if we do it will be because we’ll really think there’s some added value.” Luxury goods brands were slow to develop e-commerce sites as they worried that making products too widely available would erode their cachet. But most have now taken the plunge. Conglomerate LVMH ( LVMH.PA ), parent to Louis Vuitton, hired a former Apple executive and recently launched a site hosting multiple labels, though its online strategy at each of its brands still varies wildly. Web sales will make up some 10 percent of revenues in the luxury goods market this year, according to consultancy Bain, which projects they could reach 25 percent by 2025. FILE PHOTO: Chanel logo is seen on the company''s store in central Kiev, Ukraine, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo But Chanel’s out-of-step attitude was not a drag on the business, Pavlovsky said, adding that the label, founded by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in 1910, was reaching an increasingly young audience and had waiting lists for best-selling bags. Controlled by secretive billionaires Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Chanel does not regularly release financial results. FILE PHOTO: A guest attends the Chanel Fall/Winter 2016/2017 women''s ready-to-wear collection show at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo According to figures filed with the Amsterdam exchange, Chanel’s net profit fell nearly 35 percent in 2016 and sales dropped 9 percent to $5.7 billion. Most major rivals have enjoyed a sales bounce in 2017. Chanel is no stranger to digital marketing, however, showing images on media like Instagram and Twitter from its extravagant catwalk shows and collections by designer Karl Lagerfeld. But buyers want to try on the clothes, Pavlovsky said, adding that the business would look into providing “e-services” to allow buyers to reserve items online or make store appointments. “Every time I‘m in China I meet clients who come and say, ‘whatever you do don’t do e-commerce. The day you do it for us this won’t be exclusive anymore’,” Pavlovsky said. Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-chanel-internet/online-sales-maybe-one-day-says-chanel-idUKKBN1DO2BB'|'2017-11-24T20:24:00.000+02:00'
'9fcdf06acdcb1b518eab5d436b6276150135b88a'|'Singapore''s Sabana REIT calls off talks with Warburg Pincus-backed unit'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Sabana Shariah Compliant Industrial REIT ( SABA.SI ) said on Saturday that it has ceased talks with Warburg Pincus-backed e-Shang Redwood (ESR) that were exploring options related to the Sabana REIT’s strategic review.Sources familiar with the process told Reuters in August that Asian logistics developer e-Shang Redwood was in advanced talks to buy the Sabana real estate investment trust (REIT), as a first step in the consolidation of Singapore’s $3.5 billion mid-cap industrial trusts.The board of directors of Sabana Real Estate Investment Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of the Sabana REIT, said in a statement on Saturday that those talks with ESR have ended.“The Manager wishes to update that discussions between the Manager and the ESR-REIT Manager have ceased. However, the Manager remains open to considering proposals from prospective strategic partners which will further strengthen Sabana REIT,” Sabana said in a statement.When contacted by Reuters, Warburg Pincus and ESR both declined to comment.Both Sabana and a unit of ESR had confirmed in August that they were holding discussions in connection with Sabana’s strategic review, although they also said there was no assurance that any transaction will materialize from the talks.Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabanasharia-m-a-esr/singapores-sabana-reit-calls-off-talks-with-warburg-pincus-backed-unit-idUSKBN1DP04I'|'2017-11-25T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'94287faae6e15ed83fc11d379a004ac8842311a6'|'ThyssenKrupp kicks off talks with union on steel merger'|'ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Managers and labor leaders at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp ( TKAG.DE ) have struck a conciliatory tone as they seek to resolve a dispute over job cuts resulting from a planned merger of its steel operations with those of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ).A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen The de-escalation came after 8,000 steel workers protested on Wednesday, the day the Essen-based company announced improved annual results and a record order book, demanding guarantees to preserve jobs and production sites for 10 years.“The negotiations started in a matter-of-fact atmosphere,” a company spokesman said late on Friday after a working group held a first round of talks.A spokesman for the IG Metall trade union said the two sides had agreed on two of its demands - for an independent appraisal of the deal, as well a study of the risks arising from Tata Steel’s pension obligations to its British workers.Managers from both companies will inspect each other’s production sites over the next two weeks to examine their respective operational fitness.Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in September announced plans for a joint venture that would create Europe’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ). The merger would result in up to 4,000 job cuts, although workers fear the toll could end up higher.Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger has said the deal actually offers the best chance to preserve jobs as ThyssenKrupp, which employs 27,000 people in its steel division, seeks to diversify into more promising businesses like high-tech elevators and car components.“Everything that will be negotiated and possibly agreed will depend on our judgment of these appraisals,” IG Metall said. “The same applies: If (the merger) is not economically viable it doesn’t represent a concept that IG Metall can support.”Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; writing by Douglas Busvine; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel/thyssenkrupp-kicks-off-talks-with-union-on-steel-merger-idINKBN1DP077'|'2017-11-25T10:18:00.000+02:00'
'a5cf7f63697a5551fa2a03b2f4708a2de4272dbd'|'ThyssenKrupp lifted by record orders as shifts from steel'|'November 24, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 6 hours ago ThyssenKrupp lifted by record orders as shifts from steel Christoph Steitz , Tom Käckenhoff 4 Min Read ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Demand for next-generation lifts and car components enabled Thyssenkrupp to report its highest annual order intake in five years as the German firm slowly exits steelmaking. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen Thyssenkrupp is in the middle of a major shift under Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger towards technology and away from the more volatile steel industry, its traditional mainstay. It has sold its money-losing Brazilian steel mill CSA Cia Siderúrgica do Atlántico SA to Ternium SA and struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India’s Tata Steel in 2018. “The structural problems in the European steel industry have not gone away. We still have significant overcapacities also on the European flat steel market,” Hiesinger said on Thursday. But labour representatives are demanding job protection for workers and say Thyssenkrupp is shirking responsibility for a business whose roots go back more than 200 years. Hiesinger said he remained confident an agreement with workers can be found as thousands were expected to stage demonstrations at Thyssenkrupp’s tin plate production site in Andernach, calling for job and plant guarantees. “All conceivable alternatives would involve far greater job cuts,” Hiesinger said, referring to 2,000 job losses that were already announced along with the joint venture in September. Shareholder Cevian, which holds around 18 percent of Thyssenkrupp, described the results as concerning, saying management had set a target four years ago to achieve operating margins of 6-7 percent but was only making half that. “The strategy has not yet delivered what was promised” Cevian co-founder Lars Foerberg told German daily Handelsblatt in an interview. He said while the company had found a good solution for the steel division, it needed to look at finding the right structure for its other divisions to become more competitive. “There are various options to find the right structure. A joint venture, decentralised company structure, spin-off. The main point is that old-style conglomerates don’t work,” he said. The chief executive of Siemens also said earlier this month that he saw no future for old-school conglomerates. CATCHING A LIFT While slowly reducing its dependency on steel, Thyssenkrupp is staking its future on its elevators unit, its most profitable, as well as demand from the automotive sector, its biggest customer group accounting for about a quarter of sales. ThyssenKrupp’s order intake rose 18 percent to 44.29 billion euros ($52 billion) in the financial year to Sept. 30 while adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 1.91 billion euros, beating the 1.73 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. Operating profit at its elevators unit, which mostly caters to clients in the United States and Europe with its internet-connected elevators, rose 7 percent to 922 million euros, making it the group’s single biggest profit contributor. At its components technology unit, which supplies parts to nine out of 10 premium cars, including all models of electric car maker Tesla, operating profit grew 12 percent to 377 million euros. Shares in the group turned positive after sharp early falls, and closed up almost 4 percent. “The numbers came out better than feared, although the outlook could disappoint people a bit,” said one trader. Thyssenkrupp, which recommended an unchanged dividend of 0.15 euros per share, said it expects adjusted EBIT this year of 1.8-2.0 billion euros while analysts on average expect 2.03 billion euros. ($1 = 0.8462 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/thyssenkrupp-results/thyssenkrupp-lifted-by-record-orders-as-shifts-from-steel-idINKBN1DO082'|'2017-11-24T00:22:00.000+02:00'
'59f7ed138667ab4ff4ce0408ae7444471b67b025'|'Slice of the profits: Just Eat’s magical valuation shows how much we love takeaways - Money'|'  13.37 GMT Name: Just Eat. Age: 16. Appearance: A true British success story. Oh, thank heavens, some good news to lift the gloom. Absolutely. The fortunes of Just Eat keep going up and up. It’s poised to enter the FTSE 100 , in fact. Wow, that’s incredible. Just out of interest, what is Just Eat? It’s a website that lets you order takeaway food online. You may have seen its new advert, with the tagline “Magic is real” . I see. And it’s popular, is it? Hugely so. Just Eat pretty much dominates the takeaway market. It has recently acquired smaller competitors such as Skip the Dishes and, as a result, managed to fulfil 26m orders from 78,000 different restaurants in the three-month period up to September. The company is worth £5.6bn. Is it a good website? Not especially, but it has caught the prevailing dining trend of the moment. People are generally less interested in eating out these days, preferring to order something to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. And what about cooking ? What’s that now? What about people cooking for themselves? I don’t understand your concept. You know, cooking for yourself. Buying ingredients and combining them with heat in order to create your own food. Right, I get it, like a DIY Just Eat. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. Seriously? Seriously. We now spend a third more on takeaways in the UK than we did eight years ago. It’s a £9.9bn industry, and growing fast. Just Eat alone is now worth more than Sainsbury’s, where people can buy these so-called “ingredients” for their “home cookingry”. It’s “cookery”. Either way, get with the times. This is just how people eat now. They’re tired and broke, and after a long day toiling for pennies they just want a harried biker to hand them over a bag of easy calories. That can’t be good for the nation’s burgeoning obesity crisis . Hey everyone, get a load of Jamie Oliver over here. Not a fan of British success, this one. Tell you what, go and take your gaunt lack of patriotism somewhere else, pal. Wasn’t Just Eat founded by a Danish man ? Was it? Oh, well, that changes everything. Takeaways are the devil. Quick, someone grate a carrot into my mouth! Do say: “Just Eat: Magic is real.” Don’t say: “Atherosclerosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are also real, FYI.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2017/nov/24/slice-of-the-profits-just-eats-magical-valuation-shows-how-much-we-love-takeaways'|'2017-11-24T20:37:00.000+02:00'
'4a61da40969c4b659efe56dc1d4e9cde1ddffc00'|'German car makers warned of possible battery materials shortage - Welt am Sonntag'|'November 26, 2017 / 4:02 PM / Updated 5 hours ago German car makers warned of possible battery materials shortage - Welt am Sonntag Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German car industry risks running short of key raw materials for automotive batteries, hampering a planned boost in the production of electric vehicles (EVs), Germany’s largest industry association BDI warned. “The risk of running into bottlenecks in raw material supply is increasing because demand is growing faster than production capacity,” Matthias Wachter, head of security and raw materials at the BDI was quoted as saying by Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag. “Without sufficient supplies for instance of cobalt, graphite, lithium or manganese there won’t be any future technology ‘made in Germany’,” he added. Demand for these materials is expected to soar as carmakers rush to embrace EVs in response to governments around the world cracking down on pollution. German carmaker Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) said it is pushing to secure long-term supply contracts to avoid material shortages as it aims to invest 34 billion euros (30.42 billion pounds) in battery-powered cars by 2022 to challenge Tesla ( TSLA.O ). Daimler’s DAIGN.DE Mercedes brand plans to offer an electric version of every model it sells by 2022, while rival BMW ( BMWG.DE ), a pioneer in electric cars with its i3 model, has vowed to achieve mass production by 2025 with 12 fully electric models. Recycling companies such as Belgium’s Umicore ( UMI.BR ) or U.S. group Retriev Technologies are preparing to extract metals from old batteries so they can capitalise on an expected shortfall in materials. Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-materials-electromobility/german-car-makers-warned-of-possible-battery-materials-shortage-welt-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1DQ0MS'|'2017-11-26T18:01:00.000+02:00'
'a05a6646baff268395eb63a86efdfe0265ec3f23'|'Linde gets 90 percent shareholder backing for Praxair merger'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Industrial gases group Linde ( LING.DE ) said on Friday it had received approval from 90 percent of its shareholders for its planned $80 billion tie-up with Praxair ( PX.N ).Linde Group logo is seen at a company building in Munich-Pullach, Germany August 16, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo If the merger completes, Linde would be in a position to initiate a so-called squeeze-out of minority shareholders under German law, Linde said in an update on the merger as required under stock exchange rules.It said that no decision with respect to such a squeeze-out had yet been taken. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-linde-m-a-praxair/linde-gets-90-percent-shareholder-backing-for-praxair-merger-idUSKBN1DO2DE'|'2017-11-25T02:52:00.000+02:00'
'edf279fe2b0cfee9c3d7f828c6e01c5f48efdf53'|'Exclusive - Ukraine tycoon files suit against AlixPartners over PrivatBank nationalisation'|'November 24, 2017 / 9:03 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Exclusive: Ukraine tycoon files suit against AlixPartners over PrivatBank nationalization Matthias Williams , Natalia Zinets 4 Min Read KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky has filed a lawsuit against the New York-based global consulting firm AlixPartners over their work with the Ukrainian central bank around the nationalization of PrivatBank, Kolomoisky told Reuters on Friday. AlixPartners declined comment, and the central bank did not offer any immediate comment. Kolomoisky is the former co-owner of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest lender, which was nationalized last December after the central bank found what it said were risky lending practices and a capital shortfall of more than $5.5 billion. Kolomoisky and the bank’s other main former shareholder, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, have challenged the justification for the nationalization and accuse the central bank of misrepresenting PrivatBank’s finances. Kolomoisky’s suit, which was filed at the High Court in London on Nov. 20, is one of a myriad of cases and investigations that have sprung up since PrivatBank was taken under state control. “I am deeply disappointed that my formerly trusted advisors AlixPartners ... have chosen to act against my interests in this way, and that I have been obliged to take legal measures to protect my position,” Kolomoisky said through a representative. Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest men, says AlixPartners obtained information confidential to him while they were working for his former legal team in an unrelated case, before going on to work for the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) last year. The work, as Kolomoisky’s side sees it, may include helping attempts by the central bank and PrivatBank to make “recovery claims” against third parties that could include himself. In a separate emailed statement, the consultancy Gabara Strategies said, on behalf of Kolomoisky’s lawyers, that the work of AlixPartners for PrivatBank and the NBU was “plainly adverse to Mr Kolomoisky’s interests as a former shareholder in PrivatBank”. “As a result, he has issued proceedings in the High Court in London to seek to protect the confidential information that AlixPartners obtained through their role in the Pinchuk Claim,” the statement said, referring to their earlier work. Kolomoisky is seeking an injunction to prevent AlixPartners working with the central bank or PrivatBank, and an order requiring AlixPartners to terminate contracts with third parties in relation to the same work. That includes any contracts with Kroll, the risk consulting firm that the central bank says is working on a forensic report about PrivatBank. PrivatBank declined to comment, referring questions to the central bank, and Kroll also declined to comment. Bogolyubov gave notice this month that he may seek compensation for what he called an “unlawful expropriation”, and accused the authorities of a smear campaign. “After the nationalization, Ukraine has continued to target the bank’s former shareholders with untrue allegations and trawl through the bank’s affairs with outside advisers in an effort to find ex post facto justifications for expropriating the bank without compensation,” the notice said. Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-privatbank-exclusive/exclusive-ukraine-tycoon-files-suit-against-alixpartners-over-privatbank-nationalization-idUKKBN1DO2JT'|'2017-11-24T22:57:00.000+02:00'
'850617480e9eac9f57fa922e2b76293c1d9c5116'|'German chemicals companies should review British ops - trade body'|'November 23, 2017 / 9:27 AM / in 38 minutes German chemicals companies should review British ops - trade body Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s chemicals industry trade body has recommended that companies reconsider their investments in Britain in the face of possible customs duties and rule changes after the country leaves the European Union, German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported. “It is advisable that every company review its supply chains and ask itself whether they can remain as they are,” Wirtschaftswoche reported Attila Gerhaeuser, head of chemical trade lobby VCI’s European office, as saying. A VCI policy paper said post-Brexit customs duties on chemicals and pharmaceuticals could cost Germany’s chemicals sector around 200 million euros (178.09 million pounds) a year, it said. New chemicals regulation or approval processes for pesticides could add further costs, Wirtschaftswoche reported. Germany’s chemicals industry, the economy’s third-biggest sector, includes companies such as BASF ( BASFn.DE ), Bayer ( BAYGn.DE ) and Evonik ( EVKn.DE ) and exports chemicals worth around 12 billion euros a year to Britain. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Douglas Busvine and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-germany-chemicals/german-chemicals-companies-should-review-british-ops-trade-body-idUKKBN1DN0TW'|'2017-11-23T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'3198bc570e215fe85f54499acd85a3e6327093e8'|'UPDATE 1-U.S.-based stock ETFs attract $9.4 bln of inflows in latest week -Lipper'|'(Adds analyst Quote: on ETF vs active mutual fund flows, byline) By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Investors poured $9.4 billion into U.S.-based stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the week ended Wednesday, the group''s eighth consecutive week of inflows, against a backdrop of record closing highs on major markets, Lipper data showed on Friday. Retail investors, however, yanked money out of U.S.-based stock mutual funds, pulling $3.5 billion during the same period, continuing a heavy streak of outflows that has persisted in all but two weekly periods in 2017, Lipper data showed. ETFs are generally believed to represent the investment behavior of institutional investors including hedge funds, while mutual funds are thought to represent the mom-and-pop retail investor. "Increasingly advisors and retail investors are choosing lower-cost ETFs over active equity mutual funds in an effort to put more money to work, because ETFs have performed better and as regulations for advisors have favored index-based strategies," said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and Mutual Fund Research at CFRA. Risk-taking was also on display in parts of the U.S. corporate credit markets. U.S.-based investment-grade corporate bond funds attracted $2.6 billion of inflows in the latest week, their 10th consecutive week of inflows, Lipper said. At the lower end of the credit-quality spectrum, junk bonds were avoided again by investors. U.S.-based high-yield bond funds posted $209 million of outflows in the week ended Wednesday. U.S.-based international equities attracted $2 billion in the latest week, the sector''s 14th consecutive week of inflows, Lipper added. For their part, emerging-market debt funds posted inflows of $322 million and emerging-market equities posted outflows of $68 million, according to Lipper data. U.S.-based domestic equities funds saw $3.88 billion of inflows in the latest week ended Wednesday, following $2.35 billion of outflows the previous week. U.S.-based non-domestic equities funds posted inflows of $2 billion in the latest week, their 10th straight week of inflows, according to Lipper data. Investors hedged their equity exposure by stashing some money away in cash and cash-equivalent accounts. U.S.-based money market funds attracted $14.4 billion of inflows in the latest week, their third straight week of inflows, Lipper said. The following is a breakdown of the flows for the week, including mutual funds and ETFs: Sector Flow Chg % Assets Assets Count ($Bil) ($Bil) All Equity Funds 5.911 0.09 6,627.814 12,126 Domestic Equities 3.881 0.09 4,524.314 8,654 Non-Domestic 2.029 0.10 2,103.500 3,472 Equities All Taxable Bond 2.413 0.09 2,607.392 6,030 Funds All Money Market 14.359 0.57 2,539.795 1,053 Funds All Municipal Bond 0.659 0.16 400.114 1,476 Funds (Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/investment-mutualfunds-lipper/update-1-u-s-based-stock-etfs-attract-9-4-bln-of-inflows-in-latest-week-lipper-idUSL1N1NU1NZ'|'2017-11-25T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'04068baaefb0bb3483f8b9380bdc6daf1825db22'|'Meredith to buy U.S. publisher Time in Koch-backed deal'|'(Reuters) - U.S. media company Meredith Corp said on Sunday it will buy Time Inc, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.The deal is a coup for Meredith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year and in 2013.It will give news, business and sports brands to the Des Moines, Iowa-based publisher and broadcaster, which owns lifestyle magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle. Analysts have said that bulking up on publishing assets could give Meredith the scale required to spin off its broadcasting arm into a standalone company.When combined, the Meredith and Time brands will have a readership of 135 million people and paid circulation of nearly 60 million. The deal also will expand Meredith’s reach with internet-savvy millenials, creating a digital media business with 170 million monthly unique visitors in the United States and more than 10 billion annual video views.The Koch brothers are two of the world’s richest men through their ownership of Koch Industries, a sprawling industrial empire that manufactures such products as Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra.Koch Equity Development, the private equity arm of the Koch brothers, agreed to offer Meredith $650 million in preferred equity to fund the Time acquisition. The companies said the Koch unit will not have a seat on Meredith’s board and will have no influence on Meredith’s editorial or managerial operations.The Kochs, known for their advocacy of conservative policies and influence on some quarters of the Republican Party, had previously expressed interest in buying media properties such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune in 2013.Their involvement in the Time deal “underscores a strong belief in Meredith’s strength as a business operator, its strategies, and its ability to unlock significant value from the Time acquisition,” according to the companies’ statement announcing the deal.Meredith said it expected the deal to close in the first three months of 2018. Reuters reported earlier on Sunday that the companies were nearing an agreement.Including debt, the deal values Time at $2.8 billion. Meredith said it anticipated cost savings achieved by eliminating overlap in the two companies of $400 million to $500 million in the first full two years of operation. Meredith added it would launch a tender to acquire Time shares for $18.50 in cash.“We are adding the rich content-creation capabilities of some of the media industry’s strongest national brands to a powerful local television business that is generating record earnings, offering advertisers and marketers unparalleled reach to American adults,” Meredith Chief Executive Stephen Lacy said in the statement.Meredith said it would continue to pay its current annual dividend of $2.08 per share, and expects ongoing annual dividend increases.A commemorative issue of People magazine is seen on a newsstand in New York August 4, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo TIME STRUGGLED ON ITS OWN Time Warner Inc spun off Time, which also publishes the eponymous current affairs magazine, as a standalone company in June 2014. Since then, New York-based Time had struggled in an industry-wide decline in print media, as circulation shrinks and advertisers shift to digital platforms.Meredith, which has a capitalization of $2.7 billion, tried to merge with Richmond, Virginia-based broadcaster Media General in 2015, but Nexstar Media Group Inc ended up acquiring that company for $4.6 billion.Time shares ended trading on Friday at $16.90, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.Time, led by CEO Rich Battista, has been undergoing a strategic plan that includes revamping its cost structure and focusing on its digital business. It has also been exploring a sale of several magazines titles, such as Coastal Living, Sunset and Golf and a majority stake in Essence as well as Time Inc UK.The assets it had earmarked for a potential sale represented about $488 million in revenue for the year ended June 30, the company has said.In September, it named its former digital editor, Edward Felsenthal, to be the new editor in chief of Time. It has also expanded into streaming video channels, launching Sports Illustrated TV through Amazon earlier this month.Time said earlier in November that in the third quarter, its total revenue slipped 9.5 percent to $679 million, missing analysts’ estimates of $693.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It marked the sixth straight quarter the company had missed expectations for revenue.Battista, who will leave Time when the deal with Meredith closes, will work closely with the Meredith management team to ensure a smooth transition, the companies said on Sunday.The magazine industry has been consolidating for several years. Men’s Health magazine publisher Rodale said it would sell itself to larger rival Hearst last month. Wenner Media, the owner of Rolling Stone, said in September it was exploring a sale of the music magazine.BDT & Company and Moelis & Company are serving as financial advisers to Meredith, and Cooley LLP is serving as legal counsel. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch are serving as financial advisers to Time Inc and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is serving as legal advisor.Rothschild Inc and Credit Suisse are serving as financial advisers to Koch Equity Development, and Jones Day is serving as legal counsel. RBC Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, Barclays and Citigroup Global Markets Inc provided debt financing for the deal.Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Will Dunham '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-m-a-meredith/meredith-to-buy-u-s-publisher-time-in-koch-backed-deal-idINKBN1DR061'|'2017-11-27T04:57:00.000+02:00'
'196540e743a4abb875107794c3b84a9ef776b69a'|'Shell and carmakers aim to go the distance with highway charging'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:19 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Shell and carmakers aim to go the distance with highway charging Ron Bousso 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) has partnered with top carmakers to deploy ultra-fast chargers on Europe’s highways, stealing a march on rivals in the race to remove one of the biggest obstacles facing the electric car sector. FILE PHOTO: Shell''s company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Shell’s agreement with IONITY - a joint venture between BMW ( BMWG.DE ), Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ), Ford ( F.N ) and Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) - will initially bring high-powered docks to 80 highway sites in 2019, it said in a statement. Power giants including France’s Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) and Germany’s E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), as well as niche players such as U.S. start-up ChargePoint, are all building vehicle-charging networks in Europe, but Shell says the IONITY technology is key to addressing the problem of journey distances. While electric vehicles still account for only a small fraction of the global car market, the pace of growth and a sustained period of low crude prices is prompting oil companies to reassess century-old business models as the world move towards cleaner modes of transportation. Under Shell’s most aggressive projections the company expects the global electric vehicle fleet to grow from about 1 percent of the entire auto fleet today to 10 percent by 2025, displacing oil demand equating to about 800,000 barrels per day. Rival BP ( BP.L ) said in August that it was talking to electric car manufacturers on deals to offer battery recharging docks at its stations. RANGE BOOST The number of electric vehicle charging points in Europe nearly tripled from 2014 to 2017 to reach almost 120,000, according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory. FILE PHOTO: The charging plug of an electric Volkswagen Passat car is pictured at charging station at a VW dealer in Berlin, Germany, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo However, manufacturers have struggled to offer solutions for getting drivers to go beyond short journeys, mostly within cities, because of battery limitations, a lack of charging stations and long charging times. With the IONITY technology, cars with advanced charging capacity of up to 350 kilowatts will take as little as five to eight minutes to charge, Shell said. It can take several hours to charge a regular electric car today. “Customers want to go on long journeys in their electric vehicles and feel confident that there are reliable, comfortable and convenient places to charge them quickly,” said Shell’s head of retail Istvan Kapitany. The 80 charging stations will be deployed in Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. With an additional 20 stations expected to be added in Germany, about a quarter of Shell’s stations along highways in Europe will offer high-power electric charging within two years, Kapitany told Reuters. Shell will invest in changing power supplies to its stations to meet growing demand, he said, declining to disclose the size of the investment or terms of the IONITY deal. The IONITY partners joined forces with a plan to build a pan-European network of 400 charging stations by 2020. The initiative is latest in a number of small Shell investments in charging technology in recent months, including the acquisition of Dutch-based NewMotion, owner of one of Europe’s largest charging networks. Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autos-batteries-shell/shell-and-carmakers-aim-to-go-the-distance-with-highway-charging-idUKKBN1DR00S'|'2017-11-27T02:19:00.000+02:00'
'be972c2acabd8f4fd0ea2e0b88ca4531c02f79bc'|'Saudi Aramco, SABIC plan to build $20 billion oil-to-chemicals complex'|'DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - State oil giant Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] and petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) signed a preliminary deal on Sunday to build a $20 billion complex to convert crude oil to chemicals.FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The project, which the partners said would be the largest crude-to-chemicals facility in the world and the first in the kingdom, are part of the Saudi government’s effort to diversify the economy beyond exporting crude.Private investment has slowed in the kingdom in the last few years due to low oil prices and government austerity, so Riyadh wants to develop manufacturing industries, including chemicals.After signing the memorandum of understanding, Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser told reporters a final decision on whether to go ahead with the project would be made by the end of 2019.Investment costs for the complex, which could start production in 2025, would be shared equally.“The two companies can pool their expertise and, given the large size of the capex, partnering hedges their risk,” said Michael Arne, head of emerging technologies research at IHS Markit.Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has been developing its downstream business as the government prepares to sell up to 5 percent of its shares next year in an initial public offering (IPO).The CEOs of both firms said they were considering locating the complex at the Red Sea port city and industrial centre of Yanbu. But Nasser said there were also other options, with factors such as proximity to markets guiding a decision.Yousef al-Benyan, SABIC’s CEO said the two companies would examine the best technology to use, after they had been working on different technologies to convert crude to chemicals before deciding to team up.Benyan said the project could involve two or three crackers, which are used to break heavy hydrocarbons into petrochemicals. The use of so-called flexi-crackers would enable the firms to break down a range of feeds - oil, gas or naphtha.The complex would process crude at international prices to make polyethylene, polypropylene, xylene, benzene and other products, Nasser said.The Saudi project would process about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian light crude oil to make about 9 million tonnes of chemicals and base oils a year, plus 200,000 bpd of diesel for domestic use.The new complex would create an estimated 30,000 jobs directly and indirectly, adding 1.5 percent to Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product by 2030, the companies said.The venture would help SABIC expand operations in the kingdom and give it more feedstock options, Benyan said.SABIC has been diversifying its feed base. In China, it plans to make chemicals from coal. In the United States, it wants to build a plant with Exxon Mobil that uses shale gas.Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Keith WeirOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-aramco-sabic-chemicals/saudi-aramco-sabic-plan-to-build-20-billion-oil-to-chemicals-complex-idINKBN1DQ0D2'|'2017-11-26T07:52:00.000+02:00'
'defb5d278c4979cedf4226f7a6ffaf41c11ef7dc'|'U.S. crude tops two-year high as Keystone outage hits supply'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:27 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago U.S. crude tops two-year high as Keystone outage hits supply Catherine Ngai 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices hit their highest levels in more than two years on Friday after the continued shutdown of a pipeline running from Canada to the United States was expected to reduce supply into a major storage facility. Oil pump jacks are seen next to a strawberry field in Oxnard, California February 24, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) CLc1 settled up 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $58.95 a barrel. Trading volumes were thin on Friday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 rose 31 cents, or 0.49 percent, to settle at $63.86 a barrel. TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO )’s 590,000 barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline, linking Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries, shut on Nov. 16 after a spill was found in South Dakota. It is not clear when the pipeline would return to operation, but it carries a large portion of crude into Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI futures, so its shutdown means fewer barrels going into storage. The spread between the prompt and second month WTI futures CLc1-CLc2, an indicator of supply-demand balances at Cushing, also traded up to 10 cents in backwardation where prompt barrels are more expensive. “We’re expecting to continue seeing draws out of Cushing, which turned the WTI market into backwardation,” said Tariq Zahir at Tyche Capital Advisors, referring to a market structure where prompt prices are higher than those in the future. “But all of these gains could go right down into the tubs a week from today if Russia says they don’t want to go along with any OPEC deal. Or, if we get grumblings from Iraq or Iran,” he added. Markets have also tightened globally due to output cuts since January by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other producers. OPEC meets on Nov. 30 and is expected to extend the pact to curb supplies beyond its expiry in March, although Russia has sent mixed signals about its support for an extension. “With the majority of OPEC members endorsing an extension, Russian support is the key risk,” Jon Rigby, head of oil research at UBS, wrote in a note. President Vladimir Putin indicated in October that Russia backed extending the deal to the end of 2018, but comments by officials and in the Russian media have created uncertainty since then, he said. J.P. Morgan said a decision on any extension could be delayed until next year if Brent stayed above $60. However, rising U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has curbed crude price gains, as it fills some of the gap left by OPEC and its allies. U.S. output has jumped by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd, thanks largely to shale drilling. Additional by reporting by Polina Ivanova in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-rise-to-two-year-high-on-pipeline-outage-idUKKBN1DO037'|'2017-11-24T21:12:00.000+02:00'
'4ac55cd29afc57964e97054963ea16dcaf5e06fb'|'China''s HNA gave ''untrue'' details during Gategroup takeover- Swiss watchdog'|'November 25, 2017 / 5:06 PM / in 15 minutes China''s HNA gave ''untrue'' details during Gategroup takeover- Swiss watchdog Reuters Staff 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA ( 0521.HK ) gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Gategroup, the Swiss Takeover Board said, but HNA replied that it had provided all necessary information and the deal would not be affected. FILE PHOTO: The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo In April last year, aviation and shipping group HNA agreed an all-cash deal to buy airline catering firm Gategroup for $1.5 billion. It has announced $50 billion (37.50 billion pounds) of acquisitions in just over two years. HNA’s debt-fueled strategy peaked this year when it bought stakes in Hilton ( HLT.N ) and Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), but bankers have voiced concern about HNA’s leverage levels and ownership structure. The Swiss regulator said in a statement provided in English late on Friday that some information given by HNA’s aviation branch “as disclosed in the Offer Prospectus dated 20 May 2016 is partially untrue respectively incomplete”. HNA said in a statement that it “fully cooperated with the Swiss Takeover Board and provided the necessary information. HNA acknowledges the Swiss Takeover Board’s determination on the subject.” “The decision ... does not have any impact on the validity of the takeover of Gategroup as such, which has been successfully completed. This ruling addresses a very specific event in May 2016 in Switzerland which is naturally not being investigated in any other jurisdiction,” HNA said. The Takeover Board said that stakes in HNA Group held by Bharat Bhisé and Jun Guan amounted to 17.15 percent and 12.01 percent, respectively, and not – as specified in the offer prospectus of May 20, 2016 – 17.40 percent and 12.35 percent. “Bharat Bhisé and Jun Guan held their participations in HNA ... as trustees for Chen Feng, Wang Jian, Tan Xiangdong, Li Xianhua, Li Qing as well as Chen Wenli, which is why the latter should have also been disclosed as beneficial owners of these participations in the offer prospectus,” it said. “Chen Feng, Wang Jian, Tan Xiangdong, Li Xianhua, Li Qing as well as Chen Wenli should have been disclosed as a group controlling HNA Group Co, Ltd and thus indirectly also controlling HNA Aviation (Hong Kong) Air Catering Holding Co in the offer prospectus of 20 May 2016.” The board mandated Ernst & Young to check whether the group consisting of Chen Feng, Wang Jian, Tan Xiangdong, Li Xianhua, Li Qing and Chen Wenli as well as Bharat Bhisé and Jun Guan had complied with minimum price and best price rules. HNA is also to pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($51,000). ($1 = 0.9796 Swiss francs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-switzerland-hna-regulator/chinas-hna-gave-untrue-details-during-gategroup-takeover-swiss-watchdog-idUKKBN1DP0KU'|'2017-11-25T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'b5db81eba1ffd8b5498719dee3e347a010f8405d'|'China''s HNA gave ''untrue'' details during Gategroup takeover - Swiss watchdog'|'November 25, 2017 / 8:32 PM / in 6 hours China''s HNA gave ''untrue'' details during Gategroup takeover: Swiss watchdog Reuters Staff 4 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA ( 0521.HK ), under scrutiny at home and abroad over a debt-fueled acquisition spree, gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup last year, the Swiss Takeover Board said. FILE PHOTO: The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo In a statement late on Friday, the regulator said the aviation and shipping group had failed to disclose that company executives held controlling stakes in the conglomerate and also gave incorrect shareholdings for the top two stakeholders - Bharat Bhise and Guan Jun - in the Gategroup offer prospectus. HNA said in a statement that it had provided all necessary information and the Gateway deal would not be affected. HNA’s all-cash $1.5 billion deal for Gategroup was part of a $50 billion buying binge over two years that included stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ) and Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ). Bankers have since voiced concern about HNA’s leverage levels and ownership structure.. The Swiss regulator said Bhise and Guan had acted as trustees holding shares for HNA co-chairmen Chen Feng and Wang Jian, Chief Executive Adam Tan and three other people, and they should have been listed as beneficial owners in the offer prospectus. “Chen Feng, Wang Jian, Tan Xiangdong, Li Xianhua, Li Qing as well as Chen Wenli should have been disclosed as a group controlling HNA Group Co, Ltd and thus indirectly also controlling HNA Aviation (Hong Kong) Air Catering Holding Co in the offer prospectus of 20 May 2016,” the Swiss Takeover Board said. HNA said in a statement that it “fully cooperated with the Swiss Takeover Board and provided the necessary information. HNA acknowledges the Swiss Takeover Board’s determination on the subject.” “The decision ... does not have any impact on the validity of the takeover of Gategroup as such, which has been successfully completed. This ruling addresses a very specific event in May 2016 in Switzerland which is naturally not being investigated in any other jurisdiction,” HNA said. The regulator has asked consultant group Ernst & Young AG to look into whether the controlling group complied with minimum price rules and best price regulations in the deal. It also fined HNA 50,000 Swiss francs ($51,000). The Takeover Board also said that stakes in HNA Group held by Bhisé and Guan amounted to 17.15 percent and 12.01 percent, respectively, and not – as specified in the offer prospectus of May 20, 2016 – 17.40 percent and 12.35 percent. HNA shook up its ownership structure in July by transferring the near 30 percent stake held by the two men to a newly formed charity in New York. Headquartered in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, privately owned HNA has fielded many questions about its shareholding structure this year after Guo Wengui, a fugitive Chinese billionaire, alleged that “officials in China’s Communist Party and their relatives were undisclosed shareholders” in the group. Guo also alleged that HNA had allowed Chinese government officials and their relatives to use its aircraft “for purely personal reasons.” HNA has denied Guo’s allegations and has sued for defamation. Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and John Miller; Editing by Dale Hudson and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-switzerland-hna-regulator/chinas-hna-gave-untrue-details-during-gategroup-takeover-swiss-watchdog-idUKKBN1DP0P4'|'2017-11-25T22:26:00.000+02:00'
'1abcbc57488f24b4c4aa1c97b2e7c21c28228ae3'|'BUZZ-U.S. stocks weekly: New highs feast'|'** S&P 500 snaps 2-week losing streak, finishes up about 1 pct** Indeed, market action, improving internals, fit with a reprieve: SPX, DJI, Nasdaq Composite and Russell 2000 all hit fresh record highs** Though when it comes to the DJI vs the DJT, it’s been a hot rod and a clunker** All sectors advance, none go hungry; telecom, tech and industrials indulge the most** Tech gains 1.8 pct. Chip stocks pull up SOX on M&A wave. Semi index rallies 2.7 pct, nears all-time high. But HP Enterprise CEO Whitman’s surprise exit stumps Street. And it may be deja vu all over again for Apple on the charts** Industrials up 1.2 pct. Deere plows its way to record high on strong beat and raise** Cons Disc rises 1.1 pct. Retailers gain on signs of robust holiday shopping season . Though Black Friday typically more buzz than boom . Signet Jewelers ultimately suffers worst day in 25 years after surprise loss** Materials gain 0.9 pct. Gold/silver index attempts to recast itself on the charts** Healthcare up 0.6 pct. Sector’s best performer Cerner Corp rises on potential cloud deal with Amazon.com** Financials add 0.2 pct, but lean spreads hinder group’s rise** SPX sector YTD performance: reut.rs/2A5Yc2E** Meanwhile, Goldman sees bull run continuing in 2018 , and U.S. small caps on track for Q3 profit growth '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buzz-us-stocks-weekly-new-highs-feast/buzz-u-s-stocks-weekly-new-highs-feast-idINL1N1NS1U8'|'2017-11-24T15:28:00.000+02:00'
'69732f21ff2b9d06725d8cac2b79f8c326c1e90d'|'Sirius to buy Delek''s 47 percent stake in Israeli insurer Phoenix - Reuters'|'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli conglomerate Delek Group ( DLEKG.TA ) said on Sunday that Sirius International Insurance has decided to exercise its option to buy Delek’s remaining 47 percent stake in Phoenix Holdings ( PHOE1.TA ) for 2.3 billion shekels ($656 million).In September Bermuda-based Sirius [WTMSI.UL] bought 4.9 percent of insurer Phoenix from Delek for 208 million shekels.The latest deal is subject to regulatory approval, Delek said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.In June, Delek said its planned sale of a controlling stake in Phoenix to China’s Fujian Yango Group ( 000671.SZ ) had been called off by both sides after it failed to secure regulatory approval. Previously, deals to sell Phoenix to AmTrust Financial Services ( AFSI.O ) and China’s Fosun International ( 0656.HK ) also fell through.Reporting by Tova Cohen, Editing by Ari RabinovitchOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-delek-group-phoenx-hldgs-sirius-intl/sirius-to-buy-deleks-47-percent-stake-in-israeli-insurer-phoenix-idINKBN1DQ075'|'2017-11-26T04:52:00.000+02:00'
'10686d0c6f218a737a77037c65702e2c12b5182f'|'China''s new rules may bring sea change for millions of small investors'|'November 26, 2017 / 2:11 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago China''s new rules may bring sea change for millions of small investors Samuel Shen , John Ruwitch 7 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Retired Shanghai truck driver Shen Xipei shunned risky stocks and low-yielding deposits and instead put his life savings into a wealth management product (WMP) sold - and guaranteed - by a bank. Soon, however, investors like Shen may start switching into other assets after Beijing published draft guidelines on Nov. 17 to ban financial institutions from guaranteeing investors against losses, tightening supervision of what the central bank says is a $9 trillion asset management industry. A move away from bank WMPs by armies of Chinese investors - which some analysts expect - would likely trigger a seismic shift in China’s asset management industry, with the new rules apparently favoring transparent mutual fund products. “I bought the WMP because I trust banks. They don’t run away with your money,” said 63-year-old Shen. The product he bought from Industrial Bank promised an annualized return of around 4.15 percent - far exceeding the 1.5 percent yield on one-year bank deposits, he said. “But if they no longer guarantee my principal, I’ll definitely put my money elsewhere.” It remains to be seen where, exactly, the flood of cash will slosh, but some analysts expect relatively safe bond funds or more liquid money market funds to benefit. With limited options for onshore investments, people may also park their money in already inflated real estate markets. “When implicit guarantee fades out ... demand for off-balance-sheet WMPs may partially switch to similar products such as money market funds or bond funds,” said Sophie Jiang, banking analyst at Nomura. “We see stronger competition for deposits as loopholes around WMPs get fixed.” IT‘LL TAKE TIME The new rules underscore Beijing’s determination to reduce risks and further standardize the country’s financial markets. More investment securities, meanwhile, will be allowed to fail, leading to a better pricing of risk and professionalization in the asset management industry. By holding investors responsible for their own losses, the authorities are also trying to change a deeply-ingrained culture that made it common for investors to dump money into risky, high-yielding assets and expect state protection. Prices have been warped along the way. “Breaking the implicit principal guarantee will force a risk re-pricing in the market,” said Hong Hao, Head of Research at BOCOM International. “Investors should get used to a new high-return, high-risk regime, instead of the old, risk-free but high-return regime - It won’t be easy.” Financial markets have started to react to the flurry of financial reforms announced in recent weeks, with domestic bond yields rising steadily since the end of September, while stocks saw their biggest one-day drop in nearly 18 months on Thursday. [nL3N1NU1X4] There is no official data on the number of people who have invested in WMPs, but official statistics show that at the end of June, 555 Chinese banks had 85,800 outstanding WMPs. In the first half of 2017, a cumulative 119,200 WMPs had been issued. WMPs issued by banks and other financial institutions, such as trust companies, have been a central component of China’s murky shadow banking sector, which the government has struggled to contain. NEW RULES As part of efforts to break implicit principal guarantees, the new guidelines require that all asset management products must be based on net-asset-value (NAV) to reflect risks on a timely basis - rules that analysts say favor mutual funds. “For institutions such as trust firms, it would take time to adjust their products in a bid to meet the tall order,” said Ivan Shi, head of research at fund consultancy Z-Ben Advisors, predicting greater investment flows into fixed income or money market mutual funds. Although banks are expected to redesign WMPs and set up asset management units to compete, fund distributor Puyi Wealth Management said there was “a huge question mark” over whether banks could persuade investors not to shift to more mature mutual fund products. The sweeping new guidelines, covering all financial institutions including banks, brokerages, insurers, fund houses and trust companies, are the latest effort to rein in China’s rampantly growing shadow banking sector, notorious for excessive leverage, Byzantine structures, and opaqueness. [nL3N1NN3AC] A transition period will last until June 30, 2019, to give institutions breathing space. The ban on principal guarantees has been singled out by the state news agency, Xinhua, as the most significant step against “financial chaos”. In an editorial it likened the guarantees to landmines in the financial system. Other measures announced in the draft regulations include leverage caps, provision requirements, and a ban on “capital pools” - a mixed bag of products with different risk levels, maturities and investors. By the end of June, China’s asset management business totaled more than 60 trillion yuan, according to central bank data, almost as big as the country’s annual gross domestic product. Bank WMPs account for nearly half. REPRICING It’s not just in the asset management industry that regulators are ending implicit state guarantees to investors. In the bond market, the government is increasingly allowing issuers - both private and state-owned - to default or go bankrupt, seeking to break the link between commercial and sovereign credit. In a recent case, creditors of state-owned Chongqing Iron & Steel Co ( 601005.SS ) agreed to accept a debt-for-equity swap plan to restructure nearly 40 billion yuan ($6.04 billion) in debts. [nL3N1NN2XZ] Beijing has also deepened efforts to bar local governments from making implicit guarantees to investors in infrastructure projects and local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), breaking the traditionally unshakable faith that such projects will never default. “The mismatch between risk and reward is pushing up risk-free interest rates ... and blurs the line between good and bad assets,” said Qiu Gaoqing, vice head of research at Bank of Communications, China’s fifth-biggest lender. Chen Jie, of Hi-Jion Law Group, said banks provide implicit guarantees even when there’s no legal obligation to do so because of SOEs’ ambiguous relationships with the government. “Retail investors walking into a bank outlet would naturally assume WMPs sold there have state backing. For them, state lenders and the government are one thing,” said Chen, who represents investors in WMP disputes. “And for banks... they not only care about their commercial reputation, but also assume the role of maintaining social stability. With these guidelines, banks won’t have to in the future.” Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-regulations-wealthmanagement/chinas-new-rules-may-bring-sea-change-for-millions-of-small-investors-idUKKBN1DQ00S'|'2017-11-26T04:09:00.000+02:00'
'e1ced3a5f159f9d42391b5db8224d52848d785d1'|'Exclusive - Airbus set to poach Rolls exec to head jetliner sales - sources'|'November 26, 2017 / 12:05 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Exclusive - Airbus set to poach Rolls exec to head jetliner sales - sources Tim Hepher 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has provisionally tapped the head of Rolls-Royce’s civil engines unit, Eric Schulz, to lead its commercial jetliner sales, after months of uncertainty over who would succeed soon-to-retire John Leahy in one of the industry’s most high-profile posts, three people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Eric Schulz, president of the civil engines division at the British engineering firm, has been recommended for the post in a bid to bring in outside blood as the company faces turmoil over the impact of UK and French corruption investigations. He faced competition from Christian Scherer, chief executive of the turboprop maker ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italian aerospace firm Leonardo ( LDOF.MI ). Scherer, a former strategist and Airbus veteran of 30 years before joining ATR, was seen by many as a leading candidate and enjoys close ties to Chief Executive Tom Enders. But although Scherer has not been linked to the compliance probes, industry sources said the board is insisting on a break with the past. A final decision will be taken by the Airbus board based on a panel’s decision to put forward one name, that of Schulz. Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined to comment. Schulz and Scherer could not immediately be reached for comment. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-appointment-exclusive/airbus-provisionally-picks-rolls-royce-executive-schulz-to-head-commercial-sales-sources-idUKKBN1DQ0GD'|'2017-11-26T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'f53ed00ccac29350dd5581456b9d4b6ec8e31d3d'|'Maduro taps major general to ''clean up'' state oil company PDVSA'|'November 26, 2017 / 6:01 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Maduro taps major general to ''clean up'' state oil company PDVSA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CARACAS, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday tapped Major General Manuel Quevedo to head of state oil company PDVSA and the country’s oil ministry in what he said was an attempt to clean up the energy industry amid growing corruption scandals. “The time for a new oil revolution has come,” leftist Maduro said in his weekly televised program, vowing to “clean up” PDVSA. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-politics-pdvsa/maduro-taps-major-general-to-clean-up-state-oil-company-pdvsa-idUSL1N1NW0EY'|'2017-11-26T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'2062a0231d1ea2bd1006f57c3828bc2d7be5045c'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi rises after prince reassures on crackdown, Gulf mostly sluggish'|'* Saudi’s Al Tayyar, its founder caught in probe, rebounds* SABB Takaful surges after Saudi British Bank completes stake buy* Banque Saudi Fransi little moved by prospect of fine* Dubai’s Emaar Properties slips but development unit edges up* GB Auto leaps to year-high in EgyptBy Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose on Sunday after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reassured investors about the impact of a crackdown on corruption, while other Gulf bourses were sluggish.The Saudi index added 0.8 percent. Prince Mohammed said in a New York Times interview that about 95 percent of about 200 businessmen and officials implicated in the probe were agreeing to financial settlements of the charges against them - a possible indication the probe, which has unsettled the stock market, could start to wind down.Al Tayyar Travel, whose founder has been detained in the crackdown, rebounded 6.4 percent. After plunging in the initial days after the probe was announced, it has been recovering in the last few days.Insurer SABB Takaful gained 3.2 percent after Saudi British Bank said it had completed the purchase of all of HSBC’s stake in SABB Takaful.Saudi Airlines Catering climbed 1.2 percent after saying it had won a 501 million riyal ($136.5 million), five-year contract to supply inflight catering services to Saudi budget airline flynas.Thursday’s announcement that the securities regulator would further ease requirements for foreign institutional investors in the stock market also buoyed the market.Among other steps, the minimum value of assets under management needed for a foreign institution to qualify as an investor would fall to 1.875 billion riyals ($500 million) from 3.75 billion riyals.Banque Saudi Fransi edged down 0.2 percent after the central bank said the bank faced an unspecified fine over irregularities in an employee incentive programme. The probe into the irregularities was already well-known and official action had been anticipated by investors.In Abu Dhabi, the index edged down 0.1 percent but Manazel Real Estate, the most heavily traded stock, gained 1.9 percent after saying plans were underway to expand into Middle East and North African markets, including Saudi Arabia, because of rising demand for middle-income housing. It gave no details.Dubai’s index fell 0.3 percent in thin trade as Emaar Properties pulled back 0.8 percent. Its unit Emaar Development, which performed weakly on its debut last week, rose 0.5 percent.In Kuwait, logistics firm Agility gained 3.0 percent after its 80.5 percent-owned unit Metal and Recycling Co reported quarterly profit more than doubled from a year earlier to 171,524 dinars ($570,000) as sales rose 15 percent.Egypt’s index climbed 0.8 percent. GB Auto rose sharply for a second straight day, jumping 9.9 percent to 3.65 Egyptian pounds and surpassing this year’s previous peak of 3.52 pounds, hit in January.HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA * The index rose 0.8 percent to 6,934 points.DUBAI * The index fell 0.3 percent to 3,449 points.ABU DHABI * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 4,282 points.QATAR * The index rose 0.2 percent to 7,758 points.EGYPT * The index climbed 0.8 percent to 14,223 points.KUWAIT * The index gained 0.3 percent to 6,257 points.BAHRAIN * The index edged up 0.04 percent to 1,277 points.OMAN * The index added 0.5 percent to 5,111 points. (Editing by Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-saudi-rises-after-prince-reassures-on-crackdown-gulf-mostly-sluggish-idINL8N1NW0A9'|'2017-11-26T11:07:00.000+02:00'
'6c6293584e8d8d727ad5bc8e56bb90ac720041cc'|'Airbus provisionally picks Rolls-Royce executive Schulz to head commercial sales - sources'|'PARIS, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Airbus has provisionally tapped the head of Rolls-Royce’s civil engines unit, Eric Schulz, to head its commercial jetliner sales, resolving months of uncertainty over who would succeed soon-to-retire John Leahy, three people familiar with the matter said.Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined comment on the decision, which must be confirmed by the Airbus board. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Dominique Vidalon) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/airbus-appointment/airbus-provisionally-picks-rolls-royce-executive-schulz-to-head-commercial-sales-sources-idINL8N1NU4QL'|'2017-11-26T08:52:00.000+02:00'
'adc140ab0998703b9f68832a15031da267d54f77'|'Mexican authorities seek information from Uber about data breach'|'November 26, 2017 / 8:34 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago Mexican authorities seek information from Uber about data breach Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s transparency body said on Sunday it would seek information from Uber about the consequences of a large data breach that the ride-hailing company disclosed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York, U.S. June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data said it would attempt to determine how many users, drivers and employees in Mexico had been affected, as well as the steps Uber [UBER.UL] would take to mitigate the damage and prevent such breaches from occurring in the future. On Tuesday, Uber said it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. “We confirm that no type of historical information related to trips, credit card numbers, birth dates or social security numbers was exposed in the case,” an Uber spokesman said in a statement. “We will continue to provide in a timely manner all the information that pertains to this case.” The disclosure sparked concerns from regulators around the world. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it was “closely evaluating the serious issues” presented by the incident, and Britain’s data protection authority said that concealment of the data breach raised “huge concerns” about Uber’s data policies and ethics. Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mexico-uber/mexican-authorities-seek-information-from-uber-about-data-breach-idUKKBN1DQ0TX'|'2017-11-26T22:33:00.000+02:00'
'ab0d9aab0b68d095189eea41362ad00e40bd5de8'|'Russia is ready to discuss extension of OPEC deal in Vienna - TASS cites Novak'|'November 24, 2017 / 6:35 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Russia is ready to discuss extension of OPEC deal in Vienna - TASS cites Novak Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is ready to discuss an extension of a global deal between OPEC and other countries to cut oil output in Vienna on November 30, TASS news agency quoted the Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Friday. Russia Energy Minister Alexander Novak attends the Gas Exporting Countries Forum Summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/David Mercado “We are ready to discuss this issue, and I think we will be able to discuss it at the meeting in Vienna by the 30th (of November),” Novak said. Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Polina Devitt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-opec-russia/russia-is-ready-to-discuss-extension-of-opec-deal-in-vienna-tass-cites-novak-idUKKBN1DO0GK'|'2017-11-24T08:34:00.000+02:00'
'4769bfa8c56cd3e8ff30d457c335e94d453cba14'|'Ping An Good Doctor readies $1 billion Hong Kong IPO - IFR'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:17 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Ping An Good Doctor readies $1 billion Hong Kong IPO - IFR Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s most popular online medical platform, Ping An Good Doctor, is working with Citigroup and JPMorgan on an initial public offering of up to $1 billion, IFR reported. The deal could launch in Hong Kong in the first half of next year, the Thomson Reuters publication reported, citing people close to the process. Good Doctor’s plans to list come as Hong Kong has hosted a series of “hot” tech stocks whose first-day gains have been among the best in the world this year, boosting the city’s reputation for tech listings. Good Doctor, one of a series of tech start-ups backed by Ping An, the insurer, is the largest online health care and medical platform in China in terms of users. Users can consult doctors for diagnosis on the platform, which also provides online appointment booking. It does not currently provide prescriptions. In 2016, Good Doctor raised $500 million in an initial funding round, valuing it at $3 billion. Ping An did not immediately respond to request for comment. Reporting by Fiona Lau and Julie Zhu, writing by Jennifer Hughes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hong-kong-ipo-ping-an-ins/ping-an-good-doctor-readies-1-billion-hong-kong-ipo-ifr-idUKKBN1DR0EG'|'2017-11-27T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'4722724694ad2dbc472fd9fd9063a8eb8cf8c1a1'|'BA-owner IAG secures majority of Monarch slots at Gatwick - source'|'November 27, 2017 / 1:41 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago British Airways owner IAG secures failed airline Monarch''s Gatwick slots Alistair Smout 3   British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) has acquired valuable take-off and landing slots at London’s Gatwick airport from failed carrier Monarch Airlines, the latter’s administrators said on Monday, beating off competition from other airlines. A man arrives at the British Airways check-in desk at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The administrators said they were in the process of completing an exchange of Monarch’s slots for others currently held by IAG but did not disclose how much IAG was paying under the swap arrangement to get the more valuable slot times. “As well as representing an excellent recovery for creditors from one of Monarch Airline’s significant assets, the clarity that this sale will bring is very positive for other stakeholders such as Gatwick Airport and its customers,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said in a statement. IAG said in a statement that “these slots will be used by the group’s airlines, primarily British Airways, enabling them to grow their presence at the airport and launch new destinations and add extra frequencies.” The agreement comes after Monarch won an appeal last Wednesday to have the right to sell their airport slots even though it was no longer capable of operating any flights, a court ruling which was criticised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which sets guidelines for how slots at busy airports should be allocated and swapped. EasyJet ( EZJ.L ), Wizz ( WIZZ.L ) and Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) had also expressed their interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports, while sources said that travel firm Thomas Cook had also bid for the Gatwick slots. Monarch’s administrator had estimated its slots could be worth around 60 million pounds although that figure was disputed by some airlines, including easyJet. Nimmo said that the “continuing focus” of the administrators would now switch to the sale of the Luton slots, as well as other residual assets such as Monarch’s brand. Reporting by Alistair SmoutEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-airlines-licence-iag/ba-owner-iag-secures-majority-of-monarch-slots-at-gatwick-source-idUKKBN1DR1LN'|'2017-11-27T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'97674b20d8fcf20e229926939da3089a00263959'|'Samsung Electronics shares drop after Morgan Stanley cuts view, sees chip boom peaking'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:31 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Samsung Electronics shares drop after Morgan Stanley cuts view, sees chip boom peaking Joyce Lee , Dahee Kim 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s shares fell more than 4 percent to a one-month low on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the South Korean tech giant, citing concerns that a boom in memory chips is likely to peak soon. The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji A so-called memory chip “super-cycle” of increased prices due to demand for more firepower in servers and smartphones was the major driver of Samsung’s record third-quarter profit of 14.5 trillion won ($12.91 billion) announced in October, with investors focused on how long it will last. A Morgan Stanley research report issued on Sunday downgraded its view of Samsung to “equal weight” from “overweight” and trimmed its price target on the stock by 3.4 percent to 2.8 million won, saying its earnings in the memory segment are not seen growing materially next year. “We see downside risk as NAND prices have started to reverse in 4Q17. Meanwhile, visibility on DRAM supply-demand dynamics has reduced beyond 1Q18,” the report said. Samsung Electronics shares were down 4.2 percent by 0347 GMT on Monday at 2.66 million won, their biggest intra-day percentage loss in more than a year. Still, the shares are up more than 47 percent this year, giving it a market value of around $353 billion. Some analysts said Samsung Electronics is less likely to be affected by the predicted trends in chip prices than competitors like SK Hynix Inc, the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips after Samsung. “The reaction is a bit oversensitive, as all this was known,” said Greg Roh, analyst at HMC Investment & Securities. “We all knew that NAND prices are going down, which is actually needed to encourage sound demand and increase shipments. And Samsung is strong in NAND chips for data centre SSDs (solid state drives) which will be less affected,” Roh said. Shares of SK Hynix fell as much as 3.6 percent, the biggest intra-day drop since late October. Samsung Electronics said in October that it expects a continued tight supply-demand position in the NAND and DRAM space in 2018. Reporting by Joyce Lee and Dahee Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-samsung-elec-stocks-research/samsung-electronics-shares-drop-after-morgan-stanley-cuts-view-sees-chip-boom-peaking-idUKKBN1DR0BI'|'2017-11-27T06:30:00.000+02:00'
'6a4a31d905108ea9d5b8a0d9fab030afe5157e5d'|'BOJ Suzuki - Room to debate fine-tuning of YCC: Mainichi'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:14 PM / Updated 10 hours ago BOJ Suzuki signals room to fine-tune yield curve control - media Leika Kihara 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Hitoshi Suzuki said there is room to debate a fine-tuning of the central bank’s yield curve control (YCC) policy, the Mainichi paper reported, signalling the chance it may raise interest rates before inflation hits its target. Bank of Japan (BOJ) new policy board member Hitoshi Suzuki attends a news conference at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Suzuki also said in a separate interview with Jiji news agency that the BOJ could slow its purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) or change the way it buys them in the future. “It’s inappropriate for interest rates to show no changes until the 2 percent inflation target is hit, and then jump abruptly once the target is achieved,” Suzuki said in the interview with the Mainichi daily newspaper. “There is room to debate a fine-tuning of YCC once inflation heads near 2 percent, so that markets can gradually accept the changes,” he said. The remarks by the former commercial bank executive are the strongest signal to date that the BOJ could move up its interest rate targets before 2 percent inflation is achieved, to ease the hit to bank margins from years of ultra-low borrowing costs. Suzuki said the BOJ’s negative rate policy is having a “significant” impact on financial institutions’ profits. “If the health of financial institutions is in trouble, it’s possible monetary policy won’t function well,” Suzuki was quoted as saying. “I‘m carefully watching how our policy of controlling the yield curve affects the economy, and whether or not it is creating any distortions,” Suzuki said. People familiar with the central bank’s thinking have told Reuters the BOJ is dropping subtle, yet intentional, hints it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected, through a future hike in its yield target. After three years of heavy money printing failed to fire up inflation, the BOJ shifted last year to a policy targeting interest rates. It now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and long-term yields around zero percent. The central bank also buys huge amounts of government bonds and risky assets, such as ETFs, though inflation remains well below its target. “The BOJ’s ETF buying is part of its monetary policy framework and must be continued to achieve 2 percent inflation at the earliest date possible,” Suzuki said in an interview with Jiji that also ran on Saturday. “We won’t make decisions on our ETF buying looking just at the stock market. But changing the amount or method of our purchases is a future option,” he added. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by James Dalgleish and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy/boj-suzuki-room-to-debate-fine-tuning-of-ycc-mainichi-idUKKBN1DO2N3'|'2017-11-25T00:13:00.000+02:00'
'3c7fe7432d9cdce633e6da9b2aeea7cebec614ce'|'French minister ''shocked'' by job cuts at Nestle''s Galderma unit'|'November 25, 2017 / 11:42 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago French minister "shocked" by job cuts at Nestle''s Galderma unit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday he was particularly “shocked” by Nestle’s ( NESN.S ) plans to cut up to 450 jobs at its Galderma skin-health research plant in the south of France as the plant benefited from a research tax credit. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire attends the "Fund Me Day" event, a day dedicated to the development of startups organized by Tech in Paris, France, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Le Maire told France Inter radio that he would meet “in the coming days” with Nestle’s representatives to discuss the issue. “I am the first to be shocked by what is happening ... It is an issue that I am monitoring closely,” he said Nestle announced in September plans to cut 450 out of 550 jobs at the reserch centre near Nice on the French riviera. Nestle, the world’s largest packaged food firm, has come under pressure to shift gear from activist shareholder Third Point, which in June revealed a $3.5 billion stake. Nestle has satisfied some demands, such as buying back shares and setting a margin target. Nestle employs over 12,000 people in France. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nestle-france-le-maire/french-minister-shocked-by-job-cuts-at-nestles-galderma-unit-idUKKBN1DP0CI'|'2017-11-25T14:17:00.000+02:00'
'158d2439de834a07990daabb5ad77cac528e0cb3'|'Victoria Beckham''s fashion business raises $40 million for expansion'|'November 27, 2017 / 11:53 AM / in 35 minutes Victoria Beckham''s fashion business raises $40 million for expansion Reuters Staff 2   Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl turned luxury fashion designer, has raised 30 million pounds to expand her stores and e-commerce channel via a new funding round from NEO Investment Partners. Designer Victoria Beckham in the Manhattan borough of New York November 9, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri The Business of Fashion website said the deal valued the business at 100 million pounds. Founded in 2008, Victoria Beckham Limited sells through 400 stockists and in more than 50 countries. It is privately owned by Victoria, her husband David and agent Simon Fuller, and manufactures the majority of its clothing in Britain. “NEO is the perfect partner to now accompany us on the next step of our journey,” she said in a statement. “They understand my vision and my wish for the company to retain its independence, as well as my commitment to continuing to develop the brand with a unique, forward thinking approach.” Victoria Beckham shot to fame as one of the Spice Girls, a 1990s girl-band that sold 85 million records to become one of the best selling pop groups of all time. Nicknamed Posh Spice, she married footballer David Beckham in 1999 creating Britain’s most high-profile celebrity couple. Having initially struggled to be taken seriously by the fashion industry, Beckham’s collections now show in New York and have earned critical acclaim. Beckham and her clothing designs grace newspapers around the world, with some of her pieces costing up to 2,000 pounds. Private equity firm NEO, also founded in 2008, backs brands including the interior design group Tom Dixon, menswear group AMI Paris and bakery chain Paul. “Victoria Beckham ... has built a unique, differentiated luxury brand with a strong identity and very high potential,” said David Belhassen, founder and managing partner of NEO. “I am delighted to be working with her and her team to reach the brand’s full potential.” Reporting by Kate Holton. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-victoriabeckham-investment/victoria-beckhams-fashion-business-raises-40-million-for-expansion-idUKKBN1DR1BI'|'2017-11-27T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'8ceadede42fedb7f1995dc4e800cc8a6cdc0698b'|'Unilever to buy U.S. bodycare products company Sundial Brands'|'November 27, 2017 / 3:58 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Unilever to buy U.S. bodycare products company Sundial Brands Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Angl-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is to buy U.S.-based company Sundial Brands, a maker of hair and skincare products, expanding deeper into the fast-growing personal care products market. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The maker of Dove soap and Axe body spray announced the deal on Monday, without disclosing financial terms. Sundial, a 26-year-old company based in New Jersey, is home to brands including SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage and Madam C.J. Walker. It is expected to have turnover of $240 million (£179.96 million) this year. Sundial will operate as a standalone unit within Unilever and its founder, Richelieu Dennis, who hails from Liberia, will stay on to run it. Buying Sundial accelerates Unilever’s push deeper into personal care products, which tend to grow faster and be more international than its food business. The deal is part of a bigger buying spree by Unilever, which earlier this year rebuffed a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft-Heinz, that has included Pukka Herbs and Tazo tea, Carver Korea beauty products and Mae Terra food. Reporting by Martinne GellerEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-m-a-sundial/unilever-to-buy-u-s-bodycare-products-company-sundial-brands-idUKKBN1DR1Y7'|'2017-11-27T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'72a5f08387e2fce500b75e63e27079dca321343f'|'What political crisis? German business morale hits record high'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:25 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago What political crisis? German business morale hits record high Paul Carrel 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German business confidence hit a record high in November putting Europe’s largest economy on track for a boom, the Ifo economic institute said on Friday, allaying some concerns about political instability over forming a new government. FILE PHOTO: A worker controls a tapping of a blast furnace at Europe''s largest steel factory of Germany''s industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG in the western German city of Duisburg in this December 6, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo Ifo said 90 percent of responses to its monthly survey of some 7,000 firms came before the collapse late on Sunday of talks on forming a three-way coalition. But the Nov 6 to Nov 23 survey period did come as questions were being raised about what kind of government would come. The institute’s chief delivered an upbeat outlook. “The German economy is on track for a boom,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement, forecasting economic growth of 0.7 percent in the final quarter of this year after 0.8 percent in the July-September period. The Munich-based institute said its business climate index rose to 117.5 from an upwardly revised reading of 116.8 in October. This was higher than a Reuters consensus forecast for a value of 116.6. A business expectations reading surged to 111.0 from 109.2. The business confidence reading caps a positive batch of German economic data this week. On Thursday, official data showed exports and rising business investments were the main drivers of growth in the third quarter, signalling that the robust upswing will extend well into next year. Markit’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, released on the same day, also showed an economy firing on all cylinders as factories churned out goods at the fastest pace in nearly seven years in November. UNCERTAINTY Overshadowing the strong numbers is political uncertainty after conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to form a coalition government with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the ecologist Greens. But easing that somewhat, a senior member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) said early on Friday they are ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking political deadlock. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is trying to broker a deal, is keenly aware the source of Germany’s international clout is its economic power and that businesses want a stable coalition soon to end the uncertainty and avoid another poll. Steinmeier met SPD leader Martin Schulz for talks on Thursday and will meet parliamentary party leaders next week as he pushes political leaders to forge a deal and avoid new elections. “Looking ahead, filled order books and low inventories should keep the manufacturing sector an important growth engine,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski. “However, the fiscal stimulus which we had previously expected, will now clearly be delayed – though not aborted - due to the political impasse in Berlin,” he added. In a sign of the economy’s robust health, engineering group Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) on Thursday reported its highest annual order intake in five years. Reporting by Paul Carrel Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-ifo/what-political-crisis-german-business-morale-hits-record-high-idUKKBN1DO12K'|'2017-11-24T12:24:00.000+02:00'
'69fbbbce367fe24a06b92db917763849b0767539'|'German SPD leader spars with Siemens CEO over job cuts'|'November 24, 2017 / 11:20 PM / in 10 hours German SPD leader spars with Siemens CEO over job cuts Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SAARBRUECKEN, Germany (Reuters) - Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), on Friday blasted Siemens AG’s ( SIEGn.DE ) plans to cut 6,900 jobs as “anti-social”, his latest salvo in an escalating public dispute with Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser. Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz gestures as he speaks during demonstration of Siemens employees and union members outside a meeting of the Siemens works council in Berlin, Germany, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke Kaeser had responded to earlier criticism from Schulz in an open letter published by the Handelsblatt newspaper on Thursday, saying his use of “populist and aggressive slogans” could aid the company’s competition. Schulz, whose party agreed on Friday to enter talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives about renewing its outgoing coalition government, said he had read Kaeser’s letter but did not plan to respond in kind. “I‘m not going to write an open letter, but I am going to repeat what I said: A company that reports profits of 6.3 billion euros and then fires 6,900 people is acting anti-socially and not socially,” he told the SPD’s youth wing at a conference in the western city of Saarbruecken. Siemens last week announced it would cut close to 2 percent of its global workforce, with about half the cuts to be made in Germany. The plans have triggered protests by thousands of workers at various Siemens sites in Germany. Siemens employees and union members protest outside a meeting of the Siemens works council in Berlin, Germany, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke Schulz previously has suggested the German government could respond to the job cuts by scaling back orders for Siemens, a big government contractor. In his letter, Kaeser shot back that Siemens also pays 20 billion euros in taxes and social security contributions, according to Handelsblatt. Slideshow (6 Images) Critics say Siemens’ job cuts will increase unemployment in economically challenged parts of former East Germany, and could bolster support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Lothar de Maiziere, the last prime minister of East Germany and former deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, told the RND newspaper chain that Siemens was motivated purely by “despicable profits” and had no interest in its social responsibilities. He said the company was taking advantage of the political crisis in Germany and the state of Saxony, where the AfD overtook the CDU to become the strongest party. “Frustration leads to extremism and further migration (out of the region). So no one should be surprised that the AfD is making such strong gains in the east. It is benefiting from the dissatisfaction and the fears of the people.” Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-siemens-restructuring/german-spd-leader-spars-with-siemens-ceo-over-job-cuts-idUKKBN1DO2PP'|'2017-11-25T01:19:00.000+02:00'
'18fcb78855fb2940a7c7df3f0cd6b80cc4a7a591'|'Russian competition watchdog gives green light to Yandex-Uber deal'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:23 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Uber, Yandex ride services can merge in Russia, regulator FAS rules Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Uber [UBER.UL] and Yandex’s ride-sharing businesses can merge in Russia, anti-monopoly regulator FAS ruled on Friday, but stipulated that the combined company not bar drivers from working for competitors. FILE PHOTO: A taxi with the logo of Russian online taxi service Yandex Taxi drives past a terminal of the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Uber and Yandex, often referred to as the “Google of Russia”, announced plans in July to combine operations in 127 cities in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. San Francisco-based Uber has agreed to invest $225 million while Yandex will contribute $100 million into a new joint company in which Yandex will own 59.3 percent. The two companies must allow their partners, drivers and passengers to work for or use competitors’ services and fully inform users of the legal entity providing the service, the FAS said in a statement. Yandex said consumers would be able to use both Yandex.Taxi and Uber apps, while their driver apps will be integrated, leading to shorter passenger wait times, increased driver utilization rates, and higher service reliability. The companies aim to close the deal in January 2018, after the New Year holidays in Russia, Yandex said in a statement. Moscow-listed Yandex was up 3.47 percent as of 1123 GMT. It said the anti-monopoly regulator in Belarus had also approved the deal while a decision by the Kazakh regulator was pending. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uber-tech-m-a-yandex-approval/russian-competition-watchdog-gives-green-light-to-yandex-uber-deal-idINKBN1DO0PR'|'2017-11-24T05:23:00.000+02:00'
'db19cfc01de606946e01df061a912ee985cdcea6'|'Uber seeks to appeal UK workers'' rights decision at Supreme Court'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Uber submitted a request to appeal to the Supreme Court a decision by a British tribunal which said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, the taxi app said on Friday.A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, with London Taxis in the background, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Last year, two drivers successfully argued at a British employment tribunal that Uber exerted significant control over them to provide an on-demand taxi service and should grant them workers’ rights such as holiday entitlement and rest breaks.Uber appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which ruled against it earlier this month.“We have this afternoon requested permission to appeal directly to the Supreme Court in order that this case can be resolved sooner rather than later,” said a spokesman.Uber says its drivers enjoy the flexibility of their work and are self-employed, entitling them in British law to only basic entitlements such as health and safety.Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-britain/uber-seeks-to-appeal-uk-workers-rights-decision-at-supreme-court-idINKBN1DO1TM'|'2017-11-24T12:13:00.000+02:00'
'4e7d688c135e11b0e14e787a6d91262c7a066f59'|'U.S. oil prices near two-year highs as key pipeline stays closed'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply from a planned restart of the Keystone crude pipeline and uncertainty about Russia’s resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week’s OPEC meeting.FILE PHOTO: Equipment used to process carbon dioxide, crude oil and water is seen at an Occidental Petroleum Corp enhanced oil recovery project in Hobbs, New Mexico, U.S. on May 3, 2017. Picture taken on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ) said it will restart its Keystone crude oil pipeline at reduced pressure on Tuesday after getting approval from U.S. regulators.Calgary-based TransCanada shut down the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline, one of Canada’s main crude export routes to the United States, on Nov. 16 after 5,000 barrels of oil leaked in South Dakota. Keystone carries crude from Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries.Brent futures LCOc1 ended down just 2 cents at $63.84 a barrel while U.S. crude CLc1 settled 84 cents, or 1.4 percent, lower at $58.11 a barrel.On Friday, U.S. crude touched $59.05 a barrel, its strongest since mid-2015, following the spill.In post-settlement trading the front month spread for U.S. crude spread hit a session low of negative 10 cents a barrel, after Transcanada’s restart announcement.Oil prices have surged in recent months due to output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers. However, higher prices have encouraged greater output among U.S. producers.OPEC and its allies cut production by 1.8 million bpd in January and have agreed to hold down output until March. OPEC meets on Thursday to discuss policy and most analysts expect a deal to extend the cuts.On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending an output cut deal. Still, Russia has not given a timeline, and on Monday there were signs Russia may find it hard to comply.Oil output from Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project is set to rise by about a quarter to 250,000-260,000 barrels per day (bpd) from January, sources with knowledge of the plan said.“It’s the OPEC parlor game that we’re all playing,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York, “The Russians being quiet about their intentions about the OPEC deal is a little unsettling.”Oil markets will rebalance after June 2018 at the earliest, an OPEC working panel concluded last week, OPEC sources said on Monday, signaling the need to extend existing production cuts well into next year.Analysts at Barclays expect OPEC to keep output limits for another six or nine months. However, they said this was widely expected, so prices still might fall after the OPEC meeting.Harry Tchilinguirian, head of oil strategy at French bank BNP Paribas, also saw “plenty of room for disappointment.”“Should the outcome of the next OPEC meeting fall short of expectations, the large net-long speculative position on oil futures can unwind, sending prices lower and volatility higher.”Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London, Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio, Edmund Blair and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-near-two-year-highs-as-key-pipeline-stays-closed-idUSKBN1DR02C'|'2017-11-27T03:00:00.000+02:00'
'75551dc37d910fcf40fd29a3c8825b30bf9e5886'|'OPEC sees market rebalancing after June as it mulls oil cut extension'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:09 PM / in 12 minutes OPEC sees market rebalancing after June as it mulls oil cut extension Alex Lawler , Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Oil markets will rebalance after June 2018 at the earliest, an OPEC working panel concluded last week, OPEC sources said on Monday, signalling the need to extend existing production cuts well into next year. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The conclusion from OPEC’s national representatives and the group’s secretariat came after a meeting on Thursday and Friday, according to four sources at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. It also came as non-OPEC Russia said it would support extending cuts in tandem with OPEC but gave conflicting signals on the duration of the extension after oil price rallied about $60 per barrel, raising fears that the market could over-tighten and spur another spike in U.S. shale output. OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia has signalled it wanted oil to trade at about $60 per barrel as the kingdom is preparing to list its national oil champion Aramco and is still fighting a large fiscal deficit. Russia also needs high oil prices ahead of the presidential election in March 2018. But officials in Moscow have said they were also worried about an overly strong rouble which would undermine the competitiveness of its economy. “The best scenario would suggest third quarter for the rebalancing of the market,” one of the OPEC sources said. OPEC, Russia and nine other producers are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018, and will discuss extending the deal at a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. OPEC delegates have said a nine-month extension was the most likely outcome although some delegates and Russia have said a six-month extension was an option. Oil prices have risen to almost $65 a barrel, thehighest since 2015, supported by lower inventories. However,excess supply persists, making some in OPEC wary of renewed price weakness. The supply pact is aimed at reducing oil stocks inindustrialised countries to their five-year average, and the latest figures suggest OPEC is more than halfway there. “OPEC needs an extension until the end of 2018 to send the market a message that we are committed,” a second OPEC source said. “OPEC will meet in June again and if the market is tight by then, they can always adjust supply.” Russian officials told OPEC they thought the market needed to be monitored very closely so the agreement could be reviewed if signs of a deficit began to emerge, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The head of Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft, Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and a critic of the deal with OPEC, has said the recent price rally would lend too much support to the rival U.S. shale industry, which does not participate in cuts. U.S. shale producers have started adding more drilling rigs in response to rising oil prices and improving confidence about the outlook for 2018. tmsnrt.rs/2AAaSQ5 Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting/opec-sees-market-rebalancing-after-june-as-it-mulls-oil-cut-extension-idUKKBN1DR23R'|'2017-11-27T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'5f92ec2f786d65281f878130d24c82ea7b1e67d9'|'UPDATE 1-Chinese police detain teacher in kindergarten abuse inquiry'|'(Updates with details throughout)BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Beijing police investigating alleged child abuse at a kindergarten run by RYB Education Inc said on Saturday they had detained a teacher, in the latest scandal to hit China’s booming childcare industry.Police in the Chaoyang district said it will further investigate claims of abuse after China’s official Xinhua news agency reported this week they were checking allegations that children at the nursery were “reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills”.Chaoyang district police said in an online posting on Saturday they had detained a 22-year-old teacher, surnamed Liu from the Hebei province adjacent to Beijing.Police have also arrested another person, also surnamed Liu, for allegedly disrupting social order by spreading false information about the alleged kindergarten abuse, it said in a separate posting.RYB’s New York-listed shares plunged 38.4 percent on Friday as the scandal sparked outrage among parents and the public.The second woman, 31, and a Beijing native, was arrested on Thursday, police said.Parents said their children, some as young as three, gave accounts of a naked adult male conducting purported “medical check-ups” on unclothed students, other media said.RYB provides early education services in China and at the end of June was operating 80 kindergartens and had franchised an additional 175, covering 130 cities and towns in China.Meanwhile, Beijing city authorities have urged RYB to remove the head of the kindergarten, Xinhua reported.The Chaoyang district has launched an investigation into all childcare facilities in its area, the report said. (Reporting by Shu Zhang and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clelia Oziel) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ryb-education-china/update-1-chinese-police-detain-teacher-in-kindergarten-abuse-inquiry-idINL3N1NV084'|'2017-11-25T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'b7f61b2dfdedc0a07ed60c3d26b4f69b041e531c'|'South Africa to outline ''decisive'' policy in 2018 after debt rating cut'|'November 25, 2017 / 7:59 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago South Africa to outline ''decisive'' policy in 2018 after debt rating cut TJ Strydom 3 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will use its annual budget next year to outline “decisive” policy to strengthen its fiscal framework, the finance ministry said on Saturday after S&P Global Ratings cut its local currency debt to “junk” status. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Standard & Poor''s building in New York''s financial district February 5, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid S&P announced the downgrade on Friday, citing a further deterioration in the country’s economic outlook and public finances. Moody‘s, meanwhile, placed South Africa on review for a downgrade. “The 2018 Budget will outline decisive and specific policy measures to strengthen the fiscal framework,” the finance ministry said in a statement, without giving more detail. The downgrade by S&P comes after Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba shocked markets on Oct. 25 by flagging sharply weaker growth expectations, a wider budget deficit and rising government debt. The government has since appointed a judicial commission of inquiry into the causes of a 50 billion rand ($3.6 billion)revenue shortfall and to investigate a possible erosion into the nation’s revenue collection capability. Economic growth has slowed to near zero in recent years and business and consumer sentiment have plumbed multi-decade lows as political uncertainty weighs on the economy. Infighting within the ruling African National Congress ahead of a conference in December to elect a successor to President Jacob Zuma as party chief has also sapped investor confidence. “Restoring business and consumer confidence, and catalyzing inclusive growth is the top priority of government,” the finance ministry said. South African businesses have been in talks with government more than a year to try to avoid credit ratings downgrades, but when Zuma in March replaced finance minister Pravin Gordhan with Gigaba, S&P and Fitch cut its ratings a notch within a week. Nedbank, one of the nation’s largest lenders, on Saturday warned that the latest move by S&P will make it more expensive for government and the private sector to raise funding. “The February budget statement is South Africa’s last chance to demonstrate the structural reforms and fiscal consolidation that are required to improve economic growth prospects and prevent Moody’s from also downgrading the local currency debt to below investment grade,” Chief Executive Mike Brown said. A Moody’s downgrade would trigger the exit of South Africa’s local currency debt from important global bond indices, Brown added. Reporting by TJ Strydom; editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-ratings/south-africa-to-outline-decisive-policy-in-2018-after-ratings-cut-idUKKBN1DP06N'|'2017-11-25T11:16:00.000+02:00'
'e91508765d2320dad6331af2e5550352e83954f8'|'Beijing city officials call for removal of kindergarten head -report'|'BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Beijing city authorities have urged RYB Education Inc to remove the head of its kindergarten where police are investigating alleged abuse of children, state media Xinhua reported on Saturday.The report cited a spokesperson for the Chaoyang district of the capital where the childcare facility is located.The Chaoyang district has launched an investigation into all childcare facilities in its area, the report said. (Reporting by Josephine Mason and Shu Zhang; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ryb-education-china/beijing-city-officials-call-for-removal-of-kindergarten-head-report-idINB9N1LU04Z'|'2017-11-25T07:35:00.000+02:00'
'23047545375fc0e5e8972ebda8cfc77956570582'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi rises after prince reassures on crackdown, Gulf mostly sluggish'|'November 26, 2017 / 2:05 PM / in 7 hours MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi rises after prince reassures on crackdown, Gulf mostly sluggish Reuters Staff * Saudi’s Al Tayyar, its founder caught in probe, rebounds * SABB Takaful surges after Saudi British Bank completes stake buy * Banque Saudi Fransi little moved by prospect of fine * Dubai’s Emaar Properties slips but development unit edges up * GB Auto leaps to year-high in Egypt By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose on Sunday after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reassured investors about the impact of a crackdown on corruption, while other Gulf bourses were sluggish. The Saudi index added 0.8 percent. Prince Mohammed said in a New York Times interview that about 95 percent of about 200 businessmen and officials implicated in the probe were agreeing to financial settlements of the charges against them - a possible indication the probe, which has unsettled the stock market, could start to wind down. Al Tayyar Travel, whose founder has been detained in the crackdown, rebounded 6.4 percent. After plunging in the initial days after the probe was announced, it has been recovering in the last few days. Insurer SABB Takaful gained 3.2 percent after Saudi British Bank said it had completed the purchase of all of HSBC’s stake in SABB Takaful. Saudi Airlines Catering climbed 1.2 percent after saying it had won a 501 million riyal ($136.5 million), five-year contract to supply inflight catering services to Saudi budget airline flynas. Thursday’s announcement that the securities regulator would further ease requirements for foreign institutional investors in the stock market also buoyed the market. Among other steps, the minimum value of assets under management needed for a foreign institution to qualify as an investor would fall to 1.875 billion riyals ($500 million) from 3.75 billion riyals. Banque Saudi Fransi edged down 0.2 percent after the central bank said the bank faced an unspecified fine over irregularities in an employee incentive programme. The probe into the irregularities was already well-known and official action had been anticipated by investors. In Abu Dhabi, the index edged down 0.1 percent but Manazel Real Estate, the most heavily traded stock, gained 1.9 percent after saying plans were underway to expand into Middle East and North African markets, including Saudi Arabia, because of rising demand for middle-income housing. It gave no details. Dubai’s index fell 0.3 percent in thin trade as Emaar Properties pulled back 0.8 percent. Its unit Emaar Development, which performed weakly on its debut last week, rose 0.5 percent. In Kuwait, logistics firm Agility gained 3.0 percent after its 80.5 percent-owned unit Metal and Recycling Co reported quarterly profit more than doubled from a year earlier to 171,524 dinars ($570,000) as sales rose 15 percent. Egypt’s index climbed 0.8 percent. GB Auto rose sharply for a second straight day, jumping 9.9 percent to 3.65 Egyptian pounds and surpassing this year’s previous peak of 3.52 pounds, hit in January. HIGHLIGHTS * The index rose 0.8 percent to 6,934 points. DUBAI * The index fell 0.3 percent to 3,449 points. ABU DHABI * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 4,282 points. QATAR * The index rose 0.2 percent to 7,758 points. EGYPT * The index climbed 0.8 percent to 14,223 points. KUWAIT * The index gained 0.3 percent to 6,257 points. BAHRAIN * The index edged up 0.04 percent to 1,277 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-saudi-rises-after-prince-reassures-on-crackdown-gulf-mostly-sluggish-idUSL8N1NW0A9'|'2017-11-26T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'2b503e353575a433cf407cb96b969e5ec5323c10'|'Exclusive - Airbus set to poach Rolls exec to head jetliner sales - sources'|'Reuters TV United States November 26, 2017 / 12:27 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive: Airbus set to poach Rolls exec to head jetliner sales - sources Tim Hepher 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has provisionally tapped the head of Rolls-Royce’s civil engines unit, Eric Schulz, to lead its commercial jetliner sales, after months of uncertainty over who would succeed soon-to-retire John Leahy in one of the industry’s most high-profile posts, three people familiar with the matter said. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Eric Schulz, president of the civil engines division at the British engineering firm, has been recommended for the post in a bid to bring in outside blood as the company faces turmoil over the impact of UK and French corruption investigations. He faced competition from Christian Scherer, chief executive of the turboprop maker ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italian aerospace firm Leonardo ( LDOF.MI ). Scherer, a former strategist and Airbus veteran of 30 years before joining ATR, was seen by many as a leading candidate and enjoys close ties to Chief Executive Tom Enders. But although Scherer has not been linked to the compliance probes, industry sources said the board is insisting on a break with the past. A final decision will be taken by the Airbus board based on a panel’s decision to put forward one name, that of Schulz. Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined to comment. Schulz and Scherer could not immediately be reached for comment. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-appointment-exclusive/exclusive-airbus-set-to-poach-rolls-exec-to-head-jetliner-sales-sources-idUKKBN1DQ0GR'|'2017-11-26T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'81b21fc83efa0d0c163b83cfa3e423362c772739'|'UPDATE 1-Beijing police probe nursery over abuse allegations'|'(Adds RYB statement, Xinhua commentary)SHANGHAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Police in Beijing are investigating claims of abuse at a kindergarten operated by Chinese pre-school operator RYB Education Inc, the second high-profile case of alleged child abuse at a Chinese nursery in the last month.The official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that police were investigating allegations some teachers had abused infants at the school after parents raised concerns to police after finding unexplained needle marks on their children’s skin.In a statement posted on its official microblog on Friday morning, RYB said it was taking the case seriously, apologised to parents and said it was helping authorities.“We are currently working with the police to provide relevant surveillance materials and equipment; the teachers in question have been suspended and we are cooperating with the police investigation,” it said.The case - and a similar one this month involving a nursery in Shanghai linked to online travel agent Ctrip.com - has sparked anger and concern in China about hidden abuses, poor oversight and the lack of qualified teaching staff.In a commentary, Xinhua said there were “hidden dangers” due to staffing issues and rules not being enforced. “Why weren’t these abuses detected earlier and stopped in time?” it wrote.A news report on China Central Television (CCTV) on Friday morning showed video of police and angry parents outside the school in Beijing’s Chaoyang district looking for answers.RYB, which listed in New York in September, says on its website it operates a network of over 1,300 directly owned and franchised play-and-learn centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in around 300 cities and towns around China.The investigation comes after videos emerged earlier this month of teachers at a kindergarten in Shanghai physically abusing and force-feeding infants.Chinese education providers have been attracting major investment, while others have been looking for global listings, latching onto fast-rising demand from Chinese parents for high-end education services for their kids.Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Wang Jing; Editing by Michael Perry '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ryb-education-china/update-1-beijing-police-probe-nursery-over-abuse-allegations-idINL3N1NU03N'|'2017-11-23T22:07:00.000+02:00'
'ff1fd251d943ee84c00b3e653c5bc4b8a29a8b56'|'This week in sports: Iran’s women ready to do the heavy lifting - Reuters'|'Listen to this week’s Keeping Score podcast:A wrap-up of the week in sports news:The weight of a nation: Women weightlifters from Iran will be allowed to compete internationally for the first time. Iran has one of the world’s strongest weightlifting cultures, with its men having won seven Olympic gold medals this century.Winter athletes hit with Olympic bans: The International Olympic Committee handed down lifetime bans for doping violations against two Russian bobsledders and two speed skaters. Fourteen Russian athletes have been banned this month as part of an investigation into allegations of widespread doping at the Sochi Games.Trump assails NFL protest: The president again criticized the NFL over some of its players’ decisions to protest during the national anthem. This week, he criticized Oakland Raiders player Marshawn Lynch after the running back sat during the rendition of the song before a game in Mexico City.England''s Jonny May during training at Pennyhill Park, Bagshot. Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge More of Reuters’ top sports photographySports marketing expert Rick Horrow discussed the challenges of reaching younger fans with Canadian Football League Chairman Jim Lawson. Watch here: '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weekinsports-24nov2017/this-week-in-sports-irans-women-ready-to-do-the-heavy-lifting-idUSKBN1DO27D'|'2017-11-25T01:37:00.000+02:00'
'20abcd60fa969858de00a42b043ef8737be5989a'|'Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week - sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:06 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week - sources Paresh Dave , Liana B. Baker 2 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc plans to move ahead with a deal to bring in Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) as a major investor by disclosing the pricing early next week in formal tender offers to the ride-hailing service’s investors, two people familiar with the plans said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo The start of the tender follows Uber’s disclosure on Tuesday that it covered up a 2016 data breach which compromised data of some 57 million customers and drivers. That revelation prompted governments around the world to launch probes into the breach and Uber’s handling of the matter. The people familiar with the plans did not say how much investors would be offered for the shares, or say if the price had been cut do to the breach or governments’ response to the disclosure. Investors will have 20 business days, or about a month, to respond, said one of the sources, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss terms before they are public. SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group agreed on Nov. 12 to lead a group that would invest as much as $10 billion (£7.50 billion) in Uber, people familiar with the deal previously told Reuters. They plan to directly invest $1 billion to $1.25 billion in Uber, then buy as much as 17 percent of shares held by existing investors and employees. Selling shareholders must be accredited investors as defined by U.S. regulations and hold at least 10,000 shares of the firm, Uber said in ads published Wednesday in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Uber is valued at $68 billion, the highest of any venture backed company. SoftBank’s $1 billion direct investment in Uber is expected to be at the same valuation. Employees and existing investors will be paid a lower price for their shares in a tender that will likely take weeks to complete, people familiar with the Nov. 12 agreement told Reuters. Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Jim Finkle and Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-softbank-tender/uber-to-send-out-tenders-on-softbank-deal-early-next-week-sources-idUKKBN1DO2GV'|'2017-11-24T22:30:00.000+02:00'
'6145df4e06fca253528f7ccbab15610b0fb1bbb6'|'Brazil carrier Oi chief executive offers resignation -sources'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA, Marco Schroeder, has tendered his resignation, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Friday.It was not immediately clear if the offer had been accepted. Oi is two weeks away from a crucial creditor vote on a proposal to restructure 65 billion reais (US$20 billion) of debt in Latin America’s largest-ever bankruptcy proceedings.A spokesperson for Oi could not immediately be reached for comment.$1 = 3.23 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Gram Slattery '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-carrier-oi-chief-executive-offers-resignation-sources-idINE6N1L0026'|'2017-11-24T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'd0fe50b15024020485123ecbf133bec08a9b4ebc'|'France cuts cost of sacking traders to lure banks post-Brexit'|'November 24, 2017 / 12:57 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago France cuts cost of sacking traders to lure banks post-Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The French parliament has approved measures to cut the cost of sacking traders by excluding their bonuses from compulsory redundancy payouts, in a move aimed at luring banks’ trading activities to Paris as Britain leaves the European Union. A general view shows the Arc de Triomphe and the financial and business district in La Defense, west of Paris, France November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Paris and Frankfurt are at the forefront of a race among European cities to attract London financial services businesses that need a base in the European Union to continue serving customers in the bloc after Britain leaves in March 2019. France has stepped up efforts to attract London banks to Paris after the election of President Emmanuel Macron, who has cut taxes and taken steps to make labor laws more flexible. France’s lower house of parliament approved the measures late on Thursday, just days after Paris was picked to host the European Banking Authority (EBA), giving new momentum to its bid to attract banking jobs after Brexit. “In order to improve the attractiveness of Paris as a financial center in the context of Brexit and for social justice, it seems preferable to exclude these bonuses from compulsory redundancy payouts and possible court awards,” Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud told lawmakers. Goldman Sachs has already said it will make Paris and Frankfurt its European hubs after Brexit. Bank of America is also looking to lease more office space in Paris, according to two sources familiar with the matter, while Citigroup is applying for a licence to conduct investment banking activities in France. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in October the U.S. bank might move 60 jobs to Paris. Reporting by Simon Carraud and Emile Picy; Writing by Michel Rose. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-france/france-cuts-cost-of-sacking-traders-to-lure-banks-post-brexit-idUKKBN1DO1JC'|'2017-11-24T14:56:00.000+02:00'
'12c63a3e43745d56630827b58cb0ca2d03ca73ed'|'Big gas exporter countries blast unilateral sanctions in dig at U.S.'|'SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Representatives from a group of major energy-exporting nations on Friday said they oppose the use of unilateral sanctions on any of their members - an apparent dig at the United States for its moves against Russia, Iran and Venezuela.The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which also includes members like Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, expressed their “profound concern” about sanctions affecting the gas sector that are not authorized by the United Nations, according to a communique signed by GECF’s 12 members after the group’s summit in Bolivia this week.The U.S. Congress has imposed economic sanctions on a number of GECF’s members, including recent measures against Russia that - among other things - seek to prevent companies from participating in Russian pipeline projects.Russia is the world’s second biggest natural gas producer behind the United States, which is not a GECF member, and depends heavily on its pipeline systems to reach its main customers in Europe.Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier on Friday that the United States should not be permitted to impose such sanctions without a vote of the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a member.Washington also has imposed sanctions this year on Venezuela to pressure President Nicolas Maduro’s regime and has threatened to reimpose some sanctions against Iran that were lifted as part of a 2015 deal to freeze its nuclear program, brokered by former President Barack Obama.President Donald Trump has said Iran is violating the “spirit” of the 2015 deal.While Iran and Venezuela produce some gas and are vocal members of the GECF, neither exports gas.The GECF communique on Friday said its membership would agree to cooperate toward a sustainable global natural gas market, while promoting the fuel’s use.The meeting came as GECF members struggle with slumping global gas prices, blamed largely on surging supply from the United States and elsewhere, that have reduced investment and returns in parts of the industry.Novak said the oversupply on the world market could trigger a “crisis” drop in prices, similar to what occurred in the crude oil market.Gas prices already have plunged more than 80 percent in the past decade and remain under pressure due to growing supplies of shale gas and increased availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that can be shipped overseas.The United States has been able to vastly increase its output of oil and gas in recent years as improved drilling technology opened previously inaccessible reserves CLc1 NGc1.The GECF is modeled after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose 12 member nations manage oil supply to control prices. While the GECF has called for increased cooperation to defend its gas market, it has not applied production limits as OPEC has done.Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Bill TrottOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bolivia-gas-summit/big-gas-exporter-countries-blast-unilateral-sanctions-in-dig-at-u-s-idINKBN1DO2HV'|'2017-11-24T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'5e4b58609ba3bbce79134d73de1404edbf2633e7'|'Argentina permits new soybean seed as EU debates weed-killer glyphosate'|'BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina authorized on Friday the use of genetically modified soybean seeds resistant to herbicides other than glyphosate, as the European Union (EU) debates whether to extend the license of weed-killers containing the ingredient.FILE PHOTO: Soybeans are loaded onto a truck at a field in the city of Chacabuco April 24, 2013. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian The EU debate comes amid concerns the active ingredient in Monsanto Co’s popular weed-killer Roundup causes cancer. That has caused concern in the South American country, the No. 1 exporter of soybean meal and soybean oil and No. 3 raw soybean exporter, that its exports to the EU could be in jeopardy.In a statement, the Agriculture Ministry said the SYN-000H2-5 seed needed different herbicides which had not raised health concerns around the world. Syngenta AG and Bayer AG had requested government approval for the seed.“This is of great importance given the rise of resistant weeds and other potential limitations to the use of the glyphosphate herbicide,” the Ministry said.The EU granted an 18-month extension to glyphosphate in July 2016 pending further scientific study after failing to agree on a proposed 15-year license renewal.It was not clear if a potential glyphosate ban in Europe would impact shipments of soy-based products from Argentina, Gustavo Lopez, director of Buenos Aires-based consultancy Agritrend, told Reuters.Argentina shipped 7.5 million tonnes of soybean meal to European countries in the first nine months of 2017, data from government statistics agency Indec show. The country’s producers are expected to plant 16.8 million hectares of soybeans for the 2017-18 crop.Last week, Monsanto and U.S. farm groups sued the state of California for requiring cancer warnings on products containing glyphosphate.Reporting by Maximiliano Rizzi; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-agriculture-soybeans/argentina-permits-new-soybean-seed-as-eu-debates-weed-killer-glyphosate-idUSKBN1DO2L7'|'2017-11-24T23:32:00.000+02:00'
'bfdde29f0714e5c2b0e478b27e18e51ff416969e'|'Samsung Electronics shares drop after Morgan Stanley cuts view, sees chip boom peaking'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s ( 005930.KS ) shares fell more than 4 percent to a one-month low on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the South Korean tech giant, citing concerns that a boom in memory chips is likely to peak soon. A so-called memory chip “super-cycle” of increased prices due to demand for more firepower in servers and smartphones was the major driver of Samsung’s record third-quarter profit of 14.5 trillion won ($12.91 billion) announced in October, with investors focused on how long it will last. A Morgan Stanley research report issued on Sunday downgraded its view of Samsung to “equal weight” from “overweight” and trimmed its price target on the stock by 3.4 percent to 2.8 million won, saying its earnings in the memory segment are not seen growing materially next year. “We see downside risk as NAND prices have started to reverse in 4Q17. Meanwhile, visibility on DRAM supply-demand dynamics has reduced beyond 1Q18,” the report said. Samsung Electronics shares were down 4.2 percent by 0347 GMT on Monday at 2.66 million won, their biggest intra-day percentage loss in more than a year. Still, the shares are up more than 47 percent this year, giving it a market value of around $353 billion. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo Some analysts said Samsung Electronics is less likely to be affected by the predicted trends in chip prices than competitors like SK Hynix Inc ( 000660.KS ), the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips after Samsung. “The reaction is a bit over-sensitive, as all this was known,” said Greg Roh, analyst at HMC Investment & Securities. “We all knew that NAND prices are going down, which is actually needed to encourage sound demand and increase shipments. And Samsung is strong in NAND chips for data center SSDs (solid state drives) which will be less affected,” Roh said. Shares of SK Hynix ( 000660.KS ) fell as much as 3.6 percent, the biggest intra-day drop since late October. Samsung Electronics said in October that it expects a continued tight supply-demand position in the NAND and DRAM space in 2018. Reporting by Joyce Lee and Dahee Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-stocks-research/samsung-electronics-shares-drop-after-morgan-stanley-cuts-view-sees-chip-boom-peaking-idUSKBN1DR0B0'|'2017-11-27T06:19:00.000+02:00'
'7a04ed738bb52c8585063b2886e3e15dd7453f7e'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 27'|'Nov 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HeadlinesBig pharma to unveil 1 bln stg boost for May''s post-Brexit vision on.ft.com/2jq88cHMeredith and Koch brothers buy Time Inc in $2.8 bln deal on.ft.com/2joYjvRChemChina''s chief dealmaker joins Beijing fund on.ft.com/2jqeMjoOverviewTheresa May’s vision of a vibrant post-Brexit economy will receive a much-needed boost today when two large pharmaceutical companies unveil more than £1bn of investment in research hubs creating up to 1,750 high-skilledTime Inc has been sold to rival media group Meredith Corp in a deal valued at $2.8bn and backed by the Koch brothers, giving the conservative billionaires a stake in one of America’s best-known publishers.Robert Lu who orchestrated ChemChina’s $44 billion acquisition of Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta AG has left the state-owned chemicals group to join a government-controlled investment fund in Beijing.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-27-idUSL3N1NX14O'|'2017-11-27T03:51:00.000+02:00'
'a6f3ed07b7fd268d97f79e3ec16cd4d168a7285e'|'Vietnam brewer Sabeco gets strong response at Singapore investor roadshow - chairman'|' 40 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Vietnam brewer Sabeco gets strong response at Singapore investor roadshow - chairman Anshuman Daga 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco has received a strong response from potential suitors at an investors’ roadshow in Singapore, its chairman said, as the government moves closer to finalising a stake sale in the $9 billion maker of Bia Saigon and 333 brews. FILE PHOTO: A worker checks for faults on beer bottles which move along a production line in a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Vo Thanh Ha said the government is due shortly to publish details of a divestment plan for its nearly 90 percent stake in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, as the brewer is formally called, as part of a lengthy fund-raising exercise. The sale has attracted interest from brewers seeking access to one of Asia’s most-promising beer markets, which is already the second-most profitable for Dutch brewer Heineken NV. Vietnam’s per capita beer consumption is forecast to become one of Asia’s highest within the next couple of years. The sale could also provide a template for more planned privatisations including that of peer Habeco. “We met a number of very high-profile investors – strategic investors and industry players,” Ha said in an interview in Singapore. “We’ve received very good feedback from investors that they consider Sabeco as an extremely good company with high potential to grow,” Ha said, in comments translated from Vietnamese by an adviser for the roadshow. Attendees at the Singapore roadshow included representatives of Japanese pair Kirin Holdings Co Ltd and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd, said Ha, who has been chairman for two years. He said representatives of Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade were also present. FILE PHOTO: Cans of beer move along a production line at a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo “The divestment is on schedule. The government will be publishing the plan to divest very soon,” said Ha, speaking in a private bus en route to Changi Airport. The roadshow will next move to London and Ho Chi Minh City this week. The government said this month it aims to complete a stake sale in December, though it has yet to disclose a size or price. Complicating the process is a near-trebling of Sabeco’s share price over the past year to 318,800 dong ($14), compared with a 40 percent rise in the benchmark index to 10-year highs. “The price is determined by the market,” said Ha, when asked to comment on the surge. Some investors said a small free float has inflated Sabeco’s market value. Sabeco dominates Vietnam’s beer market where its main rivals are Heineken and state-owned Hanoi Beer Alcohol & Beverage JSC. Heineken owns 5 percent of Sabeco. Sabeco expects the introduction of premium products to help it maintain a market share of 40 to 42 percent over the next two or three years, Ha said. Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sabeco-sale/vietnam-brewer-sabeco-gets-strong-response-at-singapore-investor-roadshow-chairman-idUKKBN1DR0C0'|'2017-11-27T06:39:00.000+02:00'
'24de42073a0fe2c57fefae79c4931ec1ddafd6cc'|'Balderton Capital completes new $375 million European technology fund'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:10 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Balderton Capital completes new $375 million European technology fund Eric Auchard 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Balderton Capital has closed to new investors a new, $375 million fund dedicated to European technology start-ups, marking one of the year’s largest such capital raisings in the region, the company said on Monday. Known for backing the original start-ups behind companies such as Betfair and Yoox Net-a-Porter, the London-based firm expects to make between 30 and 35 investments with the new fund, Managing Partner Bernard Liautaud said an interview ahead of the announcement. Already Balderton has made 10 investments with the fund, he said. “We very much believe that we will have a Google or Facebook or Amazon from Europe and the next big European company will be a tech company,” Liautaud said. He said sufficient funding, experienced entrepreneurs and a critical mass of talent now exist in European capitals to create world-class firms. “Before there was always something missing, in France, in the UK and in Germany,” Liautaud said. Liautaud was behind French software success story Business Objects, which he sold a decade ago for $6.8 billion to German business software giant SAP, Europe’s most valuable technology stock. He remains a member of SAP’s supervisory board. The $375 million ranks as Europe’s fourth largest technology -focused venture capital fundraisings in 2017, according to data from venture capital investment data firm Dealroom.co. Only UK-based Atomico, Germany’s Rocket Internet and France’s Partech Ventures raised bigger funds in the region this year. Among Balderton’s previous triumphs were online gambling exchange Betfair, fashion site Yoox Net-a-Porter and online cosmetics retailer The Hut Group. More recent successes include Nasdaq-listed data analytics company Talend. Balderton Capital’s lead investor said the next world-class companies could emerge from Europe in fields including artificial intelligence, video gaming, music and messaging. “What we still need to develop is entrepreneurs who have the drive to take it all the way - I think we are starting to see that now,” Liautaud said, adding that he now sees European entrepreneurs having “10 times the ambition of a decade ago”. So far Balderton has put early stage funding into start-ups including Zego, a London-based venture which enables so-called “gig economy” workers to buy insurance by the hour. It was set up by two former Deliveroo workers for people like drivers at Uber [UBER.UL], where regular insurance no longer works, Liautaud said. Another is Paris car rentals start-up Virtuo, which lets mobile phone users skip check-in counters and use an app to order and pick up a Mercedes from an airport parking lot. It aims to compete with Europcar and Avis Budget. (1 British pound = $1.3337) Reporting by Eric AuchardEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venturecapital-europe-balderton/balderton-capital-completes-new-375-million-european-technology-fund-idUKKBN1DR008'|'2017-11-27T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'477dd17a998b67eb1649af878e771657032d3ea1'|'Pearson to sell Wall Street English to funds, bringing in around $100 million'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Education group Pearson ( PSON.L ) has agreed the sale of its Wall Street English (WSE) business to Baring Private Equity Asia and CITIC Capital for around $300 million, although its proceeds from the deal will be just a third of that.FILE PHOTO - The company logo is displayed outside the Pearson offices in London, Britain August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Pearson, which has sold several assets to focus on its core education business and cut debt, said that of the $300 million, $50 million would cover tax and net transaction costs while $150 million would be retained in the disposed business.Shares in the group slipped 1.7 percent in early Monday trading on disappointment a business that teaches English to adults in multiple countries including China had not brought in more.Pearson, which has sold off assets including the Financial Times newspaper and the Economist magazine, had net debt of 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) at the end of September.The sale will, however, reduce the number of people working for Pearson, as WSE employs around 3,600 people. The group said in August it would cut 3,000 jobs, which at the time accounted for almost 10 percent of the group total.Pearson, which has been hit by a slowdown in the United States and from the shift to digital from paper textbooks, has cut thousands of jobs and restructured following a string of profit warnings in recent years.“The sale of Wall Street English is part of our continued effort to focus on a smaller number of bigger opportunities in global education and to become simpler and more efficient,” Chief Executive John Fallon said.The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018. Shares in the group were down 1.5 percent at 0847 GMT, giving Pearson a market value of 5.6 billion pounds.($1 = 0.7494 pounds)Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by James Davey and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pearson-wse/pearson-to-sell-wall-street-english-to-funds-bringing-in-around-100-million-idINKBN1DR0SS'|'2017-11-27T05:09:00.000+02:00'
'7a9f43db24391ccaded16f9a654ae3e612d5ee84'|'WTO chief says he''s been consistent on Brexit - it''ll be a bumpy road'|'November 27, 2017 / 7:23 PM / in 5 minutes WTO chief says he''s been consistent on Brexit: it''ll be a bumpy road Tom Miles 2 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - World Trade Organization chief Roberto Azevedo said on Monday that Britain’s departure from the European Union would be a bumpy road but he hoped it created as little disturbance as possible. World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo attends a meeting with the press in Geneva, Switzerland, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Azevedo surprised many trade experts at the weekend with an interview in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in which he said it would not be the end of the world if Britain traded on WTO terms after Brexit. Many experts think that outcome would incur huge adjustment costs, with Britain and the EU erecting trade barriers in place of their current seamless “single market” relationship. Azevedo said he had always been consistent and was surprised to get different reactions when people read different things into his comments. “I said that trade will not stop because of WTO terms, and I mentioned the fact that about half of the EU’s foreign trade is already on WTO terms,” he told reporters. “That is one side of the story. The other side of the story is that the other half is in fact under preferential agreements. So there will be an impact.” He said: “So it’s true it’s not going to be the end of the world but it’s not going to be a walk in the park either. It is going to be a bumpy road. How bumpy it’s going to be will depend on many things including on the outcome of the negotiations with the EU.” Britain’s negotiations with the EU are currently focused on their divorce, with a deadline of March 29, 2019. Once that is settled, they will need to agree a new trading relationship. That could mean trading on their unimproved WTO membership terms, or a closer relationship through a free trade agreement (FTA), or a customs union, or Britain’s continued membership of the single market. “I have been saying from the beginning that the less waves, the less disturbance, the better. I never said anything different from that and I will say that until the end. I think that’s pretty obvious. We don’t want disturbances at this point in time,” he said. Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-wto/wto-chief-says-hes-been-consistent-on-brexit-itll-be-a-bumpy-road-idUKKBN1DR2H7'|'2017-11-27T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'c62e59ff32c1d05a5912e5e3aca8d466ffc3e207'|'Miner SouthGobi fires chief executive; says business as usual'|'HONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Vancouver-based coal miner SouthGobi Resources Ltd said on Thursday it sacked its chief executive officer (CEO), who is a suspect in a fraudulent loan case, with immediate effect, because of his inability to fulfil his daily duties.The former CEO, Aminbuhe, was also removed as chairman of the board but would remain as a non-executive director, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, providing only one name for him.“The company will continue to carry on its business in the normal course, relying on the depth and experience of its management team and the board,” SouthGobi said.Bing Wang, who joined the company in 2015 as general manager of sales and marketing, was appointed as interim CEO on Nov. 13 and would continue in that role until a replacement has been found, it added.SouthGobi said it had formed a special committee to initiate a formal internal investigation into the charges against Aminbuhe. It gave no further details.The statement comes nearly a week after SouthGobi said Aminbuhe had been arrested on Oct. 11 and detained in China as a suspect in a fraudulent loan case.The coal miner said earlier on Thursday that it had not paid any interest on a convertible debenture to China Investment Corporation (CIC) and was in talks with CIC regarding a repayment plan.The Hong Kong-listed shares of SouthGobi were flat in early afternoon trade, compared to a 0.1 percent gain in the broader market.Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southgobi-ceo/miner-southgobi-fires-chief-executive-says-business-as-usual-idUSL3N1NT1PI'|'2017-11-23T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'cbb10de81fb231ed107562ec26392496372e4c6e'|'LPC-Opportunistic US leveraged loans face investor pushback'|'NEW YORK, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Opportunistic leveraged loans for US companies, including nutritional supplement maker General Nutrition Centers (GNC) and digital research company Research Now, are facing pushback from investors and two lower-rated companies pulled deals this week citing adverse market conditions.GNC is attempting to extend a looming 2019 maturity in the loan market after last week’s US high-yield wobble sank its plans to raise bonds and investors are lobbying Research Now to cut the size of a proposed dividend payment to its private equity owners.Rising volatility in the wider capital markets is putting pressure on loans for riskier and more indebted companies, which are trying to take advantage of strong investor appetite and near perfect borrowing conditions to cut their borrowing costs.Orthopedic company DJO canceled a proposed amendment and extension of its existing loan and midstream energy company EagleClaw shelved a repricing transaction this week.“Obviously a strong market brings less than stellar deals forward,” said one investor. “A lot of the terms have been fairly aggressive. There are credits that aren’t performing great, and these haven’t necessarily syndicated so well.”Investors have been rattled by weak third quarter earnings for troubled sectors and banks’ predictions that the US could be facing a cyclical downturn and are pointing to specific credit issues for each of the firms that are experiencing a rougher ride in the market.Vitamin retailer GNC has not been immune to the problems within the industry as online sellers continue to take a toll on bricks-and-mortar stores. The company launched a US$705m five-year loan on November 8 to push out its maturity profile from 2019.GNC was also trying to sell US$500m of bonds but high-yield buyers showed no interest. The company is now considering a loan only deal with a shorter tenor and pricing of up to 1000bp over Libor.That puts the yield at around 11.45%, which is 2.25 times the average primary yield of 5.07%, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.GNC has asked Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a clearing price as it needs to get a deal done before its existing loan due in 2019 becomes current next year, one investor said. GNC is rated B1.Bank of America Merrill Lynch declined to comment.DIVIDEND CUT? Investors are also pushing back on a US$191m dividend payment to Research Now’s private equity owners, which is part of a deal that finances the company’s merger with Survey Sampling, and also includes a US$700m first-lien loan and a US$250m second-lien loan.Guidance on the first-lien loan opened in the 450bp-475bp over Libor and in the 850bp-875bp over Libor range on the second-lien.Sources are also sceptical about US$68.3m of synergies totaling 33.7% of Ebita which are being used to get Ebitda to the marketed US$202.4m level. Loan agreements generally cap add-backs at 20%.The dividend and Ebitda add-backs have made leverage too high for the investors, who are putting pressure on the sponsors to cut the size of the dividend to make the deal more palatable, investors said.Commitments were due on November 16, but the deal is still in syndication. The sponsors are Court Square Capital Partners and HGGC. Goldman Sachs is leading the deal and declined to comment.Research Now is rated B2. The first-lien loan is rated B2 with the second-lien loan rated Caa1.The two postponed loans also faced pushback from investors on terms and floundered against a backdrop of outflows from retail loan funds, including another US$529.8m of outflows for the week ending November 15 and US$4.4bn of high-yield bond outflows. (Additional reporting by Andrew Berlin. Editing by Tessa Walsh) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gnc-loans/lpc-opportunistic-us-leveraged-loans-face-investor-pushback-idINL8N1NT39B'|'2017-11-23T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'30d79ba6abfd596f79a14a0d757b4029653fd2db'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s IG4 raises up to $400 mln for distressed private equity fund'|'(Updates with previous deals by IG4 founder)SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - IG4 Capital Investimentos SA is raising a new $400 million fund for private equity investments in distressed Brazilian companies, founder Paulo Mattos told Reuters on Wednesday.Mattos expects to select up to eight investments among real estate, infrastructure and industrial companies in so-called special situations. These may be companies with an unsustainable debt burden, involvement of controlling shareholders in corruption probes or regulatory hurdles, Mattos said in an interview in Sao Paulo.IG4’s first fund raised around 400 million reais ($124 million) to invest in sanitation company Iguá Saneamento SA. The company, formerly known as CAB Ambiental, was acquired in July from the group controlling Galvão Engenharia SA, one of Brazil’s construction conglomerates forced to sell assets after being targeted in Brazil’s largest corruption probe.The second fund has raised $100 million so far with Park Hill Group, a division of PJT Partners Inc, acting as a placement agent, Mattos said.Mattos, a former executive of GP Investments Ltd, was one of the executives involved in creating BR Towers, one of the largest independent tower management companies in Brazil, through the acquisition of towers from phone carriers operating in the country. He left GP in 2015 to found his own firm.$1 = 3.2368 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; editing by Grant McCool and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-private-equity/update-1-brazils-ig4-raises-up-to-400-mln-for-distressed-private-equity-fund-idUSL1N1NS21C'|'2017-11-23T00:02:00.000+02:00'
'9b470c80babaaed6cca8cea2b6fec23cfbf7d52e'|'CEE MARKETS-Hungarian bond yields set record low ahead of auction'|'* Hungarian bond prices extend gains ahead of auction * Long-term Hungarian bonds trade at record low yields * C.bank measures to curb yields weigh on forint-dealer * Leu is touch weaker ahead of no-confidence vote By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Hungarian long-term government bonds traded at record low yields on Thursday ahead of their first auction since the central bank (NBH) announced measures to push the yields lower. The decline bucked a rise in government debt yields in the euro zone, which crept up ahead of the release of minutes from the European Central Bank''s October meeting. Elsewhere in Central Europe, Polish bond yields eased slightly as the country''s central bank also prepared to publish the minutes of its last meeting later on Thursday. Hungarian bond yields dropped 1-3 basis points after a steep decline in recent weeks amid expectations that the NBH would take measures to flatten the yield curve and encourage mortgage lending. The NBH, one of the most dovish central banks in the world, announced on Tuesday that it would launch a big interest rate swap programme from January to push long-term yield lower, and also a mortgage note buying scheme. The government is due to sell 55 billion forints worth of 3-, 5- and 10-year bonds at its bi-weekly tender on Thursday. Five-year bonds traded at a yield of 1.07 percent ahead of the primary sale, which is expected to draw robust demand, mainly in the longer maturities. The 10-year benchmark bond traded at 2.09 percent. "The yields could drop even further from the current record lows at the auction," one Budapest-based fixed income trader said. "Later, yields could go even lower, but I do not think that there is room for a decline of more than 10-15 basis points," the dealer added. "After all, the actual measures will come only next year and we will need to see them." One currency dealer said the fall in yields may undermine the forint''s position in its crosses with regional peers, the zloty and the crown. Regional economies grow robustly, and Poland''s latest strong wage and industrial output data have triggered some expectations that the central bank there may start to raise interest rates sooner than late next year. Diverging expectations with the forint pushed the zloty on Wednesday to seven-month highs against the Hungarian currency . But a dollar sell-off late on Wednesday strengthened both currencies against the euro, and they retreated in tandem when European markets reopened, shedding 0.1 percent. Elsewhere, the leu was a shade weaker near record lows ahead of a no-confidence vote in Romania''s parliament. The motion is likely to fail, but political uncertainty remains high, while a surge in wages has stoked up inflation. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1007 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.480 25.487 +0.03 5.99% 0 5 % Hungary 313.01 312.75 -0.08% -1.34% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2090 4.2051 -0.09% 4.63% Romanian leu 4.6530 4.6515 -0.03% -2.54% Croatian 7.5770 7.5775 +0.01 -0.29% kuna % Serbian 119.35 119.19 -0.13% 3.35% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1046.4 1046.6 -0.01% +13.5 9 1 5% Budapest 39933. 40131. -0.49% +24.7 59 37 8% Warsaw 2493.1 2489.5 +0.14 +27.9 0 0 % 9% Bucharest 7797.8 7772.9 +0.32 +10.0 5 6 % 6% Ljubljana 784.22 786.11 -0.24% +9.29 % Zagreb 1863.3 1857.6 +0.31 -6.59% 9 5 % Belgrade 731.01 731.78 -0.11% +1.90 % Sofia 668.29 669.38 -0.16% +13.9 6% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.401 0.021 +109b +1bps ps 5-year 1.014 0.131 +134b +12bp ps s 10-year 1.757 -0.025 +140b -3bps ps Poland 2-year 1.556 0.001 +225b -1bps ps 5-year 2.592 -0.012 +292b -2bps ps 10-year 3.38 -0.008 +302b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.03 1.21 1.34 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.79 1.84 1.9025 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-hungarian-bond-yields-set-record-low-ahead-of-auction-idINL8N1NT24T'|'2017-11-23T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'bb760fb65d3bc8af077cc141ba2154f20d2b45ce'|'OPEC ministers say oil market is finding balance'|'November 22, 2017 / 10:06 PM / in 41 minutes OPEC ministers say oil market is finding balance Alexandra Alper , Marianna Parraga 3 Min Read SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - OPEC will need to extend supply cuts when it meets next week to end years of global oil oversupply, oil ministers from two OPEC members said on Wednesday, just over a week before the group meets to discuss supply policy. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, non-member Russia and nine other producers agreed to curb oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018. They are expected to extend the deal at a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna. Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is lobbying oil ministers to extend output cuts by nine months, sources familiar with the matter said. “In my view, an extension of the agreement will help us in stabilizing the market,” Qatar Oil Minister Mohammed al-Sada said on the sidelines of a gas exporter meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Wednesday. OPEC has been successful in bringing global oil inventories closer to their five-year average, but the group needs more time to tighten supply further, he said. The oil market has found some balance as inventories decline, Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said at the same event. He put the optimal price for crude at between $60 and $70 dollars a barrel to encourage investment. U.S. crude CLc1 hit a two-year high of $58.05 a barrel on Wednesday, while Brent crude LCOc1 rose 55 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $63.12 a barrel. Rising U.S. shale oil production has made it harder for OPEC to reduce the global glut. U.S. output hit a weekly record this week at more than 9.6 million bpd, approaching the 10 million bpd monthly record output levels reached in the 1970s. ANOTHER EXCESS The gas market, which also facing oversupply due to growing output of shale gas and rising production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), could find a balance around 2025 after the excess of supply peaks in 2020, al-Sada said. In anticipation of that balance, Qatar this year lifted a self-imposed ban on the development of the world’s biggest natural gas field, which will allow it to boost production in coming years. The vast offshore gas field shared with Iran accounts for nearly all Qatar’s gas output and around 60 percent of its export revenue. The chairman of Spain’s Repsol ( REP.MC ), Antonio Brufau, said the global gas market is undergoing a deep transformation with rising LNG supply, lower production costs and traditional suppliers considering non-conventional projects such as shale. “LNG is shaking up the market,” he said. Editing by Simon Webb, Cynthia Osterman and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bolivia-gas-oil/opec-ministers-say-oil-market-is-finding-balance-idUKKBN1DM2T9'|'2017-11-23T00:04:00.000+02:00'
'63ad5e2a21d5435c0c9245b2d282597bdaf8800c'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 23'|'Nov 23 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 17 points at 7,401.9 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * RBS: Britain will reprivatise bailed-out lender Royal Bank of Scotland by selling 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) of shares, according to budget documents released on Wednesday, in a boost to finance minister Philip Hammond''s coffers. * CMC MARKETS: CMC Markets chairman Simon Waugh is to step down two years after its London flotation, Sky News reported on Wednesday. * BRITAIN-AIRLINES: Britain''s aviation industry on Wednesday criticised changes to a tax on air passengers which will freeze the duty for a majority of customers, saying they did not go far enough to keep Britain competitive as Brexit approaches. * BRITAIN-INFLATION: The British public''s expectations for inflation over the next 12 months dropped to 2.6 percent this month from October''s four-year high of 2.8 percent, a monthly survey by polling company YouGov showed on Wednesday. * GOLD: Gold prices nudged lower on Thursday, with investors taking profits after gains of nearly 1 percent in the previous session on weaker U.S. economic data and concerns among some Federal Reserve policymakers over lower inflation. * OIL: Oil prices eased on Thursday, with U.S. crude dipping away from two-year highs reached the day before, but the shutdown of the Keystone pipeline and a drawdown in fuel inventories continued to bolster markets despite worries over rising output. * EX-DIVS: Carnival, DCC, National Grid and Vodafone Group will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 6.89 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations. * The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index ended the session just 0.1 percent higher at 7,419.02 points on Wednesday as sterling recovered and headed higher, though the blue chip index still outperformed a negative European market. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Gresham House Strategic Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Caffyns PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Charles Stanley Group Half Year 2018 Earnings Release First Property Group PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Mountview Estates PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Mirada PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Severn Trent PLC Interim 2018 Paragon Banking Group Full Year 2017 Earnings Release CMC Markets Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Mitchells & Butlers Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Majestic Wine PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Rotork PLC Trading Statement Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-23-idUSL3N1NT1UD'|'2017-11-23T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'33e8613aaa5289bd86deb506553d76e2da2608d2'|'Australia''s Crown Resorts says in talks over its holding in CrownBet'|'LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill have separately held talks about a deal with Australia’s CrownBet as UK-focused gambling companies seek to expand overseas to offset tougher regulations in Britain.FILE PHOTO: A branded sign is displayed outside a William Hill betting shop in London, Britain July 25, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Dublin-based Paddy Power Betfair, which is listed on London’s FTSE 100 index and runs betting shops in Britain and Ireland, has had discussions with CrownBet, the online gambling firm that is 62 percent-owned by Crown Resorts, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.It comes after rival bookmaker William Hill confirmed on Friday that it was in “very preliminary discussions” with CrownBet about a possible combination with its Australian business.Speculation is growing that UK-focused gambling companies are set to embark on a round of consolidation to offset the threat of stricter regulation and diversify their operations.Last month, the British government outlined proposals to cut the maximum stake on gambling machines in betting shops, a move that would hit an important source of bookmakers’ revenue.Ladbrokes Coral , another British betting shop operator, held unsuccessful deal talks with online rival GVC this year and a spate of dealmaking among British companies is expected once the government makes a decision on gambling machine stakes.AUSTRALIAN MARKET Paddy Power Betfair is already a major player in Australia through its Sportsbet business.William Hill, meanwhile, entered the country four years ago when it bought Sportingbet and tomwaterhouse.com but its operations have since struggled. Earlier this week it posted a 5 percent decline in amounts wagered at its Australian division between June 28 and October 24.Crown Resorts, backed by billionaire James Packer, is Australia’s biggest casino company and, like other gambling companies, faces stiff competition online.Consolidation among Australian gambling firms has been expected ever since lottery owner Tatts Group agreed to a $4.7 billion takeover by horse race betting giant Tabcorp Holding. last year to create a gambling giant.Crown Resorts confirmed in a statement that it was “in discussions concerning its interest in CrownBet” after The Australian newspaper reported that it was holding talks about a deal with William Hill.The Australian company did not return a request for comment made out of business hours about discussions with Paddy Power Betfair.The structure of any deals and the valuations were not known.Shares of Crown Resorts fell 0.6 percent on Friday compared with a flat benchmark index.Paddy Power Betfair shares rose 3.2 percent in London trade on news of the talks, making the company the biggest riser in the FTSE 100. FTSE 250 listed William Hill slipped 0.6 percent.Britain’s gambling industry has already been transformed by consolidation in recent years as firms scrambled to offset the impact of higher taxes and stricter regulation imposed by the government.Ladbrokes agreed to merge with rival Coral in 2015, while betting exchange operator Betfair combined with Paddy Power and GVC bought Bwin.party.Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs,l Keith Weir and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-crown-resorts-m-a/australias-crown-resorts-says-in-talks-over-its-holding-in-crownbet-idINKBN1DO05E'|'2017-11-23T23:27:00.000+02:00'
'3078800714a503d5f15b895754db0b3e30090c05'|'Russia warns global gas oversupply could trigger price ''crisis'''|'November 24, 2017 / 6:03 PM / in 14 minutes Russia warns global gas oversupply could trigger price ''crisis'' Alexandra Alper 2 Min Read SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Global gas supplies currently exceed demand, a situation that could lead to a “crisis” drop in prices similar to what occurred in the crude oil market, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Russia Energy Minister Alexander Novak attends the Gas Exporting Countries Forum Summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/David Mercado “The current excess supply of natural gas brings risks... of entering into the same crisis that affected oil prices,” Novak said at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Bolivia, where top officials of major gas-producing countries have been meeting this week. Gas prices have plunged more than 80 percent in the last decade and remain under pressure due to growing supplies of shale gas and increased availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that can be shipped overseas. Novak said the threats to global gas prices underscore the importance of long-term supply contracts, in which producers can be assured a stable price over the course of years instead of being subject to the ups and downs of the market. Russia is the world’s second-largest producer of natural gas, behind the United States. The United States has vastly increased its output of both crude oil and natural gas in recent years as improved drilling technology opened previously inaccessible reserves - a leading reason for a steep drop in petroleum prices CLc1 NGc1. The GECF, which includes members like Qatar, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, is modelled after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose 12 member nations manage oil supply to control prices. While the GECF has called for increased “cooperation” to defend its gas market, it has not applied production limits as OPEC has done to buoy crude prices. Additional reporting by Monica Machicao; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bolivia-gas-summit-novak/russia-warns-global-gas-oversupply-could-trigger-price-crisis-idUKKBN1DO2A5'|'2017-11-24T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'6cf15834b494ba9e79dcf73d7289cdc1ef77ffdc'|'UK watchdog says banks agree to back Libor until 2021'|' 29 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago UK watchdog says banks agree to back Libor until 2021 Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets watchdog said banks have agreed to continue supporting Libor until an alternative interest rate benchmark is phased in after 2021. FILE PHOTO - The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Banks were fined billions of dollars for trying to rig Libor, used as a reference price to $350 trillion (263.1 trillion pounds)in home loans to credit cards, prompting central banks to look for alternatives. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday it had reached an agreement whereby all 20 banks on “panels” that submit quotes for Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, would support the benchmark until the end of 2021. The watchdog does not have powers to force banks to continue submitting for such an extended period and needed their backing to avoid potential disruption in markets if many banks began pulling out of panels. FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey said in July that despite safeguards to make rigging harder, the underlying market for borrowing between banks is too thin. He said alternative benchmarks were needed, effectively sounding the deathknell for Libor. Market participants have already accepted that the Bank of England’s “Sonia” overnight rate will be the main alternative to sterling Libor because it is based on actual transactions. “The FCA welcomes the support and agreement of all banks to remain as submitters until 2021,” the watchdog said in a statement. SocGen has pulled out of the U.S. dollar Libor panel, while Credit Agricole will cease submitting quotes to the Japanese yen panel, it said. The FCA does not expect any further changes to panels. “Based on this support until the end of 2021, the FCA expects focus to turn towards developing alternative rates and working towards a transition that can be executed smoothly,” the watchdog said. Market participants have said the transition presents a big challenge and risks creating turmoil as existing contracts that reference Libor can run for decades, well beyond 2021. Central banks in Switzerland and the United States are also taking steps to replace Libor with alternative rates in their currency denomination. The European Central Bank has also looking at similar action. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-libor-regulator/uk-watchdog-says-banks-agree-to-back-libor-until-2021-idUKKBN1DO0VX'|'2017-11-24T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'a0bf5046d9512f1d8519475af3a0b2352f8d9b36'|'France to vote against EU licence extension for weed-killer glyphosate'|'November 26, 2017 / 1:15 PM / Updated 8 hours ago France to vote against EU license extension for weed-killer glyphosate Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France will vote against a five-year extension of the license for weed-killer glyphosate that the European Commission will propose on Monday, a junior French environment minister said. The decision makes renewal more difficult for the product, which the U.N. health agency (WHO) has said causes cancer. Glyphosate is a key ingredient in Monsanto Co’s top-selling weed-killer Roundup. “The Commission will put one single proposition on the table on Monday: renewing glyphosate (license) for five years. In view of the risks, France will oppose this proposition and vote against it,” Brune Poirson said in an editorial in French Sunday newspaper Journal du Dimanche. Fourteen out of 28 countries voted in favor of extending the license when the EU voted on the issue on Nov. 9 with nine against and five abstentions. Under EU rules, 16 favorable votes are needed as a “qualified majority” for renewal before authorization expires on Dec. 15. The Commission said after the Nov. 9 vote it would resubmit the proposal at the end of the month. Glyphosate has been used by farmers for more than 40 years but its use was cast in doubt when WHO’s cancer agency said in 2015 it probably causes cancer. The European Chemical Agency said in March this year, however, there was no evidence linking it to cancer in humans. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-glyphosate/france-to-vote-against-eu-license-extension-for-weed-killer-glyphosate-idUKKBN1DQ0HL'|'2017-11-26T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'6a92a499bf78e755c47b4d18a2b06db868bbd254'|'U.S. Black Friday, Thanksgiving online sales climb to record high'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - Black Friday and Thanksgiving online sales in the United States surged to record highs as shoppers bagged deep discounts and bought more on their mobile devices, heralding a promising start to the key holiday season, according to retail analytics firms. Customers push their shopping carts after making a purchase at Target in Chicago, Illinois. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski U.S. retailers raked in a record $7.9 billion in online sales on Black Friday and Thanksgiving, up 17.9 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measures transactions at the largest 100 U.S. web retailers, on Saturday. Adobe said Cyber Monday is expected to drive $6.6 billion in internet sales, which would make it the largest U.S. online shopping day in history. In the run-up to the holiday weekend, traditional retailers invested heavily in improving their websites and bulking up delivery options, preempting a decline in visits to brick-and-mortar stores. Several chains tightened store inventories as well, to ward off any post-holiday liquidation that would weigh on profits. TVs, laptops, toys and gaming consoles - particularly the PlayStation 4 - were among the most heavily discounted and the biggest sellers, according to retail analysts and consultants. Commerce marketing firm Criteo said 40 percent of Black Friday online purchases were made on mobile phones, up from 29 percent last year. No brick-and-mortar sales data for Thanksgiving or Black Friday was immediately available, but Reuters reporters and industry analysts noted anecdotal signs of muted activity - fewer cars in mall parking lots, shoppers leaving stores without purchases in hand. People shop for items in Macy''s Herald Square in Manhattan, New York. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Stores offered heavy discounts, creative gimmicks and free gifts to draw bargain hunters out of their homes, but some shoppers said they were just browsing the merchandise, reserving their cash for internet purchases. There was little evidence of the delirious shopper frenzy customary of Black Fridays from past years. However, retail research firm ShopperTrak said store traffic fell less than 1 percent on Black Friday, bucking industry predictions of a sharper decline. A cashier handles money in Macy''s Herald Square in Manhattan, New York. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly “There has been a significant amount of debate surrounding the shifting importance of brick-and-mortar retail,” Brian Field, ShopperTrak’s senior director of advisory services, said. “The fact that shopper visits remained intact on Black Friday illustrates that physical retail is still highly relevant and when done right, it is profitable.” The National Retail Federation (NRF), which had predicted strong holiday sales helped by rising consumer confidence, said on Friday that fair weather across much of the nation had also helped draw shoppers into stores. The NRF, whose overall industry sales data is closely watched each year, is scheduled to release Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales numbers on Tuesday. U.S. consumer confidence has been strengthening over this past year, due to a labor market that is churning out jobs, rising home prices and stock markets that are hovering at record highs. Reporting by Richa NaiduEditing by Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/u-s-black-friday-thanksgiving-online-sales-climb-to-record-high-idUSKBN1DP0PR'|'2017-11-25T23:25:00.000+02:00'
'a56094f2062b386858ff2351020f21da25c3b6ff'|'UPDATE 1-Macy''s suffers credit card processing slowdown on Black Friday'|'(Adds details, customer Tweets)By Richa NaiduCHICAGO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Department store operator Macy’s Inc said that processing of payments with some credit and gift cards was taking longer than usual in its stores on Black Friday, the traditional start of the key holiday shopping season.Customers took to Twitter on Friday to complain about credit card machines not working in stores and online accounts not working.“Hey @Macys just left $300 of items on counter because your credit card machines are down at State St Chicago. Can’t even look up Macy’s account. What. A. Joke. #macys #blackfridayfail,” tweeted Meghan McCollough (@meghan_mcc).“They’re down nationwide actually. I feel for the poor cashiers,” another user, Nora Fogarty (@norakfogarty), replied.A Macy’s customer service employee contacted by phone said she was unable to provide assistance due to technical issues.“We have added additional associates to the floor (and) are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” Macy’s spokeswoman Radina Russell said in an emailed statement.The credit card processing slowdown began hours after Macy’s chief executive, Jeff Gennette, told CNBC that the retailer was better off this year than last, had robust online demand and was in a good place for holiday promotions.Macy‘s, which owns the upscale department store chain Bloomingdale’s as well as its eponymous stores, had been praised broadly through the day by retail analysts for delivering on tight inventory control and compelling discounts on Black Friday. (Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Leslie Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-holidayshopping-macys/update-1-macys-suffers-credit-card-processing-slowdown-on-black-friday-idINL1N1NU191'|'2017-11-24T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'11b8cee2c5175b71253fab4c93a0e061e3826b96'|'CEE MARKETS-Bonds strength, German news help forint rebound to 3-week high'|'* Forint recovers as foreigners buy Hungarian bonds -traders * German economic, political news support CEE currencies * Polish central banker Lon sees no rate hike in next 12 months * Serbia sells euro in market, dinar rebounds from 12-week lows By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The forint set 3-week highs on Monday, outperforming Central European peers, after plans by the Hungarian central bank (NBH) to push down long-term interest rates triggered bond buying. The forint traded at 310.8 against the euro at 1009 GMT, firmer by 0.4 percent. The zloty was steady and the Czech crown marginally firmer. The NBH announced last week that it would launch interest rate swap selling and mortgage bond buying programmes next year to encourage cheap fixed-rate mortgage lending. The plans, interpreted as further monetary easing by the region''s most dovish central bank, initially weakened the forint to seven-month lows at 314.2. But the sell-off got reversed as the plans led to a buying of government bonds, which pushed the middle and the end of their yield curve to record lows last week. "Data on foreigners'' bond holding comes with a few days of delay," one Budapest-based trader said. "The data to be published this week could show a rise to above 3.6 trillion forints (from 3.56 trillion forints)," the trader added. Hungarian bond yields changed little from Friday''s fixing, with 10-year papers trading at 2.05 percent. Central European currencies had support from recent strong economic data from Germany, the region''s main export market. Germany''s Social Democrats''s agreement to hold talks with Angela Merkel on renewing their outgoing coalition government was viewed positively. "In theory, it is good if Germany has a stable government... though I am not sure that this is what is actually driving the forint," said Erste analyst Orsolya Nyeste. Another Budapest-based trader said some investors reversed forint buying as the market digested the NBH announcements. "It is still a long time until the NBH programmes start, and their market impact remains to be seen," the trader said. The NBH''s loose policy stands in contrast with a shift towards hawkish bias in the region, and that remains a negative factor for the forint, Nyeste said. Polish central banker Eryk Lon, however, told state news agency PAP that fresh economic forecasts increased the chances of interest rates remaining stable for at least the next 12 months. Elsewhere, the Serbian central bank lifted the dinar to 119.31 against the euro from 12-week lows at 119.72, by selling euros in the market. The dinar had been weakened in the past weeks by demand for euros due to the issue of Serbia''s first savings bonds, partly denominated in euro. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1109 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.440 25.452 +0.05 6.16% 0 0 % Hungary 310.80 312.03 +0.40 -0.64% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2078 4.2078 +0.00 4.66% % Romanian leu 4.6400 4.6403 +0.01 -2.26% % Croatian 7.5590 7.5605 +0.02 -0.05% kuna % Serbian 119.31 119.20 -0.09% 3.39% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1053.3 1054.6 -0.12% +14.3 8 7 0% Budapest 39675. 39709. -0.08% +23.9 31 00 7% Warsaw 2476.1 2479.2 -0.13% +27.1 4 5 2% Bucharest 7767.4 7782.8 -0.20% +9.63 6 0 % Ljubljana 779.98 782.95 -0.38% +8.69 % Zagreb 1863.3 1859.9 +0.18 -6.59% 0 2 % Belgrade 739.63 739.41 +0.03 +3.10 % % Sofia 665.53 667.37 -0.28% +13.4 9% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.46 0.138 +115b +13bp ps s 5-year 1.036 0.149 +136b +15bp ps s 10-year 1.772 0.013 +142b +3bps ps Poland 2-year 1.54 -0.005 +223b -1bps ps 5-year 2.544 -0.005 +287b -1bps ps 10-year 3.335 -0.006 +298b +1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.03 1.2 1.33 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.78 1.83 1.91 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-bonds-strength-german-news-help-forint-rebound-to-3-week-high-idINL8N1NX2GM'|'2017-11-27T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'041e6b2a506cb1a9e615775a575fc88371f0bc7f'|'Royal wedding: How much will it cost? 27,'|'How much does a royal wedding cost? by Ivana Kottasová @ivanakottasova November 27, 2017: 12:40 PM ET Prince Harry & Meghan: The ring and the romance The venue, guest list and exact date have not been revealed, but one thing is certain: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle''s wedding will be expensive. Aimee Dunne, a London-based wedding planner who specializes in luxury weddings, said that even conservative estimates for a modern royal wedding would start well into six figures. "I can''t imagine Harry and Meghan would be able to achieve the wedding they would be looking at on anything less than £500,000 + ($670,000)," she said. Costs skyrocket into the millions when security is taken into consideration. Here''s a look at the money behind a royal wedding: Who pays? Harry''s father, Prince Charles, is likely to pick up most of the bill for the Spring 2018 wedding and reception, even if custom dictates otherwise. "Traditionally the cost of the wedding falls on the wife''s family, but surely this won''t be the case here," said Kate Williams, a historian and royal expert. The wedding of Harry''s brother, William and his wife, Catherine, provides some precedent. In that case, Charles paid most costs. But Williams said that Catherine''s family also contributed "quite heavily." "We will have to see what Meghan''s family decides to do," Williams said. The reception The couple can dodge a major venue rental bill by using a property owned by Queen Elizabeth II and her family (there''s no shortage of options.) William and Catherine had two receptions in the Buckingham Palace: a traditional lunch for over 600 guests, which was hosted by the Queen and included dignitaries and officials. A more intimate evening party for roughly 300 friends and family followed. "With a guest list of 500, I would say a budget would realistically be a minimum of £150,000 ($200,000) upwards. And that is certainly on the conservative side," Dunne said of a reception. The dress Markle''s wedding dress is likely to be a bespoke piece by a prestigious designer, and the price tag will reflect that. Catherine''s family reportedly paid for a custom Alexander McQueen wedding dress for her big day. The cost of the dress has never been officially confirmed. Security This is the big one. An estimated 5,000 police guarded the public during festivities for William and Catherine, and there were reports of a dispute between London and Britain''s home office over who should pay. The final bill remains unknown, but the government provided the police with a special £3.6 million ($4.8 million) grant that was used to cover overtime pay for officers. Related: British media obsess about Meghan Markle If Harry and Megan also decide to have their wedding in central London, the costs are expected to be substantial. "Of course the situation has changed since the previous royal wedding, so the security requirements will be much stricter," Williams said, referencing a series of recent terror attacks in the city. Harry''s distance from the British throne (he''s fifth in line) means he might have more choice than William in terms of location. Cost to the economy Brits got an extra day off when William and Catherine were married. Charles'' wedding to Diana was also declared a special holiday, as was the wedding of his younger sister Princess Anne. The national party comes with a cost: The Centre for Economics and Business Research says that each holiday reduces economic production by £2.3 billion ($3 billion). Some argue that increased tourism from abroad would help offset the cost of a royal wedding, but the Office for National Statistic found a little evidence of the phenomenon in 2011. -- Max Foster and Lorenzo D''Agostino contributed reporting. CNNMoney (London) First published November 27, 2017: 10:54 AM ET Mortgage & Savings '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_economy.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/27/news/economy/royal-wedding-cost-prince-harry-meghan-markle/index.html'|'2017-11-27T17:54:00.000+02:00'
'5ff1708ce71e441dd1b4daf8913600d83d49860a'|'Luc Besson''s EuropaCorp considers options to raise cash, cut debt'|'November 25, 2017 / 11:01 AM / Updated 15 hours ago Luc Besson''s EuropaCorp considers options to raise cash, cut debt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - EuropaCorp ( ECP.PA ), the loss-making film production company founded by French director Luc Besson, said it was considering “different options” to raise cash, reduce its debt and cut costs. FILE PHOTO - The logo of EuropaCorp, of which French film director Luc Besson (not pictured) is co-founder and Chairman, is seen at the inauguration of the ''Cite du Cinema'' movie studios in Saint-Denis, near Paris, September 21, 2012. REUTERS/Charles Platiau After a box office disappointment for its big budget sci-fi movie “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”, EuropaCorp is reviewing a recapitalisation or a restructuring to cut the cost of its debts, it said in a statement on Saturday. It will also weigh cost cuts and the sale of non-strategic assets in areas such as post-production or its film catalogue. “These reflections are still preliminary at this stage and no concrete transaction can be announced,” it said. EuropaCorp said its strategy was to refocus on its core business to produce two to three English language feature films each year, and two French language films. Earlier this month, the group said that CEO Marc Schmuger would leave and that founder Luc Besson, best known for directing movies such as “The Fifth Element” and “Le Grand Bleu”, would assume interim CEO responsibilities. EuropaCorp had a net loss of 119.9 million euros in its fiscal year 2016/17 ended March 31, 2017. It has warned of another loss for full year 2017/18 Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europacorp-options/luc-bessons-europacorp-considers-options-to-raise-cash-cut-debt-idUKKBN1DP0BA'|'2017-11-25T12:59:00.000+02:00'
'ad6af1113958064a7702cf907173b038fbef07a9'|'U.S. regulator preparing to sue Santander bank over auto loans -sources'|'WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A leading U.S. consumer watchdog is preparing to sue Santander bank alleging that the Spanish bank overcharged borrowers on auto loans, two sources familiar with the plans said on Friday.The action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could come as early as Monday, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter.A Santander spokeswoman, Raschelle Burton, on Friday declined to comment. A spokesman for the CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.According to the sources, the lawsuit centers on a financial product, known as ‘guaranteed auto protection’ (GAP), that can shield a car buyer from some of the expense of a serious collision.If a driver’s auto insurance only covers replacement cost, GAP coverage may cover the entire balance of the loan.Consumers often purchase GAP insurance in the dealer showroom and the costs are built into the car loan.Federal and state officials have been looking into whether consumers have been paying for unneeded GAP insurance or have seen their loan rates climb too high when GAP coverage was added.In 2015, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. agreed to pay $5.4 million to Massachusetts drivers who state officials said faced unfair loan terms when GAP coverage was included.Last month, Reuters reported that a leading bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was examining how Wells Fargo administered its auto loan business.The bank has said previously that it was trying to help any customers who were wrongly charged for car insurance. (Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Andrew Hay) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-santander-auto/u-s-regulator-preparing-to-sue-santander-bank-over-auto-loans-sources-idUSL1N1NU1CK'|'2017-11-25T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'e5761516c4c7ab1f15d81ab5028b716e80c63f51'|'U.S. regulator preparing to sue Santander bank over auto loans - sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 10:18 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago U.S. regulator preparing to sue Santander bank over auto loans: sources Patrick Rucker 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. consumer watchdog is preparing to sue Santander bank [SOVBAN.UL] alleging that the Spanish bank overcharged borrowers on auto loans, two sources familiar with the plans said on Friday. The logo of Santander bank is pictured at the entrance of the group''s main office in Sao Paulo, Brazil September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker The action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could come as early as Monday, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter. A Santander spokeswoman, Raschelle Burton, on Friday declined to comment. A spokesman for the CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the sources, the lawsuit centers on a financial product, known as ‘guaranteed auto protection’ (GAP), that can shield a car buyer from some of the expense of a serious collision. If a driver’s auto insurance only covers replacement cost, GAP coverage may cover the entire balance of the loan. Consumers often purchase GAP insurance in the dealer showroom and the costs are built into the car loan. Federal and state officials have been looking into whether consumers have been paying for unneeded GAP insurance or have seen their loan rates climb too high when GAP coverage was added. In 2015, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. ( SC.N ) agreed to pay $5.4 million to Massachusetts drivers who state officials said faced unfair loan terms when GAP coverage was included. Last month, Reuters reported that a leading bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was examining how Wells Fargo administered its auto loan business. The bank has said previously that it was trying to help any customers who were wrongly charged for car insurance. Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-santander-auto/u-s-regulator-preparing-to-sue-santander-bank-over-auto-loans-sources-idUKKBN1DO2NC'|'2017-11-25T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'943d5fc30b62fe54c17e1b3d59822d6d14e67285'|'WH Group woos Chinese eaters with spicy pork, sticky rice sausages'|'November 26, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 5 hours ago WH Group woos Chinese eaters with spicy pork, sticky rice sausages Dominique Patton 5 Min Read LUOHE/ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters) - WH Group, the world’s top pork producer, is adding new varieties of packaged foods to counter slowing Chinese pork demand and woo the expanding middle class of the world’s most populous nation that is embracing a wider diet of meats. Drawing on the expertise of its Smithfield business in the United States, WH’s domestic unit Shuanghui Development is launching products that meet regional flavours and satisfy the demand for snacking and convenience, while also boosting its range of premium fresh chilled meats. The company is also seeking lucrative supply contracts with hotel and fast food chains like McDonald’s and is even tweaking staple products like bacon, executives said. “First, we want to bring in more Western products, and second, we want to develop more industrialised Chinese products,” Chairman and Chief Executive Wan Long told reporters last week at the company headquarters in Luohe, central China. Among the 100 new products WH introduced this year are the spicy meat snack “Chuan Touli,” inspired by the chilli-infused cuisine of the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, and a sausage containing the southern speciality sticky rice. Shuanghui is China’s top pork processor, slaughtering around 15 million pigs a year and commanding a 29 percent share of the processed meat sold in supermarkets, according to Euromonitor, far ahead of the rest. But, China’s slowing economy and more health-conscious consumers have limited Shuanghui’s sales growth. The country’s fresh and processed retail meat market generates an estimated 944.7 billion yuan (107.34 billion pounds)in sales each year. Sales of Shuanghui’s packaged meats in the first three quarters of 2017 were down 2.2 percent to $2.49 billion versus the same period last year. WH is also adapting to the complexity of selling meat in China, where tastes differ by region and income level. The overhaul comes four years after WH bought Smithfield, the biggest U.S. pork producer, for $4.7 billion, the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. company at that time. Heat-treated meat products that do not need to be refrigerated, like the individually wrapped snack sausages consumed as fast food across China make up the largest chunk of the country’s processed meat sector. Retail sales of these have been in decline since 2014 as consumers seek healthier options, said Cecilia Yang, an analyst at Euromonitor International. RESTRUCTURING WH restructured its China product development team in the second half of 2016, and now has eight regional development centres that run regular consumer surveys. Before, managers at the headquarters devised new products to cater to the mainland’s 32 provinces and regions. WH’s new products face competition from newer market entrants such as New Hope Liuhe and Cofco Meat. Like Shuanghui, Cofco also now offers a cheese-filled sausage inspired by Japanese trends. The chilled meat sector offers greater growth potential, despite its higher cost that limits demand to China’s larger cities and their wealthier consumers. Shuanghui has also turned to Smithfield’s sales network to win contracts with international restaurant and hotel chains who are more experienced at handling chilled meat than wholesalers, said Pan Guanghui, general manager at Zhengzhou Shuanghui Food Limited Co. Boosting sales volumes will also lift the utilisation capacity across Shuanghui’s 18 plants. They currently run at around 70 percent. “We want to reach the scale of Smithfield’s 30 million,” said Wan, referring to number of hogs processed annually. He did not give a time frame for the target to double annual output, but added that no new investment will be needed as the plants currently only operate on a single shift. Achieving that goal will require consolidation among the country’s thousands of local slaughterhouses, which are protected by regional governments. President Xi Jinping’s high-profile focus on food safety, underlined in his 19th Party Congress speech, may fuel further crackdowns on small, outdated slaughterhouses. “This is very favourable for us,” Ma Xiangjie, a Shuanghui vice president who oversees the firm’s slaughtering, told Reuters. Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Josephine Mason and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-pork-wh-group/wh-group-woos-chinese-eaters-with-spicy-pork-sticky-rice-sausages-idUKKBN1DQ0N2'|'2017-11-26T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'992fa322355e3e5882b524251b2add4d828d4c8c'|'Mexico court rejects appeal to lift transgenic corn ban -lawyer'|'MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A Mexican court has rejected a company’s appeal to lift a ban on commercial planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, passing the matter to the Supreme Court, a lawyer for the firm said on Friday.A federal court in Mexico City rejected the suit by PHI Mexico, a unit of U.S. chemical maker DowDuPont Inc’s company Pioneer, because it found it was not authorized to rule on the matter, said the lawyer, Rene Sanchez.“So it leaves things as they are until the (Supreme) court decides whether to study it or rule on it,” Sanchez said.Mexico currently permits cultivation of genetically-modified corn for scientific ends in areas of up to 1 hectare (2.5 acres) and non-commercial pilot schemes in areas of up to 10 hectares under judicial supervision. Commercial cultivation is prohibited.The curbs on transgenic corn are part of a suit brought in 2013 by a group known as the Colectividad del Maiz composed of farmers, scientists, environmentalists and others.The court could not immediately be reached for comment. In such cases, the rulings are typically not public and the findings only made known to the affected parties. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mexico-corn/mexico-court-rejects-appeal-to-lift-transgenic-corn-ban-lawyer-idINL1N1NV04V'|'2017-11-25T01:14:00.000+02:00'
'c88f7b0d1765ac391c05985e98aebd09e4839730'|'UBS exits recruiting pact, following Morgan Stanley'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - UBS Group AG’s Wealth Management Americas said on Monday it was quitting a 13-year-old recruiting agreement that ended the practice of suing brokers who quit for jobs at competing firms, following a similar move by rival Morgan Stanley last month.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen on a branch office in Zurich, Switzerland November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo In an email to the firm’s nearly 10,000 brokers, UBS Wealth Management Americas President Tom Naratil said his priority was for current advisers to increase productivity, “not recruiting advisers from our competitors.”The agreement, called the Broker Protocol, was struck in 2004 between Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch and UBS, then called UBS Financial Services. It allowed brokers to take certain client information with them to new jobs, which they used to call clients and invite them to move their accounts.In recent years, the wealth management industry has splintered, and boutique, independent investment firms now compete with the industry’s largest firms for the same brokers and clients.More than 1,600 firms have signed the agreement, meaning firms both large and small have equal protection to recruit top brokers and their wealthy clients without fear that the former firm will try to legally stop that.Last year, UBS announced it was pulling back on recruiting, triggering similar reactions at other firms.UBS will no longer be subject to the protocol starting on Friday, Naratil said.Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ubs-group-wealth-protocol/ubs-exits-recruiting-pact-following-morgan-stanley-idUSKBN1DR2CS'|'2017-11-27T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'5e3561e4d0317759fbcdb348d94d477fd7e04c24'|'Seafood company appeals German court''s rejection of complaint against Volkswagen'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:38 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Seafood company appeals German court''s rejection of complaint against Volkswagen Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s leading seafood company Deutsche See has appealed against a German court’s rejection of its complaint against Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) over the carmaker’s emissions test-cheating scandal. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Deutsche See said in February it was suing Volkswagen over malicious deception for leasing diesel vehicles VW had said were environmentally friendly. The case marked the first time that a company had taken legal action against VW in Germany since the scandal broke in September 2015. But the regional court in Braunschweig near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters last month rejected the Deutsche See’s lawsuit over lack of evidence of legally relevant deception. Deutsche See said on Monday it had filed an appeal at the Braunschweig court and said that VW had shunned its multiple attempts to seek mediation. The world’s biggest carmaker is faced with a barrage of lawsuits from customers, investors and regulators over its “Dieselgate” scandal. VW declined to comment.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions-court/seafood-company-appeals-german-courts-rejection-of-complaint-against-volkswagen-idUKKBN1DR27O'|'2017-11-27T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'aca8d59fda1f074404f2aa0f36b28f179b8643f2'|'Foreigners still net sellers of Saudi stocks in wake of corruption crackdown'|'DUBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Foreign investors were net sellers of Saudi Arabian equities for a third straight week after authorities launched a major crackdown on corruption, but by a smaller margin than in the previous week, exchange data showed on Sunday.The crackdown, which has involved the arrest of dozens of senior officials and businessmen and the freezing of over 2,000 Saudi bank accounts, has alarmed investors, who fear it could damage the economy and lead to forced sales of assets.Foreign investors sold 835 million riyals ($223 million) of Saudi stocks and bought 598 million riyals in the week through Nov. 23, resulting in net selling of 237 million riyals.That compares with net selling of 309 million riyals in the week to Nov. 16 and 1.08 billion riyals in the week to Nov. 9, immediately after the purge was announced.The latest data also showed selling by Saudi individual investors easing. They sold 10.5 billion riyals in the latest week and bought 9.5 billion riyals. In the previous week, they were net sellers by a margin of 2.4 billion riyals.Some individuals have been pulling money out of the market for fear it could be seized in the crackdown, according to local fund managers. But in the latest week, high net worth individuals turned net buyers by a small margin.Saudi institutions, mostly mutual funds and corporations, have been heavy net buyers since the crackdown was launched; regional asset managers think much of this buying was by state-linked funds deliberately supporting the market to avert a panic.The data showed institutions were net buyers to the tune of only 1.34 billion riyals in the latest week, compared with 2.87 billion riyals in the previous week. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Alison Williams)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-stocks-foreign/foreigners-still-net-sellers-of-saudi-stocks-in-wake-of-corruption-crackdown-idINL8N1NW0O3'|'2017-11-26T16:23:00.000+02:00'
'6c98ab9f5bbb1e3f66d9493ca343ed7c3c864c1b'|'Canadian food retailer Sobeys cuts 800 jobs -media reports'|'Nov 24 (Reuters) - Food retailer Sobeys Inc, owned by Empire Company Ltd, is cutting more than 800 jobs across Canada, according to reports in the Canadian media.The job cuts include about 20 percent of Sobeys’ staff across Canada, the Globe and Mail reported on Friday.About 150 jobs will be lost in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the company told CBC News.Sobeys and Empire did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.The move comes as part of a change in the company''s operating model according to which the Sobeys'' collection of five regional businesses will become one national organization, CBC News reported. bit.ly/2Bk77LG“We have a lot on our plates - we had to reorganize, we’re taking costs out so we can be efficient and compete,” said Empire Chief Executive Michael Medline in a statement cited in the Globe and Mail.In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, Empire had launched a three-year transformation project to simplify its organization structure and cut costs.The company had said it expected C$500 million ($393.42 million) in annualized cost savings by fiscal 2020 as a result of the plan called Project Sunrise.$1 = 1.2709 Canadian dollars Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/empire-company-layoffs-sobeys/canadian-food-retailer-sobeys-cuts-800-jobs-media-reports-idINL3N1NV00K'|'2017-11-24T21:49:00.000+02:00'
'703169fac4cc923c2e2b2ffcc2bb2f776a1847e0'|'Oi CEO resignation does not raise Brazil intervention risk -gov''t source'|'BRASILIA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The resignation of the chief executive of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA caught the government by surprise, but it does not make government intervention more likely, a government source said.The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that talks to bring the debt-laden carrier out of bankruptcy protection will continue under new management.Earlier on Friday, a key shareholder in Oi told Reuters it had been notified that CEO Marco Schroeder had resigned. The Brazilian government holds billions of dollars in Oi debt through state banks and regulatory fines. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Gram Slattery Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/oi-ceo-resignation-does-not-raise-brazil-intervention-risk-govt-source-idINE6N1L0028'|'2017-11-24T17:28:00.000+02:00'
'3b51c2353dd19b15d654ecb452bf85fc2f90e0f7'|'Germany wants to avert trade war with G20 steel summit - Zypries'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:04 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Germany wants to avert trade war with G20 steel summit - Zypries Gernot Heller , Michael Nienaber 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany hopes that a G20 steel summit in Berlin this week can help to avert a trade war, Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries told Reuters on Monday, warning that the EU would impose countermeasures if the United States opted for new tariffs. German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Brigitte Zypries speaks during an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on steel imports as part of his “America First” agenda, prompting fears that such a move could trigger a trade war with China and hurt growth prospects for the world economy. In a bid to avert such unilateral trade measures, Germany, current chair of the Group of 20 leading economies, has invited all G20 member states and some other countries to Thursday’s summit, entitled Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity. “I hope that we’ll manage to agree on a joint final communique, which is not yet certain at the moment, because we are still negotiating,” summit host Zypries told Reuters. The threat of a trade war on steel has not been averted yet and the G20 summit should help to reach common ground on how to reduce excess capacity, Zypries told Reuters. “We want multilateral agreements, we want to have jointly coordinated action between the states of the world,” Zypries said. “Each country has to realise that it’s not good to act unilaterally - neither in the form of imposing trade restrictions nor in the form of developing its own ideas about how much it should export,” Zypries added. COUNTERMEASURES Asked if the European Union would impose countermeasures should Trump decide to impose new tariffs on steel, she said: “We still stand ready to take countermeasures if the Americans should start to impose such tariffs. We would be forced to do this.” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a G20 summit in Hamburg in July that the EU would respond if the U.S. imposed punitive tariffs on steel. Trump has repeatedly threatened to take a tough line on what he says is unfairly traded Chinese steel, even launching an investigation into whether steel imports pose a risk to U.S. national security. Zypries said there were ongoing discussions with China, the world’s biggest steel producer and exporter, over a further reduction of its steel capacity, but there was no agreement yet. Zypries, a senior member of the centre-left Social Democrats, added that the United States and China would take part in the G20 steel summit in Berlin, but it was still unclear who would represent the Trump administration at the meeting. Asked what outcome she would like to see on Thursday, Zypries said: “Unity at the G20 steel summit.” Editing by xxx'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-g20-steel/germany-wants-to-avert-trade-war-with-g20-steel-summit-zypries-idUKKBN1DR23H'|'2017-11-27T19:03:00.000+02:00'
'fb9e2d1dc9880017a71dea1b1b3e32ce07f21f65'|'Adani hopes for government coal mine loan fade after Australian election'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:36 AM / Updated an hour ago Adani hopes for government coal mine loan fade after Australian election Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - India’s Adani Enterprises Ltd ( ADEL.NS ) faces a likely block on a A$900 million (514 million pounds) government loan to help build a giant coal mine in Australia, with the left-leaning Labor Party on track for re-election in a state poll. FILE PHOTO: Protesters against the Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises hold a banner outside the venue for the Australian diversified mining contractor Downer EDI Limited''s annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney, Australia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who originally supported Adani’s application for the federally funded loan to build a rail coal haulage line, said three weeks ago her government would veto the concessional loan. The Labor party, which faced a strong challenge to return to power, was leading after three-quarters of votes were counted following Saturday’s poll, according to Australia Broadcasting Corp. The mine’s location 400 kms (250 miles) from a Pacific Ocean shipping terminal means the challenge of financing infrastructure costs has been at the forefront of debate over the project’s economic viability. “The Adani coal mine could be complicated by a position taken by Labor during the campaign to block any financing of related infrastructure,” Australia & New Zealand Bank said in a note on Monday. The loan amounts to only a fraction of the overall A$16.5 billion cost of constructing the Carmichael mine, but was seen as a first step in reaching financial close on a project that has been delayed for years by environmental opposition. Adani was not immediately available for comment. Palaszczuk, who supports Adani and its promise of 10,000 mine and construction jobs, amended her party’s position in the run-up to the election to oppose the taxpayer-funded loan under the A$5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Although the funds would come from the federal government, Queensland state retains the power of veto over applications made for projects inside the state. Adani is also seeking A$2 billion in outside financing to construct the first stage of the mine and was in talks with China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) ( 1829.HK ) A number of lenders, including Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia ( CBA.AX ) have publicly said they will not provide funding, given opposition to investment in fossil fuels. “If the loan is blocked, it is a signal to potential investors that Adani’s mega-mine is very, very risky, both politically and economically,” said Maggie Mckeown, a campaigner for the Mackay Conservation Group, which is opposed to the mine. Reporting by James Regan; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-politics-adani-ent/adani-hopes-for-government-coal-mine-loan-fade-after-australian-election-idUKKBN1DR0BQ'|'2017-11-27T06:38:00.000+02:00'
'ba24fead7349021b0568e56f8d9f857c28a7ce85'|'Vale says Brazil iron royalty hike could make high-cost mines infeasible'|'November 23, 2017 / 3:09 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Vale says Brazil iron royalty hike could make high-cost mines infeasible Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Brazil’s Vale SA, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, said on Thursday that a hike in royalty rates for iron ore could compromise its ability to maintain high-cost mines and would hurt its ability to compete. Congress passed the higher royalties in votes on Wednesday with the bill now moving to President Michel Temer for signature. Vale said in a statement that it hoped Temer would veto some of the changes to the proposal made by Congress. (Reporting by Marta Nogueira Writing by Jake Spring)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-mining-regulation-vale-sa/vale-says-brazil-iron-royalty-hike-could-make-high-cost-mines-infeasible-idUSE6N1LE024'|'2017-11-23T17:08:00.000+02:00'
'2f029d2055a51e227736fd6863db3424138ce024'|'Canada''s Dalradian plans to dig deep for Northern Irish gold'|'* Secures extra C$78 million in funding* Expects planning approval to take two years* Says mine would create 350 jobs and hundreds more indirectlyLONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Canadian miner Dalradian Resources has filed a planning application and secured a new tranche of funds to build Northern Ireland’s first major underground gold mine, with the potential to create hundreds of jobs.Mining has largely died out in Britain, but the sector sees the potential for a revival as the government pushes an industrial strategy to reboot an economy overshadowed by the decision to leave the European Union. It is also seeking to create jobs beyond the most affluent London area.Dalradian, which is listed in Toronto and on London’s AIM, acquired mineral rights in 2009 to more than 80,000 hectares of land in Northern Ireland, including the Curraghinalt gold deposit.Since then it has carried out exploratory drilling at Curraghinalt and compiled a planning application running to 10,000 pages, which it expects to take about two years to process, including a public enquiry.On Monday it announced that it had submitted the planning application and secured an extra 78.25 million Canadian dollars ($61.6 million) in funding from Orion Mine Finance and Osisko Gold Royalties, two big North American mine finance companies.“We have transformed the project from a small early-stage deposit to one of the best gold projects on the planet,” CEO Patrick Anderson said.Anderson is not worried about any issues involving the Northern Irish border or Brexit negotiations more generally, he said, adding that he believes engagement with local people had overcome opposition, including from environmental campaigners.The application is for Dalradian to run the proposed mine for an initial 20 years, though the company says it has the potential to produce gold for decades longer.It is already employing 100 people on the project and the number would rise to 350 direct jobs once the mine is operating, plus hundreds more indirect jobs, including those in supply chains.Northern Ireland has one producing gold mine in Omagh, owned and operated by Galantas Gold Corporation, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and on AIM.Galantas, which is also ramping up underground operations after the open-pit site was exhausted, has said it expects to produce about 8,000 ounces next year.Dalradian said its Curraghinalt project has the potential for output more than 10 times the Galantas mine’s current production. ($1 = 1.2702 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Editing by David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dalradian-ireland-gold/canadas-dalradian-plans-to-dig-deep-for-northern-irish-gold-idINL8N1NX4OB'|'2017-11-27T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'943edd5d5ecb6ea08c5ceb10cd5187624744b0f0'|'Four funds interested in stake in Israel''s Bezeq: media report'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Four funds are interested in buying control of Bezeq Israel Telecom ( BEZQ.TA ) from holding company Eurocom, which needs to repay bank debt and whose chairman is under investigation for securities fraud, according to a media report.Financial news website Calcalist said on Monday that British private equity group Apax, Israel’s Brosh Capital Partners and two other foreign funds were preparing separate offers for Eurocom’s 26.3 percent stake in Bezeq. Eurocom, through its subsidiaries, is Bezeq’s biggest shareholder and has control of the company.Shares in Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecom group, were up 4.5 percent following the report.Both Apax, which sold a major stake in Bezeq in 2010, and Brosh Capital, declined to comment. Officials at Eurocom also declined to comment.Bezeq said last week that Eurocom had received letters from banks calling on it to “repay a significant debt”, but did not say how much. Calcalist said the holding company owes 1.2 billion shekels ($342 million).Eurocom’s chairman, Shaul Elovitch, was replaced as chairman of Bezeq on an interim basis in June in the wake of an investigation into suspected fraud and financial reporting offences involving Bezeq executives. This month Elovitch said he would not be returning to Bezeq.The Israel Securities Authority said earlier this month that it had found enough evidence to support bringing criminal charges against senior officials. Elovitch has denied any wrongdoing.Bezeq is not up for sale but the possible charges and pressure from creditors have led many in the industry to expect that Elovitch will be forced to sell his Bezeq stake if charged, Calcalist said.Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Tova Cohen; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bezeq-m-a/four-funds-interested-in-stake-in-israels-bezeq-media-report-idUSKBN1DR120'|'2017-11-27T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'af6761ec3e40961a6da89de4479d6e0f7d968dce'|'Headhunters Odgers Berndtson open Dublin office for Brexit'|'Reuters TV United States November 27, 2017 / 12:21 AM / a minute ago Headhunters Odgers Berndtson open Dublin office for Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - International executive search firm Odgers Berndtson is opening an office in Dublin as companies set up businesses or add staff in the Irish capital following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. FILE PHOTO - A man looks from a building in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, Britain November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs A number of firms have said they plan to expand or open subsidiaries in Dublin if Britain does not retain access to the single market, including insurer XL ( XL.N ) and asset manager Legg Mason ( LM.N ), though the city is competing with other centers for such business, including Frankfurt and Luxembourg. “The growth of our business depends on being able to provide a high level of support to major global clients as they address some very significant challenges posed by Brexit,” said Odgers Berndtson’s chief executive, Kester Scrope. Use of the English language and high levels of education were among the attractions of Ireland and the Irish workforce, Charlie Thompson, a partner in the financial services practice at Odgers Berndtson, told Reuters. Odgers Berndtson has 56 offices in 28 countries following the Dublin opening. Reporting by Carolyn CohnEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-jobs/headhunters-odgers-berndtson-open-dublin-office-for-brexit-idUKKBN1DR00V'|'2017-11-27T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'ae5d009f41e4f3f9cae1b5046a41ff5fc80289f0'|'Nikkei falls as higher yen, China market woes knock sentiment; Nintendo soars'|'TOKYO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Monday in choppy trade after a slightly stronger yen sapped investors’ risk appetite, sending stocks such as chip-related firms lower.The Nikkei dropped 0.2 percent to 22,495.99, after opening 0.5 percent higher.Semiconductor equipment makers underperformed, with Tokyo Electron Ltd shedding 1.8 percent and Advantest Corp declining 1.0 percent. Silicon wafer maker Sumco Corp fell 4.0 percent.Traders said the dollar’s weakening against the yen and an extended selloff in Chinese stocks soured the mood. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to trade at 111.39 yen.Non-ferrous metal stocks also underperformed, with Mitsubishi Materials Corp shedding 2.0 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining declining 1.8 percent.Bucking the weakness, Nintendo Co soared 2.4 percent on hopes that Nintendo Switch games console would post strong sales during the U.S. holiday season.The broader Topix shed 0.2 percent to 1,776.73. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-falls-as-higher-yen-china-market-woes-knock-sentiment-nintendo-soars-idINL3N1NX2B7'|'2017-11-27T03:13:00.000+02:00'
'652866c78fc78ea568fe5c5cd24bc98db45962df'|'Allianz plans to buy rest of Euler Hermes for $2.2 billion'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German insurer Allianz ( ALVG.DE ) plans to buy the shares in credit insurer Euler Hermes ( ELER.PA ) it does not yet own for around 1.85 billion euros ($2.2 billion).FILE PHOTO: Flags with the logo of Allianz SE, Europe''s biggest insurer, are pictured before the company''s annual shareholders'' meeting in Munich, Germany May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo Allianz said on Monday that it struck a deal to buy 11.3 percent of Euler Hermes’ stock for 122 euros per share in cash, taking its holding to 74.3 percent of shares.It plans to make a public takeover offer for the remaining stock, excluding treasury shares, at the same price, a 21 percent premium to Friday’s closing price.“Increasing ownership in Euler Hermes is therefore a logical step for Allianz to deploy capital in strategic businesses delivering solid operating performance, and to strengthen positions in core home markets and in property and casualty in particular,” Allianz said in a statement.The deal will add about 1 percent to group earnings per share immediately after closing, Allianz said. It said the deal would have no impact on its 2 billion euro share buyback program.Euler Hermes said in a statement that its supervisory board would meet to deliver a formal opinion regarding Allianz’s offer during the last days of December.($1 = 0.8387 euros)Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Francois Murphy and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-euler-hermes-gr-m-a-allianz/allianz-plans-to-buy-rest-of-euler-hermes-for-2-2-billion-idINKBN1DR0NL'|'2017-11-27T04:19:00.000+02:00'
'11454af536180be085d6a793d879b26809da36e7'|'Samsung Elec shares drop after M.Stanley cuts view, sees chip boom peaking - Reuters'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s shares fell more than 4 percent to a one-month low on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the South Korean tech giant, citing concerns that a boom in memory chips is likely to peak soon.A customer stands near Samsung logo during Galaxy Note 8 consumer launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Beawiharta A so-called memory chip “super-cycle” of increased prices due to demand for more firepower in servers and smartphones was the major driver of Samsung’s record third-quarter profit of 14.5 trillion won ($12.91 billion) announced in October, with investors focused on how long it will last.A Morgan Stanley research report issued on Sunday downgraded its view of Samsung to “equal weight” from “overweight” and trimmed its price target on the stock by 3.4 percent to 2.8 million won, saying its earnings in the memory segment are not seen growing materially next year.“We see downside risk as NAND prices have started to reverse in 4Q17. Meanwhile, visibility on DRAM supply-demand dynamics has reduced beyond 1Q18,” the report said.Samsung Electronics shares were down 4.2 percent by 0347 GMT on Monday at 2.66 million won, their biggest intra-day percentage loss in more than a year. Still, the shares are up more than 47 percent this year, giving it a market value of around $353 billion.Some analysts said Samsung Electronics is less likely to be affected by the predicted trends in chip prices than competitors like SK Hynix Inc, the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips after Samsung.“The reaction is a bit oversensitive, as all this was known,” said Greg Roh, analyst at HMC Investment & Securities.“We all knew that NAND prices are going down, which is actually needed to encourage sound demand and increase shipments. And Samsung is strong in NAND chips for data centre SSDs (solid state drives) which will be less affected,” Roh said.Shares of SK Hynix fell as much as 3.6 percent, the biggest intra-day drop since late October.Samsung Electronics said in October that it expects a continued tight supply-demand position in the NAND and DRAM space in 2018.Reporting by Joyce Lee and Dahee Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/samsung-elec-stocks-research/samsung-elec-shares-drop-after-m-stanley-cuts-view-sees-chip-boom-peaking-idINKBN1DR0PM'|'2017-11-27T04:39:00.000+02:00'
'b99d97558f48a5755b3faff70cf0b1f095911c67'|'Brazil''s Renova Energia board approves Brookfield acquisition'|'BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The board of directors for Brazil renewable energy company Renova Energia SA has approved Brookfield Asset Management Inc’s proposal to acquire the company, a securities exchange filing showed on Monday.Brookfield will inject 1.4 billion reais ($433 million) into Renova, which is controlled by Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais, acquiring the shares at 6 reais each, the filing by Renova stakeholder Light SA said.The asset management firm could pay an additional 1 real per share depending on the sale price of wind farm Alto Sertao II.$1 = 3.2329 reais Reporting by Jake Spring and Tatiana Bautzer; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/renova-energia-ma-brookfield-asset/brazils-renova-energia-board-approves-brookfield-acquisition-idINE4N1KW027'|'2017-11-27T07:29:00.000+02:00'
'f9b3d226976a00a8a7ec0c4de962698667e76988'|'Transcanada asks Nebraska to reconsider order on Keystone route'|'November 27, 2017 / 8:15 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Transcanada asks Nebraska to reconsider order on Keystone route Valerie Volcovici 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ) has asked the Nebraska Public Service Commission to reconsider its order approving an alternate route for the Canada-U.S. Keystone XL pipeline, according to a filing posted on the commission’s website on Monday. FILE PHOTO -- A TransCanada Keystone Pipeline pump station operates outside Steele City, Nebraska March 10, 2014. REUTERS/Lane Hickenbottom/File Photo The Canadian pipeline company is seeking a “clarification” on the PSC’s Nov. 20 decision, a TransCanada spokesman said. The approved line was not TransCanada’s preferred route for the Keystone XL pipeline, but for a more costly alternative that would add 5 miles (8 km) of pipeline. “Keystone requests the Commission reconsider its order dated November 20, 2017, in accordance with this motion,” said the order, which was submitted on Friday. The PSC voted 3-2 to approve a route for TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska, removing a big regulatory obstacle for the long-delayed project backed by President Donald Trump, but leaving its future shrouded in legal and market uncertainty. In addition to the alternate route for the pipeline, the commission’s approval covered an additional pumping station and related transmission lines. State and federal officials said it was unclear if the route required any permits in addition to those already secured for the preferred route. TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said in a statement last week that the company would review the commission’s decision to assess the impact on the project’s cost and schedule. Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/transcanada-pipeline/transcanada-asks-nebraska-to-reconsider-order-on-keystone-route-idINKBN1DR2K1'|'2017-11-27T22:13:00.000+02:00'
'83253bdaad707b41a17f258ff024eb990a010208'|'Wall Street set to open flat as semiconductor stocks weigh'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:14 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Energy slumps, Amazon shines as Wall Street ends flat Lewis Krauskopf 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s major indexes ended little changed on Monday, retreating modestly from record highs set during the session, as gains for Amazon countered losses in shares of energy companies. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the opening bell in New York, NY, U.S. December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files Investors also digested strong economic data, which showed sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly rose in October to a 10-year high amid robust demand across the country. Prospects for corporate tax cuts have also occupied market watchers who hope such reforms would further fuel the record-setting run for equities. President Donald Trump summoned Senate Republican tax-writers to the White House to urge passage of a sweeping tax bill as Republicans rushed to bring the bill to a Senate vote, possibly as soon as Thursday. “You have got this continuous background of tax reform,” said Peter Andersen, chief investment officer with Fiduciary Trust Company in Boston. ”But underlying that, if you just take your eyes off that for a moment and look at the other fundamentals of the economy and the world economy, things look very positive,” Andersen said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 22.79 points, or 0.1 percent, to 23,580.78, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,601.42 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 10.64 points, or 0.15 percent, to 6,878.52. Investors were also eyeing Tuesday’s hearing at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to confirm the nomination of Jerome Powell to succeed Janet Yellen at the helm of the Federal Reserve. Shares of online retailer Amazon ( AMZN.O ) rose 0.8 percent as consumers sought Cyber Monday online promotions following the Black Friday start to the holiday shopping season. “These are retail’s two biggest days of the year and not surprisingly retail is driving this market,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa. Amazon led the S&P 500 retailing index .SPXRT up 0.6 percent. Shares of Gap ( GPS.N ) rose 1.2 percent and Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands ( LB.N ) rose 4.1 percent. Energy .SPNY was the worst-performing major sector, falling 1.0 percent. U.S. crude eased from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply and uncertainty about Russia’s resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week’s OPEC meeting. Shares of oil majors Chevron ( CVX.N ) and Exxon ( XOM.N ) fell 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Chipmaker shares were also notable laggards. Micron Technology ( MU.O ) declined 3.3 percent and Nvidia ( NVDA.O ) slipped 1.3 percent, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX off 1.3 percent. The declines followed a 5-percent drop in shares of Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) in Asian trading after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock, citing concerns that a boom in memory chips is likely to peak soon. Shares of hard-drive maker Western Digital ( WDC.O ) dropped 6.7 percent after a downgrade. In merger news, Time ( TIME.N ) rose 9.5 percent after media company Meredith ( MDP.N ) said it would buy the magazine publisher. Meredith shares surged 10.7 percent. Barracuda Networks ( CUDA.N ) shares jumped 16.5 percent after the data security company agreed to be bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC. About 5.7 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 6.4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.68-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.43-to-1 ratio favoured decliners. Additional reporting by April Joyner in New York and Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-open-flat-as-semiconductor-stocks-weigh-idINKBN1DR1O8'|'2017-11-27T16:10:00.000+02:00'
'5721349fbb1097de6eb686e8be91dfd88125180e'|'ThyssenKrupp kicks off talks with union on steel merger'|'November 25, 2017 / 8:24 AM / Updated 9 hours ago ThyssenKrupp kicks off talks with union on steel merger Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Managers and labor leaders at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp ( TKAG.DE ) have struck a conciliatory tone as they seek to resolve a dispute over job cuts resulting from a planned merger of its steel operations with those of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen The de-escalation came after 8,000 steel workers protested on Wednesday, the day the Essen-based company announced improved annual results and a record order book, demanding guarantees to preserve jobs and production sites for 10 years. “The negotiations started in a matter-of-fact atmosphere,” a company spokesman said late on Friday after a working group held a first round of talks. A spokesman for the IG Metall trade union said the two sides had agreed on two of its demands - for an independent appraisal of the deal, as well a study of the risks arising from Tata Steel’s pension obligations to its British workers. Managers from both companies will inspect each other’s production sites over the next two weeks to examine their respective operational fitness. Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in September announced plans for a joint venture that would create Europe’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ). The merger would result in up to 4,000 job cuts, although workers fear the toll could end up higher. Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger has said the deal actually offers the best chance to preserve jobs as ThyssenKrupp, which employs 27,000 people in its steel division, seeks to diversify into more promising businesses like high-tech elevators and car components. “Everything that will be negotiated and possibly agreed will depend on our judgment of these appraisals,” IG Metall said. “The same applies: If (the merger) is not economically viable it doesn’t represent a concept that IG Metall can support.” Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; writing by Douglas Busvine; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel/thyssenkrupp-kicks-off-talks-with-union-on-steel-merger-idUKKBN1DP077'|'2017-11-25T10:21:00.000+02:00'
'239139ed599fbfadd00507c12ed643a629264105'|'Online sales? Maybe one day, says Chanel'|'PARIS (Reuters) - France’s Chanel has no immediate plans for online sales of its coveted outfits or handbags, a senior executive said on Friday, making it one of the fashion world’s last hold-outs as rivals experiment with websites to win over new clients.FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a wall with logos of French luxury goods maker Chanel in Nice, France, February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo The label, known for its tweed suits and $4,300-plus quilted leather bags, already sells perfumes online, like its Chanel No 5, as well as eyeglasses and beauty products.But it will draw the line there for the foreseeable future, said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel.“If you give everything to everyone straight away, I think you lose that exclusivity,” Pavlovsky told a Vogue conference in Paris. “I‘m not saying we won’t try it one day, but if we do it will be because we’ll really think there’s some added value.”Luxury goods brands were slow to develop e-commerce sites as they worried that making products too widely available would erode their cachet.But most have now taken the plunge. Conglomerate LVMH ( LVMH.PA ), parent to Louis Vuitton, hired a former Apple executive and recently launched a site hosting multiple labels, though its online strategy at each of its brands still varies wildly.Web sales will make up some 10 percent of revenues in the luxury goods market this year, according to consultancy Bain, which projects they could reach 25 percent by 2025.FILE PHOTO: Chanel logo is seen on the company''s store in central Kiev, Ukraine, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo But Chanel’s out-of-step attitude was not a drag on the business, Pavlovsky said, adding that the label, founded by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in 1910, was reaching an increasingly young audience and had waiting lists for best-selling bags.Controlled by secretive billionaires Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Chanel does not regularly release financial results.FILE PHOTO: A guest attends the Chanel Fall/Winter 2016/2017 women''s ready-to-wear collection show at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo According to figures filed with the Amsterdam exchange, Chanel’s net profit fell nearly 35 percent in 2016 and sales dropped 9 percent to $5.7 billion.Most major rivals have enjoyed a sales bounce in 2017.Chanel is no stranger to digital marketing, however, showing images on media like Instagram and Twitter from its extravagant catwalk shows and collections by designer Karl Lagerfeld.But buyers want to try on the clothes, Pavlovsky said, adding that the business would look into providing “e-services” to allow buyers to reserve items online or make store appointments.“Every time I‘m in China I meet clients who come and say, ‘whatever you do don’t do e-commerce. The day you do it for us this won’t be exclusive anymore’,” Pavlovsky said.Editing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chanel-internet/online-sales-maybe-one-day-says-chanel-idUSKBN1DO2BB'|'2017-11-24T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'e5f147ae2fe82eb02cc21f4e65ae40cddd4d4bd7'|'Israel''s Kenon agrees to sell IC Power''s Latam business for $1.2 billion - Reuters'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s Kenon Holdings ( KEN.N ) ( KEN.TA ) said on Sunday it has agreed to sell IC Power’s Latin American and Caribbean businesses to infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital for about $1.2 billion.“The sale is part of Kenon’s strategy to provide its shareholders with direct access to its businesses, including through monetization of its businesses,” the company said.The deal, which is expected to close in the next several months, is only for operations owned by IC Power’s subsidiary Inkia Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and does not include its OPC Energy Ltd operations in Israel.As part of the transaction, I Squared Capital will assume Inkia’s $450 million of bonds, which were issued in November 2017, Kenon said.Kenon is also convoking a meeting at which shareholders will be asked to ratify the sale and subject to the completion of the sale, approve a capital reduction to enable Kenon to distribute a portion of the transaction proceeds to its shareholders.Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Editing by Tova Cohen '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-kenon-holdings-ic-power/israels-kenon-agrees-to-sell-ic-powers-latam-business-for-1-2-billion-idINKBN1DQ06I'|'2017-11-26T04:17:00.000+02:00'
'eebe4c93b78473740d83bfe8861b3109e49491b9'|'Mexico court rejects appeal to lift transgenic corn ban -lawyer'|' 15 AM / in an hour Mexico court rejects appeal to lift transgenic corn ban -lawyer Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A Mexican court has rejected a company’s appeal to lift a ban on commercial planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, passing the matter to the Supreme Court, a lawyer for   A federal court in Mexico City rejected the suit by PHI Mexico, a unit of U.S. chemical maker DowDuPont Inc’s company Pioneer, because it found it was not authorized to rule on the matter, said the lawyer, Rene Sanchez. “So it leaves things as they are until the (Supreme) court decides whether to study it or rule on it,” Sanchez said. Mexico currently permits cultivation of genetically-modified corn for scientific ends in areas of up to 1 hectare (2.5 acres) and non-commercial pilot schemes in areas of up to 10 hectares under judicial supervision. Commercial cultivation is prohibited. The curbs on transgenic corn are part of a suit brought in 2013 by a group known as the Colectividad del Maiz composed of farmers, scientists, environmentalists and others. The court could not immediately be reached for comment. In such cases, the rulings are typically not public and the findings only made known to the affected parties. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera;   Schmollinger)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mexico-corn/mexico-court-rejects-appeal-to-lift-transgenic-corn-ban-lawyer-idUSL1N1NV04V'|'2017-11-25T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'636fb6041922b2cc0704fbc8f558842877ece18e'|'China''s HNA gave ''untrue'' details during Gategroup takeover: Swiss watchdog'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA ( 0521.HK ), under scrutiny at home and abroad over a debt-fueled acquisition spree, gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup last year, the Swiss Takeover Board said.FILE PHOTO: The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo In a statement late on Friday, the regulator said the aviation and shipping group had failed to disclose that company executives held controlling stakes in the conglomerate and also gave incorrect shareholdings for the top two stakeholders - Bharat Bhise and Guan Jun - in the Gategroup offer prospectus.HNA said in a statement that it had provided all necessary information and the Gateway deal would not be affected.HNA’s all-cash $1.5 billion deal for Gategroup was part of a $50 billion buying binge over two years that included stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ) and Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ). Bankers have since voiced concern about HNA’s leverage levels and ownership structure..The Swiss regulator said Bhise and Guan had acted as trustees holding shares for HNA co-chairmen Chen Feng and Wang Jian, Chief Executive Adam Tan and three other people, and they should have been listed as beneficial owners in the offer prospectus.“Chen Feng, Wang Jian, Tan Xiangdong, Li Xianhua, Li Qing as well as Chen Wenli should have been disclosed as a group controlling HNA Group Co, Ltd and thus indirectly also controlling HNA Aviation (Hong Kong) Air Catering Holding Co in the offer prospectus of 20 May 2016,” the Swiss Takeover Board said.HNA said in a statement that it “fully cooperated with the Swiss Takeover Board and provided the necessary information. HNA acknowledges the Swiss Takeover Board’s determination on the subject.”“The decision ... does not have any impact on the validity of the takeover of Gategroup as such, which has been successfully completed. This ruling addresses a very specific event in May 2016 in Switzerland which is naturally not being investigated in any other jurisdiction,” HNA said.The regulator has asked consultant group Ernst & Young AG to look into whether the controlling group complied with minimum price rules and best price regulations in the deal. It also fined HNA 50,000 Swiss francs ($51,000).The Takeover Board also said that stakes in HNA Group held by Bhisé and Guan amounted to 17.15 percent and 12.01 percent, respectively, and not – as specified in the offer prospectus of May 20, 2016 – 17.40 percent and 12.35 percent.HNA shook up its ownership structure in July by transferring the near 30 percent stake held by the two men to a newly formed charity in New York.Headquartered in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, privately owned HNA has fielded many questions about its shareholding structure this year after Guo Wengui, a fugitive Chinese billionaire, alleged that “officials in China’s Communist Party and their relatives were undisclosed shareholders” in the group.Guo also alleged that HNA had allowed Chinese government officials and their relatives to use its aircraft “for purely personal reasons.”HNA has denied Guo’s allegations and has sued for defamation.Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and John Miller; Editing by Dale Hudson and Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-switzerland-hna-regulator/chinas-hna-gave-untrue-details-during-gategroup-takeover-swiss-watchdog-idINKBN1DP0P4'|'2017-11-25T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'd3b5d19159a06be815336d9affff215e60c59e97'|'U.S. oil prices hit fresh two-year highs on Keystone pipeline outage'|'November 24, 2017 / 1:13 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago U.S. oil prices rise to two-year high on Keystone pipeline outage Henning Gloystein 4 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil rose to a two-year high on Friday, as the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada to the United States tightened North American markets. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Trading activity is expected to be very low on Friday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.44 a barrel at 0550 GMT, up 42 cents, or 0.7 percent from their last settlement. Price rose to as much as $58.58 a barrel early on Friday, the highest since July 1, 2015. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $63.42, down 13 cents. In a sign of a tightening market, both crude benchmarks are in backwardation, where spot prices are higher than those for future delivery, which makes it unattractive for traders to store oil for later sale.(GRAPHIC: Brent & WTI crude oil futures are in backwardation, reut.rs/2A2yo7t ) The closure of the 590,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Keystone pipeline following a spill last week has driven up U.S. crude as stockpiles at the storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, have declined, traders said. Markets have also been tightening globally due to an effort by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of other producers, including Russia, to withhold 1.8 million bpd of production. The deal to restrict output expires in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 to discuss its policy, and it is expected to extend the cuts. “The agenda for the OPEC meeting is out and it’s only a 3-hour meeting. That suggests that a broad consensus has been built and the meeting is really just a rubber stamp to agree the extension of the Saudis’ favoured 9-month extension period,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader, in a note on Friday. Despite this expectation, McKenna said there was a slight risk of the collaboration derailing. “Imagine though if all the tensions in the Middle East, between the Saudis and Iranians and between other Gulf states and Qatar, somehow derail the meeting. It’s a low probability, high-impact possibility,” he said. Overall, however, analysts said market fundamentals were balanced, supporting prices. “Oil market fundamentals are improving with... robust global demand growth of around 1.7 percent this year,” U.S. investment bank Jefferies said. “Growth in U.S. output of 900,000 bpd this year (and in 2018) should not overwhelm the market,” it added. U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has jumped by 15 percent since mid-2016 to a record 9.66 million bpd, thanks largely to shale drilling. The increased production is likely to translate into higher exports, especially to Asia. China’s Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s largest oil refiner Sinopec ( 600028.SS ), said on Friday that it would double the volume of crude oil it imports from the U.S. to around 12 million tonnes next year. But Richard Robinson, manager of the Ashburton Global Energy Fund, warned U.S. output growth could slow as operators struggle to get enough sand and water, both of which are needed in the shale production process, known as fracking. “Logistics are a big bottleneck,” he said. (GRAPHIC: Global crude oil supply & demand balance, reut.rs/2zCLx75 ) Reporting by Henning Gloystein;   Keith Wallis; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-hit-fresh-two-year-highs-on-keystone-pipeline-outage-idUKKBN1DO02T'|'2017-11-24T03:12:00.000+02:00'
'deba97ecbb045318e4cc84fc6095fa062af3787a'|'Linde gets 90 percent shareholder backing for Praxair merger'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Industrial gases group Linde ( LING.DE ) said on Friday it had received approval from 90 percent of its shareholders for its planned $80 billion tie-up with Praxair ( PX.N ).Linde Group logo is seen at a company building in Munich-Pullach, Germany August 16, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo If the merger completes, Linde would be in a position to initiate a so-called squeeze-out of minority shareholders under German law, Linde said in an update on the merger as required under stock exchange rules.It said that no decision with respect to such a squeeze-out had yet been taken. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-linde-m-a-praxair/linde-gets-90-percent-shareholder-backing-for-praxair-merger-idINKBN1DO2DE'|'2017-11-24T15:53:00.000+02:00'
'a17a15cf1b69d7988a0797401dac3bf0b3f72f5b'|'Big gas exporter countries blast unilateral sanctions in dig at U.S.'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:35 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Big gas exporter countries blast unilateral sanctions in dig at U.S. Alexandra Alper 3 Min Read SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Representatives from a group of major energy-exporting nations on Friday said they oppose the use of unilateral sanctions on any of their members - an apparent dig at the United States for its moves against Russia, Iran and Venezuela. A family picture taken during the 4th Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia November 24, 2017. REUTERS/David Mercado The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which also includes members like Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, expressed their “profound concern” about sanctions affecting the gas sector that are not authorized by the United Nations, according to a communique signed by GECF’s 12 members after the group’s summit in Bolivia this week. The U.S. Congress has imposed economic sanctions on a number of GECF’s members, including recent measures against Russia that - among other things - seek to prevent companies from participating in Russian pipeline projects. Russia is the world’s second biggest natural gas producer behind the United States, which is not a GECF member, and depends heavily on its pipeline systems to reach its main customers in Europe. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier on Friday that the United States should not be permitted to impose such sanctions without a vote of the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a member. Washington also has imposed sanctions this year on Venezuela to pressure President Nicolas Maduro’s regime and has threatened to reimpose some sanctions against Iran that were lifted as part of a 2015 deal to freeze its nuclear programme, brokered by former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump has said Iran is violating the “spirit” of the 2015 deal. Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro (R) shakes hands with Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo at the 4th Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia November 24, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS While Iran and Venezuela produce some gas and are vocal members of the GECF, neither exports gas. The GECF communique on Friday said its membership would agree to cooperate towards a sustainable global natural gas market, while promoting the fuel’s use. Slideshow (5 Images) The meeting came as GECF members struggle with slumping global gas prices, blamed largely on surging supply from the United States and elsewhere, that have reduced investment and returns in parts of the industry. Novak said the oversupply on the world market could trigger a “crisis” drop in prices, similar to what occurred in the crude oil market. Gas prices already have plunged more than 80 percent in the past decade and remain under pressure due to growing supplies of shale gas and increased availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that can be shipped overseas. The United States has been able to vastly increase its output of oil and gas in recent years as improved drilling technology opened previously inaccessible reserves CLc1 NGc1. The GECF is modelled after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose 12 member nations manage oil supply to control prices. While the GECF has called for increased cooperation to defend its gas market, it has not applied production limits as OPEC has done. Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bolivia-gas-summit/big-gas-exporter-countries-blast-unilateral-sanctions-in-dig-at-u-s-idUKKBN1DO2HX'|'2017-11-24T22:45:00.000+02:00'
'fb866db511a5da9264c99df727793540f1fc1d9b'|'UPDATE 1-Deckers to appoint new independent directors amid proxy fight'|'(Reuters) - Deckers Outdoor Corp ( DECK.N ) said on Monday it would appoint at least two independent directors by September 2018, but activist investor Marcato Capital Management said the move is not enough to ensure success of the footwear maker.The company, whose brands include UGG boots, said the appointments will coincide with an equal number of retirements from the existing nine-member board of directors.Marcato, which owns 8.4 percent of the company and wants to replace the entire board, said Deckers’ announcement offers “too little, too late.” In addition, the hedge fund said Deckers is acknowledging what Marcato itself has been saying for months: that new skills and insights are needed on the board.Deckers said the new directors “are intended to increase Board diversity and reduce the average tenure of independent directors.”Tensions have mounted between the two sides for months and may be resolved only at Deckers’ upcoming annual meeting, on Dec. 14, when shareholders vote on board nominees. Marcato has nominated a full slate of nine candidates to the board.“The fact that this announcement comes just weeks before Deckers’ 2017 contested Annual Meeting further underscores the clear contempt the incumbent directors have towards the corporate governance process – once again doing as little as possible, at the slowest pace possible, and at the last moment possible,” Marcato said in a statement.San Francisco-based Marcato has urged Deckers to sell off pieces of the company, buy back shares and overhaul executive compensation. It has criticized Deckers for what it calls a lack of urgency in putting the company onto a path to success.Marcato won a proxy contest at Buffalo Wild Wings earlier this year and boasts some of the strongest returns in the hedge fund industry this year, with its flagship portfolio returning 19 percent through the end of October.But the strategy of trying to replace Decker’s entire board may be risky, analysts said, noting that institutional investors are often willing to give management more time to repair problems and unwilling to throw out all directors.Deckers stock closed down 2.0 percent at $72.42 on Monday.Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deckers-outdoor-marcato/deckers-to-appoint-at-least-two-new-independent-directors-idUSKBN1DR1K7'|'2017-11-27T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'28d8c8bb8f50c7c5c772a0b02d7cc9ce1d5b7eb2'|'EU patent fee guidelines to favour Qualcomm, Ericsson, others - sources'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:41 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago EU patent fee guidelines to favour Qualcomm, Ericsson, others - sources Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU regulators are set to unveil patent fee guidelines which favour Qualcomm, Ericsson and other patent holders despite intense lobbying by Apple, German carmakers and other users, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Steve Mollenkopf, Qualcomm CEO, speaks during his keynote address at CES in Las Vegas, U.S., January 6, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The move by the European Commission is part of a broader push to set new rules for internet-connected devices for cars, home automation and energy devices and not just for computers and smartphones. The issue, in which trillions of dollars in sales are at stake, has pitted Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and other patent owners against users such as Apple, Volkswagen, Daimler. World No. 1 smartphone chip designer Qualcomm and Ericsson, use a patent fee model which predominates in the tech industry with royalties based on how much value a technology adds to a product. Apple, Google and others in Silicon Valley have criticised the model, saying fixed fees are fairer. The Commission’s latest draft no longer has the phrase “licensing for all”, the sources said, a victory for Qualcomm as it removes the obligation on patent holders to provide patent licences to all companies asking for them. A key sentence in an earlier proposal has also been deleted, people said. The sentence said that right holders could not unilaterally set prices according to the way in which a patent is used. The Commission did not respond to a request for comment. The non-binding guidelines could provide a basis for future EU rules. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-patents/eu-patent-fee-guidelines-to-favour-qualcomm-ericsson-others-sources-idUKKBN1DR1QZ'|'2017-11-27T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'8de61e4eaf9f9e7009af464f58a6226cdb44ec66'|'Sensex edges down; oil refiners slip'|'(Reuters) - Sensex edged higher for an eighth consecutive session on Monday as private lenders such as Axis Bank extended gains, although sentiment was broadly cautious ahead of economic data due later this week.FILE PHOTO: A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo Meanwhile, benchmark 10-year bond yields were up 5 bps points at 7.05 percent amid some disappointment after Standard & Poor’s stuck with its “BBB-minus” sovereign rating for India, declining to follow Moody’s recent decision to upgrade the country’s rating.The broader NSE Nifty closed up 0.09 percent at 10,399.55, after earlier falling as much as 0.5 percent. The benchmark BSE Sensex ended 0.13 percent higher at 33,724.44, after earlier falling as much as 0.4 percent.Reporting by Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sensex-nifty-stock-markets/sensex-edges-down-oil-refiners-slip-idINKBN1DR0K1'|'2017-11-27T03:34:00.000+02:00'
'5b5512058e8f0fc9b25f1460fd127c3e16bcfa5c'|'City of London says tax take backs case for Brexit banks deal'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:22 AM / Updated 6 hours ago City of London says tax take backs case for Brexit banks deal Huw Jones 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial services industry paid a record 72.1 billion pounds ($96.2 billion) in tax during the past fiscal year, PwC said in a report that piles pressure on the government to secure favorable trading terms for banks after Brexit. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Tax revenues in the finance sector rose 1 percent in the year to March 2017, hitting their highest level in the ten years data has been collected, the report said. It was commissioned by the City of London, home to the “Square Mile” financial district. “With Brexit edging ever closer, it is more important than ever to underline just how important the financial services sector is to the rest of the economy,” City of London policy chief Catherine McGuinness said. “While it’s too early to gauge how the country’s tax-take might suffer if firms chose to move business away from the UK, these findings highlight how vital it is to meet the urgent needs of the sector as part of negotiations.” The City has called for a transition deal by the end of the year to limit the amount of financial jobs moving to the EU’s other 27 member countries before Britain’s departure from the bloc in March 2019. The Bank of England expects 10,000 financial services jobs to move by “Brexit Day” as London based banks, insurers and asset managers open or expand existing hubs in the bloc to maintain customer links there. The report said 43.5 percent or 31.4 billion pounds of tax receipts from firms tracked was in employment taxes paid by employees and their companies. “If a large number of jobs were to leave the UK as a result of Brexit, then the tax revenues of the financial services sector would almost certainly be impacted,” the City of London said. The sector accounted for 11 percent of UK tax receipts, and for the first time, the annual report showed where the majority of financial jobs are located. A third of financial services jobs are in London, with Scotland accounting for 13.6 percent, and the south east of England 12.4 percent. Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-tax/city-of-london-says-tax-take-backs-case-for-brexit-banks-deal-idUKKBN1DR00Q'|'2017-11-27T02:16:00.000+02:00'
'f2192d91d128fa870a39db849feab380adf6ec50'|'Louis Dreyfus to buy Chinese oilseed firm from Golden Agri'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Global trading house Louis Dreyfus Company is to buy an oilseed crushing and vegetable oil refining business in China from Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources ( GAGR.SI ), extending its presence in the world’s biggest oilseed importing country.A Louis Dreyfus subsidiary is to buy Sinarmas Natural Resources Foodstuff Technology (Tianjin) Co. from a subsidiary of Golden Agri-Resources on the basis of an enterprise value of $111 million, Golden Agri-Resources said in a filing on Monday. The final price is subject to adjustment, the filing said.The business being acquired by Louis Dreyfus owns and operates oilseed crushing and refining facilities in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin.Dreyfus is one of the so-called ABCD group of merchants alongside Archer Daniels Midland ( ADM.N ), Bunge ( BG.N ), Cargill that have long dominated global trade in agricultural commodities.Like its rivals, Dreyfus has been grappling with declining margins linked to high levels of supply and reduced price volatility, leading it to spin off some businesses and focus on core activities including grains and oilseeds.A Louis Dreyfus spokeswoman said the deal reflected the group’s confidence in the Chinese agricultural processing sector, without giving further financial details.The ABCD merchants are facing competition from China’s state-owned COFCO Corp, whose international trading arm is looking to expand direct sourcing from farmers worldwide and reduce its reliance on foreign trading houses.Golden Agri-Resources, which is one of the world’s largest palm-oil plantation owners, said the sale was a strategic decision to sell a non-core oilseed asset.The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.Reporting by Gus Trompiz. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-louisdreyfus-golden-agri-china/louis-dreyfus-to-buy-chinese-oilseed-firm-from-golden-agri-idUSKBN1DR2F4'|'2017-11-28T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'8a72230ee0e98a30119e2f6179cd842358efa1a1'|'Britain committed to avoiding infrastructure at Irish border post-Brexit'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:09 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Britain committed to avoiding infrastructure at Irish border post-Brexit Reuters Staff 1   Britain is committed to avoiding any physical infrastructure at the border with EU member Ireland after Brexit, but a solution can only be found in the context of a future relationship, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels, Belgium, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Virginia Mayo/Pool “We remain firmly committed to avoiding any physical infrastructure and we have had clear discussions about that with the EU,” he told reporters, repeating that the United Kingdom will be leaving the EU’s single market and customs union. “But the secretary of state (Brexit minister David Davis) was also clear that we will only be able to conclude them finally in the context of the future relationship.” Reporting by Elizabeth Piper. Editing by Andrew MacAskill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ireland-border/britain-committed-to-avoiding-infrastructure-at-irish-border-post-brexit-idUKKBN1DR1DR'|'2017-11-27T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'3d7abcffd91151443fc2492c1d860d470c5e4872'|'Asian stocks hover near decade peak, euro reaches two-month high'|'November 27, 2017 / 1:16 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Asia stocks slip as China, South Korea weakness weigh, euro hits two-month high Shinichi Saoshiro 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks gave back earlier modest gains and fell back from a decade high on Monday, weighed by weakness in the Chinese and South Korean markets, while the euro reached a two-month top against the dollar. People walk past an electronic board showing Japan''s Nikkei average outside a brokerage at a business district in Tokyo, Japan August 9, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose early in the session on Friday’s Wall Street gains but was last down 0.65 percent. The index rose to its highest since 2007 on Thursday with as equity markets have enjoyed strong support this year thanks to corporate earnings rising on the back of an improving global economy. South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.3 percent as tech shares slumped following an analyst’s report suggesting the memory chip “super cycle” would soon fade, led lower by Samsung Electronics. [.KS] Strength in technology shares pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs on Friday but observers noted that demand for tech-related products such as semiconductors could slacken. “Global sales of semiconductors expanded greatly in the third quarter. But demand could slow in the fourth quarter as a reaction to this sharp increase, and there are warning signs such as reversals in price trends,” wrote Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. Shanghai shares were down 0.7 percent, reaching a three-month low. Chinese shares were already on a shaky footing after last week when investor confidence was sapped by fresh government steps to reduce financial risks, and a rout in the bond market. Japan’s Nikkei pared earlier gains and fell 0.3 percent. In currencies, the euro traded little changed at $1.1922 after nudging up to $1.1946 earlier, its highest since Sept. 22. The common currency rode on momentum from Friday after data showed German business confidence hit a record high in November, a sign the European Union’s largest economy is on track for a boom. The euro was also helped by Germany’s Social Democrats’ agreement on Friday to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on renewing their outgoing coalition government. Political uncertainty in Germany stemming from Merkel’s apparent failure to form a governing coalition talks knocked the euro early last week. The euro’s strength kept the dollar’s index against six major rivals at 92.805, not far from a two-month low of 92.675 plumbed on Friday. The dollar lost 0.15 percent to 111.375 yen. The Australian dollar dipped 0.3 percent to $0.7597 after rising nearly 0.75 percent the previous week. The New Zealand dollar rose 0.1 percent to $0.6855, recovering some of Friday’s losses. U.S. crude oil futures rose to a 2-1/2-year high of $59.05 per barrel on Friday. A continued shutdown of a U.S.-Canada pipeline triggered supply concerns, while the prospect of OPEC extending production cuts when the group meets this week also boded well for oil. [O/R] Nonetheless, U.S. crude was last down 24 cents at $58.71 per barrel, while Brent crude slipped 6 cents to $63.80 per barrel. Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-stocks-hover-near-decade-peak-euro-reaches-two-month-high-idUKKBN1DR02R'|'2017-11-27T03:01:00.000+02:00'
'670ad101bd70dfd8a8c3470dd2ab34e854d08294'|'Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week - sources'|'November 24, 2017 / 8:23 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week: sources Paresh Dave , Liana B. Baker 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] plans to move ahead with a deal to bring in Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) as a major investor by disclosing the pricing early next week in formal tender offers to the ride-hailing service’s investors, two people familiar with the plans said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S., February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The start of the tender follows Uber’s disclosure on Tuesday that it covered up a 2016 data breach which compromised data of some 57 million customers and drivers. That revelation prompted governments around the world to launch probes into the breach and Uber’s handling of the matter. The people familiar with the plans did not say how much investors would be offered for the shares, or say if the price had been cut do to the breach or governments’ response to the disclosure. Investors will have 20 business days, or about a month, to respond to emails and letters to be sent early next week, said one of the sources, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss terms before they are public. SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group agreed on Nov. 12 to lead a group that would invest as much as $10 billion in Uber, people familiar with the deal previously told Reuters. They plan to directly invest $1 billion to $1.25 billion in Uber, then buy as much as 17 percent of shares held by existing investors and employees. Selling shareholders must be accredited investors as defined by U.S. regulations and hold at least 10,000 shares of the firm, Uber said in ads published Wednesday in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Uber is valued at $69 billion, the highest of any venture backed company. SoftBank’s $1 billion direct investment in Uber is expected to be at the same valuation. Employees and existing investors will be paid a lower price for their shares in a tender that will likely take weeks to complete, people familiar with the Nov. 12 agreement told Reuters. Purchasers of startup shares through secondary deals service provider SharesPost discount a company’s valuation by as much as 25 percent depending on liquidity options and scarcity, said Rohit Kulkarni, the company’s managing director for private investment research. That would value Uber at about $52 billion. Kulkarni said he expected SoftBank to apply an “incremental discount” because of the data breach. Verizon, he noted, cut its $4.8 billion Yahoo Inc takeover offer 7 percent following disclosure at the time of breaches affecting 1 billion accounts. Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Jim Finkle and Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/uber-to-send-out-tenders-on-softbank-deal-early-next-week-sources-idUKKBN1DO2GZ'|'2017-11-25T02:24:00.000+02:00'
'26e91827d81fc4e89ed8f601aa55b6127547762a'|'China explosives maker to buy coal miner for $3.1 billion'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese explosives maker Anhui Leimingkehua Co Ltd ( 600985.SS ) said on Monday it would acquire a state-run coal miner in a $3.1 billion deal as part of the Chinese government’s push to boost efficiency at state-owned enterprises.Anhui Leimingkehua said it and a subsidiary plan to buy Huaikuang Co Ltd, a coal miner based in eastern China’s Anhui province, for 20.3 billion yuan ($3.08 billion) in cash and newly-issued shares. [nH9N1NS01G]The company aims to raise up to 700 million yuan in a private placement of shares to help fund the acquisition, it said in a statement.The coal miner, which is also the largest producer of coke in eastern China, reported an unaudited revenue between January and July this year of 31.96 billion yuan, according to Leimingkehua’s filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.The miner had coal reserves of about 3.7 billion tonnes at the end of 2016.“The deal is part of the government’s push to reform the state-owned sector and boost the securitization of state-owned assets,” the company said.Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-huaikuang-m-a-anhui-leimingkehua/china-explosives-maker-to-buy-coal-miner-for-3-1-billion-idINKBN1DR1GV'|'2017-11-27T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'14868aa0cc2791987adbe18b23287c602ce15ed1'|'WRAPUP 2-China blue chips extend losses as bond market mood remains fragile'|'(Updates prices throughout)* CSI300 index loses 1.3 percent on blue-chip selling* Reports of new rules on asset-backed securities underscore regulatory concerns* Bond market ‘relatively stable’ but mood remains fragileBy Andrew GalbraithSHANGHAI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - China’s stock markets fell sharply on Monday, extending last week’s sell-off, as the spectre of rising borrowing costs hitting company profits haunts investors amid an increasing regulatory crackdown on risky financing.Selling in China’s stock markets had been prompted by a rout in the bond market that pushed yields on government treasury bonds to three-year highs, and by fresh moves to reduce risks in the asset management industry that may bring a sea change for banks and millions of small investors.The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 1.3 percent in the morning session to 4,050.24 points.The index had closed barely higher on Friday as afternoon buying erased earlier losses, following its worst one-day drop in nearly 18 months on Thursday.The Shanghai Composite index was 0.8 percent lower at 3,326.82, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.4 percent to 29,737.45.Major internet-of-things supplier BOE Technology , seen as a blue-chip bellwether, tumbled 7.1 percent on news that major shareholders planned to cut their stakes in the company.Shares in the company surged 51.6 percent from the beginning of October to a nine-year high on Nov. 21, but have since plunged 19.5 percent. “Blue chips have been rising too fast ... and soaring prices of stocks such as Moutai have apparently raised regulatory eyebrows,” said Chen Xiaopeng, strategist at Sealand Securities Co.“In addition, the new guidelines on asset management business have triggered expectations of tighter liquidity.”Economic Information Daily reported on Monday that regulators are expected to tighten controls on consumer loan asset-backed securities, in the latest move to increase oversight of financial products.Official efforts to cool some of the highest flying blue chips have also weighed on sentiment overhaul, prompting investors to take profits from this year’s heady run-up.Shares in liquor maker Kweichow Moutai had fallen sharply after the Shanghai Stock Exchange sent a letter to Essence Securities last week, questioning the rationale behind a bullish brokerage report.However, Kweichow Moutai shares were higher on Monday, rising 0.2 percent after an 8.6 percent fall last week. The stock had more than doubled in value this year through mid-November.QUIET BOND MARKET The yield on Chinese 10-year treasury bonds stood at 3.975 percent on Monday, while five-year AAA-rated corporate bonds issued by Jiangsu Communications Holding were Quote: d at 5.201 percent, up 38.5 basis points since the end of October.Yields on shorter-term instruments also remain high. AAA-rated three-month commercial paper yielded 4.99 percent, reflecting a rise of nearly 60 basis points in November.Despite persistently high yields, traders said the bond market was quiet on Monday, though sentiment remained fragile as regulatory tightening keeps borrowing costs elevated and companies start to hoard cash heading into the year-end, when liquidity typically tightens.“It has been relatively calm today, we’re seeing range-bound trade,” said a trader at a regional bank.“Traders are hesitating, with no clear view on the direction,” said a fixed-income manager in Shanghai.“It’s near the year-end, everyone is calculating bonuses so nobody wants to take more risk. Traders may just hope there will be no further drops in the market before the end of the year.”Markets largely shrugged off data showing profits at China’s industrial firms continued to grow at a robust pace last month despite a slight cooling from a sizzling September.Profits earned by China’s industrial companies in October rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier, slowing from a 27.7 percent gain in September.While robust earnings should give China Inc more room to reduce its massive debt - a key government priority - a Reuters analysis shows the debt pile at listed Chinese firms is still climbing, with levels at the end of September growing at the fastest pace in four years.Highlighting the size of the problem and the potential drag on future economic growth, debt servicing costs have gobbled up about a fourth of state-owned firms’ revenues in the last few quarters, and higher interest rates could see that burden grow.China’s yuan inched up against the dollar on Monday, but gains were capped as companies increased their purchases of the U.S. currency, traders said.The onshore spot yuan opened at 6.5970 per dollar and was trading at 6.5992 at 0438 GMT.Writing by Andrew Galbraith; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen, Luoyan Liu and Winni Zhou; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-markets/wrapup-1-china-shares-extend-losses-on-fragile-bond-market-mood-idINL3N1NX1HO'|'2017-11-27T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'a33fd17cf2f1b9369df6a33da5aef521dcbecf3b'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls as energy stocks pull back with oil'|' 45 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls as energy stocks pull back with oil Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index turned lower in early trade on Monday, with heavyweight energy stocks weighing as U.S. crude oil prices came off two-year highs. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 16.62 points, or 0.1 percent, at 16,091.47 shortly after the open. Its energy group retreated 1.1 percent. Reporting by Alastair Sharp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-falls-as-energy-stocks-pull-back-with-oil-idUSL1N1NX0Q5'|'2017-11-27T16:44:00.000+02:00'
'109a8db32d9ff74a671be21e23425c29430c11f2'|'UPDATE 1-Codelco CEO seeks to learn about lithium mining on China trip'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The Chief Executive Officer of Chilean state copper company Codelco [COBRE.UL], Nelson Pizarro, will visit research institutes in China to learn about lithium extraction on his current trip to Asia, he said on Wednesday.Nelson Pizarro, Chief Executive Officer of Chile''s state copper giant Codelco, attends a news conference in Santiago, Chile September 5, 2017 REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/File Photo Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Asia Copper Conference, Pizarro said the exchanges were aimed at “analyzing or getting to know the technology to extract lithium, because we don’t have experience in this.”Codelco has lithium assets in Chile but is currently not producing the metal, Pizarro said. More than 10 companies have expressed interest in partnering with Codelco to exploit its lithium assets in Chile, Codelco Chairman Oscar Landerretche told Reuters last month.Asked why Codelco was looking to learn about lithium from the Chinese specifically, Pizarro pointed to the growing demand for the metal in batteries for China’s booming electric vehicles sector. He declined to comment when asked if Chinese companies might invest in Codelco’s lithium assets.Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-copper-codelco-lithium/codelco-ceo-seeks-to-learn-about-lithium-mining-on-china-trip-idUSKBN1DT0DK'|'2017-11-29T05:24:00.000+02:00'
'4bb7b308e76d272f3ccf9c1e3fc415507982be52'|'Uber lawyer says ex-CEO, board members told of letter kept from Waymo lawsuit'|'Reuters TV United States November 29, 2017 / 6:51 PM / a few seconds ago Uber lawyer says ex-CEO, board members told of letter kept from Waymo lawsuit Heather Somerville , Dan Levine 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s former chief executive and some board members knew of a letter a U.S. judge has said was withheld from a high-stakes lawsuit, an attorney for the company testified on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app logo displayed on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph in central London, Britain October 28, 2016. This logo has been updated and is no longer in use. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Illustration/File Photo But Uber’s lawyer said she did not disclose the letter to other attorneys defending the company in the trade secrets lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) self-driving car unit Waymo. U.S. District Judge William Alsup called that decision “inexplicable.” The letter alleges Uber trained employees to steal trade secrets and hide their activities. “On the surface it looks like you covered this up,” he told Uber in court. Alphabet’s Waymo has accused Uber of stealing confidential information about its self-driving car designs, the highest-stakes legal challenge on a list of litigation that Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi inherited when he joined the company in August. Uber’s autonomous car program has been hobbled by the case and it faces hefty claims from Alphabet. U.S. prosecutors also are investigating the matter, raising the possibility of criminal charges. Uber has denied that it used Waymo trade secrets in its autonomous vehicle program. At the hearing in San Francisco federal court, Uber in-house attorney Angela Padilla testified she did not disclose the letter with the allegations to Uber attorneys and an outside law firm that were defining Uber in the Waymo lawsuit. Alsup, who is overseeing the case, raised the question of a cover-up as he also did at a hearing on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Waymo unveils a self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “There was no effort to cover this up,” Padilla responded, adding that she takes “full responsibility” for not circulating the letter more widely. The hearing was still ongoing on Wednesday. Former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs testified in court this week that his lawyer sent a 37-page letter to Padilla describing an organization within Uber called marketplace analytics that he said exists for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets, code base and competitive intelligence. Jacobs’ attorney sent the U.S. Department of Justice a similar letter making the same claims. In his testimony Jacobs described an elaborate intelligence operation inside Uber to deliberately research competitors and gather data about them, and use technology to avoid a paper trail. Alsup delayed the trial, which had been scheduled for next week, to give Waymo more time to investigate the allegations. In court on Wednesday, Padilla said Uber viewed the Jacobs letter as a tactic by a disgruntled former employee to secure money from the company. However, Uber eventually settled the matter by paying Jacobs $4.5 million, including a consulting contract, and a further $3 million to his lawyer. “That is a lot of money,” Alsup said. “And people don’t pay that kind of money for BS. And you certainly don’t hire them as consultants if you think everything they’ve got to contribute is BS.” Reporting by Dan Levine, editing by Peter Henderson and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-uber-ruling/uber-lawyer-says-ex-ceo-board-members-told-of-letter-kept-from-waymo-lawsuit-idUKKBN1DT2XT'|'2017-11-29T20:43:00.000+02:00'
'ed916f8cacab10bd102c2f541a9793c0c7026fe0'|'Wells Fargo to exit personal insurance business'|'(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) said on Tuesday it would exit the personal insurance business and immediately begin winding down marketing and product promotion activity.The sign outside the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Wells Fargo’s personal insurance business includes auto, homeowners, renters and umbrella insurance products. The business’ financial contribution was not material to the company, according to the bank’s statement on Tuesday.Wells Fargo has been working for more than a year to recover from a sales scandal that has impacted several of its consumer businesses, including some insurance products. The bank has also been working to cut costs as profits have fallen due in part to legal and regulatory problems.Wells, the third-largest U.S. lender by assets, has already exited several other insurance businesses, including crop insurance, which it sold in 2016. It announced a deal in June to sell its commercial insurance business. That deal has yet to close.The personal insurance business is the last remaining insurance brokerage agency Wells Fargo owns.Reporting by Dan Freed in New York and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-personal-insurance/wells-fargo-to-exit-personal-insurance-business-idINKBN1DS2V9'|'2017-11-28T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'25ddea7c7b1e311957b021686a1332ce33e2d1c7'|'Daimler turns down Geely offer to take up to 5 pct stake via new share issue'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Exclusive: Daimler rebuffs Geely offer to buy stake; Geely still hopeful of a deal - sources Julie Zhu , Norihiko Shirouzu 4 Min Read HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Daimler AG has turned down an offer from China’s Geely to take a stake of up to 5 percent via a discounted share placement, as the German automaker has long been reluctant to see existing shareholdings diluted, sources with knowledge of the talks said. Daimler AG sign is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, Germany, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo A stake of that size would be worth $4.5 billion at current market prices. Although Daimler declined the offer, it told Geely it was welcome to buy shares in the open market, the sources added. Carmakers in China have embarked on a flurry of dealmaking, as they scramble to boost production of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles ahead of tough new quotas to be imposed by Beijing, which wants to reduce urban smog and lower the country’s reliance on oil. People with knowledge of Geely’s thinking said the company was keen to access Daimler’s electric car battery technology and wanted to establish an electric car joint venture in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. Geely, which also owns Swedish car maker Volvo, is still hopeful it can secure a deal in some form over the coming weeks, they added. The two automakers met in Beijing in recent weeks at Geely’s behest. There, the Chinese firm, formally known as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, offered to take a stake of between 3 percent and 5 percent if Daimler would issue new shares at a discount, the sources said. It was not immediately clear what kind of discount for the shares Geely had in mind or whether Geely was interested in buying the shares on the open market. A spokesman for Geely declined to comment. A spokesman for Daimler said the company was “very happy with our shareholder structure at present”, but added that it would welcome new investors with a long-term interest in the company. Shares in Daimler were up 1 percent in early Wednesday trade, in line with the broader market. DAIMLER ALREADY TIED TO BAIC, BYD Geely, which has a market value of some $32 billion, is the leading domestic brand in China with a 5 percent market share, according to an analysis by Nomura Securities. A stake of 5 percent would establish it as Daimler’s third-largest shareholder behind the Kuwait Investment Authority and BlackRock, who hold 6.8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to Reuters data. Daimler, however, has a long-established joint venture with Chinese carmaker BAIC Motor Corp, which its spokesman described as “our most important partner in China.” This month it announced plans to invest at least 5 billion yuan ($757 million) in electric battery and vehicle production with BAIC in China. It also has another tie-up with BYD, a Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett. The maker of Mercedes-Benz cars has previously held similar discussions about an investment from BAIC. But Daimler has consistently refused to issue new shares out of concern for existing shareholders. Other recent potential deals involving global and Chinese automakers include Ford Motor Co’s announcement in August that it is looking at setting up an electric car venture with Chinese firm Zotye Automobile Co Ltd. Any deal involving an equity stake in Daimler would be Geely’s largest since it bought Volvo for $1.8 billion in 2010. This week, Geely and Volvo launched the first car in China under their new brand, Lynk & Co, which the Chinese group intends to eventually take global. ($1 = 6.6017 Chinese yuan) Reporting by Julie Zhu and Norihiko Shirouzu; Additional reporting by Edward Taylor in Frankfurt; Writing by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/daimler-m-a-geely-automobile/daimler-turns-down-geely-offer-to-take-up-to-5-pct-stake-via-new-share-issue-idINKBN1DT0UP'|'2017-11-29T09:58:00.000+02:00'
'3bbddd7b59cbc0b561a232e12578d6d5d99b787d'|'Australia is the new frontier for battery minerals - The whizz of Oz'|'FORGET the “resource curse”. Australia is blessed with the stuff. For more than a quarter of a century it has not had a recession, thanks largely to Chinese demand for its raw materials. It is only a few years since the end of one such China-led boom, in base metals such as iron ore. A new speculative flurry has started in minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel to feed another China-related craze—making batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).Ken Brinsden, an Australian mining engineer, says he pinches himself over these remarkable turns of fortune. Until 2015 he was a boss at Atlas Iron, which shipped low-grade iron ore to China. In 2011, at the height of the China-led supercycle, it had a valuation of A$3.5bn ($3.8bn). This has now shrunk to A$167m. But he now heads Pilbara Minerals, whose Pilgangoora lithium mine in the outback of Western Australia lies so close to two of Atlas’s former iron-ore mines that he can see them from the top of the dusty-red escarpment.  Since 2015 Pilbara Minerals’ market capitalisation has jumped from A$25m to A$1.5bn, as the soaring price of battery-grade lithium has made the economics of producing it from Australia’s spodumene, or “hard rock” reserves, more attractive. Great Wall Motor, a Chinese carmaker, recently bought a small stake in the firm and agreed to take a large share of its spodumene concentrate. Altura Mining, another favourite of speculative investors, is also developing a lithium mine in Pilgangoora, with much of its production already earmarked for China.Clean TeQ, whose big shareholders are Robert Friedland, an American-Canadian billionaire, and Pengxin International Mining, a Chinese firm, is also on a battery-powered roll (see chart). Its value has soared by 240% this year to A$838m, based on its plans to produce nickel and cobalt sulphates, both key raw materials (along with lithium) for lithium-ion battery cathodes.In most of the world cobalt is extracted as a by-product of copper and nickel, but it has recently become more valuable than nickel because of its scarcity. Such is the anticipated demand for it in the lithium-ion battery industry that shortages are expected within a few years. Clean TeQ says that at today’s prices of $27 a pound (compared with $10 a pound in 2016) cobalt would be a bigger source of revenue from its mine in New South Wales than nickel.In each case, the companies argue that they offer a more secure source of raw materials for Chinese battery manufacturers than foreign competitors. First, consider lithium. Although the raw material can be produced more cheaply from brine in South America, political, business and legal risks are lower in Australia. Moreover, Mr Brinsden argues that spodumene can be processed directly into lithium hydroxide, which is preferred by battery-makers to the lithium carbonate that comes from lithium chloride in brine.Phil Thick, boss of Tianqi Lithium Australia, the majority-owner of Greenbushes, a lithium mine in Western Australia that is the world’s largest, foresees no shortage of lithium itself—especially metal that is lower grade than that mined from Greenbushes. But he says there is a lack of processing capacity, so Tianqi, which is Chinese-owned, and its American partner, Albermarle, have plans to lift production of lithium hydroxide in Western Australia for export to China.As for cobalt, Clean TeQ says that its production will have none of the ethical issues associated with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), from where 60% of today’s supply comes. DRC cobalt is partly produced by “artisanal” miners that often use children with pickaxes to produce the metal. (This week it emerged that the London Metal Exchange has launched an inquiry into whether cobalt mined with child labour is trading on its exchange.) Ben Stockdale, the mining firm’s chief financial officer, quips that the biggest risk with Clean TeQ is that its miners “die of boredom”—the mine is on flat, featureless land.In fact, the biggest risk for all these projects is price, which in turn hinges on whether car firms make good on their plans for a big increase in investment in electric vehicles. That is still an open question. Though Mr Brinsden is convinced China will “surprise the world” with its role in the battery revolution, he also says Chinese carmakers such as Great Wall and Geely see hybrid vehicles as a stepping stone towards EVs, implying that full electrification will still take time to develop.Another risk is that mining giants such as Rio Tinto will muscle in. Rio was recently rumoured to be contemplating a bid for SQM, Chile’s biggest lithium producer, which the rest of the lithium brigade is uneasy about. Mr Thick, though, is confident: “It’s a tough business. Even Rio with its huge chequebook won’t find it easy.”  Business   "The whizz of Oz" About The Economist'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731676-speculators-are-piling-thanks-strong-demand-chinas-electric-vehicle?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-25T12:00:00.000+02:00'
'3966790ce154c48a6c9cf979f6cdb52c89c91ded'|'China blue chips extend losses as bond market mood remains fragile'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s stock markets fell sharply on Monday, extending last week’s sell-off, as the spectre of rising borrowing costs hitting company profits haunts investors amid an increasing regulatory crackdown on risky financing.People walk past a panel displaying Chinese stock market indexes in Hong Kong, China January 4, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files Selling in China’s stock markets had been prompted by a rout in the bond market that pushed yields on government treasury bonds to three-year highs, and by fresh moves to reduce risks in the asset management industry that may bring a sea change for banks and millions of small investors.The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 1.3 percent in the morning session to 4,050.24 points.The index had closed barely higher on Friday as afternoon buying erased earlier losses, following its worst one-day drop in nearly 18 months on Thursday.The Shanghai Composite index was 0.8 percent lower at 3,326.82, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.4 percent to 29,737.45.Major internet-of-things supplier BOE Technology, seen as a blue-chip bellwether, tumbled 7.1 percent on news that major shareholders planned to cut their stakes in the company.Shares in the company surged 51.6 percent from the beginning of October to a nine-year high on Nov. 21, but have since plunged 19.5 percent.“Blue chips have been rising too fast ... and soaring prices of stocks such as Moutai have apparently raised regulatory eyebrows,” said Chen Xiaopeng, strategist at Sealand Securities Co.“In addition, the new guidelines on asset management business have triggered expectations of tighter liquidity.”Economic Information Daily reported on Monday that regulators are expected to tighten controls on consumer loan asset-backed securities, in the latest move to increase oversight of financial products.Official efforts to cool some of the highest flying blue chips have also weighed on sentiment overhaul, prompting investors to take profits from this year’s heady run-up.Shares in liquor maker Kweichow Moutai had fallen sharply after the Shanghai Stock Exchange sent a letter to Essence Securities last week, questioning the rationale behind a bullish brokerage report.However, Kweichow Moutai shares were higher on Monday, rising 0.2 percent after an 8.6 percent fall last week. The stock had more than doubled in value this year through mid-November.QUIET BOND MARKET The yield on Chinese 10-year treasury bonds stood at 3.975 percent on Monday, while five-year AAA-rated corporate bonds issued by Jiangsu Communications Holding were Quote: d at 5.201 percent, up 38.5 basis points since the end of October.Yields on shorter-term instruments also remain high. AAA-rated three-month commercial paper yielded 4.99 percent, reflecting a rise of nearly 60 basis points in November.Despite persistently high yields, traders said the bond market was quiet on Monday, though sentiment remained fragile as regulatory tightening keeps borrowing costs elevated and companies start to hoard cash heading into the year-end, when liquidity typically tightens.“It has been relatively calm today, we’re seeing range-bound trade,” said a trader at a regional bank.“Traders are hesitating, with no clear view on the direction,” said a fixed-income manager in Shanghai.“It’s near the year-end, everyone is calculating bonuses so nobody wants to take more risk. Traders may just hope there will be no further drops in the market before the end of the year.”Markets largely shrugged off data showing profits at China’s industrial firms continued to grow at a robust pace last month despite a slight cooling from a sizzling September.Profits earned by China’s industrial companies in October rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier, slowing from a 27.7 percent gain in September.While robust earnings should give China Inc more room to reduce its massive debt - a key government priority - a Reuters analysis shows the debt pile at listed Chinese firms is still climbing, with levels at the end of September growing at the fastest pace in four years.Highlighting the size of the problem and the potential drag on future economic growth, debt servicing costs have gobbled up about a fourth of state-owned firms’ revenues in the last few quarters, and higher interest rates could see that burden grow.China’s yuan inched up against the dollar on Monday, but gains were capped as companies increased their purchases of the U.S. currency, traders said.The onshore spot yuan opened at 6.5970 per dollar and was trading at 6.5992 at 0438 GMT.Writing by Andrew Galbraith; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen, Luoyan Liu and Winni Zhou; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-markets/china-blue-chips-extend-losses-as-bond-market-mood-remains-fragile-idINKBN1DR0G2'|'2017-11-27T07:47:00.000+02:00'
'eaaf3cb2aa37219e243027b57800dd67680deddd'|'Bank of England says wants SONIA to replace LIBOR by end of 2021'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:16 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Bank of England says wants SONIA to replace LIBOR by end of 2021 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Wednesday that it wanted the SONIA measure of overnight interest rates to replace scandal-hit LIBOR measure as the main benchmark for commercial sterling interest rates by the end of 2021. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks during the Bank''s financial stability report at the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Victoria Jones/Pool “It has become increasingly clear that we cannot rely on LIBOR in the long term,” BoE Governor Mark Carney said in a speech to bankers in London. Carney said there was a risk that the banks which currently quote interbank lending rates that are used to calculate LIBOR might pull out and precipitate the benchmark’s collapse, which he added “raises obvious financial stability concerns”. LIBOR - a measure of interbank lending rates for various time periods - is used as the basis for trillions of pounds worth of contracts. But during the financial crisis, some traders manipulated the rate, leading to criminal convictions and huge fines for international banks. The BoE said it would broaden a working group which would steer the transition away from LIBOR to include fund managers and non-financial companies that issue debt, as well as bankers. Barclays chief compliance officer Francois Jourdain would remain chair of the group, aided by Shell finance executive Frances Hinden and Legal & General Investment Management’s Simon Wilkinson as vice-chairs. Reporting by David Milliken and Huw Jones; Editing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/bank-of-england-says-wants-sonia-to-replace-libor-by-end-of-2021-idUKKBN1DT215'|'2017-11-29T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'6e83cd9630c3ddb41a9585acd0db37c1f2e4ffe6'|'Alibaba markets five-tranche US dollar bonds'|'SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (IFR) - Alibaba Group Holding, rated A1/A+/A+, is marketing five tranches of US dollar bonds in its second such offering.The Chinese technology giant’s SEC-registered notes have tenors of 5.5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 years and are marketing at initial price guidance of Treasuries plus 100 basis points area, 125-130bp, 140bp area, 160bp area and 180bp area, respectively.Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are bookrunners.The senior unsecured bond issue is expected to price today, during New York hours. (Reporting by Frances Yoon; Editing by Dharsan Singh and Daniel Stanton) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/alibaba-debt-bonds/alibaba-markets-five-tranche-us-dollar-bonds-idINL3N1NZ18W'|'2017-11-28T22:36:00.000+02:00'
'65b10920d3a9d8290cd4e50c228401f92929070b'|'EU Council says ECB does not have mandate for its bad loan measures'|'* ECB wants stricter provision targets for banks from Jan.* EU council, parliament express legal reservations* EU economic envoys to discuss matter on TuesdayBy Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank does not have the mandate for its plan to ask euro area banks to set aside more cash to cover bad loans, the European Union Council said in a legal opinion, in a further blow to the ECB proposal.To prevent a pile-up of new bad debt on top of an existing stock of sour loans worth nearly 850 billion euros ($1 trillion), the ECB wants to introduce new guidelines including a two-year deadline for lenders to raise provisions from January for any newly classified non-performing unsecured debt.The draft plan is out for public consultation until next week and has run into opposition from various quarters including the European parliament and now the EU Council, the bloc’s other legislative body which represents its members’ governments.The council’s non-binding document, seen by Reuters and dated Nov. 23, said the law governing the ECB’s supervisory powers over euro zone banks “prevents the ECB from adopting instruments of soft law, such as the draft addendum to the ECB guidance to banks on non-performing loans.”The ECB cannot adopt measures “intended to ensure compliance by banks of criteria for minimum provisioning which are not, or not yet, the object of harmonisation by the EU legislator,” it said.This echoes the stance of the European Parliament’s legal services that the ECB would be overstepping its authority with its proposed guidelines.EU rules say supervisors can impose binding capital measures on specific banks but not on the entire banking system.The chair of the ECB supervisory body, Daniele Nouy, said guidelines do not equate with laws. She has defended her plan but hinted at the possibility of postponing its entry into force.The document will be discussed by EU states’ economic envoys on Tuesday when they meet to prepare the monthly gathering of EU finance ministers, EU officials said.“EU states usually follow legal opinions, although final decisions are political,” one official told Reuters.After a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Nov. 6, the chair Jeroen Dijsselbloem said there was “a general agreement” in favour of the ECB approach on bad loans.Italy’s Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan later disagreed and called for more time for banks to adapt to stricter requirements.Italian lenders are among the most affected by bad loans’ woes and fear too quick and high provisioning targets could hit their balance sheets.EU states agreed in July on a plan to tackle the build-up of NPLs and gave the EU executive commission a mandate to present legislative measures which could require banks to provide for NPLs with more cash for newly issued loans. The commission will make its proposal next year.Warring EU institutions who fail to resolve conflicts through other means can take such matters before the European Court of Justice. ($1 = 0.8382 euros) (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-banks-npls/eu-council-says-ecb-does-not-have-mandate-for-its-bad-loan-measures-idINL8N1NU4H1'|'2017-11-27T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'e967744c018c2b835b7323d3a01c348dade5c0d7'|'UPDATE 1-Pearson brings in $100 mln with Wall Street English sale'|'(Adds background)LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Education group Pearson has agreed the sale of its Wall Street English (WSE) business to Baring Private Equity Asia and CITIC Capital for around $300 million, although its proceeds from the deal will be just a third of that.Pearson, which has sold several assets to focus on its core education business and cut debt, said that of the $300 million, $50 million would cover tax and net transaction costs while $150 million would be retained in the disposed business.Shares in the group slipped 1.7 percent in early Monday trading on disappointment a business that teaches English to adults in multiple countries including China had not brought in more.Pearson, which has sold off assets including the Financial Times newspaper and the Economist magazine, had net debt of 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) at the end of September.The sale will, however, reduce the number of people working for Pearson, as WSE employs around 3,600 people. The group said in August it would cut 3,000 jobs, which at the time accounted for almost 10 percent of the group total.Pearson, which has been hit by a slowdown in the United States and from the shift to digital from paper textbooks, has cut thousands of jobs and restructured following a string of profit warnings in recent years.“The sale of Wall Street English is part of our continued effort to focus on a smaller number of bigger opportunities in global education and to become simpler and more efficient,” Chief Executive John Fallon said.The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018. Shares in the group were down 1.5 percent at 0847 GMT, giving Pearson a market value of 5.6 billion pounds.$1 = 0.7494 pounds Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by James Davey and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pearson-wse/update-1-pearson-brings-in-100-mln-with-wall-street-english-sale-idINL8N1NX1F3'|'2017-11-27T06:14:00.000+02:00'
'00b1459a51a779e76a173bf99b4f41b1bc988177'|'Exclusive - RBR seeks Saudi royal family investment for Credit Suisse: source'|'November 27, 2017 / 3:13 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Exclusive - RBR seeks Saudi royal family investment for Credit Suisse: source Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi , Oliver Hirt 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Activist investor RBR Capital Advisors has offered to connect Credit Suisse with the Saudi royal family as potential major shareholders for the Swiss bank, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. A logo of Credit Suisse is pictured on a building in Geneva, Switzerland, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The Swiss hedge fund led by Rudolf Bohli, which has a stake in Credit Suisse, last month pushed for a break up of the bank into three parts, hoping to double its market value. The fund in October disclosed a roughly 0.2 percent stake in Credit Suisse. Switzerland’s second biggest bank is two years into a restructuring under CEO Tidjane Thiam, who is aiming to boost profitability by concentrating more on wealth management and less on volatile investment banking. In late October, Bohli offered to put Thiam in touch with a representative of the Saudi royal family, the person said. Thiam’s reaction had been polite but cool, the person added. In discussions with Thiam, the hedge fund manager had suggested Credit Suisse could play a more prominent role in the Middle East with a key shareholder such as the Saudi crown, the person with direct knowledge of the matter said. RBR declined to comment on the matter. The Saudi royal family did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in early November began a crackdown on corruption in the country’s political and business elite, which has included arrests of royals, businessmen and ministers. SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS In an interview in October, Bohli told Reuters he was in contact with 150 investors, including sovereign wealth funds. Most of these investors were not Credit Suisse shareholders, he said. According to the person, Bohli offered to introduce Thiam to a representative of the royal family named Rashad Janahi. Janahi, who formerly managed the Abu Dhabi Investment House, now known as Infra Capital Investments, could not be reached for immediate comment. Reuters could not independently verify Janahi’s connections to the Saudi royal family. Credit Suisse said last week it had not been approached by any Saudi sovereign wealth funds about becoming investors after a Financial Times column suggested Saudi Arabian investors could be interested in taking a stake. The paper did not provide a source for its information. Several sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf region hold investments in some European banks. Qatar Investment Authority, for example, holds stakes in Credit Suisse and Barclays. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co. has a stake in Italian bank UniCredit and Swiss private bank Falcon via its Aabar Investments division. Credit Suisse has cited Saudi Arabia as a very important market and is applying for an on-shore banking licence with the aim of expanding its business there. Privately held Saudi investment conglomerate Olayan Financing Company holds a 4.9 percent in Credit Suisse, according to the bank’s information. This places Olayan, along with Harris Associates and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, amongst its biggest shareholders. The Swiss bank’s turnaround plan is nearing the final year. The plan has undergone several adjustments, including a paring back of profitability targets, since they were first established in 2015. Its aim to focus the bank more on wealth management and less on investment banking has included several thousand job cuts in Switzerland, London and New York. Credit Suisse shares, which have underperformed the European banking sector index, have fallen in value by nearly two-thirds from a high above 27 Swiss francs (£20.61) in late July 2015 to a low of 9.4 francs in July 2016. They have since recovered to trade above 16 francs per share. Additional reporting by Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi, Samia Nakhoul and Saeed Azhar in Riyadh. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-credit-suisse-gp-saudi-exclusive/exclusive-rbr-seeks-saudi-royal-family-investment-for-credit-suisse-source-idUKKBN1DR1V2'|'2017-11-27T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'cae454bfb3d585375cdde8e741c112265023f51a'|'Exclusive: Exxon Mobil chief revamps refining, chemical operations - spokeswoman'|'HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Darren Woods is reorganizing the company’s refining and chemical operations, part of a push to boost profits amid volatile oil and natural gas prices, a spokeswoman said.The changes at the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer are the most sweeping to date by Woods, who became chief executive in January after former chief Rex Tillerson resigned to become U.S. secretary of state.Woods has moved first to reshape the businesses he knows best, according to sources familiar with the matter. Before taking the helm at Exxon, Woods ran Exxon’s refining operations and earlier in his career was a senior executive in its global chemicals unit.The reorganization aims to squeeze more profits from the fuel and chemicals businesses as the company works to improve its exploration and production operations, which have struggled since 2014 to adjust to lower oil and gas prices.The restructuring, disclosed internally last month, will combine the fuels and lubricants division with the supply and refining divisions.Financial responsibility for the merged operation will rest with country and regional chiefs who report to Exxon’s Irving, Texas, headquarters rather than divisional bosses as previously, according to people familiar with the matter.The changes are designed to simplify operations and increase accountability for profitability, the sources said.Exxon spokeswoman Charlotte Huffaker confirmed the overhaul in a statement, adding the company expects it will “improve decision making and enhance performance in the market.”It was not immediately clear if the changes will involve job cuts or executive departures. Huffaker said she could not say if there would be any impact on jobs.Darren Woods, Chairman & CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation speaks during a news conference at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid REFINING STRENGTH Exxon’s refining and chemical operations have grown in stature under Woods, delivering steady earnings compared to its oil and gas production.Exxon operates 22 refineries in 14 countries, processing nearly 5 million barrels of oil per day. The firm builds chemical and refining plants in the same location, allowing managers to shift production between fuels or chemicals based on demand.The changes come as Exxon expands the refining division. The company is investing $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.The refining and chemicals arms contributed more than $4.2 billion apiece to 2016 earnings, compared with a $196 million profit from exploration and production. Last year’s results were affected by sharply lower crude prices.In some quarters, Exxon would not have made any money were it not for its refineries.This year, the company’s oil and gas business bounced back to a $5 billion profit during the first nine months on stronger crude prices. Refining earnings were $4.03 billion and chemicals $3.25 billion, respectively, for the first three quarters this year.Some staff members have raised questions as to whether there is any need to alter a system seen as largely successful, said the sources who declined to be identified.It was unclear if the changes would impact an internal accounting practice known as general interest principle. That rule permits certain transactions to be loss-making for a local division if they are beneficial for the corporation as a whole.Exxon did not comment on any potential accounting changes.Editing by Gary McWilliams and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-restructuring/exclusive-exxon-mobil-chief-revamps-refining-chemical-operations-spokeswoman-idINKBN1DR0JJ'|'2017-11-27T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'301b340c81c1bddc3deb878eaf1ae0421775aba0'|'LPC-TMF launches €1.3bn buyout loan'|'LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Dutch-headquartered business services firm TMF Group has launched a €1.3bn leveraged loan financing backing CVC’s acquisition of the firm, banking sources said.The deal comprises a €950m, seven-year covenant-lite term loan B, a €200m, eight-year second-lien loan and a €150m, 6.75-year multi-currency revolving credit facility, the sources said.Goldman Sachs and HSBC are leading the financing as physical bookrunners, joined by Barclays, Credit Suisse, Jefferies and Nomura as mandated lead arrangers, the sources said.A bank meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, when pricing is expected to emerge, with commitments due by December 7, the sources added.The financing will have pro forma net first lien leverage of 5.6x and net total leverage of 6.8x, based on pro forma Ebitda of €161.6m to September 2017, the sources said.CVC agreed to buy TMF for €1.75bn last month, after owner Doughty Hanson shelved plans to list the firm on the London Stock Exchange.Public markets have been rocky, with several other firms also cancelling planned listings, leading Doughty Hanson to look to a private buyer instead.The acquisition is the first for CVC’s latest buyout fund, raised earlier this year at €16bn, the largest ever in the currency.TMF provides compliance and administrative services, counting 60% of the Forbes 100 and FTSE 100 among its clients, according to its website. (Editing by Claire Ruckin) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tmf-leveraged-loans/lpc-tmf-launches-1-3bn-buyout-loan-idINL8N1NX34F'|'2017-11-27T09:24:00.000+02:00'
'042605b5447451791dccc02f776b7eabfc4d6ca9'|'VW considers setting up commercial vehicles venture in China'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:23 PM / in 38 minutes VW considers setting up commercial vehicles venture in China Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen may expand cooperation with China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC) beyond electric cars to jointly develop and build commercial vehicles in the world’s largest autos market. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The German group and JAC announced in June they were to set up a joint venture to develop and build zero-emission passenger cars as Volkswagen (VW) is pushing efforts to achieve the Beijing government’s production and sales quotas for new-energy vehicles. On Monday VW said it was looking along with its commercial vehicles division at deepening the cooperation with JAC to include the design, technology, product quality and development of multi-function vehicles. The venture would affect combustion engined and alternative-energy powered vehicles, would be owned equally by JAC and VW and would be based in JAC’s home town of Hefei, VW said. “VW Commercial Vehicles has a growing number of loyal customers in China,” executive Joern Hasenfuss said. “But there are significantly more opportunities,” he said without elaborating. Under the tie-up, VW and JAC could jointly tap growing demand for light pick-up trucks in China while the German group would also save customs duties by building its multi-van and Caddy vehicles at JAC facilities, analysts said. It’s also the latest evidence of VW’s foreign expansion not being confined to its passenger car operations. In September VW’s commercial vehicles arm started building the Amarok pick-up truck in Ecuador with local partner FISUM after starting production of the box-type Caddy model at a new multi-brand facility in Algeria two months earlier. Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Maria SheahanEditing by Douglas Busvine, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-jac-volkswagen/volkswagen-chinas-jac-eye-light-commercial-vehicles-jv-idUKKBN1DR1FI'|'2017-11-27T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'7bdfe4c7aff600503abff8dbb5cf91afa825ece9'|'Japan plans extra budget of $24-26 billion for fiscal 2017: sources'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:06 AM / in 35 minutes Japan plans extra budget of $24-26 billion for fiscal 2017: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s government is set to compile an extra budget worth around 2.7-2.9 trillion yen ($24-26 billion) for the fiscal year to March 2018, with additional bond issuance of around 1 trillion yen to help fund the spending, government sources told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Cranes are pictured against the sunset at construction site in the Toyosu district in Tokyo, February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo In addition to construction bond issuance worth around 1 trillion yen, the government will scrape together cash reserves from the previous fiscal year’s budget and money left unused from debt servicing due to lower-than-estimated borrowing costs, the sources said. No deficit-covering bond issuance was planned, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been finalised. Following October’s big election win, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet has made plans to beef up childcare support, boost productivity at small and medium-sized companies, and strengthen competitiveness of the farm, fishery and forestry industries. Reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi; Writing by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-budget/japan-plans-extra-budget-of-24-26-billion-for-fiscal-2017-sources-idUKKBN1DR0D6'|'2017-11-27T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'c075a4bcc268baa24d5fa1485ef74019f68b31b4'|'PSA to launch van production in Russia in early 2018'|'November 27, 2017 / 1:48 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago PSA to launch van production in Russia in early 2018 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - PSA, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, will start making commercial vans at its Russian plant in early 2018 as it seeks to triple sales volumes outside its main European markets, it said on Monday. Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen, speaks during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The Kaluga plant will add the Peugeot Expert and Citroen Jumpy vans to its production line of passenger cars from the first quarter of next year. A larger range is key for the Peugeot and Citroën brands’ prospects in Russia, Christophe Bergerand, executive vice president of Groupe PSA, said in a statement. “Our commercial offensive is also aimed at meeting the needs of small (and) medium-sized enterprises emerging again in Russia,” he added. Russia’s car market is rebounding after several years of decline during an economic slowdown brought on by the slump in world oil prices and international sanctions against Moscow. Auto sales in Russia were up 17.3 percent in October year-on-year, data published this month showed. That was the eighth consecutive month of improvement and total sales in 2017 are on track to regain the level seen in 2015, the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee has said. PSA already makes Citroen C4 and Peugeot 408 cars in Russia. “We will also begin production of Citroën SpaceTourer and Peugeot Traveller passenger vehicles in a few months,” Bergerand said. PSA said it was aiming to source half the components for the vans locally, compared with 35 percent for the Citroen C4 and Peugeot 408. Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-psa-russia/psa-to-launch-van-production-in-russia-in-early-2018-idUKKBN1DR1M2'|'2017-11-27T15:47:00.000+02:00'
'b0f1cabf5c193d8780259519b63648d14710f63f'|'Nikkei dips in choppy trade; Toray drops, defence-equipment shares up'|'TOKYO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average dipped on Tuesday in choppy trade, with Toray Industries diving after it said a subsidiary had falsified data, while concerns North Korea might launch more missiles lifted stocks linked to defence.The Nikkei closed 0.04 percent lower at 22,486.24, after earlier trading in positive territory.Toray, a producer of synthetic fibres and textiles, lost 5.3 percent after it revealed 149 cases of quality data falsification at a materials-making subsidiary.Producers of defence-related products soared after North Korea was suspected of preparing for another ballistic missile launch.Howa Machinery Ltd, which makes firearms as well as machine tools and construction equipment, climbed 12.5 percent, gas mask maker Koken Ltd gained 2.3 percent, and flare and smoke marker manufacturer Hosoya Pyro-Engineering Co surged 5.3 percent.Drug maker Shionogi & Co gained 2.1 percent with the company set to repurchase up to 4.8 million of its own shares, or 1.5 percent of outstanding stock.The broader Topix slipped 0.26 percent to 1,772.07. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa and Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-dips-in-choppy-trade-toray-drops-defence-equipment-shares-up-idUSL3N1NY2FJ'|'2017-11-28T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'2194c8226a84182c1df5b58a5592958d19341b79'|'OPEC heading for oil cut extension with a caveat'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:33 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago OPEC heading for oil cut extension with a caveat Alex Lawler , Vladimir Soldatkin , Ahmad Ghaddar 5 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia are heading towards prolonging their oil supply cuts for the whole of 2018 but with an option to review the deal in June, OPEC sources said on Tuesday after Moscow expressed concerns the market could overheat. A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The recommendation was made by a joint committee of OPEC and non-OPEC delegates including Russia but has yet to be approved by the ministers from the committee on Wednesday and then by a full OPEC meeting on Thursday, two OPEC sources said. Oil prices deepened their two-day decline on the news, which the market could perceive as an extension of production cuts by just three months until June 2018 rather than a full year. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and nine other producers are cutting crude output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018, and on Thursday their oil ministers will discuss extending the deal. “It will not be an easy meeting and we always look at various scenarios,” United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Tuesday in Dubai. The market had largely expected OPEC to prolong the cuts until the end of 2018 to prop up prices and clear an excess of global stocks, but doubts have emerged in the last few days. OPEC’s leader, Saudi Arabia, has signalled that it wants oil to trade at about $60 a barrel as the kingdom prepares to list shares in national oil champion Aramco and fights a large fiscal deficit. The Russian government also wants high oil prices ahead of a presidential election in March 2018. But officials in Moscow have voiced worries about pricier oil boosting the rouble, which could undermine the competitiveness of Russia’s economy. U.S. producers aggressively hedged their future production as oil recently rallied, raising fears of another spike in shale output in the United States, which is not participating in the global production curbs. “Russia is on board for the extension,” one of the OPEC sources said following the committee meeting. Goldman Sachs, one of the most active banks in commodity trading and oil producer hedging, said on Tuesday in a note the outcome of the OPEC meeting was uncertain as Brent oil had risen above $63 per barrel. “The push for a nine-month extension, four months before the cuts end and given an accelerating rebalancing further stands in the face of prior comments that the cuts should remain data-dependent to assess their effectiveness,” the U.S. bank said. Citi, one of Goldman’s main rivals, said it expected major producers to end production cuts sooner rather than later. “OPEC and Russia will both realise they are losing market share and they will be better off going back to a more competitive environment,” the head of commodity research at Citi, Ed Morse, told Reuters. GRADUAL OUTPUT BOOST Goldman said oil might fall further this week as the market had priced in a nine-month extension. “We continue to expect a gradual ramp up in OPEC and Russian production from April onward,” Goldman said, adding “as a result, the announcement of an only six-month extension would still initially appear bullish relative to our expectation”. On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending the output-cutting deal but had still to decide on the duration. On Monday, Reuters reported that a major Russian production project led by Exxon Mobil was preparing to ramp up output by a quarter from next year. [nL3N1NX3T4] The project is not subject to the global output-cutting deal but the development would signal an obstacle to Russia’s efforts on production curtailment. The Exxon project involves Rosneft, the Kremlin-owned state producer whose boss Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has long been a critic of Moscow’s deal with the 14-country OPEC. Sources close to talks between OPEC and Russia told Reuters Moscow wanted to fine-tune the language of the deal to include an option to review the agreement if global stocks fell steeply. The supply pact is aimed at reducing oil stocks inindustrialised countries to their five-year average. Thelatest figures suggest OPEC is more than halfway there, with OPEC sources saying the target could be reached after June 2018. Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal and Shadia Nasrallah; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting/opec-heading-for-oil-cut-extension-with-a-caveat-idUKKBN1DS2BS'|'2017-11-28T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'408c00a8975933661300955b9a1586b60e3026a0'|'Efforts to hurt Qatar''s riyal may backfire on region, central banker says'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:07 AM / Updated an hour ago Efforts to hurt Qatar''s riyal may backfire on region, central banker says Andrew Torchia 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Some Arab states are trying to destabilise Qatar’s riyal but efforts to drive down its value could backfire by hurting other dollar-linked currencies in the region, a Qatari central banker said. A man counts Qatari riyal notes at a money changer in Doha May 28, 2013. REUTERS/ Fadi Al-Assaad Khalid Alkhater, currently in Britain on leave from the central bank, was commenting on moves by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to isolate Qatar. Doha’s rivals say it supports terrorism, which it denies. “It’s deliberate economic warfare, a strategy to cause fear or panic among the public and investors to destabilise the economy,” Alkhater told Reuters in a telephone interview, saying he was giving his personal views. Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June. Most independent analysts think its economy, with huge gas and financial reserves, can weather the storm and do not see any serious risk of a devaluation of the riyal, whose dollar peg of 3.64 riyals has been enshrined in law since 2001. Alkhater, architect of Qatar’s monetary policy in the 2008 global financial crisis, said part of the strategy to undermine the riyal involved trading Qatar government bonds at artificially low prices to suggest the economy was in trouble. This failed because the market in Qatari bonds was illiquid so trading in high volumes was difficult and because Qatar had taken precautionary steps, said Alkhater, on sabbatical leave doing research at Britain’s University of Cambridge. He did not identify the measures. Alkhater blamed low quotes for Qatar’s riyal in the offshore market on some banks - which he said were from nations boycotting Qatar, without naming the institutions - seeking to manipulate the market by exchanging the currency at weaker levels than on the onshore market. He did not provide evidence. The riyal changed hands onshore last week very close to its official peg of 3.64 to the U.S. dollar, but it traded as low as 3.8950 offshore on the Reuters conversational dealing platform. Equity index compiler MSCI cited this gap last week when it said it might use offshore foreign exchange rates to value Qatar’s stock market, potentially changing the weighting of Qatari equities in MSCI’s emerging market index. Qatar’s central bank responded by saying it would provide currency needs to all investors and was working with banks to ensure transactions could be conducted normally. Central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani, in office since 2006, said last month that the government and the central bank could support the banking system with both state reserves and the holdings of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Alkhater said Qatar, the world’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, could in future consider other steps to bolster the riyal if needed, such as taking payments for LNG exports in riyals rather than dollars, which would create global demand for its currency. But he said there was a risk that efforts to undermine the riyal could shake confidence in dollar-linked currencies of other oil-reliant Gulf Arab states. “It could spark contagion across a region which is tied to the U.S. through dollar pegs, and which is already suffering from financial distress and economic difficulties due to low oil prices,” he said, calling attacks on Qatar’s riyal “a weapon of mutual destruction”. Any increase of pressure on the currency of Bahrain, whose debt is rated junk, could cause Manama to seek support from Saudi Arabia, whose own economy is battling a big state budget deficit due to three years of weak oil prices, Alkhater said. He added that the boycott was forcing Qatar to be more self-sufficient in agriculture, food processing and light manufacturing, accelerating a long-term goal to diversify the economy. “Now Qatar has to expedite it out of necessity.” Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gulf-qatar-currency/efforts-to-hurt-qatars-riyal-may-backfire-on-region-central-banker-says-idUKKBN1DR0AI'|'2017-11-27T06:06:00.000+02:00'
'42b59023f86b88baa51e328112f94d0974ab82e4'|'METALS-Copper hits 1-month top above $7,000 on steady demand - Reuters'|'MELBOURNE, Nov 27 (Reuters) - London copper touched a one-month high above $7,000 a tonne on Monday, amid signs of resilience in China''s industrial sector that suggested a cooling, but still healthy, appetite for metals. FUNDAMENTALS * LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper hit $7,024 a tonne, its highest in a month, and is on track for a 26 percent annual gain, which would be its biggest since 2010. The metal eased to be flat at $7,005 a tonne by 0146 GMT, still holding a half-percent advance from the previous session. * SHFE COPPER: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper rose 0.7 percent to 54,500 yuan ($8,252) a tonne, having struck its highest in around three weeks. * OPEN INTEREST: Open interest in Shfe''s January copper contract is the highest in 18 months, which as prices have generally risen suggests bets that prices will scale new heights early next year. * CHINA ECONOMY: Profits earned by China''s industrial companies in October rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Monday, slowing from a 27.7 percent gain in September. * STRIKE CHILE: Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Plc''s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world''s largest, ended a 24-hour strike on Friday but could put down their tools again next week over the company''s planned layoffs, the union said. * STRIKE PERU: Workers for the two largest unions at Southern Copper Corp in Peru said on Wednesday they had started an indefinite strike, demanding a fair share of mining profits, while the company said the stoppage had not affected operations. * FREEPORT: Indonesia''s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has "no clear structure" yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday. * CHINA DEBT: For years China''s top officials have touted their ambitious policy priority to wean the world''s second-largest economy off high levels of debt, but there is not much to show for it. * CHINA INDUSTRIALS: Profits earned by China''s industrial companies in October rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Monday, slowing from a 27.7 percent gain in September. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * Major global and U.S. stock indices set fresh all-time highs on Friday, buoyed by a bright business outlook and strong corporate earnings, while the economy''s strength in continental Europe lifted the euro to a two-month high against the dollar. DATA/EVENTS 1500 U.S. New home sales Oct 1530 U.S. Dallas Fed manufacturing index Nov PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0141 GMT Three month LME copper 7010 Most active ShFE copper 54560 Three month LME aluminium 2127.5 Most active ShFE aluminium 15095 Three month LME zinc 3221.5 Most active ShFE zinc 25475 Three month LME lead 2480 Most active ShFE lead 18640 Three month LME nickel 12005 Most active ShFE nickel 96560 Three month LME tin 19400 Most active ShFE tin 143120 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 518.98 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1227.6 2 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 312.3 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1081.3 6 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2134.3 ($1 = 6.6043 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-copper-hits-1-month-top-above-7000-on-steady-demand-idINL3N1NX1DA'|'2017-11-26T23:18:00.000+02:00'
'1bf7109ea098adbfa8aff81d5036b29d55c9182e'|'UPDATE 1-Macron says glyphosate to be banned in France within three years'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:46 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Macron says glyphosate to be banned in France within three years Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds quote, environment minister) PARIS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he would take all measures necessary to ensure that weed-killer glyphosate is banned in France as soon as an alternative is available and at the latest within three years. Macron announced the move on Twitter after Germany defeated France in a tight vote in Brussels. The EU vote cleared the use of glyphosate for the next five years after a heated debate over whether the weed-killer originally developed by Monsanto causes cancer. France had pushed for the whole bloc to renew the licence for only three years. Despite the 5-year extension, EU rules allow France to unilaterally ban the substance. It has already decided to do so for private individuals in 2019. “I have asked the government to take the necessary measures for the use of glyphosate to be banned in France as soon as alternatives are found, and at the latest in three years. #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain,” Macron said in his Tweet. “Five years is too long,” Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said on RTL radio, adding: “Three years seems to be a reasonable timeframe to get everyone on board.” (Reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide, Ingrid Melander, Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Peter Graff)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-health-glyphosate-macron/update-1-macron-says-glyphosate-to-be-banned-in-france-within-three-years-idUSL8N1NX54X'|'2017-11-27T19:43:00.000+02:00'
'39fa30278b67ad98aa1236e20f23579efa2d08d9'|'A BP North Sea field to test U.S. policy on Iran'|'November 27, 2017 / 11:39 AM / Updated 9 hours ago A BP North Sea field to test U.S. policy on Iran Ron Bousso 5   A small gas field on the edge of the British North Sea could become a litmus test for U.S. policy towards Iran. The logo of BP is seen at a petrol station in Kloten, Switzerland October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann London-based BP ( BP.L ) this week agreed to sell to North Sea producer Serica Energy ( SQZ.L ) three fields in the ageing offshore basin, including the Rhum field which is co-owned by a subsidiary of Iran’s national oil company. For Serica, the $400 million (£300 million) deal will increase its production sevenfold. It nevertheless hinges on the British company receiving a licence from U.S. sanctions enforcement authorities at a time when President Donald Trump is flexing his muscles against Tehran. For BP and its American Chief Executive Bob Dudley, selling Rhum, which BP discovered in the 1970s, removes a potential source of friction as it mends its ties with the U.S. government following the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Rhum was shut down for most of the first half of the decade due to western sanctions on Tehran before resuming normal operations in 2016 following a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the world’s top powers. Because of the Iranian involvement, BP needs a licence from the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions enforcement arm - the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) - allowing U.S. nationals and companies to take part in the field’s operations. The licence was renewed in September, a month before Trump sought to reverse the U.S. position on the nuclear deal with Iran. Serica will apply for its own licence in the coming months, Tony Craven Walker, Serica’s Executive Chairman, told Reuters. “Getting an OFAC licence for Serica to assume operatorship of Rhum is part of the conditions of the transaction with BP,” Walker said. OFAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. BP, founded more than a century ago as the Anglo-Persian oil company, will lobby the British government to lend its support in requesting the U.S. administration to grant the licence to Serica, according to a source at BP. Though not a prerequisite to operate the field, the licence is needed as a back-up in case of an emergency that requires U.S. equipment and companies, Walker said. “Given the nature of the operations and our intentions to meet the same obligations as BP we don’t foresee any reason for the licence not to be granted,” Walker said. France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ), which recently opened an office in Washington, is also closely monitoring the U.S. position on Iran which could decide the fate of its plans to develop a huge offshore gas field in Iran. SNAP-BACK Things could change quickly after Trump’s decision in October not to certify that Tehran is complying with the nuclear deal. The ball now lies in the court of the U.S. Congress, which will decide next month whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the agreement. “A snap-back of U.S sanctions is a risk,” Walker said. “But it does not necessarily impact our operations in Rhum unless the European Union and UK also implement a snap-back and there is no indication that this is likely to occur.” Serica board member Jeffrey Harris, a U.S. citizen, stepped down in order to guarantee it does not violate U.S. sanctions still in place that ban Americans from dealing with Iran. Serica hopes to complete the acquisition of the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields from BP by mid-2018. The deal will increase its production to around 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which around 85 percent is gas. Serica and its partner, Iranian Oil Company, plan to renew drilling of a third well at the Rhum field next year, Walker said. After being forced to shut down in 2010 when Western nations imposed sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, Rhum resumed production in 2013 when Britain agreed to set up a temporary management scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran would be held until sanctions were lifted. Following the removal of European Union and United Nations sanctions on Iran in January 2016, the temporary management scheme ceased but BP still obtained an OFAC licence. Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-iran-bp/a-bp-north-sea-field-to-test-u-s-policy-on-iran-idUKKBN1DR1A9'|'2017-11-27T13:54:00.000+02:00'
'c65956e0cb268fd0c0d2f7b4d2a2e7c4b1c7a01d'|'U.S. oil prices near two-year highs as key pipeline stays closed'|'Reuters TV United States November 27, 2017 / 1:01 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil falls on U.S. drilling but OPEC cuts support market Christopher Johnson 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, with U.S. crude easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher output, but losses were limited before an OPEC meeting that is expected to extend output limits. FILE PHOTO: Equipment used to process carbon dioxide, crude oil and water is seen at an Occidental Petroleum Corp enhanced oil recovery project in Hobbs, New Mexico, U.S. on May 3, 2017. Picture taken on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo Brent crude oil LCOc1 was down 30 cents at $63.56 a barrel by 1310 GMT. U.S. light crude was 65 cents lower at $58.30. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.66 million barrels per day (bpd), not far from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. Rising drilling activity means output is likely to grow further. U.S. energy firms added oil rigs last week. The monthly rig count rose for the first time since July, to 747 active rigs, as producers encouraged by rising crude prices. U.S. crude touched $59.05 a barrel on Friday, its strongest since mid-2015, partly driven by the closure of the 590,000 bpd Keystone pipeline connecting Canada’s oil sand fields with the United States following a spill, which reduced stocks. Oil prices have risen sharply in recent months thanks to efforts to limit output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers. OPEC and its allies cut production by 1.8 million bpd in January and have agreed to hold down output until March. OPEC meets on Thursday to discuss policy and most analysts expect some form of deal to extend the cuts. “A long-running barrage of bullish rhetoric from the oil cartel has cemented widely-held beliefs that supply curbs will be extended through to the end of next year,” said Stephen Brennock, analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. Analysts at Barclays also expect OPEC to keep output limits for another six or nine months, but said this was so widely forecast that there was a risk prices could fall after the OPEC meeting. “This week, we expect volatile prices as market participants shed length,” Barclays said in a note to clients. “Prices might fall in the immediate aftermath of the deal as speculative length ‘sells the news’. Still, fundamentals should keep Brent at an average of $60 a barrel this quarter.” Harry Tchilinguirian, head of oil strategy at French bank BNP Paribas, also saw “plenty of room for disappointment.” “Should the outcome of the next OPEC meeting fall short of expectations, the large net-long speculative position on oil futures can unwind, sending prices lower and volatility higher.” Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-near-two-year-highs-as-key-pipeline-stays-closed-idUKKBN1DR02C'|'2017-11-27T02:52:00.000+02:00'
'3e216592aa6b59a7431803f390855a8ca088403c'|'UPDATE 1- London Stock Exchange CEO Rolet steps down'|'(Adds more detail, background)By Huw JonesLONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange said its chief executive, Xavier Rolet, has left after the bourse’s clash with a top shareholder dragged in the Bank of England.LSE chairman Donald Brydon has indicated he will not stand for re-election at the annual general meeting in 2019, the exchange said in a statement on Wednesday. LSE Chief Financial Officer, David Warren, will replace Rolet on an interim basis.The exchange faces a tricky time as Britain navigates its departure from the European Union and risks losing a chunk of its derivatives clearing business to the continent.Rolet had already announced he would step down at the end of 2018, but shareholder TCI, an activist hedge fund, had accused Brydon of pushing him out and called for a general meeting to be held to oust Brydon.TCI had no comment on the announcement.Rolet is credited with turning the LSE into a more solid, diversified exchange group, but the Frenchman and former investment banker was unable to seal a merger with Deutsche Boerse.TCI had called on the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority to replace Brydon, but BoE Governor Mark Carney indicated on Tuesday that the LSE’s succession plans should remain in place, effectively sealing Rolet’s fate.Rolet said in the LSE statement there has been a “great deal of unwelcome publicity, which has not been helpful to the Company.”“At the request of the Board, I have agreed to step down as CEO with immediate effect. I will not be returning to the office of CEO or director under any circumstances. I am proud of what we have achieved during the past eight and a half years,” Rolet said. (Additional reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lse-moves-ceo/update-1-london-stock-exchange-ceo-rolet-steps-down-idINL8N1NZ166'|'2017-11-29T04:42:00.000+02:00'
'fc6586682e04f6f7a18724d2acb1419b1f7b2a1e'|'UK could get outsized power if it joins EFTA Court after Brexit - Court head'|'November 29, 2017 / 3:35 PM / in 19 minutes UK could get outsized power if it joins EFTA Court after Brexit - Court head Marc Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The EFTA Court has made a fresh attempt to convince Britain to join after Brexit, with its president saying London could be allowed two judges rather than the one given to existing members Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland. Founded in 1994, the European Free Trade Association Court oversees access and membership to the single market for non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway within the framework of EU rulings and European law. It means the three countries are not tied to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), an institution that those who supported Britain’s vote last year to leave the European Union argued impedes national sovereignty. The key snag for London, is that while the EFTA system of enforcing rules is considered less rigorous than the ECJ‘s, because the two institutions “follow” each others’ rulings, the ECJ would effectively still have influence in UK law. Carl Baudenbacher, who has headed the EFTA court for over 20 years, met the British government last week and thinks that while his proposal would not be Britain’s first choice solution, it would be practical. “Britain could go for two judges (in the EFTA court)” Baudenbacher told Reuters. “I do not see any drawbacks”. Three options are available, he said: Britain could become a full-fledged EFTA member; it could “dock” to the court and adopt some of its principles on a long-term basis; or it could dock for a shorter period, during the post-Brexit transition. Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis has previously said the UK government had considered becoming a full EFTA member but ruled it out as “the worst of all outcomes”. Officials have not commented on the “docking” options, which were only sketched out in secret Swiss and EU negotiation papers. Switzerland is a member of EFTA but not the court. “The question is what is the alternative (for the UK),” Baudenbacher said. “Anything else would take years,” adding all parties would need to be “open-minded”. Norway has already expressed doubts about Britain’s re-joining EFTA itself, which it helped to found in 1960 but later left. Iceland and Liechtenstein have made some positive noises and top EU officials have also flagged it as option. Among the advantages put forward by Baudenbacher, is that national supreme courts are not under written obligation to refer European law cases to the EFTA Court and decisions by it are “strictly advisory” rather than mandatory. However, despite the lobbying from Baudenbacher, the current feeling among Brexit watchers is that London is instead sizing up a trade deal along the lines of one the EU agreed last year with Canada. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier has long cited the Canadian example, and since EU leaders agreed last month to ready negotiations on the future relationship with the UK, the 27 states have looked closely at the Canadian trade deal as a model, given British demands, EU diplomats say. Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-eftacourt/uk-could-get-outsized-power-if-it-joins-efta-court-after-brexit-court-head-idUKKBN1DT21R'|'2017-11-29T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'bb21c67d91c3bc2dea19598c037ef59fa97a30bb'|'London Stock Exchange CEO Rolet steps down'|'November 29, 2017 / 7:45 AM / in 31 minutes CEO quits as LSE tries to draw line under management row Huw Jones , Simon Jessop 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) CEO Xavier Rolet is stepping down immediately and its chairman will not seek re-election, as the exchange tries to draw a line under a row with a top shareholder over management succession. Rolet had previously said he would leave at the end of 2018, but activist hedge fund TCI accused Chairman Donald Brydon of pushing him out and called a shareholder meeting to try to reverse the decision and oust Brydon. The LSE board asked TCI to say by 1300 GMT on Wednesday if it would withdraw its shareholder meeting request to “avoid further disruption and potential damage to the company”. In a letter to the LSE seen by Reuters, TCI’s founder Christopher Hohn said it would respond to the exchange’s board on Thursday. The row - coming at a tricky time for the LSE as it risks losing a chunk of its derivatives clearing business to erstwhile merger partner Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) due to Brexit - had dragged in the Bank of England. Rolet’s departure after 8-1/2 years in charge could trigger fresh speculation that a rival exchange such as ICE ( ICE.N ) could bid for the LSE, though analysts say any mega-bourse deal would face intense scrutiny by competition authorities. In a statement issued by the LSE, Rolet said there had been a “great deal of unwelcome publicity” surrounding his departure “which has not been helpful to the company.” “At the request of the board, I have agreed to step down as CEO with immediate effect. I will not be returning to the office of CEO or director under any circumstances,” he added. The LSE said Brydon had also indicated he would not stand for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in 2019, and that Chief Financial Officer David Warren would replace Rolet on an interim basis. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) agreed to Brydon staying on until 2019 to ensure an orderly succession, the LSE said. The LSE said Brydon and the board believed that in 2019, under a new chairman, “it would be in shareholders’ interests to have a new team at the helm to steer the future progress of the company.” However, UBS analyst Michael Werner said Rolet’s immediate departure created significant uncertainty over future strategy and posed a challenge in defending market share from Deutsche Boerse. UBS has a “neutral” rating on LSE shares. Simon Brazier, a fund manager at Investec Asset Management, which is a small shareholder in LSE, said the exchange is now in “a worse position than before this saga started.” FILE PHOTO: The Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet poses for photographers, in London February 13, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo At 1555 GMT, the stock was up 0.4 percent at 3,815 pence, reversing earlier losses. LSE shares have risen around five-fold under Rolet’s tenure. ‘BROADLY DAMAGING’ Rolet is credited with turning the LSE into a diversified exchange group by acquiring a controlling stake in LCH, one of the world’s biggest clearing houses, and expanding the bourse’s activities in stock indexes. But the Frenchman and former investment banker was unable to seal a merger with Deutsche Boerse, the exchange’s third attempt at an Anglo-German tie up. FILE PHOTO: The Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet poses for photographers, in London February 13, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo Relations between Rolet and Brydon had become strained, several people who have worked at the exchange said. “It would be easier getting into the cockpit of a plane flying over a city than getting Rolet and Brydon into the same office,” a person who has worked with both said. Rolet would effectively sideline senior management, making it harder for a new CEO to build a team, the former colleague said. One dispute between Rolet and the board centred on who would represent the LSE on an important City advisory group on Brexit. But supporters of Rolet say that turning around the exchange in such a major way inevitably ruffled feathers. “Rolet has been an outstanding CEO and has created incredible value for shareholders and positioned the business in a remarkable way,” said Alasdair Haynes, CEO of rival Aquis Exchange. TCI had called on the Bank of England (BoE) and the FCA to replace Brydon. But in a strong rebuff to TCI’s Hohn, BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday the LSE’s succession plans should remain in place and that he was “mystified” by the spat, effectively sealing Rolet’s fate. The LSE board accused Hohn in a letter on Wednesday of pursuing a “highly personalized campaign”. The LSE said if TCI does not withdraw its call for a shareholder meeting, it will publish a circular no later than Nov. 30 confirming among other things the date of the general meeting at which the proposed resolution or resolutions will be put. Additional reporting by Ben Martin and Maiya Keidan; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lse-moves-ceo/london-stock-exchange-ceo-rolet-steps-down-idUSKBN1DT0UB'|'2017-11-29T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'809bd1295d5cdaf33b6264df9ffdd32571f614b7'|'Just Eat to join top table of British business'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:18 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Just Eat to join top table of British business Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Online food-delivery service Just Eat ( JE.L ) will join Britain’s leading share index in December, after rapid growth more than trebled its value since it was listed in 2014, FTSE Russell confirmed on Wednesday. In a sign of shifting consumer tastes and investor appetite, Just Eat is now valued at around 5.5 billion pounds, more than high street stalwart Marks and Spencer ( MKS.L ) and supermarket Sainsbury‘s. Its expansion won Just Eat ( JE.L ) a promotion to the blue- chip FTSE 100 in the index provider’s quarterly review of constituents, to take effect next month. Currently trading on the mid-cap FTSE 250 index .FTMC , Just Eat shares have gained 20 percent this quarter, boosted to a record high after strong results. Regulatory clearance of its takeover of Hungryhouse provided added extra impetus for a company that operates from Australia to the Americas. Listed at a price of 260 pence in April 2014, Just Eat shares traded at 798.5 pence on Wednesday at the close. German rival Delivery Hero ( DHER.DE ), which listed in late June, has soared 40 percent since then and was added to the pan-European STOXX 600 on Wednesday in another sign takeaway food apps are booming. By contrast, British restaurant and pub chain Restaurant Group ( RTN.L ) was ejected from the mid-cap FTSE 250 after years of slowing sales in a tough market for eating out. Other additions to the top British share index were packaging group DS Smith ( SMDS.L ) and safety device maker Halma ( HLMA.L ). Oilfield services group John Wood ( WG.L ), which had been expected to join, was left out. DS Smith was also trading at record levels, while Halma has been one of the best-performing mid-cap stocks, up 44 percent so far this year. RELEGATION CANDIDATES Dropping out of the large-cap index after their market capitalisation fell are medical technology company Convatec ( CTEC.L ), Madame Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainments ( MERL.L ) and defence and engineering contractor Babcock ( BAB.L ). Babcock was on track for an 18 percent decline this month after an earnings update hurt the shares, with the company and investors forecasting slower British defence spending. The new entrants to the FTSE 100 were based on Tuesday’s closing prices, with changes effective from the market close on Friday Dec. 15, to start trading on Dec. 18. Small-cap stocks entering the mid-cap index will be newly-listed Austria-based construction materials firm RHI Magnesita ( RHIM.L ), used vehicle retailer BCA Marketplace ( BCA.L ), sweetener maker Purecircle ( PURE.L ), engineering fluids maker TI Fluid Systems ( TIFS.L ) and investment fund F&C Global Smaller Companies ( FCS.L ). Apart from Restaurant Group, stocks to be ejected from the FTSE 250 are P2P Global Investments ( P2PG.L ), Vectura Group ( VEC.L ), Electra Private Equity ( ELTA.L ), and PayPoint ( PAYP.L ). Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Keith Weir, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks-justeat/just-eat-to-join-top-table-of-british-business-idUKKBN1DT2VB'|'2017-11-29T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'8f82a9952c47db9514b7be81decd096e8151cd10'|'UPDATE 2-Marvell forecasts strong fourth quarter on connectivity chip demand'|'(Adds analyst comment, updates share price)By Arjun PanchadarNov 28 (Reuters) - Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd delivered higher-than-expected earnings and revenue for the third quarter and forecast strong results in the current quarter, boosted by robust demand for its networking and connectivity chips.Shares of Hamilton, Bermuda-headquartered Marvell, which have risen nearly 68 percent since the beginning of the year, gained another 2.7 percent in after-market trading on Tuesday.Marvell Chief Executive Matthew Murphy, who took the top job about a year ago, has sharpened the company’s focus on networking and WiFi connectivity products to counteract falling demand for chips used in hard disk drives of personal computers.Marvell said last week it would buy smaller rival Cavium Inc for about $6 billion, seeking to expand its wireless connectivity chip business.Under Murphy, Marvell has also undertaken restructuring programs to cut costs and hive off non-core businesses.“What makes (Marvell) management confident is with the restructuring largely now behind the company, Marvell is starting to hit on all cylinders,” said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets.Revenue in Marvell’s computer networking and WiFi connectivity chip businesses rose in the third quarter ended Oct. 28, offseting a fall in revenue from its main data storage chip unit.The data storage business - which makes chips used for reading and writing data on hard-disk and flash drives - generated $315.3 million in revenue, down 4 percent from a year ago.“In the near-term, we believe Marvell’s top-line performance will continue to underperform its peer semiconductor group as its storage business will continue see secular decline in the hard-disk drive segment, offset by growth in solid-state drives,” said Summit Redstone analyst Kinngai Chan.Marvell forecast adjusted earnings of 29 to 33 cents per share and revenue of between $595 million and $625 million for the quarter ending January 2018.Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 27 cents per share and revenue of $590.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.The company said net income from continuing operations rose to $149.4 million or 30 cents per share in the third quarter, from $83.2 million or 16 cents per share a year ago. Excluding items, Marvell earned 34 cents per share.Revenue dipped 1.2 percent to $616.3 million.Analysts had expected third-quarter earnings of 33 cents per share and revenue of $613.6 million. (Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/marvell-technlgy-results/update-1-marvell-forecasts-strong-4th-qtr-on-connectivity-chip-demand-idINL3N1NY5PR'|'2017-11-28T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'cc0ec5be2b2deb21c7c68a7151117521216b8c3f'|'Japan''s Nissin Foods noodle unit plans $145 million IPO in Hong Kong'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nissin Foods Co Ltd, an instant noodle unit of Nissin Foods Holdings Co Ltd ( 2897.T ), said on Wednesday it aims to raise up to HK$1.13 billion ($145 million) in an initial public offering (IPO), in a rare instance of a Japanese firm listing in Hong Kong.Nissin Foods Co plans to offer 268.58 million shares in the IPO, of which 10 percent will be earmarked for retail investors, at an indicative range of HK$3.45 to HK$4.21 apiece, the company said in a filing on Wednesday.The final offer price will be announced on Dec. 8 and trade in the shares is expected to begin on Dec. 11.The Japanese parent’s stake in Nissin Foods Co will be reduced to 73.89 percent, from 100 percent, on completion of the offering.Nissin Foods Co, which makes and sells noodle under brands NISSIN and DOLL, ranked fifth-largest instant noodle company in China in terms of retail sales value in 2016, the company said citing consultancy Frost & Sullivan.The company ranked second in the mainland’s premium instant noodle market in retail sales value, accounting for 19.8 percent of the premium instant noodle market, it added.Nissin Foods Co also makes and sells frozen food products including dim sum dumplings and noodles, and food and beverage products such as snacks, sauces and mineral water.Proceeds from the offering will be used to upgrade and expand production facilities, enlarge its distribution network in China and to fund strategic partnerships and acquisitions as it further diversifies its product offering, the company said.Nomura International and Mizuho Securities are joint bookrunners and joint lead managers of the global offering.Many niche domestic snack food brands have expanded their pool of millennial customers through interactive online and mobile campaigns that emphasize quality ingredients and production methods, which have helped them outpace traditional leaders such as Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp ( 0322.HK ).Tingyi, the owner of Chinese instant noodle brand Master Kong, said earlier this month that it was facing pressure from China’s changing economic development, rising raw material costs, industrial upgrade and fast-changing consumer demand.Nissin will join just a handful of Japanese firms listing in Hong Kong. Others include department store operator Aeon Stores Hong Kong Co Ltd ( 0984.HK ) in 1994, Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing ( 9983.T ) ( 6288.HK ) in 2014, and pachinko hall operators Dynam Japan Holdings Co Ltd ( 6889.HK ) in 2012 and Niraku GC Holdings Inc ( 1245.HK ) in 2015.Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissin-foods-co-ipo-hongkong/japans-nissin-foods-noodle-unit-plans-145-million-ipo-in-hong-kong-idUSKBN1DT09J'|'2017-11-29T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'5395a1a41ec416b4a86827f2a7b92e0ef6ce47ae'|'Volkswagen CEO sees ''strong'' Nov/Dec sales, new record in 2017'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) is headed for record group sales this year as the “strong trend” in deliveries is set to continue with November and December figures, chief executive Matthias Mueller said.Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller attends the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Registrations at the world’s largest automotive group including the Audi ( NSUG.DE ) and Porsche nameplates jumped 8.2 percent in October to 940,800 cars, extending the 10-month gain to 3.2 percent or 8.75 million.“All brands have most recently developed strongly,” Mueller said on Wednesday at a staff gathering in Wolfsburg. “And I trust that also the two remaining months will confirm the strong trend. And that we will be able to finish the year 2017 on a new record.”In 2016, the first full year after VW’s emissions test-cheating “Dieselgate” scandal, group sales increased 3.8 percent to a record 10.3 million cars, helped by a double-digit increase in China and gains in Europe.But Mueller criticized that a post-Dieselgate drive to improve accountability and become more transparent was making slow progress.“On the issue of culture change, progress is in part still dragging,” the CEO said, without being more specific. “In many places we are still too slow, too bureaucratic and too hierarchical.”VW brand chief Herbert Diess, who has repeatedly clashed with the carmaker’s top labor representatives over cost cuts, told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper that differences with the unions persist even a year after a hard-fought turnaround plan was agreed.“We are in part divided on how quickly the whole thing (reforms) should happen,” Diess was Quote: d by Handelsblatt as saying.Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-vehicleregistrations/volkswagen-ceo-sees-strong-nov-dec-sales-new-record-in-2017-idUSKBN1DT1QK'|'2017-11-29T14:49:00.000+02:00'
'75298f2e7a504db0ab85e6284631429df6f18ee5'|'UPDATE 1-Hong Kong''s Link REIT to sell $3 bln assets to Gaw Capital consortium'|'* Portfolio of 17 properties to be sold to consortium led by Gaw* Sale price is 52 pct premium to market value in September* Link REIT shares rise more than 3 percent to reach record high (Adds Gaw Capital consortium as buyer of the assets, adds share price)HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s Link Real Estate Investment Trust has agreed to sell some of its property assets to a consortium led by private-equity firm Gaw Capital Partners for HK$23 billion ($2.95 billion), sending its shares to a record high.Asia’s largest REIT by market capitalisation owned assets in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as of end-March. Its portfolio includes shopping centres, office buildings, car parks, wet markets and cooked food stalls.Shares in Link REIT rose more than 3 percent on Wednesday to touch an all-time high of HK$72.3, after the deal was announced late on Tuesday.Under the agreement, Link REIT is selling a portfolio of 17 properties, which includes shopping malls and cars parks. The sale price represents a 52 percent premium to the assets’ market value at the end of September, the company said.One of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, Hong Kong has seen hectic dealmaking as mainly Chinese buyers scoop up assets amid growing demand for residential and commercial buildings.Buyers of commercial real estate in Hong Kong are betting on a sustained recovery in the Asian financial hub’s retail economy, helped by robust local consumption and a pick-up in tourist numbers.Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital, a private-equity real-estate firm focused on Greater China and Asia, was among potential bidders shortlisted to buy the portfolio that was being divested by Link REIT, Reuters reported last month.Link REIT said in July this year that it intended to conduct a strategic review of its portfolio and had appointed HSBC and UBS as financial advisers, and DTZ Cushman & Wakefield as real-estate adviser.The company has made asset disposals and acquisitions over the past three years as part of an attempt to revamp its business model.“The competitive bids and final sale price signify a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s economy and retail sector,” George Hongchoy, CEO of Link Asset Management Ltd, the manager of Link REIT, said in a statement.The company said the auction for the properties had attracted interest from international investors, including global and regional private-equity funds, sovereign-wealth funds, as well as local investors.After the divestment, Link REIT will have about 90 percent of its assets in Hong Kong and 10 percent in China. The total portfolio value will be about HK$175 billion, it said in the statement.$1 = 7.8017 Hong Kong dollars Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lee Chyen Yee in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/link-reit-divestiture/update-1-hong-kongs-link-reit-to-sell-3-bln-assets-to-gaw-capital-consortium-idUSL3N1NZ1F3'|'2017-11-29T10:58:00.000+02:00'
'6da2c82701c9999daabd4d4375b1e5c071b245fd'|'VW CEO sees ''strong'' November/December sales, new record in 2017'|'November 29, 2017 / 1:54 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago VW CEO sees ''strong'' November/December sales, new record in 2017 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen is headed for record group sales this year as the “strong trend” in deliveries is set to continue with November and December figures, chief executive Matthias Mueller said. Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller attends the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Registrations at the world’s largest automotive group including the Audi and Porsche nameplates jumped 8.2 percent in October to 940,800 cars, extending the 10-month gain to 3.2 percent or 8.75 million. “All brands have most recently developed strongly,” Mueller said on Wednesday at a staff gathering in Wolfsburg. “And I trust that also the two remaining months will confirm the strong trend. And that we will be able to finish the year 2017 on a new record.” In 2016, the first full year after VW’s emissions test-cheating “Dieselgate” scandal, group sales increased 3.8 percent to a record 10.3 million cars, helped by a double-digit increase in China and gains in Europe. But Mueller criticized that a post-Dieselgate drive to improve accountability and become more transparent was making slow progress. “On the issue of culture change, progress is in part still dragging,” the CEO said, without being more specific. “In many places we are still too slow, too bureaucratic and too hierarchical.” VW brand chief Herbert Diess, who has repeatedly clashed with the carmaker’s top labour representatives over cost cuts, told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper that differences with the unions persist even a year after a hard-fought turnaround plan was agreed. “We are in part divided on how quickly the whole thing (reforms) should happen,” Diess was quoted by Handelsblatt as saying. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-vehicleregistrations/vw-ceo-sees-strong-november-december-sales-new-record-in-2017-idUKKBN1DT1XW'|'2017-11-29T15:53:00.000+02:00'
'5e9e849601b5f95df45f73f343c4cc2db09aeb63'|'UPDATE 2-U.S. high court justices raise privacy concerns in major cellphone case'|'(Adds Quote: s from justices, paragraphs 3-4)By Lawrence HurleyWASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices raised concerns on Wednesday about the ability of police to obtain information on the past locations of criminal suspects using cellphone data from wireless providers without a warrant in a major test of privacy rights in the digital age.Several of the nine justices across the ideological spectrum made comments indicating that the absence of a court-issued warrant is troubling. The court could potentially rule that such a practice amounts to an unreasonable search and seizure under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the most direct in raising the alarm about the increasing amount of data that government agencies can potentially obtain, at one point noting that most Americans “want to avoid Big Brother.”Other justices, including conservative Samuel Alito, appeared concerned about setting new limits on the government’s ability to obtain certain business records that it can currently access without a warrant, including information on financial transactions.The justices heard an extended 80-minute argument in an appeal brought by a man named Timothy Carpenter convicted in a series of armed robberies in Ohio and Michigan with the help of past cellphone location data that linked him to the crime locations. His American Civil Liberties Union lawyers have argued that without a warrant such data amounts to a Fourth Amendment violation.Law enforcement authorities routinely request and receive this data from wireless providers during criminal investigations as they try to link a suspect to a crime.The legal fight has raised questions about the degree to which companies protect their customers’ privacy rights. The big four wireless carriers, Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp, receive tens of thousands of these requests annually from law enforcement.Verizon was the only one of those four companies to tell the Supreme Court that it favors strong privacy protections for its customers, with the other three sitting on the sidelines.Police helped establish that Carpenter was near the scene of the robberies of Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores by securing from his cellphone carrier his past “cell site location information,” which tracks cellphone towers that relay calls.There is increasing scrutiny of the surveillance practices of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies amid civil liberties concerns among lawmakers across the political spectrum.The Supreme Court twice in recent years has ruled on major cases concerning how criminal law applies to new technology, both times ruling against law enforcement. In 2012, the court decided that a warrant is needed to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle. In 2014, the court ruled that a warrant is required to search a cellphone seized during an arrest.The ACLU has said police need “probable cause,” and therefore a warrant, in order to avoid a Fourth Amendment violation. But the U.S. Justice Department said probable cause should not be needed to obtain customer records under a 1986 federal law called the Stored Communications Act.The Justice Department said prosecutors must show only that there are “reasonable grounds” for records that are “relevant and material” to an investigation to be provided.Carpenter’s bid to suppress the evidence failed and he was convicted of six robbery counts. On appeal, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his convictions, finding that no warrant was required for the cellphone data.According to trial testimony, Carpenter organized most of the robberies and often supplied guns used in them. Witnesses said he usually would sit in a stolen car across the street from the targeted store and his accomplices would enter the store upon his signal, brandish guns, usher customers and workers to the back and direct employees to hand over the store’s new smartphones.A ruling is due by the end of June.Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-court-mobilephones/update-1-u-s-supreme-court-weighs-major-digital-privacy-case-idINL1N1NZ13P'|'2017-11-29T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'66300795be209688f2bd72257870cf1f490f5697'|'FCC Chairman Pai proposes rolling back net neutrality rules by three years'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, accused social media company Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ) of being politically biased on Tuesday as he defended his plan to roll back rules intended to ensure a free and open internet.Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, testifies before a Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Pai, a Republican named by President Donald Trump to head up the FCC, unveiled plans last week to scrap the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules, moving to give broadband service providers sweeping power over what content consumers can access.“When it comes to an open internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” Pai said. “The company has a viewpoint and uses that viewpoint to discriminate.”He pointed to Twitter’s refusal to let Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, advertise a campaign video with an anti-abortion message.“To say the least, the company appears to have a double standard when it comes to suspending or de-verifying conservative users’ accounts as opposed to those of liberal users,” Pai said.Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Twitter in October removed a campaign video by Blackburn, who announced she is running for the U.S. Senate, saying that a remark by Blackburn about opposing abortion was inflammatory. Twitter later reversed its decision.Pai’s criticism came a day after Twitter and a number of other internet-based companies - including AirBnb, Reddit, Shutterstock, Inc, Tumblr and Etsy ( ETSY.O ) - sent a letter urging the FCC to maintain the net neutrality rules.Following Pai’s remarks at an event organized by the libertarian-leaning R Street Institute, two other FCC commissioners said they would support his proposal when they vote on Dec. 14.The proposed rollback has been seen as a victory for big internet service providers such as AT&T Inc ( T.N ), Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ), which favored a repeal.“So when you get past the wild accusations, fear mongering and hysteria, here’s the boring bottom line,” Pai said. “The plan to restore internet freedom would return us to the light touch, market-based approach under which the internet thrived.”Reporting by Diane Bartz and Ginger Gibson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-pai/fcc-chairman-pai-proposes-rolling-back-net-neutrality-rules-by-three-years-idUSKBN1DS2LB'|'2017-11-29T03:12:00.000+02:00'
'1ed62609ba4020d58681692a111f97d25f7b93bc'|'Irish retail sales up 4.5 percent year-on-year in October'|'November 28, 2017 / 11:11 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Irish retail sales up 4.5 percent year-on-year in October Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish retail sales volumes increased by 4.5 percent in the year to October and by 6 percent when car sales are excluded, data from the Central Statistics Office showed on Tueday. A beggar sits outside a shop, on the north side of Dublin October 2, 2010. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton On a monthly basis, retail sales were flat, and fell 0.3 percent with auto sales excluded. New car sales have fallen this year as some motorists have preferred to import cars from Britain due to the sharp fall in the value of sterling against the euro. Reporting by Padraic Halpin Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-retail/irish-retail-sales-up-4-5-percent-year-on-year-in-october-idUKKBN1DS19H'|'2017-11-28T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'cef8f702aa5a11aed6725966c1fe50b2e30e6a06'|'French packaging firm Albea attracts private equity bids - sources'|' 22 AM / in 17 minutes French packaging firm Albea attracts private equity bids - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Private equity group Sun Capital has attracted final bids from several of its peers for French packaging group Albea, which could be valued at more than $1.5 billion in a second attempt at a sale, people close to the matter said. After an unsuccessful auction last year, Sun launched another attempt to sell Albea in September, helped by investment bank Lazard and hoping to benefit from high valuations in the sector. Buyout groups Onex, Partners Group and a consortium comprising Bain Capital and PAI recently handed in final offers for the company, the sources said, adding that no one has so far been picked to enter exclusive talks on a potential acquisition. Sun Capital, Lazard and the potential bidders declined to comment or were not immediately available for comment. The bids have valued Albea at 8 to 8.5 times expected 2017 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of just below $190 million, the people close to the matter said. Albea, formerly known as Alcan Packaging Beauty, has grown strongly since its buyout by Sun in 2010, helped by a series of acquisitions of such as that of Rexam Personal Care in 2012. (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sun-capital-albea-sale/french-packaging-firm-albea-attracts-private-equity-bids-sources-idUSL8N1NY2ZJ'|'2017-11-28T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'0c7f5960860093046265674d30993e7713e2eea0'|'Hyundai workers stop building SUV ahead of U.S. launch as labor row escalates'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ) workers in South Korea have stopped building the Kona sport utility vehicle this week ahead of a U.S. launch - a protest against what the automaker’s labor union says are plans to trim assembly line headcount.The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen during the 2017 Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, South Korea, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji The union, which is also in annual talks with management over pay, warned that a wider strike was possible.Hyundai has been in discussions with its labor union since October on production plans for the Kona, a key model that it hopes will reverse a U.S. sales slump.The union contends that the automaker wants to introduce more automation and outsource more assembly of key sections to part makers - plans that it is vehemently opposed to. Hyundai management argues that the union is making “irrelevant demands” such as requests for extra windows in the factory as part of the production discussions.The automaker’s decision to start production of the Kona on a new assembly line last week was made without consultation with the union and was unacceptable, union leader Ha Boo-young said in a statement, adding that a wider strike was possible “should there be another provocation by management.”The move comes ahead of a planned unveiling of the U.S.-production version of the Kona at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday with U.S. sales slated to begin early next year. The Kona is currently sold in South Korea, where it has proven to be a popular model, as well as Europe.The two days loss of production so far this week is equivalent to 1,230 vehicles, Hyundai said in a statement.Hyundai Motor President Yoon Kap-han said it was regrettable that the labor union was disrupting production for a high-demand model at a time when most of its plants were “suffering from the worst sales slowdown.”Hyundai Motor’s global sales fell 6 percent from January to September compared with the same period a year earlier, as a lack of SUV models hit sales in the U.S. market and a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing hurt sales in China.Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-union/hyundai-workers-stop-building-suv-ahead-of-u-s-launch-as-labor-row-escalates-idUSKBN1DS0NA'|'2017-11-28T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'ba6b57506e13b0922f534a3795994b391ae9f8af'|'Emerson Electric withdraws offer to buy Rockwell Automation'|'November 28, 2017 / 12:06 PM / in 4 hours Emerson Electric pulls Rockwell Automation bid off table Arunima Banerjee , Sanjana Shivdas   Industrial-automation systems maker Emerson Electric Co ( EMR.N ) said on Tuesday it abandoned its bid for Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) after several rejections, and instead will pursue bolt-on acquisitions as originally planned. “Clearly, the Rockwell opportunity is dead, and we’re moving on,” Emerson’s Chief Executive David Farr said on a call with analysts, after expressing disappointment in a statement that Rockwell’s board had refused to discuss a potential merger. Emerson’s shares rose 3.1 percent to $63.82, while Rockwell’s were up 1.7 percent at $194.22 in midday trading. The move to focus on smaller, bolt-on deals is not new for Emerson. In fact, Farr, who has been at the helm for 17 years, had previously indicated that he would consider only small, bolt-on acquisitions. Farr said on Tuesday that Emerson would be interested in some assets of General Electric Co ( GE.N ), if GE looks to sell, and some assets that are now part of GE’s Baker Hughes ( BHGE.N ). He said on the call that Emerson would keep trying to strengthen its position in hybrid and discrete automation, but declined to give names of companies it was interested in buying. Farr said the company would seek bolt-on acquisitions valued at $500 million to $1.5 billion over the next couple of years. FILE PHOTO: Emerson Electric Company Canadian headquarters is shown in Markham, Ontario, Canada, February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Cassese/File Photo The $29 billion offer for Rockwell, which would have created an industrial automation giant, was Emerson’s bid to diversify its businesses and reduce exposure to volatile energy prices. Emerson first made an offer of $200 per share for Rockwell in August. It then raised its offer twice - to $215 per share and $225 per share, but was rejected. Rockwell argued that the offers undervalued it and that the combined company’s industrial customers would be worse off because its products would no longer be available on a single platform. “The Rockwell Automation Board and management team are committed to the execution of our strategy, which we are confident will continue delivering extraordinary shareowner returns,” Rockwell said in a statement on Tuesday. With the Rockwell deal falling through, Emerson said it plans to speed up the rate of share repurchases over the next month and buy back up to $1 billion over the next 12 months. Emerson continues to expect more than $2.8 billion in operating cash flow for fiscal 2018. Rockwell’s shares have risen 2.2 percent since news of the deal first became public on Oct. 31. Emerson’s shares have fallen 8.1 percent in the same time. Emerson’s strength is in process automation, helping power plants and factories in sectors such as mining and cement operate more efficiently. Rockwell, on the other hand, is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to make cars, household appliances and computer systems. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/emerson-electric-withdraws-offer-to-buy-rockwell-automation-idUSKBN1DS1EO'|'2017-11-28T14:05:00.000+02:00'
'c1f96fa2fbf1a26b73ea0d0dfb3f836041bb4c24'|'UPDATE 2-Jobs cut as UK wholesaler Palmer & Harvey enters administration'|'(Adds comments from administrator, Japan Tobacco, details on jobs)By Martinne GellerLONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - British retail supplier Palmer & Harvey McLane Ltd has been placed in administration after running out of cash, with the immediate loss of some 2,500 jobs, accounting firm PwC said.The group, which delivers cigarettes, food and drinks to retail chains and convenience stores, has been hit by challenging trading conditions in recent months and efforts to restructure it have been unsuccessful, PwC said on Tuesday.“The company has insufficient cash resources to continue to trade beyond the short term and the directors have concluded that there is no longer any reasonable prospect of a sale,” said Matthew Callaghan, an administrator at PwC, which has been appointed to oversee the process.It was necessary for Palmer & Harvey - which says it is Britain’s fifth-largest private company - to make about 2,500 of its 3,400 employees redundant immediately, PwC said.The 92-year-old company has about 90,000 customers ranging from small local shops to major supermarket chains, supplying them with up to 12,000 different products.However, supermarket chain Tesco’s 3.7 billion pound deal to acquire rival wholesaler Booker Group had been expected to put further pressure on P&H&rsquo;s business.The job losses will affect its head office in East Sussex and its branch network, which includes 14 distribution centres around the country.Of the remaining 900 jobs, about half of them are in the company’s core wholesale business and will help manage it toward an orderly closure, and the other half are in three subsidiaries the administrators are seeking to sell.P&H could not be reached for comment.Under the British administration process a company which cannot pay money it owes is protected from its creditors while administrators seek to pay as much of its debts as possible.FAILED RESCUE One of P&H&rsquo;s major suppliers, tobacco company Imperial Brands, said it expects a one-time profit hit in the current year of up to 160 million pounds ($213 million), mostly related to excise duty which is non-recoverable. It does not anticipate any significant disruption to its UK operations.Imperial, maker of Gauloises cigarettes, said it had been working for several months on a rescue plan for P&H and “was prepared to explore further alternatives but other parties have been unwilling to pursue these to a successful conclusion”.Imperial and rival Japan Tobacco International both hired advisers to examine options to rescue P&H earlier this year.A spokesman for the Japanese group’s international division said it had worked continuously to facilitate a constructive solution, including extending “significant” financial and operational support.“Regrettably our considerable efforts were not successful,” he said, adding that a contingency plan was in place to avoid any significant interruption in the supply of its cigarettes.Carlyle Group, which had been in talks to buy P&H as part of a rescue deal, declined to comment.The administrators said they are continuing to explore options for a sale of several P&H entities including P&H Direct Van Sales Ltd, P&H Sweetdirect Ltd and P&H Snacksdirect Ltd. ($1 = 0.7495 pounds) (Additional reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/palmerharvey-administration/update-1-jobs-cut-as-uk-wholesaler-palmer-harvey-enters-administration-idINL8N1NY65Q'|'2017-11-28T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'6203bb9966af4c13af09b6fcf7d1ccebc301cfe5'|'SocGen shares climb after bank''s strategy presentation'|' 15 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago SocGen shares climb after bank''s strategy presentation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in French bank SocGen rose on Tuesday after SocGen said it would close more branches and cut staff in its French retail banking network while also selling assets, as part of a three-year plan to boost returns. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the logo on the headquarters of French bank Societe Generale at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris, France, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo In a strategy presentation published late on Monday, SocGen unveiled a 1.1 billion euros (983.3 million pounds) savings plan that will cut 900 jobs in its French retail bank, close 300 branches and reduce the number of back office centres. SocGen shares were up 0.7 percent in early session trading, outperforming a 0.4 percent gain on the STOXX Europe 600 Banks index. “Targets are 2-4 percent ahead of the consensus; the plan is more conservative than expected with higher cost synergies and lower revenue growth, meaning management is less dependent on the cycle to reach its targets,” said analysts at investment bank Jefferies, who kept a “buy” rating on SocGen shares. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Leigh Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-socgen-strategy/socgen-shares-climb-after-banks-strategy-presentation-idUKKBN1DS0QB'|'2017-11-28T10:14:00.000+02:00'
'0457d180903e8e4d1f23d20556e2354dee005dca'|'LVMH expected to do ''a bit better'' in 2018 than this year'|' 01 PM / in 36 minutes LVMH expected to do ''a bit better'' in 2018 than this year Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FLORENCE (Reuters) - LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury goods company, will do “a bit better” in 2018 than this year, the group’s managing director said on Monday. A Louis Vuitton logo, part of LVMH luxury group, is pictured on a building in Geneva, Switzerland, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse In October the group - which owns fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior as well as Moet & Chandon champagne and Hennessy cognac - reported a higher-than-expected 12 percent rise in like-for-like sales for the third quarter of 2017.Revenues were 30.1 billion euros (£26.89 billion). “I think that in 2018 (LVMH) will do a bit better than in 2017,” said Antonio Belloni on the sidelines of the opening of the group’s first vocational training programme in Italy, in Florence. He did not elaborate further, Belloni said the group, which has invested 150 million euros in Italy this year, would “continue with this trend”, adding it had just bought a former furnace just outside Florence, close to where the group already produces high-end accessories for its Fendi brand. ($1 = 0.8384 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lvmh-performance/lvmh-expected-to-do-a-bit-better-in-2018-than-this-year-idUKKBN1DR1YF'|'2017-11-27T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'f2e428fed8c8c9877b596c71244e30c282dcd754'|'Joseph Otting, former banker, sworn in as top U.S. bank regulator'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Joseph Otting, a former banking executive and associate of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, was sworn in as U.S. comptroller of the currency on Monday to serve as the leading regulator of national banks.Otting will oversee big banks such as Bank of America Corp ( BAC.N ), JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) and Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ).He spent more than 30 years as a banker with stints at U.S. Bank and Union Bank and was most recently chief executive officer of OneWest, the California lender started by Mnuchin after the 2008 housing crisis.Otting said on Monday that thriving banks could help advance President Donald Trump’s goal of improving the economy.“Job creation and economic growth are part of the president’s agenda and banks can support those goals,” Otting said in a statement.As the day-to-day regulator for large lenders, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is responsible for writing banking rules and helping to monitor the health of Wall Street.Reporting By Patrick Rucker; Editing by Bill Trott '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-otting/joseph-otting-former-banker-sworn-in-as-top-u-s-bank-regulator-idUSKBN1DR2LB'|'2017-11-28T04:42:00.000+02:00'
'6dceb692c8541612020be1212a375b1aa42c57fe'|'Dermapharm prepares for listing -Apotheke Adhoc'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The family behind German generic drugmaker Dermapharm is preparing to take the company public with the help of Morgan Stanley, trade publication Apotheke Adhoc cited people familiar with the matter as saying.Sources told Reuters in April 2016 that owner Wilhelm Beier had short-listed two financial investors as prospective buyers with one bid reaching about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) but a deal was never clinched.Dermapharm and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.$1 = 0.8381 euros Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Arno Schuetze Editing by Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dermapharm-ipo/dermapharm-prepares-for-listing-apotheke-adhoc-idINFWN1NX082'|'2017-11-27T07:49:00.000+02:00'
'fac2ad0b324ae0c4f48dbf2042d2d153c29d6fe8'|'Springer Nature asks JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley to organize IPO: sources'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - SpringerNature, the publisher of science magazines Nature and Scientific American, has asked JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to organize its potential 4 billion euro ($4.8 billion) 2018 stock market listing, people close to the matter said.The SpringerNature joint venture is 53-percent owned by German publisher Holtzbrinck, with buyout group BC Partners holding the rest.Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Alexander HübnerEditing by Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-springer-nature-ipo/springer-nature-asks-jp-morgan-morgan-stanley-to-organize-ipo-sources-idINKBN1DR1R3'|'2017-11-27T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'05d8c62157cfaab85e4b1842c7ce91ac3b3d5308'|'MOVES-Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Northern Trust, AXA'|' 47 PM / in 13 minutes MOVES-Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Northern Trust, AXA Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Nov 27 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Monday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. DEUTSCHE BANK Deutsche Asset Management, the fund management arm of Deutsche Bank, has hired Mark McDonald from Credit Suisse Asset Management to be the firm’s global head of private equity secondaries, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The bank also appointed Ahmed Shehab as head of trade finance for financial institutions in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. CITIGROUP INC The fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets named Brian Ovaert managing director and global head of securities services and issuer services operations. ASCOT GROUP LTD Ascot Group said it launched Ascot Reinsurance Co Ltd (Ascot Re) and appointed John Berger as its chief executive, effective January. NORTHERN TRUST CORP The financial services company named Mike Mahoney as transition manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT The investment management arm of BNP Paribas appointed Philip Dawes head of institutional sales for the UK and Ireland. AXA UK The UK division of French insurer AXA appointed Scott Wheway as its chairman, succeeding Ian Brimecome who is retiring from the post after five years. EUROCLEAR The stock and bond settlement house named Yves Dupuy as chief information officer. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-deutsche-bank-citigroup-bnp-paribas-northern-trust-axa-idUSL3N1NX4EE'|'2017-11-27T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'9ad238a85c4cccc5b6fb5fc8ccfe00ca15f2e682'|'Dubai’s Emirates REIT picks Standard Chartered for debut dollar sukuk - sources'|' 09 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Dubai’s Emirates REIT picks Standard Chartered for debut dollar sukuk - sources Davide Barbuscia 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates REIT, a Dubai-based sharia-compliant real estate investment trust, has appointed Standard Chartered to lead its planned debut U.S. dollar-denominated sukuk, sources familiar with the matter said. The sukuk transaction, which according to a company’s presentation could range between $350 million and $425 million in size, will be issued before the end of the year or in the first quarter of next year at the latest. Emirates REIT’s sukuk will be the latest corporate addition to the Gulf debt capital markets, which are in their second consecutive record-breaking year in terms of volume of issuance as corporates and sovereigns borrow funds internationally to mitigate the impact of lower oil prices. Debt issuance in the Gulf totalled $63.5 billion last year and it exceeded $80 billion so far this year, Thomson Reuters data showed. Emirates REIT plans to issue the sukuk, or Islamic bond, to fully replace its existing debt and lengthen the debt repayment profile of the company. “The REIT is due to repay circa $45 million of debt each year in the next five years, which will no longer have to be repaid/refinanced post sukuk, potentially until 2022,” said Arqaam Capital in a research note. In addition to Standard Chartered, other banks could be appointed to lead the planned sukuk transaction. According to the company’s presentation, banks including Dubai Islamic Bank – which is the company’s largest shareholder – Emirates NBD, Shuaa Asset Management, Mashrek Capital and RAK Bank were interested in marketing the sukuk. Emirates REIT had a portfolio value of $845 million as of the end of September. Its portfolio includes mixed-use properties, office buildings and schools in Dubai. Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-emirates-reit-sukuk/dubais-emirates-reit-picks-standard-chartered-for-debut-dollar-sukuk-sources-idUKKBN1DR0DO'|'2017-11-27T07:08:00.000+02:00'
'1b32f7e9c0a4a93a390ccaaf29e65f62e3afed95'|'OPEC, Russia set for oil cut extension but wary of overheating market'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia look set to prolong oil supply cuts until the end of 2018 this week while signaling that they may review the deal when they meet again in June if the market overheats.A man fixes a sign with OPEC''s logo next to its headquarter''s entrance before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader With oil prices LCOc1 rallying above $60 per barrel, Russia has questioned the wisdom of extending existing cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of next year as such a move could prompt a spike in U.S. production.Russia needs much lower oil prices to balance its budget than OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia, which is preparing a stock market listing for national energy champion Aramco next year and would hence benefit from pricier crude.Six ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia met in Vienna on Wednesday - one day ahead of a full OPEC gathering - and recommended extending the cuts to the end of 2018. At present, the cuts expire in March.“That’s one of the recommendations,” Kuwait’s Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq told reporters when asked whether the committee had agreed on a nine-month extension, among other matters.Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was, however, less certain about the duration.“The market has not been fully balanced yet. Joint efforts are needed after April 1. Everybody has recommended that the agreement could be extended and tomorrow such concrete details will be discussed,” Novak said.Several sources familiar with the talks have said Russia had suggested an option of reviewing the deal at the next OPEC meeting in June in case the oil market overheats.“In reality it would be only a three-month true extension with the review in June,” said Olivier Jakob from Petromatrix consultancy.Benchmark Brent and U.S. crude prices traded flat on Wednesday after two days of declines, helped by a fall in U.S. crude stocks. [O/R]Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told the monitoring meeting on Wednesday that cuts needed to be extended as the rebalancing of oil markets was not yet complete.Saudi Arabia''s Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih arrives for a meeting of OPEC oil ministers at OPEC''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader Novak told reporters after meeting Falih: “We understand that we need to take further steps to rebalance the market ... We have a common understanding (with Falih).”Amrita Sen from consultancy Energy Aspects said she believed the debate between Saudi Arabia and Russia was about timings rather than substance.“Saudi Arabia believes it is too early to discuss an exit strategy as the market rebalancing job hasn’t been done yet. Russia would like to do it sooner ... OPEC has surprised on the upside during its past three meetings and delivered more than the market had expected,” she said.DEBATE ON NIGERIA, LIBYASlideshow (5 Images) Two sources familiar with OPEC talks said the group may debate capping Nigerian and Libyan output at 1.8 million bpd and 1 million bpd respectively, having exempted the two countries so far due to unrest and lower-than-normal production volumes.The production cuts have been in place since the start of 2017 and helped halve an excess of global oil stocks although those remain at 140 million barrels above the five-year average, according to OPEC.Russia has signaled it wants to understand better how producers will exit from the cuts as it needs to provide guidance to its private and state energy companies.“It is important ... to work out a strategy which we will follow from April 2018,” Novak told the monitoring committee.Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said there had been little discussion so far on any exit strategy.Some Russian producers including Rosneft, run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin, have questioned the rationale of prolonging the cuts, saying it will lead to a loss of market share to U.S. firms, which are not reducing output.OPEC, which comprises 14 countries, has traditionally been much less worried about exit strategies as its members have been known for reducing compliance and cheating on their quotas towards the expiry of such deals.“Russia seems to be pushing OPEC to have a concrete plan to phase out the cuts when appropriate ... compared to the typical undisciplined OPEC strategy,” U.S. bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, which is active in the shale industry, said.Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting/opec-russia-set-for-oil-cut-extension-but-wary-of-overheating-market-idINKBN1DT0X9'|'2017-11-29T10:20:00.000+02:00'
'd1f0207dc4967c14b6b234a1f1005ee5f964fce1'|'Citi shares low-tech cash machines to lure customers on the cheap'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:21 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Citi shares low-tech cash machines to lure customers on the cheap David Henry 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc has plugged into tens of thousands of outside vendors’ cash dispensers across the United States this year, part of a plan to cut costs and entice customers after closing hundreds of branches. FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the Citibank corporate headquarters in New York, New York, U.S. May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo It signed up with major U.S. ATM network Allpoint, continued using another, MoneyPass, and now retail customers can access their money, fee-free, at 64,000 machines in assorted stores across the country with a Citi smartphone locator app. Before Citi fully-embraced that strategy though, it asked customers what they most wanted from a bank that they could not get from smartphones, which customers are increasingly using for payments, checking balances and making deposits. The answer, Will Howle, Citi’s president of U.S. retail banking, said, was access to cash when and where they need it. They have little interest in fancy machines in stylish branches, he said in an interview. “As we were reducing (branch) locations, we were actually increasing access points through ATMs,” he said. “People still want cash and when you need it, it is in the moment.” Analysts say it is unclear whether the strategy will deliver the kind of brand loyalty - just 4,300 of the 64,000 cash machines will have the Citi logo - and profits that Citigroup needs, but it is practical. “For Citigroup to leverage its ATM network with digital banking to be a super branch-light, national banking player can make sense,” said Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo. “How well they execute it remains to be seen.” Decades ago Citigroup boasted one of the most advanced networks in the industry. During a fierce 1978 snowstorm, its New York City customers could access cash while many rivals kept branches closed, generating a marketing slogan: “The Citi Never Sleeps.” However, the bank was so hobbled by the 2007-2009 financial crisis that it all but disappeared from much of U.S. consumer banking outside of credit cards. Citi now operates 695 branches in six major U.S. cities, down from just under 1,000 branches in 2013. It has far fewer than big bank rivals such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and even regional lenders such as Huntington Bancshares Inc. [GRAPHIC: tmsnrt.rs/2AdO1IM ] EXPENSIVE Building standalone ATMs – which cost about $50,000 to $100,000 per machine, according to banking consultancy Novantas Inc – would be prohibitively expensive for Citigroup, which is working to cut costs while increasing revenue to meet financial goals for 2020. And the expense might be for naught with cash machines gradually losing relevance. “Owning machines, depreciating them and shutting them down is very expensive,” said Novantas consultant Kevin Travis. Citigroup would not disclose the costs of its new agreements. Using external vendors can be 25 percent cheaper than operating proprietary networks because the expense of installation, repair and restocking cash is shared with others, said Brian Bailey, managing director for North America at Cardtronics PLC, which owns Allpoint. The lower-budget expansion has some drawbacks. Citi had to remove several thousand cash dispensers from its locator app until they were brought up to the bank’s standards, Howle said. The shared machines also do not give Citi a chance to promote its own products in gleaming boxes of new-fangled technology. While most of the machines are in pharmacies, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants, Reuters found a handful where some customers might not feel comfortable, such as a Manhattan massage parlour called the New Paradise Men’s Spa. But Howle said Citi expects to draw in more depositors as they become aware of how ubiquitous its cash dispensers. Rivals such as JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co have tended to gain market share as they have maintained their large physical footprints across the country and shown off new ATMs that can, for instance, dispense cash with the tap of a smartphone. But even JPMorgan is experimenting with shared networks. It now offers access to some 13,000 Cardtronics machines with a new digital account called Finn by Chase. Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com, said Citi’s move makes sense. “Citi has got a very limited branch network, but they’re very much a national brand,” he said. “There’s a hole that has to be filled.” Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-citigroup-atms/citi-shares-low-tech-cash-machines-to-lure-customers-on-the-cheap-idUKKBN1DT0NF'|'2017-11-29T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'd67292682584ce2195a5b6de2ecd93b35cfec001'|'Banks provide $835 million loan package for Barracuda Networks'' take-private'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. publicly traded cloud-based security company Barracuda Networks Inc’s acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo will be backed by an US$835m loan package, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The all-cash buyout, which will capitalize Barracuda at roughly US$1.5bn, was announced on Monday. Thoma Bravo is purchasing the company for US$27.55 per share, representing a 22.5% premium to the prior 10-day average stock price.The financing will include a US$75m revolving credit facility, a US$555m secured term loan with a first priority claim and a US$205m secured term loan with a second priority claim, according to the sources. The revolver will be undrawn at close.Goldman Sachs will lead syndication of the debt, one of the sources said. Credit Suisse and UBS are also providing commitments, according to a press release.The deal will be supported by US$774m of equity, for total capitalization of US$1.534bn.Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment. The company and Thoma Bravo did not respond to requests for comment.The debt will bring Barracuda’s debt-to-Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to roughly 5.0 times through the senior loan and 6.9 times through the junior loan, based on preliminary Ebitda of approximately US$110m, the sources said. The Ebitda used to market the debt could be higher, one of the sources noted.Thoma Bravo has been active in the cyber security space of late. Earlier in November, DigiCert, one of the buyout firm’s portfolio companies, closed on its acquisition of Symantec Corp’s web certification business.The Barracuda transaction is expected to close before February 28, 2018, the company’s fiscal year end.Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Jon Methven '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-barracuda-loans/banks-provide-835-million-loan-package-for-barracuda-networks-take-private-idINKBN1DS2XS'|'2017-11-28T19:11:00.000+02:00'
'f0ab3a981211ccc117042ed64b4a2f6a2cd1834e'|'RPT-UPDATE 2-SoftBank offers to buy Uber shares at 30 percent discount -source'|'(Repeats story first published on Monday)By Heather Somerville and Liana B. BakerSAN FRANCISCO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is offering to purchase shares of Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to its most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.The investment, which was approved by the Uber board in October, would also trigger a string of governance changes at Uber that would limit some early shareholders’ voting power, expand the board from 11 to 17 directors and cut the influence of former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick.The investment and board moves are supported by new Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi and come at the end of a year of scandals and change for Uber, including the announcement last week that executives covered up a major hack in 2016.The consortium of investors led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group plan to take a stake of at least 14 percent in the ride-services company. The tender offer will launch on Tuesday, sources told Reuters, and investors have nearly a month to respond.The SoftBank-led investor group will acquire two of the new board seats, with the remaining four going to independent directors.If there are not enough interested sellers, SoftBank can still walk away from the deal. SoftBank is also expected to make a separate $1 billion investment in the company at the $68.5 billion valuation.Another person familiar with the deal said the offer price was in line with what investors had been expecting. SoftBank’s offer is close to what Uber was worth in 2015, when shares were priced a little less than $40 apiece for a $51 billion valuation, according to data from PitchBook Inc.Even at the discounted price, Uber is the world’s second-highest valued private venture-backed company, after China’s ride-service company Didi Chuxing, and the offer is a chance for early investors to lock in substantial profits and for employees to cash in shares that have to date only had value on paper. Shareholders, including employees, with at least 10,000 shares are eligible to sell.Nearly all secondary transactions, when a new investor purchases from existing shareholders, come at a discount to the company’s valuation.However, the 30 percent discount is steep given Uber’s plan to launch an initial public offering in 2019, said Phil Haslett, co-founder and head of investments at secondary marketplace EquityZen. Usually valuation cuts of this size happen when a company is at risk of being sold at a heavy discount, which Uber is not.“It really comes down to a re-pricing of Uber’s value,” Haslett said.Since it was valued at $68.5 billion more than a year ago, the company has been hit by scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment. It has also weathered federal criminal probes into software Uber used to deceive regulators and allegations of paying bribes to authorities in Asia, and a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit Waymo, accusing Uber of stealing trade secrets.Most recently, Uber revealed that the data of 57 million Uber customers and 600,000 drivers had been stolen in a breach more than a year ago, and that the company had paid two hackers $100,000 to cover it up. Since then, governments across the globe have launched investigations into the incident. The scandal raised questions about whether SoftBank would try to renegotiate the deal for better terms.But Uber said on Friday it had informed SoftBank about the data breach prior to informing the public. However, “our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete,” a spokesman said.A person familiar with the matter said SoftBank would have already factored any negative impact from the breach into its negotiations with Uber.Bloomberg reported the offer price earlier on Monday.Reporting by Heather Somerville and Liana B. Baker. Additional reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-softbank/rpt-update-2-softbank-offers-to-buy-uber-shares-at-30-percent-discount-source-idINL1N1NY0TI'|'2017-11-28T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'64095fc7ea76d1c4bb915e470f2379577231799f'|'Turkish gold trader becomes star witness in U.S. case over Iran sanctions'|' 32 PM / Updated an hour ago Turkish gold trader becomes star witness in U.S. case over Iran sanctions Brendan Pierson 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Turkish gold trader has pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran and will testify against a Turkish bank official who is charged with arranging illegal transactions involving American banks, a U.S. prosecutor said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab is shown in this court room sketch with lawyer Marc Agnifilo (L) as he appears in Manhattan federal court in New York, U.S., April 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg The trader, Reza Zarrab, will describe a multibillion-dollar international money laundering scheme “from the inside,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton said during his opening statement in the New York federal court trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy general manager of Turkey’s Halkbank. Atilla’s lawyer, Victor Rocco, told jurors in his opening statement that Zarrab was prepared to lie in order to avoid jail time and lacked credibility. U.S. prosecutors have charged nine people in the criminal case, though only Zarrab and Atilla are known to be in U.S. custody. The other defendants include the former head of Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan, and the former economy minister of Turkey, Zafer Caglayan. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s government has said the case has been fabricated for political motives, adding to tensions between Ankara and Washington, NATO allies. Denton described two schemes intended to help Iran to spend money from global oil sales despite U.S. sanctions. In one, he said, the defendants helped entities in Iran buy gold, which was in turn smuggled to Dubai and sold for U.S. dollars or other currencies. In the second scheme, Denton said, transactions prohibited by sanctions were disguised as purchases of food, which fell under a humanitarian exemption to the sanctions regime. Denton said Zarrab’s companies carried out transactions, but Atilla, whom he called “an expert on finance and economic sanctions,” designed the schemes to make them appear legitimate. “Zarrab would provide the means, Atilla would provide the method,” Denton said. Denton said Zarrab, Atilla and the other defendants lied to conceal the scheme from U.S. officials. In addition to Zarrab, Denton said the prosecutors’ witnesses would include a former Turkish law enforcement officer who participated in a Turkish investigation into the alleged money laundering scheme, made public in 2013. Erdogan, then prime minister, called that case an attempted “judicial coup,” and it was eventually dropped. Rocco, in his opening statement, told the jury that Atilla never took part in a conspiracy. “Hakan Atilla rarely communicated with Zarrab,” he said. “They weren’t friends, confidantes or conspirators. They didn’t like each other. Reza Zarrab saw Hakan Atilla as a money wrench in his schemes.” Zarrab, Rocco said, bribed other people to further his scheme, including Aslan and Caglayan, but he never bribed Atilla. Rocco also said Zarrab bribed a U.S. prison guard for access to “liquor, drugs and women,” though he did not give details. Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-zarrab/turkish-gold-trader-becomes-star-witness-in-u-s-case-over-iran-sanctions-idUSKBN1DS2HV'|'2017-11-28T20:27:00.000+02:00'
'2801fe78a6b222eb17ba89f39fe6ff9941c90549'|'Microsoft, SAP to use and sell more of each other''s cloud services'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Business software giants Microsoft Corp and SAP SE have agreed to expand the use of each other’s cloud-based products and services delivered via the internet, they said on Tuesday, as they laid out a common product road map for joint customers.In a joint statement, Microsoft said it would use SAP’s S/4 HANA database to help run its core internal financial planning functions - replacing older SAP software, while SAP said it would run more than a dozen of its critical internal financial systems on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service.The long-time partners said the latest integration of their products was designed to encourage more of their joint customers to run SAP software on Microsoft Azure cloud services.Mutual customers include Coca-Cola Co, Columbia Sportswear Co, Coats Ltd and Costco Wholesale Corp .SAP encourages its customers to run its products not only on Microsoft Azure but also on rival cloud platforms from Amazon , Google, IBM and SAP’s own in-house cloud services.The two companies agreed 18 months ago to work together to integrate Microsoft Office 365, the cloud-based version of Microsoft’s flagship productivity software, into SAP, while SAP agreed to run its HANA database software on Microsoft Azure. (Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Mark Potter) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/microsoft-sap-se/microsoft-sap-to-use-and-sell-more-of-each-others-cloud-services-idINL8N1NY1NH'|'2017-11-28T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'7765e02af33f7ffc216748eae513cd2a717f465c'|'Stay close to EU to reduce Brexit''s economic hit, OECD tells UK'|'November 28, 2017 / 10:22 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Stay close to EU to reduce Brexit''s economic hit, OECD tells UK Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should seek the closest possible relationship with the European Union after Brexit if it wants to reduce the hit to its economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Tuesday. The Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Jose Angel Gurria, from Mexico, presents the organization''s Economic Survey of the UK during an OECD press conference at the Treasury in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Matt Dunham/Pool Britain’s economy is already growing more slowly than many of the world’s rich nations, due to the impact of higher inflation since the referendum decision to leave the EU and uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit talks. “The major risk for the economy is the uncertainty surrounding the exit process from the European Union, which could hold back private spending more than projected,” the OECD said in a semi-annual report on the global economy. “However, prospects of maintaining the closest possible economic relationship with the European Union would lead to stronger-than-expected economic growth,” it said. British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to bridge a divide in her Conservative Party over how many concessions she should make to the EU which, in return, will determine how much access Britain gets to the EU’s markets. May has ruled out staying in the bloc’s single market and its customs union because Brussels would demand concessions that she is not prepared to offer, such as the continued free movement of workers to Britain. The OECD predicted Britain’s economy will grow by 1.2 percent in 2018, much weaker than growth of 2.3 percent in Germany and 1.8 percent in France but higher than the organisation’s previous forecast for Britain of 1.0 percent growth. OECD Chief Economist Catherine Mann said the higher forecast was due to a softening of Britain’s push to cuts its budget deficit, which was announced in a budget plan last week, and to a growing likelihood of a transition Brexit deal. The OECD said it expected growth to slow to 1.1 percent in 2019 as inflation, which jumped after the Brexit vote, pinches households and business investment contracts, leaving exports as the main engine of growth. The OECD’s forecasts were weaker than growth projections of 1.4 and 1.3 percent for 2018 and 2019 announced last week by Britain’s official budget forecasters. The OECD also repeated a warning that a sharp rise in high consumer debt, coupled with stagnant household incomes, was a major risk in Britain and said caps on how much households could borrow based on their incomes would bolster financial stability. Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris; Writing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oecd-britain/stay-close-to-eu-to-reduce-brexits-economic-hit-oecd-tells-uk-idUKKBN1DS14F'|'2017-11-28T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'30fdac3014afc1adc4a9c1f4abd47f10c203e437'|'Keystone restarts, no date for return to full capacity -TransCanada spokesman'|'CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Transcanada Corp’s Keystone oil pipeline restarted operations on Tuesday but the company has no timeline on when U.S. regulators will allow it to return to full capacity, a TransCanada spokesman said.The 590,000 barrel per day pipeline links Canada’s oil sands to U.S. refineries and was shut down for nearly two weeks after a 5,000-barrel leak in rural South Dakota on Nov. 16. (Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Chris Reese) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/transcanada-keystone-restart/keystone-restarts-no-date-for-return-to-full-capacity-transcanada-spokesman-idINL1N1NY1Q9'|'2017-11-28T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'cda7dee8899177fa6a2cb6deeb46963f180bc129'|'UPDATE 1-Higher coal prices help Russia''s Mechel swing to Q3 net profit'|'November 28, 2017 / 11:02 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Higher coal prices help Russia''s Mechel swing to Q3 net profit   (Adds details, quotes, context) MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Russian coal and steel producer Mechel said on Tuesday higher prices for its products had helped it swing into a net profit in the third quarter after a loss a year earlier. Higher coal prices has been supporting Mechel, which borrowed heavily before Russia’s economic crisis took hold in 2014 and then struggled to keep up debt repayments. The company, controlled by businessman Igor Zyuzin, has restructured the bulk of its debt since then but is yet to start major debt repayments. It said its July-September net profit was 6.1 billion roubles ($105 million) compared with a net loss of 2.8 billion roubles in the same period a year earlier. “Prices for our coal products remain comfortable both domestically and internationally,” Chief Executive Oleg Korzhov said in a statement. “The steel product market, which was weak in the first half of this year, went back to normal by mid-year due to growing steel prices and stabilisation of costs for raw materials for steelmaking,” he added. Mechel said its third-quarter revenue rose 11 percent year-on-year to 73.4 billion roubles, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 19 percent to 18.9 billion roubles. Its net debt, excluding fines and penalties on overdue amounts, was 463.8 billion roubles ($7.9 billion) at the end of September, broadly unchanged from the start of 2017. Mechel said earlier on Tuesday that its January-September coal production fell, while its third-quarter sales of coking coal concentrate were affected by an unsteady supply of wagons caused by a lack of railway stock in the Russian Railways network. $1 = 58.4030 roubles Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Polina Devitt; Editing by Katya Golubkova and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-mechel-results/update-1-higher-coal-prices-help-russias-mechel-swing-to-q3-net-profit-idUSL8N1NY22D'|'2017-11-28T12:59:00.000+02:00'
'12a94ccff4cc3ad4645e94521c743fad88bcbbae'|'ExxonMobil''s Canada offshore project produces first oil'|' 09 PM / in a few seconds ExxonMobil''s Canada offshore project produces first oil Reuters Staff 2 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Hebron oil project off the coast of eastern Canada has produced its first oil, operator Exxon Mobil said on Tuesday, in a boost to Atlantic Canada’s output after years of weak crude prices. At its peak Hebron will produce up to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), Exxon said. It will help Atlantic Canada offshore production climb 44 percent to 307,000 bpd by 2024, according to estimates from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The platform is located 200 miles (350 kilometers) off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in depths of 300 feet (92 meters) and the oil field, first discovered in 1980, is estimated to contain more than 700 million barrels of recoverable resources. “The successful startup of the Hebron project demonstrates ExxonMobil’s disciplined project management expertise and highlights its ability to execute large-scale energy developments safely and responsibly in challenging operating conditions,” Liam Mallon, president of ExxonMobil Development Company, said in a statement. Offshore production is dwarfed by the 2.4 million barrels that comes from western Canada, but first oil from Hebron is still welcome news for the country’s energy industry after foreign oil majors sold off around $23 billion in Canadian assets this year as a result of depressed prices. While Canadian crude production is still growing thanks to Alberta’s vast oil sands, forecasts have been scaled back since oil prices started slumping in mid-2014. During Hebron’s eight-year construction process U.S. oil prices collapsed from over $100 a barrel to as low as $26. The platform holds living quarters, drilling and production facilities and storage capacity for 1.2 million barrels of oil. It is operated by Exxon’s ExxonMobil Canada Properties, which holds a 35.5 percent stake. Other joint venture partners are Chevron Canada Ltd, Suncor Energy, Statoil ASA and Nalcor Energy, the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial energy corporation. Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-suncor-energy-hebron/exxonmobils-canada-offshore-project-produces-first-oil-idUSKBN1DS29G'|'2017-11-28T18:58:00.000+02:00'
'f893c6b0b5c02296ecfecf8a14db6580fd357047'|'Amazon signs Time Warner''s Turner unit as cloud customer'|'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said Time Warner Inc’s broadcast unit Turner had signed up for its Amazon Web Services (AWS), a notable contract win for the Seattle tech company as competition within the fast-growing cloud computing market intensifies.The logo for Amazon Web Services (AWS) is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren As part of the deal, Turner, the company behind CNN, TNT and several other cable channels, will be migrating “decades of content” and much of its computing operations to AWS, it said in a statement on Tuesday.The two companies did not say how much the deal was worth.Historically, Turner has kept most of its computing and storage operations in its own data centers.In the past year, AWS grew by 42 percent year-on-year. It accounts for nearly 32 percent of the cloud computing market, which is estimated to be worth $14.4 billion as of the third quarter of 2017, according to research firm Canalys.But Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google are growing faster. In the third quarter of 2017, Microsoft’s Azure had annual growth of 90 percent to claim 14 percent of the market, while Google Cloud Platform grew 76 percent and now holds 6 percent of the market, Canalys said.Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-turner/amazon-signs-time-warners-turner-unit-as-cloud-customer-idUSKBN1DS1RZ'|'2017-11-28T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'fb917b7c871c1fc6bb01b9d96132f75fba264480'|'Brexit hurting demand for some UK assets, not gilts or FTSE-100 - Carney'|' 17 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Brexit hurting demand for some UK assets, not gilts or FTSE-100 - Carney Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said there were some signs that the approach of Brexit was reducing the appeal to investors for shares in UK-focused companies but not in bigger, more global firms or for British government debt. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, smiles at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble “There is some evidence of heightened risk premia in the UK,” Carney told reporters after the BoE published its twice yearly Financial Stability Report. Responding to a question about whether there were signs that Britain’s large current account deficit was unsettling investors, Carney said foreign capital flows were continuing to come to Britain, something the BoE would work to maintain. “Our job is to maintain monetary and financial stability in whatever scenario, and with that bedrock one can expect that you build off that bedrock to continue to see foreign inflows as we should,” he said. Reporting by David Milliken and Huw Jones; Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-carney/brexit-hurting-demand-for-some-uk-assets-not-gilts-or-ftse-100-carney-idUKKBN1DS0QM'|'2017-11-28T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'209047a3d4e60d3d1b438667476ebd9e4104be67'|'Xavier Rolet steps down as London Stock Exchange CEO'|'November 29, 2017 / 7:20 AM / Updated an hour ago CEO quits as LSE tries to draw line under management row Huw Jones , Simon Jessop 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange CEO Xavier Rolet is stepping down immediately and its chairman will not seek re-election, as the exchange tries to draw a line under a row with a top shareholder over management succession. Rolet had previously said he would leave at the end of 2018, but activist hedge fund TCI accused Chairman Donald Brydon of pushing him out and called a shareholder meeting to try to reverse the decision and oust Brydon. The LSE board asked TCI to say by 1300 GMT on Wednesday if it would withdraw its shareholder meeting request to “avoid further disruption and potential damage to the company”. In a letter to the LSE seen by Reuters, TCI’s founder Christopher Hohn said it would respond to the exchange’s board on Thursday. The row - coming at a tricky time for the LSE as it risks losing a chunk of its derivatives clearing business to erstwhile merger partner Deutsche Boerse due to Brexit - had dragged in the Bank of England. Rolet’s departure after 8-1/2 years in charge could trigger fresh speculation that a rival exchange such as ICE could bid for the LSE, though analysts say any mega-bourse deal would face intense scrutiny by competition authorities. In a statement issued by the LSE, Rolet said there had been a “great deal of unwelcome publicity” surrounding his departure “which has not been helpful to the company.” “At the request of the board, I have agreed to step down as CEO with immediate effect. I will not be returning to the office of CEO or director under any circumstances,” he added. The LSE said Brydon had also indicated he would not stand for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in 2019, and that Chief Financial Officer David Warren would replace Rolet on an interim basis. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) agreed to Brydon staying on until 2019 to ensure an orderly succession, the LSE said. The LSE said Brydon and the board believed that in 2019, under a new chairman, “it would be in shareholders’ interests to have a new team at the helm to steer the future progress of the company.” However, UBS analyst Michael Werner said Rolet’s immediate departure created significant uncertainty over future strategy and posed a challenge in defending market share from Deutsche Boerse. UBS has a “neutral” rating on LSE shares. Simon Brazier, a fund manager at Investec Asset Management, which is a small shareholder in LSE, said the exchange is now in “a worse position than before this saga started.” FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo At 1555 GMT, the stock was up 0.4 percent at 3,815 pence, reversing earlier losses. LSE shares have risen around five-fold under Rolet’s tenure. ‘BROADLY DAMAGING’ Rolet is credited with turning the LSE into a diversified exchange group by acquiring a controlling stake in LCH, one of the world’s biggest clearing houses, and expanding the bourse’s activities in stock indexes. But the Frenchman and former investment banker was unable to seal a merger with Deutsche Boerse, the exchange’s third attempt at an Anglo-German tie up. FILE PHOTO: The Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet poses for photographers, in London February 13, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo Relations between Rolet and Brydon had become strained, several people who have worked at the exchange said. “It would be easier getting into the cockpit of a plane flying over a city than getting Rolet and Brydon into the same office,” a person who has worked with both said. Rolet would effectively sideline senior management, making it harder for a new CEO to build a team, the former colleague said. One dispute between Rolet and the board centred on who would represent the LSE on an important City advisory group on Brexit. But supporters of Rolet say that turning around the exchange in such a major way inevitably ruffled feathers. “Rolet has been an outstanding CEO and has created incredible value for shareholders and positioned the business in a remarkable way,” said Alasdair Haynes, CEO of rival Aquis Exchange. TCI had called on the Bank of England (BoE) and the FCA to replace Brydon. But in a strong rebuff to TCI’s Hohn, BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday the LSE’s succession plans should remain in place and that he was “mystified” by the spat, effectively sealing Rolet’s fate. The LSE board accused Hohn in a letter on Wednesday of pursuing a “highly personalised campaign”. The LSE said if TCI does not withdraw its call for a shareholder meeting, it will publish a circular no later than Nov. 30 confirming among other things the date of the general meeting at which the proposed resolution or resolutions will be put. Additional reporting by Ben Martin and Maiya Keidan; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-moves-ceo/xavier-rolet-steps-down-as-london-stock-exchange-ceo-idUKKBN1DT0S7'|'2017-11-29T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'7dbfcc454c4d18e7e8c75b73159e04de501838be'|'Disney eliminates 150 jobs at ESPN'|'(Reuters) - Walt Disney Co’s ESPN unit is laying off about 150 employees, ESPN President John Skipper said in a memo to employees on Wednesday.John Skipper addresses the media in Digital Center 2, a new 194,000 sq. ft building on the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut on May 22, 2014. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin "The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content and technology, and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources," Skipper said. ( es.pn/2Agl8fm )Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-disney-jobs/disney-eliminates-150-jobs-at-espn-idUSKBN1DT24P'|'2017-11-29T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'148e98b4108d836bddd448e08fda7a08ccca0f62'|'Brazil''s Algar Telecom postpones IPO pricing to January -sources'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecommunications firm Algar Telecom SA has postponed the pricing of its initial public offering to January to avoid competing with two of the country’s largest offerings this year, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.Algar initially intended to price its offering during the week of Dec. 11, but the Uberlandia, Minas Gerais-based firm decided to avoid competition for investors’ attention, the sources added, asking for anonymity because discussions are private.Algar Telecom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The fuel distribution unit of Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA is expected to price its offering on Dec. 13 and the IPO of Brazilian utility Neoenergia SA is set to price the next day, according to documents filed with securities industry regulator CVM.The offering of BK Brasil Operação e Assessoria a Restaurantes SA, operator of the Burger King fast-food chain in Brazil, is also expected to price that week, the sources added.A wave of Brazilian companies are racing to go public before the expected volatility of the 2018 presidential campaign closes the country’s busiest window for IPOs in four years.Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/algar-telecom-ipo/brazils-algar-telecom-postpones-ipo-pricing-to-january-sources-idINL1N1NZ1S3'|'2017-11-29T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'16abb327b22190360650875eb98788f4ea011f3c'|'Global Markets: Pound up as Britain coughs up, Bitcoin rockets'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The British pound touched a two-month high versus the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as Britain and the European Union moved closer to a Brexit deal, while a tech-sector selloff weighed on Wall Street and on stocks globally.Pound coins are seen in front of a displayed EU flag in this picture illustration taken January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Traders moved out of technology shares and into bank stocks that rose sharply after the nominee to head the Federal Reserve said some regulations could be scaled back, while acknowledging interest rates could gradually continue to rise.“We are certainly seeing a change in leadership at least for today in that we are taking profits from technology and redistributing those profits to areas that will benefit from lower taxes, less regulation, higher interest rates and kind of later stages of the economic cycle,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.The U.S. Senate could vote on a tax overhaul plan as early as Thursday as a procedural hurdle is expected to be passed Wednesday. The Republican plan, seen as cutting corporate taxes, is seen by some analysts as a boon for U.S. stocks.Despite the tech selloff, the S&P 500 tech sector is up over 35 percent in 2017, by far the best performing of the 11 S&P industry sectors.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 86.57 points, or 0.36 percent, to 23,923.28, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.88 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,624.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 98.52 points, or 1.43 percent, to 6,813.84.Emerging market stocks lost 0.65 percent.Traders in Asian stocks were cautious over the latest missile test by North Korea and concerns at recent softness in Chinese shares.MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.36 percent lower, while Japan''s Nikkei .N225 rose 0.49 percent.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.25 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.12 percent.Britain’s FTSE fell, lagging a broad-based rebound in European shares as the stronger sterling hurt the internationally-exposed companies in the index.Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3419, up 0.62 percent on the day.Even as the British currency hit a two-month high some investors were wary of rushing in to buy the pound until more details emerged from a EU summit on Dec 14-15.“There is a lot of water that has to flow under this particular bridge before we see investors becoming optimistic about the pound in their portfolios,” said Jeremy Stretch, head of G10 FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.The dollar index .DXY fell 0.08 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.15 percent to $1.1857.The Japanese yen weakened 0.31 percent versus the greenback at 111.83 per dollar.Bitcoin rose over $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst.The cryptocurrency had a session high of $11,395 and a low of $9,250 and was last at $9,868.97.Oil futures’ prices fell in a volatile session on conflicting statements from oil ministers a day ahead of OPEC’s meeting in Vienna, as members debate the path for an extension of the group’s agreement to cap supplies.U.S. crude CLc1 fell 0.98 percent to $57.42 per barrel and Brent LCOc1 was last at $63.36, down 0.39 percent on the day.Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 11/32 in price to yield 2.3757 percent, from 2.337 percent late on Tuesday.The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last fell 31/32 in price to yield 2.8128 percent, from 2.765 percent late on Tuesday.Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.7 percent to $1,284.55 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 fell 0.85 percent to $1,283.90 an ounce.Copper CMCU3 lost 0.75 percent to $6,754.00 a tonne.Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Lewis Krauskopf and David Gaffen; Editing by Andrew Hay and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-pound-up-as-britain-coughs-up-bitcoin-rockets-idINKBN1DT1PD'|'2017-11-29T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'9b110d09bab57400135314df5ee3bf98a2b6baff'|'AT&T and Time Warner say proposed merger is ''pro-consumer'''|'November 28, 2017 / 10:16 PM / Updated 3 hours ago AT&T and Time Warner say proposed merger is ''pro-consumer'' Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) and Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) argued on Tuesday that their proposed $85.4 billion (£64.5 billion) merger was “pro-competitive” and “pro-consumer”, as they sought to refute U.S. Justice Department allegations that the deal breaks antitrust law. FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo In a joint court filing, the companies focused on rebutting government efforts to show that AT&T, which owns pay-TV provider DirecTV, would raise rates for rival pay-TV companies to use Time Warner’s movies and TV shows. They also argued that the government was wrong to worry that the deal would hamper the development of online video. They did not mention President Donald Trump or the White House. Trump has repeatedly criticized Time Warner’s CNN news unit and announced his opposition to the deal before last year’s presidential election, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T’s hands. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who is sceptical of the deal, said last week he was nonetheless worried that the antitrust issue was being used for political reasons. Other lawmakers have expressed similar concerns. The Justice Department last week sued AT&T to block its planned acquisition of Time Warner. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo In the filing on Tuesday, the companies said that they operate in highly competitive markets which will remain competitive after they close the deal. They noted that streaming service Netflix ( NFLX.O ) has 100 million subscribers globally, while tech firms Apple ( AAPL.O ), Google ( GOOGL.O ) and Facebook ( FB.O ) were investing billions of dollars in video. Hulu and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) were becoming contenders in video distribution, while others, like social messaging company Snapchat ( SNAP.N ), were starting to enter the market, they added. FILE PHOTO - A screen shows the current price of Time Warner shares, above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson “Against this backdrop, the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner is a pro-competitive, pro-consumer response to an intensely competitive and rapidly changing video marketplace,” the companies said in the filing. “This transaction presents absolutely no risk of harm to competition or consumers.” The trial will be heard by Judge Richard Leon at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Leon was nominated to the court by former Republican President George W. Bush and is no stranger to high-profile cases. Leon signed off on the Justice Department’s 2011 deal which allowed Comcast to buy NBC Universal and has heard a number of private antitrust cases. In the 1990s, he worked on House of Representatives panels looking at the Iran-Contra affair and the Whitewater controversy. Termination date for the deal is April 22, 2018. Reporting by Diane Bartz, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-time-warner-say-their-proposed-deal-is-pro-competitive-idUKKBN1DS2Y8'|'2017-11-29T01:40:00.000+02:00'
'e818425b36cecb4654e8eb884813aa860b33a656'|'Japan''s Nomura to return to private equity'|' 16 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Japan''s Nomura to return to private equity Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings Inc is returning to private equity - a move that comes as it seeks more stable income through consulting services and as Japanese firms increasingly look to divest non-core businesses as part of restructuring plans. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Nomura Holdings is pictured in Tokyo, Japan, December 1, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank said in a statement it would initially invest about 100 billion yen (670 million pounds) in the new business. It has yet to identify any specific investment targets. Nomura last made a fresh private equity investment in 2008. Its bigger deals included investments in Japanese restaurant chain Skylark and theme park resort Huis Ten Bosch. It sold its 41.76 percent stake in Skylark to Bain Capital in 2011, and dissolved its private equity arm in 2014. The return to private equity comes in tandem with efforts to boost its U.S. investment banking business in anticipation of more deals in the United States or by U.S. companies looking to expand abroad. That follows a big shrinking of Nomura’s operations in Europe last year after its disastrous acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European businesses in 2008 which led to six consecutive years of losses for its international operations. Japan has seen recently seen a spate of big private equity-led deals. Toshiba Corp has agreed to sell its chip unit for $18 billion to a consortium led by Bain, while U.S. buyout firm KKR & Co LP last year paid $4.5 billion to buy a 41 percent stake in auto parts supplier Calsonic Kansei. Just this month, Bain managed to get Britain’s WPP to agree to accept an offer for its stake in Japanese advertising firm Asatsu-DK. KKR & Co also boosted its bid price for Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc for a second time, seeking to appease U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management which has bought into the Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer. Separately, Nomura said it would cancel treasury shares worth 4.7 percent of outstanding shares on Dec. 18 - an announcement that helped lift its stock 2 percent in early Wednesday trade. Reporting by Thomas Wilson and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nomura-hldgs-principal/japans-nomura-to-return-to-private-equity-idUKKBN1DT095'|'2017-11-29T04:16:00.000+02:00'
'82cc8a3419be08e6b17cf75e9b696391388cac51'|'Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium - executive'|'Reuters TV United States November 29, 2017 / 4:24 AM / in 2 hours Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium: executive Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and its Volvo Cars unit, which this week began selling cars in China from jointly owned brand Lynk & Co, are considering producing the vehicles at Volvo plants in Belgium and the U.S. state of South Carolina, a senior Lynk & Co official said. Geely unveils its Lynk & Co brand model, the 01 sport utility, at an event ahead of the Shanghai Auto show, in Shanghai, China, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joseph White/File Photo Lynk & Co plans to launch sales of its cars in Europe in 2019, followed by the United States in 2020. The brand’s first model, the 01 compact sport-utility vehicle, which starts at 158,800 yuan ($24,065.71), is now being produced on the same assembly line with Volvo’s new XC40 crossover SUV at a new Volvo-operated plant in Taizho. A second plant for Lynk & Co cars is expected to start production in Zhangjiakou next year. That same arrangement will be extended to Europe and to the United States to produce Lynk & Co cars by using Volvo production, Alain Visser, senior Vice President of Lynk & Co, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-zj-geely-hldg-volvo-lynx/geely-volvo-considering-making-lynx-co-cars-in-south-carolina-belgium-executive-idUKKBN1DT0GY'|'2017-11-29T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'f3bf3fe8387743a1b6c8d8181a94d8d3a227a832'|'Morning News Call - India, November 29'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 9:15 am: Punjab National Bank continues to sell up to 9.99 million shares of PNB Housing Finance via offer for sale, Retail part of offer opens in Mumbai. 9:15 am: Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan to inaugurate symposium on Indian Strategy for Quality Infrastructure in New Delhi. 10:30 am: Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal at a press conference in Mumbai. 12:30 pm: Future Supply Chain Solutions initial public offering press conference in Mumbai. LIVECHAT-DEVELOPING ASIA''S CAPITAL MARKETS GMF will be present at the ASIFMA Annual Conference 2017 in Hong Kong and as part of our line-up we speak to Binay Chandgothia, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Principal Global Investors on Asian equities, FED rates and of course Crypto-currencies at 09:15 am IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • POLL-Indian economic growth set to end five-quarter slide Indian economic growth likely rebounded in the July-September quarter from the slowest growth in three years, with demand picking up modestly as the effects from a shock ban on high-value currency notes eased, a Reuters poll showed. • India''s government wants RBI rate cut before March - fin min sources Impatient for faster economic growth, India''s government is lobbying for a reduction in official interest rates in coming months as it expects inflation to stay close to a 4 percent target, finance ministry officials said. • Coal India to raise executive salaries at a cost of 8 billion rupees Coal India Ltd, the world''s largest coal miner, will pay its executives about 8 billion rupees in salary rises retroactive from January this year, interim chairman Gopal Singh told Reuters. • RCom debt restructuring clouded by CDB insolvency action Indian telecom player Reliance Communications''planned debt restructuring could be complicated by China Development Bank''s triggering of insolvency action against the beleaguered company. • Indian telecom regulator backs open internet India''s telecoms regulator made long-awaited recommendations on Tuesday to ensure an open internet and prevent any discrimination in internet access in the country. • India''s Future Supply Chain, Shalby to launch IPOs next week Indian logistics provider Future Supply Chain Solution''s initial public offering of shares to raise up to 6.5 billion rupees will open next week, adding to what has been a record year for initial share sales in the country. • Air India Express plans growth before privatisation - CEO State-owned Air India''s low cost airline Air India Express will continue to expand before the group''s privatisation next year, in a bid to increase its valuation, its chief executive said on Tuesday. • AirAsia India expects revenue to double this year, triple in 2018 Budget carrier AirAsia India expects revenue to double to 12 billion Indian rupees this calendar year, and triple to 18 billion rupees in 2018, its chief executive said on Tuesday.X GLOBAL TOP NEWS • North Korea ICBM test may show Washington within range North Korea launched what officials said was likely an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew high into space before landing near Japan on Wednesday, showing Pyongyang may now be able to reach Washington, D.C. with its weapons. • U.S. Senate Republicans shove tax bill ahead as Democrats fume U.S. Senate Republicans rammed forward President Donald Trump''s tax-cut bill on Tuesday in an abrupt, partisan committee vote that set up a full vote by the Senate as soon as Thursday, although some details of the measure remained unsettled. • Japan retail sales suffer first annual fall in a year Annual Japanese retail sales fell for the first time in a year last month, government data showed, as poor weather including two typhoons kept consumers away from stores and restaurants. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures was trading at 10,394.50, trading up 0.25 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are expected to gain, tracking lower crude oil prices that improve the outlook for domestic inflation. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.00 percent-7.06 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely edge lower against the dollar in early trade, tracking overnight gains in the greenback underpinned by strong U.S. economic data and after Fed chair nominee Jerome Powell hinted at a rate hike next month. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street surged to record highs on Tuesday led by sharp gains in bank stocks, and boosted by progress for a tax cut bill, strong consumer confidence data and encouraging comments from President Donald Trump''s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve. • Asian share markets were not as jubilant, held back by caution over the latest missile test by North Korea and concerns at recent softness in Chinese shares. • The dollar gained against the yen, lifted by strong U.S. economic data while North Korea''s latest missile launch had little immediate impact on currency markets though investors are focused on how the U.S. responds to the test. • U.S. Treasury yields inched higher on Tuesday, as risk appetite improved with Wall Street shares hitting record highs after upbeat consumer confidence data and a Senate panel vote to advance a U.S. tax bill. • Oil prices fell on doubts OPEC and Russia will agree an extended crude production cut that the market has priced in, and after a report of an unexpected rise in U.S. fuel inventories. • Gold prices held steady as the reaction to North Korea''s latest missile test was muted, while palladium hovered near the 17-year peak touched in the previous session. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.38/64.41 November 28 -$1.90 mln -$35.04 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.11pct Month-to-date $3.02 bln -$178.34 mln Year-to-date $8.67 bln $25.77 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.44 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-29-idUSL3N1NZ1OM'|'2017-11-29T05:28:00.000+02:00'
'd193e5c6841176039c8f2f556d0d67a8774ded5b'|'ECB urges Europe-wide trading platform for bad bank loans'|'November 27, 2017 / 3:23 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago ECB urges Europe-wide trading platform for bad bank loans Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank called on Monday for the creation of a private sector platform to trade in soured bank debt, hoping to kickstart a dysfunctional market weighing on the bank sector. The euro sign in front of the former headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) is photographed with long exposure in Frankfurt, Germany, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1CB089E350 Euro zone banks are sitting on around 800 billion euros (£714.71 billion) worth of non-performing loans (NPL). The ECB has made it a top priority to tackle the issue as these bad debts, now too difficult to swiftly move off lenders’ balance sheets, are holding back lending and limiting the effectiveness of the ECB’s policy stimulus. It has recently proposed tougher provisioning guidelines on new NPLs and said it would come up with new rules on older bad debt, drawing fierce opposition from the most affected countries, such as Italy. A possible solution to NPLs would be the creation of a single platform that acts as a data warehouse for bad debt, a transaction system and a trade data repository, the ECB said in an article that forms part of its biannual Financial Stability Review. The platform would increase transparency, reduce transaction costs, improve coordination in the case of multiple creditor claims and open the market to new investors, the ECB argued. “Wider investor participation may have a number of important benefits that result in lower bid-ask spreads: price competition in the market may be increased and investors with lower risk tolerance may enter the market,” the ECB added. The private sector could be given incentives, including tax credits, to set up such a platform, but state participation is unnecessary, the study concluded. “The role of the authorities in setting up an NPL platform should essentially be limited to regulation, support during the start-up phase and incentivising participation,” the ECB added. “It is not necessary, and for governance reasons not even preferable, that the state takes an ownership stake in the platform.” To work, the platform must provide equal access and must not have monopolistic powers, the study added. Such a platform may also require changes in data protection rules and must ensure that private data, whether about individual borrowers or about the asset quality of a certain bank, is kept sufficiently confidential. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-ecb/ecb-urges-europe-wide-trading-platform-for-bad-bank-loans-idUKKBN1DR1W1'|'2017-11-27T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'55a649c21e5a78e4621212fe4437da9544cc97e0'|'Total sells two Norwegian oilfields to Statoil for $1.45 billion'|'PARIS/OSLO (Reuters) - French oil and gas major Total ( TOTF.PA ) said on Monday it had agreed to sell its stakes in two Norwegian oilfields to Statoil ( STL.OL ) for $1.45 billion as it reviews its North Sea portfolio after acquiring Denmark’s Maersk Oil in August.The logo of Total oil company is pictured in Abuja, Nigeria October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde The company said Statoil will take over its 51 percent stake in the Martin Linge field and its 40 percent holding in the Garantiana discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.“The forthcoming acquisition of Maersk Oil... leads us to review our portfolio in this area so as to focus on the assets in which Total will be able to generate synergies and reduce their break-even points,” Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s head of exploration and production, said in a statement.The company said that although Norway remains strategically important as one of the largest contributors to its output, it plans to focus on its non-operated assets such as Ekofisk, Snohvit and Johan Sverdrup fields.Total’s decision to scale back its presence in Norway, focusing on non-operated assets, follows a recent trend among foreign oil majors, including BP ( BP.L ) and Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ), to become junior partners in Norwegian fields and concentrate their exploration and field management in less mature regions.Some have gone even further, with U.S. oil company Hess last month announcing the sale of its Norwegian assets altogether and plans to also divest from the Danish parts of the North Sea.Total said there was limited scope for Total to improve operations in the Martin Linge field which was its only operated asset in Norway, while Statoil was in a better position to optimize the asset. The estimated recoverable resources of the field is in excess of 300 million barrels oil equivalent.The Martin Linge development has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, with the latest investment estimate seen at 41.3 billion Norwegian crowns ($5.1 billion), about 42 percent more than originally anticipated.The field is expected to start production in 2019 after a one year delay following a fatal accident in May at a South Korean yard building the platform for the field, raising the cost for the project.Total is also the largest investor in the Garantiana discovery, which is being developed.Total’s shares were down 0.5 percent by 0839 GMT, while Statoil was down 0.54 percent.Reporting by Bate Felix and Terje Solsvik; Editing by Richard Lough and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-total-m-a-statoil/total-sells-two-norwegian-oil-fields-to-statoil-for-1-45-billion-idINKBN1DR0S4'|'2017-11-27T05:04:00.000+02:00'
'f5acb072b84484ceeb9df135e98700e45d10320c'|'Scotiabank offers to buy BBVA Chile''s majority stake'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:58 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Scotiabank agrees to buy BBVA''s stake in BBVA Chile Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Bank Of Nova Scotia has agreed to buy Spanish lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s stake in BBVA Chile for $2.2 billion (1.66 billion) in a move that would make it Chile’s third largest privately-owned bank. FILE PHOTO: A woman leaves a Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo Scotiabank, Canada’s third-biggest lender, has the biggest foreign presence of any Canadian bank and has focused its international strategy on the Pacific Alliance, a Latin American trading bloc comprising Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia which it expects will generate strong growth in the next few years. Chief Executive Brian Porter said in September that the potential acquisition of BBVA’s retail business in Chile was a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” Despite weak growth in the world’s No. 1 copper producer, Chile’s banking industry surged nearly 9 percent in the first three quarters of 2017, boosted by growth in consumer loans and commissions. Scotiabank said on Tuesday its acquisition of BBVA Chile would double its share of the Chilean market, worth around C$390 billion, to 14 percent. BBVA owns 68 percent of BBVA Chile, while the Said family of Chile owns another 29 percent of the listed retail bank, which had a total market capitalisation of $2.2 billion on Tuesday. BBVA said it would accept the offer, which values BBVA Chile at around $3.2 billion, if it was approved by the Said family. The family has the right to sell its shares to Scotiabank under the same terms. Porter told analysts on a conference call he expected to complete the purchase, which will be the biggest ever acquisition outside of North America by a Canadian bank, next summer. The bank said the deal would impact its core tier 1 capital by 135 basis points. However, Chief Financial Officer Sean McGuckin said he expects its core tier 1 ratio, a key measure of its financial strength to stay above 10.5 percent. Scotiabank also reported fourth-quarter earnings below analyst forecasts on Tuesday. Earnings per share for the quarter ended Oct. 31 were C$1.64, up from C$1.57 a year ago. Analysts had on average forecast earnings of C$1.66 per share, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data showed. Shares in Scotiabank were down 2.6 percent at 1510 GMT. Shares in BBVA, Spain’s second-biggest lender, were up 0.5 percent. BBVA said the sale would result in a net capital gain of 640 million euros ($760 million) and would improve its core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio by 0.5 percentage points. Several brokers, including Alantra, Keefe Bruyette & Woods and UBS, said the deal would be positive for BBVA. BBVA relies heavily on its subsidiary in Mexico to boost earnings and offset the squeeze on its margins at home in Spain, where it is suffering from ultra low interest rates. The Spanish bank said in August it was looking at the possible sale of its Chilean retail bank after Scotiabank expressed an interest in buying it, although it had no plans to quit Chile altogether. The offer from Scotiabank does not include its consumer finance unit in Chile. Reporting by Emma Rumney in London, Matt Scuffham in Toronto, Jesús Aguado in Madrid, David Sherwood in Santiago and Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bbva-chile-bank-of-nova-scotia/scotiabank-offers-to-buy-bbva-chiles-majority-stake-idUKKBN1DS0IQ'|'2017-11-28T08:58:00.000+02:00'
'0221370841a1c1eefa21ff615605696130e81407'|'Oil prices slip on OPEC deal extension jitters'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:23 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Oil prices slip on OPEC deal extension jitters Devika Krishna Kumar 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices eased on Tuesday, weighed down by uncertainty over the outcome of an OPEC meeting this week at which an extension to its price-supporting oil output cuts will be discussed. FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Prices also briefly came under pressure after a fire broke out at Exxon Mobil Corp’s 362,300 barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery. Firefighters have since put out the blaze but the small crude unit is shut, sources said. Brent crude oil fell 44 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $63.40 a barrel by 11:47 a.m. ET (1647 GMT). U.S. crude was 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, lower at $57.79, after falling 1.4 percent in the previous session. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is heading for tougher-than-expected policy talks on Thursday as its leader Saudi Arabia pushes to extend output cuts by nine months while non-member Russia is hesitating on the curbs’ duration due to worries that the market could overheat. Oil output from Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin-1 project is set to rise by about a quarter from January, sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters, signalling Moscow may find it hard to comply with output cuts in tandem with OPEC for the whole of next year. A joint OPEC and non-OPEC technical committee recommended extending the deal until the end of next year, with an option to review the deal in June, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. “We believe that the outcome of this meeting is much more uncertain than usual,” Goldman Sachs analysts said. “We view risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as we believe that current prices, time spreads and positioning already reflect a high probability of a nine-month extension,” the Goldman analysts said. The market had expected OPEC to extend the cuts of 1.8 million bpd beyond March by another six to nine months, but this is now less certain. Citigroup’s head of commodity research said expects OPEC to extend the deal until the middle of next year, rather than the end. But anything less than an extension until the end of next year will cause a sell-off in the price, Citi’s Ed Morse added. Standard Chartered echoed that sentiment, saying anything beyond a plain vanilla rollover is likely to confuse the oil market. “We think that the oil market has already almost fully priced in an extension of the OPEC and non-OPEC output deal to the end of 2018 ... We think OPEC should err in the direction of over-tightening the oil market, and pull back later if needed.” Consultancy Wood Mackenzie projected that if the production cut agreement ends in March 2018, there would be an estimated 2.4 million bpd year-on-year increase in world oil supply for 2018. U.S. crude touched $59.05 on Friday, its highest since mid-2015, fuelled by the outage of the Keystone pipeline, one of Canada’s main crude export routes to the United States. But TransCanada Corp this week said it would restart the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline at reduced pressure on Tuesday after getting approval from U.S. regulators. Traders said they expect reduced flows from Keystone into the U.S. futures trading hub of Cushing, Oklahoma to keep seasonal inventory builds in check. Analysts polled ahead of an inventory report from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API), due later on Tuesday, estimated, on average, that crude stocks likely fell 3.2 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 24. Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson and Amanda Cooper in London and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-fall-on-uncertainty-over-opec-output-cuts-pipeline-restart-idUKKBN1DS054'|'2017-11-28T18:57:00.000+02:00'
'71dcba9199d25376b269eed2fd10100541f093f4'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 28'|' 22 AM / in 32 minutes PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 28 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Canada''s economy is headed for much slower growth in 2018 and beyond as consumers react to sluggish wage growth, higher interest rates and a cooler housing market, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a forecast. tgam.ca/2idbkMu ** TransCanada Corp says it will restart its Keystone pipeline at reduced rates on Tuesday after getting clearance from U.S. regulators, easing industry fears of a lengthy shutdown. tgam.ca/2ib1YAG ** Sino Forest Corp''s co-founder Allen Chan said he is sorry that the company''s shareholders lost billions of dollars, but he "respectfully disagrees" with the Ontario Securities Commission''s ruling that his actions led to the forestry company''s demise. tgam.ca/2icCxP8 NATIONAL POST ** Postmedia Network Canada Corp and Torstar Corp , Canada''s two largest newspaper chains, will close three-dozen community and free commuter newspapers after striking a deal to swap newspapers struggling with declining print advertising revenue. bit.ly/2icED1s ** St. Louis-area Tim Hortons franchisee Eric Sigurdson has closed two of his restaurants and blames the coffee chain''s new parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc for allegedly reneging on his original development deal and pushing him to open more than five times the number of restaurants than agreed to in the original deal. bit.ly/2iceYpF ** Covered bonds continue to be an attractive source of funding for a group of Canadian financial institutions, specifically the chartered banks and large regionally based credit unions, according to a recent report by Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS). bit.ly/2AfhnHm (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-nov-28-idUSL3N1NY3W2'|'2017-11-28T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'7d34a043a975a824161c4b2e1eee812123998208'|'Japan''s Toray reports data falsification at materials unit'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:31 AM / in 20 minutes Japan''s Toray reports data falsification at materials unit Sam Nussey , Makiko Yamazaki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Toray Industries on Tuesday revealed 149 cases of quality data falsification at a materials-making subsidiary spanning eight years, in the latest quality-assurance scandal to hit a Japanese manufacturer. Toray Industries'' president, Akihiro Nikkaku (L) and his executives bow their heads after a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The world’s largest maker of carbon fibre composite materials said the cheating involved products including tyre-strengthening cords sold to 13 clients by Toray Hybrid Cord Inc. Toray did not name any affected clients, but it ruled out U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co, for whom the Japanese company is a major supplier of carbon fibre used in passenger jets. The problem came to light in July last year, raising questions about Toray’s governance and why it had taken so long to disclose. Toray’s shares plunged more than 8 percent following the announcement, and were down 4.8 percent in afternoon trade. Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku told a news conference the company had decided to disclose the cheating in the wake of a similar scandal at Kobe Steel Ltd, and after it leaked online. “We hadn’t planned on disclosing it,” he said, adding it had taken time to sort through the data and notify customers. Toray Industries'' logo is pictured at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The announcement follows a spate of compliance failings at Japanese manufacturers including Kobe Steel, Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Subaru Corp and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. Toray said it was in the process of notifying customers about the falsification and had not heard back from them about performance or safety issues, including any involving fibre products used to strengthen tyres and other industrial goods. Slideshow (4 Images) The affected customers were mostly in Japan but included at least one in South Korea. Two quality control managers led the falsification, motivated partly by pressure to meet product delivery targets. The two managers responsible for the cheating have been transferred to different positions. Toray found the cases after an in-house survey pointed to the malpractice, prompting an internal investigation which Nikkaku said he hoped to complete by March next year. Combined revenue of the 149 cases amounted to 150 million yen ($1.35 million) and would not have a big earnings impact, Nikkaku said. Reporting by Sam Nussey and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toray-scandal/japans-toray-to-hold-news-conference-on-data-falsification-at-unit-idUKKBN1DS05H'|'2017-11-28T07:41:00.000+02:00'
'9e8fb9ede2c633c3fa6499144defe19c53ec8b17'|'Waymo seeks delay of Uber trade secrets trial over new evidence'|'November 28, 2017 / 12:50 AM / in an hour Waymo seeks delay of Uber trade secrets trial over new evidence Dan Levine 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet’s Inc ( GOOGL.O ) Waymo self-driving car unit asked a U.S. judge on Monday to postpone an upcoming trade secrets trial against Uber Technologies Inc, so Waymo could investigate whether Uber withheld important evidence in the case. FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The trial is currently scheduled to begin on Dec. 4 in San Francisco federal court. Waymo said it learned of new evidence last week after the U.S. Department of Justice shared it with the judge overseeing the case. The two companies are battling to dominate the fast-growing field of self-driving cars. In its court filing on Monday, Waymo said it recently learned that a former Uber security analyst sent a letter to an Uber in-house lawyer more than six months ago, which contained important facts about the case. Waymo’s court filing is partially redacted from public view, so the details of the analyst’s letter are unclear. However, Waymo said Uber concealed the letter despite demands from Waymo and the judge to disclose all relevant evidence. Representatives for Uber could not immediately be reached for comment. FILE PHOTO - Waymo unveils a self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid - RC183AD3D9E0 - RC1E2F9522D0 Waymo sued Uber in February, claiming that former Waymo executive Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files before leaving to set up a self-driving truck company, called Otto, which Uber acquired soon after. Uber denied using any of Waymo’s trade secrets. Levandowski has declined to answer questions about the allegations, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination. Earlier this year U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is hearing the civil action brought by Waymo, asked federal prosecutors to investigate whether criminal theft of trade secrets had occurred. That probe is being handled by the intellectual property unit of the Northern California U.S. Attorney’s office, sources familiar with the situation said. No charges have been filed. Alsup disclosed last week that he had received a letter from prosecutors, which he did not reveal. However, Alsup ordered the former Uber security analyst, the Uber in-house lawyer and another witness to appear in court on Tuesday at a final pretrial conference. It is unusual for prosecutors to share information with a judge days before a civil case is set to begin. Alsup already delayed the trial once before, in October, citing Waymo’s need to probe separate evidence Uber had not promptly disclosed. Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alphabet-uber-lawsuit/waymo-seeks-delay-of-uber-trade-secrets-trial-over-new-evidence-idUKKBN1DS02N'|'2017-11-28T05:57:00.000+02:00'
'6a3e0003858d239159ac76667fab3f334980e9bc'|'Canada''s Dalradian plans to dig deep for Northern Irish gold'|'November 27, 2017 / 5:18 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Canada''s Dalradian plans to dig deep for Northern Irish gold Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Canadian miner Dalradian Resources has filed a planning application and secured a new tranche of funds to build Northern Ireland’s first major underground gold mine, with the potential to create hundreds of jobs. Mining has largely died out in Britain, but the sector sees the potential for a revival as the government pushes an industrial strategy to reboot an economy overshadowed by the decision to leave the European Union. It is also seeking to create jobs beyond the most affluent London area. Dalradian, which is listed in Toronto and on London’s AIM, acquired mineral rights in 2009 to more than 80,000 hectares of land in Northern Ireland, including the Curraghinalt gold deposit. Since then it has carried out exploratory drilling at Curraghinalt and compiled a planning application running to 10,000 pages, which it expects to take about two years to process, including a public enquiry. On Monday it announced that it had submitted the planning application and secured an extra 78.25 million Canadian dollars ($61.6 million) in funding from Orion Mine Finance and Osisko Gold Royalties, two big North American mine finance companies. “We have transformed the project from a small early-stage deposit to one of the best gold projects on the planet,” CEO Patrick Anderson said. Anderson is not worried about any issues involving the Northern Irish border or Brexit negotiations more generally, he said, adding that he believes engagement with local people had overcome opposition, including from environmental campaigners. The application is for Dalradian to run the proposed mine for an initial 20 years, though the company says it has the potential to produce gold for decades longer. It is already employing 100 people on the project and the number would rise to 350 direct jobs once the mine is operating, plus hundreds more indirect jobs, including those in supply chains. Northern Ireland has one producing gold mine in Omagh, owned and operated by Galantas Gold Corporation, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and on AIM. Galantas, which is also ramping up underground operations after the open-pit site was exhausted, has said it expects to produce about 8,000 ounces next year. Dalradian said its Curraghinalt project has the potential for output more than 10 times the Galantas mine’s current production. ($1 = 1.2702 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dalradian-ireland-gold/canadas-dalradian-plans-to-dig-deep-for-northern-irish-gold-idUKKBN1DR24T'|'2017-11-27T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'77896c72bf954365a58de7d0c2615c5b7e8ee3a3'|'BA-owner IAG secures majority of Monarch slots at Gatwick - source'|'LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG has won a race to secure valuable take-off and landing slots at London’s Gatwick airport, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday, beating off competition from other airlines.The source said that IAG had secured the majority of the Monarch’s slots at Gatwick Airport, which is Britain’s second busiest airport.The deal, first reported by Press Association, comes after Monarch won an appeal last Wednesday to have the right to sell airport slots for next year, a court ruling which was criticised by industry bodies such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA).Monarch abruptly ceased operations in early October, leading to the repatriation of a hundred thousand customers by the British government.EasyJet, Wizz and Norwegian had also expressed their interest in acquiring the slots at the London airports, while sources said that travel firm Thomas Cook had also bid for the Gatwick slots.Monarch estimates its slots could be worth around 60 million pounds ($80 million) although that is disputed by airlines such as easyJet.Monarch’s administrators KPMG and IAG declined to comment. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Michael Holden) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monarch-airlines-licence-iag/ba-owner-iag-secures-majority-of-monarch-slots-at-gatwick-source-idINL8N1NX3M4'|'2017-11-27T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'537ecac8cb81ab96ae9e2653cdc27fc9751cff2b'|'Exclusive: U.S. consumer finance agency lawyer sides with Trump over succession - sources'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:30   Exclusive: U.S. consumer finance agency lawyer sides with Trump over succession - sources Patrick Rucker , Jeff Mason 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top lawyer for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has concluded that President Donald Trump has the authority to name its acting director, three sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday, rejecting an effort by her former boss at the agency to name his immediate successor. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, U.S. October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The office of CFPB General Counsel Mary McLeod has prepared a memo concurring with the opinion of the U.S. Justice Department that Trump has the power to appoint his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, as temporary leader of the federal watchdog agency, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One source said the memo would be sent to CFPB staff on Monday. CFPB officials did not respond to requests by email and phone requesting comment. McLeod’s opinion places her against Richard Cordray, who resigned as CFPB director on Friday and elevated his former chief of staff, Leandra English, to replace him on an interim basis until the Senate confirms a permanent successor named by Trump. Hours later, the Republican president named Mulvaney as acting head, plunging the bureau into uncertainty. Additional reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-cfpb-memo/exclusive-u-s-consumer-finance-agency-lawyer-sides-with-trump-over-succession-sources-idUKKBN1DR05N'|'2017-11-27T04:29:00.000+02:00'
'5a75bfd1ac78f26ece2b1d8ba12a73fb7cb61536'|'Volkswagen''s talks with cobalt producers end without deal'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:56 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Volkswagen''s talks with cobalt producers end without deal Pratima Desai 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Meetings last week between major cobalt producers including mining giant Glencore to supply the world’s largest automaker Volkswagen with the material used to make batteries for electric vehicles ended without a deal, cobalt industry sources said. Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon In September, Reuters reported exclusively that VW was moving to secure long-term supplies of cobalt for the group’s ambitious electric vehicle plans. Earlier this month Volkswagen approved a 34 billion euro (£30.37 billion) spending plan by the end of 2022 to accelerate its efforts to become a global leader in electric cars. “We have requested different options for a hedge from the raw materials industry in the context of a tender ... We have already had constructive talks with the well-known suppliers and will continue those (discussions),” a VW spokesperson said. “Besides supplies and costs, other topics in discussion include future capacity expansion, sustainability and transparency.” The talks last Wednesday and Thursday in Wolfsburg, Germany, where VW is headquartered, had aimed to thrash out cobalt supply deals with Glencore, China’s Huayou Cobalt, commodity trader Traxys, U.S. miner Freeport-McMoran and Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). ERG confirmed its representatives had attended the meeting. Glencore declined to comment. No one at Huayou, Traxys and Freeport was immediately available to comment. “They are looking for prices below the market, they have a lot to learn about cobalt,” one source said. “We didn’t get into the details of how much tonnage they would need.” Cobalt metal prices at around $30 a lb are up from below $10 a lb in December 2015 and the highest since October 2008. Prices surged last year as auto makers and governments around the world started to promote electric vehicles in earnest as a means of cutting noxious fumes from cars fuelled by diesel- and petrol-powered engines. Sources were unclear about whether VW was planning to buy the cobalt directly or indirectly for chemical and battery makers. “Other suppliers may be involved, but they weren’t there last week,” a second source said. “They want a fixed price, that’s not possible. They wanted to agree all supply deals by the end of the year, it’s not going to happen.” Producers and VW are expected to resume talks next year, sources said, though no firm plans had been made and that some of the discussions had focused on sustainability. Cobalt consumers are under pressure to make sure the material they use is not tainted by child labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where roughly 65 percent of the world’s cobalt estimated at around 100,000 tonnes this year comes from. “Amnesty’s reports have focused attention on child labour,” a third source said. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, cobalt production is set to rise to 219,000 tonnes in 2022 from 122,000 tonnes last year, with most of the increase coming from the DRC. At the company level, the market is dominated by Glencore, which produced more than 28,000 tonnes last year. CRU consultant George Heppel earlier this year forecast global demand for cobalt metal at nearly 136,000 tonnes in 2021 and more than 161,000 tonnes in 2025 from roughly 102,000 tonnes this year. Demand for batteries used in electric vehicles and mobile appliances is expected to account for 46 percent of that in 2021, up from about 40 percent this year, Heppel said. Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer, Tom Daly and Nicole Mordant; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-cobalt/volkswagens-talks-with-cobalt-producers-end-without-deal-idUKKBN1DR233'|'2017-11-27T18:55:00.000+02:00'
'4b2b947abbe15766b1b3a7c91cb79196fe2459c9'|'Nikkei falls as higher yen, China market woes knock sentiment; Nintendo soars'|'TOKYO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Monday in choppy trade after a slightly stronger yen sapped investors’ risk appetite, sending stocks such as chip-related firms lower.The Nikkei dropped 0.2 percent to 22,495.99, after opening 0.5 percent higher.Semiconductor equipment makers underperformed, with Tokyo Electron Ltd shedding 1.8 percent and Advantest Corp declining 1.0 percent. Silicon wafer maker Sumco Corp fell 4.0 percent.Traders said the dollar’s weakening against the yen and an extended selloff in Chinese stocks soured the mood. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to trade at 111.39 yen.Non-ferrous metal stocks also underperformed, with Mitsubishi Materials Corp shedding 2.0 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining declining 1.8 percent.Bucking the weakness, Nintendo Co soared 2.4 percent on hopes that Nintendo Switch games console would post strong sales during the U.S. holiday season.The broader Topix shed 0.2 percent to 1,776.73. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-falls-as-higher-yen-china-market-woes-knock-sentiment-nintendo-soars-idUSL3N1NX2B7'|'2017-11-27T14:15:00.000+02:00'
'e85815679930367773ffd2f70429ca696f8272c4'|'Mexican brewer Modelo to invest $754 million in Hidalgo state'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican beer maker Grupo Modelo, a unit of global top brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), said on Monday it plans to invest 14 billion pesos ($754 million) to build a brewing and bottling plant in the city of Apan in the central state of Hidalgo.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto gives a speech during an event where Grupo Modelo announced plans $754 mln investment in Hidalgo state, at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Mexico November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Construction is due to begin by the end of this year with operations kicking off in the first quarter of 2019, Mauricio Leyva, Grupo Modelo’s chief executive and AB InBev’s president for Middle Americas, said at an event in Mexico City.“We expect in about 14 to 16 months to be sharing and toasting with you the first beer from this plant,” said Leyva.The news confirmed an earlier Reuters story.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto presided at the event, saying the investment was a vote of confidence in the economy despite recent headwinds.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (C) and members of Mexican brewer company Grupo Modelo take part in a event where Grupo Modelo announced plans $754 mln investment in Hidalgo state, at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Mexico November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero “The fact that domestic and foreign companies keep investing in Mexico is a clear sign that we’re on the right economic path,” said Pena Nieto.In the third quarter, Mexico’s economy shrank for the first time in nearly two years, as a hit from natural disasters compounded concerns that stalled talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement were hurting growth.Grupo Modelo’s new plant will have an initial annual capacity of 12 million hectoliters, equivalent to the production of 9.25 million 355 milliliter bottles per day. The plant will eventually ramp up to double that capacity.The firm, which already has 7 plants in Mexico, makes and exports Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico beer brands among others.($1 = 18.5567 Mexican pesos)Reporting by Anthony Esposito; editing by Jason Neely and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grupo-modelo-ab-inbev/mexican-brewer-grupo-modelo-plans-754-million-investment-in-hidalgo-state-idUSKBN1DR2LZ'|'2017-11-28T04:56:00.000+02:00'
'0768b1c835e085e29a00d72a0cb9ddc6a6550a57'|'India''s Mecon partners Italy''s CSM to develop electrical steel'|'November 29, 2017 / 1:27 PM / Updated 7 hours ago India''s Mecon partners Italy''s CSM to develop electrical steel Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s state-owned consultancy and engineering firm Mecon Ltd signed a preliminary understanding with Italy’s Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM) to develop electrical and automotive grade steel for domestic steelmakers. CSM will also transfer technology to Mecon on steel production, including for the grade used in pipelines to transport oil and gas, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh tweeted on Wednesday from Berlin. Even though India is a major steel producer, it depends heavily on imports of the expensive high-grade alloys used in cars and electrical equipment from countries including Japan, South Korea and Russia. India imports 400,000 tonnes a year of CRGO or cold-rolled, grain-oriented steel, which is used in power transformers. Under the recently announced National Steel Policy, India wants to nearly triple its production capacity by the next decade and acquire technology to produce higher value products including automotive steel. Reporting by Neha Dasgupta, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-steel-mecon/indias-mecon-partners-italys-csm-to-develop-electrical-steel-idINKBN1DT1VJ'|'2017-11-29T15:23:00.000+02:00'
'e852116ba69e88a93c6276cb4d7fe21333054a0c'|'Now hiring? Amazon says its voice aide Alexa is ready for the office'|'(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) wants to be your new executive assistant at work. The Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled virtual assistant, is seen at it''s product launch for Britain and Germany in London, Britain, September 14, 2016. REUTER/Peter Hobson The company on Thursday said that Alexa, its increasingly popular digital aide that shoppers command by voice, is now programmed to handle a range of tedious office tasks. Businesses can buy Alexa devices that help employees dial into conference calls, manage their calendars, find open meeting rooms and - not surprisingly - order work supplies from Amazon. Amazon wants Alexa to be everywhere, and it needs more voice data to feed and “train” it so that talking to the assistant feels like talking to a friend. The company is looking to make money in the long term from people shopping with Alexa and using it - rather than Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) Siri or Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google Assistant - as their go-to voice technology. “Meetings always start 10 minutes late” due to small technology issues, Amazon’s Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels said at the company’s cloud-computing summit in Las Vegas on Thursday, announcing the service. “If voice is a natural way of interacting in your home ... why don’t we build something that you can actually use at work as well?” FILE PHOTO - Werner Vogels, Amazon.com''s chief technology officer, speaks at the AWS Re:Invent conference at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada November 28, 2012. REUTERS/Richard Brian The answer to that question is Amazon’s “Alexa for Business” offering, which lets companies buy Alexa devices like the Echo for employees to share at $7 per month per gadget. That is a departure from Amazon’s normal requirement that Alexa devices be tied to a shopper’s Prime account to unlock all features. Businesses also can enroll employees’ home devices into their Alexa networks for $3 per month per user. The service lets companies centrally provision and manage devices for their organizations. The move adds to Amazon’s competition with Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ), which bought internet phone and video chat company Skype in 2011 with hopes of improving communications at work. Microsoft has also recently courted businesses with applications of its own voice technology, with programs that convert audio into text and vice versa. Still, integrating a voice aide that is popular among consumers - whether for bedside tables, dressing rooms, cars or even refrigerators - into the workplace would be a first for the technology industry. “Alexa and Amazon are being much more aggressive, whether it’s integrating with third parties or going to new markets like this,” said Gene Munster, a veteran equity analyst and now head of research at Loup Ventures. Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Salvador Rodriguez in Las Vegas; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-alexa/now-hiring-amazon-says-its-voice-aide-alexa-is-ready-for-the-office-idUSKBN1DU2X7'|'2017-11-30T22:50:00.000+02:00'
'2b1316368c26cf5e1795cbd790f395bf1f0bbfd7'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX up as energy stocks rally; TD Bank hit by earnings miss'|'(Adds details on specific stocks, updates prices)* TSX up 44.03 points, or 0.28 percent, at 16,011.75* Six of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higherTORONTO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday, with energy shares rallying as hopes for a deal to extend output cuts pushed oil prices higher, while a miner sank on a lowered outlook and two big banks moved in opposite directions after reporting earnings.* At 9:51 a.m. ET (14:51 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 44.03 points, or 0.28 percent, at 16,011.75. Six of its 10 main groups were higher, with three advancers for every decliner.* Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-biggest bank, was down 2.9 percent at C$72.88 as lower investment banking revenue contributed to a fourth-quarter earnings miss, while No. 5 lender Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce rose 2 percent to C$117.10 after its earnings exceeded expectations.* The energy group climbed 1.6 percent, as OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers looked poised to extend output cuts until the end of 2018 to finish clearing a global crude glut. Pipeline operator Enbridge Inc was up 6.4 percent at C$48.68 after providing a strategic update including asset sale and dividend payment plans.* U.S. crude prices were up 0.6 percent to $57.66 a barrel, while Brent crude added 1.2 percent to $63.85.* Lundin Mining Corp slumped 18.9 percent to C$7.27 in heavy volume after the diversified base metals miner lowered production guidance for 2018 at a flagship copper mine and several analysts cut their recommendations and target prices on the stock.* The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.6 percent.* Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the TSX by 176 to 57, for a 3.09-to-1 ratio on the upside.Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-up-as-energy-stocks-rally-td-bank-hit-by-earnings-miss-idINL1N1O014H'|'2017-11-30T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'6b1c444b6fe08c4de338fc96e0b0cec74b819073'|'Lufthansa offers to sacrifice routes to save Air Berlin deal: source'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) is willing to sacrifice the right to fly some routes to save its deal to acquire assets of Air Berlin, the low-cost airline that collapsed recently, a source familiar with the company’s thinking said on Thursday.A Lufthansa airliner parks next to the Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke The German carrier will submit its proposed concessions to the European Commission before a midnight deadline, including giving up so-called ‘slots’ belonging to Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, the source said.Lufthansa last month signed a 210 million euro ($249 million) deal to take over Niki and LG Walter, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position in Germany and expand its Eurowings budget brand.But the deal has drawn fire from competitors and consumer advocates who fear Lufthansa would dominate German domestic routes and Austria where Niki, founded by retired Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda, is based.Lufthansa already owns flag carrier Austrian Airlines.The German government, which offered a bridging loan to keep Air Berlin flying until a deal could be done to sell its viable operations, held crisis talks with Lufthansa representatives on Thursday afternoon to discuss concessions to offer to Brussels.A spokesman for the Economy Ministry declined to confirm or deny whether the meeting took place, as reported earlier by the Bild am Sonntag tabloid. Lufthansa and the European Commission declined to comment.Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr met EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday in Brussels, where sources said the Commission is leaning towards blocking Lufthansa’s takeover of Niki.The Danish commissioner has gone on the record to express concern that Lufthansa’s market position would become dominant on some routes as a result of the deal.GOVERNMENT ALARM Bild am Sonntag, citing its own sources, said the German government was alarmed that the deal may be blocked and had urged Lufthansa to make further concessions.The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters the government might lose the 150 million euros it lent to Air Berlin because the bridging loan was secured against the proceeds of the proposed sale.Air Berlin, which struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency in August, leaving the future of thousands of workers in the balance.Under EU rules, a decision should be made on whether to approve the deal on Dec. 7 although the Commission has the power to extend its review period by two weeks.In complex cases, the Commission can take up to 90 working days to reach a decision. If such an extension is made, Lufthansa would likely halt its financial support to Niki, forcing it to cease operations, the source familiar with the company’s thinking said.“Niki is on a knife-edge,” the person said.It remained unclear whether the entire Air Berlin deal would collapse if Lufthansa does not win control of Niki - or whether the German airline would pull out and then seek separate EU approval just to buy LG Walter.Scenting a fresh opportunity, earlier bidders for Niki have restated their interest - including British Airways which, according to Bild am Sonntag, has asked to see its accounts.Air Berlin and British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) both declined to comment.Niki Lauda said on Wednesday he would, together with travel company Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), like to buy back the airline he founded. “My offer, together with Thomas Cook, still stands,” he told the Handelsblatt financial daily.Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa/lufthansa-offers-to-sacrifice-routes-to-save-air-berlin-deal-source-idINKBN1DU2SI'|'2017-11-30T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'2b2da8a215eb52e3b6c0a049524ca2107d2a7a45'|'Exclusive - Daimler turns down Geely offer to take up to 5 percent stake via new share issue'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:57 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Exclusive - Daimler turns down Geely offer to take up to 5 percent stake via new share issue Julie Zhu , Norihiko Shirouzu 2 Min Read HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Daimler AG has rebuffed an offer from China’s Geely to take a stake of up to 5 percent via a discounted share placement due to long-held reluctance to see existing shareholdings diluted, people with knowledge of the discussions said. FILE PHOTO: The Mercedes star logo of an E Coupe is pictured before the annual news conference of Daimler AG in Stuttgart, Germany, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo A stake of that size would be worth as much as $4.5 billion (3.4 billion pounds) at market prices. The two automakers met in Beijing in recent weeks at Geely’s behest. There, the Chinese firm, formally known as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, offered to take a stake of between 3 percent and 5 percent if Daimler would issue new shares at a discount, the people said. The German group declined the offer but told Geely, which also owns Swedish car maker Volvo, it was welcome to buy shares in the open market, they said. It was not immediately clear if Geely is interested in that option. People with knowledge of Geely’s thinking said the company’s plans for a tie-up with Daimler included establishing a joint venture to produce electric cars and that it was hopeful it could still secure a deal in some form over the coming weeks. A spokesman for Geely declined to comment. A spokesman for Daimler said the company was “very happy with our shareholder structure at present” but added that it would welcome new investors with a long-term interest in the company. A stake of 5 per cent would establish the Chinese group as Daimler’s third-largest shareholder behind the Kuwait Investment Authority and BlackRock, who hold 6.8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to Reuters data. Daimler has a long-established joint venture with Chinese carmaker BAIC Motor Corp, which its spokesman described as “our most important partner in China.” This month it announced plans to invest at least 5 billion yuan (566 million pounds) in electric battery and vehicle production with BAIC in China. It also has another tie-up with BYD, a Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett. Reporting by Julie Zhu and Norihiko Shirouzu; Additional reporting by Edward Taylor in Frankfurt; Writing by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-daimler-m-a-geelyautomobile/exclusive-daimler-turns-down-geely-offer-to-take-up-to-5-percent-stake-via-new-share-issue-idUKKBN1DT0PZ'|'2017-11-29T08:57:00.000+02:00'
'd3eebcbda0fe3dc3fbde85b89770d8a99504338e'|'AT&T CEO sticks to guns on Time Warner deal'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:00 PM / in 7 minutes AT&T CEO says blackout ban shows company willing to settle DOJ fight Anjali Athavaley 3 Min Read (Reuters) - AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) proposed seven-year ban on programming blackouts to distributors of some Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) content shows that the company is willing to offer concessions to close its $85.4 billion bid for the programmer, AT&T’s chief executive officer said on Wednesday. Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Randall Stephenson speaks during a moderated discussion before the Economic Club of New York, in New York City, U.S., November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The U.S. Department of Justice last week sued AT&T to block its planned acquisition of Time Warner, saying the combination could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. “We’re prepared to make concessions,” AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, said at an Economic Club of New York luncheon. “What we put in the filing is a concession.” AT&T and Time Warner said in a filing on Tuesday that Time Warner’s Turner unit had offered its distributors licensing terms that forbid Turner from “going dark” on any distributor for seven years after the deal closes if they were to reach an impasse in negotiations. Blackouts are considered to be a negotiating tool in carriage disputes between distributors and programmers. Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the Justice Department had demanded significant asset sales in order to approve the deal and that it asked AT&T to sell either CNN-parent Turner or AT&T’s DirecTV business. Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Randall Stephenson speaks during a moderated discussion before the Economic Club of New York, in New York City, U.S., November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, said in a research note on Wednesday that AT&T’s offer to ban blackouts made it “reasonably likely” that the deal would be approved. He said it would be hard for the Justice Department to argue that such a commitment did not address its concern that AT&T would raise the rates it charges for Time Warner content to rival pay-TV companies. Slideshow (3 Images) “By agreeing to forgo the option of ‘going dark,’ AT&T has effectively agreed to abandon what would otherwise be their only real source of leverage in a negotiation,” Moffett wrote. Shares of AT&T rose 2.8 percent to $36.39 in afternoon trading while Time Warner shares rose 1.3 percent to $90.82. Stephenson also said at the Economic Club lunch that AT&T’s requested trial date of Feb. 20 was a “reasonable ask.” The government requested that the trial start on May 7, according to court filings. AT&T said in a separate filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that it would extend the termination date of the Time Warner deal to April 22.   Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-ceo-sticks-to-guns-on-time-warner-deal-idUKKBN1DT2U5'|'2017-11-29T20:37:00.000+02:00'
'542f403a68b6a21574adb063b1b18b84a25e5560'|'SoftBank says Benchmark ready to sell some Uber stock'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:31 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago SoftBank says Benchmark, Menlo Ventures ready to sell some Uber stock Liana B. Baker , Heather Somerville 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp on Tuesday launched its tender offer for shares of Uber Technologies Inc and the Japanese company said that some notable early Uber investors planned to sell stock. FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is seen at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Venture capital firms Benchmark, which owns 13 percent of Uber worth nearly $9 billion (6.7 billion pounds), and Menlo Ventures, another large shareholder, have indicated that they would sell a portion of the shares, according to a SoftBank spokesperson. Shawn Carolan, managing director at Menlo Ventures and who leads the firm’s Uber investment, confirmed that the firm “is in favor of the transaction, and will be tendering some of our shares.” How many it sells, though, depends on the final price SoftBank is willing to pay, he said. Benchmark declined to comment. The SoftBank investment would be a sign of support from an influential investor as the ride-services company struggles with several scandals ranging from sexual harassment allegations to federal criminal probes. The investment, if successful, would trigger governance changes at Uber, including expanding the board from 11 to 17 members, limiting some early shareholders’ voting power and slashing the control wielded by former chief executive Travis Kalanick. SoftBank would add the investment in Uber to several other bets in the sector, including Singapore’s Grab and India’s Ola. It is offering to buy Uber shares from existing investors at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to the most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this week. However, SoftBank can still increase the price to encourage more people to sell their shares. It also would buy $1 billion of new stock at the higher, $68.5 billion valuation but only if it can accumulate at least a 13.4 percent share of Uber through the tender, another person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. If there were not enough sellers, SoftBank could walk away from the deal. Uber said late on Tuesday that the expected tender had launched. The investment comes at the end of a year of controversy and change for Uber, including the announcement last week that the company covered up a major hack in 2016. One of the people familiar with the matter said that some initial members of the SoftBank consortium, including General Atlantic, had dropped out over concerns including the price. Still, many investors remained enthusiastic about Uber and told Reuters they were not selling. Mitchell Green of Lead Edge Capital, which invested when the company had a $40 billion valuation, has said he is eager to buy more Uber shares. Benchmark, despite a prolonged battle with Kalanick and other investors, tweeted in August it believed Uber would be worth more than $100 billion. Uber on Tuesday released to investors its third-quarter financial results, posting a net loss of $1.46 billion, up about 38 percent from $1.06 billion in the previous quarter and erasing earlier progress in diminishing losses, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Its net revenue, or Uber’s cut of ride fares, stood at $2 billion, up 14 percent from $1.75 billion in the previous quarter. The Financial Times newspaper reported Uber’s financial results earlier Tuesday. As a private company, Uber is not required to report its earnings, but has done so for about the past year in preparation for an initial public offering planned for 2019. Writing by Peter Henderson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-softbank-tender/softbank-says-benchmark-ready-to-sell-some-uber-stock-idUKKBN1DT09X'|'2017-11-29T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'4b4de6cb46222aa01b658428eef76ab9f67e549c'|'Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Nov 29'|'November 29, 2017 / 5:43 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Nov 29 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks on Wednesday. NESTLE Cuba and Swiss firm Nestle on Tuesday laid the first stone of a $55 million coffee and biscuits factory joint venture in the Mariel special development zone, the latest major foreign investment in the Communist-run island. Moreover, Nestle Nespresso said it plans a substantial increase in the amount of coffee it buys from one of the regions hardest hit by Colombia’s long-running guerrilla war. For more click HNA and GATEGROUP Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which is disposing of assets after a debt-fuelled buying spree, is now considering a public listing for its Swiss airline caterer Gategroup Holding, the subsidiary said on Tuesday. COMPANY STATEMENTS * Kuros said its chief medical officer, Virginia Jamieson, has reached retirement age and is stepping down. Her replacement will be announced later. * Kuehne & Nagel said it and 4Sellers have entered into a strategic cooperation. ECONOMY UBS Consumption Indicator at 0700 GMT Credit Suisse Investor Sentiment at 0900 GMT Reporting by Zurich newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/markets-swiss-stocks/swiss-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-29-idUSL8N1NY5QO'|'2017-11-29T07:41:00.000+02:00'
'783ab7bdad8297343e77a449b9c8506c779e0c08'|'Oil falls on doubts over extended output cuts, surprise rise in US fuel stocks'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:09 AM / in 26 minutes Oil slips on OPEC deal uncertainty and rising U.S. inventories Polina Ivanova 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Wednesday as doubts set in about Russia’s willingness to substantially extend a deal among some of the world’s biggest exporters to curb output to help tackle global oversupply and support prices. A driver looks at the price as he fills the tank of his car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Brent crude futures were down 22 cents on the day at $63.39 a barrel by 1147 GMT, while U.S. light crude fell 25 cents to $57.74 a barrel. Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers began gathering in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal that has so far reduced crude oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) and helped boost oil prices by 40 percent since the middle of the year. The deal between most OPEC members and other major exporters including Russia is scheduled to expire in March 2018. Producers at a meeting on Thursday are expected to agree to extend the agreement, but the length of the extension remains an open question. This has kept the market on its toes. “Tomorrow’s long-awaited meeting was meant to be a formality,” said Stephen Brennock, analyst at broker PVM. “This narrative has, however, not gone according to the script and the scene is set for tougher-than-expected policy talks.” OPEC sources said on Tuesday that though the Vienna meeting would see supply cuts extended to the end of 2018, an option to review the deal in June would be included. Reluctance to a robust extension has been driven mainly by Russia and its concerns that a major extension could lead the market to overheat. Moscow fears that a strong price rally off the back of such a move could give an unsustainable boost to the rouble, one that harms Russian exports. It could also trigger an increase in U.S. production, which has already been rising significantly and offsetting the OPEC-led cuts to some extent. A report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday showed a weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories of 1.8 million barrels, confounding expectations for a 2.3 million barrel drop. “The market had been looking forward to a supportive number due to the pipeline disruption from Canada,” said Ole Hansen, senior manager at Saxo Bank. “But nevertheless the overall level of inventory still managed to climb.” A price rise generated by the shutdown of the Keystone pipeline, which supplies Canadian crude to the United States, turned out to be short-lived, with an announcement on Tuesday of a gradual restart to operations. Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Polina Ivanova; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-falls-on-doubts-over-extended-output-cuts-surprise-rise-in-us-fuel-stocks-idUKKBN1DT08P'|'2017-11-29T04:08:00.000+02:00'
'2f7deac07a92594be6d8ac396c50c593afacd525'|'EU uncovers $36 million in week-long crackdown on ''money mules'''|'November 28, 2017 / 4:25 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago EU uncovers $36 million in week-long crackdown on ''money mules'' Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European law enforcement agencies uncovered $36 million (£27.22 million) in illicit money transfers and made 159 arrests in less than a week as they stepped up a crackdown on so-called money mules, Europol said on Tuesday. A Bitcoin and Dollar notes are seen in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Around 90 percent of 1,719 illegal transactions identified during the short campaign were linked to cyber crime, with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin playing an increasing role in money laundering schemes, Europol said. The European Union’s law enforcement agency said the campaign, carried out from Nov. 20 to 24 in coordination with banks, had pinpointed more than 800 people participating in or organising ‘money mulling’, whereby often unwitting individuals are enlisted to help criminal organisations launder their proceeds. Only 159 arrests were made. Money mules usually receive illicit funds into their bank accounts to hold or withdraw and wire elsewhere, taking a commission for their services, with the practice forming an increasingly key component of organised crime. Recruiters prey on vulnerabilities like the mules being new to a country, unemployed or in financial distress. Total global money laundering is estimated at up to $2 trillion every year - a process that fuels illegal activity from fraud to human trafficking and helps its perpetrators remain anonymous. This was the third such coordinated campaign between EU law enforcement agencies and banks against money mule operations, and broke from its predecessors by targeting organisers and recruiters as well as mules. Even if money mules act unwittingly they can still face prison sentences, fines or other penalties, and, after being marked as involved in money laundering, the prospect of being locked out of the financial system and unable to even open a bank account. In Britain alone, the number of money mule cases increased by around 50 percent between 2016 and 2017 to almost 24,800, according to fraud prevention body Cifas, with the biggest increases seen among the youngest (those under 21) and the oldest people (those over 60) being used as mules. “This is a serious issue that not only has consequences for the money mule, but for society as a whole,” Simon Dukes, chief executive of Cifas, said when the figures were published on Monday. “The criminals behind money mules often use the cash to fund major crime, like terrorism and people trafficking.” Law enforcement agencies from 26 countries spanning the European Union, eastern Europe and the United States participated in the Nov. 20-24 campaign, along with 257 banks and private-sector partners, Europol, judicial cooperation agency Eurojust and the European Banking Federation. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-money-mules/eu-uncovers-36-million-in-week-long-crackdown-on-money-mules-idUKKBN1DS25Q'|'2017-11-28T18:25:00.000+02:00'
'016fe518b623f7239e9c0603f075f4339fe1b22b'|'Wells Fargo to exit personal insurance business'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:36 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Wells Fargo to exit personal insurance business Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) said on Tuesday it would exit the personal insurance business and immediately begin winding down marketing and product promotion activity. The sign outside the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The decision to exit the personal insurance business comes after the bank began a strategic assessment of the unit last month. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-personal-insurance/wells-fargo-to-exit-personal-insurance-business-idUSKBN1DS2V9'|'2017-11-28T23:35:00.000+02:00'
'682742aa0bd3a1ce9cef2685bb2483c6b8759a3f'|'Japan''s Nissin Foods noodle unit plans $145 million IPO in Hong Kong'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nissin Foods Co Ltd, an instant noodle unit of Japan’s Nissin Foods Holdings Co Ltd ( 2897.T ), said on Wednesday it aims to raise up to HK$1.13 billion ($145 million) in an initial public offering of shares in Hong Kong.Nissin Foods Co plans to offer 268.58 million shares in the IPO, of which 10 percent will be earmarked for retail investors, at an indicative range of HK$3.45 to HK$4.21 apiece, the company said in a filing on Wednesday.The final offer price will be announced on Dec. 8 and trade in the shares is expected to begin on Dec. 11.Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nissin-foods-co-ipo-hongkong/japans-nissin-foods-noodle-unit-plans-145-million-ipo-in-hong-kong-idINKBN1DT09J'|'2017-11-28T23:21:00.000+02:00'
'914c70924d2901e31c895e3614a3b7e44408f09b'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'November 27, 2017 / 11:00 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds Unilever, Louis Dreyfus, Abraaj Group; Updates SandRidge Energy) Nov 27 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Monday: ** U.S. media company Meredith Corp said it will buy Time Inc, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. ** Data security company Barracuda Networks Inc, which went public four years ago, on Monday agreed to be bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC for $1.47 billion in cash. ** French oil and gas major Total said it had agreed to sell stakes in two Norwegian oil fields to Statoil for $1.45 billion as it reviews its North Sea portfolio after acquiring Denmark’s Maersk Oil in August. ** Germany’s biggest insurer Allianz plans to buy the shares in French credit insurance firm Euler Hermes it does not yet own for around 1.85 billion euros ($2.2 bln). ** Israeli conglomerate Delek Group said that Sirius International Insurance has decided to exercise its option to buy Delek’s remaining 47 percent stake in Phoenix Holdings for 2.3 billion shekels ($656 million). ** Israel’s Kenon Holdings said it has agreed to sell IC Power’s Latin American and Caribbean businesses to infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital for about $1.2 billion. ** Private equity firm Abraaj Group has bought from Dubai Holdings’ telecoms arm its 35 percent stake in state-controlled Tunisie Telecom, a Tunisian minister said. ** Global trading house Louis Dreyfus Co is to buy an oilseed crushing and vegetable oil refining business in China from Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources, extending its presence in the world’s biggest oilseed importing country. ** Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever, is to buy U.S.-based company Sundial Brands, a maker of hair and skincare products, expanding deeper into the fast-growing personal care products market. ** Renova Energia SA’s board has approved Brookfield Asset Management Inc’s proposal to acquire a controlling stake in the Brazilian renewable energy company for 1.4 billion reais ($433 million), a securities filing showed on Monday. ** U.S. shopping center owner Cedar Realty Trust Inc said it was rejecting an unsolicited offer from Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust to combine the two companies. ** Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco has received a strong response from potential suitors at an investors’ roadshow in Singapore, its chairman said, as the government moves closer to finalizing a stake sale in the $9 billion maker of Bia Saigon and 333 brews. ** Education group Pearson has agreed the sale of its Wall Street English (WSE) business to Baring Private Equity Asia and CITIC Capital for around $300 million, although its proceeds from the deal will be just a third of that. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1NX3MO'|'2017-11-27T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'3f28f160fb5053345b25381bc63e7da011848fbe'|'Four funds interested in stake in Israel''s Bezeq: media report'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Four funds are interested in buying control of Bezeq Israel Telecom ( BEZQ.TA ) from holding company Eurocom, which needs to repay bank debt and whose chairman is under investigation for securities fraud, according to a media report.Financial news website Calcalist said on Monday that British private equity group Apax, Israel’s Brosh Capital Partners and two other foreign funds were preparing separate offers for Eurocom’s 26.3 percent stake in Bezeq. Eurocom, through its subsidiaries, is Bezeq’s biggest shareholder and has control of the company.Shares in Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecom group, were up 4.5 percent following the report.Both Apax, which sold a major stake in Bezeq in 2010, and Brosh Capital, declined to comment. Officials at Eurocom also declined to comment.Bezeq said last week that Eurocom had received letters from banks calling on it to “repay a significant debt”, but did not say how much. Calcalist said the holding company owes 1.2 billion shekels ($342 million).Eurocom’s chairman, Shaul Elovitch, was replaced as chairman of Bezeq on an interim basis in June in the wake of an investigation into suspected fraud and financial reporting offences involving Bezeq executives. This month Elovitch said he would not be returning to Bezeq.The Israel Securities Authority said earlier this month that it had found enough evidence to support bringing criminal charges against senior officials. Elovitch has denied any wrongdoing.Bezeq is not up for sale but the possible charges and pressure from creditors have led many in the industry to expect that Elovitch will be forced to sell his Bezeq stake if charged, Calcalist said.Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Tova Cohen; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bezeq-m-a/four-funds-interested-in-stake-in-israels-bezeq-media-report-idINKBN1DR120'|'2017-11-27T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'41753a98c472c323b09f9e13dfc008172afc8e98'|'Nikkei falls in choppy trade, chip-related stocks underperform'|'TOKYO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Monday morning in choppy trade after a slightly stronger yen sapped investors’ risk appetite, sending stocks such as chip-related firms lower.The Nikkei dropped 0.3 percent to 22,474.98 by the midday break, after opening 0.5 percent higher.Semiconductor equipment makers underperformed, with Tokyo Electron Ltd shedding 1.8 percent and Advantest Corp declining 1.7 percent. Silicon wafer maker Sumco Corp fell 3.5 percent.Traders said the dollar’s weakening against the yen is souring the mood. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to trade at 111.39 yen.Non-ferrous metal stocks also underperformed, with Mitsubishi Materials Corp shedding 1.3 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining declining 1.1 percent.Bucking the weakness, Nintendo Co soared 2.2 percent on hopes that Nintendo Switch games console would post strong sales during the U.S. holiday season.The broader Topix shed 0.1 percent to 1,778.94. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-falls-in-choppy-trade-chip-related-stocks-underperform-idUSL3N1NX1HX'|'2017-11-27T04:40:00.000+02:00'
'331f27c091c1695fff206439632b51789546cb2b'|'UPDATE 1-Nestle, Cuba lay first stone for $55 mln coffee and biscuit factory'|'(Adds detail on revenue)By Sarah MarshHAVANA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Cuba and Swiss firm Nestle on Tuesday laid the first stone of a $55 million coffee and biscuits factory joint venture in the Mariel special development zone, the latest major foreign investment in the Communist-run island.Nescor is Cuba’s third joint venture with Nestle and reflects President Raul Castro’s drive to attract international capital to help update the Soviet-style command economy and stimulate growth.Cuba created the zone around the Mariel port just west of Havana four years ago, offering companies significant tax and customs breaks. Its aim to replace imports with Made in Cuba goods has become all the more pressing because aid from socialist ally Venezuela is falling, resulting in a cash crunch.Nestle Vice President Laurent Freixe said in an interview after the symbolic stone-laying ceremony that negotiations with Cuban partner Coralsa and Mariel authorities had taken just 18 months, a “record speed”.The factory would be operating at the end of 2019 manufacturing coffee products, said Freixe, head of Nestle’s Americas division. Biscuits and other culinary products would come later. The company exports goods to Cuba and the other two joint ventures are one producing ice cream and the other bottled water and other beverages.Nescor goods would be destined both for the Cuban market and tourists visiting Cuba, while it could eventually also export Cuban coffee, Freixe said.Nestle last year already exported Cuban coffee as a limited “Cafecito de Cuba” edition of Nespresso single-use brewer pods, including to the United States.“It sold at an impressive speed,” said Freixe. “Within a few days that line was sold out, which shows the potential.”Before being able to export Cuban coffee, Nestle would first need to help Cuba increase its harvest, Freixe said, which has steadily declined since the 1959 revolution.The new factory could double Nestle’s turnover in the country over the medium term from $135 million currently, he said.So far, Cuba has approved 31 projects for the Mariel zone including nine with multinationals, Director Ana Teresa Igarza said at the ceremony.There was no longer the same flurry of business interest in the zone as when it was created but the interest that remained was more serious, she said.Mariel was on the list of Cuban entities that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump banned U.S. firms from doing business with.Just one U.S. company, Rimco, the Puerto Rican dealer for heavy machine maker Caterpillar, has signed a deal with Mariel to open up shop there, getting approval just on time before the new U.S. regulations were issued earlier this month.Igarza declined comment on whether Mariel continued to negotiate with other U.S. companies but said it would be open to doing so. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Grant McCool and Sam Holmes) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nestle-cuba/update-1-nestle-cuba-lay-first-stone-for-55-mln-coffee-and-biscuit-factory-idINL1N1NZ07S'|'2017-11-29T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'6d956ec06b20315c37d5aef4e85ce104210dc906'|'Geely-Volvo considering making Lynk & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium - executive'|'November 29, 2017 / 4:14 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Geely-Volvo considering making Lynk & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium - executive Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and its Volvo Cars unit, which this week began selling cars in China from jointly owned brand Lynk & Co, are considering producing the vehicles at Volvo plants in Belgium and the U.S. state of South Carolina, a senior Lynk & Co official said. File Photo: Chinese automaker Geely unveils first model of its new Lynk & Co brand in Berlin, Germany, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo Lynk & Co plans to launch sales of its cars in Europe in 2019, followed by the United States in 2020. The brand’s first model, the 01 compact sport-utility vehicle, which starts at 158,800 yuan ($24,065.71), is now being produced on the same assembly line with Volvo’s new XC40 crossover SUV at a new Volvo-operated plant in Taizho. A second plant for Lynk & Co cars is expected to start production in Zhangjiakou next year. That same arrangement will be extended to Europe and to the United States to produce Lynk & Co cars by using Volvo production, Alain Visser, senior Vice President of Lynk & Co, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. (This story has been refiled to correct brand spelling in headline) Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zj-geely-hldg-volvo-lynk/geely-volvo-considering-making-lynx-co-cars-in-south-carolina-belgium-executive-idUKKBN1DT0G9'|'2017-11-29T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'0c0e189d917248047554bfe6019f5c2a74e30e21'|'EU regulator spells out licence guidelines to prevent patent wars'|' 26 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago EU regulator spells out licence guidelines to prevent patent wars Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission published patent licensing guidelines on Wednesday aimed at avoiding disputes such as those that have ensnared Qualcomm and Apple, while balancing the interests of patent holders and users. A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song With billion of dollars in sales at stake, patent holders such as world No. 1 smartphone chip maker Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and users such as Apple, Volkswagen and Daimler have lobbied the European Union executive in the past year to put forward their views. The Commission’s guidelines initially favoured patent owners but were then modified to add in elements to support users. The final draft was watered down after regulators decided not to take sides following intense last-minute lobbying, people familiar with the matter said. “Some people have asked us to take sides. We believe stakeholders should solve the issue themselves. Patent wars do not help anybody,” Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told a news conference on Wednesday. The technology industry depends on thousands of patents that companies frequently cross license to rivals, while reserving their most strategic intellectual property to create proprietary products. But intense competition sometimes spills over into costly legal battles as seen in a string of patent wars among smartphone makers in recent years. The guidelines no longer require patent owners to provide licences to all, the people said - a victory for patent holders such as Qualcomm. However, the guidelines do not specifically back the system under which users pay different rates to use patents, as the patent holders had wanted. However, Qualcomm’s royalty approach, known as use-based or value-based, predominates in the tech industry with royalties based on how much value a technology adds to a product. It is an important source of profits for the company and others which have adopted it. “The whole debate is still open. On balance, it is a win for Qualcomm and other patent owners,” one expert in patents said. The guidelines are part of a broader drive by the Commission to set new rules for internet-connected devices for cars, home automation and energy devices beyond computers and smartphones. The EU’s planned measures include setting up an expert group to look into licensing practices, intellectual property valuation and how to determine fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalties, and a project to evaluate which patents are essential to ensure that different devices can work together. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-patents/eu-regulator-spells-out-licence-guidelines-to-prevent-patent-wars-idUKKBN1DT2B1'|'2017-11-29T17:26:00.000+02:00'
'87049be2b372e5e05b80d5739f4fbe66dc1192f5'|'UK consumer credit growth cools to 18-month low'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:40 AM / in 8 hours Rapid UK consumer borrowing growth cools again Andy Bruce , William Schomberg 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britons took on credit at the slowest rate in 18 months in October, easing some of the Bank of England’s concerns about a rapid build-up of household debt, but other figures on Wednesday pointed to a murky outlook for the economy ahead of Brexit. Property sale signs are seen outside of a group of newly built houses in west London, Britain, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Squeezed by a sharp rise in inflation following last year’s vote to leave the European Union, until recently British consumers had shown little sign of curbing their propensity to borrow. But the BoE said annual growth in consumer lending cooled for the fourth time in the last five months, easing to 9.6 percent in October from September’s 9.8 percent. It was the weakest increase since April 2016. BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said he did not think British households were in a “debt-fueled binge” but added that fast rates of credit growth needed to be watched. A recent peak of consumer lending growth of 10.9 percent remains a few percentage points lower than the rates seen in the early 2000s. But the BoE has put pressure on banks to make sure they are not taking too much risk with their lending to consumers. Separately on Wednesday, a monthly survey from the European Commission painted a mixed picture of the economy. It showed consumers mostly brushed off November’s increase in interest rates, the first by the BoE in more than 10 years. But confidence in the dominant services industry sagged to its weakest level since May 2013 - more than cancelling out an improvement in manufacturing. Britain’s economy is already growing more slowly than many of the world’s rich nations, due to the impact of higher inflation since the referendum decision to leave the EU and uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit talks. Sterling jumped to a two-month high on Wednesday as investors greeted news reports that Britain and the European Union had agreed the outlines of a Brexit settlement bill. [GBP/] Businesses, wary of a disorderly exit from the EU, have taken a cautious approach to investment this year - in contrast to consumers who have continued to borrow enthusiastically. The BoE said net consumer lending in cash rose by 1.451 billion pounds ($1.94 billion) in October, down only slightly from September. “The Bank of England will welcome October’s slowdown in consumer credit growth and will be keen to see it moderate further,” said Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy. It remained to be seen if the rise in interest rates would dampen consumer borrowing markedly, he added. On Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development repeated its warning that a sharp rise in high consumer debt was a major risk in Britain and it called for new caps on borrowing based on incomes of households. The BoE figures published on Wednesday also showed the housing market slowed further ahead of this month’s rate hike. The number of mortgages approved for house purchase fell to 64,575 in October, its lowest since September last year, slightly below economists’ average forecast for a decline to 65,000 in a Reuters poll. Editing by Ken Ferris'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-lending/uk-consumer-credit-growth-cools-to-18-month-low-idUKKBN1DT15V'|'2017-11-29T11:35:00.000+02:00'
'89beb7c5bc7e2be629af807acf945744828776ee'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 29'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has waded into the boardroom row at the London Stock Exchange by signalling that its chief executive, Xavier Rolet, should go quietly. bit.ly/2Afio23- Thames Water has cancelled dividend payments worth 100 million pounds a year to its mainly international shareholders as it seeks to plug its leakage problem and reimburse customers. bit.ly/2nanGqeThe Guardian- British retail supplier Palmer & Harvey McLane Ltd has gone into administration with 2,500 immediate redundancies and a further 900 jobs at risk. bit.ly/2Bm2pfo- Ofcom has launched a review of children''s television programmes that could lead to the media regulator demanding that ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 spend more on young audiences. bit.ly/2BlEmxmThe Telegraph- British and European Union (EU) negotiators have reached a deal over the so-called Brexit bill, opening the door to a potential breakthrough in the talks this December, the Telegraph has learned. bit.ly/2Bk6YXV- Cineworld Group Plc, a British operator of movie theatres is in talks with U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group about a potential takeover, Regal confirmed on Tuesday. bit.ly/2Adht1KSky News- Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc have said they will assist UK''s inquiries into Russian interference in the EU referendum. bit.ly/B6kK29- During a three-day visit to the Middle East, Prime Minister Theresa May will hold talks in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, in a continuing effort to forge stronger ties with countries she visited earlier this year. bit.ly/2hZ9OJSCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-29-idINL3N1NZ06T'|'2017-11-28T21:46:00.000+02:00'
'0b0c2bb9808983c1b1d8d3b6b391311aa5b69d4d'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Nov 29'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** One day after Torstar Corp and Postmedia Network Canada Corp announced a deal to exchange 41 newspapers - closing the majority of them and wiping out 291 full-time and part-time jobs - federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly shot back at suggestions that the closings were due to the government''s decision not to offer additional funding for news outlets as part of its new cultural policy. ( tgam.ca/2BwEzyA )** Canada is challenging U.S. lumber tariffs by taking its fight to the World Trade Organization, the second appeal launched in two weeks by the federal government. ( tgam.ca/2Bwbxz7 )** Suncor Energy Inc says crude is flowing from Hebron, a major offshore project on Canada''s Atlantic coast, a milestone for the company as it pledges to give more cash to shareholders. ( tgam.ca/2BwMKLe )NATIONAL POST ** Alternative asset manager West Face Capital, which opted out of a class-action settlement with Home Capital Group Inc last summer, has given the mortgage lender a draft statement of claim that asserts damages of C$70 million ($54.51 million) for alleged misrepresentation in Home Capital''s disclosure. ( bit.ly/2BvWW6E )** Elevated housing prices and household debts remain the single-biggest vulnerability in the Canadian economy, according to the latest Bank of Canada report, despite signs that financial risks are beginning to ease. ( bit.ly/2BuReBX )$1 = C$1.28 Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-nov-29-idINL3N1NZ49Z'|'2017-11-29T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'7619748ab969592c0220db104bbcbe575527593e'|'U.S. Commerce Dept ''self-initiates'' dumping probe of Chinese aluminium'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration launched an aggressive new trade action against imports of Chinese aluminum alloy sheet on Tuesday, the first U.S.-initiated anti-subsidy and anti-dumping probes in decades, drawing a strong reaction from Beijing.China expressed its “strong dissatisfaction” at the move, with its Ministry of Commerce saying in a statement on Wednesday the action would hurt both countries’ interests.Washington’s seldom-used tactic is aimed at accelerating the imposition of duties against unfairly subsidized and dumped products. U.S. companies and industries claiming injury from imports would normally first ask the Commerce Department to open such probes, but government-initiated cases skip that step.“President (Donald) Trump made it clear from day one that unfair trade practices will not be tolerated under this administration, and today we take one more step in fulfilling that promise,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement on Tuesday.The case shows “that we stand in constant vigilance in support of free, fair and reciprocal trade,” he added.The Commerce Department last initiated an anti-subsidy duty investigation in 1991 on softwood lumber from Canada and an anti-dumping probe in 1985 on semiconductors from Japan.The aluminum move against China comes less than a month after Trump’s first trip to Beijing, during which he heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping and lauded U.S. business deals with China valued at hundreds of billions of dollars..In a statement on the website of China’s Ministry of Commerce, Wang Hejun, director of the ministry’s Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said he hoped the United States would stick to the consensus recently reached by the two countries’ heads of state on trade and act to promote “healthy and stable” trade relations.Wang also said China would take necessary measures to safeguard the rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.The anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes are separate from Commerce’s national security investigations into aluminum and steel imports that could lead to broad import restrictions for both metals. U.S. steel and aluminum makers both blame Chinese excess capacity for depressing global prices and threatening their financial viability.In a separate anti-dumping an anti-subsidy investigation into aluminum foil, the Commerce Department in October imposed combined preliminary duties of 108 to 243 percent.Ross told U.S. aluminum industry executives on a conference call that Commerce has evidence that China’s aluminum producers were selling flat-rolled sheet products in the United States at prices below fair value and were benefiting from unfair government subsidies.“Available evidence also indicates that U.S. producers of aluminum sheet are suffering injury caused by these imports,” Ross said.The Commerce Department estimated anti-dumping duties of about 56.54 percent to 59.72 percent in the aluminum case. It said imports from China of the flat-rolled metal typically used in construction and in transportation and electrical equipment totaled about $603.6 million in 2016.The probe excludes aluminum used in beverage can manufacturing.The case is expected to follow the normal process of a Commerce Department anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation, subject to injury reviews by the independent U.S. International Trade Commission.If allowed to proceed, preliminary anti-subsidy duties could be issued in February 2018 with preliminary anti-dumping duties issued in April.Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Dominique Patton in BEIJING; Editing by G Crosse, Cynthia Osterman and Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trade-china-aluminum/u-s-commerce-dept-self-initiates-dumping-probe-of-chinese-aluminium-idINKBN1DS2W3'|'2017-11-28T18:51:00.000+02:00'
'96a47a8f3af2799f491db0c8e5f8cd571df5aa78'|'EU''s Barnier says hopes to report on financial terms of Brexit soon'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:28 AM / Updated 3 hours ago EU''s Barnier says hopes to report on financial terms of Brexit soon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The European chief Brexit negotiator on Wednesday said he hoped to report to the EU in coming days about an agreement with Britain on the financial terms of its withdrawal from the bloc. Michel Barnier, speaking at the Berlin Security Conference, gave no details, despite reports that Britain has offered to pay much of what the EU was demanding to settle a Brexit “divorce bill”, but he said negotiations were continuing. “We are working really, really hard on these subjects,” Barnier said, adding: “I hope that I can report that ... we have been able to negotiate a deal.” Barnier is due to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Dec. 4. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier/eus-barnier-says-hopes-to-report-on-financial-terms-of-brexit-soon-idUKKBN1DT0Y5'|'2017-11-29T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'df6a615a7088dc59bde30f775175a6149bcd3ddf'|'Italy - Factors to watch on Nov. 29'|'The following factors could affect Italian markets on Wednesday.Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy. New items are marked with (*).For a complete list of diary events in Italy please click on .ECONOMY Welfare institute INPS President Tito Boeri speaks before Chamber of Deputies Labour Committee (1245 GMT).DEBT Treasury sells 1.250-1.750 billion euros 2.05 percent BTP bonds due Aug. 1, 2027 and 1.250-1.750 billion euros CCTeu bonds due April 15, 2025. Subscriptions close at 1000 GMT.COMPANIES UNICREDIT The bank could be close to selling its remaining 49 percent stake in the FINO 1 vehicle to which it transferred 15.5 billion euros in bad debts to Eurocastle, part of Fortress Investment Group, Il Messaggero reported. Fortress already owns 51 percent of the FINO 1 portfolio.ENI Norway’s Statoil said on Tuesday it was confident Eni would resolve problems besetting their joint Arctic Goliat oilfield, as a shutdown there neared its second month.Eni US could begin work on oil exploration in federal waters off Alaska as soon as next month after the Trump administration on Tuesday approved permits for leases the company has held for a decade, the Interior Department said.BANCA CARIGE The lender said on Tuesday it had selected two bidders for the sale of its Creditis consumer credit unit and would reach a decision by the end of the new share offer period.The two bidders are U.S. investment firm Christofferson Robb& Co and London-based Chenavari, a source familiar with the matter added.(*) MF reported a foreign investor targets a 10 percent stake in the bank and could contact the three banks in the cash call consortium to take on first-allocation commitments.(*) BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA The Tuscan bank could transfer to a special purpose vehicle in mid-December the 26 billion euros in bad debts it must sell under its restructuring plan, MF reported.(*) UBI BANCA The board could approve at its first December meeting a draft governance reform envisaging a switch to a single board of directors from the current dual-board system to then submit the changes to the European Central Bank, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.(*) BANCA POPOLARE DI SONDRIO Activist investor Amber Capital has an overall stake in the Italian bank close to 6 percent, Il Giornale reported.On Monday, regulatory filings had showed Amber had 5 percent of Popolare Sondrio.CREDITO EMILIANO The lender said on Tuesday its capital ratios are “amply above” the ECB’s requirements.(*) ACEA CEO Stefano Donnarumma told Il Sole 24 Ore in an interview the Rome-based utility would consider commercial or production assets for possible acquisitions rather than entire groups.(*) BANCA FINNAT CEO Arturo Nattino told Il Sole 24 Ore the Italian private bank could consider a merger in the future given developments in the sector require players to boost size.NTV Transport firm NTV presents new ‘Italo Evo’ train with Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and CEO Flavio Cattaneo (1100 GMT).JUVENTUS FC The club said on Tuesday that no decision had been adopted yet regarding the distribution of a 2017/18 dividend or its payment and that any decision would be taken at its shareholders meeting in October 2018.BB BIOTECH “BB Biotech Day 2017” (1100 GMT).GEQUITY Board meeting to approve 2016 FY Q3 2017 results.MITTEL Board meeting on results from April 1, 2017 to Sept. 20, 2017.For Italian market data and news, click on codes in brackets:20 biggest gainers (in percentage)20 biggest losers (in percentage)FTSE IT allshare indexFTSE Mib indexFTSE Allstars index...FTSE Mid Cap index....Block tradesStories on Italy IT-LENFor pan-European market data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide FTSEurofirst 300 index DJ STOXX index Top 10 STOXX sectors Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors Top 25 European pct gainers Top 25 European pct losers Main stock markets: Dow Jones Wall Street report Nikkei 225 Tokyo report FTSE 100 London report Xetra DAX Frankfurt market stories CAC-40 Paris market stories... World Indices Reuters survey of world bourse outlook Western European IPO diary European Asset Allocation Reuters News at a Glance: Equities Main currency report: '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-factors-nov-29/italy-factors-to-watch-on-nov-29-idINL8N1NY2Q2'|'2017-11-29T02:01:00.000+02:00'
'8c86a1d3a28848b439ea199c3bcdb163c52ae844'|'ECB''s Constancio favour gradual tightening despite bubble fears'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:34 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago ECB''s Constancio favour gradual tightening despite bubble fears Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should withdraw its stimulus only gradually despite fears that it is helping fuel bubbles in property and financial markets, its vice president, Vitor Constancio, told Reuters on Wednesday. European Central Bank Vice-President Vitor Constancio listens during a news conference following the Governing Council meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The ECB has been has extended its bond-buying stimulus programme into its fourth year, albeit at a reduced pace, even as growth in the euro zone is on its best run for a decade and many financial assets are at record highs. Constancio acknowledged the risk for financial stability from overly ebullient markets, but reaffirmed his long-standing call for “gradualism” in policy tightening when asked. “Yes because our mandate gives absolute priority to price stability and to create the economic and financing conditions for the normalization of inflation,” he said in response to a question about whether he stood by that view. He was speaking after unveiling the ECB’s biannual Financial Stability Review, in which Frankfurt said risks to euro zone financial stability were contained even if vulnerabilities remained. Constancio added that a market correction elsewhere in the world could affect Europe but would not necessarily warrant further stimulus from the ECB. “Some correction of prices in asset markets would not be enough to derail the economic recovery,” he said. “Other, deeper events could, so...we would then adjust according to what may happen.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-stability/ecbs-constancio-favour-gradual-tightening-despite-bubble-fears-idUKKBN1DT240'|'2017-11-29T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'992cc946381e9cf92e7e2414bd79a51858fe0a95'|'Lloyds continues branch cuts with further 49 closures'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:08 PM / in 24 minutes Lloyds to cut 49 branches, adding to record closures across Britain Emma Rumney 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group is closing 49 branches of Lloyds Bank and Halifax Bank of Scotland citing more customers banking online, it said on Wednesday. A man walks past a branch of Lloyds bank in central London February 13, 2014. REUTERS/Paul Hackett The closures at Britain’s biggest mortgage lender follow 100 announced in April involving 325 job cuts. They will involve 99 job losses, the Unite workers union said. Earlier this year Lloyds also announced plans to reduce some branches to just two staff with tablet computers. It has more than 2,000 branches across the UK and employs approximately 75,000. The bank said that while branches remain a key part of the service, footfall has declined in recent years. “Customers are increasingly choosing to use digital and mobile channels for their everyday banking needs,” a spokesman said. Banks across Britain are set to close a record 762 branches this year, Reuters reported in August, moves which have been met with criticism for depriving customers of access to in-person services. “The news today will not be welcomed by staff or the customers left with no access to local banking,” said Rob MacGregor, national officer at Unite. Lloyds shares fell on Tuesday after the Bank of England’s stress tests, an annual health check on lenders. Lloyds passed the test but shares in Lloyds, one of the banks most exposed to the UK economy, suffered after the central bank warned that a hard Brexit could be costly. The shares rebounded on Wednesday and stood up 3.29 percent at 1309 GMT. Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Huw Jones and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lloyds-branch-closures/lloyds-continues-branch-cuts-with-further-49-closures-idUKKBN1DT1M2'|'2017-11-29T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'1045b3228bebde4940eee502ec08a34f9afb715c'|'Santander takes 600 million euro impairment, makes board changes'|' 55 AM / in 16 minutes Santander takes 600 million euro impairment, makes board changes Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s largest bank Santander ( SAN.MC ) said it would take an impairment charge of 600 million euros ($711 million), mostly due to its U.S. consumer finance group, a move it said would hit fourth quarter earnings. The logo of Santander bank is pictured at the entrance of the group''s main office in Sao Paulo, Brazil September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker The decision follows a review of the bank’s goodwill and is driven by a fall in earnings at Santander Consumer USA Holdings relative to previous years, Santander said in a statement late on Tuesday. Santander said that the sale of Allfunds Bank, partly to funds GIC and Hellman & Friedman and partly to Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic, would reduce its fully loaded core tier 1 capital ratio (CET1) by nine basis points in the fourth quarter. At the close of the third quarter, Santander’s fully loaded CET1 was 10.8 percent. The bank reiterated its plan to raise its dividend this year and next and raise earnings per share in 2017 and by double digits in 2018. It also said long-term board members Isabel Tocino and Matias Rodriguez would leave the board and take other positions within the bank. It proposed that the head of the Spain and Portugal arm of BNP Paribas, Ramiro Mato, join the executive committee and be appointed as an independent board member. Reporting by Paul Day; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-banco-santander-outlook/santander-takes-600-million-euro-impairment-makes-board-changes-idUKKBN1DT0UK'|'2017-11-29T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'a756e1b37170f4ef9c150bfac20045a27beb5601'|'US STOCKS-Futures steady ahead of Powell confirmation'|'* Futures up: Dow 37 pts, S&P 2.5 pts, Nasdaq 4 ptsBy Sruthi ShankarNov 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Tuesday, maintaining a brighter tone from Europe and the previous session and putting aside any nerves over a tax bill and confirmation hearing for Federal Reserve chair nominee Jerome Powell.* The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing at 9:45 a.m. ET (1445 GMT) to confirm Powell’s nomination as head of the U.S. central bank.* In prepared remarks for the Tuesday hearing, Powell defended the Fed’s use of broad crisis-fighting powers, placing himself as an extension of the line followed by current Chair Janet Yellen and her predecessor Ben Bernanke.* The U.S. tax plan faces potential opposition from two Republican lawmakers who could prevent the sweeping legislation from reaching the Senate floor.* President Donald Trump was due to lobby Republicans at their weekly policy luncheon in the U.S. Capitol, with the Senate poised for a possible vote on the bill as early as Thursday.* Wall Street’s major indexes ended flat on Monday, retreating modestly from record highs set during the session, as gains for Amazon countered losses in shares of energy companies.* The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index is expected to have decreased to 124 in November from 125.9 in October, when it hit a near 17-year high. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.* Oil prices fell nearly 1 percent on uncertainty over the outcome of a key OPEC meeting this week.* Buffalo Wild Wings rose 5 percent as fellow restaurant chain Arby’s announced it had agreed to buy the company for about $2.4 billion.Futures snapshot at 6:52 a.m. ET:* Dow e-minis were up 37 points, or 0.16 percent, with 21,166 contracts changing hands.* S&P 500 e-minis were up 2.5 points, or 0.1 percent, with 138,843 contracts traded.* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.06 percent, on volume of 23,441 contracts. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-futures-steady-ahead-of-powell-confirmation-idINL3N1NY44A'|'2017-11-28T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'db2560cd63eff368f23d56d57719444e9d693322'|'Goldman calls outcome of upcoming OPEC meeting uncertain'|'(Reuters) - The outcome of the OPEC meeting in Vienna later this week is uncertain given current crude prices and a lack of consensus on an output cut extension deal, Goldman Sachs said on Monday.A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna, Austria September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger “The absence of such a consensus is due to the uncertainty on the progress of the oil market rebalancing as well as Brent oil prices trading at $63 per barrel,” the bank said in a research note.“The push for a nine month extension, four months before the cuts end and given an accelerating rebalancing further stands in the face of prior comments that the cuts should remain data dependent to assess their effectiveness.”U.S. oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply from a planned restart of the Keystone crude pipeline and uncertainty about Russia’s resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week’s Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting.On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending an output cut deal. Still, Russia has not given a timeline, and on Monday there were signs Russia may find it hard to comply.Goldman Sachs said despite a less clear outcome, it viewed risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as current prices, timespreads and positioning already reflect the high probability of a nine-month extension.“We continue to expect a gradual ramp up in OPEC and Russian production from April onward,” Goldman said, adding “as a result, the announcement of an only six month extension would still initially appear bullish relative to our expectation.”Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/research-crude-goldman-sachs/goldman-calls-outcome-of-upcoming-opec-meeting-uncertain-idINKBN1DS043'|'2017-11-27T22:10:00.000+02:00'
'e2f00688602fbb18c728448544150c8a57719a43'|'Millions of insecure gadgets exposed in European cities – report'|'November 28, 2017 / 10:47 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Millions of insecure gadgets exposed in European cities – report Reuters Staff 2   A year after a wave of denial-of-service attacks knocked out major websites around the world, millions of unsecured printers, network gear and webcams remain undefended against attack across major European cities, a report published on Tuesday said. FILE PHOTO: A man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo Computer security company Trend Micro said that Berlin has more than 2.8 million insecure devices, followed closely by London with more than 2.5 million exposed gadgets. Among the top 10 capitals, Rome was lowest with nearly 300,000 visible unsecured devices, the researchers said. The study was based on calculating the number of exposed devices in major European cities using Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment. Trend Micro said that electronics users must take responsibility for managing their own internet-connected devices because of the failure by many gadget manufacturers to build in up-front security by default in their products. The warning comes one year after a wave of attacks using so-called botnets of infected devices caused outages on popular websites and knocked 900,000 Deutsche Telekom users off the internet. ( reut.rs/2BjdRII ) Computer experts say the failure to patch millions of insecure devices after last year’s Mirai denial-of-service attacks means it is only a question of time before further broad-based outages occur. Research company Gartner recently forecast that there would be 8.4 billion connected products or devices in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and expects the number to triple by 2020. ( goo.gl/thR54Q ) Reporting by Jamillah Knowles; Editing by Eric Auchard and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cyber-attack-europe/millions-of-insecure-gadgets-exposed-in-european-cities-report-idUKKBN1DS170'|'2017-11-28T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'3e64f35ffab1740c7232dd18b444017b4371084c'|'UK terrorism reinsurance fund to include cyber coverage from next year'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:51 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago UK terrorism reinsurance fund to include cyber coverage from next year Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Pool Re, which helps insurers pay out claims on property damage caused by terror attacks, said it will extend its cover to include damage and business interruption caused by acts of terrorism involving a cyber attack from April 2018. Pool Re, set up in 1993, acts as a backstop to insurers paying out claims on property damage and business interruption. It is financed by the insurance industry with government backing, and pay outs depend on the British government deeming an attack to be terror-related. Pool Re said in March that it hoped to extend its cover to include cyber attacks on property. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-insurance-cyber-pool-re/uk-terrorism-reinsurance-fund-to-include-cyber-coverage-from-next-year-idUKKBN1DS28S'|'2017-11-28T18:51:00.000+02:00'
'8beb380733bbc21b8e6a46f0646d5f50e7d8d5c5'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - November 28'|'November 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times- The promise of nationalisation and tax rises on the rich will help Labour recapture its former heartland from the SNP, the party''s new leader Richard Leonard in Scotland predicted. bit.ly/2AiCwhlThe Guardian- The head of Germany''s domestic intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, has accused U.S. tech giants such as Facebook Inc of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites. bit.ly/2AcS347- Brexit Minister David Davis has been told he could be in contempt of parliament after his department heavily edited government analyses on the impact of Brexit on 58 industrial sectors before handing them to a select committee. bit.ly/2AE0Ih9The Telegraph- Male employees at easyJet earn over 50 percent more than their female colleagues on average, the budget airline revealed on Monday. bit.ly/2zuQn2Q- British Airways owner IAG has confirmed it is buying the majority of the Gatwick take-off and landing slots being sold by the administrators for fallen carrier Monarch Airlines. bit.ly/2AeqVSYSky News- Victoria Beckham''s luxury fashion brand Victoria Beckham Limited has secured a 30 million pounds investment to help fund its expansion. bit.ly/2zwFa1I- Simon Robertson, whose former roles included the deputy chairmanship of HSBC Holdings Plc, has been drafted for secret talks aimed at defusing the boardroom crisis at the owner of the London Stock Exchange.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-november-28-idUSL3N1NY1A6'|'2017-11-28T03:34:00.000+02:00'
'30523f78a9b43d75df366b489683da28faef1ba7'|'Uber lawyer says ex-CEO, board members told of letter kept from Waymo lawsuit'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:47 PM / Updated an hour ago Uber lawyer says ex-CEO, board members told of letter kept from Waymo lawsuit Heather Somerville , Dan Levine 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s former chief executive and some board members knew of a letter a U.S. judge has said was withheld from a high-stakes lawsuit, an attorney for the company testified on Wednesday. The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay But Uber’s lawyer said she did not disclose the letter to other attorneys defending the company in the trade secrets lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) self-driving car unit Waymo. U.S. District Judge William Alsup called that decision “inexplicable.” The letter alleges Uber trained employees to steal trade secrets and hide their activities. “On the surface it looks like you covered this up,” he told Uber in court. Alphabet’s Waymo has accused Uber of stealing confidential information about its self-driving car designs, the highest-stakes legal challenge on a list of litigation that Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi inherited when he joined the company in August. Uber’s autonomous car program has been hobbled by the case and it faces hefty claims from Alphabet. U.S. prosecutors also are investigating the matter, raising the possibility of criminal charges. Uber has denied that it used Waymo trade secrets in its autonomous vehicle program. At the hearing in San Francisco federal court, Uber in-house attorney Angela Padilla testified she did not disclose the letter with the allegations to Uber attorneys and an outside law firm that were defining Uber in the Waymo lawsuit. Alsup, who is overseeing the case, raised the question of a cover-up as he also did at a hearing on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Waymo unveils a self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “There was no effort to cover this up,” Padilla responded, adding that she takes “full responsibility” for not circulating the letter more widely. The hearing was still ongoing on Wednesday. Former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs testified in court this week that his lawyer sent a 37-page letter to Padilla describing an organization within Uber called marketplace analytics that he said exists for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets, code base and competitive intelligence. Jacobs’ attorney sent the U.S. Department of Justice a similar letter making the same claims. In his testimony Jacobs described an elaborate intelligence operation inside Uber to deliberately research competitors and gather data about them, and use technology to avoid a paper trail. Alsup delayed the trial, which had been scheduled for next week, to give Waymo more time to investigate the allegations. In court on Wednesday, Padilla said Uber viewed the Jacobs letter as a tactic by a disgruntled former employee to secure money from the company. However, Uber eventually settled the matter by paying Jacobs $4.5 million, including a consulting contract, and a further $3 million to his lawyer. “That is a lot of money,” Alsup said. “And people don’t pay that kind of money for BS. And you certainly don’t hire them as consultants if you think everything they’ve got to contribute is BS.” Reporting by Dan Levine, editing by Peter Henderson and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-uber-ruling/uber-lawyer-says-ex-ceo-board-members-told-of-letter-kept-from-waymo-lawsuit-idUSKBN1DT2XT'|'2017-11-29T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'72ad782443b7941541029ff8f9a85b4f8c3c5f05'|'U.S. judge clears Avaya Inc to exit bankruptcy'|'(Reuters) - The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Avaya Inc said on Tuesday he would confirm the telecommunication company’s Chapter 11 plan, bringing its nearly year-long effort to reorganize its finances effectively to a close.FILE PHOTO - The sign at Avaya Inc. offices and lab in Westminster, Colorado is seen January 23, 2007. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Judge Stuart Bernstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York said at a hearing he was satisfied with the plan, which marked a third try by the communications software and services provider for a blueprint for emerging from bankruptcy.The plan provides holders of first-lien debt with 90.5 percent of stock in the reorganized company and holders of second-lien notes with a pro rata share of 4 percent of stock and warrants for an additional 5.1 percent of the shares.General unsecured creditors such as vendors will receive $57.5 million in cash and the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, will receive $340 million in cash and 5.5 percent of shares.Avaya, which competes with Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) and Cisco Systems Inc( CSCO.O ), expects to have an enterprise value of $5.7 billion and about $2.9 billion in debt when it emerges from Chapter 11, compared with more than $6 billion when it filed for bankruptcy.“In the coming weeks, Avaya will emerge from this process stronger than ever and positioned for long-term success, with the financial flexibility to create even greater value for our customers, partners and stockholders,” Jim Chirico, Avaya’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.The Silicon Valley-based company, which was spun off from Lucent Technologies Inc in 2000, filed for bankruptcy protection in January. The company was burdened by its debt, an underfunded pension plan and competition from larger rivals as the industry shifted toward software services from hardware.During its bankruptcy, Avaya terminated its salaried pension plan, which includes about 1,000 active employees and 7,000 retirees. The PBGC took over the plan which the agency claimed was underfunded by $1.2 billion.In May, Avaya won court approval to sell its networking business to Extreme Networks Inc in a deal worth up to $100 million.Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankruptcy-avaya/u-s-judge-clears-avaya-inc-to-exit-bankruptcy-idUSKBN1DS2W9'|'2017-11-28T23:43:00.000+02:00'
'0a38fde50f26060749cce4cfa08993b4520187cb'|'Budget carrier Wizz scoops Monarch''s Luton airport slots'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:41 PM / in 2 minutes Budget carrier Wizz scoops Monarch''s Luton airport slots Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Budget airline Wizz Air ( WIZZ.L ) said it would fly two more aircraft from London’s Luton airport after securing take-off and landing slots there from failed carrier Monarch Airlines. FILE PHOTO - Wizz Air plane is pictured at Chopin airport in Warsaw, Poland October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Wizz, listed in London but with the majority of its operations focused on Europe, said it would increase its fleet at Luton by two aircraft to total seven and pushing up its capacity at the airport by 18 percent. Earlier this week, British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) bought valuable take-off and landing slots at London’s Gatwick airport, beating off competition from other airlines. EasyJet ( EZJ.L ), Wizz ( WIZZ.L ) and Norwegian ( NWC.OL ) had expressed their interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots at London’s Luton and Gatwick airports. (This story corrects reference to IAG deal in third paragraph) Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-monarch-airlines-licence-wizz-air-hld/budget-carrier-wizz-scoops-monarchs-luton-airport-slots-idUKKBN1DT2WU'|'2017-11-29T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'9c7908e2f2c10cd8c5817f4806edc13e2c49f948'|'Alibaba markets five-tranche US dollar bonds'|'SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (IFR) - Alibaba Group Holding, rated A1/A+/A+, is marketing five tranches of US dollar bonds in its second such offering.The Chinese technology giant’s SEC-registered notes have tenors of 5.5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 years and are marketing at initial price guidance of Treasuries plus 100 basis points area, 125-130bp, 140bp area, 160bp area and 180bp area, respectively.Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are bookrunners.The senior unsecured bond issue is expected to price today, during New York hours. (Reporting by Frances Yoon; Editing by Dharsan Singh and Daniel Stanton) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alibaba-debt-bonds/alibaba-markets-five-tranche-us-dollar-bonds-idUSL3N1NZ18W'|'2017-11-29T03:36:00.000+02:00'
'9cc0cfdba69eabb2320c07390fc0538dbf77285b'|'SoftBank says Benchmark, Menlo Ventures ready to sell some Uber stock'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:49 AM / Updated an hour ago SoftBank says Benchmark, Menlo Ventures ready to sell some Uber stock Liana B. Baker , Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) on Tuesday launched its tender offer for shares of Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and the Japanese company said that some notable early Uber investors planned to sell stock. FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is seen at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Venture capital firms Benchmark, which owns 13 percent of Uber worth $9 billion, and Menlo Ventures, another large shareholder, have indicated that they would sell a portion of the shares, according to a SoftBank spokesperson. The SoftBank investment would be a sign of support from an influential investor as the ride-services company struggles with several scandals ranging from sexual harassment allegations to federal criminal probes. The investment, if successful, would trigger governance changes at Uber, including expanding the board from 11 to 17 members, limiting some early shareholders’ voting power and slashing the control wielded by former chief executive Travis Kalanick. SoftBank would add the investment in Uber to several other bets in the sector, including Singapore’s Grab and India’s Ola. It is offering to buy Uber shares from existing investors at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to the most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this week. It also would buy $1 billion of new stock at the previous valuation but only if it can accumulate at least a 13.4 percent share of Uber through the tender, another person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. If there were not enough sellers, SoftBank could walk away from the deal. Uber said late on Tuesday that the expected tender had launched. The investment comes at the end of a year of controversy and change for Uber, including the announcement last week that the company covered up a major hack in 2016. One of the people familiar with the matter said that some initial members of the SoftBank consortium, including General Atlantic, had dropped out over concerns including the price. Still, many investors remained enthusiastic about Uber and told Reuters they were not selling. Mitchell Green of Lead Edge Capital, which invested when the company had a $40 billion valuation, has said he is eager to buy more Uber shares. Benchmark, despite a prolonged battle with Kalanick and other investors, recently tweeted it believed Uber could be worth $100 billion. Writing by Peter Henderson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/softbank-says-benchmark-ready-to-sell-some-uber-stock-idUKKBN1DT0AA'|'2017-11-29T05:14:00.000+02:00'
'a506fcab2bbf92a2b50e9000b48affe16f4508cb'|'FTSE lags European bounce as Brexit breakthrough hopes lift pound'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:41 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago FTSE lags European bounce as Brexit breakthrough hopes lift pound Danilo Masoni 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE fell on Wednesday, lagging a broad-based rebound in European shares as reports of a breakthrough in Brexit talks lifted sterling, hurting the internationally exposed index. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The FTSE was down 0.6 percent by 0849 GMT, while the pan-European STOXX 600 benchmark climbed 0.6 percent to its highest level in more than two weeks, buoyed by strength among financial stocks and gains across all sectors. Britain has offered to pay much of what the EU was demanding to settle a Brexit “divorce bill”, bringing the two sides close to agreement on a key obstacle to opening talks on a future free trade pact, EU sources said on Tuesday. Sterling surged to a two-month high against the dollar, helping send shares in big internationally-exposed, dollar earning FTSE companies such as British American Tobacco, Diageo and GlaxoSmithKline down more than 1 percent. “Following last night’s jump, (the pound) continued its rise today on hopes of a significant Brexit breakthrough. Shorts are coming out as the squeeze comes on but will the rally last? It’s down to the politics again, with various risks to the bullish case still unresolved,” said ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson “Nevertheless it may be time to turn cautiously optimistic on sterling,” he said. In turn the more domestically exposed FTSE Mid 250 index, which benefits from a stronger pound, rose 0.3 percent. The British mid cap index generates only half of its sales outside the UK, against two thirds for the FTSE. UK mid-cap Cineworld however fell 13.8 percent after news that cinema chain is in talks to acquire U.S. peer Regal Entertainment for about $3.6 billion in cash. Cineworld said it would finance its bid through a mix of debt and a “material” rights issue. Among the biggest movers on the STOXX 600 was Britvic, up 4.6 percent to an all time high, following results. Osram Licht rose 4.3 percent after Barclays upgraded the stock to “overweight” from “equal weight”, citing strong growth expectations for its Opto Semiconductors unit. Elsewhere, among chipmakers Dialog Semiconductors and Infineon fell slightly, shrugging off a positive earnings update from U.S. peer Marvell Technology. The sector was hit earlier this week after Morgan Stanley downgraded Samsung Electronics on worries the memory chip boom could peak soon. A top faller was Sonova, down 2.8 percent, hit by a Morgan Stanley downgrade to underweight. Broader market sentiment was also lifted by signs of progress on U.S. tax cuts, which offset caution following another missile test by North Korea. In spite of Wednesday’s bounce, the STOXX 600 is set to end November with a loss, having fallen around 2 percent so far this month as investors have been taking profits and earnings growth slowed compared to the previous two quarters. According to the latest Thomson Reuters report, third quarter earnings for the index are expected to increase 1.7 percent from a year earlier. Excluding the energy sector, earnings are expected to decrease 2.2 percent. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/ftse-lags-european-bounce-as-brexit-breakthrough-hopes-lift-pound-idUKKBN1DT0Z6'|'2017-11-29T11:16:00.000+02:00'
'd7e4fd912324401576057a926a8a8bc04bb2176a'|'FTSE lags European bounce as Brexit breakthrough hopes lift pound'|' 41 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago FTSE lags European bounce as Brexit breakthrough hopes lift pound Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - UK’s FTSE fell on Wednesday, lagging a broad-based rebound in European shares as reports of a breakthrough in Brexit talks lifted the sterling, hurting the internationally exposed index. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The FTSE was down 0.4 percent by 0822 GMT, while the pan-European STOXX 600 benchmark climbed 0.8 percent to its highest level in almost three weeks, buoyed by strength among financial stocks and gains in all sectors. Britain has offered to pay much of what the EU was demanding to settle a Brexit “divorce bill”, bringing the two sides close to agreement on a key obstacle to opening talks on a future free trade pact, EU sources said on Tuesday. Among the biggest movers on the STOXX 600 was Britvic, up 4.6 percent, following results, and Osram Licht, which rose 3 percent after Barclays upgraded the stock to “overweight” from “equal weight”. Top faller was Sonova, down 4 percent, hit by a Morgan Stanley downgrade to underweight. Broader market sentiment was also lifted by sings of progress in U.S. tax cut plans, which offset caution following another missile test by North Korea. Reporting by Danilo Masoni'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/ftse-lags-european-bounce-as-brexit-breakthrough-hopes-lift-pound-idUKKBN1DT0Z6'|'2017-11-29T10:41:00.000+02:00'
'75cfe4c0f77871d8a31baf2f4e3541fb6586246d'|'Unilever board to delay decision on single structure - FT'|'Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 7:53 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Anglo-Dutch Unilever favors single home, but delays choice Martinne Geller 4   Unilever ( ULVR.L ) favours creating a single corporate structure, but is delaying a choice between its British and Dutch bases, the consumer goods group said on Tuesday, in part because of the heightened political sensitivity of the decision due to Brexit. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid After rebuffing a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz ( KHC.O ), Unilever said in April it would review its dual structure under which it is based and listed in both Britain and the Netherlands, aiming for a decision by the end of the year. A recent move by the Dutch government to scrap a tax on dividends was seen as an effort to keep the maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup in the Netherlands. Any decision by Unilever ( UNc.AS ) to abandon its home on the banks of London’s River Thames would be a blow for Britain as it struggles to negotiate its divorce from the European Union. “I‘m advocating to postpone decisions because it’s a moving playing field - with political turbulence out there. The emotions of the moment are really the issue,” Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman, a Dutchman, told the Financial Times. Asked whether he was referring to Brexit, Polman said: “It’s on all sides nowadays - of that you have to be clear. The board is going to take a 30 to 50-year decision. We want to do that well and we want to do that properly.” SIMPLIFIED STRUCTURE Unilever was widely expected to give an update on its review at an investor event starting on Wednesday. It said on Tuesday the board considered unification with a single share class to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. That would, for example, make it easier for the group both to make acquisitions using equity and spin off businesses. However, the company said the review was continuing and it did not have a deadline. If Unilever does unify, it intends to maintain stock market listings in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States, continue to apply both the UK and Dutch corporate governance codes and terminate the preference shares of the Dutch entity it recently bought back, it said. For many shareholders, a simplified structure is more important than its location. “It’s a big deal for the company, it’s a big deal for the British and Dutch political establishment, but I don’t think it’s a very big deal for the shares,” said Ali Miremadi, who runs global and European equity funds at GAM Investments. “From an investor point of view, all that matters is efficiency and cost, and if it helps them to be able to dispose of some things they would otherwise struggle to do,” said Miremadi, who has invested about 2.5 percent of the funds he manages in Unilever. At 0930 GMT, Unilever shares were up 1.4 percent in London and 1.3 percent in Amsterdam. Unilever is in the midst of an auction to sell its margarine and spreads business, but has said it would spin the business off if the price wasn’t good enough. The company confirmed on Tuesday its 2017 guidance for underlying sales growth of 3 to 5 percent, an improvement in underlying operating margin of at least 100 basis points and “strong” cash flow delivery. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-structure/unilever-board-to-delay-decision-on-single-structure-ft-idUKKBN1DS0OD'|'2017-11-28T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'01c38c58985fe8214b4581afecf40bb26795a749'|'Reshaping IKEA Group makes $3.6 billion profit'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:18 AM / in 5 minutes Reshaping IKEA Group makes $3.6 billion profit Reuters Staff 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - IKEA Group, the owner of most IKEA furniture stores, reported a drop in annual operating profit due to the sale of several businesses as well as investments in areas such as the internet and logistics. FILE PHOTO: Flags and the company''s logo are seen outside of an IKEA Group store in Spreitenbach, Switzerland April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The world’s biggest furniture group said on Tuesday it made an operating profit of 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion in the year to the end of August. The year before, when IKEA Group sold its product development, production and supply chain subsidiaries to brand owner Inter IKEA, profit was 4.5 billion euros. “The decrease in operating result was mainly driven by the loss of profit from the companies that were sold in the transaction, as well as the increased costs in IKEA Retail to support multi-channel growth and expansion,” IKEA Group said. The Swedish company is known for its large out-of-town warehouse stores and self-assembly budget furniture. But in the face of changing shopper expectations, and with growing competition from online players such as Amazon, IKEA is investing in e-commerce and services, and trying new concepts such as pick up-and-order points and city-centre showrooms to become more accessible. “During the full year, the IKEA Group invested 3.1 billion euros in stores, distribution and customer fulfilment network, shopping centres, renewable energy and forestry,” it said, without giving a comparable figure for the year before. Jesper Brodin, chief executive since September, told Reuters that as part of a push to adapt to rapid urbanisation as well as digitalisation, city-centre full-range showrooms would hopefully open in Greenwich, Britain, and Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2019 and 2020. IKEA Group in October reported full-year retail sales growth of 4 percent to 34.1 billion euros, with online sales up 28 pct to account for 5 pct of the total. It said on Tuesday that sales grew 2 percent in Germany, its biggest market, to 4.9 billion euros. IKEA stores worldwide are owned by 11 franchisees, of which IKEA Group is the biggest with 355 stores at the end of August. Franchisees pay 3 percent of their annual sales to Inter IKEA. Inter IKEA has said total annual retail sales at all 403 IKEA stores combined were 38.3 billion euros. Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, addiitonal reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt,; editing by Johannes Hellstrom and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ikea-group-results/ikea-group-reports-full-year-operating-profit-of-3-billion-euros-idUKKBN1DS0KM'|'2017-11-28T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'14badce930e3be8efbab46a9633a2cb65a619fac'|'UPDATE 1-HNA considers listing Gategroup shares on Swiss exchange'|'(Adds advisory banks)By John MillerZURICH, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which is disposing of assets after a debt-fuelled buying spree, is now considering a public listing for its Swiss airline caterer Gategroup Holding, the subsidiary said on Tuesday.Gategroup, purchased by HNA last year for $1.5 billion, said in a statement that the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich was being considered as a potential listing location.“The structure and timing of any offering or listing are yet to be determined,” Gategroup said in a statement.HNA is expected to work with UBS and Credit Suisse on the planned initial public offering, people close to the matter said.HNA and the banks were not immediately available for comment.HNA Group Chairman Adam Tan’s plans for Gategroup, which was listed in Switzerland before HNA bought it, come as he unloads some investments and real estate to improve liquidity and to conform with Chinese policies after making deals valued at more than $50 billion over two years.Those transactions, which included stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and Deutsche Bank, have prompted increased scrutiny from regulators and bankers due to announced changes to HNA’s shareholding structure and its use of leverage.Last week, Swiss regulators separately announced they were evaluating what they called “untrue” or “incomplete” information given by the Chinese group during its takeover of Gategroup in 2016.The Swiss Takeover Board has enlisted Ernst & Young to examine whether the controlling group complied with minimum price rules and best price regulations in the deal, with HNA responding “the decision ... does not have any impact on the validity of the takeover.”HNA has said it is cooperating with the Swiss board’s officials. (Reporting by John Miller, additional reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Greg Mahlich/Andrew Heavens/Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-hna-gategroup-holdg/update-1-hna-considers-listing-gategroup-shares-on-swiss-exchange-idINL8N1NY62I'|'2017-11-28T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'6ddaf0aef2455788c7930fdfe9556a145592e626'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 28'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- SoftBank Group Corp has told stakeholders in Uber Technologies Inc that it would initially offer to buy shares at a near 30 percent discount to the company''s most recent valuation of $68 billion. ( on.wsj.com/2zwMlao )- Three Chinese people have been indicted in the U.S. for allegedly hacking into the email account of a Moody''s Analytics economist, stealing confidential business information from German electrical engineering giant Siemens AG and targeting the networks of GPS developer Trimble Inc, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. ( on.wsj.com/2zwFz4n )- Microsoft Corp signed up business-software vendor SAP SE as a cloud partner. ( on.wsj.com/2zvB3Tv )- The conference call in June led by managers in Wells Fargo & Co was part of a continuing cleanup that has led Wells Fargo to fire four foreign-exchange bankers and federal prosecutors to open their own investigation of the operation, people familiar with the matter have said. ( on.wsj.com/2zulrjs )- European buyout firm Nordic Capital is close to acquiring Ullink from Hg Capital in a deal that could value the provider of electronic-trading software at around $650 million. ( on.wsj.com/2zz8vsg )- Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell would strive to support the economy''s progress toward full recovery and defend the central bank''s independence if confirmed as its next leader, he will tell a Senate panel Tuesday when it considers his nomination. ( on.wsj.com/2zuiqzv ) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-28-idUSL3N1NY2FB'|'2017-11-28T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'29d3d737ddd7a4d47b08acffd20511b6ebea0695'|'UPDATE 1-Jobs cut as UK wholesaler Palmer & Harvey enters administration'|'(Adds background, Imperial Brands’ comment)By Martinne GellerLONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - British retail supplier Palmer & Harvey has been placed in administration with the immediate loss of some 2,500 jobs, accounting firm PwC, which has been appointed to oversee the process, said on Tuesday.The group, which delivers cigarettes, food and drinks to retail chains and convenience stores, has been by hit by challenging trading conditions in recent months and efforts to restructure it have been unsuccessful, PwC said in a statement.P&H, one of Britain’s largest private companies, has been unable to secure additional funding to support the business, PwC said, adding that it had been necessary to make about 2,500 of P&H&rsquo;s 3,400 employees redundant immediately.Palmer & Harvey could not be reached for comment.One of P&H&rsquo;s suppliers, tobacco company Imperial Brands , said it expects a one-time profit hit in the current year of up to 160 million pounds ($213 million), mostly related to excise duty which is non-recoverable. It does not anticipate any significant disruption to its UK operations.Imperial, maker of Gauloises cigarettes, said it had been working for several months on a rescue plan for P&H and “was prepared to explore further alternatives but other parties have been unwilling to pursue these to a successful conclusion”.Imperial and rival Japan Tobacco International both hired advisers to examine options to rescue P&H earlier this year.. A spokeswoman for the Japanese company’s international division was not immediately available to comment.Carlyle Group, which had been in talks to buy P&H as part of a rescue deal, declined to comment.The administrators said they are continuing to explore options for a sale of several P&H entities including P&H Direct Van Sales Ltd, P&H Sweetdirect Ltd and P&H Snacksdirect Ltd.Grocer Tesco’s 3.7 billion pound deal to acquire rival wholesaler Booker Group was expected to put further pressure on P&H&rsquo;s business. ($1 = 0.7495 pounds) (Additional reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/palmerharvey-administration/update-1-jobs-cut-as-uk-wholesaler-palmer-harvey-enters-administration-idUSL8N1NY65Q'|'2017-11-29T03:07:00.000+02:00'
'799bf0cbb5bd1eae0d701aeb235a714ef552b982'|'Exclusive: Cineworld in talks with Regal Entertainment about merger - sources'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Cineworld Group Plc ( CINE.L ), a British operator of movie theatres, is in talks with U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group ( RGC.N ) about a potential merger, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.Workers repair a sign at a Cineworld cinema in Bradford northern England, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble A deal between the two would put the combined company in a better position to take market share from industry leader AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc ( AMC.N ), and also give it more scale to fight increasing competition from Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ), Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and other digital outlets.Cineworld’s offer values Regal at around $23 per share, one of the sources said. There is no certainty the discussions will lead to a deal, the sources added, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential.Cineworld and Regal Entertainment did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Regal shares jumped as much as 16 percent after Reuters reported the deal talks. They were up 7.5 percent at $19.63 in late afternoon trading in New York, giving the company a market value of about $3 billion. Cineworld has a market value of 1.9 billion pounds ($2.5 billion), making its offer for Regal an attempted reverse merger.Regal’s top shareholder is Anschutz Corp, led by Denver-based dealmaker and billionaire Phil Anschutz. While Anschutz Corp owns just over 10 percent of Regal, it controls the company through a separate class of voting stock.Regal Entertainment hired an investment bank in 2014 to explore strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, but later shelved those plans.The last major deal in the sector was in December 2016, when AMC completed its acquisition of Carmike Cinemas for about $1.1 billion.Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York and Ben Martin in London; Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/regal-entnmnt-gp-m-a-cineworld-group-exc/exclusive-cineworld-in-talks-with-regal-entertainment-about-merger-sources-idINKBN1DS2O4'|'2017-11-28T21:44:00.000+02:00'
'd569ebb26425d80c698f1c78b18886cfcc8b0ab8'|'Philips cuts holding in Philips Lighting with $600 million share sale'|'(Reuters) - Dutch healthcare technology company Philips ( PHG.AS ) said on Tuesday it was selling a stake of about 12 percent in Philips Lighting ( LIGHT.AS ).Philips wants to eventually sell its entire holding in Philips Lighting, which it spun off in May, 2016, with a view to concentrating on medical devices and other healthcare products.Following the latest share sale via an accelerated bookbuilding offer and the cancellation of 2.8 million shares to be repurchased by Philips Lighting as part of the transaction, Philips’ remaining stake in the lighting business would be 29.59 percent, the company said.Philips intends to sell around 17.1 million shares, which would be worth over 560 million euros ($665 million) based on Tuesday’s closing price, with the sale expected to be completed on Friday.Shares in Philips Lighting closed up 2 percent at 32.975 euros on Tuesday, taking the rise this year to over 40 percent.Last year’s initial public offering (IPO) saw Philips sell a 25 percent stake, making Philips Lighting the world’s largest independent lighting maker.This was followed by further share sales in February and April this year.($1 = 0.8419 euros)Reporting by Alan Charlish in GdyniaEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philips-stake/philips-cuts-holding-in-philips-lighting-with-600-million-share-sale-idUSKBN1DS2GV'|'2017-11-29T02:27:00.000+02:00'
'fad95c7d63d989ed005b1e24f95d959101574dbe'|'Airbus poaches Rolls-Royce executive to head aircraft sales'|'November 28, 2017 / 8:07 AM / in an hour Airbus poaches Rolls-Royce executive to head aircraft sales Sudip Kar-Gupta , Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Airbus has hired the boss of Rolls-Royce’s civil engines division, Eric Schulz, to replace John Leahy as head of commercial aircraft sales, following months of uncertainty over who would replace the veteran dealmaker. FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A380 aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Schulz, president of Rolls Royce’s civil aerospace unit since January 2016, will join Europe’s largest planemaker at a time when it is struggling to continue Leahy’s legacy of record jetliner sales amid a rebound by arch-rival Boeing. The 54-year-old French engineer will report to Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders and join in January. Reuters reported on Sunday the Airbus board had been asked to approve a recommendation to back Schulz. Shares in Rolls-Royce, where Schulz has been part of a relatively new management team that has pulled the company out of a series of profit warnings, fell about 1 percent. Airbus stock rose 0.5 percent as the appointment cleared up uncertainty over who would fill the shoes of 67-year-old Leahy, whose retirement had been postponed for several months. The top sales post at Airbus is seen as the keystone of European competition against Boeing in the $100 billion (£75.26 billion) a year jet market, a top export earner on both sides of the Atlantic. Enders paid tribute to Leahy as a “living legend” who had overseen the sale of more than 16,000 jets and propelled Airbus from underdog to the industry’s top rung. Schulz began his career at one of Airbus’s founders, France’s former state-owned Aerospatiale, before working at aerospace supplier Goodrich via a stint at two French airlines: UTA and Air Liberte. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau “This combination of skills and experience makes Eric the right pick to succeed John Leahy at a critical juncture of our company’s development,” Enders said in a statement. RAMP-UP Rolls-Royce said Schulz would stay on until the end of the year but would not be involved in commercial negotiations during that period, a move designed to avoid upsetting Boeing since engine makers can play a role in swinging aircraft deals. At the British firm, Schulz oversaw a ramp-up in the production and the development of its next generation of civil aerospace engines. But his division has also suffered maintenance problems with engines already flying, particularly the Trent 1000 which powers the Boeing Dreamliner. Although Leahy signed off with a record deal at the Dubai Airshow this month, Schulz will inherit a Toulouse sales organisation unsettled by other defeats and seeking stability amid UK and French corruption probes into commercial jet sales. Insiders say morale has been badly hit by the probes, which centre on a now defunct Paris-based unit of Airbus headquarters. Airbus said Leahy would remain with the company for a short transition. Industry sources expect him to retire about Jan. 25. Leahy, meanwhile, aims to complete a preliminary 430-jet deal with Indigo Partners announced in Dubai, battling to end a 23-year stint as sales boss on a par with Boeing after a year in which Boeing has held a firm lead, especially on large jets. “I have never seen John give up on anything,” Enders said. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-moves-schulz/airbus-poaches-rolls-royce-executive-to-head-aircraft-sales-idUKKBN1DS0PC'|'2017-11-28T15:49:00.000+02:00'
'a93ef492ddb6df7e59423ba14ea1ad5d3d22aebb'|'Activist White Tale to take demands to Clariant shareholders'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:21 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Activist White Tale to take demands to Clariant shareholders Silke Koltrowitz 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Activist investor White Tale said it would take its demands directly to Clariant’s ( CLN.S ) shareholders after the chemicals maker snubbed its request for an independent strategic review and three seats on its board of directors. The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann White Tale last month derailed Clariant’s planned $20 billion merger with U.S.-based Huntsman HUN.S, after fighting it for months on the grounds it would destroy shareholder value. Now the investor, which recently increased its stake in Clariant to more than 20 percent to become the biggest shareholder, appears to be stepping up its fight for influence over the Swiss group. “White Tale has been consistent in both private conversations and in our public statements about the need for a thorough, independent review of all strategic alternatives,” White Tale said in a statement on Tuesday. “We look forward to bringing these matters to shareholders directly,” said White Tale, whose principals include hedge fund manager Keith Meister and New York investment firm 40 North’s David Winter and David Millstone. Last week, Clariant refused to hire an outside bank to review its options, contending that White Tale wanted only to break up the company. The board offered White Tale just one possible seat on its board. White Tale responded that it had never advocated breaking up the company “despite the false claims by Clariant”. White Tale has suggested in the past that Clariant divest its plastics and coatings business and invest the proceeds in higher-margin operations, but the activist investor said it was keeping an open mind about what a review might find. Clariant maintained its tough line on Tuesday while leaving the door open for more talks. “Clariant repeats its offer for a seat in its board of directors and the offer to White Tale to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which would allow them to gain more insight,” it said in a statement. It reiterated that it felt the review urged by White Tale would be limited to ”portfolio management without strategic insights, thus intended to solicit bids for parts or the whole of Clariant. “This intention is confirmed by the fact that White Tale has not yet presented any strategic basis for their alleged long-term interest in Clariant.” Clariant shares, which have risen by more than half this year as the company boosted its profit margins and faced pressure from White Tale to accelerate its development, were down 0.6 percent at 1030 GMT. Clariant announced plans on Friday for a strategic update in 2018 that would include “defining further actions such as M&A activities, short-term portfolio management options, potential returns to shareholders, a thorough review of the cost base and the pursuit of additional growth opportunities”. Clariant’s other big shareholder group - the Bavarian families who became owners of a combined 14 percent stake when Clariant bought Germany’s Sued Chemie in 2012 - have two board seats and support Clariant’s strategy, the company has said. Editing by Tom Hogue/Michael Shields/Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-clariant-whitetale/activist-white-tale-to-take-demands-to-clariant-shareholders-idUSKBN1DS0GS'|'2017-11-28T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'122f6b869657ed78c5ccaf3ff8e964419f8756b1'|'Areva headquarters raided by financial prosecutors'|'November 28, 2017 / 2:47 PM / in 13 minutes Areva headquarters raided by financial prosecutors Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Paris financial prosecutor investigators raided the offices of state-owned nuclear group Areva on Tuesday, but the raid was not related to Areva’s 2007 acquisition of uranium mine UraMin, a judicial source told Reuters. The logo of French state-controlled nuclear group Areva is seen at a news conference in Nanterre, France, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau French TV channel M6, which first reported the raid, said it was related to the UraMin investigation. An Areva spokeswoman confirmed the raid at the company’s headquarters in Paris’ La Defense district, but declined to give details about the investigation. Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Emmanuel Jarry; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-areva-probe/areva-headquarters-raided-by-financial-prosecutors-idUKKBN1DS1VW'|'2017-11-28T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'a96d719735066edeb6d9de872606e313eb6ae451'|'Markets get wake-up call from China''s post-congress deleveraging moves'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Markets get wake-up call from China''s post-congress deleveraging moves Marius Zaharia 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - The pace at which Beijing is announcing deleveraging reforms following last month’s Communist Party Congress is a wake-up call for investors in Chinese markets: risk just got real. Sweeping new rules for the asset management industry, a crackdown on micro loans and losses imposed on the creditors of the state-owned Chongqing Iron & Steel ( 601005.SS ) are not yet a “Big Bang” of reforms. FILE PHOTO: Ushers pose for photos at the Tiananmen Square during the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/File Photo Some of the measures were well flagged and will only kick in 2019. But they are sending a signal to markets that policymakers are serious about deleveraging, something that has been urged by the International Monetary Fund and ratings agencies for years and flagged as a top priority by President Xi Jinping at the party congress. Debt markets reacted first, with benchmark 10-year borrowing costs CN10YT=RR hitting three-year highs above 4 percent and yield spreads between government and corporate debt AAAIFR5YY=CDC widening as policymakers appear more tolerant of defaults. Last week, the debt sell-off spilled over into equities, which saw their worst day in 19 months, and markets have since weakened further. “The pace of new regulations” being announced “does look somewhat surprising,” said Alexander Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “It might have caught some people off guard.” But, he said, policymakers were ultimately trying to reduce risks in the system. “So I think that’s positive even if there’s some short-term volatility.” Two weeks ago, the central bank and the top regulators for banking, insurance, securities and foreign exchange announced unified rules covering asset management. The aim was to close loopholes that allow regulatory arbitrage, reduce leverage levels, eliminate the implicit guarantees some financial institutions offer against investment losses and rein in shadow banking. Last week, a top-level Chinese government body issued an urgent notice to provincial governments urging them to suspend regulatory approval for new internet micro-lenders in a bid to curb household debt, which is currently low but rising rapidly. In the meantime, creditors of Chongqing Iron & Steel Co ( 601005.SS ) took a 70 percent loss in a debt-to-equity swap restructuring of nearly 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) of debt. It’s not the first time the authorities have tried to get markets to price risk. In March 2014, Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co Ltd missed a bond interest payment, marking China’s first domestic bond default. But about six months later, domestic bondholders were bailed out after the default caused a jump in corporate bond yields. Debt-to-equity swaps are complex operations that are harder to undo than a missed bond payment and analysts say the move signals a clear path for tackling high corporate debt levels, which the Bank for International Settlements estimates at 1.6 times the size of the economy. “If you own the wrong stuff you’re in trouble because they are not going to bail you out any more,” said Joshua Crabb, head of Asian equities at Old Mutual Global Investors. FILE PHOTO: Cars are parked at the Great Hall of the People during the opening session of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo NO PANIC Crabb, however, remains bullish on China. Likewise, Aberdeen’s Wolf says China is “too big to ignore” and will look for select opportunities in other sectors aligned to policy priorities, such as consumption and technology, while avoiding the small banks that lose business as corporates deleverage. A key reason is that, unlike during the 2015 “Black Monday” stock market sell-off, there are fewer reasons to panic. Back then, valuations were 25 percent higher and China’s capital account was more open, allowing the sell-off to spill over into the foreign exchange market and damage investor confidence. China has since made it harder to move money overseas - September’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies being the latest move to close an exit route - so policymakers have better hopes of keeping the yuan stable. “Depreciation fears have somewhat alleviated and policy makers have been doing a great job in terms of managing outflows and changing overall expectations,” said Jean-Charles Sambor, deputy head of emerging market debt at BNP Paribas Asset Management. He said, however, that the recent announcements warranted a switch to government debt from corporate debt as he expected default rates to rise, while public debt should benefit from being included in MSCI’s widely used bond indexes. MOVING GRADUALLY The other source of comfort for investors is that Chinese policymakers are still keeping an eye on growth - they are likely to keep this year’s target of “around 6.5 percent” in 2018, according to policy sources. This means that they will be wary of tightening financial conditions too much to avoid hurting the healthier parts of the economy in the process, analysts say. “We feel that the regulators are serious about reducing systemic risk,” said one risk manager at a Chinese bank in Guangdong province, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. He added that his bank’s priority switched this year from business expansion to risk management. “However, the adjustment should be a long-term process since drastic changes within a short period will cause additional risks which will be against the regulators’ purpose.” (For a graphic on China keeps accumulating debt, click here ) Additional reporting by Michelle Chen in Hong Kong; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-debt-risk-analysis/markets-get-wake-up-call-from-chinas-post-congress-deleveraging-moves-idUKKBN1DS0GG'|'2017-11-28T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'c3adab00da9fd6c7b187f370ba4e3eee9a04b6b5'|'Global crypto-currency crackdown sparks search for safe havens'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:04 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Global crypto-currency crackdown sparks search for safe havens Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 8 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - When U.S. entrepreneur Bharath Rao looked around for the best place to raise money for his crypto-currency derivatives trading business, the United States did not make his list. Instead he chose the East African island nation Seychelles to sell the trading platform’s tokens. FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Rao, a San Diego-based technology veteran who has worked for major Wall Street banks, is not alone. Confronted with national regulators’ intensifying scrutiny of digital currency fund-raising, known as initial coin offerings, many entrepreneurs are moving businesses to locations more welcoming to crypto-currencies and known for low taxes. Dozens of start-ups have flocked to Singapore, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean this year, according to interviews with entrepreneurs and company registration data made available to Reuters. Like bitcoin, the best-known crypto-currency created in 2009, the coins use encryption and a blockchain transaction database enabling fast and anonymous transfer of funds without centralized payment systems. The numbers compiled by crypto-currency research firm Smith + Crown show how national regulators’ attempts to curb coin sales may just shift business elsewhere. The United States leads with 34 digital currency start-up registrations so far this year, but that reflects Silicon Valley’s role as a technology hub and the depth of U.S. financial markets rather than a welcoming regulatory climate. Singapore registered 21 entities, up from one in 2016, followed by 19 in Switzerland, up from three last year, according to Smith + Crown. Central Europe saw 14 companies registered this year, compared with one in 2016 and the Caribbean hosted 10, up from two last year. “The data affirms our sense that Switzerland and Singapore remain go-to locations, but the U.S. could remain for companies raising large amounts of money,” said Matt Chwierut, Smith + Crown’s research director. SWISS ADVANTAGE Switzerland does not have specific rules on digital coin sales, but some parts of an offer may fall under existing regulations, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said in September. So far, four of the five largest token sales, raising a total of over $600 million, were carried out by firms registered in Zug, a low-tax region south of Zurich known as the “crypto-valley” of the world. In contrast, China and South Korea banned digital coin sales this year and regulators in the United States, Malaysia, Dubai, United Kingdom and Germany warned investors that current scant oversight exposed them to risks of fraud, hacking or theft. Soaring registrations in “friendly” jurisdictions show how hard it is for national watchdogs to regulate digital coin sales. It is a challenge regulators begin to recognize. “We are talking to other regulators, and we know that there are a lot of bilateral discussions taking place,” the Dubai Financial Services Authority said in an email to Reuters. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission declined to comment about the migration of coin issuers to remote jurisdictions. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority and Securities Commission Malaysia reiterated their stance that digital coin sales are high-risk, speculative investments and that retail investors should be aware of that. A spokesman for Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) told Reuters “hopping” within the European Union would be “largely futile” since the EU supervisory authority has adopted the same stance as BaFin on the issue. The Dubai regulator pointed out that seeking out friendly jurisdictions was not unusual, but regulators still needed to warn about the inherent risks in digital coin sales. FILE PHOTO: A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo Financial regulators from South Korea and China were not immediately available for comment. In the United States, the SEC’s July 25 ruling that digital coins should be regulated as securities had a short-lived chilling effect on the crypto-currency market. Short-lived, because many U.S. startups thought they could avoid such scrutiny by selling “utility tokens,” which gave buyers access to products or services rather than a stake in the company. Still, concerns that regulators’ views might evolve, have made potential U.S. coin issuers consider sales overseas. “Our lawyers certainly think regulations on utility tokens could change. So for safety, the ICO should be done outside the U.S.,” said Arran Stewart, co-founder of U.S.-based Job.com, an online employment platform which plans a token offering in the Cayman Islands in February. In fact, out of 15 start-ups interviewed by Reuters only one, Airfox, sold digital tokens in the United States, raising $15 million last month. Others have either carried out a coin sale overseas or are planning one. Rao, who started Leverj, a decentralized crypto-currency futures trading platform, said he picked Seychelles for fund-raising because of its openness to crypto-currencies. “It has not issued anything negative on crypto,” Rao said. GONE IN MINUTES Digital coin sales soared to about $3.6 billion by mid-November, compared with just over $100 million in the whole of 2016, according to Autonomous NEXT, which tracks technology in the financial services industry. Typically, issuers publish a “white paper” describing their business plan and the news of new coin sales spread via online forums and websites tracking new offers. Investors pay for them with bitcoins or ether - two most widely accepted crypto-currencies - via a company’s website. The ease with which start-ups can raise millions of dollars with little scrutiny in as little as minutes, has alarmed regulators, but without unified approach they hold little sway over that new funding market. “It’s very difficult for governments to work together in any organized fashion,” said Lewis Cohen, a partner at Hogan Lovells in New York, which has a team of lawyers specializing in blockchain. “Different jurisdictions will look at token sales through different lenses and it would be very difficult to get on a completely harmonized place.” Nimble and lightly-regulated crypto-currency companies can straddle borders with ease. For example, BANKEX, which aims to convert illiquid assets into tokens to be traded on its crypto-currency platform, is registered in Delaware and plans a coin offering in the Cayman Islands this month, said the company’s CEO Igor Khmel. Hogan Lovell’s Cohen said that while it would be foolish to shut token sales down, they should be regulated, or self-regulated. “We may need to have some guard rails,” he said. “I don’t think it’s really fair for legitimate platforms that are trying to create new and innovative business models to be thrown in with other less scrupulous parties who may see token sales as a way of making a fast buck.” (For a graphic on blockchain the key, click here ) (For a graphic on ICO jurisdictions, click here ) Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Angela Moon in New York and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Editing by Tomasz Janowski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-regulation-tokens-insight/global-crypto-currency-crackdown-sparks-search-for-safe-havens-idUKKBN1DS0F2'|'2017-11-28T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'8da8994ed29c0619382bb7bb7584adebe19c7c33'|'BOJ''s Kuroda: "Reversal rate" helps clarify appropriate yield curve'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:11 AM / Updated an hour ago BOJ''s Kuroda: "Reversal rate" helps clarify appropriate yield curve Leika Kihara , Tetsushi Kajimoto 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday that a “reversal rate,” or the level where interest rate cuts by a central bank could hurt the economy, helps the BOJ understand the appropriate shape of the yield curve. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda listens to questions from the audience after his speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “It’s a theory that helps us understand the appropriate shape of the yield curve,” Kuroda told parliament, though adding that he did not see any sign now that the BOJ’s ultra-loose policy was causing serious damage to Japan’s banking system. Kuroda referred to an academic study on the reversal rate in a speech earlier this month, adding to recent growing signals from the BOJ that it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected. After three years of huge asset buying failed to accelerate inflation to its 2 percent target, the central bank revamped its policy framework last year to one targeting interest rates from the pace of money printing. With inflation remaining stubbornly low, the BOJ has come under criticism for eroding financial institutions’ margins. Speaking at the same parliament session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shrugged off criticism from some lawmakers that 2 percent inflation was too ambitious a target for a country mired in two decades of deflation. Abe said he saw no need to review a joint agreement between the BOJ and the government in 2013 that laid out steps each side would take to end deflation and achieve the inflation goal. “A positive economic cycle is falling in place. It’s true Japan has yet to achieve 2 percent inflation, but the joint agreement remains valid,” Abe said. “I expect the BOJ to promote bold monetary easing to achieve 2 percent inflation.” Editing by Chang-Ran Kim & Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj-kuroda/bojs-kuroda-reversal-rate-helps-clarify-appropriate-yield-curve-idUKKBN1DS0D4'|'2017-11-28T07:10:00.000+02:00'
'201fdf9d16d1e85e40bdf5d74db893f2da285e19'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1100 GMT on Wednesday:** Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr is meeting with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday to discuss anti-trust concerns over the German carrier’s acquisition of Air Berlin assets, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.** Daimler AG has turned down an offer from China’s Geely to take a stake of up to 5 percent via a discounted share placement, as the German automaker has long been reluctant to see existing shareholdings diluted, sources with knowledge of the talks said.** The biggest shareholders in Etalon sold 9.5 percent of company shares for $95.2 million, the Russian housebuilder said, reducing their holdings for the second time this year.** Vietnam will kick off next month the sale of a majority stake in the Sabeco, the country’s biggest brewer and the maker of Bia Saigon and 333 beers, in an ambitious deal the government hopes will rake in at least $5 billion.** Spain’s BBVA said it had agreed to sell 80 percent of its real estate business to U.S. fund Cerberus for 4 billion euros ($5 billion), one of the largest such deals as investor enthusiasm for Spanish property returns.** French investment company Eurazeo has agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in Rhone, a private equity firm set up by former Goldman Sachs and Lazard bankers, in a deal which Eurazeo said would boost its earnings.** Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd said it planned to spend $322 million buying 19 percent of blood products firm Zhenxing Biopharmaceutical & Chemical Co Ltd, as the once-troubled Chinese property developer continues to diversify. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NZ46Q'|'2017-11-29T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'abe4f1cc6c40a4610e447632fb18055d6012750a'|'Jet Airways, Air France-KLM announce tie-up on routes'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:27 AM / Updated 12 hours ago India''s Jet, Air France-KLM expand ties in potential challenge to Etihad Sankalp Phartiyal 3 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s Jet Airways ( JET.NS ) and Air France-KLM ( AIRF.PA ) on Wednesday announced a partnership to route more traffic through Europe and on to North America, in a potential challenge to Gulf carrier Etihad Airways that is a shareholder in Jet. Jean-Marc Janaillac (L), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM and Chairman of Air France shakes hand with Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways during a news conference in Mumbai, India, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Indian international air traffic is booming, but much of the growth has been captured by the three big Gulf carriers including Etihad, which owns 24 percent of Jet. The “enhanced cooperation agreement” with Air France-KLM, signed in India’s financial capital Mumbai, is designed to expand the number of flights to Europe and make Paris and Amsterdam hubs for connecting flights to the United States. The agreement also includes Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), with which Air France KLM has an existing partnership. International carriers are increasingly tying up on routes in the face of rising competition. Jet’s chief financial officer Amit Agarwal said in September that there was “continued weakness in the Gulf market both on the demand as well as yield.” He said flights into Amsterdam and Paris, which Jet launched recently, were a “brighter spot”. The Gulf will continue to be an important market and Jet will not reduce its operations there, Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet, told reporters alongside Jean-Marc Janaillac, Air France-KLM’s chairman. Goyal added that Jet had a “great relationship with Etihad” and that would continue. Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways speaks to Vinay Dube, CEO of Jet Airways during a news conference in Mumbai, India, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Under its previous CEO, James Hogan, Etihad had invested in Jet Airways as part of an aggressive strategy of growing its Abu Dhabi hub by taking stakes in other airlines that would funnel traffic to the United Arab Emirates. Two of the airlines, Alitalia and Air Berlin, have since entered administration and incoming Etihad CEO Tony Douglas is expected to reexamine its other equity investments when he starts in January. Slideshow (4 Images) Etihad was not immediately available for comment. CAPA Centre for Aviation senior analyst Will Horton said the Air France KLM partnership was a “textbook example” of the downside of Etihad having only a minority investment in Jet. “Under the new/expanded deal, Jet Airways will do more flying on its own compared to the Etihad deal. That boosts revenue,” he said. “Jet’s widebody fleet will also be better utilized - that’s also good for Jet.” Jet and Air France-KLM said in a statement the agreement announced on Wednesday would involve coordination of sales and services. They also signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation in cargo operations. Jet shares were trading 1.7 percent higher on Wednesday, while Air France-KLM shares were up 1 percent. Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE, Writing and additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-jet-airways-air-france-klm-jointventu/indias-jet-air-france-klm-announce-tie-up-on-routes-idINKBN1DT0ND'|'2017-11-29T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'e6f9d4e252a9ce28cd1df1bb27ce03e015daa410'|'Euro zone stability risks contained but remain aplenty - ECB'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:06 AM / in 16 minutes Europe''s central banks warn about bubbles critics say they helped create Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 5 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Three of Europe’s top central banks raised warning signals on Wednesday about the risk of financial bubbles that their ultra-easy monetary policies are blamed for creating. People walk by concrete barriers at the Christmas Market in Breitscheidplatz square in Berlin, Germany November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt The European Central Bank, Germany’s Bundesbank and Denmark’s Nationalbank highlighted pockets of vulnerability ranging from excessive property prices in some countries to complacent investors and easy lending by some banks. Critics have long blamed these phenomena on the central banks’ own ultra-low interest rates, aimed at spurring lending and risk-taking, and massive cash injections, such as the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro (£2.25 trillion) bond-buying programme. Germans in particular have been protesting that too much stimulus risks doing more damage than good -- a view that was reiterated by the country’s central bank on Wednesday. “Risks have built up, in particular, during the prolonged period of low interest rates –- the valuations of many investments are very high,” the Bundesbank warned in a report. “There is a danger that low interest rates and the favourable economic conditions in Germany might cause market participants to underestimate risks,” it added. The Bundesbank, as part of the euro zone system, cannot in itself do anything about loose monetary policy. Some German property prices may be as much as 30 percent overvalued while low banking profitability, a side effect of record low ECB rates, could increase the incentive for lenders to take on even more risk in hope of better returns, the central bank warned. Neighbouring Denmark, though not in the euro zone but closely aligned with ECB policy, had a similar warning. “Several banks are stepping on the accelerator by easing credit standards and granting loans to more vulnerable customers,” Danish central bank chief Lars Rohde said, arguing that some the country’s largest banks do not have sufficient capital to meet buffer requirements. The European Central Bank has extended its bond-buying stimulus programme into its fourth year, albeit at a reduced pace, even as growth on its best run for a decade and many financial assets are at record highs. Its vice president, Vitor Constancio, defended the decision on Wednesday, saying the ECB had to primarily focus on bringing inflation back up to its target of almost 2 percent and that there was no evidence of generalised bubbles in the euro zone. But he acknowledged that the ultra-easy policy had played a role in bringing market volatility, a measure of investors’ sensitivity to bad news, to record lows. “I can agree that has had some impact but central banks were doing their job and there are no policies without collateral effects,” Constancio said. “The institutions have to take the policy measures that correspond to their main mandate.” DILEMMA The central bank warnings highlight the ECB’s main dilemma: the Europe’s richer countries no longer need extraordinary stimulus but Mediterranean countries like Italy, Greece and Spain are just now starting to enjoy the benefits of the bloc’s economic expansion, now into its 19th quarter. Even the ECB warned that increased risk taking could inflate and possibly burst bubbles. “Continued risk premia compression and signs of increased risk-taking behaviour in financial markets are sources of concern as they may sow the seeds for large asset price corrections in the future,” the ECB said in a biannual stability report. Top vulnerabilities for the euro zone also include an abrupt repricing of global risk premia, weak bank sector profitability, renewed public debt concerns and liquidity risks in the non-bank financial sector, the ECB argued. Still, it took a relaxed view on the overall level of financial vulnerability, arguing that solid growth is actually increasing financial resilience and most risks were contained. It also said that property prices for the bloc as a whole were broadly in line with fundamentals, even if prime commercial property prices have continued to rise above their long-term averages. “Nevertheless, global risks in particular may trigger financial asset market corrections with negative repercussions on financial stability,” the ECB added. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-ecb/euro-zone-stability-risks-contained-but-remain-aplenty-ecb-idUKKBN1DT18X'|'2017-11-29T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'5968d37773304369563289ac3dc06ed217e80c6f'|'Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology'|'HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shale oil engineer Oscar Portillo spends his days drilling as many as five wells at once - without ever setting foot on a rig.FILE PHOTO - A drilling rig owned by Parsley Energy Inc. seen near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo Part of a team working to cut the cost of drilling a new shale well by a third, Portillo works from a Royal Dutch Shell Plc ( RDSa.L ) office in suburban Houston, his eyes darting among 13 monitors flashing data on speed, temperature and other metrics as he helps control rigs more than 500 miles (805 km) away in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield.For the last decade, smaller oil companies have led the way in shale technology, slashing costs by as much as half with breakthroughs such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that turned the United States into the world''s fastest-growing energy exporter.Infographic ID: ''2zCXvxE'' Now, oil majors that were slow to seize on shale are seeking further efficiencies by adapting technologies for highly automated offshore operations to shale and pursuing advances in digitalization that have reshaped industries from auto manufacturing to retail.If they are successful, the U.S. oil industry’s ability to bring more wells to production at lower cost could amp up future output and company profits. The firms could also frustrate the ongoing effort by The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) effort to drain a global oil glut.“We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Portillo said.The technological push comes amid worries that U.S. shale gains are slowing as investors press for higher financial returns. Many investors want producers to restrain spending and focus on generating higher returns, not volume, prompting some to pull back on drilling.Production at a majority of publicly traded shale producers rose just 1.3 percent over the first three quarters this year, according to Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ).But many U.S. shale producers vowed during third quarter earnings disclosures to deliver higher returns through technology, with many forecasting aggressive output hikes into 2018.Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) is using drones equipped with thermal imaging to detect leaks in oil tanks and pipelines across its shale fields, avoiding traditional ground inspections and lengthy shutdowns.Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) - the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producer - sees ample opportunity to boost both profits and output. Conoco also oversees remote drilling operations in a similar way to Shell.“The people that don’t have shale in their portfolios don’t understand it, frankly,” Lance said in an interview. “They think it’s going to go away quickly because of the high [production] decline rates, or that the resource is not nearly that substantial. They’re wrong on both counts.”FILE PHOTO: A rig contracted by Apache Corp drills a horizontal well in a search for oil and natural gas in the Wolfcamp shale located in the Permian Basin in West Texas, U.S. on October 29, 2013. REUTERS/Terry Wade/File Photo Shell, in an initiative called “iShale,” has marshaled technology from a dozen oilfield suppliers, including devices from subsea specialist TechnipFMC Plc ( FTI.N ) that separate fracking sand from oil and well-control software from Emerson Electric Co ( EMR.N ), to bring more automation and data analysis to shale operations.One idea borrowed from deepwater projects is using sensors to automatically adjust well flows and control separators that divvy natural gas, oil and water. Today, these subsea systems are expensive because they are built to operate at the extreme pressures and temperatures found miles under the ocean’s surface.Shell’s initiative aims to create cheaper versions for onshore production by incorporating low-cost sensors similar to those in Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) Watch, eliminating the need for workers to visit thousands of shale drilling rigs to read gauges and manually adjust valves. Shell envisions shale wells that predict when parts are near mechanical failure and schedule repairs automatically.By next year, the producer wants to begin remote fracking of wells, putting workers in one place to oversee several projects. It also would add solar panels and more powerful batteries to well sites to reduce electricity and diesel costs.Oil firms currently spend about $5.9 million to drill a new shale well, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Shell expects to chop that cost to less than $4 million apiece by the end of the decade.FILE PHOTO: An oil and gas processing plant fed by local shale wells is pictured along a highway outside Carrizo Springs, about 30 miles (48 km) from the Mexican border, in Dimmit County, Texas, U.S. on May 2, 2014. REUTERS/David Alire/File Photo “There is still very little automation,” said Amir Gerges, head of Shell’s Permian operations. “We haven’t scratched the surface.”TECHNOLOGY AND GEOLOGY Much of the new technology is focused on where rather than how to drill.“There is no amount of technology that can improve bad geology,” said Mark Papa, CEO of shale producer Centennial Resource Development Inc ( CDEV.O )Anadarko Petroleum ( APC.N ), Statoil ( STL.OL ) and others are using DNA sequencing to pinpoint high potential areas, collecting DNA from microbes in oil to search for the same DNA in rock samples. ConocoPhillip’s MRI techniques also borrow from medical advances.ConocoPhillips next year will start using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyze Permian rock samples and find the best drilling locations, a technique the company first developed for its Alaskan offshore operations.EOG Resources Inc ( EOG.N ) last year began using a detailed analysis of the oil quality of its fields. The analysis, designed by Houston start-up Premier Oilfield Laboratories, helps to speed decisions on fracking locations and avoid less productive sites.Premier has reduced the time needed to analyze seismic data to find oil reserves from days or weeks to seconds. Such efficiencies serve two purposes, said Nathan Ganser, Premier’s director of geochemical services.“It’s not only removing costs that are superfluous,” he said. “It’s boosting production.”Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-technology/pressured-for-profit-oil-majors-bet-big-on-shale-technology-idUSKBN1DS0FO'|'2017-11-28T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'c7a0db4a20a523125c6d950ac3e3aad18e2034f6'|'Russia''s Etalon says biggest shareholders to sell down stakes'|'MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The biggest shareholders in Etalon plan to sell down their stakes, the Russian housebuilder said on Tuesday, reducing their holdings for the second time this year.Strata Investments, a company owned by the family of Etalon founder Vyacheslav Zarenkov, and investment company Baring Vostok each plan to sell around 14.5 million global depository receipts in Etalon via an accelerated bookbuild.Etalon will not receive any proceeds from the sale, it said.In May, the two shareholders sold 37 million GDRs, pricing the deal at $3.58 per GDR.The Zarenkov family owns 36 percent of Etalon, while Baring Vostok held a 10 percent stake, as of mid-November this year.London-listed shares in Etalon were down 3.2 percent at $3.77 at 1800 GMT. (Writing by Maria Kiselyova and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-etalon/russias-etalon-says-biggest-shareholders-to-sell-down-stakes-idUSL8N1NY67D'|'2017-11-29T02:12:00.000+02:00'
'0483c62078959c78841b1d8a24525e5c21078557'|'METALS-Shanghai nickel tumbles on doubts over steel demand'|'SYDNEY, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Shanghai nickel futures tumbled more than 2 percent in early trade on Tuesday as reforms in China threaten steel-intensive infrastructure projects.ANZ Bank warned that weakness in the stainless steel sector continues to override the exuberance over electric vehicles and demand for nickel-rich batteries.Stainless steel production accounts for two thirds of nickel demand.Falls in equity markets have also raised concerns that liquidity will impact investor appetite in key commodity markets, ANZ said.FUNDAMENTALS * SHANGHAI NICKEL: The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was 2.35-percent lower at 93,480 yuan ($14,170.72) a tonne at 0100 GMT. The contract has now retreated by more than 10 percent from its one-year peak hit on Nov. 6.* LONDON NICKEL: Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange rebounded slightly to $11,620 a tonne, partially reversing a 3.9-percent loss in the previous session.* BHP TARGETS: Top global miner BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it would drive further cost cuts across its Australian business, and forecast strong price support from China for steelmaking raw materials.* TIGHT LEAD: The International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) last month made a significant revision to its outlook for the lead market this year. The market is now expected to be in a supply deficit of around 125,000 tonnes ahead of another 48,000-tonne deficit next year.* CHILE STRIKE: Workers at BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile ended a 24-hour strike on Friday, but could down tools again this week over the company’s planned layoffs. Escondida is the world’s largest copper mine.* POSTPONEMENT: A court hearing for a challenge by South Africa’s mining industry to revisions to a sector charter which include raising levels of black ownership has been postponed to February from December.* SHANGHAI COPPER: ShFE copper was 0.72-percent lower, with LME three-month copper also off slightly at $6,922.50 a tonne.* For the top stories in metals and other news, click orMARKETS NEWS * Asian shares stepped back from decade highs on Tuesday on worries about another sharp sell-off in Chinese stock markets, while the U.S. dollar trod water ahead of a crucial vote for a tax reform in the world’s largest economy.DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT) 0700 Germany Import prices Oct 0900 Euro zone Lending and money supply Oct 1200 Germany GfK consumer sentiment Dec 1330 U.S. Advance goods trade balance Oct 1330 U.S. Wholesale inventories Oct 1400 U.S. Monthly home price index Sep 1400 U.S. S&P/Case-Shiller home prices Sep 1500 U.S. Consumer confidence Nov 1500 U.S. Senate Banking Committee holds hearing onnomination of Jerome Powell to be chairman of theFederal ReservePRICES Three month LME copperMost active ShFE copperThree month LME aluminiumMost active ShFE aluminiumThree month LME zincMost active ShFE zincThree month LME leadMost active ShFE leadThree month LME nickelMost active ShFE nickelThree month LME tinMost active ShFE tinARBS ($1 = 6.5967 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Joseph RadfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-shanghai-nickel-tumbles-on-doubts-over-steel-demand-idUSL3N1NY1AH'|'2017-11-28T03:42:00.000+02:00'
'523cf094e4973d256f4925ab75af1684662eacd3'|'Cranswick posts 17.2 percent jump in half-year profit'|' 35 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Cranswick posts 17.2 percent jump in half-year profit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British pork and poultry producer Cranswick Plc reported a 17.2 percent jump in half-year profit, driven by higher sales and its recent acquisition of a pork business in Northern Ireland. The company, which has been boosting investments in its meat processing business, said like-for-like revenue rose 18 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30, while volumes were up 9.9 percent. The company, which bought Northern Ireland-based CCF Ballymena November 2016, said adjusted operating margin fell 34 basis points to 6.2 percent due to pressure from higher input costs. Cranswick, which processes and supplies fresh pork, sausage, bacon, cooked meats, poultry, charcuterie and pastry products, maintained its expectations for the full year. Adjusted profit before tax rose to 44.4 million pounds in the period from 37.9 million pounds a year ago. The company also raised interim dividend by 15.3 percent to 15.1 pence per share. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cranswick-results/cranswick-posts-17-2-percent-jump-in-half-year-profit-idUKKBN1DS0MM'|'2017-11-28T09:53:00.000+02:00'
'e5df3b57f1de90bd7705565ea14addb67fdfb406'|'Winter weather could stress power grids in several European countries'|' 32 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Winter weather could stress power grids in several European countries Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Sustained cold spells and low generation availability could cause problems for electricity networks in several European countries this winter although most are well prepared, a power network lobby said on Wednesday. Power systems last winter struggled to cope with unforeseen cold weather in January at a time of tight nuclear capacity in France, prompting the group of transmission system operators, ENTSO-E, to look closely at possible worst-case scenarios. The biggest risks in 2017/18 were seen in Britain, France, Belgium, Poland and Italy and looked most severe in the second week of January, ENTSO-E said in its biannual “adequacy report” on 36 countries. It covered the outlook from Nov. 29 through April 1 and stretched from central European countries as far as Turkey, Kosovo, Malta, and Burshtyn Island in Ukraine. Grids at the height of winter season can require more network usage to cover demand rises when consumers switch on heating and lighting more often, while stable thermal generation volumes are declining in a long-term transition to renewables. At the same time, if unneeded variable green power generation coincides with weak demand, for example should night temperatures be mild, there can be risks around the management of grid curtailment, which ENTSO-E said could happen in Ireland and some southern Italian regions. To cope with unforeseen power shortages, network managers can ask consumers to curb demand, or selectively shut them off. Weather watchers so far expect no particular problems. Most of Europe will likely experience above-average temperatures from December to February, the coldest months of the year, the Weather Company said recently. ENTSO-E noted that after a dry year, hydroelectric power reservoir levels that point to potential supply from pumped storage power stations, in Italy and Spain were close to the historical minimum. Those in France and Switzerland had recovered to near average values, and in Austria higher than average in October. It also said France, which is exposed to temperature risks, had overcome some nuclear availability problems but shut sizeable oil-fired power plants this year. Germany, Europe’s default exporter with huge nominal overcapacity, may be tight if a long cold spell coincides with low river water levels in the south, according to ENTSO-E. But it has various reserve schemes in place to meet potential shortfalls. Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europower-grids-report/winter-weather-could-stress-power-grids-in-several-european-countries-idUKKBN1DT2CH'|'2017-11-29T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'a170ea7c82e16e56bf42606edab5a2d4fe43cf3c'|'Indian court slaps Nestle India with fine over substandard noodles'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:41 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Indian court slaps Nestle India with fine over substandard noodles Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian court on Tuesday imposed a fine of 4.5 million rupees ($70,000) on Nestle India ( NEST.NS ) in a 2015 case for selling substandard instant noodles after a laboratory test found high ash content in its popular Maggi brand. FILE PHOTO: The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The court also slapped a 2.6 million rupee fine on the distributors of Nestle India, a unit of packaged food giant Nestle SA ( NESN.S ), said Ranjan Singh, a legal officer at the Shahjahanpur district court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. The case against the Swiss food firm’s India unit is one of several filed by regulators after they found excess lead, ash, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer, in different samples of Maggi noodles seized in Uttar Pradesh between 2015 and 2016. A spokesman for Nestle India said the company will appeal against the order. “This appears to be a case of application of incorrect standards, and we will file an appeal urgently once we receive the order,” said the spokesman, who did not wish to be named citing company policy. Maggi, Nestle India’s single-largest revenue earner, was banned in June 2015 for six months across India on allegations that it contained chemicals beyond prescribed limits. The company had to recall 38,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles from millions of retail shelves and destroy them. The ban was relaxed in November 2015. Reporting by Rupam Jain; Editing by Malini Menon and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nestle-india-court/indian-court-slaps-nestle-india-with-fine-over-substandard-noodles-idUKKBN1DT168'|'2017-11-29T11:41:00.000+02:00'
'1c922c993fabc0a06c7f75e4851927fffed1e00d'|'Tiffany''s sales, profit top estimates on demand for fashion jewelry'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:03 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Tiffany''s tops forecasts as Americas region rebounds Gayathree Ganesan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Upscale jeweler Tiffany & Co ( TIF.N ) topped estimates with results on Wednesday, citing higher demand for cheaper fashion jewelry and high-end diamond pendants and rings in the first full quarter under new Chief Executive Alessandro Bogliolo. In the Americas, Tiffany reported a rise in comparable sales following six quarters of decline. Asia-Pacific same-store sales rose two percent mainly due to demand in mainland China. That was offset by a dip in comparable sales in Europe and Japan, which prodded overall same-store sales numbers one percent lower and kept the company’s shares broadly flat on Wednesday after a 21 percent gain so far this year. Tiffany‘s, whose diamond engagement rings were popular with baby boomers, has been diversifying its offerings, adding fashion jewelry such as silver alloy bracelets to its portfolio to cater to price-conscious millennials. “The point is that Tiffany is trying something new and is grabbing the attention of shoppers,” GlobalData Retail’s Managing Director Neil Saunders said in an email on Wednesday. Saunders said Tiffany’s greater emphasis on fashion and designer collections has pulled in younger consumers to its stores while its urban Tiffany HardWear range is also resonating with a wider audience. A Tiffany & Co. store is pictured in Pasadena, California, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Other initiatives the company has introduced to turnaround its North American business include a range of home accessories, launching a cafe in its New York flagship store and opening two pop-up shops in Manhattan. Overall, Tiffany, known for its Robin egg blue boxes, boosted revenue by 3 percent to $976.2 million in the third quarter, while it increased its net income by 5.4 percent to $100.2 million, or 80 cents per share. The one percent fall in overall comparable sales compared to analysts’ average expectation of a 0.02 percent growth, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Analysts on average had expected Tiffany to post a profit of 76 cents per share and revenue of $957 million. The jeweler said it continues to expect sales to rise by low-single digits and earnings per share to grow in the mid-single digit percentage range for the full year. Goldman Sachs analyst Lindsay Mann said the Black Friday weekend was relatively strong for luxury items, indicating that it could be a positive start for Tiffany in the holiday quarter. Tiffany’s stock was just 0.25 percent lower at $93.63. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan and Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiffany-results/jeweler-tiffanys-third-quarter-sales-rises-3-percent-idUSKBN1DT1JY'|'2017-11-29T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'fbb4251d968a97607e988e5a5054ae043360cde0'|'Bitcoin tops $10,000 in some exchanges'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:59 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Bubble trouble? Bitcoin tops $11,000 after $1,000 surge in 12 hours Jemima Kelly , Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 5 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin zoomed past $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular fashion. After soaring more than 1,000 percent since the start of the year, bitcoin rose as much as 15 percent on Wednesday. It topped $10,000 for the first time in early Asia trading, before surging above $11,000 less than 12 hours later to reach $11,395 on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp BTC=BTSP , one of the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency exchanges, and then dipping back below $11,000. (Graphic: Bitcoin''s blistering ascent - tmsnrt.rs/2AHKJPd ) Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has led to countless warnings that it has reached bubble territory. But the warnings have had little effect, with dozens of new crypto-hedge funds entering the market and retail investors piling in. (Graphic: Bitcoin''s blistering ascent Image - tmsnrt.rs/2AeMjHe ) London-based Blockchain.info, one of the biggest global bitcoin wallet-providers, told Reuters on Wednesday that it had added a record number of new users on Tuesday, with more than 100,000 customers signing up, taking the total number to more than 19 million. (Graphic: Bitcoin price rockets - reut.rs/2zPekGm ) The evidence suggests that few of the users are buying bitcoin to use it as a means of exchange, but are speculating to increase their capital. “What’s happening right now has nothing to do with bitcoin’s functionality as a currency – this is pure mania that’s taken hold,” said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. “This is very much a bubble that will very much correct itself at some point and people need to be very careful.” Hileman, who last week gave a lecture to the Bank of England on the risks of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, also flagged the risk of the whole market collapsing entirely. “There’s always the possibility that some fundamental cryptographic flaw that we can’t solve craters the whole space, or that regulators unite and decide this represents systemic risk and actually could trigger the next financial crisis,” he said. Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration “EXIT RAMPS” Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a blockchain database that enables the fast and anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralized payment system. It has far outstripped gains seen in any traditional asset classes or currencies this year. It rise accelerated in recent months as exchanges such as the CME Group Inc ( CME.O ) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange announced plans to offer futures contracts for the cryptocurrency. Skeptics say it a classic speculative bubble with no relation to real financial market activity or the economy - most famously JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, who labeled it a “fraud”. But even Dimon and others who say bitcoin represents a bubble - now the consensus view among mainstream investors - do not deny its price rise could still have further to go. “It’s got all the shapings of your tulip bubble chart (but) that tells you nothing about where that price line could go depending on the number of people who wish to own it,” Standard Life’s head of investment strategy, Andrew Milligan, said on Wednesday. “Who is to say it doesn’t reach $100,000?” In some emerging markets, bitcoin had hit well over $10,000 previously. In Zimbabwe, bitcoin traded at $17,875 on Monday. Tuesday’s price in Zimbabwe was not available. In South Korean exchanges, too, bitcoin was already close to $11,000 or higher early this week. The fact that bitcoin now provides “exit ramps” from national currencies that were becoming easier to use, Hileman said, could exacerbate any future financial crisis. Coordinated regulatory action might therefore be necessary in order to stave off an “economic calamity”, he said. Despite its mushrooming value, however, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday bitcoin was not big enough to pose a risk to the global economy. Mike Novogratz, a former macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, said in a Reuters Investment Summit earlier this month that mainstream institutional investors were about six to eight months from adopting bitcoin. Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore, and Helen Reid and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-tops-10000-in-some-exchanges-idUKKBN1DS2X1'|'2017-11-29T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'1a976709c86fceb7312fa67c367d97daab210a04'|'UPDATE 1-Hong Kong''s Link REIT to sell $3 bln assets to Gaw Capital consortium'|'* Portfolio of 17 properties to be sold to consortium led by Gaw* Sale price is 52 pct premium to market value in September* Link REIT shares rise more than 3 percent to reach record high (Adds Gaw Capital consortium as buyer of the assets, adds share price)HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s Link Real Estate Investment Trust has agreed to sell some of its property assets to a consortium led by private-equity firm Gaw Capital Partners for HK$23 billion ($2.95 billion), sending its shares to a record high.Asia’s largest REIT by market capitalisation owned assets in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as of end-March. Its portfolio includes shopping centres, office buildings, car parks, wet markets and cooked food stalls.Shares in Link REIT rose more than 3 percent on Wednesday to touch an all-time high of HK$72.3, after the deal was announced late on Tuesday.Under the agreement, Link REIT is selling a portfolio of 17 properties, which includes shopping malls and cars parks. The sale price represents a 52 percent premium to the assets’ market value at the end of September, the company said.One of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, Hong Kong has seen hectic dealmaking as mainly Chinese buyers scoop up assets amid growing demand for residential and commercial buildings.Buyers of commercial real estate in Hong Kong are betting on a sustained recovery in the Asian financial hub’s retail economy, helped by robust local consumption and a pick-up in tourist numbers.Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital, a private-equity real-estate firm focused on Greater China and Asia, was among potential bidders shortlisted to buy the portfolio that was being divested by Link REIT, Reuters reported last month.Link REIT said in July this year that it intended to conduct a strategic review of its portfolio and had appointed HSBC and UBS as financial advisers, and DTZ Cushman & Wakefield as real-estate adviser.The company has made asset disposals and acquisitions over the past three years as part of an attempt to revamp its business model.“The competitive bids and final sale price signify a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s economy and retail sector,” George Hongchoy, CEO of Link Asset Management Ltd, the manager of Link REIT, said in a statement.The company said the auction for the properties had attracted interest from international investors, including global and regional private-equity funds, sovereign-wealth funds, as well as local investors.After the divestment, Link REIT will have about 90 percent of its assets in Hong Kong and 10 percent in China. The total portfolio value will be about HK$175 billion, it said in the statement.$1 = 7.8017 Hong Kong dollars Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lee Chyen Yee in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/link-reit-divestiture/update-1-hong-kongs-link-reit-to-sell-3-bln-assets-to-gaw-capital-consortium-idINL3N1NZ1F3'|'2017-11-28T23:57:00.000+02:00'
'5d378a297d56b44acc22a86065220a4ff64b0c67'|'Vietnam to sell majority stake in brewer Sabeco'|'HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Vietnam said on Wednesday it aims to sell 54 percent of Sabeco SAB.HM, the maker of Bia Saigon and 333 beers and the country’s biggest brewer, in a deal that the government hopes to raise nearly $5 billion.Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham The long-awaited sale has already attracted interest from brewers seeking access to what is the second-most profitable market for Heineken NV ( HEIN.AS ), which holds 5 percent of Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco).It could also provide a template for other privatisations which Hanoi is considering as part of broader economic reforms, including that of peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S ( CARLb.CO ) owns 17.3 percent.The mininum price for the long-stalled sale of Sabeco was set at 320,000 dong ($14.10) a share, trade ministry official Truong Thanh Hoai told a news conference on Wednesday.Foreigners already owned over 10 percent in Sabeco, and the total limit for such ownership was still capped at 49 percent, he said.Sabeco’s shares are trading at 340,000 dong and have tripled in value since the company listed on the Vietnamese market at 110,000 dong in December 2016. The government owns nearly 90 percent of Sabeco and analysts said the low float had inflated the market value.Vietnam is on track to become Asia’s biggest per-capita beer market and is shaping up as a battleground for global brewers thanks to a youthful population and beer-drinking culture.Sabeco’s sale process could also provide a template for other privatisations which Hanoi is considering as part of broader economic reforms, including that of peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S ( CARLb.CO ) owns 17.3 percent.Related Coverage Philippines'' San Miguel says looking to bid for Vietnam''s SabecoReporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-sale/vietnam-to-sell-majority-stake-in-sabeco-caps-foreign-ownership-at-39-percent-idUSKBN1DT0CH'|'2017-11-29T11:18:00.000+02:00'
'0f1d631ca28ed556e5350955151547396c613192'|'Noble Group to sell four ships to cut debt'|'November 29, 2017 / 1:03 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Noble Group to sell four ships to cut debt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Struggling commodity trader Noble Group Ltd ( NOBG.SI ) said on Wednesday it would sell four dry bulk carrier vessels for about $95 million, as it looks to cut debt to keep its business running. FILE PHOTO: A Noble Group sign is pictured at a meet-the-investors event in Singapore August 17, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo Net proceeds from the disposal, following repayment of bank loans associated with the ships and other costs, will amount to about $30 million, the company said in a statement. Noble, once a global commodity trader with ambitions to rival the likes of Glencore ( GLEN.L ) or Vitol, has shrivelled to an Asian-centric company focused largely on coal and freight trading after a crisis-wracked two years that have forced it to slash jobs and sell assets. Earlier this month, the company said it had started talks with stakeholders to restructure its debt and secure trade finances. Noble said the sale of the vessels was expected to close next year between March 10 and May 31 and would not significantly impact the operations of the freight business. Noble’s market value has plummeted more than 90 percent this year to about S$195 million (108.5 million pounds). Reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-noble-grp-m-a/noble-group-to-sell-four-ships-to-cut-debt-idUKKBN1DT04H'|'2017-11-29T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'3b9300f9d1600598471e7bde9fa993a20ec87fea'|'UK supermarkets say won''t run out of cigarettes after P&H''s collapse'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:04 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago UK supermarkets say won''t run out of cigarettes after P&H''s collapse Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s major supermarkets sought to reassure smokers on Wednesday that the collapse of Palmer & Harvey (P&H), the UK’s biggest tobacco distributor, would not lead to shortages of cigarettes. P&H, which also delivers food and drink to supermarkets and convenience stores, went into administration on Tuesday after running out of cash, raising the possibility of tobacco shortages across the UK. However, Tesco and Sainsbury‘s, both said they had set in train contingency plans to ensure their stores were stocked with sufficient tobacco products. “We can reassure Sainsbury’s customers that we have strong contingencies in place,” said a spokesman for the chain. Similarly a Tesco spokesman said: “We will now work to ensure that we can continue to meet our customers’ shopping needs.” Analysts said the stores of Britain’s major retailers would typically hold a few days tobacco stock. They said that as P&H had been teetering on the brink of collapse for several months the major retailers would have been talking to the big tobacco companies to work out the logistics of maintaining supplies. Imperial Brands, maker of Kool, Winston and Gauloises cigarettes, said on Wednesday it did not anticipate any significant disruption to its UK operations. P&H’s collapse would, however, cause problems for some smaller convenience store operators. Analysts at Peel Hunt said nearly half of the 1,650 stores in the McColl’s chain were supplied by P&H. They speculated that Morrisons, Britain’s fourth biggest supermarkets operator, could begin a few months early a long-term wholesale supply deal it agreed with McColl’s in August. Separately Britain’s Co-operative Group said on Wednesday it had agreed to become the exclusive wholesale supplier from next spring to Costcutter Supermarkets Group (CSG) which has a network of 2,200 Costcutter, Mace, Simply Fresh, Supershop and kwiksave convenience stores. The Co-op was also examining ways to support independent retailers within CSG until the formal agreement begins. “With P&H no longer able to supply our stores, we have activated our contingency plans that will see our retailers supported by the Co-op and other suppliers in the run-up to our deal with the Co-op,” said CSG CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer. Though Tesco had earlier this year signed a new deal with P&H, analysts said its demise in part reflected Tesco’s proposed 3.7 billion-pound takeover of Booker, Britain’s biggest wholesaler, a deal which earlier this month won provisional approval from the competition regulator. Meanwhile the shopowner members of the Nisa Retail convenience store franchiser and wholesale group earlier this month accepted the Co-op’s 138 million-pound takeover offer. Reporting by James DaveyEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-palmer-harvey-administration/uk-supermarkets-say-wont-run-out-of-cigarettes-after-phs-collapse-idUKKBN1DT1YS'|'2017-11-29T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'2a7cfabc931f35805b20200d74f464b0bcc569d1'|'RPT-COLUMN-Cobalt, the heart of darkness in the shiny electric vehicle story: Andy Home'|'(Repeats without change. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)By Andy HomeLONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The electric vehicle (EV) story continues to gather momentum, with even major oil companies scrambling to join the coming green energy revolution.Royal Dutch Shell has just announced a partnership with leading automotive companies to install super-fast chargers on European highways.But as ever more companies sign up to the bright, shiny EV future, there is rising concern about the heart of darkness in this new technology -- you can’t power an EV without a lithium-ion battery and, for now at least, you can’t make a battery without using cobalt.And most of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country racked by political instability, legal opacity and, at its darkest, child labour in its mines.This concentration of supply risk, both in terms of physical units and ethical sourcing, isn’t going away any time soon and could even worsen.THE DARK SIDE The DRC accounted for 66,000 tonnes of global mined cobalt production of 123,000 tonnes last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.That’s the official sector. There is also an artisanal stream of production, some of it using child labour and some of it controlled by insurgent militias.Quite how much cobalt this grey sector generates is the main “known unknown” in any analysis of world production.But it is an undisputed fact that it has been seeping into the official supply chain for years.Speaking at a London Metal Exchange (LME) seminar in October, Tony Southgate, head of cobalt marketing at Eurasian Resources Group, warned that “it’s almost inevitable (...) there are mobile phones in this room” containing cobalt from child labour in the DRC.The issue has moved to the top of the LME’s own agenda after complaints that one of its registered brands, produced by China’s Yantai Cash Industrial, could include metal sourced from the dark side of the DRC cobalt sector.The LME has written to producers asking for assurances on ethical and socially responsible minerals sourcing, while Yantai told the Financial Times that it is conducting its own due diligence exercise.LEGAL OPACITY Child labour is only one of multiple problems posed by the DRC to the emergence of an efficient raw materials chain for commodities used in batteries.The legal and financial framework around the country’s mining sector is both opaque and tinged with political interference.A recent study by U.S. advocacy group The Carter Center described state mining company Gecamines as operating a “parallel state” and concluded that $750 million from DRC’s copper mine privatisation process cannot be tracked reliably.Such allegations are vehemently denied by the DRC government, but legal controversy is never too far away in the DRC mining sector.Glencore, one of the leading operators in the country, has been sucked into a controversy surrounding the role of Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in the acquisition of assets now operated by its Katanga Mining subsidiary.Another operator, Groupe Forrest, is in legal dispute with Gecamines after the latter blocked access to its production site this year and awarded mining rights to another entity, Bloomberg reported.This particular three-way court tussle is having a direct market impact because production at the site has been halted, taking about 5,000 tonnes of cobalt out of the supply equation this year.THE FUTURE IS (DRC) COBALT Frankly, if the rest of the world could, it would happily not source any cobalt from the DRC.And the likes of Tesla and Apple are trying to do just that, working with potential future producers in Canada and the United States to create their own cobalt supply chains.There is no shortage of junior miner contestants in this ethical cobalt beauty contest, but right now the DRC is the dominant producer. And it’s going to remain so for the foreseeable future.Six of the top 10 cobalt-producing assets last year were located in the DRC, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.In 2022 the number will rise to nine out of the top 10, it forecasts. (“Cobalt - Supercharged as supply chain risk increases”)Quite simply, unless someone works out how to engineer cobalt out of the lithium-ion battery, the world is going to need a lot more cobalt and it’s still going to get most of it from the DRC.DANGEROUS DEPENDENCY This is a dangerously concentrated dependency, leaving a whole supply chain beholden to the political, legal and ethical uncertainties surrounding the DRC’s mining sector.The only comparison, S&P Global suggests, is a similar concentration of platinum production in South Africa.When that country was roiled by a wave of industrial action in 2014, it translated into a 20 percent dent in global supply that year. At least there were above-ground platinum stocks to fill the supply gap.Whether there would be sufficient inventory of cobalt to buffer the market against serious disruption in the DRC is a very moot point.The arrival of automotive companies to this dysfunctional market could in theory be a game-changer if they stimulate more supply and force a collective industry move to responsible sourcing.A template already exists in the form of the iTSCi programme aimed at improving transparency in the tin-tantalum-tungsten mining sector of central Africa, including particularly challenging operating environments such as Kivu Province in the DRC.Right now, however, a company such as Volkswagen is still at the early stage of simply trying to secure enough units to deliver on its electrification promise.Attempts to lock in future supply at prices below current levels have not yet yielded any tangible results.VW and other automakers are learning, to Quote: Rebecca Gordon, head of technology metals at CRU, “the value of cobalt in the ground”.Investing at the mine site would be one way of simultaneously ensuring supply in outright tonnage terms and in socially acceptable terms.Most car companies are still understandably wary of getting involved at such an upstream part of a supply chain, but if they don‘t, they will remain exposed to whatever happens in the heart of darkness that is the DRC.Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cobalt-supply-ahome/rpt-column-cobalt-the-heart-of-darkness-in-the-shiny-electric-vehicle-story-andy-home-idUSL8N1NY55E'|'2017-11-29T03:00:00.000+02:00'
'4697d025f74196bb1e95a65e5c66254ee6121562'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 30)'|' 36 PM / in 26 minutes EU mergers and takeovers (Nov 30) Reuters Staff 9 Min Read BRUSSELS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process: APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS None NEW LISTINGS -- Private equity firm KKR and South Korean industrial company LS Mtron to jointly acquire South Korean car components maker LS Auto (notified Nov. 29/deadline Jan. 12/simplified) -- Asset management firm Aviva Investors, which is part of UK insurer Aviva, and French pension fund ERAFP to jointly acquire a shopping centre in Strasbourg, France (notified Nov. 28/deadline Jan. 11/simplified) EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE DEC 4 -- Austrian energy and petrol station company OMV to acquire 40 percent of electric car charging company Smatrics which is owned by hydropower company Verbund and Germany’s Siemens (notified Oct. 26/deadline Dec. 4/simplified) DEC 5 -- China’s COSCO Shipping to acquire Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5) -- French car rental company Europcar to acquire Spanish peer Goldcar (notified Oct. 27/deadline Dec. 5) DEC 6 -- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (notified Oct. 30/deadline Dec. 6) DEC 7 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline Dec. 7) DEC 8 -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 11/deadline Dec. 8/simplified) -- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified) DEC 12 -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified) -- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12) DEC 13 -- French bank Credit Agricole’s Italian unit Cariparma to acquire at least 95 percent of three Italian savings banks Caricesena, Carim and Carismi (notified Nov. 8/deadline Dec. 13/simplified) DEC 15 -- German energy group Innogy and European Energy Exchange (EEX) to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 10/deadline Dec. 15/simplified) DEC 18 -- French property developer Fonciere des Regions and Marriott International to acquire joint control of Le Meridien Hotel in Nice (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified) -- German glasswear company Carl Zeiss and Deutsche Telekom to develop smart glasses (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified) -- Japanese engineering company Chiyoda Corp which is a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Portugal’s Energias de Portugal, energy company Trustwind, which is a unit of a joint venture between France’s Engie and Marubeni Corp, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, and Spanish energy company Repsol to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified) -- Australian investment bank MacQuarie and German storage services provider Oiltanking to acquire joint control of petrochemical storage operator Oiltanking Odfjell terminal Singapore (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified) DEC 19 -- German car parts supplier ZF subsidiary Zukunft Venture, German bicycle parts maker Gustav Magenwirth, German brakes maker Brake Force One and vehicle driving systems maker Unicorn Energy to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 14/deadline Dec. 19/simplified) DEC 20 -- South African chemicals company Tronox to acquire the titanium dioxide business of Cristal, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20) -- France’s Engie, Omnes Capital and Predica Prevoyance to jointly acquire several wind farms (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20/simplified) DEC 21 -- French aerospace group Safran to acquire French seats maker Zodiac Aerospace (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21) -- French bank Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to jointly acquire French property developer Powerhouse France (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21/simplified) -- Private equity firm CVC to acquire Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ women’s health business (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21) DEC 22 -- Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s container terminal operator Hutchison Ports Netherlands B.V. and Dutch stevedoring services provider TMA Holding to acquire joint control of Dutch logistics company TMA Logistics (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private equity firms CVC and Providence to acquire joint control of security services provider Skybox (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private eqyity firm BC Partners to acquire German ceramics maker CeramTec Holding GmbH (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Portuguese bank Banco Popular’s real estate business (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- French petroleum product storage and distribution group Rubis Group and Phillips 66 to acquire joint control of Zeller & Cie (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22) -- German investment group Porsche Digital GmbH, which is a subsidiary of German carmaker Volkswagen, and German publisher Axel Springer to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) JAN 4 -- Private equity firm EQT Fund Management to acquire German energy company G+E Getec Holding (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified) -- Spanish energy company Companía Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), which is controlled by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co, to acquire control of Spanish gas company CEPSA Gas Comercializadora (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified) JAN 5 -- U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s chip unit (notified Nov. 22/deadline Jan. 5/simplified) JAN 8 -- WME Entertainment Parent, which is controlled by private equity firm Silver Lake Group, and Perform Group Ltd, which is a unit of Access Industries Ltd, to set up a joint venture in South America (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- French energy company Engie to acquire indirect sole control of British energy trader IPM Energy Trading and UK natural gas shipping services provider International Power Fuel Co (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- Fund management firm Varde to acquire French vehicle leasing firm Fraikin (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- Japanese electronics parts maker Kyocera to acquire Japanese diecasting maker Ryobi’s power tool business (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) JAN 9 -- Comsa Concesionanes S.L., Mirova Core Infrastructure and Dutch fund manager PGGM Infrastructure Funds to acquire joint control of Cedinsa Concessionaria (notified Nov. 24/deadline Jan. 9/simplified) JAN 10 -- Chinese pork supplier WH Group subsidiary and U.S. meat producer Smithfield to acquire Polish meat company Pini Polonia (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10) -- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, German insurer Allianz and Spanish utility Gas Natural to acquire joint control of Gas Natural’s natural gas distribution business in Spain Gas Natural Fenosa Generacion Nuclear (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified) -- UK private equity firm TDR Capital to acquire French restaurant franchise operator Rossini Holding (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified) MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5) MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8) MARCH 15 -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline March 15) MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5) MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions) GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case. Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days. SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idUSL8N1O055D'|'2017-11-30T16:35:00.000+02:00'
'ca0e03eaf0e4e3cd2b15e9cf64509d297f75d506'|'Fitch sees U.S. auto sales for 2018 at 16.8 mln units'|'DETROIT, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings said it expects U.S. new vehicle sales to drop slightly in 2018, which “could weigh a bit” on General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co because of the importance of their home market on their overall earnings performance.Fitch expects auto sales to hit 16.8 million units in 2018. Auto consultancy LMC recently raised its 2017 full-year forecast to 17.2 million units from 17.1 million units.“Although Fitch’s outlook for the U.S. auto sector is stable, downside risks are increasing,” senior director Stephen Brown wrote in a note.Despite the risk for GM and Ford, Brown wrote both automakers should “perform solidly” in 2018.Near term, Brown wrote that geopolitical risks such as the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) “that could negatively impact the sector are rising.”Longer term, new technologies such as electric vehicles and self-driving cars could create new competitors that may “upend the industry’s status quo,” he added.U.S. new auto sales rose from the end of the Great Recession through to 2016 when they hit an annual record of 17.55 million units.But a saturated market, thanks partly to a glut of nearly new used vehicles, has forced automakers to hike discounts to entice consumers to buy this year and full-year 2017 total sales are expected to decline slightly to a little over 17 million units versus 2016.LMC expects car sales to dip slightly to 17 million units in 2018 and 16.8 million units in 2019.Reporting By Nick Carey; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-autos-forecast/fitch-sees-u-s-auto-sales-for-2018-at-16-8-mln-units-idUSL1N1NZ2LS'|'2017-11-30T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'44d18fa07ba1699b8b3558b9a7fe108720bc800c'|'Marston''s shares cheered by profit rise on food and beer sales'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:40 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Marston''s shares cheered by profit rise on food and beer sales Rahul B 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Marston’s Plc shares rose by nearly 10 percent after the British pub operator said on Thursday that strong sales and tighter cost control helped it post a near 3 percent rise in annual profit. Steam rises from the Marston''s Brewery in Burton upon Trent, central England, October 14, 2008. REUTERS/Darren Staples Rising inflation and muted wage growth has reduced Britons’ appetite for eating and drinking out, but Marston‘s, which owns pubs such as Two for One and Carvery, said it had made a strong start to its new year. Larger rival Greene King on Thursday flagged weakness in consumer spending and higher costs as it reported an 8 percent drop in first-half profit, while Mitchells and Butlers last week reported a fall in profit and scrapped its interim dividend. Marston’s said its sales growth was led by a strong performance from its food-focused pubs, along with a 30 percent rise in revenue from its brewing business, which includes drinks such as 61 Deep Pale Ale and Lancaster Bomber. “About 85 percent of our drink costs are fixed into 2018 and (a) large number of those are actually contracted out until 2020,” Marston’s Chief Executive Ralph Findlay said of the measures it has taken to tackle rising costs. “These fixed-rate forward contract include for lager supplies from international lager brewers such as Heineken and Molson Coors Brewing Co,” Findlay added. Higher input costs are in part due to the slide in the value of pound since the Brexit vote in June 2016. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-marstons-results/marstons-shares-cheered-by-profit-rise-on-food-and-beer-sales-idUKKBN1DU1VK'|'2017-11-30T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'0040dc350ff3622a8a73dc04ea7058c0da813ffc'|'Obamacare enrollment could fall millions short 2018'|'Obamacare enrollment could fall millions short for 2018 by Tami Luhby @Luhby November 30, 2017: 3:11 PM ET What you need to know about Obamacare 2018 Nearly 2.8 million people have signed up for 2018 Obamacare policies on the federal exchange during the first 25 days of enrollment season. That''s quite a bit more than at this point in prior periods. Last year, 2.1 million people signed up in the first 26 days. While those numbers may seem to bode well for the future of the health reform law, it depends on how you look at it. True, an average of 111,300 have signed up each day this season, compared to 82,200 a year ago and 72,900 two years ago, according to data crunched by Get America Covered, which aims to promote Obamacare open enrollment. "Enrollment continues to outpace previous years," said Lori Lodes, a former Obama administration official who co-founded Get America Covered. Another plus: The exchanges are attracting many new customers. Some 718,300 of those who signed up so far are new, compared to 519,500 last year. The rest are returning enrollees. All but one of the 39 states in the federal exchange saw enrollment growth. Some 53% more residents in Maine have picked plans, while 52% more Texans and Wyoming residents have signed up. Only West Virginia saw a drop -- of 1%. Several states that run their own exchanges are also reporting increased interest. For instance, the Washington Health Benefit Exchange on Wednesday reported a 43% jump in new sign-ups and an 18% uptick in traffic through first four weeks of open enrollment. In New York, enrollment is outpacing last year by about 13%, with more than 140,000 consumers picking Obamacare plans and nearly 700,000 signing up for essential plans (for moderate-income residents) in the first four weeks. All this is good news for Obamacare supporters, who say that the law is essential for and remains popular among millions of Americans despite President Trump and Congressional Republicans'' vows to repeal it. Related: Obamacare shoppers find fewer insurer choices on exchanges But the picture is not as rosy if one considers that the open enrollment period is a little more than halfway over. The Trump administration slashed the enrollment season so most people only have until Dec. 15 to pick plans, rather than the three months or more they had in previous years. (Some state-based exchanges have extended the period to as late as Jan. 30.) That means the pace will have to pick up substantially to come close to the 9.2 million who signed up on the federal exchange by the end of open enrollment for 2017. (Another 3 million people picked plans through the state-based exchanges.) The deadline-induced enrollment surge for the ACA marketplace is going to have to be really big to match last year''s signups. https://t.co/jPO0kuczg0 — Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) November 29, 2017 Even Lodes acknowledged that in her assessment on Wednesday. "Another solid week for enrollment but we need it to pick up the pace to track enrollment from last year," she said. To be sure, many consumers wait until the last minute to enroll. So it''s tough to estimate how many people will sign up in the final 20-day stretch. The pace, however, has been slowing since the enrollment period began on Nov. 1. In the first four days, an average of 150,400 people signed up daily. Those are likely sicker Americans who really need the coverage. Obamacare supporters worry that many other potential enrollees -- particularly the younger and healthier Americans that insurers crave and that keep premiums down -- don''t realize that they have less time to sign up this year. Theadministration cut the advertising budget for open enrollment by 90%, ending some of the most effective marketing tools, including television and radio spots. Americans are noticing -- or in this case, not noticing. Some 45% said they heard less about open enrollment than they had in previous years, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in mid-November. Another 38% said they heard about the same amount, while 16% said they heard more. One thing that will boost the figures is that a hefty number of current enrollees will be automatically put into plans for 2018 on Dec. 16. Last year, about 2.2 million consumers were auto renewed in the federal marketplace. Many experts expect sign ups will decline for 2018, after dipping by half a million this year. S&P Global projected that between 10.6 million and 11.4 million people will pick plans by the end of the enrollment period. Charles Gaba, a blogger who tracks enrollment at ACASignups.net, estimates about 10 million people will sign up -- 7.5 million on the federal exchange and another 2.5 million on the state exchanges. Consumers aren''t considered enrolled until they make their first premium payment. Enrollment also varies during the year as people drop out because they find coverage elsewhere or they stop paying their premiums. Others join after losing their jobs or have other major life changes. CNNMoney (New York) First published November 30, 2017: 3:11 PM ET '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_economy.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/30/news/economy/obamacare-enrollment-2018/index.html'|'2017-11-30T22:11:00.000+02:00'
'db8cdb6d47a4a7be56c5238f3d4e56ca748760fb'|'China vows more checks on teachers after kindergarten abuse scandal'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday pledged stiffer oversight of preschool teachers, including closer checks on their qualifications, following an outcry over allegations of child abuse at a private kindergarten in Beijing.The case has become a lighting rod for anger at a lack of trained teachers, low wages and poor oversight in China’s massive and fast-growing private pre-school sector.Claims that teachers at a school in the capital run by New York-listed RYB Education had abused children sparked an outpouring of anger online last week.On Tuesday, police in Beijing dismissed as unfounded some of the claims, such as one that children were given tablets or another that doctors had undressed them for medical checkups.The education ministry will do more to check the qualifications of new entrants to teaching and will adopt tougher oversight measures, deputy minister Tian Xuejun said, in reply to a question from Reuters about the scandal.Most teachers are cautious and conscientious workers who provide a happy environment for children, he said, adding, “But there have also been a few individual incidents like this that we do not wish to see.”Tian attributed such events to Chinese parents’ unmet demand for pre-school education of high quality.“We believe one side of incidents like this at kindergartens reflects a contradiction between the masses’ rigid desire for pre-schools and the inadequate and unbalanced development of education,” he said.Tian’s view echoed President Xi Jinping’s declaration, at a top meeting of the ruling Communist Party in October, that the core issue facing Chinese society is unequal and imbalanced development that fails to meet people’s desire for a nice life.RYB appears to have weathered the storm, seeing its shares recover some of their initial losses after the scandal broke, thanks in part to active and effective crisis management by the company’s founder, experts said.Teachers and academics have said that stamping out abuse remains a challenge in China, especially at franchised, private-sector schools where competition for entry is fierce and norms for teachers are less stringent.Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Clarence Fernandez '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rybeducation-china/china-vows-more-checks-on-teachers-after-kindergarten-abuse-scandal-idUSKBN1DU0FV'|'2017-11-30T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'ef00d4c262baffbc2a3b48e17c9675d0c6a6c0c5'|'Verizon plan to launch 5G broadband lifts shares'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:54 PM / in an hour Verizon plan to launch 5G broadband lifts shares   NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) shares rose 2 percent in midday trading on Thursday after the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier said it would launch next-generation high-speed Internet services in three to five U.S. markets in 2018. The Verizon logo is seen on the side of a truck in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The company said on Wednesday it had successfully tested its 5G broadband service in 11 markets this year and that its first commercial launch was planned for Sacramento, California, in the second half of 2018. 5G is expected to offer faster speeds and response times, and higher capacity. Both Verizon and rival AT&T Inc ( T.N ) have been testing faster broadband services, where the last leg of the connection is delivered via a radio signal to a home or business using high-band wireless airwaves known as millimeter wave. Verizon shares were up 2.1 percent at $50.96. The service, called fixed wireless, is considered to be the first application of 5G technology and could eventually be a competitor to the high-speed Internet services offered by cable companies. Verizon said it estimates the market opportunity for initial 5G residential broadband services to be about 30 million households nationwide. Shares of cable companies Charter Communications Inc ( CHTR.O ) and Altice USA Inc ( ATUS.N ) were down 2.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. Shares of Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ), the largest U.S. cable provider, fell 0.3 percent. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-verizon-stocks/verizon-plan-to-launch-5g-broadband-lifts-shares-idUSKBN1DU2IP'|'2017-11-30T19:53:00.000+02:00'
'c525e35f21de5517a8eee9fb591634b83b17bdf0'|'Brazil bankruptcy judge weakens Oi board, bolsters management'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A Brazilian bankruptcy judge overseeing Oi SA’s in-court debt restructuring has put newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles in charge of negotiating with creditors, the telecom operator said in a filing.The move, disclosed late on Wednesday night, gives Teles powers to draft a debt restructuring plan and present it to the judge without board approval, a move that severely weakens the power of influential shareholder Nelson Tanure.According to the filing, Teles is the “person responsible for conducting and concluding negotiations” by Dec. 12, the new deadline for a proposal to restructure some 65 billion reais ($20 billion) of debt in Latin America’s biggest bankruptcy case ever.$1 = 3.26 reais Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-bankruptcy-judge-weakens-oi-board-bolsters-management-idINL1N1O00MD'|'2017-11-30T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'5303189138f4cf5e4590ba3c6c6f265a6c1a9291'|'China pushing billions into Iranian economy as Western firms stall'|'November 30, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago China pushing billions into Iranian economy as Western firms stall Mark Bendeich , Parisa Hafezi 6 Min Read ROME/ANKARA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - China is financing billions of dollars worth of Chinese-led projects in Iran, making deep inroads into the economy while European competitors struggle to find banks willing to fund their ambitions, Iranian government and industry officials said. Freed from crippling nuclear sanctions two years ago, Iran is drawing unprecedented Chinese funding for everything from railways to hospitals, they said. State-owned investment arm CITIC Group recently established a $10 billion credit line and China Development Bank is considering $15 billion more. “They (Western firms) had better come quickly to Iran otherwise China will take over,” said Ferial Mostofi, head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce’s investment commission, speaking on the sidelines of an Iran-Italy investment meeting in Rome. The Chinese funding, by far the largest statement of investment intent of any country in Iran, is in stark contrast with the drought facing Western investors since U.S. President Donald Trump disavowed the 2015 pact agreed by major powers, raising the threat sanctions could be reimposed. Iranian officials say the deals are part of Beijing’s $124 billion Belt and Road initiative, which aims to build new infrastructure - from highways and railways to ports and power plants - between China and Europe to pave the way for an expansion of trade. A source in China familiar with the CITIC credit line, which was agreed in September, called it “an agreement of strategic intent”. The source declined to give details on projects to be financed, but Iranian media reports have said they would include water management, energy, environment and transport projects. An Iranian central bank source said loans under the credit line would be primarily extended in euros and yuan. The China Development Bank signed a memorandum of understanding for $15 billion, Iranian state news agency IRNA said on Sept. 15. The bank itself declined to comment, in line with many foreign investors and banks, including from China, who were reluctant to discuss their activities in Iran for this story. The web sites of banks and companies often carry little or no information on their Iran operations. POWERHOUSE With a population of 80 million and a large, sophisticated middle class, Iran has the potential to be a regional economic powerhouse. But with the risk of sanctions hanging in the air, more and more foreign investors want Tehran to issue sovereign guarantees to protect them in case the projects are halted. Economic ties between Iran and Italy, its biggest European trade partner, have been affected. Italy’s state-owned rail company, Ferrovie dello Stato, is a consultant in the building of a 415-km (260-mile) high-speed north-south rail line between Tehran to Isfahan via Qom by state-owned China Railway Engineering Corp. The Italian firm is separately contracted to build a line from Qom west to Arak, but it needs 1.2 billion euros in financing. Though backed by the state’s export insurance agency, it says it needs a sovereign guarantee. “We are finalising the negotiations and we are optimistic about moving forward,” said Riccardo Monti, chairman of Italferr, the state firm’s engineering unit, adding that the financing should be finalised by March next year. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s promise in Tehran last year to oil the wheels of trade with a 4 billion euro credit line from Italy’s state investment vehicle is effectively dead, a source in Italy familiar with the matter said. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) risked losing the confidence of its many U.S. bond-holders who could sell down their holdings if the credit line went ahead, the source said. A few European banks have deepened trade ties with Iran this year -- Austria’s Oberbank inked a financing deal with Iran in September. South Korea has also proved a willing investor, with Seoul’s Eximbank signing an 8 billion euros credit line for projects in Iran in August, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. But China is the standout. Valerio de Molli, head of Italian think tank European House Ambrosetti, reckons China now accounts for more than double the EU’s share of Iran’s total trade. “The time to act is now, otherwise opportunities nurtured so far will be lost,” de Molli said. A MOVING TRAIN Iranian officials attending this week’s meeting in Rome sought to goad European firms and their bankers into action by talking up the Chinese financing and investments. “The train is going forward,” said Fereidun Haghbin, director general of economic affairs at Iran’s foreign ministry. “The world is a lot greater than the United States.” Some Iranian officials remain concerned that investment could become lop-sided and are looking at creative ways to maintain investment links with the West, however. The Iran chamber is encouraging Western firms to consider transferring technology as a way of earning equity in Iranian projects rather than focusing on capital. It was also seeking approval to set up a 2.5-billion-euro offshore fund, perhaps in Luxembourg, as an indirect way for foreigners to invest in Iran, especially small and medium-sized Iranian enterprises, Mostofi said. The fund would issue the financial guarantees that foreigners want in return for a fee, effectively stepping in where banks now fear to tread. Most of the fund’s capital would come from Iran, Mostofi said. For now, however, big Western firms remain stuck. Italian power engineering firm Ansaldo Energia, controlled by state investor CDP and part-owned by Shanghai Electric Group , has been in Iran for 70 years. Its chairman, Giuseppe Zampini, told Reuters at the Rome conference there were many opportunities for new contracts but his hands were tied for now, partly because Ansaldo bonds were also in the hands of U.S. investors. “My heart says that we are losing something,” Zampini said. (Additional reporting by Shu Zhang in BEIJING, Stefano Bernabei in ROME, Parisa Hafezi in ANKARA and Jonathan Saul in LONDON; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/iran-nuclear-china/china-pushing-billions-into-iranian-economy-as-western-firms-stall-idUSL3N1NY4SO'|'2017-11-30T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'8604ae64afafd60b0ccb00a9a3aaa0de4dd33312'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 30 - Reuters'|'Nov 30 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen to open 30 points lower at 7,363.5 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * UNILEVER: Anglo-Dutch consumer goods maker Unilever, told investors on Wednesday that it expects new products and a leaner organization to help win an intensifying battle to sell packaged goods around the world. * BRITAIN-EU: Britain is close to a deal over the Northern Ireland border, after British officials made proposals this week to avoid a "hard border" in Ireland, according to Thursday''s edition of The Times newspaper. * BRITAIN-ECONOMY: Britain''s closest-watched gauge of consumer sentiment fell this month to its lowest since just after last year''s Brexit vote, and business morale also softened, as households and firms took a darker view of the economic outlook. * LSE-MOVES: Hedge fund TCI has written to the board of the London Stock Exchange to say it intends to respond more fully on Thursday, after the exchange asked the fund to withdraw a call for an extraordinary general meeting. * BANKS: Britain''s regulators will tweak banking and insurance rules inherited from the European Union after Brexit to make them more tailored to the British market, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday. * GOLD: Gold on Thursday held close to a one-week low hit in the previous session, pressured by upbeat U.S. growth data for the third quarter and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen''s bullish view of the economy. * OIL: Oil markets were cautious on Thursday ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, with producers set to debate an extension of the supply-cut agreement that came into effect in January with the goal of tightening supplies and propping up prices. * EX-DIVS: International Consolidated Airlines Group, Johnson Matthey, Land Securities, Severn Trent will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 1.3 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations * The UK blue chip index dropped 0.9 percent on Wednesday, as jump in sterling after reports of a breakthrough in Brexit talks. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Marston''s PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Greene King PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Go-Ahead Group PLC Q1 2017 Trading Statement Release PayPoint PLC Half Year 2017 Earnings Release Daily Mail and General Trust PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Grainger PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-30-idINL3N1O02R6'|'2017-11-30T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'e05d1e5f1eaba8228d755591c58aead0fae65ab9'|'Morning News Call - India, November 30'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 9:30 am: Bajaj Electricals Executive VP Pratap Gharge, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Information Technology Group VP Edsel Pereira, Mahindra Group Digital Transformation Senior VP Jaspreet Bindra at Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Conclave in Mumbai. 11:00 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to deliver a lecture in New Delhi. 11:00 am: NITI Aayog Principal Advisor Ratan Watal at release of strategy paper on resource efficiency New Delhi. 12:30 pm: Junior Minister for Corporate Affairs P.P. Chaudhary and JK Tyre & Industries CMD Raghupati Singhania at National CSR Summit 2017 New Delhi. 2:15 pm: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India CEO Pawan Agarwal at National CSR Summit 2017 New Delhi. 5:00 pm: Government to release October Infrastructure output data New Delhi. 5:30 pm: Government to release July- September GDP data New Delhi. 5:45 pm: Chief Statistician T.C A. Anant to address media post release of GDP data New Delhi. INDIA TOP NEWS • India seen posting stronger growth as businesses adjust to new tax India''s economic growth pace likely picked up in the three months ending in September, halting a five-quarter slide as businesses started to overcome teething troubles after the bumpy launch of a national sales tax. • India''s Jet, Air France-KLM expand ties in potential challenge to Etihad India''s Jet Airways and Air France-KLM on Wednesday announced a partnership to route more traffic through Europe and on to North America, in a potential challenge to Gulf carrier Etihad Airways that is a shareholder in Jet. • India''s top listed firms log best profit growth in six quarters Earnings for companies in India''s broader NSE index rose at their best pace in six quarters during July-September, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data, showcasing how profits are finally looking up after a prolonged spell of sluggish growth. • Indian court slaps Nestle India with fine over substandard noodles An Indian court on Tuesday imposed a fine of 4.5 million rupees on Nestle India in a 2015 case for selling substandard instant noodles after a laboratory test found high ash content in its popular Maggi brand. • India''s Mecon partners Italy''s CSM to develop electrical steel India''s state-owned consultancy and engineering firm Mecon Ltd signed a preliminary understanding with Italy''s Centro Sviluppo Materiali to develop electrical and automotive grade steel for domestic steelmakers. • UAE''s RAK Ceramics plans capacity expansion in India -CEO RAK Ceramics plans to build a third plant in India to almost double its production capacity there next year, the UAE-based company''s chief executive told Reuters. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Japan October industrial output rebounds, manufacturers see good times ahead Japan''s industrial output rose less than expected in October, but companies forecast production to rise strongly in November and December as robust overseas demand continues to support factory activity and broader economic growth. • Bubble trouble? Bitcoin tops $11,000, but fades after sharp rally Bitcoin zoomed past $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular fashion. • U.S. Senate takes step toward passage of tax bill, vote likely this week The U.S. Senate on Wednesday took a step toward passage of tax legislation that is a top White House priority, setting up a likely decisive vote later this week even though it was unclear if the bill hadX LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,013.00, trading down 0.45 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade as the market prepares for a fresh supply of notes and the release of the nation''s gross domestic product data. The yield on the benchmark 6.79% bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.00 percent-7.05 percent band till the cut-offs of the 150 billion-rupee debt sale. • The Indian rupee will likely open lower against the dollar, as weakness in regional equities may hurt local shares ahead of India’s July-September economic growth and fiscal deficit data, due later today. GLOBAL MARKETS • The Nasdaq posted its biggest one-day drop in more than three months on Wednesday as investors fled high-flying technology stocks and shifted to banks and other pockets of the market that could benefit from improving economic conditions, lower regulations and taxes as well as higher interest rates. • Asian shares fell, weighed down by a plunge in high-flying technology shares, a move that some see as a healthy correction after a strong rally but others believe may herald the peak of a "super cycle" that has been boosting the sector. • The dollar was higher in Asian trading after upbeat U.S. economic growth data, but was on track for a monthly loss against a basket of currencies as investors warily watched progress of the U.S. tax reform legislation. • U.S. Treasury yields rose across most maturities on Wednesday bolstered by upbeat remarks on the economy by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and data showing stronger than expected U.S. economic growth for the third quarter. • Oil markets opened cautiously ahead of the outcome of an OPEC meeting in Vienna later in the day, with members set to debate the path for an extension of the group''s supply-cut agreement. • Gold held near a one-week low hit in the previous session, as the dollar firmed amid upbeat U.S. growth data and as a likely vote neared on U.S. tax legislation. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.35/64.38 November 29 -$133.49 mln -$0.16 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.10 pct Month-to-date $3.14 bln -$178.50 mln Year-to-date $8.79 bln $25.77 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.35 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-30-idUSL3N1O01OR'|'2017-11-30T11:21:00.000+02:00'
'0a6cd9e5cc0685c81145a30ae2611db339c02392'|'Disney eliminates 150 jobs at ESPN'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co’s ESPN unit is laying off about 150 employees, ESPN President John Skipper said in a memo to employees on Wednesday."The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content and technology, and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources," Skipper said. ( es.pn/2Agl8fm ) (Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/disney-jobs/disney-eliminates-150-jobs-at-espn-idINL3N1NZ52E'|'2017-11-29T11:32:00.000+02:00'
'b34d053f755c0a9e9edd91f26757dc29ee5c488b'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 29'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Bitcoin crossed the $10,000 mark for the first time in its nine-year history, the latest burst in a rally that has transformed the virtual currency from a curiosity to a hot topic for mainstream investors. ( on.wsj.com/2j2BgHN )- AT&T Inc and Time Warner Inc said an explosion of online programming has spawned a "golden age for television—and for consumers," in its first court filing countering government claims that their planned merger would stymie competition and hurt customers. ( on.wsj.com/2j1VP77 )- Uber Technologies Inc had a team dedicated to stealing trade secrets and helped employees dodge regulators'' scrutiny, according to allegations from a former employee that are generating the latest in a string of controversies to beset the ride-hailing firm. ( on.wsj.com/2j16C1i )- North Korea said Wednesday that it fired a brand-new intercontinental ballistic missile into the waters off Japan, ending a more than two-month hiatus by Pyongyang and threatening to ramp up tensions with the U.S. and in the region. ( on.wsj.com/2j2ar6s )- Siemens AG, the German engineering conglomerate, is readying the listing of a big chunk of its health-care business, estimated to be worth up to $47 billion. ( on.wsj.com/2j1fm7R )- British movie theater operator Cineworld Group Plc has made an offer for American counterpart Regal Entertainment Group, Regal confirmed Tuesday afternoon. ( on.wsj.com/2j19efC )- After making multiple offers to buy Rockwell Automation Inc, Emerson Electric Co said Tuesday it was rescinding its offer because of the target company''s board''s "unwillingness to engage in discussions." ( on.wsj.com/2j1hMmG )Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-29-idINL3N1NZ2KN'|'2017-11-29T02:56:00.000+02:00'
'f60bd5a5880d99dbbda7fa3af5f00da23707d0f3'|'UK shipping firm Clarkson reports cyber attack'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:22 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago UK shipping firm Clarkson reports cyber attack Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British shipping services provider Clarkson Plc on Wednesday said it was the victim of a cyber security hack and warned that the person or persons behind the attack may release some data shortly. A magnifying glass is held in front of a computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21, 2013. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski The company’s disclosure, while a relatively rare event in Britain, follows a series of high-profile hacks in corporate America. Clarkson is one of the world’s main shipbrokers, sourcing vessels for the world’s largest producers and traders of natural resources. It also has a research operation which collects and analyses data on merchant shipping and offshore markets. The London-headquartered company said it had been working with the police on the incident but did not provide any details about the scale or type of data stolen. “As soon as it was discovered, Clarksons took immediate steps to respond to and manage the incident,” the company said. “Our initial investigations have shown the unauthorised access was gained via a single and isolated user account which has now been disabled.” The company said it is in the process of contacting potentially affected clients and individuals directly, and that it has been working with data security specialists to probe further. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-clarkson-cyber/uk-shipping-firm-clarkson-reports-cyber-attack-idUKKBN1DT1O6'|'2017-11-29T14:22:00.000+02:00'
'f34e135ccfc8a370e9fb4c0e8c6954c817a3be15'|'EU court rules companies must give workers paid annual leave'|' 19 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago EU court rules companies must give workers paid annual leave Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that employers must provide paid annual leave for employees in a case that could impact workers in the “gig” economy. European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The case involved a salesman for The Sash Window Workshop Ltd in Britain employed from 1999 until 2012 on a self-employed commission-only contract with unpaid annual leave. The salesman took the company to court seeking payment for leave, taken and not paid as well as for days not taken. A British court ruled that he was a “worker” under EU law, but UK judges asked the European Court of Justice whether the company was obliged to pay him for the leave he had not actually taken. The EU court said it was a fundamental right for workers to be able to rest and that such a right would not be guaranteed if the salesman was forced to take unpaid leave and only then be able to bring action to claim payment. Companies could limit the accumulation of paid leave, with workers losing their right to leave if they did not take holidays within a given period. However, a company should not be enriched by extinguishing a worker’s right to paid leave. “An employer that does not allow a worker to exercise his right to paid annual leave must bear the consequences,” the court said. The ruling could have an impact on employment in the so-called “gig” economy, which include short-term and freelance contracts rather than permanent jobs. Reporting by Lily Cusack; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-court-leave/eu-court-rules-companies-must-give-workers-paid-annual-leave-idUKKBN1DT2AR'|'2017-11-29T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'c3854b79089aff17cf498ed146eb4f1171a2231e'|'Emerson Electric withdraws offer to buy Rockwell Automation'|'(Reuters) - Automation-systems maker Emerson Electric Co ( EMR.N ) on Tuesday abandoned its bid for Rockwell Automation Inc ( ROK.N ) after its smaller rival snubbed several of its buyout offers.FILE PHOTO: Emerson Electric Company Canadian headquarters is shown in Markham, Ontario, Canada, February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Cassese/File Photo Rockwell’s shares slipped 0.8 percent in pre-market trade. Emerson shares were up 0.7 percent.Instead, Emerson said it plans to speed up the rate of share repurchases over the next month and buy back up to $1 billion over the next 12 months.Emerson, looking to be an industrial automation giant, first made an offer of $200 per share for Rockwell in August. It then raised its offer twice - to $215 per share and $225 per share, but was rejected.“We are disappointed that the Rockwell board refused even to discuss the potential combination of our two great companies,” Emerson Chief Executive David Farr said in a statement on Tuesday.Rockwell’s shares have risen 2.2 percent since news of the deal first became public on Oct. 31. Emerson’s shares have fallen 8.1 percent in the same time.Emerson’s strength is in process automation, helping power plants and factories in sectors such as mining and cement operate more efficiently. Rockwell, on the other hand, is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to make cars, household appliances and computer systems.Rockwell has argued Emerson’s offers undervalued the company and that the combined company’s industrial customers would be worse off because its products would no longer be available on a single platform.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas; Editing by Bernard Orr and Sayantani Ghosh '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-rockwell-automat-m-a-emerson-electric/emerson-electric-withdraws-offer-to-buy-rockwell-automation-idINKBN1DS1EO'|'2017-11-28T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'1b0404f01a3f567fb790df2f9d063be22864c2f9'|'Three regional Fed banks favoured hiking discount rate in October: minutes'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three out of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks wanted an increase in the rate commercial banks are charged for emergency loans ahead of the U.S central bank’s last policy meeting, minutes from a discussion of the discount rate showed on Tuesday.The seal for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is displayed in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The U.S. central bank subsequently kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged at its Oct 31 - Nov 1 meeting and the discount rate at 1-3/4 percent.The Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City, Cleveland and Richmond in October had urged the Fed’s board to raise the discount rate to 2 percent, the minutes showed. Kansas City had also urged such action in September.Directors at those banks felt an increase was warranted “in light of solid economic growth, already tight labour markets, and an expected rise in inflation toward 2 percent.”Those who wanted to maintain the current level by contrast cited weak readings on inflation this year. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates at its next policy meeting in December.Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-discountrate/three-regional-fed-banks-favoured-hiking-discount-rate-in-october-minutes-idINKBN1DS2KL'|'2017-11-28T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'47032959eeddce8c9041e75e2b8bca2ad94deaaa'|'ETP seeks U.S. drilling permission on pipeline after Ohio orders pause'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:34 PM / in a few seconds ETP seeks U.S. drilling permission on pipeline after Ohio orders pause Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Energy Transfer Partners LP sought permission from U.S. regulators on Tuesday to start horizontal drilling at six sites in Ohio and West Virginia as it works to complete part of its Rover natural gas pipeline by year-end. The request came a few days after environmental regulators in Ohio told ETP to “pause horizontal drilling activities” after a recent fluid spill. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 24 cited Rover for spilling contaminants into the Black Fork of the Mohican River in Ashland County in the north central part of the state. Officials at ETP were not immediately available for comment. Pipeline companies use horizontal drilling to cross under large obstacles like highways and rivers. Before the pause by the Ohio EPA, ETP said it expected to complete the first phase of the project in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia by the end of the year and the second phase from Ohio to Ontario by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Once complete, the $4.2 billion Rover will carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada. One billion cubic foot per day of gas is enough for about 5 million U.S. homes. Ohio EPA said this was Rover’s fifth notice of violation since it received permission from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in September to resume horizontal drilling. FERC banned ETP from new horizontal drilling in May after the company spilled around 2 million gallons of drilling fluid into the Tuscarawas River wetland in Ohio, among other things. FERC’s Office of Enforcement is investigating that spill in part because the fluid released contained traces of diesel fuel. Ohio EPA said the latest incident at the Mohican River was Rover’s 19th notice of environmental violation in the state this year. ETP released 200 gallons of drilling fluid - a clay and water mix - into a tributary of the Mohican River, the Ohio EPA said. Ohio EPA also said Rover is in violation of a July 7 order that required the company to file for a construction storm water permit. The EPA said it has referred the case to the Ohio attorney general since Rover has refused to comply with the order or pay an appropriate civil penalty. Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-transf-pipeline-natgas/etp-seeks-u-s-drilling-permission-on-pipeline-after-ohio-orders-pause-idUSKBN1DS2N5'|'2017-11-28T21:29:00.000+02:00'
'35e4fc10b1b9f4249dcf43543592c50265021ac0'|'Waymo seeks delay of Uber trade secrets trial over new evidence'|'SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit asked a U.S. judge on Monday to postpone an upcoming trade secrets trial against Uber Technologies Inc , so Waymo could investigate whether Uber withheld important evidence in the case.The trial is currently scheduled to begin on Dec. 4 in San Francisco federal court. Waymo said it learned of new evidence last week after the U.S. Department of Justice shared it with the judge overseeing the case. (Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Chris Reese)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alphabet-uber-lawsuit/waymo-seeks-delay-of-uber-trade-secrets-trial-over-new-evidence-idUSU5N1H601D'|'2017-11-28T02:38:00.000+02:00'
'5387c5c71ce4913a7887bd77d7176c00d086b9c5'|'Unilever leans towards single structure, delays choice of location'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Anglo-Dutch Unilever favours single home, but delays choice Martinne Geller 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Unilever favours creating a single corporate structure, but is delaying a choice between its British and Dutch bases, the consumer goods group said on Tuesday, in part because of the heightened political sensitivity of the decision due to Brexit. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo After rebuffing a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz, Unilever said in April it would review its dual structure under which it is based and listed in both Britain and the Netherlands, aiming for a decision by the end of the year. A recent move by the Dutch government to scrap a tax on dividends was seen as an effort to keep the maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup in the Netherlands. Any decision by Unilever to abandon its home on the banks of London’s River Thames would be a blow for Britain as it struggles to negotiate its divorce from the European Union. “I‘m advocating to postpone decisions because it’s a moving playing field - with political turbulence out there. The emotions of the moment are really the issue,” Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman, a Dutchman, told the Financial Times. Asked whether he was referring to Brexit, Polman said: “It’s on all sides nowadays - of that you have to be clear. The board is going to take a 30 to 50-year decision. We want to do that well and we want to do that properly.” SIMPLIFIED STRUCTURE Unilever was widely expected to give an update on its review at an investor event starting on Wednesday. It said on Tuesday the board considered unification with a single share class to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. That would, for example, make it easier for the group both to make acquisitions using equity and spin off businesses. However, the company said the review was continuing and it did not have a deadline. If Unilever does unify, it intends to maintain stock market listings in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States, continue to apply both the UK and Dutch corporate governance codes and terminate the preference shares of the Dutch entity it recently bought back, it said. For many shareholders, a simplified structure is more important than its location. “It’s a big deal for the company, it’s a big deal for the British and Dutch political establishment, but I don’t think it’s a very big deal for the shares,” said Ali Miremadi, who runs global and European equity funds at GAM Investments. “From an investor point of view, all that matters is efficiency and cost, and if it helps them to be able to dispose of some things they would otherwise struggle to do,” said Miremadi, who has invested about 2.5 percent of the funds he manages in Unilever. At 0930 GMT, Unilever shares were up 1.4 percent in London and 1.3 percent in Amsterdam. Unilever is in the midst of an auction to sell its margarine and spreads business, but has said it would spin the business off if the price wasn’t good enough. The company confirmed on Tuesday its 2017 guidance for underlying sales growth of 3 to 5 percent, an improvement in underlying operating margin of at least 100 basis points and “strong” cash flow delivery. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/unilever-outlook/unilever-leans-towards-single-structure-delays-choice-of-location-idINKBN1DS0V5'|'2017-11-28T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'5fc02d3be82ce48e5900379e28209d73e91eca21'|'Apple to review software practices after patching serious Mac bug'|'(Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) said on Wednesday it would review its software development process a day after a researcher discovered a bug in a new version of its Mac operating system that could give hackers total control of vulnerable machines. FILE PHOTO - A guest points to a new MacBook Pro during an Apple media event in Cupertino, California, U.S. October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach Apple said it released a patch to fix the bug on Wednesday morning and it would be automatically installed on vulnerable machines later in the day. “We greatly regret this error and we apologize to all Mac users,” Apple said in a statement. “Our customers deserve better. We are auditing our development processes to help prevent this from happening again.” To exploit the bug, a hacker would need to have physical access to a vulnerable Mac when a user is logged on to the computer. The attacker would then need to change settings on the computer to establish a “root” account, which they could later access. Root accounts give users complete control over a machine. The U.S. and German governments issued alerts advising Mac users to install the patch. Apple said its security engineers learned of the problem on Tuesday afternoon and posted the patch within 24 hours. “Security is a top priority for every Apple product, and regrettably we stumbled with this release of Mac OS,” Apple said in its statement. Apple stock was down 2.6 percent at $168.55 on Wednesday during a broad selloff in tech stocks. The behavior in the Mac operating system that led to the bug’s discovery was described by developers on an Apple forum as early as Nov. 13 as a workaround for problem accessing administrator accounts. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Dougl Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Jim Finkle and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-cyber/apple-to-review-software-practices-after-patching-serious-mac-bug-idUSKBN1DT2TJ'|'2017-11-29T19:53:00.000+02:00'
'93be2f812385a2339da95456f76dce605c8e8f79'|'LPC: Banks provide US$835m loan package for Barracuda Networks'' take-private'|'NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - US publicly traded cloud-based security company Barracuda Networks Inc’s acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo will be backed by an US$835m loan package, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The all-cash buyout, which will capitalize Barracuda at roughly US$1.5bn, was announced on Monday. Thoma Bravo is purchasing the company for US$27.55 per share, representing a 22.5% premium to the prior 10-day average stock price.The financing will include a US$75m revolving credit facility, a US$555m secured term loan with a first priority claim and a US$205m secured term loan with a second priority claim, according to the sources. The revolver will be undrawn at close.Goldman Sachs will lead syndication of the debt, one of the sources said. Credit Suisse and UBS are also providing commitments, according to a press release.The deal will be supported by US$774m of equity, for total capitalization of US$1.534bn.Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment. The company and Thoma Bravo did not respond to requests for comment.The debt will bring Barracuda’s debt-to-Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to roughly 5.0 times through the senior loan and 6.9 times through the junior loan, based on preliminary Ebitda of approximately US$110m, the sources said. The Ebitda used to market the debt could be higher, one of the sources noted.Thoma Bravo has been active in the cyber security space of late. Earlier in November, DigiCert, one of the buyout firm’s portfolio companies, closed on its acquisition of Symantec Corp’s web certification business.The Barracuda transaction is expected to close before February 28, 2018, the company’s fiscal year end. (Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Jon Methven) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/barracuda-loans/lpc-banks-provide-us835m-loan-package-for-barracuda-networks-take-private-idINL1N1NY2GJ'|'2017-11-28T19:01:00.000+02:00'
'7d5efa127eb41b8be7e8708cf66b4f8433d093a5'|'Unilever spreads auction narrows with three funds left - sources'|'November 29, 2017 / 4:46 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Unilever spreads auction narrows with three funds left - sources Martinne Geller , Pamela Barbaglia , Claire Ruckin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firms Apollo, KKR and CVC Capital Partners are the final three parties left bidding for Unilever’s margarine and spreads business, sources familiar with the matter said, as the process moves towards its final round. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Second-round bids for the business, which could be worth more than $7 billion (£5.21 billion), are due in mid-December, said the sources, who declined to be named as the process is private. CVC had originally teamed up with Blackstone, but is now on its own, the sources said. Private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice had teamed up with Bain Capital on a joint bid, but the pair have left the race, said the sources. Unilever, KKR, CVC and Bain declined to comment. Apollo and CD&R were not immediately available. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch giant behind Dove soap, Knorr soup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, put the spreads unit up for sale this autumn after a surprise $143 billion takeover approach from Kraft-Heinz in February forced it to review its operations. Banks are aggressively pitching to sponsors in order to win a lucrative spot on a jumbo buyout financing. Sources said Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Mizuho have provided a staple financing that will be offered to potential buyers totalling 4 billion euros, more than 5 times the business’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 700 million to 750 million euros. Other banks are working on financings with more aggressive leverage multiples of 6 to 7 times, they added. The spreads business is very profitable, but two sources said there is some concern about paying too much for a business that has been in decline for years, as people eat less bread and margarine. Performance of the business has been improving, however, as the company has concentrated on turning it around. In the most recent third quarter, sales fell 2 percent, compared with a decline of 3.7 percent in the first half. The company cited new margarines with specialty oils and dairy-free variants for the improvement. Unilever is also reviewing its dual-headed, Anglo-Dutch structure. It said on Tuesday that collapsing it into one organization was in the best interest of the company and shareholders but has delayed choosing where to base the company, amid political tensions around Brexit. The company will host an investor event that will begin later on Wednesday. Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-m-a-spreads/unilever-spreads-auction-narrows-with-three-funds-left-sources-idUKKBN1DT2M5'|'2017-11-29T18:45:00.000+02:00'
'697f28c7c6fc65cec00da16a61f0b57a0bdd58c1'|'Unilever spreads auction narrows with three funds left - sources'|'LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Private equity firms Apollo , KKR and CVC Capital Partners are the final three parties left bidding for Unilever’s margarine and spreads business, sources familiar with the matter said, as the process moves towards its final round.Second-round bids for the business, which could be worth more than $7 billion, are due in mid-December, said the sources, who declined to be named as the process is private.CVC had originally teamed up with Blackstone, but is now on its own, the sources said.Private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice had teamed up with Bain Capital on a joint bid, but the pair have left the race, said the sources.Unilever, KKR, CVC and Bain declined to comment.Apollo and CD&R were not immediately available.Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch giant behind Dove soap, Knorr soup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, put the spreads unit up for sale this autumn after a surprise $143 billion takeover approach from Kraft-Heinz in February forced it to review its operations.Banks are aggressively pitching to sponsors in order to win a lucrative spot on a jumbo buyout financing.Sources said Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Mizuho have provided a staple financing that will be offered to potential buyers totalling 4 billion euros, more than 5 times the business’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 700 million to 750 million euros.Other banks are working on financings with more aggressive leverage multiples of 6 to 7 times, they added.The spreads business is very profitable, but two sources said there is some concern about paying too much for a business that has been in decline for years, as people eat less bread and margarine.Performance of the business has been improving, however, as the company has concentrated on turning it around. In the most recent third quarter, sales fell 2 percent, compared with a decline of 3.7 percent in the first half. The company cited new margarines with specialty oils and dairy-free variants for the improvement.Unilever is also reviewing its dual-headed, Anglo-Dutch structure. It said on Tuesday that collapsing it into one organization was in the best interest of the company and shareholders but has delayed choosing where to base the company, amid political tensions around Brexit.The company will host an investor event that will begin later on Wednesday. (Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/unilever-ma-spreads/unilever-spreads-auction-narrows-with-three-funds-left-sources-idUSL1N1NQ0ZY'|'2017-11-30T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'c59817a974014b8c85f68db8bb5a5b127e1b2a04'|'Toyota recalls 9,310 cars of Hilux model in Russia: standards agency'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:14 AM / in 7 minutes Toyota recalls 9,310 cars of Hilux model in Russia: standards agency Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s technical safety watchdog Rosstandart said on Wednesday it had been informed by Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) about the recall of 9,310 Toyota Hilux cars produced between Sept. 2, 2011 and Nov. 28, 2014. Toyota Motors Corp company logo is pictured on a Hilux pickup at its dealer Toyota Bicutan in Paranaque, Metro Manila, Philippines June 16, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo The recall is due to possible air bag faults, it said. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-autos-toyota-recall/toyota-recalls-9310-cars-of-hilux-model-in-russia-standards-agency-idUSKBN1DT0WR'|'2017-11-29T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'440b034654a52b97607c5f30c36d6d368ea082b8'|'U.S. ethanol makers call on Mexico, India to reduce biofuel glut'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. ethanol producers, looking to relieve a growing domestic glut, are hunting for new international fuel markets to replace China and Brazil after trade disputes slashed exports to those top buyers.Large tanks of Gasoline and Ethanol are shown at a gasoline distribution terminal in San Diego, California January 7, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Without new markets, U.S. producers may have to pare output after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on biofuel production plants in recent years. Currently, the most promising potential destinations for U.S. fuel exports appear to be Mexico and India, industry executives said.China and Brazil accounted for 41 percent of the 1.17 billion gallons the United States exported last year. Shipments to the two shriveled in September, making U.S. exports for that month the smallest in more than a year.“There are only so many times you can replace your top market,” said Tom Sleight, president of the U.S. Grains Council, which officials said has been calling on potential buyers in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.China’s demand plummeted by more than 100 million gallons this year after it removed a preferential tariff rate. Brazil’s imports tumbled after it put a quota on imports in September to protect its domestic producers.To drum up new customers, Illinois-based ethanol producer Marquis Energy has sent executives to India, China, Thailand and the Philippines, promoting the corn-based fuel additive as a smog and oil-import fighter.“I’ve had a lot of people over there almost nonstop over the last three months,” the company’s chief executive Mark Marquis said of the hunt for buyers in Asia. Archer Daniels Midland Co ( ADM.N ) and Flint Hills Resources [FHR.UL] also have stepped up efforts to sell into Mexico, traders said.U.S. ethanol prices have slid to nearly a two-year low as daily domestic production last week hit a record 45.1 million gallons, making the search for new export markets more urgent. Output this year could reach about 16 billion gallons, nearly triple that of 2007.U.S. exports fell since hitting 2.5 million gallons per day in the first eight months this year. Shipments to Brazil sank to 19 million gallons in September, the smallest monthly volume in more than a year. Exports to China through September were just 60,880 gallons, a precipitous drop from 198 million gallons a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.The marketing effort could pay off in Mexico, whose energy regulatory commission (CRE) is to vote soon to ease the flow of fuel imports through state-run Pemex facilities to several Mexican states bordering the United States.If approved, significant new volumes of gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol could begin flowing in 2018 into Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, CRE Commissioner Luis Guillermo Pineda told Reuters.“The largest supplier is logically the United States, but it can be from anywhere,” Pineda said of the ethanol blend.Ray Young, ADM’s finance chief, last month told analysts Mexico could be importing 200 million gallons annually by 2019. U.S. ethanol exports to Mexico last year totaled about 30 million gallons.U.S. inventories reached 920 million gallons in the week ended Nov. 17, up 16 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Ethanol futures 1ZEc1 have fallen to $1.36 per gallon on the Chicago Board of Trade, down 20 percent from their 2017 high in April.U.S. producers are pitching China and India on ethanol’s smog-fighting potential. This month, United Airlines canceled flights to India’s capital, New Delhi, citing heavy smog as a public health emergency. China ordered Beijing and more than two dozen other cities to start meeting limits on airborne pollution starting this month.Ted McKinney, a USDA official interviewed during a biofuel-promotion trip to India, expressed optimism that country could import much more U.S. ethanol for cars and trucks. But others were not so sure.India’s government wants to promote biofuel production using its own agricultural waste, said Jai Asundi, research coordinator at Bengaluru-based think tank Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP).“There is a potential for producing ethanol from locally available sources without depending on imports,” Asundi said.Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia in MEXICO CITY, Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI and Yashaswini Swamynathan in BANGALORE; Editing by Gary McWilliams and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol-export/u-s-ethanol-makers-call-on-mexico-india-to-reduce-biofuel-glut-idINKBN1DS2O2'|'2017-11-28T21:34:00.000+02:00'
'65745a3dedb3e70403f8381cf136ee0e5667373f'|'U.S. judge says Uber withheld evidence, delays Waymo trial'|'SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday said Uber Technologies Inc “withheld evidence from me” and granted a request from Alphabet Inc’s Waymo self-driving car unit to delay a trade secrets trial that had been scheduled to begin next week.At a hearing in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said it would be a “huge injustice” to force Waymo to go to trial now, given new evidence that has recently surfaced in the case. (Reporting by Heather Somerville; Writing by Dan Levine; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/alphabet-uber-ruling/u-s-judge-says-uber-withheld-evidence-delays-waymo-trial-idUSU5N1H601F'|'2017-11-28T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'9e65a0bfbb0627f674640c96694c9c1dae0b812e'|'European shares edge up led by Shell, Ocado rally'|' 31 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago European shares edge up led by Shell, Ocado rally Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares were supported on Tuesday by gains in heavyweight Royal Dutch Shell after the oil major cancelled an austerity dividend, while Ocado rallied following a deal with French supermarket Casino. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Ocado shares rose 26 percent after Casino signed a deal with the British online retailer to use its grocery e-commerce platform to develop its online business. Shell rose 1.8 percent, helping send the pan-European STOXX 600 index up 0.2 percent by 0814 GMT and sending the oil and gas index, up 0.5 percent, the biggest sectoral gainer in Europe. Shell cancelled an austerity dividend policy as the oil and gas company boosted its cash generation forecasts, drawing a line under three years of oil price turmoil. UK’s FTSE 350 bank index rose 0.2 percent in relief after a Bank of England stress test delivered no negative surprises, while Britain’s FTSE index added 0.2 percent. Top STOXX 600 fallers were Dixons, which fell after Siftel downgraded the stock to hold, and CHR Hansen following the resignation of its CEO. Both stocks declined more than 3 percent. Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Julien Ponthus'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-edge-up-led-by-shell-ocado-rally-idUKKBN1DS0SE'|'2017-11-28T10:30:00.000+02:00'
'087966c81072746db31b75d88a1fc35aefc3b3ff'|'Government wants RBI rate cut before March: fin min sources'|'NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Impatient for faster economic growth, India’s government is lobbying for a reduction in official interest rates in coming months as it expects inflation to stay close to a 4 percent target, finance ministry officials said.FILE PHOTO: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is seen at the entrance gate of its headquarters in Mumbai, India June 7, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo At its last meeting in October, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left the repo rate at 6.0 percent, near a seven-year low, and a Reuters poll found that economists expected the rate to stay there through to the second quarter of next year.The finance ministry, according to officials, wants a rate cut sooner than that, putting a focus on the MPC meeting on Dec. 5-6, or when it next convenes in February.“We expect the RBI to cut policy rates, if not in December then in its next policy review,” one ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. After that, he said, higher oil prices could fuel inflation, making it more difficult to cut rates.At its Oct. 4 meeting, the MPC voted 5-1 to keep rates unchanged, and minutes released on Oct. 18 showed RBI Governor Urjit Patel flagging risks to the inflation outlook, and the need for more evidence to show whether headwinds holding back economic growth were “transient or sustained”.On Thursday, India will release GDP data for the July-September quarter, having seen economic growth slow to a three year low of 5.7 percent in the previous three months.The weak growth means 3-1/2 years into his 5-year term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is falling a long way short of his promise of a dynamic economy to create jobs for the millions of young Indians joining the labour force each year.His government can’t afford to boost public investment without endangering the commitment to fiscal consolidation that helped persuade Moody’s Investors Service this month to award India its first sovereign credit rating upgrade in nearly 14 years.That leaves most of the pressure on the RBI to loosen monetary policy in order to revive currently anaemic private investment.A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment on its discussions with the RBI. The central bank also did not comment.“BEHIND ITS OWN CURVE”Since last year, India’s policy rate has been set by a committee that includes non-central bankers, instead of leaving it entirely to the RBI. But the finance ministry doesn’t have a representative on the six-member MPC.The panel is composed of the RBI governor, who has the casting vote in the event of a tie, two senior officials from the central bank’s monetary policy department and three economists from the academic world.The MPC’s mandate is to set interest rates to achieve a targeted 4 percent inflation with plus minus 2 percent on either side, and maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of economic growth.As a result of the new Goods and Services Tax harmonising central and state levies, the finance ministry expects lower prices for some 200 goods to subdue retail inflation, which had struck a seven-month high of 3.58 percent in October.”We see inflation remaining around 4 percent until March and a scope for a rate cut of 25 basis points,” a second ministry official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.But an official aware of the RBI’s thinking said the MPC should be mindful of the risk of sudden-supply side shocks, and set policies that provide space to absorb them.Surjit Bhalla, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, aired his impatience with the stalling.“The MPC has been way behind its own curve, its own stated goals,” he wrote in the Indian Express newspaper, noting inflation had stayed below target for last 12 months.Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy/government-wants-rbi-rate-cut-before-march-fin-min-sources-idINKBN1DS0HY'|'2017-11-28T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'2a85a787d9555c8d2178505dfb036dec1b256cd2'|'U.S. judge says Uber withheld evidence, delays Waymo trial'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:37 PM / in 20 minutes U.S. judge says Uber withheld evidence, delays Waymo trial Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday said Uber Technologies Inc “withheld evidence from me” and granted a request from Alphabet Inc’s Waymo self-driving car unit to delay a trade secrets trial that had been scheduled to begin next week. A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson At a hearing in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said it would be a “huge injustice” to force Waymo to go to trial now, given new evidence that has recently surfaced in the case. Reporting by Heather Somerville; Writing by Dan Levine; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alphabet-uber-ruling/u-s-judge-says-uber-withheld-evidence-delays-waymo-trial-idUKKBN1DS274'|'2017-11-28T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'd96010a9ab9d6cf7abc31538ec1dd2781f1c3f3d'|'Brazilian regulator bars Oi''s restructuring plan, says has "ruinous potential"'|' 42 PM / in 10 minutes Brazilian regulator bars Oi''s restructuring plan, says has "ruinous potential" Gram Slattery , Tatiana Bautzer 3 Min Read SAO PAULO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel has forbidden telecoms carrier Oi SA from signing with creditors its most recent restructuring proposal, arguing that it has “ruinous potential for the company,” Oi said on Tuesday. In an early morning securities filing, debt-laden Oi said its board had finalized a new debt restructuring proposal to take to a bankruptcy court. However, the company added in a second filing that Anatel had forbidden the board from officially signing any documents with creditors to enforce the new plan. The filing also said that Brazilian antitrust watchdog CADE would now have the right to attend any Oi board meetings. A creditors vote on a restructuring plan is due for Dec. 7 in Rio de Janeiro. However, both the company and creditors are pessimistic about a solution being reached on that date, or in the near-term more generally, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Creditors and shareholders are too far from reaching a consensus, both people said, asking for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. In the meantime, Oi, Brazil’s biggest fixed line carrier by geographic reach, continues to lose market share to rivals. The board of Oi, which filed for bankruptcy protection 17 months ago, first presented a restructuring plan earlier in November, which major private creditors have publicly rejected. According to its terms, some bondholders would stand to face a haircut of up to 73 percent, according to analysts at Itau BBA. At the time, Anatel said it should have the opportunity to review the plan before it could be officially filed with a bankruptcy court, and the regulator then asked for adjustments. Oi modified its plan in response, changing the structure of fees paid to creditors who agree to inject capital into the carrier, among other measures. However, both Anatel and private creditors holding billions of dollars in debt remain skeptical. On Tuesday, Anatel board member Leandro Euler said that the regulator had identified clauses in the company’s revised plan that generated uncertainties about whether a capital raise would actually take place. The agency was not establishing a deadline for new adjustments, he added. (Additional reporting by Leonardo Goy; Editing by Frances Kerry)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazilian-regulator-bars-ois-restructuring-plan-says-has-ruinous-potential-idUSL1N1NY0LH'|'2017-11-28T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'0c8d83a60d75fe920cb61161cbdc8cb32d9d1920'|'Norway''s wealth fund would take many years to sell energy shares'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Norway''s wealth fund would take many years to sell energy shares Gwladys Fouche 3 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s $1-trillion (£0.75 trillion) sovereign wealth fund may take five years to reduce its investments in energy companies even once the policy is adopted, the fund’s CEO said on Tuesday. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund this month proposed dropping oil and gas companies from its benchmark equity index, which would mean cutting its investments in such businesses over time. The aim is to lessen the impact of a permanent drop in oil prices on the Norwegian government’s wealth, especially when the fund is increasing its exposure to equities to 70 percent of its value from 60 percent. The news hit energy stocks when announced.. The proposal, if adopted, would however take time. It must first be reviewed by the finance ministry, which has said it would come back with its opinion in autumn 2018. If the ministry backs the proposal, parliament could vote on it only in June 2019 at the earliest. From that point, there will be another few years before the fund completes the process, said fund CEO Yngve Slyngstad. “Typically our transition period will be two, three, five years, depending on the issue,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “The fund will be invested in oil stocks for many years.” Still, if it does go ahead, the fund would divest billions of dollars from oil and gas stocks, as defined by the FTSE oil and gas reference index. These stocks represent 6 percent - or around $37 billion - of the fund’s benchmark equity index. “It will clearly reduce the exposure to the (oil and gas) sector and we will potentially exit the sector,” said Slyngstad. OIL PRICE IMPACT The fund invests Norway’s revenues from oil and gas production for future generations, investing in equities, bonds and real estate abroad. Its size is equivalent to $192,000 for every Norwegian man, woman and child. The fund’s analysis shows there is a link between the oil price level and the return from oil and gas stocks, a link that is much more pronounced than for any other sector. Slyngstad reiterated on Tuesday the proposal did not reflect a particular view of future movement in oil prices or the profitability or sustainability of the oil and gas sector. It is purely based on financial arguments and as a way to reduce the exposure to oil of the Norwegian state’s wealth, which has grown over the past decade, he said. Norway has its own separate exposure to the energy market through untapped offshore hydrocarbon reserves as Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer. In addition, Norway holds a 67-percent stake in the national oil company, Statoil. Slyngstad said there would still be opportunities to invest as companies undergo an “energy transition” to less fossil-fuel-intensive models. “Most investors would say we will be in an energy transition for the next 30 years and that energy transition will have opportunities for investors,” he said. Editing by Terje Solsvik and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-norway-swf/norways-wealth-fund-sees-no-significant-differences-between-oil-gas-stocks-and-market-idUKKBN1DS0V8'|'2017-11-28T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'9ae4a5cbdc67946dcea98cb0f68ac0c104870dad'|'Digital mapping company HERE to acquire ATS in connected-car play'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Digital mapping firm HERE said on Tuesday it plans to acquire Advanced Telematic Systems (ATS), a Germany-based company that provides “over the air” software updates for connected and autonomous vehicles.The deal, whose terms were not disclosed and which should close in early 2018, would strengthen HERE’s position as a provider of location and cloud services for self-driving cars that could hit the road in large numbers within a few years.“The acquisition of ATS is a hugely important strategic investment for us to complement our portfolio as a premium automotive cloud provider,” said Ralf Herrtwich, SVP Automotive of HERE Technologies.HERE was itself sold to Nokia to Audi, BMW and Daimler in 2015 for more than $2 billion and functions as a research lab for the carmakers as they seek to counter the competitive threat from U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla.Its mapping technology competes with Alphabet’s Google Maps and Dutch rival TomTom.HERE, the biggest provider of digital maps for the automotive industry, spent 640 million euros ($760 million) on research and development in 2016, or around 55 percent of its sales of 1.16 billion euros, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. reut.rs/2i0MTOJOver-the-air technology, or OTA, is in increasing demand as companies developing cars as digital devices and autonomous vehicles seek to keep their technology updated and user experience fresh.It is similar to the way smartphones receive operating system and application updates over mobile networks, and has been pioneered by Tesla for updates to its car models. reut.rs/2zMLfeNSecurity against hacker attacks is vital for such connected cars, and ATS’s flagship product, OTA Plus v3, is supported by Uptane, a security framework that is being developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.HERE says its plans for ATS’s OTA technology includes both developing it as a standalone product and using it to boost other parts of its business that could also support secure map and software updates for other connected devices including drones. ($1 = 0.8420 euros) (Reporting by Jamillah Knowles; Editing by Douglas Busvine/Mark Heinrich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tech-here-ats/digital-mapping-company-here-to-acquire-ats-in-connected-car-play-idINL3N1NY4U7'|'2017-11-28T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'27081499761d6ffbc818e4dcd5301e397c6a665c'|'Apple accuses Qualcomm patent infringement in countersuit'|'November 29, 2017 / 1:16 PM / in 6 hours Apple accuses Qualcomm of patent infringement in countersuit Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Wednesday filed a countersuit against Qualcomm Inc, alleging that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips that power a wide variety of Android-based devices infringe on Apple’s patents, the latest development in a long-running dispute. FILE PHOTO: A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China on July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Qualcomm in July accused Apple of infringing several patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. Apple has denied the claims that it violated Qualcomm’s battery life patents and alleged that Qualcomm’s patents were invalid, a common move in such cases. But on Wednesday, in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Apple revised its answer to Qualcomm’s complaint with accusations of its own. Apple alleges it owns at least eight battery life patents that Qualcomm has violated. The Apple patents involve ensuring each part of a phone’s processor draws only the minimum power needed, turning off parts of the processor when they are not needed and making sleep and wake functions work better. In its filing, Apple alleges that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and 820 processors, which power phones from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Alphabet Inc’s Google’s Pixel phones, infringe on those patents. Samsung and Google are not named in Apple’s counterclaims. “Apple began seeking those patents years before Qualcomm began seeking the patents it asserts against Apple in this case,” the company wrote in its complaint. Apple said it is seeking unspecified damages from San Diego-based Qualcomm. Qualcomm filed its patent infringement lawsuit at the same time it filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking to ban the import of Apple iPhones that use competing Intel Corp chips because of the alleged patent violations. The dispute between Apple and Qualcomm over patents is part of a wide-ranging legal war between the two companies. In January, Apple sued Qualcomm for nearly $1 billion in patent royalty rebates that Qualcomm allegedly withheld from Apple. In a related suit, Qualcomm sued the contract manufacturers that make Apple’s phones, but Apple joined in to defend them. Separately, Qualcomm is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same pricing practices Apple names in its complaints. (This version of the story was refiled to add the missing word “of” in the headline) Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-qualcomm/apple-accuses-qualcomm-patent-infringement-in-countersuit-idUSKBN1DT1UU'|'2017-11-29T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'62e56244d6706b138d9d36c963d35d9e6dc6719b'|'Bayer says antitrust reviews going into ''unimaginable depths'''|'November 29, 2017 / 9:25 AM / a few seconds ago Bayer says antitrust reviews going into ''unimaginable depths'' Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - The antitrust review of Bayer’s ( BAYGn.DE ) planned takeover of Monsanto ( MON.N ) is going into “unimaginable depths,” Bayer’s Chief Executive Werner Baumann said on Wednesday, but added he remained confident that the deal would be closed early next year. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bayer AG is pictured at the Bayer Healthcare subgroup production plant in Wuppertal February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo “To illustrate the point, we have by now delivered more than 4 million pages of documents to the EU commission,” Baumann told a conference. The reason for the intense scrutiny was a new focus by authorities on competition in research and development, and an effort to predict the effect on future product markets. “The intention of cartel authorities, here and overseas, is that the antitrust remedies allow competitors ... to be comprehensively enabled over the long term,” Baumann said. Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-review/bayer-says-antitrust-reviews-going-into-unimaginable-depths-idUKKBN1DT155'|'2017-11-29T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'e7fd0fee7065097709e1d540bbbba2687ae1fa04'|'Macquarie-backed Canadian waste management firm GFL plans C$1 billion IPO: sources'|'TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity-backed Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc is seeking to raise as much as C$1 billion ($778 million) in an initial public offering that could be filed as early as the first quarter, people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.The company, whose ‘Green for Life’ slogan is seen across major Canadian cities, is interviewing Canadian and international investment banks to pick underwriters, the people said, declining to be named discussing the confidential matter.A C$1 billion IPO would be the biggest Canadian listing since Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd raised C$1.7 billion early this year, and would value GFL at nearly C$5 billion, the people said.The IPO would provide an exit for investors including U.S. private equity firm HPS Investment Partners LLC and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, a fund linked to a unit of Australian financial services firm Macquarie Group.While an IPO is one of several ways to unlock value, no decision has been made to proceed with an offering, GFL General Counsel Joy Grahek said.HPS and Macquarie declined to comment.GFL has been working closely with Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which are likely to play a big role in the IPO, the people said. The company raised $350 billion in a bond offering in May.Led by Chief Executive Patrick Dovigi, GFL has grown through acquisitions into one of Canada’s biggest waste management companies.GFL, whose flashy green-colored trucks are seen across the country, has about 140 facilities across Canada and in Michigan. It is a major provider of soil recycling services in Ontario.“GFL has been running a process over the last couple of months to appoint banks for an IPO,” said an investment banker. “This is an IPO everyone would want to be on.”The company could raise to C$600 to C$1 billion and has not made a final decision yet, he added.Canadian investors have had a big appetite for IPOs outside of the energy and mining sectors over the past few years, and GFL’s deal could be the biggest non-resource IPO since utility Hydro One went public in 2015.Rivals include Waste Connections Inc, which has operations in Canada and the United States. Waste Connections has a market capitalization of C$23.5 billion.($1 = 1.2854 Canadian dollars)Reporting by John Tilak in Toronto and Stephen Lacey for IFR in New York; Additional reporting by David French in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gfl-ipo-canada/macquarie-backed-canadian-waste-management-firm-gfl-plans-c1-billion-ipo-sources-idINKBN1DT30R'|'2017-11-29T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'db3d1972d2d4e94a4b7bf85659d46c3baf430688'|'S&P, Dow set to climb on tax bill hopes'|'(Reuters) - The Nasdaq posted its biggest one-day drop in more than three months on Wednesday as investors fled high-flying technology stocks and shifted to banks and other pockets of the market that could benefit from improving economic conditions, lower regulations and taxes, and higher interest rates.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Gains in financial, industrial and healthcare stocks boosted the Dow industrials, giving the blue-chip index another record closing high, and they helped the benchmark S&P 500 finish only slightly lower.The S&P tech sector .SPLRCT, which has propelled the market’s record-setting rally this year, fell 2.6 percent for its biggest daily decline in more than five months.Shares of Amazon ( AMZN.O ), Apple ( AAPL.O ), Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL.O ) and Facebook ( FB.O ) fell between 2 percent and 4 percent. Among other high fliers this year, Netflix ( NFLX.O ) sank 5.5 percent and the Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX dropped 4.4 percent.Financials .SPSY rose 1.8 percent, adding to Tuesday’s gains and resulting in their biggest two-day rise since just after the 2016 U.S. election of President Donald Trump. JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) rose 2.3 percent and Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) climbed 2.0 percent.The industrial sector .SPLRCI rose 0.9 percent, led by transportation stocks such as Southwest Airlines ( LUV.N ), railroad Union Pacific ( UNP.N ) and package delivery company UPS ( UPS.N ).“We are certainly seeing a change in leadership at least for today in that we are taking profits from technology and redistributing those profits to areas that will benefit from lower taxes, less regulation, higher interest rates and kind of later stages of the economic cycle,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 103.97 points, or 0.44 percent, to 23,940.68, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.97 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,626.07 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 88.02 points, or 1.27 percent, to 6,824.34.While Amazon dropped, shares of other retailers posted sharp gains, including Target ( TGT.N ) up 8.9 percent and Macy’s ( M.N ) up 8.2 percent, as holiday shopping season has started in earnest over the past week.“There may be a little bit of a thought that Amazon isn’t going to kill every retailer out there,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.“We’re seeing some transportation stocks doing better in expectation that maybe this is going to be a pretty good holiday season with consumer confidence doing well and wage growth picking up a little bit,” Nolte said.Investors are keenly focused on tax-reform legislation in Congress, with hopes that a corporate tax cut would further fuel the record-setting rally in equities.Congressional Republicans scrambled to reformulate their bill to satisfy lawmakers worried about how much it would expand the federal deficit, as the measure moved toward a U.S. Senate floor vote later this week.In the latest batch of encouraging economic data, the U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, notching its quickest pace in three years.Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congressional leaders the U.S. economy has gathered steam this year and will warrant continued interest rate increases amid a strengthened global recoveryIt was Yellen’s final scheduled testimony on Capitol Hill. Her nominated replacement, Jerome Powell, on Tuesday had defended plans to potentially lighten regulation of the financial sector.In corporate news, Chipotle Mexican Grill ( CMG.N ) shares rose 5.6 percent after the restaurant chain said it was seeking a turnaround expert to lead the company.Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/sp-dow-set-to-climb-on-tax-bill-hopes-idINKBN1DT1ZA'|'2017-11-29T11:07:00.000+02:00'
'079a5be57ac386ed521af3a9dad0aab1a03ffe92'|'Uber''s third-quarter adj loss widens to $743 mln - FT'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s quarterly adjusted losses widened to $743 million, up 14 percent from the previous quarter, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.The ride-hailing company''s third-quarter net revenue stood at $2 billion, up 14 percent from the previous quarter, the FT reported citing new documents sent to shareholders. ( on.ft.com/2BkXV8T )Uber’s quarterly gross bookings were $9.7 billion, the FT reported.Uber was not immediately available to comment.Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-results/ubers-third-quarter-adj-loss-widens-to-743-mln-ft-idINL3N1NZ1Q2'|'2017-11-29T00:01:00.000+02:00'
'96054e5f66a29398e18c9b1ff4883c88a24f9ffc'|'REFILE-UK supermarkets say won''t run out of cigarettes after P&H''s collapse'|'(Corrects typographical error in spelling of ‘shopowner’ in final paragraph)* Palmer & Harvey entered administration on Tuesday* Tesco, Sainsbury’s reassure on tobacco supplies* Co-op strikes supply deal with CostcutterLONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Britain’s major supermarkets sought to reassure smokers on Wednesday that the collapse of Palmer & Harvey (P&H), the UK’s biggest tobacco distributor, would not lead to shortages of cigarettes.P&H, which also delivers food and drink to supermarkets and convenience stores, went into administration on Tuesday after running out of cash, raising the possibility of tobacco shortages across the UK.However, Tesco and Sainsbury‘s, both said they had set in train contingency plans to ensure their stores were stocked with sufficient tobacco products.“We can reassure Sainsbury’s customers that we have strong contingencies in place,” said a spokesman for the chain.Similarly a Tesco spokesman said: “We will now work to ensure that we can continue to meet our customers’ shopping needs.”Analysts said the stores of Britain’s major retailers would typically hold a few days tobacco stock. They said that as P&H had been teetering on the brink of collapse for several months the major retailers would have been talking to the big tobacco companies to work out the logistics of maintaining supplies.Imperial Brands, maker of Kool, Winston and Gauloises cigarettes, said on Wednesday it did not anticipate any significant disruption to its UK operations.P&H&rsquo;s collapse would, however, cause problems for some smaller convenience store operators.Analysts at Peel Hunt said nearly half of the 1,650 stores in the McColl’s chain were supplied by P&H. They speculated that Morrisons, Britain’s fourth biggest supermarkets operator, could begin a few months early a long-term wholesale supply deal it agreed with McColl’s in August.Separately Britain’s Co-operative Group said on Wednesday it had agreed to become the exclusive wholesale supplier from next spring to Costcutter Supermarkets Group (CSG) which has a network of 2,200 Costcutter, Mace, Simply Fresh, Supershop and kwiksave convenience stores.The Co-op was also examining ways to support independent retailers within CSG until the formal agreement begins.“With P&H no longer able to supply our stores, we have activated our contingency plans that will see our retailers supported by the Co-op and other suppliers in the run-up to our deal with the Co-op,” said CSG CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer.Though Tesco had earlier this year signed a new deal with P&H, analysts said its demise in part reflected Tesco’s proposed 3.7 billion-pound ($4.96 billion) takeover of Booker, Britain’s biggest wholesaler, a deal which earlier this month won provisional approval from the competition regulator.Meanwhile the shopowner members of the Nisa Retail convenience store franchiser and wholesale group earlier this month accepted the Co-op’s 138 million-pound takeover offer. ($1 = 0.7460 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey Editing by Greg Mahlich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/palmerharvey-administration/uk-supermarkets-say-wont-run-out-of-cigarettes-after-phs-collapse-idINL8N1NZ3SJ'|'2017-11-29T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'eb32e4fda435726a63060e7f868d43617bdcb383'|'Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for electric cars'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production.A Volkswagen logo is seen at Serramonte Volkswagen in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/Files Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models.To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen (VW) alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion).Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal.More than half of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labour is used in mines.On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labour rights issues in raw materials sourcing.The partnership dubbed “Drive Sustainability” consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo.The alliance “will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector,” said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network.“This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue” to address issues within the supply chain.($1 = 0.8449 euros)Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/autos-minerals/automakers-pledge-ethical-minerals-sourcing-for-electric-cars-idINKBN1DT1SV'|'2017-11-29T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'b0314fe4844d6e708a7152bf9422c7ab5c02a767'|'Statoil says condident Eni will resolve problems at Goliat field'|'November 28, 2017 / 3:50 PM / in 12 minutes Statoil says condident Eni will resolve problems at Goliat field Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s Statoil said on Tuesday it was confident Eni would resolve problems besetting their joint Arctic Goliat oilfield, as a shutdown there neared its second month. Statoil CEO Eldar Saetre speaks at a news conference in London, Britain February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The 100,000 barrels-per-day field - operated by Eni, the senior partner in the licence - has been shut since Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) ordered its closure in early October, citing safety concerns. “I believe they will sort out things in the end,” Statoil’s Chief Executive Eldar Saetre told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Oslo. A spokesman for Eni’s Norwegian unit said no date had been set for the restart, though it was having a constructive dialogue with the PSA, and continuing to make the required improvements. The PSA has said it will have to check the work is done before letting Eni restart production, an unusual step in Norway. The problems at Goliat, the only producing oilfield in the Barents Sea, come as Norway’s right-wing government is preparing to allow more exploration and development plans in the remote region to replace output from mature North Sea fields. Norway’s Oil and Energy Minister Terje Soeviknes said questions about Goliat’s profitability were “totally irrelevant” to the overall profitability of oil and gas production in the Arctic, as each project has to be assessed separately. The minister told Reuters he nevertheless planned to submit a report on Goliat’s profitability to Norway’s parliament next week, in reply to numerous requests from the opposition. The move is unprecedented as the government normally only assess profitability of new field developments before granting its consent, not the profitability of operating fields. Soeviknes repeated an earlier statement that there had been no discussion among authorities of stripping Eni of Goliat’s operatorship, despite calls from some in the opposition. Eni has a 65 percent stake in the Goliat’s license, and Statoil holds the remaining 35 percent. Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg and Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eni-norway-statoil/statoil-says-condident-eni-will-resolve-problems-at-goliat-field-idUKKBN1DS1WU'|'2017-11-28T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'f9ee2241740597b34dcf7025247a17c146ef6d56'|'VW brand forecasts record sales of over six million models'|' 49 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago VW brand forecasts record sales of over six million models Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - The Volkswagen car brand expects deliveries to hit a record this year and raised its midterm profitability forecast on Thursday, citing cost cuts and expanding ranges of higher-margin models. Volkswagen id concept-cars are pictured before the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach While the emissions scandal of September 2015 has cost Volkswagen (VW) billions of euros in fines and penalties, it doesn’t seem to have had a lasting effect on the carmaker’s popularity with motorists. The world’s largest automaker said it expects to significantly exceed last year’s record 5.99 million VW brand auto sales in 2017, counting on strong momentum in China, Europe and the United States. The operating profit margin at the VW brand may climb to between 4 and 5 percent by 2020, the carmaker said, still lagging rivals such as PSA Group and Toyota but higher than the 4 percent or more VW has previously been indicating. The increase brings the VW group’s largest division by sales into line with a more upbeat outlook for overall VW group profit announced earlier in November. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero “We have completed the first five kilometres of a marathon,” VW brand chief executive Herbert Diess said. “We are all aware of the challenges that lie ahead of us.” The maker of VW’s top-selling Golf hatchback expects to significantly improve underlying earnings this year from the 1.9 billion euros (£1.67 billion) in 2016, which would mark the brand’s first profit gain year-on-year since 2011, Diess said at a news conference. Profit will be driven by a growing number of more lucrative sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), whose share of overall brand sales may triple to about 40 percent by 2020 from currently 14 percent, the CEO said, citing the redesigned Touareg and an all-new T-Cross due to hit dealerships in 2018. “With SUVs, we are earnings the money we need to fund the shift towards electric mobility,” Diess said, referring to the brand’s accelerating push into zero-emission vehicles. The VW brand, which has been undergoing heavy restructuring for about a year, said it has kept fixed costs broadly stable this year despite growing spending on model launches. The carmaker said it will achieve 3,800 job cuts in Germany by the end of 2017, a year after it agreed with unions to slash 23,000 positions via natural attrition by 2020. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Arno Schuetze and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-outlook/vw-brand-forecasts-record-sales-of-over-six-million-models-idUKKBN1DU21R'|'2017-11-30T16:48:00.000+02:00'
'c8b844ca5918f59103177b64873e20d991042f3a'|'India''s economy bounces back from slowdown 30,'|'Expanding India''s access to dental care India''s economy has bounced back from a year-long slowdown, but not enough to regain the global growth crown from China. Gross domestic product grew by 6.3% in the three months through Sept. 30, up from 5.7% in the previous quarter. That compares with China''s growth rate of 6.8% in the same period.Still, the numbers will be music to the ears of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose two biggest policy decisions of the past year have been widely blamed for a slump that cut growth to its slowest pace in three years.India was the world''s fastest growing major economy at the end of 2016, with GDP expanding by 7%.But the sudden ban last November of India''s two most valuable rupee notes at the time -- accounting for 86% of the country''s cash -- stunned industry and brought activity in some sectors of the economy to a screeching halt.An overhaul of the country''s tax system in July, replacing myriad state levies with a single set of national rates, dealt business another blow, even if it should help the economy in the long run.Related: What did Modi get wrong with India''s economy?India appears to have put those troubles behind it for now.The stronger growth "indicates that perhaps the impact of two very significant structural reforms... is now behind us, and hopefully in the coming quarters we can look for an upwards trajectory," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at a press conference shortly after the data was released."I think the most significant aspect is the fact that this quarter''s positive result has been impacted significantly by the growth in manufacturing," he added."The improvement in industry is eye-catching," Priyanka Kishore, lead Asia economist at Oxford Economics, told CNNMoney.Kishore added that India''s national tax overhaul continues to drag on growth, but the economy appears to have shrugged off the effects of the cash ban.Related: Trump''s emerging markets guru likes India''s movesThe reversal in India''s fortunes should be sustainable, economists predicted."Growth will continue to accelerate over the coming quarters," wrote Shilan Shah, India economist at Capital Economics, in a note."Recovery is underway," Oxford Economics'' Kishore said. "Next year we should be looking at these headwinds turning into tailwinds for the economy."'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_economy.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/30/news/economy/india-economy-gdp-growth-recovery/index.html'|'2017-11-30T16:19:00.000+02:00'
'd99d64b5747cdcfb5f0807d341acb3a2d08e4fd3'|'EU and Britain agree financial settlement post Brexit - senior EU official'|'November 30, 2017 / 6:17 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago EU and Britain agree settlement post Brexit: senior EU official Jan Strupczewski 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has agreed a financial settlement with Britain, a senior EU official told Reuters on Thursday, under which London has committed to paying a set share of EU budgets after Britain has left the bloc. FILE PHOTO: Union Flags and European Union flags fly near the Elizabeth Tower, housing the Big Ben bell in Parliament Square in central London, Britain September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen/File Photo Following reports of British offers in recent days, EU negotiators have insisted publicly that work is continuing on the financial deal, as both sides also push to reach accords on two other key divorce conditions before a crunch meeting on Monday. “The official offer has not been submitted, but unofficially it has been agreed to such an extent that if no one decides to stage a last minute complete turnaround everything will be OK,” the official said. A spokesperson for Britain’s Department for Exiting the European Union was not immediately available for comment. Overall, the EU side was “optimistic” that agreement could be reached on the conditions to allow EU leaders to agree during a Dec. 14-15 summit to open talks on post-Brexit relations. The British government dismissed as “speculation” on Wednesday reports in British newspapers that it had more than doubled its offer to the EU to very roughly 50 billion euros. The EU official said there was no precise figure discussed because the amounts to be paid in future will depend on many imponderable variables, ranging from whether loan guarantees had to be exercised to the vagaries of the sterling-euro exchange rate and relative growth in the British and EU economies. Britain has committed to meeting an agreed share of the vast bulk of the future budget items which the EU asked for, the official said, adding: “It is a deal on what percentage share Britain will cover and on what items.” The official said the British share would be significantly less than 16 percent - Britain’s share last year of the total output of the 28-nation Union. In any case, Britain’s economic weight may decline as the pound has sunk since last year’s vote to leave the EU, while even in sterling terms, the British economy has been growing more slowly than others. The share of the economy used for the EU budget is also calculated somewhat differently and Britain has been entitled as a member to a special rebate. “SUITABLE, FAIR PRICE” Among key budget lines that Britain has committed to was covering a share of disbursements from the EU budget in years beyond the current seven-year EU budget ending in 2020. “We have agreed a certain formula how to calculate that share. So we take each line in the budget and apply the share to it,” the official said. British Prime Minister Theresa May had said Britain would pay its full share of the budget to the end of 2020 - the point at which the EU expects roughly to end a “transition period”, during which Britain will effectively keep all its obligations and most rights in the EU after Brexit in March 2019, while losing its vote on laws. But the EU, which originally estimated the likely “Brexit bill” at roughly 60 billion euros, had demanded Britain also pay its share of items, committed to during that seven-year 2014-2020 budget but not actually disbursed until years later. “All in all, they are ready to pay a suitable, fair price for moving on to the second phase. This is what they want,” the official said of May’s push to convince fellow EU leaders to open talks next month on a transition and future trade pact. “They want as soon as possible to solve the transition period issues, because they are afraid companies will start moving,” he added, saying that broadly speaking London was going to be “paying all the EU wanted”. Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-settlement/eu-and-britain-agree-financial-settlement-post-brexit-senior-eu-official-idUKKBN1DU2KO'|'2017-11-30T20:07:00.000+02:00'
'9f01acf5a82a1cc00593dcc08b7318b46a1e7042'|'Creditors file bankruptcy plea against two China Huishan subsidiaries'|'HONG KONG, Nov 28 (Reuters) - China Huishan Dairy Holdings , burdened by billions of dollars worth of debt, said on Tuesday its creditors had filed a plea in a local court for bankruptcy restructuring against two if its wholly-owned subsidiaries.The application was filed on Tuesday against Huishan Dairy China Co Ltd and Liaoning Huishan Dairy Group Shenyang Co Ltd by the embattled company’s onshore creditors, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.Shares in China Huishan, once a hot property with investors, have been suspended since they plunged 85 percent in March, after which the company said it had fallen behind with some loan repayments.The company’s debts totalled at least 38 billion yuan ($5.73 billion) at the end of July, according to a work-out plan seen by Reuters.Huishan, billed as China’s biggest integrated dairy firm when it went public in 2013, said this month it was preparing for provisional liquidation. In response to its creditors’ latest action, Huishan said on Tuesday it was taking legal advice on the banks’ bankruptcy restructuring plea and would take such steps to preserve the assets of the company. (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee. Editing by Jane Merriman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-huishan/creditors-file-bankruptcy-plea-against-two-china-huishan-subsidiaries-idINL3N1NY483'|'2017-11-28T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'3d3c60ac2eda4b795a75caa3cc53aa5da637f59e'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Nov 27'|'Nov 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The TimesAviva Plc is poised to spend more than 1 billion pounds buying back its shares after building up huge capital reserves. bit.ly/2jo4NexA blockbuster cinema deal could see Vue International combine with Odeon to create a 3 billion pound multiplex monolith. bit.ly/2jo5dl7The GuardianThe government is to highlight five key areas where the UK needs to improve its performance when it reveals on Monday the details of a new industrial strategy designed to increase productivity. bit.ly/2jqeAADA final decision on the Northern Irish border cannot be made until a UK-EU trade deal has been agreed, Liam Fox has said, despite warnings from Brussels that trade talks cannot proceed unless an agreement is reached within days. bit.ly/2jq5i7xThe TelegraphNorthern supermarket chain Booths, known as the "Waitrose of the North", is hunting for a buyer after 170 years in the same family. bit.ly/2jpTP8hGreene King Plc will be crying into its beer this week when it reveals a drop in profits, as pubs face rising costs on several frontsSky NewsMining group Rio Tinto Plc has abandoned plans to appoint the Conservative Party''s boss Mick Davis as the company''s next chairman in the wake of a full-scale investor revolt. bit.ly/2jqA00rA former owner of Little Chef is among a pack of bidders plotting a cut-price takeover of Byron, the gourmet burger chain caught in the headwinds afflicting Britain’s casual dining sector. bit.ly/2jqBSpZThe IndependentTwo men who handed themselves in to police over an incident which sparked a mass evacuation at Oxford Circus Tube station have been released without charge. ind.pn/2jocy44Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-nov-27-idUSL3N1NX06V'|'2017-11-27T04:07:00.000+02:00'
'17b0eb34e0c4d0352f6d6dad27e4553510c3f3c6'|'EU seeks to head off new aircraft emissions dispute'|'November 27, 2017 / 4:30 PM / Updated 2 hours ago EU seeks to head off new aircraft emissions dispute Julia Fioretti 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - More than 18 months after global regulators adopted emissions rules for commercial aircraft, the European Union is embroiled in an internal debate over how they should be applied in a row that could have consequences for current Airbus jet models. The European Parliament and EU member states will meet on Wednesday to try to bridge differences over how far European authorities should be limited by last year’s pact at the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Last year’s Montreal agreement sets limits on emissions from all new aircraft from 2020 and will be phased in for deliveries of existing models of aircraft from 2023, but environmentalists have said it does not go far enough. The debate is being rekindled as policymakers ponder the future of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is responsible for aircraft certification standards for 32 EU and non-EU nations. Under a proposal by the European Commission to reform the Cologne-based agency, EASA would be able to impose CO2 emission standards stricter than those agreed in 2016 at ICAO. However, EU member states have pushed for that option to be taken out so that EASA would only be able to implement the standards agreed at the U.N. aviation agency, and no more. A Commission spokesman declined to comment on the talks between the Parliament and member states and said its position had been set out in the original proposal. Under the agreement at ICAO that followed six years of talks, some current-generation aircraft like the A380 delivered after 2028 would need a costly upgrade, although it remains uncertain whether it will be produced until then because of slow sales. Some, like the A330 freighter, would no longer be delivered. The latest debate looks set to reopen friction between environmental campaigners and Airbus, whom they accuse of leaning on the Commission to weaken its policy with the backing of France, where the planemaker is based. In the run-up to Wednesday’s meeting, environmental group Transport and Environment (T&E) supplied emails between Airbus and the Commission obtained through a freedom of information request, which it said indicated Airbus had dictated policy by being allowed to insert comments directly into an EU draft. The policy put forward by the EU at the ICAO talks was less stringent than the one eventually adopted with U.S. support. “Now we know: when it comes to climate Europe lets Airbus write its own rules, rendering them ineffective. It will happen again on Wednesday unless EU countries stand up to Airbus and their shareholder governments (France, Germany and Spain) and enable Europe to decide on its environmental laws,” Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at T&E, told Reuters. A spokesman for the Commission said it was normal to seek input from Airbus as Europe’s biggest plane manufacturer. Airbus denied exerting any pressure on EU decision makers. “It is completely normal for us to engage in dialogue with the European Commission to relay our opinion on appropriate matters,” a spokeswoman said. Additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-aviation-carbon/eu-seeks-to-head-off-new-aircraft-emissions-dispute-idUKKBN1DR1ZC'|'2017-11-27T18:29:00.000+02:00'
'75b429cbe0ed9415d3bf8007380f4b68d81db2d6'|'U.S. vice president to meet with GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler officials'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and the administration’s top trade official met with the chief executives of General Motors ( GM.N ) and Fiat Chrysler ( FCHA.MI ), and a senior manager from Ford ( F.N ), on Monday to discuss trade and the renegotiation of NAFTA.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks as he meets with members of the Venezuelan exile community, recent Venezuelan migrants, other local leaders and officials about the continuing devastation and unrest in Venezuela at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Doral, Florida, August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Skipper The meeting was held to cover “trade, commerce and manufacturing policy and how it impacts their business” and was scheduled to include National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Pence’s office said.Automakers have found themselves at the center of disputes over renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes for more rules on auto imports that the American manufacturers have opposed.Automakers have been lobbying the administration to abandon proposals that would require more parts for automobiles be made in one of the three countries so as to avoid hefty tariffs.“We view the modernization of NAFTA as an important opportunity to update the 23-year-old agreement and set the stage for an expansion of U.S. auto exports,” Matt Blunt, the president of the American Automotive Policy Council, said after the meeting.Blunt said that the automakers appreciated “the opportunity to directly address the industry’s concerns with the administration’s rule of origin proposal.”General Motors chief executive Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne were expected to attend the meeting, while Ford’s Americas President Joe Hinrichs was set to attend.Lighthizer is overseeing the renegotiation of NAFTA on behalf of the Trump administration. The latest round of negotiations ended last week with little progress.Mexico and Canada rejected the U.S. proposal to raise the minimum threshold for autos to 85 percent North American content from 62.5 percent as well as to require half of vehicle content to be from the United States.Reporting by David Shepardson, Susan Heavey and Ginger Gibson; Writing by Chris Sanders; editing by Andrew Hay and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-pence/u-s-vice-president-to-meet-with-gm-ford-and-fiat-chrysler-officials-idUSKBN1DR1RV'|'2017-11-27T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'bb2a033a13b88eae4aac9d4a5161520569947d34'|'Russia''s Etalon says biggest shareholders to sell down stakes'|' 22 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Russia''s Etalon says biggest shareholders to sell down stakes   MOSCOW (Reuters) - The biggest shareholders in Etalon ( ETLNGq.L ) plan to sell down their stakes, the Russian housebuilder said on Tuesday, reducing their holdings for the second time this year. Strata Investments, a company owned by the family of Etalon founder Vyacheslav Zarenkov, and investment company Baring Vostok each plan to sell around 14.5 million global depository receipts in Etalon via an accelerated bookbuild. Etalon will not receive any proceeds from the sale, it said. In May, the two shareholders sold 37 million GDRs, pricing the deal at $3.58 per GDR. The Zarenkov family owns 36 percent of Etalon, while Baring Vostok held a 10 percent stake, as of mid-November this year. London-listed shares in Etalon were down 3.2 percent at $3.77 at 1800 GMT. Writing by Maria Kiselyova and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-etalon/russias-etalon-says-biggest-shareholders-to-sell-down-stakes-idUKKBN1DS2GT'|'2017-11-28T20:21:00.000+02:00'
'2d59bc514306c9c11b952377622c6ae60a2395d4'|'Unilever board to delay decision on single structure: FT'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:54 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Anglo-Dutch Unilever favors single home, but delays choice Martinne Geller 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) favours creating a single corporate structure, but is delaying a choice between its British and Dutch bases, the consumer goods group said on Tuesday, in part because of the heightened political sensitivity of the decision due to Brexit. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid After rebuffing a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz ( KHC.O ), Unilever said in April it would review its dual structure under which it is based and listed in both Britain and the Netherlands, aiming for a decision by the end of the year. A recent move by the Dutch government to scrap a tax on dividends was seen as an effort to keep the maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup in the Netherlands. Any decision by Unilever ( UNc.AS ) to abandon its home on the banks of London’s River Thames would be a blow for Britain as it struggles to negotiate its divorce from the European Union. “I‘m advocating to postpone decisions because it’s a moving playing field - with political turbulence out there. The emotions of the moment are really the issue,” Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman, a Dutchman, told the Financial Times. Asked whether he was referring to Brexit, Polman said: “It’s on all sides nowadays - of that you have to be clear. The board is going to take a 30 to 50-year decision. We want to do that well and we want to do that properly.” SIMPLIFIED STRUCTURE Unilever was widely expected to give an update on its review at an investor event starting on Wednesday. It said on Tuesday the board considered unification with a single share class to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. That would, for example, make it easier for the group both to make acquisitions using equity and spin off businesses. However, the company said the review was continuing and it did not have a deadline. If Unilever does unify, it intends to maintain stock market listings in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States, continue to apply both the UK and Dutch corporate governance codes and terminate the preference shares of the Dutch entity it recently bought back, it said. For many shareholders, a simplified structure is more important than its location. “It’s a big deal for the company, it’s a big deal for the British and Dutch political establishment, but I don’t think it’s a very big deal for the shares,” said Ali Miremadi, who runs global and European equity funds at GAM Investments. “From an investor point of view, all that matters is efficiency and cost, and if it helps them to be able to dispose of some things they would otherwise struggle to do,” said Miremadi, who has invested about 2.5 percent of the funds he manages in Unilever. At 0930 GMT, Unilever shares were up 1.4 percent in London and 1.3 percent in Amsterdam. Unilever is in the midst of an auction to sell its margarine and spreads business, but has said it would spin the business off if the price wasn’t good enough. The company confirmed on Tuesday its 2017 guidance for underlying sales growth of 3 to 5 percent, an improvement in underlying operating margin of at least 100 basis points and “strong” cash flow delivery. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-structure/unilever-board-to-delay-decision-on-single-structure-ft-idUSKBN1DS0OD'|'2017-11-28T09:53:00.000+02:00'
'0db1c5c76038b00402116023e5b2c846f6d35e81'|'Goldman calls outcome of upcoming OPEC meeting uncertain'|'(Reuters) - The outcome of the OPEC meeting in Vienna later this week is uncertain given current crude prices and a lack of consensus on an output cut extension deal, Goldman Sachs said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo “The absence of such a consensus is due to the uncertainty on the progress of the oil market rebalancing as well as Brent oil prices trading at $63 per barrel,” the bank said in a research note.“The push for a nine month extension, four months before the cuts end and given an accelerating rebalancing further stands in the face of prior comments that the cuts should remain data dependent to assess their effectiveness.”U.S. oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply from a planned restart of the Keystone crude pipeline and uncertainty about Russia’s resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week’s Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting.On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending an output cut deal. Still, Russia has not given a timeline, and on Monday there were signs Russia may find it hard to comply.Goldman Sachs said despite a less clear outcome, it viewed risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as current prices, timespreads and positioning already reflect the high probability of a nine-month extension.“We continue to expect a gradual ramp up in OPEC and Russian production from April onward,” Goldman said, adding “as a result, the announcement of an only six month extension would still initially appear bullish relative to our expectation.”Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom BrownOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-research-crude-goldman-sachs/goldman-calls-outcome-of-upcoming-opec-meeting-uncertain-idUSKBN1DS02V'|'2017-11-28T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'c93582afc055874917c4f178eaf6baa53ca2be2b'|'Exclusive - Lonmin to cut social, discretionary spending to save cash'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:50 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Exclusive - Lonmin to cut social, discretionary spending to save cash Ed Stoddard , Zandi Shabalala 4 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) - Troubled platinum producer Lonmin plans to cut spending on social and labour projects and freeze “non-critical” recruitment, part of an array of measures to save cash, according to an unpublished presentation reviewed by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A mine worker returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg October 5, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo The South African miner, not for the first time, is facing an uncertain future after earlier this month delaying annual financial results pending conclusion of a business review, a move that sent its shares down 30 percent in a single day. In the presentation to stakeholders earlier this month, the company signalled it would stop all discretionary spending and save 250 million rand (£13.64 million) via energy and water initiatives. It also reiterated plans to cut capital spending. Cutting expenditure on social and labour plans - called SLPs in South Africa - could be problematic as mining companies are required to meet certain obligations to provide housing and other services to the communities around their shafts to maintain their operating licences. In September, Lonmin said it had been informed by South Africa’s department of mineral resources that it had failed to meet some social and labour obligations, although the company added it did not think its operating licence was in jeopardy. Lonmin spent 270.8 million rand on social and labour plans during the 2016 financial year, the last year for which it has provided full details. “The law provides for a review of SLP plans depending on the prevailing business environment - called a section 102 process - and this is discussed with the regulator,” Lonmin spokeswoman Wendy Tlou said in response to Reuters questions. “We are in the process of engaging with the Department of Mineral Resources with regards to the proposed adjustments to the plan and only once those are completed and agreed upon, would we have an idea of impact.” She also said “non-critical recruitment” involved “positions we can delay or do without for some time compared to critical roles that you may need immediately for operational reasons.” Lonmin, which has been forced to tap investors three times since 2009, is under pressure on a range of fronts. “The confidential presentation Lonmin presented to stakeholders does not paint a pretty picture,” said one attendee, who declined to be named. South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, which has a 30 percent stake in the company, is planning to ask for two seats on the board by the end of 2017 and has suggested Lonmin move its main listing to Johannesburg from London, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday. Lonmin has been hobbled for years by depressed prices, soaring costs and periodic bouts of violent labour unrest which highlight the social risks of South African mining. An attempt at mechanisation years ago was abandoned in the face of geological challenges, one of many costly missteps that have dented investor confidence in a company that has seen its share price plummet around 97 percent in five years. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-crisis-exclusive/exclusive-lonmin-to-cut-social-discretionary-spending-to-save-cash-idUKKBN1DT27J'|'2017-11-29T16:50:00.000+02:00'
'dfdf05f21f64395b670b74fc110c30fd931377bd'|'Exclusive - Goldman strengthens Italy foothold with bigger Milan office - sources'|'November 29, 2017 / 5:18 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Exclusive - Goldman strengthens Italy foothold with bigger Milan office - sources Pamela Barbaglia 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs is poised to sign a lease for a new office in Milan that will significantly boost its presence in Italy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The entrance of the Goldman Sachs office is seen downtown Milan, Italy November 28, 2017. Picture taken November 28. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini The Wall Street bank is finalising the details of a new office for more than 100 people in the bustling heart of Milan, near the Duomo cathedral, increasing its Italy headcount almost six-fold, said the sources who declined to be named as the plans are confidential. This is a radical move for Goldman which currently employs about 20 people in Italy and has the smallest presence on the ground of the top five U.S. investment banks, despite making the biggest fees. Goldman’s move comes as Italy’s slow economic recovery is finally gathering pace and business morale is at its highest for a decade. Export volumes climbed 2.8 percent in the first eight months and GDP is forecast to grow this year at its fastest rate since 2010, prompting Standard & Poor’s to raise its rating on Italy’s sovereign credit for the first time in 35 years. While the economic recovery may generate more fees for investment banks, several sources said that Goldman’s decision to bet on the euro zone’s third-largest economy is partly driven by its efforts to reorganise its operations in Europe for when Britain leaves the EU, scheduled for 2019. The New York-based lender, which has around 6,000 employees in Britain, needs to ensure it will be able to service clients in the EU in the event of a hard Brexit. Goldman Sachs denied the Italian expansion was motivated by Brexit. “These moves reflect our ongoing investment in our Italian franchise. This investment is made independently of our Brexit contingency plans,” a spokesman for the bank said. Goldman said on Oct. 4 that it had agreed to lease 10,000 square metres of office space at the new ‘Marienturm’ building in Frankfurt, providing space for up to 1,000 staff. But the bank, whose boss Lloyd Blankfein recently called for a second vote on Brexit, wants to raise its game in other European cities where its presence on the ground has so far been weak. Blankfein has also said the bank would have hubs in Frankfurt and Paris after Brexit and that it would be up to the staff to decide whether or where they want to move to from London. Goldman is set to move into its new Milan office in the first quarter of 2019, the sources said. Its new office, which is only a short walk from its existing base in Piazzetta Bossi, will accommodate several investment bankers who are currently based in London. RELOCATION PACKAGES Reuters reported on Sept. 15 that Goldman’s co-head of Italy Francesco Pascuzzi is among a series of London-based bankers looking to move to Milan early next year. Other jobs will also be shifted from London to Italy at the start of 2018, the sources said, with one adding the U.S. bank is making a global push to better penetrate local markets by having its bankers based close to the companies they cover. Relocation packages for many Italian nationals on Goldman’s London payroll are currently being negotiated, two of the sources said. There is no final tally of how many will move from London as opposed to hirings in Italy but the decision to open a bigger office in Milan is expected to have an impact on Goldman’s London operations where most Italian bankers have so far been based. Goldman Sachs currently leases its Milan office from law firm Clifford Chance but the lease will expire in the first half of 2019. Unlike HSBC and BNP Paribas which recently moved to the new financial district of Porta Nuova, Goldman has decided to stay in Milan’s city centre. Goldman currently employs about eight wealth managers, five investment managers and two investment bankers in Milan together with back office, compliance and other administrative staff. Several Italian financiers who handle some of their country’s biggest deals from London have recently returned to their homeland. Earlier this year, former Goldman Sachs banker Antonino Mattarella became Bank of America’s Italy head in Milan. For those returning, Italy is offering significant perks, including a 50 percent income tax break. JPMorgan and other financial institutions are also looking for new offices in Italy’s financial capital. Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-goldman-sachs-exclusive/exclusive-goldman-strengthens-italy-foothold-with-bigger-milan-office-sources-idUKKBN1DT2Q3'|'2017-11-29T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'5e561a8c5b9a6d98395572108f1b7f76799f5b0a'|'EU leaning toward blocking Lufthansa''s purchase of Air Berlin''s Niki: source'|'FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) Chief Executive Carsten Spohr is meeting with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday to discuss anti-trust concerns over the German carrier’s acquisition of Air Berlin assets, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 plane is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Lufthansa last month signed a 210 million euro ($249 million) deal to take over Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position in Germany and expand its Eurowings budget brand.The deal has come under fire from airlines and consumer groups who fear it will give Lufthansa dominance of German domestic routes and in Austria.The source told Reuters that the European Union Commission was leaning toward blocking the takeover of Niki.The talks between CEO Spohr and the EU’s Vestager come ahead of a Thursday deadline for Lufthansa to propose concessions to allay European Commission concerns over the deal.It is expected to have to offer significant remedies as more than 100 of its routes overlap with those of Air Berlin, and the merged company would have a near monopoly on some routes.If Lufthansa fails to propose concessions, the Commission will launch an in-depth probe, which could call into the question the whole takeover as Niki, Air Berlin’s Austrian business, would have to be propped up financially for longer before Lufthansa could start restructuring it.Lufthansa declined to comment. The European Commission said its investigation was ongoing, adding it could not prejudge its outcome at this stage.Air Berlin, which has struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency in August, leaving the future of thousands of workers in the balance.Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Sabine Wollrab and Jason Neely and Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa-eu/eu-leaning-toward-blocking-lufthansas-purchase-of-air-berlins-niki-source-idINKBN1DT10H'|'2017-11-29T05:57:00.000+02:00'
'b0288aa1117d9f4701021e92b066481205aa06ae'|'Meredith’s Time buy helps lift U.S. media lending to 11-year high'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. media group Meredith Corp’s planned purchase of Time Inc is the latest in a run of mergers that have boosted media lending to the highest point in more than a decade as the sector regroups to fight online content providers.A commemorative issue of People magazine is seen on a newsstand in New York August 4, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Meredith said it would buy Time, the Sports Illustrated and People magazine publisher, on November 26 in a deal valued at US$2.8bn including debt, backed by US$3.55bn of committed bank financing and a US$650m preferred equity commitment from Koch Equity Development.Nearly US$94bn of investment-grade and leveraged loans have been provided to media companies so far this year, including deals that are completed and in process, up from US$59bn in 2017, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.Media companies’ quest for more and varied content, combined with relaxed restrictions on network ownership and liquid banks keen to provide funding are driving the mergers, which are expected to accelerate, bankers and attorneys said.“The big old guard is trying to find ways of providing content as the wave of the future,” an M&A attorney said.The US$94bn figure, which includes new money and a robust stream of refinancing deals, is the highest media volume since US$117bn in 2006, the data shows.Acquisition loans accounted for more than a quarter of this year’s total, for the biggest share since 68% in 2015. Volume two years ago was skewed by sizable deals including US$30bn for Charter Communications Inc’s buy of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks LLC.Relatively low asset prices are helping to spur merger decisions by traditional media companies which are keen to stay competitive with highly successful online streaming services including Netflix Inc and Amazon.com.Meredith said the tie-up adds the content creation of strong national brands to a powerful local television business, expanding the reach of advertisers.“The pace of media M&A is picking up and will probably accelerate over the next couple of years, as bigger and more diversified companies will have more negotiating leverage,” a banker said. “Everything’s on the table now.”STAY TUNED Comcast Corp, Verizon Communications and Walt Disney Co separately indicated interest in buying assets from Twenty First Century Fox Inc in recent weeks.Discovery Communications said it was buying Scripps Networks Interactive for US$14.6bn over the summer, supported by a US$9.6bn 364-day bridge loan to finance the purchase.Media mergers this year included Sinclair Broadcast Group, which said it would acquire Tribune Media Co for US$3.9bn in May. The move followed a vote by the Federal Communications Commission to reverse a 2016 decision that limited the number of television stations some broadcasters could buy.“Sinclair’s acquisition of Tribune was, in part, driven by expectations that the rules would be relaxed around station ownership and market concentration,” another banker said.“There continues to be an expectation that there will be consolidation, particularly in a regulatory environment that is friendlier, at least on the broadcast side,” he added.Earlier in November, the FCC also voted to remove a 42-year-old ban on cross ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in a major market, among several changes that could open the door to new deals among TV, radio and newspaper owners that are seeking to better compete with online media, Reuters reported.The unsettled US$85.4bn AT&T Inc purchase of Time Warner Inc is, however, still lurking in the background after the US Department of Justice sued AT&T to block the deal on November 20.President Donald Trump has frequently criticized Time Warner’s CNN news division and during the presidential election said that this merger would put too much power in AT&T’s hands.Uncertainty about the outcome of this deal, which was first announced in October 2016, “puts a monkey wrench” in the media and telecom merger spree, the first banker said.Nonetheless, the motivation and momentum for media mash-ups will persist, he said. “You don’t want to be left as the small, odd guy out, without negotiating power.”Reporting by Lynn Adler; Editing By Tessa Walsh and Jon Methven '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-media-lending/merediths-time-buy-helps-lift-u-s-media-lending-to-11-year-high-idINKBN1DT369'|'2017-11-29T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'f673143a7b5c5fdf7a2816887b40bb8120e8a171'|'Bitcoin tops $10,000 in some exchanges'|'LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin zoomed past $11,000 (£8,185.5) to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular fashion. After soaring more than 1,000 percent since the start of the year, bitcoin rose as much as 15 percent on Wednesday, but by mid-afternoon in New York, the virtual currency was trading at $9,500, down 3.7 percent on the day on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp BTC=BTSP , one of the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency exchanges. “As many seasoned traders know all too well, anything that rockets higher, tends to fall down faster when the time comes, and the time will come,” James Hughes, chief market analyst at FX broker AxiTrader, said. Bitcoin topped $10,000 for the first time in early Asia trading, before surging above $11,000 less than 12 hours later to reach $11,395. Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has led to countless warnings that it has reached bubble territory. But the warnings have had little effect, with dozens of new crypto-hedge funds entering the market and retail investors piling in. (For a graphic on Bitcoin price rockets, click reut.rs/2zPekGm ) London-based Blockchain.info, one of the biggest global bitcoin wallet-providers, told Reuters on Wednesday that it had added a record number of new users on Tuesday, with more than 100,000 customers signing up, taking the total number to more than 19 million. The evidence suggests that few of the users are buying bitcoin to use it as a means of exchange, but are speculating to increase their capital. “What’s happening right now has nothing to do with bitcoin’s functionality as a currency – this is pure mania that’s taken hold,” said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. Hileman, who last week gave a lecture to the Bank of England on the risks of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, also flagged the risk of the whole market collapsing entirely. “There’s always the possibility that some fundamental cryptographic flaw that we can’t solve craters the whole space, or that regulators unite and decide this represents systemic risk and actually could trigger the next financial crisis,” he said. “EXIT RAMPS” FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a blockchain database that enables the fast and anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralised payment system. It has far outstripped gains seen in any traditional asset classes or currencies this year. Its rise accelerated in recent months as exchanges such as the CME Group Inc ( CME.O ) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange announced plans to offer futures contracts for the cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the matter said Nasdaq Inc ( NDAQ.O ) plans to launch a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018. Sceptics say it is a classic speculative bubble with no relation to real financial market activity or the economy - most famously JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, who labelled it a “fraud”. But even Dimon and others who say bitcoin represents a bubble - now the consensus view among mainstream investors - do not deny its price rise could still have further to go. “It’s got all the shapings of your tulip bubble chart (but) that tells you nothing about where that price line could go depending on the number of people who wish to own it,” Standard Life’s head of investment strategy, Andrew Milligan, said on Wednesday. “Who is to say it doesn’t reach $100,000?” In some emerging markets, bitcoin had hit well over $10,000 previously. In South Korean exchanges, too, bitcoin was already close to $11,000 or higher early this week. On Zimbabwe’s local exchange golix.com bitcoin touched a new high of $18,500 on Wednesday before retreating to $18,000. The fact that bitcoin now provides “exit ramps” from national currencies that were becoming easier to use, Hileman said, could exacerbate any future financial crisis. Coordinated regulatory action might therefore be necessary in order to stave off an “economic calamity”, he said. Despite its mushrooming value, however, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday bitcoin was not big enough to pose a risk to the global economy. New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said the Fed is in the early stages of considering “what it would mean” to offer digital currencies sometime in the future and whether it may be necessary as an alternative to cash. Mike Novogratz, a former macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, said in a Reuters Investment Summit this month that mainstream institutional investors were about six to eight months from adopting bitcoin. Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore, Helen Reid and Dhara Ranasinghe in London, and MacDonald Dzirutwe in Harare; Editing by Alison Williams and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-tops-10000-in-some-exchanges-idUSKBN1DS2XK'|'2017-11-28T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'bf69a72c327d68f5cfd3fb6db3c8d4e1c5e9114f'|'Exclusive: Goldman strengthens Italy foothold with bigger Milan office - sources'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) is poised to sign a lease for a new office in Milan that will significantly boost its presence in Italy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The entrance of the Goldman Sachs office is seen downtown Milan, Italy November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini The Wall Street bank is finalizing the details of a new office for more than 100 people in the bustling heart of Milan, near the Duomo cathedral, increasing its Italy headcount almost six-fold, said the sources who declined to be named as the plans are confidential. This is a radical move for Goldman which currently employs about 20 people in Italy and has the smallest presence on the ground of the top five U.S. investment banks, despite making the biggest fees. Goldman’s move comes as Italy’s slow economic recovery is finally gathering pace and business morale is at its highest for a decade. Export volumes climbed 2.8 percent in the first eight months and GDP is forecast to grow this year at its fastest rate since 2010, prompting Standard & Poor’s to raise its rating on Italy’s sovereign credit for the first time in 35 years. While the economic recovery may generate more fees for investment banks, several sources said that Goldman’s decision to bet on the euro zone’s third-largest economy is partly driven by its efforts to reorganize its operations in Europe for when Britain leaves the EU, scheduled for 2019. The New York-based lender, which has around 6,000 employees in Britain, needs to ensure it will be able to service clients in the EU in the event of a hard Brexit. Goldman Sachs denied the Italian expansion was motivated by Brexit. “These moves reflect our ongoing investment in our Italian franchise. This investment is made independently of our Brexit contingency plans,” a spokesman for the bank said. Goldman said on Oct. 4 that it had agreed to lease 10,000 square meters of office space at the new ‘Marienturm’ building in Frankfurt, providing space for up to 1,000 staff. But the bank, whose boss Lloyd Blankfein recently called for a second vote on Brexit, wants to raise its game in other European cities where its presence on the ground has so far been weak. Blankfein has also said the bank would have hubs in Frankfurt and Paris after Brexit and that it would be up to the staff to decide whether or where they want to move to from London. Goldman is set to move into its new Milan office in the first quarter of 2019, the sources said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Its new office, which is only a short walk from its existing base in Piazzetta Bossi, will accommodate several investment bankers who are currently based in London. RELOCATION PACKAGES Reuters reported on Sept. 15 that Goldman’s co-head of Italy Francesco Pascuzzi is among a series of London-based bankers looking to move to Milan early next year. Other jobs will also be shifted from London to Italy at the start of 2018, the sources said, with one adding the U.S. bank is making a global push to better penetrate local markets by having its bankers based close to the companies they cover. Relocation packages for many Italian nationals on Goldman’s London payroll are currently being negotiated, two of the sources said. There is no final tally of how many will move from London as opposed to hirings in Italy but the decision to open a bigger office in Milan is expected to have an impact on Goldman’s London operations where most Italian bankers have so far been based. Goldman Sachs currently leases its Milan office from law firm Clifford Chance but the lease will expire in the first half of 2019. Unlike HSBC and BNP Paribas which recently moved to the new financial district of Porta Nuova, Goldman has decided to stay in Milan’s city center. Goldman currently employs about eight wealth managers, five investment managers and two investment bankers in Milan together with back office, compliance and other administrative staff. Several Italian financiers who handle some of their country’s biggest deals from London have recently returned to their homeland. Earlier this year, former Goldman Sachs banker Antonino Mattarella became Bank of America’s Italy head in Milan. For those returning, Italy is offering significant perks, including a 50 percent income tax break. JPMorgan and other financial institutions are also looking for new offices in Italy’s financial capital. Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-goldman-sachs-exclusive/exclusive-goldman-strengthens-italy-foothold-with-bigger-milan-office-sources-idUSKBN1DT2MS'|'2017-11-29T18:56:00.000+02:00'
'f0b5667bbf51f74a6e82b8aec4f775efeed0eb65'|'Slump in Facebook, Apple raises prospects of tech rally brake'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:11 PM / in 20 minutes Slump in Facebook, Apple raises prospects of tech rally brake Noel Randewich 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Facebook, Apple and other technology heavyweights dropped on Wednesday, creating uncertainty over whether the top-performing sector’s record-breaking rally this year is ending or merely taking a break. A Facebook logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski A day after hitting a record high, the S&P 500 information technology index fell 2.9 percent and was on track for its worst session since June. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 4.38 percent, heading for its worst session in a year. Wednesday’s was the latest in a handful of technology selloffs this year that increased chances that the sector’s rally might be ending. Previous tech drops were short-lived and were followed by record highs. “It’s all rotation. What we’ve had is money flowing into these stocks again and again for so long, like Apple, Facebook, Google. Now you’re seeing that trade reverse,” said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com, Netflix and Google parent-company Alphabet - the so called FAANG stocks that have helped power the S&P 500’s 17-percent rally this year - all lost ground. Apple fell 2.5 percent, reducing its gain this year to 45 percent. Facebook slid 3.8 percent, Alphabet lost 2.5 percent and Netflix slumped 6.8 percent. A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Those losses were offset by a jump in banks as well as telecommunications stocks, which have underperformed this year. Sports apparel seller Under Armour, the S&P 500’s worst performer in 2017, rallied 5.2 percent. Still, the S&P 500 IT index has gained 36 percent in 2017, accounting for a quarter of the overall S&P 500’s $24 trillion value, the highest proportion since the dot-com bubble in 2000. The semiconductor index has surged 41 percent this year, helped by strong global demand for chips as well as a wave of consolidation across the industry. Those soaring prices have left the tech sector trading at 19 times expected earnings, versus the S&P 500''s P/E multiple of 18, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. ( reut.rs/2ACFW1k ) Attracted to above-average earnings growth in a tepid global economy, investors have been willing to pay premium prices to own leading technology companies that are expanding their marketshare and growing quickly. “They’re rallying because they have new business models that legacy companies are having a hard time adjusting to,” said Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research in Chicago, adding that he was recommending to clients that they take advantage of Wednesday’s drop to buy more tech shares. Reporting by Noel Randewich;   April Joyner and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tech-stocks/slump-in-facebook-apple-raises-prospects-of-tech-rally-brake-idUKKBN1DT34Q'|'2017-11-29T22:08:00.000+02:00'
'82859a9193fa7c9db01023fc80c94d16ffcc53b7'|'Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium - executive'|'November 29, 2017 / 4:14 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium - executive Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and its Volvo Cars unit, which this week began selling cars in China from jointly owned brand Lynk & Co, are considering producing the vehicles at Volvo plants in Belgium and the U.S. state of South Carolina, a senior Lynk & Co official said. File Photo: Chinese automaker Geely unveils first model of its new Lynk & Co brand in Berlin, Germany, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo Lynk & Co plans to launch sales of its cars in Europe in 2019, followed by the United States in 2020. The brand’s first model, the 01 compact sport-utility vehicle, which starts at 158,800 yuan ($24,065.71), is now being produced on the same assembly line with Volvo’s new XC40 crossover SUV at a new Volvo-operated plant in Taizho. A second plant for Lynk & Co cars is expected to start production in Zhangjiakou next year. That same arrangement will be extended to Europe and to the United States to produce Lynk & Co cars by using Volvo production, Alain Visser, senior Vice President of Lynk & Co, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zj-geely-hldg-volvo-lynx/geely-volvo-considering-making-lynx-co-cars-in-south-carolina-belgium-executive-idUKKBN1DT0G9'|'2017-11-29T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'b93cfdf3782cee1a6c3d7396ce8f5925e4ee3a0b'|'Britvic''s earnings up, warns soft drink levy to cause uncertainties'|'November 29, 2017 / 7:35 AM / Updated an hour ago Britvic core earnings rise; says well placed to take on sugar tax Hanna Paul 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Tight cost controls helped Robinsons squash maker Britvic post a 5 percent rise in annual core earnings, and the company said it was well placed to deal with uncertainties stemming from Britain’s impending sugar tax. Bottles of soft drinks made by drinks company Britvic sit on a conveyor belt at Britvic''s bottling plant in London March 25, 2009. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor Shares of the UK bottler of Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew Energy rose 7 percent to a record after the company also said average prices for its soft drinks rose 1.6 percent in the year. Britain is set to implement a levy on makers of sugary drinks, a move advocated by health campaigners arguing that fizzy drinks are a source of empty calories. But the industry is opposing the tax, saying that it will not work and will disproportionately hurt poorer people. The tax is due to come into force in April 2018, giving soft drinks makers such as Britvic and Coca-Cola European Partners time to reduce sugar in their products. Britvic, which also makes J2O and Tango drinks, has already been cutting sugar content in drinks sold in Britain, but analysts have said the company will need to raise prices to cushion the impact from the higher taxes. Chief Executive Simon Litherland played down the fears. “Ninety-four percent of our own brands will be unaffected by the sugar levy. Pepsi and 7UP are the prime brands that can be affected but they also have low sugar offers,” he said. Litherland said the company raised prices to offset the impact of a weaker pound and higher raw material costs, and added that the company also reduced costs by 8 million pounds in the year. “Adjusted EBITDA (was) driven by successful management of cost inflation through revenue management and cost control,” Jefferies analysts wrote in a note. Britvic, whose main markets are Britain, Ireland and France, said adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA) rose to 195.5 million pounds. Annual profit after tax fell 2.5 percent to 111.6 million pounds. The company’s shares were up 6.6 percent at 808 pence at 1028 GMT, making the stock one of the top performers on the FTSE Midcap index. Reporting by Hanna Paul and Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britvic-results/britvics-earnings-up-warns-soft-drink-levy-to-cause-uncertainties-idUKKBN1DT0TK'|'2017-11-29T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'f613c1c05cad9d71a7c4231e3c785e90390156d7'|'U.S. casino operators Pinnacle, Penn National in merger talks'|'(Reuters) - Casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment Inc ( PNK.O ) said on Thursday it was in talks with Penn National Gaming Inc ( PENN.O ) about a potential cash-and-stock takeover of Pinnacle by its Wyoming-based rival.There is no guarantee a deal will go through, Las Vegas-based Pinnacle added.The Wall Street Journal had reported last month that the two companies were in talks for a potential merger.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pinnacl-ent-m-a-penn-natl-gaming/u-s-casino-operators-pinnacle-penn-national-in-merger-talks-idINKBN1DU2UB'|'2017-11-30T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'aefe995cfb9bca151a3998f348585b25b1ec42e6'|'Art auction house Artcurial buys upmarket estate agent John Taylor'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:35 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Art auction house Artcurial buys upmarket estate agent John Taylor Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French art auction house Artcurial has agreed to buy John Taylor, the upmarket estate agent that has spent more than 100 years selling properties in places such as the Riviera to the global jet set. Artcurial and John Taylor, which did not disclose the price of the acquisition, said the takeover extended an existing partnership between the two, which had seen Artcurial offer its art expertise services to John Taylor’s clients. John Taylor was founded in 1864 in Cannes, as the Riviera became a popular destination for the British aristocracy. The company’s website says its clients in the past have included King Edward VII, members of the French upper class, Henry Fonda and Gianni Agnelli. Its modern day clients include wealthy Britons, Russians and Middle Eastern citizens. Properties currently listed on the John Taylor website include a 9.8 million euros (8.8 million pounds) residence with a swimming pool in Saint Tropez and a 1.5 million euros family apartment in Paris’ chic 16th district. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Matthias Blamont'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-property-johntaylor/art-auction-house-artcurial-buys-upmarket-estate-agent-john-taylor-idUKKBN1DS2VF'|'2017-11-28T23:34:00.000+02:00'
'fd7340622b6fab18b13d0d97b2719b755595eba5'|'Bank of France says banks did not act wrongly in closing National Front''s accounts'|' 41 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Bank of France says banks did not act wrongly in closing National Front''s accounts Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The banks that closed the accounts of far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen and her party did not act wrongly, France’s central bank said on Tuesday. Marine Le Pen, head of France''s far-right National Front (FN) political party, shows a letter from the Societe Generale bank during a news conference at the party headquarters in Nanterre near Paris, France, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Le Pen last week accused two banks -- Societe Generale and HSBC -- of launching a “banking fatwa” to silence her party by closing bank accounts belonging to her and the National Front. “The closing of the National Front’s accounts do not seem to reflect a poor functioning by the banks with regards to their regulatory obligations,” the Bank of France said in a statement. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-le-pen-banks/bank-of-france-says-banks-did-not-act-wrongly-in-closing-national-fronts-accounts-idUKKBN1DS0MY'|'2017-11-28T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'b3b593c3aede7852364e1cf7101a4bc67059ee65'|'Bitcoin not big enough to threaten world economy, BoE deputy says'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:23 AM / in 14 minutes Bitcoin not big enough to threaten world economy, BoE deputy says Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said bitcoin, which hit a record high above $10,000 earlier on Wednesday, is not at a size where it would pose a risk to the global economy. Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe speaks at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Bitcoin has soared more than 900 percent so far this year, the largest gain of all asset classes and prompting sceptics to say it is a classic speculative bubble. “I would just say investors kind of need to do their homework,” Cunliffe told BBC radio. He said he did not think British households as a whole were going on a “debt-fuelled binge” but added that fast rates of consumer credit growth needed to be watched. Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-cunliffe-bitcoin/bitcoin-not-big-enough-to-threaten-world-economy-boe-deputy-says-idUKKBN1DT0NJ'|'2017-11-29T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'b323032f37ea7694b5817d5cac44df307651d951'|'Shell calls end to austerity with return to full dividend'|'Reuters TV United States  58 AM / in 17 minutes Shell calls end to austerity with return to full dividend Ron Bousso 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) on Tuesday canceled an austerity dividend policy as the oil and gas company boosted its cash generation forecasts, drawing a line under three years of oil price turmoil. FILE PHOTO: A logo for Shell is seen on a garage forecourt in central London, Britain, March 6, 2014. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The Anglo-Dutch company said it will abolish its scrip dividend, through which investors can opt to receive dividends in shares or cash, in the fourth quarter of 2017. The scrip dividend scheme was introduced in early 2015 after oil prices fell by more than half from over $100 a barrel. With lower debt, oil prices above $60 a barrel and progress in asset sales, pressure has mounted on Shell to deliver on commitments made in 2015 to remove the scrip and launch a share buyback program. [nL5N1ND5GB] Shell’s dividend payouts in the 12 months to September amounted to $15 billion, with scrip accounting for around a quarter. In a strategy update, the company reiterated its plans to buy back $25 billion of shares between 2017 and 2020 in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip and its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group. It did not specify a time to start the program. Shell also raised its cash flow outlook to $30 billion from $25 billion by 2020, assuming an oil price of $60 a barrel. Over the past two years Shell sharply increased revenue from its operations thanks to deep cost cuts, thousands of layoffs and asset sales. Over the past five quarters, it has adapted its operations to make profit at oil prices of $50 a barrel, generating sufficient cash to cover its dividend payouts. “We have also made significant progress with our divestment program, allowing us to reduce net debt in that time,” Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement. BP piped its rivals when announcing in October that it would resume share buybacks in the fourth quarter in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend. Statoil also eliminated its scrip dividend. Shell said that its vast $30 billion asset disposal program, aimed at reducing debt following the acquisition of BG Group, was nearly complete one year ahead of target, with $23 billion completed, $2 billion announced and another $5 billion at an advanced stage of progress. The company will continue divestments at a rate of $5 billion per year once the target is reached until at least 2020, it said. The assets included a portfolio of oilfields sold to Chrysaor which amounted to half of Shell’s production in the North Sea, a retreat from Canada’s oil sands and a number of refinery sales. [nL8N1NJ2BT] As a result of the divestments and cost savings, the company’s target of reducing its debt-to-equity ratio to 20 percent was “in sight”. It stood at 25.4 percent at the end of September. Shell maintained its capital expenditure forecasts at $25 billion to $30 billion per year until the end of the decade. Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-shell-investors/shell-calls-end-to-austerity-with-return-to-full-dividend-idUKKBN1DS0OO'|'2017-11-28T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'184259f39c59189dc0f06c3ad8415b9249732f5f'|'Siemens, Airbus, Rolls-Royce team up on hybrid-electric propulsion'|'Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 11:04 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Siemens, Airbus, Rolls-Royce team up on hybrid-electric propulsion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ), Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) and Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) have come together to develop a hybrid electric engine as the race intensifies to advance battery technology and electric motors to lower flying costs and move away from fossil fuels. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Dubbed the E-Fan X program, the three companies anticipate flying a demonstrator aircraft in 2020 after ground tests, provisionally on a BAe 146 aircraft. “We see hydro-electric propulsion as a compelling technology for the future of aviation,” Airbus Chief Technology Officer Paul Eremenko said in a joint statement. Airbus will be responsible for the control architecture of the hybrid-electric propulsion system and batteries, and its integration with flight controls. Rolls-Royce will be responsible for the turbo shaft engine and 2 megawatt generator, while Siemens will deliver the 2 MW electric motor. In October, a Seattle-area startup - backed by the venture capital arms of Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and JetBlue Airways Corp ( JBLU.O ) - announced plans to bring a small hybrid-electric commuter aircraft to market by 2022. Reporting by Richard Lough, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-se-rolls-royce-hldg-siemens/siemens-airbus-rolls-royce-team-up-on-hybrid-electric-propulsion-idUKKBN1DS18H'|'2017-11-28T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'ed965ed1271ee99ef4d0f65f5680b7bbda8610a6'|'Airbus offices raided last week as part of probe on Kazakh deal'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:33 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Airbus offices raided last week as part of probe on Kazakh deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus’ offices were raided last week as part of an ongoing probe centred on the sale of satellites to Kazakhstan in 2010, the company said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo “We confirm a raid was carried out at Airbus offices in the context of the French judicial investigation relating to Kazakhstan,” said an Airbus spokesman. “As the proceedings are currently ongoing, we have no further comment to make on the subject. Airbus is fully committed to cooperating with the authorities,” he added. Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-kazakhstan/airbus-offices-raided-last-week-as-part-of-probe-on-kazakh-deal-idUKKBN1DS0Y9'|'2017-11-28T11:32:00.000+02:00'
'2021c6f06e320ae23042bb045f0f0109a3f1c4a9'|'Markets get wake-up call from China''s post-congress deleveraging moves'|' 17 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Markets get wake-up call from China''s post-congress deleveraging moves Marius Zaharia 6 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - The pace at which Beijing is announcing deleveraging reforms following last month’s Communist Party Congress is a wake-up call for investors in Chinese markets: risk just got real. FILE PHOTO: Cars are parked at the Great Hall of the People during the opening session of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo Sweeping new rules for the asset management industry, a crackdown on micro loans and losses imposed on the creditors of the state-owned Chongqing Iron & Steel are not yet a “Big Bang” of reforms. Some of the measures were well flagged and will only kick in 2019. But they are sending a signal to markets that policymakers are serious about deleveraging, something that has been urged by the International Monetary Fund and ratings agencies for years and flagged as a top priority by President Xi Jinping at the party congress. Debt markets reacted first, with benchmark 10-year borrowing costs hitting three-year highs above 4 percent and yield spreads between government and corporate debt widening as policymakers appear more tolerant of defaults. Last week, the debt sell-off spilled over into equities, which saw their worst day in 19 months, and markets have since weakened further. “The pace of new regulations” being announced “does look somewhat surprising,” said Alexander Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “It might have caught some people off guard.” But, he said, policymakers were ultimately trying to reduce risks in the system. “So I think that’s positive even if there’s some short-term volatility.” Two weeks ago, the central bank and the top regulators for banking, insurance, securities and foreign exchange announced unified rules covering asset management. The aim was to close loopholes that allow regulatory arbitrage, reduce leverage levels, eliminate the implicit guarantees some financial institutions offer against investment losses and rein in shadow banking. Last week, a top-level Chinese government body issued an urgent notice to provincial governments urging them to suspend regulatory approval for new internet micro-lenders in a bid to curb household debt, which is currently low but rising rapidly. In the meantime, creditors of Chongqing Iron & Steel Co took a 70 percent loss in a debt-to-equity swap restructuring of nearly 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) of debt. It’s not the first time the authorities have tried to get markets to price risk. In March 2014, Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co Ltd missed a bond interest payment, marking China’s first domestic bond default. But about six months later, domestic bondholders were bailed out after the default caused a jump in corporate bond yields. Debt-to-equity swaps are complex operations that are harder to undo than a missed bond payment and analysts say the move signals a clear path for tackling high corporate debt levels, which the Bank for International Settlements estimates at 1.6 times the size of the economy. “If you own the wrong stuff you’re in trouble because they are not going to bail you out any more,” said Joshua Crabb, head of Asian equities at Old Mutual Global Investors. NO PANIC Crabb, however, remains bullish on China. Likewise, Aberdeen’s Wolf says China is “too big to ignore” and will look for select opportunities in other sectors aligned to policy priorities, such as consumption and technology, while avoiding the small banks that lose business as corporates deleverage. A key reason is that, unlike during the 2015 “Black Monday” stock market sell-off, there are fewer reasons to panic. Back then, valuations were 25 percent higher and China’s capital account was more open, allowing the sell-off to spill over into the foreign exchange market and damage investor confidence. China has since made it harder to move money overseas - September’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies being the latest move to close an exit route - so policymakers have better hopes of keeping the yuan stable. “Depreciation fears have somewhat alleviated and policy makers have been doing a great job in terms of managing outflows and changing overall expectations,” said Jean-Charles Sambor, deputy head of emerging market debt at BNP Paribas Asset Management. He said, however, that the recent announcements warranted a switch to government debt from corporate debt as he expected default rates to rise, while public debt should benefit from being included in MSCI’s widely used bond indexes. MOVING GRADUALLY The other source of comfort for investors is that Chinese policymakers are still keeping an eye on growth - they are likely to keep this year’s target of “around 6.5 percent” in 2018, according to policy sources. This means that they will be wary of tightening financial conditions too much to avoid hurting the healthier parts of the economy in the process, analysts say. “We feel that the regulators are serious about reducing systemic risk,” said one risk manager at a Chinese bank in Guangdong province, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. He added that his bank’s priority switched this year from business expansion to risk management. “However, the adjustment should be a long-term process since drastic changes within a short period will cause additional risks which will be against the regulators’ purpose.” Additional reporting by Michelle Chen in Hong Kong; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-debt-risk/markets-get-wake-up-call-from-chinas-post-congress-deleveraging-moves-idUKKBN1DS0GF'|'2017-11-28T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'1aec74d37f718642bcd882c6ade922726341d586'|'Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:03 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology Ernest Scheyder 6 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shale oil engineer Oscar Portillo spends his days drilling as many as five wells at once - without ever setting foot on a rig. FILE PHOTO: An oil and gas processing plant fed by local shale wells is pictured along a highway outside Carrizo Springs, about 30 miles (48 km) from the Mexican border, in Dimmit County, Texas, U.S. on May 2, 2014. REUTERS/David Alire/File Photo Part of a team working to cut the cost of drilling a new shale well by a third, Portillo works from a Royal Dutch Shell Plc office in suburban Houston, his eyes darting among 13 monitors flashing data on speed, temperature and other metrics as he helps control rigs more than 500 miles (805 km) away in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield. For the last decade, smaller oil companies have led the way in shale technology, slashing costs by as much as half with breakthroughs such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that turned the United States into the world’s fastest-growing energy exporter. (For a graphic detailing the decline in drilling costs, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zCXvxE ) Now, oil majors that were slow to seize on shale are seeking further efficiencies by adapting technologies for highly automated offshore operations to shale and pursuing advances in digitalization that have reshaped industries from auto manufacturing to retail. If they are successful, the U.S. oil industry’s ability to bring more wells to production at lower cost could amp up future output and company profits. The firms could also frustrate the ongoing effort by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to drain a global oil glut. “We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Portillo said. The technological push comes amid worries that U.S. shale gains are slowing as investors press for higher financial returns. Many investors want producers to restrain spending and focus on generating higher returns, not volume, prompting some to pull back on drilling. Production at a majority of publicly traded shale producers rose just 1.3 percent over the first three quarters this year, according to Morgan Stanley. But many U.S. shale producers vowed during third quarter earnings disclosures to deliver higher returns through technology, with many forecasting aggressive output hikes into 2018. Chevron Corp is using drones equipped with thermal imaging to detect leaks in oil tanks and pipelines across its shale fields, avoiding traditional ground inspections and lengthy shutdowns. Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips - the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producer - sees ample opportunity to boost both profits and output. Conoco also oversees remote drilling operations in a similar way to Shell. “The people that don’t have shale in their portfolios don’t understand it, frankly,” Lance said in an interview. “They think it’s going to go away quickly because of the high [production] decline rates, or that the resource is not nearly that substantial. They’re wrong on both counts.” Shell, in an initiative called “iShale,” has marshalled technology from a dozen oilfield suppliers, including devices from subsea specialist TechnipFMC Plc that separate fracking sand from oil and well-control software from Emerson Electric Co, to bring more automation and data analysis to shale operations. FILE PHOTO - A drilling rig owned by Parsley Energy Inc. seen near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo One idea borrowed from deepwater projects is using sensors to automatically adjust well flows and control separators that divvy natural gas, oil and water. Today, these subsea systems are expensive because they are built to operate at the extreme pressures and temperatures found miles under the ocean’s surface. Shell’s initiative aims to create cheaper versions for onshore production by incorporating low-cost sensors similar to those in Apple Inc’s Watch, eliminating the need for workers to visit thousands of shale drilling rigs to read gauges and manually adjust valves. Shell envisions shale wells that predict when parts are near mechanical failure and schedule repairs automatically. By next year, the producer wants to begin remote fracking of wells, putting workers in one place to oversee several projects. It also would add solar panels and more powerful batteries to well sites to reduce electricity and diesel costs. Oil firms currently spend about $5.9 million (£4.44 million) to drill a new shale well, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Shell expects to chop that cost to less than $4 million apiece by the end of the decade. FILE PHOTO: A rig contracted by Apache Corp drills a horizontal well in a search for oil and natural gas in the Wolfcamp shale located in the Permian Basin in West Texas, U.S. on October 29, 2013. REUTERS/Terry Wade/File Photo “There is still very little automation,” said Amir Gerges, head of Shell’s Permian operations. “We haven’t scratched the surface.” TECHNOLOGY AND GEOLOGY Much of the new technology is focused on where rather than how to drill. “There is no amount of technology that can improve bad geology,” said Mark Papa, CEO of shale producer Centennial Resource Development Inc Anadarko Petroleum, Statoil and others are using DNA sequencing to pinpoint high potential areas, collecting DNA from microbes in oil to search for the same DNA in rock samples. ConocoPhillip’s MRI techniques also borrow from medical advances. ConocoPhillips next year will start using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyse Permian rock samples and find the best drilling locations, a technique the company first developed for its Alaskan offshore operations. EOG Resources Inc last year began using a detailed analysis of the oil quality of its fields. The analysis, designed by Houston start-up Premier Oilfield Laboratories, helps to speed decisions on fracking locations and avoid less productive sites. Premier has reduced the time needed to analyse geochemical data to find oil reserves from days or weeks to seconds. Such efficiencies serve two purposes, said Nathan Ganser, Premier’s director of geochemical services. “It’s not only removing costs that are superfluous,” he said. “It’s boosting production.” (Refiles to removes extra word ‘effort’ in sixth paragraph.) Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-oil-technology/pressured-for-profit-oil-majors-bet-big-on-shale-technology-idUKKBN1DS0F8'|'2017-11-28T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'2699e678f3067fa5b800f7a94fd837ec08742dbe'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1100 GMT on Tuesday:** The Bank Of Nova Scotia offered $2.2 billion for a majority stake in the Chilean operations of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) in a deal that would make the Canadian lender Chile’s third largest non-state bank.** China state-backed explosives maker Anhui Leimingkehua Co is acquiring a coal mining affiliate in a $3.1 billion deal, a move it said was part of the government’s push to make state-owned enterprises (SOEs) more efficient.** Brian Joffe’s South African investment firm Long4Life has agreed to buy Chill Beverages for at least 452 million rand ($33 million) in cash and shares, Long4Life said on Tuesday.** Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, Israel’s third-largest lender, said it agreed to buy smaller rival Union Bank of Israel in an all-share deal that will help it to compete better with the country’s top two lenders.** London-based private equity firm HgCapital Trust Plc has agreed to sell electronic trading and connectivity solutions provider Ullink to Sweden’s Itiviti, a company backed by Nordic Capital.** Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is offering to purchase shares of Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to its most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1NY3SV'|'2017-11-28T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'674defda9d3b3bfccdbe6fdfaf81f987df4536fe'|'Fed''s Kashkari: no reason to ''tap brakes'' on U.S. economy'|'(Reuters) - Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, who dissented both times the Fed raised interest rates so far this year, on Monday signalled he may do so again in December when the Fed is widely expected to deliver a third rate hike.Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks during an interview at Reuters in New York, U.S. on February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “Because inflation is low, I am seeing no reason to tap the brakes on the economy,” Kashkari said in a Town Hall event at Winona State University in Minnesota and broadcast via the Minneapolis Fed’s website. A rate hike would be expected to slow the economy by reducing incentives for borrowing, investing and hiring.Unemployment was 4.1 percent in October and is expected to fall further this year. But inflation has weakened this year despite the drop in the jobless rate, and slow growth in wages suggests there is still slack in the labour market, he said.“My perspective is, let’s allow the job market to continue to strengthen, allow more Americans to go back to work, allow wages to strengthen, and then, if we start to see inflation creep back up to our 2-percent target, we can tap the brakes then,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why we have to tap the brakes, when inflation is continuing to run low.”Kashkari’s view sets him apart from many at the Fed who are increasingly worried that without interest rate increases the labour market could overheat. Earlier Monday Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, also a voter on policy this year, said a rate hike would be appropriate in the near future.Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-kashkari/feds-kashkari-says-no-reason-to-tap-brakes-on-u-s-economy-idINKBN1DS00V'|'2017-11-27T21:15:00.000+02:00'
'd7431afe41c9ad4cc628882b14a459fd6a31e645'|'Shell calls end to austerity with return to full dividend'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) will return to paying pure cash dividends and step up its investment in cleaner energy as it turns a corner after more than two years of cost cuts and disposals prompted by weak oil prices.Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden sought to strike a balance between reassuring investors it can increase returns in its core fossil fuel business during an “era of volatility” in oil prices while preparing to step up investments in renewables.The Anglo-Dutch company said it will abolish its scrip dividend, through which investors can opt to receive dividends in shares or cash, in the fourth quarter of 2017.The scheme was introduced in early 2015 to help preserve cash after oil prices fell by more than half from over $100 a barrel and the company bought BG Group in a $54 billion deal.Shell’s shares were trading 2.8 percent higher at 1020 GMT, compared with a 1.1 percent increase in the broader European energy index .SXEP.BP ( BP.L ) had pipped its rivals when announcing last month that it would resume share buybacks in the fourth quarter in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip dividend. Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) has also eliminated its scrip dividend.Simon Gergel, UK Chief Investment Officer at Allianz Global Investors welcomed the removal of scrip dividend “which reflects their improving cash generation profile.”BUYBACKS ON AGENDA With lower debt, oil prices above $60 a barrel and progress in asset sales, pressure has mounted on Shell to remove the scrip and launch a share buyback program.Shell’s dividend payouts in the 12 months to September amounted to $15 billion, with scrip accounting for around a quarter.In a strategy update, the company reiterated its plans to buy back $25 billion of shares between 2017 and 2020 in order to offset the dilutive effect of the scrip and its acquisition of BG Group. It did not specify a time to start the program.Shell also raised its cash flow outlook to $30 billion from $25 billion by 2020, assuming an oil price of $60 a barrel.FILE PHOTO: A Shell logo is seen reflected in a car''s side mirror at a petrol station in west London, Britain, January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Shell was able to sharply increase revenue in recent quarters thanks to deep cost cuts, thousands of layoffs and asset sales, adapting its operations to make profit at oil prices of $50 a barrel and to cover its dividend payouts.NEW ENERGIES Shell, which has bet largely on a growing demand for natural gas in the transition to cleaner energy, also set out ambitious targets to reduce its carbon footprint.It raised planned investment in its new energies division which focuses on renewables and low carbon technologies to $1-2 billion until 2020 from the current $1 billion.Slideshow (2 Images) “We have to start somewhere and we have to build a platform that can participate and grow actively in further electrifying the world,” van Beurden told reporters.The company, which has made a number of investments in electric vehicle technology in recent months, said it will aim to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2035 and by half in 2050.The targets will be expanded to include all of Shell’s operations as well as emissions from products consumed by consumers which Shell has so far resisted, van Beurden said.The new energies division is planned to be one of Shell’s main growth engines after 2020 and generate returns of 8 to 9 percent, Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl said.DIVESTMENTS Shell said that its vast $30 billion asset disposal program, aimed at reducing debt following the BG Group deal, was nearly achieved one year ahead of target, with $23 billion completed, $2 billion announced and another $5 billion at an advanced stage of progress.The company will continue divestments at a rate of $5 billion per year once the target is reached until at least 2020.As a result of the divestments and cost savings, the company’s target of reducing its debt-to-equity ratio to 20 percent was “in sight”. It stood at 25.4 percent at the end of September.Shell maintained its capital expenditure forecasts at $25 billion to $30 billion per year until the end of the decade.Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-investors/shell-calls-end-to-austerity-with-return-to-full-dividend-idUSKBN1DS0OO'|'2017-11-28T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'357acff3a0f3229205fc18c84eccc5d06b223e74'|'Amazon is a potential customer, says Textron aviation chief'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Amazon is a potential customer, says Textron aviation chief Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Textron Inc sees Amazon.com Inc as a potential customer, the head of the company’s aviation business told CNBC on Tuesday, given the increased need for freight and transport with a booming ecommerce industry. FILE PHOTO: An Amazon.com Inc driver stands next to an Amazon delivery truck in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo “We see the whole freight industry as something that is going to double in the next 15 years, so we are investing in that market,” Textron aviation chief executive, Scott Ernest, said. Textron makes the Beechcraft and Cessna jets and services the Hawker brand of business jets. Logistics companies have seen a surge in ecommerce packages over the last decade, especially during the holiday season. FedEx Corp on Tuesday agreed to buy some of Textron’s newly-launched Cessna SkyCourier 408. Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-textron-amazon-com/amazon-is-a-potential-customer-says-textron-aviation-chief-idUSKBN1DS1KW'|'2017-11-28T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'8edd41104b027b29316cc6897f85d64252a7e551'|'Exclusive - Cineworld in talks with Regal Entertainment about merger: sources'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:43 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Exclusive - Cineworld in talks with Regal Entertainment about merger: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Cineworld Group Plc ( CINE.L ), a British operator of movie theatres, is in talks with U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group ( RGC.N ) about a potential merger, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Cineworld’s offer values Regal at around $23 per share (17 pounds), one of the sources said. There is no certainty the discussions will lead to a deal, the sources added, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. Cineworld and Regal Entertainment did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York and Ben Martin in London; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-regal-entnmnt-gp-m-a-cineworld-group/exclusive-cineworld-in-talks-with-regal-entertainment-about-merger-sources-idUKKBN1DS2NE'|'2017-11-28T21:43:00.000+02:00'
'a5d988bc8d83b8faa19abd9d4953c5b46e3e0aa2'|'New electric London taxi poised for second overseas market'|'LONDON (Reuters) - London’s black-cab maker could strike a deal soon on the second overseas market for the new electric version of its famous taxi, the boss of the Chinese Geely-owned ( 0175.HK ) firm told Reuters on Wednesday.London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) Chief Executive Chris Gubbey rides in one of the company''s electric cabs during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) picked Amsterdam earlier this year as its first foreign destination, where around 225 vehicles will be used as part of a service which transports the elderly and disabled.Chief Executive Chris Gubbey told Reuters the firm was hoping to conclude talks with a second European location soon, potentially by the end of the year.“Quite soon hopefully there will be an announcement on the second one after Amsterdam. We’re getting very close now,” he said.LEVC is undergoing a major expansion plan which will see it sell around half of around 10,000 vehicles abroad by the turn of the decade, including a new van.Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-taxis/new-electric-london-taxi-poised-for-second-overseas-market-idUSKBN1DT1JA'|'2017-11-29T14:47:00.000+02:00'
'717409cebab834e20793840ef41c89ced0e2d432'|'CORRECTED-Chipotle says founder Ells to step down as CEO'|'(Corrects spelling of “Ells” in headline)Nov 29 (Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc’s founder Steve Ells will step down as chief executive of the burrito chain once it finds a replacement with “demonstrated turnaround expertise”, the company said on Wednesday.“Bringing in a new CEO is the right thing to do for all our stakeholders,” Ells said, adding the move will help him focus on bringing innovation to Chipotle’s sourcing and food preparation.Chipotle said a search committee had been formed comprised of directors Robin Hickenlooper and Ali Namvar, as well as Ells, to identify a new CEO.Ells will stay on as executive chairman. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D‘Souza) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/chipotle-move-ceo/corrected-chipotle-says-founder-ells-to-step-down-as-ceo-idINL3N1NZ4QC'|'2017-11-29T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'ad319a441b35bd336678ac7e2fa5fe3ebbf23a10'|'UPDATE 1-Iraq plans tender for new Kirkuk oil pipeline'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:14 PM / in 8 minutes UPDATE 1-Iraq plans tender for new Kirkuk oil pipeline Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds quotes, details, background) VIENNA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Iraq will announce a tender for a new oil export pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfield within a week, the country’s oil minister said on Wednesday. Last month, Iraq’s central government retook control of the field from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Production of some 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) has been disrupted since then as Baghdad and Erbil argue about export routes. “We have already issued a tender to build a new pipeline with a 40 inch diameter and two pumping stations,” Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi told reporters in Vienna. Kurdistan has built another pipeline for Kirkuk exports to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan after the old Kirkuk pipeline belonging to the federal government had been damaged by Islamic State militants. Kirkuk’s production stopped in mid-October after Iraqi forces dislodged Kurdish fighters from Kirkuk and took over the northern region’s oilfield. Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi told reporters in Vienna that the new pipeline would be able to ship 300,000 bpd. He said current production from Kirkuk of around 80,000 bpd was being shipped by truck to local power stations and refineries. Luaibi said Iraq was opening dialogue with Russian state oil firm Rosneft, one of the most active investors in Kurdistan. Luaibi said the contract model for the new round to offer nine exploration blocks bordering Iran and Kuwait will differ from those signed with foreign companies to develop its southern oilfields. (Reporting by OPEC team, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson and Louise Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/iraq-oil/update-1-iraq-plans-tender-for-new-kirkuk-oil-pipeline-idUSL8N1NZ4I0'|'2017-11-29T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'c7e78e0dfd8c8ad481a6a46f28a4c1768d40ddc6'|'S.Africa national airline''s debt at 13.8 bln rand, losses to widen-executives'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago S.Africa national airline''s debt at 13.8 bln rand, losses to widen-executives Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CAPE TOWN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA) has outstanding debt of 13.8 billion rand ($1.01 billion) as of this month, the chief executive of the state-run national airline, Vuyani Jarana, told parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday. Jarana also said the airline needed to pay back domestic lenders and U.S. bank Citi 4 billion rand by March 2018. Chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi said SAA’s losses for 2017/18 were forecast to widen to 4 billion rand from a previous estimate of 2.8 billion rand. ($1 = 13.6300 rand) (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Ed Stoddard)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/safrica-airline-debt/s-africa-national-airlines-debt-at-13-8-bln-rand-losses-to-widen-executives-idUSJ8N1NU00D'|'2017-11-29T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'9357965c99c51d016d15171ef0ac921d136e4540'|'German inflation accelerates beyond expectations in November'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:46 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago German inflation accelerates beyond expectations in November Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German inflation accelerated more quickly than expected in November, the Federal Statistics Office said, as the economy and labour market boomed -- supported by loose euro zone monetary policy -- and food and fuel costs rose. Customers walk inside the Original Unverpackt (Original Unpacked) zero-waste grocery store in Berlin''s Kreuzberg district September 16, 2014. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Earlier figures showing rising prices in Germany’s regions had already prompted investors push up German borrowing costs in the expectation that this would lead the European Central Bank to reduce stimulus. Strong growth in the prices of energy and food helped lift the inflation rate to 1.8 percent, ahead of the 1.7 percent expected by analysts polled by Reuters, and substantially faster than the 1.5 percent price growth seen in October. The numbers, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation figures from other European Union countries, showed prices up 0.3 percent month-on-month, ahead of the 0.2 percent forecast. German 10-year government bond yields were 2 basis points higher at 0.36 percent and most other euro zone bond yields were also higher by 1-2 basis points on the day. Figures reported by individual German states’ statistics offices showed food, fuel and transport costs all making strong contributions to overall price increases. The state readings are not harmonised to compare with other euro zone countries. The inflation rate for the entire euro zone, due on Thursday, is expected to have risen to 1.6 percent in November from 1.4 percent in October, economists polled by Reuters said. In Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, EU-harmonised consumer prices rose by 1.7 percent year-on-year in November, flash data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Wednesday. This was below a Reuters poll of 1.9 percent and unchanged from October. The data also showed Spain’s national consumer price index rose by 1.6 percent in November on an annual basis, also unchanged from October. Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-inflation/german-inflation-accelerates-in-november-state-data-suggest-idUKKBN1DT1CH'|'2017-11-29T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'05f07a4335d698fd7c706f79e86adc47e0b7c7ab'|'Greece says take up in bond swap offer reached 86 percent, final tally on November 30'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:37 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Greece says take up in bond swap offer reached 86 percent, final tally on November 30 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece successfully completed a 30 billion euro (£26.53 billion) voluntary bond swap and will announce final results on November 30, it said on Wednesday. The European Central Bank (ECB) presents the new 50 euro note at the bank''s headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, July 5, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Preliminary results showed high participation by bondholders. “The take up reached about 86 percent,” a government official told Reuters, declining to be named. Greece offered to exchange government bonds issued after a debt restructuring in 2012 for five new benchmark issues with maturities ranging from five to 25 years and coupons from 3.5 to 4.2 per cent. Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-greece-bonds-swaps/greece-says-take-up-in-bond-swap-offer-reached-86-pct-final-tally-on-november-30-idUKKBN1DT1C3'|'2017-11-29T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'69e5712ff55890daa1e22a9caa648f59302b09f4'|'UK launches plan for industry as Brexit looms, wins Merck investment'|'November 27, 2017 / 12:14 AM / Updated 5 hours ago As Brexit looms, UK pitches new industry plan, wins support from Merck, Qiagen Paul Sandle , Ben Hirschler 6   Britain pitched a new strategy for industry on Monday, pledging greater state intervention to tackle weak productivity and to help the world’s sixth largest economy cope with the upheaval of leaving the European Union. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May attends a bilateral meeting during the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Prime Minister Theresa May flagged the plan in January, seven months after Britain voted to leave the EU, adopting a hands-on approach to business that had largely been abandoned by her predecessors from the time of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The 131-page document aims to reposition Britain so it can profit from the technological revolution by increasing research and development investment, improving technical education and building better infrastructure. “At its heart it epitomises my belief in a strong and strategic state that intervenes decisively wherever it makes a difference,” Prime Minister Theresa May said in a forward to the strategy, entitled “Building a Britain fit for the future”. May revived the once unfashionable concept of industrial strategy shortly before she won the top job in the political turmoil that accompanied the shock Brexit vote of 2016. In an attempt to underscore the importance of the new strategy, Britain said it had secured major investments from global healthcare company MSD, known as Merck & Co in the United States, and German-based diagnostics company Qiagen . While the Financial Times estimated the value of the investments at more than 1 billion pounds, MSD said it was too early to give an investment figure and Qiagen also gave no number. Life sciences is one of four sectors being targeted by the government, which will also focus on construction, artificial intelligence and the automotive industry. “There is a pipeline of new announcements of investments over the weeks ahead that we now expect,” Business Minister Greg Clark said. MSD’s UK and Ireland managing director Louise Houson said the company was working in collaboration with the UK government to build on its “forward thinking and ambitious” strategy. Under pressure to soothe uncertainty over the impact of Britain’s March 2019 EU exit, May said the strategy heralded a new approach to how government and business could work together. The launch, however, was overshadowed by Prince Harry’s announcement that he is engaged to U.S. actress Meghan Markle. GLOBAL BRITAIN? Clark said Britain has some of the world’s best universities and research institutions, as well as leading companies in sectors ranging from advanced manufacturing to financial services, life sciences and creative industries. FILE PHOTO - A Union Jack flag and a European Union flag are seen ahead of a bilateral meeting between Britain''s Prime Minister and European Council President during the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann But he said Britain’s poor productivity - the amount of output per worker over a given period - was one of the weaknesses that it had to address. Employers say it is difficult to find workers with the skills they require and bottlenecks in infrastructure like roads and railways hinder business. Last week, budget forecasters cut the country’s growth estimates for the next five years, largely because of reduced projections for productivity, the Achilles’ heel of the economy for generations. Britain’s economy is expected to grow by 1.5 percent in 2018, weaker than 2.0 percent growth among the world’s advanced economies as a whole, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. Rebecca Long-Bailey, a business spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said the strategy was short on detail. “This is a White Paper made up of re-announced policies and old spending commitments, showing once again that this is a Government short on details and new ideas,” Long-Bailey said. “Nothing in the White Paper will help give businesses the certainty or incentives they need to invest in the face of the government’s catastrophic handling of Brexit.” MSD said it would open a state-of-the-art life sciences discovery research facility in London by 2020, focusing on early bioscience discovery and entrepreneurial innovation. MSD said it viewed Britain as a world-leader in science, although a spokeswoman said Brexit raised “some very real concerns” for the supply chain, drug regulation and the ability to attract talent to Britain. The U.S. drugmaker intends to create 150 new research roles in London and move around 800 existing UK jobs to the capital. Qiagen said its plans to develop a genomics and diagnostics campus in Manchester, northern England, had the potential to create 800 jobs. The vote of confidence in Britain’s life sciences sector was welcomed by the government after the news last week that the European Medicines Agency would move from London to Amsterdam when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Brexit remains by far the biggest concern for British companies and multinationals with operations in Britain. With only months to go before many businesses need to make decisions on future investment, they are eager for clarity on how Brexit will work. However, talks with the European Union have made slow progress, and the government has only been able to reiterate its plan to seek a transition deal as soon as possible. Editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-industry/uk-launches-plan-for-industry-as-brexit-looms-wins-merck-investment-idUKKBN1DR00E'|'2017-11-27T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'd11e4c10c081ee97765cf75b46c6298581a123a0'|'Deckers to appoint at least two new independent directors'|'(Reuters) - UGG boots maker Deckers Outdoor Corp ( DECK.N ), under pressure from activist investor Marcato Capital Management to overhaul its board, said on Monday said it would appoint at least two new independent directors by September next year.The company said the new appointments will coincide with an equal number of retirements from the existing nine-member board.Tensions have been rising between the footwear company and the activist hedge fund for months as Marcato urged Deckers to sell off pieces of the company, buy back shares and overhaul executive compensation.Marcato, which has an 8.4 percent stake in Deckers, has nominated nine candidates to the board of the company, which will hold its annual shareholder meeting on Dec. 14.The hedge fund last week said in an investor presentation it believes “immediate change is needed at the Board level as a result of the incumbent directors’ lack of urgency and failure to provide proper oversight of management.”Deckers said on Monday, “these new directors are intended to increase Board diversity and reduce the average tenure of independent directors.”Marcato was not immediately available for comment.Marcato comes into the election with strong credentials – having won a proxy contest at Buffalo Wild Wings earlier this year and boasting some of the strongest returns in the hedge fund industry this year.But the strategy of trying to replace Decker’s entire board may also be risky, analysts said, noting that institutional investors are often willing to give management more time to repair problems and unwilling to throw out all directors.(This story corrects number of board members in second paragraph to nine from 11.)Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst; Editing by Savio D''Souza '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-deckers-outdoor-marcato/deckers-to-appoint-at-least-two-new-independent-directors-idINKBN1DR1K7'|'2017-11-27T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'cd62943deb8e6ae32bb1309daf62aaf47e52af47'|'Vietnam brewer Sabeco gets strong response at Singapore investor roadshow: chairman'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco SAB.HM has received a strong response from potential suitors at an investors’ roadshow in Singapore, its chairman said, as the government moves closer to finalizing a stake sale in the $9 billion maker of Bia Saigon and 333 brews. FILE PHOTO: Cans of beer move along a production line at a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Vo Thanh Ha said the government is due shortly to publish details of a divestment plan for its nearly 90 percent stake in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, as the brewer is formally called, as part of a lengthy fund-raising exercise. The sale has attracted interest from global brewers seeking access to what is already the second-most profitable market for Dutch brewer Heineken NV ( HEIN.AS ), which holds 5 percent of Sabeco. Vietnam’s per-capita beer consumption is forecast to grow to 47.8 liters by 2021 from an estimated 40.6 liters this year, making the Southeast Asian country the biggest beer consumer on a per capita basis among Asian countries, data from research firm Euromonitor International showed. The Sabeco sale could also provide a template for more planned privatizations including that of peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S ( CARLb.CO ) owns 17.3 percent. “We met a number of very high-profile investors – strategic investors and industry players,” Ha said in an interview in Singapore. “We’ve received very good feedback from investors that they consider Sabeco as an extremely good company with high potential to grow,” Ha said, in comments translated from Vietnamese by an adviser for the roadshow. Representatives from Japanese pair Kirin Holdings Co Ltd ( 2503.T ) and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd ( 2502.T ) also took part in the roadshow, said Ha. On Monday, a Kirin spokesman said the Japanese brewer is considering buying a stake in Sabeco, and will determine the size once sale details are finalised. Asahi declined comment. In September, the brewer told Reuters it had been studying Sabeco. Ha said representatives of Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade were also present at Sabeco’s roadshow. “The divestment is on schedule. The government will be publishing the plan to divest very soon,” said Ha, speaking in a private bus en route to Changi Airport. The roadshow moves to London and Ho Chi Minh City this week. The government said this month it aims to complete a stake sale in December, though it has yet to disclose a size or price. Complicating the process is a near-trebling of Sabeco’s share price over the past year to 318,800 dong ($14), compared with a 40 percent rise in the benchmark index .VNI to 10-year highs. “The price is determined by the market,” said Ha, when asked to comment on the surge. Some investors said a small free float has inflated Sabeco’s market value. Sabeco dominates Vietnam’s beer market where its main rivals are Heineken and Habeco, formally Hanoi Beer Alcohol & Beverage JSC. It expects the introduction of premium products to help it maintain a market share of 40 to 42 percent over the next two or three years, Ha said. ($1 = 22,715.0000 dong) Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Junko Fujita in TOKYO and Mai Nguyen in HANOI; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-sale/vietnam-brewer-sabeco-gets-strong-response-at-singapore-investor-roadshow-chairman-idUSKBN1DR0BE'|'2017-11-27T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'4c01351b865d2a181bc0e2713634c82961a85735'|'Macquarie-backed Canadian waste management firm GFL plans C$1 bln IPO -sources'|'TORONTO/NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Private equity-backed Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc is seeking to raise as much as C$1 billion ($778 million) in an initial public offering that could be filed as early as the first quarter, people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.The company is interviewing Canadian and international investment banks to pick underwriters, the people said, declining to be named as the matter is not public.A C$1 billion IPO would be the biggest Canadian listing since Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd raised C$1.7 billion early this year, and would value GFL at nearly C$5 billion, the people said.The IPO would provide an exit for investors including U.S. private equity firm HPS Investment Partners LLC and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, a fund linked to a unit of Australian financial services firm Macquarie Group.While an IPO is one of several ways to unlock value, no decision has been made to proceed with an offering, GFL General Counsel Joy Grahek said.HPS and Macquarie declined to comment.$1 = 1.2854 Canadian dollars Reporting by John Tilak in Toronto and Stephen Lacey for IFR in New York; Additional reporting by David French in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gfl-ipo-canada/macquarie-backed-canadian-waste-management-firm-gfl-plans-c1-bln-ipo-sources-idINL1N1NZ1LO'|'2017-11-29T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'712dea2f772b7283ffb0bd9e743ca63a62b14089'|'Spain''s BBVA sells 80 pct of real estate business for 4 bln euros'|'MADRID, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Spain’s BBVA said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell 80 percent of its real estate business to U.S. fund Cerberus for 4 billion euros ($5 billion), one of the largest such deals as investor enthusiasm for Spanish property returns.The real estate assets included in the package have a gross book value of some 13 billion euros, Spain’s second largest bank said in a statement to the market regulator.The deal is the largest since Santander sold control of property worth 10 billion euros to U.S. investor Blackstone Group in August.A burst property bubble in 2008 sent Spain’s economy in to a tailspin that lasted nearly five years, put millions out of work, sent public debt soaring and prompted a more-than 40-billion-euro bailout for its banks.The economy returned to growth in 2013 and has outperformed the rest of Europe since then, helping restart residential construction as house prices turn around and prompting foreign investors to return to the market.BBVA said it would retain control of 20 percent of the real estate portfolio, which it said would be exclusively managed by Cerberus’s Haya Real Estate.The deal is expected to be closed in the second half of 2018 and while it wasn’t seen having a significant impact on the bank’s profits it would have a slightly positive impact on the fully loaded core tier 1 capital ratio (CET1), it said.On Tuesday, Bank Of Nova Scotia agreed to buy BBVA’s stake in BBVA Chile for $2.2 billion.$1 = 0.8423 euros Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cerberus-ma-bbva/spains-bbva-sells-80-pct-of-real-estate-business-for-4-bln-euros-idINL8N1NZ1VB'|'2017-11-29T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'c9868d21feca088aac24e9cb0e2abb307489e4b1'|'Nikkei rises, led by banks, financials; shrugs off North Korean missile launch'|' 23 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Nikkei rises, led by banks, financials; shrugs off North Korean missile launch Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Wednesday as banks and financial shares tracked their U.S. counterparts higher, shrugging off another North Korean missile launch. The Nikkei share average ended 0.5 percent higher at 22,597.20, while the broader Topix advanced 0.8 percent to 1,786.15. Financial and securities shares were among the big gainers, with the banking subindex rising 2.2 percent and the insurance subindex 3.2 percent higher. On Wall Street, all three major indexes logged record closing highs, led by surging financials. In testimony before a Senate committee, Jerome Powell, nominated to replace Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chair, defended the need to potentially lighten regulation on the financial sector. Sentiment remained intact despite North Korea firing what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed close to Japan. Nomura Holdings gained 1.1 percent, after Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank said it would cancel treasury shares worth 4.7 percent of its outstanding shares on Dec. 18 Drugstore chain MatsumotoKiyoshi Holdings shares rose 3.4 percent after a media report the company will tie up with insurer Dai-ichi Life Holdings to sell insurance products in December. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite and Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-rises-led-by-banks-financials-shrugs-off-north-korean-missile-launch-idUSL3N1NZ2OB'|'2017-11-29T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'007f029394d91cc9ed62d1fd055dbb8cd834391b'|'LPC: Banks provide US$835m loan package for Barracuda Networks'' take-private'|'November 28, 2017 / 10:03 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago LPC: Banks provide US$835m loan package for Barracuda Networks'' take-private Andrew Berlin 2 Min Read NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - US publicly traded cloud-based security company Barracuda Networks Inc’s acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo will be backed by an US$835m loan package, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The all-cash buyout, which will capitalize Barracuda at roughly US$1.5bn, was announced on Monday. Thoma Bravo is purchasing the company for US$27.55 per share, representing a 22.5% premium to the prior 10-day average stock price. The financing will include a US$75m revolving credit facility, a US$555m secured term loan with a first priority claim and a US$205m secured term loan with a second priority claim, according to the sources. The revolver will be undrawn at close. Goldman Sachs will lead syndication of the debt, one of the sources said. Credit Suisse and UBS are also providing commitments, according to a press release. The deal will be supported by US$774m of equity, for total capitalization of US$1.534bn. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment. The company and Thoma Bravo did not respond to requests for comment. The debt will bring Barracuda’s debt-to-Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to roughly 5.0 times through the senior loan and 6.9 times through the junior loan, based on preliminary Ebitda of approximately US$110m, the sources said. The Ebitda used to market the debt could be higher, one of the sources noted. Thoma Bravo has been active in the cyber security space of late. Earlier in November, DigiCert, one of the buyout firm’s portfolio companies, closed on its acquisition of Symantec Corp’s web certification business. The Barracuda transaction is expected to close before February 28, 2018, the company’s fiscal year end. (Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Jon Methven)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/barracuda-loans/lpc-banks-provide-us835m-loan-package-for-barracuda-networks-take-private-idUSL1N1NY2GJ'|'2017-11-29T00:01:00.000+02:00'
'400c903f69d8ac10facc691433bb1f0c20c8c437'|'Bitcoin not big enough to threaten world economy, BoE deputy says'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin is not at a size where it would pose a risk to the global economy, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday, as the virtual currency soared to a record high above $10,000 on major exchange.Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe speaks at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble The cryptocurrency has climbed 10-fold so far this year, the largest gain of all asset classes and prompting sceptics to warn it is a classic speculative bubble.“I would just say investors kind of need to do their homework,” Cunliffe told BBC Radio.He said he did not think British households as a whole were going on a “debt-fuelled binge” but added that fast rates of consumer credit growth needed to be watched.Cunliffe was in the minority of officials to vote against a rise in interest rates that took place earlier this month.Asked why in a separate BBC radio interview, Cunliffe said that although he agreed with his colleagues that Britain’s potential rate of economic growth had slowed since the financial crisis, he wanted to see more sign of inflation pressure.“My view was given the disappointments we’ve had about pay increases and domestic cost pressures over recent years, we should wait to see those before raising rates.”Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe-cunliffe-bitcoin/bitcoin-not-big-enough-to-threaten-world-economy-boe-deputy-says-idINKBN1DT0MZ'|'2017-11-29T08:14:00.000+02:00'
'cd99e98c56020b6cc7ffdd2f64247e8400297fd7'|'UPDATE 1-Asian groups vie for stake in southern Brazil railroad -source'|' 44 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Asian groups vie for stake in southern Brazil railroad -source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Recasts with source, details of talks) SAO PAULO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - China Communications Construction Co Ltd and Japan’s Mitsubishi Group and Sumitomo Corp are vying for a stake in a railroad owned by Brazil’s Rumo SA, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Railroad operator Rumo, which is controlled by energy and logistics group Cosan SA, aims to sell a minority stake in the Malha Sul rail system, a 7,200 km-stretch (4,473 miles) serving the south of Brazil, the source said. Rumo has hired the investment banking unit of Bank of America Corp to sell a stake in the Malha Sul, according to Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, which first reported the talks, citing unidentified sources. The Chinese company offered to inject 2 billion reais ($622 million) into the railroad and invest another 6 billion reais over a 10-year period, according to the paper. “It is a complex transaction which could take several months to complete,” the person familiar with the matter told Reuters, declining to comment on the value of the deal. The source did not specify which company in the Mitsubishi Group had shown interest in the railroad. A representative for the Brazilian unit of Mitsubishi Corp said the company was not involved in any talks regarding Malha Sul. Rumo, CCCC and Sumitomo did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Bank of America declined to comment. $1 = 3.21 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Ana Mano Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/rumo-divestiture/update-1-asian-groups-vie-for-stake-in-southern-brazil-railroad-source-idUSL1N1NZ0T8'|'2017-11-29T15:43:00.000+02:00'
'4d0215f088ac7ed2500066d09b10a10c423604d0'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Chile peso hits 3-mth low; Mexico, Brazil currencies rise'|'(Updates with final prices, details from Mexico, Brazil) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Chilean peso fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, tracking a decline in prices of copper, the country''s main export, though other currencies in the region appreciated after testimony from the nominee to run the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Chilean currency declined for a second day, driving it to the weakest levels since August. In the United States, congressional testimony by President Donald Trump''s nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, suggested that interest rates would continue to rise gradually, sticking to the current Fed consensus. The U.S. central bank should "respond decisively" to any new economic crisis, Powell said in a Senate committee hearing on his nomination, positioning himself as an heir to the policies of current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Mexico''s peso closed the day up by 0.25 percent at 18.54 per dollar, while the country''s main stock index fell again, closing at its lowest level in more than eight months. Shortly after the market closed, Mexico''s government announced that Alejandro Diaz de Leon would replace Agustin Carstens at the head of the central bank. A member of the bank''s board, Diaz de Leon was one of the favorites for the post. Diaz de Leon said on Tuesday inflation may not fall as forecast due to recent and future shocks, laying out a cautious stance that may bode for steady or even higher interest rates ahead. Brazil''s real gained 0.36 percent against the dollar, while the Bovespa stock index advanced 0.11 percent. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2220 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 1144.02 -0.22 32.96 MSCI LatAm 2806.84 -0.02 19.92 Brazil Bovespa 74139.72 0.11 23.10 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 47229.16 -0.1 3.48 Chile IPSA 5061.20 0.57 21.92 Chile IGPA 25447.12 0.43 22.73 Argentina MerVal 26912.15 0.78 59.08 Colombia IGBC 10783.93 -0.36 6.70 Venezuela IBC 851.54 6.59 -97.31 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2087 0.36 1.26 Mexico peso 18.543 0.25 11.87 Chile peso 641.3 -0.5 4.58 Colombia peso 2996.20 0.29 0.18 Peru sol 3.233 0.09 5.60 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.36 -0.37 -8.55 Argentina peso (parallel) 18.09 -0.17 -7.02 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-chile-peso-hits-3-mth-low-mexico-brazil-currencies-rise-idUSL1N1NY21W'|'2017-11-29T06:21:00.000+02:00'
'10d32ef1befb24437d73c80ca9e8f157b7480122'|'OPEC, Russia set for oil cut extension but wary of overheating market'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:24 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago OPEC, Russia head for oil cut extension but wary of overheating market Ernest Scheyder , Ahmad Ghaddar , Vladimir Soldatkin 5 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia look set to prolong oil supply cuts until the end of 2018 this week while signalling that they may review the deal when they meet again in June if the market overheats. With oil prices LCOc1 rallying above $60 per barrel, Russia has questioned the wisdom of extending existing cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of next year as such a move could prompt a spike in U.S. production. Russia needs much lower oil prices to balance its budget than OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia, which is preparing a stock market listing for national energy champion Aramco next year and would hence benefit from pricier crude. Six ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia met in Vienna on Wednesday - one day ahead of a full OPEC gathering - and recommended extending the cuts to the end of 2018. At present, the cuts expire in March. “That’s one of the recommendations,” Kuwait’s Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq told reporters when asked whether the committee had agreed on a nine-month extension, among other matters. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was, however, less certain about the duration. “The market has not been fully balanced yet. Joint efforts are needed after April 1. Everybody has recommended that the agreement could be extended and tomorrow such concrete details will be discussed,” Novak said. Several sources familiar with the talks have said Russia had suggested an option of reviewing the deal at the next OPEC meeting in June in case the oil market overheats. “In reality it would be only a three-month true extension with the review in June,” said Olivier Jakob from Petromatrix consultancy. Benchmark Brent and U.S. crude prices traded flat on Wednesday after two days of declines, helped by a fall in U.S. crude stocks. [O/R] Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told the monitoring meeting on Wednesday that cuts needed to be extended as the rebalancing of oil markets was not yet complete. The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Novak told reporters after meeting Falih: “We understand that we need to take further steps to rebalance the market ... We have a common understanding (with Falih).” Amrita Sen from consultancy Energy Aspects said she believed the debate between Saudi Arabia and Russia was about timings rather than substance. “Saudi Arabia believes it is too early to discuss an exit strategy as the market rebalancing job hasn’t been done yet. Russia would like to do it sooner ... OPEC has surprised on the upside during its past three meetings and delivered more than the market had expected,” she said. DEBATE ON NIGERIA, LIBYA Slideshow (4 Images) Two sources familiar with OPEC talks said the group may debate capping Nigerian and Libyan output at 1.8 million bpd and 1 million bpd respectively, having exempted the two countries so far due to unrest and lower-than-normal production volumes. The production cuts have been in place since the start of 2017 and helped halve an excess of global oil stocks although those remain at 140 million barrels above the five-year average, according to OPEC. Russia has signalled it wants to understand better how producers will exit from the cuts as it needs to provide guidance to its private and state energy companies. “It is important ... to work out a strategy which we will follow from April 2018,” Novak told the monitoring committee. Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said there had been little discussion so far on any exit strategy. Some Russian producers including Rosneft, run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin, have questioned the rationale of prolonging the cuts, saying it will lead to a loss of market share to U.S. firms, which are not reducing output. OPEC, which comprises 14 countries, has traditionally been much less worried about exit strategies as its members have been known for reducing compliance and cheating on their quotas towards the expiry of such deals. “Russia seems to be pushing OPEC to have a concrete plan to phase out the cuts when appropriate ... compared to the typical undisciplined OPEC strategy,” U.S. bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, which is active in the shale industry, said. Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting/opec-russia-set-for-oil-cut-extension-but-wary-of-overheating-market-idUKKBN1DT0XT'|'2017-11-29T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'264825b96f9f99cbfc19911595f52e58990e89c2'|'Uber says 2.7 million users in UK affected in 2016 breach'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:08 PM / in 3 hours Uber says 2016 data breach hit 2.7 million UK users, or most of its base Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc has informed Britain’s data protection regulator that about 2.7 million user accounts - representing the vast majority of people using the ride-hailing service in the country - were affected by a 2016 data breach. Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The breach, which the company disclosed last week involving 57 million users worldwide, saw names, mobile phone numbers and email addresses compromised, the company told UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). ICO said it expects Uber to alert all the affected British users, both Uber drivers and passengers, as soon as possible. The breach was a further setback to the Silicon Valley company after London’s transport regulator stripped it of its operating licence in September, citing Uber’s approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers. Uber failed to disclose the massive breach at the time, the company’s new chief executive officer said last week. Under current British law organisations which fail to disclose data breaches to regulators face a maximum fine of up to 500,000 pounds. In Britain, Uber drew around 2.85 million users, on average, over the past three months, according to web and mobile app traffic measurement firm SimilarWeb, indicating that most British Uber users were likely caught up in the breach. Uber said on its website on Wednesday that independent forensics experts had not seen any indication that trip location history, credit card numbers, bank account numbers or dates of birth were downloaded in the breach. “We do not believe any individual rider needs to take any action,” the company said. “We have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident. We are monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection.” Uber has been forced to quit several countries, including Denmark and Hungary, and faced regulatory battles in multiple U.S. states and around the world. It comes after a tumultuous few months for the San Francisco start-up that led to former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick being forced out after a series of boardroom controversies. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-cyberattack-uk/uber-says-2-7-million-users-in-uk-affected-in-2016-breach-idUKKBN1DT1Z7'|'2017-11-29T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'21b54bc3cbbd0dce9e9414b3adb3e1f5358eb04b'|'London Stock Exchange CEO Rolet steps down'|'LONDON (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange CEO Xavier Rolet is stepping down immediately and its chairman will not seek re-election, as the exchange tries to draw a line under a row with a top shareholder over management succession.Rolet had previously said he would leave at the end of 2018, but activist hedge fund TCI accused Chairman Donald Brydon of pushing him out and called a shareholder meeting to try to reverse the decision and oust Brydon.The LSE board asked TCI to say by 1300 GMT on Wednesday if it would withdraw its shareholder meeting request to “avoid further disruption and potential damage to the company”.In a letter to the LSE seen by Reuters, TCI’s founder Christopher Hohn said it would respond to the exchange’s board on Thursday.The row - coming at a tricky time for the LSE as it risks losing a chunk of its derivatives clearing business to erstwhile merger partner Deutsche Boerse due to Brexit - had dragged in the Bank of England.Rolet’s departure after 8-1/2 years in charge could trigger fresh speculation that a rival exchange such as ICE could bid for the LSE, though analysts say any mega-bourse deal would face intense scrutiny by competition authorities.In a statement issued by the LSE, Rolet said there had been a “great deal of unwelcome publicity” surrounding his departure “which has not been helpful to the company.”“At the request of the board, I have agreed to step down as CEO with immediate effect. I will not be returning to the office of CEO or director under any circumstances,” he added.The LSE said Brydon had also indicated he would not stand for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in 2019, and that Chief Financial Officer David Warren would replace Rolet on an interim basis.Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) agreed to Brydon staying on until 2019 to ensure an orderly succession, the LSE said.The LSE said Brydon and the board believed that in 2019, under a new chairman, “it would be in shareholders’ interests to have a new team at the helm to steer the future progress of the company.”However, UBS analyst Michael Werner said Rolet’s immediate departure created significant uncertainty over future strategy and posed a challenge in defending market share from Deutsche Boerse. UBS has a “neutral” rating on LSE shares.Simon Brazier, a fund manager at Investec Asset Management, which is a small shareholder in LSE, said the exchange is now in “a worse position than before this saga started.”FILE PHOTO: CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo At 1555 GMT, the stock was up 0.4 percent at 3,815 pence, reversing earlier losses. LSE shares have risen around five-fold under Rolet’s tenure.‘BROADLY DAMAGING’Rolet is credited with turning the LSE into a diversified exchange group by acquiring a controlling stake in LCH, one of the world’s biggest clearing houses, and expanding the bourse’s activities in stock indexes.But the Frenchman and former investment banker was unable to seal a merger with Deutsche Boerse, the exchange’s third attempt at an Anglo-German tie up.Relations between Rolet and Brydon had become strained, several people who have worked at the exchange said.“It would be easier getting into the cockpit of a plane flying over a city than getting Rolet and Brydon into the same office,” a person who has worked with both said.Rolet would effectively sideline senior management, making it harder for a new CEO to build a team, the former colleague said.One dispute between Rolet and the board centred on who would represent the LSE on an important City advisory group on Brexit. But supporters of Rolet say that turning around the exchange in such a major way inevitably ruffled feathers.“Rolet has been an outstanding CEO and has created incredible value for shareholders and positioned the business in a remarkable way,” said Alasdair Haynes, CEO of rival Aquis Exchange.TCI had called on the Bank of England (BoE) and the FCA to replace Brydon.But in a strong rebuff to TCI’s Hohn, BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday the LSE’s succession plans should remain in place and that he was “mystified” by the spat, effectively sealing Rolet’s fate.The LSE board accused Hohn in a letter on Wednesday of pursuing a “highly personalised campaign”.The LSE said if TCI does not withdraw its call for a shareholder meeting, it will publish a circular no later than Nov. 30 confirming among other things the date of the general meeting at which the proposed resolution or resolutions will be put.Additional reporting by Ben Martin and Maiya Keidan; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lse-moves-ceo/london-stock-exchange-ceo-rolet-steps-down-idINKBN1DT0UM'|'2017-11-29T09:54:00.000+02:00'
'a96757cd6e0fe20e0d6e7652d9bc93423735d15a'|'Unilever leans towards single structure, delays choice of location'|'November 28, 2017 / 8:05 AM / Updated an hour ago Unilever leans towards single structure, delays choice of location Martinne Geller 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Unilever sees a single corporate structure as in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, but has not yet made a decision to pursue one, it said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The dual-headed, Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group said a single share class would provide “greater ongoing strategic flexibility for value-creating portfolio change”. After rebuffing a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz, Unilever said in April it would review its corporate structure, with an aim to make a decision by the end of the year. A move to abandon either its Rotterdam or London headquarters would be politically sensitive, especially given Britain’s planned exit from the European Union. The maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup is hosting an investor event starting on Wednesday and was widely expected to give an update on the review. Unilever on Tuesday said the review was continuing and the outcome would be announced in due course. If the company does unify, it would intend to maintain stock market listings in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States, continue to apply both the UK and Dutch corporate governance codes and terminate the preference shares of the Dutch entity it recently bought back, it said. The company also confirmed its 2017 guidance for underlying sales growth of 3 to 5 percent, an improvement in underlying operating margin of at least 100 basis points and “strong” cash flow delivery. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-outlook/unilever-sees-single-structure-in-best-interest-of-shareholders-idUKKBN1DS0P6'|'2017-11-28T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'45224254174b6be82518b6d5126d7efe0372e6ae'|'U.S. expands leniency for companies that disclose foreign bribery'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will extend greater leniency to companies that voluntarily alert authorities when they learn employees have paid bribes to foreign officials. FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, DC, U.S. on July 14, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The new guidelines will allow most companies to avoid prosecution altogether if they fully disclose foreign bribery, cooperate in the investigation and take steps to avoid future misconduct, senior Justice Department officials told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. The new rules are expected to be announced on Monday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They mark an expansion of a pilot program, launched in 2016 by the Obama Administration, that was intended to encourage more companies to come forward when they discover foreign bribery. In exchange, they would get lighter penalties. While that program also offered the possibility of avoiding prosecution, the new guidelines will offer companies the “presumption” that charges will be dropped if they comes forward and fully cooperates. In cases when the misconduct is so severe that the Justice Department cannot drop the charges, the guidelines will still allow companies that come forward to get a 50 percent reduction of the lowest level of penalty. Justice Department officials say the new guidelines will offer companies a greater incentive to come forward. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime for companies to bribe overseas officials to win business. The expanded leniency program for corporate bribery comes at a time when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked prosecutors to take a tougher line against criminals, particularly in drug cases. But the cooperation requirements that companies must meet before prosecutors will drop the charges against companies will be “rigorous” and will give authorities more ammunition to pursue individual executives involved in the crimes, the officials said. “I don’t think it’s accurate at all to portray or understand this policy as giving a pass to corporate crime,” a U.S. Justice Department official said. Reporting by Joel Schectman; Edited by Damon Darlin and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-doj-bribery/u-s-expands-leniency-for-companies-that-disclose-foreign-bribery-idUSKBN1DT2F1'|'2017-11-29T17:54:00.000+02:00'
'b2a81c11de97eaa6f28df24d69ff8a3619681d27'|'Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium -executive'|'November 29, 2017 / 4:22 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Geely-Volvo considering making Lynx & Co cars in South Carolina, Belgium: executive Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and its Volvo Cars unit, which this week began selling cars in China from jointly owned brand Lynk & Co, are considering producing the vehicles at Volvo plants in Belgium and the U.S. state of South Carolina, a senior Lynk & Co official said. Geely unveils its Lynk & Co brand model, the 01 sport utility, at an event ahead of the Shanghai Auto show, in Shanghai, China, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joseph White/File Photo Lynk & Co plans to launch sales of its cars in Europe in 2019, followed by the United States in 2020. The brand’s first model, the 01 compact sport-utility vehicle, which starts at 158,800 yuan ($24,065.71), is now being produced on the same assembly line with Volvo’s new XC40 crossover SUV at a new Volvo-operated plant in Taizho. A second plant for Lynk & Co cars is expected to start production in Zhangjiakou next year. That same arrangement will be extended to Europe and to the United States to produce Lynk & Co cars by using Volvo production, Alain Visser, senior Vice President of Lynk & Co, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zj-geely-hldg-volvo-lynx/geely-volvo-considering-making-lynx-co-cars-in-south-carolina-belgium-executive-idUSKBN1DT0GY'|'2017-11-29T06:09:00.000+02:00'
'a3e05fa23b5cf894ddae371bad8b03348ed0e538'|'Fox''s Lachlan Murdoch says company would never buy CNN'|'November 29, 2017 / 5:00 PM / in 4 minutes Fox''s Lachlan Murdoch says company would never buy CNN Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox “would never be interested” in buying CNN, Fox Executive Chair Lachlan Murdoch said on Wednesday at the Business Insider IGNITION Conference in New York. FILE PHOTO: Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, 21st Century Fox CEO, arrives at the annual Allen and Co. conference at the Sun Valley, Idaho Resort July 11, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block AT&T’s planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), the parent of CNN, over antitrust concerns about the merged company owning too much content and distribution. Before the suit, Department of Justice staff had recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit - which includes CNN, to gain antitrust approval, sources have told Reuters. Earlier this month, Reuters first reported that Rupert Murdoch, who shares the title of executive chair of Fox, telephoned AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson twice to discuss CNN over the past six months. Reporting By Jessica Toonkel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-murdoch/foxs-lachlan-murdoch-says-company-would-never-buy-cnn-idUKKBN1DT2MQ'|'2017-11-29T18:54:00.000+02:00'
'61ca8eac1bb39674e61bfe621b50e221232e9fcc'|'Lufthansa CEO to meet with EU on Air Berlin deal - source'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:47 AM / in 14 minutes Lufthansa CEO to meet with EU on Air Berlin deal - source Klaus Lauer , Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr is meeting with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday to discuss anti-trust concerns over the German carrier’s acquisition of Air Berlin assets, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. A Niki Air Berlin plane is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Lufthansa last month signed a 210 million euro (£185.63 million) deal to take over Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position in Germany and expand its Eurowings budget brand. The deal has come under fire from airlines and consumer groups who fear it will give Lufthansa dominance of German domestic routes and in Austria. The source told Reuters that the European Union Commission was leaning toward blocking the takeover of Niki. The talks between CEO Spohr and the EU’s Vestager come ahead of a Thursday deadline for Lufthansa to propose concessions to allay European Commission concerns over the deal. It is expected to have to offer significant remedies as more than 100 of its routes overlap with those of Air Berlin, and the merged company would have a near monopoly on some routes. If Lufthansa fails to propose concessions, the Commission will launch an in-depth probe, which could call into the question the whole takeover as Niki, Air Berlin’s Austrian business, would have to be propped up financially for longer before Lufthansa could start restructuring it. Lufthansa declined to comment. The European Commission said its investigation was ongoing, adding it could not prejudge its outcome at this stage. Air Berlin, which has struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency in August, leaving the future of thousands of workers in the balance. Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Sabine Wollrab and Jason Neely and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-lufthansa-eu/eu-leaning-toward-blocking-lufthansas-purchase-of-air-berlins-niki-source-idUKKBN1DT0ZS'|'2017-11-29T12:40:00.000+02:00'
'bc388a65c0a3e2cfff2c313d58e4ac09d656e000'|'New Mexico AG to ask Wells Fargo for damages in accounts scandal'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - New Mexico’s attorney general on Wednesday announced plans to ask Wells Fargo & Co to pay damages on behalf of customers who were victims of a scandal in which the bank created as many as 3.5 million unauthorized accounts.A push by Wells Fargo to get existing customers to buy more of its products, known as cross-selling, was at the center of the fake accounts scandal that has dogged the bank for more than a year. The company settled with regulators in September 2016.New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said his investigation showed that Wells Fargo’s corporate management used cross-selling as a tactic and “pressured employees to put profits over people.”San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is the largest bank in New Mexico with 93 branches, according to Balderas.Many lawsuits have been filed against the bank, including those on behalf of customers, and several top company officials including then-CEO John Stumpf and retail banking chief Carrie Tolstedt have left the bank. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wells-fargo-accounts-investigation/new-mexico-ag-to-ask-wells-fargo-for-damages-in-accounts-scandal-idINL3N1NZ5U8'|'2017-11-29T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'ee932ef8109c063c257fef6dcbf4b6624a67743d'|'Barclays Chairman says staff moves post Brexit could be ''in the hundreds'''|'November 29, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Barclays Chairman says staff moves post Brexit could be ''in the hundreds'' Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays could move hundreds of staff out of Britain post-Brexit, the British bank’s chairman told a parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday. John McFarlane, Chairman of Barclays, arrives for a meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain July 5, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “Staff moves from Brexit could be in the hundreds” John McFarlane, Chairman of Barclays said. The British bank said in July that it was talking to Irish regulators about extending its activities in Dublin in preparation for when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Barclays already has a licensed entity in Dublin, Barclays Bank Ireland, employing around 100 people, which currently has a licence to conduct mainly corporate banking activities, and intends to extend the range of that license so it can continue serving clients once Britain leaves the bloc. Reporting By Anjuli Davies and Lawrence White. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barclays/barclays-chairman-says-staff-moves-post-brexit-could-be-in-the-hundreds-idUKKBN1DT28H'|'2017-11-29T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'035f4c04d115bb3950bfa2aa162972bf77f3f9fe'|'EU Commission proposes renewal of mandate for chair of bank watchdog SRB'|'BRUSSELS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to extend for five years the mandate of Elke Koenig, the German head of the European Union’s body in charge of disposing of failing banks.Koenig, who has chaired the Single Resolution Board (SRB) since its creation in 2014, currently has a three-year mandate that expires in December.The Commission’s proposal needs to be confirmed by the European Parliament. Lawmakers plan to hold a hearing with Koenig on Monday, according to a draft agenda of the assembly’s economic committee.Koenig’s nomination is coinciding with decisions on other top economic jobs in the euro zone, which entail fierce behind-the-scenes horse-trading among the bloc’s 19 member states.On Monday, the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers is expected to appoint a new chair as the term of Jeroen Dijsselbloem comes to an end. Before May, EU leaders will also have to replace the outgoing vice president of the European Central Bank, Vitor Constancio.Koenig has overseen this year the first wind-down of a euro zone bank under new rules aimed at reducing taxpayers’ costs when lenders fail.The SRB’s decision, together with the EU Commission, to force in June the sale of Spain’s ailing Banco Popular to rival Santander has sparked a record number of lawsuits from bondholders who have seen their investment wiped out in the process.Koenig has also championed strict capital requirements for euro zone banks under her watch to make sure they hold sufficient buffers that would be written off, or bailed-in, if they face collapse. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Toby Chopra) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-banks-srb/eu-commission-proposes-renewal-of-mandate-for-chair-of-bank-watchdog-srb-idINL8N1NZ3YN'|'2017-11-29T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'19d8ff03dfae8a02471305708d97d0ec28c3d11f'|'Global crypto-currency crackdown sparks search for safe havens'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - When U.S. entrepreneur Bharath Rao looked around for the best place to raise money for his crypto-currency derivatives trading business, the United States did not make his list. Instead he chose the East African island nation Seychelles to sell the trading platform’s tokens. FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Rao, a San Diego-based technology veteran who has worked for major Wall Street banks, is not alone. Confronted with national regulators’ intensifying scrutiny of digital currency fund-raising, known as initial coin offerings, many entrepreneurs are moving businesses to locations more welcoming to crypto-currencies and known for low taxes. Dozens of start-ups have flocked to Singapore, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean this year, according to interviews with entrepreneurs and company registration data made available to Reuters. Like bitcoin, the best-known crypto-currency created in 2009, the coins use encryption and a blockchain transaction database enabling fast and anonymous transfer of funds without centralized payment systems. The numbers compiled by crypto-currency research firm Smith + Crown show how national regulators’ attempts to curb coin sales may just shift business elsewhere. The United States leads with 34 digital currency start-up registrations so far this year, but that reflects Silicon Valley’s role as a technology hub and the depth of U.S. financial markets rather than a welcoming regulatory climate. Singapore registered 21 entities, up from one in 2016, followed by 19 in Switzerland, up from three last year, according to Smith + Crown. Central Europe saw 14 companies registered this year, compared with one in 2016 and the Caribbean hosted 10, up from two last year. “The data affirms our sense that Switzerland and Singapore remain go-to locations, but the U.S. could remain for companies raising large amounts of money,” said Matt Chwierut, Smith + Crown’s research director. SWISS ADVANTAGE Switzerland does not have specific rules on digital coin sales, but some parts of an offer may fall under existing regulations, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said in September. So far, four of the five largest token sales, raising a total of over $600 million, were carried out by firms registered in Zug, a low-tax region south of Zurich known as the “crypto-valley” of the world. In contrast, China and South Korea banned digital coin sales this year and regulators in the United States, Malaysia, Dubai, United Kingdom and Germany warned investors that current scant oversight exposed them to risks of fraud, hacking or theft. Soaring registrations in “friendly” jurisdictions show how hard it is for national watchdogs to regulate digital coin sales. It is a challenge regulators begin to recognize. “We are talking to other regulators, and we know that there are a lot of bilateral discussions taking place,” the Dubai Financial Services Authority said in an email to Reuters. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission declined to comment about the migration of coin issuers to remote jurisdictions. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority and Securities Commission Malaysia reiterated their stance that digital coin sales are high-risk, speculative investments and that retail investors should be aware of that. A spokesman for Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) told Reuters “hopping” within the European Union would be “largely futile” since the EU supervisory authority has adopted the same stance as BaFin on the issue. The Dubai regulator pointed out that seeking out friendly jurisdictions was not unusual, but regulators still needed to warn about the inherent risks in digital coin sales. FILE PHOTO: A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo Financial regulators from South Korea and China were not immediately available for comment. In the United States, the SEC’s July 25 ruling that digital coins should be regulated as securities had a short-lived chilling effect on the crypto-currency market. Short-lived, because many U.S. startups thought they could avoid such scrutiny by selling “utility tokens,” which gave buyers access to products or services rather than a stake in the company. Still, concerns that regulators’ views might evolve, have made potential U.S. coin issuers consider sales overseas. “Our lawyers certainly think regulations on utility tokens could change. So for safety, the ICO should be done outside the U.S.,” said Arran Stewart, co-founder of U.S.-based Job.com, an online employment platform which plans a token offering in the Cayman Islands in February. In fact, out of 15 start-ups interviewed by Reuters only one, Airfox, sold digital tokens in the United States, raising $15 million last month. Others have either carried out a coin sale overseas or are planning one. Rao, who started Leverj, a decentralized crypto-currency futures trading platform, said he picked Seychelles for fund-raising because of its openness to crypto-currencies. “It has not issued anything negative on crypto,” Rao said. GONE IN MINUTES Digital coin sales soared to about $3.6 billion by mid-November, compared with just over $100 million in the whole of 2016, according to Autonomous NEXT, which tracks technology in the financial services industry. Typically, issuers publish a “white paper” describing their business plan and the news of new coin sales spread via online forums and websites tracking new offers. Investors pay for them with bitcoins or ether - two most widely accepted crypto-currencies - via a company’s website. The ease with which start-ups can raise millions of dollars with little scrutiny in as little as minutes, has alarmed regulators, but without unified approach they hold little sway over that new funding market. “It’s very difficult for governments to work together in any organized fashion,” said Lewis Cohen, a partner at Hogan Lovells in New York, which has a team of lawyers specializing in blockchain. “Different jurisdictions will look at token sales through different lenses and it would be very difficult to get on a completely harmonized place.” Nimble and lightly-regulated crypto-currency companies can straddle borders with ease. For example, BANKEX, which aims to convert illiquid assets into tokens to be traded on its crypto-currency platform, is registered in Delaware and plans a coin offering in the Cayman Islands this month, said the company’s CEO Igor Khmel. Hogan Lovell’s Cohen said that while it would be foolish to shut token sales down, they should be regulated, or self-regulated. “We may need to have some guard rails,” he said. “I don’t think it’s really fair for legitimate platforms that are trying to create new and innovative business models to be thrown in with other less scrupulous parties who may see token sales as a way of making a fast buck.” (For a graphic on blockchain the key, click here ) (For a graphic on ICO jurisdictions, click here ) Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Angela Moon in New York and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Editing by Tomasz Janowski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-regulation-tokens-insight/global-crypto-currency-crackdown-sparks-search-for-safe-havens-idUSKBN1DS0F2'|'2017-11-28T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'c96083c7446b63a1c7e2f3099980ae83c880af0d'|'Hyundai workers stop building SUV ahead of U.S. launch as labour row escalates'|'SEOUL, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor workers in South Korea have stopped building the Kona sport utility vehicle this week ahead of a U.S. launch - a protest against what the automaker’s labour union says are plans to trim assembly line headcount.The union, which is also in annual talks with management over pay, warned that a wider strike was possible.Hyundai has been in discussions with its labour union since October on production plans for the Kona, a key model that it hopes will reverse a U.S. sales slump.The union contends that the automaker wants to introduce more automation and outsource more assembly of key sections to part makers - plans that it is vehemently opposed to. Hyundai management argues that the union is making “irrelevant demands” such as requests for extra windows in the factory as part of the production discussions.The automaker’s decision to start production of the Kona on a new assembly line last week was made without consultation with the union and was unacceptable, union leader Ha Boo-young said in a statement, adding that a wider strike was possible “should there be another provocation by management.”The move comes ahead of a planned unveiling of the U.S.-production version of the Kona at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday with U.S. sales slated to begin early next year. The Kona is currently sold in South Korea, where it has proven to be a popular model, as well as Europe.The two days loss of production so far this week is equivalent to 1,230 vehicles, Hyundai said in a statement.Hyundai Motor President Yoon Kap-han said it was regrettable that the labour union was disrupting production for a high-demand model at a time when most of its plants were “suffering from the worst sales slowdown.”Hyundai Motor’s global sales fell 6 percent from January to September compared with the same period a year earlier, as a lack of SUV models hit sales in the U.S. market and a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing hurt sales in China. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hyundai-motor-union/hyundai-workers-stop-building-suv-ahead-of-u-s-launch-as-labour-row-escalates-idINL3N1NY1VY'|'2017-11-28T04:35:00.000+02:00'
'7ee5747f1997b242d383e560045ea36278bda8f0'|'UPDATE 1-Higher coal prices help Russia''s Mechel swing to Q3 net profit'|'(Adds details, Quote: s, context)MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Russian coal and steel producer Mechel said on Tuesday higher prices for its products had helped it swing into a net profit in the third quarter after a loss a year earlier.Higher coal prices has been supporting Mechel, which borrowed heavily before Russia’s economic crisis took hold in 2014 and then struggled to keep up debt repayments.The company, controlled by businessman Igor Zyuzin, has restructured the bulk of its debt since then but is yet to start major debt repayments.It said its July-September net profit was 6.1 billion roubles ($105 million) compared with a net loss of 2.8 billion roubles in the same period a year earlier.“Prices for our coal products remain comfortable both domestically and internationally,” Chief Executive Oleg Korzhov said in a statement.“The steel product market, which was weak in the first half of this year, went back to normal by mid-year due to growing steel prices and stabilisation of costs for raw materials for steelmaking,” he added.Mechel said its third-quarter revenue rose 11 percent year-on-year to 73.4 billion roubles, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 19 percent to 18.9 billion roubles.Its net debt, excluding fines and penalties on overdue amounts, was 463.8 billion roubles ($7.9 billion) at the end of September, broadly unchanged from the start of 2017.Mechel said earlier on Tuesday that its January-September coal production fell, while its third-quarter sales of coking coal concentrate were affected by an unsteady supply of wagons caused by a lack of railway stock in the Russian Railways network.$1 = 58.4030 roubles Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Polina Devitt; Editing by Katya Golubkova and Andrew Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-mechel-results/update-1-higher-coal-prices-help-russias-mechel-swing-to-q3-net-profit-idINL8N1NY22D'|'2017-11-28T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'c467607269abe21830215503f5179aa8231b6e35'|'Keystone restarts, no date for return to full capacity -TransCanada spokesman'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:04 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Keystone restarts, no date for return to full capacity: TransCanada spokesman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Transcanada Corp’s Keystone oil pipeline restarted operations on Tuesday but the company has no timeline on when U.S. regulators will allow it to return to full capacity, a TransCanada spokesman said. FILE PHOTO - A TransCanada Keystone Pipeline pump station operates outside Steele City, Nebraska March 10, 2014. REUTERS/Lane Hickenbottom The 590,000 barrel per day pipeline links Canada’s oil sands to U.S. refineries and was shut down for nearly two weeks after a 5,000-barrel leak in rural South Dakota on Nov. 16. Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-restart/keystone-restarts-no-date-for-return-to-full-capacity-transcanada-spokesman-idUSKBN1DS2KF'|'2017-11-28T20:56:00.000+02:00'
'678b88bbe4b43289f539f4ed020309bd909ecd11'|'UPDATE 1-VW brand forecasts record sales of over 6 million models'|'* VW brand eyes 4-5 pct 2020 margin vs 4 pct or more previously* VW brand targets 2017 sales record of more than 6 mln cars* VW brand expects first annual profit gain since 2011 (Adds CEO comments, detail and background)WOLFSBURG, Germany, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Volkswagen car brand expects deliveries to hit a record this year and raised its midterm profitability forecast on Thursday, citing cost cuts and expanding ranges of higher-margin models.While the emissions scandal of September 2015 has cost Volkswagen (VW) billions of euros in fines and penalties, it doesn’t seem to have had a lasting effect on the carmaker’s popularity with motorists.The world’s largest automaker said it expects to significantly exceed last year’s record 5.99 million VW brand auto sales in 2017, counting on strong momentum in China, Europe and the United States.The operating profit margin at the VW brand may climb to between 4 and 5 percent by 2020, the carmaker said, still lagging rivals such as PSA Group and Toyota but higher than the 4 percent or more VW has previously been indicating.The increase brings the VW group’s largest division by sales into line with a more upbeat outlook for overall VW group profit announced earlier in November.“We have completed the first five kilometers of a marathon,” VW brand chief executive Herbert Diess said. “We are all aware of the challenges that lie ahead of us.”The maker of VW’s top-selling Golf hatchback expects to significantly improve underlying earnings this year from the 1.9 billion euros in 2016, which would mark the brand’s first profit gain year-on-year since 2011, Diess said at a news conference.Profit will be driven by a growing number of more lucrative sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), whose share of overall brand sales may triple to about 40 percent by 2020 from currently 14 percent, the CEO said, citing the redesigned Touareg and an all-new T-Cross due to hit dealerships in 2018.“With SUVs, we are earnings the money we need to fund the shift towards electric mobility,” Diess said, referring to the brand’s accelerating push into zero-emission vehicles.The VW brand, which has been undergoing heavy restructuring for about a year, said it has kept fixed costs broadly stable this year despite growing spending on model launches.The carmaker said it will achieve 3,800 job cuts in Germany by the end of 2017, a year after it agreed with unions to slash 23,000 positions via natural attrition by 2020. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Arno Schuetze and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-outlook/update-1-vw-brand-forecasts-record-sales-of-over-6-million-models-idINL8N1O04PI'|'2017-11-30T11:43:00.000+02:00'
'eb43620eb67f8bbfa01bbc2f2e2fa117164fe491'|'Genmab and J&J ''love'' partnership as some ponder takeover'|'November 30, 2017 / 11:55 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Genmab and J&J ''love'' partnership as some ponder takeover Ben Hirschler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Genmab ( GEN.CO ) was Europe’s second biggest biotech company, until its partner Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ.N ) bought Switzerland’s Actelion for $30 billion this year and propelled the Danish antibody specialist to the top spot. FILE PHOTO: Genmab Chief Executive Jan van de Winkel poses for a photograph in London, Britain, October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Ben Hirschler/File Photo Now some investors wonder if the same fate might await Genmab, worth $12 billion, given the soaraway success of its blood cancer drug Darzalex. J&J sells the drug and pays Genmab a royalty of 12 to 20 percent. With 2017 Darzalex sales already over $1 billion and analysts on average expecting them to reach more than $8 billion annually, those royalties are adding up to serious money. Bernstein analyst Wimal Kapadia is among those who think J&J might just decide to buy Genmab and avoid royalties altogether, while bringing onboard a smart team of scientists. For now, however, both J&J and Genmab are lauding the success of their existing relationship. “It’s one of the most successful collaborations we have. We love the partnership,” J&J’s Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels told Reuters. He declined to comment on the U.S. healthcare giant’s possible interest in buying Genmab in future but said the Danish group had the capital needed to go forward on its own, adding: “They don’t need us to be successful.” Indeed, Genmab’s strategy is to plough the growing royalty stream from Darzalex into its next wave of medicines. Darzalex is now established as a key treatment in multiple myeloma, where it is moving into earlier stages of the disease. It is also showing promise in other areas, with clinical trial success in fighting amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by the build-up of an abnormal protein, triggering a $20 million milestone payment from J&J to Genmab on Wednesday. [nASB0BVU4] Genmab Chief Executive Jan van de Winkel says the decision on any eventual sale of the company will be up to shareholders, but he is confident the fast-growing biotech business has a bright future as an independent operation. “Our focus is to build an independent antibody innovation powerhouse and we think we can create more value for our stakeholders by staying independent than being a part of a larger entity,” he said in an interview in London. Van de Winkel also sees important differences between Genmab and Actelion, with the decision by J&J to snap up the Swiss group driven in large part by a need to plug a revenue hole left by declining sales of J&J’s ageing biotech drug Remicade. “They needed to replace that income and that is exactly what the Actelion products will do. That is a completely different reason, I think, from potentially looking at a company like ours,” he said. “It is up to J&J ... but I hope that we can continue like this for many, many more years.” Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-genmab-johnson-johnson/genmab-and-jj-love-partnership-as-some-ponder-takeover-idUSKBN1DU1IZ'|'2017-11-30T19:55:00.000+02:00'
'9b06786b8f5ef84ace9c53519a1815da56d851b7'|'BRIEF-Trading halt requested on CGG shares for Dec. 1'|'Nov 30 (Reuters) - CGG:* Trading halt requested on CGG shares for December 1* Decision by the Commercial Court of Paris on the approval of the draft safeguard plan and on the claim filed against it by certain holders of convertible bonds is expected in the afternoon of December 1, 2017* Majority of shareholders and bondholders of geophysical equipment maker CGG have approved CGG’s financial restructuring* CGG has debt in excess of $3 billion, and the restructuring calls for unsecured debt to be converted to equity, maturities on secured debt to be extended and $500 million in new money to be raised* CGG, in which the French state holds around 9 percent of the shares, filed for bankruptcy in France and the United States in June as part of a restructuring to ease its debt burden '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-trading-halt-requested-on-cgg-shar/brief-trading-halt-requested-on-cgg-shares-for-dec-1-idINFWN1O000A'|'2017-11-30T03:38:00.000+02:00'
'8450f152320583441e536f412086b284816a6f6a'|'Hyundai workers resume production of Kona SUV after two-day strike'|'Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 7:44 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Hyundai workers resume production of Kona SUV after two-day strike Hyunjoo Jin 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ) workers resumed production of the Kona sport utility vehicle late on Tuesday, ending a near two-day strike over the company’s decision to expand the model’s output ahead of its launch in the United States. The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen during the 2017 Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, South Korea, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji The South Korean automaker has halted plans for now to produce the Kona on a second assembly line at one of its domestic factories. Workers worry the production plans will lead to fewer assembly line workers as a result of more automation and the outsourcing of work to parts makers. The Kona, due to be unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show later on Wednesday, is a key model for Hyundai which is looking to reverse a sales slump in the United States. It is currently sold in South Korea and Europe. A Hyundai spokeswoman said the dispute would not affect its plan to introduce the Kona in the United States in the first quarter of next year. The automaker plans to continue to discussions with the union about commencing work on a second assembly line, she added. Hyundai Motor shares were up 2.6 percent in early afternoon trade on the news while the wider market .KS11 was flat. The automaker has said it aims to start Kona shipments to the United States from Dec. 1, but a union spokesman said this schedule could be pushed back depending on the outcome of the discussions about how best to boost production of the model. Hyundai has accused the union of making “irrelevant demands” such as requests for extra windows in the factory as part of the discussions. Hyundai Motor’s global sales fell 6 percent from January to September compared with the same period a year earlier, as a lack of SUV models hit sales in the U.S. market and a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing hurt sales in China. Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-union/hyundai-workers-stop-building-suv-ahead-of-u-s-launch-as-labor-row-escalates-idUKKBN1DS0NA'|'2017-11-29T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'58c3b052bc3ae2ef7e36fc91671b8a09e8da978f'|'EU leaning toward blocking Lufthansa''s purchase of Air Berlin''s Niki - source'|' 59 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago EU leaning toward blocking Lufthansa''s purchase of Air Berlin''s Niki: source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Commission may block Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) takeover of insolvent Air Berlin’s Austrian unit Niki, a person familiar with the matter said, casting doubt on the German carrier’s deal to buy large parts of Air Berlin’s assets. A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 plane is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt “The EU Commission is currently leaning toward prohibiting the Niki deal for Lufthansa,” the person told Reuters on Wednesday. Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr will meet with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday, he said. German magazine Spiegel earlier reported on its website that the Commission was considering blocking the deal, without identifying its sources. Lufthansa declined to comment. The European Commission was not available for immediate comment. Reporting by Klaus Lauer; additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee; writing by Maria Sheahan; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa-eu/eu-leaning-toward-blocking-lufthansas-purchase-of-air-berlins-niki-source-idUKKBN1DT10H'|'2017-11-29T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'27210e640b21c04648c0b4e3bba53f5a29775adb'|'FCA says four fund firm may have breached competition law'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:24 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago FCA says four fund firm may have breached competition law Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets regulator said on Wednesday four asset management companies might have broken competition law during one or more of two public listings and one share placing. The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Financial Conduct Authority said it had issued a “statement of objections” to Artemis Investment Management, Hargreave Hale, Newton Investment Management and River & Mercantile Asset Management. A statement of objections gives firms notice that the FCA thinks that they have infringed competition law and gives them a chance to respond. Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Kirstin Ridley'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-funds-regulator/fca-says-four-fund-firm-may-have-breached-competition-law-idUKKBN1DT1AV'|'2017-11-29T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'25fac38c77e9290ebfbd62cd98fc1882ce91f512'|'Airbus says pitching A350 long range plane for Sydney-London non-stop flights'|'November 30, 2017 / 4:24 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Airbus says pitching A350 long range plane for Sydney-London non-stop flights Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Airbus SE’s ( AIR.PA ) talks with Qantas Airways ( QAN.AX ) about a plane that can fly 20 hours non-stop from Sydney to London are centred around the A350-900ULR rather than reviving a shorter A350 variant, an executive at the manufacturer said on Thursday. The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo The comments by Airbus’s Iain Grant, head of sales for the Pacific region, could quash industry speculation the European planemaker may revive the smaller A350-800, which had been put on ice after poor sales. Qantas had publicly challenged Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing Co ( BA.N ) in August to boost the range of the A350 and 777X models to allow it to complete “the last frontier” of commercial flying by 2022. The speculation about the A350-800 revival arose after Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told industry publication Flightglobal this week that Airbus was “saying they may” consider a shorter-fuselage variant if the A350-900ULR (ultra long range) could not meet mission requirements. Airbus’s Grant, however, said at a media briefing on Thursday that talks with Qantas remained about the A350-900ULR, the same variant that Singapore Airlines ( SIAL.SI ) will receive next year to restart non-stop Singapore-New York flights. Two Qantas Airways Airbus A330 aircraft can be seen on the tarmac near the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport in Australia, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray “We are bringing in our A350-900ULR which is going to do the Sydney-London mission and we are very comfortable with that and we will continue to work with them to meet their requirements,” he said of the Qantas challenge. A non-stop Sydney-London route that is three hours shorter than current flights involving stops would allow Qantas to charge a premium and differentiate its product from the around two dozen other airlines plying the so-called Kangaroo route with stop-offs in Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong. A Qantas Airways Airbus A330 aircraft can be seen on the tarmac near the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport in Australia, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray In a speech to the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Monday, Joyce said both manufacturers had reacted positively, but the ability to fly the aircraft with a full commercial load remained a stretch. Qantas has said 300 seats would be ideal to give it the highest possible revenue and fleet flexibility. “The aircraft can do it today, both the 777 and the A350, but we believe it can’t do it with full payload,” he said, according to an audio recording posted on the organisation’s website. “We do believe that more work is needed on both aircraft to get it there.” Joyce in August said the airline expected to evaluate the A350 and 777X for 12 months before issuing a formal tender for an order, with the number of aircraft having not yet been decided. A Qantas spokesman declined to comment further. Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-australia/airbus-says-pitching-a350-long-range-plane-for-sydney-london-non-stop-flights-idUKKBN1DU0DF'|'2017-11-30T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'f1a5b9cf2bf3431d0c4bab5cccf3b1294e772489'|'EBA''s Enria sees challenge to ''bail in'' rules in retail debt holdings'|' 22 PM / a few seconds ago EBA''s Enria sees challenge to ''bail in'' rules in retail debt holdings   MILAN (Reuters) - The head of the European Banking Authority said on Thursday the fact that retail investors in Europe held large amounts of bank debt posed a challenge to the effectives of rules aimed at shielding taxpayers from the cost of bank rescues. FILE PHOTO - Andrea Enria, chairperson of the European Banking Authority, speaks at Reuters Summit interview in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. Picture taken September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde “This is what I call the ‘retail challenge’ to banks’ resolvability,” Andrea Enria said in a speech delivered in Milan. Even if banks stopped placing debt with retail investors now, by 2021 the current stock of retail holdings would still be one third of its current level. “In a nutshell, the amortization profile of the existing stock is such that the retail challenge is bound to last for a while,” he said. Reporting by Andrea Mandala, writing by Valentina Za; editing by Francesca Landini'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks/ebas-enria-sees-challenge-to-bail-in-rules-in-retail-debt-holdings-idUKKBN1DU2LG'|'2017-11-30T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'c95f086934e9e64bebcdc9dc1144c1fff6b63b9f'|'U.S. formally opposes China market economy status at WTO'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has formally told the World Trade Organization that it opposes granting China market economy status, a position that if upheld would allow Washington to maintain high anti-dumping duties on Chinese goods.Delegates arrive at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The statement of opposition, in a brief filed by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and made public on Thursday, follows a determination by the U.S. Commerce Department in October that China failed to meet the tests of a market economy as part of an aluminium foil anti-dumping case.The U.S. brief draws formal battle lines in the WTO over China’s bid to achieve market economy status 16 years after Beijing joined the trade body. Both the United States and European Union oppose such a designation because of the pervasive role of the Chinese state, including rampant granting of subsidies, in its economy.China says that the non-market economy designation in its 2001 accession to the WTO expired last December, and that WTO member countries should no longer have the right to substitute third-country prices in anti-dumping cases, which has resulted in prohibitively high duties on Chinese steel, solar panels and other products.The move comes as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing are increasing as the Trump administration prepares several possible major trade actions, including broad tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminium and an investigation into Chinese intellectual property misappropriation.The Commerce Department on Tuesday launched the first government-initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations in decades on Chinese aluminium sheet imports. [L1N1NY251]The brief submitted to the WTO argues that China should be given the same treatment that communist eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, received when they joined the WTO’s predecessor organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.“Because of the significant distortions arising from China’s institutional structure and the control the government and the Chinese Communist Party exercise through that structure, the department finds that China remains a non-market economy for purposes of the U.S. anti-dumping law,” the Commerce Department said in its report.Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Steve Orlofsky '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-china-trade-wto/u-s-formally-opposes-china-market-economy-status-at-wto-idINKBN1DU2VF'|'2017-11-30T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'461c11887b8e4114e4109f301f8d9f4cab1c9d7e'|'Turkish gold trader says he discussed Iran scheme with Indian company'|'November 30, 2017 / 3:11 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Turkish gold trader implicates Erdogan in Iran money laundering Brendan Pierson 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A Turkish-Iranian gold trader on Thursday told jurors in a federal court in New York that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally authorized a transaction on behalf of Iran. FILE PHOTO: Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab is shown in this court room sketch as he appears in Manhattan federal court in New York, U.S., April 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg Reza Zarrab is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in the criminal trial of a Turkish bank executive accused of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. At the time of the alleged conspiracy, Erdogan was Turkey’s prime minister. The testimony came on the third day of the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, who has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court. U.S. prosecutors have charged nine people in the case, although only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by U.S. authorities. Prosecutors have said the defendants took part in a scheme from 2010 to 2015 that involved gold trades and fake purchases of food to give Iran access to international markets, violating U.S. sanctions. FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey, November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo The case has fuelled tensions between the United States and Turkey, which are NATO allies. Erdogan’s government has said the case was fabricated for political reasons. Zarrab, who began testifying on Wednesday morning, has told jurors that he ran a massive international money laundering scheme to help Iran get around U.S. sanctions and spend its oil and gas revenues abroad. He said he helped Iran use funds deposited at Halkbank to buy gold, which was smuggled to Dubai and sold for cash. Zarrab has said that Atilla helped develop and carry out the transactions, along with Halkbank’s former general manager, Suleyman Aslan. Zarrab also said that he paid bribes worth more than $50 million (£37 million) to Zafer Caglayan, who was Turkey’s economy minister, to further the scheme. Both Caglayan and Aslan were charged in the case. Turkey’s government has previously said that Caglayan acted within Turkish and international law, and Halkbank has said all of its transactions fully complied with national and international regulations. Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-turkey-zarrab-gold/turkish-gold-trader-says-he-discussed-iran-scheme-with-indian-company-idUKKBN1DU241'|'2017-11-30T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'2413bab1efef3fc71e4996adcd99a82622b57a00'|'India''s economic growth rebounds to 6.3 percent in September quarter'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s economic growth rebounded in the three months ending in September, halting a five-quarter slide as businesses started to overcome teething troubles after the bumpy launch of a national sales tax.A man makes iron frying pans at his workshop in an industrial area in Mumbai, India, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade Data released on Thursday showing faster growth could help Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been facing criticism over the hasty July launch of a goods and services tax (GST).The tax was aimed at transforming India’s 29 states into a single customs union but it has hit millions of small businesses due to complex rules and technical glitches.Gross domestic product grew 6.3 percent in July-September, its fastest pace in three quarters, compared with 7.5 percent a year earlier, the data showed.Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast annual growth of 6.4 percent in the quarter. The economy has also broadly moved past the disruptions encountered after a shock ban on high-value banknotes in November 2016, economists said.“Perhaps the impact of two very significant structural reforms - demonetisation and the GST is now behind us,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the release of data.“Hopefully, in the coming quarters we can look for an upward trajectory.”Economic growth picked up from 5.7 percent in April-June, but lagged China’s 6.8 percent and the Philippines’ 6.9 percent for the three months through September.Many private-sector economists expect faster growth in the current quarter and January-March as consumers and businesses step up spending and the global recovery gains traction.Thursday’s data showed that the manufacturing sector grew 7 percent in the September quarter compared with 1.2 percent the previous quarter, as companies build up stocks ahead of the festival season.Earnings for major Indian companies rose at their best pace in six quarters during July-September, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data, showcasing how profits are finally looking up after a prolonged spell of sluggish growth.RATINGS UPGRADE On Nov. 17, Moody’s upgraded India’s sovereign credit rating for the first time in nearly 14 years, saying continued progress on economic and institutional reforms would boost its growth potential.The agency expects the economy to grow 6.7 percent in the fiscal year ending March 31, and 7.5 percent the following year.Modi’s administration hopes the ratings upgrade can attract more foreign investors, who pumped $15 billion into Indian equities in July-September, up 44 percent from the previous quarter.The main NSE share index is up 25 percent in 2017.Analysts said the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India, which left the repo rate unchanged at 6 percent last month, could hold rates when it meets for a policy review next week.“We expect RBI to remain on pause in December and February, given upside risks to inflation as well as the fiscal deficit,” said Sumedh Deorukhlar, economist, BBVA in Hong Kong.Rising oil prices and a gradually tightening global rates environment pose new risks, he said.SLOWDOWN IN SPENDING The world’s seventh largest economy, which grew at more than 9 percent a year from 2005 through 2008, is still far from firing on all cylinders. Domestic demand and private investment remain weak.Analysts said the growth pick-up could have been sharper if not for a slowdown in government and consumer spending.Government spending slowed in the quarter, growing just 1.3 percent year-on-year compared with near 17.2 percent year-on-year growth in the June quarter.Annual growth in consumer spending, which powers more than half of the $2.3 trillion economy, slowed to 1.5 percent in the September quarter from 6.7 percent in the previous quarter.After front-loading state spending in the fiscal year’s first half, Finance Minister Jaitley has limited room to spend amid slowing revenue growth.India reported a fiscal deficit of $81.36 billion for April-October, or 96 percent of the budgeted target for the fiscal year. Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI, Suvashree Dey Choudhury in MUMBAI, Tanvi Mehta in BENGALURU; Editing by Robert Birsel and Peter Graff '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-gdp/indias-economic-growth-rebounds-to-6-3-percent-in-september-quarter-idINKBN1DU1LO'|'2017-11-30T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'7a182228927dacf91cbd669dc04950bf467c7f5b'|'Philips cuts holding in Philips Lighting with $600 million share sale'|'(Reuters) - Dutch healthcare technology company Philips ( PHG.AS ) said on Tuesday it was selling a stake of about 12 percent in Philips Lighting ( LIGHT.AS ).Philips wants to eventually sell its entire holding in Philips Lighting, which it spun off in May, 2016, with a view to concentrating on medical devices and other healthcare products.Following the latest share sale via an accelerated bookbuilding offer and the cancellation of 2.8 million shares to be repurchased by Philips Lighting as part of the transaction, Philips’ remaining stake in the lighting business would be 29.59 percent, the company said.Philips intends to sell around 17.1 million shares, which would be worth over 560 million euros ($665 million) based on Tuesday’s closing price, with the sale expected to be completed on Friday.Shares in Philips Lighting closed up 2 percent at 32.975 euros on Tuesday, taking the rise this year to over 40 percent.Last year’s initial public offering (IPO) saw Philips sell a 25 percent stake, making Philips Lighting the world’s largest independent lighting maker.This was followed by further share sales in February and April this year.($1 = 0.8419 euros)Reporting by Alan Charlish in GdyniaEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-philips-stake/philips-cuts-holding-in-philips-lighting-with-600-million-share-sale-idINKBN1DS2GV'|'2017-11-28T15:26:00.000+02:00'
'a0f0b3cfaee0fa8bff23f140d592656ff3c8b882'|'BoE questions EU figures showing banks'' pullback after Brexit vote'|'November 28, 2017 / 11:27 AM / in an hour BoE questions EU figures showing banks'' pullback after Brexit vote Reuters Staff 1   The Bank of England has challenged figures from the European Union’s banking watchdog that showed a big drop in EU banks’ exposures to Britain since the Brexit vote. Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe speaks at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble The European Banking Authority said on Friday that the banks had cut their exposures to assets in Britain by more than 300 billion euros (£268.02 billion) since June 2016, the month Britain voted to leave the EU. A big chunk of the drop was due to a pullback in derivatives, the EU agency said. Jon Cunliffe, a deputy governor at the BoE, said on Tuesday the Bank was looking at the EBA numbers. “We haven’t seen a large impact of that sort,” Cunliffe told a news conference. The apparent drop may be due to the value of sterling falling since the Brexit vote, Cunliffe said. Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks-regulator-derviative/boe-questions-eu-figures-showing-banks-pullback-after-brexit-vote-idUKKBN1DS1AT'|'2017-11-28T13:27:00.000+02:00'
'1518a67114e62505064940b38f0b699b3709489d'|'ECB could end bond buys after next September - Hansson to MNI'|'November 28, 2017 / 10:02 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago ECB could end bond buys after next September - Hansson to MNI Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank could end its asset buys after next September if the euro zone economy develops as now expected, Estonian central bank chief Ardo Hansson told MNI in an interview. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “If the economy evolves broadly as we expect, if we see an uptick in inflation and if it looks sustainable, this element of the programme could be phased out,” Hansson said. A reduction of the bond buys to zero “has to be one of the options, that is on the table,” Hansson, who sits on the ECB’s rate setting Governing Council said. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-hansson/ecb-could-end-bond-buys-after-next-september-hansson-to-mni-idUKKBN1DS129'|'2017-11-28T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'9e9d5af334f22e6916f4b34565661840a5bc0e6c'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'November 28, 2017 / 11:02 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds Buffalo Wild Wings, BlackRock, Emerson Electric, HERE, Cineworld Group, Sinopec; updates Bank of Nova Scotia, SoftBank, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank) Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Tuesday: ** Arby’s owner Roark Capital Group said it would buy Buffalo Wild Wings Inc for $2.4 billion, adding to its growing portfolio of U.S. restaurants after a bruising proxy fight over the direction of the chicken wing chain. ** Goldman Sachs Group is among around five bidders for ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, for which it is seeking up to $1 billion, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. ** Cineworld Group Plc, a British operator of movie theaters, is in talks with U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group about a potential merger, people familiar with the matter said. ** BlackRock Inc said it had agreed to buy the asset management business of Mexico’s Citibanamex, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc, in a sign of the growth potential the world’s largest asset management firm sees in the country. ** Industrial-automation systems maker Emerson Electric Co said it abandoned its bid for Rockwell Automation Inc after several rejections, and instead will pursue bolt-on acquisitions as originally planned. ** Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is offering to purchase shares of Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to its most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said. ** Brazil’s state-controlled power holding company Eletrobras expects to complete most of its divestiture program by the end of first half next year, Chief Executive Wilson Ferreira Jr said. ** Digital mapping firm HERE said it plans to acquire Advanced Telematic Systems, a Germany-based company that provides “over the air” software updates for connected and autonomous vehicles. ** Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, Israel’s third-largest lender, has agreed to buy smaller rival Union Bank of Israel for around 1.4 billion shekels ($400 million) in shares to better compete with the country’s top two lenders. ** Bank Of Nova Scotia has agreed to buy Spanish lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s stake in BBVA Chile for $2.2 billion in a move that would make it Chile’s third largest privately-owned bank. ** China’s Sinopec has decided to sell its oil assets in Argentina for $500 million to $600 million to Mexican company Vista Oil & Gas, a source with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. ** China state-backed explosives maker Anhui Leimingkehua Co is acquiring a coal mining affiliate in a $3.1 billion deal, a move it said was part of the government’s push to make state-owned enterprises (SOEs) more efficient. ** Brian Joffe’s South African investment firm Long4Life has agreed to buy Chill Beverages for at least 452 million rand ($33 million) in cash and shares, Long4Life said on Tuesday. ** London-based private equity firm HgCapital Trust Plc has agreed to sell electronic trading and connectivity solutions provider Ullink to Sweden’s Itiviti, a company backed by Nordic Capital. (Compiled by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1NY3SV'|'2017-11-28T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'a80505a071a07537df3fc1cd57d0d8aacda9dfed'|'UPDATE 1-Tough OPEC meeting looms as Russia unsure about duration of cuts'|'November 28, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Tough OPEC meeting looms as Russia unsure about duration of cuts Reuters Staff * UAE energy minister predicts no easy meeting * Goldman says price rally has made OPEC rethink cuts * Market expects output-curb extension until end of 2018 (Adds IEA, Citi) By Maha El Dahan and Rania El Gamal DUBAI/VIENNA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - OPEC is heading for tougher-than-expected policy talks this week as its leader Saudi Arabia pushes to extend oil output cuts by nine months while non-member Russia is hesitating on the curbs’ duration due to worries that the market could overheat. “It will not be an easy meeting and we always look at various scenarios,” United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Tuesday in Dubai before leaving for the OPEC gathering in Vienna. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and nine other producers are cutting oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018, and on Thursday will discuss extending the deal. The market had largely expected OPEC to prolong cuts until the end of 2018 but doubts have emerged in the last few days. Saudi Arabia has signalled that it wants oil to trade at about $60 a barrel as the kingdom prepares to list shares in national oil champion Aramco and is fighting a large fiscal deficit. The Russian government also wants high oil prices ahead of a presidential election in March 2018. But officials in Moscow have voiced worries about pricier oil boosting the rouble, which could undermine the competitiveness of Russia’s economy. As oil rallied above $60 per barrel, U.S. producers aggressively hedged their future production, raising fears of another spike in shale output in the United States, which is not participating in the global production curbs. Goldman Sachs, one of the most active banks in commodity trading and oil producer hedging, said on Tuesday in a note the outcome of the OPEC meeting was uncertain as Brent oil had risen above $63 per barrel. “The push for a nine-month extension, four months before the cuts end and given an accelerating rebalancing further stands in the face of prior comments that the cuts should remain data-dependent to assess their effectiveness,” the U.S. bank said. Citi, one of Goldman’s main rivals, said it expected major producers to end production cuts sooner rather than later. “OPEC and Russia will both realise they are losing market share and they will be better off going back to a more competitive environment,” the head of commodity research at Citi, Ed Morse, told Reuters. GRADUAL OUTPUT BOOST U.S. oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday and eased further on Tuesday from a two-year high reached last week. Goldman said oil might fall further this week as the market had priced in a nine-month extension. “We continue to expect a gradual ramp up in OPEC and Russian production from April onward,” Goldman said, adding “as a result, the announcement of an only six-month extension would still initially appear bullish relative to our expectation”. On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending the output-cutting deal but had still to decide on the duration. On Monday, Reuters reported that a major Russian production project led by Exxon Mobil was preparing to ramp up output by a quarter from next year. The project is not subject to the global output-cutting deal but the development would signal an obstacle to Russia’s efforts on production curtailment. The Exxon project involves Rosneft, the Kremlin-owned state producer whose boss Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has long been a critic of Moscow’s deal with the 14-country OPEC. Sources close to talks between OPEC and Russia told Reuters Moscow wanted to fine-tune the language of the deal to include an option to review the agreement if global stocks fell steeply. The supply pact is aimed at reducing oil stocks in industrialised countries to their five-year average. The latest figures suggest OPEC is more than halfway there, with OPEC sources saying the target could be reached after June 2018. Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, which advises industrialised nations on energy policy, told Reuters he expected the market to tighten towards the second half of 2018 due to robust demand. Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/opec-meeting/update-1-tough-opec-meeting-looms-as-russia-unsure-about-duration-of-cuts-idUSL8N1NY47O'|'2017-11-28T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'f539d581155b992c8ea73badedca58be9fcdda98'|'Saudi''s SABIC plans to spend $3-$10 bln in acquisitions over next five yrs -CEO'|' 17 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Saudi''s SABIC plans to spend $3-$10 bln in acquisitions over next five yrs -CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) plans to spend between $3 and $10 billion on acquisitions over the next five years in specialities and agri-nutrients, chief executive Yousef al-Benyan told Reuters on Tuesday. He said the company was looking at two potential acquisitions within the specialities sector, with a possible decision on investments to follow by the second quarter of 2018. SABIC planned to make a decision on an investment in a cracker in Texas with Exxon Mobil by the end of 2018, he said. (Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Tom Arnold, editing by Louise Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-sabic-ma/saudis-sabic-plans-to-spend-3-10-bln-in-acquisitions-over-next-five-yrs-ceo-idUSL8N1NY2WK'|'2017-11-28T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'd8ec9fdc1fe85ade40fbff3e1608bc3dd2fc8675'|'Oxford University to sell a bond - it''s a first'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English speaking world, is planning to sell its first bond in the coming days armed with a newly-minted triple A credit rating.Teaching since 1096, Oxford has hired U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan to raise at least 250 million pounds ($331.83 million) in what is expected to be an ultra-long 100-year bond.Individual Oxford colleges have issued debt in the past but this planned sale, which will be marketed in London and Edinburgh this week, would be the university’s first as a whole.Rating agency Moody’s assigned Oxford a ‘triple A’ rating on Tuesday ahead of the anticipated deal, matching the top grades of slightly younger UK rival Cambridge and top U.S. institutions like Harvard and Stanford.The rating reflected “Oxford’s position as a world-leading research institution, attracting significant funding and leading academics,” Moody’s said, “in addition to the University’s strong balance sheet with a large endowment and low leverage.”If the bond sale goes as planned, it would have the longest duration of its kind and add to a series of debt issuances from UK universities in recent years which have seen levels of government funding drop.A number have also given shrill warnings that the UK’s split from the European Union could hurt their finances if they are no longer allowed to be part of lucrative European research projects and it becomes harder to keep or attract staff.Oxford, which topped a Times global university ranking for the first time last year, was one of those. "To be honest we''re really quite worried about it," its vice-chancellor Professor Louise Richardson said at the time. reut.rs/2AcCmumOne coincidence of Oxford’s timing meanwhile is that it comes as the UK government is trying to raise funding to cover some of the costs of the student loans it gives to UK learners.The plan to re-package some 3.7 billion pounds of student loans via securitisation -- an instrument famously used to repackage sub-prime mortgage loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis -- was expected to be launched earlier this year but was put on hold when Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election.$1 = 0.7534 pounds Reporting by Marc Jones, Additional reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Julian Baker of IFR, Editing by William Maclean '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-oxforduniversity-bond/oxford-university-to-sell-a-bond-its-a-first-idINL8N1NY4VT'|'2017-11-28T13:11:00.000+02:00'
'fa26c500eb0d256d50543b219385ec6a9d00e5c9'|'Oxford University to sell a bond - it''s a first'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:17 PM / in 43 minutes Oxford University to sell a bond - it''s a first Marc Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English speaking world, is planning to sell its first bond in the coming days armed with a newly-minted triple A credit rating. Graduates queue to have their photograph taken after a graduation ceremony at Oxford University, Oxford, England, May 28, 2011. REUTERS/Paul Hackett Teaching since 1096, Oxford has hired U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan to raise at least 250 million pounds ($331.83 million) in what is expected to be an ultra-long 100-year bond. Individual Oxford colleges have issued debt in the past but this planned sale, which will be marketed in London and Edinburgh this week, would be the university’s first as a whole. Rating agency Moody’s assigned Oxford a ‘triple A’ rating on Tuesday ahead of the anticipated deal, matching the top grades of slightly younger UK rival Cambridge and top U.S. institutions like Harvard and Stanford. The rating reflected “Oxford’s position as a world-leading research institution, attracting significant funding and leading academics,” Moody’s said, “in addition to the University’s strong balance sheet with a large endowment and low leverage.” If the bond sale goes as planned, it would have the longest duration of its kind and add to a series of debt issuances from UK universities in recent years which have seen levels of government funding drop. A number have also given shrill warnings that the UK’s split from the European Union could hurt their finances if they are no longer allowed to be part of lucrative European research projects and it becomes harder to keep or attract staff. Oxford, which topped a Times global university ranking for the first time last year, was one of those. "To be honest we''re really quite worried about it," its vice-chancellor Professor Louise Richardson said at the time. reut.rs/2AcCmum One coincidence of Oxford’s timing meanwhile is that it comes as the UK government is trying to raise funding to cover some of the costs of the student loans it gives to UK learners. The plan to re-package some 3.7 billion pounds of student loans via securitisation -- an instrument famously used to repackage sub-prime mortgage loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis -- was expected to be launched earlier this year but was put on hold when Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election. [nL8N1NR5XO] ($1 = 0.7534 pounds) Reporting by Marc Jones, Additional reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Julian Baker of IFR, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-oxforduniversity-bond/oxford-university-to-sell-a-bond-its-a-first-idUKKBN1DS24X'|'2017-11-28T18:18:00.000+02:00'
'167c86537cd633db22bcf7091f65c6146eeddcf8'|'Siemens leans toward Frankfurt listing for Healthineers unit: sources'|'FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens AG ( SIEGn.DE ) is close to naming a venue for the stockmarket listing of its Healthineers medical equipment arm, with Frankfurt now favored for the listing which could value the company at 40 billion euros ($47.5 billion), sources said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO - Siemens AG logo is seen at new headquarters in Munich, Germany, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle One source familiar with the matter said the listing would be considered by the supervisory board at a meeting on Wednesday. An announcement could follow.Two bankers involved in preparations for the listing said no final decision had yet been taken, but added Frankfurt’s chances were not looking bad.Siemens is expected to float 15-25 percent of Healthineers, which makes X-ray and MRI machines, by March of next year, sources have said. That implies stock worth 6-10 billion euros could be put up for sale.If Frankfurt gets the listing rather than New York or London, both considered by Siemens because of their deep capital markets, it would make the share sale Germany’s largest since the sales of state shares in Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) around the turn of the millennium.Siemens declined to comment after the Wall Street Journal first reported that an announcement on the venue of the listing could come on Wednesday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper also said a decision could be postponed.The German industrial conglomerate which is seeking to simplify its structure has already appointed Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) as lead organizers of the Healthineers IPO.A further eight bookrunner mandates are expected to be awarded soon, say sources familiar with the matter.($1 = 0.8425 euros)Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Alexander Huebner; Writing by Douglas BusvineEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-healthineers/siemens-leans-toward-frankfurt-listing-for-healthineers-unit-sources-idUSKBN1DS2K5'|'2017-11-29T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'd7109f09833f424d6731c3fb60e644eb2bae3257'|'Irish central bank tweaks mortgage lending rules'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:38 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Irish central bank tweaks mortgage lending rules Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s central bank on Tuesday tweaked mortgage lending limits first introduced in 2015 to cut the number of loans banks can issue in excess of 350 percent of the borrower’s income. A sign is displayed outside the Central Bank of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland, July 25, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Banks may still exceed the 350 percent lending limit for 20 percent of first-time buyer loans, but an exemption for loans to other buyers will be cut from 20 percent to 10 percent from January, the central bank said in a statement. While Irish house prices are almost a quarter below a 2008 peak, they are now growing at an annual rate of over 10 percent. Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-cenbank-mortgages/irish-central-bank-tweaks-mortgage-lending-rules-idUKKBN1DS1PH'|'2017-11-28T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'aa05414d9d9155753ee1b1e7751abbb93391afce'|'Millions of insecure gadgets exposed in European cities –report'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A year after a wave of denial-of-service attacks knocked out major websites around the world, millions of unsecured printers, network gear and webcams remain undefended against attack across major European cities, a report published on Tuesday said.Computer security company Trend Micro said that Berlin has more than 2.8 million insecure devices, followed closely by London with more than 2.5 million exposed gadgets. Among the top 10 capitals, Rome was lowest with nearly 300,000 visible unsecured devices, the researchers said.The study was based on calculating the number of exposed devices in major European cities using Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment.Trend Micro said that electronics users must take responsibility for managing their own internet-connected devices because of the failure by many gadget manufacturers to build in up-front security by default in their products.The warning comes one year after a wave of attacks using so-called botnets of infected devices caused outages on popular websites and knocked 900,000 Deutsche Telekom users off the internet. ( reut.rs/2BjdRII )Computer experts say the failure to patch millions of insecure devices after last year’s Mirai denial-of-service attacks means it is only a question of time before further broad-based outages occur.Research company Gartner recently forecast that there would be 8.4 billion connected products or devices in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and expects the number to triple by 2020. ( goo.gl/thR54Q )Reporting by Jamillah Knowles; Editing by Eric Auchard and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cyber-attack-europe/millions-of-insecure-gadgets-exposed-in-european-cities-report-idUSL8N1NY2EG'|'2017-11-28T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'218946bfca13ce3c13b61e00ab13c1417827f13d'|'Clariant''s activist investor White Tale still wants strategic review'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:55 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Clariant''s activist investor White Tale still wants strategic review Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Clariant’s ( CLN.S ) largest investor White Tale said on Tuesday it was disappointed by the specialty chemicals maker’s recent rejection of its request for an independent strategic review and said it would bring these matters to shareholders directly. The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “White Tale has been consistent in both private conversations and in our public statements about the need for a thorough, independent review of all strategic alternatives,” said activist investor White Tale, adding that it currently holds more than 20 percent in Clariant. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-clariant-whitetale/clariants-activist-investor-white-tale-still-wants-strategic-review-idUKKBN1DS0EO'|'2017-11-28T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'2152e0113d0f56fde1ed716f6ca1e6b3a4dcefe3'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Wall St, dollar rise with U.S. policy in focus'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:22 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago GLOBAL MARKETS-Wall St, dollar rise with U.S. policy in focus Reuters Staff (Updates with U.S. trading, changes byline, previous dateline LONDON) * Wall Street hits records helped by financials, tech * Dollar edges higher, Brexit uncertainty weighs on sterling * U.S. Treasury yield curve steepens; investors eye tax policy * Oil prices slip on OPEC deal extension jitters By Sinead Carew NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street hit record highs and the dollar edged up on Tuesday as traders monitored comments from Federal Reserve chair nominee Jerome Powell and waited for progress on U.S. tax reform. The U.S. Treasury yield curve steepened after hitting its flattest level in a decade, in what analysts viewed as a much-needed reprieve from months of flattening. The major U.S. stock indexes rose and the S&P hit a session high during the broadcast of Powell’s confirmation hearing with their biggest boost coming from financial stocks. “For the most part, his prepared remarks painted a similar picture to the outgoing Chair Janet Yellen’s monetary policy strategy,” said Minh Trang, senior currency trader at Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California. “What he is trying to convey is that there is going to be consistency in the transition.” Powell told the hearing that the best way to sustain the U.S. economic recovery would be to continue on path of gradual rate increases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 133.43 points, or 0.57 percent, to 23,714.21, the S&P 500 gained 13.52 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,614.94 and the Nasdaq Composite added 17.73 points, or 0.26 percent, to 6,896.25. European shares rose, supported by consumer staples as Anglo-Dutch Unilever said it favored a single base, and by oil and gas stocks after Royal Dutch Shell canceled an austerity dividend. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.63 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.31 percent. The dollar index rose 0.25 percent, with the euro down 0.16 percent to $1.1877. Hopes for U.S. tax cuts helped the greenback as U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that the plans were “coming along very well.” However, Trump’s drive for tax reform faced new drama in the Senate, where two Republican lawmakers demanded changes in exchange for their help in moving the measure forward ahead of a possible vote as early as Thursday. Meanwhile, the British pound slipped from an almost two-month high against the dollar as Brexit-related doubts began to re-exert their grip on the UK currency. Sterling dipped 0.7 percent to $1.3219 which would be its sharpest one-day percentage decline since Nov. 2, even after the Bank of England said UK banks could handle a bad Brexit, and after the apparent aversion of an Irish political crisis that had threatened to derail a Brexit summit. “Investors are growing more nervous about possible delays to the Brexit negotiations by the issue of the Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland border,” Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange, said in a note. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 4/32 in price to yield 2.3135 percent, from 2.328 percent late on Monday. The 30-year bond last rose 8/32 in price to yield 2.753 percent, from 2.765 percent late on Monday. Oil prices eased on uncertainty over the outcome of an OPEC meeting this week at which an extension to its price-supporting oil output cuts will be discussed. U.S. crude fell 0.52 percent to $57.81 per barrel and Brent was last at $63.38, down 0.72 percent on the day. Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Georgina Prodhan in London, Swati Pandey in Sydney; Editing by Catherine Evans and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-wall-st-dollar-rise-with-u-s-policy-in-focus-idUSL1N1NY0X6'|'2017-11-28T19:18:00.000+02:00'
'fb7c1d99730b9a5ee9498258a57ff7be0ff35a3b'|'Airbus poaches Rolls-Royce executive to head aircraft sales'|'PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Airbus has hired the boss of Rolls-Royce’s civil engines division, Eric Schulz, to replace John Leahy as head of commercial aircraft sales, following months of uncertainty over who would replace the veteran dealmaker.The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Schulz, president of Rolls Royce’s civil aerospace unit since January 2016, will join Europe’s largest planemaker at a time when it is struggling to continue Leahy’s legacy of record jetliner sales amid a rebound by arch-rival Boeing.The 54-year-old French engineer will report to Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders and join in January. Reuters reported on Sunday the Airbus board had been asked to approve a recommendation to back Schulz.Shares in Rolls-Royce, where Schulz has been part of a relatively new management team that has pulled the company out of a series of profit warnings, fell about 1 percent.Airbus stock rose 0.5 percent as the appointment cleared up uncertainty over who would fill the shoes of 67-year-old Leahy, whose retirement had been postponed for several months.The top sales post at Airbus is seen as the keystone of European competition against Boeing in the $100 billion a year jet market, a top export earner on both sides of the Atlantic.Enders paid tribute to Leahy as a “living legend” who had overseen the sale of more than 16,000 jets and propelled Airbus from underdog to the industry’s top rung.Schulz began his career at one of Airbus’s founders, France’s former state-owned Aerospatiale, before working at aerospace supplier Goodrich via a stint at two French airlines: UTA and Air Liberte.“This combination of skills and experience makes Eric the right pick to succeed John Leahy at a critical juncture of our company’s development,” Enders said in a statement.RAMP-UP Rolls-Royce said Schulz would stay on until the end of the year but would not be involved in commercial negotiations during that period, a move designed to avoid upsetting Boeing since engine makers can play a role in swinging aircraft deals.At the British firm, Schulz oversaw a ramp-up in the production and the development of its next generation of civil aerospace engines. But his division has also suffered maintenance problems with engines already flying, particularly the Trent 1000 which powers the Boeing Dreamliner.Although Leahy signed off with a record deal at the Dubai Airshow this month, Schulz will inherit a Toulouse sales organization unsettled by other defeats and seeking stability amid UK and French corruption probes into commercial jet sales.Insiders say morale has been badly hit by the probes, which center on a now defunct Paris-based unit of Airbus headquarters.Airbus said Leahy would remain with the company for a short transition. Industry sources expect him to retire about Jan. 25.Leahy, meanwhile, aims to complete a preliminary 430-jet deal with Indigo Partners announced in Dubai, battling to end a 23-year stint as sales boss on a par with Boeing after a year in which Boeing has held a firm lead, especially on large jets.“I have never seen John give up on anything,” Enders said.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-moves-schulz/airbus-poaches-rolls-royce-executive-to-head-aircraft-sales-idUSKBN1DS0Q0'|'2017-11-28T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'c4a121e6c6a7a543e45d8d9b1f65b99cd42d7cf3'|'Serbia starts construction of Chinese-funded railway to Budapest'|'November 28, 2017 / 3:26 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Serbia starts construction of Chinese-funded railway to Budapest Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia began work on a China-funded railway line on Tuesday to try to improve the Balkan country’s infrastructure, an effort also expected to strengthen Beijing’s influence in Europe. In May Serbia borrowed $297.6 million (£224.31 million) from China’s Exim Bank to modernise a stretch of the railway line between Belgrade and the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Beijing sees Serbia, an EU membership candidate and Hungary, an EU member, as part of its One Belt, One Road initiative, intended to open new foreign trade links for Chinese firms. The high-speed rail link between Belgrade and Budapest is expected to cost 3.2 billion euros ($3.80 billion) and is slated to become the main transport route for Chinese goods that arrive by sea at the Greek port of Piraeus to other parts of Europe. At the construction site in Belgrade’s Zemun neighbourhood, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that the 30km-long (18.6 miles) stretch of the railway line from Belgrade to the northern town of Stara Pazova is a key step forward. “This project ... is the first cross-border project within the 16+1 framework, ... it is the first project between China and EU, involving Serbia,” she said. Earlier on Tuesday, at the 16+1 summit of Central and Eastern European countries and China, Brnabic met her Chinese and Hungarian counterparts Li Keqiang and Viktor Orban and discussed further cooperation. Serbia has enjoyed good relations with China since the 1990s, when Belgrade was economically isolated for its role in the Yugoslav wars. On Monday, Hungary also invited a procurement tender for a modernised railway link with Belgrade. The construction of the Hungarian stretch, worth around 550 billion forints ($2.1 billion), is expected to start in 2020, with China’s Exim Bank providing 85 percent credit coverage. Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-serbia-china-railway/serbia-starts-construction-of-chinese-funded-railway-to-budapest-idUKKBN1DS1ZT'|'2017-11-28T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'37c29bace7b00627f98da84221884e752afd9b55'|'Indonesia''s Inalum given control of state miners ahead of larger Freeport stake'|'JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has transferred controlling stakes in three state-run mining companies and a 9.36 percent stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc to a holding company under state-owned aluminum producer PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).Inalum has been nominated by the government as a holding to company as part of its plan to acquire a 41.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, which would take its total stake to 51 percent.State Owned Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno signed a deed of transfer to Inalum for a 65 percent stake in PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), a 65.02 percent stake in PT Bukit Asam Tbk, a 65 percent stake in PT Timah Tbk and the government’s existing PT Freeport Indonesia stake, the state-owned enterprise ministry said on Tuesday.“As a holding company, PT Inalum has a strategic task to take over the divestment of shares in PT Freeport Indonesia,” it said, adding that with the increase in assets the new holding company would be able to “absorb the acquisition value of PT Freeport Indonesia.”Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fergus Jensen; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-freeport-inalum/indonesias-inalum-given-control-of-state-miners-ahead-of-larger-freeport-stake-idUSKBN1DS0DM'|'2017-11-28T07:26:00.000+02:00'
'4d97a432bb7868b9dcdd0d99cbc64f75f816cff2'|'Vietnam to sell majority stake in Sabeco, caps foreign ownership at 39 percent'|'HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Vietnam will kick off next month the sale of a majority stake in Sabeco SAB.HM, the country’s biggest brewer and maker of the Bia Saigon and 333 beer brands, in an ambitious deal the government hopes will rake in at least $5 billion.Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham The country’s biggest-ever and long-delayed state sale, set for Dec. 18, has already attracted interest from brewers seeking access to one of the world’s most attractive beer markets and the largest in Southeast Asia.Many foreign firms from Japan’s Asahi Group Holding ( 2502.T ) to Belgium’s AB Inbev ( ABI.BR ) have shown an interest in Sabeco, or Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, since it was earmarked for privatization. Dutch brewer Heineken ( HEIN.AS ) currently holds a 5 percent stake in the Vietnamese firm.But analysts say the tripling of Sabeco’s share price to 340,000 dong ($14.96) from its December 2016 listing, and a foreign ownership limit of 49 percent could deter some global brewers from participating in the stake sale.“The big sale is to increase the attractiveness,” a Vietnam trade ministry official, Truong Thanh Hoai, said at a press conference on Wednesday, days after Sabeco held investor roadshows in Singapore and London.The minimum sale price has been set at 320,000 dong a share.Foreigners already own more than 10 percent in Sabeco, and the total limit for such ownership is capped at 49 percent. The government owns nearly 90 percent of Sabeco and analysts say the low float in the market has inflated the market value.Sabeco’s shares are trading at a price-to-earnings multiple of 49 compared with 20 for Asahi, 17 for Thai Beverage PCL ( TBEV.SI ) and 15 for Japan’s Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ), Thomson Reuters data showed.The Sabeco sale could provide a blueprint for other privatizations that Hanoi is considering as part of broader economic reforms, including that of peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S ( CARLb.CO ) owns 17.3 percent.Hoai said he expected a stake sale in Habeco to be completed in the first quarter of 2018, pending talks with Carlsberg and government approval. Hoai said AB Inbev had expressed interest.Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham The government is pushing ahead the privatization process against the backdrop of a 40 percent rally in Vietnam’s broader equity market .VNI over the past year to 10-year highs.STRONG INTEREST Around 85 investors attended Sabeco’s roadshows and private meetings in Singapore and London, including representatives from AB Inbev, Asahi and Kirin, Sabeco Chairman Vo Thanh Ha said.Slideshow (2 Images) “Through the two recent roadshows, we saw a very high level of interest. Most investors highly valued Sabeco’s business performance and the potential of the beer market,” he said.AB InBev told Reuters it is committed to Vietnam and to growing its business for the long-term. The company said it does not comment on rumors or speculation.Sabeco is planning to launch one to two products and drive up its market share to 42-43 percent next year, from about 41 percent now, CEO Nguyen Thanh Nam told investors.Vietnam is shaping up as a battleground for global brewers thanks to a youthful population and beer-drinking culture.The country’s per-capita beer consumption is forecast to rise to 47.8 liters by 2021 from an estimated 40.6 liters this year, making it the biggest Asian consumer on a per capita basis, data from research firm Euromonitor International shows.The president of the Philippines’ San Miguel Corp ( SMC.PS ) has told Reuters that the conglomerate was looking to bid for Sabeco.($1 = 22,720 dong)Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA, Philip Blenkinsop in BRUSSELS; Writing by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Stephen Coates, Himani Sarkar and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-sale/vietnam-to-sell-majority-stake-in-sabeco-caps-foreign-ownership-at-39-percent-idINKBN1DT0CH'|'2017-11-29T00:17:00.000+02:00'
'7128a9e250f5f65ab58b773a11486ca1666fc224'|'Bayer says antitrust reviews going into ''unimaginable depths'''|'DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - The antitrust review of Bayer’s ( BAYGn.DE ) planned takeover of Monsanto ( MON.N ) is going into “unimaginable depths,” Bayer’s Chief Executive Werner Baumann said on Wednesday, but added he remained confident that the deal would be closed early next year.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bayer AG is pictured at the Bayer Healthcare subgroup production plant in Wuppertal February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo “To illustrate the point, we have by now delivered more than 4 million pages of documents to the EU commission,” Baumann told a conference.The reason for the intense scrutiny was a new focus by authorities on competition in research and development, and an effort to predict the effect on future product markets.“The intention of cartel authorities, here and overseas, is that the antitrust remedies allow competitors ... to be comprehensively enabled over the long term,” Baumann said.Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-review/bayer-says-antitrust-reviews-going-into-unimaginable-depths-idINKBN1DT155'|'2017-11-29T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'2f1879796e997e5bb38e3b70bccba66f1a148b3f'|'METALS-London nickel skids, metals slip as investors cut risk'|'(Recasts, adds comment, updates details and prices) MELBOURNE, Nov 27 (Reuters) - London nickel led metals lower on Monday, as investors cut their exposure to risky assets as Beijing steps up a crackdown on shadow banking and other riskier forms of financing. China will check local governments'' investment in railway projects, the state planner said on Friday, amid official concerns that breakneck infrastructure spending is racking up too much debt. "Today''s selling is also a likely reaction to the U.S. PMI numbers which fell short on expectations, the Asian stock markets all losing a little ground and the fact that it appears some funds/houses will start shutting their books down by the end of this month," said Kingdom Futures in a report. "The year end could become even more volatile as liquidity further reduces ... we (may) not see the true direction of the market until after the Chinese New Year in mid February." FUNDAMENTALS * London Metal Exchange nickel slid 2.5 percent to $11,730 a tonne, wiping out Friday''s near 1 pct gains. Shanghai nickel fell 1 percent, with the most volatile metal also battered by expectations of rising supply. * LME COPPER: Copper hit $7,024 a tonne, its highest in a month, before reversing to slide 1 percent to $6,934 a tonne by 0708 GMT. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 0.4 percent to 53,900 yuan ($8,170). * The U.S. flash composite PMI for November deteriorated to 54.6 compared to 55.2 in October, data over the weekend showed. * CHINA ECONOMY: China''s industrial firms weathered a broad government crackdown on financial risks as profits continued to surge last month in a stabilising force for the world''s second-biggest economy, which has started to cool slightly in recent months. * STRIKE CHILE: Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Plc''s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world''s largest, ended a 24-hour strike on Friday but could put down their tools again next week over the company''s planned layoffs, the union said. * STRIKE PERU: Workers for the two largest unions at Southern Copper Corp in Peru said on Wednesday they had started an indefinite strike, demanding a fair share of mining profits, while the company said the stoppage had not affected operations. * FREEPORT: Indonesia''s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has "no clear structure" yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday. PRICES 0521 GMT Three month LME copper 6988 Most active ShFE copper 54290 Three month LME aluminium 2121 Most active ShFE aluminium 14985 Three month LME zinc 3210 Most active ShFE zinc 25280 Three month LME lead 2470.5 Most active ShFE lead 18465 Three month LME nickel 11905 Most active ShFE nickel 95600 Three month LME tin 19470 Most active ShFE tin 143100 LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 469.48 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1265.26 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 238.93 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1122.24 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2484.83 ($1 = 6.5975 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-nickel-skids-metals-slip-as-investors-cut-risk-idUSL3N1NX1VY'|'2017-11-27T14:25:00.000+02:00'
'3792230f84f1a8bf7e79991c07029889afa596a8'|'FTSE edges higher, pharmaceuticals lead gainers'|'November 27, 2017 / 10:08 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Oil prices, China jitters weigh on Britain''s blue-chips Julien Ponthus 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shares closed slightly lower on Monday, weighed down by energy and mining stocks as oil prices fell on prospects of higher U.S. output and metals traded lower on weakening demand from China. A worker shelters from the rain as he passes the London Stock Exchange in the City of London at lunchtime October 1, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.3 percent at 7,386.92, slightly stronger than other major European indices as the euro weakened marginally and sterling edged up. Miner Antofagasta fell 3.6 percent, with rivals Anglo American and Fresnillo down 2.2 and 1.9 percent respectively. Software company Micro Focus, which completed an acquisition of much-larger Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software assets earlier this year, led the decliners with a fall of 3.7 percent after a downgrade to “hold” from Deutsche Bank. The bank cited the potential for “further execution risk, lack of clarity around further future M&A and a lack of meaningful organic growth potential”. Healthcare was the top performing sector. GlaxoSmithKline rose 1.8 percent after UBS raised its rating on the stock to “buy” thanks to its “high yield and ample discount”. Online grocer Ocado stood out among FTSE mid-caps with a jump of 7.3 percent after Credit Suisse said a 20 percent fall in the stock over the past four weeks was overdone. It was also helped by a Swedish press report that it was about to reach an agreement with ICA Gruppen for a so-called dark store. Just Eat is poised to join the FTSE 100 when quarterly reshuffle results come out on Wednesday, thanks to rapid growth in the food delivery app whose market cap has ballooned to overtake Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury‘s. Reporting by Julien Ponthus and Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-edges-higher-pharmaceuticals-lead-gainers-idUKKBN1DR11E'|'2017-11-27T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'cbddeb31278d6df5ec90ac76cbf136d857c00dc9'|'U.S. November auto sales seen down slightly: J.D. Power and LMC'|'November 27, 2017 / 2:04 PM / in 4 minutes U.S. November auto sales seen down slightly: J.D. Power and LMC Nick Carey 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales in November likely slid 0.2 percent from the same month in 2016 despite high discounts to consumers as automakers have sought to clear out record levels of unsold 2017 model vehicles, industry consultants J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Cars are seen in a parking lot in Palm Springs, California, U.S. on April 13, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo “The need to clear out record inventories of prior model-year vehicles continues to keep incentive spending aggressive in November,” Thomas King, J.D. Power’s senior vice president of data and analytics, said in a release accompanying the consultants’ sales predictions. New 2018 model-year vehicles have accounted for 44 percent of month-to-date sales, compared with November 2016 when the then-new 2017 model-year vehicles made up 53 percent of sales. November U.S. new vehicle sales will likely be about 1.374 million units, a drop of 0.2 percent from 1.377 million units a year earlier, the consultancies said. The forecast was based on the first 16 selling days of November. Automakers will release U.S. sales results for the month on Dec. 1. Despite the minor dip in new vehicle sales, LMC raised its full-year 2017 forecast to 17.2 million units, from a previous estimate of 17.1 million units. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate for November will be 17.3 million vehicles, down nearly 2 percent from 17.6 million units in the same month in 2016, the consultancies said. Retail sales to consumers, which do not include multiple fleet sales to rental agencies, businesses and government, were also set to decline 0.1 percent in November. U.S. sales of new cars and trucks hit a record high of 17.55 million units in 2016. But a saturated market, thanks partly to a glut of nearly new used vehicles, has forced automakers to hike discounts to entice consumers to buy. The average discount per vehicle in November hit $4,065, just short of an all-time record in September of $4,091. Discounts hit 10.8 percent of the manufacturer’s recommended sales prices. Experts believe that anything above 10 percent hurts vehicle resale values and is ultimately unhealthy for the industry. The consultancies noted that discounts have exceeded 10 percent in 16 of the last 17 months. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-sales/u-s-november-auto-sales-seen-down-slightly-j-d-power-and-lmc-idUSKBN1DR1NL'|'2017-11-27T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'fe2d9979d765ca83c09eb03bddf7f4bbedd7a292'|'Worldpay sees FY revenue growth at lower end of guidance'|'Reuters TV United States November 27, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated an hour ago Worldpay sees financial year revenue growth at lower end of guidance Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Worldpay Group Plc ( WPG.L ), which has agreed to be taken over by U.S. rival Vantiv ( VNTV.N ), said on Monday that it expected net revenue growth for 2017 to be at the lower end of its 9-11 percent guidance range. It blamed slowing British consumer demand and weaker U.S. economic conditions, factors it said it expected to continue into 2018. It reported a 8.4 percent rise in revenue to 1.27 billion pounds for the third quarter that ended Sept. 30. Credit card processing company Vantiv secured a deal to buy Britain’s largest payment processor for 8 billion pounds ($10.68 billion) in August in a deal set to create a $29 billion global payments powerhouse. Worldpay said on Monday that shareholder meetings to approve the deal would take place in early January and that it expected the deal to complete in mid-January. The British firm was set up in 1989 and spun out of Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) to private equity firms Bain Capital and Advent International in 2010. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-worldpay-grp-outlook/worldpay-sees-financial-year-revenue-growth-at-lower-end-of-guidance-idUKKBN1DR1IZ'|'2017-11-27T14:57:00.000+02:00'
'f048911e82ebb276dabfa4d4d9491d06d596ae74'|'France''s Altran to buy engineering services firm Aricent from KKR-led group'|'(Reuters) - French technology consultancy Altran ( ALTT.PA ) is to buy U.S. design and engineering services firm Aricent in a 1.7 billion euro ($2.01 billion) deal.Altran plans a 750 million euro rights issue to help to finance the purchase, which contributed to a sharp fall in the company’s shares on Thursday.The acquisition of the California-based company from a group of investors led by KKR ( KKR.N ) is the largest of a series of deals done by Altran and will create a group with revenue of almost 3 billion euros, Altran said on Thursday.“The combination contains no overlap ... and they’re bringing us com (communication), technology systems, semiconductors, software and design,” Chief Executive Dominique Cerutti told reporters during a call.The acquisition will give Altran access to a number of firms including Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ), Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ), AT&T ( T.N ) and Vodafone ( VOD.L ), Cerutti added.A Paris-based analyst and a London-based analyst both pointed to concerns regarding the rights issue and the size of the acquisition as factors driving the stock lower.“The acquisition is being made at quite high multiples ... so perhaps there is a bit of cautiousness about the deal,” the Paris-based analyst said.Altran’s shares were down 4.8 percent at 0949 GMT.As a result of the deal, Altran expects to hit two years early its 2020 targets of over 3 billion euros in revenue with an EBIT margin of around 13 percent and free cash flow of 7 percent.The company said the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, would be accretive to earnings per share from the first year and will generate 150 million euros of additional revenues.($1 = 0.8456 euros)Reporting by Alan Charlish and Camille Raynaud in Gdynia. Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aricent-m-a-altran-tech/frances-altran-to-buy-engineering-services-firm-aricent-from-kkr-led-group-idUSKBN1DU0KT'|'2017-11-30T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'37b6c814f0d2b8fd692197cd539c41a4bd51520d'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil bankruptcy judge weakens Oi board, bolsters management'|'(Adds context, response from involved parties)By Gram SlatterySAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A Brazilian bankruptcy judge overseeing Oi SA’s in-court debt restructuring has put newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles in charge of negotiating with creditors, the telecom operator said in a filing.The decision, disclosed late on Wednesday night, gives Teles powers to draft a debt restructuring plan and present it to the judge without board approval, a move that severely weakens the power of influential shareholder Nelson Tanure.Preferred shares of Oi were down 1.3 percent at 3.88 reais ($1.19) in early trading.The company and a spokesman for Tanure declined to comment.According to the filing, Teles is the “person responsible for conducting and concluding negotiations” by Dec. 12, the new deadline for a proposal to restructure some 65 billion reais of debt in Latin America’s biggest bankruptcy case ever.In the last several months, the board and management have clashed over competing plans to take Oi, Brazil’s fourth-largest carrier by users, out of bankruptcy.The board, controlled by Tanure and his allies, has been pushing a plan with relatively little creditor support that would imply a 73 percent loss on the original value of some bonds, according to an analysis by Itaú BBA.Meanwhile, management has been significantly closer to two major groups of private creditors who have been proposing a plan that would involve a much smaller haircut.With Wednesday’s court decision, a resolution to the bankruptcy at a Dec. 19 creditors meeting is more likely, as debtholders and the parties in charge of the company are now more closely aligned.$1 = 3.26 reais Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/update-1-brazil-bankruptcy-judge-weakens-oi-board-bolsters-management-idUSL1N1O00NH'|'2017-11-30T20:50:00.000+02:00'
'406851a57e393c8b8aa514701813f17f73e0b035'|'Italy will back Portuguese finance minister to head Eurogroup, source says'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:06 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Italy will back Portuguese finance minister to head Eurogroup, source says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Italy will back Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno to be the next chairman of euro zone finance ministers, a government source said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno speaks during a news conference in Lisbon, Portugal March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni appeared to rule out his own economy minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, for the influential role, saying national elections due in the country next year made his candidacy difficult. A government source, who declined to be named, said Italy would instead support Centeno to replace Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is stepping down from the post after losing his job as Dutch finance minister following elections this year in the Netherlands. Dijsselbloem is set to announce on Dec. 1 the list of candidates who have stepped forward. A front runner has not yet emerged, with a number of names, including Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir, suggested as possible alternatives. EU leaders discussed the issue on the sidelines of a summit in Abidjan on Wednesday. “Padoan is universally considered to be a highly authoritative person,” Gentiloni told reporters afterwards. “But on the other hand, it will not have escaped anyone’s notice that, barring unexpected surprises, my government has a rather short shelf life, and this represents a problem.” The Italian Parliament is widely expected to be dissolved at the end of the year, with elections due by May at the latest. Opinion polls suggest the ruling centre-left Democratic Party will lose power. Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Agnieszka Flak, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-eurogroup-chairman-italy/italy-will-back-portuguese-finance-minister-to-head-eurogroup-source-says-idUKKBN1DT3D7'|'2017-11-30T00:05:00.000+02:00'
'fc4cf4981ef05fe45e3b8112ec21caca49a07a0e'|'Dermapharm prepares for listing -Apotheke Adhoc'|'FRANKFURT, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The family behind German generic drugmaker Dermapharm is preparing to take the company public with the help of Morgan Stanley, trade publication Apotheke Adhoc cited people familiar with the matter as saying.Sources told Reuters in April 2016 that owner Wilhelm Beier had short-listed two financial investors as prospective buyers with one bid reaching about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) but a deal was never clinched.Dermapharm and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.$1 = 0.8381 euros Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Arno Schuetze Editing by Maria Sheahan '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/dermapharm-ipo/dermapharm-prepares-for-listing-apotheke-adhoc-idUSFWN1NX082'|'2017-11-27T18:47:00.000+02:00'
'0e48ab268dc5eebf910dd0f9e36c74e9b468c13a'|'Unilever to buy U.S. bodycare products company Sundial Brands'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) is to buy U.S.-based company Sundial Brands, a maker of hair and skincare products, expanding deeper into the fast-growing personal care products market.FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The maker of Dove soap and Axe body spray announced the deal on Monday, without disclosing financial terms.Sundial, a 26-year-old company based in New York, is home to brands including SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage and Madam C.J. Walker. It is expected to have turnover of $240 million this year.Sundial will operate as a standalone unit within Unilever and its founder, Richelieu Dennis, who hails from Liberia, will stay on to run it.Buying Sundial accelerates Unilever’s push deeper into personal care products, which tend to grow faster and be more international than its food business.The deal is part of a bigger buying spree by Unilever, which earlier this year rebuffed a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft-Heinz ( KHC.O ), that has included Pukka Herbs and Tazo tea, Carver Korea beauty products and Mae Terra food.(Corrects third paragraph to read “New York” instead of “New Jersey”)Reporting by Martinne GellerEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-m-a-sundial/unilever-to-buy-u-s-bodycare-products-company-sundial-brands-idUSKBN1DR1Y3'|'2017-11-27T17:56:00.000+02:00'
'da7d84b2eee70e4a7170221f4d91d2350e33f456'|'British, EU insurers seek mutual access after Brexit'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:10 AM / Updated 8 hours ago British, EU insurers seek mutual access after Brexit Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British and European Union insurers need transitional agreements and a “mutual market access” deal to preserve London’s place as a global hub after Brexit, an insurance lobby group said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Britain also needs to negotiate a reinsurance agreement with the United States, one of the sector’s biggest markets, on a similar basis to a recent deal between the United States and the EU, Malcolm Newman, leader of the London Market Group’s Brexit task force, told Reuters. The EU’s bilateral trade deal for insurance with Switzerland could be a template for an insurance deal between Britain and the EU as it contains a mechanism for resolving disputes, Newman said. Around 30 insurers, including the Lloyd’s of London specialist insurance market, have already announced plans for an EU subsidiary in the event of a hard Brexit, as they wait for clarity on a Brexit deal. “In some ways this is a game of poker,” Newman said. In order to avoid a cliff-edge, the task force is calling for a transition period after Brexit in March 2019 to bridge the gap to new trading arrangements. A mutual recognition and market access deal would then allow different regulatory regimes, said Newman, who is also managing director of reinsurer SCOR’s ( SCOR.PA ) EMEA hub. FILE PHOTO - People with Union flag umbrellas pass the Palace of Westminster in London, Britain, February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall It echoes a similar call from banks and UK regulators, but critics say no such deal has ever been negotiated on such a scale before and could take years. LMG’s task force was set up to speak directly with the finance ministry and the department for exiting the EU as insurers “didn’t really have a voice” in broader financial sector talks, Newman said. The largest market for LMG members, however, is the United States. EU and U.S. regulators signed a “covered agreement” in September to accept each other’s insurance and reinsurance rules to cut costs for transatlantic business. Brexit means that Britain will need to agree a similar bilateral deal with the United States as well. “We need a solution,” Newman said. The LMG was starting talks with the government’s trade ministry about this, he added. In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, insurers and banks pushed for a continuation of passporting, which allows financial services firms to sell their products across the EU without the need for locally regulated subsidiaries. They dropped those plans earlier this year as they saw little realistic chance of success. A Brexit working group of British and European insurers, the London Market Group, and the Association of British Insurers, have held regular meetings with the government over the past six months, Newman said. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Huw Jones, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-insurance-regulation/british-eu-insurers-seek-mutual-access-after-brexit-idUKKBN1DT008'|'2017-11-29T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'0744181cd799506bbfc57b50eca7381cc32a9e92'|'UK picks central England location for new electric battery hub'|'November 29, 2017 / 3:08 PM / in 2 hours UK picks central England location for new electric battery hub Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has picked a site in central England to house a new automotive battery manufacturing development facility, in a move which ministers and companies hope will lead to large-scale local production. Britain''s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark speaks at the Conservative Party''s conference in Manchester, Britain October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Carmakers are racing to build greener vehicles and improve charge times in a bid to meet rising customer demand and air quality targets but Britain lacks sufficient manufacturing capacity, an area the government wants to build up. The site in the West Midlands, being developed in partnership with Warwick University’s Manufacturing Group, will benefit from 80 million pounds of investment to develop the processes required to manufacture the latest battery technology. Announcing the investment, business minister Greg Clark said the new centre will help Britain compete globally. “The new facility... will propel the UK forward in this thriving area, bringing experts from academia and industry together to deliver innovation and R&D that will further enhance the West Midlands’ international reputation as a cluster of automotive excellence,” he said. The region’s mayor Andy Street said the investment could help in intensifying efforts to improve air quality. “If we get this right, we will not only create jobs and establish this industry in our region, but we can also provide a solution for the world to help tackle issues such as congestion and air pollution,” he said. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-autos-electric/uk-picks-central-england-location-for-new-electric-battery-hub-idUKKBN1DT25K'|'2017-11-29T17:08:00.000+02:00'
'c87712a4148dfd4bce35122ee391d6fa98042b2e'|'Fox''s Lachlan Murdoch says company would never buy CNN'|'(Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox “would never be interested” in buying CNN, Fox Executive Chair Lachlan Murdoch said on Wednesday at the Business Insider IGNITION Conference in New York.FILE PHOTO: Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, 21st Century Fox CEO, arrives at the annual Allen and Co. conference at the Sun Valley, Idaho Resort July 11, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block AT&T&rsquo;s planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), the parent of CNN, over antitrust concerns about the merged company owning too much content and distribution.Before the suit, Department of Justice staff had recommended that AT&T sell either its DirecTV unit or Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit - which includes CNN, to gain antitrust approval, sources have told Reuters.Earlier this month, Reuters first reported that Rupert Murdoch, who shares the title of executive chair of Fox, telephoned AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson twice to discuss CNN over the past six months.Reporting By Jessica Toonkel '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-murdoch/foxs-lachlan-murdoch-says-company-would-never-buy-cnn-idINKBN1DT2MQ'|'2017-11-29T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'17698d034fb95e74e16b50c89e7db01d98f70471'|'Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for electric cars'|'BERLIN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production.Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models.To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen (VW) alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion).Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore , at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal.More than half of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labour is used in mines.On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labour rights issues in raw materials sourcing.The partnership dubbed “Drive Sustainability” consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW , Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo.The alliance “will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector,” said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network.“This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue” to address issues within the supply chain.$1 = 0.8449 euros Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/autos-minerals/automakers-pledge-ethical-minerals-sourcing-for-electric-cars-idINL8N1NZ1YB'|'2017-11-29T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'd06085f77f9bb942419d5fffc0f28a4f13f32fca'|'Goldman Sachs among bidders for Scotiabank''s metals unit: sources'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group ( GS.N ) is among around five bidders for ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), for which it is seeking up to $1 billion, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo - RC19970BB830 Scotiabank began a review of its ScotiaMocatta metals business in 2016 following a string of lawsuits related to the manipulation of gold and silver price benchmarks and due to dissatisfaction over its performance, sources said.It has since hired JPMorgan in New York to help with the sale process, with the aim of completion before the end of March 2018, they added.The bulk of ScotiaMocatta’s business is in precious metals and it is one of five banks that clear bullion in London’s $5 trillion a year gold market, the world’s biggest.Goldman Sachs has been seeking to turn around its struggling commodities unit by hiring a number of executives after reporting the weakest commodities results in its history as a public company in the second quarter.Goldman and four other banks were part of a group that invested several million dollars in designing and building gold and silver contracts launched by the London Metal Exchange in July.Three sources said Goldman had put in a non-binding bid for Scotiabank’s metals unit at an auction in mid-November.“Taking the opposite approach to any other bank, which would scale back after a tough 18 months period ... Goldman is keen across all the commodity business to expand their physical franchise and wants to be aggressive on market share and pricing to expand their position,” one of the sources said.Two of the sources said other bidders included Japanese trading house Sumitomo ( 8053.T ) and Australian bank ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) ( ANZ.AX ). The unit also attracted the interest of two Chinese banks, they said.Scotiabank, Goldman and ANZ declined to comment. Sumitomo was not immediately available to comment.ScotiaMocatta is one of London’s main gold trading banks with a history dating back to the 17th century. It was acquired by Scotiabank from Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) in 1997 and employs more than 160 people in 10 offices around the world, according to its website.Market sources put Scotiabank’s annual revenues from the precious metals unit at $100-$180 million with operating margins of around 25 percent.Sources said Scotiabank was seeking up to $1 billion for ScotiaMocatta.“A factor in the discussions is whether the buyer gets an indemnity for legal risks as Scotia still has litigation hanging over them,” one source said.“The purchase price will be affected by whether the buyer assumes that risk or they manage to ring-fence it or leave it with Scotia,” the source added.U.S. investors sued Scotiabank alongside other four banks in 2014, claiming that they conspired to fix gold prices from 2004 to 2013,A separate suit was pursued by silver investors against banks including Scotiabank.Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) agreed to pay a combined $98 million settlement on both suits.The cases are only some of the lawsuits in which investors accused banks of conspiring to rig rates and prices in financial and commodities markets following revelations in 2012 that the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) had been rigged by British banks.Additional reporting by Pratima Desai in London, John Tilak and Matt Scuffham in Toronto and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bank-nova-divestiture-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-among-bidders-for-scotiabanks-metals-unit-sources-idINKBN1DS2C5'|'2017-11-28T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'4fd6c227c1bf1213efc8fb7c2e521c40d75a9720'|'Irish central bank says all mortgage compensation schemes ready by year-end'|'November 28, 2017 / 2:54 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Irish central bank says all mortgage compensation schemes ready by year-end Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Most Irish lenders will have started redress and compensation schemes for mortgage customers they overcharged in recent years by early December, with the remainder established by the year-end, Irish Central Bank Governor Philip Lane said on Tuesday. Governor Philip R. Lane looks on at the publication of the Central Bank of Ireland''s review of residential mortgage lending requirements in Dublin, Ireland November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Irish banks are under threat of being penalised by the government if they do not speed up redress for borrowers who should have been given the option of cheaper “tracker” mortgages, which follow the European Central Bank rate, or kept on a better rate years ago. Reporting by Conor Humphries; writing by Padraic Halpin; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-banks/irish-central-bank-says-all-mortgage-compensation-schemes-ready-by-year-end-idUKKBN1DS1WI'|'2017-11-28T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'124774c6889b1255d1d44a7a2cfd95765f28921d'|'No more pain for UK banks in 2017 BoE tests, but Brexit risks ahead'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:10 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago No more pain for UK banks in 2017 BoE tests, but Brexit risks ahead Huw Jones , David Milliken 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s banks all avoided bills for more capital in annual stress tests for the first time since 2014, but the Bank of England warned of pain ahead if there is no Brexit deal and said the country’s current account deficit posed a big risk. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville High-street banks could cope with a “disorderly” Brexit without curbing lending or being bailed out by taxpayers, the BoE said on Tuesday after its annual health check on lenders. Nevertheless, Barclays and RBS struggled to make it through the tests, relying on capital raised this year rather than in 2016, as normally required for a passing grade. Britain’s other main lenders - HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander UK, Standard Chartered and the Nationwide Building Society - all passed. “The (BoE) ... judges that the banking system can continue to support the real economy, even in the unlikely event of a disorderly Brexit,” Governor Mark Carney said at a news conference. However, he said it was in the interests of both Britain and the EU to reach a deal before Brexit in March 2019, despite slow progress so far. “In the event of a sharp disorderly Brexit, there will be an economic impact on households, on businesses. There will be lost markets before new markets are found, and there will be some pain associated with that,” Carney said. Furthermore, if a disorderly Brexit were to hit at the same time as a deep global recession and more big misconduct fines for banks, it is unclear if the banking system could cope easily, he added. Britain’s banks have had to triple the capital they hold as a cushion against potential losses since the 2007-09 global financial crisis which plunged the country into a recession. The BoE had warned of the potential costs of Brexit before the June 2016 referendum, drawing ire from Brexit supporters who said Carney was politicising the central bank. The BoE says its mandate requires it to talk about where it sees economic risks. On Tuesday, Carney said there were signs that foreign investors were demanding greater risk premia to hold some UK assets - though not government bonds or FTSE 100 shares. In its half-yearly Financial Stability Report, the BoE said appetite for British assets could slump if the growth outlook darkened or if there was a loss of confidence in British economic policy or its openness to trade and investment. Britain’s current account deficit - which government forecasters expect to exceed 4 percent of GDP for the foreseeable future - was also a material risk, the BoE said. RBS said it was making progress towards being a “stress resilient” bank. Barclays noted that it did not need to raise fresh capital. STRESS RELIEF British lenders and finance minister Philip Hammond will breathe a sigh of relief after this year’s stress tests. Last week the government said it planned to sell 3 billion pounds of public holdings of RBS shares during the next financial year to help reduce public debt. Britain’s economy has lost momentum this year as higher inflation - largely due to the fall in the pound since June 2016’s Brexit vote - eats into households’ disposable income. Last week government forecasters sharply downgraded their outlook for the next few years. “Any Brexit-related slowdown in consumer spending is a big potential headache for the banks,” Laurent Frings, head of credit research at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said. “Investors need to be mindful of how much comfort they take from the tests.” The BoE said it was pressing on with plans to raise a risk buffer to 1 percent from 0.5 percent with binding effect from November 2018. This extra cushion was already covered by capital banks held in excess of the regulatory minimum. The BoE said it would consider in the first half of 2018 whether the buffer needed to be raised further in the light of Brexit risks. It also said British and European Union lawmakers needed to pass new laws to ensure there was no disruption to 26 trillion pounds ($34.6 trillion) worth of cross-border derivative contracts and 36 million insurance contracts - 30 million of which are held in EU countries other than Britain. ($1 = 0.7515 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/uk-banks-could-cope-with-disorderly-brexit-bank-of-england-says-idINKBN1DS0JB'|'2017-11-28T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'09b39bbe81d89a2f7257062445bc8766bfade79b'|'Bank of Japan''s Kataoka - No need to debate exit strategy now: Sankei'|'November 27, 2017 / 11:39 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Bank of Japan''s Kataoka - No need to debate exit strategy now: Sankei Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Goushi Kataoka said the central bank should focus on ways to achieve its 2 percent inflation target instead of debating an exit strategy from its massive stimulus programme, the Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Bank of Japan (BOJ) new policy board members Goushi Kataoka attends a news conference at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The BOJ must take additional easing steps to achieve its price target at the earliest date possible, so that prolonged monetary easing does not hurt Japan’s financial system, Kataoka was quoted by Sankei as saying in the interview. At a previous rate review in October, Kataoka dissented to the BOJ’s decision to keep monetary policy steady on the view more easing steps were needed to hit its price target. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj-kataoka/bank-of-japans-kataoka-no-need-to-debate-exit-strategy-now-sankei-idUKKBN1DR2U0'|'2017-11-28T01:38:00.000+02:00'
'3d28429ea28c7d3e9056897efb6ddf7e06b84497'|'Airbus poaches Rolls-Royce executive to head aircraft sales'|'Reuters TV United States  13 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Airbus poaches Rolls-Royce executive to head aircraft sales Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) has hired the head of Rolls-Royce’s ( RR.L ) civil engines unit, Eric Schulz, to replace John Leahy and lead its commercial aircraft sales, following months of uncertainty over who would replace the veteran dealmaker. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Schulz, who had been president of Rolls Royce’s civil aerospace unit since January 2016, will report to Airbus chief executive Tom Enders and will join in January 2018, Airbus said, confirming an earlier Reuters exclusive. “We are glad to have Eric Schulz joining our team. He has broad international experience in the aerospace industry, a deep understanding of airline operations and aero engines as well as a proven track record in building and effectively leading organizations in complex environments,” Enders said in a statement. Schulz, a 54-year-old French engineer, began his career at one of Airbus’s founders, France’s former state-owned Aerospatiale, before working at aerospace supplier Goodrich via a stint at two French airlines: UTA and Air Liberte. He is part of a relatively new management team that pulled Rolls-Royce out of a compliance scandal and financial problems. Schulz will inherit a Toulouse sales organization unsettled by recent defeats to Boeing ( BA.N ) and seeking stability amid UK and French corruption probes, which center on a now defunct Paris-based unit of Airbus headquarters. Leahy had been in the sales post since 1994 and is a dominant figure in the $100 billion-a-year aerospace industry, making his succession one of the sector’s most closely watched moves. Airbus said Leahy - known in the industry as “Mr Airbus” - would remain with the company for a short, transitional period. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-moves-schulz/airbus-poaches-rolls-royce-executive-to-head-aircraft-sales-idUKKBN1DS0Q0'|'2017-11-28T10:06:00.000+02:00'
'f2c6f62646933559f63e8f269c4d62aac2d48512'|'IKEA Group reports full-year operating profit of 3 billion euros'|'No more pain for UK banks in 2017 BoE tests Market Analysis Crypto-currency crackdown sparks search for safe havens Redacted Brexit reports spark new row in parliament Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 7:24 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago IKEA goes to town with new focus on city stores Anna Ringstrom 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - IKEA Group’s new CEO will focus on developing new stores and showrooms in city centers as the surge in e-commerce and home delivery dims the appeal of its giant out-of-town warehouse stores. FILE PHOTO: A family is seen in front of an Ikea shop in a mall in Rome, Italy, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo The world’s biggest furniture retailer has relied for decades on shoppers driving many miles to load often heavy and bulky items into their cars. The rise of online shopping means consumers are getting used to having purchases delivered to the home, so Sweden’s IKEA is investing in e-commerce and services and trying new concepts such as pick-up-and-order points and city-center showrooms. Jesper Brodin, an IKEA veteran who became CEO in September, said he planned to make some changes to IKEA’s overall strategy early next year but the top priority was to test more store formats in towns. “In what way can we better serve customers that live in city-centers?” he said in an interview. “That is one area we are going to step into with a lot of entrepreneurship.” IKEA Group this year opened a kitchen showroom Stockholm and a bedroom store in Madrid, and plans include full-range showrooms in London’s Greenwich borough and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020. “We will now test not only kitchens and bedroom but living room, total range, part of the range. That’s what we are going to do in the coming years: to develop the menu for the world of IKEA in city centers,” said Brodin. The company will also focus on home delivery options as well as developing the online store, he said. IKEA Group made its first-ever acquisition this year, buying on-demand odd-jobs platform TaskRabbit. Brodin said more may follow as one way to stay on top of innovation and develop the core business. IKEA Group reported on Tuesday a drop in annual operating profit due to the sale of several businesses as well as investments in areas such as the internet and logistics. Profit was 3.0 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in the year to the end of August. The year before, when IKEA Group sold its product development, production and supply chain subsidiaries to brand owner Inter IKEA, it was 4.5 billion euros. “The decrease in operating result was mainly driven by the loss of profit from the companies that were sold in the transaction, as well as the increased costs in IKEA Retail to support multi-channel growth and expansion,” IKEA Group said. “During the full year, the IKEA Group invested 3.1 billion euros in stores, distribution and customer fulfilment network, shopping centers, renewable energy and forestry,” it said, without giving a comparable figure for the year before. Its retail sales grew 4 percent, with online sales up 28 percent to account for a fifth of the total. In Germany, its biggest market, sales grew 2 percent. IKEA stores worldwide are owned by 11 franchisees, of which IKEA Group is the biggest with 355 stores at the end of August. Franchisees pay 3 percent of their annual sales to Inter IKEA. Addiitonal reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ikea-group-results/ikea-group-reports-full-year-operating-profit-of-3-billion-euros-idUKKBN1DS0LC'|'2017-11-28T09:17:00.000+02:00'
'd9af0f3b3e2f6b5468c1dec7cb24dfe3eff1a021'|'Siemens leans toward Frankfurt listing for Healthineers unit: sources'|'FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens AG ( SIEGn.DE ) is close to naming a venue for the stockmarket listing of its Healthineers medical equipment arm, with Frankfurt now favored for the listing which could value the company at 40 billion euros ($47.5 billion), sources said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO - Siemens AG logo is seen at new headquarters in Munich, Germany, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle One source familiar with the matter said the listing would be considered by the supervisory board at a meeting on Wednesday. An announcement could follow.Two bankers involved in preparations for the listing said no final decision had yet been taken, but added Frankfurt’s chances were not looking bad.Siemens is expected to float 15-25 percent of Healthineers, which makes X-ray and MRI machines, by March of next year, sources have said. That implies stock worth 6-10 billion euros could be put up for sale.If Frankfurt gets the listing rather than New York or London, both considered by Siemens because of their deep capital markets, it would make the share sale Germany’s largest since the sales of state shares in Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) around the turn of the millennium.Siemens declined to comment after the Wall Street Journal first reported that an announcement on the venue of the listing could come on Wednesday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper also said a decision could be postponed.The German industrial conglomerate which is seeking to simplify its structure has already appointed Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) as lead organizers of the Healthineers IPO.A further eight bookrunner mandates are expected to be awarded soon, say sources familiar with the matter.($1 = 0.8425 euros)Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Alexander Huebner; Writing by Douglas BusvineEditing by Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-healthineers/siemens-leans-toward-frankfurt-listing-for-healthineers-unit-sources-idINKBN1DS2K5'|'2017-11-28T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'571c2ef12399b164055330cb13b15effa80eb210'|'Former Tesco UK finance director did not coerce staff his lawyer says'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:04 PM / in 19 minutes Former Tesco UK finance director did not coerce staff his lawyer says Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco’s ( TSCO.L ) former UK finance director Carl Rogberg did not coerce and bully employees to manipulate profit figures in 2014, his lawyer told a London court on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Former Tesco UK Finance Director Carl Rogberg arrives at Southwark Crown Court where he faces charges of fraud and false accounting in London, Britain October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Rogberg, 50, is charged with fraud and false accounting at Britain’s biggest retailer in 2014, along with Christopher Bush, 51, who was managing director of Tesco UK, and John Scouler,49, who was UK food commercial director. All three deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty. At the start of Rogberg’s defence, barrister Nicholas Purnell told the jury at Southwark Crown Court that witnesses presented by the prosecution had not described being directed by Rogberg to act “one way or another”. “These propositions that the prosecution would set out to show a group of people set out to coerce and bully people into behaving in a particular way are simply not reflected in the evidence that you have heard,” Purnell said. The case centres on two statements made by Tesco to the stock market in 2014. In the first Tesco published a trading update on Aug. 29 in which it downgraded its financial guidance. In the second, on Sept. 22, the retailer said it had found a 250 million pound ($332 million) over-statement of its expected profit, mainly due to booking commercial deals with suppliers too early. The prosecution has alleged that it is the difference between the first and second statements that exposes fraud. It previously told the court the three former Tesco executives abused their positions of trust to encourage the manipulation of profit figures, lied to auditors and misled the stock market. Purnell told the jury that Amit Soni, a senior Tesco accountant who is described as a whistleblower by the prosecution, did not bring any documentary evidence of his concerns to Rogberg’s attention. He said Soni was based in Tesco’s Cheshunt office in south east England, while Rogberg was based at Welwyn Garden City - a 30 minute drive away. Purnell said Rogberg was in charge of 200-300 people in the UK finance team and was receiving nearly 3,000 financial reports a month when he started his job in 2013. The barrister said Tesco’s management was like the “civil service of a medium-sized country.” Tesco’s September 2014 disclosure saw its shares tumble and plunged it into the worst crisis in its near 100-year history. The forecast profit overstatement, identified three weeks after Dave Lewis took over as chief executive from Phil Clarke, was later raised to 263 million pounds. The trial began on Sept. 29 and is expected to last beyond Christmas. ($1 = 0.7529 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-tesco-fraud/former-tesco-uk-finance-director-did-not-coerce-staff-his-lawyer-says-idUKKBN1DS2KR'|'2017-11-28T21:04:00.000+02:00'
'8bac969b68117e388a4647871655208b9b9baf10'|'Amnesty wants probe into Shell''s alleged role in 1990s Nigeria violence'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:47 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Amnesty wants probe into Shell''s alleged role in 1990s Nigeria violence Libby George , Alexis Akwagyiram 3 Min Read LONDON/LAGOS (Reuters) - Amnesty International has called for a criminal investigation into the alleged role of Royal Dutch Shell in human rights abuses in Nigeria’s oil-rich Ogoniland in the 1990s, accusations the Anglo-Dutch oil company has denied. Logos of Shell is pictured at a gas station in the western Canakkale province, Turkey April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer The rights group urged the British, Dutch and Nigerian governments carry out probes in a report that it said included evidence showing Shell’s involvement in suppression of protesters by the military government in the 1990s. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) said the allegations were “false and without merit”. Shell, the largest oil producer in Nigeria, has faced several court cases relating to the turbulent period that culminated with the execution of rights campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995. Saro-Wiwa led a campaign to against environmental damage caused by the oil production in the lands of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, a major crude producing region. Several communities from the Niger Delta have pursued civil claims against Shell in international courts relating to oil spills and environmental damage, saying they cannot secure a fair trial in Nigeria. Amnesty said they “now believe that there are grounds for a criminal investigation” relating to the 1990s violence. Amnesty issued a similar report in June on the issue, coinciding with a fresh civil lawsuit filed in the Netherlands by widows of four of the nine men executed in which they sought compensation and an apology from Shell. “We have always denied, in the strongest possible terms, the allegations made in this tragic case,” SPDC said in a statement, referring to the executions of Saro-Wiwa and other activists. “Shell appealed to the Nigerian government to grant clemency. To our deep regret, that appeal, and the appeals made by many others within and outside Nigeria, went unheard,” SPDC said. In 2009, Shell agreed in an out-of-court settlement in the United States to pay $15.5 million (£11.71 million) in damages to a group of relatives of the nine. Esther Kiobel, the widow of one of the nine Ogoni activists, had sought to raise a case against Shell in the United States but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the country did not have jurisdiction to hear it. Reporting by Libby George; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nigeria-oil-shell/amnesty-wants-probe-into-shells-alleged-role-in-1990s-nigeria-violence-idUKKBN1DS27Y'|'2017-11-28T18:47:00.000+02:00'
'b49649d08b2d796b057dbcf893f1e95b2dcb03be'|'HgCapital to sell electronic trading firm Ullink to Itiviti'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - London-based private equity firm HgCapital Trust Plc has agreed to sell electronic trading and connectivity solutions provider Ullink to Sweden’s Itiviti, a company backed by Nordic Capital.HgCapital said the deal was subject to French workers’ council consultations, and regulatory clearances. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Hg, the manager of HgCapital Trust which invested in Ullink in 2014, will realise cash proceeds of about 24.3 million pounds ($32.38 million) once the deal completes, HgCapital said.That is up 5.2 million pounds, or about 14 pence per share, on the carrying value of Ullink in HgCapital’s books as of Oct. 31.Itiviti, a provider of trading software for banks and trading firms, said the combination would create a “world-leader in capital markets technology”.Hg was helped by Credit Suisse, Skadden and Deloitte on the sale.$1 = 0.7507 pounds Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Maiya Keidan in London; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hgcapital-trust-divestiture/hgcapital-to-sell-electronic-trading-firm-ullink-to-itiviti-idINL8N1NY1GO'|'2017-11-28T05:25:00.000+02:00'
'a6d526a489d242317f3413e77b5cd199b226a2ae'|'Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology'|'Reuters TV United States  08 AM / a minute ago Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology Ernest Scheyder 7 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shale oil engineer Oscar Portillo spends his days drilling as many as five wells at once - without ever setting foot on a rig. FILE PHOTO - A drilling rig owned by Parsley Energy Inc. seen near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo Part of a team working to cut the cost of drilling a new shale well by a third, Portillo works from a Royal Dutch Shell Plc ( RDSa.L ) office in suburban Houston, his eyes darting among 13 monitors flashing data on speed, temperature and other metrics as he helps control rigs more than 500 miles (805 km) away in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield. For the last decade, smaller oil companies have led the way in shale technology, slashing costs by as much as half with breakthroughs such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that turned the United States into the world’s fastest-growing energy exporter. (For a graphic detailing the decline in drilling costs, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zCXvxE ) Now, oil majors that were slow to seize on shale are seeking further efficiencies by adapting technologies for highly automated offshore operations to shale and pursuing advances in digitalization that have reshaped industries from auto manufacturing to retail. If they are successful, the U.S. oil industry’s ability to bring more wells to production at lower cost could amp up future output and company profits. The firms could also frustrate the ongoing effort by The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) effort to drain a global oil glut. “We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Portillo said. The technological push comes amid worries that U.S. shale gains are slowing as investors press for higher financial returns. Many investors want producers to restrain spending and focus on generating higher returns, not volume, prompting some to pull back on drilling. Production at a majority of publicly traded shale producers rose just 1.3 percent over the first three quarters   Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ). But many U.S. shale producers vowed during third quarter earnings disclosures to deliver higher returns through technology, with many forecasting aggressive output hikes into 2018. Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) is using drones equipped with thermal imaging to detect leaks in oil tanks and pipelines across its shale fields, avoiding traditional ground inspections and lengthy shutdowns. Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips ( COP.N ) - the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producer - sees ample opportunity to boost both profits and output. Conoco also oversees remote drilling operations in a similar way to Shell. “The people that don’t have shale in their portfolios don’t understand it, frankly,” Lance said in an interview. “They think it’s going to go away quickly because of the high [production] decline rates, or that the resource is not nearly that substantial. They’re wrong on both counts.” FILE PHOTO: A rig contracted by Apache Corp drills a horizontal well in a search for oil and natural gas in the Wolfcamp shale located in the Permian Basin in West Texas, U.S. on October 29, 2013. REUTERS/Terry Wade/File Photo Shell, in an initiative called “iShale,” has marshaled technology from a dozen oilfield suppliers, including devices from subsea specialist TechnipFMC Plc ( FTI.N ) that separate fracking sand from oil and well-control software from Emerson Electric Co ( EMR.N ), to bring more automation and data analysis to shale operations. One idea borrowed from deepwater projects is using sensors to automatically adjust well flows and control separators that divvy natural gas, oil and water. Today, these subsea systems are expensive because they are built to operate at the extreme pressures and temperatures found miles under the ocean’s surface. Shell’s initiative aims to create cheaper versions for onshore production by incorporating low-cost sensors similar to those in Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) Watch, eliminating the need for workers to visit thousands of shale drilling rigs to read gauges and manually adjust valves. Shell envisions shale wells that predict when parts are near mechanical failure and schedule repairs automatically. By next year, the producer wants to begin remote fracking of wells, putting workers in one place to oversee several projects. It also would add solar panels and more powerful batteries to well sites to reduce electricity and diesel costs. Oil firms currently spend about $5.9 million to drill a new shale well, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Shell expects to chop that cost to less than $4 million apiece by the end of the decade. FILE PHOTO: An oil and gas processing plant fed by local shale wells is pictured along a highway outside Carrizo Springs, about 30 miles (48 km) from the Mexican border, in Dimmit County, Texas, U.S. on May 2, 2014. REUTERS/David Alire/File Photo “There is still very little automation,” said Amir Gerges, head of Shell’s Permian operations. “We haven’t scratched the surface.” TECHNOLOGY AND GEOLOGY Much of the new technology is focused on where rather than how to drill. “There is no amount of technology that can improve bad geology,” said Mark Papa, CEO of shale producer Centennial Resource Development Inc ( CDEV.O ) Anadarko Petroleum ( APC.N ), Statoil ( STL.OL ) and others are using DNA sequencing to pinpoint high potential areas, collecting DNA from microbes in oil to search for the same DNA in rock samples. ConocoPhillip’s MRI techniques also borrow from medical advances. ConocoPhillips next year will start using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyze Permian rock samples and find the best drilling locations, a technique the company first developed for its Alaskan offshore operations. EOG Resources Inc ( EOG.N ) last year began using a detailed analysis of the oil quality of its fields. The analysis, designed by Houston start-up Premier Oilfield Laboratories, helps to speed decisions on fracking locations and avoid less productive sites. Premier has reduced the time needed to analyze seismic data to find oil reserves from days or weeks to seconds. Such efficiencies serve two purposes, said Nathan Ganser, Premier’s director of geochemical services. “It’s not only removing costs that are superfluous,” he said. “It’s boosting production.” Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-technology/pressured-for-profit-oil-majors-bet-big-on-shale-technology-idUKKBN1DS0FO'|'2017-11-28T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'c5a2a3cca299adf3b82e2a16dab12b0eb13c2148'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s Patria Investimentos targets natural gas, renewables'|'(Recasts with outlook for investments, context)Nov 29 (Reuters) - Brazilian investment firm Pátria Investimentos Ltda is targeting infrastructure investments in natural gas and renewable energy, partner Otávio Castello Branco told journalists on Wednesday.A fund managed by the investment firm was awarded in March via an auction the right to operate several highways in São Paulo, Brazil’s richest state. In April, Pátria also won rights to build and operate power transmission lines.Patria, which has a partnership with U.S. Blackstone Group LP since 2010, will now look for investments in energy, specifically related to natural gas and renewable energy, Castello Branco said.Reuters reported on Oct. 31 that Pátria is among the groups analyzing a gas pipeline network that state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, put up for sale.Castello Branco declined to comment on the matter.In a press conference on Wednesday, partners at the investment firm said they expect the fall of interest rates in Brazil to raise demand from local investors for alternative investments such as private equity and infrastructure funds.The company is betting on a rebound in commercial real state prices on the medium term, led by shopping mall prices, that would be followed later by office space, Fauze Antun, Patria’s real state partner said.In January, Pátria and real estate tycoon Sam Zell announced that they would combine their two Brazilian self-storage firms in a joint venture that aims to more than double their capacity by 2020. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brazil-private-equity-patria/update-1-brazils-patria-investimentos-targets-natural-gas-renewables-idINL1N1NZ1NG'|'2017-11-29T14:58:00.000+02:00'
'7ef5c801e884d10a9ab6d012fd5eae4f99471fd5'|'Uber''s third-quarter adjusted loss widens to $743 million - FT'|'November 29, 2017 / 3:21 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Uber''s third-quarter net loss widens to $1.46 billion - source Shubham Kalia , Subrat Patnaik 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s quarterly losses widened, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as the ride-hailing company wades through legal troubles and faces regulatory scrutiny across the globe. FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The Silicon Valley-based company’s net loss increased to $1.46 billion (1.09 billion pounds) in the third quarter from $1.06 billion in the previous quarter, the source said. Quarterly net revenue rose 14 percent to $2 billion and gross bookings increased 11.5 percent to $9.7 billion, on a sequential basis, the person said. As a private company, Uber is not required to publicly report its financial results, but earlier this year it began offering a glimpse of its performance by disclosing certain numbers. On Tuesday, a consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp launched a tender offer for shares of Uber. The Japanese company said some notable early Uber investors including venture capital firms Benchmark, which owns 13 percent of Uber worth $9 billion, and Menlo planned to sell stock. Uber has been hit by a series of scandals this year with the latest being a regulatory crackdown after disclosing that it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. The Financial Times had earlier reported Uber’s third quarter figures. Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-results/ubers-third-quarter-adjusted-loss-widens-to-743-million-ft-idUKKBN1DT0CQ'|'2017-11-29T05:20:00.000+02:00'
'0b1577a37f22982a537de20d68f1e7ac744268d7'|'UPDATE 1-HNA Group''s credit assessment rating lowered by S&P on tightening liquidity'|'* Credit assessment of indebted HNA lowered to b from b+* S&P says HNA funding costs are ‘meaningfully higher’* S&P says will closely monitor HNA’s access to financial markets (Adds details from the S&P statement, background)By Umesh DesaiHONG KONG, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Indebted Chinese airline to property conglomerate HNA Group has had the assessment of its creditworthiness by S&P Global Ratings downgraded as a result of its “aggressive financial policy” and tightening liquidity amid looming debt maturities.The agency on Wednesday downgraded HNA’s overall creditworthiness by a notch to ''-Bb’, deeper into sub-investment grade territory, from ‘b+''.The cut comes against the backdrop of a slew of repayment obligations and concerns about rising financing costs at the indebted airline-to-property conglomerate.HNA Group’s $50 billion buying spree in the past two years has primarily been funded by debt, with acquisitions including a near 10 percent stake in Deutsche Bank as well as big stakes in international hoteliers Hilton Worldwide Holdings and NH Hotel Group.However, in recent months HNA has struck a series of short-term funding deals at higher costs, raising concerns that some of its units are experiencing a liquidity crunch.“We base the revision on our view of HNA Group’s aggressive financial policy and risks over tightening liquidity,” the S&P report said, while announcing the lowering of its credit assessment of the group.The ‘b’ rating corresponds to “adverse business, financial, or economic conditions (that) will likely impair the obligor’s capacity or willingness to meet its financial commitments on the obligation.”HNA has “significant” debt maturities over the next several years and its funding costs are “meaningfully higher” than from a year ago, the rating agency said in the statement.The conglomerate did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.HNA is making adjustments to its acquisitions strategy to conform with Chinese national policies and has sold some investments and real estate projects to improve its liquidity, domestic media reported its chief executive, Adam Tan, as saying on Tuesday.Figures given by HNA Group International Company Limited (HNAI), which acts as the group’s offshore investment and foreign capital management platform, in its most recent bond deal filing show its liquidity ratio narrowing.Finance costs rose 50 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from a year ago, as per the document, which showed it has paid HK$1.32 billion ($169 million) so far this year. Its cash balances fell sharply to HK$1.16 billion from HK$8.57 billion.This month, HNAI accepted a coupon of 8.875 percent on a $300 million one-year bond.That bond is already trading below the issue price and its bid price of 98.083 cents on the dollar indicated a yield of 11.09 percent on Wednesday.“We will closely monitor HNA group’s access to capital markets and funding costs to determine whether additional actions are necessary,” S&P said. (Reporting by Umesh Desai and Matt Miller Editing by Greg Mahlich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hna-group-ratings/update-1-hna-groups-credit-assessment-rating-lowered-by-sp-on-tightening-liquidity-idINL3N1NZ3OT'|'2017-11-29T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'9f20410904a66437e740d0ed8e5d2ac41f424bda'|'Tumbling, but uneven, joblessness in the euro zone'|'November 30, 2017 / 3:37 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Tumbling, but uneven, joblessness in the euro zone Jeremy Gaunt 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - It gets less attention than inflation or GDP, but the euro zone’s tumbling jobless rate has been among the highlights of the bloc’s surprisingly strong economic recovery. People wait outside a Greek Manpower Employment Organisation (OAED) office in a suburb of Athens August 7, 2014. REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis From a socially destructive height of 12.1 percent in mid-2013, it is now down to a more manageable 8.8 percent. While this may seen still high by some standards - it is around twice that of the United States, for example - as the following graphic shows, it is almost a full percentage point below the average since the euro was launched. (Graphic: Euro zone jobless - reut.rs/2AJehMq ) It is also the lowest since January 2009. Jennifer McKeown, chief European economist at Capital economics, says this should prompt a “modest” boost for wage growth. That could help the European Central Bank in its struggle to get inflation up to target. But there also remains a nagging concern that the 8.8 number does not capture the true level of slack in the labor market, that is the number of people who could work if they could find it. The ECB, for example, has said slack may be twice as large when part-time workers seeking more hours or those excluded for various statistical reasons are taken into account. There is also the issue of equality of joblessness across the 19-country bloc. The big economies such as Germany (3.6 percent), France (9.4 percent, Italy (11.1 percent), and Spain (16.7 percent) offer widely different performances. Indeed, as this second graphic shows, the spread between the country with the highest unemployment rate - Greece at 20.6 percent in August - and the lowest - the Czech Republic at 2.7 percent in October - is close to 18 percentage points. (Graphic: Euro zone jobs gap - reut.rs/2zQbGjH ) Reporting and Graphics by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-economy-jobs/tumbling-but-uneven-joblessness-in-the-euro-zone-idUKKBN1DU26A'|'2017-11-30T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'6adaa80addb01b1f753686aa97be415f312c940d'|'Russian pipemaker TMK''s U.S. subsidiary considering IPO'|'November 30, 2017 / 9:10 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Russian oil industry pipe maker TMK prepares for U.S. spin-off Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - TMK, Russia’s largest maker of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry, is preparing its U.S. subsidiary IPSCO Tubulars for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares. The announcement comes amid concerns among some Russian officials about a potential expansion of U.S. sanctions against Moscow and as Russia itself has pledged to cut its oil output by 300,000 barrels per day as a part of the global deal. OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers look poised to agree at a meeting on Thursday to extend output cuts until the end of 2018, four OPEC sources said as the group seeks to clear a global glut of crude and avoid another price crash. IPSCO has submitted a draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed IPO of its new and existing shares, it said in a statement. TMK declined to comment further. It has previously said it was considering different options for IPSCO but intends to keep a controlling stake. The OPEC and non-OPEC states agreed to cut supply by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to boost prices. The deal, currently due to expire in March, has pushed up oil prices but also encouraged U.S. shale oil producers to ramp up output. “The rapidly expanding operations in the shale oil industry, combined with the general rise of the U.S. stock market, have provided an opportunity for TMK to monetize its exposure to the U.S. at a valuation which is significantly higher than IPSCO’s contribution to the valuation of the Russian entity,” analysts at VTB Capital said in a note. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, IPSCO said, and the offering is subject to the completion of an SEC review, market conditions and further approval by TMK. Both IPSCO and TMK plan to offer IPSCO’s shares if they decide to go ahead with the listing, and both plan to use the proceeds from the deal for debt repayment. Controlled by Russian businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky, TMK paid around $1.7 billion for the IPSCO assets in 2008 and 2009, VTB Capital said in a note in October. “IPSCO’s current contribution to our estimate of TMK’s NPV (net present value) stands at some $0.7 billion. However, we suggest that a company which is placed in the middle of the U.S. shale oil boom development with shares listed on a premium stock market deserves a higher valuation,” VTB Capital said. TMK has not been affected by Western sanctions. They were imposed against some Russian companies and individuals in 2014 over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. IPSCO has said it plans to produce over one million tonnes of pipes in 2017 and expects to be running at full production capacity next year as drilling activity in the United States remains high. Reporting by Polina Devitt and Andrey Kuzmin; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trubnaya-metal-ipo/russian-pipemaker-tmks-u-s-subsidiary-considering-ipo-idUSKBN1DU10G'|'2017-11-30T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'893284fe24c4b16ff7c9adbb16801054db0f3bd0'|'Goldman Sachs among bidders for Scotiabank''s metals unit - sources'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:41 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Goldman Sachs among bidders for Scotiabank''s metals unit - sources Peter Hobson , Clara Denina 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group ( GS.N ) is among around five bidders for ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), for which it is seeking up to $1 billion (755.6 million pounds), sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray Scotiabank began a review of its ScotiaMocatta metals business in 2016 following a string of lawsuits related to the manipulation of gold and silver price benchmarks and due to dissatisfaction over its performance, sources said. It has since hired JPMorgan in New York to help with the sale process, with the aim of completion before the end of March 2018, they added. The bulk of ScotiaMocatta’s business is in precious metals and it is one of five banks that clear bullion in London’s $5 trillion a year gold market, the world’s biggest. Goldman Sachs has been seeking to turn around its struggling commodities unit by hiring a number of executives after reporting the weakest commodities results in its history as a public company in the second quarter. Goldman and four other banks were part of a group that invested several million dollars in designing and building gold and silver contracts launched by the London Metal Exchange in July. Three sources said Goldman had put in a non-binding bid for Scotiabank’s metals unit at an auction in mid-November. “Taking the opposite approach to any other bank, which would scale back after a tough 18 months period ... Goldman is keen across all the commodity business to expand their physical franchise and wants to be aggressive on market share and pricing to expand their position,” one of the sources said. Two of the sources said other bidders included Japanese trading house Sumitomo ( 8053.T ) and Australian bank ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) ( ANZ.AX ). The unit also attracted the interest of two Chinese banks, they said. Scotiabank, Goldman and ANZ declined to comment. Sumitomo was not immediately available to comment. ScotiaMocatta is one of London’s main gold trading banks with a history dating back to the 17th century. It was acquired by Scotiabank from Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) in 1997 and employs more than 160 people in 10 offices around the world, according to its website. Market sources put Scotiabank’s annual revenues from the precious metals unit at $100-$180 million with operating margins of around 25 percent. Sources said Scotiabank was seeking up to $1 billion for ScotiaMocatta. “A factor in the discussions is whether the buyer gets an indemnity for legal risks as Scotia still has litigation hanging over them,” one source said. “The purchase price will be affected by whether the buyer assumes that risk or they manage to ring-fence it or leave it with Scotia,” the source added. U.S. investors sued Scotiabank alongside other four banks in 2014, claiming that they conspired to fix gold prices from 2004 to 2013, A separate suit was pursued by silver investors against banks including Scotiabank. Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) agreed to pay a combined $98 million settlement on both suits. The cases are only some of the lawsuits in which investors accused banks of conspiring to rig rates and prices in financial and commodities markets following revelations in 2012 that the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) had been rigged by British banks. Additional reporting by Pratima Desai in London, John Tilak and Matt Scuffham in Toronto and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bank-nova-divestiture-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-among-bidders-for-scotiabanks-metals-unit-sources-idUKKBN1DS2CG'|'2017-11-28T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'7c3fe4ff09569b7a45f5e89a54dbd69174a4c865'|'U.S. top court weighs protections for corporate whistleblowers'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:37 PM / in 25 minutes Supreme Court wary about widening whistleblower protections Andrew Chung 5   Conservative and liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared reluctant to broaden protections for corporate insiders who blow the whistle on securities law violations or fraud by their companies. U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas During an hour-long argument in the case, several justices signaled that they believed the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law at the center of the dispute does not protect those who report the violations only internally instead of to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The case involves Digital Realty Trust Inc’s ( DLR.N ) appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of a fired executive, Paul Somers, after he complained internally about alleged misconduct by his supervisor but never reported the matter to the SEC. The case will determine the scope of the shield against employer retaliation provided to whistleblowers under the Dodd-Frank law. A ruling by the nine justices favoring Digital Realty could deter individuals from reporting misconduct to management and potentially spare companies from certain whistleblower lawsuits. The San Francisco-based real estate investment trust company, which owns and develops data centers, said the Dodd-Frank law explicitly defined a whistleblower as someone who provides information to the SEC, and therefore does not cover Somers. Many of the justices’ questions on Tuesday indicated they agreed that the text of the law is clear, leaving little room for them to interpret it more expansively. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan said Congress probably did not mean to limit protections through the law’s definition of whistleblower, but added, “It says what it says.” “How much clearer could Congress have been?” conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch asked. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the court normally follows statutory definitions unless it leads to an absurd result. SEC rules adopted in 2011 bar corporate employers from retaliating against whistleblowers who try to report allegations of securities law violations or fraud. They provide the SEC the power to offer monetary awards to whistleblowers whose tips lead to successful enforcement actions. Somers and President Donald Trump’s administration argued that whistleblower protections must extend to those who speak up internally in order to encourage people to report misconduct without fear of being fired. SARBANES-OXLEY LAW Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer said people left unprotected by the Dodd-Frank law still would have whistleblower protection under another federal law called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, but it offers a shorter time frame for filing a whistleblower lawsuit. Daniel Geyser, Somers’ attorney, said his client missed that deadline and added that not everyone “who’s not a lawyer” is aware of all their whistleblower options under federal law. Geyser noted that the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions were needed because after the 2008 financial crisis, “Congress recognized that Sarbanes-Oxley had been ineffective in getting lawyers and auditors and other employees to report internally.” Somers, who worked from 2010 to 2014 as a portfolio-management vice president at Digital Realty, said he was fired because of allegations that he reported to senior management that his supervisor had eliminated some internal controls, hid major cost overruns and granted unsubstantiated payments to friends, according to court papers. He sued in 2014, saying he was protected from retaliation as a whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank law. A federal judge refused the company’s bid to quash his claim, saying the law covered a wide array of disclosures by whistleblowers, not just those who report to the SEC. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in March, and Digital Realty appealed to the Supreme Court. The Trump administration in a brief said that Digital Realty’s interpretation of the law would weaken internal corporate compliance programs and “substantially diminish the retaliation prohibition’s deterrent effect.” A ruling is due by the end of June. Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-sec/u-s-top-court-weighs-protections-for-corporate-whistleblowers-idUSKBN1DS2C0'|'2017-11-28T19:33:00.000+02:00'
'fc24fa7630efc30c96dff1df61e14a3d91ba308b'|'Italy is ready to deal with an end of QE -Padoan'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Italy is ready to deal with an end of QE -Padoan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Italy is ready for when the European Central Bank ends its quantitative easing programme, Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Tuesday. Italy''s Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan takes part in a European Union finance ministers'' meeting in Brussels, Belgium November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman The ECB is preparing to dial back its monetary stimulus after years of ultra-low interest rates and massive bond purchases, paving the ground for rate hikes further down the line. Padoan told a conference in Rome that the positive impact of higher interest rates, if this reflected a pick-up in inflation, should not be underestimated. “Even if budget policy benefits from low rates, I would like to reiterate that Italy is totally prepared for an end to a low-rate environment. The end of QE does not frighten us. There are positive aspects to this that shouldn’t be played down,” he said. Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Crispian Balmer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-ecb-padoan/italy-is-ready-to-deal-with-an-end-of-qe-padoan-idUKKBN1DS1L0'|'2017-11-28T15:12:00.000+02:00'
'97271f94d6961ba02ac939ee81b9ea786c3cb994'|'IAG picks Paris Orly as second base for low-cost carrier Level'|'November 28, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago IAG picks Paris Orly as second base for low-cost carrier Level Reuters Staff 1   IAG’s low-cost long-haul airline Level will base two aircraft at Paris Orly airport, its second base since launching this year. Willie Walsh, CEO of International Airlines Group speaks during the closing press briefing at the 2016 International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Dublin, Ireland June 3, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne “We’re delighted to launch flights from our second European city with four exciting new routes,” IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement. Walsh said he expects Barcelona-based Level to be profitable this year. It will operate five aircraft in 2018 including two Airbus A330-200 aircraft based at Orly flying routes to Montreal, New York, Guadeloupe and Martinique beginning next July. One-way fares will start from 99 euros (£88.49). Level flights from Paris Orly will be operated by staff who currently work for OpenSkies, IAG’s French airline, which will cease to operate at the end of next summer. OpenSkies staff will then solely operate Level flights (Corrects to read this year, paragraph 1) Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-lowcost/iag-picks-paris-orly-as-second-base-for-low-cost-carrier-level-idUKKBN1DS1A3'|'2017-11-28T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'700c69062c3400d0a33016d8a1615a53ffbc0e46'|'Moscovici urges EU governments to adopt tax haven blacklist in December'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:08 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago EU Commission to propose freezing of funds for tax havens - Moscovici Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s tax commissioner on Tuesday called on the bloc’s governments to be ambitious when they decide on a common blacklist of tax havens next week and said European funding to countries on the list should be frozen. Pierre Moscovici presents the EU executive''s autumn economic forecasts during a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman In the wake of disclosures of offshore tax avoidance schemes by corporations and wealthy individuals, EU states launched a process to list tax havens to try to discourage setting up shell structures abroad which are in many cases legal but could hide illicit activities. After about one year of talks, EU finance ministers are expected on Dec. 5 to adopt the blacklist, although governments remain divided over which jurisdictions to include on the list and on sanctions. “I invite member states to urgently adopt before the end of the year the European list of jurisdictions that refuse to reform their tax rules to comply with European standards,” Pierre Moscovici told EU lawmakers at a hearing in the European Parliament. EU states currently have their own national lists of non-cooperative jurisdictions on tax matters - though many of them are empty. Under public pressure following the Panama Papers and other leaks of financial documents, EU governments agreed to set up a common blacklist. They have screened 92 jurisdictions worldwide against a set of criteria meant to measure tax transparency, use of harmful tax practices and cooperation on fiscal matters. Moscovici told lawmakers that “some countries” have changed their tax rules after EU pressure and “half (of the 92) have committed to do so in 2018”. It remains unclear how many countries will end up in the EU blacklist. Those who are not compliant but have committed to change their tax rules are likely to be included in a separate, “grey list”, as several EU officials call it, which might not be made public. Some islands recently hit by hurricanes will also be given more time to comply. SANCTIONS It is also undecided which sanctions could be applied. A withholding levy could for instance be charged on transactions to blacklisted countries, but some EU states could decide not to apply countermeasures - a discretion that could create loopholes. Some states, such as Luxembourg and Malta, have opposed sanctions saying that the mere listing would amount to an important reputational blow. Moscovici said the Commission would propose sanctions linked to the use of EU funds. “The Commission will propose to have strong and dissuasive sanctions,” he told lawmakers, adding that funds provided by the EU budget, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank could be frozen for countries on the list. Anti-poverty and fair tax groups said if EU criteria were applied to EU countries, some of them, such as Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta and Ireland, would end up in the list. The EU listing process did not include the bloc’s 28 member states in a bid to avoid dooming the process from its outset, as each EU nation wields a veto power on tax issues. A Commission spokeswoman said on Tuesday that all EU states “fully comply” with the criteria set to establish the tax havens’ blacklist. But Moscovici said later on Tuesday some EU states still applied “harmful tax practices which lead to aggressive tax planning”, and cited cases in Britain, Malta and the Netherlands. He urged EU states to apply as soon as possible anti-tax avoidance legislation agreed at EU level but due to enter into force only in coming years. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-tax-blacklist/moscovici-urges-eu-governments-to-adopt-tax-haven-blacklist-in-december-idUKKBN1DS23X'|'2017-11-28T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'e2426eecab9a95ecf55937e44980e545e3179c53'|'China''s HNA CEO sees asset sales as part of adjustment: media'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - HNA Group CEO Adam Tan said the acquisitive company is making adjustments to conform with national policies, and has sold some investments and real estate projects to improve its liquidity, domestic media reported on Tuesday.HNA Group CEO Adam Tan gives a speech during the 2017 Asia Game Changer Awards and Gala Dinner in Manhattan, New York, U.S. November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky Tan said the company would not invest in those areas not backed by the government, while supporting Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, the 21st Century Herald reported.“Companies cannot invest chaotically overseas, because chaotic investment creates trouble,” Tan was Quote: d in a separate article by the media portal Sina.com.HNA Group, which has agreed to deals valued at more than $50 billion over two years, including stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ) and Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), is facing increased scrutiny from regulators and bankers due to announced changes to its shareholding structure and its use of leverage.The group is also planning an initial public offering of Zurich-based Gategroup Holding AG next year, Bloomberg reported, citing Tan.The Swiss Takeover Board said last Friday that HNA gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup, which the conglomerate bought for $1.5 billion last year.The Swiss regulator said the aviation, hospitality and financial services group had failed to disclose that company executives held controlling stakes in the conglomerate and also gave incorrect shareholdings for the top two stakeholders - Bharat Bhise and Guan Jun - in the Gategroup offer prospectus.Reporting By Matthew Miller, editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-hna-sale/chinas-hna-ceo-sees-asset-sales-as-part-of-adjustment-media-idINKBN1DS1DA'|'2017-11-28T08:56:00.000+02:00'
'10632ac3199c2778b2a074b11782d26007a55483'|'French packaging firm Albea attracts private equity bids - sources'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:14 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago French packaging firm Albea attracts private equity bids - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Private equity group Sun Capital has attracted final bids from several of its peers for French packaging group Albea, which could be valued at more than $1.5 billion (£1.13 billion) in a second attempt at a sale, people close to the matter said. After an unsuccessful auction last year, Sun launched another attempt to sell Albea in September, helped by investment bank Lazard and hoping to benefit from high valuations in the sector. Buyout groups Onex, Partners Group and a consortium comprising Bain Capital and PAI recently handed in final offers for the company, the sources said, adding that no one has so far been picked to enter exclusive talks on a potential acquisition. Sun Capital, Lazard and the potential bidders declined to comment or were not immediately available for comment. The bids have valued Albea at 8 to 8.5 times expected 2017 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of just below $190 million, the people close to the matter said. Albea, formerly known as Alcan Packaging Beauty, has grown strongly since its buyout by Sun in 2010, helped by a series of acquisitions of such as that of Rexam Personal Care in 2012. Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sun-capital-albea-sale/french-packaging-firm-albea-attracts-private-equity-bids-sources-idUKKBN1DS29X'|'2017-11-28T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'22ca3b18e9f73803a2a38e5729119bff5fc1c6d0'|'Aeromexico cancels dozens of flights after some pilots strike'|' 09 PM / in a few seconds Aeromexico cancels dozens of flights after some pilots strike Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s largest airline Aeromexico canceled dozens of flights on Tuesday due to a strike by some pilots with Connect, its regional operator, in the saturated Mexico City airport. Aeromexico aeroplanes are pictured on the airstrip at Benito Juarez international airport in Mexico City, Mexico, June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The company said in a statement that the group of pilots did not report for work to protest the dismissal of a colleague with a history of poor performance. “Aeromexico is working at maximum capacity to normalize operations as quickly as possible and is sorry for the inconvenience to clients,” the company added. A representative for the pilot’s union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As a result of the protest, the company reported on its Twitter account at least 32 canceled flights on Tuesday from Mexico City, primarily to domestic destinations. Various flights were also delayed due to fog in the area. New regulations to protect travelers and compensate them for cancellations and delays have gone into effect in Mexico this year. Aeromexico operates more than 600 flights per day, and its hub is in Mexico City. The company serves more than 90 cities in Mexico, the United States, Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia. Reporting by Veronica Gomez; Writing by Julia Love; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-aeromexico/aeromexico-cancels-dozens-of-flights-after-some-pilots-strike-idUSKBN1DS2PK'|'2017-11-28T22:02:00.000+02:00'
'26f8aac4b298002f62a91730374258315c69cdf2'|'Goldman Sachs among bidders for Scotiabank''s metals unit -sources'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group ( GS.N ) is among around five bidders for ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), for which it is seeking up to $1 billion, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo - RC19970BB830 Scotiabank began a review of its ScotiaMocatta metals business in 2016 following a string of lawsuits related to the manipulation of gold and silver price benchmarks and due to dissatisfaction over its performance, sources said.It has since hired JPMorgan in New York to help with the sale process, with the aim of completion before the end of March 2018, they added.The bulk of ScotiaMocatta’s business is in precious metals and it is one of five banks that clear bullion in London’s $5 trillion a year gold market, the world’s biggest.Goldman Sachs has been seeking to turn around its struggling commodities unit by hiring a number of executives after reporting the weakest commodities results in its history as a public company in the second quarter.Goldman and four other banks were part of a group that invested several million dollars in designing and building gold and silver contracts launched by the London Metal Exchange in July.Three sources said Goldman had put in a non-binding bid for Scotiabank’s metals unit at an auction in mid-November.“Taking the opposite approach to any other bank, which would scale back after a tough 18 months period ... Goldman is keen across all the commodity business to expand their physical franchise and wants to be aggressive on market share and pricing to expand their position,” one of the sources said.Two of the sources said other bidders included Japanese trading house Sumitomo ( 8053.T ) and Australian bank ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) ( ANZ.AX ). The unit also attracted the interest of two Chinese banks, they said.Scotiabank, Goldman and ANZ declined to comment. Sumitomo was not immediately available to comment.ScotiaMocatta is one of London’s main gold trading banks with a history dating back to the 17th century. It was acquired by Scotiabank from Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) in 1997 and employs more than 160 people in 10 offices around the world, according to its website.Market sources put Scotiabank’s annual revenues from the precious metals unit at $100-$180 million with operating margins of around 25 percent.Sources said Scotiabank was seeking up to $1 billion for ScotiaMocatta.“A factor in the discussions is whether the buyer gets an indemnity for legal risks as Scotia still has litigation hanging over them,” one source said.“The purchase price will be affected by whether the buyer assumes that risk or they manage to ring-fence it or leave it with Scotia,” the source added.U.S. investors sued Scotiabank alongside other four banks in 2014, claiming that they conspired to fix gold prices from 2004 to 2013,A separate suit was pursued by silver investors against banks including Scotiabank.Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) agreed to pay a combined $98 million settlement on both suits.The cases are only some of the lawsuits in which investors accused banks of conspiring to rig rates and prices in financial and commodities markets following revelations in 2012 that the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) had been rigged by British banks.Additional reporting by Pratima Desai in London, John Tilak and Matt Scuffham in Toronto and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bank-nova-divestiture-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-among-bidders-for-scotiabanks-metals-unit-sources-idUSKBN1DS2C5'|'2017-11-28T19:34:00.000+02:00'
'17aa500cc3850abe9e37da4662d0ca5d5712e8f1'|'European Commission accuses AB InBev of blocking cross-border beer trade'|' 00 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago European Commission accuses AB InBev of blocking cross-border beer trade Philip Blenkinsop 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has accused Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, of hindering cheaper imports of its Jupiler and Leffe brands into Belgium from neighbouring France and the Netherlands. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commission''s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The Commission, which presides over competition policy in the European Union, said on Thursday it had sent a statement of objections to the brewer and that its preliminary view was that the company had abused its dominant position in Belgium. “Belgian consumers may have had to pay more for their favourite beers. Our preliminary finding is that AB InBev may have deliberately prevented cheaper beer imports out of France and the Netherlands from reaching consumers in Belgium,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “Such practices would breach EU competition rules, because they deny consumers the benefits of the EU single market – choice and lower prices.” The Commission said the statement of objections did not pre-judge the case and gave AB InBev the opportunity to respond in writing and request a hearing. Companies found guilty of anti-competitive practices or abuse of market position may have to make commitments or be subject to a fine of up to 30 percent of the sales of the products concerned multiplied by the number of years, with an overall maximum fine of 10 percent of annual global turnover. AB InBev stressed that the statement of objections was a procedural step and not a final decision. It also said it had been working constructively with the Commission and that integrity and ethics were part of its core values. The Commission, which opened formal antitrust proceedings in June 2016, said it had identified a number of business practices that prevented Belgian supermarkets and wholesalers from buying in the brands from outside Belgium. AB InBev, for example, removed French text from cans in the Netherlands and Dutch from cans sold in France to prevent their sale respectively in French and Dutch-speaking parts of Belgium, the Commission said. A Commission spokesman said AB InBev appeared to have been selling cans with text in both French and Dutch in all three countries, but had modified the labels on certain cans in 2014-2015 to make them purely in French in France and Dutch in the Netherlands. “In our assessment, our current view is that this was with the purpose of making it more difficult or legally impossible for supermarkets or other wholesalers to sell the products to consumers in Belgium or almost all of Belgium.” The Commission also said that the brewer did not sell or limited the quantity of products sold to Dutch retailers or restricted the availability of promotions if there was a chance the Dutch retailers could ship beer to Belgium. French supermarkets operator Carrefour and Dutch group Ahold Delhaize have extensive supermarket networks in Belgium. Reporting by Philip BlenkinsopEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ab-inbev-eu/european-commission-accuses-ab-inbev-of-blocking-cross-border-beer-trade-idUKKBN1DU1Y6'|'2017-11-30T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'116f4b86991c11afd6a361f88dd3c51f6fce057e'|'Cumulus Media files for bankruptcy protection'|'(Reuters) - U.S. radio broadcaster Cumulus Media Inc ( CMLS.PK ) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it has entered into a restructuring agreement with certain of its lenders to reduce more than $1 billion in debt.Cumulus expects all operations, programming and sales to continue as normal throughout the restructuring process, the company said in a statement.The company said it has “ample cash on hand” and does not intend to seek debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.“The debt overhang left by previous years of underperformance remains a significant financial challenge that we must overcome for our operational turnaround to proceed,” Chief Executive Mary Berner said.The company’s bigger rival IHeartMedia Inc ( IHRT.PK ) is also struggling to find a solution to significantly slash its debt pile outside of bankruptcy court.IHeartMedia, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations that has more than 250 million monthly listeners in the United States, said in May there was substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.Cumulus filed the petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cumulus-media-bankruptcy/cumulus-media-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-idINKBN1DU08U'|'2017-11-29T23:43:00.000+02:00'
'67cef39367d0a5dd225e31b9c6f4376eb400db5b'|'China November factory growth unexpectedly picks up despite pollution crackdown'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:57 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago China November factory growth unexpectedly picks up despite pollution crackdown Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly picked up in November, despite a crackdown on air pollution and a cooling property market that have been widely expected to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy. Employees work at a production line inside a factory of Saic GM Wuling, in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, June 19, 2016. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo The upbeat data should help ease concerns, for now, that Beijing’s campaign to curb excesses in the financial sector and its war on smog could lead to a sharper-than-expected slowdown in China’s economy. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Thursday stood at 51.8 in November, compared with 51.6 in October. It remained above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis for the 16th straight month. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast the reading would come in at 51.4, easing for a second straight month after September’s more than five-year high. Boosted by hefty government infrastructure spending, a resilient property market and unexpected strength in exports, China’s manufacturing and industrial firms have been a major driver behind the economy’s forecast-beating growth of nearly 6.9 percent so far this year. But October economic data disappointed analysts as investment, industrial output and export growth slowed, raising concerns that a long-expected slowdown had begun. Some economists see fourth-quarter growth moderating to 6.6 percent, and slowing further to 6.4 percent in 2018. A senior banking regulator said on Thursday that China’s economy could face downward risks as soon as the first quarter next year as the economy struggles for sustainable growth in the face of government efforts to deflate asset bubbles. PRICE BOOST For now, though, strong commodity prices are continuing boost the performance of industrial firms like steelmakers, which have cranked up production to cash in on robust profit margins. While some mills, smelters and factories in northern provinces have been forced to curb output to reduce winter smog, there are signs that their counterparts in other parts of the country have ramped up output to gain more market share. Profits for China’s industrial powerhouses surged 25.1 percent in October, down only slightly from September’s nearly six year high, as coal mining and other upstream sectors continued to benefit from high prices. Earnings have been boosted by surging factory gate prices, though the latest survey showed input price gains slowed, with the reading at 59.8 compared to 63.4 in October and the lowest since July. Output price gains also slowed, reflecting concerns that higher commodity prices have not trickled down to higher prices and profit margins for downstream industries. The latest pollution closures come on top of ongoing government efforts to trim down and upgrade the country’s bloated industrial sector by shutting down outdated capacity, which also has helped support producer prices. A sub-reading for output rose to 54.3 in November from 53.4 the previous month as factories continue to expand production. Readings for total new orders, new export orders and imports also quickened from October. But the environmental crackdown is creating uncertainty for industrial firms, with an executive at the nation’s largest integrated copper producer Jiangxi Copper ( 600362.SS ) saying costs are going higher as emissions standards rise. Growth in China’s services sector also picked up in November, continuing to show solid expansion, a sister survey showed. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 54.8 from 54.3 in October. A sub-reading for the construction sector rose to 61.4 from 58.5 in October. The services sector accounts for over half of China’s economy, with rising wages giving Chinese consumers more spending power. China’s leaders are counting on growth in services and consumption to rebalance their economic growth model from its heavy reliance on investment and exports. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-pmi-factory-official/china-november-factory-growth-unexpectedly-picks-up-despite-pollution-crackdown-idUKKBN1DU06O'|'2017-11-30T03:56:00.000+02:00'
'25768f4e43c8406211d690a795fb362d7ccbe579'|'Back to black? Australian industry prepares for possible summer power cuts'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:15 AM / Updated an hour ago Back to black? Australian industry prepares for possible summer power cuts Reuters Staff * Top miner BHP installs diesel generation to protect assets * Alcoa offers to cut power use for a fee * Rio Tinto’s Tomago warns 3-hour blackout would be fatal * But market operator sees extremely slim chance of blackout By Sonali Paul and James Regan MELBOURNE/SYDNEY, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Some of Australia’s biggest power users, including mining giant BHP, are taking steps to curb the impact of any repeat of crippling blackouts that hit last summer, worried about a grid that increasingly relies on wind power and old coal-fired plants. Their back-up strategies come despite assurances from the nation’s energy market operator that it has lined up enough power reserves - including the world’s biggest lithium ion battery, set up by Tesla Inc - to get through all but the most unexpected conditions. Australia’s summer, which starts on Friday, is forecast to be hotter-than-normal in the nation’s southeast, already helping double wholesale power prices in the wind-dependent state of South Australia to almost A$170 ($129) per megawatt hour (MWh) SA-FLAT. That raises the spectre of a repeat of outages that hit South Australia and New South Wales last February if households crank up air conditioners at the same time as the wind dies down or extreme heat knocks out an ageing coal-fired plant. The threat has prompted top global miner BHP Billiton to install 30 megawatts of diesel generation at its Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia, which was forced to close for two weeks last year after a state-wide blackout that cost it $105 million. “That doesn’t give us the ability to operate at normal levels. It’s really just insurance to prevent any asset damage,” Olympic Dam president Jacqui McGill told reporters this week. Meanwhile, Alcoa Inc, which runs the Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria, is taking a different tack, offering to curb its power use for a fee for up to an hour during peak-demand, said spokeswoman Jodie Read. The company’s Portland smelter has recently returned to operating at about 300,000 tonnes a year since suffering a near-fatal power failure. Elsewhere, the Tomago aluminium smelter in New South Wales would be vulnerable if it faced a prolonged heat wave at the same time as Victoria and South Australia. “If the power goes off for any more than three hours, our potlines will freeze and they cannot be unfrozen. It’s a catastrophic loss,” said Matthew Howell, chief executive of Tomago Aluminium, owned by Rio Tinto, CSR and Norsk Hydro. Unlike Alcoa, Tomago has offered to turn off its potlines, used to make aluminium, only if the market operator is facing a state-wide blackout. “You want to interrupt load to a potline as a last resort. You don’t want to do it as a playing-an-arbitrage-with-your-energy-supplier,” Howell told Reuters. This comes as Audrey Zibelman, chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, says blackouts are a “very, very, very low probability event”, given steps such as coaxing gas-fired plants out of retirement, the launch of the Tesla battery on Friday in South Australia and a A$70 million ($53 million) programme to pay some power users to curb their demand. An independent analyst said that there was less chance of blackouts this year, though he added that the risk remained. “I don’t know what the odds are of a three-hour blackout in New South Wales this summer, but it’s certainly not zero,” said David Leitch, an energy analyst at ITK Services Australia. “But my bottom line is that over the last few months I’ve become more convinced it’s less likely to occur than previously.” ($1 = 1.3182 Australian dollars) Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE and James Regan in SYDNEY; Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/australia-power-industry/back-to-black-australian-industry-prepares-for-possible-summer-power-cuts-idUSL3N1NZ2B1'|'2017-11-30T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'c99f20d4f8592d115ad5a530e021e078b0d67279'|'CVS closes in on deal to buy health insurer Aetna: source'|'(Reuters) - CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) is moving closer to a more than $66 billion cash and stock deal to buy health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) which could be announced as early as Monday, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The CVS logo is seen at one of their stores in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Shares of both companies rose on the news, which was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal. CVS shares were up 2.7 percent and Aetna shares rose 0.7 percent in late morning trading.The companies are in advanced stages of negotiating a deal that would value Aetna at between $200 and $205 per share and would be comprised mainly of cash, the Journal said. ( on.wsj.com/2j5V1yn )Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the deal would value the company at more than $200 per share.The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide.Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs.Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) such as CVS negotiate drug benefits for health insurance plans and employers, and have in recent years taken an increasingly aggressive stance in price negotiations with drugmakers.They often extract discounts and after-market rebates from drugmakers in exchange for including their medicines in PBM formularies with low co-payments.A tie-up with Aetna could give CVS more leverage in its price negotiations with drug makers.Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-health-closes-in-on-deal-to-buy-health-insurer-aetna-wsj-idINKBN1DU28V'|'2017-11-30T12:59:00.000+02:00'
'80cf6435d3fbaa89ed7c9a1b99c412f5890fc748'|'Avis tests fully connected wireless car fleet in Kansas City'|'November 30, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Avis tests fully connected wireless car fleet in Kansas City Nick Carey 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Avis Budget Group Inc said on Thursday it has launched in the Kansas City, Missouri, area its first fleet of cars that are fully connected to the internet, other vehicles, and to the car rental company via wireless technology as it seeks to enhance its fleet-management services. The logo of Avis Budget Group vehicle rental company is pictured at the International Tourism Trade Fair (ITB) in Berlin, Germany, March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company’s so-called Mobility Lab will connect all 5,000 cars in its Kansas City fleet and share live data with the city from those vehicles so it can sharpen computerized traffic flow models, and collaborate on ways to improve tourists’ experiences when they rent through Avis. A “connected car” is linked wirelessly to the internet, other vehicles and, in Avis’ case, to a centralized network, which the company said will enable it to automate many processes that are currently performed manually. Vehicle connectivity is a building block in the process of developing self-driving cars, which major automakers are rushing to bring to the market. In June, Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, signed a multi-year agreement for Avis to manage its growing autonomous vehicle fleet. [nL1N1JN1E4] “As we think about how we’re managing our own fleet, we’re also looking to see how we can do this for others as well,” Avis Chief Executive Officer Larry De Shon told Reuters. “There’s a lot of learnings that will come out of this that will be beneficial as we look at fleet management as a service.” Major automakers are racing to roll out alternatives to private car ownership including ride sharing amid the rise of Uber [UBER.UL] and Lyft Inc. The rush is based on the notion that instead of buying cars, future consumers - especially city dwellers - will generate revenue through vehicle usage. A challenge for automakers is how to manage fleets of vehicles when their core traditional business is building cars. Avis has said its global fleet will be fully connected by 2020. According to industry estimates, the company’s U.S. rental fleet numbered close to 400,000 vehicles in 2016. Worries about overcapacity and industry pricing have weighed on shares of rental companies like Avis and rival Hertz Global Holdings inc, as have concerns that off-lease cars are flooding the used-car market. The rise of car- and ride-sharing companies also makes some investors wary. De Shon said a fully connected fleet will help automate manual processes and manage the entire life cycle of its vehicles, allowing each car “to say ‘I‘m on the lot, I‘m cleaned and serviced, and I‘m ready to be rented.''” “You can’t really start changing your business processes and improve fleet management when some of the cars are connected and some are not, so we really needed a lab where we could get our hands dirty,” De Shon added. Connected cars allow Avis customers to manage their entire rental through an app, including locking and unlocking car doors via smartphone or honking the vehicle’s horn when they cannot locate their car. Bob Bennett, the chief innovation officer for Kansas City, Missouri, said Avis’ connected car fleet will augment the city’s wireless network covering 54 contiguous blocks, providing data to enhance its traffic flow models. The city will hold talks with Avis in the coming months on how to use connected cars to improve Kansas City’s parking apps and tourist experience, Bennett said. For instance, if a consumer’s telephone shows they are interested in baseball or history, they may receive a “push notification” from their car recommending the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum or the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is fertile soil that has not yet been farmed,” Bennett said. “I think it’s going to be a bumper crop, I just don’t know what the hell it’s going to be yet.” Reporting by Nick Carey in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-avis-budget-grp-tech-kansascity/avis-tests-fully-connected-wireless-car-fleet-in-kansas-city-idUSKBN1DU0IE'|'2017-11-30T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'248bd0663150d9c33738389af642e561b8f48823'|'Your future kitchen will think for itself 30,'|'In the future, your kitchen will think for itself by Kaya Yurieff @kyurieff November 30, 2017: 2:58 PM ET Cooking dinner when your kitchen thinks for itself The microwave, which was invented after World War II, revolutionized cooking by heating food in seconds. Now, experts say the kitchen is poised for yet another reinvention. The next wave will be fueled by smart appliances, voice technology and 3D printers. Whirlpool ( WHR ) has already teased a concept for the smart kitchen. It includes touchscreens that populate recipes from Pinterest, a refrigerator that reminds you when you''re low on milk and the ability to heat up a meal, such as a bowl of soup, by placing it anywhere on the counter, thanks to detection sensors. While we''re still at least 10 to 15 years away from a fully connected kitchen, most of this technology already exists. The biggest challenge is getting devices made by different companies to communicate. Zoe Leavitt, senior retail and consumer packaged goods analyst at research firm CB Insights, told CNN Tech the future of the kitchen comes down to one ingredient: data. "The next generation of connected appliances will be able to make data actionable," she said. For example, your refrigerator could sync up with a Fitbit to make food suggestions based on your health goals. Cabinets could include touch sensors that track what food you take out. Over time, the kitchen could serve up estimates for how many calories you eat every day. "This data could also be shared with grocery stores to support automatic delivery or algorithms predicting you might like a new product," Leavitt said. The refrigerator as the hub The refrigerator is already emerging as the communication hub for smart products in the kitchen. Samsung''s Family Hub ($3,300)smart refrigerator touts an HD touchscreen that can be used to search the internet, play music or shop for groceries. Inside, two cameras allow you to see what items needs replacing -- you can pull up the corresponding app at the store to view footage on your smartphone. But the fridge''s power elevates when it communicates with other appliances. This means, in theory, a blender could download recipes from the internet based on what food you have in stock, according to Rebecca Chesney, research director at the Institute for the Future''s Food Futures Lab. "The fridge can check what''s [inside], and then reorder what''s needed so that you can make that smoothie the next morning," Chesney said. Other tech companies are eyeing the fridge, too. Amazon ( AMZN , Tech30 ) filed a patent application for a smart refrigerator with sensors that detect if items have spoiled. A push notification would then be sent to your smartphone. While the application may seem like a curious move for Amazon, it could serve as a new way to gather data and automatically ship new products to consumers, according to Leavitt. Amazon in particular has made a push into the home with connected products like its Echo smart speakers and Dash buttons, allowing users to reorder items like laundry detergent and toilet paper by pressing a physical button. Amazon Echo smart speakers. Drones could also play an important part in delivering items, including food. Amazon has been granted patents for various drone initiatives this year, such as for a special shipping label with a built-in parachute for deliveries. Leavitt believes drones could potentially deliver groceries through special kitchen windows and even put items in the fridge for you. "[We could possibly see] refrigerators installed in front of ''trap doors,'' and drones could deposit food directly into the refrigerator through the hatch," she said. Related: Can you BBQ ribs with no backyard? We tried Cooking with a 3D-printed twist While tech companies continue to crank out smart kitchen gadgets, the maker of a 3D food printer called Foodini, sees a future with fewer appliances. "You''ll see a mash up of kitchen functionality and appliances and devices that do more," said Lynette Kucsma, cofounder and CMO of Natural Machines, which makes Foodini. By placing fresh ingredients into the device, the device 3D prints food in different shapes and sizes. For example, users could put fresh dough into the Foodini and print it out pasta. Foodini, which costs $4,000, intends to produce healthier snacks and meals like crackers, chips or pasta using natural ingredients without preservatives. Foodini. Although it doesn''t have the ability to cook food yet -- and is currently limited to professional kitchens -- Kuscma hopes her product will eventually impact the way people cook at home. Users could potentially create a dessert that stops printing after it reaches 200 calories. But John Coupland, a food science professor at Pennsylvania State University, said the success of kitchen gadgets like 3D food printers will depend on whether they can create food that isn''t easily made with other devices. "Kitchens are very limited in the space they have available," he said. "At the moment, I don''t really see [it catching on].Who is going to give up the counter space?" The tech behind it At the core of the future kitchen is what experts call theInternet of Things -- when products, from toasters to cars, connect to networks and can communicate with mobile devices and each other. However, the challenge is that these devices are siloed and generally only communicate with their own apps or within their ecosystem. For example, products that are compatible with Apple''s HomeKit software may not work on Samsung''s SmartThings platform. "There are certainly no real standards about how these different applications or devices all have to connect into a single system," said Jonathan Collins, research director at ABI Research, who heads the firm''s smart home coverage. "More and more players want to stake their claim to having that data feed," he said. "They''re all carving out their own niches and way of attracting customers, but they''re not doing that in a standardized way." Adopting an open standard or companies developing more partnerships with each other could help fuel consumer adoption. Related: Williams-Sonoma places $112 million bet on AR shopping The smart kitchen also raises familiar questions about the impact of automation on our lives. For example, IBM ( IBM , Tech30 ) and Samsung ( SSNLF ) have unveiled a concept that would allow an appliance like a refrigerator to coordinate its own maintenance, communicate with a retailer or order its own supplies. But even as appliances get smarter, Food Futures Lab''s Chesney believes not everything will be automated in the kitchen. "A lot of these technologies are framed around saving you time in the kitchen," she said. "It''s more about how can the technology enable me to do the things that I would like to do." Others raise questions about whether the smart kitchen will take out some of the fun and social aspect out of preparing food. But perhaps that will depend on how you feel about cooking. "We''ve seen technology reach into so many aspects of life," ABI Research''s Collins said. "Is it better or is it worse? Is it for convenience or is it taking away a moment of pleasure? That''s entirely up to the individual." CNNMoney (New York) First published November 30, 2017: 2:58 PM ET '|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/30/technology/future-of-the-kitchen/index.html'|'2017-11-30T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'587fb4502b42b7ca042a76fd77c64298df054315'|'Shell scraps scrip dividend after three years of austerity'|' 21 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Shell scraps scrip dividend after three years of austerity Ron Bousso 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday said it will cancel an austerity dividend policy as the oil and gas company boosted its cash generation forecasts, drawing a line under three years of oil price turmoil. FILE PHOTO: A logo for Shell is seen on a garage forecourt in central London, Britain, March 6, 2014. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The Anglo-Dutch company said it will abolish its scrip dividend, through which investors can opt to receive dividends in shares or cash, in the fourth quarter of 2017. The scrip dividend scheme was introduced in early 2015 following the sharp drop in oil prices. In a strategy update, Shell also raised its cash flow outlook from $25 billion (18.8 billion pounds) to $30 billion by 2020, assuming an oil price of $60 a barrel. “We have also made significant progress with our divestment programme, allowing us to reduce net debt in that time,” Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement. Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-investors/shell-scraps-scrip-dividend-after-three-years-of-austerity-idUKKBN1DS0L5'|'2017-11-28T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'8f179a82b8ca3fc22a655cee8da71c27112611ce'|'Fed''s Kashkari says no reason to ''tap brakes'' on U.S. economy'|' 40 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Fed''s Kashkari says no reason to ''tap brakes'' on U.S. economy Reuters Staff 1   Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari on Monday signalled he would continue to oppose raising U.S. interest rates until inflation shows signs of rising toward the Fed’s 2-percent goal. FILE PHOTO - Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks during an interview at Reuters in New York February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Because inflation is low, I am seeing no reason to tap the brakes on the economy,” Kashkari said in a Town Hall event at Winona State University in Minnesota and broadcast via the Minneapolis Fed’s website. “My perspective is let’s allow the job marker to continue to strengthen, allow more Americans to go back to work, allow wages to strengthen, and then if we start to see inflation creep back up to our 2-percent target, we can tap the brakes then.” The Fed raised interest rates twice so far this year, and both times Kashkari dissented. U.S. central bankers are widely expected to raise interest rates again when they meet in December. Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-kashkari/feds-kashkari-says-no-reason-to-tap-brakes-on-u-s-economy-idUKKBN1DS027'|'2017-11-28T02:40:00.000+02:00'
'edc5fe73586f2f715debe306e532eb5e87cde791'|'Fed nominee Powell, once hawkish, now champions Yellen''s focus on jobs'|' 12 AM / in 9 minutes Fed nominee Powell, once hawkish, now champions Yellen''s focus on jobs Howard Schneider , Ann Saphir 6 Min Read WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As a nominee to lead the Fed, veteran governor Jerome Powell sides with the outgoing chair Janet Yellen in arguing that the Fed’s easy money policy has paid off by bringing millions back to work without any clear sign it has thrown markets off kilter. FILE PHOTO: Jerome Powell, U.S. President Donald Trump''s nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve at the announcement event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S. on November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo In remarks released ahead of his hearing by the Senate Banking Committee which is due on Tuesday, Powell said the Fed needed the capacity “to respond decisively and with appropriate force” to new threats to the economy. In the past, however, Powell has been more cautious about the risks posed by such an expansive approach. In his first months at the Fed, Powell was among those who pressured then chair Ben Bernanke for more clarity on when the central bank would start scaling back its bond buying. When Bernanke made those plans public it triggered a “taper tantrum” spike in market interest rates in the summer of 2013, forcing Bernanke, Powell and others to do damage control. As Powell, 64, now prepares to lead the Fed himself, former colleagues, associates and former Fed staff say the key unanswered question is whether his evolution - from a former investment banker wary of an expanding Fed to a supporter of Yellen’s jobs-first approach - represents a change of heart, or rather the outgoing chair’s imprint on the current debate. Powell will inherit a strong economy, low inflation and a clear near-term policy path set by Yellen. What is not clear is how he would respond to another recessionary shock, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, who himself transitioned from a policy hawk to dove while in office, told Reuters. “Would Powell be willing to be as aggressive as Yellen?” Kocherlakota asked. Powell will come under particular scrutiny as the first non-economist to run the Fed since William Miller in the 1970s, who was at odds with markets and his colleagues over his reluctance to raise rates to fight high inflation. Globally, it is the norm that top central bankers hold advanced economics degrees or rise through the ranks of the central bank or national finance ministry. Powell, a lawyer by training, served three years at the Treasury in the early 1990s, but spent most of his career in investment banking and private equity. Still, even well-known economists have surprised once in the top job. A review of tenures of Arthur Burns, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke by economists Alexander Salter and Daniel Smith showed all three implemented policies they opposed before taking office. “Prior to serving as Fed chairman, each favoured a degree of monetary restraint, acknowledging the past errors of the Fed,” Salter and Smith wrote. “But during their tenure at the Fed, these economists’ views switch to promoting monetary activism,” they said. They said they focused on the three because their extensive writings allowed such comparisons. ONE EYE ON TRUMP While there is no immediate policy challenge for Powell to tackle, the Fed is trying to get a handle on the U.S. economy’s ability to grow without stoking inflation, and whether low long-term bond yields signal investors are losing faith in the recovery. President Donald Trump’s tax and spending plans could also present a risk if they spurred higher inflation. Any Fed policy tightening in response could mean a clash with Trump, who picked Powell, initially considered a long-shot for the job, out of a group of five finalists that included Yellen. There is also a risk that one of the longest U.S. recoveries could fizzle during Powell’s four-year term. David Stockton, the former head of research at the Fed, said that Powell will do well by continuing Yellen’s policies if the economy stays on its current course. Too little is known, though, about Powell’s capacity to diagnose and respond to crises, he said. Powell became a Fed governor in 2012 when the recovery was taking hold and the debate centred on how to end the Fed’s crisis response programs and raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. “He has expressed in the past greater concern about the side effects of low interest rates and quantitative easing,” Stockton said. “Does that mean he will be more reluctant to move quickly, and what will the consequences be?” After the “taper tantrum,” Powell appeared to side with the hawks again in the summer of 2015, when he argued two rate rises might be needed that year. That initial view overlooked how a meltdown in the Chinese stock market would dim the global economic outlook. He later backtracked and the Fed eventually moved only once that year, raising rates in December. Over time, Powell’s speeches have come to emphasise how the long spell of loose U.S. policy has given workers time to recover - the argument that has defined Yellen’s term as chair. Those who have worked with Powell say it reveals a key skill needed to lead the Fed. “You need to know what you don’t know. And you need to be willing to listen when you don’t know something,” said Karen Dynan, who as an assistant Treasury Secretary in Barack Obama’s second administration would regularly meet Fed governors. Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by David Chance and Tomasz Janowski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-powell/fed-nominee-powell-once-hawkish-now-champions-yellens-focus-on-jobs-idUKKBN1DS0G8'|'2017-11-28T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'7c9656d694508a4def9c692fde5141ebb1c39105'|'AT&T CEO sticks to guns on Time Warner deal'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:00 PM / in 20 minutes AT&T CEO sticks to guns on Time Warner deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - AT&T Inc ( T.N ) remains determined to pursue its case against the government to push through its purchase of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Randall Stephenson speaks during a press conference in New York City, New York, U.S. November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton “We see absolutely nothing in this case that is anti-competitive,” Stephenson said. AT&T and Time Warner on Tuesday argued that their proposed $85.4 billion (£63.56 billion) merger was “pro-competitive” and “pro-consumer”, as they sought to refute U.S. Justice Department allegations that the deal breaks antitrust law. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley in New York and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-ceo-sticks-to-guns-on-time-warner-deal-idUKKBN1DT2U7'|'2017-11-29T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'2b62662259e7c637e8e0ed2c95c1c6e22d269b37'|'U.S. judge sets pre-trial hearing on AT&T merger deal'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday set a Dec. 7 pre-trial hearing in the Justice Department’s complaint seeking to block AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ).The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Judge Richard Leon, who is overseeing the case, announced the hearing date in an order.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-hearing/u-s-judge-sets-pre-trial-hearing-on-att-merger-deal-idUSKBN1DT3DJ'|'2017-11-30T06:09:00.000+02:00'
'08c335e138a1315b10d3fab47bd89ef9e2c5e812'|'Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for electric cars'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:30 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for electric cars Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen (VW) alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros (£44.14 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. A Toyota Motor Corp. logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero More than half of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labour is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labour rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed “Drive Sustainability” consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance “will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector,” said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. “This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue” to address issues within the supply chain. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autos-minerals/automakers-pledge-ethical-minerals-sourcing-for-electric-cars-idUKKBN1DT23B'|'2017-11-29T16:29:00.000+02:00'
'8294d4e8bbf0a1f3793cca0bc1eb49a0ee13d4a1'|'Spain''s BBVA sells 80 pct of real estate business for 4 bln euros'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Spain''s BBVA sells 80 pct of real estate business for 4 bln euros Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MADRID, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Spain’s BBVA said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell 80 percent of its real estate business to U.S. fund Cerberus for 4 billion euros ($5 billion), one of the largest such deals as investor enthusiasm for Spanish property returns. The real estate assets included in the package have a gross book value of some 13 billion euros, Spain’s second largest bank said in a statement to the market regulator. The deal is the largest since Santander sold control of property worth 10 billion euros to U.S. investor Blackstone Group in August. A burst property bubble in 2008 sent Spain’s economy in to a tailspin that lasted nearly five years, put millions out of work, sent public debt soaring and prompted a more-than 40-billion-euro bailout for its banks. The economy returned to growth in 2013 and has outperformed the rest of Europe since then, helping restart residential construction as house prices turn around and prompting foreign investors to return to the market. BBVA said it would retain control of 20 percent of the real estate portfolio, which it said would be exclusively managed by Cerberus’s Haya Real Estate. The deal is expected to be closed in the second half of 2018 and while it wasn’t seen having a significant impact on the bank’s profits it would have a slightly positive impact on the fully loaded core tier 1 capital ratio (CET1), it said. On Tuesday, Bank Of Nova Scotia agreed to buy BBVA’s stake in BBVA Chile for $2.2 billion. $1 = 0.8423 euros Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cerberus-ma-bbva/spains-bbva-sells-80-pct-of-real-estate-business-for-4-bln-euros-idUSL8N1NZ1VB'|'2017-11-29T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'2662cb6bde49896813848ea7c93081c72cdff238'|'Bahrain''s Gulf Interchem to build by-product recycling plant for Sadara'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:17 PM / in 27 minutes Bahrain''s Gulf Interchem to build by-product recycling plant for Sadara Reuters Staff 1 Min Read KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Sadara Chemical, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and DowDuPont, said on Tuesday that Bahrain-based Gulf Interchem plans to build a by-product recycling plant near Sadara’s complex in Jubail. “Gulf Interchem will build an integrated treatment plant to recover valuable molecules from Sadara by-products and convert them into fine chemicals that can be used in the production of speciality chemicals such as corrosion inhibitors, adhesives, lubricants and others,” Sadara said in a statement. The plant, which would be built in the nearby industrial PlasChem Park, will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 50,000 tonnes per year. Sadara has 26 manufacturing plants that produce more than 3 million tonnes of chemicals annually. Reporting by Reem Shamseddine, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sadara-chemical/bahrains-gulf-interchem-to-build-by-product-recycling-plant-for-sadara-idUSL8N1NY646'|'2017-11-28T20:16:00.000+02:00'
'bc19c4069b5615557023c7ebcd427a8c678ca0bc'|'Carney says wants clarity on CEO spat at London Stock Exchange'|'November 28, 2017 / 8:49 AM / in 15 minutes BoE''s Carney says wants clarity on CEO spat at London Stock Exchange Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he was “mystified” by developments regarding London Stock Exchange Chief Executive Xavier Rolet and wanted clarity “as soon as possible”. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, smiles at the ''Future Forum 2017'' event in St George''s Hall, Liverpool, Britain November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Hedge fund TCI has ordered a shareholder vote to oust LSE Chairman Donald Brydon over his handling of the departure of Rolet next year. TCI says Rolet is being pushed out. “We stay close to the situation. In some respects I‘m a bit mystified by the debate because we knew about the succession plan, we’ve stayed close to the situation,” Carney told a news conference. “I can’t envisage a circumstance where the CEO stays on beyond the agreed period and so I think it’s in the interest of all parties involved that clarity is provided as soon as possible.” The LSE is due to hold a shareholder meeting before year-end to vote on TCI’s proposal. Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-boe-lse-rolet/boes-carney-says-wants-clarity-on-ceo-spat-at-london-stock-exchange-idUKKBN1DS0TC'|'2017-11-28T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'd6559c18c9f12ee135a8e323f1137b1e38695e20'|'China''s NIO Capital eyes $500 million dollar fund for auto investments: sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - NIO Capital, an investment firm founded by leading Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO, is in talks with prospective investors to raise up to $500 million in a dollar fund aimed at the country’s auto sector, people with knowledge of the plans said.The fund, Shanghai-based NIO Capital’s first dollar fund, will complement its onshore investments by focusing on foreign tech start-ups and Chinese firms using overseas structures such as variable-interest entities, the people said.The move comes as car makers and investors are pumping in billions of dollars into the so-called new energy vehicle sector in China, the world’s biggest auto market, which is preparing to roll out tough norms to promote the sector to fight urban smog and cut dependence on imported oil.NIO Capital was co-founded last year with Sequoia Capital and Hillhouse Capital and is in the process of putting its first yuan fund, worth 10 billion yuan ($1.52 billion), to work - a process it expects to complete in the next two years.A dollar fund would enable it to spread its investments to entities outside mainland China.NIO Capital declined to comment on its dollar-based plans.NIO itself is backed by Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings ( 0700.HK ) and is due to release its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle, next month. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020. [nL8N1NF094]In an interview separate to the dollar fundraising plans, Ian Zhu, a partner at NIO Capital, said the firm’s aim was to capture several trends changing the auto and energy industries. It was primarily investing in sectors ranging from electric vehicles and battery technologies to new energy and materials, he added.“These are once-in-a-generation (investment) opportunities,” he said.Apart from EV and new energy, NIO Capital is looking for opportunities in self-driving technology - another part of China’s national agenda as the country pushes into artificial intelligence in a bid to rival U.S. market leaders such as Google and Microsoft.“There is a strong demand for self-driving cars. As long as the price is reasonable, people are willing to pay to make cars into autonomous driving vehicles,” Zhu said.He expected autonomous driving-related business to account for about 20 percent of the world’s auto market in the next five to 10 years.NIO Capital has so far invested between 2 billion and 3 billion yuan ($303 million to $455 million) in 15 start-ups. Investments include Momenta, a Beijing-based self-driving start-up and Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur, a Chinese car-hailing operator.($1 = 6.5984 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-niocapital-investment/chinas-nio-capital-eyes-500-million-dollar-fund-for-auto-investments-sources-idINKBN1DS16X'|'2017-11-28T07:51:00.000+02:00'
'1115c58b0fee5bf04ab9c78ca9108f49c586798c'|'UAE oil minister: Vienna producers'' meeting won''t be easy'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - A meeting of global oil producers in Vienna this week to discuss extending a system of output cuts will not be easy, United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Tuesday.UAE Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui talks to reporters during the 15th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF15) in Algiers, Algeria September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina However, Mazroui added that he was personally optimistic that producers would reach an agreement that served the market. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna on Thursday.“It will not be an easy meeting and we always look at various scenarios, but I am personally optimistic,” Mazroui told reporters at an industry event in Dubai.He said several options for extending the output cuts would be discussed, including a proposal to extend them to the end of 2018. They are currently due to expire in March. He did not describe the other options.Asked whether Russia was willing to agree on Thursday on an extension of output cuts, Mazroui said: “I cannot comment on any country before I meet with them.”He also said the oil market was in a much better position than it was last year, which was a result of producers complying with the cuts.“We are hoping for another year of correction and recovery. The OPEC countries are all committed to fix the issue with the five years’ overstorage,” he said, referring to excess global inventories of oil.Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Tom Arnold; Writing by Andrew Torchia '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-opec-emirates/uae-oil-minister-vienna-producers-meeting-wont-be-easy-idINKBN1DS149'|'2017-11-28T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'8974350287fb616bcc158c05a1fe944529ab37c7'|'Euro zone corporate lending growth surges to post-crisis high'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:12 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Euro zone corporate lending growth surges to post-crisis high   FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Growth in euro zone corporate lending jumped last month to its fastest rate since the global financial crisis while a key money supply indicator eased, the European Central Bank said on Tuesday. A picture illustration taken with the multiple exposure function of the camera shows a one Euro coin and a map of Europe, January 9, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach With the euro zone economy on its best growth run in a decade, the ECB decided last month to cut stimulus, arguing that recovery is now broad-based and increasingly self-sustaining, supported by both consumption and corporate spending. Lending growth to non-financial corporations, a key plank in the recovery, rose to 2.9 percent in October from 2.4 percent a month ago, hitting its highest rate since mid-2009, ECB data showed. Household lending growth was meanwhile unchanged at 2.7 percent. Although lending growth is trending around its best level since the global financial crisis, it remains well below its pre-crisis mark as banks, under pressure to repair their balance sheets, are still reluctant to lend to the real economy. The annual growth rate of the M3 measure of money supply, seen by some as a precursor of economic activity, slowed to 5.0 percent in October from 5.2 percent a month earlier, below expectations for 5.1 percent. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-lending-ecb/euro-zone-corporate-lending-growth-surges-to-post-crisis-high-idUKKBN1DS0VZ'|'2017-11-28T11:12:00.000+02:00'
'84a933c5ac612cc706671d60e5a07cc9e04d7a40'|'PRESS DIGEST- British Business - November 28'|'November 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.The Times- The promise of nationalisation and tax rises on the rich will help Labour recapture its former heartland from the SNP, the party''s new leader Richard Leonard in Scotland predicted. bit.ly/2AiCwhlThe Guardian- The head of Germany''s domestic intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, has accused U.S. tech giants such as Facebook Inc of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites. bit.ly/2AcS347- Brexit Minister David Davis has been told he could be in contempt of parliament after his department heavily edited government analyses on the impact of Brexit on 58 industrial sectors before handing them to a select committee. bit.ly/2AE0Ih9The Telegraph- Male employees at easyJet earn over 50 percent more than their female colleagues on average, the budget airline revealed on Monday. bit.ly/2zuQn2Q- British Airways owner IAG has confirmed it is buying the majority of the Gatwick take-off and landing slots being sold by the administrators for fallen carrier Monarch Airlines. bit.ly/2AeqVSYSky News- Victoria Beckham''s luxury fashion brand Victoria Beckham Limited has secured a 30 million pounds investment to help fund its expansion. bit.ly/2zwFa1I- Simon Robertson, whose former roles included the deputy chairmanship of HSBC Holdings Plc, has been drafted for secret talks aimed at defusing the boardroom crisis at the owner of the London Stock Exchange.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-business/press-digest-british-business-november-28-idINL3N1NY1A6'|'2017-11-27T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'09df1a1af243541324bcfe9d5b066dc5a61893fe'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Seven-Up; Updates Altran)Nov 30 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1400 GMT on Thursday:** Seven-Up Bottling Co has received an offer from its majority shareholder Affelka to buy out minorities in a 19.33 billion naira ($60.41 million) takeover deal, vice chairman Sunil Sawhney told Reuters.** Private equity investor Terra Firma is gearing up to launch a $1.2 billion sale of its Italian solar-power assets, a deal that could pave the way for more consolidation in European solar energy, sources said.** Some early Flipkart ( IPO-FLPK.N ) investors, employees and ex-employees are selling their shares in the Indian e-commerce firm as part of a $2.5 billion investment deal agreed with Japan’s SoftBank Group, two people familiar with the matter said.** Credit Suisse said activist investor RBR had reduced its holdings in Switzerland’s second-biggest bank from the 0.2 percent RBR had announced in October.** French technology consultancy Altran is to buy U.S. design and engineering services firm Aricent in a 1.7 billion euro ($2.01 billion) deal.** South Korean shipper Pan Ocean said that it had won a 1.98 trillion won ($1.82 billion) contract to transport iron ore over a period of 27 years for Brazilian mining giant Vale,.** Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia Ltd said it would sell certain consumer finance businesses in China and Hong Kong to a money-lending arm of China Financial Services Holdings Ltd for an aggregate HK$1.08 billion ($138.30 million).** Australian oil and gas producer AWE Ltd said it had received a takeover offer worth A$430 million ($325 million) from state-owned China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group (CERCG) on Thursday.** Gaming machine maker Aristocrat Leisure Ltd said it will acquire gaming company Big Fish Games, a unit of Churchill Downs, for $990 million in cash to increase its social gaming footprint.** AT&T Inc’s proposed seven-year ban on programming blackouts to distributors of some Time Warner Inc content shows that the company is willing to offer concessions to close its $85.4 billion bid for the programmer, AT&T&rsquo;s chief executive officer said.** Finnish network equipment maker Nokia said it was not in talks to buy U.S. network gear maker Juniper Networks Inc despite earlier reports to the contrary.** Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp said it would sell the real estate assets of the Harrah’s Las Vegas hotel to VICI Properties for $1.14 billion in cash. (Compiled by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1O045T'|'2017-11-30T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'9a33af0e472261404717d9031b4633c23ca98a15'|'ESM could be used as stabilisation fund, Eurogroup head says'|' 13 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago ESM could be used as stabilization fund, Eurogroup head says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The role of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro zone bailout fund, could be expanded to provide a revolving stabilization fund that could help governments hit by economic shocks, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers said. FILE PHOTO - Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem meets with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (not pictured) in the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Speaking at a five-year anniversary of the ESM in Luxembourg, Dijsselbloem, who also chairs the board of the ESM’s governors, outlined the direction of discussions among euro zone finance ministers on future integration. “The ESM might play a role in providing a stabilization tool for member states facing an adverse economic shock, whilst supporting the process of necessary economic reforms,” Dijsselbloem said in a speech. “This instrument could be designed as a revolving fund, which can be used, and used again in future crises,” he said. The idea is part of a broader debate on whether the 19 countries that share the euro would benefit from a dedicated budget. France would like to see one in the hundreds of billions of euros and Germany believes it is not necessary at all. ESM Managing Director Klaus Regling has been pushing for a limited euro area budget to deal with asymmetric economic shocks -- economic misfortunes that befall one country rather than the whole bloc. Regling has given the example of potential economic disturbance for Ireland caused by Britain leaving the European Union in 2019, which the euro zone could help Ireland handle, if it had a dedicated pool of cash for such emergencies. The fund would not lead to permanent transfers or debt mutualization, because countries that receive funds during the bad times would need to pay them back once they recover -- making it a revolving fund. Dijsselbloem and euro zone finance ministers he chairs are instrumental in preparing a summit of euro zone leaders on Dec 15th which is to set the direction for further work on euro zone economic integration over the next six months. Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Robin Emmott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-esm/esm-could-be-used-as-stabilization-fund-eurogroup-head-says-idUKKBN1DU2UF'|'2017-11-30T22:08:00.000+02:00'
'37741938d26aaa862e16e30bab3d1edb046b1da3'|'GM expects commercial launch of autonomous vehicles in 2019'|'Nov 30 (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Thursday it expects commercial launch of autonomous vehicles in “dense” urban environments in 2019.The No.1 U.S. automaker added that its fleet of self-driving Cruise cars will accumulate about 1 million miles per month by early 2018. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gm-autonomous/gm-expects-commercial-launch-of-autonomous-vehicles-in-2019-idINL3N1O05CY'|'2017-11-30T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'16b0dfa1726b1b6a7e1cd8b2cae177b6667d4fd5'|'Lawsuit questions conduct of Madoff victims'' lawyer'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:40 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Lawsuit questions conduct of Madoff victims'' lawyer Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new lawsuit accuses a lawyer representing hundreds of victims defrauded by Bernard Madoff of cheating her own clients through overbilling, discouraging settlements and having conflicts of interest. FILE PHOTO: Accused swindler Bernard Madoff exits the Manhattan federal court house in New York, U.S. on January 14, 2009. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The proposed class-action complaint was filed on Wednesday against Becker & Poliakoff LLP and Chaitman LLP over the alleged conduct of Helen Chaitman, who has been perhaps the most visible lawyer representing victims of Madoff since his December 2008 arrest. Madoff, 79, is serving a 150-year prison term. “We have no comment,” Chaitman said in an email. Becker & Poliakoff, her former employer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan by trustees of the Florence Shulman Pourover Trust, a defendant in a 2010 lawsuit by Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Picard has recovered roughly $12.8 billion for former Madoff customers by suing people and companies he believes enabled or benefited from the fraud, including “net winners” that withdrew more money from Madoff’s firm than they put in. He considers the Shulman trust a net winner, and sued it to recover $1.62 million of “fictitious profits.” Dylan Ruga, the Shulman trustees’ lawyer, said the trust lost a seven-figure sum with Madoff. In Wednesday’s complaint, the Shulman trustees said Chaitman’s “self-promotion as a savior for other Madoff victims paid off” with a large base of clients. But they said this left her with an “irreconcilable” conflict by representing three groups of plaintiffs with competing interests: net winners, “net losers” who lost money, and “early investors” whose alleged profits predated the fraud. The Shulman trustees also said Chaitman misled net winners by saying Picard would never settle for less than all he sought, enabling her to bill for “unnecessary” and “often unproductive” work, and did not specify on invoices what work she did. Both law firms “billed and were paid for needless and quixotic legal work, ostensibly for the benefit of FSPT and members of the proposed class, but which in reality only benefited defendants in the form of increased fees,” the complaint said. “Net winners and net losers are inherently in conflict with each other because the only money available to pay net losers comes from net winners,” Ruga said in an interview. “Lawyers who have conflicts like Ms. Chaitman must disgorge their fees.” The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for clients of both law firms. The case is Shulman et al v. Becker & Poliakoff LLP et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-09330. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madoff-lawsuit/lawsuit-questions-conduct-of-madoff-victims-lawyer-idUSKBN1DT2WV'|'2017-11-29T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'9780b1cf834bdad02fa3f1f0ca5ba4432d5b15b3'|'Canadian charged in Yahoo hacking case pleads guilty in U.S.'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:07 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Canadian charged in Yahoo hacking case pleads guilty in U.S. Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A Canadian accused by the United States of helping Russian intelligence agents break into email accounts as part of a massive 2014 breach of Yahoo accounts pleaded guilty on Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department said. A photo illustration shows a Yahoo logo on a smartphone in front of a displayed cyber code and keyboard on December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Karim Baratov pleaded guilty to charges returned by a grand jury in the Northern District of California in February for hacking email accounts and selling the passwords to an agent of Russia’s intelligence agency, the department said in a statement. Baratov, a 22-year-old Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested in Canada in March at the request of U.S. prosecutors. He later waived his right to fight a request for his extradition to the United States. The Justice Department announced charges in March against Baratov and three other men, including two officers in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, for their roles in the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts. Following the charges, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that FSB employees could have been involved in the Yahoo hack. Verizon Communications Inc, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc’s assets in June. Prosecutors said the FSB officers, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, directed and paid hackers to obtain information and used Alexsey Belan, who is among the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted cyber criminals, to breach Yahoo. When the FSB officers learned that a target had a non-Yahoo email account, including through information obtained from the Yahoo hack, they worked with Baratov, who was who paid to break into at least 80 email accounts, prosecutors said. The individuals associated with the accounts they sought to access included Russian officials, the chief executive of a metals company and a prominent banker, according to the indictment. At least 50 of the accounts Baratov targeted were hosted by Google, the indictment said. The Justice Department said on Tuesday that as part of his plea agreement, Baratov also admitted to hacking more than 11,000 email accounts in total for both the FSB and other customers from around 2010 until his March 2017 arrest by Canadian authorities. Baratov, the only person arrested to date in the case, had pleaded not guilty in August to conspiring to commit computer fraud, conspiring to commit access device fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Reporting by Eric Walsh in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yahoo-cyber/canadian-charged-in-yahoo-hacking-case-pleads-guilty-in-u-s-idUKKBN1DT049'|'2017-11-29T04:06:00.000+02:00'
'31ec0b91a813be190bf24ef3a50205f6c2163de8'|'UPDATE 1-S.African state airline''s losses set to widen, CFO says'|'(Adds Quote: , details)CAPE TOWN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Losses at South African Airways (SAA) are set to widen to 4 billion rand ($292.86 million) in 2017/18 from a previous estimate of 2.8 billion, the state airline’s chief financial officer said, piling further pressure on government finances.Last week, SAA said even with a government injection of 10 billion rand, the struggling airline will remain under-capitalised with a negative equity position of over 9 billion rand.Chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi told parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday that the higher projected losses for 2017/18 were related to the retirement of five leased narrow-body aircraft, which meant flights had been cancelled and planes grounded.Vuyani Jarana, SAA’s CEO, said the airline had outstanding debt of 13.8 billion rand ($1.01 billion) as of this month and that it needed to pay back domestic lenders and U.S. bank Citi 4 billion rand by March 2018.“The biggest challenge at SAA is the capital structure as well as the commercial strategy. If we are able to fix that we will be able to get SAA back on its feet,” Jarana said.SAA has been relying on government guarantees to keep it solvent and has been cited by major rating agencies as a threat to South Africa’s economy. It received the latest bailout in September. ($1 = 13.6584 rand) (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Alexander Winning and Ed Stoddard) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/safrica-airline-debt/update-1-s-african-state-airlines-losses-set-to-widen-cfo-says-idINL8N1NZ1X7'|'2017-11-29T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'04540ea85d7dc5c0dc0dfcdb552adbd7b3223f8c'|'Canada''s Trudeau set for tough China talks on trade deal, plane sales'|' 38 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Canada''s Trudeau set for tough China talks on trade deal, plane sales David Ljunggren , Allison Lampert 3 Min Read OTTAWA/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Just days ahead of a Beijing visit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to decide on whether to launch talks on a free trade deal that China has long pressed for and could face a cool reception over his government’s decision to snub Chinese interest in Bombardier. FILE PHOTO - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gestures during the news conference in Manila, Philippines November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Czar Dancel China wants a free trade pact similar to the ones it has with Australia and New Zealand but Trudeau, aware of domestic unease at the idea, is moving slowly. “No decisions have been taken at this end as a government,” a Canadian source familiar with the matter said about the possibility of talks being announced during Trudeau’s Dec 3-7 visit. Trudeau’s office declined to comment. Trudeau is caught in a tough position. Although polls consistently show Canadians are split over the merits of a trade deal, Canada needs to diversify exports to offset the possible damage done if the United States pulls out of NAFTA. Any China trade deal would take a decade to complete, insiders say. The prime minister also faces pressure stemming from distinct signs of impatience from China. Beijing laments what it sees as Canada’s “vague thinking” about a deal, said one person briefed on the Chinese position who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the situation. The Canadian source said the government was aware of Chinese impatience but, while diversification is important, Ottawa was setting “a high bar in terms of what trade means for Canadians.” “While they may be impatient to move forward, I think they understand that,” the source said. Foreign executives operating in China complain about difficult working conditions, arbitrary decisions by local courts and lack of protection for intellectual property rights. The visit comes as plane maker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) is eager to win a breakthrough order from Chinese carriers for its CSeries jet, whose fuselage is made in China. But the chance of nabbing such deals has become more cloudy after Canada encouraged Bombardier to sell a controlling stake in the CSeries programme to Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) rather than a Chinese firm. Some Chinese commentators called Bombardier “mad” for spurning a China tie-up, while others expressed dismay saying that it was a missed opportunity to gain access to the firm’s valuable technology. Trudeau, who will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, agreed last year to hold annual talks with senior Chinese figures. An official Chinese statement on Trudeau’s visit did not mention trade once. With additional reporting by Brenda Goh in ShanghaiEditing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-canada-china-trade/canadas-trudeau-set-for-tough-china-talks-on-trade-deal-plane-sales-idUKKBN1DT31W'|'2017-11-29T21:40:00.000+02:00'
'f8fd9a34c80c190d5a86c112b0c7b598ea77eb97'|'HHS nominee Azar declines to comment on Allergan patent move'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - Alex Azar, the nominee for U.S. health and human services secretary and a former drug industry executive, on Wednesday declined to comment on the move by Allergan Inc to protect its patent on an eye medicine through an agreement with a tribe that has sovereign immunity.But Azar, questioned during a Senate hearing, said that he shares concerns about any abuse of the legal system regarding patents. A group of senators have asked Allergan to produce documents related to the agreement with a Native American tribe, which shields the drug from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board. (Reporting by Caroline Humer; editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-healthcare-azar-allergan/hhs-nominee-azar-declines-to-comment-on-allergan-patent-move-idUSL1N1NZ190'|'2017-11-30T00:24:00.000+02:00'
'322b6a6b24aba21c30c30f1edf23f07c202fb36f'|'S.Africa national airline''s debt at 13.8 bln rand, losses to widen-executives'|'CAPE TOWN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA) has outstanding debt of 13.8 billion rand ($1.01 billion) as of this month, the chief executive of the state-run national airline, Vuyani Jarana, told parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday.Jarana also said the airline needed to pay back domestic lenders and U.S. bank Citi 4 billion rand by March 2018.Chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi said SAA’s losses for 2017/18 were forecast to widen to 4 billion rand from a previous estimate of 2.8 billion rand. ($1 = 13.6300 rand) (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Ed Stoddard) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/safrica-airline-debt/s-africa-national-airlines-debt-at-13-8-bln-rand-losses-to-widen-executives-idINJ8N1NU00D'|'2017-11-29T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'fae7bdfdbd61bad7787eb693f686e0bfa7a04fbb'|'Exuberant consumers, firms push euro zone sentiment higher'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:53 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exuberant consumers, firms push euro zone sentiment higher Francesco Guarascio 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone economic sentiment rose in November for the sixth consecutive month to its highest level in more than 17 years, data from the European Commission showed on Wednesday, as the buoyant mood or consumers and firms further improved. People walk through the Mall of Berlin shopping centre during its opening night in Berlin, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The new rise, which matched market expectations, confirms the solid economic recovery of the 19-country currency bloc despite the strong euro and political crises in two of its largest members, Germany and Spain. The European Commission’s monthly survey showed that sentiment in the euro zone rose to 114.6 in November from an upwardly revised 114.1 in October, in line with the average forecast of economists polled by Reuters. It was the highest reading since October 2000, and well above the long-term average of 100.0. The Commission’s overall business climate index, a separate indicator which points to the phase of the business cycle, also rose to 1.49 in November from 1.44 in October, the highest level in 10 years, albeit below market expectations of a rise to 1.53. Optimism kept growing in the industrial sector, reaching 8.2 points, its highest level ever since 1990, when data began to be collected. Consumer’s exuberance was also confirmed from earlier estimates at 0.1, the first positive reading since January 2001 and a near 17-year high. British consumers joined the positive trend, as their confidence rose to -5.2 points from -5.5 in October. The Commission figures showed the opposite trend emerged from a poll by YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a consultancy, which pointed to UK consumer confidence slumping in November. In the euro zone, economic sentiment improved in November in all surveyed sectors, excluding retail trade, where it fell to 4.2 from 5.5 in October. Both consumers and firms did expect higher prices in the next 12 months, a positive signal for the European Central Bank, which aims to bring inflation close to 2 percent from 1.4 percent recorded in October. Flash estimates for this month reading will be released on Thursday by the EU statistics office Eurostat. Inflation expectations among consumers rose to 16.0 from 14.7 in October. Selling-price forecasts among industrial firms jumped to 11.1 from 8.7 last month. Brussels newsroom; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-sentiment/exuberant-consumers-firms-push-euro-zone-sentiment-higher-idUKKBN1DT1DF'|'2017-11-29T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'c4a0d758d679d8d66f91550215f5a4bdd30584f9'|'UPDATE 1-Macquarie-backed Canadian waste management firm GFL plans C$1 bln IPO -sources'|'(Adds details about GFL’s business, Canadian IPO market, bylines)By John Tilak and Stephen LaceyTORONTO/NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Private equity-backed Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc is seeking to raise as much as C$1 billion ($778 million) in an initial public offering that could be filed as early as the first quarter, people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.The company, whose ‘Green for Life’ slogan is seen across major Canadian cities, is interviewing Canadian and international investment banks to pick underwriters, the people said, declining to be named discussing the confidential matter.A C$1 billion IPO would be the biggest Canadian listing since Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd raised C$1.7 billion early this year, and would value GFL at nearly C$5 billion, the people said.The IPO would provide an exit for investors including U.S. private equity firm HPS Investment Partners LLC and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, a fund linked to a unit of Australian financial services firm Macquarie Group.While an IPO is one of several ways to unlock value, no decision has been made to proceed with an offering, GFL General Counsel Joy Grahek said.HPS and Macquarie declined to comment.GFL has been working closely with Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which are likely to play a big role in the IPO, the people said. The company raised $350 billion in a bond offering in May.Led by Chief Executive Patrick Dovigi, GFL has grown through acquisitions into one of Canada’s biggest waste management companies.GFL, whose flashy green-colored trucks are seen across the country, has about 140 facilities across Canada and in Michigan. It is a major provider of soil recycling services in Ontario.“GFL has been running a process over the last couple of months to appoint banks for an IPO,” said an investment banker. “This is an IPO everyone would want to be on.”The company could raise to C$600 to C$1 billion and has not made a final decision yet, he added.Canadian investors have had a big appetite for IPOs outside of the energy and mining sectors over the past few years, and GFL’s deal could be the biggest non-resource IPO since utility Hydro One went public in 2015.Rivals include Waste Connections Inc, which has operations in Canada and the United States. Waste Connections has a market capitalization of C$23.5 billion.$1 = 1.2854 Canadian dollars Reporting by John Tilak in Toronto and Stephen Lacey for IFR in New York; Additional reporting by David French in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gfl-ipo-canada/update-1-macquarie-backed-canadian-waste-management-firm-gfl-plans-c1-bln-ipo-sources-idINL1N1NZ1ZH'|'2017-11-29T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'a67de1062db935da611b596e108d681443570895'|'Avianca Airlines, shareholder agree to withdraw lawsuits'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - Avianca Holdings and a shareholder agreed to withdraw their lawsuits that were filed following disagreements over a planned partnership with U.S. carrier United Airlines, the Colombian airline said on Wednesday.Kingsland Holdings Ltd, Avianca’s minority shareholder, sued the company and its controlling shareholder Synergy Group Corp earlier this year, seeking to stop the deal with the No.3 U.S. airline.Kingsland had said the alliance represented a bad deal for Avianca’s other shareholders and called it “egregiously one-sided”.In March, Avianca countersued Kingsland, seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, which was filed in New York State Supreme Court in late February.Avianca said on Wednesday that it continued to negotiate a strategic alliance with United Airlines and hopes to finalize an agreement by the end of the year. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/colombia-avianca-holding/avianca-airlines-shareholder-agree-to-withdraw-lawsuits-idINL3N1NZ5O2'|'2017-11-29T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'4283e22a67f0ed2c42c3c4b8996da5fad52f90fa'|'Uber''s third-quarter net loss widens to $1.46 billion - source'|'(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s quarterly losses widened, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as the ride-hailing company wades through legal troubles and faces regulatory scrutiny across the globe.FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S., February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The Silicon Valley-based company’s net loss increased to $1.46 billion in the third quarter from $1.06 billion in the previous quarter, the source said.Quarterly net revenue rose 14 percent to $2 billion and gross bookings increased 11.5 percent to $9.7 billion, on a sequential basis, the person said.As a private company, Uber is not required to publicly report its financial results, but earlier this year it began offering a glimpse of its performance by disclosing certain numbers.On Tuesday, a consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp launched a tender offer for shares of Uber. The Japanese company said some notable early Uber investors including venture capital firms Benchmark, which owns 13 percent of Uber worth $9 billion, and Menlo planned to sell stock.Uber has been hit by a series of scandals this year with the latest being a regulatory crackdown after disclosing that it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.The Financial Times had earlier reported Uber’s third quarter figures.Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-results/ubers-third-quarter-net-loss-widens-to-1-46-billion-source-idINKBN1DT0JK'|'2017-11-29T07:12:00.000+02:00'
'4fef1956951e7d33bc266ea09a6b3dcba0ffab45'|'Yellen: Recovery "increasingly broad based" in both U.S. and worldwide'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has gathered steam this year and will warrant continued interest rate increases amid a global recovery, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told congressional leaders on Wednesday.Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on the U.S. economic outlook, before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria “The economic expansion is increasingly broad based across sectors as well as across much of the global economy,” Yellen said in prepared remarks delivered to the Joint Economic Committee.Stock indexes, bond yields and the dollar were all higher in initial trading.With weak inflation likely to prove “transitory,” she said “we continue to expect that gradual increases in the federal funds rate will be appropriate.”She did not in her prepared remarks comment on the timing of the next rate increase, which markets now expect and which Fed officials have telegraphed will come during the upcoming Dec. 12-13 policy meeting.According to minutes of the Fed’s last meeting “many participants” felt a rate increase would likely be warranted “in the near term.” At his confirmation hearing to become Fed chair, Fed Governor Jerome Powell on Tuesday said the case for a December rate increase was “coming together.”The one question mark involves inflation, which has fallen this year and has been consistently below the Fed’s 2 percent target. Some policymakers feel the Fed should not raise rates until inflation accelerates, and even argue that the Fed’s talk of rate hikes itself has become a problem by weakening public and market expectations about the path of prices.In what may be one of her last public appearances before leaving the Fed chair early next year, however, Yellen focused her written testimony on the economy’s continuing momentum.Job growth averaging 170,000 positions per month is enough to continue to absorb new and sidelined workers into the economy, and growth ticked up to a more than 3 percent annual rate over the last two quarters.On a day after the stock market touched new records, Yellen said that while asset values were “high by historical standards, overall vulnerabilities in the financial sector appear moderate.”She noted that if Congress, currently in the middle of debating tax cuts, wants to raise the country’s economic potential, lawmakers “might consider” policies to encourage business and infrastructure investment, improved education and innovation.Reporting by Howard Schneider; Additional reporting by Jason Lange and Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-yellen/yellen-recovery-increasingly-broad-based-in-both-u-s-and-worldwide-idINKBN1DT2DW'|'2017-11-29T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'9fc7fb8342d92a5caaab5a095bb2bbf96d0d5d50'|'Singapore''s Sabana REIT calls off talks with Warburg Pincus-backed unit - Reuters'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Sabana Shariah Compliant Industrial REIT ( SABA.SI ) said on Saturday that it has ceased talks with Warburg Pincus-backed e-Shang Redwood (ESR) that were exploring options related to the Sabana REIT’s strategic review.Sources familiar with the process told Reuters in August that Asian logistics developer e-Shang Redwood was in advanced talks to buy the Sabana real estate investment trust (REIT), as a first step in the consolidation of Singapore’s $3.5 billion mid-cap industrial trusts.The board of directors of Sabana Real Estate Investment Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of the Sabana REIT, said in a statement on Saturday that those talks with ESR have ended.“The Manager wishes to update that discussions between the Manager and the ESR-REIT Manager have ceased. However, the Manager remains open to considering proposals from prospective strategic partners which will further strengthen Sabana REIT,” Sabana said in a statement.When contacted by Reuters, Warburg Pincus and ESR both declined to comment.Both Sabana and a unit of ESR had confirmed in August that they were holding discussions in connection with Sabana’s strategic review, although they also said there was no assurance that any transaction will materialize from the talks.Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sabanasharia-m-a-esr/singapores-sabana-reit-calls-off-talks-with-warburg-pincus-backed-unit-idINKBN1DP04I'|'2017-11-25T02:04:00.000+02:00'
'32b084d4f861b26ef8c164ab80c031112ec8d48d'|'Scotiabank offers to buy BBVA Chile''s majority stake'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:17 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Scotiabank offers to buy BBVA Chile''s majority stake Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Canada’s Bank Of Nova Scotia said on Tuesday it offered to buy lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s (BBVA) majority stake in its Chile unit for about $2.2 billion (1.6 billion pounds). FILE PHOTO: A woman leaves a Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo BBVA owns 68.19 percent in BBVA Chile while the Chilean family Said owns 31.62 percent. The Said family does not exercise its Right of First Refusal under the shareholders agreement between BBVA and the Said family, Scotiabank said in a statement. BBVA said in August it was looking at the possible sale of its retail bank in Chile after Scotiabank expressed an interest in buying up to 100 percent. Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bbva-chile-bank-of-nova-scotia/scotiabank-offers-to-buy-bbva-chiles-majority-stake-idUKKBN1DS0KR'|'2017-11-28T08:58:00.000+02:00'
'1e596e342c0a19e6352a759926c71c95ecfa602b'|'Mexican brewer Modelo to invest $754 million in Hidalgo state'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican beer maker Grupo Modelo, a unit of global top brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), said on Monday it plans to invest 14 billion pesos ($754 million) to build a brewing and bottling plant in the city of Apan in the central state of Hidalgo.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto gives a speech during an event where Grupo Modelo announced plans $754 mln investment in Hidalgo state, at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Mexico November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Construction is due to begin by the end of this year with operations kicking off in the first quarter of 2019, Mauricio Leyva, Grupo Modelo’s chief executive and AB InBev’s president for Middle Americas, said at an event in Mexico City.“We expect in about 14 to 16 months to be sharing and toasting with you the first beer from this plant,” said Leyva.The news confirmed an earlier Reuters story.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto presided at the event, saying the investment was a vote of confidence in the economy despite recent headwinds.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (C) and members of Mexican brewer company Grupo Modelo take part in a event where Grupo Modelo announced plans $754 mln investment in Hidalgo state, at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Mexico November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero “The fact that domestic and foreign companies keep investing in Mexico is a clear sign that we’re on the right economic path,” said Pena Nieto.In the third quarter, Mexico’s economy shrank for the first time in nearly two years, as a hit from natural disasters compounded concerns that stalled talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement were hurting growth.Grupo Modelo’s new plant will have an initial annual capacity of 12 million hectoliters, equivalent to the production of 9.25 million 355 milliliter bottles per day. The plant will eventually ramp up to double that capacity.The firm, which already has 7 plants in Mexico, makes and exports Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico beer brands among others.($1 = 18.5567 Mexican pesos)Reporting by Anthony Esposito; editing by Jason Neely and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-grupo-modelo-ab-inbev/mexican-brewer-grupo-modelo-plans-754-million-investment-in-hidalgo-state-idINKBN1DR2LZ'|'2017-11-27T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'5bb1cdb1850845234ec23c77b2a8415187947ef8'|'NY fines two Lloyd''s underwriters, others for unlicensed insurance program'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:34 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago NY fines two Lloyd''s underwriters, others for unlicensed insurance program Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Two Lloyd’s of London Ltd underwriters and a credit union for United Nations employees are among the entities that have agreed to pay a total of $1.47 million for their roles in an unlicensed life insurance program, New York’s insurance regulator said on Tuesday. The New York State Department of Financial Services reached a settlement with Lloyd’s underwriters Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates and Beazley Furlonge Ltd brokerage Clements & Co and the United Nations Federal Credit Union, the regulator said. More than 4,300 policies were sold, the regulator said. Reporting by Suzanne BarlynEditing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-lloyds-fine/ny-fines-two-lloyds-underwriters-others-for-unlicensed-insurance-program-idUSKBN1DS2HN'|'2017-11-28T20:21:00.000+02:00'
'b0c180a143008e76c346c9f046c3e9bf66038fc1'|'UK''s Palmer & Harvey placed in administration'|'November 28, 2017 / 6:04 PM / in an hour Jobs cut as UK wholesaler Palmer & Harvey enters administration Martinne Geller 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British retail supplier Palmer & Harvey McLane Ltd has been placed in administration after running out of cash, with the immediate loss of some 2,500 jobs, accounting firm PwC said. The group, which delivers cigarettes, food and drinks to retail chains and convenience stores, has been hit by challenging trading conditions in recent months and efforts to restructure it have been unsuccessful, PwC said on Tuesday. “The company has insufficient cash resources to continue to trade beyond the short term and the directors have concluded that there is no longer any reasonable prospect of a sale,” said Matthew Callaghan, an administrator at PwC, which has been appointed to oversee the process. It was necessary for Palmer & Harvey - which says it is Britain’s fifth-largest private company - to make about 2,500 of its 3,400 employees redundant immediately, PwC said. The 92-year-old company has about 90,000 customers ranging from small local shops to major supermarket chains, supplying them with up to 12,000 different products. However, supermarket chain Tesco’s ( TSCO.L ) 3.7 billion pound deal to acquire rival wholesaler Booker Group ( BOK.L ) had been expected to put further pressure on P&H’s business. The job losses will affect its head office in East Sussex and its branch network, which includes 14 distribution centres around the country. Of the remaining 900 jobs, about half of them are in the company’s core wholesale business and will help manage it toward an orderly closure, and the other half are in three subsidiaries the administrators are seeking to sell. P&H could not be reached for comment. Under the British administration process a company which cannot pay money it owes is protected from its creditors while administrators seek to pay as much of its debts as possible. FAILED RESCUE One of P&H’s major suppliers, tobacco company Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ), said it expects a one-time profit hit in the current year of up to 160 million pounds, mostly related to excise duty which is non-recoverable. It does not anticipate any significant disruption to its UK operations. Imperial, maker of Gauloises cigarettes, said it had been working for several months on a rescue plan for P&H and “was prepared to explore further alternatives but other parties have been unwilling to pursue these to a successful conclusion”. Imperial and rival Japan Tobacco International ( 2914.T ) both hired advisers to examine options to rescue P&H earlier this year. A spokesman for the Japanese group’s international division said it had worked continuously to facilitate a constructive solution, including extending “significant” financial and operational support. “Regrettably our considerable efforts were not successful,” he said, adding that a contingency plan was in place to avoid any significant interruption in the supply of its cigarettes. Carlyle Group ( CG.O ), which had been in talks to buy P&H as part of a rescue deal, declined to comment. The administrators said they are continuing to explore options for a sale of several P&H entities including P&H Direct Van Sales Ltd, P&H Sweetdirect Ltd and P&H Snacksdirect Ltd. Additional reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-palmer-harvey-administration/uks-palmer-harvey-placed-in-administration-idUKKBN1DS2EU'|'2017-11-28T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'5d655823c152fc817ca2452d6b60e291a6ec3b75'|'UK''s Palmer & Harvey placed in administration'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - UK cigarette wholesaler Palmer & Harvey has been placed in administration, with accountants PwC appointed to oversee the process, the accounting firm said on Tuesday.The group has been by hit by challenging trading conditions in recent months and efforts to restructure the business have been unsuccessful, PwC said in a statement. It added that the privately-held company has been unable to secure additional funding to support the business.PwC said it has been necessary to make about 2,500 of P&H&rsquo;s 3,400 employees redundant immediately.Palmer & Harvey could not immediately be reached for comment.The administrators said they are continuing to explore options for a sale of several P&H entities including P&H Direct Van Sales Ltd, P&H Sweetdirect Ltd and P&H Snacksdirect Ltd. (Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/palmerharvey-administration/uks-palmer-harvey-placed-in-administration-idINL9N1D4016'|'2017-11-28T14:56:00.000+02:00'
'06fee39a9a486a2ee884cce67edf6f5fa479f555'|'Oil falls on doubts over OPEC, pipeline restart'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:23 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Oil falls on doubts over OPEC, pipeline restart Christopher Johnson 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on uncertainty over the outcome of a key OPEC meeting this week due to decide on production policy for the next year. FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Brent crude oil fell 58 cents on the day to $63.26 a barrel by 1240 GMT. U.S. light crude was 45 cents lower at $57.66, after falling 1.4 percent in the last session. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other key producers, including Russia, meet on Nov. 30 to discuss whether to continue to limit production in an effort to drain global inventories to help push up prices. They cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in January and agreed to hold down output until March. The market had expected OPEC to extend the limits by another six to nine months, but this is now less certain. “We believe that the outcome of this meeting is much more uncertain than usual,” Goldman Sachs analysts said, suggesting that the oil market may have been wrong to assume that OPEC would agree to restrict output until the end of 2018. “We view risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as we believe that current prices, time spreads and positioning already reflect a high probability of a nine-month extension,” the Goldman analysts said. Doubts have emerged over whether Russia will agree to join the OPEC in an extension of production curbs beyond March. Russia’s economy was negatively affected in October by the ongoing curbs, which saw Moscow agree to cut output by 300,000 bpd, Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said. U.S. crude touched $59.05 a barrel on Friday, its highest since mid-2015, fuelled by the outage of the Keystone pipeline, one of Canada’s main crude export routes to the United States. But TransCanada Corp this week said it would restart the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline at reduced pressure on Tuesday after getting approval from U.S. regulators. “This bearish development adds to the underlying unease surrounding the outcome of Thursday’s OPEC meeting,” PVM Oil Associates analysts said in a report. Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said it looked as if producers had nearly concluded an agreement to extend cuts until the end of next year. “(But) if the production cut agreement ends in March 2018, our forecast shows there would be a projected 2.4 million bpd year-on-year increase in world oil supply for 2018,” said Ann-Louise Hittle, vice president for macro oils. Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-fall-on-uncertainty-over-opec-output-cuts-pipeline-restart-idUKKBN1DS054'|'2017-11-28T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'350a64bc3cac247666e6b13d6b0109e5c5a4cace'|'Toyota taps Denso executive as CFO in latest management shuffle'|'Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 4:04 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Toyota taps Denso exec as CFO in latest management shuffle Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) on Tuesday appointed a senior official at its biggest parts supplier as a top executive, promoting cooperation with its group companies as it pushes to compete in developing lower-emission cars and automated driving functions. A Toyota Motor Corp. logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The world’s No. 2 automaker has been overhauling its corporate structure to speed up decision-making and tap the R&D prowess of its supplier network as it faces increasing competition from global automakers and software companies to develop new transportation technologies. Koji Kobayashi, vice chairman and board member of Denso Corp ( 6902.T ), who previously worked at Toyota for more than 30 years in roles including finance and sales, returns to the Japanese company as chief financial and risk officer from January. The company is also promoting Shigeki Tomoyama, who heads Toyota’s division for connected vehicle technologies and its racing arm, and Moritaka Yoshida, an architect of Toyota’s modular production system who also worked on the firm’s latest foray into automated driving functions, to executive vice president roles. As the onslaught of electrification, automation and car- and ride-sharing requires automakers to act quickly to develop and market new technologies, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said the company was facing a “now or never” moment which could determine whether auto companies would continue to play a leading role as carmakers. “Our coming structural change reflects our will that the Toyota Group will tackle this era of profound transformation,” Toyoda said in a statement. Gill Pratt, who heads Toyota’s artificial intelligence research division, has been named as a company fellow, while Satoshi Ogiso, a key member of Toyota’s original Prius development team who was dispatched to head brake supplier Advics Co in 2015, will return to Toyota as head of its commercial vehicles division. The latest shuffle comes months after Toyota slimmed down its representative directors to centralize responsibility and accountability for the entire company. Chief Branding Officer Tokuo Fukuichi, a former president of the Lexus luxury division, will resign from his post after taking it up in April. Toshiyuki Mizushima, head of the company’s in-house powertrain company, will step down after leading the division created in April 2016. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-strategy/toyota-taps-denso-exec-as-cfo-in-latest-management-shuffle-idUKKBN1DS0B2'|'2017-11-28T06:04:00.000+02:00'
'0bc5eefec70941eb46587cff6c007d15de379f25'|'Canada''s Scotiabank fourth-quarter earnings up 4 percent'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS.TO ), Canada’s third-biggest lender, on Tuesday said its earnings increased by 4 percent in the fourth quarter, benefiting from strong performances by each of its businesses.FILE PHOTO: A woman leaves a Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo Scotiabank reported earnings per share of C$1.64 in the quarter, up from C$1.57 a year ago. Analysts had on average forecast earnings of C$1.66 per share, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data showed.Reporting by Matt Scuffham; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-scotiabank-results/canadas-scotiabank-fourth-quarter-earnings-up-4-percent-idUSKBN1DS1AD'|'2017-11-28T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'8fb27909fcb7a32d808852c564b2201482edc9ce'|'Google launches app to for mobile phone users in emerging markets'|'November 30, 2017 / 4:39 AM / in 17 hours Google launches app to for mobile phone users in emerging markets Paresh Dave 2 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google introduced an app on Wednesday designed to help Android smartphone users stay under the limits of pricey mobile data packages in developing countries. The Google app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Datally, the new service, lists data consumption by app and enables users to shut off data transmissions by apps of their choosing, Google group product manager Josh Woodward told Reuters in an interview. It also provides a directory of nearby Wi-Fi networks that includes user commentary on their quality. The offering is the latest from Google’s Next Billion Users division, an internal effort to make internet services more accessible to people in countries where technology infrastructure is not as fast or affordable as in the United States or Western Europe. Previously, Google announced a peer-to-peer payment app aimed at Indian consumers and a low-bandwidth version of YouTube. Some Datally functionality is available within the settings pages of Android smartphones, but Woodward said he expects the specialized app will make it easier to understand the options. During testing of Datally, app developers inside and outside Google initially expressed concern about the effects of users limiting their services’ data access, Woodward said. But they warmed to the idea as they saw that users welcomed data consumption by “apps they really like,” Woodward said. “The visibility gives users more confidence to use those apps.” Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-datally/google-launches-app-to-for-mobile-phone-users-in-emerging-markets-idUSKBN1DU0E5'|'2017-11-30T06:30:00.000+02:00'
'438eeb9afe40f8a5e181f4094f2ff04d712c1134'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 29'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Bitcoin crossed the $10,000 mark for the first time in its nine-year history, the latest burst in a rally that has transformed the virtual currency from a curiosity to a hot topic for mainstream investors. ( on.wsj.com/2j2BgHN )- AT&T Inc and Time Warner Inc said an explosion of online programming has spawned a "golden age for television—and for consumers," in its first court filing countering government claims that their planned merger would stymie competition and hurt customers. ( on.wsj.com/2j1VP77 )- Uber Technologies Inc had a team dedicated to stealing trade secrets and helped employees dodge regulators'' scrutiny, according to allegations from a former employee that are generating the latest in a string of controversies to beset the ride-hailing firm. ( on.wsj.com/2j16C1i )- North Korea said Wednesday that it fired a brand-new intercontinental ballistic missile into the waters off Japan, ending a more than two-month hiatus by Pyongyang and threatening to ramp up tensions with the U.S. and in the region. ( on.wsj.com/2j2ar6s )- Siemens AG, the German engineering conglomerate, is readying the listing of a big chunk of its health-care business, estimated to be worth up to $47 billion. ( on.wsj.com/2j1fm7R )- British movie theater operator Cineworld Group Plc has made an offer for American counterpart Regal Entertainment Group, Regal confirmed Tuesday afternoon. ( on.wsj.com/2j19efC )- After making multiple offers to buy Rockwell Automation Inc, Emerson Electric Co said Tuesday it was rescinding its offer because of the target company''s board''s "unwillingness to engage in discussions." ( on.wsj.com/2j1hMmG )Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-nov-29-idUSL3N1NZ2KN'|'2017-11-29T07:53:00.000+02:00'
'3e8cb791bff34372c60cb9664057e1e9962fb894'|'Progress at East European banks improves expansion prospects, report says'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:11 PM / in 34 minutes Progress at East European banks improves expansion prospects, report says Reuters Staff 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Steady progress in lending and a declining backlog of bad loans have improved the outlook for banks operating in emerging Europe and raised expectations of a selective expansion, a report from the Vienna Initiative said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The sun is reflected off the windows of headquarter of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in central London, Britain, November 22, Britain 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Based on data from the Bank for International Settlements, the report said banks across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) reported increasing demand for credit and an easing of supply conditions in the six months through September. “This marks the first clear-cut easing event over the past two years,” the Vienna Initiative said. “Contributions to demand from investment... exerted a significant positive impact, scoring increasingly higher than in previous releases of the survey and pointing at a strengthening of the economic cycle.” Created in 2009 after the global financial crisis to prevent large-scale withdrawals by Western banks from emerging Europe, the Vienna Initiative is credited with averting banking crises in the region after 2008. It includes major banks as well as groups such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. A large majority of international lenders saw returns on assets of CESEE operations in the six months through September to be higher than overall group returns, the Vienna Initiative said. “With the regional outlook improving, expectations of future selective strategic expansions are on the rise,” it said. The ratio of non-performing loans (NPL) across the region continued to decline, standing at 6.2 percent as of end-December 2016 compared with 7.1 percent at the end of June 2016. Bad loans totaled 46.5 billion euros ($55.1 billion) or around 3.8 percent of the region’s annual economic output. All countries in the region recorded a drop in their NPL ratio since December 2015, with the exception of Albania. However, NPL ratios still exceeded 10 percent in six of the 17 countries in the region. After the crises in 2008 and the euro crisis in 2012, banks both foreign and local cut lending lines and many western European banks sold assets in eastern Europe to heal balance sheets damaged by the crisis and to meet new capital rules. ($1 = 0.8439 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ebrd-banks/progress-at-east-european-banks-improves-expansion-prospects-report-says-idUKKBN1DT2UX'|'2017-11-29T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'ff5100f479eaa5496e1c84e6f5e75586b601ae46'|'GM says Corvette super car will be priced at $119,995 and above'|'Reuters TV United States November 29, 2017 / 5:30 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago GM says Corvette super car will be priced at $119,995 and above Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - General Motors Co’s ( GM.N ) 755-horsepower Corvette ZR1 super car will have a starting price of $119,995, with a convertible version from $123,995, its global product development chief, Mark Reuss, said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo The Corvette competes with Italian luxury sportscar Ferrari SpA ( RACE.MI ) in the elite, high-performance sports car segment, and is the opposite end of the automotive spectrum from the electric and self-driving cars GM is expected to highlight at an investor conference on Thursday. Reuss revealed the price at an event ahead of the LA Auto Show. Reporting by Joseph WhiteEditing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gm-corvette/gm-says-corvette-super-car-will-be-priced-at-119995-and-above-idUKKBN1DT0K6'|'2017-11-29T07:24:00.000+02:00'
'20a6c2bf886ed1231352a1db5cfdded289b60d06'|'France''s Altran to buy engineering services firm Aricent from KKR-led group'|'(Reuters) - French technology consultancy Altran ( ALTT.PA ) is to buy U.S. design and engineering services firm Aricent in a 1.7 billion euro ($2.01 billion) deal.Altran plans a 750 million euro rights issue to help to finance the purchase, which contributed to a sharp fall in the company’s shares on Thursday.The acquisition of the California-based company from a group of investors led by KKR ( KKR.N ) is the largest of a series of deals done by Altran and will create a group with revenue of almost 3 billion euros, Altran said on Thursday.“The combination contains no overlap ... and they’re bringing us com (communication), technology systems, semiconductors, software and design,” Chief Executive Dominique Cerutti told reporters during a call.The acquisition will give Altran access to a number of firms including Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ), Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ), AT&T ( T.N ) and Vodafone ( VOD.L ), Cerutti added.A Paris-based analyst and a London-based analyst both pointed to concerns regarding the rights issue and the size of the acquisition as factors driving the stock lower.“The acquisition is being made at quite high multiples ... so perhaps there is a bit of cautiousness about the deal,” the Paris-based analyst said.Altran’s shares were down 4.8 percent at 0949 GMT.As a result of the deal, Altran expects to hit two years early its 2020 targets of over 3 billion euros in revenue with an EBIT margin of around 13 percent and free cash flow of 7 percent.The company said the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, would be accretive to earnings per share from the first year and will generate 150 million euros of additional revenues.($1 = 0.8456 euros)Reporting by Alan Charlish and Camille Raynaud in Gdynia. Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aricent-m-a-altran-tech/frances-altran-to-buy-engineering-services-firm-aricent-from-kkr-led-group-idINKBN1DU0KT'|'2017-11-30T03:43:00.000+02:00'
'2ca5c743314376a5bfa82aa51d5117c8b448fdc0'|'UK funds raise equities, see no end to bull run in 2018 - Reuters poll'|'November 30, 2017 / 12:38 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UK funds raise equities, see no end to bull run in 2018 - Reuters poll Claire Milhench 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British fund managers resumed raising their equity exposure in November, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, with over two-thirds expecting the global equity bull run to continue throughout 2018. London Stock Exchange interiors are seen during Israel''s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu''s visit in London, Britain, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh However, UK investors cut their U.S. stocks allocation by a considerable 3.8 percentage points to 24.7 percent, the lowest level since August 2016, reflecting concerns about valuations in the tech sector, which is up 39 percent year-to-date. Reuters’ monthly asset allocation poll of 18 money managers was carried out between Nov. 14-28, and showed investors raising equity holdings by almost 3 percentage points to 52.8 percent. This reversed most of a cut in October’s poll, but was still shy of September’s two-year highs. “We retain a bullish outlook for global equities based on relative valuations, above-trend global growth and improving corporate profitability,” said Kamil Amin, an investment strategist at Charles Stanley. Over two-thirds of poll participants who answered a question on the outlook for global equities said the bull run could continue throughout 2018, after world stocks indices smashed records again in November. “Stock prices have been rising for more than eight years but bull markets don’t die of old age,” said Trevor Greetham, head of multi-asset at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM). “There are few signs of the excessive growth, excessive valuation or excessive financial leverage that usually signal the approach of a bear market,” he added. Justin Onuekwusi, a fund manager at Legal & General Investment Management, argued that a recession was most likely to be the cause of the bull market ending, and it was hard to see that occurring in 2018 or early 2019. BIGGEST CASUALTY But some managers expressed concerns about complacency and valuations, prompting them to take risk off the table. U.S. stocks were the biggest casualty of such moves, with managers top-slicing allocations after a stellar year that has seen the S&P 500 gain over 17 percent. Instead, investors raised UK equity exposure by 1.6 percentage points to 26.3 percent, the highest level since July 2016, when asset managers were still reeling from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. They also lifted allocation to emerging market equities to 21.7 percent, from last month’s 19.9 percent, while Japanese stock holdings rose to 9.9 percent, the highest since January 2017. Japanese stocks index surged to a near 11-year high in early November on strong earnings hopes. “We still believe there is more gas in the tank for Europe, Japan, Asia and emerging markets,” said John Husselbee, head of multi-asset at Liontrust. On the fixed income side, investors cut overall bond exposure by 2 percentage points to 26.7 percent. But within debt portfolios, holdings of high-yield bonds rose to 21.4 percent, a four-month high. RLAM’s Greetham argued that high-yield tended to do well outside of recessions, and the probability of an inflationary downturn remained low. However, 60 percent of respondents who answered a specific question on junk debt said the bull market was over, with yields at record lows on some bonds and multi-billion dollar outflows from the sector in recent weeks. Mouhammed Choukeir, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros, noted that European junk bonds now yield less than 2 percent, compared with 6 percent just two years ago - before the European Central Bank began buying corporate bonds. “At current levels, it is hard to imagine rates going much lower,” he said. Reporting by Claire Milhench; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-poll-uk/uk-funds-raise-equities-see-no-end-to-bull-run-in-2018-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1DU1P3'|'2017-11-30T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'6c822ad868247057c67a0e2cae3bdecfffe90309'|'Roark Capital to buy Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion'|'(Reuters) - Arby’s restaurant owner Roark Capital Group will buy Buffalo Wild Wings Inc ( BWLD.O ) for $2.4 billion, months after an activist investor won seats on the chicken wing restaurant’s board following a proxy fight demanding management change.A pedestrian walks past a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in New York, U.S., February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Buffalo Wild Wings shares were up 6.6 percent at $156 in premarket trading on Tuesday.Private equity firm Roark will buy the company for $157 per share, representing a premium of 7.2 percent to the restaurant’s Monday’s close.Roark’s offer is at a 34 percent premium to the stock price on Nov. 13, the last trading day before media reports that private equity firm had made an offer of more than $150 per share.The deal is the latest in a flurry of restaurant takeovers by private equity firms. In October, casual dining chain Ruby Tuesday was bought by NRD Capital for about $335 million, while Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings took U.S. food chains Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts private over the last two years.Including debt, the Buffalo Wild Wings deal is valued at about $2.9 billion.Activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management, which had put pressure on the company to pursue strategies to boost its stock price, said it would vote for the deal.Marcato, which owns 6.4 percent of Buffalo Wild Wings, won three seats on the company’s board in June after a sustained campaign criticizing its performance under Chief Executive Sally Smith.Following the deal close, expected during the first quarter of 2018, Buffalo Wild Wings will become a privately held unit of Arby’s and operate as an independent brand.Barclays served as financial adviser and White & Case LLP as legal adviser to Arby‘s. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC served as financial adviser and Faegre Baker Daniels LLP as legal counsel to Buffalo Wild Wings.Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-m-a-roark-capital/roark-capital-to-buy-buffalo-wild-wings-for-2-9-billion-idINKBN1DS1GF'|'2017-11-28T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'ad31a15b566b8632164d6fb29fcb4798959d9b99'|'Japan Inc scandals widen as Toray admits cheating'|'Reuters TV United States November 28, 2017 / 1:29 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Japan Inc scandals widen as Toray admits cheating Sam Nussey , Makiko Yamazaki 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ) on Tuesday revealed 149 cases of quality data falsification at a materials-making subsidiary spanning eight years, in the latest quality-assurance scandal to hit a Japanese manufacturer. A photographer takes a picture of Toray Industries'' president Akihiro Nikkaku at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The world’s largest maker of carbon fiber composite materials said the cheating involved products including tire-strengthening cords sold to 13 clients by Toray Hybrid Cord Inc. A broader probe into possible wrongdoing across the group was ongoing. Toray did not name any affected customers but ruled out U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co ( BA.N ), for which the Japanese company is a major supplier of carbon fiber used in passenger jets, and Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Ltd ( 9983.T ), which uses its products in its best-selling Heattech clothing line. Japanese companies are facing growing pressure to disclose quality-assurance failings after widespread data falsification was uncovered at Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ). Toray said its subsidiary became aware of its problems in July last year, and the group learnt of them in October. It only decided to publicly disclose the cheating after rumors appeared earlier this month in an anonymous online post. “There were no legal violations or safety problems; this was between us and our customers, and so there was no need to disclose it,” Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku told a news conference. The internet post forced the company to “give a proper explanation before rumors spread”, Nikkaku said, adding that even if similar cases were found in the future the company would not be required to make them public. The comments are likely to fuel concerns about Japanese manufacturers’ governance and their commitment to stamp out cheating. Last week Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) admitted that it may have sent products with falsified data to scores of customers, and possibly continued to ship these products for months after the wrongdoing was discovered. Automakers Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) and Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) have also been hit by compliance scandals. Toray Industries'' president, Akihiro Nikkaku attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The admissions threaten to damage trust in Japan’s manufacturing industry at a time of growing competition from its Asian neighbors such as China and South Korea. Toray’s shares plunged more than 8 percent following the announcement and closed down 5.3 percent in a flat broader market. HIGH FLYER While Toray is not among the most-recognized Japanese brands internationally, its strong, light carbon fiber materials are used in Boeing’s 777X passenger jet and 787 Dreamliner. FILE PHOTO - A ballgirl runs past the logo of Toray Industries Inc. at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament, which is sponsored by the company, in Tokyo September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Issei Kato The company is represented at the heart of Japan’s conservative corporate establishment, with former president Sadayuki Sakakibara heading the Keidanren business lobby. Toray said it was in the process of notifying clients about the falsification and had not heard back from them about performance or safety issues with the fiber products used to strengthen tires and other industrial goods. The affected customers were mostly in Japan but included at least one in South Korea. Two quality control managers had led the falsification, motivated partly by pressure to meet product delivery targets. The two managers responsible for the cheating have been transferred to different positions. Toray found the cases after an in-house survey pointed to the malpractice, prompting an internal investigation which Nikkaku said he hoped to complete by March next year. Combined revenue of the 149 cases amounted to 150 million yen ($1.35 million) and would not have a big earnings impact, Nikkaku said. ($1 = 111.2400 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toray-scandal/japans-toray-to-hold-news-conference-on-data-falsification-at-unit-idUKKBN1DS05A'|'2017-11-28T08:55:00.000+02:00'
'9a9c6f23c27aa95d3de6badb14e273d8ea3e2252'|'France''s Casino adopts Ocado''s technology for e-commerce expansion'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:34 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago France''s Casino adopts Ocado''s technology for e-commerce expansion Paul Sandle 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - French supermarket Groupe Casino has agreed to use British online retailer Ocado’s e-commerce platform to expand its business, driving Ocado shares as much as 25 percent higher. FILE PHOTO: An Ocado truck returns to the Ocado depot in Hatfield, southern England July 21, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo Partnerships with international retailers are central to the growth prospects of Ocado, whose own branded online grocery service has only a 1.3 percent market share in Britain. Ocado’s shares jumped to their highest level since the company signed a separate deal with another unnamed retailer in June. They were trading up almost 21 percent at 1145 GMT, valuing the group at over 1.9 billion pounds. The latest deal gives Casino exclusive rights to use Ocado’s robotics, online technology and delivery software in France. “We expect this deal to be one of many successful collaborations with leading retailers the world over,” Ocado Chief Executive Tim Steiner said. Amazon’s expansion into the grocery business has fuelled concerns about intense competition in the sector. Ocado and Casino will build a customer-fulfilment centre (CFC) equipped with Ocado’s robotics and picking software to serve customers of the upmarket Monoprix brand in and around Paris and in the Normandy and Hauts de France regions. “This agreement is a major leap in terms of quality: 50,000 food items will be offered in the first stage to customers in the Greater Paris area with precise and speedy delivery at home and through a platform which makes it achievable to do this profitably,” Casino Chief Executive Jean-Charles Naouri said. Casino, which competes with Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Auchan, has close to 13,000 stores in France, Latin America and the Indian Ocean region, although the Ocado tie-up only covers the French market. Casino was trading up 2.1 percent at 49.2650 euros. HOME DELIVERY The online grocery market in France is focused on “Drive” or click and collect rather than direct home delivery, with the latter only accounting for 5 percent of online sales. Analysts said Casino was betting on the online shopper in France adopting similar habits to Britain where online delivery vans are a common sight in towns and cities. Steiner said the new fulfilment centre, which will take about two years to become operational, would be bigger than Ocado’s equivalent in Andover, southern England, which is fully automated and can handle 70,000 orders a week. Analysts at Bernstein said it was a great deal for Ocado, and there may be more in the pipeline. “However, justifying the Ocado share price requires one big deal per year for the foreseeable future and we don’t believe there is sufficient deal potential for this,” they said. Ocado said on Tuesday it expected the deal to create significant long-term value. In its next financial year, which starts next week, it will be earnings neutral, with the costs of establishing the partnership offsetting the initial fees payable. Ocado said it expected to incur additional capital expenditure of 15 million pounds next year, with further capex in future years. ($1 = 0.7506 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ocado-group-casino/frances-casino-to-use-ocados-technology-for-e-commerce-push-idUKKBN1DS0M2'|'2017-11-28T18:56:00.000+02:00'
'09dd9139d8d934c526b15d81cbc163e41590425a'|'Activist White Tale to take demands to Clariant shareholders'|'Reuters TV United States  23 AM / a minute ago Activist White Tale to take demands to Clariant shareholders Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Activist investor White Tale said it would take its demands directly to Clariant’s ( CLN.S ) shareholders after the Swiss specialty chemicals maker snubbed its request for an independent strategic review and three seats on its board of directors. The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “White Tale has been consistent in both private conversations and in our public statements about the need for a thorough, independent review of all strategic alternatives,” White Tale said on Tuesday. It holds more than 20 percent in Clariant, making it the biggest shareholder. “We look forward to bringing these matters to shareholders directly,” White Tale, whose principals include hedge fund manager Keith Meister and the New York City investment firm 40 North, said in a statement. White Tale last month succeeded in derailing Clariant’s planned $20 billion merger with U.S.-based Huntsman HUN.S and threatened at the time to call an extraordinary general meeting if the company did not meet its demands. Last week, Clariant refused to hire an outside investment bank to review its options, contending that White Tale wanted such a process only because it was seeking to break up the Swiss company. The board offered White Tale just one possible seat on the board. White Tale said on Tuesday it had never advocated breaking up the company “despite the false claims by Clariant”. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Tom Hogue and Michael Shields'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-clariant-whitetale/activist-white-tale-to-take-demands-to-clariant-shareholders-idUKKBN1DS0GS'|'2017-11-28T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'65ae7d656ea87ac8211ea4cb548cbee1000949fb'|'South Korea''s Jin Air says IPO to raise $350 million'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean budget airline Jin Air Co Ltd said on Tuesday its planned initial public offering (IPO) would raise 381.6 billion won ($350 million).The affiliate of South Korea’s biggest carrier, Korean Air Lines Co Ltd ( 003490.KS ), priced its IPO at the top of an indicative range of 26,800-31,800 won per share, the airline said in a regulatory filing.It plans to debut on the South Korean main bourse .KS11 some time in December.Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-jin-air-ipo/south-koreas-jin-air-says-ipo-to-raise-350-million-idINKBN1DS06E'|'2017-11-27T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'75abf2076225a333335e267840a257e57ee56012'|'Unilever to buy U.S. bodycare products company Sundial Brands'|'November 27, 2017 / 3:57 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Unilever to buy U.S. bodycare products company Sundial Brands Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) is to buy U.S.-based company Sundial Brands, a maker of hair and skincare products, expanding deeper into the fast-growing personal care products market. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The maker of Dove soap and Axe body spray announced the deal on Monday, without disclosing financial terms. Sundial, a 26-year-old company based in New York, is home to brands including SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage and Madam C.J. Walker. It is expected to have turnover of $240 million this year. Sundial will operate as a standalone unit within Unilever and its founder, Richelieu Dennis, who hails from Liberia, will stay on to run it. Buying Sundial accelerates Unilever’s push deeper into personal care products, which tend to grow faster and be more international than its food business. The deal is part of a bigger buying spree by Unilever, which earlier this year rebuffed a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft-Heinz ( KHC.O ), that has included Pukka Herbs and Tazo tea, Carver Korea beauty products and Mae Terra food. (Corrects third paragraph to read “New York” instead of “New Jersey”) Reporting by Martinne GellerEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-m-a-sundial/unilever-to-buy-u-s-bodycare-products-company-sundial-brands-idUKKBN1DR1Y3'|'2017-11-27T22:44:00.000+02:00'
'e302b8f27a0f0c0c8c3098eaa2d4bcf8e736db50'|'Oil falls on doubts over OPEC, pipeline restart'|'November 28, 2017 / 1:23 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Oil falls on doubts over OPEC, pipeline restart Christopher Johnson 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Tuesday, weighed down by uncertainty over the outcome of an OPEC meeting next week at which an extension to its price-supporting oil output cuts will be discussed. FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude oil LCOc1 fell 44 cents on the day to $63.40 a barrel by 1406 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 26 cents lower at $57.85, after falling 1.4 percent in the last session. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other key producers, including Russia, meet on Nov. 30 to discuss whether to continue to limit production in an effort to drain global inventories to help push up prices. They cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in January and agreed to hold down output until March. The market had expected OPEC to extend the limits by another six to nine months, but this is now less certain. “We believe that the outcome of this meeting is much more uncertain than usual,” Goldman Sachs analysts said. “We view risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as we believe that current prices, time spreads and positioning already reflect a high probability of a nine-month extension,” the Goldman analysts said. Doubts have emerged over whether Russia will agree to join the OPEC-led group in an extension of production curbs, which Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin has described as negative for the country’s economy. Though the government wants high oil prices ahead of a presidential election in March 2018, officials have also voiced worries about pricier oil boosting the rouble and undermining the competitiveness of Russia’s economy. Citigroup’s head of commodity research told Reuters on Tuesday that he expects OPEC to extend the deal until the middle of next year, rather than the end. But anything less than an extension until the end of next year will cause a sell-off in the price, Citi’s Ed Morse added. U.S. crude touched $59.05 a barrel on Friday, its highest since mid-2015, fueled by the outage of the Keystone pipeline, one of Canada’s main crude export routes to the United States. But TransCanada Corp ( TRP.TO ) this week said it would restart the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline at reduced pressure on Tuesday after getting approval from U.S. regulators. “This bearish development adds to the underlying unease surrounding the outcome of Thursday’s OPEC meeting,” PVM Oil Associates analysts said in a report. Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said it looked as if producers had nearly concluded an agreement to extend cuts until the end of next year. “(But) if the production cut agreement ends in March 2018, our forecast shows there would be a projected 2.4 million bpd year-on-year increase in world oil supply for 2018,” said Ann-Louise Hittle, vice president for macro oils. Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-fall-on-uncertainty-over-opec-output-cuts-pipeline-restart-idUKKBN1DS04X'|'2017-11-28T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'4117a8407bb3e9d5473eadafa9d59feda3a3ca09'|'Banks view turning branches to subsidiaries as Brexit ''red line'''|'November 29, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago Banks view turning branches to subsidiaries as Brexit ''red line'' Anjuli Davies 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign banks in Britain view any attempt to make them convert their branches to subsidiaries after Brexit as a “red line” which would likely cause them to rethink their presence in the country, an industry report said on Wednesday. The late winter light shines on the buildings in the City of London financial district of London, Britain November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Sam Woods said earlier this year that branches of European Union banks in London might have to apply to become subsidiaries after Britain leaves, a costly exercise that involves building up capital and reserves locally. Several European banks base the bulk of their investment banking activities, such as sales and trading, in London, operating via a branch structure that relies on capital held by their parent and are mainly supervised by their home regulator. “A requirement to subsidiarise was a clear ”red line“ for most branches, with both EU and non- EU branches confirming that a subsidiarisation approach would cause them to reassess their presence in the UK, possibly leading to the closure of the UK branch,” the report by the Association of Foreign Banks (AFB) and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright found after surveying senior executives from global banks. Woods has said that he will have to decide by Christmas if branches of EU financial firms in London must convert to subsidiaries and be directly supervised by the (Prudential Regulation Authority) PRA. British regulators have been comfortable with this situation with Britain as part of the EU, but once Britain leaves they will want these banks to have enough capital to support their business and ensure that British taxpayers are not left footing the bill in a crisis. The focus so far has been on banks based in Britain applying for licences to operate on the continent once Britain leaves the EU. Deutsche Bank has 9,000 staff based in Britain, while BNP Paribas has around 6,500 staff in the country, where it bases the bulk of its investment banking business and Societe Generale has some 4,000 staff in Britain. “A significant majority of EU branch respondents said that enforced subsidiarisation would cause them to reconsider their presence in the UK, with the two most likely outcomes being reallocation of regulated activity into the EU, or closure of London branches and withdrawal from the UK altogether,” the report added. A report from Boston Consulting has estimated the switch to a full subsidiary structure could cost European banks around 40 billion euros (billion) in extra capital Some respondents said that one solution would be to allow branches to continue operating where the parent entity is in a similarly regulated market and only insist on subsidiary status if there was UK deposit taking activity. ($1 = 0.8447 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/banks-view-turning-branches-to-subsidiaries-as-brexit-red-line-idUKKBN1DT1L1'|'2017-11-29T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'2f774d1618a55a0f36eb0354815d0906e71ac3bd'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 29'|'Nov 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HeadlinesNomura to inject nearly $900 mln into new business for restructuring on.ft.com/2hXHZSpBank of England chief pushes back on call to resolve LSE row on.ft.com/2j24Op7HNA to seek Swiss public listing for Gategroup on.ft.com/2AdU0xQOverviewNomura Holdings Inc will inject 100 billion yen ($895.6 million) into a new business the financial services provider says will provide funding for corporate restructuring and management buyouts.Bank of England governor Mark Carney has pushed back on a call to intervene in a governance crisis at the London Stock Exchange Group, where an activist investor is trying to force out the chairman and extend the contract of its chief executive.Switzerland’s Gategroup Holding AG announced it was exploring a public offering of its shares just days after the country’s takeover watchdog censured its Chinese owner HNA Group for providing “untrue or incomplete” information when it acquired the company. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-29-idUSL3N1NZ0BX'|'2017-11-29T02:59:00.000+02:00'
'dd27e0c5bc4f5cc94809bd169449216ba4cc1bc9'|'Highland chocolatiers who are Wonkas wilderness - Connected for growth'|'At the edge of the world, everyone disappears in the winter. The tourists leave the glacially cold lochs, pristine beaches, and the cloud-scraping mountains to the brave few who live there all year round. It’s an odd place to open a luxury chocolate shop: the most north-westerly point of the British mainland, under a sky so untouched by city lights that you can see the Milky Way. But chocolatiers Paul Maden and James Findlay wanted a challenge, and in Balnakeil Craft Village – between the village of Durness and the wild splendour of Cape Wrath – they created one for themselves.As remote as their chocolate haven is, at least 40% of Cocoa Mountain’s customer base is from outside of the UK, by virtue of the fact that these are the tourists who visit the beautiful north Highlands. “People will walk in and say: ‘You’re famous in Italy!’ Or they’ll say they’ve come all the way from New York to visit. I think visiting us is quite special. Then they all go back home to wherever they are, whether it’s America or Germany or Australia, and for us Facebook is the only way we can keep in touch with those people.”For Maden and Findlay, both in their 40s, chocolate was never the life plan, but it was always the great love. “As a kid I was obsessed with Willy Wonka,” says Maden. “I loved the whole chocolate factory idea and all the magical things that you can make. The more you know about chocolate making, the more you realise that Roald Dahl had a really good insider’s take on how to make it.”In 2006, after years of working in dreary Glasgow offices, in IT departments and universities, their passion for chocolate making became their golden ticket out. “We wanted to try to make a living in a nice part of the world. But there were no other job opportunities, so we had to do it ourselves. It was as simple as that,” says Maden.Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘You really do feel like you’re on a different planet, let alone in a different part of the world,’ says Maden. Photograph: Sophie Gerrard for the Guardian The village they chose, Balnakeil, was an early-warning base that was abandoned by the army before it was used. Then, in the 1950s, early hippies moved in and filled it with artists. “Part of the attraction to the place was that all of our neighbours would be painters or potters or glass-makers or creative in some way,” says Maden. “We thought there would be a really good creative spirit. That’s what gave us the courage to take the leap.” They found a semi-derelict building, then poured their life and chocolate into it.The result of that leap is Cocoa Mountain, a chocolate shop located two-and-a-half hour’s drive from Inverness airport, the last hour of which you’ll spend blindly hoping the single-track road is the one you were supposed to take. “You really do feel like you’re on a different planet, let alone in a different part of the world,” says Maden, who has not grown bored of the glorious landscapes that gave his business its name. “It feels magical.”The Cornish vineyard whose social media sparkles as much as its wine Read more Cocoa Mountain has made itself worth the trip by using the freshest, most unusual, and completely local ingredients. It starts from scratch: fresh Scottish raspberries are used to create that raspberry taste, and you’ll find no artificial flavourings anywhere near the kitchen. “When we began, there were fewer than 10 chocolatiers in Scotland and now there are almost a hundred. We’ve had half the world’s chocolatiers to come see us as well, to figure out what’s so good about us.” As for which of the many local whisky distilleries they’ve chosen to fill their delicious truffles – that’s a trade secret.But making good chocolate was never going to be the challenge: Maden and Findlay are so obsessed with their art that they would do it whether their livelihood depended on it or not. That’s how it started, after all: as a hobby. The true challenge was in making a new business work so far from the city, in a remote place where the tourist trade is so drastically controlled by the seasons. But it’s not as quiet as you would think in the middle of nowhere – Maden says people travel hundreds of miles to come and visit.“Our business has become a bit of a destination,” he says. “So you might say it’s quiet, but in the past 10 years, because of the business, I don’t think I’ve ever met or spoken to so many people in my life. We don’t really ever feel quiet, although we’re in a very remote area. You can have thousands of people and you wouldn’t know they were there, because there’s so much space to absorb them. But they all come and meet in Cocoa Mountain for a cup of coffee, or a whisky, and some delicious chocolate.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul and James are proud of the fresh, local ingredients that go into their chocolates - although they won’t tell you which distillery provides the whisky for their truffles. Photograph: Sophie Gerrard for the Guardian One of the reasons Cocoa Mountain’s online presence has to be so strong is because, in the depths of winter, the internet is what keeps the business running. The opening hours shrink like the sunlight, and so does the foot traffic. While Cocoa Mountain might see hundreds of people daily over the summer, in the winter it’s more like four or five. It’s then that the focus of the business shifts from face-to-face to mail order: it keeps the shop open all year round, and the staff of 20 employed (the business has been so successful that it has opened a second shop in Dornoch, on the east coast).But, according to Maden, the primary reason for Facebook is a connection with their people. “I think we would have had quite a big hole missing in our souls, simply because for those winter months we just don’t have the opportunity to interact with our customers too much. We enjoy the dialogue with our customers and with our supporters online, and it’s actually an enjoyable thing for us. I think, genuinely, we’ve built quite a large following online through Facebook, of people who see us as being part of their lives as well, in a funny sort of way. We keep it very friendly and it’s a way for us just to chat and keep in touch. On that level alone it’s been really nice to have.”Topics connected for growth advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/connected-for-growth/2017/nov/29/the-highland-chocolatiers-who-are-wonkas-of-the-wilderness'|'2017-11-29T21:00:00.000+02:00'
'4231aa2871496946e0a01d94cd5f01f0c67822d6'|'Bodenholm and Westray reveal media stock shorts on changing viewers'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:09 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Bodenholm and Westray reveal media stock shorts on changing viewers Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European hedge funds Bodenholm Capital and Westray Capital Management revealed they had taken short selling positions on some media companies, bets that their stock prices will fall, on the back of changing consumer habits. Online services like Netflix ( NFLX.O ) and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) will continue to eat away at the business of traditional media companies, fund managers for both firms said at the Sohn Conference in London on Thursday. Per Johansson of Bodenholm, which has assets under management of around $700 million (£518.2 million), said that the fund has take a short position in the shares of German media company Prosiebensat 1 ( PSMGn.DE ). He said viewers from younger age groups were turning away from traditional television to online and on-demand formats. “We now spend our time in front of the TV in different ways,” Johansson said. Bodenholm declined to comment on the size of the short position in Prosiebensat. A spokesman for Prosiebensat said it had a “proven growth strategy” that is driving diversification and digital transformation, and would be updating investors at a capital markets day next week. Meanwhile, Westray founder and chief investment officer Selvan Masil revealed the fund had a short position in Britain’s Cineworld ( CINE.L ). A spokeswoman for Cineworld declined to comment on Westray’s position. “The core audience, people aged 15-34, are showing a decline in interest in cinema,” Masil said. Westray, which has assets under management of $153 million, declined to comment on the size of the short position it had on Cineworld. “We think this is explained by changes in consumer, particularly the fact that younger people are consuming increasing content online.” Cineworld’s shares fell 16.7 percent on Wednesday after it said it planned to acquire U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group for $3.6 billion. Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Alasdair Pal; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hedgefunds-media/bodenholm-and-westray-reveal-media-stock-shorts-on-changing-viewers-idUKKBN1DU2PM'|'2017-11-30T21:08:00.000+02:00'
'3ced693350d4170b20557d0b3aad980d4b801f76'|'UK watchdog says was too slow to probe HBOS audit'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:44 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK watchdog says was too slow to probe HBOS audit Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s accounting watchdog said on Thursday it should have been faster to investigate why KPMG gave HBOS’s accounts the green light just seven months before the bank had to be rescued by Lloyds during the global financial crisis. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said in September it was closing its investigation into the audit, saying it had found that KPMG’s work for HBOS “did not fall significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected”. But on Thursday the FRC called on parliament to make it easier to bring cases against accountants wherever they work. It also promised to be more open about its work after it was accused of being too weak and opaque. “We should have adopted a more proactive approach to our early enquiry in relation to HBOS rather than a heavy reliance on other regulators,” FRC Chief Executive Stephen Haddrill said in a letter to Nicky Morgan, chair of parliament’s Treasury Select Committee. KPMG said on Thursday it has maintained that its work met the applicable audit standards of the time, and that it had considered the risks facing HBOS. Morgan said the FRC would be called before the committee in the New Year to discuss whether its conclusions went far enough. “This long-awaited report rightly acknowledges that the FRC should have been more ‘proactive’ in investigating KMPG’s audit of HBOS,” she said in a statement. “It was only through pressure from the Treasury Committee that the FRC decided to act.” The FRC said it wanted to make it easier to take action against accountants who are members of professional bodies for breaches of relevant rules. LEGISLATION, IF NECESSARY Following a reform last year, the FRC can pursue accountants who work for an audit company for breaches, with a lower legal hurdle than the previous test of having to show misconduct. The old test, however, remains when it comes to investigating professional accountants working for companies like HBOS and who prepare accounts for external auditing. Haddrill said he wanted the same breaches rule for all accountants, wherever they work. The backing of professional bodies is needed to make the change, but Haddrill said there were other options and called on Morgan to support its efforts and “if necessary, legislation”. In a rare move, the FRC published a report setting out why it closed the KPMG case, saying it could not prove misconduct as at the time the audit was done there was “good evidence” that the possibility of HBOS failing was “remote”. “As the FRC’s report notes, the intensification of the financial crisis in late 2008 was not forseen by market participants,” KPMG said, adding that the Bank of England continued to forecast positive GDP growth until August 2008. The FRC said it was taking the lead in responding to and investigating audits and has expanded its enforcement division. It also said it would publish a summary of its reasons for closing an investigation, following criticism that it does not sufficiently explain its actions. Additional reporting by Kirstin Ridley; editing by Greg Mahlich and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lloyds-accounts-hbos/uk-accounting-watchdog-says-was-too-slow-to-investigate-hbos-audit-idUKKBN1DU0QH'|'2017-11-30T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'fd5e31dad266c1533702edc7bddffbe42c852e51'|'FTSE remains stuck under sterling pressure'|'November 30, 2017 / 9:57 AM / Updated an hour ago FTSE retreats on sterling pressure, posts November loss Kit Rees , Julien Ponthus 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s index of leading shares lagged behind their European peers for a second session on Thursday, as it remained under pressure from a rising sterling buoyed by Brexit talks optimism. Pedestrians pass the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Britain’s blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.9 percent lower at 7,326.67 points and ended November with a 2.1 percent loss, its worst since June, as the pound hit a two-month high. “The FTSE 100 has been at the mercy of the pound today and even though the market managed to swing to positive territory earlier today, it was dragged back into the red as sterling picked up”, CMC Markets Analyst David Madden told clients in a late afternoon note. A report that Britain is close to a deal over the Northern Ireland border on Thursday added to the upbeat mood following Tuesday’s media reports that Britain had reached a deal with the European Union over the size of its Brexit divorce bill. In 2016, the FTSE 100 gained more than 14 percent, thanks to a fall in sterling after the June Brexit vote. This gave an accounting boost to the blue chip constituents which generate revenues in dollars. By contrast the FTSE 100 is on course for a more modest gain of about 2.5 percent for 2017. Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, said that investors could be looking at mainland Europe as a place to park their money instead of UK equities. “The natural assumption is that the stronger rate of economic growth that Europe is seeing gets translated into earnings for European companies, and it looks like their monetary policy is going to remain more accommodative for longer than in the UK,” Lawler said. A few companies bucked the trend like international private healthcare provider Mediclinic, whose shares jumped 4.7 percent on the back of a double upgrade from Jefferies to “buy” from “underperform”. “With the precipitous fall in the share price that overshot our prior PT (price target), we have reassessed our stance to understand if there is an opportunity for value,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note. “A model revamp and re-analysing the UAE highlights significant value and creates a great buying opportunity.” BAE Systems rose 1.5 percent after the defence firm said that it expected no material impact on its earnings from new accounting standards. Aviva edged up 0.4 percent after it announced it expects to generate an extra 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) in cash over the next two years and will make acquisitions as well as giving money back to shareholders, sending its share price to three-month highs. Shares in newspaper publisher Daily Mail and General Trust plummeted close to 24 percent, their biggest one-day drop in more than 20 years after the group reported a 13 percent drop in profit and a weak outlook. Supermarkets also suffered, as a survey showed that British consumers, the main drivers of the economy, were at their least confident since just after last year’s Brexit vote. Tesco lost about 2 percent and Sainsbury was down 1.4 percent. Elsewhere losses for energy stocks weighed, with BP <BP.L and Royal Dutch Shell down 1.1 and 0.4 percent as oil prices fell after OPEC members agreed to extend curbs on output to the end of next year. Reporting by Kit Rees and Julien Ponthus; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-remains-stuck-under-sterling-pressure-idUKKBN1DU155'|'2017-11-30T11:57:00.000+02:00'
'f7fd0c51d308389260a93f350664a0522daec227'|'WRAPUP 1-Canada''s TD outshone by CIBC as banks brace for headwinds'|'* TD fourth-quarter EPS C$1.36 vs forecast C$1.39* CIBC fourth-quarter EPS C$2.81 vs forecast C$2.59* Banks’ outlooks clouded by B20, new accounting rules* CIBC expects 10 percent impact on mortgage originationsBy Matt Scuffham and Fergal SmithTORONTO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Toronto-Dominion Bank and smaller rival CIBC rounded off a week of earnings announcements by Canadian banks on Thursday, reporting record profits, but they face headwinds in 2018 due to stricter mortgage rules and concerns about the potential for house price declines.Banks benefited from by a robust showing by the country’s domestic economy, which has grown at the fastest rate of the G7 group of industrialized nations and strong employment, which boosted credit growth.But as banks prepare for the introduction of stricter rules on mortgage lending and new accounting rules which may increase earnings volatility, investors who are used to steady earnings growth and more stable share prices are preparing for a bumpy ride.“There are a couple of headwinds coming up for the industry,” said Steve Belisle, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. “Each one I believe is not game changing but I think, in aggregate, they are non-negligible.”The Canadian banking sub-index has rallied 10 percent so far this year, nearly double the gains in the benchmark Canadian share index.On Thursday, TD, Canada’s No. 2 bank, missed estimates with its fourth-quarter results due to lower revenue at its investment banking business, while smaller rival Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) posted forecast-busting numbers in the final quarter of the 2016/17 fiscal year.Earlier in the week, Royal Bank of Canada reported fourth-quarter results which beat market expectations while Bank of Nova Scotia’s earnings fell short of forecasts. . BMO Financial Group, the No. 4 bank, is set release earnings on Dec. 5.Under the new B-20 mortgage rules, borrowers taking out uninsured mortgages will be stress-tested to determine their ability to make repayments at a rate 200 basis points, or two percentage points, above their contracted mortgage.CIBC said it expected a 10 to 12 percent reduction in the number of new mortgages it makes as a result of the new rules.Canadian banks were also required by the regulator to adopt new accounting rules for their new fiscal years starting on Nov. 1 this year, which are expected to result in greater earnings volatility for banks going forward.The new rules, known as IFRS 9, require banks to model credit loss risk based on expected rather than incurred losses.“We would expect a little more earnings volatility,” TD’s Chief Financial Officer Riaz Ahmed said.CIBC reported fourth-quarter results which beat analyst expectations, helped by strong growth in its Canadian commercial banking and wealth management businesses..TD’s earnings per share, excluding one-off items, rose to C$1.36 from C$1.22 a year ago. Analysts had, on average, expected earnings of C$1.39, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.“Those headwinds might come to fruition which could change our outlook but so far if the economy performs the way it is now then I think we feel pretty good about 2018,” Ahmed said.Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/td-results/wrapup-1-canadas-td-outshone-by-cibc-as-banks-brace-for-headwinds-idINL1N1O01QF'|'2017-11-30T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'3216ab8a56be6cc69e0bb5e1fcf2892963594b93'|'Enbridge shares climb after company announces $2.3 billion in asset sales'|'CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc shares jumped as much as 6.2 percent on Thursday after North America’s largest energy infrastructure company announced plans to sell C$3 billion ($2.3 billion) of noncore assets to focus on its central business. File Photo: Pipelines run to Enbridge Inc.''s crude oil storage tanks at their tank farm in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo The company is also raising C$1.5 billion by selling new shares to pay down debt. It has identified C$22 billion worth of projects it intends to complete through 2020. The Calgary-based company said late on Wednesday it has identified another C$7 billion in noncore assets to divest including unregulated gas gathering and processing businesses and onshore renewables in the United States and Canada. Enbridge, which earlier this year completed a merger with Spectra Energy, plans to speed up its debt reduction to help strengthen the balance sheet and increase its dividend by 10 percent. The company’s shares were up 5.3 percent at C$48.19 late on Thursday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Chief Executive Al Monaco said Enbridge would concentrate on its three “crown jewel” businesses: liquids pipelines and terminals, natural gas transmission and storage and natural gas utilities. “The acquisition of Spectra Energy has significantly diversified our asset base and opportunity set, and repositioned Enbridge for the future, particularly with respect to natural gas which we see as having excellent fundamentals and opportunities going forward,” he said in a statement. Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enbridge-inc-divestiture/enbridge-shares-climb-after-company-announces-2-3-billion-in-asset-sales-idUSKBN1DU2DJ'|'2017-11-30T18:50:00.000+02:00'
'b82d0e399fc4492d12eab125d34508ffec4bc991'|'ECB''s Knot calls for ending stimulus and declaring victory'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:21 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago ECB''s Knot calls for ending stimulus and declaring victory Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should wind down its stimulus program after September as it has reached its inflation goal, ECB policymaker Klaas Knot, a staunch critic of the scheme, said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Klaas Knot, President of the De Nederlandsche Bank, attends the 2016 Institute of International Finance (IIF) Spring Membership meeting in Madrid, Spain, May 25, 2016. REUTERS/Susana Vera He was openly contradicting the ECB’s official view, expressed by its President Mario Draghi, that it was too early to declare victory as the euro zone still needed cheap credit if inflation was to return to its target of almost 2 percent. The ECB has extended its 2.55 trillion euro bond-buying program until September, albeit at a reduced pace, and retained an option to extend it further if needed. But Knot, the Dutch central bank governor, argued the threat of a fall in prices had been averted and the case for a continuation of the asset-purchase program (APP) had gone. “With deflation risk clearly off the radar, the main rationale for employing the APP has therefore ceased to exist,” he said. “Fear of relapse owing to an allegedly premature discontinuation of net purchases seems rather overdone.” He called for “a full phasing out” of the purchases “from September onwards” and said the notion of extending it for “fine-tuning” inflation, currently at 1.4 percent, was “at least debatable”. Reporting By David Milliken; Writing by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-netherlands/ecbs-knot-calls-for-ending-stimulus-and-declaring-victory-idUKKBN1DT399'|'2017-11-29T23:16:00.000+02:00'
'bde03a4cce8fc8eb353c777711599f30c1129d20'|'Exclusive - PSA seeks Opel refund from GM over CO2 emissions'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:22 PM / in 20 minutes Exclusive - PSA seeks Opel refund from GM over CO2 emissions Laurence Frost , Gilles Guillaume 7 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group, which paid General Motors 1.3 billion euros for Opel, now wants about half of the money back after discovering the full extent of its CO2 emissions challenges and exposure to European fines, sources told Reuters. Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group Carlos Tavares speaks during a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski PSA, which completed the acquisition in late July, said earlier this month it will need to move Opel models onto its own more fuel-efficient technology faster than planned, in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions before new EU limits are phased in from 2020-21, backed by hefty penalties. The French carmaker has told GM it believes it is owed more than half a billion euros and intends to pursue a legal claim on the grounds that it was misled about Opel’s emissions strategy, two people familiar with the matter said. PSA is seeking 600-800 million euros (£530.23-£706.97 million), according to one. The companies have discussed the grievances raised by PSA, which has yet to initiate a formal claim, sources close to both manufacturers said. GM spokesman David Caldwell declined to comment when asked by Reuters about PSA’s demand and the allegation that GM misled PSA. PSA spokesman Bertrand Blaise also declined to comment. Carmakers are scrambling to reduce carbon emissions by the 2021 deadline, when their individual EU-imposed limits will fall to an average 95 grammes per kilometre from 130 grammes today. A decline in diesel sales is complicating their task, as consumers switch to less fuel-efficient gasoline cars. The challenge is sparking big investments in smaller engines and new powertrain technologies, from battery-powered cars to rechargeable hybrids. For those who miss their targets, fines of 95 euros per vehicle, per excess gramme of CO2, could add up to hundreds of millions of euros annually. PSA believes GM misrepresented Opel’s CO2 challenges and emissions trajectory during negotiations and due diligence prior to the March acquisition deal and its formal closing on July 31. Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has publicly hinted as much. “We became aware a few weeks after we finalised the closing that the company was going to the wall on CO2 emissions,” the PSA boss told reporters on Nov. 9, after presenting a heavily revised turnaround plan at Opel headquarters near Frankfurt. PSA shares have since fallen 10.6 percent, underperforming peers. “We put our teams to work to completely rebuild the product and technology strategies,” Tavares said. “If you fail to comply (with EU rules) the weight of fines you are hit with can threaten the company’s existence.” ‘ENORMOUS LOSSES’ Among the unpleasant surprises was a CO2 compliance plan that relied on significant sales of the Opel Ampera-e electric car, a U.S. import based on GM’s Chevrolet Bolt, at a loss approaching 10,000 euros per vehicle, two sources said. “Their technical solution was economically unviable and would have led to enormous losses,” said one. “So the first thing you do is drop that (product) line, but then the fleet emissions explode.” Under PSA, Opel has already suspended Norwegian sales of the Ampera-e - which account for most of the model’s 1,500 deliveries to date - and increased European pricing by as much as 5,700 euros. Paris-based PSA may struggle to convince GM’s lawyers - and ultimately an arbitration panel - that it was not already well aware of Opel’s weak emissions track record and outlook. Presenting the deal alongside Tavares almost five months before it closed, GM boss Mary Barra cited “increasing regulatory and compliance costs” as a key reason to offload Opel and its Vauxhall sister brand. “The Opel/Vauxhall business model has become more difficult,” she said. Prior to the sale, Opel was on course to miss its CO2 target by 3.7 grammes, according to a PA Consulting study published in November 2016. Stripping out the Ampera-e, then projected to reach 20,000 annual sales, the overshoot rose to 6 grammes. “We’ve been reporting for years that Opel/Vauxhall would have significant problems meeting the CO2 targets as GM brands in Europe,” said Thomas Goettle, the firm’s head of automotive. “Opel is five to seven years behind with their engine lineup,” Goettle said. “We haven’t seen any big GM investments in Opel to develop plug-in hybrids or zero-emissions cars.” ‘UNDER THE RUG’ But Opel’s real situation turned out to be even worse, PSA sources said, with the company on course to miss its CO2 goal by more than 10 grammes - a multiple of the “slight overshoot” discussed in deal negotiations. A margin that large would incur EU fines approaching 1 billion euros. The gap partly reflects GM’s unrealistically high diesel sales assumptions and reliance on the Ampera-e, they said. “People who had worked on the closing realised quite quickly that there were these big discrepancies,” said one. “They had been swept under the rug.” PSA is now rushing out electric or plug-in hybrid versions of Opel’s Corsa, Grandland X and Crossland X models that were not part of the original plan it presented in March. The entire Opel lineup will be redeveloped with the French carmaker’s vehicle architectures and engines by 2024, three years earlier than initially planned, Tavares said on Nov. 9. “Given comments about the need to accelerate the transition of Opel vehicles to PSA technology, we assume PSA will write down the value of its investment in Opel,” Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said afterwards, predicting more than 1 billion euros in writedowns over the next five years. The company paid for Opel with 650 million euros in cash and another 670 million in warrants that later convert to PSA stock. PSA and BNP Paribas also bought Opel’s sales financing arm in a separate 900 million-euro transaction. The acquisition deal, published in GM regulatory filings, provides for compensation payments if either party has been misled. Claims not settled by negotiation are referred for arbitration. For tax purposes, a GM payment to PSA would be treated as a deduction from the purchase price. It would also add to a European exit bill already exceeding $6 billion for GM, net of sale proceeds. That reflects a $5.5 billion charge and 3 billion euro contribution to Opel pensions, while excluding billions more in pension liabilities it kept. During the deal negotiations, GM barred Opel staff from talking to PSA and insisted the French carmaker’s due diligence requests be handled by its Detroit headquarters, sources said. “One question that was asked was whether Opel could meet its 2021 emissions target,” said one French participant. “And the answer was ‘yes’.” Reporting by Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume; Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peugeot-gm-opel-exclusive/exclusive-psa-seeks-opel-refund-from-gm-over-co2-emissions-idUKKBN1DT1NN'|'2017-11-29T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'030d96029c56dad55ba4b46d9b27588cee42fefc'|'Philippines'' San Miguel says looking to bid for Vietnam''s Sabeco'|'MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines’ San Miguel Corp ( SMC.PS ) is looking to bid for Vietnam’s largest brewer Sabeco SAB.HM, the conglomerate’s president said on Wednesday.“Yes,” Ramon Ang told Reuters in a text message when asked if San Miguel is looking to join the bidding for the Vietnamese brewer.Vietnam said earlier on Wednesday it is open to selling a 54-percent stake in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, but capped foreign ownership at about 49 percent.(The story corrects foreign ownership cap to 49 percent, from 39 percent, in third paragraph.)Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr. '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-san-miguel-sabeco/philippines-san-miguel-says-looking-to-bid-for-vietnams-sabeco-idUSKBN1DT0E6'|'2017-11-29T11:48:00.000+02:00'
'da4963d47b124d7e2d4630483d46e70f20327007'|'CVS closes in on deal to buy health insurer Aetna -source'|'November 30, 2017 / 3:55 PM / in 5 minutes CVS closes in on deal to buy health insurer Aetna -source Carl O''Donnell 2 Min Read (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp is moving closer to a more than $66 billion (£48.74 billion) cash and stock deal to buy health insurer Aetna Inc which could be announced as early as Monday, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. A trader points up at a display on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange August 20, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Shares of both companies rose on the news, which was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal. CVS shares were up 2.7 percent and Aetna shares rose 0.7 percent in late morning trading. The companies are in advanced stages of negotiating a deal that would value Aetna at between $200 and $205 per share and would be comprised mainly of cash, the Journal said. ( on.wsj.com/2j5V1yn ) Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the deal would value the company at more than $200 per share. The deal would combine CVS, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and drugstore chains, with Aetna, one of the oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide. Healthcare consolidation has been a popular route for insurers and pharmacies, under pressure from the government and large corporations to lower soaring medical costs. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) such as CVS negotiate drug benefits for health insurance plans and employers, and have in recent years taken an increasingly aggressive stance in price negotiations with drugmakers. They often extract discounts and after-market rebates from drugmakers in exchange for including their medicines in PBM formularies with low co-payments. A tie-up with Aetna could give CVS more leverage in its price negotiations with drug makers. Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-health-closes-in-on-deal-to-buy-health-insurer-aetna-wsj-idUKKBN1DU28L'|'2017-11-30T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'ff05bdc06620e474d106f95c09d92eea6733b7bc'|'Facebook to eliminate transaction fees on donations on its platform'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:59 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Facebook to eliminate transaction fees on donations on its platform Angela Moon 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook Inc has eliminated transaction fees on donations made to non-profit organizations on its platform, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, a change that could help the world’s largest social media network expand its presence in online fund raising. Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the annual Facebook F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam Facebook had been charging a 5 percent transaction fee on donations made to non-profits via its website or app. However, it will continue to impose fees on fund raisers established by individuals, including a payment processing fee of 6.9 percent, plus 30 cents per donation. Other online fund-raising sites charge transaction fees on donations of about 6-8 percent. The social network is also setting up a $50 million per year Facebook Donations Fund to match givings on its platform to some causes, such as natural disaster relief. “When I started Facebook, I wasn’t thinking about it as a way to raise money to fight diseases, but a few years in, we noticed many people were using it to raise money for different causes,” Zuckerberg said at a Facebook event in New York. The new initiative by Facebook comes at a time when the company has faced rising criticism over Russian propaganda and fake news stories spreading on its platform during last year’s U.S. presidential election. Zuckerberg in September, in a Facebook post, said he regretted saying after the presidential election that it was “crazy” to think that misinformation on Facebook changed the election’s outcome. Last week, Facebook said it would build a web page to allow users to see which Russian propaganda accounts they have liked or followed, after U.S. lawmakers demanded that the social network be more open about the reach of the accounts. In February, a petition signed by 42,000 people demanded that Facebook waive the fees it charges a charity for raising $1.5 million on its website. Zuckerberg on Wednesday also said that Facebook is launching a software program, called Fundraisers API, that will allow users to sync their Facebook fund raisers with other fund-raising pages. The charges by other online fund-raising include Gofundme, at 7.9 percent, plus 30 cents per donation, in the United States; Kickstarter at 8 percent, plus 20 cents per donation; Indiegogo at 8 percent, plus 30 cents per donation. Reporting by Angela Moon in New York; Additional reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-zuckerberg/facebook-to-eliminate-transaction-fees-on-donations-on-its-platform-idUSKBN1DT3BR'|'2017-11-29T23:45:00.000+02:00'
'f6ace62878e270f5799cf28b487c83fc065be48a'|'Nokia in talks to buy Juniper Networks: CNBC'|'(Reuters) - Finnish network equipment maker Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) said on Wednesday that it was not in talks to buy U.S. network gear maker Juniper Networks Inc ( JNPR.N ) despite earlier reports to the contrary.FILE PHOTO - A Nokia logo is seen at the company''s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins “Nokia is not currently in talks with, nor is it preparing an offer for, Juniper Networks related to an acquisition of that company,” the company said in a statement.CNBC had earlier reported, citing sources, that Nokia was in talks to buy Juniper at an offer that would value the company at around $16 billion.Juniper had a market capitalization of around $11.26 billion as of Wednesday’s close, according to CNBC.The Sunnyvale, California-based company’s shares had soared 18 percent to $35 in extended trading after the CNBC report.Nokia has been building its telecom equipment business since selling its mobile phone unit to Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ).It bought Alcatel-Lucent for about $17 billion last year to gave it a larger fixed-line network business and make it less dependent on mobile broadband.Juniper was not immediately available for comment.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; editing by Anil D''Silva and G Crosse '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-juniper-networks-m-a-nokia/nokia-in-talks-to-buyjuniper-networks-cnbc-idINKBN1DT3DD'|'2017-11-29T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'30102139940fff38a88089cb01db150c7a4106f4'|'Britain''s ''bad bank'' to complete Bradford & Bingley loan sales next year'|' 52 PM / in 3 minutes Britain''s ''bad bank'' to complete Bradford & Bingley loan sales next year Emma Rumney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s “bad bank”, set up to wind down the assets of two failed lenders, expects to complete a sale of mortgages by the second quarter of 2018, its CEO Ian Hares said on Thursday, in a deal set to return almost 5 billion pounds to the taxpayer. FILE PHOTO - A branch of Bradford and Bingley is seen, in London on September 28, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor The UK Asset Resolution Authority (UKAR) was set up in 2010 to take on assets, including residential and buy-to-let mortgages, from Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock, which were nationalised in the run up to the financial crisis. The British government poured billions of pounds into the country’s banks during the crisis and is still trying to recoup the money. The 20 billion pounds used to rescue Lloyds Banking Group in the crisis was returned to taxpayers with a small profit earlier this year. In November, the government said it planned to reprivatise Royal Bank of Scotland by selling 15 billion pounds of shares. The UKAR said the proceeds from the sale of the next chunk of Bradford & Bingley’s mortgage portfolio would be used to repay the remaining 4.7 billion pounds of a 15.8 billion pound loan to Britain’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS had borrowed the money from the British government when it injected billions into Britain’s banks during the financial crisis. The sale of the assets was initiated earlier this year, but its formal launch was announced on Thursday with UKAR’s interim results. It was initially expected to raise enough money to repay the whole of the loan to the FSCS by March 2018. “It’s slipped back about 6-8 weeks,” Hares told Reuters by telephone. “We expect that to complete in the first half of next year, most probably in ... the second quarter. Somewhere between April and June.” The price of the sale will be subject to market conditions, but Hawes said UKAR wanted to get at least enough to cover the loan repayment with anything extra to be used to repay other outstanding debts. In the six months to Sept. 30, UKAR reduced its balance sheet by 13.2 billion pounds to just over 21 billion pounds, and repaid 13.1 billion pounds of loans to the government. This means 76 percent of the loans have now been repaid. UKAR expects to have cut its balance sheet to around 12 billion pounds by the middle of next year and have remaining government loans of around 4 billion, Hares said. UKAR’s underlying profit before tax fell by 41 percent, to 238 million pounds, reflecting its reduced mortgage balances, it said. The news of the latest UKAR asset sale was first reported by Sky News on Wednesday. It follows an 11.8 billion pound sale from the portfolio in March. Reporting by Emma Rumney. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-bradford-bingley-mortgages-sa/britains-bad-bank-to-complete-bradford-bingley-loan-sales-next-year-idUKKBN1DU217'|'2017-11-30T16:51:00.000+02:00'
'1bbff422bf0cab62289a154c3e251e13f178f0a1'|'strange case dead snail that helped define UK law, and other tales - Legal horizons'|'1. Ormond v Payne, 9 July 1789 In 1789, London butcher George Ormond suffered a broken leg when a royal carriage hit his cart. He sued for damages. The defendant in the case was Don Payne, who managed the affairs of the Prince of Wales at Carlton House and was therefore legally responsible for the actions of the prince’s coachman, George Smith, who had been in charge of the offending carriage.According to Ormond’s testimony, the coachman was both intoxicated and in a terrible hurry. Ormond recalled that the moment the horses were harnessed, Smith mounted the box, drank a glass of gin, flogged his horses and galloped away. The jury found Payne liable for the coachman’s actions and awarded Ormond £100 in damages (equivalent to £13,900 in 2017).Why it matters: “ This is a notable case in the development of personal injury actions, which explained that a master could be liable for the acts and omissions of his servant. This ruling is at the heart of modern personal injury law.”Charlene Michael-Imobioh, senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters With data now the ‘oil’ of the digital economy, does the law need to catch up? Read more 2. Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, 7 December 1892 Towards the end of the 19th century, health innovations were becoming a common feature of the medical landscape. The Carbolic Smoke Ball Company claimed to have developed a cure for flu. It consisted of a small rubber ball with a tube attached; this was filled with carbolic acid that was flushed into the user’s nose. It came with a promise to pay £100 (the equivalent of £11,500 in 2017) to anyone who used the ball but still got sick. The company stated that it had deposited £1,000 in the bank to show its sincerity in the matter.During the flu epidemic of 1892, Elizabeth Carlill, a writer and lawyer’s wife, bought a smoke ball, used it, but then caught flu. She sued the company and was deemed by the court to be entitled to the £100, as the company’s claim constituted an offer “to all of the world”, which she had accepted by performing the conditions stated in the offer. Fifty years later, Mrs Carlill died at the age of 96 – from influenza.Why it matters: “ Before this case, adverts were largely regarded as an invitation to treat, rather than a legal offer capable of acceptance; rewards in such adverts were regarded as ‘mere puff’. Carlill was the first case in which it was found that an offer could be made to the world at large, and that acceptance of the offer could be communicated at the same time as notification as to performance, leading to a unilateral contract.”Kate Mulvaney-Johnson, senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters 3. Fisher v Bell, 10 November 1960 The Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 made it an offence to offer for sale certain weapons, including flick knives. When Bristol shopkeeper James Bell displayed a flick knife in his shop window, accompanied by a price ticket for four shillings, he found himself in court after a chief inspector of police alleged that he had broken the law.The case was thrown out by the court because it was determined that Bell had not ‘offered’ the knives for sale. Under the law of contract, placing something in a shop window is an ‘invitation to treat’, and it is the customer who legally makes an offer to the shop by offering money to purchase an item on sale.Why it matters: “ The rule that items displayed in shops were an ‘invitation to treat’ had already been established, but this case used contract law to interpret a criminal statute. The 1959 Act did not make it a crime to ‘offer or expose’ the knives for sale, so the word ‘offer’ in the Act had to have the same meaning as under contract law – even if that failed to cover the mischief it was aimed at.”Leigh Hudson , senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters 4. Donoghue v Stevenson, 26 May 1932 One of the oddest cases in British legal history involved a dead snail. One August afternoon in 1928, May Donoghue was sitting in a Paisley cafe drinking ginger beer, bought for her by a friend. Unfortunately the bottle also contained the decomposed remains of a snail. It made her seriously ill, but because she hadn’t bought the bottle herself, Donoghue couldn’t sue for breach of contract. Instead, she brought a claim of negligence against the manufacturer, on the grounds that it had a duty to ensure that production took place in a clean environment where snails couldn’t get into bottles.After hearing the case, Lord Atkin set out the “neighbour principle”. This states that “reasonable care must be taken to avoid acts that can be reasonably foreseen to be likely to injure your neighbour.” The case was settled for £200 (the equivalent of £12,500 in 2017).Why it matters: “This watershed case effectively severed the tort of negligence from contract law, extending negligence into areas previously not covered, where damage was foreseeable. It established that you owe a duty of care to your neighbour, and that your neighbour was any proximate person whom you ought reasonably to have in your contemplation as being affected by your acts or omissions. Critics think the principle went too far, and gave rise to our modern compensation culture.”Bronagh Murphy , senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters 5. Sturges v Bridgman, 1 July 1879 In this case, two warring neighbours played a pivotal role in establishing an important principle in the law of nuisance. Dr Octavius Sturges, a physician, and Mr Bridgman, a confectioner, occupied adjoining premises in central London. For 20 years, Bridgman had used two large mortar and pestles in his manufacturing process. The resulting noise did not trouble the neighbouring physician, until he built a consulting room at the end of his garden, abutting the wall of the confectioner’s kitchen.The doctor succeeded in securing an injunction to stop the noise: the confectioner could not claim long-term use of the equipment gave him the right to make such a noise.Why it matters: “Sturges establishes that whether something amounts to a nuisance depends on its context: ‘What would be a nuisance in Belgrave Square would not necessarily be so in Bermondsey.’ It also establishes that a right to continue an activity that causes nuisance to a neighbour can only be acquired by prescription if the nuisance was actionable for the whole of the statutory 20-year period and during that time the neighbour did nothing except suffer in silence.”Jane Guy , senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters 6. Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, 1 August 1968 In 1968, Vincent Fagan accidentally drove his car on to the foot of PC David Morris in north London. When the police officer asked Fagan to move the car off his foot, Fagan made him wait.Fagan was convicted of “assaulting a constable in execution of his duties”, but appealed on the grounds that since he had driven on to the policeman’s foot by accident, his failure to move the car could not be an assault. The appeal failed when the judge found that a crime of assault is deemed to have been committed if someone accidentally commits a battery which they then refuse to discontinue. Fagan’s conviction for assault was upheld using what has become known as the “doctrine of the continuing act”.Why it matters: “This case further developed the general principle in criminal law that to be guilty of a crime an individual had to possess the necessary mens rea (guilty mind) at the time of the actus reus (guilty act). Fagan established that where an act was continuing, a later emergence of mens rea during the act’s commission could form the requisite intention. Exceptions to this are strict liability offences, which do not require mens rea – for example, speeding.”Sally Cohen , senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters 7. Gorris v Smith, 23 April 1874 A ship owner was transporting a herd of sheep to Great Britain when a number of them were washed overboard in a storm. The owner of the sheep sought to recover damages for the loss of the sheep, claiming that the ship owner was in breach of a statutory duty under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869, which required pens to be installed on the decks of ships to transport animals. He argued that had the sheep been penned they would have survived. The court dismissed the claim because the purpose of the Act was clearly to prevent the possibility of animals being exposed to disease, not to prevent them being washed overboard. The ship owner’s non-compliance with the Act had resulted in a harm that the Act was not designed to protect against.Why it matters: “A party who suffers loss due to another party’s breach of a statutory duty only has a right of redress when the loss is of a kind contemplated by the statute that created the duty.”Lisa Fergusson , senior editor, case law, at Thomson Reuters Topics legal horizons advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/legal-horizons/2017/nov/29/the-strange-case-of-the-dead-snail-that-helped-define-uk-law-and-other-tales'|'2017-11-30T00:12:00.000+02:00'
'48397bbc29c9f8cbf52de3279074752e396859db'|'Exxon says $1 bln Antwerp clean fuels unit will be running by mid-2018'|'November 28, 2017 / 10:53 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exxon says $1 bln Antwerp clean fuels unit will be running by mid-2018   LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - ExxonMobil expects a new $1 billion fuel upgrading unit at its Antwerp refinery to be fully operational in the first half of next year, the company said on Tuesday. The delayed coker unit, part of a $1 billion investment announced in 2014, will enable the 320,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery to upgrade high-sulphur fuel into various types of diesel, including the variant mandated by new laws governing shipping fuels. [ reut.rs/2jrMVPS ] The company announced the investment during a particularly tough period for European refining, when margins were near multi-year lows and demand in the region appeared to be in permanent decline. However, refining profits have since rebounded strongly. An Exxon spokeswoman said the company plans to complete construction “towards early 2018”. Though she said the complex start-up process can take several months, the company expects the unit to be fully operational in the first half of next year. In addition to the current boom in fuel demand, spurred by low oil prices, traders and analysts say that any project to cut fuel oil production is key to refinery survival amid tightening rules over the level of sulphur that can be burned. The switch to cleaner fuels in the world’s ships mandated by the International Maritime Organization will reduce the maximum level of sulphur that can be burned to 0.5 percent in 2020 from 3.5 percent now. Analysts FGE estimate that the shipping rule alone could shift 700,000 bpd from fuel oil to distillates, while the International Energy Agency has put the figure as high as 2 million bpd. (Reporting By Libby George and Ron Bousso; Editing by David Goodman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-refining-exxon/exxon-says-1-bln-antwerp-clean-fuels-unit-will-be-running-by-mid-2018-idUSL8N1NY2QO'|'2017-11-28T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'3adbfd10269be4c6946c875ea6078787b97d4492'|'As Brexit nears, new London office construction slows - survey'|'November 28, 2017 / 12:33 AM / Updated 10 hours ago As Brexit nears, new London office construction slows - survey Esha Vaish 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The number of new office developments in London is falling as higher construction costs and uncertainty over Brexit lead builders to delay new schemes, a closely-watched industry survey showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Construction continues into the night in the City of London, Britain October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Construction began on 25 new central London office schemes in the six months ended Sept. 30, less than the 28 new construction projects started in the preceding six months, the London Office Crane Survey by Deloitte Real Estate showed. The projects started over the surveyed period would add 1.8 million square feet into the development pipeline, the lowest new amount in more than three years, the survey added. Although demand for office space has held up fairly well since Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the European Union, vacancy rates have begun creeping up, property prices have fallen and business have grown more cautious on investment. “Developers in central London continue to take stock of the current market dynamics, recognising a number of disrupting factors such as costs, Brexit uncertainty and the pace of workplace change,” Shaun Dawson, head of insight at Deloitte Real Estate, said. He said developers were showing “some caution on where and when to deliver” London office projects. Land Securities ( LAND.L ), the developer of a large chunk of London’s offices over the past decade including the famed Walkie Talkie tower, said this month the slow pace of Brexit talks and uncertainty over the eventual outcome were leading to caution in the market. The potential exodus of finance companies, major users of London offices, could further hurt market prospects. A Reuters survey found that around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years. The Deloitte survey showed that of the space under construction, 45 percent had been pre-leased by finance firms and 2 percent by insurers. The survey also said construction costs were likely to rise over the coming year, as it forecast a slower pace of workload and an increase in the price of building materials. Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-property/as-brexit-nears-new-london-office-construction-slows-survey-idUKKBN1DS025'|'2017-11-28T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'6c2eee2c97f71887d2e7d559e64d87dbb4988e82'|'UK brokerage LXM joins Athens bourse, says confident in Greek economy'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:21 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago UK brokerage LXM joins Athens bourse, says confident in Greek economy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British brokerage LXM Group has registered for trading with the Athens Stock Exchange, joining a handful of foreign banks in what it described on Thursday as a statement of confidence in the Greek economy. Greece is gradually recovering from a deep recession that shrank its economy by a quarter and drove unemployment to record highs, and hopes are rising that it will be able to emerge successfully from years of bailouts. “The Greek economy is reaching a crucial turning point,” said Petros Mylonas, head of southern Europe at LXM. “With recent robust fiscal performance, improving growth dynamics and strong momentum on the reform front, Greece is an exciting market to be in.” The move will allow LXM to carry out stock transactions directly without going through a local brokerage. Seven foreign entities - including UBS, Bank of America, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank - are now registered for trading with the exchange. The Athens Stock Exchange index is down 86 percent from a pre-financial crisis peak in 2007. It has partially recovered from a low of around 421 in February 2016 and closed at 740.20 on Thursday. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-greece-exchange-lxm/uk-brokerage-lxm-joins-athens-bourse-says-confident-in-greek-economy-idUKKBN1DU2H5'|'2017-11-30T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'54dae0d2a39f5af2c7b3f852675559eb07ef1fba'|'Eurogroup head says very careful ECB tapering has already started'|'November 30, 2017 / 6:43 PM / Updated an hour ago Eurogroup head says very careful ECB tapering has already started Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The normalization of ultra accommodative monetary policy of the European Central Bank has already started, but the bank is right to proceed very carefully, thee chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem addresses the European Parliament during a debate on the future of the Economic and Monetary Union in Strasbourg, France, December 15, 2015. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler “The process of tapering has already started. The ECB is wise to do it very gradually,” Dijsselbloem told a conference. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-ecb/eurogroup-head-says-very-careful-ecb-tapering-has-already-started-idUKKBN1DU2NJ'|'2017-11-30T20:41:00.000+02:00'
'4effde9f28b9179cc3a672ffc56cb6453e0c804e'|'Australia''s Capitol Health intends to buy Integral Diagnostics for about $271 mln'|'(Reuters) - Healthcare provider Capitol Health Ltd ( CAJ.AX ) said on Wednesday that it intends to make a takeover offer for rival Integral Diagnostics Ltd ( IDX.AX ) for about A$356.8 million ($270.99 million), a deal that could create one of Australia’s biggest radiology companies.Capitol Health it was offering 6.9 Capitol shares and 36 cents for each Integral share, valuing Integral at A$2.46 per share. That represents a 30 percent premium over Integral’s closing share price on Tuesday.“We look forward to combining Capitol’s and Integral’s strengths, including the clinicians, into one of Australia’s leading healthcare services providers,” Capitol Health Chief Executive Andrew Harrison said in the statement.The company said it had been in intermittent discussions with Integral about a merger over the past year without success.It said that certain Integral shareholders had indicated support for the offer by entering into pre-bid acceptance agreements.($1 = 1.3167 Australian dollars)Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru, Editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-integral-m-a-capitol-health/australias-capitol-health-intends-to-buy-integral-diagnostics-for-about-271-mln-idINKBN1DS2X7'|'2017-11-28T19:01:00.000+02:00'
'24e10c597a4392f3b00adfad92d38a4499c03f73'|'Hong Kong listing would help Aramco with huge Chinese demand for IPO: HKEX CEO'|'SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Hong Kong listing by Saudi Aramco would help the oil giant secure huge Chinese demand for its $100 bln share sale, said the head of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) on Wednesday, as the world’s leading stock exchanges pitch for the business.FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Saudi Aramco said in October that exchanges such as New York, London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong have all been looked at for the partial listing of the state company’s shares.“It’s going to provide compelling benefit because they are able to use the listing to anchor very massive Chinese demand at the IPO,” Charles Li told Reuters in an interview in Singapore, where HKEX opened its first overseas office.“It will become a great platform for the two major sovereigns to use as a potential platform for a broader level of financial or strategic investment decisions,” Li added, referring to China and Saudi Arabia.“It is a compelling case that they are unlikely to ignore but they also have many other factors in the decision process,” he said, declining to share details of Aramco’s feedback.Li also said that he expects companies with dual class shares to be listed on Hong Kong’s main board.“We should basically in a few weeks, hopefully be able to announce a structure where we will have a chapter inside the main board that allows companies to list in Hong Kong, with weighted voting rights structures.”The Asian financial hub’s exchange operator is looking to attract more new economy companies in order to remain a global listings powerhouse.Hong Kong was the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) venue in 2016 but has been struggling to attract new companies this year, with the bulk of those listing from property and financial sectors.HKEX ( 0388.HK ) had unveiled a proposal in June for a new board that would allow companies with share structures providing special voting rights, and those yet to make a profit, to list.Li said Hong Kong’s financial secretary had indicated that Hong Kong was likely to take in applications under the new voting structure in the second half of next year.“We are coming to a general agreement that this is the direction to go and we are ready to go,” he said.Competition is heating up. In Singapore, the exchange’s new regulatory unit is considering introducing dual class shares listing on SGX ( SGXL.SI ) but is yet to take a decision, months after a key advisory panel recommended the move.Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hkex-ceo-saudi-aramco/hong-kong-listing-would-help-aramco-with-huge-chinese-demand-for-ipo-hkex-ceo-idINKBN1DT1NO'|'2017-11-29T09:27:00.000+02:00'
'af3698a4185ae6dadb5391d40632986ecd6f1fb0'|'Build fast, fix later: speed hurts quality at Tesla, some workers say'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:20 AM / in 19 minutes Build fast, fix later: speed hurts quality at Tesla, some workers say Alexandria Sage 8 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - After Tesla’s Model S sedans and Model X SUVs roll off the company’s Fremont, California assembly line, the electric vehicles usually make another stop - for repairs, nine current and former employees have told Reuters. The luxury cars regularly require fixes before they can leave the factory, according to the workers. Quality checks have routinely revealed defects in more than 90 percent of Model S and Model X vehicles inspected after assembly, these individuals said, citing figures from Tesla’s internal tracking system as recently as October. Some of these people told Reuters of seeing problems as far back as 2012. Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) said its quality control process is unusually rigorous, designed to flag and correct the tiniest imperfections. It declined to provide post-assembly defect rates to Reuters or comment on those cited by employees. The world’s most efficient automakers, such as Toyota ( 7203.T ), average post-manufacturing fixes on fewer than 10 percent of their cars, according to industry experts. Getting quality right during initial assembly is crucial, they said, because repairs waste time and money. At Tesla “so much goes into rework after the car is done ... that’s where their money is being spent,” a former Tesla supervisor said. The Silicon Valley automaker said the majority of its post-assembly defects are minor and resolved in a matter of minutes. Tesla has enthralled consumers with sleek designs, clean technology and legendary acceleration on its pricey cars. A Consumer Reports survey found 91 percent of Tesla owners would buy again. Still, the magazine and market researcher J.D. Power have dinged the company on quality, citing troubles such as faulty door handles and body panel gaps. Bernstein analyst A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi, Jr. test-drove one of the company’s new Model 3 sedans earlier this month, writing that the fit and finish were “relatively poor.” Tesla owners have complained on web forums of annoying rattles, buggy software and poor seals that allow rainwater to seep into the interior or trunk. Auto industry experts say the company’s survival now depends on its ability to crank out high-quality cars in volume as it begins to build its first mass-market car, the Model 3, which starts at $35,000. Tesla has never turned an annual profit and is burning through $1 billion a quarter. That is unsustainable without fresh cash or a big increase in sales to mainstream customers who may prove less forgiving of potential defects. “We’ve never doubted Tesla’s ability to make exciting products with top specifications, but there’s a difference between unveiling something and then actually making it perfectly in large volume. Tesla has not perfected the latter yet,” Morningstar analyst David Whiston wrote earlier this month. Musk has vowed Tesla would become “the best manufacturer on Earth,” helped by a new, highly automated assembly line and a simpler design for the Model 3. However, production woes have slowed deliveries of the much-anticipated sedan. Snags are normal with any new launch. But chronic defects with Tesla’s established Models S and X show a company still struggling to master basic manufacturing, workers said. Known as “kickbacks” within Tesla, these vehicles have glitches as minor as dents and scratches to more complex troubles such as malfunctioning seats. Easy fixes are made swiftly on the factory floor, workers said. Trickier cases head to one of Tesla’s outdoor parking lots to await repair. The backlog in one of those two lots, dubbed the “yard,” has exceeded 2,000 vehicles at times, workers told Reuters. Tesla denied to Reuters that such “repair lots” exist. FILE PHOTO: Model S side panels await installation at Tesla''s factory in Fremont, California, June 22, 2012. REUTERS/Noah Berger/File Photo Reuters interviewed nine current and former Tesla employees, including a former senior manager, with experience in assembly, quality control and repairs on Model S and Model X. All requested anonymity because the company required them to sign non-disclosure agreements. Four of the people were fired for cause, including two last month as part of a mass dismissal of hundreds of workers for what Tesla said was poor performance. Sacked workers who spoke with Reuters denied they were poor performers. People with knowledge of Tesla’s internal quality data shared those figures with Reuters. The news agency was unable to confirm the information independently. Defects included “doors not closing, material trim, missing parts, all kinds of stuff. Loose objects, water leaks, you name it,” another former supervisor said. “We’ve been building a Model S since 2012. How do we still have water leaks?” For a graphic on Tesla''s losses, click: tmsnrt.rs/2AgMYIB BUILD FAST, FIX LATER Slideshow (4 Images) Tesla disputed workers’ portrayal of the automaker as struggling to produce defect-free vehicles. A spokesperson described a rigorous process that requires all cars to pass more than 500 inspections and tests. Any reworking of cars after assembly reflects the company’s commitment to quality, the spokesperson said. “Our goal is to produce perfect cars for every customer,” Tesla said in a statement. “Therefore, we review every vehicle for even the smallest refinement. Most customers would never notice the work that is done post production, but we care about even a fraction of a millimeter body gap difference or a slight paint gloss texture. We then feed these improvements back to production in a pursuit of perfection.” Employees who worked on Model S and Model X described pressure to keep the assembly line moving, even when problems emerged. Some told of batches of cars being sent through with parts missing - windshields in one case, bumpers in another - because there were none on hand. The understanding, they said, was that these and other flaws would be fixed later. Quality inspectors would sometimes find more defects than those reported by workers in the internal tracking system when a car came off the line. “We’d see two issues, that’s pretty good. But then we’d dig in and there would be like 15 or 20,” one person said. One persistently tricky area was alignment, where body parts had to be “muscled,” in the words of the senior manager, to a certain degree of flushness. Not every team follows the same rule book, workers said, resulting in gaps of different size. Tesla denied that its quality control is inconsistent and said its “extensive” process for locating and fixing errors was “very successful.” Some workers traced the challenges to Musk’s determination to launch vehicles faster than the industry norm by shortening the design process, skipping some pre-production testing, then making improvements on the fly. Such improvisation leads to high repair rates, employees said. For a March report called “Beyond the Hype,” J.D. Power found creaks, scratches and poor door alignment on new Model S and Model X vehicles, issues it blamed on the company’s lack of manufacturing experience. The overall quality of Tesla vehicles, it concluded, was “not competitive” within the luxury segment, lacking “precision and attention to detail.” Such sloppiness is a rarity in luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz ( DAIGn.DE ) and BMW ( BMWG.DE ), said Kathleen Rizk, director of global automotive consulting at J.D. Power. “Those companies have been manufacturing forever,” she said. “They have stopgaps.” Tesla said its high customer satisfaction proves it is building the “safest and best-performing cars available today.” Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Peter Henderson and Marla Dickerson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-quality-insight/build-fast-fix-later-speed-hurts-quality-at-tesla-some-workers-say-idUKKBN1DT0N3'|'2017-11-29T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'9670896104d7752f9102f1cdcee414e44ff4e3f0'|'New electric London taxi poised for second overseas market'|'Bitcoin tops $10,000, 10-fold increase in 2017 The Wider Image As West frowns on Putin, Russians learn the military way EU''s Barnier hopes to report on Brexit bill soon Reuters TV United States November 29, 2017 / 12:50 PM / a few seconds ago New electric London taxi poised for second overseas market Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London’s black-cab maker could strike a deal soon on the second overseas market for the new electric version of its famous taxi, the boss of the Chinese Geely-owned ( 0175.HK ) firm told Reuters on Wednesday. London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) Chief Executive Chris Gubbey rides in one of the company''s electric cabs during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) picked Amsterdam earlier this year as its first foreign destination, where around 225 vehicles will be used as part of a service which transports the elderly and disabled. Chief Executive Chris Gubbey told Reuters the firm was hoping to conclude talks with a second European location soon, potentially by the end of the year. “Quite soon hopefully there will be an announcement on the second one after Amsterdam. We’re getting very close now,” he said. LEVC is undergoing a major expansion plan which will see it sell around half of around 10,000 vehicles abroad by the turn of the decade, including a new van. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-taxis/new-electric-london-taxi-poised-for-second-overseas-market-idUKKBN1DT1JA'|'2017-11-29T14:39:00.000+02:00'
'48055f1deb41c03aba48195f44ba248945ebe3ad'|'Exclusive: PSA seeks Opel refund from GM over CO2 emissions'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:17 PM / in an hour Exclusive: PSA seeks Opel refund from GM over CO2 emissions Laurence Frost , Gilles Guillaume 8 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group, which paid General Motors 1.3 billion euros for Opel, now wants about half of the money back after discovering the full extent of its CO2 emissions challenges and exposure to European fines, sources told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Flags with the Opel logo are seen at the Opel headquarters in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo - RC1D12264830 PSA ( PEUP.PA ), which completed the acquisition in late July, said earlier this month it will need to move Opel models onto its own more fuel-efficient technology faster than planned, in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions before new EU limits are phased in from 2020-21, backed by hefty penalties. The French carmaker has told GM ( GM.N ) it believes it is owed more than half a billion euros and intends to pursue a legal claim on the grounds that it was misled about Opel’s emissions strategy, two people familiar with the matter said. PSA is seeking 600-800 million euros, according to one. The companies have discussed the grievances raised by PSA, which has yet to initiate a formal claim, sources close to both manufacturers said. “We are not aware of any claim submitted by PSA regarding future CO2 targets and we cannot speculate on issues that have not been raised with us,” GM spokesman David Caldwell said. He declined to say whether Opel emissions had been discussed. “PSA undertook a robust due diligence process including their employees and many experts and lawyers,” Caldwell said. “We provided them with substantial information.” PSA spokesman Bertrand Blaise declined to comment. The group’s shares fell 3.9 percent to close at 17.30 euros, while GM was down 2.1 percent at $43.98 as of 1620 GMT. Carmakers are scrambling to reduce carbon emissions by the 2021 deadline, when their individual EU-imposed limits will fall to an average 95 grammes per kilometer from 130 grammes today. A decline in diesel sales is complicating their task, as consumers switch to less fuel-efficient gasoline cars. The challenge is sparking big investments in smaller engines and new powertrain technologies, from battery-powered cars to rechargeable hybrids. For those who miss their targets, fines of 95 euros per vehicle, per excess gramme of CO2, could add up to hundreds of millions of euros annually. PSA believes GM misrepresented Opel’s CO2 challenges and emissions trajectory during negotiations and due diligence prior to the March acquisition deal and its formal closing on July 31. Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has publicly hinted as much. “We became aware a few weeks after we finalised the closing that the company was going to the wall on CO2 emissions,” the PSA boss told reporters on Nov. 9, after presenting a heavily revised turnaround plan at Opel headquarters near Frankfurt. PSA shares have since fallen 14 percent, underperforming peers. “We put our teams to work to completely rebuild the product and technology strategies,” Tavares said. “If you fail to comply (with EU rules) the weight of fines you are hit with can threaten the company’s existence.” ‘ENORMOUS LOSSES’ Among the unpleasant surprises was a CO2 compliance plan that relied on significant sales of the Opel Ampera-e electric car, a U.S. import based on GM’s Chevrolet Bolt, at a loss approaching 10,000 euros per vehicle, two sources said. “Their technical solution was economically unviable and would have led to enormous losses,” said one. “So the first thing you do is drop that (product) line, but then the fleet emissions explode.” Under PSA, Opel has already suspended Norwegian sales of the Ampera-e - which account for most of the model’s 1,500 deliveries to date - and increased European pricing by as much as 5,700 euros. Paris-based PSA may struggle to convince GM’s lawyers - and ultimately an arbitration panel - that it was not already well aware of Opel’s weak emissions track record and outlook. Presenting the deal alongside Tavares almost five months before it closed, GM boss Mary Barra cited “increasing regulatory and compliance costs” as a key reason to offload Opel and its Vauxhall sister brand. “The Opel/Vauxhall business model has become more difficult,” she said. Prior to the sale, Opel was on course to miss its CO2 target by 3.7 grammes, according to a PA Consulting study published in November 2016. Stripping out the Ampera-e, then projected to reach 20,000 annual sales, the overshoot rose to 6 grammes. “We’ve been reporting for years that Opel/Vauxhall would have significant problems meeting the CO2 targets as GM brands in Europe,” said Thomas Goettle, the firm’s head of automotive. “Opel is five to seven years behind with their engine lineup,” Goettle said. “We haven’t seen any big GM investments in Opel to develop plug-in hybrids or zero-emissions cars.” ‘UNDER THE RUG’ But Opel’s real situation turned out to be even worse, PSA sources said, with the company on course to miss its CO2 goal by more than 10 grammes - a multiple of the “slight overshoot” discussed in deal negotiations. A margin that large would incur EU fines approaching 1 billion euros. The gap partly reflects GM’s unrealistically high diesel sales assumptions and reliance on the Ampera-e, they said. “People who had worked on the closing realized quite quickly that there were these big discrepancies,” said one. “They had been swept under the rug.” PSA is now rushing out electric or plug-in hybrid versions of Opel’s Corsa, Grandland X and Crossland X models that were not part of the original plan it presented in March. The entire Opel lineup will be redeveloped with the French carmaker’s vehicle architectures and engines by 2024, three years earlier than initially planned, Tavares said on Nov. 9. “Given comments about the need to accelerate the transition of Opel vehicles to PSA technology, we assume PSA will write down the value of its investment in Opel,” Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said afterwards, predicting more than 1 billion euros in writedowns over the next five years. The company paid for Opel with 650 million euros in cash and another 670 million in warrants that later convert to PSA stock. PSA and BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) also bought Opel’s sales financing arm in a separate 900 million-euro transaction. The acquisition deal, published in GM regulatory filings, provides for compensation payments if either party has been misled. Claims not settled by negotiation are referred for arbitration. For tax purposes, a GM payment to PSA would be treated as a deduction from the purchase price. It would also add to a European exit bill already exceeding $6 billion for GM, net of sale proceeds. That reflects a $5.5 billion charge and 3 billion euro contribution to Opel pensions, while excluding billions more in pension liabilities it kept. During the deal negotiations, GM barred Opel staff from talking to PSA and insisted the French carmaker’s due diligence requests be handled by its Detroit headquarters, sources said. “One question that was asked was whether Opel could meet its 2021 emissions target,” said one French participant. “And the answer was ‘yes’.” Reporting by Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume; Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peugeot-gm-opel-exclusive/exclusive-psa-seeks-opel-refund-from-gm-over-co2-emissions-idUSKBN1DT1NA'|'2017-11-29T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'ceb6f6a50883f4cc70c738fd947a4139ba4e2fe6'|'EU''s Barnier paints gloom and doom for post-Brexit Britain'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago EU''s Barnier paints gloom and doom for post-Brexit Britain Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator told German industry on Wednesday that it was his responsibility to help European companies weather the exit of Britain from the EU, and he warned Britain that its economy had much to lose. In a series of speeches, Michel Barnier also said work remained to be done on how much Britain would pay the EU to cover its share of the EU budget after it leaves. British newspapers have reported his team has broadly agreed on a payment of around 50 billion euros (£44 billion). The EU has given Britain until Monday to make an acceptable offer for a financial settlement, agree on the rights of EU citizens in Britain and ensure no hard border is set up with Ireland. Only then will it start talks on a future trade pact. German business is worried about the impact of Brexit - Britain is Germany’s third-largest export destination and its fifth-biggest overall trading partner. “The future of the EU is more important than Brexit,” Barnier told the BDA employers association and the BDI industry group and DIHK chambers of commerce. Barnier said he wasn’t sure if the “whole truth” had been explained to British business on the impact of Brexit. “My responsibility before you and everywhere in Europe is to tell the truth to European businesses,” he said in the speech to the BDA employers association. A trading relationship with a non-EU member inevitably involved friction, he said. “Whatever the outcome of the current negotiations, there will be no business as usual,” he said. Some politicians in Britain have argued that German companies depend on them for business, so Berlin under Chancellor Angela Merkel may help London get a deal. European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a speech at the Berlin Security Conference on European Security and Defence in Berlin, Germany, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke But only about 6 percent of Germany’s trade in goods is with the United Kingdom, compared with 56 percent with the other EU countries, Barnier said - making it clear Britain had the most to lose. Barnier also pointed to value-added tax returns and the imports of animals and animal projects that are subject to checks at the EU’s borders as potential problems. And he warned there was no guarantee that judgements by UK courts on trade disputes would automatically be recognised across the EU after Brexit. The BDI industry association and DIHK chambers of commerce stressed that the onus was on the British government to shift in its negotiations. “The British government must move so that the EU can give the green light in two weeks for phase two of the talks,” said the BDI and DIHK groups. “There can be no cherry picking for London. It is clear: our priority is to strengthen the EU and develop it further,” they said, stressing that the freedoms of the internal market would not be diluted for Britain during any transition phase. Barnier also warned that companies should prepare for a possible “no deal”, which implies returning to trade tariffs under World Trade Organisation rules, and border controls. That scenario would lead to higher transport and storage costs, hitting companies operating on a just-in-time basis, he said. “The no-deal scenario is not our scenario, but since it cannot be ruled out, we have to prepare for it,” he said. Reporting by Joseph Nasr and Madeline Chambers, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier-berlin/no-brexit-deal-would-be-a-very-bad-deal-warns-eus-barnier-idUKKBN1DT1PX'|'2017-11-29T19:34:00.000+02:00'
'6cc74c204d0ecc8c5fe94aac88cc8e28831f6ff8'|'French minister "shocked" by job cuts at Nestle''s Galderma unit'|'UK''s huge current account deficit set to stay larger for longer market analysis Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Ten days to crack Brexit deal, EU tells May Reuters TV United States November 25, 2017 / 11:44 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago French minister ''shocked'' by job cuts at Nestle''s Galderma unit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday he was particularly “shocked” by Nestle’s ( NESN.S ) plans to cut up to 450 jobs at its Galderma skin-health research plant in the south of France as the plant benefited from a research tax credit. A Nestle company logo is pictured on a bar of Milky Bar chocolate in Manchester, Britain April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Le Maire told France Inter radio that he would meet “in the coming days” with Nestle’s representatives to discuss the issue. “I am the first to be shocked by what is happening ... It is an issue that I am monitoring closely,” he said Nestle announced in September plans to cut 450 out of 550 jobs at the research center near Nice on the French riviera. Nestle, the world’s largest packaged food firm, has come under pressure to shift gear from activist shareholder Third Point, which in June revealed a $3.5 billion stake. Nestle has satisfied some demands, such as buying back shares and setting a margin target. Nestle employs over 12,000 people in France. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-france-le-maire/french-minister-shocked-by-job-cuts-at-nestles-galderma-unit-idUKKBN1DP0CK'|'2017-11-25T13:41:00.000+02:00'
'c62ae6b2b507b468cc74a4a2548ce5e9d5b57350'|'UPDATE 2-CEO of Brazil''s Oi resigns as restructuring vote nears -shareholder'|'(Adds information on government stance, context, share price)By Tatiana Bautzer, Gram Slattery and Daniel AlvarengaSAO PAULO/LISBON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Oi SA has resigned, its largest shareholder said on Friday, as the Brazilian telecommunications firm enters a crucial phase in Latin America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy proceedings.A spokeswoman for Portugal’s Pharol SGPS SA, which owns about 27.5 percent of Oi’s voting shares and is part of a controlling shareholder bloc, said it had been informed of Marco Schroeder’s resignation.The move reflects deepening fissures between Oi’s management and board, run by shareholders aligned with distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure. Schroeder has called in recent months for both shareholders and creditors to make concessions, while the board has stuck to a restructuring proposal rejected by major bondholder groups.An Oi spokeswoman declined to comment. Three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters earlier on Friday that Schroeder had offered to resign.Common shares in Oi extended losses after the Reuters report, closing 4 percent lower.Oi is two weeks away from a crucial creditor vote on a proposal to restructure 65 billion reais ($20 billion) of debt, with the fate of the nation’s largest fixed-line phone operator at stake and more than 100,000 jobs on the line.In October, telecoms regulator Anatel had threatened to intervene in the carrier if it changed management.However, a government source said Schroeder’s departure on Friday did not make intervention more likely. The person, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that talks to bring the debt-laden carrier out of bankruptcy protection will continue under new management.Any restructuring plan approved by management must still be approved by the regulator before being presented in bankruptcy court, the person added.$1 = 3.23 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo, Daniel Alvarenga in Lisbon; Additional reporting by Leonardo Goy in Brasilia; Editing by Brad Haynes and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/update-1-ceo-of-brazils-oi-resigns-as-restructuring-vote-nears-shareholder-idINL1N1NU175'|'2017-11-24T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'bc94c57e67c9948ef5c46adb4d6e3e25117b7361'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Nov 28'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- SoftBank Group Corp formally started its process for buying a significant stake in Uber Technologies Inc with an offer to purchase some shares at a valuation of $48 billion, far below the nearly $70 billion valuation that the ride-hailing company garnered in its last round of fund-raising, according to two people briefed on the matter. nyti.ms/2Aiv5qC- The Supreme Court appeared divided on Monday over the constitutionality of a procedure that makes it easier to challenge questionable patents. nyti.ms/2n7kf3A- The European Union voted on Monday to extend its authorization for the world''s best-selling herbicide for an abbreviated period of five years, with France and Germany splitting over the move. nyti.ms/2iXlG0b- The steady growth of e-commerce has been a source of jobs and benefits as employment in traditional stores declines. But at online retailers taken over by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, workers are finding one benefit in retreat: their company-sponsored health coverage. nyti.ms/2BskWHZ (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-nov-28-idUSL3N1NY2CU'|'2017-11-28T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'deafbc84928b12336eeae5b235390820315a56eb'|'Zambia says ''must have'' $1.3 bln IMF loan in place in 2018'|'LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Zambia expects to host a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before the end of the year and hopes to have a $1.3 billion loan deal in place in early 2018, Treasury Secretary Fredson Yamba said on Tuesday.Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference, Yamba also said Africa’s No. 2 copper producer was on a mission to cut debt, and would consider additional borrowing to plug financing gaps only if terms were favourable.“Come 2018, we must have a final (IMF) programme. It has taken a long time because the parameters have been changing,” Yamba said, adding the IMF wanted the government to provide more details on debt stock, creditors and servicing costs .“Our debt has accelerated too much. They wanted us to come up with action plans,” he said.Zambia and the IMF agreed in October to chart a new path towards debt sustainability after the IMF delayed the conclusion of talks, saying it was at high risk of debt distress. The finance minister said last year that almost 20 percent of gross domestic product was being spent on debt servicing.Asked if a deal could be reached in early 2018, Yamba replied in the affirmative.Part of Zambia’s debt problem stems from $2.8 billion in Eurobonds, issued from 2012 to 2015. Yamba said the government would “operationalise” a planned sinking fund next year, aiming to accumulate cash for repayments, but was also looking at refinancing.This may include swapping existing bonds for longer-dated issues, Yamba said, detailing plans earlier outlined by finance minister Felix Mutati, but he added this would be done only if favourable terms are achieved.He declined to say what yield level could be considered favourable.“We need to see how we can refinance them ... Looking at the (2022) $750 million bond is critical. It’s a bullet payment,” he said, referring to an issue whose entire face value is paid upon maturity.He said a Chinese loan was a possible option but there were no discussions on that yet.The IMF loan delays have triggered a slide in the kwacha currency to around 10 per dollar, the lowest level since January.Yamba predicted the kwacha would stabilise, helped by stronger copper prices and rising exports. He described the current exchange rate as “comfortable”.Inflation, seen at 6 percent this year, would likely fall under that level next year, he added.Copper accounts for 70 percent of Zambia’s foreign exchange earnings and the country expects to up copper output to 740,000 tonnes this year, increasing to more than 750,000 tonnes in 2018, Michael Chibonga, acting director of the mining cadastre department at the mines ministry told Reuters.Zambia is also emerging as a producer of cobalt, expected to be in strong demand for use in batteries for electric vehicles, and Chibonga said its output was expected to rise alongside increasing copper production, although he did not give figures for cobalt.The government has based its 2018 budget on a $6,000 per tonne price, Yamba said, but added this could be revised upwards. Copper prices were Quote: d around $6815 on Tuesday (Reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Richard Balmforth) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-zambia-finmin/zambia-says-must-have-1-3-bln-imf-loan-in-place-in-2018-idINL8N1NY2M9'|'2017-11-28T08:51:00.000+02:00'
'd4939fcd182acb4cead6f4a093eb3c217538cbfb'|'Morning News Call - India, November 28'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:30 am: Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal at a press conference in Mumbai. 12:30 pm: Shalby Ltd. initial public offering press conference in Mumbai. 2:45 pm: Rajeev Kapoor, secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, to address valedictory session at an event in New Delhi. 3:00 pm: Apparel Exporters & Manufacturers Association’s press conference on impact of GST on the sector in New Delhi. 3:45 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to inaugurate the Paytm Payments Bank in New Delhi. 4:00 pm: Standard Chartered Bank''s "Banking on Digitization" conference in Mumbai. 4:30 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar at Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad. LIVECHAT- MONETARY POLICY. Discuss the outlook for monetary policy in the year ahead and interest rate futures with Dr. Lee Smales, associate professor with Curtin University''s Graduate School of Business at 2:30 pm IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS • Adani hopes for govt coal mine loan fade after Australian election India''s Adani Enterprises Ltd faces a likely block on a A$900 million government loan to help build a giant coal mine in Australia, with the left-leaning Labor Party on track for re-election in a state poll. • Indian steel firms can meet railways'' needs - government panel Indian steel companies can meet the needs of the country''s railways and local rail market entrants such as Jindal Steel and Power Ltd should be given a chance, a government panel said in a document seen by Reuters. • ICEX launches 50-cents diamond futures contract The Indian Commodity Exchange on Monday launched 50-cents diamond futures contracts, the exchange said in a statement. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Japan detects radio signals pointing to possible N.Korea missile test - source Japan has detected radio signals suggesting North Korea may be preparing for another ballistic missile launch, although such signals are not unusual and satellite images did not show fresh activity, a Japanese government source said. • SoftBank offering to buy Uber shares at 30 percent discount -source Japan''s SoftBank Group Corp is offering to purchase shares of Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to its most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. • Trump''s tax bill faces potential Senate Republican opposition on Monday LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,403.00, trading down 0.14 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are expected to gain as the federal government will this week repurchase up to 300 billion rupees of three sovereign notes maturing in 2018. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.04 percent-7.08 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open little changed against the dollar, on caution ahead of the Fed Governor Jerome Powell’s confirmation hearing as the central bank''s next chair later today and before a possible Senate vote on a key U.S. tax plan later this week. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street''s major indexes ended little changed on Monday, retreating modestly from record highs set during the session, as gains for Amazon countered losses in shares of energy companies. • Asian shares stepped back from decade highs as Chinese stocks stumbled for a second straight session, while the U.S. dollar trod water ahead of a crucial Senate vote on tax reform. • The dollar eased versus the yen and low, • Treasury yields slipped on Monday in choppy trading, partly dragged down by a combination of a pullback on Wall Street after hitting record highs earlier, plus reports that North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear missile test. • Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade amid uncertainty over a possible extension of output cuts by major crude producers and expectations of higher supply as the Keystone pipeline restarts. • Gold prices CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.55/64.58 November 27 -$65.92 mln $24.65 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.14pct Month-to-date $2.56 bln -$143.30 mln Year-to-date $8.20 bln $25.80 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.4725 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-november-28-idINL3N1NY1HM'|'2017-11-28T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'9011ccded7e352503c8872c1c2672bae018c6c7e'|'UK fraud office charges two more in Unaoil investigation'|'November 30, 2017 / 4:43 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK fraud office charges two more in Unaoil investigation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British prosecutors have charged two more people in a corruption investigation into Monaco-based oil and gas services company Unaoil. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Thursday it had charged Paul Bond, 65, and Stephen Whiteley, 62, with conspiracy to make corrupt payments to secure Iraqi contracts for Unaoil’s client SBM Offshore between June 2005 and August 2011. Bond, a former senior sales manager with SBM lives in France. Scottish-based Whiteley was a former vice president with SBM and Unaoil’s general territories manager for Iraq, Kazakhstan and Angola, the SFO said. The charges bring to four the number of people charged to date in an investigation launched last year into Unaoil, its officers, employees and agents in connection with suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering. A fifth person is subject to an extradition request to Monaco. Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-unaoil-charges/uk-fraud-office-charges-two-more-in-unaoil-investigation-idUKKBN1DU2DC'|'2017-11-30T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'fd2e6423ba3bbb6952d209bd3835205a9b3f3e6a'|'New CEO of Brazil''s Oi to adopt a conciliatory tone in creditor talks'|'RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The new chief executive officer of Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ), the Brazilian carrier which is conducting Latin America´s largest ever debt restructuring, said the company will adopt a conciliatory tone in talks with creditors.The headquarters of the Brazil''s largest fixed-line telecoms group Oi, is pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 22, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes Eurico Teles Neto said he believes Oi´s restructuring plan will be voted on by the creditors at a meeting scheduled for Dec. 19.Related Coverage Brazil''s Oi hopes to advance in talks to settle regulatory debtsReporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Ana Mano; editing by Jonathan Oatis '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring/new-ceo-of-brazils-oi-to-adopt-a-conciliatory-tone-in-creditor-talks-idINKBN1DU2MS'|'2017-11-30T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'b5e328ed7bbe77f17ca441261a6cc317f696dfb2'|'Nightclub firm Deltic discloses stake in merger target Revolution Bars'|'November 30, 2017 / 3:28 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Nightclub firm Deltic discloses stake in merger target Revolution Bars Ben Martin 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nightclub operator Deltic Group has disclosed a 3 percent stake in Revolution Bars Group, signalling it is still interested in a tie-up with the company it unsuccessfully tried to merge with earlier this year. Revolution Bars was at the centre of a bidding battle after Deltic tried to gatecrash a 101.5 million pound takeover of Revolution by Stonegate Pub Company. Revolution spurned Deltic’s merger approach in favour of the 203 pence-a-share deal with Stonegate. However, the Stonegate takeover collapsed in October when Revolution shareholders voted against the offer. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-revolution-bars-stake-deltic/nightclub-firm-deltic-discloses-stake-in-merger-target-revolution-bars-idUKKBN1DU268'|'2017-11-30T17:28:00.000+02:00'
'b8c7985ae3b2db3db127742fc7bdf9cd75292e3d'|'Reflationary BOJ board member brushes off talk of early stimulus exit'|'November 30, 2017 / 2:52 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Reflationary BOJ board member brushes off talk of early stimulus exit Leika Kihara 3 Min Read FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Yutaka Harada said on Thursday the central bank had no reason to wind back its ultra-easy monetary policy as inflation remained well below its 2 percent target. Bank of Japan (BOJ) board member Yutaka Harada points at a reporter during news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo A vocal advocate of aggressive monetary easing, Harada defended the BOJ’s massive stimulus program, saying it was helping to reflate the economy and had kept the yen stable around 110 to the dollar. “Since the introduction of quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) and the 2 percent inflation target, the yen has moved in a range of 100-120 yen, and appears to be roughly stable at around 110 yen,” Harada said. “I think this situation can be described as stable, taking into account the yen rose from 120 to 80 against the dollar around the time of the 2008 financial crisis.” The BOJ should begin to withdraw stimulus only after confirming that price increases have gained enough momentum for achieving its target, Harada told business leaders in Fukushima, northeastern Japan. “If the current monetary policy is maintained, labor shortages will intensify further as the economy improves, and there will be a phase in which both wages and prices increase,” he said. “If their momentum is strong enough, the BOJ will start reducing the level of monetary easing.” The dollar stood around 112 yen on Thursday. Harada brushed aside criticism made by some analysts that delays in rolling back stimulus could trigger hyper-inflation, destabilize the banking system and leave the BOJ without tools to fight another recession. “Some people say that, because central banks in the United States and Europe are heading for the exit, Japan should follow suit,” Harada said. “However, it makes perfect sense to me that Japan’s exit should come later than theirs” as inflation is still below 1 percent, he added. The BOJ can avoid runaway inflation by tapering monetary easing or tightening policy when achievement of its price target is in sight, Harada said. The central bank has not reached any decisions on an exit policy for its stimulus program, but possible steps that could be taken include abandoning negative interest rates, raising the interest applied to excess reserves financial institutions park at the BOJ or selling the BOJ’s holdings of government bonds, he said. Harada is considered as among those in the nine-member board who emphasize the positive impact huge money printing could have on the economy and inflation, rather than the demerits of prolonged easing such as the hit to bank margins. Still, he has voted with the majority of the board including at last year’s decision to shift to a policy framework targeting interest rates instead of the pace of money printing. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj/reflationary-boj-board-member-brushes-off-talk-of-early-stimulus-exit-idUKKBN1DU093'|'2017-11-30T04:43:00.000+02:00'
'75cbadbdc5020bb1e2e2f7868fa146b9f565a953'|'EU works on anti-veto measures to combat tax dodging'|'November 30, 2017 / 12:47 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU works on anti-veto measures to combat tax dodging Francesco Guarascio 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments could be stripped of their veto power on EU tax rules under proposals being prepared by the EU’s executive arm, an unprecedented move that could unblock reforms long resisted by smaller states. European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici presents the EU executive''s autumn economic forecasts during a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman In a bid to boost tax revenues and address a public outcry after disclosures of widespread use of tax avoidance schemes by corporations and wealthy individuals, bigger EU states are pushing for reforms that would reduce tax dodging. But the most ambitious plans have been blocked mainly by smaller countries, such as Luxembourg, Malta and Ireland, which fear stricter rules could hit their economies. The stalemate could be brought to an end by the European Commission, which is considering triggering a neglected article of the EU constitutional treaty to suspend states’ veto powers on tax matters. “We certainly don’t exclude using it. We will work on it. We will make proposals in that direction,” EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a news conference on Thursday. This could also apply to measures under discussion aimed at forcing tech giants like Amazon and Facebook to pay higher taxes in the EU, a move championed by France but opposed by smaller states before a debate at a meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday. Under article 116 of the EU Lisbon treaty, the European Commission can compel states to drop the unanimity rule and take decisions on tax matters by majority when competition in the EU market is distorted. “We will work on Article 116 having in mind the idea of having results, not to make a coup,” Moscovici said, warning of likely opposition in some EU capitals to a provision which has never so far been invoked. One EU official called it “the nuclear option” on tax issues because it could break prolonged legislative deadlocks. But it could also be seen as an interference with national powers, especially in smaller countries. If decided by majority, planned changes on taxing digital firms are likely to be quickly agreed, having the backing of a large group of EU governments which accuse tech companies of paying too little by rerouting their EU profits to low-tax states like Luxembourg or Ireland. Proposals for an EU common tax base and for stricter rules on tax advisers who help devise aggressive tax schemes could also be unlocked. Luxembourg and the Netherlands have a flourishing industry of tax advisers which help global corporations hold about 10 trillion euros ($9 trillion) in the two countries for tax purposes. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-tax-regulations/eu-commission-mulls-stripping-states-of-veto-power-on-tax-matters-idUKKBN1DU1OS'|'2017-11-30T18:24:00.000+02:00'
'2b222041807c0c51878bf718b3fa707ec50f0a25'|'Akzo Nobel shareholders approve specialty chemicals spin-off'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:05 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Akzo Nobel shareholders approve chemicals split Bart H. Meijer 3 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Akzo Nobel ( AKZO.AS ) gained shareholder approval on Thursday to spin off its 10 billion euro ($11.9 billion) chemicals division as part of plans to placate investors after the Dutch paintmaker rejected a takeover offer from rival PPG Industries ( PPG.N ). FILE PHOTO: Dulux paint cans are filled on the production line inside AkzoNobel''s paint factory in Ashington, Britain September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The sale of the chemicals operation was described by Chief Executive Thierry Vanlancker as “essential” for further growth of the company and was backed by 99.9 percent of shareholders in a vote in Amsterdam. Akzo had clashed with a large part of its shareholder base this year after management refused to negotiate with PPG over a 26 billion euro offer. The company said at the time that it wanted to “unlock value” by spinning off its chemicals business, either through a direct sale or an initial public offering (IPO). The majority of the proceeds are earmarked for investors, starting with a special dividend of 1 billion euros in December. Akzo expects the separation of the chemicals division, which has annual revenue of 4.8 billion euros and more than 9,000 employees worldwide, to be completed in April. PPG LINGERS Despite overwhelming support for the chemicals spin-off, irritation among shareholders with the way Akzo handled the PPG approach could still be felt at Thursday’s meeting. “Confidence in the supervisory board has still not been restored,” said a spokesman for British pension fund investor USS, which last month withdrew former ASML ( ASML.AS ) CEO Eric Meurice as its own candidate for the Akzo supervisory board because the company refused to support him. “That was not conducive to restoring relations with shareholders,” said USS, which holds 1.2 percent of Akzo shares. Other shareholders urged the company to listen to investors in the search for a successor to Chairman Antony Burgmans, who is due to leave Akzo in April. A compulsory six-month cooling off period for PPG expires on Friday, which means it could return with another bid. But PPG CEO Michael McGarry has said that the company has “moved on” from Akzo and is now seeking other growth opportunities. Vanlancker recently tried to agree an Akzo tie-up with smaller U.S. paints maker Axalta ( AXTA.N ), but talks ended abruptly when Axalta received a better offer from Japanese rival Nippon Paint ( 4612.T ). The Akzo chief told shareholders that the company will now focus on smaller “bolt-on” acquisitions. Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Jane Merriman and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-akzonobel-chemicals/akzo-nobel-seeks-shareholder-approval-for-chemicals-split-idUSKBN1DU1RM'|'2017-11-30T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'0898a4d3bbef5fb7b1818c74217292583f62dd8b'|'Australia business investment, home building on the rise'|'November 30, 2017 / 3:12 AM / Updated an hour ago Australia business investment, home building on the rise Wayne Cole , Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian business investment hit its highest in over a year last quarter while approvals to build new homes climbed to the strongest in eight months, promising omens for a pick up in broader economic activity. A tradesman works on the roof of a house under construction at a housing development located in the western Sydney suburb of Oran Park in Australia, October 21, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray Investment grew a seasonally adjusted 1 percent in July-September to A$29.4 billion (£16.6 billion), data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed on Thursday. That was the third straight quarter of gains and the best performance since mid-2016. Spending on equipment, plant and machinery rose 0.7 percent and should have added modestly to economic growth in the third quarter, with investment outside mining and manufacturing hitting fresh record highs. Figures due next week are likely to show Australia’s A$1.7 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by anywhere from 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent in the third quarter. The data gave a boost to the local dollar which was last up 0.3 percent at $0.7590 AUD=D4 , snapping four straight sessions of losses. AMP Capital economist Diana Mousina estimated that non-mining investment would climb about 12 percent over the year, a big improvement from 2 percent rise in 2016/17. Mining investment, on the other hand, is seen falling about 20 percent. “Total business investment growth will likely be close to flat in 2017/18,” Mousina added. “That is a better outcome than three months ago that indicated a small fall in total investment and it would be the best outcome for total business investment for several years.” Latest estimates for business investment in the year to June 2018 were also revised up further to A$108.9 billion, from a previous A$103.1 billion, topping most analysts forecasts. Spending plans for sectors including utilities, construction and retail trade, were all running at record highs. ANIMAL SPIRITS The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has long been counting on a wider revival in investment to fill the hole left by a downturn in mining, and has recently sounded more optimistic that the tide is turning. “It’s too early to say that animal spirits have returned with gusto,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said last week. “But more firms are reporting that economic conditions have improved and more are now prepared to take a risk and invest in new assets. This is good news for the economy.” A four-year-old boom in home building has already done much to support the economy and data out Thursday suggested it had further to run. Approvals to build new homes increased 0.9 percent in October, when analysts had looked for a fall of around 1.8 percent. Approvals were a lofty 18.4 percent higher than in October last year, with apartments up over 37 percent. That would come as a surprise to analysts and policy makers who had assumed residential construction would slow steadily in coming months. Analysts still fretted over subdued consumer spending which continues to be a major overhang for the economy. “The weak link remains the consumer, constrained by weak wages growth and high household debt levels,” Westpac economist Andrew Hanlan said. Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-economy-investment/australia-business-investment-home-building-on-the-rise-idUKKBN1DU0A4'|'2017-11-30T05:12:00.000+02:00'
'58541ff135141b4092cc47a5ede2e18d4829714e'|'Royal Bank of Scotland closes final chapter on ''bad bank'''|'November 30, 2017 / 2:31 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Royal Bank of Scotland closes final chapter on ''bad bank'' Lawrence White , Anjuli Davies 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland has closed its so-called bad bank, which was set up to sell large chunks of its huge stockpile of unwanted assets, nine years after a 45-billion-pound bailout by the British government. People walk past a Royal Bank of Scotland office in London, Britain, February 6, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The closure of its Capital Resolution division will mark a milestone on the bank’s road to recovery, with its balance sheet around 1.5 trillion pounds lighter than when its great sell-off began and a week after the British government said it planned to sell 3 billion pounds of public holdings of RBS shares in the next financial year. The British lender announced the anticipated move in a memo to the 80 remaining staff in the unit on Thursday, closing the chapter on one of the biggest ever financial restructurings for what was once the biggest lender in the world. “The closing of Capital Resolution is a key moment for RBS,” CEO Ross McEwan said. “It has taken nearly 10 years to undo the consequences of the global ambitions pursued by RBS in the run-up to the crisis. What we have achieved is unprecedented for the banking industry. We have gone from a bank with a balance sheet bigger than UK GDP to the smaller, safer bank we are today.” RBS, which is 71 percent-owned by British taxpayers, had a balance sheet of 2.2 trillion pounds in 2008 - almost double Britain’s annual economic output at the time - having staged a meteoric rise from being a small Scottish lender in the early 1990s. The British government pumped 45.5 billion pounds into RBS in the depths of the financial crisis, and efforts since then to recoup the money have been stymied by the bank’s plunging share price, regulatory probes in the United States and Brexit. RBS has reported losses of more than 58 billion pounds since 2008 but last month reported a forecast-beating operating profit in the third quarter that lifted its shares. In 2008 the non-core unit employed 19,000 staff and RBS operated in over 50 countries. ($1 = 0.7428 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rbs-restructuring/royal-bank-of-scotland-closes-final-chapter-on-bad-bank-idUKKBN1DU20D'|'2017-11-30T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'3df328f9e78e61014564b98e5708ef9c77f95c0c'|'Eurogroup head warns of complacency as euro zone economy grows'|'Reuters TV United States  58 PM / a few seconds ago Eurogroup head warns of complacency as euro zone economy grows Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The outgoing chairman of euro zone finance ministers warned on Thursday against complacency among politicians on pending reforms as the euro zone economy gathers speed. Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem attends an European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who will step down in mid-January, said that as growth accelerated and unemployment fell, politicians found it increasingly difficult to “fix the roof” when the sun was shining and to prepare for the next storm. Asked what advice he would give his successor, who is to be chosen on Dec 4 from candidates of Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia and Luxembourg, Dijsselbloem said: “Be very careful about complacency. You know the politicians always say ‘there is no time for complacency’. Well, I am very worried that we are coming into complacency territory,” he said. “Things are going so well, the banks are better, the economy is better, I see too many politicians relaxing and really we need to do more work,” he said. He noted that all 19 euro zone countries were growing at a rate between 1.5 and 6 percent, and the outlook for the single currency area was good, with investment picking up and exports on the rise. But he warned that “we are not there yet.” “Member states should really use the current time to strengthen their growth potential improve productivity and become more resilient. Now is the time to fix the roof -- become resilient to possible future shocks,” he said. Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Robin Emmott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurogroup-dijsselbloem/eurogroup-head-warns-of-complacency-as-euro-zone-economy-grows-idUKKBN1DU2SS'|'2017-11-30T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'252c567b8e18e01cd9f856a757c1b09d36d58f1c'|'Folger Hill raises fresh cash for burgeoning Asia investment unit'|'BOSTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A budding business in Asia is helping revive the fortunes of U.S. hedge fund executive Sol Kumin.The Singapore and Hong Kong-based unit of Kumin’s Folger Hill Asset Management LP received a second commitment of up to $250 million from trading magnate Steven Schonfeld, the hedge fund founder told Reuters in an interview after the portfolio gained about 8 percent over the 12 months through October.Performance helped seal the verbal commitment for the new funds and Folger Hill has already drawn $25 million of that amount.“It is very exciting,” Kumin said in his Boston office. “We think we will continue to grow a great business there.”Success in Asia has helped offset stumbles in Folger Hill''s U.S.-focused business, which has suffered losses and investor redemptions since it launched in 2015 with more than $1 billion. ( reut.rs/2b9eugR )Returns there have stabilized this year with a 4.5 percent gain in the first ten months of 2017 and a fresh $100 million commitment from Leucadia National Corp, which is also backing Folger Hill’s Asia endeavor.The Asia arm will soon open to new investors, aiming to raise about $250 million by March 31, 2018, Kumin said.With the fresh commitment from Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC, Folger Hill’s Asia assets could soon total around $1 billion. The business now has about $525 million under management, a little more than half of the firm’s $1 billion in overall assets.In a statement, Ryan Tolkin, who oversees investments at Schonfeld, said the deal is “core” to his firm’s mission to expand internationally.Kumin made his name at Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, where he spent nearly a decade and served as chief operating officer and a trusted adviser to Cohen. Kumin was one of the first senior executives to leave after SAC settled insider trading charges with the U.S. government in 2013 and Cohen prepared to convert the firm into a family office that manages his personal fortune.In launching Folger Hill in 2015, Kumin set out to mimic SAC, where teams of stock pickers vied for a central pool of money to invest and the firm delivered average annual returns of 30 percent. Unlike Cohen, Kumin does not invest money himself, but is known for spotting and recruiting trading talent.Kumin splits his time between New York and Boston, where he took over the wood-paneled space that once housed SAC’s Back Bay office. The Boston office, decorated with horse-racing and Boston sports team memorabilia, houses the firm’s trading desk although the majority of investment staffers are in Manhattan. Kumin said he travels to Asia between five and six times a yearAs part of his Asia expansion, Kumin reunited with Angus Wai, previously SAC’s head of Asia Pacific. Wai is now leading Folger Hill’s effort to hire top talent and spot winning investments in Hong Kong and countries including Japan, China and South Korea.By January, Folger Hill expects to have roughly a dozen portfolio managers working in Asia, as many as in the United States, Kumin said. Seven will be based in Hong Kong and four will be based in Singapore.Kumin believes having a bigger presence in Asia will allow Folger Hill to compete with other sizeable U.S.-based hedge funds that have relatively modest staffing there.“Being a smaller and newer firm doesn’t put us at a disadvantage,” he said. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hedgefunds-folgerhill/folger-hill-raises-fresh-cash-for-burgeoning-asia-investment-unit-idINL1N1NY1KU'|'2017-11-29T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'1bdd56b2a3ab2893d96ad3c25754f0d860b1b966'|'Siemens leans towards Frankfurt for Healthineers listing'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:06 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Siemens leans towards Frankfurt for Healthineers listing Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens AG is close to deciding where it will list its Healthineers medical equipment business, with Frankfurt now favoured for a move which could value the company at 40 billion euros (£35.35 billion), sources said. FILE PHOTO - The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder A Frankfurt listing would be a coup for the German financial capital, which is gaining in stature as banks prepare to move staff there from London ahead of Brexit. It would be Germany’s biggest IPO since Deutsche Telekom listed in 1996. Siemens’ board member Michael Sen had previously highlighted the attractions of a listing in New York, where most of Healthineers’ peers are listed, pointing also to high liquidity and expertise about the sector among the financial community. Siemens is expected to float 15-25 percent of Healthineers, which makes X-ray and MRI machines, by March of next year, sources have said. That implies stock worth 6-10 billion euros could be put up for sale. One source familiar with the matter said the listing would be considered by the supervisory board at a meeting on Wednesday. An announcement could follow. Two bankers involved in preparations for the listing said no final decision had yet been taken, but added Frankfurt’s chances were not looking bad. Siemens declined to comment after the Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement on the venue of the listing could come on Wednesday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper also said a decision could be postponed. The German industrial conglomerate which is seeking to simplify its structure has already appointed Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan as lead organisers of the Healthineers IPO. A further eight bookrunner mandates are expected to be awarded soon, say sources familiar with the matter. Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Alexander Huebner; Writing by Douglas Busvine and Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-siemens-healthineers/siemens-leans-towards-frankfurt-listing-for-healthineers-unit-sources-idUKKBN1DS2KZ'|'2017-11-29T12:43:00.000+02:00'
'38c4a4d8e6825260226c8fe3ffdd6a5fdeea6cf3'|'Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for electric cars'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) and Toyota ( 7203.T ) pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production.A Toyota Motor Corp. logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models.To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen (VW) alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion).Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore ( GLEN.L ), at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal.More than half of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines.On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing.The partnership dubbed “Drive Sustainability” consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford ( F.N ), Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ), BMW ( BMWG.DE ), Honda ( 7267.T ), Jaguar Land Rover ( TAMO.NS ), Volvo Cars ( 0175.HK ) and truckmakers Scania and Volvo ( VOLVb.ST ).The alliance “will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector,” said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network.“This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue” to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-minerals/automakers-pledge-ethical-minerals-sourcing-for-electric-cars-idUSKBN1DT1SK'|'2017-11-29T15:10:00.000+02:00'
'bfd58bec7076938fc188692f619d7af14182c2e1'|'UK shop prices slip 0.1 percent in November for third month running - BRC'|'November 29, 2017 / 12:15 AM / Updated 3 hours ago UK shop prices slip 0.1 percent in November for third month running - BRC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - British shop prices edged down by an annual 0.1 percent for the third month in a row during November, according to a survey that chimed with the Bank of England’s thinking that inflation may have peaked around now. FILE PHOTO - A shopper shields herself from the rain with a newspaper as she walks past a store on Oxford Street in London, Britain June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Although prices for non-food goods declined at the slowest rate since May 2013, food price inflation cooled this month, Retail Consortium (BRC) and market research firm Nielsen said. Still, the 0.1 percent drop in overall shop prices matched the shallowest rate of shop price deflation for the last four years. After raising interest rates for the first time in 10 years earlier this month, the Bank of England said it thought consumer price inflation - pushed up by the pound’s fall after last year’s Brexit vote - had probably peaked around now. Although inflation looks set to run above the BoE’s 2 percent target for the next few years, most economists say they do not expect the BoE to raise rates again until 2019. “Many inflationary increases are still being absorbed by retailers and are not being passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices,” said Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen. Price pressures among non-food retailers had been higher than for food vendors, the BRC said, reflecting the expiration of currency hedging contracts that had allowed them to protect customers from the inflationary effect of sterling’s plunge last year. The official measure of consumer price inflation unexpectedly held steady at 3.0 percent in October. Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by William Schomberg; andy.bruce@thomsonreuters.com; +442075423484; Reuters Messaging: andy.bruce.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-retail-prices/uk-shop-prices-slip-0-1-percent-in-november-for-third-month-running-brc-idUKKBN1DT01F'|'2017-11-29T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'bff854ebebf94cc457d6f58649224a9f85268681'|'Court slaps Nestle India with fine over substandard noodles'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:42 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Court slaps Nestle India with fine over substandard noodles Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A court on Tuesday imposed a fine of 4.5 million rupees ($70,000) on Nestle India in a 2015 case for selling substandard instant noodles after a laboratory test found high ash content in its popular Maggi brand. FILE PHOTO: Packets of Nestle''s Maggi instant noodles are seen on display at a grocery store in Mumbai, India, June 4, 2015. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File photo The court also slapped a 2.6 million rupee fine on the distributors of Nestle India, a unit of packaged food giant Nestle SA, said Ranjan Singh, a legal officer at the Shahjahanpur district court in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. The case against the Swiss food firm’s India unit is one of several filed by regulators after they found excess lead, ash, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer, in different samples of Maggi noodles seized in Uttar Pradesh between 2015 and 2016. A spokesman for Nestle India said the company will appeal against the order. “This appears to be a case of application of incorrect standards, and we will file an appeal urgently once we receive the order,” said the spokesman, who did not wish to be named citing company policy. Maggi, Nestle India’s single-largest revenue earner, was banned in June 2015 for six months across India on allegations that it contained chemicals beyond prescribed limits. The company had to recall 38,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles from millions of retail shelves and destroy them. The ban was relaxed in November 2015. ($1 = 64.3225 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nestle-india-court/court-slaps-nestle-india-with-fine-over-substandard-noodles-idINKBN1DT165'|'2017-11-29T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'40efbcf714b2653de55ac3217e248a73688eaab1'|'Unilever board to delay decision on single structure - FT'|' 53 AM / Updated an hour ago Unilever board to delay decision on single structure - FT Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Consumer goods maker Unilever is delaying a decision on whether to pick Britain or the Netherlands as its home base, the Financial Times reported. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “It’s a moving playing field -- with political turbulence out there. The emotions of the moment are really the issue,” the paper quoted Chief Executive Paul Polman as saying. A spokeswoman for Unilever was not immediately available to comment. Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-structure/unilever-board-to-delay-decision-on-single-structure-ft-idUKKBN1DS0O3'|'2017-11-28T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'a8239482ab8df06f2320c614ec5d440ac094d85d'|'Toyota taps Denso exec as CFO in latest management shuffle'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) on Tuesday appointed a senior official at its biggest parts supplier as a top executive, promoting cooperation with its group companies as it pushes to compete in developing lower-emission cars and automated driving functions.A Toyota Motor Corp. logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The world’s No. 2 automaker has been overhauling its corporate structure to speed up decision-making and tap the R&D prowess of its supplier network as it faces increasing competition from global automakers and software companies to develop new transportation technologies.Koji Kobayashi, vice chairman and board member of Denso Corp ( 6902.T ), who previously worked at Toyota for more than 30 years in roles including finance and sales, returns to the Japanese company as chief financial and risk officer from January.The company is also promoting Shigeki Tomoyama, who heads Toyota’s division for connected vehicle technologies and its racing arm, and Moritaka Yoshida, an architect of Toyota’s modular production system who also worked on the firm’s latest foray into automated driving functions, to executive vice president roles.As the onslaught of electrification, automation and car- and ride-sharing requires automakers to act quickly to develop and market new technologies, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said the company was facing a “now or never” moment which could determine whether auto companies would continue to play a leading role as carmakers.“Our coming structural change reflects our will that the Toyota Group will tackle this era of profound transformation,” Toyoda said in a statement.Gill Pratt, who heads Toyota’s artificial intelligence research division, has been named as a company fellow, while Satoshi Ogiso, a key member of Toyota’s original Prius development team who was dispatched to head brake supplier Advics Co in 2015, will return to Toyota as head of its commercial vehicles division.The latest shuffle comes months after Toyota slimmed down its representative directors to centralize responsibility and accountability for the entire company.Chief Branding Officer Tokuo Fukuichi, a former president of the Lexus luxury division, will resign from his post after taking it up in April. Toshiyuki Mizushima, head of the company’s in-house powertrain company, will step down after leading the division created in April 2016.Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Joseph RadfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-strategy/toyota-taps-denso-exec-as-cfo-in-latest-management-shuffle-idUSKBN1DS0B2'|'2017-11-28T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'017c09b93530ad7a7c9b1b4d1f81f5618cc04aad'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 28'|'Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* EasyJet reveals 45 pct gender pay gap on.ft.com/2zv1w3z* British Airways owner IAG buys Gatwick slots from collapsed Monarch on.ft.com/2zxyXTn* Unilever to delay picking UK or Netherlands for sole base on.ft.com/2zxzRzf* David Davis heading for row over Brexit sectoral papers on.ft.com/2zxA85fOverview- easyJet Plc, whose outgoing chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall will take over at ITV in January, reported that there was a 45.5 per cent median pay gap between its male and female employees.- British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines is buying 20 take-off and landing slots from collapsed carrier Monarch Airlines.- The board of Unilever board delaying a decision on whether to choose the UK or the Netherlands for its headquarters. Unilever was likely to abandon its dual structure in favour of a single legal corporation.- UK Brexit secretary David Davis is facing criticism from MPs over claims that his department redacted key information from Brexit “analysis papers” that were handed over to parliament on Monday.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter CooneyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-nov-28-idUSL3N1NY19R'|'2017-11-28T03:37:00.000+02:00'
'a5b6f4de7bff83cea7604b6706d2dd5fec15bd00'|'Aviva to generate extra £3 billion of cash, planning payback, some M'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Aviva to generate extra £3 billion of cash, planning payback, some M&A Carolyn Cohn 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Aviva expects to generate an extra 3 billion pounds in cash over the next two years and will make acquisitions as well as giving money back to shareholders, it said on Thursday, sending its share price to three-month highs. FILE PHOTO: People enter and exit the AVIVA headquarters building in Dublin October 19, 2011. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton/File Photo Insurers and reinsurers, among them Allianz and Swiss Re, have been returning cash to shareholders as strong competition cuts opportunities for expansion. Aviva has made a number of disposals in the past year, including in France, Spain, Italy and Taiwan, and says its Indian joint venture is under “strategic review”. “The franchises we have left have a pretty decent track record,” Chief Executive Mark Wilson told an investor day in Warsaw. “We are moving into a new phase and we have the capital to be able to do it.” Aviva expects to deploy 2 billion pounds of cash in 2018 by spending 900 million pounds on repaying expensive debt and using the remaining 1.1 billion pounds for “bolt-on” acquisitions and returning cash, it said in a statement ahead of the investor day. Some analysts had anticipated Aviva would announce a share buyback of 1 billion pounds on Thursday, but Wilson said the firm had an “appetite for M&A”. Aviva has said it is only looking at small purchases following its 5.6 billion-pound ($7.5 billion) takeover of Friends Life in 2015, and is interested in expanding in “insurtech” and artificial intelligence. Aviva’s cash promise helped send its shares to three-month highs. They were up 2.17 percent at 520 pence at 1035 GMT, the second-biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 index. Morgan Stanley analyst Jon Hocking reiterated his ‘overweight’ rating on the stock in a note to clients. “Taken as a package, we think this is a bullish set of goals from Aviva and, if achieved, the current multiple on the shares looks too low,” he said, giving the shares a 649p price target. Aviva said it was raising its expectations for earnings growth to more than 5 percent annually from 2019 onwards, from a previous target of mid-single-digit growth. It also said it would increase its dividend pay-out ratio to 55-60 percent of earnings per share by 2020, from 50 percent. The new targets are “achievable”, JP Morgan analysts said in a note, reiterating their “overweight” investment rating on the shares. Additional reporting by Simon JessopEditing by Jason Neely, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aviva-investorday/aviva-to-spend-4-billion-in-excess-cash-in-next-two-years-idUKKBN1DU0Q3'|'2017-11-30T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'82ad2e1fa2cf2dc414d68afcc57bd482df0365bd'|'UK consumer sentiment sinks to 16-month low, business mixed'|'November 30, 2017 / 12:11 AM / in 6 hours UK consumer sentiment sinks to 16-month low, house prices weak David Milliken , William Schomberg 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British consumers, the main drivers of the economy, are their least confident since just after last year’s Brexit vote, and business morale has also softened, surveys showed on Thursday, adding to signs of a further economic slowdown in 2018. A woman holds a Union Flag shopping bag in London, Britain April 23, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs/File Photo Separate data showed British house price growth, which has weakened since last year’s referendum decision to leave the European Union, was slower than expected in November. The GfK consumer confidence index dropped by 2 points to -12 in November, its lowest since July 2016 and below the average forecast of a decline to -11 in a Reuters poll. “Sadly there’s no festive cheer,” said Joe Staton, an executive at the market research company. “Household jitters following the recent interest rate hike, squeezed incomes, higher inflation and economic uncertainty have dampened the consumer mood across the UK.” Britain’s economy has slowed this year as higher inflation - largely due to the fall in the pound after the Brexit vote last year - pushed up costs for households and businesses. At the start of the month, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in over a decade to tackle inflation that is at a five-year high, and last week government forecasters slashed their growth outlook. GfK said households’ willingness to make big purchases fell to its lowest level since October 2014 in bad news for retailers in the run-up to Christmas. A separate survey by Lloyds Bank showed business confidence slipped this month - with economic optimism the lowest since June 2016. “Firms are confident about their future, although the fall in economic optimism is an indication of economic and political uncertainties ahead,” said Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds Commercial Banking. British Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to move Brexit talks on to trade after a meeting with EU leaders next month. But she first needs to make progress on Britain’s outstanding bills, the rights of EU citizens in Britain, and future border arrangements between the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. British media have reported that May was ready to pay around 50 billion euros ($59 billion) to leave the EU. TIPPING POINT FOR EXPORTERS The British Chambers of Commerce said on Thursday that exporters were benefiting from a weaker pound and stronger demand from the faster-growing euro zone economy. The volume of trade documentation - a leading indicator for export volumes - was four percent higher than a year earlier and its third highest since records began in 2004. But some exporters were suffering from higher raw materials costs or staff shortages. “Taken together with higher domestic costs ... a tipping point may soon be reached for some firms – with consequences for investment, recruitment and trade,” BCC director-general Adam Marshall said. Also on Thursday, data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed the housing market - which is a big factor for consumer confidence - remained weak in November. Prices rose 2.5 percent from November 2016, unchanged from the pace of growth in October and below a forecast for growth of 2.7 percent in a Reuters poll of analysts. Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said mortgage interest rates had picked up in October ahead of the BoE’s rate hike, and several indicators were already pointing to a further slowdown in the market. House prices were rising by about five percent in annual terms shortly before the Brexit vote in June 2016, according to Nationwide’s measure. Most economists say house price growth would be even weaker were it not for a shortage of homes on the market. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, a cut in a tax on house purchases for most first-time buyers, announced by finance minister Philip Hammond last week, would have only a modest impact on overall demand. Other measures to boost house-building were encouraging, Gardner said. ($1 = 0.8441 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-consumersentiment/uk-consumer-sentiment-sinks-to-16-month-low-business-mixed-idUKKBN1DU00D'|'2017-11-30T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'b6be1fbfa1c632d47df97aa8cfeec9826e630a02'|'Akzo Nobel seeks shareholder approval for chemicals split'|'AMSTERDAM, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Akzo Nobel will seek shareholder approval on Thursday to spin off its 10-billion euro chemicals division, part of plans to placate investors after the Dutch paintmaker rejected a takeover offer from rival PPG Industries.Akzo Nobel clashed with a large part of its shareholder base this year after management refused to negotiate with PPG over a 26 billion-euro ($31 billion) offer.Akzo said at the time it wanted to “unlock value” by spinning off its chemicals business.A compulsory six-month cooling off period for PPG expires on Friday, which means PPG could return with another bid. But PPG CEO Michael McGarry has said that PPG has “moved on” from Akzo, and is now seeking other opportunities for growth.Akzo won a series of legal battles with its disgruntled investors, who sought to oust Chairman Antony Burgmans and demanded negotiations with PPG. But Akzo has struggled to follow through on promises of growth as a stand-alone company.Shareholders are expected to approve a spin off of the chemical division, which has an estimated value of up to 10 billion euros. They are due to vote on the demerger at an extraordinary shareholders meeting starting at 1300 GMT in Amsterdam.In October, Akzo warned its operating profit would not grow at all this year, marking its second profit downgrade in as many months.The company also lost CEO Ton Buechner in the summer, who stepped down for health reasons.New Chief Executive Thierry Vanlancker has tried to do a deal with smaller U.S. paints maker Axalta. But merger talks ended abruptly after several weeks when Axalta received a better offer from Japanese rival Nippon Paint. ($1 = 0.8451 euros) (Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Jane Merriman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/akzonobel-chemicals/akzo-nobel-seeks-shareholder-approval-for-chemicals-split-idUSL8N1O03JD'|'2017-11-30T20:52:00.000+02:00'
'cb1edad9a7dc5708b3dceaa3f57efeab30915e22'|'U.S. startup Uptake valued at $2.3 billion in new funding round'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. analytic software firm Uptake Technologies Inc said on Thursday it raised $117 million in venture funding, a deal that gave it a valuation of $2.3 billion.The series D funding was led by investment firm Baillie Gifford and included prior Uptake backers Revolution Growth and GreatPoint Ventures, Uptake said.The new round increased the valuation of Chicago-based Uptake from $2 billion at its last funding in April, according to the company.Uptake, which was co-founded in 2014 by Groupon Inc ( GRPN.O ) co-founder Brad Keywell, makes software that monitors and analyzes real-time data generated by industrial equipment and uses it to improve the performance and maintenance of the machinery.Uptake is among scores of companies developing such software, including heavyweights such as General Electric Co ( GE.N ), Siemens AG ( SIEGn.DE ) and ABB Ltd ( ABBN.S ).Keywell said the funding will help Uptake expand internationally and further target heavy industries such as energy, railroads, oil and gas, mining and wind power.Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uptake-funding/u-s-startup-uptake-valued-at-2-3-billion-in-new-funding-round-idINKBN1DU1K9'|'2017-11-30T09:03:00.000+02:00'
'01e0df6beeaa2674e48ee04ef3c0e18835666ef0'|'Brazil utility Eletropaulo says considering share offering'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Brazilian power utility Eletropaulo Metropolitana Eletricidade de Sao Paulo SA is considering a follow-on share offering, the company said in a securities exchange filing on Thursday.The company said it was considering an offering among other possibilities and has not decided any details of a new issue including timing, structure or volume. (Reporting by Jake Spring Editing by Greg Mahlich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eletropaulo-issue/brazil-utility-eletropaulo-says-considering-share-offering-idINE4N1KW02B'|'2017-11-30T06:28:00.000+02:00'
'e7c645b260a67ba7720eb1caf2577b039f2fbc31'|'France''s Altran to buy engineering services Aricent from KKR-led group'|'Nov 30 (Reuters) - French technology consultancy company Altran Technologies said on Thursday it would buy design and engineering services firm Aricent from group of investors led by KKR for a total enterprise value of 1.7 billion euros ($1.19 billion).Altran said the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, would be accretive to earnings per share from the first year. ($1 = 0.8430 euros) (Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aricent-ma-altran-tech/frances-altran-to-buy-engineering-services-firm-aricent-from-kkr-led-group-idINW8N1FG04C'|'2017-11-30T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'9c2be16c82d757c316dc9950f4bd8e065e247b61'|'Australia''s CrownBet won''t oppose Tabcorp''s Tatts takeover'|'(Reuters) - Horse-race betting giant Tabcorp Holdings Ltd ( TAH.AX ) said on Thursday that rival CrownBet has agreed not to oppose the company’s $4.7 billion takeover offer for Tatts Group Ltd ( TTS.AX ).FILE PHOTO: An official holds a list of the Melbourne Cup horses and jockeys as people place bets at an outdoor betting tent organised by Australian gambling company Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (TAB) in central Sydney, Australia, November 5, 2013. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Tabcorp’s offer for the lottery owner was cleared by an Australian tribunal earlier this month and CrownBet has agreed not to apply for judicial review of the tribunal’s decision, the company said in a statement.Under an agreement with CrownBet, Tabcorp said it will supply a digital stream of horseracing channels SKY 1 and SKY 2 to CrownBet for the personal use of its Australian wagering customers on their mobile and PC devices.CrownBet, majority-owned by casino giant Crown Resorts ( CWN.AX ), earlier this year began legal proceedings over the authorization of the Tatts takeover by the Australian Competition Tribunal.The Tabcorp-Tatts union is the third attempt by the two firms to merge since 2006 in a bid to create a gambling powerhouse and fend off rivals like Britain’s William Hill ( WMH.L ) and Ireland’s Paddy Power Betfair ( PPB.I ).Last week, Reuters exclusively reported that Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill have separately held talks about a deal with CrownBet as UK-focused gambling companies seek to expand overseas.Shares of Tabcorp rose 0.8 percent in morning trade, compared with a 0.9 percent fall on the benchmark indexReporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tatts-group-m-a-tabcorp/australias-crownbet-to-not-oppose-tabcorp-tatts-merger-idINKBN1DT3JH'|'2017-11-29T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'21d06e72fb191651eb0dd139ccf51b5b10b02cbe'|'Goldman eschews bitcoin but wants to help clients crypto-trade'|'November 30, 2017 / 6:52 PM / in an hour Goldman eschews bitcoin but wants to help clients crypto-trade Olivia Oran 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) is trying to figure out how to cater to investors who want to trade bitcoin even though the digital currency remains too volatile for the Wall Street bank to trade itself, according to comments by a representative and its chief executive officer on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo At an event, CEO Lloyd Blankfein said there was no imminent need for Goldman Sachs to develop a strategy around bitcoin, which rose to an all-time high of $11,395 on Wednesday only to lose one-fifth of its value on Thursday. “Something that moves up and down 20 percent in a day doesn’t feel like a currency, doesn’t feel like a store of value,” Blankfein said at an event hosted by Bloomberg to promote Goldman’s 10,000 Small Businesses endeavor. The bank will trade in bitcoin if it becomes more established, trades in a less volatile manner and has more liquidity, he said. Even so, Goldman has been looking at ways to facilitate bitcoin trades for customers. It is still doing so, spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin told Reuters in a statement. FILE PHOTO - A bitcoin (virtual currency) coin placed on Dollar banknotes is seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space,” she said. Established in 2009 as a digital currency not backed or regulated by governments, bitcoin was mainly supported by technology enthusiasts at first. Its reputation was marred by hacks that lost investors billions of dollars, and by those who allegedly used the currency to mask illicit dealings. But as its price has soared, traditional investors have entered the market, and major exchanges plan to introduce bitcoin futures contracts. The technology that underpins bitcoin trading, called blockchain, has also become popular among large financial institutions that see it as a mechanism to more cheaply and efficiently handle other transactions. Prominent Wall Street executives and U.S. officials have been split on whether digital currencies themselves are worth spending time and money on. JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud” at a conference in early September, while Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) CEO James Gorman characterized it as “more than just a fad” at an event a few weeks later. Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc ( C.N ) CEO Michael Corbat predicted governments will issue digital currencies of their own, something a U.S. Federal Reserve official said the central bank is considering at an event on Wednesday. The following day, another Fed official called bitcoin a threat to the financial system. Reporting by Olivia Oran; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-bitcoin/goldman-eschews-bitcoin-but-wants-to-help-clients-crypto-trade-idUSKBN1DU2O4'|'2017-11-30T20:51:00.000+02:00'
'a7da8b0355abc1d278acbe7c7a80112dcc59efda'|'UPDATE 2-Nigeria''s Seven-Up gets $60 mln takeover offer after losses'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:40 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Nigeria''s Seven-Up gets $60 mln takeover offer after losses Reuters Staff * Seven-Up received takeover offer in Aug * Profits have been falling since 2015 * Company likely to be delisted after takeover * FX crisis, weak demand stifles soft drinks bottlers (Adds further details, background) By Chijioke Ohuocha LAGOS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Nigeria’s Seven-Up bottling company has received an offer from its majority shareholder Affelka to buy out minorities for 19.33 billion naira ($60 million), in a takeover deal aimed at restructuring the struggling company. Privately-held Affelka, the investment firm of the Lebanese El-Khalil family, has offered to acquire 171.5 million shares from minorities at 112.70 naira per share, an 18 percent premium to Thursday’s share price of 95.50 naira. It already owns 73.2 percent of the bottler, set up 57 years ago, and has the licence to bottle PepsiCo’s Pepsi and other products in Africa’s most populous nation. The soft drinks bottling industry has been hit by slow demand arising from weak economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which has just emerged from a recession and a currency crisis which stifled raw material imports. “As of now we have received an offer from the majority shareholder of the company. It’s a financial restructuring,” Seven-Up vice chairman Sunil Sawhney told Reuters by phone. He said the company has been making losses for some time and that the deal was aimed at restructuring the bottler, which distributes PepsiCo’s 7up, Pepsi and Mirinda-branded drinks. Shares in the soft drinks maker, which opened for trade at 92.50 naira, rose 5 percent on the news, valuing the company at 59.6 billion naira ($186.25 million). The Seven-Up takeover deal comes six years after main rival Coca-Cola delisted its local bottling unit in a buy out deal worth $136 million, to expand the business and fend off competition. Sawhney, who joined the company in a management change this year, said delisting Seven-Up from the stock exchange after the takeover would be “logical”. The takeover is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, he said. Earlier Seven-Up said its board has received an offer from Affelka to acquire all outstanding shares that it does not currently own. Profits at Seven-Up started to decline in the first three months of 2015 just before Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, slipped into its first recession in a quarter of century triggered by low oil prices. Seven-Up then posted its first loss in half-year 2016 and since then losses have widened. It reported a 6.26 billion naira pretax loss in the first six months of 2017. “(Affelka) will be injecting more capital into the business,” he told Reuters. ($1 = 320.00 naira) (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha Editing by Adrian Croft, Greg Mahlich)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sevenup-ma-affelka/update-1-nigerias-seven-up-gets-60-mln-takeover-offer-from-majority-shareholder-idUSL8N1O04BV'|'2017-11-30T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'9aa5c48da6cb4a9806c0dd1b5a8c74a74aa3772a'|'VW''s unions fully back management''s turnaround efforts: CEO'|'November 30, 2017 / 4:16 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago VW''s unions fully back management''s turnaround efforts: CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) brand’s management has the full backing of labor unions as it pushes ahead with the implementation of a multi-billion-euro turnaround plan, the carmaker’s chief executive said. FILE PHOTO: Herbert Diess, chairman of the board of Volkswagen, presents the new Volkswagen Polo car during the World premiere of Volkswagen''s new Polo in Berlin, Germany June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos/File Photo VW’s mass-market brand has been undergoing heavy restructuring since it agreed with the works council on plans to cut 3.7 billion euros ($4.41 billion) of costs per year from 2020 and slash 23,000 jobs in Germany via natural attrition. “I cannot complain about the cooperation with the works council,” VW brand chief executive Herbert Diess said at a news conference, citing “very constructive” dealings with the unions. “We are making good progress,” the CEO said, adding that the works council stands behind the goals of the so-called “future pact” agreed a year ago. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-unions/vws-unions-fully-back-managements-turnaround-efforts-ceo-idUSKBN1DU2AH'|'2017-11-30T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'0c70cf95b0936505b93ce6bfafa7236a44da07f8'|'Oceanwide, Genworth extend deal deadline to April'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:49 PM / Updated an hour ago Oceanwide, Genworth extend deal deadline to April Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - China’s Oceanwide Holdings Co Ltd and U.S. insurer Genworth Financial Inc have agreed to extend a deadline for their merger agreement to April 1, 2018. The previous deadline had been Thursday. Genworth Chief Executive Tom McInerney said in a statement the companies were making “good progress” in hammering out a remedy that would make the proposed merger allowable under rules that prevent the sale of U.S. companies to foreign entities if it would hurt national security. “We expect to refile our joint voluntary notice with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United Stated (CFIUS) in the near term,” said McInerney. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/genworth-fincl-ma-oceanwide-hldg/oceanwide-genworth-extend-deal-deadline-to-april-idUSL1N1NZ2EF'|'2017-11-29T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'e76c9de6901c1e77945f5a9921f76a2f2c301266'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Nov 30 - Reuters'|'(Adds company news and futures)Nov 30 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen to open 30 points lower at 7,363.5 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures down 0.34 percent ahead of the cash market open.* LAMPRELL: Oil rig builder Lamprell Plc said it expected 2017 earnings to be materially below market expectations, hurt by losses stemming from a contract for an East Anglia offshore windfarm project.* LLOYDS-ACCOUNTS: Britain’s accounting watchdog said on Thursday it should have been faster in investigating KPMG’s 2008 audit of HBOS, just months before the bank had to be rescued by rival Lloyds during the global financial crisis.* AVIVA: British insurer Aviva expects to spend 3 billion pounds ($4.04 billion) in excess cash over the next two years, the bulk of it in 2018, the insurer said on Thursday.* BAE SYSTEMS: British defence group BAE Systems said on Thursday its transition to a new accounting standard was not expected to have a material impact for its 2018 year and beyond.* UNILEVER: Anglo-Dutch consumer goods maker Unilever, told investors on Wednesday that it expects new products and a leaner organization to help win an intensifying battle to sell packaged goods around the world.* BRITAIN-EU: Britain is close to a deal over the Northern Ireland border, after British officials made proposals this week to avoid a “hard border” in Ireland, according to Thursday’s edition of The Times newspaper.* BRITAIN-ECONOMY: Britain’s closest-watched gauge of consumer sentiment fell this month to its lowest since just after last year’s Brexit vote, and business morale also softened, as households and firms took a darker view of the economic outlook.* LSE-MOVES: Hedge fund TCI has written to the board of the London Stock Exchange to say it intends to respond more fully on Thursday, after the exchange asked the fund to withdraw a call for an extraordinary general meeting.* BANKS: Britain’s regulators will tweak banking and insurance rules inherited from the European Union after Brexit to make them more tailored to the British market, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday.* GOLD: Gold on Thursday held close to a one-week low hit in the previous session, pressured by upbeat U.S. growth data for the third quarter and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s bullish view of the economy.* OIL: Oil markets were cautious on Thursday ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, with producers set to debate an extension of the supply-cut agreement that came into effect in January with the goal of tightening supplies and propping up prices.* EX-DIVS: International Consolidated Airlines Group, Johnson Matthey, Land Securities, Severn Trent will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 1.3 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations* The UK blue chip index dropped 0.9 percent on Wednesday, as jump in sterling after reports of a breakthrough in Brexit talks.* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarketsTODAY‘S UK PAPERS> Financial Times> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-nov-30-idINL3N1O036C'|'2017-11-30T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'643dee82e2fde711e00c5c332a58ca1631f36d09'|'YouTube sharpens how it recommends videos despite fears of isolating users'|'November 29, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago YouTube sharpens how it recommends videos despite fears of isolating users Paresh Dave 6 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google’s YouTube has updated its recommendation feature to spotlight videos users are likely to find the most gratifying, brushing aside concerns that such an approach can trap people in bubbles of misinformation and like-minded opinions. Signage is seen at a YouTube stand at the Labour Party Conference venue in Brighton, Britain, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The new feature, which arrived in January but has not previously been reported, uses a measure of satisfaction derived from a massive and ongoing user survey to predict and promote videos that people would rank as among the best they have watched recently. The goal is to prevent the negative sentiments that can arise when people watch hours and hours of uninspired programs, said Jim McFadden and Cristos Goodrow, who work on recommendation technology at YouTube, which is part of Alphabet Inc. But the change comes at a time when YouTube and other social media firms are facing heavy criticism from advertisers, regulators and advocacy groups for failing to police content and account for the way their services shape public opinion. Russian agents exploited the recommendation systems of Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and YouTube to popularize propaganda and fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[nL1N1NG03B] The companies responded with increased user verification and fact-checking tools, but their recommendations remain focused on winning the attention and boosting the enjoyment of users. “The risk is not that we are just siloing ourselves, but we’re able to also reinforce pre-existing, flawed viewpoints,” said Jacob Groshek, a Boston University associate professor who researches the influence of social media and “filter bubbles.” YouTube automatically recommends videos through a machine learning algorithm that analyzes the characteristics of videos and the behavior of its 1.5 billion users to generate personalized viewing recommendations. These recommendations, which appear on YouTube’s homepage and alongside clips, have become a centerpiece of the service, encouraging people to watch videos that are similar to ones they have spent significant time viewing in the past. Recommendations now drive 70 percent of overall “watch time” on YouTube, compared with 40 percent in early 2014, the company said. The more time people spend watching, the more ad slots YouTube can sell. Sales of YouTube commercials are among Google’s top growth areas. But by last year, YouTube’s prediction tool had matured, said McFadden, a software engineer at YouTube since 2011. He said the idea of pinpointing “satisfaction” came after he had watched “particularly good” videos, including a commencement speech by the late author David Foster Wallace. “You listen to it and say this was really good,” McFadden said. But “there’s nothing really in our data about how much I like this.” He worried that too many people felt their hours each night watching sports highlights, comedy clips and makeup tutorials were a waste. Now YouTube is gauging satisfaction by surveying nearly 10 percent of users about which videos they enjoy. One version of the survey asks whether a video watched in the last week was “one of the best,”“great,”“about average,”“poor” or “one of the worst.” The feedback is a fresh data point in the recommendation algorithm. Lesser emphasis is now put on actions that may be a proxy for enjoyment but are used with varying intent, such as “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” ratings. YouTube executives acknowledge that the approach can help misinformation spread. A user who says a video describing the moon landing as a hoax was among the best they watched in the last week would cause that video, and similar ones, to be recommended more widely. “We would love it if the satisfaction mechanism pushed down videos about ‘we never landed on the moon’ but people will report satisfaction on quite a variety of things,” Goodrow, vice president of engineering at YouTube, said in an interview. The company releases neither recommendation nor satisfaction data about individual videos. Johanna Wright, vice president of product management at YouTube, said in an interview that the company is taking steps to combat misinformation, including giving greater prominence to well-known media organizations in search results on trending topics. Next year, YouTube is planning to have a similar initiative around science videos to surface “the established belief on the topic” on science videos, she said. Still, YouTube’s chief goal is to maximize viewing time. Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said recently that there was little the company could do absent a bigger societal change. The problem of filter bubbles will persist, Schmidt told an international security conference Nov. 18, “until we decide collectively” that users should see content from “someone not like you.” Critics reject the notion that YouTube is powerless. Guillaume Chaslot, a member of its recommendations engineering team who left Google in 2013 and is working to launch a nonprofit group to investigate social media algorithms, said YouTube could experiment more or release data about recommendations to researchers. He worries though that YouTube will not act until public outcry grows severe or existing tactics impair watch time. “Users are not asking YouTube to optimize for truth,” Chaslot said. Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-youtube-content/youtube-sharpens-how-it-recommends-videos-despite-fears-of-isolating-users-idUKKBN1DT0LL'|'2017-11-29T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'3598ea97468ce0c2884dc27041bc93280775f4bd'|'Investment group Eurazeo to buy stake in private equity firm Rhone'|'PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - French investment company Eurazeo has agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in Rhone, a private equity firm set up by former Goldman Sachs and Lazard bankers, in a deal which Eurazeo said would boost its earnings.Eurazeo said it was buying the stake in exchange for $100 million in cash and 2 million newly issued Eurazeo shares.“This strategic partnership will bolster Eurazeo’s business model and help us grow and transform companies, creating further value for our shareholders,” said Eurazeo chief executive Patrick Sayer in a statement.Rhône was founded in 1996 by Robert Agostinelli and Steven Langman who previously worked in cross-border mergers and acquisitions with Goldman Sachs and Lazard.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Sarah White '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurazeo-rhone/investment-group-eurazeo-to-buy-stake-in-private-equity-firm-rhone-idINP6N1NF00Y'|'2017-11-29T04:07:00.000+02:00'
'04c9d8b775aafd8890264056e3665df9e32e711e'|'Slump in Facebook, Apple raises prospects of tech rally brake'|'November 29, 2017 / 8:11 PM / Updated an hour ago Slump in Facebook, Apple raises prospects of tech rally brake Noel Randewich 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Facebook ( FB.O ), Apple ( AAPL.O ) and other technology heavyweights dropped on Wednesday, creating uncertainty over whether the top-performing sector’s record-breaking rally this year is ending or merely taking a break. A Facebook logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski A day after hitting a record high, the S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT fell 2.9 percent and was on track for its worst session since June. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX dropped 4.38 percent, heading for its worst session in a year. Wednesday’s was the latest in a handful of technology selloffs this year that increased chances that the sector’s rally might be ending. Previous tech drops were short-lived and were followed by record highs. “It’s all rotation. What we’ve had is money flowing into these stocks again and again for so long, like Apple, Facebook, Google. Now you’re seeing that trade reverse,” said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com ( AMZN.O ), Netflix ( NFLX.O ) and Google parent-company Alphabet ( GOOGL.O ) - the so called FAANG stocks that have helped power the S&P 500’s 17-percent rally this year - all lost ground. Apple fell 2.5 percent, reducing its gain this year to 45 percent. Facebook slid 3.8 percent, Alphabet lost 2.5 percent and Netflix slumped 6.8 percent. A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Those losses were offset by a jump in banks as well as telecommunications stocks, which have underperformed this year. Sports apparel seller Under Armour ( UAA.N ), the S&P 500’s worst performer in 2017, rallied 5.2 percent. Still, the S&P 500 IT index has gained 36 percent in 2017, accounting for a quarter of the overall S&P 500’s $24 trillion value, the highest proportion since the dot-com bubble in 2000. The semiconductor index has surged 41 percent this year, helped by strong global demand for chips as well as a wave of consolidation across the industry. Those soaring prices have left the tech sector trading at 19 times expected earnings, versus the S&P 500''s P/E multiple of 18, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. ( reut.rs/2ACFW1k ) Attracted to above-average earnings growth in a tepid global economy, investors have been willing to pay premium prices to own leading technology companies that are expanding their marketshare and growing quickly. “They’re rallying because they have new business models that legacy companies are having a hard time adjusting to,” said Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research in Chicago, adding that he was recommending to clients that they take advantage of Wednesday’s drop to buy more tech shares. Reporting by Noel Randewich; Additional reporting by April Joyner and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-stocks/slump-in-facebook-apple-raises-prospects-of-tech-rally-brake-idUSKBN1DT34Q'|'2017-11-29T22:11:00.000+02:00'
'd49076bbcbfd8007e2fdb5eda2c54c38003a558b'|'METALS-London copper edges off one-week low, downside risks seen'|' 43 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago METALS-London copper edges off one-week low, downside risks seen Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Adds comment, detail; updates prices) By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - London copper edged up on Wednesday, pulling away from its lowest in more than a week hit in the previous session, buoyed by signs of progress on U.S. tax cuts, but analysts said any reprieve may prove short-lived given weaker oil prices. The dollar held firm on Wednesday after Wall Street shot to record peaks amid the possible progress on tax cuts, while oil prices fell on doubts OPEC and Russia will agree on extending a crude production cut that the market has already priced in. "There''s been a little bit of a selldown in the past few days ... the (stronger) dollar, some oil-related drivers," said analyst Daniel Morgan at UBS in Sydney. "In aggregate, I think the base metals have been a bit overbid." FUNDAMENTALS * LME: London Metal Exchange copper had risen 0.5 percent to $6,836.50 a tonne by 0608 GMT, paring losses from the previous session when prices dipped to the weakest since Nov. 20 at $6,797.50 and finished down 2 percent. A trader said that arbitrage related buying was supporting the LME copper price. * SHFE: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper eased 0.6 percent to 53,270 yuan ($8,062) a tonne. * U.S. ECONOMY: U.S. Senate Republicans rammed forward President Donald Trump''s tax-cut bill on Tuesday in an abrupt, partisan committee vote that set up a full vote by the Senate as soon as Thursday, although some details of the measure remained unsettled. [nL1N1NY0QV ] * COPPER: The global copper market will be balanced for the foreseeable future even as mine supplies tighten and demand from China, the world''s top consumer, remains strong, executives from major copper companies said on Wednesday. * CHINA ENVIRONMENT: China''s environmental crackdown is the "biggest uncertainty" facing the nation''s copper smelters, as the government steps up inspections and stiffens emissions control standards, an executive from Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd said on Wednesday. * ALUMINIUM: Shanghai aluminium prices fell 1.2 percent after the Trump administration launched an aggressive new trade action against China on Tuesday, opening the first U.S. government-initiated anti-subsidy and anti-dumping probes in decades into imports of Chinese aluminium alloy sheet. * COPPER SUPPLY: Peru, the world''s No. 2 copper producer, will likely churn out 2.5 million tonnes of the metal in 2018 and some 3 million tonnes in 2021, Vice Minister of Mining Ricardo Labo said on Tuesday. Peru is set to produce 2.585 million tonnes of copper this year, according to Reuters data, up from 2.28 million tonnes in 2016. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or BASE METALS PRICES 0608 gmt Three month LME copper 6832.5 Most active ShFE copper 53230 Three month LME aluminium 2104 Most active ShFE aluminium 14680 Three month LME zinc 3159 Most active ShFE zinc 24860 Three month LME lead 2439 Most active ShFE lead 18325 Three month LME nickel 11445 Most active ShFE nickel 92260 Three month LME tin 19475 Most active ShFE tin 142690 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 574.6 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1439. 05 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 118.88 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1026. 72 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2406.1 9 ($1 = 6.6078 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Joseph Radford)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-copper-edges-off-one-week-low-downside-risks-seen-idUSL3N1NZ2I1'|'2017-11-29T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'f50967b44512e7b956b697dfe53bfd3323d5b3ed'|'Barclays Chairman says staff moves post Brexit could be ''in the hundreds'''|'November 29, 2017 / 12:21 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Barclays Chairman says staff moves post Brexit could be ''in the hundreds'' Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays ( BARC.L ) could move hundreds of staff out of Britain post-Brexit, the British bank’s chairman told a parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Barclays is seen on the top of one of its branch in Madrid, Spain, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/File Photo “Staff moves from Brexit could be in the hundreds” John McFarlane, Chairman of Barclays said. The British bank said in July that it was talking to Irish regulators about extending its activities in Dublin in preparation for when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Barclays already has a licensed entity in Dublin, Barclays Bank Ireland, employing around 100 people, which currently has a license to conduct mainly corporate banking activities, and intends to extend the range of that license so it can continue serving clients once Britain leaves the bloc. Reporting By Anjuli Davies and Lawrence White. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/barclays-chairman-says-staff-moves-post-brexit-could-be-in-the-hundreds-idUSKBN1DT1NV'|'2017-11-29T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'bb4f8602ee4b3412f6860b63f2e6722ac8169679'|'Euronext to buy Irish Stock Exchange for 137 million euros'|'November 29, 2017 / 5:51 PM / Updated an hour ago Euronext to buy Irish Stock Exchange for 137 million euros Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Pan-European exchange Euronext ( ENX.PA ) said on Wednesday it was acquiring 100 percent of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) for 137 million euros (£120.9 million). FILE PHOTO - Company stock price information are displayed on screens as they hang above the Paris stock exchange, operated by Euronext NV, in La Defense business district in Paris, France, December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, Euronext said. Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ise-m-a-euronext/euronext-to-buy-irish-stock-exchange-for-137-million-euros-idUKKBN1DT2T9'|'2017-11-29T19:50:00.000+02:00'
'd47561ad20a819c497f500c9fcda876f5b08c525'|'Goldman eschews bitcoin but wants to help clients crypto-trade'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:05 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Goldman eschews bitcoin but wants to help clients crypto-trade Olivia Oran 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is trying to figure out how to cater to investors who want to trade bitcoin even though the digital currency remains too volatile for the Wall Street bank to trade itself, according to comments by a representative and its chief executive officer on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of the Sydney offices of Goldman Sachs in Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo At an event, CEO Lloyd Blankfein said there was no imminent need for Goldman Sachs to develop a strategy around bitcoin, which rose to an all-time high of $11,395 (8,435 pounds) on Wednesday only to lose one-fifth of its value on Thursday. “Something that moves up and down 20 percent in a day doesn’t feel like a currency, doesn’t feel like a store of value,” Blankfein said at an event hosted by Bloomberg to promote Goldman’s 10,000 Small Businesses endeavour. The bank will trade in bitcoin if it becomes more established, trades in a less volatile manner and has more liquidity, he said. Even so, Goldman has been looking at ways to facilitate bitcoin trades for customers. It is still doing so, spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin told Reuters in a statement. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space,” she said. Established in 2009 as a digital currency not backed or regulated by governments, bitcoin was mainly supported by technology enthusiasts at first. Its reputation was marred by hacks that lost investors billions of dollars, and by those who allegedly used the currency to mask illicit dealings. But as its price has soared, traditional investors have entered the market, and major exchanges plan to introduce bitcoin futures contracts. The technology that underpins bitcoin trading, called blockchain, has also become popular among large financial institutions that see it as a mechanism to more cheaply and efficiently handle other transactions. Prominent Wall Street executives and U.S. officials have been split on whether digital currencies themselves are worth spending time and money on. JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud” at a conference in early September, while Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman characterized it as “more than just a fad” at an event a few weeks later. Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc CEO Michael Corbat predicted governments will issue digital currencies of their own, something a U.S. Federal Reserve official said the central bank is considering at an event on Wednesday. The following day, another Fed official called bitcoin a threat to the financial system. Reporting by Olivia Oran; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-goldman-sachs-bitcoin/goldman-eschews-bitcoin-but-wants-to-help-clients-crypto-trade-idUKKBN1DU2P2'|'2017-11-30T21:04:00.000+02:00'
'3f3fb03d5c0fb1db0f75694cf677d367537206ef'|'TransCanada says EBITDA to grow at 10 percent through 2020'|' 17 AM / in 7 minutes TransCanada says EBITDA to grow at 10 percent through 2020 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Nov 28 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp said it expects comparable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at an average rate of about 10 percent through 2020. The company will host its investor day on Tuesday. (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru and Ethan Lou in Calgary; Editing by Maju Samuel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/transcanada-investor-day-outlook/transcanada-says-ebitda-to-grow-at-10-percent-through-2020-idUSL3N1NY3VN'|'2017-11-28T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'2337fd491888f60bbab6a3ce93f31ca9f211b9eb'|'Japan''s Nomura says to set up new private equity business'|'TOKYO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it would start a new private equity business, aimed at restructurings, successions and management buyouts.Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank said it would initially earmark up to around 100 billion yen ($896 million) for the business, although no targets have yet been identified. Nomura said the impact on its results for the year to March would likely be minimal.It said separately it would cancel treasury shares worth 4.7 percent of outstanding shares on Dec. 18.$1 = 111.6100 yen Reporting by Thomas Wilson; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nomura-hldgs-principal/japans-nomura-says-to-set-up-new-private-equity-business-idINT9N1NJ03B'|'2017-11-28T21:11:00.000+02:00'
'f72563e8a6d1cce95b238a8aa38a924428e704e5'|'Casino-Ocado deal could push Carrefour into Amazon''s arms'|' 34 PM / in 3 minutes Casino-Ocado deal could push Carrefour into Amazon''s arms Dominique Vidalon 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French supermarket chain Carrefour could be under pressure to do a deal with the likes of Amazon, after a deal between its French rival and a British online specialist threatened to leave it trailing behind in e-commerce. Alexandre Bompard, new Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour, the world''s second-largest retailer, arrives at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Alexandre Bompard took the helm at Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer behind Walmart, in July. Its online sales lag rivals and in August the company issued a profit warning. Bompard is preparing to unveil his turnaround plan. French rival Casino on Tuesday agreed to use British online retailer Ocado’s e-commerce platform to expand its e-commerce grocery business in a deal that analysts say will allow Casino to outpace domestic rivals. “Casino is taking a key technological advantage in France and will drive Auchan and Carrefour to react ... The read across for Carrefour implies an alliance with a partner which can only be Amazon,” Natixis analysts said in a note. Analysts think it is only a matter of time before Amazon makes either a bid for a French retailer, or forms partnerships along the lines of what it has established in Britain and Germany, or becomes a provider of logistics and delivery services. France’s grocery market is worth $230 billion (£171.70 billion) a year. “Such a deal would be well received by the market and even more so if its announcement came on Jan. 23 during Mr Bompard’s group’s strategic review,” Natixis said. Carrefour declined to comment on the review. By 1037 GMT Carrefour shares were up 2.38 percent and leading CAC-40 gainers while Casino shares were up 2.41 percent, outperforming the European retail sector. The Casino-Ocado deal comes as French brick and mortar retailers feel the heat from Amazon, whose acquisition of U.S. upmarket food retail chain Whole Foods, has triggered speculation the online giant is looking to crack the European grocery market next. Last month, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, the head of French retailer Leclerc, which recently overtook Carrefour to become France’s largest grocer, said he had talked with Amazon. “Yes, we have been approached by Amazon. They could -- why not? -- be our logistics partner,” he told Reuters on October 4. Meanwhile, Carrefour is working on a turnaround to stem its sliding market share at home, now at 20 percent. Having been slow to embrace digital, in part due to its focus on the large hypermarket format, it is ramping up investment. The online operation accounted for just 1.7 percent of Carrefour’s total French food retail sales of over 30 billion euros last year, while more digital-savvy rival Leclerc managed 8 percent, according to Bernstein analysts. Bompard told analysts in August that there had been an acceleration of partnerships between bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce and that “in such a context Carrefour needs to accelerate the digital transformation and become truly omni-channel to compete in the new retail landscape.” Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-casino-carrrefour/casino-ocado-deal-could-push-carrefour-into-amazons-arms-idUKKBN1DT24X'|'2017-11-29T17:34:00.000+02:00'
'fc03cc99954347239c5ecaffdd64ae77ac238633'|'Finland no longer the ''sick man of Europe'' but mid-term problems loom - FinMin'|'November 29, 2017 / 2:54 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Finland no longer the ''sick man of Europe'' but mid-term problems loom - FinMin Jussi Rosendahl , Tuomas Forsell 3 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland is recovering at rapid pace from decade-long stagnation but the government must push more economic reforms because of the ageing population and growing public debt, Finance Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview. FinlandÕs Finance Minister Petteri Orpo speaks to the media in Helsinki, Finland, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Tuomas Forsell The Finnish economy -- dubbed by Orpo’s predecessor Alexander Stubb as the sick man of Europe -- expanded 3.6 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, preliminary data showed. The government projects 2.9 percent for this year as a whole, a number Orpo said may well be lifted in December. “This is not just a peak, it is broad-based growth that seems to hold up in the coming years, and that is a big thing,” Orpo, sitting in his office in the government palace, told Reuters. “But to cope with the upcoming challenges, we need to make more structural reforms to boost employment and secure continuing growth.” Finland’s output is still below levels prior to the financial crisis, having taken a string of internal and external hits, including a decline in the once dominant Nokia’s phone business, labour market rigidity, and recession in neighbouring Russia. A fast-ageing population will also increase public spending and government debt after 2020, a problem which the three-party centre-right government has sought to tackle with spending cuts and complicated reforms in labour markets and health care. Orpo said a 2016 labour reform pact, which cut workers’ benefits for the first time in a century, helped to boost growth but wasn’t enough. “The employment rate has increased to around 70 percent now. We need 75 percent for the 2020‘s.” He said there remained welfare traps to cut, while wage negotiations should be held more often at companies rather than unions. POLITICS Orpo said he believed the government -- led by Prime Minister Juha Sipila -- was more united now following the co-ruling Finns party’s split-up in June. A leadership change at the nationalist party led to its dismissal from the coalition, while a group of its lawmakers formed a new, more moderate “Blue Reform” party that kept a ruling position. Health care reform, a key plan to cut future annual costs by3 billion euros, will be completed after years of talks that almost brought down the government in 2015, Orpo said. “We are very close already, no-one in the government wants to fail in this.” Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-finland-economy-financeminister/finland-no-longer-the-sick-man-of-europe-but-mid-term-problems-loom-finmin-idUKKBN1DT27Z'|'2017-11-29T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'58969f6786880bce553a0b6c90135d6faea91375'|'FTSE misses out as pound lifted by reports of Brexit bill deal'|'November 29, 2017 / 10:01 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Worst day in a month for FTSE as Brexit breakthrough reports lift pound Julien Ponthus , Helen Reid 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shares missed out on a rising tide across European bourses on Wednesday as sterling rallied to a two-month high following reports Britain and the European Union had agreed the outlines of a Brexit divorce bill. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The FTSE 100 .FTSE sank 0.9 percent to its worst loss in a month as the pound rose to a two-month high after EU diplomats said Britain has moved close to EU demands over Brexit. European stocks rose 0.3 percent, having earlier hit their highest in almost three weeks. A firming pound is viewed as negative for the dollar-earning companies that make up the bulk of the FTSE index, while an opposite swing in the currency gives them a corresponding accounting-related boost. Internationally-focused dollar earners in the consumer staples sector dominated FTSE losses. Heavyweight tobacco firm British American Tobacco ( BATS.L ) shed 3.4 percent, while peer Imperial Brands ( IMB.L ) fell 2.9 percent. Consumer giants Unilever ( ULVR.L ) and Diageo ( DGE.L ) fell 2.6 and 2.1 percent, also dented by the currency gain. Financials were a bright spot, with Barclays ( BARC.L ), Lloyds ( LLOY.L ) and RBS ( RBS.L ) rising between 3.5 to 3.8 percent. The domestically-focused lenders are beneficiaries of a stronger pound. Analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman also said the currency gain caused investors to price in more Bank of England rate rises, another positive for lenders. RETAILERS ALSO GAIN Retailers, for whom a falling currency translates into price inflation and margin pressure, also performed well. Supermarket Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ) and high street stalwarts Marks & Spencer ( MKS.L ) and Next ( NXT.L ) rose 2.7 to 4.4 percent. Mid-cap Ocado ( OCDO.L ) once again stole the limelight. The UK online grocer jumped 16.2 percent in the second day of a rally which has boosted its market value by 40 percent after a deal with French supermarket Casino ( CASP.PA ). The strong move higher was largely caused by a short squeeze on the stock which is heavily shorted, while the deal itself got a mixed reception from analysts. It “appears good for sentiment but will likely have minimal profit impact for some time whilst consuming capex and cash,” wrote HSBC analysts in a note. Cinema chain Cineworld Group ( CINE.L ) posted the most spectacular fall, dropping 14 percent after it announced it was in talks to acquire U.S. peer Regal Entertainment ( RGC.N ) for approximately $3.6 billion in cash. The sharp dive in the shares is understandable given the size of the deal and a likely rights issueStifel analyst Jeffrey Harwood wrote Among energy stocks, Africa-focused Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ) gained 3.7 percent after it refinanced $2.5 billion of loans borrowed against its oil and gas reserves. The rest of the sector was deep in negative territory as oil prices fell on doubts about whether OPEC and Russia would agree on extending a crude production cut to cover all of 2018, and a report of an unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil inventories. Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and BP ( BP.L ) both lost about 1.5 percent. Mid-cap ZPG ( ZPG.L ), owner of property websites Zoopla and PrimeLocation, lost 6.8 percent after it reported a smaller-than-expected full-year pretax profit as it spent more on acquisitions and advertising. British soft drinks firm Britvic ( BVIC.L ) shot up 6.9 percent after its full-year adjusted core earnings rose 5 percent. Just Eat ( JE.L ), Halma ( HLMA.L ) and DS Smith ( SMDS.L ) will join the FTSE 100 next month, index provider FTSE Russell confirmed on Wednesday. Reporting by Julien Ponthus and Helen Reid; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-misses-out-as-pound-lifted-by-reports-of-brexit-bill-deal-idUKKBN1DT18M'|'2017-11-29T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'456837b1cac892c6a93af49afd1002219c3ccbd0'|'Fed districts see U.S. outlook improving, price pressures picking up'|'November 29, 2017 / 7:22 PM / a few seconds ago Fed districts see U.S. outlook improving, price pressures picking up Lindsay Dunsmuir 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace in October through mid-November and inflation pressures increased, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in its periodic snapshot of the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve Building stands in Washington April 3, 2012. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo “Price pressures have strengthened since the last report,” the U.S. central bank said in its Beige Book survey based on anecdotal evidence provided by business contacts nationwide, an upgrade after several months of benign inflation assessments. Many districts cited an increase in construction-material costs and several said there were rising costs in the transportation and manufacturing sectors. Contacts also reported a slight improvement in their economic outlook as well as yet more evidence that the jobs market remains tight. Tentative signs of an increase in pricing pressures may give heart to those Fed officials who have become increasingly anxious about weakening inflation. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation has been below its 2 percent target for more than five years, and has retreated for much of this year. Despite still weak inflation overall, Fed policymakers are widely expected to raise interest rates in December for the third time this year against a backdrop of steady growth and low unemployment. The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its quickest pace in three years, the Commerce Department said earlier on Wednesday. The majority of policymakers appear to have put more emphasis on the need to raise rates given the economy is at or near full employment rather than waiting until inflation appreciably rises. On Tuesday, Fed governor Jerome Powell, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Janet Yellen as chief of the central bank, told a Senate confirmation hearing that conditions were supportive of a rate increase in December. “The case for raising interest rates at our next meeting is coming together,” Powell, who will likely become chair in early 2018, told the Senate Banking Committee. The unemployment rate fell to a near 17-year low of 4.1 percent in October although wages grew at their slowest annual pace in more than 1-1/2 years. In the Fed’s report, tightness in the labor market was seen as widespread while wage growth was modest to moderate in most districts, with the largest wage increases going to employees in hard-to-fill jobs. “Many districts reported that employers were raising wages as well as increasing their use of signing bonuses and other nonwage benefits to retain and attract employees,” the Fed said. Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-beigebook/fed-districts-see-u-s-outlook-improving-price-pressures-picking-up-idINKBN1DT303'|'2017-11-29T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'ce44c8ed88205c74af29a5a99eefd8f769a49cce'|'Franco-German fighter jet project likely to be opened to other countries'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:09 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Franco-German fighter jet project likely to be opened to other countries Andrea Shalal 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - A Franco-German programme to develop a European fighter jet will likely be widened to include other countries to lower costs, officials with the German defence ministry and Europe’s Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said on Wednesday. France and Germany unveiled the plans in July, burying past rivalries as part of a raft of measures to tighten defence and security cooperation. Companies in Britain, Italy and Sweden have expressed interest in participating in the multi-billion-euro programme, that is widely expected to be led by Airbus and France’s Dassault Aviation ( DAST.PA ). Bertram Gorlo, Airbus Defence and Space’s head of key account management for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, told a panel at the Berlin Security Conference that details were still being worked out, but he expected the programme to be expanded to include more partners than just Germany and France. “I think ... we will have to ask for the support of other nations,” he said. France and Germany aim to come up with a roadmap by mid-2018 for jointly leading development of the new aircraft to replace their existing fleets of warplanes. Brigadier General Gerald Funke, head of the strategic defence planning and concepts division at the German defence ministry, said development of the next-generation aircraft system would likely begin the 2020s with the goal of seeing it enter into service in 2045. In the meantime, he said Germany was looking at buying an existing aircraft to replace its aging fleet of 85 Tornado jets beginning in 2025. Funke said it would be tough to avoid the national rivalries over jobs and other considerations that plagued earlier international programmes like the A400M military transport plane. “In Europe, we’re in a world where we still have national interests, industrial interests. And the more partners you have the more complicated it is,” he said. “On the other hand, I‘m also fully convinced that we will not be able to afford a national solution alone. The key is the will of the partners to cooperate and to find compromise.” Gorlo told the panel that Airbus successfully coordinated with many partners on each of its commercial airliners. “The question is less about the number of partners, it’s more about the governance model under which we contract,” Gorlo said. He said the German defence ministry had already expressed interest in setting up a “lead nation” or “lead industry” concept for the new fighter programme, which could help ensure a more efficient and streamlined development process. Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-france-fighter/franco-german-fighter-jet-project-likely-to-be-opened-to-other-countries-idUKKBN1DT38L'|'2017-11-29T23:09:00.000+02:00'
'9e1b498cdb83b5841ad2677ee3a590380c3b79c9'|'REFILE-Softbank offers to buy more Flipkart shares at reduced $9 bln-$10 bln valuation - Mint'|'(Corrects to add source in headline)Nov 30 (Reuters) - Japan’s Softbank Group Corp offered to buy an undisclosed number of shares in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart at a reduced valuation in the range of $9 billion to $10 billion, the Mint daily reported on Thursday.Softbank offered to buy Flipkart shares from investors and former and existing employees for $85 to $89 per share, the paper reported, citing sources. bit.ly/2j2D9EcFlipkart could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours. Softbank declined to comment.Investment bank Goldman Sachs is managing the share sale, the Mint reported.The Bengaluru-based company reported an $11.6 billion valuation in April, after a funding round from Tencent Holdings Ltd and others.Reuters reported in August that SoftBank’s Vision Fund would invest nearly $2.5 billion in Flipkart through primary and secondary share purchases. (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/softbank-group-flipkart-online-funding/softbank-offers-to-buy-more-flipkart-shares-at-reduced-9-bln-10-bln-valuation-idINL3N1O01EZ'|'2017-11-29T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'31c0c2415749d621d153172a08ef705485272396'|'Luxury auto brands adopt new strategies as the old run out of gas'|'LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Success in the United States used to come easily for German automaker BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ), whose sporty sedans in three sizes would be snapped up by affluent consumers. FILE PHOTO: The BMW all electric i Vision Dynamics concept car is displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The premium auto business has now become more complicated, as illustrated by the BMW models displayed at this week’s Los Angeles auto show, amid a backdrop of heavy spending by luxury auto brands on new models and technology as they make awkward leaps from a predictable past to an uncertain future. On one side of BMW’s display stood a prototpye of a large X7 sport utility vehicle, a vehicle that was unthinkable in its lineup a few years ago when the top of the line was still defined as a large sedan. On the other side, BMW displayed the iVision, a prototype of an electric sedan that will rival Silicon Valley electric luxury car maker Tesla Inc’s ( TSLA.O ) Model S when the production version, or non-prototype version, launches in 2021. “This is the future,” said Bernhard Kuhnt, the new head of BMW’s North American operations, referring to the iVision and electric vehicles in general. More immediately, Kuhnt said, the X7 represents BMW’s determination to offer more sport utility vehicles, which now account for more than half of luxury vehicle sales in the United States, to reverse a four percent slide in sales this year through October. “In October, we sold 60 percent sedans in a market that is 55 percent SUVs,” he said. But next year, as BMW’s U.S. dealers get more newly redesigned X3 SUVs, and a new X2 sport utility, the SUV-to-sedan ratio will start to flip, and sales should grow, he said. BMW’s rivals are at different points in their own jumps from the strategies that fueled growth during the past two decades. The type of vehicle that defines the top of the line for German luxury brands shows how the business is changing. FILE PHOTO: BMW''s Dr. Ian Robertson speaks next to the company''s x7 iPerformance concept car at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake “The classic definition of the standard bearer as a three-box sedan, that is migrating in three directions,” said Scott Keogh, head of U.S. operations for Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand. One direction, he said, is “electrification as the new prestige,” a trend driven by Tesla. Rivals at other established luxury brands agreed during interviews at the LA show that some form of electric power - fully electric or plug-in hybrids - is now necessary in order to compete. “The U.S. is a market where customers are asking for electric” vehicles, Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars, said in an interview on the sidelines of the LA auto show Wednesday. “That’s a premium value - to be carbon free.” Volvo has said it will engineer all its vehicles to rely on full or partial electric power starting in 2019. German luxury car makers have announced aggressive plans to expand their electric vehicle lineups.[nL5N1LT47Z] Another way the market is veering away from sedans is with the rise of the large, luxury SUV, now available in most luxury brands at prices that can easily top $100,000. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd( TAMO.NS ), is displaying a $207,900, 557-horsepower Range Rover model at the LA show. Audi plans to launch a Q8 SUV next year that will add a more luxurious SUV to the top of its U.S. lineup, Keogh said. Two large luxury SUVs are now sold for each large luxury sedan, Audi reckons.[nL1N1NU0Y5] Daimler AG’s ( DAIGn.DE ) Mercedes-Benz brand used the Los Angeles show to debut an example of a third trend. The new generation of the Mercedes CLS coupe joins Audi’s A7 and the Porsche Panamera in a stable of large, premium, sporty fastbacks. Not to be outdone, BMW is displaying a large, sleek coupe of its own, the 8-series. Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-la-luxury-analysis/luxury-auto-brands-adopt-new-strategies-as-the-old-run-out-of-gas-idUSKBN1DU20S'|'2017-11-30T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'241542a8a22bd6ae5ae816e5cb27bc97c6fb5aee'|'GM expects commercial launch of autonomous vehicles in 2019'|'SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co laid out its vision for self-driving vehicles on Thursday, telling investors it planned a commercial launch of fleets of fully autonomous robo-taxis in multiple dense urban environments in 2019, in a challenge to rivals such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo. FILE PHOTO: Children pass by a self-driving Chevy Bolt EV car during a media event by Cruise, GM’s autonomous car unit, in San Francisco, California, U.S. on November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo Underscoring the potential opportunity ahead, GM President Dan Ammann told investors the lifetime revenue generation of one of its self-driving cars could eventually be in the “several hundred thousands of dollars.” That compares with the $30,000 on average that GM collects today for one of its vehicles, mostly derived from the initial sale. The No. 1 U.S. automaker - which views electric and autonomous vehicles as the keystones of future transport - has been focused on rolling out self-driving cars since its estimated $1 billion acquisition of startup Cruise Automation in early 2016 that provided a toehold in the nascent industry. Automakers and rivals such as Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc have poured billions into the competitive industry, with each player hoping to gain first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are seen as the main use for most self-driving vehicles, including GM’s Chevrolet Bolt. “If we continue on our current rate of change we will be ready to deploy this technology, in large scale, in the most complex environments, in 2019,” Ammann said on a conference call. Safety, Ammann said, will ultimately be the deciding factor on when to take the driver out of the car. GM has enjoyed a recent surge in its share price, as investors bet on its plans for self-driving and electric cars, although the company’s profit is driven entirely by demand for trucks and SUVs in North America, and its growing sales in China. GM shares were down 1.7 percent at $43.05 on Thursday afternoon. Until now, GM has said autonomous vehicles were a big part of its future but did not give many details. Now, it has outlined more broadly its strategy, in which self-driving Bolts could be manufactured at scale at GM’s existing plants, driving down costs, and rapidly deployed in major metropolitan markets through a ride service to disrupt incumbents. “We are the only company that has this under one roof,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said on the same call, distinguishing GM from its technology rivals in the autonomous sector. FILE PHOTO: A self-driving GM Bolt EV is seen during a media event where Cruise, GM''s autonomous car unit, showed off its self-driving cars in San Francisco, California, U.S. on November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo GM said last month it sees deployment of autonomous vehicles in “quarters, not years,” and this week it finally provided a peek at its prototype self-driving vehicles. Self-driving cars and shared mobility will be accretive to GM’s core business, Barra said, with the biggest opportunities initially to come from the U.S. East and West coasts. Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said a robo-taxi service could be “potentially bigger than our current core business, with better margins.” “We have a path to take 40 percent of the cost out of ride services,” Stevens said on the same call. Lowering the cost to below $1 per mile by 2025 from about $2.50 today could result in margins of 20 to 30 percent, he said. Using a vehicle for a robo-taxi service - rather than GM’s current business model of building cars for individual customers - could increase revenue generation exponentially because the vehicle could be continuously used by multiple users over its lifespan. Underscoring the competitive landscape, Uber said last week it planned to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, in a nonexclusive deal from 2019 to 2021. No financial details were disclosed. As one example of bringing down the cost of autonomous vehicles, GM said it expects to lower the cost of long-range Lidar sensors - a key element in self-driving technology - to $300 from $20,000, without providing a time frame. In October, GM bought Lidar company Strobe Inc, saying its technology could lower the cost of the sensor by 99 percent. GM said it was too early to discuss possible branding of its self-driving cars, or whether the Cruise or Bolt name would be used. GM also operates an app-based car-sharing business called Maven, which some have speculated could be the new brand name. On Tuesday, GM’s Cruise Automation gave reporters their first look at the autonomous Bolts that have been testing in San Francisco, Phoenix and Detroit. The cars conservatively navigated busy urban streets but encountered hiccups when it came to double-parked cars and traffic cones. Earlier this month, GM announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles a year by 2026. The cars would be built on a platform that could accommodate multiple sizes and segments, lowering the cost of building them. Waymo is often seen as the frontrunner in the emerging autonomous sector, although its business model is different than GM’s as it does not build cars itself. Earlier this month, Waymo announced a planned self-driving robo-taxi service in suburban Phoenix, to carry its first passengers in the next few months. It has not given a time frame for a wider roll-out. Additional reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-autonomous/gm-expects-commercial-launch-of-autonomous-vehicles-in-2019-idUSKBN1DU2H0'|'2017-11-30T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'5a072b4732063a3a458d5b3242cdde9dc1782df9'|'Caesars to sell Harrah''s Las Vegas real estate assets for $1.14 billion'|'(Reuters) - Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp ( CZR.O ) said on Wednesday it would sell the real estate assets of the Harrah’s Las Vegas hotel to VICI Properties ( VICI.PK ) for $1.14 billion in cash.Harrah’s is seen behind the High Roller observation wheel in Las Vegas, Nevada March 31, 2014. REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Caesars, which will continue to operate Harrah’s Las Vegas, said it would use the proceeds of the sale to fund its $1.7 billion purchase of casino company Centaur Holdings LLC.Caesars will also buy 18.4 acres of land from VICI to develop a 300,000 square-foot convention center.Reporting by Akshara P in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin RavikumarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-caesars-divestiture/caesars-to-sell-harrahs-las-vegas-real-estate-assets-for-1-14-billion-idINKBN1DT3DX'|'2017-11-29T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'a2197cd7c01e53b3c175c900fabca93f1c427967'|'Back to black? Australian industry prepares for possible summer power cuts'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:31 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Back to black? Australian industry prepares for possible summer power cuts Sonali Paul , James Regan 4 Min Read MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Some of Australia’s biggest power users, including mining giant BHP, are taking steps to curb the impact of any repeat of crippling blackouts that hit last summer, worried about a grid that increasingly relies on wind power and old coal-fired plants. FILE PHOTO: Power lines run from Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook, 170 km (106 miles) north of Sydney, November 2, 2011. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne/File Photo Their back-up strategies come despite assurances from the nation’s energy market operator that it has lined up enough power reserves - including the world’s biggest lithium ion battery, set up by Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) - to get through all but the most unexpected conditions. Australia’s summer, which starts on Friday, is forecast to be hotter-than-normal in the nation’s southeast, already helping double wholesale power prices in the wind-dependent state of South Australia to almost A$170 (£96) per megawatt hour (MWh) SA-FLAT. That raises the spectre of a repeat of outages that hit South Australia and New South Wales last February if households crank up air conditioners at the same time as the wind dies down or extreme heat knocks out an ageing coal-fired plant. The threat has prompted top global miner BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX )( BLT.L ) to install 30 megawatts of diesel generation at its Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia, which was forced to close for two weeks last year after a state-wide blackout that cost it $105 million. “That doesn’t give us the ability to operate at normal levels. It’s really just insurance to prevent any asset damage,” Olympic Dam president Jacqui McGill told reporters this week. Meanwhile, Alcoa Inc ( AA.N ), which runs the Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria, is taking a different tack, offering to curb its power use for a fee for up to an hour during peak-demand, said spokeswoman Jodie Read. The company’s Portland smelter has recently returned to operating at about 300,000 tonnes a year since suffering a near-fatal power failure. Elsewhere, the Tomago aluminium smelter in New South Wales would be vulnerable if it faced a prolonged heat wave at the same time as Victoria and South Australia. “If the power goes off for any more than three hours, our potlines will freeze and they cannot be unfrozen. It’s a catastrophic loss,” said Matthew Howell, chief executive of Tomago Aluminium, owned by Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX )( RIO.L ), CSR ( CSR.AX ) and Norsk Hydro ( NHY.OL ). Unlike Alcoa, Tomago has offered to turn off its potlines, used to make aluminium, only if the market operator is facing a state-wide blackout. “You want to interrupt load to a potline as a last resort. You don’t want to do it as a playing-an-arbitrage-with-your-energy-supplier,” Howell told Reuters. This comes as Audrey Zibelman, chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, says blackouts are a “very, very, very low probability event”, given steps such as coaxing gas-fired plants out of retirement, the launch of the Tesla battery on Friday in South Australia and a A$70 million (£39.4 million) programme to pay some power users to curb their demand. An independent analyst said that there was less chance of blackouts this year, though he added that the risk remained. “I don’t know what the odds are of a three-hour blackout in New South Wales this summer, but it’s certainly not zero,” said David Leitch, an energy analyst at ITK Services Australia. “But my bottom line is that over the last few months I’ve become more convinced it’s less likely to occur than previously.” Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE and James Regan in SYDNEY; Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-power-industry/back-to-black-australian-industry-prepares-for-possible-summer-power-cuts-idUKKBN1DU0GD'|'2017-11-30T07:30:00.000+02:00'
'a08c7f233a75c67581ed9336149910c313ed33b0'|'TCI to still seek ouster of LSE chairman at shareholder meet'|'November 30, 2017 / 12:53 PM / Updated an hour ago LSE to hold shareholder vote on chairman on December 19 Huw Jones , Ben Martin 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) said on Thursday that its shareholders would meet on December 19 to decide if its chairman Donald Brydon should be removed, as demanded by activist hedge fund TCI. A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The move is the latest in a public tussle between the LSE and TCI over the company’s handling of plans for Chief Executive Xavier Rolet to step down by the end of 2018. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the LSE, had accused the board of forcing Rolet out and instead demanded a meeting to remove Brydon. On Wednesday, the LSE announced Rolet was to step down immediately and asked TCI to drop its call for a meeting to vote on Brydon’s future. But TCI, founded by Christopher Hohn, said earlier on Thursday it was sticking with its demand to oust Brydon, leaving the LSE with no choice but to call a meeting. The LSE said its board unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the resolution, saying ditching Brydon risked significantly damaging the company. A second resolution from TCI for Rolet to remain in place was withdrawn by the hedge fund on Thursday. The general meeting will be held at 1200 GMT on December 19 A majority of votes cast at the meeting would be needed for the resolution to pass. “The board strongly believes that it is in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders for Donald Brydon to remain as chairman of the company until he steps down in 2019,” the LSE said in its notice for the meeting. TCI had no immediate comment. OPERATING STYLE People close to TCI said the hedge fund was continuing with its request for a shareholder meeting because it did not want Brydon to be in charge of overseeing the selection of Rolet’s successor. The hedge fund will help the LSE to find Rolet’s replacement if the exchange needs its assistance, and will have “a very strong opinion” on the candidates the board identifies, one of the people said. The LSE notice said: “Aspects of Xavier Rolet’s operating style were also important factors taken into account by the board when assessing the right time to put in place a succession plan.” It would, however, be detrimental to the LSE and its stakeholders to provide further detail on these aspects, the notice added. Rolet chalked up “very considerable achievements” but “no CEO is irreplaceable”, and the existing management team has a deep knowledge of LSE business, the exchange said. People who have worked for Rolet say relations between the Frenchman and Brydon had become strained, with the CEO sidelining senior management at times. One of the sources close to TCI said the dispute with the LSE board had “definitely” left the exchange open to an opportunistic takeover approach from a rival. “We believe there is the room for consolidation in the global exchanges industry,” the source said. Rolet led an attempt by the LSE to merge with Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ), which competition regulators blocked. A tie up with another big exchange would face similar scrutiny. Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-moves-ceo/tci-to-still-seek-ouster-of-lse-chairman-at-shareholder-meet-idUKKBN1DU1QM'|'2017-11-30T14:52:00.000+02:00'
'7e57a0df8e7a31ca8f774fbd189b4361a9d0900c'|'Oil markets on tenterhooks ahead of OPEC meeting in Vienna'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:15 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Oil mixed as OPEC extends cuts Julia Simon 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil was mixed on Thursday after OPEC members agreed to extend curbs on output to the end of next year at a meeting in Vienna, though a final deal hinged on the decision of non-OPEC producers, expected toward the end of the day. A oil pump is seen at sunset outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017 . REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Iran’s energy minister announced that Nigeria and Libya will be included in the oil output deal. Under the deal, due to expire in March 2018, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers such as Russia will cut 1.8 million barrels per day from the market in an attempt to tackle global oversupply and bolster prices. OPEC on Thursday agreed to extend cuts for a further nine months. “OPEC extending the output cut till the end of 2018 was widely anticipated; however, suggestions that both Nigeria and Libya have decided to cap production is a bullish signal,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London. However, price reactions were mostly muted, with many analysts saying the nine-month extension was already priced in. “Because they’re going to be meeting again in a few months, we’re just going to be doing this again,” said John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors in New York. The most active February Brent contract was trading up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $62.37 a barrel at 11:52 a.m. (1652 GMT). The front-month January contract expires later on Thursday. U.S. light crude for February delivery was at $57.21 a barrel, up 15 cents, or .3 percent. Though the deal looked set to go through, a final decision involving non-OPEC producers, including Russia, had yet to be announced. A news conference toward the end of the day was expected to outline whether the deal will include a review in June 2018, an opportunity to reassess the cuts, and possibly end them. “It’s not surprising that they gave themselves an out,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, referring to the June meeting. He said the important question would be who complies. “I think that’s where market attention will focus, because you’re trying to get a market into balance,” Haworth said. Market watchers said they will look closely at output from countries like Iran, Libya and Russia. “It will be hard to keep the Russian oil companies in the fold, if shale producers continue to make increased sales to Asia as well,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital Llc in New York. Russia has been pushing for a clear message on how to exit the cuts, concerned that prices do not rally too quickly and that rival U.S. shale firms do not boost output further. One of OPEC’s biggest problems while cutting supplies has been rising U.S. output, which is gaining global market share and undermining the group’s efforts to tighten the market. U.S. oil production hit a new record of 9.68 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, according to government data released on Wednesday. [EIA/S] That is up from 8.5 million bpd at the end of last year, before the cuts were implemented. Rystad Energy, a consultancy, said it expects U.S. oil production to reach 9.9 million bpd in December, which would bring it close to top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. Graphic - U.S. crude oil production and inventories: reut.rs/2zQq77e Reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and OPEC Team; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-markets-on-tenterhooks-ahead-of-opec-meeting-in-vienna-idUKKBN1DU041'|'2017-11-30T03:14:00.000+02:00'
'3893214d511484e708b81574a830613eb905aaf7'|'China issues new rules to bring private capital into investment programme'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China issued guidelines on Thursday to encourage more private sector capital for public-private partnership (PPP) projects that channel funds into state infrastructure projects.People visit the Bund in front of Shanghai''s financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The government will step up financing support for PPP projects involving private capital by measures such as investment subsidies, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website.China is keen to attract private capital to government-led projects to alleviate a debt burden for local authorities, and has promised policies to support PPPs, though concern about fair access and low returns have deterred private sector investors.State-owned enterprises, which technically qualify as the “private” component of PPP projects, have crowded out true private sector participation, which complicates the government’s effort to reduce the debt burden on the state sector.Beijing has also repeatedly said it would take measures to boost private investment across the economy - stuck in single-digit growth rates for more than a year - which has required the government to step in with stronger fiscal support.The guidelines state that private investors’ opinions must be considered when creating PPP policies, and that those overseeing projects should allow private investors to avoid being responsible for complex early-stage work.“Continually open the infrastructure sector. Apart from industries restricted by law, fully open to private capital, and do not restrict private capital participation in PPP projects in any form or by any means”, the NDRC directive said.More channels for project financing should be developed, including securitisation and bonds, while government-backed funds should invest in projects that include private capital, the NDRC said.Governments can also consider full or partial equity transfers of PPP projects to private firms in order to entice more private participation, the guidelines said.The value of China’s 14,220 existing PPP projects totalled 17.8 trillion yuan ($2.69 trillion) by end-September, according to a national database managed by the finance ministry.While pledging to make it more attractive for private firms to invest in PPP projects, the government has also called out local governments for using the programme to raise debt through “disguised channels”.China will prevent illegal financing via PPP projects and fend off risks of hidden debt for local governments, the guidelines said.Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Elias Glenn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-investment/china-issues-new-rules-to-bring-private-capital-into-investment-programme-idINKBN1DU1AZ'|'2017-11-30T07:48:00.000+02:00'
'c4f02eb39873c2f675e9fa5d1e7193f890affee6'|'Terra Firma to launch Italy''s biggest solar sale in January - sources'|'* Terra Firma to sell 332 megawatt solar portfolio in one block* RTR equity could be worth around 1 bln euros* Enel-F2i joint venture seen as a possible front runnerBy Stephen Jewkes and Pamela BarbagliaMILAN/LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Private equity investor Terra Firma is gearing up to launch a $1.2 billion sale of its Italian solar-power assets, a deal that could pave the way for more consolidation in European solar energy, sources said.The sale of RTR Rete Rinnovabile should kick off in January and its solar farms, scattered across 132 locations, will be sold as one block, the sources said.If successful, the deal will be Italy’s largest solar energy sale in a fragmented industry under pressure to consolidate with the end of generous state subsidies.The London-based buyout fund has been working with advisers for the past nine months to prepare RTR for a sale, the sources said, adding RTR wants to fetch about 1 billion euros.The Rome-based business has already drawn interest from several bidders, the sources said.EF Solare Italia, a 341 MW joint venture between Italy’s biggest utility Enel and infrastructure fund F2i, is seen as a possible front runner because of its size and industry focus, the sources said.A combination of RTR and EF Solare Italia would create an Italian solar powerhouse, raising pressure on smaller players to join forces to compete in an industry hit hard by Rome’s decision to cut back on incentives to reduce power bills.Falling government support, a challenging financial outlook and increasing competition has led to a sharp reduction in new utility-size solar plants in Italy but has triggered record levels of M&A in a sector set to grow.Rome said this month it wanted green energy sources to account for 28 percent of overall energy consumption by 2030 from 17.5 percent in 2015.“Enel-F2i is the natural buyer but lots of people will take a look, it’s a big portfolio, it will be a crowded process,” one of the sources said.Earlier this year Terra Firma hired UniCredit, JPMorgan and Jefferies to work on the deal which could value RTR’s equity at between 1.0-1.2 billion euros, the sources said.The process has been in stop-and-go mode for several months due to disagreements on whether the portfolio should be broken up or sold in one piece, but consensus has now been reached to offload assets en bloc, the sources said.BIDDING FIELD A series of investment funds including Quercus and Tages have expressed interest, a second source said, adding Italian renewable company Erg was also eying the asset.“Canadian pension funds and Chinese investors are also expected to take part,” the first source said.Terra Firma, Quercus, Erg and Tages all declined to comment. Enel’s renewable energy chief told Reuters earlier this year EF Solare would be looking at the assets.In 2016 RTR posted revenues of 146 million euros and core earnings of 120 million euros. Its overall debt at the end of the year was around 900 million euros.The business includes a wide range of plants Terra Firma has bought since 2011 from companies such as Italian power grid operator Terna, Erg and France’s EDF.“The earlier plants benefit from subsidies and so are more appealing than later ones,” one of the sources said.Cash-rich EF Solare, which runs 92 plants with 341 MW, is front runner because of the size of the portfolio but returns could be a stumbling block. F2i, partly owned by state lender CDP, has a historic return on its assets of around 12 percent.“A big refinancing operation will also be needed to accompany the sale and that could also limit the field,” one of the sources said. ($1 = 0.8454 euros) (Editing by David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rtr-ma-terrafirma-italy/terra-firma-to-launch-italys-biggest-solar-sale-in-january-sources-idINL8N1NY2J8'|'2017-11-30T07:23:00.000+02:00'
'3173bb2f829cc742053819c77a13ad67250546d2'|'Bitcoin loses over a fifth of its value in less than 24 hours'|' 08 PM / in 8 minutes Bitcoin loses over a fifth of its value in less than 24 hours Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid to as low as $9,000 (£6,689) on Thursday, having lost more than a fifth of its value since hitting an all-time high of $11,395 on Wednesday.. A bitcoin sign is seen during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The cryptocurrency fell as much as 8 percent on Thursday on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange to hit $9,000 exactly, marking a fall of well over $2,000 in under 24 hours. It then edged back up to trade at around $9,200 a few minutes later, still down over 6 percent on the day. The fall tempers an astronomical rise for the cryptocurrency in recent months - bitcoin was up almost 1100 percent year-to-date on Wednesday. As of 1400 GMT on Thursday, it was still up around 850 percent. Its rapid ascent has prompted warnings from a stream of prominent investors that it had reached bubble territory, while Bank of England deputy governor on Wednesday said investors should “do their homework” before investing in the digital currency. Its fall on Thursday dragged down the prices of other cryptocurrencies in its wake, with Ethereum, bitcoin’s biggest rival, falling as much as 19 percent on the day, according to trade website Coinmarketcap. For the month, bitcoin is still on track for a more than 40 percent price increase. Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Jemima Kelly'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-loses-over-a-fifth-of-its-value-in-less-than-24-hours-idUKKBN1DU1YT'|'2017-11-30T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'640fdce570132210204e28eca66007387b230d4f'|'Banks face contract repapering rush to retain clients after Brexit'|'November 30, 2017 / 2:38 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Banks face contract repapering rush to retain clients after Brexit Anjuli Davies , Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Banks in London are preparing to move hundreds of thousands of contracts they expect to be rendered invalid by Brexit to continental Europe, in a process known as “repapering”, marking a major step in their adjustment plans. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville - RC1FDD5CA870 The Bank of England has said that 6 million insurance policyholders in Britain could be affected by the country’s planned exit from the European Union in early 2019, along with trillions of pounds of derivatives deals. “We have over 100,000 transactions at present with the EU,” John McFarlane, Chairman of Barclays, told a parliamentary committee hearing this week. “We may have to repaper hundreds of thousands of contracts,” he said, referring to rewriting these contracts in EU law. Senior bankers at several major financial institutions in London, who asked not to be named, have told Reuters that most were getting ready to reword millions of documents to relocate parts of their European to prepare for the likely loss of London’s access to the wider European market. This would impact clients - including companies, other banks and investment funds - who have taken out contracts for products such as derivatives, loans and swaps which are booked through London. In order to keep the relationship as it stands, a British bank would need to shift the contract to an entity based in Frankfurt, for example, giving it access to the single market. “The thing that is irreversible is repapering. That will start in the second quarter (of 2018) as you won’t want to move clients again,” said one senior banking executive, adding the process would take six to nine months. “You have to send out letters to every client, we’re talking about thousands of EU clients. We are building the hospital and we are just waiting for the patients to arrive.” The move when it comes will mark another milestone for Britain’s financial services sector in the wake of Brexit, a shift that is expected to give increasing weight to other financial centres in continental Europe. Banks have so far focused on applications for new or expanded licences in Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin or Luxembourg that would allow them to maintain services with EU customers and the task of rewriting contracts would likely follow these. POINT OF NO RETURN Transitional arrangements between Britain and the EU could give more time for repapering to be completed and some in the industry are also proposing grandfathering some contracts. But with uncertainty as to whether a phase-in agreement will be reached, banks are pressing ahead. “One practical issue is where are you in the queue for a licence, as you need the licence to start servicing clients from your new location.” said David Lawton, a managing director at A&M consultants. Banks will then have to ask each customer for permission to switch, a bureaucratic and time consuming process - and not one they want to reverse at the risk of annoying customers. “Some clients might say they don’t want to move to Germany but prefer Singapore or New York,” the banker said. The process will mean banks contacting thousands of clients with the aim of completing the work by March 2019 in case there is a “hard” Brexit and contracts still based in London for EU customers become mired in legal uncertainty. “They are thinking long and hard about doing it and how it would be done,” one lawyer working with the banks said. “This is the point of no return.” Reporting by Anjuli Davies and Huw Jones; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/banks-face-contract-repapering-rush-to-retain-clients-after-brexit-idUKKBN1DU1XQ'|'2017-11-30T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'3413451830eb4f6f5e4cc1398372fa7d7b9f629c'|'BOJ''s Harada - No reason for BOJ to end easy policy now'|'November 30, 2017 / 2:09 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago BOJ''s Harada - No reason for BOJ to end easy policy now Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Yutaka Harada said on Thursday the central bank had no reason to head for an exit from ultra-easy monetary policy now as inflation remained well below its 2 percent target. Bank of Japan (BOJ) board member Yutaka Harada points at a reporter during news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo “Some people say that, because central banks in the United States and Europe are heading for the exit, Japan should follow suit,” Harada said in a speech to business leaders in Fukushima, northeastern Japan. “However, it makes perfect sense to me that Japan’s exit should come later than theirs.” A vocal advocate of aggressive monetary easing, Harada has voted with the majority of the board including at last year’s decision to shift to a policy framework targeting interest rates instead of the pace of money printing. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Minami Funakoshi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/bojs-harada-no-reason-for-boj-to-end-easy-policy-now-idUKKBN1DU076'|'2017-11-30T04:08:00.000+02:00'
'3e7b8456a39a2102c83b1655cad9eee67b85aa8e'|'CORRECTED-Budget carrier Wizz scoops Monarch''s Luton airport slots'|'(Corrects reference to IAG deal, paragraph 3)Nov 29 (Reuters) - Budget airline Wizz Air said it would fly two more aircraft from London’s Luton airport after securing take-off and landing slots there from failed carrier Monarch Airlines.Wizz, listed in London but with the majority of its operations focused on Europe, said it would increase its fleet at Luton by two aircraft to total seven and pushing up its capacity at the airport by 18 percent.Earlier this week, British Airways owner IAG bought valuable take-off and landing slots at London’s Gatwick airport, beating off competition from other airlines.EasyJet, Wizz and Norwegian had expressed their interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots at London’s Luton and Gatwick airports. (Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monarch-airlines-licence-wizz-air-hldgs/budget-carrier-wizz-scoops-monarchs-luton-airport-slots-idINL8N1NZ6DQ'|'2017-11-29T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'0cd2bc0844e8551a29f2eceddb11a2136b31c0d4'|'UPDATE 1-BA-owner IAG secures failed airline Monarch''s Gatwick slots'|'(Changes sourcing to administrator and IAG, adds Quote: s)By Alistair SmoutLONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG has acquired valuable take-off and landing slots at London’s Gatwick airport from failed carrier Monarch Airlines, the latter’s administrators said on Monday, beating off competition from other airlines.The administrators said they were in the process of completing an exchange of Monarch’s slots for others currently held by IAG but did not disclose how much IAG was paying under the swap arrangement to get the more valuable slot times.“As well as representing an excellent recovery for creditors from one of Monarch Airline’s significant assets, the clarity that this sale will bring is very positive for other stakeholders such as Gatwick Airport and its customers,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said in a statement.IAG said in a statement that “these slots will be used by the group’s airlines, primarily British Airways, enabling them to grow their presence at the airport and launch new destinations and add extra frequencies.”The agreement comes after Monarch won an appeal last Wednesday to have the right to sell their airport slots even though it was no longer capable of operating any flights, a court ruling which was criticised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which sets guidelines for how slots at busy airports should be allocated and swapped.EasyJet, Wizz and Norwegian had also expressed their interest in acquiring Monarch’s slots at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports, while sources said that travel firm Thomas Cook had also bid for the Gatwick slots.Monarch’s administrator had estimated its slots could be worth around 60 million pounds ($80 million) although that figure was disputed by some airlines, including easyJet.Nimmo said that the “continuing focus” of the administrators would now switch to the sale of the Luton slots, as well as other residual assets such as Monarch’s brand. (Reporting by Alistair Smout Editing by Greg Mahlich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/monarch-airlines-licence-iag/update-1-ba-owner-iag-secures-failed-airline-monarchs-gatwick-slots-idINL8N1NX5LC'|'2017-11-27T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'03f373f348a6408cae38095feef3211014a8efe9'|'Fed chair nominee Powell pledges ''decisive'' response to any economic crisis'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jerome Powell, the nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, defended the Fed’s use of broad crisis-fighting powers in remarks prepared for his Tuesday Senate confirmation hearing, positioning himself as an extension of the central bank policies of current Chair Janet Yellen and her predecessor Ben Bernanke.Jerome Powell, U.S. President Donald Trump''s nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve at the announcement event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria In a brief opening statement released by the Fed on Monday, Powell, who is currently a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, endorsed the core ideas that have defined U.S. central banking since the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 - a willingness to move aggressively against a downturn, and an insistence on flexibility and independence from political influence in setting policy.”We must retain the flexibility to adjust our policies in response to economic developments,“ Powell said in the remarks. ”We must be prepared to respond decisively and with appropriate force to new and unexpected threats to our nation’s financial stability and economic prosperity.“I will do everything in my power to achieve those goals while preserving the Federal Reserve’s independent and nonpartisan status that is so vital to their pursuit,” Powell said, referring to the Fed’s Congressionally mandated goals of promoting both maximum employment and low and stable inflation.Trump nominated Powell, aged 64, from among five finalists, including Yellen as well as others who have argued for more fundamental changes at the Fed. Some of the arguments for reform, including the use of rules related to inflation and the broader economy in setting interest rates and scepticism about the Fed’s crisis-fighting bond purchases, have support among the lawmakers who must confirm Powell as Fed chair.Powell, who has been on the Fed Board of Governors since May 2012, has made clear in past public comments that he is not a fan of many of those ideas.The one exception: easing some post-crisis financial regulations. While Powell said he agrees that the new requirements on banks have made the financial system safer, he wants to look for ways to ease the cost of regulation if it can be done safely.“We will continue to consider appropriate ways to ease regulatory burdens while preserving core reforms,” Powell said in the statement.On current monetary policy, he said, “We expect interest rates to rise somewhat further and the size of our balance sheet to gradually shrink.”Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-powell/fed-chair-nominee-powell-pledges-decisive-response-to-any-economic-crisis-idINKBN1DR2Q9'|'2017-11-27T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'51d8ed90a9d618bc14eae75f91994a1377d89d80'|'BOJ''s Kataoka: No need to debate exit strategy now - Sankei'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Goushi Kataoka said the central bank should focus on ways to achieve its 2 percent inflation target instead of debating an exit strategy from its massive stimulus program, the Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO - Bank of Japan (BOJ) new policy board member Goushi Kataoka attends a news conference at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The BOJ must take additional easing steps to achieve its price target at the earliest date possible, so that prolonged monetary easing does not hurt Japan’s financial system, Kataoka was Quote: d by Sankei as saying in the interview.At a previous rate review in October, Kataoka dissented to the BOJ’s decision to keep monetary policy steady on the view more easing steps were needed to hit its price target.Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj-kataoka/bojs-kataoka-no-need-to-debate-exit-strategy-now-sankei-idINKBN1DR2TX'|'2017-11-28T01:37:00.000+02:00'
'f9e3763316cf54c5538324afc85b697aa438ad9f'|'Japan''s Toray to hold news conference on data falsification at unit'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Toray Industries ( 3402.T ) said on Tuesday it will hold a news conference regarding data falsification at a subsidiary, in what could be the latest in a series of quality-assurance scandals to hit Japanese manufacturers.Shares of Toray plunged more than 8 percent following the announcement.Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toray-scandal/japans-toray-to-hold-news-conference-on-data-falsification-at-unit-idINKBN1DS045'|'2017-11-27T22:10:00.000+02:00'
'288acb11b9dc01684505e21b335a28799f739fac'|'RPT-Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology'|'(Repeats for additional clients with no changes to text)By Ernest ScheyderHOUSTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Shale oil engineer Oscar Portillo spends his days drilling as many as five wells at once - without ever setting foot on a rig.Part of a team working to cut the cost of drilling a new shale well by a third, Portillo works from a Royal Dutch Shell Plc office in suburban Houston, his eyes darting among 13 monitors flashing data on speed, temperature and other metrics as he helps control rigs more than 500 miles (805 km) away in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield.For the last decade, smaller oil companies have led the way in shale technology, slashing costs by as much as half with breakthroughs such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that turned the United States into the world’s fastest-growing energy exporter.(For a graphic detailing the decline in drilling costs, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zCXvxE )Now, oil majors that were slow to seize on shale are seeking further efficiencies by adapting technologies for highly automated offshore operations to shale and pursuing advances in digitalization that have reshaped industries from auto manufacturing to retail.If they are successful, the U.S. oil industry’s ability to bring more wells to production at lower cost could amp up future output and company profits. The firms could also frustrate the ongoing effort by The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) effort to drain a global oil glut.“We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Portillo said.The technological push comes amid worries that U.S. shale gains are slowing as investors press for higher financial returns. Many investors want producers to restrain spending and focus on generating higher returns, not volume, prompting some to pull back on drilling.Production at a majority of publicly traded shale producers rose just 1.3 percent over the first three quarters this year, according to Morgan Stanley.But many U.S. shale producers vowed during third quarter earnings disclosures to deliver higher returns through technology, with many forecasting aggressive output hikes into 2018.Chevron Corp is using drones equipped with thermal imaging to detect leaks in oil tanks and pipelines across its shale fields, avoiding traditional ground inspections and lengthy shutdowns.Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips - the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producer - sees ample opportunity to boost both profits and output. Conoco also oversees remote drilling operations in a similar way to Shell.“The people that don’t have shale in their portfolios don’t understand it, frankly,” Lance said in an interview. “They think it’s going to go away quickly because of the high decline rates, or that the resource is not nearly that substantial. They’re wrong on both counts.”Shell, in an initiative called “iShale,” has marshaled technology from a dozen oilfield suppliers, including devices from subsea specialist TechnipFMC Plc that separate fracking sand from oil and well-control software from Emerson Electric Co, to bring more automation and data analysis to shale operations.One idea borrowed from deepwater projects is using sensors to automatically adjust well flows and control separators that divvy natural gas, oil and water. Today, these subsea systems are expensive because they are built to operate at the extreme pressures and temperatures found miles under the ocean’s surface.Shell’s initiative aims to create cheaper versions for onshore production by incorporating low-cost sensors similar to those in Apple Inc’s Watch, eliminating the need for workers to visit thousands of shale drilling rigs to read gauges and manually adjust valves. Shell envisions shale wells that predict when parts are near mechanical failure and schedule repairs automatically.By next year, the producer wants to begin remote fracking of wells, putting workers in one place to oversee several projects. It also would add solar panels and more powerful batteries to well sites to reduce electricity and diesel costs.Oil firms currently spend about $5.9 million to drill a new shale well, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Shell expects to chop that cost to less than $4 million apiece by the end of the decade.“There is still very little automation,” said Amir Gerges, head of Shell’s Permian operations. “We haven’t scratched the surface.”TECHNOLOGY AND GEOLOGY Much of the new technology is focused on where rather than how to drill.“There is no amount of technology that can improve bad geology,” said Mark Papa, CEO of shale producer Centennial Resource Development IncAnadarko Petroleum, Statoil and others are using DNA sequencing to pinpoint high potential areas, collecting DNA from microbes in oil to search for the same DNA in rock samples. ConocoPhillip’s MRI techniques also borrow from medical advances.ConocoPhillips next year will start using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyze Permian rock samples and find the best drilling locations, a technique the company first developed for its Alaskan offshore operations.EOG Resources Inc last year began using a detailed analysis of the oil quality of its fields. The analysis, designed by Houston start-up Premier Oilfield Laboratories, helps to speed decisions on fracking locations and avoid less productive sites.Premier has reduced the time needed to analyze seismic data to find oil reserves from days or weeks to seconds. Such efficiencies serve two purposes, said Nathan Ganser, Premier’s director of geochemical services.“It’s not only removing costs that are superfluous,” he said. “It’s boosting production.”Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-oil-technology/rpt-pressured-for-profit-oil-majors-bet-big-on-shale-technology-idINL1N1NY01V'|'2017-11-28T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'294880ae6b5b76b57e9ed3d91cf6b774ff379539'|'NY fines two Lloyd''s underwriters, others for unlicensed insurance programme'|' 26 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago NY fines two Lloyd''s underwriters, others for unlicensed insurance programme   (Reuters) - Two Lloyd’s of London Ltd underwriters and a credit union for United Nations employees are among the entities that have agreed to pay a total of $1.47 million (1.11 million pounds) for their roles in an unlicensed life insurance programme, New York’s insurance regulator said on Tuesday. The New York State Department of Financial Services reached a settlement with Lloyd’s underwriters Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates ( 8766.T ) and Beazley Furlonge Ltd brokerage Clements & Co and the United Nations Federal Credit Union, the regulator said. More than 4,300 policies were sold, the regulator said. Reporting by Suzanne BarlynEditing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-new-york-lloyds-fine/ny-fines-two-lloyds-underwriters-others-for-unlicensed-insurance-programme-idUKKBN1DS2HA'|'2017-11-28T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'ee247c32068dae22341e0ee05643d6401c302840'|'Cumulus Media files for bankruptcy protection'|'(Reuters) - U.S. radio broadcaster Cumulus Media Inc ( CMLS.PK ) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it has entered into a restructuring agreement with certain of its lenders to reduce more than $1 billion in debt.Cumulus expects all operations, programming and sales to continue as normal throughout the restructuring process, the company said in a statement.The company said it has “ample cash on hand” and does not intend to seek debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.“The debt overhang left by previous years of underperformance remains a significant financial challenge that we must overcome for our operational turnaround to proceed,” Chief Executive Mary Berner said.The company’s bigger rival IHeartMedia Inc ( IHRT.PK ) is also struggling to find a solution to significantly slash its debt pile outside of bankruptcy court.IHeartMedia, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations that has more than 250 million monthly listeners in the United States, said in May there was substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.Cumulus filed the petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cumulus-media-bankruptcy/cumulus-media-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-idUSKBN1DU08U'|'2017-11-30T10:44:00.000+02:00'
'a41fe1c29f31e790944e074abeee0b4e2c2766e2'|'Analysis - Luxury auto brands adopt new strategies as the old run out of gas'|'Reuters TV United States November 30, 2017 / 2:37 PM / a few seconds ago Luxury auto brands adopt new strategies as the old run out of gas Joseph White 4 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Success in the United States used to come easily for German automaker BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ), whose sporty sedans in three sizes would be snapped up by affluent consumers. FILE PHOTO: The BMW all electric i Vision Dynamics concept car is displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The premium auto business has now become more complicated, as illustrated by the BMW models displayed at this week’s Los Angeles auto show, amid a backdrop of heavy spending by luxury auto brands on new models and technology as they make awkward leaps from a predictable past to an uncertain future. On one side of BMW’s display stood a prototpye of a large X7 sport utility vehicle, a vehicle that was unthinkable in its lineup a few years ago when the top of the line was still defined as a large sedan. On the other side, BMW displayed the iVision, a prototype of an electric sedan that will rival Silicon Valley electric luxury car maker Tesla Inc’s ( TSLA.O ) Model S when the production version, or non-prototype version, launches in 2021. “This is the future,” said Bernhard Kuhnt, the new head of BMW’s North American operations, referring to the iVision and electric vehicles in general. More immediately, Kuhnt said, the X7 represents BMW’s determination to offer more sport utility vehicles, which now account for more than half of luxury vehicle sales in the United States, to reverse a four percent slide in sales this year through October. “In October, we sold 60 percent sedans in a market that is 55 percent SUVs,” he said. But next year, as BMW’s U.S. dealers get more newly redesigned X3 SUVs, and a new X2 sport utility, the SUV-to-sedan ratio will start to flip, and sales should grow, he said. BMW’s rivals are at different points in their own jumps from the strategies that fueled growth during the past two decades. The type of vehicle that defines the top of the line for German luxury brands shows how the business is changing. FILE PHOTO: BMW''s Dr. Ian Robertson speaks next to the company''s x7 iPerformance concept car at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake “The classic definition of the standard bearer as a three-box sedan, that is migrating in three directions,” said Scott Keogh, head of U.S. operations for Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand. One direction, he said, is “electrification as the new prestige,” a trend driven by Tesla. Rivals at other established luxury brands agreed during interviews at the LA show that some form of electric power - fully electric or plug-in hybrids - is now necessary in order to compete. “The U.S. is a market where customers are asking for electric” vehicles, Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars, said in an interview on the sidelines of the LA auto show Wednesday. “That’s a premium value - to be carbon free.” Volvo has said it will engineer all its vehicles to rely on full or partial electric power starting in 2019. German luxury car makers have announced aggressive plans to expand their electric vehicle lineups.[nL5N1LT47Z] Another way the market is veering away from sedans is with the rise of the large, luxury SUV, now available in most luxury brands at prices that can easily top $100,000. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd( TAMO.NS ), is displaying a $207,900, 557-horsepower Range Rover model at the LA show. Audi plans to launch a Q8 SUV next year that will add a more luxurious SUV to the top of its U.S. lineup, Keogh said. Two large luxury SUVs are now sold for each large luxury sedan, Audi reckons.[nL1N1NU0Y5] Daimler AG’s ( DAIGn.DE ) Mercedes-Benz brand used the Los Angeles show to debut an example of a third trend. The new generation of the Mercedes CLS coupe joins Audi’s A7 and the Porsche Panamera in a stable of large, premium, sporty fastbacks. Not to be outdone, BMW is displaying a large, sleek coupe of its own, the 8-series. Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-la-luxury-analysis/luxury-auto-brands-adopt-new-strategies-as-the-old-run-out-of-gas-idUKKBN1DU20S'|'2017-11-30T16:21:00.000+02:00'
'638b77290292ae2334337434391c782dc9600543'|'U.S. consumer spending cools in October, inflation firming'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:04 PM / in 13 minutes U.S. consumer spending cools in October, inflation firming Lucia Mutikani 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending slowed in October as the hurricane-related boost to motor vehicle purchases faded, while a sustained increase in underlying price pressures suggested that a recent disinflationary trend had probably run its course. FILE PHOTO: People shop at The Grove mall in Los Angeles November 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Other data on Thursday showed a second straight weekly drop in first-time applications for unemployment benefits, pointing to a further tightening in labour market conditions that could soon generate faster wage growth and keep consumer spending supported, as well as push inflation higher. The reports strengthened expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year. “Today’s number should support the case of the hawks and centrists heading into the next Fed meeting in two weeks’ time,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.3 percent last month after surging 0.9 percent in September. Last month’s increase in consumer spending was in line with economists’ expectations. The jump in spending in September was the largest since August 2009 and was spurred by some drivers in Texas and Florida replacing automobiles destroyed when Hurricanes Harvey and Irma slammed the states in late August and early September. Spending on long-lasting goods like autos fell 0.1 percent last month after accelerating 2.9 percent in September. Spending on nondurable goods such as prescription drugs and recreational items rose 0.2 percent. Outlays on services increased 0.3 percent amid a rise in airline tickets for foreign travel and communication services. Though overall inflation subsided as disruptions to the supply chain following the hurricanes eased, underlying price pressures increased again at a steady clip in October. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in October after a similar gain in September. The so-called core PCE increased 1.4 percent in the 12 months through October, matching September’s rise. The core PCE has undershot the Fed’s 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2 years. Fed Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers on Wednesday that she believed the recent weak inflation readings likely reflected “transitory factors,” but also acknowledged the low inflation rates “could reflect something more persistent.” WORST IS OVER “It looks like the worst is over for this latest idiosyncratic downdraft in core consumer inflation since the start of the year, and that Yellen was right to stick with her guns and maintain that low inflation is a transitory phenomenon,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. Treasuries edged down. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher, with the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average index racing past the 24,000 mark for the first time. With underlying inflation rising last month, so-called real consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent after increasing 0.5 percent in September. The weak real consumer spending prompted economists to lower their fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth estimates by as much as two-tenths of a percentage point to as low as a 2.2 percent annualised rate. Growth estimates for the fourth quarter have been lowered this week from around a 3 percent pace in the wake of data showing a large goods trade deficit in October and declines in wholesale and retail inventories. The economy grew at a 3.3 percent rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years. Households are dipping into savings to maintain spending amid moderate wage growth. Personal income rose 0.4 percent last month after advancing by the same margin in September. Wages increased 0.3 percent last month following September’s 0.5 percent gain. While savings climbed to $457.3 billion (£338.68 billion) last month from a more than nine-year low of $429.9 billion in September, they remained well below levels seen early this year. The saving rate increased to 3.2 percent after falling to 3.0 percent in September, which was the lowest since December 2007. “The ‘savings dip’ will limit the upside to consumer spending growth in the fourth quarter,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York. There are, however, expectations that wage growth will accelerate as the labour market tightens further. In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 238,000 for the week ended Nov. 25. Last week marked the 143rd consecutive week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. The labour market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-consumer-spending-cools-in-october-inflation-firming-idUKKBN1DU2FI'|'2017-11-30T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'084e207eb4221b8def00e342f8e1d95400ce2bb2'|'BOK raises interest rate for first time in six years'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than six years on Thursday, yet tempered market expectations for more by raising concerns about the job market and other uncertainties.A South Korea won note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/Files North Korea declared on Wednesday it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that put all of the U.S. mainland within range, but markets largely ignored the news.The Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board voted on Thursday to increase the benchmark rate to 1.50 percent from a record-low of 1.25 percent, ending a five-year easing cycle as a sustained export boom lifts economic growth.Board member Cho Dong-chul dissented in the 6-1 vote to raising interest rates to 1.50 percent. His dissent, along with some dovish comments, pushed the won down by more than 1 percent against the dollar to as weak as 1,090.2.Governor Lee Ju-yeol declined to comment at a news conference when asked if he could give any guidance on the near-term direction of monetary policy, simply noting he would closely monitor growth and inflation to assess whether further hikes were needed.Eighteen of 21 economists polled by Reuters had predicted the Bank of Korea would raise rates on Thursday, while the three others saw rates on hold at the current record-low 1.25 percent.“Should we have kept the base rate as it was, there was a danger of risks rising as the actual rate of accommodation (in the money market) would have increased,” Lee told news conference in Seoul.A statement released after the rate decision highlighted worries about fragile job market conditions, while also projecting growth at slightly above the rate estimated in October, suggesting policymakers were tamping down expectations for rapid rate rises.Crucially, the BOK omitted references to improving employment conditions that have been seen in previous statements saying instead that the job market “has shown signs of weakening somewhat”.Despite Thursday’s move, the road back to monetary normality will be long.“Now, there is no dispute that this tightening cycle will be a slow and gradual one. The most important thing from today’s policy meeting is the removal of uncertainties related to policy direction,” said Oh Chang-sob, fixed-income strategist, Korea Investment and Securities.Thursday’s decision removes the emergency stimulus in force since 2012 to boost the economy, and takes South Korea into tightening territory - a journey that could be joined by other Asian central banks expecting stronger growth.The U.S. Federal Reserve and the central banks of Britain and Canada have already begun normalising monetary policy, slowing bringing the era of massive stimulus to a close.South Korea is the only Asian country other than Sri Lanka to have hiked rates since November 2014, when Indonesia raised its borrowing costs.Markets had priced in Thursday’s rate hike. The won had gained 4 percent against the dollar and South Korean bond yields jumped to a three-year high this month before Thursday as investors gauged that rates could rise in November, far earlier than first thought.In October the Bank of Korea upgraded its growth outlook for the year to 3 percent from 2.8 percent, and revised up its inflation outlook to 2 percent from 1.9 percent.Growth in the third quarter showed the biggest jump in seven years, expanding 1.4 percent from three months earlier on a robust export cycle propelled by strong global demand for memory chips.Those soaring memory chip sales helped South Korea’s tech sector manufacturers to post record operating profits in the third quarter.Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s biggest maker of semiconductors, televisions and smartphones, nearly tripled its operating profit in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, to 14.5 trillion won ($13.34 billion).SK Hynix Inc’s profit leapt more than five-fold to a record in the third quarter, as demand for memory chips to be used in servers and smartphones soared.South Korea’s finance minister said this week that the economy was set to expand by more than 3 percent this year, topping the 2.8 percent average growth rate seen over the past five years.Annual consumer inflation for October was 1.8 percent, short of the BOK’s 2 percent target.($1 = 1,087.0000 won)Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Dahee Kim; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/southkorea-economy-rates/bok-raises-interest-rate-for-first-time-in-six-years-idINKBN1DU0DP'|'2017-11-30T01:28:00.000+02:00'
'e4c497c32343fff67e5a170a6f8c8f277e294bda'|'Credit Suisse promises improved returns after investor pressure'|'November 30, 2017 / 6:37 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Credit Suisse promises improved returns after investor pressure Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse set ambitious targets to reward shareholders on Thursday as CEO Tidjane Thiam responds to activist investor demands for better performance two years into a revamp following hefty losses and cash calls. FILE PHOTO: Switzerland''s national flag flies next to the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at a branch office in Luzern, Switzerland October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann /File Photo Switzerland’s second-biggest bank is nearing the end of a three-year plan led by Thiam to cut costs and focus the bank more squarely on wealth management. At its investor day in London, Credit Suisse announced new 2019 and 2020 yield targets and a plan to distribute half of net profit to shareholders primarily through share buybacks or special dividends. “Our teams remain strongly focused on driving value for our clients and shareholders through 2018,” Thiam said. “Our objective is to achieve a group reported return on tangible equity (ROTE) of between 10 percent and 11 percent for 2019 and between 11 percent and 12 percent for 2020,” he added. This is the first time the bank, which has come under pressure from activist investor RBR, has announced ROTE goals since Thiam’s revamp. It represents a major rise from the 4.1 percent return posted in the first nine months of 2017. “We expect this to be driven in large part by strong cost control, the wind-down of the strategic resolution unit and significant reductions in our cost of funding, all elements which are largely within our control,” Thiam said. BOOSTING RETURNS Shares rose over 4 percent to their highest level since early 2016. FILE PHOTO: Christmas decorations are seen at the headquarters of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich, Switzerland November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo “We welcome the introduction of a group ROTE target and will have to have a closer look at the underlying assumptions of Credit Suisse on how the targets shall be reached,” Vontobel analyst Andreas Venditti said in a note. RBR, the Swiss hedge fund led by Rudolf Bohli, has pushed the bank to cut costs further and boost shareholder returns. It last month presented a plan to break the bank up into three parts. RBR has also offered to connect Credit Suisse with the Saudi royal family as potential major shareholders for the bank, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at a branch office in Luzern, Switzerland October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann However, its plan so far has failed to gain backing from major shareholders, and the bank and RBR are at odds on whether RBR has since reduced its 0.2 percent stake. BANKS UNDER PRESSURE Under pressure from low interest rates, declining margins and new competition from online, European banks have been carrying out sweeping cost cuts. After 6.56 billion Swiss francs (£4.93 billion) in losses in 2016 and 2015 and raising capital twice, Credit Suisse has sailed through three consecutive quarters in profit this year, a first since Thiam joined the bank in July 2015. By the end of this year, it expects to have cut 3.2 billion francs in costs. It has reduced thousands of jobs. Credit Suisse aims to operate at a cost base of between 16.5 billion and 17 billion Swiss francs in 2019 and 2020, compared to the 2018 target for a base below 17 billion francs. Additional reporting by Oliver Hirt; editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-credit-suisse-gp-outlook/credit-suisse-targets-more-cost-cuts-sets-2019-and-2020-yield-goals-idUKKBN1DU0KE'|'2017-11-30T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'5bb30ea277b1005841a0368720bb939e6cc83bf0'|'U.S., China still at odds after steelmakers agree to tackle market-distorting subsidies'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:42 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago U.S., China still at odds after steelmakers agree to tackle market-distorting subsidies Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The world’s largest steel-producing countries agreed to dismantle market-distorting subsidies but deep division remained, with China calling for more action from other producers and the U.S. saying there was much more to do. German Economy and Energy Minister Brigitte Zypries speaks during the G20 forum on steel overcapacity in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy in Berlin, Germany, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Speaking at the conclusion of a Berlin summit hosted by the German government to discuss global steel overcapacity, Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said delegates had agreed on the need to dismantle subsidies and arrange better sharing of information on the process of capacity reduction. But assistant Chinese Commerce Minister Li Chenggang warned against a situation where his country, the world’s largest steel maker, made painful efforts to cut capacity “while the rest of the world just watches”. China is under pressure from other steelmakers, especially the U.S., to cut subsidies and shutter more capacity in addition to the 100 million tonnes it has already closed. But Jamieson Greer, chief negotiator for the U.S., said the summit had agreed “initial steps” but that far more needed to be done. Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michael Nienaber'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-g20-steel/u-s-china-still-at-odds-after-steelmakers-agree-to-tackle-market-distorting-subsidies-idUKKBN1DU1WC'|'2017-11-30T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'f67931eb56d42727142e9b0d6ace7fa3bae6da09'|'Tokyo Disney Resort operator shares jumps after expansion plan report'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Oriental Land Co Ltd ( 4661.T ) jumped on Thursday after local media reported plans to spend more than 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) on a major expansion of its Tokyo Disney Resort theme park featuring an attraction based on hit film “Frozen”.FILE PHOTO: A visitor reacts as she hugs Disney character Mickey Mouse at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, east of Tokyo April 15, 2011. REUTERS/Issei Kato The investment would be the amusement park operator’s biggest since spending about 340 billion yen to open Tokyo DisneySea in 2001, the Nikkei business daily reported.Oriental Land is the Japanese operator of the Tokyo Disney Resort, which started with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 in Urayasu on the outskirts of Tokyo.The amusement park, featuring attractions such as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Splash Mountain,” draws in about 30 million visitors annually.The company has started talks with U.S. entertainment firm Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) on the expansion plan, the Nikkei reported, without citing sources.Oriental Land plans to expand the resort’s 100 hectare site by about 30 percent and open new attractions around 2023, the newspaper said. The expansion plan is designed to alleviate the amusement park’s chronic congestion, it said.The company will also consider adding an attraction to the expansion based on the Disney animated film “Frozen”, the Nikkei said.In a statement, Oriental Land said it has been planning a major development from its financial year beginning April 2021 and later but that nothing specific has been decided.Shares of Oriental Land rose 3 percent in morning trade, outperforming a 0.2 percent decline in the broader TOPIX .TOPX .Reporting by Taiga Uranaka '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oriental-land-stocks/tokyo-disney-resort-operator-shares-jumps-after-expansion-plan-report-idUSKBN1DU08W'|'2017-11-30T10:48:00.000+02:00'
'fd09be870ed8219b586d7d1d227e32735b40ca38'|'ADB head sees Asia resilient to U.S. interest rate hikes'|'November 30, 2017 / 5:45 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago ADB head sees Asia resilient to U.S. interest rate hikes Tetsushi Kajimoto , Takashi Umekawa 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian countries can cope with interest rate hikes in the United States as long as the moves are gradual and reflect U.S. economic fundamentals, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao said on Thursday. Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao delivers a speech during an opening session of the ADB annual meeting in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Nakao’s comments came after outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told congressional leaders that the U.S. economy has gathered steam this year and will warrant continued interest rate increases amid a strengthened global recovery. The Manila-based lender last month flagged the risk of potential capital outflows and higher borrowing costs as the Federal Reserve begins the unwinding of a decade of aggressive monetary stimulus and continues to raise interest rates. Nakao said stable regional currencies and sound macroeconomic and monetary policies of each country, backed by ample foreign reserves and financial safety net such as currency swap lines, make Asia resilient to impacts from U.S. rate hikes. “Generally speaking I‘m not necessarily unconcerned,” Nakao, former Japanese vice finance minister for international affairs, told Reuters in an interview. “But I don’t think gradual interest rate hikes that reflect strength of U.S. economy will have large ill effects on Asian economies.” Nakao also said that China, Japan’s largest trading partner, will face a gradual slowdown as it rebalances towards a services- and consumption-led economy, while the working population declines and a shift of people from inland to coastal areas has peaked. Still, he shrugged off concerns about a sharp slowdown, while some economists warn China’s economy could falter as stimulus steps taken in the run-up to the 19th Communist Party Congress last month run their course. “Rapid slowdown is unlikely given strength in private consumption even though China won’t keep the pace of growth as before,” he said, noting China is making a more-than-expected progress in a shift away from investment to consumption. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asia-economy-adb/adb-head-sees-asia-resilient-to-u-s-interest-rate-hikes-idUKKBN1DU0GX'|'2017-11-30T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'279b1dc113f51ebe39b54967464673cfad8f918e'|'Barclays to add current Babcock chairman to board'|'November 30, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Barclays to add current Babcock chairman to board Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Barclays Plc said it would add Mike Turner, current chair of British engineering firms Babcock International Group Plc and GKN, to its board as a non-executive director. The logo of Barclays bank is seen on glass lamps outside of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Turner, who was chief executive at defence contractor BAE Systems between 2002 and 2008, would start with Barclays from Jan. 1. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-barclays-management/barclays-to-add-current-babcock-chairman-to-board-idUKKBN1DU2CY'|'2017-11-30T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'ebe423e2817d813007ec334eedacbda66d236684'|'Oceanwide, Genworth extend deal deadline to April'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China’s Oceanwide Holdings Co Ltd ( 000046.SZ ) and U.S. insurer Genworth Financial Inc ( GNW.N ) have agreed to extend a deadline for their merger agreement to April 1, 2018.The previous deadline had been Thursday.Genworth Chief Executive Tom McInerney said in a statement the companies were making “good progress” in hammering out a remedy that would make the proposed merger allowable under rules that prevent the sale of U.S. companies to foreign entities if it would hurt national security.“We expect to refile our joint voluntary notice with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United Stated (CFIUS) in the near term,” said McInerney.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-genworth-fincl-m-a-oceanwide-hldg/oceanwide-genworth-extend-deal-deadline-to-april-idINKBN1DT3CN'|'2017-11-29T19:02:00.000+02:00'
'8f42ea6bfc6b89dd2775639a7290099cfb3e0359'|'Lufthansa offers to sacrifice routes to save Air Berlin deal - source'|' 51 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Lufthansa offers to sacrifice routes to save Air Berlin deal: source Klaus Lauer 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) is willing to sacrifice the right to fly some routes to save its deal to acquire assets of Air Berlin, the low-cost airline that collapsed recently, a source familiar with the company’s thinking said on Thursday. A Lufthansa airliner parks next to the Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke The German carrier will submit its proposed concessions to the European Commission before a midnight deadline, including giving up so-called ‘slots’ belonging to Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, the source said. Lufthansa last month signed a 210 million euro ($249 million) deal to take over Niki and LG Walter, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position in Germany and expand its Eurowings budget brand. But the deal has drawn fire from competitors and consumer advocates who fear Lufthansa would dominate German domestic routes and Austria where Niki, founded by retired Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda, is based. Lufthansa already owns flag carrier Austrian Airlines. The German government, which offered a bridging loan to keep Air Berlin flying until a deal could be done to sell its viable operations, held crisis talks with Lufthansa representatives on Thursday afternoon to discuss concessions to offer to Brussels. A spokesman for the Economy Ministry declined to confirm or deny whether the meeting took place, as reported earlier by the Bild am Sonntag tabloid. Lufthansa and the European Commission declined to comment. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr met EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday in Brussels, where sources said the Commission is leaning towards blocking Lufthansa’s takeover of Niki. The Danish commissioner has gone on the record to express concern that Lufthansa’s market position would become dominant on some routes as a result of the deal. GOVERNMENT ALARM Bild am Sonntag, citing its own sources, said the German government was alarmed that the deal may be blocked and had urged Lufthansa to make further concessions. The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters the government might lose the 150 million euros it lent to Air Berlin because the bridging loan was secured against the proceeds of the proposed sale. Air Berlin, which struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency in August, leaving the future of thousands of workers in the balance. Under EU rules, a decision should be made on whether to approve the deal on Dec. 7 although the Commission has the power to extend its review period by two weeks. In complex cases, the Commission can take up to 90 working days to reach a decision. If such an extension is made, Lufthansa would likely halt its financial support to Niki, forcing it to cease operations, the source familiar with the company’s thinking said. “Niki is on a knife-edge,” the person said. It remained unclear whether the entire Air Berlin deal would collapse if Lufthansa does not win control of Niki - or whether the German airline would pull out and then seek separate EU approval just to buy LG Walter. Scenting a fresh opportunity, earlier bidders for Niki have restated their interest - including British Airways which, according to Bild am Sonntag, has asked to see its accounts. Air Berlin and British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) both declined to comment. Niki Lauda said on Wednesday he would, together with travel company Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), like to buy back the airline he founded. “My offer, together with Thomas Cook, still stands,” he told the Handelsblatt financial daily. Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa/lufthansa-offers-to-sacrifice-routes-to-save-air-berlin-deal-source-idUKKBN1DU2SI'|'2017-11-30T21:42:00.000+02:00'
'f16adee269c5bbe239e4e03c8a800481cbcd9f43'|'Italy would like to clinch Alitalia deal before elections - minister'|'ROME, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Italy’s government would like to strike a deal on the sale of struggling carrier Alitalia before national elections due by May, but will not be pressured to do it at any cost, Industry Minister Carlo Calenda told RAI state radio on Thursday.Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its history, was put under special administration earlier this year after staff rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries.Germany’s Lufthansa, British low-cost carrier easyJet and U.S. private equity fund Cerberus are among companies that have expressed an interest in Alitalia.The minister added that the negotiations with interested parties “need to be concluded either way, otherwise Alitalia cannot continue to operate”.Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Steve Scherer '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-alitalia/italy-would-like-to-clinch-alitalia-deal-before-elections-minister-idINL8N1O01T7'|'2017-11-30T05:48:00.000+02:00'
'7a580cacacb7b3c198be0c2cefd589df7b92ac77'|'Akzo Nobel seeks shareholder approval for chemicals split'|'AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Akzo Nobel ( AKZO.AS ) gained shareholder approval on Thursday to spin off its 10 billion euro ($11.9 billion) chemicals division as part of plans to placate investors after the Dutch paintmaker rejected a takeover offer from rival PPG Industries ( PPG.N ).FILE PHOTO: Dulux paint cans are filled on the production line inside AkzoNobel''s paint factory in Ashington, Britain September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The sale of the chemicals operation was described by Chief Executive Thierry Vanlancker as “essential” for further growth of the company and was backed by 99.9 percent of shareholders in a vote in Amsterdam.Akzo had clashed with a large part of its shareholder base this year after management refused to negotiate with PPG over a 26 billion euro offer.The company said at the time that it wanted to “unlock value” by spinning off its chemicals business, either through a direct sale or an initial public offering (IPO). The majority of the proceeds are earmarked for investors, starting with a special dividend of 1 billion euros in December.Akzo expects the separation of the chemicals division, which has annual revenue of 4.8 billion euros and more than 9,000 employees worldwide, to be completed in April.PPG LINGERS Despite overwhelming support for the chemicals spin-off, irritation among shareholders with the way Akzo handled the PPG approach could still be felt at Thursday’s meeting.“Confidence in the supervisory board has still not been restored,” said a spokesman for British pension fund investor USS, which last month withdrew former ASML ( ASML.AS ) CEO Eric Meurice as its own candidate for the Akzo supervisory board because the company refused to support him.“That was not conducive to restoring relations with shareholders,” said USS, which holds 1.2 percent of Akzo shares.Other shareholders urged the company to listen to investors in the search for a successor to Chairman Antony Burgmans, who is due to leave Akzo in April.A compulsory six-month cooling off period for PPG expires on Friday, which means it could return with another bid. But PPG CEO Michael McGarry has said that the company has “moved on” from Akzo and is now seeking other growth opportunities.Vanlancker recently tried to agree an Akzo tie-up with smaller U.S. paints maker Axalta ( AXTA.N ), but talks ended abruptly when Axalta received a better offer from Japanese rival Nippon Paint ( 4612.T ).The Akzo chief told shareholders that the company will now focus on smaller “bolt-on” acquisitions.Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Jane Merriman and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-akzonobel-chemicals/akzo-nobel-seeks-shareholder-approval-for-chemicals-split-idINKBN1DU1RM'|'2017-11-30T10:03:00.000+02:00'
'37a2542d1859781cfb3185e9ba74bf665b910e3f'|'U.S. formally opposes China market economy status at WTO'|'November 30, 2017 / 8:33 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago U.S. formally opposes China market economy status at WTO Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has formally told the World Trade Organization that it opposes granting China market economy status, a position that if upheld would allow Washington to maintain high anti-dumping duties on Chinese goods. Workers ride on an motor rickshaw through an aluminium ingots depot in Wuxi, Jiangsu province September 26, 2012. REUTERS/Aly Song The statement of opposition, in a brief filed by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and made public on Thursday, follows a determination by the U.S. Commerce Department in October that China failed to meet the tests of a market economy as part of an aluminum foil anti-dumping case. The U.S. brief draws formal battle lines in the WTO over China’s bid to achieve market economy status 16 years after Beijing joined the trade body. Both the United States and European Union oppose such a designation because of the pervasive role of the Chinese state, including rampant granting of subsidies, in its economy. China says that the non-market economy designation in its 2001 accession to the WTO expired last December, and that WTO member countries should no longer have the right to substitute third-country prices in anti-dumping cases, which has resulted in prohibitively high duties on Chinese steel, solar panels and other products. The move comes as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing are increasing as the Trump administration prepares several possible major trade actions, including broad tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminum and an investigation into Chinese intellectual property misappropriation. The Commerce Department on Tuesday launched the first government-initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations in decades on Chinese aluminum sheet imports. The brief submitted to the WTO argues that China should be given the same treatment that communist eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, received when they joined the WTO’s predecessor organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Because of the significant distortions arising from China’s institutional structure and the control the government and the Chinese Communist Party exercise through that structure, the department finds that China remains a non-market economy for purposes of the U.S. anti-dumping law,” the Commerce Department said in its report. Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-trade-wto/u-s-formally-opposes-china-market-economy-status-at-wto-idUKKBN1DU2VH'|'2017-11-30T22:44:00.000+02:00'
'ffdd0e62a09c813d9b6ddd7546d53f26b84624d5'|'German court paves way for Peruvian farmer''s suit against RWE'|'November 30, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 3 hours ago German court paves way for Peruvian farmer''s suit against RWE Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - A German court said on Thursday it would hear evidence on a climate activist’s suit against energy utility RWE and not terminate proceedings, boosting Peruvian farmer Saúl Lliuya in a test case other environmentalists will watch closely. RWE CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz during news conference in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen Lliuya appealed to the higher regional court in Hamm after a lower court in Germany last year rejected his call for compensation from RWE over its role in causing climate change. In his appeal he argued that greenhouse gas emissions from RWE plants were partly to blame for melting an Andean glacier that is threatening to cause flooding and damage his house. The Hamm court said earlier this month that it considered the plaintiff’s claim to be conclusive so far, but it had not yet decided whether to proceed with the case. RWE has dismissed Lliuya’s complaint as unfounded, saying a single emitter could not be held responsible for global warming. Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Maria Sheahan; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rwe-court/german-court-paves-way-for-peruvian-farmers-suit-against-rwe-idUKKBN1DU1U8'|'2017-11-30T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'c75a0b3d4da85db10b27fd408072be76c1a9e78d'|'Vanguard to offer its first active ETF lineup in U.S.'|'November 28, 2017 / 5:13 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Vanguard to offer its first active ETF lineup in U.S. Ross Kerber 2 Min Read BOSTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Vanguard Group Inc on Tuesday said it will offer six actively managed exchange traded funds aimed at giving investors exposure to specific factors like low volatility or liquidity, increasing competition in the nascent investment product area. The new funds mark the first active ETFs that the Pennsylvania-based fund giant will sell in the United States. Vanguard also said in a statement that one of the funds, as well as a new mutual fund, will use more than one factor in selecting stocks. Vanguard is best known for its passive products, whose low costs have helped drive its total assets to $4.8 trillion, the most of any mutual fund firm. Unlike traditional ETFs, which often track a particular index, holdings in actively managed ETFs can deviate from their benchmarks based on managers’ judgments. Most active ETF assets are currently in fixed-income products such as Pimco Active Bond ETF and the SPDR DoubleLine Total Return Tactical ETF, said Todd Rosenbluth, a director at fund researcher CFRA. But Vanguard’s new active ETFs could boost demand on the equity side, he said, along with similar products from rivals. Just last week, for instance, BlackRock Inc filed plans for a set of ETFs that would let a computer program choose and classify stocks. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in September it planned to approve Vanguard’s application to sell active ETFs. Vanguard said the new funds will be advised by its Quantitative Equity Group, which currently oversees nearly $35 billion, including active ETFs in Canada and the United Kingdom. Vanguard cautioned that returns on its so-called “factor” funds could be cyclical and said the products are aimed at financial advisers and institutional investors. Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/vanguard-etfs/vanguard-to-offer-its-first-active-etf-lineup-in-u-s-idUSL1N1NY178'|'2017-11-28T19:13:00.000+02:00'
'00c063026d11798163450f1e207d9e98ae87f056'|'Ad group WPP in talks with client Ford to extend partnership'|'November 28, 2017 / 4:39 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Ad group WPP in talks with client Ford to extend partnership Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - WPP said on Tuesday Ford Motor Company, a major client, had informed it of its intention to carry on working with the world’s biggest advertising agency for a new period of time beginning in 2018, lifting its shares. Sir Martin Sorrell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of advertising company WPP, attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Britain’s WPP, led by the high profile businessman Martin Sorrell, has been hit this year by a slowdown in spending from some clients and a new wave of competition that has forced the big ad groups to turn more aggressive when bidding for new contracts. WPP, which includes such names as Vodafone, Chanel, Unilever and BP on its client roster, said it had been verbally informed by Ford that the car company was considering its future internal and external marketing model and wanted to enter into a further agreement with WPP for a period to be agreed in 2018. “WPP is considering the proposal and is in discussion with Ford on next steps,” it said. Shares in WPP rose on the news and were up 2.6 percent at 1345 GMT. Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-wpp-ford/ad-group-wpp-in-talks-with-client-ford-to-extend-partnership-idUKKBN1DS27C'|'2017-11-28T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'4cf48c0a3455fef65868552e58d627274a9dbb9e'|'More U.S. shoppers than expected kick off holiday spending season'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:38 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago More U.S. shoppers than expected kick off holiday spending season Richa Naidu 3 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than 174 million U.S. shoppers made purchases over Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday, the National Retail Federation said on Tuesday, beating the industry group’s expectations and signaling a strong start to the holiday quarter. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers are seen in Herald Square in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The NRF, which had estimated about 164 million shoppers, attributed the even stronger turnout to better technology and discounting, low unemployment, rising consumer confidence and good weather across the country. “The climate was right, literally and figuratively, for consumers to tackle their holiday shopping lists online and in stores,” NRF Chief Executive Matthew Shay said on a media call. The holiday season can represent 20 to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. The long weekend had set retailers up for a strong finish to the year, Shay said, but they would need to keep inventory tight to deliver similar or deeper discounts that the vast majority of consumers are expecting for the rest of the holidays. Shoppers on average spent $335.47 over the five-day period, with older millennials spending the most at $419.52 each, according to the NRF survey of 3,242 consumers on Nov. 25-26. The figures are not comparable to the average 2016 Thanksgiving weekend spending of $300 because the methodology had changed and the year-ago survey excluded Cyber Monday. Online shopping rose sharply this year, with Cyber Monday becoming the largest online sales day in history at $6.6 billion, according to retail analysts and consultants. Sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday also topped prior years and e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) said it broke sales records this weekend. Preempting a decline in visits to brick-and-mortar stores, many traditional retailers have invested heavily in their websites, bulking up delivery options, and tightening store inventories to ward off any post-holiday liquidation that would weigh on profits. The NRF said retailers’ investments in technology had paid off, noting that internet-only shoppers totaled more than 58 million during the 5-day period, over 64 million shopped both online and in stores, and about 51 million spent only in brick-and-mortar stores. Retail research firm ShopperTrak said on Saturday that store traffic fell 1.6 percent on Thanksgiving and Black Friday compared to last year. “The early parts of both days were busy but ongoing store traffic wasn’t stellar, and it wasn’t consistent from store to store, or mall to mall,” NPD Group’s chief retail analyst Marshal Cohen said, noting that the holiday season had just begun. Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/more-u-s-shoppers-than-expected-kick-off-holiday-spending-season-idUSKBN1DS2VJ'|'2017-11-28T23:37:00.000+02:00'
'8140b15d78c706708beac93a67d1c988ca913a87'|'U.S. ethanol makers call on Mexico, India to reduce biofuel glut'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:44 PM / a few seconds ago U.S. ethanol makers call on Mexico, India to reduce biofuel glut Michael Hirtzer 5 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. ethanol producers, looking to relieve a growing domestic glut, are hunting for new international fuel markets to replace China and Brazil after trade disputes slashed exports to those top buyers. Large tanks of Gasoline and Ethanol are shown at a gasoline distribution terminal in San Diego, California January 7, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Without new markets, U.S. producers may have to pare output after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on biofuel production plants in recent years. Currently, the most promising potential destinations for U.S. fuel exports appear to be Mexico and India, industry executives said. China and Brazil accounted for 41 percent of the 1.17 billion gallons the United States exported last year. Shipments to the two shriveled in September, making U.S. exports for that month the smallest in more than a year. “There are only so many times you can replace your top market,” said Tom Sleight, president of the U.S. Grains Council, which officials said has been calling on potential buyers in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. China’s demand plummeted by more than 100 million gallons this year after it removed a preferential tariff rate. Brazil’s imports tumbled after it put a quota on imports in September to protect its domestic producers. To drum up new customers, Illinois-based ethanol producer Marquis Energy has sent executives to India, China, Thailand and the Philippines, promoting the corn-based fuel additive as a smog and oil-import fighter. “I’ve had a lot of people over there almost nonstop over the last three months,” the company’s chief executive Mark Marquis said of the hunt for buyers in Asia. Archer Daniels Midland Co and Flint Hills Resources [FHR.UL] also have stepped up efforts to sell into Mexico, traders said. U.S. ethanol prices have slid to nearly a two-year low as daily domestic production last week hit a record 45.1 million gallons, making the search for new export markets more urgent. Output this year could reach about 16 billion gallons, nearly triple that of 2007. U.S. exports fell since hitting 2.5 million gallons per day in the first eight months this year. Shipments to Brazil sank to 19 million gallons in September, the smallest monthly volume in more than a year. Exports to China through September were just 60,880 gallons, a precipitous drop from 198 million gallons a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. The marketing effort could pay off in Mexico, whose energy regulatory commission (CRE) is to vote soon to ease the flow of fuel imports through state-run Pemex facilities to several Mexican states bordering the United States. If approved, significant new volumes of gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol could begin flowing in 2018 into Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, CRE Commissioner Luis Guillermo Pineda told Reuters. “The largest supplier is logically the United States, but it can be from anywhere,” Pineda said of the ethanol blend. Ray Young, ADM’s finance chief, last month told analysts Mexico could be importing 200 million gallons annually by 2019. U.S. ethanol exports to Mexico last year totaled about 30 million gallons. U.S. inventories reached 920 million gallons in the week ended Nov. 17, up 16 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Ethanol futures have fallen to $1.36 per gallon on the Chicago Board of Trade, down 20 percent from their 2017 high in April. U.S. producers are pitching China and India on ethanol’s smog-fighting potential. This month, United Airlines canceled flights to India’s capital, New Delhi, citing heavy smog as a public health emergency. China ordered Beijing and more than two dozen other cities to start meeting limits on airborne pollution starting this month. Ted McKinney, a USDA official interviewed during a biofuel-promotion trip to India, expressed optimism that country could import much more U.S. ethanol for cars and trucks. But others were not so sure. India’s government wants to promote biofuel production using its own agricultural waste, said Jai Asundi, research coordinator at Bengaluru-based think tank Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP). “There is a potential for producing ethanol from locally available sources without depending on imports,” Asundi said. Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia in MEXICO CITY, Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI and Yashaswini Swamynathan in BANGALORE; Editing by Gary McWilliams and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol-export/u-s-ethanol-makers-call-on-mexico-india-to-reduce-biofuel-glut-idUSKBN1DS2O2'|'2017-11-28T21:23:00.000+02:00'
'e0dfc44f77d5e46f37ef8a8610f2bf28fac31650'|'Unilever dodges the Brexit crossfire - Beauty contest'|'IN 1929 the Lever Brothers, a British soapmaker, merged with Margarine Unie, a Dutch margarine manufacturer, to form Unilever. The company has an annual turnover of over €50bn ($59bn), and a portfolio of brands that is recognisable worldwide, from its Flora spread to its Persil detergent. It has retained dual nationality for nearly 90 years, with holding companies and share listings in both Britain and the Netherlands.Now Unilever says that for the sake of its business, it needs to pick a side. But it is hesitating. On November 28th, ahead of its annual investor meeting, the board provided an update on an ongoing review of its corporate structure. Unifying the company’s share structure, it said, would offer “strategic flexibility” and be in the best interests of both the company and its shareholders—but the announcement left unanswered whether the firm’s new headquarters would be in London or Rotterdam (pictured). Paul Polman, its Dutch chief executive, told the Financial Times that he was recommending that the decision be put on hold; until when is unclear.  16   A failed takeover bid earlier in the year by Kraft Heinz, an American giant backed by 3G Capital, an investment firm feared for its radical cost-cutting methods, prompted Unilever’s strategic review. It plans to cut costs and divest less profitable parts of the business, including its margarine brands. The dual structure, it accepts, adds an extra layer of complexity. Unification would make spin-offs easier to do; a single head office would also lower administrative costs.But given its deep roots in both countries, the decision is bound to be controversial, even though the company is global, with four-fifths of its workforce based outside Europe. And putting off the decision is wise. It makes little sense for Unilever to stick its head above the parapet when Brexit negotiations are ongoing; a “no-deal” Brexit, for example, would surely push Unilever towards the Netherlands.Unilever’s delay will also focus the attention of the two governments. The Dutch government is courting multinational companies such as Unilever, and also Shell, an oil major with a joint Anglo-Dutch history. One ruse is to cut corporate taxes to 21% (although that is still above the British rate, which is currently 19% and due to be lowered to 17% in 2020). The Dutch parliament is also debating a government proposal to scrap its 15% dividend withholding tax, another draw; Shell has already promised to scrap its dual share structure if the cut goes ahead.Opponents say it amounts to a handout to multinationals and foreign investors, but Mark Rutte, the prime minister (and a former Unilever employee), is determined to try and lure large firms that might be looking for new homes because of Brexit. To claim the headquarters of one of the country’s largest companies would be a coup, following on the heels of Amsterdam winning the European Medicines Agency from London in November.The British government, meanwhile, has been relatively reticent. Changes to the takeover code, proposed in September, to allow more time for companies to defend themselves from surprise bids, may have been a sop to Mr Polman, who argued at the time of the Kraft bid that defending companies needed more time to audit bidders’ claims. But the government, which has plenty on its plate with the Brexit talks, has otherwise said little about Unilever. Some attempt to butter it up, whether in public or in private, seems likely in the months ahead.'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21731798-dual-nationality-consumer-giant-has-choose-between-britain-and-netherlandseventually?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-29T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'222b392027a3f10319a4dda01348364ccf0992b0'|'Axalta ends Nippon Paint talks after rejecting $9.1 billion bid'|'(Reuters) - Axalta Coating Systems ( AXTA.N ) has ended talks with Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings Co Ltd ( 4612.T ) about a potential sale, the U.S. coating company said on Thursday, following the rejection of what sources said was a $9.1 billion all-cash bid.FILE PHOTO - Workers walk past Nippon Paint Holdings'' signboard at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The development makes Nippon Paint the latest unsuccessful suitor for Axalta, whose largest shareholder is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( BRKa.N ). Axalta previously ended talks with Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel NV ( AKZO.AS ) about a merger earlier this month.Axalta said Nippon Paint’s board was “unwilling” to meet Axalta’s expectations regarding the value of the company.Nippon Paint’s latest cash offer valued Axalta at $37 per share but Axalta wanted more, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details.Axalta shares were trading in New York at $37.25 before they were halted on Thursday afternoon ahead of Axalta’s announcement, indicating that investors were expecting a deal at a higher price. The shares dropped 17 percent on news of the terminated deal talks to $31.19.A deal with either Nippon or Akzo Nobel was seen as attractive by Axalta, because neither suitor appeared to present significant antitrust risk with regulators. However, agreeing on financial terms proved challenging.Axalta’s talks with Akzo Nobel ended over disagreements about how much premium Axalta shareholders deserved in what was branded as a merger of equals. Akzo Nobel wanted its shareholders to own 63 percent of the combined company, which Axalta considered excessive, according to the sources.Akzo Nobel also wanted to keep much of its current governance arrangements, including keeping the top job with Akzo Nobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker and maintaining the combined company Dutch with headquarters in Amsterdam, the sources added.“We had a very strong click with Axalta, but we were only ever interested in a merger. We were never prepared to pay a premium for a takeover, partly because of the outlook for the automotive industry,” Vanlancker told an Akzo Nobel shareholder meeting on Thursday.Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York,; additional reporting by Bart Meijer in Amsterdam; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axalta-m-a-nippon-paint-hd/axalta-ends-nippon-paint-talks-after-rejecting-9-1-billion-bid-idINKBN1DU2NQ'|'2017-11-30T15:49:00.000+02:00'
'c3674fcd3436113a7e5f782cb868731ec9292f93'|'Russian pipemaker TMK''s U.S. subsidiary considering IPO'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - TMK, Russia’s largest maker of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry, is preparing its U.S. subsidiary IPSCO Tubulars for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares.The announcement comes amid concerns among some Russian officials about a potential expansion of U.S. sanctions against Moscow and as Russia itself has pledged to cut its oil output by 300,000 barrels per day as a part of the global deal.OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers look poised to agree at a meeting on Thursday to extend output cuts until the end of 2018, four OPEC sources said as the group seeks to clear a global glut of crude and avoid another price crash.IPSCO has submitted a draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed IPO of its new and existing shares, it said in a statement.TMK declined to comment further. It has previously said it was considering different options for IPSCO but intends to keep a controlling stake.The OPEC and non-OPEC states agreed to cut supply by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to boost prices. The deal, currently due to expire in March, has pushed up oil prices but also encouraged U.S. shale oil producers to ramp up output.“The rapidly expanding operations in the shale oil industry, combined with the general rise of the U.S. stock market, have provided an opportunity for TMK to monetize its exposure to the U.S. at a valuation which is significantly higher than IPSCO’s contribution to the valuation of the Russian entity,” analysts at VTB Capital said in a note.The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, IPSCO said, and the offering is subject to the completion of an SEC review, market conditions and further approval by TMK.Both IPSCO and TMK plan to offer IPSCO’s shares if they decide to go ahead with the listing, and both plan to use the proceeds from the deal for debt repayment.Controlled by Russian businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky, TMK paid around $1.7 billion for the IPSCO assets in 2008 and 2009, VTB Capital said in a note in October.“IPSCO’s current contribution to our estimate of TMK’s NPV (net present value) stands at some $0.7 billion. However, we suggest that a company which is placed in the middle of the U.S. shale oil boom development with shares listed on a premium stock market deserves a higher valuation,” VTB Capital said.TMK has not been affected by Western sanctions. They were imposed against some Russian companies and individuals in 2014 over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.IPSCO has said it plans to produce over one million tonnes of pipes in 2017 and expects to be running at full production capacity next year as drilling activity in the United States remains high.Reporting by Polina Devitt and Andrey Kuzmin; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-trubnaya-metal-ipo/russian-pipemaker-tmks-u-s-subsidiary-considering-ipo-idINKBN1DU10G'|'2017-11-30T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'e3ccae2cbbe926bc67681ae51af3f64e899c893b'|'U.S. healthcare shares climb as investors see upside from Republican tax bill'|'November 29, 2017 / 9:54 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago U.S. healthcare shares climb as investors see upside from Republican tax bill Caroline Valetkevitch 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. healthcare companies mostly climbed on Wednesday, as investors saw some potential upside for the stocks from a Republican-led bill to cut taxes. FILE PHOTO -   8,   Hospitals were among the biggest gainers on the day, with Community Health Systems ( CYH.N ) up 6.2 percent and shares of Tenet Healthcare ( THC.N ) up 5.2 percent. “We see tax reform as providing a durable benefit to healthcare services companies,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a research note. “Healthcare services companies generally pay the full 35 percent corporate tax, as domestic companies with limited adjustments.” Possible changes to the Affordable Care Act and fees paid by health insurers could also benefit healthcare companies, they said. “These changes are more likely to be included in the debt ceiling or budget legislation, but could be included in tax reform,” the Bernstein analysts wrote.   were aiming to reformulate the tax-cut package to satisfy   with the measure moving   Shares of health insurers also rose, with UnitedHealth ( UNH.N ) hitting a record high at $224.27 after its investor day this week. The stock ended up 3.1 percent at $222.88. “It was a very positive event by all accounts,” said Sheryl Skolnick, director of research at Mizuho Securities in New York. “So that sort of settled people into a more optimistic mode.” UnitedHealth gave the biggest boost the S&P healthcare index .SPXHC, which gained 0.5 percent. But she also said there was less reason for hospital stocks to be gaining. The tax bill is seen helping some of the hospital companies, but not those that are heavily leveraged. “They tend to perform better in November and December. They’ve underperformed for the year so maybe people are thinking they will do better toward year-end, but fundamentally nothing’s changed.” Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-stocks/u-s-healthcare-shares-climb-as-investors-see-upside-from-republican-tax-bill-idUSKBN1DT3BH'|'2017-11-29T23:45:00.000+02:00'
'10c8819fbc05743a2a85ae052bf32c6ed69f5473'|'OPEC, allies set to agree oil cut extension to end of 2018'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:47 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago OPEC, Russia agree oil cut extension to end of 2018 Alex Lawler , Rania El Gamal , Shadia Nasralla 5 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC and non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed on Thursday to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018 as they try to finish clearing a global glut of crude while signalling a possible early exit from the deal if the market overheats. Russia, which this year reduced production significantly with OPEC for the first time, has been pushing for a clear message on how to exit the cuts so the market doesn’t flip into a deficit too soon, prices don’t rally too fast and rival U.S. shale firms don’t boost output further. Russia needs much lower oil prices to balance its budget than OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia, which is preparing a stock market listing for national energy champion Aramco next year and would hence benefit from pricier crude. The producers’ current deal, under which they are cutting supply by about 1.8 million barrels per day in an effort to boost oil prices, expires in March. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had agreed to extend the cuts by nine months until the end of 2018, as largely anticipated by the market. OPEC also decided to cap the output of Nigeria and Libya at 2017 levels without deciding on figures, he added. Both countries have been previously exempt from cuts due to unrest and lower-than-normal production. The OPEC meeting was followed by talks with the non-OPEC producers, which started at 1600 GMT. As of 1710 GMT, those talks were continuing but a delegate told Reuters non-OPEC had agreed to extend the cuts in tandem with OPEC until the end of 2018. Before the meetings, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said it was premature to talk about exiting the cuts at least for a couple of quarters and added that OPEC would examine progress at its next regular meeting in June. “When we get to an exit, we are going to do it very gradually ... to make sure we don’t shock the market,” he said. The Iraqi, Iranian and Angolan oil ministers also said before Thursday’s meetings that a review of the deal was possible in June in case the market became too tight. Zanganeh said later no such debate had taken place at the OPEC meeting. However, a draft OPEC communique said the duration would be reviewed in June based on fundamentals. Journalists queue at the entrance of OPEC''s headquarters ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader “We will review the market situation and needs, and whether to keep the same level of cut or gradually decrease or increase it,” one delegate said. International benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 rose around 0.5 percent on Thursday to trade above $63 per barrel. GLUT OR SHORTAGE? With oil prices rising above $60, Russia has expressed concerns that an extension for the whole of 2018 could prompt a spike in crude production in the United States, which is not participating in the deal. Slideshow (10 Images) “If producers in the U.S. increase their rig count over the next few months due to higher prices then I expect another price collapse by the end of 2018,” said Scott Sheffield, executive chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources Co ( PXD.N ), one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. oilfield. “I hope that all U.S. shale companies will maintain their current rig counts and use all excess cash flow to increase dividends back to their shareholders,” he told Reuters. Gary Ross, a veteran OPEC watcher and founder of Pira consultancy, said the market could surprise on the upside with Brent prices rising to $70 per barrel if there was a major supply disruption. “Everywhere you look there is an ever-present risk to supply,” Ross said. “In Iraq’s Kurdistan there is a major risk to oil exports because of tensions with Baghdad, in Libya militias are still fighting, in Nigeria the risks of disruptions are significant, Venezuela is on the verge of default, Iran could again face U.S. financial sanctions and even in Saudi Arabia political risk is on the rise,” Ross added. The production cuts have been in place since the start of 2017 and helped halve an excess of global oil stocks although those remain at 140 million barrels above the five-year average, according to OPEC. Russia has signalled it wants to understand better how producers will exit from the cuts as it needs to provide guidance to its private and state energy companies. “We need to work out a strategy for 2018,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder, Ahmad Ghaddar and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting/opec-allies-set-to-agree-oil-cut-extension-to-end-of-2018-sources-idUKKBN1DU0R5'|'2017-11-30T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'f404cf933f93f386920ec78dbef51678f9b0524a'|'Bank of England''s Sharp warns against ''illusion'' about public debt'|'November 30, 2017 / 7:34 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Bank of England''s Sharp warns against ''illusion'' about public debt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A Bank of England policymaker said Britain must not fall into an illusion about its public debt, which soared after the financial crisis and could pose a threat to the country’s economy, despite the lack of apparent concern among investors now. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Richard Sharp, a member of the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee, said it was important to recognise that Britain’s debt levels of nearly 90 percent of gross domestic product might prove stretched if future shocks occur. “To my mind, low market interest rates and a persistent excess of global liquidity could be creating an illusion of readily available spare national debt capacity,” Sharp said, in comments prepared for a speech to University College London. “The global financial crisis taught us that fragilities can be more real than apparent and that global spillovers mean that broadly shared systemic fragilities can lead to disastrous contagion and amplification,” he said. Britain’s budget forecasters last week said the country’s debt was expected to peak at 86.4 percent of GDP this year - about double its level before the global financial crisis - before falling in the coming years. But they also linked the expected fall in the debt ratio largely to the sale of shares in state-run bank RBS and an accounting switch to get housing association debt off the government’s books. At the same time, the Office for Budget Responsibility sharply cut Britain’s economic growth forecasts. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has previously said that Britain remains dependent on the “kindness of strangers” because of its large balance of payments deficit that is funded by foreign investors. Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-sharp/bank-of-englands-sharp-warns-against-illusion-about-public-debt-idUKKBN1DU2R6'|'2017-11-30T21:34:00.000+02:00'
'0a37f4c0d2d683b6401077b28bbb4eb8144c1189'|'FTSE supported by Shell, bank test relief'|'November 28, 2017 / 9:58 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago FTSE boosted by Shell, bank test relief Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - The UK’s top share index rose on Tuesday as oil heavyweight Royal Dutch Shell surged after a solid earnings update and a Bank of England stress test on banks delivered no nasty shocks. A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall A rally of more than 20 percent in Ocado following an "transformative" deal with French supermarket Casino livened up the session for the country''s mid cap .FTMC stocks. The FTSE 100 index extended gains to end the session 1 percent higher, the standout European performer thanks to stronger energy and financial stocks. Shell rose 4 percent, leading gainers on the FTSE. The oil and gas major cancelled an austerity dividend policy and boosted its cash generation forecasts, drawing a line under three years of oil price turmoil. “This strategy update indicates significant progress,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note. Britain’s FTSE 350 bank index rose 0.7 percent. After carrying out its annual health check on lenders, the Bank of England said banks could cope with a “disorderly” Brexit without needing to curb lending or to be bailed out by taxpayers. It said that for the first time since it started ‘stress-testing’ banks in 2014, none of Britain’s major lenders would need to raise extra capital. “Overall, the results show that there are pockets of problems in the sector but that the banks are broadly ticking all of the right stress test boxes,” said Laurent Frings, Global Head of Credit Research at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “They are now much better capitalised and more heavily scrutinised by the regulator than before the crisis,” he added. At the single stock level banks showed mixed performances. Among banks that passed the test without reservations, HSBC rose 1.3 percent and Standard Chartered added 1.1 percent, but Lloyds fell 1 percent. Barclays was down 0.1 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland gained 1.4 percent. Elsewhere, Ocado surged as much as 37 percent during the day before ending up 20.8 percent, leading gainers on the mid cap index which rose 0.7 percent. French supermarket Casino signed a deal with Ocado to use the British online retailer’s grocery e-commerce platform to develop its online business, starting with Monoprix.fr. “This is a transformative deal for Ocado as not only will it expose the firm to a large chunk of the French market, it could also be the launch pad for many more international partnerships,” said Neil Wilson, market analyst at ETX Capital. Elsewhere among mid-caps, Pets at Home fell 10.6 percent following results and news that its CEO Ian Kellett will step down and will be replaced by the head of the company’s retail business, Peter Pritchard. Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Kit Rees; Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-supported-by-shell-bank-test-relief-idUKKBN1DS11F'|'2017-11-28T11:58:00.000+02:00'
'717cba154bbb4db5a336c5637153bf9f2b5b3cdf'|'UK gives Pfizer world''s first over-the-counter Viagra approval'|'November 28, 2017 / 3:22 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago UK gives Pfizer world''s first over-the-counter Viagra approval Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Pfizer’s blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug Viagra has been given a green light for sale without a prescription in Britain, the first country to grant it over-the-counter status. The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly The U.S. drugmaker said on Tuesday it was working on plans to launch the non-prescription version of the medicine in the UK in the spring of 2018. The drug will only be available in pharmacies and its supply will depend on pharmacists’ assessment of its suitability for each individual. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pfizer-britain-viagra/uk-gives-pfizer-worlds-first-over-the-counter-viagra-approval-idUKKBN1DS1Z5'|'2017-11-28T17:21:00.000+02:00'
'4cd0efe5734635f1770b416ec9914292b57e3796'|'Norway''s wealth fund says sale of oil stocks will take years'|'OSLO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s proposed multi-billion dollar divestment from oil and gas stocks will take many years to complete, Chief Executive Yngve Slyngstad told reporters on Tuesday.The $1 trillion fund, the world’s largest of its kind, proposed on Nov. 17 to drop oil and gas stock from its index, but needs approval from Norwegian authorities to do so. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/norway-swf-stocks/norways-wealth-fund-says-sale-of-oil-stocks-will-take-years-idUSO9N1N7019'|'2017-11-28T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'f620fd37d21497c696308c566aaa957400a59eed'|'France''s Casino to use Ocado''s technology for e-commerce push'|'LONDON (Reuters) - French supermarket Groupe Casino ( CASP.PA ) has signed a deal with British online retailer Ocado ( OCDO.L ) to use its grocery e-commerce platform to develop its online business, starting with Monoprix.fr.The agreement includes plans to build a customer fulfillment center using Ocado’s proprietary mechanical handling equipment to serve the Greater Paris area, the Normandie and Hauts de France Regions, the companies said on Tuesday.Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ocado-group-casino/frances-casino-to-use-ocados-technology-for-e-commerce-push-idINKBN1DS0M0'|'2017-11-28T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'ebdfe64e7b7288d362323470be22fd3b33cf240c'|'French banks did not break rules with National Front account closures - central bank'|'November 28, 2017 / 7:41 AM / in 14 minutes French banks did not break rules with National Front account closures - central bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale and its Credit Du Nord subsidiary did not violate banking regulations in shutting down the accounts of the far-right National Front party, the Bank of France said on Tuesday. Marine Le Pen, head of France''s far-right National Front (FN) political party, shows a letter from the Societe Generale bank during a news conference at the party headquarters in Nanterre near Paris, France, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier National Front chief Marine Le Pen last week accused the banks, as well as HSBC which closed her personal account, of launching a “banking fatwa” to silence her party. The banks declined to offer fuller explanations for the account closures but said they had acted within regulatory requirements. “The closure of the National Front’s accounts by the banks does not appear to reflect wrongdoing vis-à-vis their regulatory obligations, and leaves no reason to believe they acted with discrimination,” the central bank said. Le Pen said she would file a legal complaint this week. “It will be up to the court to decide,” Le Pen said in an interview on BFM TV, adding that the account closures prevented the party from operating properly. The Bank of France revealed that the National Front had held 16 accounts with Societe Generale until Sept. 25, as well as a deposit account with Credit Du Nord on which two months notice was given in late October. That appeared to contradict Le Pen who last week said the central bank had ordered Credit Du Nord to manage an account for the party and that the bank had refused to process cheques and credit card payments. Le Pen is smarting from defeat in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, during which she accused French banks of being politically biased for not lending to her campaigns. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-le-pen-banks/bank-of-france-says-banks-did-not-act-wrongly-in-closing-national-fronts-accounts-idUKKBN1DS0MY'|'2017-11-28T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'b8a851fd7b57895c7836e6b9dffce6cd45195e08'|'Canada''s TD Bank results outshone by smaller rival CIBC'|'Reuters TV United States November 30, 2017 / 11:46 AM / in 4 minutes Canada''s TD outshone by CIBC as banks brace for headwinds Matt Scuffham , Fergal Smith 4 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto-Dominion Bank ( TD.TO ) and smaller rival CIBC ( CM.TO ) rounded off a week of earnings announcements by Canadian banks on Thursday, reporting record profits, but they face headwinds in 2018 due to stricter mortgage rules and concerns about the potential for house price declines. FILE PHOTO: A Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) sign is seen outside of a branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo Banks benefited from by a robust showing by the country’s domestic economy, which has grown at the fastest rate of the G7 group of industrialized nations and strong employment, which boosted credit growth. But as banks prepare for the introduction of stricter rules on mortgage lending and new accounting rules which may increase earnings volatility, investors who are used to steady earnings growth and more stable share prices are preparing for a bumpy ride. “There are a couple of headwinds coming up for the industry,” said Steve Belisle, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. “Each one I believe is not game changing but I think, in aggregate, they are non-negligible.” The Canadian banking sub-index .GSPTXBA has rallied 10 percent so far this year, nearly double the gains in the benchmark Canadian share index .GSPTSE . On Thursday, TD, Canada’s No. 2 bank, missed estimates with its fourth-quarter results due to lower revenue at its investment banking business, while smaller rival Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( CM.TO ) (CIBC) posted forecast-busting numbers in the final quarter of the 2016/17 fiscal year. Earlier in the week, Royal Bank of Canada ( RY.TO ) reported fourth-quarter results which beat market expectations while Bank of Nova Scotia’s ( BNS.TO ) earnings fell short of forecasts.. BMO Financial Group ( BMO.TO ), the No. 4 bank, is set release earnings on Dec. 5. Under the new B-20 mortgage rules, borrowers taking out uninsured mortgages will be stress-tested to determine their ability to make repayments at a rate 200 basis points, or two percentage points, above their contracted mortgage. CIBC said it expected a 10 to 12 percent reduction in the number of new mortgages it makes as a result of the new rules. Canadian banks were also required by the regulator to adopt new accounting rules for their new fiscal years starting on Nov. 1 this year, which are expected to result in greater earnings volatility for banks going forward. The new rules, known as IFRS 9, require banks to model credit loss risk based on expected rather than incurred losses. “We would expect a little more earnings volatility,” TD’s Chief Financial Officer Riaz Ahmed said. CIBC reported fourth-quarter results which beat analyst expectations, helped by strong growth in its Canadian commercial banking and wealth management businesses.. TD’s earnings per share, excluding one-off items, rose to C$1.36 from C$1.22 a year ago. Analysts had, on average, expected earnings of C$1.39, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. “Those headwinds might come to fruition which could change our outlook but so far if the economy performs the way it is now then I think we feel pretty good about 2018,” Ahmed said. Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-td-results/td-bank-posts-quarterly-earnings-below-market-forecasts-idUSKBN1DU1I6'|'2017-11-30T19:46:00.000+02:00'
'57aa758f6c81fde8409924ec8fd8d2bf2d9a1be0'|'Daily Mail shares sink on prospect of another tough year for print'|'November 30, 2017 / 8:43 AM / in 16 minutes Daily Mail shares sink on prospect of another tough year for print Paul Sandle 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The publisher of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper warned revenue and profit would decline in its media business over the coming year, with the grim outlook for the print business sending its shares 25 percent lower. Daily Mail & General Trust reported a 13 percent decline in pretax profit in the year to the end of September despite its highly popular MailOnline website moving into the black in the last three months. In common with other newspaper groups, DMGT is battling tough print advertising markets and long-term declines in circulation. However, its titles have been outperforming rivals and retain a strong influence on British politics and its comments had particular resonance. Chief Financial Officer Tim Collier, who joined the business in April, said the print advertising market would remain difficult and circulation would stay under pressure. “Last year we managed to offset those circulation declines and advertising decline with increasing cover prices across all three titles and this year we haven’t got that,” he said. The Daily Mail sold 1.39 million copies a day in October, down 8 percent on a year earlier, according to ABC data. It was third in the market behind its free sheet Metro and Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun. Chief Executive Paul Zwillenberg, who joined 18 months ago to overhaul a company that stretches from MailOnline to business-to-business information, said the company needed to raise its game. “Am I happy with the performance? No, not yet,” he said. He said he would now roll out a company-wide performance improvement programme to position it for the future. The company, which is chaired by Jonathan Harmsworth, the great grandson of one of the pioneers of popular journalism, said the underlying rate of revenue decline in its media business was expected to be in the mid-single figures in its current financial year. The operating margin would drop to about 10 percent from 11 percent in the previous year. Zwillenberg emphasised he would be cautious about raising cover prices, and would not alienate its loyal readership. “(Our franchises) still have juice left in the lemon,” he said. “We are not going to squeeze that like our competitors might for short-term gains.” ONLINE ADVERTISING GAINS Underlying revenue rose 1 percent in its media business over the past year, driven by an 18 percent rise in digital advertising on sites including MailOnline, which Zwillenberg said had “addictive, seriously popular” content. Online advertising was overtaking print advertising within the Mail brands, he said. “In a week when several large well-known digital media businesses have announced challenges, MailOnline continues to outperform,” he said, referring to reports that BuzzFeed and Vice Media were failing to meet growth targets. Collier said the challenge for DMGT was print advertising, which fell 5 percent in the year. Analysts at Liberum, who downgraded their recommendation from “Buy” to “Hold”, said the guidance looked underwhelming. “What is clear is that DMGT faces another year of ‘transformation’ but it is not entirely clear when we will get the acceleration of top-line growth,” they said. Barclays said the results showed a business that was yet to reach a floor in terms of profit numbers as the new management worked through the portfolio. Collier said he had reviewed DMGT’s business-to-business units, and had written down the assets by 206 million pounds, reflecting challenges in the trading environment for its energy and property information businesses. He said he had also decided to sell its EDR, its U.S. commercial real estate environmental information business. ($1 = 0.7423 pounds) Editing by Kate Holton and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dmgt-outlook/daily-mail-publisher-reports-13-percent-drop-in-profit-shares-sink-idUKKBN1DU0XP'|'2017-11-30T19:10:00.000+02:00'